Hazel's POV

Hazel wanted to never leave Nico's side again. This past two weeks has been the closest to hell she could imagine. Hazel had always needed to take care of things. She took care of her mother when she would forget to eat, she took care of Sammy during those little moments when his cool façade would crack, she took care of Frank during his bouts of self-hatred, and she was supposed to take care of Nico. After Tartarus she had promised herself that she wouldn't let her big brother get hurt again. She did the same after the issue with the shadow traveling, and she may have told Will about all of Nico's issues when she noticed the two of them getting closer. And she failed again.

He had gotten hurt in the worst way possible way and Hazel wasn't there to protect him. Frank tried to get her to leave Nico's bedside on the Argo II. Hell no.

Percy's POV

No matter how hard he tried, Percy couldn't remember ten year old Nico. He tried as hard as he could, but every time he tried to imagine the son of Hades, all he could see were shattered, empty eyes and pale, scarred skin. He was supposed to be the strong hero the kid looked up to. He was supposed to be mythomagic brought to life. Mythomagic must be a cruel game.

Percy avoided the med-bay at all costs. He couldn't face him.

Jason's POV

Jason didn't sleep at night. How could he sleep at night when Will and Hazel wouldn't even blink?

Maybe he had isolated himself. What was the harm in that? It wasn't like there was anything he could do, anyways. If he left his cabin, it would just be a reminder to everyone that the great Jason Grace had failed. Piper hated him now. She was disappointed in him. And of course he deserved it, he deserved her yelling and her glares and her 'I can't believe you' looks. It still hurt, but who was he to say he hurt when Nico…

Jason went back to throwing the rubber ball against the wall.

Leo's POV

He fixed the leaky piston, patched up the hole in the deck, repaired the wonky air conditioning, and even polished every single metal thing on the ship, including the silverware. Then, he took inventory. Of his tool-belt. His bottomless tool-belt. There was some weird shit in there. Leo could fix anything, but when he looked at Nico, he felt totally lost. He thought he had it bad before, but that was nothing.

Piper's POV

Of the seven, Piper was the social one. She was good at talking to people and knowing how they worked, how to pick up cues. And now she was picking up tons of cues. Everyone was shaken up by what was happening. Jason hadn't even left his cabin, which made her incredibly angry. He was supposed to be a leader and help everyone through this, but instead he was being a coward. So Piper made it her job to take care of everyone that needed it, especially Will and Hazel, who were taking it harder than the others.

Piper knew that eventually she would have to face her own emotions about the situation, but right now, everyone else needed her to be strong and consistent the one steady force on an unpredictable ocean.

Frank's POV

Frank could not remember what it was that had once made him afraid of Nico DiAngelo. Sure the guy wore black a lot, and liked standing in shadows, and wasn't so great at talking to people, but now, watching him stare numbly at Will as he received his daily vital-reading examination thingy, Frank would've done anything to get that smoldering fire back into his eyes.

He couldn't do anything about it though. Why would Nico open up to him of all people? For now, he sat next to Hazel and held her hand, getting food into her as often as possible.

Annabeth's POV

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severe distressing event. Not helpful Wikipedia. Annabeth already fucking knew that.

...

"Hey Percy, can I talk to you?" Percy turned from his place by the railing to find Will Solace staring at him. He looked exhausted. His hair was messy and there were deep bags under his eyes. Percy was surprised to see Will outside of the med-bay at all. "Annabeth made me leave the infirmary and exercise," he said, as if reading his thoughts.

"Yeah. Of course, man." Honestly, Percy was surprised Will was talking to him of all people. If he needed to talk, he expected Will would go to Piper. She had kind of become the ship's therapist. He himself had never really talked to her, not seriously anyways, but he had heard she was a good listener.

"Well, I was thinking…when we get back to New York, I don't know if Camp Halfblood is the best place for Nico." Percy furrowed his eyebrows. How could Camp not be the right place for Nico? People there were so supportive, and it was completely sanctioned off from the outside world.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not that I don't love camp, but it just might be a little too hectic. He's barely used to even me and Hazel now, can you imagine him having to interact with Conner and Travis?" Percy snorted at the image. "And besides, Nico needs to have a lot more attention than camp could offer. He—" Will sharply inhaled. "—he's just so…broken, and I don't even know how to help him. He needs to be surrounded with people who genuinely care about him, and who aren't too busy with two-hundred other kids."

"What did you have in mind?" Will bit at his lip.

"I was wondering if it would be okay if NicoandIcrashedatyourplaceforawhile. If your Mom's okay with it I mean, it would just be for a couple of weeks until I save up some money, and I'll get a job and pay rent, and we can help out around the house, and—"

"Will." The other teen finally looked up from his shoes. His eyes were wide, and he was sweatier than Frank running a five k. "Of course you can stay with us. I'll ask my mom about it once we get back into New York." A sudden wave of tan skin and sweatiness, and Percy was squished against Will's admittedly muscular chest.

"Thank you so much, Percy."

"No problem. I'll do anything if it helps him."

…

Three teens were sitting awkwardly in front of her, nibbling on blue chocolate chip cookies. They were actually leftovers, but when she saw the boys in her doorway looking so desperate, she had to let them think that they were fresh, so she had popped them in the microwave.

"Mom, you remember Nico, right?" Sally did remember Nico. She remembered a little boy with bright eyes who looked up to her son like a big brother. She remembered the kid with blue icing all over his face slaying her at monopoly. She remembered the child who smiled shyly when he was invited to stay and said that he hadn't been to a birthday party in a really long time. This was not Nico.

The child sitting on her couch and clinging to Will Solace peeked up at her with one wide, vacant eye. The other was covered by a pristine white bandage wrapped securely around his head. His black t-shirt hung off of his shoulders like a dress, almost as if it was trying to swallow him whole. He didn't seem to be physically injured besides the eye, but something seemed…off.

"Yes, of course I do" is what she ended up saying. She didn't ask him how he was. Frankly, the answer was obvious.

"I was wondering if he and Will could stay with us for a while." Was he really asking her this in front of the two boys in question? Sally knew she had taught him better than that.

"Percy, let's go talk about this in the kitchen." He hesitated, but nodded, rising off of the couch. As they left, Percy gave Will and Nico a reassuring smile over his shoulder. Will smiled back at him, but Nico just hid his face in his (were they boyfriends?) boyfriend's shoulder. When the door was securely shut, Sally turned to her son. "What happened to that boy?" He bit his lip and shifted the weight on his feet, running an unconscious hand through his already messy hair. He couldn't hide anything from her.

"Mom, he was tortured. Bad." He still wasn't saying something. He would let it out soon enough though. "They…they r-raped him, Mom. They had him for days, and-" He suddenly choked, and Sally quickly pulled him into a hug, his head molding into her shoulder. Gods, knowing Percy he probably hadn't cried about this yet. Damn it, boy.

"I'll go get the guest room ready for them. I hope they don't mind sharing a bed." Her son jumped, eyes wide as he pulled back.

"R-really?!" She nodded, forcing herself to smile.

"Of course. As long as they need to. Now go tell them!" Percy threw his arms around her neck again, suddenly laughing.

"Thank you so much! I promise, you won't regret this. They're great kids. Thank you!" The author chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"You're welcome." Her son bounded off into the kitchen, and guessing from the crashing sound, broke her lamp in his hurry to hug his friends.

"She said you can stay! Oh man, this'll be great! You can go to Paul's school, and we can watch movies together, and ooh! You have to try Mom's seven layer dip, and—"

Sally changed the dusty sheets on the bed, methodically folding and refolding. She was understandably distraught, but in that moment, she knew that she had gained two sons.

The End.

Hi people, it's Dragon, creator and mastermind of this fic! (This is Crazy, and I humbly disagree.)This was the last chapter in this fic, but that doesn't mean it has to be over. We are working on the sequel right now. It's going to be more of a series of one-shots about Nico's recovery than an actual storyline, so a lot of it will come from requests and stuff (please give requests it helps my writer's block). Be sure to follow me if you have an account so you don't miss that. Also fun fact: this fic is now officially more than a year old! So happy birthday. We thank all of you for reading!

From Crazy: About requests. The sequel to this fic will be a series of one-shots, but Dragon and I do have some plot guidelines, just for consistency's sake. After the events of Lost at Sea, Will and Nico live with Sally, Percy, and Paul for around a year. Sally lets them share a room because of Nico's nightmares. After about a month or so, when Nico is comfortable enough to be without Will, Will goes to Paul's high school. Annabeth tutors Nico for a couple of months until he is caught up enough to enroll as a freshman. Most of the teachers are very nice and accommodating to him, except for one, Mrs. Brunk. Nico and Will are also bullied by a homophobe named Bradley, but Paul quickly catches on, and after getting suspended, he doesn't do it again. Lastly, after they graduate, Will and Nico would go and work on a Disney Cruise, but we aren't likely to write that in this fic because it is supposed to focus on Nico's rehabilitation into the mortal world. Ok that's it, thanks for reading!

Sally and Nico bonding