[My first Will chapter, just because i love that ray of sunshine so much and he deserves more attention than what he got in Rick's books. Sorry about posting less, it's just college and all. I'll keep the chapters coming, just more slowly than before :/]
"Get me some gauze!" A young girl shouted over the moans and groans of wounded demigods. Satyrs and nymphs were running all over the place, trying as much as they can to bandage bleeding guts and fix up broken bones using nature magic.
"Bite on this" Will stuffed a belt into Jake Mason's mouth "It's going to hurt"
Will touched Jake's dislocated shoulder, feeling around for the humeral head and socket. In one swift motion, he grabbed the bone and placed it back into it's original spot. Afterwards, Jake's screams were loud enough to be heard all over camp.
"You'll be fine," Will comforted him "Just take some unicorn drought."
He left Jake to his bed in the field infirmary. He took a look outside, to the explosions and fires that blazed outside, praying that none of those he loved would be hurt. Sometimes he wished he wasn't just a healer, that he could be of help out there where it counts.
Will twisted his skull ring on his finger. It's become a habit of his whenever he got nervous, and ever since he left camp, he couldn't stop touching it. It wasn't that he was nervous about Nico's shadow travel... Will learned how to heal him from that pretty well over the years, but something bothered Will about Nico lately. He wasn't the same guy that he'd known, but became rather more reserved and to himself. Whenever Will tried to talk to him, he'd just close himself off. It's true that Nico wasn't the most open person, but Will could feel something wrong with him.
He stood over the railing next to Nico, watching The Queen Anne's Revenge sail through the Sea of Monsters. Will placed his hand over Nico's, and he felt his fiance flinch at the touch of his warm fingers.
They stood there in silence for the entire time it took Percy to get the ship close enough for everyone to board. Percy ordered Blackbeard to start sailing them out of the sea of monsters and the pirates immediately took their positions like they had done this a million times. Will and Nico stood there awkwardly at the main deck, unsure of what to do.
"Okay," Percy approached them "Where are we going exactly?"
"Well, we went to the pirates' island" Nico pointed out "We found out that the seas' intentions involve Circe so we track her down"
"How do you track down an immortal witch?" Will asked.
"We know that she's with her sisters," Percy said "Any idea who that might be?"
"Circe is a daughter of Hecate" Nico pointed out "And she had a lot of powerful daughters."
"So we go to cabin twenty and ask the kids there if they know of anything?"
"Uh one problem." Percy raised his hand sarcastically "Cursed. Can't walk on land. All that good stuff."
"Right..." Nico exhaled "Do we know anymore daughters of Hecate lying around?"
"Hunters" Will pointed out. "They have to have at least one, or some of them lived long enough to know Circe's sisters"
"That's great, Will" Nico hit Will's shoulder in agreement "I actually know where they are"
Nico walked off with Percy towards the helm, giving him directions to south of Virginia. Will went below deck to get himself settled. He set down his bow and quiver on a desk, then put his head to rest on the small bed.
Will had so many things on his mind, he thought he'd never sleep. But there was something peaceful about the rocking of the ship and the drone of the oars as they scooped through the ocean. Finally his eyelids got heavy, and he drifted off.
It seemed like only a few seconds had passed before he woke to one of the crew members announcing their arrival.
Will got to the main deck to see Percy and Nico in deep conversation. Neither of them notice him being there for a few moments. When they finally did, they explained to Will that they had made an Iris message to Thalia, and she's meeting them somewhere at the coast of Virginia beach.
Percy used his magical sailing abilities to get the ship to dock near the coast. Blackbeard ordered someone to take two rowboats that will escort the group of hunters from the coast to The Queen Anne's Revenge.
In no time, a group of silver-jacket-wearing teenagers scattered on the deck, keeping a distance from the pirates who did not hold back their gazes. In front of them, Thalia stepped forward, her hair was spiky black, with a silver tiara across her brow, looking like a super healthy fifteen year old, the same way she's looked since Will knew her.
"Percy," Thalia said "You owe me big time for making me step on a pirate ship" She said the word with so much disgust, he could almost hear her trying not to throw up.
"Sorry" He replied "But we do need you."
Percy gave her the rundown about the whole situation, right down to Circe, and daughters of Hecate.
"Well, Josephine here is a daughter of Hecate" She gestured at one her fellow hunters. She was about fourteen, with broad shoulders and dark, well-sculpted arms stretched against the confines of a her silver jacket. Against the umber skin of her scalp, buzz-cut black hair held flakes of snow. If Thalia hadn't introduced her as a daughter of Hecate, he might have thought that Josephine was a daughter of Hephaestus.
"You know anything about a sister of Circe?" Nico asked
"Sorry," She said "Other than me and the kids at camp, I'm afraid I don't know. I've only been around for a hundred years, and to be frank, I'm not really into the whole magic side of my family."
"Jo is one of our best mechanics" Thalia explained "She uses her magic to make things like our tents."
"Though" Jo continued "If anyone can help you, seek out Panacea"
"Panic who?" Percy asked.
"No," Will interjected "Panacea, goddess of cures. I say her name in my hymns all the time, but what would she have to do with Hecate."
"Back in the day," Another hunter said, she had blonde hair braided to one side. She wore faded jeans and a silvery winter coat much like the other hunters. A white birch bow gleamed in her hand. "Most remedies were made of magic. It was known that Panacea was a student of Hecate's, and they became good friends. Seek her out in Baltimore, she should know what this is all about"
"Thanks Emmie" Thalia said. "So can my girls leave now?"
"Yeah, of course" Nico replied "Thanks Thalia."
"No problem" Thalia hugged Nico, Percy and then Will "If it's a healing goddess, that's gotta be all yours" Will nodded, accepting the task. It made sense that the healer of the crew would get to chat up with the goddess of healing.
At nightfall, Will decided to go downstairs to get some sleep before they docked in Chesapeake Bay. It wasn't like his presence on the ship right now was needed anyways. According to Percy, they were travelling at 29 knots and that they would arrive nearly at sundown.
"Hey Will" Percy caught up to him right before he stepped on the stairs.
"Percy, what's up?"
"I kind of have a medical question" Percy said, and he went on to explain his experience with the heart pains whenever he thought about Annabeth. Will's first instinct was to say Aww, but he thought that would be insensitive.
"The closest medical thing I can think of is broken heart syndrome" Will said "But I'm willing to bet it's not that."
"Have you ever heard of someone taking their own heart out?" Percy asked.
"Sorry," Will shook his head "Medically speaking, it's impossible and I've never heard of any legend about someone doing that."
"The prophecy said to become one without love so that we can cause delays"
Percy lowered his head. It obviously looked like he has been dwelling over this for a long time. Will hated that he couldn't help out the poor man. It made sense that love would stand for heart, and if becoming without love is the equivalent of removing one's heart, then they'd need to find some answers.
"Hey, do me a favor" Percy said "Don't tell anyone about this."
"You got it" Will said, gripping Percy's shoulder. He gave him a half smile, and then left him to man the helm. Will descended down to his cabin. He laid down next to the snoring prince of darkness and drifted to a dreamless sleep.
He got woken again by crew members shouting "Land Ho". He changed into his travelling jacket, a white shirt and jeans, then proceeded to wake Nico while strapping his quiver of arrows onto his back.
The plan was that Nico and Will would go to the city to search for Panacea. Percy obviously would have to remain aboard the ship, so it was up to them to get the information they needed from the goddess. The Queen Anne's Revenge docked at Baltimore's inner harbor, right at the heart of the city.
Nico and Will got off the ship and started strolling through the streets. It was about seven in the morning on a Wednesday. People were rushing off to their jobs in the snow. Nico tucked himself in his jacket, while Will shivered in his. They had gotten so used to camp's magical borders protecting them from the extreme weathers that they forgot how the cold really felt like.
"Any idea where we're going?" Nico asked.
"Something tells me that a goddess of cures would be found at a hospital" Will ventured.
"Yeah," Nico said "But there's a billion of them"
Will took a glance at one of the buildings. It was a normal glass skyscraper located near the harbor, but Will took a special interest in the sign out front that read John Hopkins Carey Business School.
"There." Will pointed. "John Hopkins"
"A business school?" Nico narrowed his eyes.
"Think about it, what's in Baltimore that would attract Panacea?"
"The beautiful scenery" Nico said sarcastically.
"No," Will resisted the urge to smack him upside the head "John Hopkins is one of the nation's leading institutions in medical research. They help develop cures everyday."
"Makes sense," Nico agreed "Let's go."
Nico stopped a cab and gave the driver directions to John Hopkins Hospital. In a few minutes, the car stopped on North Broadway street, in front of a massive red building with a sign in front that read "Cancer Center". Nico paid the driver then both of them climbed up the stairs and entered through the glass doors.
Will and Nico avoided the reception desk and found their way to the elevators. The smell of iodoform filled the air, marking the distinct smell of hospitals. Men and women in wheel chairs were strolled by nurses.
Fortunately, when the elevator dinged, Nico and Will were the only two that entered the empty space.
"Where?" Will asked, gesturing to the red colored buttons.
Nico removed his hand from his pocket revealing a security key card. He swiped it on the card slot and a new white button labeled "Basement" revealed itself on the board. Nico pushed it, and the elevator car jerked and dived downwards.
"Swiped it from the security guard." Nico explained "You learn a few things when you're in charge of Hermes cabin's swordsmanship"
Will gave him an impressed look before the doors burst open. The room looked no different than the floor they just came in. Hospital beds and different sorts of machines were all over the place. Green privacy curtains were hanging from a track on the ceiling where low lights illuminated the room.
The only difference between the upper floor was that this place was entirely empty. The only sounds that came were from the beeps of machinery and a faint voice muttering "no, no, no" at the very back of the room.
Will finally started to walk towards the sound of the voice. A women was bent over a working bench with chemicals and different assortments of microscopes and centrifuges. She had short brown hair pulled in a ponytail wore a white lab coat over a set of light green scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck– your stereotypical doctor outfit.
She hadn't noticed their presence until Will said hello.
"Oh hello," She straightened herself "How can I help you?"
"Are you Panacea?" Nico asked
"Yes," She replied in a happy tone "Goddess of cures at your service."
Will was skeptical at first of how nice she is. Gods always had a side to them, but she seemed genuinely nice and ready to help out. Will heard the story from Leo from when he'd meet Asclepius, god of medicine. He was nice too, ready to help them acquire the physician's cure. Maybe this niceness was genetic.
"I'm Will Solace, son of Apollo." He said "And this is Nico. We're on a quest from Poseidon and we heard that you could help us out"
"What do you need?" Panacea put her hands on her hips "If it's a mortal cure for cancer, I can't help you."
"You can't cure cancer?" Nico asked
"Screw that disease!" She banged her hand against the bench, knocking down a pink vial of liquid "I've been trying to find the non-magical cure for decades!"
"Non-magical cure?" Will repeated.
"Of course I can cure it with magic," Panacea replied "But humans require a simpler approach to curing of diseases."
"Naturally." Nico said "Speaking of magic, we know you were close to Hecate, so would you happen to know who Circe's sisters are?"
"Oh that's easy! Hecate adopts every great sorceress that follows in her footsteps. There's Circe, Pasiphae, Medea and I heard there was this new powerful daughter of Pluto."
"Hazel Levesque" Nico offered.
"Yes, her" the goddess agreed "I don't know where they are, but if Circe said 'her sisters', I would have to guess it's them"
Will and Nico thanked Panacea for the information. Nico started to walk back to the elevator, but Will didn't follow. He took a look at the goddess of cures, and was tempted to ask her a million questions about the various incurable diseased he'd studied about: Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's Disease, Multiple sclerosis. She was like the answer to all his questions, but Will could only bring himself to one in particular.
"Is there a cure to a broken heart?" Will asked her. He wasn't sure if he'd asked that because of what he'd talked about with Percy last night, or the fact that he'd seemed so distant from Nico lately. Maybe a part of Will believed that he was having problems with Nico, and maybe those problems would lead to something bigger.
"Is that a philosophical question?" She straightened her stethoscope "Because I don't do those. I'm a woman of science"
"No, no" Will said "Is there an actual cure to a broken heart?"
"Son of Apollo," She touch his arm "I've cured so many diseases: TB, smallpox, polio, but even I can't conjure up something that powerful. There are cheats, you could say. People removing the memory of the person they want to forget. I've even heard of a man that took his own heart out once, but I'm afraid the only remedy that a healer can give their patient is time."
Time. As a healer, it was the most important tool one can use.
"How do you remove your heart?" Will asked, curious to know what that meant.
"Magic." She said grimly "Lots of magic."
"Will!" Nico yelled "You coming?"
"You better go" Panacea said "Your quest awaits."
"Thank you" Will started to walk away, but still wanting her about what kind of magic they would need for removing hearts, though he thought he didn't want the answer to that "Let me know when you figure out that cure for cancer."
"Will do" She smiled and waved him goodbye. Will joined Nico in the elevator and pressed the first floor button. The doors closed, Will turned to Nico and he bent back his head across his arm and kissed him, softly at first, and then with a swift gradation of intensity that made Nico cling to him. The peppermint taste of Nico's lips washed over Will, reminding him of the very first time he'd kissed the son of Hades. He'd always thought it was odd that such a dark person would have such a pleasant taste to his lips.
"Whoa, what did you talk with Panacea about?" Nico smiled, crinkles forming near his eyes.
"Nothing" Will lied "I just felt like kissing you"