Dearest Annabeth,

I meant to write you so much earlier than now, but life has become so much more complicated since—well, I think you know what happened. The news was broadcasted across the world, but if you haven't heard, I crashed my ship into a submarine. Yeah, I know. It was very stupid of me. I really don't know why I did it, only that in that moment I knew the sub had to go down.

I am now facing harsh disciplinary actions. I probably should have expected that. I am on leave for two weeks. I am staying with my mother in London. In my time away, she has made the close acquaintance of one of my old school teachers. I must admit I am wary of him. I just don't want my mother to get hurt. It's hard to see my mother moving on without me. You're pretty much the only constant in my life right now.

How is your hospital? Is the fighting getting much worse? I cannot imagine what it is like in the trenches, and I hope to God that I never have to see it. I cannot wait until this war is over so that I may see you again! Where do you want to go to meet? London would probably be the easiest, but who knows if London will even be around. The air raids have destroyed so much of the city. Children are being evacuated to save future generations from the carnage and death of this age. However, this is the war to end all wars, and they will never have to face such events ever again. That is the one good thing that will come from this war when we win it.

I don't know if you have access to a camera, or if a photographer has ever come through Boisleux-au-Mont, but I would like to have your picture. Is it too early of me to ask? I hope you know how nervous writing about this makes me feel. I don't want to lose our correspondence or our friendship because of the mistakes I've made.

In the envelope you will also find a locket. I bought it a few days ago to accompany my photograph in side it. You don't have to wear it, but I thought you might like it.

Yours,

Percy.

Yours. My breath caught in my throat when I read that. I smiled shakily and put the letter on my desk and looked at the locket in my other hand. It was small, silver, and had a simple yet beautiful design. I unlatched the "door" and looked at the image. It was him! This was the first time I'd seen him since January, during the first air raids over England. Percy was smiling as if someone had just told him a joke. It made me smile too.

We were nearing the end of April. It was a shame that mail took so long to arrive. Nevertheless, I would write back as soon as I could get of picture of me made. I was still staring at Percy's photo when Piper came up behind me.

"What's that—?" She gasped quietly. "That's adorable!"

I quickly shut the locket and put on the necklace, tucking it underneath my collar. "Do you have any idea where I could get my picture taken?"

"What a good idea!" Piper exclaimed. "I could send mine to Jason!"

"We'll have to look into it." I looked at my timepiece. "But not now. Shift starts in fifteen, and we need to have breakfast still."

The day progressed as normal. Piper and I were on surgery day, working in the operating room. It was a grueling job. I couldn't even count how many stitches I had sewn into infected flesh. What was worse was when the news came in. Newspapers were one of the few forms of entertainment at the hospital. The new word today, however, was a lot worse than anything in a while. At lunch Piper and I finally got our hands on it. It read:

German Gas Attack Kills Hundreds in Minutes

I choked on my cup of water and swallowed way too quickly. It was as Will had said earlier about his father. Chemical warfare was finally here. Before long, we would be trying to treat victims that could never be healed. I pushed away from the lunch table and decided to get back to work. I spent my entire day around dying men. I didn't want to read about it too.

Piper joined me quietly. She got the diagnostics report for our next patient. "Two gunshot wounds to the abdomen—How is this guy still alive?"

I shook my head, because I didn't know, and we began the surgery. The first bullet was lodged in between two ribs, shattering both and just barely missing the liver. The other bullet entered the left lumbar region and went straight through the colon.

"I'm going to need some clamps and the forceps." I told Piper, and she wasted no time in getting them to me. I used the clamps to hold back the skin and layers of tissue. There was a lot of blood gushing out from the wound by the ribs, so I had Piper sopping it up with any spare towels she could get her hands on. I had another nurse putting pressure on the second wound.

I took out the bullet in pieces. It had come apart when it had entered the body, making it all the worse when you looked at the overall damage. I did my best to repair the soldier's ribs, but there was little I could do to fix such things. Healing would only occur if he didn't move the bone fragments out of place when he woke up. I moved to the second bullet wound as I instructed Piper, "Stich him up."

The second wound wasn't bleeding as much, but it was pretty disgusting to work on. I hated operating on any of the intestines, but the colon was the worst because all of the nutrients from the stomach had been absorbed, leaving the main components of feces to be expelled from the body. I was glad I had on gloves and a mask. The smell alone made the other nurse gag. I rolled my eyes and got to work, repairing the damage. There were a lot of tears in his surrounding tissue as well, so I was busy suturing for the greater part of an hour. All the work I did wouldn't be worth anything if he bled out on the inside.

When we were finished the soldier was taken upstairs with the orders that he wasn't to move. My next patient moved to the table, this one in need of an amputation. I hated these cases. Perhaps it was simply because of the screaming. We were nearing the end of the month, which meant that supplies were running out. I couldn't give him anything for the pain. All I could give him was a rag to bite on as I got my saw.

Perhaps it was best that my patient passed out as soon as he saw my tools. I made a tourniquet in the middle of the man's calf and proceeded to start my work. This wasn't even the worst case I had seen, but it looked pretty bad. Most of the soldiers that came from the trenches all had the same case of foot deterioration. I didn't know what the exact cause of it but it probably had something to do with the living standards in the trenches. I made a mental note to talk to Will about it. Hopefully I would see him for a few minutes in the evening.

I went through patient after patient and was growing weary after dealing with the brunt of the day. Piper and I basically collapsed when we completed our last surgery. I knew I would have to go through at least one more before the day was over. The only way I could have time to talk to Will was over another patient.

"Go on and wash up for the night." I told Piper with a fatigued smile. "I need to speak with Will."

I could tell that she didn't want to leave me by myself, but also didn't want to waste any time she could be sleeping. I reaffirmed, "It's fine, Piper. I don't think it will take all that long."

"Well, alright." Piper said after a moment. She collected both of our dinner dishes and took them to the kitchen. I assumed she must have gone to the sleeping quarters when she had finished.

I forced myself to my feet and went looking for Will. I found him pulling on some gloves. He rifled through some boxes, looking for the face masks, but there weren't any.

"Looks like we've run out of yet another thing." Will said when he saw me standing there.

I nodded, grabbing a pair of gloves too. "I wanted to talk to you about the soldier's feet. I've been noticing—"

"—That practically every one of them is in a stage of decomposition?" Will finished my sentence. "I got that too."

"Have any idea what could be causing it?" I asked as we moved into the surgery room. It was dim and dark in there, and lit candles peppered the tables and sconces in the walls. I didn't know how the night shift handled it. They could hardly see what they were doing. Electricity wasn't an option here. There were multiple reasons why. Firstly, getting electricity to a small town in the French countryside wasn't easy. Secondly, we didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves. If the Germans knew we were here, I wasn't sure they wouldn't want to drop a bomb on a hospital full of wounded enemy soldiers.

The truth was, we didn't know much about what the enemy would and wouldn't do. Newspapers came once or twice a week, and only if something big had happened.

"In all of the cases I've seen," Will began to look at an unconscious patient. "There is a common share of blisters, enlarged and blackened tissue—"

"Dr. Solace?" A nurse asked. She smiled at him widely, not that he noticed.

"Overview." Will stated.

The nurse had obviously gone through this routine before and launched into it. "Wounded shoulder. Bullet went straight through it. Dr. Solace—"

"Sounds easy enough; Dr. Chase will assist." Will was already looking closer at the wound. The nurse pursed her lips and moved to another table. I rolled my eyes at how oblivious Will was.

"Can you be more obvious?" I asked.

Will's head shot up to meet my eyes. "How do you mean?"

I smiled briefly as I handed him some forceps to begin fixing up the bone fragments lodged in his tissues. "She was trying to get your attention and you completely ignored her."

"What am I supposed to do, Annabeth?" Will turned his attention back to the patient, who was still asleep. "I can't pretend to like her."

"Just don't be rude." I blotted at the blood oozing from the open tissue. "Manners can hide practically anything."

"We can agree on that." Will said as he set down his tools. "Bones are back in place. Just need to suture the rest of it."

"Back to the topic of feet." I went down to examine the soldier's after handing the proper materials to Will. I unlaced the man's boots, taking them off, and peeling away the knit socks. Similar to others I had seen, this man had dark black and purplish toes. "I think it has to do with the water, but there are also bites here."

"Rats?" Will stated.

"Rats." I confirmed, continuing to look at the extremities. "We should start charting this."

"I don't know about you, but I don't have any extra time to write a chart at the end of the day." Will mumbled.

I yawned impolitely, covering my mouth. "Agreed."

I got to my feet and took off my gloves, throwing them in the bin. "Goodnight, Dr, Solace."

"Good morning, Dr. Chase."

I grinned, walking away. I wiped my face and hands with a wet cloth. I set it aside to dry and sat down on my bed, finally noticing a letter on my pillow.

It was from my father. At long last.