"It's bad," Will said. "Skin and bones." Nico stirred groggily, but he wasn't able to wake up completely.

"Not the worst I've seen but I've been doing this for millenia," Chiron told him.

"I'm not bad," Nico managed to say, before bursting into tears.

When he woke up again later, he felt better but his arms and legs were still sore. Dragging the Athena Parthenos across Europe had drained his energy but the days and nights of clinging to Blackjack hadn't provided much rest, either.

He sat up and peeled one of the leads from his skin. He was about to pull the IV from his arm when he heard the door slide open. "I've changed my mind. I'm not staying," he blurted out.

He slid off the bed, trying to ignore how weak his legs were right now and glared at Will Solace.

"You can't make me stay! I hate this place. No one can change my mind."

Will shrugged and moved away from the door. "Well I tried." He started organizing the cabinets and ignoring Nico.

Nico stared at his back and then the door standing open but didn't move. He doubted he could make it more than a few steps without collapsing anyway.

Will glanced over his shoulder and gave him a look that was a little too surprised. "You're still here? I thought you couldn't wait to get out of here."

"Oh please, I know a trap when I see one. You and Chiron, think you can trick me? I can summon my dad's armies to overrun the camp. Did anyone ever think about that? What has happened to my sword?"

Will snorted. "Go ahead and try." His face turned serious a second later. "I was actually hoping- Well, Chiron was- that you could help us with a problem we're having."

Whatever they were up to, Nico hadn't expected to be asked for advice. He searched Will's eyes for any trickery.

"We managed to capture an enemy spy."

"That's easy. You cut his throat and send him to face my dad."

Will made a face. "No. He's too valuable to kill."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You think that now. But Gaia's armies have been destroyed. He's going to be desperate. He'll tell you whatever you want to know just to escape."

Will sighed. "It's a little more complicated than that. Chiron's in there with him, still trying to win him over to our side. He seems to think maybe, he's not an enemy spy at all."

"A spy who's not a spy? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard."

"And that's what I told him." Will shrugged again. "But there's a reason why Chiron is talking to him instead of anyone else. He seems to think that the spy was actually one of ours, captured by the enemy."

Nico shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You can't trust him. He'll say anything just to get away."

"You're probably right. But Chiron is still convinced that he's just confused and afraid. Gaia and some other people took advantage of that and warped his thinking. But enough about that guy. What would you do with someone like that?"

Nico was even more surprised. "Me?"

Will grinned and nodded. "Yeah. How would you establish trust?"

Nico thought about it for a few minutes. "Distract them. Make them think you're not interested but then trick them into talking about themselves like it's someone else."

Will laughed. "That's never going to work. He's a spy. He's going to know he's being interrogated."

Nico agreed. "He will. That's why you tell him first. You want his trust, you have to show him you trust him first."

"That's what Chiron suggested," Will confirmed. "But I'm really not good at this kind of thing."

"Interrogations are tricky," Nico said. "Try to find common ground and subtly give him control of the room. The more control he has, the more comfortable he feels. You can even convince him he has the upper hand. Then maybe solve a problem he's been having." Nico rubbed the poor attempt at stitches that Reyna had given him after the skirmish with Lycaon. Reyna was great, but she was no healer.

"Those all sound good," Will told him. "But to be honest, all this war business is really getting to me." He sighed and leaned back against the row of cabinets. "It never stops. One after another. When does it stop? When have I done enough? When does it stop? When can I finally rest?" He looked at Nico again, like he had just remembered he was there. "You probably don't want to hear about my problems. I've never been on the front lines. I shouldn't complain. The rest of the campers, they're the ones who are suffering."

Nico frowned and shifted uncomfortably. "You can't think that way. Just because you're not in the thick of it-" He broke off and broke eye contact with Will.

"So you're saying the way I feel is valid?"

Nico nodded. By now, it was getting harder to ignore the fact that the EKG was giving away his anxiety. Will turned the machine off. "That's getting really annoying." He crossed his arms and watched Nico for a few seconds. "You're really good at this. Maybe you should do the interrogation. But no skeletons or zombies, okay?"

"No thanks. After I get out of here, I'm just going to settle into the Hades Cabin and do nothing for a while."

"I thought you couldn't wait to get out of here?"

"I'm still thinking about it," Nico said quickly. "What do you care?"

"I like it here. I can focus on my work. And I go to sleep at night knowing I made a difference. There are rules but no one's really going to make you follow them." Will dropped his arms and just watched Nico again. "Coach Hedge said you guys ran into werewolves?" He pointed at the claw marks.

Before Nico could react, Will had already pushed up his sleeve and was examining the stitches. "These are terrible. Whoever did this had no idea what they were doing. I'm going to have to pull them and redo all of it."

Nico pulled away. "That's okay. It hurt enough the first time."

Will laughed again. He ignored Nico and started gathering supplies.

"Wait," Nico protested.

"Don't move. I can do this, but if you move around too much…"

Nico flinched; the stitches were painful enough. He wasn't looking forward to this. He was sorry he had even drawn Will's attention to it.

"Willow bark has some pretty amazing qualities. Even diluted it's good for pain and inflammation. Of course, here those qualities are enhanced. The soil, the air and the water all have powerful magic and that magic feeds the grove and the dryads that nurture the grove."

Nico closed his eyes and waited for it to be over.

Will kept talking, keeping his voice low and monotone. "Witch Hazel is good at cleaning wounds and it doesn't sting like rubbing alcohol. Cayenne peppers to stop the bleeding."

Nico opened his eyes and jerked away. "No," he said, pulling his sleeve down.

But Will had already finished. He smiled at Nico. "Just kidding. I use tumeric and ginger root. And standard dissolvable sutures."

"I didn't feel…," Nico started to say, looking at the sutures in disbelief. "How did you…"

Will's smile was warm and inviting. "I'm a healer," he explained.

Nico stared at the claw marks and ran his hand across them. After a few minutes, he looked at Will. "What do you want to know?"

Will thought about it. "I want to know everything about you."

Disclaimer and notes: I don't own these characters or places. Also, I know EKG doesn't monitor anxiety but the heart rate, which would have been elevated given Nico's high anxiety.