'I do not want to.'

'You have to.'

'Why can't you help me?'

'Because I do not have the right tools available, or the knowledge for that matter!' Piper stared at her companion, who was sitting next to her in the bus, clutching his left arm.

'Will would have had the right tools available.'

'Yes, because Will is a healer. I am not.'

'And because of that I have to go to a strange, British hospital in this weird British country!?' Piper bopped her head up and down. 'Yes, Nico. Yes. Because otherwise your arm will stay broken and there is no way you have enough energy to shadow travel us back to Camp while you have broken bones.' Nico sunk deep into the chair for a few seconds, until he accidently leaned against his arm and shot right up again. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. '...Alright. You might just be right. Maybe.'

Nico looked at the hospital with a grim expression. 'I just remembered I cannot go to the hospital...'

'They won't ask you about your Insurance. It's England. Also, camp will pay the bill.'

Nico raised his eyebrows. 'How do you know that?' Piper didn't answer. She just slowly shrugged. 'Just... a hunch.' Nico's lips curled up a little.

'What happened, Pipes?' he sing-songed. Piper didn't answer. Instead, she pushed Nico through the hospital doors. The desk lady slowly looked up at the new people who came walking into the ER. She internally rolled her eyes. Whatever, she had seen weirder things than a girl pushing a laughing boy with a broken arm through the door.

'Hello. We need emergency care,' Piper told her. The desk worker typed something onto her computer. 'What is your issue?'

'I broke my arm,' Nico answered. The woman typed something again.

'Name?'

'Nico Di Angelo.'

'Do you have an ID?' Nico gritted his teeth. Piper quickly pulled her own ID out of the pocket of her jacket. 'He must have lost it when he fell and broke his arm!' She charmspoke. She had no choice. The secretary's eyes got glazy. 'Alright. Thanks for your ID,' she answered, before yet again typing something.

They were immediately send away, to a room further in the hospital, where they were told to get a number and wait until Nico could get an X-ray. 'Man, how many people break something at... Ten P.M.?' Nico questioned. Piper shrugged.

'Quite some, apparently. Although I think there are other reasons to get an x-ray than just breaking something.' Nico sunk deep down into his chair, this time making sure he did not accidently hit his left arm. He closed his eyes for a moment.

Nico woke up when Piper nudged his good arm. 'Nico! Wake up! It's your turn!' She softly pulled him out of the chair, making sure not to hit his broken arm.

'...What? Oh, right.' He noticed a doctor standing by an open door. He and Piper swiftly walked over to her. 'Eh...'

'Nico Di Angelo?'

'Yes.'

'What happened?'

'I fell down the stairs and broke my arm.' The doctor looked at him and Piper just long enough for them to start thinking she knew something else had happened. Yet, she let them into the room without further questions.

'Alright, this is not dangerous,' she told Nico, before turning around and telling Piper 'Please stay behind the screen.'. Nico narrowed his eyes.

'You say it is not dangerous, though,' he said, sounding suspicious. The doctor looked like she had heard that over and over again. 'It is dangerous when you have to often work with the radiation, not when you are subjected to it only once,' she answered. She sounded like she was saying a mantra. Like she had been saying it for her whole career. Probably, because Nico stopped asking questions.

'Hm. It is a pretty broke,' the doctor told Nico while they were looking at the photos. 'Yet, it will still have to be put into plaster,' she continued, 'You will have to go room G546. It is not very far away.' Nico sighed deeply.

'Alright. Thanks,' He muttered, before walking out. Piper gave the doctor a quick smile before dashing after Nico.

'...I feel something.' Piper's eyes narrowed. 'And I do not like it.' Nico slowly shrugged.

'I think your demigod sense is noticing the ghosts.'

'...There are... ghosts... in here?'

'Of course there are. People sometimes die in hospitals. Horrible, of course, but it happens and Hermes has apparently not visited the British hospitals to collect the spirits in quite a while. Oh, I should tell my dad that, probably.'

'I like the 'probably,' as if you shouldn't do it as soon as you possibly can.'

'Yeah, yeah, these ghosts literally have all the time in the world, you know.'

'Won't it be bad for the people who are still alive in the hospital?' Piper felt a little weird when she said it. She probably wouldn't have spoken about ghosts in a hospital with a tone like that a few years ago.

'Hm. Maybe. I'll have to check that.'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'No wonder there are so many ghosts hanging around in the hospital. It sounds like the paperwork in the Underworld is a mess, if nobody has even told you what seems like basic information.'

'You are completely right. Now, let's ignore the ghost standing next to the door on the left and get a nice plaster casket around my arm, right?' Piper took a peek at the door to the left. She didn't see anything, but still walked by the door quicker than she usually would have.

'Do you want a colour for your plaster?' the second doctor asked Nico, who shook his head.

'No, white is fine,' he answered. Piper raised an eyebrow. She expected Nico to pick black plaster. She got even more confused when Nico told the doctor that that way, he could draw on it.

'Do you like to draw?' Nico shook his head.

'No, but there is a kid in the Apollo cabin who is a champ at drawing skulls,' Nico answered, with a big grin. Piper rolled her eyes. She should have known. 'At least ask him to draw regular bones. That is more thematically appropriate.'

A few minutes later, they stood outside of the room where Nico got his plaster. Piper stretched. 'Alright, that took a lot less time than it would have in the states and I would be lying if I say I am not surprised.'

'I am hungry,' was Nico's only comment.

'Me too. I say we get something to eat first before we try to shadow travel over the Atlantic ocean,' Piper answered. A lazy smile grew on Nico's face while they walked to the elevator. 'Sounds like a great plan.'

Just as she wanted to take a bite out of her veggie burger, Piper's demigod senses went off again. She put the burger back on her plate. She noticed that Nico was doing the same, but with his hotdog. 'That... that feels a little strong for a regular ghost,' the son of Hades commented.

'It is still a ghost, though?' Piper scanned the cafetaria, but she did not see anything weird.

'I am not sure.' Nico leaned in to take a bite of his hotdog anyway. 'We better find out.' With his hotdog still in his right hand, he stood up. Piper got up as well, but not before shoving a hand of fries into her mouth and wrapping her burger into a napkin (what? Demigods need energy to do all of this stuff).

'I think it comes from the left wing, over there.'

'Hm. I believe that that is oculist' wing. You know, eye-doctors.'

'I know what an oculist is,' Nico snapped, while stuffing the last part of his hotdog into his mouth. 'I just want to know why... something hangs out there. People have a tendency not to die while they are getting their eyes checked and ghosts cannot get their eyes fixed, so by that logic the thing we are picking up on is not a ghost.'

'What if it is a very stubborn ghost who flatout does not care about logic?'

'They never do,' Nico slowly (and slightly angry) answered.

Piper peeked around the corner, at one of the empty oculist' chairs. 'I see nothing.' Nico pushed her away to take a look for himself. 'Huh, same... Wait.' his eyes narrowed. Piper stared at him, trying to figure out whether he was joking or not. 'Miss! Hey! You can go to the left, then to the right, and there's the underworld!' It was quiet for a few seconds, before Nico continued walking. 'She's gone.'

'She walked past me?'

'Yes.'

'Oh.'

'Don't think to much about it.'

'Auch Yikes!' Piper put a hand in front of her mouth.

'That was a weird sound.'

'Look at that, Nico!'

'Oh, gross! What is that thing?'

'I do not know, but it is not clean enough for a hospital.' Piper pulled out Katropris. 'So let's exterminate it!'

Nico did not need any more encouragement. He concentrated on his sword for a moment. It materialised into his right hand. Together, Piper and Nico charged towards the gross, green, slimy monstrosity that was smearing it's goo all over the place.

Piper stabbed it's gooey, blobby body. A few seconds later, Nico slammed the handle of his sword onto where he assumed it's head was as hard as he possibly could with just one arm (he couldn't possible try to slice or stab it). Yet, nothing happened. It didn't fall apart into tiny dust particles. Highly annoying. Piper and Nico ran away from the (now furious) thing like they were Ding-Dong ditching. 'Alright, alright, alright, new strategy!' Piper gasped.

'Strategy? What are we, romans?'

'We must think like romans for just a moment. I don't think it will hurt.'

'You think.'

'Look, I cannot be sure, alright! Now, enough with all the craziness. I will try to hit it right in... where I think it's torso is. You hit it in the back with your sword handle.'

'We really do not know anything about that monstrosity, do we?'

'Your confidence is heartwarming, Neeks. Now let's get that thing!' She made a U-turn right in the middle of the hall, just slow enough to hear someone coming towards them. She sped up just a little more when she heard it, which was in hindsight a good idea, because it gave her just that little more momentum while hitting the slime thing right in the chest. Nico ran right past it, before turning around and hitting it in the back.

Somehow, it worked. The monster disappeared into a cloud of dust. Nico lowered his sword. 'It is truly easier to fight with more than one hand,' he commented, before laying a hand onto Piper's shoulder. She put her arm around his waist. 'I am... just a bit tired,' Nico said softly.

At that moment, A doctor walked around the corner. 'What is happening!?'

'We... eh, we got lost. He needs a bed,' Piper blurted out, putting a little bit of charmspeak into her voice. The doctor's expression became blank. 'Yeah, of course, why didn't he get one earlier?' he asked. Piper only shook her head, while the doctor helped her with keeping Nico on his feet.

Nico took a deep breath. 'Alright. Let's go back home tomorrow.' He cuddled under his blankets as well as he could with one arm in plaster. 'Sleep tight.' Piper took a deep breath. She had gotten a bed on the other side of the room. She padded towards it. It felt like all of the energy was flooding out of her body. Before she could even take off her shoes, she fell asleep, on top of her blanket.