XXXII

WILL

"On the 20th of October, 11:45 p.m., Nico di Angelo was hit by an unknown car at E 113th st. No known witnesses have been found until now. Security cameras were also down at the scene so the police don't have any leads to solve this case." Percy Jackson narrated. He shifted in his seat.

He was at the lobby of Jupiter Half-Blood Hospital early in the morning with Will Solace who was sitting opposite Percy.

Will drummed his fingers on the table. "Why Nico was there?"

Percy raised his index finger. "That my friend is another mystery. We don't have any idea why Nico was there in the first place. Well, Nico was having amnesia so that's another dead end for the police. All we had was the footage of Nico leaving Queens via subway at eight p.m. and the testimony of his sister of their last talk. Nico told her that he had something urgent to do even though it was late at night and according to his sister, he was leaving in a hurry."

"Sister?" Will raised his eyebrow. "I thought his sister died."

Percy frowned at Will's statement. "Yes, his sister Bianca di Angelo died before but Nico has another sister, half-sister. They live in Queens."

Will exhaled scratching his head. Just how much the Mist had altered? He thought frustratingly. Because he was pretty sure that Nico was still in the Underworld that time probably talking to his dead mother. He didn't know what to make of this half-sister cover story either.

"What was his life like before the incident?" Will asked again.

"He was initially living in Italy and occasionally coming to New York to visit his sister. But last year fall, he decided to live here and continue his master's degree in Forensic Medicine at NYU."

Will's mouth was slightly had a master's degree at NYU. He was sure that it had been his cover-up story before. Goosebumps rose from his arms. He scratched them absentmindedly. In the end, that cover-up story had turned real. But then, Will held that thought. None of those were real. It had been done by some . . . magic hooka-looka or whatever. Because the only true and real was, Nico was once a selfless death angel who had been stripped out of wings because of a punishment.

Percy cleared his throat that brought Will out of his reverie. "You spaced out, doc"

"Sorry," Will said sheepishly. "It's just that... lots of things are going in my head right now."

Percy nodded and leaned his arms on the edge of the table. "Now, it was my turn to ask. What was your relation to Nico di Angelo, you seemed to know Nico."

Will expected this that Percy will ask, he's a detective after all.

"Since Nico has amnesia, I'm probably a forgotten friend and enemy . . ." Will trailed off.

"Enemy?" Percy's eyebrow quirked up.

Will waved his hand. "It was an inside joke nothing serious and you can't suspect me being involved in his incident I was strapped in a gurney that time because the doctors wouldn't believe I was fine after Python's case. It was a solid alibi for me."

Percy stared at Will. "Yeah, it's hard for me to believe it either at first, you just jumped from a third-floor window to escape and you didn't even sustain any broken bones that time, same as for Austin." Percy exhaled. "Anyway, I trust my detective instincts so don't worry about it. I believe you."

Will smiled a little bit. "Thank you, Percy. How is Sofia?"

The detective's face lit up at the mention of his daughter. "Great. She's good." Then he sighed. "She's nocturnal these past few days, always asleep during the day and awake at night. I couldn't remember the last time Annabeth and I had normal sleep."

Will laughed. "That's pretty normal for a 3-month-old baby."

"Well, it was all worth it, she's like a ray of sunshine in our house, my mother adores her so much she couldn't put Sofia down in the crib. I think sometimes, Annabeth is getting jealous of that."

Both doctor and detective laughed.

"How about Austin? How was he?" Percy asked. "And where is he this time?"

"Austin and Dad are currently in London. After the adoption of Austin, they were inseparable." Will shook his head smiling. "Maybe because they were both music maniacs and according to Dad, Austin is a good assistant during his shows, so yeah."

Percy smiled. "Good for that kid, after all, that he went through, I'm glad he's living a good life now, thanks to you, doc."

Will waved his hand. "It's nothing. Ever since I learned about his difficult situation, I always feel like a big brother to him and have this responsibility to him. It's not always that I feel this kind of thing with my patients so I just did what I thought was right."

"Well, our chat was getting longer and I still need to go and start my day at the station." Percy stood up.

Will stood up ."Thanks a lot, Percy, for your help. It means a lot."

Percy nodded. "By the way, I was just curious, you said that Nico was a friend, did you already meet?"

Will shove his hands on the pockets of his lab coat. "We did. But of course, he didn't recognize me and I think it's better that way. Maybe there's a reason why he forgot everything including me. I don't intend to introduce myself anymore since it's been a long time since we talked and maybe we have to go on our separate ways. Even though that was the case I always wish him a well and happy life."

As Percy watched the doctor's retreating figure, it didn't escape his notice the wistful look on Will's eyes. The detective briefly wondered if there's something more than what Will was telling about Nico.

The second Will entered the on-call room, he was bombarded by questions of his friends Lou and Cecil. They sat on the table where Will's laptop was. Several thick medical books were scattered across the table since Will was doing his dissertation.

Kayla was there too, lying on the bed but awake.

"Is it really true that Nico had some sort of incident and currently has amnesia?" Lou asked.

"It's true," Will answered lazily walking towards the table. He sat in front of his laptop, across from Lou and Cecil.

"And you're not going to do anything about it? Like, remind him that you are the love of his life or something?" Lou asked.

"Babe, you're starting to sound like Nurse Drew," Cecil commented. "Besides, it's not 'are' but 'were'. Past tense. They broke up."

"And that's the reason why I am not going to do anything about it now. It's all in the past." Will said again as he busily saved his files and shut down his laptop so he could go home.

Lou frowned. "Are you really okay with that?"

"Of course." Will started to arrange and stack the medical books. He stood up and brought some of the books back on the shelf.

"Of course it's not okay." Kayla suddenly said sitting up. "All this time, he still loves Nico. Why do you think he's miserable like crap? Don't lie in our face blondie. I know for a fact that your wallpaper on your phone is still the picture of you and Nico together."

Will ignored her and bent down to put the remaining books on the lower shelf.

Lou spoke. "Is there really no chance that you two can be back together? You love each other to death and-"

Will slammed his fist at the top of the shelf. The shelf was metal so the sound made the latter three jumped in surprise.

"Yes," Will said with his back on them. "We love each other but that love brought nothing but chaos. I love him but that love couldn't even save him. So I'm pleading all of you to just stop. It's my decision. There's nothing I can do but move on."

Despite the confusion of his statement, the latter three chose to remain silent.

Will's phone vibrated in his pocket. He picked it up and held the phone against his ear.

"Yes, all right, I'll go down there," Will said shortly and hung up. He pocketed his phone.

He turned around. "I'll be at the ER."

"I'll go too. I may be needed there." Lou said hastily and followed Will who was opening the door.

"I'll go back to the lab too," Cecil muttered.

"What happened here?" Will said as he reached the bed of an unconscious patient. The patient had a dark complexion and had shoulder-length curly cinnamon brown hair. She was wearing a sophisticated cobalt blue dress.

"According to the paramedic, she lost consciousness, blood pressure 100/70, temperature 101.48 °F." Nurse Drew explained as Will checked the woman's eyes with his small flashlight.

"Did you already call the lab for a test?" He called as he checked the heart rate with his stethoscope.

"The med-tech is on the way," Drew answered.

"Med tech's here," Cecil announced as he stopped on the other side of the bed. Will stood straighter as he pulled down the earplugs of stethoscope from his ear. He hung the stethoscope around his neck.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Lou appeared beside Will.

Will stared at the patient for a moment. "Set up an IV line. Let's hydrate her with a hundred fifty ml of normal saline mix with point nine percent of sodium chloride."

Lou nodded and walked away.

"Who is the patient, by the way?" Will turned his attention to nurse Drew shoving his hands on his lab coat's pockets.

"Hazel Levesque, doc. She's with someone outside the ER," Nurse Drew said.

"Good. I need to talk to them while waiting for the lab results." Will said and walked out of the ER together with Drew.

The nurse pointed to a woman in a suit and pencil skirt standing nearby. Her hair was knotted in a perfect bun. Will walked towards the woman.

"Hi. I'm Dr. Solace." Will greeted the woman.

The woman turned to him.

"I'm in charge of Ms. Hazel Levesque." Will continued.

"How is she? Is she okay?" The woman asked worriedly.

"In the meantime, I can't say for sure. We need to wait for the lab test results to make an official diagnosis. Are you her relatives?"

"No. I'm her secretary but her brother is on the way. I'm Tate Gardner."

Will nodded. "I've heard she lost consciousness?"

"Yes. We are working overnight because of an upcoming jewelry exhibit and then she just collapsed. Maybe she's over fatigue? I already told her to rest but she's so stubborn. She recently complained about abdominal pains and she vomited right before she collapsed."

Will nodded again and muttered. "As I thought."

"Tate!" Someone shouted from behind Will. He ran past Will.

"How's my sister? Is she okay?" That someone held Tate's arm with a frantic look on his face.

Will stared at that someone, frozen in place.

Because that someone was Nico di Angelo

Nico looked at Will.

oo00oo

"PERCY!"

Percy almost choked at the coffee he was drinking as he sat behind his desk loaded with papers. Several police officers looked at Jason Grace. He strode towards Percy.

Percy put down his mug and stared flatly at Jason. "What can I do for you, Detective Grace?"

"I remembered now!" Jason exclaimed slamming his hands on the table making Percy jumped. "You know the guy that Detective Ramirez-Arellano was talking to the other day? I said before that he seemed familiar right? I already remember where I had seen him before."

"You met Nico di Angelo before?"

"Come on, Kelp head! Don't you remember him too? We've both seen him on the night of October 20th, Python's case? Civilian breached? Doesn't ring any bell?"

A memory flashed on Percy's mind. His mouth hung open. "He was the civilian we saw in front of the twin towers while trying to rescue Doc Solace and Austin."

"Bingo!" Jason snapped his fingers. "And the location of that twin building was coincidentally near where Nico di Angelo got hit by a car. And Nico's incident, it was the same day we saw him in front of that building. Don't you think there's a connection to that?"

"Will Solace, Nico di Angelo what's with you two?" Percy muttered as he leaned his arms on the table and clasped his hands together.