XLVIII

WILL

"He's stable for now. You may see her later when she gets transferred to a regular room. Overall, the operation was successful." Will said to the family of the patient he just had operated on a while ago. The family left. He pulled out the scrub cap on his head and tried to fix his untamed curls with his hand. He turned to walk away.

"Hey, doc!"

Will paused and glanced back at the direction of the voice. Kayla, Cecil, and Lou jogged towards him.

"Is there something wrong?" He shoved his cap into the pocket of his light blue scrub pants.

"Nothing much," Lou replied. "How was Loverboy?"

"Loverboy?" Will frowned.

"Di Angelo, who else!" Lou said.

Will snorted at the nickname. He imagined Nico's scowl if he heard that nickname for him. "He's fine. He wanted to get discharged as soon as possible."

"Good for him. But we're not really here to talk about Loverboy." Lou continued. "There's something we've been thinking about and we wanted to tell you."

"And that is?" Will raised an eyebrow.

"Hey guys, probably this not the best place to talk about that, in the open, within the earshot of people." Cecil butted in.

"Let's go somewhere secluded first." Kayla decided. She led the way.

Will was still perplexed but he followed the three. They ended up in an empty hospital room.

"Spill it, Lou," Kayla said as she locked the door.

"Okay." Lou started. She hopped into the bed and sat. Cecil sat beside her. Kayla pulled out a chair to sit on, while Will remained standing crossing his arms.

"We're thinking about our coma patients without clear medical reasons yet." Lou continued. She looked at Will. "Will, what if, there's a reason why we couldn't find any medical explanations about why they ended up like that?"

"And the reason is?" Will asked. There were now eleven patients in a bizarre coma state. There were additional patients from suffocation from a fire last time. Then, some patients had gotten transferred to Jupiter Half-blood Hospital. The families of the patients from another hospital had heard about it, so they had transferred there in hopes that their ill relatives would be cured at JHH. All additional patients had reacted similarly to Will's glow, cold when he had touched them.

"What if we can't find answers because we're looking in the wrong way. What if the answers are not purely scientific but you know, also magical. . . "

"What?" Will's eyebrow shot up.

"It still sounds weird and so unreal." Kayla shivered.

"But hey, just suggesting," Lou defended. "After learning that Will has a boyfriend who's a former death angel, and there are death angels around, and the fact that people around here could conveniently forget someone else's existence, what else could be weirder, right? It's been a week going two and we still don't know what to tell to the families of those patients. We still don't know how to cure them."

Silence loomed over.

Will bit his lips, lost in thought.

"You are seriously considering it, are you?" Kayla tilted her head at Will.

Will sighed running his fingers through his blond hair. "I don't know yet. It's hard to tell when you don't have proof. Even though I have a former death angel boyfriend, I'm still a doctor whose expertise mostly lies in the scientific and medical approach. No offense Lou."

"None taken," Lou answered lightly. "As I've said, I was just suggesting."

After that, they departed to go back to their respective work. Will and Cecil were left alone together as they walked through the hallway.

"You were strangely quiet about our conversation earlier," Will noted.

"What else could I contribute?" Cecil sighed. "My world usually revolved around hematology, parasitology, pathology and other scientific words with -ology. Magic and Ava Kedavra aren't one of them."

"Right." Will looked ahead. He paused."Oh. . ."

Not from afar, Nico di Angelo stood in front of a window of a room. He was staring at something inside. He was still in hospital sleeves, but he was already free from the IV line. As evidence, a cotton ball was taped on the back of his hand.

"Is that Loverboy?" Cecil asked.

Will snorted. "Don't let him hear you calling him that."

They approached Nico.

"Hey," Will greeted him when they had reached him. Nico's head turned at him. He was surprised.

He added. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just. . ." Nico paused when he had noticed that Will had company.

"What?" Will asked.

Nico just gave him a look. The blond instantly understood what that look meant.

Will looked around. The coast was clear. "Oh, if you're going to talk about death angels stuff-" Nico's eyes widened. "-that's fine, because Cecil here knew everything about it, and who you really are."

Cecil saluted Nico with a grin.

"Who else knew about this?"

"Kayla and Lou too, only the three of them. I had no choice but to tell them. They still remember you even when the people around here have forgotten about you." Will answered.

Nico frowned confusedly.

"I'll tell you about that later but why are you here? Are Hazel and Reyna not here yet?" Will glanced through the window. Inside the room, an unconscious man was lying on the bed. Will recognized immediately the patient. The man was one of the eleven bizarre coma patients.

"They already came. Hazel is still settling the hospital bill while Reyna had to leave to go to the NYPD." Nico returned his gaze at the window. "I was bored so I decided to look for death angels around but found none yet. Then I passed by here and noticed something off about him."

"Something off?" Will frowned at him.

"I don't know how, but if I was just going to look closely and concentrate enough, I could see inside him. It was empty."

"Empty how?" This time, it was Cecil who spoke.

"His soul was missing," Nico answered. "It's like the human body is a big shell that hosts a life force. And his life force is gone that's why he wouldn't wake up. Lifeforce is the one that keeps a human anchored to the Living. But now that it is gone, he won't wake up. Unless his soul came back to his body. Shit. I'm sorry. I don't know what I was saying, it's just coming out of my mouth and I couldn't control it."

Will and Cecil looked at each other.

"I'm gonna give Lou a kiss," Cecil said to him.

Nico clutched his head.

"Hey, sunshine." Will held Nico's shoulder and turned his body to him. "Are you all right?"

"Y-yeah, just a little bit dizzy, that's all." Nico winced.

"Let's get you back to your room, okay?" Will nodded at Cecil and stirred Nico away.

"Are there more patients like that man?" Nico said as he settled on his bed.

"Eleven of them," Will answered. He sat at the edge of Nico's bed.

"They won't wake up until their souls come back to them," Nico grumbled. Absentmindedly, he reached for Will's hand and played with his fingers.

"Do you know how the souls will go back to their bodies?" Will asked.

"I don't know. . ." Nico continued to grumble. He started to draw circles on the blond's palm.

Will watched him. "That's all right, you don't have to know everything. Do you still feel dizzy?"

"Yeah, sort of. . ."

"Just rest. Or else I might revoke your discharge paper if you still feel dizzy until later."

"No, you won't." Nico scowled at him.

"Oh yes, I will. So rest up, sunshine." Will started to glow.

"Beautiful. . ." Nico mumbled.

The doctor intertwined his hand with Nico's. Will hummed the tune of Inside Out.

Nico smiled at that. His eyes drooped.

Soon, he stopped humming when Nico had fallen asleep. His hand slackened around Will's hand. Though, the blond continued to hold him and watch the love of his life sleep. Nico could still look so endearing while sleeping. While watching him, Will's mind wandered off to the unknown. He wondered what would happen to them now when their future together seemed so fragile. One wrong move, it would crack and break, and either one of them would probably tumble down the abyss.

No. Will gently squeezed his hand. He brought Nico's hand to his lips and kissed the back of his hand. He couldn't afford to think about it. They would make it together in the end somehow. They had to. They had always managed to find each other after they had parted ways. Will had to hope because it was all he had to keep going, to keep his fears at bay. No matter how their roads had split them apart, how their course had twisted and knotted, in the end, their paths would always converge again. Will was holding to that hope.

He gently put Nico's hand to the side. He stood up to leave and let Nico sleep in peace. But then the door creaked open. Will turned. Hazel came in.

"Oh, hi doc. How's my brother?" Hazel asked, closing the door behind her. She walked towards the bed.

"He's good. Just fell asleep." Will said.

"I'm worried about him. He's been through a lot. . ." She gazed at Nico. Her brows knitted together in concern.

Will patted Hazel's shoulder comfortingly. "Nico is a strong person, you don't have to be that worried."

Hazel smiled at him. "But he's still my baby brother no matter how strong he can be."

"He's older than you."

"So?" Hazel raised an eyebrow.

"Right." Will chuckled softly and Hazel joined him.

"I'll go ahead, I'll just come back again later," Will added and headed for the door.

"Yeah. Thank you, Will." Hazel smiled at him.

Will just nodded and opened the door.

"And Will. . ."

Will turned his head back at Hazel.

"Thank you for being there for Nico."

Will's lips quirked up. "Can't help it, your brother is a magnet."

Hazel chuckled again. "Can't resist his charm eh?"

"Something like that,"

They beamed at each other and Will left the room afterward.

Will was in the locker room. He was arranging his things in his bag when his phone rang in the opened locker. He paused as he looked closely at it to see who was calling. An unknown number was calling and it was an international number.

"Who could it be?" Will muttered. He picked up his phone and swiped the screen with his thumb to answer it. He held the phone against his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi. Will Solace."

Will was taken aback. It had been a long time since he heard that voice.

"B-Bianca?"

Yes, it was Nico's sister, Bianca di Angelo, who was calling.

"Oh, good you recognized my voice. Should I be flattered?"

"Gods, I missed your sarcasm and snarky comments. Seriously."

Bianca snorted that might be as well as close to laughing.

"Wait. How did you know my number? And where are you?" Will sat on a nearby bench. He put down his bag next to him.

"I have my ways and still in Russia," Bianca replied. "Anyway, I wasn't calling just to have a friendly chat with you. My time is limited and this is important. How's my brother?"

"Bianca... " Will exhaled. "A lot of things are happening here with your brother. I don't think all of that can be covered in this phone call if you're, like, in a hurry."

"Make it short then. Does my brother already know who he is? Or maybe remember his old self, if there's a miracle."

Will looked around the room first. When he was sure that he was alone, he spoke. "He already knows who he is, but his memory didn't return completely. His powers came back though."

"Powers?" Bianca's voice seemed surprised. "Explain."

Will tried to explain everything that happened to Nico as briefly as possible, starting from the incident at the Broadway theater until what had happened at the subway.

"Damn it." Bianca hissed. "Everyone is on the move. I see. You mentioned that Bob came to you. Did he tell you anything else aside from Nico's powers coming back?"

"Nothing else but he mentioned something about plan and safety? Bianca, I'm worried about Nico. What if, something or someone out there is really dead set on killing him? We don't even know why this is happening to him."

"I know why," Bianca said.

"And you'll tell me about it?"

"Of course, you have to know. This also involves you Will Solace. This is the reason why I'm calling you."

"M-me? How come?"

"Will Solace, remember what happened back on October 20th last year," Bianca began. "You were destined to die that day and Bob was already there to escort your soul to the Underworld. . ."

"Okay. . . ?" Will let out a shaky breath. He didn't like that their conversation was going somehow on his supposed death.

"But because Nico came to rescue you," Bianca continued, "he changed the course of death. So instead, someone had to pay the price of your supposed death."

Will exhaled. "Python."

"Yes. Bob was assigned to your soul and he couldn't just take away a soul that wasn't assigned to him. So there was a moment of confusion about who was going to get whose soul. Now, the moment that no death angel was out there escorting a soul in a designated time, do you know what will happen?"

"It will wander around and be a ghost," Will answered. He remembered it, Nico had told him about that when he was still a death angel.

"Exactly. And do you still remember the missing souls that I told you about before?"

"Yes,"

"Python is one of them," She said, "that information is so classified among death angels that I have to track down the death angel who was supposed to escort Python's soul just to confirm it all the way here in Russia."

"Now, a ghost who's on the loose and who's a murderer when he was still alive is something dangerous." The death angel continued. "Ghost like that will mostly seek vengeance for his death."

Will was glad that he was sitting down or else he might collapse on the floor. "S-so the one, the black smoke that Nico told about is probably Python?"

"It's not probably Will, because I'm sure as hell that it is Python. Nico killed him after all."

"If we don't stop him, Nico was in real danger. What are we going to do with Python?"

"Well, find him and make sure he goes back to the Underworld."

"M-me? Why me? Isn't that a death angel's job?"

"Our job is only to escort souls not to summon them."

"Summon them?"

"William Solace, do you really have no idea how exactly your light powers worked?"

"L-light powers." He felt dumb for just repeating Bianca's words.

"The reason why you can bring back someone from the pit of death is that the dead, the souls, are attracted to your glow. Because they are attracted to your glow, they will pretty much follow your light. Hence, summon them. Moreover, you have power over the souls to command them at your will. Your glow is like their pathway back to life, especially for those souls who aren't ready to accept death yet. Why do you think you're able to save some but not the others. Your light is more powerful for those who are still yearning for life. Heck, we death angels, are also attracted to your glow, what do you think happened to Nico? Most of us just react differently because we just hate to accept the fact that we're drawn to your glow."

"S-so, how can I summon Python? Do I just glow and he'll come?"

"That depends," Bianca answered, "It might be difficult if ghost Python is hosting or possessing a human body. You must be close to that body so it will work. A human body can be a shield against forces that will rat them out. Ghosts, who do not want to go to Underworld, use that trick. So the death angels tracking them cannot find them easily. If Python knew or learned about it, he'll do it so he can fulfill his revenge on Nico."

"What now? Hosting a human body? Possession?" Will groaned. Give him the most complex heart surgery and he would probably understand and do the procedure in no time. Not that this one, dealing with ghosts and the dead.

"Python will probably be hard to find," Bianca said, ignoring Will. "I'll come there as soon as I can to help with tracking him down. In the meantime, keep Nico safe. And. . ."Bianca's voice seemed to hesitate. ". . . just don't tell Nico that I called you. I want him to concentrate on himself right now to recover his powers completely, for his safety and for whatever Hades is planning for him. Don't call this number. I just stole this phone."

"Y-you what?" He stuttered. But there was only a continuous beep on the other line. Bianca had hung up.

And Will's mind was probably on the way to the afterlife.