I really didn't know much about Hellhounds, but I was pretty sure these puppies were huge. The first one I delivered was about the size of an over pumped basketball, and they just kept getting bigger. I guess Mrs O'Leary wasn't exactly a normal dog, but was this supposed to happen? Should they be that big? And how many was she going to have? I mean, her stomach looked huge. Was that normal?

Truth be told, I was winging this. I wasn't used to demonic canine patients. Heck, the only infant thing I'd delivered was Coach Hedge's son.

Soon I had a small gathering of mewling puppies splayed across my lap, which is considerably heavy when they are all heavier than my head. One gummed my knee, closed eyes staring up at me, and I was mildly worried when my entire leg disappeared. But I needed to focus. Mrs O'Leary needed my help. I stroked the sweat-slick skin of her belly, muttering encouraging words as she pushed out the next puppy. Cutting and tying its umbilical cord as it passed into my hands, I began to clean all the placenta and amniotic fluid off of it with the towel I had thankfully brought with me. Within seconds it was mewling at me too, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I placed it with its siblings. There were four so far; another two girls and a boy. They were bumping their heads together, and trying to crawl towards their mother. I had to keep moving them back so that they stayed out of her way. Another puppy was pushing its way through, this time tail first. I gently pulled it out, helping Mrs O'Leary, and then repeated the same process as before. Now the boys were catching up, making it a two vs three.

The stress must have been really getting to my head if I was making this into a competition. How many puppies were normally in a litter? Come on Will, think! I remembered that Grandpa and Grandma had a breeding pair of… Ugh, why couldn't I remember the name? They were big, and had heavy coats - German Shepherds. That's what they were. They used to have like 6 pups in a litter. Was that like what was going to be like for Mrs O'Leary? I shook my head. I needed to focus.

Mrs O'Leary pushed out another pup, another girl. Except she came out still in her amniotic sac, the translucent fluid tied like a balloon around her.

"Nico!" I pushed a pup off of me, and Nico did the same. He'd been rubbing a few of the pups and making sure they didn't stray too far from where we were. He looked up at me as I handed him the puppy who had tried chewing my leg. "Here! Hold him."

I headed closer to Mrs O'Leary, and set about carefully releasing the little pup from her sac. As I opened it, all the fetal urine and fluid rushed out onto the grass and dirt. The pup was cold, and unresponsive. But from what I'd learned watching 101 dalmatians as a child, I rubbed the puppy with a towel. She coughed up a bit of fluid before crying for her mum.
I looked over to Mrs O'Leary, she was laying on her side, no longer panting and whining, tail moving weakly.

"Let the pups go to her." I called to Nico and set the little girl down and Nico stood up to release the rest of the pups. They all quickly found their mother, and began suckling almost immediately.

I left Mrs O'Leary to feed her puppies, knowing that they'd be quite safe where they were. I headed back to the camp with Nico. We had our arms around each other's waists, our pace slow and steady. We weren't in that big of a rush.
"So… Are you okay?" I asked, nudging him with my hip.

"Pfft, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know. You just kind of ran out of the library today."
"Sorry, I just realised something. That's all."
"Care to share what that was?" I was concerned with Nico. He'd seemed a little distant ever since we came back from the Underworld. But today, he was pushing me away even more.
"Not really."
I halted. I could only give him so much space. I crossed my arms as he turned to face me.

"You're kidding, right?"
"What?" He opened his palms, a looked of pained guilt on his face.

"Neeks, talk to me."

"Will, its nothing, really it's not even worth mentioning."

"No. Nevermind. You do you, Nico. Whenever you're ready to talk, I'll be here." I started stalking back to the infirmary to put my first aid kit away.

"Will, stop."

I stopped, even though I didn't want to. My body immediately obeyed Nico's command, betraying me. I couldn't move anything, let alone wiggle my fingers. Nico looked at me, stunned that I had somehow followed his directions. "I just saw the drawing that Katie did and kinda freaked out. I've been a little stressed out lately, what with the attack and Katie and everything. I tried blaming Nisha, even though she had nothing to do with it. I just..."

I tried to talk back to him, but I couldn't even open my mouth, and my larynx stayed rigid. He continued, voice growing more desperate.

"I know that you have every right to be mad at me, but I feel terrible. And I know I should have talked to you about it. But I couldn't think and had to get away to process it all."

My teeth were glued shut and my tongue lay limp in my mouth. I wanted to apologise at my sudden outburst, but I couldn't.

"Please, say something." Somehow, those simple magic words unprised my teeth, and I started regaining feeling in my limbs again. I felt slightly light-headed and woozy. But I clenched my fists, focussing on my confusion and anger.
"What. Did. You. Do?" I was so close to yelling and I wasn't sure if it was out of anger or fear.

Nico looked startled and hurt. What was wrong with him? How had he done that? What was that? He wasn't answering me, eyes scanning my face for some kind of explanation. I narrowed my eyes.

"Nico. You just controlled me."

"Well, I'm trying to compromise here, I wouldn't exactly call it controlling-"

"-No, Nico. When you told me to stop, I stopped. I couldn't move."

Fear sparked in his eyes, and I realised he must know something about what just happened.

"What? Nico what the hell?"

"Uh...I…"

"Nico!"

You know that look that animals get when they are pressed into a corner, and they can't escape? That was the expression mirrored on Nico's face as he fumbled for the right words.

"I don't...I don't…you couldn't move?"

"No! Only after when you told me to say something. Nico, how did you do that? Was it charmspeak or something?"

"Babe, Hades, remember?"

"Well, I don't know! Like some creepy Hades charmspeak? Nico you had full control over me. I couldn't move. At all. Nico what if that happens again? What if it happens by accident, and you forget to tell me I can move again? What even was that?"

His face crumbled, and I felt a twinge of worry. What was happening? Could Nico even explain what he just did? He was muttered under his breath, walking in small circles.

"He warned me, he said this might happen, I need to tell him, but what do I tell Will-"

"Who warned you?" I cut in, starting to panic. What had Nico done? "Neeks, talk to me. What's happening?"

His expression was one of dread, but also of finality.

"I'll be back," he promised, before disappearing in a swirl of shadows, leaving me alone and extremely worried.

I stroked Katie's hair gently as she recounted her adventures with Nisha while Nico and I were helping Mrs O'Leary. She told it like Nisha was the nicest person alive, but I was pretty sure that wasn't what actually happened. Nisha was a moody one. Suddenly, Katie halted her story, glancing left and right.

"Where's Papa?" Katie asked sweetly, eyes wide and upturned to meet mine, "Is he sleepy again?"

"He's just gone on a little trip," I told Katie, hoping feverishly what I told her was true, "He'll be back soon."

"Pwomise?"

She looked so innocent, so serious with her pinky held out to me. She pouted.

"You gotta pinky pwomise, or it's not true, Daddy," she brandished her finger, "Do you pwomise?"

I linked pinky fingers with her, promising that her Papa would come home to her. But inside, I was filled with dread. The way Nico had fled...I didn't know where he was.

Or...I hated to think it but...

I didn't know if he was coming back.

The conch shell sounded to signal dinner, so I walked and Katie skipped down to the dining pavilion. I wasn't mad at Nico, but I was worried, so I couldn't eat. I just grabbed a plate for Katie, because she was complaining about her stomach 'being grumbly'. We sat down again at the Apollo table.

"Hey, how was your day?" Sara pulled apart some of the lettuce on her plate as she asked Katie and I about our day. She didn't seemed bothered by us, probably because she was too busy with her life. So much drama, and she'd been looking after the two little boys who'd been here during the attack.

"It was alright, just did the usual." It was a lie, but I couldn't be stressed going into my day. Besides, Katie had finished her eating, so we headed back to our apartment.

"And the little mouse squeaked and scared the great, big elephant away. Little Jaq had saved Cinderella and her fair."
Katie giggled from under the bundles of blankets she had covering her.

"I think it may be time for you to go to bed. Good night, sweet-pea."
"When do you think Papa will come back?"
"Hm," I tapped my chin, "I don't know."

And I really didn't.