WILL was a doctor. That meant he could perform surgery while tied to a chair, diagnose a person's injures from a distance of fifty feet, keep a comatose patient alive and steady for weeks, and save the life of a soldier stabbed seven times with a sharp dagger. What he could not do was change a lightbulb.

"I don't know! Gods, Justin, please just get a guy from Hephaestus or something."

Justin Harstrong, Will's half-brother, glared at him. Will was perched on the top of a ladder that leaned on the wall, supposedly changing the lightbulb. Except the problem was he didn't know how to.

"We are NOT getting a Hephaestus kid to change our lightbulb. It's way easier and cheaper to just DO IT." Justin grumbled.

"I don't know how to, though! Why can't we just-"

"-Because Hephaestus kids are grubby and charge a ton of money for everything."

"To be fair, they're usually starving."

Justin shrugged. "Not my problem. Besides, they touch all the medical equipment and get it all grimy and unsanitary."

Will scrunched up his face and waggled his hand in the air, making fun of Justin. "Yeah, well, why don't you come up here and do it, then?"

Justin raised an eyebrow and waved his hand, reminding Will about the IV drip attached to his arm.

"Right," Will muttered. "I forgot you got dehydrated because you're so amateur you couldn't drink while being a doctor."

Justin gave him a dirty look and didn't say a word. Will knew what he'd just said was unfair; Justin had spent sixteen hours straight on his feet, bustling around the Clinic's patients while Will was out Helping. It wasn't Justin's fault that he was fatigued and weak. Will just needed to say something.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I-"

A loud beeping issued from the nearby room, Emergency Care. For the past few weeks the room was being occupied by a very important and injured patient. A patient that was now-

"Awake." Will said in awe. "Oh my gods, he's awake."

"Who? The comatose guy?" Justin asked.

Will ignored the question, sliding down the ladder in a highly dangerous manner and dashing into the room.

It had been a few weeks back. Will had gone out on his regular Helping Missions, finding sick or wounded or underfed people in the streets and bringing them back to the Clinic for treatment.

The Clinic was a one-storey, beige-stone and square building, inwardly painted white and equipped with fully functioning medical supplies. A few of these clinics were scattered all over Common District, so business for Justin and Will was meager and they mainly lived off the free coupons each citizen received once a month. Free coupons, in Will's opinion, were a great idea. He was glad all of Zeuopolis had them.

Anyway. That fateful day, Will had been on his return from his Helping Mission. Apart from one Hephaestus teen with a sprained ankle (which Will had treated on the spot), there had been no people in need he'd met.

Will was just turning the corner when a scrawny and terrified kid barreled down the cobblestone street, stumbling in Will's direction. The kid seemed woozy and weak as he ran. Will automatically stepped against a nearby wall to let him pass.

The kid didn't make it that far, though. Three guards dashed into Will's line of vision, guns bared, heading for the kid. Will winced as their hands whacked his back and knocked him head-over-heels onto the ground. One guard raised a bat, ready to attack,

Will couldn't stand by any longer. He slid across the street and threw himself over the unconscious kid's body, his blonde curls bouncing in the poor soul's pale face.

"STOP!" Will yelped, holding his hands out.

The guard froze, glaring at him furiously.

Will straightened, standing protectively over the knocked-out kid. He pulled a doctor's card out of his pocket and waved it in the guards' faces, as if showing them a prize.

"I'm a doctor." He said, in a voice that commanded respect. "As a medical man, I can't stand by and let you harm a half-dead person. Against every law of moral medicine."

The guards scowled.

"Well, you're relieved of your doctor duties." One of them sneered. "Now GET, before I have to use this against you."

He tapped his bat threateningly.

Will raised a patronizing eyebrow. "You will? Really? You'd harm a person whose family is in charge of your health and wellbeing? I'd like to see you try."

"Was that a threat?"

"Possibly."

The guard aimed his gun at Will's chest.

"That's it." He said. "You're officially under arrest. What's your name?"

"Louis." Will lied smoothly. He and Justin had prepared for this already, and each had false names. Justin's was Tim.

The guard gestured towards the unconscious kid with a flourish of his arm, without moving the gun from its aim at Will.

"He's dying anyway." One of his cronies said. "Won't be any use. Just smash 'im."

The last guard raised his own bat, ready to bring it down on the kid's crumpled and fragile body.

Will acted immediately. He punched a guard in the face and then ducked, a bullet meant for him blasting down the street. The threat of the bat was lifted from the injured kid; Will kicked the gun out of its owner's hand and reached into his own satchel, bringing out a glistening syringe.

"I hate to waste this on you," he told the stunned and bruised guards, "But this is an emergency."

One man lunged for him with a shout. Will spun and stabbed the syringe into the guard's shoulder, pressing firmly. The anesthesia kicked in almost instantly and the guard slid to the ground, limp as a rag doll.

Will waved the syringe threateningly at the other two guards, who'd both backed away and ran. He then grabbed the unconscious boy by the armpits and drag-carried him all the way to the clinic.

Emergency Care was a relatively small room and at least half of it was already taken up with necessary medical equipment that, if disconnected, would cause the comatose boy's instant death. That meant Will had to hopscotch his way through pipes and machinery so he wouldn't accidentally kill his patient.

The boy was twitching in his hospital bed, eyelids fluttering. Will reached his bedside just as his eyes opened slowly, for the first time in weeks.

"Hi." Will said, reaching over to take the boy's pulse. "You just woke up from a weeks-long coma. I'm your doctor. What's your name?"

The boy groaned in pain, gazing around groggily.

"Nico." He moaned.

Will nodded and turned to a few medical machines, adjusting their settings to fit a conscious person.

"Well, Nico, it seems you were in pretty bad shape when I found you. Care to tell me what happened?"

Nico blinked heavily. "Who are you? The boy who found me was blonde."

Will reached up and touched his own soft curls- he'd forgotten Justin had dyed them chestnut to avoid guards searching for blonde Apollo medics.

"Hair dye." Will explained. "I went through quite a bit of trouble to get you to safety, you know."

"S-so?"

"So I'm not exactly on the Zeuopolis Police's Good List."

Nico rubbed his head with trembling hands. "Why would you go into all that danger just to rescue me? It's not like you know me or anything."

"Hippocratic Oath. I can cause no harm to my patients."

"I wasn't technically your patient yet."

"What can I say?" Will shrugged playfully. "I guess I'm just undeniably goodhearted."

Nico snorted weakly. Will finished adjusting the last machine.

"There. If you have any problems, just press that button and it'll alert me. Now, go back to sleep." He told Nico.

Nico nodded ever-so-slightly, then blinked. "You didn't tell me your name yet."

"I'm Will."

"Will." Nico murmured, as he squirmed back into his blankets and closed his eyes.

Will gave the boy one last glance, then shut off the lights and left the room.