~~Yo, Mio Caro!

Sorry for the delay guys, Uni stuff is cray cray right now. and I had a plan for the last cliffhanger, but someone left a comment and I was like HOLY COW YES. So I toned it down a bit and made this their fate ;)

It's not gonna drag out too long, unless you want it to, let me know. Also I updated quite a lot and edited and changed things since I finished the HoO series. So if you want to, please reread it and hopefully things will make more sense.

There are some more sensitive scenes in this chapter I guess? Scroll to the bottom before reading if you want a more in depth yet spoiler filled warning, just so you know what its getting into. If not, read away as normal.

No song inserted in this chapter, but it was quite inspired by this song!
Song for chapter: Patience by Low Roar
Playlist for Fic: /spacedustdreamer/mortal-music

Enjoy~~

Silence.

Silence and darkness- there was nothing more.

He tried to grasp onto things or words or memories, but there was little to hold onto. It took him a while to figure out who he was. What he was.
I am Nico di Angelo, he thought. Son of Hades.
Everything else was a blur; foggy and dull like a distant alternate reality. The only real reality was the darkness. The shadows that curled around his soul, dragging him further and further away from the light. Every time the dark seemed to pull him to the edge of nothingness a faint warmth would tow him back in, a not-quite-touch or a voice that struggled to reach his conscious.

"Nico?-" It would call, warm and familiar.

"Don't do this-.." Distant yet not quite unreachable, "Not to me."
Silence and darkness.

Word echoed, broken and muffled like a phone call with bad reception. "Hang in there you son of a-.."
There was nothing more.

-(Page Break)-

Shadow travel wasn't as terrifying as Will imagined. He had pictured terrifying horrors and eternal tunnels of unknowing darkness. Instead it was more like being stuck on a G-force speed roller coaster at night time. The blood curdling, heart stopping, terrifying moment was finding himself stuck in the middle of nowhere with a frail boy, rapidly fading away into the shadows beside him.
"Nico?" Will stuttered as he looked down at the Son of Hades laid out limply on the ground beside him. He continued to stare blankly for a moment, feeling the blood drain from his cheeks. His sudden flow of nausea from the unexpected trip through the shadows had long since passed as he now had a more terrifying problem to deal with, but he didn't dare try to stand up.

It seemed to be just Will's luck. Try to kiss a guy and suddenly you're both transported halfway across the earth to god knows where. He had presumed Nico was down for the move, he didn't make any attempt to stop it from happening, but then again.. It could either be that he really hadn't wanted Will to have made that move, or that the gods were messing with them.
Will leaned over slightly towards Nico's unconscious body. He seemed to be fading in and out of view, some parts of him hardly made the effort to pull themselves back to reality.
Will reached out, "Hey?" His hand passed right through the boy's shoulder, causing him to draw his own hand back in fear, clutching it to his chest, breathless and wide eyed.
"Don't do this.." He muttered as he shuffled over to Nico again, cautiously this time, "Not to me, Nico. Don't do this to me."
Will began to try to shake the other boy's shoulder, but yet again his hand passed straight through.
Options were running low and Will had no ideas how to treat a guy stuck in this situation. He had briefly discussed it with Coach Hedge, but it seemed so much more real here. Will didn't know how he could help Nico. He was useless.
Memories of lost patients and bloody battles flooded into Will's mind, making him feel worse than before. His shoulders tensed and his hands began to shake. Not again, he promised himself. I won't be losing anyone else. Not him. Not today.

The following hours passed at a snail's pace. Will had managed to scout out the area. They had ended up somewhere in Florida, not too far from Disney World actually, but Will felt like he couldn't be further away from "the happiest place on earth". Luckily when they had been whisked away Will had been wearing his belt that had a small doctors first aid kit strapped to it, as normal of an accessory to Will as Leo's tool belt was to him. Will tried not to think too much about poor Leo Valdez.
Asides from the usual bandages and ambrosia squares, it also contained a series of useful items that Will had only kept in there for one of those just in case moments. Will couldn't think of any better time to take advantage of these items. The pack contained a small wad of mortal dollars rolled up and held together with a rubber band, a few golden drachma, a coil of string, a pair of scissors and a small Celestial bronze knife. Possibly mostly all junk, but you could never tell. Their location wasn't too obvious thankfully as it wasn't even like Will could have moved Nico.
They were nestled peacefully in a hidden away alley between a series of stores. He had figured that one of the shops was some form of convenience store from what junk he could see overflowing from the trash cans a few metres away. Plastic wrapping from multiple bottles of water, discarded boxes from a multipack of thirty six chocolate bars. The light in their hidden alcove wasn't too bad, the sunlight wasn't direct but it was still hot. Will worried about leaving Nico exposed to the sun and its heat, but he also didn't want to shelter the boy, in fear that he would completely fade.
What he really needed was a constant source of water and light, enough for him to send an Iris message to someone back at camp to inform them of the situation. He was out of luck with that so far.

After a couple hours of useless fretting he managed to calm himself enough to think straight. He thought the best course of action would be to purchase some kind of food and drink in case Nico came back to his physical form enough to actually consume food, he needed to keep his strength up. Will bit his lip, his eyes had rarely left the boy's face. They had not encountered any dangers yet luckily, but how long could he get away with leaving a son of Hades unconscious in an alley for before the monsters started lining up for a classic game of destroy the demigod?
Will eventually forced himself to stand up, taking one more quick scout of the area before running around to the streets and into the store. He managed to find what he needed, grabbing some Gatorade, water, granola bars and a couple apples. The lady at the desk started trying to discuss something about the weather with him and how it was boosting tourism, but Will could hardly stay focused for more than two seconds; He kept worrying about Nico. He managed to pay and leave the shop with the supplies.

Luckily when he returned to their crash landing zone there were no monsters in view and Nico was still in one piece, so to speak.
Will sat beside Nico and went back to staring at his sleeping face. Nico looked peaceful like this, he was soft when sleeping, youthful and carefree. His name suited him well di Angelo, meaning Angel. Will chuckled to himself, "Hang in there, Angel."
Will's humour didn't last long; hang in there.
Will had said those words too often. He had uttered them in fear, with fury, full of pain. There wasn't a way he hadn't uttered those words. There were many times Will wished that those words could save a person in ways he could never achieve alone. If he were stronger he could never lose a patient and he could save everyone. That way he would never forget because he wouldn't have to remember. It wasn't that he didn't want to remember the ones he couldn't save, he had actually sworn to himself that he would never forget. Yet it would still be nice to live in a world where he could save all of his patients, therefore he wouldn't have any lost souls to remember as they would be there with him.

A choked sob escaped Will's throat and he realised he was trembling again. Images passed through his mind.
Red. Gold. Grey. Dust, dirt, blood. Cold screams ripping through the sleepless nights. Hot sticky skin trembling beneath his own shaking hands. The terrified faces of kids whose lives he had been trusted to save, yet he couldn't. The peaceful eyes of those who had already accepted their fate as they slipped away to whatever came next.
The sound of battle and the thumping of blood rushing behind his ears as he remembered the pressure of figuring out the rations of both time and supplies between the fallen and injured. Will drew his knees up then placed his head between his knees as a lump grew in his throat. He locked his shaking hands behind his head, both to stop the trembling and to hold his palms against the thumping pulse growing at the base of his neck.
There was a shame that seemed to take hold of him. Those kids had families, friends both in and out of camp. He wondered if those in the mortal world ever knew what happened to some of those kids and what they sacrificed. Will had done his best but as always, it was never enough. he was younger then and much less experienced in the field, he had no control over the situation and was in over his head. It was shameful and he had tried to hard to learn more, so that would never happen again. It couldn't happen again. He wouldn't let it happen again.
"Hang in there you son of a-" His voice faded. Will would not speak ill of a God. And he would never dream of speaking ill of the dead.

It would be a rough night.

~~hey again.

So I saw a post on tumblr that brought up the battle of New York in The Last Olympian and how Will Solace was basically pulled up from the battle to become the primary healer. A lot of campers and hunters and a tonne of magical creatures died during that battle. Characters we knew by name, and some we didn't. The post mentioned how Will would have had to deal with a lot of death over a couple days, and how they probably would have only reserved ambrosia and nectar for those literally dying. Most things would have had to be fixed with what little mortal painkillers they had and straight up surgical items. Will most likely, being so young at the time, wouldn't have left that battle unscathed too. Looking at most combat doctors in recent wars, between 11%-20% develop PTSD. And in a war with as much loss and as many young fighters as the battle of New York, a lot of those kids would also be suffering. And a young Will Solace would probably be included in that. Doctors in combat are often strongly affected by loss and issues with control when it comes to patients dying, as in war, relationships are built tightly because they are the only people you have to keep you company. so if a patient is lost in war, a doctor can take it as badly as the death of a family member and as some of these kids actually were related, you can imagine how heartbreaking it would be.
PTSD can be cured or helped at least, but it can return at any time, with or without warning. As it is now Nico that Will is facing possibly losing, and as he has little knowledge and almost no control over the situation it is most likely a suitable trigger for such flashbacks. This wont be a major plot point yet it wont be forgotten or thrown away. I like to treat issues like this with as much delicacy as possible.
I love Will and honestly love the idea of developing him further within this story, its just now he seems less two dimensional in my writing in my opinion.
If you or anyone you know suffers from a mental health issue, please seek help. It does a world of good even to simply talk.

thanks for reading, I love you all :) ~~