Hi! Guess how many projects I should be writing right now! So many! But I'm giving myself a few hours off because a) I'm cutting into my sleeping time and b) I got great news this weekend about being admitted to a new university in Vancouver where I can change my major and move away from home and live close to the sea and the mountains and work with some of the best profs and I'm just super duper happy.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own anything!


xiv: broken

Will opened his locker and contemplated all the happy things in there. His stash of emergency licorice. The drawings and Father's Day cards he'd put up along with cutesy pictures of the girls. A wedding picture. The warm, comfortable, never-been-barfed-on-or-bloodied clothes he would put on and go home in… It had been a long day.

He was making conversation with Assira who had her locker nearby when his pager went off. He swore quietly.

"You want me to take it?" Assira asked. "I don't have plans tonight."

Will was tempted -Nico was making lasagna tonight and he'd promised Francesca to help her water her cucumbers since her other dad couldn't garden with her without killing her crops… But something in his stomach answered no before Will could tell Assira to go watch a movie or have a glass of wine or something.

He went back down to the floor and was sent to the ER immediately.

"What's up?" Will asked, putting on a gown.

"Little boy, eight years old, hit by… We don't know," one of the nurses said. "Neighbour said he was playing basketball on the driveway and then she heard him scream and he was down."

"Hit by a car?" Will asked.

"Not according to the chatter," she said.

Then Will heard paramedics ordering people to move and he just followed them into a trauma room where a little boy… Working with sick kids was hard, that was plain fact. But for some reason this little boy went straight to Will's heart. He was small, with creamy pale blond hair. He was wearing a t-shirt with the Beatles' faces on it and basketball shorts. That was the image Will could paint of him without getting too graphic with the blood and the mangled leg and…

"John Doe, partial amputation of the right leg. Blunt force trauma to the head and abdomen…" She went on with the jargon.

"No name?" An ER doctor said.

"Neighbour didn't know," the paramedic answered. "Says he's from a foster home. Kids change all the time."

"Any idea where the foster parents are?"

"Police are working on it."

While they pushed fluids and set up an oxygen mask, Will noticed something wrong with the injury. The little boy's muscles and flesh were charred and… greenish?

"What in the world is that?" One of the doctors said.

"Tissue's contaminated," Will said. He had no idea what this meant, but he'd seen something like it during the Titan War. Pollux would have lost his leg or died of near-immediate septic shock if Will hadn't had plenty of nectar on hand- which he didn't have now. It was a bit unorthodox, but Will let one of his hands drop. He pressed his palm against the little boy's side. A wave of heat ran through Will. Ichor. This boy had ichor in his veins.

"This leg needs to come off before whatever that infection is spreads," Will said.

"Dr Solace…" He didn't know who said it.

"Look," Will said. The boy's foot was black- necrosis.

"How is that possible so soon?"

"That doesn't matter for now, get an OR ready," Will said. He kept his hand pushed against the boy's side, trying to send warmth the other way. His own healing magic, pushed from him and Apollo right back to this little boy. He usually didn't, you had better chances of hurting a mortal forever than of treating them when you started messing with magic. But this boy wasn't mortal and this injury wasn't normal, which meant that Will was going to have to think outside the box.


Will leaned against the counter of the nurse's station. When you were really nice to the nurses consistently, they let you use your phone.

"I'm sorry," Will said. "I'm being held up. I have no idea how long I'll be here. Maybe I'll be here after bedtime, yeah. Can you tell Franca I have to barter with Grandpa to make the sun shines especially hard before we garden? Yes, she'll like that. No, I haven't used that already. Thank you. Love you. Goodbye."

He hung up. Lorelei, a particularly young nurse, smiled at him.

"Long night ahead of you?"

"Paperwork," Will lied.

He went to sit down in the little boy's hospital room. An oxygen tube snaked up the little boy's nostrils, but he'd been cleaned up rather well. They'd ruled out brain injuries. Other than a few broken ribs and a sprained wrist, he would be okay. But of course, he'd lost his leg. For real. For sure. The only thing Will could do about that was make the amputation clean.

He eased back down in the chair.

"Solace?"

The chief of surgery happened to stop by with some police officers.

"Yes, Dr Lang," Will said, rising.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him.

"I…" Will said. Dr Lang interrupted him, turning towards the police.

"Dr Solace is our best. He's the one who performed the surgery." She turned back to him. He wasn't off the hook.

"I just heard that he didn't have any family. That his foster parents were charged with negligence, that they couldn't come in to see him," Will said. "I didn't think it was fair for him to be on his own after all of this- in case he wakes up."

Dr Lang looked at him for some time.

"Officers will be posted at his door all night for security," Dr Lang said. "He's safe."

"That's not what I meant," Will said. There was a celestial bronze dagger in the long pocket on the leg of Will's scrubs.

For a second he thought he was going to get kicked out, but Dr Lang just nodded.

"Okay," she said. "Okay."

"Can I just…" Will stopped, thinking he might be pushing his luck now. Oh well. "Can I know what his name is? I saved his life."

"Daniel Brown," one of the police officers said. "Eight years old."


Daniel Brown woke up at around 3:00 AM screaming for someone to stop.

"Daniel, Daniel, relax," Will said springing to his feet. Some nurses thankfully came in to help him settle Daniel town and take vitals.

"My name's Will, I'm a doctor," Will said. He checked Daniel's pupils for movement.

"My leg hurts, can you fix it?" Daniel asked. Will checked the other pupil.

"Which leg, Daniel?" Will said.

"My right leg," Daniel said.

"Okay," Will said. "Daniel, I have something to tell you…"


Will's checker piece hopped over Daniel's. Daniel grinned and moved one of his- gobbling up three of Will's pieces in one stride. He laughed at Will's reaction.

"You got me there," Will said.

"And you have to queen me!" Daniel said.

"What?" Will checked the board and feigned outrage. "That's not fair!"

Daniel laughed some more. His laughter was so precious, Will probably would have let him win anyways- but he was so exhausted after his shift, it was hard to tell. He just wanted to play one more game with Danny before going home. The girls didn't have school today, so they'd still be around when he got home- it would be fine.

"Did you know I'm going home soon," Daniel said, taking a bite of his breakfast.

"I didn't," Will said. "That's good news. It means that you're an expert at walking with your new leg. Are you excited?"

"But it's not the same home," Daniel said. "I have to switch again."

"Oh," Will said. "How many homes have you been in?"

"Five," Daniel said.

He was eight.

"Have you met your new parents yet?" Will asked.

"No," Daniel said. "I'm meeting them tomorrow. I hope they're going to be nice."

"Were your last parents nice, Daniel?" Will asked.

"They were," Daniel said. "The neighbours weren't."

"The neighbours?" Will said. "The neighbour that called 911 when you got hurt?"

Daniel shook his head. He didn't remember much of the accident, but Mrs. Hale had brought him cookies in the hospital (which Will was a little ashamed he'd helped Daniel hide) so he knew she'd helped.

"She's our neighbour to the left. I mean our neighbour to the right. It's, like, a lot of girls in one house. Anna said it was a sorority? Their house smelled like wet dog all the time," Daniel said. "But they didn't have dogs. The other kids laughed at them for speaking funny but I didn't. One time I kicked a ball in their yard and two girls were eating outside but she was just eating chicken that wasn't even cooked. Isn't that weird?"

Empoussa, Will thought.

He chewed his lip as Daniel kept talking. What were the odds that a demigod child had ended up living next door to an empoussa nest? No; that was the wrong question. What were the odds that an empoussa would stop looking for a demigod child whose blood they had tasted?


"I have a crazy suggestion," Will told the social service worker at the hospital.

"I love crazy at 8:00 AM," Sasha said pushing away from her desk and spinning around to face Will. She was a sweetheart of a woman with a round face and big blue eyes. Also she owed Sasha a favour. Will didn't know how big it was, but he was about to find out.

He sat down on the corner of her desk. "So that little boy, Daniel Brown?"

"Cutie Patootie in Room 217," Sasha said. "Yes?"

"I heard he's going home soon," Will said.

"Yes," Sasha said. "Ortho and his physical therapist have cleared him."

"That's great," Will said. "And he's not going back to his previous home, right?"

"No," Sasha said. "No, no, no. That's… complicated."

Will felt pretty bad. It wasn't his mortal foster parents' faults that Daniel had been attacked by a monster. What could they have done?

"Well, I was thinking…" Will said. "Even if it's two years since our last, my husband and I are trained foster parents."

Sasha looked at him, arching an eyebrow.

"I know it sounds crazy," Will said. "You were warned."

"That I was," Sasha said carefully.

"But Daniel knows me," Will said. "And I'm a doctor. I'll be able to help him adjust to life with a prosthetic limb. I'll be able to keep an eye on him. He's been through some pretty intense trauma, I don't think just anyone can help him through this and if he's not well framed now, it could make the rest of his development -the rest of his life- a special kind of hell. My husband and I already have daughters with special needs. I'm just saying... we're a little ideal."

Sasha pursed her lips. Will held his breath and she reached for some Post-It notes and a pen.

"Let me get back to you on that. I'll make a few phone calls."

Will could have hugged her.


Nico and Will were trying to ease their pace to match Daniel's as they pushed a cart through IKEA. He was all hyped up on meatballs at the moment, but he'd burn out pretty quickly. He kept underestimating the weight of his leg and the friction it caused and how tired of that he would get.

They were looking at posters now. Daniel cracked up when he found one of a monkey balancing a banana on his nose.

"This one's so funny Dads, look!" Daniel said.

They looked at each other, trying to be subtle. Will could basically feel himself grinning.

"Put it in the cart, kiddo," Nico said.


Will and Nico had a framed poster in the kitchen that Lacy had designed for them. All of their names were spelled down and connected like crossword puzzles.

Will felt like an ass, but he had to ask Lacy for a new version. Francesca then shared her last 'a' with Daniel.

They put it up just before heading out to the courthouse, when Will pretended to forget his keys, so that Danny would walk in and see it ofter the fireplace.


His heartbeat was so close to the speed of light. And that was Will's medical expertise talking.

"You've got everything?" Nico asked.

"Dad already asked twice," Cata said. Her hair was freshly braided for the summer, but she'd tucked her glasses in her back pocket. Will had promised that nobody would pick on her for it, but she didn't believe him just quite yet. Her eyes were her favourite shade of apple green for the occasion, and she was wearing overralls and a white t-shirt and red sneakers. She was holding her trunk by the handle, knuckles white.

"Well now it's my turn," Nico said. He opened his arms and two kids swarmed in. Daniel was wearing a Nirvana shirt and jeans and converse sneakers. His guitar was slung over his shoulder as extra baggage.

Then it was Will's turn. He kissed Cata's head and ruffled Daniel's hair. It embarassed him even more.

"Be good," he said. "The harpies will eat you."

"Yeah," Nico said. "We don't want any calls from Mr D. Your father and I have a reputation to hold up."

"Who's Mr D?" Cata asked.

"You'll see," Nico said. "You will see. Now go, cross the borders or we'll lose your self control and follow you in and embarrass you guys."

They did go in of their own free will. Nico and Will may have been embarassing by starring them down as they tracked down their counselors. There was a lot of activity going around in the valley, and their two biggest kids were pretty excited to go- so maybe they weren't even looking back. But Will knew that he was looking forwards- watching them, watching all the other kids.

Watching Danny and the newest prosthetic he'd grown into and limp a bit because of the trunk he was dragging and... and...

"Dan's going to be okay right," Will asked quietly.

"He's always been able to keep up," Nico said. "Worst case scenario, all of camp will fall in love with him and make it work."

"Right," Will said. "Right."


"Dad," Daniel said. He shifted uneasily, throwing all of his weight on his biological leg. Cata took his hand.

"What's going on, Danny?" Will said.

"At... at camp," Daniel said. He swallowed. "I was... I didn't find out who my mother was, but Iris came to me in a dream once she found out. She told me she wasn't my mother but she knew who my mother was. And she's still alive."

"Oh," Will said.

"Oh," Nico said.

"And she's in Boston," Daniel said. "So we're going to... to go see her."

"Are you sure?" Nico asked.

"Seriously Danny, are you sure? Have you thinking about this?"

"Since August," Daniel said. "It's been three months. I need to know."

"Okay," Nico said.

"Do you want us there?" Will asked. This hadn't happened before. As far as they knew, there was no reason for it to happen ever again. Cata and Franca's dads were dead - graves may be visited one day, Tessa's father was in prison for life but she'd come to the weirdly wise conclusion that she didn't want to know yet if outer space still wasn't figured out, and Emilia... Actually, Emilia's story wasn't clear at all quite yet. But seriously, this was strange.

"No," Danny said. "Not really. I... I can go."

"With me," Catalina weighed in.

"With Cata," Danny said.


They'd printed out the bus route, the map of Harvard's main campus, and her profile page from the Department of the Classics' website.

They were standing in front of a conference room and twidling their thumb. There was a class in session. The room was full of sunshine and students were taking notes and Danny had worn a button-up Dad had bought for him to go to a wedding. And jeans. That was stupid, he looked stupid in a button-up. He should have worn what he always wore. Cata was wearing a bandanna in her hair and a cardigan that clung to her knees and ratty jeans and a ratty t-shirt and she looked good to go. She looked fine. She looked like you'd want to talk to her.

Daniel shrugged his backpack onto his other shoulder.

"Want me to carry it?" Cata asked.

"No," Daniel said. "How long?"

"She finishes teaching at 2:30," Cata said. She took Danny's hand and checked his watch for him. "Six minutes."

"Okay," Daniel said.

His mom taught at Harvard. It was crazy. Right now her class was Introduction to Roman Literature, but she also taught Introduction to Greek Literature, Roman rhetoric, Special Studies in Literature of the Antiquity... She was a smart lady.

"We could come back another day," Cata said. "I mean, technically we're skipping school for this..."

"No," Daniel said. "I don't want to come during her office hours. In case her students come by."

"Okay," Cata said.

They waited in silence. The class poured out pretty quickly. A woman with greying hair pulled into a ponytail and a straight line for a mouth walked out of the class. She was spindly like Daniel and his stomach turned. She repositioned the messenger bag on her shoulder and locked the class and turned around.

"Hello," she said.

"Umm," Daniel said. He was angry at himself now, this wasn't a good or smart or memorable first thing to tell his birth mother. "Are you Dr Miriam Herschel?"

She looked at them top to bottom.

"You're too young to be students here," she said. "But yes, how can I help you?"

"My name is Daniel," he said. "I'm your son."

Her eyes flared after two seconds of processing. "In my office. Now. It's down the hall."

She led them. Daniel struggled to keep up.

"I- I hope we're not interrupting..."

"Your friend can stay outside," Miriam said.

"I'm his sister," Catalina said.

"Not by me, so you can wait outside," Miriam said. She unlocked another door and ushered Danny in. He didn't want to sound like a horrible person, but he was a little... pissed. The office looked clean and orderly. A big calendar on the wall had items colour-coded. Pictures were tacked above a very organised desk. The computer's background were a procession of Athenian and Roman ruins. Her books were covered in shelves. The office was put together and pristine, by a woman who was put-together and pristine. Why, then, wasn't he accounted for?

"You can make yourself comfortable," she said. She took her desk hair herself and swirled around to face him before Danny could even oblige. "How did you find me?"

"My mom told me," Daniel said.

"She had no right," Miriam said- which took Daniel a bit by surprise.

"Sorry?" he asked.

"She had no right to tell you where to find me," Miriam said. "Did you want something to drink?"

"I- I, no, I don't want something to drink."

"Are you looking for money?" Miriam asked.

"No!" Daniel said. "No, I'm adopted. My dads take care of me."

"Then what do you want?" Miriam asked. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be in school?"

Daniel didn't know how to react, so he lost all his tact and became honest.

"I just wanted to meet you," he said. "I was curious. Haven't you wondered about me?"

Miriam took lecture notes and notebooks from her bag and started putting them away. Everything was specific and robotic.

"I thought it would have been clear when I gave you up for adoption," Miriam said. She looked up. "I never wanted children. When your mother brought you to me, I had no idea this could happen. I don't consider myself to be a mother."

Daniel's stomach twisted. "I- I'm not asking you about that... I mean, to do that..."

"I'm sorry," she said. "That wasn't clear. I don't consider that I have a son."

That got to Daniel's stomach more like a punch. "You don't need to take care of me, You don't need to raise me or anything, I'm just... I thought it was cool that you taught ancient literature. I love reading, you know, even though I'm dyslexic..."

"You're dyslexic?" She asked.

Daniel blushed. She hadn't said it meanly. She'd asked it like a question, he had said she could ask him questions.

"I am," Daniel said. "And..."

"Do you have another birth defect that causes your limp?" Miriam asked. That wasn't asked meanly either, but it made Daniel's cheeks flush. He rose to his feet.

"I have a prosthetic leg," Daniel said. "I was attacked when I was eight years old because nobody knew I was a half-blood, because nobody was looking out for me, because the person who could have left the hospital three days before me."

"I knew this was about revenge or something in the likes," Miriam said. Daniel wanted to scream.

"I'm not- I didn't- I can't..." Daniel said. "Do you at least know who my mother is? You said a goddess brought me to you, but who?"

"No," Miriam said. "I don't. She never divulged her true identity. She was a fraud and a liar, taking advantage of my scientific curiosity. Like I said. I didn't even know you were possible. She is a frivolous, egotistical, woman. You are most likely better off never meeting her. God knows I would have."

Danny's stomach turned.

"You don't even know me," Daniel said.

"I don't mean it in that sense," Miriam said. "The goddess brought you to me at a bad time. I was about to embark on my doctoral studies. I had three months to memorise 350 books on literary history before appearing in front of a committee. I had been waiting for this doctoral program for years."

"And a baby wasn't worth it," Daniel said.

"A baby wasn't my choice," Miriam said. "I would have resented you for slowing down my research."

"I'm sorry. I was curious and I wanted to see what you were like and maybe talk with you," Daniel said.

Miriam fiddled on a ring on her forefinger. "I think we can both see that that's not a wise idea."

"Yeah," Daniel said. "Yeah I can see that. I should go."


"Hey," Will said. "Hey, Daniel, relax… Daniel, don't pull out your IV, I'm right here baby."

Daniel's thrashing slowed and he looked around again. Will turned on the night lamp and Daniel winced at the light.

"You're okay," Will promised. "You're okay."

"Sorry Dad," Daniel said. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to wake you up. I just had a nightmare."

"It's okay," Will said. He hoped that Daniel would be too groggy and sleepy to notice the bow and quiver propped up next to his chair. Will was standing guard, he hadn't been planning to sleep. And even if he had, Will was Daniel's father so he wouldn't manage it, period. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Daniel hugged his old bear to his chest. He knew that the hospital still had dozens of these bears in storage rooms here and there- specifically for kids who came to the hospital alone and unprepared. Daniel's just so happened to have been well-loved for a little longer, and it bore careful purple stitching behind its ear where Nico had fixed it (twice).

"Is it about surgery?" Will asked again. Daniel hugged his bear even tighter.

"Hey," Will said. "Daniel, Dr Simston is one of the best. You know I wouldn't let her near if she wasn't, I've got insider information. It's going to be okay."

He regretted those words. When he had a patient, he never said 'it's going to be okay' or 'it'll work out' because you couldn't promise that to anyone. But he couldn't lie or half-truth his own child. Not to his son.

"I know," Daniel said. "I'm not scared."

"It's okay if you are."

"I'm not scared. I just don't want it to happen." Daniel said quietly.

"I know," Will said. "I wish it didn't have to be like… like this."

The infection that had cost Daniel most of his leg had started to manifest itself above his knee. He'd been scheduled for a hemipelvectomy as soon as possible- a rarer, higher leg amputation. It felt cruel, five years after Daniel's first amputation.

Daniel threw an arm over his eyes, letting the stuffed animal fall to the ground.

"I wanted my leg back so bad, but instead I lose more of it," Daniel said. "It's not fair."

"It's not," Will agreed. Daniel's breathing changed to a trying-not-to-cry rhythm.

"I don't get it…" Daniel said. "I'm so sick of being broken. Why do I just break more?"

"Daniel, you are not broken," Will said quietly.

"Tell that to the kids at camp, who don't even give me a decoy job during capture-the-flag, or who go easy on me when we're sparring even if I beat them every time," Daniel said. He choked. "Tell that to my mom up there won't claim me."

"Oh, Daniel…" Will said.

"Stop, Dad." Daniel said. "Thirty-five kids were claimed at camp this summer. It was a record. So why not me? If I'm not broken, if everything's okay, why not me? Why do… it's not my fault I didn't know how to fight, Dad. It's not my fault but now nobody wants me and I'm just breaking more. If it's not my leg, then why don't they want me, Dad? Why aren't I good enough?"

Will eased himself from the chair to Daniel's bed and he collected Daniel in his arms, bringing him against his chest.

"Daniel Lee Solace," he said quietly. "When I met you, you were broken. You were dying. You were hurt. You were covered in blood. But you were strong enough to survive the five hours of work it took to put you back together. You were strong enough to snatch my heart right out of my chest without even saying a word."

He ran his fingers through Daniel's hair. That always calmed him down, and it helped to calm down Will. To keep talking instead of agreeing with his kid that damnit life wasn't fair and just cry too.

"You were strong enough to put on a prosthetic leg and dare your physical therapist to race you to the cafeteria to make her buy you pudding. After two sessions. You were strong enough to learn how to bike again. You were strong enough to claim a room on the second floor of our house the first time you saw it. You were strong enough to pack a bag for the hospital on your own and throw a goodbye party for your leg to make your worried sisters laugh. You are strong. Call yourself broken all you want, but you are not half a boy. Whenever you feel that way, just remember that I loved you first- long after your leg was gone."

Daniel's breathing relaxed against Will's chest.

"Also let me tell you a secret," Will said. "Immortal parents suck. They have zero judgement, a poor understanding of humankind and they don't really know how to judge our value, Daniel."

Daniel laughed a bit. "That's why I'm glad I have you."