A/N: Here's chapter 3 guys! Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! :) Also! To answer the guest review question left by 'Someone': No, Annabeth is not with Percy in this story.

Chapter 3: Will

"Am I gonna be okay?"

"You're going to be just fine. Don't worry." I placed some tape over the IV I'd just put into my patients – Mary's – arm. "What did you have for breakfast this morning?" I can hear the waver of her voice and I gently give her knee an encouraging squeeze. She's scared. Of course she is. Getting stung by a wasp is scary on its own, discovering you're allergic to them at age thirty-two can only be absolutely terrifying. But, she'll be okay. She'll be okay.

I smile at her again and radio the hospital to let them know we're inbound. She'll be okay.

"Did you see who Kayla and Austin brought in?"

I'm sitting on a bench outside the hospital, one arm stretched along the back of it, the other resting over my forehead. I peek at my partner coming over to join me from underneath my arm and grin, reaching out to take the offered coffee from him.

"No, I heard the truck come though. What's up?"

Lee sits down next to me and takes a long drink of his coffee, leaning back against the bench with me. He exhales a long sigh of contentment, as though the hot drink in his hand was exactly what he needed. I smile again. It probably was.

"Young guy." Lee twisted his head to look at me. "Thought he'd impress some girls at the gym this morning."

I wince. I can just imagine what he means by that. I wonder if it was at Jason's gym. I wonder if Jason saw what happened and make a mental note to ask him about it later.

"And how much is he regretting that idea now?"

Lee laughs, the joyous noise echoing into the cool Autumn air around us. He doesn't need to answer me, we both know exactly how much Kayla and Austin's patient is regretting his macho display. I shift on the bench and lean forward, sipping at my coffee and enjoying a comfortable silence with my partner of the day.

Though the air is cool, the sun is warm on my body and makes me feel relaxed. This bench is one of my favourites and whenever I end up at this hospital, I always like to sit on it for a few minutes. It's just in one of the best places to relax and soak up some sun while taking a quick break. It's in a sort of little outdoor garden this hospital has in the back, right inbetween a couple of maple trees. In the Spring and Summer, I can usually hear birds singing up above me. Right now though, it's just the rustle of the light breeze through the red and orange leaves and Lee slurping his coffee beside me.

I glance at Lee. He's leaning back against the bench with the same contented look I probably had on my face a few minutes ago. One leg is lifted, ankle balancing on his other knee. He's got one arm stretched along the back of the bench, fingers tapping to whatever tune he's humming quietly. Lee is one of my favourite people to work with. He's calm and smart and really seems to care about people like I do. We get paired up a lot – I once heard someone refer to us as the dream team. Now, I don't know about that, but we do get along pretty easily and runs tend to go a lot smoother than they do when I'm parterned with, say Alice.

Truthfully though, I get along with pretty much anybody. I just happen to quite like working with Lee. He makes even hard days a lot easier.

"You ready to go?" His melodious voice suddenly asks me and I close my eyes for a moment, just breathing in the calm and then nodding.

"Yeah, let's do it."

The walk back to the Ambulance bay was a pretty uneventful one – it usually is. We quickly set about double checking it over and restocking it.

"Guys almost done?"

I look over. Kayla Knowles is leaning through the side door of the ambulance and smiling cheerfully at me.

"Nah, just getting started."

She gives a bubbly laugh and I grin.

"Already had a run? You guys are in for it today." I laugh with her and close up the cabinet I was checking.

"And how's your day been?"

"Ugh." She rolls her green eyes, annoyance briefly flitting across her face. "Having one of those days where you question the general intelligence of humanity." I laugh again and walk over, hopping out of the truck.

We all have those days. It's unavoidable in our line of work. You know when your buddy and your other buddy get those great ideas and one of them ends up hurt? We're the guys that see said idea from the other side. We're the guys that see the regret of that great idea first hand. As a result, I will admit I've become a little wary of my friends telling me that they've had 'the best idea ever!' I will literally be that guy every time.

Yeah, I'm a real hit at parties. But it's okay, it usually means that my friends parties end with no broken bones or blood loss and that is a success in my book!

"Where are you guys headed out to now?" I ask her, as we walk to the cabs of our respective ambulances.

"We're gonna go to the North End. You guys?"

"East."

I pull open the passenger door and climb up into the seat. Lee is already sitting in the drivers seat, finishing off (another?) cup of coffee. Kayla grins at me and hops up into the drivers seat of hers and Austin's ambulance today. I give them a wave good bye and then Lee and I are out of the Ambulance Bay first.

You can see a lot of things from the window of a moving vehicle. You can see advertisements for places, you can see nice houses and pretty places to visit and most importantly, you can see people. You can see some small part of that guys day or that childs adventure. I know Nico does the same thing I do; wonder what happened to those people after that one quick moment on the street.

Where did they go, what did they do after this small pause? What brought them there in the first place? The answers to these questions are ones I'll never know, but it's fun to imagine. To make up fantastic stories about the fabulous secret lives these people must live. Sometimes Nico and I will do that, we'll thumb through his sketchbook at the end of the day, revisit the people he captured on paper as he solidifies their lines and their lives in his pages.

I do the same thing with Jason too. It's always fun to flip through his portfolio or one of his albums and drink in the array of colours and pictures. I'd always thought it was amazing how Nico drew the emotions and expressions on paper with pencil or pen. It's really just as fantastic the way Jason creates feelings with his camera and mad skills.

I've told them both before that I wish I could do that. To take that raw, human emotion and place it down on paper or behind a frame. It's incredible.

And there are so many people out right now. It's like the Autumn just draws people out of the woodwork. Everyone says it's the summer that's the fun season, the one where people flock to outdoor places in droves, but I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it's when the leaves turn colour and smells in the air change from watermelon and lemons to spices and baking bread and warm things.

Some people say it's just all the students coming back. But it's more than that. I mean sure, it is true, when the Universities and Colleges throw open their doors for the Fall, there is a very sudden, large influx of students from the world over. But's it's the regulars too, everyone seems to want to be outside and around other people more this time of year. Maybe it's because summers ending and they're getting ready for the long dark, cold of Winter. Maybe it's because the colours or the air of the season? Maybe there's just more to look at it this time of year.

We stop at a red light and someone catches my eye. Like at every light we stop at to be honest. There's nothing particularly special about this young guy. Maybe it was his skateboard that did it, that caught my attention. He's standing at the street corner, waiting for the light to change just as we are, skateboard tucked under his arm, phone in his other hand.

Nah, I know exactly what about him caught my eye.

He's looking down at his phone and he has this rather radiant grin on his face. I wonder what message he received? I wonder what's happened that's made him so happy? I can't hear it, but I can see him laugh and it pulls a small laugh out of me. Whatever it is, there needs to be more of it in the world, the pure emotion that is joy.

I watch him in the mirror as we drive away, leaning back in my seat as he gets swallowed by the crowd and distance.

That grin of his was amazing. But was it actually what grabbed my attention? I mean I thought it was but, I frown and think about it for a second. Actually, the more I hold him in my minds eye, the more I'm pretty sure I recognized that man. Maybe it was a patient of mine? But even though nothing comes to mind, I'm more than certain I know that guy from somewhere.

"You okay?" I look at Lee and he glances back at me. "You look like someone pissed in your coffee."

I shake my head and and wave off the comment.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just thought I saw someone I knew, but I can't place him."

"Could've been from anywhere Will."

I'm about to answer when our radio chimes in with a call. Lee picks up the walkie and responds and I flick the lights and the sirens on. I can worry about mystery boy later.

And weirdly enough I am still wondering about my mystery boy later on in the day. Normally, I forget about these things, with far more pressing at hand, like making sure no one chokes on their own blood from their award winning nose bleed of the day.

"I am so sorry!" The girl sitting up front with Lee cries again.

"S'obay..." My patient replies. She's covered in blood, is incredibly pale and shaking like a leaf. "S'accident."

And it was. She'd been coming into the kitchen and her sister had been exiting and what resulted was a spectacular nose smashing.

"D'you tink it's boken?" She asks me thickly. I smile wryly at her as I check her blood pressure again and gently get her to resume leaning forward.

"Do you want the honest answer, or slightly more hopeful answer?" I ask her and she makes a valiant attempt at laughing.

"Both?"

"Well," I write down her vitals on the back of my glove. "Just because there's a lot of blood and swelling doesn't necessarily mean it's broken."

She smiles underneath the mass of gauze and red.

"But..." I look at her eyes, or rather the dark bruising around them and I grin and shake my head. "Let's keep it hopeful, shall we?" She giggles again and gives a forward jerk of her head, nodding as best as she can.

I hope I remember where I know that guy from. Because I do know I recognize him from somewhere. It's weird, I'm usually pretty good at getting these sorts of intrusive thoughts out of my head, but I guess since no ones dying or in danger of losing a limb, it's sneaking in there. It keeps looming in the back of my mind along with the idea that it has something to do with Nico. I keep wondering if maybe he was a friend of my boyfriends, but I'm pretty sure I know all of them and none of them looked like that guy.

I'm still wondering about it as we get our hopefully-not-broken-nosed patient down out of the ambulance and into a wheel chair. And I'll admit, I keep on wondering about it as I brief triage on her situation and settle myself against the wall next to her chair. We have to wait until a room opens up to bring our young, bloodied charge into it.

Since we're waiting anyway, I toss off a message to Nico, just asking if he's introduced me to anyone recently whose name I might have forgotten.

He doesn't respond for a couple hours, which is completely fine by me. We'd barely left our nosebleed case in the capable hands of a doctor when we were called out again. This time there was no room for thinking about my mystery boy. Lives were spread across the road and Lee, Kayla, Austin and I couldn't afford to think about anything but.

In the whirlwind of broken glass, blood, bandages and whispers to hold on, I'd completely forgotten about my mystery boy. Which is why I was taken so completely by surprise when I saw him again that evening.

You can't blame me really. I never would've expected to see the guy again, especially while on a call.

"That's the lifeguard that got him out of the pool."

The receptionist leading the way to the pool deck points through one of the wall windows, her eyes saucer wide, hands shaking like leaves. I'm pulling the stretcher along behind me, Lee is pushing it. I know now where I recognize the guy from. A quick glance into the stands as we get into the pool area confirms my sudden suspicions. This is the pool that Nico comes and draws at and that guy...

"Percy! EHS is here!"

Now I know the colour of the eyes that looked up at me from the pages of Nico's sketch books.

He's down on the floor with the kid who'd taken the unfortunate spill, supporting the boys head and apparently making him feel like the floor is exactly where he wants to be. Normally kids are pretty scared in these situations, but this ones wearing a sunshine bright grin and is laughing at whatever the lifeguard – Percy – just said to him.

"Hey!" Percy chirps at me as a I crouch down beside them. "Gregory here decided to single-handedly demonstrate why we have the no running rule!" The kid looks at me sheepishly and Percy squeezes his shoulder. "Then he made a beautiful dive right into the shallow end! Seriously, your form was great. I'm impressed!" I grin too. Percy's voice was so friendly, it carried with it a laugh and Gregory giggles quietly. "Clunked his head and knocked himself out with his own awesome." Percy finished and I nodded, leaning to check over Gregory quickly.

"No blood or anything." Percy supplies, "Goose egg on his head though."

"I gave myself a headache." Gregory sighs, and Percy lifts an eyebrow at him.

"You gave me a heart attack." I see the worry; the care; the concern on Percy's face and something inside me throbs for a moment. This is the first time we've ever spoken and yet I feel like I know him.

As Lee and I get Gregory secure on the stretcher, his mother frantically runs in (obviously having just arrived) and Lee quickly lets her know what's going on. Percy stepsaway the moment his mother comes up, but he's still focused on Gregory. He was going to come with us to to the hospital if she hadn't shown up, I'm sure of it. I take a step towards him.

"He'll be okay." Percy blinks and looks at me and smiles. It's cute. His smile looks slightly crooked and I couldn't help but give one back.

"I know! You guys'll take care of him." I nod and turn, grabbing the head of the stretcher. Just as we start to leave, my eyes catch movement in the stands and there's Nico. He's on his feet, sketchbook under his arm and looking down at the two of us and I'm not sure if it's the distance or not but, I can't quite read the expression on his face.

Lee begins to pull on the stretcher and I focus on my job. Time to take this kid to the hospital.

It's pretty late at night when I find myself dead tired, but still awake and staring at the ceiling. Nico is sleeping next to me, his breathing soft and rhythmic and normally I can fall asleep just listening to it. Just watching his face and wondering what he's dreaming about. But tonight, my mind keeps wandering.

It's not going over the excitement of the days calls, as it sometimes does. It's not revisiting the blood and glass and apologies and worries. No, tonight, my mind keeps wandering to slightly skewed smiles and green eyes filled with worry and concern. What was that look on Nico's face?

I sit up in bed and gently lift Nico's arm from my waist. I slip out of bed and quietly pad out of the room. I know Nico's school bag is on the floor near our apartment door, it's where he usually drops it when he gets home. It's also where he usually drops his sketchbook if I'm home before him, but he beat me here this time. It's probably in the living room.

It's dark, but I can see the lamp enough in the light coming from the city outside to get it turned on. Spots dance in front of my vision for a minute at the sudden burst of yellow. Blinking them away I look towards the couch and there it is. Nico's sketchbook. There's also some pencils and an eraser there, but I know better than to touch both those and Nico's book.

That's just asking for a famous Di Angelo spoon bending glare.

I walk over and put the pencils and eraser onto the coffee table and then pick up the book. Before I open it though, I sit down and drag the blue fleece throw on the back of the couch off and wrap it around my naked body. I should've grabbed a shirt or something, it's chilly out of bed!

Once settled, I open the book and am greeted by the cheerful visage of Jason. He's grinning up at me from a page as though he were sitting across a table from me. The self-assured happiness that is our dear friend beams off the paper at me so strongly that I smile back down at him, my fingers touching his drawn cheek. Beside him, there's a girl sitting at a table with one leg crossed over the other. She's resting her chin on her hand and looking out the cafe window, a far away look on her face, the steam of her mug curling up by her face.

She looks so sad. I wonder what upset her.

On the next page there's a grumpy old man sweeping his step, the deep creases lining his face giving him an especially cranky look. Underneath him are someones hands. Beside those, a little girl jumping rope, intense concentration on her young face.

I turn the page. I'm looking down at myself and I can feel my cheeks get warm and my eyes grow wet. I'm sitting in the big, overstuffed armchair we have in the corner. Wearing my favourite sweater and reading a book. I'm chewing on my thumb and look as though I'm torn between fear and excitement. I look way better in this drawing than what I see whenever I look in the mirror; the freckles on my nose look so much cuter done in graphite by Nico's hand than they actually are, I swear.

I linger on this page for a moment, drinking in the way Nico sees me. I can feel this fuzzy sort of warmth spread out from my chest right down to my toes. I look away from the book and over towards our bedroom door. I'm not sure how long I sat there like that, in the quiet of our apartment, with just the ticking of the clock on the wall and the various bumps of the neighbours for my soundtrack.

I turn the page and my heart skips a beat.

When Nico draws Jason or myself or anyone for the matter, you can feel our joy, our sadness, our anger. You can hear our laugh, weep our tears, or yell our frustrations. You can see the wonder, the majesty and the beauty of our souls on the page.

I look at the lifeguard standing by the pools edge and something inside me, hurts.

I flip back a few pages and there's another one. He's in the water, arms crossed on the pool edge. It's the same thing, something about this picture is upsetting me. And another one, he's standing by the pool, one arm by his side, hand holding a life preserver, his other arm is crossed over his body, resting on his shoulder, but that same ache settles into my stomach.

There is no warmth or happiness in this drawing. That crooked smile isn't hiding a laugh or giving reassurance.

I close the book and my teeth bite into my lip. There's something very wrong here. I open the book back up and it falls to the most recent page and there we are. Standing by the pool, talking. This drawing is mostly just faint lines and quickly sketched in features, Nico clearly hadn't gotten to finishing this one up by the time I got home, but like the other ones with Percy in them, there's something distinctly wrong about it.

It's hard to explain. It's just a drawing a right? But for all the life and wonder and merriment and emotions drawn on these pages, Percy is cold and distant. I'd never noticed it before. I've looked at his face countless times in Nico's sketches and never realized how wrong they were. Everyone else looks as though you could reach out lift them right from the page, like you could breathe the life into them and they'd hold your hand and tell you their story.

Percy is completely untouchable.

"What's wrong?"

I look up. Nico is leaning against the wall and looking at me curiously. My fingers grip the sketchbook tightly.

"Will? What's the matter?" He's walking across the floor quickly now and sitting down beside me. "Nightmare?" He asks, taking my face into his cool hands. I swallow and shake my head, not entirely sure what's wrong with me.

Maybe it's because I've seen his smile for real now. Maybe it's because I've heard his laugh and seen the care and tenderness he has.

Nico's searching my face with his eyes, trying to read what has me upset. I hope he tells me what it is when he finds it, because I'm honestly not sure myself. I look back down at the book. Nico looks at it too.

The clock on the wall ticks.

"It was Percy wasn't it?"

Whatever Nico was expecting, that wasn't it. He blinks at me, eyes going a little wider in surprise. One of his hands had fallen down to mine, his thumb had been softly stroking my wrist. It stilled now as his brain derailed with my question and tried to catch up.

"Pardon?"

I touch Percy's cold face on the paper. It's the same face I saw for real the first time today. Why hadn't I noticed before?

It's the eyes. It's the way Nico is drawing his eyes. There is no welcome in them. Why am I so disturbed by this?

"That guy you were in love with before you met me and Jason. It was Percy. Him." I nod down at the drawing and Nico stares at it. The clock ticks. Then he makes an annoyed sound and takes the sketch book from my lap, closes it and sets it on the coffee table.

"Will." He rubs his eye and gives me a bland look. "It's three-thirty in the morning." he says this like it somehow answers my question.

"It was him! Right?" I don't know why this means so much to me right now. Maybe three-thirty in the morning really is the answer.

"And you've come to that conclusion... How?" Nico is looking at me like I've lost my mind. He's also twisting his silver ring on his finger, something he only does when he's nervous.

"Because!" I gesture at the book sitting innocently on the table. "You draw him all... All..." My fingers twitch as I search for the word. "Wrong."

"Wrong."

"Yeah."

The clock ticks some more. I'd never noticed how loud that thing was before. We're both staring at each other. Nico twisting his ring, me with my usually steady hands twitching. Then, like on some unspoken cue, we both explode at the same time, jumping up from the couch.

"What do you mean wrong ?!"

"He's your unrequited past love!"

We both stare at each other, frozen still. Then that same unspoken cue happened and we leap into action. He seizes his sketch book and rips it open to a Percy page and I grab at my hair.

"I can't believe I didn't notice before!"

"It's not wrong! That's what he looks like!"

Nico's looking at me rather like he wants to brain me with the book and I'm pretty sure I'm looking at him like he's grown an extra head.

"Notice what!?"

"You haven't captured his eyes at all!"

We keep shouting at the same time and gesturing together and I think from an outside perspective it would probably look very funny. Two nude guys, yelling at each other over a sketchbook in the wee hours of the morning.

"Look!" I point at Percy's face on the page. "It's... It's wrong. He looked at me today! I talked to him!" I point again, harder somehow. "And you've drawn him... Cold."

Nico blinks and looks down at his sketchbook in genuine surprise.

"What? No I..." He pauses, studying the page. He flips to another. "Haven't..."

It's quiet in our apartment again. Nico is frowning and flipping through his sketchbook and I'm pretty sure he's forgotten that I'm still standing here with him. Slowly the frown on his face grows deeper and darker.

"Huh..." He puts the sketchbook down and walks over to the bookshelf, seizing one of his full sketchbooks from it, he flips through that one too.

Then he pauses and looks at me from by the shelf. Like earlier, I can't read his expression.

"You're right."