No one in the room had been expecting such a violent reaction, but Will, with two wars under his belt now and reflexes to match, jumped into action immediately, managing to catch Thalia as she crumpled, and get her to the ground somewhat gently.

"Alright, everyone out," he said briskly, not caring that the order was also aimed at the gods themselves. "I need space, she needs privacy, and - Shit!" He hastily let go of Thalia's wrist as she began shake.

"She's going to have a seizure," Apollo said, jumping to his feet. "Will's right; everyone out."

With Will's words backed up by his father, the room emptied, most of the gods ushering their children out, and Hera dragging her husband out behind her.

Lee stayed with his father, to offer whatever help he could. "Will, what do you need?"

"Can you just stay near her feet?" Will asked. "Don't hold her down, just make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

Any discomfort caused by the need to interact with this younger version of his older brother, whom he still missed so deeply, was overridden entirely with the adrenaline of a medical emergency.

"She's going to be alright though, isn't she?" Lee asked, kneeling at Thalia's feet. "I mean, it's just the effects of the book, right?"

"I don't know," Apollo admitted. "It should be."

"Will, were you expecting this?" Artemis asked, hovering beside her brother.

Will hadn't actually noticed her stay behind, but he didn't so much as flinch. "No, ma'am. But we didn't actually see the effects of the poison last time." He faltered slightly, attempting several different sentences before finding one the Fates would let him say. "Without being able to say too much, ma'am, the … event that woke Thalia from the tree also cured the poison. But I have no idea if it removed the poison from her body, so this could be the book …"

"Or it could be causing the poison to reactivate inside her," Apollo said grimly.

Will nodded in agreement. "Once she's had some nectar, I should have a better idea, based on her reaction to that."

"So why haven't you given her any nectar yet then?" Artemis asked.

"Because she's seizing," Apollo said, more gently than he would usually. "If we give her ambrosia right now, she'd choke on it."

Thalia's body stilled, and Will leapt into action, pouring a little nectar into her mouth and coaxing her into swallowing it.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, then Thalia drew in a steady breath, her colour returning to normal.

Lee breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods," he muttered. "Is it over?"

Will checked her pulse again. "I don't know," he admitted. "I think so. I don't think she's going to seize again at least."

"Until the next time the book mentions it," Artemis murmured.

Will grimaced. He hadn't actually thought of that, and he was sure that there would be at least a few chapters between now and Percy leaving for his quest - or rather Clarisse's quest. He was also fairly sure that the tree would be mentioned several times.

Not only was it not fair on Thalia to make her go through that over and over again, it would also be very hard on everyone else.

There was something he could do … but Thalia wasn't exactly awake to consent to it.

After fighting with himself for a few minutes, he made his mind up. He was fairly certain that Thalia would agree - if only to spare Jason and the others the pain.

Resting a hand on her forehead, he murmured a quick prayer under his breath. It was rather surreal to be doing this with his father right there beside him, especially when Apollo caught his eye and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let's get her somewhere more comfortable," Will said, getting to his feet.

"There's an antechamber through here," Artemis said, gesturing to one of the other doors.

Will nodded. "Thank you. Now all we need is a …"

"Stretcher," his father finished, as one appeared beside Thalia.

"Thanks," Will said. "I could carry her, but it's a bit undignified."

He moved to Thalia's head and he and Lee set about moving the stretcher beneath her. It was a routine that Cabin 7 had down to a fine art, due to the number of injuries at Camp that made it difficult to walk.

It had been a long time since Will had done it with Lee though, and he had forgotten how grounding his older brother's presence was.

They carried the stretcher into the antechamber, and Will was unsurprised to find a bed there, even though he was sure there was not normally a bed - or if there was, it was almost certainly not a hospital bed.

They transferred Thalia from the stretcher to the bed with the same well-practised movements, before Will pulled a strange band from his healers' bag and attached it to her wrist.

"What's that?" Lee asked.

"It's an alert," Will answered. "It's got a bell on it, you see. If she wakes up - or seizes again - the bell will ring."

Lee frowned. "Between that and the sedative pills, I'm worried how bad things are going to get."

"That's the part that's worrying you?" Will asked.

"Shouldn't it?" Lee asked.

"No," Will answered. "The bit that should worry you is that those were the solutions to the easiest problems."

"Brilliant," Lee muttered. "Is that bag fully stocked?"

"It's as fully stocked as it can be," Will said, pulling the door to behind them. "Best let the others back in."

"Let's just hope they haven't killed each other," Apollo said.

"I'm going to guess one black eye," Will said, opening the door to the entrance hall. "Okay, drama over." He sighed. "I hate being right."

"Is she okay?" Luke asked.

"She'll live," Will said, prodding his face. "Who hit you?"

"Yes, but is she okay?" Luke asked, ignoring the second question.

Will grimaced. "She started seizing. The nectar seems to have done the trick, but I've induced a coma to keep her out until Percy leaves Camp - otherwise it's going to keep happening every time the tree gets brought up. Jason, hand."

Jason smiled innocently. "Foot."

"Hand," Will repeated.

"Head," Jason said.

"Piper?" Will asked.

"Jason, stop being ridiculous," Piper said wearily, grabbing his hand and holding it out.

Will rolled his eyes and handed him a tiny square of ambrosia. "Did that help?"

Jason shrugged. "Didn't hurt."

"If he hadn't, I would have," Luke muttered, scowling at his future self.

Will sighed. "I'd rather no one hit anyone, thanks. I'm going to have quite enough to do." He led them all back inside, checking once more on Thalia, just to be safe.

"Isn't the point of the bell that you don't have to do that?" Lee asked.

"Well, yes," Will said. "But I like to be thorough."

"I just want to know why he thought it would be a good idea," Luke said darkly.

"Look, I didn't know it was going to hurt her," Luke said. "If I'd realised that, I would never have done it."

"So that makes it okay?!"

"I never said that," Luke said to his younger self. "You asked for an explanation. That's my explanation. Not an excuse, definitely not. I would never try to excuse this."

"It's the same thing Thalia talked about, right?" Travis asked. "The more he gets into your head, the more you're able to justify?"

"Something like that, yeah," Luke said. "I thought she was dead and in the Underworld. I never dreamed it could ever hurt her; he'd promised to bring her back."

"Yeah, but what about the rest of us?" Lee asked. "Forget Thalia for a second; let's pretend she has nothing to do with this, and you have only destroyed the protections around Camp. What was the justification for that?"

"I don't know," Luke admitted. "I know that's a stupid answer, but I don't know. It just … It seemed logical. Like the hell hound, like the shoes, like the scorpion - it made sense to me then. It doesn't now. I think the main thing was that it …" he broke off. "I can't tell you the main thing apparently."

"Spoilers," Percy said sagely. "You're going to do it for you - I think - soon enough."

"Not that soon," Annabeth disagreed. "Closer to the end of the book."

"I'm more concerned," Hera said, "about how Zeus is going to react. You're being very calm about it," she added to him.

"We know Thalia is going to be okay," Zeus said, frowning. "And she has asked us several times not to react yet. I'm sure that my future self dealt with the situation, so I will stay my hand for now."

"As long as dealing with the situation doesn't mean putting our kids in danger," Apollo said. "That you was in denial about Kronos last time we saw him." He paused, and realisation struck Hermes at the same time.

"That's why!"

"That's why what?" Athena asked.

"You removed Chiron and Argus because they didn't stop it," Hermes said, scowling at his father. "You can't honestly believe that Chiron had anything to do with this?"

"It would be a reasonable concern," Chiron said softly. "He is my father."

"He's mine too," Hestia said, frowning at her youngest brother. "That doesn't mean anything."

Zeus sighed. "And I now see Thalia's point. I cannot possible explain my logic for something I have not yet done."

"On that note," Will said with false brightness. "I'll read the next chapter, shall I?"

Bit of a short one I'm afraid, but I have had the WORST writer's block recently, so I figured it was better to get a short one out now, rather than potentially wait another few months for a long one!