I love Solangelo and this idea came from a piece of fanart :) All rights belong to Rick Riordan. I own nothing but the plot.
"Ok, so how did you hurt your knee?" Will questions.
"Well it's capture the flag so I was dueling Percy for the blue flag and I was jab stepping right to throw him off, but my knee buckled and I felt a pop and yeah. Now it really hurts." Nico explains, wincing as Will prods at his knee.
"How long ago did this happen?" Will asks.
"Um, about 45 minutes ago." Nico replies.
"Okay, I'm gonna do a Lachman test because it sounds like a torn ACL. As far as I know it's not a bone or nerve problem." Will states as he lifts his boyfriend's knee to a slight angle and situates his own knee on the bed under Nico's. "Lay back." He commands. The healer places his hand firmly against Nico's thigh and pulls his shin firmly forwards and backwards to feel for any give in the ligament.
Unfortunately, there was way too much free movement in the knee and literally nothing holding the bones in place by the feel of it.
After a short while of neither boy saying anything, Nico gets worried. "Will, what's wrong?"
"I'm 99% sure you tore your ACL, but I don't know how to treat it. My vitakinesis doesn't work on muscles, tendons, or ligaments. Neither do ambrosia or nectar." Will sadly breaks the news. "I'll go talk to Chiron and figure out a plan. Just stay in here until I get back." Solace walks over to the freezer and throws Nico an ice pack. Once he watches Nico receive it, he continues through the door and to Chiron's office.
" , what can I do for you today?" Chiron greets.
"Nico came to the infirmary after he hurt his knee during the game tonight. I did a Lachman's test and I'm pretty sure it's a torn ACL." Will explains. Chiron sits in thought for a minute.
"Ambrosia and Nectar don't work on tendons, muscles, or ligaments. Vitakinesis is the same." Chiron thinks out loud. "I'll call and make him an appointment in the city. For now you are allowed to stay with him in his cabin. You know the drill with these kinds of things. I trust you. I'll have someone come and inform you both of the time and place of the appointment."
"Thanks Chiron." Will says. He exits the room and quickly heads back to the infirmary.
"So what did Chiron say?" Nico asks, anxious for an answer.
"He's going to make an appointment for you to see a doctor in the city. Until then, I can stay with you in your cabin." Will informs his patient. Nico pulls himself into a sitting position and swings his legs over the side of the bed. Will grabs his med kit and slings it over his shoulder.
"Here, I'll help you."
Nico gratefully accepts Will's help and swings his arm around the older boy's shoulders. Keeping weight off of his right leg, Nico makes his way down to his cabin with a lot of assistance from his boyfriend.
Once inside the Hades cabin, Will plops Nico down onto his bed as he sets his med bag on the floor. Will grabs an ice pack and some powerflex tape and throws them onto the bed. He then moves to the dresser on the other side of the room to collect more comfortable clothes for Nico and himself.
"Can you get changed yourself, or do I have to do it for you?" Will asks, handing the younger boy a gray pair of sweatpants and Will's light blue t-shirt he left in cabin 13. Nico scowls at Will and plucks the clothes from his arms. He pulls his black skull shirt off and all too quickly replaces it with the blue one he took from Will. Nico then has to stand up, putting painful pressure on his right knee, in order to exchange his jeans for sweatpants. Midway through changing, he loses his balance and would've fallen if it wasn't for his boyfriend standing right there in case of emergency.
"Woah!" Will exclaims as he catches Nico by his shoulders. He helps him stand back up but this time he holds his shoulders in support. After Nico's sweatpants are pulled all the way on, Will helps him sit back on his bed.
"Thanks." Nico situates himself on the right side of the bed also known as his side. The healer takes the previously thrown ice pack and powerflex tape and puts them to use. Solace shakes the cold pack and it instantly turns freezing. He sets the pack on Nico's knee and uses the tape to securely hold the object in place. "Oh my gods, that feels so much better." Nico exhales.
"Here. Take these." Will commands, holding out a couple of pain pills he grabbed from his bag. Nico does so, willingly. "Better?"
"It will be." Nico says. Suddenly, there's a knock at the cabin door and once Will calls for them to come in. Jason and Percy enter the Hades cabin with somber looks on their faces.
"Hey Neeks." Jason greets. "How're you feeling?" Nico shifts uncomfortably in his bed, not liking the looks on his friends' faces.
"Fine. What's the bad news?" Nico asks. The boys are taken aback by his bluntness.
"Wh-what makes you think there's bad news?" Percy stutters, trying to lighten the mood.
"The fact that both of your faces say you're worried about something; namely me." Nico explains.
"Oh, okay then. Chiron told us to come tell you guys when and where he scheduled Nico's appointment." Jason looks to Will. "He said he called and made an appointment for an MRI tomorrow afternoon at 2:30. Argus will take you, Chiron, and obviously Nico to an MRI tech in the city." Jason informs. Will nods in acknowledgement.
"Hey Nico, I'm really sorry you got hurt while we were fighting." Percy apologizes.
"Percy, don't feel bad, it's a game and we were having fun." Nico reassures.
"It's just, I feel responsible for you hurting your knee. Anyways, I'll make it up to you somehow." Percy assures. Knowing Percy isn't going to drop the favor, Nico just nods.
"Thanks for dropping by, guys." Nico thanks. "I should probably get to sleep. Right now my knee is starting to go numb so I feel like now is the prime time to sleep." The boys and Will agree before leaving the cabin quickly.
"You're right about the sleep thing. You really need it." Will says. "I'm gonna change and then I'll go to bed."
"Okay." Nico says, closing his eyes.
"How was that?" Will asks, waiting for Nico after he gets dressed.
"Loud. Claustrophobic. Awful. I never want to do it again." Nico states. They meet Chiron in the waiting room and he's there to bring them out to the car.
"I'm sure it was fine. You did great." Chiron assures.
"Yeah whatever." Nico dismisses.
"Hey Chiron, when do we get the results?" Will asks.
"They'll call with the results in a couple days. Until then ice and elevation is all we can do." Their camp director leads them out to Argus in the parking garage. Once they're all in the van, they take off back to Long Island.
"Will, Nico, in my office, now." Chiron demands, poking his head into the infirmary. The two boys follow the centaur into his office and take a seat in front of his desk. "So, the doctor called, and it is confirmed that Nico has a completely torn ACL. There are two options as we talked about before. You can either do physical therapy and hope it fixes itself over time, or you can proceed with surgery that will likely fix it, followed up by physical therapy. Since we discussed this earlier, I went ahead and scheduled the surgery for 3 weeks from now. Until then, no strenuous activity, ice and elevation, and you have to wear a brace." Chiron breaks the unfortunate news. Nico and Will look at the director, then at each other.
Nico nods then rises before walking out to the front porch of the Big House. He sits on the stairs and breathes heavily, the fact that he has to have surgery finally sinking in.
After 5 minutes of almost hyperventilating, Will shows up next to him with a knee brace in hand.
"I'm scared, Will." Nico confesses. "I've never really thought about ever having surgery but if I did I guess I always thought you'd be the one performing it."
"Nico, just because I'm not going to be the one cutting open your knee," Nico grimaces at his words. "Doesn't mean I'm not gonna be there. I plan to be there in the three weeks leading up to it, the day of, and the second you wake up. Nico, I don't plan on leaving you to do this alone." Will states, confidently. The younger boy nods. "I brought your brace."
Nico does nothing but stare as Will straps the brace onto his knee. Once the knee brace is fully tightened and adjusted, they sit in a comfortable silence before Percy shows up.
"Oh no, I'm guessing it's not good." Percy revels, looking guiltily at Nico's knee.
"No. I'm having surgery on it in 3 weeks." Nico says. He looks up and suddenly notices the way Percy is clutching his arm to his chest and his orange Camp Half-Blood shirt is stained with blood. "Percy, what happened to your arm?!" Nico jumps up from the stairs.
"Oh, just a sword training accident. No big deal. I was just coming to grab some bandages from the infirmary." Percy explains, wincing at the quick movement of his arm. Will moves to Percy and takes his arm to examine it.
"This isn't fine. At the very least you'll need stitches." Will proclaims. "Here, this'll be faster." Percy gives the healer a curious look before abiding and letting Will run his now glowing hands over the wound.
The laceration begins to pull itself back together and it slowly closes. The head healer continues humming a healing hymn to his dad with beads of sweat forming on his brow.
"Will. He's okay now. Percy's okay, he's healed." Nico informs him, trying to get the son of Apollo to stop using his powers. Will did not listen. Suddenly, Will's knees buckled and he collapsed.
"Will!" Both boys exclaim. Percy hooks his arms under Will's and pulls him upwards before he hits his head.
"I got him!" Percy shouts, picking Will up and pulling him into his arms in a bridal style carry. "Infirmary?" He looks to Nico for an answer.
"Um, no. Let's get him back to my cabin. I'll keep an eye on him there." Nico says, walking in front of Percy to his cabin.
They arrive at the door and Nico opens it for Percy, carrying the blonde headed boy. The son of Poseidon sets his unconscious friend down on one of the spare bunks on the left in the corner.
"Do you need any help? Or do you have it from here?" Percy asks, turning to Nico after making sure the son of Apollo at least looked comfortable.
"I've got it from here." Nico states. "Thanks Percy. Also if you could swing by the Apollo cabin and tell Kayla to take over in the infirmary for now, that would be great." Percy nods in response and walks out of cabin 13.
The son of Hades starts making Will more comfortable in his unconscious state. Nico starts by taking off Will's tennis shoes and laying a blanket on him. He walks to the bathroom and fills a glass with water before putting it on the nightstand next to 'Will's' bunk. Nico sits on the end of the bed and waits for Will to wake up.
"Will, don't try to get up. Just calm down and relax." Nico commands after he sees the boy stir awake and struggle to sit up. Will, despite Nico's protest, continues to look around confused as he pushes himself up onto his elbows. Nico comes into view and gently pushes Will back down into the pillow.
"Nico. Why am I in your cabin?" Wills asks, looking around confused.
"You were healing Percy up at the Big House and you passed out." Will grimaces at Nico's explanation. "When was the last time you slept? Or taken a break from the infirmary?" Nico asks, staring accusingly at his boyfriend.
"I've taken a lot of breaks." Will lies.
"Then why were you still in the infirmary when I got there this morning? Your shift ended at 6 and you were still there at 8." Nico says.
"I was just finishing up some paperwork, nothing else. Kayla worked all of last night so I sent her back to the cabin early while I waited for Austin to take over. I swear I didn't heal anyone after my shift was over." Will confesses. Nico leans down to Will and kisses his forehead. Nico's brow furrows in confusion as he looks at Will.
"What?" Will questions. The son of Hades presses the back of his hand against the boy's forehead.
"You're warm. Do you have a fever?" Nico asks, knowing that Will knows.
"No." The healer answers, too quickly.
"William." Nico presses. "Don't make me go get a thermometer."
"I don't have a fever." Will lies again, wanting to go back to work. Nico disagrees and walks to the bathroom, coming back with the small device in hand.
"Open." Nico commands. Will shakes his head but Nico is having none of it, so he punches Will in the arm, then when he opens his mouth to complain, he shoves the thermometer in it. "Leave it." Nico warns, unsettlingly calm. After a while, the device beeps and the younger boy pulls it out of Will's mouth.
"102.1. You're staying here."
"Nico, who's taking care of the infirmary?" Will asks, concerned. Trying to push himself up once again.
"Careful. Kayla's got it, and I'm sure she has help." Nico assures. "Here, let's get you changed." The son of Hades walks to the dresser in the corner of the room and throws some of Will's clothes (that he left in the cabin) at him. Will throws his blanket off and swings his legs off the bed. The second he does, a wave of dizziness washes over him and he has to bow his head and take a few deep breaths.
"Are you okay?" Nico asks. Will nods in response.
"Yeah-yeah I'm okay. I'm just kinda tired."
"Okay. Can you get dressed yourself, or do I have to do it for you?" Nico asks, quoting Will from the times he's said the same thing to him.
"I-I got it." The son of Apollo stands unsteadily and strips off his shorts. He grabs the flannel pajama pants Nico threw at him earlier and slowly slips his legs into the soft fabric. He sits back down on the bed, too tired to remain standing. Will pulls off his orange CHB shirt and replaces it with one of Nico's plain black t-shirts.
"Lay back down." Nico addresses. Will does as he's told and flops down onto the bed. "Go back to sleep." Will's eyes fall shut just as Nico places a blanket over him.
A/N This is my second Solangelo fic so I hope you like it. Also the updates will probably be sporadic. Plz leave a review, they give me so many ideas and motivation to keep writing if people like it.