Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

This fic would not have existed without the encouragement of Stereden, who has also done a podfic of it, which can be found in its AO3 crosspost /works/57201739 or on my tumblr tsarisfanfiction!

Elias was the first of his siblings to wake up, tentatively extracting himself from his huddle with Austin and Tris – both younger boys still tired enough to keep sleeping through his movement – and making his way over to where Lee was still leaning back on the couch Joy had nudged him onto hours earlier. He didn't ask before throwing himself onto the couch next to him, his locs fanning out around him. Some of them landed on Lee, and he smiled a little.

"You're really here, then," his brother said. He pulled the band that was ostensibly supposed to be holding his hair back out of his face out, and shook his hair out, almost whipping Lee with the locs, before he started tying them up again. Elias usually kept them tucked back in a ponytail, but when it came to combat he got a little more creative, braiding them together in a simple braid and sometimes coiling the braid up on top of his head.

Lee watched him work. "Yeah," he replied. "I'm here."

Elias smiled. "Good. Don't go away again." His dark eyes found the bandages around Lee's wrists, and his smile dropped. "He hurt you."

There wasn't really a question of who the 'he' was, and while Lee still maintained that Kronos hadn't gone out of his way to hurt him, the way everyone seemed to think he had – not physically, anyway – he couldn't argue with the evidence they were seeing. He was injured, even if physical torture had never been the top of Kronos' priority list.

It wasn't really something he could explain without going into detail, and he wasn't going to do that. Not if he didn't have to, and certainly not to a thirteen year old boy whose problems shouldn't include war and a tortured older brother in the first place, so he kept it simple.

"Yeah," he sighed. "But I'll be okay."

"Once this war is over," Elias said, and there was a sombreness in his voice that didn't belong there, but war did things to them, and Elias had one older brother who'd lost an arm and almost been torn apart entirely by hellhounds, another one that was still unconscious after having his chest crushed, and Lee. Still, his faith hadn't gone. He still believed they could win the war.

Lee had faith in that, too, but that was because the other option wasn't conceivable. The other option meant all of them dying, meant the gods falling, and he knew Kronos was terrifying and powerful, but he'd been defeated before. It had to be possible to beat him again.

"Yeah," he said, for a third time. "Once this war is over."

Elias hummed, sticking his tongue out slightly from between his lips as he focused on twisting his mass of braided locs into something that would stay still for another night of fighting.

Lee's other siblings didn't take much longer to start stirring. Despite being the last to fall asleep, Joy was one of the first to wake, and Robyn was quick on her heels, throwing herself back into checking on the injured. Sally dragged herself up onto the couch between Elias and Lee without him even noticing, offering him a smile and draping her arms around him in a loose hug. Alice made a beeline for him as well, Sam trailing behind her a little more awkwardly, while Will followed Robyn's example and started fussing over the injured again.

The youngest three were the last to wake, although Tris woke with a gasp that made Lee's heart clench, because that meant nightmares, and the last thing Tris needed at the moment was bad dreams when his waking hours were terrible enough as they were.

Chris, who'd been checking on Annabeth in the other room, came back in and brightened a little at the sight of them awake and moving.

"The Demeter cabin have raided the kitchens," he told them all. "I'll keep an eye in here while you get something to eat, then we're moving."

"Where to?" Robyn asked, scowling. "Nathan and Michael-" Joy snapped her fingers, cutting her off.

"We're retreating," she signed. "This hotel won't be friendly territory tonight."

That got scared looks from most of the cabin, and Lee sighed.

"Our forces are spread too thin," he said. "We're consolidating and re-strengthening. The Ares cabin should be here by nightfall, but we're also pinning our area of defence down to the block around the Empire State Building. The most injured will be on Olympus, with some of us. The lesser injured and the rest of us will be holding the foyer as the back line. The other cabins will be the main fighting force."

"We can still fight!" Kayla protested. She was still clutching her bow, and Lee could see traces of both Michael and Nathan's attitudes in her. Clarisse had said she wasn't at their level, but she'd also said yet, and Lee trusted Clarisse's assessment when it came to combat ability.

"We can," Lee agreed, "but so can the other cabins. What makes us different is that we're also the only ones that can heal, so we need to make that the priority."

The younger kids looked torn, but the older ones – Joy and Robyn, mostly, because the other older kids were Michael and Nathan and neither of them were conscious enough to have opinions and gods why was the average age of Lee's camper siblings so young right now – were nodding.

"That makes sense," Robyn said, and she bit her lip, glancing over at Nathan. Lee recognised that look – it was one that meant she didn't like what she was about to say, even though she knew it was the right thing. "Will, you're our best healer and our worst fighter. You take Olympus. I'll stay in the foyer."

Lee had been going to suggest the same split, for the same reasons – they were the two best healers, and Robyn would hold her own better if the fighting came close.

Will did not look happy at that.

"But-" he started, bristling. "You need the best healer closest to the injuries!"

"We also need him alive and uninjured to do the healing!" Robyn snapped back. "I don't want to leave Nathan, Will, but this is the best way to do it."

"Robyn's right, Will," Lee said gently, intervening before the two of them got too far into their argument. Will's stubborn streak could be an absolute nightmare when he settled into it. "You'll be needed the most on Olympus with the worst injuries."

The look Will sent him was both betrayed and pleading. "But-"

"Please, Will," Lee begged, his voice going softer, and his younger brother faltered, lower lip quivering for a moment before he took a deep breath.

"Okay," he said, but it was a little bit sullen. "I don't like it, though."

"Your objection is noted," Robyn said, "and let it be known I don't like it, either. But war sucks."

That, at least, was something everyone there did agree on.

"Food?" Chris suggested, reminding them all that he was still in the room. "The buffet is next door. I believe it's help yourself – most of the Demeter kids are sleeping now."

Lee didn't actually think many of his siblings were hungry, but Joy made ushering movements and they started to shuffle out of the door. Lee bent down to pull the socks on over his bandaged feet, but Chris put a hand out. "Joy, can you grab something for Lee?" he called, and Lee wanted to protest, but his sister looked over her shoulder and nodded, and he realised that protests wouldn't do any good.

"I could have gone myself," he said, and Chris shrugged.

"You could," he agreed, "but let them fuss a bit. They missed you, Lee."

"They're not the ones making the biggest fuss right now," Lee pointed out, with a glance at the older demigod, and Chris shrugged again.

"They're not the only ones that missed you," he said simply. "Also they didn't get the front row seat to how screwed up your feet are right now, and I don't think you're going to let them until the war is over, are you?"

"There are worse injuries," Lee said, aware that he was technically conceding the point. "You patched me up just fine. I don't need more medical attention at the moment."

Chris didn't even say anything to that, just spread his arms slightly in the universal signal for see? Lee didn't bother arguing any further, changing tack instead.

"If you're so worried about my feet, do you want to help with the socks and shoes?" he asked instead. "If we're moving the injured, then I'll need to be up and walking soon."

It was Chris' turn to concede, and he knelt back down in front of Lee. "Sure," he agreed easily, giving the bandages a quick check, obviously making sure they were still neat before being subjected to footwear.

The socks he'd acquired were thick and fluffy, and a little too big for Lee, as he'd admitted they might be earlier. Lee had no doubt he'd searched for the ones with the most padding he could find, and couldn't say that it wasn't appreciated, either.

Chris was cautious but not hesitant as he pulled the fabric over Lee's toes, and Lee quickly realised it would be easier if he just let Chris do it, rather than adding his own hands into the mix, so he sat back and waited, keeping his foot and ankle deliberately loose so they were easily manipulated without Chris risking any more damage to them.

By the time his siblings came back, all carrying at least one plate of food – Joy had two, and Lee hoped she wasn't going to insist he ate all of what was on the plate piled high with what had probably been one of everything on offer – he had socks and shoes on, laced up tightly enough that despite being technically a size too big his feet were snug and there was no risk of the shoes falling off. Tris noticed, and his eyes lit up, a large smile stretching across his face.

Joy put the plate down on his lap. "You don't have to eat all of it," she promised him, the negative sign soft, "but eat some."

Lee still wasn't hungry, but Chris hadn't been wrong to call him malnourished either, and Lee was aware that he did need to eat. He picked up one of the sandwiches, one with just egg between the bread, and started to nibble on it.

Bread was familiar to his stomach, and eggs were easy to digest. He was conscious that they were on a time limit – not a hard one in the immediate term, but enough of one that he couldn't spend hours picking at the food – so he ate what he thought he could stomach easily, which definitely wasn't as much as his siblings or Chris wanted, but it was something.

He didn't wait for them to mention the drinks at his feet before he bent down and picked up a bottle of water – a fresh one, the cap already unsealed but the liquid still up to the top of the bottle – and drank a little bit more of that, too. Hopefully, that reassured everyone that he was at least trying to combat the dehydration and malnourishment they all knew he had.

Tris didn't eat all that much, either, but he ate more than Lee and Lee was glad his appetite wasn't completely ruined. In the sunlight, it was much easier to see that Tris wasn't well either – his skin was a little too pale, given he was usually tanned from spending time out on the water in the blazing sun, and there were bruises mottling his skin that told of the physical abuse Kronos' followers had put him through, in that time when he was missing.

Lee hated that they'd hit his little brother, and was relieved that it didn't seem to be anything worse than bruises.

Once they'd eaten, Tris curled up on the sofa next to Lee, burrowing his way under his arm and making it clear that he was staying there for the foreseeable future. Given that they were supposed to be moving shortly, it was a little inconvenient, but Lee couldn't tell him not to. He couldn't.

Then again, as the rest of his conscious siblings threw themselves into a routine, checking on all of their patients, giving the conscious ones a drink and a snack and notably not assigning either of them to anyone, it seemed to be pretty clear that in everyone else's eyes, neither of them were supposed to be doing anything except resting. Even Chris was still helping, guiding some of the ones that could still walk to their feet and checking their ability to walk.

In short order, the room was divided into two sections – patients that could travel under their own steam, and patients that couldn't. It didn't escape Lee's attention that he and Tris happened to be sitting in the area for walking wounded, and he was certain that wasn't a coincidence.

Sam, as one of the demigods that knew the city best, was set as a guide, and Will went with him as one of the more experienced campers that knew how to get into Olympus and had been there before. The walking wounded were gently herded out of the room, some with more reluctance than others, with an escort of most of the rest of Lee's siblings, leaving Robyn and Chris behind to start working out how best to move the unconscious and immobile. Thankfully, there weren't too many of those, but both Michael and Nathan fell into that category.

Lee and Tris were left on their couch, and while Lee wanted to help, Tris was an effective counter-weight under his arm, and if he so much as shuffled, he found himself on the end of a stern look from Robyn. He could take a hint.

"How close can we bring the chariot?" Robyn asked Chris. "Can you carry people there?"

"I can," he said, "but the closer the chariot, the better. I'll go move it now." He disappeared out of the door, just as Annabeth poked her head in.

She still looked bad. Her shoulder wound wasn't going to help her fight, but Lee knew no-one was going to be able to persuade her to not fight. The same would go for most of their walking wounded – while the technical plan was for ambulatory patients to gather in the foyer of the Empire State Building as a last line of defence alongside the combatants among his siblings, Lee was well aware that in practice it would be mostly his siblings, with very few demigods from other cabins hanging back.

As much as anything, they didn't actually have the manpower to keep so many fighters back.

Annabeth looked around the room, her eyes landing briefly on Lee and Tris before taking in the general emptiness compared to earlier. "Have you seen Percy?" she asked the room at large.

"Not since the bridge," Robyn muttered, a little darkly. "He should be resting somewhere but no-one's told me where. If you do see our resident Big Three kid, throw him my way for a check-up before the next wave of fighting starts. I don't care how invincible he thinks he is."

The daughter of Athena's face twisted into something unreadable and she didn't reply, ducking back out of the room again. Robyn huffed, but turned her attention back to Nathan, making sure his bandages were secure. Lee knew she wasn't happy about separating from him, and that his injury had hit her hard. They weren't actually twins, but the way they'd latched onto each other when they'd met meant they might as well be. They almost looked like mortal siblings, too, although Nathan's blond hair was darker and straighter than Robyn's slight waves – where they weren't graduating into light blue at the tips – and his eyes were green to her heterochromatic browns.

Unfortunately, war didn't take personal preferences into account.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari