A/N: I thought I'd give everyone a heads up. The potion has effected Hades memories slightly, since his body believes he's four, his brain is recalling actual memories and feelings from when he was four. So he acts a little weird around food, because he's still in survival mode.

Sick

I was barely conscious, just aware of people's muffled talking.

"… Like Dad again?" Will said.

"I hope not." Nico said.

Shuffling, then I felt something being draped over me.

"I'm just glad he's safe." Hazel said. Then whatever anyone said to Hazel's words were lost as I fell back asleep.

The next couple hours I faded in and out of consciousness. My head throbbed and I felt uncomfortably hot. At one point I woke to Will's pleasantly cool palm as he laid it on my forehead. "Fever hasn't changed." He muttered softly.

His fingers found their way to my wrist, and he started humming softly.

Slowly the pain eased, my body relaxed. I settled deeper in the blankets, and released the tight grip I had on a fuzzy blanket. The urge to sleep overpowering, but that didn't stop me from saying the one word,

"Thanks." It was barely a whisper and slurred slightly.

I could almost see the smile on Will's face even though I hadn't opened my eyes.

The sun was pretty high in the sky when I woke up. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, the fuzzy blanket I'd slept with last night was covered in little cartoon skulls. A hazy memory surfaced. Hazel tucking something around me, warmth curled around my chest a smile made its way to my lips.

Will actually looked happy to see me awake.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

I nodded. Will still placed his hand on my forehead checking for fever. I was too surprised to pull away.

Will smiled softly, "I have to do some paper work. Would you like to color?"

I nodded.

Hunger nibbled at my stomach but I tried to focus on the piece of blank white paper that Will had given me, a pack of Crayola crayons at my side, I had settled on floor at Will's feet. They were new so they had sharp tips. I suddenly thought of something. Where were Nico and Hazel? Shouldn't they be here.

Will glanced up,

"You, okay?"

I nodded. "Where's Nico and Hazel?" My voice was so childish; I didn't know why that surprised me, I was four after all.

"They're running errands. They should be back soon."

This answer satisfied me so I went back to coloring the piece of paper with the brown crayon. So far in the bottom half of the paper I had a pond and some flowers at its shore, it looked more like a blue oval with some green lines with different colored dots attached to them. Now I was drawing tree's trunks that looked more like brown rectangles behind it.

By the time Will had finished his paperwork at his desk I had almost finished the picture. I just had to color in the sun. Once I had finished, I put the yellow crayon back in the box. Will started cleaning up the papers and pens on his desk. I grabbed the paper and after studying it for a bit, before I placed it in the little garbage can under the desk that only had some wrappers and papers in it.

By now the hunger was sharp, but I didn't voice it. Instead, I grabbed the blanket that Hazel had tucked around me; I was never going to let it out of my sight and gathered it in a bundle before hugging it to my chest, Will stood.

"Let's go eat some lunch and then we can see if we can find Hazel and Nico."

I perked up at the word lunch and followed Will without complaint. Maybe I'd be able to sneak some food. We went to the me table where Nico was already sitting. Will sat across from him and I sat next to Will. A nymph brought over a single plate, and put it on the table.

"Thanks." Will said to her. The nymph nodded and left.

Will cut up the hotdog in half and put the plate in front of me. I blinked in surprise, but didn't say anything.

Hazel arrived a few moments later, she had two plastic bags one looked to be full of clothes, the other one looked barely full. She set the bags down on the bench next to Nico and sat down on the other side of bags, so that she sat right across from me. Another Nymph brought over three more plates of food. They stared talking I didn't pay attention to what they were saying. I ate half of the food on my plate, enough to get rid of most of the hunger. It'd last until I could find something to eat later. I pushed the plate away, and waited quietly.

"Are you done?" Will asked.

I nodded.

Will pushed the plate back in front of me, "Can you try to eat a little more, just two bites."

I nodded again, trying to hide my surprise. They started talking again, and I started to snack on my lunch. I hadn't realized it until the others had finished but I had eaten all of the food on my plate. I felt full a pleasant sensation, one I wasn't used to. After lunch I followed Will, Nico and Hazel to the big house, they sat on the porch still talking. After a few minutes I became bored so I went down to the grass and sat down and started collecting rocks.

"Hades?" Will asked.

I glanced up from the tower of rocks that I was making.

"I have a question for you and I want you to answer to the best of your ability okay."

I nodded, curious.

"What happened to make you so small?"

I fell forwards, my hands shot out to catch myself, I just caught the edge of the small folding table, it tipped and dumped all of the potion ingredients on me.

I really hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt, I mumbled, "Spilled." And immediately ducked my head, so they couldn't see my face.

Hazel started digging through one of the bags. I glanced up in time to see her pull out a bag of KitKat's. She opened a bar and split it in half, she offered one of them to me, she was smiling, "Thank you."

I took it the chocolate from her and immediately started to nibble on the candy.

"What do you say?" Will reminded.

Nico and Hazel looked at Will in shock,

"Thank you." I said.

Everyone's eyes snapped to me, as if surprised that I had actually done it, I ignored them and ate my candy.


I managed to stay up until about half way through that night's camp fire, I was sitting between Nico and Hazel, Will was sitting on Nico's other side. I stifled a yawn, I was fighting to stay awake, before I could figure out what was happening, Hazel had wrapped her arm around me and pulled me closer so that I was leaning into her side. I couldn't force myself to pull away, I knew I should have, being this close to her was dangerous, but Hazel's sweater was soft and warm, I stood no chance. I was asleep in moments.

I stirred slightly as someone picked me up, I didn't wake completely though I was just aware of Nico's soft whisper to Hazel, asking if she would take my shoes off. She complied as I drifted back to sleep.

This was a recurring dream, but maybe because my brain was currently geared as a four-year old's it was less intense than normal but that didn't make it any less real feeling.

I was hanging by my fingers off of a small rock into an endless void below me, my feet scrabbled to find purchase but I couldn't find any. My bruised and bloody fingers were losing their grip, I was going to fall. My heart was pounding wildly in my chest. My feet were scrapping against the sharp wall trying to find any sort of nook or cranny to save me; I only succeeded in cutting my feet open. I was slipping.

"Help!" I called desperately.

Then the ghosts came. Maria was first,

"You couldn't save me why should I save you?" She pried one of my fingers off and vanished.

Bianca was next, "You abandoned us." She pried off another one of my fingers.

Hazel was glaring at me with hate. "You could have saved me and my mother." She pried off another of my fingers. That hand slipped so I was holding on by one hand.

Nico was glaring at me, face twisted in anger, "You wanted me dead."

The other ghosts appeared next to him.

"Please." I begged, tears of grief, pain, and panic trailing down my face.

Nico pried the last of my fingers off.

"It's your fault." They said as I fell.

I bolted awake, gasping for air. My chest heaved, and my heart raced. Hazel seemed to appear out of nowhere, she gently pulled me into her arms.

"Sh, it's okay. You're safe." She soothed quietly. She rubbed my back, rocking slowly and humming a soft melody that I didn't recognize. After a few minutes my heart rate evened out and I was already feeling the pull of sleep again. I should have pulled away from Hazels embrace but I couldn't bring myself too, not after that nightmare. Hazel didn't seem to mind. She shifted so that she was in a more comfortable position on the bed, and I nestled myself into her side, listening to the steady sound of her breathing. At some point I must have fallen asleep in Hazel's arms.

A/N: Thanks for reading. I want to see if I can get more reviews on this story than I have ever gotten before. So when this story gets two reviews I'll post the next chapter on Friday.