Three days in the infirmary a Solangelo Fanfic

The Check-Up

Nico

Did he just say what I think he said? Oh gosh, I'm definitely blushing like a bright red tomato right now. I have to get practically naked in front of the guy I like, but that's not the big issue. Will is going to see all of the claw marks that have still magically refused to heal.

"Oh, um. Could you turn around?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry."

Will

Sometimes I hate when I have to do this, it's not awkward when I do it most of the time since I only check guys this way and call one of my sisters to do the check if it's a girl. But this is the first time I have to check a guy who I have a big fat crush on. I'm partially relieved when he asks me to turn around because I was about to turn redder than a fire truck. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down and then asked if I could turn around

"Yeah, but I would brace myself if I were you." 

I didn't heed his warning, and I really should have. He was covered, and I mean COVERED in giant claw marks starting from his shoulders going down to his shins. Each claw mark was about five inches long and half an inch wide, most of them looked infected. I noticed some hastily applied stitches were on some of the worse ones. After going through the shock of that I got to see how skinny Nico truly was, and with his pale complexion, I could only compare him to a skeleton. 

I got closer to him and began to count under my breath, "one, two, three.... thirty-five, thirty-six." I took a huge breath in an attempt to calm myself down, Nico went at least a week if not more with all of these claw marks and didn't say a word to anyone. How much would he let himself suffer before he asked for help? "Thirty-six giant claw marks, a nicely healing sword wound, and severely underweight. Those are the problems you have been dealing with for a week, why didn't you say anything, Nico, you have to be in a lot of pain."

"I've gotten used to it, it barely bothers me anymore. Plus I've been asleep most of the time."

"So how long have you had these claw marks, and what caused them? Oh and here, put this on." I handed Nico the fuzzy robe that was hanging on the hook beside the bed.

 After he slipped his emaciated self into the robe he said, "I've had them for a while, I think a week or two. And I got attacked by a gang of werewolves while I was transporting the Athena Parthenos. So that's where the claw marks are from." 

"No wonder they look so bad. Other than the stitches, did you do anything to help heal the claw marks?"

"No."

"Great, so I'm going to remove all of the stitches you put in, and then I'll see what to do from there. If you could just change one more time into this then I can get started." I handed him a surgical robe. And then turned around again. After about five minutes I began to undo all of the stitches.

Nico

I lied, a lot. I actually hadn't gotten used to the pain, it was excruciating. So it was a welcome relief when Will started me on a morphine drip to ease the pain of removing the stitches. 

I must've dozed off eventually because now I was waking up to the sunlight.

"Good morning sleepy head!" A very enthusiastic son of Apollo said. Will handed me a tray of food and sat in the visitors' chair with his own tray. "I got us breakfast, I hope you're hungry." I looked at the tray, I really wasn't hungry. Especially not for fruit and cereal, if I was going to eat anything it was going to be a McDonald's happy meal. Will must've noticed my hesitation before saying, "What's wrong? Do you want a different cereal?"

"Um, no. it's just that I don't really have much of an appetite."

"But you haven't eaten in three days, you should be hungry."

"But I'm not."

"Eat, Doctor's orders."

I ate. Or at least tried to. I got two pieces of watermelon down before I was full.

"Nico, seriously. Something's wrong, what is it?" Will said when he saw that I had barely touched my food. I really wanted to tell him about it too, but it wasn't his cross to bear, it was mine.

"Nothing's wrong, other than like I already said. I'm not hungry."

"That's not it, but alright. You get your way this time." He took away the tray and then sat down with a serious look on his face.

Will

There are a lot of things that can contribute to sickness, one of them being poor mental health. Most of the time campers heal very quickly because they want to get better. But Nico is completely different, he's holding onto a lot of pain, that much is obvious to anyone who looks. And if he ever gets better he's going to need to tackle his mental health as well, and it would be nice if I could get him to open up and trust me too.

"Nico, we need to have a talk." I took a breath, "I have now seen you go through two panic attacks, how long have these been happening?"

"None of your business." 

"As your doctor and as your friend, it is my business. Nico, you keep telling me you're ok. You clearly aren't. I'm going to ask you one more time, what's wrong?"