Reading is Fundamental

XII - Will - Temperment

Warning: Brief mention of rape. Brief mention of child death. Crass language

Will walked over to sit on the ground beside Siren. After so many years of patching him up, he was more than a little protective over the kid. Siren held out a hand and Will reached over to guide him safely to the floor, wary of his injuries.

Annabeth looked to her boyfriend. "Do you have any ideas?"

Instead of shaking his head, Percy paused. He looked at his former self, pondering. "Maybe we were just supposed to heal him," he said. "Apollo, how injured did you say he was?"

The god winced. "Do you really want the full writeup?" he asked, glancing meaningfully at Siren. "It might be a little... much."

Beside him, the child scowled. I'm not delicate. Will smiled and rested a hand on his back.

"No, but like, if you hadn't helped him, what would have happened? Would he have had any lasting injuries?"

"Honestly?" Apollo said. "I doubt he would have lasted the night."

The demigod's eyebrows rose. "Styx, okay." He looked away, like he was thinking. "I don't remember ever being miraculously healed, but I know I have memory problems from around that time."

It wasn't surprising. Almost any drug can cause memory loss. Even without that, the trauma he experienced could suppress weeks or months.

Percy turned to Siren. "When are you from?"

Will gave him a look. How the hell was a mute nine year old supposed to answer that with facial expressions alone?

He didn't seem to get the message. "What?"

"I don't know if you forgot," Will said, "but Siren has a little bit of-"

"Oh yeah, sorry," Percy said. "Guess I did forget. Uhh, give me the month, then."

"Forget what?" Nico asked.

Percy looked over to his cousin, then to all of the other people looking for an answer. "He..." he grimaced, "doesn't really talk."

"What?" Nico said. "Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Uh, yeah it kinda does."

"Look," he grappled, "it's just a coping mechanism, okay? I had a pretty rough childhood, don't know if you noticed."

Properly chastised, Nico just nodded.

Siren looked at his older counterpart warily. He held up one finger.

"One?" Percy asked. "Like, 2001?"

He shook his head no.

"January?" Will said.

The child nodded.

Percy frowned. "Why were you home in January?"

Siren looked at his older self like he was being dumb. Smaller questions, dude.

"Was it for Christmas vacation?" Will asked.

He nodded.

"And mom wasn't home?" There was a light slowly dawning in the teen's eyes, like he was remembering. "Oh, was that the time you got snowed in with Gabe?"

Siren tensed a tiny bit at the name, but nodded widely to confirm all of it.

Several things clicked in place. It would explain both the lack of drugs in his system and the untreated wounds.