No More Olympus

Chapter 16

Mrs. Aurora Georgiou paced back and forth at the foot of the emergency room bed. Her ten-year-old son Jason was lying on said bed with his broken arm in a splint, having fallen off his swing set earlier that morning.
Aurora was furious when she looked at the larger facility. Dozens of doctors and nurses running from patient to patient and not one could be bothered to spare a moment to see to her son, who was whimpering on the bed, trying his best not to move.
She was about five seconds away from grabbing the nearest staff member, throwing them into the wall and shouting in their face when a doctor finally arrived to see her son.
"Hi there, I'm Dr. Baros, so sorry about the wait," the doctor said, clinging a tablet to her chest, "We are unusually swamped today."
Anyone would have noticed how much this woman stood out in a crowd. She looked to be about fifty or so years old with soft, stunningly beautiful features decorating a face framed by copper-coloured hair that flowed down to her shoulders as if it were lighter than clouds. Her eyes were honest and inviting but looked as though they could also be sharp and deadly at a moment's notice. As if her friendly demeanour could switch on a dime to being harsh and cruel.
"It's okay," Aurora smiled, changing her tone immediately.
"So," Dr. Baros began, closing the privacy curtain, "Jason, I understand you've had a bad fall."
Jason could only nod.
"Alright, might I take a look?" She requested.
Jason held out her arm for her to see.
"I knew a Jason once," Dr. Baros said as she poked at the boy's arm to assess the damage.
"Was he nice?" Jason asked.
"Not really," She answered honestly, "I'm sure you're much nicer."
Jason smiled awkwardly.
"So what happened?" Dr. Baros asked, looking over at Aurora.
"I stepped inside to check on lunch," she explained, nervous of how the doctor might be judging her, "And he fell off our swing set. I was gone for only a minute and now..."
"Don't worry about it," Dr. Baros assured her, "Kids fall down all the time. Mine certainly did, and even so, I think this looks a lot worse than it actually."
"Looks worse than it is?" Aurora repeated, "His arm is broken!"
"Are you sure?" Dr. Baros asked as she began to undo Jason's splint.
"I mean, the paramedics said that it was," Aurora said hesitantly.
"In my experience, paramedics are a glass-half-empty bunch," Dr. Baros said, "Which is just silly considering they get to drive around in those super cool ambulances all day."
Jason smiled at her.
"So it's not broken?" Aurora asked hopefully.
Dr. Baros looked down at the arm.
It absolutely was broken. Jason's radius bone was pointing in two separate directions and had begun to discolour.
"Nope, just dislocated," Dr. Baros lied, "I just need to move it back, and you're fine."
Aurora sighed in relief.
"Hey, mom," Dr. Baros said, grabbing Aurora's attention, "Can you stand behind me?"
Aurora complied.
"Okay, Jason," Dr. Baros continued, "I need you to look your mom in the eye for me, have a good old-fashioned staring contest. Can you do that for me, buddy?"
Jason nodded, looking intensely at his mother, clearly determined to win the contest.
Dr. Baros grabbed both ends of Jason's arm.
If Jason were looking at her, he would have seen a strange pale glow enter her eyes and faintly spread down to her fingers.
In one swift motion, she snapped the bones back into place, fusing them together in an instant with an ugly cracking noise.
Jason immediately recoiled away in pain, his face contorting but eventually relaxing once he realized that he wasn't feeling anything at all. His arm had been completely healed. It was as if it were never broken in the first place.
"And that's it," Dr. Baros declared, standing up and gathering her things, "I'll go get you your discharge paperwork."
"Wait, that's it?" Aurora questioned, "His arm was pointing in two directions, and that's it?"
"What do you want from me?" Dr. Baros chuckled, "It was a simple dislocation. Just take it easy and don't go falling off any more swing sets, and he'll be fine."
Dr. Baros's words did nothing to calm Aurora's face, which had a seemingly permanent look of bewilderment on her face.
"A nurse will be in to sign you out," Dr. Baros smiled, pulling back the curtain to enter the emergency room, "Have a nice day."
Dr. Baros made a beeline to the centre desk of the head nurse Alena.
"That was the last one," Dr. Baros sighed, handing back her tablet, "I'm done for the day."
"That was quick," Alena remarked, pulling out a discharge for her to sign, "I don't remember broken arms being so quick to treat."
"Wasn't broken," Dr. Baros lied as she scribbled down her signature, "Just dislocated. I set it back. He's fine now."
"Paramedics said it was broken," Alena said.
"Everyone's wrong once and a while," Dr. Baros shrugged, sliding the sheet back to Alena, "I'm outta here. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"
"Oh, hold on," Alena stopped her, "Some people just came in here half an hour ago looking for you. They're in the waiting room right now."
"Tell them to come back tomorrow or see someone else," Dr. Baros declined, "I'm exhausted."
"They said they're not patients," Alena explained, "Said it was personal, family business."
This got Dr. Baros's attention.
"What did they look like?" She questioned.
"They were a good-looking bunch," Alena remembered, "Two guys, two girls, one lady looked like a blond supermodel. There was a tall dude I think is in sports or something. The other lady had these really piercing gray eyes, like no colour at all, and there was this big muscular red-headed dude."
"Wait, gray eyes?" Dr. Baros asked, "Brown hair, olive skin?"
"Exactly," Alena nodded.
"And the muscular guy," Dr. Baros continued, "Did he have blond highlights in his hair?"
"Yeah, it looked like fire, scary-looking dude," Alena nodded, "So you do know them?"
Without another word, Dr. Baros turned on her heel and nearly sprinted toward the waiting room.
"I guess we were done," Alena shrugged, returning to her work, "Doctors..."
Dr. Baros sprinted into the waiting room. It was mostly empty save for a few people.
The first thing she noticed was someone was sticking their arm up into one of the vending machines and was trying to reach the item's bottom row.
"Hermes?" Dr. Baros called out, grabbing the man's attention.
"Oh, hi Hera," Hermes awkwardly greeted, "This is... exactly what it looks like, I forgot my wallet at the hotel."
Hermes's eyes darted to a far corner of the room as if asking for help.
Dr. Hera Baros followed his gaze to find Athena, Aphrodite and Ares all sitting down in a collection of chairs in the corner.
Ares immediately leapt to his feet, standing up as straight as he possibly could.
"Ares..." Hera gasped.
"Hello, Mother," Ares nodded back, doing his best to hide any nervous energy in his voice, "How are you?"
Hera didn't answer, only slowly approaching Ares with a permanent look of shock on her face.
"I understand that you may not want us here disrupting your new life," He continued, "But I am afraid the situation requires we..."
He trailed off as Hera gently placed her hand on his cheek. Her face still remained unchanged.
"Ares..." she repeated, her voice choking up at his name, "It's you, you're- you're really here?"
"Yes, I am," Was all Ares could manage to say.
He was unsure of what her reaction would be. Needless to say, he was never the best son, constantly going against his mother's wishes, starting wars she disapproved of, openly going against her in council meetings or worst of all, laughing in the face of marriage itself, her godly domain, by having an affair with Aphrodite. Needless to say, on Olympus the two were not exactly on the best of terms.
Hera pounced on Ares, wrapping her arms around his massive shoulders and squeezing so tightly that Ares was pretty sure his ribs were beginning to crack under the pressure.
"It is you, right?" Hera asked, pulling back to look him in the face. Tears were welling up in her eyes, "You're not some shapeshifter or illusion designed to torture me?"
"It is me," Ares nodded, caught completely off guard by his mother's burst of affection.
"It is you, isn't it, my beautiful boy?" Hera said, almost laughing in unrestrained joy, "You look exactly the same, still so handsome, still so... mighty."
"Well, you know," Ares shrugged awkwardly, "God of War and all."
Hera's face immediately leapt to concern.
"How's your shoulder?" She asked,
"Oh, it's fine," Ares said, rolling up his sleeve to show her, "Not even a scar."
He paused.
"Thank you for asking," he said in an accusatory tone. Everyone turned to face Athena.
She shrugged.
"I'm not your mother," she said dryly, going back to her magazine to let the moment play out.
"How are you?" Hera continued, "What have you been doing? Are you well? Are you eating right?"
"As heartwarming as this is," Athena interrupted, "We're here for more than just a family reunion."
Hera finally took her eyes off Ares and looked toward Athena expectantly.
"Hera, we need your help," She explained, "With some... family business, is there a place we can talk less publicly?"
"Right," Hera nodded in understanding, "Let's go back to my place."
"Sure thing," Athena agreed, "Hermes! Stop fooling around. We're moving,"
Hermes hesitated, pulling on his arm a few times as it remained in the vending machine.
Aphrodite slowly stood up. She took notice of how Hera was deliberately refusing to even look at her.
"Hermes, what's the issue?" Athena called out.
"I'm stuck!" Hermes announced.
"Well, get unstuck," She demanded.
Hermes shrugged and began to pull on his arm, easily pulling his arm out but destroying the vending machine door in the process.