Sunflower

6

Tw for needles

The next morning even before the sun came up, Piper was already at the medical cabin. She'd barely slept last night. She's sitting on the bed next to Aelia's own bed. She looks more clean, meaning she doesn't have blood all over body. Piper can still see the cuts all over her body, and the burns that line them. Will had told her they couldn't get her stab wound to close over. Aelia was still extremely pale and Piper could hear her breath rattling in her chest.
    Piper didn't expect anyone to show up, at least not for a few hours. But she hears the door open. She looks behind her and sees Leo standing there awkwardly. He moves past her and sits on the other bed next to Aelia. "I'm sorry." He says.
    "Why are you sorry?" Piper asks tiredly, "I already told you it wasn't your fault."
    "I'm still sorry. How's your shoulder?" He eyes the burns that have crept up my neck.
    "I forgot they were there." She lies. Truth be told they kept her up because they hurt so bad. That's why she came to the medical cabin so early in the first place. She wanted to see if Will could help, but when she got there he was beyond exhausted and she let him go get some sleep.
    "You know, I never knew what it felt like to be burned." He says quietly.
    "Makes sense since your fireproof McSizzle." Piper says with a smile.
    Leo still frowns, "Getting burned hurts. So I know you're lying about your shoulder. I understand now why Frank was so scared of me."
    Piper sits forward, "What do you mean? Also you really can't blame Frank, fire is literally the fastest way he could die and he didn't even have to be near it."
    "Last night, I think it was the sword Reyna told me about. It burned me, both of my hands." He holds them up and Piper grimaces at the blisters that are covering them.
    "Oh Leo. You should have told someone." She stands up and walks over to Leo. She carefully grabs his wrists and guides him over to the sink.
    She turns the water to the coldest it could go. "This is going to hurt."
    He hesitates but let's her put his hands under the stream of water. He bites his tongue as his vision blurs. "I know, I know." Piper says apologetically.
    She finally lets him pull his hands back and tells him not to touch anything, "It'll make everything worse if you touch things."
    "I'm sorry." Leo says again.
    Piper sighs, "Leo stop saying your sorry. It's not your fault."
    "You really do need to stop."
    They both whip around to where Aelia is trying to push herself into a sitting position. Piper rushes over before pushing her back down gently, "You need to stay still. They couldn't close the wound."
    Piper then hits Aelia's arm roughly. Aelia protests, "What was that for?"
    "You almost died, you idiot!" Piper says.
    "Yeah well I'm not am I? And clearly neither is McSizzle here. So I'd say I did a good job on not getting him killed." She mutters, rubbing her arm.
    Leo looks confused, "What?"
    Piper smiles sadly, "She had to summon a cage to stop you."
    "Oh." Leo says.
    Aelia looks at him, "Are you okay? Did it hurt you?"
    "No, I'm okay. Thanks. Look I'm so-" Leo says quickly.
    "I swear to the gods Leo, if you're about to say your sorry again. I will climb out of this bed and kill you." Aelia snarls.
    "But I nearly killed you-" Leo starts again, only to be cut off by Aelia.
    "You didn't do anything." Aelia says, and then turns to Piper, "What possessed him?"
    "Nico said it was a Ker. Some spirit from the underworld." Piper shrugs, "He can explain it better if you ask him."
    "I'll make sure to do that." She shifts then whimpers as she puts a hand to where she was stabbed.
    Piper steps forward quickly but Aelia stops her, "I'm fine."
    "No you aren't. What's wrong?" Piper asks.
    "Nothing, I promise I'm fine."
    "If you're really fine, swear it on Styx." Leo says.
    Aelia glares at Leo before Piper talks again, using charmspeak, "What's wrong?"
    Both Leo and Aelia answer at the same time, "My hands hurt."
    "Everything burns." Aelia mumbles.
    "The poison?" Piper asks, concerned.
    "The what?" Leo asks.
    "What else else would it be?" Aelia sighs.
    "Wait, what do you mean by poison?" Leo steps in between the two girls.
    Aelia lays her head back with her eyes closed. "The sword, somehow it carried some sort of poison on or in it. Nobody knows what it is." Piper explains.
    "Whatever it is, it's strong. I feel like I'm being ripped apart from the inside." Aelia groans.
    "Aelia..." Piper warns, eyeing Leo out of the corner of her eyes.
    Aelia opens her eyes noting Leo, "Right sorry. It's not horrible. I'll be fine."
    "You don't need to lie for me Lia." Leo says sadly.
    "Okay enough being sad and stuff. I wasn't going to say anything but I'm trying to bring Jason back." Aelia announces, hoping to cheer her friends up a little bit.
    Both of their heads snap up, "What?!"
    Aelia smiles despite the constant burning inside of her, "I found one way but I'm not doing it that way. Not yet at least, it'll be more of a second plan. But I'm going to try to bring him back to life soon hopefully."
    Leo does a little happy dance but Aelia can see the gears turning in Piper's mind, before she finally says one word, "No."
    "Are you crazy?" Leo stops and stares at his friend.
    "No I'm not crazy, but she is. Lia you can't-" Piper starts.
    Aelia sighs, "I'm not, calm down."
    "I'm so confused right now." Leo says.
    "When I went to Nico asking what I had to do to bring him back, he told me that the only way is to sacrifice a soul that has cheated death." Piper keeps her eyes on Aelia who is trying to sit once more. She succeeds this time.
    "I'm not doing it that way. I'm going to figure it out differently." She nearly folds under the gazes of her friends.
    "You were going to though weren't you?" Leo asks. Aelia stays quiet, "Weren't you?"
    "I was. But I changed my mind." She whispers.
    "Aelia! What part of you thought we would be fine with that?" Piper scolds her.
"Because you'd have Jason back. Look you don't have to say any of this, I've already heard it from multiple people."
    "Like who?"
    "Nico. And Jason." She whispers.
    "Jason?" They both ask at the same time.
    "Nico summoned him from the underworld two nights ago. He talked me out of it."
    They both stay silent until Aelia yelps. She tries to cover it up but both Leo and Piper heard her. "That's it, we're calling Will. Where's your phone?" Piper asks Aelia.
    "My what?" She asked through gritted teeth.
    "Your phone?" Piper asks again.
    "I don't know what you're talking about! Be more specific."
    "The thing I gave you in the forest two days ago. How do you not know what a phone is?" Leo says.
     "Oh that thing, it's over with my wristlets." Aelia points to a table in the back of the cabin. "I'm a little outdated, okay?"
    "Who's Michael Jackson?" Leo asks Aelia as Piper goes to call Will.
    "Is he a demigod? Look, I really don't know." She sighs, laying back in the bed.
    "Either you're really uncultured or you aren't from this time." Leo decides. "And I'm guessing it's the second choice."
    "Good job you figured it out." She closes her eyes.
    "I was right? Wait, since when were you not from now?" Leo asks.
    "Since I was born."
    "Are you going to tell me when that was?"
    "I'm going to sound really old. But I was born in 1895." She sighs.
    "1895? You're older than Hazel!"
    "Again you figured it out."
    Piper walks back over, "Leo leave her alone."
    Leo turns to her, "Get this, she's from the eighteen hundreds."
      "Remind me to never tell you a secret." Aelia frowns.
    Before Piper can say anything Will comes back into the cabin with his hair all over. Aelia frowns as she sees the bags under her brother's eyes, "Were you sleeping? Piper, you shouldn't have woken him up."
    "I told her to." Will says. He shoos Leo and Piper out of the cabin and turns back to his sister, "I'm surprised to see you awake."
    "I'm surprised I am awake."
    "Pain level?"
    "It's not bad maybe a 2-"
    "Lia."
    She sighs, "You're annoying sometimes, it's been a steady 8."
    "That sounds more realistic. Where does it hurt the most?"
    "Everywhere. It feels like my blood is boiling inside of me."
    "That's the poison. What about your wound?"
    She shrugs, "As much as a normal stab wound would hurt. Also both Leo and Piper have burns."
    "I'll take care of that later. Your color is worse than last night. Your heart rate is still not good."
    "Trust me, I can feel that part of it."
    "I can hear your lungs rattling which is definitely not good." He comes over and touches Aelia's forehead, "And now you have a fever."
    "Just saying I could have told you all of that." She chuckles.
    "This isn't funny Lia."
    "I know, I'm not trying to laugh. I'm pretty sure everything hurts so bad I'm going into shock part two." She says in between laughs.
    Will frowns and reaches onto the shelf behind him. He picks up two of the many needles laid out on the shelf. "I'm going to give you a small sedative and a pain relief, okay?"
    She nods and holds out his arm for him. He inserts the two needles and watches as Aelia visibly calms down. She lays a lot more still in her bed and she closes her eyes, "Thank you."
    She drifts back to sleep and Will covers her with a blanket. He goes back and grabs the things he needs to treat burns. He walks out of the cabin,and like he expected Leo and Piper are sitting just outside. They both look back at Will, "Is she alright?" Leo asks.
    "For now. How did you end up getting burned?" Will asks Leo, holding out his hand to Leo.
    Leo smiles sheepishly, "I don't know."
    Will hastily applies the ointment to Leo's hands and then moves onto Piper's shoulder, "Try not to get possessed again."
    "It's not like I wanted to in the first place."
    "I know. Do we know if that spirit will be coming back?"
    "I don't think so Lou Ellen did a good job with her spell." Nico says coming to stand in front of them.
    Leo looks down at his feet as Nico looks at him, "Are you okay?"
    "I'm fine." Leo answers.
    Will stands up to go with Nico. "How is she?" Nico asks when they get further away from the cabin.
    "Not good. She got worse overnight but she was awake. Her pain is high  and you can hear her lungs rattle when she breathes. I don't know what's going to happen." Will whispers.
    "She'll pull through. Can we do anything?" Nico says.
    Will shakes his head, "Not really. I had to give her a sedative, she was going through shock again. It definitely helps that she's a doctor. It would be a nightmare trying to do this if they had no idea what was wrong with themselves."
    "That's true. Was it really that bad, to the point you had to sedate her?"
    "Yeah. I'm scared for her."
"We all are."
"I just need a way to know if she'll be alright. I don't care how long I would have to help her, I just want to know if I'm going to lose my sister." Will says with tears in his eyes.
For some reason Nico keeps forgetting Aelia and Will are siblings. They look similar so it's not hard to see it. But Nico thinks of Aelia as a sister, and Will is his boyfriend. So to him it's kind of weird to think of them as siblings for whatever reason. "Will you can't keep torturing yourself over this! It's out of your control until you figure out what that poison is."
"I know. I hate not knowing, my whole life healing was something I knew everything about. Last night proved how wrong I was. I hate that I can't do anything for her." He punches the pole next to him. He shakes his hand out angrily. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that."
Nico says nothing as he takes his boyfriends hand and leads him over to the training area. He sets up a dummy and tosses Will some wrist tape, "I get it. Sometimes all that helps is punching something."
"You say that like it's happened before." Will says with a small smile as he puts on the tape.
"My life has been hell. I've done it more than a few times." He returns the smile.
Nico watched as Will beat the crap out of the dummy all morning, with a concerned look for his boyfriend. Nico doesn't know how Will would be mentally if Aelia died. He knows firsthand what it's like losing a sibling, it takes a toll on you.
He just hopes he doesn't have to watch Will go through that.