More Than Just Little Soldiers (PART 2)

CHAPTER 10: SCARS TO VEIL YOURS TRULY

Percy POV

When I woke up and found myself in the med bay, I knew I put myself into some deep shit. Annabeth was sitting on the chair next to my bed, sprawled into an awkward position and asleep. I loved watching her sleep. After all of the nights that we spent, plagued with nightmares, it was a rare sight to see any of us getting a full few hours of sleep without waking up in a cold sweat.

I made a move to sit up, groaning as I did so, and effectively waking up Annabeth. Her eyes snapped open at the sound and she quickly stood up.

"Percy! You're aware!" she cried out, leaning over to give me a hug. I wrapped her in my arms and then moved over on the bed to give her some space.

"What happened?" I asked her, not really recollecting any of my memories.

"You don't remember?" she questioned, and I just shook my head no in response. "You had a flashback, Percy. A really bad one. You blacked out and Steve and I carried you here."

"Oh wow, seriously? How long was I out? Who was taking care of me? Did anything happen while I was out?" I spurted out, a million questions racing through my head. Annabeth answered all of them. I was out for four hours. A man named Bruce Banner was taking care of me. And no, nothing happened, but Bruce definitely has some questions.

That's when I noticed I was laying down, shirtless, on the bed. I had a few little circle things taped onto my chest, which was connected to a monitor. I reached over to rip them off, scared that the technology would attract monsters.

"Don't," Annabeth said, grabbing my hand before I could pull the stickers off. "I already prayed to Hephaestus to take sure that this technology wouldn't hurt us."

I nodded, hoping that the god truly did help us out. I didn't know if Hephaestus was angry at me or not. After all, he was the reason two of his sons died: Charlie and, for some time, Leo as well.

"Relax, Percy. You should be fine," she just said, laughing a bit. I nodded, giving her a smile, but I had my eyes locked in on all of my scars. I hated them and I hated that I hated them. People always say to never be ashamed of your scars. That it's a sign that you overcame whatever it was that caused them. But every time I look at my scars, all I remember is being locked and caged and feeling so, so helpless. I see the scars and all I remember is the pain of being in that position in the first place.

I traced my fingers over the longer ones, feeling the unevenness of my skin over where it healed. I felt the bumps from the burn marks and the raised lines of skin from the sword cuts.

"Is now a good time to talk to you both?" a new voice called out from the doorway. A middle aged man was looking at the two of us, rather sheepishly, and looked very out of place.

"Dr. Banner! Thank you so much. Percy woke up about fifteen minutes ago," Annabeth said, placing a name on that face.

"I never really introduced myself then. I'm Percy Jackson," I said, sticking out my hand and receiving a firm shake. He just nodded and repeated his own name. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Now that you're awake, it's standard protocol to do a physical examination. Are you okay with that?" he asked me. I looked over at Annabeth. This should be good as long as he doesn't take any blood samples.

"Yes, that should be fine. You're not planning on taking any blood samples though, right?"

"No, there's no indication that I should. Why do you ask?"

"No, nothing, I just have a fear of needles," I just said, smiling at the irony of that. Imagine being the best swordsman in the past 300 years and being afraid of a tiny sharp needle.

"Not to worry, Percy. Just the basics," Mr. Banner just said, though he did insist that I call him Bruce. I got on to the scale as he measured my weight and height. He frowned at the numbers.

"Percy, you are aware that you are far under your normal weight, yes? Are there any health conditions I should be aware of?"

"No, Bruce, I've just been in a really difficult situation during my time in captivity while I was in the military," I just responded, sticking to my usual story. He just frowned at that.

"Military? Percy, did you not tell me you were only 17 years old?"

"Yeah, that's also true. I ran away from my home at 14, found Annabeth, and we both joined the marines at 15. We were kidnapped by one of the opposing sides and held underground for quite some time. You can imagine that the situation wasn't very, um, hospitable. We both lost a lot of weight there, but we're working on bringing it up, though."

Bruce didn't say much after that, but just continued his way through the exam. Overall, other than our weight, he said that I was as healthy as I could be. But I was still waiting for him to drop the bomb about the flashback, which was the whole reason I was here anyway.

"You can just ask," I told him, miserably. I was having a pounding headache and felt rather horrible, which is how I usually feel after an episode. "It was a flashback. I was hitting a punching bag and something triggered me and I couldn't stop thinking about my time when I was held prisoner. I had to fight my way to survive. I had to."

"Percy, I'm truly sorry. I had no idea. Have you seeked help for this?" Bruce asked me.

"No," Annabeth responded on my behalf. "Getting a therapist was too expensive for us. We were living together after we got discharged from medical. It's been hard, yes, but we actually ran into Steve during one of our morning runs and we were able to talk. That's been really helpful."

Bruce just nodded.

"Okay, that's good that you found someone. Steve is definitely a good person to talk to. I'm glad he found someone too. But if you ever feel like you need something more, I can print out a list of names of good therapists for you."

"Thank you, Bruce, we really appreciate it," I told him. "Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

"Yes, sorry, one last thing and then you can go. I checked your medical history and there wasn't anything in the record. I know now that you probably got it done in the military, so they probably haven't input it because, to be frank, they never do. I just need to ask for formalities, but, um, all your scars, how were they treated?"

"For the most part they weren't," I told him, squeezing my eyes shut as the memories came rushing back to me. "We were there for two years, Bruce. I know the time doesn't make sense, but they had this weird alien technology with them that slowed down time. We were always in pain. Always hurt. No treatment whatsoever. After we escaped and made it back behind our own lines, we slowly started to heal."

"Oh my god, Percy and Annabeth, I'm so sorry. None of you deserved that, I'm truly sorry."

"I know Bruce. I know."