When Worlds Collide

43) Trauma Bonding

A/N: tis long

Every time Nico woke up from that point onward, Jason was always there. The others filtered through, but Jason never left. Each time, he stayed awake longer and longer before finally giving into the pain and the echoed memories that never stopped playing in his head. Jason never got mad at him, which made it so much worse. No one got mad at him. They all just sat with him.

By day 5 he was awake for 4 hours before he gave in. Day 6 and he made it to 6 hours. On day 7, he was released from the hospital. The media somehow caught wind of his release and paparazzi ambushed them. Nico had frozen in his wheelchair as they left the hospital, panic filling him as the cameras flashed and people shouted questions. Bruce and his brothers were all there, trying to block him as much as possible, but Jason ended up picking him up and getting him into the car while the others cleared the path. He was put under as soon as he got to the house.

He felt useless. He just kinda sat there. Jason stayed with him the whole time. He no longer had an IV in, so they had to give him shots whenever he wanted to just take a break from the world. He took as much ambrosia as he could each day, but he had a lot of injuries. The cut on his face had healed the fastest, but it left a white scar streaked down his face. The rest of his body slowly turned from a stitched together tapestry of pain to a marred painting of jagged scars.

The others had returned to their homes the same day he got to the manor. They wanted to stay longer and actually talk to Nico before they left. He didn't want to, but his family asked him to at least say something to them, so Nico told them it was fine— they had lives to get back to. They didn't need to sit around and watch him decompose in his bedroom. He already had Jason as a constant audience, he didn't need more.

Dick knocked on his door before poking his head in. "Hey, Alfred sent me to give you two some food. He didn't want your dinners to get cold."

Jason waved Dick in while Nico just sat in his bed, body tucked into the corner of the room.

Dick set the tray on the desk before passing Jason a plate, then setting Nico's next to him. "How you doing Neeks?" He asked hesitantly.

Nico's appetite had disappeared since the incident, but they asked him to try and eat. They didn't want to have to give him a feeding tube or something, so Nico stared at the food sitting next to him before slowly putting his legs down and moving the plate to his lap.

He hadn't really talked much in recent days, so they never really expected a response, but he still felt bad. He didn't know why he couldn't really talk. He wanted to, but something in his brain just stopped him.

He saw Dick and Jason share a look before Dick put on a smile. "I hope you like the food. Dami and I help Alfred in the kitchen."

Nico glanced at him, giving him a small nod and attempting a smile.

"Will called..." he said, trailing off. "He said he can come down and help heal you. He also said both Kayla and Austin have offered the same."

Nico stiffed. No. They couldn't see him like this. He had put them through too much already, and Will didn't need to see all of his new scars. He was already a 10 by demigod standards before Black Mask had his go at him, he didn't need them to see how he broke the scar scale.

"No," he said quietly, his voice course. He only really spoke when he asked for meds at that point. "I don't need them."

Jason let out a sigh. "You haven't left your room since you got to the manor. You haven't even put on your leg since you got to the hospital. You can't just sit here all day and rot."

Nico's eyes stayed locked on his plate. He was so tired, all the time. "You asked me to try and stop medicating. I did. You asked me to try to talk to the others. I did. You asked me to try and eat. I did. I am doing my best. I'm sorry if it's not good enough for you, but this is all I can do."