Too Late

Chapter 29

~ Nico ~

It was a lot to process, Will's dead half sister who could see into the future and the past, the whole Blake Alya thing, and of course the girl, half dead, bleeding out on the grass next to Thalia's tree.

Will's hands were steady as he applied the bandages, even though just moments before when they had been talking to Chiron his hands had been shaking. The girl was unrecognizable, due to the amount of blood and the number of scratches all over her face. Nico nelt down next to Will, "Can I do anything to help?"

Will shot him a look, then returning to his work said, "You should rest."

"What?"

"You just shadow traveled from camp Jupiter to here, that's like 3000 miles Nico."

Nico shrugged, "That doesn't matter, I want to help. She's close to death, I can sense it." Will ignored him for a minute. Then sighed, "Okay, fine. Find out what happened to her." He nodded at the girl. Nico shot him a look, "You mean no one told you what happened?"

"They said they found her like this, but I want to know what happened. There could be something that could make her wounds worse if I heal her."

"I'm fairly sure they would have told you."

"They might not know." Will said, while helping Ausin get the girl onto a stretcher.

Nico rolled his eyes, "Fine, I'll see what I can do Solace."

"I'll be in the infirmary if you need me." Will called over his shoulder as he and his half brother carried the girl away.

The campers who had gathered began to disperse, Nico walked up to a girl from the Hermes cabin, "Jess, may I have a word?"

She nodded, her hazel eyes sparkling, "What's up Nico?"

"What happened to her?"

"She just got to camp like this, they just got here." Jess explained. "They?" He asked. She nodded, "Her and her brother." Jess pointed to a boy, about eight, splattered with blood and shaking, standing by the tree. "Thanks Jess, I can take it from here." He walked over to the boy, who looked up at him and blinked the tears out of his eyes, "Is she going to be okay?" he asked.

Nico swallowed, he didn't believe in false hope, but he also knew that if he didn't reassure this kid, Will would probably give him another lecture about how to talk to people nicely and not break their hearts and shatter their hopes and dreams. "I don't know," Nico confessed, "But I've seen worse. She's with the best healer we have and he won't rest until she's back on her feet."

The boys eyes filled with tears, Nico mentally hit himself, he shouldn't have said that. Then the boy hugged him fiercely. He stood there stunned, then slowly wrapped his arms around the boy, who had begun to sob into his shirt.

* * *

Nico was back in Chiron's office, sitting next to the boy, who hadn't left his side.

Chiron looked down at the boy, who still had specks of blood on his face and arms. The centaur looked at a loss for words, apparently in all his years of training heros he had never seen a demigod so young who seemed to be aware of the horrors around him. Nico cleared his throat, "Hello again Chiron."

Chiron smiled at him, "Good afternoon Mr di Angelo, and..." He looked at the boy next to Nico expectantly. "Hugo." The child said softly.

Chiron nodded, "Hugo, I'm Chiron."

A small smile crept onto Hugo's face, "Like the centaur who trained heroes."

"Er, he is the centaur who trained heroes." Nico classified.

For a brief moment Hugo's eyes where alight with childlike wonder, then he seemed to go back to his closed off self. "You don't look like a centaur." He said simply. Chiron shrugged, "I suppose you have a point." He began to step out of his wheelchair, as he did his horse legs seemed to unfold out of the chair.

Hugo looked Chiron up and down, "That's... awesome!" He cried, then seemed to shrink back to his solemn self. As Chiron climbed back into his chair he looked at Hugo and said, "I take it that your sister is the one in the infirmary who was brought in this morning?"

Hugo nodded and Chiron continued, "May I ask how you two got here?"

Hugo flinched and reached for Nico's hand, which Nico took and squeezed, "It's okay, you can trust him."

The boy frowned, "We... were being chased." He said simply. "By what?" Nico asked. Hugo shrugged, "I don't know, Monica wouldn't tell me. But the bad man sent them."

"The bad man?" Chiron asked, glancing at Nico, who shrugged. Hugo looked up at Chiron, "The... he's the... b-b-beast. We escaped him, Monica said they were the same person." A tear fell down his cheek, suddenly he was in tears again and he flung himself into Nico's arms. Nico held the boy tight and looked over at Chiron, who was making his way around his desk, "I'd like to talk to you again Hugo, but perhaps another time. For now I think it'd be wise for you to see Miss Monica. I hear she's awake now."

Hugo sat up, "She is? How do you know?"

Chiron smiled at Nico, "Well, her doctor is right there." Nico turned to find the most lovable dork in the universe standing in the doorway. "Hey sunshine." Nico said.

Will grinned at him. "What?" Nico asked, standing up and taking Hugo's hand. "Nothing." Will said taking Nico's free hand.