Barely Breathing ~ 3 Days In The Infirmary Fic

Day Two / One

The best part of my job: Waking everyone up. Well, I guess saving lives was cool too, but this was fun.

While most of camp has to be up by 8, those in the Infirmary get an extra half hour of sleep. It wasn't a lot, but it allowed for a little bit of extra sleep-healing time.

So, come 8:30, I get to wake all the patients up. How, you might ask?

That handy dandy overly loud whistle I have.

I don't get to use it often, during battle or anything, so it was a good time getting to wake everyone up. I figured out early on that I could control how loud it actually was, so I kept it at a level that didn't deafen anyone but was also very much louder than a normal person whistling and woke most everyone up.

There was a series of quiet groans from everyone slowly waking up throughout the Infirmary.

"Go get breakfast unless instructed otherwise by a healer!" I announce. A few stand up, walking off and out of the Infirmary. The others that stay will have food brought to them, as they either can't walk or shouldn't leave a sterile area.

I look around, finding my little emo kid, quickly walking towards him.

"How'd ya sleep?" I question.

"Fine." He tells me shortly. Rude.

"Great. Whether or not you want to go get your own food is up to you. I know you're alone at your table, I could just go grab food for you." I offer.

"Could I have the walkman back?"

"Are you going to get your own food or should I get it for you?" I repeat, because quite frankly food is more important than a walkman.

"Not hungry."

"Haha, very funny, you're going to eat. You look like you have eaten in days."

"I don't need to eat."

"Yeah, you do. This isn't a debate, Di Angelo." I tell him sternly.

"What are you gonna do about it?"

"Curse you to speak in rhymes. And just find out whose walkman this is and give it straight back to them. I know how much your precious emo music probably means to you."

He glares at me, "I hate you."

"Sure you do. I'll go get you food, you can get the walkman after you've eaten something." I wave the device in front of him, and then pocket it again and walk out of the Infirmary.

I know very, very little about Nico and his tastes in food. He doesn't have any allergies, I know that, which helps a small bit. I end up getting us both a tray of basic breakfast foods, bringing them back to him after the daily food sacrifice.

"Here ya go," I plop a tray on Nico's lap, "Eat eat."

"I'm not hungry." He swears.

"I don't care. You need to eat. When's the last time you had food?"
"Yesterday."

"The Ambrosia doesn't count."

There's a pause, meaning he has absolutely no idea.

"That's what I thought. Eat." I roll over a little rolly stool, starting to eat and watching him.

"I hate you." He repeats.

"Don't have to tell me twice. Just eat." He glares, and I glare back until he finally breaks and starts eating, slowly. I smile.

"You're going to eat, and then I'm going to check you over again to see if there's any extra wounds and re-do your bandages. Unfortunately, you'll have to take off your shirt again so I can check out the chest scratches again, but that'll just be in the back." I list off quickly.

"When can I leave?"

"Completely? Late tomorrow, possibly. Depends on how dead you still look. For a short time? After I check all of your wounds."

"How long is a "short time?""

"Hour or two? I have to keep looking you over, I think the scratches are going to be weird to heal, you moving too much would be unhelpful. Why do you want to leave? Just tired of being here?" I cock an eyebrow.

"Just tired."

"Got it."