Breaking Point

Lies

Will tried to remain calm. He clearly failed. His eyes flitted to his neck then.

"How are your lymph nodes, Percy?" he asked seriously, trying to calm his nerves.

"Will," Percy said in a hard voice, "Don't. I don't know what you're thinking, but whatever it is, it's ridiculous."

"Let me feel your lymph nodes, Percy," he said quietly, firmly.

Percy sighed and rolled his eyes, not letting his fear show. He tilted his chin so he could assess his lymph nodes. He stood there silently as his hands traced over his neck, gently pressing on his skin.

"They're swollen," he said, pulling his hands away from his neck.

"Also a symptom of infection," Percy pointed out. He was not hopeless in medicine, after all.

"Do they feel tender?" Will asked. "Does it hurt when I touch them or when you swallow?"

"No."

Will's expression grew more serious then.

"Percy," he said in a strained voice, "That's...not a good sign. If it were an infection, your lymph nodes would feel sore. They would feel swollen and soft. But yours...they feel hard, and they're nontender..."

"Will," Percy said seriously. "Get to the point. You're scaring me."

"Sorry," he said quickly."I can't say what's wrong, Percy, at least, not yet. I have to run a few more tests."

"There's no point in worrying until we know for sure what it is," Percy said firmly, sensing Will's discomfort. "There's no bacteria in my blood, which is good-it means I'm not septic-but that doesn't mean there isn't a virus or bacteria in my throat culture. We'll find out tomorrow, right?"

"Right. Yeah. You're right." he said quietly, "In the meantime, I'll run a full blood panel."

Percy nodded, his expression growing serious.

"Please, don't say a word to anyone else about this," he said, "This has to stay between us until we know what's going on, okay?"

"But Percy-," he started.

"Will. Please." Percy said pleadingly. Will looked up to meet his eyes. He saw fear in Percy's eyes, something he has never seen in his leader's face. It made Will's heart ache for him.

"Okay, Percy." He said quickly.

It wasn't lying, not telling the others about what was going on. Really, Percy didn't know if anything was going on. It could all just be in his head. Either way, not mentioning it certainly wasn't lying.

He wasn't sure if that was logic.

***

That changed, however, with one simple question from Jason over dinner that night.

"So, how did your appointment with Will go?" he asked casually.

Percy looked up from his dinner plate, freezing at the question. After a moment, he cleared his throat and answered, speaking in a quiet voice.