White Walls Closing In (Mediwhump May 2023, Day 7 First Night In Hospital)
This fic contains hospitalisation, mentions of a benign tumour, mentions of future surgery and an underaged whumpee. Please read with discretion.
As a Son of Apollo, one could have thought that Will Solace would be comfortable with hospitals.
He could spend entire days at the Camp Half-Blood infirmary and in fact he had done just that countless times while looking after the sick and wounded. If anything, Will felt at home surrounded by bandages and ambrosia squares, always having some task that needed to be completed or some Camper to talk to. The infirmary was familiar, it was safe. If he would be so bold, the Infirmary was his Domain.
But here? With the white walls and the whirling machines and the strangers who kept poking and prodding him as if his blood could have possibly changed in the last half hour? It was unfamiliar and unsafe and even if Will logically knew why he was here he still did not feel as though he belonged.
Nico nudged him.
"I'm thinking." Will claimed.
Nico didn't bother with a retort about how Connect Four wasn't that complicated of a game, waiting almost patiently for Will to make his move. Nico’s silence made Will want to claw his skin off for some reason and when the machine next to him started pipping loudly again Will curled his hands into fists.
Will intrinsically knew how to fix the machine, there was simply a kink in the IV line again and all he had to do was straighten it and acknowledge the alert. Almost every single thing in this building Will could sense, and if need be fix, because every singly thing had been made by a Child of Apollo that had been guided by the great God of Healing and yet when Will had tried to use that knowledge to fix the machine earlier, he had been yelled at by a particularly annoying nurse and told not to touch anything else.
The alert kept sounding, echoing in Will’s mind. He tried to focus on something else, anything else. Nico’s knee pressed up against his own, the pattern that was slowly being created in their game, the smell of the Hyacinth’s that Kayla had bought for him.
But the alert was too loud, it was too consistent. It was echoing, again and again, and he swore that it was the only sound that has ever existed.
Will slammed his fist into the table, knocking plastic coins everywhere.
Nico barely reacted, only pressing his knee against Will’s again but if anything that just made Will even more frustrated.
“What?” Will growled.
The Son of Hades stayed silent, dark eyes blinking slowly.
It's wasn’t like Will didn't know that Nico was just as uncomfortable as he was, it couldn’t be easy for Nico to be in a place that has seen so much death, but right now everything was just too much and Nico’s silence was just letting that infernal machine be all the louder.
Nico pushed the table off to the side and grabbed Will’s hand.
Will’s shoulders dropped.
“I hate this.” He whispered.
“I know.” Nico said.
“I’m a Son of Apollo. I should be able to fix this. I should be able to fix me.”
They had had this conversation before.
Over the years, Will has treated almost every single camper at Camp Half-Blood. Some of their injuries were mere scratches or minor burns, things that faded away with a simple hum and some ointment. Others were more serious. Dislocations, broken bones. Detached limbs, even, thank you Paolo.
Will has literally brought more people back from the brink of death than he could even remember and yet for all that, Will couldn’t fix a stupid tumour on his stupid right lung. It was benign, at least as far as he could sense, but even benign things had the possibility of becoming malignant if left untreated.
If he could do the surgery himself he would have already done so. Kayla and Austin had confronted him long after Will had already sensed the tumour, both of them intrinsically knowing that something was wrong with him but as much as Will begged them to keep it quiet, they had told Chiron.
And Chiron had told him to go to the hospital.
It didn’t make any sense; Even if Will couldn’t do surgery on himself, he would have trusted Kayla and Austin with his care because they were children of Apollo too and with enough thorough instruction they could do what was needed.
Why go to a mortal hospital when they were literally the progeny of the God of Healing?
And why was that stupid machine still making that stupid alert and why hadn’t some nurse come in to fix it already?
Will let go of Nico’s hand, twisting around so that he could acknowledge the alert on the drip machine, readjusting the flow rate as he did so to make it go faster.
“Will,” Nico warned.
“It’s fine.” Will said. “I can tolerate it.”
The immunotherapy mixture they were giving him wasn’t quite chemotherapy but he had still been warned about the similar possible side effects and while he didn’t exactly want to experience nausea or fatigue, he could not stand the idea of trying to sleep with the IV still in not that he thought he could sleep here anyway.
Someone cleared their throat and Will scrambled away from the machine, making it start alerting all over again.
Doctor Storey came over, acknowledged the alert and reset the flow rate. She did not bother to admonish Will, another conversation that had already happened countless times just in the few hours he has been here for.
“Mr. di Angelo,” She said instead. “I’m afraid visiting hours are over for the night but you’re more than welcome to come back at nine am tomorrow morning, pre-op doesn’t start until eleven.”
Will had known that this was coming and yet his blood still ran cold at the thought of Nico leaving him. He looked up sharply at his boyfriend who made no attempt to stand from the bed. Maybe he was going to stay after all, maybe he was going to intimidate the doctor into breaking the rules and maybe Will wasn’t going to have to spend his first night in hospital all alone after all.
Nico leant forward and kissed Will’s forehead gently before pulling away and standing up.
Will refused to watch him go, even when Nico hesitated at the door, focusing instead on holding back the tears that were building in his eyes.
“I’m just going to check your vitals one more time and then you can get some sleep.” Doctor Storey said.
“My vitals are fine.” Will shot back. “Blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, all within normal range. You can go now.”
“Will,” Doctor Storey sighed. “I know you said that your father is some kind of Doctor, but right now you are my patient and I need to treat you like all of my other patients.”
Will did not want to be angry with her. He didn’t like to be angry with anyone and like she said, she was just trying to do her job. But he was the Son of Apollo and as such he knew exactly what he was talking about because this was his body and he knew everything there was to know about himself.
Doctor Storey did her checks anyway, confirming that surprise surprise his levels were all normal.
“Rest,” She said. “Tomorrow is a big day.”
It took all of his willpower to not roll his eyes as she at last left him.
The room immediately felt too big, the white walls stretching on forever while at the same time feeling like they were closing in on him. His attention bounced between all of the things around him from the small couch below the curtained window to the too bright lights above him that Doctor Storey had supposedly dimmed on her way out to the immunotherapy concoction that bled into him so infuriatingly slowly.
These weren’t even his own clothes, it was a thin gown that somehow both dug into his skin and didn’t feel substantial enough.
While ADHD often helped during battles, not to mention allowing him to juggle the treatment of multiple patients at the one time, right now it was doing nothing but giving him nothing but hell.
If only to try to let out some of the energy that was so suddenly bubbling within him Will increased the flow rate of his IV once again but that only took a moment and he was left wanting to claw his skin off in the too loud silence that followed.
The curtains were closed.
That would be something he could fix, he could open them up and maybe that would distract him long enough to forget everything else because even if his Dad wasn’t actually here at least Will would be able to sense his presence in the Sun.
He scrambled up off the bed, nearly overbalancing as the world spun around him.
He pushed aside the dizziness, knowing that he was just imagining it given that just hours before Will had been feeling perfectly fine. Gripping onto the machine that the IV was hooked through, refusing to look at the yellow fluid that was flowed within it, Will went to the window.
Will had to reach across the couch to get to the curtains but he didn’t care, suddenly desperate to have them open no matter what.
A small part of him had already known what he would find and yet the rest of him still wanted to cry when he saw that the Sun had already fully set with the moon having already taken its place and while Will knew that the Moon was still connected to him in a way, it was nothing compared to the Sun.
Will felt drained suddenly and his knees buckled but he did not fall, a hand gripping onto his elbow.
“Falling for me already, Solace?”
Will was so happy to see Nico at all that he didn’t mind the cheesy line and instead just thew himself at the smaller boy and hugged him. After a moment, Nico’s arms wrapped around Will just as tightly and they stayed there before Will at last felt strong enough to pull away again.
“I thought you left.” Will said, trying his hardest to keep the hurt from his voice.
“Of course not.” Nico said. “I just had to wait a few minutes before shadow traveling back. Are you… Okay?”
“I am now.” Will said. “So, are we going to hatch some exciting escape plan or what?”
“Will.”
Will dropped his shoulders, taking in a deep breath. Even doing that much made Will’s head spin a little and his healing powers alerted him of the tumour that he already knew was there and if that wasn’t annoying enough the machine he was lugging around started screaming at him again.
Will adjusted the line quickly and acknowledged the alert, and if he muttered a curse as he did so then that was his own business.
Nico chuckled, reaching out and grabbing his hand.
“It’s going to be fine.” Nico said.
“I know.” Will said.
“And I’ll be with you the whole way.”
Will felt warmth bloom inside his chest and he squeezed Nico’s hand back tightly.
“I know.” He said. “I love you.”
“I love you too so get back into bed before I have to drag you there, you look exhausted.”
If Will was being honest, he was exhausted. In order to be here and get the treatment he needed, Will was going to have to relinquish all control over his own body and he hated it. He hated that he couldn’t fix this himself, he hated that even now he could sense the tumour nestled deep in his lung, he hated that there was nothing he could do but accept the help of mortal doctors.
Will once more readjusted the flow rate on the drip, setting it back to the right rate that would keep the worst of the side effects away.
It was going to take time to get used to being in the hospital, just like it was going to take time for him to fully recover from tomorrows surgery.
Nico guided Will to the bed and while Will was strong enough to walk by himself, it felt nice to trust Nico to set the pace. Once Will was lying down, the exhaustion suddenly weighed heavily on him and Will had to fight to keep his eyes open.
“By the way,” Nico said. “I brought you something.”
He held out a small ball and when it lit up a warm gold, Will found himself falling in love with Nico di Angelo all over again.
“A night light.” Nico said. “For a Night Light.”
While this was just a hospital room and not the pits of Tartarus, the small orb still made everything feel a little better and when Nico crawled into bed next to Will, holding him close, that made Will feel a little bit better too.
And, when an hour later Nico had to stumble out of the bed and into the shadows nearly face planting in the process as a nurse came to check on Will again? Now that definitely made him feel better.
@mediwhumpmay
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