Sea Angels

~8~

Apollo flicked on the lights as he walked in, blinking in response to the harsh whiteness. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust, but when he could see again, he saw his three cousins each in one of the many infirmary beds. Well, two boys were in one bed while Jason was by himself.

He noticed that Percy was awkwardly positioned around Nico, their limbs entwined like tangled rope. This was going to make examining the son of Poseidon difficult, for sure.

Apollo creeped alongside the edge of the bed, gingerly pulling Percy's right arm out of Nico's hair. Once his arm was free, Apollo delicately placed his two forefingers against the inside of his wrist, feeling the steady beat of his pulse beneath his fingertips. He then reached into the pockets of his scrubs, producing a vial used to draw blood. Carefully, he tied the rubber strap around Percy's bicep, forcing his blood vessels to constrict. Apollo poked the demigod in his face, making sure he was out of it. When he got no response, he inserted the needle into a visible vein on the inside of his elbow.

Percy flinched in his sleep, causing for Apollo to have to move the needle in accordance with his jerking patient unless he wanted to possibly rupture a major blood vessel, which would not be good for anyone.

As soon as Apollo had gotten enough blood, he drew the needle out of Percy's arm, disposing of the metal point in the proper receptacle. He flashed the blood away to his temple for testing before undoing the rubber strap and covering the small wound with a cotton ball and a bandage. He made sure to leave some juice and a cookie for when Percy woke up, but Apollo hadn't drawn enough blood for his sugar levels to have an appreciable change. Still, it was better to have a little extra than feeling light headed when he woke up. People reacted differently to having their blood drawn, and he didn't know how his cousin would react.

Apollo checked Percy over one more time, making sure that he hadn't bled through his bandages and whatnot, and decided to come back once Percy was awake. Nico covering half of his body wasn't helping matters.

This next bit absolutely terrified him. Zeus had asked him to personally deliver a message to one of the demigods in the room. But once Apollo had found out what the request was, he felt his heart skip a beat. His father couldn't have been this cruel. But he found himself reaching for a pad of paper, guilt threatening to consume him.

He didn't want to do this. No one deserved this kind of fate. Still, orders were orders, and like it or not, his father was the king. He had to obey, or suffer the consequences for his disobedience.

He scribbled something down on a notepad, addressed to his half-brother, leaving the note beneath his golden frames. The instructions were simple, but Apollo wasn't a hundred percent sure that either boy other than Jason was in a stable state of mind. No need to make them panic any more than necessary, he thought, shoving his pen back into his scrubs.

His dad was going to kill him for being late with the sun chariot. Thank the gods for autopilot. With a snap of his fingers, Apollo flashed himself into the driver's seat of the sun chariot, hoping and dreading that his note would be read.

0o0o

Jason was the first one up. Even with that small break in his sleep cycle to comfort Percy, he felt well-rested and refreshed, ready to take on what the day had in store. His blurry vision partially cleared after he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, but he was squinting at anything farther than a couple feet away from his face. He groped around the countertop, his hands closing around his glasses.

He shoved them on, blinking repeatedly as his eyes adjusted to looking through his frames. Turning around thinking he had saw something, Jason looked at the spot where his glasses had been a moment ago, and he found a sheet of lined paper folded in half with Apollo's signature on the backside.