Beneath the Surface (A PJO Fanfic)

Overdoing It

Percy pulls the blankets closer to him as tremors rack his body. A fever of all things and a very high one at that. 

Within the last hour, his fever has gone from 104 to 105 sending Dr. Michaels into a near panic. So within thirty long minutes, Percy once again found himself hooked up to an IV in the hospital.

He peeks over the edge of the thin piece of fabric they call a blanket to look at his father who is arguing in the doorway with the doctor. Apparently, Poseidon can't understand why they aren't doing more for Percy. 

Mother hen.

At this point, Percy hates the hospital. He's never been one to like being fussed over and it seems like this place doesn't understand what personal space is. Not only that, but everything is so white, definitely not Percy's favorite color. The worst part though has to be the smell. Percy cannot stand the smell.

Poseidon finally seems to give up on the doctor and comes back over to sit by Percy. 

"How do you feel?" he asks in a low voice.

Percy shakes his head and pulls the blanket tighter. He's actually very hot and wants nothing more than to drown in an ocean of ice, but all he's wearing is what he slept in, his boxers, and he doesn't exactly like showing off his collection of scars from Gabe.

Poseidon sighs. "In about fifteen minutes if your fever continues to stay this high the Doctor said they'll give you an ice bath. I guess you've just overworked yourself too much and a bad flu caught hold. That's what they said at least.

Percy shifts uncomfortably. Yesterday they had done a lot. He and Hestia had decided to spend the day at the beach and even swam out pretty far. Yes he had been tired and many times ready to drop, but he was also having fun, something he wasn't exactly going to let pass him by. 

After that, they had gone out to dinner and the boy in the booth behind him had definitely been sick. That brat probably shared his germs on purpose. 

He stretches out his arm a little towards the nightstand. "Can you... give me the ... water?"

His dad hands him the glass and Percy sit up enough to down it quickly. It seems to do the trick in refreshing his parched throat.  He slowly sits up all the way, keeping the blanket pulled close to his shoulders. Poseidon yanks on it slightly. "Aren't you hot?"

Percy hesitates and then nods. "I don't have any clothes."

So his father gets up and goes in search of clothes. 

He comes back five minutes later with a pair of black sweatpants and a white t-shirt from the hospital store.  He helps his son dress and Percy almost immediately tosses aside the thin blanket. 

Poseidon sits back in his seat. "It's the scars you're worried about, isn't it? I know someone who can probably help you get rid of those. He's my second cousin or something and he gave me this cream once to get rid of a really old, deep scar on my leg."

The teen smiles slightly and settles back against the headboard. "That would make my life a lot simpler. When can I meet him?"

"As soon as he gets back in the country," Poseidon says with a laugh. "He's in the Bahamas trying to flirt with cute girls. He's failing might I add."

- O - O - O - O - O -

Percy's fever does go down, which he is extremely thankful for, and they release him late that night when it's determined that he is stable.

Hestia is waiting for them back at the mansion, a slightly miffed Athena sitting beside her. Poseidon immediately looks guilty and Percy knows why. They left early this morning and Poseidon, without a doubt, forget to call his niece to tell her that they would have to hold off on the lessons.

"You better have a very good reason for skipping today," she huffs.

Poseidon holds up his hands in a peace-making gesture. "Calm down Athena. I have a very very good reason."

"Then let's hear it," she snaps. Did Percy mention that his dad and cousin hate each other a little bit?

"Well, you see this new taco stand opened up -" Poseidon starts.

Athena's eyes narrow. "You skipped lessons and didn't inform me so you could go to a taco stand?!"

She looks like she's about to rip out his throat and Hestia seems in no hurry to stop her, after all, Athena is pretty justified if that's all they were up to. Percy steps between the two before it can go any farther. "It's my fault."

Both women turn their eyes on him and for the first time seem to notice his pale, shaky features and the hospital bracelet on the arm he holds up. Hestia steps forward and takes his face in her hands to get a closer look. "Why didn't you say something sooner? You look about to pass out. Why don't you go up to your room and rest?"

Percy nods and shoots Athena one last apologetic look before he slinks up to his room. The remaining adults share a look before heading to the kitchen to have a much-needed talk.

"He overdid it yesterday," Hestia says and Poseidon nods. She shakes her head and goes on. "I should have known, but he just kept saying that he felt fine. It's been such a long week after all."

"Don't beat yourself up," Athena interjects. "He's as stubborn as his father." At this, she shoots said man a look. "Besides Poseidon should have known if it was going to be a slow day or not in the morning and given you a heads up when you two went out."

Poseidon huffs. "It's not as easy as you might think to see if he's sluggish or not. Like you said he's stubborn.  He'd hold up the sky without complaining. Yesterday he wore himself down and a nasty strain of the flu caught him hard."

Hestia shakes her head. "Still.... anyway what happened? How bad was it?"

He sits back and folds his arms across his chest. "He woke up with a dangerously high fever and it just kept going up. We were lucky that the hospital was able to give him fluids and medicine which brought it down quickly. However now Dr. Michaels has prescribed some pills for him to take daily."

"I bet he hates that," Athena states flatly remembering the time that it took all three of them just to get him to take an Advil for a bad headache.

"He doesn't know yet," Poseidon says. "But he probably won't like it."

So they continue to talk as the night turns to morning and not once does Poseidon wonder why Athena stuck around so late instead of just showing up to rant tomorrow as one would expect. Multiple times Hestia has to stop the two from coming to blows over stupid things and convince them to lower their voices. 

The women leave around five and Poseidon crashes on the couch where he stays until Percy gets up several hours later. He almost manages a good eight hours of sleep.