Work Text:
Leo, Piper and Jason stumbled back onto the deck of the Argo II, Jason dropping them the last couple of feet. They’d been on a simple supply run, but had run into a group of Empousai on the way back.
No one was badly hurt, but Piper had a pretty deep gash on her leg, and Leo had a couple on his arms. Percy and Annabeth rushed over, Hazel and Frank following them.
“You guys okay?” Percy asked, checking them over for injuries, and then leading Piper and Leo toward the infirmary. Jason followed behind them, Hazel and Frank staying above deck to keep watch.
“It’s not that bad,” Piper said, although she was wincing. “We should save the ambrosia and nectar.”
Right, that was another problem. Turned out seven powerful demigods in one place got injured a lot. They weren’t dangerously low, but they couldn’t afford to use it for minor injuries, however much Jason wanted to protest that Piper needed it.
Annabeth just guided Jason over to one of the chairs in the corner and chucked him a bottle of water, then started rummaging around in the med kits. Will had kicked up a fuss before they left and refused to let them leave without a full kit for each of them on the journey plus spares and extra supplies.
Jason was pretty impressed with how much mortal medical equipment Camp Half-Blood had, at Camp Jupiter they pretty much just relied on any demigods or legacies healing powers, or unicorn shavings. When he’d bought that up to Will, he’d just grinned at the Stolls and said something about plausible deniability.
So Jason was pretty sure that most of their medical supplies were stolen, but he wasn’t going to ask.
Percy and Annabeth had both found suture kits, and were dealing with Leo and Piper respectively.
“Uh, you know how to use that man?” Leo asked hesitantly. Jason couldn’t really blame him, he was pretty sure that healing wasn’t a Son of Poseidon power. Then again Percy seemed to have so many powers from his father Jason wouldn’t put it past him.
Percy just gave Leo a deadpan look. “Yes I know how to use it.” He said, spreading some sort of gel over the wounds. Annabeth was doing the same to Piper.
“It’s numbing cream.” She explained when Piper asked. “I’d give you painkillers but they tend to slow down your reaction times so…” She trailed off, but they got what she was saying. Slow reactions as a demigod were pretty deadly.
Leo hissed as Percy started to clean out his wound, and Percy gave him a sympathetic grimace. “So, where’d you learn to do this?” He asked, clearly trying to take his mind off of the pain.
“Lee, the old head of the Apollo cabin, made us all do battlefield first aid training when the war first broke out.” Annabeth answered, her voice tight.
“Overprotective bastard,” Percy muttered, but his eyes looked sad. “He made Micheal drag me back to camp in the middle of a school day so I could learn how to set a broken limb.”
Annabeth laughed softly, “I forgot about that.” She said, shaking her head sadly.
“Sounds like he did a pretty good job teaching you.” Piper said kindly as Annabeth started to stitch her up. Annabeth just nodded her agreement, and kept working on Piper's thigh.
Percy turned back to Leo and started stitching him up, with a mischievous grin on his face. “Hey Leo, you were sharing a cabin with Jake right?” He asked, “Has he ever mentioned anything about Lee to you?” Leo just shook his head, looking vaguely confused.
Annabeth just snorted. “Let it go, Seaweed Brain, we’re never gonna know.” she said, rolling her eyes fondly.
“I’m going to get it out of him.” Percy muttered determinedly. Jason shared a look with Piper and Leo but neither of them seemed to know any more than him.
“Get what out of who?” Jason asked curiously.
“Okay, so Jake started dating Micheal, Lee’s little brother about a year and a half, two years before the war fully kicked off.” Percy explained. “Lee had a reputation for being really protective of his siblings, and all the younger kids at camp.”
Jason thought that applied to all the older Greeks actually. It was kind of an unspoken rule at Camp Half-Blood to protect the younger kids. That wasn’t really a thing at Camp Jupiter, you looked out for the people in your cohort to an extent, but most of the time it was every man for themselves. He figured it was probably because the Greeks saw themselves more as family than the Romans did.
“So, when Jake asked Micheal out, Lee decided to give him a little talk.” Percy continued. “Jake was terrified and he’s never told anyone what Lee said.” Annabeth and Percy were both laughing at the memory, but their eyes remained downcast.
“Who’s Micheal, I don't think we met him?” Jason asked.
“The head counsellor for Apollo before Will.” Annabeth replied, staring at the table. “He died in Manhattan.” Percy and Annabeth both unconsciously rolled one of the beads on their necklaces between their fingers, and the empty cord around Jason's neck suddenly felt heavy for some reason.
“I thought Lee died in the war?” Flew out of Jason's mouth before he could think about it. Percy and Annabeth weren't particularly forthcoming about the Titan War, similar to the how the other campers at Camp Half-Blood had acted. At Camp Jupiter everyone loved to tell stories about the Roman Victory at Mt Othrys, although looking back he found the way it was done rather distasteful. There was rarely any mention of those who had died, and thinking about it, those who spoke of it the most had been retired long before the battle.
“Yeah, he did, about a year before Micheal.” Percy said. His eyes had turned stormy, and his voice was hard.
Wait, what?
“You guys were at war for a year.” Jason blurted again. He needed to stop opening his mouth.
“About a year and a half if you ask the gods, if you ask me around four years.” Annabeth replied, once it became clear Percy wasn’t going to answer. He was gripping the needle so hard Jason was surprised it hadn’t bent in half.
Jason's mind had gone strangely blank at that revelation. The Titan war been going on for a year and a half, longer even, without the legion knowing.
“Why, how long was it for you guys?” Annabeth asked, her grey eyes boring into him.
“Uh, we had a couple months where we were scouting Mount Othrys, but it was mainly just the battle on the 18th.”
Percy, who had finished stitching up Leo’s arm, told him he’d check on it tomorrow and then pretty much fled the room. Annabeth finished Piper’s stitches in silence, and then left the room after Percy, running a hand through her hair. She looked absolutely exhausted.
Jason sighed heavily and leant back in his chair. Well that conversation had been an absolute shitshow. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the Greeks had apparently fought most of the war alone.
They’d had around a hundred campers when Jason had arrived, but most of them were really young and Annabeth had said they’d had a massive influx of campers after the war. He really didn’t want to think about how many they might’ve had left directly after the war.
His mind turned back to Camp Jupiter, and he dreaded having to explain all this when they got back. The war against Saturn was seen as one of the Legion’s greatest accomplishments, and it had just turned into a side-battle. He didn’t know what the battle of Manhattan had been like for the Greeks, but given the way Percy and Annabeth had reacted, he was willing to bet it had been…rough.
“I kind of forgot they’d already fought in a war.” Leo said quietly. Jason knew what he meant, the war hadn’t really been talked about at Camp, so he’d admittedly just assumed that the Greeks hadn’t contributed much. He was starting to realise it may have been the other way around.