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Will knew something was wrong when Cecil Markowitz and Lou Ellen Blackstone burst through the doors of the infirmary, panic evident on their faces.
He had been triple-checking his messenger bag to make sure that he had all supplies that would be necessary as a field medic preparing for war, when the two demigods ran into the building. Will looked up, immediately assessing his friends for injuries. He wouldn’t have been surprised if one of the two was missing a limb; despite the war on the horizon the two still decided to make it their job to provide entertainment to campers through “harmless pranks”. Unfortunately, many other campers (mainly the inhabitants of the Ares cabin) did not share their sentiments. Still, as he scanned the son of Hermes and daughter of Hecate, they both seemed to be fine physically, apart from how winded and red-faced they were. Will left his messenger bag on a nearby cot and made his way over to his friends.
“You guys good?” he asked cautiously. Lou Ellen glared at him in response, as if to say “ Do we look fine, you piece of schist? ” Cecil, on the other hand, raised a finger in a one second gesture. He waited, as the two did their best to catch their breath.
Cecil seemed to give up on catching his breath as he started stuttering out words.
“You. Hide. NOW,” he managed out.
Will frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “What do you mean? C’mon guys, give me more to work with.”
At this point, Lou Ellen seemed to have caught her breath, ready to relay whatever message was burning up her tongue. But it was too late, as the doors of the infirmary burst open, and a familiar and loud voice speaking up.
“SOLACE, GET OVER HERE.”
Will froze, glancing at the person. In the doorway stood none other than Clarisse La Rue herself. Unlike other campers, Will got along pretty well with Clarisse. Ever since they met in their first week at camp, the two had a mutually beneficial relationship. Clarisse considered herself to be a one-man Will Solace Protection Squad and was the only camper who hadn’t given up on trying to teach the son of Apollo how to defend himself. In return, Will had been unofficially appointed as Clarisse’s primary medic, and Will managed to diffuse Clarisse’s anger (something that was important for the general safety of Camp). However, in this moment, he felt unsettled looking at Clarisse. She didn’t look angry, no, but rather anxious, and maybe even slightly scared. It didn’t help that Cecil was mumbling what sounded to be a prayer for Will’s well-being.
He did his best to keep his tone even, “Clarisse, is there something wrong?”
Said demigod marched up to Will and firmly planted herself straight in front of him. Despite being nearly the same height, Will felt small next to Clarisse. She was quite muscular, compared to Will’s more lanky stature, and stood proud. Will found himself unconsciously straightening his posture, before stiffening as Clarisse placed two hands on his shoulders.
“Listen Solace, I’ll get straight to it. Mellie is definitely going into labor soon, and you’re going to be in charge of delivering the baby,” she stated, her gaze hard enough that no sane person would bother arguing.
Naturally, he did. “What do you mean I’m in charge of delivering- Clarisse, there is no way I am qualified for that! Why can’t Chiron just do it? He’s way more experienced and qualified and-”.
Clarisse cut him off, something that was akin to pity flitting across her face. “Look, I’m sorry, kiddo, but the old centaur is busy with other things. We got a war on our hands right now, in case you didn’t notice. And yes, none of your siblings can help. I searched this damn camp high and low and for once I don’t see any of you idiotic sunspawns wandering around,” she grumbled before adding, “All I’m saying is, Coach Hedge put me in charge of his kid and Mellie, and you’re the only one of your little musical brood who I trust enough to do this.”
Will mentally cursed. So this was what Lou Ellen and Cecil were trying to warn him about. Clearly, his siblings got the memo of what was to come and hid out. However, no matter how tempted he was to volunteer Austin or Kayla for this job, deep down he felt it was his responsibility as the oldest Apollo kid, the head counselor and head medic, to take on this (most likely) traumatizing task.
It didn’t mean he had to like it.
If Clarisse noticed his discomfort, she didn’t let on. Instead, she said, “I’m going to bring Mellie in. Be ready in five minutes, got it?”
Before Will could even respond, Clarisse was out the door of the infirmary. Will turned around to face Lou Ellen and Cecil, his hands prematurely beginning to shake. He huffed, glancing at his friends, both of whose expressions were a mixture of pity and amusement.
“It’s been nice knowing you, my dude,” Cecil said. “If you die from trauma, can I have your green Converse? Oh, and those weird llama socks. Y’know, to remember you by?”
Will scowled, “Shut up, no. What kind of warning was that? Couldn’t you have just been a tad clearer? I can’t believe-”.
Lou Ellen shot him a look, “Don’t blame us! We did our best to help. It’s your fault for not just listening to us.”
“The last time I ‘just listened’ to you guys, my hair was bright pink for two weeks,” Will grumbled, although his willingness to fight with his friends was rapidly depleting and being replaced by fear of what was to come. He did his best to move around and start setting up an area for Mellie, but couldn’t ignore the churning of his stomach.
Lou Ellen seemed to notice as she sighed, moving over to WIll and placing a hand on his shoulder, “Listen Will. Clarisse is right, you’re the best medic in this camp to handle this. You CAN do this.”
Cecil nodded, stepping to Will’s other side, “And hey, if you don’t completely shut down mentally after this, you can join us on our reconnaissance mission.”
Will raised an eyebrow, “You guys are doing a reconnaissance mission? Cecil, you are one of the clumsiest people I know. And Lou, last time I checked, we still need to work on your inside voice.”
Lou Ellen huffed, sticking her tongue out, “Make fun of us all you want, but I have a feeling you’re going to need some air after this,” she said, as she and Cecil started snickering, probably at the clear terror that was to come from delivering a satyr baby.
Before Will could clapback, the doors of the infirmary swung open. Steeling up his nerves, Will prepared himself for what was probably about to be the most harrowing experience of his life.
A few hours later, Will officially delivered his first (and Holy Hera please let it be the last ) baby. The less said about the experience the better.
Will did his best to be kind and happy for Coach Hedge (who, in quite a dramatic manner, explained how he got to Camp in time for the baby’s birth; the only reason he remembered was due to the mention of a certain son of Hades who he had his eyes on for a while) and Mellie as they cooed over their newborn son. But after seeing, er, things , that he doubted he could never forget, he couldn’t look at that baby satyr without nearly passing out.
After receiving congratulations and thank yous for a job well done and a firm pat on the shoulder from Clarisse, Will felt completely tapped out. He had changed out of his scrubs and into a Camp shirt and a fresh pair of jeans when Lou Ellen and Cecil found him. The two wore shit-eating grins as Will shot them a dirty look.
“So Will-”
“No.”
“ -how did you enjoy -”
“Stop talking. I’ll carve your eyes out with a scalpel.”
“ -watching a miracle of life enter this world?”
Will groaned, flinging himself down face first onto a rather hard cot, favoring the pain of the sudden flop over listening to Lou Ellen and Cecil laughing at him.
“Don’t mock me. I have seen more of a woman than I will ever want to see for the rest of my life,” he groaned, dramatically placing a hand on his forehead as he turned onto his back.
“Well then,” Cecil mused, “it’s a good thing you’re a loud and proud gay.”
Lou Ellen nodded vigorously, “Yeah! I mean if you ever work up the nerve to talk to a certain son of Hades, I highly doubt you’ll be seeing-”
“Shhh… Leave me be, I need to wash my brain out with some bleach,” Will interrupted, pouting.
Cecil grinned, “Whatever helps you cope, dude, but on a serious note we need to know whether you wanna take up our offer to do some spy work.”
Will thought about the offer for a moment. He highly doubted that he had any real skills to offer to the mission, except maybe playing doctor if someone got hurt, so it would probably make sense if someone else went with the other two demigods. Someone who could defend Lou Ellen and Cecil if they were in a pinch. On the other hand, Will really needed some fresh air before he yakked all over his new change of clothes.
He sat up from the cot and stood up, “Count me in,” he said, as Lou Ellen grinned and Cecil let out a quick woot .
“Glad you’re coming and not going to sit around sulking for the next few hours. We’re going to have to darken up your outfit and stuff, to hide better. I’ll also wrap some mist around us for extra precautions. Now let’s hurry up and get you out of here, before someone else asks you to deliver another baby. Perhaps a dryad next?” Lou Ellen said, handing Will his forgotten messenger bag.
Will groaned, “Gods of Olympus, woman, don’t even joke about it.”
The other two demigods just laughed at their friend's misery, as the trio set off to prepare for their upcoming mission.