Leo Pov

I hate hospitals. A lot. A lot lot lot. From the smell to the cleanliness it's all in all a shudder worthy place. In our room, the walls and ceilings had fish stickers placed sporadically throughout the area. Our beds, more like fluffy cardboard rectangles were placed neatly in the center of the metal frame. Next to me, Perce snored softly. His mouth was slightly open, drooling slightly, getting the sticky spit on his pillow.

I however, couldn't sleep if I tried. Then again, he did tend to stay up later than me.

I knew we really should go to school, but I also knew there was no way we were getting out of the hospital. They wouldn't let us out for probably three days. Two if we're lucky, which considering everything that's happened so far, I'm going to say no.

Fiddling with the IV flowing into my vein, I suddenly got an idea. Calling the nurse with the button, I waited patiently (ha! Who am I kidding, I was practically bouncing the whole time) for her to arrive.

When she came in I  exclaimed "I really have to use the restroom!"

She rolled her eyes but that (forced) ever present smile remained, well, ever present.

" well you're just going to have to wait until the doctor gets here sweetie because I can't get your IV onto a mobile cart by myself." She stated, almost smugly but still composed.

"But I really gotta gooooooooo!!!" I whined in worryingly close comparison to a three year old.

It did its job.

"I said, No! I can't help you right now, you're just going to have to hold it while I get the doctor." Before turning on her heel and marching out the door.

Great, now they won't check up on us for a few hours. It was a  default strategy, I used it often when in hospitals. If you could piss off the nurse, they would leave you alone for good hour or two (enough to be long gone).

Shaking Percy awake proved easier said than done, which made sense I guess. He had a tendency to stay up very late attempting to actually do his homework where as I gave up on that a long time ago.

"Mom? MOM!!! MOMMOMMOMMOM NO!!" He began to shout, sending the heart rate monitor into a tizzy.

"PERCY wake up" I exclaimed before quieting. I stroked his forehead, his hand tightly in my grasp.This happened more often than he'd care to admit, he always felt the need to remain strong and independent when it was unnecessary.

A sharp intake of air, followed by a raspy gasp and Percy bolted upright. His eyes were wide in panic and, to my dismay, filled with tears. His gaze shifted to me as a tear streaked down his face. Before I had even said a word, his hand shot to his face, wiping the tear.

"S-sorry" he apologized, and if he didn't look utterly miserable already I would have slapped him.

"No you're not. You've done nothing wrong. And we've gotta get out of here, so let's go." I insisted, squeezing his hand before dropping it so that we could (dangerously and painfully) remove our IVs.

Ignoring the throbbing of my head and the stinging in my arm, I forced myself up to my feet. Percy grunted softly whilst joining me on two legs. Luckily, the door was unlocked. Unluckily, we were in hospital gowns and our (albeit dirty, bloody and worn) clothes were nowhere to be seen.

We can't just walk out the front door, that's for sure. Percy, apparently coming to the same conclusion as me, stumbled over to the window looking out. He stared out if for a few seconds before sighing and turning around.

"It has no latch and we are on the third floor, there's no way." He explained, slightly exasperated.

I felt my headache intensify as my eyebrows pinched together and my mind scrambled for an answer.

I can't  think of anything. I got nothing.

I don't know how long we stood in a silent stupor, but it was long enough for me to get to a boarder line panic. Then Percy slapped the table, with a jolt I stood upright. Percy pointed to a wheel chair in the corner. Lifting an eyebrow he silently asked my opinion. I nodded, a mischievous smirk finding its way onto my lips.

It's been a while since that was genuine.

Nico POV

Next to me, Thalia made a noise that can only be identified as someone stepping on a dog toy with a squeaker and releasing it in surprise. I felt my heart drop into my stomach, but managed to contain my (manly) squeak of horror.

In the folder, there was a stack of papers. The top one exclaimed innocently in bold letters "Di Grace is at it again!"

A newspaper article. The only one ever to be written about 'The Gamble'

How she found this, I don't know. What I do know is that Piper has our biggest secret tucked away in this manilla envelope and no amount of wishing will change that.

Okay, I have a lot of excuses but... Let's just go with I suck. Sorry all my stories are being updated at a molasses rate :/