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The third time, well, let’s just say the culprit wasn’t only one person.
Piper, along with Jason, Annabeth and Percy were once again standing and admiring the tall tower the Hephaestus cabin had done from just plain wood. The view from it was amazing, and the design of it equally eye-catching. Piper could barely fathom that it was all made of wooden planks that hadn’t even been cut up.
From a distance and the general direction of the infirmary, Will and Nico came walking. Piper waved when she saw them looking in her direction, making a gesture to beg them over. She knew Will had already gone up, but Nico — since he’d been stuck in the infirmary after his last training with Percy — hadn’t yet had the opportunity. And she was sure even he would enjoy the view, especially since the sun was slowly setting at the moment.
“Nico!” she called when they were within hearing distance. “You have to try the view from the tower, it’s amazing.”
Nico — as he and Will came to a stop in front of the group — only frowned and looked up the height. She knew he prefered staying on the ground, but he would miss out if he didn’t go up.
“C’mon Nico, you’ll miss out if you don’t do it!” Piper insisted.
“But-” Nico began to protest, but was interrupted by his boyfriend.
“She is absolutely right, Nico, it’s an amazing view. I can only imagine what it’ll look like with the sun setting now too.”
Nico frowned again, looking at the tower with suspicion in his eyes. “I don’t think-”
“Nico, really, it’s okay,” Piper said, sneaking a tiny bit of charmspeak into the words. “It won’t hurt you.”
Will looked up at her, his expression showing that he knew what she was doing, and smiled slightly. “Listen to her, Nico.”
“Nico, why don’t you climb up, you’ll love the view.”
Nico took a careful step forward, like the charmspeak was working but he still tried to resist. When Piper added another, “C’mon, climb up,” Nico took a few more steps forward, reaching his right hand out to take ahold of the bottom of the ladder.
“You’ll love it!” Piper encouraged, smiling when Nico looked back at her.
At her words, Nico placed up an foot on the ladder and began climbing. When he’d reached about halfway up, the tower began shaking slightly. Piper frowned, trying to recall if it had done that when she’d climbed up. But, no such memory came to her, and when she looked at the others she found them frowning too.
With one third left to the top, the tower started shaking more violently, tipping from side to side like it was about to fall apart. A moment later, it did just that.
In shock, Piper watched as the tower fell in on itself, taking Nico with it down. Then finally all the wood collapsed down on the ground with a deafening sound, a scream reaching out from the middle of the pile. Not one second later Will rushed forward, Jason following right behind. Just a moment later the rest of the rushed forward to help dig Nico out from the big pile.
All the while, Piper felt the guilt eating away at her. She’d been the one to use charmspeak to go up in the tower he didn’t even want to, to begin with. It didn’t matter that Will hadn’t tried to stop her from doing it, she’d still been the one to do it. She’d been the one forcing Nico.
A few minutes later, enough wood had been removed so that they could get Nico out. His face and arms were covered in splinters and scratches, but his leg seemed to be worse off. Piper could see Nico biting his lip to keep from calling out in pain when Will dragged out his body. However he was injured, it wasn’t lightly.
When Nico was completely out from under the pile, Will layed out his body on the ground and began to exam it for injuries. Just a moment later he closed his eyes and exhaled as if in frustration, but perhaps rather in worry.
“Your leg’s broken,” he said quietly, looking into his boyfriend’s face.
“At least you don’t have to give him CPR this time,” Percy said after the silence had stretched on for almost a minute.
Annabeth reached out and slapped him, because you don’t say that when someone’s just gotten injured. It didn’t help ease Piper’s guilt, either.
She’d forced Nico to climb up, and now his leg was broken.
“I can get it fixed pretty soon, but I need to move you to the infirmary first,” Will said, still only looking at Nico.
“Just do it, I’m okay,” Nico replied, but Piper could see him keeping his lips tightly closed, obviously in pain.
“I’m so sorry, Nico,” Piper finally said when Will began lifting Nico to get him to the infirmary. “I didn’t know that was going to happen, it didn’t when we went up.”
“It was the Stoll brothers,” Nico said in between deep breathes to keep his pain at bay. “They tampered with it. I was going to tell you, but you didn’t let me.”
And now Piper felt even worse. Nico had known it wouldn’t be safe to go up, and she hadn’t even let him tell that. She’d just assumed he was trying to get away, hadn’t even let him explain.
“I’m going to be fine, don’t worry,” Nico said, Will having already started moving towards the infirmary. “Will will fix it.”
Piper knew as much, but she still felt bad. Nico had been through enough already.