Chapter Text
It's not often that a God gets hurt, even less often that they get hurt this badly and by a godly weapon at that. The last instance had happened a forgotten time ago, which means there's not much known about how to treat a God after being so severely injured.
So, after getting Poseidon back to Olympus, no thanks to any of the Gods, not even his own brothers, Apollo did all in his might to treat him. Now, Poseidon still lays unconscious in the sun gods infirmary. It's not surprising that he'd take longer to recover, Athena is still at the infirmary as well after Zeus had struck her, but she's at least conscious.
The other gods had at first not paid him much mind, even snickered while passing him, now they all had differing responses to his slow paced healing. Some passed by his room without a glance, maybe a bad feeling in their chest. Others checked up on him regularly, partly out of concern and out of curiosity. At one point Apollo had just left him to treat any other patient that got to his infirmary and to keep healing Athena.
Tonight was one of these nights, the god of the sun nowhere to be seen, most likely in his sleeping quarters like the rest of the gods besides Athena, who lays in the room down the hall from Poseidon. Athena had been watching the ceiling, deep in thought thinking about Odysseus, how wrong it all went when she left and how she could fix their friendship, now that he's back in Ithaca. The Man has gone through so much, would he even call her a friend anymore? Would he tell his family to never pray to her again? Would he ever forgive her for leaving him to his own devices in the middle of his journey home?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash. It sounded like it came from further down the hall, maybe some other patient woke up and wanted to walk out, pushing over some medical equipment. Apollo wouldn't be pleased with that but it wasn't any of her concern, not worth her attention. What did catch her attention though, was the shrill cry that sounded after the crash.
A very childlike cry.
That got Athena to her feet, she was still sore all over and it hurt, but she couldn't ignore it. Why would there be a child in Olympus? In the infirmary? The last time she checked, there were no children anywhere on Olympus.
The Goddess stormed out of her room, not caring how loud the door hit the wall, most occupants of the infirmary were probably woken up by the cries, Apollo himself was probably awoken too. As she strode down the corridor, scanning every door, every inch of the hallway for evidence of the sounds source, she catches a faint, sweet smell.
Ichor.
It's coming from Poseidon's room.
'okay, he probably woke up, tried to get up and opened some wound.' Athena reasoned with herself, but that didn't explain the cries that are seemingly also coming from Poseidon's room. Why would the god have a child in his room?
Athena gently opened the door, not wanting to hit the already fucked over god with the door, and glanced inside. The first emotion on her face was confusion, the cries were drowned out by her thoughts. Why is there a child on the floor? Where's Poseidon? How did this child even get here? Her thoughts were again interrupted by the child's loud sob as they tried to get up, failing to do so and fall back down on their arm.
Or more like the still bleeding stump of their arm.
That's when Athena notices the sweet smell of Ichor in the air, now much more prominent, and the puddle of golden blood under the child, coming out of the giant wound where their arm is supposed to be. She rushed to the child's side, hesitant on what to do. She's the virgin goddess, how's she supposed to know how to stop a child, that's bleeding out, from crying!? But she's also the goddess of wisdom, something will surely come to her.
First, assess the damage. Obviously the child's arm is gone, from the jagged edges of the would, it's clear it wasn't cut off.There should be bandages somewhere in the room, she has to stop the bleeding somehow. Bandages, anything to apply pressure and something to cover the wound well enough to buy time to get Apollo.
She stood up abruptly, startling the child even more if that was even possible, and went over to the cabinets lined up along the wall, opening each one until she found a roll of sturdy bandages and a clean cloth.
The goddess came back over to the child, sobs still shaking his body but his throat too scratched up, too dry to scream. She took a second to look over the child, noting anything else that wasn't the missing arm. Long, flowing, dark hair, Skin tinted a shade of turquoise that almost melted into blue, scales more visible on some parts of the child's body, and gills.
Poseidon.
But why? How? She didn't have time pondering these questions, quickly but gently grasping the stump of his arm. The boy flinched but couldn't scream out, instead making a pathetic dry noise, no power to pull away from the stranger. Athena tied the bandage tightly around the open would, tight enough to slow down some of the bleeding and secured a cloth over it, wrapping another bandage over and around the cloth for good measure. The blood quickly started seeping through, She didn't have a lot of time, she has to get Apollo NOW.
As if on que, the god of the sun storms through the door, wide eyed and heavy breathing in panic. His eyes scan over the room, quickly landing on the child and his bleeding stump of an arm.
"Athena! What in father's name happened here?" Apollo asked as he rushed over, kneeling next to Athena to inspect the hastily patched up wound. "Who even is thi-" Apollo looked over to Athena, who had stood up just then, cutting him off "it's Poseidon. No time to explain. I'll go get father, you try to calm him down and heal him."
She didn't wait long enough to see Apollos shocked and confused face, rushing out the door to get Zeus and whoever decides to come along on the way.