The infirmary wasn't any less cold with an extra body in it. Nico dozed fitfully in the corner, pale skin feverish and clammy, as Leo went went in for his daily checkup.

"What were you arguing about?" he asked. Calypso looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "Yesterday. You and Jason."

Her eyes hardened. Yanked off the bandage. "Nothing," she muttered.

"OW! And I seriously doubt that," said Leo as he rubbed the tender skin next to the wound. Calypso smacked his hand. Rusting came from Nico's direction as he turned in his slumber and they froze. Grover and Coach had fixed him up as well as they could (Nico's injuries were far beyond Calypso's knowledge), but the boy was still painfully thin. An IV drip was connected to his paper arm and a heart-rate monitor rhythmically beeped out assurance of his life.

Calypso remained still until Nico stopped moving. Leo furrowed his brow as Calypso pulled out a strip of new bandage.

"Was it him?"

"You're going to need to be more specific than that," she said, stone faced.

"Nico." He took her hunched, defense posture as affirmation. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

"No, something happened and I think I have the right to know."

Calypso silently re-dressed the wound before she spoke. "We thought he was dead." Leo didn't know what to say to that, so he stayed still and waited for her to continue. "There was an… incident. Afterward, Nico became angry and reckless. We lost him on a solo mission to the Underworld. He was supposed to be shutting down one of the main crime bosses, but he took the mission into his own hands and did a side-quest to a trafficking ring. They ambushed him. Monsters. We think he fought back instead of calling for help. He didn't answer, but sometimes that happens on missions when it's dangerous to talk, so we didn't think much of it. We didn't see him the next day when he was supposed to be back so we went out to look for him. There it was. His comm on the ground among the debris of smashed monsters. We followed his trail, but apparently not far enough." Calypso sat back. Her eyes were fractured ice and Leo began to see why she was so cold. "We even had a funeral."

Leo frowned. "Then what was Jason talking about? The blame?"

"Jason was manning the comms that night. He blames himself for not reacting fast enough and getting help to him on time. He let his grief take over him and he almost lost an arm on patrol. We all tried to reason with him but…" She trailed off and looked over at Nico. "We should leave him to rest." She helped Leo thread his arm into his hoodie sleeve and walked over to adjust the controls and fiddle with the IV. Leo stretched and left her to finish. He knew better than anyone what it was like to grieve.

Leo's room was a mess. Annabeth's blueprints were strewn all over the table and floor, small objects he was tinkering with holding them down. He kicked a half-finished prototype for a helmet to the side and flopped down (carefully, watch the shoulder) on his bed. Above his head, amber pinpricks of light shone from the round, metal lamp. He was tracing constellations and recounting their stories to pass the time when he heard Hazel's door creak shut, the handle clicking softly into place. Moments later, muffled sobs came through the thin plaster that separated their rooms. Leo propped himself up on his elbow and frowned. Zipping up his hoodie to make himself more presentable, he slipped out of his room and knocked softly on Hazel's door. The crying stopped. Shuffling sounds drifted through the wood before Hazel opened the door - just a crack - and peered out at him. Her molten gold eye was red and bleary.

"Are you… okay?" Leo realized he was sorely unprepared to do anything to help.

She sniffled and wiped her tears with her sleeve. "Uh, yeah."

Yeah, right. "Do you want to talk about it or do you want me to leave you alone?"

Hazel bit her lip and hesitated before opening her door. She made her way across her meticulously clean room and sat on her bed, hugging a pillow. Leo awkwardly sat at the foot of her bed, crossing his legs. For a long time, the two of them sat there, facing each other in silence. Finally, Hazel shifted her head so her cheek rested on the pillow, golden curls floating in front of her face, and spoke, voice muffled by the fabric.

"He looks so thin." She fiddled with the hems of her sleeves. "Last time I saw him, he was healthy and awake and now… He looks like death. I mean, I'm glad he's not dead, but he was out there for a year and we didn't know where he was or what he went through and we never went to search for him again-" Her voice caught and she stopped. She looked up at Leo and her curls fell back from her eyes. Grieving gold stared into his soul. "He was my half-brother, you know. We were close before the incident."

"What incident?" He hated himself for asking, but he was curious. Calypso had mentioned as well.

"Oh," Hazel stuttered. Her fingers fluttered in the air. "His… last mission." Her eyes darted away and back.

Leo had a feeling she wasn't telling the truth, but he didn't press for details. "Well, he's back now, right?"

"Yeah." Hazel had a sad, faraway smile. "Back from the dead."

Encryptions are a tricky thing. To be completely honest, Leo understands machines far more than code, but he tries.

Ha, who are we kidding.

Rachel, Annabeth and Hazel did all the work. Leo didn't really do anything at the hacking sessions other than monitor Buford and build new algorithms for him. He was absolutely abysmal at cracking codes, but he could write programs with a lot of help from Google. That's gotta count for something, right?

(Really, who are we kidding)

That was why he was not at the hacking session the next day. Or that's what he told himself. They were still grieving Nico, and it showed in the way that Rachel was less bubbly and Annabeth snapped more and Hazel rubbed at her eyes from time to time. He had no part in their grieving. He didn't even know who Nico was.

Instead, he was training with the other guys. Or, he was watching them train as he played Flappy Bird, because as we've established several times, his shoulder was out of order. (Useless, useless lump of hot stuff.) Grover sat beside him, due to a disease in his legs that made him walk with a limp (but man that guy could run when enchiladas were involved) in awkward silence. Squeaks echoed through the room as the other guys sparred in their boots. Jab, punch, spin, kick. Percy went down. They were all grieving and hoping in their own way, but the blows were easier to deal with than the silence and clacking of keyboards.

"YEAH, JASON!" yelled Leo, not looking up from his game. He hit a pipe and sighed. "And I was doing so well…" He stuffed his iPod (Buford was working) into his pocket, giving his attention to Percy and Jason, who were now both fending off Frank. Punch, kick, duck, sweep. Frank had pinned Jason to the wall.

Coach walked in. "Break it up, cupcakes!" Frank released Jason and Percy rubbed his arm. "Nico's up."

An uncomfortable silence settled on the group like a blanket as they entered the infirmary, broken only by the muffled sounds of air conditioning. Calypso organized supplies at the back as Juniper fussed at Nico, who seemed to be weakly conversing with her. Leo was suddenly unsure of where to look. A vague fear of being kicked off the team now that Nico was back trickled in his mind. He knew now that he was chosen as a replacement for Nico. He closed his eyes and took a breath and dispersed the thought. Now was not the time to dwell on his own insecurities. His team was watching their brother come back (the Argo was family) and he would be there for them.

Hazel was the first one to break the silence.

"Nico!" She ran forward and collapsed on her half-brother in a hug, tears brimming at her eyes. The others rushed in after her and gathered around his bedside, laughing incredulously and crying. Leo stood on the edge of the group. The chatter of his teammates talking excitedly to their lost brother filled his head and he realized that he was happy, really happy, that his team was finally whole. It always seemed like it was missing something, and they had finally found it.

Nico was home.

A/N: aaaaaagh sorry this took so long, guys! i had absolutely no inspiration and was stuck forever on the last few paragraphs. i know i ended it a bit abruptly and this was all filler, but i really didn't know what to do anymore! i might have an idea for the next chapter. still forming it.

also, can you believe that it's been almost two years and i've only written 8 chapters? yeah. writing fiction is definitely not my strong suit, especially when i literally have never watched a spy movie and i'm not basing this on anything in particular.

thank you guys so much for your continued patience and support! i cherish every one of the reviews you guys send and they often make my day, even if it's incoherent screaming. as always, please review and leave your suggestions for where you want the story to go. any ideas you have really help me. i have absolutely no experience writing multi-chap stuff and am abysmal at writing plots. critiques, as always, are welcome, and please (nicely) yell at me from time to time to UPDATE THIS DANG THING or at least look at my doc!

come bother me on my tumblr! i'm yumikat there and i post art and reblog whatever (mostly homestuck). i also made an art insta xzyumi.

love you guys!

~yumi

(p.s. no more of that annoying inconsistent capitalization! i won't capitalize my a/n's anymore because reading those gave me a headache.)