I can't remember the last time I was so late in publishing a birthday story! This is actually embarassing, but prom and graduation and becoming very good friends with vodka got in the way. I hope you enjoy this Maddi!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters portrayed below, and I know that there are many different versions of the Hippocratic oath and that I may not have used the most recent one. Oh well.

Dedication: M.

A Lifetime of Promises

Promises are only as strong as the person who gives them.

-Stephen Richards

Nico was sitting next to a couple of university bigshots, his palms clammy. The lights in the auditorium were too bright. There were just too many people. And then the moment of awkward silence between the naming of "Dr Amina Sarahd" and "Dr Oliver Sullivan" took his breath away and twisted his gut. He wanted to shadow-travel away, but Hazel's words echoed in his mind. There are things you will regret for the rest of your life if you don't do them while you've got a chance. He's gone, Nico, but there are still bits and pieces you can say goodbye to. Hazel had been spewing a lot of similar bullshit since she'd flown down to stay with him.

And so Nico eased himself back into his seat as the master of ceremony announced that it was time for the Hippocratic oath ceremony.

"Will the candidates for the degree of doctor of medicine for the class of 2022 please rise," the dean spoke into the microphone. They did. "For the last five years, John Hopkins University has given the chance for a single student to be sworn in individually in front of their pears, before leading their colleagues into swearing the Hippocratic Oath. To make this choice, the staff of our medical school relies on academic excellence, the demonstration of work ethic and integrity, and manifested talent."

Nico took a deep breath.

"This year, we are proud to announce that the selected student was M. William Joseph Solace."

A polite round of applause, though slow and quiet from the stunned and confused students.

"M. Solace was an intelligent physician, calm and composed, with a drive that has come to be legendary amongst his peers and professors. M. Solace presents an unmistakable talent for the art of medicine, and a passion with no equal. He roams the halls of a hospital as if he were born with a stethoscope around his neck and a scalpel in his hand. He is a good man in the storm, with a reassuring, authentic and steady demeanour that patients adore," the dean said. "We looked forwards to his career in medicine, and even more so to the career in surgery to which he aspired. Tragically, Will Solace's was a life cut short, and an enormous loss to every community, family and individual that this brilliant young man has touched. To celebrate this young doctor who fell short of his graduation by a mere two weeks in a violent encounter, we have invited M. Solace's fiancé to the stage on this day to read in his honour. Please welcome M. Nico di Angelo."

The applause made Nico's skin crawl, but his hands crisped around the paperwork that they had prepared for him. He walked to the stage and the dean helped him adjust the mic after a handshake. Nico raised his eyes, looked back to his paper, spoke. He remembered to speak loudly and clearly. He remembered to pause so that the graduates could echo his words, the doctor's oath.

"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:...

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow."

Will was kneeling in front of Ashia, his little sister, who was crying heavily.

"Ashia, I don't even think I could have saved him after that second heart attack," Will said. "You didn't kill him, Ash. He just ran out of time while he was in your hands. It's not your fault, I promise it's not."

Ashia's crying softened a bit.

"You don't have to lie to make me feel better," Ashia said.

"I'm not," Will promised. "I'm not. But if you're so convinced that you killed him, that's for you to work through. But let me show you how you can take care of someone else, this Roman guy with a drain in his chest that we need to watch for clogging. How does that sound? Are you ready to let go of Mimi for a little bit so that we can make sure that Dakota, this great guy who took a spear in the chest for Katie, can live?"

Ashia took her glasses off, wiped her tears away, and nodded.

Once he was done showing Ashia how to change a drain, Will peeled off his gloves and tossed them in a rubbish bin. Nico was leaning on the doorframe.

"You should be in bed," Will said.

"Watching you teach is much more interesting," Nico said. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Ashia?" Will said. "Oh, yeah. The first person you lose is always… the hardest." That looked a little hard for Will to say himself. He took a deep breath.

"Who was yours?" Nico asked.

"No idea," Will said. "This emmancipated twelve-year old kid who stumbled over half-blood hill with a celestial bronze bullet in the chest. Probably a runaway from the Titan army. She was really pretty, with this long golden hair and blue eyes like those Greek beaches on travel posters. It was winter and I was the only healer at camp, but too young and not good enough. I worked on her for two hours before she died. My sister Dianne, she was the best healer then, flew back to camp and stole a banana from the kitchen so that she could show me how to do stitches. I gave stitches to twelve people during and after Capture-the-Flag that night."

"That's why you showed Ashia that thing," Nico said.

"Everything I know, I learned from Dianne Felix," Will nodded. "You know what else she taught me?"

"What?" Nico said.

"The importance of bed rest, Nico di Angelo- go."

Nico snickered.

"This is no laughing matter," Will fussed. "Go, go, go!"

"I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism."

"You are spoiling me rotten," Nico said. "You've seen me like this before..."

"Yes," Will said. "And I don't like it at all."

Nico leaned back into all the extra pillows Will had lugged to the bedroom for him. Will put a plate of bacon and eggs on his knees -along with a glass of orange juice and a bowl of fruit salad, because Nico was dating a doctor and every meal he ever ate was balanced. Except for McDonald's, there was no making that one work.

"I had to shadow-travel cross-country to meet my sister's baby and it's a bit exhausting, but not terminal, Will," Nico said.

"So should I take the bacon back?"

"God, no," Nico said snatching a piece from the plate, just in case. Will laughed and sat down in bed, laying down Nico's feet in his lap and massaging them.

"So, tell me about this Zhang baby," Will said.

"Oh my God, Elisa is too cute for words," Nico said, throwing his head back into the pillows. "Give me my phone, I have pictures."

"I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug."

"Pick one," Will said presenting two grocery bags to Nico. Nico gave Will a look, but the latter was unresponsive. "Let's go. Pick one."

Nico toed one of the bags, and so Will emptied it out on the floor of the Hades cabin. A soft-looking blanket, an enormous bag of Skittles, a pack of Myth-O-Magic cards, a Happy Meal, one of Will's sweaters that had a stain on the shoulder (and ergo probably hadn't been washed and still smelled like him), and an old black-and-white movie from the 1930's just because Will knew that they made Nico feel warm and fuzzy whereas gun-pow special FX colour movies intimidated him.

"You picked the feel-good kit," Will said. "We'll save the relaxation kit for later. Anyways, let me into your cabin so I can make you feel better."

"What?" Nico asked, holding out his hands and halting Will by taking his wrists. Will tilted his head to the side.

"Your sister's death anniversary is coming up and you've been acting low and in all honesty, I was getting a bit scared that you'd run for the hills," Will said. "So I'm just going to make you feel better and at home here instead of dealing with you on the run. Or I'm just going to make a space for you to feel okay for a little bit. Whatever works best for you, okay?"

"Okay," Nico said, stepping aside and letting Will in. "Does it really bother you that much? When I just go away?"

"Of course it does, Nico," Will said. "I worry about you, and where you are and how you're doing. I wonder about you. I miss you."

"Oh," Nico said. "You don't have to."

"Well I do," Will said. "It would be the absolute worst if I lost you without saying goodbye one day just because I thought you were off on a stroll through the shadow lands or whatever you call it. I wouldn't want to miss that chance."

The idea took Nico by surprise.

"I promise I'll always come back," Nico said. The corner of Will's lips twisted upwards.

"I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery."

Nico was trembling.

"Don't tell me I'm cold," Nico said. "Just- just don't, okay? Because anybody who's taken ten seconds to look at me can say that, and I thought you were different."

"I'm sorry Nico, but that's what it is," Will said. "I don't get it and I don't like how shifty this gets. When I hold your hand, it hurts when you rip yours away. When I talk to you, I like getting an answer- even if it's just 'I don't feel like talking, Will'. When we fight and you shadow-travel away, it makes me feel worthless. When I say I love you, I want you to say it back when I know you mean it."

"I don't want to talk about this," Nico said.

"Well I'm sorry, but you're going to have to," Will said. "Do you… do you even want to be with me?"

"Yes!" Nico said. "I don't want to be having this fight but yes!"

"I don't feel it," Will said. "And that kills me because I want to be with you so badly, but you get so cold…"

"I don't mean it."

"That doesn't change how it makes me feel," Will said.

"I can't change overnight Will, I'm trying really hard to be better at lasting and touching and knowing people but it's not easy," Nico said.

"Again, I don't feel it," Will said. "I'm sorry."

"Oh no, now I'm sorry," Nico said. "I'm sorry you can't tell how hard I'm trying to make things right. Tell me, would you rather be as messed up as I am? I don't even think you know how bad that is, you just know me because you know the stories people say. But do you know what it's like to have zero childhood? Do you know what it's like to have to replace your parents with your big sister- and to spend your childhood knowing that she's just a kid too and that you are making her life miserable by being there for her to take care of? Do you know what it's like to lose the only person in your family? Someone so great you would have chosen to have her and only her in your family even if the universe or whoever the fuck's in charge had given you a choice- before ripping her away? Do you know what it's like to know that she died because of your first gay-ass crush? To have the second biggest target in the mythological world on your back and all these strange powers you don't know what to do with and no help at all? Have you ever tried getting some decent sleep in a back alley in Thailand because somehow you got there and you're too tired to get out? Do you know what kind of nightmares you get after spending what feels like weeks fighting in Tartarus by yourself? Do you know what it's like? Do you know how much it messes up your ability to see something good and believe that it can be yours and last?"

Will blinked for a second.

"No," he said, finally. "I don't."

Nico looked at him, stunned. The no, I don't had been so simple... but hit him like a brick.

"Okay," Nico said. "Well. It does."

"Yeah," Will said. "It would. That makes a lot of sense, Nico. Thank you."

Nico didn't get it. He wasn't much of a crier. But Will opened up his arms just in time for Nico to burry his face in his chest and hide the tears.

"I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. Above all, I must not play at God."

Will swore to the gods that he was going to die if he had to go into work without threading his amulet on his camp necklace. He really wanted to wear it for one of his favourite cancer patients, this seven-year-old kid who loved dinosaurs and refused to go to sleep without Will saying goodnight to him and who Will wished had better odds in his surgery today.

He was swearing and muttering under his breath as he dug through the drawer where they stuffed socks with no matches, when he hit something solid. He got excited at first (amulet, amulet, amulet, amulet!) but then realised that it was way bigger than the stone was. He pulled the thing out and nearly screamed at the top of his lungs this time- it was a ring box. For a second Will played with the idea that Frank had hidden Hazel's engagement ring here or something, that was much easier to believe. But damnit, he had to check it out. He opened the box and his breath caught in his chest at the sight of it. A beautiful, solid silver band interrupted only by two gold lines- framing the place where a diamond might have been, if the two of them hadn't spent hours discussing how cliché and tacky diamonds were.

Will would have readily screamed. It was beautiful. And it had his name written all over, which meant that Nico had bought him a ring and was hiding it, plus he had asked for Will's schedule three times in the last two days to know when he was off- which meant that… Holy Olympus.

Will Solace was looking at an actual engagement ring actually bought for him by Nico di Angelo. What a crazy world he lived in. What a crazy, beautiful, perfect world…

In his stunned state, Will hadn't picked up on the shower being turned off. He jumped about ten feet in the air when the bathroom door opened up. He tossed the ring back in the sock drawer and slammed it shut, opening and closing some other ones quickly.

"Nico do you know where my amulet is?" Will asked. "I'm going to be late and I really need it!"

"It was in your pants when I did laundry," Nico said, walking into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and water dripping from his shaggy hair. "I put it in the bowl by the door, with your keys."

"Thanks," Will said. He kissed Nico on his way out, maybe a little too long, but whatever.

"I'll be awake after your shift," Nico said. "I wouldn't want to miss all your stories.2

He was going to tell Cancer Kid about his ring today, and tell him that he could come to the wedding when it happened if he was super-duper strong during surgery today. That would do it. And when Nico gave him that ring, it was still unsure whether or not Will would ever admit finding it first.

"I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick."

Will shot up like a fired bullet, his hand flying towards the dagger on his bedtable and knocking down a lamp.

"What's wrong?" Will asked, panting.

"Nothing," Nico said next to him. He was panting even more, struggling to breathe evenly- no wait, to breathe at all. Will turned on his phone's flashlight and tossed it on the bed before scooching towards Nico's side and taking him in his arms. He could feel Nico's racing heart slow down a bit.

"Are you okay?" Will asked.

"Yeah," Nico said. He felt sticky with sweat, with his skin against Will's. "It's just a nightmare, I'm sorry. Not even a new one- the same as last night. And the one earlier tonight..."

"That's okay," Will said. "That's fine."

"I'm sorry I'm so fucked up," Nico said. "You deserve better."

Will kissed his hair. "If I deserve better than you, I don't know what in this world could be available."

He knew Nico was blushing.

"You don't deserve my baggage."

"But I want you," Will said. "And I want you so badly that I want everything."

Nico probably blushed more, but Will went on.

"How could I not? I wouldn't want to miss this life you're putting together."

"I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure."

Will was standing on a chair, blocking the apartment door.

"Drink the fucking orange juice, Nico di Angelo," Will said.

"I'm going to be late," Nico said- disgusted by how his own voice sounded when he was congested and sick. He let out a cough that basically asked death to take him away. This cold sucked.

"I'll get out of your way if you drink the orange juice."

"There's pulp in it."

"The pulp is good for you and will help put some Vitamin C in your body," Will said.

"I much rather get some vitamin D," Nico said.

"That wasn't half as funny as you think it was and besides, Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption and maintains adequate serum calcium phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bone and to prevent hypocalcemic tetany. Wheareas what your problem is, is the cold to end all colds so drink the fucking juice."

Nico, defeated, held out a hand after fifteen solid minutes of struggling.

"There," Will said. "That wasn't that hard, now was it?"

"Juice with pulp shaves a year off of my life expectancy," Nico announced.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep whining di Angelo, but the truth is, if you hated being taken care of that much you would have shadow-traveled away," Will said hopping off the chair and clearing the door. He kissed Nico's forehead. "Enjoy your graveyard shift."

"I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm."

Zia Sofia was an old woman. She was weak and sickly and had lost more in her lifetime than most people ever would- but her mind was still intact, and that was a miracle. Otherwise, Nico would never have found her.

It had been Will's idea, actually, to look in ancient registries to find out more about Maria di Angelo. Nico remembered growing up in Venice and little tidbits here and there- but how much did anyone really remember from the first five years of their lives, never mind someone who had spent some time at the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

And so NIco found out about Giovani di Angelo, the Italian diplomat who had been brought back from the United States and removed from office after speaking out against Il Duce- Benito Mussolini... There was also Clara, his charming wife, who sang in the church choir and knitted for the soldiers and did a thousand other charitable and kind things. Their first daughter had been Maria di Angelo, definitely a wise-ass and a firecracker in temperment and a bit of a heretic as far as Italian catholics from 1930 were concerned. They had lost three children; their firstborn Anteo in Mussolini's African campaign, their youngest daughter Pamina in childbirth, and their son Adriano during the second world war. But there was another daughter; Sofia.

Sofia di Angelo was, in short, a badass. She was an anarchist even during Mussolini's reign, and had been a huge pioneer for women's rights in Italy -so Nico was told. She'd worked in an orphanage for Jewish children for ten years after the war before coming to America with a lesbian lover named Carmela who had left her three weeks later for a veteran who had gotten rich after losing a leg. To this day she said, 'I don't even think I was really lesbian'. Anyways, in New York Sofia had opened a dress shop and when the store became too big for her to handle she hired marginalised women to assist her. Ot all became so wildly popular so fast that she opened three locations before selling the chain to one of her oldest employees and moving on to writing detective novels in German and getting rich off the stock market. In there, she had also studied art history for a year at NYU, taken part in the civil rights protests, disappeared for three months in Tanzania only to later declare that she really loved safaris, purchased multiple motorcycles, and appeared in a viral YouTube video as a 91-year-old lady declaring that her wish had been for 'George Bush or anyone else equally stupid' to never become president while eating red velvet birthday cake. When Nico had met her, she was comfortably wasting away in one of New York's City's best retirement homes where she enjoyed Sudokus, making dresses (she sent them all to Haiti and Syria and wherever tragedies would hit) and blasting bad soap operas to annoy the lady in the room next to hers.

You couldn't really tell, looking at Sofia over the last couple of weeks. Nico had watched her state disintegrate after she was hospitalised with Stage IV lung cancer. Sofia would have been 14 when Bianca had been born, 18 when Nico had surfaced. Sofia had been stunned but convinced when Nico had introduced himself- Maria had always been far too secretive about her lover for Sofia to consider him normal. She'd held onto his shirt and cried and cried that day. Now, Sofia's grip was too weak for her to even hold herself up. It was seeing her in this bad shape that had convinced Nico to finally introduce Will to her.

They hit it off like two old friends. Will was kind and open and he listened to her ramblings not just patiently, but with genuine interest. He didn't look awkward or horrified or worried when she had to stop midsentence to cough half a lung out, like Nico was sure he did. He held hands with her longer than Nico could hold hands with anyone in the world. He was the one to kindly suggest that it had been a long day for Zia Sofia, and that she should rest.

Sofia beckoned for him to come close and he did; she kissed his cheek. Will waited outside, and Zia Sofia softly whispered to Nico in Italian: tenere a questo. "Hold on to this one."

"Lo farò," Nico agreed. She coughed again and kissed his own cheek. Nico closed the door on his way out.

"You were so good with her," Nico told Will.

"She's cool," Will smiled. "Do I get her blessing? I mean, that's as close to a family blessing as I'm going to get, right?"

Nico smiled.

"I think she was this close to adopting you." He eased himself on his tiptoes to kiss Will. "Thank you."

"For what?" Will asked.

"For being you," Nico said. "For taking care of people so well. I mean, I know how well you take care of me. But the fact that you can instantly bond with any random Italian senior citizen I bring you to… That's just talent."

"If we must each bear our crosses, then mine is the burden of talent," Will said, spreading his hands. His smile betrayed his role-play. Nico rolled his eyes and took one of them, and didn't let go as they walked back home. He hoped that despite the kidding, Will had really gotten it. Both the thank you and the implied I love you.

"If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help," Nico said.

He could nearly feel a wave of heat touch his cheek, as if a cloud had just moved away from the sun- or as if a warm hand rested on his forehead. He closed his eyes. He could nearly feel Will, inches away from his face. He remembered the exact way that Will would be saying; Open your eyes, Nico. Take a deep breath. Think of our happy times. Take care of yourself.

Nico opened his eyes. There was a full classroom more of doctors in front of him, all sworn in, ready to make the world a better place. There was roaring applause. There was a good world out there.

He could still hear Will, too. Saying; You won't want to miss this. I promise the world will be good to you.