Clarisse didn’t understand why out of all people, she was the one who had to put up the tree.
She was a nurse, dammit, a receptionist, or something should be doing this, not her. There are plenty of patients she could be attending to, but no, she was stuck decorating the tree in the hospital lobby.
This was infuriating. She should at least have help with this, right? But no, they were all “too busy”. Unbelievable.
She continued grumbling to herself as she hung the decorations on the tree. She strategically picked out where each one should go. Just because she didn’t want to be doing this didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be the absolute best at it.
“Excuse me?”
She turned around to see a young woman sitting in a wheelchair. She looked… extremely tired. Her eyes were slightly sunken and her skin was paler than it probably should be. Her head was bandaged, as were her arms and legs, and her lip was busted. Despite all that though, she was still incredibly pretty.
Clarisse looked her up and down skeptically.
“Can I help you?” She snapped.
The woman rolled closer to where she was working.
“Couldn’t help noticing you look a little grumpy,” she pointed out.
Clarisse rolled her eyes.
“Oh, aren’t you perceptive? Beat it, lady, I’m busy.”
The woman just hummed as she reached into a box and picked up a plain silver ornament.
“Hey, just what do you think you’re doing? You’re not allowed to touch that, go back to your room.”
“My doctor said I could roam for a little while and do whatever I want,” she said.
“Yeah? And what dumbass said that?”
“Dr. Chase.”
Dammit. Clarisse may not like Annabeth, but she’s a damn good doctor and if she said a patient could do this or that, she trusted her.
The woman gently hung the ornament on the tree.
“...You still shouldn’t be doing that,” she mumbled.
The woman shrugged and reached into the box again anyway.
“What’s your name?” She asked, not taking her eye off the tree.
“Clarisse. You?”
“Silena.”
“So, tell me, Clarisse, why were you grumbling to yourself in the corner here for the past half hour?”
She almost blushed at that.
“Tell me, Sally-”
“Silena.”
“-why were you watching all thirty minutes?”
She chuckled at that and shrugged.
“It was funny.”
Clarisse rolled her eyes and went back to concentrating on the tree.
“...I have more important things I could be doing,” she said after a moment.
“This isn’t important?”
She scoffed.
“Are you kidding? I’m a nurse, I could be doing way more important things, like checking on patients, taking blood samples, cleaning rooms, literally anything other than this.”
“I dunno. This seems pretty important too, don’t you think?”
“It’s a tree.”
“That’s true, but it can also be so comforting. There are plenty of patients here who can’t leave, can’t spend the holidays with their family. It must feel nice to see the place they’re stuck in looking so cheerful,” she pointed out.
“It may not seem important to you, but I know it’s important to a lot of folks here.”
She… had never thought about it that way. She looked around at the other patients in the room and saw a little girl with a scarf covering her head looking at the tree with bright eyes. It wasn’t near complete yet, but she still seemed so excited.
She looked back at Silena, who was examining a reindeer ornament.
“I guess,” she mumbled under her breath.
Silena softly smiled and hung up the reindeer.
They worked together silently for the next 30 minutes, making sure the tree looked perfect.
The two took a step back to admire their work.
“It’s absolutely beautiful. It’ll make a lot of people happy,” she said.
“Thanks… for helping out, I guess. But you really weren’t allowed to.”
“I won’t tell if you won’t.”
Clarisse nodded firmly.
“Hey, do you still have some free time?” Silena asked.
“Uh, why?”
She shrugged.
“Just wanted you to buy us some coffee and maybe even a muffin if you’re feeling really generous.”
Clarisse rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Fine, whatever. I’ve got 20 minutes left anyway.”
Silena had the audacity to smile at her like she was actually looking forward to it.
“Do you need me to roll you or can you do it?”
“You should do it. Not that I can’t, I just don’t want to.”
She almost laughed at that.
She grabbed the handles and began pushing her to the elevator.
“So what I’ve learned about you is you like to exploit people, huh?” She teased.
“Only when absolutely necessary!”
“And this was necessary?”
She pushed a button and the doors began to close.
“Correct. I have no money, and I don’t want to move. I’m sure you understand,” she playfully teased.
“Sure, whatever Soliel.”
“Silena.”
“Same thing.”
The doors opened leading them to a small cafeteria area.
“What do you want?”
“You should surprise me,” she said as she began rolling to an empty table.
That was certainly a strange, strange woman.
Clarisse decided maybe something warm would be best and upon remembering Silena’s busted lip, asked for a straw.
She arrived back at the table, setting down the drink in front of the other.
“Nothing for you?”
“Not thirsty.”
“No muffin?”
“No.”
“How disappointing. And here I thought we were on our way to becoming friends.”
“Just because you helped me decorate the tree, does not make us friends.”
Silena took a sip of her coffee and nodded.
“No, I know. Hence why I said ‘on our way to becoming’,” she pointed out.
Clarisse looked at her for a moment.
“So, what got you all banged up?” She asked, drastically changing the subject.
“Are you allowed to ask that?”
“Were you allowed to help me decorate the tree?” She countered.
Silena smiled and rolled her eyes.
“Okay, you got me there. To answer you’re question, I got into a fight. Went into a coma for two days,” she calmly explained.
Clarisse’s jaw dropped.
“No fucking way.”
This calm and gentle woman could not have gotten into a fight, it seemed impossible.
She nodded her head.
“It’s true. I won, too,” she boasted.
“Fuck off, did you really?”
“I may not look it, but I pack a mean punch. I wrestle in my free time. There’s an underground wrestling club that I go to, I’ve been the reigning champion for at least three years now.”
“There’s no way that’s true,” she said in shock.
“It is. You should come by some time, see what I can do,” she offered.
“Goddamn, I might. So, did you get injured during a match?”
Silena waved her hand in the air dismissively.
“No no, some idiot man tried was calling me slurs because he found out I’m trans, so I beat the shit out of him.”
Clarisse nodded.
“As you should.”
“So, that’s my story about how I landed myself here.”
“Damn. I mean, it sucks you had to deal with that, but it’s pretty fucking cool that you destroyed him.”
She giggled and tucked a strand of her black hair behind her ear.
“It was pretty cool, wasn’t it?”
The two fell into very easy conversation after that, talking about all sorts of random things.
Clarisse never considered herself a person people can get along with, but Silena really didn’t seem to give a shit about it. If Clarisse said something rude, she wouldn’t even acknowledge it.
It was honestly kind of...nice.
She always had trouble filtering her words and somehow it seemed like Silena understood that.
They talked for a long time, until Percy ran up to them, out of breath.
“Hello, nurse,” she politely said.
“Were you here this whole time?” He asked.
“Where else would I be?”
He paused for a moment.
“Hm. Guess you’ve got a point. Anyway, come on, you should really get back to your room,” she said.
She sighed.
“Yeah, maybe.”
She looked up at Clarisse and held her hand out.
“It was wonderful to be able to talk to you, I hope we can do it again soon.”
Clarisse didn’t even hesitate to shake her hand.
“Yeah, me too.”
Percy watched the two interact with fascination.
If later she got a text from him asking what the hell she did to get her respect, she definitely would ignore him.