LABYRINTH ↬ leo valdez x reader, book 3

9. i'll be getting over you

The metal door swung open, and Leo settled to the floor.
"See, the wait wasn't so bad!" Leo grinned at his friends. "The doctor will see us now."
"All the ladies love Leo." I agreed sadly, walking across the threshold with his hand hovering behind me.

At the end of the hall stood a walnut door with a bronze plaque:

ASCLEPIUS
MD, DMD, DME, DC, DVS, FAAN, OMG, EMT, TTYL, FRCP, ME, IOU, OD, OT, PHARMD, BAMF, RN, PHD, INC., SMH

There may have been more acronyms in the list, but it was too much yap for me.
Piper knocked. "Dr Asclepius?"
The door flew open. The man inside had a kindly smile, crinkles around his eyes, short salt-and-pepper hair and a well-trimmed beard. He wore a white lab coat over a business suit and a stethoscope around his neck – your stereotypical doctor outfit, except for one thing: Asclepius held a polished black staff with a live green python coiled around it.

"Hello!" said Asclepius.
"Doctor." Piper's smile was so warm it would've melted a Boread. "We'd be so grateful for your help. We need the physician's cure."
"Pretty please?" I stood on my tiptoes and peered in.

Asclepius put his hand over his heart as his eyes widened significantly. ""Y/N L/N has finally come to visit me! I would be delighted to help."
Piper's smile wavered as she snuck a glance at me. Leo and Jason must have shifted too at the mention of my name. I just kept my head held high and my embarrassment on the down low. "You would? I mean, of course you would."
Asclepius ushered us into his office. "Come in, come in."

It was a very plain doctors office, to my slight disappointment: a big maple desk, bookshelves stuffed with medical books, and some plastic organ replicas that I could all name.

Asclepius took the big comfy doctor's chair and laid his staff and serpent across his desk. "Please, sit!"
Only three chairs beheld us so I sat gingerly in the middle.

"So," Asclepius leaned back. "I can't tell you how nice it is to actually talk with patients. The last few thousand years, the paperwork has got out of control. Rush, rush, rush. Fill in forms. Deal with red tape. Not to mention the giant alabaster guardian who kills everyone in the waiting room. It takes all the fun out of medicine!"

"Yeah," Leo said. "Hygeia is kind of a downer."
Asclepius grinned. "My real daughter Hygeia isn't like that, I assure you. She's quite nice. Our lovely child of G/P here though would surely give her a run for her money. At any rate, you did well reprogramming the statue. You have a surgeon's hands."
Jason shuddered. "Leo with a scalpel? Don't encourage him."

The doctor god chuckled. "Now, what seems to be the trouble?" He sat forward and peered at Jason. "Hmm ... Imperial gold sword wound, but that's healed nicely. You have a great healer I presume. No cancer, no heart problems. Watch that mole on your left foot, but I'm sure it's benign."

Jason blanched. "How did you—"
"Oh, of course!" Asclepius said. "You're a bit short-sighted! Simple fix."
He opened his drawer, whipped out a prescription pad and an eyeglasses case. He scribbled something on the pad, then handed the glasses and the scrip to Jason. "Keep the prescription for future reference, but these lenses should work. Try them on."

"Wait," Leo said. "Jason is short-sighted?"

"There's been signs." I mumbled.
Jason opened the case "I have had a little trouble seeing stuff from a distance lately," he admitted. "I thought I was just tired." He tried on the glasses, which had thin frames of Imperial gold. "Wow. Yeah. That's better."

Piper smiled. "You look very distinguished."
"I don't know, man," Leo said. "I'd go for contacts – glowing orange ones with cat's-eye pupils. Those would be cool."
"Glasses are fine," Jason decided. "Thanks, uh, Dr Asclepius, but that's not why we came."
"No?" Asclepius steepled his fingers. "Well, let's see then ..." He turned to Piper. "You seem fine, my dear. Broken arm when you were six. Fell off a horse?"