Chapter 6

Magnus is on his couch, enjoying a virgin mimosa, when he receives a call. J. Blondie shows up on the caller I.D. With a brief hesitant thought Magnus pick it up.

"Magnus, we need your help." The blond exclaims right away.

"Give me one reason why I should help when it's almost nine-thirty at night?"

"It's Alec."

Alec? As in Alexander Lightwood, the father of his unborn child? Impossible. It has to be a different Alec as his is Head of the Institute and is most likely in his office right now, elbow deep in paper work, fighting sleep as he tries to get his work done.

"It's bad, Magnus. Izzy and Clary have their jackets on the wound, Simon and I are half naked to help make sure no more blood----"

"Tell me where you are." The Warlock grips his phone tightly.

Jace gives him their location in SoHo. Magnus opens a portal and steps through it, what he sees isn't what he's expecting. Alec is on the ground with his eyes closed, Jace and Simon have nothing on their upper bodies, Simon, Izzy, and Clary pressing shirts and jackets on Alec to keep him stable, Jace pacing back and forth in a panic. Izzy isn't much better as she looks to be on the verge of crying as she begs her brother to wake up and telling him that everything is going to be all right.

"What happened?" Magnus asks. He's baffled that Alec has chosen to come on a hunt tonight after finding out he's going to be a father, it's also the Shadowhunter's first hunt in months after getting promoted to run the Institute.

"It was supposed to be a simple mission, take out a few Shax demons, go home." Izzy explains. "But we got split up and the biggest one went for Alec, he was able to kill it but not before it took its claw and cut Alec down from his chest to his stomach. Please, Magnus, you have to help him."

Magnus may not be on good terms with Alec recently, but there is not a chance that he is going to let the father of his child die. (Mostly so Magnus can scold him when he wakes up for doing something so dangerous and stupid.)

Gritting his teeth Magnus tells them, "Jace, Simon, grab Alec by his arms and legs. Clary, Izzy, keep the pressure on him. I'll open a portal to my loft; I can be much more of help there."

Everyone does as he says as Magnus opens a portal, so they can get Alec safely through without any trouble.

Back in his apartment Magnus starts grabbing potions as Jace and Simon place Alec on the couch that the young Alpha cleaned months ago. Magnus instructs Clary and Izzy to stop applying pressure to Alec's wound and to take the shirts and jackets off, so he can get a good look at the injury.

The Omega does not like what he sees. The wound is just barely deep from it being very critical and life threatening. Taking a deep breath Magnus leaves his potions and starts using his magic to rid the wound of any possible infections and closing it.

"Get me the vial on the third shelf that is clear." Magnus orders.

Jace is the one to bring him the vial. "Please tell me you can bring him back. I can barely feel him." That isn't reassuring. If Alec starts slipping now, how can he yell at him for doing this?

"Did anything else happen while Alec was battling the Shax demon?"

"He knelt to the ground, like he was in pain." Surprisingly it's Simon who answers. "I though the demon already got him, but then the demon lifted its claw----"

"And there is no sign that he is hurt anywhere else besides this cut." Izzy finishes.

Pain? Why would Alec be in pain before the demon even hurt him? They're mates and Magnus hasn't even felt any sort of pain tonight. Not even Jace is hurt badly enough for it to have an effect on Alec.

Not wasting time, Magnus opens the vial lifting Alec's head so he can pour it down without having the Shadowhunter choke on it. It goes down without an issue. Magnus lays his mates head down gently as he focuses on the wound.

It takes him twenty minutes to clean and heal Alec's wound with magic. The wound is in the early stages of being a scab so Magnus goes to the mundane way and uses rubbing alcohol, besides a slight tense in his body Alec doesn't stir. Magnus then grabs some bandages and starts wrapping them around Alec's entire torso.

Why is he so heavy? Magnus wonders as he lifts Alec's body to get to the bandages around his back.

By the time he's done Magnus notices that Izzy is sending Simon off. "I sent Jace and Clary back to the Institute half an hour ago to fill out a report and to inform my parents that Alec won't be going on hunts anytime soon. Simon stayed just in case you needed either of us to help."

She takes a breath before continuing. "How is Alec doing, wound wise?" She sits down next to her brother, holding his hand, looking for any sign that anything is wrong.

"Good. Just no training for a while or hunts. If he wants to make a complete recovery then he can't do any of those things." Also including the fact that he wants to be in our child's life and him doing stupid stuff like this won't make it possible.

"Magnus," she says after a moment. Magnus hum's in response. "Is my brother your mate?"

"What do you mean?" When Magnus first started to show none of the others really cared, at least in wanting to know who the other potential parent is, but not Izzy. She took the facts of Magnus showing and Alec avoiding him and put the two things together.

She confronted Magnus soon after and the Omega had given her the confirmation that Magnus is expecting Alec's child, and that she's going to be an aunt. Magnus is sure that he has never seen someone so happy and excited before.

And that's saying a lot for a Warlock.

But why now? Why is she questioning him on him and her brother being mates?

"Alec saw you mating bite earlier and he thinks that you have someone else and that your kid will have a step-parent, so tell me: are you and Alec mates or not?"

Magnus doesn't know what to say. He can lie. He can lie and say that he does have someone else so he and Alec only keep a civil platonic relationship around their child, both sharing custody and seeing their child every other week or so depending how long each of them wants their child.

It'll also make it easier for Magnus to try and find someone else and not just chase the young Alpha around, as he had months ago.

"I think," Magnus says, not having the will to lie. "That that information should be told to your brother first before anyone else." Even with Izzy being nothing but kind and supportive through the whole thing, he remembers what she told him about Alec finding out about the pregnancy, right now no one should before Alec about them being mates, even if the person happens to be his sister.

"If you are, are you going to tell him?"

"Why would I do that?"

"So he doesn't have to worry about another person being involved with your child? So he knows that some of the random pain he feels isn't just some weird thing that happens from time to time?"

Magnus sneers. "Really? Because I have not been in any pain at all tonight, not when he potentially fell to the ground before the demon got him or after."

Izzy gives him a look that tells him that he did not say the right thing. "Can you just stop being bitter for once? I get it: My brother walked out the morning after you two slept together, he's been avoiding you until today. I'm not asking you to forgive, but just give him a chance to strengthen your bond so your child doesn't grow up with parents that have a strain between the. Trust me, Alec and I, Jace when he joined us, even our little brother, grew up with our parents having this strain between them; and growing up with that isn't good.

"Alec and I have only known New York as hoe, only going to Idris a handful of times since we had Hodge looking after us. When Max was born I thought everything would fix itself. Mom and Dad would become closer, even getting to know Alec and I better so Alec wouldn't have to hide who he really is, at least from them. He's been hiding his sexuality since he's been thirteen, Magnus. I didn't even know until he came to me the day before his Parabatai ceremony and told me he couldn't go through with it because of his 'feelings' for Jace."

"So I'm a rebound for Jace?"

Izzy shakes her head. "Alec's lying to himself about Jace. Jace is more like a safety net, since he knows nothing will happen between them he knows that the Clave won't think of is as anything more."

Magnus tells her he'll think on it. Content with his answer Izzy hugs him goodbye before she leaves.

It's close to midnight when Alec stirs awake. He groans awake and tries to sit up. Magnus enters from the kitchen, getting mint chip ice cream as a late night craving, when he hears Alec. He abandons his ice cream to go help his mate.

"You need to be careful," Magnus says gently, helping Alec up.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Magnus mutters.

A silence that's a mix between an awkward one and a comfortable one falls over them. Magnus isn't sure how long it's like that before Alec breaks it, with words Magnus doesn't expect to hear.

"Do you want to go out on a date?" Magnus looks at him in awe, Alec has his face down as a scarlet blush covers his neck and cheeks. "I mean so we can get to know each other better? So we aren't near strangers that only see each other because we have a child together."

Magnus thinks back to the conversation he had with Isabelle only a few hours ago. Can he put his child through the same things as Alec and his siblings? No. He can't.

"Pick me up Saturday at seven for dinner."

Alec agrees before he leaves, not realizing----or caring----that he's shirtless and has bandages wrapped around him.

Saturday. Two days from now. Enough time for either of them to cancel. Enough time for Alec to get even more hurt than he already is. Enough time for anything to happen.

Magnus hopes that everything during this waiting period goes smoothly. Even hopes that the date goes well too.

This is going to be a long two days.

To be continued...