Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations I put all the characters in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that someone has lawyers. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.

In Need Of Therapy

The kitchen smelled utterly delicious, like it really was the bakery the warlock had pretended to work for. On the kitchen counters were three platters big enough for a turkey, piled high with cookies. Alec had never seen so many cookies in one place before. Amused, the Shadowhunter watched as the boy got out two large glasses and filled them with milk from the fridge. Milk and cookies, Alec thought with a small smile as he took the seat at the kitchen table while the boy loaded up a plate with various cookie piles.

"Here you go." Setting a glass in front of Alec Jaden smiled and then turned his attention to the mountains of cookies between them, seeing them through the Shadowhunter's eyes. "I uhm…bake when I'm stressed. I've had a very stressful week, trying to figure out how to catch and kill you. You have no idea how stressful planning someone's murder is."

"I see." Sipping some milk Alec reached out with his free hand and helped himself to a cookie, studying it warily before biting in. Even if it was laced with something he was pretty positive the kid had given up any thought of killing him. "So what is your name, anyway?"

"Oh, I beg your pardon!" Cheeks flushed, Jaden looked horrified at his bad manners. "How rude of me, so sorry. I'm Jaden, Jaden Rivers." Holding out his hand the warlock smiled when Alec reached out and shook his hand. "May I call you Alec? You can call me Jaden, everyone does."

Alec nodded his consent. "Nice to meet you, Jaden. Even under these unusual circumstances." Amused with both of them now Alec went back to eating his cookie, which was truly brilliant. The kid might be a bit psychotic, but he sure could bake. "So now that you've decided not to kill me…are you going to go back to this Bryan fellow? Your guardian."

Now Jaden looked close to crying again as he shook his head, swallowing his bite of cookie. "No. After what happened I can never go back."

"And what happened, exactly?"

Jaden didn't want to talk about it, but he figured that he owed the Shadowhunter for planning to kill him. "I love Bryan. I mean I really, really love him. And when you love someone that way you're supposed to tell them right? Everyone should know how they're loved and if you don't say it then how will you ever know how they feel about you and your feelings for them. So I decided that I had to tell him, even though I was pretty sure that he didn't feel that way about me. But I thought that maybe if he knew he'd at least give me a chance. So last Friday I planned a big dinner, making all his favorites for him. I set the table fancy, dressed in my favorite, best clothes, and even put on mood music. Than, after dinner, I told him how I felt." And now Jaden's eyes glimmered with unshed tears. "And he leaned forward, patted me on the head, and said 'I love you too, Kiddo'."

Alec winced in painfully sympathy, feeling the need to reach out and pat the boy's head too. And he'd thought he'd had it bad with Jace, Alec marveled. At least Jace hadn't meant to occasionally slice his heart into pieces. This Bryan assehole had not only known, but had verbally slapped at the kid by calling him kiddo to add to the insult. Magnus had been involved with a guy like that? No wonder they weren't together. Even if he were dead, Alec was sure now that Magnus would have nothing to do with this Bryan guy.

Probably.

Depending on what this Bryan guy looked like.

Wiping at his eyes again Jaden sighed, actually looking his age for a moment. "So you see, I can't go back. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I've never lived on my own before."

"I haven't either." Alec volunteered, though he was pretty sure he'd be better at it then Jaden. Though Jaden could cook and he couldn't, which was probably an advantage when one was on their own. "But you could probably get a job at a bakery." Pleased by the thought Alec felt quite proud of himself for coming up with such a perfect way for the boy to support himself.

"You think so? I don't have any job experience."

"Bring them some of your stuff and that will be all the experience they'll need." Alec assured him.

Lapsing into silence it was clear Jaden was giving it some serious thought.

"So the reason you planned to kill me was because he has a thing for Magnus and not you. Were they…involved before?" Calling himself every kind of idiot, Alec couldn't seem to stop himself from asking.

"I asked around but no one seemed to think so." Just the thought of Bryan with someone else had Jaden dunking half a cookie into his milk with far more force than necessary. "He never mentioned him, not even once. I wouldn't have even known how Bryan felt about him if I hadn't found the photograph while I was cleaning. Bryan has a picture of him…it was hidden in his bedside table. He doesn't have pictures of anyone, including me in his room."

Eyes narrowing Alec saw red as he imagined some faceless man with a picture of HIS Magnus in his bedroom dresser of all places. Imagining why the picture would be kept there had him squeezing down on his glass of milk, fissures appearing all over it before it exploded in his hand in a shower of glass and blood as the shards cut into his hand.

Yelping in surprise Jaden almost fell backward, his chair teetering before landing back on its legs. Staring in horror at the man's hand, blood streaming out in small rivets, Jaden's own hand shaking as he set his glass down.

Leaping into sudden action Jaden quickly got out of his seat and standing beside Alec began to carefully remove the remaining bits of glass from the man's hand. While the Shadowhunter apologized profusely for breaking the glass Jaden finished getting all the glass slivers out of Alec's hand and used his abilities to close the multiple wounds for him.

Carefully flexing his formerly injured hand Alec was disgusted with himself. What he'd done was just plain stupid. It wasn't like he wasn't well aware that Magnus had been with other men before him. The man wouldn't be that good in bed if he hadn't. Alec figured he was lucky if the warlock could remember the names of half the men he'd slept with who were still alive, much less dead. What was important was that he was it for Magnus now. What was in the past would stay there, Alec thought fiercely. Had to stay there if his relationship with the warlock was to continue during his lifetime.

Jaden patted Alec's shoulder in sympathy and understand. "I know how you feel. After I found that picture I burnt like four dozen cookies in a row."

Reaching out Alec patted Jaden's shoulder too.

They were quite the pair.

)

While Magnus set up for his searching spell the girls sat on the couch and watched Bryan pace back and forth like a jungle cat caged in a zoo. Not only did the man have the ears of a cat but the girls had soon noticed a strange twitching along the warlock's back, the shape giving away the fact that Diggory's baggy shirt hid a tail. They were dying to see it, but were smart enough to know that asking to see would probably end badly for them. This was a warlock on the edge.

"So you don't know why your ward left in the first place?" Clary asked, thinking to distract the poor warlock from his worries. Besides, she was curious about the kid now and it distracted her from worrying about Alec.

Looking over Bryan shook his head. "I haven't a clue. I've wracked my brain trying to come up with something…but it just doesn't make any sense. He was fine on Friday. He seemed even happier and more wired than normal. The only thing strange that happened that day was that he went all fancy with dinner." Blowing his bangs out of his eyes Bryan went back to pacing, finding comfort in at least moving.

Maia gave him a questioning look. "Did he leave a note?" She'd left a note for her parents, not that they'd deserved one.

"Yeah, it just said not to look for him and that he hoped I'd be happy. Happy. Do I look happy to any of you?"

The girls shook their head in unison.

"Exactly." Feeling somehow vindicated Bryan felt a little better, knowing that they agreed that his ward had temporarily lost him mind.

Ignoring the lot of them Magnus did a last minute check in his mind, his white knuckles the only sign of his runaway emotions. In one hand he held a shirt that Alec had left behind a couple weeks ago, probably because it was one he'd bought for his Shadowhunter. Alec didn't wear bright colors for anyone but him. As soon as he got ahold of his man he was going to get the man out of whatever clothes the Shadowhunter was wearing, screw him blind, deaf and brainless, and then make sure he left wearing the shirt he held now.

And that was if he ever let Alec out of his sight again.

Which at this point sounded like a bad idea to him.

"Are you ready yet?" Bryan asked, interrupting Magnus's thoughts.

"Bite me, Diggory."

"They really don't like each other." Isabelle whispered to Clary, this not being the first insult they'd hurled at each other.

"No kidding." The redhead whispered back.

"You two cannot begin to comprehend how much we hate each other." Bryan decreed with a dark look in Magnus's direction. "Now be quiet so that Hedgehog Head can find Jaden."

"Oh shove your tail up your ass, Diggory."

Bright color appearing along Bryan's cheekbones it was obvious how much he hated being reminded that he had a tail. And Bane knew just how much he hated his tail, which was why the girlie boy had brought it up in the first place. Ears twitching in annoyance Bryan had to remind himself over and over again that he needed the other warlock in one piece.

At least until Jaden was safe.

Then all bets were off.

Finally everything was ready and Magnus began to search for Alec, flickering lights and hazy images appearing on the bare wall Magnus was facing. His face scrunched up in concentration Magnus hissed in frustration as the pictures refused to solidify into recognizable objects. "There are shields around wherever he is. I'm going to stop trying to focus in on just him and try to get whatever images I can from whatever's happened to him recently."

And now clear pictures appeared on the wall, appearing and then disappearing once Magnus got a good look at it. And a number of the images made his blood run cold.

The face of a boy they all recognized now as Jaden Rivers.

The alleyway where they had found the cookie and Alec's blood.

An apartment building.

Alec, lying unconscious on a couch, his hands bound behind his head.

Alec, unconscious and now bare-chested, with some unseen person undoing his belt buckle.

A small, slender hand clutching a butcher knife at a jeaned side, walking towards the couch Alec was lying on.

A hand marked with the scars of past runes dripping blood.

And strangest of all, several platters worth of cookies on a kitchen counter.

)

Helping Jaden clean up the mess he'd made Alec happened to see the clock, wincing at the time. So much for spending half the day with Magnus, he thought sadly. Even if he left now the warlock would probably be off doing something or catching a quick nap before heading off to some party somewhere. Oh well, what else was new, Alec thought with a sigh. Something strange always seemed to come up whenever they thought they had free time together. Maybe he'd pick up a Gerard Butler movie on his way home and veg with Isabelle instead. Provided she wasn't off partying somewhere too.

These thoughts led him to another idea, one that had him looking over at Jaden questioningly. "Where did you put my phone? I need to make a quick call." Even if he wasn't going to get to see Magnus he wanted to at least text him a quick message in case the man wouldn't mind him dropping by late.

Jaden winced. "You…ah…sorta smashed it when you fell. Your skele is in the living room with your wallet and stuff though. The uh…pieces of your phone are there too. I didn't think I should throw them out without your permission."

That figured. Just his rotten luck.

Heading into the living room Alec confirmed that his phone was indeed a dead loss before returning to the kitchen to see if Jaden could lend him one.

Feeling bad Jaden tried to think of an alternative since he didn't own a cell phone. "You can use Marcus's phone." He finally offered. "He told me not to let anyone use it, but I'm sure its okay since it's important. I'll reimburse him if he gets upset, it's the least I can do."

"Thanks." Walking over to the kitchen phone Alec picked it up and dialed Magnus's cell phone number from memory. Frustrated when the warlock didn't pick up Alec sighed and began to leave a message, his brows furrowing together as he felt a strange, warming sensation in his right hand as he spoke into the machine. A bad feeling coming over him Alec turned to look in Jaden's direction, suddenly remembering that the boy had said the apartment's owner had stated that no one but the boy could use the phone. Starting to ask the boy if the other warlock had mentioned why only Jaden could use it Alec didn't get to finish his question. The phone suddenly becoming too hot to handle Alec instinctively let it go with a loud curse, the phone exploding in mid air.

"Wow." Coming over to stand beside Alec Jaden stared down at what was left of the phone. "It never did that when I used it to order takeout."

Waving his hand around Alec walked over to the sink, running cold water over his now blistering hand. "It must be booby trapped against non warlocks."

"Oh." That made sense. Marcus was a very paranoid person. "Is your hand okay?"

"Yeah, I'm getting used to things exploding in it."

"On the A side your clothes are probably dry now." Jaden offered, trying to look on the positive side.

"Well that's something at least."

That way, when the next disaster hit, he'd at least be dressed.

)

While the warlocks argued about how to proceed and whether there was much point in Magnus's doing a search for Jaden too, Maia's sensitive ears happened to pick up on a strange buzzing noise. Eager for any distraction the werewolf got up and followed the sound, locating the source on one of Magus's tables/doors. Picking up the cell phone, which had been set on vibrate, Maia studied the readout before walking over to Magnus.

"This is yours right? You have a message."

Bryan glared at her. "We're a little busy right now. His social life will have to wait a minute."

Ignoring the man Magnus took the phone from her, having set it aside so that it wouldn't be affected by his searching spell. Flipping it open to access the call Magnus frowned when he saw the number listed. "I don't recognize this number, but this is my personal cell, I don't give this number out to clients."

"Could it be the kidnappers?" Isabelle asked, hurrying over to join them with Clary at her heels. Whatever the brother molesting bastards wanted she'd give it to them. And then she'd cut off their balls and make them eat them, she thought fiercely. No one was taking another brother away from her. No one.

Thinking the same thing Magnus motioned to her to be quiet before turning the phone onto speaker, accessing and then hitting the button to hear the lone message.

"Hey, it's me. Look, something's come up and I'll probably be a little tied up for the next couple hours. Would it be alright if I dropped by a little late or do you-uh oh…that can't be good. Jaden, you know how you said-OH FUCK!"

And then there was simply dial tone.

"Alec said the F-word." Isabelle breathed in surprise.

"Not a good sign." Maia agreed.

"But at least they must have gotten away from the bad guys if they had access to a phone." Clary pointed out, trying to look on the bight side of things. "And Alec didn't sound terribly worried or upset during the first part."

"Whoever hurt him is dead." Magnus snarled, assuming the worst.

"On that we can agree." Bryan resorted, cracking his knuckles.