"Braxton Hicks contractions?" Alec asked, slightly disbelievingly. He was carefully laying on Molly's small bed her spare bedroom, one hand resting protectively on his bare stomach. "But I've had those before, they weren't nearly as bad. I felt like I couldn't walk at all when these hit," Tessa, standing beside him with Jem, placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, no doubt sensing his aggravation. He did not really mean to contradict Molly; she was really the best at what she did, but his nerves were frayed past anything he'd felt before. He'd never been so afraid in his life, than the moment the pain had torn through his abdomen.
"I'm well aware of the things you have experienced throughout your pregnancy, Alexander," Molly's voice was kept lightly patient, soft and gentle, and Alec appreciated the attempt to being reassuring, "but the contractions were mixed with fetal movement, which caused the compounded discomfort, I assure you it was nothing but a scare." Alec felt the tension leave his body at that and heard both Jem and Tessa sigh in relief. Just some restlessness; he could relate to that, especially in the last few months.
"However," Molly continued, with just a bit of an edge to her voice, "I want to monitor you in the next few weeks. I'm going to have you stay here, on bed rest, until the twins are born, I'm afraid." Alec immediately tried to sit up, a protest on his lips, but was pushed back gently but firmly onto the bed by Jem. Alec turned to him, mouth open to protest vehemently, but Molly spoke up again. "It might have just been a scare this time, Alexander, but it might not next time. This late in the pregnancy, especially with twins, you can give birth at any time, especially if there is added strain." At this she gave Alec a pointed look, and he flushed.
"I understand that things are hard Alexander," Molly continued, very softly, her pale green hand moving to rest on Alec's own, her wings lying docile on her shoulders, "I know that there are things that you have no control over, things in your past you haven't dealt with fully, but right now, we need to concentrate on the twins. And stress can be very detrimental at this moment, especially with magical children. They can be three times as sensitive as regular shadow hunter children, more so if they were fathered by a powerful warlock." Magnus flashed through Alec's mind, the witch light flaring in his hand in a way he had never seen before, and nodded.
"Alright," he said, sighing and laying as comfortable as possible in the small bed, trying to find contentment for the next month. He saw the relief flood momentarily in Molly and sensed that the same went through Tessa and Jem; no doubt they had imagined a more vicious fight then Alec was going to give. "I'll just do nothing but lay here for the next month," he tried to inject some semblance of enthusiasm into his tone but knew it had fallen flat. Molly grinned, her naturally good mood returning at Alec's obvious discomfort.
"Don't worry, Alexander, I got some good books you can read. Pregnancy books and what not, so you can read up on what to expect on the whole bloody affair. It'll be fun." Alec resisted the urge to glare at the petite warlock, and patted his stomach gently.
"Fun, right." He replied, not even bothering to hide his sarcasm. Tessa snorted beside him and Jem, he saw when he glanced at them, was smiling slightly in obvious amusement.
"Oh cheer up, sweetheart. Twins have a tendency to come early, they could be here and kicking the air instead of your rib cage by the end of the week. You might not need to spend a month in bed." Alec paled at the thought. As much as he wanted to actually meet the tiny lives inside of him, the ones he had given up so much for, the idea of actually giving birth was terrifying. Molly's easy grin didn't really help his nerves either.
Alec rubbed his protruding stomach gently. I'm doing this for you two, he thought towards them silently. In response, a light, fluttering movement flashed underneath his fingers.
Magnus admired Isabelle, he really did. She was strong, wildly independent, and every bit as intelligent as Alec or Jace. She was beautiful but snarky, and confidence and power exuded from her very presence. He rather liked her, most of the time. Now however, he felt very much like cursing her hideous or mute, or maybe even just hitting her. Anything really, would have done at the moment.
"You walked in on Alec vomiting profusely months ago, and are only telling us now?" He demanded, stopping the pacing he had started since her announcement, to glare at the girl. He knew, in reality, that he was being rather unfair, that he was frustrated beyond belief and was merely taking it out on Isabelle. The sulfuric smell of failed magic was tainting his living room air; the after effects of a failed tracking spell were strewn across the pentagram he had carefully constructed from the black chalk Jace had supplied for him. He had not only been unable to locate Alec; the spell had literally exploded from his efforts.
"He begged me not to say anything, Magnus." Isabelle retorted, her dark eyes staring reproachably at him, daring him to interrupt her, which was precisely what he had been about to do. "He was just sitting on the floor, almost to tears, Magnus, and literally begging me not to say anything. What was I going to do? Go against his wishes? And I never found him sick again, I thought it was some passing bug, how was I to know he was just hiding it?" She told him, flipping her hair away from her face with an annoyed flick of her wrist.
Magnus was about to respond, too frustrated to let the subject drop, when Jace, perched on the back of his couch like some overgrown kitten, interrupted him. "Could it be some illness making it impossible to track Alec? A demon sickness maybe?" Magnus bit his lip, a horribly mundane habit he had picked up from his former lover, and sifted through thousands of memories, trying to grasp at any that would be relevant. Images of Camille rose up, her pale hair bright against the light of her parlor room, eyes glaring unabashedly at him as he stood calmly beside a dark haired youth. Magnus shook them away.
"The only one I know about is Vampirism, but I highly doubt Alexander has been turned. The only other idea I can come up with is that he is being shielded by someone's or something's magic. They would have to be stronger than me though, to not only hide him but destroy the tracking spell as well," he told the two, uncrossing his arms and running his hand through his black hair in an effort to calm himself.
"I suppose that's rare." Jace retorted in typical fashion, crossing his arms and leaning back a ridiculously reckless amount. Magnus shot him a look.
"Haven't met a warlock with stronger magic than me in five hundred years." He replied candidly. Isabelle stared at him, surprised, while Jace whistled appreciatively.
"Impressive," the golden boy remarked, jumping gracefully to the floor, "I suppose then, that you wouldn't have a list of powerful Warlocks just sitting around her then?" Magnus shook his head. "More's the pity. Guess it's back to the illness then. Maybe it's one we haven't seen before?" He continued, slightly hesitantly. Magnus supposed it was possible, albeit unlikely. He had lived through eight centuries and very few magical illnesses were unknown to him. He sank down onto the couch beside Isabelle.
"If he had one though, he would have gone to the Silent Brothers. To see if they could help him. Alec hates being ill, he would not have put up with in secret, not for any long period of time." Jace continued with a frown. Magnus pondered this information; Jace was absolutely right about the illness. Alec could barely stand a simple cold, the idea of him vomiting and not trying to figure out what was wrong with him was preposterous. But he was also discreet, and if he had known what was wrong, and from the sound of what he had told Isabelle, he had, he might have gone to the Silent Brothers without telling his siblings…
But the Silent Brothers were forced by oath to share any unusual findings with the Clave… Alec must have gone to one he knew would meet him alone… keep it all silent… one that was separated from the rest of the Brothers somehow…
"Jem!" He hissed, jumping onto the balls of his feet and sprinting into his bedroom, leaving two very confused Nephilim children behind him. Rapidly, he threw open his closet and pulled out the trunk he very rarely opened anymore. "Start the pentagram again, Jace, Isabelle! We will need it!" he called to the two as he thrust open the chest and began frantically rummaging, barely refraining from damaging any of the old mementos. After a few moments of frenzied search, he found what he was looking for and withdrew a small, weathered looking wooden box. An intricate design of a beautiful Chinese woman was painted onto the cover, faded with age but still discernible.
He held the box gingerly as he went back into the living room, considerably slower than his exit. Jace and Isabelle, despite their evident confusion, had jumped at his command and the pentagram was freshly drawn, the necessary ingredients sitting in a pile, waiting for Magnus's magic to activate them. The only one that had been left out was Alec's knitted blue sweater, which they had been trying to use to find him.
"Who's Jem?" Isabelle asked as Magnus stepped carefully inside the pentagram and placed the box in the direct center, where the lines intersected.
"You'd know him as Brother Zachariah, although he is no longer a Silent Brother. I knew him before he converted; he had been a very sick teenage shadow hunter and the Brotherhood was the only way, at the time, to save his life. I found a cure for him, and he was able to rescind from the Brotherhood without fear of his body being consumed by the disease. If there was any Silent Brother who would have kept quiet about Alec's illness, it would have been him. This box belonged to him once, and it might still have enough of his presence to be tracked. My bet is, if we find him, we find Alec."
The sudden burst of excitement was tangible in the heavy air and it was with slightly shaking hands that Magnus placed the last of the ingredients on top of the fragile box and chanted softly in a foreign language, the words clipped and harsh. Immediately, a glowing light emerged above the enchantment, twisting into images that only Magnus could read.
His face was pale, stricken, but determined when he turned towards Isabelle and Jace. They both stared back at him, anxiously awaiting the punch line. "He's in Idris." He told them quietly, a million thoughts running through his mind. He knew exactly who was in that area that Jem might have been interested in and the idea was shocking. Impossible really, the old story was a legend, hardly counted as fact amongst the Downworlders. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling…
"Idris?" Isabelle echoed, snapping Magnus out of his train of thought, "but why would he be in Idris? Is there someone in Alicante who specialized in illnesses?"
"Not Idris, the shadow hunter homeland," Magnus explained, trying hard to not to snap at Isabelle for breaking through his reverie, his thoughts had been ludicrous anyway. "Cadair Idris, a place in Wales. There is a very old Warlock woman there, only a few years younger than me, who Jem might very well have known from before his Silent Brother days. He must have taken Alec to see her; she specializes in healing demon-borne illnesses, afflictions, and addictions." And supposed male pregnancies, he thought but didn't state. The idea, was of course, impossible.
Longest chapter! I hope you liked it. So, Alec wasn't really injured and nothings wrong with the babies besides them having very powerful kicks. I actually have no idea how painful Braxton Hicks can be or fetal movement, so if its impossible for it to be that bad, just assume its because they are magical Nephilim babies and leave it at that, kay? Also, Magnus sort of catching on, but not really. I'm kind of proud how this turned out, and I hope you all liked it. Tell me what you thought, and if you think anything needs to be improved. Thank you for reading and I will try to update again as soon as possible.