Haley here! So this will be a kind of squeal to Love Sick, but I've decided to post it here because it will give the people who follow it notifications! I hope you love it! Let me know what you think! Like it, leave a review, I always love hearing from you!
Magnus woke up blinking rapidly. He was extremely disoriented. How can I possibly be standing beside Alec? He thought. He knew for sure he had just died, there was no getting around that. But the disorienting part was that the afterlife looked a lot like the place he had just left. For several long moments, he stood beside Alec, trying to work things through, until the reality of the situation hit him.
He was definitely dead. The cancer had killed him. But here he was, standing looking at Alec, and, he was suddenly startled. He was looking at Alec, and himself. Magnus was staring at himself laying in the bed he had just died in. That's when he knew he was a ghost, but he immediately began looking for "the door" or whatever he was supposed to use to "cross over."
After what seemed like hours of watching people come into the room and "say goodbye", Magnus became frantic. He tried screaming, he tried touching them, he tried everything he could think of to get Alec's attention, to get anyone's attention. He couldn't find a way for them to hear him, he couldn't touch anything at all.
Finally, Alec sat down with him one last time, leaving just the two of them in the room, well, the three of them if you were really counting. As Alec sat down, Magnus sat with him, full of exasperation and panic. To his surprise, Alec's eyes were void of tears, but he finally broke completely when he realized that he was the one crying.
For weeks, he followed Alec around, not having any idea what he was doing or why he was still there. Alec and the kids were handling things much better than he had expected, which made him happy, but his panic rose every day knowing that he would never be seen or heard again.
Jace simply knew he was going insane. There was no way he had seen glimpses of Magnus. He kept reminding himself that Magnus was dead, it was just a bit of shock. He kept telling himself this, until, that is, he saw Magnus for more than a second at a time. This time, he had gone to Magnus's grave with Alec, and Magnus had been standing over them the entire time.
Now he knew he was insane because he was currently on his way back to Magnus's grave, as if that would help solve anything. He was going alone, for now, not wanting to betray anything, not wanting to put any false hope into Alec.
As he approached Magnus's gravestone, he began telling himself that it was just a bit of shock, of Alec's pain that he was feeling through their bond. He stood for a bit at Magnus's grave, then he inexplicably began talking to Magnus. He was just beginning to tell Magnus how proud he was of the twins, how glad he was that they were there to take care of Alec through everything.
He almost passed out when he saw Magnus appear in front of him. "Bloody hell" were the only words that could come out of his mouth. To his satisfaction, Magnus looked equally as surprised.
"You-" Magnus began trying to speak, obviously not knowing what to do. "You can see me?" His voice broke as he tried to speak, and that's when it finally hit Jace that he was talking to Magnus's ghost.
"I need to sit down," Jace rubbed his hands through his hair. "Right now."
Looking up at Magnus, Jace could now fully see him again, although his coloring definitely showed Jace that he was a ghost. Unable to explain why he did so, Jace then uttered the dumbest question he could think of. "Why are you still here, Magnus?"
He was startled when Magnus gave a sharp laugh. It was the type of laugh that's somewhere between a laugh and a cry that people make when they are tired, worn out, and on the verge of breaking. It was the type of laugh that did not fit Magnus at all.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Jace." He sat down on the ground as well, immediately putting his head in his hands. "I've never been a betting man, but if I was, I would put my money on Alexander."
Jace nodded slowly, as if coming to that realization just at the same moment. "What do we do then?" was his only question.
Magnus threw his hands up, and Jace could easily read the terror and pain he had obviously been feeling since he had died. The only thing Jace knew to do was to keep talking, and he quickly realized that that was the worst course of action possible, but that didn't stop him from doing so anyways. "I mean, is there something we're supposed to do that will help you, you know, cross over? Is that what you're even going to do? And why on Earth am I the only one who can see and hear you? And-"
Finally, Magnus held up a hand to stop Jace mid speech. "Jace, you're like the brother I never had, but please, for the love of God, please, shut up for just a second."
Under any other circumstance, Jace would have been amused at what Magnus was saying, but at the moment, he was terrified of what was going on.
"There is only one thing I do know at this moment, Jace. And that is that you cannot tell Alexander about this. Either he won't believe you and it will hurt him, or he will believe you and it will still hurt him."
When Jace was silent, Magnus continued. "Some ghosts can be seen when they want to be seen, but then there are some Shadowhunters who can see all ghosts no matter what. My hunch is that you're simply the only one who can see me. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to "cross over" or whatever is supposed to happen. But no matter what, we don't tell Alexander."
Absentmindedly, Jace began nodding and speaking, "Right, don't tell Alec."
"Don't tell Alec what exactly?" Jace whirled franticly as he heard Alec behind him. The last thing he needed today was Alec figuring this out because, as much as he hated it, Magnus was right, this would break Alec's heart even more.
He looked from Magnus to Alec, then realized that he most likely looked like a madman. He would have strangled Magnus at the faces and gestures he was making, but he simply turned to Alec and attempted to lie. "You must be going crazy, I didn't utter a word."
Alec sat down beside him and elbowed him with a faint smile. "Well as long as you're not seeing Magnus's ghost, then I guess I'll let it go."
Jace gave his most convincing laugh as he listened to Magnus's groan beside of them.