Magnus woke to the feeling of hair tickling against his nose, the warmth of a small body curled into his and a deep breathing under his head. It took a moment for him to manage to pry his eyes open. Most of his vision was blocked by frizzy brown hair sprawled out over a chest marked with black tattoos. Clearly they had moved in the night. Alec had turned on his back and Madzie and Magnus had followed. Madzie now resting her head on Alec's stomach, still secured by both his and Magnus' arms wrapped around her from two sides. Alec's other arm had wound around Magnus' shoulder as Magnus had gravitated to resting his head on Alec's chest.
The ringing of the doorbell made Magnus aware of what had actually woken him. After all, it was much too light in his room for it to have been the sunrise, as was usual. Alec's breath was far too slow for him to be awake. The man had told Magnus that he usually woke at the slightest sound, but clearly the incident from yesterday had left him so exhausted the clear ringing couldn't even wake him. Both he and Madzie most definitely deserved the sleep, so it was up to Magnus to end the disturbance.
Carefully he pried back his arm from around Madzie and Alec. Then he tried to twist himself out from under Alec's arm, but as soon as he raised his head from Alec's chest the man's hand almost reflexively tightened around his shoulder, pulling him closer. Clearly gravity had been less a factor in pulling Magnus into that position than he had initially thought. Alec protested in his sleep as Magnus pried Alec's hand off his shoulder. The sleepy groan seemed for a moment to be a sign that Alec was waking up, but he relaxed once Magnus put Alec's arm around Madzie.
Now free Magnus quickly got out of bed and went over to the door before their early visitors got the bright idea to ring the doorbell again. Elias had been instructed last night to not let anyone up except for Catarina and Will, both of whom he was now decently familiar with, but Magnus was still slightly hesitant. He opened the door slightly to peer into the hallway and only really opened it when he confirmed that it was indeed his friends.
At the sight of a still very shirtless Magnus opening the door Catarina raised an eyebrow as she put the pieces together: 'Did we wake you?'
Magnus nodded: 'Alec and Madzie are still asleep. But come in.'
'How are you doing, Magnus?' Will asked as they stepped inside.
Magnus shrugged as he closed the door behind them: 'I've been better. If anything more serious had happened, I'm not sure I would have been this calm. Having Alec and Madzie here… She's such a brave little girl. She insisted on staying with Alec, which was good for him. For them both probably.'
Unconsciously he had started moving towards the bedroom door that was still open. The three of them looked inside to find that Alec and Madzie hadn't moved since Magnus had pried himself free. From this viewpoint Magnus could now also for the first time see just how battered Alec looked.
Two large bruises covered his left side, or at least what was visible between pieces of bandages that Magnus himself had put on yesterday had changed from red to a blue-purple hue. His face and arms were covered in a lot of smaller bruises, abrasions and cuts. The sheets covered him from the waist down, but Magnus was pretty sure that the bruise on his hip would extend further down as well. And then there was the large purple bruise that had formed on Alec's right shoulder, just above where Magnus' head had been only moments before.
Madzie too had not come out unscathed, in particular the abrasion on her right forearm had concerned Magnus enough last night to warrant some attention. He had disinfected it last night, but it had seemed better to not wrap it up and instead let it dry in the air. Right now, the small girl wrapped in the wounded warriors arms seemed so much smaller and more vulnerable because of it. The sight of the two of them only made it worse.
'Oh, Magnus,' Catarina's voice was smaller than Magnus had ever heard.
'She's fine,' Magnus answered the unspoken question. 'Alec really took the brunt of it.'
'Clearly,' Will said softly, wanting not to wake the sleeping pair. 'Are you sure you shouldn't have gone to the hospital last night?'
'Right now I'm doubtful, but Alec seemed to know what he was dealing with last night.'
'I'll take a look at him when he wakes up, but I am liking the colour of those bruises. Why are he and Madzie in your room?' Catarina turned to Magnus.
'I think she just wanted to sleep with Alec,' he answered. 'We put her to bed in Alec's room after she followed Alec out of there twice. But then after we went to bed she just showed up in the doorway and we just couldn't say no.'
A shift in the bedroom prevented them from answering as Madzie moved before opening her eyes and blinking a few times. She looked confused for a moment, but then saw the first outline of Alec's tattoos and relaxed. Clearly she had no idea she had an audience. She rubbed her cheek against Alec's chest slightly before turning to look up at his face and seeing him still asleep. Now noticing she was quite trapped in his arms she reached out for the blanket and pulled it up as high as she could around Alec without also covering herself.
It was at this point that she noticed the people in the doorway watching her. A little bashful she slunk further against Alec for a moment before deciding she should try to escape Alec's hold. She tried to wriggle out from under his grasp, but a groan elicited from Alec announced his tightening his hold on her. Pouting for a moment she then settled on prying his arms off her. But as she successfully managed to remove one of his arms, Alec stirred and his eyes fluttered open.
'Hey, little sorceress,' Alec croaked out, his voice still heavy and rough with sleep. She turned and looked up at him. He turned to look at the empty spot where Magnus had previously been before his eyes drifted over to the doorway seeing the audience that had gathered. 'And morning to all of you too.' He released his left arm from around Madzie, but as he did it brushed his bruised side and he hissed in pain before groaning at the sharp intake of breath.
Magnus immediately rushed over to do really anything: 'Alexander, take it easy.' Madzie moved away from Alec's arms, but stayed in the same spot on the bed. This allowed Alec to try and shift further up so he could get to a sitting position. His movements were stiff and a pained groan came from his throat as he moved himself up with his left arm only, very quickly figuring out that his right shoulder was not okay with the strain.
'How are you feeling?' Magnus asked.
'Like I've been hit by a car.' Magnus was about to protest the inappropriate nature of the comment, but Alec continued first: 'Sorry, I know. Couldn't help it.' He took a moment to take a look at the injuries that littered his body. 'My muscles are stiff, and my shoulder is hurting more than anticipated, but I think I was right about there being no internal bleeding.'
'I'll be the judge of that,' Catarina said. 'But after we thank you for saving Madzie and Magnus' life.'
Alec got that all too familiar bashful look to him at Catarina's gratitude: 'You don't need to thank me for that.' Trying to keep his shoulder as still as possible Alec ran a hand along Madzie's arm. 'I was protecting the people I love too.' At the physical contact Madzie once again moved over to hug Alec. This time, however, she accidentally put her hand on one of his cracked ribs and Alec couldn't help a cry in pain. Startled, Madzie immediately pulled back, but was stopped from leaving by Alec himself.
'No, no, no, Madzie. It's okay. It's fine. It's just that side that hurts. I would love a hug. We just have to be a little careful.' Madzie nodded and very cautiously moved into his side to give him a squeeze before finding an upright position to sit side by side with him.
'Do you need anything?' Magnus asked.
'Some new painkillers would be good, but I think it would be better to wait with those until after Catarina is done. And you,' Alec turned to Madzie, 'need to get dressed and have some breakfast.' But Madzie shook her head. 'No? Then what do you need?'
'Alec,' was the simple reply.
Alec wanted to sigh, but knew that would hurt like hell: 'I know, Madzie, but I am going to be busy for just a little bit and you have to get dressed. It's going to be a busy day and we don't want to do that in pyjamas, right?' Madzie slowly nodded. 'Then how about, you go with Magnus and Will to get dressed, while Catarina helps me and afterwards we all have breakfast together.' With another squeeze and a nod from Madzie she got up and reached out to Magnus. He took her hand and they made their way out of the room.
As soon as they were alone Catarina closed the door behind them and made her way over to Alec: 'How is the pain compared to yesterday?'
'Aside from the fact that I now also have a muscle ache over my entire body, about the same. Ribs are by far the worst, but lying on my shoulder last night seems to have been a bad idea.'
'You took painkillers last night?'
Alec nodded: 'I don't know what exactly. Magnus has them.'
'Any pain on your back? Or numbness anywhere?' Alec shook his head. 'I'm going to examine your shoulder now, is that okay?'
'Do what you have to, Catarina. I'm not going to sue you,' Alec replied as he leaned his head back. 'I wouldn't even know where to begin.'
Catarina moved to sit on the edge of the bed and helped him up to a painful sitting position so she could check that no bruises had formed on his back overnight. She then went to prod and move his shoulder, which, while severely unpleasant, was less painful. She inspected the cuts, concluding Magnus had done a good job of bandaging them up, before letting Alec back down again. Peeling back the covers she pulled his sweats down slightly to get a better look at his hip injury.
'You need me to take it off?' Alec asked.
'If you don't mind,' Catarina replied. You're certainly not shy.' Getting his sweats off was a team operation that had Alec groaning in pain, but they did manage to rid Alec of his pants.
'Very little reason to be. Not my first time being undressed by medical personnel and I much prefer it over having to do it myself with broken ribs.'
'So that's why you knew,' Catarina said as she inspected the bruising along his leg before taking it and testing his hip joint.
'Practised martial arts, had an opponent who cheated in every competition. Cracked ribs, a broken arm, twisted ankles and a lot of broken fingers. Left me with a good knowledge of what is serious, a high pain tolerance and a lifetime ban from competition.'
'But if he cheated…'
'Sandbags in his knuckle wraps. No one knew, but I felt my ribs break, so I switched styles and broke his nose. Knocked him out cold. My mother had never been so proud of me. Judge announced my disqualification before I passed out from lack of breath. My ban resulted in his ban. The movement is stiff, but it doesn't really hurt more than a bruise.'
Catarina nodded and put his leg down: 'The next part probably is. Try to relax.' She started prodding the ribs on the right side of his chest. As she got lower it got very uncomfortable, but the ribs themselves were okay. The other side was a different story. She had not even made it halfway down his chest before Alec had to grit his teeth in pain. And then she hit the first actually cracked rib and Alec couldn't help but cry out in pain.
'Cracked but not out of place. That is good.' Moving down another one the pain was even worse as Catarina tried to ascertain that the break had not displaced the bone. Alec howled in pain, and it took a moment for him to painfully get his breathing back under control. There turned out to be five ribs that were either cracked or seriously bruised, but none that would require surgery.
'You got lucky,' Catarina said.
'A little,' Alec replied. 'Thanks for doing this, Cat.'
'It is the least I could do. You saved their lives, Alec. I don't think that's quite come through to either of them, but that's a big deal.'
'It's better if they don't. Magnus made so much progress, and Madzie's already had to deal with so much.'
'She seems more shaken by the thought that she might lose you again.'
Alec got a slightly forlorn look in his eyes: 'I know, but I don't know what I can do about that. She's going to get adopted someday and I can't guarantee that her adoptive parents will let me be part of her life.'
'Have you ever thought about adopting her yourself?'
'I have more than once. But I can't. With my siblings I had familial connection, but even then Jace was shaky. With Madzie, I can't claim relation. And I don't have the means. My registered address is enough to disqualify me outside my line of work, absence of a partner and financial situation.'
Catarina nodded understanding: 'If push comes to shove, then Will and I will adopt her ourselves, but we both think she would be much happier with you and Magnus. She is not going to handle losing you again well.'
'Then let's hope she doesn't have to,' Alec tested out his legs before turning with a groan and sitting on the edge of the bed. It hurt like hell to get up, but once actually standing he could deal. Catarina fetched him a pair of jeans from his room and got instructions on where to find Magnus' largest button-up shirt. And so they made their way into the kitchen where they found Magnus in Alec's discarded sweater vest cooking up breakfast. He had already laid out painkillers for Alec, who was eager to take them.
'We don't need a trip to the hospital,' Catarina said upon entering. 'Alec's assessment was pretty accurate. He just needs to take it easy for a couple of weeks.'
'That's a relief,' Magnus replied. 'Luke called just now. The detectives on our case want to come over to talk to us. They should be here in an hour.'
'Luke's coming with them?' Magnus nodded at Alec's question. 'Then we should consider a place where we want to talk. I was thinking the thirteenth floor.'
'What's on the thirteenth floor?' Wil asked.
'Nobody wants to live on the thirteenth floor,' Magnus explained, 'so that's where commodities are located. The workout room is one of them, at least that's what I think you're getting at.'
Yeah,' Alec replied. 'It has only one exit and a split section to retreat into if necessary. Besides it is not that hard to lock off, since there's barely anyone there during the day anyway.'
'Except for you,' Magnus joked, earning him an eye roll from Alec. 'But I like the idea. Now sit, first we have breakfast.'
It was almost exactly an hour later that Magnus received the call from Elias that the police had arrived. The five of them rode the elevator to the thirteenth floor, where Alec left them before continuing down to the lobby. The painkillers had kicked in, but it was mostly pure power of will that kept Alec's face from displaying the amount of pain he was in. Magnus knew, of course he did, but he hadn't lied when he said he was good at dealing with it. Gritting his teeth and carrying on was one of his specialities.
'Alec,' the familiar dark skinned face that met him eased some of Alec's worries. 'Good to see you moving.'
'Glad to see you could make it, Luke,' Alec held out his hand for Luke to shake.
Luke took it before turning to the two detectives that stood behind him: 'This is Detective Wilson and Detective Fisk. They are the ones in charge of your case. I've worked with Wilson before.'
'Mister Lightwood,' Wilson held out her hand for Alec to shake, which he did. He was still wary of Fisk, but shook his hand as well.
'We're glad you could find the time,' Fisk said.
'Time is not the issue,' Alec replied maybe a little harshly. 'Going to have plenty of that in the coming weeks. No offense, but I don't know you and right now I'm not as well disposed to trusting anyone near my employer with any kind of weapon.' He gestured at the guns at their hips. 'That includes you, Luke.'
'You expect us to give up our weapons?' Fisk asked a little incredulous.
'Yeah,' Alec replied. 'Yeah, I do expect you to walk unarmed into a situation with a frightened six year old girl and her foster parents, a man whose life was threatened, and an equally unarmed bodyguard who was hit by a car just yesterday.'
'Alec, you have to be reasonable,' Luke tried.
'I am being reasonable,' Alec replied firmly. 'You are my brother's girlfriend's stepfather. I've met you three times before and right now I'm putting the life of some people I care about in your hands. Again, no offense, but I trust you about as far as I can hold you off, and right now that's not a lot. You have absolutely no reason to have weapons on you. If you feel better about it, pat me down to assure that I'm not carrying either. Your records should show that I'm the only one with weapon experience in there. Though if you insist on patting me down, I'd rather ask you to be just a little careful around my cracked ribs in doing so.'
'It's fine,' Wilson spoke up, sharing a look with Fisk. 'Where do you want us to leave them?'
'Elias has a lockbox back there. They should be safe.' All three detectives turned in their weapons and with that another load fell off Alec's shoulders. He led them over to the elevator and let the doors close before pressing the button to the thirteenth floor.
'I thought your employer lived on the top floor?' Fisk asked.
'He does, but since that is common knowledge, I'd rather make sure that had I found people in the lobby who did have the worst intentions, they wouldn't just be able to get to him.'
'Have you been doing this work for long?' Wilson asked.
'I've been working for him for three months now,' Alec answered.
'Have you ever done any work in this field before?'
'No. But I feel like we should save the interrogation for later.' The finality in his voice ended the conversation. The detectives were rather taken aback by Alec's attitude. Each of them was at least ten years his senior, and yet Alec managed to exude a certain undeniable authority that none of them dared to challenge. Even Luke, who had seen Alec before, was quite shocked.
The previous times he had met the man it had been around his family. Jace and Clary had thought it appropriate to let their families get acquainted and asked the Lightwoods to have dinner at the Garroway-Fray household. Alec had barely made an impression then, beyond introductions he hadn't spoken all night. The next time had only been in passing as he had come to pick up Clary from the Lightwoods late at night. He'd found Alec sitting at the kitchen table helping the youngest of the four Lightwoods with his homework. He had looked up at Luke's appearance but had barely acknowledged his presence beyond that.
The third and final time he had met Alec Lightwood was at Thanksgiving last year. The Lightwoods were not well off and Jocelyn and Clary had cooked up the idea to have Thanksgiving together. The Lightwoods had arrived without Alec who had to work and showed up right on time for dinner, as he had apparently agreed upon with Clary. Luke had noticed the bags under the young man's eyes and the clear signs that he had hurried to get there in time, but hadn't said anything. Even during the dinner, Alec had spoken very little, but he had seemed happy to see his siblings enjoy himself. When asked questions, his answers were direct and to the point, never volunteering more information than was asked, and happy to disappear into the background again when things were done.
Most things Luke knew about Alec were through Jace, including their situation. Through Jace he heard that Alec was a workaholic with no social life, a distinct dislike of people in general and a foul attitude, who would continuously nag Jace about his health. But also that Alec was very protective of his siblings and willing to do literally anything for them after having taken charge of them at only eighteen. Nevertheless, Luke had never pictured Alec as anything other than the quiet tall guy he had spent two evenings with.
The elevator came to a halt on the thirteenth floor and Alec led the way to what appeared to be a work out room where they had moved some of the furniture around so they had a table with some seats in the open space. Alec caught Magnus eye, they were both tense, but a soft nod from Alec settled them slightly.
'Detectives,' Magnus rose, a fake smile plastered on his face. 'Thank you for agreeing to our less than usual accommodations.'
'Mister Bane, I take it?' Wilson stepped forward. 'Detective Wilson, this is my partner Detective Fisk. We're glad to see you are doing okay after yesterday's events.'
'As am I,' Magnus replied shaking first her hand and then detective Fisk's. 'I presume you already met Alexander. This is Madzie Bennet and her foster parents: Catarina and William Loss.' Hands were shaken and greetings exchanged between the adults, but Madzie had attached herself to Alec as soon as he had entered the room and was refusing to look at anyone. Alec sat down with her in his lap, which raised a few eyebrows from the detectives, but none of them said anything.
The tension was palpable and they had yet to begin the interview.
