Story: "Just Alec, now."
Chapter: 04 - Warm hands
Rating Story: NC-17
Rating Chapter: PG13
Warning(s): AU/AH, mature content, swearing, language
Pairings: Malec, Will/Jem (TID)
Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare thought of the wonderful world of the mortal instruments and infernal devices. I just play with the characters and change a bit of their life.
Dear readers/followers/favers(?): thank you.
AN: as by multiple request: I edited this chapter for reading purposes. I will edit the first 3 chapters after the story is finished.
The sound of heavy knocking woke Alec up. He tried to stretch under the comfortable blanket but two arms wrapped around his middle prevented that. Opening his eyes he was greeted with the sight of a mop of black hair.
"Magnus! Wake up and get ready or you won't have the time to get glitter everywhere." Stirring from Will's voice, the older teen snuggled even closer to Alec.
"M up. Just 5 more minutes." He sighed and pressed his nose into Alec's neck. This woke him up, letting go immediately. Alec was blushing heavily.
Will used this moment to burst into their room. "Magnus! Stand up now or you won't have time for any make up."
This made the older teen move towards his wardrobe nearly tripping over the sheets wrapped around his body. He collected some clothes which – to Alec – looked like they consisted of every colour Magnus owned. The door to the bathroom closed and soon the sound of water running could be heard.
"You can use Jem and mine bathroom if you want. We are already done and we like to breakfast together so it would be nice if you were ready in about 10 minutes." Alec nodded but hesitated to leave the bed. "Yes. I'll just get dressed in my clothes and be out in a minute."
Will was eyeing the younger teen, 'hmmm'd and walked over to Magnus' closet. After rummaging around he threw a pair of dark jeans and an old sweater of Magnus at Alec. "You can wear these. Magnus doesn't like them anyway." Turning around and walking to the door, he added "But you have to wear your underwear from yesterday as we definitely don't have anything fitting in that department." He let the door open for Alec to follow him.
The younger teen got out of bed and walked after the dark-haired man. Will gestured to a door at the end of the hall. The younger male nodded in thanks and walked inside the bathroom. It was bigger and he could see the influence of the two older men. "You can use the towels lying on the counter and there is a toothbrush for you. You've got 7 minutes left." With those words Will closed the door and left Alec to his morning routine. With 30 seconds to spare the dark-haired teen walked into the living room/dinning area greeting Jem who was pouring coffee into two mugs on the table. Sitting in the chair he had occupied the evening before, he looked around the table. Will was already sitting there reading the paper while he waited for his coffee. Jem sat down at the table and passed the coffee over to Will.
The gray-haired man poured some orange juice into his glass and offered some to Alec as well. The young teen couldn't decide what he should eat. Fresh rolls and bread, scrambled eggs and bacon and fruit was waiting to be devoured. As he reached for the fresh rolls and butter, Magnus came running into the dinning area, letting himself fall onto his chair.
"You're 2 minutes and 17 seconds late, Magnus."
Will folded his paper in the middle lying it next to him on the table. The older teen – as mature as he was – poked his tongue out to the older man.
"I'm punctual enough as I'm still able to breakfast while Jem is still here and I don't have to rush out of the door."
He got some scrambled eggs and bacon on his plate and poured himself a glass of orange juice.
Alec was eating slowly as he hadn't a full breakfast for some time. His stomach was still protesting from the dinner the night before. He was so immersed in his thought that Jem startled him by setting a cup of tea in front of him.
"It's peppermint tea. It helps with stomach ache."
"Thank you." Sipping slowly he felt the soothing effect of the liquid. A soft warm hand landed on his forehead.
"No fever. So no infection. But we will check that later on."
Jem looked up at the clock above the table and turned to the older teen. "Magnus. Shouldn't you get ready to go?"
Drinking the last of his juice, the older teen stood up and walked into his room getting his school bag. James got up as well and together they walked out of the door with a "See you later!" from Magnus to leave Will and Alec to their own devices.
The older man got up from his seat and started to clean the table. As Alec didn't know what was expected of him, he helped Will carry the breakfast dishes to the sink. The dark-haired man let some water flowing into the sink adding some dishwater soap and cleaned their plates and mugs while Alec waited with dishcloth to dry what was already washed. They worked in silence, cleaning the dishes, wiping the table and setting everything back into place. The shrill ring of a telephone broke the silence. Will walked over to a small table standing in the entrance hall answering the phone.
"Yes? - Okay. We will be coming over. - No everything is fine. - I'm always nice. - What do you mean that's the problem. - Yeah yeah. Love you, too."
With that the dark-haired man hung up and fixed his gaze on the younger teen. "That was Jem. He said that it's a "boring day" and that we should come over. Get your shoes on, I think I have somewhere a jacket that may fit you."
Twenty minutes later they were arriving at a small hospital with light blue painted outer walls that looked more like it belonged somewhere far away from New York and the hectic traffic surrounding it. They entered through the sliding doors walking the short way to the front desk were a young woman was smiling at them.
"Hello William. Jem is waiting for you and your cousin upstairs. You can walk right through."
"Thank you, Cat." Will guided Alec to the stairs.
"Cousin?"
"Hm?"
"The lady called me your 'cousin'."
"Oh, yes, well we had to tell them something. And I wouldn't call Cat a 'lady'. Not to her face anyway."
The teen nodded and walked behind the older man until they reached the top floor. Jem was already waiting in front of one of the many doors. He gestured for them to follow him. Alec swallowed hard. It hadn't been so long ago that a "doctor" had examined him - mostly pressing around on his belly and feeling his throat and looking at his eyes and teeth.
The room they walked into seemed to be a small examining room for children going by the toys in on of the corners. A desk was sitting under the window where Alec could see a small park. James sat down in front of the desk, opening a programme on the desktop PC.
"Let's fill out the essentials and then we move over to the examining part."
He clicked on one of the many symbols opening an empty data sheet. Looking over the shoulder of the older man, Alec saw that there was already written a name in the upper left corner.
"Herondale, Alexander M.?" Jem looked over his shoulder.
"Yes. As I had to book an appointment, I decided to go with Will's name. And as you look-alike, I thought it was fitting." He turned back around. "Of course you are younger, cuter and better behaved than your counterpart over there, but I still think we should go with Herondale."
Ignoring the 'Hej!' coming from Will who was leaning against the closed-door, the gray-haired man concentrated on the screen in front of himself.
"Back to the essentials. Date of birth?"
"September 19, 1992."
"Oh so your birthday is in two weeks time. Magnus will love to host your party."
Blinking at the words from the doctor, Alec thought back. He had been still on holiday when he was brought to the Institute. There hadn't been regular school times, they were all tought in the morning hours until two or three in the afternoon and then brought back to their rooms – and that every day of the week. Sometimes they had late afternoon 'health classes' where they were tought a lot about STDs and the use of condoms.
"And I just won 20 bucks from our drama queen." Blinking again the teenager turned around to Will. The dark-haired man was grinning.
"You shouldn't wager with him and don't call him 'drama queen' all the time. You know how he despises that. And what were betting on anyway?"
The grin spread over the older man's whole face. "Little Magnus bet that Alexander here is 13 at the most, I told him that he is at least 14, more like 15, waiting for his next growth spurt. And as he is 14, being 15 in two weeks time, I won. Maybe I will change the wager from money to chores. The floor needs to be mopped again."
Sighing and murmuring 'no wonder I'm turning gray before my years.' Jem turned back to the screen.
"Do you know your blood type?"
"No."
"Okay. Any illnesses or allergies you know of?"
"No."
"Broken bones, sprains?"
"I broke my left leg once when I fell from a tree branch."
Nodding the older man typed that in the computer, adding the injury on his wrist. Then he turned fully around and looked at his partner.
"Will, take Alec's jacket and wait outside, okay?" The dark-haired man nodded, took the jacket from the teen and left the room.
Jem took Alec's hands in his. The teen noted again how warm and soft the doctor's hands felt.
"I'd like to tell you what I would like to do now." Silvery gray eyes locked with his and Alec nodded slowly. "We will measure you and weigh you. Then I will examine you: Listening to your lungs, your heart, feeling your inner organs, maybe do an ultrasonic if I'm not sure if everything is okay." He looked deep into the teen's eyes.
"I need you to change into a hospital gown for that. Is that okay with you." Alec swallowed an nodded once. "I need to take a blood sample as well. Are you afraid of needles?" The teen shook his head bitting his lower lip. "Good. There is a hospital gown behind the screen. You can leave your boxers on." James left the room for Alec to change into the gown. When the teen was down he sat on the examination table and waited for the older man to come back inside.
The doctor knocked on the door before coming inside. He gestured for Alec to get over to the measuring tape hanging on the wall. "4 ft 10 in. A bit small for your age but a healthy diet and some help from us can get you the growth spurt Will was talking about. Step on the scale, please."
The teen did as he was told, waiting for the scale to stop rotating. He always had been skinny but he knew he had lost weight over the last weeks and the healthy dinner from last night and the breakfast from this morning wouldn't help to get a healthy response. "83.78 lbs. Another 15 lbs would be good for your health." Jem walked over to the computer filling the data into the examination sheet.
"Hop on the table, please." Knowing what was to come now, Alec took a deep breath letting it out slowly.
The examination table was rather cold under the thin material of his underwear. Jem walked over to him, stethoscope in head, warming it up with by breathing at it and rubbing it in one hand. After listening to the teens lungs and heart and taking his pulse, the gray-haired man told the teen to lie down. He got a small fleece blanket from the toy box and lay it over the teen's legs. Lifting the gown carefully to Alec's chest, he pressed on the teen's belly waiting for a reaction. Getting none and feeling nothing unusual the older man pulled the gown down again. He walked back over to the PC typing in the last results, saving and closing the file. "You can get dressed again." With those words the doctor stepped outside.
The dark-haired teen got dressed slowly. Mulling over what the examination may have brought forward, he pulled the sweater over his head. As he did so, somebody knocked on the door and entered without waiting for an answer. It was Cat with a brown kidney basin and some tubes lying inside. Behind her Jem and Will got inside as well. Taking the desk chair and gesturing for the teen to hop back onto the examination table, Cat made quick work taking Alec's blood sample. Her hands weren't as warm as Jem's and they made him shiver a bit. With a pat on the teen's head and a smile she left the room closing the door behind her.
Jem took Cat's place on the chair in front of Alec while Will leaned against the desk, popping one of the candies from the bowl on Jem's desk into his mouth. "Before we go to get your arm x-rayed, I would like to speak to you about the results of the examination."
Nodding, Alec waited for the doctor to continue. Jem rolled over to his desk, poking Will into his thigh to get him to move over. The gray-haired man started the programme again and opened Alec's file. He clicked an icon and the printer in the corner of the desk started to work. Getting the paper from the printer, the doctor rolled back over to Alec and sat beside him on the examination table to show him the results.
"Apparently you are a bit short, but most boys have growth spurts between 14 to 18 and from your physics I can see that you won't stay this small for very long. Your weight may show in the category "normal weight" but you are close to being underweight. As I already told you, a healthy diet will help you grow and put on some weight. Your organs are as healthy as expected. Soothing tea should help with the heartburn. Do you have any questions so far?"
Alec shook his head. He was glad that the weeks at the Institute have not left any more permanent scars. "Then let's go to get that arm of yours checked out." The older man got down from the table and waited for Alec to do the same before they walked outside to get the teen's arm x-rayed.
The feeling of warm fingers probing his eyelid made Alec groan. He opened his eyes to see Jem standing above him with a small flash light in his hand.
"There you are again."
The older man sighed and slumped down in a blue plastic chair standing next to a hospital bed. Comprehending that he was indeed lying on a hospital bed, he slowly sat up and saw a tube attached to his arm where an infusion was dripping a yellowish liquid into his veins.
"What happened?" Looking sceptical at the teen the older man sat up slowly.
"What do you remember?"
"We were walking to the x-ray department. Will was handing me some candy from your bowl. Then everything went black and now I wake up here. What is that yellow stuff?"
The doctor cocked his head. "It's a vitamin infusion as you seem to be short of them. At first I thought you were given some kind of drugs that is why we made a blood test but it came back clear just stating you have a slight shortage of vitamins and iron deficiency anemia. But we can handle that pretty well."
Sighing the older man stood up and sat next to Alec on the bed. "May I hug you?"
Stunned by the question the teen nodded shortly. Jem took him into his arms holding him close for several minutes. Just then the door opened.
"A group hug? I want one, too." Looking over the gray-haired man's shoulder, Alec blushed heavily. Standing in the doorway were Will and Magnus, the later who still had his backpack slung over his shoulder and grinned at the sight before him. Jem turned around scowling.
"Don't be so mean, Magnus. Everybody needs a hug sometimes and you had yours not half an hour ago."
"But you give the best, Jem."
The older teen walked over and sat beside the younger teen and his guardian. Pouting slightly, which earned him a eye-roll from Jem, he got closer to them until he was nearly sitting on Alec's lap. Huffing the gray-haired man let the younger teen go, turned around and hugged both teens, provoking a squeal from Magnus and an 'uff' from Alec. Some moments later the older man let the teens go and stood up to sit on the plastic chair while Will stood behind his partner and rubbed his shoulders affectionately.
Blushing and looking down Alec saw that around Magnus' finger, which he had cut into the night before, was a splint and bandage.
"What happened to your finger?"The older teen leaned his head against Alec's and looked down as well.
"May have done something during PE."
"PE? Never imagined you to play soccer, football or anything dangerous."
Will snorted what earned him a glare from Magnus and a soft 'Don't stop.' from Jem as the dark-haired man had stopped with his massage.
"I may have broken my finger while playing volleyball – for the first time in two years I might add – and because of an overenthusiastic girl who may or may not want to become a professional volleyball player."
Alec couldn't help himself but giggle at the blunt way Magnus was describing his accident.
"You will still have to mop the floors."
"But my finger."
"Your finger can be wrapped into a plastic bag so it won't get wet."
"Jem, Will is mean to meeeee... I'm injured and all he can think about are his dirty floors."
Sighing the gray-haired man looked at his charge and then at his partner. "Could you please wait with your argument until we're home? I have a head ache forming and I think Alec has better things to do than hear you argue over something as trivial as this."
Will pecked his partner on the head and rubbed his temples in a soothing gesture. "Hmmm. That's better. Why don't you two get the car while I get Alec discharged from here and on our way home we buy some take out."
Agreeing with the doctor, the older teen got down from the bed and walked with Will out of the room. Jem sat on Alec's bed again feeling his forehead. The teen leaned into the touch closing his eyes.
"How are you feeling?"
"Warm."
"Too warm?"
"Comfortable warm."
"That is all I'm asking for."
AN2: I hope that's better. For anyone who wants to know: Alec is 148 cm and weights 38 kg.
Wrongaboutme : Thank you.
Poopsie pie: Thank you. They won't jump eachother until later.
pi9 + gsugav : Thank you. Time skip ahead :D