Ocean's Deep

Part 42

"Deep breath for me."

"Another deep breaths."

*coughs*

"Are you okay?" Valentine asked after Alec settles his coughs multiple times, Maryse handed him a glass of water which he sips carefully afraid if he's gonna chocked trying to clear his throat. He nodded before he handed back the glass with his still trembling hands to his mother.

The look on her face shows nothing but fear and still she behaves like she walks around like she's walking on an eggshell around him. It's not that she feared of Alec but afraid of something so little would triggered anything in his such fragile state.

"I'm okay." He said with a hoarse voice, clearly what lying on bed with a tube in his throat and sleeping for almost two weeks does for him. His voice is barely there to come out but he tried his best like he always did.

Alec hunched forward as Valentine continues to hear his lungs through his stethoscope placed on his back. He took his time to listen carefully and his face furrowed in worries. "Is everything okay?" Magnus asked after seeing the look on Valentine's face.

"How's your therapy?" Valentine asked Alec, letting him lay back against the pillow. The breathing tube circling his nose curled around his ear goes under his chin and neck. He fiddled with it sometimes which Magnus finds it secretly of Alec being worried of something.

"Painful." He simply said which earned Valentine a long sighed. He took a chair and sat next to Alec. Maryse and Robert sat across from him while Magnus at the edge of the bed by Alec's feet. He didn't want to get in between Alec's parent cause they had been taking care of him this long.

"Alec you had to endure this physical therapy as well as the mind therapy. Sometimes it's too overwhelmed for some patient and some are too painful for them bare, I know."

Alec tilted his head back on the pillow, they all could see how skinny he had been after the surgery. His cheek is more hollowed, his neck is more bony and they could see his Adam apple's bobbed up and down as he swallowed. He took a deep breath in but quickly grabbed his chest in pain. His face still looking up to the ceiling not bother with the people around him waiting for him to answer.

Slowly they could see him breaking and a single tears fell on the side of his temple but he quickly wiped them with his palm and pinched his eyes together.

Maryse rubbed his arm up and down trying to soothe him before he looked forward and gazed upon each other. "I'm so tired." He breaks into tears before Maryse pulls him into a soft hug. She still worries the wound on his chest would hurt him if she pulls him too hard.

Magnus couldn't bear the see Alec like this, vulnerable and weak at the verge of breaking point while he lied to everyone how tired he was too. A single tear shed on his face but he quickly wiped them so Alec couldn't see it.

"I'm tired of everything, I feel like I'm done. I don't think I can go on and do this anymore." He stares at his mother's face with a pleading look. Maryse tried to hold off her tears but she can't fooled herself.

"Sweetheart don't say that please." She stroke his hair back from his face, his tears had fallen more and more as she soothe him.

"We are so proud of what you have been doing Alec. How strong you are at handling this. How you endured all the pain on your own. I wish Alec, I wished I could take some of your pain away but instead I got the most painful one to bear. I had to stood here and watched you suffering without being able to do anything."

Alec rubbed his lips together didn't want to look at his mother anymore cause he felt ashamed for unable to handle this. He knew his parents are tired of coming back and forth from their job to the hospital. His recovering is much worst than he thought. Magnus tried his best to help him but all he wanted to do is let go.