Children of Heroes

Sanseyed

The Shadowhunters had assembled in the Institute kitchen with Magnus, making sure he recuperated properly before returning to the infirmary. Alec, Max and Annalise had arrived whilst Magnus had been working his magic, and now Alec stood with him, an arm around his waist, there for support in case he needed it. Alec knew how much performing magic drained Magnus, especially for sustained periods of time.

"You sure you're okay?" Alec muttered in his ear, more concerned than Magnus thought he should have been. It made Magnus grin; Alec was so overprotective, it was adorable.

Taking another sip of the black coffee Clary had made for him - if she hadn't been a Shadowhunter, she'd have made an excellent office assistant; her coffees were exceptional - Magnus nodded. "I'm fine, Alexander. I'm not too sure about our son, though."

They both glanced over to the corner of the room where Rafe stood alone, staring mournfully down at the floor. "I've tried talking to him," Alec confided, his tone almost as morose as his eldest son's face. "He won't say anything. I'm really worried that if she doesn't make it-"

Magnus held up his hand to silence Alec's fretting. "We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it."

"You're right." Alec nodded. "Of course you're right." He lowered his voice even further, if that was possible. "Poor girl. If she wakes up, her life will never be the same."

"We'll help her through it. We've done it so many times before; we can do it again."

Alec dropped a kiss onto Magnus's cheek. "I love you," he whispered.

"And I, you." Magnus beamed down at his beautiful Shadowhunter and wondered how on earth he had been the one Lady Luck came to, to gift him with Alec and his three beautiful children. In that moment, Magnus thought, he could never need anything else.

Threading his fingers gently through Magnus's, Alec asked, "You ready to go back up?"

Magnus nodded, and together they led the way towards the kitchen door. The others seemed to catch on, and began to fall into step behind the two of them as they walked towards the infirmary.  Rafe was the last one to move, his body sagged with sadness as he trailed behind the others. Max was trying to console him, Magnus could see; Rafe kept brushing his brother off, ignoring him. It physically pained him to see Rafael dismayed beyond the help of his brother's words.

There was an atmosphere of morbidity in the halls of the Institute as they walked towards the infirmary like one big sadness parade. Now that they had all been filled in on the identity of the wounded girl, they all shared the worry that she was too far gone. They'd all seen the amount of blood she'd lost; it covered the outside of her body, thickly coated across her skin and crusted from age. Most mundanes who lost that much didn't survive; Shadowhunters had blood replenish runes - mundanes weren't so lucky.

When they reached the infirmary door, Magnus hesitated. He was worried that, in the time he'd spent away from Beth, she may have slipped away. He was stuck in the imagination of how Rafe react upon finding his girlfriend dead. Although they hadn't been together for a particularly long time, his son had really taken to her.

Swallowing down his anxiety, he shouldered the door open, automatically gravitating towards Bethany's bed.

Which was empty.

The blood-stained sheets had been torn away and sat in a heaped pile at the foot of the bed. Springs and stuffing erupted from tears in the mattress which had not been there before, and the pillows seemed to have been little less than shredded. The only things lying on the bed were the tattered remains of Beth's dungaree dress, shirt and underwear.