Sleeping Beauty: A Malec Fairytale #2

Tag Me Out (14)

It had been a week since Alec was admitted into the hospital and was declared to be in a coma. Isabelle and Jace had tried to go back to school but they couldn't handle the apologies and the sympathies and the pity. Their mom told the office that they wouldn't be back to school until this whole thing ended: be that with a 'welcome back home' party or a funeral. Isabelle didn't like to think like that. She didn't want to think of her older brother dying or in pain. She just wanted everything to be over. She wanted doctors to give her a blunt answer: is he going to be okay or is he going to die, so she can start planning accordingly. She wanted to prepare herself for the outcome.

She had been texting Magnus once a day with updates. Mainly she just wrote the same thing: he's the same. Sometimes she would call him and they would talk about what he was seeing in Paris and about what was happening in New York, just so that they each had someone to talk to. Isabelle couldn't talk to Jace because his idea of dealing with emotions is to shove them down and then die without having ever shared them. Her parents were even worse. They pretended as if everything was okay. She and Magnus were the only two looking at this from a realistic stand point.

"Dad, I'm going to the hospital. Jace has been there by himself for hours. Do you want to come?"

"I'm busy, Isabelle," he said, not bothering to look up from his computer.

"But what if he wakes up?"

"Call me and then I'll come." Isabelle pressed her lips in a line before marching to her mother who was in the living room.

"Do you want to come to the hospital with me?" Isabelle asked her mother. Maryse looked up from her computer.

"Is Alexander awake?" she asked hopefully.

"Not that I know of but--"

"Call me if he wakes up dear." Maybe it was because they didn't want to think about another one of their children dying. Or maybe it was because they didn't care about Alec. Maybe they were just bad people. Maryse sighed as she looked at Isabelle who was expressing her frustration and anger blatantly. "Fine. Your father and I will met you and Jace at the hospital in an hour or two. Okay?"

"Fine." Isabelle wanted to say, 'I shouldn't have to force you or guilt you into coming to visit your possibly dying son at the hospital', but she walked out the door instead.

~***~

Isabelle had gotten to the hospital thirty minutes later, and walked into her brother's room. Jace was asleep next to Alec. The doctors had managed to clean up Alec's face from when he was first brought in. He no longer had dried blood on his face and all his cuts were cleaned and some stitched. He had a yellowish bruise on his jawline from the impact just other than that, his face was clear. The doctors had removed the oxygen mask after he was brought in once they were sure he could breath on his own.

Isabelle took her jacket off and draped it over the foot of Alec's bed. She did the same with her purse just as Nurse Tessa walked in to check Alec's vitals.

"Hello, again." Tessa smiled at Isabelle.

"Tessa. How was your shift off yesterday?" Since Isabelle had begun to spend almost every waking moment in the hospital next to her brother, she had gotten to know Nurse Tessa almost to a degree of friendship. She found out that Tess and Dr. Carstairs, who's first name is Jem, are married and that Tessa is pregnant. It's pretty early on so she isn't showing yet, but they're excited. She also found out that Tessa was married before but her husband, Will, died a few years ago. Tessa looked young, but she was actually almost forty and if you just looked at her you wouldn't even know the trauma she's been through.

"Hardly relaxing. Jem got called in because they were low on doctors in the ECU so I was alone all day. Still good to get away from the hospital, though. I think you should also take some time for yourself, Isabelle. You're always here. You need a shift off too."

"Today was supposed to be my day away, but I was getting antsy at home. Plus, Jace would be here all by himself." Tess looked at the two sleeping boys.

"Peas in a pod," the nurse pointed out.

"Inseparable." Tessa giggled, as finished filling out a report on Alec.

"You never know, today could be the day!" Tessa declared as she clicked her pen closed. Isabelle showed her, her crossed fingers and they shared a smile before Tessa left the room. Jace stirred in his chair and woke up.

"Izzy?" he said, yawning. "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't want you to be here alone." Jace pushed his golden hair away from his face. "Do you want anything? A coffee?" Jace waved his hand.

"You stay here. I'll get it. I've been sitting for two hours, I need a stretch. Do you want a coffee?" She shook her head and Jace left for the cafeteria. Izzy sat in the chair and looked at her brother, shaking her head.

"What am I going to do with you, Alec?"