The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 29: Best Foot Forward

Summary:

Late on Sunday, Alec is making another trip to see Magnus at the hospital. The rain is pouring down but Alec feels hopeful. Maybe today could be the day that changes everything.

Notes:

Again, thanks everyone for being patient. This has been a lovely chapter to write and I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to join in the fun with #flutterfic on twitter <3

It was drizzling outside as Alec ran into the hospital. The weather had been miserable all day but Alec found for the first time that he didn't actually mind it. Magnus had told him once that rain should be appreciated for what it was. How could you hate something that provided life to every living thing on earth? Nurtured it? Sustained it? Alec found that he couldn't. But that didn't mean he should be out in it for a long time, no matter how vital it was.

Alec hopped through puddles and walked quickly up curbs. Magnus had always walked within the square stones outside the main entrance and Alec found himself wondering if it was a subconscious gesture or a compulsive one.

Various members of Alec's family had been visiting Magnus. Of course, they had their time alone together but Magnus was by all means, family to them too. At the moment, however, Alec was walking in on his own. Maryse and Izzy were going to the Mail office and were picking up a few supplies for the house. Robert was dropping them off and picking them up when they were finished so they had all said that they were going to stop by later. Jace and Clary had taken Max to the park for the afternoon but Jace had needed a little convincing. The park was a different one behind Clary's house that he'd never been to before and Alec smiled to himself when he'd remembered poking fun at his brother because he'd asked Clary to send photographic evidence that there were no duck ponds there.

As Alec ran in with his collar pulled up to his neck, he counted in his head how many days Magnus had been in for, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders. Alec had borrowed a hoodie from Magnus, when he'd been packing things up to bring him, and he took comfort in the fact that the hoodie was so large that it brushed past his own fingers. Images of Magnus' curled up on the sofa came to mind; sipping tea with sleeves so long that Alec couldn't see where he was holding the cup. When Alec had been home for chemo and Magnus had stayed late one evening. When he had told Alec that there was nowhere else that he would have rather been in that moment. How he felt that his heart could have positively burst with the love he had for him. How he couldn't and didn't want to contain it.

Like when Alec was in hospital and Magnus had visited, Alec had been in every day to see him.

If today is Sunday... and we've met with the counsellor... six times...then Magnus has been in hospital for... nineteen days.

As he finally reached the doors, Alec unzipped his coat and looked around the busy entrance. There were usually a lot of people around on Sundays and he'd begun to recognise a few who were regulars there; both patients and visitors. He made his way over to the small shop, picking up a couple of Magazines, a pack of biscuits and a few toffee flavoured yogurts that he knew Magnus liked. When Izzy and Maryse had been shopping two weeks before, Izzy had bought Magnus an eye shadow palette that had absolutely made him elated. After a few hours and a lot of laughing, Alec and Magnus had realised that eye shadow wasn't Alec's forte. He could do nail polish just fine but anything else would have to wait until Magnus could do everything he wanted for himself again. He didn't seem to mind some things though and Alec was more than willing to open things or take him places in his wheelchair. It had reached its peak when Magnus had joked that he'd wanted Alec to give him a bed bath without realising that both Asmodeus and two of his nurses were standing right behind him.