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It was the end of Alec’s third week at the rehab centre when Cat decided it’d be a good idea to try and do Alec’s weekly checkup whilst the Nephilim was still awake. Normally, Alec was put under and checked over as the process would have been far too overwhelming for him, but now that he was slowly beginning to trust Magnus and was learning that being out from under the bed wasn’t that terrifying, it was the best time to try.
To keep Alec as calm as possible, Cat decided to do his check-up in his room with Magnus sitting in front of him. Having someone familiar there to keep him calm was the best way to help the check-up go smoothly.
Cat could already tell Alec wasn’t enjoying his current predicament, he was hunched over with his wings spread out as she checked over the stitches on his back. There was a slight tremor in his wings as he sat there, his breathing also heavy and forced as he forced himself to stay still.
From Magnus’ point of view, he could see the same thing. Alec sat cross-legged in front of him, his hands balled up into fists in his lap and his face was set in a frown as his eyes flickered back and forth now and then.
“You’re doing very well Alec, Cat is almost finished” Magnus reassured Alec with a gentle smile, it wouldn’t do much but it was all he could offer at this point. Cat looked over Alec’s shoulder and gave Magnus a thankful smile in response to his calming methods.
“Your stitches are healing up very well Alec, I think you’ll only need them for a few more days and then they can be removed,” Cat said as she wrote down a few notes on her chart. Alec didn’t give any response besides a small huff in acknowledgement.
“Okay, Alec I’m going to start looking over your wings now alright?” Alec seemed to stiffen up at the statement and Magnus noticed.
“It’s alright Alec, she’s just going to have a look at the places where you pulled feathers, nothing invasive” Magnus quickly jumped in to explain to Alec, they were so close to finishing, he just needed to push through a little more.
Cat waited a few seconds before she slowly began to part some areas of feathers to look at the spots Alec had both pulled feathers and dropped them due to stress. A few of the patches had small bits of dried blood but nothing looked too serious, it was recovering well and didn’t need any extra attention.
When Cat moved down to the base of Alec’s wings, that’s when all hell broke loose.
Magnus straight away saw the shift in Alec’s face, his whole demeanour went from one of slight annoyance to one of horrified fear in less than a second. Alec let out an ear-piercing screech as he began to flap his wings widely in an attempt to escape from Cat’s touch.
Both warlocks slightly jumped back at the sudden outburst before looking at each other with panicked expressions.
“Magnus hold him!” Cat shouted over Alec’s continuous screeches. Without even thinking, Magnus lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Alec’s torso, pinning the Nephilim’s arms to his chest, this only resulted in more panic. Alec thrashed in Magnus’ hold and continued to cry out, whatever Cat had done set something off.
“Got it!” Cat exclaimed as she plunged a needle into Alec’s thigh, pushing the plunger down quickly forcing the clear liquid into Alec’s body, from Magnus’ guess she had just admitted sedation.
Alec’s struggles and cries slowly began to calm down before he completely slumped into Magnus’ hold, his breathing evening out into calm and relaxed breaths. Magnus looked down at the sedated Nephilim in his arms before looking up to Cat who looked completely frazzled
“What… was that?” Magnus questioned, not loosening his hold on Alec.
“I don’t know, I touched the base of his wings and he just went haywire” Cat replied with a worried expression on her face. Cat started looking over Alec’s wings again whilst Magnus held him, unconsciously rubbing the boy’s bare back.
It was when Cat let out a small but shocked breath Magnus’ attention was redirected to the other warlock.
“What is it?” Magnus questioned
“I think you’ll need to look for yourself” Cat replied. Carefully, Magnus removed Alec from his chest and laid him gently onto the floor, guilt weighing heavy in his chest as he observed the sleeping Nephilim. He made his way over to sit next to Cat before looking to where she was pointing.
“Look, scar tissue around the base of his wings” Cat said as she pointed from the bottom of the base of his wings to the middle. Magnus frowned as he looked at the scar tissue, why on earth would he have scar tissue on the base of his wings?
“What do you think caused it?” Magnus questioned turning to Cat who had a sad expression on her face.
“My guess, at some point during his life someone tried to remove his wings and from the way this tissue looks, it was more than once” Magnus’ eyes widened as he looked back at Alec’s wings in shock. His shock was quickly replaced with anger at the thought of anyone wanting to hurt Alec is such a way.
“How could someone be so cruel, for goodness sakes he barely even a man… why would someone do that?” Magnus growled as he ran his hands down his face in frustration.
“You and I have both lived long enough to know this world is full of cruel people Magnus, it’s just unfortunate that Alec happened to cross paths with one of them” Cat sighed. The two warlocks sat in silence for a little bit, processing their new discovery.
“How long will he be out?” Magnus asked as he looked down at Alec’s sleeping face, he looked so peaceful despite the reasons behind his sleep.
“About an hour, I think we should get him into bed and leave him be. Bring him dinner when he wakes up” Cat said with a nod.
“I’m already guessing this may be a step back in his trust, but it was a necessary evil” Magnus frowned. Cat gave Magnus a small smile as she placed her hand on his shoulder.
“We did what we had to do Magnus, he may not understand that but it was for his good,” She said as she looked back down at Alec
“I hope you’re right Cat, I don’t want to fail him…”