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malecsecretsanta · 3 years

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Merry Christmas, the-ghost-of-william-herondale!

For @the-ghost-of-william-herondale, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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*****

Taking Charge Of Your Destiny.

The interesting thing about soulmates, Magnus figures out early on, is that even if their name doesn’t show up until your teens you still feel when they are hurt, physically at least. Magnus can remember times throughout his childhood and adolescence where he would feel intense bouts of pain but would not know where from. At 11 years old he felt a shooting pain in his collarbone, but was just sitting at the table reading. His shoulder aches for weeks afterward and he still has times where it is stiff to this day. When he was 14, in the middle of a dance routine his hand felt like the knuckles had cracked, it had felt like he had punched someone but he was just practicing his pirouettes.

As he got older, it happened less and less often. And then one day when he was 16 he woke up to find the name ‘Alexander’ scrawled on his hip. He knew from a young age that he was bisexual, not afraid to let the world know that he would love whom ever he chooses.

Now, more than a decade later, working as one of the youngest charge nurses in one of the busiest emergency departments in New York, Magnus didn’t really have time for soulmates.

___________________________________

It’s a brisk November evening, the temperature hovering around 20 degrees when Magnus walks into the hospital, venti Starbucks coffee in hand. The temperature hovering around freezing put him a little on edge, people always forgot how to drive when the snow started to fall. And it would melt just enough to freeze into a sheet of black ice. He stops just outside the doors to take a breath of fresh air before walking through the doors to the clinical air of the hospital. He makes his way to the change rooms and changes out of the clothes he had worn for just the evening and into his scrubs. His hospital provides all of the charge nurses with the same deep, navy scrubs and he wears them with pride. He beat out a lot of people for this position and he works incredibly hard for his staff and his department. He glances at the clock, 2300, okay 30 minutes until the mayhem starts. There’s a certain aura of the night shift that Magnus loves. While the rest of the world has gone to sleep and shut down, his ER is buzzing with activity.

Magnus sits down with the charge from evenings and gets the rundown of the department, what staffing for nights looks like (he is fully staffed and thankfully no one has to be mandated), and what the patient counts look like for the various parts of the ER. Overall their census is lower than normal for this time of year, but Magnus isn’t holding his breath, nor is he going to say anything out loud. Once he’s finished getting report, he watches his night staff coming through the door, this particular rotation is filled with stellar staff and Magnus finds himself looking forward to the night ahead of him.

The night starts out much like any other, Magnus goes around the various sections of the ER, making sure all of his staff have what they need to do their jobs properly. He is somehow able to make it back to the high acuity section where his desk is without any big problems coming up. He is getting caught up on paperwork, paperwork he has needed to do for days, when one of the spritely new residents comes walking up to the charge desk.

Magnus looks up from the papers he is signing, “Hello Simeon, to what do I owe the honour tonight?”

“Okay, so it’s Simon.. Lewis,” the resident says shows Magnus his badge, Magnus huffs a laugh, of course he knows his name, Magnus just likes to see the new ones flustered. “But honestly I had an energy drink before I started and now I am buzzing. But it’s so quie--” Magnus puts his index finger up to Simon’s lips trying to stop him from continuing. “-t.”

Magnus rolls his eyes before making eye contact with him. “You did not just say that word, there is one rule when working in a hospital that you need to know. You never say the q word, I don’t care if there are no people in ANY of these beds that word does not pass your lips.” Dr. Catarina Loss is walking up as Magnus finishes chewing into the frightened looking resident.

“Good evening Magnus, what did you say to scare my poor resident so badly.”

“Well you see Dr. Loss, your poor resident here decided to tempt fate by saying the q-word. I was just explaining that when, not even if we get a huge rush, he owes my whole group of nurses breakfast.” Catarina looks at Simon and smirks.

“Sorry Simon, but you are on your own here. It is like the unspoken rule that you never say that word. Good luck tonight, I will be in my call room getting a little shut eye while I still can.”

As soon as she finishes talking Magnus has the wind knocked out of him, he feels like something is crushing his chest and he has to grab the desk in front of him to stabilize him. “Magnus!” Catarina comes rushing around the desk so that she is directly in front of him “Magnus, answer me, are you okay?” The crushing pain only lasts for about 30 seconds before it turns to a dull ache. He looks up at Caterina and she has her stethoscope in her ears and diaphragm against his chest.

“Yeah,” He breathes out, “It felt like something was crushing me and then now it just feels like a dull ache.” Catarina is counting his respirations and finishing up his work up before she answers.

“Well, physically you check out. But please take it easy, and if anything I mean anything happens, come and get me.”

“Yes, mom,” he says, rolling his eyes once again, rubbing his chest as he does so. Catarina starts to turn around when his phone rings, he brings it up to his ear and puts his hand up to stop Catarina from leaving.

As soon as he is off the phone he gathers his team around him. “Okay everyone get ready, we have a 4 car MVC coming in, they are transporting the hardest hit vics. Helen,” He looks at the unit clerk, “call a respiratory 25 arriving in 5 minutes, they have one patient in respiratory distress in the ambulance right now. Lydia, Dot you two get the resus room set up, Lydia you will be the primary nurse for that patient, Dot you will assist her. Let me know as soon as they are stable. There are also 6 other vics who are being brought here, they are all stable as of right now and will go through triage. Buckle up everyone we are in for a long night ahead of us.” The ER turns into a flurry of movement around him, his team works seamlessly together, getting ready for an incoming resus, as well as an influx of patients.

Moments later 2 paramedics come rushing through the doors of the ambulance bay, talking a mile a minute to Lydia as brings them toward the resus room. “Alexander Lightwood, 25 year old, Male, MVC, extracted with the jaws, lost consciousness on the way here, we started bagging him,” the paramedic looks at his watch “6 minutes ago.” Lydia signs the papers the paramedics hand her once she is done getting report.

“Lydia, you look like you have it handled here, do you two need anything else?” Magnus asks, Lydia looks up taking the stethoscope off from around her neck and puts it in her ears and presses it to the patient’s chest while Dot is busy hooking him up to their monitors.

“No we’re okay here,” She pauses for a second before adding, “But if you could see where the fuck RT is that would be helpful.” A moment later, Ragnor Fell, the respiratory therapist, runs into the room and gets to work. Magnus knows his staff have this handled so he leaves it to them while he goes to triage and helps where he can.

Patients just do not stop coming in as the night trudges on. Magnus is pulled every which way, still managing to let his nurses go for breaks though, he even manages to sneak off for a 30 minute break himself during a small lull in the action.

When he gets back to his desk Lydia comes up to him with an update on their patient from the ambulance. “Okay so our patient in resus, Alexander is stable, he is currently on 8 litres of O2 but he is stable enough to be transferred to a different bed.” Magnus looks over his bed assignments and thinks of where he should go.

“Bring him to bed 17 in high acuity.” She nods her head and walks back to her patient. Magnus runs his hand over his face, it’s been so crazy that he hasn’t even had a chance to focus on the aching in his chest. It’s still there he notices, but definitely just an ache, and an overall soreness, although that can be contributed to the fact that he has been on his feet for a solid 3 hours, running around his ER.

He falls back into the chair at his desk, cautiously optimistic that he can squeeze a tiny bit more paperwork in, asking Helen if there have been any staffing changes for the morning he should be aware of. Thankfully he is able to squeeze out some preparation for the day shift before a monitor beeps loudly. Magnus looks up at the central monitoring system on the monitor above his desk, and sees that bed 17 has gone into v-tach. He feels the heaviness in his chest again, but pushes through it. He jumps out of his chair and grabs runs toward the bed in question.

“Helen, call a code blue to high acuity, Lyds, get over here,” by this point Magnus is at the bedside. Shouting orders before the doctors get there. They have ripped the blankets off of the patient’s body, and are moving the head of the bed down. “Dot the backboard.” She passes him the board and he goes to put it under him. “Okay, let’s roll him on 3. 1, 2, 3.” As they roll him Magnus sees it, in the brief second his back is on display he sees it clear as day. The name Magnus in a flowing script along the back of his ribs. Magnus shakes his head, clearing his thoughts. Dot starts bagging him, while Lydia starts compressions. Just in time, the code blue team comes and takes over. Magnus takes a step back and moment to think through what just happened. His mind is racing, he thinks to himself Magnus must be a common name, he couldn’t possibly be his soul mate.

He walks back to the desk and runs his hand over the nape of his neck. He turns to the clerk beside him, “Helen, what is the patient’s name in bed 17?” He knows he could just as easily look it up, but his mind is everywhere right now. She gives him a slightly curious look, obviously thinking the same thing, but she turns to her computer and looks it up for him.

“Lightwood,” She says, pausing before saying the first name. “Alexander.” Magnus lets out the breath he was holding.

He takes this information and lets it ruminate in his brain for a little while he tries desperately to regain hold of his ER. He makes a quick round and glances up at the clock on the wall, 0639. He takes a breath, so maybe he didn’t get his second break, but most of his staff did, so that’s a win in and of itself. He has 50 minutes until day shift starts, he needs to figure out what the fuck is going on. He sits back at the desk and Catarina fills him in on bed 17.

“He is once again stable, we think we have figured out the right meds to keep him that way. But Magnus,” She looks him in the eye. Over the last few years he has been working in the ER they have gotten close, close enough apparently to broach topics that aren’t completely professional. “When I was doing his assessment I saw it.” Magnus sucks in a breath, she couldn’t have noticed it too, and put two and two together. “That can’t be a coincidence.” She whispers her next words. “Your name on his back, you pretty much collapsing just minutes before his MVC is called in. And don’t think I haven’t seen your soul mark when you are reaching up, you aren’t trying very hard to hide the name on your hip.”

Magnus looks up at her pleading, “My mind is a mess right now, what do I do? I can’t just walk up to him and be like hey, this is completely unprofessional but I think I may be your soulmate.”

She looks back at him and says, “Look, I can’t tell you what to do, but what I can say is his emergency contact is coming in from another state, he will probably be waking up within the next couple hours and your shift ends in,” she glances up at the clock, “40 minutes.”

__________________________________

Magnus skirts through the rest of the shift, he is extremely glad that his staff is so strong because they hold him up when his focus isn’t 100%. He heads to bed 17 on his way out, he’s not sure if he should, but his legs lead him there before his mind can catch up. He sits in the chair next to the bed, leaning his elbows on his knees and rubbing his face with his hands. What am I doing here? He thinks to himself. Just as he is about to get out, he hears movement in the bed and a groan coming from the man. He immediately jumps back into nurse mode.

“No, don't try and talk. Let me get your doctor for you.” Magnus gets out of the chair and goes up to the desk. “Aline can you please page Dr. Loss back here please.” She gives him a look, as if to ask if he’s sure. “Yes I know she hands over 20 minutes, but please get her.”

Cat gets back to the ER quickly and they are able to extubate him once she and Raphael Santiago, the oncoming respiratory therapist are happy with his O2 levels. Once everyone leaves, Magnus walks back toward him. “Are you my nurse?” Alexander asks, his voice still scruffy from the intubation. Magnus huffs out a laugh.

“No, that would be Clary on days I believe.” He pauses to think of whether or not he should tell him. “Uhhhh, I am the charge nurse from nights actually. You gave us quite the scare last night, Alexander.” He tries to sit up in his bed, gritting through his teeth.

“It’s Alec.” Magnus gets up, and helps adjust the head of the bed. Alec takes a sharp breath in.

“Are you okay, do you need me to get your nurse so she can get you some pain meds?”

“Magnus?” Alec whispers, so softly Magnus almost doesn’t hear. Magnus looks down and notices that his badge is right in his eyesight. “It can’t be.”

Magnus sits back down in the chair beside him, wondering what he should say. He puts his head back in his hands, and says softly back at him, “I think it is.”

“So, you know?”

“I saw my name after you coded last night, we were turning you, and it was there, clear as day. And I felt it, the moment your car crashed. I almost collapsed in the middle of my own ER.” He looked back up at Alec, who’s eyes were glossy.

“I never thought I’d find you.” He chokes out. “And it takes me almost dying for you to come to me, what kind of sick karma is that?” Alec tries to laugh, but groans as soon as he starts.

“Don’t try and laugh. You have multiple broken ribs and you are pretty banged up from the accident.” Magnus takes a chance and reaches for Alec’s hand. “You know I tried finding you many times. But Alexander is such a common name, it was no use, I gave up too. I’m sorry for giving up.” Alec looks back at him like he's hung the sun, squeezing his hand as tight as he can manage. They sit there in silence, just holding each other's hands for a few minutes. Magnus can feel his eyes start to droop, the exhaustion from the night before finally starting to catch up with him.

“Magnus, why don’t you go home. If you know where my phone is you can put your number in it.” Alec says with a smirk. Magnus has to say, he’s impressed, even laid up in a hospital bed this man has game. Magnus grabs a piece of scrap paper from his pocket and a pen and jots his name and number down.

He’s handing it to Alec when Clary walks in. She clears her throat, “What are you doing with my patient Magnus?” Magnus' face immediately turns beet red.

“Uhhhh just catching up with an--- old friend?” Magnus answers, although he can tell she’s not convinced.

“Well your old friend here needs to be assessed, besides you should be going home to sleep!” She tells him.

“Yeah yeah, I was just leaving.” As he walks away he hears Alec ask for his phone, and Magnus smirks, hoping he will put that number to good use.

____________________________________

Magnus wakes up to a text from Alec, it’s nothing much, just telling him that he’s been moved up to the ICU. Magnus furrows his brow, he figured he would have been admitted to the hospital, but was hoping he would be able to avoid the ICU. He goes about his evening routine, working out, prepping his lunch for the upcoming shift. He just cuts out his lounging time so he can head into the hospital early. He walks in and throws all his belongings besides his badge, phone and wallet in his lockers, walking to the elevators still in his civilian clothing, a pair of jeans, deep purple v neck t-shirt and his favourite leather jacket. He walks into the ICU and up to the desk which just so happens to be staffed with one of his favourite float clerks, he says he’s there to see Lightwood in room 4017, he is secretly pleased that he is bed 17 on this unit too. She smirks at him knowingly but sends him to the right room.

He walks into the room to see Alec with a small but beautiful young woman with jet black hair, she is sitting on his bed facing Alec, her head thrown back in laughter. “Iz, please don’t make me laugh, it hurts too much.” Magnus takes a good look at Alec, he still looks super banged up, his left leg is elevated and in a cast and he has a nasal cannula giving him oxygen and a quadrupel baxter pump that makes Magnus wince when he thinks about trying not to tangle the lines. He doesn’t realize he’s just been standing there staring into space until a new voice brings him out of his daze.

“You must be Magnus.” The woman says, “I’m Izzy, Alec’s favourite sibling.” She extends her hand which Magnus takes immediately.

“Uhhh yeah, I’m Magnus. I’m not sure what Alexander’s told you about me.”

“Oh honey, I grew up knowing your name. Alec tried desperately to hide his mark from everyone else, but there was no hiding it from me. Although my dear brother didn’t mention how handsome you were.” Magnus smiles shyly, looking toward the ground avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room.

“Iz, stop please, we just met this morning, let us at least get to know each other a bit before you embarrass us.”

Izzy looks at her phone, “Fine, but only because it’s a quarter to 9 and I have to check into my hotel.” She brushes the hair off of Alec’s forehead and places a kiss. “Bye big brother.” She starts to walk out the door and stops right beside Magnus who is still at the door of the room. “Take care of him please.”

“Always,” he breathes out, his voice betraying him before he can think of what he is saying.

Magnus takes the seat beside Alec and takes his hand in his own. He takes a good look at Alec, his breathing is still laboured and his skin is cold. He knows immediately that the ICU is definitely the right unit for him. It pains him to see Alec like this, he knows they just met, but actually feeling the pain that brought him here adds another layer of hurt. They sit there talking, well mostly Magnus talking, for what feels like hours before his IV pump starts to beep. His nurse is in there moments later with another IV bag of fluids and meds, obviously anticipating the completion of the bag.

“You know Magnus, it’s past visiting hours and I should be kicking you out.” Alec’s nurse, Anna says. He recognizes her as one of the float nurses he occasionally gets on his night shifts.

“You know Anna, you could just look the other way.” He flutters his eyelashes, “And I will make sure you get a good assignment the next time you are in my ER.” He adds a wink for good measure.

“You better,” she smiles at him, “But you should really pay attention to the time, it’s already 2240. You aren’t even changed yet.” Magnus looks back to Alec, he knows he needs to leave soon but can’t bring himself to get up from the chair. Alec’s grip on Magnus’ hand starts to loosen and his eyes start to droop close, the pain medication Anna gave him finally taking effect. When his breathing starts to even out, Magnus gets out of his chair, stopping to place a soft kiss on his forehead before he leaves the unit. His shift goes swimmingly, just steady enough that it goes by fast, but not enough that it is out of control. It’s a good thing because his mind and heart is elsewhere.

__________________________________

On the third day of his stay, Alec continues to desat and the doctors end up doing a pleurocentesis, removing the fluid around the lungs and Alec starts to get better after that, better enough that he is moved to the step down unit on day 4. He starts to improve rapidly after that, blowing the doctors and nurses away. On day 8 he gets discharged, with strict orders to have someone watch over him, that’s how they end up here at the entrance to the hospital, Alec’s bag thrown over his shoulder, Alec on crutches holding gripping his prescription in his left hand.

Alec looks over to Magnus and says, “You didn’t have to take time off just to take care of me.”

Magnus smiles back at him as he pulls up to the car he had parked conveniently by the front door. “Of course I did silly, your sister had to leave yesterday and they wouldn’t let you get discharged without someone. Besides I only technically took 1 week off, you just caught me on my week off.” He helps Alec into the car. “Anyway I have some pretty great eye candy to keep me company.” Magnus winks at him, before kissing him gently. Alec brings his hand up under Magnus’ shirt, grazing his fingers along his hip. Magnus feels a spark when Alec goes over his mark, and then it is like everything falls into place. This part of him that was missing for so long, the hole in his heart that he didn’t even know was there was now filled. Sometimes accidents tear people apart, but sometimes they can pull people who were broken back together.

#the-ghost-of-william-herondale #malecsanta20 #*fic20 #*gifts20

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