Chapter Text
“This isn’t a good idea,” Alex says, worrying his lip between his teeth. “We should report what happened, Max.”
“I don’t want her to get in any trouble,” Max says, kicking his legs against the side of the examination table. “It was an accident; she didn’t mean to do it.”
“She caused a hairline fracture in your wrist, Max,” Alec says, running a hand through his hair. “She lost control and she hurt you, I don’t care if it was an accident or not. That’s not okay.”
“I know, but I don’t want her to get mad at me and I don’t want her to get in trouble,” Max says again, pleading. He picks at the white gauze that lines the bright blue cast, Max’s favorite color, and Alec once again can’t shake the feeling that they’re making a horrible mistake.
Alec, Max, and Magnus were all sitting in an examination room at the Emergency Room together. The doctor, a girl that Alec was friends with in high school, had just finished putting a cast on Max’s arm and now the three of them were waiting to be discharged.
Alec wanted to report Maryse for child abuse, he knew that was right the thing to do, but Max had begged Alec not to do it. He was afraid of losing his mom and Alec, despite his problems with his mother, didn’t want to completely destroy their relationship. At the same time, what happened was not okay. Maryse definitely needed to work her shit out, get her priorities in line, and decide how important her son really was to her.
She couldn’t put her hands on Max, no matter how angry she gets. That won’t ever fly with Alec and he’s not going to let something like that go, not when it concerns Max.
“Max…” Alec starts, trailing off when he realized he couldn’t find the right words to say. He didn’t want to crush his brother any more than he already had been but he couldn’t just forgive Maryse for what she did.
“Darling, we’re not going to give her the opportunity to hurt Max again,” Magnus says softly. He hadn’t exactly voiced his opinion on either side of the argument but he had offered positive and negative comments to both sides and Alec really appreciated him because of it.
Alec sighs heavily and takes a deep breath. “I don’t want Mommy to hate me,” Max says, so softly he can barely hear it, and Alec wants to cry.
“She’s not going to hate you,” Alec says, kneeling down in front of Max. “She won’t. You haven’t done anything wrong, I need you to remember and understand that. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Promise?” Max asks, and the uncertainty in his voice makes Alec want to cry and strangle his mother at the same time.
She had somehow made Max feel as if he needed to be forgiven, like this whole situation was his fault, and it’s going to take a lot for him to forgive her for what she's done this time. This wasn't Alec she was hurting, it wasn't even Jace or Izzy. This was Max and it was Alec's responsibility to protect him.
“I swear to you,” Alec says, placing a hand on Max’s shoulder. He’d do anything for his brother, anything at all, and if he had to placate Maryse to help protect him he would. “We’ll handle it the way we planned on the car ride here, okay? Everything is going to be okay, I swear to you.”
Maryse won’t be a fan of what he and Magnus had come up with, she’d be infuriated. But Alec didn’t care. The most important thing is that Max is taken care of, Alec won’t let his mother mess up his little brother. Not Max, never Max.
“The patient in room 203 is ready to be discharged now,” Dr. Angelica Kempner says, stopping by the nurse’s station on her way to her next patient. “Make sure they make a follow up appointment in about a month before they leave.”
“That the boy with the hairline fracture in his wrist?” a nurse speaks up, leaning against the counter right next to him.
“Yeah, it should heal nicely with no surgery. It’s in a relatively easy place to treat and shouldn’t affect his growth plate,” Angelica informs, already starting to go over her chart for her next patient.
“I take it you didn’t report it?” she says, sounding somewhat offended. “I told you there was something off about the story.”
“Rebecca,” Angelica says, sighing softly. “You say that about everyone that comes in, which is exactly why you have to report your findings to someone else before you’re allowed to file reports anymore. The boy was well taken care of, I didn’t notice any signs of abuse, and he’s Alec Lightwood’s brother. I went to school with Alec, he doesn’t love anything more than he loves his family and he would never hurt Max. That I know for a fact. Not everyone who comes in with a broken wrist is being abused. Alec will take care of his brother, I know he will.”
Without another room Angelica takes off down the hallway and heads towards her next patient. Her back is turned when the nurse’s face changes into a look her co-worker wouldn't recognize, a look of pure, concerned, rage.