Chapter Twenty Four – Secrets.
Magnus made his way through the automatic doors, stepping calmly through them as they slid open however internally he was terrified. He'd been planning this for weeks since Alec had brought it up briefly in conversation and he knew that if he didn't do it now he never would, and he wanted it. God he wanted it so bad despite how terrified he was. He made his way through the main reception of the hospital, glad that his glamour spell was holding and therefore concealing his cat's eyes from the mundanes who were sat in the waiting room. The room echoed with the voices of patients, cries of small children and the high pitched shrill on the ringing phones on the receptionist's desk. Feeling a light bump against his leg, Magnus glanced briefly down to see a tiny boy picking himself up from the floor where he'd been running and had bumped into Magnus.

His bright blue eyes widened as he stared up at Magnus, his tiny fist tightening subconsciously around his teddy bear crushing the toy to his chest. Magnus wiggled his fingers at the child, causing tiny little sparks to flicker across his fingers and form the shape of a flying dragon. Glancing around him hurriedly he crouched down by the child turning the dragon into a monkey on a unicycle, smiling when the little boy began to giggle. "Magnus Bane." A familiar voice said from behind him and Magnus stood, turning to face the slightly frazzled face of Catarina Loss, strands of her hair flying loose from the tightly knotted bun. At her raised eyebrow Magnus shrugged a mischievous smile tilting a corner of his mouth upwards, his glamoured eyes shining with amusement despite his underlying concerns.

Stepping into Catarina's familiar office Magnus took the empty seat besides her desk, waiting patiently as she rummaged through the drawers in her desk in order to find her lunch. Once Catarina had settled she turned her attention to Magnus, her friend of many years. "So what brings you to these dark parts of the woods?" She asked, taking a bite out of her tuna sandwich before sipping from her can of lemonade. Magnus played briefly with a loose thread from his shirt before looking up at Catarina, "I and Alec have been thinking about adoption." He said, staring down at the neon shade of electric blue that he had painted his nails this morning. "Oh my... Magnus that's great news! I know a warlock, she runs a Downworlder adoption agency, of course they often get Shadowhunters too, children who have run away from their families. It's not very common I know but it happens." Catarina said before she stopped, narrowing her eyes at Magnus who was still not meeting her gaze. "You don't seem very happy about it." Magnus shook his head, "If we follow through with it, how would I know... how would I know that he or she is even going to like me?"

"You don't think you're going to be a good father to the child that you may adopt?" Catarina said, amusement and bewilderment filling her voice. "I'm sorry but did you even see yourself with that Mundane child out there? Magnus..." She paused once more debating what to say next. "Have you spoken to Alec about this? About how you feel?"
Magnus shook his head again, "Well kind of but I didn't tell him what I was so afraid of."
Catarina sighed, "Does he even know you're here right now talking to me?" Again Magnus shook his head. "I didn't want to put any unneeded stress or pressure on him. He hasn't been doing well lately. I had a text from him this morning saying he was spending the day training at the Institute."
"What do you mean?" Catarina asked, her lunch long forgotten and her doctor mode kicking in. Magnus shrugged, "He doesn't seem to be eating, he doesn't sleep. He just seems so stressed and on edge and I just don't know what to do." Catarina frowned, tapping her right index finger against her lower lip as she thought. "Is he still taking his medicine? That should help with keeping him calm and stop the stress from building up to unbearable levels."

"I honestly don't know." Magnus replied placing his head in his hands, "It sounds terrible I know. But he's always up at two in the morning and I can never tell anymore and I don't want to confront him about it and make him feel like I don't trust him to take care of himself. I don't see them on the bedside table anymore but just because they're not on there doesn't mean he hasn't moved them to a safer storage space." Catarina nodded in agreement, rummaging through a medical cabinet and pulling out a file which she had filled out for Alec when she'd first prescribed him the medicine. "Well I tell you what Magnus. I'll get him another batch ordered just in case, this one to be taken at night. That way you can make sure he takes them and it will come out in the end if he hasn't been taking his old ones, trust me." She winked at him then, returning to her lunch as she grabbed the phone from her desk, holding up a finger at Magnus's questioning look as she dialled in a number. "Hello? Hi Codex its me Cat. I need a few favours to ask of you."

A few minutes after Catarina had hung up the phone, Alec's new prescription was brought in to Catarina's office by a male nurse who seemed to linger just a bit too long in the doorway staring back at Catarina, completely ignoring Magnus's presence. "Well he seemed to have an interest." Magnus muttered, chuckling to him as he stuck the new bottle of medicine in his jacket pocket, wincing as Catarina sharply slapped him on the shoulder. "Shut up." She muttered around the pen lid in her mouth, scribbling down a string of sentences on a card. "So are you going to tell me who Codex is yet?" Magnus asked, pulling a strand of his dark hair in front of his eyes, using his magic to change the colours. He watched on with a look of boredom as his dark inky hair switched from bright blue like Alec's eyes to a shocking violet and then to a fiery red before Magnus released the strand of hair from his grip and the colour faded and returned to normal, Catarina ignoring him as she continued to scribble.

Finally she sat back in her chair, flicking the card over to Magnus with a smirk on her face as she watched his reactions. Magnus's eyes scanned across the card, words formed through Catarina's untidy and spidery scrawl: 'Codex Lynn. 14th Street, Nightshade House.' Underneath the address was the phone number. Magnus glanced up at Catarina with a raised eyebrow, "Is this you trying to persuade me I'd make a good parent?" He questioned, fiddling with the card in his hands. Catarina shrugged, "That's for you and Alec to decide once you tell him. If you don't, well I don't really have to tell you, you know secrets find their way out in the end." Magnus nodded in thanks, grabbing his jacket as he stood up and made his way to the door. Just before he shut the door to Catarina's office behind him, her called voice stopped him, "Remember me in your glittery family life Mags!" Magnus chuckled, making his way out of the hospital deciding that he would go and surprise Alec at the institute.