Distractions

Twenty-Seven: Too Many Urgent Alerts

"Rain check?" Magnus proposed. He was so understanding it was absurd.

"Yes, yeah." Alec's eyes flashed with worry. "Is that okay?"

"Go battle your demons, Alexander," Magnus told him with a smile.

"Go see what they want," Everest told him. "They'll keep pestering you until you talk to them anyway."

They watched as Alec walked away and then Everest turned to Magnus. "Who was that?"

"Who? Raj?"

"Yeah, the guy that just got Alec."

Magnus chuckled and started to walk towards the front doors. "I may or may not have blasted him into a wall."

Everest gasped. "Really?" Magnus nodded. "He looks like he deserved it."

"Oh, he did." Magnus didn't elaborate, so Everest didn't push.

They stepped outside into the sunlight. Everest leaned her head back, soaking in the warm light.

"I can't wait for things to slow down so I can just be here, in the quiet sunlight with you and Alec," she whispered, lips twitching into a smile.

Magnus hummed, bumping her shoulder lightly with his own. "Well, things might not slow down for a while. But, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy this moment right now."

Everest exhaled slowly, leaning against Magnus's arm ever so slightly, just enough to feel their arms touching, but not enough to put so much of her weight on him that she was all but falling.

"Everest?" a meek voice asked from behind them.

Everest sighed, though it sounded rather like a growl, and turned with a customer service smile plastered on her face.

"Yes?"

"You're needed in the Ops Center for a debriefing." the Shadowhunter who had been speaking ducked back inside, and Everest just stood there blinking.

She was internally screaming as she turned back to Magnus with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I wanted to enjoy the moment but now I have to go do things."

Magnus grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. "It's all right, we enjoyed the moment we had. There will be other moments for us to enjoy. Now go do your job."

"It's not my job," she told him with a grin. "Not yet anyway."

Magnus just grinned back and squeezed her hand one more time before she walked back inside. She went to the Ops Center and found Alec and Izzy waiting for her.

"What burned down this time?" she asked, giving Izzy a brief side hug.

Trigger Warning: Mentions of death, weapons, and guns

"There was a demon attack downtown. A mundane is dead because of it," Izzy told her grimly.

"Shit," Everest breathed out. "What are we going to do?"

"We're going to investigate it and see if we can tell what kind of demon caused the attack," Alec told her. He tossed her a Seraph blade. "I know you prefer your gun, but keep that with you in case you have to fight in close quarters."

She nodded and tucked it in her belt beside her gun. "Got it." She glanced at Alec and Izzy, who both had weapons prepped and ready to go. "Shall we?"