Work Text:
“You need to stop.”
Alex jumps up, startled and looks over to where Michael is standing, leaning against the entrance to the bunker.
Alex blinks at him several times thinking that he’s been awake for so long that he’s hallucinating and Michael would just disappear, but he doesn’t.
“How did you-?” He starts and then stops to clear his throat when his voice comes out hoarse.
Michael gives him a look, before he pushes away from the door and walks further into the room.
“Kyle told me where to find you,” he says looking around the room like he can feel what happened to others like him in this room.
Alex opens his mouth to ask him what he needs and why he couldn’t just call him, like he normally does, but Michael turns a sharp look at him that stops him in his tracks, shutting his mouth with a snap.
“He also told me that you haven’t been sleeping, and that you’ve barely been eating since we found the information about the other facilities in the Missing Caulfield files.”
Alex looks away as Michael’s voice breaks a little at the mention of the prison, and he looks back at the screen where he’d been busy trying to create a subroutine that would allow him to pinpoint exactly where the other emails from the other facilities were coming from, but it was turning out to be a lot more difficult than he thought it was going to be.
He’s furrowing his brow as he looks at the screen and is about to place his hands back on the keyboard when the chair he’s sitting on is turned roughly around, and Michael is there looking down at him with a serious expression, hands gripping the arms of the computer chair as he leans down a little.
“You need to stop,” Michael repeats and Alex blinks blankly at him.
“Stop what?” He asks slowly.
Michael’s gaze goes softer, eyes sparkling with worry and Alex feels his stomach jump and his heart skip and the breath catch in his lungs, and he really wishes that Michael wouldn’t look at him like that.
“Stop trying to sacrifice yourself to give me what you think that I need.”
Alex jumps at that, forcing the chair to jerk as Michael’s grip tightens on it so that Alex can’t go anywhere.
Alex stares at him, unblinkingly, with wide eyes not knowing what to say.
Michael doesn’t have that problem.
“We don’t know for sure if the other facilities even have other prisoners,” he says sensibly and sounding so like Max that Alex just continues to stare, mouth dropping open a little. “And we’re still sorting through the information you gave us weeks ago. No one is in danger of dying and no one is dead. You can relax. I know you know how.”
He raises an eyebrow suggestively and Alex blinks at him.
“Did your siblings coach you through this talk?” He asks after a long pause.
Michael rolls his eyes.
“The point is that they’re right,” he says, and Alex gapes at him some more. “Everyone is worried about you, and you’re not going to stop until I say something about it. So here I am, telling you to stop.”
Alex swallows hard, and licks his lips.
“I’m not sacrificing myself-” Alex starts because it’s not a sacrifice if it’s the right thing to do, because he owes Michael this. His entire family does, but Alex is the only one who cares.
Michael cuts him off making a derisive noise at the back of his throat and the chair squeaks as his fingers tighten and he tugs Alex in closer, leaning down even more so that he’s looking into Alex’s eyes from way too close.
“You think that if we find others like me that you’ll be making right something that wasn’t your fault at all and that it will make me happy, but you’re literally going to kill yourself if you keep this up, and that’s even more unacceptable.”
Alex thinks that maybe he was right about hallucinating earlier. Or maybe he’s dreaming, maybe he fell asleep on top of his keyboard, and all of this is some strange dream.
Because Michael doesn’t do this. This is something, however that Alex has done plenty of times over the course of the last year and a half when Michael and Liz were killing themselves trying to figure out how to bring Max back.
Alex looks at Michael, and Michael makes a noise like he can’t believe how difficult Alex is being.
“I’m not saying that I don’t want to know,” he says, swallowing hard. “But it won’t be worth it if something happens to you in order for me to find out.”
Alex pulls his bottom lip into his mouth and looks at Michael suspiciously, because this all sounds like a confession and those only happen nowadays right before tragedy strikes.
Michael shakes his head, and looks over Alex’s head for a second breathing in deeply as though he’s steeling himself, and then he looks at Alex with a determined expression on his face.
“You seem to be forgetting something,” he says, raising an eyebrow. “You’re mine, my family, my person, you can’t just trade yourself in exchange for more of my people. All that will do is make me miserable. And I know that’s the last thing that you want to do.”
Alex is frozen in his seat just staring.
“Are you dying?” He demands, reaching for Michael and pressing hands against his face to make sure that he doesn’t have a fever.
Michael scoffs. “No, I’m fine.”
“Is someone else dying?” Alex asks, hands sliding down to Michael’s neck and sighing as he feels the strong pulse of his heartbeat.
“No, no one is dying or in danger,” he says looking at Alex in exasperation.
“And,” he continues loudly when Alex opens his mouth to speak. “The world isn’t danger of ending anytime soon.”
Alex’s brow furrows, “I don’t understand.”
Michael lets go of the chair and looks up to the ceiling, for patience before he kneels down in front of Alex.
Alex reaches out and drags his fingers into Michael’s hair, holding on tight in case he tries to move away before he can explain what he’s talking about.
He looks at Alex seriously, and Alex tries to pay attention, but it’s getting kind of difficult to concentrate.
“I love you,” Michael says as easy as breathing and Alex’s heart skips several beats and his eyes go even wider as he stares in disbelief. “And I just want you to be safe, and this isn’t healthy, okay?”
Alex swallows hard.
“I think I need to go lie down,” he starts slowly, and Michael smiles at him relieved, like Alex finally got what he’d been trying to say.
“I think I’m hallucinating,” he finishes, and Michael makes a noise of disbelief, and gets back up to his feet.
Alex just continues to stare at him.
“For someone so smart,” Michael says and Alex makes a face at him, already knowing he’s going to be insulted. “You can be such a dumbass.”
“Be nice,” Alex whines a little. “I’m running on three hours of sleep for the last week or so.”
Michael gives him a look.
“I’m almost done,” Alex says, and feels a jolt as he remembers what he was working on before Michael walked into the room.
He moves the chair around to face the computer and slides closer, reaching for the keyboard.
He hears a tired sigh and then feels Michael’s fingers against the back of his neck, tilting his head to the side, before there is a sharp pinch, the bite of a needle, right against his throat.
He turns around, and Michael is holding a syringe in his hand.
Alex gives him an accusing look.
Michael gives him an unrepentant one back.
“You can hate me all you want after you’ve had at least ten hours of uninterrupted sleep.”
“I can hate you just fine right now,” Alex says, voice slurring slightly as he feels his head get too heavy for him to carry.
He sways forward, and Michael catches him, easing him up to his feet before he’s swinging him into his arms easily, the slight vibrations Alex can feel around his back and against his legs telling him that Michael is using his powers to help carry him.
Alex wraps his arms around Michael’s shoulders and gives into the inevitable, resting his face in the crook of Michael’s neck.
“Sweet dreams darlin,’” is the last that Alex hears before the sedative drags him under.