(BL)Alpha Made-Chapter 505: Bullying is love too
Maxwell closed the door behind him. The familiar sound of the hospital’s noises and movements, even at the time of night that it was, made him feel nostalgic. It was a nice feeling, especially given how turbulent the last few hours had been.
He couldn’t get upset at the client who he had scheduled the meeting with, especially since they had made that plan months in advance. How was Maxwell to know that Jordan was going to go into labor and that it would last as long as it did? Maxwell would have excused Richard from the meeting if the man wasn’t so vital to the explanation of what the client was looking for and the direction of the project the client wanted to fund.
It was an unfortunate situation, but Andrew had made it brighter. Keeping them all up to date on what was happening, how everyone was doing. Maxwell was grateful for the man who was his other half.
As Maxwell scanned the hallway, he took in how functional the hospital truly was. How everyone knew what to do, no one flinched at the mere sight of the Beckett’s in the hospital, and how everyone was glancing at them with curiosity, and not fear.
This might say something bad about Maxwell, but he was semi-expecting that a place run by his brother and the help of several other competent Doctors, would be a little more...nervous? Weary? Everyone would have been walking on pins and needles around him and his brother?
It was a mark for his brother that Maxwell couldn’t even sense that kind of tension.
He couldn’t say the same for his brother, however.
"Why didn’t you come to the Christmas party?" Maxwell asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall next to the closed door behind him. He wasn’t worried about what was going on inside of the room, and instead focused on the man in front of him. Who was like him, but different.
Who had fucked up every single relationship he had ever been in, so his family had selected a partner for him and he’d fucked that up too. However, it seemed that he was more torn up about what happened with Rue than Maxwell had thought. Or, it was more that Maxwell hadn’t given much thought to how William felt about the whole situation given how shitty he had been from the start.
Maxwell didn’t really humour idiots that much, especially ones in his own family.
Book smarts meant nothing when it came to emotional maturity, especially for Maxwell who often dealt with some of the most idiotic people he’d ever had the displeasure of meeting. All because they were born an alpha and people thought that meant they shat rainbows.
Ben had turned over a good leaf when he’d met Amir, so Maxwell had originally had hope for William. Especially because Rue had been such a sweet, lovely man. A kind man, who had forgiven William far too many times for his own good. Maxwell was glad that Rue knew that even after the break up and ending of the engagement that the Beckett’s would still have his back, no matter what.
While he hadn’t worked out with William, Rue was still a part of their family, but Rue needed some time to heal with his own family in his home country. Maxwell would never hold that against him.
William shifted uncomfortably before Maxwell’s penetrating gaze, looking far more uncomfortable then he had when he was wheeling Jordan in, or even when he had to hug Rose.
"I was busy here." William told him and Maxwell grunted, scanning the other man. William flinched at the sound. He should be familiar with it, it was a sound their Mother often made when they had been younger and displeased with something that they had done.
"Busy, huh? I doubt that. Were you worried that Rue was going to be there?" Maxwell asked and watched as William flinched. Maxwell was at the very least speaking quietly. His goal wasn’t to embarrass his older brother, just interrogate him.
Getting his hands on him had been hard. He’d been hiding from friends and family alike.
"Max, it’s not like that." William said, not sounding convincing at all. All his shuffling with his feet wasn’t helping his case either. Then again, William had never been the good liar out of all of the trio. Made Maxwell wonder how he was able to cheat on Rue so many times.
"Okay, well, just to clear things up. Rue is back in his home country. He’s not here. He’s healing, away from us and away from you." Maxwell said, then sighed. "So, you can come home, Will. You don’t need to hide away like this. Yes, we’re pissed at you, but you’re still family." Maxwell told him. William slowly raised his gaze up, clearly not expecting Maxwell to say that.
His eyes were wide, and he looked as if he couldn’t believe him in the slightest. It was quite funny to see a man in a thick sweater with a doctor’s coat overtop looking as shocked as he was. If people couldn’t look at them and tell that they were related, it would look like Maxwell was delivering the bad news to the Doctor, not the other way around.
"I’m not hiding away." William finally said and Maxwell shook his head, scoffing.
"Yeah, and I’m not an omega." Maxwell countered. William swallowed, taking a step back. "If you flee saying you have work right now, I’m going to chase you. You wouldn’t like that, because that means Andy is going to notice and chase us both down." Maxwell warned.
It was something that he had picked up on, but honestly, William wasn’t being very subtle about it either. He’d attacked Andrew’s character when he’d first met him as Maxwell’s partner, and had been slightly strange around the man ever since. However, today put everything into place in Maxwell’s mind.
He’d watched how the two had interacted, and it became clear to Maxwell that William didn’t hate Andrew, he probably idolized him. Had probably done so since they were in school together. He’d probably been pissed that Andrew had dropped out of school, not knowing the reason until much, much later.
Now that Andrew was back in his life, and had been cold and distant to him because of his own actions, William was probably reacting negatively to all of that. Seeing how William had looked to Andrew of all people to help him when things were getting strange, when he hadn’t seen Andrew until Nicole had ended up in their hospital, that made Maxwell think this was true.
"Max...I’m not like you." William eventually said. Maxwell could tell it took a lot for him to say those words, and they clearly hurt him to say. Did that mean that Maxwell minced his words in response? Absolutely not.
"Bull. Shit. You’re exactly like me, which is why you’re distancing yourself from everyone." Maxwell moved so that he wasn’t leaning against the wall anymore. William noticed and stiffened as Maxwell took a step towards him. "You’re just like me before I met Andrew. It wasn’t that long ago you guys didn’t even know what was going on in my life. You had to hire P.I.s to find out what I was doing, where I was going. While I would never do what you did, that doesn’t take away from the fact that I know you’re remorseful now." William flinched at being called out.
He looked away from Maxwell, unable to meet his gaze. He turned towards the nurses station, clearly looking for a way out of this conversation. Maxwell, being Maxwell, snapped his hand out and grabbed his brother by his lower jaw. Gripping him so that he turned towards Maxwell’s face and met his gaze.
"You did a really good thing today." Maxwell told him. "A really good thing without prompting, or asking. You just did it. I know Jordan isn’t in the clear yet, but I know that you will have the best people on it because you are capable of taking care of others you care about, William. You’re just piss poor at it when it comes to someone you care about romantically." William’s face turned pink as he darted his gaze anywhere but into Maxwell’s eyes.
Maxwell examined his older brother, taking in his nervous habits, his twitches, and sighed.
"You’re going to therapy. No questions, I’m going to make it happen." Maxwell declared, releasing William’s face. William jerked.
"No I’m not." It was a knee jerk response, and Maxwell smiled menacingly.
"Oh? You aren’t? I think that’s bullshit. You’re going to do what your little brother tells you to do. It’s going to help you feel better. The professionals are sworn to secrecy and can’t talk shit about you unless you’ve done something criminal. You haven’t done anything criminal, have you William?" Maxwell asked and William rolled his eyes, a brief glimpse at the old, snarky William coming through.
"I’m not like the rest of our family, Max. I can run my business clean." William told him and Maxwell gave him a soft smile.
"I know. That was a test, and you failed." Maxwell told him. The test was to see if there wasn’t any part of William inside of him that was redeemable, and it was a good thing that he failed. It meant that there was still something inside of him that could be salvaged.
William was slack-jawed as Maxwell gave him a big smile and turned, grasping the handle of the door.
"Expect a few calls to your office line about setting up your appointment. I’ll find someone that can come to you and fit into your busy schedule. Make time for them. I will be checking." Maxwell warned. "I will have time since Andy is going to want to come here to check on the baby and Jordan. I will find you and force you." Maxwell warned and William’s jaw was still on the floor.
"M-Max! You can’t just-" He began to protest but Maxwell held up his hand, silencing his brother.
"I can, if I think you aren’t taking care of yourself. You need this, Will. At least give it a try. It helped both Andrew and I." Maxwell told him. "It’s good to speak to someone who doesn’t know you know you sometimes. Just trust me, alright?" Maxwell asked, before heading back into the room full of life, love and tears.
He left William standing there, pondering what had just happened and if he even knew his younger brother.
