He said he looked different in his letters to me and I wondered if this meant that he'd lost weight since I'd last seen him. I mentally chide myself for thinking that it could mean anything but this. It hardly matters though. I clear the steam that has gathered on the mirror in the bathroom. The hot shower felt good to ease my anxiety. I wonder how he must be feeling, probably just landing at the airport. I think of him being greeted by Stephen and Celine. They haven't been much in the way of parents to him when I think about it, no, it was Luke who had a man to man about joining the army with Jace. It was my mother who cried when he left. Stephen and Celine were good people! Don't get me wrong about that but I wished they could have been more there for Jace than being flighty and flying off to London every other week at a moment's notice.

Through it all they'd promised him they'd be there to welcome him and give him a hero's welcome. He was a hero. I think to myself. After everything he told me about in his letters, and I'm sure there was more he wasn't ready to tell me yet, he deserved it.

Which is why I'm surprised when my phone starts to ring a few minutes after his flight was supposed to land, I don't recognize the number but, hoping it's Jace I pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey. They didn't show." Jace's voice is gruff on the other end and I can feel his heart sinking. How awful it must be to not even want to give your own son, a veteran of two tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, a proper welcome home.

"I'm so sorry. I'll be there with mom to pick you up in fifteen minutes ok?"

"Thanks, and Clary?"

"Yeah?"

"When you see me I don't want you to freak out."

I gave a short laugh, devoid of humor. I hoped I wasn't going to find him a complete mess. "Alright. I missed hearing your voice. I'll see you soon." I didn't want to hang up but I was going to have to drive because mom was 7 months pregnant with my little sister.

I threw my clothes on and plaited my hair messily. "Mom! Jace is home and his parents didn't pick him up!"

"What?!" My very pregnant mother says from downstairs. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. I have to go get him. Do you want to come with me?"

"Let me call Luke and we can throw together a kind of impromptu surprise party! I think your brother is just across town at the bar."

"Ok, well shoot me a text and let me know if I need to stall." I pick up the keys from the bowl by the front door and pull on a pea coat, it's nearly the middle of December and it's freezing.

"Bye mom!" I shout as my mother begins texting her husband, Luke to come home and Jon to come home from the bar so they can surprise him.

The drive to the airport, JFK Airport actually, is kind of miserable. There's traffic and I wouldn't mind but I feel so bad Jace is there alone. Probably waiting outside in the snow for me or something. I don't know who to blame, Stephen or Celine. Celine was a homebody but did as her her husband asked her to. Stephen was the jetset one. I suppose I blame him and as I pull into the airport I curse his name.

I park somewhere unobtrusive and somewhere they won't hit me with a ton of fines. This means I have to leave the car to find Jace however. My maroon Toyota Prius is fairly inconspicuous and besides, it was my twenty-first birthday present from this summer so Jace hasn't seen it yet. As I look around the people waiting for rides outside the terminal (where he said he'd be) I'm worried I won't recognize him. I don't see anyone that looks like him… and just as I'm about to call him back I spot him waving to me… from a wheelchair.

"Jace!" My best friend, for nearly our whole lives is looking at me like he doesn't want to be pitied and I for one can't wipe the shock off my face.

"Jace!" I run to him, and bent down, scooping his thin frame into my arms. "It's so good to have you back." He hugs me back, holding me tight for a few long moments.

As I pull back I can see clearly that he's missing a leg. I tell myself it doesn't matter, that he's still my Jace and that nothing will tear him from me. "You didn't get all of me back." Jace says remorsefully and I know I'm going to cry.