Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns The Mortal Instruments series and all the recognizable characters.

"She stood and stared at the receiver, the dial tone buzzing in her ear like a big ugly wasp. She dialed Luke's number again, waited. This time it went to voicemail. She banged the phone down, her hands trembling."

City of Bones, page 74 (paperback)

An unknown emotion stirred up in Jace's stomach as he caught the mysterious girl's eye. Her green iris's shining with fresh tears as her teeth bit her lower lip. She's trying not to cry, Jace thought - the urge to get up and walk over to her, when he got there he didn't know what he'd do, was so intense that he had to lean against the chair that Alec was seated in.

As always, he found his refuge in saying a sarcastic comment.

"I take it he wasn't happy to hear from you?"

Clary didn't answer, the feeling grew stronger as Jace straightened up and was about to take a step forward when Hodge spoke. His tutor looked at Jace was curious eyes.

"I think I'd like to have a talk with Clary." He said. Jace smiled, hopeful. "Alone." Hodge demanded, seeing his expression.

"Fine, we'll leave you to it." Alec stood out of his seat and started walking towards the door. Jace wasn't so willing.

"That's hardly fair." He objected, "I'm the one who found her. I'm the one who saved her life!" Hodge's firm expression didn't waver, so he turned to Clary. "You want me here, don't you?"

Clary looked away, her arms hugging her body as if she were cold. Jace glanced down at the green blanket on the chair, his hands thrumming with nervous energy.

Alec laughed, sounding triumphant, "Not everyone wants you all the time, Jace."

Jace smiled over at him, doing his best to hide his disappointment, "Don't be ridiculous. Fine, then. We'll be in the weapons room."

Alec walked ahead of him, once they were in the hallway, his feet moving quicker as they always did when he was angry, "What is with you?"

Jace glanced back towards the library, seeing Clary's silhouette sit on on the couch in front of Hodge. For a moment, he stopped to study her. Clary's red hair was longer than he expected, the scarlet curls dropping down to the small of her back. He thought of how comfortable she had felt in his arms, how light but surprisingly strong her body was. As small as she was, as if she could hold him up.

Mostly, he thought about how he wanted to hold her again, "Whatever do you mean?"

He felt Alec's hand wrap around his arm to tug Jace after him.

"That's what I mean." Alec sounded frustrated as he pulled Jace behind him. Jace finally turned to look at his friend when the library windows cut off into stone wall, and Clary was out of view. Jace shook his head, what was wrong with him?

"I'm just being nice to our guest."

"You're never nice."

Jace placed in his over his heart in mock-hurt, "Alec, you wound me so."

"I don't mean to hurt your feelings." Alec replied, clearing not seeing that Jace was joking. "I just think you're acting strange."

They entered the weapons room, Jace took in a deep breath, in and out. His muscles flexing and stretching as he took his breaths. Jace couldn't describe it, could never put into words how he felt about weapons. They were what reminded him of his childhood, his father. Jace's eyes dropped to the floor; all the presents he got were weapons. He had grown so accustomed to holding one at all times, he'd even slept with a wooden sword until he was five.

"Jace doesn't act strange." Jace replied to his friend, "Other people just act normal."

"That doesn't make any sense." Alec said, pulling out a few daggers and seraph blades as he started to Mark them with runes. Jace copied him, sitting down at the table to concentrate.

At that moment, Clary walked through the door of the weapons room. Her eyes darting around the room, excitement about to overrule all other feelings. Jace felt his heart quicken, his palm starting to shake around the weapon in his hand.

Yeah, Jace thought, that doesn't make sense either.

A/N: Thanks for reading! If you liked this chapter, I'm taking requests to do different scenes in Jace's point of view! Please respect that I will not do the scenes that Cassandra Clare herself has already written in Jace's POV (Greenhouse scene in CoB, Seelie court kiss in CoA, Manor scene in CoG, and the Alley way scene in CoFA)! Review and request! Thank you, lovelies!