So, this is just an idea that come to me one day while I was watching White Collar. The Mortal Instruments stuff will show up in the next chapter or so.

Chapter 1

"Morning Hun." Elizabeth smiled at Peter as he wondered into the kitchen, tying his tie as he walked.

Peter smiled and returned the smile, kissing her cheek as he reached around her to retrieve the half full coffee pot, "Morning Hun."

"You in a hurry?" She asked, moving out of his way and standing by the window, gazing out across the yard.

"Neal called a few minutes ago going on about our case, he wants me to meet him at the office to go over some new evidence he's discovered. I'm not asking how he stumbled across this new information." Peter chuckled, "What's your plan for today? Working?"

"No, work is slow right now. I'm taking the day off to get some stuff done around the house. You know, vacuuming, dusting… the fun stuff." She grinned, "Call if you're going to be late tonight, okay? I might pull out my mom's old meatloaf recipe."

"That sounds great." Peter nodded, dropping his mug in the sink and slipping his jacket on. "I'll call you, I promise."

"Alright, good luck reigning in Neal." Elisabeth called after him, turning to watch her husband leave. She abandoned her coffee mug and dug under the sink for a rag to dust with. Starting in the kitchen, she worked her way through the dining room and into the living room, shuffling papers and the odd decoration out of the way. Working on the bookshelf, she paused, her fingers brushing the spine of one of the older photo albums on the shelf. It had been a long time since she'd last pulled out the old photos and looked at them. Of course her and Peter often enjoyed flipping through the albums of their early days together, but the photos she was thinking of were a little older then her relationship with Peter. Pulling down their wedding and honeymoon albums, she laid it on the couch and returned to the shelf. Pulling out her pocket knife, she gently unscrewed the cover of the false wall socket behind the shelf and popping out the tray that it hid. Reaching in and wrapping her fingers around the velvet ribbon curled inside the tray, she pulled it out and along with it, they key it was threaded through. The key was old, silver and gothic looking, appearing quite out of place in Elizabeth's bright, modern home. Heading upstairs to the bedroom, she fished under the bed for the old steamer trunk that held all her childhood mementos, or so she told people. It wasn't entirely a lie, she mused, unlocking the trunk with the key before slipping the ribbon around her neck and hiding the key in her shirt, the items she kept hidden in the chest were from her early years, though they were hardly the children's books and teddy bears she led people to believe they were. Propping the lid open, she rummaged around in the trunk, pushing knives and letters aside until she located the small wooden box where she kept her photographs. Most of photos were of her friends from school and her brother, though there were a few odd photos of her parents along with her baby nephew. She lingered on a photo of three school aged children, herself, her dark hair pulled aside into pigtails, and three blond children, two boys and a girl.

Elizabeth was startled out of her thoughts by the ringing of the phone. She answered, recognizing her assistant's number, "Hey Linda, what's up?"

"Sorry to bother you," Linda apologised, "There's a man here asking some questions about throwing a party for his son. He's asking for you by name."

"Huh, so my reputation precedes me, does it?" Elizabeth chuckled, "I'll swing by and have a chat with him if he has time to wait half an hour."

Elizabeth heard Linda's muffled voice asking the man if he could wait and the equally muffled sound of a man with some sort of European accent answer, "Yeah, he says he can wait."

"Great, I'll see you in half an hour." Elizabeth chirped, hanging up the phone as Linda echoed her goodbye. Setting the phone back in its cradle, she quickly tucked the photographs away in their box, leaving the box on her nightstand and pushing the trunk back under the bed with her toe. Changing into some more work appropriate clothes, she headed downstairs to find her car keys. She paused to replace the albums on the bookshelf, leaving the key tucked into her shirt so she could lock up the trunk when she came home, and heading out to her car. It was a fifteen minute drive to the office that Elizabeth's company operated out of and with the light mid-day traffic, she was right on time to meet her new client.

She made her way inside, smiling at Linda, who informed her that the client was a Mr. Mercer and was waiting for her out front. Strolling out to the office front, she was immediately struck by the familiarity of the man by the window, she could only see his outline with the sun shining through the window behind him, but the way he held himself and the tussled mess of dark blond hair jumped out at her right away. The man turned when he heard her approach and Elizabeth felt her heart skip as a familiar cheeky half grin greeted her, "I hoped it would be you."

Review please :)