"Will! Will!" Charlotte called, searching for the stubborn little boy from everywhere. "Will! Come here now, the new boy is coming here any minute now."

"I don't care." Bored voice said.

Charlotte spun around and looked at black haired little boy with lovely sky blue eyes.

Will was only child in orphanage who simply couldn't settle in any new family.

Charlotte, small, brown haired and kind woman, was lately been talking with her husband Henry who lead the orphanage with her- about keeping Will there with them.

"Will, you know that if you wish to remain here you will have to obey the rules."

Will rolled his eyes with dramatic sigh, "Fine. It's that dying kid, isn't it?"

Charlotte pressed her lips into thin line, praying for patience. "Will. Don't speak like that. Think how you would feel if you were so ill."

Will shrugged, "I wouldn't care."

Charlotte shook her head.

That was when the doorbell rang.

"Come now." She said to Will. "And behave yourself."

She opened the door, and small boy- around same age as Will, stepped in, looking curiously around.

His dark hair and angular eyes gave away that his mother was Chinese, but when he spoke- he spoke perfect English.

"Hey." He said and smiled looking at Charlotte. "Are you Mrs. Brandwell?"

Charlotte smiled back. "Yes. And this is Will. William Herondale."

Will shot bored look to the boy but he just smiled.

"Hey Will. I'm James Carstairs. You can call me Jem."

Door behind Jem opened again and nurse brought Jem's bags in, giving Charlotte pile of papers and bags with Jem's medicines.

While nurse and Charlotte spoke with low whispers to each other, Jem turned to look at Will again.

"What?" Will asked, annoyed.

Jem raised eyebrows at him, saying something Will couldn't understand at all.

He blinked at Jem, "What?"

Jem smiled. "You asked "what?" even I had not said anything. So I said something that your question wasn't useless."

Will was speechless. He didn't like that someone was more clever than he was, but it was hard to hide his smile as well. Jem seemed like fun person. Then he frowned, remembering Charlotte's words.

"You're dying, aren't you?" He asked, not caring that he sounded rude.

Jem only looked at him calmly. "If you mean that my illness may possibly kill me before I grow strong enough to have surgery to get better, yes. I am dying. But I have medicines that keep me quite alright and there is hope I will survive until I can have surgery, then if I don't die in surgery, I have long life ahead."

Will stared at Jem. Jem didn't seem least bit hurt or even offended of his rudeness.

"Uhm.. Well... I'm sorry." He muttered.

Jem smiled. "Don't say you're sorry. Say you'll show me around and play with me."

Will nodded, without even noticing that he did. "I will."

7 years later...

"... they are like night and day, but they simply are so tied together that they refuse to go separate homes. We have marked them as brothers. Jem included Will's name to his own, so they are legally adopted brothers..."

Charlotte was saying to someone.

Jem and Will looked at each other.

"She's sending us away again." Jem said, knowing already what his friend would say.

"Why to bother?" Will complained, and then there it came- what Jem expected: "We're not gonna stay there either."

Jem shrugged, "Maybe we should try."

Charlotte stepped aside from doorway to let in two old looking woman.

"Oooor, maybe not." Jem chuckled as they looked at two old ladies.

"Maybe?" Will asked as sarcastically as possible. "They look like they got up from coffins and- Shit! Come on, they saw us!" He said and gripped Jem's arm and so two young men run to upstairs as fast as they could.

They went to Jem's room, which was right next to Will's, and leaned their backs against the door, both laughing. Then Jem broke off with violent coughing and he almost fell to his knees to the floor- if Will wouldn't have wrap his arm around Jem's shoulders and keep him to his feet.

"James.." His tone was worried. Jem had been weaker past few weeks, getting out of breath from slightest things.

Will helped Jem to sit down to his bed and sat down next to his friend.

"Jem?"

Jem shook his head and took deep ragged breaths. Will could hear how Jem had to struggle to get air in his lungs and he wished- not for first time, that he could change places with Jem.

"Jem! Will!" Charlotte's voice called from hallway.

Jem looked at Will with pleading eyes and Will nodded. "I'll handle it. You take your medicine and rest. I'll be right back."

Jem smiled faintly as Will went to the door and got out of the room.

"Charlotte, what's up?"

"Two ladies are downstairs waiting to meet you and Jem. Where is he?"

Will shrugged, "Good question, I was just wondering the same. He wasn't in his room but his window was open, maybe he learned to fly and left somewhere."

Charlotte sighed. "Will, I heard you two running upstairs."

Will narrowed his eyes, fierce protectiveness kicking in. "Those old hags can just try and get us with them, we're not going."

Charlotte, even knowing everything she knew, that Will meant truly nothing bad for anyone, he just had bad tongue, but still- he had grown to be tall and muscular, and when he thought he needed to stand up to protect Jem, he was terrifying.

Charlotte had seen few times how Will had beat down even bigger guys than himself. Only because those guys insulted Jem.

"Will, they are very kind-"

"We're. Not. Going."

Charlotte sighed again and left back downstairs. Will watched her go and went then back to Jem's room.

When he opened the door, he froze to his place.

"James..."

It wasn't first time he had found his friend changing a shirt because he had spitted blood all over the other one.

Will closed the door firmly behind himself and picked from floor a shirt Jem had kept. It had blood stains on it. More blood than last time. He looked at Jem, who had vividly lost weight- again.

Jem took the shirt from Will's hands. "I'm alright."

"Jem you keep coughing up blood. More and more every time and-!"

"William." Jem said tiredly and Will fell silent. His friend's tone made him more worried.

"Did you take your medicines?" Will asked quietly.

Jem nodded. "They're running out.."

Will's eyes got wide. "Again?"

"I can't go on much longer Will. I'm tired... So tired." Jem said heavily, laying down to his bed.

"I will go to tell Charlotte to go get more. Or give the list for me. I go get all you need." Will said.

Jem shook his head, his eyes were fluttering closed.

Will gripped of his friend's hand. "Jem!"

"I'm not dying now William." Jem said, sounding almost amused. "I'm just tired."

"Jem... Let me go get more of the medicines for you. Please!"

Will rarely- if ever, pleaded with anyone. But Jem, his Jem, he would do anything for.

Jem must have reacted to urgency in his voice, since he sat up from his bed and reached to take something from his bedside table.

Will watched as Jem took out couple piece of papers, signed one of them and handed the papers to Will, with some money.

"I will be right back. Rest well meantime." Will said and run out of the room, down the stairs and out of the front door before Charlotte or anyone could stop him to ask where he was going.

He didn't want to waste any time. Jem's life depended on his medicines- and if they'd run out, Jem would die in matter of hours, even minutes.