The day Jess's life changed, wether for better or worse is still unclear, it was raining. A surprising sight for the usually sunny Los Angeles, but not an entirely unwelcome one. Jessamine Carstairs was currently spending this stormy afternoon in Adam's place, a restaurant, one run by downworlders at that, reading a book and enjoying a nice meal. It was her favorite place to escape, even if it's just for a little while.

Another surprise that this day had brought was Jess actually having this time to read, but everything was taken care of for today. Her parents were having a "date night" (if one would call going on a mission to help kill demons in San Francisco a date), her sister was with the Blackthorns for the weekend, Helen insisted that she could take care of her own siblings and Emma while Jess took some alone time, Oliver, her parabatai, had promised her that he wouldn't conduct anymore experiments/work on inventions for the rest of the day, and there was no training since Katrina was also on a mission. So thanks to all of that she is able to relax on this peaceful day.

"Excuse me miss, sorry to disturb you, but is that 'The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe'?" A male voice asked from the seat in front of her, making her jump a little as she had let her guard down while reading. Plus the rain seemed to aid in drowning out his movements.

Jess glanced up from her book to see that one of the cooks was sitting across in the booth she was seated. The man was smiling at her, and she could tell by his pointed ears and that he was of the fair-folk, or at least of faerie descent.

"Yes it is." She replied shortly, flicking her eyes back to her book. Hoping the fey would get the message to leave her be.

He didn't. "So, do you read often?" The boy smiled brightly at her, almost as if he expected his companion to become enraptured by his looks. Then again he was a faerie, so he must be use to that reaction to him.

"Yes, I read any time I can." She stated, hoping she conveyed enough disinterest to end the conversation.

"Who's your favorite author?" He pressed more, Jess could tell he was putting an effort in continuing the talk.

Deciding that he probably wasn't going to stop, and that their was no harm in discussing books, she placed her book down and began to actively participate. "Hm... I'll have to say it's a threeway tie between Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, and Lewis Carroll."

"Let me guess your favorite books from each of them is 'A Christmas Carol', 'Romeo and Juliet', and 'Alice in Wonderland'."

"Not even close." Jess couldn't but feel offended at the fact that he would assume that those were her favorites. "I happen to like all of Dickens' works fairly equally, 'Romeo and Juliet' is overrated, not that it's bad, he just has better works than that, and it's the same with 'Alice in Wonderland'." She responded matter of factly.

"Okay, okay. I can understand loving the majority of Dickens' works and that Alice is overrated, but 'Romeo and Juliet' is a classic." He shook his head in disagreement.

"Oh but it is, people refer to it as the "greatest love story". It's not, it wasn't even meant to be a love story in my opinion." Jess was bewildered by her newfound enthusiasm for this discussion.

"Do feel free to backup your statement with evidence."

"Well first off the play happens in the span of about four days. You can't fall in love with someone in four days, those things take time. Then there's the fact that Juliet is thirteen and Romeo's like seventeen. I understand that people got married young in those days, but it wouldn't be accepted by today's standards. They basically kill themselves because they were impatient and young and stupid. 'Romeo and Juliet' isn't a love story, it's a cautionary tale of young fools rushing into big decision without think it over thoroughly."

After her rant her companion smiled, impressed, and Jess realised he was hoping for this response. "Ah yes, you do make a good point." His look of impress turned to curiosity as he tilted his head to the side. "What's your name?"

The sudden change of topic caught the nephilim woman off guard. "Excuse me?"

"What is your name? He tilted his head, bright colorful eyes glittered with curiosity. "I've been wondering."

"That doesn't make you sound stalkerish at all." Jess replied sarcastically, avoiding giving him her name.

"Yes, well, when you work in places like this you tend to get curious about the recurring customers."

"That doesn't give you the right to ask a question like that."

"I'm sure you don't mind, otherwise you would've just ignored me."

She processed this before deciding that he was right. "Fine then, give me three good reasons as to why I should tell you my name."

He rose to the challenge, not deterred by it at all. "Let's see. 1. You're a regular, so it would be nice to know you by name. Not as 'Veggie burger with extra fries'. 2. I would like to get to know you better, I can tell already that you're an interesting person. And finally 3. I like knowing things, and I bet you do too."

Jess didn't know what had possessed her, maybe it was his persistence she admired, but she decided to give into his request. "Ok then, I'm Jessamine Carstairs, but most people call me Jess." She extended her hand in a sign of a proper greeting.

"Well, Jess, I'm Faendal, and I do believe this is a start to a beautiful friendship." Faedal took Jess's extended hand excepting her greeting, a jolt of electricity ran up her arm as he did. She looked at him, wondering if he felt it too. If he did, he didn't show it.

"Yes, I think it will be too."

"So where's that guy, the one that usually comes with you." Faendal turned his head to look around the area, making sure he didn't miss him. "Who is he anyways, your brother?"

"He's not here, and he's actually my parabatai." she explained, though that typically means they're consider closer then siblings.

"Ah, I see." He affirmed, nodding his understanding.

"FAENDAL GET BACK TO WORK AND STOP BOTHERING THE CUSTOMERS." A voice, that Jess recognized as the owner's, yelled for her new friend, and his cheeks turned as red as a rose in embrassment.

"Well time to get back to the job. I'll see you around, Jess." Faendal quickly retreated back to the section of the restaurant he was supposed to wait on.

'What a peculiar man.' Jess thought as he disappeared back into the kitchen.

The ringing of her phone turned her attention away from the strange faerie. With a quickly glance to the screen she saw a photo of a smiling orange-haired man, indicating that Oliver was calling.

"What did you do?" She asked after she answered the call.

"Do you always assume Oliver did something?" A childish female voice replied over the phone.

"Emma?" Jess's expression turned to confused as she cradled the phone between her neck and ear, and started to gather her things. "Why do you have Oliver's phone? Is he all right?" She felt a slight panic raise in her chest.

"Yeah, he's fine. I just wanted to know when you're coming back." The ten-year-old replied, oblivious to the the panic she had caused her big sister.

"Oh, well, I'll actually be there in a few. Oh, I'll even read you all some stories tonight, if that's alright with Helen." The oldest gets to dictate what they can and can't do.

"Once sec. I'll ask." There was a slight pause as Emma went to Helen. "She said it's fine with her."

"Alright, I'll be there soon then." Jess promised as she gathered up her things.

"Okay, love you, bye." With that her sister hung up, before she could reply back, so Jess paid her bill and started to leave. As she walked out the door she pushed up on her sunglasses, in order to make certain that they were covering her eyes as much as possible. Double checking that her runes were covered she took off for the institute.

As she approached the towering church she remembered who intimidated she was the first time she came here. Now the place felt like a second home to her. Reaching the giant door, Jess pushed hard on it, causing it to open with it's normally loud creak.

Once her body was fully inside the door slammed shut of it"s own accord, and she was greeted with the Blackthorns, including her closest female friend, Helen, plus her sister and Oliver loitering in the lobby of the institute doing their own thing.

This was the main reason why she felt the need to get away. With the numerous Blackthorns, a little sister, and a questionably sane best friend, their was always someone wanting her attention. The only time Jess got to do what she wanted is in the dead of night, and sometimes not even then.

"Welcome back, Jessamine." Oliver smiled contently at her. "Did you enjoy your reading?"

"Of course I did, but you already knew that." Jess walked over to where he was sitting on the stairs, and saw that he was drawing up blueprints for one of his crazy inventions. "Another one, what is it suppose to be this time?"

"A new design for the sensor that will allow a shadowhunter to scan through multiple levels, like in the sewers and multi story buildings, and place the locations of demons on a 3D map, as accurately as possible."

"So you've run out of ideas for inventions and are now trying to improve on ones already made by someone else." She replied bluntly.

"Well not everyone can be as creative as Henry Branwell." Oliver retorted sheepishly. He was always trying to be like his ancestor, who happened to be the inventor of the sensor and partnered with a warlock to create the first portal.

"No, but you are, you just have inventors block."

"What?" He raised an eyebrow at his parabatai in confusion.

"It's the inventors equivalent of writer's block." Her glasses blocked the eye roll she gave him, but he still knew she did it.

"You know you that you can take those things off around here, right?" Oliver questioned, pointing at the sunglasses that were still on her face.

"You know why I keep them on." Her voice lowered as she turned away to look towards the others.

"Right, right, because of the photosensitivity." He spoke lightly, almost sarcastically, knowing that wasn't the real reason why she rarely took them off away from home.

She turned her gaze back to him and smiled weakly. "Yeah, the Photophobia."

"Well it's not that bright in here, ask maybe you can take them off." He returned her smile. "For me."

Jess complied and pulled the shades off her face, placing them in the pocket of her jacket for easy access. "Happy now?" She inquired, but she wasn't mad at him. He knew what to say in order to get Jess to do what he wanted. She would gladly do anything for him, and he would do the same for her.

"Yes, you look better without them." He spoke comfortingly to her, trying to make Jess feel better.

"Jess can you come to my parent's room? My mom wants you to read to her." Drusilla requested, she had walked up to them as they were conversing. Jess turned her eyes onto the younger girl.

Jess was surprised by Eleanor's request for her, but chalked it up to the fact that she hadn't seen Jess or everyone else, besides her family, much since she was put on bedrest. "Okay, is there anything specific she wants me to read?" She questioned as she stood up, Oliver got up as well.

"Yeah, she has it with her." Dru confirmed, and gave them a small smile of thanks, before walking off to gather her other siblings. While Jess and Oliver made their way to Eleanor and Andrew's room.

Upon entering Jess spotted the pair sitting in the middle of the oversized bed. She always thought it strange for people to have such big bed.

"Oh, hello Jess, Ollie." Eleanor greeted as she moved to sit up in bed, with the help of her husband.

She looked completely exhausted and Jess was more than a little worried for her. "Hey, how are you?" Jess asked as she moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I'm fine, it's not like this is my first time having a baby, just a little tried that's all." She smiled warmly at them.

"Which is why you're on bedrest, so you can rest." Andrew spoke lightly, but anyone could see the worry in his eyes. He turned his worried gaze to the other two, and smiled weakly. "You know you two can sit closer, we don't bite."

She and Oliver decided to accept his offer and crawled up closer to them, as the others began to pour in. Soon Jess was sitting in front of Eleanor with Helen and Oliver by her sides, Julian and Emma in her lap, the twins (Tiberius and Livia) in Helen's, Dru in Oliver's, Mark had sat himself on the edge of the bed by his father (pretending to be uninterested in Jess's reading), and Jess with 'Charlotte's Web' open in her hands as she reaf out loud, words coming out of her more from memory then from actually reading along.

There was something serene about this, she realised. Being surrounded by the people she considered a second family, reading one of her favorite books of the 20th century. Moment like these were getting harder to come by, now that Jess and Oliver were moving up in their training and soon they'll be starting to go out on missions and patrols themselves.

'Oh well.' She mentally sighed. 'I'll just have to make an effort to cherish them more.'

An: This is a rewrite