My first TID fanfic! Enjoy~

"I got here first!" A scruffy irritated voice sounded throughout the full-seated but tranquil café in London. "I just put my bag here first."

Tessa, who was seating at a corner reading her book, looked up and saw a guy in his mid-twenties slamming his fist on the last unoccupied table in the café. She craned her neck to see the other person who might have stolen the guy's seat. Unfortunately, her view was blocked by a tall woman in front of her.

"It's the bottom that matters, Woolsey dear." Another voice—definitely a guy's—replied saucily. 'Or more specifically, the butt." he added. It was loud enough for everyone in the café to hear.

Stifled giggles came from the crowd, including Tessa, though she was slightly annoyed that her quiet afternoon with Charles Dickens was spoiled. She had walked almost all of London this morning for her homework's research and needed a rest.

Tessa tried to return to her book, but the squabbling was just too disturbing. God, they're just like kids, she thought.

Without thinking, she got out of her seat with a thump, which brought everyone's eyes to her, except the two boys. She strode towards them, readjusted her shoulder bag strap with an air of annoyance and said, "I don't know why is it so fun to fight for a seat, but you're disturbing me and I guess I'll give you my seat. Well?" she asked when the two guys stared at her, unmoving.

Tessa couldn't help noticing the boy who had taken the seat. He looked like a mischievous, witty person with that sparkle in his eyes. His eyes. They were the deepest shade of blue. Count in the wind-blown black hair and the lean figure in casual clothes, this boy was, well, if Tessa had not have a boyfriend, she would have dared to say it out loud: hot.

After a moment, the blue-eyed boy smiled at her. "Well, we've got a proper English lady here, all reasonable and high-and-mighty." He stopped and frowned slightly. "But with a different accent… maybe America?"

Without waiting for Tessa's response, he then stood up and grinned at the other guy whom he had called "Woolsey", "Hey senior, I've got a feeling this lovely young lady was talking to you, but since I'm much, much gentlemanly than you are, well here you go!" The blue-eyed boy got up from the seat and pulled out the chair in mock politeness and sarcasm.

"Actually I think she was talking to you-" retorted Woolsey and stopped when the blue-eyed boy whistled and walked to Tessa's previous seat, ignoring him. The Woolsey guy sighed and sat down, muttering a "Thank you" to Tessa, and then something about "brat" and "ignorant".

Tessa heard that and smiled inwardly as she pushed the doors and went out.

Tessa ended up sitting at a bench near the park. Pulling out her cell phone, she texted her boyfriend: 6 p.m. now. Where do we meet? She decided to read while waiting for his response. She dug through her bag-now where did A Tale of Two Cities go?—and gasped: she had left it at the café.

Curse you, she murmured to herself. There was quite a distance between here and the café. Now, she had to walk back and probably not find her precious book back. Great.

Suddenly, someone said, "Miss American?"

Tessa looked up from her bag and found a pair of blue eyes in front of her. Oh, that boy, she thought. The fact that he had called her "Miss American" strangely made her think of America's Next Top Model, or those kinds of supermodel contests. Seriously, Tessa, what are you thinking?-she mentally scolded herself for her dreaming. He had called her that because of her accent, of course. Not that she was glamorous.

Tessa smiled slightly at the boy's grin and replied what the heroes in her beloved books might have said, "I do not think I have the looks for that title, or the accent." She switched her US accent temporarily to the English one on purpose—staying in London for middle school and then going back to New York for high school and university had its advantages after all.

His eyebrows lifted and he smiled, as if amused by her change of accent. "I suppose this is yours?" He waved her precious A Tale of two Cities in front of her—he must have found it at the café.

Tessa brightened and nodded vigorously. Yes! She took the book back. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. What's your name?" The boy inquired curiously.

Tessa knew that telling your name to strangers wasn't the safest thing to do, but since he had retrieved her book…

"Theresa Gray. But my friends and family just call me Tessa." She replied.

"So I should call you Theresa since I'm neither? Then you should call me William, instead of Will, but I do prefer if you'd say Will." The boy—Will—cocked his head to the side and added, "Or maybe I could just call you 'Tess', you know, just one syllable like mine."

Tessa liked the way he talked—he just seemed so alive with words. She joked, "Well, are we giving each other nicknames already?"

Will's lips curved up into a crooked grin, making her heart flutter slightly. "If you want, Tess." The way he said her newfound nickname was affectionate and sexy, and it made Tessa blush.

Stop it, you have a boyfriend already, Tessa reprimanded herself quickly. At the thought of her sweet, silver haired boy, her cellphone beeped: there was a message, probably from him. She checked it and she was right: Meet me at Blackfrairs Bridge.

She texted back: Okay, and then got up from the bench and stuffed her book into her bag. Will had probably noticed the text message. "Going for a date at Blackfrairs Bridge?"

"Yeah." Her heart sank ever so slightly. "So, I suppose this is where we part?"

"Nah," Will smiled, and if she wasn't mistaken, there was a tinge of bitterness to it. He bowed like a gallant gentleman. "May I have the pleasure of escorting you to Blackfrairs Bridge, Ma'am?"

Will managed to escort and talk about normal things with Tessa—at last she had told him to call her that, instead of Tess. He supposed that the name was too…intimate. And she had a boyfriend as well. Lucky guy. Will tried to banish that thought away.

He kept up on the subject. Tessa had mentioned that she was at a college in New York with her boy—damn. "What do you major in?" he asked.

Her grey eyes—like the sky of London—sparkled. "Literature. I hope to be a writer after I graduate, you know like Jane Austin..." She trailed off with a slight blush.

Will thought about her copy of A Tale of Two Cities, which young people rarely read. Few people love classics, I should've thought about that. And his heart leapt for no apparent reason. "Me too." He could see that Tessa was an avid reader of books like him, though he preferred classics. He had read her book on the way following her to return it, even though it wasn't his cup of tea.

Tessa's face lit up at his reply. "Do you like classics?" she asked eagerly. "I love them, and A tale of Two Cities—you know, the book you'd returned just now?—is one of my favourites." she rambled on with enthusiasm.

Will smiled at that. He had never met anyone who loved books-so much as if they were diamonds or whatever. "I love classics too,"—his heart jumped with joy at another similarity between the both of them—"But," he paused for a while, not wanting to burst her bubble about A Tale of Two Cities.

"But what?"

"I don't really like A Tale of Two Cities." Will answered as lightly as possible.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "How can you not adore it? I-"

"Tessa!" A voice shouted from nearby, breaking their conversation, and causing Tessa to whip her head towards another guy.

"Jem!" Will watched as she darted into the arms of a silver-haired boy.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him…

Wait.

Had Tessa called the boy Jem? As in James Carstairs?

Tessa had let go of the silver boy, and Will saw his face. "Jem, this is a new friend I'd met, Will." He distantly heard Tessa introuducing.

He was sure that their faces had identical expressions of shock now. Will's eyes widened as the silver boy's did. "Jem."

"Hello Tessa." Jem breathed into her ear. "So have you found anything for the English assignment?"

Tessa smiled. "Well, not much actually." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Will staring at Jem. Detaching herself from him gently, she said, "Jem, this is a new friend I'd met, Will."

Then she realized that Will looked shocked. Or rather, flabbergasted. His blue eyes popped out like marbles. He half-whispered unbelievingly, "Jem."

Jem had the same expression with Will. A moment later, the staring contest broke and the two boys collided with each other in a hug. Will was yelling excitedly and Jem was laughing heartily-more heartily than Tessa had ever seen. She guessed that they must have met and maybe had been good friends before. The sight of them was a heart-warming scene altogether.

Finally the boys released each other. Will smiled at Jem, "I see you have a proper lady right here? We met each other just now."

Jem laughed. "That's a nice coincidence." He glanced at his watch. "Will, which place would you recommend for dinner?"

"So how did the both of you know each other?" Tessa asked while sipping her milkshake. The three of them were at a restaurant for a "reunion dinner" as Will had called it.

Jem smiled conspiratorially at Will while the blue-eyed boy whistled and feigned ignorance. Jem cleared his throat. "Right. Shall we reveal William Herondale's hall of shame?"

"Oh dear god, no." groaned Will. He put his face into his palms.

Ignoring him, Jem turned to a curious Tessa and said, "Will and I were seven when we first met each other, in London at a park. There was a pond there, and there were ducks too. At that time, the ducks were-" he broke off with a laugh, "—chasing him."

Tessa imagined a flock of ducks squawking and waddling after a miniature Will, and him scrambling to get away from them. She giggled, "And then?"

Will, however, did not look amused. "Ducks are bloody, bloody creatures." He finished his vodka with a swig and set it down dramatically. "Never trust a duck."

Jem nodded. "Lovely punch line, that." He continued, "I had my mother's umbrella at that moment-"

Will jumped in. "A frilly one, I remember. Great taste you have, Jem."

"Anyway, I used it to scare the ducks away. Will looked so pathetic and furious afterward, but at least he was grateful."

"I did not look pathetic."

"And we became friends, I guess. We were in the same schools until my parents died in a car accident, and my uncle in New York wanted me to go study at a university there. And then I met you, Tessa." Jem finished the story and smiled at her.

"While we were parted tragically. And you bastard haven't even wrote a bloody letter to me for three years!" Will wagged a finger at Jem comically. "Too occupied with Tessa, I suppose?"

Jem looked confused. "What? I did write letters to you! Didn't I, Tess?"

"Yeah, you did." Tessa remembered the times she had spent in Jem's room chatting and laughing and…doing other things, and sometimes she would spend an afternoon at his side, watching him writing letters to his best friend. She just didn't know that his best friend was Will—Jem had never mentioned his name before, until today. "Why don't you guys just email, or Skype or whatever?"

" 'Ladies love a vintage guy.', Will says." Jem half-rolled his eyes with an affectionate air.

"That's right-look at Tessa mooning over you." Will said brightly.

Tessa shot him a glare. "I do not 'moon over' Jem."

Will raised his palms. "Okay, okay. Jem, I'm glad you still remember my quotes, I suppose they are memorable enough. Where did you send the letters to, anyway?"

"Your house."

"JEM. I WAS AT UNIVERSITY."

"Oh. Oh yeah." Jem looked slightly sheepish. "But your sister could've passed them to you, right?"

"Fine. I shall ask Cecily tonight." Will said determinedly. Then he looked at Jem carefully, and said, "Have you...?" He jerked his head towards Tessa.

Tessa was curious. "What's up?" Her mind ran over opportunities of what he was going to say. Proposal? Sex?

Jem frowned for a moment, and seemed to know what Will was talking about. He said desperately to him. "No, I can't. She'll-"

"-not love you any more? In a relationship, you must have trust. Besides, Tessa isn't a bitchy girl."

"What the hell are you two talking about? Of course I'm not a bitchy girl." Tessa was confused and annoyed at being left out of the conversation. She turned to Jem. "Are you hiding something from me?"

Jem said nothing, but Will eyed at him sternly. "He is hiding something from you Tessa, but it's not as simple as your book. Jem, I'm going to tell her if-"

"No!" Jem said suddenly. "I'll..I'll tell her myself." He took a deep breath and faced her. He looked so nervous that Tessa reached over and held his hand. She asked gently, "Jem, what is it?"

"Tessa," Jem paused for a moment as if steeling himself. "When I was ten, I started having a disease. The doctors said that they couldn't identify what was making me weaker and weaker, that it was...incurable. And the only way to slow it down from eating me up was to take a daily dose of yin fen, something like opium."

"So I did what they said. And when my parents died, I wanted almost committed suicide, but that bastard stopped me." Jem gave a weak smile at Will, who just looked merely sad for his friend.

"My uncle from New York took me in-I was just 16 at that time. Without Will at my side, I was devastated. And then I met you in school..."

16-year-old Tessa was carrying her books to her locker. Along the corridor, she heard people gossiping about a new boy that was coming to their school:

"...some disease..."

"...yeah I heard that he's got silver hair..."

"...I've sneaked a peek at his student records and he looks pale like a ghost in the photo..."

Tessa reached her locker and put her books in it. Beside her, one of her friends, Clary, was shoving her sketchbooks in her bag. She asked Clary, "So who's that new guy coming to St. Xavier's?"

"Oh. His name is James Carstairs. I just heard him talking to a teacher, and he has a British accent-maybe he's from London like you."

"What's with the gossip about disease or something?"

"I don't know. Maybe he looks especially pale, paler than me? And people just...you know. Well, I've gotta go." Clary shrugged and walked away, uninterested.

"What's with the gossip about disease or something?"

"I don't know. Maybe he looks especially pale, and paler than me? And people just...you know. Well, I've gotta go. See you in English." Clary shrugged and walked away, uninterested.

Suddenly there was a crash, and the buzzing corridor went silent. Then there were murmurs around Tessa. She shut her locker and looked what the commotion was…

A boy—with silver hair, pale skin and skinny frame was crouching at the floor, picking up the thick books he had dropped. With everyone standing around and staring, he looked calm enough. Rage and sympathy welled up in Tessa's heart: why was nobody helping him? What right did they have to assume that he had a disease just because he was pale?

She shoved away some students and made her way to the boy. "Here, I'll help you take some of those." she offered kindly, and took some of his books, ignoring the gasps and snickers of "good Samaritans" around her.

The boy smiled gratefully at her when they had reached his locker. "Thank you. What's your name? I'm James Carstairs, but please, just call me Jem."—Clary was right; he did have a British accent.

Tessa smiled back at him. "You're welcome. And I'm Tessa Gray—it's nice to meet you."

She snapped out of her reverie and said, "So those rumours in high school were true."

"Yeah, I tried to tell you a few times, but you'd always shut me up. And when we started dating, I suddenly lost the courage to tell you." Jem looked down at his cup of tea.

Tessa tightened her grip at his hand. "Why?"

"He's afraid that you'll dump him," Will answered for him. "And if you do, I'll-"

"I won't." Tessa cut off his sentence firmly. "I don't care, because I love him, and he's Jem."

Will's blue eyes sparkled mischievously. "Prove it, so that I can feel at peace of handing my dear boy to a lovely lady. Oh dear god, my boy has grown up." He dabbed his eyes for good measure, as if he were giving his daughter's hand to her groom.

Jem laughed "Will-", but his laugh was shushed off with Tessa leaning in and pressing her lips to his. His lips were as soft as usual with the hint of Earl Grey tea, and his hair was still silky between her fingers. He was still Jem—the same sweet and caring boy she had first fallen for and whom she was still in love with—even though she now knew his hidden disease.

Their kiss was broken when an amused voice said, "Okay that's enough proof, more than enough actually. The owner is threatening to kick the both of you out of your indecent behaviour, and I wouldn't like that."

Tessa and Jem parted reluctantly. Tessa couldn't help grinning at Will, "You asked for it."

"You'd better take care of her and not let her go—she's a special girl." Will warned his best friend at the airport. Tessa and Jem were going back to New York after a few days in London, and Will felt an ache of loneliness. The three of them had bonded over the meager time they had spent together

"Yes, yes daddy." Jem replied mockingly with a grin and hugged him, wetting his shirt slightly.

"And you," Will turned to Tessa after releasing Jem. "Don't break my Jem's heart."

She smiled—the kind of smile that still made his heart flutter, though he knew that it was futile to feel that way about her. Tessa was Jem's already. "I got that."

Then unexpectedly, Tessa hugged him tightly. Will put his arms around her and tried not to do anything that would seem too intimate. She whispered in his ear, "Re-read A Tale of Two Cities for me, will you? It's really, really beautiful. It was a shame that you didn't like it."

"I already have." He replied.

She released him, gasping with surprise. Her grey eyes were wide with astonishment. "You have? Have you truly felt the beauty of it?" Her question was full of hope.

"Yes. And the pain too." Will said honestly.

Tessa narrowed her eyes. "Will-?"

Oh dear god, I shouldn't have said that, thought Will. Thankfully, the speakers were announcing for passengers to board on plane. He hesitated for a while, and dropped a light kiss and her forehead. "Bye Tessa, and be the next Jane Austin."

Her eyebrows flew up in surprise, and then she turned to Jem. Will watched the two people he loved the most walk away.

"What did Will mean when he said he could feel the pain?" Tessa asked Jem, knowing that he had overheard their previous conversation.

Jem smiled at her. "You really don't know?"

"Of course. That's why I'd ask you!"

"Okay." Jem's face scrunched up in thought—he rarely read classics. "Well there was this guy called Sydney Cartoon, right?"

Tessa laughed. "Sydney Carton. Okay, go on."

The next sentence that came out from Jem was unexpected and came crashing towards her, leaving her breathless:

"Right. Will said that he could relate to Sydney Carton because he's in love with you."

Aaand...that's it! I'll leave you guys to work out what will happen. Haha...I know, I'm evil. Oh yeah I have a TMI one-shot called Completed, and if you guys would be so nice to check it out, click my profile link.

P.S. If I got any facts wrong in this story, forgive me, because I've only read TID once. Why? I DON'T WANNA FACE THE FEELS and spoil that kind of magic.

P.P.S. Review! Thank you! XOXO Lucy.