Notes: I write too much all at once, so this was prewritten one or two days ago—when I do prewrite, expect quick(ish) updates.
The characters (cannon) Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood are introduced in this chapter. There won't be too many original characters in this fic, so don't worry about having to memorize the names and personalities of 101 side characters.
Disclaimer: I do not own "The Mortal Instruments".
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For the next few hours, Jace stood in the hospital room, leaning gently against the wall farthest from the redheaded girl. She was sleeping—something that looked more to him like she was feigning slumber to avoid conversation—and he had little to do in the near-empty hospital with no one but a drowsy girl beside him.
She's different, Jace thought with an appraising look. The thoughts were strange, but they rang true—he had yet to meet someone who acted the same way the provenly selfless girl did, but he found himself mildly wishing that he knew more people similar to her.
He was unsure as to what made her unique, but there was a certain something about the girl that made him feel disconcerted. It could have been anything ranging from her long legs to her flaming hair, but there was a nuance to her that made him want to know her better.
He didn't know what it was, but it confused, and there was nothing that Jace hated more than feeling lost. He scowled, a natural look for him, and sat himself down in a chair, willing his eyes away from the mysterious redhead and proceeding to look over the small file he had on her.
Her name was Clarissa Adele Fray, and she was nineteen years old, much too young to have been targeted by a criminal. There were three people on her emergency contact list: Simon Lewis, Luke Garroway, and Jocelyn Fray—most likely the people he had met up with earlier. The information on her was small, but he could gather that she was raised by only Jocelyn, and was an art major at a community college he didn't recognize.
She had no criminal record, and he couldn't spot a man who would try to kill her through the black and white words describing her—though he didn't feel them to be truly describing her. Jace believed humans to be complex, too complicated to put down on simple paper, but the FBI didn't seem to share his theories on how complex human beings could be.
He was reaching the end of his paperwork when the door opened, and a tall Indonesian man in a white coat stepped into the room, his steps much more dramatic than necessary. His eyes were almost yellow, laced by some strange eye makeup that was loaded with shimmering glitter, and Jace winced at the way the light reflected off of the sparkles on the Asian man's cheekbones and into his eyes.
"Excuse me," Jace said, arching a golden eyebrow at the Asian man, "Who are you?"
"Look at the coat." He smoothed down the lab coat for emphasis, obviously trying to clue Jace in that he was some type of doctor, but the blonde man was confused all the same.
"What," His eyes scanned the glittery man's name tag, "Mr. Bane, are you planning on doing with Ms. Fray?" His voice was a bit too formal—Clary seemed too young for him to call her by her surname—but he stood simply, walking over to the lying redhead.
"I'm going to check how well her shoulder is healing, and evaluate the proper time to send her home."
"Shouldn't you remove your eye makeup before you open up wounds? You know, so that your glitter doesn't fall in and infect her shoulder with fairy dust?" Jace asked sarcastically. The Asian man gave him a flippant wave of his hand, telling him without words that the question was too silly for him to pay attention to.
"You teenagers are too scared of individuality." He said, taking a small pair of scissors and starting at the gauze around Clary's arm. He gently lifted her arm, unwinding the fabric and half-ignoring Jace.
"No, I'm afraid that my charge will die before she leaves the hospital due to some form of glitter poisoning, Mr. Bane."
"Call me Magnus," He said, pulling the gauze away and observing Clary's shoulder. Jace came closer to the bed to observe the wound, and Magnus let him, "And I can assure you that this is much too high quality to flake and fall into her blood."
"Or you could come to work, bare faced." Jace offered. "I take the hardship of leaving my makeup at home when I'm called to kill someone, so you have the ability to leave the makeup home when you're trying to keep people from dying."
"What're you doing killing people, Blondie? You aren't much older than I am." Magnus remarked, looking up to the blonde boy. He was slightly disappointed that his eyes weren't blue—he had no eye candy for the moment—but looked back down to his subject after a brief pause.
"I'm in the FBI," Jace didn't bother pulling out his badge, "And my name is Agent Jonathan Wayland."
"Oh? It the word 'agent' a part of your name?"
"To you, it is." Jace glanced down at Clary, looking to see if she stirred as Magnus cleaned her shoulder with some thick substance, looking to have the consistency of toothpaste. He snapped in front of her face, but she seemed to be out cold. "Did you drug her?"
"She's just a heavy sleeper, I assume—you're the one who knows her. To her, I'm nothing more than a passing fancy."
"I'm not sure if you know what a 'passing fancy' is, and I don't know her too well, either—my last conversation with her wasn't the friendliest." Jace looked down to see if she seemed to be close to waking up, but she was still sleeping. "She thinks she's tough enough to go without a guard."
"Guard? What happened to her?" Magnus asked, and Jace gave him an incredulous look.
"How the hell did you get your doctorate if you can't deduce that getting shot at isn't an everyday thing for most teenagers?"
"It seems like your sort would get shot at frequently, and I'm sure that you're nothing more than a teenager." At twenty-two, Magnus was hardly one to talk about people being too young for their professions, but he liked to believe that he was an exception to most rules.
Jace started to remark that he'd be of drinking age in a few months, but he was cut off by his phone ringing with a familiar number, "Alec. Where the hell have you been?"
His partner's voice was buzzed with static, and the blonde man had to strain his ears to hear him. "Isabelle got caught up in buying a new holster for her gun. Where am I supposed to meet you?"
"I'd say Ms. Fray's new residence, but no one is moved in yet, so come meet me at the hospital." Jace said, and he was sure that Alec nodded at the other end—he knew Alec better than he did himself, and could copy his movements even when he wasn't in close contact with him.
"All right." The phone turned off, and Jace looked back to Magnus. He was about to form some question pertaining to how long it took to wrap a bullet wound—he had seen it done in a matter of moments—but a waking redhead cut him off.
"Who is Alec?" Jace swore under his breath, wondering slightly how long Clary had been awake for. He decided not to ask, and chose the more noble option of answering her question.
"He's my partner."
"I didn't know you played for my team," Magnus brought himself into the exchange with unhelpful words, and Jace turned back to look at the Asian man with a disbelieving look.
"You need to broaden your vocabulary, Bane. When I say partner, I mean that he works alongside me, and he has ever since we were training." Jace refrained from supplying that it was possible that Alec played for the same team Magnus obviously did, and looked to the bewildered girl for her reaction.
"Are you going to invite the rest of the seven dwarves to live in my home?" Clary hissed, her eyes narrowing. Though the thought was random, Jace decided that he liked her eyes, and wouldn't mind spending more time watching the emerald orbs.
"Clary, that would never happen—I'd only invite my fellow dwarves if you had skin white as snow and hair black as night." She looked curious as to his knowledge of Disney princess movies, and he gave her a charming grin to distract her, "And it will only be Alec stationed at your house. He won't accompany you outside as I will—he will only watch and keep surveillance of your home when I cannot."
"And what will people think of some . . . armed man following me around constantly?"
"Magnus," Jace said, looking up to the Asian man, "Can you go for a moment? I need to speak with Ms. Fray." Magnus left, and Clary's scowl deepened.
"Why can't my doctor be here? Are you going to smuggle me with a pillow so that you would get your pay without doing your job?"
"There's a shortage of natural redheads in this world—it would be a crime to kill you." Jace said, sitting himself down on the side of her bed, "And I'm going to be your boyfriend."
"Excuse me?"
"After you were shot, you met a devilishly handsome man in the waiting room, devastated over the death of his grandmother. When he saw a beautiful redhead come out with a wounded shoulder," Clary's cheeks flamed at his subtle compliment, and he grinned, "He comforted you, and it was love at first sight. After the incident, you were too afraid to live alone, so you moved to a smaller town and invited the man to live with you so that he could protect you from the bad guys."
"That's . . . insanity." Clary said. He spoke simply, but she processed the idea slowly, and shook her head quickly, "That won't work."
"You never know until you try," Jace gave her another weakening smile, and she forced her vision to his chest, finding that keeping her eyes on his bulletproof vest was as good of a distraction as any. "It could work, Clary."
"And why would my boyfriend be armed and suited with a bulletproof vest and half a dozen knives?"
"Counting the weapons in my pocketknife, I have well over half a dozen knifes, and I'm offended by the understatement." She gave him a hard look, and he continued speaking. "And the only reason I am so obviously armed is because your mother called while I was home, and she wanted me as soon as possible. Usually, my guns are hidden in holsters, not a simple belt, and my vest would either be absent or underneath a shirt."
"And the tattoos? I'm fairly sure that I don't look like the type to go for a blonde guy with a tattoo halfway up his neck."
"Haven't you ever seen the awful movies they put on at nighttime? It's a beautifully retching display when the innocent girl falls for the alluring bad boy, complete with a motorcycle and tattoos." Jace touched the back of his neck where the top of the tattoo laid thoughtfully.
"What is your tattoo of?" Clary asked suddenly, another wave of curiosity washing over her. Jace pulled himself out of his daze, and offered her a devilish smile.
"If you want to practice the part of my girlfriend, you can find out." Jace winked at her, and Clary's cheeks flamed more brightly as she tugged her gaze away from him and his flirtations. She was unsure as to how she would handle living with him and playing the part of his girlfriend if a simple flirtation would make her cheeks flare so—she was an awful actress.
Her heart monitor flared due to her embarrassment and racing heart. She scowled, looking for some cord, "How do you shut this thing off?"
"You could stop breathing," Jace supplied. "But you should have a doctor's consent before turning that off. You could accidentally look my way again, and put yourself into some sort of coma from the shock—don't fret, though. I'm sure my allure will wear off in a decade or two.
"You're infuriating."
"Thank you."
"I'm going back to sleep," Clary murmured, and Jace laughed. She frowned, looking back up at him, "Why is that so funny?"
"You use sleeping as an excuse each time you try to avoid conversation with me. Soon, you'll be feigning narcolepsy." Clary only scowled, repeating that she wished to sleep, and closed her eyes before he could protest or tease her again. She heard his soft laughter, and felt him rise from where he sat on the bed to lean against the opposing wall.
Clary tried to fall asleep, but after sleeping on and off for the last half of the day, she was fairly awake. She attempted lying still and trying not to fidget, but she was soon saved by the sound of someone loudly opening the door.
She blinked her eyes open, expecting to find Magnus, but instead found a stranger with black hair and icy eyes looking from her to Jace quickly. The more familiar Asian man followed, and Clary sat halfway up in her bed to look at the three men in the room.
"Alec," Jace said, welcoming the brunette man and cluing Clary in on who he was, "Meet Clarissa Adele Fray." Clary wanted to ask how he knew her middle name, but thought it best not to know how much he knew.
"Do I get an introduction?" Magnus asked, his eyes seeming to devour Alec. Instead of blushing, Alec's eyes widened, and he seemed to be trying and failing at getting out a coherent sentence.
"Special Agent Alexander Lightwood of the FBI, sir." Jace gave him a strange look, unable to process why his friend had called the doctor 'sir', but Magnus only looked amused.
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Special Agent Alexander Lightwood. Are you one of her little helpers, or are you going to stay around here?" Magnus' yellow eyes made it obvious that he would prefer the latter, and Alec seemed to be trying to stammer out an answer.
"I—I'm not sure when we're leaving." Alec managed, busying himself in tugging the hem of his shirt down. Clary looked at Alec curiously, wondering why he was so flustered over an extravagant man flirting with him, but decided it better to ask later.
Jace's phone rang, and he slipped it out of his pocket with a fluid movement. Clary watched him. All of his movements, no matter how simple they were, were elegant in some way. He moved with perfect posture and graceful steps, reminding Clary of a cat, always ready to spring into action. He glanced towards her, the amused flash in his golden eyes telling her that he had caught her staring, and answered the ringing phone, "Agent Wayland."
He listened for a short time, nodding and making sounds to signal that he was listening to the speaker, and bid the caller goodbye quickly. He seized the bag Alec was holding, tossing Clary a few garments—both too large on her—and looked to the clock on the wall.
"Come on, Clary." He said, "Get dressed, and meet Alec and I outside."
"What?" She asked, noticing that the two other men had already exited the room, leaving her alone with Jace.
"That was your mother. She said that your house is prepared, so get changed into something that isn't covered in blood," He opened the door, about to step outside, and paused to look back at her, "And though I'm sure it won't be difficult, get ready to pretend that you're in love with me." A flash of white teeth came, and Clary was alone in the room.
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Question of the day:
What character(s) do you want to be introduced in the next chapter? I have a few in mind, but you'll just have to wait and see for that :)
leave a review ;3
