A.N.: I do not own the characters of the Mortal Instruments(Cassandra Clare), but I like borrowing them.

Chapter 6: Clubbed in the Head

Clary slowly opened her eyes only to roll them back in pleasure. She was overwhelmed with sensations, the heat and friction between her thighs, the hot breath caressing her collarbone, the silky-softness she had gripped between her fingers, and a painful edge pressing into her outer thigh. She cleared the fuzziness in her vision to look down at the shelf, containing a green mop bucket with those rubber yellow gloves folded over bucket lip, that was digging into her thigh.

The soft whispers of her name spread throughout her collarbone, mingled with sharp pinches of teeth, was what brought her attention back to the activity causing her body to flush and throb. She knew that voice, but she couldn't bring her brain to connect the voice with the person.

She could feel strong hands running up her thighs, pushing her dress higher up her thighs, reaching just to the bend in her hips, where the hands reached below and firmly gripped her bare ass. A groan came from the person belonging to the hands, followed by a thrust of his hard member against her lace thong, pressing her body into the hard surface behind her. Clary threw her head back with a thud against the wall, eyes clenched shut a she let out a high-pitched shutter.

All her focus-training seems to have melted and dripped together into some sort of Jackson-Polluck painting in her brain, swirling and splattering across her mind with the heat of the sensations that are turning her body inside out. The soft kisses and shallow breathing grew into hungry lapping at her skin as he lowered to the skin between her breasts. Clary dropped her hands to the muscular shoulders giving herself more leverage and height to allow her friend to access more of her skin. She dug her nails in deep into the Runes at the top of the his shoulder as his tongue slipped slightly beneath the fabric of her dress, just barely out of reach of her hardened nipple. Clary gripped him harder, turning her head to the side, her back arching as her chest writhed out away from the wall.

Her need was building and the throbbing in her groin was becoming nearly impossible to ignore anymore, when a lone finger slipped beneath her panties to her dripping center, her eyes burst open and her head jerked down to look into a pair of golden eyes swirling with desire.

Clary let out his name on a whisper. "Jace..."

Her mind faded into the darkness again, everything gone but those searing eyes.

- Meanwhile -

Izzy burst through Clary's heavy bedroom door, followed by Jace carrying Clary's unconscious figure, her arms dangling limply with every step. Her flaming red hair fallen across her face, pieces sticking to her burning skin. Izzy pulled back the black silk coverlet where Jace gently laid Clary into her bed. He brushed the strands off of her forehead and tucked them behind her ear.

"What happened?," shouted Alec as he rushed into the room and Magnus sauntered in behind him. "Did the demon do this to her?," he gestured to Clary's still-form.

Jace looked down toward his own fidgeting-feet, suddenly very interested in the carpet where he stood. With a great sigh, he looked up to meet his brother's eyes, "Well not exactly," he responded rubbing his hand on the back of his neck.

"What does that even mean Jace?," Izzy asked as she returned from behind Clary's bathroom door. Ringing the extra moisture out of a damp cloth, the drops dripping onto the hardwood in little 'plunks', walking between Jace and Alec, Izzy sat next to Clary on her bed. She placed the cloth across Clary's forehead and ran the back of her hand down her friend's clammy cheek. Confident that Clary wasn't in immediate danger, Izzy turned to glare up at Jace, impatiently awaiting his answer.

Jace took a deep breath, running his hand down over his clammy face, while lifting his eyes to the ceiling. "I did it to her," he admitted with a loud sigh. He lowered his eyes and was met with three wide-eyed blank stares.

Magnus, ever reliable with a snarky comment... when it's not needed, spoke up. "Mmhhm. Well Jace, I do love a good lovers quarrel, but I think you may have taken this jealously-wounded, Alpha-male thing a bit too far. Perhaps a gift with an apology would have been preferred to knocking her out and dragging her unconscious body from the club. He flittered his sparkly nails indicating us leaving the club. "But maybe I'm just old-school in the wooing process," he smirked as he placed an arm around Alec's waist. Alec turned toward his boyfriend with a smirk, and love in his eyes.

After a moment in their own world together, Alec turned back to Jace. "So what happened Jace?"

With a huff, Jace began his explaination. "Well she was baiting the demon, getting us... I mean him all worked up," he paused as the heat of embarrassment worked its way up his neck. "Then she had him hooked and they went off to the storage closet, so I followed behind as backup. I was waiting outside the door, I could her them talking and he was threatening her with... well it's not important, but I pushed the door open, knocking the demon in the back with the door, pushing him into Clary's blade, causing both him and Clary to fall onto the floor, when Clary hit her head... and..." Jace gestured over to Clary's still-body.

"Shit, Clary is going to be pissed," Isabelle whispered to herself, but loud enough for everyone else to hear.

Magnus swayed to the side, tipping his hip out. "Yes, she certainly will be," he said with a wide-eyed look of exasperation, "And since she is not in any mortal danger, I do believe my darling Alexander owes me a back massage as payment for our bet." He looked fondly at Alec, while running his fingers through the Shadowhunter's dark locks.

Izzy let out a snort and quickly covered her nose to stop any further outbursts.

Jace looked around the group with an eyebrow raised in question. "What bet?"

"Ehmm," Izzy cleared her throat, still holding her hand at her mouth for a moment to try to smother the shit-eating grin that dominated her lips. "Well Magnus bet Alec that you were going to ruin another one of Clary's hunts, but Alec said that he didn't think you were that stupid as to do it again, and well..." Izzy dropped her red-face towards her lap to hide the ever growing smirk that threatened to leave her lips.

"Well I lost," Alec dryly stated, finishing Izzy's explanation, looking pointedly from Clary to Jace. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and widened his stance.

Magnus slipped his arm through the crook of Alec's arm, and tipped his head to his boyfriend's shoulder. "And my Alexander is an honorable young man that is anything but a sore loser." Alec let out a long sigh. Magnus scrunched up his nose, batted his eyes, and booped Alec on the nose, "Come darling!"

And with an encouraging tug of Alec's arm, they were gone out the door and toward the elevator to leave the Institute.

Without so much as a glance or a word to Jace, Izzy began to take off Clary's boots.

"Um Iz," Jace quietly interjected the silence.

With a ferocious toss of her hair, she glared at Jace. "Look Jace, whatever you think you're doing, just stop. I don't know what all happened between you and Clary when you left, but I do know that you left her behind, broken." She paused to calm herself and continued with a gentler tone. "She is not the same anymore, not worse, but not her whole self anymore. I love her like a sister just like I love you as my brother, but you coming back and thinking that things are going to go back to how they were is really confusing to her. She is proud, and she hasn't told me how she feels about you anymore so I don't know what to tell you. So just shut down whatever it is that you are dealing with right now and help me get her into bed."

"Jeez Iz, tell me how you really feel," Jace snickered. Then he flinched back as Izzy turned her attention, and an approaching right hook toward his gut. "All right, all right Iz, what do you need me to help with?"

"Can you grab me a pair of sleep shorts from Clary's top drawer and a tee shirt from her third drawer, the green Ireland one, she likes that one," Izzy instructed as she began to work the zipper on the side of Clary's dress.

Jace turned and dutifully made his way over to her chest of drawers. Beginning his search for the requested items, Jace opened the top drawer, as per Izzy's instructions, expecting pretty much the opposite of what he found. His eyes grew wide as they feasted themselves upon a drawer full of lacey, dainty underwear in a variety of deep, sultry colors. His gaze roamed across deep-red, sheer cheeky- shorts, to a black silk thong, and some other less-than-covering lingerie. "Holy Fuck," Jace whispered under his breath. He felt suddenly hot, in more ways than one. Before he had left, he knew Clary to be a creature of comfort, with her tank tops and cotton, bikini panties that he found utterly adorable. But these... nothing about this drawer's contents evoked a feeling of adorableness.

"How are those clothes coming Jace?"

Jace started at Izzy's question, hitting his elbow on the edge of the drawer, eliciting a hiss between his teeth. "Yup, coming Iz," he responded and continued his search beyond the erotic fabrics that he would love to hold between his... 'Shit, focus Jace' he tried to regain his composure. He ran his hands through the fabrics, searching for a pair of sleep shorts, attempting to ignore his wandering thoughts and half-firm cock, when his fingers ran across something else in her drawers. His brain fizzled then completely short-circuited as his eyes narrowed in on a dark purple viberator. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck me! When the hell did Clary get one of those? And how often does she use it? Shit, don't go there Jace man! You will never be able to function for the rest of the night if you go down that road,' Jace thought to himself. His desperate desire to use this on Clary was muddling his brain.

Izzy's voice pierced through his personal-struggle. 'Thank the Angel!'

"Shit Jace, her sleep shorts are in her second drawer," she amended.

Jace slammed the top drawers shut with a bang, jerking open the second drawer and ripping out the pair of shorts on the top of the pile. "Got em," his voice cracking as he held up a dark-blue pair of tiny, silk shorts. He then proceeded on to find her favorite sleep shirt easily enough, his mind still located in that top drawer of hers. He walked over to the bedside, handing Izzy the clothes and stepping back, his eyes still unfocused at the scene before him.

"Jace!" Izzy's voice broke into his fogged brain. He jerked his head up to meet Izzy's deep-brown eyes. "Do you mind?," she raised her eyebrows at him, indicating his appaerent inappropriate behavior.

"Oh, sorry," he said as he turned his back to give the girls some privacy.

"And don't you dare turn your head in the slightest to this direction while I change her or I will stab you myself," Izzy stated.

Jace snorted. He loved his sister's devotion to those she loved. He knew it to be the fire that she drew all her strength from, and knew not to toy with it.

As he waited, his mind wandered to what was occurring behind him. Clary could be naked right this second, in her bed, where she uses her dark-purple... 'Fuuuuccckk!' Jace closed his eyes tight, willing the brain that is located in his pants to just stop running him around in erotic circles.

"Okay Jace, she's decent." Izzy said

He turned back to see Izzy pulling the blankets up around Clary, tucking her in loosely like she likes.

"Jace can you stay with her a minute while I run to my room?" Izzy asked as she was already on her way out to the hallway, assuming the answer.

Jace stood there quietly, staring at Clary's beautiful form, so peaceful in her bed. 'I wonder what she is dreaming about?' In this moment, he could see the girl she was before he abandoned her without an explanation. Would he ever be able to tell her why he did that? Would she forgive him? These are the questions that circuited his brain every time he saw Clary. And now he had added more questions that he needed Clary to answer for his mind to be at peace again.

His eyes roamed from her face to her strong shoulders, one of them now revealing 2 new small diagonal scars. Reminding him how different she was now. She could take care of herself, she was forced to learn to take care of herself because he left her. He longed to reach out to her, to enclose her within his arms, protecting her from the dangers of their world once more, and to show her that though she is strong, she is stronger with him by her side. He had to convince her of the truth of that.

Izzy broke into his reflection as she entered the room once again. "Okay, thanks Jace. I'll stay with her tonight."

Jace watched as Izzy padded her way to the other side of Clary's bed. The side he remembered was actually Clary's side of the bed, while Clary currently laid on what was his side of the bed. An ache formed in his gut at the thought. Izzy snuggled herself under the blankets and laid on her side toward Clary to watch over her.

Jace lifted his eyes from Clary's face across to Izzy's. "Are you sure you'll be alright watching her tonight Iz, because I could stay the night in the chair if you're too tired." He tried to hide the hope in his voice, while gesturing his hand toward the recliner in the corner next to the bookshelf.

Lifting her head from the down-pillow, Izzy leaned up onto her elbow and set him with a flat stare. "Jace, I understand that you feel guilty, and I am sure that Clary will expect an explanation of tonight at some point tomorrow. But I am absolutely positive..." she paused for effect. Then continued, "that you are the very last person she wants to see first thing when she opens her eyes."

That, was a knife in Jace's heart. As much as he was sure Izzy was right, hearing the words said out loud was a fatal wound. His shoulders slumped slightly, but he tried to hide his emotions as best he could by turning away from Izzy and heading straight to the door without another word.

"I'm sorry Jace," was the last thing he heard Izzy say before he closed the door and walked down the hall towards his own room.

Walking the short distance to his own room from Clary's, Jace rolled the situation around in his mind. 'Maybe coming back here was a mistake.' He deeply considered. At least when he was at Idris, he could pretend that everything at the Institute was fine. Now that he was here, reality was beating the hell out of him. Proving over and over that he should never have left Clary like he had. And he had been trying to talk to her for days, and he at least made a start during their mini-battle in the park during their accidental meeting, but he had only scraped the surface of his feelings. And she seemed to warm up to him a bit after that, 'I think.' She was civil with him at the club, until he messed that one up. But there were moments, miniscule flashes of heat between them. In the elevator, at the park, in the club, and glances in between where he could feel something between them. It was tiny, but he knew if there was a flicker of flame, a blaze could be possible. And he wanted that, being here again, seeing her, especially this strong, independent version of her, he wanted to be engulfed in the inferno that is Clary. He just needed to know how she felt, to know that he wasn't alone in these desires.

It was his fault she hid behind this fortress she built, and it would have to be him that forced her out from behind its walls and into his arms. Hopefully...

A.N.: Love reading comments! I can't wait to complete the next chapters. Hope you are all enjoying this journey.