A/N Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter! Sorry it had to take this long, but I just got caught up in school work and procrastination and/or laziness :| Anyway I hope you guys like this one, it's to compensate for the length of the Daylighter chapter so I hope you don't mind. Rate&Review :)

Isabelle and Clary spent a good three hours in the mall, Isabelle trying her best to forget everything that's happened even for just awhile, dragging Clary to the most luxurious shops and making her try every single dress she thought looked good on the redhead. She knew Clary wasn't having a good time just as much as she was enjoying herself and she knows that she was only putting up with this partly for her. Which, as she came to think of it, made her highly grateful.

"Izzy, let's just go home. I look terrible," Clary mused in front of the mirror, wearing the shortest black dress Isabelle could find. Iz couldn't help but laugh.

"You need glasses, Clary. You look gorgeous in that dress. The boys would come running." This obviously hadn't been a good thing to say.

"I don't need boys to come running at me," Clary defended. "I already have one. And he's all I need," she said, smiling.

Isabelle looked down and thought of the best way to retaliate without sounding hurt in the slightest.

"Alright, you don't want that dress? Then it's mine," she concluded, seeing a look of utter disbelief on Clary's face.

"You want…this short of a dress? This would be a shirt on you," she protested, entering the changing room to get away from the dress.

"You know what that's exactly the kind of look I'm going for," Izzy replied, wondering whether Jace would look at her differently when she wears it, which was a horrible, horrible thought. She dismissed it just as quickly as it came to her.

"Come out so I can pay for that."

Dusk was falling as they left the mall and hailed a cab to the Institute which, to mundanes was disguised as a mangled but innocent-looking church. The driver gave them a peculiar look when they told him their destination but probably thought better than asking. Clary dropped by the nearest stop to her house and told Isabelle she'd be fine walking home; Isabelle really didn't bother arguing for she was tired herself. Plus, she still has one more agenda left that night.

The Institute was in its usual quiet state, Isabelle's heels clanking loudly on the dusty altar floor. She opened the elevator door to Church the cat, snoring and curled up like a ball on the warm wooden floor. She felt her heart hammering again as she rode up to their floor and got out, walking past her room to Alec's, not bothering to take all the shopping bags to her room first. Alec would be more surprised if she didn't have bags along with her when he finds out she went out shopping.

She stopped in front of her older brother's room, trying to calm herself and make her breathing slow down. She's absolutely sure her brother knows it by now; she knows she's not at all capable of keeping secrets from him even if she wanted to. She paused before knocking three times on the door.

The door flew open in a matter of seconds, almost as if Alec was already expecting someone to be there.

"I was wondering when you'd come," he said, by way of greeting, looking down at the shopping bags at Isabelle's feet.

"You went shopping? Good. Who with? Or you went alone?" he asked, not bothering to give time for Isabelle to reply and motioned to his room, taking some of the bags himself and throwing them in the corner.

"Hey, don't do that," Izzy replied, closing the door behind her and making a beeline for Alec's bed, as if it was her own. Alec scoffed but Isabelle ignored him.

"I was with Clary, by the way," she said, expecting the bewildered look on Alec's face. "You went shopping with Clary?" he asked, sitting on the only thing he could sit on, the sofa chair. Izzy looked at her brother first before replying, and noticed quite a difference. She was surprised.

For one thing, Alec wasn't wearing ugly clothes; Izzy frowned for a moment and realized he was wearing a leather jacket. Alexander Lightwood, wearing something decent and fashionable. She wanted to jump up and down to celebrate.

"You look nice, Magnus force it on you? I always thought he was a good influence," she said, smirking.

Alec had a pained look on his face. "He didn't just force me to wear it, he bewitched me to. He said I'd turn into something horrible if I didn't." Isabelle had to laugh. Magnus always had the upper hand in their relationship.

"Don't think I won't notice you trying to change the topic," Alec said, more seriously this time. "You went shopping with Clary. And I thought she was supposed to be mad at you for Simon."

Isabelle's eyebrows shot up. "How did you know about Simon? Jace," the two of them said in unison. It's quite obvious, isn't it? Clary wouldn't be able to not tell everything to Jace even if it's something he cared nothing about, and Jace, being Alec's parabatai, would surely tell it to him just so he could get the matter off his back. He hates being concerned about things like Simon. The little devil.

Isabelle took a deep breath. "Alright, what did he tell you? This complicates everything even more," she said out loud. Alec had to nod in agreement.

"Well, he said he wanted to tell me just because he found it funny," Alec recalled, looking like he was trying to suppress a smile which annoyed Isabelle. "He said something along the lines of 'Simon crying like a baby because Izzy broke his nutty little heart and complaining to Clary about it like she was his mummy'."

Alec paused and, seeing the look on Izzy's face, held his hands up in his defense. "That's how he said it! I'm only trying to quote the exact way he said it, with the tone and everything," he said. Isabelle rolled her eyes.

"Go on," Izzy said, feeling nauseated about the fact that Jace had to find out about all of this. Clary was the one to blame, after all. She groaned.

"I think that's about it, before he roared in laughter," Alec concluded, looking at Iz before recalling something.

"…But he did wonder out loud whether 'who that man might be'. He said he tried to ask you but you didn't tell him, which I understand," Alec said, a look of comprehension on his face. "Because if I didn't, you wouldn't have come here."

That brings the matter to the spotlight. Isabelle looked at his brother steadily. "Just, tell me what you know, Alec. Or at least what you think," she said, falling back on his pillows. She stared up fixedly at the ceiling. Why does Alec have to be so smart?

"I think I know this because there was a time I was in your position too," Alec admitted, though the tone in his voice implied he didn't want to. That made Isabelle look him in the eyes again.

"There's really no point in denying that, Iz. Everybody knows I once looked at him as more than just a parabatai. So what I'm saying here is that you are in love with him, and I think that you're quite mad about it."

Silence ensued. Isabelle really didn't know what else to expect, but to look at the matter like that from his brother's point of view? Relating it to what once happened to him and Jace before?

"But… you didn't really love him, did you? I mean, come on, Magnus," Izzy replied. Now everybody knows Alec and Magnus can't live without the other. Not in this lifetime, at least.

Alec shook his head. "I don't. And I don't think I ever did. But you know what I think about you? I think you're in it because you're really in it. You really do love him."

"I guess…I suppose…yeah, I do. What do I do, Alec?" she asked helplessly. She was becoming more and more alarmed now. If Alec found a way to realize it hadn't been real, why couldn't she?

Is it probably because there was no escaping the fact that it IS real?

"Calm down, Iz. First things first: since when?" he asked incredulously.

"I dunno. Since forever, maybe. I only just realized."

"-You only just realized? Now? Not when we were still little kids?"

"No…I don't think so. Maybe I already did, but it kind of just existed as something I didn't acknowledge until I grew up and...got too busy with other stuff."

"-With other stuff you mean other boys, yes? Toying with them?"

"Yes, I-why do you have to put it THAT way, Alec? I'm not that bad!" Izzy cried in protest.

Alec shook his head. "Yeah, you're probably right. I forgot you're too good that you could actually make it look and feel like it's the real thing," he said knowingly. "You know, like that thing with Simon."

Isabelle had to sit up on his bed just to prove her point. "I did NOT play with Simon's feelings. I really did like him, it just wasn't good enough to-"

"-overpower your feelings for Jace? Yeah, I understand."

"Good. So now what do I do?" Isabelle asked, feeling more problematic by the minute.

"Easy. You just snap out of it."

Isabelle looked at his brother like she was seeing him for the first time. In the light of all that's happened, in the light of all her efforts to actually come to him to find some sort of direction or mature brotherly advice, Alec is actually telling her to just snap out of it like it was some sort of… trance? Like she was being hypnotized or something?

"What? Who are you and what have you done with Alexander Gideon Lightwood?"

Alec's expression was a cross between a frown and a grimace.

"What were you expecting, Iz? To tell you to 'go for it' like it's that easy, that if you tell him everything's going to be right in the world and he'd just tell you he loves you back? What do you think I'm supposed to tell you now that Clary's in our life? Huh? I don't like the idea of it," he admitted, looking at Isabelle apologetically. "But it's the only thing you can do. Now that it's too late."

Isabelle looked at Alec disbelievingly. She knows deep inside that Alec was making a clear point, that it's the only thing there is to it, but she was kind of hoping things wouldn't be like the way they are if she came to Alec for help.

Which was a stupid thing to think of. Alec's not a miracle-worker. In fact nobody is. It was her fault, after all.

She gave up the losing battle and laid back down on Alec's bed. "I hate it when you're right."

"I'm sorry, Iz," Alec said in a resigned tone. "But there's really nothing either of us could do. You don't want to go ruining a relationship, do you?"

"No, I don't."

Isabelle would give everything to be bad just for one moment, to do what she wants instead of what is right, to be the villain even just for once. But she knows she could never be that way. She closed her eyes and tried hard not to cry. She felt Alec's hand on her shoulder.

"It's going to be alright."

Little did they know, Jace was standing outside the door, listening to every word they were saying.