7

I got to a computer and did it! YESSSSS! I officially love you guys for waiting. All you readers, you're the best ever :D Enjoy the latest installment!

CPOV

It was morning. I woke up at the studio, still in the dress I was wearing yesterday.

You know, when Jace proposed to you?

"Shut the hell up," I growled at the voice in my head. I quickly changed out of it to go to my new dance class; one I was teaching. It was for beginner girls. Somebody had to do it, and I loved teaching girls. Of course, anybody could join up, but guys tended to join a little later in life. I mean, it's dance. If they do it when they're kids, people will call them gay, but when they're out of high school, then nobody cares.

I got to class, and along with all the little girls sitting on the bench, there was a certain blonde haired, golden eyed man, waiting.

"Alright class, off your butts!" I yelled, getting their attention. I ignored Jace as he caught up to me stretching on the bar.

"Clary, at least talk to me," he begged, coming a little closer. I put my other leg up on the bar, as if to block him out, and reached to my toe.

"I have a class to teach, Jace," I sharply replied. He looked at me cynically, holding a piece of paper up. It was registry into my class. I couldn't help but laugh.

"You have to talk to me now, Ms. Clary," he said mockingly. I shook my head with another laugh.

"You're going to have to go the whole deal if you're in my class," I informed him, chasseing over to the costume closet. I opened it and threw him a pair of black tights and a tight white shirt. He caught them with one hand, giving me a kind of frightened look.

I was going to enjoy this.

It was kind of hilarious watching a class of little girls spin with their hands above their heads along with a grown man, who looked like he was walking the death march.

"Clary, I've been searching for so long for that woman who completes me, I finally found her, and she runs away when I ask her to marry me," Jace said when I made them plie over and over again. "Could you at least explain to me why? Don't you owe me that much?" I thought for a moment. Would little girls understand the meaning of rape?

"I can't have kids, I'm afraid of almost everything, and under all my disguises, I'm a boring girl who loved manga and anime and fell in love with Inuyasha before the TV show," I told him after a moment's thought. Jace smiled lightly.

"Anime and manga? Are you kidding me? And isn't Kagome every teenage guy's wet dream?" he countered, making me stifle a laugh. "I don't care that you can't have children, Clary. I'm an orphan. I know what every kid in that orphanage feels like, like they're not worth enough to their parents for them to be kept. I got the easy way out, the Lightwoods adopted me when I was six, and we can do the same thing." I just stopped moving, looking at this beautiful man who was willing to give up that perfect image of a woman for this half-person with a broken soul and a battered body. All I could do was look at him. "Clary, are you alri…" he didn't get to finish that. I attacked him in a hug, straddling him while he got over the initial shock, which had all the little girls going 'ooh!'.

"Jace Wayland, I love you, I love you, I love you," I kept repeating, hoping it was never under question. He could have any woman in the entire world and he would settle for someone who was incomplete, that said a lot about him, and a lot about me.

"Whoa, what's with the…" he didn't get to finish that, either. I kissed him fiercely, trying to keep it PG but struggling. He was one of the first guys I'd dated who I've never had sex with, and that was huge to me. Every little girl in the room was giggling now, probably watching me turn bright red and giggling even more.

"Clary!" I heard someone yell. Jace and I turned our heads at the same time to see Kaelie, who looked quite shocked. I quickly got off of Jace and went back to the front of the class. "Um, Jon told me to tell you he's not picking you up today."

"That's okay, I have a ride," I told her with a smile.

"Alright then," she awkwardly said, leaving. I shushed the little girls, which made them giggle even more.

"How about adagio now, girls?" I asked, making them cheer. Oh, the minds of young girls, so easily molded. I gave a look to Jace, as if apologizing. He just smiled back at me brilliantly.

I love you, Jace Wayland, I love you.

JPOV

"So what do you want to do today?" I asked her. I'd waited until her class (which I was thankfully no longer a part of, though she got the pleasure of watching me dance awkwardly) and her rehearsal for the Bollywood number her team was doing. She still wore her traditional Indian dance costume with all the jewelry and clothing, looking beautiful as always in the bright forest green two-piece dress, with a cut-off top and a pant/skirt thing that I couldn't really decide which one it was. Both the pieces were heavily beaded and sequined, along with her shawl, which was attached to her hair, and the huge circular fake nose ring was kind of distracting, but not very. She was talking to me again, which was great.

"I'd love to go… oh, I've got to get to the police station!" she practically yelled, running back to the car at full speed. I got in and turned the keys, making the car light up. She seemed eager. I remembered how angry Jon had been when I mentioned Sebastian's name. Why was he so pissed off? What did Sebastian do to Clary.

"What happened with Sebastian?" I asked her as I drove to the station. I knew where it was, it was only a couple of blocks from the school. She stiffened.

"Well, we dated for a while," she said, then stopped. "Actually, we were basically screwing-friends. Sex wherever, whenever, and we both liked it for a while, until he said he wanted more than that. I didn't understand, so I told him that we should take a break from… whatever we were. And that's when the following started, and the constant calls, and then finally the hurt." I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off with, "Jace, I really don't want to talk about this. Can I not?"

"I was just going to say you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," I slowly told her, making her smile lightly. God, I loved it when she smiled, her perfect lips moving with her every word, making me want her that much more. But she'd do everything when she was ready to, marry me, sleep with me, do whatever. I was in no hurry for any of it, I had no intention of losing her, even for a moment. I didn't want to push her, she was hurt. Besides, being around her was prize enough.

We drove in silence, but it wasn't an awkward one. It was more the kind of silence you have when you know there's nothing to say, but you still continue to talk with your eyes occasionally. When we got to the station, she got out quickly, not bothering to put on her shoes (they danced without shoes for this number, since it was a traditional dance). I went after parking, going inside and finding her at someone's desk, nobody was sitting at it. She was waiting for him.

"Sebastian," she called, and a guy stuck his head out the door that said 'Copy Room/Evidence Storage'. He was the same guy whose house Clary had been at. The way he was looking at Clary, as if she was something to play with, a shiny toy, was bothering me, but I didn't say a word. She wanted to help him, it was her life and her choice.

"Hey, Clare," he said, coming back to his desk and sitting. "You can sit down, and so can you, Mr…" he looked at me.

"Wayland," I said, "Jace Wayland."

"Wayland, alright," he replied with a smile. His gaze shifted back to Clary. "You look…"

"Indian?" she asked. "Dance, don't ask." He laughed lightly. How could she reconnect to someone who hurt her so easily? I wish Kaelie and I could do the same, because I had a feeling she hated my guts.

"Alright, so I need your statement," Sebastian told Clary. She nodded, thinking for a moment.

"Wait, you basically want me to say Valentine Morgenstern… hurt me, right?" she asked, wincing when she said his name. Sebastian nodded slowly.

"If you could use the word 'rape', it might be a little more powerful, though," he said. Didn't he understand she didn't want to talk about it, that it hurt her to even think about it?

"Okay, so then how about 'Valentine Morgenstern raped me'?" she sarcastically asked, covering up the apparent tears in her demeanor. Sebastian rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, that's great," he said, writing it down. "Now the interview portion, then you're done and it'll wait until court."

"Okay," she said uneasily.

"What exactly happened?" he asked.

And I sat there silently, watching her rip herself apart for someone who had no right to ask her to.

CPOV

We drove back to the school, Jace told me he had a few papers to pick up. Of course, somebody had to spot me in that huge glittery mess called dance costuming.

"That's such a pretty costume!" a lady holding a panda handbag said. "You must be the infamous Clary, Jace never shuts up about you." I couldn't help but blush at the compliment.

"Really?" I asked, unsure. She smiled sweetly.

"I've known him for years, I'd know if he was in love," Aline said, putting her hand on my shoulder. "Trust me, he's in love." Somebody snuck up behind Aline, putting his arms around her waist and making her scream. She then started laughing.

"Raphael, if you don't stop doing that I'm going to throw something at you next time!" she yelled at him, making him laugh now. He kissed her cheek and smiled.

"You're forgetting you have no hand-eye coordination," he told her, making her smack him.

"I still have hands," she shot back. "Oh, Clary, this is Raphael, my boyfriend and Jace's friend."

"Jace isn't my friend," Raphael said with a bit of sarcasm, "he's more my loathed acquaintance."

"You're a dancer, right?" Aline asked. I nodded slowly. "Well, our school is doing a week on dance, and I know Mr. Stewart would love to have someone with experience teaching the course, since out gym teacher is a football coach, not exactly Tinkerbell on his feet." I laughed at the analogy.

"I'd love to," I told her. Jace came back with his pageboy bag, holding a few papers in a folder in his hand and putting his other arm around me.

"Hey, Al," he said cheerily. Then, with less cheer, he added, "Raphael."

"Jace," Raphael addressed him back. Both me and Aline rolled our eyes. Simon came out of the building, and upon spotting the four of us, joined us.

"Dance?" he asked when he saw my outfit. I nodded with a sigh.

"Trust Maia to dress me like an Asian whore," I said, referring to every showy part of the outfit. And all of us laughed.

Everything felt as normal as it could be, so nice, pleasant almost. Of course, ever since Jace had come into my life, everything had been pleasant and happy. I wonder what would happen when he found out just how scarred I really was.

TPPOV (Third Person's)

The man walked into the dark room where he knew the white haired man would be. He was silent and quick, moving with lightning speed to get there quickly.

"Late," a voice rung out powerfully. "You're late by three minutes."

"Three minutes," the man said, "it's like saying a house is off by three inches."

"That house will fall," the white haired man said. "I don't plan to let this fall, too. Be on time."

"Alright, Valentine," the man replied, annoyed.

"Did you say what I told you to say?" he asked. The man nodded. "And how is my dear Clary?"

"She's great, can we speed this up? I have to be with her soon," the man said.

"Of course," Valentine smiled wickedly. He had a scar from under his right eye to his chin, a scar that little redheaded girl had given him, and one he would never forget.

"What should I say to her?" the man asked.

"Whatever you please," Valentine told him, walking away. "Just make sure she trusts you."

"Oh," the man smiled lightly, "she does, trust me."

"The problem is, I don't." And with that, Valentine and the man were both gone, and the dark room was just a room again.

Clary: Wait, so above all of this drama there's ANOTHER guy?

Me: No, it's someone you already know.

Clary: So one of the guys I know is lying to me? What?

Jace: It sure as hell isn't me.

Simon: What motive would I have? Well, there is the fact that you apparently turned me down when I asked you to marry me!

Clary: Sorry, she wrote it, not me!

Me: Oh, right. Sorry Simon!

Jon: I'm your brother, it's not me.

Raphael: I barely know you!

Sebastian: It's probably me, since she loves making me the villain in this story.

Aline: I think it might be me.

Everybody: WTF?

Jace: Aline, you're a girl. It's obviously a guy.

Aline: Or a girl in heavy disguise!

Me: *sigh* I swear, these characters have minds of their own. Stay tuned for more 'Dancing Into My Heart!'