Hello readers!
So here is a new chapter. It only took me about an hour and a half to write this. I had a lot of fun writing this, and I quite like this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
And we're actually getting somewhere! Are you proud of me?
So any who, I hope you enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: Nope. Not Cassie Clare. Unfortunately. Just boring old Beth, who will never own, let alone create, anything as brilliant as this book series, as long as she lives.
Clary smiled happily to herself as she the loud speaker announced that the '360 Flight n Route to San Francisco' would be departing in five minutes, so could everyone please be sure they were seated, and that they're seatbelts where done up securely.
They had done it. They had found him. After weeks of searching, hours of gruelling labour, they had finally discovered which of the three their Dexter was.
No, that's a lie. They had actually found out only about a day after they left Simon's house. They had departed the town house feeling worn, defeated and slightly useless. Simon had kept the three files under his bed, for safe keeping. He promised them he would look through them more, and maybe try to go deeper into the backgrounds of the candidates.
Candidates, she laughed at herself silently. She was making it seem as if she where choosing the next president.
Simon had called her up late, last Saturday night, his voice triumphant.
Turns out that out that Dexter Jones actually had regular contact with his biological family, so it couldn't have been him. Dexter Montgomery, as Simon had recently discovered, was three parts Malaysian, and since Clary was pretty sure that the Herondale family was mainly English, with a bit of welsh mixed in, that cancelled him out.
So that left only one possibility. Dexter Fletcher.
It was a funny name, if you thought about it. It almost rhymed. But there was nothing really special about it. If she had heard the name just two weeks before, she wouldn't even have taken notice. It wouldn't have meant anything.
But now it meant everything. It was the name of a person that could very possibly change their lives forever. That person was their family, but then again they weren't. A person with whom they were so connected to, yet they knew nothing about.
So far they knew exactly things about Dexter Fletcher.
He is nineteen years old; his given birthday was two years before he was given up.
He was living in San Francisco, but he was raised in Chicago.
He was allergic to mandarins.
He was studying at the University Of San Francisco, but not living on campus.
He lived at 456 Salga Rd.
She also knew that Simon would not tell her how he knew all of this information.
But that was okay, because they were going to meet him. And she was excited.
But she was also nervous as hell.
They had bought two tickets to San Francisco almost as soon as they found out. If it had been anyone other than Jace, she would have been nervous about the spontaneity of it all. But it was Jace. And Jace was a man of action, after all.
So that's how Clary found herself sitting in a lumpy aeroplane seat, headed direct to the windy city.
Now, she looked over at her boyfriend, who was sitting in the seat beside her, his body tense and stiff.
"Jace?" Clary's brow wrinkled in concern.
"Yeah?" Jace sounded as freaked out as he looked.
"You're not..." Clary hesitated. "You're not afraid of flying, are you?"
"I couldn't say. I've never been on an airplane before."
"Well... the thing is... you kind of look like you're about to throw up. Why is that?"
"Gee, Clary, I don't know. Maybe it's just that the thought of flying 100'000 feet of the ground with nothing holding us up but perpetual winds, or whatever it is."
Clary's eyes widened in disbelief. "Is this actually coming from the boy who threw me on a demon powered motorcycle and flew me over the Manhattan River?"
Jace said nothing, but stared hardly at the blue vinyl seat in front of him, his lips pursed into a straight line.
Clary nudged him in the ribs as the pilot directed the plane onto the runway, the aircraft gaining speed as it travelled down the tarmac.
"C'mon. It's not that bad." They were gaining speed now and the sound of plane tyres against the runway more than audible.
She looked over at Jace, who was still looking intently at the seat in front of him. He looked positively green now, and Clary began to worry about whether or not he would still have his breakfast in five minutes time. She reached into the seat pocket in front of her and pulled out the foil lined paper bag, slipping it onto his lap. She took his hand and squeezed reassuringly.
"The take off is always the hardest. Keep a good hold of that for a bit, just to be sure, okay?" Jace half smiled back at her, using his right hand to open the bag, holding it at the ready.
Clary was very well versed in the whole flying thing now, thanks to Magnus and Isabelle dragging her off to Miami last year, as a birthday gift. It had been a fun weekend, although she was probably the only one that remembered more than half of it. Isabelle and Magnus had had one too many Strawberry daiquiris to have a reliable memory of what had happened. But one thing they all remembered was the very glittery, male Stripper called "Hot Chocolate", who turned out to be quite lovely.
Now, Clary gripped the seat and Jace's hand as the plane started tilting upwards. Jace squeezed her hand back, almost twice as hard. And soon enough she was overcome with a feeling of weightlessness as the plane lifted into thin air. Her ears popped again and again, and she yawned as they ascended higher and higher, the many lights of Manhattan growing smaller through the small, round window pane.
Soon enough, the plane levelled out, Jace relaxed- just enough- and the seatbelt lights turned off.
Clary sighed and used her right hand to undo her seatbelt. Her left hand was still held in Jace's tight grip. A slender blonde woman came up to them and peered over the already asleep man next to them.
"Is there anything I can get you?" She asked, smiling politely at Clary and Jace.
"I think we'll be okay." Clary smiled at the flight attendant. "Thank you anyway."
"Okay. Enjoy your flight." She turned, as if to leave, but hesitated. "Be sure to call me if he needs anything." She gestured to a very pained looking Jace. Clary laughed nervously.
"Don't worry, I will." She sighed for what seemed like the millionth time since they left the institute. "Shame he isn't twenty one yet." She said, earning a laugh from the flight attendant, a smirk from Jace and a snore from the sleeping man.
"Don't worry sweetie" she said, patting Jace's hand. "It'll all be over in about-"She looked at her ticket "Five and a half hours."
"Oh, how reassuring." Jace voice was dripping with sarcasm.
She rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket for her earphones, plugging them into her ears. Leaning back in her seat, she closed her eyes and let the sound of Right Girl by The Maine fill her ears. Clary lifted up the arm of the chair and slipped under Jace's arm, pulling his hand up over head and around her shoulders as she did so. She felt the warm press of his lips as he kissed the top of her head and pulled her closer to him by the waist. He absently trailed the tips of his fingers up and down the side of her Maroon tank top.
She could feel sleep pulling at her mind, so she relaxed and allowed her mind to fade into unconsciousness.
*two hours later*
She was startled awake by something shaking her. But then she realised that nobody was shaking her. It was the plane that was shaking.
"Ladies and Gentleman, If you'll just stay seated please. We're experiencing slight turbulence." The pilot's voice crackled through the overhead speakers.
Clary went to sit up, but paused when she realised that something was holding her down. She looked around groggily, only to find that it was the one and only Jace Lightwood keeping her moving more than two inches away from his side. His face had turned a chalky gray and his left hand was gripping the arm of the seat do tight that his knuckles were white.
"Oh Jace." Clary tried to relax him by rubbing his arm with her hand. "Its okay, this happens all the time on flights. It just means there are some stronger winds, or heavy clouds or a bit of rain or something."
"We have successfully made it through turbulence; feel free to get up out of your seats as you wish. Enjoy the rest of your flight."
"See?" She gave Jace's jean clad knee a squeeze. "Told you there was nothing to worry about."
Jace nodded his face still slightly pale. Clary turned her attention to the screen on the back of the seat in front of her. An ad for on-flight television was running on repeat. Only $9.99 for the entire first half of the flight. What a bargain.
"Clary?" She turned her head to look him in the eye. "I love you. You know that right?"
She smiled softly at him, her eyes glowing in the temporarily darkened plane. "Of course. I love you too."
She turned her head so that it was facing in front of her. She checked for the time on the small LSD screen; 1:33 am. They still had a good three hours of flight time left before they touched down in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, Jace seemed to have relaxed, as his grip on her had lessened and the pink had returned to his cheeks. He was looking at her with Lazy, golden eyes, his gaze trailing up and down her body.
"Jace?"
"Yes Clary?"
"I want a coke."
He smirked and pressed the button to summon the air hostess. Soon enough, a shapely Latino woman wearing the same white blouse and red scarf around her neck as the blonde woman from before, moved to them, smiling politely.
"Can I help you?" She asked, looking brighter than anyone should at 1:30 in the morning.
"Uh, Yeah. Just a coke please" Jace smiled charmingly at the woman, causing her to blush.
Clary rolled her eyes, adding "Can you make that caffeine free?" The air hostess nodded. "Thanks" She wanted to get as much sleep as possible. She hoped that Jace would be able to as well.
Two minutes later the woman arrived back with her drink, and Jace handed her a few one dollar bills from his wallet.
The can opened with a fizz. She hadn't realised how thirsty she had been.
Once she had finished, she leaned her head against Jace's shoulder once again, and he rubbed his hand up and down her arm.
"Get some sleep Clary." His voice was almost distant, as sleep slipped over her thoughts and senses. "We've got a..." But Clary never figured out what they had, for she had already fallen asleep.
So there it is. I thought this was a cute chapter. Who would've thought that Jace would be afraid of flying? Me, obviously. Because I wrote this chapter.
As per usual, there might be some errors or typos. Because this was written in the dark, so I couldn't really see what I was pressing.
Anyways, Reviews are like my oxygen. Without them, I die. You don't want me to die, do you?
Love you always,
Beth.
