AN: I don't own the chapter name, Fighter is a song by Manafest. Jace said I had to tell you that. Also When Jace is talking about his past, I was inspired by Manafest's song "Will You Catch Me?" Lucky Jace's story ended better then the boy in the song.

Jace eventually fell asleep. Only to be to be awakened by a scream.

"Clary, Clary wake up! It's okay. It's a dream." he now knew how Alec and Izzy must feel when he woke them up in the night, waking up to hear someone you cared about screaming was one of the worst feelings in the world.

"Clary wake up!" he was almost yelling now.

She opened her eyes.

"He's not here?"

"No Clary, he's not here. You're safe here." he knew he kept repeating that, 'you're safe' but she needed to hear it.

She was shaking. He sat down on her bed and pulled her into his arms. He held her, trying to make her stop shaking.

It was weird, Jon and Simon had held her like this many times, but she had never felt like this. She couldn't love though. Not after this. But Jace was different, Jace understood. She wanted to ask about his past but she was too tired. She put her head down on his shoulder and fell asleep.

She slept for the better part of two days. Jace was there almost every time she woke up. When he wasn't Izzy was. They clearly didn't trust her to be alone. That was okay though, she didn't want to be alone. Sometimes Jace would try to make her eat, she would try her best to choke down a few bites just to make him happy.

On the third day she was awake, she still just lay there though, she couldn't make herself get out of bed.

Maryse tried to get her to come to meals in the kitchen, thinking it would be good for her to be around people, but she couldn't. With Izzy's help she made it halfway down the stairs before utter terror overtook her. She knew she was being stupid, knew no one here would hurt her, but she couldn't help it.

"Jace!" Izzy screamed as Clary collapsed to the floor shaking with fear.

"Izz what on earth-" he cut himself off when he saw Clary.

"Shhh, Clary, what happened? It's okay, it's just me." he said as she shied away from his touch.

"It's okay Clary, let's get you back to your room okay?"

She nodded, unable to speak.

Once she was back in bed with the covers pulled over her she felt safe again, safer anyway.

"I'm sorry Jace." she said softly.

"Sorry for what?" she had nothing to be sorry for.

"I'm not strong enough for this, I can't go on, you should have let me die."

"Clary, don't ever let me hear you say that again!"

"Buts it's true! And now you're stuck taking care of me till it's safe for me to go back or you can find somewhere else for me to go."

"Clary, listen to me, we don't want to get rid of you. Your staying here, at least until it's safe to go back. You're not weak, you just need time, it takes time to get over these things, and even then ...sometimes...sometimes after all these years I still break down. Your being to hard on yourself, it was three days ago."

"Thank you Jace, for everything." she whispered.

He went to brush the hair away from her face and she flinched.

He paused, his hand in the air. "I'm not going to hurt you. Not ever."

She just looked at him.

"Clary, I'm just just getting that hair out of your eyes." he said calmly, he wanted her to get used to people touching her and not hurting her, used to people taking care of her.

She didn't say anything as he slowly moved his hand toward her again. He gently pushed the hair to the side. "Was that so bad?" she shook her head.

He smiled. Why did his smile make her stomach flip?

"Okay, you still need to eat. I'll go get something to bring up here for you."

"Tell your mom I'm sorry."

"Clary, Maryse isn't gonna care she just wants you to get better."

"But she barely even knows me."

"She once took in a half dead, and ready to go the other half of the way, 12 year old that she didn't know. She helped him, nursed him back to health physically and got him to the point metally where he could at least pretend to be normal. She now calls that boy her son."

"You?" Clary breathed the word, already knowing the answer.

He nodded, he had never told that to anyone the only ones who knew were the Lightwoods and now Clary.

"What happened to you?" she knew she shouldn't ask, but it just popped out.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, shuddering breath.

"I'm sorry! Forget I asked!"

"No it's a fair question. I want you to trust me I have to do the same for you."

"Does it get easier? Trusting again?" she was afraid of the answer but she needed to know.

"It does, it's not easy, but it's getting better, and trusting you is easier then most."

She just stared at him.

He took a another deep breath and closed his eyes again. He let the memories he usually worked so hard to suppress flood his mind. He had thought he could do this, but maybe not. He put his head in his hands as if he could hold back the memories he had just let loose.

Clary managed to pull herself closer to the edge of the bed. She reached out and put her hand on his leg. "Don't do this to yourself." she whispered.

He looked down at his leg in surprise. This was the first time she willing touched a another person since that night.

He put a hand over hers, lightly so she could pull away if she wanted to, she didn't.

"I have to tell you."

She nodded, she could tell that for whatever reason this was something he really needed to do.

He once again let the memories in, but this time they didn't overwhelm him, Clary's hand on his leg was like an anchor, anchoring him to sanity.

He began to tell her the story of his life before he had come here. A story he had never willing told anyone before.

His mother had died when he was three, he vaguely remembered her, he remembered not knowing where she had gone, wondering what he had done to make her not come back. His father had tried to take care of him for a while, then he had turned to drinking...by the time he was six his father was never home, he was basically taking care of himself, yet he been heartbroken when he been removed from his home, that was his daddy it didn't matter that he hadn't taken care him, he was a little kid and he loved his daddy.

His first foster home had been okay, they had tried to love him, but he had made a point to cause as much trouble as he could and after a year they couldn't take it any more, after that he went from foster home to foster home, no one wanted him and he knew it. When he was 11 he was put in the worst home yet, the foster dad had beaten him for every little thing, Jace had been in homes like this before. He fought back, he always fought back, one day he went too far, the man whipped him and beat him so badly that Jace had hoped he would die from the wounds. The man left, he just didn't come back. He left a beaten, bleeding 12 year old hoping for death for on his living room floor and left town.

Jace had pulled himself to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and carved the first four cuts that he had showed Clary, in what Maryse latter referred to as a miracle his social worker had chosen that moment to make a surprise visit like they were supposed to do to make sure the foster kids weren't being treated the way Jace had been.

She had called 911 and gotten Jace to the hospital just in time.

Once he was able to leave the hospital no one wanted him, not even the horrible places, the kind that taken him before, finally after calling 30 other foster homes his worker was about to give up and have him placed in a group home, even though she doubted he would last long in one, she didn't have any other choice, she tried one last family, as soon as Maryse heard about him she wanted him, she took him in and treated him like her own, Jace still couldn't live with his past though, and one day after some little thing had set him off, he tried again to kill himself, Alec had been looking for him, he found him just finishing the third cut. He had grabbed the knife and threw it out of Jace's reach, just as Jace had done for Clary. He held Jace there. Not letting him move while he screamed for his mom. She had come running and when Jace saw the way she reacted he he knew he could never do this again. After that Maryse had found Mike and Jace had really started to get better.

When he finished tears were running down both their faces.

"Oh Jace! How do you do it? How do you go on?"

"You just do, you just take it one day at a time and you survive. If you don't the bad people win. And we can't let them win."

She didn't say anything.

"Clary promise me you won't let the bad people win."

She still didn't say anything.

He leaned down so he was looking her straight in the eyes. "Clary you not alone in this fight, I'm here, I'm fighting too, we can fight together, I just need you to promise me that you won't let them win."

"I promise. They won't win, not ever." her voice was quiet but firm.

He smiled, "That's my little fighter."

"Jace, I want to be there for you too. You said you still break down. I want to help you fight too." why the hell did words keep popping out of her mouth?

"Clary there's something I need to tell you. I doubt you want to hear it. But..."

"Just say it."

He took a deep breath, "I like you. I mean I..." he was never at a loss for words but around Clary he sounded like a moron.

She wasn't sure she liked where this was going but she wasn't sure she disliked it either.

"Breath Jace." she said as he said to she when she was panicking.

"I mean LIKE you like you. I might even love you. I mean...I thought that part of me was broken, after everything, I thought I could never feel like this but do. And I...oh forget I said anything."

Clary's beautiful green eyes were huge, with fear and something else, something Jace couldn't quite place.

"What if I don't want to forget? What if I feel the same?"

His breath caught, could she really? "Do you?"

"Exactly. Even down to thinking I couldn't feel like this. But Jace, I don't know what this makes us now, but we have to go slow, and you should know if it comes to that I might never be able to be a normal girlfriend, even hugging, right now...I could barely do that."

"It's okay. I need to be with you. I don't know what we are either, I'm scared too, we'll go slowly, and if I ever try to do too much, even if it's just holding your hand, tell me and I'll stop."

"Jace? Will you hold me?."

He nodded and carefully pulled her into his lap the way he had a few nights ago. At first she was super tence. "Do you want me to stop?"

She didn't, she liked it. "No, just give me a minute."

After a few minutes he felt her relax.

"Good girl." he breathed in her ear.

She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. They sat like that for a long time. Just stroking each others hair, talking a little, but mostly just enjoying each other.

Then Jace's stomach growled loudly.

"You should go eat." Clary wiggled off his lap laughing. She hadn't laughed in a long time.

He smiled at her laughter, it was the best sound he had ever heard.

"Okay baby girl, I'll go bring up some food for both of us."

"I'm not hungry!" she protested.

"But you need to eat, I'll hand feed you if I have to."

She smiled again, he smiled too as went to find food. She still had a long way to go, they both did, but together they would make it. They were fighters.

Okay I hope you liked it. XD There will be a few more chapters, I'm sure how many, maybe like 5?

Review please! It's my goal to have 100 reviews by the end of the story.

Also I just wanted to say that not all foster families are like the ones Jace grew up with, more of them are like the Lightwoods...so ummm yeah. Just thought I should say that...