Okay, so, alley scene. It's different from the books. I've kept some things, changed others, added others. I hope it's not terribly inadequate. As a disclaimer, some quotes are directly from the book. I don't own them.

I should have seen it coming.

We were in a big city. It was night. I just had so much on my mind that my typical alertness for Strigoi wasn't what it usually was. We were passing an alley when it grabbed me and dragged me backward...toward a group of Strigoi.

"Rose!" both of my boys yelled, splashing through the puddles in the pavement, rushing after me.

When the Strigoi reached the others, it stopped and I kicked and spun my way out of its grasp. Then the boys were there and we had our weapons drawn. Dimitri and I had our silver stake and Alex had his seraph blade. Dimitri and I fell easily into our old formation. And we fought.

Alex, hell-bent on not letting it get away, chased after it.

Dimitri was slamming his Strigoi's head into the ground, and when I finished off mine, the only other one left in the alley, I rushed to his side and fell to my knees on the pavement.

"Where is he?!" he roared, with fists full of the Strigoi's shirt.

"I'm not-" he started. But Dimitri had no patience. He started shaking him so that the Strigoi's head kept bashing into the cement.

"WHERE IS HE?!" There was blood on the pavement and the Strigoi's eyes were wide and frantic. And he was terrified. I had never seen a Strigoi afraid of anything other than another Strigoi...and that was rare. They were so arrogant, so ruthless... I just stared at the scene in front of me, unsure of what to do. I didn't know who Dimitri was talking about.

"Boston!" he gasped, "He's in Boston-please." Another thing I'd never heard, a Strigoi begging. Dimitri didn't care.

He shoved him to the ground and plunged his stake in the Strigoi's chest. And it screamed, the sound making my blood cold. How long did we have until someone came running? The city was crawling with people. How long did we have until other Strigoi came running? Dimitri stabbed him again and the Strigoi stopped all movement. His eyes held no expression and he had that sickening look of a corpse. And he was bloody, so bloody. Dimitri stabbed him again and I sat frozen in horror for a moment before reacting. "Dimitri! Stop!" I grabbed his arm and shook him, but he didn't even seem to notice. He kept going and going and I kept shaking him and yelling, "Dimitri! He's dead! He's dead! Stop! Please stop!" Dimitri's face was frightening; he was in a blind rage and there was blood all over his hand, blood splattered the arm that shook him. We had to go. We had to leave. We'd been here too long already and I didn't know what to do so I just kept repeating myself. And finally, somehow, he heard me, really heard me. His moments slowed to a stop, the hand holding the stake dropped to his side, and the stake slipped from it, clattering on the ground as he stared at what was left of the Strigoi-a bloody, gory mess. His whole expression changed into one of desperation, then despair.

I tugged gently on his arm, my voice wavering with emotion. Pity? Fear? Both? "It's over. You've done enough."

"It's never enough, Roza," he whispered, still staring at the remains of the Strigoi. The grief in his voice made my chest ache. "It'll never be enough."

DIMITRI POV

"It is for now," she said. She pulled me toward her and I buried my face in her shoulder, in her hair. She wrapped her arms around me and I did the same, clinging desperately to her. I needed this...this contact with someone. I needed her.

"You're the only one." I told her, clinging more tightly to her. "The only one who understands." Who understood me better than Roza? Who understood me at all?

"The only one who saw how I was. I could never explain it to anyone...you're the only one. The only one I can tell this to..." She was the only one who saw me in Siberia, who knew me as Strigoi. No one else could possibly understand...what I had to live with. I had to tell someone, I needed to tell someone, to talk about what I'd done, like a confession.

She pulled back just enough to look at me and told me, "It's okay. It's okay now. I'm here. I'll always be here for you."

"I dream about them, you know. About all the innocents I killed. About you." The words hurt coming out, but at the same time, I felt just a fraction of relief from saying them. I turned my head toward the Strigoi. "I keep thinking...maybe if I destroy enough Strigoi, the nightmares will go away. That I'll be certain I'm not one of them. "

She touched my chin and gently turned my face back to hers. "No. You have to destroy Strigoi because they're evil. Because that's what we do. If you want the nightmares to go away, you have to live. That's the only way." Live? How could I do that? What did that mean? "Do you remember Rhonda's prophecy?"

Of course. I had it memorized. "You will lose what you value most, so treasure it while you can."

"Yes. It means so much, but at its most basic level, it's really just carpe diem. Seize the day. We could have died just now. We didn't. Maybe we'll die tomorrow. I don't know. And that thing you value most? You have it back. Don't let that go."

I stayed silent, thinking about what she said. The thing I value most? What was that? My soul? My honor? Her? Did I have that back? Could I ever have that back?

She continued, "Living is in the details. You've got to appreciate the details. That's the only way to defeat what the Strigoi did to you. The only way to bring back who you really are. Feel the world again. It's beauty. Strigoi don't see that."

In my grim mood, in this grim scene, the thought of beauty seemed impossible, not even as reachable as a dream. My head started to drift towards the Strigoi's corpse again, but she wouldn't let it. "There's nothing beautiful here. Only death."

Her eyes sought mine and she told me, "That's only true if you let them make it true. Find one thing. One thing that's beautiful. Anything. Anything that shows you're not one of them."

As I watched her speak, heard the desperation in her voice, I looked at her. Really looked at her. She was beautiful. So, so beautiful. And I just stared in wonder. Her hair. I'd always loved her hair. So that's what I told her. She seemed confused, so I told her again and I wanted so badly to run my fingers through it. She looked so approachable, and yet I felt I shouldn't touch her. Not in the way I wanted to. But it couldn't hurt just to touch it. My fingers barely brushed the strands by her face, then I asked, "But is it enough?"

"It is for now," she told me, pressing the whisper of a kiss to my forehead, "It is for now." And she stood.

ROSE POV

"Rose! Dimitri!" Alex came jogging toward us from the end of the alley, and I wondered how long he had been there, what he had seen. I hoped it wasn't much. This was something so private, especially for Dimitri. He rarely showed his feelings to anyone, and I couldn't imagine what someone seeing them without his control would do to his pride. I didn't blame him. I was exactly the same. If he saw anything, he had the grace not to say anything.

When he reached us, he looked at us up and down and said, "Well. You can hardly go out in public looking like that. The whole force of the NYPD would bear down on us and then we definitely wouldn't make Magnus' curfew." He, of course, didn't even look like he'd been in a fight. He kept talking, "Rose, I could give a rune to. You, I can't. I guess I'll go back to the car to get your Wal-Mart clothes. Just hang out here and try not to be seen." Then he left, and Dimitri and I were alone again. In an alleyway with dead bodies.

"We need an Alchemist. Wait. No. Nevermind. Shit."

Dimitri considered the problem for a moment, then said, "Our clothes are black. It's dark outside. It'll be hard to see it on our clothes. We could wash our skin off in those puddles, at least somewhat."

"Good idea. Then we can move to a different alley and wait for Alex."

"Dimitri. Who were you asking that Strigoi about?" I was hesitant to bring up what had just happened, but I had to know. If he was going to go off on some vigilante quest, I was going too.

"Nathan." I was startled. It was unexpected and unpleasant news. Nathan was the Strigoi who'd turned Dimitri, who'd tried to kill me in Siberia. "Why did you want to know that?" It was a silly question, but I wanted to hear him answer it anyway.

"I'm going to kill him," he said bluntly. Well, I knew that but I'd hoped he'd elaborate. He didn't and his tone suggested that he was finished with this conversation, so I didn't reply.

...

When we met Magnus at the agreed upon location, he gave us a key and told us that the house was warded against sight. As long as we weren't seen leaving here, no one would know it existed.

He made sure that we had what we needed and conjured a few things we didn't-food, toiletries, and even some clothes. When he left, I went in search of a room while the boys remained in the living room.

DIMITRI POV

While Rose was off wandering the house, I was awkwardly sitting in the living room with Alex. He sat across from me, picking his fingernails with a blade. I took a good look at him. He had short, blond, messy hair, bright blue eyes. His arms and neck were marked with runes, some faded, some scars. His face held a sort of casual arrogance. I thought of Rose kissing him in the hotel. He didn't seem like her type. Though I didn't really know him, I didn't think I liked him.

It occurred to me that I might be able to get information from him that could help Rose, so I talked to him. "How well do you know this Magnus Bane?"

He glanced up and shrugged. "He's helped us out before, but he doesn't like to be on the wrong side of the Clave. But who does?"

That was not a comforting answer. "Do you trust him?"

"As much as I could trust a warlock." Typical elitist Shadowhunter. What did Rose see in him?

"Do you think he could help Rose with her...abilities?"

"I'd thought about that, but I doubt it. Rose is...an anomaly. I've never known anyone like her." I hadn't either, but it had nothing to do with runes or special parentage. The way he'd spoken about her, it was almost as if this peculiarity was the reason he was interested in her. I didn't want to talk to him after that.

When Rose came back into the room, she asked if I wanted to take shifts. We hadn't done this at all during our trip so far, so she must have been feeling insecure about something. Magnus had assured us this was safe, but we didn't know him. And we were just attacked. I agreed, and she insisted that she take the first watch. She stayed in the living room and sent Alex off to bed as well.

ROSE POV

Having nothing better to do, I checked in on Lissa. I hadn't done so in awhile. Being away from Court, Dimitri and I had adopted a human schedule, so she was usually asleep when I was awake.

They were busy digging for answers to clear my name. And to buy themselves some time, they had pushed Lissa into running for Queen, which put all of Court in chaos.

When it was time for me to switch shifts with Dimitri, I went into his room, but couldn't bring myself to wake him up. For the first time since we'd left Court, he seemed to be sleeping well. I decided to stay up a little while longer. I didn't need the sleep like he did.

Alex wandered in the living room. "What are you doing up?"

He shrugged, then plopped down beside me on the couch. "Couldn't sleep. When does your shift end?"

"Technically, an hour ago," I said.

Alex asked, "You not tired?"

I decided to be honest. "Dimitri needs the sleep."

"And you don't?" Was he annoyed?

He probably didn't mean anything by that question, but it still irritated me. "He hasn't been sleeping well."

We sat in silence for a while, watching reruns on TV, until he broke it. "Rose. We should probably talk about what happened, in the hotel."

Oh boy. I was hoping to avoid this. I regretted it, I was upset, and I wasn't sure what to say about it now, so I just said, "Okay."

"What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean?" I knew perfectly well what he meant.

"Why did you kiss me?"

"I wanted to." Not a complete lie. I did, just not for the reasons he would want.

"Ah. Rose, if you want to be with me, tell me. Otherwise, don't do that again." Harsh. I wanted to lash out at him, but I didn't have the right to.

I was saved from having to reply by Dimitri's footsteps in the hall.

"Rose?" When he had my attention, he continued, "You were supposed to wake me up two hours ago."

I pretended to be surprised and shooting up from my seat, said, "Opps. Must have lost track of time."

He considered this a moment, looking at me, then Alex. "You should pay more attention. You're no good on watch if you're asleep." Man. I was really getting it from everyone tonight.

"I'm wide awake, Comrade." I snapped, staring him dead-on.

"Don't call me that."

"Then don't be an asshole," I spat, and walked right past him down the hall.

DIMITRI POV

I should not have snapped at her. I was upset that she was with Alex...again. Couldn't he have just gone to bed? Well, there he goes, walking on back there. I guess I'm not as pleasant to talk to. He'd better not be going toward her room. Once again I found myself questioning my motives. I did not like Alex. I didn't think he was good enough for her. Was that all? I thought of the alley and how desperately I wanted to touch her, touch her hair, how it felt to be in her arms. I just wanted the contact. It could have been anyone, right? Even if I did feel that way toward her, she didn't feel that way about me. She was making out with Alex in the hotel and for all I knew, could have been just now. She didn't "lose track of time," I knew. She had probably just wanted to spend time with him. But what about the alley? The emotions I saw from her face were probably stirred by pity.

It was going to be another long night.