Hey, guys :) Next chapter. A question I got asked that I actually meant to address a while earlier, is I was asked who I imagine as the characters when I'm writing. Well, to me, Lily and Jamie will always be Clary and Jace. I think they did a spectacular job. And to be totally honest, the TV actors really frustrate me. Not saying they're not good actors or anything, I'm sure they're just doing what the directors tell them to, but they drive me kind of nuts. I find Clary super whiny and Jace unbearably broody. For pretty much everyone else as well, I imagine the movie actors. The only ones I see from the TV show (other than people who obviously weren't featured in the movie) is Matthew Daddario as Alec and Emeraude Toubia as Isabelle.

Sebastian was staring down at his phone, his fingers clenched so hard around the tiny device that his knuckles had turned white. Jace was trying to control his breathing, his fingers drumming out a tattoo against the side of his beer bottle, chewing down on his bottom lip until it was swollen and red. There hadn't been any other messages or pictures after the initial one, and neither of the boys had replied to ask or say anything further. Jace breathed in through his nose, and then out through clenched teeth, glancing over to the side as he waited for Sebastian to start.

He knew Sebastian.

He knew that he was going to blow.

He didn't need to wait long.

"Shit!" Sebastian shouted out as he sprung up from the chair he was sitting and lashed out, sending the chair spinning across the balcony. Jace just moved his legs so that he was out of the way so he wasn't in the line of fire, knowing that his best friend needed a minute to let his feelings out. "Fucking hell!" He growled again, slamming his fist against the balcony railing and splintering the wood. "We should have fucking told her—now she's run off to him!" Jace didn't say anything, just let him vent. "Who the fuck says that sort of thing about their own fucking daughter?! He's a fucking menace!"

"Hey, hey," Jace decided that that was enough and put down his beer bottle on the ground, getting up from his seat and walking over to Sebastian. "Look—"

"No, Jace, don't try and defend him—"

"Shit, Seb! You think I'm going to defend that asshole?!" Jace put his hands down on Sebastian's shoulders so that he was looking directly at him. "That's my girl in that photo as well! There is no way in hell I'm trying to defend him, and you should know that!" Sebastian's furious eyes narrowed as he opened his mouth to snap something in response but Jace continued talking. "Whatever kind of person he is, I doubt he's the kind of asshole who is going to actually hurt his own daughter, so we don't need to worry about that."

"You sure about that?" Sebastian growled. Jace slid his hands up from Sebastian's shoulders to either side of his neck and held his face firmly forward, so that their eyes were meeting.

"Seb, look at me," he said firmly, tilting his head forward so that their foreheads were almost touching. "I don't think that he's going to hurt her, but you know I'm not going to take a chance like that. I'm going to call Max, and get him to trace her cell, okay?" Sebastian's eyes were still furious, and Jace smoothed the pad of his thumb over his lovers jaw, waiting until the burn in his eyes had simmered down to a dull burn rather than the bonfire it had been seconds ago, before he reached forward to press a soft kiss to his mouth. "We've got this, okay? And she's going to be back by dinner."

"She's still going to be fucked off at me," Sebastian grunted.

"No, she's still going to be fucked off at both of us," Jace corrected her. "And you know our Red, she's got enough fire to be angry at us both, but at least she'll be home, yeah?" Sebastian didn't respond for a long moment before he jerked his head in a nod. "Okay," Jace nodded back and squeezed lightly at Sebastian's neck before he turned around and picked up his phone from where he had left it on the seat. He dialled Max's number and put his phone to his ear. There were a few rings, and then the youngest Lightwood picked up.

"Jace, my man! How you doing?" He greeted Jace.

"I'm fine, Max. Look, I need you to run a trace of Clary's phone," Jace said, not wasting any time in cutting right to the chase.

"Clary's phone? Yeah—is she okay?" Max asked haltingly.

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine—can you just run the trace?" Jace repeated.

"Yeah, doing it now," Max murmured, and there was the faint tap and click of the boy running his fingers across a keyboard. Jace looked over at Sebastian, who was now starting to pace, his fists flexing at his sides. "Hey, Jace? She must have her phone off."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I can't get a trace," Max replied. "I'm sorry, man."

"Can't you, like, I don't—turn it back on?" Jace asked, scrunching up his nose cluelessly.

"No, that's not how it works, Jace," Max said.

"Fuck," Jace sighed and twisted his mouth as he looked over at Sebastian, who wasn't paying any attention to the conversation going on. He was too busy pacing up and down the balcony and making fists from his hands at his sides.

"I'll have a look into it, okay? I'll see if I can track anything down from her phone history and any security cameras," Max finally said. "I'll call you back, alright?" The call was ended and Jace sighed and pulled the phone away from his ear, tucking it into the pocket of his shorts. Sebastian was now at the other end of the balcony and he put his hands on the railing, letting out another growl and squeezing the wooden railing.

"Max is gonna look for her," Jace told him. Sebastian didn't reply and Jace sighed, folding his arms over his chest as he walked over to stand next to the blonde. He took in a deep breath and followed Sebastian's gaze that was looking out over the beach. From where they were, several storeys higher than the beach, the talking and laughter was all raising up to where they were standing, as though mocking them with how happy everyone else was.

"What if she's in trouble?" Sebastian asked, his voice sullen and almost inaudible.

"She's not," Jace answered.

"How the fuck would you know that?" Sebastian rebutted.

"Because there's no way in hell she can't be okay right now. We can't think like that," Jace breathed out, letting his arms relax from their fold and scrubbing them over his face and through his shaggy golden hair. Sebastian's eyes were narrow and he was making little huffing noises under his breath, his muscular shoulders tensed. "Max is gonna find her," Jace repeated. "But until then, we just need to calm down, and keep trying her number, okay?" Sebastian didn't reply, but Jace hadn't expected him to, so he turned around and headed back into the house to give him some space, picking up his beer as he went. He tried Clary's phone again, but it predictably went straight through to voice mail and he pursed his lips together as he swallowed back a mouthful of beer.

Sebastian was blaming himself for what happened between him and Clary, and that was understandable, since he had been the one here when Clary had found out that they were looking into Valentine. But Jace was just as responsible for this as Sebastian, given he had been the one who had asked his lover to do the research.

When Clary got back, she was going to be furious with both of them.

That was, if she came back, and if she was okay.

Sebastian had already starting thinking down that train of thought, and Jace couldn't let himself think that way as well. Sebastian was the strong one out of all three of them, he was the enforcer, the one who took things on as if he had to face the world on his own. He knew that Jace and Clary always had his back and were there for him when he needed their support, but he didn't always act that way. The thing was, for Jace and Clary to be strong for him, it meant that they had to be strong in their own way.

For Jace, that meant not showing Sebastian when he was afraid.

So even though he was worrying that by keeping their little investigation into Valentine from Clary they had accidentally driven her straight toward him, and danger, he was going to keep a straight face and make sure his eyes didn't show any fear.

Even though his whole body felt as though it was on edge with worry right now for the petite red head.

His phone rang in his pocket and he pulled it out, not bothering to check the caller ID in his haste to answer it.

"Yes? Clary?"

"Dude, it's me," Max's voice came through. "Look, I wasn't able to—" Jace didn't hear anything else that their friend was saying, because the front door opened, and Clary stepped inside, raising her eyebrows at him in a greeting, her lips in a flat line. She kicked off her shoes and put her keys and phone down on the table next to the door, walking into the lounge.

"Hey, Max? It's good. She's here," Jace cut Max off.

"Oh, great—that's great, dude. So everything's good?" Jace didn't even bother to answer before he was hanging up the call and walking over to her, letting out a breath through his nose and flattening his lips.

"Where have you been?" He asked stiffly.

"I went out," Clary replied, her voice just as put out as his. Sebastian heard their voices from the balcony and turned around, coming into the house looking between the two of them, not saying anything. Clary sighed and ran her fingers through her long hair, which was all wavy and windblown around her face, falling out of the pony tail or the bun that she had it in when she had left the house that morning. Clary moved her green eyes over to Sebastian, and she read his expression and tense body language. "Seb, look, I'm not..." she broke off and sighed, her voice softer now. "I'm not mad."

"You're not?" He asked her tentatively, sounding a lot different from the Sebastian they knew.

"Well," she tilted her head from side to side and shrugged. "Okay, yeah, I'm mad. But I'm not as fucked off as I was before." Jace licked his tongue along his upper lip as he considered their options here.

Tell her, risk pissing Valentine off.

Don't tell her, risk pissing her off.

Either way, someone was going to be angry, and there was still going to be this strange threat hanging over their heads.

"We have something that we need to tell you," Jace said, reaching out for Clary's hand and linking their fingers together. Sebastian was still keeping his distance, a couple feet back from the pair of them, but his stance was a lot more relaxed now. Jace rubbed his thumb over the back of Clary's hand, tracing over her knuckles until he felt her wrist loose it's tension, letting him tug on her gently and lead her through to their study. He took a seat at the desk and tapped in the password to the lap top. Sebastian and Clary were standing behind him, one on each side, and Jace could feel Sebastian pretty much humming with nervous energy as Jace brought up the file they had compiled of Valentine.

"Wait, Jace, I—"

"I got this, Seb," Jace said in a firm voice. Sebastian was the one with the temper, and a lot of people thought that that meant the other two bent to his wish. But the only reason that they managed to keep their relationship healthy, without Sebastian getting bored because the other two were push overs, was that when Jace decided on something, he stuck to his guns.

So Sebastian sighed and pressed his lips together as Jace pushed himself away from the desk and Clary settled on his lap, clicking her way through the documents and pictures on screen. Jace glanced across at Sebastian, who was shifting from foot to foot, looking out the double windows on the wall in front of them. Clary was silent for a long time, probably almost twenty minutes, as she read everything that they had on him.

Valentine Morgenstern was a drug dealer.

A notorious drug dealer.

While his dealings were mainly in northern hemisphere, through Europe and Asia, he also had dealings and connections in Australia and Oceania.

And unlike Jace and Sebastian's operation, he was dangerous. Clary could feel the boys getting more and more tense as she read further on, and came across a few pictures of murder victims that made her stomach turn over. They were people who were going to testify against Valentine in court—people that the DEA and FBI had put into Witness Protection and tried to keep hidden away. Obviously Valentine had connections that were high up, which made him even more dangerous.

Clary took in a deep shaky breath before she half turned around, so that she was sitting sideways on Jace's lap and able to look at both of them.

"I was just with my dad. I wanted to try and find out what was going on," she told them, her voice hitching a little, watching them both for their reactions. They glanced at each other and then looked back at her. Clary narrowed her eyes and stuck the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she thought for a second. "You knew," her frown deepened. "You knew I was with him—how did you know?"

"Because we got a text," Jace replied and nodded at Sebastian, who pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it over to Clary. She looked at it and her body stiffened in Jace's lap as she looked at the photo and read the message underneath. When she held out the phone to give it back to Sebastian, her hand was shaking, and Jace wrapped his arms protectively around her body, drawing her in close to him. She let him envelop her, turning her head into his chest as he pressed kisses to her head and hair. Sebastian stood there for a moment before he moved in closer, putting one hand on Jace's shoulder and the other hand on Clary's head, tangling his fingers in her hair alongside Jace's. After a long time, Clary lifted her head, and Jace could see that her eyes were rimmed red from tears. He shifted his hand so that he could brush his thumb against her cheekbone softly.

"So what is he doing here? And what are we going to do?" Clary asked, swiping the back of her hand across her face.

"We're going to figure it out," Sebastian told her earnestly. "I promise."

"And we're doing it together," Jace added, giving the pair of them a strained smile before he rested his forehead against Clary's.

Now! My music obsessions since my last update! Actually, heaps of old songs have resurfaced on my iTunes. There's Thinking It Over by Dana Glover, seriously this song makes my heart ache like every time I hear it. I think I obsessively listened to it when I was a teenager when I went through a break up, melodramatic child that I was. Then there's Pony by Ginuwine. LOL. Don't know what's got me so into that one all of a sudden. And the third one is Bring Me Back To Life by Extreme Music. Seriously, the Shadowhunters show has a pretty great soundtrack, I think I've fallen in love with every song I've discovered through there!

Oh gosh, aaaaaaaand there's this cover of a Jesse McCartney song, Beautiful Soul, by SoMo. I watched a Stydia fan video to the song, and I'm now just completely in love.

Oooooh, and in the post the other day, I got my Stilinski 24 hoodie. Can you tell I'm obsessed with Teen Wolf just a little bit? Yes? No? Maybe? LOL.

As usual, please feed my obsession with songs and reviews :) It'd make me very happy, and I'll send you a preview xxx