So, this coming up week is going to be a little more hectic than the others I've had so far. There's still a lot of work left on my research, and a paper, and an exam, so I regret to say, I will not be posting a chapter next week. My hope is that after Saturday, I can start work on this again, and then, that following weekend, the weekend of the 23rd, I'll have a chapter posted. Sorry everyone!

A Night to Remember

First things first, though not necessarily in that order

-The Doctor

"So, tell me, sweetie, what are you doing with these baby shadowhunters?" River asked. They had said their farewells quickly to Vincent, though Clary seemed to want to say more, and had left. The Doctor seemed to think that River's appearance, coupled with his own, was too much for the history books to handle and had rushed them away, muttering about her nasty habit of taking things that weren't hers to begin with. Now, seated on the Tardis, the Doctor couldn't escape River's bright, sharp curiosity. "Are they really Valentine's Morgenstern's kids?"

"One of them is, though if you ask them, it's always the wrong one," the Doctor hedged. River was brilliant, but the Doctor figured that if River knew the whole truth of the matter, she might rush into action. He wasn't worried for River, of course, it was Valentine Morgenstern who wasn't prepared for what River might do. "Valentine raised Jace, though he's not his son, and Clary hates him, so she's not his daughter."

"I bet family get-togethers are a blast," River snorted. "Why are they with you, though?"

"Well, there was a war, and Valentine wasn't supposed to live," the Doctor said quietly. "He should have been killed indirectly by Clary, but there was a paradox, a mistake in time, and now he's alive. It's bad all around, the Tardis landed and wouldn't let me leave for a month!"

"She wouldn't let you?" River shot the Tardis a considering look. "Whatever is going on with these two, it has to get sorted. Have you figured out what caused the paradox?"

"Yes," he sighed, and then carefully nodded to the other side of the control tower. River followed him, eyes narrowed in their usual calculating way.

"Well," River pressed softly. "What is it?"

The Doctor's eyes were on Jace and Clary who were currently talking to Amy and Rory, Clary, showing off her painting and Jace fingering the small mason jar full of stardust. "It's not good. There was a young boy, Max Lightwood, Jace's step brother, who was supposed to die. From what I've seen, Max didn't die, and this must have caused Jace and Clary to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, thus, Valentine didn't die."

River's eyes were dark. "Can we fix it?"

"I think so, but it'll be tricky. Jonathan was supposed to die too-Clary's older, half-demon brother-" he added, for River's benefit, "But he didn't, and that alone is enough time energy on the loose to tear a nice sized hole in the universe. I'm not sure where to start."

"You'll have to talk to Jace and Clary then," River decided. "Whatever went wrong, they must know what it is."

"And risk telling them Max should be dead?" the Doctor looked outraged. "River, I made a mistake, a bad one. I left them with Valentine for a month, and all that time he was torturing them! I should have helped them. I should have stopped him when I had a chance. How am I supposed to just let them know their little brother should be dead?"

"I'm not saying we kill him!" River hissed. "I'm saying we figure out where the time stream when wrong, figure out how to set it right, and save the boy."

"It's not that easy," the Doctor said tiredly. "There's so much that's gone wrong now, what with Valentine alive, controlling the shadowhunters, Max alive, Jonathan alive…It's like everything that could possibly be wrong is!"

"How do we know Max is the reason?"

"Max was supposed to die before the war started," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "Jonathan killed him. Max must be the reason, the point of origin of this mess. There's just got to be a way to fix it all, I'm just not sure how."

River straightened up and glanced over at the children. "Why don't you want to ask them?"

"Life has been tough enough as it is. I thought a few days of relaxation, of fun, of not having to be afraid would help them settle down, but I guess I'm running out of time for this."

"I'll ask," River said decidedly. "I'll be gentle, but I'll ask. We need to know how this all started."

"Badly," the Doctor said under his breath, but allowed River to pass him and join her parents and Clary and Jace.

"Hello, River," Clary said, smiling at the sight of the woman. She had taken an instant liking to River; maybe it was the determination, maybe it was the mischievous look in her eyes, or maybe it was just that her hair made Clary's look tame, but she liked her. "How're things with you and Doctor."

"The same," she said, "holding on by the usual thread. But actually, I've come to talk to you and Jace."

Jace perked up. "About what?"

"It's a bit complicated," the Doctor said, coming upon them and crossing his arms. "Remember the time paradox I mentioned?"

"Something that could consume the entire galaxy if you didn't figure it out?" asked Clary, smiling a little at the memory. Since her time with Vincent and her return to painting, she had relaxed a bit, and seemed happier. More herself. "Did you work it out?"

"I did, but it's a bit trickier than I thought it would be," the Doctor admitted. "Sometimes, with these things, they all intertwine and influence each other, and then to fix one, you have to fix a lot."

"You're not making this much better, Doctor," Amy laughed, sensing his and River's tension.

"I'm sorry," he said, and his eyes were so sad, Clary's smile dropped away and Jace drew her against him. "I'm so sorry, but I need you to tell me what happened the days before the war and what happened that night."

Clary and Jace exchanged looks. "It's not something I like to talk about," said Clary. "It was only seven months ago."

"We need to know," River said gently, and she sat down beside Clary. "To fix this, we need to know where it all started, and to know that, we need you and Jace to speak to us about it."

"Clary," Jace said softly, giving her hand a firm squeeze. "I'll tell them what I know, but parts, only you were there for, and you'll have to tell them."

Clary nodded faintly. "You'll start?"

He smiled in return. "As much as I can."

"Thank you," said River. "I know it can be hard, I know it can hurt, but we want to help you. Jace, do you mind starting just after the first attack on Alicante?"

He shook his head thoughtlessly. "We all arrived back at city circle at different times, from different places. Clary and I were coming back from the Wayland manor house. Alec was returning from the attack with Magnus. And Isabelle was dragging Aline and Max with her." Here, the Doctor and River glanced to one and other darkly. "I think the Lightwoods were there, Luke, and Seb-Jonathan came towards the end.

"He was trying to convince Clary to go off with him when I remembered that Simon was still stuck up at the Guard. We all left, and Jonathan stayed behind, but when we got to the Guard, Simon was almost out, and he had Hodge, our old mentor, with him."

"So, Hodge was alive?" asked the Doctor, hoping that maybe this was really the answer they had been looking for. After all, Hodge was supposed to die then, in a specific way, and if that were wrong, maybe everything that followed was.

"Not for long." Jace looked away, thinking of his words then. "We argued, because I thought he had lied to me. I thought I was…part demon, and that he had known all along. Before he could tell me the truth, though, Jonathan returned and killed him. We confronted him, and he attacked us. After Simon drove him off, we just assumed that he returned to Valentine, but we never knew who he was until Jocelyn told Clary."

"We probably should have guessed," Clary said suddenly, thinking back to that night too. "He was such a good actor, and when he tried to get me away from the rest of the group, I should have known. Was that it?" Clary sat up straighter, excited. "Were we supposed to have known Sebastian was Jonathan, or was Hodge not supposed to have died?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Both those things happened the way history says they did. Changing them wouldn't have altered the present this much. There must have been something else."

Jace continued. "We went back to the city circle and it was like hell had broken loose. People were dead, children were missing, hundreds were wounded, and it took us a while to find the Lightwoods again. When we did, Myrse said we were leaving for a manor house just outside the city and would stay there till the mess was cleared up in Alicante. Luke came for Clary, and we went our separate ways.

"After that, it's all a bit of a blur I guess," Jace said thoughtfully. "Valentine's apparition showed up, gave the Clave his ultimatum, and killed the Inquisitor." Jace met the Doctor's eyes. "Was the Inquisitor not supposed to die?"

"No, he died," said the Doctor, and realized suddenly how much humans always wanted more life. Every person who died, it seemed, wasn't supposed to have. It had never been that way for Timelords; when death came, it came. You could accept it gracefully and go willingly, or you could fight it. Either way, though, when you were meant to die, you did. But how did you accept death when life had been given? "What came next?"

"The Clave was in an uproar for a while over what to do. Clary was the one who said we should join with the Downworlders, but no one took her seriously until she came up with the rune to bind us to one and other. But that was after Jocelyn was woken up."

"How did you wake her up?" River asked sharply, wondering what magic Magnus might have had to perform. Summoning a demon to wake her might have been enough to upset the flow of time much worse than Max's life. "Magnus performed a spell, I'm sure?"

"He used the book we brought back from the manor," said Clary slowly. "Please don't say my mother was supposed to die?"

"No, she woke up when Magnus prepared an antidote," the Doctor shook his head. "You woke Jocelyn up, and then what happened?"

"She told us the truth," said Jace simply. "That I wasn't Clary's brother and Jonathan was. That Sebastian must have been Jonathan, and then I decided to go after him." Here, Clary looked oddly pale, as if the pain of the memory was still too much. "It took a while to find the string with his blood on it, but I did, so the night before Valentine had threatened the Clave with war, I visited Clary, stayed with her the whole night, and then left early in the morning. And that's where our stories break apart."

River drew a deep breath. "Tell us the rest of yours, Jace, and then we'll hear Clary out."

Jace pressed his lips together. "I tracked Jonathan to a valley outside Alicante where Valentine, apparently, had raised him. I overheard the conversation between father and son, about the mirror, about raising the Angel, about Valentine's request, about the army that was going to destroy the helpless shadowhunters, and I was about to reveal myself when Valentine left and Jonathan called me out.

"He said he could have heard me a mile away, and made a few snide remarks about me loving my own sister. I told him I knew who he was, and that I wasn't Clary's brother, and he attacked me. I should have been better prepared, I should have had a weapon ready, but I didn't, and he knocked me out. When I woke up, I was tied to a stone in the cave and Jonathan was summoning demons. I figured I could try and buy time for the Clave by getting him to fight me, so I told him he was a coward and Valentine wouldn't forgive him for it."

Jace looked very bitter, very angry then, and he pulled his hand out of Clary. "It was me, wasn't it?" he asked softly. "I was supposed to stop Jonathan, and then go and stop Valentine, but I couldn't. This is all my fault."

"That's not true, Jace," River said kindly. "What happens, happens, the fact that it didn't, doesn't mean it wasn't meant to be. Keep telling us what happened."

Looking sadly at Clary, Jace said, "I'm sorry, Clary, for everything."

"It wasn't you," Clary said firmly. "I was the one with Valentine. I should have stopped him."

"You can't think like that!" cried the Doctor, jerking himself off the controls and jumping into frantic, neurotic action. "Between every minute, between every second, there are a thousand possibilities, a thousand chances, a thousand futures; I know that because I'm a Timelord and I see them all. But, you have to understand, these futures, they're all equally valid, no one is better or worse than the other; they simply are. To say that you did something wrong and ruined the universe is impossible, because, let's face it, you're not strong enough or important enough to change the course of the universe. You changed your future, that was all, and who knows? Maybe people who should have died, lived, and maybe people who lived, died. It's all just a big ball of possibilities, and we don't get to pick and choose the best course. These things just happen, regardless of who tried to change them."

"Not for you," Jace said, a tinge of jealously in his voice. "You're here fixing everything. You get to pick and choose."

The Doctor's face dropped and for a moment, he was oddly distant. "There was a time I thought I could change the universe, too. I even tried to change things that can't be changed. It's how I got the name Timelord Victorious; I thought, because I was the last of my kind, the laws of time and space were mine. But I was wrong." He saw River looking at him, completely confused. "It was before you're time, River, before a lot of people's time. The point is, time follows its own laws, and not even I can say for sure, what should happen, because I've been wrong before."

"What happened?" Clary asked quietly.

The Doctor shrugged, but all he said was: "Some people died and some people lived."

Jace wondered what it must be like to have so much power, so much influence, over all life. He had believed for so long now in the absolute power of angels and demons, that he had forgotten how little credit he had once given them. And more to the point, if a man like the Doctor existed, could it mean that all those angels and demons were nothing more than people like him?

What did he say? I have fought angels and demons. I have held the fate of the universe in my hands? Jace shuddered. Maybe there is no god, maybe it's just men like the Doctor.

"Jonathan and I fought," Jace finally said. "And he got the better of me; I think he almost killed me, but I suspect Valentine had given him strict orders not to. I struggled, I did everything I could to distract him. I hoped Alec might come, just to help, but I realized that if someone did come, they would probably die, so it was better off that way. After that, I let Jonathan have his way."

Jace looked wanly to Clary. "Jonathan brought me to the lake, and Valentine was there with the Angel, and Clary was tied up, too. I thought Valentine might have killed her at first, she was so pale, but he had only used her blood. Jonathan left me with Clary, and we had to watch while Valentine raised the Angel."

Jace didn't speak, whether from shame at his loss or awe of the angel, the Doctor didn't know, and Rory gave Jace's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. For once, Jace accepted the gentle gesture, even enjoyed the feeling of someone understanding his pain, and Rory was glad to see a little color return to the boy's face. Clary, beside him, kisses his cheek gently; she alone knew what it cost him to speak of these things, and realized if someone as torn as Jace could tell his story, why couldn't she?

"When Jace left," she began, drawing his gaze to hers, "I was a wreck. I wanted to go after him, but my mom wouldn't let me. She practically locked me in a room with Isabelle in the manor house they were staying in, and made Alec swear on the Angel to keep me there. It was one of the worst days of my life, really. We didn't know if the Clave would fight, and our families die, or if they would surrender and we'd be slaves to Valentine. Of course, all I cared about was Jace, but Isabelle, Max, and Alec were always more conscious of the greater good. They knew there was more at stake than Jace.

"Towards evening, though, Alec was called away by the Clave, since he was eighteen. Isabelle had sworn on the Angel as well to stay with Max, and she couldn't justify taking him with her. She let me go though, and I made a portal as fast as I could to Valentine.

"When I got there, he was ready to summon the Angel. I couldn't control where I would land when I portaled, and I ended up in Lake Lyn; Valentine fished me out, he saved my life, but he only wanted me to complete the ritual. He told me how much he hated me." She saw Amy's eyes widen. "It's not like I cared all that much, I hate him, too. But then he told me he was going to summon the Angel and I had to watch. He used the Soul Sword, and he cut my wrist across the vein. I thought he would kill me, but he just laughed.

"He said, 'There's no point taking the life of my own blood, especially when I have so many uses for it. Jace will be extremely pleased to see you're not dead,' and then he began mixing everything together in the lake. I was trying to move, to break the circle of runes he'd made in the dirt, but as I was crawling there, Jonathan arrived with Jace.

"I was so happy he was there, and so scared he was dead, I couldn't move. Valentine turned, saw what I was trying to do, and dragged me back to a fallen tree. He tied me and Jace to it, and Jonathan stood guard while he completed the ritual.

"He summoned the Angel, it granted his request, and then it was over. I could feel this strange pressure, on my wrists and ankles, and Valentine told me it was the binding the Angel made, and that I had to serve him now. Jace struggled too much, though, so Valentine made him drink something." She glanced at him and Jace just scrunched his nose at the memory. "He passed out and Jonathan took Jace. I had to ride with Valentine, and we went back to Alicante.

"When we got there, most of the shadowhunters were sick. A lot of them were doubled up, and they were vomiting and convulsing and screaming. Valentine made them all drink from the cup, but only after they agreed to be marked with a permanent binding rune." Here, Clary turned her wrist over and revealed a mark burned into her skin by the force of a white hot blade. "We all got one, and when he found my mother. I think he threatened to hurt me in the end if she didn't drink from the cup, so she did it, and it changed her. It's like she's all empty now, like she forgot everything wrong with Valentine and started right where they left off."

Clary shuddered. "After that, we left. Valentine took Jace, me, and my mom back to the city and he kept us in a cell for a little bit. But after a few days, he made me draw up a portal, and we went back to New York. He told Jace and I that we weren't allowed back to Idris until he let us, and, since he's branded us with the obedience rune, we don't have a choice. We can't go back."

Clary heaved a great sigh when she was done, and carefully looked anywhere but at the eyes of the people watching. Amy, sensing her discomfort, clapped her hands together. "Well, that wraps things up rather nicely, doesn't it? Clary, Jace, do you two want to help me make some dinner? We should leave the Doctor to mull things over."

Jace seemed to want to stay behind, only because there was something very troubling about the look the Doctor currently wore. He was used to bad news, used to learning and seeing horrible things, and he figured whatever the Doctor had to tell him couldn't have been that bad. "I think it might be best if we stay."

"Not at all, Jace," said the Doctor, jumping like he'd been stung. "River and I are only going to talk about all those boring things adults talk about: house, money, cars…mortgage."

Clary saw Jace raise his eyebrows in disbelief, but she tugged his hand a little. "Come on, Jace. Rory did promise he'd show you how to cook a burger, and there's no way we could ever live together if you can't cook me a burger."

As always, Jace went through a minor debate in his mind: stay at the heart of things or tend to Clary. Clary usually won out, and this time was no exception. "Alright, alright, but none of those crummy turkey burgers. It's like cardboard in your mouth."

Clary smiled and she and Jace followed Amy and Rory out. The Doctor waited until the group had gone and then turned to River. She wasn't looking all that pleased either. "How bad is it?"

"Bad." The Doctor began his usual pacing, running through his thoughts aloud. "Jonathan was supposed to kill Max the night the demons entered the city. Isabelle, Aline, and Max stayed behind at the house while Alec went up to the Guard. Aline was attacked by a demon, and Isabelle went after her, so by the time she got back, Jonathan had already returned and murdered Max."

"How did the boy die?"

"Hit over the head with a hammer. Internal bleeding." The Doctor swung about, running his hands through his hair. "It's all a mess. If Max had died, Isabelle would have blamed herself for it all, gone into a deep depression, and stayed that way until she and Clary argued over Jace going after Valentine. Do you remember when Jace said he hoped Alec might come and help him?"

River snapped her fingers. "It was an echo of the alternate reality, wasn't it? At that same moment in another reality, Isabelle came to help Jace fight Jonathan."

"Exactly," he said, letting his breath go in rush of air. "Since Isabelle didn't come, Jonathan overpowered Jace and Jace couldn't kill him-explains why the boy is alive now-and then they both went to Valentine. All this time, Clary was at the lake, just like in the other reality, but Jace was supposed to arrive, confront Valentine, and then Valentine killed him. Clary was so broken and so furious, she broke the ring of runes-like she was trying to do here-and Valentine had no protection against the angel."

"What about the angel?" asked River. "I mean, the amount of energy it took to get that thing here, not to mention the energy it used to enslave the shadowhunters, how did that work itself out? The energy had to be used some way in the alternate reality; if it hadn't, forget the paradox, we'd probably have a miniature black hole on our hands right now."

"After Valentine died, the angel offered Clary one wish, and she asked for him to bring Jace back." The Doctor looked thoughtful. "But that's not enough, not nearly enough. Where did the rest of the energy from that burst go?"

"Another event?" offered River. "What happened after this war that Jace was involved in?"

"Ha!" he gave a hollow laugh. "Jonathan was brought back from the dead by Lilith, disguised as Max in Jace's dream, and used Jace's blood to bind him here. That was a few months worth of hell, I'll tell you that."

"That must be it then," River said after a beat. "Jonathan is not dead, so he can't be brought back, and the war that would have followed must have been worth all the energy the angel put into enslaving there shadowhunters now."

"Like I said, it's a mess. Max lived, but now Valentine is in control. However, had Max died, we'd still have a war with Jonathan to counter. In this case, Valentine was the lesser of two evils."

River massaged her temples and closed her eyes in thought. "How do we resolve it, then? We can't kill Max and we can't kill Jonathan, because either way, it ends with this huge war."

The Doctor looked uncomfortable. "I've never been a fan of killing, River, and you know that. Maybe we can offset the paradox another way?"

River glanced around hopelessly. "It's demons that are causing the problem, maybe if we just remove the demons, we can try to offset the damages of the paradox?"

"Remove the demons…" the Doctor mused, rubbing his chin. "I like it, River, I like it a lot!" He spun around on his heels, kissed her, and made for the stairs. "I'll get Clary's help; she can design a portal rune, I'll enhance the strength by siphoning energy from a black hole, and then use the Tardis to direct the portal to a tear in time. Send the demons back through, close the tear, no more demons ever!"

River, used to the Doctor's sudden change in moods and forgetfulness, ran after him, catching him on the stairs. "What about Jace and Clary? What do we tell them?"

The Doctor blinked, considering. "For now, we'll say nothing. Only that we must have missed the paradox and maybe something else unrelated to them caused it. They're only children, after all, and they need a little bit of time to take things in. It's better I let them relax and heal now, give them time to grow into the idea."

Later that evening, after dinner, after Jace and Clary had thanked everyone-especially the Doctor, who had told them they had nothing to do with the paradox-after Amy and Rory had shared a bottle of wine with River and gone off, after River had kissed the Doctor and told him she'd be waiting in their room, did the Doctor settle before the screen over the controls of the Tardis and scan the readout. His and River's plan had to change the future, but by how much, he was curious. As he expected, the history had changed and Valentine's victory was recorded, but he scanned past that to the end.

"Demon race inexplicably vanishes…Torchwood shows up…Valentine imprisoned…miraculous medical treatment for Jonathan-I'm brilliant-and what else…?" The Doctor read down farther and farther, searching for that one sentence, that one word. "They had to get married," he muttered to himself. He was just starting to suspect that it never happened when he came across Jace and Clary's name in the last entry following the survivors of the Mortal War. "Impossible…" he whispered.

"In the year 2014 Jace Lightwood and Clarissa Morgenstern-Lightwood (engagement was confirmed) disappeared and were never seen by family or friends again. Isabelle and Alec Lightwood confirm that the two left Taki's Diner together, and that, as they followed the two down the street, Clarissa turned away and Jace followed. A cry was heard, but by the time Mr. and Ms. Lightwood arrived, Clarissa and Jace were gone. Though their bodies were never recovered, the Clave honored both of them for their courage and help during the Mortal War by burying empty coffins in the Silent City. Their death was counted as one of the greatest losses the shadowhunter community suffered in the 21st century."