Alright, I don't want to hear about how everything in this story couldn't possibly happen, it's fiction, half the things in any of these stories couldn't possibly happen! But this is how I picture it happening, and I really like it. So, if you have anything negative to say, please keep it to yourself. Thank you! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter!

Chapter Eleven

Time Jump- Once Week

Clary POV:

Today was the day that Jace and Alec's trial started. Court was starting at 10 am, and Jace and Alec wanted to be there an hour early to get ready. I walked out of the bathroom and Jace was standing in front of the mirror tying his tie. I walked up behind him and snaked my arms around his torso and kissed his shoulder.

"Are you nervous?" I ask as he finishes tying his tie.

"Very. This is the biggest case we've had and it's a murder case. I want everything to work out in our favor but all I can do is present the evidence and hope the jury agrees with Alec and I."

"I have all the faith in the world in you and Alec. I mean, who could disagree with this face." I say as I cup his face in my hands. He lets out a small laugh and wraps his arms around my waist.

"You're coming right?"

"Of course. Izzy is meeting me here in about 20 minutes and we'll be at the court house at 10."

"Good, I need you there. I've never been this nervous before, and it's a rather personal case."

"Well I'll be there as long as court is in session." I gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "I love you. Kiss some ass today."

"I love you too. I'll see you at the court house." He kissed my forehead before he headed out the door. Twenty minutes later Izzy was in my house and we were having breakfast.

"So, have you and Jace picked the date for your wedding yet?"

"We haven't picked a date, but we picked a season. We want to get married in the spring, so that gives us almost a year to plan."

"This is so exciting! I honestly never thought he would ever settle down."

"Why is that?"

"His reputation in high school wasn't the best. I don't know how much you heard, but he was a man whore, and I just never pictured him falling in love. And when we graduated and he completely stopped fooling around I thought he gave up on women. He didn't date, and Alec said he never even brought a girl home once. I just figured he would be a bachelor forever."

"Oh, I knew his reputation. My brothers were constantly telling me to avoid him as much as possible. It wasn't hard. I was a loner: very introverted and shy."

"What made you accept his invitation for coffee?"

"When he asked he seemed nervous. Like it was a new concept to him. It didn't fit the reputation that I knew in high school at all. So I figured he must have changed."

"I'm glad he finally decided to pluck up the courage to ask you. You're the best thing that's ever happened to him."

"And he's the best thing that ever happened to me."

"You two are literally the cutest." She looked at her watch. "Alright, we should head over to the court house." We gathered our things and headed out the door. When we got there, the place was packed, but we found some seats and sat down. I'm not going to lie, it was a major turn on to see Jace in his suit doing his job.

Finally the trial was under way and the defendant was called up for questioning by the prosecution.

"Mr. Herondale." He started, and I was confused. "Can you please state you relationship with your lawyer."

"He's my cousin."

"Wouldn't you say that is a conflict of interest? Hiring your cousin as your counsel?"

"Objection!" Alec said. "What does this have to do with his charges?"

"Sustained." The judge said and the prosecution continued.

"Answer the question Mr. Herondale."

"I actually hired Alec Lightwood as my lawyer. He brought in Jace Herondale to help him with the case. We had never met before this. We didn't even know the other existed."

"So you're saying that Jace Herondale wouldn't try everything in his power to get his cousin off?"

"I would hope that he would do that regardless of what blood says. I went to Alec Lightwood because I needed a good lawyer to get these charges dropped because I didn't kill James Carstairs." He said the name and I knew it sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. "They happen to be some of the best lawyers in New York, so of course I went to them." I was looking at the jury, trying to read their body language and their micro expressions. It was something that I learned while in Iraq. I picked it up quite easily, and by the looks of it, the jury seemed to be questionable to what William was saying. Juror number 5 was particularly annoyed when Will was up on the stand.

"You're telling me, you had nothing to do with his murder?"

"Why would I kill my best friend? I grew up with Jem. He was my brother. Just because we both fell in love with the same girl doesn't mean I would kill him over that."

"But isn't that just what a jealous friend would do to get the love of his life?"

"But I already had Tessa. Jem was deployed for almost a year and a half. He was off somewhere, and Tessa had no idea. We got close. She couldn't stand Jem being with the Special Forces. It was killing her that she had no idea where he was or when he would be back or even when he had to leave. Can you imagine living that way? Having your boyfriend just up and leave at 3 am and not come back for over a year? We were going to tell Jem that night. We didn't like hiding it from him. We both loved Jem, but Tessa couldn't do it anymore, and that's when we found him." I tuned out the rest of the questions, because I remember meeting a James in Iraq. He was the one who rescued me. He had been following that group of extremists for about a year and a half. Suddenly a memory hit me and everything clicked.

Flashback:

As soon as I was back at camp a man walked up to me and handed me a cup of water. I took a sip of it and looked up at him.

"Thank you so much for finding me."

"No problem ma'am. I was just doing my job. My names, James, James Carstairs."

"Clary Morgenstern." We shook hands. "I can't tell you how much this means to me. I thought I'd never see my family or my boyfriend again. It's hard enough being deployed but being kidnapped for months, I can't imagine how he must be feeling right now."

"I understand what you mean. Being in Special Forces, I have to leave my girlfriend at a moments notice. Although, I think after this time it might be over between us."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I know she's unhappy with my job. I love doing it, and I love helping people. But I know it affects her, and I can't say I blame her. As long as she's happy, that's all I care about. My best friend, he is actually crazy in love with her."

"And you're okay with that?"

"He knew how I felt about her and backed off. He wanted me to try and see where it went with her, and I was really happy about it. But this is who I am, and I can't keep asking her to sacrifice her happiness for me. It just isn't fair. If they are happy together, who am I to get in between that."

"Wow. That's actually a pretty amazing thing." My commander called my name and I looked at James. "Thank you again for finding me. It means a lot. I hope everything works out for you James."

End of Flashback

Will was finally done with being questioned and the judge called a 10 minute recess. I went up to the front to tell Jace what I remembered.

"Jace."

"Hey babe. What's up?"

"I met James Carstairs."

"You what?" Alec, Jace and Will all said at the same time.

"I met him, in Iraq. He was the one who rescued me. It was his Special Forces team, they had been following that group of extremists for a year and a half. We talked. He knew about Will and Tessa." Will looked at me with a shocked expression. "He wasn't mad or upset about it. He knew his relationship with Tessa was over the minute he was called for that mission. He wanted her to be happy, and he didn't care if that meant her leaving him for Will. He had no hard feelings about Will being in love with her while they were together."

"That definitely puts a hole into their case. They are trying to go for Will and James getting into huge fight and Will just snapping and murdering James." Alec says.

"This whole jealousy angle is just completely made up. James wanted her to be happy, Will made her happy, therefore James was happy."

"How would you like to be added to the witness list so you can tell the jury about that? I can add you after today is over and have you up on the stand in the next day or two."

"Sure, anything to help." He kissed me on the cheek. "Oh, and juror number 5 is really not a fan of Will, so she will take some convincing." Before Jace could answer the judge was back, I gave him a quick kiss and made it back to my seat.

Court ended around 5 and Izzy had to leave right away. She had a date with Simon tonight. I was waiting out in the lobby for Jace thinking about everything I heard today. I was in the middle of thinking when Jace came out.

"Hey. You ready?"

"Yea." We drove home in silence and I couldn't help but keep thinking about the DNA that was found in the room where James was murdered. There had to be a way to get a good enough theory to pitch to the jury that would automatically get Will's charges dropped. "Jace, I was wondering, would it be possible for me to look at the crime scene photos?"

"Uh, it's not very ethical. What are you looking for?"

"I was just going over everything I heard today. I can see where the prosecution is coming from. I can see how they are trying to spin the jealousy thing, but knowing what I know completely obliterates that theory, but there has to be another one that can clear Will. We know he didn't do it. But then someone is out there who did commit this crime. I know it's the polices job to investigate but something tells me that it was a crime of passion, just not in the way the prosecution is spinning it."

"So you think a woman did this?"

"I mean, it sounds crazy, but if I could look at the photos, I could get a better understanding." He looked at me with confusion. "Crime always interested me as a child. In my free time I took a couple classes that dealt with criminal justice. I was actually really good at it."

"Let me talk to Will and Alec, see what they think about your new theory and I'll let you know." I nodded my head and made my way into the kitchen to start dinner. About 10 minutes later Jace came in. "Alec thinks it's an interesting theory and if we can prove it was a woman, Will would definitely be cleared. I'll go get the photos. You sure you want to eat while you look at these?"

"I watched three people get murdered in front of me, and than forced to clean it up and bury their bodies, I think I can handle some pictures." He laughed, kissed me on the cheek and went to get the pictures. 15 minutes later dinner was done and we were sitting at the kitchen table, with dinner and crime scene photos spread all over the place. I was looking at the ones of James body and I noticed a 9mm sized hole. Normally if it was a fight between two men, a blunt object is normally the murder weapon. In this case, it's a gun, which proves someone showed up to kill. "Was there toxicology done for him?"

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Most women who kill use mainly two methods. Poison or guns. Most aren't strong enough to take out a man, especially one in Special Forces with their muscles. I think you should go back and talk to the investigators who were on his case. Ask them to run a toxicology report and run the DNA to see if you can test for pregnancy."

"Why?"

"Well, it wouldn't hurt. I mean if it comes back positive it's definitely a woman and if it isn't well, no harm no foul. And the toxicology can confirm if he was poisoned before he was murdered."

"How do you know all of this?" He looked at me with amazement.

"I have a really high IQ. Plus, I have a somewhat eidetic memory."

"Wow. No wonder the army scooped you up. You aren't a rare human."

"Yes, but until this trial is over, I'm all yours." He leaned over and kissed me. I smiled and went back to the photos. "Personally, I think if a man killed James, he would have beaten him to death. I don't think he would have used a gun."

"That's what I was thinking. And if Will was going to confront James, he wouldn't kill him, they might be rough with each other but they would never hurt each other. They loved each other too much. They remind me of Alec and I."

"How?"

"I never had any siblings, and I lost my parents when I was young. When the Lightwoods adopted me Alec was my first real friend, and he became my brother. Sure we fought, but it was never that serious. We'd yell, and maybe get one or two swings in, but at the end of the day he was my brother, my best friend. I'd never do anything to hurt me. That's how Will and James were. Will is so torn up over his death, I can see it in his eyes. There is no way he did this."

"And him being your cousin has nothing to do with it?"

"Not at all. I was shocked when we found out. I always assumed I didn't have any family. I mean, clearly after this is over we'll stay in touch but as far as me trying to get him off because he is my family, that isn't true. You know how I feel about people going to jail because they deserve too. If Will did this, I would want him to go to jail."

"I know, I was just curious. It caught me off guard when the prosecution called him Mr. Herondale." He smiled and let out a little laugh.

"I figured it did. I would have told you, but confidentiality. Now that Will allowed you in on the case, that doesn't really matter anymore."

"I appreciate him letting me be involved. It feels nice to be doing something again. I know the army means well with giving me all this time off, but sometimes I think I'm going crazy with nothing to do."

"I know, but it'll be over soon, and the army is going to want that big brain of yours back." I laughed and finished cleaning up dinner. It was about 10 o'clock before we made it upstairs. "Alright, we have another early day tomorrow. Thank you for doing this babe. It means a lot."

"He will be my family soon too, and it's my pleasure to help out." We got into bed and I had no idea how tired I was until my head hit the pillow and not 5 minutes later I was drifting off to sleep thinking about how I could truly help Will, and in a way work with Jace and it was something that brought a smile to my face before everything went black.