"Let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs."

Tessa picked up the shampoo bottle and dumped way too much onto her hand. She sighed. Reaching up a hand she rubbed it into her thick brown hair, scrubbing at it fiercely. She'd turned on the water much too hot and it was broiling her back, but she was too lost in thought to notice.

It was Saturday morning; four more days of school had passed and she'd felt she'd learned nothing, Her hand ached so badly she thought she'd never sign autographs again and she'd ha to sprint from the paparazzi to her car twice (so much for Aunt Harriet's alleged 'secrecy'). She'd never gotten this much social one on one attention from anyone and it was making her sick; dozens of people had invited her to so many parties she was sure over half of them had to be made up, and she'd been asked out so many times it no longer felt bad to just say a blatant no and walk away.

Aunt Harriet's idea of what was good for her and her own clearly weren't the same. At all.

She was happier though; infinitely. It felt completely foreign to her and yet deep down, like some different, sleeping Tessa inside her, every moment she spent with Charlotte, Jem, or, even. . . she swallowed, Will. It felt like. . . home. In the strangest way possible.

She picked up a razor and looked down at it. It felt strange in her hand but this didn't frighten her like it had before. They were going to New York. She was going home, and she was going to figure out what was wrong with her. And even if she never did, was it screwed up to feel fine being insane as long as other people were insane with you?

Shadowhunters. The word rung in her mind like a bell. Of all the things Magnus had vaguely described to them, this had sounded the most familiar. What they were, she still didn't know. All she knew was. . . she wasn't supposed to be here, she was supposed to be in some other time. It made her guts tense up like she was free falling. How much of her life was actually real? They didn't even belong here, to what she'd always known. She, Jem, Charlotte, and Will.

Will. William Herondale, the boy who'd broken into her final concert and made himself unforgettable. He'd spent the whole discussion at her side, not even touching her, but still she felt her stomach twist. She didn't know how she knew, but there was a voice in the back of her mind that whispered he must have hated her in their other life. He wouldn't speak to her except cordially, and one incident of his hand brushing hers as he held open the hospital door for her remained in her mind. He'd tensed up as if he'd been shot or cursed, not looking at her, not saying a word goodbye before he took off down the hall. If that didn't scream 'I hated you in another life' Tessa didn't really know what did.

Jem was a different story. Staring at her like he knew something, watching her with a total unhidden gaze (she felt embarrassed just thinking about it). He'd spoken to her so gently, like he was patient- It reminded her of the way a teacher would treat a student who was just on the edge of understanding a problem: He was waiting for her to get it. But get what? Get that when they'd sat together, her by his hospital bed and talked she'd kept reaching out her hand to cover his without thinking, then pulling it back with a blush. Get that he'd shyly asked her if she owned any necklaces, then looked embarrassed when she'd looked bewildered and asked what kind. It made absolutely no sense but then, nothing did these days.

Charlotte had asked her out to coffee after they'd left Jem to recover. She'd seemed incredibly nice, and didn't even bat an eye at Tessa's surprise that she was married so young. Tessa had taken an intense liking to her almost immediately.

The world was a bit of a mess at the moment. And she couldn't think of how to understand it all without going and looking for it. Maybe it was stupid to follow these people she barely knew. But she didn't feel that, at this point, she had anything to lose.

She climbed out of the shower, humming a bit as she grabbed a towel, rubbing hard at her hair. She got dressed quickly, still humming to herself as she threw open the door.

She was so shocked she screamed.

Nate Gray stood, leaning in the doorway, inches away from her, with a terse expression on his face.

She clasped a shocked hand to her mouth, catching her breath. "Nate, what the hell? You couldn't have waited for the bathroom two feet away from the door?"

"Oh, I wasn't waiting for the bathroom," he said lazily, looking at his nails. "I was waiting for you." He met her eyes with a hard expression.

She put a hand on her hip and scowled. "Well," she said, glaring at him. "You startled me. Couldn't you have waited ten seconds?"

"No," he said flatly. He grabbed her wrist tightly, and jerked her from the doorway.
"Nate!" she let out, glaring at him furiously and tugging at her wrist. "Stop it! What's wrong with you?"

"I need to show you something, Tessie," he said, tugging on her wrist hard and pulling her down the hall.

He dragged her all the way to her room, still not letting her go once they stopped in front of her door.

"What the hell is this?"

"That's what I want to ask you," he said darkly, pushing open her door. There, on her bed, lay a suitcase. Packed.

She swallowed hard. She hadn't told either Nate or Aunt Harriet that she was leaving.

"I was just. . ." she trailed off, desperately wracking her mind for an excuse.

"Oh, I know exactly what you were doing," he snapped, letting her go, walking forward into her room.

She rubbed her wrist and looked at him in confusion. "You do?"

"Yes. Being a damned coward," he said through clenched teeth, his hands fists. "Running away from all the responsibility you owe to this family and to your career-"

"I ended my career," she deadpanned, watching him with a suspicious clench in her stomach. She'd known this wasn't over. "I don't have any responsibility to it now-"

"We know that was never agreed upon!" he exploded. "You just decided you wanted to be selfish and throw the rest of us under the bus and run off on a little high school adventure-"

"I did no such thing!" she yelled back, outraged.

"-you don't even care if we go broke or-"

"'Go broke'?" she repeated incredulously. "Do you know how much money my career has made us?" She rubbed her head with a hand. "Nate, don't get offended, but my career and the money it's made us is the reason you're 19 with no intention of going to college or getting a damn job!"

He stared at her, face going red as he clenched his fists. "Yes, go broke, Tessa! We're living on the remnants of what that 'career' made us!"

She stared at him, face going blank. "What do you mean 'living on the remnants'? I made us millions."

He turned his face away, not looking at her. "Yes, well, it's not there anymore."

The world seemed to collapse at her feet. Her mouth fell open. "What did you do?" she whispered, voice hoarse.

"Nothing," he snapped defensively. "Nothing I couldn't have done if you'd just continued your damn career like planned!"

"You gambled it off," she said in a hushed voice. "You screwed us all over."

His face changed its hue to an unnatural purple. "DON'T TALK ABOUT ME AS IF I'M THE ONE IN THE WRONG WHEN YOU-"

"When I what?" she yelled back, feeling, to her own anger, tears stinging behind her eyes. "Took care of our family by doing something I absolutely hated when you couldn't be bothered? By making us enough money to live on for years so Aunt Harriet wouldn't have to work at a laundromat in a tiny New York apartment so we could go to school?"

Nate ran a face over his hand with a long breath. "I'm not going to argue with you, Tessa," he said in a calm, hard voice. "And as your older sibling I'm making the call. I'm not going to let you screw up our lives like this." He moved to the door quickly, before she could react and grabbed the knob.

"Wait, Nate-"

"You're not going anywhere, Tessa," he said grimly. "I'm sorry but it's for the best."

She couldn't make it to the door before he'd closed it, and as she futilely tugged on the knob, she heard it lock, and fell to her knees in shock.

She sat there for a moment before moving to her nightstand and grabbing her phone. She dialed a number quickly.

"Gabriel?" she asked, eye on her bedroom window. "It's Tessa. I need. . . a big favor."

"Remind me never to agree to do anything for you again," Gabriel said as he limped back to his car, Tessa already in front of him, suitcase in hand.

"I am really sorry about your ankle," she put in, looking genuine. "I didn't know the ivy wasn't strong enough."

He muttered some choice phrases under his breath before climbing in the driver's side. He started the car and took off down the street. "So," he said with a sigh. "Am I allowed to ask why I saved you from where you were locked in your bedroom?"

She glanced down at her suitcase on her lap. "I'm going somewhere. My brother-" She let out a long breath. "He didn't want me to leave. He wants me to stay and continue my career."

"Pop star career?"

She gave him a look.

"Just asking. I didn't know if you were secretly an accountant or something."

"I'm not. Just for future reference."

"Good to know."

He kept his eyes on the road and stayed in silence for a moment before asking: "Are you running away?"

"No," she said quickly. "I'm just- It sounds like that but I have to go somewhere. I'm trying. . . to figure something out."

He rolled his eyes. "That's what they all say."
"Oh?" she asked, turning on him, eyebrow raised. "And how many runaway cases have you dealt with?"

He snorted. "Too many. Tatiana must've tried to 'run away' at least a dozen times when we were kids." He glanced over at her. "At least tell me you're not so much of an idiot as to fly somewhere on your own."

She laughed. "No, no. I'm not. Right now I'm going to Charlotte's but then I'm meeting Will at the airport-"

Gabriel slammed his foot to the break so hard, Tessa was flung into the dashboard.

"Good grief, Gabriel, what the-"

He turned to her, face white, hands clenched on the wheel. "Will? Will Herondale?"

She looked at him, sensing a mood change, and wary of it. "Yes. . ."

"That bastard," he said quietly first, then, shouting and punching the wheel, furiously: "That BASTARD!"

Tessa simply stared. "What on earth is wrong with you?"

"He's a no good cheater that's what's wrong," Gabriel seethed, teeth clenched. "You can be late to the airport, Tessa. We're taking a detour." And with that, he made a U-Turn and spun them around, towards William Herondale's home.

Hey guys! Thanks for continuing reading LIT! :) I'd really love it if y'all could answer the question on last chapter's author's note (aka as this sort of thing). Thanks for all the new follows and favorites it means a lot. So because I want to remain true to the character's I'm going to reread some TID and (not to spoil anything butttt. . . TMI) just to keep updated. If there's anything you really WISH would happen, please comment it and I'll get right on it! Keep reading and enjoy! :)