Hello everyone!

Here is part 2! I hope you enjoy it! I had a good time writing it, although it isn't really a 'fun' chapter I suppose... Someone commented earlier on about Jada, (I think it was at the office scene with Valentine) and was trying to understand why Valentine cared about her, at all... and I almost screamed because I wanted to reply and tell them about this chapter so BAD! I had to sit on my hands for ten minutes!

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN MORTAL INSTRUMENTS!

Jada closed the sitting-room door behind her and ushered Theo to take a chair. She had always loved her personal rooms more than any other place in the Manor – they were all dark-blue and white, with elegant, antique furniture and crystal chandeliers. They were a place where she could relax, a place where she could breathe, a place where she could think…

She was thinking of Theo then, thinking about his strange appearance at the Manor and wondering why he had even come there at all: Theo rarely left their mansion in the countryside near Alicante – and he NEVER came to Valentine's Manor – certainly not ever without permission…

Jada shuddered.

If Valentine had been there – if he had seen the way Theo had so casually come to the Manor – he would have been livid. Theo, while being one of the chosen few who even knew Valentine's Manor existed, was not a welcome guest there. There were too many secrets here, Valentine thought – too much to loose if the Clave were to find out about it. Theo's knowledge of the Manor was what Valentine called a liability – and Valentine Morgenstern was not the kind of man who dealt well with the unpredictable. If something was a liability, it meant that it was out of his control – and Valentine despised being out of control.

Jada reached out and gripped the back of one of the graceful, blue armchairs, a worried crease forming between her eyebrows. Theo hadn't taken the chair she had offered him. Instead, he was restlessly pacing the room, back and forth, running his slender fingers through his raven hair. His shoes weren't muddy in the slightest, but they left blotchy, wet marks on her white rug as he traipsed across it – and Jada frowned anxiously.

She could hear a few maids in another room, chittering like a gaggle of geese. It sounded like they were in the bedchamber, Jada thought, but she wasn't totally sure… She cleared her throat pointedly.

"Out," she ordered. "Everyone out."

After a few long seconds of busy rustling, the maids appeared from the bedchamber, ready to obediently file out of Jada's rooms, but they all stopped despite themselves and did a double take as they caught sight of Theo. Jada could hardly blame them as she herded the girls into the corridor. Her younger brother was a rugged beauty, to be sure. He had inherited their mother's pretty, delicate brown eyes and soft mouth, but had also gotten their father's handsome, masculine facial structure and athletic build. He had let his dark hair grow out quite a bit since the last time she had seen him, Jada noticed as well, and his tumbled hair almost completely covered his forehead now – and was that a bit of stubble dusting his jaw? Jada had not remembered seeing that there…

She dropped her gaze to the floor.

Theo had grown up in a hurry, she realized with a lingering stab of regret. It hurt to know that she hadn't been there to see it.

The servants threw giggling, suspicious glances over their shoulders as they left the room, and Jada almost chuckled out loud. She knew the maids well enough to understand that before she could blink twice, a rumor would be circulating the Manor: 'Did you see that gorgeous young man in Miss Jada's rooms? She asked for them to be left alone together: I'm sure you can imagine what they're doing.' …They were going to get the shock of their lives when they found out that Theo was her family, and not some wild, secret lover that had come for an 'all-too-friendly' afternoon visit.

Jada shook her head amusedly as the door clicked closed behind the maids, leaving her and her brother alone, but the humor disappeared as she finally looked up into her brother's face. He was avoiding making eye contact with her, in a way that made her feel sick to the pit of her stomach.

Something, she knew, was terribly wrong.

"Tesoro," Jada began measuredly. "What is it? What is wrong?"

Theo didn't look up at her, but at least he had stopped his pacing. Jada counted it as a small victory. "I…" He paused, his hands shaking. "I have no idea how I am going to say this to you, Jada… I have no idea… where to start…"

She gave him a slight, encouraging smile, waiting for him to begin patiently. Inside, she felt like a withering autumn leaf.

"Is… he here?" Theo finally asked.

Jada blinked at him. "Who?"

"Valentine… Is he here?"

There was a pause.

"No." Jada's chest froze, slowly, painfully; it felt like her heart was turning into a frosty puck of ice. "Why would you ask me that?"

Theo met her eyes then.

His misery seemed to pour into her, and panic began to flutter on the edge of Jada's nerves. She tried to hide what she was feeling, she tried to hide her alarm, but her eyes widened in spite of herself, and she had glided halfway across the room to her brother before she really knew what she was doing.

"By the Angel…Theo," she said in a low trembling voice. "Is Valentine… alright? Did something – did something happen to him?"

Theo turned away from her, looking pained. She put her hand gently on his arm, but he shook her off furiously and stormed away to the far window. Jada guessed that nothing severe was wrong with Valentine, then: if something had happened to him, Theo would have comforted her about it, not shrugged her away. But her emotional agony didn't fade. She watched her brother move away from her in tormented silence – feeling oddly guilty: like what she had done had been very, inexplicably wrong.

"Theo… Please…" Jada whispered, standing still. "Say something."

She could see her brother's profile, thoughtfully watching the rain streaming down the windowpane. His fingers pressed tensely over his mouth.

"I didn't come because something happened to Valentine Morgenstern," he told her stiffly. Jada cringed: he had spat out Valentine's name like it was a curse. "I came because I was worried that you might care too much about what happens to him…"

Jada blushed angrily. Her guilt had curdled into a defensive sort of pride, but it refused to entirely leave her; her conscience nagged at her incessantly. "And why does it matter to you who I care for, Mattheo? You don't own me."

"It matters because you are my sister!" Theo cried suddenly, spinning to face her. "It matters because you are the only family that I have left! I ought to be protecting you and I…" Theo lowered his accusing gaze, then, his voice trailing off into silence. He abruptly turned around and strode back towards the window, with his bronzed arms crossed moodily over his chest. "And I haven't," he finally whispered. "I haven't protected you, Jada. Not well enough."

"I don't need your protection," she snapped under her breath. "Especially not when it comes to the men I care for."

"Do you?" Theo countered dangerously, turning to her once more. "– care for him, that is. Do you honestly care for Valentine Morgenstern?"

Jada paused and took a deep breath.

"Yes, little brother," she answered coolly. "I care for him. Is that what you wanted to know?"

Theo looked betrayed. It hurt Jada severely for some reason – somewhere deep, underneath all of her pent-up rage.

"How could you care about him?" her brother shouted heatedly. Pure anguish had blossomed in his voice. "How can you feel concern for him when he doesn't feel any for you?"

"Watch your mouth, Theo," Jada warned at a whisper. "He's the leader of the Circle. You know nothing about him – and you know nothing about me."

"Is that your answer?" Theo replied coldly, shaking his head. "God, Jada. You're insane!" He swooped his arm sharply towards the window, his beautiful face a mask of rage. "There Valentine is, out there betraying you, and yet you are here, justifying his unfaithfulness to me – I don't care if he is the Circle's leader: It's sick. I won't stand for it."

"Valentine is not betraying me," hissed Jada adamantly. "I know what he is doing."

"Everyone knows what he is doing. He's looking for the Mortal Cup."

Jada was taken aback. How did her brother know what Valentine's movements were? Jonathan – even Valentine's own son, Jonathan – did not know what his father was planning… Valentine had been in too much of a rush to tell him the news… She had thought she had been the only one to know…

"The entire Circle has been stirring over it for the last few days," Theo explained. "– and Valentine has hardly been secretive about his plans. All of Downworld now knows what he intends to do, and the Clave will catch wind of it soon enough: Valentine has found the location of the Mortal Cup, Jada – it's in New York – and if he has his way, it will fall securely into his hands within the next fortnight."

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, like she had been running a marathon. Why had she been the last to know about this? Her throat felt tighter than a metal vice.

"I am glad," she choked out, feeling the farthest thing from it. "I am glad that Valentine is going to retrieve the Cup; he will be very pleased… But I don't see how that is betrayal, Theo."

"By the Angel: Is every word he's ever breathed to you a lie?" She could hear the pleading in her brother's tone, hidden below his frustration. His words stung her like whip lashes. "Why do you think he has been searching for the Cup for so long? Who do you think took the Cup from him in the first place?"

Jada's chest froze as a realization began to set in… It felt like winter had come in its full force and was storming directly over her heart…

"It is Jocelyn Morgenstern who has the Cup," Theo snapped, confirming her dread. "That is who Valentine has been looking for, all this time… He still loves her, Jada –"

"That isn't true," Jada growled icily, defensively. "Valentine only wants the Cup."

"He wants the Cup, yes," Theo continued insistently. "– but he's always been looking for more than that… You know it too, don't you? His wife has the Mortal Cup: his wife, Jada… Perhaps Valentine has been looking for the Cup all these years – but only as a pretense, because he has been searching for her, as well."

"Hold your tongue, Mattheo," Jada snarled.

"Valentine is openly talking about their reconciliation, now – about how they will be reunited by the time he obtains the other two Mortal Instruments –"

"I said hold your tongue!"

"He's only wanted his wife all along, Jada – don't you see it? …He'll keep you around until she comes back to him, and then you will be removed from this house and from your position here…"

"Theo –"

"– and you'll just become a memory to him –"

"No."

"Then he will have his wife and son: his family, all together again, just like he has always wanted –"

"No!" she screamed violently. Jada snarled and threw her armchair over in a moment of pure, blinded rage, and it smashed to the marble ground before her mind even realized what she had done. She thought she might have seen a crack bloom in one of the white, antique arms. "Valentine would never do that to me!" she cried savagely. "Never!"

Theo shrunk away from her in disbelief. She rarely ever raised her voice with him.

Jada started in pain, and noticed that it was because she had balled her hands into fists; so tightly that her fingernails had sliced her palm. The sight of her own blood as she unfurled her fingers was enough to slightly cool her temper. "Valentine… He… he would never…" Her voice trailed off, and Jada frowned stonily, collecting herself.

Her words were lies, she knew. More than anyone else, Jada Buonavento understood exactly what Valentine Morgenstern would and would not do. She had just always chosen to believe that she was, somehow, an exception.

She kicked her toppled-over armchair viciously with one stillettoed foot, but to her fury, the chair only moved a few pitiful inches. She stormed violently to the other end of the room, sunk into a low-backed couch, and buried her face mournfully in her hands.

God… How had she let herself be played for a fool like this?

Theo hesitated for a long moment and then glided hesitantly to her side.

"Jada," he breathed, touching his sister's hand lightly. "Jada, forgive me… I didn't mean to say it like that…"

She flicked his gesture away wordlessly. He didn't try to press her; he moved from her quietly, hovering at her side like a shadow.

There was a silence, then; the longest silence that Jada had ever experienced.

"Why?" she asked her brother coldly. "Why did you come to tell me this now, Theo?"

Eve was steps away from Jada's bedroom door before she stopped dead in her tracks.

She had gone to her rooms quickly after meeting Jada's brother in the foyer, changed into some more appropriate clothes, and had headed back to her tutor's rooms immediately. On the way, Eve had meant to ask one of the maids if Jada was still seeing her visitor, but all of the servant-girls had congregated by the kitchen door at that point and were blathering amongst themselves about 'Jada' and 'secret lovers' and 'wild, untamed passion' and Eve had decided better than to enter in on their conversation.

Her hand had come within an inch of Jada's bedroom door, ready to timidly knock and ask permission to come in, but she had heard some of the conversation coming from within, and had stopped herself.

"Why?" she could hear Jada saying quietly. "Why did you come to tell me this now, Theo?"

Eve heard a pause within the room, and knew that if she was ever going to knock, then would have been the time, but she felt oddly hesitant. Her curiosity burned against her chest like a heartbeat. She slid beside the set of double doors like she had been taught, instead of rapping on them, and inclined her head to listen to their voices.

Theo spoke, but only after another long minute of quiet.

"I was in Alicante – almost a week ago. Did you know that?" he began. His tone was low and conversational, and Eve wondered if he was intending to answer his sister's question at all. "I know that you disapprove of me going into the city, but I was far from caring then. I went anyway… Do you remember Alicante, Jada? …It's so beautiful there." Eve could almost hear him smiling then, and had to imagine for herself what the city looked like; she had only ever seen it in illustrations or photos. "I visited the orphanage," he continued. "It hadn't changed much. Then I walked down the main causeway, right by the canal, just like we used to… I stood there for what seemed like an eternity, all alone while the people marched past me… it was the strangest feeling…" Theo paused, waiting for his sister to say something, anything, and kept talking. "Then, I heard someone behind me, calling my name, and I turned around…" He swallowed, nervously. "You can imagine my surprise when I saw Argyle Silverspear breaking through the crowd; he was the last person I had expected to want to talk to me, considering the circumstances…"

Eve frowned in thought.

Argyle Silverspear? That was the man that Jada had been in love with, wasn't it? The man that had loved her as well?

"Stop," Jada whispered painfully. "I don't want to hear about it, Theo… Especially not now." Her voice sounded muffled and quivering. Eve wondered if she had hidden her face in her hands.

"I know you don't," her brother replied quietly. "But you should hear it, anyway."

Jada didn't respond.

Theo took a deep breath.

"He was really very kind to me – but then, he always has been the perfect gentleman, hasn't he?" Theo remarked dully. "Argyle showed me around the rest of the city. He didn't try to pry, and he kept the conversation on safe topics. He told me about himself as we walked: about how he had been in the last number of years, about his career. He told me about how he had continued through his training to be a medic, like he had always planned, and that he never did join the Brotherhood, despite his family's wishes… He was disappointed that you weren't with me, I think… He's worked his way up through the ranks of the Clave, Jada. He is Head Medic, now: a valid member of Council. He seems to be very popular…" Theo sighed, tiredly. "… I was curious so I… I asked him why. Why he had never joined ranks of the Silent Brothers – when it had been his dream for so many years…"

Eve's mind reeled, but she remained quiet.

Jada's old lover… was a member of the Clave? But… the Clave was evil, wasn't it? The Clave was corrupt… narrow-minded… thoughtless… That was what Valentine had always taught her anyway… Why would Jada love someone like that?

"Then Argyle looked me dead in the eyes," Theo went on. "And he told me that once you love something enough, that love eclipses your former dreams completely… He said that he had lost any desire to become a Silent Brother – because life had given him a glimpse of something better… He said that he had never forgotten what it felt like – what it felt like to be in love with you, Jada… You should know that he hasn't loved anyone since. And… to be honest…" Theo's voice sounded slightly timid, then. "I don't think you have really loved anyone since then either, Jada."

Her tutor didn't say a word.

Eve wondered what she was thinking.

Theo cleared his throat softly. "And then… after… Argyle asked me if… I thought that you might feel the same."

There was a long pause.

"What did you tell him?" Jada asked miserably.

"I told him the truth," Theo sighed. "I told him you were tutoring in the countryside, and that if I had seen you in the past year, I could have given him an honest answer… I told him that you were barely home, and when you were, you seemed totally unhappy. The only lie I really told him was when I said that you had never considered another man since him."

Jada's breath caught.

What? Eve mentally exclaimed. Jada had a lover! There – In the Manor! Who was it?

"I hadn't meant to tell you any of this," Theo concluded. "I knew you would have been upset by it, but… yesterday… when I heard about everything that was going on in the Circle… I was considering coming, at that time, to warn you… but then after that news, another message came – one about Argyle – and I knew I had to come… because… you just had to know." Her brother exhaled raggedly. "Argyle has…He has formally registered to go into the Brotherhood; he registered two days ago, Jada… In three months, he will have his formal initiation ceremony, and then he will be a Silent Brother, and you will loose him forever…" Theo's voice was bleak. "I knew that I couldn't let things continue the way they were… not without you knowing that, because… before he does it, you should know that Argyle still loves you, Jada. Just as much as he did all those years ago…"

"Why?" Jada demanded, a little roughly. "Why do you think that I should know that? God, if you're trying to say 'I told you so' just do it and leave… Don't drag the truth out and rub it in my face: I did all of this for you, Theo. I sacrificed my life with Argyle for you…"

"No," Theo breathed sympathetically. "I mean… yes… That isn't what I was trying to say, at all… I know what you've done for me, Jada… That is why I'm saying this –" There was a soft rustling noise, as if Theo had sat down somewhere. "What I'm trying to say is that you did sacrifice for me when I was a little boy, and I am grateful to you for that, but… you had to sacrifice for me then because I was just a child. I could not have helped myself." Theo paused, breathing heavily. "What I am trying to say, Jada, is that I'm not eight years old anymore, and that I don't need you to protect me; I'm old enough to take care of myself… And you… you are free now. I wanted to come to tell you that you deserve to do something for yourself, now… and to tell you…that I think that maybe… Argyle Silverspear is that 'something' that you need… You don't need to stay here any longer… You can leave this place…"

Jada didn't speak a word for what seemed like hours.

"Get out," Jada said finally, her voice hopelessly distant. "Get out, Theo… Please… Just… go."

Silence penetrated the room, and, suddenly, there was a gentle noise, and then footsteps quickly approached the door. Eve panicked, but she knew she didn't have time to retreat before Theo came out of the doorway. She froze as the door swung open, wedged between the back of the door and the stone wall – somehow, miraculously, hidden. Theo flew past her, disappeared down the corridor, and Eve doubted that he would have seen her even if she had been in plain sight. He seemed beyond noticing anything as Eve lost sight of him down the hallway.

Sympathy thawed in Eve's chest.

She fought against the urge to call after Theo, to assure him that everything was going to be alright, but she knew that she couldn't say a word. After all, if Jada ever found out that she had listened in on her conversation, she would have skinned Eve alive.

Poor Theo, Eve thought, silently. Poor, poor Theo… he was only trying to be a good brother… And poor Jada, trying to protect him for all these years, at her own expense… They were so good to each other… so selfless…

Slowly, Eve edged the door closed and slid noiselessly from her tutor's rooms, following Theo to where he had melted into the labyrinth of Manor passageways.

What do you think?

I felt pretty tense when I wrote this, because I felt it might be a little dramatic and a little too much Jada/Valentine for some readers, but it was part of what I had originally wanted to include in the story, so I thought I should stay true to the original idea... I FELT SO BAD FOR THEO! ...AND JADA!...

PS: Jonathan/Eve is coming next chapter... Don't worry...

*Sigh* So. Much. Drama... I get too much into this story for my own good, I think... :)

Love, Fishie