A/n: Sorry for the wait on this. I've been preoccupied. I'm pumped for this chapter and the direction this story is going in! I've got a pretty clear vision of where this is going and I'm excited to write it! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Let me know what you think! I'm hella down for constructive criticism and suggestions!

Disclaimer: I doubt the owner of any of the things mentioned in this chapter would spend their time writing fanfic, but either way, I'm not that owner.

Chapter 21

Jace had never considered the ability of a girl to get along with his family to be a must-have in a relationship, but something about watching Isabelle throw her head back laughing at something Clary must've said was beginning to convince him otherwise.

Though he could sense that Clary was still uncomfortable with the steps they'd made in their relationship, he was pretty confident that she was feeling better about it. And it's not like her being uncomfortable was in any way unfair. In the span of less than an hour, their relationship developed more than it had since he'd met her.

She was scared and he knew that, not so much of learning more about him or shifting the nature of their relationship so that it was more physical. In fact, after the initial shock of learning just how little she did know about him in the form of Isabelle, she seemed to be really excited to have him share himself with her. On the way to the diner, she'd peppered him with questions about Isabelle, Alec, and Robert. She'd danced around the topic of Max, evidently sensing that it was a rather serious one for him, and she hadn't asked about Maryse because she'd been able to see that first hand. She'd begun to turn the questions towards his birth parents before they'd arrived at the café, which was a bit of a welcome relief.

Though he was relatively pleased to be sharing these things with her and practically overjoyed that she was eager to learn about him, the heavier topics, such as Max and the Waylands, he'd prefer to save for another time. In the same vein, she had yet to really start opening up with him about her past, though she was open in other ways, like her enthusiasm for his stories and her feelings for him.

Physical contact was also something she was really warming up to, though their first major foray into that part of their relationship was anything but warm. Their kiss was explosive. Ever since he'd met her, there had been this tension between them. It was electric from the start and as they became more comfortable around each other, hence making contact more frequent albeit not intense, and his feelings for her as a person grew he just gradually began to feel like he'd combust. So when they kissed, it seemed almost natural for him to feel like he was on fire. It certainly was a perfect burn though. The kiss was everything he'd wanted and more because it came attached with a promise that she'd stay in town until they could figure this out.

And it alleviated the tension and pushed them firmly passed the point of no return. Jace worried that this would mean she'd pull back from him and that he'd need to reassure her with some frequency at first, but that didn't seem to be the case. On the walk over, she'd reached over and grabbed his hand. The action was hesitant and her eyes were uncertain, but he'd been quick to give her hand a small squeeze, thus reassuring her and bringing a bubbly smile to her face. So two of the main changes in their relationship were continuing to develop in a pretty positive direction.

But he could tell the prospect of telling him about her past terrified her. It certainly didn't surprise him that she felt this way. She tensed at even vague mentions of her life before Alicante and she'd been on the verge of a panic attack when Isabelle knocked on the door earlier. The strong reaction she'd had to the sound of Isabelle's knock was a bit of a surprise to him because up until that point he'd assumed she was running from a shitty boyfriend or controlling parents, but he couldn't imagine that the mere possibility of a stranger at the door would elicit such panic if that were the case. Surely she wasn't concerned with his ability to handle one jealous ex and she was an adult, so what could her parents really do to her if they found her?

He was admittedly worried that it was a simple case of him not liking what she told him. She'd blatantly expressed her concerns about the type of person she was. He remembered their conversation about her artwork vividly and, while he'd reassured her and meant every word of it, he could tell she didn't believe that she was entirely good. For a second, he was concerned about what she'd have to say, but then he heard her laugh, watched as she bit down on her lower lip to quell the response, felt his heart constrict at the scene and the fear dissipated.

There was nothing Clary could tell him that would scare him away, of this he was sure.

"Are you going to just stare at her all day or are you actually going to introduce me?"

Jace's muddled thoughts disappeared, but the happiness persisted. He shot his brother and best friend an irritated look and quipped, "Give me a second. I'm thinking. Not sure if I want her to meet you. She might think your dorkiness is contagious, Alec."

Alec, to his credit, scoffed and slapped Jace on the arm, his blue eyes trained on the redhead behind the counter impatiently. Jace knew Alec was using every ounce of his restraint to keep himself from asking about her and Jace was abusing that kindness by having Alec help him finish up painting the Blackthorn residence and forcing the conversation so that it was focused on his escapades in New York with Isabelle and his boyfriend, Magnus. He was getting tired of pretending like the shift in Jace's attitude wasn't driving him mad with curiosity and Jace knew he was pushing it.

With a resolved sigh, Jace beckoned, "Fine. Come on," and moved towards the still laughing girls.

Clary noticed the two boys coming before Isabelle did and her gaze rested on him for only a moment before it focused on Alec. He wondered what she was thinking as she took him in, knowing that he was perhaps the person he felt closest to in the world. He wondered what she saw and what that meant for how she saw him.

This was all new territory for Jace. He'd never had a serious girlfriend and he'd never met any girl for whom he felt as strongly as he did for Clary and this all scared the shit out of him.

But he'd be lying if he said he wasn't also really excited.

"Clary," he began, resisting a smile when her eyes met his, "This is my brother Alec."

Izzy swiveled in her seat to face her two brothers and a wide smile crept over her lips at the sight of them. Alec extended his hand to Clary and, in a small tone, stated, "Hey. It's nice to meet you."

His smile, like his tone, was small and gentle, but Jace could see that his eyes were excited.

Clary, too, offered a small smile, an indication that she was nervous, as, in Jace's experience, Clary's joy was either full-blown or non-existent. She very rarely did things by halves.

She accepted his hand after a moment's hesitation and shook it quickly, releasing him from the embrace quickly. Jace quirked an eyebrow at her odd behavior, which a twitch in her smile indicated that she caught but ignored.

"It's really nice to meet you too, Alec. Jace has told me so much about you," she finally stated, her enthusiasm sounding a bit stiff.

"I thought you didn't know Jace had any siblings?" Isabelle interrupted, her eyes innocent as she watched Clary flinch slightly.

Alec, ever the wallflower, merely observed the exchange with an interested expression and Jace knew he was studying everything she did intensely. That knowledge made him slightly nervous. He wanted Alec to like Clary, though he knew that even if he didn't it would do little to deter Jace from liking her.

And with that thought Clary's behavior made sense to him. Clary clearly wanted Alec to like her too. The thought brought a winning grin to Jace's face and inspired him to jump to Clary's defense with a quick, "Well she did quiz me about the two of you pretty intensely after you bombarded us this morning, so I actually have talked her ear off about the two of you."

He didn't miss Clary's grateful smile or Alec's curious glance at his words.

"Well he hasn't said a word about you," Alec added, leaning slightly closer to Clary to whisper conspiratorially, "That's how I know it's serious."

Isabelle snorted loudly at his words and added, "It's true. He never talks about anything that matters."

Jace shot both of his siblings a glare that he didn't really mean. Sure, they were embarrassing him, but, considering how unusual every aspect of their relationship had been thus far, it felt nice to experience something as normal as being embarrassed by his siblings. This felt right.

Clary blushed lightly and retorted, "Well I imagine that I'm the only one he's taken to his cabin in the woods and not sacrificed to some weird god, so I'd say it's pretty serious."

Isabelle snorted again, such an unattractive sound coming from such an attractive girl, and even Alec cracked a wider smile at her joke.

"That's only because the gods deemed you an unworthy offering, so don't go and let your ego inflate over there, firecracker," Jace quipped, catching Maryse watching them interact from the corner of his eye.

"I wouldn't dare," she replied, smiling wryly and clutching a hand to her heart. "There wouldn't be enough room for an ego inflation from me with your ego running rampant."

Alec chuckled quietly beside Jace, a rare sound from his reticent friend and Isabelle was smiling widely at all of them. He knew they'd been won over by Clary, but, then, he'd never doubted they would be. Clary seemed to fit seamlessly into every other aspect of his life, so why should his family be any different?

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"Alright, talk to me."

Alec's request was unsurprising, as Jace knew it was only a matter of time before he began asking questions.

He'd waited for the dinner rush, thankfully, as Clary leapt up to start serving and Isabelle slipped into Maryse's room upstairs to return emails with the promise that she'd "grill" him when she returned.

"What do you think of her?" Jace asked, in part to stall for time while he thought of what to say.

Alec rolled his eyes and replied, "I'll know what to think of her when you stop stalling. Now tell me what's going on here."

With a sigh, Jace had to acknowledge that he'd have to come clean about all of this. He'd ended up basically telling Maryse that the story they'd fed her was a lie and he didn't think he'd be able to lie to his best friend.

"We met four days ago by the bus stop. She'd bought a ticket for the midnight bus, but it never came so she was stranded. I took her home with me and let her stay the night. The next day, we figured out that the bus was shut down until the end of the week, so I got her a job and she and her awful cat have been staying with me ever since."

Alec waited a moment before replying to Jace's admission with, "So you two aren't together?"

"Well," Jace began, choosing his words very carefully, "We weren't really together until yesterday when she kissed me, but there has always been something going on between us."

Again, Alec paused, studying Jace intensely before returning, "You look like you're doing a lot better."

It was a simple statement, but Jace knew it was loaded with months and months of concern for his well-being.

He wanted to roll his eyes at his brother and shrug the statement off, but he knew the validity of it. He'd always been closed off to an extent, a side effect of being raised by the Waylands and not the Lightwoods. This exhibited itself in relatively careless behavior in high school and his brief college career. He'd been a bit of a slut, though he was ashamed to admit it, and garnered very few real friends, but he'd always been close with his family and he'd enjoyed the relatively superficial life he'd developed for himself.

But when Max died all of that changed for him.

His little brother had always been a vestige of purity in a world that Jace had been taught to think of as corrupt and, when he died, Jace felt a part of himself die as well.

The death of Max affected everyone differently. Isabelle felt incredibly guilty and developed issues with their parents, fighting with them and blaming them to deflect some of the guilt she'd claimed for herself. After some time and support, she'd managed to mostly recover and move on with her life.

Alec became even more quiet for a while and eventually decided to come out to the family as gay, a reveal that took no one by surprise. He too had been able to move on with time.

Their parents had divorced. Robert worked himself to death to separate himself from it all, while Maryse had taken to focusing on them to avoid it. She hadn't yet recovered, but she was able to find other things to divert her focus.

Jace, on the other hand, had almost completely shut off.

He left college, with no intentions of returning, and moved back home to be closer to the family, but as his siblings and father left and picked up the remnants of their lives, he stayed put, determined to live as little of his as possible. He worked, visited his mother, and returned home. He rarely made time for friends and his personal life was nonexistent.

He'd essentially decided that his life wasn't worth living and he wasn't even entirely sure why he couldn't recover.

And then he'd met Clary.

The change was obvious. He was laughing and smiling and going dancing and flirting. There was something about her that ignited him and brought him back to the land of the living.

There was something so pure about her, even if she didn't see it.

So Alec's statement and everyone's concern with Clary's arrival and existence in his life was without a doubt warranted.

With a meaningful glance towards the redhead glibly waiting tables, unaware of the impact she'd had on his life, Jace replied, "Yeah. I'm doing better."