Hey guys! Sorry to leave you on that cliffhanger... Ha ha. (Fun fact, I actually based the whole fic around that scene, and that was derived from that word...)

I'd just like to thank Julmclay for seNding the nicest PM ever. Also to Bookworm (BooksAreNyHeaven- I'll pm you when I finish this), Reemarie36, Shadowhunter167, and Fuzzywuzzybizzybuzzybee. WHo I can't believe are stil with me and am SoOoo thankful for - I love you guys!! Xx

And I'm also so happy to hear from all the new readers as well, welcome! X

Ice Cold

21

The dark haze that surrounded her deep unconsciousness began to clear. Like being abruptly woken up from a deep sleep by an annoying sibling.

As the fog faded, her eyelids seared with a burning light. In irritation, she fluttered them open. A blinding white, so glaring, hit her vision and it felt like her eyes were being stabbed.

Her head pounded.

The cold bit her skin.

Slowly this time, she blinked her eyes open.

Pain.

Lots of it.

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think.

Isabelle Lightwood had never been one to complain about pain, but this was taking the piss.

As she drew further into consciousness, she was able to decipher where the pain was coming from.

The whole right side of her body burnt and throbbed in a sickening rhythm with her heart. But her arm... oh god her arm.

She drew in a deep, shaking breath, but even that hurt.

God... she just wanted to slip back into unconsciousness. Maybe if she just closed her eyes the pain would go...

But she couldn't. There was something she needed to do.What was she missing...

Her eyes flung open.

CLARY!

And just like that the memory of the cliff came back to her.

She quickly turned her head, frantically trying to find her friend. Her breathing came hard and fast when she didn't immediately find the tell-tale red curls. Turning the other way she gasped.

Her hair wasn't the only thing that was red.

Blood pooled on the white snow around Clary's head. A halo of crimson.

And just like that Izzy quickly turned the other way, her insides lurched and she spewed bile on the floor.

Her stomach in agony over the effort, Izzy clutched her good arm around herself protectively and slowly turned to look at her friend again.

She looked dead. Maybe she was dead.

Her eyes were closed but her face was almost as pale as the fresh snow. She wasn't moving.

Izzy choked on a sob.

"Clary...?" She whispered.

The clothing on her friend rose the tiniest bit. She was breathing. She wasn't dead.

"Clary wake up..." Izzy's voice shook as tears blurred her vision.

It didn't look like Clary. It looked like a wax figure.

That wasn't her best friend.

Her stupid best friend.

"Clary please wake up," Izzy pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper, " I won't ever forgive you if you... You have to wake up."

Slowly, Izzy sat up. She had to bite her lip from crying out. A sharp pain tore through her side and spots dotted her vision. But that didn't matter right now. She had to ignore it.

It was then that she glanced up. Saliva gathered in her throat sickeningly as she saw how high they had fallen from.

We should have died...

It took a moment of blinking owlishly upwards for the ringing in her ears to quiet enough to hear an odd noise. It was like a howling animal.

It took another moment for her to realise that it was a howling animal.

"...Simon?" She breathed, looking up at the cliff.

She could just make out a dark mop of hair near the edge of the cliff, one of his hands tearing at it while the other threw a rock over the edge angrily as he made another noise.

An angry, heartbroken, primal noise.

Izzy's mind turned. He thought they had fallen into the pine trees miles below. No way would they have survived that. She didn't even know if they had both survived this yet...

"Simon!" She tried to call, but her body refused to take in a big enough breath to make it any louder than a croak.

Instead, she rose two fingers to her mouth and blew. The whistle was somewhat lost in the harsh icy wind. It wasn't enough.

Bracing herself for the pain, she drew in a deep breath, then blew as hard as she could.

The whistle this time was deafening to her own ears. The tinnitus started again. Simon dropped to his knees and peered over the edge.

Clary didn't move.

When Simons eyes frantically searched the mountain, Izzy rolled her eyes and winced before she yelled, "SIMON! JACE!"

This time a golden head joined the dark one at the cliff edge.

"ISABELLE!"

Izzy watched as it took a moment for them to spot the girls lying on the rock in the shade.

"OH GOD! IZZY, ARE YOU OKAY?!" Simon yelled.

Izzy had to take a moment to get her breath back.

"CLARY?" Jace yelled frantically.

Izzy chose her words carefully; so to give them as much detail as she could with as few words possible, "GET DOWN HERE QUICK YOU IDIOTS!"

That was all it took for both heads to banish back over the edge. Jace's came back a moment later, "WE'LL BE TWO MINUTES IZ." He promised.

"HURRY!" She warned.

Izzy lay her head back an glanced over at Clary. Oh god. Please let them get here soon.

ICECOLD

His insides had turned to ice. Why was everything always so cold?

He had made it out of the tunnel just in time to see the fall.

It wasn't real, his mind kept telling him... But his eyes... his heart knew it was.

His best friend and his girlfriend.

Simon wanted to throw up.

He wanted to collapse to the floor and never wake up.

His best friend and his girlfriend.

The ability to breathe escaped him.

It had escaped Jace too apparently. Simon vaguely noticed the blonde staring at the spot they had vanished. His eyes were vacant and glassy. He was still, unmoving.

But Simon couldn't stand to stay in the same place. He needed to hit something. He wanted to scream. He wanted to let mother nature know how much he HATED her.

He picked up a rock and threw it as far and hard as he could, a tell escaping him. He didn't know what he was saying, he hardly cared either. But it wasn't enough.

Time was lost as countless more rocks joined the first and he could feel his voice growing hoarse.

Jace had collapsed to his knees somewhere behind him. His head was in his hands and Simon couldn't see his face. Fingers pulled at his blonde hair so harshly Simon thought it was a miracle he hadn't pulled it out. He noticed numbly that he was doing the same thing to his own head.

In one boneless heap Simon collapsed to the floor, the tears finally erupting.

Through the agony in his body, he somehow heard the whistle.

The whistle he knew oh so well.

The whistle he pictured accompanied with a cocked hip and a sassy expression.

His eyes snapped open, tears forgotten.

Either his mind was playing tricks on him, or...

He scrambled over to the edge and looked over hungrily, his eyes madly scanning the area.

"SIMON! JACE!"

If he had thought he'd imagined the whistle, that was definitely real.

"ISABELLE!" He screamed as loud as he could, eyes frantically trying to spy the brunette.

There! On a rock impossibly far to the right. Impossibly far down.

"OH GOD IZZY! ARE YOU OKAY?"

Jace had appeared beside him, desperately looking for the pair, "CLARY?"

Izzy was perched on an elbow looking up at them, but Clary...

The answer was enough to terrify them both. "GET DOWN HERE QUICK YOU IDIOTS!"

Simon didn't need to be told twice.

He scurried back quickly and looked around for a way down. They would have to do some rock climbing.

Jace leaned back over to yell Izzy something and then speedily turned back, marching over to Cameron's pack and rummaging through it frantically.

He pulled out the long, thick rope and wasted no time by wrapping an end round a boulder twice and tying it off with some intricate knot.

Picking up the large backpack he swung it over his shoulder, then peered up at Simon.

"Come on man, snap out of it. " He called, "We need to be as quick as we can. They need us."

Simon hadn't realised he had been standing frozen the whole time. And like someone pressed play, he sprung to life and quickly grabbed the other pack to secure on his shoulders.

Jace ripped a piece of fabric off the hem of his shirt and wrapped it round his right hand. "I suggest you do the same; rope burn can get pretty nasty."

Simon did.

"You know how to do a slip knot?" Jace asked, busily wrapping a portion of rope round his waist.

Simon nodded.

"Okay, I'll go first. Then you pull the rope up once I'm down there and then follow. All good?"

Simon nodded again.

"Okay. Be careful with the rocks when you grab them: they're obviously unstable. I'll see you down there."

And with that Jace vanished over the the side of the mountain.

ICECOLD

Jace had gone rock climbing maybe once or twice in the past. But this was something new.

Most of the surfaces were covered with ice and more often then not the rocks fell from under his feet.

He was so set on his task he hardly noticed.

He couldn't feel his hands. His mind was numb. He had a goal. His movements were a blur. One foot down. One hand grab. Other foot down. Other hand grab.

It almost surprised him when he finally reached the flat rock.

Wasting no time, he quickly untangled himself from the rope and tugged on it twice to signal to Simon he had got down.

He didn't watch to see if Simon was pulling it up.

He turned and ran to his sister. Her eyes were shut and her brows furrowed. He skidded on his knees to her side.

"Izzy?" He asked, eyes wide as he shook her shoulder.

Her eyes blinked open. "Jace?"

"Oh god Iz, are you okay?" He asked, eyes roving over her body, trying to document her injuries.

"Clary." Izzy got out, "Clary's worse. Check on her. She may not have much time..."

Jace looked up and spied the red head a few feet away.

He stopped breathing.

Izzy was right.

That didn't look like Clary.

His mouth went dry.

That looked like a corpse.

Like something you'd see on TV.

Jace's heart stopped. He forgot how to breathe.

"Check on her Jace," Izzy prompted, "She needs you."

She needs me.

The thought somehow made it through the thick jelly that was his brain and he quickly got up to go to her side.

Clary...

There was so much blood. Surely it wasn't all hers?

"Clary." His voice broke, "Clary can you hear me."

Nothing.

"We need to get her out of the cold. Off the snow." Izzy murmured, her eyes shutting again.

But Jace didn't want to touch her. If he touched her it would be real.

"Jace." Izzy pushed firmly.

Shaking out of his trance he inched forward to pick her up.

"No." Izzy commanded quietly, "Her spine... It could be hurt." She recalled, "You have to drag her."

Jace swallowed dryly.

Spinal injury...

Mechanically he took off his he unzipped his jacket and peeled it off himself. Bending low, he cradled Clary's head as gently he would a newborn. He lifted it just high enough to slide his jacket under her head so it would lay on the fleece lining. He then moved round to her feet and picked them both up gently, trying his hardest to grab her injured leg from above the ankle.

It felt wrong to drag her. Her hair followed behind her, like a silky red veil. It left a thick trail of blood in the snow and Jace wanted to puke.

Izzy caught onto her brothers distress, "Head injuries bleed a lot." She assured. Though she didn't seem completely satiated with that explanation either.

Head injuries...

He pulled her away from the snow and nearer the rock wall into a small alcove. To call it a cave would be generous, but at least it blocked out the wind somewhat.

"Clary...?"

No one had noticed Simon had dropped down. His voice was broken.

The boy tore his gaze away from the body of his childhood best friend and towards his girlfriend. He went to kneel next to her.

"What hurts?" He asked gently.

"My arm... My side... My lungs." She listed off breathily.

"What do I..." He licked his dry lips, "Tell me what to do."

Izzy thought for a moment. "The cold... thats what's first... We're going to go into shock."

Simon nodded jerkily, knowing what to do. He inched his hands carefully under Izzy's back and knees. She hissed but nodded for him to continue, wrapping an arm around his neck.

Hesitantly he picked her up and got to his feet, carrying her over to where Jace had bought Clary. He shook off his jacket and wrapped it around Izzy once he had sat her against a wall.

"Clary needs the sleeping bag." Izzy informed, teeth chattering. "You need to check her for injuries and then get her into the sleeping bag."

Jace nodded and moved leaned over Clary, then hesitated. "Um... How do I...?"

Izzy rolled her eyes, " Jace. Get over your stupid teenaged frigidity. Just lift up her freaking top. I somehow don't think she'll mind."

Jace nodded, frowning at being called a frigid. With fumbling fingers he unzipped her oversized snow jacked and inched it open. He swallowed and then carefully peeled up the layers of clothing up to her chest, his hand brushing against bare torso.

"Simon, help him roll her over, keep her back as straight as possible."

Simon wordlessly got up to kneel next to Jace.

"Okay. Three, two..."

Together they slowly rolled her on her side.

Simon gasped. Jace felt ill.

Her back was a mass of mottled, dark bruising.

"Jesus Christ." Simon breathed.

"Iz," Jace asked, "What do we do about her head? It's still bleeding. There's a lot-," his voice broke, he cleared it, "there's a lot of blood..."

"Shouldn't we put pressure on it?" Simon asked.

Izzy frowned, "I'm not sure... If it wasn't her head I would say yes, but we don't want to make things worse..."

"... Levitate?" Jace suggested.

Izzy nodded slowly, "I guess. It should help with the bleeding at least. Sleeping bag first."

Jace numbly got to work on encasing Clary in the bag. Simon moved to sit next to Izzy, putting an arm around the girl who was now shivering.

"I called the emergency services." He said.

Both Izzy and Jace looked at him sharply, having forgotten all about ringing for help. "And..?"

"They said they're coming with a chopper as soon as they could. But they don't know where we are so we're going to have to flag them down."

Jace nodded, finishing his ministrations by zipping the bag up tight. He then moved round to sit cross legged behind her, lifting her head and lying it cradled in his lap.

He stroked her hairline softly. How was it she could look so broken but still so beautiful?

"Did they say anything else?" Izzy asked.

"Only that we were a code red missing persons profile and that we've been on most news stations across the world."

"Really?" She asked halfheartedly. It didn't really seem to matter to anyone. Not if Clary wasn't okay.

"They said they've been looking for our bodies for days..." Then added, "Oh. And merry Christmas guys." He said bitterly.

ICECOLD

They sat in silence for ages.

Trying to block out the biting wind as best as they could. Izzy had fallen asleep a while ago, Simon looked like he was about to. Jace just watched the shifting landscape, waiting for any sign of help. Trying to stop his thoughts from barging through. None of them were good.

He was startled by a low moan the girl lying in his lap emitted. He almost missed it.

"Clary?" He asked, stroking her smooth cheek with his thumb.

Her eyes opened sluggishly and Jace's lips split into a grin. He would never get sick of seeing that deep green.

But they were glassy and unfocused.

"Clary?" He asked softly.

Her eyes looked around unseeingly.

"Clary?" He said again, worried now, "Look at me."

And she did. Her pupils struggled to focus. Jace felt a suspicious stinging in his eyes.

"S'mon?" She slurred.

She sounded so unlike herself. "It's Jace." He corrected gently.

She was still for a moment, then muttered something completely unintelligible. A betraying droplet rolled down his cheek. "You're going to be okay Clary." He assured, stroking her cheek.

Her eyes slid shut.

ICECOLD

It didn't feel real to see the red helicopter roving around the mountain.

It felt like Jace was watching it through someone else's eyes. Or on a TV screen.

He had vaguely noticed Simon get up to stand on the edge of the rock, waving his arms about wildly.

As the chopper approached, the blades drew an even harsher wind that sent the snow whirling around them in an icy cloud. Jace had to squint to see two paramedics rappel down from the machine. A cage-like contraption followed them soon after they landed.

"Who's hurt?" A paramedic barked at Simon, yelling to be heard over the noise of the blades.

"The girls." Was his reply.

Izzy pointed at Clary, "Her first."

And then one was in Jace's face while the other quickly unzipped the sleeping bag.

"What are her injuries boy?" He asked hurriedly.

"Her head... Her back... There was lots of blood." Jace supplied.

"Okay son, you can move over now."

But he didn't want to move over. He looked down at her peacefully resting head on his lap.

But she's not resting. She's unconscious.

"Come on lad, let us do our job." The medic said a tad more sympathetically. "We're trying to save her, Kid."

Jace hesitated, then lifted Clary's head gently and shuffled away, the medics hand taking the weight over gently.

"Okay," The man muttered to the other, "We've got a sizeable lump back here. Has she woken up son?" He asked Jace.

"Yes, only for a few seconds. She didn't really make any sense, and she was struggling to focus her eyes." He said numbly.

And she didn't recognise me, he thought childishly.

The medic nodded professionally, not betraying anything.

"We've got to get this kid outta here stat." He said to the other man

One rushed to the cage that had dropped and came back with a backboard. Together they rolled Clary onto it, making sure to keep her back as straight as possible.

The rather gentle manoeuvre was rapidly abandoned as they quickly strapped her down to it and then lifted her unconscious body to the cage that had been dropped earlier.

Jace watched uneasily as she was slid into the contraption, the door shut behind her, and then the whole thing lifted precariously into the air, being reeled up into the chopper.

They were going home.

Jace should be happy.

But he would give it up in a heartbeat to be back in the cave, when all of them were safe... When Clary wasn't dying, a voice in the back of his mind whispered.

ICECOLD

Kids are always asked what they want to be when they are older. The younger they are, generally the most outlandish the answers get.

Pirate, princess, cowboy, mermaid.

As they grow the anwers become more solid. Astronaut, spy, president, pop star.

Until finally they're older and come up with moe realistic answers. Doctors, lawyers, artists.

If one were to have asked Simon this question throughout his childhood he would have answered with the same thing; helicopter pilot, helicopter pilot, helicopter pilot.

He supposed the obsession came from his idolisation of his father, who used to come home with heroic stories of his time in the military as a pilot. A real life James Bond in a helicopter.

Mum used to tell him tales of Dad fighting bad guys from the air before tucking him in at night.

It had been the coolest thing ever.

His dream had only been crushed a short while ago. Maybe a year or two back when he got his eyes re-tested and they found he was slightly colourblind.

He had been heartbroken for weeks.

Clary had been there the whole time. Even when Simon had insisted he was fine about it, she knew he wasn't. But she wouldn't bring it up. And Simon couldn't be more thankful for that. She had just been there.

No matter how stupid or petty his problems were, Clary had always been there.

When Simon got into a helicopter for the first time in his life, the only thought running through his head was how he needed to get out. Now.

He wasn't scared. It wasn't out of fear.

But his eyes were fixed on the red-head he had grown up with.

Clary had always been there.

And he needed to be far away.

Now.

Clary couldn't be ill. Clary couldn't be dying. Clary - his best friend Clady - couldn't have been the one the medics were resussitating when he entered the flying contraption.

Clary was meant to be there for him. She was always there for him.

Whether it was to overcome his fear of clowns when he was five years old, or to face another birthday he wouldn't see his father on.

And now he was in a flying machine that embodied a memory of one of the many times she had been there for him.

And his mind couldn't help screaming she might not be there next time.

He wanted to get out. He needed to.

"Whoa!" A voice rang "Son, you need to breathe."

But he couldn't.

How did one breathe again?

My best friends heart had just stopped.

A hand was on his shoulder. A voice was giving commands.

But his vision tunnelled.

His ears rang.

His thoughts were falling down a rabbit hole...

NOT CLARY.

"Panic attack?"

"Geez, this boys got one heck of a fever."

"He's had one for days now."

Something was slipped over his head. A light pressure assaulted his face.

"Okay Son, that should make it easier now. Try again now, big breathes."

And he did.

His chest rose and fell exaggeratedly as he put in all his effort.

Cold air rushed into his lungs. Why was everything so cold?

But there was something else too. The air tingled and travelled to his head. His eyes were blinking.

"That's right lad, have a nice sleep and you'll be safe when you wake up."

Sleep! No, he couldn't possibly! He had to... there was something he had to do... there was something... something that... something...

ICECOLD

There was a relative quiet that fell upon the helicopter. The blades were still deafening. The sounds of her boyfriends chest rattling with every unconscious rise and fall it took was deafening in its own right.

But compared to the frantic running and shouting that took place at the beginning of the ride, you could almost say it was peaceful.

They had 'stabalised Clary as well as they could'. Simon had finally been sedated after his fever-induced panic episode. Izzy had been given some pretty hard drugs herself. Everything was sligthly bleary around the edges, and she struggled to piece thoughts and sights together.

But she had still been coherent enough to witness her friend stop breathing. To notice the men saving her life. To see Jace stop breathing along with her.

She had been watching her brother through the whole procedure of getting her heart to start again. He had been silent the whole time. But his eyes were distraught.

Tears were sliding down his cheeks. His lips were mouthing wordless pleas.

Both hands clutched to one of hers tightly. Almost like a prayer.

He looked Broken.

Izzy had started welling up then.

What was happening to Clary wasn't real. Couldn't be.

But the look on Jace's face was enough to sober anyone out of any drugged haze.

It broke HER.

Her mind was numb. It only ticked on again when the helicopter made a violent lurch downwards and made her tummy do flops.

The medics and pilots were all talking - much too quickly for Izzy to follow- until the door swung open. The light hit Izzy right in the eyes and she blinked sluggishly against it.

Then suddenly she was being moved. They lifted her into what she recognised as a gurney.

The next few minutes her eyes followed the fuzzy, artificial, bright ceiling lights of the building she was being moved around in. They were moving so quickly it was making her dizzy.

Her stomach lurched. Nothing came up; there was nothing.

There was buzzing noises that she vaguely recognised as shouting voices.

She was feeling sleepy.

"... Lightwood... Shock."

She was a Lightwood.

A flash of red caught at the edge of her vision. She thickly moved her head to see another gurney rushing past, overtaking her.

Voices grew more panicked. "...CODING!"

She felt like all of this should mean something. Her brain was too slow to catch up. It wasn't working properly. Before she even noticed, her eyes fell shut and she knew no more.

ICECOLD

I won't do a review reply because I'm not sure if this will post as it is - I have b limited internet (in the Australian outback(!))

I just wanted to ask you guys a question actually. I've just been rereading this fic and cringing at the earlier chapters (I will have to revisit those...)

I feel like I've come a long way in my writing and I was wondering - completely without arrogance; I'm genuinely curious - as to whether you think my style has changed? Or the latest chapters are better then the first few?

I might just be thinking it's different because I'm a perfectionist, but I wanted to ask anyway.

Alssooo, I'm really trying my hardest to keep this as real as possible. How a group of teenagers would act to certain situations. If any of you think something doesn't seem that real, could you let me know. It would really be helping me out, I'm trying to improve. So yeah... That'd be awesome

Thanks guys! You're amazing!!!!

Til next time X