Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to The Mortal Instruments or any of its associations.
Jonathon turned toward the sound, giving Clary his back, just as the ropes around her gave completely and her arms and trunk were freed.
There was nothing but silence coming from upstairs, and Jonathon rose to his feet, starting for the stairs to check out the situation. Clary knew she was going to miss her opportunity to make a move if he left.
She lurched forward, using what she could of her weight to topple over, her legs still secured to the chair.
Jonathon wasn't able to turn around in time to avoid Alec's pocketknife digging into his calf, and his scream ripped through the silence. Blood spurted from the wound and painted Clary's face as they crumpled together to the floor.
Clary yanked the knife back out to climb up the length of him, the movement hindered by the chair, and started to drive the knife home in his arm.
He grabbed her arms and rolled them over violently. Clary cried out as her ankle twisted against the leg of the chair, the rope pulling tight and spraining it. Jonathon sat on her stomach, her arms trapped beneath his knees, and swung his fist down toward her face.
Clary managed to roll out of the way fast enough that his fist crashed into the tile behind her head, and his curses drowned out the sound of her blood rushing through her ears. She managed to free her hand with the knife while he was distracted, and dug it into him again.
Jonathon blinked at the new injury, falling silently into shock as he gazed down at her hand on the handle of the knife and the blade tucked to the hilt in his right shoulder. It was exactly where Jace had stabbed him all those years ago, and before Jonathon could react, Clary took a page out of Jace's book and stabbed him another time.
He fell off of her eventually, though he was still conscious. His eyes were glazed over in shock, and his whole front was drenched in blood.
Clary didn't know how long it would last, so she quickly sat up and started yanking at the ties on her ankles that were securing them to the chair. She felt Jonathon's fingers as he weakly, half-heartedly reached for her to stop her, but she just moved out of the way and kept working at the ties.
There was a bang from upstairs, following quickly by several more, and Clary's heart choked in her throat when a second gunshot rang out.
Distantly, Clary heard sirens sounding.
When she was finally freed completely from the chair, she limped toward the stairs, but she wasn't on the first one before more of the banging sounded and someone stumbled onto the top landing.
She saw gold, but she only had a moment to register Jace there before he was stumbling down the stairs toward her.
His shirt was black, but there was something different about it now than when she had seen it earlier. It looked darker, heavier, and it wasn't until he reached the last step and sagged against her that she felt the hot wetness of it against her hands.
When she pulled them away from his chest to look at them, they were stained red.
Jace dragged her toward the front door.
''Call... The others...'' he whispered weakly. She ducked under his arm, trying her best to support some of his weight over her shoulders, but he was much larger than she was. ''Tell them... To hurry... Before the other cops... Get here...''
Jace noticed they were lagging, slowed down by him, and he moved away from her, shoving her toward the door.
''Go...'' he said, sagging back against the wall.
''What?'' she demanded, turning to face him. His face was drawn in pain and frighteningly pale. Clary felt her heart sink to her stomach. ''Jace, we need to-''
''Go... You have... To make it out... I will only... Slow you down...''
Jace sunk to the floor.
Clary fell down next to him, catching his head in her lap. ''No,'' she said, feeling hot tears start down her cheeks. ''I'm not leaving you.''
''Not for long...'' he whispered, his eyes glazing over. ''I will see you... In my dreams...''
''Jace,'' she hissed, angered by his willingness to give up, shaking her head down at him. She tried to swallow past the lump in her throat to say more, but failed.
Staring down into his face, her anger died away as quickly as it had come.
''I told you... I would save you...'' he said, smiling weakly up at her.
The light was fading out of his golden eyes, and Clary felt her blood begin to freeze over in her veins. His eyes were distant, and his skin was growing cold as he lost more and more blood. She couldn't find the source to stop it, but she felt it soaking into her jeans as it pooled on the floor around her.
''Did I do a good job?'' he asked her quietly, his voice breaking.
''Jace...''
''My phone... Clary... Take it and go...'' he breathed. ''I told Alec who to call... If this happened... But you have to... Get back and tell them...''
''Stop talking like you aren't going to make it,'' she sobbed.
He reached up to play with a few of her curls that fell around him in a curtain.
''I love you,'' he said. His fingers tightened around her hair, and he used them to guide her face down to his. The pull was weak, but Clary followed it anyway.
She tried to kiss him, but it only made her cry harder. He whispered sweet nothings up to her, but he was fading fast. The words fell short after only a short while.
The sirens grew louder, and Clary pressed her forehead to Jace's when his eyes finally fluttered closed.
But there was nothing she could do for him. Not here and now.
Clary pressed one last chaste kiss to his lips before grabbing the evidence papers she'd dropped on the floor when Jonathon had grabbed her and slipping Jace's phone out of his pocket.
Without sparing a glance back, knowing her resolve would break if she did, she left.
Clary called Alec with Jace's phone, surprised that it still worked even after being saturated with blood. She'd taken off once she got outside, running for where they were supposed to be waiting.
They swung by in the car to pick her up before she even made it out of the neighborhood, tucking her and her bloodsoaked clothes into the car just before the police cars and ambulances passed by them.
That was when Clary finally broke.
Simon and Isabelle held her as Alec started to make the calls that needed to be made, Magnus holding his hand tightly in the space between them.
''We have it... Yeah... Jace was... He was shot...''
Clary tried to block out Alec's voice, and Isabelle helped by distracting her with changing her clothes in the backseat of the car while Magnus drove them back out of town.
''We'll come back for him,'' Simon said, squeezing her hand. ''We'll come back for Luke.''
''Everything is going to be okay,'' Isabelle said, running her hands up and down Clary's arms to warm her. But the cold was internal, and the warmth Isabelle was providing couldn't reach that far into her.
''I left him to die on the floor.''
Isabelle pressed her lips into a tight line, saying nothing. Clary moved away, to the side of the car, and pressed her forehead to the glass, staring out at the trees as they flashed by them.
The rest of the ride passed in absolute silence.
They had kept the hotel room in case they weren't able to recover the evidence, so once they reached it again, Clary crawled beneath the covers that she'd slept under with Jace the night before and closed her eyes.
''Clary...'' Isabelle said, kneeling beside her. ''You're covered in blood, you should get a shower or something. It will make you feel better...''
She did not reply or move.
''I'm upset too. And so are Alec and Magnus. Simon doesn't even like Jace and he is upset,'' Isabelle said softly. ''We are all upset, but we need to be strong right now.''
''Yeah,'' Magnus said, coming to sit on the edge of the cot beside her. ''We don't know what happened to him for sure. The ambulance might have reached him in time.''
A long few moments passed, and they'd nearly given up on reaching her when she finally rose from the cot, her face drawn and set in stubborn, stoic lines. They were sure her determination was more to get away from them than an actual response to what they had said.
She picked clothes out of her bag and went for the bathroom, and the others watched after her, solemn expressions on their faces.
Things progressed quickly after that. Turns out that some of Jace's connections had connections of their own in the FBI and other branches of the government, and they swarmed down relentlessly on Valentine and every other corrupt soul in his precinct. There were a lot of people still angry about Stephen Herondale's death, and they tore the place apart.
Valentine, Jonathon, and Jace had all been taken out of the house by ambulance, but the conditions of all three were being kept classified as the investigation drew on.
Clary had been banned from the hospital completely after she'd caused a scene when they refused to even tell her if Jace was alive or dead.
Luke was released a day after everything went down, and while Isabelle and Alec went back home to stay with their freshly returned parents and younger brother, she stayed in his apartment over the bookstore with him. Magnus went back to his apartment, and Simon went home to wait for his own family's return.
It was exactly two weeks before the main investigation finally finished, though there were still smaller ones taking place to weed out any further corruption in the precinct that might not have been brought to light yet.
Clary went to her father's trial, but he was not present. It was small and private, but they still would not confide the conditions of Valentine, Jonathon, or Jace. She even agreed to testify, in the hopes that they would divulge that information to her, but they refused.
Clary got a call from Jace's parents a few hours after the investigation was officially closed. They wouldn't say anything over the phone, just told her to come down to the hospital. Clary could hear the wavering in his mother's voice, and her chest felt heavy.
She threw on some clothes, some that her mother had kept at Luke's place. It broke her heart that he still had them, but at the same time she was extremely grateful. She was not yet cleared to go home and get her things from the crime scene, and she was tired of recycling the same outfits and living out of her duffel bag. Besides, she found them oddly comforting.
Clary made it to the hospital in record time. She was breathless, anxious to see Jace, but security stopped her at the doors. At first she thought it was because of the ban, which was supposed to have been lifted, but a few of the uniformed cops that had come to participate in the investigation were with them and her stomach turned nervously.
''Clarissa Morgenstern,'' one of the cops said, approaching her. ''We need you to come with us.''
Clary swallowed hard. ''I'm going to see Jace-''
''We know,'' he said, cutting her off gently. ''We are here to escort you down to the morgue.''
Every cell and every fiber of Clary's being went still. She must have stopped breathing entirely, because it only took a few moments for her world to start to narrow and twist and turn, and a few more for it to disappear completely.
Author's Note: Please do not kill me! Just look forward to the next chapter and conclusion of the story. I am so grateful for all of you hanging in there with my story, and I hope you enjoy the ending. PLEASE REVIEW!