So, this chapter is a bit of a filler, but it also sets things up to become more dramatic once again. Because there wasn't enough drama already, right?

You get to see the characters from a different perspective. And you get to see a bit of their true thoughts and feelings coming through.

Also, in my life, I am now a redhead. My friends are now calling me the names of several redheaded people. One is calling me Clary, one is calling my Lzzy (after Lzzy Hale, the singer), and several are calling me Ariel

Hope you like it. It was damn fun to write ;)

Sometimes I think my brother knows me more than anybody in the world. And then, sometimes, I think he knows me the least.

He seriously thought I was going to let him get away with not going with me to see the therapist my father had booked for us. Jace seemed to be taking delight in Jon's reaction, and I couldn't blame him.

Out of all of us, Jace was the most relaxed. He seemed perfectly at ease with the thought of spilling all of his thoughts and feelings to a complete stranger. I figured it had something to do with what he said about having therapy before. Which begged the question about just what he had needed therapy for. It couldn't be about his parents. He would have told me if that was it.

The more I thought about it, the more my mind began to race, my thoughts wandering to scary places. Apparently, something big had happened in Jace's life, something traumatizing if he'd needed therapy. And I had no idea what it was. Of course, that led to more questions, a kind of suspicion I didn't quite like building up in my mind like cobwebs, hindering my thoughts. Was the traumatizing event what caused his relocation to our town? And if it wasn't, then what was? I had never thought before to wonder why he had moved here, why they all had. But he hadn't been going to a therapist when he got here. He'd already recovered. These were separate events. And I didn't know anything about either of them.

Suddenly, I was realizing that I didn't know near as much about Jace as I thought I did. I looked at him from the corner of my eye as we entered the office. He smiled over at me, putting his arm around my shoulder as I crutched along, making clicking noises against the tile with every step. I smiled back, but I knew it wouldn't reach my eyes. Jace frowned but didn't say anything, just squeezed my shoulder gently.

The building we'd been walking through was a medical building, and the walls and floors had both been a sterile white, the air cold and stiff. But the moment we stepped through the doors into the room we'd been directed to, it was a complete 180.

The room was warm, the walls a soft beige and the floors carpeted. Pictures of things like flowers and sunsets were famed on the walls and the chairs stationed around the room looked large and cozy. Jon scoffed. "It's like a freaking dentist. Put some nice decor and some fish out there and all of the sudden you're supposed to think you're not about to go through serious pain and trauma."

I looked at my brother with raised brows. "You used to cry at the dentist. Are you telling me that you're going to start crying here?"

Jon rolled his eyes at me, acting the tough guy as he walked up to the receptionist stiffly. I chuckled before following him, Jace still by my side. After giving the lady at the desk our names, the three of us meandered over to take seats under one of the cheery paintings. There was only one other woman in the room, and she watched us skeptically, her lips pressed into a thin line. I tried not to look at her, uncomfortable with how she was glowering at us. Jace and I talked quietly while we waited for our names to be called. Jon was busy on his phone, typing rapidly.

Jace was playing with my fingers when I heard my name called. My head snapped up and my eyes locked on the man standing in the doorway leading to what appeared to be a long hallway. He smiled gently at me, his eyes a warm brown color as he gestured me to him.

I stood up slowly, looking at Jace hesitantly as I gathered my crutches under my arms. He stood with me and kissed me on the lips briefly, smiling encouragingly. "You'll be fine. You're just going to talk. I'll see you in a bit, okay?" I chewed my lip for a moment before nodding.

Jon watched me nervously as I passed him, his posture stiff and anxious as I met the smartly-dressed man in the doorway.

New POV

I sat down in the big chair behind my desk, pushing some papers to the side and shifting through them until I found a bank sheet.

I looked up at the girl sitting on the opposite side of the desk, noting how nervous she looked. Her eyes skittered around the room as though waiting for something to jump out and grab her. Her gaze continuously flickered to the door to my office, avoiding looking at me entirely.

I frowned. Gretel, our receptionist, had assured me that the girl and her boyfriend were perfectly at ease. She'd told me to be careful with the other boy, who seemed much more tense. I had agreed with her evaluation at first, seeing the way he looked after his sister as the door closed like her may never see her again. On the other hand, Clarissa had appeared completely calm, smiling with her boyfriend as though she had not a care in the world. Now, she seemed to be anxious, her eyes fluttering around the room and her body fidgeting.

"Hello, Clarissa," I said softly, seeing her head whip around to face me, her green eyes wide and startled. "I'm Alaric Goodman. It's nice to meet you." I held my hand out to her and she took it politely, smiling briefly.

"You too," she said quietly, seeming to have relaxed the slightest bit. "And you can call me Clary. Nobody calls me Clarissa."

I nodded with a smile, writing down a quick note with just the words 'full name'. "So, Clary," I started, folding my hands over my desk and looking at her as she leaned back slightly in her seat, seeming to grow more comfortable as I spoke. "What brings you here today?"

Her eyes wandered around my office a bit more calmly now, her eyes growing curious. She seemed to forget my question for a moment before jumping back into the conversation with a short shrug. "My brother and my boyfriend thought I could benefit from therapy. So, here I am."

I nodded, used to answers like this. The girl, Clary, pulled her wild hair over one shoulder, running her fingers through the red mass. I jotted a few letters down, a code for the nervous habit I was witnessing. It may turn out to be completely irrelevant, but it could also hint to her discomfort in the future.

"So, that was them out in the waiting room with you? Your brother and boyfriend?"

She nodded, smiling faintly. "Yeah. My brother, Jon, and my boyfriend, Jace."

I already knew that, of course. Her father had called me when he was setting up the meeting for all three of them. He'd told me the vaguest amount of information about what Clary had gone through, hinting around at some kind of sexual and emotional abuse. He'd given me no details about the other two, other than that Jonathan was her brother, and he was simply there to make Clary feel less awkward about accepting help. I wasn't so sure of that, but we would find out when it came time for his appointment.

"How long have you and Jace been dating?" I asked, seeing the way she smiled and her eyes lit up his name was spoken. Like any teen in love, she appeared eager to talk about her significant other. I was a bit concerned though, that Jace may have something to do with the abuse mentioned by Valentine.

"Not long," Clary admitted with a faint blush on her cheeks. "We were...talking for a couple weeks before we actually started dating though."

I nodded. "How long ago was it that you two first became romantically involved in any way?"

The petite girl chewed her lips, her eyes seeming vacant for a moment as she thought. "I think it was the...fourth day I knew him that he said he may have feelings for me. Maybe a month or so ago?"

I smiled encouragingly, scratching that down on my paper. It wasn't surprising to hear of a teen relationship that had moved very quickly. People Clary's age tended to have quicker, more passionate relationships than adults.

"So, when did you two formally get together then?"

Her eyes flickered upwards a she tried to remember the date. Then she frowned slightly. "A couple weeks ago, after my accident."

I wrote that quickly, my attention peaking at the word 'accident'. But I didn't want to move away from our current topic just yet.

"Why was there such a time gap between when you knew he liked you to when you actually began dating?"

Clary's open body language seemed to suddenly close in on itself. Her shoulders hunched forward slightly, her eyes going down and darkening while her hands clasped around each other in her lap. I put a star next to the words 'delayed relationship'. I'd found the first thing that would close her off from me.

That was the easy part of my job. It was easy to speak to a person and figure out what ticked them off. The tricky part was finding out why.

When she finally spoke, she did so slowly. "I...had a boyfriend at the time. We'd been dating for over half a year."

I forced my face to remain unsurprised, jotting down another quick note. "Who was this boyfriend? And what kind of terms are you on with him?"

Perhaps this line of questions would lead to a few answers about what her father had alluded to over our phone call.

I could see her shut down. There were signs when a client wanted nothing to do with a subject-head tilted down, eyes narrowed, shifting, fingers tightening to fists-and Clary was clearly upset by my questions about her ex-boyfriend. I quickly wrote it down before retreating back to safer territory.

"It's okay, you don't have to talk about it just yet if you don't want to. Why don't you tell me a bit more about Jace? What's he like?" She brightened again.

For the rest of the hour in my office, she spoke of Jace and her brother. She seemed to hold them in extremely high esteem, talking about them with the kind of revered tone usually reserved for one's religion or god.

As a firm believer that everybody had something to live for-something that pushed them to move forward every day-I was certain that these two boys were Clary's.

When her session was done, I knew quite a bit about her childhood through stories she'd told me of Jonathan as a kid.

Her relationship with her brother was a close one. They were the kind of siblings who were healthy for each other which sometimes wasn't true. Many siblings drove each other to be a different person than they would otherwise. Rarely is that a good thing.

The sessions got interesting when it was Jace's turn. He sat right down, calm as could be. He smiled politely at me, shaking my hand as I greeted him.

"Just to let you know, I've been in therapy before. Since I was twelve."

I raised a brow. "Mr. Morgenstern didn't tell me about that."

Therapy for someone who had been through it all before was different than for someone who hadn't. I could be less evasive, less careful. I could typically ask someone who'd been in a few sessions before some more invasive questions and have them answer instead of becoming defensive.

Jace shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. "He doesn't know, so that's not really his fault."

I nodded slowly. "Does Clary know then?"

Jace frowned, chewing his cheek a bit."Yes. Bust she doesn't know why," he answered slowly. "I haven't told her yet."

I scribbled something down quickly as Jace averted his eyes from me.

I hoped that I wasn't wrong about Jace. Clary clearly relied on him, and it was apparent that he knew everything about her. But it seemed as though he hadn't been returning the favor. He knew everything about her and she knew nothing about him. It was a typical set-up for high-school relationships, but Clary had seemed like more than a lovestruck teenage girl. She seemed wiser, more mature. I couldn't imagine her letting a one-sided relationship slide.

"I see," I said slowly. "And what's your relationship with her like?"

Jace smiled a bit, looking almost proud. "Amazing. She's amazing. It's still new to both of us, but I think we're doing pretty well so far."

I nodded along with him, noticing the enthusiasm he'd seemed to pick up.

"And how did the two of you get together?"

The teenager frowned a bit. "Well, when I moved here, I noticed her right away. I had met her friend, Magnus, earlier. He introduced us when he figured out that we had close class schedules. The first thing I noticed was that she looked almost ill. She was pale and she was...well, she wasn't really quiet or sad exactly, but she seemed...I don't know, maybe a bit subdued. But she was absolutely beautiful still. Anyway, she was really reluctant to show my sister around when Magnus suggested it. She did, though. Then, when I was looking for my next class, she saw me in the halls. She was running late to her class because of Isabelle, but she still offered to show me to my next class, since we had it in common. She was really nervous still though, like she was afraid of me. We ended up sitting next to each other in Spanish. I really hit it off by picking on her for her bad grammar." I raised a brow and he rushed to explain. "I was just joking around, trying to make conversation. I'm not sure she took it that way, though. But she definitely wasn't good at speaking it. I'm fluent though, and the teacher assigned me as her tutor.

Then, of course," he continued, "when class was over, Magnus called me over while he and Clary were arguing about something. Then, she dropped the bomb that she had a boyfriend-which completely ruined my hopes of winning her over with some charm. Then, the boyfriend showed up. He looked calm enough to see me, and Clary met him halfway in the hall. She looked like she was flirting with him, and he flirted right back, holding onto her and all that coupley stuff." I noticed him grimace at the thought. "He introduced himself and shook my hand. Then he made some comment about how awful she is at Spanish. She looked so embarrassed, so I kind of defended her. Then he just brushed me off and pulled her away to their next class." The boy shook his head.

"He seemed like an ass, but he didn't seem that bad. I hated seeing them act all lovey-dovey though. It was just plain jealousy," he admitted with a chuckle. He pushed a hand through his hair.

"Did you find out what was making her so hesitant with you?"

Jace nodded, but didn't elaborate, not appearing open to this topic. I nodded.

"So, you know Clary fairly well then," I stated. "Why haven't you opened up to her about your situation?"

He frowned, his head tipping to the right slightly. "'My situation'?" he asked.

I tapped my pen on the desk a few times. "The reason behind your therapy and your move to this town," I elaborated, watching him closely as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"I just...there's more important things at the moment than my past," he brushed off. "I'll tell her at some point, I'm sure. But she's going through a lot right now and I don't want to pile this on her too."

I leaned forward, folding my hands together. "Why don't you tell me then? Get it off your chest."

Jace raised a brow but shrugged. "Okay. I moved here because my adoptive father cheated on my adoptive mother. They figured a move would be the perfect thing for them to reconnect and forget about the past. So they dragged me, my sister, Isabelle, and my brother, Alec, to this tiny little town and made us go to the tiny-ass school up the road. I'm glad we did now, but I wasn't all that ecstatic at the time. Sometimes, I still think of all the bad things I've ended up caught in the middle of and I wish we'd never moved from our old neighborhood. But then I think of Clary, and that I could have gone my whole life without ever meeting her, and I realize just how painful the thought is." The teen shook his head, his hair falling back into place from where he'd put his hand through it earlier. "I don't know how I lived without her. I sure as hell couldn't do it now."

I nodded along. Even when talking about his family, the topic had easily managed to swing back around to Clary. I had noticed the same thing in Clary. The two's lives seemed to revolve around each other. It was a good thing as much as it was a bad thing.

It was good because it meant they truly cared for the other, and could rely on each other. It was bad because, often times, relationships like that became borderline obsessive, and one or both parts of the couple could become overly dependent on the other. It was dangerous to love someone like these two loved each other.

All love was dangerous, of course. But that doesn't mean that it's not worth the risk.

"So," I started after a moment of silence. "You father cheated on your mother? How has life been since then?"

The boy's energy seemed to go down a bit, but he didn't appear averted to the topic, just less enthusiastic than when Clary had come up.

Throughout the rest of the hour, I managed to pull a bit more about his family from him. There was more to it, I was certain, but I could get that out of him in the future. For now, I wanted to puzzle out the present between these three.

When Jonathan came into my office, I was confronted with my favorite kind of patient.

He sat down right in the chair, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes blank. "Just a disclaimer, there's nothing wrong with me. I'm only here to get my sister to come. She wouldn't do it unless Jace and I both came."

I pushed down a smile, nodding along and leaning forward, resting my face on the back of my hands. "So, there's nothing you want to talk about? Nothing at all in your life you feel mildly discontent with?"

Jonathan rolled his eyes, slumping further in his seat. Supposedly, he was older than Clary. He sure didn't act like it. I wasn't surprised, however. Many times, certain experiences can age a person more than any amount of years can. If only I could discover what made Clary so wise beyond her years. Out of the three of them, the problem seemed to be rooted in her.

I was afraid that getting it out of her wouldn't be so simple. But her brother seemed like the kind to have loose lips. It comes with an adolescent's temper.

"No. I'm just perfect. Why don't you call my sister back in so we don't have to waste either of our time. She's the one who really needs you."

I made a noncommittal noise. "That would void your sister and your agreement, would it not? I do believe that she could benefit from my help. And I believe you wouldn't be under any kind of harm to keep up appearances now, would you?"

I saw him shift uncomfortably, seeming to have run out of excuses to get out of here. "Whatever," he finally muttered. I nodded.

"So, you're very determined to get your sister help. You seem awfully protective, doing this for her."

The boy shrugged. "She's my little sister, and she's hurting. Why wouldn't I do this for her?" He ran a hand through his pale hair before dropping it back to his chest. "Besides, it's partially my fault she's in this position. I'd sit here for the rest of my life if it would fix it." His voice had taken on the tone that a man on a mission held.

"How is it your fault?" I asked, tucking that away in my memory but keeping the notepad on the other side of my desk. Jonathan wasn't the kind I could take notes with.

His eyes, nearly identical to his sister's now that I thought about it, narrowed a bit. "It was my best friend that destroyed her life for seven months."

I raised my head a bit in interest. "I see. Are you still friends with them?"

He looked almost insulted by my question. "Are you serious? Why the hell would I keep a friendship with that bastard? He fucking abused my little sister! He's a psychopath. He tried to kill our dog just because Jace gave it to her. He's crazy."

I could detect hurt in his voice just as much as outrage.

The pieces of Jon, Jace, and Clary's stories were beginning to match up now. Her ex-boyfriend must have been Jon's best friend. That's why she didn't want to talk about him. He was the one who had abused her.

She was clearly scarred by what had happened. And, although her brother hid it well behind his anger, he was hurt as well.

"But you were extremely close with him at one point, yes?" He nodded reluctantly. "It has to hurt to see your best friend turn into a monster like that."

I saw the light click on in his eyes, his jaw clench, his hands tightening into fists where they'd moved to rest on the chair arms.

"I know what you're doing," he snapped. "You're pulling shit out of me. You think I won't notice if you're careful, but I'm not stupid. Did Clary even tell you anything about this, or are you using me to find out about her?" He looked furious now, but I said nothing. "You want to know what happened to her?" His face was a mask of wrath. "My fucking best friend was dating her. And he was making her starve herself, he was calling her names and treating her like shit. He was hitting her and coercing her into having sex with him, and trying to rape her when she refused. And I missed all of it because I was blinded by our 'friendship'. Jace, a stranger of all people, was the one that had to save her. Because I was blind.

"And that's why I'm here," he finished. "Because I already screwed her over by not seeing him hurting her right under my nose. And I refuse to screw her over more by ruining her chance to get help."

I nodded slowly. "You're a good brother."

He shrugged, looking uncomfortable now that his outburst was over. "Any older brother would protect their little sister. It's our job."

I chuckled. "But it's one you would do even if it weren't. I know many siblings who aren't near as caring as you two are. You're a rarity. A teenager willing to take on the safety and happiness of another person, to protect and love them. Not every brother is like you. Some would rather see their sister dead than take care of her. Clary is lucky to have you."

He looked away, nearly rolling his eyes. "Clearly I'm not very good at it, though. Sebastian still hurt her. Whether I put an end to it when I finally found out or not, I still let this go on for months."

I smiled gently. "Jonathan, you can't know everything. If Clary wasn't talking to you about it, there was no way you could have known. Abusive people aren't typically fools. If they are, nobody would stay near them. This Sebastian, he's manipulative. He's careful, a good actor. And he's smart. " I paused. "Tell me, is your sister stupid?"

He looked at me like I'd just kicked his dog. "Excuse me?"

I raised a brow carefully. "Is Clarissa stupid?"

His eyes darkened. "No." I could see that he was about to start on a tirade.

"She's intelligent, yes?" I asked, cutting off his rant before it began. He nodded warily. "It would take a lot to fool her. Sebastian has to be smart to have tricked her into thinking he was a good boyfriend. Abusers are master manipulators. They could convince you that the sky is purple if they talked long enough. If he wanted to make you think he was being decent to your sister, there's no way you would have thought otherwise. Even she was fooled by him."

He shook his head, his angry mask weakening. "No. You don't understand. She's never kept anything from me before. She knew for at least the last two weeks. And she didn't say anything about him hurting her. Even after he hit her, she didn't go to me. She didn't say a thing. I mean, she told me things were a little rocky with them. But I figured relationships were like that sometimes. They always have their rough patches. But she never told me about this. She went to Jace instead of me."

It dawned on me then. Jonathan was used to being the one Clary confided in, the one she clung to. He was, naturally, upset about what had happened to her, especially because it was his best friend who hurt her. He felt responsible for her being hurt. But he was also upset because he thought he was losing her to Jace. When she'd been hurt, Jace was the first to know. But Jonathan didn't even realize he felt this way.

Jonathan was just as scarred as his sister, whether he realized it or not.

Who else wants to cry for poor Jon?

And who's kinda alarmed at the possibilities of Jace's past-and that he's hiding things from Clary?

Clary seems like the least screwed up right now...

More plotline is going to be explained next chapter.

Don't forget to review! I am so close to reaching 1000 reviews. Only 23 away! Think we could do it with this chapter?

-Cassidy