Jace POV
By the time we landed it was dark out where we were. We landed on the top of the Brazil agency. There was a woman waiting to greet us.
"Welcome. I understand that you're from the New York agency?" Maia nodded her head as we walked inside. They started talking but I ignored it as I looked around.
This agency wasn't to different than the one in New York. A lot of the style was the same. Wood floors, dark walls, high ceilings. It could almost pass for a replica of the New York office. We turned down another hallway. The woman stopped in front of a door.
"Sophie is in here. She's been calling for her mother a lot. It's heartbreaking. I think it will do her good to see you." She opened the door for us letting Maia and I walk in.
And there in the center or the room she was sitting. She didn't notice us at first which gave me a chance to look at her. She was beautiful. Her red curls hung around her face loosely. She had such pale skin dusted with freckles. She had her mom's bright green eyes. So full of wonder and happiness.
Maia walked further into the room. Sophie's head popped up. She locked eyes with Maia and ran to her. Her curls bounced the whole way. Maia had tears falling down her face, she picked Sophie up in her arms.
"Hi baby. Its Maia honey. Did you miss me? I know I missed you." Maia asked. Sophie pulled away from her slightly.
"I missed you Maia." Sophie started playing with the necklace around Maia's neck. She still hadn't noticed me. I understood now why Clary had kept her so hidden. She had done everything she could to protect her child.
"Maia who is he?" I looked up and met her eyes, it reminded me so much of looking into Clary's eyes, I almost thought I was looking at Clary. Maia moved further away from me. She sat Sophie on a chair and sunk down to her level.
"He's just one of my friends who works at the agency with mommy and I." The answer seemed to please her, at least momentarily. She stopped looking at me and looked back at Maia.
"I want mommy. I wanna go home." Sophie yawned.
"I know baby I know. But, my friend and I are going to find her and once we do we're all gonna go home. It's late though I think it's time for you to sleep." Sophie nodded her head. I watched as Maia tucked her into the small bed in the corner of the room. The lights turned out and we walked out Maia shutting the door behind us. We walked in silence for awhile before I spoke.
"She seems really well adjusted, being without Clary and all. And given what she may or may not have gone through. I mean.." My sentence trailed off.
"Yea, she's a great kid. I think because of the rocky start of her life she just kinda knows. I don't really know how else to put it. Ugh we need to go to the front desk to see where we will be staying. I guess it's this way." We made it to the front desk. A woman was sitting at the desk, she was on the phone.
"...yes, well in fact here they are. Haha alright Hodge yea, i'll talk to you later." She put the phone down and looked at us. She clasped her hands in front of her.
"You must be Jace and Maia. I'm so glad y'all made it safely. I just got off the phone with Hodge. He said you will be staying for awhile?" Maia nodded her head.
'Well alright dear. I'm going to need you to sign these." She passed Maia a clipboard. "Will you need a double suite or two single suites?" My head snapped around to hers.
"Two singles please." Her cheeks flushed.
"Oh, i'm sorry I just assumed you two were together." Maia snickered under her breath but kept filling the paper work out.
"It's ok. Maia and I are ju.." My sentence was cut short when the doors to the agency were thrown open. Maia and I turned to look at the doors. The lady behind the desk jumped up and ran to the incoming people.
There were two agents, I suppose they were agents. They were rolling a stretcher in with a woman on it. There was blood seeping from underneath the blanket. I unintentionally walked towards them. I could hear them briefing the women from the desk.
"It's one of our girls, we found her a mile or two down the road. It looks like she was attacked. She's bleeding from her head. It seems she had a previous head wound that opened." One of the men said. The woman nodded her head and began pushing the stretcher.
I could feel Maia come up behind me. They pushed the stretcher past us, that's when I noticed it. Through the blood seeping from her head, I saw the unmistakable red curls of Clary. Maia noticed it to. Both of us stayed frozen in shock as the stretcher rolled past us and down a hallway. I snapped back into it.
"Sir! Sir! Where are you taking her? Please? I know her!" Maia had stopped one of the men. He turned on his heel to face her.
"We're taking her to the hospital part of the agency. She's been hurt really bad. We think she was attacked. That's all we know right now," He started to walk away, then stopped and walked back. "Do you happen to know what her name is? Maybe even her agency?"
"Yes, here name is Clary. She is the missing agent from the New York agency." The man thanked me and walked away disappearing down the same hallway Clary had just gone down. Maia came up behind me. She put her hand on my shoulder.
"Well I guess we didn't have to try to hard to find her." She was trying to joke. Though there wasn't a hint of a smile of a smile on her face.
I started to walk after the agent, maybe to see where they had taken Clary. I could tell Maia was right behind me. Her footsteps fell in line with mine. The sound of our feet hitting the floor was deafening in the silence of the agency. The agency was empty, not a soul in sight. The hallway Maia and I walked down seemed to go on forever. I was still walking when I heard Maia stop and call my name.
"Jace, come look at this door." I walked back to where Maia was standing awestruck. She was staring at the door in front of her. It was completely white with two letters placed on it in all black.
"Well we found the ER. They had to have taken her in here. If she was injured they way they said. She has to be in here." It made sense. She walked forward and grabbed the door handle. She opened the door and I couldn't help but think we were doing something we weren't supposed to.
The ER was a small room, decorated in all white. The overpowering smell of the sterile room made me hold my nose. There were six beds, three along each wall. All were vacant except for one. Maia was already halfway to the bed by the time I spotted her.
Clary looked like fire against the all white of the room. Her head was bandaged, just like it had been six months ago. Her eyes were closed, making her look peaceful. Suddenly there was someone standing over us. It was the doctor.
"Are you her friends or family?" He asked.
"Yes, we're her friends." I answered. He nodded his head and sat his clipboard down.
"Well, it seems that she is very weak. There are wounds on her ankles and her wrists that lead me to believe that she was most likely tied up for an extended period of time. It seems she may have hit her head. It opened a wound that was healing. She lost a lot of blood."
"Is she going to be ok?" Maia asked.
"Right now…. It's a waiting game. It's… It's not looking good. I would talk to her if I were you. Let her know that she has people that are here for her." He bowed his head and left the room.
Maia was now sitting on the edge of the bed with Clary, she had Clary's hand in her own. I approached them and sat on the other side of Clary opposite Maia. Maia was talking to her. And I could see small tears running down her face. I didn't want to interrupt the moment so I just listened.
"Hi Clare it's Maia. We've been looking for you for so long. I'm so happy we found you." She sniffled. "I saw Sophie. She's… she needs her mom Clare. I can't raise her you know that. I need you need to fight like hell to make it through this for her." Maia looked at me her eyes were full of tears. "Jace is here too. Clare we are all here waiting for you."
Clary POV
Miguel and I talked the entire ride to the agency. He kept pointing out landmarks on our route. He started to pull the car to the side of the road. I looked at him as he parked it.
"What are you doing?" I asked. He chuckled and undid my seatbelt.
"It's ok dear. You will like this I promise." I fought against him as he grabbed my wrists. They started bleeding again.
"No, I said get off of me." I shoved him hard. I opened the door to the car and got out. My body was sluggish and weak from the amount of time I spent tied up. I started running. I could hear Miguel running behind me. He was yelling at me to stop running. But, I didn't listen. Just when I thought I had gotten away from him my legs gave out.
Before I could pull myself to my feet he was on top of me. I struggled underneath his hold but I managed to push him off of me. I started to crawl away when he grabbed me by my arms and threw me down. I hit my head on a rock. I could feel the blood start steeping from my wound. I gave it all I had to push him off of me one last time. He hit his head and then stopped moving.
I got up and ran. As I ran I started to feel faint. My legs started wobbling and my head began to pound. Suddenly my face hit the ground. That was the last thing I remember.
I woke up in a bright room. It was too bright to open my eyes and my body ached so much I couldn't move. I could hear the beeping of a machine and I could feel somebody holding my hand. I didn't know where I was. Everything inside of me started to scream. I had to get to the agency. I had to get to Sophie.
That's when I heard it. The voice talking. It was so reassuring. So comforting. I recognized it. It was Maia. I could feel myself start slipping but this time I let myself. I was at the agency. I was safe. If Maia was here with me that meant Sophie was ok too. That meant I was ok. I was going to be alright, so I let myself slip.
Jace POV
Maia and I were sitting in a rec style room. I was sitting on the couch watching Maia play with Sophie. We'd been in Brazil for a week now. Clary still hadn't woken up but the doctor was now confident that she was going to be ok. I was grateful that she was going to be ok, her semi comatose state had given me a chance to know Sophie. From a distance of course per Hodge's rule.
I looked up to see Sophie running toward me. She had a toy in her hand and a big smile on her face.
"Are you ever going to tell me who you are?" She asked. I looked down at her. There were a few times that I almost slipped and told her who I was but Maia always managed to come to the rescue. I really did want to tell her. It wasn't my place, not yet anyway.
"I told you I'm a friend of your moms and Maia's. I work at the agency with them." She didn't seem to pleased with my answer. However, she got off the couch and ran back to Maia.
I watched them go back to playing dolls when my phone rang. It was Isabelle again.
I talked to her once since I left. I didn't tell her where I was just that I was on a secret mission until further notice. I knew by now she had figured out what I was doing, either that or she had talked to Hodge. Either way I was in for it when I got home. I pressed decline and went back to watching the girls.
"Jace? Maia?" I turned around to see the doctor standing behind me. I stood up at the same time as Maia.
"Clary has woken up." Maia turned around and told Sophie to stay put. Together we walked behind the doctor back to the ER. Clary was sitting up in bed when we walked in. She looked happy to see Maia and then her eyes shifted to see me. Confusion filled her face. Maia practically ran to her side.
"Clary omg I'm so happy you're finally awake!" She hugged Clary and then pulled away. "I can't believe that you ran away. Look what happens when you don't listen. You could have been killed. Then where would we be?" Maia had her hands on her hips. She was using her mom voice. I knew because she used the same voice on Sophie. Clary held her hands to her head.
"Shhh, Maia I do have a head injury don't forget." Maia's eyes widened. She put her hands over her mouth.
"I'm sorry Clare. I forgot." Maia mumered.
Clary let out a small laugh. She hugged Maia. Then her eyes drifted to me. Her smile faltered. Seeing where Clary was looking, Maia turned her head to me.
"Jace? You came?" I nodded my head at her. I walked closer to her so that I was standing beside her bed. The doctor walked over to us. He had his clipboard in his hand.
"Well, I have only good news. It seems that your body is recovering amazingly. Faster than it did before it seems. Once we discharge you, you should be perfectly fine to head back to New York." He reached into a cabinet and brought out a stack of clothes. "These should fit you." He passed the clothes to Clary. "There is a bathroom right over there." He pointed to a door.
Clary climbed out of the bed, her curls bounced. It was as if the life had been poured back into her. Maia and I waited for her to come back out. While she was dressing, the doctor came back to tell us she had been discharged. Clary came out of the bathroom, nothing looked wrong with her. She looked perfect.
"Clare you look amazing. We need to go to the front desk to see about getting us a plane out of here. And you need to see Sophie." Clary nodded her head and followed Maia out of the ER. I followed behind them. Clary began telling Maia about what happened to her. I decided not to listen, it felt like I was intruding.
When we made it back to the rec room Clary immediately started walking to Sophie. Sophie turned around and saw her. Sophie dropped her dolls and ran to Clary. She jumped into Clary's arms. Clary had tears running down her face. She started kissing Sophie on her forehead and then she pulled away. Clary started looking her up and down.
"Hi, baby are you ok?" She asked. Sophie nodded her head and Clary went back to hugging her.
"Clare?" Maia asked. "I'm going to go to the front desk and get a plane ready so we can go home." Maia walked away which left just Sophie, Clary and I. Clary moved to sit on the floor with Sophie in her lap. I stood against the wall just watching them. Clary looked up at me, she looked conflicted.
"Jace? Can you come here?" I nodded my head at her. I sat down right across from her. I wondered what she was going to do.
"Sophie do you know who this is?" That's when I caught on. She was going to tell Sophie who I was. Sophie nodded her head and began playing with Clary's hand.
"Maia said he was your friend. She said he works at the agency." Clary nodded her head. She looked up at me. We locked eyes.
"Well that's not all he is. Sophie baby Jace is your father." The words left her mouth. It felt like my heart stopped and time seemed to slow. Sophie looked from her mother to me. I could tell Clary was nervous as well. We were just sitting there waiting.
"He's my dad?" She asked. Clary nodded her head. Sophie moved from Clary's lap. She walked to me. Clary and I both watched her. Then Sophie hugged me. I wrapped my arms around her. She was so small and so perfect. I looked at Clary behind me she was crying.
"Hey, so the plane is alr…." Maia walked into the room her sentence trailed off when she saw us. Clary and I jumped to our feet.
"Like I was saying the plane is ready. We can head up now." Clary reached for Sophie's hand. Sophie grabbed it. We all followed Maia and when we were halfway down the hallway Sophie let go of Clary's hand. She walked next to me and put her hands up. I looked to Clary, she nodded her head. So, I reached down and picked Sophie up. She laid her head on my shoulder.
When we got to the roof the plane was ready. We all got on. Maia sat down and just kept staring at us. I sat Sophie down in a seat and decided to sit across from her. Clary moved to sit next to her. We were in the air fast.
In ten minutes both Sophie and Maia had fallen asleep. Clary moved away from Sophie and sat next to me.
"I didn't know that you would come?" I nodded my head at her.
"I told you I still love you Clary. I came here to find you." Clary bowed her head. Tentatively I reached my hand out to met hers. When she didn't pull hers away I grasped it more firmly.
"I hope you don't mind that I told Sophie you're her dad." I shook my head.
"No, I wanted her to know. I hope that I can be part of her life now. Ever since you told me that's all I've wanted." By now Clary had started crying again. She looked at me tears in her eyes.
"Jace, I still love you too." My heart skipped a beat. She leaned in. And our lips met. And we kissed. With her lips against mine, it felt like everything was going to be ok.
