Chapter 4: Train Ride

Sorry you guys had to wait such a long time for an update. I really enjoyed writing this chapter so I hope you like it. Thanks so much for all the follows, favourites and reviews.

This chapter will loosely follow the events that occurred in episodes 1x05 and 1x06.

Melody had no idea that Alec had followed her home, watched her enter her apartment building and waited until the lights of her apartment window were lit so that he knew she was safe. If she had, perhaps she would have changed her mind about him.

She couldn't believe that he had showed up on her date. What did he think she would do? Turn Mark into a lobster and devour him whole?

Melody practically threw her handbag on the floor where she stood, kicked her black strappy heels off and slumped onto the couch and sighed in frustration. What a dick!

"Bad night?" came a quiet voice to her left. Melody shrieked in surprise and bounced off the couch to find herself face to face with Clarissa Fairchild.

Clary raised both her hands in defence. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you, I just, well, I wanted to talk to you."

The dark haired beauty took a few deep breaths to calm her pounding heart and looked at Clarissa. She wanted to be angry but she couldn't be. She knew that Clarissa just wanted answers, she didn't blame her.

"You want to know how we know each other." Melody stated. Clary nodded.

"I know I'll get my memory back once you dream about Valak and everything but I don't really want to wait that long."

Melody nodded and then smiled at her long lost friend. "You're as patient as you always were." She softly teased.

Clary laughed and for a moment it was like time never passed and they were still best friends watching Disney movies and playing the Nintendo 64 late into the night.

"Ok well I'm going to need a drink for this conversation," Melody declared as she sat back on the couch, "and some ice cream" she added as she remembered that she was deprived of her dessert tonight. She waved her hands and two strawberry daiquiris and a two tubs of ice cream with spoons appeared.

Clary sat down next to her and surveyed the contents of the coffee table. "Choc mint," she said as she looked at one of the tubs, "my favourite."

"I remember." Melody said gently as she handed Clary a spoon. Clary smiled and took it.

Melody told her everything she knew and could remember. She told Clary how Valentine had killed her father, how Jocelyn, her mother Bellarain, Luke and Dot had decided to go into hiding together. How she and Clary had lived together like a family, like sisters until they were twelve years old. She also learned how they were separated.

Melody had begun to come into her powers and because of this Bellarain wanted to return to the Shadow World. She wanted to return and be under Magnus' protection where they would still be safe from Valentine and his followers but where Melody could be herself and practice her magic. Bellarain had begun to hate how they were both supressing their daughters powers - their very nature. She didn't want to do it anymore and tried to convince Jocelyn, Luke and Dot but they didn't agree. So they split up. Bellarain took Melody and they lived with Magnus.

"But why don't you live with Magnus anymore? Why don't you want to be a part of the Shadow World anymore?"

Melody's eyes turned dark.

"Because your mom was right," the warlock whispered. "Living in the Shadow World means you'll die faster than you should. My mom was an idiot for leaving the Mundane World."

"But she didn't want you to supress who you were! She didn't lie to you -"

"And it got her killed!" Melody snarled.

The room went silent. The brunette wiped a tear from her eye and looked up at Clary with a fake smile.

"I think that's enough for this evening." She walked over to the door and opened it. "Good night Clarissa."

Clary knew when to take an obvious hint.

SHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERS

Melody didn't expect to be dragged back into the Shadow World the very next day. She had woken up disappointed that she hadn't dreamed about Valak. She had hoped that she would and had meditated on seeing the demon just before she slept. However her mind kept drifting back to the conversation she had had with Clarissa. She shouldn't have been surprised that it didn't work but she was still annoyed. The sooner she dreamed the dream, the sooner she could go back to pretending she was an ordinary girl studying to be a music teacher in the Mundane World.

That night as she lay in her bed preparing to dream the dream she heard a frantic knock on her door. Her mind instantly jumped to Anthea and Ted her elderly neighbours. Ted had had a mild heart attack six months before and even though he was fine now after they had put a stent in his heart, she still worried. She didn't bother to get dressed. She ran to the door wearing only her pyjama shorts and singlet.

She flung it open in a panic to find Alec Lightwood staring at her. Her immense annoyance at finding him there made her forget that she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Oh my gods! What?" she said aggressively. "Seriously Lightwood? It's been one night, one night! You can't expect me to have dreamt about Valak in one night! Magic isn't as easy as you think ok?! It takes time! It takes energy! Energy that I don't have because I keep being interrupted by shadowhunters appearing out of nowhere all the bloody time!"

"I-uh- i-it's," Alec stuttered as he took in her natural beauty. He cleared his throat, reminding himself to focus. "It's not about that. Magnus needs you. Clary's friend Luke, he's a werewolf. He took on the Alpha of his pack to protect us and now he'll die if you don't come help us. Magnus says he needs your strength because he can't do it alone."

Melody's eyes widened. Uncle Luke!

She was already heading to her bedroom when she hurriedly said, "Give me a second to get dressed."

Alec stayed at the entrance of the doorway as if that would protect him from losing focus. "Yeah, that'd help." He muttered to the floor.

When Alec asked why she couldn't portal them to Magnus' place she explained that because she hadn't been practicing her magic as often as a regular warlock, it took a lot more of her energy when she did bigger things like that.

"If I'm going to let Magnus tap into my power to save Luke, I'm going to need to be at full strength." She explained as they walked towards the subway, completely invisible to all human folk they passed.

They took their seats next to each other on train and Alec remained silent. Melody was acutely aware of Alec's arm brushing up against hers as they sat next to each other. She cursed herself for taking her jacket off as they got on the train. She cursed him for not wearing one. Every time the carriage moved she felt his skin against her skin. She was so tempted to look at the part of his arm that was touching hers. She knew his muscles were well defined and she was itching to look at them, to admire them, maybe even to touch them. She sighed heavily. To distract herself she looked down at her hands. But of their own accord her eyes swiftly moved to his left hand resting on his thigh. It was large, with a rune she didn't recognise covering half of it. His fingers were long and from what she could see the sides of them were slightly calloused. Must be from always using his bow and arrow.

Trying to distract herself again she thought about what would happen when they got to Magnus. This was not a good idea because she became on edge thinking about seeing Luke again not to mention that his life was also depending on her. She was annoyed at herself partly for not having the power to portal to him right now because she had abandoned that side of herself and partly because she didn't want to have anything to do with this at all. Trying her absolute hardest to be a regular person in the regular world was the promise she had made to herself and she had broken it three times in one week. She took her frustration out on Alec.

"You're a real conversationalist Lightwood." She drawled in the shadowhunter's direction.

Alec peered at her from the corner of his eye but said nothing. This annoyed her. She baited him further.

"The life of the party like all Lightwood drones. Clearly that's why you enjoy going on other people's dates with them. Mommy must be proud."

His head snapped in her direction.

"How do you know my mother?" he asked in a deep tone.

"Why don't you ask her? Oh wait, secrecy rune. You can't." Melody smirked. Alec rolled his eyes and they both fell into silence staring ahead at the window in front of them.

"She tried to turn me into something I'm not." The warlock answered quietly after a few minutes. She continued to look straight ahead not wanting to meet the shadowhunter's eyes. "She made me scared of what I am. She's a controlling bitch." Melody turned to face Alec who was watching her intently as she spoke. "And no one will ever make me judge myself based on what I am instead of who I am ever again."

Alec didn't know what to say to that so once again they fell into silence. Her words made his mind wander back to his conversation earlier that day with Izzy and the revelation that his parents basically wanted to arrange his marriage so as to restore the Lightwood name. Melody's words made him wonder if being a being a Lightwood was who he was or what he was and if his mother knew the difference.

SHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERSSHADOWHUNTERS

They had arrived at Magnus' apartment just in time. Melody linked hands with Magnus and felt her power drain from her as he tried to stop the poison from killing Luke. When Jace and Simon arrived with the ingredients for the antidote Clary was able to finish the potion and give it to Luke. When Luke recovered he looked at Clary as a father looks at his daughter. Melody had felt a stab of jealousy at that. He used to look at them both that way before her mother had taken her away.

She had got up and left before she could witness anymore. That was her old life. It was about time she got back to the one she was creating for herself. She hadn't expected Alec to follow her.

Magnus was exhausted and wasn't able to focus so he didn't notice her leave. If he did he would have stopped her and tried to convince her to stay the night because he knew she was also drained of her energy. She realised this only once she was outside and began to feel faint. She leaned against the stairway railings and took a few deep breaths trying to stop herself from feeling dizzy.

"Hey there, easy, easy," said a deep, gentle voice behind her. She felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Are you ok?" said the voice, concerned.

"Yeah," she replied automatically.

As everything went black and she began to fall she felt two strong arms catch her. It was strange because she somehow knew she was safe.

Review if you love Alec! xxx