Authors Note: Hey everyone, I am still alive! Thank you all so much for your continued support! I am on winter break for about another week but lost all desire to write after finals were over. I was physically, mentally and emotionally tired from school, work and life. I am finally getting back into continuing my stories, and possibly adding other stories to my list of open stories. I've recently become addicted to Stranger Things as well as The Runaways but nothings bouncing in my head at the moment so I'll wait and see. I've got some tiny snippets for a couple other stories, including Of Shields, written down, but my muses for the stories are being a pain in the a**, so it's taking me a good while to get them finished; I've been having to go back and rewatch certain episodes to get back into my perceived mindset of the characters and I'm finding I don't have much time at the moment. I am working on them though, its just taking me a lot longer than I expected.

I finished this chapter this morning, but I'm still not too fond of it as I feel like I've gotten a tad rusty with my writing skills but I also wanted to get something out for you all (even if Shadowhunter's isn't your thing). I hope you all enjoy. Thank you all again for your continued support, it means a lot knowing there's readers out there who like what my mind comes up with.

Clary felt like she couldn't move, was frozen in time yet also felt as if the world was speeding by her and she was losing grip.

All she could see was Jace's heartbroken but resigned expression just before he turned and left with Valentine and…she just…couldn't…

She couldn't let him leave through the portal. She didn't know if she was going to ever see him again, everything was in chaos and by the Angel, she hated Valentine.

Clary barely even remembered shoving the tome in her arms at Simon as the next thing she knew she was moving quickly, not quite running but pretty close to it, towards the portal and Jace as he was disappearing from view and then the moment after, Alec was intercepting her.

Why? Jace and Alec were Parabatai and pretty much family and everyone knew of Jace and Clary's complicated… thing; (Valentine was a liar, Jace couldn't be her brother)… so why wouldn't Alec let her go and try to get him back?

Clary had tried for a brief couple moments to shake (shove) him off but despite her inheriting the red hair and fiery temper (and attitude) from her mother, and during the moments she acknowledged Valentine was her father she also acknowledged she got some of his temper too (thank the Angel she hadn't inherited his more murderous personality traits), Clary did realize and accept she was just slightly over 5 feet and therefore, it was fairly easy for some people to easily restrain her.

Case in point: Alec; being at least if not a little over 6 feet, had a good foot on her, not to mention since he'd been training since he was a kid and she had not….therefore, he was one of the people who could easily intercept and prevent her from doing something.

Like now.

That something he was preventing her from doing? Following Jace.

Clary wanted to know why.

Alec's answer when she asked (more like demanded) made sense which sucked because she didn't want it to, and while he did let her go, he didn't move from his position (almost on top of her) and she could practically feel the tension vibrating in his body.

Alec had let her go but she was under no illusion that if she tried anything, he would be back to manhandling her again and there would be no explanation, just one of those looks of his (the ones that asked if she was secretly stupid or blonde) and then either a hovering Alec or a notice that she was grounded to the Institute until he deemed her sanity had returned.

Clary knew that at the moment, she wouldn't be attempting anything stupid (later hadn't been decided on just yet), she was still in shock and attempting to not break down in front of everyone (completely failing by the way).

She was half listening to Alec through all of the thoughts whirling through her head when the first tear fell at the same time her body decided it had had enough and now was a good time to rest.

Clary felt her body begin a slow descent down but felt her body hit a hard object and arms once again go around her, stopping her fall. She realized that Alec was the one she had hit, which made sense as he was the closest (literally an inch away from her), and while she had felt him jolt in surprise at the contact, that didn't prevent him from once again securing her in his arms.

She normally would have protested, but since tears were now slowly beginning to make their way down her face and the brief realization that she would be on the ground crying right then, she had no problems with Alec holding her.

She didn't realize that Alec was pretty much supporting the majority of her weight right then, she was really only aware that the more she cried, the tighter his grip around her got.

There were many things Clary could admit that she hated at the moment, and typically Alec (or anyone really) manhandling her as they pleased was one of those but…just then…she was more than willing to accept the tight grip that Alec had on her.

The tight grip felt nice, it felt comforting and she slightly wished that it had been available before she'd found out about the Institute and the world her mother had taken her from.

That was one of the downsides to being an only child…an older sibling being available to comfort her when things were going to hell had not been in the cards.

Right now, though, despite Alec not being her brother or related in any sense, he had younger siblings and knew how to do the comforting thing pretty well. It made Clary wish (just a little) that they had a better relationship. His method of comforting was…nice…and she didn't want him to let go just yet.

Alec, for his part, while surprised (yet not) to be holding Clary, actually found it somewhat comforting. His Parabatai (practically brother now that he'd kissed Magnus) had just left with a psychotic madman and there hadn't been a thing he could do to prevent it.

When Clary had attempted to follow Jace, his only thought was that herefused to lose someone else (ignoring the fact that he hadn't liked her all that much just a few days ago) and his only instinct had been to bodily prevent her from entering the portal. Clary might have a short temper 90% of the time but she was also tiny and unprepared, which had made his interception easier.

It was growing more and more obvious to him that as Clary had been an only child, she wasn't used to hearing"no," or being prevented from doing something that often, but she was just going to have to deal with having an authoritative older sibling person telling her something and having to follow through with it.

Alec knew Clary considered Isabelle to be somewhat of an older sister at this point, it just made sense for him to start stepping into the role of the older brother. He had a feeling Clary may not like it but she would just have to learn to deal with it.

As for what had just happened with Jace, he was grieving, yes, because he had just lost his brother for an undetermined amount of time but he was also incredibly pissed off too.

They had all fallen for Valentine's trap when they should have known better.

It was time to start stepping up and getting things done. Alec knew that no one was going to like the choices they (he) was going to have to make in the (very) near future; hell, he knew he wasn't going to like the choices being made but there were limited options now.

Alec refused to lose anyone else he cared about in this war with a psycholotic madman. He wasn't entirely sure how they were going to stop Valentine, but he was going to be damned if anyone he loved was another victim of Valentine's.

Yes, he did realize that people died in wars and he couldn't keep everyone safe but he was going to do his best. That best included Clary now, too.

Alec knew that despite the new and chaotic revelations of familial information coming out, not only would Jace kill him if Clary got hurt (parabatai or not), but she was beginning to fill the little sibling spot that was already dedicated to Izzy and Max.

Clary may not be a Lightwood but they technically didn't have Jocelyn Fray awake at the moment and, when enforced, the Institute didn't typically allow Downworlders to enter (Luke and Simon were pretty much banned under normal conditions)…..meaning that Clary didn't have anyone at the moment besides him and Izzy.

Alec already had two younger siblings; adding Clary Fray (Fairchild) as another younger sister wouldn't make a difference to him.