A rush of hot air hit her in the face as she opened the oven door. With an oven mitt covered hand, she pulled out a tray of cookies. Clary set the tray down on top of the stove before turning the oven off. The other four trays worth of cookies she had already taken out were sitting on cooling racks on various counters in the kitchen.

It was the day of Jonathan's arraignment, and she had somehow allowed Jace to convince her not to go. He had been worried, saying that being there would just cause her unnecessary stress. She had agreed to stay home just to make him happy, but not knowing what was going on inside that courtroom was making her anxious. She had turned to baking in an attempt to distract herself and pass time. She was now realizing that she might have gone a little overboard.

There was a knock on the door, and she raced to answer it, knowing it had to be Jace with news. She threw the door open, and he looked up at her slightly startled. He was still in his suit pants, but he had lost the jacket and tie. The first few buttons of his white shirt were undone, and the sleeves were rolled up just past his shoulders. He had his hands shoved into his front pockets and was toeing the line between the hallway and her apartment.

"Can I come in?" he asked, not meeting her eyes.

She gestured for him to enter. "Do you even have to ask?"

He shrugged and stepped inside, pausing to sniff the air. "Are you baking?"

"Uh, yeah. I was just trying to waste some time. Want a cookie?" She took him by the hand and led him into the kitchen. She gently took one of the cookies that was fresh out of the oven off the baking tray and handed it to him.

"Thanks." He took a bite and let out a moan. Her cheeks flushed at the sound. "This is so good," he mumbled around a mouthful of the cookie before quickly finishing the rest of it.

She watched him for a moment before getting to what she really wanted to know. "So, what happened?" she asked, clearing a spot on the counter and jumping up to sit on it.

He leaned against the counter opposite of her, looking behind her and not at her. "He pled guilty to the murder and drug charges."

She released a breath she hadn't even realized she was holding. "That's great!" She smiled, but his face remained stoic. "Why are you not happy about that?"

His jaw tightened and twitched. "He pleaded not guilty to the kidnapping charge."

"So?" she asked, dragging out the word.

He closed his eyes. "So, that's going to trial. You're going to have to face him in a courtroom as he tries to trivialize what he did to you."

She sighed and reached out a hand. "Come here."

He opened his eyes and looked at her questioningly before taking a step toward her. Once he was within reach, she grabbed his arm and pulled him to her so he was standing between her legs. She placed a hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at her.

"I'm going to be fine, Jace," she said confidently. "It's nothing I can't handle. He just wants to play mind games, but I'm not going to let him win."

Letting out a chuckle, he leaned down to press his forehead against hers. His hands were placed on the counter outside of her thighs. "I feel like I should be the one reassuring you, not the other way around."

She let her eyes flutter closed as his breath fanned across her face. "You don't need to reassure someone who isn't worried."

A groan bubbled up from his throat as he brought his mouth closer to hers. "You're just so resolute, and you have no idea how sexy that makes you."

"Sexy?" she breathed out, her voice slightly shaky.

"Mhm," he hummed, moving his face to run his nose from the top of her ear down to her jaw. "There's just something so alluring about a woman who is as unwavering and brave as you are." He placed a kiss right at the top of her jawbone, behind her ear. "I don't know how you do it." He began to trail kisses down her jaw. "Most people wouldn't be able to put up with half the shit that you do." She threw her head back and grabbed his biceps as he began to kiss down her neck. "Yet, you never back down from the challenge."

Finally, he brought his lips back up to hers. A small moan escaped her as he captured her mouth in his. She moved her hands from his biceps and into his hair, tugging at his golden curls. His tongue traced along her bottom lip, and she eagerly parted her lips to give him access. She felt him move his hands from the counter and onto her thighs, his fingers digging into the flesh as he gave squeeze.

She untangled her fingers from his hair and moved her hands down to his chest, where she fumbled with the buttons of his shirt before finally getting them all undone. Without breaking the kiss, she pushed the piece of fabric off his shoulders. She let her hands roam over his bare chest and stomach, feeling every bump and ridge of his muscles. When she ran finger along the waistband of his pants, he bucked his hips forward, and she felt exactly how much she was affecting him.

Jace's hands danced up her thighs and over her shorts before sliding underneath the cotton of her tank top. His hands skimmed over her stomach for a moment before he brought them back out and gently grasped the hem of the top. He broke their kiss for a second to look at her, silently asking permission. She nodded, realizing how hard they were both breathing. The second the piece of clothing was past over her head, she reattached her mouth to his and wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him against her fully.

Clary moaned into his mouth as his hands groped at her breasts through the lacey material of her bra. She mentally thanked herself for not putting on one of her old plain cotton ones that morning. As his hands moved around her ribcage to the clasp on the back, she ground her hips against him, trying to get friction where she wanted it most. She smiled internally at the groan he released as she did so.

Just as his fingers managed to grip the tiny hooks on her bra, the shrill sound of a phone ringing pierced the air, popping the bubble they had found themselves in. Jace pulled away from her to reach into his pants pocket, and she let out a small whimper.

"Don't answer it," she begged as he looked at the caller ID.

He cursed under his breath. "It's work. I have to." He hit the answer key and put the phone to his ear. "Wayland," he all but growled into the speaker. Clary watched as he pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. He nodded at whatever the other person was saying, and Clary thought that was funny considering they couldn't see him. "Yeah," he said, opening his eyes and glancing at her with a frown. "I'll be right in."

Clary let out a sigh as he slid the phone in his pocket and bent over to retrieve his shirt from the floor. "You're really going to leave like this."

He looked down as he started to button his shirt. "I don't really have a choice."

"You could have waited five minutes," she whined as she pulled her tank top back on.

He smirked at her as he tucked his shirt into his pants, and her eyes were drawn to the very obvious bulge behind his zipper. "Sweetheart, what I was planning to do you would have taken way longer than five minutes."

She gasped slightly, the words, and the husky voice he said them in, going directly to her core. She slid off the counter and pulled out a plastic zip up bag. "Y-You should at least take some of these cookies with you," she stuttered out, trying to get her mind off of what had just almost happened.

Jace came up behind her as she placed cookies in the bag. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and she could feel him pressing into her back. "Believe me, I'd rather be here devouring you than eating these cookies in some boring meeting."

Clary squeezed her thighs together. "If you don't stop talking like that, I'm not going to let you leave." She turned around to face him, shoving the bag into his chest. "And we both don't want you getting fired so early on."

He chuckled at her as he took the bag. "Alright, alright. I'll go." He started walking toward the door, and she followed him. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned to her. "By the way, you're going to need to stop by the precinct later. Alec and Magnus found you a lawyer, and would like you to meet him."

"A lawyer?" she asked, her brow furrowing.

He looked at her sadly. "For when the case goes to trial. We're not about to just feed you to the wolves, Clare."

"Oh, right," she muttered. "Thanks."

"Like you said, everything will be fine." He leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. "I'll call you later." With that, he opened the door and left her apartment.

Clary once again found herself sitting in an interrogation room. This time, however, she was not alone with some asshole agent. Instead she was sitting with Magnus and Alec as they waited for her lawyer to show up. She sighed and looked at the clock. He should have been there fifteen minutes ago.

"Anxious?" Alec asked, giving her a sympathetic look.

She shook her head. "Just annoyed. I like it when people are on time."

"Woolsey is a very good friend of mine," Magnus said, "and he happens to also be a very excellent lawyer in high demand. I'm sure he just got tied up in another meeting."

"Oh, shit," Clary groaned. "How expensive is he going to be?"

Magnus and Alec glanced at each other. "We actually convinced him to take your case pro bono," Magnus answered.

Clary quirked a brow at them. "Why?"

Alec comfortingly placed a hand over hers. "Because we know Jonathan is going to hire the best lawyer he possibly can, and we're not about to send you out there with some state attorney who barely passed the bar. With everything you've been through, we didn't want worrying about finding a lawyer within your price range to be an issue. Magnus put me in contact with Woolsey, and I explained the entire situation to him, along with how much you've helped us out on cases in the past, and he agreed to take you on, no charge."

Clary felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. She had never expected Alec to go out of his way like this for her. Before she could thank him, the door to the interrogation room opened and a man entered. He was wearing a very expensive looking suit, and his blond hair was slicked back so not a single strand was out of place.

"So sorry I'm late," he said as he took a seat across from the trio. "I got held up at the office and then traffic was a nightmare." He set a briefcase down on the table before looking up at them. His green eyes met Clary's, and he extended a hand. "I'm Woolsey Scott. You must be Clarissa?" he asked.

She grabbed his hand and shook it. "It's just Clary."

"Alright, Clary." He nodded. "Alec has told me all about your situation, and I did some of my own digging into the case. I find it very odd that Jonathan would plead guilty to everything but your abduction?"

Clary exhaled loudly. "I'm pretty sure this is just him playing a mind game with me. He wants me to relive what happened one more time or whatever." She waved a hand dismissively in the air, even though she was beginning to feel knots form in her stomach at the idea of sitting in a room full of strangers and having them all learn about what had taken place in Jonathan's house, specifically the basement.

Woolsey looked at Alec and Magnus. "I would like to have some time alone with Clary," he said. "Attorney-client privilege and all that."

"Oh! Of course," Magnus said as he stood. "We just didn't want to leave her waiting here all by herself."

"Understandable," Woosley smiled.

Alec also stood up, and he gently squeezed Clary's shoulder as he did so. "We'll be right outside if you need anything."

Woolsey watched the two men exit, and then turned his attention back to her. "What exactly happened while you were held captive by Jonathan Morgenstern? And don't leave anything out. I need to be prepared for anything thrown at us by Morgenstern's lawyers."

Clary looked down at her lap and launched into the whole story. She didn't leave any details out. She told him about the basement and everything that happened down there, including when she participated in Jonathan's interrogations. She told him about her capture and escape, and everything that happened in-between. She told him about the time she attacked Jonathan, and how he retaliated. She told him about the time Jonathan forced her to hurt another human being. Woolsey had watched her carefully the whole time, and she wondered if he was trying to gauge how truthful she was being.

When she finished the story, he clicked open the briefcase and pulled out a stack of papers.

"I believe we will easily be able to win this case," he said. "It seems like everything you did was either involuntary or done in order to survive." He slid the stack of papers over to her. "This is everything you need to know about attorney-client privilege. Nothing you told me in this room has to leave unless it's brought up the defense. There's also all of my contact information in there."

Clary nodded and looked up at him. "Thank you."

"There's just one more thing." He closed his briefcase and stood up. "If at any point you feel like you can't stand to go on trial, let me know. We can drop the charges. He's already going to jail for a really long time, this isn't going to affect that."

She shook her head. "No. If I drop the charges, then he wins. He'll know he got to me, and I can't let that happen."

Woolsey smiled at her. "You're a very brave woman, Miss Fray. I'm glad I to have the opportunity to represent you."