Clary rubbed the sweat of her palms on the material of her skirt as she looked out at the crowd of people in front of her. Every single pair of eyes were on her, and her stomach felt as knotted as a tangled ball of yarn. There were a few familiar faces sprinkled in, namely Jace, Alec, and Luke. However, everyone else was a stranger, come to watch the spectacle of Jonathan Morgenstern's trial.
A slender woman stood directly in front of her. Her scarlet hair was pulled back into a tight bun and her clear, blue eyes were calculating. She had on a charcoal gray pencil skirt and blazer combination with a dark purple blouse underneath. Her black heels clicked on the floor as she paced slowly in front of the witness stand.
"Miss Fray," the woman, Seelie Queen, began, "you are trying to convince the court that my client, your own brother, kidnapped you?"
"Yes," Clary said, trying to keep her voice as even as possible.
"You might be able to see how I could have a hard time believing that. Why would a brother go through the effort of abducting his own sister?"
"I don't know. He's psychotic."
"Is it true that you kept your relation to Mr. Morgenstern a secret from the detectives working on his case?"
"Yes, but I-" Clary wanted to talk about Luke had known the whole time and supported her decision, but she didn't get the chance.
"Why would you keep such a huge part of your identity a secret, Miss Fray?" Seelie interrupted. "That seems awful dishonest and distrustful."
Clary knew what Seelie was trying to do. She was trying to take away her credibility, make the jury believe she couldn't be trusted. "I did it because I didn't want people knowing I share the same blood as that monster," she spat out, staring at Jonathan, who was sitting at the defendant's table with a smirk plastered on his face.
"So you did not do it to hide the fact you were working with your brother all along? And this so-called kidnapping wasn't just a ploy to cover it up?"
"He had someone fucking drug me! Why would that be necessary if I were just playing along with him?" she shouted.
"There's no need for that sort of language, Miss Fray," Judge Aldertree said from the bench. "Continue, Miss Queen."
"We have video evidence of you working with Mr. Morgenstern, Miss Fray." Seelie snapped her fingers, and a man walked in, wheeling in a TV set. Seelie grabbed a disk off of the defendant's table and inserted into a player on the set. "I must warn the jury and gallery of the graphic nature of what I'm about to show you."
Seelie held a remote in her hand and pressed play, and Clary's heart dropped as Jonathan's basement appeared on screen. There were recordings of everything that happened in that basement, of every interrogation Clary had helped Jonathan during. She felt bile rise in her throat and tears sting at the back of her eyes as the footage played on the screen.
She chanced a glance at Jace as the recordings played. The look on his face pushed her over the edge, and tears began to fall freely from his face. His jaw was tight, and there was hatred burning in his eyes. He was avoiding looking at her, and she knew whom that hatred was for. With the press of a button, Seelie had turned Jace against her again.
The video stopped, and Seelie stood in front of Clary once again. "Now, if you weren't working with Jonathan the whole time, why would you be helping him in his little interrogations?"
"Because I was afraid for my life!" she cried out.
"And what evidence do you have for that?"
"There's footage on there of him stabbing me! And then he locked me in a room for weeks!"
Seelie pressed a button on the roommate, and footage rewinded. "He stabbed you in self defense, after you stabbed him first, Miss Morgenstern."
She didn't show the footage of Clary tied in a chair as Jonathan stabbed her, instead showed Clary turning on him and sinking a knife into his arm. Clary wanted to talk about how that was taken out of context. She wanted it shown how Jonathan had forced her to harm another human being before that, but Seelie once again kept her from saying her piece.
"No further questions, your honor," Seelie said, turning around and sitting down next to Jonathan.
"You may return to your seat, Miss Fray," Judge Aldertree said.
Clary stood on shaky legs and left the witness stand. Instead of taking her seat next to Woolsey, she kept walking. She quickly walked down the aisle between the two sides of the gallery and out the double doors at the back. Once in the hallway, she ran to the bathroom and into a stall, emptying the contents of her stomach into the toilet.
Everyone in that courtroom had to hate her now. They all had to believe what Seelie had planted in their minds. Now, she was just an accomplice. She was no longer a victim of Jonathan's, but a willing partner. Jonathan might be going to prison for murder, but he would be found innocent of kidnapping, and he would win.
The footage on that tape kept playing through her mind as she sat on the bathroom floor, leaning against the toilet. She thought of every person she had watched Jonathan torture in that basement. Every person whose screams echoed off those walls. Every person she hadn't been able to help. Every person who thought she was just as much a monster as her brother.
Clary heard the sound of the bathroom door opening, and stilled.
"Clary?" a voice called out.
"Go away, Alec," she responded, her voice thick. "This is a women's bathroom."
"And I don't give a shit," he said, appearing next to her. "What the hell was that? Why did you just run out of there like that?"
"I- I had to get out," she choked out, the tears coming again. "H-He hates me now."
"Who hates you?"
"Jace! He wouldn't look at me, and that-that look on his face just made it so obvious. He saw all the terrible things I did, and now he hates me."
"Are you a goddamn idiot?"
"Is now really the time to insult me?" she asked, looking up at him.
"When you're being stupid, yes. Now, get off the floor and let's go back in there."
She stood up, but shook her head. "I can't go back in there. Not right now. I need to go home. Just tell them I'm sick or something."
She shoved past him and left before he could say a word back.
The only sound was the rain as it poured down from the sky and the thunder that crackled in the distance. Clary was lying on her couch, a throw blanket wrapped around her body. Her apartment was pitch black. Sometimes a streak of lightening would shine through the window, illuminating the living room for a brief second.
She was staring at the blank screen of her television, actually thankful that the night's storm had cut the power. She was enjoying the solitude of the darkness and silence. Since leaving the bathroom at the courthouse, she hadn't talked to anyone. Her phone had rung nonstop for a few hours, but she ignored, not in the mood for any conversation that would happen.
A knock came from her front door, but she didn't make a move to answer it. She hoped that if she pretended not to home, whoever it was would go away. The person knocked again, though. She remained silent still, but they kept knocking, each time getting louder. Reluctantly, she got up, wanting them to stop before they disrupted her neighbors and got her in trouble.
She angrily threw open the door to find Jace standing in the hallway. He was soaking wet from the rain and water dripped from his blonde hair. Clary opened her mouth to ask him what he was doing there, but before she could say anything, he was on her. One hand gripped the back of her neck and the other pressed on her lower back as he put his lips on hers. She instinctively kissed him back, their mouths moving together like well-practiced dance partners.
All too soon, he pulled back, resting his forehead against hers.
"I could never hate you Clare," he whispered, his golden eyes barely visible in the darkness of the room.
"What?" she breathed, still slightly stunned.
"Alec told me what you said. I could never hate you. I don't know how you thought I did."
She took a small step away from him. "But in the courtroom you-"
He shook his head, letting out a dry chuckle. "Oh, Clare. Whatever you think you saw wasn't directed at you."
"It wasn't?"
He reached out for her, grabbing her hand and pulling her back against him. "No. It was directed at that bastard Jonathan. He's the one I hate." He enveloped her in a hug, resting his chin on top of her head. "I hate what he did to. I hate what he made you do. I hate the way his lawyer tried to make you look. I hate everything about him."
She pressed her face into his chest. "So you don't hate me?"
"Just the opposite, Clary." He placed a kiss on the crown of her head. "I think I might love you."
Her heart hammered at his words, and she pulled away just enough to look up at him. "Show me," she whispered.
"What?"
"Show me you love me," she reiterated.
His brow furrowed. "I'm not following you."
She reached up, placing her hands against his chest. "Make love to me."
His eyes widened and she watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed hard. "Clary, I can't."
She started to run her hands down his chest and toward his abdomen. "Why not?"
He gently grabbed wrists right as her hands approached the waistband of his jeans. "Believe me, I really really want to," he said, his voice breathy. "But we can't. You've had an emotional day."
"So?"
"If I'm going to make love to you, I want you to be in the right state of mind. I don't want you distracted by anything else. I want to have you focused completely on me and what I'm making you feel."
She sighed, knowing he was right. "Will you at least sleep with me?"
"Clary, you can't just call it a different name and expect me to do it."
She giggled at the exasperation in his voice. "No, Jace. I literally meant sleep. Just you and me lying down and actually sleeping."
"That I can do."
She took his hand and carefully led him through the dark apartment to her bedroom. She changed out of her clothes, which he had gotten wet, and into a pair of pajamas as Jace stripped down to his boxers, which were relatively dry. She pulled back the comforter and got into bed, Jace following behind. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her tightly against him.
Secure in his arms, she easily fell asleep. And just for a night, she was able to pretend like nothing mattered other than her and the man next to her. She was able to pretend that there wasn't an evil brother sitting in a jail cell somewhere waiting to get sentenced, and she was able to pretend that for just once everything was normal in her life.