Hey, my beautiful, wonderful readers! It's early February, so as promised, here's an update! I hope you guys have had an amazing past few months, and I hope you're still interested in these stories! Just a quick heads up that I've uploaded some oneshots, and I do still have a couple to post, but I had so many requests to update my multi-chapters, so I thought I would update these before continuing with my editing, so there are some more to come!
Anyway, here we go...
The first thing that Clary was aware of when her eyelids began fluttering was how bright it was. Her eyelids felt incredibly heavy and it took a few minutes of concentration to actually get her eyes open, and then she closed them straight away, because the sun was so incredibly bright that it actually felt like there was a stab of pain going through her brain.
The second thing that Clary became aware of was the pain in her abdomen.
"Oh, shit," Clary groaned, forcing herself to open her eyes and looked around slowly, her hand gingerly reaching to her stomach. There were bandages wrapped right around her torso, and when she took in a sharp breath, there was an ache beneath her ribs. Clary breathed in shallowly and reached out with her mind. She had no idea where she was, but the place felt comfortable, and she could sense familiar presences around her. Max was nearby, probably just outside the door of the room she was in, and he was tense. She skimmed over his mind, and instantly realized that she was the cause of his tension. He was worried about her, apparently she had been out for a while, seemed like at least a whole day, and then she got glimpses of her lying on a doctors bed with blood surrounding her, and Jace's worried face as he sat beside her. It was going to hurt to try and call out to him, so she didn't even bother, tapping into his thoughts. I'm awake, Max, she whispered in his ear.
"Clary?!" Max reacted instantly, slamming open the door with a crash as he came into the room, almost tripping over his feet. Despite the pain radiating through her body, she smiled as the younger boy appeared at her side. He practically fell down on the ground beside the bed, reaching out for her hand. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay," Clary said, her voice quiet and raspy.
"I'm going to call Jace, and he's going to be here soon," Max assured her. Clary managed a jerky nod as Max—still kneeling beside the bed—pulled out his phone and speed dialed his boss. Even if Clary couldn't read minds and follow the whole conversation from what was running through, she could hear Jace's voice through the phone, clear and loud.
He was going to be there in a couple of minutes, he was going to have Alec teleport him there, so she was guessing that Alec must be feeling better. Max ended the call and tucked his phone away, focusing his attention back on Clary. She could already feel him relaxing, relieved that she was okay, and he grabbed her hand again, squeezing it. She didn't like Max worrying, given the kid was about the age of her youngest students, and he already had so much on his shoulders in this life that he had with Jace.
"Where are we?" Clary asked, her voice still quiet. "We're not at mine, or Jace's."
"It's one of his safe houses," Max told her. "Jace wanted to get you out of the city, make sure that you were somewhere safe. We brought some of yours and Jace's things here."
"Thanks," Clary said quietly. "Um, do we have anything? Like, any medication I can take? My head is killing me."
"Yeah, you hit the ground pretty hard, back out when, you know," Max made a face and waved his hand in his general stomach direction, obviously indicated when she had been stabbed. Or pierced. Or whatever it was that had happened. "You've got a pretty big bump on the back of your head, and you were also teleported a couple of times while you were still weak, so that would have drained a lot out of you."
"Wait," Clary's eyes flew wide and she tried to sit up in shock, letting out a cry of pain as she did so. Worry was etched all over Max's face as he sat down on the bed beside her, looping an arm around her waist gingerly, to give her some support. "What day is it? How long have I been out?!"
"It's been three days," Max told her.
"Three days?!" Clary cried out, once again seeming to forget her condition as she jerked forward in surprise. "My classes!"
"It's okay, I called in," Max reassured her, shifting around and trying to coax her into relaxing back down, to lay down in the bed and get her comfortable again before Jace showed up. "I said that you were involved in a car accident—which is definitely true—just maybe twisted the truth a little. Now, can you just chill out a bit? Seriously, you've been through a lot and Jace is gonna be pissed off if he shows up and you're hurting yourself."
"But—"
"And you know he's going to take it out on me, not you," Max pressed, feeling a little bad that he was playing on his injured friend emotions, but knowing that at least it would work. Clary sighed, letting her eyes close again and rest back on the pillow. It was only a moment later that Clary felt the presence of Jace and Alec just in the next room. Max heard them arrive and he got off the bed. "I'll be back in a sec," he told her. Clary took in a couple of deep breaths, trying to settle the pounding in her head and lay in such a way that didn't put any strain on her stomach.
Clary, she heard Jace murmur gently into her mind. I'll be there in a minute. Clary felt her body relax even more as she felt Jace's presence. She could reach out and listen in on everything that Jace, Max and Alec were saying, but she already felt strained just from being awake for the short while, so she let her mind settle down as he waited for him to come in and see her.
"Clary," Jace said quietly as he came into the bedroom, immediately noticing the sun that was streaming in through the windows and directly onto her face. He closed the curtain and then came over to where she was laying, sitting down gently on the mattress beside her. "How are you feeling?"
"Uh," Clary winced as she opened her eyes again. "Not great."
"Catarina worked on you for a while, and she had to get out the diamond that was embedded in you," Jace told her, leaning forward and running two fingers over her forehead, tucking her hair behind her ear. His touch was cool against her warm skin, and it was comforting, and Clary tipped her head to the side to rest against his hand before her eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
"Diamond?" She questioned.
"That's what you were hit with," Jace continued grimly. "That woman? The one that appeared out of nowhere?"
"Yeah, her whole body looked as though it was made of glass," Clary remembered back to the afternoon in the industrial side of the city. She winced at the memory. "And I couldn't read her mind—I didn't know that she was approaching us through the fire fight until she was right there in front of us."
"Yeah, so it wasn't glass, it was diamond," Jace told her. "We looked into the shards after..." he pursed his lips together, gritting his teeth before continuing. "After they were pulled out of you." Clary could feel the anger radiating off him, she could see how clouded his mind was right now; he was definitely physically with her there in the room, but mentally, his mind was elsewhere, busy thinking about all the leads that they had been following up in the past couple of days, trying to find out what it was that had attacked them. "When we spoke with Catarina, she said that she thought that maybe the reason you couldn't read her mind was because she turned completely into diamond, somehow that blocked out your telepathy."
"I suppose so," Clary winced. "Not much point in having a telepath around who can't read minds."
"I keep you around for a lot more than that," Jace muttered, frowning slightly.
"I know," Clary gave him a small smile, feeling a twinge of upset in Jace's mind at her comment and wanting to reassure him. She pursed her lips together before shifting from emotional to logical. "What is my recovery time? I have classes, and I can't just stay here and do nothing."
"You are not rushing off anywhere," Jace said firmly. "You're going to be in recovery for some time, and once Cat clears you, then you're going to be off to physiotherapy." Clary's eyes widened in horror.
"I can't take that much time off work!"
"Yes, you can," Jace told her, a steeled expression taking over his face, one that Clary had seen on countless occasions when he was talking business with one of his many clients, and it meant that he had completely made up his mind. "We've covered things at least temporarily, until you're okay enough to call them yourself. Cat will write you a hospital note and explain what had happened if any of your bosses have an issue. I'm sure they won't though. We told them you were in a car accident, and that you were badly hurt. Your TA is covering your classes at the moment. Your friend, Simon, though, he needed a bit more convincing..." Clary picked up on a flash of Simon speaking with Jace, actually face to face rather than just over the phone, which surprised her.
"He came here?" She asked.
"Yup," Jace let out an exasperated sigh. "We left a number for you to be contacted back on if they had any questions, and it wasn't your boss that rang, it was Simon, who rang about twenty times. He said that he was listed as your next of kin and if you were in hospital, he would have been notified. If we didn't let him come and see you, then he was going to make a big fuss." Jace looked annoyed, but even in her injured state, Clary couldn't help but smile a little.
"Typical Simon," she murmured.
"Yeah. We let him come here, see you, and Alec was here as well, who he recognized from when he picking you up a while ago," Jace continued. "He seemed a bit more comfortable then, but he wants you to call as soon as you're up to it."
"I'll do it soon," Clary nodded slowly, her head still thrumming. She found his fingers, tightening her own around them.
Jace was angry.
He was angry and upset and he was barely keeping it together. Even if she couldn't read minds, she would know that. Clary tried to search through his mind to when the last time he slept was, but sleep was the last thing on his mind. She sighed, wanting to tell him that he needed to look after himself, but she wasn't going to speak out while his colleagues and friends were nearby.
"You hungry?" Jace asked.
"Yeah," Clary was surprised by just how hungry she was.
"I'll get you some food. You rest, okay?" He reached forward to press a soft kiss to her lips.
"I will."
Right! So, here's the super, super long A/N—sorry! I had a great Christmas and New Years time, not really doing much, just spending time at the beach and with my husband and with some of best friends. This year has started well, there's been a few bad days, but hey, happens to everyone. I hope your year has started just as good, and you spent it with family and friends if that's what you prefer, and that you spent it alone and quiet if that's what you prefer.
I wanted to say that I managed to get around to most of peoples oneshots, at least the ones that struck a chord with me because some of prompts just aren't the type that I can write, and I had fun with the ones I wrote! You can still send me prompts or requests through the year, and I try and get to them near the end of the year when I focus on oneshots. Can be in a huge variety of fandoms, just ask me :)
On with the recommendations!
TV Shows: Roswell: New Mexico. Well. I loooved the original series, even if I can see a lot of flaws in it when watching it now back to when I was a teenager. I'm enjoying the reboot so far, I really like the change up in Liz, and Michael's relationship with Alex. I love that Tyler Blackburn from Pretty Little Liars is in it, and Michael Trevino from Vampire Diaries, because he was one of my favourite characters from VD. Anyway. Fingers crossed it goes well. And I intensely ship Max/Liz already, and not because I know they're supposed to get together, but because I love their chemistry, which is more than the original series, at least for my side. Oh and The Runaways Season 2! I liked Gert a lot more in this one. Ooh, and Sex Education. That show is absolutely brilliant. Like, insanely brilliant. I'm so glad it's been renewed for another season. I also started watching The Following for the hundredth time because this show is amazing.
Music: 6 Figures by Kings, Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen, Old News by Mitch James, Wasted by Jesse McCartney and Bad! by XXXTENTACION. Ooh, and Saturday Nights by Khalid, Bury A Friend by Billie Eilish and Wild Enough by Elina.
Movies: Tomb Raider, which I watched for the second time the other week and I quite enjoyed it, a lot more than the first time I watched it. Alicia Vikander is a babe. Also How To Train Your Dragon 3. Holy shit. I knew this one was going to get me in the feels, but I didn't expect to cry twice. It was beautiful. Also the new Robin Hood. Maybe I'm biased because I love Taron Egerton, but I didn't think it was anywhere near as bad as what the reviews said. I know it wasn't great, but I still enjoyed it, and Marian was a badass.
Now, I've got some questions! Thought I'd change things up a little this year.
So; what is your favourite song right now? Mine would be a tie between Run Away With Me by Carley Rae Jepsen and Back To Life by Hailee Steinfield.
What is...Your favourite movie that you've seen recently? Mine would be Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse.
Aaaand what is your favourite fandom to read in? For me it would be a tie between the DC fandom and Harry Potter right now, although it changes frequently.
Talk to me, let me know what you thought and answer the questions if you feel inclined to!