"I'm so glad you're back!" Tessa all but squealed when Clary stepped into her art studio, early on a Monday morning. It was before seven in the morning, and the first class she had wasn't until nine, but she needed to get back into her classroom and she familiarize herself with the room that she had spent so much time in but had been absent from for two months. "Oh my god, you have no idea how good it is to see you back here again."
"It's good to be back here," Clary murmured, letting Tessa envelop her in a hug. "Ooh, not too hard," Clary reminded Tessa, feeling pressure against her stomach, which was still tender.
"Oh, right!" Tessa pulled back and made a face. "Sorry."
"No, it's fine," Clary told her with a smile.
"That car accident really did a number on you," Tessa gave her a sympathetic look. "I couldn't imagine you staying away any longer than you needed to." Clary lifted her eyebrows in response to that, because that was the total truth. She wanted to come back a few weeks ago, even though she was just managing to walk normally again. The two woman linked arms and started walking toward the front of the class, where her office was, and after they opened the door and walked inside, Tessa glanced over her shoulder to where Will was standing in the studio. "Uh, what's he doing here?"
"Oh, he just..." Clary had been trying to think of a good reason why Will was going to be escorting her to her class and then pretty much everywhere else on the campus. "Jace just wants to make sure I don't collapse or anything. You know—from the injury," she waved at her middle and gave Tessa a tight smile.
"Right," Tessa nodded. "Well, that's nice of him."
"It is," Clary gave Tessa a smile as she sat down at her desk and wiggled around in her seat. It felt a little different than usual, probably because Tessa had been sitting in it for the past weeks as she marked and graded the students art. Clary glanced at Tessa from underneath her thick eyelashes, and noted with a smile that her TA was looking out the doorway, back toward the studio where Will was standing. She barely had to even focus on Tessa to get a glimpse at the way she saw Will, pretty much bathed in a golden glow, and it was hilarious, really, because Tessa was doubting herself. She clearly liked Will, but she thought that he was out of her league. She had no idea how much he liked her back, which is the reason why he had been more than happy to accompany Clary to class. They had clearly been interacting a lot when he had been coming in to pick up work for Clary over the past few weeks. "I've got a lot of catching up to do here," Clary began, waving at the mess that was cluttered across her desk.
"Yeah?" Tessa mumbled, not sounding as though she was listening, her eyes still glued to Will as he moved from canvas to canvas, frowning and tilting his head to the side as he tried to understand each piece.
"Yup," Clary lifted an eyebrow at her, even thought Tessa's attention wasn't on her at all. "So you can...Go and chat up the cute guy out there, if you want." Tessa's head snapped back toward her and her cheeks flared red for a split second. Of course she knows, voiced from inside Tessa's head, and Clary smirked. "Don't worry, I haven't said anything to him."
"Well..." Tessa bit her lip and looked hopeful. "Has he said anything about...Me?" She asked.
"You know I'm not gonna tell you anything I hear," Clary gave her a look. "Just like I wouldn't tell him anything I hear from you." And when Clary said 'hear' she meant the voices in her head. It had been a dilemma for her ever since she was little, when she could hear certain things and wanted to tell someone, to let them know the secrets that she found. It wasn't big things, like when she was sitting in a cramped food court and read in someones mind that he was cheating on his wife, and then read on his wife's mind that she was blissfully unaware and also pregnant. There had also read on a passerby's mind that she was getting beaten by her husband regularly and didn't know what to do...Her teachers at the expensive boarding school she went to helped her regulate things...She kept to herself most things, and the really scary things, she would call in anonymous tips to the police.
But things like this...Almost high school dramas, she likes him/he likes her, Clary definitely kept that to herself.
"He would be crazy not to," Clary prompted Tessa. "Go."
Jace took in a deep breath as he waited for the elevator to reach the top floor where his office was. He had been out most of the morning in meetings, with Alec at his side and Raphael watching everything from a distance, driving from one unsavory place to another as he tried to find out where Sebastian was. He had a dozen snitches around the city, people involved in the underworld of Los Angeles, and a dozen more on his payroll who were in higher up of Los Angeles, on the police force and in the DA's office.
No one had anything on Sebastian.
"Hey, boss man," Isabelle sung out as he picked up his phone and pressed it to his ear.
"You got anything, Iz?" Jace asked as the elevator doors slid open and he stepped out on the top floor. He strode to his end office, his fingers flicking subtly to open up the swinging doors by their metal handles and walking inside. The glass walls that he had completely destroyed when they had had their run in with Sebastian and Clary had been injured had been quickly fixed, and were back to their flawless looking self.
"We-ell, I've been going through the security footage of every single camera that I can find around your apartment, and there's absolutely nothing suspicious," Isabelle reported back to him. "No one's casing the place, there's no one who goes past every few hours—it looks safe."
"Thanks," Jace said off-handedly, beginning to pull his phone away from his ear when his cousin continued.
"Are you going back home?" Isabelle continued.
"I'm thinking about it," Jace said as he sat down behind his desk and picked up the cup of coffee that had been put on his desk. It was still steaming, and he guessed it was probably Alec who had just teleported in to drop it off before heading out again. Raphael was coming up the elevator and would be here soon with an update from their contacts at the police station, and he was also waiting for his hourly update from Will to come through on his laptop.
"Jace?" Isabelle asked and Jace realized he had zoned out.
"Sorry, what was that?" Jace asked as he turned on his laptop and took a sip from his coffee cup.
"I said, I'm pretty sure Clary will feel better if you guys are back at her apartment," Isabelle repeated. "She's feeling cramped and she's feeling out of place. I know that she's going to feel better being back at work again, but you want her to be comfortable, right?"
"I also want her to be safe," Jace reminded her curtly.
"Well, I feel as though you guys would probably be even safer at her place, since you're the target," Isabelle sung out.
"Her place isn't as secure as mine," Jace stated, letting out an annoyed sigh because he knew that Isabelle already knew all of this.
"Great, well, if your place is secure, then you guys can go back there," Isabelle pressed. Jace looked up as he heard footsteps, and he could see through the thick glass walls that Raphael had just gotten off the elevator and was walking briskly toward the doors, Gretel Monroe close behind him, her long white-blonde hair bouncing with every step that she took.
"I have to go," Jace told his cousin. "I'll think about it." He hung up before she could respond. Raphael opened up the door, holding it for Gretel as she walked in and strode to his desk.
"All the plates are just linked to shell companies and random directors that don't fucking exist," she snapped. She really wasn't good when there was no news, similar to Jace, and that was why he liked her so much. She got results. "Same with the serial numbers for all the guns that we ran. They were all purchased from legal retailers, but with fake ID's and backgrounds."
"I'm thinking that we go after Hodge," Raphael proposed from where he was standing beside Gretel. "I mean, clearly he's involved at some level, since he's the one that originally set up the meet."
"Alec and Max haven't been able to find anything on him," Jace grunted as opened up the emails on his laptop. There was one from Will with a couple of attachments, all photos with Clary in them although strangely enough, they seemed to focus more on the pretty brunette woman. Tessa. His eyebrows raised as he remembered Clary mentioning something about her TA and Will. He got it now. "Huh," he muttered.
"What?" Raphael asked.
"Nothing," Jace shook his head and pushed away the laptop and refocused on the two in front of him. "You think that you'll be able to uncover something more on Hodge?" He asked.
"Well—" Raphael looked hesitant, probably because Alec and Max were good at their jobs, and if they hadn't turned anything up, it was unlikely that they were going to. Gretel, on the other hand, looked more confident.
"I've got a guy, sometimes he does work for Hodge, you know, in enforcement," she said. "I'm sure I can get something out of him." Jace raised an eyebrow at the silver haired girl, but she didn't give anything away in her expression. They were all part of the underworld of the city, they regularly had dealings with the less than savory people, but Gretel really had a way of finding some of the worst ones and getting into bed with them. She didn't have any problem with turning them in, she didn't let herself get attached to any of them.
There was a triple murderer that she had had a fling with for over three years before he had crossed the line and Jace had turned him over to Jem and the LAPD. It had helped to bump Jem up to detective, which had put him in a better position to help Jace when he wanted certain favours.
"Be careful," Jace told Gretel, unnecessarily. Gretel just smirked, her eyes changing, becoming snake like, and she flicked out her tongue, which had become two-pronged. She shared similarities to a snake, a very venomous snake, and that was on top of her quick mind and vicious fighting skills.
"We'll head out now," Gretel said as she turned without waiting for a response, heading for the door. Raphael paused as he went to follow her, looking back toward Jace.
"You planning on going back to your apartment?" He asked. Jace raised an eyebrow at him.
"Pillow talk with Isabelle doesn't get more exciting than talking about your boss?" He snorted and Raphael just rolled his eyes.
"Well, Clary would definitely like going back to the apartment. That girl needs a bit more freedom, she needs to be able to breathe," Raphael noted softly. Jace's expression softened, knowing that Raphael was just looking out for his Clary—someone that they all cared about, almost as much as Jace did.
"I know," Jace murmured and gave Raphael a small smile before he left the office.
Alright! Another mass update! I'm just...In a super shitty place right now, completely mental, my life is actually in a really good space—isn't it great when that happens? But writing is generally therapeutic so...Here we go.
Movies I would recommend would be Where The Heart Is, which is an old time favourite for me, and How To Be Single, which I actually quite like, even though I don't like Dakota Johnson. It's like my love for Leslie Mann cancels that out though. Haha. I don't know...Both of these movies make me really sad and happy at the same time, so it's good.
Songs that I've recently fallen in love with are Perfectly Wrong by Shawn Mendes, Chateau by Angus & Julia Stone, You Make It Easy by Jason Aldean and Marry Me by Thomas Rhett. Recommend any songs that you guys have had on repeat recently :)
Hope you're all doing well, and please leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter because I love your comments x