Disclaimer: the fabulous work belongs to Cassandra Clair, thank you for creating the Shadow world.
The hunt for Valentine Morgenstern has started, and the chase led them to New York, not knowing what Valentine's major target was going to be, they knew they first had to learn more about him, then find his target and lastly track him down and get him before he got to it.
Coming back to New York, brought back a few demons from Jonathan's past, but he couldn't let them rule him, he instead drew pleasure from seeing his fellow soldiers enjoying themselves even though they still were on assignment, and from their shared joy at being able to see their love ones.
The hunt for Valentine took more time than they thought initially. The man has been flying in and out a lot to get the materials he needed for the bombs he was making. Jonathan figured that whatever this Valentine guy was planning, it was going to be huge.
There were rumors about Valentine and what his plans were, but those rumors and plans kept changing in the hearing.
Since the hunt was taking so long, Jonathan was finally hounded by his superiors in the navy and went to west point, graduating in record time, he came back to lead his team in other endeavours, earning even more merits, and some well-deserved promotions, he made Captain in record time, and was quickly promoted further.
Two years into the hunt, Jonathan got promoted to Major, about a day after his well-earned promotion, they finally tracked the Valentine while he was in New York. As soon as they found out they alerted the NYPD to not come close to him, just let the Navy know and the Seals will do the rest.
"Anyone, and I mean anyone who comes into contact with this Valentine guy, immediately place a call to the bomb squad and alert the EMT's to be there, and then clear the area, we don't want people to get hurt, understood?" Jonathan briefed his men.
"After this mess will be over, I want you all to meet my new girlfriend." Bat suddenly said.
"Of course, and maybe I can finally introduce you all around to my friends," Raphael added, and Andrew chimed in as well, "And you should meet my boyfriend while we're at it."
"Let's get this guy first, and then we'll see about everything else." Jonathan told them.
"Jonathan, don't you have a family or anyone here?" Bat asked.
"I have no one, but I have you, even as friends you are closer than any family I ever had."
After he said that he noticed the silence and the glances his friends exchanged between them, he brought them past the moment as he spoke, "Keep your eyes open on the mission, don't let anyone get caught in the crossfire, I don't want anyone to get hurt."
With that, Jonathan left their HQ to take a stroll around and clear his head. He walked around the streets, keeping his mind on the task, as he bumped into a little child, "Oh, sorry little one."
"That's ok."
"Rafael, don't talk to strangers, come along." A voice, he remembered the voice very clearly.
"I better go, my dad calling for me."
"Go to your dad, Rafael."
As Rafael ran toward his dad he suddenly was caught by another man. A man Jonathan recognized instantly from his daily briefing on him. Immediately he pulled out his cellphone and pushed a number to speed dial to HQ.
"I found him, get the bomb squad now, it's near the church close to Hyde Park." Jonathan called as soon as Raphael answered and then closed his phone and pulled out his gun.
"Put the boy down!" Jonathan called.
"And you are?" Valentine asked, still gripping on the boy, not letting him go as he pulled his own gun from his pocket.
"Rafael are you okay son?" the voice came closer.
Rafael only nodded toward his father.
"I'm Major Jonathan Weigh, and you are the notorious terrorist – Valentine Morgenstern." Jonathan spoke, his eyes are locked with Valentine.
"Notorious, really?" Valentine chuckled.
"Put the boy down, and take me instead," Jonathan offered himself as he added, "he's just a kid."
"You do as I say, Major, you put your gun down first, if you don't want the boy to get hurt." Valentine said in cold voice.
Jonathan sighed heavily, and put his gun on the ground, kicking it behind him. He knew that his teammates will collect it soon.
"Now let the boy go." Jonathan said again. But Valentine used the opportunity to shoot the Seal in the leg.
Jonathan ignored the pain, his first priority was to ensure the boy's safety.
"Let the boy's go, Valentine, you've got what you wanted." Jonathan limped closer, not letting the pain to cloud his mind, or stop him, the boy was more important right now.
As soon as Valentine let go of the boy he ran straight to his father and they both took off. While Morgenstern was distracted by the movement Jonathan took the opportunity to draw his backup sidearm and shoot the terrorist, felling him down with one precise shot to the head, as Valentine fell down, instantly dead, his coat opened up to reveal the blinking red dot of an active bomb strapped to his waist.
"Don't come any closer! I need the bomb squad, right now." Jonathan called, and tried to stay on his feet even though his leg felt like it was burning up from the shot and the heat was radiating within his body.
At that moment the rest of the team rolled in and got to work. Raphael and Bat cleared the area while Andrew went straight to his boss, after visually going over the wound in his leg he said, "Jonathan, once it's over, you go straight to the EMT's."
"yeah yeah, now stop nagging and check what's keeping the bomb squad away, after this is over you can help me limp over to check this scratch" Jonathan tried to put a brave face out even though the wound was really sapping his strength off.
While he was still looking at the bomb thinking how he could prevent it from going off before the bomb squad arrived, he asked, "how's the boy?"
"The boy is fine, and we've got it all recorded, I mean not us, but all the people around, they just pulled out their smartphones and recorded the whole confrontation."
"We'll handle the media circus after this is over, thank you Andrew."
A few minutes later, the bomb squad finally arrived. One man, dressed in the protective gear of a demolition disposal expert, walked toward the Major, and then noticed the bomb on the man on the ground and went to work disarming it.
Watching the man work, Jonathan said of all sudden, "Andrew, I believe once I'm in the hospital, you and the others can go see your loved ones."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I mean, why not? You have a boyfriend waiting for you, and the others as well, so, take your time, there's no hurry, I'll be fine. And the mission has been carried out to conclusion"
Half an hour later, the bomb was disarmed, and Jonathan sighed in relief, as he felt his leg flare up he leaned on Andrew and whispered, "Andrew, you can get the EMTs to help me out now"
Andrew held him, not letting his boss fall to the ground as he signaled the all clear to the EMT and motioned for them to come and help him get Jonathan to the gurney to treat his gunshot wound.
While he was being treated, Raphael and Bat came to join Andrew and they all hovered about looking with concern at his wound.
"We'll follow you to the hospital." Raphael told to the EMT.
Once the doors of the ambulance closed and the vehicle drove off to the hospital, the boy and his dad came walking toward the Navy Seals.
"This man saved my boy's life; I want to thank him." The man said.
"I want to say thank you as well, he… took the bullet." Rafael mumbled.
"Major Jonathan Weigh is in the hospital, but after he's released maybe we can do something about that." Andrew suggested.
Rafael jumped in excitement.
"I'll think of something." He said, and with that the man and the boy left.
While in Lightwood family's home, the family was sitting around watching TV. Then the regular shows were interrupted with a piece of braking news, a known hunt for a known terrorist came to an end this day, with pictures of Valentine and a group of Navy Seals who apparently were the ones to bring him down showing on the screen, while the images were shown there appeared to be a familiar face included.
Izzy got off the couch as the images were shown and asked, "Is… is that Alec?"
"…We are now showing footage that was recorded on the phones of people nearby, who were able to record the entire incident from start to finish, let's watch the whole event from start to finish…"
"Magnus was there with Rafael?" Maryse asked, and then she pointed at Jace, "Check with Magnus, ask if his son is okay."
Jace pulled his phone and dialed Magnus, who spoke right away, "Rafael is fine, that Major guy saved his life."
"The Major looked like Alec, and he sounded like him."
"We don't know that, it's been about 9 years now since Alec went missing?" Magnus asked.
"Come to the house, mom asked about Rafael, and maybe we should all talk about what you two went through?"
"Sure, I'll come." Magnus replied.
He played in his mind again what happened, and tried to recall the Navy SEAL guy that saved his son's life, yes, the voice was very similar to Alec's, and Magnus couldn't forget the voice, even if he tried to, even if it looked like he has changed.
In the hospital, the doctor let the unit know that Jonathan was stable and was just settled into a room.
"We are treating him, and there's no danger, but he's pumped full of drugs at the moment to help with the pain, come back later," the doctor let them know, and then he added, "You should call his family, let them know that he is the hospital."
"He doesn't have a family; we are the closest thing he has to one." Bat said.
"We'll come back later then; he needs his rest." Raphael agreed with the doctor.
Once Magnus and Rafael joined the family, Maryse hugged the boy.
"That man didn't hurt you?" Maryse asked as she tried to check for any sign of injury but found none.
"No, the navy guy saved my life." The boy told her.
The photo of Major Jonathan Weigh was frozen on the screen, as Rafael saw it, and said in excitement sounded clearly in his voice, "That's the guy, how is he? I saw the bad guy shoot him."
"He is in the hospital son." Magnus told him.
"So, what is going to happen after he's all patched up, are they going back on tour or something?" Jace asked.
"I believe dad is talking with the governor about it right now, everyone saw this incident on the news." Isabelle said as she saw her father talking on the phone.
When Robert put down his phone, he turned to update the rest of the family.
"Well, from what I understood after talking with the governor, once he's out the hospital, The Major and his team are going to meet the president, and get a commendation, it also appears that this Major has earned quite a few commendation already, although I couldn't find out how many and for what." Robert summarized what the governor told him.
"Medals, he's has more than one?" Magnus asked.
"Yes, it's seems that the Major is one of the best and youngest officers, he is very skilled and he puts the safety of his soldiers as a paramount objective of every mission. there's a whole list of medals that will be joined by the one the president is going to give him when he meets him." Robert explained.
"looks like he's going to receive a Purple Heart and a Medal of Honor, and his teammates will also receive their own honors, but those two will be given to him by the president himself. It's quite an honor." Robert said.
Isabelle searched in her phone and googled the name of the Major and found nothing about his personal life.
But she saw an article about his teammates and when she read it, she found what she was looking for.
"There's an article talking with his unit, and the soldiers were asked about him, look what they say about families or loves ones."
Magnus took her phone and started reading the article, and then he found the section and summarized it out loud, "He said that he doesn't have anyone that is waiting for him, he is practically a loner."
"Maybe we could use it for our own purposes." Maryse said, as an idea come to her mind.