Quite a few of you have been asking for some sort of Jace POV. However, this story is one that really needs Clary's POV to move it forward. So I compromised and attempted the previous chapter from his point of view. I'm about to start working on Ch. 10 but school also just began so we'll see how that goes.
Jace groaned into his pillow, hitting the snooze button as his alarm went off. He reached his hand out to the other side of the bed, frowning as it came in contact with cold sheets. He cracked open his eyes and found the left side of his bed to be empty. That was definitely not what he had been expecting. He was expecting, and looking forward to, waking up and seeing Clary laying there, her red tendrils fanned out across his pillow like they had been the night before.
He rolled over slightly, finding that the sheets on that side still smelled like her—vanilla with a hint of citrus. He remembered being enveloped in that scent last night, his nose nuzzled into the crook of her neck as he thrust into her over and over. He pushed the memory out of his mind as he felt himself begin to harden. With a sigh, he forced himself out of bed and started his morning routine.
The same question kept floating around his head as he got ready for the day. Why? Why had she left? Had he done something wrong? Had he not read things correctly? There was nothing he wanted more than to talk to her as the morning went on, but as the minutes ticked by, he knew he was running out of time.
Driving to the office, the question still was at the forefront of his thoughts. He knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate without talking to her and getting some answers. He had important investor meetings lined up for the afternoon and needed a clear head to get through them. After pulling into his parking spot, he sent off a quick text to Jordan, asking him to bring Clary by once they dropped CeeCee off at school.
He spent the beginning of his work morning pouring over paperwork and sending emails back and forth with researchers in the labs. They were working on developing an alternative to chemotherapy that would have less terrible side effects—a project Jace was funding with his own money. They had made progress but were still not anywhere near close to going through human trials yet. Jace figured it didn't help that he'd had to fire a researcher in June and hadn't been able to replace him yet.
He tried to keep himself focused on the tasks at hand, but his mind kept wandering back to Clary. He couldn't remember a time when a woman got to him as much as Clary did. He'd been quite promiscuous before Kaelie. Even with Kaelie, the main reason for him settling down was CeeCee. He was ready to settle for Kaelie, willing to marry her and everything, but they both realized staying together wasn't in theirs or CeeCee's best interest. After that, he knew he couldn't go back to having random women coming in and out of his life. Not with CeeCcee to worry about.
Then Clary came into his life. Even after their first interaction at the mall he found himself thinking about her often. It probably hadn't helped that CeeCee constantly had brought her up, hoping to see the kind woman again. He had honestly been shocked when Clary had been the woman to show up for the nanny interview. Usually, he did thorough background checks on potential employees before the interview process, but he hadn't had the time and was getting desperate to have the position filled.
Despite his odd attraction to her and his desperation to get a new nanny for CeeCee, he had found himself reluctant to hire her. She didn't have any sort of professional childcare experience, and everyone he had hired previously had at least some sort of childcare training. However, between Iz and Alec vouching for her and her own argument in defense of herself, he had ultimately decided to offer her the position.
One part of her argument that had stuck out was her taking care of her mother. He found it extremely selfless of her to drop out of college in order to do so. Then, during his routine background check, he had discovered she recently lost her mother. He didn't get any specifics on what the illness was, but he was all too familiar with the pain of losing a parent, especially after losing both of his. He found himself wanting to know how she was dealing with the tragedy, but during their time together, he noticed she would usually change the subject whenever her mother was brought up. He guessed it was a sore subject for her still, and he decided not to let her know he knew. He figured she would talk about it on her own whenever she felt comfortable enough.
That was something that was out of character for him. If he wanted to know something, he usually demanded the information. Something kept him from doing that with her, though. In fact, she made him do a lot of things that were out of character for him. For instance, she often slightly bent his rules when it came to CeeCee, and instead of reprimanding her for it, he found himself letting her go ahead with it, having convinced him it was for the best.
He even hadn't been too worried about her talking back to Kaelie. At least, until that came back to bite him in the ass. He had liked that she tried to put Kaelie in her place, but Kaelie was definitely not a fan of that. When Kaelie had threatened to try to get more shared custody with CeeCee if Jace didn't "put the help in her place," he knew he couldn't allow Clary to carry on how she was. He had lashed out at her after that conversation with Kaelie, which had strained their relationship for a while, but he couldn't do anything to risk losing CeeCee.
He had actually been extremely upset when Clary was being cold and distant toward him. Since having her around, he had found himself becoming more and more attracted to her. She wasn't the type of woman he normally went after, and maybe that was a good thing. She wasn't stuck up on the material things, and she cared more about CeeCee than he thought Kaelie did. There was also the fact that she was his employee, though. Normally, he did all he could to make sure there were no crossed lines, even terminating contracts with those who became too flirty. However, he had hurdled over that line with Clary.
He had been tiptoeing around the idea of pursuing her, but after that night when Raphael had tried to force himself on her, something in him snapped. Not only had he become overwhelmed with this urge to protect her, but he realized that there were other men interested in her. He had been stupid to have not realized that sooner. After all, Clary was an amazing woman. She beautiful, kind, funny, and didn't take shit from anybody. The realization had only made him want to claim her more.
However, he wasn't sure how to go about it. He didn't know how she felt about him, and he didn't want to risk losing one of the best things that had happened to him and CeeCee. That night, he had drunkenly lost his inhibitions, though. He felt terrible that that had been how things went down, but he was still glad they did. He needed that push to pursue what he had really wanted. She had stopped his advances that night, though, and he thought he had upset her. That had led him to pretend he didn't remember it had happened. When she brought it up and said she hadn't been upset by the kiss, he felt like things were suddenly starting to fall into place. And when they had progressed past kissing, he knew for sure he wanted her as something more.
But then she had disappeared from his bed in the middle of the night, like he had done often before with his one-night stands. He was hoping that wasn't what she saw it as. He wasn't even sure what he would do if that was the case. He obviously wouldn't fire her. He couldn't do that to CeeCee, plus it would open up a whole can of worms he didn't want to deal with. He wasn't sure he could handle seeing her day in and day out, knowing she wasn't his, though.
He was pulled out of his thought by a ringing from his desk phone. He quickly picked up the receiver, seeing it was coming from his security line.
"Herondale," he answered.
"Sir," Luke responded. "There was a security alert from the penthouse. Someone tried to get in, attempting codes first and then trying to hack in when they didn't work."
"I want you to personally go down there and investigate. Look through security tapes and try to identify whoever did and everything."
Another call started to come in, this time from reception. He told Luke to hold on as he switched lines. Catarina told him that Clary had arrived, and he bit back a smile as he told her to send her in before switching back to Luke.
He only half listened to Luke as Clary walked in. He looked up at her, motioning for her to sit. Luke asked if there were other people he should inform about the situation. "Jordan," Jace said. "He's up here. I want you to take him with you. Just in case. Keep me updated."
He hung up after that, running a hand through his hair. Why would somebody be trying to break in? That had never happened before, and he didn't know why it would happen now.
"Everything all right?" Clary asked, bringing him back out of his thoughts.
"You tell me," he said, wanting to know if something was wrong. Wanting to know if last night had been a mistake.
"What?"
She honestly looked confused, so he decided to take the direct route. "You left. I want to know why."
He wasn't sure what he expected, but the anger that flashed across her face, her eyes narrowing at him, was not it.
"Are you kidding me?" she hissed. He recoiled at her response. He also hadn't been expecting that. "You brought me all the way down here for this?"
"Yes?" he said, inwardly cursing himself for making it sound like a question. She had thrown him off with her response, though.
"Do you realize how unprofessional that is? That is a total abuse of power. I thought you were going to fire me or something, Jesus."
He regained his composure. There was the Clary he knew, not taking anybody's shit. Including his own. However, the irony of her commenting on professionalism was not lost on him.
"We are far past the point of professionalism, now. And you're avoiding the question, Miss Fray."
"And you're avoiding admitting you made a mistake," she shot back.
He found himself oddly aroused by her at the moment. He actually enjoyed it when she talked back, standing up for herself. "Alright." He put his hands up in surrender and leaned back in his chair. "I'm sorry. I should not have brought you here for personal reasons," he said, deciding to placate her. "But since you're already here, we might as well talk." He wasn't about to give up on his original mission.
He watched as she repositioned herself in her seat and stared out the window behind him. She remained silent for a moment, and he kept his gaze on her.
"I was scared," she finally said, still looking out the window.
"Of?"
"The repercussions."
He moved to lean closer to her. "What repercussions?" he asked, wishing she would look up at him.
"You realizing it was a mistake, that we shouldn't have done what we did, and whatever course of action you decided to take."
He thought about that for a moment. He didn't think it was a mistake, but did that mean she felt the same way? "Do you think it was a mistake?"
She looked finally looked up at him, and he continued to stare at her. He didn't want her to say yes. He wanted her to say anything except for that.
"No," she said.
Letting out a breath, he smiled. "I don't either."
"What now?" she blurted out.
Jace cocked his head to the side. "I mean, I was kind of hoping we could see where things go." He thought that was something that was implied, but maybe he had been wrong.
"What about CeeCee?" she asked. "We can't just 'see where things go' with her being in the middle. If things go south, I don't want it affecting her."
"Then we keep things on the down low for now," he said simply, his heart swelling knowing she was still thinking of his daughter first.
"Down low," she repeated. "So like secret?"
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. She sounded disappointed at that, but he didn't want her to feel that. He knew it wasn't ideal, but they were in a weird position. "I know it doesn't sound good, but I think it's the best option. We see where things go when CeeCee is in bed or at Kaelie's and keep it to ourselves. At least until we know where everything is headed. If we do end up becoming something serious, and we're confident it'll be more than just a fling, we let people know. That way, we can be as sure as we can that CeeCee doesn't get hurt in the process. If things go south, as you so eloquently put it, nobody is the wiser, and CeeCee won't be involved."
"I just don't want her to be upset if I'm suddenly no longer there," Clary added/
He frowned. He was tired of her always implying he was going to fire her. Did she not understand how important she was to CeeCee? He couldn't let her go just because she upset him at this point. "Why do you always think I'm going to fire you?"
She shrugged. "Prepare for the best, expect the worst?"
"Listen, Clary, no matter what happens between us personally, I will not let it affect us professionally." She gave him a pointed look. "Okay, except for today. But you are doing such a great job with CeeCee, and I'm not going to let my personal choices affect her. If we don't work out, you will still have a job. I promise. CeeCee adores you and you're going to have to really fuck up for me to even consider letting you go. "
Clary nodded. Her phone rang in her pocket, and she shot Jace a look before answering it.
Jace studied her as she spoke. Her hair was down today, falling in loose curls down her back. He watched her pouty lips as she spoke, remembering how they felt against his own. He began to wonder what they would feel like wrapped around other parts of him.
He was brought back to the present moment as Clary looked at him. "Yeah, of course. I'll be right there," She said into the phone. Jace gave her a questioning look as she hung up the phone and stood up. "CeeCee's sick. I need to go pick her up from school," she explained, heading toward the door.
"Wait," he said. "Jordan went with Luke to take care of a security matter." He didn't want to give her details. Plus, the matter should all be taken care of by the time she got back home. "The keys for the Escalade should be downstairs. If you're okay with driving. I can call and get Jordan here—"
Clary cut him off, laughing lightly. "Jace, it's fine. Don't worry about it. The sooner I pick up CeeCee, the better."
He nodded before offering a small smile. "I'll see you tonight?" He tried to keep the pathetic hopefulness from showing in his voice.
"See you tonight," she replied.
He was in the middle of giving a presentation to a group of investors when his cellphone rang on the table. Normally he turned it off, but he must have forgotten to before the meeting. He glanced at the caller ID, furrowing his brow when he saw Clary's name. She never called him at work. He decided to let it go to voicemail, though. However, when the phone rang a second time, he knew he couldn't ignore it.
He offered a quick apology to the men and women seated around the conference table before answering the call. Something had to be wrong.
"Clary? What's going on?" he asked.
"I'm being followed," she said, her voice thick as if she was about to cry.
"What do you—"
He was cut off as the sound of metal hitting metal came through the phone followed by CeeCee's scream.
"What's happening?" he shouted, feeling panic begin to swell in his chest.
"Daddy?" CeeCee called out on the other line.
Clary didn't answer.
"What is happening, Clary?" Jace demanded again.
"We're being followed, and I can't lose them," she yelled back.
"Where are you?" he asked, trying to calm himself down. He wouldn't be any good if he couldn't keep his head on straight. But he couldn't help thinking about the worst happening to CeeCee.
"I don't know," she said, her voice cracking.
"You don't know?" he growled. She had his daughter in the car with her, was in charge of her safety, and she didn't know where they were?
"I was trying to lose them and took a bunch of turns. I don't know where I am. Nothing looks familiar," she said as she took in her surroundings.
"Shit, okay." Jace paused for a second, trying to think of his next move. "I'll see if Luke can track the car, just continue driving. Try to lose him and avoid any accidents. I'll call you right back."
He hung up and turned back to the room of investors. He quickly explained that he would have to cut the meeting short due to a family emergency before exiting the room. He dialed Luke's number as he headed down to the parking garage.
"Sir?" Luke answered.
"I need you back here, now. Clary's being followed in the Escalade."
"We're already almost there. There wasn't much at the penthouse."
"Well get here faster," Jace ordered before roughly hitting the end button on the call.
He anxiously paced the garage, waiting for them to show up. It felt like hours before a black sedan pulled up in front of him. He didn't waste any time opening the back door and getting in. Jordan was driving with Luke in the front seat with some sort of laptop in front of him.
"I have a signal from the car and know where it is," Luke explained. "Give me your phone. I need to call Miss Fray."
Jace numbly handed him his phone with Clary's contact pulled up. He listened as Luke talked to Clary, but worst case scenarios kept running through his head. He was frozen in the backseat with fear, images of CeeCee dead in a car crash flashing through his mind. He didn't know what he'd do if he lost her. He never even wanted kids, and then Kaelie had ended up pregnant. Once CeeCee was born, he was amazed by the amount of love he felt for her right away. She was so tiny and she was his. He had helped make her. He never knew that he could love anything as much as he loved her. She was all he really had left family-wise after he losing his parents. He was sure that losing her would be a million times worse than that.
He was barely aware of where they were going until Jordan pulled into a parking lot with Luke giving Clary directions on how to get to them. When the Escalade showed up, he suddenly thawed out. The other car wasn't even in park before he flew out of the car and threw open the other's door.
He almost cried tears of relief at the sight of CeeCee in her car seat, crying but completely unharmed. He made quick work of the straps on her seat.
"Oh my God, CeeCee," he breathed out. "You're alright."
He pulled her tightly against him, inhaling the scent of her hair. She continued to cry against his chest, and while it broke his heart, it was better than any of the scenarios that he had been imagining. He whispered soothing words to her as he got back into the other car. He continued to hug her to him as Luke drove him home. He barely recalled Jordan saying he would take care of Clary.
Once back home, he still couldn't get her to calm down and she was starting to burn up with another fever. Panicked and at a complete loss for what to do, he called the pediatrician he had on call for her. He was instructed to give her children's cold medicine to help her go to sleep. CeeCee fell asleep about fifteen minutes after he did so, and he carefully changed her into a pair of pajamas and tucked her into bed. It was just barely after noon, but he figured she could sleep the cold off.
He left her room, quietly closing the door behind and him, and went to foyer where Jordan and Luke were talking to each other. They glanced up at him, concern on their faces.
"How's she doing?" Luke asked.
Jace shrugged. "I basically just had to drug her to get her to go to sleep. She's really shaken up."
"Yeah," Jordan nodded. "So is Clary. I practically had to pry her fingers off the steering wheel."
A pang of guilt hit his chest. He hadn't thought about Clary. He had been so focused on CeeCee that she had slipped his mind. She had just been something traumatic, too. He wanted to talk to her, but needed some information first.
"What did the detective say?" he asked. He had told Luke to call the police as he took care of CeeCee.
"Plates came up stolen, unfortunately."
"Fuck," he muttered.
"There's something else," Luke added. "Whoever had tried to break in earlier hadn't really tried that hard. They had also managed to keep their face away from all cameras. I think it might have been a deliberate diversion to get security away from Clary and maybe CeeCee."
"Where is she?" he asked, needing to see her, especially now. Was someone actually after her? More importantly why would someone be after her? She had an extremely clean record. He briefly entertained the idea that maybe someone was after her to get to him, but there wasn't anybody who would know about them that came to mind.
"Her room," Jordan responded, nodding in that direction.
Jace walked over to her door, knocking lightly before shoving his hands in his pockets. Clary answered the door, now dressed in sweats and a t-shirt. He felt his heart constrict at her face, which was red and puffy from crying.
"Can I come in?" he asked warily, unsure if she wanted to talk to him.
Clary nodded, moving aside so he could step in. She closed the door behind him and leaned against the doorjamb with her arms crossed. "How's CeeCee?" she asked.
He ran a hand through his already messy hair and sat on the edge of her bed. "I don't know. She seemed really shaken up. I couldn't get her to calm down and ended up calling her pediatrician. Since she's already sick, he just told me to give her some children's NyQuil to at least get her asleep." He was quiet for a moment, looking down at his shoes. "How are you doing?" He looked up at her, his voice low.
She shrugged, avoiding meeting his eyes. "I'm fine."
"Bullshit," he said. "I just talked to Jordan. It doesn't sound like you're fine."
Rolling her eyes, she pushed off the doorjamb. "What do you want me to say, Jace?"
"The truth would be a nice start." He tried to keep the attitude out of his voice. She had just been through a lot, but now was not the time for her to shut him out.
She sighed heavily, sitting down next to him. Placing her elbows on her knees, she put her head in her hands. "I'm freaked out, okay? We could have been killed. Something could have happened to CeeCee. I could have—"
He gently placed a hand on her back and cut her off. "Hey," he said softly, "stop focusing on the could have's. There were a lot of things that could have happened, but they didn't. I know what just happened must have been terrifying, but you're okay, and that's all that matters."
Clary leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. He moved his hand from her back and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tighter against him.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, placing a soft kiss on her temple. He felt terrible for not thinking of her at first. He felt terrible that she had been alone while he was so focused on CeeCee.
"For what?"
"For not checking in on you sooner."
She pulled away and looked at him. "Don't apologize for that," she said, frowning. "You were with your daughter. She comes first, Jace."
He gave her a faint smile and pulled her into his side again, rubbing his hand gently up and down her arm. "Thank you for being so understanding." He kissed the crown of her head.
"What happens now?" she asked quietly. She picked up his other hand and began tracing on it with her finger.
"I'm upping security protocol. The plates came up stolen, and we have no idea who was behind the wheel, which means we don't know who they were after. Not only is Jordan to go everywhere with you and CeeCee with absolutely no exceptions, I also want you to have someone with you if you leave alone."
She scoffed and moved to pull away again, but he held her against him. "I can handle myself, Jace."
He as expecting that kind of answer from her. "I'm not saying you can't," Jace said. "I would just feel better if you had someone with you."
"That's a waste of money and resources."
"Honey, neither of those things are a problem for me. What would be a problem for me is if something happened to you. Yes, I was terrified that something was going to happen to CeeCee when I was on the phone with you, but I was also worried about you. If something had happened to you and it had been my fault, I don't know what I'd do. So, please, just ease my mind?"
He didn't want to tell her what Luke had just told her. He didn't want to cause her to panic or worry right now. They didn't know for sure that someone was targeting her, and he didn't want to cause unnecessary panic.
"Okay," she said, giving in. "But nobody is to follow me into work. They can pick me up and drop me off and whatever, but security at Pandemonium is sufficient enough."
"Fair enough," he said, giving her a genuine smile. He was actually a little surprised that she gave in so easily. "Thank you."
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered.
He let out a light chuckle. "CeeCee should be out for awhile, and I took the rest of the day off so I can be here with her. I want you to take the afternoon off and just decompress. It's been a rough day."
"Are you sure? I really don't mind. I—"
"Clary, you need to take some time for yourself right now. I'm fully capable of handling my daughter for the afternoon."
Once again, she gave into him. "Okay," she sighed.
"Get some rest," he instructed as he stood up. He placed a soft kiss on her lips before leaving.