I'm walking in the empty field that is behind my father's house, and memories start flooding in on me. This very same field is where Jonathan taught me to swing a baseball bat, and actually connect with a ball, when we were little. It's where we played all sorts of games; such as tag, hide-and-seek, and demon hunters. I chuckle at the memory of the hunts.

Jon always wanted to be the leader and would get so mad when dad, or mom, said it was my turn. But when Izzy and Alec would play with us, I always let him lead; even if it was my turn, and we didn't really have one, because it was more of a group effort. Thinking about it now, I don't know why I'd do that; I suppose it was just the thing to do when I was eight.

It's where the two of us would throw parties while our parents were gone; as well as, where he had helped me perfect my self-defense technique. It also just so happens to have been the last place I had seen him before he died. And I can still remember it like it was only yesterday.

It was before I had to go to school, and he was laid in a lounge chair, staring out at the birds that were flying to and fro trying to find their breakfast, while he soaked up the sun; which was glistening off his hair, making it look even more platinum than even I could have thought possible. - I remember how it had reminded me of the glow of an angel. - He was wearing blue jeans, and his school hoodie; black with gold writing that read, 'Alicante Institute.'

I had gone out to him and asked if he wanted me to get his work for the day, and he told me no because it would mean he'd have to do it, which made me laugh. Then he pulled me down next to him, and told me to sit with him until Alec and Izzy got there to pick me up; I agreed and snuggled up to him. He was burning up, so I apologized for making him sick. He told me that it wasn't my fault, and that is was bound to happen sooner or later since it was going around the school, but I still felt guilty. I told him that I hoped he got to feeling better soon, and he pulled me into him tighter, telling me he already did because I was next to him and that I was the best medicine in the world. We sat there in silence, snuggled up to each other and watching the birds until I heard Alec's horn. I gave him a squeeze while telling him that I loved him and would see him after school, then I placed a kiss on his cheek. He kissed the top of my head, told me he loved me too, then said not if he seen me first while he laughed. I pinched his side and tried to jump up before he could get me back, but failed. He pulled me back into him and started tickling me. I was laughing and yelling mercy, but he didn't stop until mom yelled for me to hurry up before I was late for school, which allowed me to escape. Jon then told me that he'd finish what I started later, and I stuck my tongue out at him; he stomped his right foot at me like he was about to get up and come after me, and I took off running to the house, laughing the whole way.

The memory of that morning has silent tears running down my cheeks, I miss my brother so much. He was the one I'd go to when I was feeling blue. The one I'd go to if I-

I feel a tap on my right shoulder, but when I turn my head to look, there's nobody there. Then I feel a tap on my left shoulder, and this time when I turn to look, I can't believe my eyes.

"What's the matter?" He asks softly and reaches up with his right hand, brushing his fingers against my wet, left cheek. In shock still, I slowly turn completely around, so that I can face him, and he reaches up with both hands now and wipes away the tears with his thumbs. "Clary, don't cry."

I open my mouth, but what I want to say doesn't come out; so I swallow hard and try again. "Is it really you?"

Still not what I wanted to say, but it's better than standing there, moving my mouth, and nothing coming out.

"In the flesh," he says with a smile, and motioning up and down his body with his hands.

"But.. you can't be. Can you?"

He laughs. "Well, I'm here aren't I?"

"How?"

"That's not important, but if you must know, it was you," he says becoming serious, and cupping my face in his hands. He slumps down some and looks me straight in the eyes. "You brought me here, Clary."

"That isn't possible, is it?" I ask, shaking my head as best as I can, considering I have two large hands practically swallowing my face at the moment, and I'm too afraid to try moving them; this could just be a figment of my imagination, and I don't want it to end just yet.

"Why don't you just quit asking questions, and give your big brother a hug," he says instead of asking with a smile on his face.

Without even giving it a second thought, I throw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him and squeezing him tight. "I've missed you so much, Jon," I say with tears of joy streaming down my face. "You have no idea."

"I know, Clare," he says sadly, stroking my hair with his right hand as his left arm holds me close. "I've missed you, too."

"I've been so lost without you," I say, burying my face into his chest. "It has felt like I've had a hole in my heart, and it just kept getting bigger."

"I know that, too," he says, then sighs. "I want you to listen to me, Clary, and I need you to really listen to what I'm about to say. You have got to quit thinking that everybody is going to end up hurting you, and start letting people in." I shake my head no against his chest. "Yes, Clary. The sooner you do that, the sooner you will find that hole you were just talking about getting smaller. And you have to do it for me because I want to see you happy again."

"But, I am happy," I say, and I am, now that he's here. He's the one thing that I've been needing to make me one hundred percent happy; not some fake friends, or a guy that is going to screw me over, or even my so-called father; none of them, just my big brother.

I feel him shake his head no against my own. "You say that, and I know you probably even believe it to an extent, but I know that's not true." He kisses the top of my head, and I squeeze him even tighter. I've missed these moments, and it feels like it's been a lifetime ago since I've had one with him; his hugs and kisses as he tries to comfort me, and make me see reason. "And, I also know, that there is somebody out there that can, and will, make you happier than you use to be, and that, that person is going to treat you the way you deserve; all you have to do is open up."

He says it like it is a fact and not just some theory of his, and as if he knows who this mystery person is, so I pull back to ask him who, - I can spare myself a lot of trouble if I know. - but he's not there anymore. Instead, another person stands in his place, with his hands sliding down my arms as I step back. "Jace? What-"

I open my eyes to the sound of my phone ringing and groan as I look over at my clock; it's two forty-five a.m. Pushing the crazy dream I was just having from the forefront of my mind, I quickly snatch up my phone, guessing that it must be an emergency. But who? Wait, Izzy might not have made it home yet, so it could be her. Oh please, by the angel, let her be alright!

"Izzy?" I ask in panic as I answer it, the caller id reading unavailable.

"No," says a strange and unfamiliar male voice, and it sounds like there are people in the background talking faintly; but I can't make out what they're saying. "Try again."

"Jace, this shit ain't funny!" I say, knowing that Alec wouldn't do something like this. "I swear, I'm going to hurt you, and whoever gave you my number."

"Jace is at home, asleep in his bed," the voice says knowingly and then laughs. "So he can't help you, this time. By the way, I just wanted to let you know that, that's a pretty green nightgown, it really brings out the red in your hair."

"Who the fuck is this then?!" I ask, as I slowly stand up and start making my way over to my window. Maybe I can get a good look and finally end this, I think as I look out the window. But I don't see anybody, not even a vehicle they could be sitting in; the only thing out there is shadows cast from the pole lights against the trees and balconies. "And where the hell are you?!"

"That's a secret," the voice says, and the way he says it gives me the creeps.

"Look," I say backing away from the window, and deciding that I'll go see if Izzy's in her room. Whoever this is could've done something to her, and I need to know that, that's not the case. "I'm not into playing all these childish games, so either tell me who you are, where you are, and what you want, or leave me the hell alone!" I say, my voice rising to a yell before I'm done.

The voice starts laughing, an evil type of laugh, and I hear at least two females laughing with him. "You will find all that out when we're ready for you to know," the voice says menacingly, then hangs up.

I drop my hand, and the phone, down to my right side, just as I make it to Izzy's bedroom door; it's closed, which is unusual. - In the time that she's lived here with me, the only time the door has been shut was when she was on the phone with Maryse, or Alec, and didn't want to wake me; but both of them are most likely in bed. Then there was the one time she brought home some Meliorn guy, that she had met at an end of the school year party. - But this would explain why she didn't come running to see what was wrong when I went to yelling, she didn't hear it.

I put my left hand on the doorknob, and not knowing what to expect on the other side of this door, I take a deep breath. Slowly, I turn the knob and ease the door open just enough to peek inside; I expel the breath I was holding out my mouth, Izzy is asleep in her bed, alone. So, I quietly close the door and begin making my way up the hall and to the kitchen.

Once I make it into the kitchen, I turn on the coffee pot; I know that there is no way that I am going to be able to sleep, at least not anytime soon, not after that phone call. Then I reach over to my left, opening the drawer where we keep a little bit of everything and grab a pen and a notepad out. I know how I'll pass the time, I'll make a list of anyone that may have a grudge against me, or just want to screw with me, and try narrowing it down; starting with Sebastian.

Jace

I wake from another one of my strange dreams to the sound of my alarm clock blaring and growl as I roll over to slap it. I just want it to shut up. I'm tired of never being able to finish one of these dreams, and right now I just want some more sleep. However, just as I start to doze back off, I hear a knock on my door.

"Jace, time to get up," Maryse says sweetly from the other side. "You don't want to be late on your first day."

"I'm up," I call back to her as I quickly sit straight up. Even threw my head rush fog, I can't believe I had forgotten about school.

I stand up, rubbing my hands together, as I make my way to my dresser. Today is the day I'm going to start putting my plan that I came up with last night, with some help of my new friend Jordan, into motion.

I enter the kitchen to find Alec sitting on a stool at the island, staring into oblivion. His left arm laid across the countertop with a cup of steaming coffee in his hand, a plate in front of him with eggs, bacon, and toast on it, and a piece of toast in his right hand as he mindlessly brings it to his mouth.

"Good morning," he says as I walk past him to the coffee pot.

"Good morning," I chirp as I grab a coffee cup out of the cupboard, and pour myself a cup, then begin making a plate of my own. I was lucky if I was able to get a cup of coffee before I had to leave the house back home so I could get use to this in no time.

"Long night?" He asks, a tinge of amusement in his voice, and I only nod my head yes.

"Well," Alec says after a short moment of silence. "Are you going to tell me what happened last night between you and Clary, or am I going to have to pry it out of you?"

"Nothing happened," I inform him, smiling down at my plate that I'm still piling food on. "She told me the reason she is in school still, but has her own place, a-"

"She did?" Alec asks incredulously, cutting me off before I can finish telling him everything. "But, she doesn't tell anybody about that."

"Well, she told me," I say proudly with a shrug. "She also told me what caused it," I add, picking up my plate and cup. When I turn around, I see that Alec's eyes are bulging out of his head. I make my way over to the island and sit down to his right before asking, "What?"

"It's just that- that," he clears his throat. "She has never told anybody, and I do mean anybody, that stuff. I mean, yeah sure, Izzy, mom, dad, and me, all know about it, but that's because we were right there with her when it was all happening. She stayed here when Valentine started-"

"Wait," I interrupt him. "Who's Valentine?"

"Her dad," he says quietly, his eyebrows furrowed together when he looks at me.

"Oh," I say, bringing a piece of bacon to my mouth. He raises his eyebrows at me as if he doesn't believe that she told me, so I explain. "She didn't mention his name, she just called him dad."

"That makes sense," he mumbles under his breath, looking down at his plate. I'm getting the sneaky suspicion that there's more to the story. He starts playing with his eggs, flipping them around his plate, then after a short moment says, "Why don't you just tell me what she did tell you."

I take a deep breath and begin telling him, word for word, what she told me, and he nods along as I do; not once does he look at me, the whole time he just sits there, continuing to play with his eggs. I know now that there is definitely more to what happened; and not because Alec has told me anything, because he hasn't, but because of his lack of saying, or doing, anything gives it away. I mean, I know he lost a friend, but seriously, his facial features never change from the solemn one he is displaying, and all he does is nod.

I start going into what happened after we got to her place, and he finally looks over at me; his expression lightening up.

"She punched you, didn't she?" He asks with a chuckle after I tell him how I tried to stop her from taking my jacket off by pulling the front of it together and holding it there. "Because don't think I haven't noticed that your lip is busted, and your left eye looks puffy and has a little bruising going on with it too."

"No," I laugh. "That isn't from her. She only handed me my jacket and walked off. This," I make a circling motion around my face with my left hand, "is from a little run-in I had with Sebastian afterward." I chuckle. "I wonder what he looks like this morning. If he can even get out of bed."

Alec opens his mouth, but before he can say or ask whatever it is, Maryse walks in, and he closes his mouth.

She takes one good look at me, then shakes her head. "I hope whatever it was that you were fighting over was worth it," she says as she walks past us.

I look over at Alec, and quickly glance over in Maryse's direction, silently asking him if I should tell her. He shakes his head no so slightly that if I hadn't been looking right at him, I would have missed it.

Deciding that I had better say something before she starts asking questions, I just tell her, "It was," as I look back to my plate, then take a bite of my eggs that are now cold.

"Good," she says, and I can hear her putting a cup into the sink. "But, it had better not become a regular occurrence, Jace Herondale," she warns, strictly, and I gulp down the food I had in my mouth. "You got in enough trouble back home, and I will not allow you to fall into that same path here."

"Yes, ma'am," I say, agreeing quickly.

If she knew the real reason I was getting into so much trouble there, she'd probably call me stupid. I mean, I would purposely start fights for no reason, skip school and then call to report myself and my location, and tell the well-known, school snitch, that I was about to go have sex with whichever bimbo it was, - usually Kailee - and where it was going to happen at just so I could get busted and finally expelled. Sure, my home life wasn't the greatest, but that wasn't going to do any real good there. So, my reason behind it all was simple. I knew I would be allowed to move here, and the primary purpose for that... Clary!

"Jace," Maryse says, pulling my attention away from the game of rock, paper, scissors, I was playing with Max and Alec. She grabs her black, suede bag off the dining room table, then slides the strap of it over her right shoulder. "Since I took you and got you enrolled yesterday, I trust that you can find the school on your own today and don't need me to take you. Right?"

"Yes, ma'am," I say, nodding my head.

She looks at me with both of her eyebrows raised and using her right index finger, points at me. "And you are going to stay at school for all your classes, correct?"

"Yes," I sigh. Maybe I should just tell her and let her call me stupid because this is exhausting.

"That means that you are going to actually attend classes, and not.." she pauses and looks over at Max, then back to me. "Just save the extracurriculars for after school."

"I will," I assure her.

"Good," she says, walking over to us. When she gets to the island, she stops, grabs her thermos that reads, 'I'm a Mom, and a Professor, I've got this,' then looks at her watch. "Alright, Max," she says looking to her left at him. "It's time to get going. So say your goodbyes, and meet me at the car."

"Okay," Max sighs and jumps down from the stool he was sitting on. He gives Alec a hug. "Bye, Alec. Good luck today."

"Thanks, Max," Alec says, pulling back. "Do you remember your spelling words?"

"Uh-huh," Max nods, and they high five. He then takes a sidestep to his right and reaches up as I lean down, and the two of us hug. "Bye, Jace. Have fun at school."

"You too, buddy," I say as we pull back from each other. I stick my left hand on his hair and start moving it from left to right, right to left. "You better get going, before you're running late."

He starts trying to flatten his hair back down and scoffs. "You messed up my-"

"Oh, Alec," Maryse says, interrupting his grumbling, and popping her head back in the pane glass door; the maroon colored curtain floating back down against it. "Don't forget, I need you to pick Max up from Izzy and Clary's this afternoon. I've got that committee meeting, and then your dad is going to take me out to dinner afterward, so you're going to have to cook too; unless you want to order pizza, or have us bring you guys something home."

"I completely forgot," Alec admits, slapping his hand hard against his forehead, then slowly sliding it down the right side of his face. "I have that study group with Magnus and the others tonight. But I guess I could see if they mind rescheduling."

"No you don't," I say quickly, standing up from my seat. "I'll pick him up, and feed him, while you guys do what you have to do."

"Really? You sure?" Maryse asks.

"Yeah," I shrug. "I told him that I'd take him out for ice cream today, anyway."

"Okay, well if you really don't mind," she says slowly, as if she's waiting for me to change my mind; and I can see Max out the corner of my eye, dancing around in a circle with both his index fingers taking turns going into the air and back down as he does.

"I really don't," I say, laughing at the both of them. "But you might want to get out of here before you and Max are late."

"Shoot! Come on, Max." Max runs over to the door, snatching his backpack off the back of a dining room chair on his way, before vanishing out of sight; his coat flying behind him like a cape the whole way. As Maryse starts shutting the door, I hear her say, "Thank you, Jace. You two learn something today!"

"I suppose that we need to get going, too," I say, looking over at Alec. He's smiling and shakes his head no. "What?" I ask with a chuckle.

"You, my friend," he stabs his long, bony finger into my right bicep, "have to get going. I, on the other hand, don't have class until after nine."

"That's right," I sigh, then shrug. "I guess, I'm off then. I'll see you sometime tonight."

"Maybe," he snickers, and I shake my head with a smile on my face as I playfully roll my eyes at him. "Have fun today."

"I plan to," I say grabbing my jacket and shrugging it on, and he laughs.

I walk over to the door, and when I open it, the cool breeze hits me, causing me to inhale in shock sharply - I really hadn't expected it to be this chilly out. - and I get a whiff of a scent that I had gotten used to last night; it's a mix between mangoes and peaches, and I'm not really sure where it is coming from. Making my way across the driveway to my Equinox, it dawns on me... Clary had on my jacket last night, and that's what she smelled like. I smile at the thought of how I'm going to get to smell Clary all day.

Clary

After I'm done getting ready for school, I make my way up the hall, only to find Izzy still in the kitchen. - It really didn't come as a surprise, though. Because after all, she did have to wake me up, since I had fallen asleep with my head on the bar. - She is heating something up in the microwave as she stands there staring at it, a cup of coffee held with both hands, approximately half an inch away from her bright, red lips.

She looks over at me as I come to a stop beside her, and gives me a half smile. "I've got us both a cinnamon roll reheating."

"Thank you," I say with a small smile, tilting my head to my left, and resting it against her right arm.

"Are you sure you want to go to school today?" she asks sounding worried, laying her head over on mine, and my smile falls.

"Yeah," I sigh. "I'm not going to let whoever it is, keep me from living my life. Plus, I want to see if I can catch whoever it is. I mean, they have to go to school with us, right?"

The microwave sounds off with its always annoying beeping, and the two of us split apart; she steps up to it, opening its door, and I grab a couple of small napkins for us.

"I don't know," she says carefully sliding the plate out, and the two of us walk over to the bar; meeting it at the same time, and leaning against its countertop, with the plate in-between us. "With that phone call though, I still say that you should stay home and go file a report down at the police station."

I sigh. I heard this for nearly twenty minutes after I filled her in, and I really don't want to listen to it anymore. "And like I said earlier, they aren't going to try anything at school." I grab one of the cinnamon rolls, and as I pick it up, the icing starts dripping; so I take my left index finger, wipe it up off the plate, and stick my finger in my mouth, sucking the icing off of it before pulling my finger out and changing the subject. "So, I've already got a good idea that it was, but I want to ask you anyway. Was last night a setup?"

"No," she says sounding offended, and I raise my right eyebrow at her; the look on my face showing her my disbelief. She picks up her cinnamon roll with her right hand and raises her left hand in the air. "I swear on the angel, that I did not have anything to do with Jace bringing you home. You should know that. Like I wanted to-"

"No, not that," I say interrupting her after I swallow my mouthful. "I know that wasn't your idea. I'm talking about the whole, having Jace go trick-or-treating with Max, and us."

She moves her cinnamon roll to her mouth, taking a big bite - like half of the large roll is now in her mouth - and trying her hardest not to smile. "Can't talk, I've got food in my mouth," she says pointing at her mouth with her left index finger.

"I knew it," I say happily; not because of the situation that I'm talking about, but because I was in fact right.

"You knew nothing," she laughs, her mouth still full, and starts choking; so I start patting her on her back. She stops, puts a finger up, indicating for me to wait a minute, as she finishes chewing; so while I wait on her, I finish off my cinnamon roll. "I wasn't for certain that it would happen," she says after finally swallowing. "Max loves Jace, as much as he does you, so I had a good idea that it would. I mean, I know how much Jace likes you, so I knew if Max were to ask him, that he'd say yes."

"Okay, I don't want to talk about that anymore," I grumble. "But, I do want to know what happened with your 'talk' with Robert last night," I say, using my fingers to put air quotes around the word talk.

"Ugh, he wants me to move back in," she says in disgust and rolling her eyes. "He says, 'You've been gone long enough, and I want us to be a real family, again,'" she says mocking him, and pooching out her chest as she moves her shoulders up and down; left one up, right one down, and vice versa. "And he actually thought that Alec would help him motivate me into doing it." She takes a deep breath through her nose and releases it slowly through her mouth. "But enough about that. What did you do after you got home? Go right to bed?" She laughs as she asks the last question.

"No," I say tiredly. "I scrubbed Sebastian off of me, then I went to bed."

"Wait, what?" she asks shaking her head in confusion, then looks at me with wide eyes.

"That's kind of what I thought, too, when I realized who I had just punched."

"You punched him?" She asks laughing and trying to hide her smile behind her right hand, and what's left of her roll.

"Damn straight I did! He shouldn't have been lurking in the dark waiting for me."

"So you had to scrub him off of you because you punched him?" She asks her eyebrows raised, and a smile still on her face.

"Not even close," I say, raising both my eyebrows at her and pooching my lips out. "Try he thought that he was going to get him some because when he kissed me, I screwed up and kissed him back; and when I tried to stop it, he wasn't wanting to take no for an answer."

"Are you serious?" She asks, quickly standing straight up and dropping her roll onto the plate; and there's a look in her eyes that tells me, she wants to kill him.

"Calm down, Iz," I say soothingly, hoping that it helps. "He didn't get far, and I'm alright," I inform her, but it still doesn't seem to be working; and I can see now, that her hands are balled up into fist at her sides. So I decide to give her a little more reassurance, that might possibly do the trick. "A matter of fact, I kicked him in his gut before leaving him on the ground of our door stoop."

"I don't care!" she shouts, then shakes her head; her face red with anger, and if this were a cartoon, I swear that she'd have steam coming out of her ears. "I mean, I do care that you're alright, but I'm going to kill him. No, even better, I'm going to chop off his dick, and feed it to him! He's never done something like that to you before, has he?" She asks through clenched teeth.

"No," I say shaking my head. "But when we were together, after I lost my v card to him, I never told him no when he wanted to get frisky. And you already know how we both liked to get rough with each other, so that part wasn't really a surprise to me."

"Well, did he hit you again?" she asks bluntly.

"No, Izzy, he didn't hit me again," I say exasperatedly.

"What about threatening you?" she quickly asks. "Did he do that again?"

"No," I breathe out. "But I did threaten him, again."

"Oh, just wait until Alec hears about what he did, he's going to help me kill him," she says dramatically; her head moving about in all different directions and bringing her fists up by her chest, clenching them so tight that the top half of her body starts to shake. "Not to mention Jace. Jace is going to-"

"NO!" I yell, cutting off her rant. "Why do you think Jace needs to know anything?! We aren't a couple, we are not friends, we're absolutely nothing to each other, so you aren't going to tell him anything! Alec, sure. Hell, I'll tell him myself! Because if he finds out from somebody else, he's going to be pissed at me too. But Jace, positively not!"

While I'm going off with my rant, her eyes are getting wider and wider, and she throws her hands up by her head in surrender. But I completely understand where it is all coming from, I honestly can't remember ever going off on her like this. I mean, sure, we've gotten into little arguments throughout the years, and we've both had to put our foot down a time or two with the other, but it has never been anything like this. Then again, neither has the topic.

"Okay, okay," she says, her hands still in the air on both sides of her head. "I won't say a word about it to him."

"Thank you," I breathe.

"You're welcome," she says, slowly bringing her hands down to her sides. She looks down at the plate on the bar, picks her cinnamon roll back up, and then looks back at me; her right eyebrow raised. "I take it the ride home with Jace didn't go so well."

"It wasn't horrible," I say shrugging my right shoulder, and glancing up at the clock that hangs in the dining room to my right.

"Well, spill," she says eagerly.

Ugh! Not really what I want to talk about. I mean, it really wasn't a disaster. Well, other than me telling him more than he needed to know. But, I just want to put it, and him, in the review mirror - just like I have done with a lot of other people - and continue on with my life. However, I know that she isn't going to let the subject drop either, and it will help keep her calm, so I suppose I could appease her.

"It's seven thirty-five," I say looking back to her, and a look of disappointment crosses her face. I sigh at her impatience and shake my head slightly. "Come on. I'll tell you all about it on the way to school."

Sorry it has taken so long to update. Life keeps getting in the way of that. Ugh! Lol. Anyhow, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, I had a lot of fun writing it. I just wish I could write and post a new one everyday, like I did with a couple of my other stories, it's driving me crazy that I can't! So, no promises on when I'll be updating again. But, hopefully, it's sooner rather than later.

Anyhow, Jace really gives off that stalker vibe, don't he? Lol. And Clary, wow! That dream, and phone call. What do you think it all means? Let me know what your thoughts are with a review! I love reading what you all think!

Merry Christmas, for those who celebrate it! Hope everyone has had a good one, or whichever holiday you may celebrate! Much Love! Mwah!

Don't forget to review, follow, and favorite!