Disclaimer: I do not own mortal instruments, the character names are owned by Cassandra Clare. The original content, ideas and intellectual property of this story are owned by lily fierce, 2011-2013. Please does not copy, reproduce, or translate without express written permission.

Finally finished this! Yaaay! Hip-Hip hoorah! *cue trumpets* *crowd does standing ovation*

11. The Thing with Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.

~Emily Dickinson

The past week had been difficult for Jace.

No, not difficult, that was the understatement of the century. A better word would've been impossible. Utterly and completely impossible in every sense of the word. Watching Clary with that prick was harder than he thought it would be and it didn't help that Raphael was too damn touchy feely for Jace's taste.

One particular occasion wouldn't leave his mind and the memory alone had him clenching his fists, his teeth grinding against each other with the urge to pummel the bastard.

About two days ago Jace had been on his way to fax some papers and the copy room that he, conveniently, chose was pretty close to Clary's office, although if anybody asked he would've said it had nothing to do with her, after all, that particular copy room did have his favorite faxing machine.

Nonetheless, as he passed by her office the sound of voices floated out to him and he stopped just outside her door.

"Raphael, I don't want to talk about this now" he heard her voice slightly muffled by the wooden door and she sounded nervous. That alone perked his hearing and pretty soon he was nearly pressed up against the wood listening attentively for any sign that she might need his help getting the f*cking leech off of her. "Just go, I'm not ready for any of this."

"That's why I shouldn't go." Raphael's voice was barely audible, as if he were whispering, but Jace caught it regardless "I can help you… get used to this."

"I said no…" but Jace didn't wait to hear any more before barging into the room as charmingly as he could, since barging usually wasn't done with much grace.

Once inside he caught sight of Clary in Raphael's arms, her hands pressed against his chest trying to distance herself, her big, beautiful green eyes wide and her red hair falling out of her carefully constructed up-do. The sight almost drove him over the edge. "I think you should go Rodriguez." Jace snarled, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed.

Raphael chuckled "Mr. Herondale, I was just leaving." He dropped his arms from around Clary's small frame and stalked towards the door. Yet, just as he was about to leave he turned back around and glanced at her "we'll talk some more later." He winked and as he stepped outside his shoulder bumped Jace's.

And that was just one of the several run-ins he'd had with him and it was because of all the weeks' occurrences plus the emotions bubbling within him: his hatred towards Raphael and the situation they were in and his ever-growing feelings for Clary, that he was now in the company library. He wasn't his ideal library, being that this particular library was completely devoid of a fiction shelf but it would serve his purpose.

Over the last few days Jace had kept a close eye on his father, listening in to every word he spoke with an associate and any telephone conversation he may be having, keeping his ears open because he just knew the man knew something he didn't, something nobody else knew.

The first couple days gave no hint of anything but just the day before he'd overheard Stephan mention a book that "held the key to his success." Jace didn't know why this sparked his interest but the fact that something in his head told him to check it out was all he needed to be in this library. His eyes trailed the shelves, so many endless shelves.

The library was a round room, spherical with shelves that circled its perimeter and a dome-like roof. Diminutive tables were arranged around the area and a large desk placed in the very center.

However, Jace quickly noticed that the books here weren't the type to be read like story books, they were volumes upon volumes of rules, regulations and history he knew would be impossible to get through in the, give or take, four months left before Clary's wedding.

With that in mind, he knew just who he needed to get and Jace walked out of the room with a tiny mischievous smile over his lips.

000000000000-00000000000

One week had passed since what Clary now dubbed as "The Catastrophe", had occurred and preparations for an engagement party were in full swing. Everywhere she looked the manor was overrun with flowers of every kind, cake preparations and dress designs. Not to mention that her sinuses were going wild with the atrocious overwhelming stench that roses gave off.

It was all just bad. This was never what she pictured her wedding to be—she hated roses, hated all the dress choices they were giving her to choose from but overall, she hated the groom was an overbearing ass-hat.

During the past week she had figured it might be a smart choice to get to know the man even though he gave her a bad vibe from the start.

Turns out, her 6th sense was right on target.

Raphael, for some reason—and maybe it was just that she didn't like him period—seemed to always be planning something, concocting some sort of plan, constantly looking at her in the wrong way and just being downright rude. More than once Jace had to step in and set him straight when he tried to get a bit too touchy feely. Apparently, some men thought that just because there was a diamond on your finger and a wedding on the way, they were allowed to touch whenever they felt the need arise. This—Clary thought—was preposterous.

Nonetheless, her week had been utterly terrible and now she sat in her stuffy office yearning for the chance to get out, to ride a motorcycle and feel the breeze sweep past her face or go to some deserted hill-top … to be held and kissed and wanted by the only man she desired.

Good god, she needed a break… ASAP! After all, it wasn't as if she was actually helping to solve anything by sitting on her office chair sulking all day.

With a new purpose in mind, Clary stood up, straitened her skirt and walked toward the door but just as she was about to grab the door knob it began to twist on its own. What the hell, she thought scrunching her brows and staring at the knob as if it would speak to her… like the one she'd seen on 'Alice in Wonderland'. Still, it turned all the way and before she had the chance to react, or at least step back, the door was flinging open… and smacking her… right—in—the—face.

She went sprawling onto her back, hands braced and legs spread in a subconscious effort to distribute her weight. To add to her embarrassment of being sprawled out on the floor, her legs wide open like an offering, Jace sauntered in, looked around the room and upon not seeing her, his brows drew together and a confused expression took over his face. That is, until his gaze darted to the floor, to her desk and then back to the floor before his eyes widened and he chuckled staring at her, the gold in his eyes darkening slightly.

"I always knew I'd get you on your back someday." He smirked.

Clary blushed furiously, rushing to get on her feet once more. "Ha-ha" she mocked and stepped away from him. "Why are you here?" yeah, that's it, she thought, just cut to the chase. Don't look at him more than is absolutely necessary.

"Your father sent me to fetch you." He said.

"Oh," she muttered "since when are you his messenger boy?"

Jace laughed, deep and husky, and Clary realized it was the single sexiest sound she had ever heard. "I'm not. He needed someone to tell you and I offered."

"Ok, so where did he say to go?"

"I'll take you." With a small smile on his lips and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, Jace led her out the door and into the hall.

As always, the halls were bustling with people walking to and fro, files grasped in their hands and, for a moment, she wondered why her father hadn't just phoned for her with the secretary. Hell, that was what they paid that tramp for regardless, the least she could do is to actually do her job for a change instead of sleeping with all the interns. Never mind, Clary thought, might as well just go with Jace.

He hadn't really spoken to her in the past week except when he was defending her, which had turned Clary's insides to jelly and had caused her to lose yet another chunk of her heart to him, and she hated it. She hated that the only reason he was here was because her father wanted to see her, she hated that he'd practically been evading any contact unless they were in a room full of people and overall, Clary was just majorly pissed that every fiber of her being seemed to be rejoicing at Jace's proximity.

And it was with this last little thought that she had to—literally—smack herself across the head for her increasingly pathetic feelings. How desperate could she get? What happened to the fully independent women who needed no one but herself? What happened to CEO Clary, where was 'no man needed' Clarissa. She was turning into one of those damned desperate hussies that'd give anything for ten seconds of a man's attention.

"You ok?" Jace asked.

Clary's head shot up and her eyes widened. Crap, he'd seen that. "Huh?" she asked.

"Well, you just kinda… hit yourself" he pointed to her forehead "across the head there."

"Oh, there was a… uh… there was a fly—on my head." She muttered.

"Right…" Jace didn't say much more only quickened his pace and walked even further in front of her and Clary, loosing herself to her thoughts once again, didn't even notice that he was already a good ten feet away. That is until his footsteps faded entirely and she couldn't feel his presence at her side. Then, she looked around.

"Jace?" she asked the air "where are you?"

But no one answered and she only felt like an epic moron for talking to herself. "Jace!?" nothing, plus, people were beginning to stare as if she had lost it.

Great! How was she supposed to know where to go now?

Take a guess? No, it wouldn't be proper for the next CEO to walk into the wrong room. Only one option left then—go to Luke's office and hope and pray that he was there.

And so it was with this in mind that Clary took off in the direction of her father's office waving when she saw a familiar face while maintaining a speedy pace.

She passed about two offices and was walking for a grand total of three minutes before a hand shot out, seemingly from nowhere, and practically dragged her into a room. Clary couldn't see anything, not the space she was in or who had dragged in, not even her own hand which she held before her face trying as best she could to keep her balance.

Darkness was everywhere, her vision overrun by it as panic seeped into every pore of her body. As a child she had been taught self-defense because, being as wealthy as she was, kidnap and the like were always a possibility. Yet, who takes a self-defense class seriously when in truth, Clary never went out and was surrounded by people at all hours of the day. But here she was, stuck in a freaking pitch black room in her family's own office building.

Holy shit!

All coherent thought left her mind the minute a firm body pressed against hers. She could feel the stiff lapels of a suit and the over ironed material of a dress shirt, but, when her searching hands landed on the broad shoulders of a man obviously much, much taller than her and another set of hands came to rest on her waist, a single word was left behind—rape. And suddenly, leaving no time to think, she screamed. It was the type of scream you'd hear in an oldies horror movie and at any other moment in time it would have been something she'd laugh at but now she just wanted to get out. There was no way in hell Clarissa Fray Graymark was going to be raped.

However, before Clary really had a chance to do anything one of the hands braced over her waist, clasped above her mouth. It was male… hard and callused and, somehow, strangely familiar, so it was no surprise when warm breath washed over her collarbone and gentle lips came to rest at her ear.

"I didn't know you liked it loud baby." Jace whispered. Must everything always be sexual with this guy, she thought.

"Jesus Christ Jace! You nearly gave me a stroke!"

He chuckled—the bastard—and reached to the side just behind her as muted light flooded the room.

It was a storage closet, piled high with spare boxes of paper everywhere she looked, of course, there weren't many places to look being that the room was hardly a room at all. Hell, the thing they were in was less a room and more of a hole in the wall with a door put in for good measure. She felt so tightly packed with Jace leaning over her, his eyes bright and smoldering, his hair falling slightly onto his forehead and that signature smirk on his perfect lips.

"Who did you think it was?" he questioned "your vile fiancé?"

"Oh, shut up," she scolded, lightly punching his arm "I thought you were a rapist!"

Jace chuckled and hooked his finger under her chin, raising her face up to his ""I'm sorry" he muttered "I didn't think this through."

Crap, Clary thought, how was she supposed to stay mad at him when his eyes were burning into her in that way? When their lips were so near and his breath was washing over her, warming her from the inside out? "It's fine," she mumbled, getting slightly sidetracked by the way his lips curved upwards "although, next time I'd prefer it if you could ask nicely." Clary realized that she was whispering, the atmosphere in their 'closet' had changed drastically and… holy hell, was it just her or did someone turn down the A/C.

She needed to get her thoughts straight, needed to stop thinking about all the ways she wanted to be kissed and focus on more important matters, like keeping him away from her heart— she tried to convince herself to step back for this very reason, but then he moved closer and everything seemed to fade as his body pressed harder into hers, gluing her to the wall.

The palm of his hand spread on the surface behind her head as his arms caged her in. "I'll keep that in mind…" he murmured "next time…" his mouth moved closer, eyes solely focused on her lips "I want to see you…" Jace was so close now, so tantalizing-ling close but continued speaking regardless. "in a dark storage closet." His golden eyes focused on her green ones, searching—for what?—Clary didn't know and as he came closer, she realized it truly didn't matter because the look on his face said it all and pretty soon there was no space left between them at all and her breath seemed to be speeding up and so did his … and then, she knew that this could go no further.

"Jace…" she breathed, it was so weak, so feeble that the corners of his lips lifted almost teasingly as if to say 'I know you want me, don't deny it' "don't…"

"Don't what?"

"Don't do this."

"Do what?" she realized he was most definitely teasing now but the deep huskiness in his voice overrode most of her more intelligible thoughts.

"Don't—don't kiss me." She muttered and felt his lips glide across her cheek and trail down to her neck.

Jace nibbled on the soft skin there and his teeth lightly scraped over the more sensitive spot and, good lord god almighty, did she just want to melt into a big puddle of goo.

"And don't…" Clary gulped when his warm breath blew over the much too sensitive skin "do that…either."

Jace chuckled and pulled away seeming completely unaffected and fully in control, which she knew she wasn't and for that reason alone a scowl slipped over her features when his eyes focused on her.

"You really shouldn't have done that." She mumbled.

"I won't apologize for it," Jace said "if that's what you want."

Clary looked up at him, focused her gaze on his golden eyes realizing almost instantly that no… she truly didn't want him to apologize. She'd never acknowledge an apology because doing so meant regret and if there was one thing she didn't regret, never would regret, it was these few minutes in abandoned closets. Spur of the moment situations even thoughts of her father couldn't invade.

"No, I don't want you to apologize" Clary finally answered.

Jace smiled and, wrapping his arms around her, pulled Clary into him. "Why can't I keep my hands off of you?"

It was a rhetorical question, she knew, but answered anyway. "Because I'm so damn sexy" it was a phrase so out of character for her, one she'd never normally say but then again hiding out in a storage closet with Jace was out of character as well and she was already doing that.

"I must be rubbing off on you" he smiled "that just sounded more like one of my lines than one of yours."

Clary smiled (she hadn't really smiled in a while) and pushed aside the notion that she had something to do, somewhere she needed to be and just allowed herself a few minutes of being held in his arms. "I guess I should probably stop hanging around you so much."

She pushed off his chest, pulling herself away from him and felt his arms tighten, pressing her small frame flush against him, her hands pressed against the hard, defined contours of his chest. "No way in hell" he said "am I allowing you out of my sight" Jace looked down at her seeming so happy and carefree until his eyes darkened and his grin disappeared "not with that bastard fiancé of yours on the loose"

"good." Clary sighed. She didn't want to be out of his arms, much less completely out of sight. "I like it that way." With her head still on Jace, she absorbed the comfort that his firm embrace provided, the warmth that rolled off his body was wonderful and the scent of him seemed to make all her worries fade.

It was odd, she realized, this feeling one gets when they fall in love (not that she was falling in love—because she really couldn't afford to). The strange desire to be near that one person every waking moment, spending an abnormal amount of time before closets and mirrors blindly searching for that one item of clothing, the one imperceptible, nearly insignificant detail that would make all the difference. it was pathetic, she knew, but Clary couldn't stop wanting him, couldn't keep any part of her from wanting him. She saw it all in her head. She would just stomp up to him, grab the collar of his shirt and pull him into her, kissing him until neither one of them could…

She stopped her thinking as one might a horse going full speed ahead into a concrete wall and with these warm and fuzzy thoughts no longer floating through her mind, Clary's eyes drifted unseeing around the room, the way one does when they are too distracted by conflicting thoughts and emotions and took in every small detail, but not really. That is, until her gaze landed on a box.

It wasn't the box that truly caught her attention; so much as the paper taped on it, or better yet, what the paper said. "Important Documents" was printed in bold font on a regular sheet of white printer paper. How odd, Clary thought, that a box of important documents would be in a storage closet. She ought to show them to her father. he could very well need them someday and there was always a chance that she'd forget...

Her father! Holy crap, she forgot all about her father.

"Jace, dad was looking for me!" Clary quickly took her head off his chest, pulling herself away from the warmth of his arms and heading for the door. She must have been in that closet for well over fifteen minutes. Her father must be furious.

But as she turned the knob to exit their too-small-to-be-a-closet closet, Jace's hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her back. Clary stumbled and would've fallen flat on her ass had it not been for his arm tightly pulling her against him once more.

"Actually" he smirked "I lied"

She tried to pull away but his hand remained firm on the small of her back. "Lied about what exactly?" Clary narrowed her eyes suspiciously and Jace, at least, had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Luke isn't looking for you." He shrugged and Clary was pretty sure, if she were the violent type, she would've murdered him. "I just needed to speak to you."

"And I'm guessing that just saying 'Clary can we talk' would've been too difficult" she chided, raising both brows (because she never could raise just one) and staring him down.

"Not too difficult, just no fun," He teased. "And besides you're going to like what I'm about to tell you."

"Oh really?" Clary was truly curious now "what would that be?"

"I overheard my father saying something about a book" he said looking at her expectantly as if awaiting an exclamation of something akin to 'Wow! That's amazing. Do tell more!'

"That's great Jace." Clary figured her voice was probably pretty devoid of interest. But hey, what did he expect when he's here talking about Mr. Herondale's latest read, "ask him if he enjoyed it."

Jace rolled his eyes and smiled. Clary figured the later was mostly for her benefit. "no, I mean my dad knows a lot about all these corporate rules and I realized that most of these old rules have loopholes." As Jace spoke realization set in and Clary began to see his point "They're kept track of in one of the thousands of books in the corporate library"

"Oh my god, why didn't I think of that. We can search through all the volumes and one of them has to say something about corporate CEOs and title inheritance."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. If we were to spend some time after work, once most people have left, we can search through them." Clary was smiling now, undeniable hope surging through her at the thought that perhaps there was an easier way out of this than she'd originally expected.

"Ok." She whispered and Jace smiled his own genuine, hope filled smile.

He bent down to her and for a moment, Clary thought he would kiss her, but instead he turned his head at the last moment and his lips landed at her ear before he murmured "I'm not giving you up" hot breath blew over her neck, tingles erupting on her skin from the sensation "not now, not ever." Jace placed a tiny kiss just below her ear and on that note, he pushed the door open, ushering her out. "See you tonight."

Clary walked down the hall slightly dazed, one thought and one promise on the forefront of her mind… tonight was sure to be very enlightening.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed that and the next update will be ASAP. I PROMISE.

Anyway, I'm going to start a new thing here, if you guys leave a review I'll send you a snippet of the next chapter. Make sure you aren't reviewing on anonymous because then I won't know who to PM the snippet to.

Ta-Ta for now.