AN: So, as I said, chapter 6 is up soon :). Thank you so much for the reviews, favorites and alerts, you made my day! I hope you'll like it :). (Also, I know they're falling in love really quickly, but otherwise there wouldn't be much of story ;) )
Disclaimer: I don't own TMI, I don't even own a copy of City of Lost Souls yet!
Clary POV
"This is where I live?" Jace asked, staring up at the Institute in awe.
"Doesn't ring a bell?" Magnus asked, and Clary saw that he was starting to worry.
On the way over, Magnus had told Jace about his family. Their names, ages, appearances, and he'd clearly hoped that Jace would start remembering them. Right now they were standing in front of a big cathedral, which Magnus called 'The Institute". When Clary had commented on how big it was, Magnus had shot her a weird glance. As if he knew something that she didn't. Jace hadn't wanted to tell Magnus about the incident they'd had the day before, the Demon Jace had killed, but Clary was starting to doubt that decision.
Jace was looking a bit pale and reached for Clary's hand. She squeezed his and watched as Magnus rang the bell. They heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the door, and Clary's stomach twisted nervously. The door opened and a boy who she assumed was Alec invited them inside. He glanced at Clary in surprise but immediately turned his attention to Jace.
"Jace." Alec said. He lifted his arms a little, but then dropped them again. He kept his distance and frowned. "You still don't remember us?"
Jace shook his head. His mouth a thin line. Clary realized what he was doing when she felt his hand tremble in hers. She rubbed her thumb across his palm and tugged a little on his hand to keep him in the present. She'd been so scared when he'd done this before, trying to remember, and he needed to snap out of it.
"Jace, stop it." She said gently.
Alec watched them in confusion, but turned to Magnus. "When will he remember?"
Clary noticed something when she watched Alec and Magnus talk. Alec's expression softened and Magnus turned a bit more serious and genuine.
Magnus shrugged in defeat. "I don't know, I thought seeing this place and you would fix it."
All of them looked up when a girl entered the hallway. Her eyes widened when she saw Jace and she practically launched herself at him. Jace froze when she embraced him and she pulled back immediately.
"I'm sorry." She said awkwardly, "guess it's weird to be hugged by a total stranger."
Clary felt bad for the girl, who had to be Isabelle, she clearly missed her brother.
Isabelle looked at Clary and raised an eyebrow. "Who's this?"
"I'm Clary." Clary got the feeling that she wasn't very welcome.
"I've been staying at her house these past few days." Jace said, frowning at Isabelle's attitude.
"Well, I guess I should thank you, then." She smiled a little at Clary, but her eyes lacked warmth. "I think we can handle it now, though. You don't need to stay."
Clary was taken aback and shot Jace a questioning glance.
"She's staying." Jace said.
Isabelle's eyes widened. "But she's a mundane! Jace, you don't care for them-"
Magnus interrupted her. "Uhm, Isabelle, when I told you he forgot everything, I did mean everything."
Isabelle's hand shot up to her mouth in shock and even Alec looked surprised.
"He thinks he's a mundane?" She stared at Jace in horror. "Jace, didn't you see the marks?"
Confusion was clear on Jace's face and Clary didn't understand either. "Magnus, what are they talking about?"
Magnus sighed and looked at Jace. "You killed a demon yesterday, right?"
Jace frowned. "I guess so. How do you know?"
Magnus rolled his eyes. "You stank of demon blood, I'm hurt that you didn't tell me, though." He glanced at Clary. "Anyhow, killing demons is kind of what you do. You couldn't have killed it if you were only human."
Clary gasped. "He's not human?"
Magnus sighed again in annoyance. "I wouldn't have to explain all this if only you remembered."
"Well, I'll let you know that I've been trying." Jace said angrily.
Alec moved to stand beside Magnus and tried to calm everyone down. "Izzy, stop being ungrateful and be polite," Isabelle glared at Alec but looked at Clary and inclined her head, apologizing silently. Alec went on "Clary you can stay here, you were able to see the institute, right?"
Clary frowned, but Magnus looked at Alec with pride. "Right." He said.
"So that means you have the Sight, maybe even more, and we'll explain everything later." Alec told her, then he turned to face Magnus. "Why don't you solve this with magic? Aren't you able to give Jace his memories back?"
Magnus hesitated. "Maybe. I was hoping Jace would remember on his own, but the chances of that are getting smaller. I could try to fix this, but I can't promise anything."
Clary knew there was something he wasn't telling them. "What else?" She asked him, eyes narrowing.
"It's not very… pleasant." Magnus added.
Jace didn't seem very concerned about that. "I don't care, do what you have to do."
Clary shook her head. "That's not it. You're withholding something else, aren't you?"
Magnus shot her a guilty look. "You know me too well." He said, shaking his head.
Clary noticed Alec looking at her curiously, but focused on Magnus.
He sighed. "Well, if what I do is successful, and Jace remembers, he might lose his memory of the past few days. He'll only remember what happened before his memory loss."
Jace glared at Magnus. "There's no logic in that!" He seethed, pulling Clary closer.
"That's why they call it magic, not logic." Magnus said.
Clary wasn't paying attention anymore. This was so incredibly unfair! They would have to start all over again, and if she hadn't taken care of Jace when he'd needed it, he would've never even noticed her. It wouldn't be the same, she knew that.
Jace placed his hands on Clary's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Remember what I told you about how I would've remembered if I had a girlfriend?"
Clary nodded miserably.
"I still think that's true. Even if these past few days are taken from me, I'll still remember you." He stared at her intently, studying her face.
Clary wrapped her arms around him and hid her face against his chest. She wouldn't ask him not to do it, of course not, he needed to know his family, his life. But she realized that this could be the end of what she'd had with him. Her fingers clutched at his shirt and tears were blurring her sight.
He tilted her chin up and kissed her softly. "I love you Clary."
She stifled a sob and wiped at her tears. "I love you, too."
"Then we're good." Jace smiled at her and then looked up at Magnus. "How will you do this?"
"We need to find you a bed. You might be out for a couple hours."
Clary glanced at Jace, worried, but he just nodded.
A few minutes later, Jace was lying down on what Alec told them was his bed. Isabelle was leaning against the wall, her eyes worried. Alec placed one hand on Magnus's shoulder, squeezing it encouragingly. Magnus was holding Jace's head between his hands, his fingers pressing on specific places in his neck and at his temples. "Are you ready?" He asked Jace.
Jace nodded, his face empty.
Clary was kneeling next to the bed and squeezed Jace's hand. Magnus had told them it could take a few hours for Jace to wake up, and she intended to stay beside him the entire time.
"Try to hold still as long as you can." Magnus told him. "I can't let go of your head."
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then Jace tensed and squeezed his eyes shut. He breathed through his teeth and his chest shuddered with each breath. Clary had to resist the urge to push Magnus away, as Jace's hand became hot in hers.
Jace curled up into a ball and his muscles twitched, but he kept his head in place. Just when Clary thought he was going to cry out, his body turned limp.
She glanced at Magnus in alarm, but he was slowly releasing Jace's head, looking satisfied.
"This was the most important part." Magnus told them. "Normally, I just need to bring back specific memories, this is about his whole life. That's why it's going to take a bit longer. Now, I don't know about his memories of Clary, but he's going to remember everything that happened before."
Isabelle and Alec sighed in relief, but Clary had look away from Jace's face to keep from crying.
Clary walked around the room, Jace's room, to loosen up her stiff muscles. She'd been sitting next to the bed for three hours now, and her legs ached. She was a bit disappointed with what she found in this room. There were very few personal items, few things that could tell her something about him. Magnus knocked on the door and came in. "Any changes?"
Clary shook her head. "Not really. He's been feverish." She sat down again and touched Jace's cheek. "I do think his restraints are weakening." She eyed his twitching wrists and bit her lip.
Magnus had used magic to restrain Jace's wrists, feet and upper body to the bed, to make sure he didn't move too much. Magnus had made a connection with Jace's mind and memory, so that he didn't have to hold the pressure points all the time to use magic, but if Jace moved too much, the connection would break.
If Clary tried hard, she could see the shimmering ropes around his body, pinning him to the mattress. Magnus stared at them and touched them in a few places, until they tightened and confined Jace's movements to a minimum. Clary anxiously waited for him to wake up, and her heart ached for him when she saw his muscles tense in pain.
She didn't know what would be best. Being there when he woke up or waiting until he asked for her? She knew it would break her heart if he woke up and didn't know who she was, maybe it would be best to avoid that.
After an hour, something changed. Jace became stronger, his movements weakening the ropes around his body. Clary worried about him breaking his connection with Magnus and ran into the hallway to call him.
Jace POV
Jace didn't know what was happening, but whatever it was, he didn't like it one bit. He knew something was wrong, but couldn't stay focused long enough to find out what. He was distracted by pain. Pain everywhere. His muscles were tired and ached, his skin was burning. Something was too tight around his chest and he couldn't breathe properly. There were no sounds and he didn't know where he was and he felt something, someone, in his head.
Get out! He yelled.
He wanted to jerk his head away, to break whatever was keeping him connected to this other person, but he was pinned down and could barely move. Who had done this to him? If he concentrated, he could think through the confusion and determine that he was being held down by ropes of magic. From his wrists to his elbows, his ankles to his knees and all around his chest and neck.
He'd had the strangest dream, about living another life. And there were people, a girl with red hair, eating pancakes and sleeping beside her. It all flashed in front of his eyes too fast to take it in, and he wished for the blackness that had held him until a few minutes ago.
After some time, he heard a dull sound somewhere far away and blurry faces appeared above him. At first he couldn't see who it was, but then his sight cleared and he saw Alec, talking to him, eyes full of worry. Alec's mouth moved but Jace could barely hear the muffled words. He thought he heard Alec say Magnus, but wasn't entirely sure. Maybe Magnus would come and fix this.
Alec's face disappeared and Magnus's took its place. He talked, too, but Jace interrupted him.
"I can't hear." He said, his voice a faraway hum to his own ears.
Magnus nodded in understanding and disappeared. Seconds later, Jace could feel hands holing his head. Fingers pressed against the soft spot below his ear, behind his jawbone, and his ears popped. It made him feel a bit dizzy but at least he could hear again.
"Beter?" he could hear Magnus ask behind his head.
"Yes." He said. "Can you remove those magic ropes and tell me what hell is going on?"
"Just a minute, Jace." Magnus said, his hands wrapping around Jace's head again. "Can you tell me what you did on your birthday last year?"
"This better be pretty important." Jace grumbled. "I didn't do anything because Isabelle was visiting family and made us promise not to do anything fun until she was back."
"Yep, we got him back." Isabelle's voice came from somewhere else in the room.
"Okay, Jace, I'm getting out of your head now, you'll have to hold still for another minute." Magnus said.
"I don't have much of a choice." Jace said. Somewhere, a small part of him remembered Magnus getting inside his mind, making a connection. He wanted to jerk his head away when he felt Magnus's fingers press against his neck and temples, but knew that it wouldn't do much good. He braced himself for what was about to come and tensed when he felt the magic. He wanted to curl up and fold in on himself to stifle the bursts of agony that reached from his head, but the ropes held him tightly against the bed.
Clary POV
Clary couldn't believe he had to go through this again. She was watching from a corner of the room and wanted to rush to him and hold him. She'd planned on leaving when she saw that he was waking up, but couldn't. Now she wished she had, he didn't seem to remember her at all. Maybe she was thinking too much about herself, though. He'd just woken up, had been really confused and yelling, so he probably wanted to know what was going on before he asked for her.
Clary had to look away. She couldn't stand the sight of him fighting against every restraining rope. It didn't take as long as the first time, though. Magnus released Jace's head and backed away. "I don't know how he does it." Magnus shook his head. "His mind it not a nice place to be." He glanced at Clary, "You were good for him. He was happy."
Clary nodded, but her lip trembled. She didn't know anything about who Jace had been before. She knew Jace without the walls he normally hid behind. She'd learned a great deal about him from Alec, who'd talked to her when Jace had been unconscious. He'd told her about Shadowhunters, about the black Marks and scars she'd seen on Jace's skin, about what Jace had witnessed as a child, and about how he'd become a harsh and lonely person.
"Magnus? The ropes?" Jace said, his voice strained.
"Right!" Magnus said, and he snapped his fingers.
Immediately, the ropes loosened and then dissolved into thin air. Jace breathed in deeply and massaged his wrists. He sat up and hunched over, head against his knees.
"Oh, I forgot." Magnus said apologetically, "don't sit up too quickly or you'll get sick."
"Thanks for the warning." Jace groaned. "Now tell me what happened."
"You lost your memory, you didn't know who we were. Magnus got it back." Alec said, shooting Magnus a grateful glance.
Jace pressed his hands against his closed eyes. "Give me a minute, I think I remember that. How long was I out? I had this dream… It seems like days."
"We don't know how it happened. Three days ago, you just didn't come home. We weren't too worried until you didn't show up the day after and didn't return any of our calls."
"So how did I end up back here?" Jace frowned.
Clary stepped forward. "Jace…" She whispered. Her heart ached, her hands shook. Would her face mean something to him?
He stared at her in disbelief. Then he pushed himself off the bed and wrapped his arms around her. "God, Clary." He said, kissing her deeply.
She held on to him and clutched at his shirt.
"I thought you were a dream." He said, pulling away to look at her. "I thought you… I'm so glad you're here." He embraced her again, and she could feel a tremor going through his body.
"Jace?" Isabelle's voice interrupted them and they both looked up. "Do you know what caused you to lose your memory?" She asked.
Jace tensed in Clary's arms, but he shook his head. "I have no idea." Clary saw him glance at Magnus, who nodded, and she knew he wasn't telling the truth.
She would ask him later. They had all the time in the world, and right now she just wanted to enjoy the moment. She wanted to hold Jace and never let go of him again.
AN: I don't know why, but this chapter was so hard to write, I hope I did it right. Please tell me what you think! Thank you so much for reading :).
