Raphael sat beside the freshly dug grave. Worry ate at him as the minutes ticked by and there was still no signs of life. Had he done something wrong? Would this be the end of the fledgling? Finally the dirt began to shift as the fledgling dug his way out. Pale, bony hands pushed through the dirt slowly, as if the digger had little energy. Raphael watched Simon struggle until he couldn't take it anymore and began to dig as well. He carefully pulled Simon's gaunt body from the grave. Simon's eyes were half lidded but he was completely focused on Raphael. As if Simon was a baby bird, Raphael cradled him to his chest, pressing the fledglings mouth to his neck.

"Drink, Bebé. You must drink." Raphael ordered as he felt Simon mouthing at his unbeating pulse point but not breaking the skin. Fear flashed through Raphael at the thought that Simon was too weak to break the skin but finally fangs pierced skin and Simon began to drink.

Raphael shifted them into a comfortable position, him leaning against his own gravestone, Simon cradled against his chest drinking slowly, and a cooler filled with blood packets for himself to drink when Simon began to take too much. Simon was clutching Raphael's jacket like a lifeline as he shivered. Raphael let Simon drink as much as he could, draining a blood packet when ever he felt lightheaded. Finally, Simon detached with a sigh. The shivers hadn't stopped which worried Raphael but he hoped they would pass.

"What happened?" Simon asked softly, his voice was rough like he had just woken up. Raphael thought about telling Simon what he had done but decided against it. It would be safer to keep it a secret a bit longer, Simon would be seen as a weakness if anyone else found out and Raphael didn't trust Simon not to tell his Shadowhunter friends.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with now. You're safe now Cariño." Raphael murmured stroking Simon's back as the fledgling clung tighter to Raphael.

"I'm sorry." Simon said after a long moment of silence and Raphael let out a hum of acknowledgment.

"What is the rune on your shoulder Simon?" Raphael asked gently. Simon was quiet for a moment before replying

"They tried to convince me to betray you. I wouldn't. How could I have? You guys are my family. They didn't like that answer. Not at all." Simon was quiet for a moment but when Raphael went to speak he began again

"Isabelle held me down. I didn't realize how strong she was until then. Clary...Clary's the one who drew it. I screamed as she drew it. Felt like I was nothing but ice deep in the heart of the arctic. Then there was nothing, I couldn't control myself I could only watch and do whatever she wanted." Simon's voice was emotionless, but there had been a hesitation when he had said the name of his best friend. Raphael pulled Simon a little closer, as if that would protect him from the past. Simon was sobbing and since the last thing the fledgling needed at the moment was to lose blood through his tears, Raphael was quick to comfort him.

"Shh, you're okay. Someone broke the rune, they can't control you anymore. I've got you now mi sol naciente." Raphael didn't stop the comforting words until he was sure that Simon's tears had stopped.

"I don't know how I broke the rune, Clary had me locked up in the Institute. She would...Sometimes Isabelle would stop her but...I couldn't…" Simon whimpered before continuing on a different track which made Raphael wonder what he was trying to say but couldn't get out.

"It was one of the rare moments that they hadn't locked me in before going on a mission. I tried to find Alec but he wasn't available and one of the Shadowhunters sneered at me and told me to go kill myself. It...It seemed like a good idea, I was tired of barely being in control of my own body so I stole a seraph blade and slipped out. I wasn't able to leave the grounds but I was hiding behind a group of large shrubs." Simon buried his face into Raphael's chest and took an unnecessary deep breath.

"I didn't want to die. I wanted to go home and I didn't want to die. So I slashed through the rune." Simon's voice caught on the last word and Raphael murmured comfort into his hair while rubbing his back.

"If the rune being drawn felt like ice, breaking it felt like fire. I lied there for most of the night. Until I heard them calling for me. I knew I couldn't let them catch me so I ran. I ran and I ran and I ran. I didn't stop running until Jace found me." Simon murmured low enough that a human wouldn't have been able to catch the words but Raphael's vampire hearing caught every word.

"Lo siento, bebé. I'm sorry for what I said, the kill order, everything." Raphael said forcing his voice not to break. He would be strong, his fledgling needed him to be strong.
"I'm just glad I'm with you again. Even if it's not for long." Simon sighed and his words confused Raphael.

"You're not going anywhere, Fledgling. The kill order was lifted a month after I told you to leave, everyone has missed you. You're going to return to the hotel with me and we're going to take care of you." Raphael ordered in the best leader voice he could muster at this point. It wasn't very leadery, his voice was too soft to be anything but concerned but Simon didn't seem to notice.

"Okay." The fledgling sighed before pulling away. Raphael climbed to his feet steadily but when Simon went to follow his legs wouldn't hold him. He would have tumbled into the mound of dirt he had clawed out of that night if Raphael hadn't caught him.

"I'm sorry." Simon whimpered as Raphael scooped him up bridal style

"It's fine." Raphael grunted carrying Simon over to a beat up red pickup truck. He slid Simon into the passenger's seat and secured him before going back to the gravesite to get the shovel and the cooler. He tossed both of them into the back of the truck before climbing into the driver's seat and starting up the truck.

As he drove, Raphael kept an eye on the fledgling in his passenger seat. Simon seemed to drift in and out of a light sleep, jerking awake before he could drift any deeper. Worried, Raphael decided to call Magnus as soon as they arrived at the hotel to check on his fledgling. Hopefully he would bring his Nephilim boyfriend and they could get some answers on what had happened in the time that Simon had been held prisoner at the Institute.


Alec listened to Raphael telling Magnus what had happened to Simon. His face remained impassive, he made sure of that, but inside he was thinking of all the ways that he could, no would, punish the two female Shadowhunters who had hurt the fledgling. He knew the Clave wouldn't do anything, in fact they might give the two medals. No, Alec would put them on the most annoying, basic tasks that he knew for fact would drive his sister up a wall and most likely would make Clary want to go back to the Mundane world. He would be the hard ass they always accused him of being. And now with Jace no longer part of the Institute they would have no one to cajole into their antics.

"What else is bothering you Raphael?" Magnus' words brought Alec out of his schemes. Raphael glanced at the door that led to the bedroom where Simon was sleeping.

"Something happened to the fledgling when he was trapped in the Institute. Clary was doing something to him that sometimes Isabelle would stop. He couldn't say what it was." Raphael said in a almost bored tone.

If Alec hadn't gotten fluent in reading Raphael's body language in the five months, two weeks and six days that Simon had been missing, he might have thought that the vampire really didn't care. Instead he noticed that Raphael was anxious, he kept running his left thumb in small circles on the index finger of the same hand. A small motion that would be easily overlooked or dismissed if one didn't know what it meant. If Raphael could have held a rosary he would be.

"You don't think…" Magnus trailed off and cleared his throat but they all knew what the rest of his sentence would have been. Raphael shrugged.

"It's a possibility. I hope it's not what happened but it's a possibility. Maybe even a good one." Raphael said and his fist clenched for a brief second telling Alec he was more than angry. He was pissed.

"Could we read Simon's mind? Learn that way?" Alec asked before quickly adding, "But only with his permission." Magnus sighed.

"A person's mind is a delicate thing. Even if he hadn't been mind controlled Simon's mind might not be strong enough to stand it. Add in the fact that he was mind controlled less than a year ago there's no way I would feel comfortable digging through Simon's memories." He explained. Alec nodded and was about to suggest asking Izzy when Raphael's head snapped towards the door to the hallway.

"What's wrong?" Magnus asked hesitantly

"I thought I heard something." Raphael said softly, brows furrowed. In three quick strides, Raphael crossed the room and threw the door open to reveal Clary and Izzy standing there. Izzy looked like she had been trying to pull Clary away from the door while Clary had a scowl on her face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Raphael snapped and Clary yanked her arm out of Izzy's grip to cross them over her chest.

"I came for Simon. He doesn't belong here." Clary said in a tone that one would use if they were talking to a cockroach. Alec stood and moved to stand behind Raphael.

"I think this is exactly where Simon belongs." He said in a cool even tone that brooked no arguments. Izzy nodded quickly.

"I tried to tell her that but she wouldn't listen. I just wanted to make sure he was okay. It's been so long, we didn't even think the tracking rune would work." Izzy said and Alec nodded.

"I'll deal with you both later. Return to the Institute." Alec demanded but of course Clary didn't listen. She pushed past Raphael and into the room. It was just their luck that at that moment the door to the bedroom opened and Simon came shuffling out like one of those zombies from the Mundane movies Magnus liked so much.

"Simon!" Clary cried in horror when he froze at the sight of her.

He really didn't look good. Alec had to use his imagination for exactly how thin the fledgling vampire was since he was wearing a tee shirt but he was almost a walking skeleton; his skin stretched over the bone and tendons of his shoulder and the fact that his collar bone was sticking out of his skin like a beacon.. Izzy gasped at the sight and dropped to her knees in shock and Alec had to force himself not to comfort her in case he was needed to restrain Clary.

"Rapha?" Simon's voice was small, frightened. In an instant Raphael was between Clary and the fledgling, body angled towards the corpse-like figure.

"What did you do to him?!" Clary shrieked and Alec surmised that if the rest of the clan didn't know she was there before they did now.

Simon was trembling now, full body shakes of pure terror. Raphael caught him when the tremors became too much for him to handle causing his knees to give out and carried the fledgling over to the couch away from Clary in less than a blink of the eye. Simon buried his face into Raphael's neck.

"Drink, volantón. You need to drink." Raphael murmured as he stroked Simon's back in comfort. Simon let out a small sound before biting down and beginning to drink as if he was unaware of anyone else in the room.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Let go of him!" Clary screamed moving to pull the two vampires away from each other, which would only have disastrous consequences for her, but was stopped by a shimmering purple barrier.

"I've think you've done enough Miss Fray and that it is time for you to leave." Magnus' voice was low and dangerous. Clary gaped at him and Alec figured that she had never been on the receiving end of that particular tone.

"Not without Simon." Clary said firmly. Magnus raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow.

"It wasn't a request nor was it something that you could make conditions on. You are leaving now or else I will be forced to do something that means hiding a body. Your body to be specific." Magnus said and a trickle of fear seemed to crawl down everyone's back. Well, almost everyone, Raphael didn't seem phased and Simon was so out of it he didn't even notice. Clary seemed to fight with herself before turning and leaving. Izzy was still sitting on the floor in the hallway, deep in shock with tears streaming down her face and eyes wide but unseeing. Taking pity on her, Magnus scooped her up and carried her into the room, setting her gently on the loveseat that had no current occupants.

"We did this to him." Izzy breathed, regret running deep through her voice as more tears leaked out of her eyes and smeared her mascara down her cheeks.

"Yes you did." Raphael said bluntly. Izzy let out a choked sob that might have been a hiccup.

"Go to sleep Isabelle." Magnus said and Alec watched a sleeping spell wash over his little sister. There was a moment where no one spoke.

"Do you think he'll ever forgive her?" Alec asked making sure that his tone suggested he was okay if Simon didn't forgive his sister. Magnus shrugged.

"Simon's a forgiving guy. It will take time and he may never trust her completely again but things may work out." He said waving his hand and conjuring a large glass of blood for Raphael who was starting to look too pale. Raphael grabbed it and drained it in one go.
"Forgot how much starving fledglings can drink?" Magnus asked the older vampire lightly. Raphael muttered something in Spanish that was too low for Alec to catch.

"He's not really drinking anymore. Fell asleep, which is probably to be expected, but doesn't want to detach." Raphael said in a louder voice as they watched Simon swallow another mouthful of blood lazily.

"Is that common?" Alec asked and Raphael shrugged.

"When a vampire is starving and they finally find a food source they tend to latch on until the source is gone. It's basic instinct so that they don't lose the source." He explained and Alec nodded.

"I should get back to the Institute." Alec said scooping Izzy up into his arms.

"I'll open a portal for you. I would go with you but if I see Miss Fray again it might end in a trial against me." Magnus said pressing a kiss to Alec's cheek and opening a portal.

"I'll see you tonight. Take care of our son." Alec said and Magnus smiled.

"Which one?" He quipped and Alec blushed before stepping through the portal and finding himself in the hallway in front of Izzy's room. He carefully opened the door and settled his sister down on her bed, gently tucking her in like she was a child. With a soft sigh he stood and left the room to deal with Clary and the inevitable mess that she would be stirring up.