Our Favorite Mortal Instruments Quote of the Chapter:
"Don't doubt my weaseling abilities, Shadowhunter, for they are epic and memorable in their scope."
- Magnus Bane
oOo
"You ready to get handed a can of whoop ass?" Clary asks, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck.
"In your dreams, Fray." Clary glances at her best friend and stretches into her running stance. "Five…four…three…two…"
"One!" Clary shouts as she shoots forward. She works her arms as she runs. She leans forward as she full out sprints. She can feel Simon slowly falling behind. Her lungs ache with the exertion but she doesn't stop. She pours on more speed, feeling a thin trickle of sweat run down her back. She slows as she crosses the finish line. She starts her victory dance as Simon catches up, his hand clutched on his side. He leans over with his hands on his knees, huffing loudly.
"Re-match, Lewis?" she asks.
"So I can get my ass kicked by a girl again? No thanks." Clary smiled triumphantly, stretching out her muscles. She glances quickly at her watch, noting that she has only two hours until she's back at the hospital. She sighs audibly, earning herself a glance from Simon.
"Something wrong?" he asks.
"No," she lies, her mind flashing to Jace and what she witnessed yesterday. Fear fills her as she remembers watching the seemingly strong boy gasp and shake as he confronted his invisible ghosts. She quickly shakes herself from her memories and glances at Simon. She watches as he reaches down, attempting to touch his toes and failing miserably.
"Would you stop staring, Fray. I know I'm stunningly attractive, but it would be nice if you could exhibit some self control." Clary rolls her eyes and walks to the edge of the track where she had dropped her sweatshirt. She pulls it over her head, the cool air already getting to her after the run.
"Come on, Lewis. Pizza time." Simon hurries runs over and snatches Clary's keys out of her hands.
"We're going to Taki's!" he shouts over his shoulder, running forward. Clary wrinkles her nose, remembering the last time she went to Taki's. Simon had met Kaelie, a whore who loved to fling herself at every guy who walked in the door. Simon thought he stood a chance with her and Clary didn't have the heart to set him straight. She walks behind him, biting back a laugh as she watches the awkward way he runs. He jumps in the driver's seat and turns on the car.
"You coming?" he shouts out to her. She tries to hide her grin as she walks towards him. He honks the horn, playing at impatience. Clary slows down, just to bother him.
"We don't have all day, Fray!" he shouts out the window. Clary jogs forward, ready to feed her protesting stomach.
"Patience is a virtue," she grumbles, yanking open the door and plopping in the seat. He drives off, faster then she would have. "Can you be more careful?" she asks sternly. "My poor car can't take your 'the fast and the furious' driving style."
"Sorry. I forgot, driving Ms. Daisy." Clary sticks her tongue out at him and he laughs, jerking fiercely around the corner. Simon laughs at Clary's pale face and slows down, driving exactly the speed limit all the way to Taki's, making sure to mock her the whole way. Simon throws the door open as soon as it's parked and hurries forward. Clary smiles to herself and follows him into the restaurant. He freezes in the doorway, his shoulders tense. Clary glances around the room, looking to see what caused his reaction. She wrinkles her nose at the sight of the now familiar tangle of blonde hair and strong shoulders.
Jace turns. His golden eyes darken when he realizes who it is. They flick to Simon and the darkness fades from his eyes. A cocky smirk pulls on his lips.
"Stalking me, Lewis?" he calls. Simon catches Clary's wrist and turns.
"Let's go," he says.
"Leaving so soon?" Jace asks. Clary doesn't allow herself to be pulled away. She digs her heels into the hard ground as best she can and pulls against Simon's grip. She flashes him a furious gaze.
"You're just going to take that?" she whispers furiously.
"What do you want me to do?" he asks.
"You're so dim sometimes, Si. Tell him what an ass he is!"
"Clary. He has half a foot on me. And probably fifty pounds, of muscle. If I told him I think he's an ass, then you would be planning my funeral."
"I told him he's an ass," Clary said.
"Yeah. And you're a girl. A hot girl. He appreciates that. So you get to survive." Clary rolls her eyes, choosing to ignore his protests.
"That has nothing to do with anything," Clary shoots back.
"Whatever," he says walking away.
"Simon!" she calls after him. He stops and turns. "I need my keys," she says with a grin. She knows how much Simon hates public transportation and the apartment was too far away to reasonably walk to. He wrinkles his nose and walks over to her.
"I hate you, Fray."
"No you don't. You love me." They plop down in a booth. Clary meets Jace's eyes. He raises his eyebrows, his eyes shining with amusement. Clary scowls and breaks the gaze, turning her eyes to look at Simon, whose muttering obscenities under his breath.
"Watch your language," she scolds grabbing a menu.
"From the one whose mouth couldn't even be cleaned by Orbit."
"Lame joke," she muttered, trying to hide her smile. Kaelie came over to take their order. Clary ordered, her voice clipped and unfeeling. Simon was salivating too much to say anything, so Clary ordered for him. Simon's eyes follow Kaelie as she walks away, his gaze lingering on her ass. Clary sighs and gives an exaggerated eye roll.
"Shut it," he said. Clary smirks and brings her knees up to her chest. She wraps her arms around her shins and rests her chin on her knees. She smiles again and fiddles with the leg of her jeans. She feels eyes on her and turns to see Jace, who meets her eyes and waggles his eyebrows, not looking embarrassed that she caught him looking at her. She turns her eyes back to Simon's and asks him about the bar, trying to distract him from Kaelie who's flirting with Jace again. Simon prattles on for a few minutes and Clary tunes him out, nodding at what she assumes are the right places. She glances back over at Jace and sees he's studying her. His golden gaze captures me and I remember the attraction I felt towards him. He may be an ass, but he's a gorgeous ass. He smirks as if guessing her thoughts and she breaks the brief connection.
"…tomorrow. Sound good?" Simon says. Clary frantically searches her mind, trying to force her subconscious into remembering what had happened. Apparently it doesn't respond to bullying.
"Sounds great," she replies, lying shamelessly.
"We're leaving at around 6 AM, so I'll pick you up from work around 5:45." What did I just agree to? she asks herself. She smiles, not trusting her voice to hide her confusion. Kaelie comes over and sets their drinks on the table, taking special care to lean over more than what's absolutely necessary so Simon gets a good look at her boobs. Clary grips onto the cool glass, fighting with the instinct to pour it on her head. Simon flushes a furious red and trains his gaze right where she wants him to. Clary kicks him under the table. "Ow!" he says. Clary shoots him a pointed glare.
"Is there anything I should bring tomorrow?" she asks trying to figure out what they were doing.
"Light sweatshirt. Comfortable shoes. A helmet." Well that told me nothing, she thinks. Clary sits there and runs through the possibilities in her head. She decides it must be a biking trip or something and leaves it at that.
"I have to go to work," Clary tells him. He wrinkles his nose.
"We haven't eaten yet," he protests.
"You're not here to eat. You're here to look down Kaelie's shirt." He blushes and stands up, leaving a more then generous tip on the table. Clary shoots one quick glance at the bar and sees Jace still sitting there. She shakes off her conflicting feelings of anger and sympathy and leaves the restaurant. She hands Simon the keys and tells him to drive her to the hospital.
"You can be very bossy," he says. She shrugs in response. He shakes his head and pulls away. Clary turns on the radio to a station she knows Simon doesn't like and blasts it, shaking her head to the beat.
"Why do you listen to this crap?" Simon asks.
"This is not crap. This is music. Good music." Simon endures the music (not so silently) until they pull up to the hospital. He leans over her to push open her door and pushes her out.
"Off you go," he says, turning off the radio. Clary grins to herself.
"My bag," she says, gesturing to the messenger bag in the back seat with her scrubs in them. He reaches back and throws them to her. "Have a nice day, Simon!" she calls, too pleasantly, as he pulls away.
oOo
"Nurse!" someone shouts. Clary glances up from her paperwork. She sees a beautiful, black-haired paramedic, attached to a gurney, standing at the doors to the hospital. Clary hurries over. "Where is everyone?" she asks.
"We had two other traumas come in. They're all busy."
"Why did no one answer their pagers?" the girl asks. Clary cocks her head to the side and helps the girl pull the gurney through the hospital doors.
"There was no page. Unless everyone's pagers died simultaneously. But I don't think that's it." The two of them pull the patient into trauma room 3, with the help of a red-haired, older man.
"Can you get a doctor?" the man asks. Clary nods and hurries out. She peeks her head into trauma room 2 and sees Dr. Bane working to sew a man's leg back together.
"Dr. Bane?" she calls.
"Busy," he grunts, his eyes never leaving his patient.
"We need a doctor in trauma 3," Clary says.
"What's wrong with the patient." Clary freezes and forces her mind to work backwards.
"She…well she's unconscious. That's all I could tell."
"How old?"
"Thirties, maybe forties."
"Page Dr. Lightwood. Maryse, not Robert." She nods and quickly sends a page. She hurries back to the patient. A few minutes later, Dr. Lightwood showed up.
"Hey, mom," the female paramedic said. Clary gave herself a few moments of disbelief before returning her attention to the patient.
"Isabelle."
"Rose McAllister. Forty-seven years old. Collapsed. Regained consciousness once on the way here. BP's 86 over 64. She appears to be relatively stable." As Dr. Lightwood examines the patient, she starts to wake up.
"Where—what…" Rose says.
"You're at a hospital Ms. McAllister. We're trying to figure out what's wrong with you."
"Do you have any pre-existing heart conditions?" Dr. Lightwood asks. Rose shakes her head. "What have you had to drink today?" Dr. Lightwood asks.
"Some wine. That's about it."
"Have you had much to drink in the last few days." Ms. McAllister makes an effort to think back.
"Not really," she responds.
"I believe you're suffering from severe dehydration. We'll put you on an IV and check up on you later."
"Is that—am I going to die?" Dr. Lightwoods eyes soften and she gently pats Rose's hand.
"You are not going to die."
"Thank you Doctor…?"
"Lightwood. Nurse, put her on a drip and keep her monitored." Clary glances at her watch. 5:30. Fifteen minutes until Simon picks me up. She realizes she'll have to find someone to watch Ms. McAllister. She wheels Ms. McAllister up into a recovery room, quickly hooks the woman up to the IV then hurries to find a nurse.
"Maia!" she calls, seeing her friend walk through the ER doors. An easy smile spreads over her face as she lopes over.
"Hey, Clary."
"I'm off in five. There's a woman in room 313 that I need someone to monitor…" Clary gives Maia a hopeful look. Maia rolls her eyes in fake frustration.
"I'll cover her."
"Thank you!" she calls over her shoulder as she hurries away. She heads to the locker room and changes into her street clothes. When she heads back to the ER she sees Simons already there, waiting for her. They hurry to her car and he drives them to the Wal-Mart parking lot.
"What are we doing here?" she asks. He shoots her a look.
"Picking up Eric. We're going to carpool. We went over this yesterday."
"Oh. Yeah. Sorry. I forgot." He raises her eyebrows at her and pulls up next to Eric's car. He jumps in the back, greeting Simon with some ridiculous handshake. Clary fights an eye roll. The ride to…wherever they were going was loud, filled with Eric's poor attempts at humor. Clary closed her eyes and tried to sleep, exhausted after a nights worth of working. Eventually Eric's voice fades from her consciousness and blissful sleep engulfs her.
oOo
"Clary. Clary. Wake up!" Simon's voice pulls her out of her dreams and into reality. She glances out the window and see's their on some sort of campus. Simon pulls her out of the car and plops a helmet on her head, buckling it under her chin. "You ready?" he asks, his eyes sparking with excitement.
"Err..yeah." He pulls her around a brick building and she finally sees what they're doing. She, Simon, and Eric were standing on top of a ridiculously large hill. Halfway down the hill was a large plastic ball, one big enough to fit a person. One that actually had a person in it. She could almost feel her jaw hit the ground.
"What. The. Hell." Simon shoots her a worried look which turns into anger.
"You weren't listening to me yesterday, were you?" he asks.
"You've brought me to the place I'm going to die, haven't you?" she snaps back. He smiles wickedly.
"This," he says, gesturing grandly to the view in front of him, "is Zorb ball." Clary shoots him a blank stare. "It was invented in New Zealand."
"Yes. Because that clears up everything."
"It's actually really simple. You climb in the ball. Someone pushes you down the hill. Eventually you stop. You get out of the ball."
"Where does dying factor into this?"
"It doesn't."
"Who the hell owns one of these things?"
"Kaelie's brother," Simon responds.
"And where did Kaelie's brother get it?" she asks, seriously angry.
"E-bay."
"You've got to be kidding me." His smile broadens.
"Loosen up, Fray. Have some fun." She watches as two people crawl out of the ball, laughing. They slowly start to push it upward. She walks away from Simon in search of someone she might know and as luck may have it, she sees someone. Tall. With blonde hair. And bright golden eyes. I must be imagining this, she thinks. But no, there's Jace, loping over to her.
"Hey, Red," he says with a cocky grin. "I didn't know you and slutty waitress were friends," he states. Kaelie.
"We're not."
"Crashing our party then."
"I was dragged here against my will."
"I see." He gives her a once over and smirks. "Nice helmet." She quickly unbuckles it and lifts it off her head.
"It's all yours. I'm not going on that death trap."
"Neither am I."
"Really?" she asks, true curiosity coloring her words.
"I'm not suicidal." She glances over and sees Simon climbing into the ball. She winces, fully expecting to see her friends blood spattered across the lawn. She can hear his screams of joy as he rolls down the hill.
"Crazy freakin' nerd," she mutters to herself. She hears Jace's light chuckle and regrets saying anything. Simon already gets enough crap from Jace. "I'm going to go look for someone I actually like. Have a nice day." He catches her arm.
"About yesterday…"
"Yes, yes. It was a moment of weakness. It wasn't actually you, it was your twin. If I speak a word of it to anyone I'll die. I get it. You can release my arm now."
"That's not what I want to say. Can you come with me?" he asks.
"I don't have sex on the first date." He rolls his eyes.
"As alluring as that prospect is, I don't want to have sex with you. Well, right now that is."
"Leave me alone." His face sobers and he tightens his grip on her arm.
"Please." She fights a silent battle with herself, quickly weighing the pros and cons. The sad look in his eyes persuades her.
"Fine. I'll go with you."