Chapter 15: Bittersweet Goodbyes
JACE POV
I don't know how long I sit there on the road until I realize that they have to be going back to the hospital. I get up immediately to see Jon trying to comfort his mom, I walk over to my car and jump over the open roof to the driver's seat.
"Jon! Come on or we'll miss them!" I yell at him, He turns to me with defiance in his eyes and runs over to my car after saying something to Jocelyn. He jumps over to the passenger and I speed away right as he gets in.
"Dude it's like 7 in the morning, nobody's going to be on the road. Speed up!" he tells me.
"Well excuse me for trying to obey basic traffic laws." I yell back sarcastically.
He is right though, In less than 10 seconds I speed up the car from 60 to 110 mph. There are a couple of cars on the road that angrily honk at us but that's definitely the least of my problems right now. Within a couple of minutes we catch up to Valentine's car. I can see Clary fiery red hair blowing in the wind of the open top car.
She must've noticed us through a rearview mirror because when she looks back her eyes go wide and she stands up on her knees to get a better sight of us.
I look over at Jon "Are we really going to try to do this?" I ask.
"Hell yeah." He says looking just as motivated as I am.
As I start to catch up to the car I hear a click next to me. I do a double take when I see what Jon's holding.
"WHAT THE HELL JON?!" I say, trying to keep my eyes on the road but that's kind of hard when you best friend is loading a gun you didn't know he had.
"What?" He asks curiously.
"Why do you have a gun?" I ask him.
"For this." He says, pointing the gun and shooting at Valentine's car.
Clary ducks down immediately, when she doesn't hear anymore shots she slowly comes back up.
"You know we should probably get Clary out of the car before we attempt to BLOW IT UP" I say to him.
He doesn't say anything, I sigh
"Here take the wheel." We awkwardly switch spaces while the car is going at break-neck speed until I'm in the shotgun seat… literally.
I can see Clary's desperate face the closer we get to the car. When we're finally side by side I start to reach out for her. She grabs my hands slowly.
"You came for me." She yells through the wind.
"I told you I'd never leave you." I yell back.
As she goes to take my other hand Clary's yanked back into the car by her hair causing her to scream in pain and fall back.
"CLARY!" I yell to her, desperately wanting her to sit up.
She doesn't move this time.
Red hot rage bubbles up inside of me and I feel myself reaching for the gun. I can still see Valentine laughing manically in the front seat fueling my anger even more.
Valentine's smile is still large when point the barrel at his head. I feel my finger pull down on the trigger but at the last minute my hand is pulled upward so the bullet shoots into the sky.
"We should probably get Clary out of the car before blowing his brains out!" Jon says, copying my words from earlier.
I feel my heart hitch into my throat as I see Valentine's car speed away with Clary in it.
" Dammit Jon, can't you go any faster." I yell at him.
"Don't you think he might be at least a little bit right?" He says, after a second.
I look at him incredulously.
"How could you possibly think that after he just practically kidnapped your sister?" I say to him, feeling slightly angry.
He doesn't say anything after that, just continues to drive toward the hospital where I'm praying they'll be…
When we speed up to the hospital I jump out of the car before it even stops fully. I dash through the doors to the cancer wing and start to run towards Clary's room until I'm stopped by a nurse.
"Excuse me sir, you need to sign in first." I sigh loudly and hastily write my name, the date and time on the clipboard.
"Who are you here to see?" She asks me while giving a questioning look.
"Clarissa Morgenstern." I say, running my hand through my hair out of frustration.
" I'm sorry… Jace." She says, looking out of the clipboard "But she's currently being checked out."
"What?!" I say loudly, bringing unwanted attention from people waiting in the lobby.
" She might still be here but she's leaving soon." She says, sounding exasperated
Before another word comes out of her mouth I make a dash to her room. When I get there the door is locked.
You can't lock a hospital door.
I try my best to listen through the door when I hear a loud thump.
"Now you listen to me." I hear Valentine say in a rushed whisper. "Once we walk through that door you're mine. Nothing ever happened in here no matter what anyone says, you got that you little bitch?"
Right then all I want to do is break the thin door down and kill Valentine myself for saying those words to Clary.
"I said are we clear?" I hear him say with even more venom this time.
I feel my heart break into a million pieces when I hear her small whimper from the other side of the door. When they both walk out of the door, Valentine holding her duffel bag, I'm already there slamming: Slamming Valentine into the wall and holding him by his shirt. I look over at Clary to see her trying to hide a cut on her forehead that only fuels my aggressive anger.
"What the hell did you do to her?" I ask in a hostile whisper, trying not to attract too much attention.
"What could you possibly mean?" He asks, a sly, sarcastic smile growing on his face.
"I think you know exactly what I mean, look at her." I say, pushing him harder into the wall.
" I'm afraid I don't." He says feigning innocence, "Clary, did I do anything to you?" He asks her, a hint of warning in his voice.
She keeps her head down and mumbles something unintelligible.
"What was that?" He says with anger in his voice.
She looks up and that's when I see a purple bruise growing on her chin, her eyes are wild with a mixture of fear, emptiness, and anxiousness making my heart beat faster.
"n..no." She says, her voice trembling.
"No what?" He asks
"No… father." She says, saying 'father' seeming to push her over the edge.
I let Valentine go from my grasp and walk over to Clary, gently lifting her face up. Her eyes are empty and the blood from her cut is making its way down her face. I try my best to wipe away the slow trickles without her.
"Don't go with him Clary." I say pleadingly.
She from me to Valentine and then back to me.
"I can't." She whispers, obviously choosing her words carefully, her eyes turn glossy for a second until she closes her eyes, composing herself.
"Come on Clarissa." He says, to her starting to walk away.
We both barely register his words as we're both staring at each other, green meeting gold. I take in every last detail of my angel without wings; how her freckles perfectly frame her face, the way her emerald green eyes can suck you in, her soft fiery red hair.
"Clarissa!" He say sharper to her.
Clary flinches and begins to reluctantly walk away, taking her hands from mine. She gives me one last, sad look before Valentine takes her by her shirt and pushes her which causes her to trip and fall to the ground.
No. I can't just watch as she gets pushed around by her father. I run up to Valentine so he hits the ground hard. I'm on top of him holding him by his shirt.
"Doesn't feel too good does it?" I ask him sarcastically.
I look over at who's struggling to get up, he takes the opportunity of me being distracted to punch me square in the face…hard. There's blood blooming in my mouth, I spit it out to the side before going in to pummel him. I get in two good punches before he stands up running me into a wall, punching me in the stomach.
"Hey!" I barely register Clary say before trying to break up the fight resulting in her getting elbowed square in the stomach by Valentine.
I see Clary fall to the ground with a whimper. All I want to do is go over to her but I know Valentine would never let that happen. So I have to end this fight now.
Fake him out. Your attacker will always fall for this. I remember my own dad telling me too many years ago.
As I'm cocking my arm back for the surprise attack I feel myself being pulled backwards. I look back about to hit whoever it is when I see Robert holding me back Valentine is being pulled back, a smug smile still on his bloody face, by another doctor.
I try to get out of Robert's hard hold, I don't know if it's either to finish the fight I started or to go to Clary.
Clary!
I look over at her to see her crying on the ground with a nurse next to her. It only makes me feel worse that this is all my fault.
"Clary." I say, trying to get her attention. She looks at me defeated, her face still contorted from the pain. "Clary, I'm sorry. I love you." I whisper, not sure if she even hears me through all of the chaos starting to ensue in the hallway.
"Jace. My office. Now." Robert says sternly, pushing me away from everything.
I give up at some point on the way to his office. By the time I get there I can only here the rushed talking going on in the hallway.
I always thought if this scenario did happen, somehow she would come back to me.
I never thought it would end like this.
CLARY POV
Everything happens so fast. From Valentine beating me in the hospital room, to the fight in the hallway. I have no time to really absorb it until I hear Valentine next to me as I'm on the floor in pain he inflicted on me.
"Clary, honey are you okay baby?" I hear him say caringly, loud enough for all the doctors and nurses around to hear.
Bullshit.
I open my eyes to look around at the scene around me. Valentines face is bruised and blooded from the fight between him and Jace.
Jace!
I feel myself shoot up until I feel the stabbing pain in my stomach that stops me from moving any further.
"Hey take it easy." I hear the nurse next to me say, checking me up and down.
"Where's Jace?" I say, my voice not going above a whisper, to anyone listening while looking around for him.
"Who?" The nurse asks.
"Her boyfriend." Valentine says, disgust clear in his voice. "The one who started this whole scrabble." He finishes playing victim.
"We apologize for any inconvenience sir, we can re- admit her into a hospital room if you'd like." One of the doctors offers.
"No. We were just leaving and taking our buisness elsewhere, not with that…hooligan running through your hospital." He says sounding business-like.
"But sir, Clary here isn't well enough to go home. Her main cancer doctor is here in this hospital. Besides we're just about to give her her stem cell transplant-"
"Well than transfer all of her paperwork and whatnot to the hospital we're relocating her. I'm her guardian now so what I say goes is that clear?"
"But sir-"
"I said is that clear?"
The doctor seems slightly annoyed but reluctantly agrees.
"Yes sir."
"Good. Now we'll just be on our way." Valentine says, roughly pulling me up from the ground and basically dragging me along with him. With another look back I see the hesitant and sympathetic looks from the doctors and nurses that I leave behind.
When we reach the parking lot to Valentine he pushes me into the back seat and then goes to drivers seat. At first he doesn't start the car, just glares at the backseat towards me.
"Never pull a stunt like that again." He yells.
"What do you mean?" I ask him, clearly confused.
"Oh you know damn well. You told your little boy toy didn't you?"
"It probably wasn't that hard to figure out." I talk back, not thinking.
This seems to piss him off even more.
" You're just like your mother. The hair, the eyes, the bitchy attitude. The only difference is you're not even pretty. You're as good as dead to everyone around you. The only thing from just abandoning you is their pity. When you die, that little boyfriend of yours won't have a problem finding someone else. You think your special. Well as your father I'm here to give you a reality check you little whore, you're not; you're too weak for earth. You have a one way ticket to hell when you're outta here, I mean why else would you have been born with a disease like this?" He says every word crisply to me before starting the car and driving away.
I lay my head on the cool window glass letting the words he just said to me sink in and multiply the already intense pain. When we reach the hospital around an hour later, We pull up to the emergency wing.
"Watch what you say." He warns me before getting out to talk to the EMTs. I'm immediately taken from the car into the arms or a nurse and brought to a hospital room.
I'm hooked up to an IV filled with god knows what and my injuries are patched up. After being questioned on how I hurt myself so bad, to which I said I tripped which I'm positive they didn't believe, I'm left alone. I'm too afraid and exhausted to get out of the bed, after around an hour and a half though, I take my chances opening the door. There's no one outside in the hallway.
I decide to wander around the hospital. I'm numb and my heart hurt from all of todays events, I'm not sure yet how I'm going to react to losing everything in just a few short hours.
My mom, Luke, Isabelle, Jon… Jace.
I swallow hard and push those thoughts to the back of my head and continue to wander until I find a room that interests me.
I walk in to see children's instruments; xylophones, toy guitars, and other little things scattered around a colorful carpet and then a grand piano on the other side with other instruments behind it.
I slowly walk up to the instrument, taking care to open it gently.
I pretend Jace is there with me, sitting on the piano bench. I test a couple of the keys to find it in tune. Being alone I decide to pretend as if everything is normal.
I sing.
It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry
I'll come back when you call me
No need to say goodbye
Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to the war
Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye
Now we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget
Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes
You'll come back when they call you
No need to say goodbye
You'll come back when they call you
No need to say goodbye
As I finish I feel silent tears rolling down my cheeks. It's as if Jace is here with me now. It's as If I can just hear him
I love you, Clary.
I love you too, Jace.
AN: FEELS. This is one of my favorite songs its called The Call by Regina Spektor I highly recommend listening to it if you guys have time! Tell me if you guys like this chapter as always I love hearing your reviews you guys are so sweet I love ya'll!
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Erin