An hour later everyone was cramped into Izzy's SUV, heading to some unknown destination.
" so, where are we going?" Simon asked nervously.
He was sitting in the passengers seat beside Izzy looking anxious.
" We're almost there, just be patient." Izzy answered happily.
They drove for another fifteen minutes before Izzy finally came to a stop in front of the aquarium.
" TADA!" Magnus sang excitedly. " I love the dolphin show here."
Alec smirked. " Why does that not surprise me?"
" Alec! Your supposed to support me!" Magnus yelled dramatically.
Alec laughed and kissed his boyfriend on the cheek. Magnus shut up.
" Wow, bro! Major PDA much?" Izzy yelled sarcastically. Alec blushed anyways.
Clary looked at the big building covered in pictures of sea creatures. She remembered the last time she'd been at the aquarium when she was small. She was there for a birthday party for a girl in her class. While everyone else was watching a shark feeding show with amazement, Clary had gotten bored. They swam around a tank eating whatever the 'professional feeders' were throwing into it.
She remembered thinking that she could find her way back to group after the show was over, so she went to look at the tropical animal section of the aquarium. It was hot and smelled pretty bad, in the small closed off area, but the animals and atmosphere was so beautiful that Clary dealt with it. About ten minutes later, she went back towards where the show had been, but the group was gone. She started to panic. Clary had never been lost before in her life. Being only eight, she hadn't had a cell phone, so she did the only thing she could have. She'd gone to a dest labelled 'information centre' and told the old lady working there that she was lost. After a while, they eventually found the others and everything was fine, but Clary never forgot that feeling of being lost.
" Hey? You okay?" Jace asked seeing the daze Clary had gone into.
" huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I just haven't been here in so long."
They got out of the car and Jace took Clary's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. They walked over to the ticket line and bought all day passes.
" I told you guys that the dolphin show was amazing!" Magnus yelled as they tried to escape the after crowd. Watching sea mammals jump through hoops hadn't eliminated Clary's nervousness of seeing her mother later, but it did manage to distract her.
" Okay Magnus. The show was pretty fantastic." Izzy admitted grudgingly.
Alec laughed, as Magnus puts his arm around him.
" Kay, We're gonna go get some food, Izzy wanna come?" Jace said when they finally managed to escape the crowd.
" Nah, that line up looks hella long! You guys go buy. I'm sure you'll find some way to 'entertain yourselves' while waiting and I don't particularly want to be there to witness your... Creativity…"
Jace laughed, as Clary's face turned a beat like shade of pink.
" I'm going to the bathroom." Izzy announced. " I'm not risking staying here with you two either." She looks pointedly at Magnus, who was too busy whispering something into Alec's ear to come up with an insult.
" Yeah, I'll come with you and stand outside the door…." Simon said, his expression oozing unease. " I don't like the look of this scene."
Izzy snickered. " Usually, I'd call you a perve for following me to the washroom, but under the circumstances…" She smirked before making her way towards the bathroom, a blushing Simon trailing behind.
" so what should we order?" Jace pondered looking at the menu while him and Clary stood in line.
" I don't know, are any of you vegetarian?" Clary asked, already predicting the answer.
" Ha!" Jace exclaimed, "Izzy tried to be when we were ten and our pet pig had died, but she didn't last long. Probably a month at most. She doesn't eat pork anymore though, so anything with bacon is out of the question."
Clary laughed. " Okay, then we could get cheese burgers and fries for everyone?"
" Yeah, sure." He answered. Clary smiled weakly at him.
" Hey." He said, lifting her head to look her in the eyes. " Stop worrying about seeing your mom later. I'm sure the doctors have convinced her of her condition by now."
" I know, but it's just… hard. Today especially. I mean seventeen years ago on this exact day, my mom frick'n gave birth to me. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure that hurts. Like a lot."
Jace chuckled. " Maybe we can bring something that might jog her memory. Is there anything, like a certain object, that could trigger some sort of memory?"
Clary thought about that. Her mom had never really had many keep sakes. From what Clary could tell, her relationship with her parents was never that great, not until the divorce. Suddenly an idea struck her.
" What if I bring some of her sketch books? Since I was little, my mom would do this weird sort of project where she'd draw my portrait every year. It's actually scary how accurate they are. When I saw the newest one, it was like looking into a mirror."
" Wow." Jace said sounding amazed. " That's possibly the coolest thing I've ever heard."
Clary was about to answer that she doubted it, but it was they're turn to order. Jace ordered the burgers and some drinks. They then stood off to the side and waited for their number, 23, to be called.
" Jace," Clary started to say, "we never really talked about what happened with Jonathan… Are you… Okay?"
He looked like he was about to smirk, but, decided against it.
" I don't really want to talk about it now. I guess I'm still sort of working it all out in my head."
Clary took his hands in her own, making him look down at her face.
" you don't have to figure it all out in your head. You can talk to me about it."
He smiled at her, but it seemed distant. Like his mind was somewhere else.
" I'll make you a deal," she said trying to catch his attention, " If I can stay in that hospital room today until the end of the meeting, you need to talk to me. About Jonathan. It doesn't matter what he did, he was you're best friend. I know his death had to have affected you."
The vacancy left Jace's eyes. He smiled at Clary and nodded. " Okay." he whispered before kissing her lightly on the forehead.