7. "This guy was going to kill me but you showed up and saved the day Hello there" AU Wessa

"My name's Herondale. Will Herondale. I'm a just a guy who edits books and lied about his name on the guest list and didn't want to get caught. Please don't kill me."

The woman, Carolina Carter, she'd called herself, didn't put down the glittering knife she held. In fact, she stepped closer to where he sat, hands and feet tied to a chair, and pointed the tip of the blade at his jugular. "And why should I believe you? Who do you work for? What do you know about that book?"

"Well, I work for a small publishing company downtown. You've probably never heard of it. Stele Ink? No, I didn't think so." The blade whispered along the skin just about his tuxedo shirt. "Anyway," he rushed to continue, hoping his cover was secure enough for her to believe, "I saw the book in the newspaper yesterday, but the filigree on the spine was different. More of a fleur de lis instead of scrollwork." Now the blade was actually pressed against his skin, the metal cold. He kept talking, as if words alone would save him. He hoped that was the case, because between her burly bodyguards and his tied limbs, he really only had his words, especially since his team didn't know he was here tonight. "If you're interested in buying that book, I'd hang onto my money if I were you. I'm definitely of the opinion that it's a fake."

She pursed her ruby red lips. "Tell, Mr. Herondale, how many books did you publish last year?"

"Me personally?" he choked. "I don't actually do any of the publishing, I just edit manuscripts. But three of my favorites were printed, which is really a shame, because the Macoskey text was just brilliant and I think that-"

"Shut up!" she cried, pulling away from him and dropping the knife back in the case of torture devices she'd laid open on the bed. "I believe that you're not a spy."

He relief coursed through him as he watched her zip up the case, the sparkling metal of several pieces of equipment that looked as though they were better suited for a dentist's office than a lady's luggage disappearing. His relief, however, was short lived. She walked over to the desk and pulled a gun out of the top drawer, and then a silencer. "Unfortunately," she sighed as she screwed the silencer to the end of the gun. "you've seen me now, which means I'm going to have to kill you."

He'd been afraid of that. He closed his eyes and hoped that she'd shoot him in the chest and not the head. He didn't want his mother to see her son without a face. He was glad he'd taken the time to visit Cecily and her new baby, glad he'd hugged his parents one last time. He had always known that he might die. He'd never anticipated that it would be without a fight though.

To his amazement though, a fight happened.

There were shots from outside the hotel room, followed by a furious looking Jem Carstairs bursting through the door with guns blazing. Instinctively, Will lurched to the side, knocking his chair over and tripping one of the burly bodyguards as he attempted to flee. A moment later, that bodyguard was squirming on the ground and the other had dove through the floor to ceiling window behind Will, Carolina Carter close on his heels.

Jem shot him a venomous look and dove out the window behind them, leaving Will laying on the floor, still tied to his chair, with the injured bodyguard. Or so he thought.

A long navy blue silk skirt swished along the carpet before the girl wearing it dropped to her knees in front of him. Her delicate evening gown was mussed, and her dark hair had come loose from its elaborate updo and fell in curls about her pale face. The color of her gown made her usually grey eyes look blue and the fact that he found them so beautiful unnerved him.

"Are you alright?"

Tessa Grey. Jem had almost killed her a few weeks earlier, and then had saved her from a pack of angry Colombian drug lords who thought she was Carolina Carter. Now she was under MI6's protection and Jem had made it his responsibility to see to her safety. He didn't know why she was here tonight, but was glad for it.

"I'm fine, thank you." Her fingers were already working on the knots at his wrists. "But, Tessa, would you do me a favor before you release me and grab that vase over there?" He jutted his chin towards an ornate ceramic vase on the table behind her.

She sat back on her heels and gave him a quizzical look, "Why on earth…"

"Just do it, Tess."

She rose in a swirl of blue silk and moved to the desk, lifted the vase with both hands and turned back to him, her eyebrows raised. He smiled. "Another favor, if you don't mind. Would you be so good as to hit that man over there in the back of the head with your vase? He's injured, but still trying to inch towards the bag with the knives in it and it would give me such peace of mind."

She went even paler, but did as he asked, the vase shattering across the back of the fallen bodyguard's skill. The man fell unconscious and Tessa sprang back from him like he was a snake and then froze.

"Are you alright, Tessa?" Will asked, not able to see her face from where he lay on the floor. "Can you cut me loose now? There should be plenty to help you out in that Chanel bag on the bed."

She came back to herself with a little shake and went over to the bed, selected a knife and knelt back in front of him. She was still incredibly pale, but her fingers were surprisingly steady as she sawed through the cords that bound him.

"How did you know I was here?" he asked as she worked. "I didn't tell anyone. It was just a hunch."

"We didn't, actually," she replied. "Jem saw it in the paper yesterday. He knows that I love Jane Eyre and there was a rare first edition on display tonight. I've been going stir crazy in the safe houses and he thought I'd enjoy it. Which, I, of course, would have, but we got here just in time to see that woman pushing a gun into your back. I didn't even know Jem had guns on him until we got to the door and he-" She broke off, casting her wide gray eyes away from Will's face.

"You've never seen him kill anyone before, have you?" he asked, taking the knife from her with the one hand she'd freed and beginning on the other arm. "You were unconscious the first time."

She nodded. "I knew that this is what he-you do, but I never imagined…I mean, I know it's to keep us regular people safe…" She trailed off again, biting her lip.

"It's alright," Will said gently, kicking away the last of his bindings and scooting close enough to her to take her hand and give it a squeeze. He smiled at her and tried to sound reassuring. "You'll be pleased to know that the woman who did all this told me that her name was Carolina Carter. We're that much closer to catching her and then you can be free of all of this."

He stood, pulling her up with him, and shrugged off his tuxedo jacket to wrap around her bare shoulders. "Come on. We can hunt down Jem and see if we can't sneak a peek at Jane Eyre before we make our report."

Author's Note: I took a lot of the dialogue from the beginning directly from Season 1, Episode 3 of Chuck. I started watching it with my dad this weekend and found it quite helpful.