Lilly's here!

First of all I want to apologize to you guys for the giant hiatus. I have no excuse (other than moving to England I guess) for that and I promise I'll try to write the end of this story (don't panic there are still a few chapters to come) in the week(s) that follow.

Thank you for all the reviews and I hope this part is worth the wait!

R&R

Chapter Twenty-One: I love you, I want you, I need you, I miss you like crazy

Jace stared at her. "Are you serious? I do have other things on my mind right now Clary, like saving our asses for starters."

"You're mad at me," she stated, staring at the floor, nervously twisting her fingers.

"We'll talk about this later," he repeated, shaking his head and turning back to the door.

Clary rolled her eyes, sometimes it felt like she was her husband's daughter. And she hated being patronized. "I only did this to protect you! All of you! I thought you'd be-"

"You thought I'd be what? Proud that you risked your life and acted impulsively? Sorry to disappoint," Jace whispered through clenched teeth, glaring at her.

She threw her hands in the air. "I'm sorry!"

"Are you out of your mind? Do you want to wake everyone up?"

She pouted, crossed her arms on her chest and watched the dark living room while Jace was working the door open with Clary's fork. She didn't think it was working really well since he couldn't stop grumbling under his breath. She stopped talking, replaying the events over and over in her head, trying to figure how her life had been turned upside down in only a month.

Her father, mother and sister had to go in hiding after they witness their own friends being murdered. When the though crossed her mind, she wondered if she'd ever see them again.

Then, she had to find out that during the two years she had been married to Jace Herondale and the four they had known each other he had been lying to her almost every single day to go chase down drugs lords and arms dealers around the world for no other than the CIA. And he practically demanded that she get over it as quickly as she could because he had other things to do than wait for her to come around; which out of love, she did.

She had introduced a monster to her family and as if this simple fact wasn't enough she had laid in bed next to him because she believed it would keep her family safe.

It didn't matter how hard she tried her life seemed to be an unending nightmare. All she wanted was to be held before she went insane but Jace was way too pissed off to even care.

"I just want to go home," she whispered to herself as tear gathered at the corners of her tired emerald eyes. She sat with her back against the door and closed her eyes, picturing the bedroom of their penthouse. "Please take me home."

xXx

"It was a mistake," Alec said. He was nervously pacing Hodge's office, glancing at the monitors from time to time. The CIA –well Aline to be more precise- had access to every single camera in New York but it wasn't much help, he hadn't seen either Jace or Clary come out of Valentine's building. He turned to Hodge, trying to keep his cool. "How do you know he's not dead?"

"I don't," Hodge answered honestly. "But Jace is more than capable of getting himself out of every situation."

"It's different," Alec argued. "The game has changed. Clary is involved now. Jace gets reckless when it's about her. You saw what happened: he gave himself up to Valentine himself. The man who wants to kill him!"

"He made his choices Alexander," Hodge said. "You have to trust him."

"I should be in there with him," Alec grumbled, ignoring Hodge and turning back to the screens. Aline came in and handed him a steaming cup which Alec gulped down.

"Any news?" She asked. She patted Alec shoulder but he quickly shook her off, glaring at her. She took a step back and slid into a chair. Nothing she could say could make him feel better but if she got something, it would calm him down. Besides, she wanted Jace back as much as he did –probably more even.

Hodge shook his head. "I always taught you to trust your instincts. What do you want to do?"

"I wanna go in," Alec said.

"Okay."

Hodge turned to the team and after a couple minutes of silence, he said: "I want a task force with the DPD ready in half an hour, call Jules to set it up. I want eyes in the air, snipers but no one does anything unless Alec or I give the order and-"

The door creaked open.

"It has come to my attention that one of our own had been captured by Valentine Morgenstern," said DCS Archibald Aldertree as he walked inside the office.

Alec, who was arguing with Aline over the details of the operation turned around. It was very unlikely that director of Clandestine Services would come down to Hodge's office. Usually, non-covert status agents stayed in their 100-foot-square offices, they didn't mingle with the rest of them. He had only seen Aldertree when the DPD budget had been cut the year before because of the economic recession.

Jules followed him inside, her stiletto clicking on the floor. Her face was unreadable but Alec knew what she was thinking. Earlier, before Jace knelt down to Valentine, she had held a meeting in the ladies' restrooms of the CIA's basement –where the archivists worked– sharing her concern about Sebastian's revelation of Aldertree as Valentine mole. It all made sense, Alec thought, why Valentine was so good.

You're as good as the company you keep, he had once said to Jace when they were undercover. The more people's back you scratch, the further you'll get.

Alec just hoped Hodge would remember.

Hodge was the first to answer. "Yes, Sir. Jonathan Herondale had been caught."

"Herondale?" Aldertree repeated, intrigued. "Wasn't he one of our top agents?"

Alec winced. "He is," he said through gritted teeth. He gazed up and Jules shook her head almost imperceptibly. If Jace was dead, Jules would know.

Aldertree chuckled. "So what's the plan?"

xXx

The lock fell into place. Jace smiled. "Okay, let's go."

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