4
Clary couldn't really place from then out what specifically happened. All she could remember was dropping her phone and crumbling onto her knees with a thump onto the tile floor of the kitchen. Isabelle and Maia had rushed in, asking Clary what was wrong until they found her phone and read the message. Maia had then called one of the people on the team and Isabelle had ushered Clary onto the couch and cradled Clary's head until Clary had fallen into a fitful sleep.
Which brought Clary to this moment. Her eyes were still closed, and she could still feel her head nestling on Isabelle's lap, but Isabelle and Maia seemed to be arguing about something just as the doorbell had rung, which was what had startled Clary awake.
She heard Maia run to the door, and heard the door open, but didn't have any idea who was in the doorway and Isabelle was just to warm and comfortable for Clary to be bothered. She shifted a tad, sighing, Isabelle's arms around her tightening, and was just about to draw herself back to sleep when she heard the voice from the doorway speak.
It was a deep voice, that flowed smoothly and gave Clary's closed eyes the image of a smooth orange sunset. She was too groggy to make any of the words out, but she savored the smooth sounds of the voice, tempting her back to a peaceful sleep until, just before she was fully out, Isabelle shifted, getting up and laying a blanket over Clary.
Instantly, Clary missed Isabelle's warmth and almost woke herself up. But, her body and mind really weren't in the mood to face reality.
"Well, if you'll just hand Alec the telephone, he'll be able to track the area the number came from, at least." The sunset voice was saying, and Clary perked at the sound of it.
"Iz, come on, they can at least do more than you can just clutching the bloody thing. For C, please?" Came a pleading tone of Maia's voice. The phone must have been handed over, because a quick 'thank you' was resolved from a new voice that sounded more stoic.
"We really could figure this out quicker if Clary was awake. It was targeted directly at her." Something about hearing the smooth voice say her name made her feel safe.
"No way, she's already stressed a crazy amount as is." Isabelle, always pushing against all the rules. Clary sighed inwardly, irritated that she knew she had to face reality. Stirring, she forced her eyes opened, stretching her arms and sitting up slowly, attempting to stand. "Oh great, now you woke her up." Isabelle added, coming to Clary's side and pushing her back down on the couch, wrapping the blanket around her.
Clary turned, brushing Isabelle's fussiness away and looking towards the kitchen where Maia and the two young males from their team were standing, still conversing.
"It's okay guys, there's no way she's falling back asleep, just come in here." Isabelle said, and she saw Maia grunted, irritated, but led the two into their room and offered them spots to sit on the ground around the popcorn bowl. Alec hesitated for a second, but Jace just plopped down on the ground right next to where Clary was on the couch.
"Um, no offense, but, uh, why are you two here?" Clary asked, too tired to come up with a kinder way to ask the question, earning a guffaw from Jace.
"Well, after you received the text, Maia called Magnus and he sent Alec and I here since him and Aline were busy." Jace answered, looking up at Clary with an expression Clary just couldn't place.
"Okay, I get that, but like, how is you two being here going to help anything?" Clary pushed, making it a little too obvious that she wanted to be alone with Isabelle and Maia so that she could curl up with them and fall asleep.
"Alec here," Jace started, nudging Alec, who was typing some random stuff up on a computer Clary hadn't even noticed before, "Is a tech genius. He can hack almost anything. As for me, I guess I'm just comforting to look at." He ended, gold eyes gleaming. Isabelle let out a short laugh and stuffed some popcorn in her mouth.
"Looks like you can intuitively guess right." Isabelle said, earning a glare from Maia that enforced Isabelle to crawl over to Maia and pin her on the ground, causing Clary to roll her eyes, knowing she had lost them. Jace looked over at her, raising an eyebrow in question, and Clary shook her head.
"They'll be at it for a while. I'm gonna get something to drink. Care to join?" Clary said nonchalantly, getting up and walking over to the kitchen. She almost pumped a fist in the air when he stood up and followed her. She pulled the fridge door open, automatically grabbing a bottle of Guinness and popping the lid off, handing one to him as well.
"How are you holding up?" He inquired, popping the top off his beer and sipping. Clary watched his throat bob and had to look at the ground to wrap her mind around an eligible answer. Dammit, she was still a dazed awkward teenager.
"Just brilliant." Was all she could come out with, and he chuckled as she gulped down some beer. "Bleeding hells, I don't even know how I got here. Just two months ago I was a Canadian teenager adventuring on to her dream school in London." She sighed, and he cocked his head to the side, his blonde hair falling into his eyes. "I was supposed to be studying art. Now I'm being hunted by a murderer for something he claims I did when I've lived in a port in British Columbia my entire life." Clary said, gulping down the rest of her beer and slamming the bottle on the counter, not thinking twice when she pulled out another and popped the top off.
"So that's where the accent is from," Jace observed, only halfway done with his beer. "I get it. I'm in my final year of Law School and I finally get on my first gig and now I'm stuck babysitting." He said, almost as if he's talking to himself, and Clary can't help but giggle. Realizing his mistake, a second later he cringes. "No offense to you of course." He adds, pointlessly, and steps a little closer to her without even realizing.
"Law Student, eh?" She teased, inching a bit closer to him so the fridge door is the distance between them. "Sounds like way too much rutting work." She said, meaning it. It was one of the reasons she had chosen art. He chuckled, though, and it made Clary's stomach flutter with something that felt queasy, which she chose to ignore.
"Sometimes, but, it's what I've wanted since I first saw Sherlock in my tiny house on our huge farm in the middle of nowhere." Clary smiled, and Jace shot her a confused look.
"Farm boy? Hells, I was raised in Victoria, a busy port city on the water in Canada. I've always wanted to have a simpler life like that. But, in retrospect," Clary realized, laughing at herself, "I ended up in London, so I guess nothing really changed." She completed, and Jace grinned, finally finishing his first beer just as Clary finished her second.
"You know I've never even left the UK? Always wanted to go to North America. Never got the chance." Clary scoffed, not in a rude way but at that comment, never thinking someone would choose to go to North America. "Do Canadians drink like alcoholics, or is it only the ones from Victoria?" He teased, and Clary sniggered, nodding at her empty beers and about to come up with a witty reply right when Alec approached the doorway.
"Sorry to interrupt the pity drinking session, but I finally cracked the number. You guys should probably see this."