Guys. This story was NOT supposed to happen. It was SUPPOSED to be a one shot. But ... you guys like reading it...and I like writing it... so... cliche fanfic it is! Enjoy. I have written at least another 3 chapters worth just today. I'm posting a little at a time...mainly bc I like hearing you guys comments. So... comment!
It only took 9 minutes to reach the address Clary had sent him. He sat outside with his car in park for a few minutes as he looked at the apartment building in front of him. He wasn't sure if she had wanted him to come up or not, so he sat in his car, his knee bouncing with nerves. A few moments later Clary came bounding out the door, a guy following her out. They were clearly fighting and Jace struggled to control the rage bubbling under the surface as the guy grabbed Clary's arm, pulling her back towards him. Jace rolled down his tinted window. He told himself it was so Clary could see that it was him, but in reality he couldn't help but need to know what was being said.
"Stop it." The male voice said, the voice was cold.
"Just let me go Jordan. You clearly want to be with her, so go be with her." Clary sounded tired, like she had been repeating the same sentence over and over for hours.
"I don't have to let you go. You are mine." Jordan said, his voice angry. Jace unbuckled his seatbelt, ready to jump into action at a moments notice. He knew this wasn't his fight, and in reality it wasn't his business, but he surely wouldn't let it escalate any further.
"Jordan, face it, you don't love me. I don't think you ever did." Clary sounded distant, "what we had, it was nice, but do you really want that for the rest of your life?" She was trying to reason with him. Jace could see Jordan tighten his hold on her arm and he forced himself to sit still. The need to end this coursed through his body, the need to get Clary away from the asshole who was holding her much too tight.
"It's not my fault she is better than you Clary. Really, if you weren't so...soft, so quiet, so pathetic. I could have loved you. Maia, she's fire and you... you're barely a spark." His voice cut through the air and Jace saw red. He opened his car door and stood, looking over the hood of his car. Jace came from old money, and while he didn't generally flaunt it, he was glad he had brought the Ferrari to this particular outing.
"Clary, you ready to go?" He asked, trying to sound bored. "We have places to be." Jordan's eyes shot up to where Jace was walking around the car. Jace could feel Jordan's eyes on his back, roaming over him and the car. He opened the passenger side door and then leaned against the side of the car. "I'll grab your bag." He said with a shrug. He stepped towards the two of them, noting that Jordan's hold on Clary seemed to let up slightly. He could feel the tension rolling off of both of them.
"Who the fuck is this?" Jordan asked, his voice incredulous. Clary looked at Jace and a smirk graced her mouth.
"Jordan, this is Jace." She said, her voice sly. Jace smiled back at her before a cocky smirk formed on his own face.
"Jordan, ahhh I've heard about you." Jace said taking a step closer to Clary. His hand was on Jordan's in a moment, removing it from Clary without pause. "You ready babe?" He asked his eyes dancing with mischief. Clary nodded mutely. Pulling her suitcase towards her. She stepped towards Jace and suddenly she was falling. Jace looked over to see Jordan grab the top of her backpack and rip her backwards. The weight of her bag seemed to throw her off balance. Jace darted forward, but not fast enough to keep Clary's head from bouncing off the pavement. He turned, any amusement suddenly gone. Jace could generally hide this part of himself. He could lock away the anger and violence the way he had trained himself to. Without a second thought he had Jordan by the front of his shirt, lifting him off the ground. Jace was easily a fully head and shoulders above the other man.
"If you ever so much as blink in her direction, ever again, I will hurt you in ways you didn't know your body could hurt. Not only will I break your body, but I will have you in jail before you can so much as apologize. Do not, do not, test me." Jace's voice was cold, angry, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind, that he was very serious. Jace released Jordan, throwing him backwards, before kneeling down beside Clary. Her eyes were closed, clenched in obvious pain. Jordan stepped towards them and Jace wanted to laugh. Did this pathetic excuse for a man really thing that just because Jace was on his knees he would have a chance? Jace reached out, without ever taking his eyes off of the red head. He shoved his fist forward and then pulled back quickly, throwing Jordan off balance and sending him tumbling to the ground.
"Alright pretty girl, hospital for you." He whispered to Clary, before picking her up bridal style and heading towards his car. He turned back towards Jordan. "Give me your shirt." He said, his tone serious and deadly. Jordan shook his head taking a step back. "I'm not kidding fucker, I don't want blood on my two hundred thousand dollar car. Give. Me. Your. Shirt." He punctuated each word. Jordan stood still for a moment before pulling the shirt off of his body and throwing it towards them. Jace picked it up and balled it up behind Clary's head before laying her down in the car. He turned and gave one last look at Jordan before getting in to the drivers seat and taking off. Clary sighed from beside him, rolling her neck.
"Jace, the hospital isn't really necessary, I'm fine." She whispered with a grimace. Jace continued to drive in the direction of the emergency room. "Really Jace, I just hit my head, it's okay." She said a little louder this time. Jace could feel the anger begin to give way to concern. Her voice was shaky at best.
"Clary, you are bleeding. Like...bleeding pretty heavily. All over my car. You are not fine." He said gritting his teeth. Clary's eyes went wide as she put her hand to her hair and then brought it back, sticky and wet with blood. She sighed and closed her eyes. Jace couldn't help but look back over at her, her heart shaped lips were in a flat line against her pale face. She crossed her arms around herself, like she was hugging herself. Jace turned in to the hospital parking lot and parked quickly, barely taking the key out of the ignition before jumping from his seat and heading over to Clary's side of the car. She put her hand up to open the door but missed the handle completely. 'Fine my ass' Jace's thoughts bellowed out as he opened the door and reached down to help her from the car. He knew if he tried to carry her she would put up a fight. She stood for a moment, taking a ginger step away from the car before falling forward. This time Jace was close enough to catch her. He swept her up and pulled her small body to his chest, shaking his head. He turned and started towards the doors of the hospital. Once inside he was glad that there didn't seem to be many people waiting. He walked up to the window hesitantly. He didn't know anything about Clary, not her last name, did she have insurance? The window opened and the nurse gave a dark sigh.
"Oh, Clarissa Fray. Back so soon." Her face was dark, concern was easily read. Jace's eyes widened in sudden clarity, as the nurse scampered around the desk and towards the door. "Bring her in here dear." She said, unlike Jace, unable to hold the biting anger off her tone. Jace nodded before walking through the door. He could feel the sticky blood clinging to his arm where Clary was laying, though the flow seemed to have slowed significantly. The nurse called out a number over the loud speaker and two more nurses were bringing a wheelchair down the hall. "You can set her down now." She said pointing to the chair. Jace raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out exactly how they planned to keep her in the chair. Jace shook his head,
"I'll just hold on to her until you find a bed." He said shortly, looking between the nurses. They shared a look and then nodded, leading his down the hall towards a room. Jace shook his head as he saw the second bed, "I think a private room would be better for this." He said, his voice stern.
"Her insurance is already wearing thin Mr..." she said looking over at Jace.
"Herondale, and don't worry about it. Just get us a separate room." The nurse sized him up for a moment before shrugging and taking them across the hall to a private room. It was smaller than the shared room, but at least he didn't have to worry about people coming in and out all night. Jace set Clary gently on the bed before turning to walk to the sink. He could hear a strange gargling sound and turned back around in time to see Clary start to shake. This wasn't a shake he had seen before, and confusion laced his face. Within seconds he was at the side of her bed as the convulsions took over her body. He didn't even register that he had screamed for help until two nurses raced into the room. They took one look at the girl and rolled her up on her side, one turning and grabbing something out of the bedside table. Blood gushed from the red-head's mouth and the nurse cursed out loud, shoving Jace roughly out of the way.
"Alright Mr. Herondale, we need you to step out for a moment until this ends." The second nurse said, her voice calm with an edge Jace couldn't place. Jace shook his head, moving to the corner of the room. He knew he should stay out of the way but he couldn't leave. It seemed like hours before the convulsions stopped, though Jace was sure it was less than 5 minutes in reality. His body sagged against the wall as the nurses went to work, calling in a doctor. The doctor didn't waste any time before pulling open Clary's eyes and looking into them with a bright light.
"A concussion, though I guess that is pretty obvious. But since this is most surely not her first, we are gunna need an MRI, maybe a CT as well." He said, his voice was completely calm, as if he say this thing all the time.
"Dr. Her insurance will only cover one or the other after last time." The nurse said shaking her head in distaste.
"Well, I guess we will settle for the MRI then." He said, his tone biting.
"Don't worry about her insurance, I've got this." Jace heard himself say before his brain even registered the words. The doctor rolled his eyes,
"Son, that CT scan is at least 4 grand, and it's just an extra precaution." Jace could feel his anger coming back up,
"Would you like to go see the Ferrari I drove here, covered in this girl's blood. Just do the damn tests." His voice was cold. The doctor rolled his eyes again and nodded, before turning back to the girl. Jace's body sang in relief as green eyes found his own golden ones. "Clary." He said quietly, stepping towards her. Her eyes widened for a moment as she took in her surroundings.
"Shit, Jace. I'm so sorry." She said as she started trying to pull herself into a sitting position. He shook his head as the nurses cleared the room.
"Scared the shit out of me Clarissa." He said, his voice soft and full of obvious concern. Clary blushed deeply and it relieved Jace to see some color return to her face. "Stop apologizing, YOU didn't do anything wrong, at all." The emphasis he put on the word 'you' seemed to trigger something in Clary. A single tear rolled down her cheek and she nodded, as a look of pure pain spread over her features.
"He did this didn't he?" She asked quietly. Jace nodded stiffly.
"And I assume, from the nurses reaction, that this wasn't the first time." Jace added. Clary's eyes widened for a movement, and Jace watched as she put on a fake calm facade. She shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"Oh, you know. Sometimes passion leads to mistakes." She said, her voice flat and devoid of emotion. Rage welled up in Jace's chest and he was silent for a minute as he tried to calm the sea of emotions waging war on him.
"Clary." He said, pain clearly evident in the way he breathed her name. This tension in the room was thick as he stared towards the door.
"You can leave now Jace. I'm sure you have better things to do on a Saturday night than sit in the emergency room. It's just a concussion, maybe I'll need a couple of stitches. No big deal." Her voice held a false sense of calm, but Jace had no trouble seeing right through it. He walked closer to the bed and pushed the hair away from Clary's face.
"This isn't just a concussion. This is the latest of many concussions. Clary you just had a god damn seizure." His voice was hard. He wanted so badly to sound soft and caring, but the anger that was lapping over him like waves almost couldn't be tamed.
"A... seizure?" Clary asked, her voice unsteady. Jace nodded once running his hands through his hair again. "Oh god." She whispered. Jace was sure he wasn't even supposed to have heard it. He sat down in the chair beside the bed and looked up at her as she buried her face in her hands and started to weep. This was a different crying than what Jace had seen before from the girl, but a kind of deep sadness he had seen before. From this mother. Without even realizing it, he reached towards Clary. He pulled his hand back quickly trying to control the need to comfort her. Jace's phone buzzed and he looked down surprised. He hadn't noticed it going off, and yet there were about a dozen messages. Most were from his sister, a few from his older brother. He checked in with his sister, seeing her messages about the club being at capacity. It happened often on weekends. People would line up outside in hopes that others would leave. He sent Isabelle a short message, letting her know that he was with Clary, at the hospital, and giving her a very, very, very short rundown of what had happened. His phone buzzed back immediately that she would come by after the club closed to trade him cars. He wasn't sure how long he would be at the hospital and didn't want to risk leaving his good car outside the emergency room. He looked down at his phone as it started to ring. He groaned as he saw the name on the screen.
"Hello Kaelie." He answered, getting up from the chair and walking to the other side of the room, not wanting to subject Clary to the voice of the girl on the other end of the phone.
"Jaccccceeee" she whined. He shuddered at the way she said his name. "Jace, they won't let me in." She was pouting. He could almost see her bottom lip jutting forward and her eyes looking up at him, trying to play the innocent card that she really had no right to use.
"Kaelie, they are at capacity. They can't let you in." He responded, his voice dry.
"But Jace, YOU could let me in." He was sure she was attempting to sound seductive, but in reality she just sounded like a child trying to manipulate a situation.
"I'm not there Kaelie, and even if I was, I wouldn't be able to let you in." He answered.
"But Jace, you never leave the bar on a Saturday night. Where else could you even be?" She asked her voice raising in pitch.
"On a date." He said rolling his eyes, he looked over at the hospital bed where Clary was being poked and prodded by a nurse. She looked up at him and glowered and he almost laughed.
"On a WHAT?" The blonde on the other end exclaimed. He choked out a laugh and then proceeded.
"Yeah, so, stand in line, I'm sure people will clear out after the band leaves in a couple of hours and then you can get it. Have a nice night Kaelie." He said before quickly ending the call before she could respond. He looked over at Clary again, an amused look on her face.
"This is by far the worst date I've ever been on Jace." She said, as the nurse stuck her arm to draw blood. Jace laughed again, but this time in earnest.
"So let me take you on a real date." He said with a shrug. Clary rolled her eyes and winced. "Do you need something for pain babe?" He asked as he looked over at the nurse. They both looked up at Clary and she looked down, her cheeks flush.
"Nah, it's okay." She said pulling at the strings on her sweater. Jace rolled his eyes and the nurse looked between the two of them before responding.
"I don't know about you Mr. Herondale, but I think some pain medication seems pretty necessary before we start stapling up the back of your lady's head, I'll go ahead and page the doctor." She added before wandering out into the hall. Clary's shoulders sagged in defeat. Jace walked closer to the bed and Clary patted the spot beside her. He sat gingerly on the bed beside her, worried he would hurt her.
"Oh man. You have blood all over you." She said making a gagging noise.
"Yes Clary. That would be your blood." He responded, "We are lucky that that was the only blood spilled tonight." He added looking back at her. The nurse wandered in with a tiny cup of pills and some water.
"Alright Clarissa, take these. The doctor will be in with his industrial staple gun in about a half hour, so these should have time to kick in." She handed the pills over and then walked back out the door. Jace started to move away from the bed but Clary gripped on to him. He looked down at her, confused.
"Don't... please don't leave." She said quietly. Jace nodded and sat back down beside her as she took the pills. "And please don't judge whatever loopy nonsense I spout after these kick in. I'm not known for my high tolerance for... well for really anything." She said with a short laugh. Jace smiled at her and shook his head. Clary leaned her head against his shoulder and he shuddered at her hot breath through the plain black tee shirt he wore. They sat like that for what felt like only moments, before the doctor came in.
"Alright Clarissa, it's time to fix up that gash on your head." He said, walking over to the bed. She nodded against Jace's shoulder. Jace turned to face her and pulled her forehead to his chest. The doctor went to work quickly, numbing the area and then stapling together the 3 inch gash on the back of her skull. She whimpered against Jace, squeezing his arm with ever staple. "Well, 9 staples seems to be the magic number this time." He said, as he put down his equipment and took off his gloves. Clary nodded against Jace's chest, that was now damn from her tears. "Clarissa, I can't have you in here with another head injury. Too much more of this and you're gunna have permanent damage. Just that seizure you had earlier tells us that you are not healing enough between... visits."
"I... I don't think I'll be in for a while doc. We... we broke up." Clary said, looking up at the doctor. Jace could see the doctor breathe a sigh of relief behind Clary's back.
"Alright... well.. keep it that way." He said before walking out the door. Jace suddenly had a thought,
"Hey Clary, I'm gunna go grab a coffee. I'll be right back." He said before bolting out the door.
"Doctor." He called down the hall. The doctor turned to him and nodded. "Doctor... if, if it came up in court. Would you ... would you testify as to what you had seen?" Jace asked. He didn't know this man at all, but he could tell that he had seen Clary in this emergency room for similar reasons, frequently. The doctor looked Jace up and down for a moment,
"I already have a fucking file. I'll give you the whole damn thing if you'll put that bastard behind bars." The doctor said, before turning and walking away. Jace nodded before going back to Clary's room with the excuse of not being able to get coffee at almost 2am. Jace sat down on the bed again as Clary leaned back and closed her eyes to rest. He was glad she was more comfortable now. The nurse came in to tell them she would be able to leave in the next hour or so. A knock on the door surprised them both as they looked to see Isabelle standing in the doorway. Clary groaned, Jace was sure from the realization that people knew what had happened.
"I'm not staying, Simon would kill me, but I figured you both could use some clothes that didn't look like they were straight out of a horror movie." She threw a bag at Jace and looked at him, her eyes flashing for a moment with pity before looking over at Clary. "What's the damage?" She asked, her voice neutral.
"9 staples this time. But I should be able to leave soon!" Clary exclaimed, trying to sound peppy.
"This time?" Izzy asked, raising her eyebrow. Clary shrugged and looked down at the hands on the bed. "Well anyways, I was pretty drunk last time I saw you, but I think the dress in that bag should fit you. It's a shirt on me, but..." she trailed off and Clary glared at her. Crossing her arms. "It's not my fault my legs are as long as all of you Clary." She said waiving her hand. "Now I'm going home to go to sleep. Jace, tell Kaelie that next time she throws up before she even gets all the way inside the door, she isn't going to be welcomed back." She added before turning and walking out the door. Clary laughed at Jace's pained expression.