"They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite."
Gabriel's arm was broken. That much was evident. Will only wished his sister wasn't subjected to the horrible array of swear words thrown out in the midst of towing him to the hospital.
Tessa had been the one to demand they take him. Will had been inclined to let the insufferable Lightwood suffer the consequences of trying to maul him, but pointing this out to Tessa proved to be useless. She had looked at him with such a fire in her eyes, such an intense fuming determination practically radiating from her that he'd simply handed her the car keys and suggested they avoid downtown traffic.
The prostitute had left no trace of her following Will's home after her appearance and cause of his having to break the Lightwood's arm, which was just as well. Cecily had demanded to go with them to the hospital, but to this Will was rock solid. He might not be able to control Theresa Gray, but with his own little sister, he hoped he had the upper hand.
Now he sat, driving directly into downtown, beside Theresa Gray in Gabriel Lightwood's car, the Lightworm in question lying in the back seat and uttering deep moans of agony. Tessa had handed the keys back to him without meeting his eyes, insisting that she couldn't drive backwards. He'd seen that she looked furious as she stared at the ground. He could see her now. Out of the corner of his vision he saw her gnaw on a nail nervously, cheeks slightly flushed. He forced a picture of Tatiana into his brain and forced his focus on the road.
They didn't talk the whole way there- Will didn't know if this made it better or much much worse.
The hospital staff were kind and apparently took even total prats such as Gabriel, not even blinking an eye at Will's interruption of Gabriel's indepth explanation of how the arm in question had gotten broken besides tossing Will a rather suspicious glance. Not that he minded. What he did indeed mind was the fact that he was now sitting with Tessa Gray in the middle of an empty hospital waiting room, unable to think of anything but the fact that her hair was emitting a scent that smelled suspiciously like strawberry shampoo. He wanted- in short- to shoot himself.
This went on for quite a while.
"So," her voice spoke suddenly, interrupting his counting of the amount of blinks the light above them emitted, startling him. "New York."
"What about it?" he replied, voice dry.
"We're going aren't we?" she turned to look at him for the first time as he glanced at her, grey eyes wide and curiously nervous.
He didn't answer for a moment, preferring to remain silent. When it was clear she would wait indefinitely for an answer, he spoke. "I don't know what got it into you or my idiot friend's heads that I would follow a madman to a country I don't know, but it must've been something incredibly convincing that I completely missed."
She cocked a brow in surprise but simply pursed her lips and didn't respond.
She surprised him when she finally spoke by not mentioning the past topic at all.
"You really should apologize to Gabriel you know," she said suddenly, voice chastising.
"He deserved it," he said automatically. "Besides, it wasn't unwarranted. He attacked me first. I believe that's classified as self defense."
She leaned her elbow on the arm rest, chin on her palm and stared him with such a piercing gaze he lost his breath for a moment. "Why don't you speak like everyone else, Will?" she asked quietly.
"Excuse me?" he responded, dazed.
"Why don't you talk like a normal kid? I've never met anyone who talks like you. You talk like- like you're 87."
The dazed dream ended abruptly. His gaze went hard and a nervous smile flitted to her features. "No offense," she added.
"I've always felt the concept of 'no offense' extremely stupid," he said, glaring up at the ceiling as he slouched in his chair, hands folded in his lap. "Whenever anyone says it it's always after something overtly offensive."
"'Overtly,'" she repeated, sounding amused.
"Overtly," he said again, voice hard and annoyed.
She kept staring at him with the same curious expression and he felt himself grow uncomfortable. How could she know that his thoughts were unconsciously going to the lock of her dark hair curling on her collar bone? The few speckles spotting her bare arms, the way her lips moved when she spoke? How could she know the sense of absolute certainty in his chest that she was meant to be in his arms, beside him when she went to bed every night and in his arms when she woke up? And not in the way that most people would assume. Not in the way he knew he was supposed to think about it. Nothing more than to be next to her, to be sure she was safe. To know she was, every bit of her, his.
He caught his mind toying with their names together and felt guilty to be caught by himself. He thought of all the reasons he was a mess then, a sense of absolute disgust with himself hitting him like a monster truck. He turned away abruptly to stare at the light once more.
She seemed to have grasped the mood change and remained silent for only a moment before changing the topic once more.
"About New York. I would have thought you would be willing to try anything to understand it all," she spoke up defiantly. "You more than anyone else. Madman leading you there or not."
He didn't look at her. "Where did you get that idea?" he asked testily.
"You said you knew me," she said, startling him into staring at her again. "You said- You expected- I knew too. So.,-" she swallowed. "I think- the things I suspect, you feel for sure. So I can't imagine how you could just ignore that and pretend to be something you can't really be."
"You remembered that," he said blankly.
"Of course I did."
"Well, you didn't show it when we met before-"
They held each other's gazes for much too long.
He stood, moving away from her. "Would you like some hospital coffee?" he asked, hand in his pocket for his wallet. "I've heard it's absolutely disgusting."
"I'd love some," she said, her expression giving no hint of anything but pleasantries and gratitude. But he heard the pity in her voice, heard it and despised it, and wondered if underneath the pleasantries he didn't see a little bit of sadness too.
She didn't turn out to need the coffee for when he came back she was asleep. He paused a moment before sitting down next to her, the two coffees in his was curled into a ball, her chin resting in the crook of her elbow, her knees pulled to her chest. It felt invasive to sit down next to a sleeping person, and he couldn't help but notice that she looked much less determined, much less fiery, much less like an international pop-star and more like just a-
He sat down several seats away.
The hospital coffee turned out not to be too horrible for what he assumed was instant. With enough cream to drown it, it was halfway decent, though he couldn't imagine, as he drank it, why he was sitting in a hospital waiting room, waiting for a prat he hated to be tied up by some nurse. At least, he didn't until his eyes snagged on the sleeping figure a few seats away from him and he felt suddenly tired.
He didn't know exactly how much time had passed (the waiting room clock was busted) but did know how many magazines he'd been through- 16, and he knew way more about wedding planning than he'd ever wished to- before Gabriel Lightwood stalked into the room, looking about the temperament of a soaking wet cat. His arm was in a sling, his face in a scowl, and he looked like the last person in the world he'd like to see was Will Herondale.
The assertion of Will's seemed to be correct. He stopped stock still and stared at Will, scowling. "Why the hell are you here?"
Will let out a yawn and stretched, letting the most recent edition of Bride Weekly fall out of his hand to the floor. "Good evening, Lightworm. Feeling better?"
"No one asked you to stay," Gabriel repeated forcefully, voice almost a growl.
"No," Will admitted. "But I have to say I think she might have broken my arm if I tried to leave. I got the feeling she felt you'd been done a great injustice."
Gabriel looked at him strangely. "Why do you sound drunk?"
"Excuse me?"
"Like you've suddenly turned into a snob from one of Tat's old English soap operas."
Will rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. "Why does it seem like the whole world has to take issue with the way I talk today?"
Gabriel stiffened. "To be honest, I don't give a damn about how you talk as long as you get away from my sister."
"Well then we have a problem," Will said dryly. "Because I don't do threats."
"If you think that was a threat, let me make it a bit clearer for you, Herondale-"
A loud sigh from the seat between the two stopped this possible display of force from occurring. A very sleepy Tessa Gray sat up from her curled up position on the hospital chair and blinked around her. "Whaisit?"
Gabriel glanced at her once before seeming to decide he might ignore her. "I want you away from her and away from Tessa, because she might not know it but you're trash that won't do any good for her-"
"Excuse me?" Tessa cut in more cognitively this time, sitting up and rubbing her mussed up hair with a hand. "What don't I know?"
"That he," Gabriel said with vehemence. "Is a cheater. He's dating my sister and I know he's trying to make a play for you-"
She looked at Will with the expression of one who was just told she would fall in love with her brother. "Gabriel, don't be an idiot. Will wouldn't date me if I was the last woman left in the world." Her expression turned wry. "Isn't that right, Will?"
"Oh, so right," Will said automatically, hearing himself as if from a distance.
"And I'm sure he treats your sister very well. From what Jem told me, it sounds like he's deep in love with her."
"Bloody liar, that's what he-"
"Gabriel." Tessa cut in more forcefully. "Let it go."
At this, Gabriel turned a dark hue of purple, attempting to cross his arms without thinking before letting out a soft cry and grimacing.
They left and Tessa found a moment to shoot Will a reassuring smile as they climbed into the dark car. He couldn't muster the strength to return it.
Hey guys! Long time no see- thank you for putting up with the fact that I have had the busiest first full week of school ever (I survived but barely). I thought I'd give a bit of Wessa for y'all. I promise I won't abandon this fic, I'm going to keep updating :) Thank you to all of you who have held on! Keep reading and share it around if you like it! Also, I love it when anyone takes the time to comment their thoughts or their hopes for the fic! ~k.m.