here is chapter 9! enjoy and tell me what you think in reviews, pm's, favortives, follows, etc :) i'll be trying to post chapter 10 soon as well so keep eye out for it! review as always i enjoy reading them :D

TMI and characters belong to Cassandra Clare and the poem belongs to his/her name at the bottom. thanks for reading!

O lonely heart so timid of approach,

Like the shy tropic flower that shuts its lips

To the faint touch of tender finger tips:

What is your word? What question would you broach?

Your lustrous-warm eyes are too sadly kind
To mask the meaning of your dreamy tale,

Your guarded life too exquisitely frail

Against the daggers of my warring mind.

There is no part of the unyielding earth,

Even bare rocks where the eagles build their nest,

Will give us undisturbed and friendly rest.

No dewfall softens this vast belt of dearth.

But in the socket-chiseled teeth of strife,

That gleam in serried files in all the lands,

We may join hungry, understanding hands,

And drink our share of ardent love and life.

'Courage'

by

Claude McKay

"How long does it take to get to the stupid apartment anyways?" Isabelle complained as they walked down the sidewalk in the chilled air, Simon and Clary shuffled along after hearing Isabelle's complaints and bickering almost the whole way there.

"You've been there before Isabelle; we're about there, one more block." Simon told her slowly, as she smirked.

"One more block? You said that five blocks ago!" she snorted, and looked away as she walked arms crossed.

Clary let out a rough sigh and hung her head, "I don't know about you, but…I'm beginning to like it better when she was dead."

Simon looked at her in disbelief, although he couldn't say he liked the complainy Isabelle, but he figured she had a right to be that way in this moment, she had come back from the dead with a strange rune and was beginning to get cranky because her newborn undead self was getting tired.

She did come back after all, Simon thought and smirked trying not to laugh and looked at Clary.

"The baby is just getting tired is all." He waved his hand in the air as if it was nothing to worry about.

"What did you call me?" Isabelle suddenly said, as she stopped having a fit about shoes she saw in the passing window of a shoe store.

Clary laughed as she looked at Simon clearly getting his joke as he turned to Isabelle,

"Well you did 'come back' so therefore you were reborn, which means you're body is in newborn state, so I figured like any newborn you get bitchy and whiny when you get tired."

Isabelle formed her mouth in a hard line and glared at Simon; as he grinned, and turned back walking.

"That was as good one." Clary whispered, as Simon nodded and looked to her about to say something when he felt something hit him in the head.

Clary gasped, and Simon was shocked and dumbfounded as they turned toward Isabelle,

"That's what you get for calling me a baby! You…." She paused, "Baby hater!"

Both Simon and Clary were speechless as Isabelle hopped over and picked up her shoe that she had chucked at Simon's head, and began putting it back on, when suddenly Clary busted out laughing at the look on his face.

"Baby hater?" he asked, as Isabelle walked passed them, her shoe now back on.

She shrugged. "I'm all out of comebacks right now, that happens when I get bitchy and whiny like a baby." She glared at him and stalked ahead of them.

Simon looked at Clary who was recovering from laughing and smirked, "Thanks for helping me out there, Fray."

Clary chuckled. "Sorry, Simon but the look on your face was to priceless to pass up laughing at."

"Yeah, yeah." Simon answered, as he walked after Isabelle, "Isn't my face always laughable though?"

Clary turned her head and inspected him and then nodded as they walked, "Oh yeah, totally laughable."

Simon sighed, as Clary laughed again.

Simon flipped on the lights of the apartment as they walked in, jingling his keys as he stuffed them back in his pocket, he sighed and turned from Isabelle and Clary behind him back to the lights illuminating the apartment.

Clary and Isabelle walked in slowly, looking around as the lights flipped on,

"Home sweet home—"he began when a hit of a dank smell hit his nose, a smell that was all too familiar to him.

Blood.

"Ugh, what is that smell?" Clary protested wrinkling her nose in pure disgust, as Simon swallowed hard, and looked toward the kitchen, he grew wide eyed as he spied the mess still on the floor in the kitchen area, he had completely forgotten about what awaited him when he returned home, but he couldn't really blame himself after all he had learned in a short time, things he wasn't ever expecting to learn.

Simon stood still and frozen as he gazed at the sight of the sticky sight before him, as he tried to keep himself between the mess and the two girls behind him, but without much success on his part.

The dark red rust color of the drying blood on the floor in a puddle had began to announce its presence in the room, the smell of metal and salt drifted through his senses as he felt his mouth begin to water, and felt the own twinge of pain and taste exactly as the air smelt in his own mouth as his fangs sliced through his lip,

Clary gasped when she saw what Simon was frozen gazing at, Simon turned to her trying to hide his fangs without much success,

"Simon!" Clary scowled, "What is this mess?"

"I…uh…" he began muffled, as his fangs got in the way of him speaking,

"You what?" Clary demanded, narrowing her eyes at the puddle, and Simon raised his eyebrows in understanding,

"Oh no! No, it wasn't like that! I accidently dropped a bottle and…" began crying like a baby because this song came on that reminded me of Isabelle and I couldn't function any longer. He thought, and sighed he couldn't tell Clary that, ever, even if Isabelle wasn't standing in the room.

"And?" Clary asked,

"And I didn't get to clean it up." Simon sounded annoyed, he didn't have to answer to Clary, wasn't like she was his mother, his mother didn't want him anymore he was dead to her.

She sighed, and looked to him, "Well we can't leave it there, so I'll clean it up, you put those away…now." She pointed to his fangs as she walked off to find the materials to clean up the blood mess on the kitchen floor.

Simon took a deep breath and relaxed forcing his fangs to retract and turned to Isabelle, he half expected her to made a snide comment or some form of remark while wrinkling her nose in disgust on what lay on the floor before them, but when he turned to look at her, there was no words about his eating habits or anything about it being on the floor, or that it better not be human blood, like Clary had been thinking, no, the only think Isabelle did was…stare.

Simon looked from Isabelle to the blood pool on the floor, and saw as her eyes appeared glossy, black with a glass like sheen to them, as she stared at the floor unmoving.

Alarmed, and unsure what was wrong Simon reached out to touch her, when she turned her head and looked at him, he jumped slightly back at how mechanical it looked the way she turned her head, almost like a robot that was just commanded to move.

"Isabelle?" Simon asked, slowly hoping to get some form of response, but all she did was look from him to the floor again.

"I've got the stuff—"Clary began, holding a few dark colored rag towels and some cleaning bleach spray, as she stopped and looked at Simon and Isabelle.

Simon looked at Clary with worry clouding his eyes, "I don't know what's wrong with her, all she's doing is staring…at the blood."

Clary's furrowed her eyebrows and sat the cleaning materials on the island/bar combo in the middle of the room and walked over, as Simon shut the door and locked it back, and turned back to Isabelle.

"Izzy?" Clary asked softly touching her arm but she recoiled and turned away from them closing her eyes.

"Get the wretched stench out of the air." She snapped her voice thick as she leaned her head against the small closet door behind her. "Before I'm sick,"

Simon looked from Isabelle to Clary as her expression now held worry and more than anything fear, like it had many times that evening.

Simon knew his expression also held fear, not only fear for what was happening but fear of what might happen to Isabelle if they couldn't find anything about this rune, he knew Clary could only hide form Jace for so long without giving in to him, and if they couldn't fix this before then, Simon knew when Jace and the others found out they wouldn't hesitate to turn her over to the Clave, as she said before, it would be what they thought she'd want, and who knows what the Clave would do to her, if they ever found out. Simon shuddered at the thought and pushed it away as he turned to Isabelle, and touched her shoulder.

She was breathing slightly heavily, which Simon found odd Isabelle rarely breathed that way, he had only seen her breath that way a few times, and a few of those times involved himself.

Trying not to think on those memories, Simon heard the spray bottle of cleaning spray being used as he turned and saw Clary beginning to clear up the mess on the floor.

Looking back to Isabelle, Simon touched her softly on the shoulder again and saw her relax gently,

"Izzy," he began, "Come on, if the smell is bothering you, you should get away from it until it's cleared up."

As he spoke, he saw her eyes snap opened as she turned her head toward him, Simon gazed into her eyes, and he wasn't sure what he saw there, but something seemed wrong, off somehow, not Isabelle, at least not the one he knew.

"Okay…" she breathed, barely a whispered as she stood up straight from leaning against the door, and looked at Clary cleaning the floor.

Simon held out a hand, and Isabelle hesitated and stared at his extended hand before placing hers in his, her hands were rough, but they still held a hint of softness to the skin, despite the years she had been fighting demons and handling weapons.

She looked down and away from him, her long hair casting a shadowy curtain around her face as Simon lead her passed the island in the middle of the room, toward his room.

"I'm going to take her to lie down while you finish that up, when you're through just come get us." Simon told Clary as they passed, pausing to push her hair out of her eyes despite the rubber gloves she wore, Clary eyed Simon suspiciously as he turned away before she could see the look on his face, he knew what she was thinking, and he wasn't sure why it embarrassed him so much, but could be just the thought he knew that everyone seemed to think they knew how he felt about Isabelle, and for the last two weeks he had known too, but now that she was back, he wasn't so sure those feelings applied anymore, although he knew she said they did, a part of Simon didn't believe her he knew it was wrong but how could he believe her when it seemed something was wrong? But she didn't know how to tell him or even tell Clary? And what was Clary hiding from both of them that she secretly knew?

Simon refused to think, so many questions and not enough of his brain to want answers, not at that moment anyways.

Simon led Isabelle into his room, where she had been numerous times and turned on the light on his bed side.

He fumbled around with it longer than necessary, as he tried to push his thoughts away when he saw Isabelle set down on the edge of his bed and pick up something black and silver, and shimmery.

Simon immediately turned to her as she inspected the object and he had completely forgotten he had fell asleep holding her nightgown earlier.

Isabelle raised an eyebrow as she held the nightgown out in front of her "Isn't this one of mine?"

Simon swore under his breath, and he knew if he could blush he defiantly would be, and he knew he was in a bind, but he also knew there was no sense in lying to Isabelle, even if he didn't know how she felt he was pretty sure his previous feelings he had felt just hours ago, still applied as they had the night she was taken from him.

"Yes." He said, as she looked up at him in sincere surprise, "It's the one you told me to keep here in case you were ever here and wanted it, although you seem to enjoy adopting my shirts more than your own garments to sleep in, but that's another story…" he sighed, rambling as Isabelle sat holding the garment on her lap as he talked.

"I'm sure you remember telling me to keep it here." He said, taking a breath and closing his eyes, getting his thoughts in order.

"Yes." Came her soft reply, he nodded and continued,

"Well,
earlier, I was really upset thinking about you being gone, and I knew I'd never see you again, never talk to you again, I knew everyone else had a chance to meet you in Heaven, Isabelle, but I knew I would never get that chance." He opened his eyes slowly to see her looking at her lap, and closed them again.

"And I was remembering when you told me to keep that, in case you needed it or wanted it and I realized it was the last of you I had, the last of your style, your scent, the last I had to remember you physically outside my memories, and I wanted to hold onto it for as long as I could, I never wanted to let go." He said, opening his eyes fully now, and looking down meeting hers, that shone with what looked like tears she was holding back, and Simon wished she wouldn't he had seen Isabelle cry before, but she had always thought she was to tough for tears, he tried to tell her everyone cried but she refused to believe him, but he knew he had to try again.

"Izzy…" Simon began moving toward her as she shook her head,

"No, no, you can't see me like this, not in this state." She said jumping up, her hands shaking slightly still clutching her nightgown.

"Isabelle." Simon said setting down on the bed next to where she just sat.

"No." she shook her head, hiding her face from him,

Simon sighed. "Isabelle, remember when you made me bite you…for the first time?"

Simon watched as Isabelle froze, and slowly turned toward him, eyes widened,

"Yes."

Simon smiled softly, and looked down at his hands, "I had hid, in my hands, before I did, before I could and told you that you would never want someone like me, a nobody, a nothing, and I didn't want you to see me like that…see me like this." He said, turning back to her, fangs in place, Isabelle turned fully at him and walked over to him, kneeling, Simon closed his eyes as she brought her hand up to touch his face, but hesitated, about to turn away when he placed his hand over hers and opened his eyes, only to be greeted by hers.

"I said I didn't want you to see me like this, because I was the monster, I was the one you were begging for me to bite you, but I was afraid, and I knew you were too but you weren't sure why…" he continued before she put a finger to his lip, silencing him.

"I was scared," she whispered looking at him, "I still am, but not because you're a vampire Simon, it was never that reason."

Simon sighed as he removed his hand from over hers and she moved her hand to clutch hits and placed her other hand over his chest, where his heart was once.

"I was afraid, and I still am, of giving you my heart."

Simon looked down at her hand placed over the place his heart used to beat,

"I was afraid you'd smash it." She told him, a hint of a sad regret in her voice, Simon looked up at her as the tears shone like drips of black onyx from her eyes, liquid midnight.

She turned her face away as she removed her hand, but Simon caught it, forcing her to look back at him.

"It's okay to cry sometimes Izzy, and it's okay for people to see you cry, especially people that care about you, if you aren't afraid of what I am, who I am, and you can see me like this, then it should be okay for me to see you like this as well." He told her softly, as she looked at him, he opened his arms as an entrance she took.

Isabelle wrapped her arms around him tightly and laid her head on his chest and let the tears come forward, as he rubbed her back and stroked her hair, comforting her.

"How did this even happen? How did all this ever happen to me?" she cried, burying her face deeper into his shirt.

"I don't know." Simon admitted once again, as he did not long ago in the alley, "I just don't know," he sighed, as the door opened, Isabelle released Simon and was on her feet in seconds, not wanting Clary to see them that close, confused Simon was about to ask what she was doing when Clary poked her head in.

"Okay, so I cleaned up the blood, and sprayed air freshener, that mountain pine stuff, it smells good anyways, I opened the fridge and realized you have absolutely no food whatsoever and if we're going to stay here for awhile, with this as secret headquarters we're going to have to have some food here somewhere." Clary told him, "Evil masterminds like us have to eat." Clary turned her head to look at Isabelle, and as if not noticing she was crying, Clary replied, "Preferably already cooked."

"HEY!" Isabelle snapped, "I've been taking some cooking classes' thank you!"

"Really, I wonder how that went." Clary answered sarcastically,

"Actually very well thank you, I know how to make Mac-n-cheese now…at least."

"That's good, that way if we get an evil army of angry school kids, we know how to stop them."

Simon chuckled once, as Isabelle glared at him, her face still streaked with tears from before, they both turned back to Clary.

Who began to say something else when her phone rang, confused she took it from her pocket and answered it.

"Hello?"

Simon and Isabelle looked at each other, wondering who it could be, when they looked back at Clary her face had changed, she had the expression of shock and the oh-my-god-I-forgot-but-I'm-so-sorry face on.

Simon watched waiting, as she pushed her hair behind her ear, and turned from them walking out of earshot and he smirked,

"Here it comes." He said slowly, Isabelle looked confused as he heard what sounded like Jocelyn on the other end having a mom fit.

"The oh my god I forgot I'm so sorry line."

"What's that?" Isabelle asked, as Clary came back into earshot and Simon motioned as she spoke, after releasing a held in breath.

"Oh my god, mom, I'm so sorry I forgot…" she said, panicking.

Simon leaned back on the pillows with his hands behind his head, with a triumphant smile on his face as Isabelle raised her eyebrows and laughed lightly and looked at him,

"Right on cue?"

He nodded, and watched Clary pace on the phone oblivious to their conversation,

"Oh so right on cue." He said, as Isabelle laughed again, it sounded more like a hiccup, as Simon realized she was still crying, so setting back up, the smile slowly disappearing he looked at her with worry.

"I'm okay, really." She said, but she knew he didn't believe her; Simon opened his mouth to speak when Clary turned to them, and they both looked over at her as she sighed.

"Yeah, mom…yes, tell Luke I said hello, yes I know…I know, MOM! I have to go, see you in a bit, yes, love you bye."

Clary hit the call end button and sighed collapsing on the bed next to Simon who laughed, as a smirk spread across Isabelle's face.

"What was that about?" Simon asked Clary looked at him with tired green eyes.

"You don't want to know, trust me." She said setting up sighing again.

"Sure we want to know." Isabelle answered as Clary looked over at her with a smirk, Simon watched her when she spoke.

"The royal we? Or are you talking for Simon now?"

Isabelle thought for a moment and answered, "The second one I think we prefer to use."

Clary eyed her and shook her head turning back to Simon, who was puzzled at where such bitterness had come from between them, he had thought they were at least partway friends before Izzy had died and returned, Simon sighed within and remembered to put that on his mental to do list, find out why Clary and Isabelle seem to be bitter toward each other a topic he really was not looking forward to addressing.

"Well, royal we or regular we, I want to know." Simon answered looking at Clary, while Isabelle inspected her nails again by the dresser.

Clary sighed, "Well, it seems I was supposed to be at Luke's this evening to help pick out the cake when the wedding players arrived, but I had forgot and my mom got kind of mad at me, as I'm sure you heard so now she's sending Luke here now to get me, to make sure I'm not late tomorrow for the dress fittings and picking out, and I don't forget."

Simon and Isabelle both looked at her horrified,

"What?!"

Clary covered her ears as they both shouted at the same time, getting a questionable glance from the other before Isabelle began to speak.

"But what about finding out more about this?" she hissed, pushing her shirt away to reveal the rune, as Simon gasped, he hadn't seen it since his dream or the night it was drawn on her, but there on her shoulder was Isabelle's new and seemed to be permanent rune, it glowed a golden copper in the dim light of Simon's lamp, and the eye in the middle of the one star point shone brighter than the rest of it, Simon thought that it looked so bright on Isabelle's pale skin that it might blink at any second, taking in Simon's look of wonder and surprise, Isabelle covered her shoulder back with her black gear that she still wore.

Clary sighed again and shook her head, as she stood up still holding her phone, "It will be in the early afternoon, it shouldn't take long and anyways, after that I can come here and we can get started."

Isabelle sighed, not liking the idea and Simon decided it was time to step in.

"I think that will work, then in the morning I can go grocery shopping, Jordon told me where he stored some extra cash before he left in case I wanted to have a guest over, he in fact encouraged it for obvious reasons…" Simon's voice trailed off, as the two girls looked at him with puzzled expressions.

"Okay?" Clary shook her head clearly not wanting to even fandom what Jordon meant by that thought, as Isabelle smirked again, clearly not happy on the thought either.

"Anyways…Luke will be here soon, so I'm going to go wait for him." Clary told them,

"Okay." Simon and Isabelle said, both once again at the same time, as they looked at each other, Clary looked at them as she raised her eyebrows.

"You guys have got to stop doing that it's just…eerie." She replied before turning and walking toward the door and turning back to wave and say one last thing,

"And remember, tomorrow afternoon after dresses rune work time." Clary told them and they nodded, not wanting to risk being in perfect sync again.

Clary eyed them slowly and spoke again,

"Before I do go, even though I don't want to so I can make sure nothing bad happens, I have to say, please be careful, and I mean you Isabelle."

Isabelle looked at Clary and eyed her, "Me? Why me?"

Clary looked at her and put her hands on her hips, "Do I not recall a conversation we had in the alley about you being extremely strong and then you punched a wall? Simon may be strong but he can't withstand so much…strength Isabelle, be careful around him."

Isabelle sighed and nodded looking down at her feet before answering, "Okay, fine."

Simon looked at Clary with an annoyed looked, "Gee, thanks for talking about me as if I'm not here."

Clary shrugged, "Anytime." She replied before waving again and walking toward the door and as she left turned to say,

"I'll be back soon, promise."

Simon and Isabelle both nodded, as Simon noted something in Clary's expression that made him worry about her too, something just wasn't right with the two girls, they fought and Clary was holding something back, and Simon knew when she held back it made her grumpy, only if he knew what it was and how to get to her admit, Clary sighed once more mostly to herself before she left, closing the door behind her, Simon listened as he heard the spare key he had told Clary where it was kept before when she visited once if she ever needed it, rattle as she took it from the hook and unlocked the door, and then locked it back, before he sighed and collapsed back down on the bed covering his eyes with his arms.

"I think someone had been hanging around Jace too long." Isabelle said bitterly after making sure Clary was free from hearing the words, as Simon uncovered his eyes before speaking,

"Yeah, either that or she's just worried about you." Simon told her,

Isabelle snorted as she plopped down on the bed missing Simon's long legs by only inches, as he lay on the other side of it, and eyed her.

"I don't see why she'd be worried about me…"

Simon propped himself up on his elbow and looked at her, "Everyone worries about you, Izzy; you're so mysterious everyone wants to know what you're thinking."

Isabelle looked at him with a look of doubt, as Simon leaned over and kissed her forehead, before getting up. Isabelle watched him as he went for the door.

"Where are you going?"

Simon paused as he opened it slightly, "I'm going to make sure I have blood for tomorrow, or I'll have to get some while we're out at the store."

Isabelle smirked, "Not like they carry that at the store."

Simon grinned, "At the special store."

Isabelle shook her head and looked away as she smiled,

"I'll be right back." Simon told her as she nodded looking around the room, Simon opened the door fully and stepped out before shutting it slowly halfway behind him, he walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to find two bottles of blood still there, and one was half full and the other to the top.

Closing his eyes he let out a sigh of relief, he was glad those were there, because he figured spending his night with Isabelle might not be as easy as he hoped.

"Defiantly going to need it." He murmured to himself, as he shut the fridge and walked back toward his room, whistling a tune that just popped in his head but he figured it was from some hot pop song that was popular at the moment.

"Okay, I still have two so I should be good until—"Simon began but paused as he walked in his room and stopped, and then smiled.

Isabelle had changed from her Shadowhunter gear that was now piled on the floor, into one of Simon's old t-shirts on with the words, "Professional Gamers Do It Better" across the front, her long slender legs were curled up to her chest, her black hair fanned out across the pillow as she breathed slowly, her eyes closed.

Simon grinned, etching the image into his memory as he walked over and crawled into the bed next to her not bothering to change out of his own t-shirt and jeans, he smiled like he was a child on their birthday, as he pulled the covers that were drawn back up on Isabelle and himself, and laid there on his side watching her, he ran his hand slowly down her face feeling the softness of her skin as she stirred and opened her sleepy eyes, as they fluttered to look at him.

"It's impolite to watch people sleep you know…and it's also stalkerish…" Isabelle mumbled to him, Simon laughed lightly, and kissed her forehead.

"Just sleep, Izzy." He said still laughing,

"M'okay." She yawned sleepily as she scooted closer to him until her head rested against his shoulder, Simon wrapped his arm around Isabelle's waist and put his head down on the pillow, breathing in her scent that still seemed the same, before his eyes began to grow heavy, and right before he fell asleep, Simon whispered to her,

"Goodnight my Isabelle."

okay so i here is ch. 9 :) make sure to tell me what you think and if have anything you may want to see in coming chapters just tell me it in a review or PM me i'm opened to both of those options, ch. 10 will be soon i hope so keep eye out for it in coming days...remember give me feedback, i like getting how everyone is enjoying it so far! thanks for reading! :)