There is nothing that warms my heart more than watching Jace interact with the kids at the gym. I watch as a little boy walks up to him and Jace smiles down at him. I snap a shot. Jace picks the boy up and throws him over his shoulder. The boy is laughing uncontrollably and Jace fake slams him on the ground. Before I know it, every other child in the class is running and jumping all over Jace. I can't help but laugh and snap more pictures moving onto the mat and taking pictures from above. Suddenly, Jace's hand shoots out from the bottom of the pile and latches onto my ankle.
"Jace," I shriek. The children's laughter is accompanied by Jace's deep chuckle. "Don't you dare make me fall, I'm holding my camera."
The children start to remove themselves from Jace, but his grip on my ankle remains. Once all of them are gone, Jace rises to his feet without letting go of my ankle. He smiles wickedly as he holds my leg in the air and I try to balance. Simon comes up behind me and takes the camera from my hands. Before I can refuse, Jace raises my leg a little higher and swoops in to throw me over his shoulder and drop me gently to the ground. I can't help but laugh as Jace pins me to the mat.
"That was not very nice," I tried to sound serious and keep a straight face, but it just wasn't working. He smiled and dipped his head to kiss me, but caught my cheek as I turned away from him.
"Oh, are you mad at me now," he asked feigning disappointment.
"There are kids here, Jace. You don't want them going home and telling their parents that you were too busy making out with your girlfriend to teach their class."
"Oh, please. Simon has them in the octagon and they have no idea what we're doing. They're too excited to be in there because we usually don't let them in there." Jace turned as a small hand tapped on his shoulder. "Hey, Max. What's up?"
I tried to push Jace off of me, but he wouldn't budge. Max rocked back and forth on his toes.
"Is this your girlfriend," he asked pointing to me. I could see Jace smile and nod his head.
"Yes, she is. Max this is Clary. It appears she's in a bit of a predicament. What do you think she should do to get out of this situation?"
Instead of answering, Max laid down on the ground next to me. "Do what I do." Max planted his shoulders on the ground and raised his hips. I did the same and Jace moved fractionally. Max motioned for me to hook my leg around Jace's and I did. "Alright, now roll."
I pushed and rolled. Jace landed on his back and I pinned his arms to the mat as I straddled his waist.
"Very nice, Red," Jace smiled up at me and I leaned down to kiss him. "Thank you, Max. Why don't you go back with the other kids and Simon."
Max skipped off to the octagon. "Who was that?"
"Oh, Max? He's my old coach's son, so he's kind of like my little brother. Max's mom bolted when he was about two months old and basically left him on Hodge's doorstep. That was about a month after I came to live with Hodge."
"How did I not know that?"
"I'm sorry, I guess that's kind of something you mention, right?"
"Well, a normal person would mention it, but you're definitely not normal."
"No, I'm not." He wriggled his wrists from my grasp and caught me around the waist. Somehow, he maneuvered himself, picking me up, moving to his feet and planting his lips on my forehead. "I'll be done pretty soon. Do you want to go grab some dinner?"
"I thought we could just stay in tonight and order some take out."
"Okay, sounds good. We can watch a movie or something. I think Simon and Isabelle are going out for his birthday."
"Oh, it's Simon's birthday? If you want to go out with him, you can, Jace. I don't want you to think you need to spend every waking moment with me. If you want to hang out with your friends, you can. Don't worry about me."
"Are you done?" I nodded. "I wasn't even invited. Simon just wants to spend tonight with Isabelle."
"Oh, okay then. I'll just go wait in your office and start working on these pictures."
I turned and walked into Jace's office sitting in his big chair behind his desk. I set up my laptop on the desk and began loading the pictures I had taken today onto the computer. Skipping through most of them, I landed on the picture of all the kids piled on top of Jace from above. I decided I was going to frame it for him because most of the pictures I've taken at the gym have depicted the very serious side of training and I liked that this one showed him goofing off with these kids while he was probably thinking about his next fight and stressing out about all the work he has to do.
The phone on Jace's desk rang and I debated whether or not I should answer it. After the fifth ring, I picked up the phone.
"Angelic Power Gym, how can I help you," I said into the receiver.
"Yes, I'm looking for Jace," the man on the other end said.
"Okay, may I ask who's calling?"
"This is Valentine Morgenstern, the president of the organization Jace fights for."
"Oh, hello. Jace is in a class right now, can I take a message?"
"I think I would rather talk to him right now."
"Okay, I'll go get him." I put the phone on hold and went back out to the main floor. "Jace, Valentine Morgenstern is on the phone for you."
He mumbled something under his breath and stalked toward me. I followed him into the office and he sat in his chair as he picked up the phone. Not knowing what to do, I stood by the door as Jace spoke to Valentine. Jace was short with him and I could see how difficult this conversation was for him. He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. After a few more minutes, Jace finally ended the call and leaned forward resting his head in his hands.
"Shit," he said as he lifted his head and noticed me standing in front of him. "Sorry, Red."
"Babe, what's wrong," I asked and he held his arms out for me. He pulled me onto his lap and I wrapped my arms around his neck resting my head on his shoulder.
"He's giving a title shot to his son, Jonathan Morgenstern."
"Why is that such a bad thing? Has he not earned the shot?" I had honestly never heard of this guy and I had been watching MMA and learning about it for six weeks.
"He's earned it. It's just that he and I used to be best friends. He was training with Hodge when I first got there. We trained together and even lived together at one point. We fought in different weight classes so there was never the chance of fighting coming between our friendship. That was until Jonathan decided to get involved with some pretty bad people and owed them a lot of money. They were betting against me in my first title fight and Jonathan wanted me to throw the fight. I knew I could beat that guy. I had worked hard to get there and my shot might have never come again, but Jonathan was in trouble so I told him I would throw the fight, but we were through. Now, his dad owns the organization and I have to fight him in my next fight."
"I'm so sorry, Jace. That's terrible. I can't believe he would do that to you."
"I haven't talked to him in five years and now I have to fight him." He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair again. "The thing is he's good. He's probably better than me and I don't want to loose my title to that low life. It was never supposed to happen. Apparently he's fighting up a weight class so he can have a shot at me."
I couldn't form words. What was I supposed to say in that situation? It was a shitty situation that I had no experience with. I rubbed my fingers in small circles on his neck and placed my lips against his forehead. "You're just going to have to make sure that doesn't happen and I'm going to help you. If you need to be here more, that's fine. I'll come to you and you can stay at my place because it's closer. We'll get through this, Jace. You are an amazing fighter and you can do this."
"What did I ever do without you? You're amazing."
"So I've been told." I squeezed him around his shoulders and pulled back to kiss him. "Are you ready to go?"
He nodded and I stood to gather my things. When I was ready, I took his hand and we walked out of the office to see Simon. Jace stopped to shake his hand and give him a man hug.
"Happy Birthday, man," he said as he patted Simon on the back.
"What did Valentine have to say," Simon asked with a worried look on his face.
"We'll talk about it tomorrow. Go have a fun night with your girl."
With that, we exited the gym and got in Jace's car to go to my apartment. The entire way, Jace didn't let go of my hand. I felt so helpless. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. He hadn't even fought Jonathan yet and it was already affecting him. What would happen after the fight and God forbid, he lost? I was just going to have to hope that that wouldn't be the case.
A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I wanted to thank you all for the reviews and fav/follows. It really does mean a lot to me! :)