The referee called over Hodge, Simon and the ringside doctor and I watched as the man I loved laid on the ground unconscious and unmoving.

I couldn't breathe. I kept trying to breathe air in, but it wasn't working. I had a death grip on Isabelle's hand and I could hear her in the distance talking to me. Time had stopped and I didn't know where I was. All I knew was that Jace was lying on the ground and I couldn't help him. Never mind the fact that he lost the fight, I was more concerned about the fact that he still hadn't woken up. It felt like it had been hours since I last saw his golden eyes, when, in reality, it was only a few minutes.

Jonathan had perched himself on the top of the cage and was waving to the crowd. The crowd was silent as they watched their hero fall from grace. When Jonathan finally realized he wasn't going to get the praise he yearned for, he hopped down and met Valentine, who had the belt in his hands, in the middle of the ring. They stood talking to one another for a few minutes before going to Jace's side. I wanted to claw his eyes out for even thinking he could breath the same air as my angel.

The doctor was finally able to get Jace to open his eyes and sit up. Jonathan came up and patted him on the back trying to show the world what a good sport he was. I knew better. Jace had told me enough stories for me to know that Jonathan Morgenstern was nothing but a selfish and slimy little worm. I finally let out the breath that I had been holding and turned to Isabelle, who had tears in her eyes.

"Clary, look at me," she said holding my face in her hands. "It's going to be okay. He just got a little rocked. He's going to be fine. What you need to do is follow them into the back and be there for him. You can't show him that you're upset right now. He needs you to be strong for him. Can you do that, Clary?"

I could hear what she was saying, but I just couldn't form words or really function like a normal human being at the moment, so I just nodded as she turned me in the direction Jace was headed with Hodge and Simon holding him up for support. I could hear Jonathan in the distance thanking someone for all their help and his dad for giving him the opportunity. Something about Jace being a great fighter crossed his lips and I wanted to turn around and go fight him myself, but I continued on the path and followed the golden mass of hair in front of me.

An arm darted out in front of me to stop me and I yelled in Jace's direction.

"Jace!" Simon turned his head at the sound of my voice. He let go of Jace to come help me.

"Is there a problem here," he asked the security guard blocking me.

"She doesn't have clearance," he said, never putting his arm down. Simon grabbed my arm and tugged.

"She does now." Simon placed his arm protectively around my shoulder and guided me to the room where Jace would be.

"Thank you, Simon," I said when I could finally hear myself think.

"Don't worry about it. I know he's going to need you as much as he needs me and Hodge."

"How is he?" I stopped him outside a door I recognized as Jace's.

"Right now? He's in shock. He never expected this to happen especially the way it did." A thought crossed my mind quickly.

"Where's Max?"

"He's with Isabelle. She's taking him back to our room until we're done here." He looked at the door and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Look, Clary, we really need to go in there."

I nodded and took a deep breath as he opened the door. I don't know what I was expecting to see, but it wasn't what I saw when we entered the room. Hodge was sitting on a chair in the corner. The room was silent and Jace was sitting on the couch with his head thrown back and his eyes closed. Hodge exchanged a look with Simon and they nodded to each other. Simon gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze before he and Hodge left the room. I didn't exactly know what to do and Jace hadn't reacted to them leaving, so I went to stand between his legs in front of the couch. He righted his head but didn't open his eyes.

I ran my hands through his hair and his hands rested on my hips. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. I choked back the tears that threatened to fall and leaned down to place a kiss on his lips. When we pulled away, I gave him a sad smile.

"Hi," I whispered running my fingers through his hair.

"Hey, Red," he said with a small smile in return. "I lost."

"I know, baby."

"I let my guard down for a millisecond and he saw it. He took advantage and now he has my belt."

"It's okay, Jace. You fought the best you could and got caught at a vulnerable moment."

"I'm sorry." His eyes were telling me just how hurt he was, not physically but emotionally. He couldn't stand the fact that Jonathan beat him after everything he had put him through.

"Jace, look at me." I took his face in my hands and held his gaze. "You have nothing to be sorry about. I'm just glad that you weren't hurt worse than you were."

"Max is here." He swallowed noticeably. "He watched me get my ass kicked and he had to be taken home by Isabelle. He's probably so scared. He's never seen me loose."

"Honey, that boy adores you. You're his hero, but you need to realize that you're not invincible. You held that title for five years and I know you didn't want to loose it to him, but don't let this tear you down. Let it build a fire in you and come back to take back your belt."

"I want my belt back."

"I know, and if I know you at all, you'll get it back. I'm not worried about that right now." I turned his head in my hands so I could inspect the bruises that were forming around his eyes. I lightly traced the darkest one with my fingers and Jace winced before I pressed my lips against it. "Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore."

"What do you want to do?"

"Right now, I want to go back to the hotel room and sleep. Tomorrow, I start training again. I don't care if I have to fight my way back up the ladder to get another title shot. I will get that belt back and I can only hope that Jonathan still has it when I do because I want to take it away from him."

"You have no idea how proud I am of you. You are so graceful and I admire that so much." I kissed his forehead before he stood and wrapped me in his arms. Simon came back in the room, but Jace didn't let go of me as he looked over the top of my head and talked to Simon.

"We're going to head back to the hotel," Simon said. "Max is with Isabelle and I think he needs to see you to make sure that you're okay."

We made our way back to our hotel rooms and stopped at Simon and Isabelle's to see Max. Simon unlocked the door and we followed him inside. Max and Isabelle were sitting on the couch watching a recording of Jace's first title fight. I had studied it over the past month enough to know exactly what was happening without looking at the screen. Right now, Jace was hitting his opponent in the temple in the first round. His opponent would go down and Jace would win the fight by knockout. I stole a glance at Jace, who was standing next to me, and squeezed his hand. He squeezed back and ran his thumb over my knuckles.

"Max," Simon said and Max's head turned immediately. When his eyes found Jace, I could see the tears forming in his eyes. He hopped up from the couch and ran to Jace, who had knelt down to catch him in his arms. Max's shoulders were shaking as he cried into Jace's shoulder. I rubbed circles in Jace's back just so he would know I was there.

"Shhhh," Jace said rubbing Max's back and rocking from side to side. "It's okay. I'm okay. It's just a couple of bruises. You've seen me with bruises before." Max mumbled something intelligible and Jace must have understood because he nodded and continued to sooth him. "These things happen, Max. I can't win every fight and holding a title for five years is unheard of. It was bound to happen at some point."

Max pulled back and looked at Jace. "I just really don't like Jonathan," Max said and Jace chuckled.

"It's okay, Max," I said. "I don't like him either."

Jace stood from his kneeling position and Max latched onto the hand that didn't grab for mine. "Look at my two favorite people protecting me from my least favorite person."

"I'm not ashamed to say that I wanted to claw his eyes out when he tried to act all sportsman like. If you never fight him again, I will."

"Wow, Red. When did you go all spitfire on us?"

"The moment I saw your heart get broken and I was helpless to stop it."

Jace pulled me tighter against him and kissed my forehead. "I love you so damn much, Clary."

"I love you, too. We're going to get through this. Me and you?" I moved my finger between us. "We're a team."

"I like the sound of that."

"What about me," Max piped up, jumping to get our attention.

"Of course, bud," Jace smiled down at him. "You're the most important part of our team. Who else is going to teach Clary how to grapple?"

"I don't know, but she definitely needs some help." Jace stifled a laugh at Max's dig.

"Hey," I said. "I'm just learning. I'm pretty sure neither of you were awesome the first time you rolled around on a mat."

"Um, have you met me?" Jace pointed to himself as if to prove a point. "I'm pretty much amazing at everything I do."

"Wow, you are so cocky sometimes."

"Not cocky, Red. Confident."

"Whatever you want to call it, babe."

I reached up on my toes and kissed his lips before we turned to return to our hotel room. Jace had lost his fight, but I think having all of us around to distract him was helping. He didn't have time to think about the pain he felt at the moment and I never wanted him to feel that pain. If it were up to me, I would take all of his pain away for the rest of his life. The look in his eyes when he told me he lost just about gutted me and I never wanted to see that again. I knew he would stop at nothing to get his belt back and I would be right by his side every step of the way.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you're enjoying the story so far. We're going to get away from fighting for a couple of chapters, but don't worry, Jace will fight again and I have a feeling e'll be even better than he was before. Anyways, let me know what you thought and I just wanted to thank you all for your kind words! :)