Hey guys, so this chapter we're gonna get Clace, some of the Frays, and maybe some Alec as well.

I would really appreciate it is a few more of you guys could review! Tell me what you think! Give me some suggestions! What sort of things do you want to come up/happen? I'll try and include your suggestions but I can only do that if you review! Please do.

I've tried to make this a really long chapter, so sorry for not updating sooner!

Thanks for reading!

Lu xxx

Clary gasped and felt her face slam into the ground. She opened her eyes wide, seeing dots. Agony was shooting up her left arm and she could feel the skin soaking through with something – blood? There was something heavy on top of her, pressing her into the ground. As if it was in the distance she heard the car streak past. She sighed in relief, and started to relax into the ground before she felt someone pulling her up and half dragging her onto the sidewalk.

"What… who… what's going on?" She asked, dazed. The hands that had been holding her up had let go, and she felt her knees give again. Her vision was dotted and she couldn't quite make out who was catching her as she fell.

"My name's Jace. You were about to get hit by a car, so I pushed you out of the way. You took quite a knock to the head, and you've got a cut on your arm." Clary whimpered and fell further into Jace, feeling something sticky on her arm. "Don't worry," He added, as if sensing her distress, "There may be a lot of blood, but the cut isn't very big. Nothing a band-aid can't fix." Her vision was starting to fix itself, and concentrating she saw the boy holding her up. He had a halo of golden curls framing his face and equally golden eyes which were looking down at her. They were brimming with concern.

"Thank you so much, I just couldn't move, it was like my muscles wouldn't let me…"

"It's fine," Jace interrupted, "I couldn't just sit and watch you get hit like that! I would have hated myself even more." Clary's face screwed up as she tried to recall something – her thoughts were slow and clouded. She seriously needed a painkiller, and about ten litres of water. Her mouth was bone dry and she felt like someone had shoved a hedgehog down her throat. Suddenly it dawned on her.

"You were sitting on that bench weren't you? You looked upset…"

"Yeh, well, I haven't had a great evening. What's your name anyway? I didn't quite catch it" Clary hesitated – Jace was a complete stranger, and for all she knew he could be in his twenties. Still, she knew his name, so how much could it hurt? And he was gorgeous. She smiled.

"I'm Clary. Clary Fray. Pleased to meet you, Jace." He smiled at that, and helped her get to her feet properly. She was still feeling pretty rough, and like someone was grating at her throat, but the throbbing that had been killing her arm was gone and her head had stopped pounding as much. She was relieved to find that she was able to stand up without collapsing again or having to grab onto her golden saviour. She sighed. Twilight was nearly painting the sky violet, and she did not want to be outside when it did. She wasn't confident enough for that yet. Her mother had died because it was dark.

"Well, I'd better be going, got to get home before dark or my step dad Luke will freak." She said. She had lied about Luke wanting her back, but she didn't want this boy to think she was a coward. She doubted he would understand, and besides, she had just met him, and the incident – that was private.

Jace looked a little disappointed.

"Are you sure you'll be okay to walk home then? I mean, if you want I could help you or…" Clary shook her head.

"I'll be fine. Thanks again for…" But Clary didn't get to finish her sentence, because at that moment Jace had wrapped his hands around her waist and slammed his lips against her. Clary stiffened at first, but then relaxed into his arms, kissing back furiously. She had no idea what had taken over her, but all she knew was that she wanted Jace more than anything. Their kisses grew in passion and hunger, Clary moaning in the back of her throat against his mouth. He smiled against her and held her closer still. Then, as suddenly as the kiss had begun, it ended.

Jace pulled back, shocked. He couldn't believe he had done that. With a complete stranger. In front of his house. Crap. He stared down at the girl – Clary, her name was Clary. She was wild eyed, her hair tousled where he had wrapped his fingers through it. She looked confused and hurt even, staring up and down his body. As if from a distance, he heard her calling his name. He stared down at her – she was quite short – and interrupted whatever she had been saying.

"I am so sorry, Clary."

"I … what?" She clearly hadn't been expecting that.

"I am so sorry, Clary I should never have done that to you, I'm… I'm so sorry." Jace turned on his heel and ran back inside, slamming the front door and breathing hard. He should not have done that. He shouldn't have. Right outside his house too. He was in so much trouble, he couldn't bear to imagine. Jace slowly slid down the door, sobbing into his hands again. Why did everything have to get messed up like this on one evening?

Jace heard footsteps in the hall, and looked up to see his father standing over him. Jace scrambled to his feet hastily. He hated his father to see him like this, weak. Stephen Herondale had even trained Jace, his own son, to hide his emotions before he turned seven. At the time Jace had thought that his father seeing him crying would be the worst moment of the evening so far. He couldn't have been more wrong.

"What was that?" Stephen barked. Jace wiped his eyes with his sweater.

"Father, I shouldn't have been crying, I know I…"

"Not that." Stephen interrupted, "Outside. I want to know what you doing outside just then." Jace blanched. Now that his vision was sharpened he could tell just how furious Stephen was beneath the façade.

"What have I said about girls?" Jace began to shake.

"Father, I…"

"What did I say?! What did I say?!" Stephen was purple, practically screaming at his son.

"Father, I am so sorry I…" Stephen grabbed the front of Jace's t-shirt.

"You love them, you destroy them. I forbade you, and you have broken my trust! And you are going to regret that my son!" Stephen kicked out at Jace, his foot connecting with his ankle hard. Jace cried out in pain, unable to help himself, as agony shot up his leg. He felt the ankle give way and he collapsed to the floor. But his father wasn't done. He continued to pummel Jace with such a fury that Jace would terrified that he would never stop. Jace screwed his eyes up and curled in on himself, totally helpless as his father attacked.

For a moment the thumps ceased. Jace opened his eyes to see his father crouching over him, nearly foaming at the mouth. He was a frightening man normally, and right now – the terror Jace was experiencing is indescribable.

"You will never cross me again, son." And then Jace felt something connect with the side of his head, and an overwhelming darkness swallowed him up, until it devoured him entirely.

Clary just stared. She had been left hopelessly confused as Jace had rushed back inside, as if someone had punched her hard in the stomach. But just as she was trying to contemplate what had happened in the last ten minutes or so – because let's face it, a lot had happened, a lot – she noticed the sun. It danced on the horizon, winking at her. She gasped, and began running. You can't outrun the light. Or the darkness of night. But Clary was going to give it her best shot.

She just managed to get into the family brownstone as the light faded from the sky. She slammed the door shut and leant against it, panting. Luke was just coming into the hallway, and seeing Clary he ran forward, concerned. Jocelyn's death had affected them all in different ways, and it had made Luke paranoid about Simon and Clary's safety.

"Clary, by the Angel, are you okay? I was so worried when you weren't home, I'm mean I knew about Simon but you didn't call… " Luke pulled her into a hug, worried.

"God, yeh, I'm fine Luke, I just got held up at school, Maia was really upset and…"

"Okay. As long as you are fine." Luke drew back… and saw the blood on her arm.

"Oh my God Clary what happened?!" Her stepfather grabbed her arm and began to turn it over, panic flooding his features.

"I just fell over; I was in a rush to get home before dark… the cut isn't very big. Nothing a band-aid can't fix." Clary finished the sentence mirroring Jace's words. They seemed appropriate. Luke sighed and held her at arms length.

"Okay then. But you're going to have to let me clear you up I'm afraid." Clary smiled, if a little weakly, at Luke. He worried so much about her so much, it was so sweet. Luke may not have been her biological father, but he was her dad in all the ways that counted.

Clary let Luke gently lead her to the bathroom and sat her down on the edge of the bath. She watched calmly as he grabbed one of the fluffed up towels off of the rail and ran it under the tap. Once it was soaking Luke gently pulled off Clary's ruined jacket. Clary winced. The cut might not have been big, but it hurt a lot. Luke dabbed gently at Clary's stinging wound with the towel until all the blood and grit was off. The bleeding had pretty much stopped but Clary still felt faint looking at it. She tried to calm herself, determined not to go back to the state she had been in with Jace. Crap, she thought, I must have looked like a complete idiot back then. But there was not time to worry about that, because at that exact moment she felt a sharp pain stab back up her arm. Staring down she saw Luke rubbing a bit of antiseptic into the cut. Luke met her gaze, and grimaced.

"Sorry, I know it hurts, but we don't want you getting any infections." Clary nodded, biting her lip. Luke finally drew the cotton pad away from her, and popped a band-aid over the cut. Smoothing down the edges, he stood up. When Luke got up, it never looked like it took effort, like with other people; it was just one smooth move up from the crouch. Clary wondered how he had learnt to do it.

"All done." Luke pulled her into a hug. Clary loved it when Luke took care of her. It made her feel so safe. And these days it took a lot to make her feel that way. Clary hugged him back.

"Thanks Luke." Luke smiled at her, then leant down and grabbed her jacket. It was covered in dirt and dried blood, with a massive gash up the sleeve. Clary could see why Luke had been worried. She must have looked a right state.

"I'm just going to go chuck this out," he said, "I have a feeling you won't be wearing this again."

"No, probably not." She giggled. Clary was glad Luke's tone was light. She didn't want him constantly fretting over her, not with everything else he had to deal with. She waited for a few moments after he had wandered out of the bathroom before she followed. She came out into the hallway just as Simon crashed in through the door, a grin plastered over his face. He looked up and saw her there. He gulped, and the guilty expression that had spread over his features only increased when he saw her arm.

"Oh, by the Angel Clary, I'm sorry; I shouldn't have left you on your own! What was I thinking?" He ran his fingers through his hair, looking distraught. "Who did this to you? What happened?" Clary held out a hand and placed it on his shoulder reassuringly. He looked destroyed.

"Simon, you are overreacting! It's just a cut! And…" Now it was Clary's turn to gulp, "And it's time I faced up to this. I can't keep going around with you for the rest of my life. I think I needed today to prove to myself that I am safe. That… what happened to Mom was a one of. That those men are gone. They aren't coming back." Neither is she. Clary's cheeks were wet. She was crying. She looked up and saw that Simon was too. Clary fell against Simon, sobbing into his chest. Simon wrapped his arms around her, his face buried in her flaming hair.

"I just…I just m-miss her s-s-so much, Simon, I, I…" She broke away, the tears soaking into his shirt. Simon held her tighter, his sons getting loader, as if he was losing control.

"I know, Clary…I…I do too." They stood like that for a long time, clinging onto each other for support. Luke watched from the kitchen doorway, sadness hanging like a cloud over his face. He wanted to comfort them both, to treat the sixteen and seventeen year olds like children again. But he could tell, read it from their body language, that this moment was totally theirs. That what they needed right now was each other and no one else. The pain might not go away, but they made it bearable for each other in this moment. And though it pained him to leave them like this, he knew it was what had to happen. So he stood watching in the shadows as the two broke down together, trying to come to terms with what had happened to Jocelyn.

Alec fell onto his bed, guilt racking his body. He had sat for a good twenty minutes in Taki's, face in his hands, filled with regret. It wasn't so much what he had said – deep down he knew that it was true and that it really had had to be said – but how Jace had reaction. Alec shuddered at the memory. He had looked destroyed, as if he had done something awful, something unforgivable. It hadn't even been that big a deal, Alec thought miserably. He had been shunned all of his life. He was an outsider; it was just part of his nature. Anyway, Jace was his best friend and Jace sometimes – okay a lot of the time – shutting Alec out of his social circle wasn't going to ruin that. But I just have.

Another spasm of guilt hit Alec and he curled up, trying to make himself as small as possible. The way he saw it, he was screwed. He was pretty sure Jace wasn't going to speak to him after this, judging by the way Jace had looked at him. He had looked hurt, as if Alec had ripped his heart out. And there was something else as well, something he hadn't been able to work in the other boy's expression. That was what scared Alec the most. In that brief moment when Jace had shown his emotions before blanking, Alec hadn't been able to read him properly. Alec hadn't been able to read him when he was raw and exposed. Maybe their friendship was suffering anyway. Maybe this was for the best.

Alec couldn't stop the tears from falling then. This shit stuff always happened to him. First getting shunned by his family all the time, then being bullied constantly until he was about eleven because he hadn't got many friends – Jace had gone to a different elementary school -and he was a bit… weird. More into books than sport. When Jace and Alec had gone to the same school in Sixth grade, the teasing and weird looks had stopped. He had had – well, he'd been in with the 'in crowd'. He had people to hang out with. And now Alec was pretty sure that was gone, along with Jace. Alec ran his hands over his head and yanked at his hair. What would happen? Would he get bad again? Jace had helped him through his last bad spell, had helped him keep it from his parents? What would happen if he got worse? His parents dragging him to the doctor's? Medication? Would he get committed? Alec knew he was catastrophizing, but he couldn't help it. He needed to just talk to someone. But who? He couldn't talk to Jace; that was the problem. He couldn't speak to Iz; he would never be able to wake her up. Then who? Suddenly it hit him. Still sobbing, he dialled a number into his phone.

"Alec?" The voice sounded muffled, as if the person had just woken up. Alec glanced at his watch. It was 1 am. He must have been lying here for hours. It felt as if it had only been minutes.

"Alec? Is this a wind up?" The voice repeated, annoyed.

"Magnus. Hi. I…I need your help."

Isabelle had been lying awake for hours, running over her afternoon spent with Simon. It had been great. They had gone ice skating, which she'd been absolutely terrible at, but had been fun anyway because he had been patient and kind. And then he had taken her to this little run down coffee shop that didn't look like much but clearly meant a lot to him, and they had served her the best cappuccino she'd tasted in a very long time. And then… and then she and kissed him. Or he had kissed her, she couldn't remember which. They had sat in that little window for a long time, totally together. Since then, everything had seemed rose tinted to Izzy. Simon walking her home, kissing her again on the doorstep before walking away into the dark. Telling her mom over dinner. Isabelle smiled at the memories. She knew she should have been sleeping – she had school tomorrow, or maybe today, she had no idea what time it was – but she couldn't. She just couldn't. Sighing, she pulled herself off of her bed and slipped out of her bedroom door. She needed a drink.

She padded down the hallway, trying not to wake up her parents or her little brother Max. Alec wouldn't be disturbed, he slept like a log, so when Izzy passed his room by the stairs, she was walking loudly and nearly didn't him. Seeing that the door was open, she peered in – and gasped. She had never seen Alec like this. He was curled up; phone pressed against his ear, sobbing heartbrokenly. Isabelle could just about hear the phone ringing and an irritated voice answering. She strained to hear more of the conversation. This was bad. This was very bad. She'd seen Alec like this before, but he'd gotten through that. She didn't think he would get worse.

"By the Angel." She whispered, as Alec began to break down.

Magnus picked up the phone, pausing to look at the caller ID – who would be calling at one in the morning? Alec. The guy had barely known him a day and he thought it was acceptable to ring Magnus at this hour? He needed his beauty sleep. But the phone kept ringing, so he accepted the call. This had better be good.

"Alec?" No response. Magnus wondered if Alec was messing with him. Well, it wasn't funny.

"Alec? Is this a wind up?" Magnus repeated. He was really pissed off now. He was about to hang up when Alec finally piped up. Finally, Magnus thought – and then he heard the way Alec was talking.

"Magnus. Hi. I…I need your help." Crap, thought Magnus, he sounds awful.

"Alec, what's the matter? Are you okay? What's happened?" Magnus could hear Alec sniffing. Was he… crying? Before he could ask Alec, the boy answered.

"I… I did something stupid. I've messed everything up. And I'm worried I'm gonna get bad again, and everything is just screwed up and…" Alec stopped talking, and the sobbing got worse. Magnus hadn't thought that possible.

"Okay, Alec, okay, can you… tell me a bit more… what's going on?" Magnus stuttered. He was really worried about Alec.

"It's, I've… I've messed up… with J-Jace, and, and I think… I'm getting b-bad again, a-and… and I, I don't k-know what t-to do…" Magnus was terrified now. He'd never had to deal with anything like this before. Ever. He had no idea what to do. He was jut going to have to calm Alec down.

"Alec, it's going to be okay. We can sort out whatever is going on with Jace. I can see how much you mean to the guy. You can work it out. It's going to be fine. I'm always here Alec, okay, just call me, we can fix this. We can sort this. It's going to be fine." Magnus could still hear Alec crying.

"Alec?"

"Thanks, Magnus. T-thanks f-for listening." There was a click. Magnus pulled his phone away. Call ended. Magnus sighed, falling back onto his pillows. He wasn't going to be able to sleep after this, he just knew it. He reached onto the bedside table, and placed the photo album onto his bent knees. It was half full of pictures of his former friends. Ones of him smiling with Camille, drunken parties at Raphael's. He flicked forward to the last photo he had in there. The sun setting over the lake. Him and Camille embracing, smiling. He hoped the rest of this album would be filled with happy memories like that. He flicked through the pages for a while until sleep stopped evading him and darkness began to swell up around him.

Sorry it's taken me so long to update, I've been trying to make the chapters longer. I'll try to update about once a week for you, but I have loads of school work at the mo, so I'm not promising anything!

Lu xxx