Heya! Okay, so last chapter was basically all the characters having rubbish stuff happening to them. Yeh. This chapter I've decided to be a bit nicer to them – or have I? Some might have some nice stuff, others might just have rubbish stuff. We'll see how my instincts take me.

Please review! I want to know what you think! What do you want to happen? Anything you'd like to see for a particular character? Any event? Anything? Review and I'll try to add it in.

By the way, in chapter 2 I know I mention Carstairs – obviously Jem, but this isn't a crossover, as many of you will know he is gonna be in City of Heavenly Fire. If you haven't got that from reading the teasers for the book, then do! If you have, you'll know what I'm talking about!

Also, I know that it may seem like Alec and Jace overreacted to their situation, but trust me, one sentence like that can cause a lot of problems. It has happened to me. So don't judge me for that.

Thanks for reading/being dedicated to (!) my fanfic! (I appreciate that that makes me sound like a bit of an idiot!)

Lu xxx

Jace's eyes flickered open slowly. His head was pounding, but that was nothing compared to the agony his ankle was in. If Jace wasn't mistaken, his father had done some serious damage to him last night. Jace ran his hands through his hair. He should have had more common sense than to kiss Clary – she now had a name, not that that would do him much good after what had happened last night – well, he flirted with girls all the time, and had even kissed a few, but never where his father could have seen or found out. How could he have been so stupid? Jace realised his cheeks were wet. He raised his hand up. So he was crying, but the clear liquid on his fingers was tinged with red too. He was bleeding, or had been at least.

He glanced down at his watch. By some miracle the screen was still intact, and he saw that it was 6am, and Alec would be coming at 8. At the thought of Alec, Jace felt his chest tighten. Would he still come for him? He didn't know. He had really messed up big time, hadn't he. He really hoped Alec would pick him up, because there was not was he was going to be able to walk very far with this ankle – it was throbbing very ominously. No, that wasn't what he should be concerned about. He should be concerned that he had hurt his friend. That the situation was messed up, no, that he had messed up.

Jace struggled to his feet. He was going to have to clear himself up if he was going to let the whole incident last night go unnoticed at school – he was in a pretty bad state. As he stood up properly, he noticed a note taped on the wall opposite him. He reached over, painfully aware that his whole body was aching and realising he was going to have a harder job than he had first anticipated making out that nothing had happened. Jace snatched the note up and held it to the light streaming in through the window in the door.

Jace,

You will not tell anyone about what happened last night, you understand me? No one. I mean it too. You snitch, and you'll realise how much more harm I am capable of inflicting upon you. You defied me. How dare you. And you have only just started to regret it. Pull off anything like that again and you'll get more than just bruises.

I am going to be away for a couple of weeks. You will tell no one of this either. I am warning you now, you have two weeks to sort yourself out and get rid of this delusion that a Herondale can be with a girl. I won't allow it. If I find out that anything more has been going on…

Stephen Herondale.

Jace flinched. He knew that his father meant every word of that. He was going to have to be a lot more careful now. By the Angel, he couldn't go through last night again. That was too much for him to handle. Way too much. He tore up the note, and made his was upstairs very slowly. He was desperately struggling to walk on this bloody ankle, and he knew he should probably have gotten it checked out, but he couldn't alert anyone to any possible problem just yet. He would have to wait until he could come up with a realistic lie.

When he finally pulled himself into his en suite, and stripped off, he realised the true extent of the damage his father had done. He had a massive gash in his forehead, which his longish blond hair just fell over. There were a few more cuts on his arms, and bruises ringing his arms, legs and chest that made it looked like he had been squeezed in the tentacles of a giant octopus. He looked down at his ankle, suppressing a shudder. It was swollen and badly bruised. It must have been worse than he had originally thought. Shit, he thought.

Jace washed away as much of the blood and grime - he had acquired quite a bit from pushing Clary away from the car - as he could, but he couldn't wash away the purple splodges that decorated his body. He looked like he had some sort of virus. Sighing, he patched up the cut on his forehead with the largest band-aid he could find – a bandage would mean questions – and got dressed. Normally he would wear tight biker boots over his jeans, but his ankle screamed in pain when he tried to slip his feet into the boots, so he grabbed a pair of below the ankle converse and laced the right one up very loosely, to avoid any more pain. This only partly successful. Jace had worn jeans as usual, but a dark, long shirt instead of a short sleeved white t-shirt in the hope that the bruises wouldn't show through and the collar would hide the one on his neck. He threw on a jacket and tried to arrange his hair to hide his cut as much as possible before half hopping half limping downstairs. The day was going to be a real struggle.

Alec drew up outside Jace's house, nervous. He wasn't even sure if his best friend would want the lift, after what he had said last night. He rung his hands together, his palms sweaty. He was a right state. His eyes and cheeks were all puffy and red from last night, and he had purple rings to add to the impression that he was some sort of exotic fruit. Isabelle stared at him.

"Seriously, what is wrong with you? You look like you haven't slept, and you've clearly been upset by something, and to top it all of you look like you're waiting for a death sentence!"

Isabelle glared impatiently at him, her gaze fixed as if she was trying to read his thoughts.

"Iz, leave it. Just leave it. It isn't any of your business." Alec glanced nervously at the door. No sign of Jace yet.

"It is my business!" Isabelle's look softened. Now she just looked worried and sympathetic. "You are my brother Alec. I care about you. And I care about how torn up you are right now." When Alec just ran his hands through his hair, making it even messier, she continued. "I saw you last night. When you called Magnus. What's wrong with you?" This time the question was serious. No malice. No irritability. She was just concerned. Alec didn't answer her at all this time, just slouched back further into his seat and sighed. He looked over to the door again. It hadn't opened in the five or so minutes they had been waiting.

"We should go. Jace clearly isn't coming." Izzy rolled her eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I know something happened between you two Alec, I heard enough of what you were saying to get that." Alec leant his head back, groaning. He was just thinking about how to reply to that when the front door of the Herondale residence creaked open. Both Izzy and Alec snapped their heads around to see Jace walking towards them, head down, bag thrown over his shoulders. As he got closer Alec could see that he was limping, and he wore a pained expression on his face. Something definitely wasn't right.

Jace reached the truck and pulled the door open. He grabbed onto the door frame and hauled himself up effortlessly before falling down next to Isabelle and slamming the door shut, a look of relief evident on his face. Then he turned to look at Alec and the expression changed. He looked awfully guilty, as if something was tearing him apart.

"Alec, about last night…" He broke off. Alec gulped.

"I am so sorry Jace, I should never have said that, you've always been there for me and I am being so ungrateful…"

"You were right." Jace interrupted. Alec stared at him.

"What?"

"You were right. I have been ignoring you at school; we haven't been spending as much time together and… and I am so sorry Alec. I've just been messing up. Can we try and sort it out?" Alec nodded nonchalantly, unable to believe his ears. He and Jace were fine. Nothing was wrong. So why did he still feel so crappy.

Jace was looking at him in a concerned manner, as if he wasn't sure that Alec was telling the truth. Alec hastily smiled at him, trying to prove that he really did want to fix whatever problems were going on. An irritable voice cut through Alec's reverie.

"Well, this is all very touching, but how about we, oh I don't know, get to school? I promised Simon I'd meet up with him before class." Alec sighed. For a moment he had forgotten that Izzy had been in the truck. He put his foot down on the accelerator and drove forward, barely able to concentrate on the road.

Jace slumped back into his seat in the truck. Well, at least the situation with Alec was going to be resolved. At least he hadn't messed up their relationship beyond repair. That was problem one sort of solved. Now onto the bigger issue - his ankle. The swelling hadn't gone down. It had gotten worse. Any hopes Jace had had that it was just bruising and that there wasn't anything seriously wrong had been crushed when he had walked out to his ride – he didn't know how he was even going to be able to stand up on it when he got to school. He was in big trouble.

He got more and more nervous as Alec drew the car into the park. He couldn't carry on like this all day. He would have to get it looked at eventually. He gritted his teeth as the car ground to a halt, creaking ominously. Alec had patched the thing up, but it was old and rusty. It could probably have broken down at any moment, but his best friend had been very good at keeping it on its wheels. Jace had to shoulder barge the door to push it open again, and was slowly levering himself down so as to not hurt his ankle too much more when he was thrown forward by a figure hurtling out beside him. Izzy. She was running off to a figure Jace could only assume was Simon, since all he could see next to the boy was a splash of red hair. Clary.

Jace landed hard on the ground – on his right foot. Agony flared up his leg and he crumpled to the ground, biting down hard on his lip to stop himself from screaming. Alec wandered around and noticed Jace on the floor swearing colourfully. He rushed next to the boy and crouched down.

"Shit Jace, are you okay? What's up with your ankle?" Alec stared down at Jace, his eyes filled concern. Something in Jace snapped, and without realising it he was shouting.

"BY THE ANGEL ALEC I AM FINE! DO YOU EVER JUST KEEP OUT OF THINGS?! DO YOU EVER ACCEPT THERE ARE THINGS YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW?! MAYBE THE REASON I'VE BEEN IGNORING YOU IS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT!"

Alec drew back, startled. There was hurt deep in his eyes, and something else. Some sort of despair that Jace couldn't quite locate. He noticed that the other boy was shaking uncontrollably, his face totally white. He stood up slowly, looking away from Jace. His hands were clenched into fists, but not in aggression – almost as if he was trying to control something.

"Well, if that's how you feel. I won't come by tomorrow, Jace. And you can make your own way home tonight." His voice was shaking badly. "All I've ever done is tried to be a good friend to you. If you're willing to throw that all away… maybe I' just fed up with you."

Alec stormed off, barely turning round as Jace called after him desperately. Shit, he thought, what have I just done? He struggled up to his feet, leaning against the truck cab for support. He had just completely ruined his friendship with Alec with probably the biggest lie he had ever told someone he loved (The other lies he had just kept unsaid.). Why couldn't he have snapped to someone else? Finally lost it to one of the jock who would just let it blow over him. He had really hurt Alec. Shit.

He stumbled towards the school entrance, green spots beginning to blur his vision as the pain in his ankle destroyed the meaning of the word unbearable. He barely noticed the short figure running towards him, flaming hair billowing out behind her. He had just reached his locker when his vision went totally black and he fell to the ground, clutching at the pain. He felt someone's hand on his shoulder, someone shouting for help as the world fell away from him like watercolors dripping down a canvas.

Magnus had gotten up super fast that morning purely to get to Alec sooner. He had even limited the glitter to his hair and eyes, with ripped black jeans and a fluorescent green and yellow top and a leather jacket. For Magnus, this was very limited, and he tried not to feel too self-conscious as he ran out of the door, swinging a messenger bag over his shoulder. He rushed through the streets, narrowly avoiding several cars as he sprinted across the roads. When he finally got to St. Xavier's, it was to see Alec racing away from his pick up. Something was very wrong. Magnus ran up to him, grabbing him by the shoulder.

When Alec turned round, Magnus gasped. He was shaking and snow white, trying desperately hard not to begin sobbing again. He looked broken. No, he looked destroyed. Like someone had just taken a mallet and smashed his heart into a million pieces. Magnus pulled him into a hug, and then held him at arms lengths, staring into those beautiful stormy eyes.

"Jace?" It wasn't so much a question as a statement. Alec stared back into Magnus's eyes, looking for some sort of reassurance. The boy nodded. Magus grabbed his hand and began to pull him away from the school building.

"Magnus, w-what are you do-doing?" Magnus noticed the shake in Alec's voice and turned round.

"You are not going to school today. Not today, and not in this state. You need a day off."

"Are you seriously going to m-make me skive, Magnus?" Magnus nodded energetically.

"Of course. We need to sort this out, and I cannot do that for you in," He glanced down at his watch. "Ten minutes. I'm gonna need a bit more time. So, you are coming with me, we are going to sit down over a coffee and talk about this. And then possibly feed the ducks."

"Why are you doing this for me?" Alec said in a small voice.

"Because I care about you." Magnus smiled.

"But you've only known me a day."

"And that is all I need to discover a truly good friend. And I have decided that you are going to be a really good friend. If you'd like. You look like you need someone." Alec began to get a bit of his colour back.

"I've never fed the ducks before. Jace has always been terrified of them. I have no idea why." Magnus smiled cheekily at Alec.

"Then you haven't lived." He grasped Alec's hand and pulled him through the gates of the school. This time neither of them looked back.

Clary had screamed for help as Jace had collapsed against his lockers. She had seen him limping, and followed him to ask him if he was okay when he had lost consciousness. Since then everything had been shut out except Jace. As if for a distance she heard someone calling for an ambulance, but all she was focused on was the slumped form of the boy who had saved her life last night. She scanned his body, her eyes finally falling on his ankle. It was swollen and bruised, it looked awful. She gasped, hands flying to her mouth. What had happened to him? Why had he been walking on that? Why hadn't he gone to the hospital sooner? Or anywhere?

She was vaguely aware of two paramedics pulling him onto a stretcher, wheeling him out of the building and into an ambulance. She ran after them, feeling people trying to pull her back but pushing past them. She was not leaving Jace to wake up on his own in hospital with people swarming all around him. Even though she barely even knew him, didn't even know his surname, she felt a duty of care for him. Maybe it was because he had saved her last night. Or because he had kissed her afterwards. Either way, it didn't matter, because she was definitely going with him. She clambered into the ambulance, the paramedic taking Jace's pulse not even trying to stop her.

"What's his name?" She asked.

"Um, Jace, his name's Jace, um, I think he is seventeen."

Okay, I was going to make this chapter longer, but I think enough said to be honest.

If I get to 10 reviews I'll try and update by Wednesday, if not then I might be a bit longer.

Lu xxx