Chapter Three

A/N: Thank you to Geekgirl - book lover, Rose Attack and RandomPotterhead for reviewing the last chapter.

Valentine came to visit her again at midday and once more at dinnertime, but each time she heard his heavy footsteps on the landing, Jocelyn lay silent and still against the pillows, pretending to be sleeping. She spent all of her time alone planning what she would say, but whenever her husband came near, she decided once more that she had not planned enough. 'I wonder if I'll ever have planned enough.' she asked herself repeatedly.

It had been so long since she had lived with Valentine, she had forgotten how perceptive he could be. He had known she was carrying Jonathan long before she had, he had seen her despair when she had tried to hide it behind a smile... and on many an occasion, he had known she was awake, even when her eyes had been firmly shut. So, for all her conscious efforts to keep her breathing slow and even and her body limp and unresponsive, it all came to nothing.

"It's no use trying to fool me, Jocelyn. I know you are awake." She was so shocked to hear Valentine address her directly that she jolted and immediately regretted her lack of control. If the man had not known she was lying, he certainly did now. Accepting defeat, she slowly opened her eyes. She could not conceal a gasp at the sight which greeted her.

Over the years, she had imagined Valentine becoming a monster in appearance as well as in deed. Even when he had visited her, time and time again, she had pictured him with Jonathan's deadened eyes and a vicious smile. She had not expected this.

The man stood before her was every inch the man she had married all those years ago. Age had barely seemed to mar him, as she knew it had begun to do to her. His eyes, though still the deepest black, seemed to hold the same concern that she had once adored. 'I thought he would have been so different, but he hasn't changed at all.'

Jocelyn shook her head faintly, trying to clear it of these useless thoughts. Perhaps Valentine truly had not changed... but she had. 'I spent so long trying to get away from him, to keep Clary away from him.' she reminded herself. 'I cannot fail now, not after so long.'

"Jocelyn." Valentine spoke again, trying to attract her attention. He was ignored. A frown spreading across his forehead, Valentine reached out to brush his hand against her cheek.

Jocelyn started, moving backwards so quickly that she almost fell from the bed- or would have done, had the chains on her wrists not fastened her to it.

"Don't touch me." Jocelyn breathed, shrinking away from his hand.

She did not know what she had expected to happen, but it had surely not been this. For the first time in many years, Valentine obeyed her command and left her be, shifting to the edge of the bed to give her a little more space. In the later years of their marriage, her husband had been protective and controlling and constantly fulfilled his need to assert his authority, even more so once he started to realise she doubted him. To see him obey her wishes... it was strange, to say the least.

"I apologise." It seemed the surprises would keep on coming; another thing Valentine had rarely done was apologise in earnest. "I've been alone for quite a few years now. I'm struggling to remember how I ought to behave around a beautiful woman."

'At least that's something I recognise.' she thought, struggling not to chuckle at Valentine's feeble attempts to flatter her. She had always made fun of Valentine's charm, back in the early days at the Academy- somehow, she had forgotten to do so once he had turned it on her.

"What do you want from me, Valentine?" Jocelyn questioned, trying her best to imitate the imperious tone her husband had always used at the Circle meetings.

"I wanted to see you." Valentine replied, shrugging in the elegant way only he seemed to manage. "I've missed you."

When Jocelyn laughed, there was no humour to it, only a bitter disbelief. "You missed me? That's not possible. You need to care about people to miss them, Valentine. You've never cared about anyone but yourself."

Valentine's expression was not dissimilar to that of a puppy kicked by its master. "I thought you, of all people, would understand, Jocelyn-"

"There's nothing to understand." his wife cut across. "You haven't changed at all. You don't care about me, you just want a tactical advantage. Well, I'm not going to tell you anything, so you might as well leave me alone."

Valentine paused for a moment, seeming to be deep in thought, before he nodded his head in resignation, standing from the bed.

"Very well, then." the man conceded. "I'll leave you in peace."

And so he turned on his heel and walked for the door, leaving a stunned Jocelyn in his wake. The woman had never seen Valentine Morgenstern so submissive; it made her quite uneasy.

Just as he stepped across the threshold into the hallway, Valentine turned to face her once more. Jocelyn swallowed her fear and raised her head up high, hoping that her husband would not notice her shaking hands or the equal tremors of fear in her eyes. 'He's going to torture me.' she realised. 'That's why I was going to take the potion in the first place, so that he could not find the Cup. So that he could not find Clary. It was all for nothing.'

She waited for pain, but it did not come. Instead, Valentine smiled fondly at her, the way he had always used to do, back when they were happy.

"I'll have those shackles removed for you. Whenever you wish to see me, you may come and find me. I won't have gone far."

And with that, he swept out of the room, leaving Jocelyn alone and confused in his wake. This was a man she despised, a man who had tortured innocent creatures and turned his own child, their child, into a monster. So why, then, did his smile make her heart skip a beat, just as it had done when they were young?

A/N: Not great, I know, but still... Please review!