Clary POV

Why is everything so dark? Clary realizes that her eyes are still closed. Unable to lift her heavy eyelids, she succumbs to the darkness.

-o-o-o-o-

"Is she awake yet?" Clary is tugged from her sleep by a familiar voice.

"Shhhh. She's not!"

"Jeez! You'll wake her up!" Jace. "Iz, you can go get some lunch. I'll call you if anything happens."

"Are you-"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

She sighs in resignation. "Okay, but I'll be back." Clary hears shuffling footsteps retreating. Then a set of footsteps and a strange noise coming towards her. She hears, who she assumes is Jace, sitting down.

She feels someone's hand grasping her own."Clary. What happened to you, huh? Izzy said that you blacked out yesterday. Are you okay? Well, obviously not. But you know what I mean. Just, please, don't be too seriously injured. Seriously, who's going to compliment my good looks?" He chuckles. "No, just please wake up soon. I lo-" He stops short when her eyes flutter open. he is immediately greeted by a pure white light. Nearly blinded, she blinks as her eyes adjust to the unnatural brightness. She sees a large, bulky figure. Is that supposed to be Jace? She blinks, her eyes still adjusting.

"Clary! You're awake!"

"Yeah. I don't think I was in a coma or anything. Wait, was I?"

"No, you were just sleeping. Did you hear anything?"

Not wanting to bring it up, Clary lies. "Hear what?"

"Oh, nothing. Just that-that-" Jace looks away. Then looks at her brightly. "That my shin has a massive, beyond massive bruise. Like it's excruciatingly painful right now."

"Is it broken?"

"It's just a contusion." Clary nods . (A/N: a contusion is a much more serious version of a bruise. Athletes get these all the time and can sometimes be immobilized because of the pain.). "But I got crutches because it really hurts that bad."

Clary sits up and feels pain on the back of her head. She slowly leans back down and reaches up to tenderly touch the area, but immediately recoils in pain. "What happened to my head?"

"When you fainted your head hit the edge of the table, then the ground. Do you want some Tylenol? I can call for a nurse."

"Are you sure?"

Jace nods. "Sure." He reaches towards the small panels on the sides of the bed and pushes a button.

Clary smiles and glances at his hands. His knuckles are split. "Hey, never got to ask you. Why did you and Sebastian fight? You could've just ignored him." I'm not worth it. "I'm really not worth the trouble."

"You aren't- what are you talking about, Clary? You're my best friend, of course you're worth it. I have no regrets, if that's what you're thinking."

"Yeah, but what about soccer. And basketball. And football. How long until you're going to be able-?"

Jace smiles warily at her. "Clary, shut up." He begins to lean forward. Wait, what? Is he going to-um-really-uh...

Clary just closes her eyes and stays still. She waits for the feeling of his lips, like in eighth grade, but it never comes. He kisses her forhead instead. Oh. Nothing major. Why do I feel disappointed? He stands, balancing on one foot and gives her the motion to scoot over. She slides over and he sits on the bed, propping his leg up. Smiling, Clary places her head on Jace's shoulder. "I love you, Jace. You're the greatest fr-"

"Shhh. Just leave it at that." What's that supposed to mean? Why is my heart beating really fast? Can he feel my heart? They stay like that until the nurse finally comes in.

-o-

Jace POV

"Clarissa Morgenstern, careful! We don't want you going back to the hospital when you're just leaving!" Jace chuckles to himself as he watches Clary dash towards the exit, with her mother on her heels. "Clarissa, I swear-!"

It's been a week since she fainted. The doctors had to observe overnight and she had several scans made. Thankfully nothing damaging happened.

He jogs to catch up with her. "You're lucky that you have such a thick skull! If it was anyone normal, they would've died or gotten badly injured."

"Yeah, your pretty little head would've gotten bruised."

"Oh. So you admit I'm pretty?" Jace asks, batting his eyelashes.

"You wish Herondale! I'm just saying that your skull is about as strong as a grape. If you hit your head on concrete, squish."

Jace winks. "No, my supernaturally good looks would've saved me."

She places a hand on her chest. "Be still, my heart."

Grinning he swings her onto his back. Surprised, she automatically wraps her arms loosely around his neck . "Jace, are you sure you can carry me? Your shin just finished healing." He carries her across the parking lot.

"Clarissa, you have the same weight as a teddy bear. Did you think you gained, like, fifty pounds in a week?" She hits his back. You shouldn't have done that, Clary.

"Ow, my leg-"

"I hit you in the back, moron. Get it right the first time."

"No, seriously, I see black spots."

"Jace? Jace, are you okay? Let me down. Jace?" He pretends to tip forward, and she wraps her arms tighter around his neck. "I'm sorry, Jace. I-I didn't mean to. Are you okay?"

"Clary, if i faint and fall on the concrete, and my head get's squished like a grape, I just want to let you know something." He begins to tip to one side, then the other. "Clary-"

"Yes, Jace?"

"You... Have... To... Stop... Being so gullible." He stops walking, waiting for a response. "Clary?" He feels her shaking.

She whispers, "Jace, don't ever scare me like that again." She begins to sob. Oh, man.

"Clary, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I-" He feels her go limp. "Clary? Clary! Oh, shit. OH shit. What did I just do?"

"You, " She suddenly says, " just fell for it. And you call me gullible. Gullible, MY ASS!"

He could literally feel her grinning and chuckles to himself. That's my Clary.

"Come on! Pick up the pace, lazy! Just because you were pampered for a week, doesn't mean that you have to move 5 miles per hour!"

Jace shakes his head. " I love you, Clarissa."

Silence. He can feel her heartbeat steadily beating against his back. "Love you, too, Jonathan." She rests her head on his back.

-o-o-o-o-

Clary POV

Clary stares out the window and begins to space out. It's been weeks since she fainted and everything has gone back to normal, except for the Sebastian issue. He just came back to school after being suspended. All Clary's friends formed some sort of wall to protect her from Sebastian and Seelie; every class she had, there was someone there with her. Her teachers seemed to be going a bit easier on her, which Clary (extremely) appreciated. Unfortunately, she had a lot of homework to make up.

"Clary? Hellooo?"

"Huh? Yes, can you please repeat the question." She looks up to find Maia hovering over her desk. Thank God. It's not a teacher.

"What? Class is over. Come on, time for lunch!" She grabs Clary's arm and practically (gently) drags her to the lunchroom. They shove the doors open and search for their group.

"You going blind, Fray? Come over here." Jace shouts across the lunchroom. They roll their eyes. They begin to make their way to the table, but Seabastian stops them. Clary feels herself panic.What will he do to us? But anger, then iciness replaced her nervousness.

"Clary, I want to ta-"

"I have nothing to say to you Sebastian."

"Please, just hear me ou-"

Clary opens her mouth, about to interrupt him, but Jace intervenes. There's a look on his face that Clary hasn't ever seen on his face before. He looks murderous, yet there's smugness and amusement laced into there. "Jace don't do anything stupid."

He doesn't respond. Sebastian looks smug, but once he sees the look on Jace's face his expressions changes. Nervousness replaces his smugness, but he still tries to put up a brave face.

"What do you want Heron-"

He cuts off when Jace pulls back his arm for a blow. The entire cafeteria seems to quiet down. His arm seems to move inhumanly fast, but abruptly stops millimeters from Sebastian's face. Sebastian flinches and tries to move his head back, but ends tipping back too far, making him fall backwards onto the floor. He has a stunned look on his face, as if wondering how he got to the floor.

Maia is the first one to move. "Let's go." She says quietly. She begins to walk with Clary following, but she notices Jace still standing there . Feeling shaken from the look on Jace's face, she gently reaches for Jace's arm and pulls him to their table. The cafeteria goes back to it's usual chaotic noise. Halfway there, Jace seems to snap out of it. Alec, Isabelle, Jordan, and Simon are waiting for them. Clary forces Jace to sit down at the table. They all look at him with a stunned expression. He ignores them and begins to eat his lunch. They all shift their attention to Clary, making gestures for her to say something.

"Um, Jace. Hey, you okay?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine, why?"

Clary gulped. He sounded politely cold. "It's nothing. Thanks, by the way." She quietly says.

She feels his mood shift after hearing her comment. He looks up at her from his lunch and flashes a smile at her. "Finally, what does it take to get appreciated here? I mean I know you guys already appreciate my good looks, but..."

She could literally feel their entire table groan and roll their eyes. Jace gives them an innocent look like, What?

Something comes over her and she suddenly can't resist leaning over and giving him a kiss on the cheek. He looks at Clary, surprised. Suddenly remembering that there were other people there, she blushes. Her friends are stunned into silence (again), so she gives them the What? look.

Isabelle breaks the silence. "You know, you two would make a great couple." A few heads nodded in agreement. Before Jace and Clary could protest, the bell rang, ending lunch.

When they all disband, she sneaks a glance at Jace and sees him grinning and touching the place where she kissed him. She feels giddy as she walks to her class with Simon. What is this I'm feeling?

-o-