13
Clary's POV

"Clarissa Adele Morgenstern!" I am jolted out of my sleep, and thrown across the room at the sound of my mother's surprised voice radiating through the house, "Jace." I hiss at the sleeping boy in my bed, which causes his eyes to fly open, "hm?" He responds lazily, sitting upright at the sight of my panicked state, and the sound of footsteps radiating through my house.

He rises from my bed, "Is someone here?" He asks me, and as if on cue, my bedroom door swings open, "Clarissa, why is the house full of teenagers?" I hear my brother's voice and I whirl around, "Clarissa, why is there a shirtless boy in your room?" Jonathan's eyes narrow at Jace, who matches his stone-like stare, "We've been helping her, since you and mother of the year decided to ditch Clary after she was taken to the hospital." Jace's tone sends a slight chill down the back of my neck, "You know what?" Jonathan says, taking a moment to look down at his clenched hand. In the blink of an eye, he comes unglued, moving towards Jace at a dangerous speed with a look of pure anger plastered across his face.

"Jonathan!" I yell at my brother as he swings aggressively at the side of an unsuspecting Jace's head. Jace reacts quicker than I expect, as he steps out of the line of fire, and puts up a protective arm in front of his body. Jace's face contorts in anger as he swings back angrily at my brother - I scream for the two of them to stop, and I attempt to wedge my damaged body between the two teenage boys.

I can't manage to pull the two of them apart until Alec comes running into the room, grabbing Jonathan by the shoulders, and bringing him down to the floor with a thump, "What the hell are you doing!" My mom screeches at us as she enters the room. I have now positioned myself in front of Jace, a hand on his chest, keeping him behind me. I'll deal with his asinine behavior later. Alec keeps a hand on Jonathan as he pushes himself into a sitting position, blood drips down my brother's nose.

"Did you throw a party while I was gone?" My mother questions me, bending down in front of my brother, putting hand under his chin, and tilting it upwards to get a better look at it, "Did you hit my son?" She asks Alec; I roll my eyes.
"No, actually, I did. And he deserved it." Jace says from behind me; I slap him hard in the chest.

"I didn't throw a party, my friends were here to help me with my injuries since you decided to flee the scene and didn't even bother to show up at the hospital. If you cared a little bit they wouldn't be here right now. And you," I glare down at my brother, "keep your hands off my friends." I glance to Alec, who sighs, letting go of my brother and rising back to his feet. The commotion seems to have woken up the rest of the house, as they are now standing outside of my bedroom, their heads poking in the door with curiosity, "By the way, they aren't leaving." My voice remains unwavering; somewhere within me I found the strength to stand up to my mom.
My mother seems to take a moment, her eyes bouncing around the room at all of the teenagers, obviously not content with the plan, but seeming too outnumbered to argue. She eventually throws her hands up in defeat, storming out of my bedroom. It seems like she is constantly running away from our problems, rather than giving any sort of effort to resolve our issues.

The moment my mother leaves, you can feel the room get heavy with tension again. It feels like my mother just tossed Jonathan to the wolves. I can feel Jace's heart ramming heavily against my hand, his bare chest rising and falling quickly under my touch, very riled up by my brother. Alec backs away from Jonathan, and he rises to his feet, standing in the middle of the room stiffly, "No more fist fighting while my friends are here, alright? I got enough shit going on." I narrow my eyes at Jonathan, "As long as Jace stays out of your bed and keeps his trap shut that won't be an issue."

Jonathan growls back at me, and I feel Jace stiffen beneath my touch, as if suspecting a fight to break out at any given moment.

"You don't get to make demands, you don't live here." I snapped back at him, "Like I told Mom, they wouldn't be here in the first place if you didn't run off the minute things got tough at the fight and make mom run after you. I have broken ribs by the way, and a concussion, and a dislocated shoulder. The only reason I'm on my feet is because of my friends." I watch as Jonathan's features soften, "I'm sorry Clarissa, I didn't know that Mom would follow me after I left." He tries to apologize, and a scoff leaves my lips, "Yeah right, you know that she would follow you to the ends of the Earth even if I was bleeding and screaming on the floor," my face flushes at the intensity of the raw moment between my brother and I, and at the thoughts that my friends are witnessing all of this, "why did you leave anyways?" I ask, curiosity getting the best of me. I instantly kick myself; he doesn't need to know that I find any sort of interest in anything he does.

"I had to handle something." He averted his eyes from mine, "and then you got hurt and I needed to leave." He can't hold any eye contact with me- I know he's holding something back, "What did you need to handle?" I narrow my eyes at him, he rolls his, "Don't worry about it, I'm done with it anyways." I clench my fist at his cryptic words, not feeling satisfied. I want to know why he took my mom away.

"Alrighty," Magnus says, walking into the middle of the room, his hands up, and a diplomatic smile plastered across his face, "why don't we all take a breather for a moment. It's clearly still early for all of us, there's a lot of unsettled emotions, why don't we all head our separate ways for a little bit and we can chat again after breakfast?" Magnus looks between my brother and I, and eventually, I throw up my hands, letting out a loud sigh, "Fine."

"Fine, but Jace comes downstairs with us." My brother replies, narrowing his eyes at the blonde behind me, "Fuck off Jonathan." Jace says with a large smile on his face. I watch as my brother's shoulders tense again, getting ready to launch at Jace, and Jace's heart speeds up in anticipation, "No more fighting!" I scream at the two of them, "Get out Jon." I say exasperated, feeling sick immediately after the use of my brother's childhood nickname. The sentimental value of my words seems to soften my brother, as he nods quietly, and leaves my room without another word.

"Well, that was way too much drama before 7am. Goodnight y'all." Isabelle says to me, offering me a warm, but groggy smile as she turns her back to us, and walks off down the stairs, "You two going to be alright if we leave?" Alec asks Jace and I and I nod silently, "Alright, we'll be downstairs if you need us. I don't think I'll be going back to sleep anytime soon." Alec takes Magnus's hand, "Speak for yourself, I am exhausted." Magnus winks at us, the two of them leaving my room hand in hand.

After a moment of silence, I remove my hand from Jace's chest, and turn to face him, "It's taking a lot of will power right now for me to not punch you in the face. I'd like to believe I'm above domestic abuse, but I'm feeling pretty violent right now." I tell him, crossing my good arm over my chest and tucking my sling protectively against my chest, "Why?" Jace asks me, confusion and a little bit of anger lacing his tone, "I brought you into this family mess, into my life, as someone for me to confide in, not someone to fight my battles. You can't just punch my brother in the face because he said something you didn't like. That just makes things worse, trust me, with Jonathan's temper, violence just riles him up." I tell him exasperated. I know deep down that he didn't do anything wrong, but I just feel too exposed to have him fight my battles, "Clary, he hit me first." Jace points out, "And you shouldn't have hit him back." I do my best not to raise my voice at him.

"You and I both know that will never happen." I let out a loud, frustrated sigh. There is no true reason for me to be picking a fight right now. If someone ever hit me, I know damn well I would've hit him or her back, "I know." I admit, putting my head in my good hand with a sigh, "He deserved to get hit, I know, I just don't want you getting dragged into my family issues. I don't want any of this to change your opinion about me. You have enough going on as is, you don't need my insane family dragging you down." I turn away from him, "Hey now," he catches my wrist, keeping me from walking away from him, "I want to be a part of this, you hear me?" He tells me, putting his hand on the side of my face, "I like you, and your scary brother and half-ass mom isn't going to change that. And, your brother very clearly deserved to be hit in the face." That breaks a half-laugh out of my mouth, "Plus, my life has been exciting since I met you. Before you, it was me just, you know, going through the motions, it was just sports, my parents, and school. You bring something to my life that I didn't know I was missing." I find it so hard to believe the words he's telling me, but nonetheless, I smile softly at him, "Ok," I respond.

"Ok?" He smiles a bit to match my expression, "Ok." I repeat again, a bit firmer this time so he gets the message.

"Well in that case," he gives me one last look before walking towards my bed, and dropping down face first, "I am going back to bed. I still need about two more hours of beauty sleep, care to join me?" He holds out his arm, inviting me to come lie with him.

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I wake up to Jace planning a soft kiss on the crest of my neck, "I think it's time we go downstairs and handle our issues." Jace tells me, kissing me again. I groan in response, "They're my problems, and please, let me sleep in for once, it's Sunday." I'm dreading going to school now; I know how high schools work, and I'm sure, by now, there will be a hundred different rumors on why my arm is in a sling, and why I'm walking with a limp.

"No, come on Red, time to face your demons." Jace stands up from the bed, helping me up to my feet. I wince a little at the pinching of my ribs, hoping that I was subtle enough so that Jace wouldn't notice, but of course he does.

"Let me see it, I need to make sure you don't have a hematoma." He tells me and I roll my eyes as he sits me back down on the bed that he pulled me up from just seconds ago, "A hemo-what?" I respond and he smirks, "Exactly- now." He touches the hem of my shirt, pulling it upwards, and by response, I slap his hand roughly away from me. He looks at me with shock written on his face, "Sorry, force of habit." I offer him an innocent smile as he tugs my shirt up again, inspecting the gross yellow and black bruising, "Looks gross, but," he touches it gingerly, testing my pain, and when I don't flinch he drops my shirt, "I think you'll live." He winks at me, lifting me back to my feet, and waving for me to follow his shirtless figure out of my room and down the stairs to see everyone else in the living room.

We sat down on the couch silently, joining the rest of the silent group, "Mom left." Jonathan is the first one to speak up as we join the group.

"Good." I cross my good arm defensively, "I think you should leave too." I tell him, my voice firm. I feel Jace reach a protective arm across my shoulders; I can feel tension radiating off him.

"Listen Clarissa, I have given up any hope of you actually enjoying my company, but can we just live civilly together. At the moment, I am here for mom and that is it. I want a relationship with you, but it is very clear you still are on the outs with me." Jonathan tells me and I groan, lying back against the couch, staring at the ceiling.

"My name is Clary," I tell him, my jaw clenched, "you don't live here, you spend half your time holed up with Valentine, and half your time pestering me and inserting yourself in places you don't belong. And guess what Jonathan, you haven't changed at all," my voice has risen to the point where I am yelling now, my eyes staring a hole through the ceiling, "you ditch when things get tough, just like you did when mom and dad started fighting, and just like you did at the fight when Seelie sent me to the hospital."

"You know, uh," Jonathan stands up, brushing the palms of his hands down the front of his pants, "I think I am going to go after Mom and make sure she is alright. I'll see you later." He leaves out the front door quickly after.

"Well, that went well." Isabelle says, clapping her hands together with a smile as I shoot her an incredulous look.

"Extremely." Magnus rolls his eyes, but smiles back at her.