The Spark

"Any improvements?"

Clary could hear a sigh, Alec's familiar tone sleepily mumbling a few words that she couldn't really understand.

"It's been two days. This is taking too long." Jace's voice barely ever betrayed his nervousness, and this time it was well hidden, too. The thing that betrayed him was the furious tapping of what Clary assumed was his stele against his hand or arm. It was a familiar sound, and Clary would willingly bet all her money on it.

"Ravnr venm 's rough stuff. Takes while to recovr."

Jace snorted at Alec's broken sentences and mumbled words. "You should sleep, dummy. I'll take watch."

Clary wanted to open her eyes or to move her hands or to make a noise, but at this point there wasn't a muscle in her body that she could get to move. All she could hear were the soft sounds of a somewhat prolonged kiss before her friends spoke again.

"G'night, love you."

"Love you too."

Clary was aware of how her consciousness slipped away from her and how the blackness from her closed eyelids altered into a dark blue, her now opened eyes spotting a fiery bright light explode in the darkness through the strands of her hair. A peaceful silence lingered in the air, any trace of Jace or Alec long gone. The light looked like it was far away, but it was bright enough to allow Clary to see more of her surroundings. While her hair blocked most of her view with the way it floated around her head, she could see a figure right next to her. Clary tried stretching her fingers, brushing them against what felt like human skin. The position that the person next to her was in prevented her from identifying who it was with certainty, even with no hair to block her view, but she did vaguely recognize the necklace that floated close by. She just didn't know from where.

The pain welling up in her chest then quickly reminded her that she needed air, her mind suddenly in a state of panic. When she tried to breathe she could feel her airways block up, lungs desperately trying to cough up the liquid that she had inhaled and creating bubbles from her nose and mouth. Her arms and legs made panicked motions, pushing and kicking down on the water that surrounded her, Clary's body wildly attempting to get itself back to the surface. Clary watched how the light came closer the more she moved but at a certain point her movements became slower, and slower until she couldn't move any longer. The light above her disappeared slowly, the darkness that had already surrounded her growing closer and closer until it had almost consumed her completely, when suddenly her vision was filled with a blinding light.

Clary kept her eyes open, ignoring the tears that were forming in her eyes as she was too scared that the darkness would return if she closed them. Her breathing was quick and harsh, as if she had actually almost drowned, and her hands were holding onto her bedsheets tightly. It took a few moments for her eyes to get used to the sudden flood of light, but when they did the dark blue had gone and been replaced with pastel greens and purples. Clary sat up, feeling her muscles ache slightly and trying to slow her breathing. She welcomed the sight of her room - the sight of all her drawings and pictures on the walls and the sight of Isabelle having fallen asleep in one of the beanbags on the floor. It felt safe. Comforting. She half expected to see at least Jace somewhere too, as she had just heard him and Alec talk, but the blond was nowhere in sight. What was in her sight, however, was the coat rack from the hallway downstairs standing next to her bed, a nearly empty blood bag dangling off it and a tube connecting it to her arm.

"Good morning, sunshine."

Clary looked away from the improvised medical equipment and stared at her doorway, watching Jace and Luke enter her room. Clary absentmindedly noted the cup of coffee that Jace was carrying, which wasn't an unusual sight at all. He ran on caffeine more than he ran on sleep.

Luke sat down next to her, on the edge of Clary's bed, putting a hand on her forehead and then on the side of her neck, presumably to check her temperature, before he put it his hand his lap. "How long have you been up for?"

"I just woke up," Clary answered, the first few words lost in her croaky voice. She tried coughing to get rid of it, but found her throat incredibly dry and her attempts useless. "I don't remember losing consciousness. How long was I out for? Two days, right?"

"This is day four, actually," Jace spoke up, offering her his coffee. She gratefully accepted his cup, sipping the hot liquid carefully. Thankfully they liked their coffee the same way - black with an amount of sugar that would make the tooth fairy faint. Truthfully though, she would probably drink anything at this moment. "What makes you think two?"

"I heard you and Alec talking, and you mentioned it had been two days."

Jace hummed thoughtfully, sitting down on the bed with his back against the footboard, his hands now entertaining themselves with his stele. His fingers twisted it around in all kinds of directions, almost expertly. Clary remembered how often he had dropped it when they were younger and she still believed it was merely a pen.

"How are you doing with the pain?" Luke questioned.

Clary took a swig of the coffee before she replied. While coffee wasn't the best liquid to do away with the thirst, it was so much better than nothing. "Muscle pains, that's all. Like I had a really intense workout, but the blood really helped."

"You wouldn't be here if it didn't," Jace mused, eyes focused on his moving fingers.

"Thanks, sunshine," Clary joked, watching a smile appear on Jace's face. "Where did you get A positive Nephilim blood anyway?"

"O positive Nephilim blood, actually," Jace corrected her, pointing his stele at her. He then proceeded to shrug. "And I may owe the vampires my life, no biggie."

"Wow. First you voluntarily give me your coffee and now I hear about this? What happened to you?"

"Thanks, Fray. You literally just woke up, feel free to safe your strength for something other than your sarcasm."

"Personally, I think it's the angel blood that's finally coming through to his personality," Luke said, directing the words at Clary more than anyone else, who couldn't keep back a smile.

"Seriously? Two against one? Now that's just unfair," Jace tried to add a hurt tone to his voice, but the grin on his face betrayed him. He then proceeded to nod towards the sleeping Lightwood. "Do you think we should wake her up? That position can't be comfortable."

"Izzy will sleep through the apocalypse," Luke said, standing up from his position on the bed. "Good luck waking her up. I have to run, they expect me to be at the office. Can I leave you alone with Jace?"

"Really nice of you, Garroway," the blond complained.

Clary just grinned. "I can handle him."

Luke smiled and kissed her on the top of her head. "I'm glad you're okay."

Clary watched him leave the room as she emptied the cup of coffee and put it on her bedside table, and it wasn't until then that she noticed it was Alec's cup. Specifically the one that Isabelle got him a few years back. It was a white one with 'Fabulously Gay' spelled across it in the colors of the rainbow. It had mainly been a joke, one that she didn't make until Alec felt comfortable with himself and his sexuality, and learned to joke about it himself, too. "Why are you drinking coffee out of Alec's mug?" Clary questioned, looking at Jace with playful disapproval.

"He was being an asshole last night." Clary raised an eyebrow, prompting for Jace to continue his explanation. "His feet were cold as ice and he kept touching my legs with them."

"And that's why you're using his mug?"

"His favorite mug," Jace corrected her, causing Clary to roll her eyes. "But in all seriousness, how are you holding up? And yes I know -" he spoke quickly when she opened her mouth to speak. "Just muscle aches, but that's not what I meant. You looked shaken when we walked into the room."

"Really, Jace, it's nothing," Clary answered. "It was just a nightmare, nothing to worry about."

Jace squinted his blue eyes at her, pursing his lips thoughtfully. He had always been one of the few people in Clary's life that could tell whether she was lying or not, along with Simon and Isabelle. Apparently she would end up biting the inside of her lip after a lie had been told, a very subtle movement that only the three of them ever noticed. Alec and Luke had attempted to try and see it multiple times but always failed, and not even Clary's mother could find a hint to it. That while Clary lied to her mother many times again about not having stolen another cookie from the jar when she was younger (especially Robert Lightwood's peanut butter cookies).

Eventually, Jace sighed, a small smile forming on his lips. "Clary Fray, what did you do to piss off the angels?"

"Couldn't tell you if I wanted to. Why? Are you planning something?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. All I know right now is that you need some more rest, so I'll leave you alone for now." Jace stood up, putting his stele in the back pocket of his jeans. "Anything I can get you, before I go?"

"Sketchbook?"

Jace picked up the one that lay on her desk, knowing to ignore the dozens of other ones that had been placed on a shelf a few centimeters higher up, as they had been filled till the very last page. He handed it to Clary - along with her mechanical pencil - before he picked up Isabelle and lay her down on her own bed in the same room, covering her with a blanket before he left.

Clary looked at the sleeping figure for a little while, wondering how Isabelle could sleep through literally anything. It easily explained why everyone had taken shifts to watch over Clary, because if she would be screaming her lungs out in pain, Isabelle wouldn't hear it. It was truly a miracle on its own, though it did make sharing a room easier, as there wasn't constant worry about waking the other person up.

Clary leafed through her sketchbook to find an empty page, coming across sketches of birds, forests, architecture and people before she finally found one, absentmindedly noting that she needed to buy a new one soon.

She put the point of her pencil down and started creating lines, drawing with no particular image in mind, with the sketchbook in her lap. The activity had always been soothing to her and she had used it as a coping method for many things throughout the entirety of her life. It didn't matter whether they were proper sketches or simplistic doodles that she made while listening in class. If she was able to draw, she would feel better a lot quicker.

Clary very easily lost track of time whenever she drew and the same thing happened now. Hours passed, and when she put the pencil down again, she frowned at the page in confusion, finally looking at the total image. She had drawn a sideway view of a woman - someone she had never seen before in her life. The woman's hair was fancily styled and reminded Clary of a hairstyle someone would wear to prom, but her clothing reminded her more of exercise. She had also drawn a ring in the bottom right corner - it looked like a shadowhunter family ring. Where the Lightwoods had one with the L, the Waylands with the W and the Fairchilds with the F, this one showed a distinct O.

Clary's mindless drawing had often times resulted in crazy things - like reverse mermaids or cats with table legs for paws - but they had always been made up from things she had seen before. And she could almost say, with complete certainty, that this woman was someone she'd never seen before.

She looked up from the drawing when she heard something shuffle on the other side of the room, and found a slightly disoriented Isabelle sitting up in her bed, staring at the beanbag she had been sitting on with confusion. She rubbed a hand in her eyes and blinked a couple of times before she noticed Clary. Isabelle grew the biggest smile on her face as she made her way over to her friend, pushing Clary backwards onto the bed with the hug that she enveloped her in.

For a while no words were spoken, Clary pulling Isabelle as close as she could until the later whispered something. "You're okay. By the Angels, you're okay."

"Thanks to you," Clary whispered back.

They stayed in that position for a little while longer until Isabelle rolled over, now laying at Clary's side. She spotted the sketchbook still in Clary's lap and curiously peeked at the drawing. "Unbelievable!" Isabelle gasped, resting her head on the redhead's shoulder and examining the drawing as she held it. "You picked up a pencil before as much as telling me that you're awake."

"Well," Clary sighed, resting her head on top of Isabelle's. "Stop pricking your finger on a spindle every night and you might be easier to wake up."

"Is this you calling me a sleeping beauty?"

"Currently you are an awakened beauty."

"Very true. Speaking of beauty, who's the lady?" Isabelle gestured towards the drawing.

"I honestly don't know. I have never seen her before."

Isabelle hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe you've seen her walk around but don't remember."

"Honestly, if she had her hair like that, I would have admired her and never forgotten."

"True." Isabelle was going to say something else after a short pause, but was interrupted by a loud grumbling noise that came from Clary's stomach, effectively making both girls laugh. Isabelle sat up straight, grabbing Clary's hands and gently pulling her with her as she got off of the bed. "Come on, it's time for the most elaborate lunch of your life."

Isabelle wasn't joking when she called it as such. What could have been a simple trip to the Italian restaurant down the block, ended up being a trip to the bookstore to pick up Alec from his work (and Clary getting distracted by the art supply section they had), followed by a four hour long seating at a bakery in the town center. While Jace, Alec and Isabelle couldn't really look at food anymore without getting nauseous, Clary still found herself somewhat hungry, which ended in a trip to the pizzaria a few blocks away from the bakery. The afternoon was filled with easy conversation about what Clary had missed in the past few days. As it turned out she had missed an amazing meal that Isabelle had cooked (but there were left-overs in the fridge) and Jace had somehow beaten Alec in an archery contest (Alec complained Jace was distracting him in various ways, and Jace didn't even attempt to deny this). Clary felt warm and happy at the sight of Jace's grin and Alec's smile, she felt safe listening to Isabelle's laugh, but eventually the afternoon came to an end and they returned home, stomachs full and conversation still flowing. Isabelle had her arm linked with Clary's and Jace and Alec walked shoulder to shoulder, walking down the sidewalk as the streetlights jumped on. None of them had actually realized they had had lunch long enough for the sky to turn dark, but there hadn't been a worry on their mind since Clary had woken up, and there was nothing to worry about until they were home and any trace of happiness feel from their faces.

Every coat that was supposed to hang on the wall was thrown across the hallway, every picture smashed to the ground. Books were on the floor across the entire house, forks and knives were stuck in the kitchen wall and everything was a mess. The distinct smell of death lingered in the air and traces of a dark green substance could be found on the floor. Jace and Alec immediately dashed upstairs, two steps at a time, while Clary picked up her phone as it started to ring, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Clary - Clary where are you? Where are the others?" Luke.

"We're all together - we just got home from lunch but the house -"

"Get out of there now."

Clary opened her mouth to reply, eyes confusedly darting around the room, when the sound of breaking glass sounded from upstairs.