Sweet Little Serena (Original)

Chapter 10

"What in Edom is happening out here?!" Serena asked as she walked into the training room dressed in sweats and a fitted tank top.

"Finally! Serena, please talk some sense into your idiot husband," Clary asked, annoyed and outraged.

"First of all, the lot of you, calm down," she ordered as she looked from Jace to Clary to Alec. "Now explain to me what happened."

"Clary's necklace, that purple stone, it's a portal shard," Jace explained.

"And Valentine spoke to her through it," Alec finished with a glare at his parabatai.

"Here? In the Institute?!" she asked with wide eyes.

Alec hummed a yes. "He offered an exchange, Jocelyn for the Cup. Clary saw her with him but couldn't identify where they were because she didn't look."

"That's all beside the point. We can use that necklace to get to Valentine," Jace pointed out, the redhead at his side.

"We saved Simon from the vampires that way," Clary added.

"Vampires. Bored, decadent, self-involved vampires. Valentine is a real threat," Alec shot back.

"Alright look!" Serena intervened before this got any worse. "If Valentine really spoke to Clary through that Portal shard, then Alec was right to lock it away. Portals work both ways. If Clary saw Valentine, then he saw her. And I'd rather that necklace be locked away so Valentine can't see anything else, like oh, I don't know, the weapons at our disposal, number of allies we have. God forbid he finds Magnus again and tortures the cure to wake up Jocelyn out of him. So, if you two wanna find Valentine, find another way," she ordered to Clary and her brother, who she was still mad at.

"Also, you should still be in bed," Alec said to his wife, all problems beforehand vanishing from his mind, his wife always the most important one.

Jace was filled with guilt again as he was reminded of what he caused his sister.

"Baby, I promise you, I'm fine. Not sore or weak, I'm fine."

"We'll see about that," Alec said as he scooped her up off the ground, an involuntary laugh tearing itself from her mouth.

He was overbearing at times, but it reminded her that he still cared about her.

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"Maryse, welcome back," Serena smiled as she hugged her mother-in-law before wiping stray droplets of sweat from her forehead.

To prove to Alec that she was ok, they'd been sparring, going slow before the fight grew more and more intense.

"Mother, nice to see you," Alec said as he hugged her, having prepared the Institute for her arrival since Serena brought up the possibility that she might be coming.

"You as well. How are you, Serena? We heard about your incident with the Greater Demon."

She gave the woman a warm smile. "I'm perfectly fine, something of which I have yet to convince your stubborn son," she said with a playful nudge to Alec's shoulder.

"Ok, on to the bigger problem. The Seelies have stopped communicating with the Clave. We assume it's because they're still upset that we asked them to send scouts to look for Valentine, but no one in their realm will talk."

"Izzy and I could speak with them," Serena offered, both of them being friends with several Seelies. Isabelle having a few that were a bit more than friends.

"I'd rather Jace accompany Isabelle," Maryse said, much to their surprise, but Alec and Serena understood the look that their mother had shot them afterwards.

"Alec, Serena, I want you two to stay with the Fairchild girl. I want her under control. She's caused enough trouble already."

"Maybe that's because I didn't know I was a Shadowhunter until a few days ago!" Clary said to Maryse in her defence, the older Shadowhunter merely looking at her in disdain.

"And what an exciting few days it has been. Now you and you, with me, now," she ordered pointing at Jace and Izzy.

"She doesn't want Jace getting distracted by Clary, huh?" Alec asked his wife through the corner of his mouth.

"Yep," she answered still looking in the direction that the three of them had left in and popping the 'p'.

"Well, that was a window into the weird," Clary commented as she moved closer to Alec. "What did you do to piss off your mom?" she asked.

"I'd guess, for a start, all the unsanctioned missions on your behalf, missions that almost got her daughter-in-law killed, didn't go over that big with the Clave," Alec answered before walking off, pulling his wife with him.