hiraeth | c.g. |

xiii

"I get why we had to do it," Henry spoke, stopping Clary and Daryl from walking past where he practiced with his staff. "But it doesn't make it okay."

Both Clary and Daryl turned, the latter shaking his head. "I never said it did." Henry took a step forward. "So, what do we do?" Daryl shook his head. "We live with it." Clary stiffened, watching as Henry scoffed, his eyes flicking to Clary. "Yeah. That's what Enid said."

The boy walked forward. "I've seen the scars on both of your backs. I think you two know better than anyone what we just sent her back to." Henry shook his head. "How can you live with that?"

Clary was frozen with Henry's words. It wasn't a secret, Clary's scars. She was proud of them, unafriad to let them show. But Daryl's were hidden. It was a secret the two of them shared, their scars and their stories, spoken in the dead of night.

It was their own little bubble of understanding, popped as Henry spoke of what was hidden by clothing. "Look," Daryl began as he cocked his head. "...the world is just shit sometimes. And you live with it. Sometimes that's all you can do."

And with that, Daryl walked away, a huff of air falling from his lips as frustration took him over. Clary watched, about to follow suite until Henry spoke once more. "What about before? At Alexandria?"

Clary looked back to Henry with furrowed brows. "What?" Clary questioned, the boy continuing. "I know what you did to help when things went bad there. How you became the Angel of Death—" Clary cut him off. "No, you don't," Clary said coldly, watching as Henry faltered. "We saved ours. We did what we had to do today. It's over so live with it."

With one last look to the teenager, Clary turned on her heel and walked away, her hands wound into fists at her side as her past as the Angel of Death was brought to light once more.

"Thinking about it isn't going to change anything, Reese."

Clary looked away from the window of the medical trailer, her eyes landing on Alec who watched her with kind eyes. Clary could only shrug. "I just feel bad for the girl... and for Henry. He really cared about her."

Alec nodded softly, understanding the feelings of his brother all too well. That wanting to protect a girl they cared for who was broken and scarred, but having to give her up. Being unable to hold her because she was gone as soon as she had appeared... it was something the two brothers had spoken about while Alec had laid in the medical trailer.

"You, Daryl and Tara did what you had to do. My brother will come to see that one day."

Clary leaned back in the chair as she looked at Alec, who sat upright upon the bed. Her eyes could only rest on his leg, worry gnawing at her heart seeing the bandage around his thigh.

Alec had told her about how the skins had led him, Alden and Luke out with Yumiko's arrows. How, when they were caught, Alec tried to fight only to be met with a stab to his thigh. Enid told the two of them how lucky he had been that the blade hadn't hit any major arteries or there would've been another funeral. Clary didn't know if she could've handled it.

"I know it's just—" Clary let out a deep breath. "That girl was scared. I know plenty about absent mothers but the abuse she went through? No kid should suffer that." Alec nodded in agreement.

"You showed her she wasn't alone. That's more than nothing," Alec said after a moment. The two sat silently, with Clary's hands busy as she combed through Bear's fur. He resided by Clary's side, watching over both her and Alec with his injury.

After a while, Alec spoke once again. "Thank you... for getting my brother back. And for saving my ass," Alec spoke after a moment, causing Clary to let out a laugh. "I always do, don't I?" Alec rolled his eyes playfully.