Heart by heart. (TMI)

13) Renewed.

The door slammed behind Clary after she threw a few dollars at the taxi driver. He stayed parked as she grabbed her luggage out the trunk and dragged it onto the sidewalk. As soon as the door banged back into place the yellow taxi sped away into the Brooklyn traffic.

She looked up at the towering building and sighed before attempting to climb the stairs. 10 minutes later she was stood outside her door and  pulling the silver metal key out of her zipper pocket. Inside, what Clary had expected to be a complete mess for the price, lay a fairly quaint layout. There was a small kitchenette with a breakfast bar and a living space the moment you open the front door. The walls were painted a stark white and the floor was wooden. 

The corners, however, held a tinge of black from old mould and the furniture was covered in stains which didn't seem to have an obvious source. It was okay, she reminded herself. It could be worse.

She shrugged off the feeling of uncleanliness and set up Valerie's pop up crib.  Heading into the small hallway, she found 4 doors. On the left, a bedroom and master bedroom and on the right, 2 smaller rooms. She had seen this online. This where her children would grow up. The rooms were mainly empty but Valerie only needed a crib and high chair for now. 

With Valerie soundly asleep, Clary rolled up her sleeves and got to work.

With some supplies she had picked up from the store on the way, she spent the night rejuvenating her apartment. The mould from the walls had been removed and now the white walls had material and paintings hung over them. She had stitched new covers for the furniture and now the flat brimmed with more colour. The new rug reflected a similar pattern.

In her bedroom, she had painted the walls light Ivory and had bought some beautiful natural looking bedsheets, even draping another set on the feature wall.
The bathroom and spare room didn't need much doing and the walls all stayed off-white. It was Valerie's room that was the hardest. Clary had headed to the institute, Valerie strapped in a harness on her back, and had to receive the flat pack crib from the nursery. Clary then proceeded the drag the box down the hallways in the dead of night, hoping everybody was asleep.

They weren't.

Only just getting back to her flat, Clary had just sat down at her easel, when there was a knock on the door. She dragged herself up and plodded over to the door. Who would visit at 1.00 AM in the morning? Clary looked up from picking her nails and her lips parted slightly, her eyes widening.
The dark hollows under his eyes and the bloody stumps of his fingernails still hurt her. She wanted to talk to him but knew she shouldn't. The door flew shut with an amazing force, but bounced back into Clary's face. Clary looked down to see Jace's door blocking the path of the door. 

He smiled at her. "Clary." 

She blinked "Jace".