Daddy Dearest

Duck You

She lay there, unmoving, and maybe it was creepy for Jace to be staring at her while she was unconscious, but something about her drew him in.

It was odd, he reflected. Her fiery red hair was tangled and knotted, she was covered in cuts and bruises that nobody had bothered to heal yet, her face was covered in mud, and yet to Jace, nobody had ever been as beautiful.

Maybe it was her spirit. Granted, she had sliced his shoulder with a wound that had taken seven iratzes from Alec to heal, and had landed Maryse in the infirmary for a day and a half, but that just showed she was a spitfire.

She wasn't just going to sit around and wait for someone else to solve her problems, she would fix them herself, fighting with everything she had.

For some reason though, she unnerved Maryse, Robert and Hodge. They had all paled when they saw her up close, and muttered something about a 'Jocelyn'.

Sighing, Jace shifted on his chair, and realised that it had been two and a half hours, which meant two things: a) he should go to bed, and b) he still had fourteen hours left before she woke up.

Meaning there was fourteen more hours before he could actually talk to her. Great.

Just as he was turning around to leave the infirmary, Jace heard a low moan, so he turned back to the girl and realised that she had shot into a sitting position and was currently glaring at him.

"Where the hell am I?" Her voice was the kind of voice that projected confidence even while scared, and Jace couldn't help but notice her hand conspicuously move to a mark on her left wrist - presumably a permanent rune.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head, darling. You're in the New York Insti-"

"Crap." The girl clearly wasn't thrilled by this piece of information. "Don't suppose you'd just let me go?"

Jace suddenly became serious. "Not a chance. All Rogues must be handed in to the Clave, and you must have a lot of secrets hidden away in that red head of yours if you can fight like that."

"Could I at least have a stele? I need to contact my father!" The girl sounded desperate.

"No can do, who knows what kind of damage you could wreak!" Did she think Jace was stupid or something?

"No, you don't understand! If I don't contact either him or my brother now, he'll-" She stopped abruptly. "How long have I been out?"

"Three days, why?"

"Three days! Ohnoohnoohnoohno! They're going to freak!" She glanced at Jace, distraught. "Please, just let me contact them. You can use a binding rune on me and use the stele yourself if you want, but if I don't talk to my family, I'm dead."

Jace thought for a minute. The deal seemed alright to him, but...
"Fine. But we're using the binding rune, and you need to tell me your name."

The girl smirked. "Clarissa, and you could have just asked."

"And surname..." Jace prompted.

The girl faltered. "Can I tell you after I talk to my father?"

"I don't see why not. Now, how do you contact him?"

The girl pointed to her left wrist. "Go over this with the stele."

"But it's a permanent rune!"

"Just do it!" Clarissa spat.

With care, Jace traced a temporary binding rune on her arm, then went over her wrist rune.

The girl immediately stiffened. Then relaxed after a few minutes. She glanced at Jace a few times too. Eventually, the rune must have worn off, because Clarissa finally spoke out loud.

"He's coming," she smirked. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

"Who's coming?" Jace asked, worriedly.

"My father. He should be here within ten minutes."

"You promised me a surname!" Jac tried to project confidence.

"Oh! I did, didn't I? My name's Clarissa, Clarissa Morgenstern."

And with that, chaos descended.

Morgenstern leaped at Jace, ripping the stele out of his hand and sending him sprawling to the floor. Apparently the binding rune wore off.

Somehow she managed to be covered in Runes by the time Jace stood up, all perfectly applied! How the duck did her hand move that quickly?

And then she was out of the door and standing next to Valentine Morgenstern, with the boy from Pandemonium hugging her. And Isabelle was unconscious and Alec had a binding rune on his leg, and Robert, Maryse and Max were nowhere to be seen.

And then the happy Morgenstern family stepped back into a portal (?), and they were gone.

Duck.