A Leap in Time ~ An Infernal Devices Fic

Nate Goes Overboard

"Let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs."

----------------------------

Tessa picked up the shampoo bottle and dumped way too much onto her hand. She sighed. Reaching up a hand she rubbed it into her thick brown hair, scrubbing at it fiercely. She'd turned on the water much too hot and it was broiling her back, but she was too lost in thought to notice.

It was Saturday morning; four more days of school had passed and she'd felt she'd learned nothing, Her hand ached so badly she thought she'd never sign autographs again and she'd ha to sprint from the paparazzi to her car twice (so much for Aunt Harriet's alleged 'secrecy'). She'd never gotten this much social one on one attention from anyone and it was making her sick; dozens of people had invited her to so many parties she was sure over half of them had to be made up, and she'd been asked out so many times it no longer felt bad to just say a blatant no and walk away.

Aunt Harriet's idea of what was good for her and her own clearly weren't the same. At all.

She was happier though; infinitely. It felt completely foreign to her and yet deep down, like some different, sleeping Tessa inside her, every moment she spent with Charlotte, Jem, or, even. . . she swallowed, Will. It felt like. . . home. In the strangest way possible.

She picked up a razor and looked down at it. It felt strange in her hand but this didn't frighten her like it had before. They were going to New York. She was going home, and she was going to figure out what was wrong with her. And even if she never did, was it screwed up to feel fine being insane as long as other people were insane with you?

Shadowhunters. The word rung in her mind like a bell. Of all the things Magnus had vaguely described to them, this had sounded the most familiar. What they were, she still didn't know. All she knew was. . . she wasn't supposed to be here, she was supposed to be in some other time. It made her guts tense up like she was free falling. How much of her life was actually real? They didn't even belong here, to what she'd always known. She, Jem, Charlotte, and Will.

Will. William Herondale, the boy who'd broken into her final concert and made himself unforgettable. He'd spent the whole discussion at her side, not even touching her, but still she felt her stomach twist. She didn't know how she knew, but there was a voice in the back of her mind that whispered he must have hated her in their other life. He wouldn't speak to her except cordially, and one incident of his hand brushing hers as he held open the hospital door for her remained in her mind. He'd tensed up as if he'd been shot or cursed, not looking at her, not saying a word goodbye before he took off down the hall. If that didn't scream 'I hated you in another life' Tessa didn't really know what did.

Jem was a different story. Staring at her like he knew something, watching her with a total unhidden gaze (she felt embarrassed just thinking about it). He'd spoken to her so gently, like he was patient- It reminded her of the way a teacher would treat a student who was just on the edge of understanding a problem: He was waiting for her to get it. But get what? Get that when they'd sat together, her by his hospital bed and talked she'd kept reaching out her hand to cover his without thinking, then pulling it back with a blush. Get that he'd shyly asked her if she owned any necklaces, then looked embarrassed when she'd looked bewildered and asked what kind. It made absolutely no sense but then, nothing did these days.

Charlotte had asked her out to coffee after they'd left Jem to recover. She'd seemed incredibly nice, and didn't even bat an eye at Tessa's surprise that she was married so young. Tessa had taken an intense liking to her almost immediately.