A Leap in Time ~ An Infernal Devices Fic

Hospital Coffee

"They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite."

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Gabriel's arm was broken. That much was evident. Will only wished his sister wasn't subjected to the horrible array of swear words thrown out in the midst of towing him to the hospital.

Tessa had been the one to demand they take him. Will had been inclined to let the insufferable Lightwood suffer the consequences of trying to maul him, but pointing this out to Tessa proved to be useless. She had looked at him with such a fire in her eyes, such an intense fuming determination practically radiating from her that he'd simply handed her the car keys and suggested they avoid downtown traffic.

The prostitute had left no trace of her following Will's home after her appearance and cause of his having to break the Lightwood's arm, which was just as well. Cecily had demanded to go with them to the hospital, but to this Will was rock solid. He might not be able to control Theresa Gray, but with his own little sister, he hoped he had the upper hand.

Now he sat, driving directly into downtown, beside Theresa Gray in Gabriel Lightwood's car, the Lightworm in question lying in the back seat and uttering deep moans of agony. Tessa had handed the keys back to him without meeting his eyes, insisting that she couldn't drive backwards. He'd seen that she looked furious as she stared at the ground. He could see her now. Out of the corner of his vision he saw her gnaw on a nail nervously, cheeks slightly flushed. He forced a picture of Tatiana into his brain and forced his focus on the road.

They didn't talk the whole way there- Will didn't know if this made it better or much much worse.

The hospital staff were kind and apparently took even total prats such as Gabriel, not even blinking an eye at Will's interruption of Gabriel's indepth explanation of how the arm in question had gotten broken besides tossing Will a rather suspicious glance. Not that he minded. What he did indeed mind was the fact that he was now sitting with Tessa Gray in the middle of an empty hospital waiting room, unable to think of anything but the fact that her hair was emitting a scent that smelled suspiciously like strawberry shampoo. He wanted- in short- to shoot himself.

This went on for quite a while.

"So," her voice spoke suddenly, interrupting his counting of the amount of blinks the light above them emitted, startling him. "New York."

"What about it?" he replied, voice dry.

"We're going aren't we?" she turned to look at him for the first time as he glanced at her, grey eyes wide and curiously nervous.

He didn't answer for a moment, preferring to remain silent. When it was clear she would wait indefinitely for an answer, he spoke. "I don't know what got it into you or my idiot friend's heads that I would follow a madman to a country I don't know, but it must've been something incredibly convincing that I completely missed."

She cocked a brow in surprise but simply pursed her lips and didn't respond.

She surprised him when she finally spoke by not mentioning the past topic at all.

"You really should apologize to Gabriel you know," she said suddenly, voice chastising.

"He deserved it," he said automatically. "Besides, it wasn't unwarranted. He attacked me first. I believe that's classified as self defense."

She leaned her elbow on the arm rest, chin on her palm and stared him with such a piercing gaze he lost his breath for a moment. "Why don't you speak like everyone else, Will?" she asked quietly.