Trapped in History

16

"I am nervous," Jace admitted, staring at Alec helplessly. Will scoffed from where he stood.

"Well that's a shocker." Jem smacked him upside the head, dark eyes rolling at Will's attitude. Will, in frustration, rolled his eyes. "He is the one who agreed to go in the first place and now he wants to be nervous about it?" The other scoffed, but Jem just shook his head, sighing softly. 

"Ignore him, Jace," Jem said gently, his eyes softening. Jace turned to look at Jem, giving the older Shadowhunter (Sort of older, kind of, technically in years lived they were older, but honestly Jace was really getting somewhat confused with the weird alternate universe, time travel thing that was going on at the moment) a small smile before turning back to Alec, anxiety warring with excitement in his eyes.

"You are doing good." Alec said softly, his eyes soft. He put his hands on Jace's shoulders, squeezing them tightly to calm him. "You will be fine." He said gently. Jace latched onto what Alec was saying, breathing in his confidence.

"I just...haven't been to a party like Magnus' in a while. It...I don't know..."

"Hey," Alec stopped him, thumb caressing over the fabric of his shoulder. "We are going to go to that party, you will repay your debt, and as will I..."

"What if you were right about..." Alec shook his head, glancing over to the group that stood just outside their reach. Jace silenced himself quickly. He did not need their little eavesdroppers trying to gain more information, and he would feel absolutely horrible if the one reason they managed to get the jump on them was because of him. He shook his head slightly, trying to clear his thoughts, wondering on what exactly his next motive of action should be. There was so much that he was currently worried about.

"What if you were right. They do show up." Alec rolled his eyes at the nerves in Jace's voice. 

"Jace, even if that were the case, which is highly unlikely, they would just pass you by." He said with a sympathetic smile on his face. Jace did not look all that convinced, and even further, Aleck knew that he was also a bit upset at that fact too. Ale was not sure that this was a good idea. Honestly, Jace running into the Seelie would spell catastrophe no matter what. He doubted that they would show up, but if they did there was a lot of things that could happen, and Alec was sure that them ignoring Jace was probably the worst of the things that could come from it. 

"Well, I just...I feel sort of bad." Jace guiltily admitted. While he may not be overly honest with his emotions in that he rarely spoke of them, Alec knew that when he did it was something not to be taken lightly. "I did not actually consult with you about this entire thing, and now you have to see him again." Alec gave a slightly more strained look at that.

"It is fine, Jace." Alec said, his voice wavering just slightly. It was true, though. He was going to be perfectly fine. Perhaps it would be a little bit painful, but that was what they needed to do. They could not allow themselves to have a debt to Magnus. Especially a Magnus that they were not familiar. As painful as it was for Alec to admit, but the Magnus that they saw was not the same Magnus that they knew. They had to be more careful. Magnus was not always as kind as the person that they were familiar with. Alec bit his lower lip, nervous but not wanting to make too big of a deal about it.

Would they ever really find out how in the angel they were supposed to get back to their original time? If they even could. They still had yet to figure out if this was a weird parallel time or if they had actually gone into the past. This was getting to be a huge headache, but for now all Alec wanted to worry about was making sure that Jace was okay, and that they managed to repay the debt to Magnus. For now, that would have to be good enough. He could not continue to worry about too many things at once. Jace would feel it and then would proceed to worry about him, which was really the last thing that they needed at the moment.

"What are they doing?" Gabriel asked, eyebrows furrowing confused as he saw the two getting themselves prepared. Gideon rolled his eyes. Will did not bother to speak, huffing slightly, crossing his arms over his chest. He was still salty, screw it. Of course he was, he had warned those no good Lightwoods and did they listen to him? No. He just could not help but be annoyed with them.

"They are going to one of Magnus' parties apparently." Jem said softly, barely audible from the way he spoke under his breath. Gabriel and Gideon both stared at Will and Jem with thinly concealed horror.

"They are doing what?" Gabriel shouted, Gideon jabbed him in the side, shaking his head.

"Hush," He said with a scoff. "We were they when they were invited."

"I did not quite catch that section of the conversation." Gabriel muttered frustrated under his breath.

"Yeah, that much is obvious." Will hissed.

"Guys," Jem intervened, ever the tamer. "Please, can we focus. I do not think it is a wise choice to allow the two to go out alone so soon."

"What do you expect us to do?" Gabriel asked, turning to Jem.

"For once, I loathingly agree with Lightwood here. What exactly do you expect us to do. We just figured that they manage to wander around without letting us know. Who knows what could have happened if they had not been so caught up in each other." Will said, eyes cutting to Jem, irritation suddenly flooding through them.

"No," He said sternly. Jem just raised his eyebrows, staring Will down. The Lightwoods watched in fascination as the parabatai managed to crush Will into agreeing. They had never seen true Parabatai before. Not like Will and Jem. Their samples were quite low though. Parabatai were not incredibly common among the Nephilim. It was a hard process to go to, and not many agreed to it, or were even compatible enough to go through it.

"Fine, fine, whatever. Why Gabriel? If I have to go with a Lightwood can't I get Gideon instead. He is less of a git."

"Yes, it has to be Gabriel, and I know you do not like him but besides you he is the best fighter of our generation. Gideon and I will distract Charlotte and Henry from figuring out where the two are going." Will made a face at that.

"Yeah, you can go have fun with that." He said suddenly relooking this whole disaster of his lot having to watch over the baby shadowhunters.