Perfect Hunter

Choices we make come back to bite us

"I can't wait then," Calliope smiled, "I'll see you off at the ops center, I have to get ready to retrieve the book of white with Clary and the others."

"I'll see you later, Calliope," Lydia smiled, waving goodbye at Calliope who walked out the door. If only she didn't, then maybe things wouldn't have happened the way it did.

Alec sat in his room, his tux jacket off, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, he stared at his carpet. His mind wandered back to Calliope and the thought of her leaving. Did the things he say not enough? Should he have been clear that he liked her? He wasn't sure. All he knew now was that Calliope was eager to leave New York and he couldn't help but blame himself for it.

"What have you done, Alec?" His mother's voice sounded in his room, he turned to the door to see his parents furious and disappointed. "To us? This family?"

"This isn't about you," he simply answered, turning away from his mother.

"Of course it is," his mother snapped at him, "you are either being selfish or naive. This wedding was your plan from the start. And now you have humiliated us in front of the most respected members of the Clave."

'Of course that's what you're worried about,' he wanted to scoff. He still refused to look his mother in the eyes and kept his mouth shut.

"I don't even recognize you anymore," his mother gritted.

"I'm the same person I have always been. Now I'm just so full of your expectations and your criticism, and I realized that I don't care about what you two think," he finally snapped, glaring at his mother.

"Do not speak to your mother that way," his father warned.

"Why? Because that's not something I should do?" He scoffed. "I have followed you, I worshiped the ground you walked on, I have tried to please the both of you. You treated Jace more as your kid than you ever treated Isabelle and me!" he added, resentment coursing through his veins.

"Is this about Valentine's daughter?" Maryse asked in disbelief.

"Do not mention Calliope, she has nothing to do with all this," Alec threatened.

"It is about her, that brat—"

"Keep her name out of your mouth, mother," Alec growled, catching Maryse off guard. Now was truly a version of Alec she could not recognize. Without another word, she walked out of his room, leaving his father and him.

"Give her time," Robert tells him, watching his wife walk away, her heels now clicking faintly into the halls.

"What about you? Don't you have anything to say?" Alec asked, waiting for his father's woes, hoping to be left alone.

"I don't understand all this and what you're going through, but I do think our world is changing. And so are you," he says, "and I don't think I can stop you from what you want to do."

"I'm still your son, I can still make you proud. But not like this," Alec tells him, this time his tone is more quiet, broken almost. Confused at what he needed to do.

"I better go check on mom," Robert tells him, allowing Alec to himself.

"Luke? Are you going home?" Calliope asked Luke as she almost walked past him on her way to the infirmary. "Who's with mom?" Calliope asked.

"Yeah, Hodge is with her right now," Luke tells her, stopping for a moment to really look at Calliope who seemed restless. "Are you okay, kiddo?" He asked her.

"I'm… I'm going to be okay," she tried to smile, "I just don't know if I'm making the right choice."

"Whatever choice you're going to make, make sure that you're happy and that you won't regret it, okay?" He tells her, "I'll say good night to Clary and be on my way."