Clary went to Simon's apartment, she needed her best friend. Simon always knew when there was something amiss with Clary. He let her in with a sweep of his arm into the place he shared with Jordon Kyle. Simon and Jordon were in the middle of working out better boundaries when the red head was at the door, she was teary eyed and appeared far more desperate than he ever saw her. Simon thought back to when they got involved in all this nonsense. When was it ever going to get better. They were friends to the bitter end … whatever this was, they would survive it.

Clary immediately broke down and told Simon everything that was going on with her and Jace and that she had come clean on what happened at Lake Lyn. While she had told Luke first, and he advised against her telling anyone, there was some sort of cathartic release from not keeping such a big secret from her family and those she was closest too. Simon and Luke were family, and the Lightwoods were very important to her. She realized they were family too.

They sat at the small kitchenette talking about the Shadowhunters, the wish, the Clave and then it morphed into an in-depth look at the Lightwoods. There was something about that family of shadowhunters that seemed to have an effect, not only with their own but with the downworld as well.

Clary recalled how relieved she felt when telling Alec the truth. She had been comforted by Alec Lightwood, his words surprised her as much as his actions. She had been held only other time by him and it was for her safety. He kept her from ending up in limbo when Valentine took Jace. She cried against him then and she cried against him again with her confession. Alec Lightwood comforted her and she accepted it, she needed him to understand. She didn't have the energy to hold on to him, she leaned against him and waited for him to let go. She would never forget his words, if they didn't have anything else in common the one thing they did have was their love for their significant others and family.

Simon tried to lighten the mood when he mentioned trying to hug Jace. While he would never reveal why he wanted to hug him, Jace did make him a daylighter. The stubborn Shadowhunter acknowledged nothing nor would he admit he felt a connection to him. Simon acknowledged it might be more one-sided on his part but Jace did try to help him and for some reason they did work well together. The daylighter knew when Jace was an ass and when he actually cared about anything, and that anything was Clary. He actually thought maybe Alec's salty charm was preferable to Jace's tough love type approach to things. The three of them laughed, the parabatai were not just oddly connected but far too similar in some aspects.

Clary felt better than she had in a long time, or at least since the day she killed her father and wished for Jace's return. It felt like a long time because the weight of the circumstances were heavy. She reflected a little more on Alec, he was not easy on her. In fact, he was a bit of shit and far more suspicious than expected but she felt that she understood him or at least better now than in the past.

The joking about the Lightwoods eased Clary's mind, this battle was far from over with the Owl but she needed family feeling of belonging. She was really starting to understand Jace and Alec more now than ever before, they had to save Jace.

Simon and Jordon were talking about the training they were doing and amount damaged it caused and the end hug from a job well done. It was more of a slap on the back that caused either one to fly far more harder into inanimate objects then either one intended. All of the sudden Clary laughed at an inappropriate moment near the end of the story, they stopped and stared at her, both with looks of what did they miss with her. Clary shook her head and with a gentle smile told them that she was amazed at how hard it was to get a hug from Alec Lightwood, that in fact you had to be Magnus Bane.

It was a rare thing to get such treatment from him, Jordon scoffed and said he had hugged him at a cabinet meeting with Luke. The Praetor Lupus recounted his story of when he accompanied Luke Garroway, the Alpha of the New York Pack to a cabinet meeting with the Head of the New York Institute. It was explained to the cabinet, that the werewolf group helped new downworlders adjust.

Alec nodded recognizing the importance of the group.

Alec was about to say something when Jordon pulled the shadowhunter into a werewolf hug, a greeting meant to continue the movement of transparency between the downworld and the Clave via the New York Institute. Alec Lightwood was surprised but handled it with grace then quickly moved away from the hug, giving the wolf a few pats on the shoulders for reassurance and then pointed toward the conference room. They nodded at each other in acceptance but Alec's raised brow clearly stated don't do that again.

Simon and Clary tried to stop from laughing and failed miserably. Clary burst out with some uncontrollable laughter, she needed this break. She needed some laughter or something to get her mind off of the horrible things going on in her life. Jordon stole a hug from Alec Lightwood, and that was probably the best ones.

Simon had new respect for his supernatural life coach. Jordon had not experienced the 'charming' Lightwood, the 'first born, heavy is the head that wears the crown' as Izzy told him, but Alec was not only surprising but far more than he seemed.

Turns out, hugging Alec would be more challenging than hugging Jace. Who knew.

They eventually talked about Isabelle Lightwood, she had to be more than just Nephilim, she had to be a sainted version. Not only could she keep her brothers from being more obnoxious than they already were but she had a heart of gold. Her compassion and caring was contagious. Simon was discovering that meeting her was probably one of his best encounters since Clary introduced to the shadow world.