Hi! I hope everyone is doing well! This particular short story is based solely on the Shadowhunters Show. I, like many Clace fans, have very mixed feelings about the finale. Even though I was pretty certain that Clary's memories would be erased, watching it was definitely one of the most painful things I have ever watched before. I was extremely disappointed by the lack of a happy ending and a finale that I felt both Clary and Jace didn't deserve. But, the more I have watched it and the more time I've had to process it- I have begin to understand why they did it more and more. Additionally, even though the show came to an end, Clace- more than anyone- really have a new beginning. So, even though we won't be able to watch their journey from here on out, I figured that I can share with ya'll my version of what might have happened.

This specific chapter I do not advance in the storyline, I only give background to the last year and share the feelings I imagined both Clary and Jace might have felt at this point. Also, I apologize. It is not my greatest piece but first chapters are always the hardest.

Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think!

P.S If you have any ideas, be sure to tell me in the reviews!

P.P.S To all my A life we could have had readers, I apologize for not writing in a while, and i plan to publish chapter 6 (?) as soon as I can.

Jace walked quickly down the bustling street, squeezing his way through the bundled groups of people calmly enjoying the cool fall breeze. He was already 45 minutes late to the show and irritation twigged in his gut. Simon was keeping an eye on him. They all were, but most were too timid to speak up.

He knew Simon was right- he couldn't spend the rest of his life hiding in Clary's shadows, watching her from a safe distance, praying for her eyes to open and for her to see beyond the heavy fog that curtained her world. He was putting her in danger, he was putting himself in danger. But he could never let her go. He could never walk beside her apartment without staring up at the window, hoping for a glimpse, praying to see even the outline of the girl he was so madly in love with.

The girl that didn't even know he existed.

He asked himself sometimes, when the glamour rune was ignited, what would happen if she did see him? Would she even recognize him? Would the memories flood into her mind like a dam bursting forth, or would she look at him with no recognition- like a stranger or a blank canvas.

And while occasionally he wished she could see him, it terrified him. The truth was, she wouldn't know him. She wouldn't remember the nights they spent feeding of each others warm embrace, or the gentle kisses they rewarded each with. She wouldn't recall the tragedies and the joy they had once shared, she wouldn't feel that love she had promised could never leave her. She was hardly the same person she had once been, while Jace stood exactly the same- only with a sadder smile and now a faded light in his golden, golden eyes.

OOO

Clary watched as passer-byers glanced at her art appreciatively, nodding approvingly in her direction. It was slightly emptier than it usually was, but she was surprisingly grateful. This night marked a year since she found her self standing in the center of the city, rain dripping down her lashes and soaking her hair to her neck. She had no clue where she was or where she had been.

Her name was Clary Fray.

She loved to paint.

But that was all- no memories of the day before or the days before that. She walked for hours that night, searching for a place she might recognize, a person that she might know; but it was with no avail. There was nobody and nowhere.

She was a stranger in her own land, a stranger in her own mind.

She spent three nights sleeping on the bench in Central Park before stumbling upon the Brooklyn Academy. For the first time in a week, she felt connected to the place; like it had once been a home for her. And luckily for her, her intuition was right, and she found her name scribbled on the roster.

From that day on, she poured her heart and soul into her artwork, drawing that unfinished sentences that barely left her tongue and the faces that faded from her mind as soon as morning would call. Unexplainable memories swirled like marble in her dreams- fragments of a life she might have had; angels and demons and vampires and magic. She wondered if she was losing her mind- or maybe, if she already had. But like all her questions, she could find no answer.

She sighed, rubbing a particularly sensitive spot on her neck and studying the small crowd.

Until she saw him

Only a few steps in front of her stood a man she most definitely knew. Or had known at least at one point or another. He was looking at her with such love and pain, that Clary felt an urge to reach out.

She was pulled to him.

OOO

She was staring directly at him.

Directly.

Jace heart thumped in his chest and he turned to look behind him, expecting to find the subject of her narrowed eyes. But there was no one. No one at all.

Jace could feel his hand trembling in his pockets, he could feel his heart pumping a mile a minute. He needed to leave. He had to. He was entering dangerous territory, and he needed to go before he wouldn't be able to.

But he already wasn't able to. No, the moment her eyes met his, the moment they pierced his skin and nicked his heart, he could hardly lift his legs.

She walked towards him, never breaking eye contact.

Jace took a step back nervously. Why can she see me?

"Sorry I- I didn't mean to spook you ." She said smiling, peering up at him from under her bangs.

"You can see me?" Jace whispered, confusion written on his face, and a spark of hope igniting in his broken eyes.

She laughed "Of course I can see you!" She grinned as if it was the strangest question she's ever heard.

Jace gulped. Maybe it was the strangest question she had ever heard, but little did she know, this was not the first time she heard it. They had been here before. Her, seeing someone she shouldn't be able to see, and him- doing something he probably shouldn't be doing,

You need to leave. Something is wrong.

He shook his head and took a step back, turning towards the door and moving as quickly as possible.

Did that really just happen?

Did he forget to glamour himself?

Did she really see him?

Did... did the angels forgive her?!

OOO

"Don't let him leave" A voice whispered in her ear. She didn't want to. She was drawn to him, look a moth to a flame. She knew it, she knew it like she knew the back of her hand- that once upon a time, he had meant something to her.

She needed him

She moved quickly, with a strength she didn't know she had, tracing the steps he had just momentarily took.

"Hey!" She called out when she found him in the back alley

He didn't answer. He just shook his head as if if she was a voice in his head he was trying to ignore, and quickened his pace.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!"

This time, however, he most definitely heard her.

OOO

He turned around slowly, bracing himself for an explanation for why she could see him and for why she followed him. Perhaps he left something at the gallery, perhaps she thought he was interested in purchasing her artwork.

But he hoped, oh, he hoped in his soul, in his mind, and in the angelic blood that rushed through his veins, blood that had once bonded them together for life.

He hoped she remembered

"Don't I know you... from somewhere?"

Jace's throat constricted. He wanted to tell her. He wanted to cry out to her, to tell her all their history. He wanted to feel her fingers on his skin and tell her how much he loved her. How he spent every spare minute dreaming of the day she would come back to him. Dreaming of the day she would wake up with the memories that were stolen back in their rightful place. Dreaming, praying for the day that she would come back home; to Luke, to Simon, and most of all to Jace.

But he couldn't tell her. She would have to remember on her own.

So with a heavy heart, and stinging eyes he lied.

"No. I don't think so."

OOO

But she did. She knew him. She knew him, and she knew that she knew him.

"No, I do I definitely do- I"

And then it came to her. His name in her mind in golden letters, escaping from under the latched door, slipping off her tongue like she had said it a thousand times

"You're Jace- right?"

OOO

Something broke in Jace. He hadn't heard her whisper his name in too long. He forgot the way her voice sounded, he forgot her little smiles and the way she squinted her eyes to look at him. He could feel the pain of the last 12 months rolling off of his back. He could feel the blockade around his heart crumble to dust like it was never even there. She knew who he was. She may not have known why, but she knew who he was.

And that- that was enough for him.