Hi guys! This is my second story! If you haven't checked my other story out it's about Jace and Clary and called Something to Live For. It's about and abused Clary going to live Magnus and Jenn a foster couple with their children; Alec, Isabelle and Jace. It is however very dark. This story however came to me when I had no ideas. I just started typing and then bam! This was born. Th events are fictional. not based on truth. Enjoy!
**edited version**
I do not own the characters or any quotes, but I do however own the plot! So please do not steal it!
Terrorist Attack Hits U.S.
Bombs were placed strategically around the New York City JFK airport, in several planes, shops, offices and bathrooms. Only two went off and the rest were disabled. Lots of people were killed and many have been injured. An official death toll has not yet been released. Injured people have been rushed to the hospitals a If you are searching for a loved one or family relative please check the lists that will be posted on all major news websites and here Please do not try to contact them by cell phone all cell phones have been shut off as a precaution. Please check back later for a more recent update on the latest tragedy.
Beep. Beep. Beep. The fog slowly seems to drift from her mind but she knows nothing, where is she? What happened? And what the hell is that god awful beeping? Beep. Beep. Beep. God damn it. Who am I? I can't remember anything. Yet she is aware that she is supposed too. As she becomes more aware she begins to realize the aches in her bones, the sharp piercing pain in various places, and worst of all the burning sensation. The burning seems to consume her. Taking control of her body and torturing her to beyond the point of comprehension. Gasping out for air; sobs wracked her body. What have I done to deserve this? What exactly is this? Where am I? She wants to open her eyes but is worried. Will she recognize her surroundings? Will it jog her memory? And if it doesn't? What then? Damn it. What the hell is going on? I need to figure out where I am. I have to open my eyes, or at least try. She tries to lift her eyelids but is met with darkness. Nothing but hazy shapes can be made out. Suddenly a door cracks open and a figure scurries inside.
"Nancy, hit the lights would you darling?" We need to check her vitals and check her bandages."
"Okay, sure thing." A voice floats out. The lights come on and the brightness almost blinds me. I gasp and shut my eyes as quickly as possible.
"Oh my god! Page the doctor! She is awake! Quick!"
She tries to squint to make out who said that. Slowly her eyes begin to adjust and soon she can open her eyes fully. Standing in front of her is an older, kinder looking woman.
"I'm nurse Nancy and have been looking after you for a little awhile. It is great to see you awake. I'm sure you're very confused, but before that is there any unbearable pain? Do you feel like you are going to pass out and can breathe okay?"
The girl laying in the hospital bed looks up and tries to answer, "I-I can breathe but the burning. What is that?" Her voice scratches and is harsh and rough.
"Oh, sweetie. Hush up. It would appear that your vocal cords have not completely healed yet. The burning sensation is your burns. Third degree burns covered almost seventy percent of your body when you were brought in. Minor burns pretty much covered the rest. You have had a few skin grafts done but most of your burns still remain. It has been a few hours since we last changed your bandages and put new ointment which is why it is so bad."
The girl looks at her blankly; the words she is hearing don't seem to make sense. Burns? Healing? Seventy percent?
"Do you know who you are?" Nancy asks the girl hoping for yes.
"No." The girl whispers defeated. "I was hoping you could tell me." Just then a doctor bursts into the room.
"She's awake?" He asks excitedly as his eyes fall onto me. "Does she remember?" Nancy shakes her head and a little bit of excitement deflates from the doctor's eyes.
"It's okay. We will figure it out." He turns to the bed. "How are you doing? I'm sure Nancy started to explain things to you, but you must be hungry?"
The girl's pauses, trying to decide if she is hungry. She shakes her head. But asks for water.
"Of course dear! I will be right back!"
After Nancy leaves the doctor starts to speak again.
"Hi. I am Dr. Martin and have been attending to your case since you came here. Do you want to hear what happened or your injuries first?"
"What happened?" The girl says as quickly as possible in her scratchy voice.
"Okay then. Two bombs went off in the JFK international airport, two weeks ago. One bomb went off in a plane before it took off and one went off in the main office of the airport. You were found near the office with no form of identification on you. Around sixty or so people were killed and there were many people injured. You are one of the last injured persons to regain consciousness. Things have been pretty serious around the world and they have the bombers in custody. It was very serious. All airports around the globe were shut down for a day. All U.S. airports were shut for three days. You are currently in the New York Downtown hospital."
"Do you know who I am? Is there anything being done?" The girl asks hopefully.
"I'm sorry, but no. We do not know who you are. Your picture is all over the news and hopefully someone will recognize it. We have been doing everything we can but so far no one has called or come to visit you. I'm sorry."
Just then, Nancy came back with the water in a white styrofoam cup. She had two.
"Do you want ice or no ice? I wasn't sure so I brought both."
"Ice, please." Nancy handed her the cup and she slurped it down hoping it would soothe her aching throat. Tears started to stream down her face. She was alone. She literally had no one. She lay in hospital bed recovering from almost being burned to a crisp and she had no one. Did no one care enough about me to come see me? Or at least call to tell them who I was? I had to have known someone. Maybe someone who hated me was laughing right now, at the fact that I have no idea who I was. Maybe with all the burns I just wasn't recognizable? Why me? Why me?
She continued to sob, feeling bitter and alone.
"Clary! Clary, dear please stop! It's okay. We will find someone." Nancy tried to comfort her.
"Clary?" the girl asked through her sobs. "Is that my name?"
"Well, when you were asleep we had no idea who you were and it was unlikely that you would remember when you woke up. I was reading a baby name book and it was the last name I read before you woke up and I think it suits you."
"Clary. Clary. Clary." The girl tested it out and then gave a weak smile. "I like it. Could you call me that from now on? Please?"
"Of course"
"Absolutely." Dr. Martin and Nancy answer together.
"We will do everything we can to help you, okay?" Nancy comforts her.
"Thank you. Do you know anything else about me?" Clary asked trying to put all the pieces together mentally.
"Well, we think you are around eighteen or nineteen. We have no idea if you lived in New York or were just passing through. But based on your accent and how you are talking you were definitely native to the United States, probably somewhere in the Northeast part." Dr. Martin answered.
Clary sighed, they really knew next to nothing about who she really was. Then for the first time, she glanced down to look at her self. She was wearing a blue and white hospital gown. Bandages covered her arms, legs and torso. She looked like something out of a horror movie. She didn't know anyone and now no one would ever want to know her, great. She heaved a sigh, yawned and then glanced at the clock. It was a little after four in the morning. Wow.
"I know it seems like you just woke up, but you might want to go back to sleep. Your body still needs lots of time to heal and it might be a good idea to adapt a regular sleep pattern" Dr. Martin says.
Clary resigns and lies back down; wincing as she shifts around to get comfortable. As the meds from the I.V. needle seep into her system she drifts off again into the land of slumber.
"Aunt Izzy, When are Mommy and Daddy coming back? Mommy usually takes me to my appointments."
Isabelle sighed and looked down at her nephew. Max was the son of her brother Jace and his wife Alice. Alice had just passed away in the bombings at the airport. Jace was still on tour with the U.S. Marines and wouldn't be back for another couple of weeks. He also has no way of knowing about Alice yet. At the time of the bombing Max had been staying with Isabelle while Alice was going to the airport to pick up someone for work. She had been by the office that had exploded and was believed to be killed instantly. So until Jace gets back Max was in Isabelle's custody and he needed to be taken to the hospital multiple times a week. Max is five years old and was diagnosed with lymphoma a few months ago. He is undergoing chemotherapy and other treatment for it. Max has stage one so they were all really hopeful that he will be okay.
Jace is going to be a wreck when he gets back. His wife is dead and his only son has cancer. That poor man has already gone through so much. He is coming on home from hell only to find that hell is empty and that all the demons are here.
"Come on, Aunt Izzy! I want to see if the girl is awake!" Isabelle glanced down at the strange little boy. He was such a little ray of sunshine. He can always brighten up someone else's day. After the bombings there was a girl that no one knew who she was. She was burned horribly and had no one to look after her. Max passed her room one day and overheard one of the nurses talking about it. Ever since he has stopped at her room hoping she would wake up so that he could be her friend. It was the cutest thing ever. Isabelle looked at her phone, they really didn't have time but Max would be devastated if he didn't get to stop. They wound their way through the maze of hallways until they came to her room. A nurse was paused outside of the door.
"Oh, Max! Guess what?" The chipper woman asked him.
"What? What? Did she wake up?"
" Yes! She woke up last night!"
"Yay! Is she awake right now? Does she know who she is?"
The nurse shook her head. "She isn't awake and doesn't remember who she is. But last night, together we picked the name Clary. Isn't that a nice name?" Max nodded his head. She continued on, "If you come back after your appointment, she might be awake then okay?" Max jumped up and down and nodded excitedly.
"Okay!" He exclaimed and pulled me along to his appointment. It was easy to tell that Max wanted to back as soon as possible.
"Clary, come on dear. Wake up!" Nancy tried to wake up Clary without disturbing any of her wounds and bandages. "There is someone here to see you!"
Clary's eyes drifted open to find nurse Nancy, the nurse from last night leaning over her. In the doorway was an adorable little boy around the age of four or five. Next to him stood a tall woman with beautiful long dark hair. She clutched the boy's hand as he jumped up and down with what seemed to be excitement.
"Do they know who I am?" Clary asked hopefully, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.
"No, Not quite. But Max here has been checking on you ever since he heard that you didn't have any family." Nancy smiled at the little boy who must be Max. Max bounded over to the side of her bed.
"You are pretty very." He said. "No. Wait. Very pretty. You are look more like my mommy and Aunt Izzy now. Before you looked more like me." He says very sure of himself.
Clary glances around confused at the boy's reference. What did he mean "looked more like me?"
Nancy introduces the other woman as Isabelle. Well, that must be "Aunt Izzy" but then where is his mother?
"Do you want to be my friend? We can play games and have fun together!" Max asked Clary his eyes lit up with hope.
"Sure! I will be your friend! I would love to play games with you." Clary answered.
"Yay! Aunt Izzy? Can I play now?" Isabelle looked guiltily between the two and had to shake her head. Damn it Max! Don't use the puppy eyes on me! She thought to herself.
"No buddy, I'm sorry. You can play with Clary another day okay? But we have to get you home to take a nap and rest like we normally do after appointments remember?"
"But, but! Clary just woke up! Couldn't we stay just for a little?" Max begged pushing his lips out into a pout.
"No, Max. I'm sorry but we have to go now. Okay?"
"Okay." Max said dejectedly.
"We will come back and I promise you can play with her then okay?"
"Okay.: He said a little less sad this time. They left the room and then once again Clary remained alone. What was wrong with that boy? And why was he coming here. Surely such a little boy couldn't be sick? No. Please no. And why was it his aunt taking him where was his mother?
" That was Max and Isabelle." Nancy starts to explain as she changes the bandages. " Max is five years old and has stage one lymphoma. It's a type of cancer common in young children. He has been checking on you pretty much since you came in. He couldn't wait for you to wake up."
"Why is he staying with his aunt? Clary asked hesitantly not wanting to hear more bad news. Well it seems that someone up there is laughing at her, because she got more bad news.
"His mom was killed in the bombing, and his father is overseas somewhere with the marines. They can't get in contact with him so when he comes home in couple of weeks he will find out that his wife is dead and that his son has cancer.
"He doesn't even know his own son has cancer?" Clary asked horrified.
"Unfortunately not, Max was diagnosed a few months ago and Jace was on tour. They haven't been able to get a hold of him. So he is in for one hell of homecoming."
"That's terrible. That's awful. That's, I can't even fully describe it! I couldn't even think of anything worse!"
"You are such a sweetheart. You are confined to bed with horrible burns and yet you don't pity yourself, you feel bad someone else. You are an angel."
"I'm not, really. But could you imagine coming home expecting to have your wife and son happy and healthy waiting for you only to find that your wife has perished and that your son has cancer. That's just absolute tragedy. If that happened to me, it would kill me. I don't even know if I would be able to function." Clary finished dejectedly.
Clary flinched as Nancy continued to change her bandages.
"Does anything hurt? Do you want any pain medication?"
"Actually yes, I just feel sore and my leg is bothering me do you think you could give me something?"
"Of course dear." Nancy scurried out to get it.
"Alec, I'm really worried. How do I tell him? I can't keep lying to him. He think Alice is coming back. She's dead Alec! She's dead! But I can't just tell him. Or what do I tell him? Do I wait for Jace? I just don't know what to do!"
"Is, calm down. Breathe okay? In through your nose and out through your mouth. Calm down. We can get through this."
" I just don't know what to do! I'm barely handling this myself. How could Max a five-year-old boy with cancer handle it. I don't even think that I'm handling this. Who am I kidding? I am not handling this."
"It's okay Is. We can get through this. You endure what is unbearable and bear it. That is all."
"Well that was extremely inspiring, Thanks Alec" Isabelle said sarcastically.
"Anyway, do you remember the girl Max dragged us to see at the hospital every single time we went?"
"Yeah."
"Well she woke up last night and Max got to talk to her today."
"That's great! Do they know who she is?"
"No, she couldn't remember anything about herself, even a name. But they are calling her Clary."
"Clary? Any particular reason why?"
"Not that I know of. I think the nurse got the name out of a baby book."
"Oh, Okay. Well did you talk to her? How is she doing?"
"I don't really know. I stood in the doorway while Max talked to her. It was after Max's chemo so I needed to get him home and in bed for his nap. We didn't stay long."
"How was Max today? Did he throw up? Was he really tired?"
"He was okay. I was worried for awhile because he didn't go to bed right away but I think he was okay. He didn't throw up today."
"Well that's good. At least he didn't throw up."
"Yes. How is Magnus doing? I know he was close friends with Alice."
"He is doing okay, I guess. But you can tell he is down. He hasn't worn any glitter or super bright colors since she died. I think it's been hard on all of us."
"Yeah. This is going to take time.
Thanks for reading! Please review! I love reading any feedback you have to give me! I have some ideas but if there is something you think would fit with the story drop me a review or pm me! Thanks!
PS~ I'm not sure about the title. Some of my other ideas were; Burnt Hope. My Soldier, My Skin, My Son. Burning Love. Let me know what you think!