Sweet Little Serena (Rewrite)

The Box That Holds No Answers

"What in Edom is happening out here?!" Serena asked as she walked into the training room dressed in sweats and a fitted tank top. She had been doing some stretching in her room after the events of yesterday when she'd heard the commotion, her husband's voice specifically, and followed it to the source.

"Finally! Serena, please talk some sense into your idiot husband," Clary exclaimed, clearly annoyed and outraged by whatever transpired between her, Jace and Alec.

"First of all, the lot of you, calm down," she ordered as she looked from Jace to Clary to Alec. "Now explain to me what happened."

"Clary's necklace, that purple stone, it's a Portal shard," Jace explained.

"And Valentine spoke to her through it," Alec finished with a glare at his parabatai.

"Here? In the Institute?!" she asked with wide eyes.

Alec hummed a yes. "He offered an exchange, Jocelyn, for the Cup. Clary saw her with him but couldn't identify where they were because she didn't even think to look where they were."

"That's all beside the point. We can use that necklace to get to Valentine," Jace pointed out, the redhead at his side.

"We saved Simon from the vampires that way," Clary added.

"Vampires. Bored, decadent, self-involved vampires. Valentine is a real threat," Alec retorted.

"Alright, look!" Serena intervened before this got any worse. "If Valentine really spoke to Clary through that Portal shard, then Alec was right to lock it away. Portals work both ways. If Clary saw Valentine, then he saw her. And I'd rather that necklace be locked away so Valentine can't see anything else, like oh, I don't know, the weapons at our disposal, number of allies we have. Raziel forbid he finds Magnus again and tortures the cure to wake up Jocelyn out of him. So, if you two wanna find Valentine, find another way," she said to Clary and her brother, who she was still mad at.

Jace wasn't too hot right now. Between his sister being pissed off at him for not speaking to her out of guilt and Clary who he refused to talk to about anything other than Shadowhunter business, things were definitely tense.

"Also, you should still be in bed," Alec said to his wife, all problems beforehand vanishing from his mind. His wife was always the most important one.

Jace was filled with guilt again as he was reminded of what he caused his sister.

"Baby, I promise you, I am fine. Not sore or weak, I'm fine."

"We'll see about that," Alec said as he scooped her up off the ground, an involuntary laugh tearing itself from her mouth. He was overbearing at times, but it was just his way of showing that he cared about her...more than anyone.

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"Maryse, welcome back," Serena smiled as she hugged her mother-in-law before wiping stray droplets of sweat from her forehead. To prove to Alec that she was ok, they'd been sparring, going slow before taking up a notch or two and the fight got more intense.

"Mother, nice to see you," Alec said as he hugged her, having prepared the Institute for her arrival since Serena brought up the possibility that she might be coming.

"You as well. How are you, Serena? We heard about your incident with the Greater Demon."

She gave the woman a warm smile. "I'm perfectly fine, something of which I have yet to convince your stubborn son," she answered with a playful nudge to Alec's shoulder.

"Ok, on to the bigger problem," Maryse began. "The Seelies have stopped communicating with the Clave. We assume it's because they're still upset that we asked them to send scouts to look for Valentine, but no one in their realm will talk."