Chapter Text
Backstory- If you have seen Cassie’s TLH board on Pinterest, (if you haven’t, have no fear, you can see it here- http://pinterest.com/cassclare/tlh/ ) it has some pictures captioned with a certain ‘Plague Doctor’. Now, I have been thinking of it rather quite a lot, and I feel like he is going to be the villain of TLH. I can justify my case since Cassie said the villain of TLH is going to be someone who we haven’t met as of yet. I cannot remember any mentions of a certain ‘Plague Doctor’, so I feel like he/she is going to be the villain! Also, in this story, many murders are going on in London by a person who goes by the name of the ‘Plague Doctor’, and the victims show signs which were observed during the Black Death like absolutely black fingers and nails, etc. I mean, you get the idea. So, basically Cordelia and James are looking for stuff related to the Black Death such as maps of places affected by it in London, and then stuff happens. *winks*
***
Cordelia sighed. She wasn’t finding anything worthy in the map trunk in the library of the London Institute. She moved her hand inside the trunk, swishing it through the loads of papers.
Suddenly, she spotted something with ‘Plague’ written on it, and carefully took that paper out.
‘Areas affected in London by the Rat Plague’ it said and was clearly an old map, but she could still read it. Thank the Angel, she thought.
The map was very old, torn and tattered at the corners. It showed all the places in London, and there was a boundary between the East End and the West End. Big red dots were placed on the areas affected by the Black Death, or as the map liked to call it, ‘The Rat Plague.’
She ran a slow hand over the map. “James! I found something! It is a map of the areas affected by the plague in London. You should look at this.”
Cordelia was definitely annoyed when “Hmmm,” was his only reply.
“Are you dumb? You are literally seated ten places away from me. Don’t you want to see the map?”
He smirked. “If you want me to see the map, you can come here closer and make me look at it, by you know, using your,” He coughed sarcastically and then started laughing.
“Arrogant as always, Mr. Herondale, I see. The map is in my hands, so if you do not come here, I will burn it.”
“You don’t have a lighter right now, do you? I feel like it would be rather scandalous if Cordelia Carstairs smoked. You will have to go outside to fetch a lighter, and I am near the door. Sorry if this got your hopes up, Miss Carstairs.” He started smirking again.
Cordelia was basically fuming. Why did he always have to argue so much?
She sighed and took a deep breath.
“I cannot burn this considering my… lack of resources, but I can tear it. And I know that you are just joking, and you do actually care for this, so.”
“No! I take all that back. Wait, I am coming. Do NOT tear it, or you don’t know what the consequences could be.”
“What? Back to the line, Mr. Herondale, are we now?”
He held his face in his hands. “I honestly don’t know how Lucie tolerates you.”
“Very funny.”
James sighed and stood up, taking long strides to finally sit beside Cordelia.
“I thought you weren’t interested in looking at the map?” She held the map above her head, so that it was out of his reach.
“I’m taller than you,” He started, and put his hand forward to take the map, when Cordelia winked at him, pushed the chair she was sitting on aside, and scrambled ahead to walk out of his reach. “Only by two inches.”
He stood up a second after her and grabbed her arm which had the map. She tried to block him but he held her second arm too and twisted them gently in a way that it still hurt a little.
Cordelia glared at him, and that glare was enough for him to release her and step back. In the wave of shock and surprise at what he’d done, he nearly collided with one of the chairs.
“I’m sorry. I… I shouldn’t have touched you like that. Are you hurt?” He said.
“I’m fine, you don’t need to apologize. Anyways, it was my fault. I provoked you. You really needn’t apologize to me.” She replied back.
He ran his hands through his messy hair, making them stick up and curl. He looked adorable.
Cordelia flushed. I really need to stop looking at him like this or he’ll notice for sure, she thought.
“No, don’t you get it? What I did was awfully wrong. It really isn’t your fault. I was being a brat since the start.” James said.
“You need to stop blaming yourself for other people’s faults! It’s the same with what happened with Grace!” She shouted.
Hearing this, shadows came over his eyes and he looked gloomy and dark. Cordelia bit her lip. She knew she shouldn’t have said all this but the guilt was blooming inside of her.
She just couldn’t help herself and said again, “You know, you don’t have to regret your choices so much. What you did with Grace was best for you and everyone around you.”
His eyes darted to the windows of the library. She knew he didn’t really like to make eye contact.
“You think I should stop regretting my choices too much and just let go?”
She nodded savagely. By the Angel, she was glad he wasn’t angry at her. Engrossed in her thoughts, she was surprised when he pulled the sleeve of her arm. The map dropped from her hand, and then suddenly he was kissing her.
She wasn’t sure if this was a dream, but she would gladly remain in here forever if possible. In all of her life, she had obviously imagined this numerous times, which she was too embarrassed to admit to anyone, but she never thought it would ever happen in for real.
His lips moved slowly on hers, and she wasn’t able to describe this new feeling that overcame her. She had a wave of happiness going on inside of her, but she shuddered to think that maybe all this talk of Grace made him think that she was Grace?
If that was indeed true and had happened, she couldn’t come back from it. Ever.
She decided that it was best that she should tell him to stop. How could he love her when he was still not over Grace?
With a feeling that could only be described as a stab to the stomach, she pushed him away.
He looked at her in a strange way. “Wha-,”
He didn’t have time to complete what he was saying as she hastily opened the door and ran to her room. She locked herself and cried as all the memories were washed away from her tears.