Chapter Text
If you asked Maia what she would be doing on a regular Saturday evening she would have answered one of the following: watching tv with Bat and Laurie, help the pack with the renovations they were doing to the restaurant, maybe go for a rooftop run, things along those lines. She would definitely not have said patching up Jace Herondale from a huge bloody wound that turned his life upside down.
The evening started out normal enough, she was coming back from the monthly Downworld Alliance meeting at the Jade Wolf and she was planning on having an early night since the meeting really took its toll on her. The Shadow World may have been saved from Jonathan but there were still a lot of monsters out there and with the realm of Edom destroyed the warlocks told them that the other hell realms moved closer to their dimension and more demons from those dimensions would soon find their way here. So Maia was focused on that revelation that the shocked she received when she saw Jace was something that stopped her in her tracks.
Maia's never seen so much blood on one person—that was still, you know, alive. But when she saw him with his clothes torn and dried blood down his neck and covering his shirt, she was shocked. Maia didn't even realize that she started to walk towards him.
"Jace, what the hell?" His eyes were so hallowed and dull, not the blue she was used to, there was no spark in it, no mischievous glint it got when he was about to say something that would usually make her roll her eyes—granted ever since Clary has been taken away from the Shadow World that spark was dulled already.
If she were, to be honest, she didn't know where Jace had gone all those months, it's only been 6 months, this was the first time she'd seen him.
"Oh my god," her voice came out as a whisper when she saw the wound, she wasn't exactly a soft person, but her voice came out small like if she spoke any louder she would startle a wounded kid. But he spoke after a minute of her looking at him.
"I didn't know where to go," he winced, he was holding himself up by leaning on the wall—they were not exactly by the restaurant yet so they were hidden from the wolves who were probably wrapping up the days work.
She didn't know what to do, but she got herself together and went up to him and pulled him off the wall he winced but didn't fight her.
"Okay, we need to get you help, I'll call Luke." She pulled out her phone but Jace snatched it away from her.
"Don't call Luke, don't call anyone." He slumped down, he was definitely about to pass out, he was so stubborn he'd rather bleed out than get help.
"Come on, you need to get cleaned up."
She had to do something, normally she wouldn't know if the scratch was affecting him, but Shadowhunters were different if they lose their marks it meant they were going to become wolves. It was dark but she could see that there were no marks visible on him.
Maia took him to Simon's boathouse—well it was her's now, Simon said she could have it after he left. She turned the lights on and brought Jace over to her couch, once he was down she looked for her first aid kit, though if he was becoming a wolf he would be healing now, slowly but healing, she turned and saw him nearly passing out, she cursed under her breath and rushed over to him.
"Jace wake up!" She slapped him which got him to open his eyes. She sat him up and took off his jacket which was soaked in his blood. He groaned loudly, Maia whispered an apology,
"I'm sorry but I need to clean your wound, you're healing so that's good, but I can't see anything with all this blood." she was interrupted by Jace's phone, it was the 4th time she's heard it ring.
"You should answer, they might think you're dead."
"They know I'm alive. Alec— he felt our bond break, but not fade, at least on his body, so he knows I'm alive."
"He's in New York?" She asked, Alec, moved to Idris a few months after Clary, maybe that's where Jace went, she's been to Idris once and it was enough to see who the shadowhunters who lived there loved it so much—Alec had accepted the inquisitor position he was offered a while ago, at least that's what she heard from Simon.
"Alec would know something happened." Maia didn't know how his bond worked with Alec and she didn't ask,
Jace probably had so many questions going around his head her asking her own questions wouldn't help. Since calling anyone was apparently out of the picture, Maia decided she would first clean his wounds.
After she had finally gotten his shirt off—she just cut it with scissors, she saw how big the wound was
"Fuck," It was big, spanning from his left shoulder blade down his chest. Whoever did this wanted to do this, that was a whole other issue they would have to face, it was on purpose. For what? Maia didn't know. But knowing who Jace is it was probably for what happened with the sword or maybe even because of who he is and who his family is, maybe whoever did it didn't care and just wanted to attack a Shadowhunter.
Maia gets to cleaning his chest, he winced a bit but other than that he was perfectly still. She dunks the towel rag into the bucket and wipes the blood off Jace, who just went back to staring at nothing. She liked it that way, it gave her time to think. As she got the blood off, she notices the wound was closing, though she knew it would scar, permanently destroying who he was. She knew it's harder for him, after how he was raised—becoming a Downworlder is not an easy feat, for anyone, but for a Nephilim? She couldn't imagine what it did to them, psychologically— physically. She saw it in Luke when he was around the Shadowhunters. That longing of that life, but it's usually for a minute then he's back—she was happy that Luke got his old life back but she was also upset that he wasn't here to help her anymore. Everything was on her and while she knew Luke would always help her when she needed it she knew it would never be the same. He had a life with Maryse now he had a job with the Institute.
After she was done, to ease the tension that somehow formed she said, "well at least they didn't get your face. Because let's be real, that's all you've got."
She didn't get the reaction she was hoping for, but she did see his face twitch like he was fighting a smile.
She went to her closet and got a shirt from it. She didn't know who it was, the wolves usually just leave clothes around, but it would have to do.
"It's the only Male shirt I have that's clean."
"You can shower if you want, it's through there." Jace nodded and picked up the shirt. She'll look for some pants for him later, but first, she'll make up the couch. She knows he wouldn't be going home soon. He left his phone on the chair, she looked at it and it was Alec calling. She wanted to pick it up to ease his worry, but what was she going to say?
"Sorry Jace can't talk right now, he's recently got scratch and is now not a Shadowhunter."
She sighed and let it go to voicemail, 12 missed calls from Alec it said, and 9 from Isabelle, even two from Simon.
Simon. She could ask him to come and talk to him. He knows what it's like to become a downworlder, plus he was more of a recent turn than her's was, also she didn't know what to say to Jace right now, she got her phone when the shower stopped. She put her phone back into her pocket and finish making the couch. She got a pillow from her bed and a spare blanket from the trunk/coffee table. Jace seemed to be taking his time in the bathroom, she listened and he wasn't saying anything, just breathing heavily. But he wasn't panicking. Because panicking leads to involuntarily changing before the full moon, which was 3 days away, she hopes Luke would be back by then.
She needed to get him some food, he would definitely be hungry, she remembers how she was after she was scratched, she didn't know why maybe it was because of all the adrenaline pumping in her or maybe it was the total shock. But all she knew was she ate everything in her parents' fridge.
She went through the back of the restaurant where she ran into Bat.
"Hey, where have you been? We just finished up painting the walls, I got Laurie to save you a box of pizza, those cabinet meetings never have good food."
"Yeah, sorry I went straight to the boathouse. I had to drop something off."
"Ah, so you're just using us for food?" Bat said smiling,
Maia smiled, "Yeah something like that."
"Well you better hurry, I don't know how long Laurie will be able to resist.
Bat shook his head. "Simon called, Russell picked up he said that Simon wanted to know if we've seen Jace?"
"What?" She acted surprised, but not really, of course, Alec would ask for all the manpower to find Jace.
"Yeah, that's what I heard from Russell."
"Yeah well, Russell isn't so reliable when it comes to the Shadowhunters."
"True, but apparently Simon sounded worried" What Maia loved about Bat is that he doesn't ask too many questions. He trusts her call as alpha she was due to pick a second soon and while the older wolves would have other opinions she would like Bat to be that second but for now, she had to deal with Jace.
Maia said goodbye to Bat and went to the kitchen and grabbed some food and ran back to the boathouse you do not want to leave an emotional and transitioning new wolf alone for too long. Especially if that Wolf is well versed in the knowledge of weapons.