protean 

adjective | proh - tee -un | of or resembling Proteus in having a varied nature or ability to assume different forms

chapter eight

When Clary saw Simon standing outside of the old building, she quickly went from a walk to a jog, hurrying to reach her best friend. Beckett watched as the two of them embraced each other. He wasn't at all surprised at the look of pure bliss on both of their faces when the two were reunited. It reminded him when he'd walk Clary over to Simon's house after school when they were younger, and how the two were run to each other as if they hadn't seen each other just hours before. 

"Thanks for being here," Clary sighed into Simon's neck as she tightened her arms around him. Beckett felt a little bad as he watched Simon breathe Clary in, knowing the younger boy cared for Clary in a way she couldn't seem to see. 

"You don't need to do this alone," Simon assured her. "That's not who we are." 

By this time, Alec and Beckett had reached the two still-hugging teenagers. Beckett raised his eyebrows, waiting for them to finish their hello's as Alec looked around for something more interesting to look at. Beckett looked at the shadowhunter out of the corner of his eye, semi-amused by how completely distasteful Alec seemed to find Clary and Simon's long embrace. 

Finally Clary pulled away from Simon, which allowed the boy to finally acknowledge Beckett. Simon looked at his old friend with wide eyes, both happy and confused to see Beckett Jackson once again. Beckett was kind of the closest thing he had to a brother. One time, when kids stole Simon's glasses from him in sixth grade, Beckett had come and lifted a boy up in each hand by their shirts, putting the fear of god in them and making it so they never bullied Simon again. It wasn't everyday someone who wasn't Clary defended him like that. 

"Hey, Beck! I was wondering where you've been," Simon offered Beckett a fist, and the two engaged in a quick secret handshake Simon had insisted on teaching Beckett years a go. Beckett had learned fairly quickly it was much easier to give into the young boys pestering then to try to ignore him. Simon pushed his glasses up on his nose, quickly looking over Beckett. "So, you're not, like, a shadowhunter in disguise too, are you?" 

"I'm insulted," Beckett scoffed, partially just to watch in amusement out of the corner of his eyes as Alec huffed and rolled his eyes. "Actually, Simon, I'm a werewolf." 

"A-a werewolf?" Simon squeaked. His mouth gaped as he stared at Beckett, waiting to see extra hair or fangs somewhere. But Beckett still looked like his normal, New York cop self. After a moment to take in the shock of realizing that werewolves also existed, Simon tried to force an encouraging smile on his face. "I mean, that's cool! Could've probably used you when I was in a vampire den, then." 

"Trust me, Simon," Beckett's face was suddenly very sincere. "There was nothing I wanted to do more when I found out you guys had gotten involved with vampires then to rip apart the un-dead. But I was warned not to be too reckless. Even when you want to raise hell, you have to be wary of the wars you wage." 

Simon looked thankful at the sentiment, and Clary smiled as she looked back and forth between the two. If you didn't pay attention to the topic they were discussing, it almost felt like the three of them were back to normal. 

"Careful, you're starting to sound like a shadowhunter," Alec murmured under his breathe. Now it was Beckett's turn to huff and roll his eyes. "Can we get moving now?" 

Clary nodded past the shadowhunter. "My mom's loft is just across the alley." 

"Well, we have to be careful," Alec continued. The younger boy had a squinty-eyed look going on, and Beckett couldn't help but wonder if it was because he didn't get out much during the day or because he just really hated having to look at Simon. "There's eyes all over this place. Everybody in the Shadow-world's looking for you." 

"Well, I guarantee you nobody is going to know this shortcut, I used to take it back in middle school to see Clary," Simon explained, sounding pleased with himself. He began smirking up at Alec. "You might know the Shadow-World, but, trust me, I know Brooklyn." 

With that, Simon moved in the direction of the shortcut he'd mentioned. Gracefully and swift-fully (which were two words Beckett had never used to describe Simon before) the human managed to scale the wall and propel himself over it with ease. His agility was completely out of place as he disappeared over the other side. 

Almost immediately, sirens went off in the back of Beckett's mind. Never in his life had he seen Simon successfully do anything remotely athletic, and yet there Simon was beating both the shaodowhunter and the werewolf to jumping a wall without a second thought. It was out of place, to say the least, but Beckett tried not to worry about it. Simon could simply just still be hyped up on adrenaline from discovering the shadowworld, after all. 

Beckett sighed before giving a half shrug and then going over the wall himself, shortly being followed by Clary and Alec. Simon continued to lead them through the tight passageway, Clary following shortly behind him, the two murmuring inside jokes to each other as they walked, acting almost oblivious to the horrible world they now lived in. Unfortunately, both Beckett and Alec were unable to turn off their awareness of the world, and the two lagged behind ever so slightly, watching careful for any approaching predators. 

 "Such an odd mundane," Alec murmured under his breathe as Simon began climbing a ladder. 

Although Beckett felt as though Alec wasn't particularly trying to start up a conversation, he still responded. "Tip of the iceberg with him, believe me." 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Beckett saw a small movement that he could've sworn was a flicker of a smile dance along Alec's lips at his response. It was a little out of place for them, but Beckett felt himself almost start smiling, too. But then, when Beckett turned his head to see whether his eyes had been tricking him or if he really had managed to make the shadowhunter smile, Alec's expression quickly returned to it's usual serious look. 

If there had been a smile, it was gone now. For some reason Beckett couldn't quite figure out, he really hated the fact that Alec was shielding his ounce of amusement from Beckett. Perhaps it was because Beckett was used to being the resident Grouch, and he didn't like  the new competition he felt for the spot with Alec. 

Clary had begun to follow Simon up the ladder, leaving Alec and Beckett on the ground alone. The two of them stopped and looked at each other, each waiting to see who was going to make the first move towards the ladder. 

After a moment, Alec nodded towards it. "Werewolves first." 

"What a gentleman," Beckett laughed sarcastically. Nonetheless, he hoisted himself up the rickety piece of metal. 

Once they got to the top, Clary and Simon began walking up the metal staircase the ladder had led them too. Beckett knew they were closed to the loft, and his chest ached where he had been stabbed by the seraph blade the last time he'd been here. His hand raised subconsciously to touch the spot. 

"You've gotten a lot better at this," Simon said over his shoulder to Clary, apparently referring to navigating through the shortcut. Beckett didn't even want to ask when and how often they'd used it. 

"I was going to say the same to you," Clary responded to her best friend lightly. 

"Climbing a fire escape excites mundanes. I'll never understand these people," Alec muttered, once again speaking to himself more then anybody else. 

All four of them had gotten to the top now, and Clary hesitated, causing Beckett to stop quickly before running into the back of her. He raised his eyebrows as he noticed the confused look on her face as she looked around, looking as if she was seeing it for the first time.

"Something wrong?" Beckett frowned. 

"I just- I don't remember it like this," Clary responded quietly. Her eyes lingered on the graffiti and chalk drawings of runes. Beckett realized the lock Magnus had put on her mind probably hadn't let her see that before. 

Alec, too, began looking around. "These are runes and wards of protection cast by a warlock." 

"Dot," Beckett elaborated. 

"Some of these have been here for years," Alec stepped towards a wall, examining all of the drawings. Beckett knew for a fact that he was right. 

"Only difference now is that I can actually see them," said Clary. She reached out and gently touched a rune.

Beckett also began looking around bitterly. A lot of good all the protections runes had ended up doing Jocelyn. Of course, he didn't blame Dot or any warlock for that. Valentine was the only one to blame for all the bad that had transpired here. 

Maybe Beckett was a monster in the eyes of most people, but Valentine was the one who was truly monstrous. Beckett knew this much without having even meeting the man. 

Simon turned a corner, his eyes also scanning the walls. "What are all these tags?" 

Beckett raised his eyes at the boy. "You can see them?" 

"Kinda hard to miss," Simon retorted. 

"For a shadowhunter," Alec interjected. He also shot Simon a confused look. "They should be invisible to most mundanes. When did you get the sight?" 

"I dunno," Simon shrugged, letting out a short huff of air that might've been a nervous laugh. He nodded back to the walls. "But whoever drew these should take some lessons from Clary. Their, uh, work is pretty sloppy." 

Clary smiled over at her best friend before looking to where Simon had nodded. Now beaming, she gently touched the wall. Beckett looked at the marking her and Simon were looking at, and realized it was a pink heart with there initials on the inside of it. Beckett chuckled a bit to himself as he looked at the two of them. Through everything, they were still the little kids he'd grown used to watching over.

"This is from when Simon and I were engaged to be married," Clary explained, referring to the heart. 

"You were engaged?" Alec questioned. "Almost certain I don't want to hear this story, but..." 

As Alec trailed off, Simon reminisced on the memory. 

"We were eight years old," Simon said. 

"It was a whole other world ago," Clary murmured. Unfortunately, Beckett knew exactly what she meant. 

Clary and Simon exchanged a long look, both of them happily remembering everything they'd gone through together. After a moment, Clary walked towards Simon, giving his arms a soft squeeze before moving past him. She stopped outside the door of her loft. Finding that the door was locked. 

"There's only one flaw in your plan here, Simon," Clary murmured to her friend. 

Beckett sighed and stepped up. "And this is why you two always need me around." 

Beckett gently moved Clary out of his way before turning to center himself with the door. With one swift and powerful kick, the door exploded open with ease. Beckett turned to usher the others in. 

"You learn that from being a cop or from being a werewolf?" Simon asked, obviously impressed. 

Before Beckett could answer, Alec found himself cutting in. "Cop?" 

"Yeah," Beckett answered, a look of amusement on his face as he pointed to the NYPD Police Department logo on his shirt. "Or did you just think I carried around a gun for fun?" 

"Maybe I thought you needed a gun to make up for where you fighting abilities might be lacking," Alec retorted as Simon and Clary quickly made there way into the house and away from the tension rising between Alec and Beckett. 

"Hang around a little bit longer and you'll see none of my abilities are lacking," Beckett shot back. 

Alec didn't have a response this time. Instead he just stared at Beckett with wide-eyes, unsure how to take the retort. He knew for a fact he had read into it in a way Beckett didn't mean, but after seeing how Beckett and the warlock had interacted he couldn't held himself. It was all rather foreign to him, and so naturally he ducked his head and walked inside before anything else could be said. 

The foursome walked through what used to be the Fray's apartment. Some of the only decent memory's Beckett had were made in the very loft, and seeing it like this tore at his heart. He held his head up and didn't allow himself to dwell too much on it all before continuing to follow Clary deeper into her old home. 

"Holy crap, Clary," Simon announced as they entered her mother's room, which was particularly burnt up. "Who torched your apartment." Then Simon looked over at Beckett. "Yes, I can see this too." 

Clary didn't respond, and instead picked up a picture Jocelyn kept on her nightstand. Beckett recognized it as the picture of the man Jocelyn had told Clary was her father. 

"You okay?" Beckett asked in a low voice, gentely reaching out to touch Clary's arm. 

Clary looked up at the werewolf, an unreadable expression on her face. "There's nothing left of me here." 

"Of course there isn't, you're mother was trying to erase and evidence that you ever existed," Alec replied, apparently having listened in to their conversation. "It's so that you couldn't be tracked. She was trying to protect you." 

"The Shadowhunter's actually right," Beckett told Clary. 

Clary shook her head. "I see how well that worked." 

"You're alive, aren't you?" Alec remarked. 

Behind them, Simon was teetering back and forth on the floorboards. Beckett hardly noticed what he was doing until Simon spoke up. 

"These floorboards," Simon noticed, "They sound different in these two spots." 

Beckett walked over to Simon, putting the pressure of his own foot onto the floorboards. Sure enough, he heard exactly what Simon was talking about. He looked up to the boy and gave him an impressed smile. 

"I hear it, there's definitely something under here," Beckett nodded. "Ever thought about joining the force?" 

Before Simon could answer, Beckett knelt down. Carefully, he felt around the wooden floor before his fingers caught the edge of a floorboard, and carefully he pulled it up, revealed a opening in the floor. 

Simon began to crouch down across from Beckett, but Alec grabbed the mundane's shirt and pulled him back. "Out of the way," Alec ordered as he knelt down in front of Beckett instead. 

Beckett reached down into the hole, his hand moving around for something to grab. Finally, his fingers enclosed themselves around a box of some sort. "There's something down here," He informed the others. 

Beckett pulled it out, not realizing he hadn't hesitated to hand it over to Alec until it was already in Alec's hand. Alec turned the box over, examining it briefly before handing it up to Clary. 

"Is that the box you remember?" Alec asked her. Clary nodded in response. 

Clary's hands traced over the design on the lid. A sad smile graced her lips as she turned the box in her hands. "She used to wait until she thought I was asleep to take it out." 

"Well, let's open it," Simon decided defiantly. 

Clary looked over to her best friend, and then to Beckett, who gave her an encouraging nod. Then, Clary opened the box slowly. Beckett stood up so that he'd be able to look into it. 

Inside the box were a few little trinkets that Beckett didn't recognize. As he liked too keep some things about himself hidden away from everyone, apparently Jocelyn had done the same. After the things he'd seen in life, he couldn't say he quite blamed her. 

"I don't know what any of this is," Clary realized as she looked into the box. 

Suddenly, the noise of something crashing outside caused everyone to quickly look up. Clary closed the box again immediately while Alec and Beckett moved towards the door. The two exchanged a look, and Beckett knew they had to be thinking the same thing. 

"Someone's here," Beckett decided. 

Alec looked back to Clary and Simon. "Get what you need. Do not move until I get back. We've been here too long." 

Alec moved to exit the room, but Beckett caught his arm. 

"Not so fast," Beckett told him. "Might just be some kids messing around an abandoned house. I'm the police officer here. I'll take the lead checking it out, you have my back." 

Alec didn't seem like he was a fan of Beckett telling him what to do, but he didn't argue. Beckett gave him a small nod of gratitude for not being difficult, and then took out his gun. Keeping it low, he moved out of the room with Alec following behind him 

"NYPD," Beckett's voice boomed throughout the house. "Who's there?" 

There was no response. Beckett and Alec moved outside. There was still no sign of anybody, and Beckett felt less and less like it could be kids fooling around. 

The two made there way down the stairs, Beckett with his gun drawn and Alec with his bow and arrow at the ready. Beckett's werewolf eyes scanned the ground, but he saw nothing. There was a familiar scent though, but it was so mixed in with the scents of the alley that Beckett couldn't concentrate on it. 

Beckett jumped down to the ground, and when he did the scent hit him. He knew exactly who it was just as a huge mass tackled him to the ground, knocking his gun out of his hands. Beckett twisted, realizing the wolf was pinning him down, but couldn't reach his weapon. With all his strength, he pushed the other werewolf off of him. The werewolf didn't try attacking again, and before Alec could get into position to shot it, it was running back down the alley. 

Beckett turned his body on the ground to watch the wolf take off only to see Clary and SImon handcuffed and being forced into a car by none other then Alaric, a werewolf he and Luke worked with. Also seeing this, Alec began sprinting down the alley after the wolf. 

Inevitably, an angry growl irrupted from Beckett's lips. Without hesitation, he felt his body begin to bend and break. Within seconds, his teeth were growing and he was on all fours. Now in his wolf form, Beckett ran at top speed after them, running past Alec to follow the car as it took off with Clary and Simon inside of it. 

so i'm really loving writing Beckett and Alec's scenes bc right now there just unhappy and confused beans that deserves each other loves. I think i'm going to go with #Becklec for the ship name btw.... anyways, please don't be afraid to comment your thoughts on this chapter!