Author's Note: Welcome to my new story, Great Expectations! This story will focus on Gabriel and Cecily, as well as discuss their marriage and the family they have together. This is largely based on the Family Tree from Clockwork Princess and WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS for the family tree. This will be a multiple chapter story, so be certain to sign up for author alerts.

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. This is a work of fiction based on the characters in Cassandra Clare's Infernal Devices series. No money is being made on this work. This is a work of fiction and should be treated as such. I will accept critiques but not flames. Reviews are most definitely encouraged. Please enjoy!

Great Expectations

Chapter 1: Anna

It was a blue and black predawn sky that Gabriel woke up to, quite suddenly. The bed he was in was unfamiliar, as was the room he was in. This was the Institute, with its grand bedrooms and vaulted ceilings, and not the cozy home he was used to. This bedroom was cold. At home, the bedroom would never get cold, even when the fire was out.

Gabriel yawned and rolled onto his back, pulling the covers up. Before he had awoke for whatever reason, his hand had been resting on his wife's stomach as it had been every single night since the night she had first told him, her voice breathless with fear and excitement, that she was with child.

It had been months before now, about the end of August. Gabriel and Cecily had been in bed, each reading their chosen books (Great Expectations for her, Treasure Island for him.) Cecily had been fidgeting half the night, all through dinner, and had even knocked a plate of biscuits onto the floor at one point. Gabriel had hardly paid it any mind. That was Cecily, a whirling dervish of dark and light, his very own bright star. When they retired to bed, she moved and shifted around, her book propped on a pillow, her body very close to his. Gabriel had reached over and rested a hand on her thigh to calm her, not even looking up from his book.

"I'm pregnant," Cecily had whispered.

Gabriel had looked over at her, his eyes growing wide. He hadn't expected this and yet he had anticipated it for a while. They married in the fall of 1881, just months after Cecily's 18th birthday, and after a brief honeymoon to Ireland, returned to London to settle down at the modest home Gabriel had bought for them in Pimlico. They each wanted to start a family fairly, but being young (she 18, and he, only 21) they also wanted to enjoy being newlyweds, and so they started not trying to conceive a baby, but not prevent a pregnancy either.

The pressure had been on nonetheless. Gideon and Sophie had married and had their first daughter within a year of their wedding, and it was scarcely six months after Barbara's birth before they were expecting again. Nine months later, they had welcomed another girl, Eugenia, who had her mother's curly brown hair and her father's calm, green eyes. When Gabriel saw Gideon's perfect family and the ease in which he had attained that family, his chest filled with dread. Gideon and Sophie hadn't even tried and were blessed with two children of their own. Gabriel and Cecily were married two years and never once had to wonder if Cecily was pregnant. Month after month, she never was.

It had been Will, of all people, who calmed Gabriel during the times he worried that he and Cecily would never have a family of their own. Maybe it had been Will's selfish desire to not see his baby sister pregnant, but time and time again, Will said to Gabriel that a family would come, all in due time. There was no need to worry over what would happen. Nature would take the course it wanted to. Gabriel believed Will, he truly did, but there was also the gnawing self doubt he lived with, that Tatiana and Gideon both had children of their own, but he would be the one to fail.

Because of this, when Cecily told Gabriel she was pregnant, he had thrown Treasure Island aside, held her close, kissed her face, and cried with her in pure, unsurpassed joy.

That had been eight months ago. Since that day Gabriel had waited on Cecily hand and foot. He forbid her from training, and then, when she screamed and made a horrible scene, allowed her to train only under his watchful eye. When she snuck off in the night, unable to sleep, he followed her to the basement of their home, where she cleaned their supply of weapons and gear by the glow of a candle. Cecily was a Shadowhunter, through and through. She wore her Marks with pride, and even though the thought of her fighting demons still terrified Gabriel, she was his wife. He wanted her to be happy.

The long months of the pregnancy had worn on, with Cecily vacillating between training and staying in bed, ill with morning sickness. Gabriel spent the days she was sick at her side, braiding her hair and placing cool towels on her neck, until that difficult time passed. Her stomach doubled in size and then tripled, until Cecily began kicking Gabriel out of the small bed they shared. When that happened, Gabriel would spend the night on the bedroom floor covered up with only a sheet, just in case Cecily needed him. When Cecily was eight months pregnant, Gabriel showed up at her baby shower at the Institute with a bouquet of pink and blue roses. They could have found out if she was carrying a boy or a girl but they didn't, instead deciding to be surprised.

All of that had led up to this week, when Cecily was due to deliver their baby. Gabriel had taken the entire week off from Clave duties to be with her, to do whatever she needed to have done. They finished the baby's room. They folded clothing. They took long walks all over the house, only to rush back to their bedroom and summon the midwife when Cecily felt a pain in her stomach that caused her to squeeze Gabriel's hand and cry out. By the third time it happened, Will was the only one to show up at their home, his face pale and terrified, having ridden pell-mell across town on Bailos just to get to his sister's side. After that, it was decided that Cecily and Gabriel would relocate to the Institute, for the birth of their child, and for the sanity of all involved.

Still, the baby held on, stubborn like a Herondale, one day past Cecily's due date, then two, three, and four days past, until Gabriel decided that Cecily had gotten large for nothing, that the kicks he felt in her stomach were just a figment of his imagination, that all this time, she hadn't been pregnant. When he told Cecily this, she had slapped him across the face. That had been last night.

This morning, Gabriel sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. It was too early to get up but too late to go to back to sleep. He was thinking about going down to the kitchen to prepare a breakfast tray for them to enjoy when Cecily moaned softly and reached for him. Gabriel moved back against her, resting a hand on her stomach, curling his body around hers, leaning close to gently kiss her cheek.

"I'm right here," Gabriel murmured. "Is there anything you need?"

"Gabriel," Cecily mumbled, turning her face to his, her eyes still shut. He felt a tightening in her stomach beneath his hand. Her face twisted in pain and her next breath was a gasp. Gabriel just watched her, fear and shock and excitement filling his tired limbs with energy and life. "I think it's time."

Twelve hours later, Gabriel and Will were in the training room, banished there by Tessa and Sophie after Tessa had come out of the bedroom to find them both pacing down opposites sides of the hallway. She had demanded that they find something to do, and told them that these things take time. Will was the one who drug Gabriel upstairs. Gideon had shown up at the Institute as well and was eating an apple, stretched out on a bench, lazily giving tips to Gabriel and trying to keep him and Will distracted from what was happening downstairs. Gabriel was mindlessly shooting arrows at targets, thinking of names- Benjamin and Abigail and Ambriel and Isaiah. He and Cecily hadn't settled on a name yet, as they were unable to agree on what to call the child that would be a mix of both of them.

"You have nothing to worry about," Gideon said. "Women have babies all the time. The midwife knows that she is doing, Tessa is there…" Gabriel took a breath, notching the arrow and studying the target across the room. Gideon had been repeating this mantra over and over, like it would make some difference. Tessa being at Cecily's side was a comfort to Will, Gabriel could tell. Tessa was a comfort to anyone. Even so… "You have nothing to worry about. Women have babies all the time." Gideon's voice was smug, self assured even. It was almost too much.

Gabriel released the arrow and it went horribly wide, crossing the room and burying itself in the wall a full seven feet from its intended target, causing Gideon to fall silent. Gabriel dropped the bow, an exasperated gasp coming from his mouth as he ran his hands through his hair, and pulled, hard. So this was how it felt to lose one's mind. He looked over at Will, who shared his wide eyed expression. Unspoken words passed between them.

"She is MY SISTER!" Will shouted, storming over to Gideon. "She is not just another woman who is having a baby. She is MY LITTLE SISTER and she is having a baby!" The scene might have been comical had Gabriel not stormed over to Gideon, pulling his fist back, certain he was about to knock his brother into the next week.

"And she is MY WIFE!" Gabriel exclaimed. "She is downstairs, she is probably scared to death… and so am I. My wife is having a baby!"

"And you have nothing to worry about," Gideon said calmly. Gabriel screamed something inhuman and might have caused bodily harm to his brother had Will not wrapped his arms around Gabriel and pulled him away.

They were still like that, Gabriel struggling in Will's arms, Gideon saying soft, soothing words to calm his brother's hysteria, when the training room door creaked open and Tessa walked in, taking in the scene, one hand covering her mouth as she tried not to laugh. Gabriel went slack in Will's arms, feeling all the energy leave him. Will held him up, supporting him as he had for the last three years.

"Gabriel, I am pleased to say you have a beautiful baby girl," Tessa said.

Anna.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading! Please review!