I had the idea of this oneshot in my head for a while, although I hadn't written it down and I didn't have a title for it. But then I had a prompt from Reppinda5o3 for If You Could Only See by Tonic and I thought it kind of worked.
Disclaimer: I do not own the title or the characters.
"She has children," was the first thing that was said as Jace Herondale walked into his mothers office. "To two different fathers."
Jace sighed and pursed and glanced over at Dorothea Rollins, his mothers executive assistant, who was keeping a professional, neutral expression on her face, but as she nodded at Jace and turned to walk toward the door, she gave him a quick sympathetic smile.
Then the door was closed behind her, and Jace was left in the room with Celine Herondale.
Alone.
"Good morning, mother," Jace said curtly and Celine let out an exasperated sound.
"I don't have time for pleasantries," she snapped out. "Not when this is plastered all over the tabloids!"
Jace sighed again as she picked up the magazine that was on her desk and thrust it in his direction.
He looked at it, because he knew that that's what she expected him to do, but there was absolutely nothing he hadn't seen on the cover.
He had seen every single picture that the fucking paparazzi had plastered over websites and in magazines and even in the papers, although the ones that were printed in actual newspapers were heavily blurred and featured the more PG photos that had been taken.
Jace licked his lips and crossed his arms over his chest, glad that he had come in here without his suit jacket because his whole body felt hot, and he would probably be sweating through his button down if he had the jacket on as well.
"Do you have any idea of the press that I'm going to have to deal with? With the work that we're going to do? Lindsay is going to be here twenty-four hours a day for the next week trying to figure out how we spin this!" Celine got up from behind her desk and stalked around to the front so that she was facing off against Jace directly, and even though she was only five foot six against Jace's six foot, Jace always felt intimidated when she was like this. "You know how important this next year is going to be—you know what I'm doing!" She had dropped her voice to a hiss, even though they were alone in the room. "You know how much I need everything to be calm and on the right track."
Because in just a few months time, she was going to resign as Secretary of State to announce her intention to run for president.
President of the United States.
And given the conservative party that she would be representing—the party that she and Jace had clashed over many times, given it's policies and the statements that it's very vocal and higher up members made—she needed to have a clean slate.
She needed to be only spoken about by the press for the good.
She didn't need to be spoken about by the press and by the public and by the potential voters as the candidate whose son had naked photos while caught in the act leaked of him.
And then there was all the back story of the girl in the photo with him.
Jace felt anger flare up inside him, because even though they had known that they were going to have to face this at some point, it was meant to be on their terms.
Which is why they had been so careful.
But Jace actually remembered this night, the one that they had been photographed on.
He remembered it vividly, because it was only last week, and they had both been a bit drunk and they had been a bit careless and obviously they hadn't closed the curtains in his apartment and they hadn't been thinking about the fact that they shouldn't have sex at the end of the bed, where part of it was visible through the window.
Jace knew that normal people didn't have to worry about things like that.
But his mother had been a public figure almost his whole life and he should know better.
It wasn't Celine that Jace felt remorse for, though.
It was Clarissa Fray.
Because she hadn't signed up for a life like this.
Neither had he, but he was used to it, he had been born into it.
And while he had told Clary what would likely happen if and when they took their relationship public, no one could be properly prepared for it until they were thrown into it.
Now, she definitely was.
And Jace felt so angry and guilty, that it was only because his mother security had drive to his apartment and advised that they would physically put him in the car and take him to his mother if he resisted that he was here with her, rather than driving to Clary's.
"You're not even listening to what I'm saying!" Celine snapped and snapped her fingers in Jace's face, grabbing his attention, and he blinked.
She was right.
He really wasn't listening to her.
"I said," Celine took in a sharp breath. "How do you expect me to run on a platform of family values when you're—you're screwing some tramp who had her first child at seventeen and her second at twenty, and they're to two different men!"
Jace's anger flared again, directed solely at his mother.
"And her parents!" Celine continued with her lips curled, grabbing at another one of the glossy magazines on her desk. "That is obviously not her father," she jabbed her finger at the grainy picture of Luke Garroway, next to Jocelyn Fray, that the tabloids had dug up somewhere. "And her mother is an artist, which is no respectable way to earn a living. It doesn't even say what he does, does he expect her to make the living in the family?"
"Luke is a cop—a detective," Jace's words were clipped. "And Jocelyn is an incredible artist and an amazing woman, who volunteers at womens shelters and with the LGBTQ youth, which is why the flexibility of hours with being self employed works so well for her."
"The LGBTQ youth?" Celine's upper lip curled, and Jace gritted his teeth together, barely able to stop himself from lashing out.
That was one of the big differences that they had with her party.
Jace's best friend growing up—his best friend now—was gay, and Celine acted as though there was something wrong with him.
Alexander Lightwood was one of the most special, most kind hearted, most amazing people on this planet, and his sexuality didn't detract from that—it added to it, it was part of who he was.
"Yes, mother," Jace stated. "The LGBTQ youth."
"Right," Celine let out a breath through her nose. "Then of course her daughter has ended up pregnant twice by the age of twenty."
Sometimes, Jace had no idea how his mother had gotten to the position she was today and still be so arrogant and ignorant.
"Such a shame, because a mother should push for her child to have a better life," Celine hummed out, as though she actually had any care for Clary.
Really, she was just looking at putting down the 'new girl' in Jace's life, finding things wrong with her, because no one that Jace was happy with would ever measure up to what she wanted for him.
Especially someone with two children.
An unmarried someone with two children.
"That doesn't even make sense!" Jace snapped out, his words sharp and surprising his mother. "There is not a correlation between promiscuity and the LGTBQ community, which is what you are trying to imply here, and there is no way in hell that you're saying that Clary doesn't have a good life."
Celine's eyebrows shot up, not used to Jace snapping back at her, sticking up for himself.
Sure, there had been some give and take, Jace had a lot more liberal views and especially when it came to being to vocal about LGBTQ and womens rights, but generally Jace was happy to fly under the radar and not make too much of a scene because he knew how important his mothers political career was.
But he had never been...Borderline rude.
The thing was; he had never been in love before.
And he had never been loved like Clary loved him.
"I get what you mean by saying that maybe she could have had a better life. I get that on paper that maybe she could have had a better life. But the life that she has with Isaac and Theo—the life that she has built with and for those boys—is an insanely amazing thing and she is someone to be admired," Jace actually felt his voice shake a little as he thought about everything that he had been exposed to over the past year.
Year.
It had been a year that he had been with Clary, now.
Magnus Bane, Alec's boyfriend, had been the one who had introduced Jace to Clary at one of his many parties.
Jace always had to be quite careful at Magnus' parties because they could get wild and there was often a lot of drugs and drinking and craziness that tended to happen, which wasn't uncommon for a big time club owner.
Clary hadn't even really been at the party, she did the books for Magnus' club, and she often worked nights so that she could spend the days with her boys, and so she had been by to drop off some paper work.
She had had no make up on, her hair was a complete mess piled on top of her head, and she was wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a paint stained shirt.
Jace had practically tripped over his own feet in his rush to get to Magnus to be introduced to her.
That had been nearly a year and a half ago, because it had taken Jace several months to get to the point where he had convinced her to go out with him, because her time was so limited with two sons.
There was the eldest, Isaac Fray, who was nine, and the youngest, Theo Lewis, who was six.
Both boys were beautiful, and incredible, and funny, and sweet, and Jace considered himself so lucky to be in their lives.
He hadn't met Isaac's father, Sebastian Verlac, who had been an older guy at Clary's school and had never really had much to do with Isaac or Clary, only the occasional child support cheque, but he had met Simon Lewis, who was one of Clary's good friends and Theo's father, and Jace had sort of expected him to be a bit of a threat since he was so present in their lives, but he wasn't one.
Simon and Clary had slept together on a drunken one night stand, two good friends at Luke and Jocelyn's wedding, high on the romance, and Clary had been on antibiotics which had screwed up her contraceptive pill.
Simon was incredible to both boys, but he and Jace had easily navigated a way for both of them to be in the boys lives and Clary's life.
And Clary.
Clary.
She was this incredible strong, resilient woman who cared so much about the people that she allowed into her life.
And when she had decided to finally give Jace a chance—by some miracle—and let him into her heart and home and the lives of the most important people in her world, Jace had never felt like he had been a part of something so special.
There was no unnecessary drama or hidden agendas when it came to Clary.
What you saw was what you got.
The red head didn't have time for that and she didn't have the patience for it, and Jace finally felt as though he had found someone that he could build a life with.
He knew he had found someone that he could build a life with.
And instead of being there with her, reassuring her that they would be okay, telling her over and over again that he was sorry that those pictures had been taken and then sold like the moment they had shared was nothing but some cheap sex, he was here with his mother.
"I have to go," Jace stated firmly, already beginning to back toward the door.
"Wh—" Celine's head jerked at the statement. "No! You cannot go out in public until we figure out how to spin this! You cannot leave!"
Jace paused at the door and gave his mother a sharp look.
"There is no spinning this," he said. "I love her, she loves me. And when she tells me that she loves me, there aren't any of these strings attached, or conditions," he waved a finger around the office that they were in. "She means it, and so do I, and I owe her a massive fucking apology for dragging her into this crazy world that I don't want any part of. And instead of apologizing, and helping her figure things out, and reassuring her that her children aren't going to understand what's going on and that they aren't going to hold it against her when they get older, I'm fucking here, with you, who is acting like this whole thing is a simple PR nightmare rather than this huge hit to her entire life. So yes—I can leave."
And with that, he threw open the office door and stalked out.
Jace was glad that he had brought his own vehicle here, despite the fact that his mothers security hadn't wanted him to at all, it was easier than them having to pick him up and throw him in the car—even though they had been prepared to do that.
He heard a couple of people call out to him—not his mother, she wouldn't want to muddy her dignity by chasing after him and shouting out for attention, but a couple of her employees and her secretary did on her behalf.
It took Jace almost twenty-five minutes to get to Clary's place, and he was so glad that the house she was in was owned by her brother and under his name, so the press weren't there.
Jace didn't care that he parked up illegally on the street outside her house, just needing to see Clary and know that she was okay, and he ran up the steps and knocked loudly on the door, not wanting to let himself in with his key in case Clary didn't want to see him.
He felt as though an hour had passed before the door finally opened up, and his heart was thudding so hard in his chest that he was barely able to breathe.
Clary's face was pale and her eyes were red rimmed, as though she had been crying.
Jace felt that anger flare up again, wanting to protect Clary from everything that was going to happen, from everything that had already happened.
"I'm so sorry," Jace whispered.
"I know," Clary let out a shaky breath, and then managed a wobbly smile. "It's...It's not okay, but..." she swallowed hard, obviously searching for the right words. "You want to come in for breakfast? We're watching Power Rangers and eating Fruit Loops?"
It was as suggestion that eighteen months ago really wouldn't have appealed to Jace at all.
Now, he was just so grateful that he was still being extended an invite.
"Yes," he breathed out and Clary's smile widened a little.
He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her tightly, glad that she was still giving him a chance—giving their love a chance.
Let me know what you think x