An update for my favourite story!

Clary was tired when she dragged herself out of bed at five thirty in the morning. They had all gotten home yesterday afternoon, but they had gone back to the Herondale house out on the edge of the town. Most of the pack lived out there, actually—all of them did, except Clary needed her own space. She still had a bedroom that was pretty much her's in the sprawling home, and she spent more time there than in her own home, but it was still nice to have her own space. Clary went out for a run, the sun coming up and lighting her way as it got closer to half past six, and when she got home, she stepped into her shower. Her shoulder was still aching, both Jace and Simon had not so subtly been touching her throughout the day yesterday, taking away her pain.

Technically she didn't need to be at work until around eight, but she had already needed to take a couple of days off, and she felt bad for leaving Helen Penhallow-Blackthorn in the lurch the past few days, even though there were other people to help her. Helen ran the best—and almost the only—daycare in the town, and so she had three other workers helping her out, but Clary was the one that helped her out the most, and that she was closest to.

The fact Helen was pregnant as well made her feel guiltier for leaving.

So Clary was out of her house, drinking a smoothie and tucking her singlet into the skirt that she was wearing, by seven. She got to the day care ten minutes later, pulling into the spot reserved for her, next to Helen's. She was the first one there, which worked for her. Gave her time to get everything ready before parents started dropping their kids off, get started on the accounting books and the wages that she should have had finished by yesterday. The place was tidy, and she couldn't help but grin as she looked around. It would only take minutes for this place to look like a tornado had swept through it once the kids started to arrive.

Twenty minutes after Clary had gotten in, Helen came in the front door, calling out her name. Clary grinned as she got up and walked out of the office, down the hallway and back into the main area.

"Hey, sweetie!" Helen gave her a wide smile, her blonde ringlets bouncing around her face. Her cheeks were a little rounder than they had been six months ago, and her stomach was pressing against the loose yellow dress that she was wearing. "I'm glad you're back!" Clary smiled at her, and then made a face as Helen gave her a once over. "You've got a couple of scratches, and that's not pretty looking," Helen pointed at Clary's shoulder which was on display because the red head was only wearing a singlet.

"Yeah, I fell wrong," Clary made a face. "It's fine." Helen pursed her lips for a moment before fluttering her eyelashes and pouting slightly, her intention clear. "No, it's fine, El. I'll heal like a normal human being." Helen continued to pout, making her blue-green eyes big and begging. "Oh for fucks sakes," Clary rolled her eyes. "You know, when you have a child who does this puppy dog routine on you, you're going to know all about this emotional blackmail that you force on me." Helen grinned and reached out. Her cool fingers touched against Clary's skin. There was a warm feeling, and when Clary looked down at her shoulder, she saw the bruise was gone. Helen dropped her arm and Clary moved her shoulder around, the pain gone as well. "Bloody faeries," Clary mumbled.

"You love me, really," Helen smiled. She opened her mouth to say something else, but there was noise outside, and a moment later, their first parent with her two children arrived.

Clary loved her job.

Yes, it wasn't where she thought that she would be, but a whole lot of things had changed in the past few years which had completely altered her reality. Clary had planned on going to University to get a Bachelor of Arts and then do an extra year on top of that so that she could get her teaching licence, and had been planning to get a job at a high school in the art department. She loved art, and she was good at painting, and the art room at her own high school had been her escape many times. The last couple of years of school were more about the kids who wanted to be there, the ones who weren't interested dropping out earlier, and those were the ones she wanted to help.

After Simon was bitten, things had gotten a little hazy for a while. She had considered going through with her original plan, to go to University. She had actually left and lasted almost two months in the city before she broke down, knowing that she couldn't leave behind her best friend, and the strange life he was now a part of. So she had packed up, filled in all the paper work to drop out of her course, and gone back to Shadow Hills. She was still liable for a portion of the loan that she had taken out since she had attended classes for a few weeks, but a month after she was back home, she got a letter in the post to say that it had been paid off.

Clary had been confused about it for almost a year, asking her mum if she had done it, or if she thought that her absentee father had done it out of some misguided attempt to bond. She even called the University, but they had just said that a transfer went through, they didn't ask for names or trace bank accounts. So she had chalked it up to some good Samaritan, until Max had let it slip that Jace had had his beta find out how much was owing. When she had confronted Jace about it, asking why he paid her loan, and he had just shrugged, not giving her anymore information. She had pressed it a few more times, but he had never given her a straight answer. She had dropped it after a while, because when Jace didn't want to talk about something, he wasn't going to discuss it when he was being pressed.

It had been a few months later, when her and Jace were sitting on the balcony outside his house, the beta's all disappeared into the woods in their wolfed out forms, that he admitted it was him. She already knew it was, but she didn't say that, just stayed quiet and let him continue. He said that he felt responsible for her coming back, for making her give up her future, and it was the least he could do. Clary told him it was her choice, but she knew he didn't believe that. The Alpha always took things on his shoulders, as though everything was his responsibility. With his past, it was understandable why he felt the need to punish himself, but the only person who really blamed him for things that happened was himself.

"You're back!" Came a squeal from Lucy Anderson, one of the girls who only came by in the mornings and the afternoon given she was five and going to school.

"I am," Clary grinned as the little blonde barreled into her legs, and then gave her a toothy smile.

"Can you paint with me? Please?" She cast a look over her shoulder before lowering her voice. "Helen painted with me the other day, but she's not as good as you." Clary laughed and nodded.

"Sure thing, sweetie. But after school, okay? We don't want you getting paint all over your clothes beforehand," Clary reasoned. "Why don't you put your bag and go outside?" Lucy nodded and trotted off. As the morning went on, more kids arrived, along with the other workers. There was only one other worker there who knew about the supernatural in town and why Clary had been out of town, and Lydia Branwell came over and asked if everything had gone okay.

Lydia and her grandmother, Charlotte Branwell, were like Clary. They were human, but they had gotten caught in the middle of the supernatural mess. Hardly any humans actually knew of the supernatural, except for people who were directly involved in it, or several supernatural hunters, like the ones they had chased out of Will's town. Lydia's fiancee had been killed by what the police had explained away as a 'freak animal attack', but had actually been a wendigo. Jace and his pack had found the creature who had attacked her fiancee and had killed it. Usually they didn't tell humans what they had found, except Lydia had been kicking up such a fuss, saying that the police were wrong and she was going to go to the wider media if no one looked further into it, and that would just draw more attention to the matter. So Jace had made a decision to tell her, and they hadn't regretted it.

This had all been before Clary and Simon had known them. By the time Clary and Simon had moved into the township, Lydia seemed to have a thing for Alec, which was a bit awkward, since the minute Clary met Alec, she knew that he was gay. Alec didn't come out until about a year and a half ago, letting Lydia down softly and starting up a relationship with Magnus.

"Yeah, it was just a couple of hunters," Clary murmured, making sure to keep her voice quiet. "I think that Jace will probably head back to talk to Will at some point, because there was an omega who killed someone and then disappeared."

"I'm glad they don't live close by," Lydia blinked, her eyebrows pulling together.

"Jace already had Alec, Jem and Max go out and check the boundary yesterday, and you know he'll be going out again today to make sure. But he doesn't seem on edge or anything, so I'm assuming they didn't pick up on anything," Clary replied. Lydia nodded, looking a little more relaxed at that, knowing that Jace would be on the edge the second he thought that something was wrong. "Anyway, I just want to look after our babies and have everything get back to normal."

"Honey," Lydia rolled her eyes and smiled as her eyes honed in on a little boy who looked like he was about start eating sand out the big double doors that were open. "Your life is never normal." The little boy was most definitely going to start eating sand and Lydia made a face. "We'll catch up later, yeah?"

"Yeah," Clary flashed a smile before Lydia ran toward the sandpit.

I haven't really watched any movies since I last updated, but I've been binging this TV show called Bitten, recommended by the lovely reppinda5o3, who has now moved on from recommending fics to TV shows! I'd be lost without her. It's not award winning or anything, but I really wanted another werewolf show to watch, and so it definitely scratched that itch. If that's the sort of thing you're into, definitely check it out if you haven't already.

On the music side of things, I've had Crying in the Club by Camila Cabello on repeat for, like, the past week. I fucking loooooove it. I was never a fan of Fifth Harmony, but I absolutely adore this song. Also Power of Love by Gabrielle Aplin, which I heard ages ago, but then I heard it on something recently and put it back on my phone and have just had it playing everyday on the way to and from work. It's just...It's just so pretty and makes my heart ache just a little.

Also on the subject of music, the One Love Manchester concert that Ariana Grande got together...All of those artists coming together and so quickly after the horrible event was beautiful. My heart went out to Ariana, she was really having a hard time holding it together. And Miley Cyrus was a beautiful human, as per usual. A lot of people are trying to drag the event through the mud, saying that worse things happen all the time, saying that she is just doing it for attention...Come on, just accept a nice, good thing. Our world is full of shit, horrible things, we have to love and accept the good when it comes along xx

Anyway! Please make sure you leave a few words, let me know what you guys thought of the chapter. Just a couple of words make the hard work worth it! And make sure to let me know if you want a preview xx