I have returned! Not triumphantly, I'm afraid. Well...maybe. I don't know. I'm very happy that I updated quicker than last time.

Warning***Time skip. I know, I know, there have been a lot. That's only because it is nearing the end, but don't worry, I still have a few more chapters that I have to get done, and hopefully will get them done by the end of the summer. Anyway, the last chapter was October, and now its the end of July, in the next year. So Tia is about to turn 17, and then a lot of stuff happens then. Yay!

Enjoy!

It's been months since Isabelle found the file. She eventually forgot about it as she busied herself with more work. Maryse helped her at times, and so did Alec, but overall it was her responsibility to maintain the care of the Institute.

A few days before the Tia and Cole's seventeenth birthday, she got a call. There wasn't anyone in the office but her, so the shrill ring bouncing off the walls made her jump out of her chair. Once she recovered herself, she answered. "New York Institute?" Yeah, it was a corny greeting, but she had to say it.

"Yes. Isabelle?" the voice on the other end said.

"Good morning, Consul," said Isabelle, wide-eyed. A call from the Consul could be one of two things: good, or bad. "How are you?"

"Very good, thanks. I'm calling to inform you that you will receive two young Shadowhunters that we have relocated to your Institute."

Two? Why two, Isabelle wondered. "Um, yes, thank you for informing us. But, why two? And when will they get here?"

"Two, because they are parabatai. One is of age, but the other isn't, and since parabatai can't be separated..." she left the sentence hanging. "And you should be expecting them to arrive tomorrow." With that, she hung up. Isabelle thought that was very rude, but then again, she was the Consul. She could do whatever she wants, and no one would question her. Except for the few Shadowhunters who don't know any better.

Isabelle got up from her chair to go tell the news to her brothers. While she was walking out, she saw Clary, without Lottie, which was a first. "Hi, Clary. We are getting new Shadowhunters relocated to us. Yay." She sighed.

"You don't seem so excited." Clary smiled at her. "Do you know who they are?"

"No, Jia wouldn't tell me. She just hung up," Isabelle made a face, "which was extremely rude."

Clary laughed. "Well, Jace and Alec are with Tia and Cole in the training room. They might want to hear the news."

Izzy nodded and walked to the training room, opening the heavy doors and poking her head inside. Alec was with Tia and Cole at the knife target, timing Tia as she threw knives at top speed at it, all of them hitting the center of the target. Jace was sitting near them, holding Charlotte in his lap and letting her look at one of his seraph blades, occasionally looking up at Tia. Isabelle looked at the sense of pride on Jace's face as he looked at his almost-two-year-old daughter. (She only had a few months, and then she would hit the terrible two's, something that no one was looking forward to.) Alec also radiated pride as Tia had run out of knives and looked at him, her eyes shining. He smiled at her as Cole stepped up, took the knives from the target, and started doing what Tia was doing. Every once in a while, Jace would clap Lottie's hands for her, shouting praise for Cole, and then Lottie would laugh. He'd done the same for Tia, as well.

All the pride in the room almost suffocated Isabelle. It made her think about her own life, about how much Alec and Jace loved their kids, and how she might want a kid of her own. But she wasn't sure if
Simon could actually have kids, what with him being a vampire and all. Tia had showed her a movie once, where a vampire and a mundane had a baby, and it was half-vampire, half-human. It grew at impressive rates and then would be immortal. But it also almost killed the mundane, unless she became a vampire. The end was pretty good, or so Tia says. Isabelle refused to watch the end, because she got bored.

Now, she wished she'd watched it. It might give her some answers. But she was a Shadowhunter, so she doubted she could have a vampire-human baby. Oh well. They could always adopt. Shadowhunters go orphaned every day. But of course, they would have to move in together, and what with Isabelle as Head of the Institute, she'd have to stay there. And Simon can't come into any holy places. So the child would have to go to her one day and to him the next. But they weren't divorced, so that wouldn't make sense. She sighed.

Suddenly, she remembered why she was there. "Hey, listen up! I have an announcement."

"What is it?" Jace asked. "Did you get a new color of nail polish?"

"No, only Magnus announces when he gets more nail polish," Cole said, smiling. It seemed as if Jace was rubbing off on him. Alec smacked the back of his head. "Ow."

"What is it, Iz?" Alec asked.

"The Clave has located two new Shadowhunters to our Institute," Isabelle said. "They will be here tomorrow, is what Jia said."

Tia sighed. "They're replacing us, Cole."

"What? Are we not enough for you anymore?" Cole looked at Isabelle, feigning hurt.

Isabelle rolled her eyes and walked back out the way she came. There was just no talking to them!

Tomorrow arrived very shortly, much to Alec's disappointment. He was not looking forward to having to train two more Shadowhunters. Cole and Tia were enough for one man; or two, because Jace helps.

Tia seemed incessantly excited about the new people. The minute she walked through the door after coming home from training, she ran straight to Magnus and told him about Isabelle's news, and about Cole's comment about nail polish. Long story short, Cole got smacked on the back of the head twice in one day. It seemed as if he were going for a new record.

Alec watched as Tia skipped her way to the Institute. He and Cole were walking behind her, glamoured. Every once in a while, she would get dirty looks from a man or a woman who weren't used to seeing a sixteen-year-old girl skip her way down the street, but no one bothered to say anything. Alec thought it was because if she caught them looking, she would send a very intimidating glare at them. He smiled every time she did.

When they finally arrived and went up the elevator, Tia yelled "Race ya!" and they both took off toward the training room, almost knocking over the whole mob of people that were standing at the exit, eagerly waiting on something. One of the people was Alec's husband, whom Alec was sure he'd left at home.

Magnus grinned at him. "Hello."

Alec walked toward him. "What are you all doing?" He asked.

"We are waiting for our guests to arrive," Magnus answered him. "It was decided that I will answer the door when the doorbell rings."

"Whoa," said Clary. "We never decided that."

Magnus looked at her. "We just did, biscuit."

"Biscuit?" Jace said, looking at Magnus with narrowed eyes.

"He's called her that before!" Tia's yell came from down the hall. Magnus pointed in her direction and nodded. Jace rolled his eyes. Alec wondered how she'd heard their conversation from that distance.

It was time to change the subject. "Where's Isabelle?" Alec asked.

"Right here." She walked over to them, Lottie in her arms. Lottie's little eyes lit up when she saw Alec.

"Allie!" she cried, holding her arms out to him. He took her out of Isabelle's arms. She started tugging on his hair, something she did to almost everyone but Tia.

The Institute's doorbell rang out. Isabelle made of the elevator, but Magnus beat her to it, almost knocking down in the process. She looked at him in shock as he pressed the button quickly and gave a little wave to them as he went down. Izzy turned to Clary and Jace. "What was that about?"

Jace shrugged. "He really wanted to answer the door," was all he could say.

They all waited for Magnus to come back up with the two Shadowhunters. "Mama," Lottie said, and held her arms out to Clary, who was standing beside Alec. He was more than willing to pass her over to her mother, if it would mean she'd let go of his hair. That little girl could tug really hard.

A little while later, they heard the elevator ding, and they all looked up eagerly to see who was in it. Magnus came out first, smiling, but his eyes showed puzzlement. Following him was a boy, about eighteen, with light blue eyes – lighter than Alec's – and brown hair. He had a suitcase in one hand and was pulling along a girl who was slightly shorter than him, her dark brown hair – darker than the boy's - tied in a ponytail. Her hair also had natural highlights to it, Alec noted, and then mentally checked himself. Magnus was wearing off on him. She was wearing sunglasses and she carried a suitcase as well. They were both wearing black hunting gear.

"Hello," said the boy. He seemed friendly, and he looked expectant, as if they should know him.

"Hi," Isabelle said. She smiled, but it was a sort of awkward smile.

The girl turned her head to the boy and whispered something. "Oh, right," the boy muttered, and then cleared his throat. "I'm Nick Blackwell, and this is my parabatai Cadie Highsmith." The girl smiled shyly.

Alec prayed that Isabelle didn't catch what he said, but no such luck. "Wait, did you say Highsmith?" she asked.

"Um, yes," Cadie said. Alec also noted that she'd kept her gaze cast down the whole time she'd been here, and hadn't let go of her parabatai's hand. He couldn't help but wonder...

"Hey, what's with the sunglasses?" Jace asked before Isabelle could get another word out about her being a Highsmith. "You do know the sun is only outside, right?"

Cadie sighed and let go of Nick's hand. He looked at her, slightly alarmed, as she reached down for something in her suitcase. She pulled out a small stick thing. She unfolded it and put one end on the ground, holding the other end. It was a cane.

And then it all made sense: the sunglasses, the downward gaze, her holding Nick's hand. Alec raised his eyebrows and looked around at the rest of his group, trying to wondering if they figured out what he did. By their looks, they must have.

Cadie was blind.

She smiled slightly. "Based on your silence, you got the memo."

Nick glanced at her before giving a fierce look to each of them, especially Jace, warning them not to say anything about her.

Cadie reached up and pulled the sunglasses off her face, revealing gray eyes, with dark blue – almost purple – specks in them. Her eyelids and under her eyes were ringed with red lines. She brought her gaze up, and it seemed to rest on Alec, but her eyes were empty. He wanted to ask her questions, but at that moment, Maryse Lightwood walked down the hall, stopping at the group of people, her eyes going to Cadie. She let out a little gasp. "Annamarie..."

Cadie heard her voice and turned her head so that her ear was pointed toward Maryse. Her eyes went back down, and her hand went to her neck, where a chain with a ring on it was. "Did you know my mother?" she asked. She twirled the ring while she waited for an answer.

Everyone gasped. Cadie jumped. Nick leaned down a little and said, "I think they all knew your mother."

There was another awkward silence after that. No one knew what to say to the girl. Alec felt Magnus shift next to him, and then Magnus spoke up. "Okay, I think I've had enough awkwardness for one day. Why don't we all go somewhere and talk?"

They ended up in the library, except for Clary and Jace, because Clary had to put Charlotte down for her nap and Jace didn't want to be part of the conversation. He went to train with Tia and Cole, who still didn't know what was happening.

They all sat in a circle, looking at each other and not speaking. Alec could tell Magnus wasn't going to deal with this long. "Aren't any of you going to talk?" Magnus asked. Seeing as how no one answered his question, he turned to the two young Shadowhunters. "Well, I have a question." Nick nodded at him to proceed. "Were you born blind?"

Cadie shook her head. "No. I was seven, and a demon attacked me, and sprayed poison in my eyes, and then," she snapped her fingers, "instant blackness. I've been blind ever since."

"That was in the Mortal War," Isabelle blurted. "Wasn't it?"

She nodded. "Yep. It was when the demons invaded Idris, where I was living with my mother."

Maryse finally spoke up, asking the question everyone was thinking. "What about your father?"

"I never knew my father," Cadie answered. "My mom told me he ran off because he was afraid of commitment or something like that."

"Or maybe he had a prior commitment," Isabelle muttered angrily.

"Isabelle," Alec warned, but her words seemed to have no effect on Cadie.

"Yes, that could be true too." She shrugged. "I don't really mind."

"What happened after that?" Magnus asked. "After you were attacked by the demon."

Cadie opened her mouth to speak, but then paused. "I think I passed out after that. Then, when I woke up, I started freaking out because I couldn't see. And then someone sat me down and said that I was in my uncle's house in Paris, and that I was going to live there from now on."

Alec looked at his mother, who was nodding. "Annamarie had a brother that married a mundane. But why didn't they find someone else to adopt you?"

Cadie shrugged again. "I don't know. I lived there for five years, until I was twelve, until a representative from the Clave came by and asked me if I'd like to rejoin the Shadow World." She smiled.

Nick turned away from her. "I'm hurt. You didn't mention me at all."

"Well, you're here, why don't you just take over?" she asked him, somewhat annoyed. "And where are my Ray Bans?"

Nick handed her the sunglasses she was wearing when she arrived, and started to continue with the story, but then the doors to the library burst open and Tia and Cole walked in, followed by Jace. Tia, it seemed, was in a rampage, talking in torrent French to Jace, who was slightly confused. Poor Cole, he had no idea what she was saying.

Magnus's eyes widened. Nick stood up at their arrival. Cadie heard Tia talking and stood too. "Tia!" Magnus yelled. "Language!"

"This is Tia?" Cadie whispered to Nick. His eyes widened and he put a hand over her mouth. Her eyes narrowed and she wrenched his hand off and said to Tia, "If you had wanted to meet us, you could have just been there when we walked in, like everyone else was." She put her sunglasses on.

They all looked at her. "You can speak French?" Tia asked.

Cadie's eyebrows furrowed. "Yes. I lived in France for five years. I was taught French by my aunt, who was a French woman. I thought I just went over this." She tilted her head. "Didn't I?" she asked Nick.

Nick didn't answer. He'd stopped speaking the moment Tia walked in, Alec noticed. Now he had the expression of a lovesick puppy. Alec knew that look well; he'd felt himself look at Jace that way when he'd had a crush on him. He didn't like that this strange boy was giving this look to his daughter now.

Tia's eyes lit up in recognition. "Hey! I know you! You're Nick, the boy I danced with at Dad and Papa's wedding. Nick Blackwell."

"Yes!" Magnus shouted triumphantly. "That's where I know you! It was going to kill me until I figured it out. Thank you, Tia." He smiled wide at Nick, who was a little surprised at the outburst.

"Okay," Maryse said. "Now that we all know each other, I think it's time to show you to your rooms and get dinner ready." She smiled.

"Thank you, I'm starving," Tia groaned and she took off out the doors, almost knocking down Jace in the process. Alec saw Cole start to follow her, and then pause and turn. He followed Cole's gaze and saw that he was looking at Cadie. Alec's mouth turned up at the corners as Cole shook his head and ran after his sister.

Okay, so after Cadie and Nick, there are no more OC's that will be in this story, besides some unnamed ones that I plan on doing, but I can't tell you when and where they come in without spoiling anything, and I'm not going to do that.

Anyway, what did you think? I'm not sure how satisfied I am with this chapter, so if you could please tell me what you think of this, or if you want me to update sooner, or if you have a goldfish named Fiddlesticks, I want to know about it!

Please review. I'm very lonely. :'(

-T