Looking in the mirror in my bathroom, I took a deep breath and gave myself an internal pep talk. Jace and I had been home for three months and we had settled in to our new lives. The shop was doing great and we had landed a few more professional surfers as clients.

We continued to have family dinners on Sundays with my mom and Luke, but we switched off which house we ate at. Luke was becoming like a father figure to me and I could see how happy he made Mom. It made me so happy to see my mom finally in a relationship that made her so happy.

Valentine and I had kept in touch over the phone and I had learned that he was married to a woman named Helen and they had a son named, Sebastian. When I learned that I had a brother that I never knew I had, I cried for hours. I wanted to know my brother, but I wasn't there yet. Valentine and I mostly talked about surfing, since we had that in common and steered clear of any subject with actual meaning. It wasn't a meaningful relationship, but it was a start.

In a weird turn of events, my mother announced the day after Jace and I returned from California that she was three months pregnant. I swear, it took twenty minutes for me to come back from my state of shock after she told me and then I couldn't contain my tears of happiness. Since she had announced she was expecting, Mom had decided to cut back her hours at the restaurant and had promoted Magnus to manager so she could take some time off.

Jace and I had let the subject of having a baby fall onto the back burner for the moment. That was until now, when I was standing in the bathroom, waiting the dreaded three minutes to find out if Jace and I were going to be parents. I hadn't even told Jace that I might be pregnant because it was just a feeling and if I was, I knew I wasn't that far along.

Not wanting to wait another second, I took a deep breath with my eyes closed before looking down at the pregnancy test in my hand. I froze when I saw the result.

I wasn't pregnant.

Not giving myself enough time to process what was happening, I stuffed the test into a paper bag and tossed it in the garbage can. I quickly washed my hands and rushed out of the bathroom, past Jace, who was cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

"Good morning, pretty girl," I vaguely heard Jace say as I made my way out of the house and to the shed. I could hear Jace walking up behind me as I unlocked the pad lock on the door and shoved the door aside. With a deep breath, I stood n the doorway of the shed and put my hands on my hips before I felt Jace's arms wrap around me from behind. His lips pressed against the side of my face. "What's wrong, Clary?"

I shook my head, not wanting to admit what was wrong. Biting my lips to try and distract myself from the tears that were threatening to fall, I detached myself from Jace and made my way to the quiver of boards that were ready to be painted. Swiping angrily under my eyes, I finally let myself break. I bent over at the waist before falling to the ground and leaning up against the table. I pulled my knees to my chest and barely noticed when Jace slid down next to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and rocking me gently as I let myself get everything out.

"Clary, you really need to talk to me," Jace finally whispered when my sobs had calmed. "You're starting to scare me and I just want to make you feel better."

"Um," I stuttered, taking a deep breath and turning to look Jace in his beautiful golden eyes. "Well, I just had been feeling weird for the past few days and thought that I might be pregnant, so I took a test and it was negative."

"Oh, honey, it's okay." Jace consoled me as another round of sobs took over my body. "Please, don't let this get to you. It will happen when it's meant to happen. I love you and we will have a baby when we're ready."

"I don't even know why I'm so upset. I was just so excited when I thought about the possibility of being pregnant with your child and to be told it's not happening was harder to handle than I thought it was going to be."

"I'm sorry, baby." Jace pulled me into his lap and held me against his chest for a few more minutes before he put his arms underneath me and stood to carry me back to the house. I made a mental note to make sure he closed up the shed as he carried me to the couch, set me down and covered me with a blanket before turning on the TV. "I had breakfast made, but I'm afraid that it's cold now. Do you want anything to eat, Clary?"

"Can I just have some juice?" I heard Jace grumble a reply before a glass of my favorite passion-orange-guava juice was placed in my hand.

"I have to head to the shop for a little while, but you can just stay here and veg out for the day, okay?" Jace said as he bent over the back of the couch and kissed my cheek. I nodded absently, trying to focus on the mind-numbing reality TV I was watching. "I'll be home in a couple of hours and I'll bring you some poke."

"Okay, bye." I tried to give him a smile as he kissed me on the lips and turned, grabbing the keys of the table by the front door and walked out of the house.

For the next hour, I sat on the couch, drowning myself in tea and reality TV. I hadn't even thought of getting up until I heard a knock at the door. Keeping the blanket wrapped around my shoulders, I shuffled over to the door, looked through the peephole and opened it to find my mother and Isabelle standing on the other side.

"Ugh, what are you doing here," I grumbled as they pushed past me and I noticed that they were carrying grocery bags into the house.

"Well, it's nice to see you too, lovely daughter," Mom said in a voice that was just too chipper for me at the moment. I rolled my eyes and sat down on a bar stool as they fussed about the kitchen putting ice cream in the freezer and setting all of the snacks on the counter.

"If you really want to know," Isabelle started, "your husband called us and said you were having a bad day."

My eyes widened at her words. I wasn't sure if I wanted them to know why I was having such a bad day. They had enough going on in their own lives and I didn't want my mom to feel guilty because she was pregnant and I wasn't.

"He didn't tell you why, did he," I questioned, gauging their reactions.

"No, he said that if you wanted us to know, you would tell us. He just wanted you to be surrounded by people who love you, and that is why we brought various forms of chocolate and ice cream along with some of your favorite movies. We are having a girls day!"

The last thing I wanted to do was be girly, but I let them lead me into the living room where Mom had already started Chasing Mavericks. They sat on either side of me and each wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I was instantly taken back to high school when we would band together when one of us was feeling bad. Just being around my mom and best friend was making me feel better.

I curled into my mom's side and watched as Jay Moriarty trained to surf Mavericks. We were quiet through the movie, eating ice cream and various other snacks. When it came to the end, I found myself crying more than usual and burying my face into my mom's shoulder. The ending credits were rolling before I removed myself from her shoulder and she placed her hands on mine, trying to look in my eyes and figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

"Honey, why are you so emotional," Mom asked and I just shook my head. "Isabelle and I have noticed that you've been a little off for the past few weeks and—"

"We think you're pregnant," Isabelle shouted, cutting Mom off. I instantly curled into a ball and started crying, shaking my head.

"No," I managed to say through my tears. "I'm not pregnant. I thought I was, too, so I took a test this morning and it was negative."

My mom and Isabelle hugged me from opposite sides, comforting me the way Jace had earlier in the day, letting me cry out my frustrations.

"Clary, look at me," Mom finally said, running her hand along my face. "I think you should go to the doctor. Sometimes, home pregnancy tests can give you a false negative. They aren't a hundred percent accurate and I honestly think you could be pregnant. Isabelle and I want to take you to the doctor to get a test taken there."

I took a deep breath and nodded, realizing that there was obviously something going on with me and if I wasn't pregnant, I needed to figure out what it was. Mom gave me the number of her doctor and I called to make an appointment for later in the day. Part of me wished that I could have Jace with me, but the bigger part didn't want to disappoint him again if I wasn't actually pregnant.

I then realized how much Jace had done for me that day. He had called my mom and best friend and convinced them to take time out of their schedules to make me feel better. He had pulled me up off the ground when I was at my lowest. He had fixed me. He always fixed me.

I wanted to be able to give him something back for always saving me.

Thank you so much for reading! I know it has been waaaayyyyy too long since I've posted, but I just haven't been able to figure out where i want this story to go and I still haven't, but I wanted to get this chapter out. I'm just trying to make a story that I'm proud of and so far, I am proud of it.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please be patient with me with future updates. As always, I really appreciate you all taking the time to read my story. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for the story. I am extremely open to ideas right now.

Let me know what you think and leave a review! :)