I apologize for taking so long to get this update posted. I got a HORRIBLE case of writer's block and couldn't think of anything to write. I'm also apologizing in advance because my spring semester begins Monday and my updates will slow I'm sure.

To answer some questions that have been asked in reviews:
1. I have NO IDEA how many more chapters there will be, but I do know the last chapters will be during Christmas and then an epilogue. So that could be ten more or twenty, who knows with the way I write. That's the best estimate I can give you.
2. Lady-Elizabeth4242, thank you for reminding me about the part in TID with Jem and Gabriel I may have been influenced by your review, so thanks.
3. I have tried to fix any mistakes that have been pointed out, but I know there are some I haven't gotten to but I will. I really appreciate you guys letting me know about them cuz sometimes my proof reads don't catch them.
4. A lot of people are concerned about this so I'll tell you now: I'M NOT GOING TO KILL MAX. It was too painful in the books and I wouldn't do that to him or Alec.

AND A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO IS STILL READING AND THOSE WHO HAVE RECENTLY STARTED IT AND BEEN BRAVE ENOUGH TO START A 50+ CHAPTER FIC! YOU ARE ALL AWESOME!


Chapter 53: How to Survive a Room Full of Herondales part 2:


Will POV:

"I'm surprised you haven't passed out from your separation anxiety." Aimee commented with a smile as she and Jem came back into the dining room.

"It was thoughts of being reunited that kept me going." I put a hand over my heart and looked up longingly at my boyfriend, who rolled his rich brown eyes at me.

"You really did miss your calling." Jem remarked, returning to his seat.

"As a world famous actor?"

"As an overdramatic teenage girl." He quipped.

"You know, I've been saying that for years." Cecy chimed in, scooping up a forkful of pumpkin pie. "Mmm this is delicious Clary."

The conversation dissipated as we all stuffed our faces with the decadent desserts, exchanging compliments and sounds of approval.


It was fast approaching eight we finished up with our Thanksgiving dinner completely and it was time for more coffee and conversation in the living room. Cecily and I "volunteered" to do the dishes simply because our gentlemen were about to volunteer to do it. We gathered up the empty plates and went to the kitchen.

I sat my handful down in the sink and opened the dishwasher.

Cecy commenced scraping off food remnants into the trash.

"So," I began, talking over the running tap water. "You and Gabriel look pretty serious."

"Yeah, we were before tonight. We'll have to wait and see if all your snide comments haven't run him off." She returned with more dishes for me to rinse. "Why are you being such an ass tonight by the way? Gabe's a good guy, if you'd just give him a chance."

"Well I wouldn't have to be pulling out all the stops in one night if you had introduced us sooner." I informed her. It still stung a bit that I had to hear about it second hand from Jace.

"What, you mean like before he was too invested to be scared off? No way!" She nudged me with her shoulder, standing next to me at the sink.

"Wait a sec, just how invested is he?" I grabbed her hand and ran a thumb over the ring.

"Jesus Will, calm down we've been dating less than a year." She pulled her hand away and wiped it off on a dishtowel.

"But you do think it's going somewhere?" I asked curiously, feeling a little out of my element in this kind of discussion. Relationship talks with Jace have almost entirely consisted of warnings about safe sex, the price of babies, and randomly leaving old textbooks open to graphic pictures of STDs for him to find at the breakfast table.

A method that has worked thus far, might I add.

"Yeah, I do. Or at least I hope it is. Like I said, Gabe's a good guy once you get to know him."

I put the last plate in the dishwasher and Cecy took the detergent out from the cabinet under the sink.

"I just don't want you getting too serious too fast. You're so young." I told her, pressing the on button.

"Will, I'm only a couple years younger than you." She pointed out.

"Yeah and you don't see me settling down."

"Actually, I do." She countered smugly.

She had an annoyingly accurate point there...

"Well then wait a couple years and we'll have this conversation again."

It seemed like the only comeback I had available to me.

"Will, I get that you're trying to play parent here and that's fine, but I think you should step back and think about what our da would say."

I dried my hands off on the dish towel while I thought about her words, the whoosh of the machine filling up the silence.

"Does he make you happy?" I finally asked.

"Very." She smiled, her eyes lighting up with it.

"Then just be careful, will ya? I don't want to be an uncle anytime soon."

"Will!" She threw a towel at me. "I'm not an idiot. I know college and kids is a bad idea; I barely have enough time, money, and energy for myself as it is."

I put my hands up in surrender.

"Ok, ok, I'm just making sure. I've got to look out for you and that idiot brother of yours." I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

"Yeah?" She hugged me back then wriggled away from me. "And who's looking out for you then?"

"I can look after myself. Besides," I shrugged, "I have Magnus."

She tilted her head back and laughed theatrically.

"Oh yeah, he's a good influence." She punched me in the arm. "Come on, let's get back out there before Aimee breaks out the home videos."


Jem POV:

Will went to the kitchen to help his sister with the dishes and I made to follow everyone else into the living room when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Jem, can I have a word?"

I didn't particularly want to speak to Gabriel, but this wasn't the time or place to be rude.

I hung back and he waited until everyone had left before speaking.

"I wanted to apologize for my behavior the last time we met." He looked as if it was physically painful to say those words, though it sounded sincere.

He was referring to when we met at his Fourth of July barbecue. Isabelle had begged Alec to accept his invitation since no parents were going to be there and Gabe's older brother, Gideon, had kept in touch despite both his father's and uncle's orders not to. And in turn Alec had begged me to come along as well and I can't say no to him, so I went.

Most of the party had gone well. I spent the majority of my time talking to Gideon and Alec hung out with his sister and her friends. I didn't even see Gabriel until nearly everyone, including the Herondales, had gone home.

"I think you owe Alec more of an apology than me." I curtly replied.

"I know, I'm planning on emailing-"

"Email? Right, that seems like a proper form of apology for inviting someone to your house and calling them a fag in front of their friends and family." I said angrily but quiet. I really didn't think this was the appropriate place for this conversation.

"I didn't invite him." He snapped, then took a deep breath to calm himself. "I'm sorry. Look, I didn't call because I assumed he wouldn't answer."

"You obviously don't know him very well."

"Fine, then that's what I'll do. I didn't want to start an argument here, I just wanted to apologize to you since you're here. The things I said, the way I acted, that was entirely the influence of my father and that's not me anymore. I know it's no excuse, but it's the only one I have."

He did look fairly disgusted with himself and remorseful. It's not as if his comments had plagued me; I had forgotten them almost as soon as they were out of his mouth. Alec hadn't even taken it that harshly and he'd been called much worse than I.

"Apology accepted."

He looked surprised.

"What, really? Even after I accused you of-"

I held up a hand to stop him.

"Please, don't." For a few weeks before the barbecue I'd gotten a bad case of strep and had been put on some strong antibiotics that did a number on my appetite. Even Alec and I joked about how strung out the weight loss had made me look, but it's not exactly the kind of thing you expect a practical stranger to bring up. "Life's too short to get your feelings hurt every time someone, wrongly, accuses you of being a junkie who's hitting on their brother." I said with a slight laugh. It was actually one of the more unique insults I'd ever received. "But you still need to apologize to Alec."

"Of course." Gabriel expression was a mix of confusion and relief.

The reemergence of Will and Cecily from the kitchen cut our conversation short.

"Waiting for your escorts to enter the living room?" Will asked sarcastically when he saw us standing in the dining room.

"Something like that." I replied with a smile, feeling it unnecessary to mention our little chat.

Will offered his arm to me and I rolled my eyes, settling for taking his hand instead and letting him lead the way into the other room.

Gabriel and Cecily left not too long after that, before Aimee had a chance to bring out the high school albums. Jace tried to make an escape as well, but Clary refused to go until she'd seen at least a couple of embarrassing school pictures and I was right there with her.


It was past ten by the time our curiosity was satisfied and we allowed our dates to drag us from memory lane back to their cars.

"What are you thinking about?" Will asked after a few minutes.

"Nothing." I lied.

"You're being awfully quiet..."

Well, since he asked.

"Why did you invite me?"

Will looked a little taken aback by the out of the blue question.

"What? What kind of a question is that? I wanted you to meet my family, they were conveniently all together tonight, you weren't doing anything with yours so seemed like a good idea. Was it not?" He asked defensively.

"No it was, your family is wonderful." I reassured him, not wanting to imply ungratefulness. I really had enjoyed meeting them all. "I'm just curious what makes me so special that I get to come to holiday dinners when you've never brought anyone else over."

"I knew I shouldn't have left you alone with Aimee. That is where this is coming from, is it not?" He asked suspiciously.

"She may have mentioned something, yes." I replied lightly.

"Can I answer that when we get home and I don't have to keep my eyes on the road?"

Well that was reassuring. Not.

"Sure." I answered, trying to keep the uneasiness from my voice. I hadn't expected a long answer to that question and it knotted my stomach.

The car lulled into silence again while I thought about his possible answers.

Will tried to jump start it again.

"Did you notice how Gabriel's demeanor changed when I mentioned Alec? I wonder what that was all about."

"They've never really gotten along much." I answered, shrugging. "Gabriel's older brother, Gideon, and Alec were the golden boys of the family for a long time; until Alec got kicked out and Gideon dropped out of law school to pursue an English degree that is. Robert and Benedict, Alec's uncle, are two peas in a pod when it comes to gender role definitions, and switching from a manly, bread winning job like law to working towards being an English teacher put Gideon almost as low in their opinions as Alec's coming out."

Alec had discussed his dysfunctional family with me so much that I almost knew more about them than I did my own. Not that I minded; he needed to catharsis that comes from talking and I needed the reassurance that my family wasn't that bad.

"That put Gabriel in the position of picking up the slack at home and according to Alec he essentially became as big a dick as his father. After meeting him earlier this year I could have attested to that. Seems like your sister's having a good influence on him though. Finally starting to think for himself."

I hadn't actually meant to speak so much, but filling the silence seemed necessary so I just rambled on until we parked.


Once we were inside the house Will took the leftovers that were forced upon us into the fridge and we went into his bedroom.

"Well?" I asked as Will sat down on the bed to take off his shoes. I stood at the dresser, removing my clothes to get ready for bed.

"Well what?"

"You said you'd answer me when we got home. We're home."

"So I did." Will sighed. "Can you repeat the question?" He asked, stretching out on the bed, arms behind his head.

I crawled into bed next to him.

"You heard me the first time."

"Sure you don't just want to skip the talking and get to the good part?" He tried that sultry look that almost always gets to me, but I resisted tonight. I had a goal and he was not going to derail me from it.

Even if his mouth did feel incredibly good on my neck.

I placed my hands on his shoulders and pushed him away, somewhat regretfully.

"No, stop avoiding. If the answer's that bad, just spit it out."

"Bad? Why would my answer be bad? No, I just… god this is embarrassing." He shook his head and sighed. "Ok fine. Look, I don't know, usually I try to avoid mixing family and relationships simply because it's easier that way. My relationships don't tend to last very long, except Tess, therefore I've never seen a reason to bother with introducing anyone to my family. Honestly, they seem real nice at first, but they really are a judgmental group of assholes, the Herondales." He laughed affectionately. "Generally I trust my own judgment on these sorts of things, but you..."

He broke off, biting his lower lip.

"Are you having second thoughts about us?" It wasn't a question I ever wanted to ask, but it was better to know sooner rather than later if he was.

His answer was laughter. A lot of laughter as he closed the little bit of distance between us and kissed me.

"God no, never." He breathed against my lips.

"Then what are you trying to say?"

"You mean what am I trying not to say? I really wasn't expecting to have this conversation tonight. You just can't leave well enough alone can you?" He mumbled without malice in his voice.

"Sorry, but no I can't." I tried to mentally brace myself for whatever was coming, but to be honestly I had no idea where this conversation was headed.

He nudged me over onto my back, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

"I love you James."

"I know that. I love you too."

"I mean it. I am completely, utterly, stupidly in love with you. To the point that I don't think about anyone else, I don't dream about anyone else, hell I don't even notice other people anymore. For the first time in my life I'm not leaving my options open; I have no plan B here and I feel like that should be terrifying, but somehow it's not. It just feels natural and I don't know what to do about that. Logically I'm sure how I'm feeling is just part of the natural infatuation phase and everything, but I've been in enough two month long relationships to know that something's different. I really didn't want to say any of this to you because it's fine with me if you don't feel the same way, you'd have to be insane to, and I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to make this more than it is or pushing for anything, because I'm not."

He paused for a fraction of a second to take a breath, having said most of that in one.

"How this has anything to do with introducing you to my family: I don't know, it just seemed like the right next step. Maybe I was hoping someone would point out how insane the extent of my feelings are and I'd snap out of it, or maybe I was hoping for the opposite. Or maybe I just wanted more witnesses for when you come to your senses and realize you can do so much better so that I will know this wasn't all just a really good dream."

I tilted his head up, forcing him to look me in the eyes.

"If you're insane then I must be too." I replied simply. There didn't seem to be much more to say that he hadn't already. It was as if he was speaking directly from my own mind. Not that I would have said any of that out loud yet. He was right about it feeling too soon to feel like this.

But that didn't change the fact that I did. That we did.

"You don't think things are going to fast?"

"I think they're going far too fast; I just have no intention of stopping them. Do you?" I replied honestly. If he wasn't looking to slow down then neither was I.

It would probably turn out to be a monumentally bad idea, but you never know. Life is full of surprises.

"Not at all."