Clary POV

The searing pain of being shot, the sudden moment that the pain erupted through my chest, the pain of collapsing into the arms of the man I just married, I could not hear only feel and the only feeling I had was complete and utter shock, my hands should have been on Jace but they were on my belly. The babies. They could not die. I saw darkness and I let darkness take me away.

Jace POV

2 hours later

I rocked, I rocked and I rocked. Why the fuck was I not allowed into the theatre to be with my wife? The man who had done this was now in custody – a raving madman someone who used to work for some crazy chick named Bryony. Was this being the one Magister meant when he said that there would be more dangers still? My head near snapped at the sudden jerk up to where the doctor was, he was clean – he probably cleaned himself up as to not scare me terribly. He offered me a hand, to help me stand; the next thing I registered was the sound of babies crying. I looked at him then I looked as Clary unconscious as she was; and covered in bandages was led out, inside her bed where there as space two baby boxes sat with two identical looking babies – the only difference between them was one was wrapped in blue and the other in pink. They were alive. But wait, should they not have been premature? The doctor let me walk towards them, follow them to their room before he began to explain that Clary was further along than expected and the babies were at healthy weight and no damage had incurred during the moment their mother was shot 3 times in the chest – Clary had lost a lot of blood and had broken a few ribs as well – it was the punctured lung that had concerned the surgeons most but they had managed to fix that up and now she was going to have to recover again. She was always in recovery and it sucked; she was supposed to be awake for this to meet our children – the nurses were quick to place the twins on her bandaged chest or at least one of them for I was quick to pick up the pink wrapped infant – of whom was the more awake one, sitting by Clary's bed side I spent time with both as equally as I could; speaking to them both but never naming them. Clary had wanted to name our children and I wanted to wait for her to wake up before I even bothered to conceive a name for the two babies with me.

4 hours later

I must have been asleep when the softest croak of a voice entered my ears, my eyes opened wearily to determine whether or not the source of the voice was my wife, and it was. She looked at me dazed and slightly confused – more so at the sight of me holding our baby girl, her eyes focused on the infant on her chest, her hands instinctively tried to reach for the crib that the nurses had put into our room – where our son was asleep. Her words were soft, even more so as she examined both of the twins for the first time, they seemed to know who she was instinctively even with the bandages covering her chest. A nurse entered with the doctor to check up on Clary to which she brushed away – she didn't want to be around anyone but our children.

"What are their names?" I asked as I rocked our baby girl back to sleep

"Who was first?" She whispered

"The boy."

"Cassian Haru Morgenstern-Herondale."

"Two surnames?"

"I want to keep mine alive." She muttered

"Our baby princess?"

"Cináed Farida Morgenstern-Herondale."

Clary POV

8 months later

Disposing of another bag of used nappies, I made my way back to the kitchen where two rowdy toddlers were babbling, both of them were supposed to have eaten their blueberries and they did kind of, but they still managed to drop quite a number, Sophie however swept them up with ease. Sophie was such a great help and I was glad that Alec and Isabelle's mother Maryse was happy to let us lend her for the time being whilst I was still getting used to properly running a household. It had been Jace's idea for us to move to London – though he mostly stayed where the camp was – he made around trips every 3 months to come visit and spend time with the twins and I before returning to work. He was supposed to be back any day now.

"Are you still a pyromaniac?" Sophie asked abruptly

I shut the cabinet and turned to her, how in the world did she find out, I opened my mouth to answer and she gave me a soft shake and nod of her head. She wasn't done speaking yet, and I would have responded if not for the sudden sound of a bird crashing into the window – a bird that didn't look natural at all. Silencing Sophie and I, I was the one who approached first, around the now very dead bird was a tied letter with the same wax seal, a seal I had not seen in months and had practically nearly forgotten about. The events of basically the last two years were something I didn't want to remember, and I had worked hard and done a lot of recovery work to try and process and move on now that shit wasn't as hectic. Untying the letter from the bird I quickly ordered Sophie to clear away the dead bird and that I would watch over the kids for a little while, both of whom I had moved to my bedroom by Sophie's assistants Myra and Robin.

Cináed and Cassian spent the afternoon mostly sleeping, crying and playing with each other. I rarely let them out of my sight for longer than necessary. A part of me was glad that in some way they would grow up away from all the buzz of New York, whilst London technically wasn't as quiet or as idyllic it was a new place and that meant that all of those in our past wouldn't apparently be able to find us except I suppose the Magister. Of whom I had kept our previous letter from in the bedroom that Jace and I shared when he was here. As the twins played and mind their own business under the watchful eye of our Ragdoll Opal, our Birman Pearl and our Maine Coon Captain, the only missing member of our animal household was our Doberman Emperor – who spent more time with Jace overseas in the states but they both visited together as the one package. Emperor and I didn't get along as much but he was a sucker for the twins, who were half torn decidedly between being cat people and dog people, Cassian was more cat inclined once I had decided to adopt three rescue cats of various ages, though they all seemed to have a similar temperament and were just as protective of the twins as I was of them. Cináed on the other hand really absolutely loved Emperor to bits but did not mind the company of felines.

Opening the letter with little to no care I gave the kids a smile before reading the words that were once again in his crimson red ink.

Dear Clarissa,

I am glad to hear the assassination attempt on your life, and I am happy to hear that your children are safe and well. It has been almost a year since we last spoke and I would hope to continue our correspondence. I suppose you thought moving to London would be a good idea, and it would have been if not for the fact that it is a place overrun by the family that attempted to kill you in the first place. I suggest that as soon as Jace returns to your current place of residence and you find a place to go where they cannot find you. I hope you do not take my letter as a threat merely a warning. I want you to be safe and to have a happy ending and that cannot take place if you remain as you are now.

A.M