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Q : Queen of My Heart by Westlife
Requested by RumpelstiltskinWantsMySanity

I'll always look back as I walk away
Memories will last for eternity
And all of our tears will be lost in the rain
When I found my way back to your arms again
But until that day, you know you are
The queen of my heart

Jace Herondale let out a long sigh of relief as the uber turned down the street of his home. It was almost seven o'clock on a Friday night, which wasn't a late hour, but after the past couple of months, spending a lot of his time on flights between New York and Los Angeles, working fourteen hour days, it was catching up to him. He was taking a long weekend this weekend though, and then he didn't need to fly back out to New York for a few weeks and hopefully that would be the last time. Usually when it came to the travel, it was shared between Jace and his business partner, Alexander Lightwood. But Alec and his husband, Magnus Bane, had just adopted a baby girl, Madzie Lightwood-Bane, who had just been a few weeks old when they had signed the adoption papers and he wanted to stay close to home as much as he could. Jace could completely understand that and Alec was his best friend as well as his business partner, so he had offered to take on their latest venture.

He loved his job, but he was going to be glad when this particular job was over and he was able to stay in his home city permanently.

The uber pulled up outside his house and Jace leaned forward to pay. After, he got out of the car and opened up the boot, pulling out his stuffed overnight bag and his briefcase, shutting it with his elbow and then heading up to the two storied house. The lawns were starting to get a little long and he made a mental note to do them tomorrow afternoon. He passed by the little red Toyata hatchback that Stevie Herondale had very proudly brought himself about six months ago when he got his licence and Shadow was curled up on the bonnet. She looked up when Jace walked past, letting out a meow and jumping off the bonnet, following Jace in as he unlocked the garage door. His wife's SUV was parked inside, a couple of bikes leaning against the side wall and two surfing boards carefully braced against the back wall. There was a small mountain of shoes beside the door that lead to the house, and Jace kicked his off, adding them to the pile.

As soon as he opened the door, Hunter was sprinting around the corner and toward the door, panting, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. Shadow wasn't particularly impressed by the dog, although she wasn't impressed by much, and she picked up the pace, running past the dog and toward the lounge.

"Hey, boy," Jace juggled the bag and briefcase in his hand, reaching down to pat the dog on the head. Hunter wiggled herself around, tail wagging her whole end half, and she eagerly followed after Jace as he walked toward the lounge. The plasma TV that was mounted on the wall was playing quietly and he could see the head of his eldest son over the back of the large L-shaped couch. At the excited panting and barks from Hunter, Stevie straightened up and looked over the back of the couch, toward Jace.

"Dad!" He grinned widely, the dimple in his right cheek showing.

"Hey, kid," Jace put his bag and briefcase down against the wall and moved forward to ruffle his sons hair. "You been looking after our girls?" Stevie just rolled his eyes with a grin, given the standard question that his father asked him when getting home after a trip. There was homework spread out over the low coffee table and Stevie was holding a highlighter in one hand. "What subject?" He asked with a nod toward the work.

"Biology," he replied, making a face. The face that Jace made in return was almost identical. "Uncle Simon is going to come over tomorrow morning to help."

"Good—coz I'm absolutely shit with pretty much any of the Sciences," Jace answered with a grin. Stevie opened his mouth to reply when there was a screech and a tornado of red hair and pink clothing came barreling down the hall opposite him.

"Daddy!" Jeska Herondale squealed as she threw herself at her father. Jace braced his legs to prepare himself for the impact and laughed as he swung her up in the air, twirling her around before she latched her legs around Jace's torso and immediately launched into a play-by-play of everything that had happened since he had been gone. Jace listened attentively and Stevie managed to calm down the over-excited Hunter who was still trying to wrap himself around Jace's legs. "You're not going away again, right, daddy?" Jeska cut herself off mid-story with the urgent question. Jace heart squeezed at the question and he clicked his tongue.

"I'm sorry, Jessie-girl," Jace murmured. "Still need to go away a few more times." She pouted, her big green eyes sad. "But it's not for much longer, and I'm not going away until Tuesday, so I can come to your ballet class on Monday night." The green eyes widened and she let out a cheer, throwing her little fists in the air. "Now," Jace quickly spoke before she began detailing every little thing that she wanted to do with him that weekend. "I'm going to leave you here with Stevie for a few minutes, okay? I'll be back soon, I promise."

"Can you read me Clifford before bed?" Jeska asked with a big, gap-toothed grin.

"I sure can, Jessie-girl," Jace leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss on the nose before putting her down. Stevie immediately shuffled over on the couch, making room for his sister and asking her what she wanted to put on TV. Jace watched them for a moment before beginning down the hall his middle child had just come from.

There were pictures on the walls that he saw every time he came down the hall, but he still let his eyes skim over them, his smile widening. There were dozens of pictures of the kids, and family photos, and then some of them with their closest friends, and ones of his and Clarissa Herondales wedding day. He paused near the end of the hall, looking at one of the older photos on the wall. It was a few days after Stevie had been born, which just so happened to also been Jace's seventeenth birthday. It was a picture of Clary holding Stevie with his arms proudly around them both.

They hadn't had the easiest journey.

Jace and Clary had been best friends since they were little and he had finally plucked up the courage to ask her out on her sixteenth birthday. They had only been together a couple of months when they found that Clary was pregnant. Clary's parents and Jace's mother had been absolutely furious, and for the first few weeks after finding out, Clary cried every day. Her parents, especially her father, had been adamant on her having a termination. She had only been five weeks along when they had found out, so she was early enough to have one. But after some time, Jace and Clary had both come to the decision that they wanted to keep their baby. There was no changing their minds, and so even though their parents hadn't been happy with their choice, they had supported them.

Their son had been born late on a Wednesday. He was a wrinkled, squealing lump of flesh and Jace had never loved anyone more. Clary wanted to name him after Jace's father, Stephen Herondale, who had died two years previously in a car crash, and hence he was christened Stevie.

It had been so hard that at times Jace didn't think they were going to make it, but they both graduated high school, Clary in the top five percent of two of her classes, with tremendous help from both of their families. Then they had moved out of Celine's home to get their own place. Clary went through university first, since her degree was shorter and she was only required to go in three days a week, which meant she could work part time. Jace split his time between working and looking after Stevie. He tried not to resent Clary, because he loved spending time with his son, but sometimes he craved adult company that wasn't when he was working. His cousins were amazing and they were still close to this day, but they had both gone away for college, so he only saw them when they came home on the holidays.

Once Clary graduated, it was Jace's turn to go to university, and it was easier since Stevie was then off at school. Clary worked full time through the week while Jace was at university through the week and then worked weekends. It was hard, and it was as though they were just existing together and sharing a son between them, and there were eight or nine months throughout Jace's second year at university that it felt as though maybe they wouldn't make it, especially when Clary moved back to her parents for almost two months, and they had shared custody of Stevie for that period.

But they made it through.

And every hard time was worth what they had now.

They had gotten married when they were twenty-five, and not long after—when Stevie was ten—Clary fell pregnant again, with Jeska. She dropped down to working part time and financially it was a tough time because Jace and Alec had just gone into business together, but just like with Stevie, the minute Jace's eyes fell on his little girl, he knew every single thing that they had given up was worth just one moment with her.

Four years later, Clary fell pregnant again, and that was when they had decided they needed to buy their own place, big enough for all of them, along with Shadow—a stray cat that had acted as though she owned the place the minute Clary had brought her in from the cold—and also Hunter—the dog that Stevie had been begging them for since he was old enough to speak. They found a place and went through the stressful motions of buying it and moved in two days before Clary's water had broken, their third child coming almost four weeks early, which had brought its own set of problems.

But here they were.

They were all healthy and happy, and that was all Jace could ask for.

"Hey," Jace said quietly from the doorway of the bathroom. The room was a mess, given when Jeska had come flying down the hall, her hair had been tamed into two damp plaits and she smelt like the strawberry body wash Clary used for her, and now Clary was bathing Ava Herondale, their youngest. The eight month old let out a squeal and splashed her hands in the shallow water at her sides. Clary half turned, one hand still supporting Ava's back as she smiled up at her husband.

She was tired, he could see that in her eyes, and that's what happened when he was gone for so long and she was left to run a household with three kids and two pets while still working two days a week.

But she never complained.

She gave him and their family everything she had, showering them with love and affection and comfort and never demanding anything in return.

Jace's heart swelled in his chest as he looked at her green eyes with little laughing lines in the corners and at the wide smile she was giving him even though she was kneeling on the hard, tiled floors and her shirt looked as though it was completely soaked through, which had to be uncomfortable.

"Hey, baby," Clary murmured at Jace moved to kneel beside her, not caring that he was on Jeska's dirty clothes that hadn't made it to the laundry basket yet and his suit pants were going to get wet from where water had been splashed out over the edge of the bathtub.

"Missed you," he told her.

"Missed you more," Clary responded with a grin and Jace just leaned in, wanting to feel her lips against his. They were broken apart by an excited bark from Hunter as he bounded into the bathroom, demanding attention, and then there was a gurgle from Ava as she spotted the dog and began splashing around again.

"You go change into something dry," Jace told her. "I'll finish up with Ava." Clary nodded gratefully, waiting until Jace was in position to support Ava before she moved. She gathered up the dirty clothes and towel off the ground, dumping them into the laundry basket in the corner of the room. She came back over to him, dropping a kiss to the top of his head.

"I love you," she whispered to him.

"I love you more," Jace tipped his head back to look up at her and she rolled her eyes at his competitive remark that she had made countless times before, and would make a thousand more times going forward before nuzzling her nose to his.

"I love you most."

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter :) Here's my top 10 on Spotify, as usual;

1) Kissing Other People - Lennon Stella. 2) Mikrokosmos - BTS. 3) Walls - Louis Tomlinson. 4) No Time To Die - Billie Eilish. 5) Euphoria - BTS. 6) I Need U - BTS. 7) Is It Just Me? - Emily Burns. 8) Homesick - Dua Lipa. 9) 8TEEN - Khalid. 10) Bad - The Cab.

I'm feeling shit and watching Sound of Music. Hope your day is going better than mine x