A/N: Hii, you guys. I know this has probably been the longest I haven't updated this story, and I apologize for that. It's probably obvious in previous ANs that I was struggling to get my mind in the right place to write, and it just got to the point where I had to take time from even thinking about writing to take a mental health break. To just focus on feeling better and getting better. And I did take that time, and it was only two weeks ago that I was able to write again. It was probably less than a month ago that I picked up a book again to read and enjoy. Basically, it took a while to just feel any type of creativity, and to want to feel creative. I just needed that time to really give myself some time, and here we are. I'm taking it one day at a time, and I must say it feels really good to have completed a chapter the past two weeks. I actually wrote this chapter in early August, but I didn't want to end it just like that for a while, so I waited until the next chapter was written up.

Anyway, I hope you guys understand. I'm excited for you to read this chapter, and the next. The other AN will be on the bottom. Hope you like it!

The song used in this chapter is Homesick by Thirsty Merc.

Feeling Clary shift beside him, Jace slightly opened his right eye to see the edge of the sunrise peeking through her blinds. His other eye opened, and he looked down at his feet at Clary's setup of her vinyl player and books on a table at the foot of her bed. He glanced left at her closet and full length mirror. He looked over at her, sleeping on his right side. She was cuddled beside him, almost hiding, her hands up by her face and blankets wrapped around her.

And, finally, he realized what he knew she was mentally preparing for for weeks. That, in about 24 hours, he would be leaving for Europe. Back to a home that wouldn't feel like home anymore.

Lotta kids with a homesick view

Deep down

I know that I've been homesick too

But something tells me it's alright

I know I'll be back in your arms tonight

He reached over to his left and made the music that they had fallen asleep to a little louder, and closed his eyes to the familiar song.

I've travelled down some lonely roads

Almost lost my way

He closed his eyes, lifted his arm to wrap around Clary, and pulled her closer—something that she had been so accustomed to the past couple of weeks that she moved in without waking.

I would give all my time

Just to spend my nights with you

I would lay down my fears

Just to spend my years with you

When Jace chose to play the Slideshows album by Thirsty Merc to sleep, he knew that he was consciously trying to wake himself up. That he wanted to wake up from the haze that he constantly got himself into when he knew something was going to happen. It's as if his immediate reaction is to close off, to pretend that reality isn't real, and command himself in a daze. He had been doing it for weeks—not facing the fact that he was leaving, not facing the fact that he wasn't sure if he would be able to not push Clary away. That he wasn't sure if they could make it because the fact that he would question it at all was already telling. And the fact that he knew he wasn't strong enough. It was something he did often, even when he knew his best friend would be leaving the country with her family, and he refused to acknowledge the fact that one day she would be gone.

Cause when I'm standing at your door

I don't feel homesick anymore

When I'm standing at your door

I dont feel homesick anymore

He knew Clary was strong enough. Even when they were kids, he knew Clary was strong enough to handle distance away from him. His presence was always enough for her, but Jace needed Clary's physical presence, and that was their problem. Because if Clary wasn't in his sight, he found it best to just push her away. As if he didn't know what else to do.

And even though he assured her repeatedly that they would be okay, that they would be the same—he could never one hundred percent sure. And in his case, if it wasn't for sure, it wasn't enough.

And after all is said and done

We've made the most of love

But, as Jace looked down at Clary, and around her room, one that perfectly captured who she was at this time of her life, he remembered how much time they had lost, and how much they had gone through to be where they were now. To be together. To be forgiven by each other. To be each other's best friends again. And he knew this time could be different. He knew that this time he could try to avoid being the coward he lived his life being.

And, with that, he leaned down to press his lips against Clary's forehead as she murmured, and he held her until the sun made it's way into the sky.

"Where's Jace?" Jonathan asked, stepping out his room. He closed the door behind him as Clary climbed onto a stool, putting cream cheese on an everything bagel.

"He had to go back to the hotel," Clary mumbled. "He had to pack."

Jonathan glanced at his sister as he sat on the stool across from her. "Ah."

She handed him a bagel and the cream cheese after she finished up with hers, the music playing from her phone filling the silence between them.

"What are we doing tomorrow?" Jonathan asked with his mouth full. Clary looked up at him, and she knew he meant after they took Mari, Dallas, and Jace to the airport.

She smiled a little as she answered, "I don't know. What do you wanna do?"

"Get completely wrecked at The Knitting Factory."

Clary froze. "It'll be noon?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I know."

Clary let out a laugh and took a bite from her bagel. "I'm down."

"Good," Jonathan told her. "I'm gonna need my partner." She smiled in return and looked off into the living room. "Clarissa," he said, reaching to grab her hand, and she looked at him in surprise. "I'm proud of you."

She scoffed. "You're the one playing MSG tonight."

"I meant for your song. Or just in general. I'm just proud of you."

She squeezed his hand in return. "You too, Jonny. Go kill it out there tonight."

The two jumped a little when the door opened and Simon yelled an obnoxious, "Good morning!"

Behind him, Isabelle and Alec rolled their eyes, and Dylan was looking around.

"Where is Jace?" Dylan asked.

Isabelle turned to her right, shooting him one of her dirtiest looks. "You can't walk into a room without for him? Ugh. It's pathetic. You're more in love with him than you were with Clarissa."

Alec winced. "Let's just not."

"Yeah, can we just go back to good morning?" Dylan asked.

"Goood morning," Jonathan and Clary said in unison, pushing the brown bag of bagels towards them.

"Is this safe?" Simon asked while the group, including Mari and Dallas now, walked down the subway steps.

"Geez, Diva," Clary mumbled.

Mari leaned towards Jonathan and whispered, "They're really bagging on Simon today."

"It's a huge show day. They do this every single time." He shrugged. "It's kind of like tradition."

"Oh. Well, can't mess with tradition, then," Mari said as they swiped their Metro Cards and went through the turnstile.

"It's not like Jace is here," Isabelle pointed out, and Clary looked at her, nodding in unison.

"Geez, Diva, they said," Simon whispered between Isabelle and Clary as they were signing autographs. Jonathan was across from them taking pictures. "It's not like Jace is here, they said."

Looking at each other, unamused, Isabelle and Clary threw their elbows backward into Simon's stomach, and he bent over in pain.

"Hey!" Jocelyn said, walking towards them in their dressing room. "What took you so long? I thought we left the Lightwoods' at the same time."

"We did," Jonathan answered, and then smiled. "We took the Subway." He then pointed at Clary with his thumb and then walked away.

"Heh." Clary grinned at her mom, and Jocelyn shook her head, putting an arm around her daughter and walking her towards all the other parents.

"Geez, Mom," Simon whispered as Elaine showed him all her cameras.

"Mom doesn't wanna miss any weird facial expression," Rebecca explained and Simon stared at her blankly.

"Do you wanna come onstage?" Isabelle asked, kneeling to talk to Max.

In excitement, he looked up at their mother, who scowled and said, "Isabelle."

Isabelle shrugged. "Sorry, buddy. That's a no. No crowd surfing allowed, apparently."

"Isabelle Sophia Lightwood, I hope you are not crowd surfing," Maryse warned, and Isabelle stood up, smiling sweetly.

"Mom, this is the prime opportunity to be crowd surfing," Alec joined in, mimicking Isabelle's facial expression, and Maryse simply pointed while Robert chuckled behind her.

"We've been to MSG before," Luke spoke, sitting on the couch in between Clary and Jonathan, while Jocelyn looked over, sitting to the right of her son.

"Plenty of times, I think." Jonathan raised an eyebrow.

"No, I meant while we were still The Uprising," Luke reminded him, and Jonathan nodded. "You remember?"

"Yes, Clary and Jace almost fell over into the aisle before us because they were head banging too hard and didn't weigh enough because you know, children." Jonathan nudged Clary, and she rolled her eyes.

As Jonathan turned to his right to talk to his mother, pointing at Mari and her brother, the two excitedly whispering like school girls, Luke put an arm around Clary and pulled her to his side.

"You alright, kiddo?" he asked quietly, and she nodded. "That's a no."

Clary leaned into him now. "I don't know."

"Is it the show?"

She shook her head. "No, I know they'll kill it out there. I can feel that."

"Is it Jace?" With that, Clary just glanced up. "Oh, Clarissa," Luke said, trying his best to mask the sympathy in his voice, but she could detect it so she didn't reply. "It'll be okay. You know that, right?"

She looked forward at Jace and Jordan across the room, laughing with Maia and Jordan. She nodded. "Yeah." Luke gave her shoulder a squeeze in comfort, but Clary gulped, knowing it was a lie, and that Jace wasn't weighing heavy on her heart at all.

"You feeling alright?" Jordan asked, sitting down next to Maia. Magnus moved over, making space for Jace, who shook his head. "You wanna sit on my lap instead?" Jace shrugged, and plopped down on Jordan's right leg. Jordan made a face and muttered, "You've got the boniest ass I've ever encountered." Jace shot him a dirty look and stood up, sitting beside Magnus.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Maia leaned, looking over at Jace.

Jace slapped Magnus's hand away when Magnus tried to fix his hair. "Yeah, I'm okay." He twisted his water bottle and looked around the room. His friends were surrounded by his family members, and he turned to his family on the couch and smiled. "Nervous. Overwhelmed."

Maia smiled kindly. "Understandable."

"This is huge," he pointed out. "I mean, obviously, but...what comes after this?"

The three looked at each other.

Magnus shrugged. "World domination."

"Metaphorically, of course," Maia added.

Magnus shook his head. "No, literally."

Jordan leaned towards them. "Please, no."

Maia reached out to hold Jace's hand. "So proud of you, you know. I can't even find the words to describe how proud."

Jace returned her kind smile from earlier and squeezed her hand. He made eye contact between the three and clearly asked, "Can I get really piss drunk on the plane?"

"Of course!" they answered in unison, and he grinned at them.

"You guys are the best babysitters ever," Jace told them, and Jordan reached to mess up his hair as Magnus threw Jordan a look. Maia stood up to answer the phone ringing in her bag, and walked away from them, shaking her head.

"His hair isn't even fixed yet!" Jordan told him, and Jace pointed while Magnus rolled his eyes.

The three looked up at Maia, who suddenly looked solemn.

"What?" Jace asked, his face falling.

"The Clave is here. Apparently, they won't let your father come in here, so they're asking you to go in there," Maia explained, and Jace stood up, obviously annoyed.

"Who knew my father would be the last Uprising controlled by The Clave, right?"

Maia frowned as Jace walked past her, Jordan and Magnus on his heels. Maia walked over to Clary and Jonathan, who signaled the rest of the band to come to meet The Clave while their parents, Mari, and Dallas stayed behind.

"Why are you three pushing each other like schoolgirls?" Clary asked, amusement in her voice as they stepped outside the door.

"Love," Jordan answered, pinching Jace's cheeks. Jace slapped him away and led the way. "Jace obviously never grew out of his teenage angst phase."

"Yeah, just like Jordan who never grew out of his 'acting like a child' phase," Maia remarked, and was met with a loud Ha! from Jace and an eye roll from Jordan.

Clary pointed at Maia and Jordan in front of her while walking beside Magnus. "I'm gonna miss this."

"Ugh, it gets old, honey," Magnus whispered to her and she leaned her head back to laugh. Magnus held the door open for her, and right as she stepped in, Clary could feel the air knocked out of her lungs.

Standing on the other side of the room, in the middle of a sea of business men in suits, was a face that she could spot immediately. Hair that she saw every day in her brother. A face that resembled the face in her dreams. A face that was marked with age lines, and eyes harder than she remembered. Eyes that immediately met hers.

"Father," she whispered.

The door closed behind her and the deafening silence in the room made a minute feel like an hour. The chill in the air made Clary shiver, and goosebumps scattered on her skin. It was as if time had immediately stopped, and Clary wasn't sure if she was in a dream or she was in real life. She couldn't tell if this was just what she imagined her father to look like after all the years of absence, or if he was standing in front of her as a living, breathing person who she never even imagined seeing again.

Her shoulders jumped in shock, and she finally blinked when Jace's voice boomed in the room, louder than she had ever heard it.

"What the fuck is this?" Jace demanded. She looked over at him now, anger clearly on his face, his fists clenched, and Jordan's hand on his shoulder, discreetly holding him back. "Well?" He took a step forward, and Jordan's hand gripped his shoulder now.

Clary turned around when the door opened and slammed shut. She could only see the back of Alec's head, and the absence of her brother. She could feel Isabelle and Simon grab her hand, pulling her towards them, pulling her towards the door. She looked over her shoulder when they forced her to take steps towards them, Simon opening the door, Isabelle being the one to pull her now. And she looked back at the one who never took his eyes off her, her father's eyes silently asking her stay. But the door closed before he could convince her.

"Well?" Jace asked, his arms out, pulling away violently from Jordan's grip. Not expecting it, Maia put a hand over her mouth, silencing the gasp she let out. She put her hand over her eyes for a moment, unable to keep the control she usually had. Jordan crossed his arms, and Magnus followed Jace, who moved away from them. "You can't fucking answer me? You can't tell me why you've bombarded us with this?" He gestured towards Valentine. "With him." He looked at The Clave, who looked back at him with cold eyes. "Do you not understand who this is to me? To us?" He looked at his father. "To you."

"I didn't know he would be here, Jonathan," Stephen told him, Jace staring back at the eyes pleading to be believed.

Jace turned away, his hands going into his hair, pulling at the roots, and he threw his arms down, facing The Clave.

"We thought this would be an amazing way to get you all together," Louis, the one who led The Clave, spoke first.

Jace's harsh laugh filled the room. "You all together? Are you also talking about Jocelyn and Luke? Because like hell I will let that happen. Blindly leading us in here was enough—"

"We were hoping that we could all talk, Jace. That we could—"

"Stop. Stop talking. Stop explaining yourself. Stop making excuses for what this really is. A PR move." Jace gestured towards the closed door. "This is what you wanted, right? Some type of PR move." He put his hands in front of him in the air. "The Uprising: Reunited." He dropped his hands and tilted his head. "Is that the delusion you were conjuring up?" He scoffed and made his way towards the door. He turned, looking right at Valentine. "Also, can I just say fuck you? Because fuck you for showing up like this. Fuck you for how you damaged Clary and Jon and me and all of us. Fuck you for your affecting our lives until this very fucking day. Fuck you for the way you changed. Fuck you for taking her away from me all those years ago. Fuck you for ruining this incredibly massive day for all of us. And finally," he said with a sigh, "fuck you for ruining this last day we have all together for a while. You never understood family."

He looked at all of them across the room as he opened the door with his right hand.

"Fuck all of you. As if you haven't taken enough away from us already."

A/N: See, this was the reason why I wanted the next chapter written up before I posted this. I know that last part really brings up a lot of emotions and questions, aaannd I can't wait to hear them from you. Please know you don't have to wait long. I'll be posting the next chapter this weekend because I'lll be busy with work and a friend's wedding, but pleasee let me know what you thought of this one, and this chapter's cliffhanger. I've definitely missed hearing your thoughts.

Also, I know I keep saying how many chapters are left and that number keeps changing, but I know for sure that it will be 2 more chapters and then an epilogue. It'll be 3 left all in all. That's it. Really.

So, yes. Let me know what you think! Leave some reviews and feedback :)

Thank youu for the reviews, favorites, and alerts! Thank you for still reading along with this story, and thank you for the troopers who have caught up with this long ass story! You're all amazing.

Shout out to rippingbutterflywings for beta'ing chapters for this story even though you are insanely busy with school and life! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Sincerely. Always sending you positivity and light, alwaays.

Shout out to Lexi herondale carstairs, insolitasum, Guest (MLC), BookNerd12k, Guest, Saphira86, Debra Williams, MissChemicalReaction, anushkaraheja, District DivergentPotterhead, riya. , IridescentLight (YOU ARE AMAZING, thank you for alll of your great reviews), brightdarknessx, and Niamh42! Thank you guys for your reviews! Thank you for taking the time to do so, and just being wonderful enough to let me know what you think. And thank you to those who congratulated me and MLC! He sends his infinite thank you's as well. I really loved sharing that big moment in my life with you guys. It might take a while until the weekend to reply, but I definitely will be.

Guest (MLC): Thank you for the 1110th review, boss. And thank you for holding me up these months. A real life Jack.

Guest: Thank you so much for your two reviews! I'm glad you liked the chapter, and I'm happy you understood Jace in his need to steal Clary's journal. And thank you very much for your congratulations, my dear :)

Niamh42: Thank you for your review! And bless you for saying a happy 2nd anniversary to this story! You're incredible for remembering. Truly amazing. I'm hugging you for it.