Chapter 6

Gwen and Bean retired to the guest room soon after Clary and Isabelle had left the apartment for the night. Exhausted from the day's proceedings, it wasn't long before Mickey had passed out on the red couch that sat across from Grizz, snoring softly.

Grizz knew he should be getting to sleep himself. Tomorrow was going to turn into another long day of hiking back through the woods after all, but he wasn't tired. Instead, his mind kept replaying the events of the day. Needing a distraction, he reached over towards the lamp that was sitting on the end table behind his head and pulled on the string to turn it on. He then stretched his arm out to pull his dark green pack closer to him before unzipping the pocket that he had stowed the book that Sam had given him and flipped to the page he had dog-eared last night.

He was still engrossed in his book when he heard the door to Magnus' office open and Grizz raised his head briefly to see Alec slipping out of the room.

"You're still up?"

Grizz shrugged. "Can't sleep."

As Alec took a few steps closer to him, Grizz noticed him glance over at Mickey lying on the other couch, verifying the other boy was asleep before turning back to him.

"What are you reading?" he asked, nodding towards the book in Grizz's hands.

"Walden by Henry David Thoreau," he explained, showing him the cover. Not giving himself the chance to rethink what he was about to do, Grizz continued, "My boyfriend gave it to me before we left."

"Boyfriend?" Alec gave off a small smile and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You're–"

"Yes," Grizz voiced before Alec could say the word out loud. He then nodded in the direction of Mickey as an explanation. "They don't know."

"No one knows you have a boyfriend?"

"We just made things official the day before we left. I talked to Sam about it . . . He's okay with keeping it to ourselves. For now, anyways. I'm sure he's going to want to go public at some point."

"Sam is out?"

Grizz nodded shyly in confirmation before turning back to his book.

"Then, why aren't you? I mean, you took the step to get a boyfriend. Why don't you want to tell people about it?"

"I grew up with a mom that didn't want to accept me for being different. I guess I'm just worried that my friends are going to turn on me and start treating me the same way she did. For Sam . . . It was easier for him to come out."

"You told me," Alec pointed out. "That seemed pretty easy for you to do."

"You're gay too." Grizz motioned towards the closed office door before adding, "You're married to a man. It would be hypocritical of you to judge me for being the same."

Alec took a seat next to Grizz on the couch. Keeping his voice low to prevent Mickey from waking up, he said, "You know, I was terrified too right before I came out."

Grizz studied him out of the corner of his eye. "How did you get past the fear?"

Alec let out a heavy sigh. "My parents wanted to set me up with an arranged marriage. It just got to the point where I had to either suck it up and marry a woman or finally come out to everyone."

Grizz frowned at this. "Was Magnus an arranged marriage?"

Alec chuckle softly. "Thankfully, no. After I came out, my parents both backed off and let me date who I wanted. Although, it did take some time for them to come around to excepting Magnus."

They sat there in silence for a while after that, both lost in their own thoughts until Alec pushed himself to his feet.

"I'm going to head to bed. Don't stay up too late. Okay? I would like to get an early start heading towards your town if we can."

Grizz nodded in understanding before glancing at the closed office door. "Is Magnus not joining you?"

A small smile played on Alec's lips as he followed Grizz's gaze. "He's gotten into the habit of falling asleep at his desk. He's been working hard lately trying to find a way to get us all back home. That's part of what he is going to be discussing at his meeting tomorrow." Turning back to Grizz, he added, "If he hasn't come to bed in the next hour or so I'll come back to check on him."

Grizz woke to the smell of food cooking and loud, cheerful voices talking over each other coming from the kitchen. With a tired groan, Grizz slowly opened his eyes to find sunlight streaming through the glass doors that led out onto the apartment's balcony.

"Grizz, get up!" someone chirped happily as they strolled out of the guest room and started to make their way across the living room in the direction of the other voices. "Breakfast is almost ready."

Shifting, Grizz propped himself up on one arm to get a better angle on who was speaking to him to find Bean disappearing around the wall on the other side of the living room.

With a sigh, he rolled off the couch and forced himself to his feet. Retrieving some clean clothes from his bag along with his toiletries, he made his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

By the time Grizz headed back out to the living room, Bean and Gwen were busy setting the table.

"Grizz!" Gwen greeted with a smile. "Hope you're hungry. Magnus went a little overboard on the amount of food he prepared."

"Do they need any help?"

"Ask Alec. He's in the kitchen." Bean gestured behind her and Grizz walked off to find him.

The kitchen, Grizz discovered, was just as cluttered as the home office. An array of pots and pans hung down from a rack that was hanging from the ceiling. Open shelving along one wall stored an assortment of different cooking ingredients. The stovetop was located on the opposite side of the island where Magnus was currently stationed taking turns checking on the different foods that were busy sizzling in the pans that were in front of him. Even more pots and pans cluttered the open space of the island. Rather they were dirty instruments that he hadn't gotten around to cleaning yet or just more items that he didn't have the space for anywhere else, Grizz couldn't tell. Two different storage boxes were also sitting on the island; one with an array of cooking knives and the other was a clear container that held diverse wooden spoons and spatulas.

Mickey was over by the shelves searching for ingredients that Magnus must have asked him to fetch, while Alec stood off to one side watching his husband work.

"Morning, Grizz," Alec greeted, noticing him enter.

"Hey." Grizz nodded back. "Smells great," he added to the Asian man.

"Thanks. We're almost ready to eat."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"You can grab a couple of those serving plates and two of the bowls," Alec said, gesturing behind Grizz.

Turning around, Grizz saw yet more shelves, this one storing verse sized plates and bowls.

"Jace is going to be here soon," Alec added as Grizz got to work sorting through the dishes. "He's going to be eating with us."

"Who is Jace again?" Mickey asked, turning back towards the island.

"My brother," Alec explained. "I called him last night. He's going to accompany me with you guys back to your town."

As if on cue, there was a knock at the front door.

"That's probably him," Magnus reasoned.

As Alec headed out of the kitchen to answer the door, Magnus switched off the heat under the pans before gesturing to Grizz to bring over the serving dishes. Minutes later, Grizz and Mickey carried out plates piled with pancakes, bacon, and sausages with Magnus close behind with two bowls of scrambled eggs and mixed berries. Alec, Gwen, and Bean had already taken their seats with their new visitor; a blonde man with tattoos covering his exposed skin.

By the time the gang was finished eating, stomachs stuffed from the morning feast, Jace was all caught up on what was happening.

Making sure their bags were completely packed, they headed out the front door, down the stairs, and back out into the quiet streets of New York. This early in the morning, the roads were even quieter than yesterday and a shiver ran up Grizz's spine at the strangeness of the whole thing.

From the back of the party, Grizz could make out snippets of the conversation Mickey and Gwen were having with Jace as they led the way back to the park where they had exited the woods. It was nice to see how well they were already getting along.

Alec and Magnus were right in front of him, holding hands, which Grizz couldn't help but smile at seeing. It warmed his heart when Magnus had insisted on accompanying them to the park so he could see his husband off. It was bluntly obvious how in love the two of them were and he truly hoped that he could find someone that he could grow to cherish that much.

"What are you smiling about?"

Grizz spun his gaze to stare at Bean who was walking beside him. "What? . . . Nothing."

Bean furrowed her eyebrows at him before leaning towards him. Lowering her voice, she said, "They sure seem happy together, don't they?"

Grizz could just nod somberly before focusing back on their path and spied the entrance to the park up ahead.

Finding the familiar shrubs that boarded the outskirts of the trees where they had exited, Grizz made his way up to the front of their group allowing Alec and Magnus to have a few minutes alone.

"How many people are you missing from your town?" Jace asked as the minors gathered near him.

"There are just teenagers left back in New Ham," Mickey explained. "Our parents . . . All of our siblings . . . They are all gone."

"It's just the Junior and Senior classes from our high school that are left," Gwen added.

"So, who is in charge now?"

"Her name is Allie," Grizz spoke up. "She took over after her sister died a few months ago."

The blonde nodded in understanding and glanced back at his brother to find Alec pulling out of the hug that he had been giving Magnus and leaned in to give him one last kiss goodbye before walking over to join them.

With a final wave from their group, Grizz led the way into the woods, the soft crunching of dead leaves underfoot his sign that the others were following him.

He was fully expecting to run into the weird barrier that they had come across on their way in yesterday, and was surprised when they passed by the location without incident. Shrugging it off quickly, Grizz continued forward in the direction of home, ready to see Sam again.