I don't think she's gonna make it
John peered through the crack in Jace's bedroom door. He was lying in bed, wearing nothing but an old white t-shirt covered in stains and grey sweatpants that had a hole in the crotch. He sniffled softly as The Notebook played quietly from his laptop. He shovelled more ice cream into his mouth.
John shook his head and sighed. "I don't know, Alec. He doesn't look good. I've never seen him this bad."
Alec sighed aggressively. "Maybe because you've only known him for like 4 days."
John ignored this and leaned away from the door. He walked out towards the stairs where cell reception was better. "We need to do something to end this before he eats his abs away. Alec… his abs."
"Stay focused," Alec hissed. "What do you want me to do about it? He dug his own grave here. Clary's not happy either."
"I was talking to him last night," John said. "He said he's really upset about what happened and regrets what he said. He wants a chance to make things right with Clary. I think he's realizing how much of a dick he's been and is starting to understand her side of things."
"Hm," Alec pondered. "Maybe we could organise something. Think you could get him over to my place? I'm sure if we could just get the two of them alone in a room together we could try to get the conversation started."
"Yeah, I can give it a try. Anything to get him out of bed and away from that tub of ice cream. I haven't seen Jordan in days because I've been stuck on babysitting duty…"
"Listen, just get him over here and Magnus and I can handle the rest."
"Why can't I wear this?" Jace wined. He had moved on from ice cream to eating cake with his fist like a baby. He sat at the kitchen counter watching Twilight on his laptop and shovelling cake into his face.
"Because you look like shit and you smell worse. Alec wants to have a bros night, how are we supposed to bro out if you stink like an unwashed dick?"
"Alec doesn't care about how I smell."
"He will once he smells you. Trust me, this is vile. Also you look like a fresh corpse."
"Aha!" Jace exclaimed. "So you admit I look fresh!"
John threw his hands in the air. "You know what, I give up. Wear whatever you want. Just wash the cake off your hands and let's go."
Jace stood and started licking the cake from his fingers.
By the time they reached Magnus and Alec's place, it was almost dark. John had insisted on walking, mostly because he didn't want Jace in any form of vehicle.
Once they had reached the end of the driveway, they knocked on the door.
Jace was suddenly knocked back by a powerful spray of water. John turned and saw Magnus standing outside of the garage with what looked like a power washer. He was wearing a head-to-toe bedazzled hazmat suit and a gas mask underneath.
Jace sat on the driveway and pouted like a child as Magnus sprayed him down and slowly approached close enough to throw some dish soap onto him, which lathered quickly under the powerful spray of the hose.
"Sorry, Jace," Magnus exclaimed over his 2 layers of protection. "We could smell you coming from before you even left your house. Don't want the baby losing brain cells over your stench."
Once all the soap had been washed off of him and he was thoroughly soaked, Jace stood and began wringing his clothes out.
"There's fresh clothes for you in the garage." He turned and led them towards the side entrance.
Jace entered the garage and immediately shook his head. "I'm not wearing that."
"Then you're not coming inside."
Jace sighed and began stripping off his soaked clothes.
Magnus took out a blowdryer and a stool. "Sit down. Don't make me get the curler too."
Jace clenched his jaw but obeyed, and sat still while Magnus blow dried and fluffed his hair into a quaff that he normally would never sport.
Once he was done, Jace put on the dress pants and shirt. "Do I have to wear the jacket and tie?"
"Yes," Magnus hissed. "They complete the outfit."
"What about the shoes? We're just hanging out ins—"
"Yes, it is all mandatory."
"A full tuxedo, Mag?"
"Put it on or you're not coming in."
Jace sighed again and finished getting dressed. He protested only a bit when Magnus clipped a boutineer to his jacket pocket.
"Also take this," Magnus handed him a rose. "It completes the outfit."
Jace rolled his eyes and took the rose, but threw it to the floor when they entered the house. "Ok, enough. I know I'm here to talk with Clary, so enough dressup and enough games. Where is she?"
John sighed. "The nursery."
Magnus picked up the rose and tried to hand it to Jace again as he walked past them towards the staircase.
"Wait, Jace!" Magnus called. "Check your right pocket!"
Jace rolled his eyes but reached into his right pocket anyway. He found a small tin of mints and nodded at Magnus in thanks, pouring the entire thing into his mouth.
"Now check the left pocket," Magnus suggested.
Jace reached into his left pocket and pulled out a whole string of condoms. He rolled his eyes and turned to whip them back at Magnus. "Knock it off."
He left without looking back and walked up the stairs, shrugging off his jacket on the way. He tried not to sigh in exasperation when he saw more condoms fall from the jacket pocket. By the time he reached the nursery door, he was already removing his tie and kicking off his shoes.
He didn't knock. The door was open.
"Clary?"
She turned towards him, looking unsurprised but still annoyed.
"Here to talk, I assume?" she mumbled, putting James down in his crib.
He stood up immediately and held onto the front railing, bouncing on his little feet.
Jace stepped into the room tentatively, trying to gage how hostile Clary was before invading her space.
"Here to apologize, actually," Jace corrected. "I'm sorry for everything I said, and I'm sorry for how I've been acting these past few weeks. I know I've put you in a really difficult position and have only made things more uncomfortable for you. I wish I could go back and undo all of that, but I can't. I understand now how everything that I've said has just been cruel and unproductive, and I want a second chance to make things right. I really care about you, and I think we could make this work… if you're willing to give this dumb asshole another shot."
"I don't know," Clary muttered. She was looking at the far wall, refusing to turn fully towards him. Her eyes were wet and red like she had been crying, like she was still crying… "Why don't you ask Kaelie? Seems like you two have a lot of chemistry."
Jace sighed in indignation. "That… I can explain that. I should have explained that a while ago. Kaelie is… an old friend. We used to hook up every once in a while back in the day, but I haven't seen her in a long time. Not since I first met you. She texted me out of nowhere, I swear. I want nothing to do with her."
Clary exhaled slowly and reached up to wipe her eyes. "Well… I accept your apology. Thank you. I guess I might be willing to give this another try. But I'll need a little time to forget about what happened."
Jace nodded and reached out slowly to rub her back. "I understand. Take all the time you need. I'm just happy I don't have to avoid you anymore."
Clary picked up James and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "Well I guess we should go and tell the others that the war is over."
They stepped out of the nursery together and walked down the stairs into the living room to what looked like a surprise baby shower.
"Surprise!" Magnus cried, blowing on a party blower thing. There was a blue banner on the wall that said in giant letters 'IT WASN'T A GIRL!' and a large blue cake on the table. Alec stood in the corner rubbing the bridge of his nose like he was about to have a migraine. John sat on the couch looking as confused as Clary felt.
"What… is this?" Clary asked. She handed the baby to Alec as he approached.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered to Clary. "I begged him not to do it this way…"
"Magnus, this is really insensitive."
"No, no, Clary, you don't understand. Sign these papers and you can have James!"
"What?" Clary yelled.
Jace let out a single shocked laugh. John somehow managed to look even more confused than before.
"Magnus," Clary said slowly. She knew he hadn't thrown a party in a while and the withdrawal must have been getting to him. "I appreciate the sentiment but Jace and I are ok now. We don't need a replacement baby to make this better. And we definitely don't need your baby. You can't just go around giving children away."
Alec sighed. "I told you this was a weird way to tell them."
"Alec, shush." Magnus turned back to Clary and Jace. "Let me clarify. James is your biological child."
"Excuse me?" Clary exclaimed.
"Magnus," Jace warned. "This isn't funny."
"I'm not trying to be funny!" Magnus yelled. "Like maybe at first I was being a little dramatic but this is all for realsies! We did blood tests, he is your child." He handed them a piece of paper.
Clary ripped the paper from Magnus' hands and examined the contents of the page. Her eyes slowly widened further and further as she read.
"This is why you stole my blood?" Jace demanded.
"I can't believe it," Clary muttered. "What are the chances?"
"One in a million," Alec replied. "Kind of seems like it was meant to be, right?"
Clary laughed and took James from Alec's arms. She stared at him in wonder. "I can't believe you've been in front of me the whole time and I never realized."
"I can't believe you've been handling his shit this whole time and you never realized," Magnus mumbled.
"You waited this long to say anything," Jace noted.
"Well," Alec shrugged. "You two weren't exactly parent material before."
"I don't know if we're parent material now," Jace countered.
"Hey, I'm a nanny, bitch," Clary said. "Of course I'm parent material."
Jace shook his head. "But… are you willing to be a parent with me? Now? After we just fixed things like not even 10 minutes ago? And they're barely even fixed?"
Clary shrugged. "I'm willing to try if you are. And if it doesn't work out, we can just keep the receipt and return him."
"Haha," Jace said sarcastically. "But seriously… do you… want to be the mother of my child?"
"Listen," Clary narrowed her eyes. "I've already been taking care of him for the past year. And I've been dealing with you for just as long. Sounds like now I'm finally getting a pay raise and maybe a ring to go with it, why wouldn't I want that? Besides, I've always wanted to marry rich."
Jace laughed and put his arm around her. "Alright. If you're willing to try then so am I."
"I have rules though," Clary said, putting up a finger.
"Oh, I'm sure you do. And I can't wait to hear them."
Magnus jumped up and down and clapped his hands like a child. "Alec! Alec! It worked! My grand plan worked! I did it! I did it all by myself!"
Alec patted his husband on the back. "You know what? Yeah, you did."
"We do have one problem though," Jace said, looking at Alec. "The house I just built isn't exactly child-friendly. I think it might make more sense for Clary and I to live here. Maybe you and Magnus could…"
"YESYESYEYSYEYESYEYESYEYESYYESYEYSYESYEYSYESYESYEYSYESYESYEYSEYSYSYESYSYYYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYYSYSYSYSYSYSYSYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!" Alec screamed and picked Jace up from around his waist. He twirled him around and dropped him to the ground, then kissed him on the cheek. "Give me my fucking dream house, you dilf!"
John cleared his throat. "Sooo...I'm really happy that everything is working out for you guys but… Maybe I should just pretend not to have known any of this and you guys can just tell me when you tell everyone else at the grand reveal party… I'll just… leave." He stood, picked up the entire cake, and wobbled out like a child who just snuck a cookie from the cookie jar. "See you guys in a few days! Good luck with… all of that."
Clary laughed and waved James' hand like it was her own. "Goodbye uncle John! Say hello to uncle Jordan for me," she said in her best baby voice.
John sobbed quietly. "Stop, I'm gonna cry!" He scurried out.
Alec sighed and flopped onto the couch. "I'm so happy everything worked out."
This was the second last chapter guys! The finale will be u soon. Thanks for reading!
xoxo
-R&A