Chapter 27: New Life
Hello everyone and welcome to another chapter! Starting again this week I'm going to start uploading new chapters twice a week! There will be this normal chapter on Tuesdays (possibly Mondays for you), and another chapter on Fridays (possibly a Thursdays for you)! I'll also be asking a question at the end of this chapter that I would really appreciate if you answered!
"So today," Jace tells Clary as they walk to the set together, "I save your life."
"Your character saves my character's life," Clary clarifies, "don't go getting ahead of yourself there buddy."
"Well, you really shouldn't go making deals with the devil," Jace says, smirking at her.
"I made a deal with Hades," Clary says, "not the devil. And really, I only died because I was saving your life. So you owe me one."
"Oh is that right?" Jace asks, and he quickly starts chasing after Clary. He easily catches up and picks her up, throwing her over his shoulder and walking her to set.
"You know," Clary says, still hung over his shoulder, "I really don't mind the view."
He softly places her in her chair, and says, "that's not appropriate talk for work, Mrs Herondale."
"Then don't give me a chance to stare at your butt, and I won't comment on it," Clary says, smiling up at him.
"How are you two still so in love?" Stanley Tucci, who was playing Hades asks, "doesn't the whole twins thing take it out of you?"
"Maybe one day," Clary admits, "but not yet."
"Actors to set," someone calls.
"Well hold onto it," Stanley says, before heading onto set.
"Act well," Clary tells Jace as she heads in the opposite direction of him.
"Thanks for the tip!" he calls out, grinning at her.
They were close to finishing filming - they only had this scene and one other left to film. It had been a great experience, especially when Clary had gotten used to the idea of the twins staying home with Diana. She was a great babysitter, she just felt weird not being around them.
She wasn't sure when, or if she was ever going to do another movie with Jace, so she was really trying to make this one count.
Clary had to lay down on the rock and play dead, and Jace would carry her 'soul' back to her body, and she would wake up. After making sure that she was in the right position, someone applies some more powder to her face and then they were ready to film.
Jace comes over carrying the 'soul', and after kneeling down next to her, someone yells 'wake', and Clary slowly opens her eyes and smiles up at Jace, who smiles back down at Clary.
"Wonder boy," she says, "what… why did you…"
He slowly helps her stand up while saying, "people always do crazy things… when they're in love."
She gasps as her smile grows bigger, and they both lean in to kiss each other, but just before their lips meet, the director calls cut.
The film the scene over again for the rest of the morning, and on their final take, they don't listen to the director calling cut, and actually, finally kiss. They kiss for a moment, before they hear laughing, and the director says, "okay… that's enough you two. I think we can call that a wrap for this scene.
Clary and Jace both laugh, before heading to craft service to get some lunch.
"Really, it's perfect timing," Clary says, looking at herself in the mirror. "I mean, we only finished filming a week ago - anytime soon and it would have been obvious I was pregnant."
Clary's stomach had 'popped' one week after they'd finished filming Hercules - something she'd been slightly worried about happening too soon. Sure, there was always creative editing and effective use of props, but it made everything so much easier that it happened a little later.
"Well," Jace says, "I'm thankful that it happened at all."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Clary asks, pulling down her shirt and laying on the bed next to Jace.
"Just that I don't think I've told you how happy I am about this enough. I know you were nervous to tell me, and I've realised that's completely on me - I should have been more open with you from the beginning," Jace says, resting his hand on top of Clary's.
"Well, I'm glad you're happy," Clary says, "because this baby's coming in six months whether you like it or not!"
"Well I do like it - love it. I love you," Jace says to Clary's stomach, "and your mommy."
Clary kisses Jace on top of the head, before scooching off the bed.
"I'm going to go feed the twins, and then can you get them changed? I don't want to be late to Magnus and Alec's," Clary asks Jace
"Whatever you need," Jace says, getting off the bed himself and heading into the bathroom.
Clary goes down the hall to the twins room, where they are both lying awake in their cots.
"Good morning my beautiful little babies!" Clary says, opening the blinds to let in some light. "Did you sleep well? Do you want some breakfast?"
Clary picks up both kids and takes them down to the living room, places them both in the high chairs and begins preparing the formula for them.
Just before they finish their bottles, Jace comes down to the kitchen, kisses Clary on the temple and takes the bottles from her so she can go get ready herself.
After showering and getting ready, Clary goes back to the kitchen. On her way, she can hear Jace talking to one of the babies while he dresses them. She makes Jace and herself a cup of coffee, and the whole family is in the car and on the way to Magus and Alec's right on time.
"I wonder how they're handling it?" Jace asks as they pull into the driveway.
"I'm sure they're doing fabulously," Clary says.
After Jace parks, she gets Teddy, and Jace gets Ella and they head inside. They can hear Izzy and Simon talking in the living room, and quickly follow the sound.
"You are just precious, aren't you!" Izzy says, speaking in a baby voice, "and now I have one beautiful goddaughter, and a very handsome godson!"
"Hello!" Jace calls out as they enter the living room.
Everyone, save Izzy, turns to greet them.
"And how are the new parents?" Clary asks Magnus and Alec as they come to hug her.
"We've been handling it very well," Magnus says matter-of-factly. "It's all actually quite easy this parenting thing."
"This is the first time he's put product in this hair in days," Alec reveals, smirking. "And that's the first belt he's worn."
Clary laughs a little, but quickly stops when she sees Magnus's sour expression. "But seriously, it's been okay?"
"Yeah," Alec says, "I mean sure we're tired, and I don't remember what it's like to sleep through the night… but we're getting on fine."
"Welcome to parenthood," Clary says, "you're going to love it!"
Jace was already sitting on the couch introducing Teddy to Raphael, "and he's going to be just like a cousin," Jace is telling Teddy, "and you two, and Ella are all going to be best friends!"
"Hey Clary, would you be able to help me please!" Magnus calls from the kitchen. Clary hands Ella off to Simon, who was sitting on the other side of Izzy and heads towards the kitchen to help Magnus.
"What do you need?" Clary asks, nudging him with her shoulder.
"I just wanted to tell you, congratulations," Magnus says, smiling down at her.
"For what?" Clary asks.
"That flowy shirt isn't fooling me, Clary Herondale," Magnus says, raising an eyebrow.
"Shhhh," Clary says, and then purposely pushes the tea towel off the bench so they both have to duck behind the kitchen island to pick it up. "Okay so… yeah, I'm pregnant. But please don't tell anyone for a while."
"But Jace knows… right?" Magnus asks.
"Yeah, of course he does. We're just not telling people yet," Clary says in a hushed voice.
"Why not… if your stomachs popped you must be at least three months, if not more," Magnus asks.
"It's just not the right time," Clary says.
"Hey Clary, are you okay?" Jace calls from the couch. Clary gives Magnus a look, grabs the tea towel and stands back up.
"Yeah, was just getting this," Clary says, holding up the tea towel. Magnus slowly raises beside her, and Jace gives them both a confused look, but continues talking to the babies anyway.
"Now did you actually need help with anything?" Clary asks.
"Ummm, just take that tray over to the coffee table please," Magnus says, pointing at a tray with pasties beautifully arranged on it.
"How do you find the time?" Clary asks herself, picking up the tray.
"Because I've only got one," Magnus whispers.
"Oh, shut up!" Clary says.
Clary places the tray down on the coffee table and sits next to Simon, getting a good look at Raphael for the first time in real life.
"He really is beautiful you guys," Clary says, leaning over and tickling him on the stomach.
"How'd Max react when you told him he was the Godfather?" Kit asks, leaning on the couch behind Clary.
"I thought he might actually pee himself," Alec says, smiling at the memory.
"He couldn't sit still for the rest of the dinner," Magnus adds. And then he went out and bought Raph all of these comic books for us to read to him - we didn't have the heart to tell him that he was too young."
"Hey, you're never too young to start reading comic books," Simon says.
"Damn straight," Clary says, and then fist bumps Simon's.
"You two are such nerds," Jace says.
"What did we marry?" Izzy agrees.
"Hey, don't sit here and pretend like you don't love Star Wars," Simon says.
"Yeah but they're movies…" Izzy says as if this justifies everything.
"There are Star Wars comic books," Simon says.
"Really?" Izzy asks, sounding slightly excited.
"See! You're a nerd too!" Simon tells Izzy.
"What'd you do to her?" Kit asks, "she used to be so cool."
"Hey!" Izzy and Simon say at the same time.
"Can we stop talking about some books and continue talking about how fabulous our new son is!" Magus asks.
"Sorry Mags, of course we can," Izzy says.
And so they spent the rest of the day letting the babies play, and talking about how beautiful Raphael was.
A few days later, Jace comes home in the afternoon looking very happy.
"What'd you just do?" Clary asks, "see a mirror?" And then she laughs at her joke.
"Ha ha," Jace says, "I just got home from my audition."
This sobers Clary up. "Your audition?"
"Yeah, remember. I told you about it a couple of days ago?" Jace says, kissing each of his kids on the cheek.
"I guess I just thought… never mind. How'd it go?" Clary asks, sounding a little lost.
"It went really well," Jace says enthusiastically. "They pretty much gave me the role. Said nothing had compared to my audition yet, and they didn't think anything could."
"That's… great," Clary says.
"Why don't you seem as excited by this as I am?" Jace asks.
"I just umm… I'm pregnant," Clary says.
"I'm aware," Jace says, amused.
"And we've got twins," Clary says, begging him to connect the dots.
"Another thing I'm aware of," Jace says, his smile fading a little.
"Right," Clary says.
"So I asked, by the way, the movie will be finished shooting before you're eight months pregnant. And it'll fit in perfectly around everything else - you know like press for Hercules and everything," he says, becoming excited again.
"So you really want to do it?" Clary asks reluctantly.
"I think it'd be great - it's going to be shot in so many counties. And it's a bond kind of spy film, and I've never really don't anything like that before. And I think it'll be good to do one final big movie before we have three kids and everything just becomes more complicated," Jace says, speaking quite quickly.
"Right," Clary says again, trying to process everything.
"They said they'd call tonight to let me know if I've got the role or not," Jace says.
"Sounds like you've pretty much decided to do it," Clary says, leaning back onto the counter top.
"Well… yeah. It feels like the right movie for right now," Jace says.
"Jace?" Clary says, looking straight into her husband's eyes, "if I asked not to film a movie, would you do it?"
"I mean… I'm sure you'd have a good reason. So yeah, probably," Jace says slowly. "Why? Are you asking me not to do this movie?"
"No," Clary says slowly, hoping he'll pick up all the signals she's sending, "I'm not asking you not to do it."
"Okay," Jace says, grabbing a snack out of the fridge. "I'll help you put the twins down for their nap in a minute."
Clary rolls her eyes at him. There was still a chance he wasn't going to get the role, or that he'd figure out what she was trying to tell him before he accepted. "Thanks."
They were in the middle of dinner when Jace's phone rang. He sprung up and quickly hurried outside to take the calling, leaving Clary inside, stabbing her salad with her fork.
"Thank you, thank you," Jace is saying as he walks back inside. The moment he hangs up the phone he throws it onto the couch and jumps, and then rushes over to Clary and kisses her. "I got the role."
"And you're going to accept it?" Clary asks.
"Yeah," Jace says, clearly confused at her lack of excitement, "I just did."
"Wow," Clary breaths out. She picks up her bowl and empties it into the bin, roughly places it in the sink and then goes into their bathroom, locks the door and starts running a bath.
How could he not see how much she didn't want him to do this? she thought to herself. He was really just going to leave his two kids and pregnant wife alone for months while he filmed a movie - a movie he didn't need to do.
She went to bed without another word to Jace, and when he tried to get closer to her in bed that night, she quickly turned to face the wall, and moved as far away from him as possible.
"So the plan," he tells her the next morning, "is to train here - they're going to send a trainer and dietitian and everything over. I've got two months to prepare for the role before I leave for Canada. Then we film in Canada for about a month, and then in about… five other countries for the next two months."
"So you'll be finished in five months?" Clary asks.
"Yeah," Jace answers.
"So you'll finish after I'm eight months pregnant?" Clary says.
"What?" Jace asks.
"I was three months pregnant two days ago… so unless this two month preparation started like a week ago, you'll be finished after I'm eight months pregnant," Clary says.
"Okay… so maybe by a few days… but it won't be an issue," Jace says, completely ignoring the fact that he missed the three month date. The only reason Clary hadn't bought it up was that she didn't want to take attention away from Alec, Magnus and Raphael. And she was hoping he would release on his own…
"I'd given birth to the twins by that stage," Clary reminds him.
"Yeah but… twins are always born early… and you had really rare complications - it won't happen again," Jace says, reassuring Clary.
"So long as you're comfortable with possibly missing the birth of your baby," Clary says, abruptly standing. She didn't care if she was being a bitch. She didn't want him doing this movie, but she needed him to realise that on his own.
"Clary!" Jace says, standing as well, sounding shocked.
"It's the truth," Clary says, clearing their plate. "But I guess it's your choice…"
In Clary's mind, Jace made the wrong choice. In Jace's mind, he was doing exactly what a husband and father should do. For the next two months Jace would train for most of the day while Clary would write. He was on a strict diet of lean meats and vegetables, while Clary would eat anything and everything she craved. While Jace slowly lost weight and put on muscle, Clary was slowly growing.
It's not until a week before he's meant to be leaving for Canada that he realises he may have made a mistake accepting the role. Clary was becoming slower, and the twins were becoming faster. Maybe he shouldn't be leaving at all, but staying home to help Clary and take care of the twins.
He calls Izzy to make sure he isn't making the wrong decision.
"Jace it's too late to pull out," Izzy tells him.
"I know it wouldn't be good to pull out now, but I'm more interested in Clary at the moment that the movie," Jace tells her.
"She'll be fine Jace. She's a big girl and Simon and I will be here to help anyway," Izzy tells him.
"Yeah, but you're due pretty soon," he says, "so who'll be able to help when you've had your baby. And Raph is still so young. Everyone's got their hands full. I really think I should stay and help Clary."
"Jace, she's going to be okay. I promise Simon and I will be able to help - and Raph will be much older by the time Clary has her baby. We're a family. We're here to help each other," Izzy says.
"But-"
"No, Jace. Just accept it. It's too late to pull out, and Clary will be more than okay without you home. I promise to call if anything happens, and I'll get you on the first flight back to L.A.," Izzy says. It's true that she maybe wouldn't have put Jace up for the role if she'd known Clary was pregnant, but they'd come too far to pull out now.
"Yeah, okay," Jace says taking a deep breath, "but you have to promise-"
"Of course I promise," Izzy says.
It had definitely helped settle Jace's nerves. Clary had been acting strangely towards him ever since he mentioned going to the audition, but that was around the three month mark of her pregnancy, so maybe it was just the hormones.
Her behaviour, and his doubts, didn't stop him from leaving a week later.
"I'll be coming home every weekend," Jace promises Clary at the airport. "And I promise that filming will be done by the time you have out next baby."
"I'll see you next weekend," Clary says, holding his hand through the window.
"I love you," he tells her, kissing her hand.
"I love you too," she replies, and then watches him walk away, silently begging for him to come back.
Jace is true to his word for the first month, and comes home each weekend to be with the kids and help Clary with everything. But they quickly start falling behind schedule, so he can't come back for the weekends, because they have to start making up for lost time. He then starts filming all over the world, so it's not actually possible for him to come home each weekend anyway.
It meant that he missed Izzy having her baby. She was a gorgeous little girl with little wisps of black hair, deep brown eyes and pale skin. Simon and Izzy asked Alec and Clary to be the Godparents, which they happily accepted.
Thankfully, everyone having their own children didn't make them too busy to see each other. If anything, it now made more sense than ever for them to all be together. They would spend each day at someone's house, usually Clary's, so that they could all look after the babies together. Clary wasn't sure if Jace had asked them to do this, or if they all just saw she was struggling, but she was grateful for the help either way.
Hello, I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Now for my question... when the kids get older they are going to start playing an important role in the story... but I just couldn't decide on a name for Simon and Izzy's kid. At the moment I'm deciding between Phoebe and Elizabeth, so let me know if you like either of those, or have your own suggestion! Please let me know, because I really can't decide! Anyway, I'll see you on Friday with a new chapter. Hope you're all happy and healthy until then :)