Chapter 35: Countdown

Hello and welcome back! I have a quick question I'd be really appreciative if you answered at the end of the chapter, but other than that I hope you enjoy...

It had been a few more months and Clary's due date was quickly approaching. This had probably been her easiest pregnancy yet. She knew what to expect and what it should feel like, and Jace and everyone else were being so helpful that she didn't feel too tired. She'd even been confident enough to go out in public when she was visibly very pregnant, which she hadn't done the previous two times.

As always, Clary had a plan for when she went into labour. Thankfully, she didn't need a plan this time because she didn't know if Jace was going to be there, but because she had three other kids to think about now, and she couldn't exactly bring them to hospital with her.

When she does go into labour, she is going to call Magnus and Alec, who will come over to her house with Raf to look after everyone. They told Clary that they would call on Izzy and Simon if they needed more help, but now that all the kids were a bit older, it was a bit easier to handle. After the baby is born, Jace will go back home to look after the kids again, and assuming everything goes well, Clary will come home with the baby a few days later.

In the meantime, however, Clary had their current life to deal with, which included signing the twins up for dance class. They seemed to love it so much that she thought they may enjoy it, and she hoped it would help them to get along with other children.

Jace wasn't sure if they were ready for something like that yet, seeing as they were barely three years old, and Clary admitted that she didn't start dance classes until she was nearly five. They decided that they could go to a couple of trial classes to see if they liked it. If it was a fit, they could keep going, and if it wasn't they could try again in a few years.

So after going shopping with Izzy to buy them cute little dance outfits, Clary brought them to class while Jace stayed home with Jace. Since Jace took him to the park, they seemed to get on a lot better, which Clary was glad about. Plus, she didn't think it was fair to make James sit and watch the twins dance for an hour.

After quickly introducing herself, Ella and Teddy to the dance teacher, Clary goes into the little room with a viewing window to watch their lesson. She thought she'd be able to get away with having a quiet afternoon watching her babies dance with some other kids, but she quickly noticed that every other mother in the room was whispering about her.

"She's so pregnant - isn't this going to be their fourth child?" one lady whispers.

"Honestly, I thought they'd have a nanny that would do this type of thing," another woman says, not even bothering to lower her voice, "her kind usually does."

"She's very young, isn't she?" the lady in front of her says, quickly turning to get a better look. "Think the first one was an accident?"

At this comment, Clary can't help but bud in, "they weren't an accident," is all she says, and then she looks back at Teddy, who is spinning around next to Ella.

"Excuse me?" the woman asks.

"I might be young," Clary explains, "but when I got pregnant I had been married for a year, I owned my house, my cars and had a job that was paying millions a year. My husband makes a lot of money as well, but I don't have to rely on him."

Clary hoped that she was being this snippy because of how pregnant she was, but people had been making comments like this about her and Jace for years, and it felt good to finally stand up for herself.

"Whatever," the lady says, rolling her eyes and leaning in to her friend to whisper.

After her response, the whispers seem to die down, so Clary is able to better focus on Ella and Jamie, which is really all she wanted to do.

Once they all get home, Ella and Jamie tell Jace about how much fun they had, and how badly they want to go back.

"They really looked like they had fun," Clary tells Jace later that night after they had put all the kids to bed. Clary could put up with a few bitchy comments if it meant Ella and Teddy were happy.

"I don't know… they're so young," Jace says, pulling back the covers on their bed.

"How about you come in next week," Clary suggests, "you can see for yourself how much they love it and then we can make a decision."

So, a week later, Jace joins Clary and James in the small room with the bitchy mothers to watch Ella and Teddy dance. Jace seemed to have the opposite effect Clary did. They all thought it was amazing that he would come to watch his children dance. And that it was so cute of him to be a young father. And they were so impressed that he wanted to play such a big role in his kids life - some even commented on how much James looked like him, which James ignored for the game of peek-a-boo he and Clary were playing.

The lady who made the comment about Teddy and Ella being an accident actually tries to get a photo with Jace, but she backs off pretty quickly when Jace says he's just here to see his children dance and to be with Clary.

Despite the mothers, Jace agrees that the twins seem to love the class, and so they sign them up to attend once a week for the moment.

While in their office sorting out future plans for the company, a man comes to talk to Clary and Jace about a TV show.

"The story would follow a band coming off the high of their recently released album and shows how they deal with fame and everything that comes with the new territory. We don't want to shy away from the nitty-gritty - we want to show the toll fame can have on relationships, and how tempting it can be to give in to drugs and alcohol and the 'star' life. We want Jace to play the main character - episodes would focus on different band members of course, and show how different people and events can shape a specific path - but we would want Jace to play the lead singer, and for his character to have the biggest transformation," he explains.

"We would also love for Clary to come on board - we want the music to be real, and authentic. Each episode will revolve around an event, which will produce a song for the band's next album. We'd also love to get your input to make the show as realistic as possible," he says, and then quickly adds, as if detecting what Clary would say next, "the show would in no way be based on your experiences, you would just be fixing and reshaping things that are too unrealistic. We want the show to feel really authentic."

Before either Clary or Jace has a chance to respond, he keeps talking, "we'd also like for Jace to come on board as a producer. We've seen what he's done in the past and it's something very we're very interested in having on board."

"I can't speak for Jace," Clary says after taking everything in, and resting her hands on her stomach, "but I'm not really in a position to take on anything like that yet."

"I'm also just really focused on my family at the moment - thank you for the offer, but I think we're both going to have to pass." Jace looks over to Clary, who nods in agreement.

"I totally understand that," he says, "and we're willing to wait. We haven't approached anybody else for these roles yet - and truth be told we don't want to. If both of you are flat out refusing, we've agreed not to go ahead with the project. We're willing to wait for as long as you need - years even."

"Why do you want us so badly?" Jace asks. He'd had people pitch things to him like this before, only to soon find out they'd offered the role to five other actors.

"We love the passion you two bring to everything. The authenticity Jace can bring to a role, and the rawness Clary can bring to her music. We want people to feel something watching this show, and that is going to be achieved with you two backing it."

"Who else have you offered it to?" Clary asks, clearly thinking along the same lines as Jace.

"No one. Like I said - we want you two. The show's just not going to happen without you."

"Could we have a while?" Jace asks, "to think everything over?"

"Of course, of course… here's my card - let me know what you decide," he says, handing a card over to Clary.

Woolsey Scott, director and producer. Praetor Productions.

"Don't feel pressured into doing anything," Jace says, resting his hand on Clary's knee, "he's trying to go for the big pitch to pressure us into accepting the roles quickly.

"I don't know," Clary responds, "he seems pretty excited - and it sounds like a good show."

"You want to do it?" Jace asks, sounding surprised.

"Not right away, obviously… but it'd be nice to work on one thing for a while, instead of writing one or two songs for one artist and them moving on."

"I have always liked the idea of being in a TV show…" Jace says, "and they say TV is quickly overtaking movies."

"What about your movie?' Clary asks, "you've been working on it for a year now - I thought you wanted to start filming that sometime in the next year?"

"It can wait," Jace says, "just like this show can - we don't have to make any decisions until we know what kind of position we're both in after this baby is born. Who knows - they may be an absolute handful and neither of us can work!"

"And we've got to try and get the twins to get along with Jamie first," Clary says, leaning back into her chair and rubbing her stomach.

"I was talking to Izzy about that actually," Jace says, "and she thinks James and B are such great friends because they've spent so much time, just the two of them - so I thought maybe if we get each of the twins to spend some one-on-one time with him that they might get along a bit better."

"It's worth a try," Clary says, holding her hands out so Jace can help her stand, "anything is."

So, that's exactly what they tried the next day. Jace took Jamie and Teddy along to the dog park with Alfie, and Jace said that Teddy seemed a bit disoriented to begin with because Ella wasn't with him, but he eventually warmed up to playing with Alfie and James. He said by the end they were even laughing together - which was something they'd never done before.

Ella, however, wasn't as easily persuaded. Jace took her and James down to the beach to play in the sand for a little while, and she just cried the whole time, calling out Teddy's name. James was quite happy to play by himself, Jace said, trying to walk in the sand and follow Alfie around.

At least they'd managed to make some progress with Teddy. He still seemed to prefer to play with Ella, but he definitely wasn't shutting down the idea of playing with James anymore - Ella seemed to do it for him.

Hope you enjoyed that! My question is... after this next baby is born, I've got a few chapters planned, but then I was thinking of doing an age jump so the kids are all a bit older - probably about five years. I was also thinking of doing a third story which really focuses on the kids. So let me know what you think about both those ideas - the time jump and the third story. I'll only do the third story if people actually seem interested in the idea. Anyway, I hope you're all happy and healthy, and I'll see you next week :)