Chapter Fourteen: Cold Feet Isabelle?

The morning before our wedding day, the boys have been up since dawn because they wanted to make us a hearty breakfast. I decide to sleep in until I start to smell the bacon cooking and then pry myself reluctantly out of bed. "Coming Iz?" I ask, leaning over to kiss her.

"You go, Sweetie. I'll have mine later, I feel like sleeping in." She says.

"Okay, do you want me to call you at some point?" I ask.

"No, just let me sleep, please." She whispers, eyes shut.

"Okay, I'll let Jon and Jace know not to disturb you." I smile. "Have a good rest, Babe."

I leave the bedroom and make a beeline for the kitchen, stopping briefly in the hallway only long enough to pet our recently acquired Heinz 57 puppy, Joplin, a shaggy little caramel-brown cutie, who, as you may guess by the name was a gift from Jocelyn.

I pull up a stool to the breakfast bar and smile at my boys. Watching them slave away over a hot stove is so sexy. "I truly do hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Izzy's sleeping in today. She seems like she needs to rest so I didn't want to press it." I say, stealing a strip of bacon before the boys have the plates dished.

"Well, I have no problem pressing my luck, so I'm going to go in and try myself. No sense having all this food go to waste." Jon says, flipping a last pancake and wiping his hand on a tea towel before heading in to check on Isabelle.

Jon's POV

"Good morning gorgeous." I say, crawling under the blankets with Izzy. She barely stirs but I can tell she's awake. "So, what's the matter Baby?" I ask, wrapping my arms around her from behind and pulling her close.

"Nothing, just resting." She whispers with a sigh.

"You lie like toast." I exhale. "Don't think that you can fool me for a second. Something is wrong and it's something you don't want to talk about. Now, why is that?" I pry, not willing to let it drop just yet, (since she's always up much earlier than this when she knows there is bacon on the table).

"If there is anything wrong, it's not something you can help me with. I just need to be alone with my thoughts Jon, okay? Please don't take it personally or worry about it. No one has done anything to upset me and I'm not mad at anybody. There's just something weighing on my mind a bit. But I'll figure it out, okay?" She says, rolling over to face me. "I love that you want to make me feel better and I appreciate the effort." She says, giving me a deep, lingering kiss for my trouble. "I think I just, need to deal with this one on my own." She sighs.

"Okay, I trust your judgement Babe. And I know you'd come to me if you needed help, right? Or to one of us at least. You know, anything you ever do need to talk about, I'd listen, right?" I say, pressing gentle kisses to her hairline, her forehead, her cheeks and nose and chin, just trying to kiss her all better.

"Yes My Love, I know that." She smiles slightly before burrowing further into the covers.

"One last question before I go." I say, tentatively. Afraid to ask, yet determined to do so. "You aren't having any second thoughts about tomorrow, are you? It's okay if you are. I've heard that can happen. Like a last minute panic attack kinda thing. No one would judge you about it, you know that, right?" I say, trying desperately to keep eye contact, despite the water threatening to leak out of my eye sockets. "We love you, no matter what, okay?"

She pulls herself up so that she is partially in a sitting position and looks right through my eyes and into my very soul, when she says gently but firmly "Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern, I love you and I love Jace and I love Clarissa, and I do not have cold feet. That is one thing I can promise you without a shadow of a doubt, okay. My feet are nice and toasty, and tomorrow, I will be there, with bells on, elated to be marrying the three most wonderful people in the world." She smiles, and pulls me into a lovely, luscious kiss, which I don't want to end.

"I believe you, I was just curious. Besides, I plan on asking Jace and Clay the same thing. I want tomorrow to be the happiest day of all our lives thus far. I want to know that my brides and my groom are as enthusiastic about this as I am. Anyway, thank you for your reassurance Izzy. It means a lot, Baby. Did you want us to put aside some of the pancakes and bacon for you for later?" I ask, getting up to leave the room after giving her one last hug.

"Yeah, I'll probably be totally famished when I do decide to get up, it just won't be for a while still. Thank you, for being so considerate Jon." She smiles and blows me a kiss before shutting her beautiful eyes again. I make my way back to the kitchen and sit down to eat with Jace and Clary.

Jon comes back from talking to Izzy with a big grin on. "That must've gone well?" I ask him.

"Yeah, she's so damn beautiful when she's sleepy." He gushes. "But her feet are warm, so, I for one, am relieved." He smirks.

"Her what?" I ask, taking a minute to register. "Oh! You thought her hiding out in bed was about the wedding?" I ask.

"Well, I didn't know what to think. I mean you've known Izzy your whole life, Clay. So you have an intuitive, instinctual, thing with her like I have with Jace. If Jace were having second thoughts, I'm sure I'd pick up on it, but with Izzy, and even with you, it's mostly guess work. So if you lovely ladies don't tell me how you're feeling, then I won't know. Does that make sense?" He looked at me expectantly.

"Is that your subtle way of checking the temperature of my feet, Jon?" I giggle. "Cuz you don't have to beat around the bush you know." I smirk.

"Oh, but I love beating around your bush, baby, if you catch my meaning." He says, raising his eyebrows mischievously at me.

"Okay, dirty boy! Let's not get so sidetracked here. Especially since Izzy's trying to sleep and all of our guest rooms are full of sleeping guests. If you get me all horny I'm going to have to make you fuck me in the kitchen and I think that would be really awkward when our guests start piling in for breakfast, don't you?" I laugh.

"Okay, so, back on topic here, how are your feet Clay?" He asks, looking at me with puppy dog eyes.

"My feet are going to be practically skipping down that aisle tomorrow, because I absolutely can't wait to be Mrs. Clarissa Adele Herondale-Morgenstern." I beam. We found out that for Jace to be a registered Herondale and eligible for the manor house, we have to hang on to the Herondale name, and we figure the Morgenstern part represents the rest of us pretty well since Jon has Morgenstern blood and Izzy had a Morgenstern upbringing and I have had both. So the four of us are going to become the Herondale-Morgensterns.

"Perfect, then we're all on the same page." Jon smiles.

"Wait just a minute!" Jace exclaims. "You say you know me so well Jon, but do you really? Maybe my feet are ice cold huh?" He says, clearly just playing the antagonist for the fun of it.

"Well then, Jace, I'll tell you what I'll do. If your feet need to be warmed up, I will run you a bath, strip you down, lower you into the steaming hot water, and climb in after you. And then, I will mount you and remind you, with every single thrust of all of the many reasons why your feet should be warm. And with every kiss, I will remind you of how well you are loved. How does that sound?" Jon says, breathing the words into Jace's ear, barely loud enough for me to catch them.

"Makes me wish my damned feet were cold." Jace pouts.

Everyone else gradually came in from their rooms to have breakfast. After everyone had all eaten, Maryse asked why Izzy was still in bed. She seemed surprised when we said she just wanted to sleep in and that nothing serious was wrong, but left it at that. Later that afternoon, Chelsea brought over the dresses which she picked up for us, fresh from their final alterations.

We made the boys keep their eyes averted and took the dresses away so they wouldn't see them, but the rest of us oohed and ahhed over them of course. All except Izzy, who was still in bed. "Clary, mind if I take her dress in to her? It's one o'clock and this is getting somewhat ridiculous. Maybe she'll talk to me." Maryse asks me.

"Yeah, no problem. Good luck!" I sigh.

Izzy's POV

My mom comes in, without knocking, to check on me. And she seems surprised to find me awake, staring up at the ceiling. "Good Morning Isabelle. Or should I say good afternoon? Were you just getting up?" She asks me.

"No I've been up quite a while." I say.

"Okay. They tell me you're not having second thoughts about the wedding, but I thought I'd come see for myself what the trouble was." She says, acting like that is the only possible explanation.

"I'm not having second thoughts. This isn't about the wedding at all and I wish people would stop assuming that it is." I sigh.

"Well then, what is it, Izzy if it's not that?" She huffs.

"It's about the wedding night if you must know." I say, since she obviously won't go away until I tell her. "I'm freaking out about the wedding night." I say, almost breaking down.

"Oh sweetheart! That's what this is about? Oh my. I don't think you need to worry about that. I mean, I'm sure you know all about what happens and if you're nervous, just have a drink or two at the wedding beforehand to calm yourself. They know it's your first time, I'm sure they'll be mindful of that." She says, clearly trying not to be ooged out by this discussion.

"Ugh Mom! I don't mean that I'm upset about the idea of losing my virginity. I'm looking forward to that aspect of it just fine. The thing that I've been worried about; is the bigger question of whom. After all, I'm marrying three people and last I checked, I only have one cherry to pop. Hence, my dilemma." I grimace, pretty ooged myself to be talking about such things with my mother. "I thought about just giving it to Clary so I don't have to choose between the boys because that seems fair, but she doesn't exactly have the necessary equipment and I'm not too keen on the idea having my very first time be with a rubber dildo, if I'm completely honest. It just seems more impersonal that way, somehow." I sigh.

"Oh, well that's perfectly understandable, and I really don't mean to sound insensitive, but you seem you be making this issue all about you, honey. And, last I checked, there were three other people involved with you in this. Maybe, some of them have their own preferences that need to be considered here. You seem to be under the impression that your wedding night will be a sort of contest in which the winner gets to claim your virginity. But maybe, they don't all want that responsibility. After all, your first time, while enjoyable, will most likely also be messy and painful. Maybe, rather than trying to figure all this out by yourself, you should think about what your partners might want and then talk to them about it. I can't stress enough how important communication is in any relationship. Does that make sense?" she smiles.

"Yeah. Actually it does, Mom. Thank you!" I smile. Happy to finally have a game plan. "And, I think I will talk to them about it. When you said to think about what they want, it dawned on me that Jon will most likely want to be with Clary first. I know he's been feeling insecure of her lately. I think he's worried that with the whole sibling thing, she's going to change her mind about him. And, I know she never would, but he's still nervous about it anyway. Thanks for the outside perspective. I hadn't realized how selfish I was being." I say, giving her a hug before looking over my dress, which she brought in, with her and then kicking her out so I can change out of pajamas and into daytime clothes, finally. Man, I feel so much better now!