Disclaimer: Cassandra Claire owns everything, except for those children, they're all mine!

Chapter 6

Resuscitation:

June 24, 2020

"Mama! Mama!" Ethan yelled as he ran toward me with a wild grin in place, his curly strawberry blonde hair was filled with flower petals and grass stains covered his little legs. I couldn't help but laugh at the sight, Ethan definitely wasn't one for flowers. I held out my arms for him and within seconds he had burrowed his small body in my grasp. "What is it sweetie?" I asked as I wiped at his tear smudged face. "Lil won't stop throwing flowers in my hair. She wants me to play princesses with her and I keep telling her that I'm a boy but she won't listen!" Ethan explained with his lips in a pout. "Oh Ethan honey, that's nothing to cry about. Why don't you just play the prince? That's a boy," I suggested as I pulled petals out of his hair. "But I want you to play too," Ethan whined as he stared up at me with his bright green and gold ringed eyes.

"Okay," I laughed as I got up from my seat. I had been in the middle of finishing a painting, it was my job after all. It had been almost four years since Jace and I ran away from the Clave and taken root in Idris. Ethan, Noah, and Lilian don't know, of course, and I hope we won't ever have to tell them, but if the time comes we'll have to explain it the best we can. The fact that they will never meet their grandparents, never know where there parents grew up, never walk the same streets, never meet our old friends. Its a sad and hard topic to think about, but its inescapable. Its something that I think of every time I look at my children.

On a happier note, living here as gotten much easier. I now know my way around, and even though this place seems so big, it really isn't too hard to get around once you get the hang of it. Jace still works at the local school as a kindergarten-sixth grade teacher, he even teaches a music class in the summer. Because of all his jobs his time at home is limited to the weekends and after 3:30pm during the school year, and he doesn't get home until noon during the summer weekdays, but I could never ask him to quit his job. He just loves it too much for me to do that to him. Thankfully I'm able to work at home, which helps now that we have not two but three children. Jules took a few of my pieces to an art dealer that sells a few of his paintings and they sold within the week. Now I get requests from all over Idris. I don't know what we would have done if my artwork didn't sell the way it did, I would have had to get a job away from home, away from my children. But we had nowhere for them to go, I guess we just got lucky.

Noah and Ethan are already four years old now, they're just growing up so fast. Their heads reach my waist now, a height they got from their father no doubt, and they already know so many things. I almost cried when I walked into the boys' room to see them reading a book to Lillian. Lillian Grace Herondale is our youngest child. She was born April 26, 2017, putting her at three years old. Lil has my red hair, but hers falls in long ringlets. She has my pale skin coloring and a light dusting of freckles across her cheeks and the tops of her shoulders. Even with all of those traits of mine, she still resembles Jace in many ways. She is tall, for a three year old, with a slender frame and the way she carries herself shouts grace and confidence. In my time here I've learned of dancers, ballerinas, and if anything that is what she reminds me of. Our little ballerina princess.

Ethan grasps the tips of my fingers in his tiny hand and all but drags me down the hill in our spacious backyard. Spring was in full blown, which meant all of the wild flowers that grew were sprinkled around the yard in golden yellows, lime greens, lilacs, blushing pinks, and baby blues. It was a breathtaking sight, but with this breeze blowing the fresh scent of grass and flowers was like a dream. "Mommy!" Lillian giggled as she spun around in a circle, her fiery locks splaying out behind her. She had a makeshift flower crown on her head and long blades of grass were wrapped around her wrists like bracelets. "Are you going to play with us too Mommy!?" Lil squealed as she ran up to me and hugged my legs.

I don't know how long were were playing princesses and princes but by the end of it I was decked out in a flower crown, a cattail necklace, and matching bracelets. Lil had even more bracelets and a scattering of flower tops thrown in her hair. Even Ethan had a crown, but only of the blue flowers, per his demand. We probably would have continued far into the afternoon if Jace and Noah hadn't come back from their fishing trip. Jace snuck up behind me and wrapped his arms around me before spinning me in a circle, "What's this all about?" He laughed as he took in our coating of flowers.

"We were playing daddy! Mommy was the queen, Eefan was the prince, and I was the princess!" Lil proclaimed as she jumped up and down in front of Jace. "I see," Jace laughed as he poked her nose, "You're always my little princess aren't you?" Jace asked as he lifted Lil up high in the air before placing her on his shoulders, her screaming and laughing the whole time. "Let's head back home, okay. We can have a cookout tonight, maybe we'll even make smores! How's that sound?" Jace asked as he placed Lillian back on the ground, but there was no answer. All three of them were already running back home.

"It never fails!" Jace laughs as he grabs my hand and leads me back to the house. "How was fishing?" I asked, Noah always loves doing things like fishing, playing football, riding his bike, while Ethan is much more reserved. Ethan would rather stay back and watch me work on my latest artwork, he sometimes even tries his own, or reads a book, or looks after Lillian. I don't think he would ever say it, but I think he does this just to look after the two of us. I just hope when he gets older he'll branch out more, but until then I'll keep my baby boy by my side. Noah would much more prefer the company of his father during the day, he gets beet red in the face if any of the other children see him 'hanging out' with his mommy, but when we get home he almost always ends up falling asleep in my arms. Its so scary to see them growing up, was this how my parents felt with me? Like they will go to sleep one night, and wake up to see their babies all grown?

"It went great, Noah even took them off all on his own," Jace squeezed my hand as he said this, a smile in place, "Hey, Clary?" Jace stopped as he turned to look at me. His carefree look was replaced with one of seriousness. "Yeah?" I asked, not letting go of his hand. "More people are coming tonight…" he started before I cut him off. "Who! Who's coming?" I asked stepping closer and looking into his eyes for any clues to the answer. "I can't tell you rig now, its a surprised. I've already asked Cecily, Jules, Emma, and Ty to come. They're gonna watch the kids while we're gone," Jace replied in a hushed manner before turning to walk further to the house. "Wait," I said as I grabbed his arm, "Why all four of them, wouldn't one or two be enough?" "Oh, well I figured we could distract the kids by camping outside. They'll be too distracted to notice we even left," Jace smiled as we neared the front door, "Besides, its perfect outside for camping."

*a couple hours later*

"Come on," Jace whispered as unzipped the opening in the tent as quietly as he could, "the Lil is playing with Cecy's hair, Noah is playing with sparklers with Jules and Emma, and Try is reading to Ethan. Its now or never to leave." That was what Jace told me ten minutes ago before we started our trek back to the place where we had been dropped off at almost five years ago. Jace and I found a place to sit as we waited for the new arrivals. I sat between his legs, resting my back on his chest as I stared up at the sky. I had no idea how long it was going to be until they got here and judging by the impatient tapping of Jace's foot, he didn't either.

At some point I must have fallen asleep while waiting, because I was being drawn out of sleep with a slight shake of my shoulders and an all too familiar voice calling my name. At first I thought I was dreaming, and again when I opened my eyes, I rubbed at them over and over again before pinching my arm. No, this definitely isn't a dream. Before I knew it I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him as I was engulfed in that familiar scent of mint aftershave and fresh soap. His arms were around me as soon as we made contact and my flow of tears were unstoppable, this was a dream wasn't it. It had to be, most definitely, and if it is I never want to wake up.

"I missed you Kiddo," the voice of my father came in through my ringing ears. His laugh vibrated throughout his chest as he stroked my hair back, "We wanted so badly to come sooner, but this was the best I could manage. I hope you'll forgive us," he said as he brushed my tears away with the pads of his thumbs. "I do. I do, Daddy. I missed you so, so much," I sobbed into his chest when I felt another pair of hands on my shoulders, my mother. Her presence was almost overwhelming after all this time without it.

"Mama," I whispered as I shifted to her, wrapping my arms around her, her warmth spread through me in at instant. It was only then that I realised how much of me I was missing. I knew something was different ever since I left, but now that we were together again it felt like a great weight was being lifted off my shoulders. I felt like I was being resuscitated and new breath was being pushed into me. I felt light. And then all I saw was darkness.

Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait but I've had a lot going on lately, thank God Summer is coming up! High School is a major pain! So those are two of the new people I'm bringing in, well reintroducing. Also what do you guys think of Lillian, that was the most popular girl name. I hope that none of this feels to rushed or confusing what with the time skip, but it was needed. Now, we should be headi in the direction i planed from the start, yay! Id love to know what you guys are thinking, i love you all and thank you for reading!

-Haybell