I know, I know. This took forever! Read the author's note at the bottom for explanation, etc., etc. I'm sorry about the typos. I don't own the series, though I wish that I did. Sorry again. I had terrible writer's block, darlings. Love you, sweethearts!

DFTBA!,

KelseyDockry

My eyelids began to stir as the pictures stopped playing against them. I turned over from my side with my eyes still closed and stretched. Then I realized that I shouldn't be able to move that much without falling off of my couch. I opened my eyes and found myself tucked into my bed, light off, with the door closed. I moved out of bed and placed the covers back where they had been. The shades on the windows casted long beams of light where the dust danced gracefully. Shadowhunter eyes never failed to amaze me. I could see every fleck of dust, every beam of light, every bit of carpet on the floor. I looked in the floor length mirror next to the dresser on the other side of the room. My hair was still tied up and I was still dressed in the oversized sweatshirt and shorts. The smell of food wafted through the room and my stomach growled softly. I cracked open the door and saw Jace in the kitchen, pushing something around on a pan.

I walked through the hall and into the kitchen. His iPod was playing and his hips moved slightly to the beat. I laughed at him.

"Good morning, gorgeous," he said, turning to place a quick peck on my lips.

"Hi," I smiled. He continued to push around the food.

"You didn't have to cook anything."

"Well, I've looked over our relationship and I realized that I never really cook for you. So I decided that today would be the perfect day because my beautiful fiancée was asleep and looked too adorable to wake up."

"And you carried me to bed."

"Yes, yes I did. Because I'm chivalrous and the perfect future husband. Not to mention that you were too cute and I couldn't bear to wake you up," he said, wrinkling the skin between his eyebrows at the food.

"Do you need some help?" I asked, reaching for the utensil.

"No! Mine!" He said, moving in front of me so that I couldn't do anything.

"Fine, crazy," I walked back into the, brushed my teeth and showering. I went to my closet to change into proper clothes. I tugged off my towel and dried my hair with it. Slipping on underwear, I went to find something to wear. I pulled out a pencil skirt when I heard my phone ringing.

"Hello?" I said after I ran over to the other side to grab it.

"Hey, Fray. Got a sec?" Simon's voice asked.

"Yeah, what's up?" I zipped the skirt in the back.

"I'm just having some… Isabelle problems," he said in a worried voice.

"Again?" I asked, pulling a white blouse off of a hanger.

"Again," he confirmed with a sigh as I slipped the shirt on and tucked it loosely in my skirt.

"Well what's wrong?" I sat down and settled in for a long conversation.

"She's just acting really strange lately. She's been more… clingy?" He fixed himself with, "No, not clingy. More… intimate?"

"And what's wrong with that?" I asked. I knew Simon and I knew that he was a sensitive guy. He wanted closeness; he wasn't a guy that would push someone away when they got close to him. He's not like Jace was.

"She's just never been like this. She's always wanted to have more time to herself and now she just wants to be with me all of the time. It's tiring, really."

"She's in love with you, Si. I thought you wanted to spend more time with her."

"I did, still do. I love her but she's never been like this before."

"Well maybe she's just getting more comfortable. She wants to be open with you. You're not pushing her away are you?"

"Of course not, I like this. It's just not what I'm used to," he said.

"Well she loves you enough to open up like that and she's my best friend-"

"Ah-hem?"

"She's my best girl friend so if you hurt her, well, I'm legally bound by contract to separate your balls from your body and we both don't want that to happen."

"Yeesh, Clary. Don't be so vicious."

"It's true," I said.

"Clary!" I heard Jace yell from behind the door. "This delicious bounty of perfection in food form is ready!"

"Hey, Si, I gotta go. But I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, totally. See you later."

I hung up and went out of the closet. Jace looked me up and down, smiling. "Wow."

"What?" I asked, blushing.

"That skirt," he said, raising an eyebrow effortlessly. "Hot."

"You're kidding me, right?" He smiled wider. "You are a slave to your teenage hormones."

"And lovin' every minute of it," he flirted, pulling me into his arms and laughing.

"I'm sure you are, Lightwood."

"You've got no idea, almost-Lightwood."

My eyes widened and I looked up at him in surprise.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing, it's just the almost-Lightwood thing."

"Well," he said, taking my left hand and smiling at the ring. "It's true."

"Kiss me, please," I requested.

"You don't even have to ask," he whispered. I felt his arms curl around my waist as they always do. I closed my eyes and leaned upwards. My waiting lips were not met with his when I felt my body lifted. My eyes fluttered open and I saw him carrying me to the bed.

"Jace, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Shhh," he said, setting me down on the bed with my head on the pillows.

"Uh, Jace?"

"Quiet," he whispered, running his left hand through my damp curls. "Do you still want that kiss?"

I nodded. He smiled and settled himself over me. His lips moved closer to mine and I pushed my hands into his curls so that he couldn't move back. They got closer, only a centimeter away, and his hand glided down my body to my waist. His fingers pushed harder and forced a giggle out of me. He laughed and continued to tickle me.

"Jace, stop!" I begged. "No! Seriously! Stop!" I hooked my legs around his waist and tried to roll over with all of my strength. He wouldn't budge but he did move one hand away from my stomach to hold my left hand above my head. "Stop it!" I continued to beg.

"Come on, Clary. You're a Shadowhunter. Do something about it," he taunted.

"That is what this is about?" He had to be kidding. "You are crazy!"

He leaned in, stopped tickling me, and placed his lips at my ear. "Do something about it," he repeated. I tried to push him back over again with my legs. He laughed. "You're gonna have to do better than that, Clare."

"Do not push me," I warned. I tried unsuccessfully the wiggle my small hand out from under his. Then I got the idea. I arched my back off of the bed and pushed into him. I moved my right hand to shift his face over to mine. "Jace," I whispered seductively. I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him. He kissed back passionately. I smiled against his lips and pushed him over. Third time's the charm. "You're gonna have to do better than that, Jace." I got up and went to go get my breakfast from the kitchen. "You made pancakes?" I yelled back to Jace who was still in my room.

"Your favorite, right?"

"Yeah. Come on, stop sulking. Get out here." He walked slowly out of my room with a child-like frown. "You're so cute. I'd kiss you but I don't think that my fiancé would like that very much. He usually doesn't like me to kiss other people."

"Very funny," he said, putting his hands in my hair and drawing me towards him for a real kiss. I melted into his frame and moved my lips with his, turning my head slightly to the right and moving both of my hands to both sides of his face. He murmured against my mouth sweetly. I stretched up on my tiptoes to kiss him deeper. He didn't argue. I smiled and opened his lips with my tongue. He lifted me and set me on the counter. His strong arms went on either side of my body and he leaned over me. He moved back and parted my lips from his.

"See, was just kissing me so hard?"

"Comes naturally," he said, moving back to fill a plate with pancakes.

"I wasn't exactly done kissing you," I complained, frowning, gripping the counter tighter, and throwing a glare at him.

He smiled back and said, "Didn't realize you were so needy."

"Shut up," I retorted immaturely before putting my hand on the back of his neck and pulled his lips down to mine. I crushed his mouth almost painfully with mine in a hot and heated kiss. A scraping sounded on the counter and I assumed it was the plate that Jace'd loaded with pancakes. I pushed him hard against the counter and heard him groan, pulling me up into his arms. I greedily and possessively kissed him, my tongue battling his for dominance and, to my pleasure. It was a fair fight if not swayed in my favor. I played with his hair and made an involuntary small noise in the back of my throat. We must have stayed like that for at least ten minutes until I pulled back from lack of oxygen. His mouth traveled down to my neck, his hand on the back of my hair and tugging gently to make my head fall back and give him more room. My nails scratched at the top of his arms and I sighed into his hair. I realized when his hand slid down my back that my phone was ringing again. I kissed him harder for a moment before breaking away and looking at him. I groaned and reached for my phone.

"Yes?" I asked after picking it up and seeing the caller ID.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you something."

"What is it, Simon?"

"We were going to just do the drum beats and guitar for a few songs today but we have extra time. Do you think that maybe you could come in?" He pleaded in the voice that he used to make me do what he wants.

"…What time?" I asked, looking longingly at Jace's lips.

"Twenty minutes? Meet me at Brewed Awakening?"

"Sure. Look, I'm kind of busy. I'll see you then, okay?"

"Okay, bye!" He barely managed to get out before I'd hung up. I didn't waste time asking Jace if I could kiss him. I hung up the phone and threw my arms around his neck not a second after. He smiled and lifted me off of the ground. My legs were around his waist and my fingers were in his hair. It was times like these that I was glad that I was so small and he was so strong. It didn't take much work for him at all to lift me and kiss me as long as I wanted him to.

His smile as he pulled back was breath taking. "Shouldn't we stop?"

"No," I said, crushing his lips to mine.

"Yes we should. Simon needs you," he argued.

"Well, more importantly than that, I need you."

"Come on," he said, putting me down. I blushed and adjusted my skirt.

"I have some time. This place is only two minutes from the coffee shop."

"Well time management is an adult-y thing to do. We won't always live two minutes from everything."

"Who says we can't stay here?" I asked.

"Well if we want to have kids then we'll need to have more space for them."

"But we don't have to move until that happens, do we?"

"I suppose that we wouldn't have to."

"You should move in here." His eyebrow rose. "Well I just mean that you could officially move in here. You already half live here, you know. So I just thought… Do you want to?"

He nodded with a smile.

"Okay," I said awkwardly. Pulling at my skirt again, I went to put my shoes on. Jace watched as I went. Slipping my small feet into a pair of heels, I looked through my hair at him. He smirked and waved at me.

"Come on, go. I'll be here when you get back."

"Fine," I said, kissing him quickly before pouting and walking out of the door.

The coffee shop was hugely packed. People crowded around the tables on both levels. Loud music busted through the speakers over the buzz of conversations flowing loudly. I remember when I was a freshman in high school everyone in school would come out to hang here. It was this fractional equivalent of a restaurant-club-library-coffee-shop that is made of one hundred percent awesome. I still love being here. I went to stand in line when with my phone in my hand, engrossed in texting Jace. When I'd gotten to the front of the line, I pocketed my phone and asked for black coffee.

"Clary?" The barista said, shocked.

"Oh, Kaitlin. Hi!" I greeted my old class mate.

"Oh my gosh! I haven't seen you in forever! How are you?"

"I'm… doing well. How are you?" I asked, hiding my left hand in my pocket and grabbing the coffee that she'd made.

"I'm good," she said, taking off her apron. "And you're lucky because I'm off now." She motioned me to follow her and sat me down on a table. "Hold on one second."

She disappeared in the crowd and I stared at my phone, waiting for a text from Jace. I got said text when Kaitlin had brought back four girls that had gone to high school with me. Alex was with them, I guess that she had a few jobs because all of the girls were green wearing aprons and black skirts with ponytails.

"Clary Fray, I have not seen you in almost a year!" One of the girls, Jess I believe, said. "What have you been up with?"

"Uh, not much," I said, sitting back down in the booth.

"Yeah," Alex said sarcastically. "Not much other than that hot boyfriend of yours!"

"Simon's not that hot," one of the girls said.

"No, he is definitely not Simon. What was his name?" She asked.

I blushed and whispered, "Jace."

"Oh yes, Jace. Damn."

"He can't be that hot," Kaitlin said.

"He's more than that hot. He's like a god."

My phone lit up on the table and buzzed with a text from Jace.

"Is that him?" Jess asked, beaming.

"Yeah," I said, taking my phone.

"Oh my go-" Kaitlin started, grabbing my hand.

"Clarissa Fray, is that a ring?" Alex yelled loudly.

"Uh, yeah."

"No way! You're marrying Jace?" Alex asked.

"I am."

"Damn! You get to have that for the rest of your life?"

"Alex, he can't be that hot."

"Clary, can I see your phone?" Alex asked while grabbing my phone from me.

"What're you-" I started.

"Look at that!" She said, showing my screen to the other girls who almost immediately groaned.

"You're kidding me," Jess begged.

"Which one are you looking at?" I asked, taking the phone back. The picture on the screen was of Jace outside the Hard Rock on one of our dates. He was wearing a black shirt, tie, and black pants. This was in October of last year so his outfit showed off the gradually darkening blond of his hair and the unleaving tan of his skin. "Oh, his hair is a bit lighter now that it's summer."

"I can't believe that you get to have him! Your kids are going to be freaking gorgeous."

I smiled and talked to them for a while before they suggested that I get Jace to come over here so that they could meet him. They had just about talked me into it when Simon appeared with the guys at the door. Behind Simon stood Izzy, Alec, and Magnus. I guess the whole bunch came out for the recording, though I doubted that Magnus and Alec cared, they probably just ran into each other.

"Guys, I have to go," I told them.

"Well tell Jace that we say congratulations," Alex smiled.

"Will do, I'll see you later!" I called, walking down the two steps to get to the front of the shop.

I hid for a second so that I could call Jace.

"Hello, beautiful," his voice said.

"You. Brewed Awakening. Now!" I whisper yelled at him.

"Wh-"

"You lost the bet get over here!"

"On my way," he said quickly. It literally took him about a minute and a half to get there. He'd somehow managed to dodge the others and sped over to me. I grabbed him and pulled him in for a kiss. "Well hello there," he said when I'd let him go.

"Don't. That was the last kiss that we get before Magnus and Izzy are all on my case about sleeping with you," I told him.

"Well in that case," he smiled, grabbing my waist and pulling me in for a deeper kiss.

"Is that all that you two do?" Izzy asked from behind us.

"Hello, Izzy," Jace said. I slipped my ring into my palm and put my hands in my pockets, secretly placing it there.

"Hi," she greeted suspiciously. She looked between me and Jace with squinted eyes, trying to figure out what was wrong maybe.

"Are we going to sit down or just stare at each other?" Magnus asked.

Izzy did not respond, just walked up the two pointless steps and to the back of the room. We pulled up chairs to fit us. "So…" Izzy started, looking at Jace and me back and forth. "What's new?"

"Not too much," Magnus said. "You know, just doing some warlock stuff. Some party planning for tonight," he said, looking at the two of us angrily. "Because I know that you forgot."

"I didn't forget," I defended.

"Well why aren't you dressed for a party?" He challenged.

"Because it's the middle of the day. You only have parties after nine. And I'm supposed to go with Simon and the band to record today."

"Speaking of which," Simon said.

"What's going on with you two?" Izzy asked quickly to Jace and me. "Something is different and it's bothering me. You need to tell me."

I looked at Jace and smiled. Then I looked at everyone at the table. "Jace and I are engaged."

"Eng… What?" Simon stuttered.

"Oh my angel!" Izzy shouted, looking over at Magnus. They seemed to already be planning it.

"Ring, ring, ring, show me the ring!" Magnus yelled at me. I slipped it on my finger and pulled my hand up to show them.

"Jace Lightwood! Why did you not take me shopping with you?" Izzy yelled at him.

"Because you would have told Clary," he said simply, not looking away from Alec. I glanced between the two of them. Alec was questioning Jace with his expression and Jace was answering him. It must have been a skill from the years that they had been living together. I didn't understand it. The only person that I can have a silent conversation with is Jace and even that is hard to do.

"When are we shopping for the dress?" Magnus said, breaking me out of my trance.

"Uh, I don't know. We just got engaged yesterday, Magnus. I haven't even had time to think about it."

"Well, Clary darling, you must understand that it's the most important outfit that you'll ever wear. And Isabelle and I will have to be there. I'm sure that Jocelyn will want to be there too."

"She definitely will. But the dress is going to have to wait for a while." I looked at Simon who was still looking shocked. I thought back over the two years since I'd started down this road. I thought about how he'd broken himself because of me and how I could never love him. I also thought about how we'd grown up together, thought that we were in love, and now we're only friends in separate relationships. He was a vampire and I was a Shadowhunter. I'd always be happy with Jace, always. But looking at Simon like this, right now, I knew that if I had never found out that I was a Shadowhunter, never met Jace, I would be in love with Simon. Simon and I would be in a close relationship and I'd never know better. We'd get married in our mid-twenties, have three kids, and live in a small city in a small neighborhood. And we wouldn't know that either of us could have ever had better, we were never meant to love each other because Isabelle and Jace are who we should be with. And seeing him, remembering this, caused a pain that I would never wish to inflict on anyone. I wonder if he feels it too, feels this bruising in his chest. The pain was nothing like seeing Jace when I couldn't have him. That was a crushing, stabbing, killing pain that I would never forget. The kind of pain that you couldn't compare to anything because it hurt so much that I would spend countless hours mourning the loss of what I thought that we could never have. That feeling that somehow what I felt about him was so disgustingly wrong that if anyone would see the relationship that I wanted to have they would lock me away where I thought that I belonged. That somehow my love for Jace was so mistakenly placed that it made me spend every second of the time that I was with him a burning pain that made me want to lock myself away forever and never see him again. Now I can have him, Simon can have Izzy, and we can all be happy. That relationship with Simon had never made me feel pain before. But I am a Shadowhunter, I can handle pain.

I'm really sorry that you had to wait so long. I've been so incredibly busy writing other things that I feel like I've had to just not been able to write this. I'll definitely be writing more, you know, going into Jocelyn's pregnancy, the wedding planning, something with the band, the… Jace and Clary relationship details, if you catch my drift. Now again, I really suggest the Facebook page KelseyDockry from Fanfiction just because I'll be updating there a lot (I don't want to do Author Updates on here because you'll think it's a new chapter.) Also, do you think that I should go further into Iz and Simon's relationship or Alec and Magnus' relationship? Just a thought. Thank you, lovelies.

Best Wishes,

KelseyDockry