Hi, sorry it's taken so long but I have been away and then been really busy with school work and other stuff. To alwayslivestributewhovian – I have checked and double checked this chapter, so hopefully no mistakes. Also, I have included a section in honour of you, you'll know what it is. Enjoy!

Lu xxx

The next day was a Saturday, so normally Magnus wouldn't have woken up until at least three o'clock in the afternoon, but the last few days hadn't exactly been normal. He had been tossing and turning continuously all night, lucky to snatch ten minutes of sleep at a time, and had eventually given up at around seven and pulled himself out of bed. The short dreams that he had endured had been filled with memories of the previous night, of Alec coming over and begging him for help and of Jace slumped in the street looking entirely broken. Oh yes. Jace. He highly suspected the boy would be out cold with exhaustion for at least another few hours yet, so he would have to keep the noise down. That was one of the perks Magnus had discovered of living alone – you could do what you wanted when you wanted without anyone objecting.

Magnus pulled on some leather pants and a luminous shirt before padding softly out of his bedroom and down the corridor. The room that Jace was staying in was right the other end of it to the kitchen and living room, so hopefully Magnus wouldn't disrupt him too much. He slipped into said area and made his way to his kitchen to get himself some coffee. He prided himself on having at least five instant varieties of the bitter black liquid in his cabinet. Right now, he selected the strongest stuff and poured a large amount of it into his favourite blue sparkling mug – complete with rhinestones – before flicking on the kettle. He needed something to snap him out of the foggy haze of exhaustion. If he could muster up the willpower later he might go out and get some sleeping tablets just so he could get a little bit of rest.

He snapped his head up as the kettle popped. He had been nodding off again. He yanked the thing up and poured a large amount of the boiling liquid into his mug, stirring with the now scorching hot metal spoon. When he was done, he took a massive swig of the coffee, not even bothering to put sugar in it as per usual, and sighed as the caffeine goodness began to creep into his brain. He loved the stuff. If coffee was still in the world then nothing could be that bad. Slowly the tiredness began to ebb from Magnus, and eventually, after maybe four cups of coffee – he couldn't really be sure – he felt up to getting up properly. He slipped back into his bedroom and into the ensuite with the intention of taking a nice long hot shower.

When Magnus emerged from his bedroom, a large cloud of steam still hanging in the air, despite the fact that he had actually stepped out of the shower about half an hour ago – the shower had been a very long one. Magnus had a habit of spending a long time in the shower treating his hair – his friend Camille had often said he was like a girl in that respect, which Magnus had often said was sexist. Men had just as much right to spend ages in the shower as women. He had told Camille that she had simply laughed. When it had come up in conversation with Alec the previous day he had agreed – although hastened to add that he only took five minutes. Magnus could imagine that – Alec looked like the person who liked to just get on with things and didn't care particularly about his appearances.

Magnus noticed that Jace's door was slightly ajar, so he guessed that the other boy must have woken up. It wasn't much of a surprise – Magnus had been an age getting ready. However, he was curious to meet a teenager who was capable of waking before midday – glancing down at his wrist confirmed that it was indeed still morning – on a normal Saturday. Mind you, he guessed it must be a pretty unusual day for Jace as well. That was probably why, he told himself.

He sauntered with a stupid amount of energy – perhaps the large dose of coffee had been a bad idea – into the living room again to find the other boy slumped on the couch and fiddling with his fingers. He smiled at Jace, who had looked up nervously at the sound of Magnus's overly energetic footsteps, and gave him a cheery wave. Yep, he definitely needed to stay off the caffeine. Over an hour and a half later he was still right up on a high. He would have to come off the habit or he would need to start drinking decaff. And that would be a total disaster.

"Morning Jace!" He chirped. Yes, chirped. Oh dear.

"Morning, Magnus." Jace replied in a weary voice, the sort that implied that it wasn't just difficulty sleeping that was keeping him down. It unnerved Magnus slightly.

"Did you sleep okay?" Jace stared at Magnus, the expression in his eyes unreadable.

"I guess." Magnus placed his hands on his hips.

"Hmm. Somehow I doubt that." Jace reached a hand up and raked it through his hair.

"The well, I didn't have a great day yesterday. I just need time to... get o be it. I'll be fine come this afternoon." Magnus sighed.

"Jace, it's okay to be down for a bit. You have had it really rough these past couple of days and you have been broken both physically and mentally in ways that I can't even comprehend. And from what I could gather there has been some fallout with you and Alec that both of you blame yourselves for. So let yourself mope for a bit before you pick yourself up. It's only natural, and I'm certainly not judging you. Okay?" Jace nodded.

"Okay." He sounded forlorn.

"Lecture over then. Now, you need a coffee. I may even lend you my third favourite mug!" The other boy's mouth simply refused to twitch. This annoyed Magnus.

"Oh come on. Smile, you're made of stardust!" Again, he just stared blankly at Magnus. He threw his hands up into the air in defeat and made his way to the apartment's small kitchen. There was only one thing that could deal with this - Magnus's second favourite mug, which was kept in a special place where it couldn't be broken specifically so that it could be used in situations such as this one. He plucked it out of the cupboard, poured some real coffee this time into it and brought it out to Jace, practically shoving it into the boy's hands.

At that a ghost of a smile began to cross his features, turning swiftly into a full scale grin. On the mug there was a picture of a t-rex with its tiny arms trying to make a bed. It wasn't working for the poor thing.

Clary woke up in an unfamiliar bed. The bed she normally slept in was hard with random springs that had made her alter her sleeping position to avoid them - her mom and Luke had never had much money, and when they had it certainly hadn't been spent on trivial things such as bedding. This, however, was gorgeous. The mattress was soft enough to be comfortable but hard enough to support her, allowing her to relax in her sleep instead of falling into a stiff position. The thick blankets meant that she had woken up deliciously warm, and a generous pile of pillows mean that she has gotten up for once without a crick in her neck. It was lovely, but it was weird. It didn't feel like she liked it, because it didn't feel like home.

She allowed her eyed to flick open, taking in the room around her with its deep orange walls, golden net curtains with a golden lining, a door that surely led to an ensuite, a closet and larger door which must lead into the corridor. Sitting up slowly so as to avoid a spell of dizziness, Clary allowed the fogginess of just after waking up to take her back to the hazy memories of the previous night.

She remembered sitting in the back of an expensive car with blacked out windows next to Simon, their hands clenched tightly over the central seat as their father and brother whisked them away from familiarity and into newness and the unknown. City lights had flashed past outside, a million of neon flashing across the vision which had been blurred by tears. In these past few months and days she had lost nearly everything - Jocelyn, Luke, Maia. She only had Simon left. Simon, the only constant that she had ever had in her wood. And even then she was still terrified that she would end up losing him to Isabelle Lightwood.

She remembered vaguely pulling up in front of a pair of massive wrought-iron gates that seemed more intimidating than majestic to her. Simon had given her hand a squeeze, but it hadn't really offered much reassurance. She hated the unknown, and she was being plunged straight into it. The gates had swung open eerily slowly after their father had punched in a code Clary couldn't remember, and then they had been driving in. Clary recalled a very long driveway, lined with an array of fir trees. Because of the density of the trees and the darkness of the night she hadn't been able to make out much, but she was sure that the house they were going to came with a large estate.

She remembered yet another long corridor - God she was going to get lost in this place - that Jonathon had led her down. He had pointed out his room, and then told Simon he was to have the one next door, and Clary the one opposite. He had helped her drag her stuff into the pretty room, and then had left her after making sure that she was alright. She had fallen back on the bed, and despite the fact that it had been quite early still had let the exhaustion of everything just take her away into a happy darkness.

Clary shook away the memories. Today was a fresh start, a new chance for her to just forget all the pain and confusion and change that the past few months had brought and give life another shot. She still had her ever present Simon, whom she was sure would be there until the day she died, but she also had a new family. Her real dad. After having literally no clue as to what he was like, Clary had the chance to get to know her other biological parent. She had thought for a time that she had lost both parents, and that was it, but now she had had one returned and it was a second chance she wasn't going to miss. She also had another brother. Another person to laugh with and argue with, and who would back you up at school and comfort you when you were down and then wind you up when you weren't. She really couldn't wait to get to know Jonathon either.

With those happy thoughts racing through her mind, Clary summed up the motivation to drag herself put of the wonderfully comfy bed and get going. She quickly showered, before rummaging into her suitcase and pulling out triumphantly a blue tank top that made her hair look beautifully vibrant and dark at the same time and a pair of dark blue cut offs. Once she was dressed, she yanked open her bedroom door and pulling her hair into a wildly curly ponytail made her way down the corridor in the direction that if she remembered right led downstairs to the kitchen. Fingers crossed. The size of this house was certainly going to take some getting used to.

The golden light of late morning tickled Alec's face as it shone from a bar in between the curtains. He groaned and rolled over, savoring the short period of time that was not quite awake-ness before succumbing to natures desires and rolling out of bed. He had slept well that night, despite everything that had happened the previous day. Thank the Angel he had such good family or he didn't think he would know what to do. Speaking of family, he probably needed to be up to start making them breakfast soon. He stretched his arms up before making his way into an ensuite for a quick shower.

Ten minutes late, his hair still slightly damp and hanging around his face, he left his room and glanced down the corridor. He could hear giggling from downstairs, a sure sign that his siblings were indeed awake - the Lightwoods were early risers compared to most teenagers. Alec's personal philosophy was that he should make the most of the day. He was pretty sure that the personal philosophy of Isabelle and Max revolved around getting up in time for Alec to make them breakfast instead of having to get it themselves, but oh well. On the subject of breakfast, Alec was pretty sure he had heard the giggling from the general direction of the kitchen. Oh crap. The kitchen. Isabelle and cooking didn't mix. He ran the rest of the way down the stairs, getting more and more apprehensive as the laughter, now clearly Max's became evident, as did the swearing.

Alec swung himself into the kitchen using the door frame and was greeted by carnage. Izzy had tried to make omelets. Tried being the operative part. No one seemed to have told her that you weren't supposed to flip them like pancakes, because there were at least two - crikey she had been busy - stuck firmly onto the ceiling and one over the light, and she had somehow managed to set the one in the pan on fire. This was exactly why Alec never permitted Izzy to cook - although he had got a few lessons from Maryse, Izzy had never been quite old enough before their parents had started going away, and now she was simply a disaster waiting to happen at the oven. This was the reason she had ordered pizza and not cooked last night on one of the rare occasions when Alec was out.

Thinking on his feet, Alec grabbed the fire extinguisher from just behind the door and sprayed it full on at the quickly growing flames. Isabelle stepped back in the nick of time, and pretty soon the flames were gone and only a foamy, eggy mess remained. There appeared to be some bacon scattered unhelpfully on the floor as well. That was it. He was teaching his sister to cook, there was no way he was putting up with these situations. She would need to be able to when she was older anyway, and it would be nice to have a proper meal when Alec couldn't cook for whatever reason. Forget the hassle - it was much more of one to try and clean up one of these messes after one of Izzy's kitchen disasters.

Alec gave a death glare to Izzy, who was standing as if braced for the blow. Max had taken the hint and stopped laughing, although he did look like he was trying to stop a smile from playing on his features.

"Isabelle Lightwood..." He growled, not quite sure what to say. She looked at him unhappily but stubbornly.

"What, Alexander?"

"What on earth were you doing down here cooking without me to help you?! Just look at the mess you have made!" Max giggled and cut in.

"You sound like dad in a bad mood, Alec!" Alec shot him a glare, which he hated doing but felt was necessary, to shut him up.

"Not now Max." He turned back to face Izzy. She looked nervous. "So?"

"Alec, I was just trying to make breakfast for us so that you didn't have to go to the hassle because I know that you work really hard to make sure me and Max are happy and I just wanted to give you something back and I didn't think it was fair that you always have to look after us just becuase our parents are useless..." She was cut off by Alec pulling her into a big hug.

"Okay Iz, point made. Don't cry." Isabelle humphed.

"I'm not crying, there were onions in the omelettes..."

"Yeh right. Look, I'm sorry for having a go at you. If I'd known... well, it was a really nice gesture. But I think we are going to have to give you lessons before we try that again, okay?" Isabelle nodded. "But you are still clearing this up. And it is Max and I, not me and Max." She snorted at that and drew back from her brother.

"Oh, you are so predictable Alec!" She was giggling. Max cut in again, clearly deciding the situation was safe.

"Alec, are you going to make us breakfast now?" Alec shook his head.

"No. There is absolutely no way that anything can be done in here for a while. Instead, you and I are going to go out and buy croissants for everyone from the bakery across the road. Sound good?" Max nodded enthusiastically, and jumped off of the chair he had been sitting on. Alec grabbed his had, and his wallet off of the side, and they walked out of the kitchen which Izzy was cleaning up ferociously and onto the drive and the beautiful morning together. Alec loved his family, but seriously, sometimes they could just be a pain. At least with them he had to sort disputes out, because he had to live with them. He had no idea how to sort the argument with Jace out, despite the fact that he desperately wanted to. Oh well. Right now that didn't matter. All that mattered were the croissants.

What do you think? Please let me know, comments are always appreciated!

Thank you for reading, and sorry again it has been so long.

Lu xxx