Jace

Sunday mornings were the best because my girl always made French toast, my favorite. For sixteen years, Clary had made French toast every Sunday and it was perfect.

I came up behind Clary and wrapped my arms around her waist as I rested my chin on her shoulder while she cooked breakfast. The kids would be down soon, but I lived for the moments in the mornings when it was just Clary and me. We just stood there in silence while she flipped the delicious bread on the griddle. I started to sway and took her with me before turning her around in my arms and dancing her around the kitchen. She laughed that laugh that I could live off of and rested her head on my chest.

I dipped Clary back and kissed her as Will walked in the kitchen.

"Ugh, I would like to get through the morning without having to watch my parents make out," Will huffed as he sat down at the bar. Clary giggled and buried her face in my chest.

"And, I would rather not watch you and your girlfriend make out at the gym," I shot back at him and we laughed as Clary moved back to the stove. "Where's your brother?"

"I don't know. His door was still closed when I walked past his room."

"Weird." I leaned back against the counter and poured myself a cup of coffee before pouring one for Clary. "He's usually up way before you."

He simply shrugged before I saw James walking down the hall and into the kitchen. He looked disheveled and tired, not like his normal self. James sat down next to his brother and rested his head on top of his crossed arms on the counter.

"Okay…" I turned and gave Clary a look that said we needed to get to the bottom of this. James was always up before all of us and in the best mood in the mornings. "How was your date, Will? Did she hate the restaurant?"

"If everyone knew that Tess was going to hate the restaurant, why didn't anyone say so," Will asked, animatedly waving his arms in the air and I had to try to stifle my laughter, along with James.

"We did tell you, idiot," James said from beside Will. "You just wouldn't listen to us."

"Fine, whatever." Apparently Will was done talking about the subject.

"Stop being a baby and tell us how it went," Clary said as she placed plates of French toast on the counter. Will remained silent and I knew it was killing Clary because she wanted to know how his date went so badly. Instead of hearing about Will's date, though, James decided he needed to say something.

"I need to talk to you guys about something," James finally spoke up.

"What's wrong, honey," Clary asked going into full-on mom mode.

"Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to ask if I could invite someone over for the barbeque tonight." My head snapped to face Clary and she had the same expression I assumed I had because James had never mentioned anyone other than Tessa or Will in years.

"Who do you want to invite," Clary asked.

"Well, you know Barbara Lightwood, right?" We all nodded and I had to stifle my laughter at the look on Will's face. I had a sneaking suspicion that James was about to tell us something important. "Um, well I never told anyone this, but we've sort of been talking for a while. Remember that showcase at that art school I shot? Well, it was her school and we got to talking afterward. As you know, they all moved back here a few months ago and Barbara and I have been hanging out."

"That's great, honey, but why wouldn't you tell us," Clary asked as I put my arm around her shoulder and rubbed her arm.

"I don't know. It just felt like something that was all mine and I didn't want to share her."

"So, is she your girlfriend, or what," Will asked around a mouthful of French toast. My son, eloquent as ever. Clary and I subconsciously leaned forward, wanting to know the answer.

"Yes, she's my girlfriend." I could feel Clary wanting to lunge forward and wrap her arms around our son, but I held her back. Without looking at her, I knew she had the dopiest grin on her face. "So, she's coming over tonight, but I have some rules."

"Rules for what," I asked. "For us? Why would we possibly need rules?"

"Have you met yourselves?" He shook his head and laughed. "But seriously, just try to be normal, for once. I don't want Mom watching me from the window or Will making rude comments about me or you trying to wrestle me in front of her. I love you guys and I love our dynamic, but we need to ease her into our weirdness. We're weird and we love it, but she was at a strict performing arts school for six years. I'm not saying she's uptight, but she's not used to the freedom that we have in our house."

"Don't worry, Jay," Will said slapping James on the back. "She's going to love us."

Well, I can honestly say I wasn't expecting that, but I was happy for both of my sons. I knew how amazing love was and I wanted that for them. For sixteen years, I had known a love that was unlike any other. When I looked at my wife, I couldn't imagine my life without her. Watching her with our boys made me fall in love with her even more every single day.

After breakfast, the boys and I cleaned the kitchen for Clary while she went into her office to work on some photos. I loved my kids. They were the coolest and I loved the kind of relationship I had with them. Us cleaning the kitchen meant Will would spray us with water and then we would start hitting each other with dish towels. It was all just so fun. When we were finished cleaning, the boys ran upstairs to get ready for the barbeque. I couldn't help but laugh at their nervousness to see their girls.

During the summer, we always had barbeques every Sunday with the Lewis' because we lived on the beach and they had a pool, so we would switch off houses. It was just something we started doing when the kids were younger to get them active and tire them out. It was just a good time where we didn't have to worry about the gym or the studio and we could just spend time with our friends.

I walked into my bedroom to find Clary sitting on the edge of the bed. She had her hands resting in her lap and her head was bowed. She always looked so small and beautiful with her hair fanning out around her face. I walked over to her and knelt down in front of her, tilting her head up so I could see her. She gave me a small smile and her eyes shone with unshed tears.

"Clary, what's wrong," I asked with a hint of worry in my voice as I cupped her cheek and ran my thumb along her cheekbone.

"Jace, I'm late," she said simply and my face scrunched in confusion.

"Red, don't worry about it. No one cares if we eat a little later than normal. We're not on a set timeline." She let out a laugh and eyed me with raised eyebrows.

"No, babe, you're not understanding me." She took a deep breath. "I'm late, like late, late." She gestured to her stomach and my eyes widened with understanding.

"Are you…" I trailed off as she grabbed my wrist of the hand that was still cupping her face and she leaned into my touch.

"I don't know. I have a test, but I haven't taken it yet." She glanced down before she continued like she was embarrassed and couldn't look me in the eye. "This is ridiculous. I'm probably not even pregnant. How ridiculous would it be for us to have another kid right now? The boys are almost grown."

"Hey." I took her face in both of my hands and forced her to look at me. "It would be amazing. So what, if the boys are grown? Another baby made from our love would still be loved just as much as the boys. Why don't we go take the test and then we can talk more about this."

She nodded before I kissed her lightly and she moved to the bathroom. I moved to sit on the bed and waited for Clary to come out of the bathroom. A few minutes later, Clary opened the door to the bathroom with the test in her hand and came over to sit next to me.

"We have to wait a few minutes," she said as I wrapped my arm around her and rubbed her arm. She leaned her head against my shoulder and I knew she was nervous. Having a baby at her age was risky, but I couldn't help being just a little excited. We sat in silence letting our thoughts take over before we looked at the test. "I think it's ready."

"Okay," I said and gave her a small squeeze of comfort. "But, before we look at it, I want you to know that I love you, so much." She nodded and I took her hand before she flipped the test over to see the result.

My heart stopped and Clary's grip on my hand tightened. Pregnant. We were going to have another baby.

"Clary," I said as I turned to see her blank face. "Red, look at me." I took her face in my hands as her tears started to fall.

"What are we going to do, Jace?" She looked so scared. I knew all of the thoughts running through her head. "What are Will and James going to think?"

"Red, we are going to love this baby, that's all we can do and the boys won't think anything. They'll think it's cool that they're getting another sibling. Please, don't worry about anyone else. I just want you to concentrate on keeping yourself and this baby healthy." She nodded and threw her arms around me.

"We're having a baby." She buried her face in my neck.

"Yeah, we are." I chuckled as I thought about the reality of the situation. The day before, I had been worried about Will getting Tessa pregnant too soon, but now Clary was pregnant. "I love you." I pulled her head up and kissed her, hard. I needed to convey everything I was feeling in that kiss.

When we pulled apart, I lowered my hands to her stomach and leaned down to placed kisses along her skin.

"I love you, so much," she whispered as I lowered myself onto the ground and rested my head in her lap. "How the hell are we going to tell Will and James?" Her smile was back and I wanted to make sure it stayed there.

"They're going to freak out." I chuckled and held her hand. "When do you want to tell them?"

"I feel like we should tell them soon, but I don't want to get their hopes up. I can't be that far along and I know that nothing is certain until I get past the first trimester, but at my age nothing is certain."

"I think we should tell them sooner rather than later because I don't want them to worry about you if you get sick or something. Plus, I know they would want to know what is going on. They're very protective of you."

"Trust me, I know. I wonder where they get it from." I squeezed her side and she squealed. "Let's tell them before the barbeque. I don't want to tell Isabelle and Simon, yet. I'll tell her later."

"Okay, we'll tell them today." We sat in silence for a while as I rested my hand on her stomach. I couldn't believe this was happening, but I couldn't hide my excitement. "We're having a baby."

:)