Hello dears. Another update! And a story progression as well, because I have decided that it is about time that it moves out of the past and into the future. This chapter is dedicated to my darling friend Emma, who sat with me and screamed at the computer as people suggested Jenna-Louise Coleman as Charlotte Branwell – ABSOLUTELY NOT – and then proceeded to cry with the loss of the will to live when we discovered 20 people actually wanted Harry Styles as Will Herondale. Need I say more? A true friend and a true fan. Also, what do you think on those choices?

Anyway, back to the story. We are going to have some Max and Will point of view in this as there will be important scenes for both of them. Maybe some Alec and Magnus, not sure yet. Thank you for reading and enjoy!

To Nic – here is your update!

To Tibs – this is the next bit, written soon for you darling.

Lu xxx

…

Will bounded inside the Institute, slamming the door carelessly behind him and proceeding to run up the steps into the main hall. It was one of his favourite places in the world, because it had so many books. Will loved books. Comics, novels, old books, new books, he loved them all. They took him to far away places and near places and everywhere in between, and they sort of filled the gap in his chest where he felt he was missing something. It felt like he was missing something very important and very nice, but he wasn't entirely sure what. He just knew that books helped, and that books were interesting and fun to read besides.

He decided not to stay in the main sections of the library today but to go up one of the towers to his favourite spot in the library, where it was very quiet and isolated and pretty. He spotted the large door partially concealed by the many bookcases lining the walls and pushed it forwards slowly. The door was old and heavy; a massive slab of wood like the front door only smaller, and the hinges creaked and groaned with age, rust and disuse as he pressed against it. Nevertheless, it swung open without much effort and soon Will was spiralling up the hundreds of steps – about three hundred he reckoned – to the greenhouse.

Although this part of the library was barely used by anyone anymore, the stone steps were still slippery and shining with wear. There were smudges to the varnish on the wooden banister where the polish had been worn down by hundreds of hands trailing along it like Will was doing now. Still, it contained a sort of abandoned feel that would make anyone else shudder. To Will, the sense of it being something that was almost entirely his and his only was in a way comforting – it was open to all but something that Hodge reckoned was a secret between only three people; himself, Magnus and another person whom he wouldn't mention. Actually, during the only time that Hodge had mentioned the other… man he thought it was, his father had blanched and made wild gestures at Hodge. He had been younger then so he hadn't quite understood but he thought that he was probably trying to shut the librarian up. This had just made Will even more curious about the mysterious man, but Hodge wouldn't talk about him and neither would his dad so there was no way he was going to find out about him.

Finally after a couple of minutes of ascending, Will turned the final corner of the staircase. This was the section of the library reserved for Hodge's favourite books, the special ones. It was really a greenhouse, beautiful and exotic plants trailing everywhere, up the pillars and from random pots littered around. There was a staircase to nowhere in the centre of the room, brightly coloured flowers twined around the banisters and creating a rather ethereal look to the place that made Will smile in childish joy every time he saw it. The bookshelves were sparse, carefully placed in bushes and such so that they were slightly hidden. Although there were not very many books up here, they were all very old and very precious. Will had read all of them many times before, but he never tired of reading them, because they were special.

Today, he wandered over to his favourite bookshelf that contained several novels by Charles Dickens. Although Will didn't really understand all of them properly, he found the stories interesting and exciting, and he liked the idea of reading about normal life over a hundred years ago in some far away country, and he thought the books seemed important somehow. These were by far the most handled books up here – most of the spines were on the verge of falling off and the binding was worn away – and by far the most loved. He pulled one out at random and made his way to the top of the hanging staircase before settling down on the top step and looking at the cover.

A Tale of Two Cities. This was by far his favourite on the shelf, and he giggled to himself at his ability to select it without realising. Maybe he just gravitated towards it. Either way, he simply opened it at the first page and began to sink into the story in a way that no one else his age seemed to be able to and let it wash over him and whisk him away to the bygone era that he loved reading about so much. He stayed like that for a long while, losing track of time and smiling until he was pulled out of his happy reverie by the sound of gentle footsteps padding around the greenhouse he thought was his own.

…

Max's dad had decided to take him to the library where he had first met his other dad on the first day they were in New York. His dad had been up quite early, used to not having much sleep, but Max slept in quite late and so by the time he was up and had had breakfast it was turning into almost late afternoon, so his dad had told him there was only time to see on thing, so what did he want to go look at before they had to come back for dinner. Max had said he wanted to see the place where he had first met his other dad, and Alec had obliged, leading him out to the subway.

Now they were wandering through one of the many aisles in the place. Max had been astounded by the place. There were just so many books, he had never seen this many before. They were all different sizes and shapes and ages, and all he wanted to do was bury his nose in some of them and relax all afternoon and let himself get carried away, but there was a place and a person Alec had said he wanted Max to meet whilst they were there, and they sounded interesting so Max had immediately become curious and had gone along with it all.

Suddenly a desk appeared between the many books, and Max gasped. It was a very interesting desk, and Max cocked his head to the side in fascination. It was a massive slab, looking immensely heavy, being supported by two bent over angels with a look of pain crossed over their face. The detail was impeccable and it was certainly a very majestic if not very pretty work of art. Max let his eyes trail upwards. The man sitting at the desk looked very similar to the actual desk – pained, and majestic but not attractive. He looked very clever, and very eccentric. Max immediately took a liking to him.

The man looked up as they approached the desk and looked very startled indeed at the sight of them. Max wondered why, but then he saw that he was staring at Alec with his eyes very wide, and realized that the man must have known his father before he moved away from the city. Max wondered if the man had ever expected to see him again – by the looks of his expression no. Alec was gripping his hand rather tightly, and he wondered if his father was nervous to see the man after all of these years. Speak of the devil, he rose up and came around in front of the desk to greet his father with a handshake.

"Alexander Lightwood." He said, gripping Alec's hand between two of his, "I never thought I would see you here again. Why haven't you been to visit? Ma…" Alec quickly cut him of with some drastic hand movements. He nodded and corrected himself. "He said that you just disappeared and that no one knew where you had gone." Alec nodded.

"I didn't want to be followed. I just wanted a new life with Max here; though I did miss this place." At this point the man snapped his gaze to Max.

"Oh my… but he looks so similar…" The man shook himself, as if snapping out of a memory. He bent down and shook Max's hand energetically. "Hello, young man. I'm Hodge, the main librarian here. I knew your father quite well before he left New York." Alec gestured that he would be one moment to Hodge before leading Max off to the side.

"Listen, Max, I need to have a word with Hodge on my own, but would you like to go off and see my favourite part of this place whilst you are waiting?" Max nodded, keen to see anything that his father liked; he normally liked the most interesting and unusual places, and he also wanted to know a bit about his dad's past – it was mysterious to him, and he wanted to learn more about it so he could learn more about his dad.

"The door is just over there. The room is at the top of a tower, and it is basically a massive greenhouse with plants and flowers and books." Alec pointed to a door that was slightly ajar nestled in between two bookshelves. It was barely visible. "I'll come and get you when I'm finished, yeh?" Max had already begun to hurry towards the door, barely noticing his father smiling after him before turning back to the eccentric librarian.

…

Will could only stare as a boy came around from behind a bush in the room and looked up at the staircase he was sitting on. The boy looked around his own age, with tanned skin, dark hair that matched his own and a slightly Asian slant to his eyes. He looked – actually, he looked very similar to his father. This fact was confirmed when the boy looked up at the staircase and at Will. His eyes were a brilliant golden green that he had only ever seen in Magnus. It was weird, but oh well. Life wasn't fun without coincidences. Will had always encouraged them whenever they appeared.

Looking at the boy again he seemed quite embarrassed, as if he felt like he was invading something private. He had felt that look pass over his face when he had come in too early to his dad's bedroom ever year on the day two days after his birthday – so tomorrow. He quickly smiled at the boy and began to make his way down the stairs towards the boy. He looked interesting, the sort of person he would want to make friends with. The other boy still looked nervous.

"Oh…um…sorry if I was interrupting…um…I'll just…go…" The boy turned away and began to walk towards the door. Will quickly ran after him and put his hand on the other boy's shoulder to stop him. He didn't want to scare him away – it was actually pretty nice to see someone his own age this interested in the books up here; he had seen his face. He had looked astounded, in a way only Will did. Whenever he had tried to take his friends up here, they had seemed bored. But not this boy.

"No, don't go." The boy whipped round, startled. Will smiled. "I'm Will. Who are you?" The boy stuttered for a moment, his head down to the floor and fiddling with the hem of his t-shirt. Then he met Will's gaze and smiled back, as if finding a bit of confidence.

"I'm Max. It's…nice to meet you Will."

"Are you new in the Institute Max? I just haven't seen you here before…well I've never seen anyone up here."

"Yeh… my dad brought me here. He used to live in New York before I was born, and he used to love it up here apparently…" Will laughed.

"What?" Max looked scared, as if he had said something wrong. Will quickly waved his hands at him to try and wave away those thoughts.

"No, it's nothing, honestly. I just didn't realise more people used to know about up here." Max shrugged.

"He just said it's where he met the love of his life. That he used to love to come up here with them and watch the world go by outside and just… just be. Especially in winter." Will nodded.

"My dad comes up here a lot to do that. He's been coming up here for years, since before he was my age. He says it makes him feel like he is in his own little world like books do." Max nodded in a way that suggested he was wise beyond his years – just like Will.

"I can see why he sees this place that way. It looks kind of like… like a fantasy world." Will laughed.

"So you like books then? Of course, silly question. You are this impressed by a library."

"Yes, I love books! Books and comics are my favourite things." Will looked impressed.

"So, do you live in New York?" Max shook his head.

"No, California. But I take it you live here? You seem to know the library well."

"Yeh, I just live a short subway ride from here, in Brooklyn. Lived in the same place for all my life with my dad. I…never knew my mom. And dad never talks about her."

"Same. Well, I wouldn't have ever met my mom, she was a surrogate mother, but I never knew my other dad either. My dad and him split up when I was very young and we moved away." Will frowned, contemplating it and thinking. His dad had never told him anything like that level of detail about his past, detail he had wanted to know, he had just gotten the motivation to ask Magnus. Max's past was clearly traumatic, something his father probably wouldn't have wanted to talk about, and yet he still had. If his dad could man up, then Magnus could. Just then a man called up into the room.

"Max? Could you come down please, I've found something I want to show you?" Max looked over his shoulder, sighed, and turned back to Will.

"Sorry, I have to go now. It was nice to meet you, Will." Will smiled.

"I hope I'll see you again before you leave." Max shrugged.

"Maybe." The voice came again, sounding concerned.

"Max?! Are you okay?!"

"Yeh, just coming Dad!" He called over his shoulder. "Bye Will."

"Bye Max." Will watched as Max disappeared down the spiral staircase and out of sight. He hoped that he would see him again, because in the short conversation that they had managed to have he had seemed like a pretty awesome and interesting person, the sort of person that he would want to be friends with and that his dad would actually like. Too bad that he lived in California.

…

Alec watched as Max sauntered down the steps and out of the big door, squeezing through the gap and grinning at his father. He walked up to his dad, and he clapped a hand on his shoulder and led him towards another small table hidden in a bookshelf, chatting to him on the way. Max was smiling, so Alec guessed that he had liked the greenhouse. He just hoped that he would be interested in what Alec had open on the table.

"I take it you liked the greenhouse then." Max nodded energetically at him.

"It had some really good books in it. They looked really old and special, and I met this really nice boy called Will. He was funny." Alec smiled, glad that Max was having a good time. This had been the aim of the trip, after all.

"I have a book to show you, Max. Hodge has just given it to me, as a gift, and it has lots of pictures in it. I think you might be interested in them." The boy looked up at him in curiosity then.

"What are they pictures of?"

"You'll see." They came up to the book, and Max stared down at the page it was open on in curiosity. There were many, many pictures, some small, some large, all stuck down with meticulous care and labelled in a neat print. It had been Alec's photo album of him and Magnus when they were still together, and on the day he had left Alec had left it on the doorstep of the Institute in the hope that Hodge or someone would find it and it would be locked away somewhere safe. Well, he had got it back now, and he was going to treasure it, because the memories had faded to slightly tinted with happiness instead of solely pain.

He watched as Max flicked through the book, looking at all of the photographs of the pair of men, happy and smiling at the camera. Max laughed at some of the photos of Magnus when he was fooling around, of when he had been wearing way too much glitter and when he had nearly given Alec a broken arm by yanking him up onto a wall to have the photo taken. The photographer, who had probably been Jace, had taken a photo of Alec being pulled up and Alec just falling into the sea beyond the wall – and the rocks. That had been a messy but fun afternoon.

Then Max got to the last page, and Alec gulped. These last two pages were clearly labelled 'Our Future – The Four of Us'. There was a picture of the surrogate mother with Magnus and Alec, smiling, the ultrasound scans and the two twins barely a few hours old nose to nose. And then there had been the picture outside hospital, when they had been happy just before the fight. Except there was only Magnus and the other child. Alec had ripped the photo in half, chucked the part with Alec and Max on the floor in his former bedroom, and slotted the other half into the album before leaving it outside the Institute. The picture was labelled, in an unfamiliar script, 'The ones left behind'. Alec plucked the book up and slotted it into his bag.

"I just thought you might want to see that. To sort of get to know your other dad a little bit." Max beamed at Alec.

"I really liked looking at it! It was funny! What happened when you fell off of that wall, though?" Alec laughed.

"Well…" They walked out of the Institute like that, laughing at joking at past anecdotes of Alec and Magnus, happy together. Alec was finally ready to tell Max more, probably because he was back where the memories were strongest, and he was ready to tell Max everything he wanted to know. Even Magnus's name. He was ready for Max to know that after all these years.

…

So? What do you think? Please tell me! I really hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Lu xxx