Here we are, and update for you. I had a sudden stroke of inspiration and decided to write. Enjoy!

…

The next day, Alec decided to take Max to Taki's, partially because he felt that it was time for him to visit it, and partially because he needed to have a serious chat with his son. He had some big news to break to him that he had found out last night. Max wasn't the only reason he had returned to New York, and now… well now things had changed dramatically again. He was excited because he knew that Max would be mega excited, and it always made him happy to see his little boy smile.

The two of them wandered down the road together, Max going on and on about this other boy that he had met in the Institute the previous day. His son had reacted to the library in exactly the same way Alec had himself when he was younger and he had been fascinated about the book of his two dads, talking non stop about them all of the previous night, and it was only now that he had told Alec about this other kid. Alec was actually quite interested – Max wasn't especially brilliant with new people, much like Alec himself, and so anyone who the boy was comfortable deserved a medal in his eyes.

"…and he looked really impressed by the fact that I love books, everyone else just thinks I am weird!" Max finished happily, grinning up at his father. He smiled back down at him.

"Well, I'm glad you had a good time. What did you say his name was again?" Max hit his forehead playfully.

"I didn't! No, his name was Will. I think it might be short for William." Alec nodded along.

"I'm sure it is." He stopped, realising where they were. "We're here."

Taki's hadn't changed a bit from when he had last been there. The paint was slightly more peeling on the sign, granted, but the bright white lettering spelling out the name was still shining strongly through, and the windows were still lit with a faint, welcoming orange glow. This place brought back more memories than the Institute even had, because it also held the memories of his siblings Isabelle and Jace. They had loved to come here, the three of them, to forget their issues at home and just be normal teenagers for once. He had first come out to them in Taki's. He had first told them all his other secrets there. He had first introduced them to Magnus… okay; he didn't like the drift anymore. This was the present, not the past, and he fully intended to live it to the full.

They found a table in the corner and sat down on the hard plastic bench seats, the rickety metal table creaking ominously as they leant on it. Max looked around curiously at the place, and then even more curiously at the menu – Taki's catered for some more… unusual tastes. Like the rest of the place, the menu hadn't changed one bit, and Alec could vaguely remember some of the faces in here, although he doubted that they would remember him, he had been gone so long. He squinted around, trying to put names to faces, until the waitress Kaelie came to take their order. So she still worked there. It was like nothing had changed here at all – except of course everything had.

She walked up now, her eyes still a glassy translucent blue, her dyed blonde hair still pulled back up on her head and her lips still plastered in bright red. She was unchanged down to the large gold hoops spinning around her ears and the cheap white stilettos. Alec smiled to himself. The girl was absorbed in her notepad, and so hadn't noticed who he was yet.

"Heya, what can I get…you!" Kaelie had looked up, a look of shock and recognition plastered clearly on her face. Who could blame her?

"Alec Lightwood… I was never expecting to see you again!" Alec smiled up at her.

"And hello to you too, Kaelie." He said it lightly, not really meaning to make any major impact.

"Yeh, sorry, it is good to see you it's just… wow. When you disappeared like that, and Magnus went into recluse mode… well, we were never expecting to see you again, any of us." Alec panicked slightly. She slumped down onto the bench across from the boys, drumming her long pink fingernails on the table.

"Yeh, about that Kaelie…" A small, timid voice cut him up.

"Who is Magnus?" Both Kaelie and Alec snapped their heads round. Kaelie pointed a finger at Max.

"Okay, who is that, Alec? Explain?" Alec sighed.

"That's Max, my son, it's a long story, and I'll tell you later." He said quickly. Max interjected again.

"Dad, who is Magnus?" Alec gulped. Kaelie raised a pencilled in eyebrow, and ceased her drumming, but didn't say anything.

"You know I was saying about your other dad… Magnus is him. That's his name." Kaelie's eyebrows shot into her hair.

"Wait, you and Magnus had a kid? With like, a surrogate or something? What?!" Alec gulped again.

"Yep. I'm surprised he didn't tell you actually. He never was one for secrets. Oh no, he was. I forget." The sound in his voice was so bitter and full of pain that he hated it, but he couldn't help himself. It had to be said. It had to be.

"No. No one has seen him since… since then. He just shut himself off from everyone he had ever known, still in public what with the magazine but… yeh. We haven't heard from him since whatever it was happened and you just disappeared into thin air. You know, Iz and Jace are still really cut up about that, they are going to be so excited when I tell them!" Alec raised his hands and shook them.

"No, no, no Kaelie, they are not to know I am back. I have a new life now, a new family, and I just want to leave all of those memories behind." Kaelie smiled evilly at him, and waved her phone up. She had clearly been texting under the table.

"Too bad. Already texted Isabelle. They're gonna be here in…" She checked her phone. "Two minutes." Alec blanched.

"Dad, who are Jace and Isabelle?"

"My brother and sister."

Okay, so he may have forgotten, okay consciously decided, to not tell Max about his siblings. He didn't want too much complication. Plus he was scared about too much conversation about them, because he regretted just leaving them. They had no idea what had actually happened between him and Magnus, why he had left, even about Max. God, this was messed up. And now, he was just totally screwed.

"Come on Max, we are leaving. Now." He grabbed the boy's hand and led him firmly out of the booth and into the main restaurant area. He turned around and shot a venomous look at Kaelie, who looked like she was about to giggle.

"Thanks a lot Kaelie. It's good to know that you're still a heartless bitch." She finally let out that annoying tinkling laugh that he certainly hadn't missed.

"Turn around why don't you." Alec did just that. If it was possible for him to get any paler, then he did.

Isabelle and Jace Lightwood were hurrying down the street, heads tucked against the wind. They were both the same; well, almost. Jace was unchanged, exactly the way Alec remembered. The same golden hair and stoic face, determined and strong, the same black coat and jeans and heavy biker boots. Izzy still had the beautifully ebony locks and thigh high boots, but her figure was no longer quite slender in her tight silvery dress. There was a slight bulge in her abdomen. So she was pregnant. Probably pregnant with a guy that Alec had never met before. Oh shit. The guilt again. Maybe Jace had a family? No, no, no. No. He just needed to get out of this damned situation and fast. He couldn't open up the old wounds again – they had been bandaged and healed for a reason. He whipped his head back around to Kaelie – he had about two extra seconds because the table was right in the corner but that was it.

"Kaelie, seriously, just let me out of the back exit or something, please!" He could hear the pleading edge to his own voice, the desperation, the sheer panic. She waggled her finger at him.

"Oh no, I cannot wait to see how this one plays out. Good look, sweetie!" Alec heard the door swing open, felt Max's grip on his hand tighten enormously. Kaelie waved energetically over his shoulder, her grin broad and teasing.

"Hey, you two, over here!" She shouted gleefully. She turned to Alec. "Have fun."

Her heels clacked loudly on the floor as she made her way towards the kitchen away from him. He felt two people come up to stand behind him and Max, but he didn't dare to turn around. It was one thing trying to face the city and the places and the people who had been in the background. It was another entirely to try and face those who had been as key in his life as Iz and Jace had. He gulped. He would not turn around. He wouldn't. Max didn't seem very inclined to either, still hanging onto Alec s if he was the last thing left to break his fall. Maybe he could just sense his dad's apprehension and therefore was fearful too.

"Where have you been for the past eight years Alec?!" It was Isabelle talking, the anger clear in her voice. Even in the short phrase, her voice had raised at least an octave. "Hmm? Eight years, no word, no reasons, just thin air left where our brother had once stood. And Magnus closed off, and no one else knowing either?!" Alec had begun to shake slightly, his breath becoming hitched.

"Oh, won't even turn round and face us?" Jace. Snarky and cold. He was giving Alec the front he gave to those he didn't know. Well, Jace didn't know him. Not anymore.

"Alec, why the hell did you do that to us when we needed you most?! You missed Jace's first kid, you nearly missed mine, you missed our weddings, you missed everything!" She sounded furious. "How could you even contemplate leaving us?! We are your siblings! Does that mean anything to you?!"

At that moment something snapped inside Alec. He had lived with this guilt the entire time. He had done this for some selfish reasons, yes, trying to escape the pain of life. However, he had had unselfish reasons too. He had been just messing up the relationship Jace and Izzy had with their parents; whenever he had stepped in to look after them when his parents had been away, all hell had broken loose. This had been most weeks. He had not wanted to give awful reminders to Magnus, to trouble him, to pain him. He was better off out of their lives. Oh God. He snapped around, terrified that he was going to mess things up but knowing that it was going to happen whether he liked it or not.

"Yes, because I am entirely selfish, aren't I?! I screwed up my relationship big time because I spent almost every weekend with you and not with my boyfriend, who mistook it for me cavorting with Jace because he thought I still liked him! I moved away so that you wouldn't get caught in the crossfire between me and Robert and Maryse which left you crying on most occasions! I moved so that I wouldn't remind Magnus of everything! I moved to give Max a better life than the one I have had, and I moved so that I would not burden any of you with my moping over the relationship! So don't you dare call me selfish and like I don't care about you because I have done everything in my life for other people and nothing whatsoever for myself!"

Alec found himself shaking with rage now, at them, at his parents, at life, at the whole flipping world. He just stared at the golden eyes and the black ones, the shock in their eyes that made Alec feel guilty again despite everything. That was what he hated, that was what he hated beyond everything. He knew he was crying, but he really couldn't help it. He felt Max tugging at his sleeve nervously.

"Is this Uncle Jace and Aunty Izzy?" Alec looked down at his son, quickly nodding.

"They don't deserve those titles, but yes." His gaze snapped back up to the startled looking pair.

"Yeh, I'm not the only one who has missed the first children. The difference is, Max was conceived when I still knew you two. And it is a very long and complicated story, but I am sure that you won't want to hear it because you are too wrapped up in your own little worlds to care about anyone else."

He said this coldly and with as much poison as he possibly could. Alec was well aware that the entire of the little café was probably staring right at the admittedly unusual and exciting scene unfurling before their eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Let them stare. Let them judge. Screw the world; he had had enough of it treating him like bullshit. Absolutely enough.

"If it pleases you two so much, I'm moving back to New York for a job, so I'm sure you guys will just love to use me to your advantage again. Don't expect me to come running back to you, because to be honest I am fed up of the way you guys have been treating me and I really don't want to know you. Come on Max, we are leaving." Jace looked as him with a disconnected blankness, as if he was trying to process everything he had just heard, and Izzy looked desperate.

"Alec…" He put up a hand to silence her.

"I don't want to hear it Iz. I'm sorry, but I don't.

And with that he stormed past his siblings, Max in tow, and out of the place. The tears had begun to flow freely down his face as the two of them made their way along the side walk and towards the tube station in an awful, sad silence. Alec knew he shouldn't have shouted so much, but he hadn't been ale to help it. He was fed up of being kicked around and treated like he didn't matter and being blamed for everything. He hated the fact that he had been made to believe that it was his fault every time something went wrong, even when it blatantly wasn't, but it had gotten to the stage where he simply wasn't able to help it anymore.

After a short time Max broke the silence.

"Daddy…" Oh god. Max hadn't called him that for years. This was bad.

"Yes Max?" He said as softly as he could. His hands were still shaking, one of them clasped around Max's.

"Did you really move away from all of the things you loved for me?" Alec sighed.

"I moved to get away from my own demons, to protect the people here, and to protect you. Don't blame yourself for anything that happened back there okay? Okay, Max?" He said this gently but firmly/ Max nodded and leant slightly on Alec as they walked. The mood between them both was awfully depressing.

"I am so sorry that you had to be there when that happened Max. You shouldn't have had to witness that at all, that should have been something that you were shielded from." Max shook his head.

"It wasn't your fault, it was Kellie's." Alec laughed.

"Kaelie's, but yep, I guess so. She always did have a habit of sticking her nose into things with disastrous consequences. Always found it hilarious. I can only assume that she still does." Max snorted.

"She sounds awful." He looked down to see the boy wrinkling his nose.

"Ohh, believe me she is. I hope that you will never have the misfortune to run across someone like her in your life." Max giggled.

"Why does she hate you so much though?" Alec raised his eyebrows at the boy.

"Oh you noticed that, did you? Well, basically, it is because she always felt rivalry between us over Jace, because we both liked him - in fact, she used the fact that I did to blackmail me on several occasions. Anyway, she always hated the fact that I was closer to him than she was, and that he actually appeared to like me as a person, whereas he clearly didn't like her." Max furrowed his brow.

"But I though Jace was your brother?" He nodded.

"He is. Adopted. At the time he was only being fostered by us. By the time my parents adopted him I had moved on. It was just a childish crush, we were only what, eleven, but Kaelie still held it against me. She has always been way too serious about getting the right guy from an early age, and for her Jace is a star catch. Too bad he is married – well, I assume he is anyway." Max nodded, but his brow was still furrowed. He looked up at Alec, a very serious expression on his face.

"Okay, but I still don't understand something."

"And what may I ask is that, Max."

"Dad, what is a 'catch'?" Alec could only laugh at that.

…

What do you think? This was only meant to be short scene, but then it kind of just went on… Oh well. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I plan to update soon, but school may have to take priority I am afraid.

Lu xxx