Chapter Six

A/N: Thank you to Jace5000 for reviewing the last chapter.

The fierce knocking on the bedroom door had been going on for long enough that Jocelyn managed to block it out of her mind. Valentine had been trying to discuss her discoveries ever since she had bolted from Jonathan's room, but she could not bring herself to look at him.

The tears pricked at her eyelids again at the thought of her first-born child. Even after she had deduced that Valentine survived the fire, it had never occurred to her he might have saved Jonathan. Perhaps she had not realised the depth of his love for his son. Or perhaps she had not wanted to believe that demonic experiment remained alive.

"Jocelyn!" Valentine called, ending the stubborn silence he had maintained for the last few minutes. His tone was sharp, and the memory of other times it had been used sent a shiver down his wife's spine. "Jocelyn, I am telling you now, open this door!"

The redhead did not respond, not trusting her voice enough to speak without wavering or cracking. The silence only seemed to rile her husband further.

"Jocelyn, open the door or I will break it down!" Valentine shouted. Jocelyn had no doubts that he meant it. The thought of the door falling from its hinges, a furious man appearing from behind it, crossing the room towards her with colossal strides… it was enough to make the woman cross the room herself, removing the rune she had placed on the wood. At least if she took control of this, she could pretend she was not afraid; perhaps it would be enough to convince herself.

As she pulled open the door, Valentine's expression softened, the way it always did when she obeyed him. The anger in his tone was only used to frighten her into submission, a trick to quell her headstrong nature when they were first married. 'He can't frighten me now.' she told herself. 'I defeated him in the Uprising, I hid from him for so many years. I'm not that weak girl anymore.'

"I need to explain." Valentine began, his tone even and calm. It was almost like he became a different person when he was angry, the demon blood coursing through his veins taking over. Just as it did for Jonathan.

"What is there to explain?" Jocelyn returned, a little quieter than she would have liked. "Jonathan is here, in this house. The son that I thought was dead for seventeen years has been under the same roof as me for days and you didn't think at any point to tell me."

"I was waiting for the right time." Valentine tried to explain, but Jocelyn only scoffed.

"The right time would have been before I found that room!" she exclaimed, her fear forgotten as her frustration took hold. "You let me wander around the house, wander into that room, covered in photos of me and my daughter! Do you know how that felt?!"

"I'm sure it was a shock…" Her husband was approaching her, his palms outstretched as if he were approaching a wounded animal. He needed to learn that wounded animals fought back.

"Valentine, I thought he was dead!" she almost screamed, tears swelling in her eyes. "You let me think that he was dead!"

She had expected Valentine to shout in return, to invent some argument, some excuse for his behaviour, just as he always had done. When he approached, she even expected for a moment that he might hit her, a step he seemed to have close to taking on a few occasions, though he had never actually done so. She had not thought he would pull her to his chest, holding her as she cried.

Every nerve in her body was on fire, her mind and body warring between themselves. This was Valentine, the man who had plotted the Uprising, who would have destroyed the world if he had been given the chance. He was also the man she had married, the one she had come to with every small injury or concern. He was the man she had fallen in love with.

Eventually, Jocelyn pushed Valentine away, though it took her a little longer than she would have liked. He seemed to take the rejection well, taking a step back to give her space, not speaking until her tears had finally dried.

"I know how much I hurt you, by doing what I did to Jonathan." Valentine spoke almost in a whisper, sounding somewhat vulnerable for the first time Jocelyn could remember. Even so she had to bite her lip bloody to stop her fury erupting once more. "I wanted to create a weapon, a warrior, but I should never have done it at the expense of a child. Our child."

The redhead blinked. She could not have been hearing this correctly.

"The demon blood has changed him, of course." Valentine continued quickly. "I suppose you could say it corrupted him. Actually, that's part of the reason I brought you here."

"Excuse me?" Jocelyn questioned, her eyebrows a little raised. She could not comprehend what Jonathan's state had to do with her. Truthfully, she could not comprehend what Jonathan had to do with her at all, save a trickle of blood in his veins. Valentine had made sure anything else was taken away.

"Sometimes, when I look at him, I can see… a glimmer, of humanity." the man explained, brushing a few strands of platinum hair off his shining forehead. "Over the years, I taught him to copy emotions, to pretend convincingly enough to blend in among a crowd of Shadowhunters. But this is different. Every once in a while, it's real."

"So, every once in a while, you think our son might actually be human?" Jocelyn could hardly keep the mockery out of her voice, or the bitterness. Such a thing would be taken for granted by most mothers. "I still don't see what this has to do with me."

"You're a better person than me, Jocelyn. You always have been." It seemed each time Valentine opened his mouth, his points were more and more ridiculous, but this time Jocelyn listened in silence. The softness in his voice, the vulnerability, it reminded her of the Valentine she had first fallen for, the broken boy who had just lost his father and was desperately searching for someone to lean on in his grief. "If anyone can help make him better, to bring the humanity out in him, it's you."

Jocelyn could almost feel the pull in two sides of her heart as he spoke, each beat almost split in two. On one hand, there was Clary, out there alone and afraid, probably waiting distraught for her to come home. On the other hand, there was Jonathan, the baby she had had taken from her before he was born, lost to her when he was barely able to walk. Now a third chance reared its head, a chance to be a mother the way she never had been to him. But she could surely not sacrifice her younger child to do it.

The woman felt tears well in her eyes once again, her heart finally torn in two. She had made the decision, the only one she felt that she could make. She could not let Jonathan down again.

"Okay." she acquiesced, nodding her head for emphasis. "If I can help make Jonathan human again, then that's what I'll have to do."

Valentine's smile was brighter than she had seen it in years, but Jocelyn could not bring herself to reciprocate, not even in pretense. Her mind was focused on the redheaded girl waiting back in Brooklyn. 'I won't abandon you, Clary.' she promised. 'I'll come back to you soon. And I'll bring your brother with me.'

A/N: I always thought it would be interesting to see the impact Jocelyn would have had on Jonathan if she'd been able to raise him, so I'll explore it a bit here. Please review!