Tessa was getting sick of doing laundry. It seemed like no matter how much laundry she did, there was still something more to wash. True, the amount of laundry in the house had gone up significantly since Lucie had been born, but the last few weeks had seen a major increase in loads of dirty baby clothes. Lucie was drooling on everything. This alone wasn't much to worry about, but when Lucie stopped sleeping through the night Tessa had put two and two together. Her daughter was teething.

"I miss sleep," Jem whined as Lucie started crying. Tessa groaned, and covered her head with her pillow.

"I'm up," Will sighed, and Tessa felt him move on her left as he got out of bed. Through her closed eyelids, Tessa saw the light of the door open, and Will leaving. She wasn't sure if she dozed off again or not, but she saw the light again when Will returned. Tessa felt his weight return to the bed, but she also sensed someone else.

"Why isn't she crying?" Tessa asked, turning and opening her eyes. Lucie was laying on Will's chest with his fingers in her mouth.

"She's chewing on me," Will replied, his eyes half closed. Tessa didn't even want to check the time, but she knew from the level of fatigue in her body it was some ungodly hour of the morning.

"My hand is soaked," Will said. Tessa knew he was too tired to laugh, but sensed he might if he'd had the energy.

"That won't last long," Jem said. "I have some grapes in the freezer that might be frozen by now."

Tessa's whole body begged her to sleep, but instead she moved, lifting herself and moving down the bed to exit at the bottom since Will and Jem were on either side of her. Feeling a bit like a zombie, Tessa walked to the kitchen, opened the freezer, and pulled out what she needed. Placing a few grapes in a small child's bowl, Tessa went back to bed. At the moment, she couldn't even care if their bed was covered in grape mush in the morning, so long as they got to sleep in it uninterrupted until then.

Crawling into bed, Tessa placed the bowl of grapes on Will's chest before collapsing back down onto her pillow. Tessa's eyes shut instantly, and she was asleep in seconds, only to be woken by her daughter once again.

Opening her eyes, Tessa saw Lucie laying on her tummy on her father's chest. Will's eyes were closed and his breathing was even, so Tessa suspected him to be still asleep. How he could sleep through his daughter crying literally on top of him, she hadn't a clue. Leaning over, Tessa scooped up her daughter into her arms and pulled her close. Lucie settled down on Tessa, and started pulling on her mother's nightshirt.

"Sorry sweetheart," Tessa told her. "All dried up, but you can suck on my fingers if your gums hurt."

Lucie happily substituted Tessa's fingers for nipples, and the room fell silent as Tessa felt her hand slowly cover with drool. With the secure feeling of her daughter against her skin, and the silence now blessing the room, Tessa's eyes closed, all her focus on the feeling of Lucie's gums gnawing on her fingers. She wasn't sure why it was so calming, or maybe she was just too tired to care. Either way, Tessa woke up awhile later as the sun streamed in through the window.

Taking a deep breath, Tessa could sense her daughter still asleep on her chest. She opened her eyes, and just looked at Lucie for a moment. She was so quiet and peaceful, which had been rare this last week. The more Tessa looked, the more she saw. Lucie was a beautiful baby, with a soft patch of light brown hair, a round face, and soft skin. As she was getting older, more of her character was taking shape, more details and distinctive features could be seen now than when she'd been born. Tessa reached her hand up to gently stroke her daughter's head while she slept.

As it turned out, this was exactly what Tessa shouldn't have done since Lucie promptly woke up. Lifting the baby, Tessa sat up in bed, trying to rock her back to sleep, but Lucie was having none of it. Will was still asleep beside her, and Tessa didn't want to wake him. Moving quickly, she got out on Jem's empty side and made her way out of the room. As Tessa walked up and down the hall trying to get Lucie to settle down, she found Jem in the kitchen preparing a bottle.

"I hope her teeth come in soon," Jem said as he passed the warmed bottle of formula to Tessa. "Or Will is gonna have to go on stress leave at work."

"Fighting fires on no sleep does worry me," Tessa sighed as the room suddenly felt silent, Lucie's mouth now otherwise occupied by her bottle.

"He should really start sleeping in another room or something," Jem said. "So he doesn't fall asleep at the station."

"I know," Tessa sighed, but neither of them were going to suggest such a thing. It would only make things worse. Will already felt left out being the only one that worked. He hadn't said a word, but she and Jem knew him well enough to know he hated being away from them.

"I wonder if maybe I should move out," Jem said suddenly.

"What!" Tessa exclaimed. "No. Why? And this is your house."

"I know, I know," Jem said rubbing his face with his hands. He looked about as tired as Tessa felt. "I'm not stupid. I can see how… I don't know… I mean Will hasn't said anything, but I can tell he feels left out."

"This is still your house," Tessa said firmly. She wanted to just insert into his brain that everything was fine, and he needed to stop stressing, but she didn't have the energy to come up with decent responses.

"And Will's daughter calls me da-da," Jem said, guilt etched in his voice.

"She's too little to understand," Tessa said kindly, looking into Jem's eyes to try and comfort him, since her hands were busy holding and feeding Lucie. "One day she'll call you papa or something."

Jem laughed, but there wasn't much humor in it.

"When I was eighteen," he began. "I not only decided I was never going to have kids, I made sure of it. The fact that you and Will have allowed me to share in your domestic family I'm grateful for, but I don't want to take anything away from either of you."

"I promise you don't," Tessa said. "Honestly, I don't know how I'd have done this without you, Jem."

"Thanks," he smiled. There was more serenity in his face now, and Tessa decided that for the moment things were fine. That is until Lucie finished eating, and Tessa pulled the bottle away.

"Look!" Tessa said pointing. "Does that look like a tooth to you?"

"I do believe it does," Jem smiled. "We should tell Will."

"No, we should pretend we didn't see it, and have him discover it," Tessa suggested.

"Oh yes, that's better," Jem agreed, as he turned toward the kitchen. "You want some breakfast? I was going to make omelettes."

"You mean eggs with stuff in them," Tessa giggled as she placed Lucie in her play pen behind the couch. During the day Lucie was usually pretty happy, as long as she had something to distract her from the pain in her gums.

"I mean omelettes the way I make them," Jem replied.

"Omelettes a'la Jem it is then," Tessa smiled. "Thank you."

As Tessa lay on the couch with her arm over her eyes, she could smell Jem's cooking in the kitchen. Her mind drifted, and it was as if the gentle sounds of cooking were her own personal lullaby. She was probably half asleep when the doorbell rang. Lucie it seemed didn't enjoy this at all.

"Wahaa!" Lucie cried. "Whaaahaaa. Waaaa."

With a groan, Tessa got up, scooped her daughter up out of the play pen, and went to get the door.

"Oh, hi Jace," Tessa said with as much enthusiasm she could offer for the one who had prevented her from napping before breakfast.

"Hey," Jace said. "I was wondering if Will was home."

"He's sleeping," Tessa replied, re-adjusting her daughter on her hip.

"At ten o'clock?" Jace asked.

"Yes," Tessa said without bothering to answer the question more fully. She stepped aside and let Jace into the house, but he didn't move.

"I could come back later if this is a bad time," Jace said cautiously.

"Come in Jace," Tessa smiled. "It's as good a time as any."

"Unless of course you could magically transport us to a time when Lucie's out of diapers," Jem chuckled.

"No time machine, sorry," Jace said a little more confidently as he walked inside, closing the door behind him. Lucie was squirming again. Tessa put her down, but all the little rascal did was attach herself to Tessa's leg.

"Will says you're good with kids," Tessa said. "Would you mind entertaining her for a moment?"

"Umm… sure," Jace said, bending down to look Lucie eye to eye. "Hello little angel."

"Ha!" Tessa scoffed. "Angel's don't keep me up half the night drooling more than should be humanly possible."

Jace chuckled, but managed to coaxed the toddler into releasing Tessa's leg, though this only seemed to result in Lucie's clinging to Jace instead.

"Ace," Lucie giggled.

"And what am I?" Tessa objected to Lucie's nickname for her father's cousin. "Chopped liver?"

"Ma," Lucie replied, pointing at Tessa. Then she turned, now pointing to Jem she said, "Da-da."

"Only Jem gets a double syllable huh," Tessa narrowed her eyes at her daughter. "I shall have to remind you of this when you're older and asking for money."

"Please don't even go there." It was Will's voice. Everyone turned to see him standing blurrily in the bedroom doorway looking half dead from lack of sleep. "I don't want to picture her as a teenager. For the love of whatever you hold dear, don't make me picture it."

"You look awful," Tessa told him.

"Right back at you," Will whined. "And at least you don't have to work tonight."

"I think you should call in sick," Tessa replied.

"I agree," Jem backed her up.

It was then that Will noticed Jace. He blinked sleepily at his cousin before speaking. "Did we have plans today that I forgot about?" he asked.

"Umm, no," Jace began. "I was just in the neighbourhood and thought I'd stop by."

"You hungry?" Jem called from the kitchen. Tessa rather loved the layout of Jem's place, with the kitchen and living area being open enough for people to carry on a conversation, while technically still in different rooms.

"When he says omelettes, he means scrambled eggs with stuff in them," Tessa explained. "You have been warned."

"Free food, sounds good to me," Jace laughed, but when he tried to move forward, he found it rather more difficult than expected. "Umm… maybe bring it over here?" Lucie was still sitting on his foot, wrapped around his leg.

"Nonsense," Will chuckled. "If I can walk with her on my leg so can you."

Tessa couldn't help but watch for a moment as Jace put more effort into lifting his foot, toddler and all. After hobbling across the room, Jace made it to the dinner table. Jem put a frying pan of eggs with green onion and red peppers mixed into it on the table. There was a pill of buttered toast as well, and people started eating as they sat down. After a few minutes, Lucie seemed to tire of Jace's leg, and gave it up to crawl over to her parents and ask for attention.

"Yes, hello there," Will said to his daughter, who was raising her hands up to him. With a sigh and a smile, Will reached down and scooped Lucie into his lap.

"No, that isn't for you," Will said trying to keep her from grabbing at his breakfast and throwing it on the floor. Lucie was not at all happy with this result.

"Waaaaahaaaa!" she cried, tears suddenly pooling in her eyes and snot running from her nose.

"This certainly is a different dynamic than the last time I was here," Jace said.

"Oh?" Tessa asked turning to him.

"Lucie was so wonderful last time," Jace explained. "But she seems like quite the unhappy handful today."

"Ah yes, the ever shifting mood of the eleven month old," Will chuckled.

"Also, you all look more tired than a hung over insomniac," Jace commented. Everyone laughed at this, but no one disagreed with him.

Jace stuck around for an hour or so, then left saying he had to get to class. Tessa was glad he'd come over, as it was nice to see a new face, but she was also glad when he left. With just family around, Tessa could act as tired as she felt and change into her really comfortable pajamas.

"Guys!" Will said suddenly, and Jem and Tessa turned to look. "Guys look, I think her teeth have come in!"

Tessa smiled as she looked at the joy on Will's face. Then she glaced at Jem. They shared a look that promised never to explain to Will that they'd noticed Lucie's teeth hours ago.

There was a time when I didn't understand how other writers updated SO slowly. I literally couldn't comprehend the very concept… and now here I am forcing myself to get through this chapter through sheer stubbornness.

There was a time when writing consumed my every waking thought. I thought about my stories, tries scenes in my head and plotted out possibilities all day every day: at work, in the shower, before I went to sleep, while cooking, eating, commuting, cleaning… and more. Every part of my life was just inspiration for my fanfics. Every emotion, every events, every moment's peace lead to words on the page.

Looking back at it now, I know that this is how I was able to update so fast for so long. (If my math isn't wrong those two years meant 860,000 words in total. Which is 430,000 a year; 35,800 a month, not including my unpublished stuff.) I was go, go, going for so long, writing so fast and now I feel like I'm… burning out? Maybe. I'm honestly not sure. I just know I don't care to write as fast as before. A think a huge part of it is the network of friends I made through Malec and writing have all moved on to other things. Without them the energy just isn't there like before. But the main factor of how long it took for this specific Tessa chapter to get done was simply that I didn't feel like writing for Tessa. I kept working on the following Clary one to the point where I actually have that one done the same day I finally get this stupid Tessa one finished.

Then again there is always the chance that I am just super lazy. ^_^ hehe. I am after all almost half way through season 3 of Arrow... The last time I updated I believe I was still watching The Flash... #StillNeedsALife

Sneak Peek Chapter 102

"Have you seen my nail file?" Clary called to the house at large from her current location in the bathroom. Her mind had been wondering while she searched every drawer.

"Why would I know where your nail file is?" Jace's voice reached her ears. Clary looked up to see her boyfriend standing in the bathroom doorway.

"I don't know," Clary said. "Maybe you took it."

"And why on earth would I do that?" Jace grinned.

"Oh, I don't know," Clary smiled. "To file your nails."

"A master detective if ever there was one," Jace told her, smirking.

"Does this mean you did take my nail file?" Clary asked, turning to narrow her eyes at the gorgeous blonde man before her.

"And what are you gonna do to me if I did?" Jace said, raising his eyebrow.

"Well if you don't give it back, I'm going to be late for class," Clary explained.

"Or here's a radical thought," Jace smirked. "You could go to class with a hangnail." He opened his mouth in mock horror, his eyes wide, but Clary just rolled her eyes.