A Broken Future

Chapter Twelve: The Defining Moment

Agony tore through Clary in the middle of the night, jolting her from sleep without warning.
She bit her tongue to keep quiet, but Sebastian was already beginning to stir. Sliding from bed, Clary got out of the room as quickly as she could with her nearly eight month old baby bump.
Before she was at her mother's door, however, another wave hit her. She could practically hear water, like waves hitting and ocean shore....
But there really was water.
Her water had broken.
Suddenly panicking, she cried out for her mother. Soon her and Luke had come racing down the hall, and helped her to their room.

Sebastian had awoken when Clary jolted out of bed, but let himself fall back asleep when she quietly slipped out of the room once more. He somehow wished that she would let him help her instead of running to her mother and adoptive father. But if that was what Clary wanted, he would let her have it.
Just as he was dozing off again, he heard Clary yell out for her mother. That was something that had never happened before, which made him think this situation was somehow different, maybe even worse. So he rolled out of bed and swiftly followed the route to his biological mother's bedroom.
When he opened the door, it appeared to be most definitely bad. Clary was on the bed, atop the sheets; a sweaty, panting mess of a girl. Next to her was the warlock, spinning healing and protecting spells, while Jocelyn bustled about, tending to Clary. The dark haired girl, Isabelle, tried to help, but her inexperience was evident.
"What's going on?" Sebastian asked. Immediately their heads snapped up, even Clary's. Most of them looked startled, and Isabelle even dared to glare at him. But Clary looked at him with a mixture of surprise and fear, making him uncomfortable. He didn't want her to be afraid of him; all the punishments she had relieved were ones she had either taken willingly for her friends or earned. He asked her every time before she took the beating for one of them, but her answers never changed. One thing he would not do, though, was hurt her while she was pregnant. He wanted a healthy son to inherit the throne of Edom.
"You can't be in here," Jocelyn said to him. Her response, not quite answering his question, was aggravating.
"I asked what was going on," he said, letting her hear his impatience.
"I meant you can't be in here, because Clary's in labor," she answered.
"But she's not due for at least another month."
"Well, we don't have much of a choice now. But you have to go back to your room. Someone will come and get you when we have news," Jocelyn replied firmly, still maternal towards a son who had long rejected her.
Sebastian nodded, leaving against his own will. But being pushed out of a strange and unfamiliar situation was difficult to argue with.
It might be a very long night of waiting.

In the bedroom next door were the men. They had all been cruelly banished from the scene, and the three nervously waited for any news of Clary and the baby. Tensions ran high there, in the dead of the night in the demon realms.
Luke sat on the chair next to the bed, elbows on his knees, fidgeting restlessly with his fingers. He was the picture of fatherly worry. On the end of the bed sat Simon, who was hunched over and bounced one foot rapidly. Jace paced endlessly back and forth, occasionally stopping to put his hands against the wall and try to clear his head. His attempts were rather unsuccessful. Though mostly controlled, the heavenly fire made his mind race. It was especially relentless in times of weakness, and this was one of them.
"Gee, I've never seen you so nervous, Herondale," Simon remarked.
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm really not in the mood. If you wanted to talk about bad situations, Bloodsucker, you could have brought up the time you got us all stuck in a vampire-infested hotel."
Simon immediately turned red. "In my defense, it was not my fault I got turned into a rat and-"
"Please, you two," Luke interrupted wearily, "try, just for once, to get along."
"Fine," Jace said bitterly. "But I'm the one who helped Clary get you're rat's ass out of there. Literally."
Even Jace's sarcastic humor did not prevent the stony quiet that quickly followed. It's was a bit tough for all of them to think about Clary, and her first weeks in the Shadowworld. What a mess they had all gotten into.
Suddenly the nervous silence was broken when Isabelle threw open the door. "Guys," she said, smiling enough to let them all relax a little. "You have to come and see this."
They all eagerly jumped to follow her, bursting into the other room. They were instantly scolded to be quieter by Jocelyn. But Jace couldn't care less about what she thought right now.
Sitting up on the bed was Clary, looking more exhausted and joyous than ever before. In her arms she held a tiny baby wrapped in a white blanket, her smile beaming down at the child. Jace's heart ached. She would be a wonderful mother; he had known it since he'd seen her with the young Carstairs girl.
But that should have been his baby, not Sebastian's- she deserved to have her first child with the person she loved.
Clary suddenly seemed to realize they were in the room and turned to show them the baby's face. The hair was a layer of white fluff covering the child's head, and the eyes- the baby's eyes- were bright green.
Jace felt a weight lift from his heart. The angel blood had won. The baby was fine. Clary was fine. She could have a first child she did not hate.
"It's a girl," Clary said. "We're naming her Seraphina, after Valentine's mother," she explained. Jace approached, and she held out the small bundle to him.
The baby was such a little, delicate thing in his hands. When a small noise of discomfort came from her mouth at being separated from her mother, he automatically began to bounce her gently. It seemed to sooth the baby, who closed her big, vibrant eyes. He couldn't help but smile at the teeny life he held in his hands.
When he looked back at Clary, a sad, wistful look covered her face. He knew she was thinking the same thing he had been earlier; this should have been their baby.
Simon awkwardly cradled the child next, vampire-like grace of little help with the child. Luke looked at the baby as if it were his own child, remarking that they were too young to be grandparents, but an odd silence fell on the comment. While the baby girl was loved and adored, she was still the child of Sebastian.
"Has he seen her yet?" Jace asked, knowing they would understand.
Jocelyn hesitated. "Yes," she finally replied. "But only because he would be furious otherwise." Jace nodded, understanding, and silence fell once again.
The baby, much to her liking, was handed back to Clary. It was if a light behind her expression flickered on as the tiny daughter settled into her arms. Since they had come to be prisoners in Edom, Jace had never seen her so happy.