Jace's POV
After I left the training room, I paced around for a little while, trying to calm myself down before going to talk to Clary. Even though I don't particularly like her right now, I still don't want to fully blow up at her...mainly because of Mia. I like her enough to not do anything to upset her, like doing something that may upset Clary. I know she doesn't really like me as much as she likes Vincent, but I'm still fighting for her. She still needs to be trained to be a Shadowhunter and I still plan to be the one to do that.
As I was thinking about all of that, I didn't notice that I had stopped outside of the greenhouse. Memories started flooding through my mind: when I met Clary; when we fought Valentine; our first kiss; Sebastian; what happened with the Seelie Queen; the best parts of our relationship; her cheating on me; meeting Mia; kissing her; becoming one of three guys that want to be with her.
"That's where we had our first kiss," I heard a voice say from behind me.
"Yeah."
"Mia told you something about me, right?"
I turned around to face Clary and nodded my head.
"What she told you is true. I am pregnant. But, before you start yelling at me, just hear me out...please."
My mind was telling me to stop her and just walk away, but my heart was telling me to let her talk. Stupid heart, I thought to myself as I motioned for her to start explaining.
"Well, it was a few months ago. I wasn't really feeling good and I felt like you weren't really there for me, so, to get my mind off of it, I went out to hunt. I met Howard and we finished hunting together. We starting talking and it led to something I didn't mean for it to. We kissed and I don't know how we ended up where we are now. But, I do know that I am sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen and I just hope that you can find it within yourself to forgive me."
When she finished talking, I stayed silent for a few minutes, trying to process what she said. I could tell that she really meant what she said, but I still had questions.
"Do you know if the baby really is mine?"
Clary took a shaky breath and replied, "Yes, I'm positive it is. Howard and I never went that far. The only time that happened was the last time I was with you."
This conversation is really awkward, I thought to myself. "How long have you known?"
"Not long. I kind of thought I was, but I didn't really have time to think about it too much with everything that's been going on. I found out for certain today actually."
"Why didn't you tell me when you suspected something? All of this could have been avoided if you had just talked to me and not have kept hooking up with him."
Clary sighed. "I wanted to tell you. It just wasn't ever a good time and I didn't know how you would react. You are actually taking this a lot better than I thought you would."
"Clary," I started before letting out a sigh of my own. "I really wish you would have talked to me about this before now. It was also a little shocking when I heard about this from Mia and not you. But, I do appreciate you talking to me about everything. It is going to take me a while to fully be okay with this, but I don't want you to feel like you can't come to me. I'm the father and I will be there for you."
Clary smiled and I was suddenly enveloped in a hug. She pulled back and just whispered, "Thank you." I nodded my head and started to walk away. Turning my head, I saw Clary walking the other way. What am I going to do? I thought to myself. Suddenly, I felt something hit me. I didn't have time to react and non-gracefully fell on top of whatever had been in front of me. My fighting instincts immediately set in and I began to reach for the knife I always had with me. When I looked down and got my first good look at what had hit me, I just started laughing.
"Do you want to get off me or are you just going to laugh more?"
I smirked before saying, "Sorry Mia," and standing up, reaching my hand down to help her up. When we were both standing, I noticed that Mia would not meet my eyes and I swore I could see a hint of red on her cheeks. I placed my thumb and pointer finger on her chin and lifted it, forcing her to look me in the eye.
"Jem and Tessa are here with other people I don't know. They said they would explain when everyone was there. Izzy went to get Magnus, Alec, and Simon and asked me to get you and Clary."
I nodded my head. "Well, you're in luck. I was just talking to her not too long ago. I think she headed back to her room. I'll walk with you."
Mia nodded and followed me. I looked over at her a few times on the way and saw a distant expression on her face. I didn't want to bug her about it, but I was a bit concerned. Before I could ask her about it, I heard a voice coming from a little bit in front of us
"Hey Mia. Hey Jace. What's up?"
"Hey Clary. Izzy wanted me to come and get you. Jem and Tessa are here and they brought some other people. They said they would explain when everyone got there."
"Let me guess," Clary said. "Izzy went to call Simon and get Magnus and Alec."
"Yeah."
I stifled a laugh while Clary just smiled at her.
"Izzy doesn't want you to be scared away yet. Magnus and Alec are always together and, when they are in the same room, things can get...interesting, to say the least. And Simon is her boyfriend, if you don't remember from the, like, thirty minutes she talked about him."
All three of us laughed before Mia said, "I don't need any more information and I do remember."
"Yeah, I'm with Mia on that. Can we head back to the library to see what Jem and Tessa want?"
Both of them nodded and we started to make our way back to the library.
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Hey guys. I had fun writing this chapter, especially the last part. It actually took me a while to think about how I would have Clary explain the whole Howard thing to Jace. I had an idea in my head, but I didn't want to go the really traditional route, so I hope that you guys liked it.
Questions:
1) What did you think about Clary's explanation?
2) Who do you ship more: Clace or Jia?
3) Favorite part of the story so far?
4) Questions for the ask the characters section? (I'm still waiting for your questions, fanvergent_narwhal14. You said you had a lot. I want to hear them.)
5) Ideas for the rest of the story?
Thank you all for reading. I love you all so much. I also happen to be on vacation this week, so I will be trying to update as much as I can before school starts again. Also, #bringbackjamie.
-blackwolves16