I wake up to the sun coming through the curtains on the balcony. I sigh and get out of the bed. I'm 9 months pregnant and I can tell this baby is ready to come out soon.
I go to the bathroom and then go to the closet. I look through all my clothes. I decide on some black leggings and a grey top. I put on some grey sandals. It's October but I'm not planning on going outside so I can wear sandals. My ankles are quite swollen. Being pregnant with Grace wasn't this bad, but then again my pregnancy was shorter by a month with her.
I sit down and try putting my sandals on. I can't get them in so I guess I'm going barefoot. If someone asks I'll just tell them I can't put on shoes this morning.
I go down to breakfast with Chrissie and river following me. The servants bring me my breakfast. "Are you doing all right Queen Clary" a young servant girl asks me. "I am thank you. I just know this baby probably wants out. I just don't know if I'm ready" I say. "You will be all right. Mrs. Alice will be there with you when you have the baby" she says. "I know and I'm so thankful. I don't know what I'd do without her or any of you. You have all helped me so much" I say. "You're so welcome ma'am. I can't wait to see this baby" she says. "Me too" I say.
I take a bite of my food and look back to the little servant girl. "Can you bring me some pickles and honey with a jar of peanut butter. I am really craving some right now" I ask. She nods and leaves the dining room. She comes back with the pickles honey nd peanut butter. I've certainly had much weirder cravings with this baby than I did with Grace. I grab a pickle out of the jar she spread some honey on it and dip it in the peanut butter. It tastes so good when I bite into the pickle. I finish my pickles and eat all I can of my real breakfast with what they brought to me to eat.
I go to the library. I grab a random book from the shelf and sit on the couch. My feet are killing me. I've been moving too much this morning. I prop my feet up and read my book.
•••
I feel something run down my legs. Oh no. I get up and walk out. I find oliver. "Oliver I need alice" I say. "She isn't here yet. She got the morning off remember. She isn't coming until one o'clock" he reminds me. That's right. This stinks. My baby is going to come and she is not here. "I need you to send someone to go get her. It's an emergency" I tell him. "What's wrong" he asks. "My water broke. The baby is going to come sometime soon. I don't know how much longer we have until the contractions start" I say. "Oh. Okay I will go send her someone to go get her" he says. "Thanks" I say and he walks off.
I go sit in one of the guest rooms. Charlotte comes and sits with me along with river, chrissie, and some other guards and servants. "Someone has gone to get her and bring her back" she tells me. "Thanks Charlotte. I don't know how much longer we have until the contractions start" I say. "I'm not sure either. I will make sure to stay with you until she gets here even if they start before she is here" she tells me. "Thank you" I say.
After about 20 minutes I feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I squeeze my eyes closed. "Charlotte" I say. "It will be okay soon. I'm pretty sure Alice is on her way" she says. "I hope so" I say.
"My sketchbook. Charlotte I need my sketchbook and my stele" I tell her. "I will go get it" someone says. He leaves and comes back. I open it to a page where I drew my most recent rune I have created on it. "I need someone to draw this rune on my lower back" I tell them. "I will do it" charlotte says. She takes my stele and draws it. "I think it is supposed to act as like an epidural" I tell her. "Then it should help" she says
Awhile later Alice comes walking in the door. "Have they started" she asks. "Yes" charlotte says. "How far apart are they" Alice asks. "Every 15 minutes" Charlotte answers. "Okay we need to wait until they are closer together to have to start having this baby. I also need everyone out except maybe one person. One person needs to be here for her since Jace isn't here" Alice tells everyone. "I can stay" one guard says. "Okay, the rest of you out" she orders. They all leave the room with chrissie and river following.
After a few hours the contractions start getting closer together. "Okay clary I'm going to need you to slide off those leggings and since the contractions are close together now, I'm going to need you to push on the next one" she tells me. I nod. I slide off my leggings. She gets a towel out of the bathroom and folds it and places it over my legs.
I feel the next contraction come. "Push clary" she says. I grab the mans arm and squeeze as I push. When this one contraction ends I am panting. "Its alright clary, just breathe okay. Just keep pushing as you get these contractions" she says. I nod.
After about two hours I hear a cry, a babies cry. My baby. "It's a boy" she says. She cleans him off, wraps him in a small blanket and hands him to me. My baby is so cute. "Do you have a name for him" she asks me. I nod. "Braxton. Braxton James Herondale" I tell her. "I like it. I know Jace will too. Do you want me to go get a silent brother and call for a iron sister" Alice asks. "No, can we wait a few hours until they come, I want some time with my baby" I tell her. "Okay. I'm going to go get the crib we used for Grace at the announcement party for him. We will let you rest for a little while then I will send for the silent brothers and iron sisters" he tells me. "Thanks" I say. "You're welcome" she says.
I get back under the covers and hold my baby. He's so cute. He's my baby boy. "Hi baby Braxton" I tell him softly. "You are going to be the best little prince" I tell him. He opens his little blue eyes and looks at me. I smile at him. "I'm sorry, you don't get to meet your daddy the day you are born. You will meet him one day. I will make sure to tell you all about him Braxton. He loves you so much baby" I tell my baby boy. I grab his tiny hand and hold it.
A guard comes in holding the little crib. "For whenever you're ready to rest" he says and leaves. I hold my baby close to me. "I love you Braxton. I've been waiting for you to come into this world. Its a scary world but I'm going to take care of you" I tell him. I kiss his little head and he yawns. "I'm going to take a nap too" I tell him. I set him in his little makeshift crib. He closes his eyes again and I lay down. I take a nap.
•••
I wake up hearing my baby cry. I lean down and pick him up. He stops crying and whimpers. Alice comes in. "Do you want to bottle feed him like Grace" she asks. "No, I think I want to try nursing him. Mom told me its healthier for him" I tell her. She nods. "I will leave you to it then. There is a guard outside your door for if you need him. Just let him know ehen you are ready and I will go send for a silent brother and an iron sister" she says. "Okay, thanks Alice. Do you know the guards name" I ask. "Its Connor" she tells me. "Okay thanks" I say. She nods and leaves the bedroom closing the door behind her.
I feed my baby. I hold him close to me after. He eventually falls asleep. "Connor" I call. He comes in the room. "Yes ma'am" he asks. "Can you tell Alice its okay to call the silent brothers and iron sister now for the protection spell" I tell him. "Yes ma'am" he says. He leaves the room closing the door behind him.
"We are going to protect you Braxton. I promise" I tell my baby.
After 15 minutes Alice walks in the room. A silent brother walks in behind her as well as a iron sister. I recognize the iron sister as sister cleophas. I smile at her and she smiles back. Alice leaves the room. I hold my baby and they put the protection spell around my son. "It's done. The boy is protected" the silent brother tells me. "Thank you" I say to him. "My pleasure. If you need us just call" he says and leaves the room.
Sister cleophas stays back. "What's his name" she asks me. "Braxton James Herondale" I tell her. "He's beautiful. Have you heard anything from Jocelyn" she asks. "I haven't. Did you hear about my little brother" I ask. "No I just thought you had your older brother Jonathan" she says. "Yeah, Luke and my mom has a baby of their own. He looks just like Luke but he has my moms eyes" I tell her. "I'm glad. What's his name" she asks. "His name is Carson Thomas Garroway. He loves Jonathan. He can't say Jonathan so he just calls him jo jo. It's so cute" I tell her. "I bet" she says.
"They are a cute little family. They have a dog named red and Carson is quite spoiled" I tell her. "I bet. How are they able to have a dog with my son being a werewolf" she asks. How does she know that. I guess my face asks that question because she says "I may be separate from my family and haven't had contact in years but I do know what's happened to him" she says. "I just know they all love red. Even my mom who's never been a dog person" I tell her. "That's good to hear" she says.
I look down at Braxton. He yawns and closes his eyes. "I will leave you to your baby. It was good to see you Clarissa" she says. "You too sister cleophas" I say. She walks out of the bedroom and I hold on to my newborn son. Alice walks in a few minutes later. "Do you need anything" she asks. "I think I'm okay. I'm a little hungry though" I tell her. "Okay. I will go get you some lunch" alice says.
She leaves the room and comes back with a plate full of chicken salad, and two grilled cheese sandwiches. I set my sleeping baby down in the little bed on the floor beside me. I take the plate from her. I take a bite of one of the grilled cheese sandwiches. "Thank you Alice. I'm sorry you had to come early" I say. "It's okay. Besides I had to take care of you. This baby being born is more important than me getting to sleep in and make myself breakfast. After Braxton was born I went down to the kitchen and ate something" she says. "Since you didn't really get to have this morning off you can have tomorrow morning off. You need the sleep and not worry about things here for a few hours" I tell her. "Are you sure? I don't mind coming in" she says. "I'm positive. I can handle things here" I tell her.
"Okay. Who was the iron sister" she asks. "Sister cleophas" I answer her. "What did she stay to you" she asks. "We were talking about her family" I say. "Oh" she says. "I thought iron sisters don't have families" Alice asks. "Some don't. Some get married and have kids then something happens and they decide to become an iron sister" I tell her. Alice sits on the bed beside me. "So what happened to her? Do you know" she asks. "I do know some. She was married had two kids. Something happened to her husband and he died. I don't know what happened though. She left her two kids to join the iron sistes. She left her daughter to take care of her son who wasn't very old at the time" I tell her. "What was her shadowhunter last name" she asks. "Graymark" I tell her. "I've never heard that shadowhunter last name before" she says. Then she doesn't know who the two kids are. "I didn't think you would" I say. She probably wouldn't unless she looked up the family histories. Luke changed his last name to a more mundane like first and last name. Even then I don't think she would recognize it was him. He doesn't go by his real name, Lucian, anymore.
"How is Braxton" she asks. "He's acting fine. He was awake during the protection spell and he just fell back asleep while I was talking to sister Cleophas" I tell her. "I'm glad he's doing okay. I will have someone build him a room in your tower as soon as I get a minute" she says. "Okay thank you. Will it be big enough to have a bathroom attached for when I have to give him a bath. If its not that's okay. I don't think he needs a really big closet" I tell her. "I can see if we have enough room for a bathroom" she says. "Thank you Alice. The bedroom doesn't necessarily need to be super big. I know the tower may not have a whole lot of room for a big room for him" I tell her. "Of course it does. Our little prince needs a room built for a prince. I will make sure he gets what he needs" she says. "Are you sure" I say. "Of course. And don't worry I have everything taken care of. He may need to sleep in the same room with you until his room is made and ready" she says. "Thank you Alice. That's fine. I don't think he will mind having to be with me. I will have to be spending a bunch of time with him anyway. Do we still have that pack and play" I ask. "Yes. I think its in the storage room in the basement of the castle" she says. "I may need that for him so I can get some work done in the office. I don't think I will start work again for a few weeks to a month though, just so I have time to tend to my baby and other things that are needed around here first" I say. "That's fine" she says.
I finish my chicken salad and grilled cheese. I place the empty plate on the nightstand beside me. "Do you want me to bring you anything else" she asks. "I think I'm okay for right now. It's a little lonely though" I tell her. "I can stay with you. I can bring riv and Chrissie in here too. Right now they are just waiting in the hallway" she tells me. "Okay" I say. We all call river riv.
She goes out to the hallway and Chrissie and river come in the room. River jumps on the bed and looks at me. Chrissie lays on the floor. She has seen Grace before, so she knows what a baby looks like. River looks confused as to why I'm still laying in the bed when its 1:30 in the afternoon. "River, I have a little baby that I'm going to need you to be gentle with" I tell her. She just looks at me. I reach down and pick up Braxton. He is still sleeping soundly in my arms. River leans her head down and sniffs him. She looks at me and lays down on the bed. "Good girl" I tell her. I pet her head.
"Do you have a lot to do today" I ask Alice. "No, I don't think I have anything to do today. I was going to come this afternoon and see if anybody here needs anything or if anything needs to be done" she says. "Okay" I say. "I will just work on braxtons room tomorrow afternoon" she tells me. "Okay, that sounds good" I say.
"We've all been waiting on him to come. Now that he's here its going to be nice to have a little one around again" she says. "It is. Believe me, I couldn't wait for him to come too. I could tell he was going to come sometime soon but I didn't think it was going to be this morning" I say. "At least he came when we were awake and not at three in the morning like Grace" she says. "That's true" I say.
"I created a rune for when a shadowhunter has a baby and it helped so much" I tell her. "What all does it do" she asks. "It works as an epidural when you are going to give birth. It helped a lot. I will put it in the grey book in a few days" I tell her. "That's a good idea" she says.
"When I have a baby, if Jonathan ever wants one that is, do you think I will have a home birth like yours" she asks. "No, I highly doubt it. He will probably take you to the hospital in Alicante. They will be able to help you there. And I'm sure Jonathan wants kids. He's probably just waiting for when you are ready for kids to try. He waited till you were ready to take the next step in your relationship and give your virginity up" I tell her. "That's true. I'm sure he will want to carry on the Morganstern name and have kids" she says. "Most likely" I agree.
I set my sleeping baby back in his little bed.
"You never did tell me how the honeymoon was" I tell her. Its been a long time since then but I'm still disappointed neither of them told me about it. "Oh I didn't? It was so much fun. I loved getting to stay in Disney all week. The castle was so pretty. There wasn't many rides in epcot but the food was good there. The cinderella suite is amazing. Animal kingdom was so cool too. The magic kingdom has most of the rides. I probably liked space mountain the best. Splash mountain was fun too. I had so much fun in Disney. I got to meet snow white" she says beaming. I start laughing. "I'm glad you liked it. He asked me where I always wanted to go on vacation. I told him I have always wanted to go to Disney world. I didn't go on any vacations as a kid. Mom just couldn't afford it. He asked me if I could try to get you two reservations at Disney for that week" I tell her. "It was probably the most fun I have had in a long time" she says. "I'm so glad" I say. "You should go sometime if you have time. you can take Braxton when he's older" she says. "I'd like that. I'd like to bring Grace too but it will have to wait till after the war if it ever ends" I tell her. "Yeah" she says.
"Have you gotten any letters" I ask her. "Yeah, Jonathan has sent me a few. I'm glad to hear from him. In his last one he let me know that everyone we know that left to go is still alive. Which I am very thankful to know. He told me they have been moving some and advancing in on the faeries. Have you gotten any letters" she tells me. "No I haven't. Jace probably has a lot on his mind though. I don't want to distract him from whatever is going on" I say. On the inside I miss him. I wish he would at least send me one letter to know something. I understand if he doesn't send me anything though. "I don't think you will distract him. I'm sure he wants to send you something but like you said he is probably just busy. Jonathan has only sent me a few" Alice says and I know she is trying to reassure me about this. "Yeah" I say.
Braxton starts crying. I lean down and pick him up. "He's probably hungry. I can leave and let you feed him. I can come back later if you want" Alice says. "Okay. I like having someone in here with me that I can talk to" I say. "I'm happy to help and stay in here with you. I will come back in about 30 minutes to an hour just so the little prince has enough time to eat" she says. "Okay" I say. "I'll be back" she says.
She leaves the room and I feed my baby. A little after 30 minutes Alice comes back.
"Does he have wings like Grace does" I ask her. "I think so. I thought I felt something but it was really small. Let me see" she says. I carefully pass my baby to her. Braxton starts to whimper. "Its okay baby. I'm not going to hurt you" she says. She rubs her little nephews back and he eventually calms down. She pulls down the back of his blanket enough for me to see an inch of tiny wings. They are black wings. They are so cute. I like how each of them have different colored wings. Graces are brown, Braxtons are black and Jaces wings are grey. "What color are they? I didn't see them I just felt them" Alice asks. "They are black. They are so cute. They are only about an inch long" I tell her. "Aww. They are cute and tiny then" she says and pulls the blanket back over him.
She passes Braxton back to me. "How has echo liked living with you again" I ask. "I think he likes it. It took some time for him to get used to Bear. Echo kicked Bear to the dog bed so he could get in the bed with me at night. I'm not sure how Jonathan is going to like bear not sleeping on our bed" she says. "I'm not sure. I know bear and Johnathan are close. Jace never really cared that Chrissie would sleep on our bed unless she would lay on top of us, in that case he would shut her out of our room for the night. She would usually sleep on the floor outside of the bedroom or find somewhere else to sleep. I didn't mind when she slept on me because I was warm but apparently Jace did" I tell Alice. "Awh. Who would kick out this sweet little dog" Alice asks and she bends down to pet on chrissie. Chrissie is getting older. She has more grey hairs and it's sad for me to see. I don't want my dog getting old. "I know. She is always so sweet. She doesn't do it anymore. She doesn't jump on the bed or even jump on anything anymore" I tell her. "I've noticed that. Do you think she is okay" she asks looking at my dog concerned. "Yeah, I think she's just getting older" I answer. "That's sad" Alice says. "Yeah" I agree.
We talk for a little longer then she goes home. Someone brings me dinner and I lay Braxton down for bed. I lay my head on the pillow and go to sleep.