Jonathan

A New Family

Clary would be lying if she said she wasn't surprised by the news. She hadn't been ignorant the past eight months. She'd heard the noises from her parents' room (gross!), she'd noticed her mother's weird cravings, and it would be difficult to not see the growing bulge. In other words, she had known Jocelyn was pregnant long before she was told.

"Well?" said a voice.

Clary shuddered involuntarily. It wasn't Jonathan's fault that he used to be half demon and fully evil, but his voice still reminded her of the boy who had killed ruthlessly.

"Aren't you going to say something?" he pushed. His question was matched by the curiosity in Jocelyn's and Luke's eyes.

"What's there to say?" Clary shrugged. "I already noticed. You know, my amazing Shadowhunter detective skills."

Jonathan snorted. "By which she means pure nosiness. So, is the baby a boy or a girl?"

"Girl," Jocelyn answered, glancing fondly at her swollen stomach.

It was as if Clary was jerked back in time. She just entered Edom, but she was in Alicante, the capital of Idris, at her mother's house. Jonathan was normal, and there was a little girl with Jocelyn's red hair and Luke's blue eyes. Valentina was her name, after Clary's brave father who had died in battle.

But that wasn't what happened. Valentine was evil. As was Sebastian, but now he was Jonathan: a good man.

"I'll be an older sister," she whispered.

It was all Clary had ever wanted: a real family. Sure, she'd heard kids at school complain about being the middle child. But she'd always loved the idea of having both a protector and someone to protect.

***

"Jocelyn's pregnant?" Isabelle asked, shocked. "She can be pregnant?"

"Yes, Isabelle," Jace answered. "That's how Jonathan and Clary here were born."

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. It's hard to imagine our parents being able to have kids now. I mean, Alec's nineteen now. Can you imagine having a brother nineteen years older than you?"

Clary glared at Izzy and Jace. "The point is that I'm having a little sister...just like I saw in Edom."

Jace tensed, probably remembering the vision he had. Though Clary had always done her best to remind him of his goodness, she was perfectly aware that he still sometimes worried, especially after the vision he'd seen-each of their group was showed their supposed deepest desire by a demon. While Clary, Isabelle, Alec, and Simon each were showed something they wanted with certain details that snapped them out, Jace's vision was of him as an evil overlord, all his loved ones trapped in a cage.

"That's...unusual," Alec spoke up. "What are the odds that a demon shows you a vision of a good brother, your mother and Luke married, and a little sister, then next thing we know, your mother and Luke finally had their wedding, Jonathan showed up completely cured of all evilness, and now your mom's pregnant with a little girl? No offense, Jonathan."

Jonathan waved away Alec's apology, deep in thought. "The wish-demon... maybe we should research it."

It was almost as if they could read each other's minds: Jonathan and Alec simultaneously jumped to their feet and ran to the library.

"By the Angel," Jace sighed. "Not another bookworm. We'll never survive if we go on this way."

Clary glared at Jace. "Believe it or not, that so-called bookworm was the reason I have a brother."