Piano Days and Other Malec One-Shots

A Decade Later. . .

The newspaper on the doorstep was headlined with: Storm of the century takes on Manhattan.

In twenty minutes, the rain would wash out the ink, and the headline would be illegible along with the rest of the Times.

The sun was just starting to rise, not the New York sunrises were much to marvel.

Inside the Institute, a nightmare finally let go of Alec.

He was covered in a cold sweat and his head was still racing.

Flashes of the dream came back to him.

If today was going to be anything like the past month had been, he'd keep seeing the images throughout the day.

They'd pull him out of reality, slap him across the face, then toss him back to the real world.

He hated his mind for betraying him. He hated himself for keeping it locked up inside.

The door to his room flew open and Jace came in, barely dressed, obviously half-asleep. He'd spent the night after an exhausting raid on a rogue vampire nest.

"Alec-"

"I'm fine," Alec said. It was a default sentence, a default lie.

"Why'd you scream?"

"Nightmare," Alec said.

"Bull," Jace snapped. Jace leaned back against the wall, obviously relieved that Alec was okay, but not ready to stand down.

"What do you want, Jace?" Alec asked. He pulled the blankets a little tighter around him.

"I want to know what's happening," Jace said. "Don't lie to me, Alec. I know you better than you want to believe."

"It's just nightmares-"

"And when you zone out in the middle of the day?"

Alec couldn't answer that. He didn't think anyone noticed.

"Yeah, I know," Jace said. "So tell me the damn truth. Is it Addy?"

Alec nodded, his eyes thick with tears.

"He's there- he's always there," Alec said. Then Jace was sitting beside him on the bed, wrapping his arms around Alec, and pulling him close.

Only, Jace thought "he" was a demon.

"He" was a warlock.

...........

Sage was his rock.

She was the quietest baby the halls of the Institute had ever seen.

Charlie and Kody were born five summers earlier and between the two twins, one of them was screaming for the first year of their life. Isabelle and Simon had been on the brink of insanity. It was like magic on their first birthday when they finally slept through the night.

Clary and Jace had moved away as soon as they got married, so their two little ones weren't in the running for "Noisiest Baby."

But they were definitely obnoxious.

Sage cried but she was better at using her words to communicate her needs.

Addy had used some revolutionary new baby sign language with her.

She was only a year old (next month) but she only cried for attention. Once she had your attention, she stopped.

Alec was lucky in that respect. A crying baby was not was he needed.