ch

The portal swirled closed, depositing Izzy and Magnus back at his apartment.

Travel by portal was disorienting when Izzy was at her best. Combined with pregnancy, Izzy felt like she could hurl, unsteady feet trying to hold her body upright. Strange, how this was the part of the journey that left Izzy feeling most uneasy. At the start of the day, she would have put her money on the pregnancy. Now that she had answers, and was somewhat assured that nothing terrible was going to happen to her, she could relax. A little bit.

There was a magnificent, plush couch on the other side of the room that was calling Izzy's name. What she really wanted to do now was lie down on it and take a ten-hour nap.

However, there was a third person in Magnus' apartment, one Izzy wasn't quite up to facing just yet.

"Alexander," Magnus greeted warmly, stepping out of the portal and into the arms of his boyfriend. Alec's smile was a beautiful thing, one that Izzy thought her brother would never wear again until he met Magnus. "What time did you get back?"

"Just a few minutes ago," Alec replied, taking the time to return Magnus' embrace and peck him gently on the lips before returning to his stoic self. "Where have you two been?"

"Nowhere important," Izzy replied briefly, trying her best to make the whole thing sound like no big deal. It backfired. Alec cast a glance between Izzy and Magnus, suspicious, and Izzy scrambled to patch her mistake. "You told me to consult Magnus about what was going on with me, so we went looking for answers."

Alec crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing worth reporting," Izzy denied breezily, smiling in the hopes of disarming her brother.

She looked back at Magnus, who was uncharacteristically quiet during this exchange. In fact, Magnus wasn't engaging in conversation at all, busy on his phone, milling about the apartment as if ignoring them. Alec noticed as well.

"What aren't you telling me?" Alec demanded, using his Head of the Institute voice. But Izzy wasn't just some subordinate Shadowhunter. She had lived with Alec her whole life; he wasn't about to intimidate her now.

"Nothing," Izzy insisted, knowing that she did not sound convincing at all. She turned to Magnus imploringly, desperately. "Tell him Magnus. Alec has nothing to worry about."

Magnus stopped pretending to file his books that were already in alphabetical order on the shelves. He walked towards the bickering siblings slowly, deliberately, focused only on Izzy. His expression was unreadable, though not very pleased.

"I'm sorry, Isabelle. I promised you I would not tell Alexander, but do not stand here and ask me lie to his face," Magnus replied evenly, looking Izzy straight in the eye. There was no anger there, only a resignation that told Izzy that if she was going to face her brother, it was going to be alone. She didn't blame Magnus. It was wrong of her to ask him to keep things from Alec in the first place.

"I am going to feed Chairman Meow," Magnus said abruptly, a bowl of cat food appearing in hand with a flourish of his wrist. He looked between the siblings who were now poised for standoff, placing his free hand over Alec's heart, imploring. "You two will talk, yes?"

Alec nodded stiffly and Magnus patted Alec's chest before walking off. The look he gave Izzy as he passed was one of silent support.

Both Lightwood siblings walked towards the couch at the same time. They sat on opposite ends, still tense enough not to want to be any nearer to one another. Izzy sat ram-rod straight while Alec melted into the cushions as if he belonged, and Izzy supposed in a sense that he did. These past few months, this apartment, this living room, this couch, had been just as much his as Magnus'. It was easier not to nap on it when Izzy could feel her heart beating loudly in her ears.

She could do this. She could totally tell her overprotective, overbearing older brother that the Devil had knocked her up. Totally.

"What's going on Iz?" Alec asked, making Izzy jump, startling her out of panicking. "What won't you tell me?"

"It's not that I don't want to," Izzy tried to explain, but the words got tied up on her tongue. This would all go so much smoother if it didn't feel like the ground was bottoming out from underneath her. "I just...I haven't even had time to process it myself."

"Maybe we could process together?"

Izzy bit her lip and inched towards her brother. She grabbed his hands, holding them in hers. She was always surprised by the difference in size, how large and calloused Alec's hands were compared to her own smaller, more slender ones. The callouses remained the same though, both of them bearing the proof of years of hard training.

Hard training that Izzy was about to tell her brother, the Head of the New York Institute, she was throwing away.

"Before I tell you, I need you to promise me something."

"Anything."

"No matter what I say, please...don't freak out," Izzy asked, hating how small and insecure she sounded. "I need you to remain calm and level headed about this, because I am anything but that right now."

Alec squeezed her hands briefly in support. He didn't need to say anything for Izzy to have his affirmative. It was now or never.

She closed her eyes and dropped the bomb.

"I'm pregnant. Magnus and I went to LA to confront the father."

Izzy felt Alec's hands slip from hers, completely slack from shock. She didn't dare open her eyes, not yet. Not when she could hear the gears in Alec's brain turning, hear his breath quickening as the anger she knew would come set in.

"What?"

Alec's voice was small, controlled, and full of irritation. Izzy feared that this would happen, that Alec would jump to the worst-case scenario in his mind and only focus on the negatives. It was part of why she didn't want to tell him until she figured it out herself. But it was too late to go back.

"It happened during that LA mission you sent Jace, Clary and I - "

"Who even is this guy Iz? What family does he come from?"

"Alec, if you would just listen to the rest - "

"There will have to be a wedding," Alec interrupted, his mind rolling a million miles per minute as he tried to plan the future. He was picking up a frantic edge, and when Izzy opened her eyes, she saw that he had gotten up from the couch and started paced, one hand running through his hair and the other clenched tightly at his side. "We can have it here at the Institute, and Brother Zachariah can officiate - "

"ALEC!" Izzy shouted, cutting off the wedding bells. Alec looked at his sister with wide, confused eyes. "I am not getting married."

"You have to, Izzy. It's tradition. It's how things are done."

"Tradition for Shadowhunters," Izzy pointed out, furthering Alec's confusion.

"Yeah, Iz. We're Shadowhunters."

"But the father isn't."

Heavy silence passed between them as the second bomb settled. Alec opened his mouth, closed it, furrowed his brow, then asked, "How is that even possible?" He probably thought Izzy was fucking with him. She didn't blame him for that assumption. "We aren't compatible with mundanes...please don't tell me this is Meliorn's baby."

It was rare that Shadowhunters and Downworlders were compatible - the only ones capable of reproducing were Seelies and Werewolves after all - but not unheard of. Helen Blackthorne was a notorious exception to that rule, her pointed ears and runes making a statement at the halls of her Institute.

Izzy rolled her eyes. "No, it's not. He lives here, remember? Besides, I haven't seen him in months."

"So what, the father is some renegade werewolf from the west coast?" Alec asked, too far out of his depth. He looked seconds away from pulling out his hair. "You have to give me something Iz. You're scaring me."

"The father is not a Downworlder, and they're not a Shadowhunter," Izzy said point blank, taking all options off the table. "He's Lucifer Morningstar."

Alec scowled. "Can you please be serious about this?"

"I am!" Izzy snapped, pulling at her hair. It was hard enough to come to grips with the truth on her own, but having her brother doubt her just made Izzy feel all the more crazy.

"So you're saying that you had an affair with the Devil himself, and this child is the antichrist?" Alec asked, deadpan, his face unreadable as he shook his head and looked away. "If what you're telling me is true, then I have to report this to the Clave."

"Alec no, please," Izzy begged, rushing forward to take Alec's hands in her own. "You can't, okay. You know what they'll do."

"I don't see how I can't," Alec countered, looking like this was splitting his conscience in two. "If the Devil really is out and about and...procreating...then that is a huge security concern. Everyone could be in danger. I mean, I don't understand how our security scanners haven't picked up his presence already - "

"He told me he struck some kind of deal with the LA Institute."

"They know," Alec said, dumbstruck. "The Devil is walking the streets of LA and the Institute knows. Why haven't I heard anything - ?"

"He's really not as scary as you think, Alec," Izzy assured, trying to make this sound like no big deal. "Trust me, you have nothing to worry about."

"I have everything to worry about!" Alec exclaimed, finally losing his cool. "My little sister is pregnant, by the greatest force of evil this world has ever known no less, and now she's telling me to cover it up! How am I supposed to be okay with that?"

"Because this is my decision, not yours," Izzy stood her ground firmly, not giving Alec a choice. "I get to choose what happens with my body and my baby, the father be damned. I know this is scary, and everything feels uncertain, but I won't have you taking my choice away from me. I can handle myself, I can handle what happens, and I can handle the Devil. Okay?"

Maybe Izzy was exaggerating. Maybe she didn't really have things handled completely, but she had more figured out than she had this morning. She had Lucifer's blessing. She had more figured out than her brother. She could roll with the punches as they came. She didn't need to be quarantined and poked and prodded by the Clave for her own 'protection'. Alec may not see things her way, but if he loved her, he would respect her wishes like she knew he would.

"Fine," Alec grumbled, though he seemed less than fine with things.

"If Lucifer decides to do something that puts our world or anyone else's in danger, then we can talk about alerting the Clave. But for right now, I have things under control. So can you please just...I don't know...hug me and tell me that you love me?"

Izzy never asked for sentimental things like that, but in this moment, after this very difficult conversation and even more difficult day, it was what she needed.

Alec nodded and opened his arms, letting Izzy fall into him. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, letting Izzy know that, for now, she was safe.

"I love you, Izzy. Nothing will ever change that."

"Love you too big brother."

They stayed like that for a while, Alec holding Izzy for as long as she wanted, until the last glimmers of daylight were bleeding through the window.

"Jace and Clary will want to know what's going on at some point," Alec sighed into Izzy's hair.

Izzy was ashamed to admit that she hadn't even thought of telling either Clary or Jace. She had been so worried about what Alec might think that they had slipped her mind. Maybe because she knew, deep down, that Clary would be supportive, excited even, and Jace would be the polar opposite but Clary would mellow him in time. The two of them were always so easy to predict. It was Alec who was unreadable, and Alec who could sway the group into siding one way or another. Now that Alec was somewhat onboard with the baby situation, telling Jace and Clary would be easier.

"I know," Izzy said, her voice muffled by Alec's strong chest. "Just...not now. Later. I promise."

Alec nodded, and Izzy could feel where the cut of his jaw rubbed against her head. He didn't fight her on it, and Izzy considered that a blessing.

"So, what now?"

That was a good question, one Izzy really hadn't thought about until now. Normally she tell Alec to take her back to the Institute and she would take the night to decompress and awake ready to tackle the problem in the morning. Now, the Institute wasn't an option. Which, she supposed, was a good place to start.

"Do you mind getting my stuff from the Institute?"

Alec cocked his head. "Why?"

"Turns out all the weird stuff that's been happening to me are side effects of a slightly demonic pregnancy," Izzy said, glossing over the nitty gritty details of protective angel feathers, at least for right now. No need to overwhelm Alec more than he already was. "Lucifer explained it better, but eventually I won't be able to enter angelic places, including the Institute. Magnus said that it would be okay if I stayed here...with you."

"We would be happy to have you," Magnus said, returning to the living room sans bowl of cat food. He wore a satisfied smile, leaning up against the wall as he studied the siblings. "Isn't that right, Alexander?"

"Of course," Alec agreed, nodding once. "You can stay as long as you need."

That was the end of that. Alec went to grab his jacket so he could trek back to the Institute, leaving Izzy with Magnus.

"Now that all that nastiness is dealt with, how about dinner?" Magnus suggested, flourishing his hands as if to create another portal. "I know a lovely place in India that serves the best lamb biryani."

"Thanks, Magnus, but I've had my fill of portals for the day."

Magnus hummed thoughtfully in agreement. "Hmm probably for the best. What about dining in? Take out? Or we could - "

"I appreciate it, really, but I think all I want to do is lie down and go to bed."

Izzy felt weary all the way down to her bones. She was surprised she'd stayed awake and functional for this long. She could feel her eyelids drooping, her body slowing, her energy leaving her. The bed in the guest room was calling her name, beckoning her to the silk sheets and downy pillows.

"It has been an eventful day," Magnus said, placing a hand on Izzy's shoulder, comforting. He smiled. "Go on. I'll tell Alec that you turned in early. He can leave your things by the door."

Now it was Izzy's turn to hug Magnus. Unlike her brother, Magnus was a willing participant.

"Thank you. For everything," she said, her voice muffled by Magnus' clothes.

"Think nothing of it," Magnus replied, pulling away and steering Izzy in the bedroom's direction. "Now, get some sleep."

Izzy did not have to be told twice.

She closed the bedroom door behind her, kicked off her boots, and was out as soon as she hit the mattress.