A/N This is not beta read, it's pretty terribly written and most likely pretty factually incorrect. This is one of three already written chapters though so I hope you enjoy! (I'm not joking when I say it's terribly written.)

Alec Lightwood's life was not easy, even before he had a child to look after. A gay boy in a very conservative community, smart and musical not really an athlete, preferring the company of his books than real people so it would have come as a sort of relief to have been kicked out of his home had he not had a child to look after and provide for. A child without a mother. A mother it clearly needed.

Alec held his screaming daughter, bouncing her up and down in a desperate attempt to calm her down but she wouldn't stop crying and it didn't help that Alec was crying too. He'd fed her, changed her, burped her, rocked her up and down but she still wouldn't stop crying. All Alec wanted was for his three-month-old daughter to stop, to sleep so Alec could sleep too.

"Come on, Ebony, it's time to sleep now. Please, you're going to wake the neighbours." As if they were asleep, they were part of the reason Alec didn't sleep half the time. He wished he could afford to raise his child in a place where people didn't do things such as the people next door did every night with different people or at least a place where there were walls thick enough to mask it.

This was not the atmosphere you wanted to raise a child in but Alec had already dropped out of school and was working all the hours he could get. He was raising this child with no help from her mother or his parents, he was doing it all on his own. Most would have killed themselves already or left the baby for dead in his situation but he didn't know that. He thought he was doing a crappy job of raising this little girl who deserved the world but it was the fact that he thought that that proved that this child was growing up with something that even the richest children didn't always have. Love.

"Come on Ebony, please. Please, please go to sleep now." Alec was sobbing along with his daughter now and she just wouldn't sleep or even stop crying for a minute. "Come on, sweetie, please go to sleep now. Sleep, Ebby, sleep, please. Please, please sleep." He was bordering on hysteria now but he didn't stop bouncing her up and down.

Magnus POV

Magnus stuffed his head under his pillow in a desperate attempt to block you that infernal baby's cries and her father's pleading words but it was in vain. The screaming was getting louder it seemed. It was his only night off, couldn't they let him bloody sleep! That baby never seemed to stop screaming, every night it would start up again. The last two months had been the same, screaming baby, crying and pleading father keeping everyone awake. On the rare days that the baby didn't scream life was back to normal. Not once, however, had the father shouted at the screaming child, not once had he lost his temper, Magnus knew he would have done it after the first week.

Just as the little wretch started screaming with renewed vigour Magnus threw the pillow off his head and marched out the door to the next door apartment and started banging on the door. Magnus heard the sound of a key turning and a lock clicking and the door opened to reveal- a boy. He couldn't have been older than seventeen, he should've been fast asleep at home not trying to calm a screaming child. His face was tear-stained, and the child in his arms was still screaming.

"I'm sorry if she woke you, really but I can't get her to sleep and-and she just won't sleep." The young boy burst into tears but he didn't even reach up to dry them away. It was obvious he was too tired to care. "I'm sorry, really really sorry."

He then turned his attention back to his screaming daughter, bouncing her up and down and pleading with her softly, "Please, Ebony, please. I'm sorry, sorry you have to grow up in this mess, I'm sorry, so so sorry."

Though when Magnus had stormed out of his apartments it had been his intention to give the father and child a piece of his mind he found himself unable to do it now for two reasons, the father was barely more than a child himself and he obviously was trying everything he could to get the child to sleep.

Magnus sighed and turned and went back to his apartment. He lay there in silence listening to the screaming baby and the pleading father, pondering the new information. Why was that boy raising the little girl alone? Where was the mother? Why weren't his parents helping him? Why wasn't anyone helping him? After about an hour the screaming ceased, the baby fell asleep and the only sound coming from next door was the boys soft sobbing.

Time skip to the next morning.

Alec POV

Alec was woken by Ebony screaming for her next feed, he found that he'd fallen asleep on the floor with his daughter in his arms. "Come on, Ebby, let's get you some food."

Clary arrived just as he was finishing changing Ebony's nappy and the first words out of her mouth were, "Oh, Alec." She dropped all her bags and pulled him into her arms. When she finally let him go it was because Ebony had started crying, she scooped her up and into her arms.

"Did you even sleep last night, Alec?" she asked.

"For maybe an hour or two." Alec shrugged and sighed leaning against the edge of the table. There was hardly any furniture in the flat save a bed, a table, a chair and a tiny cupboard. He had a microwave, a kettle and a sink. That was it, nothing fancy. He hardly had enough to do everything for Ebony and he certainly wasn't going to be hosting a party any day soon.

Clary tutted, "You know that's not enough sleep for someone who's slept well for the past week never mind someone who sleeps a total of three hours a night if they're lucky and then works the rest of the day."

"She wouldn't stop screaming, there was nothing I could do to make her stop." Alec rubbed his eyes tiredly, "Believe me, Clary, if I could sleep a whole night I would but I can't."

"I know," Clary smile sadly, "Jace called again, he wants me to come back at least for a day just so he can explain."

"You should go, I don't want to be responsible for your loss of happiness too," Alec muttered, not meeting her eyes.

"Alexander Gideon Lightwood! I never want to hear you say that ever again!" she exclaimed, "I told him I would only go if you could come too and he said he just wanted to talk to me, he didn't say no so you're coming."

"Clary, I can't leave Ebony and I'm working," Alec said, shaking his head.

"I know, I said we would come in the holidays if at all," Clary grabbed his hands, "Look at me Alec, we're not going unless you're comfortable with it. I think it would be good for you to see if they still feel the same way they did three months ago but if you're not ready yet that's fine. You didn't really give them a chance to redeem themselves, moving here, selling your phone, not letting them even know your postal address. If I'm willing to give them a chance can you at least try too?"

"Okay fine but I really need to yet to work now Clary," Alec said, pulling his hands out of hers.

"I know, thank you, Alec, really." Clary smiled and Alec smiled back before grabbing his coat and vacating the building.

Magnus POV

As Magnus was leaving his apartment he bumped into the boy, literally, and sent him flying into the wall. Magnus knelt next to him, "I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just tired is all. Thanks for asking." The boy pulled himself up and leaned against the wall.

"Look, I don't just mean for just now I'm sorry about last night as well. I didn't realise you were alone." Magnus was not good at apologising, at all.

The boy laughed bitterly, "You're not but that's okay, goodbye I really need to work now."

"Wait, I'm Magnus." Magnus watched as the boy stopped and turned.

"Alec," he said before continuing on his way.

Alec, Alec what? And what was he doing going out? Who was looking after his child? It's not of your business, Magnus chastised himself but he couldn't help it. Why was that beautiful boy all alone in the world? Magnus sighed but he knew he was going to be late meeting his friends if he didn't hurry now.