Author's Note: This is the Alternate Ending! Ten years after leaving London, Jem and his family settled in Cairo to run the Institute there. Two years later, circumstances forced him to return to London…

London, 1890

Twelve years after Jem had left the Institute, Will had been sitting upstairs in the drawing room going over Institute business with Charlotte when he placed his hand over his heart and felt something inexplicably shift in his soul. Something had happened, though he couldn't explain what it was or who it had happened to. He had stood up, left the room, and checked his family. All four children and his doting wife were accounted for, as were his parabatai's additional seven children. All was well in London.

It wasn't until much later in the evening that a letter had arrived through the fireplace flue, bearing a seal from the Cairo Institute. Will had opened it with shaking hands and breathed a brief sigh of relief.

A week of feverish correspondence followed, and a week after that first letter had arrived, Will was back upstairs in the drawing room when Gabriel knocked on the doorframe.

"He's here," Gabriel said, and Will stood up quickly. He left the desk littered with pictures and followed Gabriel from the room. "He just pulled up." Will nodded. "It's awful. I don't know what I would do if…"

"Please stop talking," Will said. He and Gabriel walked downstairs to the front doors of the Institute. Gabriel opened the doors and Will walked out.

It was late summer, nearly fall, and there was a chill in the air that hadn't been there yesterday. The trees were still bright green, denying the approach of autumn. The sun was setting, injecting bits of orange and gold between the tall trees surrounding the Institute. There was a dark carriage sitting out front. Will and Gabriel walked down the steps just as the carriage door opened, and a man stepped out holding a jade tipped cane. He was dressed in black. He turned around, offered a hand, and a tiny hand reached out and clasped the man's hand. Then there were knobby knees, a bright pink dress, and dark hair leaping from the door and landing at the man's feet, and the man and the girl looked up at the Institute.

His hair was long- longer than expected anyway, but Jem had always looked good with longer hair. There were streaks of silver through it that caught the light just enough to show them. He had put weight on in muscle, and his shoulders were broader than they used to be. He must have been still training often. So much of him hadn't changed, but then again, things never had been the same, ever again.

"Lily, this is your Uncle Will," Jem said. "Remember him?"

Jem's daughter looked up at Will, squinting. She was three now, and Will had last seen her right after she had been born. Lily was the mirror image of Jem but also had some of her mother's softer features. Lily blushed and looked away.

"She likes you," Jem said. "Gabriel." Jem nodded.

"My deepest condolences," Gabriel whispered. Jem inhaled quickly.

"Take her inside and stay with her," Will said. Gabriel nodded and put a hand out, and Lily took it.

"She's hungry," Jem said, as Gabriel began up the steps. "Give her whatever she wants." Gabriel nodded and walked inside, and Jem began to unload the carriage with Will's help. When Jem had first come to the Institute, Will had never seen so many odd things, but this time, Jem had only arrived with a steamer trunk and two small suitcases. "The rest is in storage. We aren't going back to Cairo."

"Of course," Will said, and as Jem reached up to get a suitcase down from the carriage roof, Will saw that he was crying. "I've got it." He reached up and pulled the suitcase down and set it onto the steps. He waved to the driver, and then pulled Jem to a seat on the steps as hoof beats retreated out of the front gates. "What happened?" Jem pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his eyes.

"What do you think?" Jem asked bitterly. "It was Yanluo. He waited almost 18 years. He waited until I had someone else worth caring for and then he took them from me again! Lily wasn't at the Institute, she was spending the week with her grandparents in Idris, and I was working on a situation in the city. By the time I got back to the Institute it had been burned to the ground. No one remained, not even our maids. All dead. Every last soul. It's my fault. I shouldn't have…"

"Shouldn't have what?" Will asked. "You shouldn't have left here? You shouldn't have had a chance to live your life? You almost died many, many times and yet you lived."

"I shouldn't have gotten married," Jem said. "I shouldn't have…" he shook his head, stood up, and collected his suitcases. "I don't know how long I'm staying. I probably shouldn't have come back here, but… I don't know what to do, Will, and I have nowhere else to go!" Jem turned and walked up the steps. He dropped a suitcase in front of the door and lay his hand on the doorknob. There was a click as the door unlocked, and then Jem picked up his suitcase and walked inside.

Dinner was spent as quietly as possible. The children always ate first, and then went to play while the adults had their meal. Jem insisted that Lily stay with him, and they sat at the end of the table and talked softly as they each ate. Afterwards, Jem put Lily to bed with Will's youngest daughter, Ruth. They walked out of the room to see Gabriel in the room he shared with Jessamine, across the hall. Jessamine was sitting on the bed and smiling, and Gabriel was holding his youngest son, Charlie, who was just a few weeks old. He looked up at Will and Jem and smiled, then kissed the baby and placed him in Jessamine's arms. Gabriel walked out of the room.

"Sorry," Gabriel said.

"Don't apologize to me," Jem said. "I'm the one who just showed up."

"So brandy, then?" Will asked, and Gabriel nodded. They went to the music room and Gabriel poured them all glasses of brandy.

"Where's Tessa?" Jem asked. "I haven't… I lost track of her after Australia."

"She and Magnus are in Paris," Will said.

"Of course," Jem said, and he took his glass of brandy and drank it down.

Several drinks later, Gabriel was the first to turn his glass over and tell them good night, leaving Will and Jem reclined in chairs staring at the ceiling, a decanter of brandy between them. When the door to Gabriel's room shut, Jem sat up, grabbed the decanter, and headed for the door. Will jumped up and followed, knowing where Jem was headed.

He followed Jem downstairs and past the dining room. Jem pulled the library doors open and walked in. The room was lit dimly, only by bits of witch light on the tables, and Will could barely see Jem's silhouette running across the library.

"Jem!" Will called out, but Jem didn't hear him, he reached a set of stairs and ran up them, swaying slightly at the top of the steps, before he plunged between the bookcases. Will followed. He tripped up the steps and heard Jem laugh, but finally, he made it to the entrance of the alcove, to the room they shared all those many times, so many years ago.

Jem was holding the decanter in one hand, drinking from it, as he stared at the plaster wall which now stood where the magnificent stain glass window of the Angel once had.

"Will, where's the Angel?" Jem asked. He took another sip of brandy, set the decanter on the table in the middle of the room, and turned to Will.

"I thought I told you," Will said. "A turkey flew through the window last year, right through the face of the Angel. Charlotte and I decided, what, with the children getting older, that maybe we should do away with the window rather than fix it. I'm sorry."

"Weren't you the one who told me to fly?" Jem asked, and Will nodded.

Jem started to laugh. He laughed until he was crying, and Will finally walked over, wrapped his arms tight around Jem, and held him until he stopped crying. Jem pulled away, he looked at Will, and Will gently wiped his tears away. Then, in the only way Will really knew how to comfort Jem, he kissed him gently on the lips and whispered,

"Stay as long as you like."