Day 32: 12/2

Hey everyone!!! So this is my last post before the big day :D I'm so ready to read CP, well of course, if my crazy schedule will allow me to. So for tonight's post I will be sharing one of my favorite scenes with Jem and Tessa at the end. Sorry but this is gonna be long :)

"My parents like yours, are dead. So are Will's, and Jessie's, and even Henry's and Charlotte's. I am not sure there is anyone in the Institute who is not an orphan. Otherwise we would not be here"
Tessa opened her mouth, and then closed it again. "I know," she said. "I am sorry. I was being perfectly selfish not to think-"
He held up a slender hand. "I am not blaming you," he said. "Perhaps you are otherwise alone, but so am I. So is Will. So is Jessamine. And even, to an extent, Charlotte and Henry. Where else could Henry have his laboratory? Where else would Charlotte be allowed to put her brilliant mind to work the way she can here? And though Jessamine pretends to hate everything, and Will would never admit to needing anything, they have both made homes for themselves here. In a way, we are not here just because we have nowhere else; we need nowhere else, because we have the Institute, and those are in it are our family."
"But not my family"
"They could be," said Jem. "When I first came here, I was twelve years old. It most decidedly did not feel like home to me then. I saw only how London was not like Shanghai, and I was homesick. So Will went down to a shop in the East End and bought me this." He drew out the chain that hing around his neck, and Tessa saw that the flash of green she'd noticed before was a green stone pendant in the shape of a closed hand. "I think he liked it because it reminded him of a fist. But it was jade, and he knew jade came from China, so he brought it back to me and I hing it on a chain to wear it. I still wear it."
The mention of Will made Tessa's heart contract. "I suppose it is good to know he can be kind sometimes."
Jem looked at her with keen silver eyes. "When I came in-that look on your face-it wasn't just because of what you read in the Codex, was it? It was about Will. What did he say to you?"
Tessa hesitated. "He made it very clear that he didn't want me here," she said at last. "That my remaining at the Institute is not the happy chance I thought it was. Not in his view."
"And after I just finished telling you why you should consider him family," Jem said, a bit ruefully. "No wonder you looked like I just told you something awful had happened."
"I'm sorry," Tessa whispered.
"Don't be. It's Will who ought to be sorry." Jem's eyes darkened. "We shall throw him out onto the streets," he proclaimed. "I promise you he'll be gone by morning."
Tessa started and sat upright. "Oh-no, you can't mean that-"
He grinned. "Of course I don't. But you felt better fir a moment there, didn't you?"
"It was like a beautiful dream," Tessa said gravely, but she smiled when she said it, which surprised her.
"Will is...difficult," Jem said. "But family is difficult. If I didn't think the Institute was the best place for you, Tessa, I would not say that it was. And one can build one's own family. I know you feel inhuman, and as if you are set apart, away from life and love but..." his voice cracked a little, the first time Tessa had heard him sound unsure. He cleared his throat. "I promise you, the right man won't care."

I love Jem!! And Will, but I am so excited to see what happens!!!
Yours truly,
The Queen of Spades