Solomon came back late, pulling both Sheba and Aladdin into his arms and leaning back on the couch. Aladdin's school things were in his car and there was one word that was ringing strong from her father as both Aladdin and her mom snuggled in close: Homeschooling.

"Solomon…"

"It'll be better for her to be homeschooled than for Aladdin to be in her school anyway. Arba's policies are not even supposed to be supported by the school administration. I drove by Badr's and we're going to be bringing it up in the town meeting later this month. I'm sure Anise and several of the other parents will be very intent upon hearing about some of these policies."

"Don't start a war about this," Sheba murmured.

"Yeah. Well, I won't do too much. My father showed up at the school."

"David? What is he doing there?"

"He was getting home schooling materials for his sponsee."

"Sponsee? What is that supposed to mean."

"He's apparently sponsoring some boy from the school that was kicked from Arba's place. He was talking about teaching the boy several of his stupid practices."

"Judal?" Aladdin looked at him only to see her father raise a brow.

"You know him?"

"Yeah, he's- ah…"

Sheba smiled and sat up, pressing her hands to Aladdin's father's chest. "That's great news! … kind of. Aladdin has quite a cute little crush on Judal. It will be good for Judal to have a nice home to stay in."

"I thought you liked Sinbad or Alibaba?" Solomon looked over at Aladdin in confusion only to earn a groan from both women.

"Solomon, keep up. They're only friends!" Sheba shook her head and smiled over at Aladdin. "This is good though. Judal will stay with David and the two of you can be homeschooled together."

"We can always enroll you into Reim High school if it comes to that."

"No…" Aladdin shook her head. "I'm glad grandpa helped Judal though."

"Poor kid's probably going to be as scarred from the experience as I was." Solomon shook his head before looking at the two of them and sighing. "Alright. So Aladdin is going to be staying here and being homeschooled from now on."

"We should invite Judal over. We might have to invite David by default though, but I think we can handle one night with that man over at the house." Sheba smiled for a moment as her husband leaned his head back in frustration.

"I would rather not have that man come to the house, Sheba."

"Aladdin and Judal are so cute together though. You should see them together."

"Have you?" Solomon looked over at Aladdin in surprise. "Has he been over?"

"Yeah, he was over a few weeks ago…" Aladdin shook her head. "I can just go over to grandpa's house-"

"Absolutely not. It's bad enough you had to babysit his damn house and cats for three damn weeks. I'm not having you wander over there just to spend time with that man. He's killed at least a good couple dozen people-"

"He wasn't arrested," Sheba pointed out.

"I'm sure there's evidence somewhere in that damn house. He named the fucking cats after his victims. I would feel safer in a prison with convicted criminals that were armed than within fifty feet of that man."

"So that's a no to me letting his sponsee come over and spend time with our daughter…"

"It is definitely a no."

Sheba leaned a little closer and shook her head. "I remember when I first met you and you made me feel so bad for picking on this boy in class. You called me an absolute monster and just insulted me in front of the entire class. Then after class was over, you told me you had another class across campus to get to and you didn't have time for sleazy bimbos."

Solomon shook his head. "You changed."

"This boy has a chance to be away from both Arba and David, if only in short periods of time from the latter, but you're just going to turn him away? He's been so sweet to me and Aladdin. He even helped plant those flowers out back."

"Mom…" Aladdin frowned a little. She wasn't sure that she really wanted to see Judal that much. Sheba was already working him over though. The smallest hint of her father's guilt were becoming slowly more and more noticeable as her mother spoke. After a minute, he sighed.

"Alright. He can come over, but if David shows up-"

Sheba kissed him deeply, making Aladdin look away. "I will make sure that horrible excuse of a father doesn't bother you. I'm good at that. How many times has he been here? Twice? And the second time you had the house looking so nice that David couldn't say a single mean thing to you. He was completely overwhelmed with all the wonderful things you have done. You take wonderful care of Aladdin and I. You are the best man in the entire world and you are such a good father. " She was laying it on really thick, making Solomon blush and Aladdin head up for bed. She wasn't sitting around for this.

"Sheba…"

"I really love how much you do for us. I love being able to stay home for our baby."

Solomon looked around a moment before he pressed a nice deep kiss back to Sheba's lips. "Oh yeah?"

"Mhmm…" Sheba just melted in his arms. "You're amazing, Solomon."

"That is because I have a woman who knows how to handle the emotional things. You understand me better than anyone, Sheba…"

Aladdin wrinkled her nose, heading upstairs and climbing into bed only to find she was much more exhausted than she had first thought. She fell asleep fast, waking up only to find her stomach aching a little.

Stomach sensitivity was probably the cause. She had heard about it in class. It would wear off soon enough. She looked around her room and yawned a moment before going back to sleep. The next time she woke up, her stomach really hurt, making her roll over and groan.

Definitely bad food. Or hunger pains. Now that she was thinking about it more, she hadn't eaten at all. That must have been the problem. Aladdin headed down to the kitchen and made a small sandwich, feeling a smidgen better as soon as the sandwich was in her mouth.

This was what the problem had been. This, right here, was the problem. And the solution was already at hand. She moaned a little at the taste and inhaled the rest of the sandwich, making a second one before she caught sight of her mom in the doorway.

"One more for mommy?"

Aladdin grinned. "Dad not up?"

"He's fast asleep, baby. What kind of sandwich is that?"

"Turkey."

Sheba stole the sandwich and began to eat as Aladdin made two more and handed one to Sheba. The two of them snuck into the living room and curled up on the sofa, turning on the television quietly and watching some early morning horror movie while Solomon slept away alone.

By the time the man was up, Sheba and Aladdin were asleep. He wrapped a blanket around them both and left for work, leaving them to slumber away in peace. On that day, they mostly slept together, eating through the kitchen and making Solomon go to the store that night when he came home.

On Wednesday, Aladdin and Sheba went shopping.

Thursday, they attempted yoga, ending with Solomon coming home to the two of them playing twister because yoga and twister were "like the same exact thing." Aladdin's father shook his head at the two of them and began the world's longest tickle fight, earning squeals from both of them about it being unfair because Solomon was much taller than them both.

On Friday, Aladdin began to work on school things, doing many of the papers that she would have done at school if she was still attending. Her mother faxed them off to be graded and the two of them began making dinner.

They headed off to the game in town and they sat with Sinbad and Ja'far's parents in the crowd as the game went on. Aladdin looked around, but it seemed that the game was emptier than usual. Kouha wasn't in the cheer squad either.

The weekend came and went with small bouts of flu, which Aladdin worked through, helping clean up around the house a little and going over to Alibaba's to spend time with Alibaba and Morgiana. Morgiana was happy to see her at least. The two of them spent a great deal of time playing video games while Alibaba vanished to talk to Kassim. When he came back, he was incredibly awkward around Morgiana until Hakuryuu showed up and Aladdin headed off soon after.

The week was short and rather peaceful after that horrid Monday.

When the new week began that Monday, and Solomon had gone off to work, Aladdin found her mother knocking on the door and waving a pregnancy test.

"It's time, Aladdin."

"I'm fine. I haven't had any mood swings or anything." Aladdin shook her head. "I think I've just been eating a little more than usual and there's been a lot of stress."

"You just have to pee."

"Mom-"

Sheba followed her into the bathroom though, opening the test and handing it to Aladdin. "Just two minutes for me. If it's negative, then we're going to run by the doctor today to just get some birth control. I just want you to be safe, alright? I wasn't safe with your dad, you know."

"You weren't?" Aladdin looked at her in surprise.

"Oh god, no. Your father's gorgeous. I forgot completely about all those rules and as soon as he was touching, I was throwing my hands in the air and letting him have me."

Aladdin looked at the test and frowned a moment before the awkward second time taking it. There really was no nice way to do it.

"It was fine," Sheba went on. "Your father worked with your grandfather for a while and then when we graduated, he got a job with his company and it became his after five years. And I got the cutest baby that the world has ever seen!"

Aladdin rolled her eyes and turned on the bathtub, beginning to fill it as they both waited for the test to get done processing. "Thanks, mom."

"It's scary to go through pregnancy, but having a baby of your own with someone you love is the greatest thing in the world. Plus, we've both seen Judal."

"MOM!"

"I'm just saying, he's someone that your father won't scream at the sight of and he is quite handsome. If I have to have grandchildren early, then he's a good choice."

Aladdin climbed in the bath and shook her head. "Sorry, but you aren't getting grandchildren so fast, mom."

Sheba looked at the test and shook her head. "Oh really?"

"What?"

Before she could climb out, Sheba was rushing across the room, wrapping her arms around her tightly and kissing her forehead. The test was waved in front of her. "I get a grandbaby!"

The feeling was not shared though. Aladdin stared at the stick in her mother's hand as sheba began to go on about how they had saved the things from Aladdin's birth. She began talking about the guest bedroom and how they could easily afford another child as Aladdin bit her lip and stared down at herself.

"Baby names are so much fun to make up too! Oh, we should tell Sinbad's family and everyone. This is actually a good thing. Don't you worry. Babies are delightful. They're probably the most precious thing in this world. They crawl around and smile with these big gummy smiles of theirs. You never cried for me either. You were such a sweetie. You just smiled and smiled. And then when it came to cooing you just were the most talkative little baby. I knew right then that you were just going to be the little social butterfly. And then all the baby pictures of you and Alibaba together. OH! I must call Anise! She probably has some things too."

"Mom…"

"I bet between her and Sinbad's parents, we'll get around lots of old things that your baby can wear-"

"MOM!"

Sheba looked down only to pause. "Ah… Aladdin?"

"Mom… I'm pregnant."

"I know, sweetie."

"Judal won't like this…"