Chapter 3

Hope you like this new chapter. This one explores how Aladdin and Jasmine's marriage is affected by everything that's going on. Don't forget to review and let me know what you think.

The next few weeks were a roller coaster. The baby could be fine one day and ill the next. The stress took its toll on everyone, but especially on Aladdin and Jasmine. It seemed like the sicker Hazel got, the more they fought. At first it was just little things – hardly noticeable and not even worth staying mad about. But soon, it turned into intense fights, and spending days, even weeks not speaking to each other. That's when everyone else noticed. Genie, being Aladdin's best friend, noticed it almost immediately, but decided not to get involved. For once, he didn't pull gags and jokes to try to cover up what was happening. He, like everyone else, was worried about Hazel, and knew that her illness was probably the reason for their arguing. He knew that funny as he was, comedy would not save this marriage – or Hazel.

However, no one was more confused about what was going on than Aladdin. Lately Jasmine had seemed so distant. At first he tried to shrug it off. But in retrospect, he could see that over time, she had grown detached. Even during their brief conversation after the delivery, Jasmine didn't seem to want to talk to him. At first, Aladdin just assumed that it was because she was tired and because of the shock over what had happened. But when Jasmine got better, she still seemed detached in some way. He fought it for a while, still trying to start conversations out of nothing, asking how she was doing, but the response was always something one-worded, with no depth or emotion to it.

Then the fighting started. Usually over petty things that could be resolved the same day, but somehow it escalated to fights where they were no longer on speaking terms. They were still about silly things that weren't even important, but they were both on such short fuses lately that anything could set them off.

So instead of talking to each other, they each devoted all their time to Hazel, which she needed anyway due to her health. But because Aladdin and Jasmine hardly spoke these days, Aladdin wasn't around half the time. Often he would say he was "going for a walk," and would not return for hours.

It was no surprise, of course, that Jasmine was a bit suspicious. People didn't "go for walks" for hours without going somewhere. Being somewhat temperamental, she couldn't help but be a bit jealous, and wonder where he was sneaking off to.

Then one day, about a month after Hazel was born, Aladdin left one evening using one of his normal lines – "I have to pick up a few things". Jasmine was suspicious, so she decided to wait for him to come home before she went to bed. First one hour passed, then two, then three, until finally, it was midnight and he still wasn't home. She was both angry and worried. Where could he have gone? Surely he must have known she would worry about him if he was gone this long. But what if he had been lying all this time? What if he was out drinking, or worse...what if he was with someone else? For a second Jasmine considered going out and looking for him. At least then she would know the truth about where he had been. But Agrabah was a big city. She didn't know where he could have gone, and she still wasn't sure what would happen to Hazel while she was gone.

Finally, Jasmine decided to get some sleep. It was better than sitting up all night creating horrible scenarios about where he could be. Besides, he would probably be back by morning, and she could confront him then. Unfortunately, she was horribly wrong.

When Jasmine woke up the next morning, she turned over and found that Aladdin had still not returned. At first she thought that maybe he had woken up before her, but his side of the bed hadn't been slept in. She jumped out of bed, got dressed, and was on her way out to find him when he suddenly came in. He didn't look like he'd been drinking or anything, he just looked tired. But Jasmine was angry nonetheless.

"Where the hell have you been?" she screamed. She normally didn't curse, and her voice went far higher than she had meant it to, but she was so angry and had been so worried that it just slipped out, as if it hadn't been her saying it, but someone else.

"Out."

"'Out'? Do you know how worried I was?"

"Worried? I'm surprised you even cared."

Aladdin said this so calmly and so sarcastically that Jasmine knew he was angry about something. But what did he have to be angry about? She was the one up half the night worrying, and he was the one acting suspiciously, not her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on. You didn't want me around anyway, so why are you mad now?"

"I never said I didn't want you around!" Jasmine retorted. Where was this coming from?

"You didn't have to," Aladdin replied. He knew what Jasmine probably suspected him of doing, and didn't feel like being interrogated. He really had been out walking. Of course Hazel was the first thing on his mind, but in the back of his mind he couldn't deny that slowly, his marriage was falling apart, and Jasmine was pushing him away, and even worse, she didn't seem to notice. She was so wrapped up in her own hurt that she couldn't see she was pushing away who she loved the most.

"For the past month you've been hurting so much over Hazel you've been pushing me away,"he continued.

"That's not true!"

"Yes it is! And you can't even see it. I don't know what else I can do for you, Jasmine. I love you, but you need to work this out on your own – without me.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying... I'm moving out."