Chapter Forty Three

A/N: I do not own anything other than my OCs when they come out to play. Everything else belongs to either Disney or the Greek Myths.

*smh* Guys, can you believe we're only 63 reviews away from 500? That seems crazy to me but here we are! You want to know something even crazier? We're only 36 chapters away from the end of this story! It does not seem like that should be possible! Thank you all so much for your support—but don't worry, of course there'll be a sequel!

Tracie Adams: So glad you enjoyed it!

AmethystDragon14: Oh yay! Yeah the thought of Hades and Adam (both men around or over 6 feet tall) cowering from Mal (who is only 5'2") is very amusing! And of course Estelle and Nyx are hanging onto the twins! They wouldn't be the best boi and gurl if they didn't!

OceanBlueSeaEyes: Very true—and ooh that's a good loop hole! Ben and Mal even said they should spoil their own kids!

The Christian Dino: Oh thank you!

BAL4ever: Heh, very true! They do say beware the tiny ones after all!

Guest: Anything's possible!

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Let me know what you think! :D

"What do you mean, you're quitting?!"

Jay shook his head as he looked at Mal, who was staring at the older man in shock. To be fair to the purple haired Godling, that hadn't exactly been something she'd expected Jay to tell her.

The Tourney season had ended, with Jay earning the Auradon Lions another Championship (and earning himself a nice bonus in the process), and he was firmly in the prime of his Tourney career. Ben had even said he'd expect Jay to have a good five, maybe even ten years in his career with how he was able to dodge cannon fire and avoid being hit.

"I mean it Mal," Jay said. "I wanted to tell Lonnie and then you but then I'm going to my coach and I'll be announcing it at a press conference next week."

"But why?" Mal asked. "Jay, you love Tourney. You always told me it was the one thing you had that was just yours, something where being Jafar's son didn't matter, something where you made your own name in the sport. Why would you want to give that up?"

Jay sighed and gave Mal a small smile. "Lonnie's pregnant. She told me this morning."

"What?! Oh Jay, that's wonderful!" Mal said, rushing over to hug the man who was practically an older brother to her. "Did you faint when she told you?"

"Of course not!" Jay chuckled. Though he had come close.

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me Jay," Lonnie said with a small chuckle as she saw the look on her husband's face. "I'm pregnant."

"But…how….when?"

"The when would have to be probably the night we left your team's party celebrating the way you trounced the Agrabah Scorpions in order to win another championship, so that we could have a private celebration of our own…and if I have to explain the how to you, Jay, then I'm worried about you."

Jay shook his head as he sat down.

"Jay…do you want this baby?" Lonnie asked, her smile turning serious as she looked at him. "I know we're young but I do want a child…I know it's the last thing you'd expect Mulan's daughter to say, wanting to go down the motherhood path when I'm soaring in my career but—."

"You don't know how happy you made me."

"…Really? Cause you kinda looked ready to pass out."

Jay sighed. "I just…I'm worried…"

"Worried? About what?"

"That I'll mess the kid up," Jay told her. "I didn't really have a good example of good parenting with my own father."

"Yes well, Jafar's less than stellar parenting skills aside," Lonnie muttered and shook her head. "You know as well as I do that's not true Jay. How many times have you told me you consider Lord Hades to be a father figure to you?"

"More times than I can count."

"And would you say he was a bad father?"

Jay shook his head. "Of course not. The only way the words 'Lord Hades' and 'bad father' belong in the same sentence would be if you put 'is not a' in-between them."

"See?" Lonnie told him. "There's nothing to worry about, you just follow Lord Hades' parenting and we'll be fine…and if you do find yourself following Jafar's parenting, tell me and I can spar it out of you."

"I have no doubt about that," Jay said with a chuckle before pausing. "Lon…what about our jobs?"

Lonnie sighed. "I guess…one of us will have to step aside for a bit. At least until the kid's old enough for a daycare setting. It wouldn't be fair to either my parents or Lord Hades and Lady Persephone if we have to constantly ask them to watch our child…or Sultan Aladdin and Sultana Jasmine for that matter even though I know they'd love to help."

"I'll stay home," Jay said, the words coming unprompted from his lips.

Lonnie stared at him in shock. "Jay…I couldn't ask you to…"

"You're not asking," Jay said, gently resting his hand on top of hers. "I've got my degree, I should be able to find another job, and if push comes to shove I'll become a sports broadcaster but our kid deserves to know a stable life and deserves to have the chance to root on their mom as she continues to kick butt in the professional R.O.A.R. circuit."

"But you love your job Jay."

"I love this family more."

Jay shook his head slightly to pull himself out of memory lane. While he knew Mal wouldn't mind, he still didn't want to be rude. Not to his oldest friend and one of the two girls he considered to be a sister.

"Wait…is that why you're quitting?" Mal asked as she broke the hug.

Jay nodded. "Yeah. My kid deserves a stable life, deserves to have a place to hang his hat and know it'll never change. I love Tourney and maybe I'll become a sports broadcaster or even a coach and change some kid's life like Coach Jenkins changed mine. But constantly traveling, never being able to lay down roots and always having to be on your toes…we had that life or at least something similar on the Isle. I don't want that for my kid….and speaking of kids, where're yours?"

"Ben took them to examine the private libraries Belle built for them," Mal said.

"I thought you put the kibosh on spoiling from the grandparents?"

"The woman knocked down walls in her own castle Jayden! I may be a Godling but Belle on a quest to build libraries is a force even I can't stop!" Mal said and shook her head.

Jay chuckled. "Well it's nice to know we've all got forces of nature in terms of our in-laws. I think the only one who's got it easy is Evie."

"Possibly," Mal nodded. "I wonder if there'll be any pregnancy announcements from her now that you'll be announcing you're having a kid."

"Doubt it," Jay said. "Evie's focused on her business, give her at least another year before she has a kid."

Mal nodded. "So…you hoping for a boy or a girl?"

"Really? You know gender doesn't matter Mali. A girl can wield a sword just as easily as a guy can," Jay told her.

"I know," Mal said. "But you know you'll be fielding that question for the next nine months…"

"Mal, I know what you're thinking," Jay said as Mal's voice trailed off. "No, I still don't know if I ever inherited my dad's genie abilities and no, I don't think that would impact Lonnie's pregnancy. Not to mention Lonnie's completely mortal so wouldn't it still be nine months regardless?"

"…Talk to Jordan's mom. She's pure mortal so she might be able to give Lonnie some tips just in case you do have any dormant Genie abilities."

"That…that's actually not a bad idea. Thanks Mal."

Mal chuckled. "Hey, I've been known to have them from time to time. Remember, it was my idea to make the love spell cookies to get Ben out of his contract with Audrey."

"Yes, however I will admit that it probably would have been a good idea if we'd doubled checked to see if Ben could be love spelled before we did something that could have potentially gotten us thrown back onto the Isle."

"Hush you, I'm trying to bask in my brilliance."

Jay shook his head. "Fine, fine. You are brilliant."

"Why thank you Jay," Mal grinned before going back to sit down at her desk. "What are you going to do about your job? Surely you're not just going to quit without a backup."

Jay sighed as he sat down on the sofa that was in Mal's office. Well actually it was Mal and Ben's shared office but who was going to argue semantics? "In all honesty, I don't know. When Lonnie told me she was pregnant this morning, I knew I'd want to stay home with the kid but I still want to work though. I don't want to make it so that all the stress is on Lonnie to provide the income."

"Hmm…what was your major again?"

"Double major in political science and sports marketing," Jay told her. What? He wanted to understand half the stuff Mal ranted to him about, even if he would never end up really needing the major in the first place.

Mal grinned. "Perfect."

"Why is that perfect?"

"Cause I need an advisor Jay and the perfect one is sitting in my office right now."

Jay paused before looking at Mal in shock. "You…you don't mean me?"

"Who else?" Mal told him. "Jay, you've been my advisor since we were kids. You were the one I could go to if I had an issue back when we were the only ones in our crew in Auradon. Hell you were the one who realized Ben had feelings for me before I did. The fact that you majored in political science just made it so you're the most qualified person to apply fo the position and made it so it didn't seem like I was just hiring my best friend."

"Mal, I don't know the first thing about advising a Queen!"

"You know how to keep me from killing idiots don't you?"

"Well…yeah…"

Mal shrugged. "So you know how to advise me. Just do that, only you know…royally."

Jay sighed. "Mal, is it the best look? The son of Jafar, whispering in a royal's ear?"

"Jay, you are so much more than just 'Jafar's son'," Mal said, her voice gentle as she looked at one of her oldest friends. "You were the only one of the four of us who could catch the chickens when we were on the Isle, meaning you saw things from a different view point and used it so that we all benefited. You were the one trusted enough by your coach to call the play that won the Auradon Lions their first Tourney Championship. You are one of my oldest and most trusted friends Jay. I trust you with my life, with Ben's life, with my childrens' lives, why wouldn't I trust you in giving advice for the kingdom?"

Jay gave Mal a small smile. "Since when are you the one pumping me up?"

"Since you decided to have self doubt," Mal told him with a small smile. "Trust me Jay, there's no one I'd trust more as an advisor than you."

"What about Dean?"

"Dean is firmly Ben's advisor and honestly considering he knows how to manage Ben's paperwork in a way that makes it so Ben's not glued to his desk, I wouldn't dream of taking Dean from Ben."

"Uma? Harry?"

Mal shook her head. "Why are you trying to poke holes in my logic? Just accept the job why don't you?"

"Mal, the last thing I want is to give you stress," Jay said. "I still remember what you went through in school—."

"Jay, are you going to drag Natalie out from wherever she's hiding and put me in close contact with her?"

"What? No!"

"Then this isn't going to be like when we were in school," Mal told him. "Let them talk if they want to, all that matters is that I have my First Mate by my side where he belongs."

Jay gave her a small smile. "Well then…where do I sign cap'n?"

"Right here," Mal said, giving Jay an already filled out job application. "I filled it out while you were going down your doubt filled spiral. Just sign and I'll have Dean approve it officially so there can't be any speculation of back room deals or any such nonsense. Plus this way you have something to tell the press when they ask you what your plans are after you leave the Lions."

"Mal, I still need to break the news to my coach."

"Ooh then you better go and tell him! He'll need time to process the fact that he's losing his star player you know."

Jay shook his head. "You know, I think you've been around Emir and Akiho a bit too much Mali."

"They somehow managed to time their kids to be the same age as the twins; other than Uma and Jane, Emma and Elle are my only Mom friends."

"What about Macaria? Kitty? Robin?"

"Okay fine, they're my only mom friends around my age, are you happy Mr. Pedantic?"

Jay snorted. "You know Robin's around your age as well but I'll drop the subject. And hey, soon Lonnie will be one of your mom friends too!"

"You never told me, are you hoping for a girl or a boy?"

"Either one would be loved just as equally as the other, you know that Mal."

Mal nodded and gave him a small smile. "I know…I just had to make sure you believed it. Evie told me once that if she does have a child, she hopes she has a son."

"Really? Fashion icon Evie wouldn't want a little girl to dress up?" Jay asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Jay…it's Evie," Mal told him. "She said…she said the last thing she wanted was to do to the little girl what her mom did to her."

"Oh…" Jay said as he caught on and then sighed. "I guess…I guess we're all a little messed up when it comes to our parents. Well, except for you Mal."

"Hey, remember who my 'birth giver' was," Mal said, shaking her head. "I'm just as messed up as you guys are. But I think the fact that we know we're messed up will help us not inflict it on our kids. You're not going to make your kid steal food in order to avoid starving are you?"

"I think Mulan and Lonnie would both kill me if I even thought of doing that."

"Then you'll be fine," Mal assured him. "But seriously, find out if you've got any latent Genie abilities because that way you can at least be prepared for when the powers come out in your kids or at the very least the possibility of such a thing happening."

"I'm going to leave now. I have a pregnant wife who's waiting for me so we can go tell the news to our families before I go and tell my coach he's losing his star player."

Mal smiled as she heard that. "I'm sure they'll be able to hear Mulan and Jasmine's squeals from the Isle."

"Your mom's going to be there too," Jay said with a smirk. "I wanted to make it one fell swoop…and I might have bribed your brother to be there too."

"What did you bribe him with?"

"That's for me to know and our brother to tell you later, Malinda!" Jay told her. Yes he knew he wasn't biologically Hadie's brother but that didn't matter to Jay. The younger boy was his brother in all but blood at this point.

"Jayden, how much destruction is this going to cause?!"

"I can't hear you Mali, I'm going through a tunnel, you're breaking up!"

"I can see you turning the corner Jay!" Mal exclaimed before shaking her head in amusement. Well…that had been exciting though that was one of the best parts of being friends with Jay.

Life was never boring when he was in your life.