Choosing Life

Chapter Forty Three

"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."