Choosing Life

Chapter Forty Five

Mulan smiled as she leaned against the trunk of her magnolia tree. It was a beautiful early June day and she had wanted to come out and train for a while, only to quickly find out she wasn't as young as she once was.

That wasn't to say she was slowing down any but the same movements that had come so easily to her when she had joined the army to save her father's life were now limited by her range of motion from her age. Though honestly, with having had two adult children, Mulan would have been surprised if her body hadn't changed with age.

"Hey Mulan," a familiar voice called out and Mulan smiled.

"What are you doing here Mushu?" Mulan asked as the small red dragon scurried over to her.

"He followed me out here," Shang said with a small chuckle as he came into view.

"And what brings you out here, General?" Mulan asked with a slight teasing note to her voice. She knew most, if not almost all, of Auradon thought of her husband at the rank of former Captain since that was the rank he had been when he helped her to save China, but Mulan loved seeing the proud look Shang got in his eyes whenever someone called him by his proper rank.

Well, his former proper rank that was, seeing as he had retired from the army when they had their children and had taken up coaching the Imperial Academy's Tourney team. Well, at least until retirement truly called to him. Thankfully their son was able to take up the mantle as he'd taken the role as Assistant coach after he'd graduated from school.

"Our son's on the phone," Shang said, handing his mobile phone to Mulan.

"Shang? Is everything okay?" Mulan asked as she put the mobile phone to her ear.

"Of course mom," Li'l Shang said, a smile audible in his voice. "I just wanted to call and let you know that...I'm engaged!"

"What? Oh Shang, that's fantastic—Jordan said yes?"

"Wait...how did you know I was asking Jordan? Did you have Mushu spy on me?"

Mulan shook her head. "I can put two and two together Shang, and you've been spending a lot of time alone with Jordan. But congratulations, the both of you."

"Thanks mom," Li'l Shang said with a small smile audible in his voice before he paused. "Hold on, Lonnie's calling me."

"Oh, see if you can connect the call so we can all talk to each other," Mulan said. Normally she wasn't so nosy and she completely understood her kids having lives away from her however this was different. Lonnie was giving birth to her first child and that day was also her due date, so everyone was naturally a bit on edge every time Lonnie called just in case it was with news that she was in labor.

"Yes mom," Li'l Shang said with a bit of amusement coloring his voice and Mulan could hear the faint tones of buttons being pressed before her son spoke once more. "Hey Lon, what's going on? And just to let you know mom's on the call too."

"Oh that's...great! Jay's only been...trying to call her and dad for the past fifteen minutes!"

"Lonnie? Is everything alright?" Mulan asked and put the phone on speaker so Shang could hear as well. They weren't used to hearing that tone from their daughter and they hoped it wasn't anything too serious.

"Sorry mom...I didn't mean to snap but I'm...oh Gods how did you go through this twice?"

"Are you in labor?" Shang, Li'l Shang, and Mulan all said at the same time.

"Um...yeah you can say that...no Jay, put me down I am more than capable of walking to the car!"

"Hey guys," Jay said, having taken the phone from Lonnie as he continued to carry his pregnant wife to their car. "Yeah, Lonnie's in labor, contractions have been about three minutes apart so we're going to the hospital just to be on the safe side. Hopefully it'll be a quick labor."