"As much as I could get my hands on." Jeane grimaced briefly. "Actually, I'm pretty sure Cal's kind of pissed with me about that, but oh well. I've gone through a dozen books and some of my boss's contacts."

"Alright," Khalid said. There wasn't a lot of written information about djinn, but what there was tended to be pretty accurate. So Jeane probably knew exactly what was going on, even if Khalid didn't say anything more.

"So, about how long?" Jeane asked quietly. She figured it was vague enough to not be quite so intrusive as a blunt question, but still pertinent.

Besides which, she wanted to be prepared.

Vague wording or not, Khalid knew what was being asked, and did a quick mental estimate.

"Six more months," she ventured. "Out of about seven." It seemed like a short time, and it was, but it made sense in a way. Djinn had to adapt because of their servitude, and couldn't be out of commission for too long.

Jeane nodded. "Okay. Need me to do anything?" She thought she might as well ask. It couldn't hurt, after all.

"I can take care of things," Khalid replied. "...but thank you." She wasn't used to being offered help, rather than asked for it, and it felt a little strange.

Jeane nodded. "Thank you for being honest." She graced her friend with a smile, hoping she hadn't just screwed up monumentally.

"I was going to tell you soon anyways," Khalid admitted. There were still two others she needed to tell, however... After all, Robin and Ishiah needed to know. Ish especially.

Jeane nodded. "Don't worry, I won't say anything. Don't feel rushed because I guessed, okay? I doubt they know anything." Since she spent a lot of time with Ish at the bar, she would have known if he guessed anything.

"I still need to tell them soon," Khalid said, gathering the jewelry on the table. She picked out a few of the pieces and set them aside. Jeane could take them with her to the museum. "I'm going into my bottle for a little bit," she said. "I want to finish that sketch and send it to be commissioned. Let me know if you need anything."

"Okay." Jeane watched her vanish before she set the pieces of jewelry by her purse so she could take them with her the next morning. And then she dove into research again.

Khalid finally figured out what was missing from the sketch, and fixed the problem. Then she had the new bottle commissioned. It would be ready in plenty of time, she knew, and now she could focus on other things. Other things, such as figuring out how to tell Robin and Ish. Knowing the two of them, the issue would be raised at the most inopportune time.

A few days later, Robin and Ish were both at the bar again, and Robin had cajoled Khalid into joining them. Jeane was sitting next to Niko this time, once again buried in a book.

"So, are you ever going to tell us what that bottle's about?" Robin pressed.

Well, it seemed there was no escaping it this time. Khalid nodded after a moment.

"Yeah," she replied. "I will." She hesitated slightly. "Can we go back to your place to discuss it, though? The matter is a bit...delicate."

Robin's eyebrows shot up at that but he nodded after a moment. "Sure. Ish?"

Ishiah nodded. "Cal, you take over," he said, tossing the keys to the half-Auphe.

Cal caught the keys with minimal grumbling. He was used to being asked to close up, so it really wasn't that big a deal.

Once Ishiah had handed the bar over to Cal, Khalid gestured to the door. The impending discussion was really best had somewhere private.

Robin led the way back to his apartment, waiting until they were all in before he shut the door.

"We're listening," he said, raising his eyebrows at her. But he didn't actually try to rush her.

"Just... Don't interrupt me, alright?" Khalid said. She sat down on the couch, taking a moment to put her thoughts into order. "A djinn only ever gets one bottle. There's never a need for more than one, because if something happens to the bottle, there's usually not enough of the djinn left to need a second bottle." She paused for a moment. "Bottles are made on commission. There's only one reason to commission a bottle." She watched the two of them as she spoke, waiting for their inevitable understanding and questions.

Ishiah got it first, and his eyes widened. "You mean..."

Robin got it a moment later. "Holy crap." He looked completely astounded.

"When did you...?" Ishiah trailed off. This was a first for all three of them.

"I've known for a couple of weeks, now," Khalid admitted. Unlike humans, djinn tended to know almost right away when a child was conceived. She looked at them both. "And before you both go getting any ideas, I haven't been with anyone but the two of you."

"I didn't think so," Robin said with an indignant sniff.

Ish looked completely floored for a few moments, his eyes huge. Robin couldn't contribute to conception, meaning that he was technically the father. And that sort of short-circuited his brain for a minute.

"Now you know why I didn't want to talk about this in the middle of the bar," Khalid said. "At the moment, Jeane is the only other person who knows, because she figured it out on her own."

For a moment Robin was indignant. A human figured it out first? Then he shrugged.

"Well. When can we expect our little bouncing bundle?"

"About six months," Khalid replied, looking between the two of them. Ishiah still looked a bit shellshocked; not that she blamed him.

"Gives us plenty of time to prepare." Robin grinned and looked over at Ishiah. "You still with us?"

Ishiah nodded after a moment. "Yes. Of course." He was still thinking things over, and he looked at Khalid to make sure she was okay with this. They hadn't exactly planned this, after all.