Maman
Part VII: If Necessity is the Mother of Invention, Where Is the Father?
by MegaSilver

"Thirteen… fourteen…"

"I've been seeing a girl, and… well, something happened about four weeks ago. And now she's pregnant."

"Sixteen… seventeen…"

Tommy struggled to keep concentrated as Jason spotted and counted his bench presses. The previous night weighed heavier than any weights, and he scarcely felt the pounds of the bells as he thrust them upwards and then pulled them back in, stroke after stroke.

"And it's yours," Tommy's father threw out neutrally, after a short pause.

"Yeah…"

"Well, you'd better go out start applying at fast food restaurants, retail joints, whatever job you can find, and you'd better hope they've got plenty of hours for you, because you're going to be paying child support for the next eighteen years."

"Twenty… twenty-one…"

And it had ended there. No more discussion. No scolding. No moralizing. No words of advice. No curiosity about the girl he was seeing, the mother of his first child. No anger, no joy, no emotion at all. Not even expressions of disappointment. His mother had looked at him with a face full of pity and condescension, but had said nothing. She had just shaken her head.

Tommy hadn't really known what to expect. He'd imagined his parents' reaction would be subdued, but it wasn't. The emptiness was genuine. There was no repression at all. The cold, steely exterior was exactly the same as the interior, wonderfully matched by the bland New England-style seafood they had dined on last night, one of the rare occasions when the Olivers had a family dinner all together.

Family? That's no family at all! No family of mine, that's for sure!

"Twenty-eight—" Jason halted when Tommy let the weight drop, suddenly wincing. "Man, you okay? You were going a bit fast."

Tommy drew in a slow breath as Jason helped him lift the bar off. This was the heaviest starting set he'd ever tried, and he hadn't been paying attention. He'd just gone all-out, furiously, excessively. Now the insides of his elbows were really sore. He hoped he wasn't hurt.

"Yeah, just… had something on my mind, Tommy murmured, not rising from the bench.

Jason sighed. He might have guessed that. They hadn't really spoken about the whole pregnancy ordeal since the day they had all discussed the matter with Zordon, but perhaps now was as good a time as any to try to iron these difficult things out some more. "You want to talk about it?"

"Sure."

Jason extended a hand to help pull his comrade up. The two gathered their belongings and set off into nearby Angel Grove Park, where Tommy recounted the dreadfully frigid 'family' meeting from the night before.

"… they just didn't even care."

Jason thought for a moment. As a leader, as someone used to herding and even disciplining, he hoped things might not be so bad. "You know, sometimes authority figures feel they have to act harsher than they actually are. You know… tough love. So that their charges feel the natural consequences of what happens. It doesn't mean they don't care or won't help when—"

"No, Jase," said Tommy. Jason saw his friend look him in the eye. "You don't know my parents. They don't care. They never have cared." Then he spilt out the same story he'd told Kimberly a month earlier: his adoption, his parents frustrated with his disparate nature from their own, the boarding school, the Sundays and even whole weekends alone.

Jason was shocked. He'd been frustrated with Tommy from time to time—and between Tommy's tardiness, romantic exuberance and extreme stubbornness there was certainly material to get frustrated with—but he'd never thought to put a face onto Tommy's struggles.

"Wow," he breathed, shaking his head. "Man, I'm real sorry. That's rough." He put a hand to his friend's shoulder.

"I don't want to be like them. I don't want to be that kind of dad to the baby. I want to be good to Kimberly and my kid."

"I think the fact that you're worried about at all probably means you're worried enough," Jason offered as they resumed walking. "Try to relax a bit." This conversation wasn't turning out to be so difficult for Jason, after all. "No family's perfect, you know. My own parents had big problems right up until I was in seventh grade. My dad was an officer in the army and was stationed overseas with my mom until 1973 when they had my sister Tamara. They'd started drinking—a lot—living in the Pacific. Mom stopped when she was pregnant, thank goodness, but she got right back into it after each of us was born. They didn't seek help until I was thirteen and my mother got in an accident and got arrested for DUI." He took a deep breath. "They didn't do everything wrong. They were good to us and tried to protect us… when they were alert. We always knew right from wrong, but my sister… she began to rebel around fourteen or fifteen, arguing that she didn't have to walk the walk if Mom and Dad weren't." He blinked a couple of times. "She's due to give birth in three weeks, you know. Tamara, I mean."

Tommy's eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Yeah," sighed Jason. "So I guess I wasn't in a very shockable mood when Kimberly broke the news—even though I never though that would happen to Kim." He shrugged. "It happens, though."

"Is she… is she still with the baby's father?"

"They live together in Las Vegas."

"Do you know him?"

"I only met him once. A bit coarse, but he didn't seem too trashy. He's a plumber's apprentice, so he'll have a good job eventually, if he sticks with it, but… she just hasn't shown good judgment in the past. So really, it could go either way."

They were silent for a few more seconds. Then, Tommy piped up. "Still… my dad was right, in the end. I will have to find a way to support this kid."

Finances. This was definitely a prickly situation. Jason looked at his friend with sympathy.

"If I want to be taken seriously as a father figure, for sure."

Jason nodded. "It's not going to be easy," he warned. "If there's an emergency in the middle of a shift, for example…"

"Yeah, I thought about that." Tommy glanced at the ground. "Not really much to do except resign myself to getting fired at that point."

Later that same day, after dinner, Kimberly settled down in the study with her Uncle Steve and Aunt Corinne.

"So what's going on?" asked Corinne with a smile, looking directly at her niece and goddaughter and conveying real interest to know why Kimberly had asked them to come in for this little discussion.

"Tommy told his parents yesterday," she announced. "It went… well, let's just say it was about as cold as Alaska. They didn't really seem to care at all." She huffed. "Definitely the kind of icy in-laws everyone's afraid to meet!"

"That's going to be rough for sure with Tommy involved with the kid," Steve mentioned.

"He doesn't like them either. His parents, I mean. They've always kind of been jerks to him. He was adopted and I guess didn't turn out 'like them,' so they just kind of, like, tossed him aside." Kimberly looked up at her uncle and aunt, who wore expressions of genuine sympathy and concern. "He's told me he doesn't want to be like them. And he knows what it means to be involved with a kid. He's starting to look for work."

"Well, that's good!" exclaimed Steve. "He seems like a guy who wants to do this right. I hope for everyone's sake he can figure it all out."

"Yeah, I think so," Kimberly murmured. She swallowed. This was going to be really delicate. "Listen… umm, we talked about this and we want to stay together. We're sure. And with Tommy needing to work to support me it might make it easier if… well, I can't get my own place right away, obviously, but… if he needed a place to crash, could…?" Kimberly grinned and gritted her teeth. Normally she was quite good at asking for what she wanted. Right now, she could feel how wrong this sounded even as she was saying it.

Steve and Corinne looked at each other with big eyes, silently exchanging, then faced Kimberly once more. "Kimberly," began Steve, "I was really impressed that Tommy wanted to come get you physically settled. If he finds a job that'll be all the more in his favor, and you need to keep that in mind. Because it's not easy for a young man in his situation, and it won't be easy for you, even though he's doing his best."

"I know."

Corinne jumped in. "Kimberly," she began, "we want to be supportive. We know it's important to you that the baby's father be—and we believe he should be, if it's possible—involved in the child's life. But our house isn't a hotel and Tommy can't stay here. It's not about punishment; it's not anything against Tommy; it's about propriety. I needn't remind you that having your boyfriend stay over was how you got into this situation in the first place. Regardless of all the good, and God knows we need to look for the good where we can find it, this situation itself is not good, in that it's not something to aspire to or to re-create."

"And you're not going to want to hear this," added Steve, "but teenaged couples usually don't last. Even if they have a baby together. You might well be the exception, but the statistics are not on your side. So if you really want to make it, if you really are capable of loving each other forever, you're going to have to fight. You're going to have to fight against immaturity and material improbability. We're family and we're here to help you fight that. But we aren't here to cover up for immaturity or character flaws. You both need to come out of this stronger if you're going to make it together."

Kimberly sighed. She'd thought they might react a bit this way, but it was easier to hear than she had hoped. "I guess I really can't argue."

Corinne reached out and placed a hand on her niece's. "Listen, Kimberly… as long as Tommy's doing his part for you, and you still want him in your life, we'll help you make it work. Okay? We can't do Tommy's work for him—or yours for you—but we're always here to show you the way."

Kimberly smiled. The horrors of the scene at her mother's house seemed a million miles away…

"There's something else, though," Steve interloped. "You need to tell your dad, Kim."

… and yet so close. Kimberly's heart sank. She let out a pouty, high-pitched sigh and frowned.

"You're still a minor, Kimberly," Steve pointed out. "I know you're over twelve and you can choose which parent to live with, but if you chose your mother most of the time and she now rejected you, you need to come clean with your father. It may be true that your father is not in an ideal situation for you to stay at his place, but you need to "

"Morally?" Kimberly scoffed. "Like Dad was clean with us when he cheated on Mom?"

Corinne spoke again. "Your mother's my sister, and I'll always love her no matter what she does. Just like Jack is Uncle Steve's brother, and Uncle Steve will always love him. But here's some advice: when people in your life don't do the right thing with respect to you, especially if they're your family, it's important that you still do the right thing with respect to them. Even if it doesn't seem to make a difference in your relationship, the fact that you try make all the world of difference to your integrity.

"And if you can keep that intact, even through something like this… you'll not only make it through; you'll smash right through." Corinne smiled again. "Speaking of smashing things… I was just about to go roll out some piecrusts to make quiche for the lunch pails tomorrow. Care to give me a hand?"

As they worked through the pastry, Kimberly and Corinne had a long discussion about Kimberly's up and coming confrontation with her father. So Kimberly called him that night and arranged to have dinner with him at a restaurant the following day. He kept trying to persuade her to bring Tommy back to his condo with her, but she held fast. She absolutely didn't want to go there. She was terrified he might have taken a live-in girlfriend. Watching her mother with a man she had already sort-of-known had been insufferable , and were it not for the guilt and separation anxiety that came from being away from her brother—she hadn't even said goodbye—and from the room she had slept in for thirteen years for a half-finished bonus room, she would have been overjoyed to be away.

Meeting her father at Dell'Arte Ristorante was bad enough, as it turned out. She had dreaded the ordeal all night and all day but it wasn't really bad in the way that she had thought. It was, rather, extremely awkward: they hadn't had any real deep conversation since he'd moved out, and up until the moment Kimberly decided to drop the bomb, no one could really figure out what to say.

Finally, after choking down yet another bite of well-done steak, Kimberly winced and looked at Tommy. "Dad, we have to tell you something," she said finally. "I'm pregnant."

Mr. Hart's jaw went slack and he blinked a few times. He looked over to Tommy, then at Kimberly. "Are you serious?" he murmured, clearly believing her yet uncomfortable as to how to react.

"Yeah," Kimberly sighed. "I just had to tell you."

Mr. Hart nodded. "And Tommy, you're—"

"Right," Tommy confirmed, nodding. Kimberly could see how tense he was by the accented muscle tone in his neck and face.

"Does your mother know about this?"

Kimberly looked down at her plate and took a deep breath. Great. For whatever reason she hadn't been at all prepared to answer this one. She had so dreaded this evening that she had totally blown off thinking strategically, or at all for that matter, about it.

"Kimberly?" Mr. Hart persisted.

Kimberly looked up but at Tommy, her lower lip trembling and her eyes pleading. "I ca—"

Tommy must have gotten the message. He cleared his throat. "Mr. Hart, Kim's mom… she threw her out of the house on the spot."

Terrence had his wine glass up to his lips and promptly dropped it. "WHAT?" he cried out, attracting the attention of the whole floor.

Kimberly was once again staring into her food, but now her whole body was trembling and she was fighting tears.

Mr. Hart calmed himself down. "Oh, Kim, it's okay. It's okay. Don't be afraid."

I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna cry. I don't care enough to cry, Kimberly reminded herself, swallowing hard. "I'm staying with Aunt Corinne," she said very softly.

Mr. Hart opened his mouth but nothing came out. He pursed his lips together and nodded. "Right," he said, and kept on nodding. "I think that's a good choice." He was still nodding. "She'll—she can get you through the pregnancy and that's a good house for…" He squinted his eyes, not appearing particularly sure of his words. "I mean—for example, if you were in a smaller space or… well, without your mother… at least an aunt… or…"

Oh, bull, Kimberly thought. Have you totally forgotten how to be a caregiver or authority figure or what?

Or had he ever known?

Several minutes later, after bidding an awkward—more awkwardness!—goodbye and just as Tommy and Kimberly were preparing to leave the premises in Tommy's own Jeep Wrangler, Kimberly's father began calling to them. "Kimberly, wait! Tommy!" He ran up to the pair. "Look. If you need anything—anything at all—please, just tell me. I'll do it." He looked at Kimberly, and his gaze seemed to her somewhat pathetic.

Maybe doing something before would've been more productive. "I'll be okay," she answered. Suddenly she felt almost guilty. She should at least—"Thanks." She attempted a smile.

Mr. Hart's expression remained in the same forlorn, almost pathetic gaze. "Are you sure, sweetie?"

Oh, great. Don't call me that now. "I can do this," said Kimberly.

Mr. Hart seemed to resign himself. "All right, well, call me, okay?" he said, sounding almost annoyed as he began backing away.

"I got a job," Tommy announced as the Jeep bounced along the downtown roads.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Tommy sighed. "I can't let this fall on you and your family. I have to provide for you and the baby now."

"What about the team?"

Tommy had been afraid Kimberly would bring that up. "I'll figure something out." He began breathing a bit more heavily. "Hopefully you won't need me that often. Besides, I'm supposed to be conserving my powers."

"Yeah, hopefully," Kimberly muttered. "Hopefully the world won't need Rangers too much longer anyway. Hopefully we won't need Megazord so they can let the Pink Ranger go off to Lamaze."

"Kim, don't be so hard on yourself."

"Well, someone has to be!" Kimberly growled. "What about me, Tommy? Money isn't what I need. It isn't what the baby needs. We need physical protection! That much you can do!"

Tommy began to get annoyed. "What do you mean you don't need money?"

"I mean Aunt Corinne and Uncle Ste—"

"Look, Kim, I want this to work. Long term. There's no way we can ever do that or ever get to be independent if we don't start now and push to do it as fast as possible!"

Kimberly exhaled a puff. "Look, let's just drop it."

"Kim, I don't want to be like my dad. I want to take responsibility for the lives that are in my hands."

"The life that's in my belly," Kimberly added as they pulled up to the Learys' house. "But you know… we're also responsible for the lives of everyone on Earth, I mean, so far as Rita's concerned."

"I know, Kim."

Kimberly sighed again and shook her head. "It's just so much. It's so unfair."

"It's my fault, Kim." Tommy reached over and squeezed her hand. "I know I'm taking on a huge load. To be honest I don't know how I'm gonna handle it. But I have to try. I don't know what else to do. If I did anything less it'd be like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to. But what if I have to choose—either I'm not there for the Power Rangers or I'm not there for you and the baby?"

"I am a Power Ranger," Kimberly reminded him. "You don't have to choose."

"I mean—" Now, in his turn, Tommy sighed, and pressed his forehead against his left hand.

After a moment of silence, Kimberly changed the subject. "I—I forgot to ask, where are you gonna be working?"

TO BE CONTINUED…