A/N: Hi everyone! I am happy I get to update again tonight to not leave everyone hanging on after that cliffhanger! Who saw this one coming?

36.

I felt my eyes widen and my mouth gape open as I tried to the process the fact Tommy was holding a baby in his arms. It was wrapped in a yellow blanket, white hearts printed on it. I blinked as Tommy smiled over at me. He had the baby tucked into his arms, his elbows resting on the arms of the chair. My eyes kept looking at the baby, the thick head of dark hair catching my eye. It was sticking up in places, much like how Jason's does. On the right side of the room and behind the door, I saw a white crib. It was lined with yellow linens and a mobile hung over it with different types of birds on it. On the wall next to it, there were animals painted above it. There was a book shelf behind the crib, baby books and toys perched on their shelves. There were other baby items around the room, a swing in one corner and a tub of toys in another. How on Earth had I not seen it when I first entered the room? A million questions tried to form at once in my mind, fighting for the chance to get out of my mouth. None of them seemed to be winning though, the utter confusion settling nicely on my tongue.

Why the fuck was Tommy holding a baby? Whose baby was that? What on Earth was going on here? Was I missing something huge while I was in Miami getting drunk? All these questions whirled around inside of my brain as it tried to process things. Could it be possible that I was finally having a psychotic break down? It would explain everything happening in front of me right now. There was no plausible reason for there to be a baby in the room. Tommy, yes. Ten pound baby, no.

"Hey." Tommy said softly, rocking back and forth. I didn't speak, unsure if there were any words to say that would be right. Jason stepped into the room next to me, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Kim, you gotta say something here." He whispered, turning to look at me. I didn't move, my eyes locked on the baby in front of me. "I know you've gotta have a lot of questions right now."

"You think?" I asked, craning my neck to look at him. "Did you and Tommy adopt a baby?"

"No!" He exclaimed, holding up his hands. "Let's go downstairs so we can talk." He walked out the door and I followed him, heading down the stairs. He stopped in the dining room, pulling a chair out for me. I shook my head, choosing to stand in the doorway. "I think you might want to sit down."

"I think I'm fine here. Jason, whose baby is that? Did you have a baby with someone after Trini died?" I asked, the questions finally coming through. I thought for a moment, realizing the baby looked about six months old. I gasped. "Did you get someone pregnant when you were with Trini?"

"I would never do that. I know this is a lot to process-."

"A lot to process? You have a baby! Not like a newborn either, Jason. Like a baby you haven't told me about for at least a few months. What is going on?"

"Do you remember when Trini had her cancer scare?" He asked, leaning on the back of the chair he had pulled out. I shook my head.

"No. What cancer scare?" I asked. He groaned, scratching the top of his head.

"Of all people, I was hoping she at least told you. She was scared to tell people though because she didn't want anyone to worry. Two summers ago, Trini started having some weird pains. She didn't go into detail or anything, just that whenever it was the time of the month, it hurt worse than it should have. When she went to the doctor, she had some abnormal results come back and the doc thought could be cancerous. She had to have some kind of biopsy so they could test the cells. We sat on pins and needles for days. Finally, he called us in and he told us that it wasn't cancerous. He did, however, tell us that Trini had a very high chance of getting cancer if she didn't have everything removed."

"Everything?" I asked. He nodded.

"Uterus, ovaries. The whole thing. Trini was devastated because she still wanted to have kids. The doctor told us he would take her eggs and freeze them until we were ready to have kids. He warned us that the percentage of success went down the longer we waited but it was our only chance. She had the surgery and when she came out of recovery, she told me she wanted to start trying to have a family. I thought it was the drugs they had here all strung out on but she said the same thing after she had healed. I tried to tell her we should wait until we were married but she didn't want to chance the fact it could fail with her limited eggs." Pulling the chair back, Jason sat. I walked over, pulling the chair from across him out and sat down. "The clinic helped us find a surrogate here in town. It took forever but we found a nice girl who was willing to carry for us. The first attempt failed and we had to wait a couple weeks for the next one. That one failed too. We only had enough for one more round. I wasn't optimistic at this point. I kept telling Trini that we should wait because it just didn't seem like it was meant to be. She seemed to know better than me though."

"What do you mean?"

"A couple days after our third and final round, we got the call that it had worked. We were pregnant. It was a couple days after the Fourth of July. Trini was ecstatic. She knew it would work and she was determined to do everything she could to make sure this pregnancy went great. She helped our surrogate with everything from groceries to doing her laundry for her. She drove her to every appointment and started counting down the days to the due date. We found out towards the beginning of September that it was a girl. Trini was over the moon and already in love with her. I told her that we had to start telling people about the baby. She wasn't sure how to do it. Not even our parents knew at that point. It was the hardest secret I ever had to keep…well besides being a ranger." He smirked, resting his hands on the table in front of him.

"Why didn't she tell me?" I asked, leaning into the chair.

"She wanted to. She planned this big huge reveal for Thanksgiving. She invited everyone here so we could do it at once." He replied. My head shot up, an empty feeling in my chest.

"Thanksgiving?" I whispered. He nodded. "That's why she wanted me to come so badly. I thought it was because she wanted me to make up with Tommy. She pushed so hard that I always figured that. She wanted me here so she could tell me about the baby."

"You weren't the only one who wouldn't have been able to make it. She was still trying though. She kept trying to come up with ways that were legal to kidnap you. I don't think she cared about anyone else knowing if you didn't know. She was even considering going to Florida to tell you in person." I felt tears brim my eyes. I had been so stupid and self-absorbed that I never noticed that she had something she wanted to tell me. That she didn't want me here just to play match maker. She had happy, life changing news she wanted to tell me and like usual, I made it all about me. Regret washed over me.

"I told her no." I whispered. Jason reached across the table and grabbed my hand.

"She knew, Kim. She knew." He gave my hand a squeeze and smiled softly in my direction. "Right before the accident, she told me that she didn't blame you for not wanting to come back. She knew she would figure out a way to tell you somehow."

"How did you manage this after the accident?" Sighing, he sat back in his chair again.

"I can't even tell you to be honest. Now that I think back on it, I think it was mostly autopilot. When I found out about Trini, I had no clue what to do with myself, let alone a baby. I didn't think I'd be able to handle raising a baby on my one. The agency we were using offered to let someone else take the baby once it was born and place her up for adoption. I knew I couldn't do that. Both of our parents offered to take her as well. I had to tell them. I didn't know what else to do. I knew I couldn't let someone else take my baby with Trini. She was my responsibility and the only piece of her I had left." Running a hand over his hair, he shook his head. "She was born at the end of January. I was petrified. I had just lost Trini and now, here I was with a baby I had no clue how to take care of. She was this tiny thing that scared the hell out of me more than anything I faced as a Ranger. At that point, I had already lost contact with you and everyone else had gone on with their lives. I knew I had to figure this out because I told Trini I would do anything to protect her and the baby. I had already failed her. I couldn't fail again."

"Jase, you didn't fail Trini. It's not your fault that she died. There was no way to protect her from an accident you didn't know was happening." I said. He nodded.

"I know that now. But then, I thought for sure that I had failed everyone. I had given up on you instead of trying to help you. I was shutting everyone out. I knew Trini would have been pissed for the way I was behaving. It all changed though the moment they handed me that little girl. It was like opening my eyes for the first time since Trini died. I saw a purpose for living and didn't want to just give up like I had been doing. It was rough and bumpy first couple of months. My mom basically lived here for a while so she could teach me everything I needed to know about taking care of a baby. I still think I don't have a clue but I seem to be holding my own alright."

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have come back here to help you." I said.

"I didn't deserve your help. After I lost contact with you, I had every chance in the world before the baby came to try to patch things up with you but I didn't. I was more worried about my own pain and how I was going to take care of things here. I wish I had though. I could have stopped your drinking before it became as bad as it did. I think the main reason I didn't was because I felt guilty. I had let you down just like I let Trini down. Only, I didn't have to face Trini like I would have had to if I reached out to you. You were still here and it made me feel like an asshole for turning my back on you."

"I didn't really make it easy though." I muttered, crossing my arms. "I didn't want to be found."

"Exactly. So when your boss called me out of the blue, I knew something was up. When he told me about your drinking and how things were getting out of control, I knew it was time to face the music." There was noise on the stairs, causing both of us to turn. Tommy appeared at the bottom of the stairs, the now awake baby in his arms. The baby girl was sitting up, leaning against his chest as he walked into the room. Her thick black hair was still sticking up in places and I saw warm chocolate almond shaped eyes that lit up when she saw other people. She smiled when she saw Jason, holding her hands out towards her father.

"Someone woke up from her nap." Tommy said, bouncing her. She giggled, squirming in his hands. Jason stood up, pushing away from the table. He smiled as he walked towards Tommy.

"There's my baby girl. Come see Daddy." He cooed, scooping her up into his arms. He spun on his heel, facing the baby towards me. "There's someone I want you to meet. Ann, this is your Aunt Kimberly." He said. I covered my mouth with my hands at the sound of her name.

"Ann?" I whispered. He nodded, smiling down at me as he stepped forward.

"It's Ann Rose Kwan-Scott. Trini wanted to name her after her best friend." The tears flowed them, streaming down my face as Jason held Ann out towards me. "You want to hold her?" I nodded, taking the baby in my hands.

"Hi." I whispered, propping her up on the table so she was sitting up. She looked at me with wondering eyes, taking me in. She had on a pink and white dress, drool staining the front of it. The more I looked at her features, the more I saw Trini looking back at me. Ann had the same shaped nose as hers, slightly pointy and dainty. Her ears were the same as well, small but more curved than most. The rest of her was all Jason though, from the lips to the butt shaped chin. After examining me for a minute, she gave me a slobbery smile before giggling. I felt more tears slid out as I looked down at the last remaining part of my best friend on this Earth. She was beautiful. She was a part of Trini that I had never dreamed as possible. Yet, here she was. "She's perfect." I said, kissing her forehead. She lifted her hands and put them on my cheeks, squeezing them together. I let out a laugh, causing her to laugh. It turned into a fit of giggles which might have been the most beautiful sound I had ever heard in my entire life.

"Someone likes you." Jason said, leaning against the table. "Usually, she slaps everyone in the face the first time she meets them."

"Yeah, I wonder where she gets that from." I said, grinning over at Jason. I noticed that Tommy was standing in the door way now, trying to be out of the way. He kicked at the floor, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He had on a dark green t-shirt, some white powder I was assuming to be baby formula, smeared on the front of it.

"I can't help it that she's already a natural at martial arts." Jason said proudly, bending down and picking her up. He sniffed her butt, making a face of disgust. "Whew. You're also a natural at farts. C'mon, kid. Let's go change your raunchy ass while Aunt Kim and Uncle Tommy talk." Jason walked out of the dining room, his footsteps travelling up the stairs to the baby's room. Slowly, I stood up from my chair and stepped towards Tommy.

"I'm sorry I lied to you. That's something the two of us has to learn to stop saying to each other, I suppose." He said, not looking at me. "I didn't want to but Jason said it was the only way this would work. I wanted to tell you the moment I saw you. I told Jason I would come down to check on you because he couldn't just leave the baby."

"I know but then what would we talk about? Probably nothing as exciting as this." I replied, him shifting his gaze to look up at me. "A lot of things seem to be making more sense now that I think about it. Like how you wanted me to come back to Angel Grove so bad and not Reefside. Or why you kept insisting we come and find Jason instead of calling him. And I'm going to guess that everyone else knows about the baby as well. That's what Kat was digging at the other night at dinner." He nodded.

"She only found out about a month or so ago when she came to visit. The rest of them have known since she was born. I was the only one who knew before that. Jason told me the night Trini died."

"I should have been here." I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself. "I should have been here to help. I could have helped Jason with the baby and with all of this so he didn't have to do it alone."

"He didn't do it alone. He had his family here helping him. How could you have known if they didn't tell you, Kim?" He asked. "He didn't know what he was going to do and at the time, he thought that everyone was dealing with Trini's death just fine. The two of you have a lot in common. You both blame yourselves for shit you couldn't control." Tommy swallowed hard. "I hope you're not too mad at me for lying to you. Again."

"I'm not mad." I stated, shaking my head. "I know I probably should be a little bit but I'm not. You were doing what you thought was best. I can't blame you for that."

"You sure? Cause you tend to do that all the time."

"Do you want me to be mad at you? Cause I can be." I retorted, raising an eyebrow at him. He shook his head, giving me a small smile. "I can't believe you hid this secret so well. I see what you meant by some of us being able to keep secrets better than others."

"Well, it wasn't easy. I'm shocked I didn't spill the beans last night when I was plastered. Which, again, let me apologize for that as well. You should have had to take care of me like that." I laughed.

"I think it was a bit of poetic justice if you ask me. All this time, people were taking care of my drunk ass. It was definitely a change to have to take care of someone else when they are shit faced. Why were you so drunk? Just having fun or was all this getting to you?"

"Something like that." He replied, rubbing the back of his hair. "Thank you for taking care of me though. And nothing shocks you our of a hangover faster than having someone come up missing. I still feel like I was hit by a bus. I don't know how you managed to live through this every day."

"I wasn't missing. I knew exactly where I was. You get used to it, Mr. Lightweight. What happened when you woke up?"

"Well, Jason called me a couple times and I finally woke up. He told me about you screaming at him. I must have just missed you when you left. I headed over here and we called around, seeing where you might have gone. Your stuff was all still at Billy's so we figured you weren't too far. Then Jason figured you were probably the last place anyone would think you would have gone." Sighing, I let my arms fall to my sides. Looking at Tommy, I could tell he felt better than he had in a long time. As if a release had coming, letting him be able to breathe again. He didn't have to hide that secret from me anymore, that weight off his shoulders. In the first time since Tommy had walked into my life again, a genuine smile crossed his lips.

"I didn't mean to worry you guys." I said. "I just thought that Jason didn't want me around and that you had lied about it. So, I was bouncing out of the picture. I really thought that Jason had you lie to me because he just didn't want to see me. I didn't know what else to do but run. It's what I do best, I guess. I figured you cared more about Jason's feelings than my own since you were willing to lie to be about this. But, like most things, I overlooked the fact that maybe you had my best interests in mind." Tommy had been trying to protect me from myself this whole time. If I had found out about the baby while I was in Florida and still drinking, I knew exactly what I would have done and it made me sick to my stomach to think about. He did everything in his power to get me here and made sure I was safe along the way. "So, is this what you and Dr. McAvoy had to talk about before we came down here?"

"Somewhat." He replied.

"What do you mean?"

"There's just some stuff that's better if you heard it from her, that's all. I really don't know much about it. I told her about Annie and she told me that she had some stuff she was going to tell you when we came back." He explained. "I promise, that's all I know."

"You are a man of mystery, Mr. Oliver." I stated, smiling at him.

"Not any more I'm not." He replied, letting out a sigh of relief. "And it feels great not to be." Stepping over to Tommy, I wrapped my arms around his torso in a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around me, returning the gesture. Rubbing my back, he rested his head on top of mine.

"Thank you." I whispered. "For all of this."

"Anytime, Beautiful. Anytime."

"Uh oh, Annie. Cover your eyes." Jason said, covering the baby's face as he walked back into the room. I rolled my eyes, pulling away from Tommy as I did. "C'mon, guys. There's a baby in the room. Control yourselves."

"Oh, ha ha." I said. I noticed Jason had changed his clothes, sporting a dark red dress shirt and a pair of black slacks. "Did you dress up on my account?" I asked, gesturing at him.

"No. We have a wedding to go to, remember?" He replied, bouncing Annie in his arms.

"Really?" Tommy asked. "You sure, man?" Jason nodded.

"I didn't think I would be able to handle it but I think I'll be okay. I might resent the fact that it should be Trini and I getting married but I can't hold it against Aisha and Rocky. This is their day and they deserve to have us all there to celebrate with. Besides, I'm going to have the cutest date in the whole place." He leaned down and kissed Annie on the cheek, causing her to giggle loudly.

"I just still can't believe it." I said, gazing over at the baby. "She is the perfect blend of you and Trini."

"Thankfully, she's pretty like her Mommy. God knows no one wants her to look like me when she's older. Might help me keep the boys away though."

"That'll be my job." Tommy said, reaching over and taking her from Jason's arms. "No one gets passed Uncle Tommy when it comes to my little Annie." He cooed, smiling down at her.

"Good to see she has you two wrapped around her fingers already." I said, my heart feeling warm as I watched Tommy hold her. If this didn't do anything for my uterus, I didn't know what would. Watching him hold her made me want to dumb my birth control out the window and say fuck it. I knew that wasn't a smart decision seeing as we weren't even together. And I think our group could only handle one surprise baby at a time here. "So, were you pulling baby duty while running a Ranger team?" I asked. Tommy nodded.

"Yeah. I would split my time between here and Reefside. It wasn't easy with the team being in the pictures and I didn't want them to know. It worked out though. I spent most of my weekends here and was able to work around the attacks. And when the team was able to disband, it made things a lot easier. Well, that it until I went to Florida to find you." Tommy answered, stroking the top of her head.

"You don't realize how useful teleporting was until you can't use it anymore." Jason said, crossing his arms. "You and Billy really got find a way to bring that shit back. Especially if gas prices keep going up the way they are."

"I'll keep that in mind." Tommy muttered, rolling his eyes. "We should get back to Billy's if we're going to be ready for the wedding in time." He said, glancing over at the clock on the wall. I frowned, reaching over and picking up Annie's hand.

"I don't want to leave her though." I pouted.

"I'm bringing her to the wedding." Jason said, giving me a reassuring smile. "I don't think half an hour apart is going to hurt anything."

"I don't think I'm ever going to be able to let her out of my sights." I whispered, her big brown eyes gazing up at me as she smiled.