Thanks to SuperGeorgia and BlkWilliams for reviewing, a special thanks to berrisweet101 for helping me with the story.
Tommy sat with his mother at the table while Elizabeth watched TV; in front of him was a plate with a hamburger on it.
"So you lost your job," Didi said, "and now you're a janitor?"
"Sounds about right." Tommy said, picking up the hamburger and biting into it.
"What about rent?'
"I have two weeks until I have to pay rent, and payday's two days before rents do, I only need eighty dollars, two weeks of work will get me there."
"Well I wish you the best." Didi said, "lord know's you need it.'
Tommy nodded, "so how's retirement?" Tommy asked.
"It's very good," Didi said smiling, 'I finally get to have some relaxation times, something I never got when you and your brother were here.
Tommy scratched his head, "yeah, we really ran you into the ground didn't we?" he asked, Since Tommy had been little his mother was the one that actually took care of them, his father had left when Dil had been born, leaving Didi to take care of both of them, which made tommy hate his father even more.
"You two never seemed to run out of energy," she said, "I thought someone fed you sugar for breakfast lunch and dinner."
Tommy shrugged grinning, "I think I just made things worse for you." He said, he looked over at Elizabeth, who had fallen asleep watching Avatar.
"How's Elizabeth doing?'
"Oh she's great, just enrolled her in school, and she's already got a group of friends."
"It took you forever to get friends," she said, "you always got into fights for the stupidest of reasons, like when that one little boy pulled Kimi's hair and you beat him up."
"He shouldn't have pulled her hair," Tommy muttered, "and speaking of fights, Elizabeth got into one today."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah, some punk was throwing rocks at her and her friends, even hit her friend Alyssa in the head, so Elizabeth walked over and punched him."
"What did the principal said."
"The kid she punched was his son, so he sided with him, he was convinced my daughter was no good because of who her father was."
"Well that's not very fair." Didi said.
"Guess now a days there's no such thing as fair," he said, "it's who your parents are and how much of a pampered little…prince you are." Tommy said, catching himself in time.
Didi sighed, "but why would he just follow his sons word so blindly? Everyone can see that Elizabeth is the sweetest girl, she can't hurt a fly."
"Apparently she can," tommy said smirking, "considering she punched the boys lights out."
Didi shook her head, smiling, "she has a small bit of her father in her, but I think she's too much like her mother.'
Tommy's smirk disappeared, "I know…" he muttered, "she reminds me so much of her…"
"I know," Didi said, "the only difference is her hair."
Tommy nodded then stood up, "I better get her home," Tommy said, "if I know her she'll be out for the rest of the night.'
"be good Tommy, I don't want Angelica bailing you out again, she's got enough problems of her own."
Tommy nodded and picked up Elizabeth's sleeping body, "goodbye ma, we'll visit Sunday," he said, walking out.
"goodbye tommy! Don't forget to get here early! "
"of course!" tommy said, walking down the street,he walked a couple of blocks and then turned down his street, he got to his house and saw someone's' car parked in his driveway, 'what the hell?" Tommy muttered, then walked into the house, in the living room was a guy going through the bags that Tommy had forgotten to throw away, he was a sturdy looking man with a shaved head, he was in a business suit, his suit jacket on the chair as he inspected things with critical eyes, "excuse me," tommy said, "can I ask you why your in my house?"
"ah you must be Mr. Pickles." He said standing up.
"yeah," tommy said, "and who are you?"
"I'm with Child services,my name is Agent Carter, I got a call from the school today saying that your daughter left the school with a bloody nose, two concerned parents said that they saw you hit her."
"what?"
"you heard me," Carter said, standing up, "Now, I don't know if the part where you hit her is true, but in my search I did find a pretty yellow dress covered in dry blood in the trash." He said, "care to explain."
"she got into a fight at school," tommy said, "Kid was throwing rocks at her and her friends, she punched him, gave him a bloody nose and the blood got on her clothes, i didn't even want to try and get the blod out so i put it in the trash.."
"were their any eyewitnesses."
"I don't know, I only found out when I went to go pick her up." Tommy muttered, carrying Elizabeth into her room and laying her in the bed, putting the covers over her, he walked back.
"mhmm, from what the principal says, he tried calling you numerous times to talk to you, do you not have a phone Mr. Pickles?"
"it got shut off yesterday night."
"ah, struggling to pay." Carter said, pulling out a clip board and writing something down, "now, I'm here to make sure Elizabeth is taken care of,and from what I've seen, it's not going too good for you, unpaid bills in the trash, over a dozen empty beer bottles with them," Carter reached into his pocket and pulled something out, tossing it to him, "and I found these on the coffee table, within reach of your daughter, and with a lighter in side."
"damn it kimi." Tommy muttered.
"kimi, who is this? You're wife? Girlfriend?"
"friend," tommy said, "I don't have a wife or a girlfriend."
"then where is her mother."
"she…she's passed."
Carter nodded, "sorry for your loss." He said, "now, normally, with these conditions, no food in the fridge, no job, unpaid bills, Alcohol and Cigarettes close to the child, fights, I could take all this to the cops, to the courts, and have Elizabeth put in my custody so we can put her in a foster home, but I also see that you're trying Mr. Pickles, so here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to give you a month before I come back to check up on you, if things have improved, then my report goes into the trash, but if they are the same, or worse, I'll have to call it in." Carter pulled out a card and placed it on the counter, "if you need anything call me," he said, walking out into the night.
Tommy watched him leave, his hands balled up into fists, his hair covered his eyes as tears streaked down his face.
Tommy sat with Rachel backstage, "you ready?" tommy asked her.
"um…I'm not sure," she muttered, 'I'm so nervous, what if we lose?"
"then we sign up for the next battle," Tommy said, "and the next until we win."
"But…but what if…what if I'm not good enough?"
"Rachel, you're perfect, okay you're going to go out there and rock it while I try to keep up."
Rachel smiled a little, "you never can keep up with me pickles," she said.
"that's the spirit." Tommy said grinning.
Z walked over, "hey guy's, we're on in like five minutes," he said, "our stuff's already on stage, lets go!"and with that he took off to the stage.
Tommy smiled and stood up, helping Rachel up, "wait, before we go." Tommy said, kissing Rachel.
"w-w-what was that for?" she asked, blushing a bit.
"good luck." He said grinning, running onto the stage, Rachel followed, a smile on her face.
"and now, introducing a new upcoming band, Birdsong!" the announcer shouted, their were polite claps as the curtain opened, showing the four teens standing on stage.
Tommy started strumming his guitar, playing the intro to 'bullets' by creed, Z stepped forward and breathed into the mike, "walking around I hear the sound, the earth seeking relief, I'm trying t find a reason to live but the mindless clutter my bath, oh these thorns in my side, oh, these thorns in my side,, I know I have something free, I have something so alive. But I think they shoot 'cause they want it, I think they shoot 'cause they want, I THINK THEY SHOOT CAUSE THEY WANT IT!"
The sudden change in tempo caused the audience to sit up straighter and listen, mesmerized by the skill of this new band, they all jumped up and cheered as they finished the song, screams for an encore echoed through.
"alright, lets slow it down a little." Tommy said into the mike and nodded to kimi, who leaned over to a keyboard at her side, playing a few simple key strokes, Rachel took a deep breath and walked forward.
"how can you see into my eyes, like open doors?"
at the first line many in the audience jumped up in joy. "i love this song!" someone shouted in the back.
Rachel smiled and continued, at the chorus Tommy sang the male parts and the crowd went nuts, the band Birdsong walked off stage, before the curtains closed the audience got a look of Rachel kissing Tommy, who leaned into the kiss eagerly.
"what was that for?" Tommy asked smiling.
Rachel looked into his eyes, smiling, "for good luck," she said mockingly, walking away.
the buzzer went off in Tommy's ear, making him sit up, Dil was sitting next to him wearing his usual weird clothes, "slept in again huh T?" he asked, holding the buzzer, the time on it said 10:30 AM.
"oh shit." tommy said getting up.
"it's alright, I already took her to school," Dil said standing up, "I heard you had a rough night last night."
"Yeah, some chump from child services came, told me I have a month to make everything better," Tommy stood up and walked over to the lightswitch, flicking it up, but the power didn't turn on, he flicked it on and off but the lights remained off, "and now they shut my power off, fuckin' great."
"you need money?" Dil asked.
"no," Tommy muttered, he always hated when Dil asked that, since he had started working for some big time corporation Dil has found that he has more money then he needs, and he always tries to give it to Tommy, much to the older boy's irritation, "I don't need your money Dil, you know I don't take hand outs."
"Don't see it as a hand out T, see it as one bro helping another."
"I see it as a hand out dil, and I don't take hand outs, I said that I could take care of Elizabeth without help from anyone else, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."
"come on T, you know you need some help,"
"no I don't Dil, I get my check today, so that should help."
Dil sighed, "alright, alright."
"so, how's Josh?"
"oh he's doing great," Dil said, "he got a job at First National Bank as a teller, and we've gotten a nice house ni the suberbs."
"awesome bro," Tommy said, then noticed something on Dil's hand, "hey dil, what's that?"
Dil looked at his hand, "oh yeah, I was hoping to tell everyone Sunday," he pulled the ring off of his hand, "Josh proposed a few days ago."
Tommy's eyes widened a little, "That's…that's awesome Dil."
"yeah I know," Dil said, "I didn't think he was going to do it until I saw the ring."
"I'm happy for you man, who woulda known Josh was going to do it huh?"
"I know," he said, "so, what are you going to do today?"
"I gotta go get my last check from the construction yard," Tommy said, picking up his jacket and putting it on.
"I heard about you getting fired, sorry bro.
"don't be, the boss was a douche."
Dil nodded, "so are you going to need me to pick up Elizabeth?"
"yeah," tommy said, "that would help," he walked out and down the street, back towards his old job site.
Mr. Green sat in his office, counting up the money he made this month, and all the money he had cheated out of the workers, "almost makes me guilty doing this," he said, smirking, "almost."
A knock on the door made him look over, "come in!" he said, quickly putting away the paperwork, he almost jumped up in fear when he saw Tommy Pickles walk in, "Pickles! W-w-what are you doing here!"
"I'm here for my last check," tommy said, glaring at Mr. Green, "or are you going to hold that from me too."
Uh…why of course not!" green said, pulling out a check and writing on it, 'h-here.'
Tommy took it and looked at it, "this isn't right," he said, you owe me another hundred."
"I-i-i-I do?"
"yes," tommy said, "what kind of trick are you tryin' to pull Green."
'No trick!" Green said angrily, "the hundred is for assaulting me!"
"I already paid that fee!" Tommy shouted, "you can't do that!"
"oh but I did Tommy!" Green growled, "you're lucky I'm giving you that! If I had it any other way I wouldn't give you anything! Especially since your violating the restraining order the court gave you."
Tommy clenched his fists, "you little snake." He growled.
"what are you going to do? Go to the authorities? Who are they going to believe? A drop out, or someone with actual credibility to his name. Now get out, before I call for security."
Tommy glared at him then left.
Mr. green smiled, he was scared of Tommy, the boy had more evidence to put Green away then anyone, but I still have some power over him, Green tought with a satisfied smirk.
Tommy sat with his back to the wall of some business, "I'm so fucked," he said, "I'm going to be short this month…" he sighed and looked around, then stood up, walking down the street, going to a payphone, dialing a number.
"…hello?" Kimi's voice asked.
"Kimi, it's tommy."
"hey Tommy, what's up?'
"you got a gig lined up yet?"
"yeah," Kimi said, "got it yesterday."
"still room for me?"
"you mean you'll do a gig?'
"yeah, I'll do it." Tommy said, I have to…