I'm the Mother and the Father - Chapter 2

I'm the Father and the Mother?
A Ranma Fanfic by Michael A. Ivins

Ranma and friends are owned by Rumiko Takahashi along with her publishers and Viz Video. I make no money off this so please don't sue me.


Chapter 2
Explanations and Complications

Standing in Nabiki’s bedroom, Ranma was crying on the older girl’s shoulder. Nabiki wasn't accustomed to comforting people, but she remembered things done for her in the past. She spoke soothing words, rubbed Ranma's back and stroked her hair. It seemed that what she was doing worked because eventually the tears stopped. It wasn’t much longer before Ranma relaxed the grip she had on Nabiki.

Ranma grabbed a tissue from the nightstand beside Nabiki's bed and used it to wipe the wetness from her eyes and the tear tracks from her face. After blowing her nose she tossed the tissue into the trashcan. She regained her composure with effort. “I'm sorry Nabiki. Dr. Tofu warned me I might get like that. I've got an excess of female hormones right now and with all the uncertainty of my situation right now, it's kind of overwhelming. From what the Dr. said, I could get weepy and emotional at almost any time.”

Nabiki patted her back. “That’s Ok, Ranma. I understand.”

Ranma took several deep breaths to assure she was calm. After a glance at the clock on Nabiki's desk, she said, “Let's go see if Kasumi has anything ready for lunch. I have to go out again in about an hour.”

Nabiki raised an eyebrow in inquiry. “Where are you going?”

The redhead explained, “I have to get that DNA test I told you about. I've got to go to a women's clinic where they'll take the sample.”

Giving in to her guilt, Nabiki asked, “Did… you want me to come with you?”

Ranma's eyes widened in surprise at the offer. “I thought you didn't like dealing with emotional situations like this.”

Nabiki's expression was contrite. “Just because I play the part of the Ice Queen, doesn't mean I don't have emotions. I'm just really good at hiding them. I want to go with you to your appointment because I do feel responsible. Like it or not, you made me realize that I’m already involved.”

Ranma sighed then said quietly, “Thank you.” She paused and more brightly, “Let's get something to eat. If we don't eat now we won't have time before my appointment.”

Nabiki took a close look at Ranma's face. “Your eyes are red from crying.”

The redhead replied, “Not much I can do about it now. I'll just have to hope nobody notices. It's a pretty safe bet that neither of our dads will.”

The brown haired girl snorted. Neither man was known for sensitivity. She said, “That's for sure.”

They left Nabiki's room and headed down the stairs. Before they could get to the kitchen, Akane called out to Ranma.

The black haired girl put a hand on Ranma's shoulder. She took a hard look at the shorter girl's face. She could see the reddened eyes from crying but didn't comment on it. Maybe he wasn’t doing anything perverted. Maybe he’d had a problem he’d been trying to get Nabiki to help with. It was certain that the macho boy wouldn’t admit to Akane that he had a weakness. The youngest Tendo did ask, “Are you Ok? You aren't sick are you?”

Ranma decided that a partial truth would be better than an outright like. She said, “I… don't know for sure. Gotta wait for the results of the blood and other tests. Dr. Tofu also has me scheduled for a test this afternoon. I'm going to be heading out right after lunch.”

Akane paled at that. Even if her fiancé were a pervert she wouldn’t wish anything fatal on him. The fact that another medical test had to be done didn’t bode well. “Did… did he said what he thought might be wrong?”

Ranma shook her head. “He said he wanted cover all bases and to make sure.”

The black haired girl growled, “That's worse than just saying, `I think you might have cancer,' or something. This way you can imagine all kinds of horrible things.”

Ranma just said, “Yeah, I know.” Her tone clearly carried the message, “Thanks for reminding me.”

Akane cringed a bit at that. She asked, “Do you need someone to go with you?”

“Thanks Akane, but Nabiki already offered.”

Akane thought of something sarcastic to say but decided to keep it to herself. Instead she just said, “OK,” and gave Ranma a little squeeze on the shoulder.

Ranma and Nabiki found that Kasumi and Nodoka had left to do something together. Being left to fend for themselves, the two girls rummaged around in the refrigerator and finally found some leftovers that could be made into sandwiches. They ate quickly and left.

As they walked to the bus stop Ranma said, “Akane could tell I was crying. She knows something's up or she wouldn't have asked if I was sick. I don't like lying to her but I didn't know what else to do. If she finds out what you and I did, I'm gonna to get smashed into orbit with mallet-sama. I mean how much can I tell her?”

Nabiki had been thinking about this very question. She suggested, “It should be safe enough to say that I walked in on you and splashed you.”

Ranma shook her head. “How can we tell her about that without telling her what I was doing when you splashed me. I was thinking about Akane when I was doing that. She'll call me a pervert again and bash me, just like she always does.”

Nabiki surprised herself by growling angrily, “She'd better not hit a pregnant woman. She'd especially better not hit a pregnant woman who is my lover.”

“Nabiki?” The tone was surprised. She thought to herself, “She really does care about me.”

Now that they were talking about the subject of Akane and Mallet-Sama, there was something Nabiki desperately wanted to know. “I've never understood why you let her hit you all the time. You're supposed to be the greatest martial artist of your generation. You should be able to dodge the mallet or take it away from her.”

At this, Ranma shrugged. She didn’t think Nabiki would have understood this. “The mallet is made of chi. If I took it away from her, she'd could just make another one. If I dodged it, she might hit you or Kasumi or someone else.”

This wasn’t something Nabiki had thought of. “You mean you've been letting Akane bash you to protect the rest of us… from Akane?”

“Well… yeah, of course.” She would have thought this would be obvious for the very reasons Nabiki had stated. “You don't think I'd stand still for that because I like being hit do you?”

That was what it had started to look like. Nabiki said, “I have to confess there were times I wondered.”

In a firm tone Ranma said, “Well, I don't like it. It seems to be getting worse too. I don't know how much longer I can take it.”

Nabiki digested that. She hadn’t known that Ranma was running out of patience with her fiancé, but it made sense. “Ranma, maybe you two need to talk to a counselor or something. I know that people who love each other can sometimes fight and make up later. But I'm pretty sure that those kinds of fights are just arguing and maybe yelling. It is not normal for a girl to beat the man she loves with a mallet.”

Ranma considered that and commented, “We usually seem to miss that ‘make up later’ part. Maybe a counselor would be a good idea, or even a shrink.”

Nabiki paused a moment. “Maybe when you're looking for a counselor you might also sign Akane up for some anger management classes.”

With a snort, Ranma asked, “D'ya think it would help?”

The older girl shrugged. “It couldn't hurt.”

They broke off their conversation because they had arrived at the bus stop and there were other people waiting. They weren't ready to share Ranma's problems with the rest of the world yet.

They spent the bus ride in silence. When they got to their stop it was a walk of about a block to get to the women's clinic.

Inside the clinic Ranma walked up to the reception desk and told the woman there, “I'm Saotome Ranma. Dr. Ono Tofu set up an appointment for me to be tested.”

The receptionist checked her computer. “Oh, yes. Your appointment is at 2:00. You are a little early, but that's not a problem.”

She handed Ranma a clipboard with several sheets of paper and a pen under the clip. “Alright, Miss Saotome, you can take those papers to the waiting room and fill them out there. If you finish before your name is called just hold onto them and give them to the nurse who calls your name. Will this other young lady be waiting with you?”

Ranma nodded. She didn't bother trying to correct the mistaken impression about the name, it saved a lot of argument. The receptionist pointed and said, “The waiting room is through those doors.”

The two girls went into the waiting room and seated themselves on a couch. Ranma started filling out the forms she'd been given. It was after she finished with the name, address and other standard info that she came questions about medical history. She needed help.

Nabiki had started to read one of the old magazines from the table in front of the couch when Ranma tapped her shoulder. Ranma leaned close and whispered in her ear, “These questions are for a girl. I don't know how to answer them. Help me, please.”

Nabiki leaned close so she could whisper to Ranma. She then proceeded to point out questions on the page and tell what answers the redhead should give. Most of it was “Check the `Yes' or `No' box for this or that question.”

Finally they finished and Ranma signed and dated the last form. She commented, “Man, they're nosy.”

Nabiki reasonably pointed out, “They can't keep you healthy if the don't know what condition you're in. We only left out anything about your curse. For this, they don't need to know that you can change.”

Any further conversation was cut off when a woman in a nurse's uniform called out the name “Saotome Ranma.” She was standing in a doorway that led farther into the clinic.

Ranma handed the clipboard to the nurse who looked over it before leading her into the hallway. Ranma submitted to being weighed and having her height measured. Her temperature was taken as well as her blood pressure. She had to answer more questions while a woman checked boxes on a form and jotted additional notes.

Finally she had to change out of her clothing into one of those gowns that tie in the back. She was getting to feel really nervous now and embraced the soul of ice to keep her emotions under control.

As the actual procedure was taking place, she tried as much as she could to ignore the sensations of a probe being inserted into her vagina. She told the technicians that she would be using a meditation technique to separate her mind from her body. While they felt a bit skeptical, this girl was from Nerima after all and some of the martial artists in that town could do things like this girl described.

It seemed like a timeless time later that a voice called to her. “Miss Saotome… Miss Saotome. We're done. That was quite a demonstration of mental control you just gave us.”

When Ranma looked she saw a short woman in a lab coat. The woman had brown hair streaked with a few strands of gray and wasn’t much taller than Ranma herself. The nametag pinned to the white coat proclaimed her to be Dr. Hinagami.

“Uh, thanks. I didn't really want to think about what was happening to my body, so I sort of separated my mind from it. I guess it worked because I don't really remember any of what you did.”

The doctor nodded in recognition of the feat, then said, “On the forms you filled out you requested that we phone the results of this test to Dr. Ono Tofu, is that correct?”

Ranma confirmed, “Yes. He's been the family doctor for a while.”

That was somewhat irregular, but not that unusual. Still, she asked, “Are you sure you wouldn't prefer getting the results from a woman?”

“No, that's OK. I trust him.”

The doctor shrugged, “As you wish.”

After getting dressed again, Ranma rejoined Nabiki in the waiting room. “I hope you weren't bored to death waiting for me.”

Nabiki held up a cell phone and replied, “I was able to do some business while I was waiting. How was the test?”

Ranma explained, “I used a meditation technique to separate my mind from my body. I don't really remember anything of what my body felt.”

Nabiki had to smile at that. “Something like that would have come in handy for me a few times. You'll have to teach it to me.”

“Sure. We can talk about it more when we get home.”

The ride on the bus was spent with Ranma apparently brooding. When they got off the bus and started walking back to the dojo, Nabiki tried to engage Ranma in conversation. She tried small talk about school, the latest idiocy committed by Kuno, some juicy gossip she'd heard. Ranma made polite sounds of acknowledgement but Nabiki could tell the red haired girl wasn't really listening.

Nabiki finally gave up on the conversation. The silence was broken by the sound of a bicycle bell. Fortunately Ranma heard that and dodged out of the way in time to avoid Shampoo crashing her bike down on her head. That still didn't prevent the purple haired Amazon from jumping off the bike and glomping the redhead.

“Oh, Airen, you take Shampoo on date?”

Shampoo expected Ranma to struggle; that was part of what made it fun. But she had not expected the force with which the redhead tried to extricate herself. Finally Ranma pushed Shampoo’s shoulders hard enough that the purple haired girl fell on her butt.

Ranma stood with her hands out and an expression of near panic on her face. “No Shampoo! No! I can't date you! I… I… I can't deal with you at all right now.” With that the girl with the pigtail turned and ran away as fast as she could.

The Chinese girl looked shocked. “Airen? What wrong?” All that could be seen of Ranma was her retreating back. No answer came to the question.

The Amazon girl got back to her feet and turned to Nabiki. Her demeanor stern and commanding, she demanded, “You, mercenary girl. What happen to Airen? Why he run away like that?”

Nabiki debated with herself for a moment, then decided to give an edited portion of the truth. “Ranma's… got some problems. His curse is locked and he's not handling it very well. He's also got a medical problem. We just came from a doctor where he was getting tests.”

“Airen sick? Curse locked too?” Shampoo considered that. “Shampoo know Airen have much pride but he should come talk to Great Grandmother. She know more about curse than anyone in Japan. Maybe can help with sickness too. What kind of sickness is it?”

Oh! What to tell her? She should have anticipated the need to have a story prepared. She normally had more presence of mind than this. She said the only thing that came to mind, “It's… a female problem.”

“Aiyah! Then Airen must come see Great Grandmother. She know more about woman problems that stupid doctors. She know 3000 years herbal and acupressure treatments for women. Besides if herbal treatment not work then unlock curse should cure.”

Nibiki sighed. “I'll talk to him. It is his decision after all.”

Shampoo nodded. Her expression turned stubborn as she said, “Shampoo give two days. If Airen not come see great Grandmother by then, Shampoo bring him.”

“Oh great,” thought Nabiki sarcastically. “Like I said, I'll talk to him. I can't promise anything. You know how hard it is to make Ranma do something he doesn't want to do.”

The Amazon wasn’t having it. “If Shampoo have to, will knock Airen out and carry him.” With that the Chinese girl hopped back on her bike and rode off.

“This isn't going to improve Ranma's mood,” thought Nabiki. “Still, talking to Cologne might be a good idea.”

At the Tendo dojo Ranma arrived out of breath. She stood in the living room panting. This must be more of those emotional problems from being pregnant, she thought. Certainly the meeting with Shampoo didn't warrant the kind of panic she had been feeling.

“Ranma,” a voice spoke from behind her. The red haired girl almost literally jumped in the air as she turned to face the speaker, her heart hammering in her chest. She found that her mother had returned from wherever it was she had gone with Kasumi earlier.

To the auburn haired mother her child’s distress was obvious. “Ranma, I'm worried. I can tell there is something more troubling you than just your curse being locked. Please tell me what it is.”

The redhead tried to calm herself. Maybe a delaying tactic would be the ticket until she could think of the right way to handle this. “Mom! You're right that there is more than just the lock on the curse that's bothering me. But I'm still finding out about it. It's nothing against you but I really don't want to talk about it until I have all the facts.”

Nodoka sighed. “I suppose I can respect that. Please promise me you'll come talk to me when you find out what you need to.” She placed a hand on Ranma's cheek and said, “You're my only child and I worry about you.”

“I promise mom.”

Noticing that Ranma had arrived alone, Nodoka asked, “Where's Nabiki? I thought she went with you.”

Before Ranma could answer they could hear Nabiki call out from the genkan, “Tadaima.”

“O-kaeri” called Ranma and Nodoka in unison.

“Oh, you're back, Auntie Nodoka.”

The auburn haired mother thought for a moment that this was what she had planned to say. Nodoka commented, “I was just wondering why Ranma arrived alone when I'd heard that she had left with you.”

Nibiki thought for a moment on how to phrase this. “We ran into Shampoo. She wanted to talk to me and Ranma ran on ahead.” There, all true even if did give the wrong impression.

“I see,” said Nodoka. She wondered, “Ranma seems to spending a lot of time with Nabiki these last couple of days. I wonder what’s up with them.”

As the two girls moved away from Nodoka, Nabiki whispered to the shorter girl, “What Shampoo said affects you. Let's go to my room and talk about it.”

As soon as the door of Nabiki's room closed behind them Ranma felt herself enfolded in a gentle embrace. The first thought through her mind was, “What the hell?” But the hug felt extremely comforting and she relaxed into it and hugged back. After a time of just standing like that, Nabiki loosened her grip and planted a kiss on Ranma's forehead.

Ranma sat on the desk chair and said, “Not that I mind, but what was that for?”

Nabiki replied seriously, “You really looked like you needed a hug. You're hiding it as best you can, but I can tell you're scared. After all you ran away in a panic earlier… from Shampoo. Something about this situation is bringing out my protective, nurturing side.”

“Nabiki has a nurturing side? I wouldn’t have believed it before.” Wisely, she kept that opinion to himself. “What did Shampoo say?”

Nabiki looked contrite. “I was trying to put her off. I told her an edited portion of the truth. It didn't turn out the way I hoped.” She related the conversation to the red haired girl.

Ranma summed it up, “So if I don't go see the old ghoul on my own two feet, Shampoo's going to knock me out and carry me there.”

The brunette agreed, “That's pretty much it.”

After a moment’s thought, Ranma said, “Well, I'm not happy about the threat of her knocking me out, but talking to the old ghoul might be a good idea. I doubt she can do anything to get me out of this situation, but she might at least be able to give me a better perspective on it. Maybe she could tell me something that would help me cope with it better. Kami-sama knows I'm not coping too good right now.”

Nabiki couldn't let that go unchallenged. “Ranma, if it was me in this situation I would probably curl up in ball and never leave my room. My mind would shut down.”

She went on, “You've got to be one of the bravest people I know. I can tell you're scared and confused, but at least you are still functioning. You are still trying to find an answer. For somebody in an impossible situation, I'd say you're coping about as well as anyone could.”

Ranma got up from the chair and went over to Nabiki on the bed. The red haired girl hugged the brown haired one again. “Thanks Nabiki, that means a lot to me.”

It would be an understatement to say that the atmosphere at the Tendo home was strained at dinner. During the meal if Ranma responded to conversation at all it was in monosyllables or with the phrase, “I don't wanna talk about it.”

Genma tried to get Ranma to spar but was told, “Dr Tofu said that I can exercise and do katas, but no sparring or fighting. I'm to avoid getting kicked or punched as much as possible.”

The bald martial artist demanded, “Are you slacking off, boy?”

In a tired tone Ranma just told her father, “Call his office yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Akane simmered. She was sure that some perverted thing Ranma had done was now coming back to haunt him. The only problem was that she didn't know what specifically to be angry about. She even tried baiting Ranma by saying things that would usually result in an insult from her fiancé. As with the conversation at the dinner table, Ranma answered with a grunt or silence or, “I don't wanna talk about it.”

That evening most of the people in the house went to bed in an agitated frame of mind. Nobody slept well.

The next morning Ranma was up early and out in the dojo doing katas. Any attempt to engage her in conversation was deflected with, “Not now - trying to train.”

Later that morning a call came into the clinic of Dr. Ono Tofu. He took the call and heard, “This is Dr Hinagami Michiko. Ono-Sensei, I want to talk to you about that Saotome girl you sent to me yesterday.”

It should be too soon to be hearing anything back on the DNA test. Cautiously he asked, “Ranma? Do you have the results of the test back already?”

“Yes,” was the terse reply.

“That was fast.”

The women’s specialist explained, “There was something in that girls demeanor that was setting off alarm signals in my head. I asked the lab people to put a rush on the analysis.”

Dr. Tofu was confused. “What do mean about her demeanor?”

Dr Hinigami amplified, “I've been at this too long not to recognize when a girl is trying to put up a brave front. The Saotome girl was good, one of the best I’ve seen, even to using a special meditation technique during the actual procedure. I could still see the fear in her eyes. She was terrified. She would not have been experiencing that level fear if her pregnancy was the result of a consensual relationship.”

Tofu shook his head. The other doctor seemed to be jumping to conclusions with insufficient information. He said, “That’s assuming a lot. You're basing that conclusion on what you perceived as fear in Ranma's eyes?”

Dr Hinigami replied, “If the girl hadn't been so insistent that you be the one to give her the test results I would be talking to her now, instead of you. I might also be calling the police.”

Now alarmed, Tofu asked, “What do you suspect?”

Dr. Hinagami replied, “The test results tell me that the father of her child is a close family member, probably a brother or maybe her father. That, plus the fear in the girl's eyes tells me this pregnancy is likely the result of an incestuous rape or the end result of long term sexual abuse by a family member. What do you know of her home situation?”

Dr Tofu had a small struggle to keep his agitation from showing in his voice. “Michiko, I know that one girl's case from five years ago still haunts you. That doesn't mean that Ranma's case is in any way similar.”

The women’s specialist retorted angrily, “You're damn right that case haunts me. An 18 year old boy was keeping his 13 year old sister as a sex slave and had been doing it for two years. The only reason he was caught was because he got careless and the girl got pregnant. If that hadn't happened there's no knowing how long it might have continued.”

Tofu repeated, “Ranma's case is not similar. I promised her that I would keep the details confidential. Her situation is very complicated and needs to be handled with great delicacy. Even you will have to admit your approach to suspected incest rape and abuse cases is pretty heavy handed.”

“Humph. It’s true that I have been accused of that before. Very well, for now I will let you handle this your way. I want you to keep me advised on how this turns out.”

“I'll do that.” He hung up. This could be a real problem.


Author's note: In these politically correct times I felt I should include this: To any women who have ever been pregnant, are pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future. My writing in this fanfic is not intended to depict how I think real pregnant women behave, only how I think a pregnant Ranma might behave. However and to cover all bases, if anyone reading this is a man afflicted with a curse that causes you to occasionally turn into a woman, I sincerely apologize if I have offended you. I also give you permission to beat me with a (foam rubber) mallet. (I'm not a complete idiot.)