Disclaimer: These characters are not mine. They belong to the wonderful Romiko 
Takahashi and her licensees (Viz Communications in North America). This work is 
strictly for the non-profit enjoyment of fans. No copyright infringement is intended.

And the Cradle will Rock: part one -  Rock-a-bye baby
by RJ

	~~~~***~~~**~~~***~~~~


A cloak figure ran through the streets of Nerima.  The mystery person held something
 close to their body as the blanket of darkness provided the right amount of cover.  
The unknown kept looking over their shoulders.  Nervous eyes peered from underneath 
the dark hood.  The echoes of the footsteps halted, another quick look over the shoulder 
and in a single leap the figure jumped onto the rooftops and took off again.  

	A sign of relief escaped the person’s mouth. In front of the familiar door brought 
 tears to the eyes, but it could have been because they were going to leave something 
of extreme importance.  The wrapped bundle was removed from their chest and placed 
at the doorstep.  They turned away and disappeared into the night

             ***********************
		
	To the Tendo and Saotome family,
	
	Please take care of Juro.  I am unable to protect him anymore.  I have left as 
much money I could leave with him in order to not put a stain on the household’s finances.
 It is of imperative that he is kept safe.  Please take care of my little Juro

							Signed a distant relative.
             ***********************

“Oh my,” is all Kasumi could say as she read the letter and glanced at the small boy in basket.


~~~~***~~~**~~~***~~~~



“I can’t believe that JERK!”  Akane yelled as she stomped down the stairs.

“You’re so sensitive, all I said …” Ranma tried to finish, but Akane cut him off with a 
mallet to his head.  “OUCH!  YOU’RE SUCH A TOMBOY!”  He Yelled.

“Shhhhh!  Akane, Ranma, you’ll wake the baby,” Kasumi said softly.

“Baby?”  Both Akane and Ranma said together.
Kasumi turned around and in her arms was a baby.  
“What the?” Akane and Ranma said at the same time.
“Well, whoever left the kid did leave a good amount of change.”  Nabiki said from the 
table.  “I say at least a years worth anyway.”
 
“Hey, where did the baby come from?”  Akane asked.

“I don’t know, he was just sitting on our doorstep this morning.  I found him when I went 
outside to get the morning paper.

“So what are going to do with it?”  Ranma asked innocently.
“Why take care of him of course,” Kasumi replied as she smiled sweetly.

“Dad is she serious?” Akane asked her father.
“Whoever left the child trusts us, and was willing to give their baby boy up.”

“That doesn’t mean anything, lots of babies are abandoned.  What makes this one 
different?”  Akane answered back.

“Yes, but how many of them leave a good amount of money with the kid,” Nabiki 
chimed in.

The baby in Kasumi’s arms started to whimper.  She just smiled and rocked the baby
 back to sleep.  “Ranma, Akane.  After breakfast could you please go up to the attic 
and pull down the crib, playpen, highchair and some cloths.”
“Yeah sure Kasumi, “Ranma said. “But wouldn’t you have only girl clothes? A guy can’t 
wear girl clothes.”

“You do it all the time Ranma,” Akane said sarcastically.
“That’s different!”  He shouted back.

“Shhh…. No, not at all,” Kasumi said interrupting the start of another fight.  “When mother 
was pregnant with Akane, father believed he was going to have a son.  So he bought 
some cloths meant for a boy.”

Soun laughed,  “Yeah I did think we were going to have a boy.  Thank goodness I didn’t
 buy to much stuff.”

“Well that explains a lot Akane, you were a tomboy before you were born.”  Ranma joked.

“AH!”  * BAM! *  A mallet came crashing down on Ranma.  “Baka!”

The baby started to whimper again, then broke out in tears.  Kasumi rocked the child 
and started to hum as she walked towards the window. There the morning sunshine 
encased her making her look heavenly.

Soun face lit up and tears formed in his eyes.  “It’s Amazing,” he stated.
“Yes, indeed Tendo,” Genma replied.
“What?  What’s so amazing?”  Nabiki asked.

“Kasumi reminds so much of your mother, when she first had Kasumi in her arms.”
“Oh dad.”  Akane said softly.


~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~~~~~~*~~~~~

Dinnertime at the Tendo household.

	Kasumi out did herself, as usually, even though she had her attention towards 
the new houseguest.  Ranma and Genma were engaged in warfare over food, as usual.

 Akane shook her head and quickly said, “Baka.”

“So we are agreed that we tell nobody that the child was left on the doorstep, but 
dropped off by a cousin of Saotome’s,” Soun said to his family and friends.”

“And who knows this could be good practice for our children Tendo,” Genma expressed 
as he shoved rice into his mouth.

“Yes, yes, I see what you mean,” Soun said shifting his gaze toward Akane and Ranma.


“What NO WAY!”  Both yelled to their fathers.
“Shhh! You are going to wake the…”  
“WAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“Baby,” Kasumi finished saying.

~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2:00am

“WAHHHHHHHHH! WAHHHHHHHHH!”

Akane, Nabiki and Ranma turned over in their
 beds; each tried to sleep through the cries of the person no larger then doll. However,
 Soun and Genma slept right through the sounds of the wailing babe.  The only one
 who got up was Kasumi.  The only one who took the responsibility of his 2:00 am 
feeding.

3:00am

“WAHHHHHH! WAHHHHHHH!  WAHHHHHHHHHH!”
Soun and Genma still slept with no trouble. Nabiki shoved two pillows in her ears to 
muffle the sound.  Akane hid under her blanket.  As did Ranma, but it did no good. 
 Kasumi decided to roll over and sleep mumbling, “Can’t… pick up…. whenever. …Cries.”

4:00 am

“WAHHHHHHHH! WAHHHHHHHH! WAHHHHHHH!”

“That’s it!”  Ranma said in frustration as he gathered himself to go downstairs.  The baby
 was crying again and he couldn’t stand to just lay there in his room anymore.  He 
headed for the kitchen, where he noticed a light on and voices.

“Well, well, looks whose up also,” a cranky Nabiki said.

“You two couldn’t sleep either?”  He asked the two Tendo sisters.

“How can anyone sleep with that noise, I swear this may give me the insight to getting
 my tubes tied?”

“Nabiki!  How can you say that?  This is all new to him; of course he is going to cry.  
And you don’t mean that about having kids,” Akane replied.

“Yeah well,” she trailed off.

“Why hasn’t Kasumi picked him up and rock him back to sleep? Like she did earlier?”
“Kasumi said your not supposed to keep picking up a baby.  You have to let them cry 
themselves to sleep.”  Akane answered him.

“Well he has…. wait… do you hear that?”  He asked.

Both Nabiki and Akane listened carefully.

“I don’t hear anything,” Nabiki said.
“Exactly.”

“Ahhh!”  Both replied with a smile.

“Back to sleep?”

“Back to sleep.”

	“Hmmm…yes…. hmmm.”
“What is it doctor Tofu?”  Akane asked to the doctor.

“You want to know if everything is all right with the baby, correct?”

“Yes, is everything all right?”

“Why yes, little Juro is fine,” Doctor Tofu said as he picked up the happy baby.

“You say your cousin left him with you Ranma?”

“Uh, yeah.  But she really didn’t stay long enough to tell us if he was all right and stuff.”

“Oh?”  The doctor said with a hint of question.

“Your cousin never told you how old he is.”

“Uh, No, she didn’t.”

“Well by feeling the gums you can determined how old a child is.  Let see…. uh huh…uh 
huh.okay 

“Ummm…does that work?”  Ranma asked.

“You know, I don’t know,” laughed the doctor as he let his finger run over the gums of 
the baby. “I think he is probably about six months old.”

“Oh okay, I’ll tell Kasumi that,” Akane said as she, the doctor and Ranma walked into 
the waiting room.

“Tell me what Akane?”  Kasumi said as she walked into the office.

“Ka...Ka…Kasumi!”  Tofu stuttered.

Ranma grabbed Juro before the good doctor’s glasses fogged up and began to run 
around the office with Betty on his back.

“Oh Doctor Tofu you’re so funny,” Kasumi said with a smile.

“Come on Ranma, let’s take Juro home.” 

Akane!” Kasumi yelled to them as they began to go home.
“Yes, Kasumi?”

“Please wait up.”  Kasumi caught up to her sister and Ranma.
“I came to Doctor Tofu’s to tell you that you and Ranma have baby-sitting detail this weekend.”

“What?”  Ranma said.
“Yes, father and uncle are going on a trip, Nabiki is spending the weekend over a 
friends house, something about a project due at school.  And this weekends my sewing 
circle annual trip.  Can you please watch over Juro?”

 A teardrop appeared on both Akane’s and Ranma’s head.  “Sure,” both said.

“Oh good, I left instructions on the refrigerator.”  
“Wait, now?”  Akane asked.
“Yes my ride is here for me.  Don’t worry everything will be fine. Bye-bye.”

Kasumi walked over to the parked van with about five women waved to her. 
Ranma looked at the small child in his arms, who smiled at him.

“Huh?  How hard could it be?”


~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

“Yuck! Ah stop that, come on just eat it” Ranma said as baby food was thrown in his face. 
He sat in a kitchen chair with baby Juro in his highchair, as he tried to feed him his dinner.

“Ranma, I think there is more food on you then there is in him,” Akane said.
“Well he ain’t eating it, it must be something you cooked.”
“What?  Ranma how dare you!”

“Please insert foot in mouth,” thought Ranma when he felt the oncoming of a certain 
mallet.  *BAM!*

“Here I’ll feed him.” Akane grabbed to spoon from Ranma as he rubbed his head.
She took a spoonful of the jarred baby food and started to make puttering sounds. 
 
“Mmmmnnmmmmnmmm, here comes the airplane for a landing, open the hatch.”  She 
said softly, as she moved the spoon around in circles towards the baby.  And amazingly
 he opened his mouth and ate it. 

Akane just looked at Ranma and smiled a smile that yelled “TOLD YOU SO!”

“Hey, how did you do that?”
She kept feeding the boy, “I saw Kasumi do it other day.”
“That’s no fair,” he said under his breath.

“Oh come on Ranma, just admit I did something you couldn’t.”

“Hmmhm,” he mumbled.

“What was that?”

“Okmmmmmit.”  

“Huh?”

“Okay, I admit it.”

“There that wasn’t so hard now was it,” she said as she continued to feed Juro.

“Yeah, whatever.  I’m going to get cleaned up.”

~~~~~*~~~~~~~

“Wahhhhhhhh! Wahhhhhh! Wahhha! Wahhhhhhh!”

“Ranma could you please see what’s wrong with Juro!”  Akane yelled from upstairs.

“Damn, can’t I get through a set of Katas once tonight.”  Ranma walked into the living 
room, where the baby was crying in his playpen.  Ranma bent down and picked him up.
  Stiff, stiff. 

“OH MY GOD!  This kid reeks!” 

“He probably needs to be changed.  All the stuff is in the diaper bag.”
“Ah man.”

Ranma carried the baby to the table as he tried to keep his nose closed.  He started to
 undo the diaper.  “AKANE, I don’t think this kid is normal!”  He yelled.

“What?”  She said walking into the living room in her robe.
“Look at that stuff, it’s not natural!”  He pointed to the dirty diaper.

Akane rolled her eyes, “Ranma, that’s normal.  Trust me.”
“Trust you, how am I supposed to trust you?”
“I do baby sit now and then, Ranma.”
“Well then you change him.”
“No I’ll show you how, for next time.”

“Okay first you remove the old diaper.  Then you clean his bottom with the baby wipes.”
  She said doing the action. “Next you powder him and place a new diaper underneath 
him.  Pull the top part through his leg, fasten the back together and there a fresh diaper
 for a good boy.”

“That’s it?”
“Yup that’s it.”
“I can do that.”

Akane just smiled and walked with Juro around the room, rocking him.  Ranma just 
looked, “She can really be uncute at times,” he thought.

~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~

	Something was bothered Akane, she couldn’t fall back to sleep.  She tossed 
and turned in her bed.  It was 1:45 in the morning, and she couldn’t sleep.  She sat up, 
“Well I’ll go downstairs and give Juro his 2am feeding.  She got up out of bed, straightened 
her yellow pajamas and headed downstairs.  She turned the corner to go into the living
 room, where they were kept the baby.  She stopped short and saw Ranma.  For some 
reason she didn’t want him to see her.  She moved back behind the wall and peeked 
her head around the doorway to watch.  Ranma was walked near the doors that led to 
the backdoor. The soft sounds of a song could be heard form the nearby radio.  He 
held Juro in his muscular right arm as he fed him his bottle.  In his usually sleepwear of 
white tank top and yellow and blue boxers, Akane stared.  She once overheard some 
of Kasumi’s friends talking about there were nothing sexier then a man holding a baby.
  She didn’t believe them then, but now she realized how right they were.  He was 
spoke in low tones to calm the baby, but it made Akane’s heart skip a beat.  She had
 stared for ten minutes when the chimes on the clock stoked two o’clock.  This caused 
her to jump, and released “oh” from her mouth.  Ranma looked up.

 “Akane, what are you doing up?”
“Umm, oh, I can came down to give Juro his 2 am feeding.”
“Oh, well you can see I got that covered.”
“Yea, I noticed. Why are you up?”
“I couldn’t sleep, so I came down for a snack, and saw him awake.”
“Oh.”

There was silence between the two, they both looked at the baby. After a few minutes 
passed, Juro fell asleep. Ranma placed him back in the crib.  

“Ranma, what made his mother leave him with us?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know why anyone would give him up.”
“But the note said that she would come back for him.”
“It never said it was his mother, but yeah I know.  However, that was four months ago.”
“Well, I guess we’ll see.”
“Yup.”

Both of them started to head towards the kitchen and went to sit down at the kitchen table.

“Hey remember his first real word?”
“How could I forget it, only in this house his first real word would be baka.”

Akane giggled, “The best was your face expression when you went to pick him up.  
Out came this tiny sound, baka.”
“I don’t think it’s that funny.”  He said with a half smile.
She released a laugh, “Yes it is.”
“Well I thought it was funnier when he called you tomboy.”  He laughed slightly.

Akane’s face fell to a frown for a second, but couldn’t hold it in any longer.  Both her
 and Ranma bursted out in laughter.
“Shhh…. hahha shh…. haa. Shhh!”  He tried to shush her, so they didn’t wake the baby up.   

“Now that isn’t as half as funny as when Kuno saw you in girl form holding Juro.”

“Oh, man do I remember what he said…hahah, what was it again, oh yea.  ‘Pigtail goddess, 
No!  That vile Saotome has raped you and force you to bare his Child!  Oh my Pigtail girl,
 I will help you by destroying the fiend!  Come to me!’

“Oh poor Kuno.”  Akane said.
“Hey I was lucky to get away before he crushed Juro.”  Ranma said in defense.

“And no, I believe you are wrong,” he said.
“Wrong about what?”  She asked.
“When Ryoga saw you with Juro, now that was classic.”
“That was not!”  She said with a hint of anger.

“Oh come on, when he came around the corner and saw you holding the baby in the air, 
the first thing out of his mouth was NOOOOooooooooo!  And then jumped up and yelled 
he was going to kill me for touching you.”   He laughed.  “I mean how could he think I
 would have a baby with you when I haven’t really even kiss you y..e..t……”  His eyes widen 
when he realized Akane was there right in front of him. Silent, she turned a nice shade of red. 
 Well actually he was turned red too.

“Ummm.. I mean..um”

“Oh.. ummmm…oh Look at the time, it’s almost 3 am.  We should go to bed, oh I mean 
um go to sleep, and Uh go to sleep in our own rooms.”  Akane said as she spoke quickly.
“Good idea,”  he agreed.

~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	
The baby laughed and giggled as it played with the small black pig.  Ryoga, however, did not
 like this at all.  The kid pulled on ears, and poked his eyes.

“Oh look, baby Juro loves to play with P-chan.  Aren’t they cute, quick Nabiki take a picture.”

“Oh look how Akane likes me to play with him.  I just can’t stand to see Ranma with that  grin 
on his face.  He knows I don’t like this, and all he can do is smirk, but Juro is kind of cute, 
when he is asleep and sometimes when he smiles, but he was the cutest when Akane holds 
him.  Oh, I can’t wait till the day she would hold my own child the way she holds Juro,”  Ryoga thought.

“Oh those will be darling.”  Kasumi said sweetly as she brought over a cake with a single candle 
to the table.   “I can’t believe this little guy has been here for a whole year.”  Ranma said as he picked
 up the joyful baby boy.  Akane followed and picked up P-chan.  Ranma sat down with Juro on his lap.

“Why don’t you help him blow out the candle.”  Kasumi said.
“Sure thing.  Are you ready kid?” 

Juro just giggled.

“Ready, one, two three….Blow.”  Ranma help blow out the lit stick of wax.

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

	The streets of Nerima were dark once again.  A light fog covered the ground.  
Sounds of running footsteps echoed through the street.  The sounds stopped in front 
of the Tendo Dojo.  The cloaked figure scanned the area, and carefully made their way 
into the yard.  Quickly the figure slipped through the back doors that lead into the dinning
 room.  The eyes underneath the hood searched the living room, and found it.  Without 
making sound, they walked over to the crib and stared at the baby.

	Ryoga was lost again and he tried desperately to find Akane’s room.  She 
would expected her P-chan, but he wasn’t there.  He wondered through the room with 
a tile floor.  “This could be the bathroom,”  he thought, but no.   He didn’t see a bathtub.
  “This had to be the kitchen.”  He wondered some more, passed through the dinning
 room and into the living room.  He heard someone speak softly to the baby.  “It’s probably 
Kasumi, it sounded very motherly,  but it doesn’t smell like her.”  In pig form, Ryoga had 
a very keen sense of smell.  Kasumi usually smelled of spices.  Spices  weren’t what he 
smelled.  He continued to walk along the floorboards, but one of them squeaked.  The
 figured turned around.  Ryoga’s eyes widen.  He didn’t know this girl, by sight or by
 smell, but she held Juro tightly to her body.  That was enough to sound the alarms in 
his head.  He started to squeal loudly.

	Ranma woke up with alarm.  He could heard Ryoga yelling, well squealing.  
Something must be up.  Akane also heard her P-chan squeal.  “I wonder what is wrong 
with P-chan this night?  Ranma better not be teasing him again.”  Akane opened her door and found Ranma just about to go down the stairs.  

“Ranma what did you do to P-chan?”
“I didn’t do anything. I was just going to see what was wrong with bacon bits.”

“Well somebody better shut that pig up.”  Nabiki said with a yawn as she walked out of her room. 

“Akane, Ranma, what’s going on?”  Soun asked.
“Bgrrrrrr”  Genma growled.

“Oh my, what’s going on.  All that noise will wake the baby.”  Kasumi said.

“The baby!”  everyone said at once.
__________________________________________________

“BEEEWWWAWWWWEEEEE!”  Ryoga squealed.

“Shhh!  The girl tried to quite the small black pig.
The living room light flicked on.
“HEY!  What the HELL is going on!  Who the Hell are you!”  Ranma yelled to the
 hooded figure.
Juro started to cry.
“What are you doing with Juro!”  Akane yelled.
“Put down the baby!”  Ranma sternly said as he raised his fists.

“Please, you don’t understand.”  She said in a shaky voice. “Please, F….please I have 
missed him so much,”  tears began to form in her eyes.

“Are you Juro’s mother?”  Akane asked to  girl.
She turned her eyes away and looked toward the floor. “Yes.”
“Well then who are you?  How are you relative to Ranma or to us?”  Akane questioned.

She signed,  with her free hand she removed the hood that covered half of her face.  
Underneath revealed a young women, about the age of Kasumi, with black hair and
 blue-gray eyes.  She looked just like Ranma’s girl form, but with black hair.
“How?  How can that be?”  Soun asked.
“What the hell is going on?”  Ranma yelled.

The girl looked at Nabiki, “Thank you for not telling.”
“Tell us what?”  Akane asked her sister.
“Umm, well.”
“No!, let me tell them.”  The girl interrupted.

She looked down at the baby in her arms and smiled.  She then looked up to the group
 of people in front of her.

“I am Keiko Saotome, heir to the Saotome-Tendo dojo.  She look directly at Ranma and 
Akane, “Mother, Father this is your grandson Juro.”

Soun and Genma started to cry with tears of joy.  Akane and Ranma looked at each
 other and fainted.  So did a little black pig.  Kasumi’s could only say “Oh my.” And
 Nabiki just stared at her future niece. 

To be continued….


Author’s note:  Well hello all you Ranma fans out there.  Hope you like this fic.  I’m not
 the best when it comes to grammar. This started out as a one shot fic, but I decided to 
make it into two to three parts.  Just to let you know the name Juro means long life in 
Japanese, and Keiko means adored one in Japanese.  Send feedback if you like, I 
really like to hear from people.  Later all.--RJ