Title: With Arms Wide Open
Author: Cassandra Mulder
Rating: PG
Classification: Smallville; Chloe/Clark; future fic
Disclaimer: I don't own, so you don't sue.
Distribution: Ask and ye shall receive.
Word Count: 1493
Written: November 9 - 11, 2005
Summary: Clark and Chloe welcome a new life into the world.
A/N: Okay, here we are on story #4, inspired by the Birth prompt. I tried not to be too detailed, but if birth squicks you in any way, read with caution. It is PG, after all. ;) If things go as planned, there should be two more in this series, but I reserve the right to change my mind. You never know where these things are going to go. I really want this series to focus on little personal moments in Clark and Chloe's life, so that's why they don't have so much to do with the whole Superman/reporters thing. I hope you enjoy!

Clark tried to soothe his miserable wife, but it didn't seem to be working.

"How can anybody be this pregnant?" Chloe moaned. She shifted uncomfortably. Clark was rubbing her back and it wasn't doing much good, but she didn't have the heart to tell him.

"I don't know," he replied helplessly.

"It was rhetorical."

Clark sighed. "I know. I just don't know what to do here."

"That makes two of us, Clark," she said, shifting again. "I never knew I was going to be twenty-six years old and having your alien baby. There's not exactly a guidebook for this."

Clark took her comments in stride. She sounded grumpy now, but she had been happy for most of her pregnancy. Now she was a week past her due date, and totally convinced a Kryptonian gestation period was at least twelve months.

They had known the risks going in, and there was little information to begin with. But Chloe had insisted that she wanted a baby, and she wanted it to be Clark's. She was willing to take the chance.

Clark had been worried for the last nine months (and one week), but so far all of Chloe's checkups had shown everything was normal, and the baby seemed to be fine.

It just wasn't in any hurry to see the world.

"Maybe we should talk about baby names again," Clark said, trying to distract her.

"We already decided that, remember? Lara Jean for a girl and Jonathan Gabriel if it's a boy. What is there to talk about?"

He remembered perfectly. Their parents' names had been all they could agree on. Lara, for Clark's biological mother, and Jean because it was Martha's middle name. As much as Chloe loved Martha, she didn't really love the name, and her mother-in-law had been very understanding. Fortunately their father's names went well together, but Chloe was insistent they wouldn't need it because they were having a girl.

Clark begged to differ, but both were starting to think they'd never find out.

"Okay," he said. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Help me up. I need to go to the bathroom. Again."

"Again," Clark mimicked as he helped her off the bed.

"This baby is tap dancing on my bladder, Clark. No one ever said pregnancy was glamorous," she said as she waddled off to the bathroom.

He took a moment to lay back and relax. He loved Chloe dearly, but the waiting was taking a toll on both of them. He was Superman, but he couldn't do anything to help his own wife, which only served to frustrate him.

"Claaaark!" Chloe yelled and he sat up quickly. "Clark!" she barked again.

He rushed to her side. "What is it?"

"I think my water broke."

"Are you sure?"

Chloe resisted the urge to smack him upside the head. "Yes, I'm sure. And if that wasn't enough of a clue, here comes the excruciating pain," she ground out, clutching Clark's arm. "Hospital. Now."

He ushered her to the door before realizing he had forgotten her bag. He set her down, retrieved her bag, and sped back to the door. "Do we have everything?"

Chloe grabbed her purse from the end table. "Now we do. Let's go."

They hurried into the elevator, down to the parking garage, and into Clark's truck.

Clark drove as fast as he could through the streets of Metropolis, while Chloe called ahead to the hospital.

"Hi, I need you to let Dr. Miller know that Chloe Kent is - aaaaaaahhhh," she said as another contraction hit. "I'm in labor," she said, cutting to the chase. "We're on our way. Okay," she said and flipped her phone shut. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe through the pain.

"Are you okay?" Clark said, trying to concentrate on her and the road at the same time.

"That's a really stupid... oh!" she bit out as she squeezed the hand Clark offered,"question to be asking me right now."

"Okay, that's a no," Clark muttered as he finally saw the bright lights of their salvation before him. He pulled into the emergency entrance of Metropolis Memorial, and there were two nurses waiting with a wheelchair.

Clark helped them with Chloe, then he knelt down beside her. "I'll go park the truck and be right back, okay?"

Chloe nodded. "Hurry."

"I will," he said, kissing the back of her hand and letting the nurses wheel her away.

Chloe tried not to complain as she got checked in and the nurses helped her out of her clothes and into a dreaded hospital gown.

They got her settled into a private room in the maternity ward between contractions, and she impatiently waited for her doctor to show up.

When the contractions were coming three minutes apart and neither Clark nor her doctor had arrived, Chloe started to panic.

Just as the anesthesiologist finished administering her epidural, Dr. Miller rushed in.

He got caught up with the nurse before turning his attention to the very frustrated blonde in the hospital bed.

"I'm sorry, Chloe," he began. "I was trying to get here from my office, and there was a car chase through the city. A robbery suspect, I think the radio said."

Chloe put her face in her hands.

"I'm sure Superman's on it," her doctor added helpfully.

She dropped her hands. "Oh, I'm sure he is," she said with a tight smile.

"But enough about that. How are you?"

"As well as can be expected, I guess," she said. Hoping my baby doesn't burst forth out of my womb, or something equally insane, she thought to herself.

"Is Clark here?" he asked, checking her chart.

"Somewhere," she replied. "He went to park the truck, but I guess he got... lost." She looked at her monitor as another contraction hit. She couldn't feel the pain, but she was starting to feel the need to push and told the doctor so.

He peered underneath her sheet and confirmed what she feared. "You're almost fully dialated. Kathy, let's get her ready to have this baby."

Chloe tried to stay calm as the nurse helped her reposition herself where she would be as comfortable as possible while pushing. That's gonna happen, she thought.

She really wanted Clark, so she closed her eyes and whispered, "Clark, I need you. We need you." She prayed he was tuned into her "station" like they always joked.

Less than a minute later, Clark appeared in the door, no sign of his detour in sight except for his disheveled hair.

Chloe sighed with relief as he came to her side and grabbed her hand. He bent over, kissed her temple, and whispered in her ear.

"I'm sorry, baby. There was an emergency."

"I know," she said softly. She knew there was a price to pay for being married to such an extraordinary man. "I'm just glad you didn't miss this, because she's comin'."

Clark smiled. "You're determined to have that baby girl."

She nodded, her eyes misting over.

"Hate to ruin the reunion," Dr. Miller said. "But, Chloe, it's time to push."

"Okay," she said and took a deep breath. She squeezed Clark's hand as the doctor counted to three and she pushed with all her might.

"All right, take a break," he said.

Clark brushed the hair off Chloe's forehead. "You're doing great, Chloe."

"Just be quiet and don't squeeze back," she said with a wink as the doctor counted again.

She grunted with the effort, and the doctor smiled.

"It's coming," he said. "I can see the head."

Chloe caught her breath.

"All right, again - push!"

She squeezed Clark's hand as hard as she possibly could, raising off the bed.

"The head's through!" Dr. Miller said. "Chloe, this is it, one more time."

She panted and shook her head. "I don't know if I can. Just a second."

Clark looked into her eyes. "You can do this, Chloe. Just one more time and we have our baby, okay?"

She nodded and looked more determined than he'd ever seen her. On three she pushed again, with a yell for good measure.

"Beautiful," the doctor praised. "It's a girl," he said, lifting the baby up. "Clark, would you like to cut the cord?"

Chloe laughed as her husband reluctantly severed the precious lifeline. "I told you it was a girl," she said as they heard their baby cry out.

After she was cleaned up, the nurse laid the baby on Chloe's chest.

"She's so beautiful," Chloe cooed, stroking her little girl's soft, dark hair. "I wonder where she got all this hair," she said, eyeing Clark suspiciously.

"She's just blessed," Clark said with a smile.

"That she is," Chloe agreed.

Clark pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, and kissed her softly. "I love you."

"I love you so much, Clark. And I love you, Lara," she said, cradling the baby gently.

Finis