TITLE: GENERAL'S DAUGHTER
Lois looked up from the papers in front of her and sighed, rubbing her eyes slowly as the paper trail on taxes and farm subsidies began anew. Rubbing the back of her neck, Lois stared at the paperwork she had as a member of Martha Kent's Senatorial Staff, and sighed.
Looking at the clock, Lois realized that she were late getting ready for her dinner banquet, and wondered how she missed such an important signal as her alarm going off. Standing, she walked over to the closet, for once thankful that she had already taken a shower, and pulled out her blue dress and high-heeled matching shoes.
Why am I so nervous, she asked herself, her mind wandering to the dinner she were about to attend. She'd been to banquets like this before, it wasn't like she were new to the entire situation.
Shaking her head, Lois grabbed her keys and ran out of the apartment she shared with Chloe and out of the front door within two minutes.
The roads were jammed.
"Perfect," Lois said to herself as the lines barely moved. She didn't know why her father had insisted she come to his retirement banquet. He'd been in the service for 35 years and, she could tell, he wasn't ready just yet.
She had made it perfectly clear, on more than one occassion, that she disagreed with his decision to leave the military, which had served as the only barrier to his so-called life and how utterly boring it really was.
And, why, of all places were they going to 'Star'. General McNab only rated a three-star restaurant when he retired.
But McNab was only a one-star general her mind reminded her stoicly as she shook herself. As she turned left on Cornwall Street, Lois looked for the familiar sight of the Army-certified jeep.
It didn't take her long. Reaching 'Star', Lois parked under the terrace, where the busboy was waiting. Handing him her keys, Lois thanked the stars that she didn't have to walk in this mess.
Entering the double-doors, Lois sighed as she realized that she were twenty minutes early, and had time too look around.
The room was set in a dark atmosphere, her father's picture all around the room. Pictures of him as a cadet lined the farthest wall, and circled the room, ending with a picture at the front of a headshot with his three-star uniform on.
Shaking her head, Lois walked to the front of the room, the podium set at his height, perfectly, as if prepared for his speech, which traditionally came first, before the festivities began.
Taking her seat, designated of course, Lois couldn't help but smile at the name beside hers, on her left.
Clark Kent.
Lois smiled. She had seen Clark earlier today and she knew that the farm boy from Kansas was excited about tonight. It isn't everyday, she reminded herself, you get invited to the retirement party of a three-star general.
And she laughed, knowing the only reason he was here.
"As dad would say," she said to the not-quite populated room, "Clark's dating his Little Lo."
Suddenly, the lights went out and Lois looked to the door, where Clark was standing, a steady stream of light from the hallway illuminating his frame, giving Clark an almost etheral look.
As she held her breath at the site of her steady boyfriend, Lois's breath caught and she walked toward him, a low, sensual song playing on the radio by Savage Garden, "Truly, Madly, Deeply".
"Hey Smallville," she said as Clark walked toward her, his hand stretched out in silent communication. She smiled, knowing for, at least the next ten minutes, they had the room to herself.
She smiled. They had been dating for a year now, and each time she thought she had him figured out, Clark did something like this. As he walked over, she stood and took his left hand in her right, as he led her to the dance floor.
And they danced. Everything around her seemed to taper off. The entire room was theirs, if but only for a moment. As the song ended, Lois sighed and kissed Clark, reaffirming her love for him. They jumped apart as a throat cleared, and her almost visibly blushing father entered the room.
Still, it didn't dampen his affect to single-handedly commandeer the room's attention as soon as he entered.
She smiled regretably as she separated from Clark's warming embrace, kissing him again. As she looked into his warm, welcoming eyes, Lois sighed, content. Clark understood, of course, that this evening was about her father, even if she didn't agree with his decision to leave the military. As he released her hand, she felt his eyes move to the General and, almost mentally heard the acknowledging, "she's all yours, for now.
As she reached her father, Lois smiled and drew him into a hug. She couldn't help it, this night was going to change so many things for him, and she knew that his adjusting was going to be one of the things that he'd need her there for, a crutch.
That, she mentally congradulated herself, and it's totally against regulations to show any sort of emotional display in public.
And then, she stared into the fear-filled gaze her father was projecting. She saw his uncertainty, as he looked at the pictures adorning the walls, for a moment caught in memories of a time that was soon to end. Steeling herself, Lois pushed his gaze toward her and said, "daddy."
As the General turned, his gaze softening for just the tiniest fraction of a second, Lois smiled, and said, "No matter what I've said I'm happy for you."
General Lane smiled, his grin unnerving, and said, "thanks, My Little Lo," before returning her hug, something that had been neglected in previous years.
As people began to trickle into the quiet room, Lois smiled. Clark, as polite as always, held her chair as Lois sat herself, mentally prerparing to listen to her father drone on about his long military career. The room was full now, and the only empty place in the room was on her left.
"Clark," she mumbled, wondering if something had happened to draw him away. It was another thing that she felt honored about. The Kent Family Secret.
Laughing to herself, Lois shook her head. Even in her thoughts, the entire thing was capitialized.
It was also what drew her to Clark, the fact that he had told her his secret. She didn't find out by accident when she found his spaceship, or did she find out because she had been transported to the Fortress of Solitude in the Frozen Tundra.
Relief filled her as Clark stepped back into the room, his eyes settling on her immediately, as the woman at his side made her gape.
"Senator Kent," she said, her smile shining through as she saw her substitue mother figure walk toward the table and sit at Clark's side. She looked at her father, who shrugged and mouthed, "I didn't feel right having Clark here and not her."
She laughed, quietly eyeing the room. General McNab, the former one-star general, was laughing with Captain Walker. The Secretary of Defense, whom she had met briefly when she was six, was sitting beside the Governor of Arkansas, a man she'd known only briefly as Uncle Robert.
Chloe was across the room from her dad, Uncle Gabe beside her with his hand tightly around hers. Jimmy was beside her, taking pictures of the General and populice. So like him to invite her she smiled, knowing how it would help her cousins career.
Suddenly, the room grew still as her father stood. He kissed her on the cheek, making her gape in stunned silence. He hadn't done that in a while. Then, as usual, he placed a stogie in his mouth and walked to the podium, looking every bit the General that she had imagined growing up, moving from base to base.
And he smiled.
"The President always begins his speeches," he began and Lois rolled her eyes, "with the words, 'My Fellow Americans' signifying the commonality of every person watching the speech as it is broadcast across the nation.
Tonight, I'd like to do something similar. My family and friends. Each of us came here for one reason, to see the old geezer giving this speech give his last hurrah.
I'm sad to say you're all here under false pretenses."
Lois' mouth dropped. Suddenly, a spotlight fell and landed on Clark Kent, whose stature had went from excited to nervous, if his death grip on the chair were any indication. Suddenly, he got out of his chair, and grabbed her hand, pulling Lois to her feet.
Then, he knelt.
And her world stood still.
She barely remembered the words that came out of his mouth, just a few minutes later as she looked at the walls. The pictures that had once held her father's face on them now contained pictures of her and Clark, on their first date.
Or her standing behind Clark as he knelt over Mr. Kent's grave.
She took it all in stride.
As his speech came to an end with a single question, and her lips moved of her own accord, Lois was brought back to reality with the clapping of hands and confetti falling from the ceiling.
And, for once in her life, Lois Lane was speechless.
She was going to marry the man she loves more than life itself, the alien refugee from another planet.
She was going to marry Clark Kent.
And she couldn't be happier.
End