Grounds
Martha Kent sat down at the kitchen table, with a deserved cup of hot coffee on her hand. On the past day, she had worked from morning to night, and today, all morning again. She was absolutely exhausted.
Sipping her coffee she watched, with a smile, her son walking in through the kitchen's door.
"Hey, sweetie." she greeted warmly. Clark looked at her, slightly widening his eyes, as if he was surprised to see her there. Then, he mumbled a weak "Hey,".
Martha's smile faded away. She didn't need her strong maternal instincts to see her son was clearly overwhelmed.
"Clark, sit down, you look… hassled." she said, standing up and helping Clark to sit down.
"It's okay, mom, I'm alright," he retorted, sitting down and serving himself some coffee as well.
"No, you're not. I just saw Lana's car driving away, and I'm guessing this has to do with that article published on the Daily Planet." she stated. "Doesn't it?"
Clark looked at her. "Sort of… not entirely, though."
Martha sighed at how complicated things had always been between her son and Lana Lang. She straightened herself in the chair. "I don't even know where to begin to ask."
"There's not much, actually." said Clark, massaging his temples. "It's pretty… simple. Lex proposed and Lana was hesitating because she found out she still has feelings for me. Linda Lake heard the whole conversation and published everything."
"How did she hear everything?"
"Apparently, from what I heard from Chloe, she could turn herself into water." said Clark. "That's how she got all her gossips about famous people and everything."
Mother and son stood in silence for a second.
"What did you do when you saw that article?"
Martha noticed Clark looked somewhat ashamed of himself. "I ran right after the Talon and went to talk to her, at the Mansion." he said, shaking his head.
"Oh, Clark." she said, shaking her head as well.
"I know, it was stupid. I see it now. I guess... I'm just… so used to break up and get back together with her than I thought it would happen again this time…" he said. "But it obviously won't. Ever again. I've made my decision, enough is enough." Martha was surprised at the determination on her son's voice. There was something else there, something he still hadn't told her. But he was about to, considering the hesitating way he was looking at her. "Lana wasn't there. Or so said Lex."
"Oh." merely said Martha, making a face. She could only imagine the kind of conversation they had.
"And I found out that the proposal and her feelings weren't the only news." said Clark, serious. He looked at her. "Lana is pregnant, mom, and the baby is Lex's."
Martha covered her mouth with her hands.
"Oh… my God…" she could just babble. Lana was so young… that was going to be so difficult. "This is… this is huge."
"I know." said Clark. "I mean, I already had doubts about her, but now…" He sighed.
"That's why Lex proposed?" she asked.
Clark looked at her oddly.
"I don't know…" he answered. "Maybe the baby was the final push, but… I think he really loves her…"
Martha nodded, trying to organize her thoughts. She started at her son. He strangely looked a lot older than he was.
"And what was Lana doing here?"
Clark shook his head again.
"I don't know what she was thinking." he said, frustrated. "I mean, did she actually think she could just… throw Lex, his proposal and the baby to the air and get back together with me, that we could live happily? I don't think so." Clark sighed. "Once again, she asked me to trust her, to… tell her whatever secret Chloe and I are hiding."
"And… what did you say?" asked Martha, slowly.
"I told her I hope Lex makes her very happy."
Martha put one hand on Clark's arm.
"Oh, sweetie."
"No, mom, I mean it." said Clark, and Martha widened her eyes as she saw he really did. "I couldn't make her entirely happy, I hope somebody else does. Even… even if it's Lex." He paused. "When she asked me to trust her and tell her, I… I just couldn't, mom. As always, I just couldn't."
"I'm sorry, Clark." said Martha, sadly.
"I guess it's kind of hard to let go of something you're already familiar with." Martha nodded. "But there's another part of me that's relieved. Because I know it's for the best."
"I think it is sort of relieving when we close these kinds of chapters in our lives." said Martha, watching Clark nod now.
A part of him was sad. After all, he had been in love with Lana for a long time. Maybe even for too long. But it was really over now, there was no going back, and he knew it. Because there was another part of him that was glad.
Clark sighed once again.
He was feeling his head spinning. There was just so much going on… before Lana appeared on his loft, he had stopped by the Talon. Chloe had given him a mysterious call that morning. She had asked him to drop by, and when he asked her why, she didn't tell him, she just asked him to go as faster as he could, and that was in a fraction of second.
When he had arrived there, he realized how he should have seen that one coming. Of course.
After last night's events, Lois was there. And Chloe's smirks and witty sentences pretty much said everything. She knew who was under the Green Arrow's costume the night before, and she knew who Clark had been covering up for. She knew he had kissed Lois.
Martha watched her son's expressions change from frustration and acceptance to confusion, fear and guilt with a velocity worthy of his superspeed.
"Mom?" he asked, suddenly. "Have you ever felt like… like if something could turn your world upside down?"
"Are we still talking about Lana?"
"Mom, please, just answer."
"Well, of course, son." she said, a little confused herself. "When your Dad died, I---"
"No, I didn't mean things like that. Neither things that have anything to do with Lana." Martha carefully watched her son. He was different from what he had been moments ago. He looked absolutely… lost. "I mean… little things." he continued, fixedly facing a slightly burned spot on the table. "Stupid little things… that are… not little at all." Martha frowned at her son. Clark looked up at her suddenly. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"
She shook her head negatively, smiling sympathetically, hiding her curiosity. She had seen her son troubled before, but never like this. Martha leaned on her elbows, watching Clark more attentively, absolutely sure that this was not about Lana anymore.
"Clark, what is it?"
He glanced uncomfortably at the table. "I'm… not sure if I want to tell you…" he said, lowly. "I don't want to hear you telling me how… disloyal… I am..."
Martha was surprised at how angry at himself he sounded. What was he talking about?
"Sweetie, don't say that!" she exclaimed. "You are a honorable, wonderful man, just like your father."
"No." he said, harshly. The anger on his eyes turned into shame as he looked up at her. "Dad would have never kissed his friend's girlfriend."
Martha's brain immediately started to race at that sentence.
He wasn't talking about Lana. Specially because Lex wasn't exactly his friend anymore.
It wasn't Chloe either. Clark felt nothing but friendship for her, he would never kiss her out of nowhere – or be that disturbed about it.
Therefore… there was only one woman left.
The woman who had crashed into their lives with the delicateness of a pitbull in the middle a fair. The woman who her son spent most of the time arguing and bickering with. The woman who had, for the very first time, gotten into Clark's walls and an incredible easiness. The woman who he spent the whole time talking and complaining about; who he had built a strong friendship with, stronger than both cared to admit.
Martha felt a smile playing with her lips.
Lois.
Clark looked down embarrassed as he realized she had understood who he was talking about.
"Care to tell me how it happened?"
Clark sighed. "Yesterday night, I went to Metropolis to… help a friend."
"A friend?" asked Martha.
"Green Arrow."
"He's your friend?"
"Yeah." said Clark.
"Hmm…" said Martha, frowning a bit.
"Anyway, I was going to help him because Lois was almost finding out who he really is, and he didn't want that. So… we kind of… made a set-up for her… to get him out of his track." Clark sighed again. "Then… I dressed as Green Arrow."
"You did?" asked Martha, surprised.
"Yes. And… well, I was kinda helping Lois to unmask Green Arrow as well… we created a plan, she would, uh, be on the streets and pretend that she was being mugged by some thugs, so Green Arrow would appear. But uh… my friend… and I had agreed that I would dress as Green Arrow and pretend to save her and… this friend of mine… would appear and she wouldn't think he was the real Green Arrow anymore."
"Sounds like a good plan." observed Martha.
"Yeah. Except that things went wrong." he said, breathing in and out. "REAL thugs attacked Lois and Jimmy, who was working with her. I was there, dressed in that green leather costume, and I REALLY had to save her." Martha raised her eyebrows. "I threw this guy across the alley---"
"Wait, son, are you telling me you used your powers openly in front of Lois, Jimmy and the thugs?" asked Martha, shocked.
Clark breathed out. "I was under the costume, it was okay. It was… pretty cool, actually, using my powers in front of them…" Martha smiled at Clark's thoughtful expression. "Well, then, when I saw Lois's impressed smile, I remembered I was supposed to be using arrows." He shook his head, mortified. Martha fought against a laugh. "I didn't know how to shoot them, so I just pretended I would and the rest of the thugs ran for their lives, letting go of Jimmy and Lois." Clark started to face the same burned spot on the table again. "She had fallen to the floor, so I helped her to her feet and… she said that my secret was safe with her."
Martha clenched her eyebrows in awe.
"Oh, Clark…" she said, sympathetically. She knew how hard it must have been to her son to hear that. Because that was he had always want to hear, but Lois… well, she was not telling that to him. Technically, she was, but… she wasn't. She was telling that to whomever it was she thought it was under the costume.
"Then…" he started, roughly. Clark cleaned his throat and tried again. "Then, she uh…" Martha bit back a smile as she realized her son was starting to blush seriously. "She grabbed my arms and just… kissed me."
"And…?" asked Martha, knowing there was more into it.
"And I kissed her back…" he said.
"What did you say?" asked Martha, still trying hard not to smirk.
"I kissed her back…" he repeated.
"Come again?"
Clark threw his arms to the ceiling, standing up and exhaling frustrated.
"She kissed me and I kissed her back, okay! God, what's with you and Chloe and your need to make me feel uncomfortable?"
"Chloe?" asked Martha, smiling. "She knows about this?"
"Yes! I don't know how, but my guess is that she saw the pictures that Jimmy took and added 2 + 2---"
"Wait, Jimmy took pictures?"
"Yeah, apparently!" said Clark, making Martha laugh this time. He was pacing all around the kitchen, now. "And Chloe has seen it and now she knows I was under Green Arrow's costume yesterday night when Lois kissed me, so she called me this morning and asked me to go to the Talon, and when I got there, guess who was there sitting at the couch holding a cup of coffee with a big dreamy grin on her face?" Before Martha could say anything, Clark answered his own question, even though she already knew the answer. "That's right! Lois! And Chloe was all giddy and smirking and saying how Lois was telling her about her exciting adventures last night, how she kissed Green Arrow and how she knew he wasn't who she was thinking he was right away, because she had kissed him, and how Green Arrow had thrown a guy across an alley and had superspeeded away after Oliver appeared---"
"Oh no. Oliver appeared?" asked Martha, widening her eyes.
"Yes. And he saw the whole thing, so now I don't even know how I'm going to face him. " Clark hid his face on his hands and sat down again. "I'm so in trouble."
Martha chuckled. That was new.
She had seen Clark nervous before, but now… he was positively freaking out.
"Son, if you allow me to ask…" Clark looked at his mother between his fingers. "How was it?"
"It was…"
Martha watched with interest as she saw her son fighting against what seemed to be an exceptionally wide grin, and he didn't have to say anything else.
She smiled as well.
"And did she like it?" she asked. Clark dropped his both hands at the table.
"When we were at the Talon, I swear I was about to ask, but Chloe stopped me and asked me to let Lois finish her story." he said.
"And how did it end?" asked Martha, amusingly.
"She said that he was right there, holding her in his arms and… how Oliver was a good kisser, how we shouldn't get her wrong, but that that Green Arrow could… could teach Oliver one thing or two."
Martha raised her eyebrows grinning herself, surprised.
"She said that?"
"Yeah."
Clark was positively red right now, but he couldn't fight against that grin any longer.
But his smile quickly faded away.
"But that was… that was wrong, that shouldn't have happened---"
"Why?"
"Because it is LOIS, and she's dating Oliver, who's my friend, and now I'm all uncomfortable around her – I mean, can you imagine the look on my face when she said those things? She liked it, she really did, and to be completely honest with myself, so did I, and I can't even tell her it was me, because if I tell her she'll think I am Green Arrow, and I'm not, so I would have to explain to her that I was covering up for the REAL Green Arrow, which happens to be a friend of mine, and I wouldn't want to reveal his secret identity without his permission."
Something about Clark's sentence awoke something on Martha. Maybe it was her instincts, she wasn't sure. And she thought she already knew the answer to the question she was going to ask, but she asked it anyway.
"Clark? Why would Lois kiss Green Arrow out of nowhere if she has a boyfriend?"
"I don't know." said Clark after a while, avoiding her eyes, and Martha immediately realized that he did know.
"And… this friend of yours you were helping doesn't happen to be Oliver Queen himself, does it?"
"I don't know." repeated Clark, still looking down. Martha smiled.
"It's alright, Clark." she said. "I figured it out by myself. You didn't betray him, you didn't tell me."
"I did betray him." said Clark, giving on and looking up. "I kissed his girlfriend."
"Yeah, about that…" started Martha, straightening herself on the chair and facing Clark intently. "It's alright as well, Clark. You had no idea it would end up happening, and it's not like you could have help it---"
"I could have!" argued Clark, frustrated. "I could have just backed away when she kissed me---"
"But you didn't." Martha said, calmly. "So, you couldn't."
Clark watched his mother attentively, trying to figure out what exactly she meant.
Martha smiled. He would find it out, in the right time.
"Well, I… I'm going upstairs." he announced, and Martha nodded. Clark headed to the door that gave access to the living room.
He probably just needed to think right now. About everything. Try to find the answers to the questions bothering him… try to sort his feelings out.
"Oh, and Clark?" she called, suddenly. He turned around to look at her, from the door. "You said your Dad would have never kissed his friend's girlfriend." Clark nodded. "He did." Martha smiled at the way Clark's eyebrows raised. "He did, and it had nothing to do with honor or loyalty. It had to do with feelings." Martha's smile grew wider at the memory. "He kissed me. I was dating his friend then. I had no idea of how he felt about me. Well, I kind of had, but I chose not to think about it, because they were… new and risky grounds." Clark's eyes were at the size of two tennis balls. "It was completely unplanned. But it happened, and I felt something that I had never felt before. And… months later, your father asked me out. I accepted it, and that was when it all started." Clark licked his lips, nervously.
"Mom, I---"
"It's alright, Clark." she quickly said, before he could continue. "I'm just saying that everything that happens, happens for a reason. And maybe those little things that turn your world upside down aren't wrong at all, if you really start to think about them."
With a bright smile, she winked at Clark and stood up, turning to the sink and starting to wash their cups.
Clark gulped, turning around. She hadn't just implied that… noooo, that was crazy.
Kissing Lois had been crazy.
Amazing.
And completely unplanned.
Clark gulped again.
Things like that were new and risky, and he wasn't sure he was ready to step into those grounds right just yet.