"Will you please be quiet?" begged the doctor, exasperately. Lois rolled her eyes. They were at the hospital. During Mr. Kent's election party, she almost got herself killed. She remembered she was really nervous and she wanted to eat something. She was at the top of the cupboard, standing on tiptoes and teetering on the stool, looking for a box of Ding Dongs. Then she lost the equilibrium and fell down.

After that, the only thing she remembered was Clark waking her up, worried.

"What happened?" she asked, confused.

"I was hoping that you could tell me. You were lying on the floor unconscious, with the toaster getting wet right by your side." He was very serious. "You could have died---"

"If it wasn't for you. Yeah, yeah, Smallville, I know where this is going to. Well, thanks. Now, if you excuse me, I have to call the little nice TV show and ask how's the ellection going---"

"It's over, Lois. Dad won." said Clark, with a huge smile on his face. Lois grinned.

"I knew it!!!" she said, happy. "I just knew it! Oh, I have to greet him---" She tried to stand up, but she put a hand on her ribs and lay down.

"What? Does it hurt?" asked Clark.

"No, Smallville. I fell down from a cupboard and I almost got myself toasted, but no, it doesn't hurt." she said, sarcastically.

"I have already called the paramedics, they'll be here any minute."

"I don't need to play the 'sick-girl-on-an-ambulance', thanks. I feel great---" She tried to stand up again, but she made a pain expression and lay down again. Right then the paramedics arrived.

"Great." grumbled Lois.

"Who's the sick girl?" asked one of the paramedics.

"Okay, first, I'm not sick. I just had a little accident---" The paramedics lay her on the littler. "Hey, careful there!" Clark smiled.

"Okay, let's go." said the paramedic.

"Do I really need an audience? Everyone back to the party, there's lots of chocolate cake, nine cases of Merlot..."

"Lois, you were out for a while, you should have someone take a look at you." said Clark. The paramedics started to push Lois's littler. She kept arguing.

"Do you really need to haul me off to the hospital just for committing a serious party felony?"

Clark shook his head, grinning after her.

Well, now she was in that hospital for almost two hours, and everything she wanted was to go back to the party and greet their new senator. Lois smiled. If there was anyone in the world who actually deserved to be senator and had the potential to do it was Jonathan Kent. The doctor was palpating her belly before, but now he was right under her boobs.

"Hey!" said Lois, cuffing his hand. The doctor looked at her shocked.

"I'm trying to see if your ribs are broken, if you allow me."

"You arise your hands a little bit and I will break yours." The doctor shook his head.

"Allright. I can see that you're perfectly fine. Your ribs are not broken, and there will not be any consequences. You can go, but please, don't try to do any physical effort for at least two days."

"Fine. Thank you." said Lois sarcastically, standing up and leaving. She walked through the halls of the hospital. Then she saw Chloe.

"Hey, my little cousin came to visit me." said Lois, smiling while she walked to Chloe. Her cousin turned around." Well, I just managed myself out of that room, I'm fine, there'll be no consequences. C'mon, let's go back to the party, and--- Chloe?" She was a bit pale and very serious.

"The party is over."

Then Lois saw Mrs. Kent a few meters behind Chloe. "What is Mrs. Kent doing here? She's---" Mrs. Kent was crying. Lois looked from Mrs. Kent to Chloe.

"Lois..." said Chloe, rough. "Mr. Kent had a heart attack."

Oh no. No, not now...

"Oh my God." said Lois, worried, her forehead clenching. "How... how is he?" Chloe just looked at her. Lois's voice became a bit high-pitched. "He's gonna be okay, he's strong, he's senator now, and---"

"Lois. He didn't make it."

No.

"That's not... that's not possible, he's... he was perfectly healthy two hours ago, he's fine---"

"He's dead, Lois." said Chloe, with her eyes shining from tears. Lois felt a lump on her throat. She was shocked. She was so shocked that she couldn't cry. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. That couldn't be true. "Mrs. Kent is taking care of his funeral."

Lois sat in a chair, feeling her head empty. Two hours ago, she was talking to Mr. Kent. Now, she would never talk to him again.

That wasn't possible.

It wasn't possible.

Chloe sat beside her. They stood in silence, waiting. For what? They didn't know. Maybe a miracle. Maybe someone saying that it had been a mistake, that he was alive and healthy.

Lois had gotten used to wait for everything to be fixed. It certainly had happened a lot.

But this time, it couldn't be fixed. It was too late.

Mr. Kent was gone.

She hid her face in her hands. She was not crying. She couldn't cry.

She felt terrible.

Empty.

Vulnerable.

Lois walked through the graveyard. It was snowing, and the wind made her heart seem really heavy. She arrived at the tomb she was looking for. Mr. Kent's tomb.

She kneeled down in the front of the tombstone. Lois put down the flowers she was holding carefully.

"Hey, Mr.Kent." she said. "I'm feeling a bit stupid, you know, talking to you, since I don't know if you can hear me... If you can, here it goes. If you can't, well, I just need to spill it out." She took a deep and irregular breath. "I... I wanted to say goodbye, since I... since I didn't have time at your funeral. I didn't want to make Clark and Mrs. Kent feel even more sad than they already are." She faced the tombstone. "I'm not really good with these kind of things, as you probably have noticed already... I... uh... I just wanted to... to say thanks. For everything. For believing in me...and for giving me a chance to be your campaign manager..." she laughed at herself sadly. "I don't know if I answered to your expectations... but well, we did it, didn't we? You won. If somebody actually deserved to be one, that was you, Mr. Kent. Too bad someone called you up there before you could change the world. 'Cause I believed in you. I believe you could have changed the world." Lois felt a lump in her throat and a burning in the corner of her eyes. "I promised myself I wouldn't cry." She scrubbed her eyes quickly. "But hell, I feel... empty. I have lost so many members of my family. First, my mother. Then, my father cut any connections with Uncle Gabe and Chloe. Well, me and Chloe, we managed to stay in touch, but then when Lionel tried to kill her and it looked like he did, I thought I had lost her too. Then, my sister turned into some kind of rebellious. And my father..." she laughed sadly. "Well, I don't think I've ever had him." She sniffled. "You and Mrs. Kent are the parents that I've always wanted to have. I just wish I could have spent more time with all of you. Together." She sighed. "Before my mom died, she used to told me and my sister that a heart beats like 7.000.000 a day... then she asked us to do the math and find out how many times a heart beats for a month." She smiled sadly. "I'm horrible in maths, but I guess we don't have to be a genius to find out that during these last years, your heart had beaten more times than it would beat for a lifetime..."

Lois closed her eyes still trying not to cry.

Suddenly, she had a feeling someone was watching her.

She rubbed her eyes quickly and turned around, standing up, not surprised to see Clark standing a few meters away from her, with his forehead clenched.

"Looks like meetings in graveyards have been becoming something usual in our relationship." she said, trying to keep her voice as closest from normal as she could.

But Clark didn't smile or laughed or teased her back. He just stood there, looking at her with a tender expression.

She wished he would stop with that. It made her feel unconfortable.

"Stop staring at me like that. I was just---"

"That was beautiful, Lois." She faced him. He walked toward her. "It's good to know I'm not the only one who feels that way."

She felt her heart aching and turned back to the tomb. "He was like a father to me." she said, hoarse.

"I know." said Clark. "He was mine."

Lois felt tears in her eyes again. She was feeling like a hosepipe, even though she hadn't cried yet. And she didn't intend to do it. Not with Clark around.

She felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Go away." she said, shaking his hand off, the pain in her heart growing.

His forehead clenched even more.

"Lois, it's okay to cry---"

"No it's not!" she said, with her voice high-pitched. "It doesn't make any sense! You were his son, Mrs. Kent was his wife, Chloe and Lana knew him for almost ten years, but what about me? I know him barely for two. I feel..." She took a deep and irregular breath again. "I feel like I have no right to cry." She stared at the tomb.

"But you were the one that spent most time with him, on the past last weeks, with all that campaign..." said Clark, sounding a bit apologetically.

"Doesn't matter. I feel like..." she spilled out the thing that was bothering her over the last week. "I feel like a stranger."

"You're not!" said Clark, shocked. Lois rolled her eyes. "Hey," Then, Clark grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face him. "You're not a stranger." Lois was looking down. She couldn't face him so closely. Because if she did, she would cry. "You're not a stranger. Not for Dad, not for Mom..." he sighed. "And certainly not for me." She finally looked up at him. She felt that familiar bounce on her stomach, that she felt every time he said something nice or looked at her... like he was looking now.

Softly.

Tenderly.

"I promised myself I wouldn't cry." she repeated, hoarse. Her eyes filled with tears and the lump on her throat became insufferable. She could have stand it if his green eyes hadn't filled with tears too and if his forehed hadn't been so damn clenched. She completed, with her voice breaking for the first time. "I guess it's not working very well."

One tear rolled down her cheek slowly.

She was crying.

She was finally crying.

A tear rolled down Clark's cheek too. Her lower lip trembled.

"I hate this!" she said. "I just hate this, I can't stand it, I feel so weak---" Clark put one hand on her shoulder again. "Go away, leave me alone---"

Then he hugged her. Tightly. Tenderly.

Damn, she thought. Not that...

She struggled for one second, but she just let him hold her. She wouldn't admit it for anything on this world, but she needed that. She needed that. From him.

She hid her face on his chest and sobbed. Cried. Finally.

It was almost like something really bad was being extracted out of her.

Clark was crying too, she could tell.

They stood like this for a long time, until they managed to calm themselves.

Then, she pulled away. She shook her head and looked up at him.

"I... look, Clark, I... I'm... I..."

Clark smiled.

"You're welcome."

Lois smiled too.

"Thanks." she managed to say.

"Anytime." he answered, still smiling. Lois put her hands on her pockets and prepared herself to leave.

"I'll just leave you alone with---"

"No." said Clark, quickly. She frowned. "S-Stay."

Oh, yes, that little bounce again...

Damn you, stomach...,

She didn't said anything. She just sat beside him, in the front of Mr. Kent's tombstone.

They sat there for a long, long time.

"If you tell anybody I cried that much, I'll kick your ass." she said. Clark smiled. "I'm serious."

"If you tell anybody I hugged you that tightly, I'll throw you into frozen the lake."

Lois smiled and nudged his shoulder gently.

"I'd like to see you try." she said, challenging. They grinned at each other teasingly. Then they looked at Mr. Kent's tombstone and the smiles faded away.

It would be hard from those days on.

But the life continues, and they'd have to keep living.

And driving each other crazy, thought Clark, smiling a bit. That thought disappeared when Clark felt a warm weight on his right side.

Lois rest her head on Clark's shoulder.

Yes, thought Clark.

They would keep driving each other crazy.