She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him so agitated.
Former senator Martha Kent was finally on her way home from Washington for good and it had taken a lot of talking from his mother to get Clark's promise that he wouldn't come to get her and super speed her home.
Mrs. Kent had told Lois that she wanted to take that last flight home from Washington as an ordinary citizen. She wanted to have the luxury of reading a novel and not another piece of legislation that would invariably waste the taxpayer's money.
She was once again Mrs. Martha Kent, wife of Jonathan, mother of Clark and soon to be the mother in law of Lois Lane.
And she was coming home with not much more that she'd left Kansas with because other than pictures, there wasn't anything of real sentimental value that she wanted to bring with her.
Her life as a United States Senator was over and she declared that the only thing that was of any real importance to her was helping Lois plan her wedding.
So Lois stood with Clark on the front porch of the farmhouse one early afternoon in late January waiting for Mrs. Kent's taxi.
"I wish she'd let me go and get her." He sighed. "Then she'd be home already."
Lois couldn't help but laugh at his impatience; it was a bad habit he was picking up from her. "She'll be here soon enough Smallville. Her plane landed a couple of hours ago."
"But she still had to get her luggage before she could find a taxi-" He sighed again as his voice trailed off.
"I know how much you've missed her Clark." She tucked her hand through his elbow and put her cheek on his shoulder. "But standing here and complaining isn't going to get her home any faster."
He seemed to realize the same thing because his body shook with gentle laughter. "I know. I'm just glad she doesn't have to go back this time."
"Me too." Lois glanced up at him and made sure to catch his eye. "I can't imagine trying to plan a wedding by myself when we only have a month."
"You didn't have to agree with me when I suggested Dad's birthday." He chided her softly.
"Well considering that you had me in your bed when you mentioned it, what was I supposed to say?"
"Aren't you the one who likes to tell me that saying 'No' isn't necessarily a bad thing?" He raised his eyebrows at her in question.
"And it isn't." She answered him and then felt her face warm. "But when we're naked when you do, it puts me at a disadvantage."
"That was the general idea." He grinned back at her, but at least had the grace to flush. "I did tell Mom that we changed our sleeping arrangements while she was gone."
He'd told her that he was going to. "That had to be an interesting conversation."
"Lois, after you came downstairs and slept with me on Christmas Eve, I think she figured it was inevitable."
"We did more than sleep that night." She needlessly reminded him. "And with my dad upstairs."
"Says the girl who likes to tell me that she lives for danger." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "But that's not to say that I'm glad he didn't decide to come downstairs."
"With the stealth moves that my dad has, who's to say that he didn't?" Lois caught his eye again and his face flamed red at the possibility. "Because he would always wait up for me when I came home after curfew and I never knew he was there until it was too late."
"So while we were-" He closed his eyes and in his embarrassment, couldn't finish what he was trying to say. "He could have been-"
"Get used to it Smallville." She brought her free hand up to his face and kissed him. "He was with the Rangers."
"Great." He rolled his eyes and Lois tried not to smile; her farm boy still embarrassed so easily.
"Relax. If he'd seen anything and had any real objections, he would have said something."
"That's not helping." He frowned at her.
"It wasn't supposed to." She laughed. "I was just laying out a possible scenario of my dad finding us together."
"Still not helping."
"It's still not supposed to." She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Clark, my dad likes you and that's not something I can say about too many of the guys I dated. So he's going to cut you some slack that he wouldn't ordinarily."
"So I should consider myself lucky?"
"You have me, so I'd say that's a yes." Lois laughed again at his look of exasperation. It was a point of pride with her that she was only girl who could get him so wound up.
"Was it my idea to get married?" He rolled his eyes again.
"Yes it was and it's too late to back out now." She tried to stifle a smile. "Besides, if you were worried about Dad finding us together on Christmas Eve, you wouldn't know what hit you if you tried to back out of our engagement."
"As if I ever would." His face relaxed into a dopey grin. "It feels like I've waited my whole life for you."
"And don't you forget it." She reminded him. And before she had the chance to think about what he was doing, his arms were around her waist and he was kissing her. He was really good at that.
He was really good at something else, too.
"How much time do we have?" She heard his soft laugh in her ear as he held her close.
"Not that much." She sighed as her attention was drawn toward the main road and saw a taxi making a turn down the lane. "Because your mom is home."
She felt him turn to see what she saw, his arms still around her and when she looked up at him he had a smile on his face that he seemed to reserve only for her and for his mother.
There were tears in his eyes and he took a deep breath of relief. And Lois had no doubt he was thinking that his family was finally back under one roof.
As the taxi came to a stop, she stepped out of his loose embrace. "Go say hello to your mother Clark."
"Only if you say hello to your dad." He let her go only long enough to take her hand in his. She loved it when he did that. "Because it looks like he's here too."
Lois was surprised and puzzled to see her father getting out from the other side of the taxi.
"Come on." Clark tugged on her hand and they stepped off the porch to meet their parents at the fence.
Dad paid the fare, at his insistence and Mrs. Kent told him that he'd have to stay for dinner so she could repay him.
"A home cooked meal in exchange for cab fare?" He commented as the taxi turned around and headed back to the main road. "You've got a deal."
"I thought you'd agree." She told him and when she saw Clark and Lois standing at the fence, she smiled. "Now I know I'm home."
"Hi Mom." Clark closed the distance with his mother and hugged her. "I'm glad you're finally home."
"So am I." She replied and Lois felt tears prick at the backs of her eyes as she walked toward her father.
"Hi Dad." She greeted him and got her arms around his neck.
"It's good to see you Lo." She felt a gentle pat on her back. He was getting better at the whole emotional thing and Lois couldn't help but be proud of him. "It feels like it's been almost a month since I've seen you."
His humor was getting better, too.
"That's because it has been nearly a month." She quipped.
"So it has." He seemed to be trying just as hard to remain stoic.
"Would you two stop that." Mrs. Kent scolded them with a shake of her head. "It's almost as though you don't want anyone to know that you care about each other."
"I guess that means we have to try harder." He winked at his daughter. "Isn't that right Lois?"
"We are Lane's after all." She nodded and watched as Mrs. Kent took her turn rolling her eyes.
"But after next month, you'll be a Kent too." Clark's mother pointed out.
"Two of my most favorite names." Lois smiled and felt a squeeze on her hand.
"Nice answer Lane." She heard Clark's voice low in her ear.
"I tell you Martha; we've just got to find a way to keep those two kids separated." Lois's father joked.
"It's a little late for that Dad."
"Well that's obvious." He laughed softly and to her consternation, Lois felt her face warm. "You should do that more often Lo."
"I'm working on it." Clark squeezed her hand again and let it go before he grinned at her. "Let me get your bags."
He picked up his mother's suitcases and Lois picked up the General's travel bag and walked with him toward the house. She got ahead of him to open the screen door and then the front door.
"Lois, why don't you go ahead and put your father's bag in your room." Mrs. Kent's voice followed them.
"That's all right Martha. I don't want to put the kids out of their bed." He shook his head as he held the door and Lois cringed. How did he know? "I've got temporary quarters at Fort Riley waiting for me. I called the base before we left Washington and they're making a car available while I'm here getting my housing situation taken care of."
Did he just say what she thought he said? "Dad?"
"If I'd known I was getting transferred when we talked last week, I would have told you." He shrugged. "I only found out about it a few of days ago."
"When does it go through?" Her father was only going to be about a hundred miles away. How weird was that going to be?
"I'll be settled in a couple of week before the wedding." He lifted an eyebrow at her. "So you can consider it your wedding present."
"That's not exactly what I would consider a wedding present." She smiled back at him. "But I'll take it."
"I'm happy to hear it." The General chuckled. "Because it'll be nice to see you a little more often. Especially when those grandchildren of mine start arriving."
Grandchildren? Crap.
"Lois." Mrs. Kent's voice caught her attention, as though to head off any comments from her. "If you'd help Clark with the suitcases, I'll get dinner started."
"It really is safer that way." Clark laughed softly and grasped her hand for a moment before he picked up one of his mother's suitcases. Lois picked up the other and had to resist the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
When he laughed again as he headed up the stairs, she knew he'd known what she was thinking as she picked up the other suitcase and followed him.
When they got to his mothers room and put her suitcases on the bed, she turned to face the man she was going to marry; the man she loved more than she ever thought possible and wasn't sure she would be able to have children with.
"He wants grandchildren." She sighed.
"That shouldn't be a surprise Lois." He put his hands on her shoulders.
"But we may not be able to give them to him." She felt his arms close around her as he pulled her against his chest. "And he's going to want to know why."
"So what are you saying?"
"I think you're right." She snuggled against him and his arms held her even tighter. "I think it's time we tell him."
"Are you sure?" Lois could hear the question in his voice.
"Clark, I know I was a little iffy about telling him." She looked up into a concerned pair of blue eyes. "But you told me that you'd been thinking about it since Thanksgiving and the truth is, I can't lie to my dad.
"Because anything we tell him about why we might not be able to have kids, if it's not about who you are, is a lie."
"Lois, you've been unsure about telling him because you didn't know how he was going to react." He reached up and brushed his fingers against her cheek. "Have you changed your mind about that?"
"I'm still not sure how he's going to take it, but I figure it's like taking off a Band-Aid."
"A Band-Aid?" He smiled at her.
"Yea." She nodded. "We can drag it out, pulling on it a little at a time and making it as painful as hell. Or we can just rip it off and get it over with."
"And which would you prefer?" He laughed and then kissed her. "So when do you want to do this?"
Lois felt her heart flutter nervously in her chest. "Tonight, after dinner?"
"You really do want to rip that Band-Aid off, don't you?" His face flushed.
"If you'd rather wait-"
"I don't want to wait." Clark shook his head. "We seem to be on the same page now, so I think we should do it. And the sooner the better."
She took in a shaky breath and let it out. "After dinner then?"
"After dinner." He agreed and Lois thought he looked far too calm.
And that made her far too nervous.
~*~
He kept reaching for her hand all through dinner because she was so tense. And it wasn't something that went unnoticed by Lois's father.
Even his own mother kept glancing at him, as though to ask, 'Is she ready for this?'
Clark had taken her aside after he and Lois had come back downstairs to tell her what they planned to do and while his mother looked a little apprehensive, she didn't try to talk him out of it.
Instead, she told him she understood that Sam Lane needed to know.
Secrets, even for the best of reasons, weren't good. And Lois' insistence that she couldn't lie to her father was all he needed to finally let his future father in law in on who he really was.
Maybe it was the fact it turned out to be so much easier than he thought to tell Lois who he was. He'd been so nervous that she wouldn't accept him or his Kryptonian heritage that he debated for the longest time whether to tell her or not, But in the end knew that he couldn't keep his biggest secret from her.
The way he figured it, the General knew his daughter and trusted her judgment. He would hopefully see that if Lois accepted everything about Clark and still loved him, then he might accept the news a little better.
But there was only one way to find out.
When the General stepped out on the back porch for his evening cigar with Lois in tow after dinner, Mom cornered him in the kitchen and asked him if he'd thought about how he would tell Lois's father.
"I hadn't really gotten that far." He sighed and realized that he should have come up with a plan. "With Lois, I just started with the basics. I told her about Krypton, about Jor-El and Lara and landing in the field."
"And what about your abilities?"
Clark shrugged. "I didn't want to overwhelm her with too much at once, so I showed her my super speed and heat vision."
"Well after you tell him about yourself, why don't you show him your super speed by cleaning up the kitchen." She smiled at him and he couldn't help but smile back. "That way, the kitchen gets done and he gets a demonstration of what you can do."
"You just don't want to do the dishes." He joked and put his arms around her shoulders to hug her.
"After a long flight home and making dinner for all of you, you're darn right." He felt the reassuring pat of her hand on his back.
He'd missed that, a lot.
"Clark, you can let go of your mother." Lois commented with a sigh. "She's not going anywhere."
He hadn't heard the door open. So much for super hearing.
"I'm just happy to have her home." He looked into the eyes of his mother and smiled again. "And even happier that she doesn't have to go back."
"So am I Smallville." Lois agreed.
"And what am I?" A gruff voice asked from the doorway. "Chopped liver?"
"Sam." Mom admonished Lois' father with a frown.
"What else?" She grinned back.
"Lois." Clark shook his head and sighed; his mother was right.
"Clark, why don't you take Sam and Lois out to the living room while I get the coffee started. And then if you would clean up in here for me, I'd appreciate it."
She was giving him his opening.
"Sure Mom." He nodded and if he didn't know better, Lois lost a little of the color in her face. So he took her hand, squeezed it and gave her a hesitant smile. 'Honey, we're doing the right thing.'
"Lo, you're looking a little nervous." It seemed as though her father decided to comment on her skittish behavior as he walked out to the living room. "You're not going to tell me your pregnant, are you?"
Clark's eyes met Lois's in embarrassment and her face was as red as his was. "No Dad, nothing like that."
"Then why do the two of you look like you've done something that's going to get you sent to your rooms without dessert?" He stopped and turned to face them. "I've been watching you since you came back downstairs and I'm getting the impression that you want to tell me something."
Get ready, Clark.
"And I'd wager you don't know how I'm going to take the news." He folded his arms across his chest and waited.
He was good.
Clark tried to swallow the knot that had suddenly lodged itself in his throat and his hands started to shake; he couldn't back out now. He felt Lois' reassuring grip on his fingers as she sat down with him on the couch, after her father had taken a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs.
"So what is it son?" He asked. "What's got you looking so nervous all of a sudden?"
Clark cleared his throat and Lois' grip remained strong. "You know that I'm adopted."
General Lane nodded and seemed to be bracing himself. "Lois told me. She said that the Kent's adopted you when you were a child."
"They did."
"All right." He nodded again and was starting to look a little suspicious. "Were you born here in Kansas?"
This was going to be harder than he thought.
"Just rip the Band-Aid off Clark." Lois urged him with a low whisper, knowing he would hear her.
He ran a nervous hand through his hair, looked the General in the eye and took a deep breath before he ripped. "Not in Kansas, I was born on a planet called Krypton."
Nothing.
He felt Lois' other hand come down on his as she moved in closer, giving him the support he desperately needed. "Dad, Clark was a baby when he was sent here, to save his life."
"Save his life?" He looked all at once curious, confused and completely stunned.
"Krypton was dying." Mom added as she walked in from the kitchen and sat down on the arm of the couch, next to him. The two women he loved more than anything on Earth flanked him on either side as they helped him to explain his heritage. "Jor-El and Lara were his parents. His father was a scientist who was trying to figure out a way to save Krypton from being destroyed, but he was also a realist.
"When it became apparent that he wasn't going be able to save his home, he and Lara made the decision to sent their son away. Jor-El wanted her to go with him, so the baby would have his mother, but she refused to leave her husband."
"They found a planet that was similar to Krypton and Jor-El built a ship to carry their baby Kal-El here to Earth." Lois picked up the story. "Dad, this is Kal-El."
General Lane nodded absently and then looked at Mom. "So how did you and your husband find him?"
"Clark's ship came with the first meteor shower." He felt his mother's hand on his shoulder. "Or what we thought was a meteor shower. It was actually what was left of Krypton after it exploded.
"Jonathan and I were on our way back from town when Clark's ship crashed into our neighbor's field." She continued. "At first we thought it was a large meteor and when we went to take a look, what we found instead was a three year old boy with dark hair and blue eyes."
"And naked as a jaybird." Lois laughed softly and gave him a cheeky smile.
"Lois." He glanced at her and shook his head as he felt the heat creep across his face.
"Honey, you should be used to that by now." Mom ruffled his hair. "It is part of her charm after all."
"So you keep telling me." He sighed and dropped a kiss in Lois' hair.
"Do you remember anything about-" The General frowned. "Krypton?"
"All I know is Smallville and Kansas." Clark shook his head. "And the only parents I know are Mom and Dad."
"So you haven't always known you weren't from Earth."
He shook his head again. "I always knew I was different from other kids, but didn't exactly know why. It wasn't until my abilities started to show up that Dad finally told me about the meteor shower and how he and Mom found me."
"But you knew you were adopted."
"That was never a secret." This time he nodded. "But the great thing about my parents is that I never felt adopted. I always felt like I was theirs."
"That's because you were ours." His mother's voice was soft and Clark looked up into her smiling face. "Your dad and I were always meant to find you."
"So how long have you known about this Lois?" The question wasn't an accusation, just a need to know.
"Since last summer." She told him. "When things started to get serious, he told me."
"And you're all right with this?" He looked at her with fatherly concern.
"Daddy, he's still Clark." Lois' gentle voice, so unlike her, tried to reassure her dubious parent. "Knowing where he really comes from and what he can do hasn't changed the way I see him or how I feel about him."
"What you can do?" He shifted his attention back to Clark. "You mentioned abilities."
"Some of the abilities I have are super speed, super strength, heat vision, and x-ray vision." Clark explained and wondered if he was giving the General more information than he could process at the moment. "I can show you what super speed is, if you want."
"And your mother will get a clean kitchen out of it." Lois smiled at him.
"Before you do that, I have one more question." He stopped Clark as he began to stand and then sat back down.
"Yes, sir."
"Why exactly did you decide to tell me all of this now?"
Clark and Lois looked at each other again and he answered. "Because you mentioned grandchildren. Lois was concerned if we told that you we didn't know if we'd be able to have kids, you'd want to know why and she didn't want to lie to you.
"We'd already decided that we were going to tell you before the wedding and it just happened to be tonight."
"Is there a possibility that you can't have kids?" He sat forward and a look of disappointment flitted across his face and then it was gone.
"I don't really know." Clark shrugged. "There's a way I can find out; we just haven't had the time."
General Lane nodded his understanding and Clark thought a question about how he was going to find out was coming. But he didn't say anything else and it seemed as though Lois' father had heard enough for the evening.
He looked a little overwhelmed with everything Clark, Lois and his mother had told him and he wasn't sure how much of it the General had accepted.
"Sir, if you like I can show you what super speed is. It's easier than trying to explain it." Clark offered as he stood up, Lois' hand still in his.
The General seemed to have lost his power of speech because all he did was nod.
"Then if you'll follow me, you can see what I'm talking about." He walked toward the kitchen, shoulder to shoulder with Lois and their parents right behind them.
The three settled in the doorway and with a brief kiss from Lois just before she let go of his hand, Clark continued into the kitchen. He surveyed the room before he decided on a course of action and a few moments later, he hung the dishtowel up to dry and turned back around.
"Well, hell." The General looked absolutely floored. He blinked a few times before he headed back into the living room.
"That can't be good." Lois observed. "Dad's never speechless."
"Honey, why don't you go see if he's all right." Mom put a hand on Lois's arm. "I think this whole thing might have been too much for him."
"Sure thing, Mrs. Kent." She stood in front of Clark and kissed him again. "That was pretty impressive Smallville."
"I'm not sure your dad thinks so." He sighed.
"Don't worry about him." She shook her head. "Dad's never been a believer in anything extraterrestrial and we've just turned his thinking on that subject upside down."
"Great." He sighed again.
"All I'm saying is that it's going to take a little time for him to get used to the idea that you're an al-"
"Intergalactic traveler." He interrupted with a weak smile.
"Whatever." She put her hand on his cheek. "Clark, he doesn't know you the way your mom and I do. So just give him a chance to process all of this, it'll be fine."
"Can you give me a guarantee on that?"
"Smallville, you don't know him the way I do. He's stubborn, but he's not close minded, He just needs time to work all of this out in his head so that it makes some kind of sense to him." She finished with a squeeze of his trembling hand before she followed her father and Clark couldn't help but wonder if they'd just made a huge mistake.
~*~
Lois had coaxed her father out to the front porch and they sat down on the swing. It really was too cold to be outside, but she felt the frigid air might do him some good.
She took his gloved hand in hers, something she hadn't felt comfortable doing since she was a kid and waited.
"He looks human." Dad finally said with a shake of his head. "If you hadn't told me that he wasn't born on Earth, I wouldn't have had any idea that he wasn't human."
"That's why his father chose this planet to send him to." Lois explained. "Because Kryptonians are so similar to humans"
He cleared his throat and when she looked up at him expectantly, his face was red. Her father was blushing? "Does his looking human mean that you're physically compatible?"
Poor Dad.
"If you're asking if he has the same equipment that human males have, he does." She told him and he nodded.
"Which means that there is a possibility that you can get pregnant."
"We won't know that until we go up to the artic and talk to his father." You might as well get it out there Lo.
She got a startled glance and a look of confusion. "I thought his father was dead."
"He is." How could she explain it? "What it is really is an interactive program that Jor-El created so Clark could talk to him, sort of. A few years ago, Clark constructed an ice fortress up in the artic with a crystal that he had. That fortress contains all of the information available about Krypton and about his parents."
"Have you seen it?" His curiosity seemed to be getting the better of him and Lois tried not to smile. Her old man was really something.
"I was up there with Mrs. Kent, but I don't really remember it. What I do remember is that I thought I was in Heaven."
"That's when the Luthor jet went down." He said.
That was another story for another day.
"I vaguely remember Mrs. Kent talking to someone." Lois nodded. "And as it turned out, it was Jor-El. He saved our lives Dad. We could have frozen to death up there, but he sent us back to Smallville instead."
He looked as though he wanted to ask for more details, but ultimately declined. "I'd like to hear the whole story about that sometime."
"No problem."
"Lo, if I didn't see with my own eyes how much that boy loves you, I don't think I'd be taking this so well." He mirrored Lois' earlier action with Clark and covered her hand with his free one. "And if I didn't see how happy you make each other, I'd be having serious misgivings about this situation."
"You'll get used to it." She tried to reassure him. "Dad, when you get to know Clark better you'll really start to understand that what you see is who he is.
"He grew up believing that he'd been born human because Mr. and Mrs. Kent treated him like a normal kid. It wasn't until his abilities started to surface that he knew why he'd always felt a little different, but never understood why."
"So all he knows of Krypton is from this fortress."
"Yeah."
"Of all the young men I used to think about you ending up with, I certainly never imagined that you'd marry a Kryptonian." He must have been adjusting to the idea because he suddenly cracked a smile and shook his head.
"He may have been born on another planet, but he's just as human as we are." She caught her father's eye. "And I love him."
"I know you do." His smile widened. "He's good for you Lois. And at the risk of sounding a little sexist, he knows how to handle you; the queen boy never really did."
"That's because Ollie isn't a dorky farm boy." She laughed and found herself putting her cheek on his shoulder. She hadn't done that since she was ten.
"Come on Lo, you know that was always part of his charm." He chuckled. "And you know something? You really are perfect for each other."
"That's because I know how to handle him too." She leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Now before we freeze to death, can we please go back inside? I can smell Mrs. Kent's coffee all the way out here."
"Didn't she ask you to stop calling her Mrs. Kent?"
"I'm working on it." Lois frowned self-consciously. "So are you going to let Clark call you something besides Sir or General?"
"I'm thinking about it." He laughed. "Can't have my future son in law thinking I'm a softie."
"It's too late, he already does."
"Damn. I'll have to find a way to remedy that." Her father teased her.
"I'm sure you'll try." Lois stood up and tugged on the General's hand. "Come on Dad, I'm dying for a cup of Mrs. Kent's coffee."
"You know what? So am I." He stood up next to her. "And I can use it because I'm freezing my assets off out here."
"Dad." Lois scolded him and he laughed again as he nudged her toward the front door.
"Let's go missy." He opened the screen door and waited for her to walk in ahead of him. When she opened the front door he stopped her, just before she walked inside. "Your mother would have liked him Lo."
"And he would have liked her." She stepped into the house with her father right behind her.
"Of course he would have, she was your mother." He put his hand on her shoulder and propelled her forward.
"Dad." She sighed and he smiled as he closed the door behind them.
He knew how to end a discussion.