Disclaimer:
I don't own Lois, Clark, Perry, Jimmy, etc. I'm not using this for money. I don't own the name Superman. I'm not using this for money. Yatsa, yatsa, and yatsa.
Claimer:
I do, however, own the character of Bella Noel Kent.
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Daddy's Girl
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January 25th, 1998
6:03 am
The Kent home
Clark Kent rolled over and looked at his wife, Lois Lane. Two eyes starred back at him, and both smiled. The sound of the silence was enough to make both giddy.
"We have to mark this date on the calendar." Lois said, smirking.
"The first night of quiet." Clark smiled. This was the first night since their daughter's birth exactly one month before that Bella Noel had slept an entire night, and both Lois and Clark relished the silence. However, the two adults joy was short-lived – a wail suddenly came from down the hall.
Lois sat up, yawned, and stretched, "I'll get her."
He pushed her back down, "No, I'll get her. You get her all day. Give the father some time with his daughter."
Lois smiled, "Okay." She laid back down, and watched her husband walk into the hall.
-*-*-
Clark smiled as he walked into his daughter's nursery. A soft light bounced around the room, as early morning sunlight poured in through the window. Taking pleasure in the light, Clark leaned over the side of the antique wood crib to pick up Bella. The infant's cries were reduced, but she still had tears running down her tiny, red face.
"What's the matter, Bella? Huh?" He soothed, rocking her in his arms. Clark loved his daughter's name. Bella Noel. He constantly said her name, proud that he had named her. His first thought about had been that she was beautiful and he had chosen the name Bella because of that – it meant Beauty. Noel had been picked by both him and Lois, the day Bella had been born - it meant Born on Christmas Day.
"She's asleep again, Clark." Lois said, knocking him back into reality. Lois had happily watched the scene for the last few moments. Clark had unknowingly sat down in the rocking chair and had been looking upon the child's face with such love – the same love that Martha looked at Clark with.
Clark smiled at Lois, "She's so precious, Lois. I never knew if I could have children, but look at her. She's here. A little piece of me and a little piece of you." He said, touching her face with his pinky. Clark noticed with wonder how small Bella's face was compared to his finger.
"She's got more of you." Lois remarked, walking over to the rocking chair.
"No, she looks just like her mommy."
Lois smiled and kissed Bella's chestnut-brown hair, "She has your eyes."
"She has your smile." He replied, and pulled Lois's head down to his level. He kissed her gently, and looked back at Bella. She was sleeping contently, and he was torn over whether to let her sleep in his arms longer or place her back in her crib.
Lois smiled at him, knowing what he was thinking. She tugged at his sleeve, and motioned for him to follow. Clark, willing to follow his wife if he could hold Bella a little longer, stood up gingerly, as not to wake the infant, and followed his wife down the stairs and into the living room. Lois sat down and patted the seat cushion next to her. Clark seated himself, and looked at her.
"Why'd we come out here?" He asked.
Lois pointed to the window, "I love to watch the sun rise, and I always wanted to watch it with my husband and my little girl. I finally get to."
Clark smiled, "I know where we'd get a better view."
"No. This one isn't going to go fly with Superman, until she's old enough to hold on." Lois said, snuggling up against him, and brushing her fingers along Bella's face. "She's so beautiful."
He smiled at the sleeping infant once more. Sighing, he looked out the window and watched as the sky turned red, then orange, and then settled on a brilliant yellow. After another moment, the sky became pink and then blue.
"I never noticed how gorgeous that is." Clark said, truly noticing for the first time the sky and the sun, and how they seemed to dance endlessly together.
Lois brushed her fingers over Bella's face once more before taking the infant from Clark, and walking to the stairs and back to the nursery. Entering into the room, Lois looked around at each and everything. The walls had been painted pale pink, with white around the door and window frames. A border of white teddy bears was midway up the wall, accenting the theme of the room – teddy bears. Stuffed teddy bears were all over the room – on shelves, on the dresser, around the floor, etc. In fact, all the bears had been Martha's and the older woman had gladly given them up for her granddaughter.
Across from the door was Bella's crib. It had been Clark's, so Lois had immediately wanted it. It was made out of oak wood, and a few bars had been replaced by Jonathan after Clark broke them. Superman in the making, Lois had joked. Inside the crib were other sentimental items – Lois' sheets, Clark's baby pillow, and the blanket Bella had come home in.
"And you said I was attached to her." Clark teased, watching Lois.
Lois turned around, "At least I know when she needs to sleep in her own crib. She'll be too…"
"Attached to us, if she's around us too much." He finished for her, "Lois, She could be our only child. Let me spoil her."
Lois sighed, seeing Clark's logic. It had been a miracle to have Bella in the first place; the chances to have another child weren't very good. She leaned up against her husband, and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the child in her arms and the man behind her. Clark wrapped his arms around the two, and rocked them back and forth.
A knock on the door made the two adults jump.
Clark moved first, "I'll get it." He ran over to the door, reaching in to the closet and pulling on the blur robe that was in there. After fiddling with the belt, he opened the door. "Morning, Jimmy."
Jimmy Olsen was standing on the doorstep to the Kent's brand new home. About three months before Bella was born, Lois and Clark had moved into a two-floor house in the good part of Metropolis. Jimmy, being Bella's godfather, often visited – at the earliest hour possible.
"Sorry to bother you, the Chief wants the two of you back at the Daily Planet to work on a story." He said, shier then usual.
Lois walked over, wearing her own robe, "I'll go get Bella dressed." She said, walking back toward the stairs.
Clark motioned for Jimmy to come into the house, as Clark walked into the kitchen to make coffee. "What's the story about?"
Jimmy looked up, coming out of his own thoughts, "Hum?"
"What's the story on?" Clark asked again.
Jimmy tugged at his collar, "I don't know. He didn't tell me. He just told me to get the two of you over there."
Clark nodded, and watched as Lois came down the stairs, fully dressed. She was putting her diamond stud earrings in, as she walked into the kitchen.
"Are we forgetting something?" Clark asked, smirking.
Lois punched him playfully, "I thought you'd dress her. You wanted to spend more time with her."
Clark nodded his head in agreement, and head to the stairs to change. Lois watched him and waited to hear the bedroom door shut, before speaking.
"You didn't say anything to him did you?" Lois asked, hopefully.
"No. I would like to be able to see Bella before she's twenty years old." Jimmy laughed, remembering Lois' earlier threat.
"Good." Lois smiled.
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Clark shuffled around the room in search of his left shoe. He had dressed rather quickly in a pair of jeans, with a white turtleneck and a sport coat. However, after pulling on his socks and his right shoe, he made the discovery that he was missing the other.
"Of course. Only I could lose the same shoe three days in a row." Clark whined to himself. He sighed and looked down – and the black shoe looked back. "There you are!" He said, pulling it on.
He walked over to the door, opened it, and walked down the hallway to Bella's room. He walked into the room and peeked into the crib. Bella was sleeping contently on her back, her hands in little fist by her head. He looked at her for a moment, before moving to get clothes for her from the dresser. He pulled out a pair of small white, footed pajamas, as well as a sweater and a hat. He went back to the crib and gazed once more at his daughter, before picking her up as gently as possible.
As he set her down on the changing table, she began to open her eyes. She yawned, and shut her eyes again. Clark smiled, and began to change her happily.
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"Clark! Come on!" Lois yelled up the stairs.
Clark suddenly appeared on the staircase, carrying both Bella and her diaper bag in his arms. "I know. I know." He said, shifting the child and the bag.
Lois just smirked and reached for Bella. Clark hesitated at first, but handed the infant to Lois. He grabbed some things off the kitchen table, while Lois and Jimmy went out to the car. Clark grabbed the last item, and walked out of the house, locking the door behind him. He walked over to the car and hopped into the driver's seat, as Lois sat down in the passenger seat. Clark glanced at Jimmy, who was finishing buckling the infant-sized car seat to the backseat.
"It's as tight as it's going to get." Clark said, chuckling.
Jimmy nodded, "I'll gonna come with you guys, if that's okay. I left my car at the Planet."
"Sure. Get in." Lois said, leaning back and turning her head to look at Bella. The infant was now awake and looking at her mother, her eyes wide with curiosity. "Hello, Bella Beauty." Lois cooed, as the car sped down the road.
Bella smiled, as if knowing her mother was talking to her. The baby sneezed, and Lois smiled, yet was bit nervous. After a minute, Lois reminded herself that the dog had been in the car the week before, and no one had vacuumed out the car – Bella probably sneezed from a dog hair.
"Bless you, Bella." Lois said, smiling.
Jimmy smiled at the way Lois was fussing over the baby. 'But that's every mother's right.' Jimmy thought with a smile on his own face. He remembered the way his mother had fussed over him, and he figured Mrs. Kent and Mrs. Lane had done the same thing with Clark and Lois.
"What's with that smile?" Lois asked, innocently.
"Nothing." Jimmy said, as they pulled into the Daily Planet's parking lot.
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The three adults jumped onto the elevator, Clark holding the infant. Lois shifted the diaper bag as she pressed the button for the offices.
"So what have the two of you been planning?" Clark asked, knowing some sort of surprise was waiting for them – or more specifically, him.
"Nothing." Lois said, seriously.
Clark nodded his head in a 'yeah-right' fashion, and the elevator came to a stop. When the doors opened, all the lights were off, except for the nightlight thing on Cat's desk.
"Hello?" Jimmy called into the room.
Silence.
"We're here, you can come out now." Clark said, a bit of amusement in his voice.
All of a sudden the lights came on, startling Bella, and all of their colleagues jumped out of their hiding places, "Surprise!" Each yelled, huge smiles spread across their faces.
Lois and Clark smiled, and walked down the stairs to the small party that had been planned weeks before.
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"Who thought of this?" Clark laughed, "I'll have to kill them." He said, looking at his wife and Jimmy. They'd been at the party about a half an hour by now, and while Bella was slowly being passed around the room, the proud parents were beaming and having a great time.
"She's so precious!" Cat cooed, taking her turn to hold the infant.
Clark smiled at her comment, "This from the woman who said I had an unhealthy attachment to my daughter." He teased.
"I take it back – I don't want to give her up!" Clark walked away from the woman to find Lois.
"She slept the whole time last night. I thought she'd been awake at all hours again." Lois said, to Erin Lizton – one of the Planet's newest reporters, who was also pregnant.
Erin smiled, "Well, Aria did the same thing when she was a baby, I'll get used to it again." She said, as her three-year old peeked out from behind her mother.
Clark waved, making Aria smile and duck back behind her mother.
"Aria, say hello to Mr. And Mrs. Kent." Erin said, looking at her daughter.
Aria waved and sucked on her thumb.
Lois watched as Clark crouched down and began to talk to the little girl, and her heart warmed, thinking of how good a father he was going to be to their daughter. Her train of thought was soon broken as Cat walked over with a crying Bella. Lois took her gratefully, and began to rock the infant, but to no avail – she still cried loudly.
Clark stood up and reached for Bella. He took her, and immediately the baby began to quiet – which lead Lois back into her thoughts. 'She's going to be such a daddy's girl.' She thought.
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Cassie Jamie
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