Plans
Clark walked down the stairs. He rubbed his face, trying to take away the fatigue he felt. He may be immune to feeling tired, but he had been pushed to that point. Jor-el had told him that he could no longer visit his family until he was finished his training. Clark had never felt so much pain before. Being told that he couldn't see them had practically killed him. Clark fought Jor-el tooth and nail against it. But Jor-el told him it was for the best. He wasn't training correctly. For three years Clark hadn't been allowed to see his family. It was the hardest thing he had to go through. And then to come home and find Evelyn drunk? It was just too much to handle. What happened to his pretty little bud?
Lois was sitting at the bar with two cups filled with coffee. She had tried helping Clark with Evelyn, but Clark told her he could handle it. "Hey, Smallville."
Clark gave her a weary smile as he took a seat next to her. He grabbed one of the mugs and took a sip from it. He didn't know what to say.
"Are you okay?" Lois asked as she laid a gentle hand on his arm. She really didn't want to talk right now. She wanted to pounce on top of him and finally release some of that passion building up within her. But Clark needed to talk and she could see that.
"I don't know. I mean, I wasn't able to come home for three years, Lois. Do you know how hard that was for me?"
Lois didn't say anything. She just nodded her head and waited for him to finish.
"I wanted to see my family. You, Caleb, Evelyn, Love. But I couldn't. I didn't know how you'd react when you'd realize I had stopped making the visits. I was so afraid that you had decided to move on."
"Clark, you know I could never move on. I love you Clark Kent and nothing could ever change that."
"I know." Clark grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes. "But I was afraid the kids would move on. Love and Caleb didn't and I am so grateful for that, but Evelyn did." Clark looked away. "How could she have done that? Doesn't she know that I love her? That I love all of them?"
"It hurt Evelyn pretty badly when you didn't show up for her birthday. I know it wasn't your fault, but Evelyn couldn't understand that. I tried explaining it to her and it seemed like she understood, but then she completely changed. Love noticed it and so has Caleb. So has Ella and Josh."
Clark looked at her confused. "Who's Josh?"
"Don't you remember? That little boy that you scared at Love's birthday?"
"Oh yeah." Clark smiled fondly as he recalled the memory. He hadn't meant to scare the kid that bad, just enough to make him back away from his girls.
Lois chuckled as she saw that glint return to Clark's eyes.
"So what do we do about Evelyn?" Clark asked after a few moments of silence.
"You need to talk with her. Take her out, just you and her."
"What would you do for punishments?"
"I would ground them for a week or two, but Evelyn seems to just ignore it. She's already grounded right now."
"I'll make sure she listens." Clark said.
"Are you sure Clark?"
"Yes, Lois."
Lois really hoped now was the time for her to take action. "Well then, if you're sure…I think that there's a couch up in the loft that has our name on it."
"Oh really? And how do you know this?"
"Because I missed my husband very much." Lois said in a sultry voice. She got up and grabbed his hand
Clark laughed. "Well I had better make it up to you then." Clark said as he started placing sweet kisses on the back of her neck. He followed her outside and up to the loft where they would share in their passion.
Evelyn got up and her head was pounding. She winced at the bright sunlight that was coming in from her window. So this was how a hangover felt. She didn't know if she wanted to do that ever again even if it made her happy for a while. She could've sworn that when Love had brought her home that Clark had finally come back. But she had been drunk. It was just her mind playing tricks on her. Clark was never going to come back. She had accepted that a long time ago.
Evelyn got out of bed and started getting ready. She changed into some nice clothes, put on some make-up, cleaned her room a little and walked out of her room to the kitchen. She knew that Lois was going to be mad at her for coming home drunk last night, but it didn't matter. It wasn't as if she was going to punish her severely or anything. Evelyn stopped at the top of the stairs and grabbed at her chest. It was starting to really hurt and for some reason she was having trouble breathing. Evelyn breathed in deeply a few times and the pain went away. It was probably another side-effect of the hangover. She continued walking downstairs. She could hear Caleb, Love and even Lois laughing along with a male laughter. It sounded familiar, but Evelyn couldn't place her finger on it.
Evelyn dropped her backpack at the foot of the stairs and walked into the kitchen. She didn't pay any attention to who was there. It was always the same people. Lois, Love, and Caleb. Nobody special. "Morning." she mumbled as she grabbed out the milk jug and drank straight from the bottle.
"I know I taught you better than that, Evelyn."
Evelyn stopped. Last night hadn't been a dream. It was real. Evelyn turned around slowly. "Daddy?" she whispered to where only Clark heard her.
"Hey, bud."
Evelyn didn't know what to do. She wanted to run up to him and hug him, ask him why he stopped coming. But she didn't. Her feet stayed glued to the floor. She felt her eyes filling up with hot tears. Her joy was soon turning to anger. "You left us." she seethed out. "You never came back. You didn't care!" Evelyn's voice was rising.
"Evelyn, calm down." Lois told her sternly.
Evelyn gave Lois a rude look, wondering who invited her to enter into their conversation.
"Evelyn, you know that I still care about all of you very much." Clark told her.
Evelyn clenched her jaw. "I'm not your little bud anymore." she said. Evelyn slammed down the milk jug and stomped her way outside.
Clark sighed. How in the world was he going to deal with Evelyn?
"Why's Evelyn mad, Daddy?" Caleb asked.
Clark looked at Caleb. He had such an adoration in his eyes for his dad. Clark remembered when he saw that in Evelyn. It was still there, but this time, he had to look hard for it.
Clark felt Lois' hand on his arm. "Don't worry, Smallville. She'll get over it. Trust me."
Clark looked at Lois and smiled. "I hope you're right."
"Daddy look! That's my bus!" Caleb exclaimed as he pointed outside.
Clark looked up at the yellow bus. "Wow, you get to ride in that?" Clark asked, humoring Caleb.
Caleb nodded proudly. He jumped off the stool and grabbed his backpack. "Bye Mommy! Bye Daddy!" Caleb said as he hugged them quickly and gave them a quick peck on their cheeks.
"See you later, guy." Clark said as he walked out the door.
A car horn honked and Love got off of her stool. "That's Mrs. Wilkinson. I'll see you later!" Love said as she was out the door. She came back in quickly and gave both Lois and Clark a hug.
Clark watched Evelyn and Love get inside the car and drive away. He turned to Lois. "Looks like we're all by ourselves." he said, hoping that she would get the hint.
"Actually, Smallville. You're all by yourself. I've got to get to the Planet. You should find yourself a job, though. I don't know if being a farmer with a reporter as a wife will be able to keep up with the bills." Lois said as she grabbed her briefcase.
"Oh, I've actually found a job."
"Really? Where?"
"The Daily Planet."
Lois didn't believe him. "Yeah right, Smallville. I'll see you later." she gave him a much too quick kiss before she left.
Clark was left standing alone in the kitchen. The morning with his family went too quickly for his taste.
Josh closed the door to his locker and saw Evelyn leaning against the other lockers, looking like she really needed to get something off her chest. She also looked a bit sick. "Whoa, what party did you go to last night?" Josh started walking down the hallway to his first class.
"I don't want to talk about that." Evelyn said as she walked with him.
"Wow! You actually want to talk with me! And Love's not around? Unbelievable!" Josh said with sarcasm.
"Josh, I'm trying to be serious right now."
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." Josh said as he tried putting away his playfulness. "Why are you talking to me? Isn't it a rule or something that if your friends with Meredith you can't be friends with Josh Wilkinson?"
Evelyn didn't respond to his comment. She always had a rude comeback for him. Josh stopped. "Evelyn, are you okay?" he asked with genuine concern.
Evelyn's hand went up to her chest and she began rubbing at it. "Yeah, Josh. I'm fine. But do you think that we could talk later?"
"Sure. When would a good time be?"
"After school? At the Talon?"
"Okay. I'll call my mom during lunch. But Evelyn," Josh looked straight into her brown eyes. "Are you sure your okay?"
Evelyn gave him a weak smile. "I'm sure."
Love sat down in her class room with a huge smile on her face. Ella came and sat next to her. Their English teacher still wasn't there, so everyone was talking.
"All right, Love. What's going on?" Ella asked.
Love looked at her confused. "Nothings going on."
"Come on, Love. I see that smile on your face. Did something happen?"
Love grinned sheepishly. "Okay, so maybe something really huge happened, but I was going to tell you and Josh at lunch so that I didn't have to repeat myself."
"Well…go on…" Ella encouraged.
Love smiled, showing off her perfectly white teeth. "Our dad came back home!" Love gushed.
"Oh my gosh! That's amazing!" Ella said as she gave her friend a hug. "When did his tour end?"
Because they couldn't tell every one that Clark had actually gone to train in an ice fortress in the north, they just said that he went to work with the Peace Corps for a while. "I don't know. He just flew in last night."
"How did Evelyn take it?" Ella knew that Evelyn had struggled with Clark leaving.
"I don't really know. Last night she came home drunk and kind of made a scene. And then this morning she yelled at him and walked out of the house.
Ella grimaced. She knew that Evelyn had a hard time accepting Clark leaving, but that didn't excuse her behavior. "I swear, sometimes Evelyn can be so rude."
Love nodded her head. "I think she's just hurting a lot right now. Hopefully she'll get better though."
"Good morning class, sorry I'm late." their teacher walked into the class and she pulled out some worksheets.
Love scribbled something down and passed it to Ella. 'We'll finish talking later.'
Ella nodded her head and they began to pay attention to what the teacher was lecturing.
Lois walked off the elevator and into the bull pen. Reporters were scurrying around everywhere, trying to find the next big lead. This was Lois' second home. She felt at ease here. This was her ideal environment.
"Lois, chief wants to see you in his office." Jimmy said as he walked out to meet her.
"Well, he's going to have to wait for a bit." Lois said. "How's Chloe?"
"She's doing fine. She wanted me to invite you over for dinner tomorrow night." Jimmy said as they both started walking to Lois' desk.
Lois really didn't hear what Jimmy had said. She only saw the vase of daises and daffodils. They were beautifully arranged. Lois picked up her pace, leaving Jimmy behind. She bent down and smelled the flowers. Clark had to be the sweetest man alive. She grabbed the card that was embedded in the flowers. She opened it. 'Lois Lane, I have never ever loved a woman like you before. I just wanted to let you know that. I would like to take you out for dinner some time. Richard.'
Lois quickly looked around the bull pen. She saw Richard look up at her. He smiled and winked at her before he returned to his own business. Lois crumpled the card in her hands and threw it into the trash bin. She couldn't believe the nerve of him! Why couldn't he see that first, she was married, and secondly that she didn't even like him!
"Who gave you the flowers?" Jimmy asked.
"No one." Lois replied a little coldly.
"Okay…well, don't forget about tomorrow." Jimmy said as he started backing away slowly.
"What's tomorrow?"
"Lois! You just agreed to coming over for dinner!" Jimmy was exasperated with her.
"Oh right. I'll call you before we leave or if we end up canceling."
"Great. Oh and remember chief still wants to see you." Jimmy turned around and went back to his desk.
Lois took one last smell from the flowers before walking to Perry's office. The flowers may have been from Richard, but they were still her favorite flowers and she was going to enjoy them for as long as they lived. "What's up chief?" Lois asked after she closed the door.
"Sit down Lois." Perry told her.
"Why? Isn't this going to be quick?"
"Just do it Lane."
Lois huffed out as she took a seat. "What is it?"
"How are you Lois?"
"I am perfectly fine." Lois answered him.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
"How are things at home?"
"Great." Lois smiled as she remembered what she and Clark had did last night. Memories…
"Okay good. You're meeting your new partner tomorrow."
Lois snapped out of her reverie. "What?!"
"You heard me Lois. I'm giving you a partner."
"But why? I work just fine alone!"
"Lois, you've gotten into so many different situations this past year. I do not want your kids to be alone." "But I always get out of them just fine!" it was true. Plus she had the extra bonus as Clark as her husband.
"All right Lois. I'm giving you one chance. If you can avoid getting into any kind of trouble today, then you're off the hook. I'll partner up the new kid with someone else. But if I see even one little paper cut on you, it's over."
"Deal." Lois got up and was about to leave, but she had one last question to ask. "Who's the new kid?"
"Someone I've been trying to get to join the team for a while now." Perry said with a knowing smile.
"Does this someone have a name?"
"You'll find it out tomorrow. Now get out of my office!"
Lois rolled her eyes as she walked out and back to her desk. She sat down and began looking through some of her files. She looked back up at the flowers and smiled fondly. As long as she imagined that it was Clark that sent her those, she was perfectly fine.
Evelyn walked out of the school feeling very lonely. All day she hadn't seen Josh, Ella, Love, or even Meredith. She really just wanted to be around with someone, just for their presence. Evelyn continued walking until she arrived at her picnic table. Well, really it was Evelyn's, Love's, Ella's, and Josh's picnic table. That's where they would all gather, even if Evelyn ignored them completely. Secretly, she enjoyed it. She sat down and pulled out her iPod.
Evelyn looked around in her bag for some kind of pain-killers. All day, her chest had been hurting and she couldn't take it anymore. She didn't find anything. She let out a frustrated sigh as she forced herself not to throw her bag.
"Hello Evelyn." Ella said as she sat down from across from her. Love joined them and sat down next to Ella.
"Hey." Evelyn replied sullenly.
Ella looked at Love. "Amazing! She's decided to speak with us today."
Evelyn didn't reply. She continued listening to her music.
Josh came by and sat by Evelyn. "Hey, guys."
"Hey Josh." they all said their greetings to him.
Josh turned to Evelyn. "How are you?" he grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
Evelyn looked up at him then back to Ella and Love. It looked like they were wanting to know what was going on between them. "I'm good."
"Evelyn! What are you doing tonight?" Meredith yelled from across the school yard. She started walking towards them, once again, wearing one of her infamous outfits.
Evelyn forced herself to brighten up. "I'm going out later."
"Cancel all of your plans. There's going to be another party tonight and we are on the VIP list."
Evelyn's eyes didn't light up like they usually did when Meredith invited her to a party. "Sorry Meredith. Not tonight."
Everyone, except for Josh, turned and looked at her. Never had Evelyn refused a party invitation, even if she was grounded.
"What? Are you ditching me for these losers?" Meredith asked
"No, Meredith. I'm just feeling a little sick after last night-"
"Oh and you're going to use a little hang over as your excuse?!"
"Meredith, it's not like that!"
"Whatever. I'm leaving." Meredith walked off without saying another word to Evelyn. But Meredith did notice Evelyn and Josh holding hands. If anyone had refused to go to a party with Meredith, she would be sure that they would be somewhat scathed by the end of the month. That little gesture was her smoking gun.
a/n: okay so i have this story set up the way i wanted it now. i have already decided on the villian. thank you all for the suggestions, but skittles mad...i laughed so hard when i read what you suggested! oh my goodness! i understand why you felt like that. don't worry. i have a lot in store for evelyn and meredith. even for love. but anyways...i know clark wasn't really even in this chapter, but don't worry, there will definitely be a lot of clois goodness in the next chapter! i appreciate reviews after you read!