We Belong to the Thunder – Arms Wide Open

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, which is a crying shame. But no copyright infringement intended.

Title: Arms Wide Open

Series: We Belong to the Thunder

Genre: Vignette, Tess/Oliver Romance, Lois/Clark Romance

Verse: Smallville, Sequel to Bad Romance

Rating: PG

XxX

He was so much more excited than she was. She lay on her back with her arm tucked behind her head, watching him with complete amusement.

"You are so cute."

"How can you not be excited?" he asked her.

"I'll be excited when I know," she told him. "I've been pregnant so long that it's practically a natural state for me now. It's not that I'm not excited."

The soft knock on the door interrupted her loving gaze at him. A doctor she didn't recognize came in the room.

"Hi there," she said warmly, extending her hand. "I'm filling in today for Doctor Mihalache. I'm Doctor Miller…Tess, Tess Mercer," she said, reading Tess's chart. She looked at Oliver and smiled, no flicker of recognition in her eyes. "Doctor Mihalache's out today but it's just for today, but don't worry, she'll be back to take care of you next time."

Tess sat up just slightly. "No problem. He's just anxious to see what the baby's gender is. And do me a favor and tell him it's a girl so we can stop having children."

"I didn't say we were going to stop having children," he said to her.

"Oh you didn't say we were going stop having children?" she countered.

Doctor Miller smiled slightly and began rolling up Tess's shirt gently. "So about the gender," she said, defusing the developing argument. "How about the ultrasound," Doctor Miller commented her as she warmed up the gel before applying it to Tess's belly.

"I had morning sickness a lot more with this pregnancy, but I've had fewer headaches-which is a really great thing because now I don't have time for them."

"Are you still throwing up?" she asked, taking the wand and administering the ultrasound with it.

"No."

The images came up on the screen and all eyes turned to view the baby. The doctor focused immediately on checking for correct measurements, positions and placements, and Tess and Oliver inhaled slightly with the usual worry.

She looked at him. "The fear of the silence," she said softly.

"I'm sorry," the doctor apologized. "Everything looks fine so far; I didn't mean to be silent. The baby is still, so I'll be able to tell in a moment what it is. But I was just looking at the placenta and its position in the uterus, its heart - all of that first. So far it all looks perfect."

The doctor pointed to the image. "Come here, look closer."

They both leaned in, fascinated by how different this baby seemed to look even though it was just a jumbled image.

"And it looks like a girl to me," the doctor whispered happily to them.

Tess smiled with joy and relief, Oliver pulling her face to his and kissing her with excitement.

"Are you happy now?" she asked him, kissing his lips.

He pulled away abruptly and looked at the doctor. "Is she okay? Are they both okay?"

The doctor was still studying the image, smiling at their reaction as she did so. "Everything looks great so far."

"Are you sure it's a girl?" Tess asked. "It better be a girl."

"Well, there she is," the doctor said, pointing. Tess and Oliver leaned in. "That's your baby girl, sleeping happily."

Tess reached forward and touched the screen with her finger. "She's real," she whispered.

Oliver wondered why Tess hadn't seemed to have felt as connected to this baby as she had to Daniel. She'd been carrying this baby just as she had Daniel, and this time they were together. So why hadn't she felt that immediate connection? He had. He'd wanted this baby immediately.

But he also knew that she'd gotten everything she'd wanted in Daniel, so it wasn't about needing another baby, it was about wanting one. And maybe now, she would.

"Can you see her?" Tess whispered to him, not looking away from the monitor.

Oliver smiled. "She's beautiful." He looked at the doctor. "Tess is okay, right?"

"Your wife's fine, Mr. Mercer."

Tess closed her eyes, smiling as she could practically hear Oliver's unspoken response. He unfailingly tilted her face to his and kissed her, as if still letting her know that she still belonged to him, despite the doctor's mistake. In his mind, though, he almost wasn't bothered by it. He just wanted her to marry him.

The doctor remained quiet as she continued studying the screen, but as Tess and Oliver continued to get distracted by each other she realized how Tess could have become pregnant a second time within six weeks. Luckily Tess remained still and allowed her to keep the wand in place on her belly while entwined with Oliver.

A half hour later, Doctor Miller gave Tess and her new baby girl a clean bill of health. Tess requested multiple copies of the sonogram photos and thanked the doctor gratefully.

Tess received four text messages from Lois so she didn't waste any time driving over to the Daily Planet to tell her the news.

Lois was hard at work at her computer when Tess sneaked up behind her.

"Hey!" she said into her ear, purposefully scaring the hell out of her.

Lois, too excited to get irritated, jumped out of her chair and turned around to see her friends. "Clark, get over here!" she shouted to her husband in the middle of a crowded office.

Clark came over with his cup of coffee and lit up at the sight of them.

"'K, he's here, so what happened?" Lois asked.

Tess pulled out the photo.

"This is for you, and it's a little girl."

Lois felt overwhelmed with joy. Tears came to her eyes and she nearly strangled Tess with her embrace.

"I'm going to have a heart attack!" she exclaimed. "This is the best news ever!"

"Well, don't kill her, she's pregnant," Clark advised with a smile.

Clark embraced Oliver. "Congratulations."

Lois pulled back and grabbed Oliver from Clark, hugging him tightly.

"Aren't you excited?"

"Yes!" he breathed. "Almost as excited as you."

Clark kissed Tess's forehead and embraced her. "We'll be there to take both the kids off your hands when you need a break," he promised.

She laughed. "You swear to that?"

"Hey, and just so everyone knows, I am now officially Mr. Mercer," Oliver announced, pulling back happily from Lois's embrace.

"Sorry?" Clark said.

"The doctor thought we were married, she saw my name on the chart, obviously didn't look at his name and called him Mr. Mercer. However, the baby's last name will be Mercer. No daughter of mine will have the last name of 'Queen'," Tess said defiantly.

"But our son does?" he questioned.

"If you can, he can. But I don't want my daughter sounding like a stripper. Her middle name can be Queen if that'll make you happy. But she gets a generic last name."

"So…when we get married, you're keeping your name?"

"I did," Lois pointed out.

"Yeah, but you're different," Oliver said.

"How am I different?" Lois questioned.

"Yeah, explain different," Tess agreed.

"You are so about to be Mr. Mercer for real," Clark teased.

"Thanks for saying that like it'd be an insult," Tess replied to Clark. "Never mind, I never said I was marrying you, but I will protect my daughter from a life of insults."

Oliver looked at Clark. "You know the feeling in your gut you get when you've picked a woman who is completely determined to call the shots?"

"Yes, eternally."

"Shut up, the both you," Lois muttered, shutting off her computer and grabbing Tess's arm. "Let's blow off the rest of the work day and go gush over the baby!"

Tess exhaled a laugh. "Yeah, no hesitation with saying that to the boss."

~~~~To Be Continued~~~~