This chapter will bring to an end my personal view of Season Nine. I hope all of you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. A special thank you for all the wonderful feedback.

Chapter Eleven

"So, little cuz, you were maybe planning on getting married without inviting me?"

Chloe almost tackled her with her exuberant embrace, "Oh, my God! Kal was right. You're alive!!!" she practically screamed the greetings.

Lois looked at a stunned Kal-El over Chloe's shoulder, "Cat got your tongue, Smallville?"

Kal-El had a slightly worried grin, very happy to see her, especially for Chloe's sake; and yet, "So much for my airtight high-tech security measures," he mumbled, quite puzzled.

From behind her, three other people emerged and Rokk's voice apologized, "Sorry, Kal, it was determined to be the safest place to return her to this century. And there is no need to doubt the safety of the Fortress; your security has not been breached in a thousand years; you…your descendents granted us access to return Miss Lane."

Lois smiled, "Yeah, these three nice young folks from the next millennium wanted to come along. In their time, you two fill up quite a LOT of celebrity disk space in their history lessons. We brought along what we hope is a not-too-inappropriate wedding gift: The power to destroy Zod and Doomsday by sending them to the future, which I understand is what you were supposed to do last time! Superman! These kids have been quite busy building and creating a prison that will be able to hold them both. Lex and Tess, of course, I was hoping they'd see it my way by picking them up and dropping them off in some other century on a barely habitable planet in a galaxy far away. But, I guess I can't have everything."

Rokk gave a curious look towards Garth and then faced Kal-El, "We bring you this option to capture Zod. If you are prepared, the cost to human life will be avoided. Your touch and command will be the only power to open the portal, there will be no more accidental travels through time." He gave a meaningful glance towards Lois.

Garth quickly stepped behind a laughing Imra, "Hey, I tried to stop her looking through the disks; she's very fast…I left her alone for maybe a minute…"

"Amazing stuff…I never thought history could be quite so interesting, you know?" Lois moved a little back within Chloe's embrace to get a good look at her. "I read about Jimmy; I'm sorry. You okay, cuz?"

Chloe smiled and first looked over her shoulder to make sure Kal-El heard too, "Yes."

Lois looked at both of them, "You two have a lot of explaining to do, you know? Secret hero crap, living for centuries, healing people, aliens, flying; did I miss anything Garth?" Garth merely let out a very long moan, he would certainly be kicked out of the Legion, if Rokk even deemed him worthy of going back to their time; he could be stuck living out his life in Ancient foul-aired Metropolis.

"Living for centuries…?" came out of both Chloe and Kal-El's mouths at the same time as if it was the only thing of Lois' tirade that they'd heard.

A string of curses left Rokk's normally polite lips, but the damage had been done and he settled down enough to explain. "I think you've suspected for some time, Kal-El, the possibility of you living for many generations with the endless life-giving energy the yellow sun empowers you with. And maybe you can both remember why a certain Doctor Knox wanted Chloe's heart to give his beloved eternal life."

Rokk gave Lois a very stern look and even she got the hint of what should remain between them. Although he hadn't been told about all these other disks Lois had viewed, he had discovered that Garth had shown her a forbidden disk of another history where Clark and Lois had become a couple some years after Brainiac had caused Chloe's death. Rokk had been forced to give her the details of how the Legion helping Clark save Chloe changed that particular history. Their new history had now been filled with a library full of disk space of a Kal-El, Clark's birth name, and Chloe Sullivan, a name they had previously not known when they had first arrived in the 21st century to help Clark.

As soon as Rokk had learned what Lois had seen, he'd asked her if she ever wanted to return to her own time or if she'd rather stay in the 31st century. Other than the one outing to a history museum to convince her that she had been transported into a future century, she had literally been a prisoner at the Legion's headquarters, restricted from seeing any outside information including news of current events. Garth had been the first to notice the note on Kal's jacket in the display case at the museum; it had actually convinced Lois more than any of their explanations as to where she really was. Her eyes had glazed over but she had too much courage to let the tears fall, "I'd like very much to go home."

Rokk had told her he would work on finding a way to return her to her own time; and then, fearing what damage could be caused by so much knowledge of the future, immediately took further measures to restrict her access to any other historical information after that. He had not known about the other disks that she had already viewed until now.

Imra came up to Chloe, "We can't stay much longer. We of the Legion bring you a special wedding present. I apologize for accidentally extracting information about your mother the last time we were here, but your worry for her was very clear in your mind. In our time, there is a cure for her ailment and our leaders have allowed us to bring it to you so that she may be at your wedding as I know you are wishing for."

She handed a suddenly tearful Chloe a small box and then turned to Kal-El. "We of the Legion are honored once more to be of help to you. Be well, all of you."

Rokk took a look at Lois and knew he could not blame her for all that she had wanted to know when she'd found herself in a fancy cage in another century; it had taken a lot of work to prove to her where she'd ended up. It hadn't been her fault that they could not allow her to obtain more information once she had decided she wanted to return to her own time. And even though she'd had illegal access to some historical events, it seemed unfair to him that she had only seen future happiness for others, but none for herself. He felt it was owed to her, in spite of the worries she had given him. He walked up to her to say good-bye and whispered in her ear, "You will find much happiness in your life here with your career and with a love who will have no 'hero complex;' who will see you first and only; you will be second to nothing and no-one."

He kissed her on the cheek, "It has been interesting, Miss Lane," and then he grabbed Garth gently by the arm, "Give Kal-El what we have brought and we will go home and discuss Legion rules and discipline."

And just before they turned together for their exit, Rokk looked at Kal-El and repeated a familiar warning, "Be careful in the days ahead, Kal-El."

Before they could react, the three were gone and Kal-El and Chloe were left behind with a stunned Lois.

Kal-El took Chloe in his arms carefully setting down both special delivery boxes from the 31st century. "Are you okay?"

She buried her face in his chest and let the tears fall as Lois turned back to face them both. Kal-El finally broke the silence, "Superman?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Hard to believe, huh? If you don't mind I'm sticking with Smallville for a while, okay?"

Chloe's tears slowly stopped and when she turned to look at Lois, it was to find her looking all around the Fortress, "Tell me we're in some crazy cave in 2009 and not still in the next millennium, please. And while you're thinking up a believable explanation of where exactly we are, tell me if this joint has a heater?"

Chloe smiled, "So the history lessons didn't include anything about the Fortress of Solitude?"

"Solitude, huh? Perfect description; and nope, not in the history disks I snuck a peak at. That Garth didn't exactly leave me a lot of snoop…uh…discovery time, you know," she smiled at them.

Chloe started laughing and was quickly joined by the other two, "Oh, Lois, we missed you so much. I think we worried just as much about you as we did for the poor Legion who we assumed would be taking care of you. The 31st century might never recover."

"Thanks, cuz; nice to know you missed me!"

After one very emotional group hug, Kal-El suggested they go home, discreetly. "I don't know if it's safe to reveal that you're alive, Lois. I'll call Oliver and we hopefully can meet somewhere."

After much explanation about what was currently going on and a number of repeated apologies for the secrets they'd kept from Lois, a few hours later they were on the train to a small town near Metropolis. Lois was snuck into a hospital room listed as a patient 'x' who had been bandaged up on arrival several months ago apparently presumed to be another barely alive comatose victim of the monster that had terrorized and killed so many that day in Metropolis.

Oliver had taken care of the cover story and instructed her to remain quiet a few days and then miraculously wake up and storm out of the hospital with as little fuss as possible.

She agreed to make her way back to Metropolis and this time with as much fuss as possible threaten to sue the DP for being sacked while she was lying half dead in a hospital bed from injuries caused by being attacked by her boss. She was even encouraged to threaten to sue Tess Mercer personally if she didn't get her job back immediately.

She would be an extra inside eyes and ears for the Justice League; she volunteered that before Oliver even thought of asking her.

Once Lois was settled it was late in the evening and Kal-El flew with Chloe to meet Oliver at the JL headquarters and filled him in on the rest of their very unusual day, letting him know that the gifts from the future were safely locked up in the Fortress, and saving for last, "Watchtower and I are engaged."

Oliver grinned as he got up from his chair and hugged them both, "About time… Congratulations! Have you set a date?"

"As soon as possible; but we would like to wait until Moira has time to recover after she's started on her cure. Let me know when it's safe to get the medicine to her. We would also like to make a short trip to Washington to visit the Senator and invite her to the wedding. Chloe would also like to locate Gabe; we haven't heard from him in some time. On the way here we talked about also waiting until Zod and apparently Doomsday again, according to our time travelers, are dealt with but Zod could take months to even reveal himself; we'd rather not wait. I've waited too long already to try to make this beautiful woman happy," Kal-El confessed.

Suddenly Chloe became agitated on the small couch beside him, "Oh, no, Clark, oh my God, I—"

Kal-El turned towards her; the sound of his name from her lips lifting a weight he had not realized was still left on his heart. He raised his hand to her chin and lifted her face to his, her worried eyes not yet registering the transformation in him as he whispered, "I'm whole now. I love you, Chloe," and kissed her gently before asking, "What's wrong?"

"I-I lost the ring… I don't remember what happened to it; I didn't even get a chance to open the box and look at it…I'm sorry…" she was close to tears.

"Right pocket of your sweatshirt. You dropped it when we jumped up in shock at the arrival of our sudden unexpected guests in the Fortress. I picked it up while you were hugging Lois."

She reached in her pocket and then slowly opened the jeweler's box, her eyes wide at the three small heart-shaped diamonds on a gold band, "It's beautiful. Thank you." And then she turned the box towards him and smiling asked, "We have a witness, would you like to make it official?"

Kal-El smiled at Oliver's surprised expression as he slid off the couch unto his knees, took out the ring and slowly slipped it on Chloe's left hand, his eyes watching her face as he asked, "Will you marry me, Chloe?"

Chloe tenderly framed his face with her hands, "Clark Kent, born Kal-El, yes I would love to marry you," she answered him solemnly as he reached up and pulled her down close enough to touch his lips to hers.

They quickly forgot they still had a witness until several minutes later Oliver teased them, "Ah, okay kids; that couch is definitely not big enough and there's no bed in this place…so…"

Still somewhat lost in their own special world; both stood up slowly yet not taking their eyes off each other as they reluctantly ended their kissing session.

Oliver took pity on them, "Take a few days off to celebrate your engagement. I should be able to arrange safe transport to the location where Mrs. Sullivan is hospitalized by Wednesday; I'll call you before then, okay? Now get out of here and have a little fun."

They walked arm in arm to the nearest subway station and after many changes, ended up in front of the same small spaghetti restaurant where they'd had that first official 'date' many weeks ago. He smiled as they stood outside, "Could I interest my bride to be in a very late delicious Italian dinner?"

She laughed and hugged him tightly. He had no choice but to kiss her because her smiling lips were too inviting to resist. When he finally and most reluctantly let her go, she smiled up at him, "Rokk said 'descendents,' didn't he?"

The look in her eyes showed him dreams they hadn't even dared to imagine as he quietly answered her, "Yes."

She took his hands in hers and spoke as if in awe of a miracle she couldn't quite believe yet, "We'll have a child? Children?"

As he pulled her back into a tight embrace the heat did not stop with his eyes, it consumed his entire being; and yet it was not the temperature of lust and hunger, but the warmth of love such as he had never felt before.

He knew there were no guarantees; their futures were not engraved in stone yet; but he dared to hope. They would survive--the world would survive Zod and Doomsday. He smiled down at her and with undisguised longing whispered, "A family," before he kissed her again.

She returned the kiss and then suddenly pulled back a little without leaving his embrace. With laughter in her voice as well as in her eyes, she told him "We're going to be together for a very…very long time," as if Lois' revelation had just sunk in.

The pleasure in her voice filled his heart with love for her as he felt confident enough to teasingly ask her, "And I take it you're very happy about that?"

He didn't think a thousand years together could ever cause him to tire of seeing how happy she was at that moment as she laughed, "Oh, yes! And it's entirely your fault, and you know it."

The eyes that looked down into hers were mesmerizing in that hypnotic alien way she had loved for so long as he told her, 'Yeah, I know…"

And those lips that spread into a smile showed every ounce of that Kansas farm boy charm that only he could get away with as he quietly and happily acknowledged and confessed his guilt.

"… I'm responsible…."

--- The End---