The Unexpected

by legendarytobes

Kara neglected to tell Clark a little something about Kryptonian biology and it results in Lana leaving him with child. It's about how Clana dissolves and Chlark bond over the child. Set in season seven post "Hero."

11. Chapter 11

11

Clark was humming slightly to himself, bobbing his head in rhythm with the song Chloe had given to him. He'd been able, with some concerted effort in searching through the attic, to find an old boombox of his father's, complete with an extension for a large pair of headphones. He currently had the large padded things propped against his stomach.

Really, it was a good thing he'd given up on preserving his dignity some time back because he was pretty sure he looked ridiculous.

Lana looked up from the magazine she was reading on her side of the bed. "Really?"

"What?" He asked, guileless. "I think it's kind of funny."

Over the headphones, Eric Idle had started into the final part of the song, " So always look on the bright side of death!/Just before you draw your terminal breath. ." He should have seen it coming, really. Chloe's dad loved comedy. He professed a deep love for classic SNL and the best of Jim Carrey, but it didn't surprise Clark in the least that her dad and Chloe by extension were Monty Python fans.

Hell, she'd sat him down and forced him to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail when they were in eighth grade. He'd laughed but never found it nearly as funny as she did. He didn't quite get British humor. However, he never had looked at rats quite the same way since.

"I can't believe you're playing that for him. I thought we were going to try for something more educational."

"This can be educational." He said. "Okay, it's a lot more cynical than I am, but it does scream Aunt Chloe, doesn't it?"

"I'll say." Lana said sourly.

"Besides, she gave Kara ideas. I already have a mix tape of GnR, Bon Jovi, and Van Halen ready to go for later. I'm afraid I'll have to put it on eventually because she'll hear if I don't and I need to sweet talk her into farm chores." He shrugged. "It's going to be eclectic."

As if to further underlie his point, the tape switched tracks and a new accented voice sang out over the headphones: " Every sperm is sacred./Every sperm is great./If a sperm is wasted,/
God gets quite irate."

He blurred into superspeed to turn that song off. "Well that was just awkward really and kind of Catholic."

"Sullivan." Lana supplied. "That stuff's really low brow."

"It's still funny."

"Martha's right. It should be Mozart or Vivaldi or something."

"I don't even know who the second guy is." Clark added. "Besides, it's just a mix of things for the baby, you know? I thought that between the Flying Circus, Lois and Kara's lack of taste, and whatever cute Sesame Street thing my mom found, he'd hear a lot. Anyway," he said, pulling the headphones off of him. "The music isn't even the important part. The books say it's just really important to talk to them. They bond by hearing the parents' voices (technically the book had said mother, but it wasn't edited to be PC for Kryptonians so he'd let that slide)."

"Can he even hear?"

Clark nodded. "He's old enough. The ears are all formed and in working order. Besides, if he's anything like Kara and me, he can."

"I thought you didn't get your hearing until high school?"

"Technically, no, but I've always heard better than humans just like I see more clearly or can smell more acutely. It just got very exaggerated in junior year. I, uh, well I could always hear my mom's heartbeat if I concentrated hard enough."

She quirked her head at him. "Like with the baby?"

"Well, I never had to try with him. When I was really little, I had all these nightmares. I...well, I think some of it was more like memories, but I didn't know that at the time. I just started seeking out her heartbeat the first few months on the farm and I went for years where I couldn't go to sleep without hearing it."

"But you focus on him instead now?"

"Yeah." He said, smiling back at her. It faltered when he noticed the hurt reflecting in her eyes. "Lana?"

"The heartbeat thing really matters to you, doesn't it?"

"I...yeah." He admitted. "I was kind of scared and a little annoyed by it the first day or two, but I can't imagine not hearing it. It almost feels like I kind of need it." It was one of the things that made the ISIS check ups even more unbearable. As long as the Blue K was out, all his abilities were stripped from him. It was scary not to be able to hear his son when he wanted to, and the relief that flooded over him every time she shut that damn lead box was palpable.

"Can you hear mine like that?" She asked, intrigued.

"No," he replied honestly, wincing a little when her expression closed off. He hoped she never asked if he could do that with Chloe because he'd always sucked at lying. Worse, she'd always seen through him.

"Oh," She replied, sighing. "I...sometimes I wish it were me."

"With the powers?" He asked, trying very hard to shut out the memories of her time as a pseudo-Kryptonian. He hadn't enjoyed having her beat the ever-loving crap out of him. He'd also rarely felt more sick or been more scared than when he'd met Chloe at the hospital. At the time, she was in tears and waiting for the doctors' assessment of her still unconscious cousin. God, if his powers had killed her handicapped Lois, he never would have forgiven himself.

It was like with Eric. Even if he didn't have them or all of them at full strength, they still felt like his responsibility.

Lana'd abused that.

Clark let a hand stray over his stomach. He couldn't let the little one do anything like that. He had to learn to be as responsible as he and Kara were, as Raya had been.

And not like with Lana.

"No," she finally answered and his dour mood lifted a little knowing that she still wasn't envious of his gifts. "It's just, you're so connected to everything. I want to feel like that."

"But you are connected. I mean, I'm sure humans...um, other parents feel like that. I read in one of the books that the 'fathers' start feeling a lot of it at the hospital because then they get to see the baby and hold it."

"'Father,'" Lana replied, snorting. "This is beyond screwed up. I don't know why I ever thought-"

"Thought what?" He asked.

"Nevermind, Clark. I'm just being my usual over-worked self. I'm glad you're finding things to help bond with your...our son. I just...would it kill you to try a little Verdi or something?"

"Is that a color?"

"Nevermind. I'll have my team make up a selection of mp3's for you."

"You could always try the low tech approach," he offered.

"I don't need to record cassettes." Lana replied tiredly.

"No," he said, putting all the wires and other equipment on the floor beside his bed. "I mean, you could just lean over and talk to him. I've sort of gotten into a running commentary on the farm. I don't really think he appreciates all the boring tractor repair stories but those are definitely Kent family tradition."

"There are other family traditions."

"Huh?"

"I came home the other day and Kara was talking to you in Kryptonian."

"Uh, yeah. She was telling me a few of the more typical bedtime stories we had there. She got really into it with voices and everything. It's so weird to think she was doing that for me and, to her, it only feels like just last year that happened."

Lana's eyes narrowed. "I'll bet. Do you really think that's appropriate?"

"What?"

"The Kryptonian. You don't even speak it."

"Actually, I can."

"Oh, I only thought that-"

Clark sighed and steadied himself. "You only thought that he could do it. Yeah, well, I'm sure he got an earful at whatever trial they put him through before the Phantom Zone. No, I can speak it as well as I read it. I just don't unless Kara's making me practice, which she's picked up on lately."

"Still, I thought you didn't like Kryptonian things."

He sighed. "It's complicated. I hate Zod and Fine and I'm pretty pissed at and terrified of the Fortress. But Raya was good and I love Lara and Kara. It's part of me. I...it's not all of it, but it's some of it, and Kara's kind of here to remind me about all of that."

"I see. Still, I thought we agreed to keep things as not alien as possible."

Clark flinched at the word. He'd never cared for the connotation much and it was why he'd adopted the term intergalactic traveler in the first place. "It's not alien ," he replied tersely. "It's Kryptonian and that's me, kind of, and it's definitely Kara."

"And he shouldn't be brought up speaking an alien language."

"Kara's language," He corrected. He still considered English his native language. "Anyway, it's not like he'll pick it up or remember any of this beyond impressions. It's a good thing."

"Perhaps," She said neutrally.

Clark sighed and turned the light on his side of the bed off and then rolled over toward her. "Seriously, if you want, you can start talking to him. Kara and mom have already hopped on that bandwagon."

Lana looked down at his stomach, at the slightest addition of girth that he'd put on in the last month, and he swore it was the first time since this had all started that she'd even done that much. She leaned lower toward him and opened and closed her mouth in rapid succession before shaking her head and turning back to her own bedside table. "I can't."

"Oh, I see." He said, trying to keep the wounded tone out of his voice.

"I...it's just weird, Clark. I'll get used to it, just give me time."

"I'm giving you time. I've given you thirteen weeks."

"Excuse me?" She said, rolling back to face him. "What's that supposed to mean."

"Nothing."

"No, it doesn't mean 'nothing.' It means that you don't like how I'm handling things."

"It's not that exactly. It's just that you're so cold about everything."

"I am not. Just because I don't stare at you non-stop like Kara, or won't keep my hands off of you like Chloe, and you could try for some boundaries there."

"I...how'd you even know about that?"

"Kara's large mouth is legendary." Lana continued. "I can't believe you let Chloe keep her hand firmly planted on your stomach every time you visit her."

"I wouldn't say it like that."

"Kara described it that way."

"And she and mom get all excited about him too. You won't even look at me."

"Oh Jesus, don't be so melodramatic. I'm seriously considering having Schwartz reassess your hormone levels."

"Okay that's insulting. This isn't all in my head. It's been over three months and we barely kiss. You won't look at me below the chest. You won't touch me, and now you can't even talk to our child. What am I supposed to think?"

"I don't know what you mean."

He shook his head. "You certainly do. Do you even want him?"

"Clark, of course I want him. I wouldn't have set up ISIS the way I did if I hadn't. I wouldn't be always searching for better doctors for him if I didn't."

"I have six already." He said, his voice strained.

"I'm considering a physicist."

"Why the Hell would I need one of those?"

"We're starting strength testing for you. We should have done it to start with for baselines, but what you and Kara can do now we'll have to do."

He reeled back like she'd-okay not her, Fine-had slapped him. "Why do I need even more tests? Isn't the blood and the urine and the tissue samples and the, um, other stuff enough?"

"Schwartz is theorizing that the baby might start leeching some of your strength. You could get fatigued later in the pregnancy. If we don't start measuring now, we won't be able to detect any declines before it's too late."

"For what? Either that would happen or it wouldn't. Knowing that I can lift a grand piano one handed now and maybe not as easily in two months won't tell us anything. It's just an excuse for that shady creep to start testing more of my 'abnormalities.'"

"Oh, don't be so fucking sensitive. So Schwartz doesn't use the same euphemisms as your mother."

"Fuck bedside manner. How can I even related to him as my main doctor, if he thinks that everything I do is some kind of deformity?"

"He doesn't and this is a good thing to start with."

"Continue with. I get tests and tests and tests and I don't know if they're doing anything at all. I don't need ultrasounds and human medicine won't work on me, even with my powers stripped, my body chemistry is too different."

"Clark, we keep going over this. ISIS is-"

"Taking more and more of my life." He said calmly. "How long before Schwartz cons you into an ophthalmologist or an audiologist for testing our senses?"

"That might not be that bad an idea."

"It would be. My strength and my eyesight don't have anything to do with me being pregnant."

"They might. If we know more about how you work-"

He shook his head and leaned back against the headboard. "We're you even going to tell me about the seventh doctor? Was he just going to show up one day and start demanding that Kara and I perform like trained seals."

"I don't appreciate your metaphor."

"I don't appreciate being treated like a child in all of this. You need to keep me informed and actually consult with me before you do these things. I already have one strike, fuck all three, against me. Only Russell even listens and the rest decided after my bloodwork came back that I don't matter in this whole thing."

"It's not that bad."

"They only talk to you. They only look at you. They only listen to you because I'm not human." He finished, and his voice wavered on that last part. "You're my mouthpiece here. If I can get any of them to listen, it's because we've talked and you're helping me with them. We should be coming together and instead you're doing things behind my back."

"And when I go behind your back, it's to get better treatment. When you do it, it's to ex me out of all the motherly things."

He gripped his stomach and frowned at her. "Want to trade?"

"Not like that. I might be consulting with your doctors, the ones I'm paying for, by the way, but at least I'm not having some man groping all over me."

"Chloe's not groping anything. She's doing what you won't do! You don't get it at all. I know you're trying. But there's more to being the mom here than signing checks for the doctors and going over tests until early in the morning in Metropolis. I...you need to be on the farm more. God, I need you to look at me, to start doing the mom things for the baby. You need to talk to him or start trying to feel for the kicking, even if it is a few weeks away. Being supportive like that is so much more important than the medical stuff. I...did Lex just pay for things?"

"I can't believe you brought him up in our room."

"Me neither!" He shouted and the walls shook. "But I just did. I know Lex. Yeah, he's nuts and he's done more evil things than even I can keep track of, but he loved Julian more than anything. I know that he wanted a family very badly even if he was sick enough to make the whole thing up with hormone shots and shady doctors. But you tell me that all his dad stuff only included signing checks. Say it and I'll drop this."

"I...of course not. But he was playing me. He was playing me for months and he did all of it-the nursery, the stuffed animals and handmade toys, the brochures for elite preschools. Of course, he was doting and everything else, but it was an act, Clark."

"But it's what parents do. Why the Hell can't you just be more like my mom? Why can't you be happy that this is happening?"

"Why can't I be more like Chloe is what you mean? Of course, I'm happy. But I'm scared too. The baby could die and I already lost one, at least it felt like I did. I can't lose another so I'm doing everything for the both of you." She finished, her voice shrill.

He deflated a little at that. "I'm sorry." He said, reaching out and pulling her into his chest. He ignored the way she squirmed a little at the touch of his midsection. "I'm scared too."

"I know. I'll try and do better, Clark. I just...you have two mothers who love you, and a terrific father. Kara won't shut up about what Aunt Lara did when she was pregnant. Martha's the best mom there is and Jonathan was amazing. Nell wasn't like that and I barely remember my mom and dad. I'm doing the best she taught me."

Clark shivered at that. He had some suspicions that Nell came more from the Jor-El and Lionel Luthor school of parenting, not that she was abusive, but she had put so many unrealistic expectations on Lana.

She had a point.

Not everyone got to have the Kents as parents.

And yet, Chloe hadn't had a mother at all after she'd turned five, and she was so good at being an aunt.

No, wait, that wasn't fair. This was about Lana and trying to understand her and make everything work for the baby. Things could get better. He knew they could.

"Shh. It's okay. I'm sorry. I just...maybe you're right about the stupid hormone stuff. The physicist thing might not even be so bad. I have been feeling more tired lately."

Lana's change in demeanor was so fast it left him reeling. Picking her head up from his chest, she nodded briskly. "I'm glad you see my point, and I'll try to do better. We'll start tomorrow with the naming fun and, in a few weeks, when my schedule clears, we'll do a whole string of days just preparing the nursery out of your mom's old office, okay? I do want him, really."

"Really, really?"

"Of course." She said smiling and leaning back into him.

Clark let out a long sigh. He hadn't felt as relieved or free in months.

Lana did love both of them.

Clark closed his eyes and was just settling to sleep when one little phrase caught his sensitive ears.

Of course, I want a child. I just wish he were human.

He stilled at that, but didn't speak. Sometimes even his mom forgot about how acute his hearing was. Lana must not have been thinking under the stress and let the one thing slip he'd already been trying to deny. Of course, Lana Lang wanted a family. She'd been trying to put one together since he'd inadvertently killed her parents. She just hadn't wanted an alien one.

That hurt.

But he knew Lana loved him. She loved Clark Kent; it was just taking her more time than he'd have liked to get to love the Kal-El part.

It would come, he told himself as he tried to sleep.

He was just asking a lot from her. Not everyone was supposed to be thrilled with aliens. Really, only his mom and dad and Chloe had ever been okay with all of it. He just needed to give Lana more time and be more agreeable about everything.

He just needed to shut up and be glad that anyone would try loving him at all.

"Hey there!" Chloe chirped as she slipped into his room. She leaned down over him and he could feel her breath ruffling his t-shirt. "And how's the best nephew ever this morning? The Planet was a mess, little guy, but I figure by the time you get there, Uncle Perry will be in charge just like he's supposed to be."

"Chlo, stop pressuring my son. He can grow up to be anything he wants."

She shook her head dismissively. "Don't listen to your daddy. You want to be just like Nellie Blye and Bob Woodward, don't you?"

He sat up a little and rolled his eyes. "Don't listen to Aunt Chloe. You can be a plumber or a fireman or whatever you want."

Chloe considered that. "Huh? I hear plumbers make great money. I make crap."

"Chlo! Language!" He screeched. "Come on, no bullpen language here."

"But it will come in handy."

"No, it won't. Only bad people swear. Don't listen to Aunt Chloe or Aunt Lois ever." He said, sighing at her. "You're early. Lana's still at ISIS, Kara's shift doesn't end for forty more minutes and mom had to grab dinner at the farmer's market. It's just me."

"Well," Chloe replied, sitting down on Lana's side of the bed and, wasting no time, put a hand on his fledgling bump. "I finished a story in record time and high-tailed it here. I'm pretty excited and I can't wait to hear what genius ideas your cousin came up with. With her pop culture-rotted brain, I'm betting on Webster or John-Boy or something."

"Not funny." He said, yawning.

Chloe frowned. "Are you alright? You look really tired."

"I didn't sleep at all last night. I don't need sleep all that much, but I like it."

"I get that. I like it too even though I don't need it much either anymore," she replied nonchalantly. "I tell you, your planet really did a number on me."

He flinched. "It has that effect on everyone."

"Don't mope now. You know what I mean. My power still sucks, but I can't complain about the self-healing bit or the extra energy. If I didn't have to die to help people, I'd call it a complete win-win situation."

"I'm still sorry."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be. Zod did it and I helped beat his sorry ass back twice now. I say I got my potshots in. Besides, the new, improved Immortal!Chloe is going to be around for a long time to babysit for the nephew-to-be-named-shortly."

"Thanks, Chlo." He replied and, damn it, he was sniffling when he answered. Stupid, stupid hormones.

Of course, he didn't think any guy's ego could survive finding out that his girlfriend didn't want him to be the father of her child.

"Clark?" She asked, leaning back against the headboard. "Are you sure everything's alright. Kara zipped by the Planet this morning to see Jimmy. She mentioned you hadn't done any, and I quote, 'cow things,' this morning."

"Yeah," he said, turning over to face away from her. "I didn't feel like chores today."

"You never not do chores. You're too George Washington for that."

"I...nevermind, Chlo." He replied, sitting back up in bed and finally looking down at her. "So, enough about me being a little down or whatever. What are you up for this afternoon?"

"Wow, and you still can't segue worth a damn, Clark. I'm not going to drop this and let you go back to mope #6 - the self-loathing variety."

"Yeah, well, I kind of got mired in it today. I know you. You often come with fun stuff. Tell me something interesting. Tell me you found Lex doing something evil, tell me Ollie needs a Boy Scout on deck. Hell, tell me about that new gossip reporter Lois already hates."

"Cat Grant?" Chloe snorted. "She won't be around long. She came down to the basement looking for some office supplies and almost mowed poor Jimmy down and then was a complete bitch about it."

"Wouldn't Lex give her a promotion for hurting Jimmy?"

"Egyptian interview aside, I don't think Lex cares about Jimmy one way or the other. I meant that Kara saw the whole thing. If I hadn't been there, Cat Grant would have been a crispy critter."

"Oh God. Tell me you're exaggerating."

"Only a little. Don't worry. Kara's responsible. It's just that Cat has that affect on everyone. She's going to get beaten to a pulp by Lois before the month's over."

"Well as long as it's not Kara inflicting the permanent damage." He replied, sighing. "God, I am not looking forward to explaining to the little one the rules of when to use heat vision."

"Not in sex ed class would be a start," Chloe quipped.

"I'm serious. What if I screw everything up and he ends up like another Zod or something?"

Chloe snorted. "Right. You and Kara are completely evil masterminds. That's why you use your infinite powers to fix the same stupid tractor on a daily basis and she slings mochas. And there was something else. What was that again? Oh yeah, saving the world on a semi-annual basis. Yeah, your kid is so going to be Darth Vader."

"Chlo!"

"I'm serious. You're practically a superhero and all your best friends are fine young gentlemen of the powered persuasion and one kick-ass reporter/impromptu healer. With his Uncles Ollie, Bart, Vic, and A.C. around and Aunt Kara and Chloe, I think he's going to understand everything about how to use your powers right." She shrugged. "Besides, if all else fails, we'll just sit him down in front of that one scene in Spiderman , and then Uncle Ben can do it."

"'With great power comes great responsibility,'" Clark repeated dutifully. "Man, Stan Lee sounds like my dad."

"Jonathan Kent was always right or mostly," Chloe corrected. "The baby's going to be fine. I mean, he might stack pickups or something for fun, but jockstraps earn that one."

"Uh, well."

"Seriously, why would you worry? Martha and Jonathan did a great job and they're not even Kryptonian."

"Huh?"

"Well, I meant, they only could reason with the superstrong four year old. You and Kara kind of have the upper hand physically."

"I don't go in for corporal punishment."

"Good thing for that; my dad doesn't either. The General on the other hand? Man, Lois cut off so many switches on the base."

"That's creepy."

Chloe shrugged. "That's Sam Lane. I don't think the authoritarian thing worked so well. But the point is, you and Kara know exactly what's going to happen, what powers he'd get and how to help teach them to him. It's going to be easier than it was for your mom."

"Maybe not."

She frowned. "Seriously, what's going on?"

"Nothing. I just...it's not just all me." He said, patting his stomach.

"You're worried about Lana's influence?" She asked.

"No, of course not. It's just that she's been so different since she came back from Shanghai and with the Lex-spying and the Casey Brock-abducting and the Lionel-torturing and blackmailing my doctors..."

"What?"

"Oh crap."

"Clark, she's what?"

"Dr. Schwartz might have an ethics violation on his record and I think Dr. Russell had a few gambling debts before they met Lana."

"Might have?"

"Okay, they do."

"She recruited criminals to work with my nephew?"

"No, not like that. It's just that I didn't expect her to blackmail them, either."

"Clark! Does Martha know?"

"And how. I've never heard my mom yell that much ever. She's furious, but she's more afraid to try terminating Schwartz's contract. If we make him angry or disgruntled now-"

"He can go straight to Lex who runs the best-paying alien investigations in town."

Clark nodded and gulped. "I'd be the star of Scion by sunset."

"Jesus, Clark. Why didn't you tell me?"

He sighed and threw up his hands. "There's not much I can do about it. I have to make the doctors happy and I have to hope that what Lana has holds or I really will be a lab rat."

"I knew we never should have gone to ISIS. That place feels like a feminine version of 33.1. God, where did Lana even find these people?"

He shuddered. "I don't know. I can't believe she didn't tell me about how she recruited them. I have no idea how she could expose our child to people like them." He pulled his knees up to his chest. "She's bringing in another doctor."

"I knew she would eventually. She's collecting them."

"It's a physicist this time. She told me last night that she'd already made the arrangements. He was going to be there to see me and Kara on Monday. If she hadn't let it slip, I wouldn't have known at all. She undercuts me all the time on this."

"Did you tell her no this time?"

"At first."

"Clark!"

"At first I did, but then she explained how they need to start measuring my strength in case it declines."

"It doesn't take a physicist to notice that. If you get weaker, you get weaker. They can't stop that."

"I know, but maybe it's good to get advanced warning. I honestly don't know anymore."

"She can't use this as an excuse to test you."

"She's not. She's just being cautious." He repeated by rote.

"You don't believe that." Chloe replied. "You're really worried about her."

"A little. Her doctors make me nervous, knowing what she did with my powers makes me even more nervous. I know she was angry and hurting and she just wanted to take it out on Lex. God, after everything at the dam, I understand that more than anybody."

"But you didn't kill him."

"I wanted to."

"But you didn't." She frowned. "You're worried that the baby will be like her."

"I love Lana." He said and he meant it. He'd loved her since he was five. She was still the most beautiful girl he knew, the only woman he'd ever made love to. She was the mother of his child. And yet, he didn't feel like he recognized her anymore. He couldn't relate to the cold, ruthless businesswoman she'd become.

He didn't want to relate to a person who'd blackmail people.

But he still loved her.

God, he was so messed up.

"But you're afraid that the baby, when he got old enough, would abuse his powers the way she did."

"I...that's stupid. She only had my powers for a day. It's a lot to get used to, having an ability, and she got about seven instantly."

"I have an ability."

"You can't kill anyone with yours."

"Just myself." She added bitterly.

"Chlo-" He said, wrapping her up in a hug. "Don't even talk like that. I swear, every time your heart stops, I can't even think. Those eighteen hours were the worst ones of my life-worse than being stuck in the Phantom Zone, worse than being tortured at Summerholt, even worse than being the scarecrow. The only thing worse than not hearing your heartbeat would be not hearing his."

"Clark," She cautioned, pulling back from him. "Boundaries."

"Why do people keep saying that? You're upset and I was trying to make you feel better."

"You're upset with Lana because you two had a fight, and I don't want you to do anything you'll regret."

"I'm going to regret hugging my best friend?"

"Clark, just relax. I'm fine. I don't think my power, or anything else, can kill me. I was just saying that there are a lot of people with powers, you and Kara come to mind, but so do Jordan and Maddie and Daniel Kim and quite a few of the underground meteor mutants I've profiled who don't hurt anyone. It's understandable if some of Lana's more depraved behavior this year scares you. A loose-moralled Kryptonian is not a good thing. But she can also be a very good person. She did stop Bizarro, and she helped us track down Kara and Lois."

He sat back down on the bed. "I know. I just worry sometimes. I love Lana, but she makes it so hard. I thought loving someone was supposed to be easier than this."

Chloe gave him a smile so tragic that it broke his heart. "Ask your mother. I think loving someone is the most difficult thing there is. Loving you the way I... she does...is so hard it's scary. She's sure of what she feels, I don't think it was ever a choice not to feel that way, but to love someone enough to die to protect them? There's no emotion more overwhelming or more consuming than that."

Clark could be dense. He was a guy after all, but he wasn't stupid. He could see through thinly veiled metaphors as easily as he did through skin. Besides, Chloe'd died not six months ago, saving his life. He knew she loved him and, by extension, was as smitten with his child as he was.

And like with the Gatorade incident senior year, he wished he could feel the same way about her. Sure he relied on her, and loved hanging out with her, and felt safe and protected and happy with her. But they were best friends.

He was supposed to feel all of that, wasn't he?

It didn't mean anything romantic.

He offered her a faint smile. "It's not hard to love you, you know."

"As a best friend." She said, easily issuing the disclaimer.

"Of course. I just...you never make me miserable. I think sometimes I bug you."

"Your mopes aren't cute." She replied, sitting back down on the foot of the bed, letting her hand slip almost of its own accord onto his stomach. "But I put up with it. I love you too, Clark. You know I never had a best friend before I came to Smallville?"

Clark's eyes widened. She'd never confided that to him. He assumed she'd been unpopular in Smallville because she was just too eclectic and big city for such a narrow minded little town. He always imagined her, with her fiery personality and gregarious nature, having a ton of friends back in Metropolis.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. I was always too pushy with the journalism and I was always the weird girl investigating bigfoot or spaceships."

"Heh, well at least you were spot on with one of those things."

"Maybe I knew my E.T. was out there." She quipped.

"I'm not saving your geraniums, Rogue," He replied. "Besides, you have the resurrection market cornered."

She sighed. "And then there was my mom. St. Catherine's was a small school. Everyone knew she'd abandoned us. It was better coming here because then no one knew or everyone just assumed that was how city kids were, but you and Pete were my first good friends, outside of Lois, but she's family."

"Oh."

"Yeah. We're just really good at the loner thing."

His smile grew genuine and he placed one warm hand over hers. "But not now."

"Special partnership."

"Yeah," he said, sighing. He knew what she wanted. Hell, he'd known what she wanted ever since Ryan had told him back in freshman year. He wished he could give it to her. She'd been the best part of his life for years, especially over the summer when Lana'd been dead and his mom had been gone. She'd been his whole world then and the only person he'd really seen, except for Lois, who occasionally barged onto the farm while out jogging.

But he just couldn't.

So he offered her all he had. "Chlo?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember when we were cleaning up after the most awkward dinner ever with Lana?"

"Boy do I."

"Well, you didn't seem all that thrilled to hear me call you family."

"I'm not family, really." She said breezily, "But I'm flattered you think of me like that. Outside of Lois and my dad, you're my favorite person."

"I know, but I lied."

"Oh," She said, trying to pull her hand back.

He held it steady. "No, you don't understand. What I meant was I don't think of you like I think of Kara. You're not my sister or anything."

"Okay."

"I...I don't have a word for what we are. I speak English and Kryptonian and I think the AI downloaded me with a few other random dialects that time in the Arctic."

"That's impressive."

"It's true. What I mean is that I don't know what we are, exactly. We're friends and we're family but we're something else entirely. It's just that I can't live without you."

She nodded and gulped. He could hear her heart racing almost as fast as his son's. He understood that. Chloe had never fared well with emotional intimacy. "Well, I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm glad."

"Clark, thank you."

"You're welcome."

She smiled and patted his stomach. "So are you done angsting? Because you are seriously turning me into a girl here."

"Tell me about it." He said. "Mostly, I'm done."

"Ah-ha! So you are going to tell me what precipitated all of this."

"Maybe some day."

"That's healthy." She snarked. "However, if you are ready for a total dramafest interlude, I have a surprise." And with that, Chloe reached down and pulled out a large blue bag. "I've been holding onto this since you told me the sex. I was going to try and save it for the shower-"

"Oh, Chlo. I can't have one of those. Who'd come beside you and mom and Kara?"

She shrugged. "Well, Lana is going to start 'showing' in a week or two and you can just throw the party for her. Of course, if you want to go the honest route, I know that Uncle Oliver can throw an awesome party. Hell, he'd probably give the kid a Lamborghini at the shower."

"Rich people are nuts." He sighed. "I just as rather the bros didn't know. Bart will never let me live this one down."

"Anyway," She said, handing him the bag. "I thought he'd like this."

Clark grinned and ripped into the bag. He smiled when he pulled out the stuffed animal she'd bought for him. "I didn't know Holsteins came in powder blue."

"Isn't he nauseatingly cute? I saw him at the FAO Schwartz on 6th Avenue. There's a pink one too, but I had to get the blue cow for my nephew. Despite his unique heritage and gestation, I don't think you're quite ready to embrace the pink and metrosexual."

"I'm not." He said, sighing a little. "I'm not a girl."

"I never said you were, but I think the blue cow is still perfect for a Kent."

"Thanks." He said, standing up and opening his closet.

Chloe frowned. "What are you doing?"

"You're not the first person to have a stuffed animal ready for him." Clark replied.

"Someone beat me to it?"

"Kind of," Clark replied, yanking out the familiar red and yellow-spotted hippo and tossing it to her.

Chloe giggled. "This is the ugliest stuffed animal I've ever seen. Where'd you get it?"

He smiled sadly back at her. "I found this stuffed in the back of my closet sometime in the fall of junior year. I have no idea where he bought it since it's clearly not a Fordman's special, but dad got it for my little sister."

"Clark."

"I guess he forgot it was in here. I found it and knew it wasn't mine; it was way too new. I think he forgot he'd ever gotten it. It was still in the bag with all the tags on him and dad's credit card receipt. I didn't see the point in asking about it or bringing it up, so I just kept it. After he died, I couldn't bear to get rid of it."

"Well, he does go nicely with the blue. Kara's going to approve for the color scheme."

"I know. I like him. It's almost like dad gave it to me. I...he'd have been so mad about all of this, but I think he'd be excited like mom too. It's nice that everyone else is so thrilled-you and mom and Kara."

"Everyone else?"

"I...forget I said anything, Chlo. We'll just stick Harry-"

"Original."

"I try. And, um-"

"Norman," she supplied.

"Right. Then we'll stick them back in my closet until we get the nursery ready."

"Clark?" She asked, handing him back the plush critters. "'Everyone else' means Lana, doesn't it? She said something, didn't she?"

"No."

"You suck at lying about your feelings worse than you do about your powers. What did she say? If you don't tell me, I'll ask Kara. She eaves-drops."

"I can't."

"Clark, please." She said, letting her hand come to rest on his wrist.

"I...mom and dad really wanted me. I mean, they took on so much trouble with Lionel and with my grandfather to keep me. They wanted my little sister so much, Chlo. Kara keeps telling me how happy Lara was and I've seen it so I know it's true."

"I think I'm following."

"I..." he started, his voice falling to barely a whisper. "I don't think Lana wants him. I thought it was shock like with me the first few days, and then I thought it was because, technically and typical of my fucked up life, I'm kind of the mom in this deal instead of her."

Chloe squeezed his wrist. "You're not really."

"I...you know what I mean." He said. "But it's not it at all. I suspected but I hoped I was wrong."

Chloe closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. When she looked back at him, he was startled by the anger she saw there. It reminded him of her look when they'd stormed ISIS in the first place and found the Room of Lex Luthor. "What did she say?"

"She wasn't thinking. I guess she thought I was already asleep or something."

"What did she say?"

He sighed and concentrated on a point in the wall just over her shoulder. "She does want a baby. She said so. She just...well she wants him...she'd love him more if he were human ," Clark finished, spitting out the last word bitterly.

"I'm going to kill her."

"Chlo!"

"She should never even think things like that, let alone saying them. That's just cruel, Clark."

"She didn't mean it. I'm sure she didn't mean for me to hear it."

Chloe dropped his hand and started pacing a little. "It doesn't matter if she didn't mean to be overheard. It's a horrible thing to say about you and it's worse because the baby is hers as much as he's yours."

"I know, but, Chlo, she's right."

Chloe blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I can do a lot of things, more than anyone but Kara can, but I can't give her a normal family." He laughed bitterly and touched his stomach. "I can't even come close."

"She knew that when she started sleeping with you."

"I don't think she thought we could get pregnant. I guess that's why she wasn't so upset about forgetting her birth control in the first place. I know she loves me. She just wanted to adopt, I think."

"Love shouldn't be conditional like this, Clark."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe I don't get a choice like other people do, Chlo. Lana's trying. She loves me. She's taking care of me and the baby the best she knows how. She's still here after four months. Chloe, you know I can't ever tell anyone else what I am. You saw how it ruined Pete's life and got my dad killed. If I ever have a shot of having a family, of being more than just the alien , this is the best one I've got."

"You can't seriously think that poorly of yourself."

"I'm a freak of nature, Chlo. There's nothing else like me on the planet. Not even Kara's as fucked up as I am and what she has with Jimmy can't last. He'll figure it out eventually and then he'll leave."

"He likes me. We're friends even though I'm a mutant. He might really love her." She countered reasonably.

"Maybe." He said. "Maybe not. Lana will have me as weird and inhuman as I am, and I have to make this work. I can't let it fall apart. I owe him better than that."

"How can you make it work if it was falling apart before you even got pregnant?"

"I can!" He shouted and the stupid curtains fluttered. "I can be better for her. I can be what she wants."

"You can't be human, Clark."

"I know that, but I can try and make her happy. If I make her happy enough, she'll love all of me. If I try harder, she'll love the baby. I'm sure things will get better once he's born."

"Clark, this is beyond irrational. I mean, this is like grand champion straw-grasping here."

"Cliche." He said, half-heartedly. "You owe me a stupid tea. I can make this work. Chlo, no one else would even try."

"I don't believe that."

"This is all I deserve."

"I definitely don't believe that."

"It doesn't matter what you believe. It's what I think that matters here. I just wasn't ready to hear it out loud. I've had time to think about it and I can make it better. I'll be fine."

"Clark-"

He shook his head and glanced at his watch. "Chlo, they'll be here in five minutes and I don't think Lana wants you in our room. Can we just go down and set the table for mom, please?" He didn't even wait for her answer before he blurred down the stairs.

He was already pulling out the silverware, when he heard Chloe finish securing Harry and Norman in his closet. His stupid hearing was getting as fucking acute as his nose these days. He was concentrating on just focusing in on his son's heartbeat when he heard Chloe's quiet sigh.

God, Clark, you don't even know how wrong you are.

He pushed it out of his mind and focused instead on the swishing rhythm that made him happy no matter what. Lana was the mom. She was all that mattered, he kept reminding himself as he set down the forks.

Besides, he didn't deserve someone like Chloe anyway.