TWENTY
Clark followed Lois out of the car considering it lucky that she hadn't made him walk. He knew that she had been tempted - sorely tempted - if her having locked him out of the car was any indication of her level of annoyance right now.

He jogged around the car to walk beside her as she made her way to the spot the source had requested.

Lois stiffened as she felt him come closer. Without looking, she knew that he was lifting a hand to the small of her back. "Clark, I swear if you touch me I will find a way to break every bone in your body."

His hand froze in mid-ascent before dropping back to his side. "Lois, listen…"

She spun around to face him. "No. I'm done listening." Her nostrils flared.

He could tell that she was pissed. "I'm sor…"

"Shut up," she inserted. "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!"

Clark sighed. It had been this way between them since the early hours of the morning when he had put an end to Lois's attempt to help him fly. He hadn't flown, but he had certainly been 'rising.' Regardless of his body's reaction, his mind had remained earth-bound. "Lois."

"We're not doing this," she said through her teeth. Then she scoffed. "We're not doing anything, remember?"

His decision had been for her protection but it was starting to look as if he was the one that was going to need protection.

Lois attempted to refocus. She was irritated, frustrated and working on little sleep, but she still had a job to do. When they reached the meeting point, she looked around warily. They were in a portion of the Warehouse District that had been earmarked for new development. In the meantime, it was abandoned, rundown, and downright creepy. This was definitely not a part of town she would want to be alone in at night.

She rounded on Clark, who was following close behind her with a guilty expression on his face. She punched him hard on the shoulder and he winced out of empathy for the pain she must have felt in return.

"This is not the way this goes!" she exclaimed. "You don't get to pull out the 'protecting you' card for everything." Apparently, the refocus hadn't been as successful as she'd hoped.

He frowned. "You're putting words in my mouth."

"And you're making decisions for me."

"A decision that affected me too!"

She arched an eyebrow. "Really? Because it seemed to me that it didn't even matter to you."

He couldn't imagine how she could have gotten that idea. "Not matter?"

His life was about boundaries. There were no limits to what he could do with his powers so he had to forcibly limit what he allowed himself to do. Somewhere in his subconscious he had come to the conclusion that what he and Lois had - this semblance of family life - was enough. It had to be.

The truth was, he had felt his control slip with her - he had very nearly let it go completely, and it scared him. If he ever got to the point where he let it all go – his strength, his will…

He lifted a hand to her shoulder, but she slapped it away. "No," she said stepping away. "You can't do that - I can't do that. We can't do that. The touching, the pretending… I'm not going to let you start something when you refuse to finish it."

She shook her head distractedly. "I like cake. I want cake. Damnit, I need cake, but I'm a cake and eat person." She turned to face him with a pleading look. "I want my cake and I want to eat it too. And I made that decision."

He wasn't sure what she was referring to as cake. "I'm not sure what that means."

"It means that if there's going to be cake that I can't eat, then I don't even want to smell it baking! It means…" She pressed her lips together for a moment and looked away, as if in a silent argument with herself. "It means that I, Lois Lane, am in love with you, Clark Kent. And that should be enough for you to trust."

Clark's mouth opened slightly at her confession. It was the first time she had said that to him… about him... "I…"

Whatever he had been about to say was lost with the appearance of a tall man in a long black trench coat. He stepped out from the doorway of the building they were standing in front of. "Miss Lane?"

She turned around in surprise. "Yes? You're the one that called?" His attire slid him into the category of corporate leaks, she thought excitedly. A whistleblower from one of Metropolis's top businesses could lead to a huge story.

The man bowed slightly. "I am. Thank you for coming."

Lois's eyes narrowed. He was acting a bit oddly for a source – not that she had many of them. The sources she had met with before always seemed anxious, afraid that the information they were turning over to her would change their lives. This guy was the picture of calm. It unnerved her.

"This is my partner," she said, gesturing to Clark as he moved to stand beside her. "Clark Kent. And you obviously know who I am… Lois Lane." The offering of their names was a form of trust extended to sources. She had shown her hand first.

The man showed them a ghostly imitation of a smile. "Of course."

She flashed a confused look in Clark's direction. The man was still calm and was not showing that he had anything to offer. Other sources wanted their meetings to go quickly.

Clark read her look easily. Something was definitely up with this guy. He cleared his throat and extended a hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mr…"

The man intercepted Clark's hand with a gloved one of his own. "Merrick," he answered.

"Well, Mr. Merrick," Lois said. "How can we help you?"

Merrick retrieved his hand and slid it back into his pocket. "I was wondering if you knew where the father of your child was," he said, looking back at Lois.

Lois's eyes grew wide. "What the hell…?" she mumbled, instantly suspicious. "What are you talking about?"

"I have a message to deliver and I was hoping you wouldn't mind helping." Merrick pulled a metal tube from his pocket and pressed a button on the side. A slight hiss and vapor accompanied the spring-loaded mechanism that brought the small item inside of it into view.

Clark felt the impact of the Kryptonite immediately and stumbled. As his equilibrium started to dissipate, he felt Lois move to support him.

Merrick looked from the exposed green rock in his hand to the ailing Clark with an assessing gaze. "That is most interesting," he stated. He then pulled the meteor rock from the casing and held it up to the light. "And most unexpected."

Lois watched with growing uneasiness as the would-be source tossed the rock onto the ground at Clark's feet and snapped the metal tube closed. Clark slumped again, and there was nothing she could do to keep him standing. She tried to slow his descent as they both sank to the ground.

"You were more help than I anticipated," Merrick said, backing away from them. He mumbled something that Lois couldn't hear before disappearing around the corner.

Shock and fear caused Lois to freeze for a moment but Clark's groan snapped her back to attention.

"Lois… we have to..." He coughed, before he could finish, in obvious pain.

"Clark! Hold on." She struggled to get from underneath him, but it was difficult to move his large frame in his helpless state. In some super bout of sudden strength, she awkwardly rolled him over and jumped to her feet. Grabbing the Kryptonite, she ran to a sewer grate down the block and dropped the offending rock into the murky beyond.

When she returned to kneel at Clark's side, he was trying to sit up. "I heard him," he said, looking at her worriedly.

Lois put a hand alongside his jaw in an unconscious move to see if he was all right. "What?"

"Merrick. He said that he couldn't wait to meet the progeny."

The color drained from Lois's face and she scrambled for the pocket in her jacket that held her cell phone. She hit the speed dial button for the Daily Planet's Front Desk. "Day Care," she demanded, silently berating the fact that she had never managed to program the center's number in her phone. "No, I can't hold!... Maria, this is Lois Lane. Listen, I need you to take Connor…"

Clark watched as her facial expressions waged in a battle between anger and horror.

"What?! I dropped him off this morning - Connor Lane. You signed him in yourself!" She released a frustrated yell. "Put the director on the phone… I don't care, put her on right now and then call the police… Now! Don't you…"

She snapped the phone shut in disgust and shoved it into her pocket. She helped as Clark struggled to his feet.

"What was that?" he asked, accepting her aid as she secured his arm over her shoulders.

She silently urged him toward the car. "Are you okay?"

Clark frowned. "I'm getting better," he answered.

"Not better," she insisted. "I need you to be okay."

Clark forced himself to stand on his own as they reached the car. The pain from the Kryptonite had faded when Lois had moved it. The nausea and weakness would pass soon, but he knew from experience that his powers would take longer to return. "I'm okay." He put his hands on Lois's shoulders and looked deeply in her eyes. "What happened?"

"Maria…" Lois swallowed, fighting against her own bout of nausea. "Maria said that I never came in this morning… and that there's no record of a Connor Lane."

Lois had barely turned off the ignition before she darted from the car. Clark followed as fast as he could manage, which was only a little behind Lois's pace. Still, they arrived at the front desk of the Day Care Center at the same time. The mousy brown-haired woman sitting at the desk looked up in alarm as they burst through the glass door.

"May I help…"

"Where is he?" Lois demanded.

The woman's eyes grew wider. "I'm sorry?"

"Connor Lane. Where is he? What did you do with him?"

Awareness crept into the woman's expression. "You're the woman who just called. Like I told you before..."

"Damnit, Maria! I don't have time for this." Lois leaned over the reception desk and pressed the button that unlocked the door leading back to the part of the center where the children's rooms were.

"Wait! You can't go in there!" Maria exclaimed as Lois ran through the check point.

Clark reached out and placed a hand on the woman's arm as she readied to give chase. "Maria, I really need your help here. My little boy - my son – he's in danger."

He pulled a picture out of his wallet to show her. "Someone is trying to get to him; someone dangerous. Please, check your computer, check whatever you have to. Did someone unknown come in here? Did someone take him? Where is he?"

Maria gave him a baffled look, confused and intrigued with the urgency in his voice. She shot another glance in the direction Lois had gone. "Sir, I'm sorry. The only unknown people I've seen today are you and that woman."

At that moment Lois reappeared with Connor tucked securely in her arms. The toddler was clutching at her jacket, rendered quiet and anxious by his mother's antics.

"He's okay," she announced breathlessly, her gaze boring into Clark's. "He's okay."

Clark nodded and leaned heavily against the desk as a tall woman in a brown business suit came through the main entrance. "Lois? Is everything all right?"

Lois spun to face the center's director, still holding onto CJ as if both of their lives depended on it. "No, Denise. It's not. I called here five minutes ago to check on CJ and I was told that he didn't exist."

Denise looked to the receptionist. "Maria?"

The woman looked shell-shocked. "I..." She blinked and put a shaking hand to her head. "I've never seen either of them or that little boy before," she said haltingly, recognizing that she was the only one who seemed to be wrong. "I… When she called, I wasn't sure what to make of it. You were out... He's not in the computer, but he was back there..." Maria dropped into her seat. "I'm so sorry."

Denise looked back to Lois. "I'm really sorry about this, Lois. Give me a few minutes and I will try to get to the bottom of it." She took a step toward the mother and child. "I can take him back to his class if you want…"

CJ laid his head on Lois's shoulder and closed his eyes as the woman got closer. It was his way of hiding. His basic logic was that if he couldn't see other people, they couldn't see him.

Lois felt him snuggle closer and finally allowed herself to calm a bit. "No. It's okay. We're going to take him with us. We're… um, we were headed out, anyway."

Denise nodded stepped back with an apologetic look on her face. "Well, let me at least go get his stuff for you. I am really sorry for the scare - nothing like this has ever happened before." She shot Clark a tight smile before grazing the stunned Maria with a bewildered look. "I'll be right back."

As the director passed through the doorway, Maria looked up. "I really… I just…" She shook her head, rattled and guilty. "I'll go and see if I can help Denise."

When she was gone, Lois moved to stand beside Clark. He reached out and brushed a hand over CJ's head, gently ruffling his hair.

"This is wrong, Clark," Lois commented. She had begun to realize earlier that she needed to be calm so she could think. This was the second time in two days where CJ's existence had been called into question. She didn't believe in coincidences - especially not bad ones. "We need to get out of here."

"I know," Clark replied. He was trying to wrap his mind around everything that was happening. They had a few options; there had to be a way of finding out what was going on.

The investigative reporter in him urged him to ask questions, to check security tapes, do anything it took to get intel on the threat they were facing. The father in him – the one whose weakness had recently been brutally exploited – commanded him to secure his family first.

Denise returned with a small red and blue backpack, and handed it to Clark. "Here you go. Again, I am terribly sorry for the mix-up." She turned to face Lois. "If you want to call the authorities…"

"No," Lois replied, rubbing a soothing hand over the child's back. "It was just a mistake. We understand. Could you just call me if you find anything?"

"Absolutely," Denise promised. Her concern was palpable. "You have my word."

Lois nodded. "Thank you."

Clark held the door open as Lois carried CJ out of the center. Denise sighed when the door swung shut after them and rounded the receptionist desk to have look at the computer. She frowned as she failed to gain access to the Lane file. Like Maria had claimed, it was not in the computer at all.

The faint door chime sounded to announce that someone had opened the door. Denise looked up to see a man in a black coat enter.

"Hello," Denise greeted warily. The events of the day had made her a little jaded toward any additional weirdness. "May I help you?"

The man gave a faint smile and nodded. "You will." He lifted his hand to reveal a tubular device with buttons on the side. "Just look right over here."

Martha hummed as she carried the stack of linens into her son's bedroom. She placed them on the desk and turned to strip the comforter off of the bed. As she folded it over the desk chair, a sudden breeze caused the posters on the walls to flutter. She spun around and screamed upon seeing a man in a black jumpsuit appear out of nowhere.

The young man coughed and sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed just as Jonathan, reacting to the sound of his wife's distress, entered the room.

"What the hell?" Jonathan demanded, placing himself between Martha and the newcomer.

The man looked up at them nervously. "Please… I'm sorry if I scared you. I need to speak to Kal-El." He watched as the two older people exchanged a startled glance. "It is about his son."

Lois glanced at the rear-view mirror and smiled. In the backseat of the car, snapped snugly in his car seat, Connor was enjoying a graham cracker. Any other day, the wet brown streaks covering his hands and face that were undoubtedly going to soon decorate her seats would have made her shudder. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel, trying to keep a hold of something solid so she could stay grounded. Clark had offered to drive, but she needed the distraction.

"Who do you think they are?" she asked, turning her head briefly to look at him. "Government? Military?"

Clark released a slow breath. "I don't know. Maybe they are part of a group doing studies on the meteor showers or something. That guy didn't seem to expect me to have a reaction to the Kryptonite, but when I did… It's like it answered something for him, but I don't know what."

Lois focused on the road in front of the car and gnawed on her lower lip. "Merrick said that he had a message for my son's father. He didn't know it was you."

"But how would they know that Kryptonite would be a factor?"

Lois shook her head. It didn't make sense. "How would they even link CJ to any of that?" They had been extremely careful with all of his doctor visits once they had finally pieced his heritage together. They had made sure that no extra tests were ever taken, but even before they had started taking precautions, nothing had ever come back abnormal.

The most unsettling thing about the whole situation was the fact that they didn't have a clue as to what they were up against. They had originally been hesitant about going to Smallville. It was obvious that the people on the other side of this thing knew a lot more than they did. They knew how to find Lois at home. They knew that she'd come at the call of a new source. They knew that the meteor rocks would be a threat. It was not a far stretch to think that they also knew the first place Lois and Clark would go is Smallville.

Even so, it would be better to be amongst family while trying to figure this thing out than on their own.

"Call Chloe." Lois took another glance in the rear-view mirror. She just needed to know he was okay. "She's supposed to be in Smallville with Lex today. See if she can meet us at the farm."

Clark nodded and dialed the phone number. After it rang a few times, the line was picked up.

"This is Chloe Sullivan."

"Chloe, it's Clark…"

"Clark! Where are you guys? I'm on my way to your parents' house right now. We've all been trying to reach you for the past hour!"

"We're on our way to the farm ourselves. Something really crazy is going on. We'll fill you in later."

"What is this number? I almost didn't answer because I didn't recognize it."

"We ditched our cells and picked up a pre-paid phone at Sav-Mart on our way out of town."

"You ditched your cells?" Chloe's voice took on a worried pitch. "Clark, what's going on?"

"I don't know," he answered, turning his head to look over at Lois. "But whatever it is, it isn't not good." He ran a hand through his hair. "Did my parents say what was wrong?"

Lois looked at him with wide eyes at the mention of his parents. The concern that these nameless enemies were already moving in on the Kents had been discussed earlier.

"No," Chloe responded. "Your dad just said they needed to talk to you as soon as possible and asked me to come over."

"Did they sound like they were in trouble?"

"They sounded anxious but not 'in peril danger' anxious. There weren't any explosions in the background or anything."

Hearing her answer, Clark looked at Lois and shook his head. "They're okay," he mouthed.

Returning to his phone conversation, he said, "Chloe, we need to cut off the phone now but we should be at the house in about an hour."

Chloe was already in the driveway when Lois stopped the car next to the barn. "You are not going to believe this."

Lois opened the door and got out. "That was going to be my line," she quipped, wrapping her arms around her cousin in a tight embrace. "This has been the craziest day of my life."

Chloe pulled away and gave her a sympathetic look. "In five minutes, it's going to get a little crazier." She looked across the car to where Clark was pulling a sleeping CJ from his car seat and frowned in concern. "You look a little pale, Clark. Are you okay?"

"Kryptonite run-in," he answered casually. His eyes slid to Lois. "But I'll be fine."

Chloe looked like she wanted to say something but caught the look Lois and Clark were sharing. "You guys should come inside."

Lois stopped short when she entered the house and saw a man around her age seated on the couch. He was dressed in a black jumpsuit that had a familiar insignia on the collar. She held up a hand to keep Clark from entering the house.

Clark was confused with her sudden movement. "Lois?"

Jonathan was standing next to the couch with his arms crossed over his chest, talking in hushed tones to the man. He looked up when he heard Clark's voice. "Lois, what's wrong?"

"Why is he here?" Lois asked, anger and fear crawling up and down her spine.

Martha walked over and placed a calming hand on Lois's shoulder. "Do you recognize him?"

Lois shook her head curtly, never taking her eyes off of him. "I recognize his clothes. His friend attacked us earlier."

"My friend?" the man asked, rising to his feet. "Then they've already made contact?"

"Contact," Lois snorted. "That's an understatement."

Jonathan turned a hard stare on the man. "You said you were here to help."

The young man's eyes went wide. "I am! Those are not my friends." He sighed. "My name is Xavir Christian… I plan to answer all of your questions but first you need to know that I'm here to make sure that those people don't get what they came for."

Clark stepped through the door and handed CJ to his mother. "And what is that?"

Xavir's eyes slid to the child in Martha's arms. "Connor."

Lois fixed Xavir with a hard glare. "I don't buy it."

Xavir pulled his collar away from his neck nervously. "I know it's hard to believe…"

"Hard to believe?!" Lois's right eyebrow inched upward. "You say hard to believe about something unexpected that still has a remote chance of happening - like the Metropolis Generals taking the series. That's hard to believe. What you're talking about isn't hard to believe – it's not even plausible."

Xavir sighed, his eyes flicking to the other occupants in the room for help. "I'm telling you the truth."

Clark frowned, reaching out and lacing his fingers with Lois's. "Tell it again."

Xavir pulled the metal sphere from his pocket and checked the chronometer. They had already gone through the story twice. "I don't…"

"Tell it again," Clark quietly insisted.

Xavir's eyes widened at the firm tone from the man he knew would one day be the infamous Superman. Sure, he had met him before, but the awe of being in the presence of a legend never faded. He glanced at the chronometer one more time and began his spiel again. "I'm a scientist from the year 2109. We recently succeeded in creating a time travel vortex window that remained stable for a full ten minutes and were looking to initialize our historical observation trial. Everything was going on schedule…"

"Until you jumped the gun and hang-glided into Lois's and Clark's flight plan," Chloe entered, pausing to look up from her laptop long enough to make her statement.

Xavir nodded meekly. He had already experienced a number of ego bashing lessons during this entire ordeal - there was no basis for him to get defensive this late in the game. "Yes. In my desire to make a name for myself, I used the system on my own before the project had been cleared for testing. I came to Smallville on what was supposed to be a short tour…"

"Why?" Martha asked. "Why Smallville? Why this family?" She was seated in the loveseat cradling CJ. Behind her, Jonathan placed a hand on her shoulder.

Xavir swallowed. He had to be careful of what information he shared. If any one person in this room did anything differently than it had initially played out, the repercussions could cause serious ripples in the timeline.

"There are… some very important contributions to the world I live in that were made by the people in this room. Your time period is one of the major eras that was to be studied. Time synching is entirely uncharted – it's the last frontier of discovery for mankind…" He trailed off and swallowed. His excitement for the scientific basis of time travel would not be welcome at this point.

Clearing his throat, he continued. "Everything was going well, but when I was getting ready to go back to the year 2109, Lois and Clark…" he said as his eyes strayed to the couple in question, "…got caught in my return window."

Lois's expression turned wry. "Which is when we went to the future for five days, right?"

"Yes. When my colleagues and I found you, we sent you back to the same day of your departure."

"Without our memories of the entire trip," Clark added.

"Unfortunately, it was the best option," Xavir replied apologetically.

"And here I thought that truth and honesty were always the best options," Lois countered.

Xavir swallowed again, suddenly wishing he had accepted the earlier offer for a drink of water. "I misspoke," he acquiesced. "I should have said that it was the only option. Any knowledge that you have of the future greatly compromises the timeline. Right now it is folding on itself because your return to the correct time period had unforeseen consequences… You brought something back with you."

Xavir refrained from saying the line that had almost gotten him killed the first time he'd told the story. That time, he had mentioned that Connor 'didn't belong here' – meaning the time period, but it hadn't gone over in that sense. He dared a glance at Lois, knowing that her mind was on that unspoken comment as well.

Jonathan looked down at the peaceful face of his sleeping grandson and tried to convince himself that none of this could be true. If it were… there was nothing he could do to corral this situation. It was wildly spinning out of the realm of things he could control – and that knowledge caused his heart to break.

"There are people who will stop at nothing to take him," Xavir warned.

"People like you," Lois replied.

"No…" Xavir strained for the correct words to plead his case. "I'm trying to keep him safe."

"By taking him," Lois completed in a flat tone. Her eyes were trained on him like a hawk's.

"It won't be long before they come here," Xavir urged softly. Lois and Clark had recounted the tale of their earlier adventures; events that he was convinced were initiated by the Professor's agents. It was obvious to him that those men were working en force to capture the child without leaving any evidence. "If we don't keep a step ahead, I'm afraid… I don't think I can stop them."

Clark was frustrated. Even though he had heard all of this twice before, he knew there was much Xavir wasn't telling them. He understood the man's hesitation – he feared telling them anything that could affect the future – but it didn't make him feel any better.

Xavir had a pretty good idea of what Clark was thinking. "I have to be really careful about what I reveal."

"About who I am?" Clark asked.

"About who you will become." Xavir looked over at CJ in wonder, overcome with the fact that he was looking at a future hero as a child. "About who you both will become."

Clark silently pondered the words, experiencing an eerie feeling of destiny settling onto his shoulders like a cloak. "Where are you going to take him?"

An un-describable emotion crossed Lois's face at Clark's question and she turned to look at him with a tense jaw. "What?"

Clark didn't look up at Lois's query; his eyes focused on the child in his mother's arms. As unbelievable as it seemed, the account that Xavir was giving them was undoubtedly the truth. He had answered enough questions to prove he wasn't running a scam. While he had listened to Lois attempt to drill holes in Xavir's story for the third time, the reality of the whole situation had finally dawned on him. There was no choice to make. In the future this man had come from, the choice had already been made.

Clark finally looked up, avoiding Lois's eyes and instead meeting the gazes of the man that was going to do what he, with all of his strength and ability, could not do – save his son.

"He'll be safe?"

Lois pulled her hand out of Clark's grasp and hit him on the shoulder. "What?!" she repeated, her voice climbing an octave. "You're on his side?"

Chloe jumped to her feet and caught Lois's arm as she was about to hit Clark again. "Lois…" Chloe's eyes briefly met those of Clark's parents. They had all heard Xavir's story and they all knew how bleak the outcome looked. Even Lois.

Especially Lois.

In Martha's lap, CJ moaned and reached out in his sleep.

Lois's complexion paled suddenly as her last adrenaline-fueled protest died in her throat. "I need some air," she announced, clutching her chest with a hand. She brought the other hand to her head and stumbled a bit. "I've got to… I can't…" Her breathing became labored. She didn't want Connor to wake up and see her in this state.

Chloe put a hand on Lois's arm and gently pulled her toward the door. She paused long enough to grab a couple of the random coats that had been tossed on a chair near the exit.

Overwhelmed, Lois had allowed herself to be directed by her cousin, but at the door she suddenly turned. "Wait!"

Clark had been watching the two women's progress with a blank expression. Seeing Lois's reaction had left him feeling even more helpless and impotent. His moist eyes locked with her frantic ones.

"Don't let him..." She opened her mouth as if to say something else, and then closed it. She swallowed. "Don't let him out of your sight."

When Clark didn't answer, Lois's eyes flicked to her son and back to him as her breathing hitched again. "Clark?" she plead.

"I won't," he answered quickly, finally snapping to attention. "I promise."

"Come on, Lois," Chloe said softly, leading her cousin out of the house.

"How much time do we have?" Clark asked, forcing himself to sit up straight.

Xavir slowly pulled his gaze away from the door Lois and Chloe had just walked through. He had not been prepared for how emotional this was going to be. Knowing that his pre-ordained duty was to deliver Superman's child to the Guardians had made it seem so straightforward; experiencing it proved otherwise.

"Um…" He looked down at the metal sphere with a creased brow, mentally converting the numbers. "18 hours… maybe less." He paused, taking in the pained expressions of the people he faced. "Definitely no more than that. Once we reach zero…"

He stopped, not needing to say anything in addition. He had already disclosed that the outcome of an imploding timeline would terminate the future he lived in. His mission was to keep the integrity of the timeline uncorrupted and running out of time was not an option.

"18 hours," Jonathan repeated in a gruff voice. Rubbing his chin, he swore under his breath.

Martha had been keeping her expressions stoic in an attempt to help strengthen Lois, but with her daughter's departure, the tears had found a way to her eyes. In the blurring vision that resulted, she could almost see her son's powerful aura crumble. He now stood off center, a few feet from both remaining clusters: the one made up of his parents and son, and the one made of the traveler. She could tell that his positioning said everything that he was feeling: he was alone.

"Clark, come over here," Martha beckoned.

Xavir watched as Clark knelt next to his mother and laid a weary head in the space of her lap that was not taken up by the sleeping little boy. Martha began stroking Clark's hair, reminding Xavir of a time when he was a child and his own mother was alive. In Xavir's young life, he had often felt out of place, but standing here in this room with the grieving Kent family was the first time he had ever felt intrusive.

Quietly, he made his way into the kitchen. He figured that the family wouldn't mind if he got that drink of water on his own.

The fact that Xavir had left the room barely registered with the remaining occupants. Jonathan moved to perch on the armrest of the chair Martha was sitting in. For a brief moment, they were all lost in their own private thoughts, brought together by proximity and touch.

"It's not fair," Clark muttered, lifting his head so he could peer at his son. "I had so much more to say… to do, to give. I mean we just found out that he was mine." He frowned. "I should have… done more…" His brow creased. "…Done something."

Martha glanced up at her husband. Their child was in pain and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Situations like these were the hardest obstacles of parenthood.

Jonathan smiled grimly in return. "Son, you have been there for this little boy since the day you learned of his existence… and that was even before he had become fully formed in the womb. You were there for his birth. You were there for his first step, his first word… his first diaper change."

Clark smiled softly as his father's words conjured flashes of memories to his mind.

"Yes, you just learned that his DNA matches yours, just learned that his legacy is a literal stem of your own - but I have a question for you." He waited until Clark looked up at him before continuing. "Could you have loved him any more than you did the day you met him? Could you love him any more than you do right now?"

Clark was quiet for a moment, weighing the tone and the content of his father's words. It was a serious question. It was a serious answer. "No." His reply was so soft, he couldn't be sure that he had even spoken. "No," he said again.

The love he had for this child was more powerful than anything he had experienced before. It threatened to split him at the seams - and it had always been that way, even before he had been able to genetically claim CJ as his own.

Jonathan nodded. "Then you've done everything that you were supposed to do."

Clark reached out and took one of CJ's small hands in his own. The contrasts were there in spades. Small, delicate fingers lay upon large, powerful ones. "I've done everything except ensure his future – his safety."

He met his mother's eyes. Immediately, tears sprang to his in response to the ones she was struggling to keep at bay. "But I will do that now… Even if it kills me."

"This is my fault," Lois announced, leaning heavily against the wooden porch railing for support.

Chloe stood next to her, rubbing a hand soothingly on her back. She was relieved that Lois's breathing had settled. She had feared that they were on their way to a full-blown panic attack. "What are you talking about?"

Lois turned her head to face her cousin. "I did this. I summoned all the bad karma spirits and they had a fricking séance."

Chloe frowned.

Seeing her expression, Lois scoffed. "Don't you get it? I, in my infinite, Lois Lane wisdom, angered the fates with my crazy talk. I practically dared them to strike me down with lightning - because once was obviously not enough – and then went out and bought a lightening rod!"

Lois pushed herself from the railing and wrapped her arms around herself. "I said that I wished there was a way for Clark and I to find out if what we had was because of our baby," she confessed painfully. "And look what happened."

"Lois, you did not cause this to happen!" Chloe insisted, her eyes widening in horror.

"Then who, Chloe?" Lois asked with moist eyes. "Who can we blame? Who can I blame? How could I have stopped this?"

Chloe sighed. Dr. Spock's guide to child rearing didn't include a chapter on temporal mechanics. "I don't know."

Lois shifted her weight restlessly. "He's my baby, Chloe. I'm just supposed to send him away? Who does that?" A sudden memory of a quiet talk with Martha made her clutch her stomach. "Oh God. I'm not strong enough for this."

Chloe moved to wrap an arm around her waist, not knowing how to respond.

"I told Martha…" Lois paused to swallow; her throat was scratchy and dry. "I told Martha that I admired the strength Clark's mother had to be able to send him away to be saved…" She shook her head, dislodging a tear. "I'm going with him."

"You know you can't do that, Lo." Even with her tech savvy background, Chloe hadn't understood most of the techno-babble that Xavir had spouted, but they all had grasped the general concept.

Connor, having been conceived in a time when Lois and Clark were not supposed to exist, could not continue to live in the same time period as his parents. He had to go back… to the future.

"Right now, the only thing I know is that I can't imagine my life without him," Lois replied.

"I can't imagine a world without him," Chloe agreed.

Lois suddenly straightened. "What did you just say?"

Chloe looked at her curiously. "I said that I couldn't imagine a world…"

"That's it."

"What?"

"World," Lois repeated thoughtfully. "Save the world." She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers against the lids. "Damn you, Jor-El."

"Jor-El?" A second later, Chloe's shoulders sagged as she realized what Lois was talking about. "This is it. This is what he meant when he said you would have to decide to save the world."

If there had been any hope for doubt to the credibility of Xavir's claims, it had just been shattered. Chloe turned to fully wrap her cousin in her arms. "I'm so sorry, Lois."

Lois leaned into Chloe's embrace, willing to let someone else hold her up for a moment. It wouldn't be too long before she would have to find strength within herself. "Me too," she mumbled into Chloe's shoulder. "Me too."

Lois chuckled as CJ jumped up and down on the bed next to her. On the other side of the child, Clark lay on his side, facing both of them.

"I know he had that nap earlier but I would have thought he'd be sleepy by now," Clark commented. "He's wired."

Lois met his eyes. "I wouldn't have it any other way." If this was going to be their last night, she would spend it drinking in each last moment. She refused to sleep.

Clark nodded, sliding a hand over to hers so they could lace fingers. The feeling was mutual.

"At-da!" CJ squealed, suddenly pouncing onto Clark's chest. If anyone else in the house had been able to sleep, they certainly weren't now. "Fwink, peese."

"It's a lot of work to jump on the bed, isn't that right, Little Monkey?" Lois smiled and disengaged her hand from Clark's so she could roll over and get the sippie-cup from the bed table. "I got it."

CJ clapped and nodded as Lois handed him the cup. "Yay da Mommy!"

"Yay for Mommy," Clark repeated amusingly. He sobered immediately, looking over CJ's head to Lois's face. She was Mommy now, but what would she be after tomorrow? What would he be?

CJ patted his father's face and handed him the cup. He was relishing in having the undivided attention of both of his parents. Wobbling as he got to his feet, he braced himself with a hand on Clark's shoulder. With a wide grin, full of adorable mischief, he started bouncing again. When he had gained enough momentum, he launched himself in Lois's direction. "Powee!"

Lois yelped and caught him in mid-air, falling backwards from taking in the force of his energy. She let him slowly fall to her chest. "I love you so much."

CJ wiggled around until he was sitting on her stomach looking down at her. He put his hands close together, happy to be playing a familiar game. "Dis muct?"

Clark's eyes sparkled as he watched.

Lois shook her head and spread her arms out wide. "This much."

CJ narrowed his eyes as if he didn't understand and moved his hands as far apart as his shoulders. "Dis muct?"

"Nooo," Lois replied in mock annoyance. She spread her arms out wide again. "This much."

"Oh!" CJ's eyes grew big. He held up one hand and put out his thumb and forefinger as if pinching the air. "Dis muct," he stated confidently.

Lois rolled over and began tickling him, enticing even more loud squeals. When he had finally squirmed free, he rolled over to Clark and sat up. "Mommy got me!"

Clark nodded. "I know. You want some more to drink?" He returned the cup to the bed table when the little boy shook his head and climbed into his lap.

Clark looked over to Lois. She was still lying on her stomach from when she had been wrestling with CJ, but her head was facing away from them. Clark reached out and stroked her hair lightly. He didn't ask if she was okay. He already knew.

Lois sniffed and turned her head to face her two guys, placing a too-bright smile on her face to match her too-bright eyes. She noticed CJ snuggling deeper into Clark's arms and read the tale-tell signs. "I think we're losing him, Doctor," she quipped, trying to keep the mood light. When the veracity of her words hit her she let out a slow sigh.

Clark saw the emotions shift on her face and then looked down at his tiring son. This was it. Part of him wanted to do something to keep the little boy awake. He slid CJ out of his arms and onto the bed next to Lois. CJ instinctively snuggled closer to her.

Lois wordlessly reached out and pulled Clark down by his shirt. The two of them lay close together with their child tucked between them.

Clark finally voiced the thought that had been lurking in the back of his mind for hours. "Will we survive this?" he asked softly, reaching up to place a hand over the one Lois still had on his chest.

Lois knew what he was asking. It was the same question she had been debating for over a year. It was the question that she feared the answer to. Could this relationship that they had – one birthed in the midst of circumstances beyond their wildest dreams – could it survive when those circumstances changed?

She met his eyes but didn't answer. She honestly didn't know. It was a question they could pose to Xavir – seeing as he knew their future and all – but were they really prepared for the answer if Xavir was willing to give it?

Clark leaned down to kiss CJ's head. His hair was getting so long that it was starting to curl. "There is so much I wanted to teach you. So much I wanted to say…" His brow creased briefly. "You will travel far, Connor Jerome Lane. You will be away from us in body, but not in mind… not in soul." His voice cracked.

Lois closed her eyes at his words. "You need to name him," she said.

Clark looked up at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"Connor Jerome Lane," she said, smiling when the little boy looked up at her when she said his name. "I gave him that as his mother. Now it's your turn."

They shared a long look. He had been dreaming of the day he would get to add Kent to CJ's birth certificate. What Lois was offering was more than he have ever thought possible.

Earlier that day, his parents had helped him realize that he couldn't love his son any more than he already did. That love was unconditional and immediate, consuming him from the inside out all at once. Nothing, even distance, could change that. What amazed him in that instant, though, was the love he felt for the woman across from him. That love changed and grew deeper every day.

Abruptly, he leaned over CJ and kissed her fiercely, feeling her smile with his lips. They would save the world because they had to. They would face tomorrow bravely because they had to. They would survive this – together – because they had to.

"Kisses!" CJ giggled, putting a small hand on Clark's face. His little face scrunched as he tried to dodge the kisses his parents turned on him at the interruption.

Clark pushed the boy's hair back from his forehead. "My son," he stated proudly. "You will be everything that you are meant to be and more. Within you, you hold my strength, my power… my life. You are everything I ever hoped to be." He glanced at Lois and continued at her supportive nod. "You are my son: Kon-El, of the House of El."

CJ titled his head thoughtfully at his father's words. After looking at him for a moment, he broke out in a wide grin and squeezed Clark's nose. "Honk." Giggling, he laid his head on his mother's chest, closed his eyes and began humming himself to sleep.

Lois patted Clark's chest. "That was great," she said, trying her best to forget that it was a goodbye speech.

CJ cracked open his eyes at the sound of Lois's voice. "Ting-a-me, Mommy. Udeleft."

Rolling her eyes at his song choice, Lois interlaced her fingers with Clark's and began to sing.

TBC