A/N: Okay. So my outline is pretty set from here on out, but please do let me know if there's any points that seem to have slipped through the cracks or anything additional you'd like to see explored with the characters. I'll try my best to incorporate anything that might seem left out and any scenarios you'd like to see our characters face. :) I can only promise to try to put them all back together by the end of this crazy ride. Even if it seems, at times, that they'll never make it out of it. Have faith in me- I know I have no credentials to back that up, but it's all I've got.

Jason woke up with a scream rattling his throat and he frantically tore the sheets away from his body. He sat up in bed, eyes unseeing for a few moments as he adjusted to his warm, familiar surroundings again. His heart was slowing, his breath easing in his chest...

"Jason? Jason? Honey, are you all right? Answer me."

Jason let his eyes drift shut gently, trying to ban the repetitive images that had so recently started popping up in his dreams again.

His wife's hand landed gently on his arm and all of the sudden he was spiraling again. He couldn't catch his breath- there was that damn tattoo- he was hyperventilating- and the man's disturbing grin-

He felt the cool metal cylinder slip into his hand, and he used that to ground himself. Slowly, his mind came back to him, and he saw how his hands clenched tightly around the inhaler. He stared at the unused device for several long moments before finally feeling calm enough to meet his wife's steady gaze. She gave him a small smile, and he attempted to return it.

"Okay?" she asked quietly, trying not to break the tentative silence of the room.

Jason nodded, handing back his old inhaler for her to put back in the bedside drawer. He spent several long moments just breathing, allowing the figures that haunted his sleep to drift away silently.

"Another nightmare?"

Jason felt his jaw tighten unexpectedly in response. "Maisie..." he warned calmly.

She raised her hands defensively. "Sorry. Not asking. Just... you know you can always talk to me, Jason. The nightmares can't get you out here."

He closed his eyes sharply, letting a scowl contort his face. "The nightmares live out here, Maisie."

"They're just memories, Jason," she soothed, a slender hand on his back rubbing circles.

He scoffed at her attempt. "Bad ones."

Maisie sighed and got out of bed., throwing her hands up in the air in the process. Her frustration was written clearly across her face, and for that, Jason was a little remorseful. "I don't know what to tell you, Jason. It was a bad dream. Are you gonna do this to me every time? Push me away like this?"

Jason clenched his jaw again, painfully. "I don't want to talk about it. Is that so wrong?"

"Jason, I'm your wife! And on top of that, we've known each other for, what, about thirty years? I already know everything there is to know about you! I bet I could guess what it was about again."

His eyes burned with pain and anger at that. "Don't."

"Was it Luthor this time? Or was it just the man with the clown tattoo?"

"Stop it, Maisie!"

For what felt like several long hours, but couldn't have been more than a few seconds, they stood facing each other in silence. Jason glared with his arms crossed over his chest, Maisie with her hands on her hips. Jason couldn't take it any longer. He sighed and reached for a pillow off their bed.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I can't do this tonight, Maisie. We need sleep. I just keep waking you up with my nightmares and then we can't talk about it, and we fight for a while- I just, I can't do it anymore. I'm sorry."

She shifted uncomfortably on her feet a moment before finally deciding it was more worth it to settle this than to go to bed angry. "Jason, wait. I don't-"

"It's fine, Maisie. I'm not mad. I just," he floundered for a moment too long before sighing with exasperation. "I just need some sleep." He leaned across the bed and planted a kiss on his wife's cheek gently, resigned to his fate. "I'll be on the couch."

Maisie didn't know what to do after he left. Sleep definitely wasn't in the cards. She sighed in turn and settled under the comforter once more, preparing herself for another fitful night's sleep.

Lucy grinned as she bounced her quickly growing ten month old on her knee. "Who's ready to see Grandpa? Are you ready?"

The girl grinned right back and cooed around her slobbery fist and waved her other hand aimlessly. Lucy loved that, in spite of the ensuing dribble. A knock sounded on the door to their place. "Coming!" She set her daughter down on the floor to go answer the door.

"Mamama?" her little voice chirped, a curious frown marring her smooth, baby skin briefly.

"No worries, Lo-lo. Mama will be right back, okay?"

The worried expression didn't leave her daughter's face, and she started to crawl after her. Lucy rolled her eyes with a smile, and quickly turned to open the door for her. She turned to face the figure holding a gift bag in one hand and a bottle of good wine in the other. "Hi, Dad," she greeted graciously.

"Hi, sweetheart," Clark responded. He leaned in and pressed a quick peck to his daughter's cheek before walking past her. "I brought that Merlot you asked for. And a present for the little one." He glanced down and saw the happy baby cheerfully crawling towards his pant leg and pulling on it, cooing at him. Clark swooped down and scooped her up into his arms, prompting a series of shrieks and giggles from the little girl.

"Oh, good! I'm glad you remembered. I forgot to remind you at the office earlier."

Lucy looked up at her father and saw that he hadn't heard her comment at all, being so engrossed in her daughter. She rolled her eyes, but couldn't repress the accompanying smile. She loved that her father was getting along so well with Lois. He needed it. For a while there, everything was touch and go with him. Having a granddaughter to spoil with attention was good for him. Especially now, considering it had been nearly a year since her mother's death.

"How's my favorite granddaughter?" he cooed, lifting her high above his head as he spoke to her.

"Ba-ba!" she gleefully shrieked her name for him, arms flailing up and down rhythmically. He laughed and proceeded to cover her face with kisses.

Lucy shook her head with a chuckle. "All right then. You two can keep each other entertained. I'm gonna go check on dinner."

She spun on her heel, not even getting a reaction from them as her father proceeded to show her the new doll he'd gotten her. She smiled thinking about it. It hurt- it hurt a lot- not being able to have her mom around for any of these moments. She knew it affected her dad too, and Jason, probably even to a larger degree. It hurt worse that sometimes she forgot about it. But they'd been so busy lately- what with dealing with the baby and getting back to work and Ultrawoman on top of everything else- sometimes it was impossible to get a moment to even think to herself. It was just life. And that sometimes made her feel guilty. But moments like this, when she could see her father so happy and forgetting his troubles for a little while, that made it worth it. And she genuinely did think he was dong better in general.

She glanced at the lasagna cooking through the oven door, and then quickly at the timer. Forty-five minutes. Not so terrible. Her dad came early, as he did whenever possible. Besides, they still had to wait for Jason and his family to arrive.

Jason. Now that made her feel guilty. Lucy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and blew softly on a pot of boiling noodles, contemplating. He had taken their mother's death much harder, and had less to distract himself with. Not that he wasn't busy with the kids, or work- definitely with work. He'd been really throwing himself into his work a lot lately. Maybe if she'd had more time, less on her plate, they could talk more, maybe he'd stop trying to distance himself from them. Maybe she'd pull him aside, try to have a word with him tonight. He would do the same for her- and had many times over in the past, she reminded herself. She stirred the pot of noodles slowly. He hadn't really taken to little Lois, either. Not the way their dad did. Come to think of it, he actually didn't do much of anything with her besides holding her a few times. Lucy frowned. Something was seriously wrong with that. She hoped it wasn't anything she'd done to upset him. It was definitely something she'd have to talk with him about.

A pair of arms slipped around her waist, startling her. Her shoulders tensed up and Lucy spun around in the arms to confront whoever it was- only to visibly relax when she realized to whom the arms belonged. "Oh. It's just you."

Chris grinned, but his forehead creased in confusion. "Good to see you too, honey."

Lucy swatted at his chest playfully. "You just startled me, that's all. I didn't hear you come in."

"Well, shall we start over?"

She grinned gratefully at him. "Let's."

He smiled and leaned in for a gentle kiss. "Hi."

"Hi."

Their moment was interrupted by a cry of "Da-da" from across the living room. Chris chuckled and they both made their way back over to where Clark sat and Lois crawled.

The next knock at the door revealed a frazzled looking Maisie Kent and her three rambunctious boys. Lucy greeted them all with a smile and a hug, briefly giving them an overview of tonight's family dinner menu and the order to run off and play. The three boys immediately ran off and found a way to tackle their grandfather.

"Thanks for having us over," Maisie spoke softly. The dark circles under her eyes spoke to how exhausted she must have been.

"No worries," Lucy smiled, but her brows hinted there was more going on in her brain. "But where's Jason? Shouldn't he be here?"

Maisie worried a practiced hand over her smooth auburn hair nervously. "He's... he's at work. Caught another case yesterday, has to put in some major overtime to get the verdict."

Lucy nodded, but something felt off about her sister-in-law's words. "Would you like some wine?"

"Please."

Lucy led her through the brownstone to the kitchen, where she got them each a glass of that fine Merlot.

"So," she spoke slowly as she poured, carefully choosing her words. "Is everything okay with Jason?"

"What do you mean? Jason's fine."

The words came out stilted, as though she didn't quite believe them. Lucy frowned. "Wanna try that one again? This time I won't listen to your heartbeat and hear that you're lying."

Maisie sighed and took a seat on a barstool. "I... I don't know what's wrong, Lucy," she finally confessed. "Jason's... he's just being so distant lately. He's throwing himself into his work, he's not focused on his family... He's not happy, Lucy. And I know it seems like a lot to ask, especially considering the one year anniversary is coming up in a month." She didn't need to specify what anniversary she was talking about. Lucy knew immediately what this boiled down to. "But I just feel like he should still be getting better. Or at least trying to. It's not like any of us are doing anything wrong. We're all just trying to help each other through this."

Lucy processed all that information slowly, swirling her wine in her glass contemplatively. "No, it's definitely not any of our faults, I can tell you that. This probably all boils down to Mom. He's kind of doing the same thing Mom always did- throwing himself into his work to avoid his problems. Classic Lane/Kent move. You know how stubborn our family is."

Maisie laughed at that. "Now that I know."

Lucy smiled crookedly, but looked down again. "Do you think it would help if I talked to him?"

Maisie sighed and shook her head. "No. I'm not sure. If you get the chance, maybe. But I wouldn't worry about it. I think once the anniversary passes, he'll be better. He just needs a little time."

Lucy eyed her sister-in-law reluctantly but gave in. "Okay. But if you ever need anything, just give us a call. I can be over there in a jiff."

"Oh, I know."

A timer started going off somewhere, and Lucy shot to her feet. "Crap! The noodles!"

She hurried over to take the lasagna out of the oven before it burned and then turned her attention to the boiling over noodles for her nephews, conversation briefly forgotten.

Driving home that night with the boys practically passed out in the back of the car, Maisie found herself regretting that Jason didn't make it to this dinner in particular. He could have really used the pick me up. Good food, lots of fun and laughs- their niece even took her first steps, to Lucy and Chris' excitement. It was all positives. It might send him to bed with a better feeling in his gut, and maybe the nightmares wouldn't strike again. But instead, he was dealing with the criminals at work and trying to handle the stress of putting them behind bars and making a case that will stick- and all that would put his stress through the roof.

Well, regardless, she'd had a great night. She'd take them where she could get them at this point.

A/N: Review please? Let me know what you think, as always! Come on guys!