PART TWO (LOVERS), CHAPTER ELEVEN

Bursting with anticipation, the partygoers back at the wedding site had decided against waiting inside the hotel lobby and instead had gathered on its shaded front steps and sidewalk. Before long, several in the crowd spotted the coach bus that'd left the rehearsal luncheon not twenty minutes ago, and as they proclaimed their sighting, a roar of enthusiasm erupted from the others and they all cheered the bus as it traveled the last block to the hotel.

Many on the bus, excited by their boisterous reception, got to their feet and waved from the windows. Amongst them was Clark, whose grin brightened all the more when he noticed an unexpected face within the crowd.

"Hey, it's Kara!" he pronounced, while polishing off the last of his three slices of groom's cake. "She's here!"

"What? Kara? Kara's here?" returned Jimmy, peering along with a few others in the direction Clark was pointing. Upon making out the final member of the groom's party, Jimmy immediately withdrew from the window, looked down at his appearance, and then dashed up the bus aisle to the small washroom at the rear.

Laughing, Dinah asked, "Is someone going to make sure he's not hyperventilating?"

"Allow me," volunteered Bruce, who then gestured toward Lois's purse. "May I, Lola?"

"Why, yes, you most certainly may, Mr. Wayne," she replied, theatrically bestowing upon him the always overstocked handbag in which he was certain he'd find a comb, wipes, facial cleanser, mouthwash, and anything else that could assist Jimmy in sprucing up.

When the bus soon came to a halt, the bride and the groom were first down its steps and out of its door. Clark's friends immediately converged on Lois, hoisting her up onto their shoulders and parading her about as they thanked her repeatedly for what they considered to be as much their surprise as her intended's. From her lofted position, Lois noticed Oliver coming to linger nearby so as to ensure that the frenzied group of mostly men didn't accidentally drop her. She waved in appreciation. He winked in reply. In the meantime, Clark headed straight for the open arms of Kara Zor-El.

"You're early," smiled Clark, enfolding Kara in a snug embrace. "When did you get here?"

Returning her cousin's hug, Kara told him, "Just an hour ago. The conference closed early."

Clark, of course, knew that the conference Kara was referring to was in fact an interplanetary summit at which she and her delegation had been petitioning for recognition of New Krypton as a sovereign world, despite its fledgling state. To Kara's news, Clark therefore withdrew a bit from her and furrowed his brow in concern. Kara put his mind at ease, though, by reporting in veiled terms that the deliberations had taken less time than supposed and that New Krypton's appeal had ultimately been granted.

"That's incredible! I'm so happy for you. For everyone," beamed Clark, circling his arms around her again. "I want to hear everything about it as soon as possible, okay?"

Kara nodded as several of her fellow Justice League members made their ways to her and offered her their hellos. When Lois finally escaped the swarm of her admirers, she and Oliver also went to greet Kara, who met the former with nearly the same warmth as she had Clark. While the two women hugged, Oliver gave Kara a rub of the shoulder and a smile of welcome before slipping away, leaving only Dinah to note his silence and his prompt disappearance.

After receiving Kara's news about the "conference" and giving her her heartfelt congratulations in response, Lois glanced over Kara's brand new outfit and asked her how she liked it. With a grateful smile, Kara declared both the fit and the style to be just right, adding, "I went through the entire wardrobe. It's amazing! Thank you so much. I never would've had time to do all that shopping, and I know you must get tired of me raiding your closets when I visit."

"Oh, please. My sister cleans me out whenever she's in town; at least you return whatever you borrow," replied Lois. "Anyway, the shopping was no biggie; I knocked it out in, like, two weekends. Which, believe me, was way, way less time than it would've taken Smallville. I mean, it's nice and all that he wanted to handle everything for you himself, but he already had enough on his to-do list without adding trying to pull together what you'd need for an entire month. And, seriously, we all know your unmentionables drawer would be empty if it'd been left to him to stock."

Kara, along with a number of bystanders, chuckled. Clark was saved from hearing Lois's quip, though, as he'd been tugged off into a group of her bachelorette party pals. Grinning, laughing, and planting kisses all over his face, the throng of women thanked him yet again for spending an entire day at their beck and call, and they went on to insist that they were crashing his party for the sole purpose of ensuring him and his all the fun they could stand. Lois, meanwhile, continued chatting with Kara, asking her whether she'd inventoried the rest of her rooms for any missing sundries.

"I did. Everything's there, right down to my favorite shampoo. I'm all set!" Kara assured her, before shifting her weight and considering a matter that quickly overcast her features.

Taken aback, Lois observed, "I swear, Smallville makes that exact same mope-face whenever he doesn't get something he really wants. What is it? What did I forget?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all… But do you know why James and I aren't in the same rooms? I've been looking forward to finally having sex with him. I've been practicing."

Both Bart and Stuart nearly choked on the slices of cake they'd been eating. "Gross, Kara!" complained the former. "Overshare much?"

"Oh, grow up, Frodo," retorted Lois, who was as thoroughly amused as Dinah and several others. "I asked her a question; she gave me its answer."

Indeed, Kara had no filter, no reserve. Her emotions were as bald as her opinions, a trait that had endeared her to Lois long before she knew anything of Kara's upbringing. As Lois would later learn, Kryptonians loathed deceit in all its forms. They considered it inefficient, a waste of time. Moreover, they considered it to indicate frailty in any who relied on it, which was intolerable in a culture that strived to eliminate defects of both blood and behavior. To Kara, therefore, to speak straight and to speak true was a matter not only of honor to her house but also of duty to her race, neither of which she would betray by bending to the proprieties of what she and her compatriots deemed a primitive world.

Thus, understanding Kara's convictions and sympathizing with her obvious concerns, Lois insisted that she shouldn't read too much into the sleeping arrangements in the groom's suite. "If I had to guess," she went on to say, peering off for a moment to ensure Clark was still occupied, "Smallville probably set you up by yourself as some passive-aggressive way of making a point to Jimmy."

"But he loves James."

"Doesn't mean he's gonna help him bed his big cousin -"

Bart broke in, complaining for the second time. "- Ugh! I am so done with this convo! You guys stay here plotting Kara's way into Jimmy's pants all you want. I'm sprinting over to the carnival to stock up. I'll be back in exactly five minutes; everybody better be on the bus by then. Or else."

Nearly everyone laughed as the groomsman bolted away.

Kara, however, remained focused on the matter at hand, breathing a sigh of relief in response to Lois's explanation. "James is kind to indulge Clark, if you're right," she told the bride. "Either way, I'm just glad my first thought seems wrong. I was worried James had met someone since I was last here."

Smirking, Dinah interjected, "Even if he had, there's always Plans B through Z. Jimmy's not the only adorable dork in the universe."

"Of course not," smiled Kara, "but he's the one I want."

"And who am I to stand in the way of true lust? Have at him."

Upon Dinah gesturing over Kara's shoulder at the coach bus, Kara turned to see Jimmy, sans camera, descending the stairs leading down to its front door. Immediately, Kara exclaimed his name and rushed off toward him. Jimmy, when he met her eye, grinned and quickened his pace down the steps. No sooner had he reached the sidewalk, though, than Kara was throwing her arms around his neck and eagerly pulling his lips to hers. Although caught off guard, Jimmy promptly returned her kiss as a number of onlookers began whistling and whooping.

Clark, as Lois expected, was the only person unamused by the spectacle. Tickled at the notice of his none-too-subtle eye-roll, she shuffled through the crowd in his direction and offered him a distraction by calling out, "Hey, Smallville, I guess that urge to maul runs in the family, huh?"

Chuckling, he turned to her and retorted, "Your family, maybe."

Having reached his side, Lois punched him in the shoulder, saying, "Don't flatter yourself. Luce hasn't come on to you in years and she only used to do it to annoy me."

"Are you sure about that? Just sayin', I never felt much ulterior motive in those kisses."

"Such a smartass!" laughed Lois, jumping up to hook an arm around Clark's neck and to haul him down into a headlock. "You seriously wanna joke about sucking face with my little sister - twice?!"

"I never kissed her back! Not that I didn't want to…"

"Oh, that's it! Consider your ass kicked!"

As Lois tussled with Clark, who goaded his fiancée still more by insisting that Lucy wouldn't stand for her bullying him, several of Lois's friends giddily joined in attempting to free the groom from the bride's hold. Dinah, who was amongst them, gibed at Lois, "It's Sugar's party; he'll mock you if he wants to."

Soon enough, nearly every partygoer had turned from rooting on Kara and Jimmy to placing bets on the wrestling match between Lois and all those opposing her. The change in the crowd's cheers derailed Jimmy's focus and he broke his kiss with Kara in order to see what the commotion was about. After he managed to make out the bride and the groom, he chuckled and redirected his gaze at Kara, telling her, "I think CK could use your help."

"Don't worry," she teased. "He's more capable than he looks."

"Talk about an understatement."

After giggling at Jimmy's rejoinder, Kara fell into silence with him and they spent several moments taking each other in. Ultimately, Kara ended their lull by sighing, "It's so good to see you, James."

Jimmy smiled in reciprocation. Theirs had always been a mutual attraction. He was drawn to her for her openness and daring; she to him for his generous, easygoing spirit. Still, for some time, their romance had amounted to little more than a series of fleeting moments and false starts. Two years ago, however, that began to change.

Amidst what'd become a hostile environment for the Kandorian soldiers that were then on Earth, Clark had discovered the existence of the Book of Rao, a device housing an artificial intelligence capable of locating every surviving Kryptonian in the known universe, all of whom had been off-world at the time of Krypton's explosion. After finally obtaining the Book, Clark had entrusted it to Kara, who'd then left Earth with the Kandorians to seek out their millions of far-flung compatriots and to reunite them on a new planet they could call home.

Since New Krypton's founding, Kara's life had become far less unpredictable. Still, the business of helping to rebuild her civilization left her busier than ever, and although she communicated with Clark regularly, her trips to Earth were infrequent and typically brief. When she did visit, though, she always made a point of asking out Jimmy. Once or twice, she'd arrived to find that he was involved with someone. But more often than not, she'd found him available and still very much open to exploring what was between them.

During Kara's last stay a few months ago, she'd told Jimmy that she intended to join in Lois and Clark's eventual "buddymoon" and that she hoped to spend as much of the vacation as possible with him. Jimmy had thrilled at her news and returned her wishes. Indeed, the next four weeks would be the most uninterrupted time they'd ever had the chance to enjoy together. For the time being, though, Jimmy managed to focus on the present and asked Kara about her early arrival.

In as few words as possible, Kara told him what she'd told Clark and Lois. "But," she continued, flirtation in her voice as she toyed with the collar of his shirt, "what I would much rather talk about right now is our separate rooms… with our separate beds. I thought we had plans, James."

Jimmy blushed, chuckled awkwardly, and glanced off at Clark, who, to his relief, was still happily taken up with trying to out-grapple Lois. Looking back at Kara, Jimmy thus explained to her, "Well, I'd already unpacked all my stuff when CK started fixing you up someplace else. I can take a hint, you know. And I completely get it; you guys are family. Not to mention, you and I go months at a time without touching base, so I didn't want to assume our plans were still our plans until I saw you again."

"You are so thoughtful, James. Why isn't every human so thoughtful?" whispered Kara, leaning into him and kissing him deeply. "So…" she then said, once she'd finally withdrawn from him, "do you have a date for this evening?"

Jimmy shook his head.

"Well, you do now -"

"- No! No, he doesn't! There are no dates at a bachelor party!" ordered Bart, who, arms full of goodies, had suddenly come upon them. "Kara, you like these as much as Stretch does, right?" he then impatiently asked, holding out a box of Reese's Pieces. She nodded, prompting him to reply, "Just like E.T., huh? Figures. Well, here, that pack's for you. Call 'em a welcome-back gift. Now, would somebody tell me why the bus is empty and Lane is assaulting Stretch?! Hey, Lane! Lane! Get the hell off of him!"

"Bite me, Frodo! He started it!"

Bart huffed, wound his way through the crowd to drop most of his remaining provisions in Stuart's arms, and set about breaking up the melee. Lois refused to relent, though, unless Clark acknowledged her as the superior wrestler and admitted his defeat.

"Just do it, Stretch," said Bart, confounded as everyone else was by the intricacies of Lois's grip. "We'll never get out of here otherwise."

If only to appease his groomsman, Clark did finally give in. Satisfied, Lois released him and danced off to receive the congratulations from those who'd bet on her. Dinah, in the meantime, adjusted Clark's glasses as a few other women tidied his hair and clothes.

After Lois had given and received enough high-fives and chest-bumps, she returned to Clark and his company to taunt them for their loss. Bart, however, took exception to everything about the current carryings-on and interrupted Lois by addressing one and all.

"What is wrong with you guys?" he shouted, while absently sticking his second box of Reese's Pieces into Clark's hands. "This is supposed to be Stretch's bachelor party! His real one, not that snooze-fest me and Jimmy got suckered into throwing him last night! This is our chance to get it right, people! The rest of this day is supposed to be about basketball and booze! Hotties and hookups! Not beating up on the groom! Our jobs are to get Stretch wasted, possibly arrested, and, even if Lane is the only skirt we can interest him in, laid! That's it! That is all! Who's with me?!"

Despite Bart's best efforts, his battle cry incited only laughter from his audience. Aggravated all the more, he started protesting against their refusal to take their mission seriously. Dinah, however, cut him off, saying, "- Oh, relax, Bartholomew. We'll see to it that Sugar has his fun. But, really, all that raving you're doing makes it sound like you're the one we need to get laid."

Shooting Dinah a look, Bart returned, "Quit tryin' to seduce me, blondie. I ain't interested."

"If that's true, then there's only one reason why."

At Dinah's retort, Lois immediately cut in on Bart's behalf, joking, "Yeah, it's called 'self-preservation.' Who knows where you've been."

"Sugar, that's who. He sees me every night in his dreams."

"In his nightmares, more like."

Happy to let Lois have the last word, Dinah rolled her eyes in pretended offense and sauntered off into the crowd. As she disappeared, the remaining women encircling Clark finished tidying him up and declared him ready for his big evening. Clark's friends rooted their approval and promptly joined in ushering the groom toward the bus.

Lois stayed put for a few seconds in order to enjoy the sight of Clark grinning and laughing in response to the cheer by which he was surrounded. With a smile of contentment, she then went to bring up the rear of the crowd. As her vantage changed, she lost sight of Clark and thus took the opportunity to look about for any stragglers. In so doing, she happened to glimpse Oliver standing at a remove from the animated partygoers, waiting for them to board the bus ahead of him. He appeared staid, composed. To most, he may even have appeared complacent. But Lois knew him far better than most - far better than nearly any other, in fact. And she recognized something in his eyes that betrayed the simmerings belying his facade.

The smile on Lois's face fell as she recalled Oliver's momentary expression of discontent back at the rehearsal luncheon. Worried, she scooted around those directly before her and headed straight for Oliver. She stopped halfway, however, upon noticing Dinah emerge from the crowd and approach him.

Lois kept her distance as she watched Oliver perk up upon meeting Dinah's gaze. In spite of his apparent change of feeling, though, Dinah's expression conveyed concern as she said something to him that Lois was too far away to hear over the clamor of the crowd. In response to Dinah, Oliver shook his head and seemed to offer her an assurance. Dinah regarded him skeptically and, after a long moment, tugged at the lapel of his blazer to coax him down to her height. Whatever she subsequently whispered into his ear drew from him a chuckle and a nod. She released his blazer and kissed his cheek. He smiled at her in return, and he then let her lead him by the hand into the crowd and onto the bus.

Lois exhaled a sigh of relief at the result of Dinah and Oliver's exchange. Nonetheless, she couldn't help wondering what matter could be so bothersome as to distract Oliver even in the slightest from the elation that his earlier reconciliation with Dinah had given him. Before she could venture a guess, though, Kara suddenly appeared opposite her to ask about the wedding ceremony.

"I can't tell you how bizarre all this is to me," said Kara. "We don't ritualize partnership back home. We don't romanticize it either, though. But, then, our civilization is millennia ahead of this one."

Lois, tabling her preoccupation with Oliver, chuckled at Kara's comments. "Those stupid Earthlings and their stupid feelings, right?"

"Oh, we don't think of humans as unintelligent - just unevolved." Taking into account their surroundings, Kara lowered her voice as she continued, "Which Earthlings really have no excuse for when you consider the Themyscirans. They originated from this world, but they've progressed to become one of the most advanced races in the universe. What's more, they think even higher of sensibility than humans do, and yet, they're no more ruled by their passions than Kryptonians are."

Lois continued chuckling as she accepted the handful of Reese's Pieces that Kara offered her. "Are you sure you don't object to Smallville marrying me?"

"I'd only object if you were human. But you're not. Not at heart, anyway."

"Thanks?"

"Don't mention it!" Kara brightly returned, towing Lois along behind her as they finally boarded the bus. "Now, you have to tell me everything about the ceremony. Are groomsmen situated by some sort of precedence? Or is it a height thing? Will I be expected to speak at some point? I am Clark's nearest blood relation, after all. I should probably say a few words, right?"

"Um, about the ceremony, Kara…" replied Lois, munching on a few bits of candy in order to delay responding. "Actually, you know what, it's probably better if family breaks this kind of news. It's probably also more entertaining - for me, at least. Let's go find your cousin."

…

Kara wouldn't hear of sitting out the wedding ceremony. As the bachelor party's coach bus pulled away from the wedding site and headed for a private airport not far away, Kara explained to Clark that without the involvement of an elder member of his house, his marriage on Earth would receive no recognition on New Krypton. As a result, when Clark eventually came of age by Kryptonian standards, he would be paired in accordance with their practices and expected to take up with his designated mate.

"Which, of course, you'll refuse to do," whispered Kara, who'd yet to let Clark get in a word as she huddled with him in the rear two seats of the coach bus. "Which means the Council will have every reason to deem you disloyal and to disavow you as Kryptonian - something many of them would already like to do. Because, in case you forget, to be considered Kryptonian is as much a matter of genetic makeup as of actions, choices. And you, Kal, choose to live your life away from our people, in a primitive world amongst primitive beings -"

At that, Clark furrowed his brow in disapproval and tipped his head sidelong at Lois, Jimmy, and Stuart, all of whom were crammed into the next row of seats and were leaning over the headrests in order to witness Kara's lecture. Kara rolled her eyes at Clark's reproof and insisted that their onlookers knew she meant no offense. "Right, guys?"

All three stifled their snickers and nodded.

"See? They understand," said Kara, turning back to Clark.

Clark could see that Kara was eager to resume making her points and, in an attempt to spare her the effort and himself the exasperation, he swallowed the last of the Reese's Pieces he'd been eating and reached for her hand, saying, "All the same, Kara, you really don't have to keep telling me these things -"

"- Yes, I do. Now -" - keeping her hand out of his reach - "- stop trying to placate me and don't interrupt again."

Sighing, Clark leaned back into his seat and shot a glare at Lois. The bride responded with a shrug of innocence, as if to say that she'd had no idea how Kara would take hearing from him that the number of ceremony participants had been pared down. Clark, of course, knew Lois to be taunting him and, giving her a look that guaranteed payback, he settled in for what remained of Kara's dress-down.

"Listen," said Kara, once assured that she had Clark's full attention, "I understand that Earth is the only home you've ever known. The Council understands that, too. And, fortunately, you are still highly regarded in public opinion for saving the few Kandorians you could from Checkmate and for fighting as hard as you did to secure the Book of Rao. But, Kal, no amount of popularity will matter if you are assigned a mate and you refuse whoever your mate is. That is something that is simply not done. Our race endures because we partner not by choice, but by obligation. We partner not to please ourselves, but to serve our people. It's our duty. That may seem alien to your Earthly sensibilities, but it couldn't possibly to your Kryptonian sense - which no amount of time on even this planet could rid you of.

"So I'm sure you see that I must take part in your wedding, regardless of how peculiar I find all this spectacle and pomp. We are family, cousin, and you are my responsibility. I will not see the House of El shamed by your disavowal. I will not see you deemed as anything less than what you are: one of us."

Upon Kara's conclusion, a sober silence followed. It was unexpectedly ended, however, when the three members of Kara and Clark's audience broke out in applause. The teasing ovation drew a chuckle from Clark, but not from Kara. To her, the present subject demanded solemnity.

Leaning toward her, Clark quieted his amusement long enough to simply ask, "Do you want to be in the ceremony, Kara?"

"I need to be," she insisted, her expression still grave. "What I want is irrelevant."

"Not to me and my 'Earthly sensibilities,' it isn't. Do you want to be in the ceremony?"

Kara paused in consideration, and then answered, "Certainly. Lois found me an unbelievable dress. It deserves to be shown off."

Clark laughed along with the others. "That's all you had to say."

Satisfied, Kara allowed herself to smile a bit and turned to ask Jimmy just what was so funny. He made a teasing retort, to which Kara rejoined in kind. Still bantering, the two of them then left their separate seats and went to find an empty adjacent pair. In the meantime, Stuart, as one of the wedding ceremony's musicians, asked Lois and Clark if the full procession was back on.

"I guess so," shrugged Clark, who then looked to Lois for her say. "As long as you don't mind."

"Oh, I'm good either way and I'm sure my bridesmaids are too. But who's gonna take Luce's place? CJ's always said she prefers the backstage."

Smirking, Clark returned, "I'm sure she'd make an exception if you asked her to."

"You may have to wait a while, though. Looks like she's busy," chuckled Stuart, pointing a thumb toward a row several ahead of his and Lois's, where Carissa was cuddling up to the young woman Lois had first seen her with at the carnival.

Annoyed by the sight, Lois scoffed a bit and turned back around, only to find Clark, a self-satisfied grin on his face, still observing Carissa and his friend. At the sudden realization of why he seemed so proud of himself, she exclaimed and lunged over her seat's headrest at him. Her eruption startled Stuart, but he soon burst out in guffaw at the hilarity of Lois landing atop Clark and immediately setting upon him.

The bride and the groom wrestled about for a bit, with Lois pronouncing her indignation over Clark's matchmaking and Clark laughing his enjoyment of her overblown reaction to it. Soon enough, though, Clark opted to take advantage of his super-speed and accordingly caught Lois's forearms just as she was preparing to deliver two more blows to his torso.

Breathless, Lois complained, "That's cheating."

Clark started to make a retort, but he found himself too rapt by Lois's pique. Stuart, upon seeing Clark's gaze gradually descend the flushed skin of Lois's cheeks and throat, snickered to himself and turned back around in his seat. Lois watched as Clark lingered over the curves of her still-heaving chest before slowly lifting his eyes to her mouth. Without hesitation, he released her arms, grasped her waist, and angled his lips to kiss her.

She giggled at him, pulling out of his reach and sliding off his lap into the seat next to him. "Could you be any more of a cliché?"

"Asked the woman who just literally threw herself at me," chuckled Clark, leaning over to nuzzle the side of Lois's neck and to tickle his fingers across her stomach.

She jumped in a reflexive fit of laughter and tried to wriggle away from him, but he kept her close. Forced to resort to other means, Lois called out to the front of the bus, announcing to her friends that Kara was finished giving Clark his earful and that he was consequently all theirs. A few of the women immediately got up and headed back to collect Clark. Bart, however, beat them to him and hurried him up, explaining that several of the partygoers had begun debating which of Edge City's two stars should take the last shot if the game came down to it. At last, Clark ceased tickling Lois and got to his feet. Still laughing, Lois smacked him across his backside as he shuffled past her. He smiled down at her in response and then entered the aisle to join his groomsman and Lois's friends.

Stuart rose to follow the group, but Clark, seeing him get up, told him, "Oh, you don't have to come. We'll just be talking shop up there."

"Yeah, hang back here," added Bart, pushing Clark along. "Basketball isn't really your thing."

If Stuart was disappointed by Bart's second, Bart was in too much of a rush to notice. No sooner had Stuart retaken his seat, though, than Lois was plopping down next to him and throwing an arm around his shoulders.

"Men, am I right?" she quipped.

Stuart couldn't help chuckling and, as Lois gave him a reassuring squeeze, he didn't at all mask the smirk in his voice when he claimed to have no idea what she was talking about.