- - - Chapter Twenty-Eight

The General left after dinner, congratulating them on the babies softly in hopes of giving them the chance to tell Jason in their own way. Just before bed, however, Jason made his own way of discovery.

"Daddy?" He asked quietly while Clark was helping him brush his teeth, meaning he was watching to make sure Jason actually brushed.

"Yes?"

"Why does Mommy have three heartbeats?" If Clark had been holding something he would've dropped it.

"How about we finish up in here and then you can go ask Mommy?"

"Okay," Jason just shrugged. If his father wasn't worried about his mother's multiple hearts, then he certainly wouldn't be.

"Hey 'Lo," Clark said as they entered the general living space, walking up and hugging her from behind. Jason giggled behind them, encouraging a quick release.

"Yeah?"

"Jason has a question for you."

"Yeah?" She said again, turning to face her son. Jason smiled innocently.

"Why do you have three heartbeats?"

"What?"

"Why do you have three heartbeats?"

"Well, um, actually," Lois struggled, looking up at Clark's smiling face and glaring. "Are you going to help me with this or just smile at me, Clark?"

"I was planning on smiling for awhile, but…"

"Why does she have three heartbeats, Daddy?"

"Mommy is going to have a baby," Clark said, kneeling down next to his son so he could look him in the eye carefully.

"And the baby has two heartbeats?"

"Actually, I'm going to have two babies," Lois said, kneeling down as well. "Twins."

"So I'm going to have two little brothers?"

"Or two little sisters, or one of each," Lois said, smiling. To their dismay, Jason frowned.

"Is that okay, Jason?" Clark asked, sounding just as worried as Lois felt. Jason bit his lip and looked from parent to parent, unsure.

"Why did you want to have more kids? Am I not enough? Did I do something wrong?"

"No!" Lois said, immediately picking him up and holding him close. "No, honey, never!"

"But…" Jason was still confused.

"We wanted you to have a brother or sister to play with on a rainy day," Clark said, smiling and rubbing his son's back from behind Lois's shoulder so he could look at Jason's face.

"But I have you to play with," Jason said, his eyebrows knitting together.

"But won't it be fun to have somebody closer to your age to play with who will be very much like you?" Lois asked, tipping her head away so that she see his face as well. Jason was thinking, still unsure what to make of it all.

"I guess," he said slowly.

"We've got a long time to talk about it before the babies come," Clark said, still smiling comfortingly. "They still have awhile to grow inside Mommy before they can come out." For a moment it looked like Jason might start asking uncomfortable questions, like how his little siblings had gotten in there in the first place, but, luckily, he seemed to be too wiped out from his day.

"Okay," he said quietly, hugging his mother goodnight, and then his dad.

"What do you think?" Clark asked, joining Lois on the couch for the news after Jason was tucked in.

"I think he was tired," Lois said after a moment. "Good thing, too… that could've gotten awkward."

"Yeah," Clark chuckled. "He'll be okay with it after he gets used to the idea, 'Lo," he assured her, pulling her closer and placing a kiss on her temple.

"I hope so."

- - -

Jason was more than okay with the idea of having a pair of younger siblings by the time Lois started showing, which wasn't too long after he'd found out about it. He organized and reorganized his toys into piles that he would be sharing with the babies, and piles that he would want to keep for himself.

"I can't go to work today, Clark," Lois firmly announced, coming out of their bedroom wearing sweatpants and one of his plaid shirts from the farm.

"What?" Clark said, looking up in surprise. He'd never expected to hear those words come out of Lois's mouth ever.

"Nothing fits, I can't go to work in this!"

"What do you mean nothing fits? It fit yesterday…?" Clark was confused. Jason was looking on with amusement, eating his Fruit Loops and smiling.

"It fit yesterday, but not comfortably," Lois said, sighing and joining her son at the table. "I'll just stay home with Jason today. We'll swing by the mall and buy some maternity stuff after lunch."

"Are you sure? I could call Perry, get the day off for both of us…?"

"No, Clark, who's going to cover the Governor Mansfeld case then?" He shrugged and she gave him a look. "One of us has to go in, and its certainly not going to be me."

"Okay," he said reluctantly. He liked having Lois at work with him, it meant he could keep an eye on her and make sure she sat down whenever she could, even if she hated it. "If you're sure, and you know I'm just a shout away, if you need anything…"

"Clark, we'll be fine," she smiled, pecking him on the lips as he tied his tie. "The worst that can happen is that awful Sarah Ricks will get a few pictures of me watching Jason at the park in a pair of sweatpants."

"We're going to the park?" Jason said, perking up.

"If you want to," Lois said, smiling. The park always got her son excited, there were always kids there to play with, and the sunshine revitalized him.

"Alright," Clark said, giving in. "But you call if you need anything, or if anything happens. Jason," he said turning to his son and giving him a mock-serious face and getting a remarkably similar one in response, "you make sure your mother stays off her feet as much as possible, and no heels."

"Aye, aye," Jason said, saluting and getting a chuckle as his father grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

"Wait, you're not flying?" Lois asked, surprised.

"No," Clark sighed, obviously disappointed. "Sarah's already set up to snap a few shots of us for Georgianna."

"Ugh," Lois sighed. "Ever since she got those of you bringing Jason back from the Gallagher's that one afternoon…"

"It gave her the oomph she needed to keep tailing us," Clark agreed with a matching sigh.

"Maybe you should talk to her, you know," Lois suggested. "I bet Sarah, at least, would lay off if Superman said so."

"Yeah, but Georgianna would triple her efforts."

"Maybe we should go to Perry…"

"Georgianna would still triple her efforts."

"Not if she was busy looking for a job."

"Lois!"

"Well it would work!"

"I've got to go," Clark said, shaking his head. "I'll call you later."

"M'kay," Lois said, pecking him again before stepping back to let Jason give him a hug goodbye and closing the door behind him. "Okay, munchkin. What're we doing first?"

- - -

"Hey Chief, its Clark," Clark said into his phone as he exited the building. "Just wanted to let you know Lois won't be coming in today… No, she's fine, everything's fine; she just decided she outgrew her wardrobe... Yeah, she'll be in tomorrow, she's going shopping today… I know, Lois shopping, not two things that usually go together, eh?" He chuckled. "Great, see you in twenty… Yes, twenty… I'll explain later…. Okay, bye Chief."

Clark chuckled again hearing, "Don't call me Chief," muttered after the phone was shut. He hailed a cab, getting attention quickly because of his height. Sighing, he contorted himself to fit in the space before calling behind him to the woman who'd just caught a picture of him, "Miss Ricks, do you need a cab to the Planet? It would save on gas if we rode together."

"Oh, uh, no thanks Mr. Kent…" Sarah stuttered, thrown off, not having expected to be noticed. "I'm, um, working on something for Mr. White I need to get done down here… I'll see you at the Planet later, though; thanks for the offer."

"Not a problem, have a nice morning," Clark said, smiling and shaking his head as he closed the door. "Daily Planet building," Clark said to the driver and they took off. Clark listened back and heard Sarah calling for a taxi as soon as his was out of sight.

- - -

"KENT!" Perry's voice rang across the bullpen as soon as Clark sat down and turned on his computer. Stifling a chuckle because it would be out of character, Clark stood up, tripping over the wheel of his chair, and hurried to his boss' office.

"You wanted to see me Chief?" He asked in his usual office voice as the door closed, noticing a few pitying looks coming at him from the other side of the glass.

"You want to tell me why it took you twenty minutes to get here this morning? And I need that article you were working on yesterday afternoon."

"Well, it's a twenty minute cab ride from our apartment to the Planet, so that's what took twenty minutes, and I'll have the article for you as soon as I get a copy printed."

"Why did you take a cab this morning?" Perry asked after accepting the excuse for the almost late story.

"Because Georgianna from PR has a photographer, Sarah Ricks, following Lois in hopes of getting to know Superman better," Clark sighed, massaging his temples in frustration. If he could get headaches, he would have one.

"Sarah Ricks? Isn't she that new hire from about a month ago?"

"Yeah," Clark nodded. "She doesn't know to be afraid of Lois yet," they both chuckled.

"I'll have a talk with both of them," Perry assured him. "Wouldn't want to trap Superman in a cab…"

"I'm more worried about Miss Ricks catching on," he sighed. "She's following 'Lo pretty closely, I'm surprised she hasn't noticed a few things."

"I'll talk to them after lunch… Miss Ricks has yet to come in today."

"That's because she's staking out the apartment."

"Jimmy sent her on assignment to the docks," Perry frowned. "I'll have him call her in, if she doesn't have a few decent pictures of those new military boats… Well, that'll be a good reason to get her off your tail right there," he growled and Clark shifted uncomfortably; he didn't want Sarah to lose her job, he just wanted her to stop following Lois.

"Well, Chief, if you can get her to stop following Lois without firing her, that'd be great."

"You really are a boy scout, Kent," Perry chuckled, shooing him out of the office to print off the article.

- - -

Clark ended up staying late, covering for Lois in her new assistant editor position by sticking around to help Perry with the final layouts. He sighed; it was taking even longer than usual because the world was having issues this evening. He'd had to fly off every half hour or so when he was typing up his article that afternoon, and it had only gotten worse as the day wore on. He hadn't gotten lunch or dinner, luckily he didn't really need either, and Perry was running on coffee fumes after the cappuccino machine had broken. So Superman was stuck with a irritated editor-in-chief, an empty stomach, and a loud ringing in his ears that would've been a splitting stress headache if he could feel pain while he tried to get all the text for an article to fit onto the page without taking up room reserved for the ads.

"Finally," he sighed, leaning back and stretching, his flight capabilities the only thing keeping him from tipping over in his chair.

"What a night," Perry sighed, clicking the button that sent everything to print and stretching as well.

"You're telling me," Clark muttered under his breath. The pair of them exchanged pleasantries before leaving in their own ways.

Lois was pacing when he got home, looking out at the balcony window worriedly every few seconds.

"Lois, what's the matter?"

"Where have you been?" She asked, practically running over to hug him as soon as he landed.

"At work," he said, surprised.

"I was worried- your phone was off."

"It was a busy night," he sighed. "Everybody needed Superman and I was helping Perry with layout."

"That's what I thought, but," she laughed at herself, pecking his cheek lightly before turning to warm him up some dinner, "damn hormones, I couldn't stop worrying."

"You sure you're okay?" Clark asked as they sat at the table, him eating the macaroni and cheese she'd made for dinner while she had a cup of hot chocolate, her coffee replacement during her pregnancy.

"I'm fine," she said, smiling. "It was just kind of one of those days."

"How do you mean?"

"Sarah Ricks," she sighed and Clark's face darkened. "She followed us to the park, not too subtly either. She could make quite a photo album of our day… and then she just disappeared right after lunch, it kind of freaked me out."

"Perry had Jimmy call her in," Clark said. "She was supposed to be getting pictures at the harbor of those new military cruisers that'll be heading out to open water next week. She didn't have any and I'd talked to him about her following you earlier, so…"

"Did he fire her?" She asked hopefully.

"No," Clark shook his head and Lois frowned. "No, she ratted on Georgianna, so Georgianna was fired and Sarah took a pay decrease and a probationary period of sorts."

"That's good, I suppose."

"Hopefully," Clark shrugged. "I just hope Georgianna doesn't keep after you herself now that she's got all the free time for it."

"I doubt it; like we said earlier, she'll be too busy looking for a new job."

"Ah, but an inside with Superman would be the scoop of her career."

"Yes, well, Superman must continue to hold his wife's career in mind," Lois chuckled. "Just think of what the world would say if you gave an interview to somebody else. Especially after that article last summer about how you trust me and the Planet and all that."

"Well, you did marry another man. Maybe Superman is jealous."

"You're referring to yourself in the third person and talking about being jealous of yourself, Clark," she said, narrowing her eyes at him from across the table. He just chuckled.

"And it won't be the first time we question my sanity, either," she smirked at him. "So your day was pleasant other than Sarah? How was Jason?" He glanced through Jason's door and was glad to see the boy sleeping peacefully,

"He was okay. He kept coming up with baby names," she smiled. "He's started a list."

"Really?" Lois nodded, getting up and going to the coffee table where Jason's drawings and drawing materials were spread out from the relaxed afternoon.

- - -

Lois groaned and rolled over again, moving so that the little feet were no longer massaging her husband's lower back, making him roll over as well.

"You okay?" Clark asked, pity evident in his sleepy voice. Lois just grunted in response. She was now seven months pregnant. The two sets of feet inside her seemed to know that Daddy was nearby and were trying to give him the back massage he'd just received, unfortunately, the back massage also came with a tap dance on the underside of Mommy's liver, which wasn't nearly as pleasant.

Lois had been ordered to take it easy by her doctors. The twins were developing normally, if slightly faster than normal human children, meaning Lois looked and felt closer to eight months pregnant with twins. She had to pee constantly, she couldn't stand for more than five minutes without getting sore feet, she couldn't sit for more than ten minutes without her back aching, she couldn't lie in the same position for more than a half an hour before the twins got bored and started kicking to get her moving again. Perry had forced her to go on maternity leave when she'd started vocalizing her discomfort. Of course, she was talking to Clark because it was his fault she was so uncomfortable, but the rest of the office could hear it too. Clark was completely unaffected by Lois's complaints, he was too excited for the approaching due date. He would rub her feet, massage her back, console her, and never complain once.

Jason seemed excited too, especially now that he could really see that there were little people growing inside his Mommy's tummy. He'd had a long talk with his father about not peeking using x-ray vision, which he'd learned to control during the first sixth months of his mother's pregnancy, though the walls did still fade out from time to time. His hearing was still iffy, sometimes it was there and sometimes it wasn't; luckily, he had no trouble controlling it when it showed up. His list of names for the babies had made its way from the single sheet of paper to an almost full notebook. Every name he came across was written down in the little book, he spent his evenings re-reading it and crossing off names he decided he didn't like.

"I'm just peachy," Lois said, rolling out of bed and grabbing her robe.

"Where're you going?" Clark asked, propping himself up on his elbow to watch her silhouette.

"I've gotta freaking pee again," she mumbled, cursing loudly when her foot caught on one of the cardboard boxes that filled the apartment; they would be moving in the morning. Clark chuckled, getting out of bed and catching her elbow to steady her as she rubbed at the offended foot.

"You okay?"

She mumbled something about idiot husbands who couldn't even stub their toes properly at him and closed herself in the bathroom. Clark chuckled again and settled on the couch to wait for her.

Twenty minutes seemed to pass after they'd both climbed back in bed when morning arrived, bringing loud knocking on the front door, signaling the arrival of the movers.

"Time to wake up, Mrs. Kent," Clark said.

"Why is it that the only time the twins seem to want to sleep is right when I need to wake up?" She asked him, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

"Because they know," he said, still smiling at her. She sighed and kissed his lips gently, making her way to the bathroom again as he pulled on his robe and glasses to answer the door. Jason was already sitting at the kitchen table, kicking his legs and revising his list of names.