Chapter 29
"Lois! It's so good to see you. It's been so long!" Martha Kent welcomed the girl into her kitchen like the prodigal daughter she was.
The smells of fried chicken, potatoes, and all kinds of side vegetables had met Lois as she'd stepped out of her car in the driveway. Now this is home cooking! she thought gratefully.
"Mrs. K., I can't believe Clark didn't tell me you were home until yesterday."
"I did too! Can I help it if you don't listen as much as you talk?" Clark tossed the words over his shoulder as he helped remove the hot yeast rolls from the oven without bothering with any pot holders. Of course, he had never needed them.
"Oh, don't listen to him," his mom told her. They both rolled their eyes, both being very familiar with the Kent men as a whole and their habits of not knowing when to stress the important information at the right time. "I'm so glad you could come this evening."
"I've been looking forward to it. You can't get this kind of food for take-out anywhere!"
Martha watched as her son, very easily and unashamedly, leaned over and kissed Lois quickly, but lightly, on the lips. Never in her life had he displayed such easy affection with anyone like that. This was right. Lois was the one. His mother now believed that with all her heart and was glad for it.
"Mom?"
Her son's voice broke through her happy thoughts. "The white bowl or the blue one?" He was asking which one she wanted for the potatoes.
"Oh, the blue one," she smiled and went back to watching the two of them as they helped by setting the table. They kept up the familiar teasing banter they'd always had, but she saw their hands touch whenever they got anywhere near each other. Lingering looks passed back and forth, and there was only the slightest hint of bashfulness in Clark's attitude toward Lois.
There was no uneasiness, no suspicion; there was just complete and open trust. That was the difference between this relationship and the one with Lana. Clark had never truly trusted Lana. He'd loved her, but he had never trusted her entirely with everything that was inside of him.
Lois now owned it all, all of that trust. He was hers. It was there for anyone to witness.
Everyone except Jonathan. A tear escaped down Martha's cheek at the thought. "You'd be so happy to see this, Jonathan," she whispered quietly to her husband, knowing somewhere, wherever he was now, he knew.
"Mom?" Clark came back into the kitchen. Of course, he had heard the words, and he immediately tried to lighten her mood. "Did I tell you about Lois' nomination?"
"No, you didn't. What nomination?" His mom forced a bright smile as he explained. The first few sentences escaped her as she tightened the reins on her nostalgia.
"…And the ceremony is going to be in three weeks in Washington."
"And I have to have a dress. Want to go with me, Mrs. K., to pick one out? I could use the advice. It probably should be kind of conservative, I guess." She wrinkled her nose at the thought.
"Because the judges will all be so stodgy?" Clark teased, her term for his own moral values still fresh on his mind.
"Yeah, which is why I am not going to win, but I may as well bowl 'em over with the dress if I don't make it to the platform."
After Clark finished filling the glasses with tea, he pulled out chairs for first his mom, and then Lois.
"Mrs. Kent, may I congratulate you on raising a perfect gentleman?"
"Yes, you may, and I thank you. But I don't know about the 'perfect' part. There are some decidedly un-perfect habits that the Kent men seem to pass from generation to generation. You'll probably discover them over time."
"Mom, don't give her any ammunition. She already has a full arsenal."
"Yeah, but you've got a general on your side," Lois complained, as she filled her plate with healthy portions of everything.
At the word 'general' Clark blanched. "Your father," he whispered thoughtfully, and forgetting what he was doing, the gravy he was pouring went everywhere on his plate, not just on the potatoes.
"Clark!" His mom brought him back to the present, so there'd be enough for her and Lois.
"What do you mean 'my father'? I was talking about Perry. What are we going to do about him?"
"Perry?" Martha asked, laughing and shaking her head, as she watched her son mop up the extra gravy covering his chicken with one of the rolls.
"Perry has appointed himself as Clark's guardian angel at work. Your wonderful son can do no wrong, and I'm apparently supposed to forgive him whenever I think he does. That's how it's working. And he has to know about Clark too. No other explanation. Ahhh!" she said as she bit into her first taste of homemade fried chicken since the last time she had eaten Martha's cooking. "After my abysmal attempt at cooking, you have no idea, Mrs. K., how much I appreciate your talents in the kitchen. This is truly marvelous!"
"Thank you, Lois. But I'm sure you didn't do that badly. So you think Perry knows too? Clark, what if he—?"
"Mom, I know he knows. He has to. Lois is right. There's no other explanation for the stuff he's been saying and doing, but he's only making it easier for me to get away when I need to. There's nothing in his behavior that says he'll tell anyone."
"But still, the more people that know…" A lifetime of caution about her son's great secret was difficult to break.
"I know. But Oliver and the whole League know about me, and not a one of them has said a word." He licked at his fingers. The gravy was truly everywhere on his plate.
"But they have their own secrets to protect."
"The League?" Lois arched an eyebrow. "So just how many people do know this great secret that I only just learned about, Smallville?"
"Lois, some secrets aren't mine to tell," he said, ending the subject with his tone. "Besides, I like having two protectors at work. It's saved me from a lot of teasing."
"Two? Who's the other one?" Lois asked around a mouthful of potatoes.
"You," he smiled.
"No, no, no, it's my job to keep you in line. I do not have time to defend you from—"
"So when Ron called me 'a hayseed farm boy' yesterday, you didn't tell him to 'stuff it?' And I can't very well repeat the next word after that with my mom sitting right here."
"Oh, that. Well, he was obviously trying to—"
"And you didn't tell Jennifer to …I believe the exact words after the expletive were 'stop batting your eyes at Clark, and keep your grimy little mitts off his butt?' Sorry, mom."
Martha laughed.
"Smallville, are you listening to every conversation I have? That is an invasion of my privacy!"
"Just doing my job, Lane. I have to if you're going to keep meeting sources in shady surroundings alone and getting yourself in trouble on an hourly basis. Besides, I just tune in to your heartbeat. The conversations are a byproduct. Quite entertaining actually."
Lois threw a roll at him and he caught it handily, saying, "Thank you. I was just about to ask for another one. See how she looks out for me?"
Martha laughed again. Yes, the two of them were going to be just fine together.
