Chapter 27

The silence coming from the kitchen slowed the teen's forward movement. Liz's hands sweated with nerves, she didn't want to go in there to face her parents. The embarrassment of her parent's knowing she had sex was bad enough but add to that the fact they knew when and with who, it became doubly embarrassing.

Clark, who had stuck fairly close to Liz, slipped his hand into hers. Her nerves quieted but didn't disappear. He ran his thumb over her knuckles, continuing to soothing her. "We do this together." He whispered.

She smiled up at him. He must be nervous too, why wouldn't he be he not only had to face his parents…he had to face hers. Liz could almost guarantee that Dad would grill Clark like a hamburger. "Together." She echoed.

"Are you two going to come in here or do we have to come out and drag you in?" Nancy asked from the doorway of the kitchen.

"Mom." Liz's voice raised in shock. Suddenly her nervousness spiked sky high again; even Clark keeping contact with her couldn't stop the abundance of nerves. From the corner of her eye she saw Kyle open the side door and wave at her.

"Hi, figured you could use another for breakfast." He greeted.

Nancy kept her arms crossed over her chest. "Kyle I don't think you should be here today."

Kyle shrugged. "As much as I would love to not be a part of this I'm not going anywhere." Normally he'd be one to leave the family to deal with their issues together and not be apart of it, however now that he was Liz's protector he couldn't butt out.

"Kyle now is really not the—"

"I'm sorry Mrs. Parker but Liz is under my protection. I'm not going anywhere." He stood firm.

Nancy tossed her hands up. "Fine." She reluctantly agreed. She turned away from the teenagers and went back into the kitchen.

Liz waited till Mom left the room and was out of earshot then whispered to Kyle. "What are you doing here?" Immediately realizing how that sounded she said, "Not that I'm not grateful to have you here but I never called."

Kyle cocked his head and shrugged. "Actually you kind of did. I'm not that good yet at blocking you out. I got a huge wave of your nerves. Figured you could use the extra support."

"Thanks Kyle." Liz hugged her friend.

Clark watched the friends embrace. Although he felt Kal beating at him to get Liz out of Kyle's arms he wasn't jealous. He allowed Liz's emotions to flow over him and he could feel she wasn't interested in anything but friendship with Kyle. It went a long way in calming the raging Kryptonian inside him.

"Elizabeth Parker!" Jeff's voice shouted.

"Clark Kent!" Jonathan yelled as well.

"I think we're being summoned." Clark said. Time to face the music.

Liz breathed in deeply and straightened her posture. "Guess we should go in." The trio made their way into the room. Liz and Clark entered first, Kyle came in close behind them.

Clark smiled at his Mom who only glared at him. "Mom you look pretty this morning." He tried to soften her up as best he could but she wasn't having any of it.

"Compliments get you no where today Clark." Martha pointed to one of the four chairs around the small table.

"Yes Ma'am." Well, he tried. Clark quickly sat down but didn't let go of Liz's hand. When he sat down he pulled at her to maneuver her onto his lap.

"No, no, no." Jeff wagged his index finger at them as Liz began to get settled on the teen boys lap. "Liz you sit in your own chair today." He pulled out another chair and pointed at it. "You sit here."

With great hesitation she rose off Clark's legs and sat in the indicated chair. The chair was far enough away that she had to release his hand. She clasped her hands together in her own lap and waited for someone to start talking.

Clark however had other ideas. Clearly their touching bothered his Mom and Dad, along with hers. He however wanted to keep physical contact with Liz, he didn't need to touch her, he just wanted too. So without thinking or particularly caring about the adults reactions he stood up and picked up the chair Liz sat in and easily carried her over to his side. He took hold of the hand he previously had and set their intertwined hands on right thigh.

Kyle tried to ease the tension by sarcastically saying, "Yea, making them let go right now…probably not the best idea."

His attempt, although appreciated by Liz, didn't get the same kind of response from the Parker's or Kent's. "They are teenagers Kyle—as are you by the way. We're their parents. What we say goes. Simple as that." Jeff argued. Although he had disagreed with Jonathan over how to handle the kids that didn't mean ground rules wouldn't be laid out.

"Actually Kyle is right—" Jim leaned against the doorway. "—Which I told you all yesterday."

"What is up with no one knocking? First Kyle, now you pop up unexpectedly." Nancy snorted rudely.

"I'm here because Kyle doesn't know everything, he's getting closer to be a full Furya but he's not there yet. So I'll answer questions right now until Kyle's ready." Jim and Kyle shared a tense glance. They had a lot of issues to work through but now wasn't the time.

"I'd argue and tell you that this is family business, not Kryptonian but I have a feeling it wouldn't do any good." Nancy mumbled.

"You're right. It wouldn't." Jim stated.

Liz stared blankly at the table. Maybe if she kept her expression as neutral as possible and away from her parent's disappointed glares she might be able to get through this without doing or saying anything too embarrassing. Liz knew if she looked into their eyes she'd spill everything. It was why whenever she lied to them she didn't face them head on, she couldn't lie and look at them. For some reason it just made her feel guiltier.

Jeff took a deep breath and bent down, resting his hands on the table. "Because you have school classes today Liz, I'm going to make this quick, but don't think that this conversation is over. Understand young lady?"

Liz nodded. Of course she understood, no way would this conversation be any shorter than a couple hours. There was much to go over and much to be lectured about.

Jeff continued, "Everything inside me is telling me to yell at you, lock you in your room and throw away the key. Everything is telling me to make sure you two stay away from each other."

Liz's eyes widened in shock and she tightened her grip on Clark's hand. She didn't know what she would do if Dad did what he wanted. Being separated from Clark—as much as she rebelled against the idea of needing a man she couldn't deny that she depended on his presence in her mind and by her side. From what she felt through their bond, he felt the same way.

"However from everything Jim has told us, doing that or something similar would be detrimental to the both of you. So instead of doing what I'd like I'm going to lay down some ground rules." Jeff noticed Liz's sigh of relief.

Jonathan spoke up then. "Now Clark, some of these rules also apply to you, however don't think for a second that your mother and I will not have rules of our own to impart on you."

Clark cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Yes, sir."

"Liz you are not, I repeat, not allowed to be alone with Clark in his room or your room. If I find you've ignored that rule there will be consequences."

Liz almost asked what the consequences were but she didn't want Dad to think she'd break the rule if the punishment wasn't severe enough. And she knew she'd break it at least once. From the brush against her mind she knew Clark wouldn't be abiding by that rule much either.

"Rule number two, no sex in our house." The kids blush, even Jim scratched nervously at his collar. "This rule is not flexible." Jeff reiterated. "The last rule for now, three, I don't care what is going on if you're late you will call. That rule seems to be have been forgotten lately."

"Dad we didn't—" Liz began but was cut off by her father raising an eyebrow. "Sorry." Apparently Dad didn't want her comments at all.

He switched his gaze between Clark and Liz. "Are any of these rules unclear to you?"

"No." Liz shook her head.

"No." Clark echoed.

"Good. Now Liz why don't you go in your room and get ready for your class. Clark you'll stay out here and eat while Liz gets ready." Nancy dictated.

"And while that's going on Kyle and I need to talk to the four of you." Jim told Nancy, Jeff, Jonathan, and Martha. Normally he would tell Kyle he didn't need to be there for the parent to parent's conversation but unfortunately he had to be if he was to protect Liz to the best of his ability. The least he could do was keep Clark and Liz out of this conversation as it wouldn't exactly be appropriate to tell their parent's how stupid their rules were in front of them.

"Clark while Liz is at school your mother and I will talk to you. There are some things we need to go over." Jonathan told him.

Clark acknowledged his agreement and waited a minute before releasing Liz's hand so she could do what her Mom not so subtly suggested. Despite her parent's still being in the room she leaned down and kissed Clark on the lips aware of the stares it caused.

Liz nearly giggled; she couldn't believe she was kissing him in front of Mom and Dad after the morning and night they just had. She lightly licked at his full bottom lip before she pulled away and skirted away from Clark's grasping hands. Teasing him had just taken on a whole new meaning. A lot more interesting then when they were younger.

As soon as Liz left the room Clark turned to the plate of food in front of him. He picked up a fork and began shoveling the eggs and pancakes down. Clark chuckled to himself, if Liz thought she could tantalize him and have him not retaliate later, she had another thing coming. He took another bite and started coming up with ways to make her just as crazy. This was going to be fun. A lot more fun than when they were kids.

While the teens were busy away from each other, Jim, Kyle, the Parker's, and the Kent's went to the living room.

"Your rules are crap." Jim told them straight out.

"Excuse me?" Nancy asked offended by his statement.

"First off the rules would be fine if they were normal human horny kids but they're not." Jim sighed, he sounded like a broken record. Why weren't they listening to him? "You seem to think they can control their urges. Kryptonian's are different than Earthlings. You can't forget that."

"We didn't tell them they couldn't be together we just set down ground rules. I don't see a problem with that." Martha argued with the man she had only met yesterday. Had it only been yesterday that their lives changed drastically…again?

"Again, the ground rules you put down wouldn't even raise an eyebrow from me [i]if[/i] they were Earthlings. Clark and Liz might try to follow your rules for a day…maybe if you're lucky two days; however you're lying to yourselves if you think that they will bend to your rules when millions of years of ancestry are beating at them to continue tradition."

Jonathan pointed angrily at Jim. "They'll listen and obey the rules if they want to keep seeing each other."

Jim shook his head negatively. "You'll learn the hard way then."

TBC