- - - Chapter Thirty-Six

"Clark, your eye is twitching," Lois informed him tiredly, having watched his left eyelid flicker every few minutes for the past half an hour. The pair of them were standing in the twins' bedroom close the three a.m. rocking back and forth with a baby girl getting closer to sleep on their shoulders as the seconds passed. Clark was still in the suit.

"I know, it won't stop," he sighed wearily.

"Why is your eye twitching?" She asked after a second, watching the lid vibrate again. "You never twitch. Ever."

"I got shot in the eye after dinner, that's all," he shrugged, using the movement to shift Elly farther down on his chest where she would be warmer.

"You got shot in the eye," she said, staring at him. The lid twitched again.

"Yes," he rolled said eyes. "When that happens I always twitch."

"That's weird."

"It's annoying," the stood looking at each other for a moment, Lois holding back a laugh when Clark's eye twitched again and he tightened his jaw in annoyance. He gestured with his head a few seconds later and they put the twins in their respective cribs and stopped by Jason's door, finding him sound asleep on top of his comforter and tucking him in properly, before heading downstairs.

Lois flopped tiredly on the couch and Clark brought her a cup of coffee, sipping his own as he settled next to her.

"Wow, you must really be tired," she said, looking over at him.

"Pardon?" He asked, gulping down half the coffee and wishing caffeine would work on him.

"You didn't even bother to take off the suit," she smirked, "that's usually the first thing to go."

"Well…" he shrugged and swallowed the rest of his drink. "I guess I might be."

"What would the world say if they knew Superman was heading home to newborn twins after pulling their kitty-cats out of the high treetops?" Lois asked, blowing on her steaming beverage and taking a small sip, smiling and leaning back into Clark's arm with pleasure as the hot drink seeped through her.

"They'd want to know who the lucky lady was, and then the paparazzi would never leave us alone," he replied, kissing the side of her head and breathing in her scent. These moments together were hard to come by in their recent lives. Superman was back in full force, the kryptonite in Metropolis being fully eradicated, the Justice League falling back to their own cities, and the twins stable enough so that Lois could manage by herself for short spans of time. Perry had meant it when he asked them both to take as much time as they needed, and had even brought them a takeout dinner a few days after Martha's departure.

"We have such weird lives," Lois said, chuckling, cuddling into him.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm more concerned about your eye twitching than you getting shot in the eye. If anybody knew we had children together the paparazzi would be camping in our front yard. If our little boy was awake upstairs he could hear us clear as crystal if he so chose," she smiled up at him. "Just to name a few." He chuckled, pulling her closer, heat radiating from his body through the suit, passing into her and relaxing muscles she hadn't known were tense.

"And it's all my fault," Clark said, only slightly guiltily. Lois glared up at him.

"Yes, it is," her face broke into a smile, "and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Thank you, Lois," he sighed, leaning down and kissing her tenderly.

The front door burst open and there was Richard, a look of triumph on his face. He'd been watching in silence through the window at the top of the door; Clark too tired to pay attention to the odd closeness of the heartbeat outside.

"Richard!" Lois said, surprised. She glanced at Clark and saw that his face only registered his surprise for a brief moment, before it was replaced with calm anger, and then carefully guarded displeasure. He was wearing his Superman mask, but he was also in 'husband-mode.'

They were both on their feet. Richard had come fully into the house and shut the door, glaring at the pair of them with what he thought was righteous fury.

"How could you do this to poor Clark?" He asked, alternating his glare between the pair of them. "The man is head-over-heels in love with you and you're running around with your ex!" He threw his hands up in disgust.

"Richard," Lois started, taking a step forward and holding a threatening finger in his direction.

"I can't believe you, Lois!" His voice rose and his hand gestures became more dramatic. "First you take me in, make me a placeholder for him when he knocked you up and left you… then you let innocent, defenseless Clark marry you, and as soon as he's out of the house he's here!"

"Richard," Clark's voice was sharp, deep, commanding. He would've been the picture of stern anger if his left eye hadn't twitched just then. Lois snorted loudly. Richard was staring at them, half terrified of the wrath Superman had let show, half baffled by the fact that Superman's eye had twitched, and completely confused by Lois' reaction. Clark looked calmly at Lois and tried to recover any sort of stature he could manage and failed horribly, the corner of his mouth twitching into a half-smile for a moment. He turned back to Richard. He wasn't smiling at the man, but he wasn't nearly as upset as he had been a moment ago. "Richard," he started again, his voice soft, but strong. "You spoke with Clark last night. He told you in no uncertain terms that this is none of your business," he paused a moment, regaining some of the coldness the conversation had had moments ago. "Can you drive yourself back to California or would you like me to carry your car?"

"I…" he looked completely clueless. Clark could see Lois's jaw clenching, the anger returning. He took a step closer to Richard, coming to a more threatening level as his massive shoulders spread out in Richard's eyes, his head a good two inches below Clark's.

"This is none of your business," Clark said evenly, almost darkly. He'd tried being somewhat nice during their previous encounter; tonight he was being threatening; Richard had, after all, been insulting Lois. Insults to his own character he could take, but hearing the guy who had left Lois for assuming something that hadn't been happening had been accuse her of the same thing only with another man was enough to raise his temper. Richard scared Jason, the poor boy had been afraid to come downstairs the following morning, afraid Richard would still be standing in the foyer accusing him of being a 'bastard alien half-breed' as he had more than a year ago. Jason didn't know what those words meant, but they had made his mother angry and hurt her deeply; that was enough for him to know that they weren't something good to be called.

"Do you not realize what you're doing?" Richard asked, his heart racing. Clark was aware that the man was running on coffee and more than a little whiskey by the smell of his breath. "Introducing half-breeds to the population… Ruining Clark Kent's life. He has a mother, you know- a woman who thinks she has grandchildren!" He wasn't yelling like he had been before, but his eyes were narrowed, accusing, his voice ripe with every word he said. "Do you even feel the way we do? Do you realize the kind of pain you cause poor men like Clark? Do you love the woman there, or is she just good to have around for the sex?"

Clark's hands balled into fists, his eyes burning red for a moment with heat vision in his anger. Richard noticed this, backing up in fright, but the accusation in his expression didn't change. Clark took deep breaths, controlling his heat vision but not unclenching his fists.

Lois marched across the room and slugged her ex-fiancé.

Clark's fists unclenched, but the anger didn't dissipate. Lois's breath was coming in angry gasps, her cheeks flushed; Clark could see blood rushing into her fist, the first sign of the bruise she would have in the morning. Richard fell back against the door, his nose bleeding, hands checking if it was broken, and it definitely was. He'd get two black eyes out of that one. Lois backed up, standing behind her husband as he approached the man leaning against the door.

"I have been blessed with many gifts; one of those is a mind that is able to understand a great many things; more than most human minds," he said slowly, coldly, barely above a whisper. "Despite that, I cannot comprehend why you would think that I wouldn't realize just how much pain I have brought into Lois's life. Or how much more pain you put in her way yourself. When I left for Krypton, neither of us were aware that she was pregnant. You cannot grasp the devastation I experienced when I returned and realized what I had left her behind to deal with alone. I was unspeakably grateful to you for supporting her the way you did, raising my son like your own. Neither can you understand the depth of my disappointment when you were unable to continue to love Jason like your son; the change in your understanding of the facts should not have changed your feelings toward the boy who called you and loved you as a father. If you had been able to accept the family you had and love them like they deserved, I would have stepped back and let you raise my son. Hell, I would've gone to the wedding if you asked me to. I would've plastered a smile on my face and wished you the best, because that's what Lois and Jason deserve. But you couldn't. You kicked them out, you let them…" he trailed off, his fists balling again at the thought of Lois and Jason sleeping in the storage room at the Planet. "I cannot give them a normal life. I can't take Jason to the park, or take Lois to dinner because somebody in Russia might call for help and I would have to go, or we'd be mobbed by the press, or an enemy would see us and use my family against me in the way only criminals do. You could have given them what I couldn't, Mr. White. And in deserting them, you knowingly hurt them worse than I ever could.

"I assure you my feelings are just as real as yours. I may wear a mask for the public, but I'm not so alien as you'd like to think," his eyes were dark with anger, the red smoldering just below the surface, his teeth nearly grinding together in his attempt to retain a shred of the calm dignity expected of Superman. Richard opened his mouth to speak and Clark interrupted, "Mr. White, I suggest you turn around and leave now before I decide whether I want to incinerate you or throw you into orbit."

It wasn't a threat, it was just a statement. In all honesty Clark wouldn't dream of doing either, but Richard didn't know that, and Richard really needed to vacate the premises. Lois's heartbeat was roaring in Clark's ears, her anger and hurt pumping through her veins, strengthening Clark's anger as it did so. He wanted nothing better than to scoop her up and hold her close for the rest of eternity.

Richard didn't say a word. He threw the door open and bolted for his car parked almost a block away, pinching the bridge of his nose in a useless attempt to stem the blood flow. The tires screeched as he pulled away, gunning the car to get as far away as possible before Superman's anger boiled over and the superhero decided which way he was going to be dealt with.

Clark closed the door slowly, turning the deadbolt and locking the handle before looking over at Lois. She was standing there in her pajamas and robe, her arms folded in front of her, rubbing the knuckles on the hand she'd hit Richard with. Clark walked over to her, taking the afflicted hand in his and gently stroking the knuckles.

"We should put some ice on that," he whispered. She looked up at him and they held each others' gaze until Clark's eye twitched. Lois looked away, smiling, going for an ice bag. When she returned to the living Clark was standing in his flannel pajama bottoms, the spit curl gone from his forehead.

She walked up to him and leaned into his bare chest, leaning her forehead against his shoulder and holding the bag of frozen peas she'd found to her knuckles. Clark pulled her closer, barely feeling the chill against his skin as the peas pressed into his chest. Lois was trembling in his arms.

They stood like that for a few minutes in perfect silence. The baby monitor hummed softly, giving off a small amount of static as well as the soft sounds of two little girls soundly sleeping in the rooms above. Clark could hear Jason's peaceful snores as well. And the crickets in the yard, and the hum of a thousand slow heartbeats in the city around them, and the sound of the most important heartbeat of all slowing to a more normal pace in his arms.

"How could he say that about you?" Lois whispered a few seconds later. She had one hand on his chest, her fingers tracing the scar leftover from the kryptonite dagger the Kings had used on him. He pulled back slightly, looking into her eyes. "How could he say that you don't feel things?"

Clark opened his mouth to respond, but her eyes were focused on his scar again and she continued before his words came out.

"You have more compassion in you than anybody else on this planet. You save strangers of a completely different race, putting their lives before yours on a daily basis. You are more selfless, more compassionate… Richard bitched about a human rights piece he was asked to do because it didn't officially fall under the International heading. I don't understand how he can even," she stopped, choking back the angry words that would've followed to look up at Clark's face again. "You really would've come to the wedding, wouldn't you?"

"Of course I would, Lois," he said, his eyes shining in the dim lamplight. "I'm just," he swallowed, holding her closer. "He shouldn't have said those things to you."

"He was right, though."

"What?"

"He was just a placeholder for you," she said softly.

"Lois-"

"No, Clark, it's true! I grabbed him up as soon as you were gone because I needed an excuse to be pregnant! I pretended to love him so that he would stay…" Clark cut her off before she could get any farther.

"All of that is my fault, Lois," he said, stroking her cheek. "I left you in a position where you needed an excuse to be pregnant… I left you… I took your memories," his voice was so quiet she wouldn't have heard it if she wasn't standing in his arms.

"But, Clark," she said, pulling back ever so slightly so that she could look into his eyes. "You explained all that to me. I understand why you took the memories. I'm not happy that I can't remember, but I don't blame you for taking them. I would've done the same thing for you, I think, if our positions were reversed," she took a deep breath. "And it's true you didn't know I was pregnant, and you were the one to swoop in and save the day when Richard was an ass," she gave a half-hearted smile and Clark returned it with an equally weak grin. "Please," she said after a moment. "Let's just forget about Richard. Let's just think about now and later."

"I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused you, Lois," Clark said, and Lois could see the wetness in his eyes.

"Like I said earlier, Clark, I wouldn't have it any other way. You've more than made up for it with the joy you've brought me," she assured him, cupping his face in her hand that wasn't holding onto the frozen peas, and pulling his face down to hers for a gentle kiss.

Clark pulled her closer, inhaling her scent and tasting her on his lips. She tossed the peas on the couch and tangled her hands in his hair, pulling him closer and feeling him lifting her off the floor. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let him carry her up to their bedroom, her head against his shoulder, eyes closed in complete, trusting comfort.