Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Smallville, only this story
Summary: A different take on the Lana pregnancy/ marriage storyline. Starts in season five- the episode where gets his powers back in time stop the missile. I smudge the timelines a bit.
Title: Changing Winds
Lana allowed the joy and relief to squash any questions she had about Clark. He lived, and the how, and why of it didn't matter for now. She could feel his hands on her body, hear his voice whisper vows of love. He was real, and the world outside the apartment above the Talon wasn't.
"We should take this to your bed," he picked her up carrying her bridal style, and dropped her on the mattress. He stared down at her; lips swollen from kissing, hair flyaway, and sparkling dark eyed gaze meeting his own as he pushed his jeans down over his hips and stepped out of them. 'I deserve one night with the woman I love,' Clark thought to himself.
She pulled him closer on the bed, hands in a state of perpetual movement as if desperate to know what inch of him felt like. His kisses fell in a path across her face, collarbones, and down the front of her chest. She leaned forward a little to allow him access to the catch on her bra. He kissed each breast before moving on lower. "I just need you," she said.
He blushed, always frazzled around Lana. He knew it would be different this time, and hoped she didn't notice. "The farm boy look," she teased. "You won't hurt me," he could never hide the concern over her well-being any time they touched.
A shy smile as he penetrated her giving her a long passionate kiss. She started moving her hips in small circles until they both climaxed. He rolled off and turned on his side stroking her shoulder, and arm. She turned to face him brushing his hair back from his face. "I wish we could stay like this for the rest of our lives," she said.
A kiss that said he did too. In the apartment, there were no powers, threats of alien invasion, or meteor freaks, fear of what she would say when he told her the truth. She noticed the wheels turning in his head. "Don't say it Clark." She kissed him, and he pulled her on top of her. Reality would wait.
"You need to tell her the truth before she marries him." Chloe advised Clark. He'd told her of the afternoon spent in each other's arms after he regained his powers. From there it wasn't difficult to count back through the weeks of morning sickness to figure out it was the man who sat across from her in the Talon who was the father, not the billionaire up the road.
They both moved out of residence to escape the wreckage of black Thursday. Chloe couch-surfed for a while, and Lana in with Lex. It was a pairing she didn't see coming, but at the same time wasn't surprised given Lana's newfound passion for astronomy, and interest in meteorite related stories. "She's getting closer Clark," Chloe admonished.
"I know. But what will she say when she finds out she's carrying an alien"? Fatherhood wasn't something Clark thought he'd experience.
"The baby deserves to know their heritage. You of all people should know this by now, with the amount of time you've spent trying to figure out your real parents. You shouldn't deprive the baby of a relationship with their father. And how much time have you spent pining over Lana Lang? Could be a chance at happiness. After the shock wears off, and you deal with the resulting trust issues. Seize the day Kent."
Lana walked past their table, and nodded to them on her way to the counter. It'd been 14 weeks since taking her first pregnancy test. She'd been able to hide it from everyone accept Chloe who'd been there since her first morning sickness episodes. She was undecided if she wanted a baby at this point in her life and shoved the thoughts out of her head.
"One mint-strawberry tea, and one cappuccino with an extra shot of espresso. Lex is changing up his morning drinks," Lois observed. She settled the cups into the takeaway tray.
"I'll take a cranberry Orange muffin, and two chocolate chip cookies," Lana added to the order. The paper bag was folded neatly and slipped between the drinks. She took a moment to steady herself before continuing on her way out. The door opened as she was about to reach for it, and she half fell against a man on his cell phone coming the other way jostling her just enough to disturb her grip on the coffee tray. Clark was at her side before it hit the ground, and steadying her elbow.
"I'm fine," she glared at him. He'd made no effort to contact her since their blissful afternoon. He took her elbow and guided her out into the late-summer morning sun.
"Meet me at the farm this afternoon. We need to talk," his hearing picked up a second heartbeat making it difficult to stop a smile from spreading across his face.
"We do. Lex has an event in Metropolis tonight, and he'll be staying overnight. I'll come by this evening" she agreed. He walked her to her car, and held the door for her as she organized the coffees.
"And that's when I decided I'll leave Luthor Corp to the janitor." Lex said, biting the inside of his lip to keep from smiling.
"Good for… Lana blinked back to reality.
"Gotcha. I didn't think you were paying attention. Penny for your thoughts?" He asked.
"I'm pregnant." She informed him. It was all about to come out anyway.
Lex fell for Lana almost before he realized it. When she returned from France, she brought a maturity and sophistication with her that appealed to him. He soon contrived to bump into her when he could, often taking meetings or working on his computer from the Talon. He could talk to her about art, and philosophy, and astronomy. He saw Black Thursday as an opportunity to take their relationship to the next step, and she agreed.
"Say something Lex,"
He let the grin spread across his face, and moved to pick her up, and swing her around once. "That is the best news I've had in months," he kissed her. "Are you feeling okay? Have you seen a doctor? We'll get the best we can find."
"I'm fine. I was a little sick at first, but now it's table. I haven't seen a doctor yet; with all the moving, and Black Thursday…"
"I'll fly someone up tomorrow morning," Lex decided.
"I'll make appointments at Smallville Medical…" she didn't want to take anything for granted.
"A child of mine should have the best possible care." Lex said.
Lana dropped out of his embrace taking some room. She turned away from him and crossed the room to a sofa.
"Lana," he started. She saw the smile, and hope in his eyes and then couldn't bear to tell him it might be another man's child.
"You could keep me company at the appointments."
"Anything you need." Lex was determined to make a go of it with her.
"Can we keep it between us for a while longer. I'm still getting used to it myself,"
Lex took his coat from his desk chair draping it over his arm. "I won't say anything," his sparkled as he kissed her. He wanted to keep his happiness pure before the world got its claws into it.
"I'll see you tomorrow. Please rest," Lex advised. She heard his whistle as he walked out the front door. She waited until she was sure he was gone before leaving for the Kent farm.
Clark was clearing up the barn for the night when he heard her car drive up. He wiped his hands and moved to the doorway, the light shining on him so she could tell where he was. She had another tray from the Talon with two cups on it, and another paper bag with pastries. He took it from her and led the way upstairs.
Lana sat on the sofa fingers itching to take a pastry. Instead she settled for putting her hands around her cup for comfort.
"How have you been?" He asked.
"Good." Silence followed. She leaned forward on the sofa and took the top off her drink. Steam poured from it into the cold barn. She noted, not for the first time he wore a t-shirt and light jacket despite the chill. He seemed reluctant to come near her, standing near the lookout. His blue-eyed gaze on her waiting.
He was the one that initiated the meeting. And she had a feeling what he had to say went with her news. "You go first," she stated. She lifted the cup again blowing on it.
"I have powers."
"So does half the town," she replied. They'd discussed this before as a hypothetical, and she told him it wasn't a problem if he had them; she'd love him anyway.
"It's more than that. I was born with mine," he said.
His words caught her by surprise, an indication he already knew somehow. "I'm pregnant. 16 weeks. Dating to the last time we were together. It might be Lex's, but I'm hoping it's yours."
This time the silence stretched beyond the comfortable. Clark turned away from Lana, and stared out over the farm. What would a half-kryptonian child be like? Would they manifest powers as he did? Would they be human? What would her pregnancy be like?
It was finally too much to take. "Say something Clark, please."
"I want to show you, what I mean," He took her drink from her and put it back on the table. He blew on it, his breath freezing it solid. She opened her mouth to protest, and he drew away from her again, looking back at the cup. Lasers shot from his eyes reheating the drink to its previous steaming temperature.
"There's more to tell you. I was the one who rescued you in the tornado on prom night,"
She remembered that, and thousands of other times he was there to save her, and she don't know it, or acknowledge it at the time. "I saw you take your last breath. I held your hand in the hospital as you died. I felt as if my heart was ripped out. And then your body was stolen, and we wouldn't even get a chance to properly mourn. How did you survive?" The disbelief that day came back to her.
Clark kept his explanation simple. "There is a fortress in the high arctic where my Kryptonian father's presence is. I begged him for my life, and he agreed."
Lana could almost laugh at the explanation, if it weren't for the demonstration of his powers. "What other abilities do you have?"
He took a seat in his desk chair. "Super hearing. I can hear the baby's heartbeat. I can hear yours pounding away. Speed and strength are how I can keep the farm up."
Lana forced a deep breath to try and calm herself. She sipped the hot chocolate for a while considering the story he told, and implications for her baby. "Your weakness is meteor rock." He was never able to completely hide the weakness that came over him when they were around it.
"Yes." One way to tell if the child was definitively Clark's.
She took a pastry from the paper bag and nibbled at it. The implications of Clark's admission were sinking in. If the wrong person discovered his secret, he could be made a lab rat, sentenced to a lifetime of study. His abilities when applied to the military had potential to change the world's power balance for good. "The baby has to be raised as Lex's," she decided for them both. They'd worry about the implications later.
Clark wanted to scream, and laugh at the same time. The woman he spent most of life pining over was carrying his child, and he couldn't be in their lives. "Yes," he agreed. The enemies were starting to come from the woodwork. If one of them used an innocent to get to him…
Lana joined him at the window and stared out at the fields. She always counted on the Kent farm as a refuge. Jonathan and Martha created a space full of love, that she knew if she ever had a child, she wanted to raise it in a home like this. He linked his little finger with hers as they leaned against the rail.
He turned her to face him, and put his hands on her cheeks. He squeezed everything he couldn't say into a kiss that left her breathless. "You shouldn't contact me for a while. You need to make him believe he's the only man you love, and father of your child. In time, the baby can know me as a friend of the family; maybe a trusted uncle. Nobody outside of Chloe can ever know the truth." He knew the impact of the lies but it couldn't be helped.
Lana stood on tiptoes and kissed him slow, and bittersweet as farewell could be. Her words were light. "It's not that hard falling for Lex," they always had something to talk about; a shared interest in history, and philosophy. A mutual appreciation for art.
One of them had to break the spell. "I should… I should go. Don't walk me out." She wouldn't be able to keep her resolve if he followed her.
His hearing tracked the sound of her footsteps as they went across the barn floor and out onto the gravel. The engine started, and the seatbelt clicked into place. She shifted into drive, and he watched the car until it disappeared.
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