What the El #2 - Baby Boom
a Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - based fan fiction
by: Joycelyn Solo


Author's note: Second (or third if you count #0) in the Lois and Clark What the El? series.
Disclaimer: Lois & Clark and associated characters are property of December 3rd Productions who, I believe, had them on loan from from DC Comics. Most any other character we'll run into later are property of DC Comics. I mean no copyright infringement, this story is for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter Two
Smallville

--
By the time he landed behind the Kent barn, Superman's alter ego could feel the positive affect of the Kansas air as his mood lifted.

Granted, it probably had less to do with the clean country air than the aroma of his mother's cooking. He swore he could smell her culinary signature over Illinois, but that may have been wishful sniffing on his part. Friday night dinner marked the beginning of his four-week stay on the farm with his wife and son. The olfactory draw of Martha Kent's kitchen was a beacon drawing him home.

He could practically taste his mother's special batch of gumbo -- which she promised to make in celebration of his extended stay in Smallville -- as he spun out of the bright spandex of Superman into the subdued cotton of Clark Kent. Though unfit for human consumption, Martha never denied her son his favorite cuisine. Clark had been all over the world and eaten some of spiciest dishes known to mankind, but none compared to what his mother did to the Cajun specialty. He wasn't exactly sure what all she put in it, but only someone with a cast iron stomach (or "Stomach of Steel" as Lois liked to joke) could handle it.

This time he hoped she made enough for two steel stomachs. With the arrival of his younger cousin less than a month ago, the Kent kitchen had an additional Kryptonian appetite to contend with.

An orphan like him, Kara Zor-El was the sole survivor of Argo City. Everyone -- including the New Kryptonians when he informed them of Kara's arrival -- was surprised to learn an entire city had survived the explosion that ripped through the core of the planet Krypton. When the protective shield began to fail after three decades, Kara's father -- Clark's uncle -- used his brother's designs to manufacture a star-faring vessel to deliver his daughter to safety.

When he discovered Kara lying among the remains of her space craft, he had felt an instant connection to her. As she explained later, it was probably the subconscious establishment of the "family bond." All Kryptonians possessed the ability to communicate telepathically with one another and the link between family members was especially strong.

Having never experienced the bond before, Clark had very little practice with preventing the broadcast of his thoughts to his cousin. As he helped her control her yellow sun-induced powers, Kara helped him to shield his mind -- though she admitted that she was not all that experienced herself. Mental control came with maturity and she was only fourteen when she left Argo City.

Of course, it had been two years since the destruction of the city, but Kara was still only fourteen years old. Unsure of how long it would take his daughter to reach a habitable planet, Zor-El had placed her in stasis -- a deep sleep in which she did not age.

To most outward appearances, the blond, blue-eyed girl was an typical teenager.

"Not likely," he mused aloud as he entered the house.

Lois Lane, having watched her husband take his time as he crossed the length of the yard, walked into the living room just as Clark did. "What isn't likely?" she asked.

Clark smiled at his wife and accepted the kiss she gave him before answering. "I was just thinking about Kara. About her being your typical teenager."

"Not likely." Lois agreed. "I've never met a teenager who could hold a pickup truck while your father changed the oil."

"I remember doing that." Clark's smile widened. "There's a whole list of chores Dad thought up for me and my powers. I think he just wanted to keep me out of trouble."

"I can only imagine." Lois said dryly. "Speaking of your cousin, she's upstairs in the soon-to-be-nursery. I think the pending arrival of another cousin has given her something positive to focus on in the last week. Your mother was worried about her."

"I know. I wish I could have been here more -- for all of you -- but Perry and Jimmy thought I must be lost without you and insisted I 'hang with the guys' while I still had the chance."

Lois stared hard at her husband when he mentioned 'last chances.'

"And may I just say that for a woman about to give birth," Clark looked appraisingly at her, "you look fantastic."

Her features softened. "That gets you out of the dog house, but I'm too busy for anything else. I have work to do."

"What work?" He asked. "We're on maternity leave. Our son from an alternate dimension will be arriving tomorrow with a time-travelling author. What work could you possibly have?"

"I'm still trying to track down the space ship your cousin arrived in from another planet." She replied, matching him in statements of the otherwise-absurd. If anyone outside their family heard what they were talking about...it was probably best not to think how they would react.

"Any new leads?" Clark asked. While Superman and Kara had been at STAR Labs shortly after her arrival, someone had taken her memory globe from the crash site. Considering its importance to his cousin -- it was the only thing she had to remember her family and former world by -- Clark promised to find it for her.

It had been three weeks without any success.

Lois motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen where she'd left her notebook. "For a simple 'satellite salvage operation' -- as they've called it -- I had to cut through a surprising amount of red tape. It took two weeks just to have someone return my calls. If I'd been in Metropolis I could have driven out there and found my own answers."

"I know, honey, but that wouldn't be good for the baby." he teased. "Besides, you got farther than I did. In addition to Perry doubling my workload and he and Jimmy keeping me out every night, Superman has kept me pretty busy."

Lois found it difficult to ignore the guilt in his voice. "Clark, Kara understands that you've been trying, and she appreciates everything we've done for her. It can't be easy for you in the big city without your wife and partner to keep you in line." She took a seat at the table and flipped her notebook open. "I finally found someone willing to talk to me. A surprisingly friendly lieutenant at Jackson Air Force base, where the wreckage is being kept."

"Awfully nice of them to keep things local, isn't it?" Clark sat in the chair across the table from his wife and leaned back. "If we're lucky, maybe they don't know what the wreckage is since they did take it to the closest base."

"Would it not make sense to haul the ship to the closest base?"

Lois and Clark both looked up to see Kara standing at the foot of the stairs.

"I am sorry, I did not mean to overhear." The young girl apologized, casting her eyes toward the kitchen floor.

"It's alright, Kara. I was coming to tell you before I saw that Clark was here." Lois said. If her mechanic assistance wasn't enough to set Kara apart from other teenagers, her polite manners definitely did.

"Jackson is a very low-level base." Clark explained, inviting his cousin to join them. "Being next to the city, they entertain a lot of tourists. If the government thought the crash site was actually from an extraterrestrial ship, they would have taken it to a more heavily-guarded facility."

"Which means Superman can stop in on Monday and ask for a friendly peek." Lois provided.

"Why not ask for a 'friendly peek' tonight?" Kara asked, parroting Lois' peculiar phrasing. Martha had provided her with a dictionary of local vernacular -- or slang -- but she still had a difficult time grasping some concepts. Though she learned the rudimentary basics of her cousin's primary language, she had not counted on there being so many different levels and meanings to almost anything spoken. She found that just talking to Martha, Jonathon or Lois was enough to send her upstairs to the dictionary for assistance.

Lois either didn't notice or didn't mind Kara's phrasing of the question and answered, "If they don't know what they have we don't want to make anyone suspicious by Superman asking to see it now. He's been known to stop by the different bases for pep talks with the armed forces. If he happens to ask about the salvage job then..."

"It will appear less suspicious. I understand." It reminded Kara of a tactic employed by a television character Jonathon had introduced her to. Ben Matlock often pretended innocent curiosity in order to find the answers he truly needed for his court cases.

"Besides," Clark added, "If you haven't sensed your memory globe being activated, chances are they've ignored it until now. It will probably be fine for at least a couple more days."

Kara looked thoughtful for a moment as she sensed something else from her cousin. "And with the baby coming tomorrow you will want to spend tonight readying yourselves."

"There's also that." He agreed, hoping that his cousin hadn't picked up on his other plan for the evening before his son arrived. Changing the subject, he said, "I hear you've been helping in the nursery."

Kara guessed from the question and Clark's attempts to strengthen his mental shields that he had not intended to broadcast his thoughts to her. Following his lead, she ignored the images she'd glimpsed from his mind. "Martha showed me how to put paper on the walls. I was nearly finished before I sensed your arrival."

Clark smiled, both in relief and at his cousin's literal word usage. "We probably have some time before dinner. Let's go upstairs and see."

~~~~~~~~~~