Chp 21 – Titans
-- Metropolis, November 2006 --
Lois groaned as the pounding on the door to her apartment continued.
"Argh! I'm coming," she muttered. She quickly swished half a capful of Listerine around her mouth and spat it into the sink. Wiping her hands on a towel, she slowly made her way to the door.
"You could have at least called first," she said, once the door was opened.
"Cut the crap, Lo, and let me in."
Lois closed her eyes and stepped to the side. When her father passed her, she pushed the door shut.
Sam Lane spun to face his daughter. "When I sent the message to you about going to Edinburgh to retrieve Lucy, it was not a request."
Lois returned his hard stare. "I can't do it right now." She inhaled a sharp breath and walked past him toward the kitchen. "Lucy can handle herself."
The General's eyes narrowed and he turned to follow her. When he entered the kitchen, he found her leaning heavily against one of the counters nibbling on a saltine cracker. Taking in her appearance and her meal selection, Sam had an idea of what was going on.
He stalked over and picked up the sleeve of crackers that had been sitting on the counter in front of her. "Suffering from a pretty heavy night, huh, Lois?"
"It's not quite what you think." Lois ran a hand through her hair, subtlety swiping at the beads of perspiration that had begun to pop out on her forehead. Her abdomen was beginning to tighten again. "My doctor says I shouldn't travel for a while."
"Your doctor?" Sam threw the crackers down in disgust. "You went to a doctor for a hangover? It's pretty selfish of you to put your lax lifestyle over your sister."
Lois worked to use her breathing to fight off her body's current turmoil. There was this theory out there that truth was like a band-aid. It hurt less when you ripped it off in one swoop- it took less time, and the pain didn't last as long. She decided to give it the old college try. "It's not a hangover. I'm pregnant."
Sam was silent for a long moment. "You're what?"
Lois sighed. She was going to have to revisit the band-aid theory. "Going to have a baby."
Sam reached over and took her arm, feeling the spot on the inner arm near the armpit where the birth control implant had been placed. It was still there. Lois pulled away angrily and glared at him.
"How did you do it?"
"Do what?" Lois asked.
"You reversed the implant. That was a dumb thing to do. Trying to rebel against me, and you end up giving yourself a life sentence."
"I didn't have it reversed! Maybe your stuff is just crap." Lois felt a flash of pain but refused to let it show. She had never shown the General any sign of weakness, and she wasn't about to start now.
Sam frowned. That was impossible. There was only one known way to negate the effects of the drug, and few were privy to that information. He pulled out his phone. "You need to get tested. We need to know what caused that implant to fail."
Lois's eyes widened briefly as she quickly realized that it might have something to do with Clark. Her features were schooled by the time her father looked up.
"No!" Lois demanded, the force in her voice causing Sam to pause in dialing. "I refuse to let you make me one of your special projects. You're not going to have me poked and prodded just to ease your mind about those damn implants. They need to be scrapped anyway- a six-year birth control device is unethical, and you know it. If I had known better at 16 I wouldn't have let you do it in the first place."
"You had no choice."
Lois met her father's glare. "I always have a choice."
"You just never seem to make the right ones, do you? Well, I'm going to help you out in that area. You're getting married."
"Like hell, I am," she retorted.
"You don't even know who it is, do you?" Sam slammed his hand onto the counter surface. "Getting that implant was not license for you to go out and spread eagle for every damn flier that knocked, like some 10 cent floozy! I raised you better than that."
Lois stiffened. Before Clark, she'd only had one other intimate encounter. She had been on her way to the Prom with a boy she thought she loved. Unfortunately, she and her date hadn't ditched their escort as she had thought. Since her father had gotten the report about that incident, he'd assumed that she was loose.
"You think so, huh?" Lois returned, offended. "For you to have taught me anything, you would have had to have been there. As far as I'm concerned, me and Luce have been orphans since the day Mom died."
She saw the General flinch, and knew she had said more than she should have. It wasn't entirely true, but she had gone to far to back up now.
Lois and Sam were cut from the same stubborn cloth, so although wounded from Lois's harsh declaration, he counter-attacked. "If you can't filter through your list of bed buddies to come up with a name, I'll do it for you."
Lois was so irate that she momentarily forgot about the cramping in her stomach. "This is not the fricking 15th century! I don't need a husband to raise a child right! Hell, I raised yours!"
What Sam really wanted to say was that it was better for a child to be in a home with two parents. He had learned from experience that the absence of a parent caused the children to suffer. He had seen it with his girls. He was still seeing it. There were many times that he regretted not remarrying.
Being a professionally stiff man hindered his ability to express those thoughts. Instead, he reverted to his natural tendency to give orders and expect them to be carried out. Lois has always been a challenge to him in that area.
"You will get married or you won't get any support from me. How do you expect to provide for a child when you can't even take care of yourself? You're not even out of school yet, and I'm the one paying the tuition."
"Take your damn money." Lois reached to cover her midsection as another cramp began building. The action was unconsciously maternal. "We'll manage."
Sam was incensed. "You might think about being a better role model for your sister. With the way you're acting, it's no wonder that she's suddenly gone trip wire. If anything happens to her, its on you, Lois."
Suddenly? Lois thought to herself. Lucy had been out of line far longer that the General was aware. Lois had been the one taking care of all that so he wouldn't have to. How could she even consider being a role model when she had been everything else: sister, mother, teacher… parole officer.
The pain of the cramp intensified and Lois thought she tasted bile in the back of her throat. She was done with this argument.
"You should leave," she told him, walking to the front door and opening it.
"If your mother…"
"Do not bring her into this!" Lois yelled, angrily. "You don't get to do that with me."
Sam had also had enough. "You call me in 96 hours with a name, or you don't call me at all, got that?" It is his final attempt at tough love.
"Sir, yes sir!"
As Lois slammed the door shut behind him, the anger-infused adrenaline that had kept her intact dissipated. On wobbly legs, she made her way back to the bathroom, quickly depositing her head in the center of the porcelain halo of the toilet seat. She promptly lost the one cracker she'd been able to down, accompanied by what had to be the lining of her stomach.
As she sunk onto the floor, emotionally and physically drained, her only thoughts were about the welcome coolness of the bathroom floor tile.
tbc
