Disclaimer: Characters belong to DC, WB, AlMiles, etc. etc. etc. I only own the story.
Chapter 3
Where is that blinding light coming from?
She squinted her eyes in the bright sunlight and turned her head to look at the clock on her makeshift cardboard box nightstand. 2:18 in big red digital numbers. The sun was out. It was morning. Er…make that afternoon. She didn't want to, but she knew she had to get up.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and willed herself to sit up. She took a deep breath and stood, slipping her feet into her warm and familiar white bunny slippers.
Trudging into the kitchen, she looked around at the mess from the night before. Mrs. Kent's dishes of food, scraped clean, were still sitting out next to the sink, along with dirty plates. Two, in fact. Clark decided he was hungry, too when she got out of the bathroom, so he helped himself to the extra portions of his mom's meatloaf. Good thing she always cooked for ten.
She looked over to the couch. The red fleece blanket was neatly folded with the blue pillow on top of it at one end of the couch.
"Clark?"
She just wanted to make sure.
She glanced at the bathroom door. Still open. Not in there.
She looked on the kitchen counter. No note. Nothing.
"That boy has more disappearing acts than David Copperfield."
She walked back into the bedroom and grabbed her jeans laying on the floor at the end of the bed. She reached for her bra and long-sleeve t-shirt that were flung over the back of her desk chair and walked into the bathroom.
She didn't want to do it today. But something was pulling her there. She had to go say something. He had seen her at her weakest. She opened up. And it wasn't just opening up. No, this was spouting stories about things in her life that no one else knew. She just wanted to say something. What? She didn't know. She never really knew what she would say to people until they were right in front of her. She was always a "fly by the seat of her pants" kinda girl. But what she never ever did was open up.
She dressed, brushed her hair and teeth and slipped on her boots. If she was going to do what she needed to do later, then she needed motivation. And she knew she could find it downstairs in the form of caffeine. She grabbed her keys and headed out the door.
She looked towards the counter as she bounded down the stairs. A part of her hoped he would be there. But just a small part.
Instead, she found the next best thing.
"Hey, Lois."
"Hi, Mrs. Kent."
She really liked her. She was the mom she always wanted. A small part of her secretly wished that she could've been adopted by the Kents.
"Lois, are you okay? You look tired."
The woman sounded sincere. She always sounded sincere. Lois loved that.
She walked to the stool in front of the counter and plunked herself down while Mrs. Kent sprinkled cinnamon on two grande mocha lattes. She placed them in the waiting couple's hands.
"Yeah, I am. I just had a long day yesterday. I could really use one of those," she said, pointing to the cup of java in the woman's hand standing next to her.
Mrs. Kent smiled and nodded, and went to fixing Lois' drink.
"Clark said he stayed over last night. I hope nothing was wrong."
Crap. He told her? What did he tell her?
"Yeah…no." She sighed. "I was just upset about something. And it was cold and absolutely pouring outside, and I just suggested that Clark should spend the night rather than risk driving all the way back out to the farm. He slept on the couch and I slept in my bed."
There. Hopefully, that would suffice.
Just the basics. Just stick to the basics. She'd already revealed everything to Clark, it seemed, and she wasn't going to let it happen again.
The older woman smiled.
"It's okay, Lois. He said he wanted to keep you company."
A confused grin crept its way onto Lois' face.
"Keep me company, huh?"
"That's what he said. Oh, by the way, I assume your dinner made it all the way here intact?"
"Yeah, and thank you, Mrs. Kent. It was delicious. I really appreciate you thinking of me."
And she really did. If it hadn't been for her, Lois would never eat as often as she did.
"You're welcome, Lois."
Mrs. Kent handed her the coffee. Lois smiled and hopped off the barstool. She turned to leave when she remembered the mess next to her sink upstairs.
"Oh, Mrs. Kent, I've still got your dishes upstairs. I'll just bring them by the farm later today, if that's alright."
"Sure, Lois. Hey, why don't you come over for dinner tonight?"
She shouldn't. She can't. She didn't want to. But…she did.
"Sure, Mrs. Kent. I'd love to."
She sighed. She really would love to have dinner with them. And that really was it. She would love to have dinner with them. It was just the conversation that would naturally crop up with it that she wanted to avoid like the plague. Especially now.
For some reason she didn't trust herself right now. Especially around Smallville. He had a weird way of getting her to open up, usually when she least expected it.
"What time should I be there?"
"I think we'll eat about six. Is that okay?"
"That's fine. I'll just bring your dishes back then."
They needed cleaning anyway. Something Flannel Boy could've done before he left this morning. But what did she expect? She never knew any guy that would voluntarily clean the dishes, let alone clean anything else.
"Okay, we'll see you tonight, then."
Lois smiled. She really did love this family. No one else ever welcomed her into their lives and put up with her the way they did. Sure, Chloe and her dad were there for her. But that was different. They were family. And sometimes, just being family wasn't enough. Lucy was a prime example of that.
"Okay. And thanks for the cup of joe, Mrs. Kent. After yesterday, I need it."
Mrs. Kent smiled and Lois turned to head back up to her apartment. She climbed the stairs, opened the door and let it close softly behind her. She stood there, against the door, thinking how she would go about it later.
She had three hours until she had to be at the Kents. That was just enough time to shower, clean Mrs. Kent's dishes, and pick up the pictures that still lay scattered in front of the couch.
They ate Mrs. Kent's warmed-over meatloaf and veggies while they watched Rush Hour. She was grateful he hadn't picked one of her sappy romantic comedies or sad dramas to watch. She wouldn't have been able to handle that. Not last night, anyway.
But they laughed most of the way through the movie. She was in hysterics when Smallville decided to open up and admit that he wished he could move like Jackie Chan. The mental image of that was just too much. She was pretty sure he was serious, which made it even funnier, and made him mad at first. But when she couldn't stop laughing, he began to laugh, too.
After the outtakes and credits had rolled on the movie, Lois turned it off and went to grab a pillow off her bed for Clark. When she walked back in the room, he was sitting in the floor looking at the pictures. And that's when he wanted to know.
She couldn't believe he wanted to look through them with her. Even more surprising was the fact that she let him. But he wanted to know. He wanted to hear the stories behind each snapshot, and where each photo was taken and who the faces in each one belonged to. She couldn't believe he wanted to know.
And so, she told him.
They had both opened up last night. She, more so than he did, but still. The walls came a-tumbling down.