Author's Notes: This took longer than I expected to write. I had an entirely different chapter in mind but I thought against it. I'll probably use it elsewhere. Please don't talk about what I had originally in mind points to people you know who you are.

Chapter 12: Lois & the General

They arrived back in Metropolis in record time. Clark halted in his tracks. "So – um…" he started, unsure where to begin. They hadn't really sat down and talked about what hey were going to do once they got back to the city.

Lois stopped too, and turned as she was putting the key into the keyhole. "What's wrong?"

He looked nervous. "Are you sure?"

She raised her eyebrows confused. "Granted, I'm a fairly smart person, but I have no idea what it is you're implying to"

"You know, about there." He pointed to her door.

Her eyebrows went a little higher. She looked at her front door but nothing was registering to her. She looked back at him. "I don't understand what you mean." And just to make sure she didn't miss anything, she looked back at the door and back at him again which was followed by a shrug, she was still confused.

He sighed. "Living arrangements, Lois!"

She laughed out loud. "Are you serious?" She puts her bags down by her door before moving closer to him. "Clark, you and I are married and you're worried about where you're going to sleep." She sighed. "I was kinda hoping next to me, if that's not so much of a problem for you."

He let out a sigh of relief and then a chuckle. "Good. I never liked your couch in the first place"

"Oh come on, it's not that bad," she laughed.

"Have you ever slept on it?" he asked demurely.

"All the time"

He glared at her and she retreats.

"A few times." He was still not buying it. "Okay, twice!" He crossed his arms and it made her roll her eyes. "Fine! I've never slept on it"

He laughed, pulling her in his arms, kissing her fiercely. "Slow down, cowboy." She slowly pulled away, smiling. "We've only been married a week"

"It feels like forever"

When she opens the door, he advances again, and she pulls away again, making him frown. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"You're absolutely right. What do we do about living arrangements? Do I move in with you or you with me?"

He smiled. "Now it bothers you"

"It's all your fault. You brought it up. I liked it better when we were flying without direction. And I mean that almost literally"

He lifted her in his arms and belatedly crossed the threshold. "Why don't we stay where we are for the moment and then we could join arms and do battle against the forces of real-estate?"

She chuckled.

As he carried her into the living room, they didn't realize there was another person there.

"Lois"

Her mouth gaped open and Clark nearly loses his grip.

"Hi daddy"

General Sam Lane stood in front of a flabbergasted pair of Lane and Kent. He was the last person either of them expected to see, ever. Now he was standing before them, his face looking stone cold. It sent shivers down Clark's spine. Lois, on the other hand, simply looked annoyed at his intrusion.

"What are you doing here?"

Her father ignored the resentment in her voice. "What you do in your own time is your business, Lo"

"I'm glad," she said without an ounce of sincerity.

"But refusal to answer my phone calls will not be tolerated," the General said in that condescending tone he's always used when she was growing up. Even if she had changed, some things just don't. Like her father, for example.

"Okay, that's enough!" Clark spoke aloud. He remained quiet to give her and her father some level of privacy, but he couldn't help that he was there and that he could hear their conversation. "I think you should leave now"

The General took a few steps towards them. "Stay out of this, Mister Kent. This doesn't concern you"

"No, it does concern me. It concern's me a lot." He was making him angry and he's beginning to understand why there was so much hostility between father and daughter. "You come into her home and you start giving her the third degree. She may be your daughter but she's not a child"

"She's my child! And don't you forget that"

Clark refused to be swayed. "She's also my wife"

"I – What?"

Meanwhile, Lois moved aside and headed towards her refrigerator as her husband and father went at it. She reached into her freezer for an ice-pack as well as a bottle of vodka. It's nice to be welcomed home to such a dizzying display of verbal fireworks, she joked to herself.

"You heard me"

The General glared at his daughter. "Is it true, Lo?"

She rolled her eyes at the nickname he didn't deserve to call her by. She raised her left hand and showed him the ring. "What do you think?" She was met with silence, and then she brought up her right hand, holding a glass of Vodka in ice. "Cheers"

"Mister Kent, I'd like a moment alone with my daughter"

"That makes two of us," Clark quipped.

General Lane gave him a disapproving look. The remark did little to amuse him and Clark felt immediately uncomfortable. He also felt like a fool but that didn't stop him from wanting to protect his wife.

"I'm not going anywhere"

"Clark," Lois softly intrudes.

"Yeah?"

"He's not going to leave if I don't speak with him. Can you give us a minute?"

Clark really didn't want to, and it showed all over his face. He pleaded silently to her to let him stay. She didn't have to do this alone.

"I'll be okay." She wrapped an arm around his neck and kissed him softly, making her father flinch slightly at the sight. The General has never seen Lois publicly affectionate with a man before.

"Are you sure?" he asked once more for the heck of it.

She nodded. Sure.

He kissed her back and then whispered to her ear. "I love you"

She smiled. "I know"

Clark reluctantly leaves through the front door.

"So you're running off and getting married now?"

Lois remained undeterred by the low comment. "Just like you said, what I do is my business. What do you want, dad?"

"I've been leaving messages about your sister. Lucy. Remember her?"

"Five four. A little over ninety pounds. Brown hair. Yeah I know her," she answered sarcastically.

"She's gone AWOL again"

"Now there's a surprise?" she asked with a laugh. "She pulls a David Copperfield every few months. What does that have to do with me?"

"You're her sister. You're suppose to set an example"

She laughed again. "In order for me to set an example, she shouldn't have been sent to boarding school in the first place. What's happening to her isn't my fault, and I'm sick and tired of taking the blame for her bad decisions"

"Don't you dare speak to me or to her like that or I'll – "

"What?" she cut him off angrily. "What are you going to do, dad? Ground me? Take away my allowance and confiscate my car? If you think you can come here when we barely speak to each other over months a time and still expect me to abide by your rules, you're seriously mistaken"

"Lucy is out of control"

"And you scream at me every time she does, and I stop everything to get her in line. But none of it matters because she always gets loose. If she needs help, she'll come to me, but I can't help her if she doesn't want it. She's gonna have to own up to her mistakes"

The General sighed, an action he doesn't do often in the presence of his daughter. He dropped his beret on her sofa and sat down.

For the first time in a long time, Lois could see the years passing through him. He looked tired and downright defeated but it didn't make her any less sympathetic than she already was. She was downright angry with him, and for good reason.

"I don't want her to," he revealed softly, and it barely registered to her.

"What?"

"I don't want her to own up to her mistakes," he rephrased clearly. "Not entirely"

That annoyed her even more. "Well, at least you're honest with me this time. I'm glad I could be Lucy's own personal escape goat"

"No, Lo, that's not what I meant"

"It sounded pretty clear to me"

"I don't want her to because I know she won't be able to handle the consequences," he admitted for the first time. Lois looked down at him, a little surprised by the proclamation. "You think I don't know everything that you've done for her, but I do. You've taken care of Lucy better than I could have ever hoped for"

The sudden spiel coming out of her father, the General, was making her dizzy with discomfort.

"I'm a bit confused now. Are you complimenting me?"

His calm façade wavered heavily in the midst of his daughter's indifference to the problem at hand. "Dammit, Lo. I need your help"

Though still confused at his actions, she nodded anyway. He knew she would. She could see his breath exhale in relief. She made him nervous, the thought almost made her smile. Before leaving, he turned to her.

"Lo?"

Lois silently turned around, waiting for him to continue.

"Congratulations," he said sincerely.

She smiled weakly in return.

"Thanks"

Lois stepped out onto her terrace and leaned atop the thick railing separating her from earth to air. "How's the view?" she asked, looking out into the lighted city underneath the blanket of the stars.

"Better now that you're out here," Clark answered, hovering right below her. He flew over her and landed squarely on the ground. "Where does he go off treating you like that?"

"He does it all the time"

"Well, he shouldn't"

"He's stubborn. A born trait amongst the Lane's. And he's the patriarch."

"How do you think he handled the news?"

She laughed. "You were there, remember? He had his right hand plastered on his side. I think he was hoping his gun would magically appear, but I may be just exaggerating"

Clark gave a low scared chuckle. He may be invulnerable to any material that earth produces but General Sam Lane has a presence, a commanding aura that scares him to death. It also could be because he had an army at his disposal.

"It doesn't matter," she added.

"It does to me. I didn't understand at first but you're not the irresponsible daughter that he makes you out to be. What drives me crazy the most is that you let him"

"That's what I thought so too." She turned back, looking into her apartment where her dad was just at a couple of minutes before. "Turns out I was wrong"

To be continued…