"How'd you know where I was staying?" Lois had asked Clark before she had gotten out of the car last night.
"I consider it my duty to keep tabs on you." She had almost thought he did think about her that much until he smiled and added, "and if you weren't staying with Chloe, it is the closest place for travelers to stay."
It was a letdown though she should have realized, and yet, he had promised to help her with Chloe, so that was progress.
She still didn't understand how this nightmare world was created. Was someone playing with time? She hadn't even gone to find Lucy because of the disaster that had descended on Smallville, which Clark spoke as if had still happened. The General tracked her sister down all on his own, so why had everything changed?
"Is this like my own It's a Wonderful Life moment, God? Because I get it. If not for the second meteor shower, I might have left and made things different and everyone wouldn't be as happy." She muttered, "Even if it seems like the only unhappy person is me. Well, and Chloe. So, uh, You can fix everything back now. Lesson learned. It really is a wonderful life."
Nothing. Though she almost though she could detect the faint sound of laughter as if someone were really enjoying a joke that they were playing. Her imagination she was sure but a little chilling.
Before she could give it much thought, her phone rang. "Hello."
"Mrs. Queen?"
As much as she hated to give the affirmative, "Yes?"
"This is Dr. Spears. We can do that paternity test you wanted, and we noticed some abnormalities during the ultrasound we'd like to take a closer look at."
"Abnormalities?"
"It's nothing to get alarmed about, but it would be best if we did an amniocentesis. which is where we take some of the fluid that surrounds the baby. Not only will that provide definitive proof of the paternity if you have the father's sample, but it will allow us to rule out some conditions."
"What conditions?"
"Genetic ones like Down Syndrome."
"You think my baby has Down Syndrome?"
"No, not at all, but we do think there could be some genetic abnormality."
Her heart began to beat wildly. She wanted more information. What were the abnormalities? What if her baby's very life was in danger? There was only one way to find out. "Okay, I'll come in."
"How about we say this evening at 4:00?"
After she hung up, she gripped the edge of the small table beside the bed for balance as she felt a little faint at all the possibilities. Why did they want her to com in so soon? Was it that serious? She really needed Clark right now to calm her worries, to just hold her, but of course, that wasn't possible.
As if she didn't have enough to worry about before that phone call, she fretted the whole day. She fretted when she went back to retrieve her car. She fretted when she tried to choke down a salad at lunch. She fretted as she combed the news for information that might begin to explain this alternate reality. She fretted all the way to the hospital. And she fretted when she found Oliver in the waiting room.
"What are you doing here?"
"How many times are you going to ask me that? I asked the man at the front desk at the resort where you'd gone, and he told me you had an appointment here. Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?"
That's what she got for running her big mouth at the front desk, she thought, but that was what she did when she was nervous. "They think there might be something wrong."
He stretched out his arms, and she went into them.. She probably shouldn't have, but he was a friend who cared, and she needed that right now.
"Everything will be fine.. We have the finances for the best doctors in the country, and it's probably nothing," he soothed. "We've got some time. Let's go have a look at the babies."
It was oddly comforting to see those rows of newborns behind the glass, whole and healthy. It was hard to believe that in just a few short months if this wasn't some strange part of all this, she might have one of her own.
That comfort was short-lived when she saw Clark behind the glass in scrubs with one of those tiny, wrinkled babies in his arms. He saw her too and came out with the infant before she could make a run for it.
"Clark, this is my...uh, Oliver."
The men gave their hellos though they seemed to be sizing each other up more than they were greeting each other.
The moment passed, and he announced proudly, "This is Clark Jr." He flushed; he must have remembered that a possible future son wasn't the only thing she had dubbed Clark Jr. "Would you like to hold him?"
That was the last thing she wanted. It was all she could do not to break down. She didn't know how much more of this torture she could stand. "No, I'm not good with babies. I might break him."
He chuckled. "You won't, and you might as well get accustomed to holding a baby now."
She found the warm little bundle thrust into her arms, whether she wanted it or not. The baby sensed the change in people, and opened his scrunched up eyes. Those clear blue irises were the same color of the man she loved. She didn't know how or why, but there they were, staring her right in the face.
"I have to go," she said, tears beginning to well in her own eyes as she carefully passed him back, which might soon become full-blown sobs. "I have an appointment with the baby doctor. That's why we're here."
As she spun, she almost plowed into Chloe. "You're pregnant?" her cousin asked, unable to hide her surprise.
She sighed and felt like pulling her hair out at having no control over everyone finding out about her pregnancy. She might as well have taken an announcement out in the paper. It would have been faster.