Lois swam toward consciousness, pushed there by the sound of a loud motor, and she grumpily wondered when construction crews started working on her apartment building. It wasn't until she opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings that her brain got with the program. She was in Smallville, not Metropolis. A shade had been drawn down over the window – a change from when she went to bed last night – but it only blocked out some of the morning sunbeams. Rolling the shade back up, she took in the sight. She'd chased stories from Anbar Province to the Arctic, but even she'd never have guessed that the most powerful being on Earth grew up with this view. Miniature corn plants – just a few inches high – stretched for as far as she could see, with the occasional silo or tree adding diversity to the skyline, such as it was.
But with all this unabashed nature stretching out before her, shouldn't she be waking up to a Disney-style serenade of songbirds or something? A motor? Really?
Sighing, she dressed and headed downstairs. There was a plate of pancakes on the table, with a place setting for one (her, she presumed), that even included an empty mug and a full coffee pot on the coffee maker. Clark knew her too well. When she reached for the pancakes, they were cold, and Lois grimaced. True, they were on the farm now, and she realized the Kents had already eaten breakfast, but still. She checked her cell phone and it was barely nine o'clock. At what ungodly hour had they gotten up? Lois took the hint Clark and Martha had left for her, though, microwaving her breakfast and then impatiently eating.
It was easy to find the others, after Lois had washed her breakfast dishes. All she had to do was follow the sound of that blasted motor. On the west side of the house, Clark was riding what looked to be a lawnmower, but it was pulling something that was tilling up the ground. Martha was standing in the shade of a tree and waved in welcome to her, and Clark cut the motor so he could hop down and cross the yard to them. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" Martha cheerfully greeted.
"Morning," Lois muttered, still not awake enough to be enthusiastic. "How long have you been up?"
"Oh, I don't sleep much past six," Martha said, "and Clark was up half an hour later. Hope you don't mind," she added, gesturing to the tractor or whatever it was. "We weren't sure how long you would sleep."
"I don't mind at all," Lois said as Clark stole a quick kiss. They were in front of his mother, but it wasn't often she got a jolt of Clark Kent into her system this early in the day. Standing on her tiptoes, she leaned in for another, longer kiss.
"I'll, um, just be inside for a moment," Martha said, and Clark started chuckling against Lois' lips.
"You're incorrigible," he murmured.
"And you love it," Lois retorted, stealing another kiss. She could get used to having Clark around in the mornings. He was even better than coffee.
When she came up for breath, he said, "As a matter of fact I do. But please don't drive off my mother."
Huffing in mock frustration, she said, "Alright, alright, fine. I'll behave."
"Only when she's around," he said with a wink, surprising her. He didn't often encourage her to misbehave. In a louder voice, he called, "It's safe to come out now, Mom! And bring those seeds, please."
"Seeds?" Lois wondered. "I thought the fields were already planted."
"They are," Clark said. "We were working on putting in her garden until you woke up. If there's something else you want to do today, we can, but I thought gardening might be novel for you."
Lois chuckled. "It is that. But I have to warn you – I have a brown thumb. I can't even keep aloes alive at home."
Martha joined them in time to catch her last sentence. "Oh don't worry about that – we're just getting everything tilled up and putting the beans and some melon seeds in today. Unless you want to do more."
Clark laughed, the sound so carefree and welcome that Lois couldn't help but grin. "Mom, let's just get this taken care of first!"
His mom chuckled and handed him a plastic bag with the seeds. Then she offered Lois a tube of sunscreen and a straw hat that matched her own. "Clark never gets burned, but you and I need a little protection from the sun."
It was already pretty hot, so it was with a faked sigh that Lois put the hat on. "At least it's not flannel."
Clark laughed again, and Lois was pleased she could be the one to bring that out in him this time. Martha and Clark were barefoot, and Lois didn't want to get her tennis shoes dirty since they were the only shoes she'd brought on the trip. Sitting down in the grass next to the garden, she pulled off her own shoes and socks, thinking, When in Smallville... Just to be safe, she cuffed up her jeans, too, and wished she'd thought to put on her cutoffs instead.
When she stepped into the garden, the soil was pleasantly soft underfoot, and she wiggled her toes in delight. Clark was using a hoe to do most of the earth-moving at this point, but he'd already shaped a row that Martha was planting. Not seeing any other tools around that she could use to help Clark, she decided to join Martha. "So how do we do this?"
Martha patiently walked her through how to plant the beans, and they worked on parallel rows until both were planted. "Now these are pole beans," she said when they were done, taking her hat off and wiping her brow. "That makes 'em easier to harvest, but they'll also need some support."
"I've got it, Mom," Clark said. He rounded the shed and flew back a moment later holding a wire-and-beam frame of some kind.
Beside Lois, Martha huffed and leaned closer to her. "He's such a show-off for you, even though he knows better."
"I can hear you," Clark pointed out as he placed the frame between the two rows Lois and Martha had planted.
"I know," his mom said, a smile splitting her face, "but did you listen?"
Clark shook his head, grinning, as his feet touched the earth again, but he was blushing and Lois came to his rescue. "He did spare us having to wrangle this thing all the way out here. What is it?"
"An A-frame trellis," he answered, walking toward one end while Martha took the other. They swung the beams apart from each other until the trellis' wire grids were lined up with the planted rows.
"So...the beans don't climb actual poles?" Lois asked, and Martha lightly laughed.
"Only sometimes. Now let's get those melon seeds in so we can go have some fun." Martha started toward the opposite corner of the garden, but when Lois moved to follow her, Clark stepped away from the trellis, bumping into her.
Just like at the Planet, he said, "Oh, excuse me, miss." He had the same twinkle in his eyes, too.
Unlike at the Planet, Lois playfully nudged him back with her shoulder as she continued on her way. "Watch it! I'm walking here!"
He fell in step just behind her and said in a low voice, "Oh, I'm watching."
Lois' jaw dropped and she wheeled on him. Grinning, he gently caught her face and kissed her the way she loved best – slowly but with just enough intensity to know he meant it. When she leaned in closer, he lifted his head and winked at her. "Just checking."
"Checking?" she weakly echoed.
"That you weren't mad. You'd be pretty much obligated to slap me if I'd said that at the Planet."
She chuckled and poked his shoulder. "Yes. Wise man, saving that line for here." Looping her arm through his, she walked beside him toward his mother.
Martha looked up from where she'd knelt next to a low mound of soil, an almost-eager smile on her face. "Should I go back inside?"
Lois squatted next to her, still hoping to keep her jeans more or less clean. "Nope, we were just engaging in a friendly discussion about who had the right of way. So what are we planting now?"
"Cantaloupe in this hill and watermelon in that one," Martha answered, gesturing to another low mound. She tossed the packet of watermelon seeds to Clark, and he headed to the other hill. "Those are Sugar Baby melons – the little kind you find in stores – since it's just me eating them. When Clark was growing up, he'd eat an entire big watermelon by himself."
"I can believe it," Lois answered.
Again Martha patiently walked Lois through the correct way to plant the seeds. This time there were only a dozen of them, and the two women were done in a couple of minutes. Straightening, Lois dusted her hands off and turned to see Clark a couple of yards away with his cell phone in hand. It was the first time this entire trip that she'd seen him with his phone.
"Did you just take a picture of me?" she demanded.
"What?" he asked, his expression one of innocent confusion.
Lois wasn't buying it for a second – not when she was barefoot in the garden with rolled-up jeans and a straw hat. She was even wearing the beige t-shirt. "If you post of pic of me on Facebook with the caption 'Farmer Brown,' I will find a way to kill you."
Martha started laughing, but Clark's straight face was a dead give away. Huffing, Lois strode toward him and reached out to snatch his phone. He hid it behind his back and staggered back a couple of paces. "Now Lois, we both know..."
She skipped forward, trying to angle around him, and he should have been too quick. Instead, he moved slowly enough that she kind of bounced off him. He was grinning now, and she realized he'd be airborne if he was really trying to keep the phone from her. This was just another of his attempts at flirting – and she was all for playing along. She tried again, anticipating that he wouldn't move at superhuman speed, and this time they just ended up pressed against each other, him half-turning and half-retreating as she tried to reach around him.
"I just want to borrow it," Lois insisted, mirth bubbling up in her.
"Use your own phone," he said, chortling, and just as Lois tried again to lunge around him, Clark tripped over the edge of the garden. Martha squeaked in surprise when Lois went down with him, and the two of them ended up in a tangled heap on the lawn. By that point, Lois was laughing, too. When he focused on wiggling his arm loose from where their combined weight was pinning it, she finally succeeded in grabbing the phone. Triumphant, she leaped to her feet and unlocked the screen. Clark just lay sprawled in the grass and belly-laughed.
"You let me win," she said through her giggles as she searched his app icons for either a gallery or the camera.
"Of course I did," he wheezed. "Except when I stumbled. That was legit."
That surprised her. Still... "You faked the fall."
"Yes. But not the stumble."
Lois shook her head at him, but got distracted when she finally found the gallery. The most recent photo in it was of Dusty the dog.
"Did you already post it?" she asked, impressed.
Clark settled down enough that he rolled up onto his side so he could see her. "There's no pic. I was checking the weather."
She tossed the phone at him, and he easily caught it. If Martha hadn't been looking on from the shade of the house, Lois might have turned the whole thing into some epic making out. He looked so...tempting the way he was lazily sprawled in the grass and practically glowing with happiness. Still, she could now say she'd tackled Superman. Not many people could brag about that.
Clark waggled his eyebrows at her. "Of course, now you've given me the idea..."
Lois huffed in mock annoyance, and Martha said, "You know the only way to make sure he doesn't get a picture of you like this is to change clothes." To Clark, she said, "Is it going to rain?"
"Nope, you were right. They pushed any chance of precipitation back until after dinner." He smiled up at Lois. "Wanna go swimming?"
"We'll discuss it over lemonade," Martha said, waving toward the house before heading back into the air conditioning.
Lois was all too happy to follow.
…
Half an hour later, Martha and Lois were climbing into the cab of the Kents' old pickup. It only had two seat belts, so of course Clark insisted that he ride in the bed of the truck and whistled for Dusty to hop up next to him. Lois could see the logic of it, but she was also surprisingly relieved when Martha slid open the back window so Clark could talk with them during the drive.
"So...Smallville has a pool?" Lois asked for conversation sake.
"It does," Clark answered, "but that's not where we're going."
"That's for the city slickers," Martha added, grinning as she turned down a dirt track that led away from the paved road. "We're taking you to the swimming hole."
Lois smirked despite herself. "Sounds adventurous."
"I don't know about that," Clark said. "It's just a nice spot along the creek that runs between us and the Lang farm. The water gets a good fifteen feet deep there even in late summer, and there are cottonwoods on the shore for shade and for a rope swing."
"So that's where Superman first learned to fly?" Lois teased. She still couldn't quite wrap her mind around Clark's comment during the Valentine's Day interview about learning to fly and how it included falling a few times. Somehow – like the rest of the world – she'd just assumed it had come naturally.
"That would have made for a softer landing," he muttered. "More like where I learned how not to belly-flop."
That mental image actually made her giggle, and Clark grinned in response. Martha mentioned some of his other misadventures on this particular creek, including catching his first trout there with Jonathan, and Lois reveled in the stories. Before she knew it, Martha had stopped the truck in front of a low hill.
"Problem?" Lois asked.
"Nope."
"So...where's the creek?"
Clark easily hopped out of the pick-up bed and dropped the tailgate to let Dusty out. "On the other side of the levee." Throwing a backpack with towels and such over his shoulder and grabbing the cooler Martha had packed, he led the way toward the creek.
Lois paused just a few steps down from the crest of the levee. Martha's stories had painted a pretty accurate picture. The creek itself was maybe forty feet wide and at most chest-deep except for one channel in the middle. That was too dark for Lois to see the bottom, but she trusted Clark's guess of about fifteen feet deep. She could see fish in the shallows darting out of the way when Dusty jumped into the water, and the hot sun sparkled on the waves created by his paddling around. The grass was green and soft underfoot, and it ran all the way down to the water's edge. The scene was positively idyllic.
Clark set the cooler on a large, flat rock in the shade, and Lois idly wondered if he'd placed that boulder there on purpose at some point over the years. Martha was chatting with him, something about making sure the soda hadn't squished the sandwiches, and Clark pulled off his shirt mid-sentence.
Lois blinked. His Kryptonian suit didn't leave much to the imagination, but even her imagination hadn't quite done justice to the sight before her. He stooped to open the cooler, the motion highlighting his impressive muscles, and she tore her gaze away. Must not oggle the co-worker.
At least, not if she didn't want to be sneaking into his room tonight.
Suddenly, that cool creek-water looked very inviting. Lois strode the rest of the way down the levee and set her purse next to Martha's backpack. Clark grinned at Lois and extended his hands, one holding a cola and the other a bottle of water. "Thirsty?"
Yes, but I'll take the man in the middle, not the drinks.
Laughing at her own mental commentary, Lois just shook her head. "Not at the moment, thanks. I want to jump in."
Clark nodded and put the drinks back in the cooler as Lois kicked off her shoes and shimmied out of her cut-offs. When she straightened, Clark was staring at her with the kind of shell-shocked expression she'd come to associate with a thorough kiss. Apparently she wasn't the only one enjoying the half-naked nature of swimming. The thought made her grin.
Clark seemed to realize he was staring and, blushing, shut his gaping mouth. Their eyes met, and he flashed her an appreciative smile before abruptly turning and jumping into the creek. Of course, he would have no trouble landing in the deepest part. His dog barked and swam over to where Clark had gone under the water, circling the center of an expanding ring of ripples.
Martha chuckled beside her, and Lois glanced her way. "He freaks Dusty out all the time, sends him into a panic." She walked over to the bank and stepped down into the water, hissing in surprise.
"You okay?" Lois asked, hurrying toward her.
"Yeah, it's just a bit chilly still." She gingerly waded deeper. "By July it'll be perfect, but this time of year..."
Lois was grateful for the warning and dipped her toe in. It was cooler than your average swimming pool, but it was hardly a polar-bear plunge. She was ankle-deep and adjusting to the water when she realized Clark still hadn't surfaced. "How long can he hold his breath?"
Martha shook her head in amusement, all the way up to her knees by now. "Dunno. He was mad at me once when he was a little kid and held his breath. Must have been something he learned from a classmate. Anyway, after about half an hour of standing there looking like a chipmunk he finally apologized. So at least half an hour."
Lois chuckled at the mental image as she gradually worked her way toward deeper water. "You didn't panic when he held his breath?"
Martha gave her a look. "I stopped being freaked out after my baby was delivered by an alien spaceship."
Lois shook with laughter. "Okay, yeah, I can see that."
The water in front of them erupted and Lois turned away from the spray. Looking back, she saw a dripping-wet and shirtless Clark and thought herself the luckiest woman in the world. That boyish grin, complete with the untamed curl on his forehead, made the fawning fangirl in her want to swoon.
"You ever going to jump in?" he asked, wading closer.
"I could ask you the same question," the fangirl in her muttered before she could stop herself.
He gave her an exasperated look that slid into a mischievous smirk. "Plug your nose" was the only warning he gave before scooping her up and jumping back into the creek.
The cold water enveloped her and she reflexively jolted in surprise. Clark's arms loosened and she flailed her way up for air. As soon as her head was above water, she gasped against the chill. Clark swam toward her, his smile way too amused for her liking, and she splashed him in the face. He didn't flinch (why would he when bullets bounced off him like spitwads?), but he did have the decency to look a bit more apologetic as he wiped the water away from his eyes.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Just a little cold."
He reached out and pulled her back against his broad chest, and the goosebumps on her arms started calming down. His skin against hers was warm even in the water, and Lois rested her head in the crook of his neck with a contented sigh, letting him tread water for them both.
Dusty paddled over, a stick in his mouth, and Clark tossed it for him so he could fetch it. Lois suddenly remembered they weren't alone and looked around for Martha. She wasn't in the water, and Lois finally noticed her reclining on a blanket in the shade, reading a book. Lois smiled and felt a slight twinge of envy. When was the last time she'd just kicked back with a book? It was so serene here, and she was enjoying it more than she'd expected. Of course cuddling up with a shirtless Clark didn't hurt, either.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of her, though. "So how long can you hold your breath?"
He chuckled, the vibration pleasantly rumbling through her, and said, "A very long time."
"An hour?" Lois pressed. "Two years?"
He hesitated long enough that Lois lifted her head and twisted in his arms so she could see his face. He looked worried, in the brief second Lois had to read his expression before he pulled her against his chest again. "I'm not sure that I need to breathe at all."
Lois sobered as that thought sank in. In some ways he seemed so very human, more human than most of mankind. The strength and physical invulnerability were just...enhancements. But this. This was the most basic of human vulnerabilities. "You can't die."
He snorted in wry amusement. "That's not a theory I'm interested in testing."
She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat and wondering why it even continued beating if not to bring oxygen to his cells. "But I've seen you breathless." She trailed her fingertips up the side of his ribs to emphasize her point, and his breath caught a little.
"I...think that might be more of an emotional response than a physical one."
Lois grinned and stole a lingering kiss since Martha wasn't watching. He pulled her close against him, his hands splayed across her back, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, thrilling that so much of his warm skin was against hers. Dusty returned with the stick eventually, though, interrupting them and she chuckled. "The dog is going to chaperon us even if your mom isn't."
Clark threw the stick again, more amused than irritated. "Apparently. Want to try out the rope swing?"
"Sure."
The rope was suspended from a cottonwood where the deep channel of the creek cut close to the bank. Clark had to hold the rope for her the first few times she climbed on, but after that, she started to get the hang of it. He couldn't resist showing off, of course, with dives that totally didn't count because he couldn't feel it if even he did end up belly-flopping and because he could fly. Still, Lois was just competitive enough to want try a few stunts of her own. She wasn't sure how long they spent laughing and trying to one-up each other, but eventually she got pretty chilled. Her hands slipped off the rope because they were so cold, and Clark caught her before she hit the water.
Martha sat up and watched in concern when Clark flew her over to the cooler. "Her lips are blue," his mom said, standing up and shaking out the blanket to wrap around Lois.
"I just realized that," he answered.
"I'll warm up," Lois said, shivering a little less now that she was standing in the sun with the blanket.
"I'm not sending you home with a head cold," Martha firmly replied.
"That's not how..." Clark began but Martha silenced him with a Look.
"You need some hot tea or soup or something,"Martha insisted. "Let's get you back to the house."
Lois thought about protesting, but she did want to impress Martha, and arguing over this when Superman was willing to back down didn't seem like the kind of impression she wanted to make.
"Okay, fine. Some hot coffee sounds wonderful, actually."
Martha nodded and they hurried back to the truck. She even insisted that they drive with the heater on and Lois' window up. When that much heat felt good instead of too warm, Lois finally realized how chilled she really was.
When they pulled up to the house, Martha insisted, "Go take a hot shower. I'll have something for you to drink when you get out."
Lois didn't have to be told twice. The outdoors wasn't too bad, but the air conditioning was still running when she followed Martha inside, and goosebumps raised on her arms again. She hurried up the stairs to the bathroom, peeled herself out of her swimsuit, and shivered under the stream of hot water for a good couple of minutes before she felt as warm as she had in the cab of the truck. Figuring she might as well clean up while she was at it, Lois borrowed some of the shampoo Martha had left on the edge of the tub and and washed away the creek-water.
It wasn't until she'd put conditioner in her hair that she realized she'd forgotten to turn a vent on in the bathroom before she got in the shower. By then she was comfortable enough for the fawning fangirl's sense of humor to return, and she was curious just how good his hearing was. "Hey Clark," she said casually, as if he were in the room with her, "I forgot to turn on the fan, and I'm not sure where the towels are. Can you help a lady out?"
A moment later there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" Lois called.
"Superman's busy making soup," Martha said, switching on the fan and a heat-lamp, "so he sent me."
Lois chuckled despite herself at the pun.
Cabinet hinges squeaked and the older woman said, "There are two towels on the counter for you now, and I'll put an extra fleece blanket in your bedroom to wrap up in once you're out. Anything else you need?"
"Forgiveness for stealing some shampoo?"
Martha pshawed on the other side of the shower curtain. "Make yourself at home here, Lois. Use whatever you'd like."
"Thanks."
When the bathroom door closed again, Lois couldn't help but mutter, "If I'd wanted your mother's help, I would have shouted."