- - - Chapter Seven
Lois was very clingy for the rest of the week. It seemed that a near death experience was all Clark needed to get her attempting to touch him, and generally be as close as possible as often as possible. He certainly didn't mind, but it was a bit embarrassing at first, especially when they were at the Planet.
They had arrived late because they'd already turned in their morning edition article. All they had to do that morning was attend the afternoon issue meeting, which didn't happen until almost eleven thirty. Coming up the elevator at eleven meant that everybody else was already in the bullpen and they got the entire elevator to themselves. This was when Lois's clinginess had begun.
They'd been holding hands to begin with, but he found her giving feather-light kisses along his jaw as soon as the doors closed behind them. "Lois?" He'd asked, not sure what she was getting at; last week she'd been gung-ho about nobody at the office knowing they were even together.
"Shutup," she mumbled back, doing it for him by kissing his lips. Clark returned in kind, turning them around and sitting her on the railing that ran along every wall in the elevator. When the door opened on their floor they were almost too distracted to notice, but they did, and so did everybody else in the bullpen. And it was probably the last position they'd expected to find those two particular people in. Clark still had Lois pressed against the wall, sitting on the railing, her hands were going wild along his back and in his hair; he had a hand on the railing and a hand at her neck, and was kissing her like he did every day. Of course, nobody in the bullpen had ever thought of Clark kissing anyone, so it was a very abnormal thing to see him doing it so… fluently.
Clark had the humility to look embarrassed, but Lois just looked happy. She had a Clark-worthy smile on her face all the way to her desk, where she leaned over and kissed Clark's cheek goodbye before trying to concentrate on her work.
Clark, on the other hand, had to walk past four more desks before he reached his own, getting four more close-up, astounded stares. Then he had to listen to their coworkers gossip about them from over by the copy maker.
Lois only lasted about twenty minutes at her desk before she felt like she was going through Clark-withdrawal. "Whatcha working on?" Lois asked, coming up behind Clark and putting her hands on his shoulders. She'd only managed to get about three sentences written for her next article, and called a contact to set up an interview.
"A follow-up piece for that Superman article in the morning edition," Clark said, looking up at her with a charming smile. "I even got a few quotes from that interview with Superman," he winked.
"Kent! Lane! In here! Now!" Perry called from his office, startling them both. Lois jumped away from Clark like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Clark being the cookie.
Lois and Clark exchanged a guilty look before walking into their editor's office. To their surprise, Jimmy was already in the office; maybe they weren't going to get yelled at for being touchy-feely at the office.
"Chief?" Lois asked quietly when they walked into the office. Clark was right behind her, closing the door quietly. He looked just as shy and worried as he usually did, but at least he'd dropped the clumsy act and hadn't tripped over the door frame or something; that probably would've made it worse.
"Stop looking like you're in trouble, Lane," Perry said gruffly, winking at Clark. Clark blinked back at him, color rushing to his cheeks.
"Wh-what did you need, Chief?" Clark asked, glancing from Jimmy to Perry and back.
"Well, if you haven't noticed, we've been running a photo-journal and short pieces on each of our writers," Perry said, opening up a recent issue of the Planet to the front page of the Feature section. The page had photos of Bill Krugle from News, and Nancy Sweinbak from Health. "You're the last two, everybody else in the office has already been covered. The way this works, is you basically take two weeks off."
"What?!" Lois sounded completely outraged, but Perry held up a hand for silence.
"You each get a week for your life story."
"Our life stories?" Clark asked, immediately dreading it.
"Yeah. The pair of you and Jimmy spend a week going someplace that's important to you, the place you grew up, someplace that has a story for you. One of you tells the story, the other writes it down, and Jimmy takes pictures. Clark, you're from Kansas town, right?" Clark nodded.
"Smallville."
"Yeah, so the three of you go to Smallville, Clark gives you the grand tour, shows you some places with some memories; Jimmy takes a picture of some corn, the readers read the article Lois writes about you and they feel more connected; when they read your next piece they'll identify with you more, know they can trust that good-ol' farmboy they read that article about rather than just seeing your byline."
"Um," Clark said. There were certainly parts of his heritage he didn't want the Planet to run an article about, and it all linked back to Smallville.
"Lois, before you complain," Perry held up his hand again, and Lois snapped her mouth shut. "I will watch Jason while the three of you go off on this; you'll be leaving Monday. I know you were raised in Metropolis, so you can come for dinner Wednesday night, if you'd like. And I've already booked a flight for the three of you to Smallville for Sunday night. I'll let you make your own reservations, or whatever you need. I know you've got a farm there, Kent."
"What if we happened to already have plans for the next two weeks, Perry?" Lois asked acidly, she did not like to have her life scheduled for her, even if this 'vacation' wasn't sounding so bad.
"The key phrase there is 'what if,' I believe," Perry smiled.
"Perry, I don't like…"
"Think of it as an interesting way to announce your engagement," Perry suggested with a shrug. Lois crossed her arms in front of her.
"What do you mean?"
"We can add a box in between the articles, here-ish," he pointed to the space he was thinking of on the bottom half of the page on the desk. "Write a little blurb about how you two met, when you'll tie the knot, if there's a date," he added hastily with a glance at Lois, "and maybe something about Jason."
It took several more minutes of convincing, but Lois finally agreed to go along with Perry's little personal ad, as she called it. Jimmy seemed excited to spend the next two weeks learning all the little facts about his friends that usually just didn't come up. He hadn't known that there was a Kent farm, just assumed he'd lived in a small town near some cornfields.
Jason was excited for the change of pace. Though his life was far from normal, he was used to it. Now he'd be staying in a different house, a house, not an apartment, with different people. Lois, however, was definitely not looking forward to her excursion with her fiancé and his best friend. Not only did that mean that she'd have to make up excuses for him to disappear that Jimmy would believe, but she'd have to do it while showing them around her home district and trying to think of touching stories she could tell that her readers would identify with.
"Bye Mommy! Bye Daddy!" Jason said, hugging them each in turn. "Bye Mister Jimmy, have fun taking pictures!"
"I'll try," Jimmy assured him with a smile. He'd never really seen the three of them acting like a normal family before. He'd seen them interacting plenty of times; Lois would ask Clark to go pick up Jason, Lois would bring Clark his coffee in the morning, they'd arrive, leave, and eat together.
"Give a shout if you need anything," Clark told his son. Jason nodded.
Lois was in a dark mood as she drove through the streets of Metropolis, heading west towards the military base she'd grown up on. "You were an army brat, Ms. Lane?" Jimmy asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Lois said. She'd had to make about a dozen phone calls to get approval to go back on the base she'd grown up on. It was a ghost-town now; all but a skeleton crew had been transferred away to more strategic locations. Even though Metropolis was a big city, it wasn't one that needed constant military presence, and with Superman around most of the officers stationed in Metropolis had become excellent golfers.
They went through the gates, submitting the less than enthusiastic search of the car and their persons. "Hey, no!" Jimmy yelled when they took his camera. "Don't open that! You'll expose the film! C'mon guys; Lois, tell them to stop it!"
"Sergeant," a deep voice came from behind him, making both Jimmy and Clark spin around in surprise, or mock-surprise in Clark's case.
"Daddy!" Lois said, sounding both surprised and happy. The two young guards jumped back to salute, leaving Jimmy to sigh with relief as they dropped his camera back into his hands.
"Lo-lo!" General Lane said with a smile, pulling his daughter into a tight embrace. The soldiers just stood there saluting, waiting for a return salute from the general, and slightly thrown off by the show of affection.
"Hi, Daddy!" Lois said, pulling out of their embrace and smiling at him. He seemed to remember himself, then, his smile falling and his arm coming up in a stiff salute.
"Gen- General Lane," Clark said, holding out his hand to shake. "Hello, I'm Clark Kent."
"Ah, yes, Mr. Kent. You and Lo-lo go chasing after her stories," the general had a trace of a smile on his face, but he wasn't giving any other clues that he had any sort of emotions.
"Jimmy Olsen, I'm the, uh, photographer," Jimmy said, shaking General Lane's hand.
"General Sam Lane, nice to meet you," the General said with a firm handshake.
"You giving the tour, Daddy?" Lois asked with a smile, completely ignoring her father's weird emotional level.
"Of course, sweety," he said, putting an arm around his daughter and walking her back to the car, shooing the soldiers away as they went. Jimmy and Clark grabbed the contents of their pockets and climbed into the back seat; General Lane was driving.
The Lanes were talking at top speed, true Lane fashion; Clark could barely keep up with the conversation, but they seemed to be doing fine. Clark exchanged a look with Jimmy before smiling to himself and looking at the concrete buildings as they moved deeper into the complex.
"So, Mr. Kent, you're going to be the one writing this little piece on my daughter, here?" General Lane asked, startling Clark out of his thoughts, the nearness of his voice pulling his ears away from Jason's laugh on the playground of his school.
"Oh, uh, yes, sir," Clark said, smiling at his soon to be father in law in the rearview mirror.
"I suppose you need a few stories then, huh?" Lois turned to her father, a terrified look on her face, but her father just smiled.
"Yes, sir, I suppose a few of those would be nice," now he was smiling too.
"Well," the general started looking at buildings to find a story. "I suppose we should get you all settled before we dig into the dirt," he said when he didn't come up with anything good.
They were quickly leaving the concrete buildings behind for cookie-cutter houses. They pulled into the driveway of the biggest house a few minutes later. "Welcome home, sweety," General Lane said. Clark thought he heard a note of desperation in the general's voice, but his face was just as blank as always. Lois just smiled at her dad and walked around to the trunk to get the bags. Clark managed to trip over his feet a few times and almost drop the suitcases Lois had given him at least twice by the time they'd made it up the stairs. Lois was annoyed that he was going so over the top pretending to be a klutz, her father was getting a bad impression, and Jimmy was wondering what had his best friend so nervous.
"I've got Lucy's old room all set up for you, Mr. Olson," General Lane said, leading them to the first room at the top of the stairs. Lois and Clark stifled laughs as the door opened to reveal a pale pink room, a wall covered in pictures of the same group of girls appearing to attend various high school functions. The bed was pushed against the far wall, the sheets plain and white with a fluffy navy comforter; the foot of the bed came up to the window that overlooked the driveway with accompanying window seat. The desk was also covered in pictures, these in frames and mostly of college life, with a spot cleared away for a computer that had moved out with the former occupant of the room. Overall, the room was feminine, but bare. There were no clothes in the closet or dresser, no trash in the can, everything in place. The only personal things were the old pictures and it was kind of creepy.
"Wow, Daddy, you haven't touched her room since she left!" Lois said, walking into the room and staring at the wall of pictures.
"Haven't really needed to, she was such a tidy girl anyways," General Lane gave a smile. "She came through and cleaned it out right after her honeymoon, took the important things, got rid of the junk that piled up during high school. You know how she is," he paused, looking at the pictures over his daughter's shoulder. "She called the other day; she and Ron might be able to make it for dinner this weekend before you leave for… where was your next stop?"
"Smallville, Kansas," Lois said, unable to keep the humor from her voice.
"Just because you grew up in the big city, Lois…" he said with a smile, forgetting to stutter.
"Oh c'mon, Smallville," Lois teased, mock-glaring back at him.
"Jeez, guys, save it for when you're married," Jimmy said, finally getting over the pink and putting his suitcase on the bed. It took him at least ten seconds to realize that everybody else in the room had frozen. "Oh. You hadn't told him yet…"
General Lane looked like he couldn't decide if the color was going to drain out of his face, or he was going to turn a vibrant shade of red. He only managed to look constipated. His eyes darted from his daughter's face; to her left hand, his eyes narrowing when they fell upon the simple diamond ring on a significant finger; and then he looked up at Clark who was looking extremely guilty and even more nervous.
"Mr. Kent?" General Lane said with forced calm.
"Ge-general Lane?" Clark said, forcing himself to stutter.
"Daddy…" Lois started, looking nervously between the pair of them.
"Not a word, Lois," he said without looking at his daughter. "Let's take a drive, Mr. Kent."
"Al-alright."
"Daddy…" Lois tried again, but her father had already left the room.
"He's gonna kill me!" Clark whispered, pecking Lois on the cheek before running out after General Lane, who was shouting from the foyer.
"He's gonna kill him," Lois told Jimmy when they heard the car doors slam.
"I'm so sorry, Lois, I had no idea… I didn't mean… I thought…."
"It's okay, Jimmy. It's probably better that he figured it out now than me and Clark having to talk to him," she smiled. "Knowing Daddy he'd ask us about the ring in a very public place and then make a huge scene… he's never been a fan of anybody his daughters bring home."
"He seemed to like Ron Troupe okay when he married Lucy."
"Yeah, well, that was the wedding, not the original confrontation," Lois pointed out. "It took about three weeks of the pair of them showing up on his doorstep every night before he'd even talk to Ron. I suppose him actually taking Clark out for a drive to talk is a good sign."
"Maybe with one daughter married he's more ready to accept that neither of you are in high school anymore," Jimmy offered, glancing at the pictures on the wall.
"Yeah," Lois chuckled, walking over to the pictures. She was about to tell Jimmy a story about one of the pictures when her cell phone rang. "Lois Lane… Clark? He what?!... I can't believe him!... No, you- do whatever, I'll talk to Daddy and give you a call once he stops being an ass… He's my father, Clark, I'll call him whatever I want to… Don't 'Lois' me… fine, okay, I'll call you."
"What happened?"
"Daddy dropped him off right outside the gate."
"No way."
"Yeah."
They were interrupted by the slam of a car door in the driveway soon followed by footsteps on the stairs. "Jimmy, you might want to barricade yourself in here." Jimmy didn't need to be told twice, putting his laptop in the empty space on the desk and booting it up while Lois went to confront her father.
Clark walked away from the base, listening to the soldiers gossip inside their little guard station thing. They all wondered what had possessed their CO to make him throw a normal-looking guy that was supposed to be his daughter's friend off the base. He finally reached a turn in the road and took the opportunity to change into Superman and fly into the clouds. He floated almost a mile up from the Lane household, watching and listening to the argument, smirking when Jimmy lay down on the bed and tried to be asleep, glaring at the door when he could still hear the raised voices in the hall.
"Daddy, he's a good guy. You just have to give him a chance."
"Lois, honey, he's such a klutz… you can do better than him. What about Richard? What happened to him?"
"You didn't even like Richard."
"Richard was a nice guy. He was a pilot, an editor, your son's father."
"Richard left me, Dad," Lois said, her voice hardening.
"You never explained to me why, honey," General Lane pushed.
"I don't have to explain it to you, Dad, it's my life."
"He was a nice guy, honey; I don't understand why he'd leave his son…"
"If Jason had been a girl I doubt you'd be saying the same thing," Lois muttered under her breath. Her father fell silent, and Clark wanted to swoop down and give her a hug.
"Lois," General Lane said, not wanting to go there. Even Lois knew when to stop.
"Anyway, Richard wasn't Jason's biological father, anyway."
"What?" Sam Lane seemed to be having a bit of a problem with that. First of all, he'd like to think of his daughter as a virgin despite the evidence to the contrary; thinking of her as not sure who the father of her son was: even less acceptable. "Who is the father then?" He asked, the words separated to keep some of the emotion out.
"Clark, Daddy," Lois said, her tone even and calm despite her father's obvious fury. "Clark and I worked closely together for four years before… anything happened. He was my best friend, still is."
"Then why wasn't he there for you? Why were you with Richard?"
"Because Clark left before we knew I was pregnant. He traveled the world, said he was doing some soul-searching; speaks a bunch of different languages because of it. Anyways, we decided we'd see other people while he was gone, try again if we were both single if and when he made it back. I found Richard, he didn't find anybody. But when Clark came back Richard started to notice similarities between them, he asked questions. I didn't lie to Richard. He didn't like that I hadn't told him Clark was Jason's father; he liked thinking that I'd gotten knocked up by some punk he'd never have to meet," she paused to glare at her father. "Richard left and even though Clark didn't know that Jason was his, or that I still loved him, he took us in. He was still my best friend after all that. Daddy, I'm in love with Clark, Clark's in love with me, this isn't the 1800s, we don't need your permission; we're getting married next spring."
"You have a date?" General Lane asked, sounded slightly shocked. Of course, he'd just got more to the story of Lois's life than anybody but Clark had ever heard, and it was a bit overwhelming.
"May 20th."
"Hmm."
"What?" She asked coldly. Lois was glad the yelling part of it was done, but she almost liked yelling better than the apologies that followed.
"I think I owe that boyfriend of yours a drive."
"Fiancé."
"What?"
"He's my fiancé, Dad."
"Fine, I think I owe your fiancé a drive."
"Thank you, Daddy."
"We'll bring back dinner."
Lois just nodded, heading down the stairs to make herself some tea. Jimmy had heard the whole thing and she wasn't sure how she felt about that just now. He was a friend, a good friend, but he wasn't one of the people she usually confided in.
"Clark?" Lois asked when her phone stopped ringing.
"Lois?"
"Yeah, um, Daddy's coming back to the gate to get you now."
"I know."
"Of course you do, you watched the whole thing, didn't you?"
"I'm always keeping an eye on you, you know that."
"I'm not sure if I should thank you, or get a restraining order."
"Well, right now I should probably stop talking on the phone and start flying towards those woods where your dad dropped me off."
"This is a military base, Clark!" Lois said, her voice dropping to an agitated whisper. "There're cameras everywhere! What're people going to say if they see pictures of Superman talking on a cell phone mid-flight?!"
"I doubt any cameras can see me this high up on such a cloudy night. Heat imaging maybe, but they couldn't prove I'm talking on a cell phone."
"Fine, but don't whine to me when people come knocking on our door wondering if I have Superman's cell phone number."
"I promise to laugh."
"I'm sure, now go wait for Daddy."
The click of the phone was the only response.
"Superman has a cell phone number?" Jimmy asked, coming into the kitchen and forgetting all about the apologies he'd been planning on making.
"What?"
"Were you just talking to Superman?"
"Oh, no, that was Clark," Lois smiled. "He asked if I'd call Superman to come and save him from the father-in-law-to-be, I said I didn't think Superman had a cell phone to call."
"Couldn't you just call for him; he can hear everything, right?"
"Yeah, I know. Just trying to cheer Clark up; Daddy's going to chew him out pretty good. Even if he has accepted that Clark and I are getting married, he'll still want to prove to Clark that he's not good enough for me," she smiled again. "Hell, since the first time Superman showed up, Daddy seems to have decided that I should marry him and nobody less."
"Well, at one point it did look like you might've had a chance with the blue Boy Scout."
"Superman could never belong to just one person; the world needs him too badly, even if I didn't always think so," she said, frowning. "Clark is my personal Superman."
Clark adjusted his glasses in the woods, smiling at Lois's comment just as Lois's car slowed to a stop a few paces away. Here we go, he thought with a mental sigh.
"General Lane," Clark said, walking over to the rolled down passenger window.
"Get in."
"Am I not far enough away from your daughter just yet?"
"There's no need to be rude, Mr. Kent," the General said coldly. Clark just raised an eyebrow. Sam's face softened, very slightly, and Clark decided not to push his luck. He climbed into the car and they were speeding off towards Metropolis before he'd even closed the door all the way. "Lois tells me that you're Jason's father," he said after a moment.
"I am," Clark confirmed, glancing at the older man.
"Why weren't you there for her?" He asked coldly.
"We didn't know she was pregnant," Clark started defensively, but simmered when the general's knuckles got a little whiter on the steering wheel. "I had plans to travel the world; I already had the plane ticket. I wasn't sure if or when I'd be coming back," at least that part was true. "When I first came back I thought Jason was Richard's, just like everybody else did."
"That's what Lois said."
"That's because it's true."
The light turned red and they sat in silence. It was Clark who spoke next, after the tension level rose to just below unbearable and they were pulling into a parking garage within walking distance of a Chinese takeout place. "I'm in love with your daughter, sir, and…"
"So you traveled the world, huh? Pick up any Chinese, at all?" The general interrupted.
"Um, y-yes, sir, I speak a little Chinese."
"Good, because the food here is great but the help only speaks Chinese."
"Oh, well… I haven't spoken any in a long time… I was nowhere near fluent even when I was passing through…" He continued like this until they made it through the door.
"After you, Mr. Kent," the General said as though Clark hadn't said anything since they'd left the car. With a sigh, Clark shut up and walked into the restaurant.
"Clark!" Perry's voice carried across the room from his spot as the last in line.
"Daddy!"
"Jason! Perry! What are you guys doing here? I- I thought you lived across town?" Clark asked, catching Jason without really thinking about it when he ran across the room and threw himself into his father's arms.
"True, but this place has the best Chinese in town, and Jason was begging for egg rolls all afternoon."
"Hi Grampa Sam!" Jason said, smiling and waving over Clark's shoulder.
"Hey, kiddo," the general said. He was smiling, beaming actually, completely different from just moments ago.
"What're you doing here Daddy?" Jason asked, pulling away from Clark slightly so he could look up at his face. Clark heard Sam holding his breath for a moment behind him when he saw the similarities between the two.
"We're getting dinner, what're you doing here?" He directed the question more at Perry than his son, but Jason responded anyways.
"We're getting dinner too!" Clark smiled. "They have those really good egg rolls that don't make me sick! Remember, Mommy brought some from here last time she burned the frozen pizza!"
"I remember," Clark said, chuckling. Perry was looking at him strangely, as though he'd never pictured Clark and Jason as father and son even though he knew the truth of it. There was also the fact that the last person Perry had heard Jason call Daddy wore a skintight primary colored suit and cape.
"Yu oedda Chinese?" The man behind the counter asked, his accent truly horrible.
"Um, yeah," Perry said, looking at the menu for a brief second. "We need two orders of them egg rolls, some white rice, some of them noodle things for my wife…"
"Um," the man said, his eyebrows knitting together. "Wait momen, I see if my dautta here; she speak good English."
That's where Clark stepped in, switching his mind over to Chinese. "I speak Chinese," he told the man (in Chinese), who looked truly relieved to hear it.
"Good. I only came here a month ago; my English isn't so good, yet."
"You sound good for only a month," Clark assured him with a smile. "It took me at least a year to even start to get the hang of your language."
He gave both orders, Perry getting that look on his face again. "I didn't know you spoke Chinese, Kent."
"I did a lot of traveling in the past few years, ch- Chief, I picked up a few things."
"Huh," Perry said, still eyeballing him. "Well, I guess I'll call you next time we need somebody who speaks Chinese to run over to the embassy instead of waiting four hours for a translator to show up. They don't like reporters at embassies much; always make us sit around for the longest time…"
"B-be glad to help," Clark said. "Kind of justifies the, uh, sabbatical."
"Ya already have that covered," Perry said with a smile. "Since you've been back those joint articles you and Lois've been doing have more than made up for all the stories we lost when you left."
"Chief…"
"Oh good, food's here," Perry said, quickly grabbing the bag that had his order in it and handing Clark his.
"Egg rolls!" Jason yelled, squirming out of his father's arms to try and get a look in the bag.
"They're in there, Jason, don't worry," Perry said. It was Clark's turn to give him a look; Perry sounded more like an uncle than the gruff editor he was used to. "What?" Perry asked, returning to usual, when he noticed Clark's look.
"Nothing, Chief," Clark said, thanking the man behind the counter and grabbing his own bag of takeout. "G'night, Jason- be good for Perry and Alice!" He gave his son a hug.
"I will!" Jason hugged him back tightly. "G'night, Daddy! G'night Grammpa Sam!" He hugged his grandfather too.
"Good night, munchkin," Sam said, giving a hug too, before nodding goodbye to Perry and leading Clark out the door.
"So, where else did you go on your little trip?" Sam asked after they were back in the car. Something had changed, but don't ask Clark what it was.
"Oh, um," Clark tried to think of a good story. "Well, I started by heading west. I stopped in Kansas for a few months, spent time with my mom. I, uh, visited a llama farm in Mexico…"
"You speak Spanish too, then?"
"A bit," Clark said, clearing his throat. "I kept going west after that. Um, spent almost a year in China, then did my own little tour of Europe. About, well, it'd be almost three years ago now I came back to the Americas. Stayed in Canada for awhile, Alaska; visited Mom one last time before coming back here," he distracted them both by almost dropping one of the bags on his lap onto the floor when they turned and then spent the next few minutes stabilizing the takeout on his lap.
"Can't believe Lo-lo fell for such a klutz," Sam muttered under his breath.
"A klutz with really good ears," Clark said, looking out the window. The general didn't apologize.
"Look, Kent," Sam said as they pulled up in his driveway. Clark turned away from the door handle to listen. "Lois made it clear that there was nothing I could do about the two of you getting married, but I don't know you. The only things I know about you are that you grew up on a farm, you just got back from a five year trip around the world, and you write a damn good newspaper article," he was glaring at him, Clark nodded his thanks for the newspaper comment but didn't say anything. "All I can say is this; I've always been protective of my kids, hell, I ran background checks on every potential boyfriend either of my girls ever had. If you ever hurt my daughter or her son, if you leave again… you'll have the full wrath of the U.S. Army on your ass so fast that you won't know what hit you."
"Sir, Jason is my son too, and I love Lois more than anybody else in the world," Clark met his gaze, letting his voice drop down to the timbre he used when he was Superman. "If anybody were to hurt either of them I'd be the one trying to protect them, not the one doing the hurting." He opened the door and maneuvered his large frame out of the car, bringing both takeout bags with him. Sam thought he almost saw something oddly familiar about the way Clark was moving, almost gracefully, toward the door of the house, but then Clark stumbled a little going up the steps and whatever he'd been seeing passed.
"How did it go?" Lois asked nervously the moment he stepped in the door.
"CK, I'm so sorry about all that, I didn't mean to be the one- I thought you'd already told him!"
"It's okay, Jimmy- not your fault," Clark smiled, handing Lois one of the takeout bags. "It went okay, I think, Lois," he said after a thoughtful pause. "I'm assuming that the fact that he still hasn't followed me in means I said something right before we came in…"
"What did you tell him, Clark?" Lois asked nervously, thinking of their secret.
"Nothing," Clark assured her, thinking the same thing. He quickly changed the subject when Jimmy gave them a funny look, "We ran into Perry and Jason at the restaurant."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, Jason wanted egg rolls and Perry isn't nearly as hard as he pretends to be," he smiled at the pair of them.
"True," Lois smirked herself.
"Obviously you two have seen a whole different side to the Chief that I never have… I think I might have a heart attack if he did anything other than yell."
Sam Lane joined them all a minute later, not saying anything; just listening. Clark had brought his voice up in pitch and was stuttering again, but he was careful to only make minor klutzy mistakes; he didn't want to screw up whatever it was he'd gained in his relationship with Sam.
Dinner went off without a hitch. They mostly talked about Jimmy; a safe topic, even if it was a little awkward for Jimmy. General Lane ended up pulling out a copy of the Daily Planet with Jimmy's life story printed in it with shots of the house he grew up in, a suburb of Cooperstown, NY.
"Bet you play a good ball game then," Sam asked with a smile.
"Actually, not at all," Jimmy said, smiling back. "My hand-eye coordination sucks, always has. That's actually what got me into photography, just use your eyes; all your hands have to do is keep steady and push a button."
"I see," Sam said, suddenly without much to reply with.
"Yeah, I worked for the school paper and covered all the games; I was friends with most of the guys on the team so I got to sit on the bench with them and stuff," he smiled, pointing to one of the pictures in the paper. It showed him and a few guys who looked a few years older than he was, "That's what's left of the team my senior year."
"You look close," Lois commented.
"Yes and no," Jimmy shrugged. "I wasn't on the team so I didn't spend as much time with them as they did with each other, but they were still my friends." They smiled at him, not really sure what they should say. "You play any sports, Clark?"
"Not really, I spent most of my time helping out on the farm," he shrugged. It was true enough, of course with a person as strong and fast as him the regular chores took only a few minutes and he spent the rest of his time bugging his dad about letting him play sports; but there was always the question of control, and the what-if situations. "My interview is next week, though. You play sports, Lois?"
"Just tennis," she shrugged, grabbing a few of the empty white boxes and heading for the trash. "Not particularly good or bad. Kept me busy on the weekends."
"Did you even enjoy it?" Clark asked with a laugh.
"Sure I did. Gave me a reason not to go to the football games, didn't it?" She asked with a smirk.
"Oh, c'mon, Lois," her father said.
"Well," Lois shrugged. Clark's head jerked slightly, only Lois really noticed. She had been getting used to that little twitch over the past few months and knew what it meant; somebody somewhere needed Superman. Usually, that twitch was followed by a slight gust of wind as Clark changed into his costume and flew out the window, but not this time. He glanced at Lois, eyes pleading for her to make up a reason for him to leave. "Hey, do you want to go for a walk, Clark? I'll show you around a bit, you can get a feel for the base, a trip down memory lane for that article?"
"Sure, that sounds great," Clark said, almost a little too quickly.
"Do you want me to come too, get some pictures?"
"Maybe we should just go for now," Lois said with a shrug. "It's too dark for good pictures now anyway."
"Okay, sure."
"Thanks, Jimmy. See you in an hour, Daddy?" He nodded and watched them grab coats and head out the door.
"Hey! No funny business out there!" Lois's chuckle and the sound of a passing gust of wind were the only noises that made it back to his ears.
Several hundred feet up, Lois was still chuckling. "Do you think this qualifies as funny business?" She asked, kissing his cheek. Clark smiled, but was preoccupied.
"I'll drop you off at a coffee shop, okay? Come and get you as soon as I can."
"Of course, Clark. Who needs help?"
"Subway tunnel in New York collapsed at a crossing. One train already impacted, another is on its way."
"Gives a whole new meaning to that velocity question on all math tests."
"Good thing I paid attention in class, then."
"Good thing you exist," she said, kissing him goodbye as he landed in an alley next to her favorite all night coffee shop. He zoomed away, the gust of his wake almost knocking her over.
Lois spent a half an hour reading the afternoon issue of the Daily Planet, finding it odd to not see her byline under any of the articles. The TV in the corner was tuned into the news; Superman had managed to clear up the subway tunnel in time for the second train to pass through without even noticing there was a problem. The first train wasn't so lucky. Four people died on impact, and none walked away without minor injuries. He then showed up on four different continents doing various heroic acts, she was about to get a refill when Clark walked in, three piece suit and all, looking apologetic.
"Sorry I'm late, honey," he smiled.
"Not a problem, Mr. Kent," she said with false sternness. "I am caffeinated enough now to have waited at least three more hours."
"Good to hear," he smiled. The waitress was giving them a look, so Lois quickly paid for her coffee and they snuck back into their alley. Moments later, Lois and Superman were airborne once again. "So, you should probably come up with a couple of good stories for me to have an idea about tomorrow, otherwise whatever I did to please your dad is going to slip his mind pretty fast."
"You're probably right," Lois said before capturing his mouth and continuing said funny business until they landed in a shadowy corner of the base where no cameras managed to see.
They reentered the house about forty minutes later, laughing about one tale or another of Lois's childhood.
"Have a nice walk?" Sam asked, cutting into their laughter. He and Jimmy were sitting and watching the news in the living room. The living room was set up with an overstuffed couch in the middle with two well worn arm chairs on either side of it; the two men were sitting in the armchairs and looking like they'd both like to be a couple feet farther apart.
"Yup," Lois said, flopping down on the couch and pulling Clark with her so she could sit sideways and lean against him.
"Too dark to see much, but I heard some interesting stories," Clark said, smiling too and putting an arm around Lois, holding her close. The pair of them ignored the looks they were getting, and focused on the TV.
There wasn't much conversation as the night wore on. There was nothing interesting on the news; they eventually resorted to playing footage of Superman's latest rescues and talking about what a quiet night it was for the caped hero.
"Even superheroes deserve a night off every once in awhile," Sam commented, glancing at his daughter. "You've interviewed him before, Lo-lo; what does he do when he's not flying around in tights?"
"Well," Lois said, squeezing Clark's hand. "You know… he's got a secret identity, he'd never tell me who he is though. Wouldn't even let me write the fact that he has an alter-ego. I suppose he's sitting around watching the news just like everybody else."
"Do you think he's got a wife and kids at home?" Jimmy asked with a huge smile on his face. He liked the idea of Superman being a family man, a regular Joe.
"He's an alien, isn't he?" Sam asked, checking with his daughter. "I doubt his… genes would match up with ours. What would happen to the mother during pregnancy? Her internal organs wouldn't hold up so well against super strong kicks. How would she raise a child that could fly?"
"Who knows, Daddy," Lois said with a shrug that brought her a little deeper in Clark's embrace. "I'm sure his second life would make a great story, but if he ever told anyone he'd never be able to live it."
"That'd suck," Jimmy commented, yawning. The news had moved onto the weather: it was going to be hot for the next three weeks, maybe some rain over the weekend and a few degree drop, but still hot. "I think I'll turn in," Jimmy said, stretching and clomping up the stairs to Lucy's bedroom.
The three of them sat in silence while the anchor told them about the effects the heat wave might have on different places it would be hitting. Metropolis would get dry heat, but humidity was expected to make life very uncomfortable for anybody farther north. It was looking like Kansas would be a little on the warm side, but still comfortable when they arrived next week.
The news ended and an infomercial about nose hair removal came on. Clark looked down to find Lois asleep against his chest. "Guess I'll bring her upstairs," Clark said, shifting around to lift her off his lap. Forgetting to be klutzy, Clark lifted her up and headed for the stairs almost gracefully; of course, he was quite practiced in the carrying Lois around thing, having done it often as both Superman and himself. Sam watched with narrowed eyes as Clark made his way out of sight on the upper floor, moving through the house almost soundlessly.
"Night, CK," Jimmy said with a crooked smile as he was closing his door. He'd gotten an interesting glimpse at their relationship after following them around for just a day; first the easy conversation that never seemed to exist when Clark was around, especially at the office or around Lois, and now he was carrying her to bed as though she weighed nothing.
"See you in the morning, Jimmy," Clark said quietly before stepping into Lois's room. The walls were dark red, not blood red, but a warm shade of red without being too loud. The carpet was soft and plain cream. She had a few pictures scattered around the room but not as many as Lucy; most were from high school and college, but a few had been taken at the Daily Planet. There was a shelf above the desk that had scrapbooks with year labels on the binding, a better way to keep memories as some say. The rest of the room was just as clean and empty as Lucy's. He put Lois in bed, pulling off her shoes and socks before tucking her in. After she was safely asleep, he looked around the room more closely.
He was in a few of the pictures; he'd forgotten that they had even been taken. He looked awkward in most of them, like he always tried to look; just part of the background. Only one picture was actually taken of him and Lois in particular, they were smiling at the camera with an arm around each other standing by Lois's desk with a few folders spread out between them. It was just after their first story was published together, and it had been a hit, hence the huge smiles. He looked at the rest of the pictures on her desk, senior prom, a couple football games, a few cameos from birthday parties. There was an empty place on the desk where her laptop went when she visited; she hadn't unloaded it yet. The rest of the space was littered with newspaper clippings from the Planet. Her father had cut out every single article she'd ever written and left it on her desk for her.
Clark went back downstairs and found a blanket and a pillow on the couch, his future father-in-law had already gone to bed. Rolling his eyes, he changed into his pajamas in the bathroom and then lay down on the couch, keeping his glasses within close reach on the coffee table.
Clark was startled awake twice overnight, the first time shortly after midnight when he flew to a dark alley in the shadier part of Metropolis to prevent a rape, and the second just before 2am, when Sam helped himself rather noisily to a 'midnight' snack. Clark just pretended to still be asleep when Sam came and watched him while he ate whatever it was he'd found in the fridge.
"I can't believe he's still asleep," Lois said the next morning. It was 6am, and everybody but Clark was awake already. Clark was usually the first one up, especially with his sensitive hearing, but not today. The sun was shining directly on him, and he'd fallen into such a deep sleep that even Jimmy tripping down the stairs a half an hour ago for coffee hadn't woken him.
"Is he a morning person or should we put on another pot of coffee before we wake him?" Sam asked, glancing at the man on the couch.
"Put on another pot and I'll go wake him," Lois said with a shrug. Nobody was dressed yet; it was Sunday and therefore a day to lie around the house, unless, of course, you had to write an article by the end of the week and needed to get some material for it.
"Another pot of coffee it is," Sam said, rinsing out the pot and grabbing the can of coffee grounds.
"Clark?" Lois asked gently, walking into the living room and looking at her fiancé. She was surprised her father, or at least Jimmy, hadn't noticed just how much Clark looked like Superman without his glasses even with his eyes closed. "Wake up, Clark," she said, snapping her fingers close to his ear.
"What?" Clark said, sitting up on his elbows and looking around like he'd heard fire alarms going off. Lois laughed at him. "Jeez, you could've woken me up a bit more nicely. That was loud."
"Sorry, you were being stubborn," she said, handing him his glasses. He shoved the blankets off himself and kissed her cheek before turning towards the kitchen in search of breakfast. Lois took the opportunity to admire his biceps in the white t-shirt he wore to bed.
"Morning, CK," Jimmy said cheerily. He looked almost as ruffled as Clark; his hair was sticking up at odd angles and even though he'd been awake for a half hour his flannel pajamas were still hanging off him at odd angles.
"How can you sleep in flannel with this heat, Jimmy?" Lois asked. Despite the early hour, it was already edging toward uncomfortable on the thermometer; she'd already taken off the button up over shirt she'd fallen asleep in and was just wearing her tank top.
"I don't notice the heat… I'm asleep," Jimmy shrugged. Clark chuckled, thinking it would be the getting to sleep that would be the problem.
Once everybody had had their coffee and the runny oatmeal Sam had made, they headed out to learn about Lois's childhood for the day.
Lois and Clark walked in front, Lois telling stories about whatever came to memory and Clark listening dutifully. Jimmy walked behind, snapping pictures of things Lois pointed to and of Lois and Clark walking together. Sam was feeling like an outsider, but he wasn't showing it. The soldiers they passed soluted and let them through without question, but that seemed to be all he was good for in this situation; there wasn't much he could contribute to Lois's stories because he'd been on duty inside the buildings she was talking about passing every day on her way to a friend's house.
"Is there a school on base, or did you go to Metropolis High?" Clark asked after about a half an hour of walking around the base.
"There were never enough children on the base to have a school," Lois said with a shrug. "I went to Metropolis High with a couple of other military brats from around here."
"What happened to them?"
"Well," Lois said, thinking. "Johnny enlisted after high school, he's assigned in Germany, last I heard. Jack and Anna got married; they live a few miles away from our apartment. They have a daughter named Beth a few months younger than Jason."
"Are they around this week? They could probably tell some interesting stories, I bet."
"Half of which I'd prefer were never published."
"I'm sure," Clark laughed.
"Daddy, what's that building? Is it new?" Lois asked, pointing to a domed building near the center of the base.
"Oh, um, that's a new one," Sam said, looking at the dome. Clark tried to see into it, but realized it was made of lead, even the basement layers. "All the kryptonite that's been appearing in the city, we had to find a place for it to go. The dome is lead shielded so that it won't affect Superman if he flies over. We're actually trying to find ways to destroy the kryptonite that won't be harmful to anything but the kryptonite... and, Lo-lo, you can't print any of what I just told you."
"Of course not, Daddy," Lois said, glancing at Clark. He was withdrawn, thinking about the new information. "We wouldn't want all the criminals in Metropolis trying to break in to steal some kryptonite."
"Exactly," her father said before steering the conversation elseware.
They caught a cab to Metropolis High, home of the Bears as soon as the tour of the base was complete. The school was mostly locked down for the weekend. A few teachers had cars in the lot, but there weren't even security personnel at the front desk. Banners were hanging from the doorways from a recent pep rally.
"Lois Lane?" A voice asked from behind, making them all jump.
"Mrs. Sheppard?" Lois asked, spinning around. Clark spun around to see an elderly woman with gray hair going white and thin frames on her nose. She was carrying a file folder full of tests to be graded and English essays.
"I thought that was you," the elderly woman said with a smile. She put her folder down and gave Lois a hug. "What're you doing here? I haven't even seen you at reunions."
"Well, everything's been a bit… crazy," Lois said, glancing back at Clark. "Oh, um, Mrs. Sheppard, Clark Kent, Clark, this is Mrs. Sheppard, my twelfth grade English teacher."
"Nice to meet you Mrs. Sheppard," Clark said, holding out his hand. "You must've taught her something right."
"I guess," she responded, shaking his hand.
"And this is Jimmy Olsen," Lois said, introducing him.
"So you three are the star team of the Daily Planet," Mrs. Sheppard said, smiling at them.
"I guess," Clark said smiling humbly.
"So what're you doing here?" Mrs. Sheppard asked, picking up the folders and started walking towards her office; the three of them followed along.
"The Planet's been running background stories on all the writers," Jimmy said, looking excited. "These two have been so caught up in things lately that they're the last ones."
"So you're here chasing a story?"
"Kind of," Lois shrugged.
"A student actually did a report on you recently, Lois," Mrs. Sheppard said, shuffling through a drawer. "She found some old records here, too. Found your old locker, got really excited when she found out I'd had you as a student."
"That's kind of… weird."
"It's what we do in high school English classes," Mrs. Sheppard reminded her. "They write about people they want to be like. The girl who wrote it is actually the editor for the school paper here. She's quite good."
"Can't say I miss the high school life," Lois said, looking around the classroom. "The melodrama, the rules..."
"As if your life isn't still dramatic," Jimmy said with a laugh, taking the report on Lois from her hands and beginning to read.
"Yeah, well, now the drama is about catching the next big scoop and getting interviews with Superman, not who made the cheerleading squad and who's asking who to the next dance."
"Ah yes, I saw your heroic efforts in the park the other day," Mrs. Sheppard said, sounding like she'd been hoping the conversation would turn towards Superman. "How is Superman doing?"
"He's fine, you know him," Lois shrugged. "He flew away five minutes after we got him out of there."
They moved on as quickly as possible. Lois was a little creeped out by the report on her, and Mrs. Sheppard wasn't willing to talk about much other than Lois's relationship with Superman. Jimmy poked fun at her about it for a minute before she threatened to lock him in a locker.
"Let's see," Lois said, looking around. "This school hasn't changed a bit."
After walking around the empty school for a few hours, they headed to the closest burger joint for lunch. Lois actually found more memories at the burger joint than in the high school. There were footprints set in the cement of the parking lot; Lois's and her sister's from the day they'd poured the parking lot and the pair of them had run through it on the way to the beach before realizing the cement was wet. Though it had been many years ago, nobody had thought to fill the footprints in.
"I guess I don't have very many memories in one place," Lois said later that evening when the three of them were going through the scrapbooks in her bedroom.
"What do you mean?" Clark asked.
"I was a military brat; we moved all over the place until I started high school here," she shrugged. "I was born in New Jersey, said my first words on a plane moving from New Jersey to San Diego, took my first steps on the base in San Diego while some Navy Seals were watching me; my parents weren't even there…" she handed him the scrapbook open to a page covered in pictures of a baby Lois surrounded by burly guys with kind faces. "Elementary school was on the base somewhere in Europe. Middle school was back in the states, Washington D.C. for part, and then South Dakota. Dad finally got promoted and we ended up here for the rest of high school. Mom died during my freshman year; just when we'd gotten the stability she'd been asking for since she married my dad…" The scrapbook was now open to a spread that had her mother's obituary and a few photos from the funeral. Lois had a tear in her eye, but she desperately tried to hide it from the men in the room.