- - - Chapter Eight

The rest of their week went by without any mishaps. It was unusually quiet in Metropolis, meaning Clark didn't have to disappear nearly as often as he'd been expecting to. The criminals of the world seemed to be taking a breather; or it could be the quiet before the storm. Kryptonite had stopped appearing in warehouses, but the removal effort was taking longer than expected. The military was in charge of emptying the warehouses and bringing it to the base Lois, Clark, and Jimmy were staying at; this meant quite a few headaches for Clark when they happened to pass a truck carrying a load of the stuff.

Dinner with Jason, Perry on Wednesday was entirely uneventful. Perry gave Clark a few weird looks when Jason called him Daddy, and when Clark didn't trip over the usual amount of things, or spill anything until after dinner. Jason was a good enough distraction from Clark's lack of Clark-ness. He would be the first to notice when Perry was getting suspicious, and would quickly ask for help retrieving the crayon he'd just lost under the couch, and by lost he meant chucked under there so he'd have a reason to call for Perry.

Lucy and Ron visited the base on Saturday night for dinner. Jimmy went photo-crazy, getting as many pictures as he could of Lois and Lucy, occasionally one with the general in it as well. This left Clark and Ron to escape to the back yard after dinner. It was a pleasant night, a little windy and completely clouded over, but it was still a little too warm for a normal human's taste. The meteorologists had predicted a whopper of a storm coming up this weekend, quite a change from the mild rainfall they'd been predicting at the beginning of the week.

"So you and Lois, huh?" Ron asked after a moment of silence, the pair of them staring at the clouds, or in Clark's case, through the clouds.

"Yup," Clark said, shrugging. Ron had left the Planet sometime while Clark was playing intergalactic explorer, but he was still up on office gossip.

"It's about time, from what I've heard."

"Well," Clark reddened, he didn't really want to talk about the whole impregnate, leave, return situation. He'd been friends to Ron before he'd left, but not as close as a friend as he was with Jimmy or even Perry. "So… what've you been up to since we last talked?"

"Well, that gives me a couple years to cover," Ron smirked, thinking for a moment. "I'm officially a stay at home Dad, we've got four kids now. We got our neighbor to watch them tonight; we needed a break," he smirked. Clark couldn't imagine ever needing a break from Jason. "Lucy's still a flight attendant so she's busy with that. She loves it. We moved out to the suburbs about three years ago now, when our second was born."

"You guys have been busy," Clark smiled. Lucy and Ron had had their first child barely nine months after their wedding, their second a little over a year later. Two years passed, and then they'd had twins. Despite Ron's talk of needing a break, the pair of them literally lit up whenever they talked about their children. Ron had a faint smile on his face now, and Clark could tell he was toning it down.

"Four kids keep you busy," he shrugged. "Especially the twins. They're going to be one in a month. I can't believe they're already a year old…" he was smiling and wistful.

Clark had to fight back his own emotions. He'd missed all of what Ron was talking about. He'd missed Lois's pregnancy, he'd missed Jason's birth, he'd missed the first words, the first steps, the first five birthdays… he'd missed most of Jason's firsts.

His thoughts were broken a moment later when the first raindrops fell onto the sidewalk in front of them. Lightening flashed and thunder clapped, and then the rain was falling in earnest; soaking the two men to the core before they could move. Clark sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration and turned back towards the sliding glass door. The pair of them jogged back to the house, wondering how they'd gotten so far from the door in their leisurely stroll into the yard.

"Bit wet out there, boys?" Sam asked, smirking at the two who were, or would be his sons-in-law. Lois and Lucy entered the room behind him, smiling at the fathers of their children.

"I've never seen anything start that fast!" Ron said, pulling his soaking t-shirt away from his skin and flapping it a few times, sending droplets of water all over the living room. Sam gave him a disapproving look and Clark just shook his head, a few strands of his hair falling back onto his forehead from where they'd been stuck to his head. Lois looked almost panicked when she realized what his hair was doing, but he was looking back out at the rain and not at her.

With a sigh, Ron pulled his shirt completely off and walked into the kitchen, throwing the soaking item of clothing into the sink. "Can I borrow a few dry items, Clark?" Ron asked, somewhat self consciously.

"Sure," Clark said, pulling off his own shirt and tossing it in the sink. He was glad that he'd opted to leave the suit in his suitcase that afternoon. It was too hot to tell his family that he was fine in a long sleeved shirt, and the air against his skin felt nice. He adjusted his glasses and finally turned to look at Lois, noticing her panicked expression.

He glanced in the mirror hanging above the sink and immediately realized what she was so worried about. His hair had assumed its usual style, usual for Superman, anyways. His lack of a shirt and the amount of muscle his shirts usually hid didn't help keeping his secret either. He ran a hand through his hair again, messing it up into a more Clark-like style before hurrying towards the stairs; his suitcase was stashed in Lois's bedroom. Lois still looked nervous when he passed her, but the other members of her family didn't seem too phased by his resemblance to a certain superhero. Jimmy, on the other hand, was staring at Clark in confused disbelief.

"Work out much?" Ron laughed behind him, running a hand through his own hair before following Clark up the stairs. Lois and Clark could only offer weak laughs back, Clark smiling goofily for Jimmy's sake.

The pair of them descended the stairs again two minutes later. Ron came down first, wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of Clark's pajama bottoms; Ron was a big guy, but Clark's clothes hung loosely around him. Clark was wearing the pajama bottoms he'd worn to bed the night before, and a t-shirt that read 'shirt happens' in bold black letters.

"Give me your wet stuff," Lucy ordered, holding out her hands like she did whenever her children came back inside after playing in the snow. She already had the t-shirts out of the sink and was headed for the laundry room.

"Thanks, Lu," Ron said, pecking her cheek and handing her all the wet clothes.

Clark crossed the room without a word, eyes on Lois. She still looked worried, but not as much as she had a few minutes ago. Clark looked sufficiently Clark-like despite the out-of-character (at least as far as anybody besides Lois or Jason knew) t-shirt. He sat on one end of the couch with Lois, asking softly if she thought anybody had noticed his hair's bad habit.

"Jimmy did, but…" Lois shrugged. Clark glanced at Jimmy and smiled broadly when he noticed the younger man was watching him carefully. Should've tripped on my way up the stairs, he thought to himself. He hadn't been as careful as he should've been over the past couple of days. He'd relaxed, getting to know Lois and her dad really well through all the stories they were exchanging. He'd almost forgotten that Jimmy had been there with them. Of course, Jimmy was his friend and he'd spent almost as much time talking to him in the past week as he had spent talking to Sam, but with Sam he had no trouble stuttering; his future father-in-law made him nervous. Jimmy, on the other hand, was a friend and Clark had to remind himself to stutter and trip and knock things over; he'd managed to remember that night a dinner due to the presence of Ron and Lucy, and he'd made quite a fool of himself. That was half the reason his 'shirt happens' shirt was the last clean t-shirt left in his bag.

Silence hung in the air.

"Wow, it's really coming down out there," Clark commented. The rain had come as a sudden downpour, but the wind had picked up and now the droplets were crashing against the sliding glass door, making it vibrate. There wasn't an inch of ground outside that was soaked through; the worms were making their way to the surface for air. Clark smiled and watched the rain fall, glad that he didn't have to fly in it.

"I wonder how Superman feels about this type of weather," Jimmy asked, looking at Ron instead of Clark, though his eyes were drifting in the couple on the couch's direction.

"Well, he's invulnerable, right?" Clark asked, shrugging. "It couldn't hurt if he got a few raindrops in his eyes."

"It'd sure be wet to be up with them clouds," Sam said, standing by the glass door and looking up at the clouds. Clark suppressed the smile that was trying to spread across his face. He usually just didn't deal with the weather; he'd fly above the clouds.

The rest of the group discussed it for awhile, alternating between the news and the weather channel. Jason called shortly before eight to say goodnight. Less than a half an hour later, Ron and Lucy left for their own home in suburbia on the other side of Metropolis.

"Good to see you again, Clark, Lois, Jimmy," Ron said, shaking Jimmy and Clark's hands and giving Lois and hug. "Thanks for letting me borrow your PJs," he smiled; they had only stayed as late as they did because his clothes had been in the dryer. Not that they weren't just as wet as they had been the moment he stepped over the threshold.

"Bye, Lu," Lois said, hugging her sister. "Bye! Congratulations, you two. I'll see you around!"

"Bye, Lucy," Clark said, getting a hug from her. Lois had stepped at little closer at the mention of being around, but only Clark noticed. The other couple said goodbye to Sam and Jimmy before pulling their coats over their heads and running for the car. "Glad we don't have to go out tonight," he commented.

"Agreed," Lois and Jimmy both responded.

They spent another evening on the couch. Clark was actually starting to get nervous at the lack of disasters, big or small, on the news. The sports section spread out to fill the time; sports commentators always could fill the airwaves.

"So what is your plan for tomorrow? What time does the plane leave for Kansas?" Sam asked, finally getting bored when they started talking about the high school athlete of the month.

"Well, the plain leaves at four, but we'll be out of your hair by noon," Clark said. Sam raised his eyebrows, running a hand over his bald patch, Clark turned a little pinker.

"We'll be having lunch with Perry and Jason," Lois said, ignoring her father's behavior. He wasn't sensitive at all about his bald spot, but he pretended to be so that people around him would walk on egg shells; he found it amusing. "What were your plans, Jimmy? Were you going to come to lunch with us or did you have something else in mind?"

"Oh, um, actually I have to get back to my apartment before we head out. Take my girlfriend out to lunch before I leave the state," he shrugged.

"You have a girlfriend?" Lois asked, sounding surprised but not rude. "Why didn't you tell us about her?"

"It never came up," Jimmy said, blushing slightly.

"So… what's her name?" Clark asked when Jimmy fell silent.

"Gabriella Marshall," he said with a smile. Lois and Clark were smiling at him too.

"I'd love to meet her sometime," Lois said. She'd invite him to bring her to lunch with Perry and Jason but she suspected the pair of them would want to spend some time together.

- - -

"Mommy! Daddy!" Jason shouted when Perry opened the door, revealing his two employees. Jason was across the room in a flash, hugging them both at the same time.

"Hi, Jason," Lois said, smiling and kissing his cheek. She entered the house, putting the umbrella in the umbrella stand and taking off her long coat carefully so it wouldn't splash water everywhere. Clark set Jason down, removing his own coat with a little less grace, but he didn't get any water anywhere either.

"What've you been up to all week?" Clark asked, following Jason and Perry into the living room. Jason's crayon drawings were spread out over the coffee table, and a few board games were stacked on a table behind the couch.

"I colored, and we played Candyland and we started to play Monopoly but that got boring, then we played Sorry, and we played Checkers and I beat Uncle Perry! He says he's going to teach me chess next week," Jason was smiling widely, showing his mother his drawings while he talked about all the other activities. "And I went to school and we talked about rocks on Wednesday and it was boring. And Mrs. Peterson says to remind you that you signed up for my conference to be on the Tuesday after next."

"Boy those are coming up fast," Lois said, glancing at Clark. It would be the first conference he attended as Jason's father, and he was looking pensive.

"So how's he been, Chief?" Clark asked, walking with Perry into the kitchen to bring drinks out to Lois and Jason.

"He's been fine," Perry said, shrugging. "I don't know what the pair of you were so worried about. He knows when to take what medicine, and he hasn't needed his inhaler at all. He hasn't even put up a fuss when I put him to bed!"

"Wow, munchkin, you've been great!" Lois said.

"Yup," Jason shrugged. He was a good kid even when they didn't ask him to be.

They ordered in for lunch, getting delivery from the same Chinese place they'd bumped into each other a week ago. Jason kept conversation flowing, telling his parents all about his week away from them and what he was planning to do with his next week of 'freedom.'

After lunch, Lois, Clark, and Jason went to the zoo to give Perry a short break. Clark had never been there before on paid admission. He'd been on hand as Superman when a little girl had fallen into the gorilla enclosure when the gorillas were having a particularly bad day, and Superman had been there to help the elephants back into their enclosure after they'd broken through the fence at a weak spot and become very confused to be out of the familiar.

The three of them walked around, Jason giving them the tour as he'd been there recently with his class. He made sure to bring them past the gorilla and elephant enclosures to show them the photo spreads they had of Superman dealing with the animals. Clark turned a humble shade of pink when he noticed them, and Lois poked him in the ribs playfully.

The gorillas were throwing tufts of grass around the yard. A peculiar amount of them seemed to be landing against the wall below the three of them. "I think they recognize you," Lois commented, smirking. "Should we go back to the elephants, at least they seemed to like you…?" Clark just smiled back at her innocently and allowed Jason to drag him along to wherever they were headed next.

They returned to Perry's house to find the man sound asleep on his couch. Jason was teaming with energy. He'd been in the direct sunlight, filtered by only a few thin clouds, all afternoon and it had a noticeable affect on him. Clark was high spirited himself, but he didn't feel the need to bounce around the yard, attempt to climb the big tree in the corner, or talk a mile a minute while they waited for the phone to wake Perry (they'd called when the knocking hadn't worked).

"Definitely your son," Lois said, shaking her head. Clark smiled broadly, so broadly, in fact, that Lois wondered if she should press his cheeks back in so that they didn't fall off. Her musings were interrupted when Perry opened his door, looking confused.

"Oh," was all he said, turning around and walking back into his house.

"Have you not been sleeping, Chief?" Lois asked, looking at her boss carefully. He looked okay, no dark circles under his eyes or anything, but he didn't look so well-rested either.

"Course I have, Lane," he said gruffly. "I was in the middle of the REM cycle, course I look a bit fuzzy," he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of cold coffee. The other two adults in the house wrinkled their noses when he downed it in two gulps.

"Do you have to leave now?" Jason asked, suddenly looking sad.

"Yes, Jason," Lois said sadly. "We have to leave now so that we have time to pick up Jimmy on the way to the airport."

"Why can't I come visit Gramma Martha with you?"

"You have school in the morning," Clark reminded him gently.

"Oh yeah," Jason said, plopping down on the couch and looking at the crayon drawings spread across the coffee table. "Will you bring her some pictures I drew?"

"Of course," Clark said, joining his son on the couch and helping make selections.

"You sure you don't have anything I can write while you have me trapped in the middle of nowhere?" She asked. Clark looked up long enough to glare at her, and Perry chuckled.

"You are working on a story there, Lane," Perry reminded her. "Kent, make sure you get a picture of Jimmy trying to ride a horse… you do have horses, right?"

"Yeah, we have two," he said, taking the drawings his son had chosen. "Betsy and Thor."

"Betsy and Thor?"

"That's what the neighbor kids decided their names were," Clark shrugged.

"Will we have to meet the neighbor kids?"

"The neighbor kids live almost two miles away," Clark said, raising an eyebrow. "And the kids are grown and now live in California, I believe. Their parents rent out their barn, land, and pastures."

"You keep up with the town gossip?" Perry asked, surprised.

"I get the Smallville Gazette," he said. "There isn't much news in Smallville so they end up reporting just about everything." Perry shook his head, refraining from commenting on the paper.

Jimmy looked exhausted when they arrived at his apartment less than ten minutes later. "Jimmy, you okay?" Clark asked, grabbing one of the younger man's bags for him.

"I'm fine, CK, just didn't sleep very well last night."

The look on his face told them not to ask questions. The spent the ride to the airport alternating between meaningless bits of small talk, and almost awkward silences. They made it through all the airport security without any problems, and took their seats. Lois smiled at Clark, noticing how nervous he looked about the flight.

"Not really used to have a machine with you when you're in the air, huh?" She asked while Jimmy was struggling to put his carry-on in the overhead compartment.

"Not really," Clark admitted, glancing out the window.

"That's right, you don't like flying, do you, CK?" Jimmy asked, smiling at him. Clark just shook his head, making sure his face was uncomfortable instead of breaking into the large grin that was threatening to overtake him. It's only my favorite thing in the world. He thought to himself, noticing that Lois was doing nothing to hide her own huge grin.

Clark had to remind himself not to grip the arm rests too tight more than once on the flight. He'd flown in a plane once before, but he had been young and hadn't perfected his own flying yet; he wasn't used to turbulence at all. He found Lois gripping his elbow more than once when a particularly violent bout of turbulence shook the plane.

"Clark, you're either going to break the arm rests, or your going to start steadying the plane with that grip, and I'm not sure which is worse," she smiled. Clark made himself let go of the poor things and folded his hands in his lap tensely.

Lois actually found herself chuckling when they landed. Clark was leaning back in his seat, gripping the arm rests again. She was content to watch him almost panic until she felt the plain's decent slow unnaturally. "Clark!" She whispered. Glancing at the arm rests she noticed that they were beginning to bend backward as Clark took on the weight of the plane through them.

"Uh," he said, snapping out of it and fixing the arm rests. He didn't say anything until they were at the baggage claim and Jimmy asked how long of a drive it was from the airport to Smallville. "Um, a little less than an hour," he said.

"Hopefully you do better with the car than with the plane," Lois muttered under her breath so that Clark was the only one to hear her. He shot her a glance and smiled slightly but didn't say anything.

They stood in line for a half an hour to get a rental car. Clark mumbled something about just flying home and grabbing the car and bringing it over for them to drive, but Lois elbowed him in the gut before he could seriously consider taking to the skies. They ended up with a Taurus. It was very shiny and blue, but Clark knew the color wouldn't last long in the heat and dust of the farm.

"So what's with you two today?" Jimmy asked as they pulled onto the highway. Clark was driving after he'd beat Lois three for three at rock-paper-scissors.

"What do you mean?" Lois asked almost defensively.

"Well, you're just being… I dunno, kind of weird," Jimmy shrugged from the back seat, and Clark examined him carefully in the rear view mirror. "You're laughing a lot," he pointed at Clark, "and Lois keeps mumbling…"

"I hadn't noticed," Clark responded, stifling a chuckle as Lois mumbled something about how her mumbled conversation to him was making her look insane.

They drove past the silver mailbox with 'Kent' painted on it in bold, black letters about forty-five minutes later. Clark turned down the driveway, and Lois made the appropriate comments about his driveway being lined by tall stalks of corn.

"Ah, but we have the freshest corn on the cob you could want all summer," he said with a smile. Jimmy laughed at that.