- - - Chapter Twenty-Six

"She's back again," Lois sighed, annoyed. Sarah Ricks wasn't very good at tagging her without being noticed, but Clark had convinced his wife not to confront her again, as it obviously hadn't worked.

"I know, but she's out of earshot, so…" Clark shrugged. "Just ignore her, there're slightly more important things going on right now, anyways," he pointed out.

"True," Lois said, smiling. They started making the calls to tell friends and family about the baby. Martha Kent had already been called, she was ecstatic, as had a few of their mutual contacts and friends. Jimmy and Perry knew at the bullpen, and so did the rumor mill. They were now down to Lois's family. Lucy and Ron, and the General. Clark had seen General Lane three times since the wedding; all of those times had been as Superman. That thought had led to their current predicament. "Do you really think we should tell them?" Lois asked.

"They're family now," Clark pointed out. Lois shrugged, taking a huge bite out of her club sandwich before speaking again.

"But still," she sighed. "They don't need to know."

"True, but I know you want somebody besides my mother to talk to about certain aspects of our lives," he smiled. Jason was developing his existing abilities every day, scaring the wits out of his mother when she walked into his room to find his desk spanning the distance between his bed and his dress while he played the troll under the bridge.

"Can we, I don't know."

"How about we tell the General first when he visits this weekend, when we were planning on telling him about the baby," he suggested. Lois still looked uncertain. "We've got two days till then to work out the perfect way to break it to him."

"I'm not sure whether I should be more nervous about telling him I'm pregnant or telling him who I married."

"Well, he already knows who you married…"

"Yeah, he just doesn't have all the facts," she shuddered. "He hates it when that happens."

"So he's gonna be mad…?" Clark asked, a little surprised. "He gets along with me well enough no matter what I wear."

"Yes, well, the world respects Superman, and he tolerates Clark Kent, but when you tell him what you're going to tell him… he's going to have trouble patching his impressions together."

"I'm just me," Clark sighed, running a tired hand through his hair and turning back to his own grilled chicken sandwich.

"Which is precisely what's so confusing," Lois smirked, taking another overlarge bite.

"Are you hungry or something, 'Lo?" He smirked back at her while she chewed.

"I happen to be pregnant, thankyouverymuch, I'm allowed to be hungry."

"I didn't say you weren't allowed to be hungry, I've just never seen you eat something with such… gusto," he shrugged.

"Gusto," she said back, taking another bite.

"Yeah," he smiled. "Must be a good sandwich."

"It is."

"Good to hear," he took a moderate bite of his sandwich, still smiling, and they continued their lunch.

- - -

Lois was wearing a hole in the floor with her pacing. General Lane would arrive any second, and she'd given into Clark, agreeing to tell her father everything. Clark was in the kitchen, calmly stirring the chili he'd made. It smelled wonderful. Jason was at Matt's house for the afternoon; his parents hadn't thought of a good way to tell him about the baby yet and didn't want him overhearing their conversation with his grandfather. They'd have to tell him soon, and they both knew it.

Clark pulled the cornbread out of the oven and turned to watch his wife pace for a moment, chuckling to himself. He tilted his head and just listened for a moment, gasping at what he heard. Putting the bread on a hot pad, he made his way over to her and wrapped his arms around her back. She relaxed immediately, putting her hands over his around her waist and just standing there.

"You're a nervous wreck," he commented.

"How could you tell?"

"Well," he chuckled. "There was the pacing, and then your heart rate is through the roof…"

"That's cheating."

"Well," he shrugged, closing his eyes and listening again.

"Is it better now?" She asked, joking. She couldn't help but relax when she was in Clark's arms.

"Lois, I can hear the baby's heartbeat," he whispered softly in her ear.

"What?" She asked, turning around in his arms, her hand coming off of his to touch her still flat stomach. "Really?"

"Yes," he nodded, smiling and looking down at her hand. "There's two of them."

"What?" She asked, looking down as well. "That means..."

"Twins," he whispered.

"Hey, no peeking," she said, taking a step back. "We decided it was going to be a surprise."

"They're not even an inch long right now, Lois," he reminded her. They'd bought a single baby book for Clark's benefit, Lois claiming that she remembered enough that she would just re-read the pamphlets the doctors gave her and be set to go. Of course, Clark caught her reading through the book she 'didn't need' on more than one occasion.

"Still," she said, giving him a serious look. He just smiled and pulled her close again. "I wish I could hear them too," she whispered after they'd been standing there for a few moments. Clark rubbed his hand across her back.

"Me too," not for the first time he wished he could somehow let her hear and see things the way he did. The heartbeats of his wife and his unborn child beat in his ears, blocking out everything else.

"Twins," Lois whispered, sounding overwhelmed and extremely happy at the same time. Clark just smiled. "That's him," Lois whispered, sounding terrified when she heard the tapping on their door.

"Yup," Clark affirmed, glancing through the door.

"Is it too late to pretend like we're not home?"

"Lois," he said, rolling his eyes at her as he crossed to open the door.

"Wait, your glasses!" Lois said, handing the bulky frames to him. He wrinkled his nose at them, but put them on his face. No need to hit the General with everything at once; the pregnancy was first. If he didn't overreact to that, then they'd tell him about Superman.

"General, come on in," Clark said cheerily, opening the door wide to let the man through. It was odd to see the old military man out of uniform, the only time they'd seen him out of uniform on the base was when he'd worn his pajamas.

"Lois, Clark, good to see you," he said cheerily enough, hugging his daughter and shaking his son-in-law's hand.

"Lunch is ready, if you'd like to sit down, Daddy," Lois suggested, taking her father's coat and hanging it next to her own by the door.

"So, to what do I owe the invitation?" Sam asked after they'd gotten through the obligatory small talk.

"Actually," Clark started, glancing at Lois. She looked like she might like him to fly her off the balcony and let her sit quietly in the park while this conversation happened. She'd told him about telling her father she was pregnant with Jason; it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience.

"I'm pregnant," Lois blurted out before Clark could say anything else.

"Pardon?" Sam asked, honestly not quite making sense of what his daughter had said.

"I'm going to have a baby," she repeated slower.

"Oh, honey, that's wonderful!" The general said, surprising them both.

"Wh-what?" Lois stammered. Clark was handling the surprise reaction a little better, glancing from father to daughter and using most of his mental capacity to keep his mouth from hanging open.

"That's good news, congratulations," he smiled.

"But, last time… I thought," Lois tilted her head to the side and looked at her father carefully. "Are you feeling alright, Daddy?"

"I'm great, 'Lo," he smiled even wider.

"That isn't even close to the way you reacted when I told you I was having Jason."

"Well, you weren't married, then, nor were you quite able to tell me just who the father was," he said, glaring at Clark for a moment before smiling again. Clark gave him a weak smile in return. "This is great news; when are you due?"

"Um," Lois said, trying to think of the date.

"February," Clark said, snapping out of his silence.

"Honeymoon baby," the General smiled.

"Dad!" Lois said, hardly believing what she was hearing. Her father just shrugged, chuckling, and Clark blushed a dark shade of red.

The three of them sat there in silence for a moment. Lois and Clark glancing warily at each other, knowing what came next. The General just sat there, helping himself to more cornbread and smiling.

"It's twins," Clark said, he'd been listening to the three heartbeats coming from across the table and couldn't contain his smile.

"Isn't it a little too soon to know?" The General asked, looking surprised. "Have you already been to the doctor?"

"No, but," Lois shrugged. Clark had effectively thrown a wrench into the script they'd decided on for telling the General about his secret. They'd spent almost as much time worrying about how to tell the General about it as they'd spent trying to figure out how to tell him about the baby. Just saying, "General, I'm Superman." didn't seem to be the best idea.

"I can hear their heartbeats," Clark admitted, looking the General in the eye. The General smiled unbelievingly and shook his head.

"That's impossible," Sam said, knowing it was true. "Well, except for Superman, I suppose, but... but," something seemed to have clicked. He was staring at Clark, his jaw working and his eyes narrowed.

Clark took off his glasses, playing with them in his hands before looking up at the General again. His piercing blue eyes were unmistakable even to the man who'd only met the superhero a few times.

"But," the General was stammering. "But, you can't... I thought," he looked from Lois to Clark and back a few times, not putting anything coherant together.