- - - Chapter Thirty-Three
It's too soon! Was all Lois could think as they all looked at her; she was staring down at Clark, mirroring the surprised look on his face.
Clark was on his feet, still staring straight up at the window. The doctors around him were protesting, "Superman! Sit down, please! Superman, you don't want to aggravate your wounds, do you? Superman!" But none of them were able to get his attention.
Jason was staring at his mother in horror; where did all that water come from? Why did it come out? Were the babies okay? Disregarding everything his father had ever told him about x-raying people without permission, and especially what he'd been told about not looking at the babies, he looked into his mother's abdomen. He wasn't happy to be seeing his mom's insides, but everything looked okay. The babies were turned around so that their heads were facing down; neither were moving much, but they looked okay so far as he could tell. He could hear their heartbeats, both a little quicker than they normally beat, but not alarmingly fast. He looked away, down at his father. Clark's face was written with worry, almost panic. Lois was in labor and he was stuck playing Superman; it was the fear they hadn't talked about.
"Lois, honey, your water broke," Martha said plainly, staring with wide eyes at the younger woman.
"But…" Lois said, looking from Martha, to Clark, to the doctor. "I'm not due for another six weeks!"
"Jason was premature, wasn't he?" Martha inquired, still calm.
"Yes, but," she shrugged. Doctor Larsen snapped into doctor mode.
"Mrs. Kent, I need to get you up to the maternity ward."
"But, but," Lois looked frantically down at Clark, who looked helplessly back.
"I'll get him put in a room with a window he can disappear out of again," the doctor calmly assured her. Martha's jaw dropped, and Jason looked confused. Lois just nodded and doubled over as a contraction hit.
"Isn't this happening a bit fast?" Martha asked, much more tense than she had been a moment ago.
Ya think? Lois wanted to ask, but she was too worried about breathing to be sarcastic. Martha seemed to know this and smiled. Lois glanced back down at Clark, who had sat back down on the bed and was watching her with worried eyes, glancing at the doctor every few seconds.
"Everything is going to be okay," Doctor Larsen assured her, leading her down the hall, Jason and Martha in tow.
- - -
Clark blinked and sat up. Oh shit. Now, he usually refrained from profanity, even in his own head, but this situation certainly called for some strong language.
He was lying in a hospital bed in a hospital gown. His room was empty, his suit draped over a chair with his boots beside it. Just like last time. Shit. He took stock of his body and levitated off the bed a little. At least that works. He sighed.
There was a police officer stationed outside his door, the same one, possibly, who had stood there last time. A nurse was making her way down the hall to check on him; who else could she be checking on? There was nobody else anywhere near him. Why do I need my own wing of the hospital? He wondered, thinking of all the beds that weren't being used for his sake. He sighed, stood shakily and walked over to his suit. Hidden in the fold of the cape were the clothes he had been wearing at the dinner party yesterday. After a moment's thought, the changed into the jeans and white t-shirt, leaving the white button-up open and rolled up the sleeves. He put his glasses on and super-sped past the nurse as she opened the door. The alarm rang out a few seconds later, the nurse pressing it when she'd found him gone and not registering that he was the blast of wind she had felt whip by her as she entered the room.
He sped down the halls, following Lois's heartbeat and trying not to scatter too many papers behind him. He could hear her across the hospital. Another contraction hit her and the doctors were telling her that it was getting close to time to push and she was fervently refusing to do so until he was present. I'm coming, I'm coming! He shouted in his mind, slowing down to normal speed as he blew into the waiting room.
"Clark!" Martha said, pulling him close, Jason watched from behind with relieved eyes; nothing could go wrong when Dad was around, right? He winced when she came into contact with the still healing wounds that covered his body. Her eyes went from worried to accusing and back to worried. "You're hurt."
"Lois is in labor," he reminded her.
"You should be in there."
"Dad!" Jason gave him a careful hug and Clark squeezed him back.
"Feeling any better?"
"Not really," Jason admitted. He'd thrown up into the waste bin a few minutes ago, but refused to leave the waiting room. So much like Lois, Clark thought, smiling.
"I'll come and get you as soon as they're born, okay?" He said, knowing they'd have to be careful with Jason being sick.
"Okay," Jason smiled back. He pulled the revised list, now back down to a single page, out of his pocket. "Don't forget the names!"
"Thanks munchkin," he pecked Jason's cheek and hurried toward Lois's room.
Doctor Larsen was waiting just outside the door, pacing. His eyes widened when he saw Clark coming his way and Clark belatedly remembered that the doctor had put a few things together in the past few hours.
"Doctor," Clark said carefully, using the deep pitch he usually did as Superman. The doctor just nodded, his lips tightly pressed together; he certainly hadn't woken up this morning expecting to see Superman walking down the hall in the maternity ward wearing Converse All Stars and thick glasses. Clark continued past him, not in the mood to worry about secrets at the moment. "Lois?" He asked as he entered the room. There was a relieved gasp from the woman on the bed.
"Clark!"
"How're you doing?"
"I could ask you the same question."
"I'm fine, 'Lo, really; how're you doing?" Lois was paler than usual, her lips drawn in a tense, anticipatory smile.
"I'm looking forward to this being done," she admitted with a light shrug that looked hard to pull off. He came around the bed and took her hand just as another contraction hit. Lois gasped, doubling up slightly on the bed while the doctors moved around her. Clark noticed Doctor Larsen standing by the door, watching. What, you want to witness the birth of Superman's children? If you're not going to help, leave. Clark found himself thinking, glaring at the man through his thick glasses. The doctor didn't notice, though, he was too busy looking at a chart that had appeared in his hands. Clark didn't blame him for wanting this glimpse at Superman's life, it was what every single person standing outside wanted, though they wanted him to be alright, too, he knew.
"When the next contraction comes, you need to push, Lois," the woman in charge informed her. Lois paled again and gulped, nodding. She withdrew her hand for a moment, reaching over and picking something up off a nearby table. She slipped it to him when she retook his hand; his wedding band. A worried look passed over his face, but she assured him with a slight shake of her head and a small smile that said 'I'll explain later.' Accepting that, Clark went back to the 'problem' at hand, slipping the ring on his finger without the midwives noticing.
"You can do this, Lois," Clark assured her.
"I know, I already did it once," she sighed, her brow wrinkling. "At least you're here this time."
Clark just nodded, his eyes tearing up slightly, and he kissed the back of the hand he was holding.
It was hard for him to watch her in labor. She held onto his hand so tightly he knew that if he wasn't invulnerable she would've broken just about every bone he had in it. She was sweating, cursing, pushing, breathing; so much work. She reminded him that it was all his fault and all he could do was nod, his eyes wide with sympathy. The midwives around her knew what they were doing, giving her all the right instructions and getting sarcastic comments thrown back at them. He couldn't help but smile.
The room filled with an angry scream as the first child came into the too bright, too cold, too not-the-womb world. A girl. A beautiful, healthy baby girl. "It's a girl, 'Lo," he whispered to her while she breathed in between babies. They'd been at this for hours, she was shaking, sweating, almost exhausted. She looked the way he felt before he fell out of orbit only without the green tinge from kryptonite poisoning. He decided he would definitely not be comparing that again; he was still very sore.
"Push, Lois!" The woman in charge commanded and Lois squeezed her eyes shut, doing as she was told. Clark alternated watching Lois push the second child out of her and watched the nurses clean up the first little girl. He x-rayed both of them. Lois was doing alright, he didn't see anything that shouldn't be happening; of course, he strayed away from looking at the second child just yet, he'd promised Lois.
"No peeking," she reminded him when she saw him looking, her voice was barely a whisper. He chuckled lightly.
"I'm not, just checking on you."
"I'm not sure if I should be grateful or embarrassed."
"Nothing to be embarrassed about, Lois," he assured her, pressing a kiss on her temple as she started pushing again. The little girl across the room seemed fine. If her indignant screams were any sign, she wouldn't be having any trouble with asthma in this or the next life. She was tiny, barely five pounds, not quite as long as his forearm. She was tiny, pink, perfect. Looking inside, he didn't see anything wrong with her. If the kryptonite had been what had gotten the little ones moving out of mom so early, it seemed not to have hurt them in any physical way he could see. Breathing a sigh of relief, he looked out into the waiting room. His mother was pacing and Jason was breathing deeply, still not feeling well; he had heard the doctors give him some Pepto to help him feel better, but it had just made him throw up again.
"Ugh," Lois said, collapsing back with a final push and baby number two entered the world, screaming just as loud as her sister.
"Two little girls, 'Lo," he said softly, peppering her hand with kisses.
"Two little girls," she repeated tiredly.
"Here's little girl number one," the midwife said, bringing the girl over and handing her to Lois. "Number two will be ready in just a moment," she smiled at the tired parents. Clark hadn't felt his wounds but now he was yearning for some sunlight even for just second; he was tired, his joints ached, and the wounds were stinging like papercuts with lemon juice in them. He wasn't about to complain, though. There were more important things on hand.
He was handed little girl number two a few minutes later, and he held her and fed her her first bottle. Lois was doing the same with baby number one in her arms, relaxed against the pillow, her face lit up with love even though she was exhausted.
The midwives cleared out, leaving them for a few minutes. Doctor Larsen was just outside the door, not listening in, but not leaving them alone either.
"How are you doing?" Lois asked as the child in her arms settled against her.
"I'm fine, I promise," he said with a reassuring smile. "How are you?"
"Tired," she admitted.
"You were amazing," he stared at her with such love that she blushed. It was very difficult, even for him, to make Lois blush. She looked down at the tiny little girl wrapped in a blanket in her arms, a pink hat the only thing different from her sister in her father's arms; baby number two wore a white hat with pink stripes.
"Did Jason give you his list?"
"Yes," Clark said, shifting slightly so that he could get the list out of his back pocket without disturbing the dozing child in his arms. He held it up and read it for Lois. They went over name after name; each one had been read to them countless times by their son.
"Sidha Lee Kent," Lois said, looking down at the little girl in her arms. "Sidha Lee."
"And Elyse Mariel?" Clark asked, looking at their list. He'd been crossing names out with carefully controlled blasts of heat vision until they were down to the names they had chosen.
"Sidha and Elly," Lois sighed, looking at her daughters and her husband. They smiled at each other for a moment before they were interrupted by the woman in charge.
They filled out birth certificates when the girls were taken away for the required tests. Clark was nervous about the separation, but Lois seemed okay with it, keeping Clark calm.
"Clark, if anything goes wrong, you'll be the first to know," she reminded him.
"You're right," he smiled back at her, taking her hand again. He looked down at the two official-looking forms on the table beside him. Sidha and Elly were official now, with all the numbers and signatures in the right places; Sidha Lee and Elyse Mariel, born on an unusually warm, unusually wet, January 15. "I love you," he whispered to her, bringing the hand to his lips while she watched, her eyes droopy with exhaustion but filled with the same emotions he was feeling.
"I love you, too," she whispered back. They sat in silence for a moment, until something occurred to her. "Clark… are you sure they're okay, I mean- they're six weeks early."
"They're fine," he assured her, looking thoughtful for a moment before continuing. "I went to the Fortress awhile ago and had a rather uncomfortable conversation with the artificial intelligence."
"How do you have an uncomfortable conversation with artificial intelligence?"
"Apparently my father programmed his innate need to give his son a bit of trouble into the crystals," he chuckled.
"How kind of him," Lois said, trying to imagine what that conversation could've been like.
"Yes, well. Um, after we got past the personality, he told me that Krytponian pregnancies only last about six months."
"Only?"
"Yeah," he shrugged.
"Those poor women."
"What do you mean?" For all he knew, she would've been happy to have a shorter pregnancy.
"Well, think about it, Clark," she gave him a look. "They babies would have to get just as big in two-thirds the time. Think of how uncomfortable that would be!"
"I really have no idea," he said, flushing ever so slightly and making Lois smile.
- - -
He sat with her until she fell asleep, which didn't take very long; she was exhausted physically and emotionally. Clark stood then, looking around the room. It didn't seem like a very significant place, just a clean, almost comfortable hospital room. But it was so much more.
He sighed and left the room, ignoring Doctor Larsen as best he could as he walked towards the waiting room. His mother was drowsing in her chair, it was going on seven o'clock and she'd left Smallville early. Jason was sound asleep, hopefully sleeping away what was left of the flu bug so that he'd be able to see his sisters within the week.
"Mom?" He said, gently, rubbing her shoulder. Martha jolted awake, looking around for the source of the familiar voice and immediately settling on the cerulean eyes behind ridiculously thick glasses.
"Clark," she said, relieved to see his face, then she seemed to remember why she was sitting in the waiting room. She looked up at him expectantly and he didn't disappoint her, his face breaking into a huge smile he'd been wearing for the past few hours.
"Two little girls," he said, hugging her back when she threw herself at him. This time he was braced for it and able to completely, well not completely but well enough, ignore the jarring of his wounds. "Sidha Lee, and Elyse Mariel. Sidha and Elly," he said softly.
"Sidha and Elly," Martha repeated. She'd never expected to have grandchildren when she and her husband had taken in the alien boy they'd found crawling out of his spaceship on the side of the road. She was smiling and crying at the same time. She pulled him close again and held him there until she remembered what had happened to him last time he was outside the hospital. "Oh, Clark, I'm sorry! Are you okay, I didn't…?"
"Mom, I'm fine, I'm great," he chuckled. She didn't believe him, giving him a critical look over from the well-worn black All Stars he was wearing, to the lazy creases in his shirt sleeves where he'd rolled them up. "I've never been better."
"Oh good, good," she sighed. "Congratulations, honey."
"Thank you, Mom," he sighed back, pulling her in for another hug. She sat down in her chair again, looking over at Jason next to her. "How's he doing? I heard him after they gave him the Pepto."
"It's just the flu," she assured him. "A twenty-four hour bug, if I'm not mistaken. He seemed to be getting better right before he fell asleep; he'll probably feel fine when he wakes up if he's anything like you," she smirked at him and he shrugged.
"I'll take him up to get some sun," he said, mostly to himself. Martha thought for a moment before cocking her head at him with a question.
"Are the girls okay? I know Jason was fragile as a baby."
"As far as we can tell," he responded. "We won't know for awhile. I doubt they'll have asthma, though."
"Why's that?"
"They yelled loud enough upon introduction to the world," Martha chuckled.
"Well, I'm sure Jason did, too, honey," she said. "All babies do, well, not all of them, but most of them."
"You're cracking my confidence here, Mom," he scolded her. He really wanted everything to be perfectly alright with these little girls. They were too perfect for anything to go wrong in their lives, especially not so soon.
"Don't worry, Clark," Martha said, stretching her back. "They're your kids, they'll be fine."
"They're Lois's kids," Clark responded with another broad smile, "they'll be fine."
"And with both of you nothing can go wrong," she said softly, knowing it would strike a chord with him. He just nodded.
Martha went to sit with her sleeping daughter-in-law, hugging her son again before he bent down to pick up his son. Doctor Larsen was watching from the doorway again, trying to piece together the scene he was witnessing. Not only was Superman married, he had a son and now two daughters, and he was calling the elderly woman in the waiting room 'Mom.'
Clark walked out of view with Jason slumbering against his chest, and Martha slid past the doctor without looking at him.
"Would you mind if I brought the pair of you home so you can sleep in real beds tonight?" Clark asked when he returned from their little trip above the clouds. Lois was still asleep and Jason, though awake, was still tired. Martha looked like she might fall asleep in the not-so-comfortable-looking chair pulled up to Lois's bed.
"Can I see the twins before we leave?" Clark nodded.
"We're going to go look through a window and see them," he explained to Jason when the boy looked up from where his head rested against Clark's shoulder. "We don't want them getting sick with the flu and even though you're feeling okay, they might still catch it."
"I hate being sick," Jason said, sitting up a bit in his father's arms. "Do I have brothers, or sisters, or one of each?" Clark was impressed; either Jason had kept up his end of the deal and not checked, or he was a really good liar. The thought made him chuckle.
"You have two little sisters," he said with a smile. Jason's face broke out in an identical grin that reminded Martha of a much younger Clark. "Sidha and Elly."
"Sidha and Elly," Jason repeated the names as his grandmother had. "I'm a big brother," he told Martha, smiling even wider if possible.
"Yes you are," she replied, picking up her purse and preparing to follow her son out.
"Come on, then; we're going to go have a look at them and then I'll take you home while Mom naps. Sound good?" Jason just nodded, letting his dad pick him up, wrapping his arms around his neck like he did when they were flying.
"They're so little," Jason said softly, as though speaking too loudly on the other side of the glass would wake them. The little Kent girls were soundly asleep in their individual cribs. They were tiny in their little pink and pink striped hats. Clark couldn't help but smile as he watched Jason's face flip between a huge smile and slack-jawed awe at the little creatures that were his sisters.
"They'll get bigger," Martha assured him. "They'll be stealing your toys and annoying you to no end soon enough."
The three of them just stood there for almost a half an hour until Jason was unable to hide his yawns anymore and Clark declared it was time to go. "But Dad," Jason whined.
"Jason, you'll be able to come back tomorrow, you'll see Mom then."
"Okay," he sighed, leaning his head against Clark's shoulder.
- - -
Lois opened her eyes and found her husband asleep in the chair beside her bed. Sometime while she was sleeping she'd been moved into a new room, a much more comfortable room. It had a window with relatively cheerful reddish-beige curtains, the somewhat comfortable looking chair Clark was currently passed out in, a couple of laminated wood tables with flowers on them. Clark had probably brought the flowers through the window that Dr. Larsen had probably pulled strings for them to get.
She took an inventory of her body, noting the lightness she felt on her back right away. There was a dull ache in her lower regions, but she was still on too many pain medications to be feeling anything just yet. She body was tired, exhausted really, but her brain was fully rested and ready for the next big story. Instead of grabbing her phone to bug her sources, she watched Clark sleep. It was a rare treat. He looked exhausted, his glasses drooping off to one side and his hair all over.
"Clark," she whispered, knowing he'd be awake at the slightest noise. He didn't move. "Clark!" She said louder and sighed with relief when he jerked upright in his chair. She bit her lip, watching him wince in pain.
"You're awake," he observed quietly, coming to sit beside her on the bed and doing his best to not show whatever discomfort he was in. "How're you feeling?"
"I'm alright," she said with a smile. Really, she was. She was a little sore, but that came with the territory; and she had two daughters currently sleeping with all the other newborns in the sanitary room where the doctors could monitor them while she rested up to take care of them for the rest of their lives. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he assured her, but she glared at him. "Really, Lois, I'm just tired."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, and the guys won't let me back out there to help, so you don't have to worry," he chuckled. He'd been a ball of nervous energy earlier, going down to the streets of Metropolis to try and help and only encountering more kryptonite. Bruce had given him a talking to, sending him back to the hospital with threats that would never be carried out.
"What time is it?" She asked, changing the subject.
"It's late."
"Where's Jason?"
"With Mom at home."
"Is he feeling better?"
"Yeah, he's fine; excited to see his sisters again."
"How're they doing?" She paused to smile. "I can't believe I slept so long."
"It's been a long couple of days," he sat on the edge of her bed again, taking one of her hands in both of his.
- - -
Lois was inhaling her breakfast tray the next morning when the girls were brought in for a visit. Both had been sleeping a lot and eating a lot. According to the doctors, the blood samples that had been taken showed high white blood cell counts; they were fighting off some sort of infection, but there was nothing wrong with them so far as the tests could show. Clark had extrapolated that they might be reacting to the kryptonite. They looked fine, though, and they weren't in pain; they could only hope that everything turned out alright.
Both girls had their father's cerulean eyes, piercing even in their infancy. Under the different colored hats was a light layer of thick, dark brown hair that wasn't long enough to be considered more than fuzz. It was too soon to really tell, but they were probably identical twins; their father's jaw, their mother's nose, their father's lung capacity and their mother's inclination to be loud. They had Jason's ears, too, but Lois had never figured out where those ears came from.
- - -
Doctor Larsen finally had the guts to talk to Lois and Clark the next afternoon.
Lois was sitting up in bed, her standard hospital tray of food across her lap. Clark sat by the window absorbing the sunlight and eating the Potbelly's sub he had snagged for himself on the way in from a rescue in Suicide Slums.
"What's the latest at the Planet? Have you talked to Perry?" Lois asked as soon as he had taken his first bite of sandwich, smiling to herself at the annoyed look that flashed across his face.
"Well, Jimmy and Perry have made our announcement for us," he chuckled; he'd heard the buzz loud and clear all morning. "We're all the buzz," she smiled back. "Perry insists we both take at least two weeks off before even considering coming back."
"That's not enough time," she said decisively and he nodded.
"He said 'at least.' Of course, he won't actually let us come back for at least a month. He just knows that if he didn't give you the option of coming in earlier you'd get offended."
"He's right," she mumbled begrudgingly. Clark just smirked at her and took another bite of his sandwich. "When're they bringing up the girls?"
"They're asleep right now," he answered, glancing through the walls to see the pair of them snoozing softly side by side. "I think they'll be coming up when they wake up so we can feed them."
"Good," Lois smiled, wishing she could see through the walls like he could, and looking back down at her tray of hospital food. "I wish you'd gotten me a sub."
"I'll bring you dinner," he promised and she sighed theatrically. He chuckled and shook his head, stopping suddenly when Doctor Larsen came in the room looking nervous. "Doctor, I was wondering when you'd be stopping by," he said conversationally.
"Yes, well," the doctor said awkwardly.
"I didn't get a chance to thank you for, um, you know," he held up his wedding ring adorned hand and smiled a bit sheepishly.
"Not a problem, anytime," the doctor assured them, still looking awkward.
"I still can't believe you forgot to take it off," Lois sighed, pushing his buttons. Hey, I'm stuck in bed- I might as well get in a good verbal battle with the Man of Steel…
"Lois," he sighed, "I wasn't exactly expecting a meteor shower… we were just trying to get rid of Jason's flu." The smirk on her face told him that she knew just that, and he rolled his eyes.
"How did you plan to get rid of his flu?" The doctor asked, intrigued.
"Sunlight," Clark said simply.
"I see, so it works for him as well?" Clark nodded somewhat guardedly. "Have you considered holding your little girls in the sunlight to help get rid of whatever has their white blood cell counts up?"
"It's the kryptonite," Lois said and Clark just nodded, telling the doctor that they had thought to stand with the girls in the sunlight and agreeing with Lois with the same gesture.
"Intriguing," the doctor murmured. Clark tried hard not to glare, but Lois didn't have such reservations. The doctor seemed startled by their reactions. "So, uh, Mr. Kent," Clark turned to look at him calmly, Lois still glaring. "How are you feeling? Any residual kryptonite-related illness? Is everything healing alright?" He knew better than to ask to see the bandages that had been placed over the wounds.
"Still feeling a bit like papercuts with lemon juice," Clark shrugged, thinking back to his earlier analysis of his injuries. "Only without the physical cut."
"Intriguing," the doctor muttered again, but only Clark heard him and chose to ignore it. "And you, Mrs. Kent?" He said louder, turning and raising a polite eyebrow.
"I'm fine," her voice was a little cold but a glance from her husband earned the doctor a forced smile. The doctor nodded, immediately feeling awkward again.
"Well, they're planning on releasing you tomorrow afternoon or early the following day," that brought a real smile to Lois' face. "Sidha and Elyse will probably need to stay here for the remainder of the week for observation or until their white cell count goes down enough so that their doctors feel comfortable releasing them."
"Can't you pull some strings and get them out early?" Lois asked, forehead creasing slightly. "They'll be fine with enough sunlight and away from the kryptonite."
"I'm a trauma doctor, Mrs. Kent, I don't have much authority in the way of newborns," he said with a sigh as though he honestly regretted not being able to help.
"It's better that they're here in case something goes wrong," Clark said thoughtfully, looking up at Lois. "I have no idea how they'll react to sunlight, or how being exposed to kryptonite so early in life will affect them," he gave a shrug, still thoughtful.
"But the kryptonite's out of the streets now so we could take them home without a problem, and there's plenty of windows at our house," Lois pointed out.
"Yes, but there are doctors here," he reminded her.
"Yeah, well, I hate hospitals… no offense," she added belatedly to Doctor Larsen.
"None taken, I, myself, can't stand being a patient," Clark just nodded, and Lois smirked at him as she remembered his aversion to hospitals. The doctor caught the glance between the pair of them, but couldn't think of a polite way to ask about it and neither felt the need to throw him a bone. They were interrupted in the next moment by Clark's head jerking to the side.
"Gimme your sub if you're gonna go running off to save the world," Lois instructed. Clark took a big bite and handed the rest to her.
"I'll be back soon, and thank you, Doctor Larsen," he said, smiling at each of them before hurrying off towards the side entrance he'd been using to appear and disappear.
"I'll, uh, just let you rest, then," the doctor said after Clark was gone.
"Thanks," Lois said with a nod, starting on Clark's sub with much more fervor than she'd had for her own meal.
- - -
The twins were indeed held for observation for the rest of the week. The high white cell count had the doctors worried, even though it was quickly dropping to normal levels; Clark held them in the sun whenever he could, sitting by the window with one on each shoulder while they slept. Lois just watched the three of them, smiling. It was times like these when she wanted Jimmy to burst into the room with a camera, but the supposed instability of the girls' health had kept even Martha and Jason from being allowed to do more than look at them from the other side of a pane of glass.
People from work passed by as the week did. They would stop in to see Lois and Clark in Lois's room, and Clark would take them to look at the sleeping twins. Lois was amazed that his cheeks hadn't fallen off from all the smiling he'd been doing. Jason spent the week with his grandma at home; he still had school, after all.
He was doing well in the second grade, he liked his teacher, and he had friends in class. Everybody in the neighborhood seemed to go to his school, and they had all decided they like him, therefore he now had more friends than ever. Of course, that meant he had to keep an eye on his developing abilities more closely. Clark dropped by once during recess, flying low overhead and causing general stir among the playing children. Clark had appeared, glasses and all, moments later with dessert to share with his son and a digital camera full of pictures of his new baby sisters.
Lois was more than ready to go home by the end of the obligatory week. She had refused to leave unless the girls could come with her and, though she didn't regret her decision, she was very tired of doctors checking on her and ordering her back to bed. Clark, in her opinion, wasn't helping either; not supporting her insistence that she was perfectly fine standing by the window instead of laying on the bed. Of course, he didn't object and even helped when she wanted to get out of bed to stand in the sun. He seemed to enjoy standing with his hands around her waist, eyes closed to the sunlight streaming in during the late afternoons. The only times she liked better than those moments were the moments when he was holding the twins; that and when she got to hold her daughters herself.