- - - Chapter Thirty-Five
Richard pulled into yet another gas station, this one just outside of Metropolis. He'd be at the Kent's in less than an hour. He would've been there sooner if he hadn't been riding on empty for the last twenty miles; of course he would have to stop so close to his goal.
- - -
Clark settled onto the couch next to Lois, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close. "How're you doing?" He asked softly, looking down at her as she rested against his chest.
"I'm just fine," she replied equally as softly, but tired. It had been a busy day. They'd come back from the hospital, and the twins had given them four whole hours of relative silence as they adjusted to the new place.
Jason and Martha had held each of them before lunch, cooing down at the little girls and smiling widely. Then Sidha had filled her diaper and Jason had decided he was done holding her, letting Clark take diaper duty.
And so the day had passed. Martha was a blessing to have around. She kept Jason entertained while Lois and Clark tended to the babies, and helped Lois when Clark had to run off to be Superman, which wasn't often. The Justice League insisted that he stay out of things not of the utmost importance, especially staying away from the cleanup efforts underway concerning the kryptonite. The guy in charge happened to have his phone number and promised to call if anything happened. The General was excited to hear that he had two new grandbabies, but wanted to make the city safe and kryptonite-free for them and their Daddy before visiting them. Lucy had stopped by, bringing dinner and cooing at her nieces for an hour or so before returning to her own family.
Now Jason was asleep in his bedroom, Martha was in the shower and preparing to settle in the guest bedroom upstairs, and Lois and Clark were taking a moment to themselves in the nursery. They had put a loveseat in the nursery and were now reclining on it, watching the tiny girls sleep in their seemingly overlarge cribs. They would probably sleep for a few hours having been up for a longer period of time during the dinner hour.
A loud banging on the front door not ten minutes later interrupted the peaceful silence that had settled over the house. Lois hissed softly, rising off Clark's lap to let him super-speed downstairs to stop the knocking. She stayed in the room long enough to be sure that the girls wouldn't be waking up and made sure the baby monitor was on before she closed the door and headed down the stairs.
Clark threw the door open, planning to throttle whoever was on the other side with his eyes. Who in their right mind would knock on our door this late at night that hard? We've got the 'It's a girl!' signs all over the yard, Clark asked himself. The signs were compliments of one Jimmy Olsen, and he had taken a permanent marker to them, writing 'Times two!' across the bottom of each banner.
Clark's plan flew out of his mind the moment he saw the man standing on the other side of the door.
Richard White. Unshaven, dark circles under his eyes, his car dusty and parked sideways in the driveway.
"Richard," Clark said, surprised.
"Kent," Richard replied, almost growled.
"What can I do for you?" Clark asked, pushing his glasses up his nose and trying to look politely curious, wanting nothing better than to tell the man to bugger off.
"Actually-" the former assistant editor of the Daily Planet started making his way into the foyer. Clark was too polite to refuse him entrance.
"Richard?" Lois's surprised voice came from the bottom of the stairs. Clark shut the door and quickly made his way to the living room, where he found the pair of them staring each other down. "What're you doing here?" She asked, menace in her voice that Clark could never quite manage.
"I came to talk to you," Richard said through gritted teeth.
"I can't imagine anything we could have to talk about," Lois replied stonily. Clark stood behind Richard, watching them both carefully. Richard held a folder that a quick x-ray revealed to contain several pictures of himself, Lois, and Jason over the past few months; the pictures Georgianna had had Sarah Ricks take. Lois had glanced over Richard's shoulder and seen the worry in her husband's eyes. That was enough to make her force herself to be slightly more civil, schooling her face and waiting expectantly for Richard to continue.
"I want you to explain these," Richard said, holding out the folder and turning slightly to glance at Clark as he did so. Clark was surprised; there was pity in his eyes.
Lois glared at Richard, crossing the room and turning the baby monitor on as she did so. Richard looked confused only for a second before he glanced back at Clark again, even more pity in his eyes. Clark warily crossed the room to look over Lois's shoulder as she shuffled through the pictures.
Lois and Clark in the bullpen, Clark carrying a sleeping Jason to the parking ramp from the Daily Planet, Superman on the Kent apartment balcony, Superman and Lois standing very close on the Kent apartment balcony, Lois and Jason at the park with a bluish-red blur above, Lois hailing a taxi; almost fifty photos.
"Where did you get these, Richard?" Lois asked with forced calm.
"Georgianna," he replied calmly, glaring at her.
"That-" Lois let the threat hang, shaking her head. Clark rubbed a soothing hand across her lower back, biting his lip and looking at the pictures as she continued to shuffle through them. None of them pointed to the fact that Clark Kent and Superman are one in the same, but most of them made it look like Lois and Superman were carrying on behind Clark's back.
"Are these authentic?" Clark asked, glancing up at Richard and flooding with relief when the man didn't seem to know.
"As far as I'm aware," Richard replied, his face neutral. Lois and Clark exchanged a glance just as the baby monitor alerted them to Sidha or Elly's discomfort in the room above.
"My turn," Lois said, handing Clark the folder and practically running up the stairs.
The two men were left standing in the living room. Clark looked down at the folder in his hands, his mind flashing down dozens of different pathways at once; he could lie, he could pretend to get angry with Lois for her supposed affair, he could just ask Richard to leave. But he hated lying, he couldn't be angry at Lois, and he was too nice of a guy to ask Richard to leave. I could just tell him the truth, he admitted to himself. But he would want to talk to Lois before telling him anything, and he would rather not tell Richard to truth when it came down to it; he had hurt Lois badly, and Clark had no particular reason to trust him.
"Clark," Richard said slowly, looking across the room at the taller man still holding the folder, thinking. "I don't know what kind of relationship you and Lois had before… he left and before you left, but," he paused like he was trying to find a way to sugar coat what he was trying to say. "I left Lois for a reason, Clark. Her heart belongs to that caped extraterrestrial," he spat the final word like it was poison on his lips and Clark began formulating a proper response, his dislike of the man across the room in front of him hardening. Richard, though, had a look of understanding and sympathy on his face, thinking he had been in Clark's place months ago.
"Richard," Clark said, his tone borderline sharp. "Lois and I are married. The twins were born six days ago," he said, the fact emphasized by the cooing coming from the baby monitor, Lois was upstairs soothing Sidha back into sleep and picking Elly up to change her diaper.
"Are you sure they're yours?"
"Yes."
"Did you have a test done? I was sure with Jason," Richard's voice matched Clark's in sharp resolve.
"Richard," Clark exhaled, setting the folder with pictures on the table and looking across the room with forced calm. "I don't need to explain my life to you. Lois and I wouldn't have gotten married if it wasn't what we wanted. Superman and Lois are not having an affair. Superman comes by every now and again for an interview or to see his son," Clark's jaw was set with a resolve Richard had never seen in his mild-mannered former co-worker. "I've talked to Superman, I've talked to Lois… we're perfectly fine. Georgianna wanted to get the inside scoop on Superman so she followed Lois, which was bound to happen sometime. Superman is being more careful now; he's gone so far as to not visit us at home for Lois' sake."
"You see, it's because he loves her!" Richard pointed out, gesturing excitedly with his hands.
"Richard," Clark snapped, flipping the folder closed and sending a few of the shots flying onto the floor.
"You just don't want to see it. You're desperate. Jimmy always made it sound like you had a thing for her…" his voice rose in volume as the sentence continued.
"Enough, Richard," Clark growled, not wanting their words to carry up the stairs. "I don't know what possessed you to drive across the country to throw this in our faces, but, whatever these pictures might suggest, nothing is going on. And, if there were, you don't need to worry about it. You made it clear that you wanted nothing to do with Lois and Jason last year, now just let us be."
"I don't care about Lois and Jason, Clark," Richard said, glaring. "I just know what it feels like to play second fiddle to Superman!"
"Dad?" Jason asked from the bottom of the stairs. Both men turned to look and Jason's eyes darkened when they saw Richard by the couch. "What's he doing here?" His voice was quiet.
"He was just leaving," Clark assured the boy, turning his back on Richard and crossing to pick Jason up off the stairs. "C'mon, let's get back to bed. It's late," he glanced over his shoulder at Richard as he carried Jason back up the stairs, his eyes making it clear that Richard should be gone when he came back down.
They found Lois standing at the top of the stairs, her hand tightly wrapped around the banister, her eyes trained on Richard's shoes, the only part of him she could see from her vantage. Clark put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently before heading down the hall to Jason's room.
"Why was he here?" Jason asked as Clark fixed the blankets around him.
"Do you remember when the photographer from the Planet followed you and Mom around that day at the park?" Jason nodded. "Well, the photographer took a lot of pictures on other days, too, and she gave them to Richard."
"Why?"
"Richard," he sighed. "He wants to make life hard for Mom for not loving him as much as he wanted her to," he said carefully, getting a confused look from Jason. "He thought that if he showed me the pictures I would leave like he did."
"Why would you leave? They're pictures of you," Jason said, smiling a little.
"He doesn't know that it's me, though," Clark shrugged. "Don't worry about it, Jason. He's going to go back to California and leave us alone."
"What if he doesn't?"
"He will," Clark said, smiling gently and kissing his son's forehead. "Sleep fast, Jason; morning will be here before you know it," he said, remembering evenings when his father had said those same words to him, warning of chores that always came earlier than expected.
"Night, Dad," Jason said, scooting down under the blankets and closing his eyes.
"Night, son," Clark replied, crossing the room and closing the door softly on his way out.
- - -
Martha had to go back to Smallville at the end of the week. The hired hands charged with keeping the farm together tended to relax if she was away too long, and she knew it. She told Clark multiple times that, though she was getting on in her years, she barely missed anything. And he agreed. She'd slept straight through the confrontation with Richard, but she knew something was wrong the next morning and had persisted until he and Lois had told her everything. She shared with them the fact that neighbors in Smallville had always been a little too curious after Clark's mysterious arrival and that all they had to do was pretend like nothing was wrong, and give away a few minor 'secrets' to get them to back off. Lois and Clark weren't sure what they were going to do with that advice just yet, but they were thankful for it.
"Thanks for being here, Martha," Lois said, hugging the aging woman to her tightly.
"It was a pleasure, dear," Martha said, hugging her back before turning and doing the same to her son. "Don't go over-straining yourself now," she warned, "there's still kryptonite all over the city. I found chunks in the gutter when I went to the grocery store yesterday, you know."
"I will, Mom, thanks," Clark assured her, smiling. Martha turned to Jason and squeezed him tightly as well, ruffling his hair, something that was only Grandma's privilege these days. She peeked into the bedroom and blew kisses to the sleeping infants in their matching cribs.
"Well, I'm ready," she said, turning to Clark. "Is my ride?"
"Let's go, then," Clark said, spinning into the suit and bracing his mother's back as she came to stand on his feet.
"Goodbye, then, dears," Martha said as they rose off the patio into the darkness.
"Bye, Grandma!" Jason called out before returning to the dining room table and his spelling list. Lois joined him after the pair had completely disappeared from view and settled in the chair across from Jason.
"Do you need any help, sweety?"
"Dad said to wait for him," Jason said, turning up to look at her with a sparkle in his eye. "He said you'd probably make it worse."
"Did he now?" Lois asked, chuckling and pulling the list toward her. "We'll see about that."