----Chapter 11

Lois woke up to an empty bed the next morning. Figuring Jordan for an early riser, she stretched as she laid there and looked around the room. There was a small dresser on the opposite wall with various dolls on top of it. One of them appeared to be a Superman doll, which made her smile slightly. That probably made Clark all sorts of uncomfortable.

As her visual inspection of the room continued, she spotted a small digital clock on a desk that was on the opposite side of the bed. 8:30 am. Just under twelve hours sleep. "Not bad, all things considered," she mumbled to herself.

Sitting up, she turned and placed her feet firmly on the ground and stood up, yawning. She walked across the hall to the restroom and splashed some water on her face, waking up a little bit. Looking in the mirror, she was greeted with the same, almost unfamiliar face she'd seen the previous morning. Lois rolled her neck around a few times, loosening it and cracking it a few times. She was annoyed that it wasn't cracking so much as hurting now.

As she opened her eyes again, she noticed her hands resting a couple inches below her navel. "You have got to be kidding me," she said to herself. She pulled her hands away but got curious. She looked down at her stomach, wondering about what may be going on in there.

There was a slight curve there, but that may just have been from the added years. What she did know was that her breasts felt bigger than she remembered. She figured she didn't notice the day before since she was slightly confused by the events she'd been swept up in. That or she was just losing it, which seemed entirely possible.

Walking out to the main area of the apartment, Lois spotted Jordan sitting on the couch reading the paper. She smiled at the sight, figuring Jordan had no idea what she was reading, if she was even reading at all or just mimicking what she saw grownups do. Mimicking what she herself did in the morning, Lois figured a second later.

Turning, she noticed Clark in the kitchen staring at her. He smiled after a second.

"How are you feeling this morning?"

"Less shell shock, healthy amount of skepticism tinged with shades of hope. At least Almond Joy isn't giving me problems." At his wide grin, she rolled her eyes. "Yes, I am calling the baby Almond Joy until I think of something better, or at least less ridiculous."

"Knew it'd catch on."

"Anyway, how long is morning sickness supposed to go on?"

"With Jordan, actually, it let up right about this time. In fact I'd go so far to say as you wouldn't have even experienced much nausea yesterday had you not been so worked up about everything, and I doubt you'll get too much more nausea at all outside of the occasional thing every once in a while after another week or two."

Well, at least Lois had that going for her. "Good, glad. Chloe head home last night?"

"Yeah, she wanted to be home this morning when the girls woke up. They're in a very clingy phase right now, she says."

"Well then, what's for breakfast?"

He waved his hand around at the kitchen like a showgirl on a game show. "What sounds good? If we have the ingredients I can make it. Well, to a point, anyway."

Thinking for a second, Lois remembered thinking about going to the farm before all of this had happened. "Can you make omelettes like your mom used to?"

"Sure."

"I'll take two, and some bacon if you have it. Sausage if you don't."

"Omelettes, bacon AND sausage coming up." He called out to the living room. "How's an omelette sound, sweetheart?"

"May I have mine with extra ham, daddy?"

Lois saw Clark smile to himself as he was called daddy and hid her own smile behind her hand. Why did him enjoying fatherhood make her feel happy? Maybe it was that she liked seeing her friends happy...

"You know it, Jordan. Tell me, what's in the news today?"

Jordan stood up on the couch and laid the newspaper on the back of it as she faced them. "Garfield is being silly again and Catbert made Dilbert hit his head against his desk."

Lois heard Clark speak quietly. "Jordan loves cats. We were thinking of getting her a kitty for Christmas, or at least in the near future." Lois nodded and watched Clark get to work on the omelettes.

Not wanting to just sit around, Lois got up and walked over to the couch, sitting down next to Jordan and looking at the comics with her. "What's your favorite comic?"

"Garfield! I love it when he kicks Odie off the table."

Lois wasn't sure if she should be entertained by her daughter or worried about her enjoying violence at such a young age. She chalked it up to the fact that she herself could be known to enjoy a little violence. It was never as good reading about it as being in the thick of it, though.

Leaning over, she placed a kiss on the top of Jordan's head and spoke to her quietly. "Thanks for keeping mommy company last night, baby girl,"

Jordan looked up at her and smiled. "I like sleeping with you and the new baby. Can I sleep with you, daddy and Almond Joy tonight?"

Apparently Clark was faster than any human. How did he have everybody calling their unborn child Almond Joy not eighteen hours after he'd thought up the name? She could almost hear him smiling and then did hear him chuckle a second later. She turned around and looked at him, smirking.

"Hear something funny, Smallville?"

"No, not at all. Just recalling a joke Bruce told me about two CEO's walking into a bar."

"Ok, I'm missing a third of my memory and know that's a lie."

Clark turned to face her, wearing a grin to rival her smirk. "Pray tell, Mrs. Kent, how did you come to that conclusion?"

Lois rolled her eyes and stood up from the couch, leaving Jordan to her 'reading' of the comics and walked over to join Clark in the kitchen.

"You only chuckle like that when you're happy about something you've done or with the way things are. Not laughing at a joke, just happy. You don't, or didn't, do it often. Only with close friends and family, when things weren't being mucked up by one situation or another. It's why I noticed it."

Clark smiled softly and turned back to the food he was preparing and placed a finished omelette on a plate. He turned back around and handed it to her. "Fork's on the table," he said softly. She mumbled a thank you and called Jordan over, placing the food in front of her as she climbed into her chair. No sooner had she done so when Clark handed her another omelette and gave her another smile. She mumbled a thank you and sat down, devouring the omelette without much thought.

As she noticed she was out of food, Jordan moved her plate over in front of her, which she took as a signal for her to finish what was left. She did so, and was quickly handed her second omelette and a plate of sausage and bacon. At this point, she wasn't going to complain about the seemingly never-ending stream of food. Two empty plates later, she finally noted just how much she'd eaten, again.

"Come on, Smallville! I know I always had a healthy appetite but this is insane! It's like I can't get filled up unless I eat three meals."

She watched him pick at what little remained of his breakfast and smile. "It's normal to be fairly ravenous; the morning sickness is dying down and you're taking advantage of it, or to be more realistic making up for lost time. But, I maintain that this is still mostly you just having an excuse to eat how you've always liked to."

"Oh good lord, I never said I didn't like to eat, but this has to be AJ's fault. I'm not a pig like this on my own."

"AJ?"

"I feel ridiculous calling something residing in my stomach Almond Joy so I'm shortening it to AJ."

"I see. And no. Overall, I'd say this is 65 you being you, 35 you being pregnant. Now, as things go along, I'm sure I'll up the percentages, but right now, those are what I am giving you."

"Fifty/fifty, Smallville."

"Sixty/forty, and I'm really stretching myself on that one."

Lois scowled, knowing that she wasn't going to win the argument. He seemed very set in his opinions, which she had no problem with unless it concerned her and her inability to stop eating. Hell, he seemed to know her better than she did herself at this point, and it didn't hurt that he was more confident in his stances. A subject change was in order so she could think of a better argument later.

"Hey, why don't you regale me with a tale, Smallville?" He cocked an eyebrow and looked at her, half smiling and half smirking. She figured he knew what she was doing.

"Anything specific?"

"The first moment you realized that you were in undeniably in love with me. And knowing you like I do, or did, the subsequent mope when you determined you had no chance of getting me."

---

Clark walked into the Daily Planet and made his way through the newsroom until he got to Chloe's desk. She was typing away at her computer, chewing on a pen cap as she stared intently at the screen. She didn't notice him until he sat down on the edge of her desk.

"Clark! Hey, how's Lois?"

"She had another really good physio session. The physical therapist said she's almost ready to be out of her wheelchair full time, which is remarkably fast after six months of no muscle use after an attack like that. God, I remember her looking like a stick figure near the end..." Clark shook his head as his voice trailed off to rid himself of the awful memory and saw Chloe frown.

"Anyway, another couple sessions and she'll be able to move around with a cane full time without being griped at. I'm thinking about buying her a top hat to go with it." Chloe smiled at that, which made Clark feel a little better about making her frown.

"So, what are you working on?"

"I'm doing an investigation on insurance fraud at the children's hospital. Yet another case of greed beating goodwill into the ground and then kicking it while it's down."

Clark winced at the analogy. Ever since Lois had been attacked, Chloe had been prone to use violent analogies for things, especially when unnecessary. "Don't lose faith in people, Chloe. Just because you're always investigating the bad doesn't mean everybody is bad. Most people are good and have good hearts."

Chloe looked up at him and smiled softly. "Sorry, I'm just frustrated. Using sick kids to gain a buck is one of the things I can never forgive."

"I don't expect you to. Bring them to justice instead."

Chloe smiled widely at that and looked back at the screen. "I've got enough evidence to take down most of the people running the place. My sources are getting me one more bit of information later today and I should have this in tomorrow's morning edition."

"Good work, Chlo. A lot more good than I've done lately."

"Oh come on, I can work my whole life doing charity work and I won't have done half as many good things for the city, let alone the world, as you've already accomplished."

"That's not true. I envy you, though."

Chloe turned back to him, one hand still on the keyboard and wearing a confused expression. "You, the man with abilities people only dream about and some people would never imagine, are envious of me?"

"I envy the fact that you get to choose your future. You can choose to work in journalism to help people, or choose to work with charities or choose whatever you want. My choices... my select few choices are nothing to write home about."

"Jeez, Clark, you sound defeated, like your future has you skewered and their's no way to get away from it."

"My future consists of training with Jor-El, Chloe. That's all I know. I don't even know if I'll come back as Clark Kent. I could come back as Kal-El, like I did after that summer I went missing and you were in hiding, and conquer the world for all I know. He says I'm meant to rule. The only choices I have are how to get to that future. I'm trapped, Chlo. I think I have a fair sense of how a man buried alive feels. Well, minus the dying bit."

Clark's eyes met Chloe's and the just looked at each other for a moment. She looked away and placed a hand on his knee, giving him a reassuring pat. "I think you underestimate your power to choose. What brought on all this negative thinking and moping, anyway?"

"Just feeling down. Can't get my thoughts off the negative in my life. Don't particularly want to be focusing on the bad, yet I always seem to end up on it."

Chloe started to look through all the stacks of papers on her desk and rummaged through her top drawer before Clark got curious. "What are you looking for? I can find it fairly easily if it's here."

"Pink kryptonite."

"What? I've never heard of pink kryptonite before, which means you certainly haven't."

"Well then quit moping and whining like you did when you were with Lana! Seriously, I think her clothes were made of pink kryptonite which, in theory, makes you depressingly mopey for hours on end during and after exposure and holy crap, this is about a girl!"

How did she go from pink kryptonite to girl? Clark was confused, if not impressed by her thought process. "What are you talking about, Chloe? What's about a girl?"

"The way you're moping! You haven't been this 'Woe is me' since you were in the throes of Lana drama. Now who is it?"

Clark eyed her for a second, then decided it was quicker to just fess up. "It's just a girl that was in one of my classes last summer. We keep getting together by choice and by accident. She makes my heart do flips with a glance and I can never tell her." He paused and frowned. "I need more guys to hang out with, that was all kinds of girly sounding."

"Wait, what? Are you falling in love with this girl?

"I..." Clark thought about it a second then continued. "Yes, I am," he said quietly. "God help me, I love her Chlo."

He hadn't even considered it could be love until she had said the word. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know if it could be described another way. With his prior history, though, he thought Chloe might doubt him.

"This isn't Lana part two, Chloe. I'm not falling in love from afar. I know this girl, this woman, very well. Like I said, we've been together a lot the past seven or eight months. I know who and what she really is. She almost broadcasts who and what kind of person she is... Chloe?"

He watched her sit there with her mouth frozen in an open position, looking something like a paused movie. Clark reached over and lightly pushed her mouth closed so she wouldn't have her tongue attacked by any stray bugs that may be in the room. It seemed to snap her back to reality. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I wasn't expecting the shocking news that you're in love with Lois."

"I, what... huh? That's reaching Chloe, even for you."

"Deny all you want, Clark, but you won't convince me otherwise. She was in a class with you, you two spent copious amounts of time together outside of class studying, not to mention you spent the most time with her during the coma. And you always ask to help her during physio and generally do even if she says no."

"I call that being a good friend, Chloe."

"Ha! No." Clark watched her rub the back of her neck a few times, working out a kink. "Damn, this was so obvious! I must be losing my touch to have missed all the signs that you were falling for her. Not that I can blame you, my cousin is amazing, but still, I should have seen this..."

Suddenly, Chloe's face lit up and was covered in a wide smile. "Holy crap! You're in love with Lois Lane! My Lois Lane! What are you going to do about it?"

He wasn't going to bother denying it anymore. It would only make things take longer. "Do? Obviously you missed the earlier part of this conversation where I stated 'and I can never tell her,' Chlo. I think it sums up everything pretty well."

"Don't get snarky with me, Clark. And no, I didn't miss that statement, I just chose to ignore it. I do that when smart people say really stupid things. Now, what are you going to do about it?"

Clark frowned at her and got a glare in return. They sat like that a moment before Clark rolled his eyes. "Fine, here's what I'll do. I'll go an kneel before her, profess my undying love and ask her to marry me. Then I tell her about my dreams to have a family with her, say three or four kids, and then I'll tell her about my heritage."

Chloe stood from her chair and quickly smacked Clark on the back of his head. "Quit being so difficult. For all the happiness I have over my best friend being in love with my cousin, who is basically my sister, I'm also afraid of what can happen. You not doing anything, though, is not. An. Option."

Chloe punctuated the last three words by poking him in the chest, chin and nose. She was rubbing her finger soon afterwards.

Clark let loose an exasperated sigh. "You want me to go get some kryptonite so you can beat me up properly?" She responded only with a glare, so Clark continued speaking, softly and seriously.

"Chloe, I love Lois. Not like I did Lana, but like a man should really love a woman. Because of who she is, not because of who she might be. There's just too much working against there being any success, though. She's recovering from being beaten within an inch of her life, literally. I have to do my training with Jor-El and who knows how long that will take or what effect it will have on me.

"Above all that, I'm me. We both know that nobody I stay with for very long ends up with fat grandchildren to bounce on her knee fifty years down the line. They either die or lose their marbles and then die. My friends tend to fare better than my girlfriends, and being her friend is being one of the privileged few. There are very few things that mean as much to me as her friendship."

"But Clark..."

"I can't, Chloe. It's just... my future doesn't lend itself to happy endings." Clark stood from his spot on her desk and smiled sadly. "It's not something I get to have, Chlo. You don't know how much I wish I could have that, but I won't." He paused a moment, then smiled to himself as he looked down at the floor.

"But hey, at least when you have kids one day I'll get to have some young kids to spoil and love like crazy, right? I can be the fun, creepy uncle that's not actually related. It'd be a crappy dream come true."

Chloe smiled sadly. "Yeah, I guess so. What makes you so sure I'll have kids, though?"

"If anybody deserves to be part of a happy family, Chloe, it's you. Well, you and Lois both, really. I think you'll both end up happy, too, no matter what Lois thinks her future holds. I do not, however, know what you think your future holds outside of the Planet."

"Only time will tell."

"Clever."

"Thanks, I thought it was too."