---- Chapter 25

"You get back here, ya little devil!"

Lois ran after and caught a naked, squealing Jordan that was attempting to sidestep taking a bath. Clark had been giving her all her baths to this point, but Lois had decided it was finally time to start doing more of her parental duties. She sat Jordan down in the warm water and was quickly splashed.

"Hey now, you know better than that."

Jordan looked sorry, though Lois would swear that there was still some mischief in her eyes. "Sorry, mommy."

"How's it going in there, ladies?"

Lois looked over to Clark, who was standing in the hallway. "It's going great, Smallville. Couldn't be a smoother run operation in the rest of Metropolis."

"So, that wasn't a naked three year old I saw running down the hallway a moment ago?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but the only naked three year old I know around here is in the bathtub and certainly wouldn't run around in a hallway undressed, right Jordan?"

"Right, mommy."

"So it stands to reason, Smallville, that you must be stashing some naked three year olds around here and one must have gotten loose. For shame." She started doing that 'tsk tsk' thing with her fingers at him, which Jordan quickly copied. He was very soon rolling his eyes at both of them and walking back to where he'd been.

Lois held up a hand to Jordan. "High five, baby girl."

She quickly got one, and they got on with the bath. Twenty minutes and a change into dry clothes later, Lois was sitting in the living room coloring with Jordan while Clark was out doing his Superman thing. As grim as his duties as Superman could be, Lois really wanted to see him doing his thing saving and helping people. Maybe she could watch him stop something where there was little chance of somebody getting shot.

She took a deep breath in, smelling the meat loaf cooking not too far away. It permeated through the apartment, which kept making her salivate a little more than she was comfortable with. It was like she was having a Pavlovian response to the thing. She really was starting to wonder if how hungry she was could be construed as unnatural, even for a pregnant woman. She'd have to ask her doctor.

Would she even have a doctor? Since her baby was half kryptonian, she didn't know what procedure would be. Would she be able to go and have blood work done or was this just going to be however many more months she had left figuring things out as she went?

Holy crap, was this even going to be a human length pregnancy?

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why hadn't she been asking these questions as soon as she learned the fact that the father of her unborn child was from Krypton? Better yet, why the hell hadn't Clark been offering up this information? She was having to adjust to a new year, not remembering her own daughter and more than a third of her life. He... he was just having to be himself. Oh, he was going to get an earful...

"Mommy?"

Lois blinked, tamping down her anger and looking to Jordan. "Yeah, baby girl?"

"You stopped coloring."

Lois looked down at the coloring book in front of her; she had no idea what she was coloring, and to be brutally honest, it looked like crap. Artistry of this type had never been her thing.

"Well, aren't I just being a big silly. Say, what color do you think should go right here?" She pointed down at the picture next to blue part.

"Red!"

She looked down at the picture and thought that it might be a good choice. Looking around the living room, she wondered just how much Jordan had been influenced by the mass of blue and red furniture she and Clark had apparently picked out.

"Know what, I think that's a great choice Jordan." She pushed the coloring book back a bit and stood up, stretching her legs out. "I'm gonna grab something to drink. Do you want anything or are you good for now?"

"Milk, please."

"You got it."

It had to be milk. She had to be her father's daughter.

Getting into the kitchen, she got herself a glass of water, downed it and got another before setting it on the counter and grabbing another glass out of the cupboard. With a sigh, she opened the fridge and pulled out the milk. Of all the things around the kitchen, there was one liquid whose smell seemed to make her nauseous the last couple days, and her daughter loved to drink it.

Taking a breath and holding it, she opened the milk and poured a glass for Jordan. She closed it back up and stuck it in the fridge as quickly as she possibly could, letting the breath go. She breathed in, and couldn't avoid the milk in the glass, her stomach quickly souring. The smell of it... why couldn't it have been something stupid like cleaning polish? She'd never be near the stuff! No, it just had to be Jordan's drink of choice that made her feel sick.

After handing the glass to her little girl, Lois sat a little farther away from her and the evil white liquid she enjoyed so much. She pulled her coloring book over and started filling in the area she'd asked advice on earlier. It was a surprisingly calming activity, coloring. She didn't have to think about anything in depth, just what color would look good where.

She could also just sit and watch Jordan enjoy herself, which she found was an oddly intense experience. To watch a little girl that was half her be so happy and at peace, unaffected by all the crap she was dealing with and what the world would throw at her in the future was something she never would have guessed she could enjoy half as much as she was. Lois wished Jordan would stay three forever so that she didn't have to see just what kind of world they actually lived in.

Eight days. It had been all of eight days that she could remember having a daughter and she already found herself wishing that she'd never have to grow up and face the world.

At the same time, though, she was almost eager to see what kind of person Jordan would grow up to be. What would she choose to do with her life? Would she be like her father and fight crime? Or would she just be a little less susceptible to injury, not having any of the smorgasbord of powers Clark possessed? Would AJ be the same way? Or would that vision she saw of a little boy already running a little too quickly for his age come true?

She was diving deeper into her thoughts when a gust of wind blowing into the apartment interrupted her. She was proud of herself for already getting used to such a strange occurrence. She took another sip of water before saying anything.

"Do some good work, Superman?"

"I like to think so. There are some muggers and a car jacker at a police precinct that would disagree, though."

"I'm sure they do."

"So, what are you girls up to?"

Lois held up a coloring book when Jordan didn't respond, too ensconced in her activity. "Coloring. I was thinking about what a surprisingly calming activity it can be not long ago. Would you agree?"

"I don't know that I've ever gone that in depth when thinking about coloring. Mostly I just wonder if my color choices are going to make Jordan laugh or you comment on how I can never escape classic plaid coloring."

"You've got to be kidding me. How can you possibly color things plaid?"

"Well, I take one color..."

Lois wacked him lightly with the back of her hand as he kneeled down next to her. "Not what I meant, smart alec, and you know it. Now, go change out of your suit and check on the loaf of meat that's cooking. I'm thinking it's just about ready, which with my keen cooking skills mean absolutely nothing."

A second later he appeared in the kitchen in the clothes he'd been wearing before doing his gig, opening the oven and looking in at their soon to be meal. "I think it needs another few minutes, Lo, but you're getting better about it. Usually you ask me if I've let it cook long enough when it's done."

"That does sound like my style of cooking. Not done until it's too crispy to eat."

"Daddy, do you wanna color with us?"

Lois watched Clark walk over and get down on the floor next to Jordan. "You know it." He smiled and looked up at Lois. "You wouldn't happen to have anything I could put some plaid on, would ya?"

While Lois rolled her eyes, Jordan flipped the page to a couple blank pictures. She pointed at the one on the right. "You can color that one, daddy. I'll color the other."

"Sounds great. Mommy, may I please have the red and yellow crayons?"

Lois couldn't help the stupid smile she found herself wearing after he called her that. She was really going to have to work on controlling her features better when she heard herself called mommy. She passed the crayons over to him. "There ya go, daddy. Enjoy your ridiculous plaid coloring."

Thinking about plaid, she was suddenly curious about something. "Say, where is all your plaid these days? Do you keep it hidden in the closet somewhere?"

"The shirt you woke up in last weekend in more or less the extent of the plaid in our apartment. I still have plenty of shirts out at the farm, though, for when we spend time there."

"That makes sense. I don't think I'd ever deprive you of the privilege of wearing plaid at the farm."

"You don't deprive me of it here, I just choose not to wear as much these days. Since the weather doesn't affect me, I usually just wear jeans and a t-shirt."

"Now hold on there, buster. You wear jeans and I don't? How does that work?"

Clark held up his hands in surrender. "Don't ask me, I'm just the husband. I like to think I know my wife well, but I'm never going to go so far as to say I can tell why you think what you think when you think it."

"Heck, I don't even know what I could have been thinking to give up my jeans!"

"It seems as though jeans are to you as plaid is to me: something both of us wear at the farm."

Lois didn't really have anything to add on to that, so she went back to coloring. It wasn't long until the meat loaf was ready, and they all sat down and had a good meal. They put Jordan down for the night a couple hours later and were sitting in the living room in a comfortable silence when Lois's mouth got itchy to raise some of the questions she'd thought of earlier.

"So, Smallville, my mind wandered earlier and came up with some interesting questions. Up for some Q&A?"

"Like I could be married to you and not be."

She noted the astute observation on his part, then carried on. "Ok then, first question: Do I go see a doctor while I'm pregnant, or do we just trust to fate that it'll be all good?"

"More of the latter than the former. Do you know anything about the Swann Institute?"

"I know of it, but not really what they do."

"Virgil Swann, before he died, found that I was from Krypton. He knew close to as much about it as I did before I did my training. His son is a medical doctor that joined the institute after his father's death. He knows everything about me, and with his background in medicine we use him to make sure everything is going according to plan, but we only see him every two or three months."

"Why so infrequently?"

"We didn't really see the need this time or last. You're a quick healing woman and our baby is pretty much invulnerable. A man actually punched you in the stomach while you were pregnant with Jordan and broke his hand. You carry very strong placentas."

Lois couldn't imagine somebody punching her in the gut and ending up with a broken hand. It was a pretty funny image in her head, though. "Abs of steel, eh? I like it."

Clark smiled and nodded. "So did I, after it scared the hell out of me."

"Next question then. Is my pregnancy normal human length?"

"Yes. Ten months from the start of your last period, just like every other human woman. Or... is it the end of it? I've never figured it out, but yes, normal. I don't know why doctors can't just say nine months from conception anymore."

"Good. If I had to go twelve months I was going to hurt you for inflicting extra pregnancy on me."

"If it helps, Jordan even came a little early. Not extremely so, but maybe a week or so before your due date."

Lois smiled. "It does help. I like the sound of early. Not too early, of course, but a couple weeks, or even one week doesn't hurt anything. And one of the few things I know about pregnancy is that the first labor is usually the longest. Too bad we don't know how long mine actually lasted."

"We'll be prepared this time, Lo."

"I should hope so. But, that brings me back around to my original thoughts on doctors. If I don't see a regular OBGYN, were we planning on me having the baby in a hospital or what?"

"That was the plan, yes. Dr. Swann would do the delivery and keep all the blood work as his eyes only. Shouldn't be a problem with abnormal results or anything that way."

Thinking about it, Lois figured it did seem to be a pretty sound plan. It made sense since they'd had time to figure these things out before. She'd only been going through it week and he had a child under his belt already. She figured that she did too, but since she couldn't remember it was just slightly annoyed.

"Ok then. Now, next question, which is less about baby and more about space." She waved her arms around at the apartment for a second. "This place is great. But it only has two rooms, and we'll soon need three unless you plan on people that aren't us bunking together."

"Ah, well, that might not be as much of a problem as you think. When we found out you were pregnant, we started house hunting pretty quickly. We put in a bid on a place not too long ago and got it."

Well, that was news. "Gee, thanks for letting me know, Smallville. When are we supposed to move?"

"About a month and a half. It's a great house, Lo. Four rooms, three bath, not including the basement. Big backyard with lots of trees in it and around the neighborhood. I think you'll like it, or at least you did recently."

Lois sighed, but gave him a small smile. "Well, I do trust my judgement more than anybody else's, and I have great taste, so I'm sure it'll be a great house. Just, next time I forget? Don't skimp on the details, Smallville."

He smiled and saluted her. "Aye aye."

"That's Navy. We say 'Yes, sir' in the army."

"Really? I could have sworn you were a sailor..."

"You are so lucky you're adorable because otherwise I would hurt you."

Lois's quickly realized what she'd said. Instead of being herself and stuttering over an explanation, though, she decided to just own up to it. "Yes, fine, I think you're adorable Smallville. Don't let it go to your head."

She watched him smile and took her hand in his. "Love you too, Lo."