---- Chapter 26
"Today sucked."
"It's good to see you too, cuz."
Lois smiled sheepishly, pulling Chloe into a hug. They were in Wayne Manor, Lois, Clark and Jordan having just arrived for Thanksgiving. Jordan and the Wayne brood had already run off to play while Clark and Bruce had started walking off, discussing something amongst themselves. She watched them out of the corner of her eye for a second before looking back to Chloe.
"You know I'm always happy to see you, Chlo. It's just been a less than stellar day up until our arrival."
Lois followed Chloe as she led them into one of the smaller living rooms. They sat down in a couple of plush chairs that were facing each other, a small coffee table between them. Lois looked around the room, taking in the classic movie posters that she figured were all Chloe's doing. Bruce probably would have left the walls bare.
"Ok Lo, please elaborate on your 'Today sucked' announcement. You've got a captive audience to whom you can rant."
"Ok, so I woke up this morning, Clark's chest almost pulling me back to sleep after he turned off the alarm..."
Chloe held up a hand. "Clark's chest? It's been ten days and you're already sleeping with Clark?"
"No! Well yes, but no. We're married with a daughter and another kid on the way, Chloe, so I figured sleeping in the same bed as the guy wouldn't be a big deal. Of course, this was before I found out that not only does my body remember sleeping with Clark, but laying my head on his chest puts me to sleep faster than taking a handful of sleeping pills. It's also strangely comfortable for being rock hard muscle."
"So, same bed, no..."
Lois rolled her eyes as Chloe drew out the last word. "No, there is no sex. Like you said, it's been all of ten days. I mean, we kissed that first Sunday, but..."
"You kissed him on the second day you could remember since 2008?"
"He was being all confident and sexy! Clark's always been a hottie, but the thing that kept him away from a romantic possibility was his seemingly innate mopiness. If you haven't noticed, the man is EXTREMELY mope free these days, and when not at work being a dork on purpose, is a very confident man that saves people on a daily basis."
Lois looked down at the ground, not meeting Chloe's wide eyes. "And, ya know, he's still Clark. When he wasn't moping back in the day, he was just about the nicest guy you could ever meet."
Lois sat back in her chair, looking at everything but Chloe for a minute until the discomfort of the moment finally got to her and she looked up to meet her cousin's eyes. The blonde was smiling in a fashion that Lois thought far too devious.
"You are falling for him quick this time."
"Falling? I am not falling for Clark just because I kissed him once and, ya know, sleep in the same bed with him and use his chest for a pillow... oh God, who am I kidding? He's probably the greatest man I could ever hope to know, what with the saving people and the world.
"He loves me so much; I caught him staring at me yesterday at work with this look that just screamed 'I love you, Lois,' and I just about let myself look at him the same. All that, and he's a great father to Jordan. Then I imagine him with AJ and get all these warm, fuzzy feelings that are entirely foreign to me and as much as I want to fight them, I just keep having them and they're breaking down my defenses like they aren't even there!"
Chloe smiled at her, standing up and moving to sit in the chair with Lois. She scooted over as Chloe sat down, wrapping an arm around Lois's shoulders.
"If it makes you feel any better, the last time you woke up and couldn't remember anything it only took about a month for you to fall in love with him. Seems you may be gone by the three week point this time."
"I blame two people for this: Jordan and AJ. First, I blame Jordan because the love I feel for her is unlike anything I've felt before. She's my daughter, and it's just... well, you know."
Chloe nodded her head and Lois continued.
"The love I feel for Jordan leaves me susceptible, having weakened my overall defenses towards love in general. That leads me to AJ. For AJ, the love is almost the same as it is for Jordan, but different because he or she is more concept than reality at this point. Though, the fact that I couldn't button the first pair of pants I wanted to put on this morning quickly pushed concept much closer to reality."
"Yeah, I'm starting to show too." Chloe lifted up the bottom of her shirt and pushed the top of her pants down a little, showing off a small but definitive bump.
"See, that's where I was going to start with the today sucked, but somehow we ended up on Clark and changing feelings instead. Only we could go from my pants not fitting to my love life before we even got to my pants not fitting."
"No kidding. Anyway, you were talking about Almond Joy?"
"Right. Similar but different love because of the in utero thing he or she has going on these days. With Jordan, it's love. With AJ, it's love and these warm, fuzzy feelings that I was talking about earlier. It's like I feel almost peaceful or something when I have AJ musings. Is that just me, or do you get that too with your as yet unseen child?"
"When I get lost in thought about this one, plain old happy is what I tend to feel more than warm and fuzzy. Of course, since I'm not having the first child I can remember being pregnant with I'm... well, I guess I'm a little desensitized to it." Chloe frowned at her own statement. "I can't decide if that makes me sad or not."
"I'll trade ya, cuz. I don't know how much more warm fuzziness I can take before I do something rash."
"Like fall totally in love with Clark?"
"Exactly."
"You poor, poor woman. How terrible it must be to feel overcome with love for your internal and external children, not to mention on the verge of being swept off your feet by a man you've fallen in love with three times before."
"Oh that's real helpful, Chloe."
Lois looked over to find Chloe rolling her eyes and raising an eyebrow at her. "Fine, fine. How about I take you back to the first time you were all apprehensive about your feelings about Clark? It might sound a lot like what we were just talking about, though no children or warm, fuzzy feelings will be involved."
"I could use a story free of feelings in general, but I guess I'll take what I can get. Lay it on me."
"Alright then. You two had your first date October 5th, 2013, a Saturday. Our conversation took place the night before."
---
Yawning, Chloe stepped out of the taxi she'd taken from the airport and walked up the steps to the apartment building. Smiling at the doorman, she walked in without him saying anything to her. She figured Lois must have let him know she was coming. Either that or the place really needed a better doorman.
The ride up to her floor on the elevator was brisk, but had surprisingly good music going. She couldn't remember another elevator where they'd played Wolfmother, though admittedly an odd choice for elevator music. The door opened and she got out, walking up to the door of Lois's apartment and knocking a couple times. She waited a moment, and was raising her hand to knock again when the door was flung open and she was pulled in by Lois.
"Chloe, thank God you're here. I'm freaking out, and it's just..."
"Slow down, Lo. First off, no treating the pregnant lady like she's a rag doll. Second, I can count on very few fingers the number of times you've freaked out, so what's going on? And in calm tones, so I can understand all the words."
Her calm tones request was apparently very ignorable. "It was just another day! I was minding my own business, well, getting into other people's business because that is my business, but then the day blind sided me! No warning, just a straight out of the blue whack to the back of my head. And I said yes! Why did I say yes?"
Chloe placed her hands on Lois's face, forcing her to stop rambling and look at her. "You are making very little sense, Lo, and if you don't start I am going to shake you for your own good. Now, slowly and calmly, tell me what has your head spinning like a top."
She released Lois's face and took a step back, waiting for some dire news she hadn't heard yet that Lois had to cover.
"Clark asked me out."
Well it was about damn time. She'd thought he was going to chicken out instead of doing what he'd told her and his mother he was going to do by the end of the week. "That's it? You had me fly from Gotham to Metropolis because Clark asked you out?"
"And I said yes!"
"Well I should hope so; the man's wanted to ask you out before he even went on his trip. He might have done something drastic like start brooding again had you said no. What I don't understand is why you're freaking out about going on a date."
"It's with Clark!"
"Why is that a bad thing? He's probably the kindest, most caring man you'll ever meet. He's now 100 brood free, and yeah, he's more clumsy than he used to be, but mostly it's around you because he doesn't know what to do with himself when you're around."
Chloe hated lying to Lois about why Clark was such a klutz at work, but it wasn't anything she hadn't done a hundred times before in similar situations.
"Clark Kent, Chloe. Smallville. The Man in Plaid. He with whom I do not get along well!"
Chloe let out an exasperated sigh. "First off, you two have been getting along great ever since he got back. Secondly, with all your anti-Clarkness, why the hell did you say yes?"
"Because I... because he..." She threw up her hands in the air. "I don't know, damn it! It was the end of the day after our best week together as partners. We're clicking as a team, ya know?"
"I do know, I read the paper every day."
"There ya go! So we're packing up our stuff and he's being more clumsy than usual when he suddenly straightens out and looks all confident like. It was really reminiscent of somebody, but I can't place it. Anyway, he does that, walks over next to me and looks me straight in the eye, saying 'Lo, will you go out with me tomorrow night?'
"I, of course, didn't think he meant on a date at first. We've more or less become inseparable because of our partnership, and are kind of best friends in a strange, argumentative kind of way. Not the point, though. He asked, I said sure because I never have plans anymore because of my scars inside and out, and he said 'Great! I was kinda scared you wouldn't want to go out on a date with me since we're partners now.' After that he offered to go with me down to the lobby, but I was so shocked I just pushed him into going home, making some excuse about a call to make."
"I take it the call you made was to me."
"Yeah. After that I came home and have been freaking out ever since."
"Why?"
"Clark freaking Kent! I cannot go out with Smallville!"
Dear God, they were going in circles. Chloe had enough of the standing, though, and walked over to her cousin's couch and sat down heavily. Her hand ran over her burgeoning stomach a couple times before she even realized it was taking any action at all. She smiled a second before realizing she was still dealing with Lois's nonsense.
"Give me a real reason, Lo. So help me, if you say because he's Captain Plaid I will get Bruce to do something to knock some sense into you."
"Oh please, I can take Bruce."
"Reasons, please!"
She watched as Lois started to pace in a large circle around the apartment, making two circuits before speaking. "I don't know, ok? That's most of the reason I'm freaking out. The fact that I can't think of any good reasons to not go out with him scares the crap out of me. The best I can do is be all girly and say that I don't want to lose him as a friend.
"The man's never even entered my mind as a romantic option before. Now that he's put himself there, I can't seem to find anything wrong with it! It's like I've been infected with some brain eating virus that leaves me considering crazy ideas like going on dates with Clark, and it is threatening to drive me mad very quickly."
"Will you be mad by the time you two go out tomorrow?"
"Not helping! So much not helping!"
"I'm not trying to! If you haven't noticed by my questions and observations, I see absolutely nothing wrong with you and Clark going out on a date. He's everything you could possibly want in a guy, and then some. Plus, you haven't gone out on a date since you lost your memory back in April, not to mention not getting any..."
"Chloe! I am not going to go out with Clark just because I haven't had sex in... well, at least since April."
"Then why are you going out with him?"
"Because I could really like him!"
"Could?"
"I don't know... he's a great guy and would probably be a step above most of the guys I remember dating. If we survived the first few dates and went a couple months without killing each other, I think he could be somebody I love."
A shocked look overtook Lois's face, prompting Chloe to fall over laughing. Finally, she'd just come out and said it instead of giving her the run around.
"I know that, Lois. Hell, when we talked last weekend you spent the majority of the conversation talking about Clark doing this or Clark helping with that. It wasn't difficult to figure out."
"Then why the hell didn't you tell me? I feel a little... no, a lot shocked by this revelation!"
"Because you'd have completely denied it or just freaked out. Your present condition is prime evidence of that."
Lois finally stopped pacing around her apartment and sat down next to Chloe. She leaned over and rested her head on Chloe's shoulder. "There's a problem with all this though, Chloe. A real one."
"What's that?"
"My feelings for Superman."
Uh oh. "Feelings for Superman? What feelings would those be?"
"I think I love him, Chlo."
Chloe really wished she could take one good swing at Clark and not break her hand. The man never failed to make anything and everything ten times more complicated than it needed to be. Time to break out her Clark Kent helping skills again.
"How well do you actually know Superman, Lois?"
"He's saved me a few times and gave me the exclusive interview, plus we've talked a couple times a week ever since he started saving people."
Maybe Bruce could find a way to hurt Clark without kryptonite. It seemed like a Batman kind of problem. "Ok, how in depth have your conversations been? Not how many times have you been able to thank him for saving your life, but how well have you gotten to know him?"
"Well, we've talked, and I have asked him about his likes and dislikes. I mean, I guess I don't know him all that well in the grand scheme of things, but since when has that been a prerequisite for love? Not to go all mushy on you, but a lot of people do believe in love at first sight."
Chloe scoffed. "You don't."
"No, not technically, but I think I can be swayed, because my first sigh of him..."
"Yeah, right. Do you think Superman would ever actually go out on a date with you?" If only she knew.
"How should I know?"
"I'm going to venture a guess and say no. He doesn't seem like a guy that is going to have a roaring social life."
"This coming from the woman that married Batman."
"That small detail aside, here's what I think you should do: Go out with Clark. Have a good time, and if nothing else, a free meal. You two know each other pretty well, and it's not like you've never had dinner together before."
She watched as Lois stood up and started pacing again. "But it's never been on a date before!"
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Be that as it may, give it a chance, Lo. I think you two can be great together."
The pacing stopped. "Really?"
Smiling, Chloe stood up and pulled Lois into a hug. "I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it, would I?"
---
"That... that definitely sounds like a reaction to dating Smallville that I would have." Lois smiled slightly at her cousin, who returned the smile. "But, I was in love with Superman at the time?"
"Pretty much. I couldn't talk you out of what you felt for him, no matter what I did."
"Huh. How did the date go then?"
"That, I believe, is something you should ask your husband. I was involved in the aftermath, but he has the unique perspective of being there."
