---- Chapter 31

"I knew it! I knew I was the one to do the jumping, no matter when it happened. Memory or not, it is a fact that Lois Lane is far more bold than Clark Kent."

"You say that like I'm going to argue the point, Lo. Quite the opposite. While a lot of times that boldness can get you into trouble, it also brings about a lot of times I enjoy greatly."

"Times you enjoy greatly? Jeez, Smallville, call it what it appears to really be which is mind blowing se... hey Jordan!" Had she really almost just said mind blowing sex in front of her daughter? She wouldn't have known what it meant, but she was going to have to keep an eye out. Lois was a little surprised the situation hadn't happened sooner.

"I'm thirsty."

Before Lois could answer, Chloe piped up. "What would you like, sweetheart? We've got pretty much whatever your heart desires."

"Milk, please."

While Chloe moved over to the fridge, Lois looked at Clark, who was smiling. "You appear to be happy that you passed on your love for lactose."

"I'm just happy she takes after me in any way. As you may have noticed, her personality is much like her mother's. The fact that she loves milk is, so far, the only personality trait I seemed to have passed on. Anything else is too subtle to have noticed, and trust me, I've been paying attention."

Lois watched Jordan sip at her milk next to Chloe. After having quenched her thirst, the little girl handed the glass back and ran off to go play some more.

"Yes, well, I'm not all that thrilled that she seems to be a mini me. I know what being me entails, and lemme tell ya, it isn't a picnic. But hey, at least she probably won't be a brooder."

"There's nothing wrong with an occasional brood. Now, yes, I was prone to do so more than occasionally..."

"Understatement of the year, that."

"Yeah," Chloe added, "I think you were prone to occasional bouts of normal in between broods there for a while. And yet, my cousin fell for you and I fell in love with somebody that did it more often and better. The hell does that say about us?"

"It says you are a compassionate, caring women that like their men introspective, dear."

Lois looked over at Bruce, an eyebrow raised. "I didn't know that brooding and introspection were the same thing. They might have been similar for you, but Clark was in no way thinking about his thoughts. He was being mopey." She grinned and looked over at Clark.

"I wasn't always being mopey, but yeah, my introspection was limited." He glanced down at his watch and grimaced. "Dang, I'm late. I was supposed to be in Smallville to pick up mom ten minutes ago."

She watched him jog out of the room, then turned to her hosts. "So, when is everybody else due to get here? Who does everybody else consist of?"

"The General, and he should be here soon. I'm not sure what time he was due in, but when we talked before you lost your memory you said it would be around dinner time when his plane got in. It is now that time, as you may have noticed."

"I did. What are we doing for food once everybody is here?"

"No clue. We could send Clark out for food once everybody is settled and we decide what we want."

"You know, with as much as he goes out to get food, I feel like I should be tipping him whenever he comes in holding bags. Maybe I'll be able to get him to cook more when we head back to Metropolis."

"Well, after tonight all of the dinners are planned. We'll do turkey tomorrow afternoon for lunch and have leftovers for dinner. Friday we were going to grill burgers, Saturday we're having steak and Sunday is fajitas."

"That all sounds really, really good."

"Yeah, you're going to love the marinade the chef uses for the steaks."

A little while later they were sitting in the TV room, watching with the kids, when Martha and Clark walked in. Jordan bounced up out of the seat she was in.

"Grandma!"

Martha picked her up and pulled her into a hug. "How are you, Jordan?"

"Good. Wanna watch TV with us?"

"I would love to, sweetie." Lois watched Martha carry her over to where Jordan had been sitting and sat down with the girl in her lap. Clark came over and sat down next to her.

"Sam here yet?"

"Nope. I doubt daddy will take much..." The bell rang, and Lois shrugged. "Nevermind. That's probably him."

A minute later, the General walked into the room. Lois smiled when she saw him; he definitely looked like he had aged, but there was a light in his eyes that she couldn't remember being there since her mom had died. He actually looked happy. She got up and went over to him, giving him a hug.

"Hi, daddy."

"My little Lo. How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok. I've adjusted to the new year, and I already love Jordan and this new baby like you wouldn't believe. I'm sorry we haven't had the chance to talk before this."

"It's ok. Clark kept me appraised of the situation, so I know what's been going on."

"Good." She pulled out of his embrace and faced everybody else in the room. "All right folks, now that everybody is here, what do we want to do about dinner?"

Various responses were yelled by each of the children, leaving Lois with no more choices than she'd had a moment ago. "Ok young people, let's try this again. One at a time, in alphabetical order. What would you like, Aly?"

"Spaghetti."

"Ok, we have one vote Italian. Jack?"

"Veal."

Lois eyed him a second before turning to look at Bruce and Chloe. Chloe simply shrugged while Bruce smiled slightly. She'd wondered where Bruce was in the boy, and she seemed to have gotten the answer. She turned back to the kids. "Jordan?"

"Wontons!"

"One emphatic vote Chinese. Liz?"

"Macaroni and Cheese, please."

"And one vote for homemade." She looked to the adults. "So, we have Italian, Veal, Chinese and homemade to choose from."

Martha spoke first. "I'd be happy to make some macaroni and cheese with Liz. I have a son that used to like the stuff a lot."

"He still does. I'm on board for mac and cheese, mom."

Lois nodded at all that. "All right, that takes care of a couple people. Chloe?"

"I'm with Jordan on the Chinese. That sounds really good."

"Ok. Bruce?"

"I think I'll scrounge up something with Jack." He looked over at his son. "I don't know if we'll be able to have veal, but I think we can find something."

"I'll join them, if they don't mind," the General added. Bruce nodded.

"Well, this seems to have worked out well then, because the spaghetti option has my mouth watering." She looked over to Aly. "Mind if I join you in scarfing down some noodles and meatballs?" The girl smiled brightly at the prospect. It made Lois happy that her nieces and nephew liked her.

An hour later, they were all seated around the table eating their respective meals. Lois and Aly were sharing a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs, courtesy of Clark going and picking it up in Little Italy. Chloe and Jordan were downing Chinese food like it was going out of style, again courtesy of Clark. Jack, Bruce and the General were all eating steaks that were intended for the weekend, and all were claiming that they'd be fine to eat steak again when the weekend came. Finally, Liz, Clark and Martha were all eating mac and cheese, Clark and Liz also having some hot dogs they'd found in the fridge.

Lois looked around the table, unable to contain the smile that broke out. She wished Lucy could have been with them, but everybody else that she loved was at the table, and for lack of a better term, it warmed her heart. Who knew that she could be so happy having a family dinner? Hell, who knew that she'd even ever have a family dinner?

Soon afterwards, everybody was finished and all the dishes had been cleaned up. Once again, the children had headed to the TV room, this time to watch a movie. Clark had volunteered to chaperone, even though they'd left them on their own most of the day, so Lois decided to go with him while the rest of the adults stayed back to talk in the dining room.

All the younger folk had decided to sit up close to the television, so Lois took a seat in the back while Clark started up a kids movie that she hadn't ever heard of before. Clark flipped off the lights in the room before sitting down net to her. A few minutes passed in the movie before Clark started speaking to her.

"So, how're you handling everything?

"What is there to handle?"

"Well, I just told you about the first time we made love not two hours ago, and while I know you appear to be ok with it, you're able to hide things in that head of yours pretty well."

She looked over at him, able to make out his profile in the darkness of the room. "I'm okay with it, Smallville. Why wouldn't I be? Actually, how it happened is kind of how I imagined it had. I never for a second thought our first time together would be something you see in a movie where there are candles, romantic music and whatever else."

"Good. I'm glad."

"What I am curious about, though, is Lucy. You told me she lives in Paris with her family and plays violin in the orchestra. If that's true, how'd she get out of charges in the plot to attack the Justice League?"

"Good question."

---

Clark woke up, pushing the snooze button on his alarm with his free hand. He opened his eyes, which took what felt like a lot more effort than some of his Superman duties, and looked down to find Lois with a leg draped over his and her head resting on his chest. He wasn't surprised; in the week and a half since what Chloe had taken to calling the Cinco de Mayo Incident, he'd yet to wake up without Lois on or next to him.

The first morning they'd woken up together, he was shocked that there hadn't been any awkwardness. Everything had felt normal, like it was the most natural thing in the world that they would be waking up in bed together. To him, it was the most natural thing in the world, but he hadn't expected for it to be the same way for her. Things that felt natural weren't always the same for them.

He'd been pleasantly surprised, and they hadn't spent a night apart since.

Sighing, he knew that he needed to wake her up. She was going to want to take first shower again, if they actually took separate showers this time. That had become something they did together. Thinking about it, they'd started doing a lot of things together recently. He couldn't help the grin that stole across his face.

After another minute of losing himself in thought, Clark starting running a hand over Lois's hair, moving to her shoulder and down her arm. She started to stir, attempting to bury her face in his chest.

"Time to get up, babe."

"No." Her response was mumbled, at best.

"Yeah, it is."

She looked up at him, only one eye open. "Not that. No to you calling me 'babe' or any other nickname of the sort."

"And here I thought I could be typical. Won't allow it, will you?"

She pushed herself up off of him, and kissed him softly. "Like you could ever be anything but atypical. I just don't want a crappy run-of-the-mill nickname."

"I'm just going to end up calling you Lo like Chloe and the General, aren't I?

"Can't argue with what works, Smallville." She yawned, then grinned before speaking again. "So, feel like joining me for a shower?"

Two hours later, Clark followed Lois out of the elevator into the bullpen.

"Lane! Kent!"

Clark saw Perry beckoning them over to his office, then heard Lois speak. "Ya know, being late today is all your fault."

"Oh, this should be good."

"See, while I was the one that invited you to take a shower with me, you're the one that had to go and make it all... sexual. I just wanted somebody to wash the spots I couldn't reach."

"Yeah, right."

"Are you calling me a liar?"

"I'm calling you a grade A horn dog. I know it's only been a week and a half, and I am in no way complaining about this, but the day you invite me into the shower to wash the spots you can't reach is the day I no longer help people in my own special way."

Before she had a chance to respond, he guided her into Perry's office, where they each sat down.

"How's the investigation going?"

Lois spoke first. "Not great, chief. We're working on finding some leads. The personnel in the file that aren't working for Panther Corp. have disappeared off the face of the Earth, as far as we can tell, and I can't find Lucy anywhere to make contact with her. The General isn't having any luck either, but he's supposed to get back to me today on who might be connected to this in the government."

"All right. What about you, Kent?"

"I have a couple contacts that think they might be able to get some files for me soon. I'm hoping to get those in the next couple days. Other than that... we'd really have to travel to D.C. to get more done."

"Well, we'll hold off on that for now, but..."

Perry was interrupted by a ringing. Clark looked over at Lois, who mumbled a quick apology before pulling her phone out. Looking at it, her eyes went wide. "It's Lucy!" She flipped it open.

"Lucy! Where the hell have you been? What? No, I'm still investigating it, which is why... WHAT? Seriously? He did and didn't tell me? No, I'm going to ask him about it. All right, I can keep your name out of it. Yeah. Ok, I'll talk to you soon."

Lois closed her phone and sat back in the chair. Clark glanced at Perry before speaking to Lois.

"What did she have to say?"

Lois chewed on her lip for a second before looking at him. "My sister's a government agent."

---

"WHAT?"

All the children looked back at her, surprised that she'd yelled during the movie. She ran a hand through her hair. "Sorry, guys."

When they'd all looked back to the screen, Lois motioned to Clark to head out to the hallway. Once there, she felt like she could speak at a normal volume again. She locked eyes with Clark.

"Lucy was a government agent?"

"Yeah. Believe it or not, she got recruited by the NSA. The Paul she was with back then was a mark that she used to infiltrate the people planning the attack. With her help, the Justice League and the government worked together to stop it before it could happen and a majority of those involved are currently incarcerated for a long period of time."

"But not Lex."

"No."

"So, the Paul she's married to now..."

"Just a coincidence. She actually met and married him within a year of that phone call."

Lois shook her head, not able to believe what she was hearing. "So, how many more assignments did she have?"

"She's never said. All she told us was that once she found out she was pregnant with Tommy, she left the agency and took up violin full time again. Thus, she plays for the Paris Orchestra."

"Ya know, as ridiculous as it is, that sounds like Lucy. A spy one day, a violinist the next."