---- Chapter 32

"To family, friends and happiness. May we have many more years with all of them. Happy Thanksgiving."

Lois smiled and took a drink from her raised glass as Bruce sat down. The turkey smelled amazing, courtesy of one Martha Kent. After taking a bite, she concluded that wherever Martha went, she would never make a bad meal. Lois could train for ten years and not make turkey as good as what she was eating.

She looked around the table, observing her family as they all ate, smiled and laughed with one another. Chloe and Bruce, surrounded by their children. The General, Martha, Jordan and Clark. How had she gotten so lucky as to have so many good people in her life?

"Mommy?"

Lois came out of her thoughts and looked down at the little girl sitting next to her. "Need something, kiddo?"

"Smashed potatoes, please."

Grabbing the bowl and poorly suppressing a smile at the term used by her daughter, Lois scooped out a little on to Jordan's plate. After placing a middling size scoop on her plate, she moved to put the bowl back on the table.

"More, please."

With a quick glance at her daughter, she shrugged and piled a little more on there. Looking at the plate, though, she found probable cause for why more were wanted. "You are going to have to finish your green beans, baby girl. Filling up on mashed potatoes isn't going to prevent that." Wait, would a three year old even think like that?

Lois watched Jordan frown and start poking at the beans with her fork, and figured that at least one would. Clever little devil. She took pity on her, though, and despite knowing it would set a bad precedence, grabbed a few of the beans off Jordan's plate and popped them in her mouth. She winked at Jordan before focusing on her own plate again, devouring a bite of turkey and gravy.

Time flew as lunch went by, Lois filling up on at least two helpings of everything, three on some and four of turkey. She, Clark and Chloe were the last ones eating, each of them finishing off some pie as everybody else sat and talked. The kids had taken off to do whatever they did a little while ago, having filled up a little quicker than most of their adult counterparts.

Lois sat back in her chair, slouching a little as she swallowed the last bite of her pie. As soon as she had done so, she yawned and really felt like taking a nap. She almost laughed at the thought that she and Jordan were even more alike, though at least she could attribute her post meal fatigue on the turkey. She was surprised that she hadn't needed to put Jordan down for a nap yet; they'd been eating for a good long while.

She listened to everybody talk for a little while, content to let the conversation focus on something other than her for a while. It seemed that whenever she entered a conversation these days, it invariably turned into something about her and the past. It was getting a bit tiresome, despite all the good intentions. She wanted to know about her past, but she was ready for the focus to move a little bit.

It became obvious to her that she had eaten far too much turkey when she yawned again and felt her eyes droop a bit. She sat up and cracked her neck before noticing that people were looking at her.

"What?"

Clark was the one that spoke. "That was a major league yawn, Lo. Why don't you grab a nap?"

"No, I'm fine. Tryptophan isn't going to..." She'd have continued her sentence but it was interrupted by another yawn. She rolled her eyes at herself.

"Tryptophan isn't your sole sleep inducer. Almond Joy is probably adding to that a bit."

"Fine, fine. I'll go take a nap to ease your mind, Smallville."

After telling everybody she'd see them later, Lois headed upstairs and into the room she shared with Clark. Bigger than their room at the apartment, it contained a sizable chest of drawers and a four post canopied bed that Lois thought was overkill. The thing was damn comfortable, though.

Instead of heading straight to the bed, Lois went to her suitcase and dug around a moment, finally finding what she was looking for after a few muttered curses and another yawn. She sat on the bed and pulled the covers up over herself before flipping through the diary to find the next entry she hadn't read.

12/1/17

Clark and I are in Gotham as I write this. Chloe's twins were born about an hour ago and (forgive my girly moment) are just about the cutest little things I've ever seen in my life. Alyson Marie Wayne was born first, 20 inches long and weighing in at 7lbs even. Twenty minutes later, Elizabeth Gillian Wayne was born an inch shorter but weighed 2 ounces more than her sister.

I'm told that they're larger than usual for twins, which makes me laugh since Chloe's only as big as she is. Both are healthy, though seem a bit perturbed by the nine hours of labor they had to go through. Neither has hair right now, but just in case you're wondering, they're fraternal. I can't tell if they look more like one parent or the other at this point, and I don't know if that will change with time.

Chloe's doing great and is as happy as I've ever seen her. We actually talked a couple hours before she went into labor and she said that she thought it could happen at any time. She was really happy that she made it to 38 weeks after reading so many stories of women with twins that only went 34 or 35 weeks. She knew the girls would have been fine had they been born then, but she wanted them to get as much time in utero as they could so she could take them home ASAP and not have to leave them in the hospital for a day or two after she'd been discharged.

Clark and I took today, Monday and Tuesday off of work so we could help out the new parents for a few days. I assume that most of the time we'll be watching Jack and keeping him company while his parents focus on the twins. He seems genuinely excited about the fact that he has sisters, though I'm sure he can't comprehend what having them will actually entail. We know what it's like to be excited about having a sister, and just how awry that can go. I'm sure he'll handle it like the little champ that he is, though.

Not surprisingly, the twins being born and helping take care of Jack has me thinking about kids and what exactly they entail. I'm sure until you actually raise one, it's a lot like being pregnant and you have no idea what it will be like. But having a life that is dependent on you entirely... the scare that puts into me is probably a little dulled by having Clark by my side, but still pretty intense.

What I do know, though, is that if we ever do have kids (I wonder if Kryptonian and Human genes are even compatible), Clark is going to be an amazing father. I watch the way he is with Jack whenever we're at the Wayne Manor or they come to Metropolis, and it just looks like he's in his natural state. He had that same natural look when he held Aly and Liz for the first time. He's loving, giving and just an overall softy with kids. It's adorable.

Last entry I was talking about how Lucy and Paul were going to start trying for baby number two (Baby fever appears to be in France, too, if Chloe didn't infect her while at the wedding). She actually called three days ago to tell me that she was pregnant. Lucy is still the kind of person that sets her mind to doing something and gets it done, no matter what the task may be. She's due in late July or early August, and I'm thinking that Clark and I may fly over to Paris to do a little helping there too, like we are here.

Of course, one doesn't know what will happen between now and then. It's entirely likely that I'll have been in at least five (ok, fifteen) life or death situations by summer, not to mention the life or death situations Clark puts himself in. Lex will undoubtedly try something to knock Superman off, or at least knock him off the pedestal he thinks people have wrongly put him on.

Speaking of Lex, he's been particularly nauseating lately. He's been publicly playing with the idea to run for office, which is something that could come to no good end, as you know. I can say with some certainty that his opponent would have a moral edge, even if he had spent a lifetime as car thief. The problem, of course, would be monetary. Lex would have his vast fortune and resources to use, and while that didn't help him back when he was running against Mr. Kent, he's probably refined his skills at using them since then. Plus, nobody in the world, outside of Martha, was ever as elect worthy as Jonathan Kent.

On a lighter note, Thanksgiving was ridiculous. Everybody went to the Wayne Manor, in what seems to be tradition now, but we ran into a slight problem: there wasn't any turkey to cook! How'd it happen? Nobody knows. Clark and I ended up flying to a barbeque joint in Atlanta that had some sliced, smoked turkey that we could buy. It was delicious, but it felt a little strange not to have a drumstick in front of me.

Huh. I just ended up taking a little break from writing because I was handed a small bundle of person to hold in the form of one Aly Wayne. Cute little thing, and very wiggly for being four hours old, or so I assume since my experience with babies is non-existent, as far as my memory recalls. She's got her mother's nose, but that was all I could tell for sure. Clark was holding little Liz, expertly of course.

Being married has been great. It really hasn't seemed to change things that much, aside from the fact that I have Kent added to my last name now (I was going to be Lois Kent, but Clark knew how much I love the name Lane was entirely supportive of me hyphenating so I went ahead and did it that way).

The honeymoon was a blast, though Europe is still rainy in the fall. Thinking about it, Spain is an odd place to go at that time of year. We tended to stay at the villa more often than flying to other places because of the weather. Well, to be honest it was because we didn't want to get out of bed, but we tell others it was because of the weather.

I think that's pretty much everything that went on since my last entry. The next time I update will be in the year 2018, which I still find hard to believe. How time flies when you forget every few years.

Lois closed the diary, yawning again. There hadn't really been any advice in that chapter, but she didn't consider it a big deal. Any revelations wouldn't have sunk in anyway. She got off the bed and buried the diary in her suitcase again, then got back into bed, covering herself up, and promptly fell asleep.

"Lo?"

Lois opened her eyes and blinked a couple times, not sure whose voice had woken her. She sat up so she wouldn't close her eyes and go back to sleep, finding Clark seated on the side of the bed.

"Yeah, Smallville?"

"I figured you'd want me to wake you up for dinner."

"Dinner? Jesus, how long did I sleep?"

"About four hours, but everybody else kind of conked out too. I went to check on Jordan not long after you came up and she'd fallen asleep in a pile of stuffed animals, so I put her in her bed. Chloe, Aly and Liz all slept together for a couple hours in Chloe and Bruce's room. Bruce and Jack went outside and did something together, and the General took a quick nap in the den."

Rubbing a hand over her face, Lois scooted over and swung her legs over the side of the bed, leaning her head on Clark tiredly. "What about you and your mom?"

"Mom cleaned and started on a couple more pies for dinner, since we demolished most of them earlier. I don't remember a Thanksgiving where she took a nap. I believe the woman is impervious to tryptophan. I made a couple saves in Metropolis, one of which was a house fire. That one happens every year when somebody tries to deep fry the turkey."

"Huh. Well, you said dinner, and I haven't eaten in about four hours, so I'm unsurprisingly kind of hungry. I think I'm actually getting used to this constant hunger thing, but I'm surprised other people are. Well, not Chloe, since she too is eating for two, and I've noticed you're always hungry, which is probably a Kryptonian thing, but I figured everybody else would still be stuffed."

"People will eat as they get hungry."

"And you figured I'd be hungry."

"That, and I figured if I let you sleep longer you'd be up until three or four in the morning."

"Well, I kind of doubt that, as tired as I feel today, but it's entirely possible. Pregnant or not, my hours haven't always been conventional."

Lois watched Clark stand up and took his hand when he offered it to help her up. They walked down to the kitchen together, finding Martha talking to Chloe. Martha was first to notice them and smiled.

"How'd you sleep, dear?"

Lois returned the smile. "I slept well enough that I'm still trying to wake up, but I think some food will help with that. Well, food that isn't turkey will wake me up, but I'm going to have a turkey sandwich or two anyway."

"You're just asking to be tired today, aren't you cuz?"

"It seems like it. Really, I blame this on you, Martha. If you didn't make such good turkey I wouldn't have this dilemma of not feeling like I've had enough of it. I fear that until all the turkey is gone, I will be very tired a majority of the time."

Martha just answered her with a smile as Lois winked at her with the end of the statement. She was soon in possession of a turkey sandwich and a couple slices of pie, which she downed with pleasure. She had always loved Thanksgiving food, and this year was no exception, and she was eating more of it in one day than the last two she could remember.

They all moved out to the TV room, where everybody else had congregated. The kids were all doing various things, with a classical music station playing through th television. Bruce and the General were both seated, speaking quietly on one side of the room. They all headed towards them, Lois in the lead as she carried her food.

She sat down next to her father, setting the plate down on her lap and grabbing the sandwich. She took a big bite and nearly moaned, it was so good. Only Martha Kent could figure out how to make leftovers better than what they'd tasted like hours ago. Lois watched as Chloe, sporting a sandwich of her own but no pie, also started digging in.

"You men are welcome to the sandwiches I made, too," Martha said to Bruce and Sam. "There are plenty since we had twenty pounds of turkey."

"Better too much than too little," Bruce said. "Besides, we've got two pregnant women and Clark, so we should go through the turkey faster than a small army."

"I think you underestimate army men, Bruce," the General added with a grin.

Clark leaned forward and glanced at Lois, grinning at her, and spoke. "I think you underestimate just how much Lois liked to eat before she was pregnant, let alone..." He stopped when he caught Lois glaring at him. "What?"

"Why not just come straight out and call me a pig, Clark?"

"Because that would be a lie. What isn't a lie is that you like to eat, right?"

"Everybody likes food, Smallville."

"And you like it a little bit more than most people. Come on, Lo, we're with family. Everybody here has seen you take on a large pizza and win with ease. Yes, I'm saying you eat a lot, but so what? Are you going to deny it?"

She glared at him even harder, but he just stood there, smirking. She just rolled her eyes and took a bite of her sandwich, swallowing before she replied. "Fine. I like to eat. No crime in that, right?"

"If there were, there might be a lot more skinny people in some parts of the world these days. Or at least more large people in jail."

"Then I think everybody is right. It is better to have too much food, Bruce underestimates army men, and daddy underestimates just how hungry I am these days." She shook her head. "If I were to eat as much as I feel like I could, I would gain seventy pounds while pregnant. I'm starting to think that I'm more ravenous than I should be, really."

"Don't worry, it tapers off. You were the same way with Jordan. Remember how I told you that you went from not showing to very obviously showing within a couple weeks?"

"Of course."

"Well, your appetite then was just as big as it is now. It tapered off after a week or two more and wasn't quite so strong the rest of the time, though it was plenty healthy."

"Well, at least there's that. As much as I love eating, even I can get sick of it."

Having finished her sandwich, she started in on one of her slices of pie.

"Lois?"

"Yeah?"

"You're eating pie like pizza again."

"I know."

"Just making sure."