---- Chapter 34

Lois yawned as she sat with Clark, Chloe, Bruce and Jack. It was Sunday afternoon, Martha and the General having already headed home. All the younger children were currently napping, and Lois wouldn't have been opposed to joining them. She thought Jack looked like he had heavy eyelids too, but he claimed he didn't need a nap so she figured she didn't either, despite what her body told her.

She leaned over, laying her body over the couch she and Clark had to themselves and put her head in his lap. He started playing with her hair as he smiled down at her.

"Tired?"

"If Jack's awake, so am I. Plus, I think it's time for another story from our past."

"Do you now? What has your interest?"

"Our relationship and the second time I forgot."

"I think I can manage that. Chloe, you think I can manage that?"

She smiled at him playing around with this. Lois just found him too adorable for words sometimes.

"Clark, I think nobody in the world could manage it better than you could."

"Thanks for the faux praise. Ok then, to the story we go."

- - -

"Well it's about damn time!"

Clark cocked an eyebrow at Chloe. "I take it you think I should have done this sooner."

"I thought you'd have done it a year ago. It's been over a year and a half since you two got together in your entirely original way. You two are the only adults I know that could move as smoothly as you did from friends to lovers. Your lives barely changed."

"The only thing that really changed was where we slept. We were spending all out time together anyway, and knew almost all of each others secrets."

"Yeah, the almost part of that coming out is why I can't believe you were able to transition the way you did. Seriously, you and Lois are the only two in the world that could have that big of a confession, make up and sleep together for the first time all in the same day. Well, not the only two, but I think you're in select company."

Clark slouched down into the couch a little more, smiling at Chloe. "The day we do something normally will be a strange day indeed. And yeah, I could have proposed sooner, but... well, I just never thought Lois would be one to get into a quick engagement."

He watched Chloe open her mouth to say something, but it was promptly closed. Her brow knitted together a second before she spoke. "Alright, I'll concede that point. Though, if she were going to do it, it would have been with you. Do you have a ring yet?"

Clark dug around in his pocket a second before pulling out the ring he wanted Lois to have. He handed it to Chloe, who seemed to be entranced by it.

"Holy... isn't this Martha's?"

"It is, and it was my grandmother's before that. I was going to ask her if I could use it, but when I told her that I was going to propose she immediately handed me her ring. She either knew the question was coming or wasn't leaving me a choice, but either way I have a ring for Lois."

"And I thought it just looked beautiful. The fact that Martha gave it to you before you even had a chance to ask... well, it tells you how she feels about the two of you as much as anything." She handed the ring back to him, and he stared at it a moment before pocketing it again.

"So, uh, think she'll say yes?"

Chloe stared at him a moment, her mouth hanging open. Clark looked away after a few seconds, getting uncomfortable under her gaze.

"Tell me that was a bad attempt at humor."

"That was a bad attempt at humor."

"Damn well better be. You cannot ask that and mean it, not after this last year and a half."

Clark shrugged. "What can I say? Lois has always made me a little nervous. Hell, you know that better than anybody, even Lois."

Chloe eyed him with squinted eyes fro a second before sitting back in her chair. The two sat in silence for a moment. "When are you planning on asking her?"

"Soon. Tomorrow, maybe. It'll be Sunday, and we could take Monday off from work. We're due some time off anyway; Perry's been working us both to the bone lately because of all the criminal activity that Superman has had to stop."

"Any ideas on what's going on?"

"Maybe the shine has come off the ideals I try to show as Superman, and people are getting bolder. It could be that something or someone is pushing the crime wave forward, urging it on. It's something that would be just up Lex's alley, thinking about it, but he isn't the source of all evil in Metropolis." He paused a second. "Just most of it."

Chloe looked like she wanted to add something, but Bruce walked in holding Jack. She got out of her chair, smiling at them both. Clark stood up too, observing their family dynamic. Jack reached for Chloe and she pulled him into her arms. She looked to Bruce.

"I'm surprised he woke up from his nap already."

"I am too, but when I went in to check on him he was up and alert. He wanted to see you, and here we are."

"And here you are." She looked to Jack. "How are you doing, little guy?"

"Milk."

"Interesting answer. Makes me kind of curious as to what I would get if I were to ask if you what you wanted. So, milk you say?"

Jack nodded and Chloe propped him on her hip. "Ok then. Milk it is."

Clark and Bruce followed her to the kitchen, watching as she pulled a sippy cup out and handed it to her son. He pulled it up to his mouth and started drinking eagerly, all of the adults watching him a moment before focusing on each other again.

"Clark's planning to propose."

"About time."

Clark rolled his eyes. "I'm getting grief from you? You two were together nearly three years before you proposed to Chloe."

"True. The difference is that Chloe and I were starting from scratch. You and Lois were, for all intents and purposes, a couple before you were actually a couple. You did everything couples do except the intimate touches."

"I don't know..."

"Tell me, how much did things change when you two got together?"

"Not much, really. Just sleeping arrangements, for the most part."

"Then I stand by my statement. You two were a couple before either of you even realized it."

Clark frowned, thinking about everything that had gone on. It was true that they'd made such a seamless transition that neither of them had even really noted the difference. Lois had commented a few months in on how they spent most of their nights at her apartment, but it wasn't a surprise, just something she said. Four months after her comment, neither owned an individual apartment any longer as they'd moved into a new apartment together.

It was spacious, at the top of a building so that he could take off as need be without having to worry too much about being seen. Good sized master bedroom with a second bedroom that they were going to use as a study or junk room, whichever was more useful. For some reason she'd taken to decorating the place in some very familiar primary colors, which surprised the hell out of him. He figured she'd have wanted some variance with the colors in her life.

Living together had been just as natural as becoming a couple. She loved that he was able to clean everything so quickly, and rarely bothered to do much of it herself. It didn't really bother him, since the few times he'd seen her try her hand at housework she'd become more annoyed than when he used to disappear to help people with only a flimsy excuse. He found it cute, but then he found just about anything she did cute.

"How are you going to propose?"

Clark snapped out of his thoughts and looked to Chloe, who was still holding jack.

"I don't really have a plan. I don't even feel like I need a plan. If I make some big romantic gesture I'm just as likely to get laughed at for being too over the top as I am praise. I'll just do it when it feels natural. Seems to be the way we've done everything else along the way."

"But it's definitely happening tomorrow?" Chloe sounded more excited about the proposal than he felt.

"Yes, it will definitely happen tomorrow."

"Lois?"

Clark looked around the apartment, not yet resorting to x-ray vision but unable to find her. He went into their bedroom, looking around for a second. A piece of paper on the bed caught his eye. He walked over and picked it up, unfolding it.

Smallville:

Went to grab a few things at the store. Wanted to get some ingredients so I could attempt a nice dinner tonight, with your help. Shouldn't be gone long.

Love, Lois

Clark smiled. After a nice dinner together tonight, a proposal tomorrow would be a pretty good follow up. Should be a good surprise.

Since he hadn't had a chance to shower that morning, he hopped in and scrubbed off the grime of a couple early saves. It was late afternoon, now, and he was a little surprised that nobody had needed to be saved since he morning, but sometimes there were days like that. He wasn't going to complain if there was peace in the city.

He got out of the shower and dried himself off at normal speed, putting on jeans and a t-shirt again. Once they were done with the actual making of dinner, which always got their clothes messy, he'd switch into some nicer clothes. He grabbed the ring and slipped it in his pocket. He'd always been awful at hiding things, and her hands were rarely in his pockets.

He walked out into the living room, running a hand through his drying hair. He kind of missed the longer hair he used to have, but it was so much less hassle now that he didn't ever grow it back.

He got a glass of water, sipping at it as he tried to figure out what Lois would want to make tonight. He pulled out some pans that they used for almost everything, figuring she'd want to get started when she got back. Whenever they did something like this, they generally made something Italian.

As if on cue, he heard the door opening and a muttered curse. He smiled and walked over to the door, watching her back in. He loved watching her walk, be it from the front or back.

"Need some help, Lo?"

"Nope. Got it all, and..." Lois kicked the door shut. "Now I'm in." She walked over to the kitchen table and sat the bags of groceries down on it, smiling at him. She flexed her fingers a couple times, apparently having strained them as she carried the plastic bags.

"So, what are we making tonight?"

"We are making classic American fare: cheeseburgers."

Well, that wasn't the answer he was expecting. It certainly wasn't Italian. "I have to ask, since you said a nice dinner in your note on the bed, how did you come to the conclusion of cheeseburgers for dinner?"

"It was a complicated thought process. I started out wanting to make something ornate, like veal. Then I remembered that it's me. So then I fell back on to the usual stuff, such as lasagna, manicotti and other such noodle type foods. But, really, whenever we do something nice it's the kind of thing. I thought we needed to spice things up a bit."

"And that spice is cheeseburgers?"

"Well, no, because when I thought about spicing things up, I got delusions of cooking grandeur. I started piling in things for jambalaya, like cayenne, bell peppers and all sorts of meat."

Clark held up a hand, stopping her there. "You know how to make jambalaya?"

"Yes, I know how, but I can't actually accomplish it. Me being me, the chicken doesn't get cooked well enough and I end up giving people salmonella."

"That sounds... pleasant."

"Right, so when I really thought about it, I didn't feeling like having food poisoning. I mean, yeah, you could have cooked the chicken, but really, the whole thing is a lot of work. As much as I had a hankering for nice food, I didn't want to work for it tonight. So, I thought about good food that we could substitute in for the usual stuff, and ended up on cheeseburgers. They're easy, we can eat them by candlelight which is technically true for any food,, and you know just the right stuff to put into them."

"So, I'm cooking cheeseburgers tonight."

"Yes."

"Because you wanted a nice dinner and settled for something easy that I like to make."

"Yes."

He shrugged. "Well, I guess that's fair since you did the shopping."

Forty five minutes later, Clark had half done burgers on the grill on their patio. He looked out at the city for a second before looking at Lois. She was leaning back against a rail, watching him as he grilled. He smiled at her as she took a sip of her beer.

"What are you thinking, Lo?"

She looked at him for a second. She had a weird look in her eye that he couldn't place, which worried him a bit. He thought he'd gotten all the looks in her eyes down. Leave it to her to be unpredictable on a night where cheeseburgers were their nice dinner. She still hadn't said anything a minute later. Then she spoke abruptly.

"You're going to make a great father someday, Smallville. I think you should have a wife first, though." She walked up to him and kneeled. Clark felt his eyes open up wider than he'd ever felt them before.

"Clark Kent, will you marry me?"

He really wasn't the dominant one in this relationship. He could do just about anything imaginable, but leave it to Lois Lane to make the most powerful man in the world feel... good lord, he couldn't even think of the words to describe how he felt at this point. He shook off his shock and kneeled down in front of her.

"Yes, of course I'll marry you, Lois." He leaned in and kissed her, smiling into her mouth as she reached up to wipe away a tear. Wow, she was actually tearing up over this. He hadn't seen tears in her eyes since she'd woken up from the coma. He pulled away from her, leaning his head lightly on hers.

"I was planning on proposing to you tomorrow."

She laughed at him and leaned her head on his shoulder "Liar. You're just trying to recover your manly pride."

He reached in the pocket, pulling out the ring and holding it in front of her. "Call Chloe. Bet you twenty bucks she says I'm telling the truth."

She took the ring from his hand, gazing at it like it was the most precious thing she'd ever seen. "That's Martha's ring. You were going to give me your mothers ring?"

"I didn't even get the chance to ask for it. As soon as I told her I was planning on proposing, she slid it off and put it in my hand. It was faster than I'd seen her move in years."

Lois laughed again, now with tears streaming down her face like two little rivers. He wished he could be surprised, but it just made him fall in love with her a little more. He pushed her away from his shoulder and placed a finger under her chin, bringing her eyes to look into his own.

"I love you, Lois Lane. I will love you until the end of time and then some, because we don't end. We are forever." He thought about what he'd said a second. "I really am over the top with the declarations of love, aren't I?"

"You really are Smallville, now shut up and get back to the kissing."

"Holy shit!"

Clark's eyes opened abruptly at the intrusion into his sleep. He blinked a few times before slapping a hand onto his face. He removed it and looked at the clock, finding it to be earlier than he wanted it to be. After the burgers had ended up getting burned from neglect, they'd decided they didn't want to bother with making food themselves. After a few hours, they finally ordered pizza out of necessity. They'd used up all they're energy in an entirely satisfactory way.

Sitting up, Clark found Lois staring in a mirror. "What is it, Lo?"

She turned slowly and looked at him. "What the f-ck is going on?"

He knew firsthand that she didn't like mornings, but apparently this one was going to take the cake. He did his best to rub the sleep from his eyes as he took a deep breath and readied himself to handle some craziness.

"Are you referring to anything specific, Lois? That's a very broad question."

"Ok, let me narrow things down then! Why do I have scars all over my face? Why do I look years older than I did last night? And why in God's name were we in bed together?"

Now he was awake. This wasn't good. She couldn't have forgotten again, not now.

"Please tell me you're joking, Lois. If you're pulling a very cruel practical joke, it's too early for it after the night we had. I feel like I ran a marathon, and you know what it takes for me to feel that tired."

"Hey, you don't get to complain! I'm sore in a very specific spot I should remember getting sore, and yet here I am, no memory of the events that would induce it."

And there were the two words he had been so afraid he was going to hear. No memory. She'd forgotten again, the night that they'd gotten engaged. God, he felt like he was in a bad television show that needed some easy drama. He had to make sure, though.

"Lois, what's today's date?"

"It's June 8th, 2008, Smallville. Or at least it should be. So let me ask again: what the hell is going on?"

Clark sighed. "It's January 3rd, 2016, Lois. The reason you're sore is because... because we got engaged last night and were celebrating the way newly engaged couples do."

She looked at him a second, eyes wide, then very suddenly broke out into laughter. This went on for a few minutes, and Clark tried to limit himself to only a few eye rolls. He'd forgotten that them together as a couple had been a laughable topic for her eight years ago. When her guffaws died down, she sat on the bed next to him.

"Thanks, Smallville. I needed that."

"Look at your ring finger, Lo."

He watched as she did so, and this time when her eyes went wide she didn't burst into laughter. He thought he saw her mouth the words 'Martha's ring' when she noticed it, but wasn't sure. She just looked up at him, deer caught in the headlights being an appropriate way to describe her.

"Oh."

- - -

"I can't believe I actually proposed to you."

"Yeah, neither can I. I can't say that it emasculated me, though, because in the grand scheme of things, you're the strongest woman I've ever known, and that's just you being you."

Lois thought about his statement for a second. She was the strongest woman that he knew? But surely Martha and Chloe... but he'd said her... was her mind actually being blown? She shook her head. Only Clark Kent could do that to her, and she loved every bit of it.