---- Chapter 48

"All right, so we're on a roll, knocking these stories out left and right. Let's keep things going, Smallville, so that I'm not hearing about things that happened a few months ago a few months from now. You can't have THAT many stories left."

Lois watched as Clark ladled some stew into a bowl for her and handed it to her. "Well, it helps that everything happens in a short amount of time in these stories. We go from wedding to twins and conception in a month and a half. Of course, you didn't tell me you were pregnant until February 7, which was two months later. Compared to time between other stories, though, not all that long."

She blew on a bite of stew, sticking it in her mouth and watched Jordan eat a cracker while she chewed. She looked back up at Clark and she swished her spoon around in the stew, moving some meat around so she could get at it more easily.

"Why did I wait so long to tell you?"

"Well, the essence of that is in the story, but one reason is that you took your time figuring it out. I think Chloe and mom knew before you did, but we're not going that far back."

"Well that's... not flattering. Shouldn't a woman be the first to knew that she's pregnant?"

Lois took a bite, chewing a chunk of meat and scowling at the same time. How had they known before her? Yeah, Martha was Martha and always seemed to know everything before everybody else. And Chloe had been pregnant twice by that point, so she knew what the less obvious signs were because she'd lived them... ok, well, now that she thought about it, of course they knew before she did. Aside from staying in shape, she'd never been exactly tuned in to her body anyway.

"You're talking about my mom and Chloe, who'd been pregnant twice by then and is super observational woman anyway. I wasn't surprised about it at all."

Hadn't she just been thinking that? "Ah well. The important part was we were having a baby, no matter if the aunt and grandmother knew before either of the parents." She chewed on a piece of meat a moment before speaking again. "That is just not a normal sentence, no matter how abnormal our lives are."

"It does seem a little off, doesn't it?"

"Were you pregnant with me?"

Both Lois and Clark looked down at Jordan, who was grabbing another cracker and dipping it in what was left of her small bowl of stew. It was an odd thing; here was a three year old girl, just going about her business of eating dinner and paying attention to what they were talking about. Yet she didn't seem affected by it all. It was just something happening near her. Lois wondered if that was unique to Jordan. She figured the very good observation skills probably were.

"I was, baby girl, and I was happy. I was probably nervous, though, because I didn't know if I was going to be a very good mommy. I didn't think I would be a good mommy for a long time." Well, that was more information than she had intended.

"Why not?"

Lois wondered how much she could tell Jordan about her giant heaps of insecurities. She decided to go with most of the truth, but to keep it vague.

"When I was young, some things happened that meant I had to take care of your aunt Lucy. I kind of had to be a substitute mom, and things didn't go all that well. I was too young, and Lucy had some wild days that I thought were my fault. It made me think that if I ever became a mother to children of my own, that the same thing would happen. I didn't want that kind of experience for my children, for you and AJ."

Jordan looked up at her, and Lois could see the gears turning. "But, where was your mommy?"

Lois smiled and stood up, walking around the table and pulling a chair with her so that she could sit closely next to Jordan. She ran a hand through her daughter's hair a few times, hoping at the same time that she would understand what she told her but wouldn't be able to comprehend it fully.

"My mommy passed away when I was a few years older than you were. My daddy was very sad, so I wanted to help and make sure he didn't have to worry about Lucy and I. I tried to be the mommy, in a way, but it didn't work very well. Lucy didn't like me trying to boss her around."

"Will Almond Joy like it if I boss him around when we're older?"

Lois smiled before placing a kiss on her head. "Not if he's anything like his parents, no. Well, me more so than you father. I have a feeling that your brother is going to be a lot like his old man, much like you're very similar to your mother."

"I like being like you, mommy. You're loud!"

Lois looked back at Clark, who'd broke out into laughter. He looked like he was about ready to fall out of his chair.

"It's not that funny, Smallville."

He calmed down a second later, making a show at wiping tears from his eyes that she didn't think were really there.

"It's pretty funny, Lois. I think Chloe's going to get a kick out of it when I tell her about it as we move them in to the house tomorrow."

"Yeah, well, when we have a broody son I'm sending you to snap him out of it."

"I doubt that will work. It took you to snap me out of it for good, and I expect it will take you or the love of a woman much like you to do the same, should our son carry my affliction of excessive introspection."

"Excessive introspection? Yeah, right. You had broodiness and mopiness syndrome, much like all that awful emo music from when my brain thinks is recently. It was just musical whining, really, and not even good musical whining. You? Didn't even have the music to fall back on."

"What's introspection?"

They both looked down at Jordan again before looking at each other. "Model parenting on our part. We should probably stop forgetting she's there, Smallville."

"Probably." He looked away from her to Jordan, and Lois dragged her bowl across the table and took a bite of her rapidly cooling stew. "Introspection is a big, fancy word for saying that you think about what you are thinking and feeling. You kinda try to figure out why you feel the way you feel or figure out why something happened."

Jordan looked at him a second before speaking. "That's silly."

Lois nearly choked on some meat as she started laughing. God, she loved her daughter. She could virtually feel Clark's eyes rolling, but she didn't care. The food finally got down a moment later before she could speak, and she really had something to say.

"Out of the mouths of babes, Smallville. You can't argue that."

He just scratched at his head. "It's unbelievable how she already thinks exactly like you. Just uncanny how she takes everything you've ever said and puts it in small sentences to make me feel ridiculous."

Lois grinned and pulled Jordan into a hug. "Don't you dare ever change, baby girl."

"Okay, mommy."

Lois sighed as Jordan moved back to her chair and started eating crackers dipped in stew again. She meant what she said about not changing, but she knew what a life with her personality held in store. Hopefully there was enough of Clark in her little girl's head to offset all her crazy.

"Alright, Smallville. Story time. Let's have it."

"Right. February 7th, 2018. Or, well... I guess we could do a little buildup to that. Looking back, the day before had all sorts of me being oblivious to signs I probably should have noticed."

"I want it all, Smallville."

"Well then here it comes."

---

"Lois? Hey, you all right?"

She walked out of the women's restroom and shot him a small, pale grin. "Yeah. Still just sporting a stomach bug, Smallville."

"A stomach bug that's been going on a few weeks now. Why won't you go to a doctor?"

She looked down at the ground a second before looking back up at him and answering. "Look, aside from my head being screwed up, I've been in fairly good health. Been that way all my life. When I get sick, though, it tends to last. After that, I don't get sick for a good long while, so I endure."

Clark sighed, wrapping an arm around Lois's waist as they started walking back to their desks. "Fine. I'm not going to pretend that I know your body better than you do, even if you do pay as little attention to it as you say you do."

"The only time it comes to my attention is when I'm hungry, sick or we're... you know." She grinned and waggled her eyebrows at him, causing him to lift his at her demeanor. He just shook his head, unable to comprehend how she could just shake this off.

"Then I trust your judgement. Just... if this goes on much longer, promise me you'll consider seeing a doctor, all right? I don't want you letting this nausea going on longer than it has to. It's not natural that you're eating so little. Feels weird to have food left on the table."

They got to their desks and faced each other, smiling. She leaned into his body for a second before sitting down in her chair. "I don't think that'll be a problem, Smallville. I'm pretty sure I'll be ravenous once this is over with. Might even gain a little weight in the short term."

Clark sat down, grinning. "Do whatever you want, so long as you're healthy. I love you too much to care if you put on a few pounds. You'll always be beautiful to me."

He looked down at some papers on his desk when he thought he heard her mumble something about keeping that in mind, so he looked up. "What?"

"Nothing. Say, uh, where are we on the Jacobson article?"

"Just needs some touch ups, really." He passed the copy he'd printed out over to her so she could take a look. Perry had assigned them an article on a local philanthropist that had been disgraced for some crafty accounting. It was an operation he thought Lex Luthor could have been proud of.

"Let's redo the last section. It's more than a touch up, but I don't like the way we ended it. It doesn't flow with the rest of the written words."

"As opposed to all the spoken words in there."

"Ha, ha."

Clark grinned and sat back in his chair. "Hey, you use phrases I can make fun of and I'll do so. It's not like I don't get the same every day."

"Well, obviously you need to work on what you say, Smallville." She paused a second and took a couple deep breaths, closing her eyes as she did so. That seemed to be the cue for her to be throwing up in the near future. He stood up and walked around the desks, kneeling next to her. "Lo, come on. It hasn't even been ten minutes since you last threw up. All you ate this morning and for lunch were crackers! I'm surprised you've got anything left in the tank, so to speak."

She ran a hand back through her hair, opening her eyes and taking a breath in through her nose before she spoke. "I told you, I'll be fine. Where most women have diets, I have this. I will be fine... but right now I'm gonna be sick."

Lois got up out of her chair and jogged to the bathroom, leaving Clark to let his head drop. He'd just had to marry a stubborn woman. He couldn't have fallen in love with somebody docile and easy going. No, it had to be Lois, the woman that knew twelve ways to stress him out in twelve minutes when she would set her mind to it. Of course, she was usually setting her mind to getting a story, but one always seemed to beget the other.

With a long and unnecessary groan, Clark stood up again and made his way over to the women's restroom again. Lois felt self-conscious about throwing up in front of other people, which he found amazing since she had never been self-conscious about anything before, so he would run interference for her whilst she was occupied with her new habit.

"C.K.!"

Clark turned around and spotted Jimmy walking towards him. "Hey, Jimmy. How's it going?"

"Good. Running interference for Lois again?"

"You got it. She still refuses to see a doctor, no matter how much I push her to do so. I know she's not afraid of going to one because I've seen her do so without problem, so I guess she just wants to fight through this on her own."

"She still says it's a stomach bug?" Clark nodded. "Weird. Most stomach bugs I know of clear up after days, not weeks. Could she be pregnant?"

Clark thought about it a second before shaking his head. "Not that I know of. I don't keep track of her monthly stuff, but she hasn't really broken stride on any of her normal activities that I've seen. Plus, given her stance on what she would be like as a mother, I'm assuming I still have a good bit of work to do before I can even get the idea of children in her head."

"Just keep it in mind, C.K. Stranger things have happened than Lois Lane as a mommy."

"Mind mentioning one?"

Jimmy grinned and started walking away, calling back over his shoulder. "I'll get back to you on that."

A few hours later they walked into their apartment, Lois leaning lightly on him as they walked. He was far from surprised since she'd thrown up all the food she'd taken in all day. She hadn't felt too bad since the one where Jimmy had been by, though, so at least there was that.

He took her coat and hung it up along with his in the closet. "You think you're going to be able to eat anything tonight, Lo?"

"I want to and I don't want to. I can't not eat, though. Just seems like it would be detrimental to the... to my health."

"What do you think could be plain enough not to send you heaving in twenty minutes?"

She sighed as she sat down on the couch, rolling her neck a second before letting it relax. "Probably boneless, skinless, tasteless chicken. Even if I do end up throwing up, I'll still get some of the protein from the meat into my system."

Clark looked at her, wondering just exactly why she was talking about getting the protein into her system. He was fairly certain that before that she had never once mentioned anything about ever getting some protein into her body. Of course, he'd never seen her sick like this before, so maybe she knew what she was talking about.

"Ok. Boneless, skinless and tasteless chicken it is. I'll run to the store to get some and holy cow, I can't believe we almost forgot."

"Can't believe we almost forgot what?"

"We told Chloe and Bruce we'd fly in to celebrate Jack's birthday, remember? I've been so worried about you being sick that it completely slipped my mind. I'm just glad we got his present a couple weeks ago."

Clark walked over to the closet and pulled out the present they'd gotten him, a toy bat, along with the presents his mom had sent along for Jack and the twins. He knew what she'd gotten Jack, but had no idea what she was sending along for the girls. He knew they were too young for present envy that he figured young siblings could get, so maybe it was clothes. Chloe liked to say that she could never have enough clothes with the girls growing like weeds.

Clark put the presents down and did a quick change into his Superman outfit, which he always wore when flying, before picking them up again and walking over to Lois, who'd shrugged her coat on.

"Are you going to be ok for the flight?"

"Yeah. I plan on closing my eyes and resting for most of it so that I'm not exhausted after twenty minutes of talking to Chloe, so I doubt I'll even notice until you're touching down."

Forty five minutes later, they were walking into the Wayne Manor. What they came into appeared to be the place where a large party had exploded. There were decorations everywhere. He followed the path of a piece of confetti that got blown off an air vent as the heat turned on and then let his eyes glide across the room.

"It looks like a party threw up in here, Smallville."

Clark shook his head before speaking. "Only you could say that after being sick to your stomach for weeks on end."

"That's exactly why I can say it. Come on, let's get this show on the road. I wanna see my nieces and nephew."

He followed as Lois made her way through all the decoration back towards the kitchen. That seemed to be their place of congregation more so than any of the living rooms or dens, oddly enough. He figured that it just proved that people would always be where the food was.

They finally made it through the color explosion and back into the kitchen, where they found then entirety of the Wayne clan. Lois spoke first.

"Happy birthday, Jack!"

Jack ran over and hugged himself to her legs, getting a hug and a hair mussing in return. Clark sat the presents down on the counter as Jack jogged to him and he pulled him up into a hug. "Happy birthday, buddy. How have all your presents been?"

"Good! I got a baseball glove, some games and a new bike!"

Clark looked over at Chloe. "Another one?"

She shrugged. "The one we got him a few months ago was run over yesterday. It was a last minute thing." She looked like she was going to say more, but her eyes shifted from him to Lois. "You look terrible, cuz. Still sick?"

Lois nodded. "It's not so bad, but it's got me exhausted."

"Yeah, I know how you feel."

Clark put Jack back down and walked over to Lois, standing beside her and easing her hand into his. If this was a situation of not so bad, he didn't want to see what qualified for actually being bad. He looked over at Chloe. "You been under the weather, too?"

She shook her head and smiled. "Not for a while now, no."

He frowned. "Then what..."

"Hey! Why don't we have Jack open presents?"

"Yeah!"

Clark looked over at his wife, still frowning. She grinned up at him, then smiled sheepishly before pulling the presents off the counter and handing Jack the one from them. He tore through the paper quickly and found what awaited him underneath.

"A bat! Can we go hit, dad?"

"How about you open your present from grandma Martha first?"

He did so, finding the signed ball. Had it been the first thing he opened or had Jack been older than four, Clark figured it would have been a meaningful thing. Clark grabbed the other present and handed it to Chloe.

"What's this?"

"From mom, for the girls."

Chloe's eyes brightened and she opened up the package, and the first thing she pulled out was a yellow looking thing. "This is just too cute for words! Did your mom make this?"

"I have no idea."

She pulled out a pink one as he spoke. "That just might be the most adorable thing I've ever seen. The girls are going to look great in these."

"I'll be sure to pass on your thanks."

"Thank you. It's just too bad that the girls are going to grow out of them so quickly. Come a month from now I won't be able to see anybody in these things unless I give them to somebody else with a baby, or at least one on the way."

Lois started coughing and Clark looked down at her. "You all right?"

"Yeah, no, just swallowed funny. So, how are we going to get Jack some swings with his new bat? Last I checked it's pretty dark outside."

"There are a couple floodlights out back. We can turn them on and there should be plenty of light for a few tosses."

Clark looked over to Bruce. "You want to pitch?"

"I think we can share responsibility."

Clark nodded, smiling as Jack grabbed the bat. "Let's go!"

"Hey cuz, will you take Aly out with you?"

"Yeah, sure." Clark watched as Chloe handed off the now bundled baby to Lois, who looked at her and smiled. "Hey there, kiddo. I always seem to end up with you in my arms these days." She bounced her a few times, getting what sounded like a giggle.

"You're really good with her, Lo."

Lois looked up at him, still smiling. "Yeah, well, she's an easy little thing, despite the fact that Chloe insists she'll be just like her."

"Certainly worse people to be like."

Lois's smile faltered a bit, and he stepped closer. He didn't think he'd said anything wrong. Maybe she thought he was implying something. "Hey, what happened? You looked as happy as I've seen you all week just a moment ago."

She shook her head. "It's nothing, Let's go catch up with the happy family out back so you can toss the ball to Jack a few times."

They walked out back in silence, and Clark wondered what exactly it was that had caused her smile to go away. He hated it when she stopped smiling; she lit up rooms for him when she really got going sometimes.

He heard her speaking quietly to Aly as they stepped out back, and he smiled to himself as he walked towards Jack and Bruce. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Lois stand next to Chloe, each standing and watching as Jack and Bruce played baseball. For a second he felt like he's was in some ideal 50's setting of gender roles and the American dream, but he shook it off and caught a ball Bruce tossed to him.

"All right Jack, you ready for the heat?"

"Yeah!"

Clark made a show of the windup before he tossed a big, looping underhand toss to Jack, who took a mighty swing at the ball and missed by about three feet while spinning himself around. Bruce walked up to him and knelt down.

"Great try, Jack. Be sure to keep your eye on the ball and you'll do great, alright?"

Jack nodded and Bruce backed away next to Clark, who once again made a big show of winding up to pitch before tossing another underhand. This time Jack made good contact, hitting the ball off past them both.

"Good hit, buddy!"

Clark jogged and grabbed the ball, and when he got back found that Lois was grumbling about something. "What's up, Lo?"

"Oh, nothing. Aly just decided to give a little commentary on how I've been feeling recently."

She pointed at her shirt and Clark had to suppress a laugh, spotting where Lois had wiped some spit up off her shirt. "With commentary like that she may just be like her mother after all. Of course, I hope she uses words in the future when she's commenting on how I've been."

"Very funny." Lois handed Aly over to him, causing him to drop the ball so that he could get a good grip on her. "I'm going to go wash up. You guys going to be in the kitchen?"

"Yeah, cuz. We'll be doing cake."

Clark winced and looked at Lois. Surprisingly, she didn't appear to be green around the gills at the mention of food. "Sounds good. Back in a minute."

Lois walked off, and he thought he heard her mumble something about getting used to something, but he shook it off and looked down at Aly. Truth be told, he didn't hold her nearly as much as he did Liz. It was strange, but the kids had almost become something that they had split into his and hers, which wasn't something they had done with anything else. One way or another, though, he seemed to end up with Liz and Lois seemed to end up with Aly.

They all walked inside and headed into the kitchen again. Chloe gave Liz to Bruce to hold so that she could get the cake out of the fridge. She sat it on the table and plunked candles into it. Lois walked back in as she was lighting them and Jack got hoisted up into a chair so that he could see the cake. Once the song was sung, he did his best to blow out all the candles. They all went out, though when Chloe winked at him he knew he hadn't been as sly as he'd hoped to be.

Chloe started cutting slices and handing them out. Clark got a big one after setting Aly down in her mother's arms, much to his joy since they hadn't eaten dinner. While that may have suited Lois and her questionable stomach, Clark was starved. He hadn't eaten anything for lunch because he'd been needed for help with a fire in a high rise. It had taken the better part of his lunch hour just to make sure that the building was safe, not to mention that everybody that needed help got it.

For breakfast all he'd had was a few crackers. Lois had told him that he could eat a full breakfast, but eating a full breakfast while she nibbled on a few crackers just seemed cruel to him, so he dined on crackers with her. Needless to say, they had not been the best to keep his appetite sated.

When he finished, he was about to ask for another when Lois stepped in front of him. "Good God, cuz, where did you get this cake? It's amazing! You mind if I have seconds?"

Clark felt as shocked as he thought Chloe looked. "Uh... yeah, no, go ahead. What about being sick?"

"Consider me ceasing to care until I eat more cake. This is worth it. Now, share: where'd you get it?"

Chloe shrugged and smiled as she finally got to take a bite of her own piece after attending to everybody else getting one and making sure the twins were still ok with Bruce. Clark watched as she sighed a little when she took her first bite and then focused on Lois again.

"Van Der Meer's. Little place I found a few months back. It blew my mind then with awesome cake, and it continues to do so. Really came in handy while I was pregnant with the twins."

He watched Lois eye her a second before speaking again. "I think I'll get the address from you, cuz. This is... well, this is cake worth having again. Soon."

Clark was happy to hear that Lois was starting to at least think about eating something again, or at least something that wasn't plain and minimal in sustenance. She definitely had a lot more sustenance going out recently than going in. Of course, it had to be an odd situation for him to categorize cake as more than minimal in sustenance.

"I guess if she's having seconds, I'll have some too."

She handed him a slice of cake and he took a bite, reveling in the taste. "You guys are going to eat all the cake, aren't you?"

Clark swallowed and looked at Lois, who just shrugged. "That's not exactly the plan, cuz, but if you're offering I'm not going to turn it down."

"I'm actually torn. On the one hand, I like that you've actually found something you can eat and not immediately throw up, if what I've been told is accurate."

Lois spun and glared at him. "Why are you telling her about how often I throw up?"

"I didn't know how sick you are was something that you wanted to keep secret."

"It's the principle of the thing, Smallville. You should have told me you were going to tell her so I could have told her myself!"

"I... what? I thought she knew it was an hourly thing these days."

Lois's eyes went wide for a second before she turned away from him. He was officially more confused by her actions than he ever had been before. She was obviously freaking out about something, and he didn't seem to be privy to what it was or why it had her yelling a whole bunch of nonsense.

"It's not important, Smallville. All the throwing up is just getting to me. It's frustrating, knowing that it has to pass at some point but not knowing when that may be. I'm ready to not be throwing up and move into a new stage, that's all."

"A new stage of what?"

Clark looked over at Chloe. "You stole my question." He then looked back to Lois. "Still going to ask, though. A new stage of what?"

"A... a metaphorical stage. You know, the stage of my life that comes after the bad of being sick, where we can both be happy and not annoyed that I'm throwing up all the time. Plus, I like to eat, and this is like an anti-eating thing I got going on."

"Why don't you just say what you really mean, cuz?"

Lois's head snapped up and she looked to Chloe. Clark wondered what Chloe though she really meant, because he didn't have a clue as to what a clue might be in this one.

"You want more cake, don't you?"

He watched Lois visibly relax. "Yeah, more cake would be great."

"So, we're not going to talk about this, Lo?"

"Nothing to talk about, Smallville. Just, from now on, how about you leave the updates on my health to family to me, so that I can be stoic and cover up how poor I actually feel."

"What aren't you telling me, Lois?"

"That the world is a cube, not a sphere." She took another piece of cake from Chloe before looking at him again and smiling. "What would I be hiding from you, Smallville? When have I ever hid anything from you?"

"Whenever you think I'll disagree about you getting into a dangerous situation."

"Ok, besides that."

"When you think you're protecting me."

"That is for your own good, mister."

"So, what is it you aren't telling me? Are you planning on doing something that will get you into a dangerous situation for a story you aren't telling me about, or do you think you're protecting me from something again?"

Clark watched as she sighed and sat her cake down before walking over to him and hugging him. After second he wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin lightly on her head for a second.

"You're scaring me, Lois. You've been throwing up for three weeks now and there's something you're not telling me. I'm having some serious worst case scenarios in my head."

She pushed away from him a little but held his hands in hers as she looked up. "I do not have a terminal illness, Smallville." He felt her guide his hands to her stomach and rested them there. "Everything is going to be fine, Clark. I promise. All those worst case scenarios? Just you worrying too much."

He wrapped his arms around her again, letting himself smile. "No more scaring me, all right? Just... tell me whenever you're ready to let me know." He stopped for a second, replaying the last moment in his mind. "Ya know, I think that was the first time you ever put my hands on your stomach like that. Usually you pull them to your hips."

"Do I? I never think about it. It's generally something I do without realizing I'm doing it."

"Ha!"

Both of them looked over to Chloe. "Having a 'ha' moment, Chlo?"

"You could say that. My 'ha' is simply the fact that I haven't heard 'ah ha' yet."

"Why would somebody have to say ah ha?"

"Any number of reasons, really. Generally, though, discoveries do the trick."

Clark eyed Chloe a second before following her gaze to Lois, who was just staring off into the distance with wide eyes. It didn't look like Chloe was looking at Lois's face, though. He gave up on trying to figure out what was going on and just decided to be happy that Lois hadn't retreated from his embrace yet.

The rest of the evening passed by fairly quickly, with Lois seeming to feel better. Before he knew it, they were flying back to Metropolis and in the apartment. Clark decided to do a couple fly overs to check things before he went to sleep.

"Hey, I'm going to go check around the city a few times, Lo. You going to sleep?"

She shrugged. "Probably not. I'd probably end up tossing and turning until you got back, even with the being tired, so I'll find something else to occupy my time. Maybe watch some television."

He smiled and kissed her on th forehead. "All right. Guess I'll see you in a little while."

When Clark returned a couple hours later, he found Lois asleep, curled up in their bed. Smiling, he changed into some pajamas and crawled into bed, getting close to Lois but not disturbing her. Taking a few deep breaths, he let his eyes slide closed as he listened to her heartbeat. The steady thump lulled him into sleep.

"Not to jinx it, but that was the best day I've had health wise in a while."

Clark grinned as Lois tossed her jacket onto the back of a chair as they walked into the apartment. Work had been abnormally uneventful, which had him feeling like there was something big coming along to finish the day off. The fact that Lois had only thrown up twice all day instead of twice an hour made him happy, but added to the fact that the day was off.

"I am, of course, glad that you're feeling better today, Lo. Any chance that this is going away for good?"

"I have no idea. I just want to eat something filling today while I don't feel like it'll come back to haunt me."

"Name whatever you want."

She looked back at him, grinning. "Seriously? As in name anything and you'll make it or get it?"

"That was the implication, yes, though thinking about it I doubt this is a far departure from norm."

She apparently had stopped listening and was already doing some contemplative pacing."Good, good... nothing too exotic, but I don't want something plain either. Maybe something hot..." He watched as her eyes bulged and lit up even more than they had when he said anything was available tonight. "Crawfish!"

"Well that's certainly not exotic at all, Lo."

"Not really, no, and I haven't had any for ages. Jesus, when was it... I think I hit a little hole in the wall down on the gulf coast for some before I came to Smallville to investigate Chloe's fake death. Can you remember any in the years I don't have access to?"

Clark shook his head. "No. There were those four years I missed and some months where we weren't exactly close, as you know, but I think I can safely say you didn't have any crawfish in that time. Chloe could tell you for certain."

"Who cares? You're gonna love 'em, Smallville. I don't even know why they popped into my head, but I started thinking about everything that was available and focused on what I hadn't had in a while. Maybe it's a craving, who knows..."

"Since when do you get cravings for things like crawfish?"

He watched as she froze. He wondered if she was even breathing. Had there been somebody with a large block of stone around, this would have been a perfect time for a carving to be made, because Clark didn't know if he'd ever see her this still again.

"I, uh... I didn't mean craving as in I must have it, just, you know, sounds good..."

"I didn't think you did. I just thought it odd that you were using the word craving. The last time you said anything about a craving was when Chloe was pregnant with the twins and just HAD to have a pizza with as many kinds of meat as possible on it during our wedding reception. I don't think you've ever referred to yourself as having them, though."

She spun around on her heel and stared at him for a second before throwing her hands up in the air. "How, HOW have you not figured it out yet?"

Clark quickly ran through a list of things in his head, but couldn't for the life of him figure our what she was referring to. "If you could actually point me in the direction of where this conversation turned, I'd be grateful, because I am currently very lost..."

"Throwing up all the time, my boobs are bigger, I get worn out easily and I actually said the word craving in reference to myself! Hell, I'm even peeing more! Come on, Smallville! I have literally been broadcasting this to the world! Chloe dropped about eighteen hints last night and I thought I was going to have to pull you into another room to talk to you when you figured it out!"

"Figured what out? You said you were sick, so I kind of took you at your word. It's a flaw, I know, but we all have our curses. And really, as far as your breasts, I haven't seen them much recently since you've been feeling bad and not really up to doing anything involving me seeing them and I don't exactly keep track of how often you go to the bathroom..."

"Pregnant! I am pregnant!"

Oh. What? Huh? He thought he was saying the words, but he didn't feel his mouth move. Well, it had moved, but that had been from shocked and open to wide and smiling.

Apparently she took his smiling silence for shock, though, which he felt he may have been in, so she started speaking again.

"Preggers. Expecting. Knocked up. Bun in the oven. In a family way. In a delicate condition. Baby on board. Waiting for the stork. Eating for two, though it seriously feels more like I'm throwing up for two..."

Clark knew he was never going to be able to shut her up to get a word in if he didn't do something, so he did the only thing he knew could stop her rambling and kissed her. Very quickly the overwhelming feeling was gone and a whole ton of happiness replaced it, and he tried to convey it through the ongoing kiss. A few minutes later, they broke apart for good. There had been a couple breaks for air, but mostly, it had just been kissing. Now he was going to try to convey his happiness through words, though he wasn't sure his tongue would work correctly.

Before he spoke, though, the reality hit him. She was carrying a half kryptonian child. What was that going to do to her? Would she have a normal pregnancy? Was it going to be normal length? What were they going to do about a doctor?

"I'm sorry."

His eyes widened, realizing what he'd said. He was also still grinning like an idiot, so he had no idea how it had happened.

"You're WHAT?"

"I have no idea what's going to happen. You could be pregnant for thirteen months for all I know. This is totally unprecedented and I don't even know whether or not you can survive this pregnancy."

Why was he saying this? He was giddy, for all intents and purposes, and he was telling his wife he didn't know if she was going to survive pregnancy with a stupid grin on his face!

"Do you think I didn't consider all that? Do you think I went into this figuring I'd have a nice, normal nine or ten months of gestation?"

"I didn't mean to imply that, Lo. I don't even know why I said it! I just... I wish we could have planned for it so that you weren't caught pregnant when you were so doubtful about your mothering abilities."

"I want this, you big dumb intergalactic traveler! Why do you think we made love without any protection back when the twins were born? I was taking a shot..." She paused a second. "Ya know, that sounds kinda dirty if you think about it as a double entendre." She waved her hands. "Not the point! Smallville, do you know what I told Chloe the night before our wedding?"

"I wasn't there or listening, so no."

"I told her I thought I was ready to have a baby. It felt... right. I don't even know why I wanted to, and I'm still not convinced that she didn't give me baby fever..."

"Baby fever? What?"

"Nevermind. Point is, I didn't know why, but having a baby with you was on my mind all the time. I couldn't get it out. Chloe think's it was because I had a sister that was trying to and did get pregnant with her second, not to mention she herself had a son and twins on the way."

"Well, yeah, I guess that makes sense. I wouldn't call it jealousy, but maybe you were envious of what they had, of the happiness they had in and with their children." He frowned after a second. "Ok, that is basically jealousy, but you see what I'm saying."

"Maybe. I still call it baby fever."

"Why?"

"Because it turns a perfectly rational and somewhat sane woman like myself into this giant, walking uterus that thinks only of having a baby. That's not me! Hell, that's not Chloe or Lucy, yet I was there for Chloe catching it and wanting to have another baby. I think she gave it to me, and then gave it to Lucy as well at the wedding. She's like a baby fever factory!"

"Who cares?" Clark pulled Lois into a hug, lifting her off the ground and spinning them around. "We're having a baby, Lo!"

"Yeah, we are, Smallville."

He put her down and took in a deep breath. God, he felt... alive. There was one burning question he needed to ask, though. "Just... why didn't you tell me as soon as you knew? I wouldn't have been so worried about everything if you had."

"I was kind of trying to wait for a few more weeks."

"What? Why?"

She sighed and slumped a little. "I wanted to wait until I hit my second trimester. That's when there's a big drop in the risk of a miscarriage, at least in normal pregnancies. If it happened, if I lost the baby, I didn't want to have gotten your hopes up only to have them crash to the ground."

"But... you would have suffered that pain, the heartbreak, alone. Why?"

" Because I would have forgotten it. I could have hidden it until I forgot again. It would have been as if the baby had never existed when my memory reset itself. It would save us both undue pain if human and kryptonian really don't mix, though I think the fact that I even conceived is a good sign. The only problem would have been if it happened again, but being me, I know that I would do the same thing."

She was trying to protect him. She didn't want to have him be in pain if something happened. God, they'd switched roles! She was playing the part of Superman, bearing the brunt of the pain if something happened and she was protecting him from knowing something that could hurt him.

He pulled her into another hug, not wanting to let go. He leaned his head down so that it was next to her ear.

"You're not going to miscarry, Lois. That's our son or daughter in there... in you. The fact that the baby exists is a testament to our love, to everything we've conquered. We do get to be happy, and we'll be happy with our little boy or girl in... when are you due?"

"Best I could figure was late August or early September. Like I've been saying, no doctors."

"Why not?"

"What doctor do you trust with the fact that our unborn child has some differences to his genetic code, Smallville?"

He laughed a second. Of course she'd thought of that. No wonder she'd been so adamant about not going to a doctor. Of course, she also knew that she wasn't really sick.

"Good point. One would think I'd have thought of that."

"One would, yes, but I forgive your lapse because you're still in a little bit of shock I bet."

"I think I'll refer to it as a haze of happiness." Clark groaned a second as something hit him.

"What is it?"

"Jimmy figured it out before I did."

"What?"

Clark looked skyward and felt like whacking himself upside the head. "Yesterday, when you were having one of your many bouts of what I now know to be morning sickness, Jimmy stopped by while I was running interference and asked if you could be pregnant. I even entertained the thought for a second before dismissing it. He told me stranger things have happened than Lois Lane becoming a mommy."

"What were his examples?"

"He told me he was going to get back to me."

"Yeah, well, I'm curious to know what's stranger than me being mommy..." She froze a second and her face went from happy to a mixture of scared and angry. "Oh hell, I'm going to be mommy!"

"Well, yes, I thought that had been established."

She pushed away from him and started pacing again, this time with much more pounding to her steps. It was not dissimilar to when she had stomped around after kissing him for the first time.

"I'm going to be somebodies mom! I'm going to be responsible for a life, making sure the baby is always fed and happy and changed and whatever else it is a baby needs!"

"I am going to be there to help you, Lois. This isn't going to be a one woman show."

"But I'm the mom! I have to be pregnant and get huge, I have to give birth... oh God, I have to go through what I saw Chloe go through... then the baby is literally going to be sucking on me for food..."

"Lo, calm down..."

"Baby fever! Baby FUCKING fever, Smallville! It makes you forget all the insane craziness about what being a mother actually entails! It's not just having sex then look, there's a baby on our bed that feeds itself and is happy! No, it's sex, then throwing up, then all sorts of discomfort, then pushing a person out of your body through a space that is NOT that big. And that's not even covering the actual baby in the world stuff!"

Not knowing what else to do, Clark walked over to her and kissed her again. How the hell had it deteriorated that quickly? She'd actually said out loud that she wanted this, and within minutes had broken into ranting on baby fever and it making her forget that there was a lot of work involved in gestating, birthing and raising a child. He would never cease to be amazed at what her mind was capable of.

After another couple minutes of his best kissing efforts, he pulled away from her and both were sucking air. Lois was first to speak.

"Wow. And thanks, I needed that. Was losing my mind for a second, wasn't I?"

"Just a little bit. Glad to help, though. Service is free of charge and available at all hours, should you feel yourself losing you mind again."

She grinned and closed the distance again. "Thank you, dad."

Clark smiled. "Huh. I'm going to be a dad." His eyes widened. "Oh God, I'm gonna be a dad..." Before he could get any of his thoughts on the subject out, she pulled him down and they were kissing again. A moment later, he was catching his breath again.

"Thanks."

"No need. My services are free of charge at all hours." She was giving him a lascivious grin and started plucking at his shirt. "Speaking of services, I know we haven't eaten anything, but I am seriously not hungry for food at the moment."

"Well, your wish is my command. Anything you want from now on... within reason."

"And this is different than usual how?"

He grinned and kissed her slowly, easing a hand down to rest on her stomach as he pulled away and looked down at it and back up into her eyes. "Because now it's for our baby, too."

- - -

"You really couldn't tell that I was pregnant, Smallville?"

"Didn't have a clue. Like I said back then, I took you at your word that you were sick. I had no reason to believe that you could be pregnant. The night the twins were born completely slipped my mind. I guess when it comes to women, and more specifically my wife, I am quite typical."

Lois rolled her eyes before standing up off the couch and walking into the kitchen. Once dinner had finished they'd all moved into the living room, Jordan grabbing a coloring book and asking them to color with her while Clark related the story. Jordan had called them on being distracted from their pictures a few times before she apparently gave up and concentrated on her own.

Grabbing a glass of water and a celery stick from the fridge to munch on, Lois walked back out to her family in the living room.

Wow. She had a family. She had what she'd always wanted but had never dared to dream for.

Lois had thought about it before, but she'd never really realized... this was her family. These were her loved ones, the people she would be closest to for the rest of her life. Jesus, she'd been in love for two, maybe three weeks and she already had a family. It did kind of suit her, though. For better or for worse, she didn't remember all the effort put into becoming a family, but she loved it.

She loved her husband, she loved her daughter and she loved her unborn son. That's what it all came down to. As long as she had their love and they hers, nothing could ruin it, not even her mental malady.