---- Chapter 49
Lois grabbed a box out of the back of the moving truck, hoisted it up so it wasn't resting on her AJ containing bump, then walked up the path and into the now quite large house. She could tell where the additions had been made, but it took some close inspection originally to figure it out. The renovation company that they had hired were apparently very good.
She got inside and dropped the box down on the floor with the other boxes that had 'linens' written on them. She looked over at Chloe, who was coming downstairs from doing something.
"Here's a silly question, Chloe: where are your moving people? I mean, yes, I know you have Bruce and Clark, but they seem oddly absent."
"They just walked down to the corner store to get some water, I think, or are taking a smoke break somewhere. Truth be told, I didn't even really want moving guys but Bruce insisted. Something about straining myself."
"Why would you possibly want to do this yourself?"
"Because it's my first new house. When I got married, I just moved into the manor. Everything was already furnished and looked good. I put up a few things on the walls to give some life to the rooms, but it wasn't ever really a home. This... this place is ours. It's just for Bruce, myself, the kids and any future generation that may come along. It's not something that is going to stand as a testament to a great family. This is a home."
When she put it that way, Lois figured she understood. Hell, she sounded a lot like Clark did when he talked about moving into their place down the street. Now that she thought about it, it didn't really seem as silly as she thought it had when they'd talked about it. It was going to be where she brought up her family. It was going to be the house her kids called home, the place they told their own kids about once they had families of their own.
She'd never really had that as a kid. Once her mom had died, it had just been her and her dad for the most part, on the move from base to base. Not until she moved in with the Kent's on the farm had she had a stable place that she knew would be there for her the next day. Why had she been so blasé about moving? This was huge!
"Good lord, Chloe... it hadn't hit me until now just how big moving into a house can be. I didn't even think about why Clark had wanted to make a big thing of the packing and unpacking. I never had a place to call home as a kid, so I didn't realize why it was a big deal to him..."
She trailed off and found a chair to sit in. Everything meant so much more to her when she thought about it now. She knew why she'd never allowed herself to think about it before. It represented everything she'd never had and probably would never have. Why think about what isn't available to you?
She felt Chloe sit down next to her. "You're going to be happy, Lois."
"I already am, Chloe. I think I'm just starting to realize what being happy entails."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that this is everything that haunted my dreams, everything I was afraid to want. A husband that loves me, kids that I'm not screwing up royally and a nice place to raise them, though I never thought I'd be a suburbanite. It was always a big penthouse downtown... but ya know, this is perfect. We have yards for the children to play in and my cousin is four doors down the street."
Chloe leaned into her, resting her head on her shoulder. Lois let her head lean over and rest on Chloe's. "We're living in a dream, aren't we Chlo?"
"I think in a dream I'd be as sure this little one is a boy as you are Almond Joy is, pregnancy wouldn't be nearly so ridiculous and birth would be a painless event where I didn't have myself on display for six people, even if by the time that's happening I don't really care anymore."
"You really don't care?"
"Too focused on getting through it. All my concentration is on getting through the pain, and by that point I'm quite literally on display, but I can't take the time to think about it. My baby is almost there and I just want it done, so they can look all they want as long as it ends with me holding my baby."
Lois sighed. "Even if I did have an unintended home birth in my bathtub of all places, I really wish I could remember Jordan being born."
"I know. I can't imagine what it would be like to not remember the birth of my children."
"Even if you could forget how much it hurt?"
Chloe lifted her head up, forcing Lois to do the same. She watched as her cousin sat up and looked a little bit confused. "It wouldn't be worth it, but to be truthful, I don't really remember how much it hurts... just that it hurts."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. I think it's a hormonal thing, or a blissful haze when I get to hold my baby for the first time... either way, it's fuzzy. I do know that I'm lucky in that respect, though, because I worked with a woman at the Gazette for a couple years that had a baby and she swore she would never forget how much it hurt and that one was her limit because of the pain.
"She was not at her happiest when she announced she was pregnant for a second time for just that reason. I think she was happy about the baby, just dreading the labor and delivery. Pretty sure she said something about a c-section, though."
"Yeesh. Well, despite that, I'm sure she was happy when she had the baby."
"I assume so, but I lost touch with her halfway through it. She took a job with an online publication a couple months later so she could work at home and be with her kids."
"Huh. Kind of admirable, really, doing that for her kids. Gazette is a good paper and a tough place to give up, especially since I worked there."
Lois grinned as Chloe rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's what made it good. It certainly wasn't all the years I put in there."
"Obviously." She looked around a moment and her grin slowly turned into a curious frown. "Where have our husbands and children run off to?"
"I can't speak for our husbands or Jack, but all the younger kids are doing their nap thing in the twins room."
"Well then somebody ought to speak for them, and I figure they want to do that for themselves."
"What do they have to speak for?"
"Nothing, really. Not sure why I said it that way."
Lois shrugged and got up, walking through the mess to the backdoor, looking out into the backyard. She spotted the guys all out throwing a baseball around. It was unseasonably warm, so Jack wasn't bundled up and it worked pretty well.
"And there they are, being extremely useful to the moving effort."
She saw Chloe join her out of the corner of her eye and after another second of them playing catch looked over to her cousin. "We have two of the most powerful men in the world here, one of which is actually THE most powerful man in the world, and instead of getting everything moved into the house quickly they're out playing catch."
"To be fair, my son is all sorts of good at convincing people to do what he wants. As much as Bruce denies it, Jack has him wrapped around his finger and he pretty much acquiesces to any request that involves throwing a ball of some sort. Kicking them, too. I think it's a father and son thing."
"Yeah, well, he is Bruce's son, so I understand his lack of saying no to him. But Clark... well, he's just a pushover when it comes to kids."
"He's strict when he needs to be. That isn't often, though, since you've raised a well behaved daughter." Chloe's eyes lit up as she grinned. "How long do you expect that to last?"
Lois sighed. "About as long as it takes for the Clark in her to get overwhelmed by my liberal interpretation of following the rules. Pretty sure it's a genetic trait."
"Eh, I blame it on your dad being so strict."
"From what I can actually remember about my mom, I do know that I have her eyes. I was five, and I remember her and daddy talking once while I was doing something nearby... can't remember what it was anymore. Anyway, after they discussed, she came and picked me up and had a mischievous glint in her eye that I am very familiar with. It's one of my most vivid memories of her."
Lois walked back to her chair and sat down again, Chloe joining her a second later. "I don't really remember aunt Ellen much. I remember some basic stuff, like the fact that she was a lot of fun to be around when I was little, but that's about it."
"I'm just glad to remember her at all. I consider myself extremely lucky in that regard." Looking around at the room, Lois decided that she'd had enough of the memory lane talk. Standing up again, she walked over to the backdoor and this time opened it, walking out into the grass. "Hey, men folk... how about we get this move done today?"
Three heads turned to look at her. Jack spoke first. "You wanna play catch, aunt Lo?"
She smiled at Jack, then looked up at Clark and Bruce. "I do, Jack. In fact, why don't you and I play catch while your father and uncle bring in some of the bigger boxes."
"Don't they have movers for that, Lo?"
She looked at him, tilting her head a little. "I find it strange that, considering who they have at their disposal for moving, that they did hire movers. We're not hiring movers, are we?"
"Well, no..."
"Then consider this good practice, husband of mine. Oh, and I thought about what you said about packing, and I think I'd like to do it your way instead of mine."
She watched his eyebrows rise up his forehead. "Really?"
"Yeah. We're making a home together, so I figure we should do it right. We'll pack slowly, move and unpack slowly. Well, some of the unpacking will be slow. What I don't want to deal with will be quick. Now, off you go!"
She swatted him on the butt as he walked by, grinning when he smiled at her then shaking her hand a little bit and flexing her fingers. She had to remember that his buns were closer to literal steel rather than the figurative. When Jack walked up to her, she smiled and took the glove he handed her, slipping it on.
"How's your fastball, Jackie boy?"
"Really good! Dad showed me how to hold the ball best for a good fastball, and now when I play in the spring I'll be the best pitcher in Metropolis!"
Lois just shook her head at his enthusiasm. It was as if she were watching a young Chloe talk about investigating things. The way he spoke, the way his eyes lit up, even the way he moved was all her. If it weren't just as cute on him as it was on her, she might have been a little spooked.
They played catch for about ten minutes before Jack wanted to get something to drink. They went back inside and found that the movers had returned with Clark and Bruce busy at it as well. Jack went to grab a bottle of water while Lois walked up to Clark, who was lugging in a television.
"You look good carrying things, Smallville. Despite your obvious lack of effort, which you should really amend in front of the movers, it makes your muscles all flexy and sexy."
He sat the television down in a corner and looked at her. "Flexy?"
"What can I say, I like the letter Y on the end of words where it doesn't belong... Clarky."
"Clarkie is spelled with an I and an E at the end."
"You've actually thought about this?"
"Yes, I have. These are the kinds of things I have to think about to be able to have conversations with you at times. You tend to bring up very random subjects."
She shrugged and nodded. "This is true. Our current conversation is a fairly good example."
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and started guiding her out of the house. She frowned when they ended up at the truck, not really wanting to move more stuff. She looked up at him and smiled softly, doing her best to bat her eyelashes.
"While I'm not immune to that look, you get to help as well, wife of mine."
"Phrase stealer."
"Be that as it may, the more you help bring in the boxes that don't weigh a whole bunch, the faster we get this done."
"I'm really thinking of falling back on your argument about movers, Smallville."
"They're doing beds, dressers, couches and entertainment centers. The biggest stuff, basically. We're here to help with everything else."
Lois sighed, determined not to do more moving. Why hadn't she made Chloe feed them before the moving? "Come on... can't you just, you know..." She moved her hand back and forth quickly to signify him moving really quickly. "It would have all this done in a snap."
"Yes, and my identity would be out in a snap, too. Well, it would be unless the dozen or so houses within easy seeing distance happened to all not be looking."
"Hey, only eleven need to not be looking since the one is ours and currently vacant..." She trailed off and frowned before hugging herself to him. "Oddly enough, I'd forgotten how much I hate moving. I remembered it was... blech, for lack of a better term, but I didn't remember that it annoyed me so much."
"Something that annoys you. What is the world coming to?"
She rolled her eyes, then smiled when AJ did his kicking thing. She grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach where he was doing his thing. When he kicked again, she looked up at him. "Anything?"
"Nope, not yet."
"You're killing me, Smalls."
He pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it. "Ya know, I don't think you've ever actually called me Smalls before."
"Really? But, it's such an obvious joke... I mean, I loved The Sandlot as a kid."
"Didn't everybody?"
"Hell, I'm not going to complain. I didn't think I'd be doing anything original at this point."
The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, with moving getting done in a reasonable amount of time. The movers hadn't taken too long to get all the big stuff moved in and once that had been done, everything seemed to zoom along. All boxes were now inside and in the process of being unpacked, and the movers had been paid and gone on their way.
Lois was laying down on a couch, looking up at the ceiling when her stomach grumbled. She looked over to her cousin, who was sitting on the floor and pulling things out of a box with the twins.
"Not to sound impatient, which I am, but when's the food getting here?"
"Soon, Lois. It's good to be patient, right Liz?"
"Right, mommy. Patience is a ver... versnew?"
"Close, hun. Patience is a virtue."
Lois smiled and rolled over onto her side, watching Chloe and the girls. "Say, why didn't you ask your other daughter about patience? I'm sure she has a view on it."
"She does, and that view is that there's no place in the world for it. As I predicted soon after they were born, Aly is very much like her mother and Liz is very much like her father."
"When's the food getting here, mommy?"
"It'll be here soon, Aly. Weren't you listening?"
Aly shook her head, throwing dirty blond locks into and out of her face. "I was busy, but now I'm hungry."
"A child after my own heart, that one is. Come on over and sit with your aunt Lo, Aly." She watched as Aly stood up and ran over to her, climbing up on the couch and laying down with her. Lois pulled her up a little higher and whispered in her ear. "Wanna hear something about your mom?"
"Yeah!"
"Lois..."
"It's nothing extravagant, Chloe. Those stories are saved for when these girls hit their teens and hear what you were like at that age." Off of Chloe's groan, Lois smiled and looked down at Aly again. "You really are a lot like her. Maybe not as much as your brother is, but it's still a lot."
"How?"
"Well, when your mom was four she was an inquisitive little thing. She always wanted to know why things worked, and when she found that out she wanted to know why the things that made things work worked. She never had patience about it, though. She wanted answers right then and there, and if she didn't get them, watch out world because Chloe Sullivan was coming for the answers.
"She's still like that. She's not as intense about it as she was when she was younger, but she's still got the fire. And you have that fire, too."
Aly craned her neck and looked up at her. "But, fire's dangerous."
"Well, it can be, yes, but this is a different kind of fire. When I say you have the fire, I mean you have the desire to want to find things out. You have the will to get to the truth and the strength to know what the truth means. It's an important thing to have, Aly, because it can help you become an amazing person, and I know that you're going to be amazing when you grow up. Heck, you're already amazing in my book."
"What about me? Do I have the fire?"
Lois looked over at Liz and smiled. She thought that the little girl looked so hopeful that she was going to hear the same thing Aly had. "You, Liz, have the fire, but it's a different kind of fire."
"What kind is it?"
Lois opened her mouth to speak, not knowing exactly what to say, but was interrupted by Clark walking into the room and speaking for her.
"You, Liz, have the fire to help people. It's a lot like your dad, really, with little bits of your mom thrown in. See, your mom uses her job as a journalist to expose the truth of what bad people do so that the good people can fix it. Your dad is somebody that likes to help people by making sure they have enough food, or are able to live in a house when they don't have enough money to pay for one. He uses his job to help the good people that get hurt by the bad people your mom brings to justice."
"So I'm more like daddy?"
"You bet, Liz. Not a bad person to take after."
Lois smiled as Liz go up and hugged him. That was way better than anything she could have thought to say about her being like Bruce. Making her voice as quiet as she could, Lois spoke so only Clark could hear her. "Thanks for the save, Smallville."
She looked over at him and he winked at her.
"We come bearing food."
Lois would have shot up and run to Bruce had she not been curled up with Aly. As it was, she slowly untangled herself from her niece and got up in a relatively calm manor, making her way out to Bruce and the assortment of food that he and Jack had brought in. Jesus, they'd gotten a little bit of everything!
Lois was about to tear into everything when she saw Jordan and the rest of the children walk into the kitchen. Rolling her eyes at her own eagerness, she handed her plate to Jordan then lifted her up to show off all the food on the counter to her.
"What looks good, baby girl?"
"Pizza!"
Less than shocked, Lois walked over to the couple boxes of pizza and pulled a couple slices of cheese out for Jordan and placed them on her plate. "Anything else?"
"No, thank you."
Lois put Jordan back down and helped Aly and Liz with their food too, giving each what she wanted and letting Jack grab his own stuff before she could finally get at the fare. Fortunately, there was still plenty left for her to have a nice selection. She grabbed a slice of pizza, a couple spoonfuls of Spanish rice and some fajita chicken, some grapes and a glass of water.
She grinned as she walked to the dining room table, which they'd already gotten all set up for this very occasion. Setting her plate down as she looked for a chair, she pulled one around and sat down, flanked on one side by Jordan and the other by Jack. The kids all seemed intent on eating in silence for the time being, so Lois wasn't going to interrupt them. Meant she got to eat without interruption for a few minutes as well.
They were soon joined by all the other adults, which prompted Lois to stand up for a second. She held up her glass of water, watching as everybody held up their respective drinks as well, even Jordan. "To family: we're close by now, so let's take advantage of it and always be there for each other."
After a clinking of glasses and drinks all around, Lois sat down and started eating again. They all sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, taking in the good food before Chloe spoke.
"So, you guys are moving in three weeks, right?"
Lois looked over at Chloe and nodded, her mouth full of food. Clark actually used words to answer. "Three weeks and a day. We're not going to be all fancy like you guys with your movers, but we will be enlisting your help and offering food as compensation as you have."
"We'd help even if you weren't providing food. We're nice like that."
"And we appreciate it."
Clark took a bite of food, so Lois took advantage of the silence and decided to ask a question of her own. "So, you and the kids are going to be here most of the time, right Chloe?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"How often are you guys going to get to see Bruce?"
"Well, the plan is for the kids and I to spend weekends in Gotham until my due date gets closer. Once I get to around eight months, Bruce is going to be here more often than not on all days, not just weekends. If he's needed in Gotham right away, he has his jet to get him there."
"Guess you guys have done some thinking about this."
"Wouldn't be here if we hadn't. This was by no means a light undertaking. I have a new job, which is actually an old job I gave up. Jack is enrolled in a new school, much to his chagrin. But, when Bruce brought it up, I thought that this is what would be best for my family. I thought that it gave my kids the best chance to grow up with a normal life, not some fish bowl existence in Gotham. I didn't want my children growing up in an area where they'd be lauded as the next generation and have their every move followed for years to come."
Lois spotted Jack walking back from the kitchen, sitting down as his mom finished his statement. "It wasn't that bad, mom. I could handle it."
"I know you could, but I don't want you to have to handle it. In Gotham, you're seen as a prince of sorts, and as such they keep cameras on you all the time. In Metropolis, you're still Jack Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne, but it's not nearly as big of a deal. You can go about your life, not having to be sequestered from a normal childhood, whatever that is these days."
"Normal is boring."
Chloe raised an eyebrow at her son as she took a bite. "Care to explain?"
"Everybody wants to be normal. If everybody is normal, then what's the use of being me? I would just be the same as everybody else, because we'd all be normal."
Wow. Lois thought that was an extremely impressive argument for a seven year old. She hoped Jordan would be able to make arguments like that at seven. She glanced over at Chloe, who was just watching her son eat.
"You're not supposed to be smarter than I am yet, Jack." Chloe looked over at Bruce. "This is all your fault."
"If I am to assume responsibility for the intelligence of our son, I gladly do so. It's also fairly strange, considering just how much like you he is."
"Yeah, well, I couldn't make arguments like that at seven. I have a feeling one of us has been teaching him logic and reasonable thinking, and I'm certainly not one to do that." Lois watched her frown at her own words. "I think I worded that poorly."
"You really did, Chlo, but I would have said the same thing to Clark."
"The point of this is, I want you, Jack, and you, girls, as well as the little one in me right now, to be able to grow up without all the pressures of being a Wayne growing up in Gotham would entail. I want you to be able to grow up like I did, except without the small town and excessive crazy that went on there."
"What was Smallville like, mommy?"
Lois looked over at Aly, whose eyes seemed to have lit up at the prospect of hearing stories about a town full of people with strange powers and the lack of mental faculties to handle them.
"Smallville is something you all get to learn about when you're older, and not a moment sooner."
"What about me, mommy?"
Lois looked down at Jordan and ran a hand through her hair before giving her a couple pats on the back. "That's something you get to hear about when you're old enough to... date." She turned to Clark. "How old do you think she'll be when we allow her to date?"
"Not while she lives at home."
She rolled her eyes at him and turned back to Jordan. "That's not true, but when you're old enough to date, we'll tell you about Smallville. That way, you can learn from your aunt Chloe's mistakes."
"My mistakes? I barely dated anybody through high school because I was so wrapped up in the Torch and... other things. I mean, who here dated an invisible hitman?"
"Oh, yeah. Okay, your aunt's mistake of not having a social life and my mistake of having one with the wrong people." Chloe snorted at her statement, but Lois stuck by it. Jordan seemed to have lost interest and was concentrating on her food again.
"So, Smallville, when did you start going out on dates?"
"At just the right age. I remember the story of your first date, and your age at the time, and it makes me a little nervous. Considering our true first date..."
"How about we don't hold my, or more accurate our, less than stellar history against our daughter, Smallville? She can learn from the colorful experiences."
"That's kind of what frightens me. Knowing how much like you she is, she may determine that she likes the adventurous life you live and lived and try it out for herself. Nothing's certain, of course, but women in your family, at least your generation of them, seem to have a knack for trouble that I dearly hope is not genetic."
"She does have some advantages Lois didn't, Clark." Lois looked over at Chloe, grinning at her cousin coming to the rescue. "Who knows what she may have inherited and what may develop? Only time will tell how things turn out, and so you need to keep an open mind. Bruce is, right honey?"
"Right. In my open mind Aly and Liz aren't dating until they've mastered two forms of martial arts. It's open in the fact that they're allowed to master many more, should they like to."
"Very open minded, Bruce. Completely reasonable, too."
Lois looked over at Clark and whacked him on the shoulder. "You just keep living in your dream world, Smallville."
"I plan on it."
"May I live there too, daddy?"
"You always will, sweetheart."
