---- Chapter 56
"Mommy! Daddy! It's Christmas! Presents!"
Lois felt her eyes flutter open as awareness crept in on her peaceful slumber. She rubbed her face against Clark's chest a couple times before rolling over onto her back. She looked over at him, one eye squinting open, and watched him run a hand over his face. She then glanced over at a clock, noticing that it was barely after six in the morning.
"Isn't she a little young to be up this early wanting to do presents?"
"Who knows," he mumbled as Jordan climbed up into the bed with them and laid herself across Clark. "Well, look what I got for Christmas: my very own Jordan, wrapped in ticklish spots."
Lois smiled as he started in on her, letting her eyes slide close for a second before opening them again and forcing herself to sit up. She didn't bother to stifle a yawn as she swung her legs over the side of the bed to the sound of a giggling girl escaping her father's clutches. She was soon greeted by a small person attaching herself to her legs. Lois pulled Jordan up into her lap.
"I love you, but why in the world are you up so early, baby girl? Usually it takes Herculean efforts rivaling those of the Justice League to get you out of bed at this hour."
"Jack said that on Christmas morning you're supposed to wake up early so that you can see what Santa brought you and have all day to play with your new stuff."
"Jack said..." Lois yawned again, half covering her mouth as she did so. "Apparently Jack is going to be as bad an influence on his siblings and cousins as I was on mine."
"What?"
"Nothing." Lois looked back over at Clark, who looked suspiciously like he was asleep again. She bent down and got her mouth next to Jordan's ear. "Do mommy a favor and go jump on daddy, alright? He needs another wake up call."
Jordan wriggled off of Lois's lap and onto the bed, where she made her way over to Clark and proceeded to sit down heavily on his stomach. When she didn't flinch, as Lois felt she might have if she'd done the same, it occurred to her right then some of what Jordan had inherited. It also elicited a reaction from Clark, who opened his eyes and smiled tiredly.
"Not going to let the old man sleep, are you sweetheart?"
"Mommy told me to jump on you."
"Did she now? Well, I guess she's a pretty smart woman and knows what she's talking about, so I guess I better get up."
As he did so, Clark threw Jordan over his shoulder and got out of bed, standing up. "How about you give your dad a minute to put on a shirt and go to the bathroom before we get this party started, ok?"
"Ok."
Lois yawned again and had Jordan deposited in her lap, where the girl got comfortable with her head laid against her mother's chest. She ran her hand back and forth through Jordan's hair as they waited for Clark. "Are you excited about what Santa brought you?"
"Yeah."
Short, but to the point. She was about to ask another question when Clark walked out of the bathroom and joined them. "So, everybody ready for presents?"
Lois stood up, hefting Jordan onto her hip as she did so. "I think we're all ready to do some major wrapping paper damage. Right, baby girl?"
"Right! Presents!"
They all walked out into the living room together, first to be greeted by half a dozen boxes strewn together here and there. Aside from Christmas, packing had become the word of the week. Half the living room was covered in boxes, while the other half was furniture covered by holiday decorations. They made their way through the junk to the Christmas tree, and Lois let Jordan down as Clark plugged in the lights for the full Christmas morning effect.
Jordan made a beeline to the unwrapped presents from Santa that they'd put out the night before. Candy Land got the once over before she moved on to some of the coloring books they'd decided would be from Santa. She then moved on to the stuffed platypus, holding it a moment before looking up at Lois.
"What's this?"
"That, Jordan, is a platypus. It's an animal that's only found in eastern Australia and that part of the world. Pretty crazy looking, isn't it?"
Jordan nodded and stuffed it in the crook of her arm before moving on to other things that were not covered in wrapping paper. That didn't last, and Jordan started ripping into her presents with quite a bit of ferocity. She wondered if that was cousin induced as much as her early awakening, or just Jordan being Jordan.
A little while later, Jordan had shredded through all her presents and was laying on the floor, coloring, still with her platypus curled up in one of her arms. Lois smiled and blew on the hot chocolate Clark had given her a few minutes before and took another sip, sighing as the warmth ran down to her stomach.
"Merry Christmas."
Lois went cross eyed for a second before her sight focused on the small, elongated gift Clark had put six inches from her face. She smiled and took it from him after she put her hot chocolate down, looking back at him as she did so. "Thank you." She removed the wrapping paper to find a felt covered box, and she opened it to find a thin, platinum bracelet. She pulled it out of the box, and found that hanging down off of it were two carved and gilded pieces, one reading Jordan and the other AJ.
"I know, I know that it's cliché for a man to give his wife jewelry for Christmas or a birthday, but you hadn't really said anything you wanted, and I'd ordered the bracelet and Jordan before you forgot. I got the AJ piece ordered as soon as you embraced the nickname, and it was ready just in time. Yes, the fact that you've never been huge on jewelry did occur to me, and this is kind of a glorified charm bracelet..."
Lois reached up and grabbed Clark on the back of his neck with both hands and pulled him down into a searing kiss. When she finally let him pull away, he blinked a few times. "You were rambling, Smallville, and that's the best way I know of to get you to stop."
He finally seemed to recover himself and grinned down at her. "I'm ok with it."
"And I love the bracelet. This is a piece of jewelry that I'll be happy to wear my entire life."
"Good, I'm glad. I just didn't know what to switch to, because oddly enough, before now you've always lost your memory between January and April. Of course, we were barely speaking for the Christmas after the first time your forgot, but for the other two I had plenty of time to plan and figure out what I wanted to surprise you with. Generally I do more than a bracelet, but when we knew you'd probably forget, you told me to keep it simple for once."
Lois got the bracelet on after a second and smiled as she looked at it. "I never thought I'd be so enraptured by something so shiny and simple, but I really am." She looked back up at him. "I love it because it's thoughtful, because it allows me to have my children close even when they aren't and because it's the first gift I've ever gotten from you... that I remember." She waved a hand at him. "You know what I mean."
"I do, and I'm glad." He leaned over a kissed her before straightening back up and walking over to Jordan, settling himself on the floor to color with her. She watched him start coloring with her, and engaging her in one of the silliest conversations she'd ever heard: the greatness of plaid and why it could be used in any picture.
God, she hoped her gift was something that he liked. She'd never been the greatest at gift giving, but this out had been awful. She didn't know what he liked now because he was always so wrapped up in telling her about her own life or taking care of Jordan and the rest of the world. She loved that he was taking care of the world, but he could certainly take care of her a little less and say what he does and does not want a little more.
She didn't even know if she'd done something like this for him before. It wasn't like she could go ask him to list everything that she'd gotten him for Christmas before just so she could know she wasn't doubling up. She probably could have, actually, but that seemed like... well, it seemed logical. Why did logic always come to her AFTER the fact?
Fishing around in the pocket of her robe, which she had grabbed and put on before sitting down to observe her daughter enjoy the morning, she pulled out the small present she'd had made for him, eyeing it a second before calling out to him.
"Hey, Smallville."
He turned around to look at her. "What's up?"
"Got a present for ya, if you want it."
He smiled and turned around, leaning back on his hands. "I told you, Lo, you didn't need to get me anything. You've fallen into such an extreme situation and handled it better than anybody else I know would have. Just having you love me and that little one you're carrying is more than enough."
"Be that as it may," she said, "I felt that I should do something a little more than simply be the wife to the most amazing man on the world and have the privilege of getting to be the mother to our son. I hope you like this. Actually, I just hope I haven't given you something like this before."
She tossed him the light box, and he caught without a problem, looking at her curiously as he opened it up and pulled out the flash drive looking thing that passed for a movie these days. She was really going to have to ask him what they called those things. On the side he was looking at, it simply said 'Christmas.'
"Well, you certainly have me intrigued... you got me a movie named Christmas? I can say with a high degree of certainty that you've never gotten me that before."
"Plug it in."
He shrugged and scooted himself over to the television, plugging it in and turning the tv on. She watched his face as the picture that popped up on the screen was a little title saying 'Christmas 1992' before it faded into Clark and Jonathan sitting amongst a batch of open presents, playing a game together.
"I had no idea what to get you. I was clueless, really, because I had no idea what you like and dislike now. While some things don't change with time, those do. So, I tried to think of something that I cold maybe make for you, but I am awful at that sort of thing. Then for some reason I thought about chocolate, I got some and then I finally figured out something: home movies are a treasure trove.
"I talked to Martha and she pulled together all of the old home movies made on Christmas from your childhood, then I talked to Chloe to see what she had from adulthood and it was a surprisingly large collection. I think you've been holding out on showing me my past instead of telling it to me."
"We talked about that last time you forgot, and you said that it was too impersonal to see it all first. You wanted to know what people were thinking in a situation, not just what they were doing." Through all that, he hadn't looked away from the screen, causing Lois to grin. He liked it.
"When you put what I said that way, it makes sense. Sorta. Anyway, once I'd gotten everything together, I talked to Bruce and he referred me to a professional editor in his employ to help me get things the way I wanted. That's why I took off a few days ago, saying that Perry was sending me to do an interview for him and why I wouldn't tell you who or where.
"So, I got together with this guy, he cleaned up all the older video and we got the thing put together in about six hours. Real nice guy, actually, and very good at what he does, as you can see. The years on there should be '92 through '98, 2000, 2002 and every one since Jack was born. Apparently we've spent them all with Chloe and her family. Admittedly, the last few on there are more for me to watch now and for us to have when we're old and gray."
"I can't believe you went to so much trouble, Lo." She smiled as he paused the movie and turned to face her. "I suddenly feel like that bracelet isn't enough."
"Hey, don't do that. This bracelet is great, and I love it. Like I said, it's the first gift I get from you, and that makes it special on top of the fact that it's a reminder of my children. I got lucky, really, that I even thought of anything."
"And it blows my gift out of the water. This always happens, unfortunately. I get something for you that I think is extremely meaningful and you top it without breaking a sweat." He got up and walked over to her, sitting down on the arm of the chair she was in. "One of these years, I will out meaningful you."
She grinned and pulled him down into another kiss, smiling as she let him go a second later. "Not likely , Smallville. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, Lo."
"Merry Christmas, guys!"
Lois was pulled into a hug by Chloe, kinda of a sideways thing they'd taken to recently to avoid the belly bump that had been plaguing their normal hugs, before she was let go and Jordan was enveloped in a hug. She'd forgotten just how much Chloe liked Christmas, though this was a bit more enthusiastic than she'd been earlier in life.
"How's the day been, Chloe?"
"Kind of long, really. Got the early wake up from Jack and the girls, though the established rule is that there is no getting the parents up before seven in the morning on all holidays."
"Ooh, good rule. Jordan woke us up not long after six, and if I hadn't grabbed a nap with her before we came over, I think I would have been asleep by about six this evening. Funny thing, though, is that my daughter quoted your son as saying that on Christmas, early rising is what's supposed to happen."
Chloe nodded as she let Jordan go to play with the other kids and their new stuff. "Yeah, he's been an early riser on this day for a few years now. I'm surprised Jordan was able to do it."
"You and I both." Lois shed her jacket and hung it up on the coat rack, cracking her neck a couple times as she followed Chloe into the house.
"Say, where's Clark? Out on business?"
"Yeah. He said he was hoping that there wasn't going to be anything big today, so I'm hoping that he won't be too much longer before getting here. He'll be bringing the presents for the kids."
"I'm just glad that he hasn't been super busy recently, so to speak. Aside from the bomb incident, it's been a pretty quiet holiday season. The last few years the nuts have been coming out of the woodwork this time of year, in Gotham and Metropolis."
"Guess the holidays are stressful for villains, too."
There was a mug suddenly in front of her, and she found Bruce standing next to Chloe handing her one. "A present from you, Bruce? What am I getting?"
"Hot chocolate."
Lois took the mug, finding the steamy drink to sound very good. The cup she'd had earlier in the day had left her wanting more. If AJ was going to turn her into as much of a hot chocolate addict as she was a pie addict now, she was just going to give up all her own favorites and take up eating all of Clark's favorite foods.
"Thanks, Bruce." She took a sip, and her eyebrows rose up along her forehead. "Wow, this is really good. What'd you do?"
"Mixed a little melted chocolate into the hot milk before adding the chocolate mix."
"This isn't homemade?" Bruce shook his head and walked over to where all the kids were playing. Lois just took another sip and couldn't help sighing at how good it tasted. Chloe followed him, and Lois ended up following her and sitting next to her on their big, incredibly comfortable couch. After a couple minutes of watching the kids play, Jack walked up to them.
"Mom, when's grandma Martha coming? The house smells good when she cooks dinner."
"Actually," Lois said as she sat forward a little, "your uncle Clark and I are going to be making dinner tonight. Well, to keep you guys happy and healthy your uncle Clark is going to be making dinner tonight."
"Does Martha know this, cuz?"
Lois shook her head. "It's her Christmas present. Since she didn't want any actual gifts, we decided to make dinner for the family and let her have an evening of relaxation." She watched Aly, Liz and Jordan run by and shrugged. "As much relaxation you can have with all of us, anyway."
"Is Clark bringing her?"
"Since we're doing this in Metropolis instead of Gotham per the usual, I'm told, Martha decided she'd save Clark the time and just drive herself. She should be here in an hour or so, so I hope Clark gets here soon so dinner can be started and we don't have to wrestle her away from the oven. That would be awkward, not to mention a bad present."
Chloe nodded and they settled into watching the kids play, Bruce joining in with all of them after a few minutes. Lois felt like she was checking the time every two minutes, and she wasn't far off. She was starting to get antsy that Clark wouldn't get back in time and Martha would beat them... him, to the cooking.
An hour and a half later, Lois sat glowering on a stool, arms crossed over her chest as she watched Martha move around the kitchen with the familiarity she had at the Kent farm. Apparently, when it came to Martha Kent, she didn't have to ask where things were in a kitchen, she could just tell by instinct.
She turned her head as she heard the font door of the house open up, and stood as Clark walked into the house, arms full of presents. "Sorry I'm so late, everybody. Busy afternoon out there."
Before he got to her, she watched him get swarmed by a mob of small children. He got all the presents on the ground safely and Jordan got swung up and thrown over a shoulder as he hugged all the others to his legs. She fought the grin that was starting to get the best of her as she watched him play around with them for a moment before he finally looked over to her. She raised an eyebrow at him and nodded her head at the kitchen. He looked over for a second and his shoulders slumped.
He made his way through the kids and let Jordan down to go play some more. "I'm too late?"
"You're too late. I even asked her to wait, and her exact quote was 'You take care of Almond Joy and let me take care of my family, dear. I do this because I love being able to do provide for my family, not because I feel I have to. But thank you for thinking of me.' After that, food making commenced."
"Dang. I really wanted to do this for her, but there was just so much going on out there..."
"It's not your fault people needed help, Clark. I am, of course, proud of you for spending so much time on Christmas helping people. It's likely that if Martha had gotten here and you'd already started cooking that she'd have muscled you out and done the rest herself."
Clark laughed and pulled her into a hug. "There are very few people in the world that can muscle me anywhere, and most of the women that can are in this house."
"Yeah, and tops on that list is Lois Lane Kent."
"Sorry, you're third."
She pushed her way out of his hug and looked up at him. "Third? I'm your wife!"
"It's chronological! First there was mom, then Chloe, then you and some others. I can't really help when I met you guys. Now, if you want me to make a new list how well people can muscle me around, you'll be at the top. Well, Jordan may come first, but that's kind of like 1A and 1B, really."
"I can live with being second to my daughter. And my son, once he's born. Any future children, really. But after them..." She let her words trail off and pointed a finger up at him playfully.
"Well, since I have your permission, I'm putting all eight of our future children ahead of you now to save myself some time."
Lois coughed a couple times, looking at him incredulously. "Eight? Jesus, I'm already thirty five and only working on our second! Do you expect me to be popping kids out at fifty?"
"Whoa there," Clark said, placing a hand on each of her arms. "I was joking. If we Almond Joy is the last baby we have, I'm still the luckiest man alive."
Lois bit her lip and calmed herself down a second before speaking. "See, your joking sounded way too much like your not joking. I have nothing against big families, but I've just never imagined myself with a big family. Plus, the age thing... I just don't want to be one of those parents where people have to guess if I'm the mom of the grandma."
"Just to make sure you understand, I want the same sized family you want. If we stop with Almond Joy, I'm still a very happy man. How about we forget that by joking I freaked you out and just keep on enjoying Christmas."
Lois seriously doubted that she was going to be able to put things out of her head completely, since she'd never been able to, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and wrapped her arms around Clark again. That did seem to make it easier to not think about his joke sending her into crazy land. Candy Land was much better than crazy land.
Ok, that thought officially put her in crazy land. Dang board games that her daughter could beat her at were not real places, no matter how tasty candy sounded.
A couple hours and half a stocking full of candy later, Lois took her seat at the dinner table as Bruce put the ten pound turkey and a ham at the end of the table where she, Chloe and Clark were sitting and another ham and some sliced turkey down with everybody else.
"We're not going to eat THAT much, Bruce."
"After Thanksgiving and you and Lois being further along in your pregnancies, along with Clark being Clark, Martha and I both thought that an entire turkey and ham for the three of you might be too little." Bruce smiled as Lois glared at him, and she noticed her cousin doing the same. "As I've always believed, it's better to have too much than too little. Everybody can have leftovers when they go home tonight."
Lois ceased her glare and shrugged, not minding the leftovers idea. Getting to eat this great cooking for another meal or three would be her pleasure. She looked over at Chloe, who had also ceased her glare. She must have gone through the same leftovers thought process.
"Fine, fine. May we eat?"
"I think it would be wasteful not to. Enjoy the meal, everybody. Merry Christmas."
Another two hours later, Lois was sitting on the couch with Clark watching all the children.
"I am so full. Why did you let me eat that much, Smallville?" She heard a scoff come from her left side. She wanted to frown at him, but that was way too much effort at this point.
"Let you? Had I tried to stop you I probably would have lost a finger, hand or entire arm. I prefer for Jordan to not see her mother eating her father's appendages. And now that I say that, I feel as if I've heard that said on television before to numerous pregnant women."
Lois flopped an arm over on his stomach as they watched Jordan and the other kids play a game on the floor. It was as close as the could get to smacking his stomach with the back of her hand for even suggesting something like that, even if she had eaten enough to feed a small army. Having seen small armies eat, she was a bit of an expert on the subject.
"I would not have eaten you. I may have nibbled a bit, but I probably would have broken my teeth on you had I tried anything more than nibbling." She paused for a moment, considering what she just said. "We've truly moved on to having conversations that start at ridiculous and just go from there, haven't we?"
"Moved on to? That's where we started, Lo. We never would have made it as a couple had we tried to be normal or stick to the mundane. I seriously doubt either of us could if we tried."
"Yeah, well, I have nothing to say to that so I'm just going to lean over on you and fall asleep."
"Enjoy yourself."
She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, sighing contentedly as she got comfortable and let her eyes close. He really was a human sized sleeping pill, though not really a pill. More like a big, sleeping osmosis thing that she absorbed with her skin and...
"Lois. Hey, Lo."
Lois stretched and opened her eyes, giving them a second to focus on Clark's face. She looked down when she felt something resting on her legs, and found Jordan's head resting there, the rest of her curled up on the couch.
"How long have I been asleep, Smallville?"
"A few hours. I had to go out and help a few people, so Bruce and Chloe just let you sleep. Once Jordan started with the drowsy, they got her settled with you. Apparently you woke up when it happened, though Chloe should have known better than to think you'd remember it."
Clark moved over to her other side and gently picked Jordan up, getting her settled on an arm with her head on his shoulder. He offered her a hand to help her up and she took, getting pulled up onto her feet. After a second she followed him into the dining room where Bruce, Chloe and Jack were sitting.
"How was your nap, Lo?"
"Good. Feel rested enough to get driven home and fall asleep."
"Speaking of sleep," Chloe said as she looked over to Jack, "I think it's time for all people of single digit ages to be headed up to bed." In response, Jack yawned. "I rest my case. Come on, Jack, let's go." Chloe stood up and walked around to Jack, who didn't appear to be putting up a fight this time. Lois got a quick hug from each as they passed by and Bruce walked them to the front door.
"Thanks, Bruce. Christmas was as great as always."
"We're always happy to host. We'll see you guys tomorrow for lunch, right?"
"Yeah, probably. Give us a call and we'll figure out where we can all meet up."
After Clark got Jordan situated in her car seat, they headed out. Lois settled back into her seat, yawning before she leaned forward and turned on the radio so she had something to listen to and keep her awake. Unfortunately, all she could seem to find was Christmas carols and soft rock. She turned it off and looked at Clark.
"Talk to me, Smallville, or else you won't just be carrying Jordan up to the apartment."
"Alright, uh, when I was making a save earlier I actually had to pull orphans from a fire."
"Dear God that's sad."
After a few more sad stories of people losing houses to fires and others getting mugged, they were parked and headed up to the apartment. Lois leaned on Clark as he unlocked the door and walked in. She closed the door and locked it as he took Jordan to put her in her bed. She tossed her coat on the back of a chair as she walked to their bedroom, stifling another yawn. This is what she got for letting her daughter wake her up at six in the morning then eating a large part of a turkey.
She quickly got changed into her sleeping clothes and was already under the covers when Clark walked in. "Ready for more sleep, Lo?"
"Very much so. Mind changing quickly?"
A blink of the eye later, Clark was laying next to her. "Quick enough?"
Lois smiled and snuggled into him. "Barely, Smallville."
Three Nights Later
With a grunt, Lois woke up as she felt something compress her legs down into the mattress before letting them be comfortable again. Looking up through lidded eyes, she found Jordan crawling up on the bed between her and Clark.
"Hey, what are you doing, baby girl?"
"I couldn't sleep."
"I gathered that." Lois moved herself over a little bit and let Jordan tuck herself in against her body. What with her stomach sticking out in front of her as it was, she was surprised Jordan could accomplish such a thing comfortably. "Listen, before you get too comfy, how about we go lay down in your bed."
"Ok."
Lois pulled herself up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, scratching at her forehead as Jordan climbed down off the bed and ran off towards her room.
"What's going on, Lo?"
She looked back over at Clark, who'd spoken without opening his eyes. "Jordan woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm going to go lay down with her until she falls back asleep."
"You want me to go now that I'm up? I'm used to these kinds of nights."
"You sleep. It's the first night all week you haven't been out helping somebody. And as I've said on previous occasions, I don't mind doing these types of things for my daughter." Lois pushed herself up off the bed and cracked her neck.
"Alright. See you in the morning."
She heard him roll over, and after a second of debate she walked over to the dresser and tapped it a couple times, opening the secret drawer and pulled out the diary. She closed it as quietly as she could and walked out of the room, heading to Jordan's room through the darkness of the living room.
Lois found Jordan already laying in bed, eyes open and pointing at the door as she waited for her. "Sorry, was I taking too long?"
Jordan nodded and Lois sat down on the bed, getting situated as Jordan snuggled up to her much as she had in the other bed. She wrapped an arm around her daughter, looking down as Jordan rested her head on her chest much the same way she did most nights on Clark's. Weird thing to get passed down.
"I love you, Jordan. Sleep well."
"Goodnight, mommy."
A few minutes later, Jordan was out like a light and Lois was shaking her head. She couldn't remember, at least not clearly, ever running to her mom for comfort and being able to fall asleep that quickly. She definitely didn't remember running to the General and getting any comfort, because all she got the few times she tried that was a 'Be strong, little Lo, and you'll be fine' before she was sent back to bed. Lucy had just started going to her, and she'd done the best she could at the time.
Pushing the depressing memories out of her head, she was just glad that she could be there for her baby girl. That had always been something she'd wondered if she could do, being comforting. It had never been her strong suit at any age. It was just something that had never come naturally to her, at least not before now. Jordan made things easy, though. She didn't seem to mind that her mom was three shades of crazy.
Six weeks and three days. Four, if she wanted to be technical and say a new day started at midnight. How had she adjusted to all this... happiness, with so much ease? She hadn't even ever investigated whether or not this could be a setup. It was too good. At this point, if it was a dream, she didn't care and she didn't want to wake up.
Smiling, Lois felt the diary, still in her hand. Apparently holding something wasn't enough to keep her from forgetting it these days. Using her one free hand, she opened up the diary and flipped to the page after the last one she had read. When she saw the date, she got confused for a moment and flipped back to check the date of the last entry. It said what she remembered, and there was nothing between the two... what had happened?
August 20th, 2020
I lost the diary. Don't ask me how, if you could, but I managed to lose this thing until a few days ago when I was helping Clark clean up the apartment for Jordan's birthday party today. Somehow my diary, of all things, got tossed in with pots and pans out in the kitchen, hidden amongst junk I never use. Good way for me not to find it.
Maybe Jordan got a hold of it at some point, who knows. One way or another, the thing ended up hidden and hasn't been written in since Jordan turned one and I threw in a short little entry. You know this, of course, since you probably just checked to make sure that you hadn't missed something when the dates went from August 19, 2019 to August 19, 2020. Guess that means you want to know what's happened in the last year.
Nothing. From birthday to birthday, it has been the slowest year in history. I appreciate the fact that nothing catastrophic or crazy has happened, because it's given me plenty of time to spend with Jordan, but it also makes being a reporter much more difficult than it used to be.
Leading the way in nothing happening was Lex. No attempts to kill Superman, no attempts to swindle old folks out of their money, nothing. As much as I like silence on the Luthor front, it makes me a little uneasy. If history is any indication, a quiet Luthor is a planning Luthor, and his plans never mean anything good for anybody, not even him at times.
What else. Intergang has been quiet, which is always nice. Haven't heard anything from Toyman, Parasite, Metallo or anybody else since Jordan's last birthday. Always a plus, and again, a bit disquieting. Clark says that all the quiet from the big bad's is refreshing, but I know that he's just as curious about what's actually going on as I am.
Of course, we could just be paranoid from our (way too many) years dealing with super powered crazies, both here and in Smallville, but I like to think that we've learned from all that. Plus, we're journalists. If we take everything at face value, what the hell are we going to put in our articles?
In non bad guy news, Chloe and her family are doing well. The twins turned two last December and had a nice party thrown for them. Let me tell you, that was a cold flight to Gotham. Even wrapped up in a blanket like Clark insisted, and with Jordan snug against me, there was still a decent chill. Jordan, enjoying flight as she does, dozed off a couple minutes after we took off and didn't notice her mother's teeth chattering.
Anyway, that was a good evening. Jack's sixth birthday was also a lot of fun, and a bit warmer, too. He had a bunch of his friends over from school, so Clark and I got to interact with other parents. Most of them commented on how nice it was that we would fly in from Metropolis to celebrate Jack's birthday. Unfortunately, they all said it so... condescendingly, when we had to tell them we flew coach.
Poor Chloe. She and Bruce have Jack going to a private school in Gotham, and as such most of the parents of his friends are rich and snooty. We met a few that were nice people, very personable and whatnot, but a lot of them were living the cliché. They have lots of money, and those that don't are doing something wrong or just don't care enough about their lives. I was fighting the urge to hit people upside the head that whole afternoon.
Once all the kids had gone, though, we settled into a nice evening with the Wayne's. We had a dinner of Jack's choosing, which was cheeseburgers, and even watched a couple Disney movies before Jack finally conked out for the night. Clark and I were spending the night there, so once all the kids were out for the night we had a nice evening of conversation. Well, Chloe and I did. Clark and Bruce seemed content to listen to us, despite our want for them to get involved.
Apparently, and with Clark saying this I hardly find it to be likely, but apparently we speak too quickly and change topic too often when we're together for them to keep up. I think they were just using that as an excuse to ogle their wives. Not that I have a problem with Clark's eyes on me, as I proved to him later that night, but I like for them to be involved in the conversation with us. I know Clark can keep up, because he's done it for years, so I think they were being lazy. Slackers.
So, other happenings... it was two years since I had forgotten in March. It was six years since the Cinco de Mayo incident in May. Two years since I started writing in here again in June. And then we come to Jordan's birthday today.
It's hard to have a real birthday party for a two year old kid. She doesn't interact with a lot of other kids that aren't Jack, Aly and Liz. We're having the 'party' this weekend, since her birthday is on a Wednesday this year, but mostly it will just be family. Chloe, Bruce and their brood are flying in, Martha is driving in on Friday and going to meet us at the Planet and the General is coming in Saturday. Going to be a busy week for him, because he's currently in France spending time with Lucy and her boys.
Saturday is going to be cake, ice cream and presents for Jordan, who I hope will realize all the fuss is for her. Since she's two, I think she'll just be happy to see people, assuming she even remembers that the General is her grandfather. Fortunately, she isn't shy with people she doesn't know (that may come back to bite me in later years) so she won't be crying every time the General holds her (that used to happen a lot with the twins and the General).
You know, it occurs to me that I'm writing the General a lot, while what I always call him now is daddy. I called him the General when I first woke up without my memory, but not long after I noticed how much time and circumstance had changed him into a softer, more fatherly figure, like the one I remember from when mom was alive, and he's been daddy ever since. I should really start writing that.
Tangent aside, it's been a good year. I don't think I value anything more than spending time with my daughter and my husband, and I've had a lot of that since Jordan turned one. Unexpected amounts, really, and I've enjoyed it. Add into that time with family and it's been one of the better years I can remember, even if it did technically start in August.
Hell, I don't even mind the slow times at the Planet. I wonder what's coming next, what's coming in the future, but I think the major difference is that I don't worry about it anymore. Where as thinking about the future used to annoy me, if not plain depress me to the point of not doing it anymore, thinking about the future now almost leaves me with a sense of hope.
I guess perspective is everything. If I had a different life, I would have a different perspective and see the future differently. Fortunately, my life is the way it is, and I can be hopeful. Who ever thought that the cynical Lois Lane would ever be hopeful?
Hopeful. Lois yawned and put the diary down on the floor next to Jordan's bed, realizing just how hopeful she'd become so recently. She liked it, a lot. With one more yawn, Lois settled into the bed a little, feeling Jordan still resting on her, and fell asleep feeling a whole lot of hope flow through her as AJ kicked.
Three Days Later
"New Years without alcohol. I just can't get it to work in my head." Lois looked down at her glass of non-alcoholic champagne and sighed.
"You don't say, cuz. I think it's odd that you felt the need to say that three times in the last hour."
"I think it's odd that you're counting. And excuse me for being all confused. I don't remember any New Years without alcohol, if I've had any."
"You had one when you were pregnant with Jordan, but that was partly because nobody else was drinking. The twins were a month old so I wasn't drinking, Bruce wasn't drinking while I wasn't drinking, and Clark was so in an out of the place that he didn't have time to drink. You didn't feel like it anyway since you had no idea what was going on with your own body, and you'd been tired due to Jordan being secretly in-utero."
Lois sipped at her 'champagne,' looked at it a second and then put it down on the table. She walked into Chloe's kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, taking the cap off and drinking a little bit as she walked back to Chloe. "Did I comment on it then?"
"Maybe once or twice, but there was no obsessing over it like you are tonight. Like I said, you were basically four weeks pregnant at that point and had that oh-so-fun early pregnancy exhaustion that had you off enough to not drink. You were content to have a quiet evening with us and barely seemed to notice."
"Huh." Lois drank a little more water and looked around the room at the people attending the party. Mostly it was people from work, people she could name but didn't really know anything about. Clark was in a conversation with a guy that he looked like he'd known forever. Kind of a short guy that seemed to smile a lot.
Clark caught her staring at them and started guiding him over, causing Lois to bite her lip in consternation. Up until this point, she'd been able to avoid having to meet anybody new and engage in that annoying thing called small talk, but it seemed her luck had run out. Clark smiled at her as they stopped in front of her and Chloe. Chloe apparently knew him because she took a step forward and hugged him.
"It's so good to see you again, Pete."
Pete. That name sounded familiar. Was this the Pete that Chloe had mentioned the day she'd woken up without her memory? The way he and Clark got along like old friends, it certainly seemed like a possibility. She smiled and shook his hand when he offered it.
"Hi, I'm Pete Ross. I was sorry to hear you lost your memory again. How're you doing?"
"Considering everything, a lot better than I thought I would be when the year 2022 was about to start."
Pete smiled at her. "I know what you mean. After I left Smallville I didn't know what my future could possibly hold, but it's been good to me."
"What do you do?"
"I'm a state senator and running for Governor."
Lois had certainly not expected to hear that. She'd heard of a Pete Ross that had announced his candidacy for the Gubernatorial election coming up, but she'd never seen a picture and certainly hadn't thought that the Pete from Clark's childhood would be the same guy.
"I can tell you weren't expecting that."
Lois snapped out of her thoughts and felt her cheeks heat up and she smiled at him. "Sorry. I was getting the fact that a Pete I heard mentioned once, and not even from Clark even though he's his oldest friend, situated in my head." She raised an eyebrow at Clark. "Once again, Smallville, this is something you should have told me."
"I know, and I'm sorry. It never even crossed my mind until Chloe told me he was going to be here tonight. In my defense, I've been occupied with other things."
"Being occupied with me is no excuse for not mentioning you know a Gubernatorial candidate personally. You're going to make this one up to me for a good long while. I can see it now... yes, I think that you'll be doing most of the moving next weekend while I relax with Jordan."
"I think you were planning that anyway."
"Be that as it may, now I have an excuse that isn't pregnancy or laziness. Thank you."
"Here to help."
A couple hours of mingling later, Lois and Clark were standing in the livingroom with a dozen other people watching the countdown to the new year. Lois looked up at Clark. "Remind me to thank Martha for watching all the kids when we get back to the apartment later tonight."
"You think she'll be awake? Usually she falls asleep with Jordan in her room while reading her a bedtime story. With Chloe's kids there too, I think it's a safe bet she'll be sleeping like the others. You can thank her in the morning, though."
She nodded, then smiled as the countdown got to ten. Closing her eyes, she said goodbye to the year that had introduced her to her daughter, had shown her that happiness was something she was allowed to have and let her feel love for a man that loved her.
"Three, two, one... happy new year!"
Lois threw some confetti up in the air before looking up at Clark again, smiling softly as he leaned down and kissed her.
"Happy new year, Lois. I love you."
"Happy new year, Smallville. I love you too."
