---- Chapter 58
Lois grunted as she heaved a box up onto the counter and allowed herself to slump a little as she felt AJ kick her just under her ribs. She patted her stomach a couple times where he'd kicked and stretched her back out a little to free it of the kinks she'd acquired since they'd started loading the moving truck that morning. She'd let Clark do most of the loading, but had stupidly decided to take full part in the unloading. She was now done with that. Hopefully.
Most of it seemed to be done already, though. One of the perks of having a husband that could lift the truck and tip it over so everything just fell into the house, she supposed. He'd been making it look like he was a regular Joe, though, since a few people had stopped by to welcome them to the neighborhood. Fortunately, Bruce was there to help make it look normal.
She looked over at the door and smiled when Jordan walked in, carrying a small box. She'd wanted to help all day, excited about moving. Apparently her cousins had told her that it was exciting to get to move someplace new and put all your stuff in different places. Cousin induced excitement seemed like it was going to be something present throughout Jordan's childhood. Probably better than no excitement.
Lois walked over and grabbed a box intended for Jordan's room, following her daughter up the stairs to the room that Jordan had picked out. It was the biggest of the non-master bedrooms, and also the furthest from them. She didn't think Jordan had really noticed that, just that it was big. The one closest to the master bedroom was going to be AJ's nursery, and the middle one would be the office or a guest bedroom. Maybe the office would be in the basement.
She followed Jordan into her new room and put the box down on top of a couple others as Jordan put hers down on the floor. Lois picked up Jordan and got her situated on a hip. "So, how do you like moving, baby girl?"
"Lots of boxes."
Lois nodded. "This is true. Apparently your father is a pack rat and he never told me about it, because I could have sworn we did not have this much stuff in the apartment."
"What's a pack rat?"
"Uh, well, that's what we call people who keep everything, no matter how old or useless it is, instead of throwing things away. Totally your dad's thing, because I never had the space to pick up the habit when I was younger."
"Why not?"
"When I was a kid, we moved a lot. Up until now, the only place you've lived is in the apartment. When I was a few years older than you, my dad starting moving us around every year or two, and I never had time to keep a lot of stuff. But, I am not going to do that to you. You, my baby girl, will be able to keep everything you ever get. Well, that's not true, but you'll be able to keep the stuff you want to keep."
Lois bent down and kissed Jordan on the forehead before walking out of her room and heading back downstairs. She let Jordan down to the ground when she was off the stairs and watched her zoom off outside. With a sigh, she followed and was almost run into by Clark as he backed up, couch in hand.
"You should beep while doing that, Smallville."
"Very funny," he said as he and Bruce carried it into the house. Lois walked outside and spotted Chloe wrangling the children. Lois walked up to the gaggle and stood behind them as Chloe started speaking.
"Alright young people, it's lunch time, albeit a late one, and I am going to make a food run. First off, who wants to go with me?" The three girls raised a hand each, and Chloe nodded. "Alright, I think that will work. Second, what does everybody want?"
After getting four answers garbled into one lump of speech that Lois couldn't understand, she stepped in. "Let's try this another way: I assume Chloe is getting fast food, so what do you guys want from a fast food place? In order of age, so Jack, you go first."
"Number seven, please, with no pickles."
Lois figured Chloe was going to need help remembering what everybody wanted, so she walked up to the truck and started digging around in a box. She found paper and pencil and wrote down Jack's order. "Alright, Aly?"
"Kids meal with chicken nuggets, please."
"Liz?"
"Kids meal with a plain cheeseburger, please."
Wow, very polite kids. She hadn't been that polite when she was ten, let alone four. Shaking her head, she got Liz's order written down before looking to Jordan. "Your turn, Jordan."
"Chicken, please."
"You don't want a kids meal?"
Jordan shrugged, and Lois wrote down a kids meal with chicken nuggets. She looked up at Chloe. "I'll go ask Clark and Bruce what they want and then I'll go with you, alright?"
"You don't need to, Lois. I can handle three girls."
"I don't doubt that, but since you guys did the food when you moved, it's our turn, what with it being our move."
"Oh good lord... Lois, you can buy dinner. Consider lunch a house warming gift."
"Chloe, I..."
She was cut off by Chloe waving a hand at her. "I love you, cuz, but you aren't winning this one." Chloe took the paper and pencil from her and looked at it a second before handing them to Jack. "Go have your dad and uncle Clark write down what they want, alright?"
Jack ran off into the house, and Chloe looked at her. "You know there are two G's in nuggets, right?"
"I was writing in short hand."
"Is short hand slang for not spelling things correctly?"
"Hey, why write two letters when you can write one and get the point across, right?"
Chloe eyed her a second before kneeling down in front of Jordan. "Sweetie, you may not understand this now, but when you need to learn how to spell, always go to your father. Your mother is amazing, believe me I know, but please, always go to your father for spelling."
Jordan nodded and Chloe stood back up. Lois cocked an eyebrow at her cousin, who just smiled sweetly at her, causing Lois to roll her eyes. Jack returned a minute later with the full list, giving it to Chloe, and she took off with all the girls. Lois looked down at Jack as they drove off.
"Want to help your Aunt take in another couple boxes?"
"Yeah!"
She watched as he walked over to the truck and grabbed one of the few remaining boxes and started carrying it inside. It wasn't one of the biggest, but it wasn't small, either. Apparently Jack was pretty strong. Lois grabbed a big but light box full of couch pillows and carried it inside, finding her husband and Bruce sitting on the couch. She put the box down next to the couch and sat down between them.
"So, how goes the moving?"
"Very well, Lois. I was just talking to Clark about buying you two a house warming gift, but your husband has decided to be stubborn."
"Shocking," Lois said as she looked at both men. "What are you trying to buy us?"
"He wants to furnish the nursery, Lo. I'm not against gifts, and I appreciate the sentiment, Bruce, but usually a house warming gift is small, like a... well, I don't know what, but I don't think buying us a ton of expensive baby stuff is necessary. Besides, we have Lois's baby shower for the smaller things."
Lois frowned. That didn't seem like that big of a deal. Maybe it was a male pride thing for Clark, wanting to provide for his own family. She didn't care one way or another so long as AJ got the best things that would make him happy once he was in the world instead of her uterus. How could one even tell if a baby was happy early on? She was going to have to talk to Clark about that.
"Alright, well, how about a compromise? Say, a changing a table or something of that sort. Not huge, but it says welcome to the neighborhood AND welcome to the world, baby. Now, Bruce, I want honesty... Chloe is having you do this, isn't she?"
"She suggested it, but I also like to do things for friends. I consider you two close friends, but I understand where you're coming from, Clark, and I won't push it. I can't promise that Chloe will agree not to push it, though."
Clark sighed and nodded. "Yeah, Chloe likes to do big things for us now. Did she ever tell you that she wanted to buy us a house?"
"No, my wife failed to mention that."
"Yeah, she called it a gift after the two of them told each other they were both pregnant again. We declined, of course, but I'm not surprised that she wants to buy us things." Lois looked over at him and found him looking at her. "Chloe tried to do the same thing when Jordan was born. She wanted us to have all the very best stuff for her niece, and was very insistent about it."
"I'm not surprised, really. She always liked doing stuff for me when she could, though it never involved buying me stuff so much as doing favors. She was the same way with Lucy, though to a lesser degree."
Lois shook her head after a moment and looked at both men again. "Alright boys, how about less sitting and more moving stuff inside? There isn't that much left, and hopefully we can have most of it done by the time Chloe and the girls get back." She looked around the room and frowned again. "Say, where'd Jack get off to?"
Bruce answered. "He went down to the basement to look at the rooms."
She noticed Clark lowering his glasses and looking at the floor. She'd figured out that was what he did whenever he x-rayed or heat visioned, and since she doubted he wanted to set the floor on fire, she figured he was checking on Jack.
"He's still down there. In the bathroom, I think."
Lois watched as both the men stood up and headed outside. She was thankful that it hadn't snowed, as predicted, and that they'd been able to get most of the moving done already. It hadn't taken long, since they'd already been packed up, but it was tedious. Very back and forth. Moving had a lot of redundancy to it.
Staying on the couch, Lois unzipped her coat and let herself sink into the spot a bit, releasing a relaxed sigh as her eyes slid closed. She heard feet on stairs, though, and opened her eyes again to see Jack emerging from the basement. She smiled at him.
"How's it look down there?"
"Big. What are you going to put down there?"
"Well, your uncle Clark and I have a deal. I get to do all the decorating and arranging of things on this floor and upstairs, and he gets to do what he wants with the basement. I don't know why guys like basements so much, but it's what he wants. I like seeing him happy, so I'm ok with it. Plus, he wants to put something fn down there."
"What?"
"A pool table."
Jack's eyes lit up. "Cool!"
"Have you played before?"
"Yeah, mom and I played when we went to get some pizza last summer after I had a doctor's appointment. It was fun."
"Good, I'm glad. As soon as we get one, I'll make sure you get to play with uncle Clark."
"Thanks, aunt Lois." Jack ran over and hugged her, and Lois smiled as she hugged him right back. She watched him run outside to help with the moving again and pushed herself up off the couch, figuring she could drag in one last box. She walked outside and winced when she caught some reflected sun in the eye, then made her way to the moving truck where she found Bruce and Jack.
"Where's Clark?"
"He had something he needed to run and take care of."
Lois nodded, understanding. She was just happy that they'd been able to get most of the work done before something had called him away. If he'd been gone the whole day, it would have made for a very, very long move. Fortunately, all they had left was a few boxes and Jordan's bed frame. She was about to suggest to Bruce that they take in the frame when she spotted Chloe pulling up. Well, she was hungry.
Twenty minutes later, she was much less hungry. "Thanks again for lunch, Chlo. It was the perfect house warming gift, unlike, say, a nursery."
Lois glanced over at her cousin, who had taken to staring down at the few crumbs that were left of her food with cheeks that looked like they were blushing. "What do you mean, Lo?"
"I mean that you're great, and I love you, but we're going to buy our own stuff for AJ's room, not including whatever people do for a baby shower. How does that thing even work?" Lois waved a hand at her own question. "Nevermind. As I told Bruce, earlier, you guys can buy us a changing table, but that's it."
Chloe crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in her chair, frowning. "I just wanted to do something nice for my nephew in there. Giving him all the best stuff... I just like spoiling your kids, alright?"
"Hey, I have nothing against you spoiling AJ, but how about you wait until he's old enough for you to buy him toys? That's what Clark and I are waiting for with..." She pointed and Chloe's expanded stomach. "Your fetus needs a nickname, Chlo."
"What?"
"Your fetus needs a nickname! I never know what to call your baby, and it bugs me. All I can do is call him or her your baby, and that's too bland. Henceforth, your fetus needs a nickname so that I can have something to call it."
"So you want to give my currently kicking baby," she looked down at her stomach, "good afternoon, kicky" and then looked back up at Lois, "a nickname so that you don't have to call it my baby or fetus?"
"That sounds about right."
Chloe eyed her a second before nodding. "Ok, whatever you need to feel comfortable speaking about this baby. Heck, you nicknamed Jack when he was internal, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised."
"What did I call him?"
"Tub."
She'd thought of a few names that she might have possibly used. Tiny, peanut and all those other names that everybody uses had come to her, but Tub? She'd never been so ridiculous to call somebody by a nickname like that unless they wanted to be called that, so how did she come to call Jack Tub before he was born?
"Tub? Was I high when I came up with this?"
"No. You hadn't even been drinking. You and Clark thought it was very clever, though, despite barely speaking to each other, and even I took up the name after a time."
"So how did I come to use the name Tub?"
"It's an acronym. Tub stood for Tiny Uterine Boy." Chloe smiled and looked down at her stomach and smiled, rubbing a hand over it. "That was one of those times that I knew you and Clark would be really good together, before your disastrous first date. It was the kind of thing that Clark would love, and he did when you told him about it."
"That is the kind of goofy thing that Clark loves, isn't it? Anyway, let's come up with a name for this baby. We obviously can't use the same name. When are you going to find out what you're having?"
"I'm doing it the old fashioned way this time. We've yet to be surprised, so we're going to give it a go this time. No knowledge of the sex until I can see it with my own two eyes. Or, Bruce can tell me if he spots what is or isn't there before I can. I assume I'll be somewhat exhausted at the time."
Lois bit her lip as she thought. The last time she'd come up with a nickname, it had been an acronym. What could she do this time? She didn't want to go the route of normal, because that would be boring and usual. What could she do... ooh, there was a thought.
"How about this: Clunk."
"Why do you hate my baby?"
"Hey, it's an acronym, like Tub! It stands for Chloe's Little Unknown. C, L and Unk."
"Just, no. You are not calling my baby Clunk. That's something you say when something has failed or fallen apart. This baby has done neither."
Lois rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair. "Fine, I won't call your baby Clunk."
"I appreciate that. Let's go get the last few boxes and you can think of something much better than that. Seriously, did you think I would let you call m child Clunk?"
"Considering you accepting it for use or not didn't really have time to happen before my mouth got ahold of the thought."
Lois followed Chloe outside and they walked over to the truck. Lois pushed opened the door to the back of the truck and climbed in to grab a box for Chloe. She pushed it over to her before walking back and grabbing a box for herself. She slid it to the edge and climbed down before grabbing it and walking inside. Checking inside, she found odds and ends from her's and Clark's room and took it upstairs, dropping it on the mattresses that were on the floor.
Looking around the room, there was a lot of space to play with. She made her way into the bathroom, finding a much larger room than their apartment had had. It contained a giant tub, which she planned on using quite a bit, and a huge sink area that should have just enough space for all the junk she barely used.
Going back out into the room, she was glad that it got as much sunlight as the apartment had, if not more. Their room had numerous windows and looked like it should be bright. She always liked bright rooms, but of course she might have to buy another sleeping mask. Maybe Clark's power of putting her to sleep in moments could counteract the light and keep it from waking her up.
Lois walked downstairs again and headed outside, where she spotted Bruce pulling part of Jordan's bed frame out of the truck. She walked over and took two of the pieces from him since they weren't too heavy. "Chloe in with the kids?"
"Yeah, she said all the girls were all looking tired so she was going to see if they would go down for naps. She took some sheets and pillows to makes pallets for them in the basement while you were upstairs. Jack decided he was tired of carrying things so he stayed inside to help Chloe with the girls. I don think that he'll really help much."
"No," Lois said as they walked into the house, "I doubt he will. He already has a big effect on Jordan, so if he's awake Jordan might decide she wants to be as well."
They walked up the stairs and put the frame pieces down on the floor. "Aly and Liz are the same way with him. They idolize their big brother, and already mimic him now and then. Since neither Chloe nor I had any siblings, it's interesting to watch the dynamic."
"It's much less interesting and much more annoying if you're the older sibling. Being the only one in this extended family with a brother or sister, I can say with some certainty that younger siblings can be the most annoying thing in the world. And, in my case, they can also be con artists, government agents and violinists in the Parisian orchestra with two sons. I can only imagine what Jack has in store for him."
She looked down at her stomach and placed a hand on it. "I literally can't imagine what it's going to be like for Jordan. We don't know if she's going to have any of Clark's powers, or if AJ will either. One may have powers, the other not; who knows? Even drawing upon my own experience won't really help, because I ended up acting more like a mom than a sibling, and then Lucy was sent off to boarding school."
Back at the truck, Lois grabbed one of the last couple boxes, letting Bruce take the heavier of the two before heading back towards the house. They walked inside in silence, and after checking the contents of each box, dropped them both in the kitchen. Lois took in a let out a deep breath, smiling at Bruce.
"It feels good to have that done."
"I remember that feeling like it was three weeks ago."
"Very funny." Lois grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and handed another to Bruce, who thanked her before taking a long drink. She took a long swig of her own, looking around the kitchen as she swallowed.
The kitchen was as massive as the rest of the house. She figured Martha was going to love it, with all of its very modern appliances and whatnot. The eight foot island seemed like overkill, but then she'd never really been a big fan of the kitchen area of any house unless somebody was keeping it stocked with food she did not have to make herself.
Down at the other end of the kitchen, it opened up into a dining room where their table from the apartment was sitting, covered by a couple boxes. The formal dining room needed a big, rectangular thing instead of that circular one. It would be good for coffee on weekends, though, or talking with Chloe over a snack since coffee was still a long way off from getting into her system again.
She looked at the boxes again, and glanced at others littering the room. She didn't think that they'd had so much stuff in the apartment's kitchen, but it was quite the surprise when she'd kept dropping box after box of kitchen utensils, pots and pans in here during the day. This was another place in the house that Clark could do with what he wanted. She wasn't going to mess with anything by trying to cook, so she wouldn't get anything out of putting things anywhere.
Lois heard the front door open and walked passed Bruce into the hallway leading to the front door. She saw Clark pushing the door closed with his foot as he carried a cake. "Welcome back. Everything go alright?"
He nodded and walked over to her, showing her the cake. "Everything went fine. Bank robbers wrapped up in a sign post: a Superman classic. Now, take a look at this. I thought we could celebrate our new house by eating cake and thoroughly enjoying ourselves."
"I'm in. Hell, I'm in for most things food these days. I really need to go on walks or do something that resembles exercise. All this eating and the sedentary lifestyle I seem to have picked up since I woke up back in November can't be good for AJ. Or, maybe it is... I really wish I had a reference for half kryptonian pregnancies."
"Well, when you were pregnant with Jordan you did lots of pregnancy exercises and the such. They should be in the baby books we have around here somewhere."
"We have baby books?"
"Of course we do. There haven't been any big prenatal revelations in the last three or four years, so we just kept your old books. When you said you wanted to read up on pregnancy after losing your memory, I thought you meant you had seen the books."
Lois took the cake from him and put it down on the counter before turning back to him and wacking him on the shoulder with the back of her hand. It was worth the sting emanating from her fingers. "I haven't read anything, Smallville, because somebody didn't tell me we had books. When have I had time to read? I woke without a memory and have been trying to get to know my daughter!"
Why was she yelling at him? Wow, she was a lot more worked up than she should be. Clark was looking at her with the proverbial deer in the headlights look, and she took a step over and hugged him. "Sorry. That was weird."
"No, that was kind of normal for your mood swings. Just caught me by surprise." He wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head.
"Were my mood swings bad with Jordan?"
"Every now and again. Mostly they were like that, where you would get angry over small annoyances. You only did the very happy to weepy sad that is portrayed so much once. You were happy about that."
"And if I only do it once this time, I'll be happy about it again."
Lois took Clark by the hand and led him into the kitchen, where they found Bruce still drinking his bottle of water. Lois motioned him to step back. Lois waved a hand out at the kitchen like a model on The Price Is Right does with a car, smiling at him. She then stepped out of the kitchen and into the hall next to Bruce. "The kitchen is yours to do with what you will. Now, how about you unpack in super speed?"
Clark looked around the kitchen for a moment, nodded and smiled at her. "And now, for the real reason you married me." There was a blur and her hair was thrown in her face by the wind he created, causing her to have to pull it off her eyes. When the world was revealed to her again, everything was orderly and in a place, while a stack of empty boxes was sitting in the corner.
"That is just all kinds of sexy, Smallville. When I figure out where I want everything and you unpack it all for me, you are so getting lucky that night."
"Should I leave you two alone?"
Lois looked over at Bruce, grinning and shaking her head. "Nah. He hasn't unpacked any of the stuff I want done yet, so you're safe."
"Good to know. I'm going to go check on Chloe, Jack and the girls."
Clark walked up next to Lois, hands in his pockets. "Where are they at?"
"Chloe made up some pallets down in the basement so the girls could take a nap. That was about... twenty or thirty minutes ago."
Lois and Clark followed Bruce down into the basement, and found that Chloe and Jack had both fallen asleep along with the girls. Lois pulled out her cell phone and took a picture, the camera in it being better than the actual camera she'd owned in 2008. After a couple pictures, they retreated back upstairs.
Lois laid down on the couch, smiling up at Clark as he stood over her. "They looked so comfortable down there that I think I might grab an hour or two for myself. Of course, I'm doing it on this soft couch instead of the hard floor of the basement."
"Alright. Have a good nap."
"Thanks." Lois let her eyes slide shut, and after the early wake up and large number of boxes, fell asleep quickly.
"Lois! Hey, Lois! Wake up!"
Eyes fluttering open, Lois lifted her head up off her pillow and took a deep breath, feeling like she should just go back to sleep. That had to be the worst nap ever to leave her this tired. She rubbed at her eyes with the palms of her hands, blinking a few times when she pulled them away. It seemed like an inordinate amount of light was flooding into the room, but maybe that was just going to be something to get used to in a new house.
Sitting up, she swung her legs off the couch and yawned. She stretched a second, closing her eyes once more before opening them to focus on her surroundings.
Where the hell was she?
Eyes wide, she looked around at the apartment she was in. This was the old apartment she and Chloe had shared when they'd decided to live together in Metropolis. Why was she here? Why did it look exactly the same as when she'd lived there? She stood up, looking around when she noticed something was off. She looked down, and her stomach was flat. What the hell was going on? Oh God, had she forgotten again with a new start point?
She ran over to the bathroom mirror, and nearly gasped at what she saw. Her hair was blonde again, and she looked like she was twenty three or twenty four! She ran a hand through said hair, feeling like she couldn't blink, and turned around, walking out of the bathroom and spotting Chloe walking out of her room.
"Chloe! What the hell is going on?"
Chloe turned around to face her and Lois noticed immediately that she looked like she was in her early twenties as well. "We're going to be late going out to the Kent farm is what's going on. I told Mrs. Kent that we'd be there by five."
"What... but... what?"
Chloe frowned and took a step closer to her. "Are you all right, Lois?"
"I have no idea what's going on, Chloe!"
"Well, we told Mrs. Kent we would go to Smallville today. We're having dinner with her tonight, and I'm going to spend the night with my dad while you stay at the Kent farm. What's wrong with you? We made these plans last weekend when I got back from picking up the tapes from the Planet."
Chloe walked off and Lois wracked her brain. What was Chloe talking about? Wait... she'd picked up the tapes? But that meant...
Lois followed Chloe out of the hallway and caught up to her. "What's today's date, Chloe?"
"June 13th, Lo. Friday the 13th. We took the day off, remember? So far, it has yet to live up to the unlucky billing, because it's been a pretty good day. While you were napping, I went out to pick up a couple things, and I met a guy. If he's as pretty on the inside as he is on the outside, I'll be giddy."
"What year?"
"What? Did your brain leak out of your ear while you were napping?"
"Just, come on, Chlo."
"It's still 2008, Lois. It was 2008 yesterday, and it will still be 2008 tomorrow. When will you be ready to go? Twenty minutes?"
"No... no, this is wrong."
"What's wrong? You look like you're confused, but what are you confused about?"
"This! All of this! You, meeting a guy! You're married!"
Chloe stared at her a second before leaning back against a kitchen counter and raising an eyebrow at her. "All right, I'll bite. What's the joke?"
"Joke?"
"Yeah, the joke. Chloe Sullivan married? That would require me finding a guy that could actually stay interested in me. That seems to be a kind of man that doesn't exist, though, so obviously there's something going on."
"No! You're married to Bruce, Chloe. You guys have three kids and one on the way!"
"Who the hell is Bruce? I've never met anybody named Bruce in my life!"
"Bruce Wayne, Chloe!"
"The billionaire playboy in Gotham?" Chloe walked over and started feeling her forehead. "You don't feel like you have a fever. What did you eat before your nap?"
"I don't know! This isn't the right year! I went to sleep in the year 2022 and I woke up in f-cking 2008, at a period of time when I am supposed to be in a coma!"
This time Chloe stared at her for a long time, her mouth hanging wide open. Lois knew that she sounded insane, but since so many things in the life she'd gotten very comfortable in sounded equally insane, it really wasn't worrying her much. It did seem to be worrying Chloe.
Lois's head turned as there was a knock at the door, at since Chloe seemed busy staring at her like she'd grown a second head and three extra eyes, she walked over to the door and pulled it open. A nondescript man in a sports coat was standing at the door.
"Can I help you?"
"Lois Lane?"
"Yes, that's me."
The man reached into his sports coat, pulling a gun and pointed it at her head. Lois tried to retreat back but only got a step when she heard the bang.
Lois shot up, her forehead slick with sweat as she gulped air into her lungs. Looking around the room, it was the living room she expected, filled with boxes and other things that needed to be put into place. She placed a hand over her heart, feeling it race as she tried to calm herself down. It had only been a dream. An intensely real, extremely confusing and extremely violent dream.
She got up off the couch and walked into the kitchen, grabbing the first glass she found in a cupboard and filled it with water from the sink. She gulped it down, filling her glass again and sipping at it this time.
"Lois?"
She walked out of the kitchen and back into the living room, finding Clark standing next to the now empty couch. "Hey, how'd you sleep?"
"Uh, fine until the nightmare. Apparently those wake me up more quickly than you holding food in front of me."
He walked over and pulled her into a hug that she happily melted into, feeling the worry slough off of her a bit. "I'm sorry you had to wake up like that, Lo."
"Me too, Smallville. Is Jordan still napping?"
"No. Chloe and Bruce took all the kids over to their place to play so that they wouldn't wake you up. It's just you and me."
Lois sighed, wishing she could see Jordan. After that nightmare, it would have been as comforting, if not more so, as the hug she was currently in. "Can we just go sit down, Clark?"
"Yeah, of course."
Lois let Clark lead her to the couch and they sat down. She stayed in his embrace, letting her head rest on him like it always did, but sleep wasn't going to claim her this time.
"Must've been a heck of a nightmare for you to be this huggy. I usually have to use most of my strength to keep you in a hug that goes longer than ten seconds."
She sighed. "It was... disturbing."
"Well I'm here, and I love you. Dreams can't hurt you or this family. I promise that whatever happened, I'll keep this family safe. "
Lois let herself smile slightly for the first time since she'd woken up. For one of the first times in her life, she didn't mind having somebody there to protect her and make her feel safe. "I know you will, Clark, and I love you too."
