"Is there anything that I should be prepared for?"
"Everything's going to be fine. Trust me."
"You're not the one who is fifteen weeks pregnant and getting ready for a little screen to tell you what your baby looks like."
"Lois, breathe. Increased heart-rate's not good for the pregnancy."
"I don't know what's going to show up on that monitor, Clark. You're adopted and we have no basis of history for your side of the family, if you could even have any genetic problems. This is something I might've thought about before we slept with each other without the brilliant idea of a condom."
"Not using that condom was the best thing we ever did, now would you just relax?"
"What if they can tell?"
"Can they tell with me?"
Lois exhaled. "You're right, you're right, Smallville."
The doctor knocked on the room.
"Hi there," she said all smiles. "How are we today?"
"We're fine," Lois said though her nervousness was showing through.
"Are you two excited to see the first picture of your baby?"
"I just wanna know if it's okay. And maybe if it's a boy or girl."
"It's a little too early to tell if it's a boy or girl. At 20 weeks you'll come back and we'll get a much more definite image. Now we're just checking for legs, arms, and a general health of the baby. So just give me a second," she explained, rolling Lois's shirt up and squeezing the gel gently on Lois's stomach.
"It'll just tickle me, right?" Lois asked.
"It's not going to hurt," the doctor smiled.
"Good, because I want to put off the pain for awhile."
"Your first three months, how were they? Nausea, dizziness, throwing up, fatigue, any of that?"
Lois shook her head. "I felt pretty good. Not a lot of symptoms."
The doctor smiled again. Clark squeezed Lois's shoulders supportively.
"Though we're thrilled, we weren't expecting this."
"Well, everything is looking good."
Lois and Clark scanned the screen along with the doctor but they didn't know what they were looking at yet. It was a mesh of collaged images.
"Oh," the doctor said in an indefinable tone.
"What?" Lois said frantically. "What's wrong?"
"It's not a wrong. It's not a wrong at all. It's just…I see two fetuses in your uterus."
Both Lois and Clark said nothing. Clark leaned in a little and Lois just plain tried to comprehend the sentence.
"Would you mind please telling me that you are joking before I have a heart attack?" Lois asked.
"You may not know the gender yet but you're showing and that's because you're carrying two babies."
"Two?" Lois asked incredulously.
"Yes," the doctor replied. "I know it's a little shocking. Let me let you hear the heartbeats."
The doctor set the stethoscope on Lois's stomach and almost immediately the two little heartbeats were audible.
"Oh my God," Lois whispered.
She looked up at Clark.
"Those heartbeats aren't mine," she said.
Clark took her hand and squeezed it.
"Are the heartbeats supposed to be that fast?"
"They're perfectly normal. Now before you ask anything else, everything that I can see," she went back to looking at the monitor, moving the probe over Lois's stomach. "The placentas are healthy and attached, all their little arms and legs are there, their hearts are beating, and they're growing in the right part of the uterus. It all looks good."
Clark could feel Lois reacting and he needed a moment with her.
"Could you…" he motioned to the doctor.
"Of course. I'll be right outside."
Clark saw Lois staring into the distance and he took her hand.
"You want to kill me, don't you?"
She exhaled and gave a small smile.
"For what? Not only impregnating me with a part extra-terrestrial but with two? No, I just, I know now we're never ever going to have a moment's peace but we have to find a way to do this. But I'm not the mothering type. This was freaking me out when it was just one baby. I scare children."
"You don't scare children," he eased, pulling up a chair to sit beside her.
"What about Maddie? You were perfect and I was the Wicked Witch."
"You got better. You were just a little hyper for her, a little upbeat. Doesn't mean you were bad. Plus, these babies are going to know your love so they won't be afraid of you or the world."
"Why are you so calm? You just got double duty in one breath."
"Guess I'm optimistic. So let's do the whole thing. Let's get you out of Smallville so you can do the work you love. I'll sell another branch of the farm and leave the rest to Ben."
"You don't have to do that."
"Lois, it's time. We'll get a house big enough for the babies. I'll get a job and we'll make a life in Metropolis."
"I do have some money coming to me finally, from my mother. It's 21st birthday money. My dad was slightly late in giving it to me but if I yell at him enough, he'll give in. We can use that too."
She paused, thinking a moment.
"But you really expect to do all this in six months? How are we gonna fix up a house in six months even if we were miraculously lucky enough to find one?"
"You keep forgetting who I am. How do you think I ran that farm on my own? I do everything at super-speed. You find the house and I'll do the rest. I'll fix it up while you sleep on a couch with ear-plugs so I don't disturb you."
"You'd really leave your family farm just so I can be closer to my job? I've driven back to Smallville for a long time. I can do it."
"I'll always have my farm. But making a new family with you isn't something I'm giving up. It's something I'm gaining."
She took his hand and put it on her stomach.
"If one of these babies is a boy, I'd like to name it after your father."
Clark kissed Lois's forehead.
"He really cared about you."
"I know he'd be surprised to say the least."
"Well, we have to call my mother."
"Yeah, we have a round of phone calls to make."
"After the doctor's done with you," Clark said, retrieving her.
XxX
The doctor printed out Clark and Lois's first baby photo, showing a moderately clear image of four sets of arms and legs. Chloe had bought Lois a frame that said, "Our Baby's First Photo". Putting it on the mantel, Lois admired it happily. Clark loved seeing Lois smile so honestly.
XxX
"Found anything?"
"How can it be this hard to find something?" Chloe said.
"Because I've already moved once during this pregnancy and it's exhausting. I want the perfect place, in our budget and I don't want to do it again."
"Well our lunch break is over in twenty minutes so look fast."
"Ugh, my head hurts, Chlo."
"K, you sleep for the next twenty minutes and I'll look."
Lois slumped her head down on the table, caffeine deprived and overworked.
"You don't have my refined taste," she moaned and Chloe laughed.
"Right, thanks," Chloe smiled, typing away her search for Metropolis houses.
Lois tried to entertain the thought of sleeping at a restaurant on this beautiful almost spring day but she knew if she fell asleep, waking up in twenty minutes would kill her. No, she'd wait until the workday was over, have Chloe drive her home, then crash.
"I can't sleep, would you just keep searching while I eat this salad?"
"Course. You sure you don't want something more?"
"Not yet. Seems entering the second trimester now I'm getting waves of nausea every now and then. Or fits of wanting just chocolate."
"I can't believe you're having twins."
"I know."
"I just can't wait to find out what the genders are."
"I'm a little nervous about what they'll be able to do. If they get mad at me are they going to destroy my house? Run across counties? Burn holes through furniture with their eyes?"
"Don't worry, if the Kents took care of Clark, you can manage these babies."
Lois nodded nervously.
"You're right, I know you're right. I've just never done this. I've never been a mother to two children at the same time, let alone to ones that were…"
"Aliens?"
"Shhhh," Lois said, looking around the restaurant.
"No one can hear us."
"You can never be too careful."
Chloe's eyes widened at her computer screen.
"Wow, okay I think I found one."
"What? A house?"
"Yeah, come here," Chloe suggested, and Lois moved her seat next to Chloe's.
Lois looked at the screen and instantly her heart sank. The house was beautiful. It was a two-story house with a screened in pool, four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. It was a little smaller than the Kent's house but beautiful. She wanted it.
"Chloe, that's perfect."
Lois got out her phone and called Clark.
"Clark? I think I have the house."
XxX
Lois couldn't believe how long it took for the bank loan and the paper work and all the loose ends to be tied up so that they could move into their house. If she hadn't loved it so much she would've told Clark to forget it, to stay at the farm and continue the commute and long hours. But the stubborn soon to be ex-farmboy convinced her it would be worth it.
Three weeks had passed and she was eighteen weeks pregnant. She walked into the front door with feet aching and smelled a delicious dinner.
"I'm here, sorry!" she said, late after promising she wouldn't be.
"It's all right, you're just in time."
Clark watched her kick her heels off and drop her purse. He lifted up a spoon with spaghetti sauce on it.
"Come here and try this," he said holding the spoon in her direction.
"I get to be a guinea pig," she smiled, walking over.
Opening her hungry mouth she attempted to taste the homemade creation of Clark's, however she missed the spoon slightly and had it spill down her chin. She reached her hand up but Clark's fingers were on her skin first, licking up the sauce and gently dipping digits in her mouth so she could taste them. The taste of the sauce woke up her taste buds, reviving her after a long day.
"Mmmmm," she murmured.
Using his free hand he cupped the back of her head and pulled his fingers out, drawing her mouth to his, kissing her.
"Come here," he whispered, taking her no longer thin waist and putting her against the counter, lifting her up onto it.
He lifted her leg up and massaged her foot, rubbing the bottom and her toes.
"Oh, that feels good."
Clark looked at Lois, enjoying the passion he felt with her that he never felt with Lana. He remembered thinking he was deeply in love but compared to Lois, his love for Lana was luke warm. He could express a side of himself with Lois that he never could before. Pulling Lois's knee high hose off, he massaged the soles of her feet before slowly inching his way up her legs to her hips, her sides, her shoulders, and then her face. Unbuttoning her blouse, he ran his thumb over the flesh of her breast. He knew that she must be hungry so he took a piece of the chicken parmesan and fed it to her, pushing her shirt off her body as she sucked the end of his finger with her tongue, savoring the leftover flavors on it.
Leaning in she kissed him.
"You surprise me, Smallville," she said huskily.
"How's that?" he asked, carefully undoing the buttons of her workpants.
"Well for one thing I'm getting big."
Rolling his shirt up off his body she felt the lust coat her like a blanket. She was trapped. They'd have to reheat the food. Lois lifted herself up off the counter a few inches letting Clark pull her pants down, removing them from her long legs. The cool counter on her skin actually felt good as they clashed mouths again. His hands went to her stomach, caressing where the babies were.
"Lois," he cried over and over.
Drawing her legs apart and moving between them, he slipped fingers in and out, her whole body arching back. She felt her own wetness trail down her thighs as he continued making her body shake and tremble. Just when she thought she'd go over the edge she pulled his hand away.
"S-stop."
"I want to take you there," Clark told her.
"Then take me there with you."
She undid his jeans and pushed them down with her toes, opening her legs to him, inviting him in. Feeling him enter her, she literally felt her knees shake. With her eyes closed and flooded with desire, she leaned back, resting her head against a cabinet. Clark was desperate tonight, more than usual. He crashed himself into her, both trying not to hurt her and yet actually almost doing so in the process. Clark was knocking all the right points inside her lush body his strong hands swept up her sticky back and damp hair. Taking the food, he dipped his hand in the sauce and chicken, giving her more to eat. Taking the bites, she chewed them between kisses as he sucked his own fingers and licked her breasts and nipples playfully.
But playful turned back to fierce. He was banging up against her and her head was knocking up against the cabinet. Pleasure and slight pain arose inside her, a hard orgasm on the brink of erupting. Clark's arms were around her so tightly and he buried his face in her neck. He shoved her back one more time, climaxing inside her, hitting her exactly to push her over with him. He lifted his head up and kissed her full lips. He raised her arms up above her head and locked her fingers in his.
"Clark," she breathed. "Clark, what is it?"
He sighed, calming down.
"Nothing."
He cupped her face then got her clothes for her.
"Let's have dinner."
Dinner was lovely, like they hadn't had ramming sex on the kitchen counter. Lois changed immediately after dinner into warm pajamas and lied on the couch beside him watching an old movie. Feeling safe and secure in his arms, she wondered if nothing was wrong, why he'd been so urgent before. Now though he seemed calm and happy, holding her securely.
Just as she was about to close her tired eyes a disruptive knock on the door interrupted her peace.
"Should I get that?" Clark whispered.
Lois lazily sat up.
"Sure, why not?"
Clark handed Lois a red throw and went to the door. Opening it, Sam Lane stood on the other side.
"General," Clark said.
"My daughter here?"
"That depends."
"Let him in, Clark."
Clark stepped aside and let him in.
"I'll give you some privacy," Clark added, leaving the foyer.
Lois sighed, organizing the blanket around her body, almost trying to hide her pregnancy. In all reality her pregnancy wasn't particularly evident to anyone but her. She was only slightly rounded but to an ultra-fit woman, she felt huge.
"So, several screaming matches and answering machine messages later you decide to show up. Good thing because this won't be our address much longer."
"Twins and a new house. It's a lot to take on."
"I've taken on a lot my whole life thanks to you."
"I never wanted you to have less than the best."
"I've got good stuff."
Sam nodded.
"He's good, Dad. We're moving into the new place in three weeks."
"That's fast."
"You better believe it. We sped things up for the babies."
"Your life will never be the same."
"What do you want, Dad? Why come all this way?"
"I wanted to see my little girl."
"Well your little girl isn't going to be so little anymore."
"Maybe that's the real thing I have to get used to."
Lois tilted her head a little.
"You, after all these years, getting sentimental. You better be careful, with these hormones flooding through me, I could cry at any minute without any responsibility of my own."
"You remind me of your mother."
Lois felt the tears rising but she swallowed them, determined to be strong in front of the strict General she'd known all her life.
"I will be like her, but I will live to raise my babies. I will do this no matter what."
"Because I raised you that way."
Lois looked down, slightly offended by that.
"You know, Dad, I think despite the fact that in your own way you loved me, that I'm a strong person because of me. I think I lived through you, not because of you. I made it through all of the pain. So I'm going to get up every morning and be with Clark, and we're going to do this."
"I guess I'm here asking you to let me be a part of this."
"So I figured."
Lois was tired of the fighting between them. She was going to be a mother and she was prepared for it to be the hardest job ever. So, in kindness and understanding she went to the mantel and got the last photo that wasn't packed, the sonogram photo. She handed it to him.
"Those are the babies. I can make you a copy this weekend if you want, and I'll be sure to make you a copy of the ones in two weeks that show the gender."
The General said nothing, but Lois wasn't surprised. Too much for him to say thank you. She yawned a little and felt her body calling for bed.
"This was a good start," she told him. "No yelling. But I need to be horizontal, Dad."
"I'd like a copy. Keep me informed."
She showed him out. Clark came back to her.
"Everything okay?"
"Better," she said, putting the picture back where it was.
"Lois," he said to her.
She turned to him with concern.
"Are you okay?" she asked, feeling her body a little sore from the sex.
He came to her, embracing her.
"Hey," she said, hugging him back. "My dad's not taking me anywhere farmboy, what's the matter?"
Pulling back he cupped her face, holding her precious gaze in his.
"You know you're everything to me, right? You know that you're all I think about."
She brought her hands up over the ones holding her face.
"Clark, whatever it is, just tell me."
"Do you want to be with me? Do you want this?"
She closed her eyes and reached her fingers out to touch his face.
"I want…to be with you."
He caught her fingers and brought them to his face. He felt so addicted to her. Everything was so high when he had her in front of him, so passionate, so intense. And now he was terrified that it was all going to be lost.
"Then stay with me. Don't ever push me away."
"I'm-I'm trying, I'm learning to trust again."
He took her shoulders and shook her slightly.
"I am not Oliver."
She just stared for a few seconds.
"I know you're not Oliver."
She calmly took his hands in hers.
"Just come to bed with me. I'll take care of you."
"You'll take care of me?" he smiled.
"Yes, come on."
Lois held Clark until he fell asleep but when he did he tossed and turned, saying Jor-El several times but muttering the rest. Just when she thought she'd never get any sleep from worrying about what he was so distressed about, she felt one of her babies swim across her insides, moving smoothly. She couldn't express the feeling, but she smiled and placed her hands on her stomach.
"Clark," she whispered. "Clark!"
"What?" he woke up with a start. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I just thought you might wanna know that I felt one of the babies move for the first time."
He tilted over onto his side to face her, placing a hand on her stomach.
"It's too early to feel them through my stomach," she teased. "But I wanted you to know. It's becoming a reality. They're getting bigger and stronger."
"There was never a better reason to wake up," he smiled, kissing her forehead.
"You're calling out Jor-El's name in your sleep. Is everything okay?"
"I am having nightmares about him, but let me figure out what they mean before…"
"Before what?"
"This moment is about the babies, Lois."
She let him feel her stomach.
"Are they moving now?"
"I think it was just one of them. And no, now they're still. But I've read that if you're active then they're asleep and still but when you rest, that's when they wake up."
"But of course when Daddy wants to feel them move they don't move."
Lois smiled. "There's plenty of time."
She caressed his sweaty hair away from his forehead.
"I'm here for you, Clark."
"I've never needed anyone more."
~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~