THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM EPISODE 26.

This chapter does contain some very slight spoilers from the season finale though I have tried my very best not to point out anything specific. Please read this at your own caution.

LOVED

The love of a family is life's greatest blessing

"Conner, what's that smell?" The bespeckled man called out as he struggled with his tie trying to undo the knot of fabric that was currently threatening to strangle him. It was a brand new tie in her favorite color but he was already kicking himself for not asking the salesman to tie it for him. At this rate, he may just have to give up and invest in clip-ons.

"That would be the fireball in the oven. Is fish supposed to burn up that quickly?" A much younger voice called out from the kitchen, a faint trace of curiosity in his tone.

Wait…fireball? Forgetting the tie altogether, the man rushed towards the oven praying that this was just some sort of joke the boy had picked up from Wally. Unfortunately, the sight that met him was a very well done salmon that looked like it was three seconds away from crumbling to ash.

He didn't understand. He had followed the recipe exactly. He'd soaked it in white wine with oregano and had put it in the over at 350 degrees for an hour. He just didn't get it. Everything had been done perfectly when he put it in at 5 and it was only 8 now.

8.

"Why didn't the timer go off?" The man grumbled as he grabbed an oven mitt and poured the burned remains into the garbage can. If they had time, he would have given it a proper funeral but the poor thing had suffered so much and it was time to put it out of its misery.

"What? You mean that little egg shaped thing? It wouldn't stop ringing so I thought it was broken." Conner replied before pointing towards a corner of the counter where the remains of the timer were crumpled up in a little pile.

For a moment, the older man said nothing as his eye twitched violently behind his glasses. He wanted to curse the world but that just wasn't going to happen. Clark Kent did not swear even as a sense of dread filled him to his very core. If this was any indication of how things were going to go, this was going to be one very long night.

"I guess it's time for plan B." Clark sighed in defeat as he reached for the phone.

"Let me guess, Golden Wok?" Lois said with a smirk as she stepped into the apartment noting the takeout bags that were scattered around the living room.

"I had planned something else but it didn't work out too well." Clark said sheepishly as he took her coat and hung it up. This wasn't at all how he had imagined things would go but real life and fantasy hardly ever saw eye to eye. As it stood, Golden Wok was the only place opened so late at night that still delivered. Besides, their egg rolls were to die for.

"So…where is he?" There was Lois, always cutting to the chase.

The he she was referring to took this very moment to walk into the room looking pale and anxious. Clark had finally talked Conner into wearing a button down shirt and dress pants instead of his usual t-shirt and jeans. The boy had actually cleaned up well but right now he looked like he wished the ground would just open up and swallow him whole.

Smiling, the man of steel placed a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder and steered him towards the woman.

"Conner, this is Lois. Lois, this is Connor, my son."

When Clark had first told her about having a son, the reporter had been livid. She'd started on a tirade asking him just whom he had been sleeping around with though the thought of Clark actually sneaking around behind her back was laughable. This was a man who would balk at the thought of sneaking food into a movie let alone having a tryst behind her back.

It had taken a good hour of yelling before she finally calmed down long enough to let him explain about Conner and Project Cadmus.

Superboy; a clone of Superman and the son Clark was only just starting to accept.

"It's very nice to meet you, Conner." Lois said as she held out her hand to him, a gesture of peace. The boy looked down once more as if he wasn't sure what to do but Clark's hand on his shoulder reassured him as he reached out his own hand to shake her's.

"It's nice to meet you too." He said finally, a small blush on his cheeks making the adults chuckle.

Dinner had passed as well as Clark could hope though there had been a few rough parts in the beginning as Conner struggled with using chopsticks for the first time. The boy couldn't seem to grasp the concept of using two sticks as utensils and seeing him try to scoop up rice had been damn near hysterical. Finally, Lois had gotten up and gotten the poor boy a fork for which he was eternally grateful.

"So Conner, did Clark ever tell you about the time that..." Clark could only groan as Lois launched into another embarrassing story. Conner, for his part, seemed to be listening to her with rapt attention soaking up every detail she said. The boy was eager to learn anything he could about Superman and was hanging on her every word.

It had only been four months since their encounter with Vandal Savage and Klarion but in that time a lot had changed. Clark was still hesitant about Conner and even more so when he learned about his connection with Luthor but that didn't change the fact that he was his son.

That was why he had told Lois about him last week and why he had invited her to dinner to meet him. These two were now the most important people in his life and he had hoped that they would get along though from the sound of Conner laughing it didn't seem as if they were having trouble with that.

A small smile graced Clark's features as he scooped some chicken into his mouth listening to Lois go on about that time he had gone up against Prankster.

Sighing, Clark could only shake his head at the story, content to eat his food and watch the two most treasured people in his life swap tales. This hadn't been how he had imagined things going but he was happy to see them get along even if it was at his expense.

Conner had been a surprise, a suspicion and, at one time, an annoyance but the boy was his son and he loved him.

A/N: Okay, so this chapter is a little bit sappy but I really wanted to write a meeting between Lois and Conner. Hopefully I did okay with the characters and they weren't too ooc.