Chapter Thirty Seven
Everything Lois had in her apartment was now a fixture in the Kent household and they were officially living together for several months now, "Have you seen my glasses?" Clark immediately asked when he walked out of the bedroom with a white crisp shirt on and his black tie in his hands while he looked around the living room for his glasses.
She immediately appeared following his path from the bedroom, "If you hadn't insisted on that shared shower you would still have time to look for them." She takes the tie from his hands and places it around his neck, "Where was the last place you saw it?" she asked and immediately forced his face back towards her as she continued tying the tie.
"I was in Smallville." She backs away and he adjusts his tie, "The farm is the only thing besides being here that keeps me distracted while my dad's in the hospital."
"What about Kara? I thought your folks left her in charge of farm duties."
He began looking around and digging through the couch cushions, "She's busy studying for her midterms." His fingers passed over something and immediately pulling out the now crushed pair of glasses, "Margaret Marie Kent!" he called out in his upset fatherly tone as the eleven year old and her faithful companion appeared front and center, "What did I tell you about playing around with my glasses?"
"That I shouldn't play with them."
Lois immediately intervened, "I'm sure she didn't mean to break them." She places her hands on the child's shoulder almost like a protective mother would, "There's another pair in the bedside table."
Clark lets out a breath of frustration and places the broken frames down on the coffee table before walking off to retrieve another pair while Lois consoled the upset child, "Its okay sweetie. Your father's been under a lot of pressure lately."
"He's never been that angry with me before." Lois moves a piece of hair out of the way, "He hates me."
The almost crying girl was wrapped tightly in her arms, "Never in a million years could he ever hate you." She places a kiss on the child's head before pulling away, "He loves you more then the whole world." She catches Clark's silhouette in the hallway and gives him a look before going back to comfort the child, "Why don't you get ready for school while I make us some waffles."
Maggie nods and walks back into her room leaving Lois and Clark alone, "Way to go Clark." Lois says in a low tone while walking towards the kitchen, "Not only did you upset her but now she thinks you hate her."
He ran his fingers through his hair clearly upset by the way he overreacted to the situation, "I-I didn't mean to"
She gives him a sympathetic look and walks over towards him to give him a reassuring kiss, "Go talk to her." She walks back only to stop, "Oh and if you ever yell at her like that again you'll be sleeping on the couch from now on"
Clark didn't respond to her threat and just nodded as he walked into his daughter's room, "I'm so sorry baby" he says softly as he wrapped the upset child in his arms and placed a kiss on her forehead, "I didn't mean to snap at you like that."
"Its okay dad."
He pulls away, "It's not okay. I never want to be like those parents that yell at their kids and I just want you to know how sorry I am." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pair of glasses and presses the lenses out of the frames before handing them to her, "Here. That way you don't have to keep borrowing mine."
The sadness quickly disappeared and she took the glasses from him and slipped them on, "Thank you." She hugs him and kisses him on the cheek before running off to show Lois.
Once he was alone Clark sagged and buried his face into his hands when something wet brushed against his knuckles causing him to peek through his finger to see Shelby sitting in front of him.
"Clark!" "Dad!" their voices called out simultaneously causing a small smirk to appear on the kryptonian's face as he gave Shelby a pat on the head before walking off but stopped to look back at his family's faithful companion, "Come on boy." The dog wagged its tail and followed its master.
Martha greeted the nurses with some baked goods and her warm motherly presence then walked over towards Jonathan's room and saw the bed raised to a seated position with Jonathan flipping through that worn book on tractor mechanics with a highlighter cap in his mouth while he highlighted important parts when he noticed his wife standing there, "Good morning sweetheart" he mumbles out with his attention still on the book in his hand.
"You need to rest" she states while putting her stuff in the chair then walks over to take the cap from his mouth and places down on the tray.
"There's farm work that needs to be done and a tractor that needs fixing" he responds as he closes the book and caps the highlighter when he saw the look on her face, "I've been resting for weeks and the doctor says that everything is okay"
"It's not okay Jonathan. You almost died in my arms" she tries to fight the tears but it was no use, "I..."
He gives her the same smirk that she fell in love with all those years ago as he reaches across to pull her closer to the hospital bed, "Its going to be okay" he moves aside a piece of her red hair, "I fully intend to spend the rest of my life growing old with you on that front porch watching the sunset"
She leans down to give him a kiss just as someone knocks on the door and the couple turn around to see their son standing there, "Am I interrupting?" they shake their heads and gesture for Clark to enter.
"Where are the girls?"
"Lois thought that it would be best if she spent some quality with Maggie, poor thing is still a little shaken up with what happened" Clark responds while moving around to the other side of the bed, "How are you?" he asks Jonathan with the sonly concern clear in his eyes.
"I miss your mother's cooking terribly" Jonathan responded jokingly while stretching across to take the unopened pudding cup off the tray, "Especially the pies"
He shook his head and let out a small chuckle when he noticed his father sort of wince a little, "Are you sure?"
"It takes more then a bum ticker to keep a good man down" replies Jonathan before taking a bite of pudding, "Especially when that man happens to be a Kent." Jonathan took another bite of the pudding before putting it back on the tray then turned back to Clark and noticed the change in expressions, "This old ticker of mine is still kicking. Besides I wouldn't miss my son's wedding"
"How did you find out?"
"A father knows these things and your mother has been very talkative these last few days" Clark cast a glance at his mother then looked back towards his father, "I take it you two wanted to wait until I was right as rain before you told me"
"We didn't want you to get too excited. The doctor-"
"Screw the damn doctor" Jonathan exclaims, "My son is getting married, I have a right to celebrate." The monitors begin indicating an increased heart rate and Martha quickly goes to the sandy haired farmer's aide but he just reassures her that he is okay.
"You've had enough excitement for one day" Martha states taking the pudding cup out of his hands to place it on the tray, "We can talk about this later when you're all better"
Jonathan would've fought but the look in her eyes prevented him from doing so and he just nodded and moved the bed backwards so he could lie down and Martha gave him a kiss on the cheek before walking out of the room with Clark.
After spending a few more hours with his folks, Clark said his goodbyes and began to walk towards the exit when a nurse approached him with a piece of paperwork, "Are you Clark Kent?"
He nodded confused as the nurse handed him the paper and he immediately scanned it, "What's this?" he asks while looking over the sheet again confused.
"The receipt Mr. Luthor ordered so he could pay the bill for your father's stay. Didn't he tell you?"
"No" Clark looked down at the piece of paper confused as to why Lex would do something like this after three years of confrontations and he intended to find out.
TBC