Here is my latest and last story, Love Realized. The story is complete with 32 chapters, including an Epilogue. There will also be two extra chapters that will be posted on the NFic side once the story is completely posted here. I look forward to your comments, both publicly and privately.

Love Realized

By Ray Reynolds © 2020

Rated: PG

Submitted:

Legal Disclaimer:

All trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners. I do not claim any of them. Characters outside the normal Lois and Clark universe are my property. Any additional comments or feedback should be made directly to rhreynolds262@gmail.com.

This story is the sequel (much requested though maybe not anticipated) to ‘Too Soon For Love.’ Get it here: http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2010/html/toosoon.html. It is the story of Lara Lois Kent, daughter of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. The story picks up immediately after events in the previous story and will follow her through her journey to find a love of her own.

While there will be appearances by Clark, and to a lesser extent, Lois, this is Lara’s story and as such will focus on events, for the most part, from her point of view. I hope you enjoy it.

I would like to thank my beta readers, Morgana and Terry Leatherwood. Morgana provided great support and chose the dresses the characters wear later in the story. She also provided some great food descriptions, as you’ll see. Terry performed above and beyond while trying to teach this old dog some new tricks. His suggestions resulted in several additional scenes that I feel add flavor to what would have been an otherwise bland story. Thanks to you both!

Please see the notes at the end of Chapter 32 for links.

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From ‘Too Soon For Love’:

Lois Lane was heavily into the latest Profit and Loss statement for the Daily Planet when someone stepped into her office, closing the door behind them. Without looking up she spoke sharply, “I’m busy, come back later!”

The person, instead of turning tail and saving their backside, stepped up to her desk, daring Lois to ignore them. She dragged her gaze from the report in front of her, intending to flay the interloper for their arrogance. Lois raised her eyes, taking in the stranger standing in front of her desk for the first time. The crisp, charcoal-grey suit covered the body of a model, but it was the face of the stranger that caused Lois to stare at her, open-mouthed. It was almost like looking in a mirror, except the mirror had removed 20 plus years from her face. Continuing to study the woman in front of her, Lois noticed the differences as well, especially around the eyes.

“Who…?” Lois said, her mouth not wanting to cooperate.

“Good morning Miss Lane, my name is Kent. Lara Lois Kent,” the woman said calmly.

Kent. OH MY GOD! This woman couldn’t be… her daughter? Lara, she’d said her name was Lara Lois Kent. Clark had given their daughter her name? It was just like him to do something as sappy as that, even after the way she’d treated him. As Lois studied the stranger, no, her daughter, Lara was studying Lois’s office and its contents.

“It’s nice to see you’ve gotten what you’ve always wanted, Miss Lane,” Lara said with contempt.

“I’m sorry,” Lois said confused. “I’m not following you.”

“Success, Miss Lane. Success in a male-dominated profession. Success in the eyes of your peers. I’ve read your bio. Eight Kerths and two Pulitzers are a testament to your success. You didn’t need anyone to get where you are—not a husband, and certainly not a daughter to slow you down,” Lara said, her eyes boring into Lois’s.

The comment cut Lois like a knife; but, holding true to form, she went immediately on the attack. “How dare you…?!”

“How dare I?” Lara’s eyes flashed, interrupting the coming tirade, leaning forward making Lois lean back reflexively, “I’m complimenting you, Miss Lane, you should be pleased. I know I am. I grew up with three of the most wonderful people in the world loving me and providing the best example a girl could ever ask for. While I was playing with dolls in Smallville you were garnering journalism awards. While I was getting an education you were investigating stories and exposing crime. While I was the only girl at the Mother-Daughter campout with my grandmother you were becoming editor-in-chief of a great metropolitan newspaper. You’ve done very well for yourself, Miss Lane. I hope those Pulitzers keep you very warm at night.” Lara’s voice fairly dripped with sarcasm and resentment.

Not giving Lois time to respond Lara turned and walked to the door, pulling it open. “I’ve said my piece, Miss Lane, I’ll be leaving now,” Lara said, stepping through the door. Just before it closed behind her, she gave a smile, one that didn’t reach her eyes, and threw one last comment over her shoulder. “Oh, by the way,” Lara said, “my father says, ‘Hello’.” The woman closed the door behind her, leaving only silence in the room, a silence that was broken by the muted sound of a sonic boom seconds later.

**********

Chapter One

Lara closed the door behind her. She turned left towards the elevator and shook her head. There was no way she was going to wait for that elevator, it would be intolerable and she had to get out of this place now! She turned right instead and headed for the stairs she’d noticed on her way in. Her high heels clicked loudly on the floor as she stalked to the stairs. She passed the desk of the man who’d tried to stop her from entering Lois Lane’s office earlier. This time his head was down and he seemed to be studiously ignoring her. Good, she thought, he certainly didn’t want to mess with her right now!

Upon entering the stairwell Lara checked with her x-ray vision and superhearing for anyone else who might be on the stairs. Finding no one, Lara spun into her suit and flew up, exiting through the roof access door. She shot up, creating a sonic boom that she was sure everyone in the building would hear, but she didn’t care. Up she flew until the atmosphere was very thin where she could pour on the speed, flying at her maximum velocity, so that two seconds later she was over Kansas where she slowed down in preparation for landing.

Lara Kent touched down on the warm Kansas ground just outside the farmhouse where she’d grown up. She spun out of her brand-new Superwoman suit and into the charcoal gray business suit and heels she’d worn that morning. She sighed, unsure of what to do now. She’d been all fired up to let Lois Lane have it right between the eyes for all the perceived hurt she’d experienced growing up. And she had. She’d let Lois Lane know, in no uncertain terms, that she hadn’t needed a mother like her. Hadn’t needed a woman who had wanted to abort her when she’d found out she was pregnant. Hadn’t needed a woman who could give up her child for a *career!* Lara had told her how she’d grown up with three of the best, most loving people in the world and hadn’t needed her! Now that she’d done it, though, she felt strangely empty, or at least unfulfilled.

Her super-hearing picked up the sound of her father turning the pages of the paper he’d been reading when she’d left. Lara sighed. She knew she couldn’t put it off any longer so she stepped onto the porch, her high heels clicking on the wooden boards. She glanced down and noticed the worn patch near the door. The porch floor would need painting before she left for her trip. She opened the screen door and stepped inside the kitchen.

Lara walked over to the coffee pot, poured herself a cup, then sat down at the table. She picked up the creamer and poured a healthy dollop into her cup, and followed it up with four sugars. Lara stirred the sugar and mixed it thoroughly, the clinking of the spoon the only sound in the silent kitchen. Lara knew her dad was watching her. She’d felt his eyes on her from the moment she’d walked into the room. She listened with her superhearing and confirmed that her grandmother and grandfather were not around.

Lara glanced at her father through lowered lashes. “Well?” she sighed. “Don’t you have anything to say?”

“Nope,” Clark said, sipping his coffee, his nose deep in his paper, the Daily Planet she noticed, the irony not lost on her at all.

Lara exploded, angry at her father’s seeming disinterest. “Baloney, Dad!” She began pacing back and forth on her side of the table, her coffee forgotten for the moment. “You’re dying to know what happened so why don’t you just ask?” Lara crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes flashing with fire.

Clark glanced up and his eyes met hers. She could see that he was upset, but not with her. Why she couldn’t say, but she knew he wasn’t angry with her. There was something in his chocolate brown eyes that she rarely saw there. Lara thought back over the years, searching for the times she had seen her father look like that when it hit her like a ton of bricks. The only times she’d ever seen her dad looking sad and upset like this was when she’d asked about her mother.

He’d always gotten that look, like thinking about her tore his heart out. He’d tried to hide it from her, of course, but she’d been a very observant little girl and had noticed the change in her usually happy father every time. Lara’s posture relaxed and her arms dropped to her sides. Seating herself, she took a sip of her coffee, then she smiled tremulously at her dad.

“Please, Dad? Please talk to me?” Lara didn’t want to fight with her father—she loved him too much for that, but they needed to clear the air now that she’d confronted Lois. Lara couldn’t call the woman her mother—she just couldn’t, not even in her thoughts. Lois might have been the person who had given birth to her twenty-two years ago, but she was not her mother. If anyone deserved that title it was her grandmother, the woman who’d been there for her for as long as she could remember, but that didn’t matter now. What mattered was the man in front of her and his obvious pain.

“Did you accomplish what you set out to do?” Clark asked, neutrally.

“If you mean, did I lay into her, yes. I let her know, in no uncertain terms, that she was a selfish person and I had no use for her in my life.”

“I see. And how did she react?” Lara tried to detect any hint of disappointment in his tone but found none.

Lara took a moment to reflect. “She was pretty speechless.”

“Lois? Speechless?”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t give her much chance to talk. I said my piece and I was out of there. I wasn’t going to get into a shouting match, not in her office, that’s for sure.”

“Did you…?”

“Did I mention that you said ‘Hello’?” At Clark’s nod, she continued. “Yes, I did.”

“Did she…?”

Lara’s eyes focused on her father, his expression conveying anticipation. “I don’t know, Dad,” she sighed as his shoulders slumped slightly. “I told her as I was closing the door… but I didn’t hear anything if you know what I mean.”

“Well, it’s not as if I expected much anyway,” Clark said thoughtfully. “I just wanted her to know that the lines of communication are open…” he sighed, disappointed that she’d rejected his olive branch once more.

Lara reached out to grasp her father’s hand. He smiled lovingly at her, the same smile he’d given her every day of her life. It warmed her as nothing else could.

Clark gave Lara’s hand a little squeeze. “So when are you leaving?”

Lara sighed and lowered her eyes. “Oh, not for a while. I noticed the porch floor needs painting…”

Clark smiled knowingly. “Pumpkin, I can paint the floor you know.”

“Well, since last night didn’t work out as Superwoman’s debut, I figured I’d hang around a bit so we could work together and you could help me with my first press conference.”

Lara immediately noticed the change in her father’s attitude. His head turned, his eyes focused in the middle distance—Lara extended her hearing to catch the last few words of a news bulletin on Wayne Irig’s radio.

“It looks like Superwoman is going to make her debut now,” Clark said. He rose from his seat and spun into the suit. Lara rose as well, spinning into the black and blue uniform of Superwoman. The sound of their twin whooshes and the slamming of the screen door echoed through the now empty kitchen.

**********

Lara scanned the area long before they arrived at the scene, trying to get a handle on what she needed to do first. Her first emergency wasn’t going to be an easy one. An oil tanker truck and two semis had collided, shutting down all three lanes of traffic on the northbound main artery highway, I-35, through Kansas City, MO. Besides the three main vehicles involved, dozens of cars couldn’t stop in time and had crashed into the trucks, triggering a chain reaction accident. Nothing was moving, not even the emergency services. Before she had a chance to think of what she should be doing, her dad pointed to the tanker truck.

“I’ll take care of that fire, you bring the ambulances to the front of the accident,” Clark said before he zipped away, leaving her slightly stunned. Her father was dousing the flames with his freezing breath, so she took off towards the rear of the traffic jam where ambulances were trying in vain to get to the injured.

Lara landed in front of the closest ambulance and smiled her most reassuring smile. “Hang on, I’ll get you there.” She hoisted the huge ambulance over her head and carefully flew it to the area her father pointed out as being safe. Back and forth she flew until all five ambulances were in the safe area. The crews were now ready to perform their lifesaving duties.

“Superwoman,” Superman called out, “You work from the back. Try to separate the vehicles that are the easiest to get to. If there are injured people inside, leave those until the medics can get there to assess them. If they need super help then provide it, okay?” Her father’s smile boosted her confidence.

“Yes, sir!” Lara said, and with a grin, she streaked away. She started with the fender benders. Lara separated the vehicles that were at the very end of the pileup. She returned them to their lanes as much as possible, so that she had some room to work. At first, it was easy, but as she worked closer and closer to the main part of the accident, the vehicles were more severely damaged and the injuries were more serious as well. Before she had a chance to think, she heard more ambulances approaching the scene. Lara zipped to the back of the accident so she could bring the newest arrivals to the staging area. As she was setting the last of the emergency vehicles down, she heard someone shouting for help.

“Help! I need some help here!” A paramedic was shouting and waving his arms trying to get someone’s attention. Lara took off, landing next to the man.

Superwoman tried to portray confidence she didn’t feel before she replied. “How can I help?”

“I need to get this door open!”

Lara grasped the door and pulled carefully so that she didn’t jar the injured people inside. The paramedic leaned in to examine the driver first.

“He’s okay to move. Can you take him to the triage area?” Lara nodded and gathered the man in her arms and flew him to the staging area. She set him down and returned within seconds. Lara worked tirelessly, supporting the emergency workers as they performed their work.

**********

Hours later, after the emergency services transported the injured, came the grunt work of clearing the highway for travel once more. Lara and Clark moved the most seriously damaged vehicles to the side of the road so that others could continue the journey. When traffic was flowing once again, Superman and Superwoman hovered over the site.

“Well, that was a real debut, Lara,” Clark said with a smile. “I’m so proud of you. You know it would have taken me twice as long without your help, right?”

Lara grinned, though she blushed at her father’s praise. “I don’t know about that, Dad. I’m glad I was able to help, though. This is what I’ve dreamed of ever since you told me you were Superman.”

“Me too, sweetheart,” Clark said. “Well, are you ready to meet your public?” Lara glanced down to see television cameras and reporters lined up along the shoulder, their lenses focused on the two of them. She’d been so busy working she hadn’t even noticed their arrival.

“Ummm…” Lara stammered. “I guess, but could you do most of the talking?”

Clark said, confidently “Sure, leave everything to me.”

Superman landed in front of the gaggle of news people gathered at the side of the highway with Superwoman a step behind to his right. A cacophony of shouts from the crowd rose as soon as the duo landed. Superman waited a few seconds for the crowd to calm down, but when they did not, he raised his hands and called for quiet.

“Please, please!” Superman called out, to get the attention of the gathered reporters. “We can’t answer any questions if you keep shouting.” It took a few more moments for the crowd to react, but finally, relative silence reigned.

“I will give you a statement based on our observations. The official statement will be coming from the state police. If you still have questions, we’ll answer as many as we can.

“The accident was caused when an oil tanker truck blew a tire which caused it to veer into another lane of traffic where it contacted two other semi-trailer trucks, effectively blocking all lanes of traffic. The ensuing chain reaction crash involved over 50 vehicles. While there were numerous injuries, we are thankful that none of these were life-threatening and all the injured are on their way to local hospitals. As you can see all lanes of traffic are now open though at reduced speed due to damaged vehicles at the side of the road.

“I want to thank Superwoman for her help today. Without her efforts, things could have been much worse—”

“Superman! Superman!” a female reporter in the front row interrupted, waving her arms to get Superman’s attention. Superman sighed knowingly, glancing at Lara with a wry smile.

“Yes, Miss?” Superman replied politely.

“Darlene Jenkins, *Wichita Star*. Who is Superwoman? Where does she come from?” The other reporters on the scene echoed her statement. Superman raised his hands again until some semblance of quiet took over.

“Superwoman is my daughter. She grew up on my home planet with her mother and has recently decided to assist me with emergencies like today, and at natural disasters where some super help is very welcome. Superwoman, would you like to say a few words?” Superman smiled reassuringly to Lara who then stepped up to speak.

“Thank you, Superman. I want to say that I am happy to be helping my father, and I look forward to assisting him with emergencies and natural disasters the world over. It is my pleasure to serve the people of Earth with my powers in any way that I can. Thank you.” Before the reporters could shout any more questions, Superman and Superwoman floated up and, with a wave shot into the sky.

The two superheroes flew away to the west and landed behind the barn of the Smallville farm. They spun into their civilian clothes and walked back into the kitchen.

Clark said proudly, “You did great, Pumpkin! Your statement was short and to the point and it covered everything they needed to know.”

Lara smiled a small smile, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. “Thanks, Dad. I sure hope no one noticed my knees shaking the whole time!” she replied self-consciously.

“I didn’t notice a thing, so I’m sure no one else did,” Clark said, gathering Lara into a hug. “I’m so proud of you, honey!”

“Thanks,” Lara said looking up at her dad, a wry smile on her face. “So I grew up on your home planet, huh?”

“Well, it’s a better explanation than telling them you grew up in Smallville! Imagine the questions we would have gotten if I’d said that!” Clark kissed her on the forehead, holding her hands in his. “Besides, it’s not a lie. I may have been born on Krypton but I consider Earth my home.”

“Thanks again, Dad. I don’t know what I’d have said otherwise. I hadn’t prepared an answer to that question, for sure.” Lara leaned in and kissed Clark on the cheek. “Well, I’m going to paint the porch now so I’m going to get changed.” Clark released her hands and sat back down at the table. Clark picked up his now cold coffee, shot a burst of heat vision into the cup, and opened his newspaper once more.

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Continued in Chapter Two