Two hours later Lara and Ken had visited with everyone at the reception and it was time for them to change out of their wedding finery in preparation for the honeymoon.
Lara and Ken headed over to where her grandparents, Clark and Lois stood. “We’re going upstairs to get changed now. Grandma, you’re going to bring my dress to my apartment, right?”
“Yes, dear. Lois and I are going to drop it off. She wants to see your place while she’s here.”
“Ken, who’s returning your tux?” Clark asked.
“Dave’s taking care of that for me. Thanks for asking, Clark.” Ken squeezed Lara’s hand. “Well honey, shall we?”
Lara and Ken exited the hall and climbed into the elevator where they stopped at Ken’s third-floor suite. He opened the door, grasped Lara in his arms, and carried her over the threshold.
“Ken! We’re only going into your room.” Lara said when he set her down.
“I know but I wanted to get some practice in for when we get to Egypt. I’ll be right back.” Ken walked into his bedroom and began to change.
“That was some party, huh, sweetheart?” Ken said from inside the room.
“It sure was. I don’t know if you noticed but Sam and Ellen were dancing together!”
“I did. I hope that means that they’re working towards a reconciliation. Maybe seeing us so much in love has rubbed off on them!” Ken said with a laugh.
“I hope so. It would be a shame to have them go back to their old ways once they get home.” Ken stepped out of the bedroom dressed in black dress slacks, a light blue shirt, and an electric blue tie.
“Ready?” Ken took Lara’s hand and took the elevator to her fourth-floor room. When Lara opened the door Ken scooped her up again.
“You’re getting quite good at that you know,” Lara said. She planted a lingering kiss on his lips then turned around. “Unbutton me, please?”
Ken’s hands shook a little as he undid the buttons on the back of her dress. As more of the dress parted Ken leaned in to kiss her back then he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Ummm, Lara,” Ken whispered, his breath on her skin made her shiver with delight. “Your skin is so soft.” When his hands began to slide up her sides, she gently stopped him.
“As much as I love your hands on me, we have to wait, okay?” Lara said regretfully.
“Sorry. I got carried away by your beauty.” Ken released his bride chastened, but only slightly. “Go get changed. I promise to be a good boy.”
Lara’s eyes twinkled as she glanced at him over her shoulder. “Not too good I hope!” Two seconds later Lara returned wearing the dress she’d worn to Thanksgiving at Lucy’s, a cobalt blue scuba crepe sheath dress with black slingback heels. Lara took Ken’s hand and they returned to the reception.
“Ellen, I want to return your necklace,” Lara said as she handed the diamond solitaire back. “It was perfect for something borrowed. Thank you very much.”
“I’m glad you liked it, dear. It looked very beautiful on you.”
Sam leaned in and kissed Lara’s cheek. “When do you think you’ll make it to Metropolis again. Ellen and I would love to take you two out for dinner.”
“I don’t know, Sam. I’ve used up most of my vacation.” Lara noticed the disappointed looks on both their faces. “But we’ll try, okay?” Sam and Ellen both smiled happily.
Lara and Ken made one last circuit around the room then they headed to the lobby. Ken’s car waited for them, parked under the portico.
“Daddy, I love you, so much!” Lara hugged her father tightly and kissed his cheek.”
“I love you too, Pumpkin.” Clark’s eyes misted up as he hugged his daughter. “Have a good time on your honeymoon. Be sure to take lots of pictures!”
“I will, Dad.” Lara drew back and smiled tremulously.
“Lois, I love you.” Lara wrapped Lois in a fierce hug.
“I love you too, Lara. Thanks so much for letting me into your life!” Lois returned the hug with equal ferocity and kissed Lara’s cheek. “I wish you nothing but happiness in your married life.” With a whisper, she continued. “Be sure to bring Ken and your pictures when you get back, okay?”
“I will.”
The scene repeated with her grandparents and when they drew back everyone had tears shining in their eyes.
While Lara had been saying goodbye to her folks Ken had done the same and now, they were ready to leave.
“Bye everybody!” Lara exclaimed as Ken opened the door for her.
“See you in two weeks!” Ken said happily as he climbed into the car. Ken tooted his horn and they both waved as they drove away.
**********
Lois and Clark stood with other family members at the entrance to the hotel where the reception was still going on watching Lara and Ken drive away.
“There goes our baby, off on the next phase of her life,” Clark said, wistfully.
Lois moved closer to him and their arms touched. She grasped his hand and interlaced her fingers with his, and leaned her head onto his shoulder.
“You know, Clark… maybe we could try again.
The End
**********
This completes the story of Lara Kent and, if that is all you’re interested in you can stop reading now. However, if you’d like to see how Clark responds to Lois’s olive branch, please, read on!
**********
Epilogue (The Lois and Clark Epilogue)
Lois and Clark stood with other family members at the entrance to the hotel where the reception was still going on watching Lara and Ken drive away.
“There goes our baby, off on the next phase of her life,” Clark said, wistfully.
Lois moved closer to him, their arms touching. She grasped his hand and interlaced her fingers with his, and leaned her head onto his shoulder.
“You know, Clark… maybe we could try again.
Clark Kent’s breathing stopped, had he heard correctly? Had Lois suggested that they could be together?
“Do you mean that, Lois?” he asked hopefully. He loosened their grip so he could turn to face her and took both of her hands in his while the rest of the family returned to the reception.
“Yes, Clark, I do. We’ve wasted too much time already.” Lois’s eyes met his, her gaze steady. “But I do have three conditions.”
“Three? Last time it was only one,” Clark replied, as his eyes met hers steadily. “But it doesn’t matter. I agree to any conditions you want.”
“How can you agree? You don’t even know what they are,” Lois said her eyes twinkling.
“I don’t care what the conditions are. I know what I want and what I want is you, Lois Lane.”
Lois’s eyes darkened to obsidian points, her heart rate and respiration sped up though outwardly she looked as calm as ever.
“Be that as it may, you need to know what the conditions are so you don’t violate them,” she replied her voice soft and sexy.
“I agree, please continue.”
“First, you have to leave the Smallville Post and return to the Daily Planet to work for me. Your byline has been missing from the paper for way too long.”
“Won’t your other reporters feel you’re playing favorites?” Clark asked with a grin.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, there’ll be no favoritism from me. I treat all my reporters the same.”
“Ouch! I’ve heard you’re pretty tough but, okay, I agree.”
“Next, you’re going to move out of your parent’s home and move into my condo. I have plenty of room, two bedrooms, but only one is going to be used so there is plenty of room for you.” Lois stepped closer, their bodies almost touching.
“Do you have a secret closet?”
“Secret closet?” Lois asked, confused.
“Yes, for the Suits,” Clark said as if it should have been obvious.
“There’s a big closet in that unused bedroom. I’m sure you could build one in there, right, Superman?” she whispered.
“Yes, I can. Okay, I agree to that one as well.”
“Lastly, since you asked me to marry you and I turned you down, sometime in the future, probably the near future, I will ask you to marry me and you’ll accept.” Lois’s expression was serious but her eyes glinted with mischief.
“You’re awfully sure of yourself, Lois Lane.”
“Of course. I am Lois Lane. You know I always get what I want.” Lois moved in until their bodies touched, her eyes bore into his, her hands rested on his chest. “and what I want is you, Clark Kent. Do you agree?”
“I do,” Clark said, his arms wrapped around her waist as he tugged her into his body.
“Remember those words, Kent, you’re gonna need them.”
“God, Lois, please don’t talk like that, you’re gonna kill me.” Clark groaned though his body responded to her closeness, as her fingers traced the buttons of his shirt.
“What’s stopping you? I’ve got a room upstairs with our name on it,” Lois grinned teasingly.
“How long do we have to stay at the reception?” Clark asked, his willpower weakening.
“Too long!” Lois said as she dragged him into the hotel.
They got to the elevators and pushed the button, waiting impatiently. Lois glanced at the stairs and grinned. Clark scooped her into his arms and into the stairwell. He checked that they were alone then Clark sped up the stairs, to the third floor where he stopped in front of her room. Lois pulled the keycard from his pocket where she’d deposited it earlier and unlocked the door. Clark pushed it open, carried Lois across the threshold, and kicked the door closed.
If anyone had been within hearing distance, they would have heard a low moaning female voice cry out.
“Ohhh, Clark!”
The End! (Really)
Story Notes:
Lara’s wedding gown: Fit and Flare Gown with Pleated Waistline and Beaded Back
Written by Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen, and Gretchen Peters
Note: The calculation of Lara’s life expectancy is 270 years for a full-blooded Kryptonian less the average lifespan of a human female of 89 equals 181 years, before considering superpowers.
Some of you may question my take on the capacity of the globe. I think that a society that could produce interstellar probes could also store a ton of information on a device the size of the globe. Here is a link to the lunar library, something we have already done.
One small component of the archive is the time capsule Beresheet’s creators alluded to: a collection of songs, children’s drawings and writings about Israeli culture and history. But the rest is truly encyclopedic. Included in the Lunar Library’s more than 200 gigabytes of data are the entire English-language version of Wikipedia; tens of thousands of fiction and nonfiction books; a collection of textbooks; and a guide to 5,000 languages along with 1.5 billion sample translations between them.
All that information is etched onto 25 stacked nickel disks, each just 40 microns (about 1/600th of an inch) thick.
For those of you not familiar with computer storage measurements here is what I found: A kilobyte (KB) is 1,024 bytes, not one thousand bytes as might be expected, because computers use binary (base two) math, instead of a decimal (base ten) system. Computer storage and memory is often measured in megabytes (MB) and gigabytes (GB). A medium-sized novel contains about 1 MB of information. 1 MB is 1,024 kilobytes, or 1,048,576 (1024x1024) bytes, not one million bytes.
Similarly, one 1 GB is 1,024 MB, or 1,073,741,824 (1024x1024x1024) bytes. A terabyte (TB) is 1,024 GB; 1 TB is about the same amount of information as all of the books in a large library, or roughly 1,610 CDs worth of data. A petabyte (PB) is 1,024 TB. 1 PB of data, if written on DVDs, would create roughly 223,100 DVDs, i.e., a stack about 878 feet tall, or a stack of CDs a mile high. Indiana University is now building storage systems capable of holding petabytes of data. An exabyte (EB) is 1,024 PB. A zettabyte (ZB) is 1,024 EB. Finally, a yottabyte (YB) is 1,024 ZB.
