Table of Contents Wow... what a ride it's been, eh? Thank you all for sticking with me through it all! 
~~~Part 35~~~
He held his heart in his throat and Lois in his arms as he flew through the midnight blue sky towards Smallville. He wanted to do this. Needed to do this. He needed to convince himself that the stars had changed, that there was still magic there like there'd been before.
Maybe it was foolish to set his hopes on something so whimsical, but he couldn't help it, even when such hopes had failed so dismally in the past. The very recent past.
But that was what he wanted to test. Things had started to change. For the better. For once in his whole damned life. And the stars were his comfort. Or they had been long ago.
If they could be again... then there would be hope.
Or so he'd like to think.
Which was why this was all just whimsy, wasn't it? The stars didn't change, not day to day and year to year. They took billions of years to change.
The woman cradled in his arms had helped him do it in a week.
But maybe that was something he'd been working towards for a long time now, and Lois had just helped him open his eyes. Helped him focus on something other that his selfish misery.
So, the stars...
She'd help him see the stars again, wouldn't she? Even if it was just to satisfy some foolish notion of Everything's Going to Be All Right.
He saw the farm, then. The dried, cracked roof of the old farmhouse, the barn with only traces of colored paint left clinging to the sides, run down fences, fields of dead grass and weeds. It needed fixing. Cleaning. It needed some love.
Someday. He'd do it.
After a slow decent, he felt his sneakers alight gently on the Kansas dirt. Fifty yards or so from his old front porch. He let Lois down gingerly until he was sure her feet were firmly grounded as well.
"Where are we?" She took a few steps away from him, wandering nearer to the barn.
"Smallville, Kansas... It's... this is where I grew up. My parents' farm."
Her "oh" was a quiet one, barely audible, and she turned back to look at him.
The expression on her face stole his breath for the barest of moments. There, in the Kansas moonlight, he'd never seen anything so... heartwarming. He could feel...
Understanding. She understood what he was feeling. Maybe even why he'd brought her here.
He reached an arm out for her. "C'mere," he said softly.
The dirt crunched under the soles of her shoes as she made her way back to his side, and the songs of the crickets carried on the wind around them.
She stood close to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. It almost wasn't fair how comforting it felt. With his opposite arm he reached for the sky, asking her to look with him. "There... this is what I wanted to show you."
He let his arm drop slowly back to his side as he felt her shift her gaze to the heavens. "I know they probably looked better, brighter when we were flying, but..."
But what? The magic was better from down here? It was safer? More beautiful? How could he explain?
"There's just something..." Words failed him again.
But she was nodding, a gentle movement against his shoulder. "Magical. I can feel it."
"Yeah," he said on a sigh. He smiled broadly... and so did his heart. He'd been right.
His eyes fluttered shut for a moment, and he leaned to place a soft kiss on her temple. She'd changed the stars. No... *they* had changed the stars.
But even though his heart was singing, the glittering sky still held bittersweet memories for him. He smiled wistfully as he gazed back up at the midnight sky.
"My dad and I used to come out here all the time. I loved the times when he'd grab his coat and holler for me to follow after him as he opened the front door."
If he listened hard enough, he could almost hear his father now - a gentle bellow followed by the familiar creak of the old screen door. Or maybe it was only the sound of the light wind through the trees.
"He taught me all about the constellations. And when I was old enough, he told me I had come from the stars. We hadn't known then where I'd actually come from, but I've always loved the sound of that. 'From the stars.'" He paused for a moment and frowned a bit. "I guess I'd forgotten that."
He scuffed the toe of his sneaker in the dirt, and he felt Lois reach for his hand.
"My mom would scold him for keeping me up so late, but she always had cookies waiting for us when we got in." He laughed wistfully at the memory. "I think she knew how much it meant for the both of us - me and Dad."
"They sound like they were terrific parents."
"They were." He nodded in the darkness. "They were."
She squeezed his hand and leaned a little closer into him. "I wish I could have met them."
His heart clenched in his chest and his throat grew tight. "Me too."
He felt Lois's arms snake around his waist, embracing him with love and comfort, it seemed.
"You know... I never realized how smart my mom was."
"Oh?" Her voice was soft and soothing as she held him tighter, and he let his arms slip around her waist in return, clinging to her offered comfort.
"She always told me that fear was the greatest challenge worth overcoming." He felt the heat of fresh tears behind his eyes, but they didn't hurt this time. "I was only nine, then. Long months before..." He swallowed. "Before they would die. I couldn't have known... she couldn't have known... how much I'd have to face."
He felt Lois turn in his arms to face him. Without a word, her fingers wandered up to chase away a stray teardrop he hadn't even realized had escaped.
"It took me far too long to remember that... I'd hate to think she was disappointed in me. That either of them were..." He trailed off, a strange mix of sadness, regret and love washing over him.
Lois shook her head and put her hand over his heart. "Feel that, Clark." Her voice was trembling, yet full of strength. "I can feel your heart in mine. It's so strong. Pure."
He closed his eyes against the tears as he brought his forehead to rest against hers. He was almost afraid to breathe.
"You saved my life." Her voice was nearly a whisper now. "Hell, you've probably saved a thousand lives. But I've never seen bravery quite like yours. There's no way they could be anything other than proud of you."
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. What had he done to deserve her?
"Thank you," he whispered, though he didn't need to say it. She knew. Even in her silence, he knew she knew. "This thing between us... I don't understand..." He could feel the warmth of her breath on his lips. The small space between them was charged with something incomprehensible. "It's so..."
He felt her fingertips graze his cheek and trail down to his lips. "I don't think we're supposed to understand... maybe we're just supposed to feel."
He managed to take a breath, and then her lips found his. Tender and searching, both of them trying to chase a deeper meaning. His hands threaded through her hair to pull her closer yet. He didn't need to doubt anymore that there was magic; it was happening right now.
***
She sat watching Clark wash the dishes after their early dinner. He'd insisted that she couldn't help, and she hadn't argued. Watching a movie, eating a homemade dinner, spending the day making love... such an ordinary day. And she loved it.
Her tour of the Kent farm had been, in a word, bittersweet. It had all seemed a bit magical in the deep of the night, guided by the luminescent moon and the twinkling stars. Even so, there had been a deep-seated sadness permeating the night. It'd hadn't all been Clark's, but the age-worn buildings and untamed fields of weeds daring to grow through the already broken fence held a certain...
It was as if someone had left an air of regret hanging in the relative silence, sorrow and life unfinished waiting for another to return with hope for a promising future.
They'd walked and talked well into the dawn. Clark had shown her all his special places - the pond where his dad had taught him how to fish, the view from his childhood bedroom, the kitchen where his mom had showed him the finer points of cooking... and the spot on the old dirt road leading up to the Kent farm that had changed his life forever.
Someday, she'd show him the same of her life.
She focused again on Clark as he set the last plate back in the rack to dry, and then patted away the remaining dampness from his hands on his jeans. He turned to look at her, a smile lighting up his face. She'd never tire of seeing that smile.
"Hey," he said softly. "Do you want to go flying with me before the sun sets completely?" He nodded toward the open window that'd allowed a cool breeze to whisper through the apartment during their dinner.
She smiled back at him. There wasn't anything she'd rather do. She nodded. "I'd love to."
He reached out a hand for her, and she took it swiftly. He leaned a bit to lift her into his arms, then started toward the window. A step off the sill, and they were airborne.
He cradled her gently in his arms as they rose high up in the air. Just like the first time she'd flown with him, she watched the bustling city below her shrink into near nothingness. She didn't need to watch it disappear fully; she knew it would be there for her when they returned, just the same as she'd left it. Instead, she turned her gaze to the expanse of impossibly blue horizon in front of her. She felt like she was staring into forever as they flew east, the golden hues of the sunset behind them. She smiled at that. Every uninspired western film ended with the hero and his love riding off into the sunset.
But this was different. They were different. Perhaps by flying away from the sun, they'd find something far more magical. Maybe there, just where the blue seemed to curve and drop off into eternity, they'd find some miraculous solution to all their problems. But for once she wasn't desperate to arrive at a destination. She was content just where she was. In Clark's arms, flying towards forever.
The End
I'd like to give a huge thank you (though they deserve more than that) to all my wonderful beta readers: David, Saskia, Sorcha, Rachel, Diane, Paul, and CC. The last two may have had to bow out, but they were still very instrumental during this story's long journey. Also, a special thanks to Wendy, Julie and Kaethel for moments of encouragement and inspiration! 
This is why I said I'd be gushing properly later. 
