No time to respond to FDK etc but did want to post this. Then off to watch a movie
. Will be back tomorrow.
Last time"So when are you leaving?" he asked quietly.
"What?"
"For Metropolis. For the Daily Planet. For Clark Lane."
She rested her head against his shoulder. "You think you know me so well."
"I do."
"I know."
"So when are you leaving?"
She sighed. "I don't know, Daddy. I just don't know."
*~*23*~*Clark wandered around for a while before heading to Kent tent. Lois was helping her dad with whatever it was he was doing to the pork.
"Go on," he heard Jonathan say. "Find Clark and show him around."
"I like helping you," Lois replied.
"I know, but you and I both know you'd rather show him around."
She sighed and stepped out of the tent. "Clark. When did you get here?"
"Just a minute ago." He took the rolled up paper out from under his arm. "For you."
She unrolled it and stared. "My byline in the Daily Planet," she practically whispered.
"Your *first* byline in the Daily Planet," he corrected.
She didn't say anything as she read through the article again. "I'm going to leave this with my dad," she finally said. "If that's okay with you. We'll have an article in the Smallville paper but it doesn't come out until next Thursday so..."
Clark's brow furrowed. "You haven't been to work in days."
She shrugged. "This week's paper was pretty well done already. Jenn could finish anything else and Bill's back so... I'm demoted as of this week anyway."
They wandered away from the barbecue booths towards the games and merchandise.
"What's going on over there?" Clark nodded towards a small crowd gathered around one of the booths.
"That's Pop Pop's baseball toss. It's probably time for the toss-off."
"The what?"
She sighed. "Pete, Josh and Dan have had this contest every year for as long as I can remember. Winner gets all the points to get a prize for their mom, or later, girlfriend. Five rounds, most strikes overall wins."
By the time she finished, they'd reached the edge of the crowd. "Anyone ever win you anything?" he whispered in her ear.
She shook her head. "No. The two years Josh and I were dating, Pete won. The last two years, I was dating Dan and Josh won both of them. Dan's never won, actually."
Clark chuckled. "I'd say I was sorry but..."
"Think you can do better?"
Clark looked up to see Dan standing there, tossing a baseball up and down in his hand. Clark shrugged. "I can throw a ball."
Dan moved a few steps closer. "So why don't you join us then?" He glanced at Lois. "I beat you, Lois dances with me tonight. Not you. At all."
Clark stood up a bit taller and took a step towards the sheriff. "I believe that would be up to the lady, wouldn’t it?"
"Don't think you can beat me?" he taunted.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I can throw a strike or two."
Dan swept his arm towards the booth. "Then why don't you join us, city boy?"
For some reason Clark liked it much better when Lois called him that. He pulled a string of tickets out of his pocket and counted out five. "Let's go, *Sheriff*." He put as much sarcasm as he could muster into the last word.
Lois was just standing there, glaring at both of them with her arms crossed in front of her. Another girl stood next to her. "Don't worry, Kara, next they're going to see who can pee farther. But I'm sure Josh has better sense than that."
Clark sighed inwardly. He should have known better than to go all macho in front of Lois if he wanted to impress her.
He was still a bit sore from the beating and exposure to whatever it was, but Josh looked like he was in worse shape. He chose that moment to speak up.
"Actually, if Clark's playing this year, I think I'm going to sit out," Josh told them. "I'm not even sure I can pitch after this week." He took his tickets back from the older man running the booth – Pop Pop, Clark guessed. One of Lois' grandpas? Josh moved to stand close to the girl Lois had been talking to.
"You know, I think I'm going to sit out, too," Pete said suddenly.
"You and me," Dan said, looking at Clark.
"Let's go."
"You're the new guy. Go ahead."
Clark took the baseballs and tossed one up and down lightly as he moved into position. He wound up and...
SMACK!
The ball hit the plywood catcher in the head.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm the nerves in his stomach. He tried again.
Wide right.
Way wide right.
One more in this round. He concentrated and sighed in relief as it went into the 'mitt'.
"Only one," Dan gloated. "Watch this."
A minute later, Clark was down by one.
The next three rounds went quickly as they alternated going first.
"Coin toss," Josh called as Clark got in place for the last round.
"What?" he asked, turning to look at the gathered crowd.
"Whoever's losing goes last in the final round," Lois explained. "If it's a tie, there's a coin toss." She pulled a quarter out of her pocket. "You call it, Clark."
The coin sailed into the air.
"Heads," he said.
She and the others around her looked at the quarter in the grass. "Heads it is," she said. "Dan goes first."
Clark watched as Dan hit two strikes. It *was* his turn for two. They'd taken turns – Clark had one strike the first round; Dan had two. The next round was the other way until they each had six at the end of four rounds.
He'd have to be perfect if he wanted to win.
Not that he really thought that Lois would even dance with Dan, much less let him dictate who else she could dance with, but he had an inexplicable need to win.
Or, more likely, he had an inexplicable need to beat Dan.
He took a deep breath and threw the first ball. Strike. Then another. Then a third.
He grinned and turned to look at Lois who he found flying into his arms. He barely had time to react before her arms were around his neck. He swung her around before her lips planted firmly on his.
He set her down laughing, but something in her eyes told him everything wasn't as okay as she was letting everyone else believe.
"I guess you get to pick your prize," he said, tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
She shook her head, turning in his arms. "Mrs. Lane, why don't you pick something out? It's your son's first win, after all."
Clark tightened his arms slightly around her waist as his mom walked over to the booth. She studied everything carefully before finally sweet talking Pop Pop into giving her a few extra points so that she could get a Superman doll.
"Good choice," Lois told her.
The crowd dissipated but Clark left his arms around Lois until she pulled away from him.
"Don’t read anything into that, Lane, or anything into the rest of the day while you're pretending to be my new boyfriend."
*****
TBC
