Final part... I hope you enjoyed, FoLCs. Please post any comments you might have!
See ya,
AnnaBtG.
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“Here we are!” Clark exclaimed, as he opened his apartment’s door and entered the living room.
Jon followed him in, carrying his school bag. “I’m hungry,” he grumbled.
“What would you like to eat?”
“Pizza!” he said, eyes shining.
“We had pizza yesterday, Jon,” Clark said seriously.
“Can’t we have pizza today, too?”
“No. It’s not healthy.”
“Why?”
Clark tried to find a way to explain it, as he knelt beside Jon. “Look,” he began. “We need to eat many different things, or we get sick.”
“Why?”
“Because... our body needs many things so that it can work. So we can’t always eat the same food.”
“Pizza has many things,” Jon objected. “It has cheese, and ham, and tomato...”
“Yes, but it’s always *pizza*. We need more than pizza.”
“Why?”
The doorbell rang, thankfully for Clark, who was momentarily relieved from the need to teach the advantages of healthy eating to a five-year-old. “Wait until I open the door,” he said and headed there. He was surprised to see Lois.
“Hi,” she simply greeted.
“I didn’t realize you were coming so soon,” he said.
“I couldn’t wait,” she said and nervously walked in, without waiting for an invitation.
Clark stared at her from the doorstep, somewhat troubled. “Is everything all right?”
“We need to talk.”
“I’m hungry!” Jon whined.
Clark closed the door. “Jon, could you please wait for a while?”
“No! I’m hungry!”
“What if I gave you some chips?”
Lois frowned at the idea, but didn’t speak.
“Yes!” Jon exclaimed.
“All right. Come on,” he said and took him in the kitchen. Opening a cupboard, he grabbed a bag of chips and handed it to Jon. “Mom and I are going to talk,” he told him. “You stay here. Don’t eat too many chips. We’ll have real food later.”
“What real food?”
Clark sighed. “How about fish-sticks?”
“With fries?”
“With fries.”
“Okay.”
“Good. Now, be a good boy and wait here.”
He returned to the living room, closing the kitchen door. Lois was already sitting on the couch, her face hidden in her hands.
He sat beside her. “Is there something wrong?”
She looked up. “Why have we messed up like this?”
He grimaced, unsure of what to say. “What do you mean?”
“Look how we are, what we’ve become. Are you happy with how we ended up?”
Clark was speechless. What was she doing? Trying to pass on to him her guilt about destroying the loving relationship they once had? As if he was responsible for this situation!
“But...” he tried to protest, but she cut him off.
“I know, I know it’s not your fault. I’m just asking you. Are you happy with the way we are?”
He was still confused, but he answered the question sincerely. “No.”
“Neither am I.”
She sighed and absently stared at a painting on the wall. It wasn’t going as she had planned. All rational thought had vanished from her head and she didn’t even know what she wanted anymore. The fear of rejection came back, and she pondered taking Jon and going back home, away from Clark and the thoughts being with him provoked.
However, this would earn her nothing. This conversation should be finished at all costs, or she’d return home with her heart full of regrets. And, really, she couldn’t spend any more mornings like this one had been. She was tired. Tired of hiding her feelings, tired of putting up the brave face, tired of going to work just to count the hours left until it was time to go home... tired, tired, tired of everything!
Breathing heavily, she rose and walked to the window, her back to Clark.
“Lois? Are you okay?” Clark timidly asked.
“No,” she replied. “I’m sick and tired.” She turned to him. “I’m sick and tired of being without you.”
He was dumbfounded. It was one thing to be thinking about it, and another, much different, hearing her telling it to his face.
She approached him. “Look at me. Look at what I’ve done with my life. Everything was perfect until I ruined it. I was afraid of being happy, afraid that one day it would all shatter to pieces and I’d be left alone, and I hurried to shatter it myself so that I’d be prepared for the disaster. And look where it got me. I can’t take it anymore, Clark, I really can’t.” She knelt beside him. “I’m not asking you to take me back. That was why I came here, but now I realize that it’s too much to ask for. I just... I just wanted to open my heart to you, and let you see me as I am. I’m tired of hiding, and I just can’t keep on living my life like this. I have to start over, you know... reevaluate my priorities, try to become better... and leave my stubborn self behind, because, you see...” She shrugged. “It took me nowhere.”
Clark swallowed hard. He couldn’t let her do that now! Now, that she seemed so close to him, closer than she’d been in years... No, he had to do something before it was too late for the two of them.
He took her hands in his. “You mean... you wouldn’t come back to me if I asked you to?”
Lois gave him a sad smile. “No, that’s not what I mean. Just that I realized that you never would.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I may have been a fool regarding the two of us, Clark. But I’m not stupid.”
“What if I told you I want us to be together?”
She looked up, surprised.
“What? Did you think I stopped loving you?”
“I...” She sighed. “It’s not that simple, Clark. I swear, just five minutes before I was ready to ask you to start over. I was willing to give up everything just to have you back.”
“And what changed?”
She frowned. “I don’t know. I just... I don’t believe in it anymore. I don’t think it would change anything. We’ve both been too hurt to start over.”
“But you were just ready to start over!”
“And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Look, just because I regretted what I’ve done doesn’t mean that you’re obliged to forgive me. I’m...”
“Lois!” Clark cut in, his voice sharp with incredulity. “First of all, I’m not angry at you.”
She blinked. “You’re not?”
“No. I mean...” He sighed. “I understand. Yes, I’m hurt. But I understand where you come from, what your life had been like. Really, if we ended up where we did, it’s all because of me.”
“You?” Lois squeaked. “How can you say that?”
“Of course! I asked you to marry me right after you found out that your fiancé was a criminal, when your life was upside down. How could I expect everything would be fine? You needed to find yourself first, and I didn’t realize it was a quest you had to go on alone. I should have given you some time to believe in love again. In the true love like the one I wanted to give you.”
“I always believed in your love.”
“You don’t now.”
“But after all of this...”
“See? I never gave you a chance to understand that you could do nothing that would kill my love for you.”
“But... I disappointed you! I’m sure you never expected that you’d have to carry all the weight of our relationship on your shoulders!”
“I was disappointed, but it wasn’t your fault. No one loved you like you deserved. No one but me. Which is why my love became a burden for you.”
“So what are you saying, that it was your fault?”
“Maybe it was both of us.”
She made an effort to smile. “Well, this is a relief,” she joked.
He smiled back. “So, what do you think?”
“About what?”
“Is there a chance for us?”
“Wait a second,” she said and rose. “My knees hurt.”
He grinned as he watched her stretching her legs.
She sat on the couch beside him. “Better. So... if there’s a chance for us?”
He nodded.
“Well... I would like it to be. There may be, even. But we’ve been away for so long, things have changed... We need to get to know each other from the beginning.”
“Maybe begin from becoming friends again?”
“Yes. And, you know, my house is quite big. You could move in with me and Jon. We have a spare bedroom.”
He smiled. “But what if it doesn’t work?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. But I just have a feeling that it will.”
“Good.” Clark glanced at his watch. “Have you had lunch yet?”
“No.”
“Great. Jon!” he called. “No more chips! We’re going out for lunch!”
The kitchen door cracked open and Jon’s head appeared. “Did you talk?”
“Yes.”
“And you won’t make me fish-sticks with fries?”
“I thought we’d go out for lunch. All three of us.”
“Mom too?” Jon asked, excited.
“Yes.”
“Where are we going?”
Clark turned to Lois. “Any ideas?”
“Jon, what would you like?” she asked her son.
“Pizza!” he exclaimed.
“He had pizza yesterday,” Clark said, his voice low.
“Never mind,” Lois whispered. “Let him have pizza.”
“Lois, you’re spoiling him,” Clark teased.
“Oh, yes. Terribly so. Come on, honey,” she called to the kid. “Are you still mad at me?”
He looked at her bravely. “Yes.”
“You liar!” she said and began tickling him. “You’re not!”
“I am!” he tried to protest, despite the emerging laughter.
“You’re not!”
“I am!”
“You’re not!”
“I’m not! I’m not!” he repeated, now out of breath.
“All right.” She let go of him. “Now get your jacket and we’re leaving.”
“Why are we going to lunch all together?” he asked as he picked up his jacket.
“Because things have changed, Jon.”
“Is that good?”
She looked at Clark and smiled. “I hope so.”
-The End-
