Hi!
Here's part 14. I accept all kinds of feedback, comments and criticism!
(And, if there are any mistakes, it is very likely that Carole warned me about them but I chose to ignore her
)
I hope you enjoy.
AnnaBtG.
TOC here From Part 13:“You know,” she continued, her voice serious, “I didn’t want to tell you yet. But things took such a turn that I had to. I mean, you ought to know.”
“It’s all right, now I know...”
“No, you don’t,” she abruptly cut him.
He stared at her, confused.
“Clark, I’m pregnant.”
Part 14: Clark’s heart was torn. Only imagining what she’d been through all this time, carrying this secret by herself, was terrible.
And now this…
He saw her lower her head. Her lips were quivering.
“Lois, don’t cry… It’s okay.”
She stared at him, obvious anger clouding her teary eyes. “What do you mean, ‘it’s okay’?”
“I mean, it’s not a problem.”
“You think I’ll have an abortion, don’t you?”
“No!”
“I’m never gonna do that!” she said, low, but intensely.
“I know! That’s why I didn’t suggest it,” he replied in the same tone. “Lois, it’s not this kid’s fault.”
“I know…” she said, despair getting all over her again. “Well, you don’t have to worry,” she sobbed. “We’ll be fine.”
“Lois?” he asked incredulously.
“What?”
“You think I’m gonna walk away on you?”
She avoided his gaze and focused on her hands. “There’s no reason for you to stay…”
“Lo-is,” he said and grabbed her hands. “Look at me. We’ll go through this together.”
“It’s just…”
“Look, nobody has to know about it. If…” He hesitated for a second. “If you agree, we’ll say that the baby is mine, and… we can get married, once it’s born, or earlier, if you prefer.”
Lois remained silent, her mouth open in astonishment.
“You don’t like the idea?” he asked timidly.
“Of course I do! It’s... so nice of you!”
He smiled, reassured by her sudden burst of happiness.
“But are you sure?” she inquired.
“Completely.”
“You don’t wanna think about it?”
“No.”
“But…”
“Lois,” he cut her, “don’t be so insecure. I’d do anything for you, you should know it.”
Lois was suddenly overwhelmed by the all so familiar and Clark-like feeling of warmness, which put away all feeling of guilt. She knew he meant every word.
“All right,” he said, “now leave this aside. We have more important things to discuss.”
“Like what?”
“First of all, you have to take care of yourself. No more sleeping four hours a day, and no more drinking seven coffees an hour.”
She grinned. “I never did that.”
“Okay, so your record is three. But now is not the time to break it.”
“Okay.”
“Lois, do you…” He stopped there, unsure.
“What?”
“Do you think we should move together? This is gonna be a difficult period for you.”
“I think I’ll be fine. You’re just a scream away,” she joked.
“Okay. If you need anything, though…”
“Isn’t it what I’ve been doing?”
Clark was very glad to notice how good her mood was now. “You know, I think it’s true what they say about pregnant women… That their mood can change in a matter of seconds.”
“Am I the living proof?”
“Pretty much.”
“Who cares.” She leaned back at her chair and stretched. “Time for work, now?”
“I’d say… time for a nap?”
“Oh, don’t make me go home,” she complained. “I’ll…” She cut herself before saying ‘just have a coffee and I’ll be fine.’
“What?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing. I just wanna finish this one first.”
“All right. And then we’ll go have a nice lunch to celebrate this baby’s arrival.”
“You know,” she laughed, “this will take more than seven months.”
“So, who cares?”
They both smiled.
-----
Within days, Lois’s pregnancy was common knowledge. First, they told Perry, as they pictured it would be the most natural thing to do. After that, to everyone asking them about their relationship, they replied naturally that they were going perfectly fine, that Lois was pregnant and that they were planning their wedding some day in the not so distant future.
The only ones who knew the true story were Jonathan and Martha. They reacted just like Clark, when they found out: They showed love, support and helpfulness. Lois was very grateful to them.
One morning, Cat went to see Lois, who was writing a report.
“Lois! What did I just hear? You’re pregnant?” she asked, with a big, fake smile.
“Did you ‘just’ hear?” Lois muttered, continuing to write. “How come you were not the first one to know?”
“So it’s true!” Cat kept on pretending to be extremely pleased with the news. “And is it Clark’s?”
Lois stared at Cat with a poisonous look in her eyes. “Yes.” She faked a smile too.
“Oh. But if you just found out you’re pregnant, and Clark joined the Planet about a month ago, then you practically slept with him the day you met him, didn’t you?” Cat’s words were full of hidden bitterness.
Lois wore a broad, strategically chosen smile. “That about sums it up, yeah.” <Is it any different than what you’d have done?>
“Will you let me print it?”
“Print it?”
“Yeah… Sorry to be telling you so, but it’s pretty gossip-worthy.” Cat’s eyes were sparkling mischievously.
“If you think that the people of Metropolis are interested in reading about my love life, then go ahead, print it,” Lois said, faking indifference.
“Thank you! Make sure to read my column tomorrow!”
‘Don’t I always?’ Lois’s ironic smile said very clearly.
-----
“You don’t mind, do you?” Lois asked Clark, after explaining him the incident with Cat.
“Not really.”
“You just had to see her face when she came to ‘congratulate’ me. It was so annoying…”
“I understand, Lois, really,” he cut her. “It’s no big deal. But are you sure that *you* don’t mind?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“A few weeks earlier you hated the idea of becoming a celebrity.”
Lois gazed into Clark’s eyes for a moment. “I was afraid. But not anymore. Besides,” she smiled, “being granted with one article in ‘Cat’s Corner’ doesn’t make you a celebrity. People come and go from there all the time.”
Clark smiled back at her.
“Have you finished the article on the fire in Amazon?” she asked him, changing the subject.
“Yeah. Are you sure you don’t want me to put your byline on it?”
“No, no. It’s okay. You’ve been giving me too many Superman exclusives lately. It’s time you got one, too.”
“We’re a team,” he observed.
“Remember what I had told you that time, at the jewelry?”
“Oh! Okay.” He put his hands up to show that he surrendered. “I wrote it myself.”
“That’s right,” she smiled approvingly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need some extra calories. I’m going to buy something to eat.”
“I’ll go buy you something.”
“No, no. Walking will do me good.”
“Okay. Make sure you buy something healthy, huh?”
“No coffee, then?” she winked.
-----
Lois hadn’t returned yet, when Cat appeared by Clark’s desk, holding a pen and a notepad.
“Hey,” she smugly said.
“Hey,” he said, keeping on typing.
“Congratulations. You managed the impossible,” she offered, leaning on his desk and looking away from him.
“Which was…?” He turned towards her.
“Get Lois pregnant, of course,” she replied, still not looking back at him. “And pretty quickly, may I say.”
Clark hoped he wasn’t meant to take that as a compliment, because he found it rather irritating.
“You know,” she continued, “it looked like you were a country boy, with high morals and all. And Lois is not the one to trust someone easily.” She finally turned to face him. “Were you drunk?”
“No. It just… happened.”
Cat nodded. “Won’t you give me a few details?” she said, lowering her voice. “I have the exclusive, and I wanna make it a good one.”
“Umm…”
“Come on!”
“I need to talk to Lois first.”
“Come on, just a few, tiny details!”
At that moment, Lois entered the newsroom, a sandwich in her hand. “What’s up?” she asked calmly, approaching Clark’s desk.
“I want some details,” Cat replied, sounding dead serious.
“On…?”
“How you got pregnant.”
Lois talked confidently. “Well, the second day, after we finished working on a story, I invited him home for a coffee. And that’s how it happened.”
“So it was the second, not the first day.”
“Isn’t it practically the same?”
“Yeah, sure. First, second, what’s the difference,” Cat said, taking quick notes on her notepad. “And what happened next?”
“Don’t you already know that?”
“Well, won’t you give me some quotes, some more details, some...”
“No,” Lois cut her.
“All right, then,” Cat said, displeased.
With that, she hurried away.
“She must be pretty desperate to find out more about us, if she started using a notepad,” Lois commented.
“What’s her problem?” Clark asked.
“I got her man.”
“What?” Clark asked in surprise. “Who?”
“You!”
He got genuinely confused. “I was never hers.”
“See,” Lois said, making herself comfortable on Clark’s desk, “in a way, you were. A young, handsome man who had just joined the Planet. She was *supposed* to get you. That’s what she does.”
“You don’t like her, do you?”
Lois swallowed a bit of her sandwich before answering. “She’s not bad. She just wants all the guys for herself. The ones that are worth it, I mean. You’re probably the best chance she’s had, and she missed it. To me, no less. And that’s what has irritated her.”
“The ‘to you’ part?”
Lois nodded affirmatively. “Since Claude, I hadn’t had a single date. And suddenly, here I am, pregnant with the kid of the most gorgeous man that ever set feet in the Planet. Or so she thinks.”
“‘So she thinks’ could refer to more than one thing,” he grinned.
“Grow up, Kent,” she grinned back. Then, she held up her sandwich. “What about it? Is it healthy enough?”
“What’s in it?”
“Bread, cheese, ham and tomato.”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” He glanced at his computer. “I’ll be finished in a minute. What do you wanna do next?”
“First of all, you’re meeting Bobby at one hour.”
“*I* am meeting him?” he asked, incredulously.
“Of course. You know my stomach isn’t all that well. If I see him, I’ll throw up. And this sandwich is just so nice.”
“Are you taking advantage of me, or is it just an idea?” he joked.
“No, I’m not,” she said in a serious tone. “But you’re such a gentleman, that you’re calling for it.”
“Fair enough.”
She leaned over to him and lightly touched his lips.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
-End of Part 14-
