Farm Boy.
She’d teased him.
It had felt so good. Addictive.
He couldn’t really be in love with her.
Could he?
He was.
He was sure he was.
And he was sure he always would be.
Chapter 9
In her dream, Lois was chasing three bad guys through Metropolis streets. They darted into a dead end, and she knew she had them cornered. They turned, one at a time. The first was a woman, Toni Taylor, now serving time thanks to Lois’s investigation. The second was Claude, smooth talker, corrupt liar, criminal. The third…
“Lex Luthor,” she murmured.
“Lois?” She felt a light touch on her shoulder. “Bess is calving. Do you want to come?”
Lois lurched to a sitting position. “Bess? Bess is having her baby?”
In the dimness, she saw Clark nod. “Sorry to wake you. I didn’t know if you’d want to come or not.” He gestured to the open door. “I called from out there, but I couldn’t wake you.”
“Yes,” Lois said eagerly. “Yes, I want to be there.”
“Put on some warm clothes,” he said as he straightened and hurried away.
Lois leapt from the bed and pulled on jeans and a thick sweater over her pyjamas. She dragged on her jacket as she hurried down the stairs. She ran through the kitchen, across the back porch, and to the barn.
Bess was inside, standing in hay that was strewn around her feet. Clark was a few yards away, watching her.
“What do we have to do?” Lois asked.
“Nothing,” Clark said. “At least that’s what I’m hoping.”
“Is she OK?”
“Seems to be.”
“How long until the baby is born? Will it be here by morning?”
He chuckled softly. “It should be here well inside an hour,” he said. “If not, we will have hit some problems.”
“Are you expecting problems?” Lois asked anxiously.
“No. Everything looks good.”
Bess sat down, and Clark gestured Lois over to the hay bales.
As they sat on the bales, Bess lumbered to her feet. “She’ll be up and down for a while,” Clark said. “Then we should see a nose and both front hooves.”
“I have never seen anything getting born,” Lois admitted. “I don’t know what to expect. Will there be a lot of blood?”
“Not too much.”
“Are you worried?”
He hesitated for a long moment. “Bess is… not young. Calving has risks. Calving at her age has more risks. I made the decision to put her in calf. I don’t want her to pay for my decision.”
“Why did you do it?” Lois asked, hoping it was clear to Clark that genuine interest prompted her question, rather than any criticism. “Because you want a girl calf to replace her?”
“The calf… that’s a bonus. Another lactation…” He smiled. “I guess I wasn’t ready to end the working relationship. She’s a great old girl.”
Lois could hear the affection in his voice. Now that knew more about his life, she could better understand the importance of something steady and unchanging. She put her hand over his and squeezed. “It’ll be all right,” she said. “You’re almost there. And Bess is fine. You said so yourself.”
He swept his other hand over hers for a fraction of a second. His hand was warm. And soft. And made her skin tingle a little. Lois left her hand on his for another moment, then removed it as the tingles crept slowly up her arm. She stared at Bess, not wanting to meet Clark’s eyes.
They watched in silence as five minutes became ten, and ten became fifteen. Bess stood up and sat down regularly. Then, while sitting, she stretched out onto her side, raised her back leg and grunted.
“She’s pushing!” Clark said quietly. He rose from the bale and went behind Bess. “I can see the nose and one hoof. Do you want to come and see?”
Did she? “I think so,” Lois said, not moving.
Clark’s attention switched from Bess to Lois, holding out his hand towards her. “Birth is a miracle,” he said. “You shouldn’t miss it.”
She stood and went to Clark’s side. She could see the nose and under that, a small white lump that wasn’t identifiable. “What’s that?” she said, pointing.
“The hoof.”
“It’s going to have white hooves?” she said, looking at Bess’s black ones.
“No, they’ll darken after she’s born.”
“She?” Lois teased.
“She,” he said firmly, giving her a little wink.
Bess stood, and they backed away. She walked a few steps and then went down, pushing again. Lois watched as more of the nose became visible.
“There’s the other hoof,” Clark said, sounding relieved.
“That’s important?”
“Very important. If one leg is back, it makes the shoulders much broader, meaning we might have to pull the calf.”
Lois didn’t even want to think about that.
Bess repeated her routine again – stand, take a few steps, sit, push.
Clark shuffled about a yard sideways to get a better view. “Nearly there,” he said. “A couple more pushes should do it.”
Lois moved to his side and peered down. Bess pushed and a little more of the nose appeared. Lois looked at Clark. “Are you sure she’s nearly there? It looks like she has a long way to go.”
“It’ll all happen very quickly once she’s past the wide part of the head.”
Bess stood but was only up for long enough to turn thirty degrees and go back down. She rolled onto her side, legs straight and pushed. The nose was fully out now, and Lois could see the outline of the rest of the calf’s head under Bess’s skin.
“Clark!” Lois said, grabbing his hand. “Do something! That baby is not coming out. It’s too big.”
“Bess will stretch,” Clark said, giving Lois a calming smile. “Everything is fine.”
Lois shook her head. “It’s not possible,” she insisted. “See how big the baby’s head is.”
Clark put a hand on her shoulder. “One more push and the head will be born. Bess will probably stand up then and the rest of the calf will fall out.”
Lois looked at the spectacle in front of her, not believing for one moment that what Clark had said could possibly happen.
Bess tensed, her leg held straight up. The calf inched forward and then suddenly its whole head was out. Bess stood and the calf slipped onto the hay.
Lois stared, unable to believe the miracle that had happened right in front of her.
Bess turned and began licking the calf’s head as it lay motionless on the hay. Clark had squatted next to the calf and was rubbing its side with handfuls of hay.
It wasn't moving.
Bess continued licking. Clark continued rubbing.
The calf still didn’t move.
Lois felt nausea ballooning in her stomach. To have come this close…
Then Clark took a stick of straw and gently inserted it into the calf’s nose.
The calf huffed, twitched, and opened its eyes.
“It’s OK?” Lois asked, not daring to believe.
Clark looked up, smiling. “Yep, she’s OK.”
Relief doused the nausea. “Do you know for sure it’s a girl?” she demanded jokingly. “Or are you still going by Bess’s hairdo?”
Clark lifted one of the calf’s back legs and Lois saw four tiny teats nestled in the soft wet fur. “Definitely a heifer,” he said. He stood and backed away, leaving Bess to do her work. “I need to give Bess a shot.”
“An injection?”
He nodded. “Her biggest risk now is milk fever. I need to give her some calcium and magnesium to make sure she has enough for herself despite all the milk she’ll be making over the next few days.”
He went into another room, leaving Lois with the mother and her baby.
“You did so well, Bess,” Lois whispered. “That is the most awesome thing I have ever seen.”
~~~~
Clark went into his storeroom, put his hands on the bench, and hung his head with relief.
She was here.
Safely.
Bess was fine.
He released a huge breath.
He’d taken a gamble. It had worked out OK.
Better than OK.
He had a fine heifer calf. He had another lactation with Bess.
And as a bonus, he had the memory of sharing the birth with Lois. He’d always been in awe of birth but seeing it through her eyes elevated it to a new level.
“Friends, Kent,” he muttered. “Friends.”
He drew up the cal-mag and went back to the barn. Lois looked up from where she was kneeling a couple of yards from the calf. “Pardon?” she said.
Clark stared at her, unable to think of a single thing to say.
“You said something about friends,” Lois prompted.
“Oh, yes, ah, I said how good it is to see you and Bess making friends.”
“She’s amazing,” Lois said. “I really didn’t think there was any way that baby was getting born.”
The calf wriggled, making her first attempt to stand. Her back legs collapsed and she fell onto the hay.
“Oh no,” Lois said. “Is she hurt?”
“No,” Clark said as he injected Bess with the cal-mag. “She will do that a few times before she gets the hang of standing.”
“Should we help her?”
“No. She needs to work it out for herself.”
As if understanding, the calf tried again, got onto two back legs, and fell, rolling over onto one side. Bess continued licking her.
Clark looked at Lois, and the look of concern on her face warmed him inside. “She’s doing really well,” he assured her.
He took the needle and syringe into his storeroom and prepared a molasses drink for Bess. He smiled, already anticipating Lois’s questions.
Sure enough, as he put the large bucket in front of Bess and she started slurping, Lois said, “What’s that?”
“Molasses and warm water,” Clark replied. “To give her an energy boost.”
Lois looked at him for a long moment, her mouth curved to the hint of a smile. “I hope all your animals get this sort of treatment when they have babies.”
“Only Bess,” he said, trying to control his grin. “Oh, and a couple of favourite ewes.”
“You’re a softie, Farm Boy,” she said.
Clark turned to Bess as his heart leapt at the low rumble of affection in Lois's voice.
Bess finished her molasses water and resumed licking her calf.
Clark squatted next to Bess and squirted milk from each of her four teats. “Each teat has a plug,” he said, not waiting for Lois to ask. “Opening the teat makes it just a little easier for the calf. The first time she sucks, she’ll get colostrum.”
“That’s important, isn’t it? The colostrum?”
“Absolutely. Without it, a calf is likely to struggle and probably won’t be able to fight an infection.”
“It would die?”
“Often.”
They watched for the next fifteen minutes as the calf made better and better attempts at standing. She got onto four splayed, shaky legs and attempted a step, only to tumble again.
“Poor little girl,” Lois said.
“She’s doing great.”
“Have you decided what you’re going to call her?”
“No,” Clark replied. “Any ideas?”
“Not really. Other than…”
“Yes?”
“Maybe you could ask Martha for the name of one of her favourite flowers in her garden. Like Poppy or Violet or Rose.”
Clark laughed. “Or Snapdragon!”
Lois swiped at his chest. “You are not calling that beautiful baby ‘Snapdragon’.”
“OK,” he said, still smiling. “I think asking Mom is great idea.”
Less than a minute later, the calf tried again, getting up reasonably easily and standing. She took a tentative step, then another, then another.
“She did it!” Lois exclaimed, throwing her arms around Clark’s neck.
Clark tensed, his arms pinned to his sides as time slowed to a crawl. His mind scattered in a thousand different directions, and he managed to force his arms to circle lightly around her back.
When she moved away, Lois was grinning broadly. “She did it, Clark.”
“I told you she would,” Clark said, trying to keep his tone calm.
The calf nuzzled up against its mother’s flank.
“She’s looking for milk,” Lois said, amazement in her tone.
“Yep.”
“That’s so fast,” Lois said. “She’s not even half an hour old yet.”
“She’ll probably take a few tries to work it out,” Clark said. “And it can be very frustrating to watch.”
“But we can’t help, can we?” Lois guessed.
Clark shook his head. “Bess is an experienced mother. They’ll be fine.” He gestured to the door. “I have a couple more things to do.”
“I’ll stay here and get frustrated,” Lois said, laughing.
Clark prepared some feed for Bess, just as he’d done many times before. He didn’t have to think about it, which was good because his mind was completely consumed with the feeling of Lois’s arms around his neck. He’d had no warning. Suddenly, she was right there.
And Clark couldn’t remember anything feeling so good.
He gathered up what he needed and returned to the barn.
“The baby still hasn’t had a drink,” Lois informed him.
Clark put the container of feed in front of Bess, and she started eating it immediately.
“More treats?” Lois asked, and he could tell she was teasing him.
“Just a little bit of grain,” Clark said. “The important ingredient is the dolomite. It has calcium and magnesium. I’ll be giving her some three times a day for the next week.”
“You said there could still be a problem? Milk fever?”
“Yes. Her milk will take huge amounts of calcium. If her levels get too low, her body could start shutting down, and she could be dead within a few hours.”
“Clark! That’s horrible!”
He nodded and then smiled at her. “But we are not going to let that happen.” He picked up the scissors and a cup of diluted iodine. “I need to trim and dip the calf’s cord. Are you able to hold her please?”
Lois knelt beside the calf and looked to Clark for direction.
“Put one arm in front of her to stop her moving forward and one arm behind.”
Lois did that. “Will it hurt her?” she asked.
“She won’t feel a thing,” Clark said as he quickly trimmed the cord and dipped it several times in the iodine solution. “This is to prevent infection,” he said. “And we trim it so there’s no chance of it getting caught up in her feet.”
They both stood. The calf took two steps forward, turned her head towards the udder, then continued past her mother.
“Ugh!” Lois said. “She’s done that three times.”
“She’ll work it out."
“You’re right about it being frustrating,” Lois said. “I want to hold her there and force her to drink.”
Clark smiled at her, understanding completely. “Yep,” he agreed. “But it’s much better if she does it herself.”
Bess’s licking managed to herd her calf towards her flank and near her udder. As the calf approached, Lois watched intently.
Clark watched just as intently… not the calf, but Lois.
Her hair was a little mussed, her sweater was bulky from the pyjamas under it, and she wore no makeup.
She was utterly stunning.
Then, she turned to him, her face alight with excitement. “She did it!”
Reluctantly, Clark pulled his gaze from Lois and to the calf. “I told you she would,” he said softly.
Lois stilled, their eyes locked, his heart exploded.
She moved first. “What else do we need to do?”
Clark gave Bess a pat on her neck. “We’ve done all we can,” he said. “Now it’s up to Bess.”
“We can’t leave just yet,” Lois said. “We waited for so long for this baby.”
Clark hid his smile at the ‘we’. He positioned a blanket on the hay bale and motioned for Lois to sit. She did, and he sat beside her. They both looked ahead, concentrating on Bess and her calf.
“Lois?”
“Yes?”
“When did you find out about your father’s affair?”
“The day before I came here. Mom called me as I was leaving for the office.”
“You went to your parents’ home?”
“Yes. Then to the agency. Then back to their home. Dad had left by then, so I went into his office.”
“When did you find out about your story?”
“That afternoon. When I finally got to The Planet.”
Clark kept staring forward, hoping she would feel his empathy. “That was an awful day.”
“I woke up that morning thinking my parents’ relationship was as stable as it had ever been, that I was about to write the biggest story of my life, and that I could trust my source. By the evening, I had no job, no story, and my family had imploded… again.”
There was no power that could have stopped Clark from putting his arm around Lois’s shoulder and drawing her close. “I’m so sorry, Lois,” he said. “I wish there was something I could do to help.”
To his surprise, she chuckled, shaking a little against his body.
“What?” he asked.
“You have done so much to help,” she said. “You gave me somewhere to recover and find new perspective, you accepted me into your lives, you never demanded answers.” She drew away and looked at him. “No one could have done more to help.”
“I’m glad,” he said, fighting the compulsion to lean forward and kiss her.
Lois’s eyes swung back to the calf. “She’s so beautiful,” she said, stifling a yawn.
Yes, she was. And tired, too. “You should get back to bed,” Clark said.
“What about you? Don’t you need sleep, too?”
“Yes.” He stood and checked Bess and her calf one final time. He picked up his flashlight, turned off the barn light, and together they walked back to the farmhouse.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” Lois asked.
“I’ll check the hay and decide when I can start baling it. Then I need to go over the baler and make sure it’s ready. I’ll need more twine, so I’ll go into Smallville to get that and anything else for the baler. Then I want to clear up some broken branches and cut and stack wood for fires in winter. I want to sow some tillage radish before the rain comes. And I’m hoping there will be a couple of hours of daylight left to finish the sheep fence and separate the ewes and their lambs.”
“Can I help you?”
More than anything in the world, Clark wanted to agree. “Mom needs to get a lot of the potatoes in before the rain makes them muddy,” he said, hoping his regret wasn’t too obvious. Or maybe hoping it was.
“OK.”
Did she sound slightly disappointed? Or was it just his fanciful imagination?
At the top of the stairs, Lois turned to Clark. “Thank you for waking me, Clark,” Lois said. “That was incredible.”
“Thanks for coming,” he said. He didn’t add that Lois’s presence had made it so much better.
“Goodnight, Clark.”
“Goodnight, Lois.”
She slipped into her bedroom and closed the door, leaving Clark wondering how it would have felt if she dropped a goodnight kiss on his mouth.
~~~~
“Have you checked on Bess and the baby?”
Lois had hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen, firing the question at Clark as he was drying the last of the breakfast dishes.
“Yes,” he said, grinning at her. “The calf is drinking really well. I milked Bess and put them both in the field.” He hung up the tea towel. “Sorry you missed milking, but I figured you needed sleep more.”
“Apparently I did.”
“I’ll milk again tonight. You can come then.”
“OK. Thanks.” Lois took down a mug and poured coffee from the pot.
“Mom loved your idea about using a flower name for the calf.”
“What did she suggest?”
“Daisy. But she insisted I run it past you before we make if official.”
“Daisy,” Lois said. “I like that. It’s the perfect name for such a cute baby cow… ah, calf.”
“She is very pretty. And she seems to have her mother’s temperament, too.”
Lois shot a glance to Clark as she took the milk from the fridge. He looked happy this morning. Happy. Relieved. Relaxed.
Maybe it was the calf’s safe arrival.
Maybe it was milking Bess.
Maybe it was Martha’s progress.
But whatever the cause, it meant he was smiling a lot.
And that… well, he did have a sensational smile.
Lois smiled back at him. “Is it OK if I go and see Daisy after I’ve had breakfast?”
“Yep,” he said. “The more human interaction she has the better.” He moved to the door. “I’m off to check on the hay and the baler.”
Twenty minutes later, Lois walked through the barn and into the field. Bess was there with Daisy, who was drinking. Lois watched from a distance, feeling a strange sense of pride, even though her part had been minimal.
New life was wonderful. The birth had had a kind of raw beauty Lois had not experienced before.
Lois was so grateful that Clark had woken her.
While watching Bess and her baby, it occurred to Lois that she had used the calf’s imminent arrival as an excuse to put off any decisions about her own life.
Clark had said she should call Perry.
If she did, how would he respond?
If he offered her job back, would she take it?
She would. Of course, she would.
One day… one day soon, she would go back to being a reporter. She would. That was what she did.
But for now, she wasn’t missing it one bit.
~~~~
Martha had declared that the beans were a higher priority than the potatoes, so after breakfast, she sent Lois into the garden with a bucket. Lois had worked through two rows when she heard a car arrive at the front of the house. After a short time, Martha came out with a young woman and a boy of about four.
“Lois!” Martha called. “Do you know where Clark is?”
“I’m here,” Clark said from near the barn. He jogged over to the guests and high-fived the boy. “Hi, Buddy,” he said to the boy. “Hi, Lana.”
Lana? This was Lana?
Clark leaned over and dropped a light kiss on Lana’s cheek. She put her hand on his arm and smiled up at him.
“Come over and meet Lana and Levi,” Martha called to Lois.
Lois left the bucket of beans and walked towards the small group, trying not to be too obvious as she scanned Clark’s face, hoping to read clues in his expression.
He was smiling, certainly, but he didn’t look like a man seeing the woman he loved.
Clark did the introductions. “Lois, this is Lana and her son, Levi. Lana, Levi, this is Lois.”
“Nice to meet you,” Lana said, appearing as if she were waiting for Clark to give further explanation for Lois’s presence.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Lois said, her curiosity bubbling close to boiling point. Who was this woman and what did she mean to Clark? She swept a quick glance to Lana’s left hand and noted the lack of a wedding ring.
When Clark wasn’t forthcoming with any information about Lois, Lana said, “We heard Bess had her calf, and Levi really wanted to come on over to see her.”
Clark grinned. “Bess will love having visitors.” He hoisted Levi onto his shoulders and started towards the barn with Lana at his side. Martha returned to the house and Lois to the beans.
Her mind whirled with the snatches of conversation she’d heard in the café. The other customers had been sure there was to be an announcement. A wedding announcement. But Lois wasn’t convinced. Neither Clark nor Lana had appeared to have anything other than friendship.
He had kissed her on the cheek, which was more than he’d done to Lois. But if they were close to announcing their engagement, wouldn’t it have been a kiss to her lips?
And why did Lana need the excuse of the calf to visit Clark?
What had made the locals think Clark and Lana were going to get married?
Was it simply because both were single? Was it because Clark was single, very easy on the eyes, and had a fantastic body, and the local gossip mill had been pairing him with a new female every couple of months for the past ten years?
Lois picked another handful of beans and tossed them into the bucket. It was almost full, so she returned to the kitchen and offered to prepare them.
“Thank you, honey,” Martha said, smiling brightly.
“Do all the women around here can fruit and vegetables?” Lois asked, because that was a safer topic than asking about Clark’s relationship with his visitor.
“Most of them do.”
“Do they often share? Work together and share the results?”
Martha nodded. “Anna and I have swapped apples and pears for many years.”
Lois continued working on the beans, trying to find a way to word a question about Clark and Lana without sounding impossibly nosy.
Before she could do that, Clark, Lana, and Levi returned.
Lana and Levi said bye to Martha, and the three of them continued to the front of the house and out the door. Ten minutes later, Lois heard the car going down the driveway. She waited for Clark to come back, wanting to look again for any sign of his feelings for Lana, but he didn’t come through the kitchen.
They finished the beans just before lunch, then Martha cooked up some eggs and sausages and made sandwiches for Clark. He came in, gathered his lunch, and gave both women a smile as he said he was heading out to sow the radish.
“Have you been to Smallville yet?” Martha asked.
“Not yet. I want to get the radish sown first.”
“How was the baler?”
“Good. I just need a couple of parts. And the twine.”
“The potatoes are next on our list,” Martha said.
Clark’s eyes swung from his mother to Lois and rested there. “Don’t overdo it,” he said. “You don’t need to do all of them today.”
“We need to do at least half of them,” Martha replied.
Clark finally moved his gaze from Lois. “I can help. I don’t want either of you overtired. And look after your backs.”
Martha shrugged, sending him a little smile. “Go and sow the radish,” she said. Clark left, and Martha turned to Lois, adding, “Do you have any older clothes? It’s dirty work.”
“I can wear my oldest jeans,” Lois said, looking down at the clothes she had bought at the store in Smallville and noticing they already carried a few marks and stains from her various jobs.
“Clark’s right,” Martha said. “It’s not easy on your back.”
“Then I should do it,” Lois said.
“We’ll do it together,” Martha said. “I’ll dig, you can pick up, then we’ll swap.”
A/N - the timing for the birth and the calf standing and feeding has been sped up for the sake of the story. Usually, it would take about twice as long.
