It’s not Ficlet Friday and this ended up being much longer than a ficlet but here is another installment in my Try Not to Change Anything series.Kerth Challenge #3: The Wedding Challenge!
Someone is getting married...but it's NOT Lois and Clark! Write a fic in which L&C attend a wedding for SOMEONE THEY KNOW. It can take place at ANY point in the series and their relationship!
This fic is set some months after A Flight to Remember. Clark is on home from college for fall break and Lois is in her senior year of high school. Someone they know is getting married. Enjoy!A Wedding in SmallvilleBy AmandaK
“Are you sure?” Clark spoke into the phone with a wide grin across his face. “Tonight? Eight o’clock. I’ll be there… Love you too. See you soon. Bye.” He felt himself floating as he hung up the phone. “Yes!” he exclaimed in joy, shadow boxing the air as he spun in place.
“No flying in the house, young man.” His mother scolded as she came into the kitchen.
Clark sheepishly let his feet travel back to the floor, but he couldn’t stop smiling. “Sorry, Mom.”
“What’s got you so happy today?” Martha asked, opening the oven to check on the roast she’d put in earlier.
“Lois is coming for the wedding,” Clark replied, rocking back on his heels and scarcely keeping himself from becoming airborne again.
Martha smiled. “That’s wonderful. I’m surprised Ellen hasn’t called me to make sure I keep you two out of trouble.”
“Well…” Clark hemmed.
“Clark.”
He winced at her tone. Even though he was legally an adult… again… she could still make him feel like an eight-year-old who’d just put a baseball through the kitchen window. He shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. “She doesn’t exactly know.”
Martha’s eyes narrowed. “How does she not know that her daughter is travelling halfway across the country for a wedding?”
“Lois told her she was going to a friend’s house tonight. She just didn’t tell her which friend.”
“And where did she get the money for the flight?” her gaze shot up to the clock on the kitchen wall. “Shouldn’t she be in the air already? You said she’d be here tonight. How did she call you?”
Clark’s voice stuck in his throat as he realized that he was caught. Thus far, he’d managed to not let his parents know just how much Lois knew about him. He’d thought about just telling them everything, but it was so complicated and completely far-fetched. He didn’t think they’d believe him. He also didn’t want to risk revealing too much about the future. They didn’t need to know about Superman yet. His dad would certainly flip out if he knew what Clark was planning to do with his powers someday.
But how to get out of this one without telling them that Lois knew everything?
“How did who call?” Jonathan said, stomping the dirt off his boots as he came in through the back door.
Clark sighed. Now he was really stuck.
“Lois,” Martha replied for him. “Apparently, she’s on her way here for the wedding. Clark said something about picking her up at eight o’clock but then, surely, she’d be on the plane by now. I’m just wondering how she made a phone call from the plane.” She crossed her arms over her chest as she looked back at her son. “And just how a seventeen-year-old girl managed to buy a last-minute plane ticket without her mother’s knowledge. Unless… Did Sam buy her the ticket? He did, didn’t he? Of all the things to do! Those poor girls have enough on their plates without him trying to buy their love with gifts and trips.”
It was an easy out, Clark thought. He could say his mother was right – that Sam had paid for the trip and Lois didn’t tell Ellen to try and keep the peace (what little of that there was these days). Things had been rough since the divorce. Lois called him frequently to talk about how difficult it was to go through it all again.
But… that would be a lie.
His parents were going to find out eventually. He might as well bite the bullet and tell them now.
“No, Mom. Sam didn’t buy the ticket. Lois isn’t… well she is flying, just not in the usual way. I’m going to pick her up… from Metropolis.”
…
…
“Lois knows you can fly?”
That was his mom, her voice neutral and calm – too calm really.
“Just how much does she know?”
His father’s voice, in contrast, sounded just this side of the lock-you-up-and-dissect-you-like-a-frog lecture. He clearly was not happy at all.
Clark took a deep breath and decided to rip off the band-aid. “Everything. She knows everything.”
********
“You’re late.” Lois said as Clark landed in the alley two blocks from her house. She ran over to hug him anyway. “I figured you’d be here waiting for me, not the other way around.”
“Sorry about that. I got stuck listening to a lecture from my parents.” Clark rolled his eyes as he stepped away to pick-up her sleepover bag.
“Uh-oh.
Your parents giving a lecture? Must be serious. What’d you do?”
“I told them… everything.”
“Everything? You mean… about us?” Lois stepped close to him again and grinned as he picked her up and held her close to his chest as he had so many times before. A moment later, they were airborne and soaring high above and away from Metropolis.
“Well not everything exactly. I left out the part about us being our adult selves come back to the past in our child bodies – I figured that might be a bit to unbelievable. But they were really concerned that I had told you about my powers.”
“Did your dad give you the lock-you-up-and-dissect-you-like-a-frog speech?”
“Yup.”
Lois leaned her head against his shoulder and inhaled his scent. She missed flying with him. He’d stopped by several times over the past few months, but they’d only been able to go flying a few times. “So, what’d you tell them?”
“That I had to tell you because you were my best friend – but that wasn’t good enough for them. They asked if I had told Pete too and, of course, I haven’t. So, I may have mentioned that I was going to marry you – not yet, but in the future after college and starting our careers and stuff.”
“I still don’t see why we have to wait that long. We’re technically already married.”
“Lo-is. We’ve already talked about this.”
“Well, maybe I want to talk about it again.”
Clark sighed heavily. “Not tonight, please.”
“Alright, but we will talk.” Lois looked out over the night sky. The land below was passing too quickly for her to really see any of it. But the expanse of stars spread out before them, so far away that they stood still despite how fast they were travelling. “So, what did your parents say?” she asked.
“They wanted to know how I could be so sure that we would get married if we were planning so far out. They argued that we both might move on – find someone new. They wouldn’t take ‘I just know’ for an answer. So, I kind of… blurted out that I’d seen the future.”
Lois couldn’t help it. She laughed, loud and long. “You just blurted it out? How’d they take that?”
“About as well as you’d expect. They didn’t believe me. I explained about Wells and the time machine. I even told them about Superman. I mean, not by name – just that I would use my powers to save people. I fudged a lot of the details and was vague on exactly when you and I had traveled through time.”
“Did they believe you then?”
“I highly doubt it.”
Lois chuckled again. “I can’t really blame them. It’s time travel. You should have just told them about the soul swapping thing. Probably would have gotten the same result.”
Clark chuckled too and Lois snuggled in closer to the warm rumble in his chest. “You’d think that two people who found a super powered baby in a spaceship would be a little less skeptical.”
********
“Have I mentioned that you look absolutely beautiful this morning?” Clark asked, reaching one hand across the bench seat in his truck to twine his fingers with Lois’s, while steering with the other. It was the next morning and they were on their way to the wedding, Clark in his tux and Lois in a pretty, light blue dress which hung just to her knees and showed off her calves quite nicely.
“Only a few times,” Lois beamed but kept her gaze firmly on the road ahead of them. There was something so peaceful about the corn and wheat fields surrounding Smallville. She loved coming to visit. Oddly, she felt more at home here than she did in her childhood home back in Metropolis. She was still a city girl through-and-through, but Clark’s hometown would always be special to her. “I’m so glad I was able to come. I still can’t believe Lana and Pete are getting married.”
“Me neither. I…” Clark trailed off as his thoughts shifted to the past – the other past, when things had been very different. The smile drifted slowly from his face and Lois, noticing his shift in demeanor, turn slightly in her seat to face him.
“Clark? What is it?” she asked.
“We changed it,” he stated bluntly. Lois didn’t have to ask what he meant. “It’s a pretty big change, don’t you think? The Lana I used to know would hardly look twice at Pete. I dated her on and off for years. If Pete had feelings for her, he never said anything. But this time… I had you. Dating Lana wasn’t an option for me. Even pretending to – just to keep things from changing – would have felt like I was betraying you and it wouldn’t have been fair to Lana. Lana knew I was taken so she didn’t bother pursuing me after middle school. When she started seeing Pete, I didn’t think much of it but now…”
Clark took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Lana and Pete are getting married. That’s huge. What if… what if we’ve messed everything up?
Lois laid her hand on his arm. “Clark – this is a good change. A great change! They love each other. They’re getting married. They’re building a life together. I mean – in the other timeline, did either of them ever settle down?”
“No,” Clark shook his head slowly. “Far as I know, they were both single – Pete running his father’s feed store and Lana off in California doing… something. I think she became a fashion designer.”
“So, they were both doing well, but it sounds like they were both lonely too. Now they won’t be. No matter what else happens in their lives – they’ll have each other. You and I are the only ones who know that things might have been different. But maybe this is how things were meant to be. Maybe Lana and Pete were always perfect for each other. She just couldn’t see him past all of this.”
Clark glanced at her sideways. “Did you just gesture to all of me?”
“Maybe.” Lois smirked. “I mean you can’t really blame her for not seeing Pete when you were just standing around all good looking and eligible?”
“Says the girl who once compared my eyes to mud.”
“What?! I did not!” Lois protested.
It was Clark’s turn to smirk. “I believe your exact words were: dull, insipid, mud-brown.”
“I never said that.”
“You really did.”
“When?”
“The day after Superman’s debut.”
“There! You see? You are talking about a past which is in the future and therefore subject to change. I can now guarantee you that I will not say those words and thereby the future becomes the past ergo, I never said that.
“What?”
“Oh, good. We’re here.” Lois took off her seatbelt and hopped out of the truck before Clark could wrap his head around whether or not her words made any actual sense.
********
After making sure Lois was settled with his parents in the church, Clark went looking for the groom. He knocked on the door to the dressing room. Pete Ross let him in a moment later.
“Hey, Pete. How’re you doing?” Clark asked.
“Better now that my best man is here. Is this tie straight?” Pete fiddled with his bow tie as he looked in the mirror.
Clark smiled. “It’s fine. Nervous?”
“Wouldn’t you be? I’m so worried something is going to go wrong.”
“Nothing is going to go wrong.” Clark refrained from wincing as he said the words. He’d had two weddings go wrong before he and Lois finally tied the knot – and even that one wasn’t ‘official’ official yet. But Pete wasn’t likely to have to deal with frog eating clones or psychotic wedding destroyers. And he certainly didn’t have to worry about a science fiction writer from the early twentieth century interrupting his wedding night.
“I know. But what if something does? I just want everything to perfect for Lana.” Pete’s eyebrows creased with worry and he adjusted his boutonniere.
“It will be.”
“Do you have the ring?”
“Right here.” Clark patted his pocket and then rested his hand on Pete’s shoulder. “Try to relax.”
Another knock sounded on the door and Pete’s father poked his head in. “Show time, Pete. You ready?”
Pete took a deep breath and nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”
Clark followed Pete out of the dressing room and wondered if he would be nervous the next time he and Lois got married.
********
Martha Kent watched her son twirl Lois around on the dance floor at Lana and Pete’s reception. She’d been watching them a lot since Clark had brought her home the night before.
They had been a serious couple for quite some time now – childhood sweethearts really. Martha smiled as she recalled the time she had caught them kissing on the couch when they were in middle school.
Lois was a good girl – smart too. She excelled in school despite her troubled home life. And she clearly adored Clark, just as he was so obviously devoted to her. But were they really ready to promise each other a future?
They were so young – but then, so were Lana and Pete. But Pete had proposed and they’d decided to get married as soon as possible whereas Clark was talking about waiting to get engaged until they were done with college and settled in careers. Yet he spoke as though their someday marriage was a sure thing – he even went so far as to claim he’d seen the future.
Martha shook her head at the fantastical notion of H.G. Wells’ time machine being real. She’d certainly love the chance to travel around through time, visiting great moments in history. But that was little more than a dream. Or was it? Both Clark and Lois seemed sure of what their future would bring. Had they really traveled though time?
Did it matter?
“So, what do you think?”
Martha wasn’t surprised to find her husband at her side where he wasn’t a moment ago. He handed her a glass of punch. “About what?” she asked.
Jonathan gestured with his own glass to the couple on the dance floor. “Those two. This crazy notion of theirs about knowing the future.”
Sometimes Martha wondered if the man could read her mind. Perhaps he could simply read her well after years of marriage. She returned her gaze to Lois and Clark and allowed herself to ponder them for a moment longer before answering. Lois stood on tiptoe a moment to say something in Clark’s ear over the loud music. He laughed out loud at whatever she said and she joined in.
“I think…” Marth replied slowly, a small smile playing on her lips at the sight. “that our son is never happier than he is with Lois Lane at his side. I don’t know if they’ve actually seen the future or not. The future will be whatever it will be. There is no sense in worrying about it. Right now, they are young and in love and happy.”
Jonathan chewed on her words for a moment and then nodded solemnly in agreement. “And what about Lois knowing his secret?” he asked quietly.
Martha watched as Clark spun Lois into a dip at the end of the song. Before the final note faded away, Lois pulled his head down into a kiss. Martha grinned and turned to her husband. “You know, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
Comments can go here
The 
When is the next installment? 
Right off the bat, you've really go these character voices down!
Michael
