Thanks to LaraMoon for betareading. I hope you'll enjoy this part. 
TOC From Part 23:Martha was deeply worried. Suddenly she was forced to accept that her son wasn’t invulnerable to everything. And she never had imagined him to become quite so pale. He was in a worse condition than Jonathan or anyone else she knew had ever been. All the time she hadn’t needed to worry about him catching a cold, falling sick or hurting himself. That was different now and the sudden realization that her son could get into physical danger was worrying her sick.
Like any mother she wanted to spare him pain. And today a nightmare had come true. Becca and Clark had been in danger and she hadn’t been there to help, hadn’t even sensed it, unlike Lois. She was grateful that this young woman had appeared in Clark’s life and had managed to become such an important part of it. She had been afraid that he might never find the woman he felt was the right one. In pensive silence Martha steered the car towards the Kent farm. On the backseat, Clark pulled Becca into an embrace, doing his best to comfort her to make her fear recede.
“It’s over, honey,” he said and softly stroked her arm. “It’s over now.”
Serendipitous Infinity
Part 24“I didn’t even say thank you for helping us get out of there alive,” Clark muttered miserably once they were in the farmhouse again. Martha had left them alone to get Jonathan as soon as she had made sure that all three of them were perfectly fine. She knew that Lois would take good care of her son, so it hadn’t been that much a debate for her to go looking after her husband.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Lois replied and went over to Clark to take his hands. “I worried about you and Becca and I couldn’t stand the thought that something had happened to you.”
“You worried about me?” Becca asked surprised. “Why?”
“Because you’re a nice little girl and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you, Becca.” Lois said and kneeled down in front of her. “I was hoping that the two of us could become friends. Would you like to be my friend, Becky?”
The girl studied Lois’ face thoroughly. Her expression was pensive, as if she wasn’t sure whether this question contained a trap. Her brows furrowed and for a moment Lois couldn’t help the impression that Becca was looking right through her. She realized that she hadn’t yet asked Clark if he had told Becca that they were in love. And she didn’t know what Becca’s reaction would be. Lois wondered if she had made a mistake by asking Becca for her friendship. Maybe the girl would already hate her for being her father’s girlfriend.
“You are a lot nicer than I thought,” Becca said slowly. Lois’ heart started racing, because she couldn’t discern if this meant yes or just maybe. “You really were a witch at first.”
Clark gasped and let out a helpless “Rebecca!” as she was so incredibly honest. It didn’t sound really angry though and his little girl looked at him and grinned at his use of her full name. Lois on the other hand couldn’t help but chuckle. She took Becca’s comment for what it was, a childish way to take revenge on her. And the girl was right, Lois had to admit. She hadn’t behaved very well.
“You know, witches can be cool!” Becca stated with a broad smile and winked at Lois.
“Oh, yeah?” Clark asked and tousled his daughter’s hair. “So does that mean the two of you are friends now?”
“I guess we can try,” Becca replied graciously and took the hand Lois was holding out to her. “But don’t you think Daddy is all yours now!” She warned the older woman and gave her a firm glance.
Lois swallowed. Clark had really told her. For a moment her heart was pounding in her ears and cold sweat covered her forehead. In Becca’s eyes she could see that the girl was just about as nervous as she was. She knew that the ultimate decision wasn’t hers but her father’s. Lois was sure that so early in their relationship Clark would rather give up on her than on Becca. The little girl obviously wasn’t quite so convinced of that fact. Lois could see the fear in her eyes, though Clark had certainly explained to her how important she was to him.
“Oh Becky, I wouldn’t take him away from you. You’re father has so many sides, I think there is enough for both of us. How about you take his daddy-side and we share Clark and Superman?” Lois asked and brushed a strand of hair out of Becca’s face. She wiped away a tear that was threatening to break its way down the girl’s cheek. “I’d never want to hurt you. I like you very, very much. You’re not losing your Dad; you will only gain a friend or whatever it is that I can be to you.”
“Sounds fair,” Becca whispered. “I like you too, Lois. I don’t want to, but I do.”
“You can never lose me, Becca,” Clark said softly and lifted her up into his arms and held her tightly. With his other arm, he reached for Lois, who had gotten up from the floor. He pulled her into an embrace and kissed first Becca’s forehead and then Lois’. “I love you both, with all my heart. My two brave girls. Without the two of you I wouldn’t be here. You saved my life. Words cannot say how much I owe you.”
“I think he owes us a flight, what do you think, Lois?” Becca whispered excitedly as she remembered what her father had promised her back in the storm shelter.
Lois let out an excited gasp. She’d love to fly with him. Since the first time she had seen Superman she had wanted to fly with him again. Or rather for the first time really, since she had been unconscious the last time. She had come to shortly before he had landed, so she didn’t remember much of it. From what she recalled flying with him had to be great. Flying like a bird would be so much better than sitting in a plane with hardly a chance to see the clouds in the sky. She had dreamt of it, but never had she expected it to become true.
“You would take us flying?” she asked, almost shyly. Somehow Becca’s suggestion had turned Clark into Superman again, at least for her. It seemed so unreal to stand right in front of the Man of Steel, chatting casually. She realized once more how much she needed to come to terms with his admission. Clark was no longer just the farm boy she had thought he was. He could fly, for crying out loud. And Lois was fascinated.
“As soon as my powers return,” Clark confirmed with laughter. “For the time being my two ladies will have to think of something else to keep me occupied.”
It was then that Lois noticed how weary Clark still looked. He was successful at hiding it, but he couldn’t fool her any longer. When they had come back to the farm he had seemed healthy enough. He had jumped out of the car and had tried to make Becca laugh and forget about their horrible day. She had assumed that Clark was back to his usual self, but he couldn’t be. She had seen him in his apartment and he had really been in a bad shape. He seemed better now, but better didn’t necessarily mean super.
“That’s okay, Clark. We’ve got time, don’t overexert yourself.” She said as she laid her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it lightly. “Why don’t we sit down and relax. I think you still owe me the entire truth about Superman. And I want to hear everything in detail. Becca, don’t let him leave anything out.”
The little girl grinned broadly and took Clark’s hand. “You bet I won’t.”
With Lois help she dragged him towards the living room and made him sit down on the sofa. Lois settled herself next to him and Becca crawled on Clark’s lap. She tried to adjust herself to a comfortable position and finally found one, with her legs across Lois’ and her head resting against Clark’s chest. She sighed with contentment and waited for the adults to start talking. In her father’s arms, she felt safe. After hours of being frightened she couldn’t think of a place where she would rather be.
“So what do you want to know, Lois?” Clark asked.
“Everything!” Lois replied and gave Clark an irresistible smile.
He started telling her how his parents had found him and what his life as a child and a teenager had been like. He told her about his older cousin Lily and how they had spent their holidays on the farm. He told her how worried he always had been that Lily might catch him doing one of his tricks. Clark had never dared tell her, because he knew that Lily was a lonely girl and would do a lot to get attention. He hadn’t really thought she would tell anyone but the fear had been enough to prevent him from saying a word about it. And later on it hadn’t been possible anymore. How could he explain that he had been lying to her all their lives through? How was she supposed to understand?
Clark told Lois about the development of his powers and about how this had scared him. Lois enjoyed listening. Once in a while she asked questions, wondered why he had chosen to come to Metropolis and heard everything about what had happened there before she and Clark had become friends. But as much as he told her, the real secret wasn’t out yet. He didn’t say a word about the night Lily died. Lois knew that she had to make him tell her. It wasn’t that she wanted to force him, but she could only help him with Child Services if he let her in on this well kept mystery.
Indecisively, she looked from Clark to Becca and back to Clark again. She didn’t dare ask him when Becca was around. Though she couldn’t really imagine that Clark had anything like a dark secret in his past, she honestly didn’t know him well enough. Suddenly he stopped talking and looked at her intensively. He studied her face as if he was trying to read her mind.
“What are you thinking about, Lois?” he asked softly. “You were so keen on hearing all this and now you’re not even listening. What’s bothering you?”
“It’s nothing. We can talk about it later. Come on; tell me about your first flight.” Lois made a weak attempt at changing the topic.
“Lois, I can see it in your eyes that you don’t want to discuss this later, you want to ask it now, so do it!” he insisted. “I promised to be completely honest with you. There are no taboos.”
“Okay, if you absolutely want me to say this now. I need you to tell me about Lily’s death. It’s important for me to know about it so I can help you with Child Services, or rather Mrs. Donovan to be precise.”
As Lois had already suspected, Clark grew pale. He looked at her with huge brown eyes and lowered his glance guiltily. She could tell that he felt like he was being cornered with no way to escape. Of course he could give her one of his irresistible smiles and make excuses. She knew she was helpless against those smiles. She couldn’t make him tell her and honestly she didn’t want to force him. If it was so painful for him she had no intention to torture him with her questions, but she just couldn’t imagine that Clark had done something evil in the night of his cousin’s death.
“Clark, it can’t be that bad. I know you could never do anything cruel. Why is Mrs. Donovan pursuing you?” Lois said and took his hand in hers, brushing her thumb over the back of it.
“Yes, Daddy. What happened to Mom?” Becca tugged at his sleeve and wore the kind of smile she knew would melt his heart.
She had tried it over and over again. She didn’t have any memory of her mother. Ever since she had found out that every child was supposed to have one, she had wanted to know what hers had been like. It had never been easy for her on the playground when all the other kids had talked about their moms. For some reason the girls she knew had always been a little afraid of the other children’s dads. So having a mom had to be different from having a dad. Becca didn’t really understand what a mother could give her that her father couldn’t. She didn’t feel like she missed anything. Her daddy was always so kind to her. How could there be more?
Her father had told her a lot about her mother, about their youth and how she had appeared on his doorstep, that night. But Becca didn’t know what had really happened to her. Of course, he had told her that she was dead and would never come back again. He had assured her that she had loved Becca with all her heart and that she hadn’t wanted to go. But in the end she had left anyway and Becca hadn’t yet understood why that was. Where was that other world her father sometimes called Heaven? And who would force someone to leave when there were people who were left alone with their grief? Becca knew that her father and grandparents were very sad that her mother was gone. And her daddy had always been reluctant to talk about the night when her mother died.
Clark swallowed hard and looked at Lois and Becca. He wasn’t sure he wanted to tell the story now when his little girl could hear the whole truth. She was still so young and he didn’t want to bother her with death and grief. But now that Lois had asked him to tell her, Becca would feel excluded if she didn’t hear the story as well. Maybe he could start with a shortened version and later he would tell Lois the rest of it.
“Okay,” he gave in. “I’ll tell you.” Clark closed his eyes and took off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. “It all started back in College. I was working hard and spent many nights earning money. I was hardly sleeping back then, because my exams were to come soon. I rescued a few people when they were in trouble. When I wasn’t working or rescuing someone I looked after Becca. You were a healthy little baby.” Clark smiled at Becca and softly tousled her hair. “And just about then you started teething. That added to my sleepless nights and even though I don’t need much rest, I was deathly tired. I still don’t know how it happened exactly, but one night, when I was trying to calm Becca I fell asleep on the stairs with her in my arms.”
Lois gasped in surprise. “You fell asleep on the stairs? How is that possible?”
“As I said I was tired. I don’t really remember how it happened. May I sat down there and closed my eyes to have a little rest. I don’t know. However, Lily found me and got very angry because our landlord thought I was drunk.” Clark blushed, embarrassed as if the mere thought of lying drunk in the staircase was already too much for his sense of decency. “And I guess she couldn’t find a better explanation either. I hadn’t told her that I was working so much, because I didn’t want her to feel guilty. She thought that I was taking my free time to meet with friends or to get a bit of sleep so Becca’s crying wouldn’t disturb me. Maybe she even thought I had a girlfriend with whom I was spending my nights. After all, she didn’t have any claim on me. She had asked me to help her with her child and that was what I did.”
Clark paused and sighed. Lois could tell that he was feeling uncomfortable with his admissions. And she knew exactly why. From Lily’s point of view he must have looked irresponsible. But she had to have known that she couldn’t blame Clark for it. After all, he hadn’t been the girl’s father and he had still been young. It had been kind of him to offer his help, but it hadn’t been his liability to do that.
Though Lois didn’t know Lily, she could imagine how torn this woman must have felt. On the one hand she had known that Clark wouldn’t betray her trust, that he would be the perfect father. But on the other hand she had known that a young man deserved his freedom and that she couldn’t force him to take responsibility for something that wasn’t his fault. Seeing that Clark didn’t feel comfortable in the role she had forced him into must have been painful. And it had been Clark’s pride and secrecy that had led to all these misunderstandings.
“How did Lily react?” Lois asked and tried to ignore Becca’s anxious glance.
The little girl leaned against her father’s chest as if she was trying to drown in his warmth. She was afraid to hear something that would either destroy the image of her mother or her father. When she imagined her parents, she wanted to think of them as two happy people who didn’t argue, who were just perfect. This hint of imperfection was obviously worrying her deeply and Lois could very well understand that. Whenever her parents had had a bad argument - for instance, after her dad had come home late and had found her mother on the sofa sleeping with a bottle of wine in her hand - she had closed her eyes and had dreamt herself away into the perfect family.
“She was furious at first and then she said that she would do something she should have done long ago. I didn’t know what she was talking about and I couldn’t follow her, because I had to take care of Becca first. She had had a little accident while I was asleep and needed her diaper changed” Clark shrugged and smiled sadly. “Lily called me later and asked me to bring Becca to her. She said that she would live with her parents from now on and that she was sorry she had ever bothered me with her baby. She was crushed and couldn’t stop apologizing. To be honest, I was too shocked to say anything. I loved Becca so much and I couldn’t imagine living without her. I didn’t want to be just her cousin; I wanted to be her father.”
to be continued...
