Here is the next part.
Enjoy.
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“Lois, I really don’t think that would be a good idea.” Clark said cautiously.
“Come on, Clark, we have to catch him. He can't keep doing this to innocent women and I need to do this for me. Please say you’ll help me?”
“Alright,” Clark relented, knowing he couldn’t ever deny her anything she wanted. He also thought it would provide closure for her and he would feel better knowing this guy was put away. “We’ll do it this weekend, after we tell Perry. Promise me you’ll be careful, though. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you. Promise me, Lois?” Clark pleaded.
“I promise, Clark. I won’t even drink a thing. Don’t worry, we’ll catch this guy and put him in prison where he belongs.” Lois stated.
“I know we will, Lois,” Clark said. Clark glanced at his watch and realizing it was quite late, he suggested Lois go to bed and he started to get up to go back to his apartment.
“Clark,” Lois said quietly, “will you stay with me? I’d feel better if you were right here to protect me. I just don’t feel safe by myself anymore.” Lois said quietly, almost afraid to admit that she was scared.
“Of course, Lois, I will stay as long as you need me too. In fact, we might want to think about looking for a house. We’ll need more room after the baby comes and I’d like to be here to help you with the pregnancy.”
“I’d love to get a house, Clark, and I would expect nothing less of you to help with the baby. I mean, we are going to be married, we might as well live in the same place.” Lois said with a grin.
“Great, how about we start to look for a house this weekend? When is the lease on your apartment up?” Clark asked.
“Actually, I need to renew it, it's up in a month and a half, but if we are going to buy a house, I will just tell Mr. Trecewski tomorrow that I will not be renewing my lease. And if we don’t find a house in time, I can just move in with you.”
“Of course you can, Lois, if you want you can move in as soon as you’re ready.” Clark said.
“Clark, I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to be intimate with you. After all this, I really don’t know if I can do anything without thinking about what happened. I know it sounds silly because I don’t even remember what happened, but I just can't bring myself to do that right now.” Lois said with her eyes downcast.
“Lois,” Clark said as he lifted her chin, “I thought you might feel that way and I don’t care if we get married and don’t have a wedding night. I won’t say that I wouldn’t have looked forward to it, but as you already know, I am not a typical male. I’ve gotten along this long without sex, I can go a little longer. I love you, Lois and we have the rest of our lives to make love, a few months won’t matter to me.”
“Oh Clark,” Lois said with tears in her eyes, “You sure know how to make a girl weak in the knees. I can't believe I found you. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Why don’t you go get ready for bed, while I go do a quick patrol around the city? I’ll be back in about twenty minutes, okay?”
“You haven’t been ignoring calls for help today because of me, have you? I’d understand if you had to leave me to go help someone.”
“No, the city has been pretty quiet today, there was nothing that the police couldn’t handle today. I promise you if I hear a real emergency, I will go help.” Clark said.
“That makes me feel better, Clark. Now go patrol, I’ll be here when you get back.” Lois said as she headed off towards her bedroom. Clark pulled her back to him and gave a quick kiss before releasing her and watching her walk into the bedroom.
After the bedroom door closed, Clark spun into his suit and flew out the window to do his nightly patrol. The city was pretty quiet and Clark only had to stop two muggings, help an old lady across the street, and rescued a little girl’s kitten from a tree. After flying over the city twice and making sure nothing was amiss, Clark flew back to his place to retrieve some extra sets of clothes and then flew back to Lois’.
After checking that Lois was sound asleep in her bed, Clark turned around to go to living room when Lois’ voice stopped him.
“Where are you going,” she asked him sleepily.
“I was going to sleep in the living room,” Clark replied.
“On my couches,” she replied in disbelief.
“No, you know I don’t actually need a bed to sleep in. I was just going to float above the floor.”
“I want you to sleep next to me, please?” Lois asked.
“Are you sure, Lois? I don’t mind sleeping in the living room. I was just trying to give you as much space as you needed.”
“Clark, just because I said I don’t want to make love to you yet, doesn’t mean I don’t want you holding me. Please come to bed, Clark.” Lois asked as she pulled the covers back on the other side.
“Alright, I’ll just go change and get ready for bed,” Clark agreed before he turned away to go the bathroom.
Clark returned a few minutes later and crawled in next to Lois. Once he was settled, Lois rolled over and laid her head on his shoulder. Clark pulled her close and kissed her forehead. They both soon drifted off to sleep. Lois slept all night long and she could not remember a time when she had slept better. Having Clark with her seemed to take all her fears and nightmares away and she had never felt better.
Lois and Clark prepared for work the next day quickly and quietly. They had a lot on their minds, because they were going to announce their engagement that day. When they arrived at the Planet that morning, they went promptly into Perry’s office so they could tell him of their announcement.
“Hi, Perry,” Lois said as she and Clark walked into his office hand in hand. “We have something we want to tell you.”
“Well, it's about time, you two.” Perry responded in his gruff voice.
“How did you know, Perry?” Clark asked, confused.
“Well, it's hard not to notice. You walked in hand in hand and there’s also the fact that Lois is wearing a nice rock on her left ring finger.” Perry said sarcastically.
Lois glanced down at her hand and then said, “Oh.”
“We wanted to announce it today in the newsroom, if that’s alright?” Clark asked.
“Of course it’s all right,” Perry said with a roll of his eyes.
“Great,” Lois said, “There was something else we wanted to tell you, but we were hoping you and Jimmy could come over to Clark’s apartment tomorrow so we could tell you. Is that alright with you?”
“Sure, what time should we be there?” Perry asked.
“Seven o’clock should be fine,” Clark responded.
“Great, we’ll be there.” Perry said as they got up to walk into the newsroom.
“Attention everyone,” Perry boomed, “Our two best reporters have an announcement to make.”
“Last night, I asked this beautiful woman to be my wife and she agreed.” Clark announced with a big grin.
“We will be married in a few months and we wanted our friends here at the newsroom to be the first to know,” Lois said.
Cheers went up through the newsroom and Clark and Lois heard many congratulations before Perry told them to get back to work. The rest of the day went smoothly as there were no investigative stories to be worked on. Lois and Clark were able to leave at six to fly to the farmhouse in Kansas. Clark had called his parents earlier in the day so that they could be expecting Lois and Clark for dinner. Lois and Clark were engulfed in hugs by the elder Kents and then led into the farmhouse. Lois and Clark had decided on the flight over that they would tell Jonathon and Martha when they arrived, so that they wouldn’t have it hanging over them the whole night.
“Hi mom, dad, can we go into the living room before dinner. Lois and I have something to tell you,” Clark said nervously.
“Of course, Clark,” Martha said with a smile as she directed their company to the living room.
After they were seated with Lois and Clark on the couch, holding hands and Jonathon and Martha opposite them in two armchairs, Clark began to speak, “We have two things to tell you, the first is that Lois has agreed to marry me.”
“Clark, that’s wonderful,” Martha squealed, “I knew when you first came home and told me about Lois that she would the woman you would marry.”
“Thanks, mom. Lois, do you want to tell them the other thing,” Clark said looking at Lois.
“No, you go ahead and tell them, Clark.” Lois said thinking she was too nervous to tell the Kents. She was too afraid they would tell Clark that he shouldn’t settle for damaged goods.
“The other thing is that Lois is pregnant,” Clark put his hand up to forestall Martha’s squeals. “Wait mom, the baby isn’t mine.”
“I don’t understand, son,” Jonathon said.
“About two months ago, Lois went to a bar with her sister and someone slipped something into her drink. She didn’t remember the whole night. We just thought Lois had drank too much and didn’t think about it again. But she went to the doctor and we figured out that someone had assaulted her after slipping something into her drink. See Lois and I haven’t,” Clark hesitated as he was not comfortable telling his parents about his sex life, “We haven’t been together, yet. So there was no explanation for how Lois could possibly be pregnant and we didn’t figure it out until the doctor told us about this guy at the hotel bar.”
“Oh dear, Lois, sweetheart, how are you feeling?” Martha said with concern.
“I’m okay, Martha.” Lois said quietly.
“So, you are keeping the baby, honey?” Martha asked Lois.
“Yes, Clark and I are going to raise the baby as our own. I could never have an abortion; it's not the baby’s fault that this happened. Even though it's not his biological child, Clark has offered to raise this baby as his own. I hope that’s alright with you two?” Lois said biting her lip.
“Of course it's all right, dear,” Martha said with a grin, “You know blood doesn’t matter to us either and I would expect nothing else of Clark than to raise your baby as his own. Besides, we get a grandchild out of the deal.”
“Really, you don’t mind?” Lois responded with tears welling up in her eyes.
“Lois, we love you as if you were our own daughter. What happened to you was an unfortunate incident but we couldn’t be happier about being grandparents.” Jonathon said as he got up to embrace Lois.
Lois couldn’t believe what had just happened, she had been so sure Martha and Jonathon would be angry at Clark for agreeing to such a thing. She had never expected them to accept her with open arms.
After exchanging hugs and congratulations, Martha suggested they move into the kitchen to eat dinner. Dinner was a pleasant affair, with Lois and Clark telling of their plans to buy a house and when they were planning on getting married.
“Lois, are you going to tell your parents about the baby?” Martha asked with a smile.
“No, at least I won’t tell them the truth. They wouldn’t understand. We will just tell them that I am having Clark’s baby, which is what the rest of the world will think. The only people who will know the truth are you guys and Perry and Jimmy. Clark has assured me that he will love this baby as his own and that is how it will appear to everyone else besides you four.”
“Clark will be the best father and if he hadn’t have said he would love this baby as his own, he wouldn’t be the son I raised.” Jonathon responded.
After dinner was eaten and the conversation had run out, Clark and Lois said their goodbyes and flew back towards Metropolis. After dropping by Lois’ apartment, they flew to Clark’s apartment for the night. They would tell Jimmy and Perry of Lois’ pregnancy and their plan to catch the perpetrator tomorrow.
