Still looking for help with this story. Thanks for those who gave me some ideas.
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It was blue. The stupid line on the stick was blue. How had that happened? Okay, she knew how that had happened, but she and Clark had been married for twenty years and only conceived once.
Why hadn’t she thought about birth control? But birth control hadn’t been a part of her and Clark’s love life since a year after the twins’ birth. She cursed her mother’s “fertile Myrtle” genes. Ellen had finally given up on ever going through “the change” and at fifty-six had had a hysterectomy. Lois snorted. The only change she had experienced was the occasional missed period over the last two years which could be caused by stress as much as anything else. Until she missed two in a row. Even then, she thought maybe it was starting. By the time it was three she started throwing up every morning. Not a sign of menopause. It had been time to pull her head out of the sand so she bought a test kit when she picked up some saltines and sprite. Lois groaned. She was fifty years old for God’s sake. This wasn’t supposed to happen to her. Mariel was due any day. She was going to be a grandmother. Could she really do the whole breast feeding, potty training, soccer mom thing again? And people would know. They’d know she slept with Clark. After they were divorced. Lois groaned again. It was so embarrassing. The whole world would know that Lois Lane couldn’t keep her hands off her husband. Ex-husband. Whatever.
*****
“It appears that you’ve missed your yearly visit for several years now, Lois. That’s really not a good idea at your age. You really need yearly-” her gynecologist/obstetrician began.
“I’ve been in Irrat,” she responded irritably. “Yearly visits with you weren’t high on my to do list.”
Dr. Streeter looked a little surprised at her snapping response. She recalled Lois as being a happily married woman, deliriously in love with her husband and immensely proud of her two children. “Okay. Well, I’m glad you came in today. We’ll just take a look, get some samples, and make sure that everything is fine. I have noted that at your last visit you were still menstruating regularly and that you and your husband did not practice any methods of birth control. Just put your feet up here-”
“I’m pregnant.”
Dr. Streeter’s head flew up from where she was draping the sheet.
‘That’s right. You heard me. I did the test. It was blue. Positive.”
“And your husband-”
“Ex-husband.”
“What?”
“Ex-husband. I divorced Clark two years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear about that. Were you practicing birth control with your new partner or partners? We’ll need to check you for a few more-”
“The baby is Clark’s.”
Again Dr. Streeter looked as if she were trying to hide her surprise.
Lois glared at her. “Come on, Dr. Streeter. You’ve seen my husband. If you were slightly tipsy and hormonally charged, you’d jump his bones too. Any woman would.”
“Ex-husband,” Dr. Streeter muttered.
“Come on, can you blame me? Oh, what am I going to do?” Lois wailed. She went from angry indignation to tears in an instant.
Dr. Streeter seemed pleased to have the situation back under her control. “First we’re going to confirm your diagnosis,” she said, opening a drawer and removing a blood collection tube. “And while the test is running, we’re going to make sure that you are healthy. If you are pregnant, which you very well could be, we’ll take a look, make sure the fetus is healthy and how far along you are, and discuss your options.”
As tears streamed down Lois’ face, Dr. Streeter collected all her samples before turning to pick up the gel. “You’ve done this before Lois, pull up your gown. Remember, the gel is going to be cold.”
“Why hasn’t that changed?” Lois muttered.
She heard the swish-swish of the ultrasound machine. This wasn’t right. Clark should be here. She remembered his joy over learning of the existence of the twins. She had kept her suspicions about her pregnancy from him then, too, though for completely different reasons.
“Well, there it is. Looks like you’re about eleven weeks.”
Almost against her will, Lois turned to look at the screen.
“Oh my, God,” she breathed. There it was. Another little miracle. A baby who shouldn’t be. Her and Clark’s creation.
“You can see the hand here and here’s the spine, this little string of pearls. . .”
Lois wasn’t listening. On the screen the baby squirmed as if disturbed from sleep. She felt a rush of love pour over her.
“If you don’t want to go through with the pregnancy, we can do a D&C-”
“No. No way.”
Dr. Streeter smiled to herself. She’d had a feeling that Lois’ despair over finding herself pregnant would disappear once she saw her child. Lois had accompanied Mariel on several of her last OB visits and she knew how much the family treasured children.
“Then we need to discuss things like proper diet, exercise. You definitely fall into the category of advanced maternal age. I’d like you to see a doctor who specializes in high-risk pregnancies.”
“Is something wrong with my baby?”
“Not that I can tell. Your baby looks perfectly normal to me, but you may want to have some genetic testing done since the chances of genetic abnormalities greatly increase with age. At you and your husband. . . ex-husband’s ages, your child is more likely to be born with down syndrome or autism. You’re at a higher risk to develop high blood pressure and gestational diabetes as well as excessive bleeding and premature delivery.”
“Can you recommend someone?”
“Sure. I’ll give you some names and you can give them a call.”
Lois left the office a little dazed yet exultant. She was really pregnant. She was fifty years old and she was having a baby. She was going to be a grandparent and she was going to have Clark’s child.
How in the world was she going to tell him? What in the world was she going to say to her family?
*****
As if to confirm what she already knew, she spent much of the next week hanging over the toilet. It was a good thing that she hadn’t needed to work. If so she would have been calling in dead!
Dr. Streeter called to tell her that all her tests looked good and again recommended that Lois get in touch with a obstetrician specializing in high risk pregnancies and have some genetic testing done just so that she would know ahead of time if she would face some extra challenges with this child. Lois scoffed to herself. Dr. Streeter had no idea. Lois wondered if this child would be super-powered like JC.
“How are you feeling?” Dr. Streeter asked her.
“Sick. Most of the time.”
“Well, there is a flu going around so that could also be part of it. Drink a lot of fluids. You don’t want to get dehydrated and call me if you’re worried about anything. If the nausea doesn’t clear up pretty soon, let me know and I’ll call in a prescription for you. The good thing is you’ll be in your second trimester very soon and if you’re lucky the morning sickness will go away.”
“I sure hope so. Funny how you forget all this stuff.”
*****
Lois groped for the ringing phone. The second she opened her eyes she would be fighting overwhelming nausea.
“Hello,” she moaned.
“Mom? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Mariel.”
There was silence for a few seconds and Lois squinted her eyes open to glance at the clock. “Mariel, it’s 3:00 in the morning.”
“Oh! Right. I just wanted to let you know that Brian and I are heading to the hospital. I thought you might want to meet us there.”
Lois sat up quickly. “Oohh.” Big mistake.
“Mom?”
Lois ignored her worried question. “How far apart are the contractions?”
“They’re about five minutes apart and Brian checked and I’m at five centimeters, so I really am in labor.”
“I’ll be right there.” As soon as I throw up, she thought running into the bathroom.
*****
She was not going to do this again. It wasn’t just morning sickness that one forgot in twenty years.
Lois cringed as a moan escaped her daughter’s white lips. Despite Lois and Brian’s urging she had refused an epidural. “It hardly seems fair”, she had whispered to Lois. “I hardly feel pain anyway.” Well, it looked like she was feeling this. For someone not accustomed to pain it had to be overwhelming.
“I need to push!” Mariel insisted.
“You haven’t been here long, and this is your first baby,” the nurse said calmly. “Try to relax. It takes time.”
“At least check,” Brian cajoled the nurse. He must have learned charm from his father-in-law because the nurse caved.
“All right, but I’m telling you, this could take a while.” As she talked she lifted the drape from around Mariel’s knees. “Oh, my word.”
Lois moved to the foot of the bed in time to see her granddaughter’s curly black hair slip back out of sight as Mariel struggled to obey Brian’s urges that she not push. It was too much. The contents of Lois’ stomach when tumbling into the nearest trashcan.
“I’ll call Dr. Streeter right away. Looks like this little girl is in a hurry,” the nurse began.
“Mom?” Mariel questioned ignoring the nurse.
“Ms. Lane, if you’re sick, you shouldn’t be in here. I know you want to see your grandchild come into the world but I also know that you don’t want her exposed to germs.”
“I’m fine.”
Dr. Streeter entered the room. “Mariel! They told me at the nurses desk that you had come in so I thought I would peek my head in and see how you were.”
“She’s actually ready for you, Dr. Streeter,” the nurse said proudly as if she had managed that herself.
“Really! In a hurry are you? Brian, how are you holding up? Still going to catch the baby? Lois, good to see you.”
“Ms. Lane is vomiting. She should leave,” the nurse informed condescendingly.
“I’m fine.”
“She’s fine,” Dr. Streeter and Lois said simultaneously. The nurse sniffed and turned away.
“Thank you,” Lois mouthed to Dr. Streeter.
*****
Mariel groaned with effort and Lois winced as her daughter squeezed her hand. No way. No f. . . uh. . . freaking way was she doing that again. Lois wondered if she could just schedule her c-section now. There was no way she was going through labor. And she was getting a hysterectomy while she was at it. She was done with the whole reproductive thing.
But tears of joy poured down her face as Brian and Dr. Streeter laid the slimy baby on Mariel’s stomach and the nurse began to clear her nose and mouth. She was beautiful. So tiny and perfect. “Oh, Mariel,” she breathed.
Mariel was crying too and Brian hurried to the head of the bed to kiss his wife. “She’s beautiful. Our little Laney. She’s beautiful, honey.”
“Brian! I wanted to tell Mom.”
“I think your mom is so wrapped up in her granddaughter that she didn’t even hear me,” Brian teased.
“Hmmm?” Lois asked raising her head. Honestly she was feeling a little faint. She hadn’t eaten since the night before and she had lost that. Maybe she should sit down. She moved to the chair at Mariel’s side when the nurse took the baby to the examination table.
“Mom, Brian and I wanted to name the baby after you. You’re so brave and strong. Everything we want her to be when she grows up. We’re naming her Laney.”
Her daughter thought she was brave and strong? Lois felt so many emotions welling up in her that she could hardly hold back the sobs. Why in the world had she gone to Irrat, thrown away her marriage trying to prove herself? Her daughter thought she was brave and strong. “You need to call Clark,” she mumbled stumbling from the room as her daughter and son-in-law’s attention returned to their new daughter. She had to get something to eat. Hopefully the cafeteria had toast.
*****
She stood at the window staring in at tiny Laney. She was the most beautiful baby. Lois thought she looked just like Clark. Her hand rested on her flat abdomen. Would this baby look like Clark too? She sensed him come up beside her.
“Remember when it was Mariel in there? She was so tiny and she was such a little miracle. Her and JC.”
“I remember,” she said thickly.
“We’re grandparents, Lois.”
“I know.”
“I called JC and Mom and Dad. They’re going to be here tonight. JC’s giving them a ride.”
“Good. I look forward to seeing them.” Things were a little strained between her and Clark’s parents, naturally, but they all knew that they still loved each other.
“She’s so perfect,” Clark whispered.
“Clark,” Lois choked. “We have a problem. Well, not a problem really because that makes it sound like something bad. And it’s not bad. It’s good. Great. I mean, it wasn’t planned or anything but-”
“You’re babbling, Lois,” Clark teased her.
“I am not.” She hesitated a minute before handing him the picture she had been carrying around in her purse for a week. But he needed to know. “Here.” She almost shoved the picture at him.
Clark looked at it briefly. “Why do you have an ultrasound of Laney? Is something wrong with her? Something we should have seen on this?”
Deep breath. She could do this. “Clark, that’s not a picture of Laney. Look again.” Clark turned the picture to get a better look. “It’s not Mariel’s baby, Clark. It’s this baby.” She laid a hand on her abdomen. “Our baby.”
Hah! He had guessed every Christmas and birthday present for twenty years and she had finally surprised him. Clark’s eyes flew to hers awaiting the punch line. “You. . . you’re not joking,” he finally said slowly.
“No. Dr. Streeter confirmed it last week. We’re going to be parents again in six and a half months.”
“Oh my God,” Clark started seeking a chair to fall into. “The night after your Pulitzer luncheon.”
“That’s right.”
“I guess you thought that you were finally-” Clark had certainly heard her complaining about her mother’s overly estrogen-loaded genes often enough.
“Yes, until I started throwing up.”
“I don’t even know what to say. Do you mind if I. . .?” Clark touched the rim of his glasses.
“No. Peeking never hurt the twins, so I guess it’s okay.”
Clark pulled down his glasses and studied her for a minute. “Wow. It’s really there.” She knew it was not that Clark hadn’t believed her simply that he wanted to see the life they had created for himself.
“Dr. Streeter wants me to make an appointment with a specialist.”
“A specialist? Are you okay?”
“I’m over twice Mariel’s age, Clark. I should be well past such things.”
“Obviously your body disagrees.”
“So does yours. Not that that is such a surprise.” Ten years ago Lois had started helping Clark highlight his temples with gray hair color so that he would appear to be aging. Changing into Superman now included making sure the gray was colored with black mascara. She wondered who helped him color his hair now, Martha or Mariel, or if he managed the task himself. “Our baby is at a higher risk for genetic disorders. I mean it would be if. . . but I don’t even know if that needs to be a concern considering your super genes.”
“Or it could be an even greater concern.”
She nodded. Kryptonian and human genes had merged inexplicably and correctly once. Could they expect such a gift twice?
“Mariel’s baby is a quarter Kryptonian and she seems fine. Maybe it is not really as big of a deal as Sam and Dr. Kline thought.”
“Maybe.”
“And you? Are you okay?” He spoke with such concern that tears pooled in Lois’ eyes for the hundredth time today.
“I’m. . . I’m fine, Clark. I’m worried about. . . about a lot of things, but I’m fine. Seeing Mariel go through labor. . . I just . . .”
Without asking permission, Clark’s arms moved to surround her.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay. Mariel thinks she’s SuperWoman. You can have all the drugs you want.”
“I think I’ll just schedule a c-section. Actually, I think it’s pretty likely at my age. I read that it was. I’m kind of old and worn out.”
“You are not old and worn out.”
She looked askance at him. “Just who was it who told me that I was too old to be a journalist?”
“I never said that! What I said was-”
Lois pulled from his arms. “Forget it, Clark. There’s no use going over it all again.”
He caught her hands. “Please, Lois. Let’s not fight. Not today. We have a new granddaughter and we’re going to be parents again. This is a good day. A great day. Let’s not ruin it. Please.”
“Okay. Okay, today we don’t fight.”
*****
They all gathered in Mariel’s room. The happy new dad, Brian; a beaming JC completely taken with his new niece; Martha and Jonathan, Ellen and Sam, and Clark, seated at the edge of it all. She had never thought about it, but he was alone again without her. She had given him two beautiful children, his blood family, but they had lives of their own. It wasn’t right. The strongest, best man in the world should not have to feel alone.
Her thoughts turned back to Mariel’s fussing. “You still look pale, Mom. Why don’t you sit down? Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Mariel, I’m fine. Let it go, okay?”
“You thew up, Mom. I can’t ever remember you throwing up.”
“I was excited.”
“You threw up? When?” asked Ellen.
“When that stuck up nurse finally listened to me and checked to see that I really was ready to push.”
“Mariel!” JC groaned.
“Oh, it was the best!” Brian teasingly told JC. “Laney looked like she was covered in grape jelly, all slimy, and . . . Mom, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I think I will sit down though.”
“Lois, you do look a little green. I hope you’re not coming down with the flu. Jonathan had it last week and I was so worried I would catch it and not be able to come see the baby. Don’t want to share bad germs or anything,” Martha commented.
“I don’t have the flu!”
“Lois, germs are-” Lois eyes met Clark’s as Sam launched into a medical explanation on germs. Just tell them, she begged.
“Lois isn’t sick,” Clark said standing to his feet. All eyes turned his way. Clark moved to Lois’ side and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Funny. I had always planned to give you guys this speech when you were a little younger, certainly before you started having kids of your own. And I was going to start out, ‘When mommies and daddies love each other very much. . .’. Well, you’re both grown up now and realize that that’s not the way it always happens,” Clark’s voice held a note of bitterness.
“Dad, what are you talking about?” JC asked puzzled.
“Are you and Mom getting married again? You should, you know. You both love each other like crazy, you’re just so stubborn!” Mariel said emphatically.
“What I’m trying to say is-” Clark began again.
“Oh my. . . Lois. . .really,” Ellen began to stutter.
“What?” asked Sam in confusion. Ellen whispered in his ear.
JC’s eyes flew open wide. His Lane grandparents had no idea he could hear the whispered information. “You’ve *got* to be kidding,” he said slowly.
“What?” Mariel asked her twin exasperated.
“Lois is pregnant,” Clark finally finished.
Martha and Jonathan looked shocked. Mariel uttered a surprised cry. Brian smirked unable to hide his amusement at his in-law’s shock.
“And who the hell is the father?” JC yelped.
“Me, of course,” Clark said calmly.
“I mean biologically,” JC clarified. “Just because Mom’s your wife doesn’t make you this kid’s father.”
“He’s my ex-husband and he is the biological father. Good grief, JC, I had no idea you had such a low opinion of me.”
JC instantly realized he had hurt his mother’s feelings. “Mom, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean.. . I mean you and Dad are divorced so it’s kind of surprising that you two would. . .this is just. . . well, a “super” surprise.”
“Nothing super about it,” Sam broke in. “It’s Ellen’s family curse, at least if you ask the women. Not so bad if you ask me, eh, Clark?”
Well, who knew Clark Kent could still blush?
“Okay, people,” Mariel said. “I just had a baby and that is *way* more information that I needed to know. Mom, when are you due?”
“The end of March. But at my age there’s a pretty good chance I won’t go full term.”
“Maybe this baby will be born on Clark’s birthday.” Martha must have recovered from the shock of becoming a great-grandparent and learning that she was going to be grandma again.
“That would be nice,” Jonathan commented.
