Thanks to:
TEEEEEEEEEEJ, BJ, Karen, Wendy, Rona, JD, Cat Bruce, Mrs. McLeod, Gr8, Stephnachia
For their help in the FFQ. I managed to put quite a few of them in here
.
Because the boards will be down this weekend, I'm going to post now and early afternoon [Central US] Wednesday.
Thanks, as always, to Alisha for her BR work
. Some of the lines/characters are from "It's a Small World".
Carol
Chapter 7
*****
April 1985
*****
"Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Clark swept her into his arms. "I'm going to take off fast, so tuck your head in. We'll slow down once we're out of the city or over some clouds and I'll show you what it is that makes flying so wonderful."
Lois tucked her head in close to Clark's shoulder. "Let's go." She felt the air moving around her, glad she had put her hair into a French braid.
It wasn't long before the wind around her died down. She moved her head from Clark's shoulder and looked around. The stars were a million times clearer and a million times closer than they had ever been before.
"Wow. Clark, it's beautiful up here."
"It sure is."
She realized he wasn't looking at the view but rather at her.
"I love flying. It makes me feel so free and unrestrained by the cares of the world. You have no idea how hard it was to buy that plane ticket after you called that night. I could have been at your door step in a matter of minutes, but how on earth would I have explained that?"
Lois nodded. "That might have been a bit much." She gazed around a bit more. "Where are we going tonight?"
"Back to Colorado if that's okay with you. I'd like to see if that globe has anything else to say."
Lois nodded. She was curious too. Little else had occupied her mind since the first message had appeared three weeks prior, but work and school schedules had prevented them from returning until now.
They landed in the field and Clark made short work of things. He had brought a blanket out the night before and he quickly spread it and started a fire to help keep her warm. Then, in the blink of an eye, he unearthed the ship and globe.
No sooner than he returned to her side than it began to glow.
Once again they were transported through time and space, to a laboratory across galaxies.
"This is the second of the five times I will appear. You may wonder that I speak your language, and not my native Kryptonian: I do not. That is another property of the object."
The images of Clark's birth parents hovered over a white work table of sorts. They used a number of instruments Lois could not identify, but whatever they were doing, it was obviously important to them. Jor-El touched a probe of some kind to a helix shaped grouping of thin metals. Lights began to glow. Tones began to sound.
"Unmanned Kryptonian probes have explored every corner of the known galaxy and beyond. For thousands of centuries we have received data back from those probes. I have every confidence that, given enough time, we can achieve the conversion to a manned vessel. But, will we have the time?"
Another earthquake shook the room. Lois was sure that she could actually feel the ground moving beneath her feet. This one was far longer and more violent than the ones they'd seen before. Jor-El and Lara seemed to look right at them as they returned to their work. They went back to the pedestal in the middle of the room, working almost frantically on the capsule that sat on top of it. Jor-El waved his hands above one of the displays. It began to blink. Whatever it was that he saw, it clearly worried him.
"The pattern of core disintegration continues to accelerate. Even I cannot predict where it will end. There is an ancient Kryptonian saying: 'On a long road, take small steps.' Precision and care are our watchwords. Yet, we still have far to go."
They returned to their work and then the globe went dim. Lois and Clark were back in a clearing in the Colorado Mountains. Clark's hand gripped hers. When he had grasped it, she didn't know, but she didn't let go.
"Wow." Clark spoke softly, moving to sit on the blanket, gently pulling her with him.
"Yeah. What your parents must have gone through to get you here... to save you from the fate the rest of the planet was about to meet... They obviously loved you very much."
Clark nodded, tears welling up in his eyes. "They saved me but they weren't able to save themselves. I wonder why they couldn't build a bigger ship."
"I'm sure they wanted to, but for whatever reason, they couldn't. They saved you, their only son, because they couldn't bear the thought of you dying too."
Clark nodded again. "It's a lot to take in."
"I'm sure it is."
They sat in silence for some time, each alternating between studying the stars and studying the globe, wondering when it would again light up with more information about Clark's past, about his family, his planet, about where he came from and why they sent him to earth. Was it possible that they had survived and a later message would tell him where they were? Would he want to leave to go find them if given the option?
"I'm glad they did it." Lois spoke softly.
He turned to look at her. "What?"
"I'm glad they sent you here, to me."
Clark smiled softly at her. "Me too."
*****
May 1985
*****
"Clark, we don't have to go."
"Sure we do."
"No, we don’t. We don't have the money to go."
Clark just leaned back in his chair at the dining room table and grinned at her. "Sure we do. You have that dress from Aunt Louise and I have my tux. I got a phone call from her yesterday and she said to make sure you got to go to your prom. She's sending money for the tickets."
"Really?" Lois was skeptical.
"Yep. She's sending enough for the tickets and pictures and, um..." This was the part that was a bit awkward. "She said she wanted to get us a room at the Lexor that night since that's where the prom is. We could stay as late as we wanted and then we wouldn't have to drive home afterwards. She said she'd make sure we could check in beforehand and get you another appointment at the salon."
Lois raised a brow and toyed with her napkin. "What about Lucy?"
Clark shrugged. "What about her? She'll be okay for one night or maybe she can go stay with Lisa. She asked me last night if she might be able to soon."
Lois sighed. "I guess I'm outvoted, but you know, I've only even been to like two high school dances in the last four years and that was to cover them for the paper." She shrugged. "They're just not important to me."
"I know. I went to every dance in high school. Not because the dance was important or anything, but because that's what you did in Smallville. There wasn't much else to do in a small town like that so I went. I didn't usually go with anyone in particular, but I did go with Lana a couple times and took Rachel to the prom, but it wasn't like you see on TV or whatever where the guy is all sweaty palms and the girl is all heart aflutter and..."
Lois snorted.
"What?"
"You may not have been all sweaty palms asking Rachel out, but 10 to 1 she was all heart aflutter."
Clark laughed. "That's unlikely. We'd had a senior prom pact since we were eight and her oldest sister went. She didn't want to have to go with just any old yucky boy so I doubt she was all 'heart aflutter'." He made finger quotes to emphasize his point.
"I would seriously bet money that she was. Lana was head over heels for you, from what you said in your letters, so I'm sure she was all aflutter too. And, I don't know Rachel, but you are kinda cute and a half decent guy to boot. Any girl would be crazy not to be crazy for you."
Clark rolled his eyes and wished Lois were even a little crazy for him. "If you say so. I'm just glad Lana had moved on by then so I didn't have to deal with her thinking we were going together. My point is that even though I didn't have a steady girlfriend or anything, I'm glad I went. It's a once in a lifetime thing and I don't want you to miss it. That is if you don't mind taking an old married guy with you."
Lois laughed softly. "If I have to go, there's no one else I'd rather take."
Clark covered her hand with his. "I'm glad."
*****
"Who is *that*?" Julie asked her friend.
"Yum. I don't know who it is, but I wish he'd asked me instead of Les," Debbie replied, knowing even as she said it she didn't mean it and that Julie knew that too. She loved Les.
The two girls exited the restroom area and watched as the handsome dark haired, young man leaned casually against a pillar in the lobby of the hotel.
Julie's eyes narrowed slightly as he raised his hand to look at his watch. "He's married."
"What?"
"He's got a ring on."
"You don't think..." Debbie's voice trailed off. "Nah."
"What?"
"You don't think that's Lois' husband do you?"
"Who?" A new voice chimed in as they moved off to the side, careful to make it look like they were studying the front door to the hotel rather than the handsome stranger.
"Hey, Peggy. We were wondering if that's Lois' husband." Julie nodded towards the pillar. "If that's him, I can see why she got married." She let out a low whistle. "He's hot."
The elevator door opened near them and Lois emerged.
They watched as the object of their attention straightened and a smile lit up his face. They saw him offer his arm to Lois and they watched as the couple walked towards the ball room.
"You know, she said she only got married to keep her sister out of foster care but..." Debbie trailed off
"Yeah." The other two agreed.
"She's at our table, right?" Debbie asked.
Peggy nodded. "Yeah. I made sure. We haven't seen her much this semester with everything she's had going on so I figured it'd be a good chance to catch up. And to meet that husband of hers."
"I heard her sister had said he was cuter than Lois ever let on but..." Julie shook her head. "I never would have believed he was that cute."
"There's the guys." Debbie pointed to three young men in tuxes headed their way. "Let's go meet this guy."
*****
"Oh, so, Clark, I never asked you... In situations like this... Are you a mingler or a clinger?" Lois' hand was nestled snugly inside Clark's elbow as they made their way towards their designated table.
"A what?" Clark looked at her with a raised brow.
"A mingler or a clinger. Do you hang on the hip all night or do you like to split up and circulate?"
"I think I'll hang on your hip, if that's all right with you. At least for a while."
"Sure, but why? Because you don't know anybody?"
"Well, yeah. And because then I get to be with the most beautiful woman here. And, uh, because I heard a couple girls talking about how they no longer believed you got married just to keep Lucy out of the system." He rested his hand on hers.
Her brows furrowed. "Why is that?"
He had the good manners to blush just a bit. "Um, they thought I was cute."
She looked him up and down critically. "I don’t think I'd say 'cute'."
He clasped a hand over his heart and pretended to swoon. "My ego..."
She turned to face him and straightened his tie with both hands. "Handsome, yes. Cute... well, in that monkey suit, you're way beyond cute. I can't believe they said cute."
He laughed self-consciously. "Well, they actually said 'hot'."
She turned and set her bag down on the chair in front of the plate with her name tag sitting on it. "Now that I believe." She walked around the table examining the other names on the plates. "Julie, Joe, Debbie, Les, Dick and Peggy."
Clark groaned.
"What?"
"I think those are the girls..." His voice trailed off.
Lois grinned impishly. "Good. They can eat their hearts out."
At that moment, the couples in question arrived at the table. Lois winked at Clark and turned to hug her friends.
*****
Lois sipped her water, wondering how long Clark would be in the bathroom. The other three couples from their table were dancing and she wanted the chance to dance with him again.
"Hello, Lois."
She looked up and barely managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes. "Hi, Dan."
"Call me Daniel, please. Can I have this dance?" He held out a hand.
"I'm married, remember?"
He shrugged. "That's okay. All I want is a dance."
She sighed. "Thanks, but no thanks."
"I’m not going to drag you off to my lair or something, Lois."
"Dan..." she started.
A hand rested on her shoulder. "Honey, would you like to dance?" Clark turned to the other young man. "Hi, I'm Clark, Lois' husband." He held out his hand. "You are...?"
"Daniel." He took the offered hand and shook it quickly.
"Dan, you don't mind if I steal my wife for a dance do you?"
"Call me Daniel and, no, of course not."
Lois stood and Clark's hand rested on the small of her back as they walked over to the dance floor, where a slow song was playing. She moved into the circle of his arms. "Thank you."
"Is that the guy who gave you that mobile of eyeballs?"
Lois groaned and rested her forehead on his shoulder. "Yes. Did you have to remind me about that?"
"You're the one who told me about it."
"He thought it would make me want to go to the Homecoming dance with him."
"Why?"
"No clue."
They continued to move to the music, but Lois was deep in thought. Dan was weird. That was a given, but he had asked her to dance tonight even though he knew she was married. It raised an interesting question. She liked Clark a lot and she even loved him. He was her best friend, after all. But what if *the guy* for her came along and she was already married? She didn't believe that there really was a guy out there for her – she'd never told Clark that she'd actually sworn off marriage or why – but what if? What if Clark, regardless of his insistence that she was the only one for him, wasn't the only one for her? Would she leave him? Would he let her? Would she feel obligated to stay with him because of all he'd sacrificed for her and Lucy? Would he leave her first anyway? Was there a chance, slim as he made it sound, that he was already regretting tying himself down to her at such a young age? Her parents had shown her time and time again that marriage vows didn't necessarily mean anything. Would Clark actually be any different?
"Penny for your thoughts?" he whispered in her ear.
She smiled up at him determined to put those thoughts out of her mind for the rest of the night. "Oh, nothing. Just enjoying being here with you. I’m glad you're here with me."
"Me, too."
*****
The table had segregated itself as the evening began to wear down. The four young men were on one side discussing the merits of the new Metropolis starting quarterback, while their dates sat together shaking their heads.
Debbie finally broached the subject that had been on all their minds. "So, Lois," she started softly. "Why didn't you ever tell us how cute he is?"
Lois rolled her eyes. "I told you he was cute."
"Well, yeah," Julie whispered. "But you never told us *how* cute!"
"I didn't know 'cute' wasn't descriptive enough."
Peggy rolled her eyes. "Lois, puppies are cute. Clark is way beyond cute. If the most adorable puppy ever is a 9 on the 10 point cute scale, Clark is a hundred and fifteen."
Debbie nodded. "Seriously. Tom Cruise would be the before, and Clark the after. The way, way after."
Julie sighed dreamily. "Okay, maybe not 'way way after' Tom Cruise, but he's way cuter than you ever let on."
Peggy held out a hand, palm down, near her lap. "If this is guys like Michael J. Fox and Kirk Cameron and Ricky Schroeder who are cute and possibly well-built, but not hot..." She held her other hand about six inches above the first. "...and this is the guys like Patrick Swayze and Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford..." She moved her first hand a foot above the second. "... and this is all the guys in the Brat Pack rolled into one..." Her second hand moved slightly above the first, so that it was just above eye level. "...then this is Clark."
Lois raised a brow. "Are you guys serious? Yeah, he's great looking, but I didn't think you'd put him on that level. *I* would obviously, but I didn't think you guys would."
"Well, those guys are all theoretical," Debbie said. "Clark is real. He moved all the way across the country to marry you when you needed him. It doesn't get more real than that. That moves him way up on the cuteness scale, but he would have been pretty high anyway," she admitted.
Lois groaned inwardly as she saw Clark trying to smother a grin that she was sure had nothing to do with football. "Sorry. Didn't realize I was holding out on you guys. It's not like he's ever going to be available." Clark turned and winked at her. She knew he could hear every word no matter how softly her friends talked.
The other three girls sighed audibly. Lois sighed herself as her friends drifted off into some sort of dreamland about Clark.
"Guys!" She had to snap them out of it. "You've got dates and that's my
husband you're ogling," she hissed.
They all looked appropriately contrite and muttered some form of apology.
"So," Peggy winked at her friends. "We saw you get out of the elevator. Are you guys staying here tonight?" She was the picture of innocence.
Lois blushed, knowing what was going through their minds. "Yeah. My Aunt Louise insisted. She's the only reason we're here in the first place. We don't have this kind of money."
"Seriously?" Julie raised an eyebrow at her. "You don't have money for prom? Didn't your parents leave you any?"
Lois sighed. "They left a little bit, but not a whole lot. We're saving it for Lucy's college. We live on what we earn, which isn't much once we pay rent and buy gas and stuff. Aunt Louise sent us here for a week right after we got married. The next day she sent me this dress and Clark that tux and sent us to
The Blue Note for dinner and dancing. She called Clark a couple weeks ago and said she was sending us to the prom and getting us a room for the night. Believe me, it's much better than the place we live. Nice hot shower without worrying about running out of hot water in 4 minutes, nice big tub to soak in..." She glared at her friends as they giggled. "Don't have to worry about the heating or cooling bill... Believe me, I'd much rather be here."
The three friends shared a look. "Sorry, Lo," Debbie said. "We had no idea things were that tough."
Lois shrugged. "It's the life we chose... for now. We won't live there forever. Clark's got a scholarship to college that pays for just about everything but housing. I've got a scholarship too. I think I can be done in 3 years, at the same time Clark finishes, and we'll move on. Clark could be living at his parents' farmhouse in Smallville, going to Midwest University and it would be a fairly easy life financially. The farm is paid for and he had a full scholarship. Lucy and I could be living with Aunt Louise at a retirement community in Texas, which would also be very easy financially, but not much fun at all. Or Lucy and I could be in foster care until my next birthday in December and it's unlikely they would have given me custody of Lucy then. Clark went through the system in Smallville and I couldn't let that happen to me and Lucy. Clark and I had talked about getting married someday. We just figured it would be after college. When my folks died, we moved it up a bit." She felt only a little guilty about lying. She and Clark had mentioned marriage in only one or two letters each and then it was only in jest. Looking back, she knew it had crossed Clark's mind much more seriously than it had hers.
Peggy had reached out to hold her hand while she spoke. "We're sorry, Lo. We had no idea. We just knew you were really busy and we haven't really had a chance to talk to you in months. You spend all the time you're not actually in class working on the paper or studying in the library. You leave right after school. We haven't seen you. We should have made more of an effort."
Lois smiled at them. "I know. I've been so busy. Lucy and I go straight home and I make her study and then I go to work 3 or 4 nights a week. I usually work at least 8 hours on Saturdays too. Clark and I try to spend the other half of my Saturday together if he's not working. Sundays we try to do something with Lucy for at least part of the day, but Clark usually works or has his internship on Sundays too. Neither one of us has much free time and it usually isn't at the same time. He stays home with Lucy in the evenings to make sure she does her homework and does his. If it's nice he walks me to work and back, but that's about the only time we have together most days. We don't live in the nicest neighborhood and it's not anywhere near school, really." She shrugged. "It's just the way it is."
"He loves you, Lo. I can see in it the way he looks at you. That and he barely glanced at Jodi when she threw herself at him while you were in the bathroom."
"What?! Jodi was talking to him?" At the nod, she continued. "That hussy! He's wearing a wedding ring for crying out loud!" She glanced at Clark and saw him start to cough, but she knew he was just struggling to keep from laughing.
Peggy shrugged. "She doesn't care. She just saw a cute guy she hadn't either slept with or been turned down by and went for it. He smiled politely and told her that he wasn't interested."
Lois shook her head. "That sounds like Clark. He'd be nice to anyone. Even home breaking hussies." She took a sip of her water. "So which after party are you guys going to?"
"Todd Wellington's," Julie answered.
"Fun."
Debbie shrugged. "It's the coolest party, so that's where we'll be. I just hope the guys don't get all drunk again like they did after Homecoming." She shuddered. "Bobby had to drive all of us home."
Lois nodded. "I remember hearing about it. Would you like us to go? Clark doesn't ever drink enough to get drunk and neither do I – in fact after my mom, I probably won't ever drink much at all. We could be your safety net, so to speak."
Peggy shook her head. "Nah. I think they learned their lesson last time. The cops showed up like 10 minutes after we left and arrested a bunch of people. Todd's parents are bound to be a lot more careful about what goes on." She winked at Lois. "Besides you guys have a suite waiting for you upstairs, don't you?"
Lois blushed again. "Yeah, but we wouldn't want anything to happen to any of you. It looks like Clark's made friends with the guys and he's just a good guy anyway." She shrugged. "He'd be there if you needed him. Seriously, call us here at the hotel if you need us."
"We will, but I don't think we'll need to." Debbie nodded in the direction of the guys who were standing up. "I think they're ready to go." She looked around. "The place has really cleared out."
The four couples were among the last few people there. Lois gave each of her friends a long hug as their dates headed around the table. "I've missed you guys."
"And we've missed you too, Lolo." Julie hugged her back. "Have fun tonight," she whispered into Lois' ear.
Lois didn't think she'd ever blushed so often in her life. "Listen, I've got tomorrow off, but Clark has to work at 3 and Lucy's not coming home until Sunday. Do you think maybe we could all get together? I've missed you guys."
Plans were quickly made to meet at Julie's house the next afternoon and the couples headed out of the Lexor's ballroom.
*****
Lois and Clark waited for the elevator. His arm was wrapped around her and her head rested on his shoulder, her eyes closed as the long evening threatened to overwhelm her. The weeks, nay months, of not enough sleep coupled with the unusual excitement of prom night, combined to ensure that sleep would soon envelope the young pair.
The soft chime announced the arrival of the elevator. They stepped in and waved to their friends.
"Nice to meet you, Clark," called Joe. "Have fun!"
Lois rolled her eyes at him. "Night, Joe. Stay sober."
The doors closed and Lois slumped against the wall. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, Clark. I had no idea they would give us such a hard time about... you know."
Clark laughed softly. "It's okay. I had fun. I haven't really made many friends here yet, and it was nice to talk football and baseball and stuff. I know how you feel about sports." He grinned at her.
She smiled weakly back at him. "I'll make more of an effort. I promise. I'll even try to watch football tomorrow."
He chuckled. "It's May, Lois. There's no football for months. And even then, on Saturday, it's college football, not professional, which is what we were talking about. However..."
Lois groaned. "I hate howevers."
"I know. But however, there is a Metropolis Mets game tomorrow."
"That's baseball right?" She wrinkled her nose. "I guess I can handle a little baseball."
He laughed again. "Don't worry about it. The game isn't until 3 and I have to work and you're heading over to Julie's house. But Sunday, they're playing the late game and neither one of us have to work Sunday night so..."
She gave a resigned sigh. "Fine. Sunday Night Baseball it is."
*****
TBC
