I totally freaked Anna [the Great Defender of All That Is Daniel] out when I added up the word/page count [current posted: 318 pages, 118997 words; current total for posted/written but not posted: 469 pages, 173501 words]. Twas fun. Cuz I freaked myself out when I added it up. I vividly remember Msging Kaylle telling her I didn't think I had another 15K words in the fic when it was at about 35K and I was despairing of being able to write enough for Nano. Long Road Home [the current longest fic iirc] is 236509 words. Sheesh. I'm 63K words shy [or so]. That's 12 more parts to write [ish - averaging about 5K words each]. I may beat that... Sheesh again. Of course, ML's got a monster going on too...
I bow before Alisha and Beth. Anna [The Great Defender of All That Is Daniel] said she may have lucked out when she didn't end up BRing. I think she may have been right. Alisha has rocked as a BR since the beginning and Beth has stepped up to do a fabulous job since she signed on [and she even talked me out of something tonight too - I'll let you guys know when you can thank her
]. Lots of other people have helped here and there too [even you Anna [The Great Defender of All That Is Daniel]] but Alisha's handled the whole thing to this point and Beth has had other invaluable insights since she doesn't know what's coming next [past what she's BRd - Ch 31 currently] and Alisha does.
[Note: the 'Cardinals' mentioned are the St. Louis Cardinals - their main radio station, at its height, reached part of 11 different states - and that was the actual station, not affiliates. Kansas could easily be Cardinals Country even though KC [and the *ew* Royals are closer] - and that's baseball btw
]
*****
Chapter 26
*****
"This is a great place, Clark," Laura Lang said.
The six of them sat at a little family diner near the apartment.
"We came here for our second anniversary but haven't been back since. We enjoyed it then and have been looking for an occasion to come back when we had the time and it wouldn't break the budget."
Wayne looked thoughtful for a minute, but didn't say anything.
As they finished eating, everyone relaxed and moved from small talk to catching Clark up on the news of 'home'. Clark leaned back in his chair, his long legs stretching out as much as they could in the nearly empty diner. One arm easily rested on the back of Lois' chair, his thumb occasionally rubbing her shoulder gently.
Lana had managed to get a seat across from him and Clark was nearly certain that some of the 'incidental' touches of her shoeless foot against his leg weren't incidental at all. He'd angled himself slightly to one side so his legs were stretched more into the aisle than under the table where she'd have a harder time getting to him without being noticeable. He knew there was no way that her parents would approve of her hitting on a married man, even if they had once hoped that they'd end up together. He had no idea if he was the one they'd hoped their daughter would end up with, but that wouldn't matter. He was married and, therefore, off limits. Period.
He didn't think Lois had noticed. He'd mention it to her later, of course; he wasn't going to keep that kind of secret after all they'd been through the last month trying to rebuild their relationship.
He noticed Lois was quiet as the rest of them chatted amiably about Smallville. Which high school friends had gotten married, who had babies, who was getting divorced, who had moved to California to try to land the ultimate acting gig. Before long the conversation turned to the annual Corn Festival.
"Are you two going to make it this year now that you won't be in school?" Wayne asked.
Clark looked at Lois, who shrugged. "I have no idea what we'll be doing, but we'll try. I'd love to show Lois what it's really like to worship corn." He struggled to keep from smiling.
"Clark!" Lois was mortified. He'd mentioned the Corn Festival in one of his letters years ago and she'd written back that she could do a story on ritual crop worship.
Everyone but Lana laughed.
"Lois, don't worry about it. I thought the same thing when I first started dating Lewis. I grew up in Kansas City and this whole farm thing was new to me. You'll have fun though, I promise," Laura told her.
"You *can* two step and tush push, can't you?" Lana's question had a slightly bitter edge to it.
Lois shook her head. "No, sure can't. A friend of mine in high school tried to get me to take line dancing lessons with her my junior year – she said it was a great way to meet guys – but I didn't have the time and my parents wouldn't give me the money so..."
Clark's eyes gleamed. "That just means I'll get to teach you before the Festival rolls around."
Lois groaned. "Learning to line dance. Sounds like a lot of fun."
Clark just grinned at her. "Oh, I'm sure we can find a way to make it fun."
The double entendre wasn't lost on anyone, least of all Lois and Lana. Lois was turning eight shades of red. She knew what everyone would think Clark meant by that statement and it's something that would be expected for a young couple who was about to finally have more free time to spend together. On the other hand, Lana's eyes narrowed. It was one thing for Clark to be married; it was quite another for him to flaunt it in front of her.
"I'm sure you can." She reached over and, apparently absentmindedly, patted his thigh then turned back to the rest of the group. "I'll put it on the calendar and, if we can, we'll be there, on one condition."
"What's that?" Laura asked.
"I get to hear all the juicy stories about Clark that he won't tell me." Her eyes sparkled. She doubted there were many truly *juicy* stories about Clark, but she'd take what she could get.
"How about one or two to get you started and we'll tell the rest when we see you this fall?" Laura winked at Clark.
Clark looked around for a way to escape. "Isn't there some sort of tractor that needs fixing or something? Come on, Wayne, Lewis – you're not going to let them do this to me are you?"
Wayne laughed loudly. "Let them? Son, first it would take an act of God to stop them and second, who says we won't share a story or two of our own?"
Clark sighed, resigned. "Can't you at least wait till I'm not around?"
"Now, what fun would that be?" Lewis asked. "It's a rite of passage listening to your family and friends tell your wife embarrassing stories about you."
"I've got one," Laura said. "Clark was probably about six years old and Martha called me up in a panic. She couldn't find him *anywhere*. They'd looked in the barn, in his tree house, the root cellar, storm shelter, everywhere they could think of. They even checked his room which was the absolute last place he would be on a sunny summer day. He wasn't supposed to leave the farm that day, but other times it wasn't uncommon for him to end up at our house. Maisie's oldest daughter was getting married that evening so Clark was supposed to stay close."
She took a sip of her water as Clark stared straight ahead, sure he knew where this was going. "So Martha called and asked if we'd seen him. We hadn't, but we started looking for Lana to see if she had. Well, we couldn't find Lana either. Martha ended up calling Sheriff Harris and he and one of his deputies came out to help search. It was several hours later before we finally found them. We'd checked the barn, of course, but not the hayloft, because they weren't supposed to be up there without a grownup. Sure enough, they were both sound asleep up there. It turns out they thought getting married sounded like fun – Jenny was getting a new dress and a big party and all of that so they'd decided to walk to Johnson County – now, that's up near Kansas City so about 140 miles from Smallville – and get married, but they'd only made it as far as Schuster's Field when Lana got too tired and they turned around and came back. They climbed up into the loft and fell asleep completely unaware of all the fuss. By the time we finally found them, half the county was looking for them and poor Jenny was afraid that her wedding was going to be upstaged by a couple of missing six-year-olds. We found them about an hour before the wedding was supposed to start and they ended up pushing everything back forty-five minutes so everyone else would have time to get ready and get there."
Clark sighed. "I was grounded for two weeks *and* Dad wouldn't let me watch or even listen to any Cardinal games or the All Star Game which was on that week. That was something we did every year and that year I didn't get to because I was in so much trouble."
"That was the day Clark promised he was going to marry me, you know," Lana said, her tone implying that that was one promise he should have kept.
"So sorry that didn't work out for you, Lana." Lois put on her best smile. "I'm sure someday you'll find someone you think is as wonderful as I think Clark is."
Lana looked like she was going to say something but thought better of it and simply glared at her.
"Lana, we were six," Clark said gently. "The week before you promised Terry Jones you would marry him and after I was done being grounded, you promised we'd get to walk on Mars and see if there really were any little green men. I don't think either one of us are going to hold you to those."
"That's good." Lois' eyes practically twinkled at him. "I'm not sure I want you out there searching for alien life forms."
"Don't worry. I have no intention of joining NASA anytime soon."
"Good."
Lewis decided that it would be a good time to change the subject. "So, that cop that came to the Whites' yesterday... what did he want with the two of you? Nothing serious, I hope."
Lois and Clark immediately grew somber and it was like a wet blanket had been thrown over the conversation.
"I'm sorry," Lewis continued. "If it's something sensitive or..." His voice trailed off. "Forget I said anything."
Clark's arm moved to Lois' shoulder and he pulled her closer to him. "It's not that... It's going to be all over the news around here tomorrow anyway but it's a story we've been working on. We've known Perry for years but just started working at the Daily Planet a few weeks ago and we've been involved in an investigation into a couple of people at UNT Met. Henderson came by to tell us that plea deals have been arranged with all but one of the people involved and since we – and a couple of senior reporters at the Planet who've been working on it – have the exclusive, he wanted to give us some of the details."
"Wow. What kind of investigation was it?" Wayne asked.
Lois sighed then spoke, knowing Clark wouldn't give out more information without her approval. "Allegations of sexual misconduct, including rape and attempted rape, by one of the professors on campus. One of the vice presidents was involved in covering it up, as was his brother-in-law who worked at the MPD substation on campus. Another person outside the school, but who works closely with the professor on internships and things like that, was implicated as an accessory after the fact when he would fire some of the women involved."
Wayne whistled. "What a way to get your foot in the door in journalism. How'd you two stumble on to that?"
Clark gently rubbed Lois' shoulder, waiting for her to tell what she chose.
She took a deep breath and leaned into him. "I was the attempted rape victim. Clark got there just in time to stop it. When I tried to file a complaint with the administration, the vice president said that the professor was accusing me of coming on to him, saying that I would cry 'rape' if he didn't sleep with me and they both accused Clark of having an affair in an attempt to get me to do what they wanted. We went to Henderson because we trust him implicitly. Our boss at the Star fired us before our contract was up the day after this all happened. We went to Perry, he assigned two senior reporters to work with us and that's that. The heavily edited version will be in Monday morning's paper. Since the Planet has the exclusive, the details will be in the afternoon edition. It comes out after the scheduled press conference but no one else will be able to get it into their papers until Tuesday morning's edition. As one of the victims..."
"Not victim, honey," Clark said gently.
She smiled gratefully at him. "Sorry. As one of the *survivors* who worked on it, he thought we should know ahead of time. I would imagine they're either calling or visiting a number of the others today."
"How many were there all together?"
"Over the last fifteen years or so, there's been about thirty female students that he either had an inappropriate relationship with or that he eventually raped. That we know of. It's been ten years since the vice president got involved in covering it up."
"Are you okay, Lois?" Laura asked, concerned.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Physically, I was always fine. He was careful never to bruise me or anything. Mentally, emotionally... I’m working on it. Clark's been a rock for me." She patted his leg. "I don't know what I'd do without him."
"Then I'm glad you have him," Laura said, smiling at her.
*****
"Um, Lois, we may have a bit of a problem," Clark said quietly as they drove back to their apartment.
"What's that?"
"Laura asked me if Lana could stay with us tonight."
"What? Why?"
"I guess she and Lewis want some time... alone." He grimaced. "I know they're not actually my parents, but..."
"Right. It's still..." She shuddered.
"Exactly. Anyway, we'd all talked about everyone coming over for dinner, but apparently they have reservations at that new restaurant over on Roosevelt. For two. So just Lana and Wayne are coming over for dinner in a little while. Then Lana's spending the night."
"Why?" Her voice was almost a whine.
"She just assumed it would be okay. I was about to say something about it being our first night alone in ages or something since Lucy won't be there either, but... I was interrupted. Then Lewis came over and thanked me for giving them some time alone."
"Great."
"Maybe it won't be so bad..."
Lois raised an eyebrow at him.
"Okay, it could *easily* be that bad." He sighed as he pulled into a spot in front of their building. "She was trying to play footsies with me at lunch."
Lois just glared at him as she climbed out of the car. "And, you know, you *did* promise to marry her after all. I think she's still mad you didn't keep that promise."
"She'll have to get over it."
"Wish she would." They climbed the stairs to the apartment.
"She will." He unlocked the door. "Eventually."
"I'm revising my opinion from yesterday."
"Can't say that I blame you."
Several hours later, Wayne and Lana were seated at the dining room table with Lois and Clark. They chatted amiably, though Lois noticed Lana sneaking sidelong glances at Clark.
Okay, he was good-looking; she knew that. And he was a great guy; she knew that too. But what was it with other women making brazen passes at her husband? She could sort of understand where Mayson might think that they were having problems and Clark could be available, but Lana... Lana had no reason to believe that things were anything but blissful between her and Clark.
When dinner was done, Wayne asked Clark if they could speak privately for a minute and they disappeared onto the balcony for a few minutes.
She cleared the table while Lana moved to the couch and studiously ignored her. Lois sighed. She *was* a guest, after all, so it probably shouldn't be expected that she'd help, but still... it would have been polite of her to ask.
Well, she guessed 'polite' was too much to ask of the woman who wanted to steal her husband.
*****
"How're you doin', son?" Wayne asked as the door closed on the balcony behind them.
Clark shrugged. "I'm fine. I'm glad we're done with school. I quit my pizza and paper delivery jobs a week ago so I have a lot more time on my hands now. We're spending more time at the Planet than we did at the Star working on this story and some other stuff Perry has us doing. Nothing too big yet, but... it'll come. It's nice to just have some time to spend with Lois; that's been hard to come by the last three years."
"Well, that's good, but that's not what I meant."
"What'd you mean?"
"This whole near rape business. That man nearly violated your wife – and did in many ways, even if the act wasn't actually finished."
"You know, you're the first person to ask me that." Clark rested his forearms against the half wall and stared into the alley. "I think I'm okay. I mean, if I ever run into him in a dark alley or catch him hurting someone else, I don't know that I could restrain myself. I nearly didn't that night. He was unconscious for a few minutes after I tackled him off Lois. He hit his head on a filing cabinet and it knocked him out."
"What about you and Lois?"
A small smile crossed his face. "If you ever tell Lois this, I'd probably deny it until I had a chance to really explain it to her, but in some ways it's been a good thing. I mean, I wouldn't wish something like this one anyone, much less the woman I love but...Things have been really hard between us for the last three years. Between school and work and everything else, our time together has been very limited. It wasn't uncommon for one of us to get home just as the other was going to bed, if not already asleep. I've been up before the crack of dawn to deliver papers nearly every morning and wake her up right before I left. It didn't leave much time for us to build a relationship. We'd written a lot but we hadn't dated or anything like that to get to know us as a couple and we still haven't really had that chance. This whole thing... Afterwards, we ended up talking for hours about a lot of different things – including the alleged affair I was having and a bunch of other stuff. We're closer now than we ever have been. Losing our jobs at the Star and being suspended from the Metropolitan has given us a lot more time together and we've needed that."
Wayne leaned against the wall next to him. "Maggie and I started dating in high school," he started slowly. "I don't remember a time when I didn't know her, but we were sixteen when we went on our first date. We broke up when she went off to college to study to be a teacher because we didn't think a long distance relationship could work." He was silent for a few minutes before going on. "She came home for Christmas her senior year a changed person. She didn't tell anyone what happened for a very long time. We started dating again and at Easter I asked her to marry me. I'd known since I was five that I wanted to marry her and I didn't really care what had happened to change her; I just knew that I loved her. She did love me, don't misunderstand, but she still wouldn't tell me what had happened. Just that something had, and she'd put it behind her and that she wanted to move on. We were married that June."
Wayne paused again and Clark waited patiently for him to continue. "I'd looked forward to our wedding night for well over six years by that point – ever since I was old enough to think about those things. We drove up to Kansas City after the wedding and checked in to a hotel. She'd gotten quieter as we drove and when I asked her about it, she just said that she was a bit nervous; after all, we'd never done this before. We checked in and started to..." he made a vague gesture with his hand. "Before I knew what had happened, she was curled up in a ball on one side of the bed, pulling the blanket over her and crying her eyes out. It was an hour before she'd finally tell me what the problem was. I was imagining all kinds of things – she didn't really love me, something about me repulsed her, and everything else.
"She told me that she'd gone out with a football player that fall. We weren't together or anything at the time so it wasn't like she was cheating on me, but that wasn't the point. After they'd gone out a few times, he started pushing her for more than she was ready for. When she tried to stop him, he raped her. It was probably what you'd call date rape today. She said that she couldn't bear to go back to school afterwards and so she'd dropped out. When I asked her out again, she jumped at the chance and I didn't question it. She said she'd hoped that it was behind her and because she really did love me and she knew I loved her that it wouldn't be an issue, but it was. A big one. After six months, she offered to divorce me so I could find a wife who wasn’t damaged goods. I told her she'd do no such thing – that I loved her, all of her, even her scars and that we'd work through it together. It was our first anniversary before... before we were able to really be together. Even then, there were some nights when the flashbacks or nightmares still came. It wasn't until after our first son was born a couple years later that she was really free of them.
"I still remember how it made me feel to know that someone had hurt this wonderful woman like that. It tore up my insides and I wanted nothing more than to hunt him down and make him pay for it. It hurt me and it hurt our marriage, even though we survived that very difficult first year. But you... you saw it happening. I never even knew what the man looked like, except for a very vague tall, blond and handsome description. But this man is someone you knew and trusted, probably even respected and you saw him attacking your wife. I can't begin to imagine how you didn't hurt him worse than you did."
"I don't know how I didn't either."
"So, are you and Lois... okay?"
Clark shrugged. "We haven't... since then." Part of him wanted to pour his heart out to this man who had been a big part of his life for so long; his parents' best friend. But he also didn't want to betray Lois' trust like that. He knew she hadn't ever told Aunt Louise what things were really like between them and trusted that he hadn't either – well, to be honest, she probably thought he'd told Mayson, but she knew better now. "She has nightmares most nights. Wakes up screaming. The only thing that keeps them away is if I'm actually holding her, which I don't mind in the slightest, but once I'm asleep... She hasn't slept well in years – nightmares from growing up most nights. They don't usually wake her up but I can still tell she's not sleeping as well as she should."
"Was she abused?"
Clark shook his head. "Not as such. Maybe emotionally, but not physically or sexually. Very definitely neglected. Dad was gone most of the time with one girlfriend or another, Mom was usually drunk to the point of either throwing up or passing out most nights. She practically raised her sister even before we got custody of her. It was a little better once her parents remarried a couple years before they died but..."
"Sounds like she's had a rough go of it."
"She has," Clark confirmed quietly. "And she's worked so hard the last three years to graduate with me."
"Was it worth it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Working so hard to graduate together probably put a crimp in how much time the two of you spent together."
He shrugged. "I don't know that it would have made a difference, except that she probably wouldn't have to work as hard her senior year because I'd have a real job."
"That's another thing I wanted to ask you about."
"What's that?"
"Why didn't you ask me for some of the money from the account instead of just the rent?"
"What do you mean?"
"The money in the account in Smallville."
"I didn't think there was much in there. I thought I'd spent most of it when I fixed the house up."
Wayne shook his head. "No. You did spend quite a bit, but there's still a lot left. What you used came out of the farm maintenance account, but that wasn't all of what they left you – not by a long shot. Your parents had quite a bit of life insurance. Between that and the rent on the farm over the years, plus interest, there's quite a bit there. It's not officially yours to do whatever you want with for a few more years, but if you want it, I would let you have it for just about anything. Nothing stupid, of course, but..."
"Thanks, Wayne. Lois' Aunt Louise left us quite a bit of money too, but we don't get any of it until sometime next month – we think. We were supposed to get the first 25% after graduation, but we haven't heard back from the lawyer yet. She knew how much we were struggling to make ends meet and Lois has wondered aloud several times why she made us wait for it. The only answer we came up with was to build character. The reality is, it probably has. The struggles we've had to make ends meet the last three and a half years mean we'll never take having enough for granted. Between what Aunt Louise has left us and, from what you said, my folks, I don't think we can retire before we ever start, but I doubt we'll ever really want for anything."
Wayne clapped him on the back. "That's a great attitude to have, son. If you ever need someone to talk to – someone who's been there – you give me a call, you hear?"
Clark nodded.
"Now, something tells me that wife of yours might need rescuing from Lana."
Clark sighed. "Probably."
"I think she's still got designs on you," Wayne added quietly.
"She does," Clark replied just as softly. "She tried to get me to sleep with her when I came home to pack up after our honeymoon. She tried to play footsies with me this afternoon and then the whole promised to marry her thing..."
"Clark, let me give you some advice – something I wish Maggie and I had been able to do. I think it might have helped us resolve things sooner..."
"What's that?"
"Get away from here for a while if you can. From the sound of it, you two have the money that you can travel some – I'll release funds for that – and spend a couple months in Australia or six in Europe or Asia or wherever. Don't just be vacationers or whatever, write travel pieces or a book, things like that, but get away, just the two of you for a fairly extended period. You won't have the pressures of a job and bills and things like that but can spend the time getting to know each other again away from distractions. It sounds like you need to."
"I'll think about it."
"That's all I can ask."
*****
Wayne had left hours ago. Lana was still talking Clark's ear off – jabbering about one friend or another, relating every story she could think of that revolved around her and Clark and what good friends they'd been and how simply everyone had been disappointed that the two of them hadn’t ended up together.
Clark had admonished her for that, saying that 'everyone' didn't matter – he loved Lois and that was all that counted. They'd moved the oversized chaise Aunt Louise had left them into their bedroom for a while so it wouldn't sit in storage, but had never really used it. Lucy and Jimmy had moved it to the living room one night a couple months earlier when they were having a movie marathon and it had stayed there. That was where Lois and Clark now sat, neither one of them willing to let on that there might be the slightest rift between them for Lana to take advantage of.
Given the late hour and lack of interest in anything Lana had to say, Lois had begun to doze off. Before long she was sound asleep and Clark knew it was time to do something.
"It's time for bed, Lana. Lois left you some blankets and a pillow over there." He nodded towards the alcove next to the stairs that led to the door. "The couch is actually pretty comfortable."
"She makes you sleep out here?"
Clark gave her a look. "No, but I have napped there a time or two. So have Lois and Lucy and Lucy's boyfriend. It's not bad at all."
"Why do I have to sleep on the couch? Why can't I stay in her sister's room?"
"Well, it's not a room, it's a loft and it's Lucy's. We haven't asked her if you can because we haven't talked to her since your mom asked if you could stay here tonight and we wouldn't put someone in her space without asking. Besides that, Lois wasn't sure if she's coming home tonight or not."
"Some guardian," Lana muttered.
"We're not Lucy's guardians anymore. She's over eighteen and she's graduating from high school in two weeks. Tomorrow she has study hall first period and is at a friend's house for an all day biology study session. She wasn't sure what time they'd be done and so she took her things with her to spend the night. Not that it's really any of your business." He shifted slightly so that he held Lois more securely and would be able to get up without an obvious use of his powers. *That* was something he definitely didn't want Lana knowing about. "Now, I'm going to put my *wife* to bed. I'll see you in the morning."
"Clark, will you please come talk to me some more? I haven't seen you in years and who knows when we'll see each other again. I'd like to make the most of the time we have." Lana smiled at him. "Please."
Clark sighed. "For a few minutes. I don't like to leave her alone too long at night. She doesn't sleep as well if I'm not there."
Lana looked like she was going to say something, but Clark cut her off.
"And I don't sleep as well without her either so..."
Lana nodded and smiled again. "Thanks, Clark." She pointed towards the back of the bedroom. "I'm going to use the bathroom really quick."
Clark nodded and waited for her to be out of sight and then floated himself and Lois up. He stood and carried her to their room.
*****
TBC
