Again thanks go to Alisha, Beth, Nancy and CarolynK.
*****
Chapter 43
*****
"So, let me get this straight? From the time we get to the house to the time we get back in the car to head back to Kansas City on Sunday, this is one long date?" Clark asked with a grin, one hand on the wheel of the rented convertible and the other elbow hanging out of the open window as they drove from Kansas City to Smallville.
"Unless we're in our room, yes. Bedroom is still off limits for dating activities."
"Can we sleep on the floor in the living room then?" Clark asked with a twinkle in his eyes. "Or maybe on a quilt in the hayloft?"
Lois laughed. "No, Farmboy."
"Well, you can't blame a guy for trying."
Lois stared out the windshield for a long time before Clark reached for her hand.
"I wasn't serious, you know?" he told her.
"Oh, I know." She smiled at him. "I didn't take it seriously, but," she added with mock severity. "Don't try to tell me you wouldn’t have jumped up and down for joy if I'd agreed to sleep in the hayloft with you."
Clark laughed. A full, hearty laugh. "You got me." He kissed her hand. "I'd have to be crazy to turn down a night in the hayloft with you."
Lois laughed with him.
"I'm glad you can laugh about stuff like that," he added, his tone more serious.
"Me, too."
"Penny for your thoughts then."
She smiled slightly. "Just thinking."
"About what?"
"Boundaries."
"Ah. What about them?"
"Moving them," she said quietly. Moving the boundaries to this point hadn't been as big a deal as this next boundary would be. They'd always stayed fully clothed and always avoided certain areas of the body. The next boundary would almost have to involve one of those.
He kissed her fingers again. "What're you thinking?"
"I'm not sure." She continued staring out the window for another few minutes. "What do you think?"
"It's up to you."
"I know that, but I want to know what you think because I'm not sure."
"Well," he said slowly. "What do you think you'd be comfortable with?"
She sighed. "I don’t know. The way I see it, we could do one of two things – or both, I guess."
"What's that?"
"Shirts off," she said quietly.
"That's an option," he agreed.
"But not topless," she added quickly.
"Of course not."
She didn't look at him as she spoke again. "Or touching above the waist but fully clothed."
"What are you more comfortable with?"
She shrugged. "The first one, I think. I'm not sure I'm ready for the other yet."
Clark nodded, breathing a small sigh of relief. He thought that would be easier for him, too. "Okay, then."
*****
Forty-five minutes later, he pulled into the familiar drive.
"Wow! Clark, this place is great."
He nodded. "Wayne said they'd done a great job with it, but they really did."
The yard was neatly kept and flower beds surrounded the front of the house. The porch swing was new as was the paint; the light gray with white trim and shutters looked sharp. The barn and other outbuildings looked slightly more worn, but still much better than they had been not too many years ago.
They climbed out of the car and Clark moved to stand behind her, his arms wrapping around her. "I'm glad you like it."
They soaked it in for another minute before Clark spoke again. "So does this mean that our three day date has begun?"
Lois turned to face him. "I guess so."
He grinned. "Good." He lowered his face to hers and kissed her. Thoroughly.
"I liked that," she said, smiling up at him when he moved back.
"Good. I intend to do a lot of that this weekend."
"I hope you do."
*****
Lois held the trophy up in front of her. "I can't believe we won third place."
Clark laughed. "Well, your Two-Step has come a long way in the last few months."
"True."
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him. "And I think I'm going to have to kiss you as part of the celebration."
"I wish you would," she said softly.
She didn't know how long they'd been kissing when she had the sudden desire to take his shirt off. She pulled his T-shirt out of his jeans and was saddened by the momentary loss of contact as he helped her pull it off over his head. Before she knew it, they were lying on the couch and Clark started to take her shirt off. She waited, praying that the panic attack she feared wouldn’t come. When her shirt was gone, she reveled in the feeling of his warm skin against hers.
The long, slow kisses extended into what seemed like eternity when the phone rang. "I'll get it," he sighed, giving her another quick kiss before he moved towards the kitchen and the phone.
Lois pulled her shirt back on and was sitting on the couch when he returned.
"That was Wayne. He's on his way over to say hi." Clark pulled his own shirt on.
She nodded. Clark sat next to her and, wrapping one arm around her, pulled her to him. "I enjoyed that," he whispered.
"Me, too," she whispered back.
"Good. I'm glad." He kissed the side of her head. "Mind if we try it again sometime soon?"
She shook her head. "Not at all. I hope we do." She grinned up at him. "So was it what you imagined?"
"What?"
"Making out with me on the couch?"
"It was better than I imagined."
"Good."
*****
Lois handed a ticket to the barker. "Come on, Clark. Let's make this a day to remember. I need a memento of my first Corn Festival."
"And that trophy wasn't enough?" he teased.
"No. It was for third place." She pointed. "And I want one of those teddy bears. Can't snuggle with a trophy if you're working late."
He laughed. "True." He took the hammer.
"No cheating," she whispered under her breath, ruining his concentration. The ball went about two-thirds of the way up. "Good try," she said with a smile. She handed another ticket to the man. "Try again."
This time, he rung the bell. The man held out two teddy bears – one pink and one black and white. "You get to choose," he told Clark.
Clark looked at Lois. "Which one do you want, honey?"
She instantly reached for the black and white one. "Thank you, Clarkie."
He groaned. "Please don't call me that."
"Okay, then I'll have to name him that," she said as they wandered towards the dance floor.
"You're going to name him 'Clarkie'?"
"No. That would be silly. His name is 'Clarkie Bear'."
"Oh that's much better," he said sarcastically.
"Clark?" a voice called.
They turned. "Rachel!" he said.
She practically launched herself at him, trusting him to catch her. He did and swung her around. She held her hat down with one hand, her other arm wrapped around his shoulders.
He set her down, laughing. "Lois, this is Sheriff Rachel Harris. Rachel, this is my wife, Lois."
Lois held her hand out. "I've heard a lot about you. It's nice to finally meet you."
Rachel shook it. "Same here. Clark talked about you sometimes in high school."
"Really?" She looked at Clark with a raised brow. "What did he tell you?"
"Just that there was this big city girl he wrote to. He told us some stories about things that happened at your school. We didn't have anything that exciting here."
Lois' eyes twinkled. "Oh, I don't know about that. We never had a cow on the top floor of our school."
Rachel practically doubled over laughing and Clark shifted from side to side uncomfortably. "You never did get caught, did you, Clark?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Sheriff. I have no additional knowledge of the incident, Ms. Sheriff, ma'am," Clark said with wide-eyed innocence.
Rachel winced. "Don’t 'ma'am', me. I'll tell Lois all your dirty little secrets."
"You wouldn't. Besides Lois already knows just about everything there is to know about me."
"Does she know about the time you and Pete took our clothes?"
Lois turned to him. "What?"
Clark rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "I was ten," he said as a feeble defense.
"So?"
"They were skinny dipping. They'd taken our clothes the week before." He shrugged. "Turn about's fair play?"
"We didn’t take all of your clothes," Rachel pointed out.
"No, you threw our shoes and socks in the boat and dumped water over them until they were soaked and took our underwear."
"You'd splashed mud on us."
"You'd told Mrs. DeFillipo that Pete's sister had done his book report."
"He'd told Coach Jenkins that Lana was the one who wrote all over the gym floor."
"Lana told his dad that he’d scratched the car when you were the one who did that."
"I almost fell off my bike when that happened and she only told him that because you'd told her mom that she kissed Bobby Thompson and she was grounded for a week."
"She *did* kiss Bobby Thompson but she'd also told my mom that I'd kissed Lindsay Davis and *I* was grounded for a week."
"Pete told Mrs. DeFillipo that I'd only pretended to be sick to get out of that oral book report when he knew I'd been throwing up all day."
"Lana told his dad that he tripped her on purpose and that's how she got a black eye when she really tripped over her own feet."
"You'd told my dad that I had poured the soap in the fountain."
"You *did* pour the soap in the fountain," Clark said with a grin.
"No. *We* poured the soap in the fountain," Rachel said jabbing a finger in his chest.
Clark grinned. "Your point?"
Lois dissolved into giggles, despite the references to Clark's former foster sister. Clark and Rachel joined her.
"So, Clark, save a Tush Push for me later?" Rachel turned to Lois. "If you don't mind. For old time's sake."
"Not at all. He told me that you guys went to prom together."
Her radio squawked. "Duty calls. I'll see you two later. And congratulations on third place last night. I heard you two really did well."
Clark laughed. "Thanks, Rachel." He put his arm around Lois. "Don't believe a word she said," he whispered as he steered her towards Maisie's.
They were waiting on their lunch when someone else called to them. Clark's eyes lit up. "Pete!" He stood and gave his childhood friend a big hug. "Pete, this is my wife, Lois. Lois this is Pete."
Lois smiled at him. "It's nice to meet you. Rachel and Clark had some interesting things to say about you earlier."
Pete eyed him. "What'd you tell her?"
"Well, Rachel started with the time we took their clothes and we worked our way back to the soap in the fountain."
Pete laughed. "Those were some good days, weren't they?"
"When I wasn't in trouble for kissing Lindsay. And I never did," he told Lois.
She nodded at him. "I believe you," she said, winking at Pete.
Clark sat back down as Pete pulled out one of the other chairs. "You know half the town gets the Sunday edition of the Daily Planet and the other half borrows it from those who do."
"Really?"
He nodded. "'Travel the Planet with Lane and Kent' is one of the hot topics around here. We live vicariously through the two of you."
"Well, I'm glad we can help."
"Dad said there was even a student who used your articles for a report in geography," Pete said with a grin.
Lois and Clark shared an impressed look. "Wow. That's pretty cool."
Pete glanced at his watch. "Wish I could chat some more, but I gotta get back to the ambulance."
"Paramedic Pete. Just like you always wanted, huh?"
"Yep. Between that and storm chasing and volunteer firefighting I stay pretty busy."
"You still with Lindsay?"
He nodded. "We're getting married at Christmas. We'd love it if you could come. She doesn't even hold that rumor that you kissed her against you."
"If I'd known I was going to get grounded for a week for not kissing her, I probably would have," he mumbled.
Pete laughed. "Just let me know where to send the invite."
"Send it care of the editor at the Planet. If you just send it to us, it'll get stuck with the rest of the mail, but if you send it to Perry, he'll make sure we get it pretty quickly."
"Got it," he said as he stood up. He started to say something else, but was interrupted by the arrival of Lewis and Laura Lang. They said a quick good-bye to Pete and then greeted the Langs with smiles.
Maisie brought lunch for all four of them to the table.
"I hope you don't mind," Laura said. "We wanted the chance to catch up."
They chatted for a while, all avoiding the one subject guaranteed to make them all uncomfortable.
"So," Lewis finally started. "I wanted to tell you that Lana has moved to England. She hasn’t been home in nearly a year."
"At least, we think she's still in England," Laura said quietly. "We haven't heard from her over six months."
"I'm so sorry," Lois said quietly, squeezing Laura's hand. "That has to be difficult for you."
"It was her choice to leave, but we thought it would be good for her to start over somewhere else after what happened..." her voice trailed off. "We just never expected that she'd stop talking to us all together."
Lewis spoke up. "Lois, we haven't seen you since graduation, but I wanted to tell you how sorry I am for Lana's behavior. I have no idea why she thought that kind of thing was appropriate."
"You're not responsible for her behavior, Lewis. She is and I never believed that you would condone the kinds of things that she did that day."
"That's kind of you, but there's times I wonder what we did or didn't do that would have made things different."
Clark sighed. "There's nothing you could have done. Lana was after me from the time we were kids."
"She was?" Laura asked.
Clark nodded.
"I remember you two went out a couple of times in high school," Lewis said thoughtfully. "I was a bit worried about that since you lived with us, but it was only what? Two or three times?"
"Yeah. Two dances and a movie. She wanted a lot more than that and didn't want to take no for an answer even then." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not sure how much he should tell her parents.
"Tell us, Clark. We want to know what we apparently missed when you two were teenagers."
He sighed. "She tried to arrange it where she'd walk in on me while I was changing or in the shower or the other way around. Things like that. Maneuver things to where we were home alone with a romantic comedy on or something like that. She kissed me after our second two dates. I mean, I did kiss her back but nothing too serious. She tried to kiss me on the couch a couple of times after that. I told her it wasn’t going to happen." He reached for Lois' hand. "When I met Lois at Journalism Camp, I knew I was going to marry her someday. I didn't want to hurt Lana. There was no point in any kind of real relationship with her because I knew there wasn't a future there. She was my friend and there was no reason to do that to her."
"That was kinder of you that it seems she deserved." Lewis sighed.
"I never wanted to hurt her, but you know how she is. When she wants something, she goes after it. It never mattered what it was. She wanted a car, she worked for a car – both after school and on you two. When she wanted a toy when we were kids, she found a way to get it. That's how she's always been. That's probably how she'll always be. I don't think there's anything you two did or didn't do that really affected that."
Laura's eyes filled with tears. She looked at her husband, who nodded slightly, taking her hand in his. "You probably don't know this, Clark. Very few people do. Before Lana was born, we had a little boy. His name was Joey and we loved him so much. One day, when he was about six months old, he died of SIDS." The tears flowed down her cheeks and Lewis let go of her hand to wrap his arm around her. "We've never really talked about him – it still hurts so much – and I don't know that we ever really talked to Lana about him either. After he died, we moved back to Smallville and never talked about it at all. We didn't plan Lana but we loved her and wanted her very much once we found out I was pregnant. We were so happy to have a second chance that we rarely said no to her about anything. That probably had something to do with all of that." She looked at Lois. "And it probably had something to do with why she thought it was okay to move in on a married man. She was never really denied much of anything, except Clark apparently."
Tears glistened in Lois' eyes. "I'm so sorry to hear about your son," she said gently. "And I'm sorry Lana hasn't been in touch. But she's an adult. Could you have done things differently when she was growing up? Sure, most parents could, but at some point, she became responsible for her own decisions. Does her past, her upbringing, affect her and her decisions? Sure. But she's the one who made them. If anyone's had a past to overcome, it's me – or even Clark losing his parents so young. But I've been working to overcome what was told to me and done to and around me and my sister for a long time now. It's a process, but it's still a choice that I had to make. If I hadn't, Clark and I probably wouldn't have made it this far. He made a choice to stick by me while I continue to work through those things. We're adults and we're dealing with the repercussions of what happened to us as kids and teens, but we have to start taking responsibility for it too. And so does Lana."
Lewis nodded. "We know that, but we still wish we'd done things differently sometimes."
"Lana was always loved and always taken care of. That's more than a lot of kids have," Clark reminded them. "I heard you two tell her all the time that you loved her."
"We did. We do." They sat in silence for a few minutes before they moved on to other topics.
*****
That night found them lying in the hayloft, curled up on a quilt, watching the stars through the open door.
"You were right," Lois said. "It is like the Med. Just different stars."
Clark nodded, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. "I always loved it up here. It was one of the places I hid when I didn't want Mom to find me."
"Bet she always found you though."
He chuckled. "Always. She had eyes in the back of her head, it seemed."
Lois moved to kiss him softly. The kiss slowly gained intensity. Soon Clark's shirt was off and his hand moved to the top button of her blouse. She fought desperately against the rising panic. She'd enjoyed the feel of his skin against hers the night before and wanted to feel it again. But this time...
Paul's leering face suddenly appeared before her as he undid the buttons on her shirt in that conference room.
She tried to push him out of her mind, but he refused to leave.
By the time Clark reached the fourth button, she couldn't take it anymore and pushed against his – warm, bare – chest. "Clark, please," she mumbled against his lips.
He immediately stilled and moved back to look at her. "What is it?"
She sat up and buttoned her shirt as quickly as she could with her trembling fingers. "I'm sorry," she whispered, tears falling down her cheeks.
He sat up and rested his hands against her shoulders. "What's wrong?"
She shook her head, but leaned back, allowing him to hold her close, as she continued to tremble and tears continued to fall. "I'm sorry," she whispered again, settling back against him.
"It's okay, but you need to tell me what happened," he said in equally quiet tones.
She nodded. "Just give me a minute?"
"Of course."
It was sometime later before she spoke. "It was the buttons," she finally said.
"What about them?"
"The shirt I was wearing that night had buttons."
"I see." They sat there for a few more minutes. "So it wasn't me taking your shirt off, but rather me unbuttoning it?" he asked slowly, wanting to understand.
She nodded. "Yeah."
"What do you suggest?"
"Well, for now..." She thought for a minute. "If I'm wearing a shirt with buttons, I undo them myself. If I'm not and I've already helped you take yours off, then it's fair game."
"That sounds like a plan." He held her for a long time. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, but I think I'm ready for bed."
"Of course." He stood up and reached for her hand. He wasn't surprised that she was ready to retreat to the room that had been his parents and they now shared. It was the 'safe place', the place where Date Clark didn't go. And right now, she needed to feel safe.
He put his hands lightly on her waist and, after double checking the area, floated them to the ground.
*****
January 1990
*****
It had been 18 months since they started travelling the globe.
They were one of the most successful travel writing teams ever, with their columns appearing not only in the Planet but syndicated in a number of papers around the country. More and more, they were realizing that this wasn't what they truly wanted to do. The wanderlust was dissipating. Their relationship was moving forward. They'd been dating for a little over six months and things were continuing to move forward in their physical relationship as well.
Perry had mentioned several times while they were home for Christmas that he would gladly hire the two of them for the city desk.
And then Jimmy and Lucy had called the day before to share their big news – Lucy was pregnant with their first child, due in about eight months. Unexpected and unplanned – the result of the interaction between antibiotics for bronchitis and Lucy's birth control – the baby was most certainly not unwanted.
Clark had been using his special gifts to help surreptitiously whenever he could and this was one night where he truly hoped he was not needed elsewhere. He avoided crowded cities whenever possible, but often helped with natural disasters in rural areas, careful to remain unseen.
They'd been invited to a fancy reception at the American embassy in Tokyo. Some bigwig from the State Department was in town and the Daily Planet had been given tickets to cover it. The bigwig – Clark couldn't remember who it was – was a Lane and Kent fan and had requested specifically that they come.
As it coincided with their anniversary, they were happy to oblige.
He straightened the tie on his tux and called to Lois, "Are you almost ready?"
"Almost," she called back.
He tweaked his tie again.
"So what do you think?"
The voice startled him out of his reverie, and he turned to face his wife of the last five years. "You look beautiful, Lois. As always."
She twirled around in the new black gown they'd purchased while visiting Metropolis for Christmas. "You think?"
He moved to her side and gently cupped her face in his hand – a gesture they had both come to know and love. His voice was soft as he answered. "Always."
She pressed her face into his hand for just a moment, in silent signal. He leaned down and kissed her gently. "Ready?" she asked.
He moved to get their coats out of the closet. "For a night on the town with my beautiful wife? On our fifth anniversary? Always."
Lois laughed. "It's not really a night on the town but an Embassy shindig is nothing to sneeze at."
He held out her coat and helped her shrug into it. He flung his own coat over his arm, more for show than necessity as he knew Lois knew. He offered her his arm. "Shall we?"
As always when she touched him, a small tingle ran through his body. She smiled at him and they exited the small apartment they called home for the time being.
*****
"The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Lane." The handsome dark haired man leaned over to kiss her hand.
Lois glanced quickly around the room, wondering when Clark would return. He had whispered something to her about an earthquake somewhere in Asia and slipped out the door. She became aware that the gentleman was waiting for a response. "Oh, no. My pleasure, Mr. Luthor." She tugged gently to remove her hand from his grip. "And in my private life, it's Mrs. Kent, Mr. Luthor."
"More's the pity."
"Excuse me?"
"You are a beautiful woman, Ms. Lane. It is a pity that none of the rest of us have a chance. Where is your husband? If I were him, I would not let you out of my sight for a second."
Lois glanced around uncomfortably. "It’s *Mrs.* Kent, Mr. Luthor, and he had to step out for a moment. He should be back shortly."
"Well, until he returns, perhaps you will allow me the privilege of the next dance?"
Seeing no one in her immediate vicinity who could help her escape, Lois reluctantly nodded.
She held herself as far from him as she could. Luthor, though they'd only just met, gave her the creeps even more in person than he had in the news for the past several years.
When the dance ended, a seemingly indecent period of time later, a grey haired British gentleman brought them each a drink – a brandy for Luthor and a glass of white wine for herself.
"Ms. Lane, this is Nigel, my right hand man." He took the glass of wine and handed it to her. "Please accept this as a token of my gratitude for a dance with the loveliest woman in the room tonight."
Not wanting to seem rude, but wanting desperately to escape his presence, Lois accepted the drink and began to sip. She heard Luthor speaking, but the words failed to cross into her consciousness. It was more like the annoying drone of a bee. Or a house fly. And for some reason the slightly lecherous look on his face didn't bother her the way it should have.
She felt his hand on her elbow and, without really understanding why, went where the gentle pressure directed her.
*****
Lois threw her coat over the couch, her head spinning, probably from a bit too much wine. She picked up a picture of her and Clark, taken the summer before on the shores of Lake Louise in Canada. She ran her finger along the picture of Clark's body. Every night she went to sleep wrapped in those strong arms and every morning she woke up to the sight of his strong chest.
Every night, her body tingled as the full length of their bodies molded together perfectly. Every date night – and more recently, other times as well – he'd kiss her and the rest of the world would melt away. Her boundaries were set and he knew and respected them always. On more than one occasion, one of the heavy make-out sessions on the couch had triggered flash backs or panic attacks, but the last instance had been nearly six weeks earlier.
So why had she never taken the next step?
As she gazed at the picture, Clark's grin blazed back at her. Even in the darkened apartment, it lit up the room.
Suddenly, it all seemed clear to her. Tonight, she knew what she had wanted her whole life would finally be hers.
And she knew just how to let him know.
An hour later she heard the front door open.
"Hello, handsome."
*****
TBC
