Martha slowly slid down onto her chair. “Well – Jonathan, maybe we should talk with him, at that.”
Her husband nodded. “Yes, you’re right, dear. He asked us to, so we really should.”
Clark nodded. “So talk to me. I’m listening.”
Martha looked at Jonathan, who nodded for her to begin. She leaned forward on her elbows and took a deep breath. “Clark, you and Lois have problems.”
She watched him struggle not to respond with sarcasm. “I know, Mom. And I know we need help with them, too. I don’t know what to do.”
He seemed to wilt before her eyes. “Oh, honey, every couple has problems! Your father and I had difficulties when we first started out, too.”
Jonathan chimed in. “That’s right, son. I remember one time when we’d been married for almost a year, hadn’t quite had our first anniversary, and we went on a picnic with another couple. They weren’t married, just sort of engaged, and Brenda was feeling neglected, so she was trying to get Mickey jealous by spending most of the day flirting with me.”
Martha chuckled. “It worked, sort of, but she also made me jealous!”
Jonathan grinned. “I didn’t really realize until that evening what was going on. I guess I was too flattered at having two beautiful women pay so much attention to me. I didn’t understand just what Brenda was doing until Mickey almost hit me.”
Clark’s jaw dropped. “You mean – you almost had a fight with a guy over another woman?”
Martha chortled and touched her son’s arm. “Brenda and I managed to keep them apart long enough for me to ‘explain’ to my extremely dense husband what was actually going on. By then, Brenda was in tears and Mickey was holding her in his arms, telling her how much he loved her and how much she meant to him.”
Jonathan took up the narrative. “Your mother, unfortunately, was far less disposed to tears that day. I nearly froze to death that June.”
She grinned. “Yes, but I managed to thaw you out by July.”
Despite his intense blush, Clark managed to join in the chuckle his parents were sharing. “I’m glad you two worked through that, and I really hope you don’t plan to share any more of those details with me. But how does knowing all this help me now?”
Jonathan shrugged. “I don’t know. You’ll have to talk to Lois.”
“And you’ll have to listen,” insisted Martha. “Just letting her talk doesn’t help if you don’t hear what she has to say.”
“I have listened, Mom! She wants a baby. She wants one more than anything else in the world.” He slumped down. “And I can’t give her one.”
“Are you sure?”
“Dr. Klein says we can’t have kids, Dad. At least, he says Superman can’t father children with a human woman.”
Martha almost whispered, “Did he explain why?”
Clark looked up. “Well, no, not really. He just said Superman wasn’t compatible with a human female.”
She looked at her husband with a quizzical expression. “Lack of sperm motility?”
“Maybe they’re too aggressive,” he returned.
“Or maybe it’s a chromosomal mismatch.”
“Could be. Can’t fix that.”
“But if not – “
“Maybe it has something to do with the position of the egg.”
“Or something in the uterus that blocks the sperm.”
“Or redirects them.”
“Yes! Maybe – “
Clark raised his hands and made a ‘T’ symbol. “Time out! You’ve made your point! I’ll get more details from Dr. Klein, I promise.”
Martha patted his arm. “Good.”
Jonathan nodded. “Now that we’ve taken care of that, Martha, what about Lois?”
She frowned. “Oh, he has to talk to her.”
“Yes, and he has to let her finish talking.”
“Not only that – “
“Hey!” Clark waved his hands. “Don’t start that again!”
Jonathan laughed. “Okay, Clark, we won’t.” He sobered. “But here’s something that may not have occurred to you. Maybe Lois doesn’t want a solution from you.”
His face blanked and his eyes bugged out. “What?”
Martha added, “Sometimes all a woman wants to do is to tell you how she feels. She doesn’t always want an answer, and she doesn’t always want you to fix the problem.”
“That’s right, son. Sometimes all she wants is a sympathetic ear. Someone who’ll listen and who won’t judge her or condemn her or even tell her what to do.”
“And who else can Lois talk to about problems with her husband who is also Superman besides her husband who is also Superman?”
Clark looked like he’d just been shown the meaning of life. As he sat there, trying to process what he’d just heard, Martha looked at her husband and stage-whispered, “I think we can go to the mall now, dear.”
*****
Lois pulled on her clothes and suppressed a shudder as the cool, still slightly damp fabric brushed her skin. She missed Clark. She missed his presence, his maleness, his rock-steady consistency, his flinty determination, his gentle touch, his soft breath on the back of her neck –
She missed him.
But she had something to take care of. She’d slept until almost ten, something unheard of in her line of work, despite her own proclivity towards keeping late hours. She decided to find a diner close by, then swing by the office and see if Jimmy had learned anything else in his quest for Robin McGyver.
She ordered and paid for a turkey sandwich with coffee, then left a dollar tip and made her way to the Planet.
The news floor was usually quiet on Sunday morning, but someone still had to man the phones and be available. Fortunately, Jimmy had drawn the short straw this weekend and was sorting photos at his desk when Lois walked down the bullpen ramp.
He looked up in surprise. “Hey, Lois, what’re you doing here? Shouldn’t you be enjoying your inlaws’ country cooking about now?”
“Yes, I should, but I wanted to see if you’d found anything else about the woman I asked you to check on.”
He knew what ‘woman’ she meant. “A couple of things for sure and a bunch of ‘maybe’ stuff.”
“I’ll take whatever you have that’s firm.”
Jimmy examined her face and apparently decided that Lois wasn’t going to leave without that information. He reached for a thin file folder. “That’s all I was able to pin down before today. I should know a lot more by Wednesday morning. I’m still waiting for several people to call me back.”
She leafed through the folder and muttered, “Thanks, Jim.”
“Hope you can use it.”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I’m sure I can.”
She meandered to her desk and re-read the paltry few lines on the two sheets of paper in the folder. It held little new information on Robin, except that she’d had at least three fake Social Security numbers in the past ten years, had used at least one stolen number, and she’d used several aliases. And she apparently had worked in several cash-only businesses which either rode the edge of legality or stepped across the line altogether.
The only other item that stood out to her was that Jimmy seemed to have taken a personal interest in this particular data hunt. It was right up his alley, of course, and a perfect fit for his hacker skills, but he’d gone above and beyond in tracking down much of the information he’d already given her.
And he claimed he’d have more in a few days. Well, he’d always come through before, she thought, so what he planned to give her later should be really good.
She smiled to herself. Jimmy was growing out of the eager-beaver ‘gofer’ he’d been when Clark had been hired. His photos regularly graced the ‘A’ section of the paper, and he’d gotten a fair share of front-page credits. And he hadn’t lost a step on his database searches.
That thought led her to another thought, one not so rosy. “Hey, Jim, you have been careful, haven’t you?”
He looked up from the pile of pictures. “Of course I have. If anybody has noticed my poking around, and I consider that possibility vanishingly remote, it’s a cinch they don’t know who’s been doing the poking.”
She nodded. “So, you’re in the clear?”
He put his elbow on his desk and rested his chin on his fist. “Do you really think I’d risk my life just to get Mad Dog Lane a story?”
Her mouth quirked up on one side despite her attempt to glower. She gave it up and released the laughter. “All right, I’ll give you that one.” Her expression darkened along with her voice. “But I meant it about keeping clear. This isn’t as hairy as investigating Lex Luthor or Intergang, but it could still be dangerous.”
“Lois.” He stood and gathered the pictures in a neat bundle. “I promise you, I’m not exposing myself on this. No one knows who’s been poking around looking for this chick.”
“Okay.” She hesitated, then decided to let him get away with the ‘chick’ remark this time. “Just be careful.”
“Sheesh!” he hissed. “You’re worse than Perry!”
“I’ll tell him you said that!”
He punched the elevator button. “At this point, Lois, I don’t much care. My midnight-to-noon shift is over. I’m taking these shots to layout and then I’m going home.” The door slid open and he stepped into the car. “Maybe you should do the same thing.”
She watched the elevator door slide shut and mused that yeah, going home was probably a good idea.
As soon as she figured out what to say to Clark.
*****
It turned out she didn’t need to say anything. Jonathan and Martha were gone to the mall to shop, and Clark was pacing a trench in the living room carpet when she unlocked the door.
As soon as she turned the doorknob, Clark snatched the door out of her hands and swept her up into a desperate hug. His grip was barely loose enough to allow her to breathe easily, and her feet dangled several inches above the floor. Fortunately, not unlike the night Superman had first danced with her in her apartment, he supported all of her weight.
She felt faint tremors run through his arms. When he finally put her down, his eyes shimmered with unshed moisture. “I was – I was afraid you weren’t coming back any time soon.”
She patted his shirtfront. “I live here, Clark. I had some things to think over and I needed not to be here last night while I was thinking about them, but I’m back now.”
“Good.” He rubbed her arms as if reassuring himself that she was really there. “That’s – that’s really good.” He closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. “I’m glad you’re here.”
She tilted her head at him. “Me, too.”
“Um.” Flustered, he closed the door behind her. “Have you – did you get some lunch?”
She started for the bedroom. “I got a late breakfast, but it wasn’t very good. Is there something handy?”
He stumbled in her wake. “Uh, yeah, we have some deli meat, fresh bread, and condiments. How about a sandwich or two?”
“One will do it. Will you make it for me? I have to change out of these clothes.” She opened the bedroom door as she spoke, knowing that he’d hear her. “I rinsed them out last night, but they aren’t what you’d call clean.”
“One turkey sandwich and a glass of Mom’s tea, coming up.”
She smiled as she swapped her grimy garments for fresh ones. It sounded like Clark might be ready to talk, too.
Maybe he’d even be ready to listen.
*****
“That sandwich hit the spot, Clark. Thanks. And the tea was good, too.”
“That was Mom’s tea. She made a pitcher before she left. Said she wanted something to come back to.”
Lois smiled. “Smart lady, your mother.”
He handed her a napkin. “I’ve always thought so.”
She wadded up the used napkin and dropped it in her plate. “Um, I almost hate to break the mood here, but can we talk?”
He nodded. “I was hoping we could.”
She steeled herself and locked eyes with him. Maybe, this time, he’d listen. “I want a baby.”
She waited, expecting a flood of reassurance from him, but he only returned her gaze and nodded slightly. When she didn’t continue, he softly said, “Go on.”
For a moment she was flustered by his silence, but then she found her tongue again. “I want a baby. I want to have a baby in my belly, your baby, a baby I can feel growing inside me and then push out in agony and a baby you can lay on my breast and a baby I can nurse and change and cuddle and love.”
He still didn’t speak. Usually by now, he’d be well into his ‘family of two’ speech, but this time he just sat there, listening. She was surprised, but she pressed on. “Clark, I want a baby. I want to have your child. I want to hold our child in my arms and laugh and cry at the same time and listen to you make daddy noises and watch you fly our child around the room when it’s nap time – What’s so funny?”
He forced his mouth to straighten. “Nothing, Lois. It just – well, that sounds so very domestic.”
“I can be domestic!”
He lifted his hands. “I know that, and I’m sorry I interrupted you. Please go on.”
She sat back, the force of her pent-up declaration spent. “Well – I guess that’s about it.” She blew out a long breath. “But then you knew that already, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Of course, I would have understood it better if I’d taken the time to listen.”
She gave him a wan smile. “No one’s perfect, not even Superman.”
“Especially not Clark Kent.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Let’s go back to Superman not being perfect.”
His expression sobered and he nodded. “Okay.”
Lois leaned back and crossed her arms. “Why did you agree to tutor Robin without talking to me first?”
He licked his lips and ducked his head for a moment. “I’m sorry. This time, I jumped in without checking the water level.”
She stared incredulously. “You mean – you did this on a whim? You didn’t plan it?”
“No, of course not. I knew as soon as I said it that I’d probably made a big mistake – “
“You did.”
He nodded. “I know. I should have discussed this with you. But I didn’t think you’d understand about Robin.”
“Then help me understand. I really want to.”
His voice brightened and his eyes almost glowed. “She’s almost as smart as you are, even though she lacks your education. She’s from Krypton.” He paused. “I’m not sure I can explain how important that is to me.”
“Give it a try.”
“Okay. Robin is from my home, my original home. I’d never choose to leave Earth, not now, not when I have so much here that I love and so many people who are so very important to me.“
“You left for New Krypton.”
He accepted the soft rebuke without anger. “Yes, I did. And that turned out so very well, didn’t it? I’m not likely to repeat that particular mistake.”
Her eyes softened and she put her hand on his. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.”
“You were right, though. I was so taken with meeting people from my home planet that I forgot how much I love Earth and the people here.” He grasped her hand softly. “Especially one particular woman.”
She lifted their clasped hands and gave his knuckle a mustard-flavored kiss. “Okay, so you’re not leaving. Tell me more about Robin.”
“You already know she’s smart. She’s funny, in kind of a crude way, and she loves to have fun. She learns fast, and she’s almost as powerful as I am –”
“And she’s far more dangerous.”
Clark drew back as if struck. “No – no, it’s only because she didn’t have my advantages. She’s –”
Lois overrode his defense of the girl. “She’s dangerous, Clark! She had a tough childhood, sure, and her parents weren’t anything like yours are, but since she’s been on her own she’s lived by her own rules! She doesn’t care about other people, she doesn’t respect the law, and she thinks that what pleases her is the right thing to do. Jimmy’s been doing some background research on her and –”
“What?”
“Jimmy’s been doing research on her. At my request.”
Another person wouldn’t have noticed how cold Clark had suddenly become. “I see.” He sat up and away from his wife. “And what have you learned so far?”
“Nothing definite, nothing to arrest her for, but she –”
“Really?” His voice was Toledo steel, frozen in carbonite. “And from this ‘nothing’ you’ve determined that she’s not worthy of my time and my efforts?”
Lois’s tone matched his. “The girl threatened to kill me so you and she could be together. If that’s not an indication of her character, I don’t know what is.”
“You must have misunderstood her. Robin wouldn’t –”
“I heard her quite clearly. Her choice of words was not ambiguous in any way.”
“She’s Kryptonian. She’s not like you.”
“And I have some Greek in my ancestry. That doesn’t mean I get to own slaves, rule a kingdom, or go to war against people from Asia Minor on a whim.”
He crossed his arms. “I’m going to try to teach her, Lois. I’m going to work with her and help her learn to be a contributing member of society.”
“Fine!” She stood abruptly and clenched her fists. “Go ahead! And when you think you’ve trained her well enough and you’re ready to let her come back to Metropolis you let me know so I can jump off a building and save her the trouble of finding me and killing me!”
They glared fiercely at each other for a moment, then she spun towards the bedroom and slammed the door behind her.
*****
He watched his wife storm into the bedroom. Well, he’d done it again. He’d started another fight with her.
He was willing to do whatever he needed to do about the baby situation. He’d visit Dr. Klein again and get more details, maybe suggest a course of treatment, maybe come up with a solution. He wanted a baby, too – he simply didn’t want a baby more than he wanted to be married to Lois. And he was willing to bend any direction he needed to in order to make Lois happy on the baby front.
But he wasn’t willing to bend where Robin was concerned. He needed to reach her, needed to mold her the way his parents had molded him. He needed her to be a good person, someone who’d respect and obey the law and help people in some way, whether she ever used her powers publicly or not. He needed to know that his blood ancestors had been good people, that he wasn’t some aberration or mutation who couldn’t have coped with the society from which he’d been sent away.
She was Kryptonian. She was a link to his first home, the most tangible one he’d ever found. The ship and the globe were informative, the knowledge of Jor-El and Lara was useful, and the time he’d spent with the New Kryptonians had been most instructive, both in terms of his home culture and the people of Krypton, but he’d never had a friend from home before.
Had Zara been his friend? He liked to believe that they’d established a rapport during those trying days. He hoped she and Ching remembered him fondly, assuming they remembered him at all. But they were back on New Krypton, and Robin was right here, right now. She was a direct link to Krypton, to his biological roots, and if she was evil, if she were irredeemable, what did that say about him? What did that say about what was at his roots, what was in the deepest core of his heart?
If he could lead Robin to live a productive life, if he could teach her the things his adoptive parents had taught him, if he could lead her to be a productive member of human society, it would validate him as a person from Krypton. He’d never turn his back on his human family, either in Metropolis or in Kansas, but Robin was different. She was a girl from home who needed a friend in the worst way, and he was determined to be that friend.
And if he could teach her how to be as human as he was, maybe he could be a good father to his own child.
He glanced at the clock. If he left on a patrol now, he could be at Star Labs before seven and meet with Bernie. He’d ask about the compatibility tests while he was there, too.
*****
“Compatibility tests?” Bernie frowned. “More details?”
“Yes. I want to see if there’s anything I can do to – um, make myself fertile with a human woman.”
“Oh.” Bernie blinked. “Well, I’d have to pull out the files and review them before I tell you anything definite, then schedule some more tests for you. But I can do that this week, assuming I don’t get slammed with meetings again.”
“Thank you, Dr. Klein. Now, what about the curriculum for Kara?”
“For – oh, yes, her Kryptonian name. She told me when I examined her that she’d been using the name Loren.”
Superman’s eyebrows rose. “Really? That’s – interesting.”
Bernie picked up a clipboard and either ignored or – more likely – simply didn’t notice the change in Superman’s tone of voice. “Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. Since human society is based on adherence to a code of laws, we should probably start with that and move on to other subjects as she progresses.”
“I agree.” Superman took the clipboard and read the document. “This seems quite comprehensive. May I take this copy of the list?”
Bernie lifted one eyebrow. “I can do better than that. I have a large box of those very materials in my office. I put it together last night.”
Superman smiled. “Thank you, Doctor. That was very thoughtful of you.”
“Believe me, Superman, I’m almost as eager to see this young woman succeed as you are.”
I doubt that, mused the superhero.
