As always, thanks to the betas extraordinaire - Alisha, Beth, Nancy, CarolynK.
I've mentioned in FDK a couple times, but I'm playing fast and loose with technology and release dates [movies, tv shows, etc]. If they had Prometheus in 1994 then they could have iPhones in 2002
.
Last time:
Clark
"Yes, you are," he somehow managed to thunder between clenched teeth as he advanced towards the bed. "I say you are and that is all that matters."
"I'm not pregnant with your baby. I'm an American, pregnant with an American baby and DNA tests will prove that and you and your slimy little country can fall off the face of the Earth for all I care," she practically spat at him.
"You will not leave this country until I say you can." He moved closer to her.
"Stay away from her," I told him, moving directly between him and the bed.
"Or what? You can't keep me from my child," he reminded me.
He sounded like a broken record. Or a scratched CD.
"It's not your child," I reiterated quietly.
"How would you know?" he sneered.
I hoped I could project a sincerity and calm I didn't feel with my next statement. I didn't know what was coming over me, except that I had to protect Lois. I took a deep breath and jumped into the deep end without checking the water.
"How would you know?" he demanded again.
"Because it's my baby."
*~*22*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
What the hell?
What did Clark just say?
The silence was deafening and apparently the smug general felt the need to ask the same thing.
"What?" He moved a half step closer to Clark.
"It's my baby," Clark said, without backing down. "We went to a cabin in the woods the first week of November and..." He shrugged. "I'm sure you know how babies are made. Middle of a blizzard, no power, fireplace, alone for a week. I'm a man. She's a woman. Do I need to draw you a diagram?" He crossed his arms, daring the general to contradict him.
"You are no man. You are a child."
Clark shrugged again. "I'm old enough to father her child. And I believe you said that in Latislan the father retains custody and controls who has access to the mother, so I think you better leave."
Part of me wanted to strangle Clark for acting like he could control who could and could not see me.
The rest of me wanted to kiss him for finding a way out of this.
Well, not *kiss* him.
But hug him and thank him. And it wasn't like I'd hold him to the paternity declaration later.
But the general was smiling. Or leering. One of the two. "I am afraid that's not how it works, child."
"How what works?" Clark was clearly confused.
"Paternity. Are you married to this woman?"
"No."
"Then your claim of paternity..."
Another man entered the room and whispered something to him.
General Navance turned back to the rest of us. "I must go, but there will be a guard outside the door at all times and she is not allowed to leave."
I started to protest, but looks from both Clark and Daniel made me shut my mouth. Somehow, they managed to convey that pissing this guy off even more wasn't the way to go.
He spoke in whatever his native language was to the man who'd come in and I saw him take up a post outside the door.
"What's going on?" I asked as the door swung shut.
Clark sat back down next to me and grasped my hand. "How are you? That's the most important thing."
I pushed myself up a bit higher with my other hand. "I'm fine, but what's going on?"
Daniel sat in one of the other chairs and ran a hand through his hair. "In Latislan, the Supreme Ruler of All or whatever it is Navance calls himself only has to claim paternity for the child to be considered legally his. And in Latislan, the father retains custody – even prenatal custody."
"That's crazy!" Clark and I exclaimed at once.
"So even though I claimed paternity, it doesn't matter?" Clark asked.
"And what were you *thinking* doing that?" I demanded. "Lana is going to *kill* you!"
He shrugged. "The cabin was about the right time, even if..." He stopped as Daniel tugged on his ear and pointed to the room.
Great. They were listening.
"Even if," Clark continued, "he claims the baby, we can prove Lois wasn't here that long ago and a paternity test will rule him out as the father anyway."
Daniel shook his head. "The paternity test won't matter."
"It won't?" I asked him, surprised. I knew if Clark took a paternity test, the results would be negative, but if Navance did... Those results would be negative, too.
Daniel sighed. "The actual paternity doesn't matter if Navance says the baby is his."
"What kind of crazy law is that?" Clark asked. "This is my baby and I'll be damned if he's going to get anywhere near him."
I knew Clark was playing along with the paternity ruse, but I thought that it would be a lot nicer if I knew Clark and I really had been together at the cabin so that he was the father of this baby instead of some unknown frat boy. I rested my head against his shoulder, glad he was there with me.
Daniel pulled his PDA out of his jacket pocket and typed something in. He held it up for us to see. 'We'll figure something out', it read.
Clark and I nodded. "I'm staying here," Clark told him.
Daniel shook his head.
Clark gave him an intense look. "I'm the father of her baby. I'm staying."
Daniel nodded slightly. It probably would look weird if Clark didn't at least try to stay.
"Okay," Daniel acknowledged. "Jack will stay, too."
Daniel and Jack conferred quietly in the corner. Clark shifted uncomfortably.
I moved farther to one side of the bed so he'd have more room.
Daniel came back over and held his PDA back up. 'You're lovers having a baby. Remember that.'
Tears sprang to my eyes. He had a point, but I wasn't sure I wanted to pretend that kind of thing with Clark. I glanced up at him to find that his face had blanched a bit.
His mouth suddenly set into a line. "It'll be okay," he murmured against my hair. "Get some rest." He wrapped an arm around me tucked me in next to him. I got as comfortable as I could with an IV coming out of one arm.
"Happy New Year," I finally said.
"Happy New Year," he said back.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
What on earth had I been thinking?
That I had to protect my friend.
And her baby.
That – for the moment, at least – was also my baby.
Like my parents had protected me.
And we were going to have to pretend that we were together or at least having a baby together.
And what had he meant by that 'married' comment?
For now, though, I had to protect Lois and the baby. I held her slightly tighter and wondered how on earth I was going to get her out of there.
I rested my head against hers and before long I dozed off, too.
We both woke up when a nurse came in to take Lois' vitals. Jack had been sitting in the corner with a magazine but was still paying close attention to what was happening.
After having her temperature and blood pressure taken, she rested her head against me again.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, barely above audible.
"I know. It's going to be okay," I said with as much conviction as I could. It would be. Flying was still an option, after all. "Are you going to be able to go back to sleep?"
She shook her head.
"Then it's my job to keep you entertained. I tried watching TV in the waiting room, but it's all in some language I don't understand."
"So what're we going to do?"
"Tell jokes," I told her.
"Jokes?" She sounded skeptical.
I leaned closer to her and whispered. "Once we get out of here, I've got a few about Eastern European and Soviet dictators, but I think I better keep those to myself for now."
She smiled slightly. "Probably."
"How about this one? My cousin's daughter told it to me over Christmas. There's two muffins in a microwave and one says 'Man, it's hot in here' and the other says, 'Whoa, talking muffin'."
She rolled her eyes. "Did you hear why the blonde got fired from the M&M factory?"
"She ate all the 'W's."
"What do UFOs and smart blondes have in common?" she asked me.
I hesitated before admitting I didn't know.
"You keep hearing about them, but never see any."
Subtle dig at Lana? And Linda? Sure was. And aliens, too. Wasn't quite sure how to respond to that – given what I knew...
So I just laughed lightly with her.
"What're we going to do, Clark?" she asked quietly.
"I'm sure your dad already has a lawyer or two or two dozen working on it," I tried to reassure her.
"What about..." She didn't say it, but instead traced Lana's name on her lap.
"Don't worry about it." I'd talked to her and she wasn't happy that I'd ended up stuck in a foreign country with Lois. She'd have been even less happy if she'd known I was going to ask her to marry me last night.
"Sure?"
"Yeah."
A knock sounded on the door and Daniel came in. "Clark, can I talk to you for a minute?"
I nodded. "I'll be back in a few minutes, Sweetie." I put extra emphasis on the endearment. Lois rolled her eyes. I kissed her forehead before following Daniel out of the room.
"How is she?" he asked quietly.
"She wants to go home."
"I bet." He sighed deeply.
"What?"
"We figured out a way for you to legally claim the baby so that Navance can't claim him."
"Great. What is it?"
He sighed again and didn’t look at me as he spoke. "Marry her."
"What?!"
"If she's married, her husband is the father, regardless of whether Navance claims the baby or not."
I ran a hand through my hair and reached for his PDA. 'How long would we have to stay married?'
'Long enough to get her out of the country. You shouldn't have any problem getting an annulment when you get back to the States.'
I nodded.
'Is there someone else who would claim the baby who we could get here? Her boyfriend?'
I hesitated. Would Joe marry her? Would it matter if we were just going to get it annulled once we got back? It wasn't like it was going to be permanent. And getting Joe here would take time – and probably a long time. I took the PDA back. 'Any chance we'd have to stay married?'
'I don't think so. We're still looking at it, but it's unlikely.'
I paused for only a second. What it all came down to... I couldn't let Navance get his hands on Lois and her baby. 'I'll do it.'
He nodded. 'We'll make the arrangements. Don't tell her yet.'
I nodded back and sighed. Lana wasn't going to be happy about this, but I simply couldn't let this guy get his hands on Lois.
He showed me the screen again. 'We'll get her out of here. Sneak out in a couple days once everything's set. Needs to stay for a while anyway. Health and baby's. Make it look good. Rings, etc.'
I sighed. I had very little cash. No credit cards or anything like that I could use to buy something with. Getting money from Sam wouldn't look good. I wasn't quite sure why but my gut was telling me that we had better do this on our own so there was no suggestion by Navance later that this had all been... scripted or something. I only had one thing of value. I closed my eyes for a minute and made a decision. Protecting Lois and the baby was the most important thing at the moment. I typed into the PDA. 'Is there somewhere I can pawn a ring for cash?'
He glanced at me, confused. 'Don't want to use it?'
I shook my head. I wouldn’t give Lana's ring to Lois. And even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to give it to Lana once Lois gave it back. If I sold it, I was sure Sam would pay me back for it later and I could get a similar one or maybe find one in Metropolis I liked better. Even if he didn't pay me back though, that wasn't the most important thing. Getting Lois and the baby out of here and to safety was.
'Diamond?'
I nodded.
'I know a guy. Embassy Marine.'
I sighed. It was what I had to do.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I'd been sitting in the hospital for two days.
Clark had been there most of the time. He'd run a few mysterious 'errands'. I wondered what that was all about.
Navance came by two or three times a day to threaten me and yell and scream. Clark made sure that he was there whenever Navance was and continued to claim that he was my baby's father.
Daniel and Jack both kept reassuring me that they were working on a plan and Clark had said something, too, but none of them would tell me what it was.
I hadn't talked to Daddy at all. I wanted to. I wanted to talk to Joe. I wanted to spend hours on my bunk making out with him. I wanted to date him and see where things went, but now...
I couldn't see Joe sticking around now that I was having a baby. That would be a ready-made family and I couldn't see Joe wanting that.
I cried a lot during those two days.
It was the third night when something finally happened.
The American who had been sitting with me – Martin? Something like that – disappeared. That scared me.
Especially when a man dressed in scrubs walked in, carrying a syringe.
He set the syringe carefully on the floor and held up a PDA. 'Clark is meeting you downstairs,' it read. 'Follow me.'
I nodded, wondering if this was a good guy or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy.
He smiled slightly and pushed a button on the PDA and held it up again. 'Clark said to tell you to save a Tush Push for him.'
My eyes closed for a second, in relief. There was no way the bad guys would know about that.
He quickly disconnected my IV, but didn't remove the loop from my arm. He plugged it up with something and handed me a bag with some clothes in it.
I pulled the scrubs on quickly and stuck my hair in the cap.
He jerked his head towards the door and I followed him out.
We walked through the halls as nonchalantly as we could – as quickly as we could without drawing attention to ourselves.
It seemed like an eternity but was probably only about ten minutes before we exited out a small side door.
"Clark's waiting around the corner," he whispered. "He'll get you to the embassy."
"Thank you," I whispered.
"Go." He pointed in the direction of an alley and I moved as quickly as I could.
I rounded the corner and glanced around.
"Lois, over here." I heard Clark calling to me.
I turned and saw him. I practically flung myself into his arms and he held me for a few seconds.
"We've got to get out of here," he whispered, taking my hand and leading me down the alley.
I followed him though the streets of Skopje. More than once we ducked into an alley or the doorway of a store, always with Clark between me and the street – his dark clothes covering up my lighter scrubs.
"What's the plan?" I whispered.
"Just get to the embassy and we'll talk more there," he whispered back.
It seemed like forever and my legs were starting to hurt by the time we made it to a wall.
"We're going over," he said quietly, clasping his hands together.
"What?" I just stared at him.
"We're going over the wall." He indicated his hands. "Foot in. Let's go."
I looked at the wall. "I can't make it."
"You'll be fine." He looked around quickly. "We've got to go though."
I put my hands on his shoulders and put one foot in his hand.
"On three." He counted as I bounced and then pushed off on three.
I wasn't sure how I made it that high, but I did. I grasped the top of the wall and managed to pull myself over the top, one leg on either side. I turned to help Clark to find that he'd managed to scale the wall by himself.
"Wait," he said, jumping down before reaching back up to help me down. He grabbed my hand again and I followed him through the courtyard or garden or whatever it was and into the building.
Once inside, I leaned against the wall and breathed a huge sigh of relief. "I'm safe?" I asked, a big smile on my face, certain I knew the answer.
His face was still grim. "Not quite. There's something else."
"What?" I asked but he was already heading down the hallway.
I hurried behind him until he stopped in front of an open door.
I looked inside and then turned to look him in the eye.
"What exactly is it that we have to do, Clark?"
He stared at the ground as he took a deep breath and blurted it out.
"Get married."
*****
TBC
