Last time:
Clark
We climbed out of the truck and I grabbed some bags to take straight to the Jeep. "Well, you know your way around Metropolis better than I do. Do you want to drive until we hit the outskirts?"
"If you don't want to." She didn't look at me as she unlocked the Jeep and I put the bags in. She locked it back and headed towards the apartment building.
I stared after her for a long minute, looking through the wall as she waited for the elevator. I saw her swipe at her cheeks. So that was why she'd left me with the rest of it – she didn't want me to see her cry. I didn't mind taking the other stuff inside, not really, but I wasn't sure what I could do to make any of it better. For either of them. For me.
The only thing I knew for sure was that I was doing what I had to do to protect all of us.
*~*43*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I sighed as I stuck another DVD in my bag.
"Ready?" Clark asked as he picked up his laptop bag and backpack.
"I think so." He held his hand out and I gave him the bag.
"Why don't you finish with the cooler and I'll be back up for it in a minute?"
I nodded as he left. I sat on the bed and picked up the frame from the top of the DVD player. Pictures of my baby. I thought about taking them with me, but I'd scanned them all into my computer and Clark had actually emailed them to his parents so it wasn't like we needed them.
I sighed and headed for the 'kitchen'. I pulled the sodas out of the fridge and the lunch meat and other cold stuff we'd bought for the trip.
I loaded it all then took the bag of ice out of the freezer and was pouring it into the cooler when the door opened. "Almost done," I said without looking up.
"Nice place," came a female voice.
I froze. What was she doing up here?
"Lana was already here so she came up with me to see if there was anything she could help carry down," Clark said, uncomfortably.
I shook my head. "Just the cooler and my purse." I purposefully picked up the frame I'd left lying on the bed and set it on top of the dresser before I picked up my purse. "Ready."
Clark hefted the cooler. "Let's go then."
What followed had to be the most awkward few moments of my life to date, but I was sure that the next two days would prove to be even worse. I locked the door behind us and was grateful that the elevator hadn't moved. Clark had pulled the Jeep up earlier so it was only a short walk. He stuck the cooler behind the passenger seat, making sure we'd be able to open it.
"Did you put my stuff up front?" I asked him, hoping he'd remembered to so I wouldn't have to dig around the back for it once we traded drivers.
"Yeah, it's all in the front floorboard."
"Thanks."
Lana slid into the back seat on the driver's side and I smiled slightly to myself at the perturbed look on her face. She didn't look thrilled about it. What did she think? She was going to sit up front with Clark? Even if he wasn't married to me, it was my car, for crying out loud.
I noticed her eyes widen a bit when I climbed into the driver's seat. I stuck a Dave Matthews Band in and turned it up as I pulled onto the street.
An hour later, we were far enough on the outskirts of Metropolis that Clark felt comfortable taking over. I wondered what he'd pick now that it was his turn. I settled into the passenger side and smiled to myself. Lana had determinedly said she was fine sitting on the driver's side, but when Clark adjusted the seat, it had left her without much leg room.
Finally, I took a swig of my Sprite and put it back in the holder. I took my laptop out of the bag and popped it open.
"Working on your English paper?" Clark asked.
"Yeah. I've got to get it done sometime this week," I reminded him.
"You finished Mark Twain?"
"Yesterday afternoon."
"Good for you." He sounded genuinely happy for me. "I still have about three pages to go."
I could almost hear Lana seething in the back seat. "Would you mind to proof it for me later?"
"No problem. Hey, I have no idea how to do it so could you plug in my iPod and start the first playlist?"
I balanced the laptop on my knees as I hooked it up and set the first playlist to repeat. If he wanted me to change it later, I would.
"Thanks." His hands drummed the steering wheel as 'Life Is A Highway' blared from the speakers.
I rolled my eyes and dug my ear plugs out of my backpack.
"What?" He grinned at me.
"You know what." I stuck them in and turned back to the laptop. I had planned on keeping my ears tuned to whatever conversation happened between the two of them, but with the music up that loud, they weren't going to be conversing much anyway. The next song was 'Chattahoochee' and I rolled my eyes at him again as he smiled.
I didn't really mind it, but that wasn't the point. I'd hoped that something would happen exactly like it did. Something that would indicate to Lana that we were closer than we really were.
I could have just turned my iPod on with my ear buds, but I decided not to. If they were talking, I'd be able to at least sort of hear it if there wasn't other music playing in my ears.
I gazed at the blank screen in front of me as we drove into Pennsylvania.
I had no idea what I was going to write about. After I'd stared at the blinking cursor for about thirty miles, I snapped the laptop shut.
"Still not coming to you?" Clark asked, sympathetically, turning the sound down as I took the ear plugs out.
"No." I sighed. "I mean, I know what I'm going to write about, but the words just aren't coming. I can't get into my dad's head enough."
"What are you talking about?" Lana asked from the back seat.
"An assignment," I told her. "For our English class." I stressed 'our' slightly.
"You might try writing your part and see if you can get into his head later. That's what I did. I mean, I wrote the stuff from my perspective first and then my mom's. Some stuff I knew had to be from her's though," he said, thoughtfully. "I mean, I couldn't write about something when I hadn't been there and there were a couple things that I wasn't there for but still related to the overall story."
"How long is yours?"
He winced. "Probably twenty-five pages right now. I need to edit it down some."
"Well, he said fifteen to thirty so you're still within that."
"I think I'm still going to edit some of it out."
"Am I in it?" came a voice from the back seat.
Clark sighed. "You're mentioned, but you don't feature prominently if that's what you want to know."
"What did you write about?" Lana practically demanded.
Clark didn't say anything for a long moment, staring out at black top running through Pennsylvania. "Being a foundling," he finally said. "My parents. Them taking me in when they could have turned me over to Social Services or something. Being parents when they didn't have to be. It ends when I was five. You still thought I had cooties when we were five, remember?"
"I remember pushing you down when you tried to kiss me and when you tried to dance with me." I thought she sounded a bit smug.
Clark glanced at me nervously. "It was a wedding. I thought that's what you were supposed to do at weddings."
I sighed, wanting to stop this conversation before it went any further. "Clark, can we stop at the next gas station that looks decent?"
"You okay?"
"Just need to pee. Junior's playing with my bladder."
"We've only been on the road a couple hours," Lana complained. "If we have to stop this often, it's going to take us forever."
"That's the way it goes, Lana," Clark said with a sigh as he pulled off the highway. "Lois' doctor said she needs to stop and stretch her legs every couple hours, anyway. Besides, we're only going to Richmond, Indiana tonight anyway. It's only about a ten hour drive."
I sighed. It was going to be a long day.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
It had been a long day.
A very long day.
And we were only halfway to our destination.
I glanced over as Lois maneuvered out of her sweatshirt. I almost groaned. She was wearing one of my Smallville High T-shirts. She had to have done that on purpose. I'd told her she could wear some of my clothes if she needed some, but she'd gone shopping for maternity clothes. I sighed as I realized that she had worn my T-shirts since then – mostly to sleep in, but still.
She'd done it on purpose, I was sure. To rub it into Lana that we were married and at least sort of solid. I sighed again. It was probably a good idea.
I glanced over again and could feel my brow furrow. "You okay?"
Lois' head was resting against the window and she nodded slightly. "I think so."
"Stomach bothering you?"
"A little bit."
I reached out and turned the heater down, cooling the air flow a bit.
"Thanks."
I glanced in the mirror and realized that Lana was asleep. That was good. She had her pillow up against the window and had covered herself with her favorite blanket.
"You ready to stretch out again?" I asked her.
"In a bit."
The miles stretched out in front of us and I turned the volume up a bit. Lois turned in her seat and reached for her pillow and blanket that were stashed behind her.
"Do you want anything before I try to take a nap?"
I shook my head. "I'm good." She settled in next to the door. Over the course of the last couple of hours she'd shown me how to manipulate the iPod a bit better and I was confident that I could find the songs I wanted without driving us off the road. The playlist I'd made the night before was a good one. I had lots of other good songs, too, but I'd been careful to avoid anything resembling a love song. Things were awkward enough without tossing in 'Unforgettable' or 'Time Well Wasted' – it was one of my favorite songs and my dad and I had wasted more days than I could count out fishing and spending time with each other. One of my earliest memories of my dad was fishing, but the second verse was about a movie marathon with the love of the singer's life. I couldn’t handle that right now and I was sure neither of these two would want to either.
I rested my elbow on the inside of the window and my head on my fist. I had no idea how this week was going to play out.
Would I be able to tell Lois about myself? About all the things I could do?
That I was found in a spaceship? About the whole 'I'm an alien' thing?
What if I told my parents, 'thanks, but no thanks' on the money they'd been sending and just didn't tell her at all?
I could see my mom's face as I imagined telling her that. Falling out of the hayloft and landing on the tractor didn't hurt, but one look from the tiny Kansas woman and I was shaking in my work boots.
Would it be easier to tell her if she was really having my baby? If something had happened at the cabin that night like we were telling everyone?
If that was the case then she would *need* to know. Who knew if a half-Kryptonian pregnancy was different than a fully human pregnancy?
What about Lana? I'd been nervous about telling her. I'd planned on proposing to her in Paris and then having a long talk with her after we got back from Europe.
It was different with Lois, though. I wasn't in love with her. I still didn't plan on spending the rest of my life with her.
I'd lived my whole life keeping this all a secret. My dad wasn't the one who'd first coined the phrase 'dissect me like a frog' if the government found out – Chris had done that – but Dad had certainly used it often enough when I was learning to control the different powers as they manifested.
Only three people had ever known about me and even though I knew I could trust Lois – she'd saved my life in November when she practically carried me through the biggest New Troy snow storm in the last hundred years – it wasn't easy for me to come to terms with telling her about myself.
I'd had twelve years to sort of gear myself up to tell Lana and I was still scared to death to tell her.
Shouldn't it be easier to tell Lois? The rest of my life wasn't wrapped up in her reaction. If Lois didn't react well, what was the worst that would happen?
She could want a divorce or an annulment sooner rather than later. And if she did, I'd have to tell her the whole truth about what Navance had said and show her the letters again and remind her about what would happen and hope that I could convince her that I could help protect her and the baby better than I could if I wasn't invulnerable. Surely she'd accept that if nothing else.
But what if Lana hadn't reacted well?
My heart would have been broken. Eventually, I would have picked myself up and moved on, but it would have been shattered for a long time if Lana had told me she couldn’t accept my differences.
So what was I going to do this week?
How was I going to tell her?
Could I just tell my mom I wasn't going to and let her take care of it?
I sighed.
That was a cop-out.
I'd done enough of that lately.
I knew this wasn't the life I'd planned for myself, but at some point I had to step up and take responsibility for it. Lois was my wife and my parents, my dad especially, had raised me better than that.
I'd started asking myself what I would do if it was me and Lana in a situation. I hated that because I knew that I shouldn't be thinking about her or about me and her like that, but at the same time, if I knew what I should do to take care of Lana if the need had come up, then I would know what I should be doing with Lois.
Sort of.
It wasn't like I was going to make love to her when she had a bad day or was feeling depressed about her appearance or anything like that. Of course, I really had no idea what that part of my life with Lana would have been like either, except that I figured it was something we would have done often.
I sighed as I drove across Ohio. Only another two hours or so and we'd be at our first destination. The more I thought about that, the more I thought I should have found a way to reserve two rooms instead of foolishly believing that we'd manage to make do with one.
Lois chose that moment to stir and then asked when we were going to stop.
I looked at the road signs and decided that this gas station was as good as any.
*****
TBC
