Thanks, as always, to Alisha, Beth, Nancy, CarolynK.
Last time:
Lois
I sighed and willed the tears back in. "I don't suppose you have any way to just fly us all there in a few minutes or something, do you?"
He didn't say anything.
"Relax," I told him. "Even if there was an airport handy, it wouldn't be worth the hassle."
"Yeah." He looked around again, but more nervously than he had the last time. "Listen, I was hoping to make it all the way to Springfield, Missouri from here before we stop again. That's about four hours. It's only about two and a half hours from there to Smallville.
Can you make it that long?"
I nodded. "I think so."
"Do you want a drink then? Or to stop and get something to eat or do you just want to have sandwiches?"
"Sandwiches are fine and if I want to make it all the way to Springfield, I better not drink a whole lot. My bladder's only about the size of a walnut."
Lana chose that moment to come out of the convenience store. I tried not to look too closely at her, but I could tell her cheeks were blotchy and her eyes were red. She went straight to the Jeep and climbed in the back seat. Almost immediately, she put her pillow against the window and covered herself completely with her blanket.
I sighed. "Let's go. The sooner we get going..."
"...the sooner we'll get there."
A few minutes later, we were back on the road, the only noise in the Jeep coming from Clark's playlists and what I was sure were Lana's sniffles.
*~*46*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Thank God we were almost home.
We'd crossed the Missouri-Kansas border nearly an hour earlier and I could smell the difference.
Literally.
Kansas smelled different than Metropolis.
That wasn't really much of a shock.
Since we'd left Greenville, Illinois the car had been eerily quiet, except for the music that was playing off the iPod Lois had given me. I'd hurt Lana terribly in Greenville and I knew it. We'd pulled off I-44 in Springfield, Missouri and stopped at a gas station in front a big CostMart. The second the Jeep stopped, Lana had taken off for the McDonald's next door. She didn't come out until I pulled up next to the door to the restaurant to wait for her.
I thought about pushing the speed limit a bit more but I knew how legendary the speed traps in Crawford County were and it wasn't worth shaving five minutes off the time.
Lois looked out the window with interest as we finally drove through Smallville. A few minutes later, I pulled up in front of Lana's house. None of us spoke as I opened the back hatch and pulled her suitcase out. I set it on the front porch as she slammed the Jeep door behind her.
"We'll be here about ten on Saturday unless you hear otherwise."
She shrugged. "Whatever."
I sighed. "I'm sorry, Lana. Really. I am."
"You're a bastard, Clark." With that, she opened the door, obviously dismissing me.
I had no desire to run into either of her parents, so I turned and left.
I pointed a few things out to Lois as we drove through town. Where we held the Corn Festival. Smallville Middle and High School. South Smallville Elementary. My stomach felt a bit weird as I pointed out Shuster's Field, but it always did around there – I'd never figured out why.
"Clark!" Lois said suddenly.
"What?"
She looked down at herself. "I can't meet your parents like this!"
"What?"
She gave an exasperated sigh. "Your old T-shirt and sweats."
I smiled slightly. "Where exactly do you plan on changing?"
"The middle of a corn field, behind a cow, I don't care," she informed me.
I chuckled. Something I hadn't done in a long time. "My parents won't care, trust me." I sobered. "They'll be too happy to meet you and hear all about the baby and everything." I turned. "Besides, we're here."
She didn’t say anything as I pulled up next to the house.
I turned to look at her. She looked nervous and scared. Not surprising. I took a deep breath and then put my hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay."
She swiped at the tear that started down her cheek. "If you say so."
I sighed and got out, walking around. I opened her door. "Come here."
She only hesitated for a second, but then was standing next to me, unsure what to do. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close to me. She sighed and put her arms around me, resting her cheek on my chest. I noticed again how my chin fit right on the top of her head.
"It's going to be okay," I told her again.
"No," she whispered. "It's not. Not until the maniac is off my back and somehow I doubt that's going to end after five years. Something will happen. He'll change the law again or something."
"Or maybe somebody else he pissed off will shoot him tomorrow."
"Wouldn’t that be nice? Then you could tell Lana everything and, if we could get the divorce or annulment or whatever in time, you two could still get married this summer."
I hesitated. "I think that even if we were able to get annulled and it was finalized tomorrow, Lana and I would have a lot of stuff to work through before we could get married."
The door behind me opened. "Clark?" It was Mom.
"Here goes nothing," Lois whispered.
"It'll be okay," I whispered back.
We both took a deep breath and turned towards the house.
I forced a smile onto my face. "Hi, Mom."
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
A small blond woman pushed the screen door open. "I thought I heard a car pull up."
Clark took my hand and we walked up the stairs onto the porch. He let go and grabbed her around the waist. "Hey, Mom," he repeated quietly.
"Put me down," she laughed.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Don't 'ma'am' me, young man," she said, smacking him lightly as he set her on the porch. She turned to me. "You must be Lois."
"That's me," I said uncomfortably. "Hi, Mrs. Kent."
She rolled her eyes. "I thought we got over this nonsense. It's Martha." She glanced at Clark. "Or Mom if you want." He didn't react and the next thing I knew I was enveloped in a big hug. She let go a minute later and looked me over again. "You sure are pretty." She turned to Clark again. "It's okay if I tell her that, isn't it?"
We glanced at each other uncomfortably. "I don't know. Ask her."
She hugged me again. "Well, Lois, you sure are pretty."
"Thanks, Martha." I hugged her back this time – slightly more enthusiastically.
"Where's Dad?"
"Upstairs on the phone. Wayne Irig called right before you got here. He's talking to him about crops or something." She left one arm around me. "Clark, why don't you empty the car?"
"Yes, Mom."
Gentle pressure moved me in the direction of the door. "You kids must be starved. How's your evening sickness?"
"Better, thank you. I haven't thrown up in four days." I groaned inwardly. I couldn't believe I'd just said that to my mother-in-law.
"That's great!" she said with a big smile. "Dinner's almost ready."
"You waited for us?" I asked as I looked around the homey living room. "You didn't have to do that."
"Nonsense," she said, leading the way to the kitchen.
I heard Clark setting things on the porch.
"Have a seat." Martha gestured towards the table. "Is there anything I can get for you now?"
"No, I'm fine, thank you." I stretched my back. It was stiff after spending over twenty hours on the road. I heard Clark moving in the house and up the stairs I'd seen in the living room. There were voices upstairs and then two sets of footsteps coming down, out the door and then back up.
"I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better," Martha said, startling me slightly.
"You and me both," I said honestly.
She sat down at the table and I sat across from her.
"Tell me about yourself. If you don't mind, of course."
I shook my head. "Not a whole lot to tell. My mom and little sister were killed in a car accident about eight years ago. I lived with my dad until I moved on campus last fall." I stared at my hands. "Clark and I drove up to Bremerton in early November and got stuck in a snow storm. We survived but were there for a week. Life went on as normal until we got stuck in Europe and I found out I was pregnant." I shrugged. "We got married and here we are, I guess."
I heard the footsteps head back out the door.
"How was your trip?"
I hesitated. "Could have been worse," I finally said honestly.
"But it could have been better?" she asked gently.
I nodded. "Yeah, but I didn't really expect it to go very smoothly."
"Want to tell me what happened?"
I sighed. Did I want to? It wasn't like I had anyone I could talk to besides Clark and he wasn't exactly the best option in this situation. Finally I just shrugged. "Twenty-some hours in the car with my husband's ex-girlfriend and sharing a hotel room with her when we couldn't get a second one. Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?" I wasn't quite sure why I'd said 'my husband's ex-girlfriend' instead of 'Lana'. Martha knew who she was in relation to Clark. Was I staking some claim? A 'he's not just your son, he's my husband' kind of thing?
"Has she been giving you a hard time?"
"Not really. Mostly we avoid each other and ignore each other as much as possible."
"Sounds like that might not be a bad plan."
The timer went off and she stood up.
"Can I help you at all?" I kind of hoped she said no. Not because I didn't want to help but because I had always been useless in the kitchen.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I set the suitcases and laptop bags down in my room and sighed. This week wasn't going to be easy. I didn't think my parents would expect us to be 'normal' newlyweds or anything like that, but more than anything, I wanted to tell them everything. They would understand and be careful and help us protect Lois and the baby.
But I couldn't. I had to pull off the official story. The way Lois and I had been around each other for the last couple months... It wasn't going to work here. I wasn't going to be able to run to work or the library or anywhere else to avoid her. That's what I'd been doing. I'd denied it to myself, saying that I was giving her space, trying to not make her uncomfortable. The reality was I'd been staying away so that I wouldn't have to spend time with her. Not because I didn't like her or whatever, but because our circumstances were so different and I felt like it was a betrayal of Lana.
"Thought I heard you come in," came a voice behind me.
I turned and made myself smile. "Hi, Dad."
I was enveloped in a bear hug before I knew what was happening.
"Missed you, son," he said gruffly.
"I've missed you, too, Dad."
He looked at the pile. "Is that everything?"
I shook my head. "Not quite. Blankets and pillows and a couple other small bags."
"Let's go."
We didn't say anything as we headed downstairs and out the front door. We picked up everything except the cooler and went back to my room. Our arms were full, but much lighter than the first trip – not that the weight bothered me, of course. We set it all down and went back outside.
I started to pick up the cooler and head for the kitchen, but Dad was leaning against the rail, a sure sign he wanted to talk to me.
I don't know why that surprised me.
"Have you told her yet?" he asked quietly.
I stood next to him, leaning my forearms on the rail. "No."
"Why not?"
I sighed. "You pounded the whole 'dissect me like a frog' thing in deep. I know nothing can hurt me anymore, but if the wrong person found out, you and Mom and Lois and the baby would all be at risk. Telling *anyone* scares me. The only people who've ever known anything were you and Mom and Chris – and he knew very little and certainly didn't tell anyone. I'd been planning on telling Lana for years but I never did and *that* scared the hell out of me." I paused. "Now I have to tell Lois – and I understand why, really I do – but I haven't known her very long and I still don't know her as well as I should because it's only been... eight or nine months since I met her. It scares me to tell her. I think she'll probably be okay with it or whatever, but I also think she'll be mad at me for not telling her sooner and I figured a few miles of empty farmland as a buffer between her and anyone who might hear her yelling was a good plan."
Dad chuckled. "That might not be a bad plan after all." He paused. "When are you going to tell her?"
"Tomorrow or Monday, I guess. I don't want to tonight. She's exhausted from the trip and all."
"How long have you been married now?"
I wished I didn't have to search my memory quite as much as I did. I should know that. "January 3rd."
"How long is that?" he asked again.
I did the math. "Two and a half months or so."
"That's the reason why you should have told her sooner. You've been married too long to have *not* told her."
"I know."
"What if it affects the baby?"
"It doesn't seem to have so far," I told him. "Development is a couple days ahead of where they'd expect it to be, but that's it and that's not too abnormal at all. The ultrasound looked fine." I knew that, ultimately, my Krptonian physiology wouldn't affect the baby at all, but there was no way that Dad could know that.
"What about the effect on Lois?"
I sighed. "She's been sick, but she's getting better – a lot better the last few days, she said. That's not unusual either, I guess. Just that it didn't hit her until later." I couldn't tell him that I had no idea why that was. It certainly wasn't because the baby was half-Kryptonian.
I had a flash to the night at the cabin, kissing Lana who morphed into Lois, but I shook it off.
"How're you doing, Clark? Really? I know this isn't the life you'd planned – not even close – but how are you really doing?"
I stared at the barn. "It's hard," I finally said. "The apartment's a hole; it's being shut down for renovations in May for a reason, but I don't have a clue where we're going to go and there's very little available that our scholarships will cover so we're probably going to have to pay for it out of pocket. School's fine. I've got four classes with Lois, two of those are with Lana, too. I've got another class with Lana that Lois isn't in. I'm doing fine in all my classes. I got a job at the Daily Planet a few weeks ago – in the mailroom. It's not glamorous but it's a paycheck. I don't think it's going to pay for an apartment and childcare and all that." I sighed. "To be honest, things aren't great with Lois. A lot of that's my fault – I know that. I've been avoiding her a lot because even though I made the decision to marry her for the sake of the baby and I still think it was the right thing to do, I resent her and the baby at the same time because it's *not* the life I was planning on."
"Clark..."
I hurried on. "I know. It's not right. It was my decision. She didn't pressure me or anything like that." That much was the truth. "*I* was the one who suggested we get married. *I* was the one who made the arrangements. *I* was the one who bought the rings." I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "I know I need to make more of an effort. I need to get to know her better and she needs to get to know me if this is going to work." That was true, too; even though it was only going to last about five years, we were going to have to get along or we were going to be absolutely miserable.
"You finally got what you always wanted," Dad said after a few minutes. "A family. Not the way you planned but..."
"Yeah."
We heard Mom calling from inside and I picked up the cooler as we went in.
*****
TBC
