Last time:
Clark
"Cold?" I asked her quietly.
She nodded. "A little bit."
"Shift the blanket a bit."
She did and I managed to shoot a bit of heat vision at her legs. I wrapped my arms around her and we stayed there for most of the movie. I made a couple trips to get popcorn and refresh our drinks, but otherwise we were together.
When it was over, Keith stood up and made an announcement. "Okay, enough with the girlie stuff. Now it's time for some shoot 'em on the big..." He gestured towards the barn. "Um, well, it's not a screen, but you know..."
The guys, including me, cheered and the women all groaned.
"Final feature of the night," he proclaimed loudly, "'Independence Day'."
"That's Laurel's favorite movie," I told a laughing Lois.
"Figures," she whispered. "Besides, I think watching your cousins get blown up on the big... barn could be a lot of fun."
I groaned and pulled her closer to me as the movie started.
*~*75*~*
April 2004
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~
I put my second earring in. "Are you sure you're up for a rematch?" I called to Clark.
Clark leaned against the bathroom door, fully dressed and ready to go.
"Oh, yeah. You're going down this time." I could see him grinning in the mirror.
I rolled my eyes at him as I grabbed my baseball hat and pulled the ponytail through it. "The Cardinals suck this year, too."
He shook his head. "No, this is their year. I can *feel* it."
I turned and leaned against the counter. "I do have a surprise for you though."
"What's that?"
I smiled at him. "Reservations at J. Buck's."
He gasped. "You're kidding!"
I shook my head. "Nope. Joe Buck's even going to be there tonight."
"I *know*."
"That's why we're leaving early," I told him pushing away from the counter. "Reservations are in an hour and by the time we get down there and fight the crowds and all that..."
"We could always fly," he told me. "We wouldn't want to be late."
I headed out the door to our room. "Christopher's downstairs with Dad," I reminded him, punching the code in keypad next to the door. We went to the kitchen and I smothered my son with kisses before handing him giggling to Clark who did the same thing.
"Have fun, you two," Dad told us trading two tickets for his grandson.
"We will," Clark said, resting his arm on my shoulder as we walked out. "Cardinals are going to win this time."
"Good luck with that," Daddy and I said at the same time as I bumped Clark's hip with mine.
I decided that, since we were on a date, I'd let Clark drive.
I thought back to our first official date and was sure that this would be much better, even if it still wasn't a 'real' date.
Dinner at J. Buck's was great. I had a pulled barbeque chicken sandwich with fries and Clark had some kind of fajita steak special. We finished about an hour before game time and headed towards the ball park.
This time things were different. I could feel it. We were more comfortable holding hands and laughing than we had been; his thumb would often rub the back of my shoulder as his arm rested on the seat behind me instead of practically falling off the back in an effort to avoid touching me.
Some things hadn't changed, though. We cheered at opposite times, just like we had the year before.
Star and Andre weren't there – a couple of people I didn't know were in their seats.
"Are we doing anything after the game?" Clark asked between innings.
I shrugged. "Do you want to? Daddy or Jess will get Christopher down for the night."
"We could." He leaned closer to me and whispered. "Would you like to go flying?"
I turned to look at him. "Seriously?"
He shrugged. "Sure. Why not? We can head out to New Troy National Forest and leave from there."
"Can we go all those places that you went when you were avoiding me?" I asked, biting my bottom lip.
I saw guilt flit across his face. "Well, probably not all of them, but some." He whispered in my ear. "I doubt you'd want to hang out on an iceberg while I melt it."
I rolled my eyes. "Probably not."
Suddenly, I couldn’t wait for the game to be over.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I pulled into a parking spot near the trail head. I checked the parking lot to make sure we were alone before I zipped around the car to open Lois' door for her before she could do it herself. She rolled her eyes at me as I did.
I clicked the lock button on the key fob before we started up the trail. As soon as we rounded the first corner, I moved behind her and wrapped my arms around her. "Ready?" I asked.
She nodded.
It was the first time we'd been flying since we went to see my parents on our anniversary. "Where to first?"
"I've always wanted to see Mt. Everest, but would I actually survive if we did?"
I lifted us quickly off the ground and into the air. "Probably, but it's the wrong time of year for us to do that. I mean, you'd be fine, but this is climbing season. There's all kinds of people at base camp and all that and we wouldn't want to risk being seen. We can go another time if you want."
"That's right. Early May is the best time to summit, isn't it?"
"According to that Surviving Everest special we watched it is."
"This is incredible," she whispered as we flew over the Pacific Ocean.
"Isn't it?" I slowed down so we could watch the sunset. "How about the Great Wall? We could check it for cracks."
She laughed. "I don't know about checking it for cracks, but the Great Wall sounds good."
I sped us up again and in a few minutes we were standing on a deserted section of the Wall.
"This is amazing," Lois said, looking around in awe.
I proceeded to tell her what I knew about the history of the Wall. After a few minutes of walking, I realized that even here, in the middle of nowhere where the *only* people who might *possibly* see us were people we'd never, ever see again, and we were holding hands. Just gently clasped – no intertwined fingers or anything like that – but still nestled comfortably together.
We walked – and floated; the part of the Wall we were on wasn't well maintained – along for nearly an hour chatting about anything and nothing, really. Finally, I glanced at my watch. "We should probably head back," I told her, reluctantly.
She nodded. "Probably."
"I'll take you somewhere else another time," I promised.
"Okay."
I wrapped my arms around her and we took off.
It wasn't long before we landed where we took off. She shivered slightly and I wrapped an arm around her to help keep her a bit warmer as we walked back to the Jeep.
Fifteen minutes later, we pulled up in front of the house and we headed upstairs. Lois headed to the closet to get something to wear and then to the bathroom to change. It was a 'nightgown' night, I knew. Date nights always were.
By the time she was done changing, I was already in bed – head on the pillow, eyes closed, covers pulled most of the way up – just as I always was on those nights.
~*~*~
May 2004
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I could hear Christopher making noise in the other room, but I just didn't want to move. It was way too comfortable under the covers.
My eyes opened wide as I realized why.
Clark was lying right behind me, one arm wrapped around my stomach holding me close to him.
He *never* did that.
Well, not *never*, but never on nights when I was wearing a nightgown.
We'd found ourselves waking up closer together more often – once every other week or so. I refused to think about what that might mean except that we didn't hate each other anymore. A few times, I'd even found myself behind him, his back against me, my arm around him, holding him, my hand resting on his stomach or his arm.
I sighed and forced myself to stop thinking about what it was like to feel his warm skin...
Just then, Christopher finally let out a loud scream. It wasn't like he was really crying or anything like that – just getting impatient.
"Sounds like someone needs his mom," Clark mumbled, rolling away and freeing me to get up without bothering him.
I glanced at the clock. "Clark!" I said sharply. "We've got to get going or we're going to be late for finals."
He groaned. "I'm up, I'm up."
I headed into the other room and hoped that Christopher would nurse quickly this morning. He cooperated and I apologized to Jessica for not having him completely dressed and his diaper changed before handing him off. I rushed through the rest of my morning routine and we were only about five minutes late getting out the door.
It was a day where we had very similar schedules so we were riding together. I drove, knowing I could shave more minutes off our drive time than Clark could and he knew it, too.
After our last morning of finals, we headed for the Daily Planet. Clark was still working in the mail room and I was still in Clerical Services, but it wasn't all bad. Billy and Serena asked for my help fairly often so I wasn't stuck making photocopies and cold calling potential customers. I got to my cubicle and had emails from both Rehalia and Serena telling me to report to the newsroom when I got in.
I headed downstairs and found the Billy in the conference room working on a project. Jimmy was in there with them and we quickly got to work. About fifteen minutes later, Serena walked in.
Her eyes were soft as Billy looked up at her. "Hey," he said quietly, standing up to give her a kiss.
My eyes caught a sparkle. I grinned at them. "What's that?" I asked, mischievously nodding at her hand.
Billy grinned as he pulled her close to him and she rested her head on his shoulder. "She said she'd marry me."
I squealed and stood up to give her a big hug. Jimmy smacked Billy on the back.
"When's the big day?" I asked.
"We're not sure yet," she told me. "We're thinking probably around the holidays. The news is usually fairly slow so we don't have to worry about missing something big. And besides," she whispered conspiratorially, "then going to Hawaii will be really nice."
I laughed. "Sounds like a good plan to me."
We spent another hour working on the story before I had to head back upstairs. At six, Clark stopped by. He'd finished early but I still had another hour.
"Want me to go grab something to eat on the way home?" he asked.
"That'd be great," I told him smiling. "How about... Chinese?" I asked hopefully. He'd brought the most wonderful Chinese – from China! – a few weeks earlier when we'd gone for a horseback ride instead of a more traditional date.
He laughed. "Chinese it is."
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I pulled my wallet out of my pocket to see if I had any money on me or if I needed to stop at the ATM. I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going and was caught off-guard when someone ran into me.
"I'm sorry," I said quickly looking up. "I wasn't watching..." I stared for a long minute before I spoke again. "Lana, I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going."
She shrugged. "I'm okay."
"I'm glad," I said softly, my heart skipping a beat as she sighed.
She pointed to my wallet. "Is that him?"
I glanced down. A picture of Christopher was visible. I nodded. "Yeah, that's him."
"I heard you named him after your dads."
"Christopher Jonathan," I confirmed, pulling the picture sleeves out and handing them over.
"Rachel said the shindig was a lot of fun over Spring Break."
I hesitated. "It was. It's been a long time since my whole family's been together. Keith put movies up on the side of the barn."
"I heard." She stared at the picture for a long time. "He looks just like you."
She wasn't the first person to say that, but it wasn't possible so I went with the old standby. "He's a doll," I confirmed.
Before I could stop her, she flipped the sleeve over.
There was a picture of me and my parents and then one of Lois and Christopher. It was... appropriate for me to carry a picture of my wife and our son in my wallet, but I didn't know what Lana would think about it.
No, I knew what she would think.
Exactly what she was supposed to think.
That I loved my wife and my son.
And that was the truth. I did love my son – more than anything – but I loved Lois, too. I wasn't *in* love with her, but I did love her.
"Are you happy?" she asked suddenly.
I hesitated. Was I?
Finally, I nodded. "Yeah, I'm happy."
That was the truth, not the whole truth, but the truth, nonetheless.
Lois and I were friends and we had decent jobs and school was going well. We lived in a great house with few expenses. Would I have been *happier* if my life was very different? Probably, but that wasn't the question. I had a good life, for the moment at least. It had been a month since we'd received any threats. Christopher was tons of fun as he explored his world.
And Lois and I were friends again.
I'd already thought that once, but it bore repeating. When we'd been distant, I hadn't been happy at all. Once we were able to really talk, things were much better.
I heard the little hitch in her breathing as I answered her question. I knew it wasn't what she wanted to hear but it was what I had to tell her and not just because it was the truth.
"CK!" I turned to see Jimmy coming out of the Daily Planet's front entrance.
"Hey, Jimmy," I said as he pulled to a stop next to me. I gestured to Lana. "This is an old friend of mine from high school. Jimmy, Lana. Lana, Jimmy. Jimmy works with us at the Planet and is kind of Lois' brother." I put a slight emphasis on the us.
She held out her hand and gave a small smile. "Nice to meet you." She turned back to me and handed the pictures over. "Here. He's beautiful, Clark. Really. I'm glad you're happy." She spun on her heel and practically ran the other way.
I watched as she left, sighing as she turned the corner. "What's up, Jim?" I asked, turning back to my friend.
He held out an envelope. "This came for you. It fell on the floor in the newsroom, but I thought you might want it before you left for the day."
I took it from him and turned it over in my hands. There was no return address and the postmark was too smudged even for me to read.
I opened it carefully, pulling out the single sheet of paper.
I could feel myself going pale as I read.
"What is it?" Jimmy asked.
"It's him." My voice sounded strangled, even to me.
"Who?"
I hesitated. "Nothing, Jimmy. Nothing I can talk about anyway. When I can, I'll let you know. I promise." I looked him in the eye. "I need you to do something for me. I need you to call Sam and tell him I said 'Rosebud'. Just like that. 'Clark said Rosebud', okay?"
He nodded and I turned and ran back inside, zipping up the stairs as fast as I could.
Navance was back and it was the worst threat yet.
*****
TBC
