Last time:
Clark
"I think Lois hurt Joe pretty badly when we got married," I told him, setting Christopher on the blanket and pulling out his cow keys to try to keep him occupied while I changed his diaper. "They'd been on-again, off-again since they were sixteen and were about to try again – seriously – when we were in Europe. She was afraid that he was going to be mad, because the two of them had never..." I sighed. "She'd always refused to have sex with him while they weren't a serious couple and then to find out she was pregnant... She was afraid he'd be mad and hate her."
"Did he?"
I shook my head as I snapped Christopher's outfit back into place. "No. He understood then offered to marry her because he didn't think I'd take responsibility or at least that I wouldn't marry her. She hadn't told him yet that I already had. I was telling Lana at the time and I ran into him downstairs when I left. He told me I'd better take care of her or else I'd have to answer to him."
"Why didn't the two of you tell them together?" Dad asked.
I looked up at him.
"What?" he asked, defensive.
I shrugged. "I don't think it occurred to either of us. I talked to Lana and she talked to Joe at the same time." That might have been a smarter idea, but it was way too late for that.
We spent another hour at the lake before deciding it was time to head back.
Christopher slept the whole way.
*~*79*~*
September 2004
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
"Serena, we can't accept these." I handed them back.
"We have four," she told me. "We only need two. We thought about inviting you and Jimmy, but his dad's getting in town that weekend and only for a couple of days so... Not that we didn't want to invite Clark, but the story was about you and Jimmy and we only had two extras."
"Right." I stared at the tickets in her hand. "Are you sure?"
She nodded. "Definitely. We want you there."
I took them and grinned. "Kerth Awards, here we come!"
She laughed.
I frowned.
"What?"
"I don't think Clark has a tux and I'm going to need a dress." My eyes were wide, I was sure. "I'm going to have to go shopping." I grabbed my purse. "I'll see you later. Thanks again!"
I could hear her laughter behind me as I ran off.
"Where's the fire?" Clark asked, falling in step beside me as I neared the elevator.
"We're going to the Kerth Awards." I was sure my eyes were sparkling. This was a dream come true. Almost. The dream had me winning one, but this was a good start.
"We are?" he asked, incredulous.
I nodded. "Serena and Billy got two tickets each for the adoption story. Since they only need two, they gave us the other two. They were going to ask me and Jimmy since it's our story, but Jimmy can't go so they asked us."
"I don't have a tux."
"I know. And I don't have a dress." I snapped my fingers. "Daddy said he wanted us to go to the Adoption Option fundraiser next month and that he'd get me a dress and you a tux for that so maybe he'll get them early. He's getting Christopher a tux, too."
Clark raised an eyebrow at me as we left the elevator. "We're taking a one-year-old to a fancy shindig in a tux?"
I laughed. "It's downstairs. He'll be there for about an hour, hour and a half and then Jessica will put him to bed while we mingle. Jimmy's coming and I think both of his parents are going to be there."
"What is Adoption Option anyway? I mean, I've heard him mention it, but we haven't really talked about what it is."
"It's his new organization. It's part of the Sam and Ellen Lane Foundation. They're going to work with women in the middle of unplanned pregnancies but don't want abortions and aren't sure they can raise the baby themselves, but still want to know their child. They're going to promote open and semi-open adoptions. They'll facilitate meetings between pregnant moms and prospective adoptive parents." I pulled out of the parking garage and into traffic.
"After the whole thing with Jimmy and everything, he decided to promote open adoptions more actively and started setting this up. He talked to me about it and wanted to make sure that all of us – Dave's family – were okay with it before he did. He was originally going to find a group to support through the Foundation, but he couldn't find one like he wanted. One thing he wants to specialize in is adoptions of kids who they know are going to have special needs – Downs Syndrome babies, for instance – or for moms who know their kids are at higher risk for certain things because they run in families. Like David Eckstein."
"Right," Clark answered. "He's the Cardinals shortstop. Something like half his family has needed kidney transplants at some point and his sisters' kids probably will eventually, too. His dad turned down one of David's kidneys in case one of his sisters' kids or even his own kids needed it someday."
"Exactly. So take one of his sisters as a for instance. She gets pregnant but doesn't want to have an abortion. Maybe she's in college or high school or whatever and, if it weren't for the potential health problems, she'd consider adoption in a heartbeat. But she knows that her baby could have kidney problems – severe ones, requiring a transplant at some point. She doesn't want to give her baby up for adoption to a family who may not understand the gravity of the situation, but she also doesn't want whoever adopts the baby to not have resources if something does happen eventually – access to family medical records, things like that."
"Enter Adoption Option," Clark said with a grin.
"Exactly. With Dave, none of us could have known that the leukemia was a possibility. There's no history of it in Mom's family. I have no idea about Bobo the Sperm Guy's family. But if it had been an open adoption anyway, he'd still be here."
I pulled up in front of Street's Formal Wear. "Let's go."
My phone rang and I talked to Daddy for a minute. He okayed the early purchase of the formal wear and we headed in.
"Can I help you?" the young blond woman asked.
I looked around. "We need a dress and a tux. It's on Sam Lane's account."
She smiled. "Dr. Lane is a good customer." She held out her hand. "I'm Mayson."
"Lois," I said shaking it. "Daddy said you guys are the best."
She laughed. "He's told us all about you. He said you'd be in with your son." She looked around. "Is he with you?"
I shook my head. "This is a spur of the moment trip. This is my husband, Clark." They shook hands. "We have a formal event to go to next week that we hadn't planned on attending so..." I shrugged. "Here we are."
We spent the next forty-five minutes laughing and trying on different clothes. I never did see Clark in his tux, though he saw me in my dress as Mayson took measurements.
She seemed nice enough and before long, we were on our way.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I was whining. I knew I was whining. "I can't get this thing straight."
Lois rolled her eyes at me. "I told you to give me a minute and I'd help you fix it."
"I'm too impatient for that."
"Since when?"
"I'm nervous."
"You're not the one up for an award," she reminded me.
"So?"
"So what do you have to be nervous about?"
"Perry White's going to be there. Franklin Stern. All sorts of other famous media types."
She sighed as she finished applying her lipstick. "You'll be fine. Just don't step on my toes if we dance." She turned towards me. "Hold still."
I sighed and raised my chin as she fixed my tie.
"There. All done."
I looked at my reflection in the mirror. "How'd you do that?" And in like two seconds.
She smiled at me. "I'm good. Now, go kiss your son goodbye while I go to the bathroom and then we'll go."
I laughed and went to find Christopher.
He was in the kitchen with Sam. "I can't even imagine what he's going to look like in one of these," I told my father-in-law as I carefully stayed out of the reach of peanut butter fingers.
"He'll look adorable," Sam said, wiping his fingers with a wet wipe before tackling Christopher's.
I laughed. "I'm sure he will." I kissed the top of Christopher's head. "Be good for Grandpa, bud."
"He always is," Lois said, walking into the room.
Sam smiled at her. "Sweetheart, you look beautiful." He was right. She looked great.
"Thanks, Daddy." She accepted his kiss on the cheek before kissing Christopher's head, just as I had. "Sorry, little man. Too much peanut butter on you to get much closer."
He just laughed and waved his sticky fingers.
I glanced at my watch. "We better get moving. Thanks, Sam."
"My pleasure." He grimaced as Christopher managed to get his hands on Sam's sleeve. "Get out of here."
I held an elbow out to Lois. "Shall we?"
She rolled her eyes, even as she slipped a hand inside the crook of my arm. "Let's go."
We pulled up in front of the Press Club where the annual event was held. Someone held open both of our doors and then parked the Jeep. Valet parking. Nice.
We headed inside where we were greeted warmly by Billy and Serena. After we found our seats, I turned to Lois.
"Would you like to dance?" I asked hesitantly.
She looked surprised. We'd never actually danced together before – at least not since the Tush Push. "Sure," she finally said.
I took her hand and led her to the dance floor before pulling her into my arms, one hand resting lightly on her waist and her hand in my other one.
"You're a good dancer," she said quietly.
"You're not bad yourself. Nice to know you can do more than Two-Step."
She groaned. "That reminds me. We have the weekend of the Corn Festival off. Do you want to go? It'd be a pretty quick trip but..."
I smiled. "I did promise you a Tush Push if you ever made it to the Corn Festival, didn't I?"
She nodded. If I didn't know better, I'd say she also managed to shift slightly closer to me.
"Sounds good to me then," I told her. "I bet Christopher will enjoy it, too." She gave me a quizzical look. "Well, as much as a fifteen-month-old can. He'll enjoy seeing his Grandma and Grandpa."
"And I'm sure they'll enjoy seeing him," she said with a smile.
"I haven't told you this yet, but you look beautiful tonight."
She looked down and blushed. "Thank you. You look pretty nice yourself."
"Thanks."
We danced for a while longer before I found myself dancing with Serena and Lois with Billy.
"How're the wedding plans coming?" I asked her.
She sighed. "Stressful. My mother wants to release doves."
I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Exactly. What about you two? Was your wedding stressful?"
I hesitated. "We eloped on the spur-of-the-moment," I said honestly. "We were out of the country and found out Lois was pregnant and..." I shrugged. "The whole thing took about twenty minutes of planning." That much was true. The wedding planning part was easy. The breaking Lois out of the hospital and getting us out of the country planning took a couple of days.
"Maybe that's the way to go," she sighed. "Not the pregnant foreign country thing, but just run off to Vegas or something. Do you ever wish you'd had a big wedding or even a small one?"
I shrugged. "It never bothered me. Not really. This spring when we went home, my whole family got together and had a big 'meet Clark's wife and son' barbeque. That was fun, but... I didn't really miss the big wedding thing." I smothered a sigh as Lana came unbidden to mind. I would have missed a real wedding with her. I knew that. But I didn't with Lois.
"What about Lois?"
"We've never talked about it. You'd have to ask her, I guess."
I was grateful that the announcement was made to return to our seats.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I closed my eyes and rested my head on the back of the seat as Clark drove us home. "I can't wait to win an award of my own," I sighed.
"It'll happen," he promised.
"Oh, I know. Eventually, I'll have a Pulitzer, too."
He chuckled. "I don't doubt it. I bet I'll beat you to it, though."
I snorted. "Unlikely."
"How about we win one together then?" he asked, squeezing my hand lightly.
"Like Lana'll let you anywhere near me after the divorce," I said, without thinking.
There was a long pause. "Well, then, I guess we'll have to win it for the overthrow of Navance."
I didn't say anything for a long minute. "Did Serena ask you about our wedding?" I finally said.
"Yeah. I guess she asked you, too?"
I nodded. "Wanted to know if we would have preferred a real wedding."
"Would you?" he asked.
"I would have preferred a wedding where a dictator wasn't the driving force behind it."
"Good point," he replied.
I sighed and changed the subject. "My feet hurt."
"Mine don't." I could hear the amusement in his voice.
"I don't think I like you anymore."
"Sure you do."
"Only if you promise to take me flying again sometime soon."
"Deal."
We hadn't been flying again since we'd been to the Great Wall. It was late enough in the year that maybe we could go to Everest before long.
"When's the Adoption Option soiree again?" he asked me.
"The weekend after the Corn Festival."
"Busy couple of weeks."
I nodded. "So if I'm going to venture out into Smallville society... has it been long enough for them to have forgotten about the whole 'seduced Lana's boyfriend and forced him to marry her when she got pregnant' thing?"
I shrugged. "Most people will have moved on. If we run into Lana's parents or something... That might be a different story."
"Can we avoid them then?"
"I'm planning on trying."
"That's good."
We didn't speak for a while and I relived every moment that I'd spent dancing in Clark's arms.
It was everything I'd thought it would be and then some. If only he'd wanted to be there as badly as I had.
Lana's name had come up – in my head and in conversation – more than once. I hated that. Things had been going so well and even though we still were very unconventional, I hated that she was ruining my night.
I sighed. She wasn't even here. She could only ruin my night if I let her. And I wasn't going to let her.
It had been a great night and I'd seen several of my idols up close. That had been really nice. I'd wanted to ask for autographs, but I thought that might be a faux pas. Maybe some other time. I promised myself that if I was ever in their spot and someone wanted my autograph, I'd do my best to make time for them.
We pulled up in front of the house and I even waited long enough for Clark to open my door for me. I rested my head against his shoulder, his arm around me as we headed upstairs.
He punched his code in the keypad as I yawned.
For a few minutes, I wondered what it would be like if I was able to take that tux off of him. He looked beyond good.
He looked... super.
I sighed.
"Tired?" he asked quietly.
I nodded. "And my feet still hurt."
He chuckled lightly. "Why don't you go do whatever it is you need to do to get ready for bed and I'll give you a foot rub?"
The back rub he'd given me while we were in lockdown had done the trick. It had been fabulous. I was sure a foot rub would be, too.
"It's only fair," I told him through another yawn.
"What?"
"Your feet never hurt so it's only fair you give me a foot rub."
He chuckled again and I moved in front of him, my head still resting on his chest, my arms at my side. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on my head. It seemed a bit of a stretch for him. Normally, I fit perfectly underneath it, but the heels must have been throwing everything off.
I sighed and pulled away, heading for the bathroom. "I'll be right out," I told him.
"I'll be waiting." I heard a 'whoosh' and knew he was done.
It was the night after a fancy shindig and a Saturday to boot. I managed to get out of the dress and heels and all the other contraptions of torture I was sure had been invented by men and slipped into the floor length black, satin gown. I grabbed the robe and tossed it over the chair as I headed for the bed.
He'd already turned down the covers and I flopped down on my stomach, bending one knee to hold my foot up in the air.
"Work your magic," I told him.
He laughed and a second later, his hands were wrapped around my foot. "Just relax."
I did and the next thing I knew, it was morning.
*****
TBC
David Eckstein\'s Story
