Last time:
Lois
"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.
*~*80*~*
October 2004
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I snapped the backpack in place around my waist. "All set, big guy?"
"He looks pretty secure to me," Lois said. "Good thing he can't pull your hair out," she muttered under her breath as he tried to do just that.
I laughed. "Ready?"
She put her sunglasses on. "Let's go paint the town red."
I groaned. "We're not going to paint the town red."
"John Deere Green?" she asked, giving me wide innocent eyes over the top of her glasses.
"Much better," I said, taking her hand. "Where to first?"
She shrugged. "You tell me, Tour Guide Barbie."
"I am *not* Tour Guide Barbie."
"Tour Guide Ken?"
I sighed. "Not even close."
We headed towards the town square where the Corn Festival was in full swing.
"Clark!"
I turned to see Rachel Harris running at me. "Rachel!" I let go of Lois' hand just in time to catch her and swing her around.
Christopher giggled.
"Oops, sorry," she said. "Didn't see the little guy."
I laughed. "He enjoyed it. This is Christopher."
"I figured," she told me with a grin.
I turned to Lois. "And this is my wife, Lois."
Rachel smiled at her and Lois smiled back. "Nice to meet you."
"You, too," Lois said.
"Sheriff's Deputy, huh?" I asked Rachel with a grin.
She shrugged. "I'm not old enough to be Sheriff and Dad's not ready to retire yet anyway." She winked at Lois. "I might give him a run for his money for the nomination in four years, though."
I laughed. "Yeah, right. Your dad's got it sewn up until he retires."
"Probably."
A squawk came over her radio. "Rach?"
She turned her head. "Yeah?"
"Pete's over by the strongman bell ringing thing looking for you."
"Thanks." She turned back to us. "Duty calls."
I raised an eyebrow. "Mom told me about you and Pete."
She groaned. "Fine. Come on. I know he was hoping you'd be here."
We headed across the open green space. We waved to Mom and Dad over by the grill area. I'd grabbed Lois' hand again as we walked.
We chatted with Rachel and we both pointed out a few things to Lois.
"And there's the pitching booth," Rachel told Lois.
I groaned. "No. Not this year."
"What?" Rachel asked me with her biggest, most innocent eyes.
"Yeah, what?" Lois asked.
"Every year, Josh, Pete and Clark have a pitching contest. They each get fifteen pitches; each strike gets a ticket. Whoever does best gets all the tickets and gets to pick a prize for his girlfriend." She whispered conspiratorially. "Clark's never won."
I groaned as Lois laughed. I'd have to try harder this year, if for no other reason than to prove that I could. It was something that I couldn't use my... powers or gifts or whatever to do. It had to do with precision, not power.
"Twelve noon," Rachel told me. "Same as always."
I sighed. "I'll be there."
Lois bumped me with her hip. "Gonna do any better this year?"
"I have to," I told her. "My son'll be watching."
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
Rachel and I laughed at that. "He's one, Clark. He'll never remember," Rachel pointed out.
"That's not the point," Clark groused.
Rachel patted his arm. "I'm sure that Pete and Josh'll let you win since you have a wife and son to impress now."
I giggled and Clark rolled his eyes. "No, they won't. If anything, they'll try harder to embarrass me in front of my wife."
"I don't think you'll need their help," I said under my breath – but loud enough to be heard.
"Hey!" Clark looked wounded.
Rachel and I dissolved into giggles.
"There's Pete," Clark said, relief evident in his voice.
They exchanged the best guy hug thing they could with Christopher on Clark's back. "Pete, this is my wife, Lois."
I held out my hand but found myself wrapped in a big bear hug, feet well off the ground. I laughed.
"Put her down, Pete," Clark said, mild amusement in his voice.
Pete obliged, setting me back down on the ground, but left an arm wrapped around my shoulders. "How do you get anything done, man? Your wife is *hot*!"
Rachel groaned. Clark glared and I was sure I seventeen shades of red.
Pete grinned. "At least you'll have a good excuse for losing this year. You won't be able to concentrate."
"We'll see," Clark told him. "Now, would you mind getting your hands off my wife?"
I thought about bristling a bit at that, but Clark's grin and Rachel's exasperation told me that it probably wasn't Clark being all possessive or anything, but rather some sort of old joke.
"Oh, I don't know," Pete answered with a grin of his own. "I kinda like her."
Clark rolled his eyes and looked at Rachel. "Guess it's you and me then."
Rachel shrugged. "You two are pretty interchangeable. Let's go, Clark."
The two of them started to walk off, Clark putting an arm around Rachel's shoulders as he did.
I felt more than a twinge of jealousy. In some ways, it seemed that was more real than when Clark did the same with me. I mentally shook it off.
"You realize your taking my son with you," I hollered after them. "That means you get the two a.m. wake up calls!" I grinned up at Pete. "They get all the stinky diapers, too."
Clark and Rachel stopped in their tracks. Rachel looked up at Clark. "I don't do dirty diapers."
Clark sighed. "Guess we better trade back then. I avoid them whenever possible."
They turned and walked back to us. I looked back at Pete and shrugged. "I dunno. What do you think?"
He moved closer to me and spoke in a stage whisper. "I think Clark'll beat me up if I don't get my hands off you here pretty quick."
I whispered back. "And if he doesn't, I bet Rachel will."
He laughed. "Probably." He let go of me and moved to grab Rachel by the waist. "I guess I'll keep my favorite Sheriff's Deputy."
Clark laughed with them and put his arm around me. "Good plan, Pete. She does have a gun after all."
Pete shrugged. "So does just about everyone else around here."
"Not on them," Clark pointed out.
"Good point," Pete said, his arms around Rachel as he pulled her to him.
"Let me go." Rachel smacked his arm. "I'm on duty till noon. I made sure I was on break for the Great Baseball Strike Contest."
"What did you two do without me the last couple years?" Clark asked him.
Pete and Rachel shared a look.
"What?" Clark stared at both of them. "Give, you two."
"Um, the first year, it was just me and Josh," Pete said.
Clark shrugged. "So?"
They shared another one of those looks.
Pete sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Last year Tim joined us and almost won something for Lana. He lost to Josh by a strike on the last pitch of the game."
I could feel Clark tense up slightly, but was sure no one else noticed. I wasn't sure if it was the mere mention of Lana or that someone else had been playing for her or the reminder, though unspoken, that she had been pregnant with someone else's child last year.
"I don't think she's here this year," Rachel said suddenly. "At least that's what Kara told me the other day. That she has some big project she's working on for school."
I breathed an internal sigh of relief.
Clark took a deep breath. "Okay, Lois, we have two hours until the showdown. What do you want to do until then?"
I shrugged. "Paint the town John Deere Green, remember, Ken?"
Rachel and Pete shared a puzzled look while Clark groaned.
"Why don't we go find my mom?" he suggested. "I know she wants to show off her grandson."
"He looks just like you, Clark," Pete said. "He's a doll, really, but it's probably better that you leave him somewhere else during the contest. Would hate to for him to see his dad lose."
"Hey, I just might have a good year this year," Clark protested.
Pete laughed. "Man, you haven't had a good year since we were nine and even then you lost."
"He's got a point, Clark," Rachel told him, trying to suppress her own giggles.
"Well, then maybe he's due," I surprised all of us by saying.
"Yeah, maybe I’m due," Clark echoed defensively.
"Clark! Lois!" We all turned to see Martha heading towards us. "We've been wondering where you were. Are you planning on throwing the pitching contest again this year?"
All three of the Smallville natives gasped.
"What?!" Pete and Rachel exclaimed.
"You've *thown* the pitching contest?" Pete asked him.
"No! I've never done that!"
"Cla-rk." Martha's voice held a warning tone.
Clark sighed. "Fine. When we were nine, I did. I missed a couple on purpose because I knew you liked Lisa and wanted to win something for her instead of your mom that year. But that was the last time! I swear!"
Martha, Rachel and I dissolved into giggles at Clark's outrage and Pete's shock.
Clark grabbed my hand. "Come on. Let's get out of here before they tell other stories about me."
I waved at the three of them. "I still haven't seen all the cute, naked baby pictures of you, you know."
"And you won't, if I have anything to say about it," he told me.
"Well, I'll have to go over your head then."
"How do you plan on doing that?" he asked.
"I'll talk to your mom."
"I'll hide 'em all." Clark grinned. "And you can't stop me."
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I had to do better this year.
I stood next to the pitching booth. The entire town was watching. Well, not really, but a few more people than I was comfortable with. Mainly Lois and Christopher.
I couldn't explain it but I didn't want to... fail in front of my son. Or Lois, but something about my son... I knew it was silly. He wouldn't remember it – though I was sure Pete and Josh would remind him regularly when he was older – but that wasn't the point.
"Okay, Clark, you're up first, man," Josh reminded me, clapping me on the shoulder. "But ya gotta get rid of that contraption first."
I unsnapped the carrier and carefully took it off, swinging it around in front of me with Christopher giggling the whole time. The instructions said not to take it off and on with the baby in it, but that was hard to do by yourself and I'd gotten pretty adept at it. It wasn't like I feared dropping him, but I couldn't let myself do anything special in front of anyone else so I'd practiced a few times in private to make sure I could. I was bored one afternoon and it had seemed like the thing to do... Now I was glad I had because if Lois had needed to help me, I never would have heard the end of it. I was sure I'd get enough ribbing as it was for wearing a baby backpack – just not where any women could hear it.
I handed my ticket to Pop Pop who was running the booth. I thought again how good he looked for his age as he handed me the first of three baseballs. I took my spot and glared at Josh and Pete who looked like they were planning something. I tossed the ball up and down a couple of times and then...
Strike.
I grinned. I'd never gotten a first strike before.
Pete rolled his eyes. "Lucky toss."
I glared at him again.
Another strike.
Could I possibly go three for three on my first turn?
I took a deep breath, wound up and threw.
Pete and Josh laughed loudly as I hit the plywood around the opening that marked the strike zone.
Pete got one of his first three in the strike zone, as did Josh and I went into round two with a one strike lead.
Round two was the opposite. I had one strike and they each got two.
Round three saw me and Pete get two strikes and Josh one.
Round four was the opposite – Josh had two strikes and Pete and I one each.
We headed into round five – the final round – six strikes each. As always, we'd rotated who went first each round, with the order determined by who won the last contest. I'd lost the last time so I'd gone first in the first and fourth rounds. Now, in the fifth round, I was last.
Josh managed to get one strike.
Pete laughed it off and proceeded to get two.
Great. I had to be perfect if I was going to win this thing. I'd never had a perfect round in my life.
"Even Lois kissing you for luck won't help you now," Pete said, tossing me a baseball.
I glanced at her and winked. "She gave me a really great good luck kiss earlier when none of you yahoos was around. Why do you think I'm doing so well?"
She rolled her eyes while Pete and Josh let out what could only be described as a guffaw.
I took a deep breath and wound up.
Strike one.
I tossed the second ball up and down, trying to calm myself. We'd never had a tie before. Could I at least pull that off? I threw the ball towards the target.
Strike two.
At the very least, I was tied at the end of regulation. Would Pete and I go 'extra innings'?
I took a deep breath and threw.
Strike three.
I stared at the plywood. "I won?" I asked turning to face my friends.
Pete groaned and Josh grinned. "Looks like that kiss worked."
I looked at Lois. "I won!"
She squealed and threw her arms around my neck. "You won!"
I swung her around and before I could set her down, she framed my face with her hands and kissed me square on the mouth.
I found myself starting to kiss her back when she pulled away and smacked me on the chest. "Where's my prize?"
We all laughed. I took Christopher from Mom and pointed to Pop Pop. "You've got twenty-four tickets. Choose wisely."
She looked at the prizes very seriously, muttering as she went. Should she get something for Christopher or for Mom since I never managed to win her anything?
Finally, she pointed to a stuffed yellow duck that quacked when you squeezed its bill.
"That's nine tickets," Pop Pop told her as he handed it over. "You have fifteen left."
She turned and handed the duck to Christopher who promptly tried to eat it.
She looked over the rest of the prizes again before pointing to a small black and white bear. "That one." She hugged it to her chest as she turned to look at me. She gave me her most innocent eyes and a big smile. "If you hide those pictures, I'm going to name him Clarkie Bear."
I groaned. "And if I don't hide them?"
She shrugged and picked at his ear as she walked away. "I'll probably still name him Clarkie Bear."
I sighed as I grabbed the backpack from Mom, kissing her on the cheek as she congratulated me, and took off after Lois.
I *was* going to hide those pictures.
*****
TBC
