Last time:
Lois
I could hear his chuckle and noticed Clark get off the elevator. He was greeted first by Cat Grant – Cat's Corner. She was barely dressed as usual. My eyes narrowed slightly as they chatted amiably.
"He only has eyes for you, you know," Serena said quietly.
I sighed. "I know."
I thought I knew.
For now at least.
Billy set two donuts on the desk in front of me. Clark headed our way and I could see that he noticed them.
Before he reached us, I heard the door behind me open. "We'll be in touch," I heard and I closed my eyes, praying that by 'being in touch' it was to reject Linda. "Clark Kent?"
"That's me," Clark said, walking past us.
"Good luck," the three of us called after him as he shook hands with the Editor-in-Chief.
*~*91*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I shook Perry White's hand again as I headed out the door.
"We'll be in touch," he said with a smile.
I felt good about the interview. I'd given him a sidebar to the story Lois had brought. We'd done the research together and worked on both stories together, but the main article was more her and the sidebar was more me. They complemented each other nicely though and he said he'd let us know if he used them.
Lois was in the conference room with Billy, Serena and Jimmy. I poked my head in.
"How'd it go?" Jimmy asked first.
I shrugged. "Fine, I think."
"He usually makes the calls before Christmas," Serena said, helpfully.
Lois groaned. "That long?"
Everyone else laughed. "It's only a couple weeks," Billy pointed out.
"Still..."
The other door opened. "Hey, I'm not running a social club here, you know," Mr. White said.
"Lois is helping us, Perry," Serena said, pointing to the stack of papers on the table.
"And I don't have to be back downstairs for ten more minutes," I interjected.
He glared at all of us before coming all the way in the room. "Come on in, Kent, and have a seat."
I glanced at Lois before doing as I was instructed. I sat on the other side of Jimmy from her.
"I glanced over those articles you two handed in," he said, taking the seat at the head of the table. "What's your gut feeling? Is this as far as it goes or is there more to it?"
"There's more to it, Mr. White," Lois said without hesitation. "I'd bet on it."
He nodded. "That was my feeling, too. I'm running both of those pieces – after you polish them up a bit, email me a copy this afternoon – and Billy, Serena, I want you two to follow-up on it. They're going to be run on an inside page, they probably won't garner too much attention, but you'll work with these two on the follow-up. Your internships start early this year and for now, you're assigned to the two of them." He looked at Billy and Serena. "Get with Tony and Rehalia and work out schedules, would you?"
"On it, Chief," they said in unison.
"Thank you, Mr. White," I said earnestly.
He rolled his eyes. "It's Chief or Perry, son."
"Yes, Chief," I said with a grin.
"Who else are you going to offer internships to, Perry?" Serena asked.
I was sure Lois had mentioned her – adversarial – relationship with Linda King to Serena.
"Ah, you know I can't tell you that," Perry told her. "But there's only two spots per school and you know that, too. Met U's spots were taken by these two, so two from New Troy State and University of New Troy will finish us off. And I haven’t completely made up my mind about who's coming from those schools, but no one else brought me news I can use. And you know the only thing I value as much as experience and..."
"...that's initiative," Billy, Serena and Jimmy finished for him.
He chuckled. "You guys didn't put them up to those articles, did you?"
They shook their heads.
"It was all them, Chief," Billy added.
"Good. Now get to work." He stood and headed back to his office.
We *had* asked them if taking something in with us would be appropriate or presumptuous and they'd assured us that Perry would love it if we brought him something even half-decent.
"You know what that means?" Lois looked at me with a grin – the first I'd seen on her face since after the last time we'd...
"No Linda King?" I said, pushing the thought from my head.
"No Linda King," she confirmed.
I reached behind Jimmy and over to her chair, squeezing her shoulder lightly. "Good job, Lois."
"You, too," she replied with another small smile.
"You heard the man," Jimmy said with a roll of his eyes. "We better get to work and we better find out if you're here with us for the rest of the day or not, Clark."
He had a point and I picked up the phone to call my boss.
In some ways, it felt like the first day of the rest of our lives.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I stared at the stick on the counter.
I knew it was really too early, but if I was pregnant with a half-Kryptonian, who knew how fast it would show up?
If this one came out negative, it could still be positive in a few days.
I glanced at my watch.
Time's up.
I headed towards the counter, my heart in my throat.
Two lines.
There were two lines.
I closed my eyes as it started to sink in.
"I'm pregnant," I whispered.
How was I going to tell Clark?
I was pretty sure he suspected already – just as I had – but how was I going to confirm it?
Things had been a bit better since we'd been offered the internships three days earlier, but he was still sleeping on the couch.
I sighed. If I was going to have his baby, I should probably let him back in the bed.
But that didn't mean I was going to let him anywhere near me.
I stuck the stick in the baggie I'd brought up from the kitchen just in case, before hiding it in one of the drawers on my side of the vanity.
I headed out into our room, lit only by the moon outside the window.
"What're you doing up?" Clark asked sleepily from the couch. "Everything okay?"
It *was* the middle of the night after all...
"Fine," I told him quietly. I sighed. "You can move back to the bed, if you want," I told him. I sat down, intentionally moving a pillow to the middle of the bed as I slipped under the covers.
He stood up and I tried not to stare at his bronzed chest. "Thanks."
I rolled so I was facing away from him, but I felt the bed depress and the covers shift as he settled in.
"Good night," he said after a long minute.
"I'm pregnant," I replied, before I could stop myself.
There was a long silence. "I wondered," he finally told me.
"I just took a test and it came back positive. As hungry as I've been this week..."
"I noticed."
"If it's anything like last time, it'll slack off soon and then I'll get to puke my guts out regularly."
There was another long pause. "I hope you don’t get sick this time," he said softly. "You were miserable and I wouldn't want you to have to go through that again."
I shrugged, knowing he couldn’t see me. "We'll have to wait and see, I guess."
"I guess so. Are we telling people yet?"
"Your mom and dad will be *thrilled*," I told him with a roll of my eyes.
"Yeah, they will be." He seemed to be thinking for a minute. "Can we wait and tell everyone at Christmas? They'd think that was a cool Christmas present."
"Sure." Another thought occurred to me. "Hey, Serena asked if I wanted to go to a lecture with her tomorrow night. Would you mind to keep Christopher?"
"Of course not. What's the lecture?"
"The Weaker Sex: Fact or Fiction. She's speaking to a women's group."
"Have fun."
"I will," I told him. "Good night."
"Good night."
I closed my eyes, but it was a long while before sleep actually came.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Lois' even breathing told me she was asleep and I rolled onto my back. I laced my fingers behind my head and stared through the ceiling at the stars.
Pregnant.
My wife was pregnant.
I was going to be a father again and, this time, I knew from the start that I was the father of the baby.
After the week Lois had had, I was even more sure that Christopher was my biological son.
And that meant that I *had* had sex with Lois at the cabin.
I'd lost my virginity – or given it or whatever – to Lois over two years earlier.
Of course, she'd been a virgin, too, at that point.
Maybe it was better we didn't really remember it. I couldn't imagine that it had been as good as earlier this week had been and I still didn’t remember enough of it to make a real comparison.
She'd let me back in bed. I wasn't quite sure what that meant, though it was quite clear that she didn't want me anywhere near her. I thought about trying to hear the baby's heartbeat, but I figured it was too early for that, even with a half-Kryptonian baby.
I sighed and finally allowed sleep to claim me.
Lois and Christopher were already downstairs by the time I was ready for school the next morning.
"Morning," I said to the room in general.
"Morning," Sam and Lois replied. Christopher was too busy smashing pancakes into his mouth to make any response as I kissed him on the head.
"Pancakes?" I asked. Usually only I made that kind of breakfast.
Lois shrugged. "I was hungry and they were frozen."
"Ah," I said. "Want some eggs or bacon?" I asked her, opening the fridge to pull them out.
She looked at the clock. "Sure. I've got time."
Sam looked at her. "Are you okay, Pumpkin? You've been eating an awful lot this week. Don't think I haven't noticed."
She looked at me and I looked at her.
"What?" Sam asked.
I shrugged. "Up to you," I said quietly as I passed her.
She sighed. "I'm pregnant, Daddy. Even though I didn’t know I was pregnant until much later, this is how it was with Christopher, too. That week at the cabin, I ate nearly everything in sight."
Sam frowned. "That's awfully fast to have your appetite affected."
She shrugged. "Maybe, but that's the way it was last time, too. I don't remember how long it lasted, but not too long. I just hope I don't get sick this time."
"I hope you don't either," I said, standing next to her, one hand resting on her neck and massaging it lightly.
"That feels nice," she said, her head falling forward to give me better access.
I continued for a minute, then turned back to the eggs and bacon I had going on the stove.
"We're not telling everyone else until Christmas, though," she continued. "Clark thought his parents would think that's a cool Christmas present."
He nodded as I dished food up for me and Lois. I gave Christopher a bit of my scrambled eggs.
"They won't hear from me," Sam promised. "But I doubt I'll be able to go to Smallville like we planned. I've been meaning to mention that to you."
Lois nodded. "We'll figure something out." She looked at the clock again. "Now we've got to hurry." She started eating more quickly and a few minutes later we were headed towards the door.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
Daddy gave me a big hug before we left. "Congratulations, Princess," he whispered.
"Thanks, Daddy."
A minute later, I was in the Jeep and Clark was in his truck behind me. We had different work schedules so we took different vehicles. We were spending two hours working with Billy and Serena then I had a four hour shift while Clark had a seven hour one.
We were finding that the football test thing went a bit higher but not all the way to the top. TAs were being pressured into either taking or allowing another student to take the finals for the players. The coaches and at least some of the professors seemed to be aware of what was going on and the Athletic Director was a maybe. We didn't think it went any higher than that.
Our articles ran in the next Sunday paper. They were buried in the middle of the Sports section and had been edited down some, but they were there.
"I think I'm going to frame these," I said to no one in particular. Both of our names were on both articles.
"I need to go get a few more copies," Clark said, coming into the kitchen. "My folks'll want to see it."
I grabbed another handful of popcorn out of the bowl, munching on it before I replied. "They’ll be proud of you."
"They're proud of both of us," he corrected. "I told them it was coming." There was a long, though not entirely uncomfortable silence. "How're you feeling?"
I shrugged. "Fine. Still hungry." I grabbed another handful of popcorn.
"I see that," he said, a touch of amusement in his voice.
I glared at him.
We needed to talk. I knew that. Things were a bit better since the interviews with Perry, but we needed to figure some things out about our relationship.
Clark had been attentive when we were in front of others who knew I was pregnant and pretty normal in front of other people, but we still weren't really speaking much in private. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been before our last anniversary – or even between Pop Pop's funeral and Daddy's heart attack – but it still wasn't *good*.
I sighed and folded the paper carefully. I couldn't deal with another pregnancy like the last one. Physically, I wouldn't have much choice, but relationally...
That was a different story.
*****
TBC
