Last time:
Clark
"You don't want to be with Christopher on Christmas?" I asked her, astounded.
"Of course I do," she shot back. "But I know your parents have the farm to deal with and may not be able to come – not without you flying them back and forth and raising all kinds of suspicions when they're only here for twelve hours or something – and so I was floating that as an *option*. We could do Christmas here on Christmas Eve with Christopher and you could fly him there for a few days Christmas Eve night."
"I'll keep that in mind if my parents can't come for some reason, but if Christopher and I are going, why can't you go with us then?"
"I don't want to leave Daddy alone and I'm not sure I'm up for the trip." She put another spoonful in her mouth.
"I'll talk to them and see what they say."
"And there's a legitimate reason for us to spend Christmas apart this year, with Dad and all, so it would give us a few days where we wouldn't have to pretend we're living the greatest love story since Ricky and Lucy. And we could always just say that we exchanged gifts in private and not have to worry about getting each other something everyone else will think is deep and meaningful or whatever like we did last year."
She had a point and being free of the pressures to pretend everything was normal for a few days might be nice. Things were much better this year than they had been the year before, but not nearly as good as they had been as recently as a couple of months earlier.
I sighed. We *did* have a legitimate reason this time. And Christopher and I already had tickets to Smallville that Sam had bought months ago.
"Would you be okay with me being there without you?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" she snapped.
Why was she snapping at me? "Because it's very possible I'll run into Lana while I'm there," I told her honestly.
"As long as you don't get her pregnant, too, I don't really care."
*~*93*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I didn't.
I didn't care if he saw Lana or even if he went for a literal roll in the hay with her as long as he didn't get her pregnant and put my son's life in danger.
I didn't.
"I've never had sex with her, Lois. And I don't plan on starting anytime soon."
"That's good to know," I muttered as I took a bite of chocolate soup.
"I promise you that."
"Uh huh."
"Do you not believe me?" he asked me sitting back down.
"Let's just say that, in my admittedly very limited experience, you certainly didn't seem inexperienced a few weeks ago." It was true. It had exceeded every expectation I'd ever had about what the first time I'd remember would be like. And then some.
"I understood the theory, even if I had no practical knowledge until then. And," he continued, "in *my* admittedly very limited experience, you didn't exactly seem all that inexperienced either."
"Well, I do have a son. I've obviously had sex before." I couldn't tell him why I'd done the things I'd done – because I loved him and if that was the only opportunity to be with him like that, then I was going to make the most of it. No matter how hard I'd tried to protect my heart from falling head over heels in love with him, I had.
I loved him.
"You know what I mean. You don't even remember it and it's not like you had lots of experience before that."
"By choice," I reminded him.
"I know that, but still.
"Regardless, you certainly didn't seem like a virgin that night." Something else that had come flooding to me after our night together. I'd taken that from him, too.
Unless, of course, Christopher actually was his son.
He shrugged. "Well, I was." I could see him grinning as I set my bowl on a table. "I guess I'm just naturally good."
I didn't respond.
"Maybe it's part of being Kryptonian," he continued. "Maybe we're just born with an innate sense of how to... do that."
"Are you born with that tattoo, too?" I asked, surprising both of us.
"The one on my hip?"
"No, the one on your face, Einstein. What do you think?"
Clark laughed suddenly.
I glared at him. "What?"
"Do you know when the last time you called me 'Einstein' was?"
I shrugged. "Not a clue."
"It's been a while."
"Guess you haven't been stirring up my emotions then." He had, but I was suppressing them so deep...
"Guess not," he replied quietly.
"So the tattoo..." I prompted.
"I have no idea. My parents said I had it when they found me, but the weird thing is that it hasn't gotten... distorted or anything as I grew up."
"Maybe it's not a tattoo then. Maybe it's some sort of birthmark that grows with you."
"Well, it's the same symbol that's on my ship and that my parents wore on their clothes in the holograms."
"What holograms?" He'd never mentioned any holograms.
"There was this... globe that was in my ship and it shows holograms sometimes with messages from my birth parents."
"Ah." I didn't ask for any more information and it didn't seem he was going to offer any.
He – or maybe Martha – had mentioned more than once that there had been messages left with his ship, but he'd told me it was some sort of osmosis or something – he just knew things somehow. He'd never told me there were holograms or whatever. I wondered if he'd show them to Lana someday – he sure didn't seem to be in a hurry to show me.
My thoughts circled back to the tattoo. "Maybe it *is* a tattoo then but their technology made it so it grows with you. Part of some sort of naming ritual or something."
"Maybe." He shrugged. "I really have no idea."
"You better get going if you're going to get to your parents' house before Laura gets a hold of them."
"I'll be back later," he told me as he stood up to leave.
"Fine."
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I was going to have to put on one of the best performances of my life.
If I acted anything less than ecstatic that Lois was pregnant, my parents would pick up on it. And I was happy about having a baby, but the circumstances... They left something to be desired.
That struck me as odd. It was odd. My wife was having my baby. How could those be bad circumstances?
I landed swiftly and silently in the farmyard and headed for the house. I listened as I did so, but the absence of any extra cars made me feel pretty sure that they were home alone.
I knocked on the door and opened it as I did. "Mom? Dad?"
"In here, honey," Mom called.
I headed for the kitchen where her voice had come from to find myself engulfed in a big hug.
"This is a surprise," she said with a big smile. "What're you doing here?"
"Well, I've got some big news," I started, but was interrupted by the phone.
"Oh, hang on." She picked up the receiver. "Hello?"
I listened in and cringed when I heard Laura Lang on the line. I frantically tried to wave her off.
"Laura? Laura? Laura!" Mom gave an exasperated sigh as she couldn't get a word in edgewise and rolled her eyes in my general direction. "I'm right in the middle of something. I'll have to call you back later."
I breathed a sigh of relief as she hung up over the protests on the other end of the line.
She sat down and gave me one of those looks. "Do we need to wait for your father and does this have anything to do with Lana?"
I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I'd rather tell the two of you together, but I don't *have* to and Lana's sort of involved, but only kind of and not really."
Stomping on the porch told us that Dad was on his way in. A minute later, the door opened.
"Clark! What're you doing here?" He slapped me on the shoulder as he headed for the counter to get a cup of coffee.
"He's getting ready to tell us. He has big news that sort of involves Lana, but not really, and he wants to tell us together." Mom smiled sweetly but I remembered the last couple times I'd given them big news and didn't blame her for being a bit apprehensive.
I sighed. "This wasn't how I wanted to tell you. We'd planned on telling you at Christmas, but I ran into Lana today and I didn't want her to hear through the grapevine and I didn't even think about it getting back to you guys before we had a chance to tell you."
"And that's why you didn't want me to talk to Laura?" Mom asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. I'm sure she was about to give you an earful." I bit my lip momentarily. "The date didn't even register with me until Lois said something later."
They looked at each other quizzically. "What's the importance of today?" It was Dad this time.
I took a deep breath. "Last year today, was Lana's accident. The day Lana lost her baby."
There was a small 'oh' out of both of them.
"What does that have to do with the news you have to share?" Mom wanted to know.
I took another deep breath, almost glad that the memory of Lana's loss could be used as an explanation for tempering my joy. Not that I would willingly wish that kind of pain on anyone, much less Lana and Tim. "Lois is pregnant. We're going to have a baby."
Their jaws dropped before they started talking at once.
"Clark!" That was Dad.
"That's great!" Mom.
"Are you excited?" Dad.
"Jonathan!" Mom spoke louder. "I think we should probably go one at a time."
I laughed, trying to make it not sound forced. "Yes, we're excited. We hadn't planned on having another baby anytime soon, not with school and everything but... And I really hadn't planned on telling Lana today, but when I ran into her..." I sighed. "She said something about the baby she and Tim lost and I thought it would be cruel to let her hear through the grapevine so I told her. The date didn't even register with me. When I told Lois that I'd told her, she reminded me that Laura would probably be on the phone with you as soon as she hung up with Lana, so here I am."
"How far along is she?" Mom asked.
"Um..." I shifted in my seat, trying not to look uncomfortable. I *shouldn't* know the exact date of conception because it was the only time we'd been together like that. "I'm not sure. She's due in early August though. Or she thinks she will be. We haven't been to the doctor yet."
"But you're sure she's pregnant," Dad said.
I saw the glance between the two of them. They'd been hounding me for nearly two years about why Lois and I were married, but we weren't lovers. If Lois was pregnant, that little hurdle was obviously a thing of the past.
Or something.
If Lois' last pregnancy was any indication, we wouldn't be expected to do those sorts of things for a long while. She'd likely be sick before too long and – while I wouldn't wish that on her – at least that could be our reasoning, our rationale, for not continuing to be lovers for a while.
Or something.
I was also sure they'd expect me to take a lot better care of her this time around. And they were right to. I stifled a sigh.
They were still looking at me expectantly.
I nodded. "The test came back positive. And she's got this *huge* appetite like she did last time. It's starting to taper off a bit already and since she didn't realize she was pregnant until later last time, she doesn't remember exactly what the first few months were like."
"Have you tried to..." Mom hooked her finger in her glasses. "...look yourself?"
I shook my head. "No. I have no idea what kind of effect that might have on the baby and I can't hear the heartbeat yet. I could hear it not long after we got back from Europe last time, but I hadn't tried before then either."
"Okay, well, you won't be able to tell us at Christmas, so you'll have to get us something different for our present," Mom said, with a grin. "When are you guys getting in Christmas Eve?"
I sighed. "That’s something else I need to talk to you about. Sam can't travel until after the New Year."
Dad frowned. "That does put a crimp in Christmas, doesn't it?"
"Can you guys come to Metropolis again this year?" I asked.
Mom shook her head. "I don't think so. I don't know that we could find someone to watch the farm for us on such short notice. A lot of Smallville folks are going out of town this year, including the Irigs."
"Well, Lois had a suggestion. I'm not crazy about it but..." Technically that wasn't true. Actually, I was looking forward to a few days where I didn't have to pretend Lois was the love of my life and I was sure she was looking forward to the break, too, but I couldn't tell them that.
"What's that?"
"Christopher and I come here late Christmas Eve night as planned and stay for a few days. Lois will stay with her Dad in Metropolis. We've already got tickets lined up – we just won't use all of them."
"We still won't get to see Lois though."
"She's not sure she's going to be up to travelling anyway."
"Well, if that's the way it has to be..." Martha's voice trailed off.
"We didn't see another way that didn't involve me flying you guys there for a few hours and the questions that would go with that. At least not without leaving Sam alone on Christmas and Lois really doesn't want to do that."
Jonathan frowned. "You flying us wouldn't be a good plan."
I glanced at the clock. "I better get going, but we wanted to let you know before you heard from somewhere else."
"Why didn't Lois come with you?"
"No one else was home with Christopher and he was asleep."
Mom gave me a mock glare. "You better bring her out to see us soon."
My brow furrowed. "Do you think it's safe for me to fly her out while she's pregnant?"
They shared another one of those looks. "Well, you might have to hold her a little closer than normal to make sure she stays in your aura," Mom said, trying to hold back her laughter.
I rolled my eyes. Of course, I'd be holding her closer than I had before, wouldn't I? At least they'd think that things were that much better or something.
We spoke for another minute and then I headed outside.
Dad followed, leaning up against the porch railing.
"I'm happy for you, son, and not just because you're going to be a dad again."
"You mean because I finally made love to my wife? I'm finally getting it right?" I asked, the bitterness seeping through.
"Something like that." He stared over the field. "It was after Sam's heart attack, wasn’t it?"
He startled me with that.
"I'll take your silence as a 'yes'."
"What makes you say that?" I finally asked.
He shrugged. "You weren't her lover at Thanksgiving. Things were rocky between you two and now she's pregnant. My guess is that you turned to each other in grief and relief and all the other emotions that were running high that night."
I sighed. "You're right. That's pretty much how it happened."
"So are things better between you two now or was it some variation on a one night stand?"
"Does it matter? If it's anything like last time she's going to be really sick in a couple more weeks."
"Yes, it matters," Dad said forcefully. He started to say something else, but thought better of it.
We stared at the night sky for a long few minutes.
"I better go," I said. "I need to get back before I'm missed by anyone but Lois. She knows I'm here."
He nodded and gave me a big hug. "Congratulations, son."
"Thanks, Dad."
I headed down the stairs and rocketed into the sky.
*****
TBC
