Okay, I managed to get a fair amount of writing done on Friday to keep me on track. Of course, I've fallen behind again since then (not doing any writing at all when I usually hope to get more done during weekends than weekdays), but I'm going to hold out hope that I manage to make up for lost time again and stick to this posting schedule.
Thanks, as always, to the wonderful Carol, Kelly, and Beth for all their comments and prodding to make this better!
A special thanks to Beth for spending time on youtube helping me pick out a song that we thought suited Chad and Lois that would have been popular when they got married (1989). Here's a
link to the song we chose.
From Chapter 12“Smallville has two major events a year,” Rachel explained. “The Corn Festival in the fall and the Wind Festival in the spring.”
“It's usually the first weekend in April,” Clark said. “Once it gets warm enough. It's sort of just a general festival with carnival games and such, but the centerpiece is a kite flying contest on the last day of the festival.”
“A kite flying contest?” Chad asked.
“Yeah,” Rachel said. “It's for the most interesting kite. The only requirement is that it has to fly.”
“Which usually leads to some attempts at cutting down competing kites,” Clark added.
“Who decides which kite is the most interesting?” I asked.
Rachel stood up a little straighter. “Well, it's a highly qualified position. It takes years of study and…”
“It's the sheriff, isn't it?” Chad asked.
“Yeah, it is,” Rachel admitted. “So maybe you'll come?”
“We'll definitely think about it,” I told her. “See how much flights are. That kind of thing.”
“Well, you could also ask Superman to take you,” Rachel said and the rest of us all seemed to hold our breath. “Just a joke, guys. Geez!”
Chapter 13Clark came in the next Monday morning late and looking a bit pale.
“Is everything okay?” I asked as he walked over.
He nodded and I moved over to the television, but there was no Superman coverage. I walked back over to his desk. “Clark, what's wrong?”
“Everthing's okay,” he said softly. “Let's talk during lunch.”
“Is everything okay with Rachel?” I asked, remembering that she had left that morning. Clark nodded though, without saying anything else, so I went back to my desk.
I kept stealing glances at Clark all morning and he never really regained the color in his face. It was weird. What was wrong with him? Finally at noon, I walked back over to his desk. “Okay. Lunch. Now,” I said not prepared to take no for an answer.
“Could we go to your place for lunch?” he asked. I nodded. I guessed that meant he wanted to talk. That was a good thing.
I kept up inane chatter the entire way back to the apartment, although I was fully aware that Clark wasn't listening. Finally we reached my front door. We worked in companionable silence, pulling together the makings for sandwiches and I waited until we sat down to begin interrogating him. “So, what's up?” I asked.
“She knows,” Clark said softly.
“What?”
“Rachel. She knows I'm Superman,” he explained.
“Oh, Clark! That's wonderful!” I said, jumping up and giving him a hug. As I pulled away, though, I took in his face. “Isn't it?”
Clark nodded. “It is, I guess. I mean she's okay with it. It's just… I didn't tell her, Lois. I mean, I confirmed it, but she brought it up.”
“What do you mean she brought it up?” I asked.
“Last night, we were eating dinner and she just asked if I was Superman,” Clark said.
“She knew?”
Clark sighed. “She said it took her awhile to piece it all together, but I disappeared all the time and… I guess she noticed more than I thought during our travels after college. She said she didn't really know then, but she knew there was something I wasn't telling her and then when Superman appeared on the scene so shortly after I moved here, it just made sense. She had already decided it must be something really big if I wasn't telling her about it.
“She didn't want to say anything, hoping that I'd come to her, but eventually, she was sure. I guess she was watching and matching my taking off with lame excuses to Superman rescues.”
“It's still a good thing, though, right Clark? I mean, now you know that she isn't repulsed or whatever by it,” I tried to point out.
“I know,” Clark said. “But what if… what if someone else puts the pieces together?”
“They won't,” I insisted. “Really. Come one. Who's closer to you than Rachel? No one. Honestly, Clark, not to be mean, but do you think anyone pays as close attention when they are around you as Rachel does?”
Clark relaxed a bit. “Thanks, Lois. I think I needed to hear that.”
I smiled. “Not a problem. So… now what?”
“'Now what' what?” Clark asked, clearly confused.
“So now that she knows, what changes? I mean, you can see each other more often, right?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Clark smiled slightly. “That is a definite benefit.”
“And… maybe, I don't know. You could think about what that means long term. I mean, now that she knows maybe you could agree to get married but still live long distance. Now you could see her all the time.”
Clark grimaced. “I can't do that, Lois. Between the Planet and Superman, I don't have time to be making daily trips to Smallville. We can definitely see each other more, but not enough for a marriage to work. This is still just a short term solution,” Clark said and I felt my spirits dive. I had hoped that somehow Rachel knowing Clark's secret would make things simpler, but it was looking like it wasn't quite that easy.
************************
“Have you guys given any more thought to coming to the Wind Festival?” Clark asked that night as we cleaned up the dishes. He had been so upset all day, worried that someone was going to recognize him, I hadn't felt right leaving him alone. When I mentioned getting together for dinner, though, he said we should go over to his place. He had leftovers from last night – he had made some fancy dinner for Rachel.
I was glad I had agreed. For one thing, somehow once Chad arrived and repeated my words from this afternoon about it being unlikely someone else would recognize Clark and pointing out, as I had, that Rachel had an advantage in doing so, Clark seemed to almost be back to his normal self.
For more selfish reasons, though, I was happy for me. The fancy dinner he had made for Rachel was absolutely delicious, even as leftovers. It was some sort of French duck dish – between this and Nutella, France was quickly becoming my first choice for our next vacation, with homemade mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts. I don't even like brussel sprouts, but these were fantastic. Turns out if you cook anything in enough butter, it tastes good. Dinner tonight was definitely going to cost me a couple of extra hours at the gym tomorrow, but it was completely worth it.
“We haven't talked about it,” Chad replied. “I checked the hospital schedule, though, and I could definitely take that weekend off.”
“You really want to go, don't you?” I asked Chad.
“Come on, honey. A festival in small town America. See it as a learning experience,” Chad said smiling at me.
“But where will we stay?” I asked.
“Oh, Rachel has an extra room,” Clark said.
“Will you be saying with Rachel?” I asked.
Clark laughed. “Are you kidding? No, thank you – that would make the Smallville Press. I'll stay with my folks, but it won't be a problem for you to stay with her. And while she was joking, Rachel's right. You could get there by Superman Express…”
Chad gave me his best puppy dog eyes. “Come on, Lois,” he pleaded. “It will be fun.”
“It really is fun,” Clark backed Chad up.
“Okay, fine!” I said, turning to more fully face Chad. “But only "cause I love you.” I couldn't imagine a more boring weekend than one spent in Smallville, Kansas – even if I managed to get along fine with the only two people I knew who lived there.
“I'm lucky to have you,” Chad said as he bent to give me a quick peck on the lips.
“Tea?” Clark asked when we broke apart.
“Sure,” Chad replied as he moved over to the cabinets to take the tea bags out.
Within a few minutes we were gathered around Clark's living room with mugs of tea – I had peppermint, Clark had some sort of Asian one I'd never heard of before, and Chad had Earl Grey.
“So,” Clark said, taking a deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“If you're going to drag us to more Smallville events, you can just stop right there,” I teased him and he gave a slight laugh.
“Actually, I mostly wanted to talk to your husband if that's okay with you,” Clark teased me back.
“I'll have to think about it. Can I get back to you tomorrow?” I asked.
“Enough you two,” Chad said, squeezing me a little closer to his side.
“I've been thinking about your offer,” Clark started. “To learn more about myself.”
I could almost feel Chad's excitement at the thought that Clark might be okay with this. “You have?” he asked and I had to laugh as he clearly was trying to restrain his excitement so Clark would not get nervous.
“I'm not sure,” Clark said. “But I do… have all these questions about myself and I thought maybe…”
“I'd be glad to help,” Chad said. What an understatement!
“So,” Clark said. “What were you thinking?”
“Well, what are you wondering about?” Chad shot back.
Clark sighed. “I guess my biggest question is whether or not I'm human.”
Chad frowned. “We could probably figure that out if we could get a blood sample, but I'm not sure how to do that. I assume you're as impervious to needles as you are to everything else?”
Clark nodded. “And there's no other way you could tell?”
Chad thought. “What about a strand of hair?”
Clark shrugged. “I can't cut it.”
“How do you normally cut it?” I asked. “How do you shave? Or don't you need to?”
“I do need to shave and cut my hair. I do it with heat vision. The hair all sort of burns up, so there's nothing left,” Clark explained.
“Can you show us?” I asked, amazed.
Clark flushed, but got out a mirror and moving in front of us, shaved. It was amazing. He had just the slightest bit of five o'clock shadow one minute and the next he was completely clean shaven.
“Wow,” I said softly and Clark smiled at me.
“Yeah,” Chad said. “That's a lot more interesting than watching me shave.”
“And it doesn't leave any of those annoying hairs in the bathroom sink,” I added.
Chad laughed.
“Wait!” I said, remembering. “What about that experiment we did in high school biology. The one where you brush a q-tip over the inside of your mouth. Isn't that to get cells that you could test?” I asked Chad.
“Well, yeah, but,” he looked at Clark. “Does that work for you?”
“I doubt it,” Clark said. “It did when I took bio, but I wasn't invulnerable yet.”
Chad frowned. “Anything else you're wondering about that we can test?”
Clark shrugged. “I don't know. I guess… I've been thinking since you mentioned it… it would be useful to know my limits.”
Chad beamed. “Well, that we can definitely test. We don't even need the lab for all of it. When do you want to start?”
He sounded so eager, I was a little concerned about Clark's response.
“I'm not really completely ready yet,” Clark said and his unease was apparent. “Maybe in a couple of weeks?”
“Just let me know,” Chad said. “Whenever you're ready. And if you're never ready, that's okay, too.” I smiled up at him. He was definitely making an effort to keep his curiosity to himself so as to not spook Clark.
************************
March 1994“Ready?” I asked as I came downstairs.
“Wow,” Chad said softly as he took in my dress. “You look fantastic.”
“Well, you don't look too bad yourself,” I said as I approached him. “It's not every day a girl gets to celebrate her fifth anniversary with the most wonderful guy in the world.”
Chad pulled me closer to him, running his hands along my bare back. “Maybe we should just stay home,” he whispered in my ear.
I laughed. “Sorry, but this dress was made to be seen.”
“Okay,” he said as he moved to kiss my neck. “Send the dress out. Just you stay home with me.”
“Chad!” I laughed at him.
“Okay, okay. I do have a special night planned,” he said.
“You do?” I asked.
“Yes,” Chad assured me. “Starting with dinner at La Colombre d'Or.”
“Really? I asked. “That's French, right?”
Chad smiled. “I checked and they do make duck, although no Nutella on their menu.”
“Well, what's the point then?” I asked him with a smile.
“Well, they do have crème brûlée, which I realize isn't chocolate, but is a bit more French. And they have chocolate mousse and something called profiteroles. They're tiny cream puffs served with homemade chocolate sauce,” Chad said.
“Maybe we should skip the duck,” I suggested.
“I'm still for skipping dinner,” Chad said as he ran a finger down my spine again. He was clearly enjoying the backless feature of my dress.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing his hand. “Take me for French food.”
************************
“So?” Chad asked as I swallowed another bite of duck. This one was served in a grape reduction, whatever that was.
“This may be worth putting off chocolate for,” I said, leaning over to give him another bite.
“Mmmm…” he said before he swallowed. “I can't decide whose dinner I like more,” he said. I reached over to take another bite of his quiche. It was a pie like thing made of eggs with vegetables and cheese on the inside. It did not sound at all like something that I would like, but it was delicious.
“Nah, I'll stick with my duck,” I said after I swallowed. “Your quiche is good, but my duck is better.”
“So, what would Madame like for dessert?” the waiter asked a few minutes later after clearing our plates away.
“We were hoping for suggestions,” Chad said. “The woman who took our reservation suggested the crème brûlée, the chocolate mousse, and the profiteroles.”
“Well, all are excellent,” the waiter said. “But my favorite is the crème brûlée. The best in all of Metropolis.”
“And of the remaining two?” I asked. I was more than okay with trying the best crème brûlée in Metropolis, but we were ordering two desserts and one of them had to have chocolate.
“The protiferoles,” the waiter said. “The chocolate sauce is made fresh every evening and is out of this world.”
“We'll have one of each,” Chad said after checking to make sure I was okay with that.
“I know I didn't plan a fancy night out for you or anything,” I said as we waited for our dessert. “But I did get you a little something to celebrate.”
Chad smiled at me. “Your present is back at the apartment.”
I handed him the small package I had hidden in my coat pocket. He unwrapped the present quickly, taking in the picture frame with a picture of me that he had told me he liked from this summer and the pencil.
“Five years is wood,” I said, explaining why both the picture frame and the pencil were wood. “And I know you wanted a picture for your desk at the hospital and you are always complaining that there are pens, but no pencils there,” I explained.
“They're both perfect,” Chad said softly. He moved the pencil around to place it in his pocket and saw the gold letting of the inscription.
“Oh, Lois, it's perfect,” he said as he leaned over the table for a kiss. I had engraved in small letters “You're all I'll ever need,” on the pencil. It was one of the lines from our wedding song and seemed to fit how I felt about Chad better than any other.
************************
Chad let go of my hand to lead me inside. “Dinner was wonderful,” I told him. “And I loved the concert.”
He smiled. “Somehow I thought you'd enjoy that more than some stuffy old opera or something.” He had found a jazz concert in a small coffeehouse and we had sat there for hours just listening to the music and holding hands. It had been a perfect anniversary.
“So,” I grinned at him. “I believe I was told my present was here.”
“Yeah,” Chad said, suddenly seeming nervous. “I didn't actually get you anything, but I've been working on something. Clark's been helping me.”
“What is it?” I asked, confused by how nervous he was.
Chad moved over to the piano. “Try to bear in mind that I've only been learning for a month now,” he said.
He pulled a piece of sheet music out of the piano bench and sat down. I smiled as I walked over to him. It was “When I See You Smile,” our wedding song. It made me smile even more at the realization that we had both thought of that as part of our gift.
Playing slowly and using only his right hand, Chad played the melody to the song, singing along quietly. He doesn't have the best voice, and he knew that, but right then, I couldn't think of a more beautiful sound.
“Sometimes I wonder, how I'd make it through, through this world without having you. I just wouldn't have a clue,” Chad sang.
I joined him for the next verse, my voice a bit stronger than his. “'Cause sometimes it seems like this world is closing in on me, and there's no way of breaking free, and then I see you reach for me.”
I leaned over to kiss him, effectively cutting off the rest of the song.
“This is the best gift ever,” I whispered.
“No,” Chad said, moving to put his arms around my waist. “You are the best gift ever.”
The phone rang right then, but neither of us paid any attention to it.
