Ah! We're getting there! Finally! Almost the end.
Queenie, you know you're supposed to be reading right? She owes me FDK
.
Thanks - as always - to Alisha, Beth and Nancy.
Last time:
Lois
'If someone had told me four years ago I'd be playing matchmaker with Clark and his wife, I'd have thought they belonged in the 'flying alien' crazy crowd. But you of all people know that flying aliens do exist [what's it like flying with Van-El anyway?!?! I think that would be cool...] and here I am trying to get Clark's head to realize what his heart has for a long time and trying to get you to listen to him.
'I'm glad you're okay and I hope you're fully recovered quickly. I don't expect to hear back from you, but I'm sure I'll see you around at some point. Until then, take care of yourself and take care of Clark. He needs you more than he'll ever realize I think. I'm not sure how to end this so I'll just say good-bye and good luck. Lana.'
I closed the laptop and set it on the table. I leaned my head back onto the bed.
Imagine that.
Words of wisdom from Lana Lang.
Could she possibly be right?
Could Clark mean what he said?
I sighed and closed my eyes.
I didn't really think I'd get much sleep, but I had to try.
*~*142*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I got up with the boys and got them situated for the day.
"Mommy at ho'pita'?" Christopher asked as I pulled his shirt over his head.
"Yep. She'll be home later today though." I'd decided that, barring Lois overruling me, I'd bring her home for a while and then go to the cabin. "But I think Daddy's going to take her to the cabin for a couple days to get some rest so she can get better, okay?"
He nodded. "Unca Ji'y come ober?"
"Maybe."
I took him downstairs where Jessica was already working on their breakfast. I gave both boys big kisses and headed out the door, taking the Jeep towards the hospital.
I wondered what kind of reception I'd get when I got there.
I had some pretty good ideas for what I could do if I could get Lois to go to the cabin with me – how I could try to convince her that I really did love her and that I wanted to make *us* work.
"When do I get to leave?" I heard her asking in her hoarse voice that was seemed to have progressed beyond the whisper from the night before.
"As soon as the paperwork is done, Mrs. Kent. Probably within an hour or so."
"Good," I said, leaning against the door frame and smiling. "The boys are anxious to see you – especially Christopher."
She glared at me. "I want to leave now."
The nurse looked at me and sighed. "We're working on it. I promise."
With that she turned to leave.
"Good morning," I said quietly, walking into the room and pulling a chair up next to the bed. I kissed her forehead before I sat down. "Did you get any sleep?"
"Not much. They were too busy poking at me."
"I figured." I noted a copy of the Daily Planet on the tray table. "Another front page story. Perry's very proud. He told me he didn't expect his investment in you during your internship to pay off quite so spectacularly quite so soon."
She smiled slightly. "He emailed me back earlier. Said he gave you a couple days off, too."
"I'm supposed to make sure you rest and get better," I said quietly. "But there's something else I need to do, too." I reached for her hand, holding it in both of mine. "I want to try to convince you that this is what I really want. You. Me. Us. The boys. Our family. We didn't get a chance to finish talking last night and I'm sure we don't want to have this conversation here so here's what I was thinking. I'll take you home for a little while as soon as you get out of here. Christopher especially wants to see you. And you can take a shower and get the rest of the smoke smell off or whatever. Your dad said he'd make sure the boys were taken care of for a couple days if you'd agree to go with me."
"Where?"
"The cabin." I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb. "What do you say? Will you go with me? Give me a chance to prove to you that this is what I really want? That I'm not... settling or something like that. Let me convince you that you are my *first* choice, that I don’t know how to live without you anymore."
She sighed. "And if I'm not convinced?"
"Then I'll keep trying to convince you." I smiled. "I've got some pretty good ideas though, I think."
"Like what?"
I grinned at her. "I'm not telling you that. You'll have to wait and see."
"Fine."
I pulled her hand to me and kissed it. "But now, you still need to rest your voice."
She glared at me. "How's Van-El?"
I shrugged. "I haven't talked to him since right after he carried you off the transport. I did hear a report of a rescue on the news on the way here though, so that's good."
She nodded. "I'd like to meet him officially some time soon."
"Okay."
"I got an email from Joe last night," she said, not looking at me. "He wants to double date sometime. Assuming you can convince me, of course."
I nodded. "I'd like that. I like Joe. Even if he did repeatedly threaten to beat me up if I didn't take good care of you."
"I got an email from Lana, too," she blurted out.
"Really?" I tried to keep my tone neutral.
She nodded. "She had some interesting things to say."
"I'm sure she did," I said noncommittally.
"She told me to give you a chance and make you prove to me that I'm what you really want."
"She did?"
Lois nodded.
"So will you go with me?" My heart was in my throat as I waited for her answer.
She nodded again. "I'll go."
"Thank you," I said earnestly.
"But don't for one minute think it means you get to see me naked again."
I grinned. "Can I hope I will?"
She shrugged.
I reached out and brushed her hair off her face. "I didn't sleep much last night either. I hope you don't mind I stayed in your old room. I couldn't stand to be in our room without you there – with all of your things gone. And I thought about what I could do to convince you and I will admit that the idea of being naked with you again – once you're convinced, of course – is appealing." I was sure my voice had turned exceedingly husky. "Kissing you, making love to you, seeing what other interesting places we could find besides the bed, in front of that fire place at the cabin and the ceiling... Washing your hair again – but this time in the shower together. You driving me crazy. Driving you crazy using nothing but my... special abilities..."
She didn't look at me but she was turning eight shades of red. "I'm not sure I like you thinking about me like that at the moment."
"I'm your husband. It's my privilege. Heck, it's encouraged by society. And all of our parents, I might add. Do you know how much grief I've gotten from my parents because I *didn't* think of you like that?"
"That's irrelevant," she said.
"I know." I started to say something else, but the nurse chose that moment to walk in with Lois' discharge papers.
Fifteen minutes later, I had the Jeep pulled up in front of the hospital waiting for Lois to be wheeled out.
I held the door open for her and she was quickly settled in to the passenger seat.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I still wasn't sure I believed him, but the thought of doing those things with Clark... I could feel my body temperature rising at the mere thought of him washing my hair again, much less the other things he mentioned.
It was what I wanted and I was going to give him a chance to prove it to me.
The trip home was fairly silent, but he did hold my hand as often as possible. I didn't instigate it but I didn't pull it away either.
I thought it was interesting that he'd spent the night in my room. I wasn't sure what to think beyond 'interesting' but...
"Listen, while you spend some time with the boys and take a shower or whatever else you want to do, I'm going to go make some arrangements for later, okay?" Clark asked as we pulled up in front of the house.
"Sure."
"Any dinner preferences?"
"Something easy on my throat."
"Of course."
"Mommy!" Christopher walked carefully down the front steps and then ran towards me.
I picked him up and held him tight, his arms wrapped around my neck. The last time I'd seen him he'd told me he didn't like me because I hadn't taken them outside to play during my complete breakdown on Saturday.
"I mi' you, Mommy," he said quietly. "I wuv you yots."
"I love you, too, little man."
"Daddy say Va'-E' safe you."
I nodded. "Van-El saved me."
"I'll be back in a little bit," Clark said.
"Daddy say he ta' you to cabi' to ge' be'er."
"See you later," I said to Clark before turning back to Christopher. "That's right. Daddy's going to take Mommy to the cabin so she can rest."
"I'm glad." I hadn't seen Daddy walk out of the house carrying Nate.
He wrapped his free arm around me as we headed back inside. "You should have seen him last night, Princess. He loves you. I don't know why it took him so long to realize it but he does."
I shrugged noncommittally. "If you say so. I'm not totally convinced yet. Right now, I think I need to try to feed Nate."
I'd done a lot of pumping over the last couple of days – when I could anyway – and had them bring me a pump at the hospital after Clark left the night before. It had been two days since he'd nursed though. I was hoping he hadn't decided he was done completely.
I breathed a sigh of relief – for more than one reason – when he latched on and started nursing immediately.
Christopher came and sat with us, bringing a book to read.
I sat with them, nursing, reading, playing for nearly an hour before Jessica said she'd make lunch for them and – if I wanted her to – put them down for naps.
I went up to my old room and took a long shower, trying to wash the smoke and chemical smells out of my hair. I tried not to think about Clark helping me.
I failed.
I wanted to believe him, more than anything, but I didn't want to find out later it was all an act either.
I chose my clothes carefully as I packed. I wanted to look nice, but not too nice. Shorts that were a touch on the too short side – but not even close to 'Daisy Dukes'. A knit top that fit just right, but not too 'just right'.
I packed two sets of clothes. Clothes for if things went well – tops that showed a bit more cleavage, shorts that were a little shorter and tighter; after all Clark had said several times that babies hadn't destroyed my figure. I also packed clothes for if things didn't go as well as I hoped they would – pajama pants, T-shirts, strictly utilitarian underwear, tankini; I figured if things went really well and we decided to use the hot tub, swimsuits would be optional – right?
I tossed the John Deere shirt he'd given me for our anniversary in there as well before zipping up the suitcase.
There was a knock on my bedroom door.
"Come in," I called.
Clark took one look at the suitcase sitting on the bed and raised an eyebrow. "We're only going for a couple days."
I glared at him. "Well, there's two sets of clothes in there."
"Why?" he asked puzzled.
"One for if you convince me you're serious and one for if you don't."
He moved closer to me and ran his hands over my upper arms. "Well, I'll admit that if I can convince you, I'm kind of hoping we don't need clothes." He sighed. "But I've also resigned myself to the fact that just because I convince you this is what I really want, that doesn’t necessarily mean I'll get to see you naked again right away."
I sighed. "We'll see how things go." I moved towards the bathroom and away from him. I tossed a couple things in a toiletry bag – including the birth control pills I'd started not long after Nate was born. The last time we'd been together had been completely unexpected and I wasn't ready for another baby. I was taking precautions on the off chance that something like that happened again on a day when our emotions were completely overwhelmed.
I'd thought he'd wanted to kiss me when I knocked him over onto the bed after he gave me my birthday present but he hadn't. I wasn't sure what, if anything, to read into that except that maybe he hadn't realized yet or whatever.
"I'm ready," I said, coming back out of the bathroom.
"Let's go say good-bye to the boys and we'll head up to the cabin."
I was so glad that Christopher wasn't in his 'I don't like Mommy' state anymore – even though I knew he hadn't really meant it. We gave them both hugs and kisses and headed down to the Jeep.
"Didn't you bring a suitcase?" I asked when I saw only a small bag in the back.
He shrugged. "Power of positive thinking?"
A minute later we were on the road heading towards the cabin.
"The media gave up pretty quickly," I commented when I realized that there weren't any trucks outside the main gate.
Clark grinned. I loved that grin. "They found a way around the main ordinance that kept them away before but the Pittsdale cops found a way around that."
"Good."
"And your dad had one arrested last night for trespassing, too."
"Good for him."
The drive passed in relative silence, with Clark holding my hand most of the way.
He pulled up in front of the cabin instead of pulling around to the garage but it wasn't like it was cold out and the biggest hazard was bird droppings on the windshield.
I sighed and waited for him to open my door for me.
"I can tell you're still not feeling a hundred percent," he said scooping me up into his arms.
I gasped and grabbed a hold of his neck.
"Besides," he said, his voice suddenly husky. "I never got to carry you over the threshold when we got married."
"You didn't want to and you've had plenty of opportunities to make up for it since then," I muttered.
"I've passed up plenty of opportunities to do lots of things I regret now," he told me, pressing his lips against my hair.
I reached out and opened the door as we got close enough.
He carried me into the cabin and I gasped again as I looked around.
"Clark..."
There were candles everywhere – not lit, of course. Rose petals of all colors covered every surface. The floor, the couch, the short staircase to the room that we shared when we stayed here, even sprinkled on the kitchen table.
"What's all this?" I finally asked.
He wrapped his arms around me, nuzzling my neck with his nose and lips. "I want to show you how much I love you."
"This looks wonderful," I admitted, "but it still doesn't mean you're going to see me naked."
I extracted myself from his arms and headed towards the couch to sit down.
I could hear his sigh behind me as he returned to the Jeep to get our things.
*****
TBC
