This wasn't betaed and I wrote it rather quickly, because I had only little time to finish this piece in time. Parts of this idea were created on a sunny summer afternoon, when Tahu and I met for the first, and hopefully not the last time.
She urged me to write more about Becca's life, a character I introduced in my story
Stony Ways . I told her that I don't have time for it, but now decided to give this small vignette a try.
For those of you, who don't know Becca: She's the daughter of Clark's cousin, who died young and thus Clark raised the girl as his own daughter. The real father vanished shortly after learning that his girl friend was pregnant. When Becca meets Lois for the first time, Lois is her unfriendly Season 1 self and more over drags Clark away from Becca to investigate a series of arson. Needless to say that Becca doesn't like Lois at all. If you want to know how all those issues are solved, please read the story I mentioned above. But I don't think this is necessary to have a little fun with this vignette. I hope you'll like it.
And I sure hope that Tahu will like it.
Happy Birthday, Pam!Disclaimer: I don't own most of the characters in this story and I only use them to have a bit of fun. This is not for profit!
Sickening junior “No, Lois,” Clark said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t think we should tell her. Not yet, anyway.”
Through the small opening between the doors of the floor cupboard, Becca watched her dad. His brows were furrowed as he looked at the woman Becca had once considered to be a witch. Now she was her friend and sometimes her alley. Pressing her face against the wooden doors, Becca tried to figure out what her daddy wanted to hide so badly. Besides her birthday presents, that was. Lois surely wouldn’t want to tell her about them. After all, she was a grown-up, like her dad and her grand parents. And concerning presents, grown-ups were pretty good at keeping secrets. Sometimes, Becca whished they would put as much effort in not telling anyone that she had broken something or forgotten her homework. Becca bit back a sigh, knowing that her dad would hear her.
“But she deserves to know, Clark,” Lois argued, folding her arms in front of her chest. “You can’t hide this forever.”
“And I won’t. I just don’t think it’s the right kind of birthday present for an eight year old girl,” Clark pointed out and sighed. “I’m afraid she won’t like this in the least.”
Inside her cupboard, Becca frowned. There was no doubt that Lois and her daddy were behaving strangely. Usually, there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t tell her about. He barely ever said that she was too young, but tried to explain things in a way that they were easy to understand. As much as Becca would have liked to ask her dad, she couldn’t. She had been playing Hide and Seek, which in her case was rather just Hide, because nobody was actually searching for her. Becca loved testing her dad’s abilities. It was exciting to hide inside the floor cupboard, knowing that a small sigh could easily give her away.
“But she’s talking about little else, lately,” Lois objected. Still Becca didn’t have a clue what Lois and her daddy were talking about. Impatiently, she balled her hands into fists, as if she could force them to tell her.
“There’s a difference between talking about something and actually wanting it, Lois. She’s too young to think about the consequences,” Clark explained cautiously. “And this will change her life completely, no matter how well we’re going to handle it.”
Becca gasped for air. What was her daddy talking about? Changing her life completely couldn’t mean that she would have to leave, or could it? They wouldn’t call it a birthday present, then, would they? Suddenly Becca’s heart was beating madly. One of her class mates had told her that her daddy had moved away and married another woman. That girl was barely seeing her dad, ever since her parents were divorced. And Becca knew that Clark wasn’t really her dad. He had promised that he could love both Lois and Becca with all his heart, but was that really true?
*He must be talking about the pet cat,* Becca silently reassured herself. A week ago she had asked her dad if she could have a pet cat. He had told her that caring for a cat meant being responsible for a living being. Clark had promised her to think about it, but had also said that there were some cats on her grand parent’s farm and that a cat would certainly prefer to live on a farm. Maybe her daddy had decided to give it a try? But why was Lois so keen on telling her about it?
“It will change our lives as well,” Lois replied, tensely. “You said that you’re happy about it.”
“I am, Lois. More than I can tell you. I’m only saying that Becca might not like it and that we should wait until her birthday is over. There is no need telling her this right now”, Clark tried to convince Lois.
She shrugged and merely nodded. But Becca could see that she wasn’t yet willing to give up. Lois just liked to make others believe they had won an argument. For some reason her daddy kept falling for that trick. With a smile on her lips, Lois went out of the kitchen. She certainly hadn’t yet decided whether she would revive the argument later or if she would just do what she thought was the best option. Becca hoped for the latter. Maybe then she could lure Lois into telling her what this was all about.
“Mmhhh,” Becca heard her father mutter. “That’s strange... I don’t remember putting the pumpkin in that cupboard,” he said, opening the door to Becca’s hideout. With a broad smile he reached for his daughter, swiftly dragging her out of the cupboard. “So tell me, Pumpkin, how did you get there?” Clark asked as he put Becca back onto her feet.
“Sorry, daddy”, Becca whispered. Blushing, she stared at Clark, trying to find out if he was angry with her, because she had overheard their conversation. But he still smiled at her as he folded his arms in front of his chest, waiting for her explanation. “I was playing H...hide and Sseek...,” she sputtered, but instantly fell silent, as she realized that the game was meant for two.
“Got you, Honey,” Clark stated with a smile. “Didn’t I tell you that eavesdropping is not allowed in this family?” he admonished her playfully.
“You wouldn’t have heard me if you hadn’t been eavesdropping yourself!” Becca protested, as she realized that her dad wasn’t really angry with her. “And don’t tell me it’s different,” she added with a mischievous grin. “Because I know that you can control your hearing.”
“Ah, so you know that, Missy, huh? Okay, so let’s say that we both weren’t eavesdropping today. What do you think about that, Pumpkin?” Clark suggested with a wink and smiled at his little daughter. “Does that sound like a good idea?”
Becca thought about her dad’s offer. She wasn’t sure what to reply, because it almost certainly was a trap. Becca knew her dad – he loved making her promise something, he knew she wouldn’t have promised, hadn't it been for him to trick her into it. There had to be a rub in it, but hard as she thought about it, Becca didn’t find anything.
“Yes,” she agreed after a while and her dad nodded in contentment. “So what were you and Lois talking about?” Becca instantly wanted to know.
“Well, Honey, you didn’t listen in on our conversation, so you haven’t heard what we were talking about!” Clark replied with a broad smile.
Becca folded her arms and pouted at this. “I knew it was a trap,” she said angrily.
Looking at her dad with daggers in her eyes, Becca was trying to imitate Lois. *She* wouldn’t have been so stupid as to believe that Clark would actually tell her voluntarily. Even so, Lois could make him tell her about literally everything. He had even admitted to her that he was Superman. Sometimes, Becca wished that one day she would become like Lois. Despite her efforts, Becca couldn’t intimidate her dad. He just looked at her as if he was about to soothe her. Soon he would tell her that she would learn the secret in a couple of days. Admittedly, it wouldn’t be impossible for her to wait until her dad would finally choose to tell her. But she wanted to know this secret now. She didn’t want to wait until the secret was no secret anymore. There was no sense in waiting till then and her dad just had to see that.
Someone entered the kitchen behind Becca. Quickly, she turned around. Lois had obviously decided to continue the argument. Everything about her stance seemed to say: *I told you so.* There was a smile on her lips and she stepped behind Becca, laying her hands on her shoulders.
“You’re daughter is right,” Lois said. “You just can’t pretend that she hasn’t overheard our conversation. Tell her already, Clark. Or do you want me to do it?” she demanded.
With a sigh, Clark nodded. “Okay, but let’s go into the living room and sit down for a while.”
Becca looked at her dad. Suddenly she was not so sure that she really wanted to learn about this. Asking her to go into the living room usually was his way of introducing bad news. Once again, her heart started to beat madly and Becca doubted that they were going to discuss the pet cat issue. There had to be more to the grown-up's conversation than just that.
“I’m really not going to like this, am I?” Becca asked, unsettled.
“Wait until you hear the news before making that decision,” Lois replied and winked at her.
“You don’t need to hear that now, Becky,” Clark added with a small smile. “But it’s not that bad, anyway. Maybe you’ll like it. I’m just not sure you will.” He gently prodded her towards the living room. As they reached the sofa, her dad sat down and Lois took a seat beside him.
“What is it, Daddy?” Becca demanded impatiently as she climbed onto his lap, deciding that she wanted to get over with it.
“Honey, Lois and I want to marry”, Clark said slowly, brushing a strand of Becca’s hair behind her ear.
“Marry?” Becca asked, her mouth getting dry. “As in happily ever after?” It was exactly what she had been afraid of all the time. Becca knew what had happened to Anna when her father had married a new woman. Now she was living with her mom and had only one parent instead of two. Having one parent wasn’t bad, Becca knew that. She had only had her dad for years. But what if all marrying dads just moved away, because they had to? She couldn’t imagine that her dad would leave her on purpose. As she thought about it, all those happily ever afters were couples, never a trio. “No, Daddy!” she whispered. “You can’t leave me like this!”
“Oh, but Honey, this doesn’t mean that I leave you”, Clark said, embracing Becca soothingly. “I told you once that I love both of you with all my heart. And this won’t change because Lois is wearing my wedding ring.” Becca turned her head, looking into her daddy’s eyes. “Would it be so bad to have two people who love you like parents?” Clark asked cautiously.
Becca shrugged. “I guess not,” she whispered. “When you marry him, will you tell me how you make him do whatever you want him to do?” Becca asked, turning to Lois.
Lois started to laugh. “Oh, Becky, I really think that it will be me taking those lessons. You’ve got him wrapped around your little finger.”
Becca looked back at her confused. “I have got what?”
Sometimes, or rather most of the time, she really couldn’t understand grown-ups. Instead of answering, Lois touched Clark upon his shoulder, looking at him sternly. He glanced back at her, raising his eyebrows. Lois just nodded at him, making the silent conversation all the more mysterious. Becca wondered why it was that everyone wanted her to speak clearly and properly, when grown-ups didn’t talk to each other anyway. Her dad however, rolled his eyes in reply and nodded, obviously giving into Lois silent threat.
“There’s something else, Honey,” Clark changed back to audible conversation. “Lois is... Lois and I are... you’re going to have a little brother or a sister,” he finally sputtered and shrank visibly, awaiting her reaction.
Becca stared back at him, open-mouthed. “A b...br...brother?” She stammered.
“Or a sister, Becky,” Lois helped out and didn’t seem to know whether she should smile at her, or if that would be a bad idea. The result was a rather awkward expression.
Becca’s heart pounded in her ears. So it wasn’t the pet cat, her dad had been talking about. In fact, Becca had been talking a lot about siblings. Most children in her class had brothers or sisters, some of them nice and some not really. But not in her wildest dreams had she imagined that her dad would prefer a brother or a sister for her, instead of the pet cat. Becca gulped and a small smile appeared on her lips. It would certainly be nice to have someone to play with. At least if this someone wasn’t like Alison’s brother Kenny. But surely her sister or brother wouldn’t be like Kenny, or would he? Could one chose how a brother was going to be like? Honestly, Becca didn’t know.
“He or she is not going to be like Kenny, promise?” Becca decided to utter her doubts.
Clark laughed and pulled her against him, starting to tickle her. “Come here, you... Of course he is not going to be like Kenny, because the baby will be a girl.” He stated with a broad grin.
“Clark! Even you can’t know that yet,” Lois protested. “And what would you do, if we’re going to have a baby boy?” she asked with a frown.
“I’d love him just as much. But hey, a guy can dream”, Clark replied and started to tickle Lois as well. Soon they were half lying, half sitting on the sofa, tickling each other and laughing. Becca squealed with joy and embraced her dad. “Don’t ever doubt that I love you, Pumpkin. You belong to me, no matter what.” Clark whispered into her ear.
* * *
The next day, early morning It was still dark, when Becca opened her eyes. She rubbed the sleep out of them, looking at the clock beside her bed. A rush of excitement filled her, as she realized that it wasn’t too early to get out of bed. Today was her birthday, she thought thrilled as she jumped up. Distant sounds from the kitchen told her that her dad was already awake. Ever since Lois had moved in, he was getting up early to make breakfast for the three of them. Unlike Becca, Lois needed to get to work and unlike Clark she couldn’t shower and dress quite as quickly.
Becca tiptoed down the stairs into the living room. With every step she took, her heart was beating faster and faster. She would have liked to run into the kitchen, but she stopped herself, enjoying the pleasure of anticipation just a bit longer. The smell of coffee and a fresh cake filled the air. Warmth spread from the kitchen into the living room and Becca stepped closer to the room where her dad would be waiting for her with a hot cup of cacao and something he had baked just this morning. Taking a deep breath, Becca went into the kitchen, where her father was making fried eggs. She hadn’t made much noise, but he had heard her anyway. With a broad smile on his lips, he turned towards her.
“Happy Birthday, Pumpkin,” he said gently and stepped away from the stove, kneeling down to embrace her.
Becca placed a wet kiss on her father’s cheek and allowed him to lift her up, although she was getting too old for something like that. Or so she said, because she knew that her dad would continue to carry her on his arm if she told him that she didn’t like it. For some reason he was always able to tell what she wanted to be taken seriously. Concerning all the other things, he just did the opposite of what she had asked him to do.
“Thank you, Daddy,” Becca said and pressed her face into the crook of his neck. As much as she liked Lois, Becca loved the moments when she had Clark all for herself. He kissed her hair and held her for a while before he sat her back onto her feet.
“Don’t you want to know what I’ve got for you?” he asked, winking at her and gave her a gentle prod towards the kitchen table. One edge of it was covered with colorful packages. Each of them looked promising and Becca decided to unwrap the green one first. As she took it, she tried to feel through the wrapping what was inside it. It was hard and one side was rounded. Becca’s first guess was a book. Quickly, she opened the wrapping paper, trying not to tear it apart. But it was too difficult. Impatiently, she tore the paper off the book.
“A little princess,” she read out excitedly. “Is that a fairy tale book?” Becca wanted to know and turned the book around to read the text on the backside.
“Kind of,” Clark admitted and smiled as he watched Becca reading. “I think you’re going to love this story. But don’t even dream of asking me to read it for you,” he warned her. “You’re old enough to read this all on your own.”
“But it’s so much more fun hearing you read it,” Becca objected.
“I doubt that it’ll be much fun to hear me sound like a girl,” Clark remarked dryly. “And this story is full of girls. Perhaps you could lure Lois into telling you this story, huh? How about that for a change? My throat would kill me after half an hour of reading,” he claimed.
“You’re invulnerable,” Becca replied in the same dry manner and turned around as Lois’ voice mixed up with hers, saying the same words in exactly the same moment. They looked at each other and started to laugh, while Clark twisted his lips into a pout.
“Girls,” he muttered under his breath, but Lois heard him anyway.
“Hey, watch your mouth, buster!” she replied with a mischievous smile. Then she turned to Becca. “Happy Birthday, Becky!” Lois said affectionately. “I hope that all your wishes will come true.”
“Thank you, Lois,” Becca said and went to embrace the witch who had become her friend months ago. She blushed as she thought about the night when she had prayed to Santa, asking him to get rid of Lois. Now she couldn’t imagine that she would ever wish something like this again. So, perhaps it would be safe for Lois if all of Becca’s wishes became true. The brief moment of guilty conscience made Becca embrace Lois even more affectionately.
After a while, they parted and Clark invited Lois and Becca to have breakfast with him. A ring with eight candles was sitting on the table. Becca and Lois sat down on their usual places, while Clark turned around to serve the fried eggs. Then he poured hot cacao into Becca’s cup and provided Lois and himself with coffee. All three of them laughed a lot while having breakfast. Clark told funny stories from his many years abroad and Becca made plans for the rest of the day. A flight with her dad was traditional, but there were so many things she could do on her birthday.
All of the sudden, Lois went pale. “Oh, my god,” she muttered and covered her mouth with her hand, storming away from the table.
“Lois!” Clark yelled, shocked, and ran after her.
Becca looked after them, stunned. This was her birthday and she was sitting at the table, alone. That had never happened before, not even since her dad had become Superman. But then, she hadn’t had birthday since then. Becca blinked, hoping to find out that this was only a bad dream. Lois and her dad would sit at the table and chat with her as soon as she opened her eyes again. Becca was sure of that. But they didn’t. Instead, Becca heard the sounds of someone being sick in the bathroom. Somehow, the french croissants and her dad’s famous pancakes didn’t seem to taste as good, as they used to.
Angry, and also worried, Becca looked towards the bathroom. She wanted to know what was going on there, but she couldn’t leave the table. Her father had made her promise that she would never leave the table without blowing out the candle. And if she would do that, what would there be left of her birthday? Nothing!
Sitting there, unable to decide what she was going to do, Becca waited for her father to return. But after an eternity that actually hadn’t lasted for more than two minutes, Becca’s curiosity won over. She blew out the eight candles and went towards the bathroom. The sounds of someone being sick had died down. Instead, she could hear her father murmur soothing words.
“Becca,” Lois sat up as she saw her. She was still pale as a ghost, but the smile on her face had returned. A slight blush appeared on her cheeks, making her look a bit healthier. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Dear,” she apologized.
“Becca!” Clark echoed and looked rather guilty. “I’m sorry I left you alone in there.” Now he was the one to grow pale. “And today of all days...”
“What was the matter with Lois?” Becca wanted to know.
“I...this...uh....” Lois stammered and got to her feet. “This...eh...is called morning sickness. The baby causes it,” she explained, obviously feeling awkward about it.
Becca knew why. Talk about strange adults! “The baby is making you sick and you still want me to like it?” Becca asked confused. They had a lot to explain, that was certain!
The End - or rather the beginning of loads of trouble 
