Okay still on hold with the state people... but the cell phone has enough power that I can sit back down now... [see fdk thread...]
Okay - finished talking to the lady. Figured out what we'd done wrong. But we did it wrong on the stuff we billed on Sunday and *all* the stuff we did last night, but since it was after 5 last night, it won't be available until Monday to edit so we won't get paid for it on 1/20 but 2/5 but that's better than not getting paid...
Anyway...
As always, thanks to Alisha, Beth and Nancy!
Last time:
Lois
"It's a long story," Clark started. "Essentially, we're on our honeymoon."
"Don't you have two kids?" she asked.
I nodded. "Did you hear about how General Navance from Latislan tried to claim an American baby?"
She nodded.
"That was us. Without going into too much detail, we got married only to protect me and the baby who would be Christopher from Navance. Clark was..." I paused and he squeezed my hand slightly. "...in love with his girlfriend. I had a boyfriend and it's been a very long road to get here. Just last night, Clark asked me to marry him for real. We're going to have a real wedding and do things right, but essentially, we are on our first honeymoon. Besides the whole dictator in love with other people thing, I was pregnant, miserably sick and pregnant and we were stuck in Europe on a military base. Even if we had been... more conventional, it wouldn't have been much of a honeymoon."
Ashley sighed. "I think I'd like to hear more of that story some day, but I'm glad you two are together."
"Me, too," I said honestly. "I've been in love with Clark for a long time, but I'm glad he finally realized that we belong together."
"I wouldn't trade you for anything, my little tornado," he said, kissing my hair. "Not for anything."
*~*4*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I landed us near the front door of the cabin, kissing Lois' neck as we walked towards the door.
She made little noises I was rapidly coming to love as I did.
"When are you making your superhero debut?" she asked with a sigh.
"Not tonight," I told her as we fell to the floor inside the door.
I managed to turn both of us – me so I was the one on the floor and her in my arms so she was facing me.
"Good," she said looking down at me. "I like your brother and Ashley and you know I love your folks, but it was time to get back here."
"Alone," I said, floating us towards our room.
Our room.
How long had it taken me to get comfortable calling it that?
How long had it been that I called it 'her room' or 'Lois' room' and stayed in Lucy's room if no one else was here with us?
Too long.
We kissed the whole way to our room and I flipped us over so she was on the mattress. I leaned up on my elbow next to her.
"I love you, Lois, more than anything. I want you to know that."
She kissed me softly, trailing one finger up my shirt until she reached the top button and undid it. "It's not just because I'm good at this?"
I remembered the conversation from so long ago – a lifetime ago – not long after our second night together, the first one we really remembered. She'd said I certainly didn't seem inexperienced even though it was my first time – as far as I really knew at the time. I'd said that she didn't either and I'd reiterated that again the night before as we discovered the physical side of our relationship.
"That's only part of it," I said with a grin.
Her fingers stilled.
"What?" I asked her. "I love you no matter what, you know that right?"
She smiled a small smile. "I'm getting there – my head believes you, but my heart's still a little scared. I was just thinking about that night – the night we made Nate and the next night."
"What about them?"
"I was afraid that was all I'd ever have with you," she admitted quietly. "Just the one night – or two if you count the other – and that was it. I poured everything I felt for you into that night and hoped that you wouldn't notice too much."
Tears had filled her eyes.
"Oh, honey," I whispered. "I'm so sorry I hurt you so badly." I brushed the hair off her face, tangling my fingers in it as I stroked her cheekbone with my thumb. "I did notice – looking back, I mean. At the time, I tried not to think about it much at all, but I think, deep down, I knew."
A few tears escaped despite her valiant efforts to keep them in. I brushed them away and pulled her close to me. "It's okay to let it out," I told her. "The last few days have been an absolute whirlwind and I don't think you've let it out at all, have you?"
She shook her head against me as the tears began to flow in earnest. I didn't know how long I held her there, letting her sob against me, a few tears of my own leaking out as I realized again how close I'd come to losing everything that mattered to me, everything that made life worth living. It scared me again to realize how much of my well-being was wrapped up in one small brunette whirlwind.
At some point, her sobs slowed and her even breathing told me she'd fallen asleep in my arms. After the... unusual exertions of the night before, I was sure she needed more sleep than usual as the stress continued to bleed off. We'd only been free from Navance for a few days and really, this was the first truly quiet – hopefully, stress free – time since then. Between Christopher's near kidnapping the week before, our first big stories at the Planet and nearly being blown up on the colonists' transport, she needed some down time.
And she'd moved out of our room in the meantime, certain that we were over. The night before had been filled with other types of stress – would I be able to convince her what I felt was real or would she end up alone with two kids? Would I try to take the kids from her? All those kinds of things, but now... Now she needed rest; a chance to let the stress and pressure that had pervaded every pore of our marriage since before it began to bleed off and truly find some peace.
Together.
Sunlight streaming in the window woke me up. Lois had her back to me, blanket pulled over her head. I smiled to myself and zipped around, pulling the curtains closed.
"Thank you," came the mumbled response from under the covers.
"Want some ibuprofen?" I asked her. I heard a very muffled 'uh huh' and I chuckled lightly. "Be right back." A second later, I sat next to her on the bed. "Here you go."
She pulled the covers down and took the medicine from my hand. She took a sip of the water I'd brought with me, too.
"Want to get some more sleep?" I asked quietly. "I think even I could use some more right now. The stress relief, endorphin let down is getting to both of us, I think."
She nodded, pulling the covers back up around her shoulders. "I would like to know where the rest of my clothes went, though."
"You wouldn't have been comfortable sleeping in jeans," I told her practically.
"But my T-shirt?" she asked. "T-shirts are comfy to sleep in – it was the John Deere one you gave me for our second anniversary. I've worn it lots of times."
I slipped under the covers behind her, pulling her close to me – feeling her skin on mine as I settled back into the warmth of the perfect spot, when it's not too cool or too hot or anything else; when it's *just right*. "I didn't think you'd be comfortable sleeping in your bra," I told her kissing her shoulder. "Your shirt was in the way when I went to take it off."
"You undressed me and I missed it?" she asked with a yawn.
"Hey, I missed it the first time you undressed me," I reminded her.
"You were unconscious and hypothermic. I had no choice if I wanted you to li..." Her voice trailed off as she dozed off again.
I smiled to myself and closed my eyes, listening to the soothing sound of her heartbeat as I went back to sleep.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I felt much better the second time I woke up.
The drapes were still pulled tightly closed, which I was grateful for. It kept the room dark enough to allow us to sleep as late as we wanted.
Clark was still behind me, holding me close to him as we slept.
"Good afternoon, beautiful," he murmured against my shoulder.
"Is it afternoon?"
He nodded. "Yeah. You've slept for over twelve hours."
I rolled in his arms, turning to face him. "Thank you for letting me sleep. I needed that badly." I kissed him softly. "I know we'd planned on doing... other stuff last night."
He brushed my hair off my face. "You needed the sleep; we *both* needed the sleep. I slept almost as much as you did."
"And now that we're awake?" I asked, looking up at him from under my eyelashes.
"Now that we're awake," he said, running his finger down the side of my neck and along my shoulder. "I'd like to do that stuff we didn't do last night, but I think you may need some food first."
I shook my head. "No. We can eat later."
He grinned. "I was kind of hoping you'd say that."
"That's why you wanted to sleep practically naked with me, wasn't it?"
"Sleeping nearly naked with my gorgeous wife?"
I nodded.
"Guilty as charged," he said, kissing me softly.
I couldn't let him get away with that and I kissed him back.
I didn't keep track of the time, but at some point, I was back in Clark's John Deere T-shirt, sitting at the counter while he made us something to eat.
"So what did you think of my brother and Ashley?" he asked as he flipped the grilled cheese – he'd found over the years that some things couldn't be rushed with his powers and grilled cheese was one of them.
"I liked Ashley. A lot." I munched on a carrot. "I got a bit of a vibe, though."
He looked at me. "What kind of vibe?"
"That she'd like more of the PDA stuff that is apparently non-existent on Krypton."
"What gives you that idea?" he asked.
I shrugged. "The way she kept glancing at us and sighing under her breath. When we were in the chair together, or you standing behind me and holding me – that kind of thing."
"Maybe it's a married Kryptonian thing," he said. "And Bernie'll be more like that after they're together like we've been together the last couple of days. He told me that, on Krypton, couples don't have a physical relationship before marriage. He said that kisses are short, chaste and there's not a lot of them before the union ceremony. They don't have receptions or anything like that but the couple goes straight to the wedding chamber."
"So everyone knows exactly what they're doing and when?" I asked with a smirk.
"I guess," he chuckled. "But let's face it; everyone here knows what happens as soon as the couple leaves the reception."
"Do you think it's a nurture thing then? Because you were like that with Lana – not completely like you have been with me the last couple days, but openly affectionate and all that." I couldn’t believe how easy had been for me to say her name and how my heart hadn't dropped out of my chest when I did.
He shrugged. "I guess that could be it. He was raised in that society for fifteen years. I wasn't. I was raised here with parents and grandparents who were very affectionate."
"I guess."
He set a plate in front of me with a perfectly grilled sandwich on it.
"When are we heading home?" I asked him. I was still a bit in the dark about the plans for the weekend.
"Tomorrow night," he said taking a big bite of his own sandwich. "I told your dad and Jessica that we'd be back sometime tomorrow, probably before bedtime for the boys."
I nodded. "Good. I miss them."
"Me, too," he admitted. "But I can handle another day by ourselves. And we don't have to work tomorrow either. You're still officially recuperating from being almost blown up."
I nodded. "Now that this is all over, do you think we should get a place of our own? Move out of Daddy's house? Do you think he'll want us to? I mean, the whole point of us living there was because of the protection we needed. We don't need that anymore."
He munched on his sandwich while he thought about that. "I think your dad likes having us there; having the boys so close. We could afford a place of our own, I think – not nearly as nice as your dad's, of course, but we both have good jobs and all that."
"What about daycare? Jessica is great, but can we afford her or someone like her? How much does the Planet's daycare cost and do they have set hours or need us to have set hours or what?" I sighed. "I always appreciated Daddy's help with that kind of thing but I never really thought too much about it, you know?"
He nodded. "Your dad's been good to us. I'm glad we didn't have to do all this on our own."
"Me, too. We should do something nice for him."
"Like what?"
I shrugged. "No idea. Find him a girlfriend? One who's not a psycho gun runner?"
Clark laughed. "That's a possibility. I think he's just relieved that you and Christopher are safe now."
I nodded. "It's weird. I never realized how much it pervaded my life, you know? It wasn't like the Sceves surrounded me at all times or anything like that; that I was always looking over my shoulder or whatever. But now that it's over... It's like there's a weight I didn't realize was there is gone."
He leaned over and kissed me softly. "I'm so glad you're safe, that Christopher's safe."
I kissed him back. "Me, too. What do you want to do the rest of the day? Not that what we've been doing isn't very nice, but I think I need a bit of a break."
He looked concerned. "Are you okay?"
I nodded. "Let's just say I'm more convinced than ever that nothing happened that Halloween and that Christopher is your son."
He winced. "Sore?"
"Yeah, but it's okay," I told him, kissing him again. "I wouldn't trade any minute of our time together the last couple of days for anything. I *would* appreciate doing something else for a while though."
"What do you want to do?" he asked.
I shrugged. "Whatever. Movie, game, something like that."
He grinned. "Strip poker?"
I rolled my eyes.
"What?"
I just looked at him.
"I never said anything about what we'd do once we got naked," he pointed out.
"*We* wouldn't get naked," I told him.
"We wouldn't?" he asked with a raised brown.
"Nope. *You* would get naked while I remained almost completely clothed."
"Almost?" he asked hopefully.
I shrugged. "You'll win a hand or two but that's about it. Besides, a friend of mine in high school looked up the rules to strip poker and it's more than just losing an article of clothing when you lose a hand, so no strip poker – not today anyway."
"We could make up whatever rules we wanted," Clark pointed out. He grinned. "We could even play strip Happy Days Game."
I rolled my eyes.
"Fine, no strip poker, no strip Happy Days Game, no strip Scrabble, or anything like that."
"Go pick a movie," I told him.
He zipped over to the cabinet and stared at it for a long minute, before picking one out.
A few minutes later, we were sitting in the big chair we'd shared many times before.
But this time it was different.
This time we were together.
Truly together.
It was like an answer to prayer.
*****
TBC
