Thanks to Nancy, Beth and Alisha.
The boards have been really wonky today but I will post the FDK thread... it just may take a few minutes...
Last time:
Lois
"Well, the whole point of all this wasn't to get you to change your mind, but hopefully so you could relax. You still had a pretty big ordeal a couple of days ago. And I was thinking about how much you enjoyed getting your hair washed last year and that I might do that for you if you wanted. But that's it. No pressure."
"Thank you," I whispered. Part of me – probably my heart – was still in that 'if I don't have sex with him as much as he wants, he'll leave' phase. I doubted anything but time and reassurance would really change that, though I thought my head was starting to understand that Clark really was in this for the long-term.
"So do you want me to?" he asked, unaware of my internal musings.
"To what?"
"Wash your hair for you."
I smiled almost shyly at him. "I'd like that."
*~*6*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I watched as she did something to her hair so it wasn't piled on top of her head anymore before she slid down under the water, raking her hair back with her fingers as she emerged.
I poured some of her shampoo into my hand and carefully lathered her head, massaging her scalp as I did.
She let out a small sigh. "That feels wonderful."
"I'm glad." I rinsed her hair out, taking care not to get the soap in her eyes, before working the conditioner into it.
"You can do this whenever you want," she told me.
"I'll remember that." I had to remind myself that was for her – for her to relax and not as a prelude to something else. There would be plenty of time for that another day.
A few minutes later, I headed back into our room to let her get dried off and dressed in private – I still wasn't completely comfortable walking around in the 'all together', as my dad had called it, and I was sure she wasn't either.
I blew cooling air around the room again, making sure to avoid the fireplace – I wouldn't want to put it out – because otherwise the fire was unnecessary this time of year.
A few minutes later, she came into the room wearing my John Deere T-shirt. Well, her John Deere T-shirt and I couldn't tell if she was wearing shorts underneath it or not. She crawled under the covers and snuggled close to me.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "I needed that."
"How're you feeling? After the whole almost blown up thing, that is." I pulled her closer to me, realizing again how well we fit together.
She shrugged. "Pretty good. I'm glad we have another day off, but over all I feel good."
"Good. I'm glad."
"Have you thought any more about when you're making your big superhero debut?"
"Not until after we're sure Nate's healthy," I told her. Overall, he was doing a lot better, but he was still so small for ten months old. I knew Sam was still a bit concerned and so was I, in a place deep inside I didn't like going – the gut instinct that said my son still wasn't quite okay.
"And you don't think he is?" I could hear the underlying fear in her voice.
"I don't *know* that he's not, but I still think I'd rather wait until he has a clean bill of health and your dad's not concerned anymore either."
She nodded as I rolled onto my back and she nestled in next to me, her leg thrown over mine and her arm across my stomach. I rubbed a hand up and down her arm. "You know something that bothered me the second time we slept in here together – after you had that nightmare?"
"The one that turned out to be practically premonition?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
"What?"
"How well we fit together. How easily we found our way into a comfortable position together. And how different that was from me and Lana because we always had a harder time getting comfortable when we were up in the hayloft or on my bunk or whatever. It bothered me that it was much easier for you and me than it was for me and her." I hugged her closer. "And we're not naked so..."
She smiled. "I loved those mornings, you know."
"Which ones?"
"When we were here. The first morning, I was just relieved that we were alive, but later I remembered being in your arms. The second morning, it surprised me because I didn't know you'd fallen asleep in here. But you wouldn't let me go. You said something about it being our honeymoon and maybe I could sleep in your room at home now that we were married. I loved you holding me like that." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "That nightmare though... It really freaked me out. I needed you that night and thank you for being there for me – even though you knew it would make Lana mad."
"We had no idea you were pregnant that night. With my baby."
I could see her biting her lip as though she was trying to decided whether she wanted to tell me something.
"What?" I finally asked.
"Remember how I told you that I just knew I was married in the dream but I couldn't really see the guy?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that wasn't entirely true. I couldn't really see him, but what I could see made him look an awful lot like you, but I wasn’t about to tell you that. I think I was half in love with you even then," she said without looking at me. "Well, I wanted what you and Lana had. What the movies had. Daddy and Mom. I didn't know it then, obviously, but your parents. I just didn't see that happening with Joe at that point. When we talked on the way to Europe, things were different and I think maybe we could have been happy together – like you and Lana could probably have been happy together – but I think I'm really happy things turned out this way instead."
"I know I am." She yawned a big yawn. "Get some sleep. You still need to get your rest."
She snuggled in a little closer to me before tilting her head towards me. "I love you," she said quietly.
"I love you," I told her, kissing her softly.
Her head rested against my chest and her even breathing soon told me she was asleep. It wasn't long before I was too.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
Clark was flopped over on his side of the bed, lying on his stomach, when I woke up. A glance at the clock told me it was pretty early and we had a while before we needed to leave for home – all day really. Clark had said we weren't supposed to be home until dinner.
A thought occurred to me. I needed to pump, I knew that, and I was going to get up and head to another room so I wouldn't bother Clark. I carefully slid out of bed and grabbed the bag that held the pump. I bit my bottom lip and glanced at the bed to make sure he was still asleep before searching through Clark's bag for something I thought he had in there. I pulled it out, stashing it in the bathroom as I headed towards the living room.
"Lois?" Clark's still sleepy voice called a few minutes later.
"I'll be back in a few minutes," I called back. "Go back to sleep." Or not to sleep, but don’t get up, I tried to communicate silently.
A few minutes later, I put everything away and headed back to our room.
"Aren't you coming?" Clark asked, lifting himself up on his elbows as I headed towards the bathroom.
"I gotta pee," I told him and that was partially true. I breathed a silent sigh of relief as he flopped back down on the bed.
I shut the door behind me and pulled the package out of the drawer. I carefully opened it as quietly as I could. If Clark really wanted to, he could be watching me anyway.
So this was what Clark had bought for me, for the other night, just in case.
I held it up – it was black and satiny and had a short, filmy robe that came with it. It didn't cover much but it wasn't completely revealing either. I'd seen more risqué lingerie on 'Friends'.
Could I do this? Could I go through with it?
Sure, I'd worn nightgowns in front of Clark before, but they were usually knee length or longer and I always had much better robes than this one that covered a lot more and certainly weren't see through.
And it wasn't like Clark hadn't seen me naked before – a lot the past few days – and this certainly wasn't naked.
But still there was something different, something... I wasn't sure. Something that seemed to imply a sexual confidence that I simply didn't have. Not yet.
Obviously, this was something Clark had put some thought into at some point. The receipt showed he'd bought it in California. Was that because he happened to be there anyway? Or because he hadn't gone shopping until too late to go on the East Coast? Or because he'd looked a number of places and this was the first thing he'd found that he'd liked? Or thought he would like on me?
"You okay?" he called.
"Yeah. I'll be right out." I quickly pulled the shirt over my head and changed into it, pulling the robe on over the top of it. I purposely avoided looking in the mirror.
I took a deep breath and opened the door before I lost my nerve. I leaned against the door frame. "Is this what you had in mind?" I bit my bottom lip and hoped it looked as good as he'd thought it would, hoping he wouldn't see the flaws.
He wasn't moving quickly, but yawned and rubbed his hands over his face before turning to look at me.
My heart was in my throat.
"It doesn't look as good as you hoped it would, does it?" I asked, nervously pulling the robe more closely around me and knowing it covered little more than the outfit itself did.
He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, his eyes leaving me only long enough to light some of the candles around the room – thanks to the heavy curtains, it was still pretty dark.
"You look incredible," he whispered, his hands coming to rest on my shoulders. "*Better* than I thought it would, because you chose to. You decided to find it and wear it for me all on your own. You look *amazing* anyway, but that you're comfortable enough to do this..."
"I'm not really," I told him shyly. "But I knew you'd gone to a lot of trouble to get something for me to wear and I thought you'd want me to."
He leaned over and kissed me softly. "You don't have to do anything because you think I want you to."
"I know. I wanted to. Really, I did, but I'm still a bit nervous about this. About how I look. I don’t have the figure I used to have."
He ran his hands down my arms until they came to rest on my waist. "Your figure is fine. Wonderful. Amazing. Incredible. Do you look the same as you did when we met? No, but you've had two babies since then. My babies. You have no *idea* how attractive that is. But, you know what else?"
I shook my head.
"You could gain a hundred pounds – or more – and I'd still think you were incredibly sexy. You're my wife, the mother of my children, and I love you very much – I *want* you very much – no matter what you look like."
He kissed me again. And again. My arms wound their way around his neck and he wrapped his around my waist, picking me up. My legs found their way around him and he carried me to the bed, his lips never leaving mine.
"I thought we were looking for more creative places than the bed," I murmured as he put a knee on the bed and lowered me towards it, his lips moving down my neck.
"We haven't tried the ceiling in here yet," he told me. "Otherwise, more creative can wait for later."
"Ceiling sounds good," I said as his body pressed mine into the mattress.
He stopped suddenly, moving back up to look me in the eyes. "I love you," he said, pressing his lips hard against mine. "I love you more than anything. Nothing, *nothing*, is going to separate us ever again, okay?"
I nodded and kissed him again.
We ended up on the ceiling again and Clark slowly floated us down to the bed. "I had no idea it could be like this," he said against my hair as we settled back on the mattress.
"Me, either," I admitted. "But I never expected the ceiling to be an option either."
"That's not what I mean."
I giggled. "I know."
We laid there for a little while longer, talking quietly, making plans. We talked about planning a wedding and the boys, and our trip to see an NCIS episode being taped, but before too long, my stomach growled and Clark promised me breakfast in bed.
While he did that, I pulled my T-shirt back on and popped open my laptop. I logged in and checked my email before starting to write one of the hardest emails I think I'd ever had to deal with.
I sighed and started, writing from the heart.
'Lana,
'They say good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster. And really good gossip in a small town... Well, I think 'lightening' might describe that. And since you haven't heard that Clark and I had a huge fight and split up permanently, you may think that things have gone well.
'Or you may not have thought of us at all.
'Well, things have gone really well and we have you to thank for that – at least partially. You were there, a sounding board, when Clark needed one the other day. You could have made things very difficult for both of us, driving the wedge that already existed even further into the rift between us.
'But you didn’t. Thank you for that. I don't know Chad, but I hope that the two of you will be very happy together. Clark said you two are good for each other.
'I know we'll probably never be *friends*, but I'd like it to if we can be friend*ly* when we see each other.
'Thank you again – for everything. You saved Christopher that day and I will forever be indebted to you for that alone.
'Lois'
"What're you doing?" Clark asked, bringing the tray in.
"Emailing Lana."
"Ah. Anything I should be worried about?"
I finished rereading it and decided to just hit send rather than obsess about it.
We ate breakfast together before kissing again and finding that we really didn't *need* anywhere but the bed to be together. And really we probably didn't need that.
"I think I'm going to let you do all the packing and all that while I lay here a little while longer," I told him as we realized we'd need to leave before too long.
"Lazy?" he asked with a grin, one finger drawing random patterns on my stomach.
I shook my head as I changed my mind. "Actually, I think I'm going to go take a shower while you do all that, flyboy. You're just *so* much more efficient than I am."
He sighed. "Fine."
I got up and got a change of clothes out of my suitcase – a pair of shorts that were a little on the short side and a top that showed a little more if I left an extra button or two undone.
I'd been in the shower for all of a minute or so when I felt Clark's strong arms around me, pulling me to him.
"You did say you wanted to find somewhere more creative," he practically growled.
I'd never had so much fun getting clean.
*****
TBC
