Thanks, as always, to Nancy, Beth and Alisha!
Last time:
Lois
Clark and Bernie had been talking quietly in the kitchen and Jimmy just looked uncomfortable.
"First things first," Clark said as Ashley walked in the door.
"What's that?" she asked.
Clark introduced Jimmy to both Bernie and Ashley then turned to look at me.
"Superman? Really? What on Earth were you thinking naming me that?"
Jimmy looked at him, eyes squinted.
"CK?" he asked, realization dawning. "Is there something I need to know here?"
Clark sighed. "Jim, I'm... Superman."
With that, both Clark and Bernie spun into their Suits.
Jimmy stared at them, his mouth wide open.
Then he passed out.
*~*12*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Okay, Jimmy didn't *really* pass out, but he did collapse onto the couch with his eyes closed.
"You okay, Jim?" Lois asked quietly sitting next to him.
"Um, not to be rude or anything, but when did we decide to tell anyone else?" Ashley asked.
Bernie looked chagrinned. "Sorry, Ash. I should have talked to you first. Jimmy is practically Lois' brother – his adopted brother was Lois' half-brother – and Clark's best friend. He's already made some comments about how much Van-El looks like Clark."
"Just how big is this little circle going to get?" she demanded. "Lois, Martha, Jonathan – those were no brainers. And I understood Sam; I encouraged it even. I know how important Nate's health is and that having a physician in the know could be a good thing, but are we just telling *everyone* who's remotely family? Because what about my dad? Or my college tennis doubles partner? Or my hairdresser's dog's sister's owner's second cousin?"
"We've talked about telling your dad, Ash," Bernie told her. "And we decided not to for a lot of reasons. Not yet. Not until after the wedding."
"Do Lois and Clark have to approve that decision?"
Lois and I looked at each other uncomfortably.
"No," Lois said quietly. "If you trust someone enough to tell them, then we trust you. Of course, we'd prefer that you didn't just tell everyone, but I know you wouldn't and neither would we. Jimmy *is* family. His parents adopted my older half-brother. His brother died before I ever had a chance to meet him. We trust him implicitly. He had his own passcodes to the house when Navance was after us. *That's* how much we trust him. The only other people who had access were two security guys, Clark's parents, my dad, our nanny and the family that's worked for my dad for longer than I can remember and not all of them had access to our wing of the house which was *always* locked down. But Jimmy did. I trusted him to protect the life of my son and I trust him no less now."
I sighed. "I think, whenever possible, talking about it before telling anyone would be a good plan, but that may not be possible and I don't know how many other people there might be to tell, to be honest. Perry's about the only one I can think of on our end as even a remote possibility at this point."
Lois sighed. "Vicki and Ollie are a maybe at some point, too, but only because they live there. They could notice something or something like that. I've known them my whole life. But I agree with you, we should keep the circle as small as possible and consult whenever possible."
"Um, guys?" Jimmy said.
"What?" I asked him.
"Would you mind reversing that twirly thing so I can talk to you guys and not..." He waved a hand in the air. "...you guys."
Bernie and I 'reverse twirled' and sat down.
"It's really more of a spin," I told Jimmy. "Not a twirl." Twirl was too girlie and he agreed in my head.
"Whatever," he said. "Why are you telling me this?"
"You're family," Lois said quietly. "You've already made a few connections that most other people won't because you're so close to us and we could use your help."
"My help?" Jimmy asked, puzzled. "What can I help with?"
Lois rested her head on his shoulder. "You're our resident superhero expert. All any of us know is leftover Justice League stuff and 'The Incredibles'."
"Edna would never approve of the capes," he told us with a smile.
"Yeah, we know," Bernie and I said in unison.
"Lois and Mom thought it would look great while we were flying," I added. "And Vortex wasn't invulnerable."
"Splashdown," Lois muttered. "And Dynaguy and Thunderhead and Stratogale and Metaman. There was no Vortex."
"Right," Bernie and I said together.
"Right. Invulnerable." Jimmy let out a long slow breath. "So what exactly is it you need help with?"
We talked for a couple hours about what kinds of things we'd be doing and not doing and how best to release that information to the public.
For instance, we knew we couldn't respond to every mugging or every petty crime or even every fire – and the same was true even if we'd been full-time superheroes, but we weren't going to mention that we weren't; that we had secret identities.
We worked out the details of the article. We'd help at bigger events – like that morning's fire as often as possible – and petty crime when we could, most likely if we happened to be in the area. We planned regular patrols, the details of which would not be released. A brief rundown of some of our abilities was included. Lois made sure to point out that we were invulnerable – but there was no mention of the green rock, for obvious reasons – as well as the breath and flying stuff we'd already demonstrated publically.
We included some information about Krypton – that the planet had exploded and we'd been able to escape in separate ships that had landed at different times. As far as we knew, we were the sole survivors of the now dead planet. There was no 'invasion' coming or anything like that.
We emphasized that we were there to help and that we had no desire to rule the world as had been posited. Those stories had been found in some of tabloid papers.
Lois came up with us fighting for truth and justice. Jimmy wanted to add 'and the American way', but we decided against that because we planned on helping around the world as we could – at major disasters, etc.
Finally satisfied, we then decided to sort of hang out for a while – couldn't let Perry think it was too easy.
Of course, just then, we heard about a hostage situation and so Bernie and I took off for the Metropolitan National Bank with Lois and Jimmy following by car.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I was pleased with the article we'd written. It was a good article and it would be a boost for both of our careers. I still felt a tiny bit guilty about how easy it was. It wasn't like we really had to investigate to find Van-El and Superman, but there was no way I was going to let anyone else, even Billy and Serena, have the story and I really didn't want anyone poking too deeply into their lives. Hopefully, by giving enough information, we could prevent that.
Jimmy and I pulled up to the bank and watched as Van-El and Superman – I made myself use their hero names even in my head when they were 'in costume' so I wouldn't slip up – consulted with the police. Jimmy snapped a few pictures and I scribbled furiously.
Ten minutes later it was over and Clark ran up from behind us asking what he'd missed.
We headed back to the Planet and showed Perry what we had.
"Hells bells, kids, this is great stuff." He chewed on his pen as he read through the interview piece. "There's some questions you didn't ask – where do they live? Do they expect to be paid or something like that – is there any compensation that they want? Things like that."
"There were a few questions they refused to answer, Chief. And quite frankly, I'm not sure it's any of our business where they live," Jimmy said.
I wanted to kiss him for saying it. Then it wasn't coming from me or Clark.
"Oh, you're right. We're not the National Tattler or anything like that, but it would be an interesting read. Did they bring families with them?"
"They said they were the only two that made it off the planet, Perry," I told him quietly. "I think any family they had was left behind." That statement was completely factual. Their Kryptonian family had been left behind, but they were both making new ones here. No one else needed to know that, though.
"How long have they been here then?"
"They didn't say. Just that their ships landed at different times but both had been destroyed or something. Apparently, they were able to enter the atmosphere unnoticed. At least, the alien, UFO nuts haven't seen anything recently that could be attributed to them. Van-El said it would have surprised him greatly if his ship had been noticed." I held my breath and hoped Perry would drop it.
He nodded. "Good work, kids. I smell a Kerth in your future. Now, go get me another story."
We hurried out of his office and before we knew it were working the phone lines trying to come up with something else. I got a phone interview with one of the hostages and Clark managed to get Henderson – the detective in charge of the arson case – to talk to him briefly.
By five, we felt we'd put in a good day's work – even if the biggest story of the day had been by far the easiest – and we headed home.
I banged my head against my headrest as I maneuvered through rush hour traffic.
"What?" Clark asked.
"The wedding planner is coming tonight."
"Can't we kick her out? It's the same lady Serena's mom wanted to use." His voice had taken on a whining tone. "Serena said 'no', can't we?"
I laughed. "Daddy wants us to hear her out. The wedding's going to be here before you know it."
"I'm just glad Perry's giving us two weeks off. Wedding Christmas Eve, you and me by ourselves at the cabin Christmas Eve night. Christmas with the family at the cabin. They leave the 26th. And then..." He reached for my hand and brought it to his lips. "You and me, alone for a whole week before we go to Smallville the day after New Year's."
"And what about our anniversary?" I asked him.
He shook his head. "Those plans are a secret. A very heavily guarded secret."
"So who knows besides you?" I asked, linking my fingers with his.
"No one," he whispered. "Mom and Dad know they're going to have the boys for a couple days, but that's it."
"Hawaii?" I asked dreamily.
"Not telling."
"You're mean," I informed him.
"I'll tell you this much, the whole two weeks... Unless we're actually with other people, clothing is optional."
I let go of his hand to pat his thigh. "Good. And Daddy said he's getting the hot tub fixed up at the cabin, too. He said he's been meaning to for a while, but he wanted to get it in before winter this year."
"The hot tub in the snow is nice," Clark admitted.
We'd used the one at the house while it was snowing several times – usually to take Christopher 'swimming'. He thought it was a blast. With just the two of us though... Now that things were like they were...
I was sure I was turning red just thinking about it and hoped Clark couldn't read my mind, too.
"Penny for your thoughts?" The husky tone of his voice and the look on his face told me what his thoughts were.
"I think you know," I told him.
"So should I bother buying you a new swimsuit?" he asked. "Something string bikini-ish and appropriate for honeymooners?"
I glanced at him. "Do you really think a string bikini is the way to go, given all the stretch marks all over my stomach?"
"Well, it'd only be the two of us and I happen to think they're pretty sexy myself."
"Well, if it's just the two of us," I started in what I hoped was my most flirtatious voice, "do I really need a swimsuit?"
His fingers brushed against the hair at my temple. "You have an *amazing* body. You know that right? And I'm not saying that just because I'm biased."
I shrugged. "It used to be better. Then I had kids and I know that goes with the territory, but..."
"I want to have another baby someday," he said abruptly.
"What?" I asked, caught completely off-guard. We hadn't discussed any more kids.
"Watching you while you were pregnant with Christopher was cool, except we were in such a weird space. Watching you while you were pregnant with Nate was even cooler because I knew you were having my baby, but we were still in a weird spot. I want to have another baby with you. To know that you're having my baby and make love to you while you're pregnant and watch your stomach grow and talk to the baby and all those things that didn't happen the last two times because of our relationship."
"Can I think about it? Please?"
"I know I caught you off-guard, but it's something that's crossed my mind a couple times in the last few weeks. And not necessarily right away, but before too long maybe."
I nodded. "I'll think about it. Promise."
We pulled up in front of the gate and it swung open as the censor in the car told it who was here. I was so glad the days of intense security were behind us – for more than one reason.
Two hours later, Beverly Lipman, wedding coordinator extraordinaire, had left and Daddy looked properly chagrinned.
"Okay," he said. "That's out. Let's do this ourselves or get Vicki to do most of it or something because, as much as I love you two, we don't need doves."
Clark nodded. "Three hundred white doves don't say 'I love Lois' to me. Sorry, hon."
I shuddered. "Don’t worry. It doesn't say you love me to me either."
Daddy smiled. "Okay then. Fairly simple. Let's just make some decisions."
Fifteen minutes later, we'd decided to have the wedding in the great room and the reception either in a – heated – tent outside or in the house. Outside was more likely – right off the back deck. Or even over the back deck. Part of it depended on the final guest list.
We made tentative menu decisions and Daddy had connections to musicians and caterers and stuff from his fundraisers. We talked about seeing if Perry would marry us. Daddy talked about borrowing one of his friends' jets to fly out some of Clark's family, if they wanted to come. A random thought flew through my head. Who borrowed a jet? Of course, the guy in question was richer than Donald Trump and loved to travel, with an entourage so there would be room, but he'd need a head count before he knew if it would work or not and, regardless of the size of the house – we probably wouldn't want to house eighty members of Clark's extended family while trying to set up a wedding. We *could* but I doubted any of us would enjoy it. We talked about driving back from the cabin – or flying, more likely – and doing Christmas with all of Clark's extended family that came, but again that would depend on head count.
By the time Clark and I headed upstairs to practice for the honeymoon, it seemed that the wedding was half planned.
*****
TBC
