Thanks again to Alisha and Beth. And to Nancy for betaing and letting me use Chad
.
[Edit: Added pics of my son at the bottom]
Last time:
Lois
Pop Pop had run the booth two years earlier. The next year, Clark's Uncle Jerry had taken over.
He reached under the counter. "Lana, I think I have something you'll love." He held out a brown teddy bear that didn't look like any of the other prizes.
Lana turned to Chad who had a grin on his face and something else I couldn't define. "You didn't," she said.
"I found it online and knew you'd love it," he told her.
"Lana had one just like that as a kid," Clark whispered in my ear. "I forget how she lost it."
"How sweet," I whispered back.
She was looking at it more closely before she looked back up at him. I could see tears in her eyes.
"What's this?" she asked softly.
He took the bear from her and did something to it I couldn't see. He set the bear back on the counter and got down on one knee in front of her.
He took her hand and held out the ring he must have taken off the ribbon around the bear's neck.
"Lana, will you marry me?"
*~*14*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I had my arms around Lois and she was pulled close to me as I watched something I hadn't expected unfold in front of me.
Chad proposing to Lana.
Lois had told me they had fairly set plans for a summer wedding – when Chad was moving back to Smallville to take over the pediatric practice – but to actually see it was a little weird.
I was happy for them. I was glad she'd found someone that she could be happy with.
But it was still a little weird.
I watched as Lana said 'yes' and Chad slipped the ring on her finger. He stood up and gave her a long hug before kissing her, again and again and again. I wondered how Lana had felt when she saw me and Lois kiss the first few times. Probably a million times worse or weirder than I did seeing her kiss Chad.
Lois turned her head to look up at me. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
I smiled at her, turning her in my arms. "I have you. I'm more than okay."
Her hands rested on my chest. "You know what I mean."
I shrugged. "It's a little weird, but, heck, we've been married almost four years. It makes me... appreciate more what she went through when we got married and flaunted it in front of her. And flaunted isn't the right word, but you know what I mean – we didn't have a choice. And I really am happy for them," I finished quietly.
"I know."
Our moment was interrupted by a three-year-old tugging on my pants. "Daddy, I hungry. G'ams say tell you."
I laughed. "Okay, little man. Let's go find some lunch."
Lana and Chad were still in their own little world so we headed off; we could congratulate them later.
We had a fun day together. Christopher was old enough to participate in some of the games that he hadn't been two years earlier – and probably wouldn't have been the year before, but we hadn't come because of Nate's health.
Lois and I signed up for the dance contest later in the evening. That would be fun. It was even possible that we'd win again, but I wasn't going to hold my breath.
About two, Mom took Nate home for a nap. Christopher refused to go with her. Granny had offered to take both of them home to put them to bed in the evening so Lois and I could stay later – she'd said she wouldn't stay very late anyway; she wasn't as young as she used to be after all. Mom had promised that she'd run home with them and make sure that they didn't give Granny a hard time. I was sure Granny could hold her own, but I also wouldn't put it past Christopher to test her and he knew better than to test Mom.
We talked about going to Maisie's for dinner, but ended up at Uncle Mark's BBQ stand instead. By the time dinner was done, Lois said his pulled BBQ chicken sandwich was better than the one at J. Buck's – one of her favorite restaurants.
The dance contest was ready to start by the time we'd finished dinner. We came in fifth but had a blast. It was a lot more fun than the first time since we were a couple now. When it was over, she sat down and I was out on the dance floor with Granny before she took the kids home.
I glanced over and saw Lois and Lana chatting at the table. Christopher was sitting next to Lois, eating a piece of pumpkin pie and Nate was sitting on Lana's lap holding a bottle.
"That's the picture you imagined for a long time, wasn't it?" Granny asked me.
"What?"
"Lana, holding your child."
I spun her in a circle. "Yeah, it was. But it was also her child in that picture. That one there," I said, nodding at Nate, "is mine and Lois', and that's the way it's supposed to be. Now... I wouldn't have it any other way. I wish Lana hadn't gotten hurt in the process, but..." I sighed. "I hurt Lois very badly for a long time – I'm just grateful she gave me another chance."
"Even knowing what I know about what happened..." Granny sighed. "I don't understand why on earth it took you so long to realize what you had."
"I don't either, Granny."
She looked like she wanted to say something else but didn't. Finally, she looked me square in the eye. "You take care of her, Clarkie, or you'll have me to answer to, even if I've already gone to join Gramps, you hear?"
I nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I intend to."
"That's my boy. You know what the smartest thing your dad ever did was?"
"What?"
"Marry your mom. And the smartest thing you ever did was marry that girl – no matter what the reason. I love Lana, you know that, but you and Lois were made for each other. I knew that the minute I met her."
The song ended and I gave Granny a big hug before she was commandeered by Grandpa Lewis for a dance.
I headed over to Maisie's drink stand to get a lemonade.
I thanked Maise's son for the lemonade and turned around nearly running into the person behind me.
"Excuse me," I said as I looked up. "Chad. Hey. Congratulations."
"Hi, Clark." He turned to the counter. "One hot chocolate." He handed over the money.
I felt the need to say something. "I'm really happy for you guys. You make her happy," I told him as we walked away from the stand. "If anyone deserves that it's Lana." Well, and Lois after everything I put her through, but that wasn't part of this conversation.
"Yeah, she does," Chad agreed quietly. "I know you didn't mean to, but you put her through hell."
"I think I'd want to deck me if I were you," I told him. "Even though it's been almost four years."
"The thought's crossed my mind."
"I never wanted to hurt her," I told honestly. "Things just... happened. Lots of things I didn't always have a lot of control over."
"She's told me everything she knows about what happened, but also knows that she doesn't know all of what went on between you and Lois."
"She knows most of it. I can't think of anything she doesn't know, actually." Except maybe what a jerk I'd been to Lois for a lot of that time, but that wasn't relevant, was it? I sighed. "I'm sure things could have been handled better and I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't ended up in Latislan together, but by then Lois was having my baby. What would have happened between me and Lana once we knew about Christopher..." I shrugged. "Who can say?"
Chad looked like he wanted to say something but I wasn't sure what.
"Listen, you and Lana are much better together than she and I were. Could we have made it work for a lifetime? Probably. We loved each other. Does that mean that you and her aren't *better* for each other? Not at all. I think Lois and I are better for each other than Lana and I were. Lana's a wonderful person and she's going to make a great wife and a great mom and she's already a great teacher. She's lucky to have you and you're lucky to have her."
"I am lucky to have her," he agreed.
I took a deep breath and went on. "I would understand if you don't want to, but we'd love for you guys to be at the wedding in December. I know it's Christmas Eve and all, and I don't know if you have plans with family or whatever, but really, we'd like to have you there." I hurried on. "I know double dating or being best friends or whatever is out all around, but I think Lois and Lana have buried the hatchet so to speak and it would mean a lot to both of us – for a lot of reasons – but we also understand if you wouldn't be comfortable with that. I know you're living in Metropolis still, but if you're here for break or whatever, Lois' dad has a plane for anyone coming and hotel's taken care of if you need it. Will you at least think about it?"
He hesitated before nodding. "I'll talk to Lana and go from there."
"Thank you." I looked around. "Do you think we better get over there before they come up with some diabolical plan for us?" I asked inclining my head in the direction of where Lois and Lana sat by themselves after Granny took the boys home.
He nodded. "I think that's a good plan."
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
"Do you mind if I have a seat?"
I looked up to see Lana standing there.
"Not at all." I gestured to the chair next to me. "Though you might not want that one." It was covered with the remains of Christopher's dinner.
She laughed and sat on the other side of it. "Thanks."
"Congratulations," I said. "I'm happy for you both and I know Clark is, too." Clark was on the dance floor with Granny.
"Thank you. I knew it was probably coming this weekend, but I had no idea when," she said, fiddling with the ring on her finger.
I pulled Nate out of the high chair that attached to the table and set him on my lap. If I didn't, he'd play with his bottle and not drink it.
"Mommy, I wan' more whi' stuff."
I turned to Christopher who was eating pumpkin pie. "Eat some of your pie first."
He frowned. "Wan' more whi' stuff."
"I know you do, but you need to eat your pie and not just Cool Whip."
He crossed his arms and slumped in his chair.
I sighed and turned back to Lana. "Sorry."
"Can I?" she asked reaching for Nate.
I laughed as Nate reached back. "Sure."
Nate settled onto Lana's lap, bottle of Pediasure in hand.
I ignored Christopher's muttering about 'mean mommy'.
Lana smiled. "You are such a mom."
I shrugged. "I guess. You grow into it."
"We want kids," Lana said, quietly, not looking at me. "Before long."
"You'll make a great mom." I hesitated. Clark had always said that she would, but was that something appropriate to tell her?
"Clark's a great dad. I always knew he would be." She still didn't look at me.
"Yeah, he is," I agreed, watching him spin Granny in a circle.
"How're the wedding plans coming?"
"Pretty well done, I think. It's at the house and the chairs and all that stuff are picked out and ordered and all that. The tents and everything inside it is taken care of. We'll have to finalize the menu around Thanksgiving, but other than that... Tuxes are ordered and I've finally found my dress so..." This was the hard part. I took a deep breath. "Um, I have something to ask you."
"What's that?" she asked, playing with Nate's foot and not really paying that much attention.
"I'd understand completely if you don't want to, but would you be one of my bridesmaids?" I asked in a rush. I couldn't look at her.
She finally looked at me in surprise. "What?"
"I have a matron of honor and two bridesmaids, but Clark has four guys – Josh, Pete, my practically brother Jimmy – I think you met him a couple times – and his brother."
"His brother?" she asked, shocked.
I nodded. "We found his brother. You'll see when you meet him – there's no way they're not related and they shared histories and..." I shrugged. "They're getting to be pretty close friends, which is great for him. Anyway, he's got four attendants and we were talking about it... Bernie's fiancé is one of the bridesmaids and Kara is the other. A friend from the Planet is my matron of honor. Clark and I talked about it, and we'd understand if you don't want to, but we'd be honored if you would."
She leaned back in her seat. "Wow. I don't know, Lois. I mean, a lot of water's gone under the bridge and I know that we're not... enemies anymore, but your husband's ex-girlfriend? Are you sure you want me?"
I sighed and picked at the table cloth, watching Christopher run over towards Martha. He was probably going to ask for more Cool Whip. "I don't want this to come out wrong – like you're some kind of desperate choice or something because that's not it at all. There are a couple other people I could ask – and will if you decide you don't want to do it – and I would completely understand. I don't have many friends." I didn't. And the only other people I could even think of were Clark's cousin, Danielle and Jessica. Danielle was the one who'd accidentally exposed Clark to Kryptonite – twice – and even though she'd had no clue, I still felt a bit weird about inviting trouble or something. And Jessica... She was more than an employee but she'd also be helping look after the boys at the wedding. "Things are getting better, but the last four years... I've been pretty isolated. I couldn't afford to let anyone get close. It started that first semester when..." I sighed. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to tell her about how bad things were between me and Clark during that time.
"I couldn't afford for anyone to know what was going on. I was almost completely isolated except for Clark and..." I shrugged. "I lost touch with all my friends from high school and I haven't made a whole lot of new friends since then. Serena and I have worked together since not long after Christopher was born and she's the closest thing I have to a best friend, besides Clark and Vicki, but she's got more of a mother-of-the-bride thing going on. Ashley and Kara are recent friends, even though I've been related to Kara by marriage for nearly four years, it wasn't until Pete and Rachel's wedding that we really started to connect. We didn’t make it to her and Josh's wedding because of Nate's surgery."
I sighed. "You saved Christopher that day. And you pushed Clark when he needed it. Towards me. You didn't have to do that. Even if you didn't want him, you didn't have to do that – you could have tried to drive the wedge between us even deeper and you didn't. I owe you a lot. And I don't know that we'll ever truly be... *friends* but, I know you're a good person and under different circumstances, I think we could have been. Anyway, I'd be honored if you'd be one of my bridesmaids."
She stared at the sock covered foot still resting in her hand. "How about I'll think about it? I'll talk to Chad and see if we have other plans we can't change – it's Christmas Eve right?" I nodded. "I'll talk to Chad and get back to you later this week."
"That's all I ask. Thank you."
"I do still hope that you two will come to our wedding."
"We're planning on it – barring something unexpected, of course."
Martha and Granny came over and took the boys. I gave both of them kisses and admonished them to behave. Christopher promised he'd be good but I wasn't sure I'd believed him.
I watched as they walked off before turning back to Lana. "I am happy for you, really, I am."
"Thank you." She looked past me. "They're heading our way. Together."
I looked over my shoulder. "Is that a good thing?"
"I don't think Chad's decked him – and he's told me a few times that he's wanted to."
"I don't blame him," I said quietly. "It wouldn’t surprise me if you wanted to slap me a time or two."
"I have," she told me. "But not anymore. This is all still pretty new to Chad."
"Right."
A minute later, they were sitting with us and we chatted amiably while Clark put some Cool Whip on and then ate Christopher's nearly untouched pie.
We danced a few more dances before Clark took me back to his parents' house so that we could 'break in' his old room.
He had a one track mind.
Of course, I did, too.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
*****
TBC
From October [or around the time of the Corn Festival - though a bit earlier in my mind
]:
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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3434/3209617339_2ea3671386.jpg?v=0[/img]
My son in November of last year [about a month after the Corn Festival would have been]:
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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/3209431267_fe1986abba.jpg?v=0[/img]
And, of course, the comparison pictures - from right before hospitalization to mid October...
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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/2960353852_1df3685e5d.jpg?v=0[/img]
