/waves/
Hi guys! Here we go
.
Thanks, as ever, to Alisha, Beth and Nancy!
Last time:
Clark
I glanced at the clock. "You need to get downstairs. Lois will be down soon and you need to be there."
"What's the deal with me and Lois? And you and Lois?"
I sighed. "The guy who gave us the device said he traveled throughout universes destroying the lives of any Lois and Clark he could find. I don't know why them, us, whatever. Maybe the other versions of us in his original universe pissed him off or something, so Lois and I are trying to get back to our original lives, but with Ellen and Lucy and Dave."
He nodded. "I guess I can understand that. But you promise, I'll be happy if I do this. It won't ruin things with Lana?"
I hesitated. "It's the way it has to be. If she does what she's going to do tonight without you... It doesn't ruin things. In the long run, it fixes things, but just remember to be nice to her. For however long it takes to get it all taken care of, be nice to her. It's going to be hard on her and she needs you to be her friend." Maybe he'd be nicer to Lois than I had been.
"So it won't be finished tonight?"
I shook my head. "It'll take longer than that, but take Lana's ring with you." I made myself smile. "You'll need it." To get married to Lois, I added silently. "And now, you need to get downstairs and the Lois I'm with and I need to get out of here." I stood by the door. "Thank you."
"If I ever see you again and it doesn't turn out well..." he threatened.
"What? You'll incinerate me?" I asked with a small smile tugging at my lips before I left.
*~*26*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
"Where are we going to find Mindy?" I asked Clark as we flew.
"We'll start at the airport and make sure we get on the plane and go from there."
We landed silently on one of the buildings near the plane in question and watched from there.
"There we are," Clark whispered pointing to two shadows hiding behind a car.
I nodded and watched as Mindy was handed the briefcase.
The younger me ran towards the rear hatch of the plane and hid inside.
"Go," whispered Clark. The younger him followed the younger me and a few minutes later, the plane was shut. "I'm not happy," he said quietly. "I mean he's not happy. I told him he'd have to put off proposing and he had to protect you, but that he needed to take the ring with him. I think he thought that he'd be able to propose like tomorrow or something, not that he'd need to sell it to marry you."
I sighed. "They're in for a rude awakening, but we have to make sure it happens. Before we jump forward again, let's go to Latislan in a couple days and make sure I get out of the hospital and back to the embassy."
"Maybe we can run interference for ourselves or something," he said. He leaned closer to me to whisper in my ear. "I can't wait until we're married again."
Chills ran through me – good chills. "Me either." The thought of making love to him again... It had been... well, more than 24 hours, but not that much. We'd spent eighteen hours or so in Bizzaro World and several more hours running through time. I yawned. I'd been up for over 24 hours and running on pure adrenaline but even if I was exhausted, we had to get us married so that Clark would quit being so noble and have his way with me or something.
I couldn't help but daydream. He could fly us to a deserted island in Greece and then go to Italy for pasta while I rested for a few minutes and then, knowing what pasta did to him, we'd have some fun together.
Probably more than once.
I couldn't wait.
"I see some papers in the office," he whispered interrupting my daydreams of the two of us on a beach somewhere.
Where clothing was optional.
I shook my head and looked at him. "What?"
"Where were you?" he asked with a grin.
"A beach in Greece as soon as we make sure the two of them got married," I told him. "With pasta. And no clothes. And then a nap."
His smile broadened. "I like that plan, especially the clothes part, but we have to get there first."
"I know." I put a hand on his cheek. "So what did you say?"
"I see some papers in the office."
"Something we can snag and take with us or use your phone to take pictures of, or what?"
"Pictures are a good idea."
Mindy and her henchman went into the office below us. Clark listened to their conversation and repeated it to me. Something about an unnamed boss.
"There's some CostMart invoices in there, too," he whispered. "But they might be completely legitimate."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "What could Mindy be a part of that's completely legitimate?"
He shrugged. "Part of the cover?"
"Maybe." I sighed. "Anything else we can get from here?"
He shook his head. "I'll come back while you take a nap and take some pictures."
I glared at him. "You *are* *not* time traveling without me."
"Of course not. I mean, leave you sleeping on the beach and I'll come back here and take some pictures."
Mindy and company chose that moment to leave.
"Take them now. I don't want to be away from you any longer than absolutely necessary."
He nodded and was back a few minutes later. "Where to now?"
"Latislan, but let's fly. I want to see what happens at the airport."
He stood behind me and wrapped his arms around me, taking off for the small southeastern European country.
"I can't believe we're going back there voluntarily," I said as we flew.
"We're staying way out of sight this time," he promised me. "He can't get to you."
I sighed. "Except that he can get to me."
"Not *you*," he reminded me. "I know it's going to be hard to watch him with her, but she'll survive and eventually, they'll be as happy as we are now."
"I know."
"And I told him to be nice to her, no matter what," he told me.
I snorted. "Good luck. I love you, Clark, you know that, but that first year I don't think Kryptonite would have knocked any sense into you."
"I'm so sorry about that," he said, stopping in mid-air and burying his face in the back of my neck.
"I know and you're going to spend the rest of your life making it up to me."
"Got that right. Starting with breakfast in bed the day after we get back."
I shook my head. "I want to spend time with the boys first. Lots of time. But there will be plenty of breakfast in bed opportunities in the future."
We took off again and landed on the roof of one of the buildings near the tarmac where the plane would land.
Clark sat down, leaning against the side of the building and pulled me down in front of him, his arms around me. "Now we wait," he said.
"How long?" I asked him with a yawn.
"Not too long," he promised, "but if you want to doze off for a little bit, you can."
"Thanks," I murmured, as I closed my eyes and did just that.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Hopefully, it wouldn't take long for us to get the younger us married off and then we could go find that beach Lois had mentioned...
I sighed. It wouldn't do to get distracted and miss this all. Daydreaming would have to wait.
And then it wouldn't be daydreaming.
I wasn't sure how long we sat there, but it wasn't too long. "Lois," I whispered. "The plane's landing."
"Wha?" she asked, practically jumping out of my arms.
"Shh..." I hissed, clasping a hand over her mouth.
She nodded against me and I let her go.
"Sorry," I whispered. "Don’t want the bad guys to have two of us."
"Sorry," she whispered back. "Is that the plane?" she asked nodded towards the tarmac.
As if to answer her question, she came running out of the rear hatch.
Or rather the other her did.
We watched for another half hour or so until she kneed Navance in the groin and they all headed towards the building that passed for a hospital in this country.
We both breathed a sigh of relief at the other me's attitude and protectiveness of the other her.
"Do we want to make sure he claims paternity?" I asked her.
"When was that?" she asked back. "I don't remember."
"Hour, hour and a half, something like that."
She nodded. "Let's go sit on top of the hospital and you can keep an ear on everything and wake me up when he does." She turned to look at me. "Are you okay? I mean I know you need less sleep than the rest of us but are you okay?"
I nodded and brushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm fine. I'll need some rest before too long, but we'll just be sitting there... Wait."
"What?"
I grinned at her. "We have a time machine. We go forward an hour and see what's happening and go from there."
She grinned back. "That's a better plan."
A minute later we stepped through the window to the same rooftop an hour later. I wrapped my arms around her and we headed silently towards the hospital.
"Just in time," I whispered as we saw Navance stride into the building. Sure enough, a few minutes later, I heard my younger self claiming Lois' baby – his baby, even if he didn't know it.
"Now when?" Lois asked after I told her that he'd done it.
"Get you out of the hospital and towards the embassy?"
She nodded. "Let's go forward... three days?"
I nodded and we did just that. It amazed me how quickly we'd adapted to this whole time travel thing.
I looked around and grimaced. "Jack's on his way and I'm hiding in the alley but I don't think he's going to make it in time," I told her watching as an orderly made his way from room to room on the floor.
Lois nibbled on her bottom lip as she thought. "I'll distract the guard, you get her out. Just wear a mask."
"How do I convince her I'm a good guy without showing her who I am?"
"He used a PDA or something to type messages to me. One said you were waiting for me or something like that. The second said that you said to save you a Tush Push. That's how I knew for sure it was okay – only you would have said something like that."
I nodded. "You have to be careful. Very careful." I told her.
She smiled at me and moved into the circle of my arms. "I trust you to take care of me, because in like an hour when they're married, we're heading for the beach."
I kissed her softly. "Let's go."
I managed to get us through the stairwell silently and found an empty supply room with some extra scrubs in it. I changed into some and Lois did as well. I grabbed some extras in her size for her younger self.
"Ready?" I whispered as we reached the corner near her room.
She nodded, but I could tell she was nervous.
"I won't let anything happen to either one of you," I promised her.
"I know." She took a deep breath. "Here goes."
I watched as she sauntered up to the guard, who looked shocked to see her out of her room. She looked enough like her younger self that he didn't know what to do but follow her. I grabbed an empty syringe to try to throw them off or something and did what she'd told me had happened. The younger Lois and I made it out of the hospital and I saw her in the arms of my younger self and breathed a sigh of relief.
A minute later, my Lois came running up, a big grin on her face. "They don't know what hit them," she whispered. "But they're right behind me. We need to lead them away from the other two."
I nodded. "Let's go."
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
This was much more fun the second time around.
We ran through the streets of Skopje, leading the guards away from the embassy. After nearly half an hour, we ducked into an alley.
"Can we be done yet?" I whispered. The catnaps had been nice, but I was ready for real food and a good night's sleep. As much as I wanted to get this all over with, I was more than ready for that.
And some alone time with my husband.
While he wasn't Lana's husband.
Clark nodded. "Let's head over to the embassy and make sure he goes through with it."
He pulled me close to him and we landed on a roof near the embassy. Getting too close – with all the Marines on their guard – wasn't a good idea.
"There," Clark whispered pointing and I could see through a small window into the chapel.
Tears flowed down my cheeks on behalf of my younger self. She was in for a rough row to hoe and she didn't know the half of it yet.
"She'll be okay." His arms tightened around me. "She's strong. She's tough and tenacious and she's going to be a great mom."
"I know."
The wedding was over and I turned to Clark. I put my hands on either side of his face and kissed him passionately. "Let's get out of here," I whispered.
Minutes later, we were on the sand of one of those deserted islands I'd mentioned. At least I thought it was deserted. I trusted Clark and I didn't really care.
It wasn't long before we were lying in each other's arms and even Clark was breathing heavily as we floated above the sand.
"I'll spread out clothes out as best I can and grab a towel or something while I'm in Italy," he said, kissing me softly. "Unless you'd rather find a hotel somewhere or something."
I shook my head. "We should stay as low-key as possible. Go get us pasta." I grinned. "Though we didn't need it that time."
He smiled at me. "No, we didn't." He kissed me again. "I'll be back in a few minutes." He disappeared into the night.
It felt a bit weird lying there under the stars, only Clark's shirt over me as a blanket, knowing that not too far away the other me was probably crying her eyes out.
It was less than ten minutes before Clark returned with pasta and blankets. He spread one out on the beach and I stuck my arms into the sleeves of his shirt and buttoned a couple of the buttons.
He raised an eyebrow at me as I pulled my underwear back on.
"I thought clothing was optional," he said as he dug out the lasagna to hand to me.
"You'll have to work to get my clothes off again, mister. You have to feed me before there's even a chance. Besides you're clothed," I pointed out, eyeing his jeans and form-fitting T-shirt. I grabbed a garlic breadstick out of the bag and took a big bite. "Mmmmmm," I said, my eyes practically rolling in the back of my head. "I knew I was hungry but I had no idea *how* hungry." I could see Clark watching me with thinly disguised desire. "Eat, buster."
He laughed and pulled out a fettuccini Alfredo for himself.
It didn't take long for us to finish off all the food he'd brought. As he put the trash into the sack and incinerated it on the beach, I yawned. "Ready to get some sleep?"
I tried not to laugh at his forlorn little boy look.
"Seriously?" he asked, petulantly.
I giggled. "No. I know what pasta does to you. *Then* we'll get some sleep."
He floated over to me as I stretched out on the blanket. He parted the sides of his shirt below where I'd buttoned it. Lovingly, he traced my stretch marks with the tips of his fingers. "I know I've always said that you're beautiful, stretch marks and all, but now..." He kissed my stomach gently. "...they take on a whole new meaning, don't they?"
I nodded. "They do." I reached up to brush a lock of hair off his forehead. "You know what I remember the most about the night we made Nate?"
He looked up at me. "What's that?"
"The first time you looked at me – after you took my nightgown off..." My eyes filled with tears at the memory.
"What about it?" he asked, moving to lie next to me, his fingers still caressing my stomach.
"I'd told you I didn't care if you pretended I was Lana as long as you didn't use her name."
"She was never there that night," he whispered, kissing my forehead. "Only you. I should have known then..."
The tears streaked down my temples and into my ears.
"What?" he asked. "Did you think I did imagine Lana?"
I shook my head. "No, I never really thought that, but after you took my nightgown off and laid us down, you rolled to the side and I could tell you were looking at me, but..."
"You couldn't bring yourself to watch me, could you? You were afraid of what I'd think after you'd been nursing for so long and the stretch marks, weren't you?"
I nodded. "But then you told me I was beautiful and somehow I knew you were talking about me and not pretending I was Lana."
"I was," he told me. "From the time you kissed me to the time when I woke up and saw you lying on my side of the bed and the sheet was down nearly to your rear end and all I could see was your back and I wondered what would happen if you woke up just then... You were the only thing in my world, sweetheart. You still are. Every time we make love. I don't hear emergencies or anything." He began kissing his way up my neck between words. "Just you. Your heartbeat. The little noises you make. You fill my world, my senses. You're my life."
The tears had picked up a bit. "Clark..."
Whatever I was about to say was lost in his passionate kiss.
We made love again, under the stars, and then Clark pulled a blanket up over us as we fell asleep in each other's arms.
*****
TBC
