Thanks to Nancy, Beth and Alisha!
Thanks to Queenie for 'the words'. You'll see...
Last time:
Clark
I looked at the list. She was trying to cram a lifetime of birthdays and Christmases and other special occasions into one day.
"Of course," I told her before kissing her softly. "I'll head to the West Coast or Hawaii and be back soon."
She nodded. "Thanks. I love you."
"I love you, too."
With that, I took off for later time zones. It took a while but not too long before I had everything she wanted.
When I made it back she was asleep on the bed, notebook half fallen out of her hand. I could see letters for everyone but her mom folded neatly on the bed. The one to her mom... It looked like it had gone through several drafts and was partially finished on the page in front of her. I carefully stacked everything and took the notepad from her, setting it all on the dresser.
I floated her until I could get us both under the covers and for the first time in way too long, I fell asleep with her in my arms.
*~*37*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
For the first time in way too long, I woke up in Clark's arms.
It felt like coming home.
And then I remembered.
We were going home. In a few hours.
Which meant I only had a few hours left with my mom. And Lucy and Dave, but Mom was the one that was going to hurt the most.
"You awake?" Clark asked quietly.
I nodded through the tears already forming and started to get up. "I don't want to waste any of the day," I told him.
"Everyone else is asleep still," he told me, pulling me back towards him. "And you really should be, too. You were up late."
"I didn't finish the letter to my mom." I snuggled in next to him – just for a couple minutes. We had years to be like this together but I only had a few hours left...
I felt like a broken record, but I figured I'd be on a countdown all day.
"Can I help?"
I shook my head. "Were you able to get everything?"
"Yeah, I got everything."
"Thank you."
"My pleasure," he said, kissing the side of my neck softly.
I knew what he wanted – and I did, too – but I had so little time... "I have to finish this, sweetheart. Tonight – or tomorrow – or next week, we'll go on that honeymoon. I promise."
He sighed. "I know. And I know how much this means to you..."
"But since everyone's asleep..."
He rubbed my abdomen gently. "Something like that."
I rolled over and rested my hand on his cheek. "I *have* to finish this."
"I know." He kissed me softly. "And you're right. I never told you where we were going – and I'm still not going to – but as soon as we can arrange some time off..."
I nodded and kissed him back. "You've got a deal."
"Then I'll sit with you." He pushed up and reached over for the notepad and pen. "Here."
I moved to sit in front of him, my back to his chest, notepad on my legs. "I don't know what to say," I whispered after I'd stared at what was already written for long minutes.
And basically what I'd written was that I didn't know what to say.
"Write from your heart," he told me. "Whatever's in your heart, just write it down."
I nodded against him and started slowly writing. But the more I wrote, the faster it came. I wasn't sure it was legible, but that could have been either the handwriting or the tears obscuring my view.
Clark just sat behind me and held me as I wrote.
Finally, I ran out of words. I set the pad on the bed and turned in Clark's arms. He held me as I cried again. I knew I couldn't contribute all of it to hormones, but I knew that was a part of it.
He rubbed a hand up and down my back. As the tears slowed, he finally spoke. "Why don't I get you some ibuprofen? I'm sure you're going to cry a lot today and otherwise, you'll have a massive headache. Go take a hot shower and get dressed and I'll get it."
I nodded and headed towards the bathroom.
Half an hour later, I was sitting in one of the big chairs in the living room, staring out the large window at the mountains.
"You're up early," I heard Daddy say as he walked out of his room.
"I couldn't sleep," I told him honestly, taking a sip of the coffee Clark had made.
"Too big a day?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I'm going home and I get to see my sons again but..."
He sat on the arm of the chair, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You're going to miss your mom and Lucy and Dave."
"Right."
"Your boys will be so happy to see you and you to see them that it won't hurt so bad."
I nodded. "Maybe. But actually stepping through the time window... That won't be easy. Clark ran into your Clark and he brought back some pictures and videos with him. That'll either make it easier – seeing them and all – or harder because of how much I've missed and seeing how well they're doing anyway, without me."
He squeezed my shoulder. "Don't think that way."
I'd told them everything, including the whole post-partum depression thing that had haunted me until the previous fall. Not long after we'd arrived, Daddy had written me a prescription for Wellbutrin again. It was making a huge difference, but with everything going on, it was still a struggle.
"I'm sure they've missed you and will be ecstatic that you're home."
"Will they have noticed at all?" I asked quietly, finally truly voicing one of my fears. I'd mentioned it before but never the true depth of my fear. "Or will they think that your Lois is their mom." I gave a small shake of my head. "I guess it's a good thing I'm not nursing anymore."
He chuckled. "Probably. Or that this didn't happen while you were in the middle of all Nate's medical issues."
I nodded. "True. If you thought I'd freaked out at first as it was... I can't imagine being taken away from him a couple days before surgery or something. I don’t know which would make me feel better – the boys knowing they aren't us or them not knowing because then their lives would have been disrupted less."
"I don’t know either." We sat for another minute. "I'd like to see them, if you don't mind."
"The boys?" I asked suddenly.
"The pictures, the videos Clark brought back, if you don't mind."
"I'd be happy to, but I'm not sure what he did with them. When he's out of the shower, I'll ask."
"Right here," Clark said, coming out of our room, carrying a bag.
Moments later, Mom had joined us and we were sitting on the sofa. Clark hadn't just brought recent pictures, but the scrapbooks and albums since Christopher was born.
Some of the early ones were hard to look at – it was obvious that things were strained between me and Clark. There were no pictures of the three of us.
And they were hard to look at because I missed him. We flipped through and found a picture of us at the Kerths with Billy and Serena – when they won for their adoption story.
"You look incredible," Mom said. "Are those my pearls?"
I nodded. "Daddy gave them to me for that night."
Next was a picture of Christopher from the Adoption Option kickoff. He looked like such a little man. Tears filled my eyes as I ran a finger over the picture.
Mom squeezed my shoulder. "He's a sweetie," she said as I flipped to another picture of him and Jimmy talking to Daddy.
The Corn Festival was next. Clark in his blue jeans and denim shirt, sleeves rolled up. Someone had gotten a picture of me kissing him after he won the baseball toss that year. Pop Pop was in the background. I still missed him.
We flipped through the rest of the book. There were pictures from the cruise we'd taken and even a couple of me looking absolutely miserable when I was on modified bed rest with Nate.
Then the pictures of him – including ones from the hospital when he had surgery.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I was leaning against the back of the couch and I knew how hard those pictures were for Lois to look at. She moved past them and through the rest – up through the pictures we'd never seen of the wedding. Someone had added them after we left.
She picked up another book – pictures since we'd left.
Tears were flowing down her cheeks as she flipped though the book. "I miss them," she whispered.
"They're beautiful," Ellen said, resting her head on Lois'. "I wish we had the opportunity to get to know them and this new baby."
"I wish they had the chance to get to know you."
Doors opened and Lucy and Jimmy came down stairs, followed closely by my parents.
Lois went through the pictures with them and I talked to Bernie when he came in.
"I still don't get how we got switched without either of us – or the other Lois and Clark – noticing," I told him as we sipped on cups of coffee.
"I think I know. Or I have a theory, anyway," he told me.
"What's that?" I turned to the kitchen to start working on breakfast.
"I found something else when I was looking through the FAQ after you got back last night."
"What's that?"
"Well, apparently, if someone uses the Intermacric Trans-homulator with a time window that's open between two universes, the person or persons it's being used on will be transpositioned with their counterparts on the other side of the window."
I stared at him with a raised brow. "O-kay. What's an intermultiplier homosapianator?"
He laughed. "An Intermacric Trans-homulator and I don't have a clue, but that’s what it said. If someone used one near a window open between our two universes..." He shrugged.
I sighed. "I guess that would explain how neither of the Kryptonians involved woke up and how someone was actually able to move us without us noticing."
"I think that's what the other button is, but I'm still hesitant to push it and the FAQ only covers the time part of the machine. Apparently, the buttons aren't supposed to be used in conjunction with each other, but you're right. That explains it if they did."
"What would explain it?" Sam asked as he poured himself another cup of coffee.
Bernie explained it.
Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I'm not sure what one of those is either, obviously, but if we break it down... Intermacric would be across macros – probably including universes or multiverses or whatever. And 'trans' is across or through or change. Homo would be man and 'ulator' is something like 'it does things'. So it would do things across or through universes with humans. Or something like that."
"Like 'Beam me up, Scotty'?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I guess. If they can travel through time, 'beam me up, Scotty,' may not be too far out of the question."
"I guess that's as good an explanation as we're going to get," I said. "Does that explain why I was wearing his clothes and his wedding ring and all that?"
Bernie nodded. "It said that all personal effects, like jewelry, would stay in their original universe and be transferred to the other person or something like that."
"We may never really know," Sam said. "But it's nice to have a potential explanation."
Bernie and I worked together to make breakfast for everyone.
We spent the day hanging out at the cabin with family. Lois was rarely far from her mother's side. I missed being with her, being close to her, but I wasn't about to deny her this time with her mom and sister, especially.
After dinner, Lois had me bring out the things she'd had me get.
We stood in front of the family, her in front of me, my hands resting on her shoulder for support. "I wanted to do something for each of you before we left. You've all been so kind and so gracious, accepting us into your family even as you missed your own Lois and Clark." She swiped at the tears. "It's not much but I hope that it lets you know how much you've each meant to me – to us – since we've been here and how much we're going to miss all of you – even those of you we have other versions of at home."
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Where to start?" She turned to Gina. "We don't know you at home, but I hope we meet the other you soon." She turned to her sort-of sister-in-law. "Ashley, you've been like a sister to me at home and here, too, once you and Bernie started talking again. Thank you for that. For accepting Bernie – and Clark – as they are, for who they are."
She looked at my parents. "Martha, Jonathan – you could have made this very difficult on us, especially me, and you didn't. Your support when we first got here was invaluable to us. I don't know what we would have done without you." She moved on to Jimmy. "Jimmy, take care of my little sister. I wish she'd survived in our world for our Jimmy – not just because I miss her still but because I see how happy you two are and I want that for him. Take care of her and that baby or I promise, the other me will have something to say about it."
She took another breath. "Bernie – and you too, Ashley – thank you for trying to find a way home for us. You've been good friends to us since we've been here and I can't thank you enough for figuring out how to get us back to our family. You, too, Daddy. You didn't have to be as accepting as you were, but thank you for taking care of us."
"Of course, sweetheart. We couldn't do anything else. We're sure your dad helped take care of our Lois and Clark, too," he told her.
Lois nodded. "I hope he did. Dave..." She wiped at her cheeks again. "I really wish I'd known about you in our world, that we'd been able to help him like Mom helped you. Daddy still feels so guilty about that – even though Jimmy and his family have told him that it's not his fault. I'm going to miss you. So much."
My arms went around her. These two were going to be the hardest.
"Lucy," she whispered. "Thank you for letting me be your friend. I know I'm not really your sister and you're not really mine, but... Thank you for letting me pretend for a few months."
Lucy stood up and I moved so that she could hug her sister. They clung to each other for a long moment.
"I'm glad you're getting your sister back," Lois whispered.
"Me, too," Lucy whispered back. "But I am going to miss you." She moved back to her seat by Jimmy.
Lois looked at Ellen. "Mom..." The tears came faster and she couldn't speak.
Ellen moved quickly to her side, enveloping Lois in her arms. "Oh, sweetie. As much as I miss our Lois, I hate that we're sending you back to a world without your mom and sister and brother. I'm going to miss you." She moved back, tears running down her cheeks. "I can tell you this with absolute certainty though. Your mother would be very proud of you, of who you've become, of your family, of your choice in your life mate, regardless of why the choice was originally made. I love Joe, but I love Clark, too, and I can see why the two of you work so well together."
Lois clung to Ellen for long minutes before she finally moved back. "I love you, Mom. I'm going to miss you so much..."
After another long hug, they sat on the couch together while I passed out the gifts Lois had asked me to pick up for them. There were books and scarves and other things that Lois knew each of them would like.
I wasn't sure where the letters she'd written were.
We played another couple of games, but the mood was subdued.
The clock struck ten.
We both gave long hugs to everyone and with a long last look, we flew towards the house. I carried Lois and Bernie carried the boxes we were taking back with us.
Lois' tears flowed the whole way there.
A few minutes later, we were in the theater in the basement of the house.
I prepared the window and took the boxes from Bernie.
I held Lois' hand and looked at her.
"It's time."
*****
TBC
