Thanks as always to Alisha, Beth, Nancy and Queenie!
Last time:
Clark was waiting for her when she pulled into the farmyard.
"Hey," she said as he pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, his head buried in her neck. "What is it?"
"I love you," he said into her shoulder.
"I love you, too. How'd you get home?"
"Not important."
"I thought you said you and your folks needed to talk to me."
"We do." He moved back and took her face in his hands before kissing her soundly. He let go and reached for her hand. "Come on. We need to talk."
Chapter 7"Where are we going?"
"The hayloft," Clark told her.
"I thought we were going to talk to your folks," Lois asked, puzzled.
He hesitated. "We will, but I wanted to talk to you about something first."
"The world is going to end in like four days, unless that rocket works, so I'm guessing it's important."
He hesitated again as she went up the ladder in front of him. "I know and it is."
Lois pulled the quilt out of the cabinet and spread it on the floor. Clark moved straight to the door as she sat down.
"What is it, Clark?"
"There's something I have to tell you," he said, still not looking at her.
"As long as it's not that you're secretly married to Lana, I think it'll be okay," she said with a roll of her eyes. She stood and walked towards him, stopping when she could wrap her arms around him and rest her cheek on his back. "What is it, sweetheart?"
He leaned one shoulder against the door frame and covered her arms with his. "You're going to be mad," he warned.
"You *are* married to Lana?" she asked skeptically.
He snorted. "No. That's not *ever* going to happen. Ever. You know that." He sighed and his voice was quiet when he spoke again. "Remember the first time we said 'I love you'?"
"Like it was yesterday."
"And we talked about what if I told you some big secret after I proposed but before we got married?"
"I remember," Lois said slowly. "And now you're scaring me."
"There's something about me that I've never told you and I'm afraid you're going to be mad, but I hope not when I tell you why it's such a good thing. Or even if you never talk to me again... You'll be safe and that's the most important thing. You and everyone else."
"What are you talking about?"
He turned to face her, wrapping his arms around her. "You know I'm adopted."
"I've known that for as long as I can remember," she told him, resting her head on his chest.
"I know, but you don't know *how* I was adopted."
"Your mom's cousin..."
He shook his head. "No."
She pulled back and looked at him. "No?"
He closed his eyes and sighed. "This is the hard part." He rested his forehead on hers before taking a deep breath and plunging in. "Mom and Dad found me."
"O-kay," she said slowly.
"In Shuster's Field."
She raised an eyebrow. "Someone *left* you in Shuster's Field. Was his bull put up?"
Clark shrugged. "I don't know about his bull, but no one *left* me there." He took a deep breath. "I *landed* there. My *ship* landed there."
She moved away from him. "Clark, you're being insane. The Earth is about to end and you're talking crazy. I'm going to go talk to your folks."
She turned towards the ladder only to find him in front of her, hovering in midair over the main floor of the barn.
Her jaw dropped. "Clark?" she whispered.
He moved back towards her, coming to a stop in front of her, his hands resting on her shoulders. "This isn't how I planned on telling you. I've planned on telling you for a long time, but not like this. Not until after I proposed to you after graduation. Then I was going to tell you and pray that you still wanted to marry me."
"So..."
He helped her sit down on the blanket. "I know this is a lot to take in," he said softly, brushing the hair back off her forehead. "Mom and Dad found me in spaceship. They didn't know where I came from or anything but they loaded me and my ship in the truck and brought me home. We didn't really know there was anything too weird about me until Jr. High. And I don't want to tell you the whole story now, because you're right; time's limited, but I promise I'll tell you everything later."
Lois swallowed hard and nodded. "Okay." She ran her hands through her hair. "Man, I must really be in shock to just let all this go by."
He moved to sit behind her, pulling her to him. "I know you are, but I'm hoping you'll see this as a good thing."
She rested her head against him. "Why?"
"Because of two things. I'm invulnerable and I can fly."
"You can *fly*?" she asked skeptically. "Right," she went on, shaking her head. "The whole thing over there." She waved an arm in the direction of the ladder. "So why is that a good thing? I mean, it'd be cool and you can fly me places, but..."
"I'm also taking that diving class," he said quietly. "We'll know tomorrow night if those other rockets worked and if they didn't, I'm going to take my diving equipment and I'm going to fly into space and, hopefully, I'm going to stop this thing."
She turned to stare at him, her eyes wide. "You think you can fly into space and destroy an asteroid?"
He nodded. "I'm going to try." He cupped her cheek in his hand. "I love you, Lois, and I couldn't go without telling you where I'm going and why," he said softly. "I'm not from Earth, but you've always made me feel like this was home. I love you and I have to do this. I have to make sure that you and my parents and everyone else are safe. And I'm invulnerable to everything we've ever found, but this... This is outside of any scope of possibility we ever came up with and there's always the chance I won't come back and I couldn't just leave you without telling you why."
Lois nodded slowly. "Thank you."
"Do you hate me?" he asked quietly.
She stood up and started to pace. "No, I don't hate you. I'm overwhelmed, but hate? No." Tears filled her eyes. "You really think you might not come back?" she whispered.
He stood in front of her and wiped her cheeks as the tears overflowed. "I don't know, sweetheart. I hope I will. I plan to. But I have to try to save you, everyone. And if that means I don't come back... Maybe this is why I was sent here. Not *here* specifically, but you know how everyone wonders what their purpose in life is? Maybe this is mine."
She wrapped her arms around him and they held each other for long minutes. She pulled back and looked up at him, kissing him softly. "I love you, Clark."
He kissed her back. "I love you, too. You know that."
"You have to come back to me."
"I will."
She kissed him again, her arms snaking around his neck, pulling him closer to her. Minutes later, they were back on the quilt as her hands found their way under his shirt and together they pulled it over his head.
But it was the breather they needed.
"What're we doing?" he asked her quietly, resting his forehead on hers as they both breathed heavily.
"If you're leaving and there's a chance you might not come back, I want to make love to you," she told him, brushing his hair back. "Just once before you go. Before I might not ever see you again."
He kissed her softly. "We're waiting for our wedding night, remember? I'm not going to leave you forever and unless you're planning on us getting married..." His voice trailed off with a grin crossing his face.
"When are you going?" she asked.
"Thirty-six hours or so. We'll know about the other rockets by then and then it won't be *too* far away. I can hold my breath for a long time so that helps but..."
"Then why don't we? Tomorrow morning." Tears snuck down her cheeks.
"Are you sure? I love you and the thought crossed my mind, but to marry you and widow you in just a few hours..." Tears filled his own eyes. "I don't think I could do that."
"Isn't that my choice?"
He kissed her again. "I love you. I want to marry you. You know that." He disappeared for just a second and before she realized what was happening, she was sitting on the quilt and he was in front of her on one knee. "I got this the last time I was in Kansas City." He opened the velvet box, disengaging the engagement ring from the matching wedding band. He held it out towards her. "I've known I wanted to marry you since you kicked me out of the sandbox in when you were in kindergarten." She wiped tears from her cheeks as she laughed. "I love you. I can't promise you beyond tomorrow, but, Lois Lane... Will you marry me?"
She nodded. "Of course I will."
She pulled the promise ring he'd given her for her birthday off her finger and he slipped the engagement ring on in its place and kissed her again as she slid the promise ring onto her right hand.
She pulled back. "I'm only seventeen. How are we going to get married?"
They rearranged themselves so that he was sitting behind her again. "We'll find a state where you only have to be seventeen with no waiting period."
"When?"
"We'll skip school tomorrow," he said, kissing the side of her head. "I *think* New Troy fits the bill – I looked it up when we were doing that marriage project in Family Living – but I'm not sure. I'll double check later." He played with the ring on her finger. "I know it's not much but..."
"It's perfect."
"I knew when I saw it that it was the one I wanted. The guy said it was called a trillion cut but it reminds me of the family crest from my birth family. I wish we had time for me to tell you everything but... I'll show you some of it tomorrow, okay?"
She nodded. "I don't have a wedding band for you, though" she said quietly.
"We'll get one later."
"Are you sure?"
"Marrying you is the important part."
"Okay. But how will we get to New Troy?"
He chuckled. "I'll fly us."
She nodded slowly. "Right."
"Are you really okay with this?"
She nodded again. "I'm sure I'll have lots of questions later but... I love you and that's what it boils down to." She sighed. "We probably need to go talk to your parents."
"Yeah. They knew I wanted to tell you first but they wanted to talk to you, too."
"Are we going to tell them we're getting married?" she asked.
"What do you think?"
"Will they try to talk us out of it?"
He thought for a minute. "Probably."
"Then no. I'll put the ring in my pocket if that's okay."
"For now." He stood and helped her to her feet. He held her lightly by the waist and looked carefully around the farmyard before floating them down to the ground.
"Wow," she whispered.
He grinned. "I'm so glad you're okay with all this." He took her hand and they headed towards the house.
As they walked in the door, Lois put the ring in her pocket before going to the kitchen to greet Martha and Jonathan.
*****
Lois closed the front door quietly behind her. She didn't think her parents would be too upset about her skipping school, what with the world about to end and all, but to run off and marry Clark? She'd left them a note that said she was going to spend the day with him and would be home later.
She hadn't slept much all night – her head spinning from Clark's revelation of the things he could do and that he was an alien. As she'd thought about it, she'd realized that his short stories had to have been about what it was like for him growing up. He'd shared with her even without telling her the whole story. She'd have to ask him about that.
But what kept her up most of the night was that she was going to marry him in just a few hours.
Clark's grin lit up the truck as she stuck her packed backpack in the floorboard of the passenger side. She slid immediately into the middle, her leg next to Clark's. His arm went around the back of the seat as she kissed him lightly.
"Hi," she said almost shyly.
"Good morning," he said back, kissing her again before putting the truck into gear. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
She nodded, resting her head against him as they headed towards Big Hill Lake.
"What's the actual plan?" she asked, a bit nervous.
"Well, I thought we'd park at the lake and everyone'll think we went for a hike in the state park. It's still pretty dark so I think we can just take off from the parking lot unless someone else is around. Then we'll want to walk a ways so that no one sees us flying off."
She giggled. "That's probably a good plan. You know what people are going to think we're doing, right?"
He squeezed her slightly. "Pretty much what we're actually going to be doing?"
Lois was sure she was doing a great imitation of a tomato. "Well, yeah, I guess."
"Hey," he said softly, his hand rubbing her upper arm gently. "We don't have to do this."
She shook her head. "I want to. That doesn't mean that I'm not a bit nervous. I mean, I've never done this before... What if I'm not any good?"
"What if I'm not?" Clark asked pragmatically. "I've never done this before either. But we'll learn together, okay?"
He pulled into the deserted parking lot and then into a spot near the trail head. Once the truck was parked, he turned to look at her. "I love you, Lois Lane." He kissed her gently.
"I love you, too, Clark Kent." She turned and stared out the window. "Um, Clark?"
"Yeah?"
"What about, um, birth control?" She'd thought about that a lot overnight. If Clark wasn't coming back, she wanted to have his baby to remember him by. But if he was coming back, that didn't seem like the best plan. And since she refused to consider that he wasn't coming back...
"I, uh, flew to Springfield, Missouri last night. They have an all night Walgreens there and..."
She nodded. "Um, but..." She stifled a scream. "I never thought I'd be uncomfortable talking to *you* about anything."
Clark chuckled. "I know what you mean."
"I'm allergic to latex," she blurted out. "And I really don't want to have a reaction... there."
Clark winced. "Right. I knew that. And you're right, that doesn't sound like a good idea."
"I did some research online last night and I think I found another option, but I guess we'll have to stop at another drug store somewhere."
"I, uh, went somewhere else last night, too."
"Where?"
"Metropolis. I did the whole hover and x-ray thing..."
"X-ray?"
"I can, uh, see through things."
She sighed. "Right."
"So I hovered around the courthouse and I was right; we only have to be seventeen to get married, but I also saw a memo saying the license people expected to be busy today because they thought a lot of people would want to get married before the meteor hits."
"Right."
"So they open at nine, which is eight here, and I was thinking we'd get there a bit early and hopefully be near the front of the line."
She nodded. "Good idea."
They climbed out of the truck and both put their backpacks on.
"I, uh, also stopped at the Lexor while I was there and made us reservations for tonight." He didn't look at her as he said it.
"Really?" she asked, stopping what she was doing.
"I told them we'd want to check in mid-morning and they said that was fine."
"Thank you, Clark."
"I was thinking we could, um, spend some time alone together first, but then maybe go out for lunch and go see the Daily Planet building or something, as long as we're in Metropolis. I mean, we might want to just spend the whole time in our room, but..."
"Right." She hitched her backpack a bit higher before she sidled up in front of him. "You were a busy beaver after you dropped me off last night, weren't you?"
He wrapped her arms around her. "I'm marrying the woman of my dreams. It won't be perfect, but..." He kissed her softly. "I can't wait to be your husband."
"So let's get going then. How do we do this flying thing?"
"Well, I could scoop you up. Or I could stand behind you but your backpack's in the way for that. I think you'd be able to see more that way, have more of a flying senstation."
"Well, that's easily fixed." She took her backpack off and put in on in front of her. "Let's go, Farmboy. I want to be your wife."
Clark laughed. "Let's go." He moved behind her, holding her tightly. "Here goes nothing."
Fifteen minutes later, he whispered in her ear. "Hang on. I'm going to land really fast."
She nodded and a second later, they were in the alley behind the courthouse.
"The line's not too long," Clark told her. "You ready for this?"
"As ready as I've ever been for anything."
There were about eight couples in front of them when they reached the end of the line.
Clark leaned over to whisper in her ear. "There's a drug store around the corner. Why don't I go get... you know?"
Lois shook her head. "I'll go. I know what I'm looking for. I think. Better than you do anyway."
"Are you sure? I don't mind."
"I'll be back in a few minutes."
"We probably have a couple hours. If each ceremony is five minutes, that's an hour's worth of people in front of us."
"I won't be gone *that* long," she told him with a roll of her eyes.
She gave him a quick kiss before heading off to a store-front drug store nearby. She went to the birth control section and studied the options in front of her, finally selecting a small box and heading towards the checkout.
She hesitated after only a few steps and turned around. She looked carefully at another row of boxes and finally selected one. That was one thing she wouldn't want to buy in Smallville and just to be on the safe side...
She set her selections on the counter, but refused to meet the clerk's eyes as she pulled some cash out of her pocket. She was glad she kept a fairly large stash at home, for emergency candy runs mostly, but it came in handy for this, too.
After she walked out of the building, she sat on a nearby bench, burying the purchases under the clothes she'd brought to wear the next morning. A store across the street caught her eye and she crossed, keeping an eye out for traffic as she did.
She groaned when she realized that it wasn't open, but there was someone inside. She banged on the window.
"Please. Can you help me? I need to buy something and I'm in a hurry." Tears filled her eyes. "Please?" she asked the large man behind the counter.
He sighed and came to the door. "We're closed, miss."
She looked at him earnestly. "Please. My fiancé and I are getting married as soon as the courthouse opens and I don't have a ring for him. Please?" she asked again.
He sighed. "Come on in. Name's Louie. Let's see what we can find. What size does he wear?"
Lois followed him, remaining on the customer side of the counter – it housed everything from rings and necklaces to guns she hoped were unloaded to video games from every system imaginable.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember what size he'd ordered when he bought his class ring the year before. She told him what size and he reached into the glass counter and pulled out a plain gold band.
"How's that?"
Lois slipped it onto her thumb. "I think that'll work fine. Do you have any others in this size?"
He pulled out two other plain gold bands and one that was covered with diamonds. She immediately eliminated the last one – it wasn't Clark and probably out of her price range. She looked at the other two, picking one up.
"That one's comfort fitted," Louie told her. "The edges are rounded rather than straight so if he catches it on something, it won't dig in."
She nodded and looked at the engraving on the inside. "'I'll love you till the end'," she read softly. She looked up at him. "How much?" she asked digging into her pocket for the cash she'd put there.
He sighed. "You know what? Take it. If the world ends in a few days, it won't matter anyway. And if it doesn't, come back someday and see me."
"Are you serious?"
Louie nodded. "Yeah. Take it." He put the other rings back in the counter. "Just don't tell anyone, would ya? It'll ruin my reputation with the guys."
He wrote out a receipt to make it legal and handed it to her, following her to the door.
On impulse, she reached up and gave him a big hug. "Thanks, Louie. I'll pay you back someday, I promise."
"No problem, kid," he said gruffly as she released him.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Thank you."
"Go get married. Be happy for a couple days and if this thing misses us, I'll see you around, okay?"
She nodded and left the store.
She slipped the ring in her pocket.
It was time to go marry Clark.
*****
TBC
Ring
