Tis with great fear and trepidation...
No, wait.
That's what I said to Labby when I sent off Falling Slowly [though I did admit that it was only some fear and trepidation and that the GREAT fear and trepidation will come when I send OTOH/UP off to her - hopefully later this month...]
So I've had a moderately stinky day and didn't get any writing done [though I did get Falling Slowly finished and off to her], but wanted to post anyway. Went to go get my 7yo from summer school to discover a flat tire. Ended up putting the 1yo in a neighbor's car to go get her and leaving the 4/5yos with said neighbor since there wasn't room for everyone. However, we had a flat tire on the van a few months ago that we never got fixed so technically we have 2 flats right now... Still not sure how we're going to get it to the shop in the morning but if nothing else we have AAA and friend said I could use her car again tomorrow afternoon if need be.
Anyway - this is set in the On the Other Hand universe [because, well, Unanswered Prayers had several universes in it so...]. I was going to post a summary of those two in the FDK thread but it turned out to be about 1200 words so... I would be very happy to email it to anyone who wants it! Should anyone have the [insane] desire to reread OTOH/UP again before [cough] starting this, I have the un-re-beta'd and un-GE'd revised director's cut edition on my HD if anyone wants them... They're nearly ready to send to Labby but not quite there yet as OTOH has 3 additional new chapters [and another new chapter worth of material sprinkled in] and UP has 1 additional chapter [based on some of the OTOH new stuff] but none of those are necessary to this story. Most are fairly minor edits and don't really have an effect on the overall story or anything. Should any of them end up affecting this, I'll mention it in the notes
.
Anyway - without further ado [or something], here is...
Someone Else's Dreams
*~*1*~*
December 2006
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I wasn’t sure what woke me up.
I didn't open my eyes.
I didn't need to.
Her body was warm against mine, her arm around my waist holding me close to her. I sighed happily and pulled the covers a bit closer around us. The fire had long since died out and she'd often said that I was better than any water bottle. I tended to keep the temperature fairly low, giving us more reason to use body heat.
But something wasn't quite right.
I couldn't put my finger on it.
As she shifted closer to me, I realized at least part of what was wrong. Well, not *wrong*, per se, but different.
My back was to her chest, but that wasn't unusual. What was unusual was that she didn't seem to be wearing a shirt.
She *always* slept with a shirt on. I occasionally fell asleep without any clothes on after we made love, but usually, I'd put my boxers back on and she'd go to the bathroom and put *something* on – a T-shirt or nightgown or something.
Of course, she also knew that I thought it would be really nice to sleep naked together from time to time. And we had, but very rarely. She'd definitely been wearing clothes when we went to bed the night before.
Maybe it was a Christmas morning surprise?
That didn't really seem like something she'd do, but maybe she'd done it for me anyway.
A smile crossed my face.
I thought about rolling over but decided that she needed her sleep. It was still early and we had a big day ahead of us.
Kind of.
Christmas. Hanging out with family. Watching movies.
But with the baby...
It was probably best to let her sleep.
I left my eyes closed and settled into the warmth of her embrace, falling back to sleep in no time.
When I woke again, the comforting warmth was gone.
I rolled over, keeping my eyes still closed, not wanting to let the daylight I could sense in just yet.
There she was – I could feel her as I rolled and I pulled her to me, noting how snuggly we fit together and confirming that neither one of us were wearing a stitch of clothing.
But it still didn't seem right.
We always fit together well, but not quite like this.
Maybe it was a sign.
That this was going to go well.
Very well.
That we were going to make a baby together.
I was sure it was late enough to wake her up.
I kissed the back of her shoulder, moving up her neckline until I could nibble on her ear.
She gave a little sigh and relaxed into me further, her arm tightening over mine still wrapped tightly around her waist.
I kissed my way back down her neck, stopping to nibble lightly on the spot that I knew drove her crazy.
I frowned slightly as there was still no more than a slight, contented sigh in response. That usually woke her up.
I turned the frown into a slight smile and loosened my hold on her waist, sliding my hand up her torso.
She let out a small moan but that was it.
A door opened somewhere nearby and I released her to pull the covers more tightly around us.
"Wake up! Wake up!" a small voice said as someone bounded onto the bed. "It's Christmas! Wake up!"
Whose voice was that? It wasn't anyone I recognized.
"Go away," the woman in my arms mumbled as she pulled the blanket over her head.
I started to smile until I realized she sounded funny.
I hoped she wasn't coming down with something.
"Daddy! Mommy! Wake up!"
That opened my eyes in a hurry.
"Wha...?" I managed to get out as I looked at the little boy bouncing on the bed.
His dark hair and brown eyes twinkled at me.
"Uh, we're up," I muttered, trying not to let him get a good look at me until I could figure this out. Just in case.
"I go ge' Na'," he said. "He wa' up, too! An' Jess!"
"Christopher," came a stern female voice from the other room. "I told you to leave them alone. They'll be downstairs soon and then you can see what Santa brought you."
The boy – Christopher? – scrambled down from the bed and ran towards a door I didn't remember this room having.
In fact, everything looked different.
"But you say dey stay 'ere 'stead of da cabin," he said in a pouty voice. "Be c'ose to me an' Na'."
"Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Kent," she – whoever she was – called. "I'll keep them out of your hair and away from the living room until everyone's here."
"Uh... thanks," I called as the door closed.
I was dreaming. That was the obvious solution.
It would explain her odd reactions and the fact that neither of us were wearing anything.
Maybe I could pinch myself and wake up.
And then I could *really* enjoy waking up with my wife in my arms.
Maybe if I just 'went back to sleep'...
She rolled over and looked at me.
And I finally got a good look at her.
"Lois?"
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I was having a wonderful dream.
Different than any other dream I'd ever had before.
I chalked it up to the wedding and the kinds of things that happen after weddings...
I sighed and snuggled back into the strong chest behind me as a door opened and someone started telling us to wake up.
That was weird.
Why would I want to wake up?
"Go away," I muttered, pulling the blankets over my head.
The conversation that followed puzzled me.
Someone was calling me 'Mommy?'
Mr. and Mrs. Kent?
Cabin?
Christopher?
Nay? What was a Nay?
I decided to ignore the weird parts of the dream and try to get back to the pleasant parts as that door closed again.
I rolled over towards him and opened my eyes to see him looking back at me.
"Lois?"
My mouth opened and closed a couple times. "Clark?" I whispered, pulling the sheet tightly around me.
Why was Clark in my dream?
"What's going on?" he asked, moving away from me.
"You tell me," I said, looking around. The room was familiar but... "Where are we? And why are we in bed together? And..." I couldn't quite bring myself to look at him. "Are you wearing any clothes?" I'd realized that I wasn't.
He pulled the comforter further around him. "Uh, no. And I don't think you are either, are you?"
I shook my head. "Are we dreaming?" I finally asked after an awkward silence. "And where are we? This room seems familiar but..."
"We're at your house. This is mine and Lana's room, but... not," he said. "It's never been decorated like this since we've known you. And that door's never been there and..." He stopped in the middle of the sentence. "Um, maybe we can try to find some clothes."
"Sure." That sounded like a great idea. I sat up, comforter still held tightly around me. "Um, why don't you go first? I won't look."
"Uh, yeah." He took a blanket or something with him as he stood up – I didn't look closely enough to see what it was. "Um, Lois?"
I turned to see him holding up what appeared to be a wedding dress. "What's that?"
He shrugged. "Your wedding dress?"
I shook my head. "Not mine. Mine doesn’t look like that."
He held the blanket around him. "Well, it was lying on the floor and..." He looked around. "There's all the pieces of a tux lying around and..." He looked uncomfortable. "...other stuff, too."
"What happened? Where are we? I mean, we're at my house, but Clark," I said, looking pointedly at him. "Something's really weird."
"Yeah, I get that, Einstein."
"Don't start with me, Kent," I warned. "I'm getting married in like two weeks and if we can't figure out how to explain this to Lana and Joe – where is *she* by the way? – I may as well call it off."
He had walked into the closet. "Uh, this is weird," he called.
"We've established that, Sherlock."
"No, really weird, Watson," he said, coming out of the closet wearing a T-shirt and pajama pants. "The closet is full of clothes that look like they should fit me."
"So? You and Lana always stay in here."
He shook his head. "Yeah, but not like this. We brought a suitcase for both of us – combined. This is a whole wardrobe. Suit pants, coats, ties, dress shirts, blue jeans, T-shirts, the works. And woman's wardrobe, too, but the pants look too long to be Lana's."
I stood up carefully, wrapping the comforter all the way around me and heading towards the closet.
"Give me a minute?" I asked as I walked past him into the closet, hoping I could find something to wear. I found a pair of pajamas – if it was Christmas, it was a pajama day, right? – and pulled them on. They fit well. I looked at the other clothes and they were a size or two bigger than I normally wore, but Clark was right – they were my length, not Lana's; she was a couple inches taller than me, but she was longer in the torso and had slightly shorter legs. We'd compared one time.
I sighed and headed back out into the room.
Clark had picked up the wedding dress and tux paraphernalia, setting it all neatly on another chair.
The dress was pretty – and I'd looked at one similar, almost choosing it, but decided to go with a different one.
Clark was sitting on the couch. "Um, listen, Lois, I'm sorry about..."
He wouldn’t look at me.
"It's okay," I said. "You thought I was Lana."
He shrugged. "Who else would be in bed with me?"
"Right." I glanced at my hand, looking for comfort from my engagement ring – that somehow, I'd be able to explain this to Joe.
I gasped, holding both hands out in front of me.
"What?" Clark asked, finally looking at me.
"These are my mom's rings," I said, holding out a hand. "Well, her original ones. Daddy got her a new set for their twentieth anniversary." I held out my right hand which had a simple wedding band on the ring finger. "And I don't recognize this at all." I pulled it off, but there was no inscription or anything.
Even in a house as big as this one, we could hear doors opening and shutting.
"I think we better go find Lana and Joe," Clark said quietly. "And see if they have any idea what happened."
I nodded. "Yeah, we better."
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I could hear Lana's heartbeat downstairs and I'd peeked through the floor while Lois was getting dressed. There was a large Smallville contingent here. There was a bus out front that had pulled up while we were talking after that little boy had left – I'd guessed that was where they'd come from because the... heartbeat count of the house had gone up. Lana had already been here though.
I knew that.
I'd heard her.
But when I'd looked, I'd seen Josh and Kara, Pete and Rachel, Danielle and her family, a few of my other cousins, all of my grandmas and Grandpa Lewis.
It was just odd all the way around. Mom and Dad – who I'd noticed were here, too – hadn't said anything about half of our Smallville family showing up for Christmas in Metropolis.
Maybe I could corner Lana. Surely she wouldn’t make a scene. She was even laughing so whatever had happened...
"I'd like to get down there without being seen," I said suddenly. "See if I can get Lana alone."
She nodded. "Let's go the back way and go from there."
I scoped out the location of most of the people in the house.
"I'm thinking let's go to the basement and come up on the other side. See if we can get Lana and Joe and talk to them away from everyone else."
I hadn't seen Joe though.
But I couldn't tell Lois that.
We snuck down the stairs to the basement and up the other side. We'd timed it just right. Well, I had. Lois didn't know about my abilities and they'd helped with that.
"Lana," I hissed as she walked by.
"Clark?" She looked puzzled.
"Come on," I said, grasping her hand and pulling her downstairs. Lois was gone, but I wasn't sure where. "What happened?" I asked her.
"What? When?"
"This morning."
"I was asleep and then I got up and now I'm here?" She was looking at me like I was crazy.
"So nothing weird?" The words were cautious. I was going to have to tell her I'd woken up with Lois – naked – but at least if she wasn't already mad, I could break it gently.
"Not until just now."
"What happened just now?"
She gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. "You grabbed me and pulled me down here." Her expression became more serious. "What's going on, Clark? Is everything okay?"
I gave a sigh of relief I couldn’t explain. Maybe telling her could wait until later – after the morning festivities. I pulled her into my arms, but felt a slight hesitation before she put her arms around me, squeezing lightly before releasing me. I could feel her trying to move away from me, but I wouldn't let her.
"Are you okay, Clark? Really? And where's Lois?" She looked concerned and maybe even a bit worried.
"She's around here somewhere, I guess," I told her. "I'm just glad you're okay. I was worried..."
"Of course, I'm okay," she insisted. "But we should get upstairs. Let me go."
"Not yet." I put a hand on the side of her face and leaned down, catching her off-guard with a kiss.
She pushed hard against me, struggling until I moved back.
When I did, she looked shocked – appalled even. She wiped at her lips with the back of her hand.
"Clark Jerome Davis Kent, what the hell are you doing?"
*****
TBC
