Thanks again to Kathy!
Last time
Lois picked up a bagel at the stand near the entrance. They headed to the newsroom and she started to get her desk more organized to her liking. Jimmy had left a post-it note on her computer letting her know that he'd be by later to help her set up her email and show her everything else on the network. Clark logged in and checked his email.
He looked up when he heard his name.
"Clark Lane. Where have you been hiding?"
A grin split his face. "Star!" He stood and gave the woman a big hug. "How are you? I haven't seen you in ages."
"I could say the same for you, honey." She set her purse down on his desk. "Now. What's this I keep getting about you getting married last week?"
*~*3*~*
Lois looked up from the society page's picture of her and Clark dancing the night before when a black woman started talking to Clark. Probably about her parents' age, the woman looked pretty much like anyone else – except for the sheet of tin foil on her head. Lois blinked when she saw that.
He smiled widely, giving the lady a big hug as they talked.
"What's this I keep getting about you getting married last week?" she said fairly loudly.
Clark groaned and turned her around to face Lois. "Star, this is Lois Kent. She just started at the Daily Planet and we spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday undercover as honeymooners. She's also my new girlfriend. Does that explain it?"
Lois stood and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you."
Star shook her hand warily. "Same."
Clark's phone rang and he excused himself to answer it.
Star moved closer to Lois. "Seriously. You two get married last week?"
Lois shook her head. "No. We just met late last Tuesday night."
The other woman frowned. "I started getting the 'Clark got married' vibe on Wednesday night. It woke me up." Her brow furrowed in thought. "You didn't run off to Vegas or somethin'?"
Lois shook her head. "We, um, actually fell asleep together that night, but that's it. Nothing more than that. I was hurt, we were talking..." She shrugged. "No wedding."
Well, not officially anyway. The standing joke in Smallville for years had been that if a couple sleeps together in a bed – even if only for purposes of actually *sleeping* - they were legally married.
But that was just... rural legend. Kind of like a couple being legally married if they registered at a hotel as husband and wife. She and Clark had done that, too, but it didn't mean anything.
"What?" Star asked her quietly.
Lois realized she was biting her bottom lip and that her brow was furrowed in thought. She shrugged. "Nothing, really."
"'Nothing really' means 'slightly something', so tell me."
Lois sighed and told Star about the sleeping together in Lowell County thing.
Star was completely serious when she spoke. "Honey, I don't know you from Eve, but I saw that picture of you two in today's society column and no one's ever made Clark as happy as he is now. If I were you, I'd find out if that was really true or not and if so, sign whatever paperwork you have to to make it legal and do it today."
"Why?"
Star shook her head. "Someone from Clark's past is going to come back and make life hard for you two, but you especially, I think."
Oh, please," Lois said with a roll of her eyes. "What kind of trouble could possibly be prevented if Clark and I actually *had* been married since last week? And couldn't we just fly off to Vegas or something?" she asked skeptically. "If whoever it is starts making trouble."
Star shook her head again and gripped Lois' hand. She leaned close and whispered, "Trust me on this one, honey. I don't get feelings like this very often. The last one I had this strong was when Ellen and Sam found Clark in a spaceship and I told them to get out of Dodge. Go back to Lowell County, sign whatever you have to that makes it legal that you two have been married for over a week already."
Lois' eyes had been slowly widening as Star spoke. She nodded slowly. "I'll talk to Clark."
"Don't just talk to him, make him do it."
"What're you two talking about?" Clark put one arm around Star's shoulder. "Why are you so serious?"
Star smiled brightly at him, letting go of Lois' hand. "Oh, it's nothing, Clarkie. Just talking about how good you two looked in the paper this morning." She patted Clark on the chest. "Don’t let this one go, Clarkie. She's the girl for you."
Clark chuckled. "I'm thinking along those lines anyway, so I'm glad you approve."
"Good." Star patted him again. "Well, now, I've got an appointment to make sure that my thoughts aren't leaking out again." She pressed her tin foil cap down a bit more solidly on her head. "There's aliens around you know." She winked at Lois before picking up her purse and sauntering off.
Clark chuckled as he sat on the edge of Lois' desk. "Star's something else."
"She sure is, *Clarkie*." Clark groaned as Lois nodded towards his desk. "Who was that? Anything interesting?"
"Highway patrol. Got a couple quotes for the article."
"Good!" She took a deep breath. She wasn't quite sure she bought into whatever it was Star was, but there was something she wanted to ask him anyway. "Um, listen, instead of our date tonight..." She looked around before staring at her hands. "Um, could we go to Smallville instead?"
"Sure." She looked up to see the concern in his voice mirrored on his face. "Any particular reason?"
She shrugged. "I miss my folks. Lucy's working so we don't have to worry about her."
She could see him relax a bit. "Sure. We'll go tonight." He reached out and brushed a strand of hair back off her face. "Then we'll go flying after dinner," he whispered. "For a bit at least."
"Sounds perfect." Her phone chose that moment to ring.
Clark winked at her. "Your first call." He picked up the phone. "Lois Kent's desk." He smiled as the person on the other end of the line spoke. "Hi, *Mom*. Lois and I were just talking about coming out for dinner tonight if that's okay with you."
Lois bit her lip and avoided looking at Clark by staring at the one date on the calendar that had something penciled in – the White Orchid Ball later in the month. Perry had mentioned earlier she'd be expected to attend. She'd written it down more out of a desire to have *something* on her calendar than anything else.
What if there was something to what Star told her? She'd been right when she told Sam and Ellen to get away from the cabin the night they found Clark and if this feeling was really right like that one had been...
Her brow furrowed. It was the standing joke about sleeping together. Everyone in Lowell County had said it at one point or another. Was it one of those things that was rooted in reality? Southeast Kansas was conservative to the bone and had been for a century and a half. It sure *seemed* like the kind of thing that might have been reality in the late 1800s or so – in an effort to stop brothels or something. But even if it was reality a hundred years earlier, wouldn't it have been repealed?
But there had been that article in college...
The advisor of the paper had thought it would be interesting to look at some of the laws still on the books in various parts of the country. Lois had done some research and found some interesting ones.
In St. Louis, for instance, you can't sit on the curb and drink beer from a bucket. She'd found the probable history for that one – German and Czech immigrants would often send someone, even children, to the tavern to buy a bucket of beer. It was likely that this law would keep them from sitting down and drinking it, becoming drunk and a hazard all around.
In Florida, unmarried women cannot parachute on Sundays. She'd never figured that one out.
In Kansas, you can't use a mule to hunt ducks, shoot a rabbit from a boat, and in Wichita, motorists are supposed to get out of their vehicle at the intersection of Douglas and Broadway and fire three shotgun rounds into the air.
In California, you can't shoot any kind of game from a moving vehicle – except whales; those were fine to shoot. Of course, this was also the state that said no vehicle without a driver could go more than sixty miles an hour and a city – Blythe – that told you that you weren't allowed to wear cowboy boots unless you already owned two cows.
With all of those, and all of the other crazy laws still on the books, was it *possible* that sleeping in the same bed in Lowell County made you legally married?
How would she find out? Was it worth looking into? Would she even *want* to be married to Clark?
Memories of kissing him flooded her mind. He was a good, kind, honest man. He was everything she'd ever wanted in a man – and he could fly.
Maybe it was worth looking into after all.
*****
TBC
