From Last Time:
They hadn’t discussed the possibility of another child. Of course, she and Clark had never really talked about having kids at all. Before their wedding, she’d always assumed it was something they would talk about when the time came. Of course, life had had different plans for them. She didn’t regret the way things turned out, how could she? They had a wonderful, beautiful, perfect son. And yeah, she was wistful for the things they’d missed. They’d never had a honeymoon. Or weekends when you barely left the bed. They’d missed out on being newlyweds and Clark had missed out on so much of the joy of being a new parent.
Even though she’d never given much thought to motherhood before her pregnancy, being a parent was the most important thing she’d ever done. And for her part, she didn’t want Jon to be an only child. She wanted him to have a little brother or sister. It was something she hadn’t talked about with Clark; it was still too soon. They needed more time just to get used to being a family. And Clark needed to settle some of the questions in his own life first – where they would live, what he wanted to do, whether to bring back Superman. They had enough on their minds without thinking about having another baby.
New Stuff:
********
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. ‘Don’t think about Silban. Don’t think about Terian. Just don’t think about New Krypton,’ he thought to himself. Clark exhaled slowly and centered his thoughts, just like Ching had taught him years ago. He let his mind go blank and the sirens faded away. After a long moment, he opened his eyes again. It wasn’t cold. He wasn’t in the pit of a collapsed building searching for survivors. It was just the warm, friendly confines of his therapist’s office. His pulse thundered in his ears. Bile burned in his dry throat, bitter and harsh.
“Everything all right?” Dr. Friskin asked, the concern evident in her voice.
“Just police sirens,” he replied absently. He could feel his heart rate returning to normal. His palms were still sweating.
“You’re doing very well, Clark,” she said. “I know it’s hard for you to listen to them and not rush off to help, but you need to be able to control your reactions before you can resume being Superman, and you’re getting there.” He nodded, trying to find the logic in not helping so that he could help.
“Why don’t we take a minute and then come back to talking about New Krypton?” his therapist offered.
Just what he wanted. He sighed with a slight nod. It wasn’t like he had much of a choice.
********
Clark looked up at the darkening sky. A soft flurry of snow fell from the thick blanket of clouds, most of the flakes melting before they hit the ground. His wife descended slowly toward the farm. “You’re late,” he said with a half smile.
“Pile up on the interstate,” she replied. “Some folks are going to be spending Thanksgiving in the emergency room.”
His lips turned downward in a frown. “You okay?” he asked.
Lois spun out of the suit. “I’m fine. Nothing too serious,” she said. “Come on, it smells good in there.” She nodded toward the farmhouse before taking his hand in hers.
He held the door open for her, feeling the warmth of the household wash over them. “Dinner’s ready!” his mother called out from the kitchen. His father carried the turkey to the dining room table and placed it in the center of the impressive spread.
“We should take pictures,” Lois announced before disappearing, in search of the camera, he assumed.
“Everything looks amazing, Mom,” Clark said. Her best china had made its way out of the hutch and onto the table. He remembered getting scolded as a little boy for sneaking into the cabinets to find what his mother kept hidden in there, dismayed to find nothing but old plates.
“Well, it was certainly good to have you back in the kitchen to help out,” she said. He could see unshed tears shining brightly in her eyes. God, how he missed this. It was all too surreal, mashing potatoes and checking on the pies in his mother’s kitchen, like he had done for so many years as a boy. For four long years, this day came and went, without pause, without any reflection, with nothing more than nostalgia for years gone by and all the things he had to be thankful for, left behind on Earth. He looked at his son. Their first Thanksgiving together. Lois had returned and was already snapping pictures.
Behind him, Martha placed the green bean casserole on the table. “That’s everything,” she announced. She helped her grandson into his chair as they all took their seats around the table. Martha sat down between Jonathan and Clark and placed her hand on her son’s. “Clark, honey, you can’t imagine how blessed we feel to have you back home. This is the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had.”
“Hear, hear,” Jonathan replied.
“Yeah, hear, hear!” Jon echoed his grandfather with a giggle and a grin. Repeating things that adults said, especially when he didn’t know what they meant, was one of Jon’s new favorite pastimes.
“Son, it’s so good to have you here. It’s good to feel like a whole family, again,” his father said gruffly.
“It’s good to be back,” Clark said simply. “I can’t tell you all how much this means to me. All I wanted for four years was to come home and see you all again. I have the most wonderful family a guy could ask for. I don’t say it enough, but I am so thankful for all of you.” Across the table, he could see his wife smiling tremulously at him.
Lois cleared her throat. “I’m thankful for each and every one of you. Martha and Jonathan, I couldn’t have gotten through the last four years without you. And you little man, you are the best little boy a mother could ask for.” She smiled at her son and tousled his hair. She looked across the table and her gaze locked with Clark’s. “I love you so much,” she whispered. “Thank you for finding me. Thank you for coming home to me. To us.”
“Is there anything you want to say ‘thank you’ for, Jon?” his grandfather asked him.
“Grandma and ice cream,” Jon declared. Clark couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face.
Jonathan laughed and kissed his wife’s cheek. “I think Grandma’s pretty great, too.”
“Grandpa, can I cut the turkey?” Jon asked. He stood up on his chair to get a better look at the large bird.
Jonathan chuckled. “It’s a pretty big knife, but why don’t you help your Daddy do it?” Jonathan turned over the knife and serving fork to his son. “Do the honors?” he asked.
Clark smiled at his father. “Sure,” he replied.
He took the serving implements from his father and stood behind his son. “Do you want to help me?” he asked. Jon nodded in excitement. Jon still stood on his chair, his father leaning over him. “Remember, you never touch knives by yourself, understand?” he cautioned. “Always get a grownup to help.”
Clark put his hand over Jon’s on the knife handle and let his little boy ‘help’ carve the first slice of turkey. “Okay, look up at Mommy,” he instructed. Jon gave his mother his best smile.
“Say ‘happy Thanksgiving,’” she said as she focused the camera.
“Happy Thanksgiving!” Jon exclaimed.
Clark carved the oversized bird and served everyone. Dishes of homemade sides made their way around the table and conversation turned toward the simple and everyday subjects about the yields from the year’s harvest and plans for Christmas. Everything was perfect; his family was together, everyone was safe and happy. Here in the quiet of Smallville, civil wars, disasters, and his own troubles were far from his mind. His mother was right, it was the best Thanksgiving he’d ever had.
********
“You know what turkey does to me,” he whispered in her ear as he stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She felt a delightful shiver make its way down her spine. The bedroom door closed with a soft ‘click’ behind them.
“Turkey? I thought it was pasta.” She tilted her head, giving him better access as his lips trailed down her neck.
“Whatever,” he murmured against her skin.
She suppressed a sigh, wondering why it was that she was expected to think clearly when he was doing such wonderful things to her. “Well nothing’s gonna happen unless one of us goes to the drugstore.”
“Again?” he asked, his tone surprised.
“Uh huh,” she said, turning around in his arms. “Stevenson’s is closed and given that it’s Thanksgiving…”
“I never go there anyway,” he replied.
She smiled knowingly at him. “Embarrassed?”
“Mr. Stevenson has owned that drugstore since I was a kid. I used to go there on Fridays when I got my allowance and drink chocolate milkshakes all afternoon.”
“You’re a married man, Clark. I’m pretty sure he knows you’re having sex,” Lois said archly.
He shook his head with a smile. “I know,” he admitted, pausing for a moment as he seemed to collect his thoughts. “We haven’t talked about…I mean…we never talked about kids before. I wasn’t sure we’d even be able to have kids together. I didn’t think about…protection before we were married.”
“I did,” she said. “I started taking the pill a few months before we got married. I figured it was the responsible thing to do. With everything that was going on, I guess I didn’t think about whether they’d still work with super metabolism.”
His expression suddenly became one of concern; anxiety etched itself deeply into his features. “But you weren’t…unhappy…when you found out you were pregnant?”
“Of course I was happy,” she assured him, taking his hands in hers. “Okay, for the first few minutes or so, I was terrified, but I loved our son from the moment I knew about him. I know I wasn’t exactly rushing to become a parent, and I didn’t even know if I’d be any good at motherhood, but Jon is the most important thing in the world to me. He always has been.”
“I know,” Clark said, but she could see the relief in his eyes. “And you are an amazing mother. I know the time isn’t right, but…do you want to have more kids…someday?” She had been putting off this conversation, knowing it was too soon to be thinking about more children, but he seemed so hopeful. And her answer wasn’t going to disappoint him.
“Yeah,” she said, looking down at their linked hands. “I think so. At least one more…when the time is right.”
She looked up and met his eyes. He smiled at her. “Me too,” he said softly. “But until then…”
“Go,” she said, placing a hand on his chest.
“Be back in a few,” he replied with a grin.
********
She stretched lazily in her husband’s arms, placing her head against his chest. Lois felt him press his lips to her hair. “So you want more kids, huh?” he asked softly.
“Yeah,” Lois replied. “I want Jon to have a little brother or sister.”
“So do I,” he said. “Being different, I felt so…lonely growing up. Jon will have both of us, he’ll have parents who know what he’s going through, but I always wanted a brother or sister. Finding out that I had one, that she died and I never knew her…” he trailed off sadly.
She touched his cheek and he looked down to meet her gaze. Lois smiled at him, hoping to convey that she understood. “No matter what, Jon will grow up happy,” she said. “He has a family that loves him more than anything. And he has two superpowered parents to look after him and keep him out of trouble.”
“If he’s anything like his mother, he’ll need us,” he joked.
“Hey!” She nudged him playfully in the ribs.
Clark grinned. “I can’t figure out how your parents managed.”
“I was a good kid. Straight As, chess club, tennis, piano lessons.”
“Right, the breaking and entering, hotwiring cars, and going undercover as a lounge singer in a mob bar all came later.”
Lois jabbed her husband in the chest with one accusatory finger, not even noticing that she poked him in the middle of the scar in the center of his chest. “Look, Kent, just because you were the world’s biggest Boy Scout, doesn’t mean the rest of us had to always color inside the lines.”
He captured her hand and raised it to his lips. “I love that you don’t color inside the lines. I love that you draw your own lines.”
“Damn right, I do,” she said as she kissed him softly.
He stroked her hair as he held her close to his chest. “So how is this going to work? If we move back to Metropolis and I go back to being Superman…”
“Well, whoever is with Jon is off-duty, no rescues. And if we get pregnant again…Ultrawoman has to go on sabbatical.” The moment the words crossed her lips, she worried about what they meant. Would it be too much pressure for him? Was she making things worse by worrying if it was going to be too much pressure for him?
“How did that work last time?”
She shrugged. “I just disappeared for six months. People asked questions, but not too many. I think they just figured she was needed on New Krypton.”
“Now you’re doing it,” he said with a grin.
“What?” she asked, puzzled.
“Referring to yourself in the third person.”
“Well, I guess the tights and cape aren’t the only way I started taking after you.”
He laughed and she could feel it rumble in his chest. “Trust me, you bring your very own style to being a superhero.”
She lifted her head to kiss him again. “Yeah, but I had a great teacher.”
********
The very first snow of the season in Metropolis was starting to dust the ground. With less than a week to go, it seemed like the city might have a white Christmas this year. They strolled hand in hand through Planet Square, amid the tourist and shoppers. The lampposts were wrapped in twinkling white Christmas lights and garlands. All around them, people seemed to be in a better mood than usual, even with the shopping stress and the crowds. It felt like the holidays in the city and she wondered why she was never able to feel the magic of it before she met Clark.
“What time is your appointment?” she asked.
“Seven,” he replied. “Plenty of time to finish shopping for my folks and your folks.”
“It’s nice to have your apartment to store all the presents in.”
“Mm hmm,” he replied absently as he pulled her closer and draped his arm around her shoulder. “I missed Christmas.”
“I missed having you around for Christmas,” she said. “It’s not the same without you.”
He stopped walking and smiled at her. She couldn’t help but grin in response to the snowflakes that flecked his glasses and his hair and shoulders. Lois stood on her toes to kiss her husband. “Come on, we need to get to the electronics store before it closes.”
She started forward but he held her back. “Look,” he said simply as he pointed up at the news ticker scrolling across one of the brightly lit skyscrapers.
Massive Tsunami Hits Indonesia “I have to go,” she said.
“I know,” he replied. She kissed him quickly before darting off toward the nearest alley. A moment later, a sonic boom echoed through the skies of Metropolis as its resident heroine took off to help those who needed her most.
********
<<Ultrawoman arrived on the scene several hours ago, we’re told, but the devastation here is total, much more than even a superhero can address…>>
Clark stood up and began to pace in his boss’s office. He’d gone to the Planet as soon as she’d left, not knowing what else to do. “Perry, I have to go,” he announced.
“Now hold on a second, son. Your doctor clear you to go back on duty?”
“It’s not like I’m injured. She needs my help. They need my help!” He started for the door.
“Clark, if you’re not ready to do this, you’ll only be making matters worse for yourself.”
He spun around on his heel. “If I don’t do this, innocent people will die. People I can save.” With that, he pulled open the door and strode across the bullpen toward the stairwell. For the second time that evening, a sonic boom reverberated overhead.
********
“Commander Coleman,” Ultrawoman said as she put on the headset.
“It’s just Sara now, I’m not here with the military,” Dr. Coleman replied. “Our ETA is nine hours, but it’ll be another 48 before we can get any real supplies in the area.” Sara Coleman had been the commanding surgeon on the Navy’s humanitarian mission to Kinwara after the war ended there. No one could run a massive disaster relief effort like Dr. Coleman, which was why Lois wasn’t surprised to hear she was on her way.
She crossed her arms as she surveyed the scene from the makeshift command post the local emergency crews had established. “I need help with the coordination – government, UN, NGOs, everyone. I’m just running around doing what I can, no plan.”
“We can help with that. I’ll be your in country contact for the UN and I’ll coordinate everyone else who needs to contact you. We’ll keep this channel on the radio open exclusively for you. I’ve been on the phone with Jakarta, they want you in Banda Aceh first, the flooding there is the worst.”
“I’m on my way.” Lois took off for the coastal city. Within moments, she was flying over it. Her heart leapt up in her throat at the sight of the destruction. Where there were once roads and homes and mosques, there was now just mud and filthy water. She could hear the anguished cries for help and dove down toward the source. For now, she was just going to try to get people to higher ground. Then she could figure out what to do about the floodwaters.
She scanned the thick mud, looking desperately for survivors. With bile creeping up in her throat, she realized the dead would have to wait. The sight of a house, on the verge of collapse caught her attention. A half dozen people— most of them children—were huddled on the roof, holding on, though it was only a matter of time before the flimsy building was going to give way. She swooped down, preparing to pick up the smallest of the children first.
<<Ultrawoman, the dams in Jakarta are threatening to break, we need your help now!>>
“I’ve got my hands full at the moment,” Lois replied through gritted teeth as she flew with crying children in her arms. She couldn’t abandon these people and yet, if she didn’t go, thousands more would likely die. “Dammit,” she cursed under her breath.
<<Belay my last, Ultrawoman. Looks like things are under control here.>>
She didn’t have a chance to think about why the radio operator was calling her off, she was just grateful to know that her attention was no longer being distracted. For now, she needed to get people to higher ground as quickly as possible.
********
With a brilliant swirl of color, he landed next to the group of rescue workers. “Superman!” they exclaimed, wearing identical expressions of shock and amazement. He folded his arms across his chest, his heart thundering like a scared rabbit’s. He tried to breathe deeply, to not let the chaos and noise sweep him away. ‘Stay in control,’ he thought to himself. ‘People need you, get it together.’ He half expected to be met with angry recriminations and questions about where he was and what had taken him so long, but no one spoke. They all seemed too stunned.
He swallowed around the boulder in his throat. It didn’t mean a damn thing that he wasn’t ready to do this. People needed him. “Just tell me what I can do,” he said.
********
A hot shower.
Clean clothes.
A bed.
A good meal.
She could have rattled off a litany of all the things she desperately craved, but the people trapped here were a hell of a lot worse off than she was. And the rescue workers had been going just as long as she had without decent food or sleep and none of them were invulnerable. On the first night, she’d heard that Clark had arrived in Jakarta. For the last few days, they’d never even been on the same island. She’d heard his voice on the radio as he gave terse orders and provided status reports, but she’d had no contact with him. It terrified her, knowing he was out there, knowing what he was experiencing because she was going through it, too. Was he ready? She was certain he wasn’t. So what was he doing to himself? How was he going to cope with it? She wanted to be angry with him for being so damn stubborn, but what else could she expect from him. He was still the man she married. The man who couldn’t stand idly by while others suffered. Besides, she didn’t have time to be angry with him. The task before her—before both of them—was beyond daunting.
The death toll was climbing steadily, but it would have been much worse without the two of them, she knew that. There was still hope of finding survivors and so long as that hope was there, however slim, she would keep looking. Her uniform was torn and caked in mud and she was on her third radio, the floodwaters having shorted out the first two, but she had to keep working. In collapsed buildings and flooded streets, she scanned for heartbeats, for breathing, for muffled cries for help. Blocking out all other sounds, she focused only on the telltale proof of life.
She swept the area, but there was nothing. If there was anyone here she could have saved, she’d already saved them. With a rueful shake of her head, she started back for the regional command post.
<<Ultrawoman, Superman, we need you both in Padang. Now.>>
She started southward, knowing she would see her husband in just a few brief moments. The anxiety built up inside her as she wondered what horrible tableau would greet them there. What was so bad in Padang that would pull both of them from other hard hit areas of the country?
Mudslides.
She looked on in horror as entire hillsides gave way, taking trees and homes and roads with them. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the red and blue of his suit as he flew in from the south. He stopped in mid flight, just like her. They hovered for the briefest of moments before swooping down toward the collapsing earth. She dove down to grab those who’d been swept up as he carved a channel to divert the mud flow. If she hadn’t known what he’d been through, how the last four and a half years were weighing him down, she never would have assumed the time out of uniform had had any effect on him. He knew what to do and he did it. Without hesitating, without questions, he did what needed to be done.
For hours, they worked, zipping past each other, and trading monosyllabic instructions. Starting at opposite ends of the hill, they built a retaining wall to hold back further slides. When they finally met in the middle, she saw her husband up close for the first time in three days. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair disheveled, and his face rough with stubble. His suit was covered in mud and his cape tattered. But he was, by every measure, the iconic hero.
“There’s nothing more we can do here. Let’s go back to searching for survivors,” he said. She nodded, but said nothing, setting out immediately to sweep the area for the injured and the stranded. She worked for hours, coordinating her efforts with local rescue crews, but there were few survivors. Eventually, she knew it was time to give up. She scanned the city for Clark.
Her heart broke when she saw him. He was carrying the lifeless body of a child. In his powerful arms, held against his broad chest, the body seemed tiny, but he held it with such care. He delivered the child to the arms of his sobbing father. The man crumpled to the ground as he held his son. Dejectedly, Clark turned and walked away, his shoulders drooping, his expression crestfallen. She watched as a sigh shuddered through his large body. In an instant, she was beside him, pulling him into her arms. He dropped his head to her shoulder and allowed her to hold him. His arms came around her, holding her tightly. She felt his chest rise and fall with each deep, labored breath.
“I’m here, it’s all right,” she whispered.
“Oh god,” he cried out. “There are so many bodies.”
She closed her eyes and held him more tightly, wishing desperately there was something she could do to protect him from this.
The sun was rising.
It was their fourth day in Indonesia.
The fourth dawn after three days and three nights of endless searching and digging and building.
With each passing hour the chance of finding additional survivors grew dimmer and dimmer.
The sun was rising.
It was Christmas Eve.
