A huge thank you to Iolanthe, my BR who tirelessly reads my fics and gives me great suggestions and truckloads of encouragement.
Thanks to everyone who read this fic and commented. I know it probably isn't to everyone's taste, but if some enjoyed it, it was worth writing.
Thanks to Elizabeth who answered some questions I had when writing this part. Sorry I wasn't able to use more of the wealth of information you gave me.
Treasure Chest - Epilogue
Lois looked up through the glass door of her office to where Clark was giving a very creditable impression of being engrossed in a story.
He wasn’t. Lois would have known that even if she hadn’t already received two stories from him today – two stories that had been super-written, if she wasn’t mistaken.
She knew why he had deviated from his usual practice of not working at super-speed. And it had nothing to do with time pressures. He was struggling with the same condition that had beset her – a mind that kept being drawn back to one place.
Today was the day.
The third of such days.
The first one, eight weeks ago, their hopes had been dashed early.
The second one, four weeks ago, their hopes had survived until lunch.
But today, they had reached late afternoon and still clung to the possibility that there could be new life growing inside her. Lois leant back from her desk and rested her hand on her abdomen.
What if?
Right now?
A little someone was growing there?
A little someone ... conceived because of the love she shared with Clark.
She felt eyes on her and looked up to see Clark at her door. He’d caught her. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
He stepped into her office and shut the door. “Anything?” he enquired anxiously.
“No.”
“Do you feel *anything*?” he persisted. “Anything at all?”
“Nothing.”
He slumped down in the chair. “This is killing me,” he said dramatically.
Lois smiled at that. So far not even kryptonite had managed to kill her husband. Suddenly, she could stand it no longer. Leaping from her seat, she rounded her desk and grabbed Clark’s hand. “Take me home,” she demanded.
She saw his initial reaction morph from surprise to delight and then fade as his second thoughts kicked in. “Of course,” he said. “Why?”
“I can’t stand the suspense any longer either,” she said. “I have a test in my bag, but I’m sure you’ll want to be there and you can’t come into the ladies’ bathroom here or in any other public place so we need to go home.”
“Cab or car?” he asked.
“Superman,” she answered. “I’m done waiting.”
They crossed the bullpen with an urgency that probably lifted more than a few eyebrows, entered the elevator and waited with foot-tapping impatience for it to rattle to the next floor. They spilt from the elevator car the moment the doors opened. Clark picked up Lois and sprinted to the top of the stairs and onto the roof of the building. Seconds later, they were home.
||_||
“Well?” Clark asked.
“Nothing.”
“How long’s it supposed to take?”
“A minute.”
“Any way to hurry it up? Heat? Cold? Anything?”
Lois looked up from the test and grinned at him. “Not everything can be done at super-speed, you know,” she said.
He dragged his hand through his hair and expelled a sigh of impatience. “I know.”
Lois put down the test and took her husband into her arms. “Kiss me,” she said. “I always lose track of time when you kiss me.”
He did, tasting her, savouring her, causing her to question whether Metropolis really did need an edition of the Daily Planet tomorrow. Then Clark eased away and his tongue ran the length of his lower lip. “I love kissing you,” he said softly.
“Whatever the test says, we’ll always have each other,” she said.
“And that makes me the luckiest man on the planet.”
“But you’ll be disappointed, won’t you?”
He looked like he was about to deny it, then just shrugged. “I’ve tried really hard to keep the hope under control,” he said. “If this doesn’t work, no one has failed. It just ... didn’t work.”
“We can try again next month ... and the month after.”
“It’s not too traumatic for you?” he asked. “We can stop any time you want to.”
“I want to keep trying ... for a little while anyway.” Lois smiled up at him. “And we haven’t struck out on this month yet.”
“A minute must be up by now.”
Lois turned from his arms and to the test. Inside the little circle was a ‘+’.
Positive!
Lois stared at it, her mind a maelstrom of erratic thoughts that started, but could not find completion.
She heard Clark gasp and turned to him. Then she was in his arms and shaking so much she couldn’t tell if the trembling originated in her body or his.
She met his eyes. They were damp and his smile was radiant. She tenderly brushed away his tears. “Clark Kent,” she said solemnly. “You are going to be a father.”
He gently separated them and gazed at her stomach. She reached forward and slid his glasses down his nose. “Have a peek,” she said.
Clark gently put his hand over hers and pushed his glasses back up his nose. “No,” he said. “I want to do this just like everyone else. I want my first look at our baby to be at exactly the same moment as yours.”
“Our baby,” Lois said in an awestruck whisper.
They stood and looked at each other for a long time, trying to comprehend the enormity of the changes that had begun. It still felt like a dream ... and Lois would have wondered ... except for Clark’s smile.
A smile replete with such joy had to be real.
Lois traced her thumb gently along the underside of his lower lip. “You look so happy,” she said softly.
Clark blinked against the swell of his tears. “I feel so incredibly full ... so extravagantly blessed ... I have everything ... *everything* I have ever wanted.”
Her hand slid higher and brushed across his glistening lashes. “Our baby has everything ... a father who loves him, a mother who loves him and parents who love each other.”
Clark’s smile shone again. “Him?” he said.
“Or her.”
“Do you have a preference?” Clark asked.
“No. Do you?”
Clark shook his head. “A little boy to play football with ... or a little girl who looks just like her beautiful mother ... how could I possibly choose?”
“What if *she* wants to play football with you?”
“Then I’ll gladly play football with my daughter.” Clark lowered his mouth and kissed his wife with such tenderness, Lois felt her knees buckle. His strong arms surrounded her, held her, supported her.
It was like a sign ... a promise. As they walked this road, they would be together.
Every step.
Together.
||_||
For three days, they kept the secret.
It was like being suspended between two worlds – the everyday world of home and the Planet and the secret world they retreated to whenever they were alone. For Clark, the knowledge of the coming child was like a constant awareness that weaved through every thought. They said nothing to anyone. *Said* nothing, although Clark knew that if anyone actually took the time to study either of them, it would be obvious that their lives had changed.
*They* had changed.
Clark would not have believed it possible, but his wife was more beautiful than ever.
He couldn’t look at her without wanting to gather her into his arms and hold her and tell her he loved her and she amazed him.
Every time he looked at her ... *every* time ... he couldn’t help but smile.
He’d caught himself at the staff meeting this morning – staring at her like an awed teenager in the throes of his first crush. He just couldn’t wrench his eyes away.
Late on the third day, Clark closed down his computer and glanced hopefully into Lois’s office. She was already half way to his desk, her bag on her shoulder. “Let’s go,” she said.
“But the paper isn’t put to bed yet.”
“Ian can do it,” she said offhandedly. “He needs the experience.”
Clark rested his hand on her back as they walked to the elevator. “Do you think he’s ready to take on the job of Editor-in-Chief?” he asked quietly.
“No,” Lois said. “But whoever does come in will have a fine assistant in Ian.”
They stepped into the elevator and were alone. Lois turned to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “How are you doing, Daddy?” she whispered.
Clark laughed. “I’m not sure this level of excitement is sustainable for nine months, but I can’t imagine *not* being excited.”
“I think we should share around the excitement.”
“You do?”
“Let’s go to Smallville tonight.”
“Is that what you want?”
Lois nodded. “I can’t wait any longer to tell your parents that they are going to be grandparents.”
Clark smiled as his excitement rose to another level. “We’ll go home, get changed and go.”
“Perfect.”
||_||
“Clark?”
“Yes, honey.”
“I don’t want to tell Superman how to fly, but ... shouldn’t we be in Smallville already?”
A slightly embarrassed look crossed Clark’s face. “We’ll be there soon,” he said.
“Why is it taking so long?” Lois straightened in his arms and peered into his face. “You aren’t hurt, are you? Somebody didn’t hit you with kryptonite?”
He laughed self-consciously. “No. Nothing like that. I’m fine.”
“They why are we flying so slowly?”
“I didn’t want to ... hurt the baby.”
Lois chuckled. “I think the baby will be fine if we go just a little faster. At this rate, we’ll get to Smallville just in time for its first birthday.”
Clark kissed her and increased their speed.
Ten minutes later, they landed in the back yard of the Kent farm.
||_||
Clark took Lois’s hand and together they walked into his mom’s kitchen. She was at the stove and turned at the sound of their arrival. Her face lit with welcome. “Lois, Clark,” she said as she crossed to greet them. “It’s so good to see you. Will you stay and have dinner with us? There’s plenty.”
“Thanks,” Clark said, bending to kiss her. “Sorry we didn’t call ahead ... it was a last minute decision to come.”
“No need to call ahead,” Martha said easily.
“Where’s Dad?”
“In the barn. He should be in any moment.”
As if on cue, the door opened and Jonathan walked in. He saw them and smiled in welcome. “Well,” he said. “It’s good to see you both.”
Clark felt Lois’s hand enclose around his and squeeze meaningfully. Tell them!
He cleared his throat and tried to apply a measure of control to the smile that was tugging at his mouth. “Mom, Dad,” he said.
They both looked expectantly at him.
“Lois and I are going to have a baby.”
Their excitement erupted instantly. They engulfed both him and Lois with hugs and love and laughter and congratulations and a joy that bubbled over.
Clark stretched his arms to include all of them – the three people who were his world. Four, if you counted the little one nestled deep inside Lois.
Over the heads of his wife and his mother, Clark’s eyes met those of his father.
His dad’s eyes were moist. His dad, who rarely cried, was clearly struggling to keep his emotions under control.
Clark smiled his own surging joy. “Grandpa,” he mouthed.
“Dad,” Jonathan mouthed back.
They both laughed.
||_||
Lois heard the click of her call being answered, followed immediately by her sister’s voice. “Lois! It is so good to hear from you. How are you?”
“Great,” Lois said, smiling at Lucy’s enthusiasm. “You? The boys?”
“I’m really well. The boys are too.”
“You sound wonderful,” Lois said. “Relaxed.”
“You do too,” Lucy said. “We should get together this weekend.”
“That’s what I calling about,” Lois said. “If you’re not busy Saturday evening, can Clark and I come over and bring Chinese take-out?”
“I’d love that. The boys want to see you.”
“OK, we’ll come early so they’re still up ... about six?”
“Sounds great.” Lucy hesitated. “Ah, Lois?”
“Yep.”
“Would you mind if someone else joined us?
Lois’s attention jolted. “Someone else?” she asked. “A male someone else? Or a female someone else?”
Lucy giggled. “Male,” she said.
“Dan?” Lois asked cautiously.
“No. Not Dan. Someone else.”
“Is that why you sound so chirpy?”
“Could be.”
“Is he nice?”
Lucy sighed happily. “He’s very nice, Lois. And ... it’s still very early days for us and I’m not really looking ahead too much, but ...”
“But right now, you’re happy?”
“Right now, I’m very happy.”
“And the boys?”
“The boys love him. He’s so good with them.”
“That is such good news, Lucy,” Lois said. “I’m so pleased for you. And I’m really looking forward to meeting him on Saturday.”
Lucy giggled again. “See you Saturday, Lois.”
“Bye.”
Lois replaced the phone with a smile, already impatient for Saturday.
||_||
Lois stood with Clark at Lucy’s door on Saturday evening. At their knock, they heard a happy shout from one of the boys. Lucy opened the door, smiling broadly and holding Ethan. She hugged both of them.
“Where’s Tyler?” Lois asked as she reached to take Ethan.
“With ... the someone else,” Lucy said with a grin. “Come and ... see them.”
Lucy led the way into the kitchen. As Lois rounded the door, she stopped in shock.
Sitting at Lucy’s table, with Tyler on his lap was Jimmy Olsen.
“Jimmy!” Lois said.
He rose from the table, still holding Tyler. He was smiling ... slightly hesitantly as if he wasn’t sure how they would react to his presence.
Lois stepped forward quickly and hugged him. She dropped a kiss on Tyler’s cheek. “Jimmy, it’s so good to see you. What are you doing here? Last I heard of you, you were -.” She stopped suddenly and turned to Lucy. “*This* is the someone else?”
Lucy nodded, still grinning.
Lois’s eyes volleyed from her sister to Jimmy, hoping her shock wasn’t too evident. Clark moved in behind her and shook Jimmy’s hand.
“CK,” Jimmy greeted with a smile. He put Tyler in the closest high chair as Lucy did the same with Ethan.
They all sat at the table and began the business of unpacking the take-out. Lucy spooned rice into the two plastic bowls and gave one to Jimmy; he filled two plates and pushed one to Lucy. She looked up at him and they both smiled.
Jimmy put a soft plastic spoon in Tyler’s hand and placed the bowl on the tray of the high chair. “How are things at the Planet?” he asked, although his attention hadn’t moved from Tyler. “I noticed that circulation figures just keep on getting better.”
“I have a great team,” Lois said, watching him. “We miss you, Jimmy.”
He looked across to her with a little smile. “Thanks,” he said.
“Where are you working now?” Clark asked.
Jimmy guided Tyler’s hand as he loaded his spoon with rice. “I’ve got a job at a newsstand.”
“A newsstand?” Lois said, trying to keep her tone from disclosing her surprise.
“I’ve only been back in Metropolis for six weeks,” Jimmy said easily. “This job came up and it’s not what I want to do long term, but it suits me right now.”
“What is so good about it?” Lois couldn’t help asking.
Jimmy’s quick lunge saved Tyler’s bowl from being pushed over the edge of the tray. “I do the early shift, so I finish by mid-afternoon. That gives me time to do other things.”
Again Lois looked from Jimmy to her sister and deduced that those ‘other things’ were a big part of why Lucy looked so relaxed. Clearly this was not the first time Jimmy had helped out with meal times.
“I heard you had left Metropolis,” Clark said.
“I did,” Jimmy said. Tyler reached forward and grabbed Jimmy’s shirt with a sticky hand. Jimmy’s only response was to smile down at the boy. “I had no responsibilities, no ties, so it seemed like a good time to travel the world and try to make a living taking photos of beautiful places.”
“Freelance photography,” Clark said. “Nice life if you can make some sales.”
“It was a nice life,” Jimmy said. “I had some early success – enough to make me think it was a viable way to earn a living. I was offered a commission for photographs of the penguins of Fiordland in New Zealand.”
“A commission,” Clark said, obviously impressed. “Except New Zealand is a long way from Metropolis,” he added with a smile.
And freelance photography is a long way from feeding a restless toddler, Lois thought as Jimmy held the plastic cup so Tyler could drink.
Jimmy smiled. “When I arrived in Christchurch, I had a night there before travelling southwest to Fiordland. I chased up a guy I went to school with and we swapped news of various other people we knew and it came out that he had done a bit of travelling with Mitch Williams.”
Lois could see this was meant to be significant, but wasn’t sure how.
“Roxy Williams’ brother,” Lucy said.
“Oh.”
Tyler was squirming restlessly. Jimmy calmly wiped his face and hands. “He told me Roxy had a new relationship ...” Jimmy’s attention swung from the toddler to Lois and a smattering of colour rose to his cheeks. “The truth is Lois ... I didn’t only leave the Planet because of the job. And I’m sorry for making it sound like it was something you had done.” He looked to Lucy and she smiled at him. “The truth,” Jimmy said, “Is that I’d hoped for years that Lucy Lane might look in my direction, but she never did. And with her being with Dan and having the boys, I figured it was dumb to stay around and be miserable over things that were never going to be.”
Lucy reached across two high chairs and put her hand on Jimmy’s arm. “So, after he heard about Roxy and Dan, Jimmy emailed me ... just as a friend,” Lucy said. “To see if I was OK and ask how I was doing. And I emailed back and very soon, Jimmy’s emails were the thing I looked forward to every day.”
“But you were stuck in New Zealand,” Clark said with a grin in his voice. “With a commission.”
Jimmy groaned. “Yep, stuck in one of the most beautiful places on earth ... and one of the most remote.”
“So ... no internet?” Lois said, trying very hard not to grin.
“Not without a long journey across water and rugged terrain.”
Lois smiled to Lucy. “But you still got an email every day?”
Lucy nodded and her eyes turned to Jimmy. He had gone several shades deeper in colour, but his discomfort faded magically at her smile. He lifted Tyler from his high chair and handed him to Lucy. Then he began cleaning up Ethan.
“I figured our timing sucked big time,” Lucy said as she stroked Tyler’s hair. “Then Jimmy asked me if he came home when he’d completed the job, was there any chance that ...” She smiled at him. “... that I might look in his direction.”
“Jimmy,” Lois protested with a big smile. “You never said anything to me.”
He shot her a self-deprecating look. “I don’t know too many men who are willing to admit they are interested in a woman who clearly has no interest in them.” His eyes swung to Clark with a cheeky grin. “Except for you, CK, you mooned over Lois for years before she noticed you.”
Clark nodded. “It’s true,” he agreed easily.
“But when you finally got together, I’d never seen anyone happier,” Jimmy said.
Lois chuckled. “We weren’t too happy when you kept turning up at inopportune moments.”
Jimmy tried to look contrite. “Sorry, guys. I didn’t mean to keep interrupting. It just sort of ... happened.”
“No worries,” Clark said easily.
Too easily.
Lois read the look on his face and knew he was planning revenge. She kicked him under the table and was rewarded with a wide grin that made him look about fifteen years old.
“So what’s news with you?” Jimmy asked. “Lucy said you had a vacation to the Caribbean a few months ago.”
“We did,” Clark said. “We had a wonderful time.”
Lois cleared her throat. “We do ... actually ... have some news.”
Her words were barely out when a huge, excited grin spread across Lucy’s face. “Lo-is!” she shrieked. “Lois? Is it what I think it is?”
Lois grinned. “If you’re thinking that the boys will have a little cousin next year -.”
She never finished the sentence. Lucy sprang from the table and rushed them. She hugged both of them, to the consternation of Tyler. “That is wonderful,” she gushed. “I am so excited for both of you.”
Jimmy was now holding Ethan and had stepped towards them, his right hand stretched forward. “Congratulations, guys,” he said. “I’m so pleased for both of you. Well done, CK.” After shaking Clark’s hand, Jimmy offered his hand to Lois.
She refused it and instead wrapped both Ethan and Jimmy in a big hug.
Lucy grinned at Lois. “See, I told you,” she said.
“Told me what?” Lois asked.
“I told you you’d find the answer in your heart.”
Lois looked at Clark and smiled. There was so much in her heart it felt like it couldn’t possibly be contained. His arm came around her shoulders and pressed her into his side.
“Anyone for ice-cream?” Jimmy said.
||_||
Lois and Clark were almost home when he stopped the car.
Lois had been lightly dozing next to him. She opened her eyes and looked around. “Emergency?” she asked.
He shut down the motor, released his seat belt and turned to her. “Not really.”
She chuckled. “How can an emergency be ‘not really’?”
“It’s not an emergency out there,” he said with a toss of his head. “But in here.”
“In here?”
“I need to kiss you.”
She giggled. “That’s the sort of emergency I like best.”
Clark shaped his hand along her jaw and kissed her – his tongue and lips exploring her mouth thoroughly. He separated them just enough so he could speak. “Thank you for being my everything,” he said.
“Thank you for being mine,” she replied.
“It feels like ... it feels like I just fell in love with you, Lois. I was never out of love with you, but every time I see you, something inside me wells up and I know ... again ... that you are ... you always will be ... the greatest treasure of my life.”
“And now we are going to have a baby.”
Clark shook his head. “You must know how excited I am about that, Lois, but this is about you ... my wonderful wife. And even in all the joy of the baby, I’m not going to lose sight of us – you and me - because that will always be the most important thing of all to me.”
Her hand was soft on his face. “We forgot that for awhile, didn’t we?”
He nodded. “But never again. I promise you, Lois, never again.”
“I promise you too, Clark.”
He jolted away from her and refastened his seat belt. “Another emergency?” she asked.
Clark hurriedly started the motor. “Yep.”
“What this time?” she asked, sounding exasperated, but he could hear the smile in her voice.
“I need to do far more than kiss you,” Clark rasped. “And as almost-parents, I’m not sure we should be caught doing it in our car.”
Lois placed her hand on his thigh. “Let’s go home, my love.”
Clark glanced sideways to his wife, knowing again, just as he’d known in Perry’s office the moment he had met her ... he would go anywhere ... if only it meant being with Lois Lane.
His amazing wife.
And the mother of his child.
Clark smiled and put his hand on hers. “I will always love you, Lois Lane. Forever.”
“And I will always love you, Clark Kent.”
