Lori and Clark – The New, New Adventures of Superman – MMC V 6 18/32
By Ken Janney
Warning: This story is rated PG-13.
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
Previously:
Lois asked, “What are we going to do when it’s time to give him up?”
“Well, when Herb comes to pick him up we just hand him over so that he can go home. We aren’t going to have to worry about that for a while. We’ve only had him a couple of weeks. We have plenty of time for that.”
“But, what if we really get attached to him? I mean, I can feel this connection, this bond that is forming. Every time I put him to my breast it gets stronger. It’s going to get to the point that I’m not going to want to give him up.”
“Honey, we can’t afford to get that attached. Sooner or later, he has to go back to his parents. We have to maintain some distance.”
“I don’t see how I’m going to be able to do that. Every time I feed him … that’s me that he’s drinking … me he’s feeding on … my body that is sustaining his life.”
“Yeah, I can see that, but, we still need to keep a distance.”
“I can’t. I just won’t be able to. It’s just too much to ask.”
Suddenly they both became aware of tiny baby snores coming out of the monitor. Lois pointed at the monitor and said, “Listen to that. That’s our son. I don’t care what Herb says, that has to be our baby.” She saw the look on his face and she said, “I know, we can’t be sure. He might not be. It might just kill me if he isn’t. Now that I’m feeding him, he just has to be mine.”
“Lois, Honey, you know that isn’t possible. He belongs to someone else. When the time comes he will have to go back to them.”
Resignedly Lois said, “I know, I just hope I can do it. What are you making for dinner?”
“How about spaghetti with meatballs?”
With a wicked little grin Lois asked, “Sounds good to me, but, are you sure you want to make pasta? You know what that does to you.”
He gave her a leer as he said, “Yeah, well, we are back to work on Monday so we need to taper off but we don’t need to stop cold turkey.
And now:
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Chapter 17 – Back to Work
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Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 local designation - Prime
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It was a typical Monday morning at the Daily Planet, controlled chaos. Perry White was out of his office, in the bullpen shouting orders when everyone heard the ding of the arriving elevator.
Perry was expecting Lois and Clark to be back from their unscheduled vacation and he was ready to tear into them for taking off so abruptly, no warning, no explanation. He knew that there must be a good reason and he was hoping that they had been doing an off the cuff investigation. If they hadn’t been, they were sure going to get a piece of his mind.
At the sound of the arrival of the elevator everyone turned to see who the occupants were. Secretly, or maybe not so secretly everyone was hoping that it would be Lois and Clark because ever since they had disappeared Perry had been really out of sorts with everyone. He had been demanding big stories from everyone and unfortunately, the Star had been scooping them routinely in their absence. So it was with breathless anticipation that everyone turned to face the elevator.
When the doors opened the first one out of the elevator was Lois looking tanned, fit, relaxed and very happy.
There was an audible sigh of relief from the staff.
Then Clark stepped through the doors and the sigh turned into a gasp as they saw the baby car seat and diaper bag that he carried.
Perry was the first one to vocalize his surprise, “What … in … Elvis’ … name? Clark, what do you have there?!?!”
Clark looked down and said, “What, what do I have? Oh, this? It’s just our baby.”
Perry was dumbfounded. He dropped the papers that he was holding and in a strangled tone asked, “Baby???” He turned to Lois and gasped out, “Lois, Honey, how did you keep this a secret? Usually, something like that, well, it’s kinda hard to hide, if you know what I mean and you guys have only been gone two weeks. The last time I checked it took a lot longer than that.”
Lois, with a look of contrition said, “Yeah, really it does, we took a shortcut.”
Perry was still reeling as he asked, “Shortcut, how can you shortcut something that takes nine months?”
Lois asked, “Can we go into your office? Have we got a story for you.”
They moved into Perry’s office and Clark put the car seat on the corner of Perry’s desk.
CJ and awakened now that the motion had ceased and he was starting to look around at these new surroundings. When Perry bent over him he started to smile and his pacifier fell out. Before Lois or Clark started the story Perry just stood over the car seat and peered at the child it contained. He gave him a very close appraisal. He looked back and forth between the child, Lois and Clark. Eventually he stood back and said, “I don’t know how you did it, but, there’s no question, this is your child. I can see both of you in his features. Clark, he has your eyes, definitely. Lois, he has your mouth and your smile. Some of the weirdest things have happened to the two of you but this tops them all. How in Elvis’ name did you shortcut the nine month term of a normal pregnancy. Now, don’t tell me that this child is a clone.” Perry snapped his fingers, “Did your friend Herb take you away and then bring you back after you delivered?”
CJ started to fuss. Lois said, “I think he’s getting hungry. I need to feed him.” Clark moved over and started to unbuckle his safety straps while Lois delved into the diaper bag and pulled out a drape. While Clark was lifting CJ out of his seat, Lois snapped the drape around her neck. Then she started opening her blouse and nursing bra. Clark handed CJ to Lois and she took him under the drape and put him to her breast.
Perry was dumbfounded by all of this. He said, “That does it! As far as I know you need to deliver a baby in order to breastfeed one. Come’on, fess up. How did you do it?”
Lois replied, “That’s what we thought too. It turns out that with the proper supplements and, um, activity, any woman can bring on her milk and nurse a child. That was why we needed the two weeks. We had to work on, uh, things, so that I could nurse him.” They could all hear the slurping sounds CJ was making while he nursed. “As you can see, it worked.”
Clark jumped in and said, “To answer your question, no, he’s not a clone. That’s for sure. Actually, he belongs to my cousin and his wife.”
Lois picked up the narrative, “You see, they’re medical missionaries and they are on a mission trip. They decided that it would be too dangerous to take CJ with them so they asked us to take care of him.”
Perry was still marveling at the fact of Lois nursing and asked, “Why do you have to nurse him? Why not feed him formula?”
Lois had prepared for this question and had come up with an easily accepted and almost completely true answer, “He’s allergic to formula. Besides, I like to feed him. It makes me feel, I don’t know, fulfilled, as a woman. If we ever have children of our own, I’m definitely breastfeeding them.”
“How is this going to affect your time on the job? What if you have to go on a stake out? What if you have to go out of town?”
Lois replied, “We plan to put him in the daycare on the second floor. Whenever I need to feed him, I’ll just go down. If we have to go on a stake out, we take him with us in his car seat, if we have to go out of town, same thing. It’s not like I’m home bound just because we have a baby. There are other women working here that have babies. Come on Perry, we can handle this.”
Perry double pointed at her and said, “Okay, but, you just remember, you’ve got somebody there depending on you. Don’t go jumping in without checking the water level. You hear me?”
Lois was moving CJ over to the other breast as she rolled her eyes and said, “Chief, I haven’t done anything dangerous recently.”
“No?!?!?! What about Mensa or did you forget about him? Well, actually, you *are* right, of course you haven’t gotten yourself in over your head for a *while*, since you’ve been on vacation for the last two weeks and that reminds me I need you two working! I’ve got page space to fill. Get outta here and get me a story.”
Clark asked, “Who handled the follow-up on Mensa?”
“Nobody. That’s why I need you guys back. We’ve been running wire service leads to fill space. ”
“What about Ralph or, or, or, Jimmy?”
“Ralph? Really? Come on, I’d give it to Jimmy before I’d give that to Ralph. I’ve got him on the dog show. He just finished the car and boat shows. He’s even screwing those up.” Perry started shaking his head. “I wish there was some way to get rid of him, but, with his uncle on the board, there’s just no way.”
Clark said, “Okay Chief, we’ll get on it.”
Lois pulled CJ out from under the drape and readjusted her clothing. Lois was wishing that they had taken some time to pick her up some new blouses. Since she was nursing, she really needed to wear button up tops and with her breasts enlarged, she was straining the buttons on what she was wearing. Clark placed CJ back in his car seat and he promptly fell asleep. After buckling him in Clark picked him up and headed out to their desks. Lois finished buttoning up and removed the drape and put it back in the diaper bag. Picking that up, she also headed out after Clark. She turned to Perry as she was about to exit the office. She said, “I’ll contact my snitches and see if they have heard about anything.”
Perry said, “I hope they have something for you.”
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When she got out into the bullpen she couldn’t even get near her desk because of the crowd of people around it. Diane and Denise from research, Jimmy and Eduardo even Steve from Sports were all around oohhing and aahhing over CJ.
Ralph was an exception he was on the outskirts and was leering at *her* rather than looking at the baby. Noting how he was looking at her, Lois started intensely regretting not having gotten the larger blouses.
Ralph said, “Hi Lois, lookin’ good there. I like the new look. Motherhood fits you better than your blouse. Don’t inhale too deeply until I’m out of the line of fire when those buttons go flying. Are you feeding Clarkie boy as well as the baby? You look like you could.”
Lois was doing a not so slow boil at his crude comments but, before she had a chance to disembowel him, Clark stepped in between them. He said, “Ralph, I think you’ve said just about enough. If I hear any more out of you there will be a sexual harassment charge leveled against you. Your rude and crude comments are not wanted.”
Just then Perry shouted, “Ralph, where’s that dog show report? It was supposed to be on my desk ten minutes ago.”
Ralph ducked away from Clark and headed for his desk.
Clark moved over to Lois and took her in his arms. Lois said, “Thanks, you just saved me from another murder charge, the only difference would be that this one would actually be real.”
Clark kissed her forehead before he started chuckling and said, “He was right about one thing. We do need to get you some new blouses.”
Lois buried her head in his chest and asked, “Can we stop on the way home? I don’t want to wait another day and possibly have to put up with more of that.”
CJ had woken up from his brief nap and was cooing and gurgling and smiling at all the attention and everyone around him was touching his nose or offering their finger for him to grab.
“Definitely. What do you want to do with CJ?”
Just then Denise from research turned to Lois and asked, “Can I take him to my cube and watch him for a while? He’s so cute I just want to love him.”
Hearing this Diane asked if she could have a turn. Lois said, “Okay, you can each have a turn. We need to go down and register him in the day care center. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
As Denise picked up his car seat she said, “Take your time. CJ and I are going to get to know each other.” She turned away and headed for her desk.
Lois watched her go and turning to Clark said, “I hope I can do this.”
“Do what?”
There was just a touch of hysteria in her voice as she started to babble, “Put him in day care. I mean I know that I need to, but, wouldn’t it be just as good if I kept him here in his car seat, here by my desk? I could watch him myself and if I need to feed him, I could just take him into the conference room, no, too many people go in and out of there, I know I could take him into the ladies room and feed him there. I wouldn’t even need the drape; I could take him into one of the stalls, and, and then that way he’d get the attention that he needs from his mother and not some stranger who doesn’t care if he lives or dies. I mean, he could be pushed off in a corner somewhere and nobody would check on him. He’d be crying his little eyes out wanting his mama and nobody would even think to come and get me and when we got there to pick him up he would be dead.” Lois grabbed the lapels of his jacket and almost wailed, “We can’t let that happen! What kind of mother would do that to her baby, let someone kill her child like that? Only one that doesn’t have a motherly bone in her body and couldn’t care less if her child lives or dies. Well, I care and I’m not about to let those people down there kill my baby. Clark we have to do something, we can’t let that happen to our baby! We have to save him!”
Clark pulled her into an embrace as he said, “Lois, calm down. Nothing like that is going to happen to CJ.” He lowered his voice to just above a whisper and said, “I would never allow anything like that to happen. Remember, I can keep an eye and an ear on him all the time.”
Lois had been sobbing after her rant and slowly she started to settle down and she asked, “You promise?”
He held up his hand in the Boy Scout salute and said, “Super scouts honor. I’d never let anything happen to CJ.”
Lois sniffled a couple of times and said, “Okay, but, I’m going to hold you to that buster,” as she poked him in the chest to emphasize her point. “Let’s go downstairs and get him signed up.” She looked over at Denise’s area only to see Denise bending over the car seat, unbuckling CJ’s restraints so that she could lift him out and actually hold him. Lois didn’t budge until she had assured herself that Denise was holding him properly. When Lois heard him cooing and gurgling happily she finally turned and grabbing Clark’s tie started dragging him toward the elevator as she said, “Okay, let’s get this done, before I change my mind.” Clark had to almost run to keep up with her. As they neared the elevator she released his tie and he smoothed it back down, tucking it in under his jacket.
Lois hit the button to summon the elevator and while they waited her eyes were glued to CJ.
When the elevator arrived they got in and as the doors closed Clark hit the button for the second floor. When he turned back around to her he could see tears in her eyes. He put his arms around her and asked, “What is it Honey? Why are you crying?”
“Oh, Clark, This is the farthest I’ve been away from our baby since we got him. My arms ache to hold him.” She reached up and brushed away a tear as she said, “I can do this. Really, I can. I have to.” She straightened up and put on a brave mask.
When they arrived on the second floor, Lois exited the elevator with a purposeful stride and headed directly for the day care center. Clark held the door for her and ushered her in. She moved over to the counter and addressed the receptionist, “We need to enroll our baby.”
The receptionist recognized Lois and asked, “I’m Georgiana, aren’t you Lane and Kent?”
Lois smiled at this recognition and said, “Yes, we are.”
Georgiana said, “I’ve read everything you’ve written. That recent story about Mensa was something.”
Thinking back on it Lois said, “Yeah, that story sort of came to us instead of us finding it. That was just before the baby arrived.”
Georgiana had a surprised expression as she asked, “I remember seeing you in the lobby and I don’t remember you being pregnant. You recently had a baby?”
Lois hesitated, “Well, yes and no. I mean, no I wasn’t pregnant and yes we have a baby.”
Georgiana brightened and said, “Oh, I get it, you adopted. How wonderful for you.”
Lois had a funny expression as she replied, “Well, not exactly. We didn’t adopt, we are acting as guardians for Clark’s cousin while his parents are away. We need to enroll him in the day care. If you don’t have any openings, we’ll understand. We’ll just wait for an opening.”
Lois’ hopes were dashed when Georgiana said, “Oh, no, we have openings. How old is he? What’s his name?”
“His name’s CJ and he’s about four months old.”
Georgiana’s face lit up, “Ooooo a real little one. I bet he’s a cute as a button. How soon do you want to bring him down?”
“Uh, well, you see, it’s this way. We brought him in with us today and this is the first time and everyone in the newsroom is taking turns with him. I guess we could bring him down tomorrow. I’ll need to come down and feed him.”
Georgiana was taken aback with this statement. She said, “That will be okay, we can feed him. What formula are you using?”
“Well, you see, that’s the thing, I’m breastfeeding him.”
“You did say that you didn’t just give birth, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then … how? I didn’t think that was possible.”
As she replied Lois looked at Clark and shared a secret smile, “Neither did I, but, I found out differently. I’ll bring a supply of breast milk for him if we will be gone on a story.”
Georgiana was surprised by the breast feeding, but, accepted it as fact. The evidence was very obvious. She could see the buttons on her blouse straining to keep it closed.
Lois noted her staring at her enlarged bust and turning to Clark said in an exasperated tone, “We definitely are stopping on the way home for me to get some new tops.” Turning back to Georgiana she asked, “Okay, where are the forms we need to fill out?”
Georgiana handed her a clipboard with the forms on it. Lois took a form off the top and handed the clipboard back. She said, “I’ll take this with me and fill it out. Clark can bring it back down later. I want to get back upstairs to CJ.” She turned to Clark and said, “Let’s go partner.”
They both exited and headed for the elevator. He said, “Let’s take the stairs.”
She responded, “Huh, why?”
He pointed to his ear and she nodded her head. They changed direction and as soon as the door had closed behind them he picked her up and super sped them up to the bullpen floor.
As they were approaching the door Lois started to hear CJ crying. She rushed through the doors and almost dashed down the ramp as she headed for Denise’s desk. Denise was holding CJ and bouncing him trying to get him to stop crying. As Lois approached she said in a tone calmer than she felt, “CJ. CJ, mama’s here darling.” She reached for him. As soon as CJ heard her voice he stopped crying and looked toward the sound of her voice. When he saw her he started to smile and coo again.
Seeing how he was responding to Lois’ voice, Denise shifted him so that Lois could take him easily and she relinquished her temporary charge. As Lois took him she gave him a kiss on the cheek and pulled him into a tight embrace. She was saying, “I know baby, I know. Mama’s here now. How is mama’s boy?” She turned to Clark and asked, “How am I going to be able to do this? He wants to be with his mama. He’s not going to be happy down there in the day care. Isn’t there some other alternative?”
Concerned about just how this was all going to play out he said, “I don’t see any alternative. We’re going to have to at least give it a try. Tell you what, why don’t we take him down there after lunch? That way he’ll only have to be there a few hours. In the mean time, why don’t you let Denise try again? You’ll be right here.”
With a hurt expression bordering on panic Lois looked up at him.
Clark looked at her, trying to encourage her and nodded his head in Denise’s direction. Reluctantly, Lois pulled CJ up and gave him another kiss and as she was handing him back to Denise she said to him, “Mama’s going to be right over there, okay? You be a good boy for mama and let Denise take care of you for a while, okay?” Reluctantly, she handed him back to Denise.
Denise smiled and said, “I think he’ll be okay. Give it some time.”
Lois nodded her head and turned away, at least her body turned away. Her head stayed turned so that she was watching CJ. When she bumped into a desk she realized that she needed to pay attention to where she was going.
Clark took her hand and said, “Come with me.” He started to lead her to the conference room.
She started to object so that she could move to her desk, but, Clark kept a firm hand in the small of her back directing her to the conference room. When they entered the room he closed the door. Lois stood there staring out the window until, with a snap, Clark closed the blinds then she looked at him with a hurt expression. She started to complain, but he stopped her by gently placing a finger up in front of her lips. He said, “I think I have an idea what the problem is.”
She retorted, “Oh, great, now you’re also a child psychologist. Okay, I’ll bite. What do you think the problem is?”
Clark pulled her over and indicated that she should sit in a chair. Once she was seated he said, “I think that the problem is separation anxiety.”
She spluttered, “Separation anxiety?!?!?! Then we can’t put him in the daycare! I need to keep him with me.” She started to stand up.
Clark gently put a hand on her shoulder to keep her in the chair as he started to chuckle.
“What are you laughing about? It’s not funny. Why should he be forced to go through that?”
“I wasn’t speaking about CJ, Honey. I was talking about … you.”
She spluttered again and said, “*ME*? What do you mean?”
“I think that you’re afraid to let anyone else take care of him and he picked up on that and reacted to your unease.”
She gave that some thought and then said, “Okay, maybe, but, I just thought of something else. What if somebody notices something. He is a superbaby after all. What if somebody notices something … different about him?”
“Lo – is, you’ve seen my baby pictures. You’ve talked to my mom. Mom and Dad didn’t know that I was anything other than a normal child until my powers started to come on and that wasn’t until I was about ten years old. Nobody is going to notice anything. You have to let go and you can’t let CJ know how upset you are leaving him. He’s a smart little guy. He’ll sense that there is a problem. He won’t know what it is, but, he’ll know you’re upset about something and he’ll react, just like he did earlier.”
Clark moved over and peeked through the blinds to see Denise holding CJ and nuzzling his belly and he could see him laughing as a result. He called Lois over and said, “See? He’s just fine. Let’s let Denise have him for an hour or so. I don’t want to strain Perry’s patience too far, after all she does have a job to do and it isn’t being a baby sitter. Then we can let Diane have him for a while. Let’s let him get used to some other people while we are here to watch over it.”
“Oh, I guess we have to, don’t we.”
“Yes, we have to. It’s the only way we will be able to do our jobs, unless you want to become a stay at home mom.” He smiled as he watched her reaction. She was actually seriously considering his suggestion. Finally, the tug of war ended and she nodded.
She said, “Let’s let him get used to other people. That is the only way I’ll still be able to work.” She peeked out through the blinds. She saw Denise apparently singing to CJ. She turned back to Clark and said, “Do you think he’ll remember me?”
He put his arms around her from behind and soothingly he said, “I’m sure he could never forget you. Just wait, you’ll see.” They stood there for several minutes watching Denise with CJ. Finally Clark asked, “Ready to get back to work?”
She turned in his arms so that she was looking up at him. She nodded and said, “I guess so. How do you always know just what to say?”
He kissed her and said, “Just lucky I guess. It also helps that I know you so well.”
She nodded and stepped back slightly. She said, “Let’s go partner. We’ve got work to do.” She turned to the door and opening it led the way back to their desks.
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