Flying Solo
TOC This story is inspired by the system that helped me find time to participate in L&C Fanfic again.
Please save checking the endnotes until after you've read the story. The asterisks in the story are not to direct your attention away from reading. They are there to help if you wish to locate the passage that inspired the endnote.
These events take place a few years after the Fanfic virtual Seasons Five and Six.* (This is the first marker that you can ignore until you've finished.
)
Flying Solo
By claire
"And Superman is waving to the thankful crowds," the television anchor enthused. The camera pointed skyward following the Man in Blue, his elegant cape spread on the breezes. "He's turning; he's--gone!"
Snapping off the television, Lois glanced over at the children. Absent mindedly, she patted the baby's drool dry and changed his toy. Kalil was teething. Though rather wet, he was surprisingly happy about it.
Clark had never left at a worse time. Lois had just returned to work after Kalil's birth, and then not only Clark, but her entire family support system had had to leave town.**
Clark had agonized over abandoning her, but they both knew he had to go. Superman was needed as the mediator for peace talks on the other side of the world. With shifts of negotiators covering a host of different aspects, they'd lasted all day every day for a week. There had been time for the Man of Steel to rush out for a few rescues from natural disasters and to prevent a crash from an airplane failure. His family had not figured in any of these events, for which Lois was thankful, and not just because they were all safe.
Lois had a surprise for her husband. The longer he stayed away, the better the surprise would be. Now, however, he was on his way home and Lois couldn't wait to see him. More to the point, she was ready for him to see her, and the children, and--other things. Of course, she was looking forward to what he would say. Not that she needed him to say anything. Lois Lane ate the rich and powerful for breakfast, and polished off countries at lunch. She didn't need approval from anyone-even if he was Superman! She ruthlessly cut off a desire to add-not much anyway.
Lois walked confidently to the door. Laura*** danced before her. In the old days before children, Superman would have stepped through the curtains before she reached them. With the children around, however, Clark usually used the door.
"Daddy's home!" Laura caroled as she bounced up to Clark. She was Daddy's girl, and Clark swept her into his arms on his way to Lois, then reached to gather Little Kalil into a family hug.
The baby gurgled his delight, his little fists flying.
"I'm so glad to be home," Clark murmured, his voice suspiciously husky. This had been the first time since Kalil had been born that he had been away for more than a few hours at a time.
"Daddy!" Laura piped. " We're having scrambled eggs for supper and I helped Mommy scramble them."
Are you all right? Clark's eyes unmistakably and tenderly asked Lois. She smiled on a nod. He turned back to his wriggling daughter. "You've been helping Mommy cook?"
"Yes," giggled Laura, hugging him happily, "we're making Katie Food!"
Clark laughed. Lois felt his warm brown eyes traveling contentedly from one happy female to the other. The ghost of Katie Banks had caused plenty of problems by temporarily possessing her body****, but the skilled cook had left Lois with a gift for making breakfasts. Lois used her talent at any time of the day. The family called it "Katie Food." And it was popular.
"Come see the table, Daddy. I set it!" Laura said, tugging Clark's face toward the dining room. Lois let Clark carry both children and walked quietly after him. As desperately as she wanted to act as though she was not waiting for his every reaction, she found herself watching what little she could see of Clark's eye movements over the table. The setting had a rakish air: everything placed with more love and earnestness than control and expertise. Even now, with Laura and Clark looking at the table, Lois had to suppress an urge to make a few "minor" corrections. She had a sudden horrible thought that perhaps Clark felt the same way about the rest of the house.
What's done is good enough. Lois took a deep calming breath.
Clark doesn't think that way anyway. He certainly did not seem to be critiquing anything. She basked in Clark's delight as he looked from the table to his daughter.
"Oh, honey, it's beautiful!"
"Mommy let me do it all by myself!"
"Four and a half can do a good job," Lois said to Clark, "don't you think, Daddy?" Two Kent smiles rewarded her. Clark's expression told her that he understood what it had cost her not to "perfect" the setting. Her parents' constant corrections had undermined her own self-esteem, that she knew well. What she had not been prepared for was how devastatingly easy it was to repeat her parents' patterns in dealing with her own children.
Today, Lois had given Laura the goal of putting all the napkins in the same place on each setting, and putting forks opposite knives and spoons. Laura had achieved this goal, and she needed praise, not petty correction. Clark gave Lois a loving supportive wink then turned to Laura.
"I hope you're teaching Kalil how to do these things."
"Daddy," Laura laughed. "He's not allowed to hold cutlery!"
"How right you are!" Clark flung her, shrieking with laughter, above his head, and caught her without in the least disturbing the baby in his other arm.
Lois realized that she was full of joy. This was family at its best, happy to be together. As difficult as these years with small children might seem, they were precious. How glad she was to be slowly learning not to obsess about things that were so much less important than this warmth of family.
The evening revolved around the children. After the excitement of Daddy's return, they needed time to gradually calm down. Through it all, there were little moments that Lois treasured. The first came quickly, as they entered the sparkling kitchen. Clark glanced around at the shining sink and orderly counters then asked, "Did my Mom spend much time here?"
"No," Lois began tossing the leafy salad--calmly, she hoped. *****
"Daddy," Laura earnestly explained, "Momma Martha and Poppa Jonathon had to go to Kansas."
As dinner progressed, Clark kept glancing around the house. From a trip without Lois, he usually returned to a home in considerable chaos. The house tonight didn't match his best efforts, but it was livable. Over dinner and the delighted babble of the children, Clark asked, "Did your parents get away on that cruise they had booked?"
"Yes," Lois nodded, scooping up the toy that Kalil had dropped and substituting a clean one. Laura began a story about something from preschool.
Carting Laura into the bathroom for her bath, Clark stopped, his eyes moving from the towels on the racks to the laundry all in the hamper and innocently inquired, "Did your neat-nick sister****** come to visit while I was gone?"
Lois shook her head as she whisked the baby off for his nightly routine. Humming happily, she listened to the splashing, the laughter, the little questions that Clark wove into his play with Laura. Her husband was curious and Lois was happy. She could still be a woman of mystery!
As Clark and Laura came out of the bathroom, he suddenly tilted his head in a way so familiar to Lois. A call for help had reached his super-hearing--one he couldn't ignore. His cradling of the towel-wrapped Laura suddenly became somehow even more tender as Clark turned agonized eyes to his wife.
"It's a child, Lois."
"Laura, Daddy has to leave for a little while," Lois told her daughter. "You remember, your pj's are laid out on your bed. When you are ready for bed, you can bring a book and I'll read it to you and the baby."
With the confidence of a child comfortable in flexible, familiar routines, Laura allowed herself to be put down. "I'm going to wear my Superman pajamas tonight, Daddy. Mommy and I put everything out before supper. My stuff is ready for tomorrow too."
"That's great, honey!"
"You have to go help Superman now," Laura did not make it a question. Lois and Clark exchanged a glance over their perceptive daughter's head as she continued to talk, echoing phrases Lois often used in these situations. "Don't worry about us; just go!"
Lois thought she saw tears in his eyes as he left.
Just after she had kicked off her lace-ups and sunk into a bubble bath, Lois heard Clark returning. She knew that things had gone well and that he had checked the house out first, because he neither whisked through the kitchen on the way in nor lingered when he checked the sleeping children, murmuring good nights to them. Instead, the next sound was the distinctive hum of his Super-fast computer; Star labs had finally developed something that kept up with him--a special for their Super client.
There was the briefest of pauses. Undoubtedly, the story of Superman's doings was already filed. The computer hummed again then closed down.
In a few moments, Clark came into the bathroom--carrying her Control Journal.
"You're Flying!" He smiled at her.
"What makes you say that?" Lois asked, pretending ignorance.
"Apart from the calm and structure I came home to?" Clark asked, barely pausing to enjoy the sudden blush burning Lois up. Of course, she was always excessively grateful for his praise. That, she reminded herself, was just because she loved him. She didn't usually break down and show anything.
The warm bath, she thought, trying to concentrate on the conversation,
must be causing a flush .
"This…" Clark was indicating the Journal, "was lying open on the desk when I was filing my story. So I checked out
http://flylady.net/ since I was online anyway. And there were the instructions for a shiny sink," he waved his hand in the direction of the kitchen with a knowing smile, "lace-up shoes" he pointed to her comfortable sneakers, "and the invitation to join her list for her email reminders. Off hand, I guess she is helping you to start Finally Loving Yourself. And honey," he leaned forward and kissed her, "you are FLYing!"
"Baby steps and routines," she shrugged, trying for indifferent but only achieving elaborately causal, "it's the routines. That's the way you do it too, isn't it--fast, but in little routines?"
He nodded.
"Well, I can't do it as fast or as well, but the same principle is at work."
"Honey, I think you're selling yourself short." Again, he didn't wait for her blush to subside. "How did you find this Flylady?"
"Just after I went back to work, I was interviewing another mother for that story on the continuing day care crisis…"
"I saw your piece in the Daily Planet while I was at the conference--good stuff."
Lois nodded brusquely, trying to cover the way she still melted at his compliments. "This gal is a full-time working mother. And she has three kids. And her husband is a frequent business traveler. I was shocked when she asked if I could do the interview at her place. Knowing that she didn't have Superman to help her," they exchanged a smile, "I figured I'd find chaos in her home."
"And you didn't?"
Lois shook her head. "I was really worried about being able to mange two children without you, even though I didn't know you'd have to leave so soon, so I asked her for her secret--and I really listened to the answer."
"Flylady?" Clark asked.
"Yep." Lois stirred the bubbles with a foot. Clark reached out, gently catching her heel. Starting from there, he massaged the length of her tired sole, completely distracting her. She had to force herself to continue. "I subscribed to her list and started reading emails that night. When suddenly you and the whole family walked out on me, I tried to put them into action. You keep the house so well that you gave me a good head start."
"The house impressed me, Lois, don't get me wrong," Clark changed to her other foot, "but it was your comfort with the children that really stood out."
"The Less-Than-Perfect table setting?" Lois sighed with a confused mixture of pleasure and remembered stress. "That was hard. Perfectionism is tough for me to handle. I don't want to saddle my kids with it too. Isn't Flylady-" Lois grinned, "super?"
"Definitely part of the Super Club." Grinning back at Lois, Clark released her feet to the bubbles.
"I'll just be a few more minutes," Lois told him. "You'll probably have to fix a few of the things I couldn't keep up with like…"
"No, Lois, you've done an even better job on the house than Laura did on the table, and I'm not going to change a thing!"
Lois didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She knew she'd done the best she could, but she was still expecting to be critiqued. Clark's love and support kept on surprising her.
"Remember, Lois, you're loving yourself," he smiled. "There's a lot to love." Standing to leave, Clark brushed a kiss on her forehead. "Enjoy your bath. I'm going to have a shower in the other bathroom--and clean up after myself! Then we'll meet in bed." He winked over his shoulder at her as he closed the door. "That's the only flying we need to do."
A vision of him sitting up in bed warmed Lois. She stepped out of the tub and into her towels to take care of her after bath needs. Lois was going to bed flying, and she knew she would fall asleep smiling.*******
*
Virtual Season 5 Virtual Season 6 These notes give you references and my additional back-story. They aren't worth checking until the end. That's why I told you to ignore them.
** Deleted piece of story: Without the daycare at the Planet, which even helped with Laura's out-of-preschool hours, Lois would have had to continue her maternity leave until some family could return to Metropolis.
***Please see "It's Time"
Virtual Season 5 , Episode 22 -- Season Finale by Pam Jernigan and the whole of
Virtual Season 6 by a wonderful array of authors.
****Please see Lois & Clark, Season 4 Episode 9, "Ghosts" by Michael Gleason.
*****Deleted paragraph of story: During her sojourn in the Congo for her story on gunrunning, the chef at what was laughably called her hotel would not prepare food "after hours," and Lois never came in on time for meals. When Lois tried to flirt herself into some food, he had offered to show her how to feed herself. Lois knew this was not a regular practice and was grateful to him, especially since she learned to make salads. She had already emptied the salad bag into a colander and rinsed the leaves. Now, she checked to make sure they were still damp, the chef's French African cadences complaining from the past,
Without water, you will suffocate the salad with too much oil! On to the damp leaves, she measured a generous spoon of olive oil, a meager touch of a tasty vinegar, and some seasoning. Then, she gently stirred it all and--Voila!
******Since two such different actresses played Lois Lane's sister, my fantasy is that there are two Lucy Lanes. One Lucy would be her sister-by-birth, the other a sister-adopted-when-orphaned relative; it doesn't matter which is which, but I figure 1st season Lucy is the neat-nick needed for this story.
*******Since local FOLC introduced me to Flylady, this story is a tribute to them and to Flylady.
[Thank you FOLCs!] Your friendship means more to me than words could ever express.
[Thank you Flylady!] Your methods truly bless!
Flylady and crew are the reason I am able to participate, however infrequently, on these wonderful Boards. I highly recommend her site to everyone. Even if all you have to keep in order is a single room, go see
FlyLady !
Disclaimer: DC comics owns Superman, and Warner Bros. owns the rights to all characters in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. FlyLady and all her ideas belong to her, and can be found at the web site,
http://flylady.net/ , or in her book,
Sink Reflections . This author will never take any monetary gain from this story. © The author: 2003.
