Kind of short, but a necessary scene to move the story along. Enjoy!
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By lunch time, Lois, Clark, and Robin had made it back to the apartment where Martha and Jonathan had a hot meal waiting for them. Robin ran in excitedly.
“Martha! Jonathan! Guess what? We found a school. It’s two streets over from the Planet and it’s really great! My class is so cool! It has desks and a huge table for group play. It has little cubbies on the walls for my things and lots of books. My teacher said I could read them all! And Lois said she’s taking me to buy a brand new backpack and pencils and everything!”
Martha smiled down at him when he finally ran out of breath. “It sounds like you’ve had a wonderful morning.”
“I did. I met Perry and Jimmy and played video games. The Planet’s really cool! And I saw the daycare where I’ll be staying after school.”
“That’s sounds so wonderful,” Jonathan told him. “I sure am happy to see you so pleased.”
“Well,” he looked back at the couple behind him who weren’t so thrilled at the moment. “I could be happier.” He kept recalling the argument Lois and Clark had gotten into on the way back to the apartment. It had made him feel so confused. He was happy about his school, but so disappointed that it caused the adults to be upset with one another. As the argument had continued, he'd began to wonder if his new home would remain his for much longer.
“Honey, what’s wrong?”
“Martha, Lois and Clark have been arguing about me since we left the school.” His little eyes were so sad. Surely Clark's mother could make this situation better. He really, *really* didn't want to leave. He liked it here.
Martha looked to her son for an explanation.
“Mom, the school costs nearly two thousand dollars a year, which is okay. I can swing the monthly payments. But Lois wants to take the money from her savings and pay up the next three years.”
“We can save a thousand dollars, Clark!”
“But it’s your savings!”
“Exactly. *My* savings! If I want to pay for his school, I will!”
“But it’s not your responsibility.” Clark’s words hang in the air as they stared at each other.
Lois found her voice after a pregnant pause. “I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.”
Her tone left little doubt that she was hurt and angry. “Lois, I’m sorry.”
“Stop!” He couldn't stand this anymore. They were fighting about him, and it was too much for him to handle. Both adults turned to see Robin looking at them with tears in his eyes. “If you two are going to argue over me, then I want to go back to the Sanders!” He shouted and ran from the room.
“Robin,” Clark started after him, but his mother stopped him. “Let him go. You and Lois need to straighten this out between yourselves and go to him together.”
Clark’s eyes followed his son up the stairs before he looked back to Lois.
His mother sighed and looked from one to the other. “I can not believe you two let that boy think you were fighting because of him. I’ve never been more ashamed of you.” She crossed her arms in frustration as she continued to glare at them.
“Clark wouldn’t let it drop,” Lois said defensively.
“Lois, that’s no excuse,” Martha scolded. “You two should have known better than to have a disagreement of any kind in front of him.”
The couple dropped their heads, both incredibly ashamed of themselves. Finally Clark sighed and looked up at Lois. “I’m sorry, honey. I think your offer to help is wonderful.”
“Clark, don’t you see? If we’re going to be married, we’re going to be a team. Teams work together. And that money will become ours. Everything I have will become yours. Just as I would hope you’d consider everything that’s yours becomes mine.”
“I do, Lois. I do.” Clark took a half step toward her. “Including my son,” he whispered.
“Especially your son. He will be my responsibility just as he’s yours. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I know. And I am so sorry I said that. I hurt you the same way I did the other day when I told you no one asked you to be his mom. Truth is, Lois, I *want* you to be.”
“I want to be, too, Clark. Part of that is sending him to a good school and using our savings to pay for it. Please… let’s do this.”
“Yes.” He reached out to take her hands. “Lois, I really think it would be wonderful if *we* paid for it…”
“With *our* savings,” she stated once more to be absolutely certain they were in agreement.
Clark smiled down at her. “With our savings,” he agreed.
“Thank you,” she told him as her arms went around his neck.
“Honey, we’ve got to apologize to Robin,” he told her as he held her close.
“I know.”
“Well, make it quick because he’s going shopping with his grandfather and me,” Martha spoke up.
Lois and Clark pulled apart to take hands and went to talk to *their* son together. The little guy had been very serious about leaving. He sat on the bed with his backpack full of his things.
“Please call Ms. Grange,” he said quietly. He didn't want to go, but there was no way he'd be the cause of anyone's pain. Fighting always caused people pain.
“Robin,” Clark started. “We’d like to apologize.” He went to kneel before the child. “We were not arguing about you. We were disagreeing about money.”
“Money to pay for *my* school,” he pointed out.
“True. But, son, we both know we were very wrong. We’ve talked things through. I can't promise we'll never argue about issues that concern you again. Truth is, Lois and I often argue about things. Not because we enjoy hurting one another or that we don't love each other. It's just that we're both so stubborn argue for what we believe in and feel strongly about. We feel very strongly about you and the things that concern you. And we might argue. It only means we're trying to work something out, not that we don't care or want you."
Robin looked up at the adults. He wanted so much to believe them, but how could he? He’d seen them argue about him and it had been painful.
Lois chose to sit next to him on the bed. “We’re so sorry. We should have known our behavior would hurt your feelings. Robin, adults fight from time to time. It's how some people express themselves, like Clark and me. While we can't promise not to argue in the future, we can promise that we'll always do the very best thing possible for you." She brushed a strand of hair off his forehead. "Please don’t leave us.”
He looked up at Lois. “You’d let me go?”
“If…” She had to stop to swallow the lump in her throat. “If that’s what you want.”
He looked to Clark for confirmation. The man had to blink back his own tears.
“Son, this is your home, but if you’d rather go back to the Sanders…” He looked down to keep from crying. When he’d regained control, he tried again. “We’d hate to lose you, but we won’t stop you.” Unable to stand it any longer, Clark rose. “I need to…” He gestured toward the stairs before he hurried away.
Robin’s eyes flashed back to Lois. “I upset him.”
“He just doesn’t want you to leave.”
The boy sat silently for a long moment. Did his father and Lois really care that much about him? Enough to argue? Enough to let him leave if he wanted to? He finally looked back up at Lois. “I can go to public school. I liked it there, too,” he told her.
“Oh, sweetie. Your father and I talked that through. We really want you to go to the other one.”
“Hey! I can pay for it!” The boy jumped to his feet and ran down the stairs. Clark was sitting at the table with the Kents. “Clark, you don’t have to argue about the money and Lois doesn’t have to pay for it. Mrs. Davies told me a long time ago that I have a trust fund. My mom left money for me. You and Lois don’t have to argue any more.”
Clark stared at Robin a moment before he reached down to lift the boy to sit on his lap. “Robin, Lois and I weren't arguing because we don't want to pay for it. We do. We like that school and think it's a good one. We want you to go there. I just didn't want Lois to take out all her savings to do it. I forgot that she and I are a team and we need to work together.”
“It doesn’t matter which school I go to. I told Lois I liked the public school. I can go there. I just don’t want you and Lois to argue about me. It makes me sad.”
Clark lifted his hand and smoothed Robin’s hair across his head. “I'm sorry we made you sad. I promise that, even though we may disagree in the future, we'll always care for you. We're learning how to be your parents, and we might make mistakes, but we do want to be your parents.”
Robin looked over at Martha and Jonathan, glanced at Clark, then back to his grandparents. “If they argue about me again, can I come live with you?”
Jonathan chuckled softly. This had to be the greatest little man alive. “Tell you what. How about your grandmother and I come stay close to you so if you have any problems, you can stay a day or two until it can be sorted out?”
“Mom? Dad?” Clark was staring at his parents.
“We were going to tell you over lunch that we’ve decided to sell the farm and move here to be close,” his father said with a smile.
“What?!”
“Clark, Robin’s our grandson and we wouldn’t get to see him very much all the way out in Kansas. Let us do this. You and Lois could use the help.” His mother’s expression was hopeful.
“You can’t sell the farm!” Clark protested.
“We can,” Jonathan told him. “We had an offer from Tim Murphy last year. He wanted to add our place to his ‘ranch’.” Jonathan emphasized the word with his fingers. “We weren’t interested then, but now…” He smiled at Robin.
“But…” Clark started.
“But what, honey?” Martha asked him. “Clark, we’re not getting any younger and we want to see Robin every day. We’ve missed the last seven years just like you.”
“I know, but…”
Lois had made her way into the kitchen with the others. She reached out and squeezed Clark’s shoulders. “I for one think it’s a terrific idea.”
Clark looked up at her. “Lois!”
“What? Clark, they want to do this and they don’t need your permission.”
“I know they don’t.”
Martha chose to focus on someone a little more important in this equation, so when his eyes filled with tears, she reached out to take his hands. “Robin, honey, what’s wrong?”
They other adults grew quiet to listen in.
“I… I…” He swiped a hand at the tears that had made a path down his cheeks. They really did want him! All of them! “You’re really moving here?… For me?”
“For you,” Martha told him softly. “And so we can help out your folks.”
“Would you like that, son?” Jonathan asked him.
“Could I see the farm once before you sell it?” He couldn't think of anything else to say. So many thoughts were rolling around inside his head all at once. How had he gotten so lucky?
“Of course you can,” the older man told him. “It’ll take us a little time to square things away.”
“Robin,” Martha began. “Why are you crying?”
“’Cause… ‘cause I feel kinda’ special.”
The older woman smiled at him brightly. “You *are* special. Very, very special.”
Robin looked around at Clark. “Clark, I don’t think I want to go back to the Sanders.”
“I’m glad.” He squeezed the boy’s sides just before the child slid from his lap.
“Martha?” He stood before her on trembling legs.
“Yes?”
“Would it be okay to ask for a hug?” Wide, hopeful, eyes shined brightly up at Martha.
Martha almost jerked the child off his feet to embrace him. He leaned back enough to look at her before laughing and moving over to hug Jonathan, foregoing permission in his excitement. But the older man welcomed him with open arms, holding him just as gently as Clark had done that morning. Did everyone in this family hug this good? When he’d had his fill, he settled against his grandfather’s chest so he could see Clark.
“My grandparents like me enough to sell their home and move…” He looked up at Jonathan. “How far is Kansas?”
“A long way. Nearly a thousand miles,” the man replied.
“Wow,” the child whispered. “I’m worth a thousand miles, five thousand bucks, a whole farm, and new baseball gear.” He’d ticked each price off on his fingers. “I’ll have to be a very good boy until I’m like… fifty!”
Jonathan pulled him closer to his chest as the adults dissolved into laughter. When they’d gotten themselves under control, Martha got up to get lunch on the table.
“Mom, Dad, are you sure about this?” Clark asked again.
“We’re sure,” his dad told him.
“But the farm… you’ve had it so long. How can you stand to leave it? And you said you’d never be happy in the city,” Clark reminded his dad.
“Son, we’ll miss the farm. But we plan to bring all our wonderful memories with us. Home is where family is. Here, with you and Lois and this little guy…” Jonathan squeezed the little body in his arms. “This is home. And as for living in the city, well, I never had a reason to be here before.”
Lois moved around to take the chair beside Clark. “I think it’s great. I’d kill to have my parents love me like that.”
Clark reached over to lay a hand on hers. “Honey…”
“It’s okay.” She offered him a smile to assure him she was fine. “Besides, now I’ll have parents who do.” Her eyes met Martha’s and at that moment Lois had never felt so loved.
“Is everything okay now?” Robin asked after a while.
“Everything is fantastic, kiddo!” Clark winked at him. “You can go to school close to the Planet *and* Lois and I will pay for it. No arguments about it at all. We promise.”
“But it’s okay to use my money,” the child told him.
“I think I’d like for you to use that money for yourself. Maybe put it in savings for college or..."
"Maybe buy yourself something special," Lois added. "Isn't there something you want?"
“I already have what I've always wanted.”
“You do? What is it?” Lois’ curiosity was too much. She just had to know.
“A family,” Robin whispered. When all of the adults looked as if they’d cry, he immediately said, “No crying! Sheez, we are *all* sissies!”Instead of crying, the adults burst into laughter.
