I'm posting this to put more pressure on myself <g>. See if you can spot the harbinger of the actual story plot and feel free to harrass me about it if you want to. I plan to post this after I finish "Twins".
Nan
Disclaimer: The familiar characters and settings in this story are not mine. They belong to DC Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions and whoever else may have any legal right to claim them, nor am I profiting by their use. Any new characters, settings, and the story, itself, belong to me.
Introduction: This story is part of the Home series and will make more sense to anyone who has not read the previous stories if you read the short story, "Home". Quickly summarized, it is a Soulmates-type of story, wherein Lori Lyons is the next incarnation of Lois Lane at the end of the 21st Century.
**********
Home V: Obsession
By Nan Smith <hachiban@earthlink.net>
The Valentine Festival in Metropolis's Old Town was in full swing. Lori Lyons looked appreciatively up and down the street, decorated in cotton-candy pink, candy-apple red and lacy white. It was funny to think that when her husband had been a young man, Valentine's Day had been a minor holiday. These days it was an important event that was celebrated for a week prior to the actual Day. Clark had told her the real history behind that, of course -- something that wasn't actually covered except as a three-sentence paragraph in the history books. The governments of the world hadn't wanted it known, for fear of panic, he'd told her, and had suppressed the information. It had been near the end of the Decade of Unrest when the birth rate of the planet had dropped drastically, due to the work of a deranged New Reich scientist who had managed to sterilize three-quarters of the women on Earth. The leaders of many nations had gone to great lengths to promote an increase in the birth rate, which had resulted in a drastic realignment of many of the marriage customs of humanity, and, among other things, included elevating Valentine's Day to the status of a major holiday. The chaos of those days was now a footnote in the history books but the importance of the holiday remained, though few actually knew why.
Clark Kent escorted her into the little bistro and approached the reservations desk.
The woman behind the desk was a willowy blond, Lori saw, dressed attractively in a low-cut dress of Valentine red that showed off her figure to best advantage. She looked Clark directly in the eyes, which, Lori thought, was a distinct improvement over the way many women eyed her handsome husband. She had no doubts whatsoever about his faithfulness to her, but she didn't really enjoy it when some female stood there ogling him and practically drooling while Lori was standing right next to him.
"Yes sir," she said briskly before he spoke. "Do you have a reservation?"
"Yes," Clark said. "Table for two. Clark and Lori Kent, for eight o'clock."
She glanced at her computer readout. "Yes, Mr. Kent. Your table will be ready momentarily. Have a seat and you'll be called."
"Thank you," Clark said.
Lori glanced around appreciatively as he led her into the seating area. "This is nice, Clark."
He smiled down at her. "It's designed with a late Twentieth Century theme," he agreed. "There are a few inaccuracies, but they're pretty minor." He indicated the single seat available. "Sit down, honey. Would you like something to drink? They serve some really good non-alcoholic cocktails here."
"Sure. Why don't you get me my usual," she said.
"Be right back." He made his way to the old-fashioned bar and she saw him speaking to the bartender.
She sat back in the padded chair, glancing down at herself and feeling slightly self-conscious. This evening, when Clark had announced that he was taking her out for a Valentine's dinner, she had discovered that the dress clothing that she had chosen was too tight around the middle, and every other dressy outfit in her possession had the same defect. Several of her in-laws had presented her with maternity clothing, since their announcement of the upcoming event, and she had finally decided that the dinner dress given to her by Marilyn Olsen would be suitable. It was a beautiful dress, but since it was unquestionably designed for a lady in her condition, it advertised to the world that she and Clark were now expectant parents. She hoped she didn't run into anyone from the Daily Planet, since they hadn't made the official announcement at their place of work yet. So far she had gotten by at the office by wearing loose clothing that concealed the slight thickening of her waistline, but it was clear that she was not going to be able to hide her incipient motherhood much longer.
Clark's reaction hadn't surprised her for an instant, however. He had taken one long look and produced a wolf whistle, and hadn't been able to stop smiling since.
"Here you go." Clark was standing beside her when she glanced up, holding a pair of drinks in his hands. Hers was an exotic tropical concoction, bristling with colorful fruit. His was a more standard Scotch on the rocks, which he sipped with slow appreciation. Lori smiled. Her husband liked the taste, which was why he frequently chose the drink. The alcohol, of course, had no effect on Superman.
"Hey, Clark!" The cheerful voice was that of Barry Marston, the business editor in their office. Lori sighed. It looked as if Murphy's Law was operating in fine form tonight.
Clark lifted a hand and Barry spoke to his attractive female companion, then the two of them crossed the waiting area to Lori and Clark. Lori folded her hands across her middle and tried to be inconspicuous.
"Hi, Barry." Clark greeted his coworker cheerfully. "Out for a Valentine dinner?"
"Yep," Barry said. "This is a friend of mine, Deirdre Monitor. Dee, I'd like to introduce you to the Planet's star team of investigative reporters. This is Clark Kent."
Clark extended a hand. "Pleased to meet you."
Deirdre smiled and took his hand. Lori caught the barest glance as she gave Clark a quick once-over. Oh well, it wasn't surprising, she thought in resignation. Clark was definitely worth looking at.
"And the lovely lady sitting next to him is his wife and partner, Lori Lyons," Barry concluded. He glanced down at Lori with a smile, and then took a second look. Lori took Deirdre's hand to acknowledge the introduction, aware that their secret was out.
Barry's eyebrows went up. "So, Clark; I see you and Lori have been keeping the office in the dark."
Lori felt her face burning. Clark smiled with just a hint of pride. "We were planning on making the announcement in a couple of weeks."
Deirdre smiled at Lori. "Congratulations. When is the baby due?"
"The first week in July," Clark said.
"Boy or girl?" Deirdre asked.
"Don't know," Clark said. "Lori wanted it to be a surprise."
Barry grinned. "Don't blame you. This is great. There's been a pool going for months about when you two were going to start a family. Looks like I won."
Lori couldn't help laughing. "Why does everyone hear about these things but me?"
Clark laughed too. "Us, honey. I didn't know about it either." He turned back to Barry. "Do you mind not mentioning this until we make the announcement? It won't be more than a few days."
Barry grinned. "Not a problem," he said. "I won't breathe a word."
"Kent, party of two," a voice announced. "Your table is ready."
"Wups, that's us," Clark said. He gave Lori a hand up. "See you later, Barry. It was nice meeting you, Ms. Monitor."
"It was nice meeting *you*," Deirdre said. "Have a nice dinner."
**********
"It was a wonderful evening, Clark," Lori said, as they touched down on the carpet of their living room. Clark floated upward to close the skylight again and dropped beside her. "You pamper me."
He grinned, beginning to peel off her coat. "I like pampering you. And the evening isn't over yet. This *is* a Valentine's Day celebration, you know."
"Just what I was thinking," Lori said. Her hand gravitated to the top button of his jacket. "In a few months things will be different. We won't be able to just do this kind of thing whenever we feel like it. I want to make the most of our time until then."
He leaned forward to kiss her. "I agree. You're not regretting that we're starting our family so early, are you?"
"Of course not," Lori said. "Still, it's going to be a big change. It will take a little getting used to, but --" She rested her hand over her abdomen. "I *want* to have your little boy or girl, Clark. I just can't believe sometimes that I've been so lucky. You won't think I'm ugly when I get farther along, will you? Some of the guys I used to know never wanted to have kids because they couldn't stand the way women looked when they were pregnant."
He leaned down and cut off the rest of what she might have been going to say with a thorough kiss. "Not on your life, sweetheart. Just the thought of you with my baby growing there ..." He put his hand over hers. "It's a real turn on. I think it makes you sexier than ever, and you weren't exactly a slouch in that department before. It's all I can do to keep my hands off you when we're in public."
Lori discovered that somewhere between the beginning of his sentence and the end they had made the transition to the bedroom, and from clothed to unclothed, and giggled breathlessly before his mouth descended on hers again. There were definite advantages to being married to Superman, she thought. But then, she'd been of that opinion for some time.
**********
Lori finished her article just under the deadline, sent it on to John Olsen for editing and leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms above her head. Her neck and shoulders were stiff and her head was throbbing in time to her heartbeat. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, willing the pain to abate.
It was late afternoon and she was definitely looking forward to going home and catching a nap. She would never admit it to Clark, but besides the fact that she seemed to be unable to pass a deli or a candy machine without stopping to buy some form of edible, she was also tired most of the time.
Rhonda Klein, besides being a family practitioner, also maintained a small, private obstetrical practice, which consisted of herself and three other members of the Kent clan, for a select group of clients: the members of the Superman family. She had adopted Lori as her own personal patient at Clark's request, and Lori had become much better acquainted with Clark's granddaughter as a result. Rhonda had explained to her that super-babies required extra nutrients and a lot of energy from their mother. This wasn't a problem when the mother in question was one of those with the super powers, but when, like Lori, the mother had no super powers, it was necessary for her to eat a great deal more than would be recommended for the mother of a non-super baby. It was also necessary that she rest a good deal, and take extra vitamins for the developing fetus. Her grandfather, Bernard Klein, had determined these facts when Clark and Lois had first come to him to ask for help with Lois's pregnancy, and had developed the routine that was now standard for the mothers of future super-powered children.
Lori did her best to follow the guidelines but there were times, like today, when the demands of her job were intense. She had attended a political fundraiser for Metropolis's local congressman who was now making a run for the Senate, and had scheduled an appointment for a personal interview on the following day. Then she had reported on an emergency at one of the local power plants, which had shut down, leaving over a million people without power. Then she had raced to a location in a section of Metropolis not far from the apartment that she had rented for the first few months that she had been employed at the Daily Planet. A resident had discovered the body of a woman barely half a block from the Hobs Health and Fitness Center where Lori and Clark had just enrolled in the Expectant Parents Fitness Class. Following that, she had hardly had time to send her report in to the rewrite desk when there had been a police chase involving the occupants of a stolen aircar who had refused to surrender. When the car had been brought down in the bay by a nullifier in the hands of the police, it turned out that the fugitive was a child abductor and his girlfriend, whose latest victim was locked in the trunk of the car. The two-year-old had nearly drowned before the SWAT team managed to take the felons into custody and search the car for the missing child.
Superman had been involved in a massive search and rescue operation in the Sierra Nevada and had been unable to help her, so Lori had done the job for both of them, but now the stress of the day descended on her full force. The terror of the little boy tore at her, and although he had been unharmed in the end, her own incipient motherhood gave her a more personal view of the incident than she had ever had before. By the time she had returned to the Daily Planet she had developed a throbbing headache. She had had plenty of those recently. Rhonda had told her they were due to stress and fatigue, and to give herself more rest and recuperation time, but that was going to have to come later.
A hand set a cup of coffee -- light on the caffeine, heavy on the chocolate -- down on her desk. She glanced up to see her editor gazing at her with concern. "Are you all right, Lori?"
She nodded and then regretted it as the throbbing in her temples increased. John Olsen eyed her closely. "No you're not. You're off for the day. Now."
She pinched the bridge of her nose again and squinted up at him through the sparks that seemed to be shooting through her range of vision. "Did anyone ever tell you how much like Clark you are?" she mumbled.
"Well, that's not surprising, considering," he said. "In my office. There's a very comfortable couch in there and you can take advantage of it for a while. March."
When her boss spoke like that, Lori knew better than to argue. She got carefully to her feet, feeling as if her head was going to explode, and made her way toward the Editor's Office, aware of the fact that several persons were giving her odd looks. Andrea Waltham took a couple of steps toward her.
"Are you all right, Lori?" The society columnist sounded uncharacteristically concerned. It wasn't surprising. Up until the last couple of months, Lori had never complained about anything, including a roughing up by a pair of muggers on the slidewalk.
"Migraine," John Olsen said, briefly, answering for her.
Andrea made a face. "Ooh."
John was right. The couch looked incredibly inviting. Lori settled carefully down on it and gave a faint sigh of relief. She was barely aware of John leaving his office and closing the door behind him.
"Lori?" Her husband's voice woke her some time later. She blinked up into his concerned face, thankfully aware of the fact that the blinding headache was gone.
"Hi," she murmured. "Did you find him?"
"Huh?"
"The hiker."
"Oh, yeah. He'd holed up in a cave and was fine. Are you?"
"Yeah." She sat up, rubbing her eyes. "I guess I was tired."
"John said you had a bad headache."
She shrugged. "Yeah. I'm okay, Clark. I probably need to get more rest, like Rhonda said."
"Hmm." He didn't look convinced, but he didn't press the subject. "I think the time has come."
"Time for what?"
"For the announcement." He gave her a hand up from the couch. "Do you want to make it public, or just start mentioning it?"
"I'd rather not make a big fuss."
He nodded. "Why am I not surprised? Low key seems to be your watchword. Okay, but from now on it's official. Ready to go home?"
"I guess so," she said, "since I'm not going to be allowed to do anything else, anyway."
"You finished your articles, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Then there isn't anything else to do. Let's go."
"Did you finish your piece on the rescue operation?"
"All done." He smiled at her. "Taking care of yourself now doesn't mean you're not as good a reporter as you always were, honey. It just means you have to be a little easier on yourself in the immediate future. You have a healthy baby to grow. That's at least as important as getting a story."
"I guess you're right. I'm sorry, Clark."
He put an arm around her. "You really don't need to prove anything, you know. Everybody knows the kind of investigative journalist you are."
"My mother doesn't," Lori muttered.
Clark frowned. "When did you talk to her last?"
"Yesterday." Lori ducked her head. "She thinks I'm going to let my professional credentials slide because of the baby. There was some friend of hers who had to take extended medical leave until her baby was born because of a threatened miscarriage. I guess I wanted to show I could still do the job as well as ever."
"Hmm." Clark didn't answer but there was a slight frown on his face. "Look, honey, your job is in no danger, but if you aren't careful you could hurt yourself. You're pregnant with a half-Kryptonian baby, and you need to cut yourself some slack. Your mom doesn't understand the unusual circumstances here. I'm sure she wouldn't want you to have complications because you were trying to prove a point. Even Rhonda took things a little easier while Oliver was on the way."
"I know. I'm sorry, Clark."
He hugged her. "No, I am. I should have been here to help."
She shook her head. "You were where you needed to be. I'll try not to let Mom's hangups affect me after this. I know better; I just wasn't thinking."
They were in the elevator when Lori's wrist talker beeped. She lifted it to her lips. "Lori Lyons."
"Lori?" her mother's voice said.
"Hi, Mom."
"Your father and I wanted to let you know that we're going to be in Metropolis for four days, starting tomorrow. Your father has a conference to attend, and we're celebrating our anniversary during Metropolis's Valentine Festival."
She cast a despairing look at her husband. "Will you be staying with us?"
Rob Lyons's voice chimed in, "No, we're staying at the Lexor, but we'd like to see you while we're in town."
"I'm sure we can arrange that," Clark said. "Lori and I will be working all the rest of the week, but we can meet for lunch or dinner. Would you like us to pick you up at the shuttleport?"
"No, there's a car reserved for us," Rob said. "We'll be in tonight at around twelve, so it would be a little late for you to meet us."
"Give us a call when you get here," Lori said.
"We will," Mariann said. "I'd like to see your place of work while we're there, Lori. I've never seen the headquarters of the Daily Planet before."
"No problem," Clark said. "I'll tell John we'll be bringing you by."
When her parents had signed off, Lori leaned back against the elevator wall. "Oh, this is just great."
**********
tbc after I finish "Twins".
