So... since it's my birthday and all, I thought I'd give you all a present. 
Okay, so I'm just hoping that you all won't notice that I'm two days late. 
I want to thank all my beta readers -- TEEEJ, Diane, Saskia, and Paul. 
Sara~~~~Part 19~~~~
Almost nine months now. The better part of a year had passed since Clark had left for New Krypton. Lois was in Clark’s old room in Smallville, *trying* to get some sleep. She’d become antsy over the past few weeks as she approached her due date. Lois had read all about the nesting syndrome of pregnant women in their last few weeks before giving birth. Some of her nervous energy was surely due to that as well as her anticipation of Kallie’s birth, but she knew that wasn’t the only cause.
Over the last few months, she’d come to accept the fact that Clark might not make it home for quite some time. She questioned H.G. Well’s supposed wisdom that taking the other Clark away had been the best course of action, but she’d convinced herself that everything would work out in the end. If, for some reason, it didn’t, she knew without a doubt that Wells would have come back in an instant. She only wondered now how, exactly, she and Clark were supposed to achieve their foretold destiny, especially considering what she’d had to do.
Something had occurred to her on the plane ride here, months ago. Clark was gone -- both of them -- and as much as she hated the idea, there had simply been no other way to explain Clark’s absence *again*. People *needed* to believe that she was carrying Superman’s child.
That had been her original plan, but in her haste to correct the mayhem she’d created in her life, she’d forgotten. She’d called Perry when she’d gotten to Smallville and told him to halt any plans of quelling the rumor and the gossip. Let it spread.
And it had.
Thankfully, no one knew where Lois Lane was submitting her op-ed pieces from. Given her supposed heated break-up with Clark, no one would ever guess that she was at his parents’ house. Of course, there was the added bonus that everyone -- all the tabloid reporters included – had left her alone. Only a few reporters had gone for the wounded fiancé angle and had called the Kents. Thankfully, they’d given up on that… Well, more like Martha had given them more than a piece of her mind and they’d stopped calling. So, now she had all the peace and quiet she could handle. More than she could handle. Too much time for thinking.
She frowned.
Though she didn’t have to worry about it now, Lois was more than concerned about Kallie. If she and Clark *couldn’t* find a way to put right what she’d done, everyone would know that Kallie was half Kryptonian. Superman’s love child. *Everyone* -- good and evil – would be after their daughter. She’d tried to think of ways to keep Kallie safe when the three of them finally went home to Metropolis. They could only hide out in Smallville for so long before they were discovered. She hadn’t been able to think of anything short of moving to a deserted island – which wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities when Clark returned – but that wasn’t realistic. She’d shared her concerns with Martha and Jonathan and they’d attempted to come up with solutions, but their brainstorming session had proved fruitless as well.
She needed Clark. Plain and simple. Their minds worked far better together than separately. So, while it killed her to sit and do nothing but busy work for Perry, she’d decided to wait until Clark came home to figure things out.
Aside from her fears, her time in Smallville had been good for her. Being away from all the stress of pretense was freeing. More so, it helped that Martha and Jonathan were here. Their constant support was immeasurably comforting. But, at the same time, she was missing a part of herself.
Before she’d met Clark, Lois had been obsessed about working. Focused, she’d called it then. She’d thought if she pushed herself to be the best, become the best, she could prove to everyone that she *was* someone. She’d done that, established herself as one of the top reporters in the country -- a fact that made her proud, made her feel valid.
To an extent.
She’d always felt like she was missing something and she’d refused to believe that it was a man. She didn’t need a man to complete her. Her job -- her career – had been enough to sustain her. Being a reporter was who she was.
Until she’d met Clark and had fallen in love with him. Not that she was less of a person without him, but she was *more* of a person with him. She *had* needed a man, but not just any man. Clark. She didn’t need him to validate her, but he had become a part of her, she knew now, she couldn’t live without.
So now, with Clark gone, and with her job in such upheaval, she was lost and alone. She had nothing by which to define herself, and she wasn’t sure just who she was anymore.
Just Lois, she supposed.
She’d learned to live with that.
Over the past few months, she’d found a different Lois. One who’d actually learned to sleep in the dead silence of the countryside. One who’d learned to milk a cow, though, truth be told, she didn’t really care to repeat that experience. One who’d learned just how hard it was to get around with a huge belly. (Those women she’d always rolled her eyes at *weren’t* really playing it up for sympathy). She’d even learned a few things in the kitchen. She still couldn’t cook to save her life, but at least now she knew the ingredients that went into Clark’s favorite cookies.
Even with her newfound skills and sense of self, she still missed Clark terribly. And even though she’d accepted the fact that he might not make it home in time for Kallie's birth, she still wished for it. Her yearning was more than just her desire to have him experience the miracle, she was scared. That was one thing that she *hadn’t* shared with Martha and Jonathan.
Was she going to be a good mother?
She *couldn’t* express her self-doubt to them – the picture perfect parents. Oh, she knew they’d shush her and tell her not to talk nonsense, that of course she’d be a great mom, but Lois knew that would do little to allay her fears. No one could do that quite like Clark could. And in this situation, though she knew she would get the very same reassurances from Clark as from his parents, what would really encourage her, was the fact that Clark would be with her every step of the way. She knew, without a doubt, that Clark would be a terrific father and simply having him by her side would bolster her self-confidence.
If he were here.
***
THREE WEEKS LATER…
Though it had been a painful wait, Clark sent a silent thank you to Zara and Ching for insisting he let his body re-acclimate to Earth so that he would have his powers. It had been torture hovering in the cloaked spaceship above the city. Zara and Ching had assured him that he’d be better off waiting until his powers returned before going home. Given everything that had happened on New Krypton, they assured him he’d be more than a little frustrated without his powers back on Earth. Without them, he’d be impotent in a world in which he knew few weaknesses. Their arguments made sense and he’d reluctantly agreed, spending his days in an atrium filled with comforting yellow sunlight. He’d done his best to focus on the yellow sun, trying to burn out the dark memory of the red sun on New Krypton. Too red. Like blood.
No. He hadn’t thought about anything that had happened on New Krypton. Not much, anyway. Needless to say, he’d been more than relieved to find himself floating above his resting spot after three days in the sun.
And now, here he was, hanging high in the sky above his apartment, willing Zara and Ching and his whole experience to fade away. He stared down at the building, half expecting it to be empty, but it seemed to be just as he'd left it -- albeit with quite a bit more dust. A quick X-ray scan assured him that, under the dust, all of his stuff was still there. He extended his hearing, but only silence met his ears. He hadn’t really expected anything, but there had been that small glimmer of hope that she would have been there, waiting for him. She was probably at her apartment, in bed, sleeping. It was late, after all.
He went to his bedroom to change his clothes. Never had jeans and a t-shirt felt so good. He hesitated at the clothes hamper, the black spandex balled tightly in his fist, and decided on the trash instead. The suit was too painful a reminder of his time on New Krypton. Too many days of fighting, too many nights of horror. Too much time without Lois. If he never saw that black suit again, it would be fine with him. For extra measure, he stared at the material until it ignited. He watched the flames in fascination as they licked the sides of the metal trash bin, watching them dance as if in celebration. He wished he felt half as joyful as the fire seemed to be. Clark sighed and extinguished the smoldering garment with his breath. The costume lay at the bottom -- cold, dark and unrecognizable.
Clark closed his eyes and his mind quickly filled with images of fire, as if the one he’d just put out had been burned into his memory. But it wasn’t that fire, it was an explosion of memories from months past. Months filled with death. Destruction. Terror. He took a deep breath, just as he’d done for the last nine months when things had gotten too much to bear, and he thought of Lois. He would have never survived without her. Now that he was *finally* back, he was dying to see her, to hold her again, but he was scared. He’d been gone almost a year. So many things could have happened in that time. So many things could have changed. He just didn’t know.
He shook himself mentally. He would never know if he didn’t move. He flew to Lois’ apartment, at super speed so no one would see him in his street clothes. He came to a stop and hovered high above her building. He wasn’t sure what to say or how to approach her. With a knot of apprehension twisting in his stomach, he looked down to get a glimpse of her, and his heart caught in his throat. She wasn’t there.
It was four in the morning and she wasn’t home. In fact, he thought as he scanned the apartment more thoroughly, it didn’t look like she’d been here for quite some time. She’d moved? No. Her stuff was still there, but covered, packed up, like she’d been living somewhere else -- with *someone* else -- until her lease was up. Had she given up on him and found someone else?
No. Lois wouldn’t do that.
Would she?
She said she’d wait for him, always. No matter how unfair and possibly unrealistic that had seemed to him at the time, he hadn't thought she would. He refused to believe that she had.
Think, Clark.
Oh. My. God. What if something had happened to her? What if she’d been killed and her parents -- or Perry -- hadn’t had the heart to clear out her apartment? He gasped for breath. If something had happened to Lois and he hadn’t been there for her, he’d never be able to forgive himself. He’d always just assumed that Lois would be here for him when he came back, waiting with open arms. He’d never guessed just how wrong he could have been.
His parents. They would know where she was, what had happened to her.
He hoped.
He headed towards Smallville with an anxious heart. Minutes later, he landed softly on the porch of his childhood home. Out on the horizon, the moon cast an eerie glow over the cornfields. He’d forgotten how much he’d missed the yellow sun rising over the Kansas plains and he wished he could see it now. He let out a heavy sigh and turned towards the door. It was still a bit early, even for his parents; he’d have to wake them. He was sure they wouldn’t mind, but still --
He froze.
His heart stopped.
There, in the living room, through the picture window… “Lois…” He barely heard himself. There she was on the couch, curled up so peacefully, but next to her…a bassinet. A baby.
He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. He watched her open her eyes as if she had sensed him. It wasn’t a dream. He could hear her heartbeat accelerate when she saw him. She called out his name and suddenly, the force that had paralyzed him lifted. He was inside in an instant.
***
Lois heard the screen door fall shut. Though still a bit surreal, the sound was more logical than what she’d just imagined. *He* had called her name, and then she’d seen him through the picture window -- like a statue, only a rendering of his likeness, a figment of her imagination. Then she’d whispered his name and the statue moved. Suddenly, he was there, standing in the center of the room like a mirage. Lois got to her feet slowly, her breathing shallow.
Clark. Her throat was tight and for a moment she didn’t want to move any closer, just in case he *was* a mirage. “Is it...are you...Oh, God, please tell me I’m not dreaming.”
“Lois.”
His voice and the emotion behind it were unmistakable. Her heart flooded with relief and she rushed towards him.
“Oh, Clark!” She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, afraid that if she let go, he would disappear. It wasn’t until he cupped her cheek and leaned down to kiss her that she knew that he was *her* Clark. And it wasn’t until his lips touched hers that she knew for certain that he was real. The magic, the emotion, the love -- it was all there. God, how she’d missed the feel of his lips on hers, the feel of his body against hers, his arms around her. She could stay like this forever.
A newly familiar sound tickled her senses as he ended the kiss. Kallie was awake. She smiled up at Clark and softly broke their embrace. “Clark,” she headed towards the bassinet. “There’s someone I’d like you to meet.” She wiped the tears from her face and leaned down to pick up their baby. “Clark, this is your daughter, Kallie.”
He looked stunned, immobilized by the power of the moment. “Wh - when? How?” He stammered, staring at Kallie with awe.
"I think you know the answer to both." She smiled at him knowingly.
He blinked finally and raised his eyes to hers. She’d never seen Clark cry before, but as he reached out and took his daughter into his arms for the first time, she saw tears forming in his eyes. His mouth opened then closed again. He was speechless.
She smiled at them. Her soulmate, her baby, her family.
Family. The word took on a whole new meaning now. “So,” she wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “I guess we figured out that compatibility thing after all.”
“Oh, Lois!” he choked. He held out his free arm and she went to him, sliding her arm around his waist. She brought a hand up to stroke Kallie’s soft dark hair and looked up at Clark.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Lois.” He kissed her tenderly. “I love you, too.”
tbc…
