Thanks as always to Alisha, Beth, Nancy, CarolynK.
BTW - I play fast and loose with release dates around here...
Last time:
Clark
Lois did as she was told and a minute later the doctor said she was measuring half a week bigger than she should be, but that was in keeping with the ultrasound. She reiterated that it was nothing to be concerned about.
A few minutes of chit chat after that, Lois hopped down from the table and slid her tennis shoes back on.
Dr. McConnell gave her a hug. "Have a safe trip and I'll see you in a month."
"Thanks." Lois headed out into the hall.
I started to follow her, but a hand on my arm stopped me.
I found myself looking down into the brown eyes of the doctor.
"I know this isn't easy, Clark. Becoming a parent so unexpectedly and all, but please... Take care of her."
Something in her tone made me wonder if Lois, feeling comfortable with the doctor-patient confidentiality thing, had told her everything.
"I will," I promised. "I'll take care of her."
*~*42*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
Clark sighed. "I don't suppose your Jeep plays MP3s."
I looked up from where I was working on my laptop. "No. Why?"
"I can only fit like twelve songs on a CD. We're going to be on the road for twenty, twenty-one hours. I can fit like 130, 140 songs on a CD if they're mp3s."
"You want to make a CD with 130 songs on it?" I raised a brow at him.
"Well, not necessarily, but more than twelve would be nice so I don't have to change it all the time."
I shook my head. "It's my car. What makes you think you get to pick the music anyway?"
"Are you planning on driving the whole way to Kansas?"
I bit my lip. "Ah, actually, I don't really do too well driving long distances. I mean, Bremerton was one thing, but halfway to Kansas... probably not."
He leaned on one elbow and grinned at me. "Driver picks the music."
I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Do you still need 130 songs?"
"No, but more than twelve would be nice," he repeated.
I set the laptop down and reached into the desk drawer. "Here," I said tossing him something.
"What's this?" he asked, picking up the small, white object.
"My old iPod. I got a new one for Christmas. I have an adapter so it'll play in the tape deck in the Jeep. You can load a bunch of your music on there and make all the playlists you want."
"Thanks." He sounded like he meant it. "Now I just have to figure out how to do that. An MP3 player was never real high on my 'to buy' list – I only have a new laptop because it was a graduation present from my folks."
I laughed and tossed him the USB cable. "You'll need that and your laptop. Do you know how to at least load your CDs onto it?"
He nodded. "That I can do."
"That's all you really need to know. It's pretty easy." I held my hand out for it. "I haven't erased any of mine. Do you want me to?"
He shook his head. "Nah. Is there still room?"
"Half full."
"Well, not all of your music is bad."
"Not *all* of your music is bad either," I tossed back as I pulled my new – black – iPod out of my backpack. "Mind if I upload some of it?"
He shook his head. "Not at all." He walked to the media/bookcase on top of the desk and pulled his CDs off, tossing them all on the bed. He sat on the opposite corner from me. "NCIS is about to start, isn't it?"
I nodded and turned it on, pausing it.
"Aren't we going to watch it?"
"Wait twenty minutes and we won't have to sit through commercials."
"Gotcha."
I started picking through the CDs in the middle of the bed. "Eclectic." He had everything from Brad Paisley and Faith Hill to big band swing music and jazz to Green Day, the Beatles, 3 Doors Down, REM and just about everything else except Gangsta Rap.
"I like all kinds of music." He held out his hand. "Give me one?"
I grabbed one. "Randy Travis? Really?"
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with Randy Travis," Clark pointed out. He flipped the case over and read the list of songs. I could see his face fall slightly, but he covered it well. He tossed the case onto the love seat. "Something else."
I handed him a CD from a group I didn't recognize.
"Ah, big band. Swing music. That'll keep us awake in Ohio."
He was quiet as we both loaded music onto our computers and I paused NCIS long enough to explain to him how to make playlists and transfer them. The episode was pretty gross, but I managed to stay out of the bathroom.
"Here we go. Theme song for the road." He clicked on his computer a couple of times and Rascal Flatts' 'Life is a Highway' started playing.
I rolled my eyes. "I'm taking my ear plugs."
He grinned. "How about this one?" 'Chattahoochee' was next.
"No."
"This one?"
I sighed as 'Achy, Breaky Heart' filled the room. "No. I'm going to wear my ear plugs the whole way to Kansas."
He just grinned at me. "How about... this one?"
'He Didn't Have to Be' cut off the smart aleck remark I was going to make about 'Friends in Low Places' or 'How Do Ya Like Me Now' or whatever other song I'd thought he was going to pick. "I like that one. No ear plugs necessary for Brad Paisley."
"Good. He's one of my favorites."
"Mine, too," I told him, amazed that we'd managed to find a little bit of common ground.
He looked like he was going to say something as the song played on, but he just sighed instead. Finally, he spoke. "Are you packed?"
I nodded. "Yep – bag's over there."
He stood but hesitated. "Do you want to call Lana to have her bring her stuff over or do you want me to?"
I wanted to cry. I really hadn't thought that she'd accept the offer but she had. I wondered if there was something sinister behind it, but I didn't have much choice at the moment.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
This was going to be a nightmare.
I loved Lana, but I was married to Lois and I had promised to protect her.
And I was getting ready to spend a total of four of the next ten days in the car with the two of them. I sighed. I couldn't have imagined this when I'd married Lois, but at the same time I knew I'd done the right thing, no matter how hard the next week was going to be.
Lois interrupted my thoughts. "Do we really need to pack tonight? I have a suitcase that can go tonight. The rest of it – my pillow, blanket, laptop, backpack, bathroom stuff – those can't go until tomorrow anyway."
She had a point. "Well, I can get most of it packed in the morning before class," I conceded. "Though it would help if I had as much of Lana's stuff as possible by then so there's less rearranging to do once we pick her up," I told her. "We can't load the cooler until right before we leave, so we'll have to come back here anyway and can pick up laptops and stuff then."
"Do we even have food to snack on?"
I sighed and finally decided to send Lana an email rather than calling her. I was fairly certain she'd be online. "There. Email sent to her so neither one of us have to call her." She nodded. "I told her a couple hours because she probably isn't packed yet. Once I hear back, we can go hit the store and then stop and pick her stuff up." My 'new message' box flashed. "She'll be downstairs in two hours." I sighed and reached for my shoes. "Ready?"
She nodded and reached for her purse. "Let's go."
I grabbed our suitcases. "May as well take the two of these now – less to deal with in the morning."
She nodded again and locked the door behind us.
Twenty minutes later we were pushing a cart through CostMart. We picked up some snack cakes for me and some crackers for her. We got other favorite snacks and I picked up a couple things I knew Lana would want.
"Do you think we should get drinks or stop and get them at convenience stores?" Lois asked. "Those are usually pretty cheap."
"Do they fit in your cup holders?" Not all of them would I was sure.
"Good point. Get some and when we happen to be stopped anyway, if we want something cheaper...?"
"Sounds like a good plan to me." I looked at the cart. "Anything else you want? New book? CD? Movie to watch on the laptop?"
She shook her head. "I downloaded some TIVO to the laptop and have some DVDs packed in my bag. I've got an outlet in the Jeep and a power adapter, too so that's not a big deal. I've actually got a car adapter for my laptop, too. And I, uh, downloaded a couple stories from the web I've been wanting to read," she said, not looking at me as she spoke.
"Ah. The NCIS Tony and Abby stories you were reading?"
She shrugged, but turned eight shades of red.
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. I read a couple of them. They weren't bad."
"Well, I finally found a couple decent authors who've actually finished a few stories. A bunch of the first ones I found were posted in really short segments by people who had no clue about sentence structure or spell check, much less how to develop a plot or finish a story. This one lady – she goes by Beth, but I have no idea if that's her real name or not – has written a couple that looked good and got good reviews. Another one named Bananna, Great Defender Of All That Is Daniel – whatever that means – has, too, but hers are more Tony and Ziva stories."
"Ah."
She changed the subject. "Did your boss give you a hard time about taking the week off?"
I shook my head. "Nah. I told him about it when he hired me, that I might be going home for Break and he said it would be fine." I paused. "I also told him I'd be staying over the summer, so he was more willing to go ahead and hire me than he would have been if I wasn't going to be in town after the semester ends." I pushed the cart down another aisle. "I *did* meet Perry White today, though."
She stopped and stared at me. "You did not."
"I did."
"And?"
I shrugged. "And what?"
"Tell me all. He's my hero."
"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. It shouldn't have surprised me, but she *did* want to be a reporter so it made sense.
"Give, Kent."
"Not much to tell. I finished the marketing floor early and Skip asked for help so I took a bunch of his mail and ended up in the bull pen. I dropped off mail for Norcross and Judd, but they weren't there and then I knocked on his door. He told me to come in, I handed him the mail. He said 'thanks, kid' and I left. That's it."
"Exciting," she said rolling her eyes as she grabbed a can of Pringles.
"Told you."
"Still," she sighed. "You're two steps ahead of me."
I leaned on the cart and turned to look at her. "It'll be okay. You'll make it. You'll be there before too long. We'll work together. We'll be the next Norcross and Judd," I told her with a grin.
She stared at me for a long minute before turning away. I thought I saw tears in her eyes but I couldn't imagine why.
Before long, we'd checked out and stuck the bags in the back of the truck. When we went somewhere together – which wasn't often – and Lois didn't want to drive, we took the truck. When she did, we took the Jeep.
We drove in silence to campus. I could see Lana struggling to get out of the front door with her suitcase as we pulled up. "Do you mind if I help her?" I asked hesitantly.
She shook her head. "No. Go ahead."
I climbed out and headed to the door. "Let me get it," I said, reaching for the bag.
She paused, but then nodded. My hand brushed hers and the spark was still there. I made myself keep moving and turned to go back to the truck. I hoisted the bag easily into the back.
"Are we taking the truck?" Lana asked me.
"No, but Lois didn’t feel like driving tonight so we took the truck to the store." I reached for the bag she had in her other hand.
"That's my laptop. I don't really want to lug it around tomorrow and we're leaving right after our eleven o'clock classes, right?"
I hesitated. "Yeah. We'll have to go back to the apartment to get the laptops and cooler and stuff, so we can keep it there for you. We've got hotel reservations just over the Indiana border tomorrow night so we're hoping to be on the road no later than 12:30 or so."
She had her arms crossed in front of her. "Do you want to pick me up or me to meet you there?"
I thought about it for a minute. "It's a lot easier to get on the freeway from there, but it's up to you."
"I'll meet you over there then."
I nodded. "Apartment 5A. If you take the elevator, it's all the way down on the end on the right."
She shook her head slightly. "I think I'll probably just meet you downstairs."
"Okay."
"See you tomorrow." She paused, as though she was going to say something else, but she didn't and then turned and walked away.
There was a hole in my heart as I watched her go through the door and wait for the elevator. Before I realized I was doing it, I tuned my hearing in and heard her heartbeat and her tears.
I sighed and climbed back in the truck. Lois was in the middle, but I figured that was just for show and sure enough, as soon as we were out of sight, she moved.
"She's going to meet us here," I told her as I pulled the truck into a parking spot. "Traffic at Weller is bound to be worse than here with everyone leaving for Break."
She nodded. "That's probably the fastest way out of here."
We climbed out of the truck and I grabbed some bags to take straight to the Jeep. "Well, you know your way around Metropolis better than I do. Do you want to drive until we hit the outskirts?"
"If you don't want to." She didn't look at me as she unlocked the Jeep and I put the bags in. She locked it back and headed towards the apartment building.
I stared after her for a long minute, looking through the wall as she waited for the elevator. I saw her swipe at her cheeks. So that was why she'd left me with the rest of it – she didn't want me to see her cry. I didn't mind taking the other stuff inside, not really, but I wasn't sure what I could do to make any of it better. For either of them. For me.
The only thing I knew for sure was that I was doing what I had to do to protect all of us.
*****
TBC
