From Part 1 ....
To Clark’s enormous relief, Lois smiled. She leant up and kissed him, flush on his mouth. “I thought you were going to be less than a minute,” she said.
“You’re OK?” he asked cautiously. “You’ll still be here when I get back?”
She laughed. “Of course I’ll still be here.” She kissed him again. “I was a little thrown when I thought you were serious about adopting a child and hadn’t told me. Now I realise it was nothing more than a misunderstanding.”
He wasn’t sure it could be this easy. “You’re sure you’re OK?”
“Clark,” she said. “You promised me there would be no secrets between us. I asked, you answered, no problems.”
Clark took his other hand out of his pocket and clutched both of her shoulders. “I’m sorry about what it looked like,” he said. “Thank you for not jumping to too many conclusions before hearing my explanation.”
“Thank you for answering me honestly.” They shared a smile and Lois’s fist thudded gently into his chest. “You now have less than half a minute.”
Part 2
Fifteen minutes later, Lois and Clark landed on a small island, one of an uninhabited cluster stranded in the Pacific Ocean. Clark had been silent for most of their flight and she’d sensed an unfamiliar tension as he’d held her. Lois wondered if he was still pondering the possible ramifications of the call from Honduras.
The sun was high in the sky and the sand was hot underfoot. Lois surveyed the island, enchanted. It was a pristine gift of nature – clear, aqua-blue water encircling the white sand, with three statuesque palm trees rising in an irregular triangle.
But spectacular though it was, it was the human handiwork – Clark’s elaborate preparations - that wooed her attention and pushed the wad of emotion into her throat.
To her right, a huge, brightly coloured beach towel hung between two of the trees, enhancing the tropical ambience. Two other towels, big and thick, had been placed on the sand, replete with soft blue cushions. Between them was a low table, covered with a sunshiny yellow cloth and featuring a vase of electric blue delphiniums rising from a ring of white gardenia. The table was set for two.
To her left, in the shade, Lois saw an assortment of covered platters and two bottles of champagne tucked into partially melted ice blocks deposited in a pit dug into the sand. As she watched, Clark turned to it and blew, re-freezing the ice.
Lois completed her visual exploration and settled her gaze on Clark. “So you weren’t *just* landing an airplane in Buffalo?” she concluded.
“No,” he said. “I had to detour from Buffalo to New York to rescue a couple of kids who had fallen into the Hudson River.”
“And this …” She swept her hand around the island. “This just materialised all by itself?”
A hint of his smile surfaced briefly. “This only needed a few last-minute touches – most of it was planned days ago.”
“Clark, it’s gorgeous,” Lois said. “You could put a picture of this next to the word ‘romantic’ in the dictionary.”
He looked pleased at that, although it didn’t seem to ease his qualms. Lois stepped across the sand and draped her arms around his neck. She sought his eyes, wanting him to know how much she appreciated everything he had done. “Thank you,” she said, as she reached up to kiss him.
His hands found their spot on her neck and their kiss was developing very satisfactorily when Lois realised her clothing was totally unsuited to the potency of the sun as it bathed the island. She unravelled from their embrace. “Whew, it’s hot here,” she said.
Clark lifted her jacket from her shoulders. “If you want to change into your shorts, you can go to the other side of the towel,” he said. “I’ll prepare the food.”
Lois grinned at him. “Clark?” she said.
“Uhm.”
“We’re the only two people here, right?”
He perused the ocean. “Probably the only two people for miles.”
“And you have x-ray vision?” she said, still grinning.
“Yeah.” Clark’s thoughts seemed to have drifted elsewhere.
“Then, I guess the screen is to stop *me* from invading *your* privacy?”
That got his attention and he grinned. “No ... but I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”
Still smiling, Lois picked up her bag and went behind the towel. She changed into her shorts and tee. When she emerged, Clark had changed from his jeans and sweater into board shorts and a blue tee, its sleeves perfectly primed to show off the curves of his biceps.
The table was now covered with some of her favourite foods - creamy cheeses, chicken pieces, plump olives, seafood, sun-dried tomatoes and crusty bread, the latter’s delectable aroma permeating the salty air.
Clark took her hand and sat her on one of the towels. He settled on the other towel, uncorked the champagne with a pop and poured two glasses. He gave her one and they touched their glasses together. “To you, Lois ... my love,” Clark said softly.
“To you, Clark, my sweet farmboy.”
They sipped, eyes locked together. “Are you hungry?” Clark asked.
“Yes,” Lois said. “But I didn’t realise how hungry until I smelled that bread.” She picked up a piece. “It’s still warm,” she exclaimed.
“I flew to Western Australia where it is early morning and bought it straight from the baker’s oven.”
Lois felt her heart swell with love for him. “You thought of everything, didn’t you?” she asked softly.
“I wanted it to be perfect for you.”
“It is,” she said, as she spread avocado dip on her bread.
“Is it what you were expecting?” he asked.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said honestly. “*You* wouldn’t give me one thing to work with.”
Clark seemed to unwind a little. “But that didn’t stop you trying.”
“Did you mind?”
“Did I *mind* being vigorously questioned, kissed and tickled by you?” he asked, grinning. “Ah ... no, not for a moment.” His amusement faded. “Lois, you know this is the only kind of secret I’ll keep from you, don’t you? Please believe me about the adoption agency.”
So that *was* still on his mind. Lois rocked forward and leant over the food to kiss him. She lingered, enjoying the feel of his mouth - the taste of champagne on his lips - but also wanting to reassure him. “I do believe you,” she said as she dropped back onto her towel again.
“Thank you.”
As they ate, Lois asked from which countries Clark had gathered the various foods, but mostly they were silent. Certainly the food warranted her attention, but Clark still seemed disinclined to talk. She shot surreptitious glances at him, noticing the strain across his shoulders and the shadow of apprehension on his face.
Maybe it wasn’t just the phone call from Honduras. Maybe he was nervous about whatever he'd planned for tonight. Lois’s stomach clenched. What if he was thinking ... hoping ... that tonight they would go beyond undoing a few buttons? Her mouth turned arid and she gulped from her glass of champagne as she glanced around the island for any telltale hints. Nothing. Other than, if that was what he had in mind, he had chosen an idyllic place.
Lois focussed on him and waited until he met her stare. He smiled, but it seemed a little forced. She wanted him to be able to enjoy this as much as she was and decided a little push wouldn’t hurt. “Are we here for any particular reason?” she asked innocently.
“It’s Friday evening and we both have the entire weekend off,” he said, his tone as innocent as hers. “Isn’t that reason enough to celebrate with the woman I love?”
She smiled. “More than enough reason,” she said, reaching for a piece of Camembert.
Silence fell again, broken only by the gentle splash of the wavelets onto the sand. Lois swallowed the creamy cheese and, her hunger satisfied, positioned a cushion against the trunk of the tree. She sank into it with a sigh of contentment.
Clark shifted on his towel. “Lois,” he said solemnly. “This isn’t just a nice way to spend Friday evening. I want to talk with you.”
She straightened in response to the gravity of his tone.
They faced each other across the table. Clark glanced to the ocean, sought her eyes again, then hauled in a cavernous breath. “Lois, you know I love you. Whatever I say ... however you feel about what I say ... please remember that I love you.”
A torrent of dismay invaded her body. Clark was backtracking. He loved her, she didn’t doubt that for a second, but he was balking at the forever commitment of marriage. Maybe he felt cornered by her proposal a month ago and thought he had to offer an explanation, a reason why he hadn’t asked her to be his wife. “OK,” she said hesitantly.
“Soon ... after I’ve said what I need to say ... I’m going to ask you to marry me.”
Lois laughed, carried on an expelled breath she hadn’t known she had been restraining.
Clark’s smile glimmered at her response. “But I want you to promise me that you will think about what I say ... *before* you answer my proposal. You don’t have to answer today.”
Lois nodded, beaming, knowing she would willingly promise him just about anything.
Clark’s knees were arched, his bare forearms resting one on each knee. He pressed his fingers together. “Lois, there are so many questions and I have very few answers. They’ve been my questions since I first realised I’m different. If you marry me, they will become your questions too.”
“I’ve thought about the questions, Clark,” she told him with quiet confidence. “The only question I care about is whether you love me.”
“You know I do,” he declared. “But, if you decide to go ahead with this, I want to be sure you understand ... as far as is possible ... some of the things we may face.”
Lois wanted to gather him into her arms and kiss him until the uncertainty had cleared from his eyes, but she curtailed the desire because, clearly, this was important to him.
“I don’t know where I came from,” Clark said, his hands spread in frustration. “I assume it was another planet because my parents found me in a spaceship and I’m hardly ... human. There is so much I don’t know ... and absolutely no place I can find answers.”
“To what questions?”
“Life-span. So far, I seemed to have aged roughly the same as humans. What if my expected life span is thirty years? What if it’s three hundred?”
Lois gasped. “But ... you look like a man in his twenties ... exactly your age.”
“But I can’t guarantee that will continue to be the case.”
She thought about that ... and quickly realised she had no answers. There *were* no answers. “OK, what are the other questions?”
“Can I get sick?” Clark said. “And if I do, will I heal? I can’t go to a hospital, or even to a doctor. I couldn’t have surgery, for instance. No scalpel would cut through me.”
“You’re the healthiest person I have ever met.”
“I am now, Lois,” he said, his eyes sombre. “But I need you to realise I can’t guarantee that will continue.”
She had no answers here either. Except to assert her total faith in his invulnerability. “Understood,” she said, more brusquely than she intended. Deliberately softening, she added, “What else, farmboy?”
Clark glanced away to the far horizon, the redness from his ears creeping into his cheeks. When he looked back to her, he had a wry smile. “How much honesty can you take?”
Lois chuckled, remembering she had asked him exactly that as they had chased the sunrise. “As much as you are willing to give me,” she replied.
He raised his hands, clearly still grappling for the right words. “Married people make love,” he said.
“I certainly hope so,” she breathed.
He smiled at that, but his discomfort didn’t recede. “Which raises so many questions, I don’t even know where to begin.”
“The Superman suit suggests you aren’t that different from other men.” Other than surpassing them, she thought.
Clark's colour deepened. “What if I hurt you? Physically? You’re so ... petite. Like the most precious petal on a beautiful flower.”
This was firmer ground, this she *could* give him answers to. “You won’t.”
“How can you be sure?” he asked, desperately.
“You would never hurt me physically,” she stated, emphatically.
Clark still looked unconvinced. “Married people have children.”
“Are you asking if I want children?”
“No. Although it is something we should talk about at some point. But, Lois, I’m not even sure it is possible for me ... whatever I am ... to father a child with you.”
"Whatever you are?" she echoed. Lois moved to him and put one hand on his cheek and the other, for balance, on his bare knee. “Don’t you know? You are Clark Kent, the man I love. You’re the man who completes me. Wherever you’re from – that’s just a label ... I hope you find some answers, I really do ... but only because it means so much to you. As for me, I don’t need labels, I need you.”
“How would you feel if we couldn’t have a child together?”
“I want *you*, Clark.”
“And one day, you may want a child ... and you’d be married to ... an ... alien who can’t give you one.”
“Then maybe we visit Honduras.”
Clark's jaw dropped. “I thought you didn’t like that idea.”
“I haven’t thought about it enough to know whether I like it or not,” she said reasonably. “All I’m saying is we have options.”
“Lois ... I couldn’t stand it if you were unhappy being married to me.”
She caressed his cheek. “I’m going to be personal here, so don’t take offence, OK?”
He nodded.
“Your parents couldn’t have children. I don’t know why ... it doesn’t matter. But, they couldn’t. Yet they have the most wonderful son, a loving family and a fantastic marriage. Your mom isn’t any less of a mother just because she didn’t actually give birth to you.”
“Would that be enough for you?”
“Clark!” Lois took a deep breath. “If I had to choose between marrying you and never having any children, naturally or by any other means, or marrying someone else and having as many children as I wanted ... there’s absolutely no contest.”
He chuckled and she felt the tension seep from his jaw. She couldn’t resist; she edged forward and kissed him tenderly. “Are we done?” she demanded flippantly.
“Not quite.”
Lois moved back to her towel. “I can’t be that close to you and not kiss you,” she said in explanation. “And you can’t kiss and talk at the same time.”
He grinned and was still grinning when he spoke. “This next bit is particularly embarrassing,” he warned her.
“For you? Or me?”
“Me.”
She grinned. “This could be fun.”
“What if I am so ...”
Something in his deepening colour and flustered body language gave Lois the clues she needed to finish his sentence. She broke into delighted giggles. Clark’s expression stalled somewhere between mirth and mortification.
Lois curbed her laughter, which wasn’t easy given the look on his face. “Clark, even if your swimmers are so supercharged, I get pregnant regardless of whatever *precautions* we take -.”
“Do you want to spend your life pregnant?” he demanded.
She sobered. “No, I don’t. But, Clark, you’re right about something. We have no way to find answers to these questions. We’re just going to have to see what happens.”
“Is that enough for you?”
“More than enough,” she insisted.
“There’s something else you need to consider.”
“OK.”
“If you were pregnant with my child, we have no idea how that would pan out. Just the pregnancy could be dangerous. We would have no idea how long the pregnancy would be. We wouldn’t know what is normal. And then there’s the birth.” Clark lifted his hands in frustration. “Lois, honey, I would never forgive myself if I put you in a position where you could be hurt. Or worse.”
She understood his motivation, loved him for his concern and appreciated his finely-tuned sense of responsibility. But what she wanted was simple. She wanted him. Forever.
She just needed a way to make him as sure of it as she was. “I have the solution,” Lois announced, grinning.
“You do?” he asked, eyebrows raised.
“Celibate marriage.”
Clark’s jaw gaped open and somehow, she managed to keep her giggles contained within her shaking ribcage. “Lois,” he said, on a tortured breath. “I wouldn’t survive.”
She grinned. “Neither would I,” she said. “So, assuming you eventually get around to proposing, we get married, we make love ... and together, we deal with whatever happens.”
He let out a prolonged breath. “Is that what you want?” he asked gently.
“More than anything else in the world.”
His smile unfurled. “There’s one more thing.”
Lois rolled her eyes, teasing him. “Only one? You promise?”
He winced. “There are a few more, but I’ll keep it to one for now.”
“OK.”
Again, he studied his hands, seeking words. “Lois, you must know that the thought of being intimate with you blows my mind ... and a few other parts of my –.” Instead of finishing his sentence, he tossed her a casual, unabashed smile. “... and my restraint is shot to pieces and every moment with you is breathtaking and excruciating all at once ... but ... how would you feel about waiting?”
“Until we are married?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
“Because I can’t ask you to take all those risks without first committing my life to you – publicly, officially, eternally.”
A part of her slumped with disappointment. This had seemed like the ideal time ... and the perfect place to take their relationship a step further.
“And there’s something else too,” Clark continued. “The night we came so close ... the night I let my hormones overcome my common sense and my good judgement ... the night your parents died. What if those two events are so closely tied together in your mind ... you ...” He didn’t know how to continue.
“Clark ... it was me who surrendered to my hormones and me who seduced you.”
“I wasn’t unwilling,” Clark admitted ruefully.
Lois smiled. “Clark, this is probably way too much information, but ... I’ve thought about that time so often. It’s one of my most-visited memories. And when I do think about it, it doesn’t naturally follow that I think about my parents.”
“*You* think about it?” he rasped.
“Don’t you?” she challenged.
He swallowed. “More than I should.”
“Well, you just keep on thinking about it, because soon it’ll be just one of many memories.”
Clark took a moment to recover from that. When speech was possible for him again, he said, “So ... you’re willing to wait?”
“On one condition,” Lois said, with a teasing smile. “I set the length of our engagement.”
“OK.”
“I’ll give you two options ... you can choose.”
He nodded his agreement.
“Three years ... or four.”
Clark gulped. Blushed. Seemed to stop breathing. “*Three* years,” he gasped. He was trying so hard not to look horrified.
“Or four ... weeks.”
His dismay evaporated to a beguiling grin. “Four weeks?”
“Yep,” she said lightly. “They’re your choices.”
“A month?”
“Do you have any problems with that, Mr Kent?”
Clark raised his hands in surrender and shook his head. “No, no, none at all.” He sprang to his feet and offered her his hand. “Come with me, honey?” he said.
Lois took his hand and together, they strolled to where the water caressed the damp sand. They hesitated, allowing the warm wavelets to bustle around their ankles. Then, with a smile, Clark entwined his fingers in hers and they paddled along the beach.
“I love how sure you are about this,” he said quietly.
“Before I came to you in Smallville,” Lois said, “I promised myself I wouldn’t come until I was absolutely certain. If there was even the slightest chance that one day, I would walk away from you, I wouldn’t come. I couldn’t do that to you again.”
“I’m certain too,” he said. “I’m certain you’re great for me ... just not so certain I’m great for you.”
“Then trust my certainty.”
He smiled and squeezed her hand. For a time, they walked slowly around the island, the shallow ocean at their feet and the sun warm on their shoulders. Then Clark led them up to the dry sand. He faced her and took both of her hands in his.
Lois’s heart accelerated. This was it. This was surely it.
He smiled at her, his gaze anchored in hers. “Lois,” he said and swallowed.
She smiled her encouragement.
“I love you,” he said.
“And I love you.”
“From the time I realised what a family is, I knew I wanted to be married. I knew I wanted to be with someone who loved me and accepted me, someone I could love with everything I am.”
Clark’s thumb worked across her fingers.
“I thought about her a lot,” he continued. “I wondered if there could possibly be someone for me in this world ... feared that even if I found her, she would be scared off by who I am.”
He glanced to their joined hands, then returned his eyes to hers.
“Lois, I never, ever thought I would find someone as incredible as you. I thought being in love would be wonderful, but I never imagined I could feel the way I feel about you.”
Lois felt her gathering tears press against her eye lashes. Clark brushed across the corner of her eye with the back of his fingers, catching her tear as it fell.
He smiled and continued. “We walked around this island and could keep on walking and never stop ... my love for you is like that ... it will never stop ... never end.”
“Aw,Clark,” Lois said and her voice cracked.
“So ...” Clark dropped onto one knee into the sand. He looked up at her, his eyes deepest brown and saturated with love. “Lois,” he said. “You are my world. You centre me. You fulfil me. A day without you is a wasted day. More than anything, I want you to be happy and I‘m hoping I can be the one who makes you happy. Would you marry me?”
She dropped onto her knees, next to him. “Clark ... for a long time, I didn’t want to be married and I didn’t think the man existed who could make me feel so secure that loving him back wasn’t scary at all.” Lois took a breath, steadying herself. “But then I found you ... and I fell in love with you ... and the things I thought I wanted just aren’t enough anymore.” She squeezed his hands in hers and grinned big. “Yes, Clark. I will marry you.”
Clark’s face split into a wide, exultant grin. His arms enveloped her into a robust hug, clamping her against his body.
His mouth found hers and he kissed her – each thrust abundant with feeling and alive with joy. His tongue stroked her lips and inched into her mouth.
Lois felt her body respond to him. The carousel of sensation settled in her heart, infusing her with the warmth and security of his love.
She knew Clark was her destiny. And she knew with great contentment how profoundly she had been blessed. With her hand in his, with her heart beating next to his, with his grin to cheer her and his strength to encourage her, there was no room for loneliness, no foothold for fears.
Lois tightened her hold on his neck, wanting to never let him go. Her mouth waltzed with his and her response slithered lower. Then she remembered ... they were going to wait.
She backed away, slowly, regretfully, and looked up into his face, loving that his mouth was still shaped to their kiss, adoring his breathlessness and the way his increased heart rate had pushed colour into his cheeks.
“Four weeks,” she murmured.
He grinned - a breathy, staggered grin. “Four weeks.” He looked at her, smiling, his eyes ablaze with excitement and wonder and the faintest touch of relief. He started. “Oh,” he said. He reached into the pocket of his shorts. He took out a ring box, flicked it open and held it towards her.
The ring was beautiful. It had a central diamond, with two smaller diamonds embedded in the gold on each side of the larger one. The sun caught it and it glistened.
“Aww, Clark,” Lois said on a whisper.
“You like it?” he said, as if there had been doubt.
“I love it,” she said.
“May I put it on you?” he asked.
She held out her left hand, ring finger aloft. Clark took the ring from the box and positioned it at the end of her finger. He looked up from her hand and captured her eyes again. “I love you, Lois,” he said softly, as he slid the ring the length of her finger.
Lois looked at her hand ... at the tangible symbol of the love she shared with Clark. The promise they had made. He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand, then her knuckle next to his ring. “Thank you,” he said with something like reverence.
“Thank you,” she replied.
He stood from the sand and offered her his hand. When they were standing, he said, “I’d like to kiss my future wife.”
“I’d like that too.”
He leant down to meet her lips. His arms surrounded her, one hand cupping her head, one buried gently into her neck. Their kiss was lengthy, full of sweetness, full of promise.
When they parted, Lois slid her hands from his shoulders and onto his chest. She smiled up at him. “What were you so worried about, farmboy?”
“You *knew* I was worried?”
“You *knew* I was going to say ‘yes’.”
“I hoped you would ... but somehow, actually saying the words ...” He grinned. “It’s the first time I’ve asked someone to marry me.”
“And the last,” she said.
“And the last,” Clark agreed readily. He swept his hand through his hair. “That’s one down and two to go.”
“Two?”
“I have something else ... but I’m really unsure about it.” He shrugged.
Lois was mystified. “Is it something you want to tell me? Something you want to ask me?”
“Something I want to give you.”
She didn’t understand how anything he gave her could cause him such doubts. “Clark, if it’s from you, I’ll love it.”
“If it goes horribly wrong, can you try to remember that it was never my intention to upset you?”
Now she was completely perplexed.
He gestured for her to sit on the towel, then reached for his bag and rustled through it. When he sat next to her, his fist was clasped. He held it towards her, still closed.
“You want me to guess what it is?” Lois asked.
Clark smiled hesitantly. “No, I’m trying to work up the courage to give it to you.”
