FDK goes here.

Posting schedule [ET]:
Saturday: Chapters 22 and 23, before 3pm [sorry I can't be more specific. Having a little girl spend the night, then Dad is coming over for lunchish but will be gone in time for me to post in early afternoon if I haven't before then - actual goal is 10ish ET]

Monday: Chapters 24 and 25, 5-6pm

Wednesday: Chapters 26 and 27, 5-6pm

Thanks .
Carol [who is going to run and hide for a while, you know, from the tapeworm]

Bah, I was wrong. I just wonder what the repurcussions of *this* is going to be.

Oh dear, Lois is pregnant...I hope Clark is the father of her baby. I'm glad I stayed up for these parts(12am Syd, Aust EST). Need to find out more...can't wait for the next installments Carol.

oh my.. oh my... oh MY!!!!

I TOLD you it wasn't tape worm.. and whadaya know :p

But.. OH.. MY! Clark.. *shakes head* you poor innocent boy scout!! I wouldn't have it any other way though.

Now it doesn't matter if the baby is Clark's or not... he is pulling himself into a world of trouble. I figure that invulnerability is going to come in mighty handy when Lana stomps her heels into his short and curlies for getting into this mess.

I have to say, Lois is holding together rather well for discovering she IS pregnant... I expected her to be a bit more emotional about it, but given the trauma of life she's been through, I guess she either manages disasters well, or she knows how to bottle it in.

I love that Lois threw up on the bad guys.. ahhh... a girl of my own heart.
And not the Congo... but a dictator state in the eastern block.... very nice twist... very interesting challenge.

But Dan... ew... if you have him try and hit on Lois I am going to have to protest violently (a la Lois as stated above). However I'll acknowledge the clever use of him in the story... I can certainly see him spending time OS refining his skills.

I'm hitting myself for reading this as you post it... I wanna know what happens NOW!!!
But I'll have to wait till Monday as my daughter turns 4 on the weekend and we're spending Sat/Sun in Disneyland (HK)..

I'm really enjoying this story Carol.. and getting quite passionate about it (which is the sign of great writing to be sure).

*whistles* way to throw a spike in the wheels of the Lana and Clark train I can't wait to see what a paternity test says......

Wow, that certainly is a mess. Lois is pregnaut, the dictator is insisting it's his, and Clark announces it's his to get her out of the siuation. This will probably put a permanent fork in his relationship with Lana. And of course, Clark won't do a peternity test, because he knows it will show it's negative, and he wouldn't be able to do a blood test, anyway. So you've destroyed his relationship with Lana and saved his honor at the same time. I'm happy.

Keep it coming.

YES! *fist pump* I knew Clark would step in, regardless of whether or not it was his. Talk about your plot wrenches. My second thought was, what if they have to get married or something crazy to get out of the country and away from the dictator. And *chuckle*, Lana is such a backseater now; there's no way she'll get a ring on her finger any time soon with the mess they've all created in Latislan, or wherever.

Lois throwing up on all the bad guys? *Classic.*

Great parts! Can't wait for the next!
JD

I think there are two possibilities for the dictator's actions:

a) Lois pissed him off and he wants revenge
b) He finds Lois attractive and wants to secure her in a dependent position

Either way, he knows very well that the child isn't his, look at the progression:

Action) Lois shows signs of illness
Response) Dictator seeks to "quarantine" her

A) Lois says she's pregnant
R) Ah ha, but the child is mine because I say so, therefore you must stay in my country

A) Pregnancy is confirmed
R) He tries to run off the people trying who say the child isn't his

In essence, we have a spoiled man who is used to his word being law and for whatever reason he wants Lois under his thumb. At least, this is if my interpretation of his actions is correct ^.^''

And what about a paternity test comparing Lois' child to Mr. Big Shot dictator? What if said test were to show some anomalous markers in the baby's DNA.....

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Carol, you just fired my brains. I never saw General Navovic coming.
PPS: I wonder if the DNA is not proof thing will come in handy in Latislan...

Wowzers!!!!!! And then Clark tells that super-awful Latislan guy that he is the father of the baby, not having a clue that he is!!!! Right, Carol? Right? Right? Right?

Wowzers!!! Oh, my! Oh, my! Where is the 'ballistic' icon? As in, Lana will go b#¤Xz&%@§!!!!!ic!!! And then some!!!

Come back with more soon, Carol, you are killing us here!

Ann

Hi Carol,

I'm sorry I've missed posting fdk on the last parts of your story, but I got very behind and have just managed to catch up.

Carol, I think you're A-plot is great ... but that's from someone who loves A-plots. Mind you, I'm particularly fond of A-plots which separate Lois from Joe and Clark from Lana.

I really love how Clark jumped in without checking the water level to protect Lois.

Is a shotgun wedding on the cards next? There's a whole plane load of guns nearby.

Can't wait for your next post, and hopefully, I'll have time to leave fdk.

Yours Jenni

/falls out of chair, then jumps up and does a happy dance

What. A whirlwind. I really love how you sneak familiar characters into the story. Everything thing is certainly getting more complicated around here (here as in the not!Congo), and I'm loving it. Finally we find out what's been ailing Lois. The next mystery we have to strike off the list is who fathered the child, which is suddenly a Lastilaian Hot Commodity.

I'd like to raise a toast to Clark for jumping in without checking the water level. If there are any more spokes to be thrown into the wheel of the Clana train, I'd like to volunteer for work duty. There are all sorts of delightful ways the story can go from here and many of them have been suggested in the fdk. I can't wait to see where you're taking us.

~Sonia
(who is im/patiently awaiting Saturday)

/jumps up and down clapping

I caught you guys off-guard!

The end of all 2 chapter chunks won't be quite so jaw dropping .

I love that all of you loved Lois throwing up all over them too. I thought that was priceless!

Karen - /gives big hug - so glad you're reading. Repercussions? What repercussions?

LT - aww, thanks for staying up. Hope you slept well!

Lisamaree - Okay, it's not a tapeworm. You got me. Gotta love the innocent Boy Scout, doncha? I do wonder what Lana will think about all this . As for Lois, she's only been awake for about 20-30m so give her a chance to freak out. She was starting to before Navance came in. More about Lois' past and her decision about this baby will be addressed soon. Daniel shocked me when he showed up - I'd thought he was the 'Dan' Lois dated and who wasn't happy with just a kiss.

Lieta - Paternity test? /puzzled We will find out more about Latislani law as we go.

Sara - I bet Lana won't be throwing her baby shower . More about Navance and his motivations will be forthcoming. And you're so right about the paternity test. Clark knows it will be negative but he doesn't *really* know about Kryptonite so a blood test is out, but he wouldn't be willing to submit to a DNA test for many reasons anyway...

Jen - hehe! Get married to get out of the country? /ponder That would have been one way to do it... Of course, those superpowers could come in handy too...

Michael - how do you really feel? I totally thought of Tom Clancy when I wrote that!

Ann - love how you spell ballistic . Yes, Lois is pregnant, but Clark as the father? Where one *earth* do you get that from? /whistles innocently as she runs far far away

Jenni! - I'm glad you're all caught up. Have I mentioned that A plots are the bane of my writing existence? I'll have to remember to try to resolve it at some point . And LOL at the guns/shotgun wedding thing. Hehe!! /remembers she needs to leave FDK for Wife/Boss but loved it!

Sonia - /does dance with Sonia I love sticking canon characters in random places where no one expects them. Still not sure how many will actually show up and how some that I'd really like to show up will manage to. Why does everyone think that there's more than one possibility for paternity? Besides frat party guy I mean. /ponders working in a Sonia spoke somewhere...

See you all Saturday - I hope. I did manage to back everything up [and can't work on said vid on DH's computer] because mine is about to go through my neighbor's window. Why my neighbor's window? Because he owns the computer store . Actually, he's going to stop by tonight and look at it for me and see if we can figure out what's wrong with it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

/ponders posting Ch. 22 on it's own tomorrow or something...

Carol

Well, now this is a pickle. Of course, as soon as Mindy and guns showed up, it could be nothing less than a pickle. I am very interested to see how they're going to get out of this, though not worried, since Scardino and Jack are on the case. And Scardino is nothing to be worried about, as Lois is clearly much younger than he, so he's solidly a good guy.

I've loved being surprised by this story so far, so I'm not even going to make any predictions, but I am very much looking forward to what happens after this tangent to Latislan. And how exactly did that phone conversation between Clark and Lana go?

Amber

Hah! Never a dull moment in the lives of Lane and Kent, no matter how fairy-tale homey Clark would like his life to be.

And hey, when are they going to tell "Jack" about the guns? Illegal weapons trading might be helpful leverage against Mr. General.

I thought the old "Dan" was Scardino too. It's cool to see Scardino showing up in a role where I might actually like him.

While I'm at it, a note on the previous part... no iPhones in 2002. It looks like you can just squeak the BlackBerry into the timeline, though.

DAMN.

I've been lurking a lot lately, but I wanted to let you know I'm really enjoying this story, Carol. My only complaint is having to wait for the next posts.

It's been fun to see the speculations of the other FoLCs. The only thing that I've thought of that hasn't been mentioned was whether "Mindy" set Lois up. Could she have known that if Lois saw her in France that Lois would be suspicious and follow her? Could she somehow be involved with the drugging/raping at Halloween also? I know it's far-fetched (reaching, as Clark would say), but I thought I'd share the thought anyway.


Bite your tongue (or fingers) for making the suggestion. I think the double chapter is necessary for the sanity of your adoring followers.

Yes, please?

Michael, who was seriously caught up in all the stuff described in parts 20/21. Anxiety and everything.

Sorry, haven't been posting feedback for a while... but just caught back (RL took over for a while )...

Loving the plot development immensely. Just one question... what happens now?

Thanks again guys!

Amber - Dan surprised me, but he is a good guy I think. Not sure how much we find out about that phone call... Little bit but not much I don't think, but it wasn't very long either.

Amy - nope, nothing dull! I'll remember to note this in the A/N next time, but I'm playing fast and loose with technology/release dates . If they can have Prometheus in 1994, they can have iPhones in 2002 .

Lisa - hehe! Short, sweet and to the point. I like it .

BJ - Glad to have you! I think you're giving Mindy a bit too much credit this time. I pondered posting 22 as a 'bonus' yesterday, but didn't... Your sanity shall be restored soon .

AnKS - find out in about 10 minutes!

Carol

10 minutes?!!!
waiting impatiently...

Exactly. 20 minutes now.

Michael

Sorry . Had jokes in one of the next parts, but needed to change them. They're done now and am working on finishing them up .

Carol