Tweet
Aww, thank you. Sometimes it's harder to keep things to a certain 'rating', especially when you're writing intimacy between a couple. I avoided the temptation of making this a 'smutty' fic because I loved the idea of making this just a sweet romance with bits of plot thrown in.
-
-
Chapter Thirty-Three - Six Months Later
Clark was late getting into work. Not that anyone appeared to notice his tardiness. Or if they did, they didn’t mention it. Lois was quite adept at covering for him when he had to go out to perform his other duties. She claimed it came from years of sneaking around rebelling against her father.
Cat Grant looked up from her desk but didn’t pay him any attention. The perky blonde had joined the Daily Planet about a month after the paper had been officially taken over by Wayne Enterprises’ media division. Bruce Wayne’s company had worked quickly to rebuild the Planet’s headquarters, even going so far as to attend the grand re-opening.
The takeover had been relatively smooth. It had helped that the chief authority that oversaw all business deals had investigated and then censured Lex over what it had called concerns about his business practices. Lex had been curiously silent over the matter although neither Clark nor Lois were being complacent.
The best part of the new leadership at the Planet was that Bruce had offered Clark a job – part-time for now, until he completed his degree. He had also been able to arrange it with Metropolis University that Clark didn’t have to attend classes all the time, as long as he could access virtual lectures online and complete the required papers to get his points.
A copy of the day’s paper was dumped on his desk. Jimmy Olsen grinned at him.
“Check that out,” he said. “I got my first byline.”
Clark opened the paper and looked at the photo dominating the page. It was of Superman in full flight. He dutifully admired the shot, which he had to admit was actually pretty good, considering Jimmy was still an intern, trying not to blush at the way the uniform showed just about everything.
“That’s a great shot, Jimmy,” he said.
The freckle-faced redhead beamed. “Thanks CK. So, uh, are you going to the party tonight at the Ace of Clubs?”
Clark noticed Cat had raised her head slightly, her pen poised above the notepad. She was listening but pretending not to.
“Chloe’s bachelorette party?” he asked. “I’m going to give it a miss. I actually have something else planned. Besides, I think she said ladies only.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Chloe and Oliver had planned separate parties, since Oliver had had to go out of town. Chloe had invited some of her colleagues from the Daily Planet. She hadn’t exactly been happy at her fiancé having to go out of town two days before the wedding, but it couldn’t be helped. It was Justice League business, rather than Queen Industries’ business.
In the days following their apprehension of Bruno Mannheim, the Intergang thug had turned state’s evidence against Morgan Edge, testifying against his former boss in exchange for a lighter sentence. Even with Edge’s incarceration, or perhaps because of it, local criminals had vied for their own spot as Metropolis’ crime boss. Clark had discussed it with Lois and his friends and realised they needed to form a union of sorts.
To his surprise, Carter Hall had approached him, offering advice on leading the group. The former Justice Society leader had told him he’d made a lot of mistakes years ago and he didn’t want Clark to make the same mistakes.
Another surprise was the inclusion of Batman within the League. Clark had tried for several weeks to get Bruce to come on board but it hadn’t been until Clark, as Superman, saved his life while the dark knight had been patrolling Gotham. Bruce had finally admitted that there were some things he couldn’t do alone and having friends around who could provide back-up when necessary was a bonus.
“Smallville! Quit daydreaming and shake a leg. Press conference, remember?”
He looked up, realising Lois was standing over him. She looked him over with a critical eye as he stood up to greet her.
“Do your shopping at Farmboys R Us?” she asked.
He scowled. “No.” Okay, so he didn’t exactly dress like the men in GQ but it wasn’t that bad!
She appeared not to be listening, turning away and heading up the stairs to the first floor. He sighed and followed her.
The moment they were out of sight of the bullpen she looked at him.
“Seriously, Clark, I thought we agreed on a Daily Planet dress code!”
“There is nothing wrong with this shirt,” he said, indicating the blue cotton shirt.
She pulled at the fabric and did up the top button. “We are going to have to go shopping,” she said. “Or else you’re just going to have to stop losing your shirts.”
“Well, I don’t exactly have a pocket in my uniform,” he told her. “It’s not like I can magically shrink the shirts down to nothing and hide them away. Sometimes they get lost.”
“It’s a good thing you have me around to pick up after you, Superman,” she said with a grin.
She had almost wet herself laughing when he’d first shown her the uniform he’d designed based on what his father had told him was a Kryptonian battle uniform. Especially because it hid nothing. It was also very brightly coloured. When she stopped laughing, she admitted it was a vast improvement on the black. Then of course she’d realised that the women he rescued would be continually ogling him.
“Yes, dear.”
“And that’s another thing. You know how people talk.”
He sighed. “Honey, it’s not as if they don’t know we’re a couple. We live together!”
When the general had found his own place, Lois had suggested again that Clark move in with her. The only problem was that her apartment wasn’t on the top floor of the building, which made it difficult for him to come and go without fear of being seen. Especially in his Superman suit. They had found a more suitable place a few blocks away from her old apartment.
“Yes, but we need to keep it professional in the office. We discussed this, remember?”
He sighed. “Yes, dear.”
She glowered at him. “Don’t give me that look, Smallville!”
“Yes, dear.” This time she knew he was doing it on purpose. She punched his shoulder.
“You are a very bad man, Clark Kent.”
He grinned at her. “Yup.”
Detective Henderson nodded cordially at them as they entered the precinct in time for the press conference. Despite the less than pleasant introduction to the detective, he had proved to be a good source of information. Their most recent big case had been a joint taskforce with New York police investigating the murder of Patricia Swann.
Oliver had uncovered a clue as to what had happened. He had been going through some papers his parents had kept in secure storage and it turned out they’d been working with Virgil Swann on a project which had also involved Lionel Luthor. Clark had been stunned to realise the project had been about him, although the group’s information had been sketchy at best. According to a journal left behind by Robert Queen, Dr Swann had told the group that he had been receiving messages from beyond the stars but hadn’t been able to decipher them.
At the same time, Lionel had employed a team of experts through the SETI Institute to track the meteor shower which had hit Smallville in 1989. He’d gone to the town on the pretext of buying the creamed corn factory owned by the Ross brothers but he’d actually gone to oversee a team investigating the meteor shower. His own son had been caught up in it.
The police had caught Patricia Swann’s killer a month earlier. While the man hadn’t been clear on the motive for the killing, Clark had wondered if her emails to Chloe had somehow been tracked and she’d died to stop her from revealing too much about the project.
It certainly explained Lionel’s interest in his parents, he thought. If the businessman had suspected something else had come down in the meteor shower, he might have questioned why Martha and Jonathan Kent would have needed him to fake an adoption.
They returned to the office an hour later.
“I’m just going to write up my notes,” Lois said. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to Chloe’s party?”
“Ladies only, is what I think it said on the invitation.”
“Oh, yeah.” She kissed him. “I’ll see you at home then.”
Clark finished up his work for the day and left a few minutes before six, heading to a local restaurant. He approached the hostess.
“Hi. I’m Clark Kent.”
“Oh, yes, Mr Kent. Your party is already here. This way, please.”
Clark followed, feeling a little nervous. Former general Sam Lane was sitting at the table, sipping from a glass of scotch. He looked up as they approached then stood up, holding his hand out.
“Great to see you, son,” he said with a smile in welcome.
“You too, sir,” Clark replied, shaking his future father-in-law’s hand. At least, he hoped.
They ordered dinner and ate in relative silence. The general was the first to finish.
“You look nervous, Clark. Dare I ask why you wanted to meet me for dinner?”
“Uh, I actually have a question to ask you, sir.”
Sam grinned. “If it’s what I think it is, it’s about time. And you have my blessing. I’ve never seen my little girl happier than she has been in the past few months.”
Clark beamed, his nervousness vanishing.
***
Lois had had the sense for days that something was brewing in her boyfriend’s head. She knew it had nothing to do with the Justice League. While his duties as Superman kept him busy, he never showed the nervous energy he appeared to be showing now.
Chloe was on her honeymoon with Oliver, so she couldn’t exactly ask her cousin what was going on.
They’d had dinner with her father and Nell a couple of days after the wedding, but the older couple hadn’t given any clue as to what was going on either. Lois had wondered if she should call Nell and ask her, but decided against it. Just because Clark’s foster mother and her father had been seeing a lot of each other, it didn’t mean Lois felt ready to see her as a mother-figure.
She was happy for her father. Nell would never replace her mother, but she made him happy and that was really all that mattered.
Clark had missed the morning staff meeting and she’d covered for him as she usually did. Cat Grant looked at her smugly as she left the conference room.
“Boyfriend trouble?” she asked.
“No,” she replied sharply. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“You know, I don’t know why you keep covering for Clark.”
“What I do for Clark and why I do it has nothing to do with you. For your information, he works damn hard.”
The blonde sniffed haughtily. “Yeah, well, when I was working for the Chron …”
Lois interrupted her. “I don’t want to hear about you being Miss Overachiever,” she snapped. Cat had done nothing but talk about her rise through the ranks at her small-town newspaper within a few short months. She’d even claimed to be valedictorian at her high school graduation.
The one thing that had annoyed her the most was that when the blonde had first joined the Planet, she had been a constant critic of the Guardian. As far as she had been concerned, Clark’s hiding in the shadows was a clear indication that he was not as good as he purported to be.
She’d quickly changed her tune when Superman had made his debut. It had helped that it had been a major accident on the turnpike that had brought him out of the shadows. He’d saved dozens of lives that day. It had prompted Perry to practically bully his reporters into trying to get the exclusive.
Lois had worked with Clark to plan an article and they’d both taken care to ensure he wasn’t cornered by any other reporters. Cat had been bitter ever since, claiming that an exclusive interview with the red-and-blue clad superhero would have secured her a promotion out of the bullpen. Lois knew from experience it was going to take more than a big story to get her out of the basement.
Clark appeared in the doorway of her office a short time later. Perry had decided not to keep them as permanent working partners for now, not wanting to show any favouritism by making Clark earn his stripes.
She smiled at her boyfriend. “Everything okay, honey?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.” He handed her a couple of pages. “It’s still rough, but …” She took them and quickly skimmed the article. He’d written up a report on a hurricane battering the coast in Florida. He’d been called in by Arthur Curry to help free some workers trapped when a building had collapsed in the high winds. For some odd reason the company management had not ordered staff to evacuate when they should have.
Lois understood why when she saw the company was a subsidiary of LexCorp. Typical, she thought.
She laid the pages on the desk and began editing, circling various paragraphs in red and making corrections.
“Don’t hold back,” Clark said.
She shrugged. “It’s not that bad.”
“Uh, so, I made dinner reservations at seven,” he said, giving her the name of an uptown restaurant. “It’s on your calendar.”
She waved her hand. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be there.”
“Seven, Lois.”
She sent him a withering look as she handed him the corrected article. Okay, so she tended to get caught up in her work. She wasn’t always late.
It was almost eight when she arrived at the restaurant. Clark was pacing outside, looking at his watch. It was an old Timex. The crystal was a little scratched but he didn’t care. It had once belonged to Jonathan.
“I know, I know,” she said. “I’m late.”
He grinned. “You’re actually right on time. I made the reservation for eight but told you seven.”
She punched his arm. “That is very sneaky, Clark Kent.”
He laughed. “I just know you too well. You do tend to get caught up.”
They entered the restaurant and were quickly shown to their table. Lois was surprised at the luxurious surroundings, but didn’t comment on it. Clark was still on a starting salary and was paying his college tuition out of what his parents had left him. Still, he clearly had a reason for coming to this particular restaurant.
She noticed the restaurant had a dance floor and a live band. As they ate dinner, a woman got up to sing. The music was mostly covers of popular songs, but sung with a slower tempo. A few couples got up to dance.
She glanced at Clark but he seemed preoccupied with his own meal. Then as the band finished one song, he turned his head to watch them.
“This next song goes out to a young lady dining here tonight. By special request.”
Sitting here wasted and wounded at this old piano,
Trying hard to capture the moment this morning I don't know
'Cause a bottle of vodka's still lodged in my head,
And some blonde gave me nightmares.
I think that she's still in my bed.
As I dream about movies
They won't make of me when I'm dead.
With an ironclad fist I wake up and French-kiss the morning
While some marching band keeps its own beat in my head while we're talking
About all of the things that I long to believe:
About love, the truth, what you mean to me.
And the truth is,
Baby, you're all that I need.
I wanna lay you down in a bed of roses,
For tonight I'll sleep on a bed of nails.
Oh, I wanna be just as close as the Holy Ghost is,
And lay you down on a bed of roses.
Lois once more risked a glance at Clark. She recognised the song. While the band that had originally released it wasn’t quite her favourite, she did love them almost as much. It seemed such an appropriate song considering how they’d actually met, she thought.
Clark suddenly got up. She gasped as he got down on one knee beside her. He looked so nervous that she wanted to reach out and tell him to stop being such a doofus, but held back.
“Lois, I can’t give you beds of roses, but what I can give you is this. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, if you’ll have me.”
She stared as he opened a small box, revealing a diamond ring nestled inside. The ring was probably less than a carat but she didn’t care. It was simple, yet tasteful.
She remembered something she had told him six months ago. They’d barely discussed the idea of marriage and at the time neither one of them had been ready to take that step. Now they were.
“Yes,” she said simply.
He grinned and slid the ring on her finger before standing up and pulling her out of her seat. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, amid clapping from the other diners.
The singer spoke once more. “In case you didn’t hear, she said yes.”
Lois laughed and kissed her new fiancé once more.
“I don’t need beds of roses,” she whispered to him as people gathered around to congratulate them. She laid her hand on his chest. “I have everything I need right here.”
a/n: Only the epilogue to go folks
Comment
-
Awesome as always. I'm sitting in a kids pizza game parlor and saw the notice for the update. What a save. Thank you! Can't wait for the epilogueComment
-
a/n: So we come to the end of this story. I hate ending stories. I wish they could go on and on, but there always comes a time when we do have to let them ride off into the sunset. But I do like to see little glimpses of the future. So without further ado, I present the epilogue.
Epilogue
Lois Lane-Kent ascended the stairs, panting slightly. While she kept fit, it had been an extremely long and tiring day and climbing to the eighth floor of the Daily Planet required a little more energy than she could expend right now. It hadn’t helped that she’d been out chasing a story and had needed to be rescued once again by Superman.
She had half-expected a lecture from her superhero husband but he’d just flown her to safety before flying off to take care of the man who had tried to kill her without a word.
They’d had a fight about her tendency to get into trouble about a year or so into their marriage. It was one of the few things they fought about.
Sighing, Lois pushed open the door to their shared office and stopped, her eyes widening at the sight in front of her. Someone had left her flowers. Not just any flowers. Yellow tulips.
She smiled, any feelings of exhaustion disappearing as she touched the delicate petals with a gentle hand. It wasn’t her birthday, or Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t even their anniversary, yet he’d given her flowers. Not just any flowers, but the exact type he’d given her ten years ago.
How did he seem to always know how to make her feel special?
She picked up the bouquet, deciding the story could wait. It was not as if she had anything she could actually report, given that she needed to talk to various sources. As she turned to leave the office, she bumped into someone.
“Playing hooky?”
She smiled up at Bruce Wayne. “That depends. Are you objecting? Boss?” she added.
He snorted. “Right. Boss. I know you only use that term when you’re trying to get on my good side, Lane.” He reached out and touched the petals. “Nice flowers. Tulips, aren’t they?”
“Didn’t Alfred teach you anything about flowers?” she asked.
“He gave up trying to teach me long ago. I have it on good authority that he considers me rather stubborn.”
“Heaven forbid,” she told her friend and publisher with a grin.
“Enjoy your evening, Lois,” he said, giving her a wink. She frowned slightly, watching as he continued down the corridor to Perry’s office.
She left the office and went downstairs to the parking garage. Jimmy Olsen was just coming in, having been out on a story himself.
“Oh, hey, Lois. Did you get those proofs I sent you?”
“I haven’t checked my emails since this morning,” she said. “Sorry.”
He shrugged. “Oh, no worries.” He glanced at the flowers. “Somebody’s trying to score big points.”
She shook her head. While they weren’t exactly secretive about it, they tended not to flaunt their relationship at work, or air any problems they might have, preferring to maintain their professionalism. Jimmy was only one of a select few who knew exactly how she’d met Clark.
He was yet to understand what made their marriage tick. Clark had always believed in showing how he felt in small ways. Even if that was something as simple as taking out the garbage, or massaging her feet after a very long and tiring day.
She left the building, sighing as she realised she was driving into heavy traffic. Being Fourth of July weekend, most people were leaving work early, preparing to head out of the sweltering city. If only Superman would just pick up her car and fly her home, but she knew she couldn’t just take advantage of him like that.
It was at least an hour later when she walked in the door of their split-level home in New Troy. She kicked off her shoes and, barefoot, headed down the hallway to the kitchen and living area.
A six-year-old boy sat on one of the barstools, peanut butter on his chin, biting into a piece of bread coated in the stuff. His eyes widened as he saw her.
“Mom?”
An older boy looked up from a gaming console. “Mom? I thought you wouldn’t be home for hours!”
Lois grinned at her eight-year-old. Jon-El was the image of his father, with unruly black hair and a chubby face.
“I decided to finish early. Where’s Aunt Nell?”
Nell had hired someone else to take on the shop and had offered to look after the children after school until their parents got home. Or during summer breaks.
“Um, she’s out in the garden, I think. Talking to Grandpa.”
She stared at her son, then went out the sliding door to the deck. Sure enough, Nell was sitting on one of the loungers, under the shade of the umbrella, talking to Lois’ father. The pair had struck up a close friendship, although they had decided long ago that it would never be more than that.
Her father looked at her. “Hello, sweetheart.”
“Dad, what are you doing here? I thought you were working in Gotham for WayneTech this week.”
“Oh, I took the weekend off. Decided to spend some time with the kids.”
“That’s great, Dad, but …”
“Mom, Dad’s on the phone.”
She turned and looked at her youngest son. Sam grinned at her.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Sam shook his head, dark blond bangs flopping over his forehead. “I dunno.” He held out the phone. Lois took it.
“Hi honey.”
“Hi.”
“I got the flowers,” she said. “They’re beautiful.”
He didn’t comment, not that she really expected him to. “I’m running slightly late, but I will be there to pick you up in about an hour.”
“For what?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise,” he replied.
“You and your surprises, Clark Kent,” she retorted fondly.
“You’re worth it,” he returned.
***
Clark hated being delayed, especially when he had planned something special for his wife. He’d promised her when they’d got married that she would never come second to anything, even his being Superman. He’d done his best to keep that promise.
“Heading out?” Oliver asked as Clark completed his tasks and changed out of his uniform.
“Yeah. What about you?”
His friend shrugged. “Chloe’s out of town for a conference and the kids are staying with their grandpa tonight.” He sighed as if a little miffed that his wife had had to go out of town, but since she was deputy editor of the Star City Sentinel, she often had to attend conferences.
Clark nodded. Oliver and Chloe also had two children, a boy and a girl. Their daughter, Olivia, was the same age as Jon-El and Zach was a year younger than Sam.
“Have fun tonight,” Oliver told him, knowing what he had planned. The other couple would be staying in Metropolis for the weekend so they could be at the annual Kent family cookout at the farm in Smallville. Clark had never been able to part with it and Lois had insisted they use it as a retreat when they needed to get away from the city.
He grinned. “I plan to.”
He’d been planning it for weeks. As much as Lois liked to pretend she hated surprises, he knew she would love this one. He had booked a table at their favourite restaurant – incidentally the same one where he’d proposed to her just over nine years ago.
He always tried to emulate his parents by making sure that Lois knew every day that she was loved and valued. That what kept their relationship strong wasn’t marking milestones, although they were important, and it wasn’t putting aside special days buying flowers or chocolates.
Lois had once told him that the best day of her life had been the day she’d walked into her office to find a bouquet of flowers. And not just any flowers, but tulips. While they hadn’t been her favourite flower, what had set them apart was what they represented. Just a simple gesture from someone trying to make her feel that she wasn’t alone.
When he’d told her the truth about himself, she had not only accepted him, but told him he was not alone. Not with her words, but with her actions.
He flew home to New Troy to pick her up. She was ready when he arrived, wearing a red dress that he knew was her favourite for their dates.
“So where are we going?” she asked once they’d said goodbye to their two boys and their grandpa and aunt.
“It’s a surprise,” he said.
“Yeah, you said that already. If you’re planning something devious, Clark Kent …”
He shot her a look. “Would I do that?”
“Hmm, I’ll reserve judgement,” she replied.
He touched down about a minute later in an alleyway not far from the restaurant and walked with her to the double entrance doors Lois recognised it immediately. The hostess smiled at them as they came in.
“Mr and Mrs Kent, your table is ready for you.”
A single rose stood in the middle of the table they were led to. It was set in the corner of the dining room, allowing them to see everything that was going on in the front of house. A live band was playing. Not the same band it had been the night he’d proposed, but from what he’d heard they were just as good.
A bottle of champagne sat in an ice bucket. The hostess poured the wine into flutes for them.
Lois smiled lovingly at him.
“You certainly know how to impress a lady, Mr Kent.”
He just grinned and held up his glass. “To my beautiful wife, who I love waking up with in the mornings.”
“Even though I can be really crabby before my first coffee?” she joked. She clinked her glass with his, then put it down on the table. “I shouldn’t,” she said.
Clark frowned, wondering what was up. He had noticed she had been avoiding any kind of alcohol lately, and she’d switched to decaf. coffee.
“Lois?”
“I was going to wait to tell you, but now’s as good a time as any anyway. We’re going to have another baby.”
He couldn’t help the grin. He adored his two boys, but what would make their family complete would be a little girl. He kept the wish to himself.
The band began playing a very familiar introduction. Lois sometimes told him she envied him his good memory. No matter how hard she tried, she just seemed to forget anniversaries. He didn’t mind. To him, it wasn’t the day that mattered.
He rose from the table and stood beside her, holding out his hand.
“Dance with me?” he asked.
Without a word she took his hand and walked with him to the dance floor. He wrapped his arms around her as they danced.
I wanna lay you down in a bed of roses,
For tonight I'll sleep on a bed of nails.
Oh, I wanna be just as close as the Holy Ghost is,
And lay you down on a bed of roses.
She looked up at him, her hazel eyes full of love. He kissed her gently and held her close.Comment
-
While I am a little sad that it is over, I love a happy ending with a window to the future. And just when I was thinking they needed a little girl (hoping that the stairs had Lois panting for more than lack of cardio) presto, a new super baby is on the way an Clark is hoping for a girl too! Thank you again for a wonderful story.Comment
-
It's always a little bittersweet for me when I end a story as I so look forward to the comments telling me how much people enjoy the story. As someone who has written several novels, other than the occasional review, we don't always get feedback, so it's great to see my stories are enjoyed.
As for the epilogue itself, I thought it would be great to go almost full circle as well as give a glimpse of the future. I liked the idea of Lois announcing another baby is on the way as well.Comment
-
??????? goodComment
Comment