Whistling, he strolled up, “Hey there Lois. How was your nap?”
She looked up at him. “How was your lunch?”
He grinned, “Always answer a question with a question?”
She smiled and looked back to the parking lot. “Clark?”
“Yeah?”
“If you were...say you had a child, but you didn’t know you had a child until the bomb was one day sort of dropped on you.”
“Okay,” he said slowly, not really sure if he liked where this was going.
“What would you do?”
“I’d . . . “ Do the exact opposite of what I have done so far, which is nothing except nighttime fly-by’s at your house to check up on you and Jason. “I’d try to be there as much as I could, as much as the mother would let me.”
“What if the mother was involved with someone and didn’t know how much the real father should be involved.”
“Well, I’d try to give her time to think it through and just let her know that I’d like to be . . . around.”
Lois’ head shot up, “What did you say?”
“I said I’d want to be around,” he said, his breath catching.
Will we see you? You know...around?” Lois asked hesitantly, hopefully.
Superman smiled, floating above her as their son looked on from his window; the place Superman had just retreated from, having had to see the son he had after Lois told him in a coma that Jason was his. “I’m always around. Goodnight, Lois.”
Lois stared at him and Clark had to wonder if he really wanted her to figure it out, if the idea that she could in fact figure out in time was something he wanted her to do. The last thing he wanted was to make things harder for her. He remembered a time when knowing his secret had been a burden for her, and so he’d erased her memory with a kiss. Then he’d had to endure her giving him the brush off as Clark again, and coming to her as Superman. She still didn’t like sharing him with the world, but she’d started to grow to accept it and understand it was a part of him.
They’d gotten so incredibly close – as Jason was testament to. And then he’d left. He’d left because having to say goodbye to Lois was not something he’d been capable of. He wouldn’t have gone if he had to say goodbye to her. If he’d known though, if he’d known she was pregnant...
Glumly, Lois looked away.
“Lois? Is there something you want to talk about?” he asked.
“You’ll...you’ll think I’m crazy.”
“Well, in all fairness, I already think that, so anything you tell me won’t be that much of a surprise.”
From her profile, he could see her smile. Slowly, she turned and looked back up at him. “You know Clark, you’re a really good guy. Solid. I don’t think I tell you that enough.”
He stared at her, amazed. Didn’t tell him enough? Try hardly. Oh, she was nice enough, but usually she did most of the talking and he the listening. Then she’d be off like shot.
“Th-thanks.”
“I wonder what would have happened if you and I had ever—“ she shook her head and laughed lightly. “Don’t mind me.” She stood. “I think I’m hungry now. Care to join me or do you want to nap?”
He smiled easily, trying not to draw attention to how she’d just stunned him beyond belief. “Uh, sure, I’ll join you.”
Maybe her knowing wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“You did what?” Spike demanded Buffy when the group all met later that night at Giles’.
She gave him a funny look, “I went looking at the school…was I not supposed to look at the school?”
“Not alone!”
Buffy rolled her eyes and caught Clark trying to hide a smile out the corner of her eye. Oh, he was going to get it for that!
“Well, Superman was with me for a bit,” she slid in and found Clark’s smile had dropped considerably. Take that!
“Oh, the big blue wonder showed himself, did he? While you were alone?” Spike scowled at Clark, who sat there, eyes wide and innocent. Buffy elbowed him and gave him a warning glare.
“He showed up? Will he be here tonight? Did he say why he wasn’t here last night?” Lois questioned.
Maybe that wasn’t such a good move, , Buffy thought. “He uh, had some issues to attend to. He said ‘Hey’.”
“He said ’Hey’?” Lois said, shocked.
“Well, he never says ‘hey’ now does he?” Buffy backpedaled, “he actually said ‘hello’.”
“So he does know I’m here,” Lois said, giving Clark a pointed look. Clark just sat there, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
“He did after I told him,” Buffy smiled brilliantly, happy to have remedied that situation. “He was quite concerned about you.”
Lois’ head snapped to her, “He was? What did he say?”
Oh for-- “That. . . he was. . . concerned about you.”
“That’s it?”
“It’d be really cool if our topic of conversation wasn’t always about Superman,” Xander chimed in, clearly done with the current conversation.
“Maybe you come off too clingy and needy,” Anya said matter-of-factly to Lois.
Lois glared at her. “I do not--“
“The last thing she is, is clingy,” Clark blurted out with a snort.
Everyone turned to stare at him. He met Buffy’s eyes and she grinned knowingly.
“I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Xander,” Giles finally joined in. “I’ve met him a few times, and while he’s perfectly respectable, there really is no reason to be obsessing over him when we have other problems to attend to. We haven’t even heard what he and Buffy found today.”
“Well, he actually had to go, but I found something interesting,” Buffy said proudly.
“You should have come to get me,” Spike grumbled.
“It was daylight! Hello – sun, dust – any of that sound familiar? Anyway, I found a circle.”
“Like a magic circle?” Willow asked.
“Yep, just like the ones I’ve seen you make,” Buffy answered.
“Perhaps what we need to do is all go and see if Tara and Willow can sense anything magical afoot,” Giles said.
“We should bring weapons, just in case,” Xander suggested and tore off to Giles’ stash. Opening the chest, he pulled out a battle axe. “Anyone? Anyone? Going once, going twice –“
Spike grabbed it, rolling his eyes.
“Taken by the . . . vampire guy. Okay, we’ve got another one in case someone didn’t want to speak up—“
“I’ll take it!” Anya said, bouncing over. She patted Xander’s arm. “I love you honey. Even if Superman is stronger, taller and can protect me better. You make me laugh.”
Xander shut his eyes, as if praying for strength. “Thanks Ahn. And thanks for letting the whole room know those are my only attributes.”
She patted him again, “You’re welcome.”
“So, what’ll it be, Clark?” Buffy asked, pulling out a crossbow. “How bout this?”
Clark cleared his throat. “Oh, I, well –“
Buffy handed it to him with a bright smile. “Take it. Take it now.”
Clark took it and when he was sure no one was looking, glared at her. Buffy slung an arm around him, though it was quite difficult with his size. “Let’s go fight those baddies.” Sneaking a peak at Lois, she found the woman with an odd expression on her face – jealousy perhaps?
Spike, on the other hand, had jealousy written all over his face.