Epilogue

“Up, Daddy, up. Baby.” Two-year-old Jonathan was half dragging his mother’s blankets off trying to climber onto the bed by himself.

Clark chided him gently. “Hold on, Jonathan.” Scooping him up, he bent over the bed so his son could get a clear view of his new baby sister. “She’s tiny now, but someday soon, you’ll have someone that can chase you around the backyard.”

He watched his son’s eyes glow with wonder as he stretched out a tentative hand to pat the baby’s head. “Baby,” he whispered in awe. He touched her for a brief second and then ripped back his hand and covered his mouth. He then looked at his mother and chuckled mischievously.

“Yes, baby,” Lois said smiling. “You can touch her, just be gentle.”

Tears pooled in his eyes as he surveyed his little family. If someone had told him ten years ago that he’d end up marrying the most annoying, troublesome, opinionated and headstrong woman he knew and he would have laughed in the poor soul’s face. But Lois was the kind of person that grew on you till it became obvious that the thought of life without them now terrified you. She hadn’t lost one iota of her independent spirit, even going so far as to have them write their own politically correct vows, and forcing the minister to say, “You may kiss each other,” rather than traditional “You may kiss the bride.”

“What do you think, Smallville?” Lois asked tears of joy glistening in her eyes.

“I think she’s beautiful. Just like her mother,” Clark said with a proud smile. He kissed his wife and squeezed her hand.

“What do we call her?”

There was a tug in his chest as he looked at his baby daughter, and a picture he kept in his journal at the bottom of his sock drawer came to mind. “I like Lara,” he said softly.

“Lara,” Lois said, trying the name herself while watching her daughter yawn in her sleep. Beaming up at her husband, she brought his work-worn hand to her lips. “Lara, after your birth mother.” She kissed his fingers and rested their clasped hands against her cheek. “I think it’s perfect.”

“Yeah,” Clark said gazing down at them both. “Yeah, she is.”

It had been almost two decades since she'd first landed in his life. And he'd been patiently waiting living in hope that he would one day see her again. There'd been no guarantee that he'd make the right decisions, that he'd choose the right path, but she'd had faith in him. He watched his beautiful wife and son gazing at their new little addition. There she was. Lara. His daughter.