2.

Lois woke with the sun cast across her face. She moaned wearily and rolled onto her back. When she didn’t hit a warm body like she expected, her eyes shot open. “Smallville?” she called out. “Clark?”

She sat up, holding the sheet against her chest, and looked blurrily around the room. A flutter of paper at her movement caught her eye.

I’m sorry. There was more to the note, whatever it was scratched out so much that now there was a small hole poked through the paper.

She frowned and touched the corner of the note. So cryptic. So very Smallville. She folded the paper, slipped it into the small notebook on her nightstand, and stepped out of bed.

When she pulled up to the Kent farmhouse an hour later, she found herself shivering at the unnatural silence hanging in the air. “Mrs. Kent?” she called out. She stuck her head in the doorway to find Mrs. Kent bent over the counter, apple on the cutting board, fist wrapped around a knife. She wasn’t moving, save her shoulders, which were shaking slightly.

“Martha?”

She turned, her face stained wet and red.

“What happened?” Lois’s mind went to the worst, to more accidents, to the end of the world, to – “Where’s Clark?”

“Gone.”

She swallowed hard. She’d just seen Clark, just – touched him, felt his heat, wrapped herself around him, tasted him, had his hands dance over her skin, send her on edge; she’d just loved him.

Lois slumped against the counter too. “What do you mean, gone?”

“He left,” Martha said, her voice low, hollow. “He has things to do, you understand. A destiny to fulfill.” She let the knife clatter to the countertop. She stared at the apple halves.

“Destiny? What?”

“He’ll be back. One day. He didn’t know when. He – Jonathan wouldn’t have let him go. It’s too soon. It’s not soon enough. I knew it would happen. His father’s too strong.”

“What does Mr. Kent have to do with this?” Lois asked. Her head was pounding. Her grip on the counter tightened.

Martha looked at her through dull eyes and shook her head. “Not Jonathan, Lois. His biological father. He wants Clark to – he has plans for Clark.”

“How can he?” Lois exclaimed. “How does he have any right, any control over Clark’s life? Why is Clark listening to him?”

Martha touched Lois’s arm. “Lois, sweetheart,” she said softly. She pulled in a breath and rubbed her nose. “I’m sorry. I’m not taking this well, and I’m – Clark is fine.” She nodded once, too firmly. “He’s a grown man, and it’s just difficult, as a mother, to let him leave like this.”

“I wouldn’t let him either!” Lois burst out. “He has no right leaving, not now, not right after Chloe—”

It all crashed down on Lois in a moment as Mrs. Kent pulled her into a tight, motherly hug.

The night before, she’d grieved for Chloe in her own way, with passion and touching and buried-deep-down feelings and desires that she’d never wanted to let out. Clark’s caresses, his – lovemaking – had done its purpose: she’d forgotten that she was upset. Now though, pitted up against reality, the reality that Chloe was dead and never coming back and Clark had left, Lois started to crumble. She had no reason to crumble, wanted to be the strong one, but even the strongest women break.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped out, pulling from Martha’s embrace and racing for the door. The screen slammed behind her as she ran past her car and into the barn. She stopped when she found herself inches from Clark’s telescope then sank to the floor.

--

Lois stuck her head in the doorway of the Kent farmhouse and called out for Mrs. Kent for the first time in months. She smiled tightly when Martha came out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a red-checkered hand towel.

“Lois,” she greeted, pulling the younger woman in for a brief embrace. “You look pale. Are you eating enough?” She pushed Lois’s hair off her forehead and pressed her palm there. “Have you lost weight? I worry about you up in Metropolis all alone.”

Lois shook her head. “Mrs. Kent – Martha – I’m fine. Just stressed.” Working at the Planet and finishing her degree at night certainly was taxing. “It’s good to see you.” She hugged her again, trying to get away from the topic of her own life.

“Oh sweetheart, it’s good to see you too.” Martha touched Lois’s cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay? It’s just – there’s something about you. You look different.”

Lois extracted herself from Mrs. Kent and went for the refrigerator. “Are things too quiet around here?” she asked. “Maybe you could come spend a week with me in Metropolis. You know I’d love to have you. Return the favor for all those months I stayed here.”

Martha smiled. “Maybe I will. Now, sit. I made apple pie just for you and I want to hear all about life in the big city.”

Lois soon found herself on her second piece of pie, having talked about the Planet and working with veteran reporter Perry White, who’d just been hired back. She talked about investigating Inter-gang and the sudden rise of the crime rate. She didn’t want Mrs. Kent to worry, so she made sure to tell her how secure her apartment building was, that she never went out alone at night (a white lie, but necessary), that she always took photographer Jimmy Olsen with her on assignment. Still, she hadn’t made it quite yet to the real reason for her visit to Smallville.

“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out without warning.

Mrs. Kent lowered her fork, large chunk of pie on the end, to her plate. It took a moment and then she blinked. “Oh! Oh, Lois that’s – I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

“I’m not,” Lois admitted. “I –” She didn’t want Martha to be disappointed in her, but it was only right that she know. “It’s Clark’s.”

Martha blinked and started to shake her head. “I’m sorry, Lois, but I thought you just said it’s Clark’s.”

Lois looked at the crumbs littering her plate. “I did,” she said quietly.

She was quiet for a long moment. When Lois looked up at her, Martha was staring at the wall above Lois’s shoulder. She shook her head. “I – didn’t even know that the two of you –”

“We weren’t,” Lois said quickly. She regretted it immediately. It made it sound that much worse. “I mean, no, we weren’t together or anything, I’m sorry. It was the night of Chloe’s funeral. It just – happened, and he was gone in the morning.”

Martha could remember those few days as if they’d happened yesterday. Her son had lost his best friend and she’d lost her son and, quickly after, the daughter she never had left her as well. She thought she ought to be more upset, upset at the fact that Lois was going to be an unwed mother, but instead she found herself smiling. “Oh Lois, sweetheart, that’s wonderful.”

She snapped her head up. “What?”

“I said that’s wonderful. It – well, it’s certainly a surprise, but you know I’ll be here for you, right?” She reached across the table and took Lois’s hand, squeezing gently. “Lois.”

She nodded and sucked in a breath and the tears that wanted to slip out. “Damn hormones,” she laughed. “Sorry. I – thank you, Mrs. Kent. I didn’t mean to just blurt it out like that but I couldn’t think of a better – and easier way to tell you you’re going to be a grandmother.”

“That was fine,” Martha said, and she laughed a bit, breathlessly, with Lois. If Jonathan were still alive, he wouldn’t be okay with this, Martha thought. But she was. She had to be. Lois was a strong woman, but even strong women couldn’t do something like this alone. “You won’t have to do this alone.”

“You know where Clark is?” Lois asked.

Martha shook her head sadly. “No, no Lois I don’t. I’m sorry.”

She lifted her chin and nodded once. “That’s fine. He – I can’t blame him. He doesn’t – didn’t know. I don’t think –”

“He wouldn’t have left if he knew,” Martha said quietly. “And you didn’t know when he left. There’s nothing you can do about it now.”

“I don’t want him to be mad at me.”

“Oh sweetheart, I don’t think that’s possible,” Martha said. She rubbed her thumb along Lois’s cheek.

Lois pulled away and stood to pace. She rubbed her hands off her thighs and inhaled deeply. “It’s just – Clark and I just happened. I know you don’t want to hear this, but we did. We weren’t together and we – there were no promises made and when it all comes down to it I’m just an idiot.”

Martha was at her side in an instant. “Lois, don’t. I know this isn’t something that was planned or even necessarily something you wanted, but you’re not going to be doing this alone. Look at me.”

Lois looked at her, trying not to cry but being unsuccessful at it. She hated feeling this weak, that she needed someone else, but she knew Mrs. Kent wouldn’t make her feel less than herself. “Thank you,” she said.

As Mrs. Kent pulled her into a snug embrace, Lois’s eyes slipped shut. She had been so worried about disappointing the older woman, and she was surprised by her warm reaction. She shouldn’t have been too surprised though; she was giving Martha a grandchild. And like Lois, Martha Kent had an affinity for stray dogs and orphans, so why would an unwed mother be any different?