***

Lois stepped out the door and into the back yard of their Hyperion Avenue townhouse with a tray filled with glasses of ice and a pitcher of lemonade. “Who’s thirsty?” she called with a smile as she looked over the small crowd.

As she set the tray down, she glanced over at the grill where Clark, Jonathan, her dad Sam, Perry, and Jimmy were gesturing vigorously in a ‘we’re discussing sports’ sort of way between short breaks to solemnly prod the steaks. She caught Clark’s eye and grinned at him as he grinned back.

“You two have been married for five years,” called Ellen from across the yard, “it’s not normal to still be looking at each other like that.”

Lois stifled a smirk when Lucy rolled her eyes at their mother before returning her attention to her toddler, Joey. Barely three, the little boy was running around the plastic kiddie pool Lois and Clark had bought for him and playing his favorite game — ‘Superman.’ He’d pestered “Aunt” Martha into pinning one of the red beach towels that was licensed by the Superman Foundation to the shoulders of his shirt as a makeshift cape, and it dragged along the ground behind him as he ran.

Suddenly he broke from circling the pool and made a dash toward the grill, crashing into Clark’s shins and grabbing hold before any of the adults could steer him away.

“Unca Clark, fly me! Fly me!” the small boy begged excitedly.

Clark scooped him up with a tickle, exchanging a quick, knowing grin with Jimmy and stepping into a clear area of the yard as he tossed the boy gently into the air before settling him belly-down across his forearms.

“Ready?” Clark asked.

“Ready!” cried Joey.

Everyone smiled at Joey’s happy shouts as Clark started to spin around slowly, then burst into laughter when the small boy flung his arms out in front of himself and cried “I Supaman! I save you, Aunt Lois!”

Lois glared at her sister. “Oh, ha ha, very funny. Did you teach him that?”

Lucy grinned back with sparkling eyes, completely unrepentant. “I didn’t have to!”

Lois’s glare broke after a few seconds and she shook her head, laughing with everyone else as she turned to go back into the house and help Martha and Alice. She still couldn’t cook, but after half a decade of marriage to Clark she was less hazardous in the kitchen than Lucy or Ellen, and she could make a mean tossed salad or mix together a potato salad if someone else boiled the potatoes.

Glancing back over her shoulder at her husband and her nephew, she still remembered the stomach churning mix of rage and jealousy that had swept over her when her kid sister had announced her pregnancy barely a year after Lois and Clark had gotten their bad news from Dr. Klein. As soon as he’d arrived though, she’d immediately loved her nephew with an aching fierceness that helped to at least partially fill the void in her heart. She couldn’t help but think back to the day Joey was born.

***

Lois had gotten a call from her sister that morning to tell her that contractions had started, but they were waiting until they were closer together before going to the hospital. Lois asked if she and Jimmy wanted company, and Lucy had said sure.

Lois and Clark had been at Lucy and Jimmy’s house for the better part of the day, distracting Jimmy and keeping them both company, when Lucy had suddenly gasped then cried “Ooooh, I think my water just broke!”

Everyone had looked down, and it hadn’t taken x-ray vision to see that whatever had broken was definitely too dark to be water. Jimmy had blanched and snatched for the phone, but froze when Lois shouted "No!"

Clark had darted across the room in a blur of color, and suddenly Superman was scooping Lucy into his arms as she staggered in fear and shock. "I'll explain everything later," he’d said over his shoulder as Lois scrambled to open the window and he sailed out with Jimmy's bleeding wife in his grasp.

Later that evening, after the baby had been born and he and Lucy had been declared healthy and safe, Lois and Clark had sat down with the new parents and explained about Clark’s ‘side job’ and how important and dangerous the secret was.

***

Later that afternoon, after everyone had eaten but before anyone had moved away from the large picnic table, Lois and Clark stood up and stepped to each other’s sides.

“We’d like to thank everyone for coming today,” said Clark, as he wrapped an arm around Lois’s waist. “We know that with everyone’s busy schedules, it’s not always easy for us all to get together.”

“Well,” Ellen interjected, “you said it was important.” She, Martha, and Alice exchanged a knowing look across the table.

“Yes we did, and it is.” Clark said. “Lois and I have something to tell you.”

Lois felt a slight upward pressure against her elbow and chanced a quick glance down to make sure her husband hadn’t started to float. She’d been checking periodically since they’d seen those two pink lines on the test two months ago. She cleared her throat and grinned up at him, then faced their family with aching cheeks and helpless, happy tears in her eyes.

“We’re gonna have a baby!”

THE END