Epilogue: Body & Soul

"So," Clark asked, handing Lois a steaming mug of coffee. "How's the...domestic situation?"

"It's been an adjustment," Lois admitted with a sigh. She took the proffered mug of liquid caffeine with gratitude. "Is it that obvious?"

Clark noticed there were bags under the reporter's eyes. She hadn't got much sleep the last three weeks, sometimes coming in a bit late in the mornings, hair a mess, putting her makeup on in the restroom. He glanced around her cubicle: there was a new picture on her desk of a raven-haired woman. The black-and-white blob of a sonogram that had replaced her usual desktop wallpaper. A copy of A Modern Girl's Guide to Motherhood was half-buried under a stack of print-outs.

"I might not be Batman," he smiled, "but I can put two and two together. You know you can tell me anything, Lo—" He started, but Lois held up a hand.

"There was a...wild night. She bet herself in a poker game, and I won." She sipped her coffee, made a face, and then took a larger gulp. "And I know that sounds bad. I wasn't going to hold her to it, honest, but she just...showed up, and she won't leave."

Lois spread her legs and leaned forward. Clark deliberately turned his head so he wouldn't be staring at the bulge in her skirt.

"She needs sex. Constantly. Won't let me go to sleep without a fuck, and I wake up every morning to her ass grinding against my crotch. I gave her my phone number for emergencies, and she started making booty calls almost immediately. Then she discovered how to send photos and..."

The reporter held up her phone. There angle and lighting were poor, but it looked a lot like the kind of picture you could take only if the bottom half of the phone was currently embedded halfway in a woman's vagina. The valley of the belly was almost majestic, the hovering out-of-focus tits like distant mountains.

"When did you find out she was pregnant?" Clark asked, returning the phone to her.

"Right away." Lois closed her eyes and took a slurp from the life-giving black coffee. "Quadruplets. I have to buy a house, Smallville. Start college funds. Buy a minivan." She paused, the reality of the statement sinking in. "I really should tell my dad and sister."

"Lois," Clark asked quietly, letting his voice drop so no busy-bodies could overhear. "Do you love her?"

She shot a look at the photograph. There was an enigmatic half-smile on the woman's features, something like the bust of Nefertiti giving a Mona Lisa grin.

"I think...I mean at first, it was like Perfect Strangers. With lots of fucking. Constant arguments, different habits...I caught her using my toothbrush once. Now..." Lois bit her lip. "I'm trying to figure out how to ask her to marry me."