Epilogue: I Have To Get A Picture

"...of the two of us together. Just look at you!" Lucy Lane said.

Lois Lane smiled at her sister. The doctor estimated she was in her eighth week of pregnancy, thanks to Blaze's magic, and Lois had bit the bullet and started to tell people. It wasn't so strange for a woman to hide she was pregnant instead of announcing it right away. After all, things happened. Miscarriages were common.

Lucy was as tall as her older sister, but more buff and fit. The Army physical training kept her in shape, and Lois knew that her blonde little sister was attractive...and worse, she knew that Lucy knew it. The reporter didn't want to think about what her sister got into during her off-hours...but, that was the younger woman's look-out and Lois had no desire to spoil her fun.

They posed together, Lois and Lucy raising their shirts and facing each other to show off their stomachs. Lucy's was flat, with pronounced abs; Lois Lane's was softer, with just the barest beginning of the curve that promised to be Lucy's future nephew or niece. Together, they held the old-fashioned Polaroid camera, angled it downward...

Pressed the button.

The flash was momentarily blinding to Lois. She blinked, hoping that she wouldn't have glowing red eyes in this one...and then she felt something odd.

Her stomach was touching Lucy's.

The younger sister felt it as well. She looked down at her stomach and gawked. A moment before, Lucy Lane's stomach had been slightly concave, the abs prominent. The abs were still there...but now it was convex, doming out ever so slightly, and their belly buttons were touching.

"Are you poking your stomach out so that we both look pregnant?" Lois asked.

"No," Lucy said, a tone of worry in her voice. "I mean...I'm trying to suck it in. I feel...really weird all of a sudden, I..."

The blonde peeled off to make a dash toward the bathroom. She didn't even bother to close the door, just tossed up the toilet seat and heaved.

Lois, a step behind her, grabbed her sister's hair to keep it out of the bowl.

It took a few minutes. Lois thought about the camera...the same camera that Blaze had taken pictures of her with. The reporter chewed her little lip, thinking of the demonic dickgirl, who was out working at the bar and wouldn't be home until later. If there was some old magic in that camera still...could it have...

Lucy finished, and Lois turned into the doting sister, fetching her a glass of water.

"Sorry, I don't...I don't know what's come over me." The young woman poked at her stomach. It was hard, unyielding to the touch. "And I just don't know where this came from..."

"Have you..." Lois took a breath and let it out. "Have you had any unprotected sex lately?"

"No, not for a couple of months," Lucy said, with a shake of her head.

"But you're not on birth control," Lois insisted.

"I..." her sister's big blue eyes got wide. "No, I can't be. That's..."

Lois Lane reached under the sink for where the pregnancy tests were gathering dust.

"Just for peace of mind," she suggested as she handed one to Lucy. The reporter stepped out to let the young woman handle that in peace...but was sisterly enough to wait outside the door until she heard the tinkle of piss on porcelain before she turned her attention back to the camera.

The film had developed, and yes, there were the Lane sisters, stomach to stomach. If Lois didn't know any better, she'd say they were both pregnant. On a hunch, the reporter opened the feeder tray at the back...

The camera wasn't even loaded. It shouldn't have been able to make a photo. Yet Lois Lane was suddenly sure it had made a lot more than that.

Ten minutes later, Lucy came out of the bathroom. The stick in her sweat-slick hands showed two blue lines. The young woman's jubilant spirit was entirely gone, and she was white-faced and worried.

"Oh Lucy," Lois said with a big smile, putting on a brave show. "That's wonderful! Think of what dad will say. Our kids will be just the same age...isn't that perfect?"

"Yeah," Lucy said, shaking herself as she tried to come to terms with this new reality. "It's just jeeze...I don't even know who the father is."

She had walked into her sister's apartment baby-free, and now she was eight weeks pregnant. Or so Lois darkly surmised.

What's done is done, Lois thought to herself. But I definitely need to talk with Angie about that camera when I get home.