"I've got an appointment to keep, then I'm going to get something to eat," Lois said after checking her watch again. She had ten minutes to get to the maternity ward at Met. General for her ultrasound. "I'll be back in a little bit."

The General and Ella were both asleep, but Lucy acknowledged the statement with a sleepy, distracted nod, resituating herself in the chair by the bed and glancing at their parents before directing her eyes back to a magazine full of knitting patterns.

Lois smiled to herself over the sheer domestication of her little sister as she made her way through the quiet halls. It was the first appointment of the day, leaving the halls empty but for a few tired-looking nurses making the first rounds of their shifts. That made it all the easier to let Clark in from a roof-access stairwell without raising any eyebrows.

The ultrasound technician was a middle-aged woman with a cheery disposition, which only served to peeve Lois: The gel was cold on her stomach; her mother was recovering from a stroke; it was early in the morning and she hadn't had a proper cup of coffee in months.

Clark was predictably chipper, which made things easier for the technician. All Lois had to do was lie still and glare at the pair of them as they made light conversation.

Most of her anger ebbed when the quick sound of a heartbeat filled the room. Clark had an unbearably smug look on his face—he'd been whispering about the baby's heartbeat for weeks. Lois had to smile. He'd been talking like he was the first guy to ever procreate (Jimmy had called her twice from the Planet to congratulate her on so firmly securing Clark's position as bullpen geek).

It made her nostalgic for when she was pregnant with Jason. Richard had been very supportive, but she'd made most of her first checkups with Lucy. Lucy had introduced her to Dr. Elaine Port, who had been amazing, particularly when dealing with Lois' short fuse. Her patience through Lois' panic over Jason's bronchial problems from the start was a testament to her profession.

"Clark, you are smiling like an idiot," Lois informed him as they left the ward. After Lois had got what felt like less than half the goop off her belly with a paper towel, they had listened to a steady stream of assurances that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the baby; everything was just where it was supposed to be. Clark had somehow managed to smile wider. Lois was fairly certain his molars were on display.

"I'm happy."

"Well, good," she said, unable to fault him that. It made her rather happy, herself. Her mood turning up for a change, she looped her hand into Clark's arm as they walked.

They made it through a cafeteria brunch before the TV alerted them to a hostage situation in progress at the US embassy in Italy and Clark kissed her goodbye. Lois stayed where she was, watching him disappear down the side hall and reappear in red and blue on the TV in Italy only a minute later.

Lucy found her still sitting at their table for two tucked off to the side of the cafeteria ten minutes later.

"There you are."

"Oh, hi," Lois said, looking up at her little sister's face and suddenly feeling guilty. She'd been gone for almost two hours.

"Oh, hi," Lucy mimed, taking the seek Clark had vacated, rolling her eyes. "What have you been up to? The food down here isn't that good."

"Mostly sitting." She glanced at the TV, noting that the situation at the embassy was still underway.

"You're just itching to get in there and report on things, aren't you?" Lucy chuckled, noting where Lois's eyes had strayed to.

Lois just shrugged. She was feeling rather put out that Clark had had to leave so soon; it felt as though she didn't get to spend much time with him. She blamed it on the hormones. She was Lois Lane, after all. Independent. Needing no man to keep her company in the hospital cafeteria. Mad Dog Lane, they called her.

"What's that?"

"Hm?"

Lois moved too slow, and Lucy snagged the ultrasound photo from beside the tray on the table between them.

"You didn't tell me you had an appointment—is that where you went this morning?"

"I did tell you I had an appointment," Lois said in her own defense.

"When?" Lucy replied skeptically, raising her eyebrows.

"Right before I left."

"You mean when I was practically asleep?"

Lois began gnawing a thumb nail as she worked not to make eye contact.

"I thought so." Lois glanced at her sister's face and wasn't surprised to see a familiar exasperated look in place.

"It was all good news, though. Everything looked fine," Lois said, trying to steer them away from the awkwardness.

"It's adorable," Lucy said, turning the picture this way and that. Lois had to laugh.

"I appreciate your tact." She had a particularly vivid memory of getting punched in the shoulder rather hard after her 'It looks like an alien' comment concerning an ultrasound of Lucy's first.

"I did have a shining example of what not to do."

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

They sat together for another moment, Lois's eyes making their way back to the TV, where she could see Clark negotiating with a tall man in a charcoal suit holding a gun.

"You're holding a torch for him, aren't you?" Lucy asked in such a soft, unobtrusive voice that Lois answered before she realized what she was saying to whom.

"I think that's implied in the fact that I'm carrying his child," she said, her tone sarcastic, then, "Oh, shit!"

"Lois!" Lucy hissed in a loud whisper, outraged.

"Um, that is, I meant to say…" Lois began, but couldn't think of a way to talk her way out of it, not to Lucy. Her words had been perfectly audible, and it was clear she had been thinking about the Blue Boy Scout currently featured on the TV… "I was thinking about Clark?"

"You were not," Lucy hissed, glaring disapprovingly and looking as though she might stamp her foot any second. She lowered her voice further before speaking. "Now just what are you saying, Lois?" she asked, though Lois was fairly certain it wasn't the matter in question any longer. "This," Lucy set the ultrasound photo on the table, indicating the black and white baby that looked as though it were mostly skull at the moment, "is Superman's child?"

"This," Lois said, rubbing her swollen belly, "is Clark's child, Lucy."

"I heard what you said, Lois," Lucy said sharply. "You can't take it back now. What the hell are you thinking?"

Lois bit her lip. Her mind had gone blank. She and Clark hadn't had time to sit down and talk about what they'd do if Lois's family, or Ben Hubbard for that matter, found out that Clark was Superman. There was no contingency plan, no fallback story.

"He's not human, Lois," Lucy whispered. She was leaning in over the table slightly, eyes wide and honest. "I mean, he's great. He's saved a hundred thousand lives. He's made your career amazing. But… when it comes down to it…"

"Luce," Lois said when her sister fell silent, "humanity is compassion and forgiveness in the most cheesy and cliché way possible. He is just like any other man, "she couldn't help but wink, noticing her sister's faint blush, "he just happens to be able to fly."

"And shoot lasers out of his eyes," Lucy replied, pulling her chair around so that she was sitting closer to Lois, lowering her voice further. "How can it work? The child could really hurt you," she said, taking the ultrasound photo and holding it between them, looking at it, plainly wondering how anything so small and normal-looking could be half-alien, could shoot lasers out of its eyes and bend steel with its bare hands. "One good kick to the bladder by any baby can send a mother to the bathroom in a hurry, but a good kick to your bladder and… I don't want to think about the damage that kind of strength could do."

"I was fine with Jason," Lois said, then slapped her hand to her mouth. Lucy sat up straighter in her shock, gaping.

"What!"

"Sh! I can't believe I just said that…!"

"Lois!" Lucy said, her voice back to a whisper. "You can't be serious! First you said he was Richard's, then you said he was Clark's, and all this time…"

"It's not like that!" Lois said quickly, not liking the censure she saw in her sister's eyes. "Clark knows."

"What do you mean 'Clark knows'?" she asked sharply.

"I mean he knows about me and Superman. He knew about Jason before Richard did."

"He's been telling everybody that Jason is his. Biologically."

"He and Superman look a lot alike," Lois said, making it up as she went. "And they've always been good friends. Um. They both—care—about me. Superman can't be a normal person and have a family, but Clark can. He can be around; he can be with me and with the children…"

"I never took you for a bigamist, Lois."

Lois gaped at her sister in outrage, but realized she'd walked right into that one and there wasn't really a way out.

"I—I'm not, not; I mean…" Unable to think of anything further to say, Lois sat staring at her sister, slightly gaping.

"We are not a codfish, sweetheart," Clark said, appearing in the space next to the pair of them. Lois snapped her mouth shut, looking at him instead of at her sister. She couldn't think of a thing to say and it was very disconcerting. Lucy looked similarly tongue-tied, though she looked deeply peeved, or maybe disturbed, at the same time. Clark noted their mutual inability to speak and smirked. "I think you and I should go for a walk, Mrs. Troupe," he said, in a tone that fell somewhere between a suggestion and an order. "And maybe you should lie down for awhile, Lois?" That one was definitely a suggestion.

"Yes, I think I will," Lois said, smirking at the difference in his tone. It wasn't until later, when she'd bid them both goodbye and made her way to the spare cot in Ella's room that she realized how easily he'd gotten her to do just what he wanted her to do. Somehow, though, she found it more amusing than annoying (she blamed that on the hormones, too).

-

"I really don't know what to say to you about this," Lucy said after Lois had left. "I don't get it at all."

"I love her," Clark responded simply, smiling fondly at the ultrasound photo before pocketing it and bussing the tray, gesturing for Lucy to follow him out of the cafeteria.

"Enough to share her with another man? To raise his children as your own?" Clark observed that the Lane sisters looked very much alike when they were outraged on behalf of another.

"Enough to do anything for her," he replied softly. Lucy let off her tirade in favor of following him into the elevator and giving him a look like he was absolutely insane. It wasn't long before they arrived at the deserted roof. "Even tell her sister the biggest secret I've ever kept because it will make her life easier."

EPILOGUE

Molly Mariah Kent was born at 7 a.m. on the dot, July 21, 2009. She had bright blue eyes, black fuzz atop her head, and her father was her favorite person from the moment she began screaming her unhappiness to have been forced to leave the warm, dark comfort of the womb for the cold, bright unhappiness of the world at large.

"This one's definitely yours," Lois told Clark between pushes, just after he'd walked in from dealing with an untimely volcanic disturbance somewhere in the Ring of Fire.

"What makes you so sure?" he'd asked, holding her hand and enjoying the fact that his invulnerability enveloped her when they were close, meaning it hurt like hell when she clenched her fingers around his through the labor pains.

"It's another effing early riser," she said, trying to smile at him but mostly just gritting her teeth in his direction.

The hubbub of a new family member seemed to swirl on for eons. Ella had been released from the hospital, all that remained as evidence of her stroke a saggy right eyelid—she was a bit slower on her feet, but just as eager visit and mollycoddle, dragging along the ever-hovering, ever-silent General. Lucy and family were always nearby, as were Martha and Ben. Bruce and Alfred arrived with several much too expensive gifts ("Really, who spend a hundred dollars on something she'll out-grow in a month?" Martha had wondered aloud). Jimmy and several others from the Planet had stopped by—baby Molly was holding court (in her sleep) at Clark's apartment—as well.

It was a full week (and an angry tirade on Lois's part) before friends and relatives stopped arriving unannounced. For awhile, it had seemed like there was always a grandparent, aunt or pseudo-uncle around trying to help out, making it difficult for to maintain the family secrets.

"Everybody out," Lois had finally said, her voice a harsh whisper as she'd just gotten Molly to sleep in her bassinet in Clark's bedroom.

Ella, Bruce, Alfred, Jimmy, Lucy, Ron, Jenny, Lola, Holly-from-Accounting, George-from-Business, and Miranda-from-Lifestyles had all looked at her, affronted.

"I mean it," she said, arms akimbo, glaring at them all, spread out unhelpfully in the living room with Ella keeping herself busy in the kitchen. "Believe it or not, one man and one woman can manage to take care of their children with no help from over-supportive relatives!"

The crowd had begun gathering their things, looking a bit offended.

"It's not that we don't appreciate your being here," Clark had said quickly, running an uneasy hand through his hair. He'd meant it as a sort of parting-words on his part, but a few people had looked like they might choose to stay, assuming he was adding a disclaimer to Lois's statements. "It's just that it's… a bit crowded."

"Right. So," Lois said, making herding motions with her arms. "Love you all dearly, thanks for coming; everybody out."

Good-byes were said, hugs were given, and the apartment slowly began to empty. Lucy, Jimmy, and Ella lingered the longest, Lucy and Jimmy wondering if the shooing had just been for those who weren't in on The Secret to give Clark a little more freedom to come and go, while Ella just seemed to think that "we need some time alone as a family" didn't apply to grandmothers.

"I assure you, we'll be just fine," Lois said, hugging her sister then her mother, then closing the door, leaning back against it and breathing a sigh of relief.

The quiet lasted approximately five seconds before Molly let them know that she was awake and unhappy that they hadn't noticed yet.

"Is this all babies do?" Jason asked, dropping his crayons to put flatten his hands over his ears.

"Is what all babies do?" Lois asked, easing herself onto the couch beside him to look over his shoulder at his drawings—he'd been tasked with creating drawings to decorate Molly's room (or at least the wall in Clark's bedroom nearest where they kept the bassinet) and he was doing a grand job, drawing sunshines and flowers.

"Sleep and cry and poop and cry and sleep," Jason sighed, grabbing a new sheet of paper and starting on another sunshine.

"Yes, pretty much," Lois said, trying not to laugh. "It will be a few years before she'd big enough to play like you do."

Jason sighed heartily, making Lois laugh harder.

"Found her," Clark said, entering the room with the yellow-swaddled bundle that was Molly tucked into his arms. Lois loved watching Clark carry Molly around. There was something beautiful and fascinating about it—the happy, peaceful look on his face, the huge shoulders and muscled arms so gently cradling such a small bundle. She'd never tire of seeing him with their children.

"Oh good," Lois said, relaxing into the cushions and smirking at him. Clark smiled back—he was still stuck in what the General had dubbed his 'grinning fool' phase—and joined her on the couch. Jason immediately stood up to peer down at his baby sister, all complaints of sleeping and crying and pooping forgotten.

Yes, Lois thought, leaning back against the sofa and Clark, able to see Molly's little face between the folds of the blanket, big blue eyes staring up at Jason's identical blue eyes staring down into hers, watching each other, we'll be just fine.

"So when are you guys getting married?" Jason asked, looking up at them with earnest eyes and a trace of an impish grin.

A/N: A great, big THANK YOU to everybody who has managed to put up with my fickle posting schedule through to the end of this portion of the story!!! Addendum to that, this has turned out to be just the first portion/half of the story, as it were. The sequel ("Identity Crisis: the Crisis" or something along those lines) will be along shortly.

Thanks again—

— mak:)