Chapter Text
When night falls, Clark stands on the ground to catch Bruce as he hops off the branch.
"I know how to land a twelve foot drop, Clark." Clark rolls his eyes and keeps his arms held out,
"You're three months pregnant. Excuse my concern." He catches Bruce easily and sets him on the ground. Bruce brushes off his absurdly expensive jeans from sitting on the bark,
"By month seven you'll try to cover me in bubble wrap." Clark raises an eyebrow,
"I know better than to think bubble wrap will keep you out of trouble." They head back to the house with their apples. Clark's parents are watching M*A*S*H on the old box TV they have.
"It'll be time for me to head on patrol soon." Bruce takes the basket and gives him a kiss,
"Here, I'll wash the apples." Martha comes in from the living room,
"No, you go sit down, hun. I can manage my own kitchen," she waggles a playful finger at Clark, "And you go give those criminals the what for, Clark. We'll keep your boy out of trouble." Clark laughed and hugged her,
"Thanks Ma. I know if anyone can wrangle Bruce Wayne, it'll be you." He gives Bruce one last kiss and heads outside to take off in his flight back to Gotham. Bruce leans in the doorway, arms crossed and looking up at the sky where he disappeared. Martha speaks to him from the sink,
"I know he's the Man of Steel but I still get worried about him too," she admits, "But I also know he's a big boy and he can take care of himself." Bruce's jaw clenched,
"I don't like someone having to do my job for me." Martha chuckled,
"You and Jon are two peas in a pod with that one. Do you know how long it took before he accepted Clark's help with anything other than minor chores? He doesn't like to talk about it but we're getting up there in years. He's no spring chicken that can be lifting bales of hay all day." Bruce quirks a half smile,
"I'm twenty-six." Martha places a hand over her heart,
"Gosh, just a baby…" Bruce laughed and she continued, "Don't worry. You'll be back saving the day in no time."
Martha and Jonathan delivered on their promise of showing all of Clark's baby photos. There were also multitudes of VHS tapes taken of birthday celebrations, sporting events, and school plays. They both retire early on in the night leaving Bruce on the couch bed to spiral without Clark there. There's something easier about Clark patrolling when Bruce himself is also in Gotham. He knows if worst comes to worst he's still able to suit up and step in if needed. He knows logically that Gotham rarely has events Superman would be unable to handle but Alfred and Clark have told him he has a bit of a "control issue". Bruce stares at his phone where it's charging on the end table, wrestling with himself not to text Clark. He would only be a distraction. Pregnancy has made him clingy and emotional in ways he's never been before. It's contradictory to his usual desire for plenty of space. Clark is only too happy to oblige, he's practically moved in now and makes the flight to Metropolis to work every morning. Bruce would feel guilty if it were anyone but a man who could fly around the world in a matter of minutes. Bruce's hand darts out against his better judgement and yanks his phone from the cord. He restrains himself from contacting Clark directly but he checks a few Gotham news sites to see if anything big happened. Superman was seen saving overnight workers from a factory fire, a blurry picture of him carrying a soot covered man out of a flaming building. Bruce smiles and traces Clark's image with his thumb. He knows Clark will have that sad look on his face if he finds out Bruce hasn't slept. He'll feel guilty even if he was just doing what Bruce asked him to, necessary work. It's not like he needed Clark Kent to fall asleep. He's functioned perfectly fine without him for twenty five years. He turns his phone screen off with a sigh and fumbles around with the cord to plug it back in.
He lies there awake until Clark comes through the back door, careful to not make any noise. The sun is just starting to rise and it casts Clark in its rays through the kitchen window. He looks beautiful. Otherworldly. Every bit the symbol of hope so many people see him as. He removes his boots and puts them on the stoop outside and washes his hands in the kitchen sink before making his way back over to Bruce, who he can doubtlessly tell isn't sleeping.
"Did you get any sleep at all, baby?" He kneels down next to the couch bed by Bruce's face, cape pooling on the ground, and caresses his stubble with his thumb.
"I slept in the car." Clark frowns and pushes his hair back from his face to kiss his forehead,
"Can you at least take a nap during your sunning time?"
"You make me sound like a lizard."
"We all know billionaires have all been replaced with lizard people," he rises and tugs Bruce's hand, "C'mon lizard. My parents will be up any minute now." He leads Bruce outside to the rocking chair. "I want to try my hand at building one of these for the nursery. I'm not sure where to start though, Pa and I never built anything more complex than a fence."
"Maybe start with something less ambitious," Bruce relaxes into the chair. He's much too private to show his belly directly here. He can't help thinking it would be weird despite knowing the Kents would think nothing of it especially when told the reason. Still, showing the bump was more symbolic, the baby just needed the Vitamin D absorbed through his skin.
Bruce conks out for three hours and wakes up to the smell of bacon. His stomach growls and he finds himself with a hand over his belly. There's a blanket placed over his lap, a handmade quilt patterned with the Superman symbol. Bruce rubs the fabric between his fingers, half awake until Clark comes back out. He's got a slice of toast held in his mouth and waves at Bruce with the hand not holding a plate heaping with toast slices. Clark takes one and tries to feed it to him but Bruce just takes it from his hand and eats it normally, ignoring Clark's dramatic whine. Bruce folds up the blanket before bringing it back inside. Martha is at the stove making breakfast,
"Hey there, did you sleep alright? I was torn between letting you sleep and telling you to come back inside. The weather's turning now and I don't want you catching a cold. I ended up just giving you Clark's blanket."
"I appreciate it." Clark finishes the toast in his mouth,
"I already finished cleaning and feeding the cows but I wanted to show you milking them. Have you ever milked a cow?"
"Clark. I live in Gotham. I'm probably one of the rare few who's ever seen a cow." Clark laughed,
"I'll give you that one." Jonathan comes back with a basket of eggs and gives Martha a kiss before handing them over. They eat breakfast mostly in peaceful quiet. Bruce watches the three with their coffee enviously as he sips the tea Clark made for him.
Clark noticed how hard Bruce tried to hide his nerves around the cows. It was a little funny but he tried to keep in mind how strange and unfamiliar this must be to him. Still. Bruce could face down a barrel of a shotgun but not a dairy cow. He eventually gets Bruce to pet some of the calmest of the girls before showing how they hook up the pumps to get the milk. Bruce watches with curiosity and Clark guides him through the next one. Clark knows a single breastmilk joke will have him on the couch until the bat pup is born so he wisely keeps his mouth shut. They send the ladies out to graze after and Clark catches Bruce getting teary as he watches a calf with its mother. Bruce glares at him and wipes his eyes in his sleeve,
"Don't," he commands, "Just. Don't." Clark once again wisely Doesn't.
They take a detour to the chicken coop on the way back to the house. Clark gets a cute picture of Bruce holding a baby chick that he sends to Alfred. Martha is making the pie crust when they get back. She tries to teach Bruce but pie crust is a bit complex for someone whose cooking skills amount to boiling water. Still, she's patient with him as he rolls out the dough and tells stories of her own mother and grandmother who taught her.
With the dough in the freezer, Clark takes Bruce out to see town. He points out the school he went to and the field he played little league in as well as the pond he and Jonathan would fish in. They go to a farmer's market and Bruce buys an obscene amount of fudge, swearing it's to share with Alfred. Clark doesn't doubt that some of it will make it to Alfred but he also knows Alfred is watching his sugar intake and will likely leave most of it to Bruce. Clark gets stopped quite a few times for conversation, one time in the middle of the road where an old family friend just parks his truck and they start talking. If someone tried to pull something like that in Gotham they were likely to get shot at or at least their tires slashed. Clark just laughed and assured him it was a very real possibility the two were going to be the only cars that drove on that country road the whole day. One of Clark's old teachers sees them at the diner and asks if Bruce is from Metropolis.
"No, Gotham actually." She laughs,
"Wow! Do you ever get mistaken for Bruce Wayne?"
When they get back to the Kent's farm, Bruce peels the apples he and Clark picked last night. Clark tries to see how many slices he can steal before Bruce notices. He finds that number is amazingly low before Bruce shoos him away. Clark and Martha make breakfast for dinner for their last night in Smallville and end the day with apple pie and ice cream.
The next afternoon, Clark carries their suitcase to the car as his parents say their goodbyes and final congratulations to Bruce. He goes back to say his own farewells and give hugs before heading into the car with Bruce.
Bruce only gets sick once, when the plane hits turbulence, but is fine until they get back to Gotham. Alfred picks them up from the airport,
"I see you returned intact, Master Bruce. I take it the trip went well?" Bruce nods,
"The Kents are extraordinarily kind people." Clark gives him a kiss on his palm before turning to Alfred,
"I got a video of Bruce trying to milk a cow if you want to see."