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Lois had spent the better part of an hour attempting to get her 3-year-old boys to eat boxed mac and cheese with mixed vegetables for dinner, both her sons more interested in throwing the sauce covered pasta at each other than actually eating anything. Jordan complained he felt weird, and Jonathan seemed more interested in seeing how far he could throw his dinner than actually eating it. Finally, Lois gave up on her attempts to get her children to actually eat. She figured that if they started complaining after bath time, she would them get some cheese and crackers or peanut butter and jelly. That was easy enough.
Jordan had decided to make waves in the bathtub with his hands and Jonathan joined in as soon as he realized what he was doing, creating a mess that was somehow even worse than the one they had left behind after dinner. Typically, Clark gave them their bath on Sunday nights, allowing Lois sometime to prepare for a standing meeting she had first thing on Monday’s, but he had been out most of the day, away on Superman duties, meaning Lois was again stuck doing the solo mom thing.
Getting the boys into their PJs and into bed had been the obvious conclusion to the trilogy of mischief that her twins seemed to be embarking on tonight. Jordan had felt that need to run up and down the hallway without anything on and Jonathan thought it was quite amusing to wear his underwear on his head. Finally, Lois got them into their beds, read them a story, and turned off the lights.
It felt like Lois had just gotten to sleep when she was awoken by Clark’s tossing and turning next to her.
He was usually good about slipping in quietly as not to wake her when he got in late, but now, he seemed just as unsettled as the boys had been all evening long.
“Babe, babe,” Lois reached over and lightly brushed her hand along Clark’s arm.
“Huh,” Clark sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“Are you okay,” Lois whispered in their dark bedroom.
Clark sighed, “Couldn’t get to sleep, just couldn’t settle down.”
Lois reached out and gently massaged his bicep.
“And the boys are up now,” Clark said just moments before little hands pushed open the bedroom door.
“Mommy, mommy,” Jordan’s voice rang out through the room, more awake than he should have been.
“I’ll get them back to sleep.” Clark said as he pulled on his glasses and a t-shirt.
“Thanks,” Lois said as Clark scooped up the toddlers and headed back towards their bedroom.
When Lois woke up, Clark had still not returned to bed. She frowned; Clark knew she needed to be at that early meeting at the Planet which meant that he needed to be around to take the boys into daycare. That had been the deal, no Superman duties on Monday mornings unless it was the most world ending of emergencies.
Lois sighed as she got in the shower. She would need to email Perry some excuse about why she and Clark were both running late but that could wait until she got the boys settled down with breakfast.
Once Lois was dressed, she pushed open the boys’ room to find that Clark was laying on his stomach, calmly reading a picture book to the boys who had nestled in close. Lois was surprised to see all three were still in their pajamas and a sizable stack of picture books laid out around the room.
Lois had questions, but she also had a meeting to get to and the boys had not yet noticed her looking in on them and sneaking out before they got clingy was usually best, if not heart breaking. She loved pulling them close and telling them she loved them. She took in the odd but incredibly sweet sight one last time before she slowly backed away and headed towards the door.
It was just past nine when Lois settled at her desk after her weekly intern mentoring session at the Planet when Clark walked in holding two cups from her favorite coffee shop.
“Hey,” he said as he handed her a paper cup and then settled into his desk across from hers.
“So, did you ever get the boys to sleep last night?” Lois asked as she took a sip from her cup.
“Nope, I figured if I calmly read to them for long enough that they would fall asleep and I could put them in their beds, but apparently, whatever books I was reading had their attention all night.” Clark responded.
“And you told Ms. Donna?” Lois asked, referencing their daycare teacher.
“Yeah, explained boys didn’t sleep much last night when I dropped them off. Did they nap late yesterday?” Clark asked. He had gotten called away not long after the had gotten back from an afternoon trip to the park.
“No, when we got home, I put a movie on because neither of them was interested in trying to nap. I only got few minutes of work done before they had pulled everything out of the toy box, but I couldn’t get them to nap yesterday at all,” Lois confirmed.
“It’ll be an early night tonight at least,” Clark said as Marty Schwartz from the science desk made his way over to Clark.
“Morning Kent,” Marty said, leaning against Clark’s desk.
“Morning Marty how are you today,” Clark gave a curt nod.
“Oh, just wondering why you always bring Ms. Lane a coffee and no one else,” Marty prodded.
“That would be because Ms. Lane here is my wife,” Clark replied as Lois hid a laugh.
“Yeah, okay, whatever,” Marty said looking over at Lois. “Have you guys heard of this massive solar storm that’s going on?”
“No, what’s a solar storm and why should I care?” Lois looked at her computer, more interested in getting back to her work than anything.
“A solar storm is when the sun does all sorts of weird stuff,” Marty explained, “In the worst-case scenario, it can fry the entire power grid.”
“Right,” Lois said. “And is that likely to actually happen?”
“No, but I mean…” Marty trailed as Perry stepped into the bull pen, “Lane, Kent, I have a story for the two of you.”
“That’s our call,” Lois said as they left Marty’s excitement about the solar storm behind.
***
Lois made it to the daycare with just moments to spare to pick up the boys.
“Hey, Lois,” Ms. Donna, the daycare teacher said when she walked in through the door of the daycare. The boys were waiting with their jackets and backpacks already on. Lois looked at her watch, last again, but not officially late.
“How’d they do today?” Lois asked as he reached out to take the boys hands.
“They didn’t nap today,” Ms. Donna explained.
“Either time?” Lois asked.
“No, they said they weren’t tired, but I thought your husband mentioned that they didn’t sleep last night, I figured they would be down before nap time,” Ms. Donna continued on, giving a progress report.
“Ok, thanks,” Lois said as she moved to get the boys home.
“One more thing, they also didn’t eat anything today, no snack or lunch.” Ms. Donna explained.
Lois nodded, “Thanks, I guess dinner and bed are both going to be big events,” Lois replied with raised eyebrows.
The short walk home was the usual torrent of toddler chatter that was nearly impossible to keep track of, but that Lois loved more than anything.
“Mommy, mommy,” Jordan started excitedly.
“What sweetie,” Lois responded, looking over at him, letting him get the words out. It was usually harder to get Jordan to express this sort of object toddler joy.
“Um, I forgot,” Jordan responded as they progressed towards the brownstone.
“It’s okay, you can let me know when you remember,” Lois reassured as they made it through the door.
Lois was relieved to see Clark in the kitchen, chopping vegetables and prepping for dinner. Besides for a few very specific agreed upon times, this sort of thing was never a given. That was the cost of being Superman’s spouse, he was never all yours, not completely. The deal was that Clark cooked dinner when he was home, but that was only about 50% of the time.
“Anything new on the Luthor case,” Lois asked as she got the boys settled at the kitchen table.
Clark shook his head, “You only left the office about 30 minutes before me, trust me, I did not crack that case without Lois Lane,” Clark promised.
“Hmm, what’s for dinner, smells good?” Lois asked as she pulled off her heals and exchanged them for her house shoes that lived near the front door.
“Chana Masala, I got a new recipe from Vikram’s mom,” Clark explained as he threw vegetables in a hot frying pan.
“Alright, but not too spicey or else Jon won’t eat it,” Lois reminded. The boys were decently adventurous eaters, and Lois and Clark were careful in making sure they had diverse foods to sample. It still meant that Jonathan had somehow inherited a rural Kansas palate.
“I know,” Clark said as he opened cans of chickpeas and the rice cooker beeped, indicating the next stage of the process.
In the end, how spicey the curry was, did not seem to matter, Lois was the only one that seemed to actually eat anything.
“My tummy doesn’t want it,” Jordan complained as he dragged his spoon through a bowl of rice and chickpeas.
“It looks spicey,” Jonathan complained, his spoon still sitting next to his bowl, his food untouched, “I don’t want it.”
“Do you want a PB&J,” Lois offered both the boys, that had been her policy, especially on meals that deviated from the mean. If they would not eat, she would offer them something she knew they would like as long as it was easy to prepare. They seemed too little to insist they go without dinner if they truly did not like what was served.
“No,” Jonathan shook his head. “I don’t want dinner.” He said, pushing his plate away.
“Me neither,” Jordan said, copying his brother’s actions and pushing his plate way as well.
What was less noticeable was Clark’s own uneaten plate of dinner. Lois scrapped it into a Tupperware, one of them would eat it for lunch tomorrow.
Lois started to clean up from dinner as Clark took the boys upstairs for bath time.
It was still early when Clark headed back down the stairs and flopped down on the sofa next to Lois.
“Are the boys asleep?” Lois asked as Clark picked up the TV remote and started flipping through the channels.
“I turned off the lights and the boys promised to try close their eyes and count to 10.” Clark explained as he stopped on a rerun of Seinfeld.
“Babe, we’ve seen this one a hundred times,” Lois said as Clark relented and continued flipping through the channels.
“And they are coming down the stairs now,” Clark said as the patter of little feet smacked down the steps.
Lois turned around on the sofa, so she was facing the staircase. “Jordan, Jonathan, you’re supposed to be in bed.”
“Um…we…needed a drink of water.” Jonathan spoke for them both.
“And…And mommy didn’t tuck us in,” Jordan explained.
“Alright, one drink of water and then back to bed,” Lois said as she got off the couch, it was evident that she was going to have to be one the repeat the nighttime routine if were to stick to it this time.
After filling up two sippy cups, giving the boys an opportunity to drink some water, another round of sending them to the potty to try one last time, and them back to bed, it seemed like perhaps, this time, her children that had not slept in nearly 36 hours would finally get some sleep.
By the time Lois made it back to Clark on the sofa, he had flipped to the same block of Seinfeld reruns that ran every night.
“You know, there is other TV,” Lois mentioned as she scooted in close and let her head rest on his shoulder. “You know, stuff that was made in this millennium.”
“We didn’t get cable on the farm, so I didn’t see much of this until I moved to Metropolis.” Clark countered, but again started to flip through the channels to look for something else.
“That means that there is so many shows to catch up,” Lois said as found Clark’s hand and circled her finger over his wrist.
“And the boys are out of bed again,” Clark declared, again hearing the patter of little feet make their way down the upstairs hallway.
“They have got to be exhausted,” Lois moaned as Clark pushed up from the sofa, taking his turn in getting the boys back to bed. “Try a snack, neither ate much at dinner, maybe they are hungry.”
A moment later, the boys came down the stairs with Clark following behind.
“How about cheese and an apple,” Clark asked as he started rooting around the refrigerator, looking for things the boys would eat.
“I’m not hungry,” Jordan answered, “My tummy doesn’t want food.”
“Mine neither,” Jonathan repeated.
“How about some warm milk, that’s what your grandma used to give me before bed,” Clark decided as Lois heard the whirl of the microwave from where she was sitting of the sofa. She got up; this was becoming a whole thing.
“I don’t like milk,” Jonathan decided from where he was sitting on the counter as Clark poured slightly warm milk into two new sippy ups. Taking the sippy cup count for the night up to four.
“Sweetie, you liked milk yesterday,” Lois said as she smoothed down Jonathan’s hair, checking to see if he felt warm. Maybe the boys were coming down with something, but he felt mostly fine. Though the boys usually measured on the warm side whenever the pediatrician took their temperature. It was not enough to be suspicious, but it was enough to be noticeable to those in the know. Clark ran warm as well and the boys had seemed to inherit that trait.
“I don’t like milk either,” Jordan agreed with his brother. Lois sighed, whatever phase one of her boys decided they were going to be that day, usually meant the other one followed along.
“I’m going to take them for a ride around the block, see if they’ll fall asleep.” Clark said as he picked up the car keys from the counter and then scooped on a toddler in each arm. They were really getting too big or Clark to be carrying both around without an issue, but Lois was not quite ready to point that out.
***
When Lois woke up the next morning, Clark was again not next to her in bed and his side looked undisturbed, meaning he had never made to bed. He had still been out driving the boys around when Lois had started nodding off on the sofa and decided to head up to bed.
Lois headed down the hall to the boys’ room, expecting to have to wake up two toddlers that were still trying to sleep off their late night but was surprised to find the boys construing a tower out of toddler sized Legos while Clark sat on the floor, next to them, helping with the build.
“Did they sleep at all,” Lois asked as Clark got up from the floor and headed over to where Lois was standing by the door frame.
Clark shook his head, “I drove most of the loop and they didn’t get close to sleeping. When we got back, I turned off the lights and laid on the floor for a while, but it only took about 10 minutes before they were up and going…” Before Clark could finish, he turned his head in a familiar motion.
“Go, I’ll get them to daycare.” Lois said as Clark left the room, followed by a woosh once he was out of view from the boys.
If the boys had been tough last night, things where even worse this morning. Neither of them seemed particularly interested in changing into clean clothes. Breakfast was yogurt that seemed to get everywhere but their mouths, which meant another change of clothing. Jordan had a melt down on the sidewalk on the short walk to daycare, which meant Lois carried him most of the way.
“Hey Lois,” Ms. Donna greeted, “Good morning, Jordan, Good morning, Jonathan,” she said, as she bent so she was level with the boys. Jordan stuck his thumb in his mouth and gripped onto Lois’s pants.
“I…I… want to stay with mommy today,” Jordan huffed out, his eyes still red rimmed from the sidewalk tantrum.
“Well, then you would miss peanut butter playdo,” Ms. Donna said, extending a hand towards Jordan with the expertise of someone who was used to coaching toddlers away from their parents.
“No…I WANT TO STAY WITH MOMMY,” Jordan insisted, again headed towards another melt down.
Lois knelt down so that she was even with Jordan. “Honey, I know you want to stay with me, but mommy needs to go to work and Jon’s going to be here as well.” Lois tried and Ms. Donna placed a hand on Jordan’s shoulder and slowly pulled him away from Lois.
There was a part of Lois that wanted to stay and take both her boys in her arms and take them home to play hooky but then she remembered the article she had been working on about Luthor. Being a working mother was rarely easy. Instead, Lois ducked out of the daycare as Jordan continued on with his tantrum.
When Lois walked into the Planet and then to the morning briefing, she was one of the last reporters to show up, save Clark.
“Lane, where’s Kent,” Perry snapped as Lois took a seat at the table.
Lois was racking her brain for a reasonable excuse when Clark walked into the conference room. “Sorry Perry, I thought I could get the records from the city hall on the way in but turns out, they don’t open for another hour. I went 16 blocks in the other direction this morning, only for the A train to be completely clogged up, something about…”
Perry put up a hand to halt Clark’s rambling, “It’s fine Kent, take a seat, you can head back over to city hall once this meeting is over.”
“Hey,” Lois caught Clark as they were heading out of the meeting. “The boys haven’t slept in two days,” Lois said as she pulled Clark towards the supply closet where they had had more than a few clandestine meetings over the years. “Jordan was in full melt down mode on the way to daycare this morning. Do you think we should call the pediatrician or do you think it could be something else…”
Clark looked confused and then realization came over his face. “You mean like Superman things?” Clark whispered.
Lois shrugged, “I don’t think it’s normal for toddlers to go two days with sleep and they haven’t eaten either.”
“No, my father said that they wouldn’t have to deal with any of this, they don’t have powers.” Clark explained, confidently, matter of fact.
“Clark, you didn’t have powers when you were three, did you?” Lois challenged. “Could this be something, specific to Kryptonians, like some sort of Kryptonian growth spurt of something.”
“The boys are just as human as they are Kryptonian,” Clark reminded Lois.
“Clark,” Lois warned.
“I’ll go talk to my father this evening, see if he has any idea,” Clark reasoned out. “but, I have to get to city hall before Perry fires me.”
Lois looked towards the closed door and then reached up and gave Clark a kiss. “Love you,” she said as they pulled away.
Clark gave a sincere smile, “Love you too,” Clark said as he pushed open the door of the supply closet. If their coworkers had gotten any ideas about what they had been doing in the closet, they would not have been completely wrong.
***
By late afternoon, reports of a massive earthquake on Japan were filtering into the newsroom and Clark had disappeared from the action in the newsroom just as Superman was arriving on the scene in Japan. Lois watched as the destruction mounted. She would be on solo mom duty tonight, without question.
When Lois picked the boys up from daycare, she was somehow unsurprised to hear that neither of them had eaten anything, nor had the napped. Jonathan had ended up in time out for hitting a kid who refused to share a toy and Jordan spent most of the day in a tantrum in the corner.
Jordan refused to walk home and insisted on being carried and Jonathan spent the entire walk rambling on about trucks. Lois decided that she was going for the most toddler friendly (and husband friendly) meal she had. Frozen chicken nuggets.
It did not matter. By the end of dinner, the kitchen floor was littered the macerated remains of chicken nuggets and the kitchen table with streaked with ketchup. She was certain that nothing had actually made it into her toddlers’ stomachs.
Lois took the boys up for their bath, but Jordan complained the water was too cold and Jonathan complained the water was too hot. In a desperate attempt to get the boys to finish their bath, Lois helped them switch places in the tub, only to find they displaced enough water to create a pool of bath water on the floor. It also did not do anything to help the situation. Jordan still found the water too cold, and Jonathan still found it too hot.
Lois got them into their PJs and read them a story and sent up a silent prayer that even if they did not go to sleep, they would at least lie still long enough for Lois to clean up from dinner and bath time.
Her prayers were not answered. Lois was still trying to get the ketchup off the kitchen table when both the boys appeared in the kitchen.
“I don’t want to sleep,” Jordan said.
“Me neither,” Jonathan agreed.
Lois looked at her little boys and came up with another idea. “Do you want to lay down with mommy?” Lois asked, that usually got a positive response.
“Yeah,” Jonathan said, shyly.
Jordan nodded his head.
Lois gave up on the half-cleaned kitchen and led the boys upstairs. She changed into her own pajamas and then got into bed where the boys nestled in close. Lois turned on the TV to the news with the captions on but muted the TV.
“Alright, we are going to snuggle up and close our eyes, okay,” Lois said as she wrapped her arms around their little bodies. They were still little but even so, they were already growing up so quickly. They were no longer the little babies which needed to be held all the time and she had started to miss these sweet cuddles.
Lois turned her attention to the TV where Superman was speeding around, working to find survivors amongst the rubble. She watched as he pulled up a slab of concrete that had fallen from the building only for the slab to hurl dangerously to another part of the city. Clark was a pro as maintaining both control and his expression, but Lois watched as both faltered for just a moment. She watched as Clark recovered and quickly zipped around to the other side of the city to catch the stray piece of rubble before it caused more destruction.
“Mommy, I don’t want to lay down, can we play blocks,” Jonathan begged.
“Sweetie, it’s time to try to sleep,” Lois insisted.
“I’m hot,” Jordan complained as he wriggled out from under the blankets. “Can we play outside.”
“Where’s daddy, can he play blocks with us?” Jonathan asked again.
“Can we go to the park?” Jordan asked, the question starting to come quicker.
“Sweetie, it’s too dark to go to the park. It’s closed. Why don’t you each pick out a book and bring it here and I will read it to you,” Lois said as she massaged her temple. The likelihood of getting the boys to sleep was slim. Something was going on and she had a feeling that her husband was just as affected as her children.
Lois had made it through the Velveteen Rabbit, The Monster at the End of the Book, and three different picture books featuring Superman, her voice had gone hoarse from reading aloud for so long. It was past midnight by the time Clark finally walked upstairs and into their bedroom.
“The boys weren’t tired,” Lois said dryly, where they were still cuddled up against her but still, very wide awake.
“I can take them so you can get some sleep,” Clark said as he sat on the edge of the bed.
“Actually, do you remember that thing you were going to do this afternoon, you know, the um”…Lois looked down at where the boys were soaking in the words she was saying. “With your F.A.T.H.E.R,” Lois spelled out.” You should probably do that now, maybe ask why you haven’t slept all week either.”
“Me, I’ve been up with the boys,” Clark insisted and then furrowed his brow as realization set in. “I’ll be back.” He said, reaching down and kissing Lois and then ruffling the boys’ hair.
Lois looked down at Jonathan who was pressing another book about Superman into her hands. How had they even gotten so many of these books. Likely their coworkers at the Planet that thought it funny for Lois Lane’s children to have to books about Superman when Lois had famously written so much about the Superhero.
“Who wants to watch Dora?” Lois asked, flipping to the TV where she had conveniently saved down plenty of back episodes on the DVR. Lois was sure that there was some mommy blogger that would have condemned every parenting decision she had made tonight, but Lois reasoned, that mommy blogger did not have half Kryptonian children that were on night three of not sleeping.
Each time Lois was close to drifting off the sleep, she would be startled awake by the boys squealing Swiper no Swiping.
It was well into the morning and predawn light had started to light up the bedroom when Clark arrived home again. The boys had made it through the entire Dora collection twice when Clark entered the bedroom, caught Lois’s eye and then nodded towards the door. Lois extracted herself from between the boys as their eyes continued to reflect the glow of the TV and slipped out to meet Clark in the hallway. They boys had fully occupying their room.
“What did you find out,” Lois whispered as she pulled the door closed.
Clark reached up and rubbed his eyes, pushing his glasses up in the process. “There is a major solar event that has created an increase in solar energy.” Clark explained. “It’s a bit like continually consuming shots of espresso, constantly, which is why the boys haven’t been able to go to sleep.”
“And what did your dad say about the boys? He told us that powers were extremely unlikely, but the fact they haven’t slept in three days makes that all feel tentative.” Lois asked as she wrapped her arms around her shoulders.
“He said that it is still unlikely that they have powers, and that we have always known they absorb some solar energy, they just can’t store and use it like I can.” Clark explained, “but the increase in solar energy is making it hard for them to sleep.”
“Well, how do we fix it?” Lois questioned.
“He said that things would settle down in the next few days,” Clark explained. “I can take them to the fortress for something more definitive, but they are getting too old for that sort of thing.”
“But, there was to be a way to get them to sleep sooner, this can’t be healthy,” Los insisted.
“He said that they’ll be fine,” Clark explained.
Lois gave him a skeptical look, as Swiper no Swiping filtered out of their bedroom, Jor-El was not exactly the person she trusted the most with her toddler’s health. Lois groaned as she buried her head in Clark’s chest and he wrapped his arms around her and rubbed circles against her back.
“I’ll take the boys the downstairs so you can get some sleep, and I’ll take them to daycare in the morning and I’ll Perry you’re running late,” Clark offered.
Lois pulled away, and looked up at Clark, “Are you offering to cover for me?” Lois smiled.
“I think it’s probably time, you’ve only covered for me about a thousand times,” Clark smiled as he brushed a stray strand of hair away from Lois’s face.
“It’s true,” Lois joked as she reached up and gave a Clark a kiss. As they were pulling away from each other when another, Swiper no swiping rang out from their bedroom.
“I’ll see you at work Ms. Lane,” Clark said as he pushed open the door and scoped up the boys.
***
Lois woke up to the sun streaming through the bedroom windows and a house that was empty, Clark had gotten the boys out the door and to daycare. Lois had slept in on a workday, which did not feel completely right until she remembered she had not actually gone to bed until the wee hours of the morning.
Before Lois bothered with anything else, she had a phone call to make. Jor-El may be the theoretical expert when it came to Kryptonian children on earth, but Lois had a direct line to the practical expert.
“Hello, Kent Residence,” The voice answered on the other end.
“Martha, hey, it’s Lois,” Lois tried to sound as casual as possible.
“Lois, is everything okay?” Martha probed, cutting to the chase. If Martha had a superpower, it was knowing exactly what anyone needed at any given time.
“Not exactly,” Lois said, as she explained the last couple of days.
“I see,” Martha said as Lois finished.
“Did you ever deal with this when Clark was little?” Lois asked.
“Once, when he was five,” Martha responded. “It was the weirdest thing. Clark was usually such a good child but then there was that one week where he refused to eat or sleep. Jonathan and I were terrified, natural and then, everything was fine. Well, after Clark slept for about two days straight, but then everything went back to normal.”
“And you did nothing?” Lois questioned.
“Honey, we didn’t even know what to do.” Martha responded. “Did Clark go to that fortress of his, surely there are answer there.”
“Yeah, Jor-El told Clark to just wait and it would pass.” Lois replied.
“Well, I suspect that he is right, it sounds like that is all you can do.” Martha explained. “Look, Lois, you’re going to be fine. You and Clark are great parents and I promise that no one is sailing through raising toddlers. You may have a unique circumstance, but you’ll get through this. I promise.” Martha reassured.
“Thanks Martha,” Lois responded.
“And, if you ever need to get away, you, Clark and the boys can come home to the farm anytime you need.” It was not an expectation, just an open invitation.
“Thanks Martha.”
“Call anytime,” Martha sad as the call concluded.
Lois made it to the Planet in record time, having avoided the worst of rush hour. She slipped into her seat at her desk and looked over at Clark who was quickly typing away at something at his computer.
“Do you get the boys off to daycare alright?” Lois questioned as she quickly clicked through the days e-mail.
Clark shook his head, “No, Jordan broke down almost immediately and Jonathan followed quickly after. I walked into the daycare with two screaming toddlers. I am surprised no one called child protective services.”
“They may not be sleeping, but I am still pretty sure they need it.” Lois said as she started looking for her next assignment.
An alarm on a phone rang from somewhere in the bull pen and Clark tensed as the owner of the phone figured out how to turn it off.
“Are you okay,” Lois whispered, leaning over the wall of her cubicle.
“I’m fine, I don’t need much sleep,” Clark covered, even though Lois had not specifically referred to the fact he had not slept all week.
“Yeah, but babe, you haven’t had any sleep all week. Our toddlers may be more dramatic about it, but it doesn’t mean you aren’t affected.” Lois explained, concern etched on her face.
“I’ll be alright, there is nothing I can do about it anyway.” Clark said as Perry stepped out his office.
“Lane, Kent, my office, now,” He bellowed through the newsroom.
***
Later that night, Lois was thankful when Clark walked through the door of the brownstone while Lois was still attempting to get the boys to even take one bite of peanut butter and jelly. Ms. Donna at daycare had explained that for a third day in a row the boys had refused to eat or nap. Even more concerning, the boys had been even more ill-behaved. If the boys did not get any sleep tonight, she was sure that either her or Clark would need to call into work until the boys actually slept.
Lois was unsure if she had ever seen her husband actually show signs of fatigue, but the deep bags under his eyes and his blood shot eyes were clear indications that the inability to sleep was catching up with him. Clark fell heavily into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
“I’m going to stay home with the boys tomorrow,” Clark conceded, as if reading Lois’s mind. “This has to be over soon, but I don’t think we can send them to daycare like this again.”
“I can call in as well, I have plenty of vacation accrued, maybe we head to your mom’s for a few days,” Lois offered.
Clark shook his head, “It’s fine, I’m not sure it’s safe to… “Clark caught himself as the boys looked at him expediently. Plenty of things went over their head, but they were old enough to know exactly who Superman was. “Anyway, you have that Luthor case, and I know you are dying to finish that up.”
Lois gave his shoulder a quick squeeze as she collected the smashed but uneaten sandwiches from the table. Clark then started the processes of getting the boys ready for bath time.
Once she had finished cleaning up from dinner, Lois opened her computer and started to finish the work she had not gotten to this morning because of her late arrival. Even from her place at the table, it was hard to sit still. The entire house seemed frantic and unsettled.
After a few minutes of staring at a blinking cursor and getting nowhere, Lois decided to head up stairs. The boys would be done with their bath by now and with any luck, they should be settling down for bed.
Before she even peeked into their room, she could hear a cacophony of cries and banging. She pushed open the door to find Jordan crying from his position on the floor as Jonathan proceeded to empty out the toy box. Clark was kneeling next to Jordan, attempting to get him to calm down, slowly rubbing his back and attempting to offer calming words but nothing seemed to be working.
Lois stepping into the action to face Jonathan who was throwing everything haphazardly around the rom. “Jon, Jon,” Lois said as calmly as she could muster. “What are you doing?”
“I’m, I’m…looking,…for…” Jonathan started but with each word hos temper only seemed to increase as he started to get more upset and tears welled up in his eyes.
“Sweetie, what are you looking for,” Lois tried to calm him down and get to a solution that felt rational.
“I want Superman,” Jonathan finally got out.
Clark gave Lois a confused look.
“The Superman plushy,” Lois clarified as she located what he was looking for in a pile of stuffed animals in between the boys’ beds.
“Honey, is this what you want?” Lois asked as she plucked the plush doll from the pile and handed it to Jonathan. He accepted it but the tears kept coming even as he squeezed the doll. “Do you want to read the Superman book.” Lois offered.
Jonathan nodded and Jordan looked over intrigued, his own tears seeming to pause at the idea.
“It’s on the bookshelf, go get it,” Lois urged as the boys ran off towards the hallway bookshelf seeming to have calmed down from their pervious tantrums.
“I’ll read it to them,” Clark offered, a guilty expression spread obvious across his face.
“Clark, you know this is not your fault,” Lois said, picking up exactly where he was going with his train of thought. “They’re just over tired. They’ll sleep, eventually.”
“Yeah, but they wouldn’t be this way if it wasn’t for me.” Clark argued.
“Clark, unless you caused this solar storm somehow, I don’t think you can take responsibility for random space weather.” Lois countered as she moved in close to where Clark was sitting on the floor. “Why don’t we read to them together. Maybe tonight is finally the night they actually get some sleep.” Lois said as the boys came bounding back into their bedroom. Jonathan did not hesitate to crawl into Clark’s lap and Jordan quickly followed, snuggling up against Lois as Clark opened one of six Superman books they had returned with.
It seemed like if there was an opportunity to get the boys to bed, this was it. They were in their room, the were lights down low, and they had gone days without sleep. Any other toddler would have been conked out in their parent’s laps in a matter of minutes. By the time they got to their third Superman book, the boy seemed more energized than ever, playing along with each bam and pow. Before they started the 4th, Lois helped Clark get the boys settled in their beds and then Lois headed to bed herself, leaving Clark to continuing reading.
Lois had just fallen into a restless sleep, again stuck with the empty unmade side of the bed that felt jarring, she was starting to miss Clark even though he had been around all week. She was awoken by the angry cries of an upset toddler. She pulled herself out of bed and headed into the boys’ room where Clark was trying to calm both the boys down who had erupted into two tantrums.
“What happened?” Lois questioned, noting the Superman books strown around the room, just like the toys Jonathan had pulled out of the toy chest earlier.
“We ran of our Superman books,” Clark responded with an exhausted shake of his head.
“We have Batman,” Lois offered.
Before Lois could head to the bookcase, Clark held them up a stake of books with a cartoon version of the caped crusader on cover. “They are not a fan.”
Lois shrugged, “I can’t blame them, I’m not either.” Lois scanned the room, looking for something that would calm down the sleepless kids. Usually, she would not be so apt to indulge but all things considered she was willing to try anything. “I have an idea,” Lois said, running downstairs to where they kept the craft supplies.
“What?” Clark asked when Lois returned, the boys still both crying loudly over the missing Superman books.
Lois held up a small stack of Superman coloring books and two small boxes of crayons.
“How much Superman stuff do we have?” Clark questioned, it seemed to keep appearing out of nowhere.
Lois shook her head, “You don’t want to know.” And then turned her attention to the boys. “Alright, who wants to color?” Lois asked, getting down low on the floor and opening each of the Superman coloring books to a brilliant outline of Superman stopping a crashing helicopter.
“It’s Superman,” Clark urged, the irony not lost on him that it was Superman merchandise that seemed to get his kids to settle down while he was sitting right there, and they did not even know it.
Jonathan was the first to rub a grubby hand across his face and lay on his stomach and wrap his fist around a crayon as he started to messily scribble over the picture. Jordan, seeing what his brother had started, followed along.
“Thanks,” Clark said as he pushed up and walked over to where Lois was leaning against the door frame. “You should get some sleep,” Clark urged.
“Are you sure, I can stay up with them a little bit longer, incase there is another tantrum.” Lois offered, quickly settling into concerned mom mode.
“I appreciate at it, but you are the only person actually capable of sleep in this house right now and I think you should take advantage.” Clark countered as he wrapped an arm around her waste and kissed her cheek.
“Alright, but if you need anything…” Lois said.
“I’ll wake you up, though I suspect the boys are likely to get to that first.” Clark said as Lois disappeared back into their bedroom.
***
When Lois woke up the next morning, the first thing she did was brace and push open the door to the boys’ room. It was empty but the mess that had been there the night before had quadrupled overnight. Toys, books, torn out coloring pages and crayons littered every surface.
Lois shook her head before deciding it was probably best to get dressed before heading downstairs. Things looked better on the ground floor, but only marginally. There were more coloring books scattered around the living floor and the boys were on their stomachs, still scribbling away.
Clark was sitting on the sofa, working his way through the first section of that morning’s Daily Planet while drinking a cup of coffee.
“Long night?” Lois asked as she poured a cup of coffee for herself and sat on the sofa.
When Clark peeked out from over top the cover of the paper, she could see that the fatigue was growing. He usually neatly groomed stubble had started to grow scraggly and the circles around his eyes had deepened. “Yeah, another one.” Clark sighed.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay home, maybe you could get some rest or maybe go see your father again,” Lois whispered.
“It’s fine, we’ll be fine, I already e-mailed Perry and the daycare and told them I would be out with the boys today,” Clark said. “I think I’m going to take them to the park. At least they won’t be able to do any more destruction to the house if we’re there.”
“Alright, call me if you need anything.” Lois said as she reached in for a kiss, and then ran her hand across the stubble on his cheek. “I can come right home.”
“We’ll be fine, Lois,” Clark reassured as Lois got up from the sofa and started to gather her things.
“Goodbye Jordan, goodbye Jonathan,” Lois said as she headed towards the front door.
“Bye mommy,” Both the boys said at the same time, too focused on their coloring to stop and actually look at her.
Lois spent most of the day unfocused, watching the clock and concerned about her family. The boys were calm when she left this morning, but they had been giving out seriously over tired toddler vibes all night and she expected that to continue throughout the day. Clark seemed beyond exhausted even though he claimed he could not sleep and did not need much. Lois sent him a few text messages throughout the day and each time a quick, but positive response was returned.
By midafternoon, Lois had turned in enough words to appease Perry before calling it an early day and heading towards home.
As Lois pushed open the door to the Brownstone, she braced, worried what state the house had descended into with Clark and the boys home all day.
The living room was in much the same state that she had left it this morning with one exception. Clark was stretched out on the sofa on his back, his glasses sitting on the coffee table and both the boys were laying on top of him. Jonathan was spread eagle across Clark’s chest and Jordan had curled up in a little ball between Clark’s legs and the sofa, his head resting on Clark’s ankles, just above his sock clad feet. All three appeared to be fast asleep as an afternoon baseball game played softly in the background and the sun softly streamed in through the windows.
It was the best sight Lois had seen all week. Her family finally seemed to be getting some rest.
Clark blinked a couple of times and looked at where Lois was standing in the threshold. He yawned and then threw a free arm around Jonathan, repositioned his head, and let his eyes fall shut again.
The night, Lois watched as her kids finally ate for the first time in a week. She was surprised when they polished off the rest of the frozen chicken nuggets in the freezer and then asked for something else. Clark cut up apples and cheese, which they both devoured with a glass of milk.
Without even seeming to care they had skipped story time, both boys crawled into their beds and were asleep before Lois had even turned the lights off.
“Finally,” Clark said as he got into bed next to Lois.
“It’s been pretty lonely in here this week,” Lois said as she nestled in close to Clark.
“I’ve missed this,” Clark confessed as he placed as kiss on Lois’s forehead and wrapped her in his arms.
Lois settled in close to her husband, finally feeling a sense of ease and contentment that had been missing all week through the chaos. Before Lois could even properly settle down, she could feel Clark’s body relax against hers as he drifted off in a comfortable sleep, still holding her close.