Chapter Text
The late morning sun was high in the sky as it drenched the acres of the Kent farm in warm light. The sound of chickens clucking peacefully could be heard in the distance. The red and black plaid jacket hung on the hook by the kitchen door like it always did when its owner wasn't wearing it. Lois sat at the kitchen table looking at the cursor on her laptop blinking as it silently and patiently waited for input. Her cup of coffee having gone cold, she stared at the computer screen blankly.
She was physically exhausted because she had been sleeping without her husband, a presence on the other side of the bed that not only was a comfort to her but a necessity to have a restful night. She was also emotionally exhausted, having to keep up the façade, frankly the blatant lie that Clark was simply away on assignment.
Lois looked at the clock on the kitchen wall and realized that it had been almost two months since Clark whooshed away in the night and hadn’t come back. She was kidding herself with the almost two months estimation. She knew exactly how long it had been, down to the half hour. She had cried. She had hoped. She had raged many times, alone in her car, so her sons hopefully couldn’t hear her distress. She had even vented to her father, one of the only other adults who knew the truth. She was empty.
Rallying the little bit of energy she had left, Lois stood and brought her coffee cup to the sink to rinse it out. Clark made coffee better than she did, so she didn’t really know why she even bothered these days. The sound of the screen door opening, then the front door after it came to her ears.
“Jonathan, is that you?” she called to the foyer. He must have gotten off shift at the grocery store early. She wondered why he didn't call for a ride. “Close the door behind you. The AC is on.”
“Lois?”
It couldn’t be. She froze, eyes as big as saucers as they stared unseeing out the kitchen window, trying to talk herself out of the hallucination of the voice of her husband. Footsteps came down the hall toward the kitchen and her heart raced. Lois turned, dirty mug in hand, toward the kitchen island to see, try to convince herself that her mind was playing tricks.
She had imagined him plenty of times during this long absence. Usually when she was falling asleep, or just waking up, sometimes when she was in town and heard a man laughing. That always reminded her of him. There were plenty of times recently that she saw Clark in her sons. They sometimes talked like him, or even used his phrases or facial expressions. Jordan was even prone to pull out a corny dad joke, then grin like Clark as she and Jonathan groaned and rolled their eyes.
But this hallucination was different. All other times, reality hit her within moments and she realized that what she thought was Clark was only her imagination. After which, the crushing sadness of her reality, her New Normal without the love of her life, a reality she refused to accept, came to knock her down again. That was not what she heard that day. What she heard, the two tiny syllables of her name, followed by footfalls, sparked a hope in her that she honestly thought was gone completely.
As the mystery person crossed the threshold between the hallway and the kitchen, a figure dressed in blue and red, tattered cape swooshing behind him, familiar House of El crest on his chest, beard stubble a bit thicker than she remembered, his hazel/green eyes locked with hers as he turned to face her. She gasped, hands shaking, and dropped the dirty coffee mug on the floor, then immediately burst into tears.
Lois was locked into her spot, feet glued to the floor, her body trembling, her eyes blurry with tears as she called out, “Clark! Oh, my God, Clark!” She reached her arms out to him as her feet finally decided to let her go to him. As she walked the few steps toward her husband, he closed the distance for her, wrapping his arms around her waist and lifting her off the floor. He buried his face in the crook of her neck as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.
“I’m home,” Clark said thickly into her hair. “I’m finally home.”
Lois released the choke hold she had on Clark’s neck so she could bring her hands to the sides of his face and kiss him. He willingly and eagerly kissed her back. She never really understood the clichéd analogy of the starving man in the desert finally reaching an oasis but having Clark in her arms again made it make sense. She was overwhelmed by him; his smell, the sound of his voice, the feel of his mouth on hers, the strength of his arms criss-crossed around her back, the gentleness of his hands that were holding her up. She feared that after such a long time apart she might have started to forget all those little details about him but no, they were locked in to her memory forever.
“Clark,” she gasped as she finally put her feet back on the floor, “I missed you so much. You’ve never been gone so long and I’m so glad you're back! Babe, you did it! You came back to me!”
Clark lowered Lois to the floor but didn’t dare release the hold he had on her. “I will always come back to you. No matter what, I’ll always come back.” They held each other as they pressed their foreheads together, basking in the feeling of finally being together at long last. “How long was I gone?” he asked as he looked into her eyes.
Lois was shocked to hear him ask that. She had so many questions about where he had gone and what he had seen, but she never imagined that he either wasn’t aware of time passing or it passed differently wherever he was than it did here.
“Fifty-six days, thirteen hours,” she answered without a beat. He chuckled lightly at that precise number, then sobered quickly as the concept of his nearly two-month absence hit him. “How long did you think you were gone?” she asked.
“Honestly, I’m not sure,” he answered. “Things there were… so different.” He paused, not really knowing how to start to describe the Inverse World. “But I’m home and I am so happy to be here!” he declared before he started kissing Lois again, basking in the presence of his wife.
“The boys will be so happy to see you, they’re definitely going to attack you when they get home,” Lois told him.
“Speaking of our kids, where are they?” He asked, glancing around the room. He was eager to see them as well, imagining sadly that they have probably grown two or three inches in his absence.
“It’s only eleven o’clock so Jordan is at school and Jonathan is at work,” Lois explained. She got an idea. “We can go get them if you want, but how thrilled would they be if they came home and you were just here making dinner or something?”
“I like that,” Clark said. “Don’t you think they’d be mad that I didn’t find them the minute I got here?” he wondered.
“Well, my love,” Lois began, arms still around Clark’s neck, body still pressed against his chest, fingers tracing the collar of his super suit, “I think we should risk it. Because I have been without my husband for a very long time,” she explained, “And I know that you have not had your wife by your side at all for the same amount of time, so…”
“Message received, loud and clear,” Clark interrupted as he scooped Lois up in his arms bridal style and they disappeared up the stairs to the privacy of the master suite.
Details would come later. Family reunions would come as well. The therapeutic presence of one’s spouse after not being together and not knowing if they’d ever be together again was just what they both needed.