{"id":122,"date":"2014-12-05T05:24:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T05:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wildflowervillage.net\/lnc\/?page_id=122"},"modified":"2023-06-10T11:02:51","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T15:02:51","slug":"lois-says-part-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/fanfic\/pg-fanfic\/lois-says-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Lois Says part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Chris Mulder<br \/>\n<br \/>Email: <a title=\"[Link: Send Email to Chris]\" href=\"mulders@mindspring.com\">mulders@mindspring.com<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>Rated: PG<\/i> <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m reading a silly, but entertaining book while the man I love sleeps next to me. The night is quiet, thankfully, and I&#8217;m guarding his sleep. He&#8217;s been out too often lately, trying to do too much, and I don&#8217;t care that he&#8217;s Superman, or that the world needs him. He&#8217;s my husband, Clark, and tonight _I_ need him. Here&#8211;with me. I&#8217;m married to the most selfless person I&#8217;ve ever known, so sometimes I have to be selfish for him.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s entitled to a good night&#8217;s sleep once in a while and I&#8217;ve found that if I sit or lie close to him and rub his back or play with his hair he sleeps so deeply that his superhearing has a harder time waking him up. He doesn&#8217;t know that I do this, and I don&#8217;t do it very often, but I&#8217;m doing it tonight.<\/p>\n<p>This really is a very silly book and I put it aside, turning my full attention to Clark. Moving over even closer to him I concentrate on keeping a steady rhythm as I stroke his hair.<\/p>\n<p>I cannot put into words how much I love this man. The emotions rush up from somewhere deep inside me and flood my being before I can identify or catalog them, never failing to bring tears to my eyes and a tightness to my chest. I love him so much, more than I ever thought I&#8217;d be capable of loving anyone. Being with him, listening to his voice, feeling his touch, his kisses &#8230; all of these things are such a part of my life now that I would do _anything_, go to _any_ lengths to keep what we have. I have become very protective of him and of the time we spend together.<\/p>\n<p>I know he has to fly off to be Superman. I understand that he&#8217;s needed not just for what he can do but also as a symbol of hope for people all over the world, and I support him wholeheartedly. Having said that, though, I must admit that at times I resent that same world and all those people&#8211;interfering with the life Clark and I are trying to build together. So, I was thrilled to discover that I can, on occasion, override his superhearing.<\/p>\n<p> ***<\/p>\n<p>It was a dark and stormy night &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Nah, just kidding! It was actually a beautiful late-spring night and Clark had flown back all tired and dirty from helping out at a huge forest fire. He&#8217;d been pretty busy all that week actually, and as a newlywed (well, we&#8217;d been married about nine months), I was getting a little fed up. I had planned to give him a piece of my mind, but when I saw how exhausted he looked all the fight went out of me. I helped him get cleaned up and tucked him into bed then lay next to him, stroking him until he fell asleep.<\/p>\n<p>I could still feel a tenseness in him, though, just below the surface, as if he considered himself always &#8220;on duty,&#8221; so I kept on rubbing his back and combing his hair with my fingers until gradually, oh so gradually, he slipped deeper and deeper into dreamland. I imagined that I could see him sinking farther into the bed with each breath, his body giving up the fight to be alert &#8220;just in case.&#8221; He slept for six hours that night, hardly stirring, and I&#8217;d won a small victory.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m smiling to myself now, remembering other times, other nights. When he&#8217;s sleeping like this he looks so innocent and sweet. It&#8217;s easy to forget that he can be the biggest tease I&#8217;ve ever known; that those eyes can positively gleam with mischief and that that mouth can shape the most infectious grins.<\/p>\n<p> ***<\/p>\n<p>There was another night, another book, and I was trying to read. Clark was dozing next to me when he suddenly sat up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What is it?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A siren.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t hear anything, of course. It&#8217;s interesting to be around him when he does this. His eyes take on an intense look and I know, that to him, it&#8217;s as if the siren and attendant vehicle are right there with him. He concentrated on it for a few seconds and then settled back down on the bed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s okay. False alarm.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He lay on his side watching me. &#8220;Whatcha reading?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a book Lucy gave me. She was raving about it, but I just can&#8217;t get into it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He twisted his neck a little so he could see the cover. &#8220;Well, I can see what there is about it that appeals to Lucy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I laughed at the rather disgusted look on his face. &#8220;You don&#8217;t have any romance in your soul?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He glanced again at the overly endowed couple writhing in libidic ecstasy on the cover of my book. &#8220;_That&#8217;s_ not romance.&#8221; He reached out to lay a hand on my arm. &#8220;You should work on your book again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was surprised, but pleased, that he remembered my &#8220;novel.&#8221; &#8220;Weeelll, I&#8217;ve tried to go back to it, but the plot just seems too ridiculous now. Besides, they say you should write about something you know and I don&#8217;t know about unrequited love anymore.&#8221; I leaned down and kissed the tip of his nose.<\/p>\n<p>That gleam I&#8217;ve come to know so well was starting up in his eyes. He laid a hand on my stomach and said quite innocently, &#8220;So what would you write about now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Someone&#8217;s in a playful mood, I thought, as I tossed the book onto the floor and turned towards him. I affected a contemplative attitude as if I were seriously considering any number of options. &#8220;Oh, I don&#8217;t know. There&#8217;s always the hero saves the heroine storyline, but that&#8217;s been done &#8230; and done. I could do one where the heroine saves the hero for a change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That sounds very PC.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah. I&#8217;d have to decide what kind of couple I&#8217;d want to write about, the setting, what sorts of adventures they&#8217;d have, all that stuff. And &#8230;&#8221; I leaned towards him provocatively, &#8220;I&#8217;d probably have to do some research, gather background material, try to immerse myself in my subject matter &#8230; you know what I mean?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The gleam in his eye became even more pronounced. &#8220;Oh, I hope so.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I felt my nightgown strap slip off of one shoulder and watched him watching it. I stroked his chin with one finger tip and moved even closer to him. &#8220;Research can be so time-consuming and tedious though, don&#8217;t you agree? Having the right kind of assistant can mean the difference between success &#8230;&#8221; I lightly kissed his lips, &#8220;&#8230; and failure.&#8221; I sat back up and pulled up the strap on my nightgown. &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure if I can find the time or the help that I&#8217;ll need. Too bad.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I pretended to reach for the book and felt him snake his arm around my middle, pulling me back towards him. &#8220;Let&#8217;s don&#8217;t be too hasty here. I&#8217;m sure we could come up with something.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He had rolled me onto my back, and as I lay looking up into his laughing eyes I could feel the giggles rising up inside me, but I was determined to play the role that I&#8217;d set for myself, so I kept my voice as serious as I could. &#8220;You really think so, Clark? I&#8217;d have to spend a lot of time on it, you know.&#8221; He was nodding as he slipped that strap off of my shoulder again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, I do, Lois. You know that I&#8217;d support you in anything you wanted to do.&#8221; He kissed my shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d want to use primary sources, of course,&#8221; I said as I ran my hands up his arms and linked them behind his head.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course,&#8221; he said, and I felt the other strap going the way of its predecessor. He kissed that shoulder, too, and then raised his head to look into my eyes. &#8220;Just how detailed does this &#8230; research &#8230; have to be?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ohhh, pretty detailed.&#8221; My hands were moving over his shoulders now. &#8220;I might have to dig pretty deep &#8230; to be sure that I get all the material I&#8217;ll need.&#8221; He kissed the hollow above my collar bone. &#8220;I do want my first book to be good, Clark.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His voice was getting husky now. &#8220;So do I, Lois. So do I.&#8221; He was kissing his way down my breastbone, and I started running my hands through his hair.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m so glad that you agree with me, sweetheart. Thank you.&#8221; He was pretty involved in what he was doing and made some noise which I supposed I could interpret as signifying agreement. It was getting harder to focus on the conversation, so I figured I&#8217;d better throw in the punch line now. &#8220;I&#8217;ll advertise for a research assistant tomorrow then. Of course I&#8217;ll need someone big and strong &#8230;&#8221; He looked up in surprise. It was all I could do to keep a straight face. &#8220;&#8230; to help me carry all those books and other stuff, you know. And he and I may have to work late some nights. You won&#8217;t mind, will you Clark?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It only took him a moment to realize he&#8217;d been had and by then the jig would have been up anyway because I was giggling all over the place.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You &#8230; you heartless wench, you.&#8221; He was laughing, too, as he rolled onto his side, pulling me towards him. &#8220;I&#8217;ll show you how to conduct research.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And he did.<\/p>\n<p>You know, it&#8217;s funny. I&#8217;ve been researching that novel for months now, but haven&#8217;t written a single word. I&#8217;m such a stickler for getting the details just right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Chris Mulder Email: mulders@mindspring.com Rated: PG I&#8217;m reading a silly, but entertaining book while the man I love sleeps next to me. The night is quiet, thankfully, and I&#8217;m guarding his sleep. He&#8217;s been out too often lately, trying to do too much, and I don&#8217;t care that he&#8217;s Superman, or that the world [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[28,819,51],"class_list":["post-122","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-chris-mulder","category-pgfanfic","tag-chris","tag-chris-mulder","tag-lois-says-part-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122\/revisions\/1664"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nfanfic.com\/lnc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}