Martha's first surprise was as early as tuesday evening when Clark called to announce he and a friend were coming to visit in two days. The surprise there was the friend. Clark often came by for dinner in the middle of the week, but he had yet to bring any of his new college friends even on a weekend. So when thursday came, she spent most of the afternoon making a nice turkey dinner with all the fixings. She even got Jonathan to take the twins out into the fields with him so they wouldn't be underfoot.
By five o'clock, the girls were dressed in identical yellow sundresses with their hair brushed and tied back into braids. Martha knew it was just asking for Pippi Longstocking comments to put red hair up like that, but they were just so adorable in braids. She gave each a kiss on the top of their head, then subjected them each to a final inspection. They were almost the same height now, and between the red hair and dressing alike, they really did look like real sisters. There were obvious differences in the face, so they would never manage to pass for identical twins, but they could fool anyone over the fraternal twin deception.
"Play quietly up here until Clark comes home, okay, sweeties?"
"Kay," Cara agreed for them both. Laura was already rummaging in their toy box, so Martha decided it was safe to leave them alone long enough to set the table, get the turkey out of the oven, and find Jonathan to carve it.
Martha's second surprise was when the farm house's front door opened and Clark's voice called out, "Mom! Dad! Girls! I'm home!" The words were fine, it was his usual greeting. And the fact that there hadn't been the sound of a car was also normal for a Clark visit, but hadn't he been bringing a guest?
Little girl squeals of delight and excitement came from upstairs followed shortly by four little feet chasing each other along the upstairs hall and down the stairs. "Clark!" one of them yelled. "Uncle Lex!" screeched the other.
That was the third surprise. She wasn't sure why she'd been expecting a college student, but if Clark had meant Lex, why hadn't he said he was bringing Lex? And where had the sound of expensive horsepower been when they arrived? She wiped her hands off on a dishtowel and went into the front hallway. Sure enough, there were Clark and Lex accepting hugs and kisses from the two girls. When Clark stood up, he had Cara in his arms, and Lex followed his example and rose with Laura clinging to his neck.
If the girls noticed that Laura was usually the twin shuffled closest to Lex, they hadn't mentioned it. Both of them adored him, though Jonathan blamed Lex's tendancy to shower them with gifts for that fondness. It had been hard enough getting a teenaged boy to give up the truck. It was impossible to take lollipops and dolls away from three year old girls.
"Got anything for us?" Laura asked eagerly, and Martha tsked at her. Lex gave Martha guilty smile - the boy knew he was spoiling them rotten. Who needed grandparents when you could have an Uncle Lex?
He tapped Laura's nose, teasingly, "After dinner, or your mom'll shoot me."
"Mommy won't shoot you," Cara promised from Clark's arms, though her attention was focused solely on Lex as much as Laura's was.
"She will if I ruin your dinner," Lex insisted solemnly.
Laura shook her head, "Nu-uh, she'll fly you away to a big nest and tie you up!"
"And Clark will save you!" Cara added enthusiastically. She turned to smile sweetly at her brother, "Won't you, Clark? You'll save Uncle Lex for us after he gives us our present?"
Clark gave Martha a psuedo-wary look, which she returned with a mock glare and crossed arms. "Uh, Cara, love, I think Mommy is gonna tie me up with him." And then Clark . . . blushed.
Lex put Laura down, and grinned at Clark with a hint of . . . something . . . in his expression. Martha's maternal instincts went into high alert. "Well, at least I won't get lonely up there."
Clark blushed more. That was quite enough of whatever subtext what going on between those two. Martha clapped her hands together and frowned at all four of them. "Alright. Wash up for dinner all of you, and no gifts yet! Clark, you're the present police, don't let Lex sneak them any candy no matter how much they beg."
As the two young men herded the girls toward the bathroom, she thought she heard Clark say, "I take it I'm going to be the disciplinarian then, Mom?" but it seemed that he was talking to Lex, not her, and by the way Lex subtly shoulder checked her son, Lex apparently thought the same. It was a weird comment, though, and the maternal alerts jumped a few decibels.
She watched them over dinner. By the time the girls were bestowed with a chocolate bar each, she had seen Clark brush his fingers against Lex at least half a dozen times, and that didn't included the possessive resting of his hand on the small of Lex's back while the girls tore into the wrappers and proceeded to cover their faces with chocolate. Lex was more circumspect, only brushing against Clark once when he passed the potatoes, but he did not shy away from the touches received. When Jonathan chased the girls up to the tub, Martha turned on the boys.
"You're seeing each other," she stated, giving a pointed look at where Clark's hand now rested on Lex's hip after circling behind his back. Clark got something of a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look about him, but he did not pull away. Lex shifted in front of Clark and pulled both of her son's arms forward so they draped around the bald man's waist. This seemed to relax Clark some because he tightened his arms around Lex and rested his chin on his friend's shoulder. They looked very comfortable together.
"Yes," Lex stated, though their position answered the question more than adequately.
Jonanathan's heavy tread came down the stairs and she noticed Lex tense and glance toward the shotgun. He did not disentangle himself from Clark though. Clark drew in a deep breath and rubbed his nose against the side of Lex's head. "Shh," he whispered, and she was surprised to see Lex relax against him.
"The girls are in the ba- what the hell?" Jonathan apparently hadn't picked up on the hints over dinner. He sounded completely shocked. She supposed she had an advantage. Not only was she a mother, but she knew beyond the smallest shadow of a doubt that Lex liked men. She also knew that Clark knew that. Of the family, Jonathan was the only adult who had never quite worked out that Lex was Laura's mother, not her father.
"Lex and I have an announcement," Clark said.
"If you tell me that you went to Las Vegas again," Jonathan began in a warning tone, though what he'd do if they'd eloped, Martha couldn't guess.
"As forward thinking as Nevada is," Lex interrupted, "they haven't legalized same-sex marriages either."
Jonathan scowled at him.
"We're not married," Clark rephrased Lex's comment into more practical terms. "But we are pregnant."
"I'm pregnant," Lex added hastily, clarifying the statement before Martha could panic or Jonathan had a heart attack. "Clark is the father."
As much of a relief as it was that both boys didn't have a bun in the oven, Martha still had to sit down. Dazedly, she walked into the living room, pulling Jonathan along with her, and dropped onto the couch. The boys followed. Clark sat in Jonathan's armchair and made Lex sit in his lap. Jonathan had fallen onto the cushion next to Martha.
"It wasn't planned," Lex swore to them, as if Martha could possibly believe that Lex wanted this.
"Why - how - surely you used protection?" Martha managed to get out.
Lex nodded, "We did, but the condom broke." Clark flushed red and buried his head against Lex's back. Cowardly child, he probably pulled Lex down into his lap for that very purpose. If Martha had to listen to a man talk about using broken condoms with her son, her son better well be participating in the conversation as well.
Jonathan, however, took that moment to prove he was faring worse with the subject matter than Clark was. He launched to his feet and had Lex by the front of his shirt before Martha realized he wasn't still sitting in shock. Clark, sitting underneath Lex, was in a bad position to pull them apart and was awkardly trying to shift them around so that he could get up without hurting either his boyfriend or his father.
"Jonathan!" Martha shouted, while Clark tried an outraged, "Dad! Stop it!" Lex seemed resigned to the treatment and she made a note to box his ears for that later. Jonathan himself was rather senselessly telling Lex to say away from his son while shoving the boy's back into said son's chest.
Martha grabbed him by his shoulder and pulled. She wasn't strong enough to physically yank him away, but he fell back anyway. He let himself be shoved back onto the couch and he stared at Lex as if seeing him for the very first time. And instead of finding the arrogant businessman he was expecting, he found something even more alien than Clark. Lex straightened his collar and glared back, determined not to be cowed either by the assault or the look.
"You're pregnant," Jonathan repeated.
Lex's spine stiffened, but he nodded. "Yes."
They were silent for a long moment. Clark fidgetted, then lifted Lex up enough to slide out from beneath him. "I'll get the girls out of the tub before they turn into prunes," he excused himself before fleeing the room's uncomfortable silence. Jonathan startled beside her as he apparently made a realization. "Damn," he whispered, then slumped forward, dropping his head into his hands. "You knew, Martha," he said, his voice a little muffled.
"I knew what?" she asked, completely mystified. Lex's pregnancy had came as a shock to her, and that Clark was responsible had stolen the strength from her.
"That Lex is Laura's mother."
Across the coffee table, Lex's expression turned pained. "I prefer the term 'biological parent'." That wasn't the same thing as a denial, though, and Jonathan's head came up to really study the young man sitting before them. Lex didn't so much as shift his weight under the scrutiny.
Jonathan grimaced, swore, then stuck a hand out toward the young man. "Welcome to the family," he grated out grudgingly. Martha smiled and patted her husband's shoulder approvingly. It was a start, and she was sure she could bring him around.
Lex, on the other hand, looked utterly flummoxed. Martha suspected it was ingrained habit alone that let him accept the handshake. "Thank you, Mr. Kent," he managed to articulate.
If Jonathan's smile was a little vicious, and his words a little cruel, at least it was another step in the right direction. "None of that, Lex, you're going to be my daughter-in-law. Call me Jonathan."
Lex tensed, and anger flashed across his expression before he stamped down on it. "You don't mock Clark for his differences, don't mock me for mine."
And there it was. Both Martha and Jonathan went completely still. Fury flashed anew in his eyes, but he kept his voice lowered as he lashed his words into them, "Don't give me that, Mr. and Mrs. Kent. Putting aside that Clark trusts me with this, I am pregnant with your son's child. Even if I didn't find the whole idea repellant and a guaranteed method of losing Clark, whomever you imagine I'd sell him off to would be just as delighted to get their hands on me, and that's before they realize that the fetus inside me is less than half-human. So lay off the Kentish secrecy because, frankly, I need to know. What do you think would have happened if I tried to get an abortion and it turned out the fetus was as invulnerable as Clark is? There's only so much I can blame on my own mutant biology."
Martha closed her eyes made herself breathe deeply. There was no doubt in her mind that if Clark had been human, she would have had to wait a few more years (or possibly forever) for her first grandchild and not even Clark would ever have been the wiser.
Jonathan, when he did manage to speak, sounded contrite. "Look, son, it's not easy to break twenty year old habits but, for what it's worth, I'll try."
Martha opened her eyes in time to see most of the anger drain from Lex as he sat back in the armchair. He offered a weak smile, first to Jonathan, then to her, "Thank you. I'm going to be taking enough abuse from the rest of the world over the next few months, I don't need it from you, too."
A whole different set of maternal alarms burst into sudden and urgent klaxons. She moved from the couch and sat down on the arm of Lex's chair. She wanted to draw him into a hug and if he had been Clark, or even Pete, Chloe, or Lana, she would have, but something stopped her and she put a hand on his shoulder instead. "Lex, honey, we're here for you, always remember that. You're family, sweetie." A few years ago, she probably wouldn't have called any grown man besides Clark or Jonathan 'sweetie', but raising toddlers did strange things to a mother's vocabulary.
Lex looked up at her with a slightly disbelieving expression, but then something behind his eyes changed as she held his gaze, and Martha pulled him into a fierce hug. "Shh, baby," she murmured, even though he wasn't actually crying. For Lex, she imagined, letting himself be held like this was as close as he got. "We'll get through this together."
They sat like that, Martha awkwardly perched on Lex's chair arm with Lex curled into her embrace, and Jonathan sitting across from them toying with a coaster on the coffee table, until Clark came back down the stairs. "The girls are in bed, they want Uncle Lex to read their bedtime story," he said quietly, taking in the tableau.
Lex drew in a deep breath and pulled away. He gave a smile that fought hard to reach his eyes. "Well, then, we can't disappoint the twins, now can we?" He stood and went up the stairs, his gait becoming more confident after every step. By the time he reached the girls' room, Martha figured he'd be back to his normal self.
Once he was out of earshot, she turned on Clark. "You had sex with Lex," she accused, advancing menacingly on the young man whom she had raised as her son. "You knew he could get pregnant, and you did it anyway. Don't even think about blaming red kryptonite, young man, because I won't believe it."
Clark appeared to wilt before her, even as he blushed deeply. "We used condoms," he tried. As defenses went, it was weak.
Martha poked a finger against his chest, "I don't care. They can break and Lex, even more so than any girl you could have dated, should not be put in this position. Clark, the boy is scared, and he has every reason to be. Do you know how much danger you've put him in? You can hide your powers. Lex's are about to be put on public display. He's not twenty-two anymore. He can't just hide in the castle this time."
