Babes in Smallville
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
This story is in progress.
Very well, emboldened by your replies, here is the first part. Although you
need to be patient, as Hank doesn't show up until the next part and then all
the fun begins, WRT blue beliefs.
Disclaimer: Marvel and DC and those folks are owners of these characters,
I'm just borrowing, warping, and rearranging their histories, and thusly personalities
and relationships, for my own nefarious enjoyment. Everything I know about Superman
comes from the cartoon, vague recollections of the movies, and one novel many,
many years ago, so apologies for anything blatantly wrong. If there is more
than mild swearing, I'll #(*$#. Also, I don't do children very well, so just
use your imagination and come along for the ride.
Chapter One
"Edna, hello. This is Dr. Brown."
"Yes?" Her throat tightened up a little. Finally, after all their trying, could they be?
"I wanted to call you and Henry, see if maybe I could stop by on my way home from the office today."
"Yes, certainly. We'll see you then. You'll stay for dinner, won't you?" Her voice sounded breathy and hopeful. She really wasn't a flighty woman; but she and Henry had wanted a baby for several years, and Dr. Brown had said the research center could have that newfangled sperm count test back by the end of next week. With all the radiation from the accident, it would be no wonder, but maybe, and maybe it was back early...
"No, May will be waiting for me. I'll see you in a little while."
"See you then, Doctor. Henry! Henry! Dr. Brown is coming over!"
Henry came to the phone, oily grey suds from the tractor still on his hands from the bathroom. "Did he say anything?" The hope was in his voice too, and she hugged him tight, his hands dripping carefully away from her onto her floor.
"No, but he didn't sound like he was preparing for us to be upset."
"Maybe this time, Edna." His elbows squeezed her tightly. "I should scrub up." They'd had too many disappointments in the last few years, especially the boy they'd found in the strange rocket, which they'd haulled to their barn last week, and it turned out that the Kents had recently lost their baby boy. The McCoys wouldn't argue over the child with them. Wanting a baby for so long had been hard enough, but to lose one and find one and then have someone else take it away? That could kill a person's heart. So they offered to babysit anytime, and figured they would tell them about the rocket once all the fuss had died down.
When Dr. Brown's shiny black truck pulled up to the house, Edna and Henry walked away from the porch swing, dinner cooling out on the stove and three places set, just in case. It took forever for him to walk up to the porch. "Well, doctor?" they chorused, and smiled at each other's nerves.
"Calm down, you two." He leaned against their porch railing. "I have some good news, and some not-entirely bad news. Let me finish up with the really good news?" They nodded. "All right, the bad news is that the count is low, Henry, but it's not all that low. So it's very possible that you could have a baby of your own, but that's probably the reason you two have had such a hard time."
"I see." Henry said, quiet in a way that nearly broke Edna's heart all over again. "You said there was some good news?"
"You know, I couldn't think of anyone who'd make better parents, and someone came to see me this afternoon." And a wail came out of the front seat of that truck, and then she was crying, and Henry was carefully swallowing and holding her tight. "Well, I guess the little fellow wants to introduce himself. Sit down, Edna. Henry, you too, you're shaking as bad as her."
Edna was heating up the formula that Dr. Brown had brought, and Henry was gently bobbling the baby against his chest. "What happened to the Kents? Not that you haven't made us the happiest two in Smallville, but how could they bear to part with him?"
"Cindy's leaving the area, and she can't take care of him on her own. Eric got home from that service training camp on the new line of tractors this afternoon. He just couldn't accept a baby that wasn't his. Cindy stopped by on her way out, pretty roughed up, and told me that she wanted Clark to have two people to love him."
"Aaaar," the baby agreed.
"Yes, you're Clark now, I guess. He seems to respond to his name already, very young to be doing that. So Cindy's making a new start, and this little guy needs a loving home."
"That poor girl," Edna shook her head. "Is she going to be all right?"
"She's a smart girl, and she has relatives all over the place. Frankly, the less anybody can tell Eric about where she's gone, the better."
"He won't hear anything from us," Henry frowned. "Man like that doesn't know what he's throwing away."
"Well, be that as it may, I will see you later, little Clark McCoy," Dr. Brown put on his hat. "I should see him for his first set of immunizations at the end of next month."
"Aaaar!" He took the bottle and gurgled.
"Clark McCoy. Sounds good."
"Clark Kent, Henry. When Cindy has a chance someday, I want her able to find her little boy and know he hasn't forgotten his second mama."
"Clark Henry Kent?"
"Clark Henry Kent."
"Aaaar!"
Continued in Chapter Two