Send Me In Orbit

Trouble

Leah fought not to lose herself to her husband's touch but she knew she was fighting a losing battle.

"Clark..." She gasped as his lips caressed her neck. "Clark, kailangan na natin umuwi."

His lips trailed down to her bare shoulder.

"Ang mga bata...si Lucas..."

As they so often did when Clark and Leah needed a night to themselves, they left their children in the hands of their capable 15 year old son, including their 17 month old baby.

"CJ is taking care of them, they're fine," Clark murmured, his lips now traveling down her arm.

"Papagalitan nanaman tayo ni CJ," Leah sighed.

"Just text him and say we'll be home in the morning." Clark pushed her back onto the pillows.

"Clark..." Leah protested.

"Fine. One more hour." His lips moved over hers and though Leah was already tired from their first vigorous round of lovemaking, she was powerless to resist.

She threaded her fingers through Clark's hair and welcomed him back inside her with a loud moan, his name leaving her lips in a cry of ecstasy as their bodies engaged in the long familiar dance that still felt so tantalizing and new each time they did it. Leah was simultaneously lost and found in her husband's arms.

~

When they stumbled home three hours later, Clark quietly put the key in the lock and opened the door slowly. They had told the children that they would be having a nice dinner and watching a movie. A date night just for Mom and Dad, their first since Lucas was born. What the kids didn't know was that dinner always happened at a fine dining restaurant of one of the five star hotels in the city that Clark has designed over the years. And sometimes they did put on a movie in one of the executive suites Clark had access to, but they never watched it.

Leah slipped off her heels so they could quietly walk through the entryway up to the stairs but a light turned on in the living room.

"Mom! Dad! Do you know what time it is?"

"Busted," Clark whispered in her ear and Leah smothered back a laugh.

They turned to see their eldest son staring at them with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked so much like Clark in that moment, the angry and taciturn boy she had known almost twenty years ago, that Leah's stomach turned over in real fear. They were in trouble.

"Hey buddy," Clark said lightly. "We told you not to wait up."

"You also told me you would be home before 12," CJ said.

Clark put an arm around Leah and grinned sheepishly. "We, uh, got hungry again after the movie. We lost track of time. Alam mo naman kung gaano kadaldal ang Mommy mo."

Leah elbowed him in the stomach and Clark winced.

"You said you would call Larissa at her bedtime. She waited. Tinatawagan namin kayo pero hindi kayo sumasagot, ayaw niya matulog hangga't hindi kayo nakakausap. You how long it took me to get her to sleep? And with Lucas crying the whole time!"

Clark and Leah exchanged guilty looks. Their older children were so independent now that it was easy to forget sometimes how much the younger ones still depended on them.

"We caught an earlier showing of the movie and we forgot-"

"Cut it out, Dad," CJ interrupted. "I'm almost 16. I know you weren't at the movies," he rolled his eyes. "I just expected you to be more responsible. Stop by Issa's room before you go to bed, she might wake up."