title: baby boy lane
author: jessica
mail: thegirlinglasses@illuminatedtext.com
date: november 17, 2002
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There are things they can never agree on. Lex says he chose to stay in the waiting room during Nicky's birth. Clark knows the nurses forced him out there after the second time he fainted.
They argued over his name for weeks, before and after. Nicholas was Baby Boy Lane so long the hospital threatened to name him themselves.
The name didn't mean anything at first. Somthing out of the Big Book of Baby Names that had taken up permanent residence on the bedside table in the month leading up to the birth. It worked well with Luthor and with Kent, should the kid decide the future needed a change.
Then the necessary LexCorp announcement, next to a picture of the happy family, and suddenly Nicholas had to be something more.
Lionel thought his grandson should have the strength of the Russian Empire behind him. He and Lex argued which one it should be.
"Nicholas I was a great leader for his people. Nicholas II was a flake but Czar nonetheless."
Then they argued the spelling of Czar.
"And Nicholas II was executed, Dad."
"Well, Copernicus was wrong."
"He was not. It was... Clark, which one was wrong?"
"Ptolemy," came the answer, shouted from the kitchen.
"Ptolemy Luthor. How does that sound to you, Dad?"
"Lex, you cannot tell the public you named your son at random. He has a great responsibility ahead of him."
"Clark, you want to tell people we named our son after Santa Claus?"
Lionel was not amused.
"St. Nicholas, Dad," Lex explained.
"It's better than Ptolemy."