Twins: 10/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"I don't think he meant any harm," Lois added hastily. "He's a kid."
"Yeah, and his hormones were in overdrive," Clark said. He smiled, obviously trying to make a joke of the incident. "I can't fault his taste, though. You look really great."
Lois glanced down at her dress. "You like it?"
"Definitely." He reached for the egg rolls. "If I were a teenager, I'd probably be drooling too, even if I wouldn't go to his extreme."
She found herself laughing. "That's a relief. I'd never dare wear it in public."
Clark grinned. "That would be a shame."
Lois could feel her cheeks turning pink. Clark normally didn't say things like that, probably because they were work partners, but maybe tonight had kind of shocked him out of the role. Surprisingly the idea didn't disturb her as much as she had always assumed it would. She was really going to have to take some time to think this over. She was so confused at the moment, she didn't know *what* she thought.
**********
And now, Part 10:
Clark walked slowly up the steps to his apartment and fumbled with the lock for a second before opening the door and reaching inside to switch on the light. Slowly, he closed the door behind him and turned the lock.
His apparent preoccupation with small details wasn't as pointless as it might seem. His landlord was a snoopy sort, and he was aware that the man tended to come by the apartment house at odd hours to check up on "his" tenants. Old Floyd was parked halfway down the block at the moment with a pair of binoculars aimed directly at Clark's front porch.
It was a relatively minor annoyance, but it was one that he had to take seriously. The last thing he needed was to have his slightly paranoid landlord find anything at all that might increase the normal suspicion that he felt about his tenants in general to anything specific about Clark Kent. He liked his apartment and didn't want to have to move.
He moved slowly around inside the living room, tidying up in the full view of the man, aware that the binoculars were now trained on him through the glass of the door. At last, he yawned ostentatiously, stretched and ambled off toward his bedroom, switching off the light behind him. Once out of sight, he pulled off his glasses and checked.
Floyd had now turned his attention to the window of the apartment above Clark's. The tenants above him were an elderly spinster, her great-niece and a Russian wolfhound that probably out-massed both women put together. Since his super-hearing told him that all three occupants of the place were sound asleep, he didn't think that Floyd was likely to see much.
He snapped on his bedside lamp and moved around, getting ready for bed at normal speed for once. His actions were routine as he brushed his teeth and changed into his night gear. The mundane activity gave him time to think and to try to organize the thoughts that were whirling around in his head in complete confusion, which, he had to acknowledge, was often his state of mind when it came to figuring out his volatile partner.
Lois had been in an odd mood tonight. First there had been her relief at his not-exactly-unplanned arrival at her place in time to rescue her from the imposter. He had known it at once when she had lost control of the situation and acted immediately, before things could go farther. He didn't think his double had actually intended to harm Lois, but as he well knew, teenage males sometimes let their emotions get out of hand and a super-powered one might not realize that his companion was putting up objections.
Facing down a super-powered rival was a new experience, of course, and he'd tried to do it without an overt display of his super-powers. He hadn't quite succeeded, but Lois hadn't picked up on it, fortunately. He'd been surprised at himself, in a way. The primitive instincts that roiled under the surface when he had challenged his opponent had shaken him a little. He hadn't realized that he would feel quite so strongly that his double was intruding on his territory, and he had even been a little ashamed of himself. Lois certainly wouldn't have appreciated it if she had known.
He got into bed and turned out the light, carefully punched his pillow into a comfortable shape, and then lay staring up into the dark, still thinking about the events of the evening.
After the boy had left -- to his surprise he found that now, like Lois, he had also begun to think of the other Superman that way -- Lois had invited him to stay for dinner, and then there had been that out-of-the-blue apology. That had left his mind reeling.
In all the months that he had known her, he had never once known Mad Dog Lane to apologize to anybody, even when she, as well as everyone else, knew that she was in the wrong. It just wasn't in her nature, and he had felt for a moment as if someone had knocked the breath out of him.
True, she was undeniably his best friend, and he was hers. If she was going to make an exception for anyone, he guessed it would be him. Still, he'd been somewhat stunned. She had also brought him coffee this afternoon at work, he recalled now. It had been much too sweet, even for him, and there had been considerably more cream than coffee in it, but those had been minor considerations. He wouldn't have hurt her feelings for anything, and had swallowed the concoction without a wince.
And during dinner, she had been ... different. She'd had three or four glasses of champagne, which he figured was probably to steady her nerves after the encounter with the double, and it must have lowered her inhibitions just a little. At least, that was the only reason that he could come up with to explain her behavior. If it had been anyone but Lois Lane he'd have suspected that she was flirting lightly with him. He'd responded, although he'd kept a tight check on his behavior, and when he'd said good night, she'd given him another thank-you for rescuing her, and the lightest of pecks on the cheek. Something was definitely different, although he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Maybe their relationship was beginning to move onto a different level. He hoped so, but Lois's change in attitude had the effect of thoroughly confusing him. Of course, lots of her behavior confused him anyway, so he guessed in retrospect that it wasn't that unusual. Still ...
**********
Lois finished brushing her teeth and snapped off the bathroom light. Ignoring her bedroom slippers, she crossed the room slowly to look out the window. The night sky was nearly cloudless, but she couldn't see the stars. The haze of the city lights blotted out all but the moon and one or two of the brightest stars, but the street below her fifth floor apartment was relatively dark.
A short time ago she had stood at the living room window, following Clark's progress as he walked briskly along the sidewalk on his way home, and had watched as he looked carefully around and then stepped into the alley, partway down the street, and disappeared. A moment later, she had seen Superman's silhouette shoot upward and vanish in the direction of Clark's apartment. The whole incident had happened so quickly and quietly that if she hadn't been half-expecting something of the sort, she would have missed it.
Now she moved slowly to her bed and sank down on the foot of it, thinking of what she had seen.
She hadn't been in any doubt of it, really. Not after all the evidence that had been thrown in her face since this morning. Still, it reinforced emotionally what she already knew intellectually: Clark Kent was Superman. And, after this evening, it was no longer possible to doubt that he was interested in her. She had known for quite a while that Clark had a crush on her. Now it had begun to seriously dawn on her that it was considerably more than a crush.
It had taken a little Dutch courage to bring herself to flirt with him, and he'd responded, and with a certain enjoyment if she read the signs correctly. And when she had kissed his cheek, his arms had tightened around her for one long second.
She had stored that memory away with a few others, to relive now and then at special times. Clark might very well have done what she had warned him against in the beginning.
"Don't fall for me, farmboy. I don't have time for it." She'd told him that the night that they had been working on Dr. Platt's scattered report. The dazzled look in his eyes had warned her all too clearly that he was in danger of forming a crush on her, and Lois Lane, career woman, had had no time for a country boy like him.
Only that country boy had turned out to be like no one she had ever known. And it was beginning to look like he had completely disregarded her warning. It was a little scary. The most powerful man in the world was her reporting partner, and might even be in love with her -- or at least well on his way to it. What was she supposed to do about that?
A glance at her alarm clock told her that it was only a minute or two to midnight. She crawled under the covers, pulled them up to her chin, and lay still, staring up into the darkness.
When she had first met Superman it had been in a very tight spot. He had appeared seemingly out of nowhere and saved her life, as well as the space program, by swallowing the detonator of an explosive meant to destroy the rocket bearing the colonists to the orbiting space station. She had been dazzled. Not only was he a hero, he was also by far the most handsome man she had ever met, with a build that was literally out of this world, and he seemed the embodiment of every woman's fantasy. She had fallen hard for him, while at the same time ignoring the very human man who worked beside her at the Daily Planet. As time had gone by, she learned more about the incredible super man from Krypton and everything she had learned simply reinforced her starry-eyed crush. And then he had come to her asking for her help and she had learned more in one evening than she had in all the months since he had appeared.
She had learned that he was the last of his kind. Suddenly, she sat up straight. This wasn't just Superman that she was thinking about. This was her best friend, *Clark*! *Clark* was that same orphan from Krypton. *Clark* had been sent from a dying world across millions of miles of space to Earth where he could blend with the native population. Clark's ship had landed in Kansas and somehow he had been found by Martha and Jonathan Kent, who had raised him to be the man she knew. Martha and Jonathan had raised him to be the hero that flew around the skies of Metropolis and saved crashing planes and propped up the Golden Gate Bridge, and seemed to make a habit of rescuing Lois Lane from the jaws of disaster on a regular basis. What had she been *thinking*? She'd known since this morning that they were one and the same, but she hadn't *known* it on a gut level. Clark was her hero and her guardian angel and always had been. He had saved her life countless times. She just hadn't realized it.
Oh man, what was she going to do? Relationships with men -- successful ones, anyway -- just didn't seem to be exactly her specialty. Lex Luthor had been interested in her since they had met, but Clark-Superman-Kent had told her Lex was a criminal several months ago, and she had seen enough since to know that he was right, even if she hadn't believed him in the beginning. Clark had been extremely jealous of Lex, but he didn't lie about things like that. In fact, he'd only lied in one way that she could see -- to protect himself and his family. And if she knew Mr. "Almost-pathologically-honest" Clark Kent, he probably didn't enjoy that, either.
But Clark had been *jealous*. That part had been painfully obvious. And tonight she had seen his possessive streak when he had faced down the imposter to protect her. There was no question that he wanted her. Her, Lois Lane, who was obviously a neurotic fool for having this conversation with herself. Any other woman would have grabbed him and held on tight, no questions asked.
So, what was she going to do until she made up her mind where to go with this whole thing? Given that he really did want some kind of relationship with her, did she want one with him? Did she dare to believe that he would be different from Claude, or, for that matter, from her father, who had cheated on her mother over and over, and in the end destroyed his family?
Wait a minute. The realization brought her up short. If she didn't know Clark Kent by now, then she didn't know anything about anybody. She'd learned everything important about him the day she had awakened in his bedroom two days after Miranda had sprayed her with the Revenge; she just hadn't connected it before.
Clark cared about her, and equally important, he respected her. That was something she couldn't say about any of her previous relationships. She couldn't even say that about her own father, who had wanted a son, and had been bitterly disappointed because he "only" had daughters to show for his marriage. Would any other man climb out of a warm bed at midnight to help his friend and partner turn a mattress, for god's sake?
Would taking the risk of a relationship with him be worth it? He could so easily break her heart.
But the woman who had Clark's heart could do the same to him, and she suspected that his could be broken as easily as hers. Maybe more easily. Clark was someone who cared deeply for others. No man who didn't care would do the things Superman did every day, or go to the lengths she had seen Clark go to in order to help his fellows. If she couldn't trust her heart to Clark then she couldn't trust anyone, and she would go through life alone. She could so easily end up like her mother, whose constant companion until a year ago had been a bottle of vodka, or her father, whose relationships with a string of women young enough to be his daughter were legendary.
She hadn't wanted marriage or any of the complications that went with it. She'd run as fast and as far from her family as she could. But that had been before Clark Kent walked into the Daily Planet, and now, if he were to walk away, she would miss him for the rest of her life.
In a way, it looked as if the decision had already been made and she was only just realizing it.
She lay back down again and wiped at the tears that were slowly leaking down her cheeks.
She wouldn't tell him that she had figured out his secret, she decided. At least not yet. She would wait until he told her. But in the meantime, she was going to do everything under the sun to show him that he could trust her. And maybe she should let him know, a little at a time, that she *did* care about him as well. Not Superman, but Clark Kent: the man behind Superman. Everything that the hero was, he was because of Clark: Clark's beliefs, Clark's morals, Clark's desire to help those in need. And if that didn't tell her everything worth knowing about the man, then she deserved to lose him and let one of the numerous women at the Planet, who had apparently noticed him before she had, take her place.
And that just wasn't going to happen.
**********
Clark Kent walked into the lobby of the Daily Planet, only to have Lois charge through the doors after him and nearly knock him down from behind. He staggered, regained his balance and caught her arm in time to keep her from taking a tumble onto the newly mopped tile.
"You okay?"
"Yeah." She sounded breathless, as if she had been running. "Clark, I found something. Look!" She waved a dog-eared magazine at him.
"Hold on," he said, grinning at her excitement. "Why don't you take a few seconds to catch your breath so you can talk."
Unexpectedly, she stopped and took several breaths. "There!" she said. "Happy?"
"Of course." He continued on toward the elevator. "What did you find?"
"The article I was talking about. I saved it, but I'd stuck it in my magazine rack at home. 'Metropolis Science Magazine'," she added, waving it at him again.
"And?" he said, signaling for the elevator.
"The scientist who wrote the article is a Dr. Fabian Leek," she said, as the doors opened and they stepped inside. She lowered her voice. "I wonder if Lex has any connections with this guy. I'm going to have Jimmy do a little hunting for any kind of financial transactions between them. And, of course, with any other scientist studying cloning. There can't be that many of them, can there?"
"I have no idea," Clark said. "Good work, though. And after that?"
She waited until the doors slid shut before she answered. "After that, if it pans out, we'll do whatever we have to do. You know, I feel kind of sorry for that kid if I'm right. Can you imagine growing up with Lex as your father? But it could turn out to be a serious situation for all of us. I mean, think about it for a minute -- Lex Luthor with a Superman of his own under his control? I can't see him leaving anyone else to teach a super-powered clone what he wants him to know."
"Scary thought," Clark said.
"Very scary. But you know, if Lex teaches him his own morals, that situation might not last long, either. Superman is a good, ethical guy, who wants to help people, but a Superman that Lex raised would think the same way Lex does. He's already thinking that way, at least some. Last night he told me 'Might is right'. That sounds like Lex might have to watch out for his own skin before long. You know, I wonder if Lex has thought this through."
"Probably," Clark said. "He strikes me as the kind of guy that thinks ahead."
"Lex schemes," Lois said. "But if he wants to get rid of Superman so badly, I think he might take the risk that he can control his own Superman. He might have miscalculated." She shook her head. "I'm babbling again, aren't I? But I've been thinking about this since about five this morning."
"Five?"
She shrugged a little uncomfortably and cast him a sideways glance. "I didn't sleep very well. I kept waking up. When I woke up about four-thirty, I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up and started hunting for the article."
"Oh." Clark didn't belabor the subject. He was well aware that his fiercely independent partner didn't like it when he hovered over her. "Well, if Jimmy finds any connection between Luthor and Leek, I guess we could go interview him as a first step."
"If he finds a connection, the last thing I want to do is alert Lex that we've added up two and two," Lois said. "What I *want* to do is get together enough evidence that something shady is going on to implicate Lex. It will be one more thing to add to my file on him."
"Your 'file'?" he asked sharply.
"Uh ... yeah. After the pheromone, I started looking for connections between Lex and -- you know -- things that weren't quite right, and documenting it as thoroughly as I could. I'm trying to collect enough evidence to bring him down, but it's a long process."
"Lois, why didn't you tell me? Investigating Luthor alone is a dangerous business!"
"I know. But after the Revenge, it was kind of personal. Besides, he tried to shoot you, Clark. No thanks to him that he didn't. I was worried about you. I didn't want to wake up one day and find out he'd managed to have you killed." She hesitated. "That's why I've done everything I can lately to convince him that I don't find you attractive. Other than physically, that is."
He stared at her, both appalled and shocked that Lois had embarked on such a crusade without telling him -- because she wanted to protect him. And had she just said that she found him attractive, both physically and otherwise? "Do you mind if I get in on this -- at least as backup? If he figures out what you're up to, I can see him trying to kill you, too. Luthor didn't get where he is by being soft."
"I know. I just ... I was afraid for you, Clark. I don't want to lose you. I've ..." She hesitated and added, "I've kind of gotten used to having you around."
"You're not going to lose me. In fact ..." He bit off what he was going to say. Jumping ahead too fast would be guaranteed to scare her off.
She didn't seem to notice. "If we can connect this to him it will be useful, but I also want to try to ... I don't know ... try to help the other Superman, somehow. We can't let Lex turn him into some kind of super weapon. Superman would be the only thing we had to defend us against him, and both of them could get hurt or killed. I don't want that to happen, either."
He nodded. It figured, he thought. Once Lois got involved in something, she went at it with everything she had. He just hoped that she hadn't bitten off more than both of them could chew this time.
The elevator doors opened and they stepped out into the Daily Planet's newsroom.
**********
(tbc)
