Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Wrong Clark (181/???)

Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found Here

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Part 181

Clark found his apartment oddly crowded. The Miner brothers were camped out in Clark’s living room with Denny on the sofa and Jack asleep on some pillows on the floor. Jimbo was asleep on the twin bed in the loft, while Jimmy had taken over Clark’s own bed.

So much for coming home. At least he didn’t have powers for anyone to accidentally discover.

Clark took a long shower and dug out the razor Jonathan had given him after Trask had exposed Clark to Kryptonite back in Smallville. He looked between the razor and his chin, and decided that he could wait another day in hopes that his heat vision was back by then. It had to be better than the nicks and scratches he’d have all over his face after another attempt at shaving this way. With a long sigh, he dropped the razor back into the drawer.

After preparing some coffee, Clark went out to his patio to soak up some early morning rays, bringing his cordless phone with him. He had no idea how long his abilities would be out this time. He had never been exposed to Kryptonite, even at such a low level, for such an extended amount of time before.

Clark stared at his phone as he attempted to find the correct words to say to Lois. Finally, he decided that what needed to be said between them had to be face to face, not over the phone. Anyway, he knew that Lois was still over at her mother’s apartment. At least, he wouldn’t be waking her up when he left his message. He wanted to get this call in early enough in the day before something else came up to distract him or her.

Hanging up from leaving a message on her machine suggesting that they meet, Clark closed his eyes and let the sunlight caress his face. His throbbing head could do without the sun’s brightness despite it not being very strong on his patio at this time of day. If ever again faced with the choice, he would never mix alcohol with the aftereffects of Kryptonite exposure. He had no idea how or why humans repeatedly dealt with this. Was it really worth this torment to feel a few hours of numbness from reality and to do things he was liable to regret in the morning? Was it like Kryptonite, in that one was better able to tolerate the pain with repeated exposure? He decided that he would rather not discover the answer by experimentation.

When the phone rang at just after eight o’clock, it jarred Clark awake. The extra hour of sleep in the sunshine hadn’t eased the cracked skull feeling that had taken over his head during the night.

“Lois?” Clark answered without thinking.

“Excuse me?” said a man on the other end of the line. “I’m looking for James Olsen.”

“Hold please,” Clark said, opening the door to his apartment and taking the phone inside.

Jimmy was the closest James Olsen to the patio door, so Clark tossed the phone on his bed where it landed square on Jimmy’s stomach, waking him.

“Phone.”

Jimmy nodded, and groggily replied, “Yeah. The ringing woke me. What are you doing back so early? Lois kick you out?”

Clark waved off his answer and returned to the patio in hopes that a little more sunshine would make him feel more human and less zombie… actually, he’d prefer full Kryptonian, but he doubted that was in the cards for the day.

The phone rang twice more before Jimmy, now showered, shaved, and dressed himself, opened the door to the patio and handed the phone back to Clark.

“Lois?” Clark asked his friend.

“In the doghouse, huh?” At Clark’s blank expression, Jimmy shook his head. “It’s someone from EPRAD. Oh, and the Chief called. He said something about planning a staff meeting over at the Daily Planet to say our final goodbyes. I’m sure Lois’ll be invited to that.”

Clark sighed. “Thanks,” he said to Jimmy before raising the phone to his ear.

***

It was after nine before Lois could sneak into her apartment. The taxi had to pull around the block because of the tabloid reporters camped out on her doorstep. She had needed to call Mr. Tracewski to let her in the back door. At least, he had changed her locks since those men had invaded her apartment the previous day.

It felt odd being in her apartment again. It didn’t feel like home anymore. Lex had taken away that sense of privacy and security from her. It was too silent, and everything felt out of place. Even though Detective Woolfe had insisted that he would have all the cameras and bugs removed before she returned home, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was still watching her.

Just being alone in this apartment made her skin crawl.

She double-checked that all her locks were fastened, and then fed her fish.

Dreams of Clark inviting her to stay with him at his apartment were dashed the previous day when Jimbo had mentioned that not only were he and Jimmy staying on at Clark’s Clinton Street apartment, but also Rat and his little brother. Besides, it wasn’t as if Clark wanted her to be there. He hadn’t even tried to contact her after she had seen him briefly on the plaza with Cat. Not even after pictures of her splattered with Luthor’s blood had covered the evening editions of all the local papers and every channel on television, except Disney.

She saw that her message machine was full. She wondered if anyone she knew… scratch that. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know most of those tabloid reporters who were stalking her because of the Lex Luthor story.

It was just business, they told her. She understood. Right.

She wondered if any of her friends or family had phoned. She hadn’t thought to check her messages when she had stopped by her apartment the day before with Detective Woolfe.

Lois skipped over numerous requests for interviews, including a couple from her old co-workers at LNN, as if she would ever grant those, before she heard a familiar voice.

“Hey, sis. I heard about what happened to you and Mom after the wedding this morning. Give me a call,” Lucy said. Brief and to the point, just as Lois liked it.

Lois had spoken to her sister the previous night to let her know that Mom was okay, if sedated, and where their mother had been hiding out the last weeks. Her sister insisted that she hadn’t received any mail from their mother explaining her whereabouts either. Big surprise, there.

The non-request for an interview messages Lois skipped included a couple from strangers blaming her for Lex’s suicide. There was even a message from some drunk guy she could hardly hear, because he was in a noisy bar, who told her in a slurred voice that not to worry about anything because he loved her and was planning on coming over to show her just how much before the message got cut. Thank God that she hadn’t been home to deal with that guy.

If all her sources didn’t have this number, she would be tempted to change it. She might change it anyway; after all, her sources had abandoned her when she had become engaged to Lex. None of them warned her what kind of man they obviously knew he was.

She skipped another request for an interview before familiar voice stopped her cold.

“Hey, Lois. Sorry about yesterday. Total misunderstanding,” Cat said, brushing off her and Clark avoiding Lois like the plague as if it meant nothing. Lois was about hit the ‘next’ button but Cat’s next words stopped her. “Clark crashed at my place last night, because of the overcrowding at his apartment. He really wanted to talk to you yesterday, but you weren’t around. I mean, completely understandable after what you went through with… Ugh! That must have been awful…”

Understatement of the year.

“Anyway, I had a quick question about something you told me during Nightfall. Give me a call on my mobile, when you have a chance. Tootles!” Cat sang, leaving the number.

“Not in this century,” Lois mumbled, hitting ‘delete’ and moving on to the next message. She didn’t owe that woman any favors.

Lois skipped a few more requests for interviews. She listened to a message from her old boss Dave Robertson, the News Director of LNN, who told her that she was welcome to take as much time off as necessary to cope with her loss.

She wasn’t going back to LNN to work, not in this lifetime. She would have to be no-other-alternative desperate before she would consider it, and maybe not even then. If she thought it had been uncomfortable before, she could imagine how bad it would be now that Lex was gone… and gone, according to some people, because of her.

“Lois, it’s Clark.” His voice interrupted these thoughts. “Thanks for letting me know that you wouldn’t be able to meet last night. I understand why you’d want to be with your mom right now, after all that has happened. It seems as if I was one step behind you all day yesterday, so maybe it would be easier if you called me. I’m home, now. Call me, so we can meet up. We have a lot to talk about.”

No apologies.

No explanations.

No ‘I miss you’.

No ‘I love you’.

Nothing.

Clark sounded tired and sad, which is exactly how Lois felt, even more so after hearing his message. She was glad that he wanted to talk, but other than that, she felt drained after hearing his message. Those doubts she had sensed the previous day returned. She, certainly, didn’t feel up to calling him back, just yet.

She skipped a few more requests for interviews. Inspector Henderson had left a message, asking that she meet with him this afternoon to go over some details that had been missed in the hours they had talked previously. Apparently, after talking to everyone else, he had new questions to ask her and new information to share. Peachy. She was so ready to put this story into her past.

The phone rang before she could listen to the last of her messages, and Lois hesitated to pick it up. What if it was LNN or another tabloid reporter? What if it was one of those people who blamed her for Lex’s death? What if it was Clark? No, he said he wanted her to call him.

She picked up the phone on the third ring. “Hello?”

“Hi ya, darlin’. How are you feeling today?” Perry’s southern voice washed over her like a soothing balm.

“Okay, Perry,” she lied. She felt anything but ‘okay’. Numb. In shock. Down in the doldrums, but certainly not ‘okay’.

“I’m getting the old gang together at the Daily Planet for one last meeting, hon’. Do you think you’re up to it?” he asked.

The old gang would include Clark, wouldn’t it? Meeting him with the group would give her the buffer she needed to size up what was going on before they talked privately. “Sure. What time?”

***

Lois walked into the shadows of what used to be the portico under the Daily Planet globe. The globe was gone now, taken away after the bombing. It had probably been turned into scrap metal if she knew Lex Luthor. Sadly, she had. That man had no interest in history or historical significance unless there was a buck to be made from it. Well, at least, as far as architecture went; art, artifacts, and weapons were another matter entirely.

All those months of in-depth investigating wasted. They wouldn’t even get their day in court. The selfish bastard. How dare Luthor take that opportunity away from them! The headlines on the Metropolis Star last night read “Lex Luthor Dead,” not “Lex Luthor: Criminal Mastermind.” Even in this, he had won.

“I wish they would just get it over with and tear this place down,” Jimmy said, standing under where the globe used to sit over the entrance to the Daily Planet’s lobby.

“Yep, too many memories,” Perry agreed.

Lois looked at Jimmy and then at the Chief incomprehensibly. She ignored Clark and his lack of a response to this discussion. “How can you guys give up? What about Franklin Stern?” she asked, nudging her former boss. “Wouldn’t he buy the Planet and make her new again?”

Perry gazed at Lois with a startled expression. “I asked him, actually, but he said he wasn’t interested.”

“Not interested?” she sputtered. “But… but… that’s impossible!”

Perry raised an eyebrow.

Yes, impossible. That wasn’t at all how her dream went last night. Franklin Stern had bailed out and rebuilt the Daily Planet, and they all had gotten their old jobs back. She and Clark had gone back to being partners as if Lex Luthor never existed. Well, for the most part. That was what was supposed to happen. She knew it deep down in her bones that was what was supposed to happen.

Lois didn’t want to think about Clark’s confession from her dream where he claimed he had used her to catch Luthor. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced over at him.

“A friend of mine likes to say that nothing’s impossible, Lois,” Clark murmured from where he stood leaning against one of the pillars of the building. Those were the first words he had spoken directly to her since they arrived, and said ‘hello’. Then, again, after his behavior from the previous day, leaving her when she most needed him, she hadn’t really given him much of an opportunity. There would be plenty of time to talk when they were alone.

Besides that, Clark was acting strange. For starters, he hadn’t shaved. She thought that a little scruff on his chin would add a bit of a roguish quality to his normal clean-cut all American face, but instead it just made him look exhausted. It certainly didn’t give her any confidence that Mr. Truth-and-Justice wasn’t about to break her heart as he had in her dream. She could tell something was going on with him. It didn’t help that he was hiding his eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses. It was almost as if he was afraid she’d realize that he had been lying to her all along about loving her if she could look him directly in the eyes.

Lois was also wearing sunglasses, but she was doing it so she wouldn’t attract the attention of any of those nasty tabloid reporters who lacked any sort of ethics. “Well, aren’t you Little Mary Sunshine this morning, Clark?” she snapped.

Clark shrugged. “Hey, I’m with you on this, Lois. I’d like nothing more than for my friend to be wrong about impossible things, but…”

Lois raised her hand, cutting him off. “Yeah, well, there are some things I never thought possible that turned out to be very possible,” she said. Such as Clark being less optimistic than me. “But you guys giving up on the Daily Planet wasn’t one of them.”

He stared at her, but she couldn’t read his expression due to those infernal sunglasses. “Nobody’s perfect, Lois, even I have had my doubts, sometimes,” Clark admitted. “But I don’t see how we can resurrect the Daily Planet while we’re living on our dwindling savings.”

“Well, you know there’s a lesson to be learned in all this,” Perry said, moving along the boarded-up doors and windows of their former home away from home.

“Why am I not surprised?” Jimbo said with a wink at his cousin.

Perry continued, “We should appreciate what we’ve got when we’ve got it.”

“I’ll agree with the Chief, there,” Jimmy said.

Lois looked at Clark, leaning against the railing, his face unreadable. Was Perry telling her to give Clark a second thousandth chance? How many more times should she give Clark to hurt her, before realizing that her hero was just another lost cause? She had thought he was different, perhaps even the One, but what if he were just another one of those men out to burn her?

“I’ve said this before, but I just hate that Luthor got his way in this one thing!” Perry said, slapping his palm with his fist.

“We all tried to stop him,” Lois reminded him.

“Every one of us sacrificed something to save the Planet,” Jimmy said. “Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough.”

Jimbo sighed, and after a moment of silence asked, “Why isn’t Cat here? Wasn’t she invited to this final meeting?”

“She and Phil are leaving for Houston at the end of the month,” Clark said. “Unlike us, she’s already moved on with her life.”

Lois scoffed. “Who would’ve thought that out of all of us Cat Grant would land on her feet first? Not I.” She wanted to add that it just meant that Cat wasn’t as invested in the Daily Planet as the rest of them, but she could tell enough from Clark’s expression that he was willing to go to the mat to defend Cat’s reputation. Lois wasn’t in the mood to duke it out with Clark about Cat, when they had more important things to discuss.

Jimmy chuckled. “Well, Lois, she is a Cat…”

Jimbo also smiled. “And you know what they say about cats always landing on their feet.”

The Jimmys burst into a guffaw of chuckles.

“Well, I for one am not giving up! I’m going to continue to fight and look for a benefactor to buy the Planet from LexCorp,” Lois said. Her mind skimmed the possibilities. It paused on whether she should ask Mayson Drake to introduce her to Bill Church, but after Lex’s accusations in that quarter Lois decided that wouldn’t be an improvement above their last billionaire owner.

“I’ve already tried that,” said a voice from behind her.

She turned to see the media mogul Franklin Stern, standing before the building.

See, Lois grinned triumphantly. She knew Stern was going to save the day, and they hadn’t believed her!

“It seems that was another one of Lex Luthor’s lies,” Mr. Stern went on.

“Wait a gosh darn minute! What are you saying? That Lex Luthor never owned the Daily Planet?” Perry asked.

“No,” Mr. Stern answered. “That LexCorp never did. I reconsidered your proposal and I agree with you, Metropolis does need the Daily Planet, Mr. White. My lawyers went to take the Daily Planet off of LexCorp’s hands this morning, only to discover that it was a private asset owned solely by Lex Luthor himself.”

“Great shades of Elvis!” Perry muttered.

“So? Luthor’s dead,” Jimbo replied to Jimmy.

“That means, since his untimely death yesterday, the Daily Planet is currently tied up in probate along with all of Luthor’s other assets. Until Sheldon Bender, the executor of his estate figures out who inherits, its ownership is in limbo.” He held out a hand to Perry. “I’m sorry, Mr. White, I’m afraid by the time he does that, it will be too late for all of you.”

Perry shook his hand. “I appreciate your help, Mr. Stern.”

“Any time, Mr. White,” Mr. Stern said, stepping back into his town car.

They all watched in silence as Mr. Stern drove off, the weight of the building behind them bearing down upon them with all of its bricks and mortar.

“Well, I better get home to Alice. We’ve got a meeting with a realtor at one,” Perry said, holding out his hand to Clark. “I’ll be seeing you around, Kent.”

“I hope so, sir,” Clark replied, shaking his hand.

“Should you ever need anything, Lois, be sure to call,” Perry said, holding out his hand to her. “My friend at the AP has agreed to accept freelance articles from you two until you find something more steady.”

Instead of shaking his hand, Lois pulled her former boss into a tight embrace. “This can’t be the end.”

“It isn’t, darling. Not as long as one of us still has some fight left in us,” he replied.

“I’ll never give up,” she whispered. “Never.”

“Thatta girl,” the Chief said, his voice hoarse as he patted her back and pulled away.

“See you around, Lois,” Jimbo called.

“Bye, Jimmys.”

Jimmy lifted up his hand to wave at them. “We’ll meet you back at the apartment, CK,” he called, as he and Jimbo walked off with Perry. He gave Clark a strange look with this parting gesture.

Lois looked back at Clark, but all she saw in his response was a wave and a nod. When she and Clark were finally alone, she moved up next to him and said, “So.”

“You cut your hair,” he said weakly. “It looks good.”

She touched her head. She still wasn’t used to this short cut. “Thanks.”

“I heard about what happened yesterday with your mom. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you,” Clark said softly, moving down the building until he stood in a patch of sunlight.

“So, where were you?” she asked, crossing her arms and following him. “Perry said you were held up.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, despite them both knowing it was a lie. He seemed stiff and distant. “Held up.”

When she moved closer to him, waiting for him to elaborate, Lois could have sworn he flinched before taking a step back. The sinking feeling she had been developing since the day before ballooned.

“What is going on with you, Chuck? Out of all the people I know, you’re the last person I would ever suspect of not being there when you were needed,” she said. When I needed you. “Our friends needed us… needed Superman to see this through.” She glanced back to the boarded up shell of the Daily Planet. “Now…”

His lips pressed into a line. “I was delayed, Lois. You once said that I had to do what I could and that there were limits even to what Superman could do.”

Lois couldn’t believe that he was using her words against her and to defend his deplorable behavior.

“The Daily Planet, my friends…” He paused, and she wished she could read his expression behind those dark lenses as he stared at her.

“What about us?” she probed, removing her sunglasses to see him better.

“You’re probably everything in the world that’s precious to me,” he finished.

If we’re so precious, then where were you yesterday?

Her fists closed in rage. “I don’t think I have ever, will ever, meet anyone quite like you,” she snapped, her gaze narrowing.

“Lois.”

“Let me go first,” Lois insisted. She had stayed up half the night at her mother’s composing a list of questions for Clark to answer. The last time he went first, the lunkhead had proposed.

“No. Not, not this time, Lois, please,” he said, holding up his hands to stop her. “I’m going out to Las Vegas in a couple of hours with Jimmy.”

“What?” she stammered, staggering backwards. What the hell? She wouldn’t let him break her heart. “What do you mean? The investigation is over, and you’re leaving?”

“I’m not leaving. I’ll just be out of town for a few days. You’ll be busy here tying up loose ends regarding Luthor,” he said feebly. “When all that dies down, we’ll talk. When I get back, okay?”

“No, not okay, you… You, get over here!” she hissed, grabbing his arm and dragging him into the shadows of the overhang of the Daily Planet portico. “We’re going to talk, and we’re going to talk, now!”

Clark backed away from her. “Lois, please, I need some time and…”

“And what?” she growled. She took a step forward, and he took another step back.

“Distance,” he replied, glancing away.

“Distance? From me? Time away from me?” Lois retorted. “Isn’t that what we’ve had for months, already? Time and space apart?”

“Look, it’s not you. I promise you that. It’s me.”

“You didn’t just go there, did you?” Lois scoffed, starting to pace. “I don’t know what’s up with you, Chuck, but I’m certainly not going to accept that answer.”

“I’m sorry, Lois… about a lot of things…”

This time she stopped him with a raised hand. “I know you would have done anything to bring Luthor down. I get that. I know that you never wanted to hurt me. Well, tough, big guy, because you have,” she said. “You’re still hurting me.”

Clark winced at her words. “I…”

“But I refuse,” she spoke over his interruption. “Refuse to accept that you used me to bring Luthor down. That’s not who you are. You know that I hated him, hated everything about him, just as much, if not more, than you did. So, don’t tell me how you never really wanted to marry me when you proposed, because you never actually loved me.” She looked over at him.

His face was pale and his jaw was hanging open. He seemed to find his voice only when she stopped talking. “I do love you, Lois.” His hand rose to cover his heart. “You are my world.”

Her brow rose with disbelief. “So, you’re not taking it back?”

“No! Never,” he said. “I love you with all of my heart. I always will, no matter what.”

These words seemed genuine, but so had his earlier words. She didn’t know what to believe.

Lois flung out her hand. “Then what was all that ‘It’s not you. It’s me’ crap?”

He raised a hand to his head for a second and took a deep breath. “I’m not breaking up with you, Lois, if that’s what you thought. I just need some time…”

“To do what?” she roared.

Clark cringed at her question, physically cringed.

Something wasn’t right.

Lois snatched the sunglasses from his face.

“Lois!” he hissed. His eyes widened and he turned his back to the street.

“Nobody is looking at you, Ch…” Her voice faded as she moved to gaze at his face.

The sunglasses.

The wincing whenever she raised her voice.

The being ‘delayed’ the previous day.

Nobody had seen Superman since the morning before last, when he assisted at the Luthor House for Homeless Children. Perry had said that he heard rumors that Kryptonite would be used against Superman there. Clark had been in a baggy suit and wearing Cat’s sunglasses when she saw him the day before. How could she have been so blind?

“Why do you have bloodshot eyes, Clark?” Lois asked, handing him back his glasses.

Clark slipped on the sunglasses and glanced over his shoulder.

“You’d better not expect me to believe that someone’s calling for help,” she said, crossing her arms. “Because you’re not leaving until I get a straight answer.”

He sighed and his shoulders fell. “Even if they were, I couldn’t hear them,” he replied.

“You were exposed to…” She lowered her voice. “Kryptonite the day before yesterday, weren’t you? That’s why nobody saw you or Superman yesterday, isn’t it?”

Clark lowered his head, and then gave a quick nod.

The fire within her died with his admission. Lois set her hand upon his arm, and felt him stiffen beneath her touch, but she didn’t let go. She ran her hand up and down his arm. The man she loved was hurt, physically hurt. Her anger could wait. “Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you tell me?” she murmured.

“I failed you. You needed me, and I wasn’t…”

“Hush,” she interrupted, pulling him into an awkward embrace. Lois’s heart cracked with remorse. Oh, God. What have I done? He had given her no reason to doubt him, and yet, because of that stupid dream… “I failed you, Clark. You needed me, and I wasn’t there for you.” She felt a tremor pass through his chest.

“Yes, you were, Lois,” he whispered. Hesitantly, almost reluctantly, Clark wrapped his arms loosely around her. “You’re always with me, Lois, wherever I go.”

Lois had a thousand questions that she wanted to ask him about how he had gotten exposed to Kryptonite, where he had disappeared off to after he had been infected, and why he hadn’t come forward with the news sooner. There would be plenty of time to ask those questions, later on, when he felt better. She could almost feel his pain in his jolted movements and reluctance. She only wished he felt comfortable enough with her to supply the answers to her questions without her having to ask.

Before she could speak, he continued on, “Your love is what gives me the strength to… it allows me to be the man that I…have to be.”

He had said the trip wasn’t about her, but him. If he wouldn’t supply her with the answers she needed, she would have to take what she knew and try to see things from his viewpoint. So, what could he be thinking? He had said he needed time. Time to recover from his exposure, obviously, and distance? Distance from the Kryptonite? How could she argue with the strongest man on Earth, when he said her love gave him that strength? She would give him the time he needed to heal. Distance, not so much. It wasn’t as if she was infused with Kryptonite and keeping him sick, now was she?

“It was because of you that I survived. If I hadn’t trusted in your love…” He shook his head.

If he hadn’t trusted in her love, what would have happened? Had she given him any reason to doubt her? Well, recently? When? How? Why? Talk to me, dammit! She took a deep breath and exhaled it. They were together now. She would get the answers out of him. Slowly. With time. “Then, why did you let me yell at you?” she forced herself to ask calmly.

“I thought anger was your super power, a part of the Lois Lane passion package,” he replied with a sheepish smile. “You mean there’s a way to opt out of the yelling? By all means, tell me how to turn it off. I’m all ears.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you, yesterday, Lois. Believe me when I say I’d much rather have been with you,” Clark said, slightly increasing his embrace. “You have a right to be angry with me. I wish I could say it would be the last time.”

That was her Clark. Even though he was the injured party, he was trying to make her feel better by cracking a few jokes. “You can count on that,” she mumbled with a slight giggle. Nobody could stick his foot in his mouth quite like Clark.

They stood there in each other’s arms under the overhang of the Daily Planet building in silence, relishing having survived. Lois admitted she felt a bit of excitement of being out in public so publicly as a couple, too. They were together now. Everything would be all right.

***End of Part 181***

Part 182

Did Clark stick his foot in his mouth again? What WAS he thinking? Give us your Comments, tell us your thoughts, bash Clark's already sore head one more time.

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