Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Wrong Clark (190/???)

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

To refresh your memory on where we last left Clark, check out Part 189.

Part 190

Clark knew that Jimbo, Jack, and Denny would probably be at his apartment when he and Jimmy arrived from the airport. However, he hadn’t expected Lois.

“Hi,” Clark said, a smile rising naturally to his lips. At least, it had felt natural. He wasn’t quite sure since he had known she was inside because he heard her heartbeat while fumbling for his keys. To put it more accurately, he fumbled his keys because he had heard her heartbeat.

“Hi,” Lois replied with a wave and a smile from where she was sitting at his dining room table. She had stood up initially, and then had sat back down instead of walking over to personally greet him.

Clark hadn’t taken offense. Clearly, she hadn’t wanted to make a scene in front of the guys, which her coming up to him and kissing him or hugging him would have been. A scene. So, he hadn’t blamed her. Actually, he was thankful that she had sat back down.

“Perry’s invited us all over to his house for dinner,” she announced before he and Jimmy had made it down the steps. “I’ve brought my Cherokee, so we can go together as a group.”

“Oh,” Clark said. He felt guilty at being relieved that it wouldn’t just be the two of them. The physical gestures required between a new couple eating dinner at their boss’s house for the first time, surrounded by their co-workers, would be much subtler than if they had eaten alone at Lois’s or in a restaurant. “That was nice of him.”

“Hey, Cuz. Don’t worry about the sleeping arrangements. I’ve moved back in with my mom, so you can take the loft,” Jimbo said, tossing Jimmy his keys. “I just came back for one last load.”

“Oh, right. Thanks,” Jimmy replied.

“Actually, Jimmy, I was going to ask if you wanted to stay in my spare bedroom, until everyone gets settled. Then Jack could sleep up in the loft instead of on Clark’s floor,” Lois said, as Clark approached her at the table.

Jack perked up from where he was sitting on said floor with his back leaning against Clark’s couch and Clark saw him look towards Jimmy to see what his reaction would be. Denny glanced up for a second before his gaze returned to his TV program. Apparently, the television belonged to Jimmy, not his cousin.

Again, Clark felt more than a twinge of remorse for Lois giving him a reprieve on leaping forward towards intimacy in their relationship. He didn’t know why she was backing off on the couplehood pressure he had felt when they had met at the Daily Planet a few days earlier, but he could almost sense the weight of one world having been lifted from his shoulders. If Jimmy were staying at her place, Lois certainly wouldn’t invite Clark to stay the night. Was it wrong to feel grateful? Should he be worried? He glanced at Lois and her warm loving smile reassured him that he needn’t be concerned.

Jimmy grinned. “I appreciate the offer, Lois, but maybe we should ask CK what he thinks about an ex-con moving in with his girlfriend,” he teased, tossing Clark a wink.

“Ex-con?” Jack scoffed. “What were you ever convicted of? Stealing a candy bar? Jaywalking? Anyway, Denny can take the loft. I’ll be fine on the sofa.”

“I don’t mind, Jimmy,” Clark said, setting his hand on Lois’s arm. When he didn’t feel any discomfort in his gut, he leaned over to kiss her cheek. “Thanks. You’re a lifesaver,” he whispered in her ear. “One more gushing anecdote about the great and wonderful Jenny and I was going to out myself just to shut him up.”

Lois instantly turned on Jimmy like a shark on a wounded fish. “Who’s Jenny?”

Jimmy flushed, glancing down at his shoes. “Um… I met someone in Las Vegas.”

“A showgirl?” Jack asked hopefully.

“A hooker?” Jimbo said, equally full of hope.

“Take that back!” Jimmy warned, moving towards his cousin.

Clark grabbed Jimmy’s elbow before both hands could connect with his cousin’s chest. “He’s only joking,” he told his friend, giving Jimbo a scolding glare.

“Oh!” Jimbo gasped, staggering out of Jimmy’s reach. “You mean a real someone?”

“Of course, a real person,” Jimmy snapped. “She’s not some blowup doll.”

Jack snickered. “Well, man… you were in Vegas.”

The guys laughed, easing tensions, but Lois merely pinched her lips. Clark let go of Jimmy’s arm.

“So, what’s she like?” Jimbo asked, plopping himself down on the sofa next to Denny.

As Jimmy launched into a sighing description of how he met Jenny and had saved her from a mugging the night before, Lois slipped her hand into Clark’s and quietly led him out of common room and into his semi-private bedroom.

“I hope you don’t mind,” she whispered as he dropped his overnight bag on his bed. “I thought you could use a little more space here. It will only be until everyone’s settled.”

“I don’t mind,” Clark replied, sitting down on his bed. “I appreciate it.” He did and probably more than Lois would want him to.

Lois sat down opposite him at the window seat.

He had forgotten that she had cut her hair. Well, not completely forgotten; it had slipped his mind though. She looked almost as different with short hair as he did with glasses, only sexier. Perhaps he only thought she appeared sexier because she now didn’t look like the woman on Luthor’s sex tape. Clark internally winced at this thought. How could he think Lois looked sexier because she didn’t look like herself? How could he tell her again how much he liked the haircut, while all the while kicking himself for liking it?

She glanced over her shoulder and out the window at his view of the brick wall with a sigh, and Clark realized that he had been staring.

“That’s not the only reason you invited him to stay, is it?” he asked, his brow furrowing at her expression. He knew Lois when she was avoiding something.

“No,” she admitted. She leaned forward towards him and murmured, “I need someone to feed my fish.”

He grinned for a moment, knowing that lie was as bad as some of his Superman excuses. His smile faded as he recalled it wasn’t exactly a lie, just a convenient truth. She would need someone to look after her apartment. She wasn’t going to be there. “Do you…?”

Lois waved him off with a pointed head bob towards the other room. “Later.”

Right. Top secret. Even from the guys, it seemed.

Later.

They would talk later.

They would be alone later. Truly alone.

What would he do if she tried to kiss him? He figured he could handle a small peck on the lips. He didn’t have any problems with kissing her cheek, but he meant what if she really tried to kiss him? Kiss him as if they could scorch off their clothing merely from joining their lips. Kiss him as she had when they last met up on her roof a week earlier. Kiss him as he had last kissed her, as if finally they could soon be together and tonight was ‘soon’.

He had no idea how he would react. Would he avoid the kiss as he had used to avoid sweets? Would he be repulsed? Would he just tell her ‘no, he couldn’t’? Would he join the kiss, relish in its sweetness, only to have ugly pictures push their way into his mind and cause him to run off to be sick? He would have to tell her then.

Tell her about that horrible cage.

The pain.

The video.

The images.

The sounds.

His doubts.

Clark gulped. Suddenly, he was very afraid of later.

There was always the off-chance nothing extraordinary would happen if they kissed, except maybe some floating on his part. However, he didn’t have that kind of luck.

Apparently, she could see his fear because her eyes reflected sadness, despite the gentle uptick of her lips. She still leaned towards him, her arms resting on her knees, and her hands folded together. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. Fine. Tip top,” he said, knowing he didn’t sound fine. “Why do you ask?”

“You’re sweating.”

He smiled sheepishly. He couldn’t fool Lois. Not that he wanted to, anymore. He just didn’t want to discuss the truth. He didn’t want to talk about why he wasn’t grabbing her and pressing her into the bed… well, other than the obvious reason of the four guys on the other side of the wall. He wanted to forget it and wipe it from his memory forever.

Clark stood up and began pacing between the end of his bed and the bathroom in front of his armoire. “I’ve just been cooped up all day,” he said, wiping his brow as his back turned towards her. She was right. He was sweating.

“Why don’t you take a walk?” she asked.

He stopped pacing and stared at her. “But…I… I can’t…” He couldn’t do that. He had only just arrived home. He couldn’t take off, and he certainly couldn’t walk away from Lois. Not now. How would that look?

“Sure, you can.” Lois stood. “I’ll come with you,” she said, stepping up directly to him. She left two inches of space between his chest and hers. He could feel some form of kinetic energy sizzling between them as if they were magnets drawn together yet not touching. “We’ll tell the others that we’re popping down to the market to pick up a few things. Maybe a bouquet of flowers for Alice or some more cream soda or some wine.” She reached up and caressed his cheek, causing the electricity to flow from her body into his with a jolt to his nervous system. She lowered her voice, “When was the last time you flew?”

Not two hours ago, the smart aleck in him wanted to respond, but he knew that wasn’t what she was asking. “Friday,” he replied, his voice hoarse. “Friday morning.”

It was now Tuesday evening.

She frowned. “That long, eh?” she stated rhetorically. “Well, no wonder you’re antsy.” She gazed at him inquisitively. “Do you think you could?”

He nodded.

“Good. Then you’re in charge of picking the flowers,” Lois said. “I’ll get everything else.”

Clark set his hand over hers still resting on his cheek.

She was giving him space.

She wasn’t angry.

She wasn’t resentful.

She wasn’t scared.

She was treating him as an equal partner in their relationship.

Moreover, she wanted him to use his abilities to do minor everyday things out in the world.

“I love you,” he said.

“Of course you do,” Lois said, shooting him a cocky grin. She lowered her hand and looped it around his elbow. “Come on, Chuck. Let’s go take that walk.”

***

On the landing outside of Clark’s apartment, Lois had casually slipped a red wig out of her large purse and set it on top of her head. She clipped it down with a couple of barrettes. Then she pulled out the sunglasses she had been wearing when Clark had seen her at the Daily Planet a few days before.

“Just to feed your fish, huh,” Clark murmured.

She glared at him. “This is only temporary, until the sheen of the Luthor story wears off. Perry suggested that it would be better for Lois Lane’s reputation as a reporter, if immediately after her faux wedding to Lex Luthor that she wasn’t seen romantically linked to another man.”

So, she’s having Jimmy move in with her? Clark raised an eyebrow. “Look who’s referring to herself in the third person, now.”

Lois sighed, taking hold of his arm again as they descended the stairs. “That person who was dating and engaged to Lex Luthor wasn’t me, just like you-know-who isn’t you. It was an act. Unfortunately, we share the same name and address.”

“Have those mean reporters from the press been bothering you, minha?” he teased, despite knowing exactly how she felt. He had gone through that himself a couple years earlier.

“Suck an egg, Kent,” she retorted. “You have no idea what it’s like on the other…”

He started laughing. “I faintly recall some reporter following me to this very building and barging in on my meeting with my new landlord on the off-chance I might be interviewing Superman.”

“I was right, wasn’t I? You knew where Superman was hiding out, didn’t you?”

He coughed and murmured behind his hand, “May I plead the Fifth?”

“Anyway, this way I can hang out with you and be myself,” she said, flipping her shoulder length red hair like a pro.

“The real you is a redhead?” he asked, skipping to the side to miss her fist encountering his bicep.

“Only if the real you is a lunkhead,” she responded.

He grinned. “You got me, minha. That’s just an act I put on sometimes, so that nobody would associate real me with Clark Kent.” Freudian slip. He shook his head. “I mean that other guy.”

Lois rolled her eyes. Clearly, she didn’t buy it.

He had to admit that he preferred her assumption that the real him wasn’t the stupid idiot he too often turned into around her. “I hereby solemnly swear to give up that persona forever.” He lifted his hand as if he were taking the Boy Scout oath.

She looked at him with skeptically. “The lunkhead or the other guy?”

“The guy who lies to you, hides things from you, and says stupid things to mess up his relationship with you,” he amended.

“That still sounds like both those guys,” she said.

Clark refused to rise to the bait and argue. She did have a point.

“Do you mean like ‘we can’t date because you don’t like sweets’?” Lois went on.

He raised a finger. “Technically, you said that.”

She grabbed his finger. “If I recall the incident correctly, I was trying hard not to cheat on the other you with you,” she reminded him, letting go of his finger. “And then you go and kiss me, making it impossible not to fall in love with you, especially since the other you wouldn’t kiss me at all!”

Okay, he decided to give her that one. He was also glad that they saved this conversation for a time when he wasn’t hung over or he never would've been able to follow it.

“Or do you mean the guy who said we can’t kiss when you’re dressed in your other clothes?” she went on.

“Oh, no,” Clark said. “That guy’s still here. He’s the smart one.”

She pursed her lips. Then a thought seemed to strike her because her lips curved up into a smile and she licked those lips in anticipation.

He wanted to kiss those lips when she did that, but that would be opening a whole other can of worms. Or it could. Maybe it wouldn’t. He wished he knew.

“So, I can only kiss you when you’re dressed like this…” Lois started, running her fingers down his t-shirt.

“Or in my business suit,” he amended.

“How about when you’re naked?” she asked.

Clark tripped on the uneven sidewalk. “Lois!” he warned. This wasn’t the time or place for that conversation.

She lifted her gaze to him, smiling innocently and batting her eyelashes.

So much for the lack of relationship pressure.

Taking a deep breath, he recalled that Jimmys or other houseguests would occupy both his apartment and soon hers, and that she would be spending a week on the space station.

There was no reason to panic, he reminded himself.

“I think that red hair is corrupting your brain,” he finally said.

Lois laughed. “Or is it just bringing out my true self,” she said with a wink. “— as your glasses do for you?”

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and tried to smile.

Panicking was back on the table.

She patted his arm as they approached his neighborhood grocery store. “We’ll talk about that later tonight, Chuck,” she said, letting go of his arm.

Later.

“Have a nice walk. Don’t forget the flowers,” she said, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

Surprised, Clark turned his head at the last moment and her kiss landed on the edge of his mouth, startling him and, from her smiling expression, possibly her as well.

It was a quick kiss as his kiss on her cheek had been, much too quick for bad images to ruin it.

He was doing fine.

He would get past this.

A little bit at a time.

He could do this.

Lois waved and entered the store.

Clark walked another two blocks until he found a deserted alley where he took off into the skies. It was a bright sunny day in Metropolis, so he didn’t want to be in the sky in jeans and a t-shirt for long. He zipped over to Cat’s building, thankfully heard no bongo music, and super sped up the stairs to her door.

He spun into his laundered Suit in their living room to which he earned the jesting comment from Phil, “Really, Kent, must you do that in front of my wife?”

With a blush, he thanked Cat again for saving his behind, pleaded a vague emergency, and took off into the blue skies once more. He flew a leisurely five-minute stroll around the globe, east to west to east, again. Then he flew south to north, coming back over the North Pole. He took a dip in the cool waters of the Arctic Ocean just above the Queen Elizabeth Islands in northern Canada. Next, he rose high into the sky to dry himself outside the Earth’s atmosphere in the sun’s unfiltered rays.

Man, that feels good, Clark thought. He compared it to a shot of adrenaline from one of Lois’s saucy smiles.

As he returned to Metropolis, he tuned into the local time and saw that he had left Lois only ten minutes earlier. He still had his errand to complete. He turned south to head to some of his favorite places to pick wild flowers.

***

Lois wandered the aisles of the grocery store, kicking herself. She couldn’t believe that she had told Clark that she wanted to kiss him while he was naked.

What could she have been thinking?

She dropped her face into her hand. Clearly, she hadn’t been.

After all that hard work to calm him down and relax him back at the apartment, when he looked like a caged animal about to make a break for it merely because they were semi-alone in the same room, she had gone and thrown it out the window. Why did she have to forget herself?

What could she have been thinking?

She had openly flirted with her… her… romantic partner.

Lois groaned.

There had to be a better term for Clark than ‘boyfriend’.

Lover.

Ha! Not anytime soon, she had realized, from the way he had panicked back in his apartment and from that expression that he had given her when she had said the word ‘naked’. For a man who often went about in a skintight blue suit and could see through any substance that didn’t contain lead, Clark was very modest.

By saying that word, Lois had upped their relationship a notch, just when she was supposed to be playing it cool.

Damn!

No, she amended. Damn, Luthor! It was his fault Clark was acting all jumpy.

After fifteen minutes of aimless shopping, she pushed her fairly empty cart to the cashier. She just couldn’t keep making circles in the grocery store. She wasn’t even sure what Jimmy liked to eat. So, she had gone with ‘the complete opposite of health food junkie Clark’.

That had been the other reason, besides to give Clark his needed space and to have someone feed her fish while she was in space, that she had invited Jimmy to move into Lucy’s old room. If she had gotten her act together sooner, if she had been able to find the goods on Luthor before he could double-cross her and buy the Daily Planet, Jimmy would never have ended up in jail. Also, she figured after all those months sharing everything in jail, he would appreciate the privacy Clark’s current living situation wouldn’t give him.

As Lois carried her heavy items out of the store in a cardboard box, she wondered about her intelligence in buying two six-packs of cream soda to restock Clark’s fridge and her own, as well as some normal cola for Jimmy. Thankfully, there was a pair of strong arms to take her box and hand her a bouquet of flowers wrapped in paper, waiting just outside the store.

“Pick these yourself?” she asked wryly.

“Sure did,” Clark said. “From that flower stand in Centennial Park.”

Lois raised a brow.

He lowered his voice. “It’s been a few days since I patrolled, and with both Superman and Luthor missing in action, the criminal element is starting to test the fences,” he explained. “Superman only just finished stopping an attempted bank robbery.”

She glanced at her watch. “It’s barely six o’clock. The banks are just closing for the day.”

He shrugged.

“Do you think that there’ll be an uptick in crime because Luthor’s gone?” she asked.

He paused and whispered, “Are you asking Superman or Clark?”

“I’m asking this Boy Scout who volunteered to carry my groceries to my car,” she replied. Sometimes he took this dual persona thing too far.

“Sorry, you sounded as if you were a reporter grilling me at a press conference there for a moment,” he said. “Yes. Whenever there’s a void, crime oozes in to fill it. It’s why law and order can’t take a day off.”

“Can I quote you on that?” she teased. “My handy, dandy, big blue Boy Scout.”

He quickly glanced over at her and then relaxed into a smile at her expression.

“Were you able to go on your walk?” she asked.

“Yes, thank you. I feel much better now,” he said. He certainly appeared more relaxed. “I’d like to take you on a walk with me sometime.”

“I’d like that,” she said, and then an idea popped into her head. “How about a picnic in the clouds when I get back? I hear that’s where you take all your first dates.”

“Did I ever tell you about that?” he groaned. “It was dreadful.” He went on to describe Superman’s date with the auction winner. Needless to say, she had wanted more than a picnic, and he had accidentally chosen clouds with rain in them for the journey back to Metropolis. “We were both soaked by the time I dropped her off on her balcony. She asked me in to dry off while she got comfortable. I said ‘no’. I doubt she’d pay fifty bucks, let alone fifty thousand to charity, to go out with Superman again.”

Lois laughed. “That’s good, because I hear he doesn’t do that kind of charity anymore.”

His eyes widened with alarm at that thought. “Give me a good celebrity golf match any day.” He laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone paid her to try and seduce Superman.” They exchanged a look. “I’ll ask Cat if she ever looked into it.”

Lois wanted to remind him that they were perfectly capable reporters, as well, but then remembered her upcoming busy schedule. Instead, she turned the conversation back onto them. “So, a picnic is out?”

He smiled at her. “A picnic sounds wonderful. Let’s just forget the clouds, though.”

It was a date. She was sure that Clark would have forgiven her by then for what she had set up to keep him safe.

***

Lois parked her Jeep Cherokee in her spot in her building’s parking garage. They had already dropped Jack and Denny back at Clark’s, Jimmy at her apartment, and they had just left Jimbo at his mother’s. Luck would have it that Jimbo’s mother lived on the opposite side of town from the Whites. It had just made sense to drop off the boys first as they worked their way over to Jimbo’s. Since Clark only lived a mile from Lois’s, Jimmy asked if he could be dropped off as well, so that he could call Jenny. On the other hand, Clark insisted on coming with Lois and Jimbo, so that Lois wouldn’t have to drive back home by herself.

It had all worked out just as she had planned it would.

Here she and Clark were, all alone. She glanced over at Clark, wondering if he felt as terrified as she did.

“So,” Clark said, turning towards her.

Lois leaned towards him and felt him stiffen.

She knew she only had herself to blame. If she hadn’t played Luthor and Superman off each other last summer as she had, Luthor wouldn’t have gone after Superman, knowing he was the stronger suitor. If Luthor hadn’t gone after Superman, Clark wouldn’t have ended up being tortured by him in those Kryptonite chains. Although, Luthor had gone after Clark once or twice as well, so Luthor might have still tried to kill her partner again and learned something about Clark neither of them wanted him to know.

It hadn’t been her best plan and things hadn’t once gone the way she had wanted during her investigation, but it was mostly over and things would be better once it was. Until then, she was doing all she could to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but sometimes she was going to have to force the fit.

Despite all of that, Lois refused to draw back and give Clark the space he wanted. She needed to be close to him to whisper what needed to be said. “Detective Woolfe removed all the bugs from my apartment, but I forgot to have him check my car. Do you mind?”

Clark nodded in understanding.

“I’m not going to move, while you check,” she murmured, so that he would know and wouldn’t freak out.

She heard him draw in a breath as her lips softly touched his cheek. Then she felt him shiver.

Lois smiled. “Do you like that?” she asked before wincing. She was flirting with him again. What if that hadn’t been a shiver, but a shudder?

Damn! Damn! Damn, Luthor!

She could tell Clark wasn’t ready for intimacy. Why did her mouth always work before her brain could stop it?

Clark cleared his throat. “I do find it very difficult to concentrate,” he admitted.

Lois shifted her position, so that her arm wrapped around his shoulders. Should there be any bugs, they would appear to be doing something else, despite her determination to not to distract Clark.

His arms encircled her waist and pulled her close to him as well. After a moment, he let go. “I don’t see any bugs,” he whispered.

She exhaled and drew back into her seat. “Can you…?” She felt stupid for asking this.

“What?”

Lois glanced down at her hands, now sitting on her steering wheel, and then glanced back at him nervously. “Double check?”

“But I…” He paused. “Sure.”

“Thanks. Outside too, just in case,” she said, searching for some topic of conversation while he was busy. “Did you have fun in Vegas?”

“No. You weren’t there. Anyway, I wasn’t much in the mood for fun.” He gave her an embarrassed smile, and pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Without distractions, it’s still clean. Outside too.”

Lois hadn’t meant… she grimaced. She had just wanted to make sure. They needed to be completely alone for this conversation. “Thanks.” She took a deep breath and exhaled it. “Clark, I’m sorry.”

He raised his eyes and stared at her. “For what?” he finally asked. “It was my idea to go to Vegas. While the sunbathing helped, I was bored out of my skin. Jimmy didn’t want me to go with him to his UNN interview and, well, I’ve never been a big gambler.”

“No,” she paused to officially end that conversation, before starting the new one. “For whatever he did to you.” Clark didn’t say anything but he kept staring at her, so Lois continued onward, “I know, Clark.” He drew back towards his door to watch her fully, and she could see the fear in his eyes again. “I know that he didn’t just try to kill you, but that he held you captive.” She swallowed. “I know that he had made up a mask in my image and that he… he…” The only thing was that she didn’t know anything else for certain. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know what Luthor had done to him. “I want you to know that I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

Clark took her hand in his. “Of course you didn’t.”

“I was trying to protect you, and it went horribly wrong.” She squeezed his hand. “If I hadn’t gone undercover, if I hadn’t encouraged him, he wouldn’t have been so jealous. He wouldn’t have gone after the man I love.” She pulled her gaze away from their entwined hands and up to his face. “He hurt you.” Her bottom lip began to shake. “He hurt you, because of me, and that’s not okay.”

Clark caressed her jaw with his other hand. “He hurt the woman I love and that’s not okay, either.”

“He tried to kill you, Clark,” she reminded him. “On multiple occasions, but what he did on Saturday...”

He rested his forehead against hers. “It’s over, Lois. He’s gone. He can’t hurt us any longer.”

Lois wrapped her arms around Clark’s neck and, unable to resist any longer, pressed her lips to his in a much too short kiss. “Forgive me,” she whispered, resting her head against his once more.

“There’s nothing to forgive, Lois. He did it, not you,” he said, stroking her hair. “He’s to blame.”

She smiled weakly at him. “Not for that.” She bit her bottom lip before blurting out, “I promised EPRAD that I would ask Superman to check the shuttle for bombs before liftoff tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?!”

***End of Part 190***

Part 191

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