Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HereWhere we left Lois at the end of Part 212…As she drifted off to sleep, she wondered what the Kryptonian consummation ceremony consisted of. Did it take place at a type of shrine with marble columns and a fire pit in the center?
Lois could just picture a young Clark arriving, wearing some sort of toga, taking her hand and leading her to an ancient Greek type temple. She was dressed similarly in white robes with her long hair tied back with white ribbons. Between the columns of the temple were lit torches and musicians beating out some sort of pagan rhythm on drums and odd sounding wind instruments, something like the didgeridoo. Colorfully dressed dancers swayed and swirled between the musicians and the columns, chanting along with the tune. In the center of the temple were a roaring fire pit and a silk pillow-filled bed. Before they went to the bed, Clark led Lois through the temple following the movements of the dancers.
After she and Clark had danced thirteen times around the center pit, Lois became so hot from dancing and the flames, she was thankful to disrobe. Clark similarly disrobed and they made love to the sounds of chanting, the rhythm of the drums, and the dancers’ bare feet dancing on the marble floors surrounding them.
As Lois basked in blissful afterglow, watching the firelight reflect off Clark’s sweat-shined naked body as he slept in her arms, an elder – possibly some sort of priest – arrived and pulled them to their feet. He raised both Clark’s and Lois’s hands over his head in victory. Everyone cheered.
“From now on you will be known as Lois-El, first mate of Kal-El, even if you choose not to marry him and bear his sons,” announced the silver-haired elder. “Come, Kal-El, it is time for you to don the uniform of your ancestors and join us in battle!”
Kal-El then spun into his Superman uniform and, with one last longing look back at Lois-El, flew out into the dawn’s morning light.
Lois awoke with a gasp, panting for breath, almost as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest. She kicked off her covers, wishing she hadn’t switched to her winter pajamas, and reached over to pick up the phone next to her bed, dialing the number she had memorized.
Part 213The phone was answered before the second ring. “Clark?” Lois inquired, even though she knew only he would answer his phone.
“Huh? What? Lois?” he said groggily. “What time is…?” Suddenly, Clark sounded more awake. “Is everything all right?”
“No… I mean, yes, I’m fine. I… I just had a…”
Well, it wasn’t a nightmare, per se. “— a really strange dream and… well, needed to hear your voice.”
“What kind of dream was it? One of your psychic dreams?” he asked.
Psychic dream? “I hope not.” Lois smiled.
“That bad?” She could hear panic in his tone as he misunderstood. “I’ll be right over.”
“No, Clark! I don’t
need you to come over.”
Want, on the other hand… “I’m fine, really,” she reassured him. “I missed you and wanted to hear your voice. That’s all. I know I shouldn’t have called in the middle of the night, but I knew you wouldn’t mind. I feel better now. Go back to sleep and I’ll see you in the morning.” She paused long enough for him to respond, but he said nothing. Her brow furrowed. “Clark?... Clark?...
Clark!”
Had he hung up on her? Maybe he really
had minded.
“Fine. Be that…” She started to say into the phone, before a sound from the living room interrupted her. “I’ve got to go. There’s someone tapping at my window.”
She hung up the receiver and stepped to the floor. Despite it being carpeted, the floor was still cold to her bare feet. She stopped at her bedroom door and glanced over her shoulder and back at her phone.
Only one man would dare tap on her window in the middle of the night.
She shook her head.
He hadn’t, had he?
Then, again, Clark had keys. Why would he come to her window? Lois detoured from her hall and into her kitchen to search for some kind weapon, just in case.
Knife? No, she hadn’t trained in knife fighting. Defending herself from someone else trying to stab her, she could do.
Rolling pin? Great second object. Only Lois didn’t bake, so she didn’t own one.
“Be realistic, Lane,” she muttered to herself.
Gun? Lois didn’t have one of those either; mostly because of her leap first before testing the water level ideology. She could see herself shooting an innocent person by accident. Also, she wouldn’t put it past someone using the gun against her, during one of those all too frequent times when someone broke into her apartment. Neither of those was outside the realm of reality. Since she didn’t own a gun, she moved on.
Lois rubbed her head. She really wasn’t awake enough for this train of thought.
Frying pan? She shrugged. It made a better weapon than her next choice, a spatula.
She glanced into her dark living room. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see the windows from the kitchen. She lifted up her chosen weapon and went into her living room, turning on the lights first.
Hovering outside her windows was Superman. He pointed to the window latch.
Lois lowered her frying pan, setting it down on her dining table as she walked over to the window. Flipping the lock, she opened the window. “We must stop meeting like this, Superman, or it’ll ruin both of our reputations,” she said wryly.
He stepped inside and pulled her into his embrace.
It felt good to be in Superman’s embrace, too good after the heat of her fantasy. Unfortunately, Clark didn’t want to rush into anything. “Did you forget your keys?” she asked.
He took a step back, gazing at her unsurely. “I thought…”
Lois could see pink rising in his cheeks, but she wasn’t planning to allow him to get off so easily. She put her hands on her hips, waiting to hear what part of their conversation had been a call for help.
“I told you that I was coming… and I figured that when you said you didn’t need me, it was you either being stubborn…” She raised an eyebrow and he hurried on with his explanation. “— and insisting you solve the problem yourself or that you
really needed me, but that you just couldn’t say so.”
Lois wasn’t sure how to react to that insulting statement.
Superman cleared his throat. “I could hear your heartbeat through the phone and it was much faster than normal.”
True, her dream had made her heart pound, but in a good way. “Soooo, you completely overlooked Door #3? The one where I’m just fine and about to turn off my light and go back to sleep?”
“Well, I wanted to make sure you were safe.”
“Did I ask you about your pet octopus?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“No.” His tone sounded slightly annoyed. “Hey, don’t forget that you called me.”
She ignored this fact. “When you discovered I was alone and safe, you decided to knock on my window, because…?” She waved her hand, so he’d finish her sentence.
“I wanted to apologize.”
“For hanging up on me or for thinking I was lying to you?”
Superman swallowed nervously. “All of the above?”
“Uh-huh. And you didn’t use your keys, because…?” Lois asked, flipping a hand towards the front door behind her.
“I was in a hurry to get to you and… I, uh… didn’t bring a change of clothes,” he admitted.
Lois looked him up and down. He had time to change into his Suit, but not to grab her keys? “So, if you were to do that spin-thingy right now, what…”
“Spin-thingy?” he echoed, interrupting. He looked her in the eye with a mocking glint. “Eloquent.”
She pressed her lips together. “Listen, Chuck, it’s after three a.m. and I’ve gotten perhaps a total of forty-five minutes sleep. If you want me to be eloquent, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” she snapped. “And you still avoided my question.”
“Do you want me to show you?” He raised a flirtatious eyebrow and beamed at her.
Was Superman daring her to have him spin into a naked Clark? Her heart raced faster as she tried to recall the hot sweat-covered man from her dream. Sadly, too much time had passed and he was now only a vague memory.
No, Clark wouldn’t gamble on his chastity vow unless he was sure he would win. Would he spin out of his blue Suit and just keep on the red shorts and cape? She could easily picture that. She pressed a cool hand to her neck to help alleviate the heat rising to her face. Too easily.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do,” Lois said, challenging his bluff. “Spin.”
His boastful grin froze. Yep, Superman hadn’t actually thought she’d take him up on his offer.
Knowing that she had already won, Lois relaxed her crossed arms. She wondered how far he would let this little charade go before he caved. “Would you rather do it my bedroom? In case any of the neighbors saw you hovering by my window and me letting you in,” she asked.
Superman’s head turned this way and that as he examined her living room. “No cameras or microphones.”
Okay. Lois stiffened. Did he think she called because of that? She spoke slowly, “Good to hear.”
Then he became stationary as a statue, closing his eyes. “A man is watching TV, directly below your apartment.”
Well, that put a damper on any hanky-panky with Clark. George from downstairs would hear them and just knowing that was like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over her head. Was Clark doing this to her on purpose?
“There’s an elderly woman across the street,” he continued. “She’s searching her fridge for something to eat.”
“You can hear all that?”
Superman shrugged.
“Wow.” Did he really think she had been serious about her neighbors?
“Nobody on the entire block is talking to themselves, the press, or anyone else about Superman visiting Lois Lane’s apartment, yet again. We lucked out this time,” he answered in earnest.
Apparently so. Was he using this as an excuse not to show her his lack of Clark clothes? Should she give him an out?
“Yes, but you
could’ve been seen.”
Clark’s shoulders slumped. “I’d better leave, so people don’t speculate what Superman is doing at your apartment,” he said, turning towards the same window he had just exited out of, opening it.
Lois set her hand on his arm. She had only been teasing. “Nuh-uh. You still owe me a strip show, Big Blue.”
He stared at her, before saying softly, “How do you know this isn’t all a dream,
minha?”
“If it was a dream, Clark, you’d be undressed by now,” Lois countered. She sucked her lips into her mouth, realizing that those words had been spoken aloud.
Clark grinned. “Oh, really? Is Superman
that easy?”
Sometimes, she wished that he were. Then again, if he were easy, he might be easy with other women too.
Lois batted her eyelashes in a coquette fashion. “I guess we’ll never know, now will we?”
“If Superman is
easy?” Clark scoffed as if that were an impossibility.
“No, not that,” she replied. She sighed dramatically and then, looked at him through the corner of her eye. “Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you promise to come back here in your Clark clothes and demonstrate that spin-thingy…”
“Quick change spin, if you please, Lois.”
She waved those words aside. “Do you promise?”
He eyed her suspiciously. “What are you asking, exactly?”
“I want Superman to leave and Clark to return, using my keys,” Lois explained, stepping closer and lowering her voice. “
Then you can…” She swirled her finger in the air. “— show me your change of clothes.”
“Are you asking me to spend the night?”
Duh! She shrugged nonchalantly. “We’ll see.”
He stared at her and she could see the indecision reflected in his eyes.
“I know I sleep better in your arms,” she said. She wanted to make it clear that she wouldn’t be making up the guest room for him.
Clark smiled, caressing her cheek. “So do I.” He stepped out her window and floated up.
***
Clark raised his hand to knock on Lois’s door some ten minutes later. Then, he recalled her words. He dipped his hand into his pants pocket, withdrew his keys to her apartment, and quickly unlocked her door.
Lois was busy in the kitchen.
“I’m back,” he called.
“I’ll be right out,” Lois answered.
He sat down on her couch and leaned over his knees, folding his hands, unsure exactly what Lois expected him to do. He had spent most of those ten minutes he took walking here from several blocks away debating with himself on whether he should allow himself to spend the night.
Frankly, he had no idea why he was there, except for the fact that she had invited him and he desperately wanted to accept, so he had. Sleeping together the other night had been a most wonderful fluke, but a fluke nonetheless. Did she think he had decided to break his vow? He hadn’t.
Then, why was he there?
Lois brought out two mugs. “I made cocoa,” she explained.
“I don’t…” he started, standing up.
“Which is why I made you tea,” she said, handing him his mug.
“Oh. Thanks.” He accepted the mug and sat back down.
She smiled at him, almost shyly, as she curled up on the couch next to him with her mug of cocoa. Was she starting to regret her impromptu invitation?
Clark figured he would dissipate the tension in the room by figuring out why she had called him in the first place. “Tell me about this dream. What was bad about it?”
Lois contemplated his question while she took a sip of her cocoa. “Noooooo. It wasn’t bad, not at all. Some of it was very… um… delightful.”
“Delightful?” he repeated sharply before inwardly groaning, “You woke me up at three a.m. because you had a delightful dream?” He exhaled to release his annoyance.
“I called you to hear your voice because I missed you,” she replied, setting a hand on his arm. “I didn’t ask you to come over.”
Those were logical excuses, but he doubted they were the full story. It never was with Lois.
He took hold of her hand and squeezed it gently.
Why would she miss him in her dream? Had he been absent? He knew that deep inside her, Lois was still mourning the loss of her True Clark. She had said that she doubted it was a psychic dream, but she didn’t know the full story.
“Was I missing in your dream?” he asked, hearing the raw edge to his voice.
“No,” she replied, taking another sip of her cocoa. “You were there for most of it, but at the end you spun into your uniform and flew off.”
O-kay. “Where did Superman fly off to?”
“Battle,” she said as if that were an everyday occurrence for him.
“Who was I fighting?” he asked.
Lois shrugged. “That wasn’t clear in the dream. Some radical anti-government group back on Krypton, I gather.”
It was rounding the corner on three thirty in the morning, but he was quite sure that he had heard her properly.
“Lois, I promise you that I’ll never leave you to return to Krypton to fight in some sort of war.”
“How can you be so sure, Clark?” Lois asked, shifting her position so that she sat closer to him. “I bet they would want your expertise fighting for their side.” She squeezed his hand.
Clark sighed, rubbing his eyes. Apparently, he hadn’t told Lois. The Kents, Padre Carlos, and Cat all knew, didn’t they? How could he have forgotten to tell Lois?
“It doesn’t exist anymore, Lois,” he explained. “Krypton exploded shortly after I left. The reason Kryptonite hurts me is because it’s radioactive chunks of my home planet that found their way to Earth.”
She gaped. “What happened?”
“The planet’s core collapsed.”
“Did everyone you know and love die?” she said, almost as if in disbelief. Not that she didn’t believe him, but more as if this information had been unexpected.
“Yes, as far as I know, everyone on Krypton – my whole family – died,” he said. Not that he knew if he had more family than Jor-El and Lara.
“I’m so sorry, Clark,” she said, setting down her mug and pulling him into her embrace.
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, Lois. It happened a long time ago. I’ve come to terms with what happened.” He had. Jor-El and Lara weren’t his folks; they merely were the people who conceived him, images he had seen on the sphere hiding in Smallville. Other than his heritage, he had no connection to them. Martha and Jonathan were his true family.
“Did any other Kryptonians make it out alive? Are there more refugees?” she asked, slipping into her Mad Dog persona, asking him questions that he had never considered before.
“I don’t know. Not that I’m aware of,” he said. “As far as I know I’m the last son of Krypton.”
“So, there could be other Kryptonians here on Earth?” Lois asked. “Or elsewhere?”
Nobody had ever mentioned meeting any other Kryptonians, not Herb nor the Lois and Clark from that other dimension. “Wouldn’t they have tried to contact Superman by now, if there had been?” he replied, adding a small smile. “I guess Earth is stuck with me.”
“This is why you told me not to call you Kal-El, isn’t it? Because he’s your past. Clark is your future.”
Clark nodded. Truth be told, he had never been Kal-El, except for that short time between his birth and when his birth parents had launched him into space. He
was Clark Kent. Kal-El, aka Superman, was a disguise Clark wore, so that he could help people and continue to have a personal life. He was about to explain this to Lois, again, when she stood up and held out her hand.
“If we’re going to get any sleep tonight, you better do your spin-thingy and show me your outfit without keys,” she said.
Clark stood and touched her hand to acknowledge her request. He had almost forgotten about that.
While Clark had performed his quick change spin in front of this Lois numerous times over the last couple of months, this time would be different. Everything he did with her felt different since the other night.
Other than Lois, he had only done his quick-change spin in front of Cat Grant and the Kents. Lana had wanted him to deny his heritage and refused to let him do anything Super in her presence. Before that Lois from that other dimension had told him about her Clark’s spin technique, he always did his quick change in the closet.
Perhaps the reason this time felt different was because he wasn’t changing back and forth between his uniform and a business suit, but something a bit more revealing. A lot more revealing, in fact.
And he was doing it in front of Lois.
When she got to her hall, Lois turned back to look at him. He hadn’t moved from in front of the couch. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Perhaps I should do it here,” he suggested, stepping away from her coffee table. “I’ll have more space.”
“Do you need lots of space to do your spin… quick change spin?” She appeared skeptical. “You never have before.”
The short answer was ‘no’. The long answer had more to do with him changing out of his clothes in Lois’s presence. If he spun in her bedroom, it was less likely that he would end up back in his bed tonight. If he changed out here, he could more easily change back without it being awkward… well, too awkward. He wanted to leave her options open. He swallowed. Frankly, he was afraid that this would make it all the more difficult for either of them to just sleep.
Lois crossed her arms, waiting for him to move or respond.
“No. In fact I used to change in phone booths.”
Before they became mostly obsolete. Clark made sure that there were several feet between them. Moments later, he stood in front of her in only his sleep shorts. He had even taken off his glasses. “See, no pockets.”
She stepped closer to him and set her hand on his bare chest, making him catch and hold his breath. He could feel his skin tingle and goose-pimple under her touch. Okay,
now he could see how she thought this was second base.
He set his hand on her waist, over her loose, long-sleeve pajama top. The urge to kiss more than Lois’s lips struck him like a bolt out of the blue.
She slid her hand to his shoulder. “I must’ve blinked. Could you do that again, only… slower?” she asked.
He released his pent up breath as if she had punched him in the gut. “You want me to get dressed again?”
She shook her head, then stopped, and tilted it from side to side in a sort of indecision. “No, undressed, but I guess you can’t do that without getting dressed again, can you?” She giggled. “I meant it was so fast. Can you do it slower? Undress, that is. Slower.”
His jaw dropped a fraction of an inch.
Slower? “I’m not interested in buying the Brooklyn Bridge, Lois.”
She raised her gaze to his. “Huh?”
“The answer is ‘no’ unless you’ll allow me to watch you change,” he replied. “Slowly.”
Lois frowned and turned towards her bedroom. “Another time, then.”
That’s right, Lois. No double standard allowed here.“For a second there,” she continued. After a slight hesitation, he followed her. “I had thought that you hadn’t brought a change of clothes at all, and you’d end up spinning into…” Her voice faded.
“Nothing?”
And still she goaded me to do the change? Why didn’t that surprise him?
Lois shrugged. “I was going to say your red shorts and cape. I don’t know how I would’ve reacted to suddenly seeing you naked in my living room.” She glanced back to him and tossed him a saucy grin he felt in the pit of his stomach.
“Which is why you wanted me to change in your bedroom?” Clark inquired, raising an eyebrow.
“Don’t most people change in a bedroom or a bathroom, not a living room, Chuck?” Lois countered, not answering his question.
“Touché.”
Lois paused outside her bedroom door and turned back to him. They were both standing there in their pajamas and suddenly, it felt as if passing the threshold into her bedroom was fraught with meaning that hadn’t been there the other night. Tonight, it wouldn’t be an impromptu suggestion so that Lois would warm up. If they walked into that room, it was on purpose. Intentional.
His arms wrapped around her waist and hers encircled his neck. He could feel his heartbeat increase with anticipation, not panic, of what was to follow. He dipped his head, bringing his lips to hers. She raised herself up on her toes in order to reach him.
He felt tempted to sweep her off her feet and carry her into the bedroom, but that action implied more intimacy than he was ready to give.
Perhaps she could sense his hesitancy, because she gave a satisfied sigh and broke from the kiss. She smiled, but he could see unasked questions in her eyes. “Do you want to stay?” she asked.
Yes and no. “I have to get up early. I have a date with Mayson Drake.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he had phrased that wrong. “
Superman does, not me. A deposition. A
meeting, not a date. She called me… Clark me – after you left tonight and asked if Superman could meet her at my apartment in the morning to go over his statement regarding what happened at Café Americana.” He gazed at Lois and knew it had been the wrong time to tell her, but hoped that his apologetic expression would let her know that he realized that.
“Uh-huh,” she replied with a curt nod. “So, you’ll want to get home to prepare for that.”
“Lois, I want to be here,” he said, running his hand over her hair.
“But you have to be there. I get it,” she said, flexing her hands and knocking his arm away.
“No,” he replied, setting his hands on her shoulders. She didn’t. “
Superman has to be there. Clark Kent wants to spend the night with his girlfriend.”
“Clark…” Her tone told him that she knew that they were the same person.
“Superman will tell Mayson that Clark spent the night with Lois,” he said, scooping her up into his arms and carrying her into the bedroom.
“That will completely ruin your reputation,” she said with a laugh.
Clark set her down next to the bed. “Okay. Do you want me to stay?”
Lois waved a finger in his face. “Nuh-uh. You aren’t putting this on me, bub. Do
you want to stay or go?”
He took hold of her finger and placed a light kiss on its tip. “Lois, may I sleep over?”
She smiled, wrapping her arms back around his neck. “We’ll see.”
“See what?”
“If you sleep,” she whispered against his lips.
If she kept this up, he doubted he would ever sleep again.
***
Without opening his eyes, Clark sighed against the bundle he held in his arms, kissing her forehead.
“What a perfect way to wake up,” he murmured to himself. Although, he could have done without the sound of his alarm clock ringing non-stop at his apartment without anyone there to turn it off.
“Flattery won’t get you to second base, Clark,” Lois responded against his chest.
He bet it would. Flattery was Lois’s Kryptonite. Luckily for both of them, Clark was enough of a gentleman not to say so aloud or to use it against her.
Her hand brushed against his abdomen and worked its way up his bare chest, just as it had done before they had fallen asleep in each other’s arms. Only now, her lips started to dance a leisurely trail of kisses around his left breast.
Clark’s eyes flashed open as he tensed his muscles so that he didn’t respond to this intoxicating feeling.
Lois glanced up at him. “Is this okay?”
“Uh-huh.”
“This isn’t breaking any laws?”
He wasn’t sure about that. What she was doing felt as if it might break Newton’s law.
“I mean, Clark, this doesn’t break your vow, does it?” she asked, placing another kiss on his clavicle.
“Oh.” He swallowed his heart back down into his chest. “No.”
Lois smiled her Cheshire grin, kissing his chest several more times, before moving to his ribcage and finally his stomach. Her fingers caressed his belly and her lips followed. She took hold of his hand, lacing her fingers with his and squeezing his hand. It felt as if she had expelled all the air out of his lungs.
He could feel every breath she exhaled on his skin. It seemed to tie his intestine in knots. Was there such a thing as good knots?
After a forever that somehow lasted less than an instant, Lois shifted her mouth to his. Clark relaxed into the comfort of this familiar activity as he wrapped his arms around her.
Only… kissing Lois didn’t feel the same as it had last night.
It felt new and exciting, building on that warm feeling in the pit of his stomach and radiating outwards to every cell in his body.
Lois rotated her position slightly and suddenly his hand at her waist slid onto her stomach and under her shirt. He was touching the bare skin of her belly.
Clark sat up and turned so that his feet were on the floor. “I have that meeting,” he said, but he didn’t stand up. The warmth in his stomach was red hot now. He took a couple of gulps of air, trying to catch his breath. Yet, the atmosphere in Lois’s bedroom had somehow thinned considerably.
Lois sat behind him, her chest against his back, and rested her hand on his arm. “It’s okay, Clark. Don’t run away.”
“I’m…”
Am I? he wondered. “I…I need more time.”
She nodded. “I completely understand. You’ve got that meeting and you don’t want to be rushed.”
That wasn’t what he meant. Clark turned his head slightly to catch her eye. “Rain check?”
Lois kissed his lips briefly in acceptance. “Deal,” she replied, and then sauntered into the bathroom, leaving him frozen in shock, staring after her.
***End of Part 213*** Part 214 Comments
