Mind's Eye, Part 3 (of 3)
By: C. Leuch
After a bit of a slow start, action on the crime front had started to reach a fever pitch as the night wore on. Maybe there was something in the water, Clark mused as he stopped his fifth robbery of the night, part of a litany of activity that also included shootings, gang wars, and a twelve-year-old kid’s joy ride in his grandmother’s Oldsmobile. It was enough to make Clark wonder if his presence was doing any good at all. The worry was rhetorical at best, of course, the benefits of his presence measured in lives and property saved as a result of his actions that night alone. Still, it was easier worrying about the state of law and order in Metropolis than it was to think of his personal life, and the stigma of what had happened that night. His headache was at least gone for the time being, and the activity was giving him a good excuse to not have to go home and think about how to proceed with Lois.
Even though Clark was actively not thinking about Lois, there was a part of him that was always attuned to her to some extent, and that part had been sending him warning signals all night, signals which only intensified the harder he tried to ignore them. By the time he made his way to the police station to drop off his latest robbery suspect, the desire to fly above the city and track her down was overpowering. Before he got the chance, though, a very familiar scream reached his ears. It was close, he realized, roughly depositing the robber in front of a startled cop. In a flash, Clark was rushing toward the scream, which seemed to be originating from the yard of a very high scale mansion near a notoriously mobbed-up part of town.
“Help!” Lois screamed again, and as she did, Clark found her crouched down in a row of bushes surrounding the mansion’s patio, staring down the barrels of guns pointed at her by two very large men. Without hesitation, Clark flew down and snatched the guns away from the men, turning them into useless pieces of metal with one squeeze of the hand. The men stepped back, startled, as Clark finally came to a stop between them and Lois.
“This is none of your business, Superman,” one of them said, quickly regaining his composure. Both men were familiar, Clark realized, recognizing their faces from news coverage of a famous mobster’s trail. Superman had never actually confronted these men, although it was not from lack of trying. They were generally smart enough to conduct their business privately, and they left enough evidence of their actions to let people know that it was the mob behind the crimes, but not enough to identify any of the individuals involved. Tonight, though, they had apparently underestimated the loud voice and sheer determination of their victim.
“Attempted murder? I’d say that’s my business,” Clark answered, his voice steely.
“Our word against hers,” the second man said, crossing his arms across his chest defiantly.
Lois, who was still breathing heavily from the shock of the situation, didn’t hesitate in answering him. “Me and the power of the press. When I’m done, the whole city will know what kind of slime balls you are.”
“The press knows better than to write about the people in this neighborhood. They know what will happen,” the second man said with a smirk.
“Gee, that sounds like a threat,” Clark said, grabbing both men by their shirts and roughly pulling them toward him. He tensed himself and readied for takeoff, but glanced over his shoulder first. “Are you going to be okay here alone for a few seconds?” he asked Lois.
She looked at him, her expression very different from what it usually was during a rescue. Under normal circumstances, she would greet him with an eager smile and eyes that were a little too wide, acting like nothing so much as a love struck teenager who had just met the object of her affection for the first time. Shortly after his arrival, usually while she was cradled comfortably in his arms above the city, her personality would begin come through as she tried to explain how it was that she had ended up near death…again. The conversation would degrade into their usual banter, impersonal and sterile while, at the same time, almost uncomfortably intimate. She acted so much differently toward Superman than she did toward Clark, although he supposed that it was partially his fault. Superman didn’t challenge her, Superman didn’t make snide comments or small jokes just to get a rise out of her; he didn’t have to.
As Lois locked eyes with him now, though, there was none of the giddiness or expectancy that he usually saw, only gratitude and, if it was possible, embarrassment. Clark smiled weakly, bringing the same reaction from her, then took off toward the police station, the two gunmen in tow. He wound up at the same station he had just left, depositing the gunmen in front of the same bewildered police officer, although this time he stopped to explain the presence of all the men. In a matter of moments, with his work done, Clark was back in the skies returning to Lois.
She had taken the minute or so that he had been gone to stand, brushing the dirt and grime off her clothes and looking toward the now ruined guns with a quirked eyebrow. As Clark landed, her gaze slowly turned to him, although she seemed almost hesitant to look him in the eyes. After a moment, though, she did. “Thank you for the rescue,” she said, her voice hoarse, a crooked self-effacing smile on her face.
Clark grinned. “It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it,” he answered. Lois’s smile grew shy at the joke, and she looked away from him, tucking a rogue strand of hair behind her ear. Clark was aware of the fact that he was projecting something other than the usual Superman stoicism, but he didn’t see the point in keeping up the façade, especially since Lois knew the truth. “Do you, uh, want me to take you home?” he asked after a moment, pointing his thumb in the direction of her apartment.
Almost immediately, Lois shook her head vehemently. “There’s a genie at my place, and if I have to see him again, I might just scream,” she said, and Clark couldn’t disagree with the logic. “Besides, we have some things to discuss, and I’d rather not have an audience.”
Clark’s grin faded at the thought of the impending conversation. “So,” he said, thoughtfully turning an eye to the sky. “The top of the Trade Tower? A secluded Tibetan mountaintop, an uninhabited oasis in the Sahara, or…?”
“Your apartment,” Lois said quickly, causing Clark to look at her with surprise. Normally she would jump at the chance to have just one extra flight with her hero, to go somewhere with him that would allow them to steal a few moments alone. He was offering her the world, wherever she wanted to go, and she chose his apartment.
“Seriously?” he asked. Lois laughed lightly and stepped toward him.
“Yes, seriously,” she said. “Your place is comfortable, it’s familiar, and it’s, well, normal,” she said with a shrug. Her smile faded as she looked expectantly at him, waiting for a reaction one way or the other.
“Then my place sounds perfect,” Clark said, bending over slightly to pick her up. Maybe normalcy and familiarity was what they needed right now, he decided. In a world where everything seemed to be upside down, his apartment still remained the same, a place where both of them knew what to expect. If, in the course of whatever conversation was to follow, things felt too surreal, they could each call on memories of better times had at his apartment and be comforted.
It only took a few seconds to make the short trip through the skies to his place. He landed in the middle of his living room, setting her gently on the ground. Usually, Lois’s hands would linger on his shoulders after flying, as if she was trying to cling to him, to keep him from leaving, but tonight they didn’t. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she stepped away, her eyes never leaving his face. For a moment they just looked at each other wordlessly, neither really certain how to start the conversation, her expression telling him that her feelings were conflicted. Soon enough, though, Lois’s gaze shifted from Clark’s face to his chest, giving him the motivation he needed to break the stalemate.
“Excuse me for a second,” he said, turning on his heel and heading for the bedroom and a change of wardrobe. Faster than the human eye could see, he spun out of the suit and into a t-shirt and jeans as he progressed through the bedroom, slipping on his glasses before coming to a stop in archway to the kitchen. Lois’s eyes were on him as he stopped, although she seemed almost relieved to see him in street clothes. The change seemed to jar her out of her thoughts, and her expression became guarded as she turned away.
“I, uh, still have one wish left,” she said, her gaze turning toward his couch. “I was thinking that maybe the best thing to do would be to wish that I had never had any wishes to begin with.” She looked back toward him and continued, her tone businesslike. “I could wish away this whole thing, and go back to not knowing about your secret.”
The stab of disappointment that cut through Clark was unexpected, and he couldn’t help but frown. “Is that what you want?” he asked, unable to keep the hurt from his voice.
Lois’s eyes seemed to soften at his question. “I thought that’s what you would want. It’s the only fair thing to do.”
Clark nodded gently, and supposed it made sense. It was the most expedient way out of the situation, the kindest and easiest option to set things right and not have to deal with any consequences. The motivation behind her statement didn’t make the disappointment go away, though, and he knew it wouldn’t until she gave it a reason to. “But is it what you want?” he asked, more emphatic this time.
Lois sighed and looked away from him again, her hands playing with the hem of her shirt. “I don’t know,” she answered softly. “I’ve always fantasized about knowing Superman, not in the same superficial way that other people do, but on a more personal level. What makes him tick? What kinds of things does he enjoy? What’s his favorite food or book or television show? Part of me thought I was on the path to discovering things, chipping away at his exterior one rescue at a time, but now I realize I had no idea.” She paused to collect her thoughts, but there was a note of sadness in her voice that was almost heartbreaking. “At the same time, Clark, you were the one person who I thought I knew everything about, and I thought I could trust to be honest. After all the time we’ve spent together, our close friendship, all the late nights and shared stories, I find out that’s not true, either. And how did I manage to become enlightened to these new truths? Not from honest conversation or shared confessions, but through a genie.” Her voice began to waver, and she sniffed once, steeling her resolve before looking him in the eye again. “Obviously it’s not something that you wanted me to know, and that above anything else makes me almost anxious to go back to the fantasy.”
Clark’s eyes went slightly wide as he looked at her, acutely feeling her rejection, almost not wanting to breathe. Part of him wanted to shrink back at her consternation, to take her words at face value and go unquestioningly back to the way things were. At least the status quo, as frustrating as it was, held promise. She would flirt with him in one guise and rebuff him in the other, and he would hold out hope that someday she would direct her advances at Clark instead of Superman. It was tempting, certainly, but something deep inside of him was tired of the dance, and didn’t believe that Lois was as angry as she let him believe. She lacked perspective, and maybe once she saw his side of things, she wouldn’t be so quick to give up her new knowledge.
“But it is something I wanted you to know,” Clark said, keeping his tone even. “I just always hoped that I wouldn’t have to tell you.”
Instead of easing her fears, the words seemed to have an opposite effect. She crossed her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes, making it clear that she was no longer vulnerable to his charms. It was a defense mechanism, Clark knew, and it would make it very hard to reason with her rationally, although he would certainly try. “So I’m dense, that’s it? Or maybe I’m not worth telling. It’s too much fun keeping me in the dark, right?”
Clark took a couple steps forward, but Lois didn’t flinch. “No,” he said urgently, comfortingly. “That’s not it at all. It’s just….” He stopped and sighed, looking at her, willing her eyes to meet his, but without success. “I was hoping that you’d see the things that you loved about Superman in me. We’re the same person Lois, but while you worshipped Superman, sometimes it seemed like you had little more than a grudging acceptance of me.”
“That’s baloney and you know it,” she said, her voice hard, her stance still confrontational. “Maybe we didn’t get along well at first, but you’ve become the closest thing I have to a brother.” The anger in her voice was in stark contrast to her words, and under normal circumstances the dichotomy would be almost funny. As it was, though, it just served to highlight how far their relationship had fallen in the span of mere moments.
“Okay, fine,” Clark said, her impatience beginning to wear off on him. “You have made it clear that you would never let our relationship be more than that. Superman was all that mattered, and you certainly weren’t going to give up your fantasy for some hack from Nowheresville.” He paused for a second to give her the opportunity to reply. When she didn’t, he took another step forward, and this time Lois flinched, uncrossing her arms and blinking. “Please, Lois,” Clark said, reaching out toward her. “You can read my thoughts, so read them now,” he said.
He closed his eyes and summoned memories of interactions with Lois, both as Superman and as Clark. The memories highlighted the stark differences in the way Lois treated his two personas, and he was sure the emotions that the memories held, the disappointment and sadness, would follow the images into her mind. Lois gasped, apparently receiving his thoughts. As Clark opened his eyes, he saw a look of confusion mixed with sadness cross her face. “You were in love with a fictional character, Lois,” Clark said. “The man you thought you loved doesn’t exist. There’s only me.”
“I only pursued that fantasy because Superman, you, made me believe that there could be something there.” She gestured at him, her voice animated but no longer angry. “I wasn’t going to walk away from Superman when there was still hope that he might feel the same way for me as I did for him.”
“He did…I do,” Clark said, frustrated. “But I wanted you to want me for who I am, not what I can do.”
“So why did Superman lead me on?” Lois asked. “Why the intimate nighttime flights, why the significant looks and special attention and veiled statements on how important I am to you?”
“Because it’s just as frustrating for me as it is for you,” Clark said. The conversation had gotten more emotional as it went on, and he had to stop for a moment and calm himself down. “There comes a point where I’ll take what I can get, and if that means letting something slip as Superman in order to get that special look from you, then so be it.”
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, each trying to absorb everything that had been said. It struck Clark that they both wanted the same thing, but they were both too stubborn to do what it took to ensure a happily ever after. They both constructed invented realities and did whatever it took to keep their lives comfortable and predictable. Rather than take the step that would make the fantasy come true, they continued the status quo, probably because they both knew it was just as possible that the ending wouldn’t be a happy one.
“Why do we do this Clark?” she asked. He realized that he had been looking past her, lost in his thoughts, and noticed with a start that she had taken a step toward him, closing the gap so that they were only a couple feet apart. “Why do we insist on making everything harder than it has to be? Why do we ignore the truth and indulge ourselves in daydreams of what we would like to happen?”
The corners of Clark’s mouth tugged up as he shrugged. “Because the truth is scary?” he said.
“I mean, I guess I always knew that you had a thing for me. And I guess, if I think about it, there were some definite similarities between your two identities.”
“We could pass as twins with very different wardrobes,” Clark said, now in full grin.
Lois gave him an irritated glance. “I’m just saying that I understand your frustration, and I share some culpability in the situation,” she said. “Lord knows that, brilliant investigative reporter that I am, I could’ve tried a little harder to put the clues together. But you have to admit that this was your fault, too.”
“I’m not denying it,” he said. “Look, I might be Superman, but when it comes to dating or trying to figure out the mysteries of the feminine mind, I am just as clueless as the next guy. Worse, in fact, since my…unusual circumstances have made me reluctant to get too close to anyone, especially women.” He tried to keep his voice light even while stating the simple truth, hoping to melt her stubborn resolve, and it seemed to be working. “So I acted like an idiot, and, yes, made my share of mistakes. Your fabled hero isn’t perfect, after all.”
Lois gave a half smile, reached out, and cupped his arm. “I think I like him better this way, though.” They smiled at each other for a long moment, then she dropped her eyes and sighed. “To tell you the truth, I’m no good at relationships, either. I’ve found all sorts of truly embarrassing ways to have my heart broken, and it’s made me not want to even start down that path again without some sort of guarantee. So I end up chasing fairy tales.”
“Or magic genies,” Clark said.
Lois cringed. “He just sort of showed up,” she muttered.
“But he gave you the means to an end, and ultimately you got what you wanted. You got the truth, warts and all.” There was a long a pause as he looked at her, smiling lightly. “And I’m glad you know.”
Lois shifted her weight somewhat shyly, her smile growing. “You are?”
Clark gestured toward his couch, and they sat down together, now mere inches apart. He took her hand in his almost absently, and she didn’t move to stop him. “Granted, it’s not how I wanted you to find out, but now that you know…” He shrugged. “It’ll be nice to have someone to talk to, and I won’t have to keep making all those excuses to disappear when something comes up.” He paused and thought about all the times he’d had to leave her in some awkward situation or another, secretly hating himself for the lies and deception. He could see her smile fade and eyes go wide as she picked up on his thoughts, and for once he was grateful for the fact that she could see into his mind. Leaving her was never what he wanted…
“But you had no choice,” she said, finishing his thought.
Clark nodded. “And I always came back.”
Lois looked down at their intertwined hands, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath before meeting his eyes with hers again. “I don’t want to wish this away,” she said, her voice soft. “Now that I can finally see you for who you are, I’m seeing the rest of the world differently, too. Moving backwards at this point isn’t an option.”
Hope welled up inside him, sending a little shiver down his spine, bringing a reflexive grin. It wasn’t an admission of love, but it was a statement of understanding, the first step along the path. Maybe the rest could come with time. “And moving forward…?”
A smile spread slowly across her features, reaching her eyes and setting off a devilish sparkle. “Maybe I’ll let you buy me dinner,” she said.
“How generous of you,” he said teasingly.
Her free hand started to play with a loose thread at the end of his t-shirt sleeve. “If you’re good I might let you take me to a movie, too.”
“At least if I’m there with you, I know I won’t have to leave in the middle somewhere to snatch you from the clutches of certain death.”
“That almost sounds like a challenge,” Lois said, looking at him through her eyelashes.
Clark was going to make another quip, but then he remembered the circumstances that brought them to his apartment in the first place. “Speaking of which…I have to ask: what were you doing at a mobster’s house tonight with guns pointed at you?”
Lois seemed to be caught off guard for a moment at the sudden change in topic, and she blinked a couple times before relating to him the tale of Moneybags Morocco and his business associates. Her tone was straightforward as she spoke, and no detail was spared. She was objective and methodical, like she always was, but Clark found that he didn’t hear her words anymore as a comforting warmth spread through him. She hadn’t pursued her lead that night to distance herself from their earlier encounter with the genie, as much as she probably told herself that was the case, or because there was a potential story there, because that was still pretty thin. A throwaway sentence in her narrative, one she probably hadn’t even thought much about as it came out, told him that she had been spurred what she had seen in the images projected from him, by the guilt he had broadcast at the thought that his inaction had caused a death at that fire earlier in the day. After a moment, he became aware that she had finished speaking, and was now looking at him with curiosity. He gave a self-effacing grin.
“You did all that…for me?” he asked.
It seemed for a moment that she was going to rebuff him in the way she always had before, that she would immediately deny that her feelings played a part in any of the actions she undertook in obvious pursuit of a story. But her eyes quickly softened, then she looked away from him, seemingly embarrassed. “I guess I did,” she said softly. “I couldn’t let you think that you caused that man’s death. I never realized what it was that you saw out there, how it made you feel, and if I could do something about it…” she stopped and looked at him, slightly wide-eyed. He knew she could feel what he felt, think what he thought, but he couldn’t stop an overpowering sense of love from coursing through him as she spoke. Even if she couldn’t look inside his head, he was pretty sure that it would’ve been plainly written in his features, in his eyes.
She gave a nervous chuckle. “It’s really hard to think straight when you look at me like that,” she said.
“So stop thinking” he said, his voice husky, his face moving slowly toward hers. His eyes fluttered shut as he closed the gap between them, brushing his lips lightly against hers, pausing momentarily before leaning in closer and engaging in a deep, profound kiss.
This wasn’t the first time he had kissed her – not the second or third, either, but it was different from those other ones in so many ways. Their previous kisses when he had been wearing the suit had all felt like stolen moments, forbidden actions from two people who had been spurred into uncharacteristic action by circumstance. They had been hungry, passionate, but lacking in any deeper emotion; they were kisses between two strangers. A couple of times he had kissed her as Clark, but each had been more of a ruse than anything else. And while those kisses had been tender, with maybe a spark of something else, they also lacked that deeper connection. Tonight, though…. Tonight was the culmination of everything, of their shared knowledge, of the unrequited feelings that had lingered between them for so long. It had felt dishonest before to try and tap into his deeper feelings for her while in either guise, since she really didn’t know him, didn’t know who he was, but now there was no reason to hold back, and apparently she felt the same way. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she could feel his emotions, but the way she responded to him, the sensations that her touch arose in him, were more incredible than he could’ve possibly imagined. For an indeterminate amount of time he let himself get lost in it, get drunk on it, before he forced himself to pull back, not wanting the experience to degenerate into something that they weren’t ready for yet.
As he became aware of the world around him again, he realized that one of his hands was now cupped under her jaw while the other was wrapped around her back. Her hand was on the back of his head, her thumb messaging a sensitive spot under his ear, while the other hand rested uncomfortably high on his thigh. They both took heavy breaths as their lips parted, and Clark couldn’t help but smile widely, almost painfully so.
“Where did that come from?” Lois asked, surprise evident in her voice. Clark could only manage to shake his head. “If I knew that was waiting for me, I think I might have told my insecurities to take a hike a long time ago.”
They kissed again, though this one was kept mercifully short. “If I knew this is what would happen if I told you about Superman, I think I might have blurted out the truth back there at the Messenger and saved us a whole lot of suffering,” Clark said, giving her another quick peck on the lips.
She giggled. “Maybe I should thank the genie for bringing us this new bliss,” she said. At the words, though, their bodies stiffened and their eyes grew wide.
“The genie,” they both said in unison, and suddenly the magic was gone. They removed their hands from each other and scooted apart, Lois moving to subconsciously straighten her clothing. After a moment she stood, looking toward his door. “I need to take care of him sooner rather than later,” she said, then looked quickly toward the clock before gesturing toward it. “And the story. I’m running out of time to write something up and get it in the morning edition.”
Clark allowed himself to relax into the couch cushions. “What, the mobster story?” Lois nodded. “I think you should hold off until tomorrow for that one.”
She crossed her arms across her chest. “Why? It’s big news.”
“Well, how did you find out the name of the man killed in the fire?”
“The cop at the desk knew, I kinda heard him think it.” Clark arched an eyebrow, causing Lois’s posture to become a little less rigid. “I mean, I was told by an anonymous source.”
“Uh huh,” he said, sitting up. “And what did you find out at Ronny Finger’s place?”
“That his security is pretty good,” Lois said. “Okay, I never actually got inside to do any snooping.”
“So…you really don’t have anything yet.”
“I have two mobsters in jail on attempted murder charges,” Lois said, pointing at him. “And a nice quote from Superman about it…just as soon as you give me one.” Clark just looked at her for a moment, his expression unchanged, until finally she acquiesced. “Fine, we can flesh it out tomorrow. But in the meantime, I still have that third wish to get out of the way.”
Clark stood and walked toward her, glancing at the clock and taking note of the time. “You don’t necessarily need to do that right now. In the meantime, though…” he gestured toward the window. “The sun will be coming up in a half hour or so. Maybe we can go watch it.”
“What, on the balcony?” Lois said, craning her neck to look through his bedroom and out the back window, no doubt trying to visualize the view from there.
Clark walked past her, then quickly changed into the suit before reaching the back door. “No, I was thinking of someplace with a better view,” he said, opening the door and gesturing toward the world outside with a sweeping wave of his hand.
Lois smiled genuinely, gratefully, and walked toward him without hesitation. He couldn’t tell if it meant that she had made peace with his dual identities, but her reaction seemed to indicate that she had. Without another thought, he gathered her into his arms and took off.
---
The eastern sky was fading from a navy blue to violet to black as Lois’s eyes turned toward the horizon. Clark was sitting cross legged in the air, as if he was resting on some invisible couch, and Lois sat on his lap, her back leaning against his chest and her head resting on his shoulder. One of his arms wrapped around her midsection and the other rested on her knee, with her hand on top of it. If not for the setting and the sound of his cape flapping in the wind, it would be easy enough to forget that she was with Superman, the man who had haunted her fantasies for so long. All she had to do was close her eyes and she could smell Clark’s aftershave, all she had to do was say a few words, and his gentle voice would answer her. If she licked her lips, she could still taste him, and feel the lingering memory of his soft lips on hers. There was no question that she was in the company of Clark, and also no question that he was the one person she wanted to be there with, powers or not. This is what she had sought for so long, she realized. She had always thought that she had wanted some fantasy date with Superman, some one-on-one time above the clouds with undying expressions of love, but without Clark’s personality behind Superman’s façade, it just seemed so hollow somehow. And she was beginning to see that declarations of love weren’t worth nearly as much as real demonstrations to that effect.
It was amazing how much her mind had changed in just the last day, she thought. Heck, even in the last few hours. She had gone into the evening fully intending to return things to the status quo and forget everything that she had learned through less than honest means, to jump back into the nice little box she had built around her feelings and blissfully go about her life. She didn’t need complications like love, she certainly didn’t need to know that her fantasy hero was real, attainable, and undeniably in love with her. She liked having something pleasant to dream about at night, and not knowing Superman’s secret gave her something to work toward every day, the thrill of the chase, as it were. Knowing these things, knowing that it was Clark under the spandex, led to some uncomfortable feelings that she would have to face if she decided to move forward with the new status quo. Because, although she would never admit it to even herself, deep down she had harbored a flame for him even before the genie turned her life upside down. She had buried her feelings under a heavy blanket of personal rules and dictates –she could never date a co-worker, she couldn’t get involved personally with someone she was involved with professionally, and of course she had to keep herself available for Superman – but that didn’t stop her from noticing that he was almost painfully handsome. It didn’t stop her from getting jealous whenever he even talked to another woman, and it didn’t stop her from noticing his myriad other charms. But she had left their relationship at friendship, because breaking her rules and pursuing him would mean having to reexamine the priorities in her life. But once she found out, she very strongly wanted to pursue him, to throw out all the dumb rules and mental constructs that kept them apart, and she blinked. Without her values, who would she be? If she threw away everything that made her who she was, then what would take its place? The thought of losing herself terrified her, and so she decided to keep things unchanged. But then Clark talked with her, opened his mind to her, and made her see things from his perspective. And suddenly the prospect of living life NOT knowing him was far worse than any scary feelings or hypothetical damage done to her psyche, and she decided to move forward after all. Then he kissed her, and that sealed the deal.
She gave a contented sigh and tried to take in the scene around her. From several miles in the sky, Metropolis looked like a gleaming jewel, the growing light from the east reflecting off the glass of the skyscrapers, tinting the city with color that was punctuated by the lights that were on in the buildings all around. “Is this something you do often?” she asked. “Watching the sun rise from up here, I mean?”
“Sometimes,” he answered softly. “I prefer watching it back home, though. There’s just something about seeing the sunrise over a wheat field, the world all around silhouetted against the sky….” Her mind received whispers of old memories from him, and she had to admit he had a point. “I just don’t have the time to go back there and experience that very often.”
She gave his hand a squeeze. “You’ll have to show me sometime,” she said.
“I’d like that,” he answered, and they fell into silence for a moment. Lois took the opportunity to open her mind, to welcome in the thoughts and feelings that seemed to radiate from him, not wanting so much to hear the words in his head, but to experience the world the way he did. Closing her eyes again, the sounds of the city below began to trickle into her conscious – a baby crying, a woman singing in the shower, a couple fighting, a coffee maker bubbling. The sounds of thousands of televisions tuned into dozens of channels, of radios and telephone calls, of cars operating in the street and trains operating below then, all filtered through her mind. Then, suddenly, a faraway scream, causing her eyes to pop open, though behind her Clark didn’t flinch at all.
Her breath had caught in her throat, she realized, as Clark started to speak. “Spider,” he said, the smile evident in his voice.
Lois was caught off guard for a moment, but she couldn’t help but laugh once her mind was able to process it. “How did you know that?” she asked, though she supposed the answer to that question was probably obvious.
“Occam’s razor,” he said. Lois turned her head to look at him in question. “It basically says that the most probable answer is generally the correct answer. There are a lot more spiders, rats, and roaches in this city, and by extension people who are startled by them, than criminals.” He then smiled and raised his eyebrows. “Plus, I looked.”
Lois smiled back, then turned toward the city. “The way you perceive the world below, the things you hear…it must be overwhelming sometimes.”
<Hear what I hear,> he thought, knowing that she could hear him. At his prompting, she closed her eyes again and let the sounds of the city wash over her. <This is just Metropolis,> he thought, the sounds from before filtering through her mind for a few moments, until suddenly there were more, overpoweringly more. <And this is the whole eastern seaboard,> he continued, and the cacophony was almost too much for her to bear. But then he applied a mental filter, and the thousands upon thousands of sounds reduced to a few dozen, and she felt herself relax, unaware that she had tensed up at the onslaught. His voice entered her head again, and he began to give her an audio tour of the world as he heard it, applied through the various filters in his mind. The sounds of traffic, the sounds of wildlife, the sounds of children, the sounds of industry, a litany of screams that never seemed to end, and so many other things. Most interesting was the sound of the sea, of waves breaking on shore, of the riptide stirring up the sand from the seabed, of the fish cutting through the water and eventually finding their meals. Eventually all the sounds faded away, and all Lois could hear was a single heartbeat, growing louder by the second, eventually accompanied by a mental picture of her, seated in Clark’s lap with her eyes closed.
Lois opened her eyes and broke the connection, knowing that the way he had guided her through his perception of the world spelled out quite clearly how he viewed her and her place in it. Through all the clutter, through all the noise and chaos, she was the center of his attention, her heartbeat the one sound he always came home to. It was somewhat overwhelming to think about just how much she meant to him, and it made it hard to resist turning around to kiss him again. But for now she just wanted to enjoy this moment, enjoy the sunrise as it continued to unfold in front of her, and enjoy getting to know him for who he really was deep down inside.
“Unless I’m out actively patrolling the city, I usually filter most of it out,” he said, aware that the mental connection between them had been broken. “You can go crazy listening to all that’s going on in the world.”
“But what about the actual cries for help? What about the screams that aren’t just false alarms?”
His mind rattled off crime statistics that she was already quite familiar with, doing the math to equate their frequency to portions of the day. A mugging every 15 minutes, a break-in every 20, and so on. “When I created Superman, all I wanted was to help, but in the beginning I didn’t fully comprehend what that meant or how it would work. As time has gone on, though, I’ve figured out that there’s a balance. It’s probably theoretically possible for me to, say, stop all the gun violence in Metropolis, but that would make being Superman a full-time job. I would never have time for friends, for a job, to do the things that I enjoy in life. It would mean losing myself to blue spandex, and that’s not something that I’m willing to do. I was Clark first, and that’s who I will always be. It’s lead to some uncomfortable trade-offs, and I end up ignoring a lot of the bad things that happen, but that’s the cost of living my life, and hopefully the world will understand. Besides, even lending myself full time to crime fighting wouldn’t stop all the bad in the world, and it won’t change human nature. But maybe what I can do will offer enough hope so that others will pick up the torch and run with it when I can’t.”
Lois reached up and placed her hand on his cheek, running in down is jaw, before gently tilting his face toward her, and turning in for a small kiss. “I never imagined…” she said, her eyes locking in on his for a second before she turned back and regarded the scene in front of her. The sky was now fading into a reddish color, and the sun wasn’t far from peeking above the horizon. “I had fantasized about what Superman…what you did and saw and thought, but I never imagined how much of yourself you had to give to do what you do, and what kind of personal toll that took. It makes me want to know more.”
His arm around her midsection tightened, and she snuggled in at his touch. “Well, it seems to me that telling such personal stories is first date territory.” She didn’t even have to look at him to know that his seriousness from earlier had been pushed away, and a smirk was most likely plastered on his face. “Anyway, I still have all sorts of juicy secrets to ferret out of you, I’m sure.”
“So you’re asking me out to level the playing field?” she asked teasingly.
“If I say yes, are you going to refuse me?” he asked, playing along.
“Probably not,” Lois said. “You’re just lucky you’re such a good kisser.”
“Good,” he said. “But, please promise me when the time comes, that I will be allowed to have private thoughts again.” His voice was still light, but she had no doubt that the words were serious. <I might have one or two secrets left in here that I’d like to keep until at least the second or third date.>
She chuckled lightly. “Might I remind you that we’d be at my apartment right now taking care of that if not for your little detour up here?”
“I wanted to show off a little, sue me. But you have to admit, it’s a beautiful view.” Lois didn’t have to close her eyes to know that he was looking at her instead of the horizon as he spoke. It didn’t diminish the truth of the statement.
“It certainly is,” she said softly. Deciding that turnabout was fair play, and that she, too, had access to a view that was better that currently being provided by mother nature, she pulled her legs in and twisted in his lap, turning her gaze to his face. “I’m really glad you let me experience it with you.” Their eyes locked together, and she instantly felt herself get warmer. He had that look in his eyes again, the one that spoke of barely contained desire, and she decided that the experiences he had given her that morning were worth a reward. Without another thought, she leaned in and engaged him in another kiss, this one at least on par with the one they had shared in his apartment. The sunrise was completely forgotten for quite a while as she explored his mouth, and her hands worked their way around his body, hanging up somewhat on the cape. It was that, and the fact the hand that had found its way through his hair was now coated in a layer of whatever product he used to plaster it down on his head, that brought her back to reality again. As she broke the kiss, she had to suppress a laugh as she noticed that his hair, normally so well kept even after the biggest disaster, was now a complete mess. She absently wiped the goopy hand against her jeans, glancing down as she did, and gasping at what she saw.
The gasp seemed to bring Clark fully back to the world of the living, and he looked around in surprise for a moment before smiling shyly. They were now at least twice as high up in the air than they had been before the kiss, and the change in altitude meant that the top of the sun was now blazing brightly over the ocean. “I could make some inappropriate comment here about what exactly you do to me…” Clark said, and Lois tried to appear scandalized, though she found the fact that he employed such innuendo while in uniform to be amusing. Though it was hardly surprising, she reminded herself, considering what she had overheard the night before.
“Noted,” she said. “And I could probably point out that I could give kryptonite a run for its money when it comes to exploiting your weaknesses.” She trailed a finger down his chest, and earned his best smile as a reward.
“So, hey, look – the sun finally came up,” he said, nodding toward the horizon. His arms remained locked around her, as if he was ready to change position. “I suppose that means we should get going.” He was uncomfortable, she realized, and it occurred to her that his comment about her affect on him was more substantive that he had let on. Taking mercy on him, she nodded, and he shifted his grip so she was resting in his arms, then they started toward her apartment.
“It’s a shame I’m going to have to give up my new gifts just as they were beginning to bear a little fruit,” she said. “And it seems like a waste of a perfectly good wish to undue a previous wish.” She looked at him, a plan forming in her mind. “You know, Clark, I might be running out of wishes, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t…”
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“You might be the one with the power to read minds, but I know you. And you’re going to ask me to summon the genie and get three wishes of my own.”
Lois scoffed, then crossed her arms. “Well, yeah. So what’s wrong with that?”
“Why I do I need any wishes?” Far from sounding upset or stern, his voice seemed almost amused. “I mean, I have a pretty good life, a job I like, a nice apartment. You’re still speaking to me, and even letting me kiss you every now and then, so how bad can things be?”
A blush rose on Lois’s cheeks, but even his very sensible arguments didn’t mean that she was going to give up the idea. “What about a wish for happily ever after? Who wouldn’t want that?”
“Why do I need a wish to get that? We seem to be moving that way just fine without any help.”
“Don’t forget that it was a wish that got us here in the first place. We weren’t exactly an item before then.”
“True,” he said with a bob of the head. “But that didn’t mean that we wouldn’t have gotten there eventually on our own. I had been tossing around the idea of asking you out even before the genie intervened. Anyway, now that you know all there is to know about me, now that we know we’re…compatible, there’s nothing stopping us from taking the next step. I trust us to get there on our own.”
Lois looked away from him and sighed. “The problem is, when it comes to relationships, I don’t trust myself,” she said, her voice small.
His arms tightened around her, and his eyes got soft. “I trust you. And I love you. Shouldn’t that count for something?” Her throat tightened up at his words, and she found she couldn’t speak. At her nod, he continued. “Anyway, if we did wish for the mythical happy ending, I would find myself wondering at every turn whether it was love or magic driving our relationship. I’d much rather have the real you, your real thoughts and feelings, good, bad, or otherwise, and not some illusion.”
Lois cupped his face as a tear formed in her eye. “When you put it that way,” she said, trying to deflect the emotion, even as it touched her in a way that she didn’t think was possible. He said that he loved her, he wanted to be with her, and when he said those words, especially while wearing the suit, she knew that it was the absolute truth. The corner of his mouth tugged into a skewed smile, and she couldn’t help but return it.
She wanted to study his face more, get lost in his eyes again like she had earlier, but she realized that they were slowing down, and it only took a glace around to see that they had reached her apartment. A second later Clark landed on the roof, bent slightly, then placed her in front of him. It was time to return to reality.
Lois strode toward the stairwell door with purpose, pausing only as she heard a rush of air behind her. A quick glance over her shoulder showed that Clark had changed into normal clothing, which was probably just as well. Although Superman’s late night rendezvous were a regular occurrence in her apartment, the rest of the building didn’t know that, and it wouldn’t do to be spotted walking with Superman through the hallway. Picking up the pace, she reached out and tugged open the stairwell door. “What about wishing to be rid of all the kryptonite in the world?” she said as he followed her into the stairwell.
Clark gave a noncommittal grunt. “It just kinda feels wrong. It’s the only other thing out there that comes from the same place as I do…”
“It can kill you, Clark,” Lois said, glancing back again to look at him. Maddeningly, he just shrugged. Never let it be said that Clark Kent couldn’t be stubborn, she thought. They walked in silence the rest of the way to her apartment. Once there, Lois quickly worked her way through the series of locks, opened the door, and made a beeline for her bookcase and the stylish bottle currently residing on the upper shelf. Once she heard Clark close the apartment door behind him, she reached out and grabbed it, making sure that her hand rubbed against it before she got a firm grip. Clark was already positioned in front of her couch, and Lois went to join him, setting the bottle on the coffee table before sitting down.
Almost immediately, the now familiar light show began, and smoke curled out the top of the bottle, followed shortly by the genie. He seemed to be caught off guard at being summoned so early in the morning, and his usual hat had been replaced by something resembling a sleeping cap, his clothing seemingly somewhat wrinkled. As he fully materialized, he stretched theatrically, rubbed his eyes, then squinted slightly until he caught sight of Lois and Clark. His sleepiness seemed to disappear instantly.
“Ah!” he said, rubbing his hands together. “You have come to make your last wish!” Lois only nodded in response. “Your colorful friend is by your side, so the previous two must be successful. Oh, it is always so pleasing when the wishes I grant make a positive difference in the world. So what is it that you desire now?”
Lois looked at Clark, took a deep breath, then turned back toward the genie. “Well, I-“
“Don’t tell me, you want to do something altruistic for me?” The genie said, a pleased look crossing his face. Lois wasn’t quite sure where that notion came from, though she wondered how many of the genie’s former masters had followed the script of Aladdin and tried just that.
“What, you mean set you free?” Clark asked.
“Pfft. Heavens, no,” the genie said with a wave of his hand. “A genie has to be tethered to a bottle. Set me free from this one and I just have to find another one to call home. The bottles that your society produces these days – soda bottles, I think you call them – just don’t have the style of the ones that were produced in my youth. Besides, I just got this one furnished the way I like, and would be very happy to keep it that way for a while, thank you.”
Next to Lois, Clark arched an eyebrow, then reached up to pull down his glasses as he squinted at the bottle. He was probably using his x-ray vision, she thought with a start, her mind summoning images of times that he had done the same thing in the past, though she had always figured he was just near-sighted. Now she knew better. With a slight shake, Lois jarred her mind away from that topic and regarded the genie again. “So what did you have in mind?” Lois asked the genie, who smiled at the question.
“Well, even genies need companionship. I am not a stranger to the programs on your television, and they have shown me that there are, ah, feminine genies in the world, that apparently military men dream of once a week or so. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to talk to another genie, even longer since I’ve been in contact with one so beautiful….” His eyes looked wistfully off into the distance. Lois felt a brief stab of pity toward the enigmatic little man, though it didn’t last. It wasn’t hard to remind herself what she was there for, and it certainly wasn’t to make life easier for genies.
“I don’t know about companionship, but maybe we can offer you a place to park your bottle that’s quiet and has a decent view?” Clark said. Lois looked at him questioningly, but his expression was reassuring.
“It won’t even take magic to get you there.”
The genie seemed disappointed, but he quickly composed himself and offered a nod. “I must say, a nice, quiet place does sound delightful after spending some time in this infernal city. So much noise, and it never stops.”
“Tell me about it,” Lois and Clark muttered simultaneously under their breath. “Jinx,” Clark added, winking at her. Lois rolled her eyes, then continued with her plan.
“Before we get started, I wanted to that you for everything. I actually am grateful for what you have done for me. For us,” she said, giving a smile to Clark.
The genie took off his hat and bowed deeply. “It was my honor. And I appreciate your kind words. So many people take their fame and riches and forget about poor Julian.”
“Yes, well, that being said, I’m going to have to undo some of your work.” Lois hesitated for a moment, knowing that this was the moment of truth. Then, with a deep breath, plunged ahead. “I wish that I can no longer read the thoughts of others.”
The genie straightened up, placed his hat back on his head, and nodded. He didn’t seem surprised or disappointed. For the centuries that he had been doing what he was doing, he had no doubt seen everything, and Lois highly doubted that she was the first to wish away what she had sought in the first place. With a bright flash of light and a low rumble of thunder, the genie’s voice boomed, “granted,” then he disappeared, and the room was still.
“Well?” Clark said after a moment. “Did it work?”
“I don’t know. Think something.” He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. They looked at each other for a long minute, neither speaking, a smile creeping across her features as the silence continued on. “Nothing,” she said, prompting a grin from him, though his eyes spoke of relief.
“Okay,” he said, clapping his hands together and standing up. “I better go take care of this thing like I promised,” he said gesturing toward the bottle. He moved to pick it up, but Lois grabbed his arm and stopped him.
“Unless you want your wishes, I wouldn’t touch it. It would only take one rub to bring him back again.” Clark cringed slightly at the thought, and Lois looked around, quickly locating a small bag to put it in. She quickly grabbed the bottle and dropped it into the bag, handing it to Clark. “So where ARE you taking it?”
“Smallville,” he said. “I have a little hiding place there with...some other valuables.” As soon as the words left his mouth, an image entered Lois’s mind of a glowing globe in a small wooden building with a view of a wheat field. It was Superman’s globe, and she should have no reason to know it was there, but Clark knew. Stunned, Lois tried to maintain her expression, to not give away the fact that they were still connected somehow, and Clark seemed none the wiser as he turned and walked toward her window. “I’ll be back in a minute. Did you want me to pick up some breakfast while I’m out?”
“Sure,” Lois said, and like that, he was gone. Lois collapsed back onto the couch, staring blankly at where he had been standing. Somehow, the residual effect of the magic had lingered, and she could still experience some of the world through Clark’s eyes. How was that? Would it last? Should she tell him? A million thoughts and possibilities swirled in her mind, which, she realized, was suddenly fatigued after the very long day and sleepless night that she had just experienced. Maybe it wasn’t worth saying anything about now, or at least not until she was able think more clearly. Maybe she just needed some time for things to get back to normal. Maybe it was all some sort of illusion from her sleep deprived brain. Maybe they were so deeply connected that she didn’t need magic to experience the world through his eyes. Maybe….
Clark reappeared in her apartment at that moment, interrupting her thoughts. True to his word, he had been gone exactly one minute, and he was holding a bag from a bakery, the smells radiating from it making her recognize how hungry she was. “Are you going into work this morning?” he asked as he headed toward the kitchen. Lois stood and followed him, grabbing some plates before meeting him at her center island.
“I have a gangster to bag. Of course I’m going in,” she said. “I was actually kinda hoping you would help me with that.”
“How?” He removed a couple pastries from the bag and placed them on the plates.
She gave him a sly look. “I never did get a chance to get inside Ronny Fingers’ place. And you have some talents at your disposal that can get us what we need from a distance without having to have another run-in with his goons.”
He gave her a sideways glance. “You do understand that Superman stands for truth and justice and all that, right? Visually breaking and entering doesn’t exactly fit the bill.”
Lois carried the plates over to the table and sat down. “But I’ve done plenty of actual breaking and entering with you as my accomplice, so obviously you’re somewhat flexible on that if it means bringing in a bad guy.” He gave her a perturbed glance, but she just smiled and took a large bite of her food, melting in her chair with a moan as the taste finally registered. How was it that he knew where all the best bakeries were?
Her reaction to the food seemed to soften him up, and he even smiled a little as he began to eat, too. “What about helping me with my story? You know, following the money in politics?”
Involuntarily, Lois yawned, and she had to quickly cover her mouth or risk the contents spilling out. Clark seemed amused as she waved her hand and quickly finished her bite once the yawn passed. “Not unless you want me to pass out at my desk,” she said.
Something mischievous gleamed in his eye. “Maybe you could take a nap now and just come in late. I’m sure Perry would understand.” Lois gave him a look that meant to convey that she would take his suggestion over her dead body, but then he started in on the finer details of his story. “Did you know that bills sponsored by special interest groups have an incredible success rate in the House? As a matter of fact…”
Lois yawned again, and felt the sudden urge to throw something at him. He just laughed, and she knew that he would exploit this new toy mercilessly until he got her to admit defeat. “Uncle,” she said once that yawn was over, throwing up her hands and laughing with him.
This was her new world, she realized. It wasn’t the life she had known, the solitary one with singular focus on her job and her hero. It also wasn’t the life that she had fantasized about for so long, the one filled with constant excitement and a mythical hero without faults. This was a shared life, with Clark by her side to tease, to get her meals from exotic locales, to show her the world from his perspective. With him, it seemed like anything was possible, even things that had seemed completely impossible only a couple days earlier. Above all, though, she knew that he loved her, and she couldn’t deny that she loved him back fiercely, with all her heart. She found that she looked forward to wherever it was that this new life took her, starting with her breakfast and going from there.
