Sorry for the delay in posting. I haven't been on my laptop for a few days and I didn't want to post from a mobile device.
Without further ado...
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*LOIS POV*
Lois couldn’t help but be a bit fazed by Clark’s exit, she resented being left behind again although this time she knew where he was going - she even consented. She too worried about their friend.
Lois hated the fact that he had been lying to her the whole time but on the other hand she was happy that he finally had found the courage to let her in and therefore she knew he would be back and face whatever she would throw at him.
She busied herself by looking through the boxes around her. Had they worried her before now they presented an opportunity to learn more about his man who was her partner, her hero and possibly so much more.
She took a picture of a young Clark out, he sat on a table across from the photographer - probably one of his parents. He sat in front of what seemed to be birthday presents. There were only a few presents and although little Clark was smiling she could see something in his eyes. She could see a few friends around him, one of the girls could be Rachel. His mouth was smiling but his eyes didn’t. Although that wasn’t true. The smile did reach his eyes but it couldn’t mask the underlying sadness completely. She would probably miss it if she didn’t know Clark.
Or so she had thought...
Putting the picture back she went over to the next box, it contained his favourite sweater from his university. She took it out and breathed in it’s familiar scent. It felt soft and warm and smelled of a mixture of him and his aftershave. As if on cue a gust of wind came through the open door to the balcony and made her shiver. Without thinking she put if on, she always felt better around him. At the moment her anger was completely forgotten.
The next box contained some of the things he brought back from his travels, mostly books in several languages, she could identify french, spanish, german and russian books and others in asian languages, probably chinese and korean she would suspect.
Then she spotted a neatly kept photo album she had never seen before. Without thinking twice she pulled it out and carried it over to Clark’s couch. She opened it and discovered that it contained photos from Clark’s travels around the world along with newspaper reports and little things from each country he has been to.
He’d started his travels in Mexico, staying there during the hurricane season. From what she could understand, it was an article stating that a man had lifted up whole trees and big boulders far beyond the weight even the strongest human could lift. As she looked at the structure of the article and from what she could translate she assumed it probably was the Mexican version of the National Whisperer. Probably very few people - if any - believed what they read in that rag.
But still it must have shaken Clark to the core.
The next few pages contained pictures of people around the world, every page and every picture was labeled in Clarks neat handwriting. The dates on the pages told her he never stayed anywhere for more than a few weeks, sometimes just for a few days. There were no more articles attached to the pages until scrap of a German newspaper caught her gaze. The date said November 4th 1989.
She could see pictures taken at the demonstrations leading up to the Fall of the Berlin Wall. She couldn’t understand what the article said but the picture showed what had to be one of the death strips. Lois could see several persons running from one side to the other. She could also see a blur, that must have been Clark protecting those who ran towards freedom. Fortunately the picture was of a very poor quality and the blur could easily have been mistaken for a bird, but if you knew what you are looking at you could see the difference.
It was probably the first picture of Clark doing something ‘super’, taken at a time when probably the whole world was looking in that direction. The next pictures showed a rural area in Borneo. Clark must have been terrified so he went to an area where the people barely knew the rest of the world even existed.
As she continued to look through the pages she saw the same thing happening over and over again. He went somewhere, made himself a home, and then something happened - sometimes a smaller accident, sometimes big natural disasters. It seemed every time Clark had moved on to a new place it was because of something super he had done and he ran away because of the fear of finally being exposed.
At some point she could hear a set of keys she looked up and saw Clark’s parents returning. His mother smiled a warm smile and directly rushed over to pull her into her arms as a greeting. “Lois dear, I am so glad you came. Did you talk to Clark?“ Judging from what Lois had heard earlier she interpreted Martha’s tone as ‘I hope you have slapped my son in the face and brought him out of his dim-witted idea to leave everyone he loved behind’.
Lois returned the hug and answered. “Yes, he’s out. Jimmy met the wrong girl and now he needs help with getting out of this mess.” Then she hugged Jonathan while Martha picked up the photo album.
“Oh, I haven’t seen that in a while.” She flipped through the pages and turned to Lois. “He loved traveling and meeting all those people… and he hated leaving them all of the sudden. Apart from growing up in Smallville and going to college the longest time he has been in one place is here in Metropolis. You know why he didn’t move from here?”
“It is Superman, Clark had finally found a way to help others without the fear that Clark Kent would be discovered as an alien.” Lois felt Martha’s hand on hers, the older woman looking in her eyes and shook her head.
“No.” she replied softly. “It was you. You inspired him to create Superman and you gave him a reason to do it. He could have found a way to stay anywhere, if he really had wanted to but he never felt at home anywhere. Even in Smallville he always felt as if he was sticking out, it broke my heart that there never was anyone he could share himself with. He is such an open and honest person and yet he is forced to lie constantly about a big part of himself.” Martha’s voice had become sad.
Jonathan added “When he came home after your first meeting he and I talked, he told me that he’d never fit in, never find a home. As he grew up I told him never to tell anyone about his secret out of fear we might lose him. When he became a reporter we feared one of his colleagues would find out and sell his life for a Pulitzer.” As Lois tried to protest she’d never betray Clark like that Jonathan put a hand on her shoulder and went on. “When he told us about you we were instantly aware that something had changed in Clark and when we met you we knew you would never do that to him. But still, the only thing Clark had ever known was to leave if people got too close to him.”
Martha took over again. “Running had become his second nature, he has to learn to stay.”
Lois thought about what she had learned through the stories in Clarks parents and the photo album. She actually could understand, why he had never told her. That didn’t make the feelings of hurt and betrayal any easier to swallow. She still felt the same love for him but with it she felt the reminder of how many lies Clark has told her since their meeting. Could she really move past that?
“Honey, you don’t have to decide what to do about Clark tonight. He will wait for you if you need some time.” Martha told her as if she could read her thoughts.
A sound on the balcony interrupted them; Clark had returned from rescuing Jimmy.
As he entered they stopped and looked at him. Lois could see the gaze of his mother spoke volumes. It was amazing how one simple look of a mother made you cringe in shame and another told you about her feelings. She silently told him she was happy he finally stopped being a lunkhead and told her about the one thing that kept them apart.
“He’s okay, I even managed to get back most of his things, thankfully they didn’t really land in Hobbs bay but near the water, the one percenters just wanted to rough him up a bit.” His gaze softened, she felt warm all over. “What about you, how do you feel...” He asked, she could see he was still nervous and fearing that him keeping the secret had resulted in losing her trust in him.
“I can’t say that I am okay with it yet... but I think I will be.” As she spoke those words, she found them to be true. She might not feel okay with being lied to for years, but she knew that Clark hadn’t done it to hurt her. “Would you tell me the whole story? How you ended up in Kansas and with the Kents?” She asked, wanting to understand how he could be the world's biggest liar and the most honest man on earth at the same time.
“There is still so much I don’t know but I’ll tell you what I learned from my parents and the globe. Mom, Dad is it still stored in the tree house?” Clark asked his parents, both nodded. He held his hand out to Lois to take it. “Come on. I’ll fly us to Kansas and we will talk there.” Lois hesitated before taking it. Flying meant being very close. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for that yet. But then the curiosity got the better of her and she took his hand.
Meanwhile his parents had silently made their way off to leave the younger couple to be alone.
“I’m sorry, Lois. I should have told you, but I am so used to running. I do trust you.” He said gently.
Clark pulled Lois out of the window onto his balcony before closing the door and lifting her gently into his arms. It felt good to be in his arms and at this point she knew, given some time, she would get over his lies. “Just promise me one thing, farmboy. Regardless what happens, never run away from me again.“
THE END
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