Summary: Follows part 1, Flight of the Butterflies. Lois and Clark kissed during the episode 'The Prankster' which changed their ongoing relationship. This story picks up just over a week later, during the events of 'Church of Metropolis.'
Disclaimer: I own nothing, merely exercising my imagination. Excerpts are from 'Church of Metropolis' which is not my imagination!
****
Lois peered through the window in Clark’s front door and watched as Mayson leaned towards Clark as if to kiss him. Lois gasped and stepped back into the shadows quickly as Clark turned towards the door. He couldn’t have heard her, could he? Had he seen her? What was Mayson doing there and what was she trying to do with Clark! She stepped out of the shadows and angrily rapped on the door
“Lois!” Clark exclaimed as he opened the door.
“I, um, dug a little deeper and found something else,” She was trying not to let her voice shake as she was on the edge of either throwing something at him or, bursting into tears. He was obviously surprised to see her but was that an unpleasant or grateful surprise?
“Well, come on in,” he said.
“Uh, Clark, I should go,” Mayson said while smiling at him. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” She sauntered out and closed the door behind her. Lois barely restrained herself from rolling her eyes as she left.
“I can’t stay, but you should look at this,” Lois blurted out quickly, refusing to walk down the stairs into his living room. She handed him a folder. “Mayson Drake used to work for Snell under Church’s acquisitions.”
“What!” Clark exclaimed.
She was angry now. “Why are you so upset?”
“I’m just surprised.”
About to retort, she was interrupted by her pager. “Oh no… It’s Uncle Mike, he’s in trouble.” She turned and ran out of his apartment, ignoring Clark as he called her name. She hopped in the Jeep and headed to her uncle’s restaurant. As she arrived she found the police already there, and uncle Mike raving about an awesome officer who had taken care of everything. She stayed until the police left and her uncle insisted he was fine. She was yawning and exhausted by the time she finally fell into bed; though restful sleep was elusive. Every time she closed her eyes the memory of Mayson leaning in to kiss Clark played in her mind.
****
In the morning she sat at her desk pretending to be buried in research when Clark arrived. She scowled at him as he chose to ignore her frosty greeting and handed her a coffee.
“Lois, how’s your uncle?”
“He’s fine.” She refused to glance at the steaming cup emitting a delightful aroma of coffee.
“We need to talk,” he said softly.
“Now?” This was not how she wanted to start her day but she felt her resolve melt a bit when she looked up at him. She blamed the lack of sleep.
“Please?” He headed towards the conference room
“Clark, she’s dirty,” Lois began as they entered the empty room.
“Show me the proof.” He closed the door behind them and walked to the opposite side of the table.
“You don’t have any proof on Snell and you’re willing to go after him.”
“That’s different, Lois. I told you I have a source.”
“I’ll tell you what’s different. When Snell bats his eyes, you don’t get quite so giddy.” She was trying hard not to remember the memory of Mayson and Clark almost kissing, and failing.
“Wait… What?”
“You heard me.” She swallowed hard. “I saw you two last night.” At least Clark had the decency to look down.
“Lois, I didn’t invite her over. She stopped by to go over some of the facts for the case…”
“And you had to give her a goodnight kiss?” Lois interrupted loudly.
Clark sighed. “Lois… it’s not what it looks like.”
“Oh? How did I misinterpret that? I mean it’s hard to miss her fawning all over you every time she sees you. You didn’t exactly stop her advances…” She choked back a sob.
“Lois…” Clark stepped towards her.
“No,” she stopped him and took a step back. “I mean, I guess it’s my own fault. I said to take things slow, to not define whatever it was that we were doing.” She gestured around the newsroom. “We’re partners. We have a story to do. We aren’t even dating and it’s already affecting our job.” She was shouting at him now.
“How is it affecting our job to say that I disagree? To say you have no proof that Church is the head of Intergang, and therefore, no proof that just because Mayson worked for Church that she’s part of Intergang. We’ve got to stay on track!” Clark’s frustration was showing in his voice as it raised in volume.
Angrily she advanced towards Clark. “You’re not saying stay on track, you’re saying stay away from your girlfriend!”
“She is not my girlfriend.” Clark reached out to hold her arms and she angrily shrugged him off.
“Well, whatever she is, she’s got you finger wrapped and blindfolded.”
“You know, if anyone’s blind around here, it’s you.” Clark shouted before he walked out of the conference room and banged the door behind him.
“Well what is that supposed to mean?” She said to an empty room as she watched him walk over to the elevator and leave.
****
The afternoon had wasted away while she stared at her computer idly typing every once in a while and re-reading the same pile of files. Every time the elevator door opened she turned to look, but Clark hadn’t returned. Eventually Perry had called her into his office and she sat in the chair across from his desk, hugging her knees.
“I guess we’re going to have to talk about this,” Perry began. “You seem pretty upset after that blow up with Clark.”
“Perry, he’s letting his feelings for a woman get in the way of our story.”
“And?”
“And! And… it’s unprofessional!”
“And?” Perry repeated.
“And I don’t like it!”
“Now, Lois, is there something going on here that you want to tell me?”
She gulped. Not really, she wanted to answer. It didn’t seem to matter as Perry nodded his head slightly as though he understood.
“Well, now Clark is a very nice man, but when you get down to it, a nice man is still just a man.”
“Perry, Clark is my… He and I… We’re best friends and I don’t want to lose him.” She’d almost blurted out more than she was willing to admit to even herself.
“Honey, you won’t loose him. You might have a bump or two down the road but things will work out. You’ll see.”
On her way home she stopped by Clark’s but there was no answer and no lights shining through his windows. Once home she changed into her pajamas, and sat on the couch with a microwave dinner, thinking over what Perry had said. What did Perry know? Was he aware that she and Clark were dating? Were they even dating?
Since that night where she’d kissed him they hadn’t gone out on any actual dates. They’d had meals, mostly lunches, while they worked, as it had been a busy week or so. They’d shared a few brief goodnight kisses but nothing for several days. When this whole mess had begun it was because Uncle Mike had asked her to come down to the restaurant and she’d invited Clark to join her. That hadn’t been a date, just another lunch during work hours. Perry was right. Clark was a man, not just a nice man, but a kind and caring man who also happened to be gorgeous. Mayson had noticed those qualities the moment she met him and it hadn’t taken her long at all to jump all over Clark.
Lois sighed as she got up from the couch. Tomorrow she’d see Clark and they’d talk this out. They didn’t have to be at court until after lunch so they had the whole morning.
****
Clark hadn’t been at the paper at all in the morning and Lois walked over to the courtroom alone, fuming. Where was he? Was he avoiding her? She didn’t see him until after he was giving his testimony and the calm conversation she had wanted to have was almost non-existent now. When he finished giving his testimony and was excused, Clark spotted her and come to sit by her. His hand brushed lightly against hers and she pulled away quickly.
“Lois… I owe you an apology.”
“Clark, we need to talk,” she tried to interrupt.
“I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”
“You’re apologizing for that?” She struggled to keep her voice low.
“What’s going on?” Clark interrupted as Mayson and Snell left the bench. The judge announced new evidence suggesting Mayson’s paperwork wasn’t correct and she had 24 hours to look into it.
“It’s all her! She set it up! She’s in with Church and Snell. How much more evidence do you need?” Lois hissed at him.
“Lois, there’s something else.” At her inquiring look, Clark stood. “Not here.”
Clark lead her out to the street and they started walking back to the Planet. “I saw her. With Church.”
“Where? When?” Lois asked.
“Today, before court.”
“See! I told you!”
“Lois,” Clark cautioned. “I agree, something isn’t quite right but I’m not ready to believe Mayson is dirty.”
“How can you say that?” She was furious again. Thinking about Mayson in Clark’s apartment, and now wondering what they had been doing before lunch, was making her eyes well up with tears. “You said I’m blind? What did you mean by that? And it’s not me that’s blind,” she spat at Clark and hurried away. Trying not to let the tears spill over she began the twenty-minute walk back to the Planet, hoping he wouldn’t follow.
When she arrived at the entrance to the Planet, Clark was waiting with a cup of coffee and a paper bag that was emitting a delicious smell. Her stomach growled and she tried to walk past him, wondering how on earth he had managed to beat here here, while picking up something to eat along the way!
“Lois, we need to talk and I’d rather not do that inside with an audience.”
She didn’t have a response for him as she knew he was right. They had to have this conversation and they couldn’t without being interrupted, or worse, overheard, inside. She accepted the coffee from him with a grunt and let Clark lead the way to a playground that happened to be empty of kids. They sat on one of the many vacant park benches.
“Clark…”
“I’m sorry about yesterday," Clark blurted out. "I got frustrated and lost my temper…”
“And then left for a day?” Lois finished for him. “Where did you go?”
“I needed to get some things straight,” Clark sighed.
“Like what?” She spat out, dangerously close to loosing her temper again, regardless of their location in public.
“I didn’t kiss Mayson…” Clark began quietly.
“I saw you.” She had to put the coffee down as her hands were shaking so much she was going to spill it on herself. “You would have if I hadn’t shown up.”
He ran his hand through his hair, obviously frustrated, but he responded calmly. “Mayson came over unexpectedly, to go through the testimony for the case. When she was getting ready to leave, she leaned into me.” Lois tried to interrupt but Clark spoke over her. “We didn’t kiss. I wouldn’t have kissed her. I wasn’t going to keep her behaviour from you either and I would have told you right away. Then Mike paged and you left to help him. Yesterday I tried to talk to you again but things got out of hand and I left. I was going to meet her today to tell her that there couldn’t be anything between her and I, and when I showed up she was already there with Church.”
As Clark spoke she felt some of her anger dissipate. “Why won’t you concede that she might be wrapped up in all of this? You’re so sure she’s innocent.”
“I’m not saying she’s innocent, I just don’t think she’s dirty. If anything she could be an ally.”
Lois couldn’t resist rolling her eyes at Clark’s last statement. “So you saw her with Church?”
“Yes. When I asked her about it she became agitated and told me if I had questions to call her office and schedule an interview.”
“Then what happened in court just now?”
“I don’t know but we should head back to the Planet and see what we can dig up on this incorrect paperwork.” Clark picked up the paper bag and handed it to Lois.
“Thanks, Clark,” she smiled briefly at him as she took out a wrap for herself. They sat and ate in companionable silence watching as some kids ran up to the playground.
“Are we ok?” He asked hesitantly.
“No, but this helps.” She waved around the coffee, smiling before noticing the downcast look on Clark’s face. “Clark, I’m still upset. It’s going to take a while to get the image of you and Mayson kissing out of my mind.” She had a sudden flashback to what Perry had said. “Mayson practically threw herself at you the moment you met her, and has continued to do so. Your small town charm and good looks gets you noticed, and it’s sweet that you don’t really realize it, but women do. You didn’t exactly go out of your way to stop it. Also, what is her deal with Superman?”
“Superman?”
“Yeah, she acts like he’s a nuisance and she’s so cold to him, its rude.”
“I noticed that too,” he agreed.
Lois was fed up of talking and thinking about Mayson, and whatever was going on between her and Clark. “Look, we need to get back. Perry’s going to want to know what happened at court. Can we finish this later?” Deal with this problem first, deal with Clark later, she rationalized.
“Sure, Lois.” He reached for her hand that wasn’t holding a coffee and gave it a light squeeze. She squeezed back and let go, but not before he gave her one of his brilliant smiles.
****
What a crazy night that had turned into! She and Clark had hit dead end after dead end when Mayson arrived and volunteered all of her notes on Snell and the case. Just as they were getting on a roll, Clark suddenly had to rush off and hadn’t returned. It hadn’t mattered as she’d come up with a plan after they found nothing they could use. Mayson would trick Snell into believing his bought cop had turned and get the conversation on tape. That should be enough to convince the judge that the paperwork errors had been faked.
She sighed as she kicked her shoes off and wandered into the kitchen. Where had Clark disappeared to? She dialed his number, got his answering machine again, and wondered if she should head over and see if he was ok. She immediately had second thoughts and pulled a face. That hadn’t worked out well the last time she arrived at his door unexpectedly. As she was about to open the fridge to see what dismal meal she could make herself, she heard a soft knocking on the door.
“Clark!” She exclaimed as she opened the door, noticing the aroma drifting upwards from the bags he was carrying.
“I’m sorry Lois. I didn’t think I’d be gone so long.”
“Where were you? What happened?”
“I got back to the Planet as Perry was leaving and someone tried to target him. Superman got him out of the way in time.”
“Target him? Wait, Superman told me I’d been targeted by Intergang, and if they saw him in the South Side they’d shoot one of several people. I was one of them!” Lois felt herself get a bit panicky. Was there an incoming bullet for her that wasn’t full of paint this time?
“Superman took care of it. That bug that bit you had injected you with a genetic tag, essentially tagging you so the bullets would always hit their target. Superman destroyed their computers so someone fired off one bullet in retaliation and it went for Perry.”
“So, are we safe?” She asked, looking around her apartment.
“Yes,” Clark assured her. “Have you eaten?”
Instead of responding, Lois moved to the kitchen to grab utensils and plates while Clark emptied the containers out of the bag. As she filled her plate she tried to figure out what to say to him, and what she was feeling.
“You are blind,” she blurted out. So much for thinking this through! “The moment she saw you she got all googly eyed, and either you’re lying, or you really are blind and didn’t notice.” She set her plate on the counter and crossed her arms. “Then you refuse to believe she has anything to do with Intergang, despite proof!”
“What proof do you have? Some old photo with her, Church and Snell? She said she worked for Church, Snell also worked for Church at the same time. That’s all.”
“When do you find this out?”
“I met up with her today. I told you, I saw her and Church together.”
“What!” Lois exclaimed and began to pace around the kitchen. “You said you’d seen them, not that you were meeting her.”
He sighed, and sat at the table. “She asked me to meet her for lunch and I went to clear everything up.”
Lois was fuming. How could he! “So, Clark, what is going on. Are you interested in her?”
Clark stood and moved towards her. “No,” he responded softly. “I’m only interested in one woman and she’s standing here with me.”
She felt most of the fight go out of her and instead of all anger, she now felt mostly sadness. She uncrossed her arms as Clark approached. He reached towards her and grasped her hands gently, stopping about a foot from her.
“Clark, I can’t do this…”
“Do what?”
“This… Us…” She pulled her hands from Clark’s and stepped back. “I keep seeing you and her in my mind and it’s making me angry,” and sad she thought as the tears began to fall.
“Lois, nothing happened. Nothing was going to happen. I’m not interested in Mayson.” Clark enveloped her in his arms and this time she relaxed for a few minutes in his arms before stepping out of his embrace. She pointed at the now cold dinner on their plates.
“Why don’t you heat that up, I’ll be right back,” and she fled in the direction of the bathroom. She splashed cold water on her face hoping her eyes weren’t puffy and red from crying, trying to figure out what her heart and mind were trying to say. Right now she just wanted to deal with Snell and Baby Rage, get some justice for her uncle, and deal with Clark later. She took a deep breath and joined Clark in the kitchen.
“Wow!” she exclaimed as she noticed the steaming food. “I didn’t think my microwave was that good!” Clark laughed awkwardly and fiddled with his glasses, something she noticed he did on occasion and she could never figure out why. “Clark, can we just get through tomorrow and then we’ll talk about us. I need some time to think it through.”
“Ok, Lois, I can wait.”
She took her seat and they ate in companionable silence. She filled Clark in on their plan to catch Snell while they cleaned up the leftovers and the dishes. He’d made the excuse it was late and they should get some rest before tomorrow and she’d walked with him to the door. There was no goodnight kiss as he left and within minutes she was in bed trying not to cry herself to sleep.
****
Clark was waiting for her at the steps of the courthouse, coffee in hand. As she walked over he smiled and handed her the cup.
“Thanks Clark. Have you seen Mayson?” She wanted to try to keep the conversation light and business only. The last thing she needed this morning was to be an emotional wreak.
“Yes, she’s waiting for us.” Clark seemed to take the hint.
Once inside the courthouse, Lois caught Mayson’s eye and chose a seat in the hallway as Mayson walked away down the corridor. Now the hardest part, the one she was absolutely no good at. Waiting. She sat there wringing her hands together, fiddling with her bag, twisting the buttons on her jacket, anything to keep her hands occupied. She jumped when Clark gently laid one hand on hers, but didn’t pull away. The warmth of his hand was sending tingles up her spine and her mind found other things to immediately think of. It had taken her ages to fall asleep last night as she needed to think things through before she saw him again. All she had to do was make it through the next few hours and then she could deal with the mess her personal life had become. She was so lost in her thoughts she barely noticed Mayson as she walked by, followed by Snell. Mayson ducked into the ladies room, emerging a few minutes later, passing Lois and dropping the tape recorder into her lap. Lois dug in her bag and pulled out a pair of headphones, plugging them into the tape recorder. She beamed as she listened to the tape.
“Your plan worked?” Clark asked.
“My plan worked! I love saying those words.” Lois removed the headphones from the recorder. “We need to get this back to Mayson so she can play it for the judge.”
She couldn’t sit still waiting for proceedings to begin, wishing she could be pacing in the hallway instead of trying to sit still in the courtroom. As the tape began to play she found herself perched on the edge of her seat, somehow her left hand had found Clark’s. As the judge announced to Baby Rage that he was heading to trial, she turned and smiled at Clark. They’d done it! Mayson approached them afterwards to thank them both for their help before leaving them alone.
“Coffee?” Clark asked as Lois yawned.
“Please.” She suddenly felt exhausted. The emotional stress of the last few days with the lack of sleep last night had caught up to her.
They wandered towards the local coffee shop around the corner from the courthouse and grabbed coffee to go.
“So…”
“So?”
“I have to get hold of Uncle Mike and let him know the outcome,” Lois tried to stall.
“Lois…” Clark was having none of it and gave her a sideways glance with a small smile. “We need to have this conversation otherwise it’s going to sit over us until we do.”
They walked in silence as she tried to verbalize her thoughts. “Clark, I’m scared,” Lois whispered. “I was afraid things would change if we started dating.”
“Me too,” he responded, barely above a whisper.
She looked at him as they continued walking. “Really? I’m so glad you said that!”
He chuckled in response as they crossed the street into Centennial Park. “Here, let’s take a seat,” as he sat on the one available bench around the fountain. “Lois, I am sorry. Things with Mayson, I should have…I tried to talk to her, that’s why I went to meet her, to tell her there couldn’t be anything, only she showed up with Church. I still need to talk to her.”
“Oh,” Mayson. Not the subject she wanted to discuss.
“I don’t think she’s involved with Intergang though.”
“I agree,” Lois interrupted. “She wouldn’t have helped us get Snell if she was.”
“Ok, so we agree on that. She could be an ally.”
“Let’s not get too carried away,” Lois joked before turning away from him and staring at the fountain. “Clark, I did a lot of thinking about this last night and I still don’t know what to do. Can we do this? Date and work together? We aren’t even dating and had a huge fight in the conference room where you stormed out, then left me alone for the rest of the day. Speaking of which, where did you go?”
“Uh, I talked to my folks.”
“Wow, that must be some long distance bill!”
“I needed to get things in perspective and they’re great people to talk to.”
Lois sighed with a twinge of envy. She knew Clark and his parents were close and she envied that he had family he could talk to.
“My mom has been taking a psych class and tried to analyze me. My dad offered pie.”
“Pie?” Lois queried, unsure how pie fit into the conversation.
“Uh, yeah.” Clark fiddled with his glasses before switching the topic back. “I can’t say you and I won’t have disagreements, we do as friends and we’ve been able to work though it.”
“So far,” she added, still slightly puzzled by the pie comment while beginning to fidget with the button on her jacket again. “I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered.
“Why would you lose me?”
“Clark, I’m no good at this, the relationship thing. We do this, whatever it is we are doing, I’ll mess it up, and then I’ll lose you.”
“What makes you think you’ll mess this up? It seems like I’ve done a really good job of that myself lately.”
“Yeah…” She grimaced. “I didn’t think it would be this hard…”
Clark’s eyes expressed his concern at her words. “Lois?”
“If two people are, you know, like what we are trying, shouldn’t it be a lot easier than this?” Great, she thought, the best way to have this conversation was in cryptic sentences that didn’t make much sense. “Perry said there’d be bumps but I feel like I hit a wall instead.”
“Perry?”
“After the loud conversation we had in the conference room and you stormed out, Perry had a chat with me.” At least Clark looked bashful at the reminder.
“What did Perry say?” Clark began to reach out towards her.
“He said there’d be bumps but I wouldn’t lose you.” The tears she had been trying to hold back spilled over as Clark reached over and put his hand on hers, stopping the fidgeting and causing her to look at him.
“He’s right, you won’t lose me. Lois, you asked if we could take this one day at a time and we haven’t done very well at that. We’ve had work related lunches, the odd moment here and there, but we haven’t given us a fair shot.”
“Clark,” Lois tried to interrupt.
“We’re both in the same place I think,” Clark talked on top of her, not letting her interrupt. “We’re both scared to change what we have, but if I don’t try I’m going to regret it, and I think you might too.”
Between the words Clark was saying and his hand gently caressing hers, she felt her heart soften. He gently reached towards her face and brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ears. His tender touch sent shivers down her spine, goosebumps over her skin and butterflies throughout her body. He leaned towards her and softly, yet briefly, kissed her, resting his forehead on hers afterwards.
“You know how I feel. I don’t want to miss trying this.”
“Uh huh…” Lois managed, her heart pounding and mind spinning from the kiss.
“We can take this as slowly as you like, but lets actually go out on a few dates.”
“Ok,” Lois agreed. “What about this weekend?”
“We’ve got that ball to attend, remember? I believe we were told to bring a date who can dance?” Clark raised his eyebrows at her.
“Are you implying something, Kent?”
“Well, if you can dance, would you like to be my date?”
“I may not have been taught by a Nigerian princess, but I can dance.”
“Then it’s a date,” Clark laughed before a distracted look crossed his expression. “Uh, Lois, I have to run an errand. Can I meet you back at The Planet?” He didn’t wait for an answer before rushing off.
“Sure. I guess,” she said to the vacant spot on the bench. She would have to get him a planner like the one she used faithfully. He was so terribly unorganized and continually rushing off to do things he’d forgotten about, having somewhere to keep all his errands organized would help. Smiling, and planning a trip to the local office supply store to purchase one, she headed back to work.
****
It was late when she got home, past midnight, yet she wasn’t ready to go to bed yet. She put on a record and danced slowly by herself remembering the evening. The ball had been amazing. There had been lots of mingling, some eating and plenty of laughter. Uncle Mike had catered the event and the food had been incredible. He was delighted at the prospects for more work, and Lois was glad for his success after the rotten few weeks he’d had. Normally the mingling at these events drove her nuts. Trying to come up with idle chit chat with strangers, or even people she knew but didn’t necessarily like that much, was a waste of time. With Clark by her side the conversations had been relatively interesting, with the exception of the inevitable duds.
The dancing! It had been amazing. She’d danced in Clark’s arms for half of the night and as she slowly moved in time to the music playing through her living room, she dreamily remembered the pressure from his hand on her lower back and his other hand clasping hers. She could have danced in his arms for hours but Mayson had cut in. Perry had swooped in to dance with her, asking, while winking, if she and Clark were ok now. She’d laughed. Perry was right, she wasn’t going to lose Clark anytime soon. It wasn’t so much the words he had said, but how he had acted over the last few days. One of his errands he’d had to dash off to do was to talk to Mayson and clear everything up. Lois hadn’t known until Mayson had stopped by to return the tape recorder and had mentioned it. She’d told Lois to take care of Clark as they’d shared a handshake before parting. If Lois had to work with Mayson periodically, that was fine, but it didn’t mean Lois had to like her. Clark had not disappeared quite as much as normal over the last two days, which was nice to have him around and not be wondering where he had run off to continually! Except for yesterday when he had brought her the most amazing lunch from some new restaurant he had found. She grinned at the memory as the song changed.
The curtains fluttered and she automatically turned to the window expecting to see Superman waiting. Instead, she jumped when a crisp knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.
“Clark!” Her heart leapt in delight as she opened the door. He’d disappeared towards the end of the evening while she was in the middle of a hot conversation between an up and coming politician and two businessmen. Jimmy had passed the message along that Clark had to run out and he’d call her at home later. She hadn’t been expecting him to show up at her door.
“Hi, can I come in? It’s not too late?” He still had his suit on but his hair was a little more ruffled, his tie loose, and the top button on his shirt undone.
“Yes, sure.” She smiled at him, realizing she was nervous and her heart was merrily thumping away. “Do you want some coffee? It’s kind of late and I don’t have decaf…” Her sentence ended abruptly as Clark grabbed one of her hands and pulled her towards him. “Ok, no to coffee? Let me turn the music down…”
“Lois, leave it,” Clark murmured as he placed his free hand around her waist and brought their joined hands upwards. “Would you like to dance?”
She had no verbal response as she fell in step with Clark, trying to control her pounding heart as she felt the warmth from his hand on her waist, trying to remember that she could dance even though her legs were shaking. They’d danced a few hours ago, how was this different?
“I know you can dance, but there’s so much I don’t know about you. I mean, I know how you like your coffee, how you eat like you’re eight at times, that you must be colour blind given some of the ties you wear… I’ve already met your parents, and visited your hometown. I’ve had all the gossip to be had from Smallville!”
He grinned as he responded. “What do you want to know?”
“What kind of music do you like? What’s your favourite colour?” Why me? Was the unasked question on the tip of her tongue.
“Why do you ask?”
She shrugged in response as they moved closer together, so close she could lay her head on his chest if she wanted to.
“I like this song,” he murmured. “I like dancing with you.”
Lois rested her head on Clark’s shoulder as they continued to slowly dance in circles. The song ended, a new one was softly playing and she found her eyes closing in contentment as he gently stoked circles on her back where her dress dipped low enough to reveal her bare skin. She sighed blissfully and mused that she could stay in Clark’s arms for the rest of her life.
She felt her body stiffen and Clark shifted position in response. A familiar panic began to rise within and she tried to choke it back.
“Lois?”
“Sorry, it’s these shoes,” she lied as he let go of her. She slipped her shoes off and tried to stop her heart from pounding.
“It’s late. I should probably go.”
“You’re right, it’s late. I should get some rest. You should too. It’s been a busy week and who knows what we’ve got to deal with next week…” Shut up Lois, she berated herself as she saw Clark’s expression become downcast.
“Lois? What just happened?” He lightly grasped her hands and stopped her from walking away from him. “Please, something just changed and I don’t know what it was.”
“Tonight has been perfect. Too perfect. Nothing is ever perfect in my life. I’m not perfect. You’re perfect...”
“Lois, I’m far from perfect,” Clark interrupted with a laugh. “What did Perry say to you?”
“There’ll be bumps…”
“But you won’t lose me,” Clark finished. “I’m not giving up on you that easily. Before you tell me I’m perfect and this is too perfect, we’re going to have a date, more than one date, many dates. Then you can judge.”
Clark’s arms had engulfed her in a hug and she rested her head on his chest once more. She could smell his cologne, feel the warmth from his embrace, and his soft voice calming her. “A date, huh?” She whispered.
“Many dates. Such as tomorrow. I’ll come pick you up around 7pm, we’ll go out to a great restaurant I know, no investigations to discuss, just you and I. A real date. How about it?” Clark placed a finger under her chin and tipped her head upwards. Instead of responding verbally, she leaned in for a kiss.
“It’s a date, then.” She smiled as he lightly kissed her once more before letting her go and letting himself out.
After turning off the stereo and the lights she headed to her room, finally tired. Humming and swaying to her own song, she got ready for bed. While brushing her teeth the idle thought of ‘what if’ popped into her mind. What if they got through their first dates unscathed? What if he was Mr. Perfect? What if he wasn’t like the others? Not every man was a cheat, or a thief, otherwise those perfect couples that looked perfectly in love wouldn’t exist.
Love. That terrible four letter word she’d asked Clark not to mention when this had all first started. The word that had popped uninvited into her head as she stood in his arms thinking about the forever and ever. Even now after the wonderful night she’d had, the word made her feel cold and nervous.
She finished rinsing, popped the toothbrush back in its holder, and took a few deep breaths, trying to settle the nervous butterflies in her stomach. Clark treated her with respect and gentleness. He had shown her he could be trusted and had agreed to take things slowly, no four letter L words. She smiled at her reflection remembering his kisses and the feeling of his arms around her. The nervous butterflies were fading and the butterflies she felt whenever Clark touched her, took their place.
She grinned and turned off the bathroom light, climbing under the sheets. She could do this, they could do this. Tomorrow night couldn’t come soon enough!
