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Once Upon A Dream... - TOC

Author’s Warning: Much of this is a collection of rejected scenes tied together to make a coherent story. My apologies in advance for any groans and eye-rolls this story might produce. Another possible title might be: Once Upon A Cutting Room Floor… You have been warned.

Rated: Story is PG; although my “Over the Top” Epilogue might have a line (or two) that bumps it to PG-13.

Disclaimer: The characters in this story were created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster as they portrayed on the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman television series, developed by Deborah Joy LeVine. Many thanks to John McNamara whose wonderful dialogue I have borrowed from "Wall of Sound". These characters do not belong to me; they belong to themselves (although Warner Bros, DC Comics, and the heirs to Siegel and Shuster might disagree). These characters have invaded my psyche and forced me to write the following reenactment of their lives; although if you asked them, they might tell you that the plot is all my own, because they would NEVER have done any of the stuff I included in this story.

***

Part 1

How was it possible to for this man to look any more attractive? In a tweed jacket and a maroon shirt he had stolen Lois’s heart and with this — oh, it had to be Armani — custom fitted tuxedo, Clark had captured the rest of her as well. His black curls were still damp from an afternoon pre-event shower. With the warm sun drying his hair, he waited, staring at her with those sultry brown eyes, which she had fallen in love with first. He smelled clean, unscented.

Time felt funny. Was it not two seconds ago that it had been last week and she had suggested they go to the Kerth Awards together? Yet now he stood before her, hand outstretched, smile on his lips, beckoning her to join him in the limo. And they sat at a table, eating something delicious at some restaurant and the awards were over. Had he won? Had she? Who had been up for the Kerth anyway?

None of that mattered, because Clark loved her. Lois could see it in his eyes and feel it in the way his thumb ran over the back of her hand. He smiled and glided his cheek down hers, his kiss suggesting that they should go somewhere more private. They were on the dance floor surrounded by people, yet alone. Their bodies touched from face to thigh, through the thin layers of their expensive clothing. Clark held her close. The clean scent had been replaced with something saltier, more natural, sweaty. No one had ever smelled so good.

A flash of light. Someone was taking their picture. Clark moved closer, running his fingers over her not-quite-to-the-shoulder brunette bob. This time he kissed her lips.

They sat in bed. Not making love. Not about to nor having just finished, either. Just talking. Laughing. Fully clothed in varying amounts of pajamas. He had flannel bottoms and she wore silky satin boxers and top. The morning sun filtered through the blinds of her bedroom, the awards weeks away… or had they already happened? He pulled her closer to him and kissed the nape of her neck, the most pleasure-filled of places to touch her. She suddenly felt every nerve in her body scream out for more of him. Let him caress her leg with his. Let him run his fingertips down her spine. Let him pull the covers above their head and plunge them into darkness. Let him touch her anywhere and everywhere. Please!

But instead of getting darker, it became brighter — like someone had taken their picture again and the flash had remained on.

Lois blinked her eyes only to feel the cool of the morning air and watch the breeze flap her curtains open with a blinding stream of sunlight.

No! Her mind screamed and she buried herself under the covers again. NO!

Don’t wake up just yet. This had been the nicest of dreams. And he was about to touch her, really touch her this time. For a moment, her mind and body drifted back into slumber and she could feel him holding her again tighter, afraid she might leave. But only for a moment.

The next time it was worse. A high-pitched beeping noise woke her this time. She had forgotten to switch it to radio. Her hand reached into the chilly outer realm and slammed down on the alarm clock.

It took Lois a while longer to fall asleep this time. She thought of how Clark had looked waiting for her by the limo. Of him gazing at her across the table at the restaurant. And that’s where she caught up with him.

They were dancing again. Only to have a fire alarm go off. They had to run down a long corridor with a crowd. Had it been a bomb? A gunman? The Toasters? No, a gigantic green Jello-like fist came from behind and grabbed her, retracting back into the dancehall. Clark fought the crowd to go after her, but there were too many people. She could hear him yelling for her, muffled with the echoed sounds of chaos. Suddenly, the green fist held her in front of its face. A Jello-like Godzilla.

Godzilla? What in the hell was he doing in this dream?

Lois shook her head and shifted position in bed.

They had returned to the dance floor. Her dress had changed from red to green... Godzilla green... but that was all of him that remained. Everything else was in black and white. Clark held her with more passion, more fear, and kept glancing over his shoulder, looking out for someone trying to steal his lady love again. She felt a tap on her shoulder. Gene Kelly. Oh, to dance with Gene Kelly. To interview him. She glanced at Clark to ask his permission — for just this one dance, but Audrey Hepburn was already tugging on his arm.

Lois took a stronger grip on Clark’s hand. Repeatedly, they were being separated. She knew if they let go, they would never be able to go back. Yet, Gene still pulled on her arm and Audrey on his. No! They both shouted. You won’t win! But the stars of yesteryear were stronger and were able to pull them apart, the crowd flowing between them like cake batter.

That was when her alarm screamed for a second time. Lois pulled down the covers and turned off the noise, before wiping the tears from her eyes. Why couldn’t she have gone back to the first dream? It had been so much more pleasant. Like Clark, it had so much potential.

Tears, still damp on her cheeks, she saw the clock. Crap! She was going to be late for the morning meeting. Jumping out of bed, she ran for the shower.

***

Lois crept through the door, the last of the last for Perry’s morning meeting. He had already started handing out assignments, complaining that there were far too many wannabe writers in the room instead of real reporters. He promised to weed out the undedicated. Every day he expected them to turn in at least one story and he didn’t accept bullhockey.

Most of the chairs filled, Lois slid into one in the back. Just three over from Clark. Lois smiled at her friend and swallowed as she allowed a second, not so casual, gaze to glide over him.

Lois hadn’t seen Clark since right after she returned from her Caribbean cruise, when they had gotten into an argument over nothing. ‘Seen’ technically wasn’t the correct word. As she had observed him at the coffee machine, sitting at his desk, walking the halls, and through the café window as he drunk his coffee and read his paper. But they hadn’t spoken, really, for over a week. And the argument had been about something, but she had never told Clark just what.

Frustrated after months of unrequited love of her self-proclaimed best friend, Lois had blown up over something little — about what she couldn’t remember. Oh, yeah. Okay, maybe not so little. He had been nominated for the Kerth Award instead of her and assumed she would be his arm candy.

She had informed Clark that if he was going to keep acting in a certain way, she never wanted to have anything more to do with him. He had tried to make up with her — claiming he didn’t want to lose her as a friend, as a partner. But she couldn’t stand having him so near, yet not close enough to touch. All she could think about was him and it was interrupting her work. Her sleep too. He was the reason her story hadn’t been good enough to be nominated for a Kerth.

Lois had told him to his face that she didn’t want him for a friend. Clark hadn’t understood that she had wanted him for more than one. The last time she had seen him, right before the weekend, she had been standing at the window and he had saluted her from down below. He hadn’t dared to speak with her. Goodness, how she missed him.

The meeting ended. Lois curled her sweaty palms and realized that she had heard almost nothing of Perry’s lecture. She gazed away from Clark’s dark curls to the Chief’s slightly weathered, but not old, face in time to hear him announce her writing assignment. The remodel of the Sewage Reclamation Facility? Ugh. Perry. No! Been there. Don’t want to go back.

Lois had to convince her boss to let someone else write it or better yet, drop it altogether. It was a boring subject. Did anyone really care about that subject? She couldn’t go back there, not ever. Too many memories of Clark. Too many mosquitoes. This was punishment for not being nominated for the Kerth. She bet Clark wasn’t even considered for the story about the remodel of the Sewage Reclamation Facility.

“Ah, well, Lois. Let me let you in on a little secret,” she could just hear her boss telling her after such a pronouncement. “This is a newspaper. You’re allowed to have fun as long as you stick to the cold, hard facts. I’m sure you could turn the remodel of the Sewage Reclamation Facility into pure gold. Play around with it. Try it from different angles. You’ll be amazed what you can come up with.”

Lois groaned. Imaginary Perry had convinced her not to tackle the real one.

“Lois.”

She turned so quickly at the sound of the voice she heard in her dreams that her hair fell over her face and she could only see him through strands of hair. For some reason it reminded her of his half-naked body she had seen when she had picked him up that one time when he still lived at the Hotel Apollo. “Clark,” her voice cracked as she brushed aside the lock to see him clearly.

“Hi.” He smiled at her in that way he did, which always seemed to melt her kneecaps. He succeeded again. Luckily, she hadn’t stood up yet.

“Hi,” Lois replied. Had she gushed or snapped at him? Oh, God! She was losing control of herself. It was that crazy dream from this morning where he was kissing her and touching…

“Did you have a good weekend? I did. I found Camden. Any luck with Stoke?”

“No,” she tried not to let the disappointment seep into her tone. Jimmy’s stupid bug pen hadn’t worked. It had kept picking up radio stations instead, but she wasn’t going to admit that to Clark.

“Right.” He nodded, then his head snapped up. He took a step backwards towards the exit and pointed in the same direction. “I’ve got to... uh… meet a source. Talk to you later?”

“Ah...” She sought for the perfect nonchalant answer. “Whatever.” That wasn’t it, she realized, when his smile faded.

“I was just thinking we could pool data…”

“If you don’t have enough of a story with the Camden interview alone…”

Clark shook his head. “Got to go. Bye,” he responded and bolted towards the stairs.

If Lois wanted him to hate her, she was doing a pretty good job. Perhaps this would keep Clark away from her and she would be able to forget about this stupid infatuation and get back to work. Yeah, right.

She sighed. Only Lois didn’t want to forget Clark. She wanted to get to know him better. Much better. She opened her notebook and placed her notes inside as she started back to her desk.

“Ms. Lane?”

Lois turned to look at her boss. Perry never called her that unless she was in deep doo-doo.

“Hope you’re finally over that bug and are feeling better. I imagine only illness would make you stare out in space during one of my pep talks.”

A smile crept to Lois’s face as she pictured Clark as a bug. “Thanks. But I’ve felt better.”

“Next time you want a better assignment, don’t be tardy,” Perry informed her. That man could read her like a dime-store novel.

Ugh. Had she really thought that? That sounded like something out of her Wanda Detroit romance. Lois really needed to work on that again. It had been ages. It was about time Wanda decided whether she wanted Clark or Kent.

***

“Hey, CK!” Jimmy called out to Clark as he passed. For some strange reason, Jimmy had made the fatal mistake of sitting down at Lois’s computer. “Have you seen this?”

“If Lois sees you at her desk, she will kill you,” Clark warned his friend.

“It’s okay, CK. Perry wanted me to check Lois’s computer for bugs and re-send her story on the Sewage Reclamation Facility remodel, because the original file was corrupted and wouldn’t open. And I stumbled across this,” Jimmy told him and pointed to the screen.

Clark didn’t want to look at Lois’s notes on some story or her personal ramblings or…

“It’s about Superman,” Jimmy told him. “I think.”

“You shouldn’t have opened Lois’s Superman file…” Clark insisted as something inside of him made him draw nearer. Did Lois have a secret Superman file?

Yet he wondered what ‘new’ angle Lois had on the Man in Blue? Had she written something about digging the Kryptonite bullet out of his shoulder and then going on the cruise to get rid of the evidence? Had she figured out his secret? That he, Clark was Superman? Was that why she was giving him the cold shoulder? Why she was so angry with him?

Or had she fallen back in love with Superman, even after his Superman side gave her the brush off after her rejection of his Clark side last spring? And she wanted to let Clark know she was definitely not available, because she had her heart set on the Man of Steel? Again.

Or was it just jealousy over the Kerth nominations? That he had gotten one and she hadn’t?

Or was it simply because he had lied to her about being in love with her? Or, more truthfully, lied to her about not being in love with her? If she was angry about that, how livid would she be once she learned about his other job?

“It’s personal,” Jimmy coaxed.

A personal document about Superman? Clark wondered again if Lois had found out the truth. Was that why she wasn’t speaking with him? He glanced over Jimmy’s shoulder at the screen. After the first three words, Clark couldn’t look away.

Lying in bed. Nothing to do. No energy. No hunger. No desire to read or watch TV. Only thoughts to keep me company. Thoughts of... Him. When I think of him I’m no longer lonely. I dream of things we could do if he cared for me as I do for him.

Clark swallowed. This certainly did sound like it was about Superman.

When I sleep my imagination goes wild. We are part of a medieval fairy tale where he must capture a unicorn to win my freedom from a sorcerer. I dream of us attending the Kerths, but not caring if we won. Being together is more important.

He blinked. That couldn’t be right. Lois not caring who won? Lois? Did she really want to take Superman to the Kerths? Jimmy stood up and Clark slipped into Lois’s chair. He knew he really should stop reading, but he couldn’t look away.

We eat at some expensive restaurant with the most delicious moment being that he wants to dance cheek to cheek. Then we travel to distant planets to watch the sunrise.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Clark surmised. This was definitely about Superman.

He holds my hand and kisses more than my forehead. The line between nightmare and dream blur. I have nightmares of being chased by monsters and movie stars, whose only desire is to keep us apart.

Movie stars? He could see monsters true, but movie stars?

When I awake, I wonder which is worse, being attacked in a dream where his only goal is to rescue me or not having him love me in real life?

His brow furrowed. That couldn’t be right. Lois must have those backwards. Superman rescued her in real life and she had nightmares that he didn’t love her, right?

Before Clark could scroll down to the next screen, Perry interrupted, leaning down in front of his view. “Lois is going to kill you if she catches you on her computer, son.”

Clark grinned sheepishly. The Chief was right. The reporter had just given that same advice to Jimmy. Quickly, Clark closed the document without reading one word more, so Lois wouldn’t know anyone had been snooping.

“Do you want to tell me what had you so focused that you knocked Jimmy out of the chair?” his boss asked.

Clark hadn’t! He glanced over at Jimmy who was rubbing his bicep. He gulped. Had he? This obsession with Lois was quickly getting out of hand.

“Just some ramblings about some of her dreams,” Clark murmured, feeling chagrined as well as warm in the face.

“Dreams?” Perry seemed surprised and glanced over at Jimmy, who nodded his confirmation. “Aspiration dreams like goals, such as winning the Pulitzer? Or dreamy dreams?” The Chief lowered his voice. “Womany dreams?”

Clark cleared his throat, wiped his flushed face, and loosened his extremely tight tie to get air into his lungs. It was really quite warm in the office today. He pointed over his shoulder towards his desk. “I should really be working on that Soundman story before he strikes again.”

“Womany dreams? Hhmmm. Interesting,” concluded Perry and Clark took another step back towards his desk. “And to even the score are you going to leave your dream journal out where she can find it? Open, so that she can read a page of two?”

This must be a nightmare. Clark couldn’t be at the office. He must be at home asleep in bed, because Perry White was sounding a little too much like Martha Kent. Clark took another step back towards his desk and wondered what it would take to wake up from this nightmare.

He sat down in his chair and realized he wasn’t at home. He was at the Daily Planet. And he – Clark Kent – had just violated Lois’s private thoughts. True, they were private thoughts about him – well, Superman him. Perry was right. The Chief knew Clark had feelings for Lois. He knew that Clark must have dreams about her. Would he want to share those private thoughts with her? Clark swallowed. No, not really. Was that what he would have to do to even the playing field and assuage his guilt?

***

Lois sat typing up a rough draft from what she learned from Stoke. “Stereotypical rock musician scum,” she grumbled to herself. She glanced up and over at Clark’s desk, hoping to see him there. Hoping to get his take on this whole Soundman villain. But – surprise, surprise – he wasn’t there.

A metal clanging noise caused the bullpen to quiet. She pushed this disturbance into the background as she tried to focus. Then the giggles started and were joined by more titters and some downright chuckles. All right, what was going…

Lois glanced up to find a man dressed in a suit of armor making his way towards her desk. Well, her way in any case. He couldn’t possibly be headed towards her. He was even holding a jousting lance. She spun around in her chair and crossed her arms, waiting for whomever to get to the point of this little interruption.

The knight knelt down beside her on one knee, which in itself was quite an accomplishment. That suit of armor must weigh a ton. “Ms. Lane, I humbly request your presence as my plus one to the Kerth Awards banquet on Saturday night.”

Clark! Her eyes narrowed. What kind of gag was this? Did he really think this was funny? Was he trying to say that he needed a suit of armor to talk to her nowadays? ‘Was he really saying that about her?’ she thundered silently. And then she wondered, ‘why?’ Why was she doing all this yelling inside her head?

“Do you really think this is necessary?” she roared, getting to her feet. “Am I as ferocious as a dragon that you have to dress like this to talk to me?”

“No, Lois, no!” Clark stammered, his voice echoing in his helmet.

“Then why are you purposely trying to embarrass me, Kent?” she growled, throwing open the face guard of the suit so she could see his reaction to her words.

Surprise was written all over his face. “No, Lois, I was trying to embarrass myself,” he murmured, only soft enough for her to hear since the laughter in the newsroom was now too loud for his gentle tones. “I thought…” He bowed his head. “Never mind.”

Lois pressed her lips together and studied him with a raised brow and his initial statement finally sunk into her brain. Clark asked her out on a date? Oh, wait, this was why she had broken up their partnership before the weekend. Because he hadn’t wanted a real date, he wanted them to go as friends. “Oh, no, I think I need to hear this explanation, Sir Charles.” Sir Charles? Where had that name come from?

Clark took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Lady Loisette, I beseech you. Ease my suffering. Forgive my assumptions of a fortnight ago. Acquiesce to this request and I shall be your humble servant always,” he said.

She liked the whole knight fantasy thing he had going on, including his old-timey dialogue, but she needed more. “I don’t want a servant, Clark. I want a partner,” she retorted.

“But I can never be your equal, Lady Loisette, when everything about you is so much more than me,” Clark replied.

Lois raised a brow. Oh, so now he was trying to sway her with the truth… A truth Clark would never admit. “Uh-huh. You been drinking some funny punch there, Kent?”

Clark sighed and pulled himself to his feet. “No?”

He must be stronger than she thought, being able to move so well in all that heavy armor. What was she thinking? Of course, it was a costume.

“What in Sam Hill is going on out…?” Perry shouted, coming out of his office and freezing upon seeing the knight next to Lois’s desk. “Kent?” Their boss shook his head in disappointment. “When I said you needed to prostrate yourself at her feet, this wasn’t what I meant, son.”

“Lois?” Clark’s voice pulled her from her daydream. “Can I talk to you?”

“Huh?” Lois glanced up and realized the man of her dreams was standing next to her desk. Not in a suit of armor though. Pity. She had enjoyed him as her errant Sir Charles.

“In the conference room,” he murmured uncomfortably. “I really don’t want…” He cleared his throat as he glanced around the newsroom. “Please.”

Her brow came together in confusion. He wanted to say something to her, but in private? Why was he being so fidgety? “What is it, Clark? I’m busy,” she replied, pretending that she had actually been working on something. Actually she had been working on something before her thoughts had run away with her. Though for the life of her she couldn’t remember what it was.

Clark knelt down beside her desk as he had done in her daydream. “Humor me, Lois. I would appreciate it if you would allow me to apologize in private. Please.”

Apologize? Okay, now he had her full attention. The temptation to hear him prostrate himself… wasn’t that what Perry had said in her daydream?... was too strong. With an overabundance of exasperation, Lois got up from her desk and marched into the conference room. Clark silently followed her. He shut the door and then closed all the blinds. With her arms crossed, Lois watched him do this without comment.

When he was done, Clark turned to her and smiled sheepishly. It was her favorite smile. She wondered why it was her favorite smile. Was it because she saw it most often? This smile admitting that he knew he had once again done something to tick her off. Yet, there was something irresistible about Clark when his lips curled upwards like that with a slight coloring of his cheeks. She could feel her faux animosity melting as she succumbed once again to his charm. Luckily, she was able to keep this hidden from her partner. He opened his mouth, but then closed it again. She watched as he nervously began pacing the room.

“You wanted to apologize for something, Clark?” she reminded him. She had meant for that to sound more gentle that it had.

He gulped. “This would be easier if you were sitting down.”

O-kay. Lois made a big deal out of pulling a chair out from the table and plopping down into it.

“I did something that I’m not proud of Lois,” he began as he continued to pace.

Wait. This didn’t have to do with their whole fight thing? His nomination of a Kerth and his assumption that she’d be his non-date, just because she had asked him to be her plus one.

“You had a bug on your computer…”

Ew! She grimaced. “A cockroach?”

“Computer virus bug…” Clark clarified uneasily. “And while removing it, Jimmy came across a file on your hard-drive and…”

“Jimmy was snooping on my computer!” she growled, her hands in fists. “Then why are you the one confessing?” She rose to her feet and put her hands on her hips.

Clark seemed honestly chagrined. “I’m sorry, but I…”

“You looked at my files!” she roared, before a little voice inside her head asked, ‘which one?’ “Did you look at my Soundman file? My interview with Stoke? My…” The blood ran out of her face as she realized what Clark would surmise if he had read. “ – novel?” The word came out of her mouth like snakelike hiss.

“No. No. Nothing like…” Clark started with his hands raised and then stopped with a wince. “I…” He blushed. “It was something you had written about Superman. I’m sorry, but it was intriguing and I don’t know why I kept reading when I saw that it was your private and very personal thoughts…” His voice faded away.

“Superman?” Lois echoed, searching her mind for something personal and private she had written on her computer about her favorite man in blue. Nothing came to mind.

“And I thought that since I had invaded your privacy that it was only right that I tell you my biggest secret,” he said as if it were the very last thing in the world he wanted to do.

“Superman?” she repeated, confused. Sure, she had thoughts about Superman. Lots and lots of thoughts, daydreams, fantasies, and ideas, but she was quite positive that she had never written any of them down. True, there was that one story she had written for his fan club, but she had deleted it right away, instead of sending it in. She sat down and looked up at Clark, who seemed to be practically hovering beside her.

Clark took a deep breath. “Lois, I’m…”

“Superman?” She was starting to sound like a broken record and decided to try a different tactic instead. “Clark, what did you read?”

Her question took him aback. Actually, she hadn’t seen him look so floored since she had announced that Lex had proposed.

“What?” he finally forced out of his mouth.

“What exactly did you read on my computer?” she asked again, clarifying.

Clark blushed. “Uh… something about dreams and…”

Lois’s eyes went wide. “Dreams? About Superman? I didn’t write down any of my…” She laughed as if he were mistaken. Then she realized she had written about some dreams. “Oh, my God, Clark! That wasn’t about…!” She gasped, flushing and covering her mouth before she told Clark that those dreams hadn’t been about Superman. Those were her Clark dreams. “That was private!” She was on her feet and yelling again. “How could read about…?” She covered her face in humiliation. You’re safe. He doesn’t know how much you like him, she told herself. Clark thought they were about Superman. She stuck her face in his, then poked his chest with her finger. “How could you?”

“As I said, Lois, I’m sorry. It was wrong and I’ve been plagued with guilt ever since I realized what I had inadvertently done.”

“Inadvertently?” Lois asked with skepticism.

“You rarely let anyone see the real you. There was something vulnerable and sweet and…”

“Are you quite done analyzing my dreams, there, Mr. Kent?”

“Yes, sorry. That’s why I thought it only fair that I tell you my biggest secret in exchange…” He placed a hand on each of her shoulders and took another deep breath. “Lois, I’m…”

“Wait! Wait! You invade my privacy and which both agree was completely wrong…”

“Completely.”

“And you’re telling me your biggest secret…” Her head was spinning from the news that Clark had any secrets. “Out of guilt?” There it was, her favorite smile again. Only instead of making her knees melt, her eyes formed slits and she growled pushing his hands away. “And you call me your best friend?” she scoffed.

“What?” he sputtered. “I thought…”

“You’d thought, because I’m Lois Lane, nosy Investigative Reporter extraordinaire, that I would want to know your deepest secret about stealing bubble gum when you were nine? Or knocking bedposts with Cat back at her bungalow while we were hiding out from Bureau 39? That I had to know, not because you wanted to tell me because we were best friends, but because you felt guilty about something?”

Clark’s mouth fell open.

“Just like I thought.” She looked him up and down with disgust. “And I thought you knew me. I thought you knew me better than anyone. I guess you don’t know me at all.” She stormed out of the conference room and screamed, “Olsen!”

***

“Mom,” Clark said, trying to keep the whine out of his voice and failing miserably. “I was seconds away from telling Lois that I’m Superman and she basically told me that she didn’t want to know.”

“Did she know that was what you were going to tell her?” His mom glanced up from where she was pouring him a glass of lemonade at the counter.

“No,” he said slowly. For a second there, he thought she had. But then he realized she hadn’t been listening to him. “Of course not.”

“Then I bet that’s not what she said.” She handed him the glass.

He sighed. “She said she didn’t want to hear any secrets I wanted to tell her out of guilt for breaking her trust,” Clark explained before taking a sip.

“You didn’t tell me you were ready to tell Lois your secret,” she said, taking her own glass and sitting next to him at the kitchen table.

“Well,” he murmured, looking away. “The timing wasn’t ideal…”

“Ah. Then I’m going to have to agree with Lois there, Clark. You told her, your father, and me that you love her. Then you decided to let guilt, and not love, tell you when to finally confess all to her. I’d say your timing wasn’t ideal.” His mom shot him a sour expression, which he doubted came from her lemonade.

“What should I do, Mom? I can’t believe I invaded her privacy like that. I cannot go back in time and undo it,” he said. Honestly, he didn’t want to undo it. It thrilled him to no ends that Lois still thought and dreamed about him, even if it was the Superman side of him. At this point, he was so frustrated that he would even take that. “I was trying to make amends.”

His mom patted his hand. “Your intentions were sound, Clark, but your execution smelled like the compost heap on an afternoon in August.”

Tell me something I don’t already know, Mom! “What should I do?” he pleaded.

Martha took a sip of her lemonade. “Why is she mad at you?”

“Lois Lane doesn’t need a reason to be mad. She just is.”

His mother raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you an investigative reporter?”

“I don’t know why she’s mad at me, Mom,” Clark admitted. “She just always is.”

Martha exhaled in annoyance.

His mom was right. He wasn’t trying. He needed to think. He reviewed what had happened the previous couple of weeks. Lois had returned from her cruise, excited to be back at work. She asked him to be her non-date date for the Kerths. Clark had more than happily agreed. She got caught in the bank robbery by the Soundman and passed out. He got nominated for a Kerth and she didn’t. He suggested that since he already agreed to be her date for the awards and she already had a dress, she should go with him. She blew up in his face. They went to investigate Stoke and Camden, but he got a Superman call and had to bolt and offered that they should split up the interviews. She accused him of trying to hijack the story for himself. That if he didn’t need her, she didn’t need him. And it just went downhill from there. Every time he had opened his mouth, she had yelled at him until she no longer was speaking to him. “I don’t know, Mom. I really don’t know this time.”

“You told us last weekend that she was so furious she terminated your partnership. You need to figure out why,” recommended his mom.

“Well, it started about the time I was nominated over her for a Kerth. Do you think it’s just petty jealousy?” he threw out hopefully. Not hoping it was, but hoping he got a hole in one on the reason.

“This doesn’t sound like petty anger to me,” rebutted his mom. “What happened next?”

“I said that since she already had a dress that she should come as my…” Clark stopped speaking because his mother set her face in her palm. “What?”

“You said ‘since she already had a dress’?” repeated Martha.

“Yeah. So?” He shrugged.

“Oh, Clark.” His mom shook her head. “So, what was in this dream journal you read?”

“Mom! I violated her trust already, I don’t think gossiping about what I read will win me an extra favors,” he replied. “She went ballistic when I told you about her romance novel and then you told Maisie…”

“Ah.” Martha nodded. “Yes, that probably wasn’t sound. Sorry, Clark, but I just wanted to brag about the girl my son had fallen for.”

He gave her a deadpan stare.

“How was I to know that Maisie would remember and ask her about it?” She smiled sheepishly and took another sip of her lemonade.

“Anyway,” Clark said, going back to his original topic of conversation, of pain. “I won’t go to the Kerth Awards without Lois.” That wasn’t exactly true. “Well, I will, but I don’t want to. She’s the reason I’m such a good reporter. She pushes me and stretches me in directions I wouldn’t have thought of going on my own. She accused me of wanting to use her as arm candy. She asked me to go with her first! When she thought – we both assumed – that she would be the one nominated.” He harrumphed. “I wasn’t mad about being her arm candy.”

“Did you tell her what you just told me? Or did you just say that thing about the dress?” his mom inquired innocently.

When she shone her flashlight on the pothole like that, of course he could see his misstep clearly. But he decided to idiot-check his answer first. “You think she wants me to ask her to be my date?”

“No, Clark. I’m sure she wants to be taken for granted,” replied his mom.

“That couldn’t possibly be it, Mom,” he corrected her. “One moment she was saying how we were best friends and partners and in the next that she didn’t want me for a friend anymore. I don’t know, Mom. It must be something more.”

Martha stared at him with consternation. She patted his hand and stood up. She went to drawer, withdrew a piece of paper and a pencil, and set them down in front of her son. “I want you to write down everything you remember from your dreams until you’ve filled up the entire paper, both sides.”

“Really?” Clark said skeptically. “Everything?”

She pointed at the paper. “Write.”

Clark started to write. A minute later, he flipped over the paper and finished.

“Okay, let’s see what you have,” she said, reaching for the paper.

He snatched it away. “Mom! These are my dreams!”

“Feeling violated yet?” she asked, holding out her hand.

Clark winced.

“Either I help you edit them or you hand them to Lois as is.”

He glanced down at the paper and then with a sigh, handed it over.

“You dream of Lois a lot,” she stated the obvious.

He shrugged and smiled with embarrassment. “I love her. She’s all I can think about, even when I don’t have control over my thoughts.”

His mother nodded. “Do you want her to know how specifically you love her?”

“Mom!” Clark blushed. “The most intimate dream I wrote about was about Lois and me sitting on my bed, kissing.” Of course, he left out the part where they had been in pajamas and that the kissing had progressed to more than kissing, but he doubted that would be anything he would ever describe in detail on paper.

Martha set his dreams back down in front of him. “Cross out Lois’s name every place on the paper and replace it with ‘she’ or ‘her’.”

“Oh.” That’s what she had meant by specifically. “Right. Yeah.” He decided it was probably best to vague up the references of him as Superman as well. Clark could have flying dreams though, couldn’t he?

She handed him another sheet of paper and had him transcribe it onto the other paper. Then she handed him an envelope. “Seal it up and hand it to Lois. Tit for tat, Clark. This should square you away for invading her trust.” Clark took one last look at his one page description of his dreams and chuckled. “You know, Mom, these dreams could be about anyone.” They didn’t seem so violating without all the details. “They could almost be a printout of what I read on Lois’s computer.”

His mom took a sip of her lemonade. “What do you mean?”

“She didn’t say in particular that her dreams were about Superman, anymore than I wrote that my dreams were about her. It was just kind of obvious with the rescuing, flying to distant planets, and being chased by monsters.”

“Those were Lois’s intimate dreams that you read? I would have expected more for the amount of guilt you carried,” she replied.

“Well,” Clark admitted, glancing down so that the rosiness of his cheeks wasn’t so pronounced. “She also mentioned just sitting around and talking, going to the Kerths, dancing, going out to dinner… Mom! You made me gossip about Lois’s dreams,” he scolded.

“She wanted to go to the Kerth Awards with Superman?” His mom picked out that same strange one he had noticed.

“Yeah.” He shrugged.

“I wonder how Superman looks in a tux?” murmured his mom into her lemonade.

Clark chuckled. “A lot like me, only with slicked back hair and no glasses…”

Did Lois dream of Superman in other clothes? Or just in the blue suit? What would she see, if she pictured Superman in other clothes? Would she still see Superman? Or would she see Clark without his glasses? He gulped.

Clark looked down at his list of dreams and saw there was a little space left at the end. He wrote a personal note to Lois and then sealed it up into the envelope. “Thanks, Mom.”

*** End of Part 1 ***

Part 2

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