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Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found Here

Where we left off in Part 19…

Lois sat next to Clark inside Bureau 39’s military jet. These guys weren’t some fly-by-night rogue group; they must be funded by the military or the American government or one big benefactor.

She felt Clark’s fingers brush hers, in a pathetic attempt at trying to reassure her. She let him. She wasn’t scared, nervous perhaps, but not scared. She knew Superman would never let anything happen to her. She needed to distract Clark so he wouldn’t panic. She decided on some tit-for-tat.

“It’s a romance novel,” she admitted with a sigh. She knew she would never finish the novel now that Superman had come into her life, either that or she would change its plot completely.

“What?” Clark sputtered, turning his focus away from Trask’s men and facing her.

“My novel. It’s about a woman who dies without ever finding her truelove,” Lois confessed. “Well, actually, that’s not quite true. She does find him, but he’s dead. He died before they ever met. She and his ghost try to find a way to change the past so that they can be together, but instead the world ends and they are forever separated.” She sighed, her heart aching once more for her characters. She had always felt such a kinship to her main character, Lola, like their destinies were tied together somehow. Her brow furrowed. She had named the ghost character Charlie. She looked at Clark again. Charlie and Chuck were both nicknames for Charles. No, she shook her head; it was just a peculiar coincidence. She was certainly not in love with Chuck.

Clark’s jaw hung open at her plot description.

“Hey, my story!” She pulled her hand out of his and pointed at him. “You better not steal it.”

He laughed, albeit uncomfortably, as she knew he would. Her distraction was working. He was relaxing.

“That’s not going to happen to you, Lois,” he reassured her.

She swallowed. How did he know that was exactly what she had feared? She set her hand down again, next to his, and let him take hold of it once more. Maybe there was a connection there, not as strong as the one she had with Superman, but Clark could be a good friend if she let him. He had the guts to stand up to her when she did something stupid, like steal someone else’s idea. She could use a friend every once in a while. Still, she needed to get off of the topic of her love life.

“Yeah, well, check it out, Clark, these guys look serious. They know that we know what happened to Thompson. They’re not going to let us go easily.” Lois glanced towards the tail end of the plane and rolled her eyes at herself. Great job on undoing all your distraction there, Lane. “Okay, I’ve told you mine, you tell me yours.”

“Tell you what?” he asked.

“What really happened between you and Cat the other night? Not that I care, but it’s probably the best secret you’ve got going,” she probed.

Clark smiled at her. Terrific, he thought she did care. Hello, practically Superman’s life partner here, Chuck. Get real!

She shot him a calculated stare. “When we get out of this, you have got to raise your standards.”

He chuckled as if what she said was funny. What was so funny? Like there weren’t better women out there besides Cat Grant? Hello, even Lois herself was a better… no, that was not what she meant… of course, she was a better person, better partner material, better writer, better investigator, better woman in general than Cat Grant. She had meant, if she were hypothetically available that was, which she wasn’t. She was with Superman. Yes, Clark needed someone like her, only not her, because she wasn’t available.

Clark went to open his mouth as she stared at him, expecting an answer. What that answer would have been, she didn’t know, because Trask – the jerk – picked that exact moment to interrupt.

Part 20

“I assume you two are familiar with the scientific method,” Trask said.

“Advance a theory; submit it to a test,” Clark – the honor student – responded. Technically, Lois had been an honor student too, but at least she didn’t brag about it. Okay, fine, she had bragged about it, but not since Chuck had joined the Planet. To be exact he had never officially ‘bragged’, showed off his knowledge, perhaps, been a smart-aleck, absolutely, but never ‘bragged’.

“My theory is that at least one of you knows how to contact this alien creature Superman, probably by some form of telepathic communication,” Trask announced.

Alien creature? Uh-huh. She now knew which side of sanity for which Trask baked cookies. “How do you plan on testing it?” Lois inquired. In the movies, bad guys always liked to boast about their evil plan. It was the best way that she knew of, to try and foil him.

“If one of you suddenly becomes airborne at, let’s say, twenty thousand feet without a parachute, I assume you will focus all your energies on contacting this Superman.”

Okay, maybe that was more information than she really wanted to hear.

“You plan on throwing one of us out of the plane? You’re insane!” Clark retorted, angrier than Lois had ever seen him.

His fingers laced with hers, letting her know, nonverbally, that he wouldn’t let them be separated. It was sweet. Chauvinistic, but sweet.

“What if this theory of yours is wrong? What if he doesn’t show?” Clark continued.

Lois turned and stared at her partner incredulously. Not show? Of course, he would show. Hello, life partner in danger, Chuck!

“Pushing back the frontiers of science is not without risk,” Trask taunted as his men opened the door of the plane.

Lois stared out the open door. She remembered that wonderful floating feeling she had in the clouds the other day. She knew – just as she had known Superman’s name and that they should have called Perry when they had entered the warehouse – that if she jumped out of the plane, Superman would save her.

“It’s illegal to do scientific experiments on humans, especially without our consent,” Clark told Trask.

“In my experience, murderers aren’t usually big sticklers to the law,” Lois murmured under her breath to her partner, then raised her voice. “What happens when Superman shows up?”

“Does the worm need to know whether the fish is going to be fried or charbroiled?” Trask snapped his fingers and one of his men approached Lois and Clark.

“Really? I’m the worm in the scenario? I don’t think so, buster,” Lois scoffed.

“Lo-is!” Clark groaned.

“Why? Did your Superman send you to my warehouse to catch me?” Trask inquired. “Are we a nuisance he needs to eliminate?” He seemed enthralled by this idea.

Yes, obviously, Lois said silently, but she shot Clark a look that clearly expressed these thoughts.

“Superman doesn’t…” Clark started before she interrupted him.

“But unlike some lesser life forms…” Her gaze indicated to Trask that he was one of those. “ – Superman doesn’t believe in murder.”

Trask grinned. “Well, survival of the fittest, then.”

“Superman is invulnerable,” Lois informed Trask with a silent ‘you moron’. “– or at least as close as I’ve ever seen before. The bomb from the Prometheus went off in his hand with nary a scratch. You already blew up a building while he was in it; do you really need to do more testing under the guise of science?”

“Lois,” Clark corrected her. “This isn’t science; it’s murder.”

“Attempted murder, at best, Clark,” Lois hissed while keeping her eyes on Trask.

Trask stuck his face inches from hers. “How do you know that it wasn’t this alien creature who planted those bombs in the first place in an attempt to worm his way into our good graces?”

Lois’ foot went up and knocked Trask between the legs. “That’s for trying to besmirch Superman’s good name.” At the same time she had kicked Trask, pushing him across the plane, she unbuckled her seat belt and reached over to undo Clark’s. “Come on, let’s blow this popsicle stand.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.

“What?” Clark argued, standing up but firmly planting his feet on the floor. “Lois, no!”

“Throw her from the plane,” Trask gasped to his men.

“Superman will save us, Clark,” she insisted, trying to pull her partner towards the open door. He just wouldn’t budge.

Several of Trask’s men tried to pull them apart, but between Clark’s solid stance and her iron-force grip around his neck, they didn’t succeed.

“No, Lois. I appreciate your faith in Superman, but you don’t know that for certain. I can’t… I won’t risk your life,” Clark said, cupping her jaw with the palm of his hand. “If something were to ever happen to you, and it had been in my power to stop it… Lois, please, let me protect you, no matter the cost.”

Clark was offering to throw himself out of the plane and chance being a large red spot on the earth, just to save her? Now Lois knew why Superman had chosen Clark as her protector: because Superman knew Clark would do anything to keep her safe. Clark was telling her that Superman wouldn’t want her to risk herself; if only one of them were to die it should be Clark, even if she knew for certain that Superman would save them. She had never loved Superman and admired Clark’s loyalty more than she did at that moment.

The man behind her finally succeeded in pulling Lois out of Clark’s arms and dragged her to the open door. Her eyes never left Clark’s.

“Stop!” Clark insisted to the man, tugging against the men who held him. “Take me instead!”

A man cocked a gun up by the cockpit and all the Bureau 39 men turned to Trask for further instructions.

“It’s okay, Clark. I’ll go,” she said, trying to reassure him. She knew Superman would save her.

“No, Lois,” Clark insisted, pleading at her with his eyes. “I’d never be able to live with myself if anything ever happened to you. Please.”

“Oh, thanks, so I’m supposed to be the one to move on with your death essentially on my hands? How nice for me,” Lois said through pressed lips as she shook her head.

Clark shrugged away from his captors, and took her hands in his. “I’m willing to risk my life to save yours, Lois,” he reassured her.

“How ‘Y’ chromosome of you,” she said wryly. “Shall I fan myself and faint from fear while you men flex your muscles?”

Clark ran his hand over her head, cupping her jaw with his palm. “Let me protect you, Lois,” he repeated, staring deeply into her eyes in that way he had a way of doing that felt like he was reaching her very soul.

“Send Kent,” ordered Trask. “The alien has a special attachment to this female.”

Clark stiffened at these words. Was he as nervous for Superman as she was at these words? Or was Clark worried more about her safety? Maybe she could use that in her favor.

“Will you let me kiss him goodbye?” Lois requested to Trask, her gaze never leaving Clark’s. "We're more than just partners, you know?"

The tension in Clark’s jaw relaxed into a hint of a smile. He had liked her suggestion as she had known he would.

Lois could do this. She could kiss Clark, and make it seem believable, or she might as well give up ever going undercover as an investigative journalist again. It was just a kiss. Clark would know that it was just a decoy, a sham kiss to protect Superman. He knew how much she loved Superman, and she hoped he would play along. What was she thinking? Of course, he would; he had a crush on her, and he had already demonstrated he would do anything to protect both her and Superman. Anyway, if he gave her away, he had to know she would kill him herself.

Impressed at her tenacity, Trask waved to allow the kiss to happen and then crossed his arms to watch. The man holding Lois let her go.

Lois couldn’t remember the last man she had kissed longer than a short peck to get rid of him at the end of a date, but she knew this would have to be longer than that to knock Kent off balance. Claude! Claude was the last man she had really kissed. Ugh. No, she would convince neither Trask nor Clark on the validity of the kiss if she thought of that goober.

She would need to kiss Clark as if she were actually kissing Superman.

Superman! Yes, she would have to pretend Clark was Superman. To pretend that Clark wasn’t Clark but her Man in Blue, she needed some tactile help. She ran her hands up Clark’s chest and over his shoulders as he tilted his head towards hers. Oh, he certainly had the body down. She closed her eyes and gently touched her lips to his; it felt like coming home.

The kiss started out gentle and hesitant. Clark was a good kisser, thoughtful and considerate, letting Lois set the pace. He didn’t try to jab his tongue into her mouth like some… think Superman, not other men. Clark Kent was Superman… well, as far as this kiss was concerned.

After the initial moment passed, he pressed his mouth more confidently against hers, deepening the intimacy. He wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her closer. It was a good thing he did. Her imagination must have been working overtime for Lois had lost control of her kneecaps; they just seemed to simply vanish. She felt her body dip a fraction of an inch but no more, as his strong arm kept her securely pressed against his chest.

Oh, goodness! His chest! His chest was firm, though not hard as she would imagine such a chest full of muscles would be. Her mind played images of her pressing against his naked chest, her fingers touching his muscles, her lips kissing down his neck, across his collar bone, and down his pecs. She had never felt a man with rock hard abs like that and she wondered how his skin would feel against hers.

She moaned into his mouth at the intensity of these thoughts, tightening her arms around the back of his neck. She doubted anyone other than her could hear it above the roar of the wind. The moan opened her mouth, and he raised his free hand to caress her hair as he deepened the kiss. Lois melted into the kiss, never having been kissed so thoroughly before and knowing it would be the first of many shared between her and Superman.

Her eyes flashed open. Only this wasn’t Superman; this was Clark. Her eyes drifted closed for a second, pulling her back into the kiss.

Focus, Lane, she reminded herself. Right. Plan. Her resolve weakened for a moment against Clark’s soft kisses, but only for a moment. She found her kneecaps swimming around inside her legs and set down her feet solidly back on the floor.

She moved her lips from his mouth and over to Clark’s ear. “Don’t worry, Clark, Superman won’t let you die,” she whispered, giving him one last reassuring kiss on his cheek.

Clark tightened his grip around her waist, not wanting to let her go. “And he will rescue you, Lois.”

“Of that, I have no doubts,” she murmured.

He ran his hand over her hair and moved to kiss her again, relaxing the tight grip around her waist.

Lois would have been lying to herself, if she didn’t admit that her increased heart rate wasn’t due in a little part to some anticipation of that next kiss. It was all part and parcel to the role she was playing as Clark’s girlfriend. Wow, what had she been missing in life if hacks from Nowheresville could kiss as well as that? She could only imagine what a kiss shared with her truelove Superman might be like.

A second later, she was out of his arms and through the door of the plane.

“Superman!” Lois screamed as her body was tossed in the air currents, spinning her around.

Oh, God! What in the hell had she done? Perry was right. She didn’t think before she made choices, but she couldn’t have let Clark go just because he was the man. Still, this had been a stupid move. She knew that Superman would save her. Knew. Knew like she knew they should have called Perry when they went into the warehouse, knew like she knew Superman’s name, knew like she knew Chuck’s name, and that Jimmy was going to die back at the Messenger wreckage hanger. Oh, crap! What had she done?

“Help, Superman!” Lois called as loud as she could into the wind. “If you can hear me, drop what you’re doing, and get over here now! Superman!”

She continued to fall. She could no longer see the plane nor could she see the ground. That was a good thing though. She didn’t want to see herself go splat on the streets of Metropolis, or wherever it was she was falling towards. She felt like it was just her and the sky. She continued to scream for Superman as she fell into a cloud. It didn’t seem quite as nice as it had been when she had been with Superman.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around her, slowing her descent. The suddenness of it caused her to gasp. He had saved her. Superman had caught her just as she had known he would. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him tight in her embrace.

“Clark?!” she exclaimed.

Superman’s gaze jerked to hers in surprise.

“They still have him. He’s back on the plane,” Lois explained.

He nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll go back for him.”

She leaned her head against his neck. “Thank goodness. No, thank you, Superman.”

A moment later they landed on the roof on the Daily Planet.

“Will you be all right?” Superman asked her.

Lois made the muscles in her legs work as she turned to face Superman ready to give him the thank you kiss of a lifetime, but over his shoulder she saw a missile bearing down on them. You’ve got to be kidding! Now?

“Lois?” Superman asked again.

She liked the sound of her name on his lips, but she still couldn’t speak; her eyes wide with fear as she pointed up at missile.

Superman turned to see what she was looking at before taking off back into the sky. He caught the missile and threw it away from Earth. It exploded into a huge fireball only seconds after leaving his hands. When the sky cleared, Superman was gone.

Lois stumbled across the roof, looking in all directions. Where had he gone? He couldn’t be dead, could he? He had survived that bomb from the Prometheus shuttle, and that building exploding around him. If Superman was dead, what did that mean for her partner who she had left in Trask’s plane? What would happen to him?

No! Superman couldn’t be dead. No, he must have gone back to rescue Clark. Lois wouldn’t let herself believe otherwise. She had just found him. She hadn’t even had a chance to tell him that she loved him. With resolve that pushed Lois to the door leading into the building, she decided that the next time she saw Superman she would do just that.

Lois took the elevator down to the newsroom floor. She was still in shock from her adventure with Bureau 39: first, discovering the warehouse with Superman’s spaceship, then her kiss with Clark, falling through the sky, flying with Superman, and possibly witnessing the explosion that made him disappear. Her heart was racing.

Wait. Had she included that kiss with Clark on that list? No! That shouldn’t have been included. Clark’s kiss hadn’t made her breathless. The circumstances surrounding the kiss had, not the kiss itself. If she admitted to herself – which she never would – that Clark’s kiss had made her breathless, it was because she had been thinking he was her truelove, Superman, not because she had been kissing Clark.

She stumbled out of the elevator, imagining just how horrible she looked. Her hair was windswept and her jacket must be hanging off her shoulder.

Perry made a beeline towards her. “Lois! Lois, what happened?”

“Before or after I was forced out of the plane?” she replied.

“Airplane?”

“Superman? Is he all right?”

“We saw the explosion…” he started saying when the elevator dinged.

Lois looked back at it, hoping to see her partner, but she should have known better. Clark never rode the elevator.

“We don’t know. We’re trying to track down some witnesses,” Perry went on when she returned her gaze to his. “Now, do you know what happened to Kent?”

“We got separated,” Lois explained poorly. “Clark…” She couldn’t think about him at that moment. She needed to concentrate on Superman. Once she knew he was safe, she’d know how Clark was.

***********
Confessions
***********

Clark entered the Daily Planet stairwell with an extra bounce in his step. Lois had kissed him, not Superman, him. It hadn’t been a peck on the cheek either.

He had been such an idiot! Both Lucy and Perry – the two people Lois was closest to – thought he and Lois were dating. It must have been because of something Lois had said to them. Maybe she had enjoyed their dinner the other night more than he had thought. Perhaps that was why she had seemed so annoyed about the rumors surrounding him and Cat.

His brow furrowed. That was odd. Cat had told him she had explained the truth about them to Lois, yet on the plane Lois still wanted to know what had happened. Of course when it had become clear that one of them would be tossed out of the plane, it hadn’t mattered, she wanted to kiss him goodbye, just in case.

Clark ran his fingers over his lips, remembering how that kiss had affected him, of how it had affected her. She had moaned with desire. He had heard her heart rate increase, and despite the wind, she had been flushed when she had turned to dive out of the door. Why had she done that? Had she been trying to protect him? Or Superman? Or was she just trying to get away from Trask? Whatever the reason, he knew she wouldn’t survive without him, so he followed her out. He could just imagine what Trask must have thought of the two of them.

He replayed her guttural sound in his head and how with that moan she had pulled him closer. Perhaps she felt for him what he felt for her. The first chance he got, he would take her somewhere private and tell her the truth: that he, Clark Kent, was also Superman.

As he neared the newsroom floor, he could hear Lois and Perry talking.

“Now, do you know what happened to Kent?” his boss asked.

“We got separated,” Lois replied. Clark could hear the anguish in her voice as she sighed his name. “Clark…”

He rushed up the last few stairs, unable to remember if he actually had stepped on them with his feet. “I’m right here,” Clark announced exiting from the stairwell and heading straight for her.

Lois’ eyes lit up when she saw him, and he could see the excitement course through her as she rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him. “Clark! Clark! You’re alive!”

He couldn’t help chuckling, tilting her chin up. “Did you doubt Superman?”

“Never!” she snapped, grabbing his lapels. “I knew he’d save us. I believe I said so!”

Clark grinned. “So, you did. I stand corrected.”

“Hey, everybody! Clark’s alive!” she squealed with delight. “Did he rescue you? Did you see him after the explosion?” she asked, taking his hand and dragging him down the ramp to her desk. She could take him to Hades for all he cared, it didn’t matter to him. He would willingly follow.

So did you, he wanted to tell her. You’re looking right at him. You kissed him on Trask’s plane. You can kiss him any time you want. But this was neither the time nor the place. “He just went across the sky,” he said instead.

By the time Superman had recovered his balance from the bomb blast and done a quick search for Trask’s plane, which was no longer in Metropolis airspace, he had returned to the Daily Planet to tell Lois the truth, to tell her that Clark Kent and Superman were one and the same man. Unfortunately, she was no longer on the roof of the Planet, so he had landed in the alley behind the building, changed back into his business suit and entered the Planet as Clark Kent.

“Superman’s alive?!” Lois exclaimed, throwing her arms around Clark and pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “This story is getting bigger by the moment.”

“Tell me about it, Lois,” Cat purred from the next desk, standing up and leaning towards them over the panel dividing their desks. “Care to share the details? I promise I won’t tell.”

Clark shot the gossip columnist a ‘shut up’ look.

Lois gasped, covering her mouth, and looked around the newsroom, realizing that everyone’s eyes were focused on them and that they were still holding hands. She gulped and dropped Clark’s hand. “So, I’m a little excited about the story. No big whoop,” she announced, waving them off as pests. “The Great Wall of China didn’t collapse, people.”

The series of titters that followed this statement verified the lack of belief in her answer.

“Want to get out of here?” Clark murmured. “We need to talk.”

Lois plopped herself down in her seat and faced her desk. “We need to write our story.” He watched as she squeezed her eyes shut in pain as patches of giggles echoed around the room.

“Which we’re not going to get done here,” Clark replied, taking her hand and pulling her out of her seat. “Conference room?”

She nodded, unable to speak.

“I’ll get us some coffee,” Clark recommended, taking her grey mug off her desk.

Lois nodded again as she marched into the conference room.

Clark filled up her mug as he had seen her doing over the last two weeks. Mostly black with a dab of nonfat milk and a packet of sugar substitute. He didn’t know why she drank it like this, being that he knew she had a major sweet tooth, but if she wanted her coffee to be the one place where she didn’t fill up on extra fat or sugar, he wouldn’t be the one to change that habit. He, himself, had his coffee black. He had discovered it had been easier to learn to drink it this way, as sugar and milk were not always widely available around the world. He especially liked the Turkish or Greek variety which made espresso seem mild. Not that caffeine had any effect on him. Clark took a deep breath and exhaled it.

He entered the conference room to find that Lois had lowered or shut all the blinds, so that they could have some privacy. That would make what he had to tell her all the easier without an audience. He handed Lois her coffee mug and sat down next to her.

She took a sip of the hot liquid and set down her mug, turning to Clark and taking his hands in hers.

“Clark, we need…” Lois said at the same time he started with his confession, “Lois, I would like you…”

They both laughed and returned to their coffees. She seemed almost as nervous as he was. How could they have shared a kiss as intense as the one on the plane and be skittish now that they were alone? Personally, he wanted to do nothing else but have a repeat performance of that kiss, this time without an audience.

“Was there something you wanted to say?” she asked. “’Cause I would really like to go first.”

“It can wait. Ladies first,” Clark suggested, willing to give her the moon if she requested it.

“Thank you…” Lois took a sip of her coffee. “You got this just right.”

Clark’s face fell. “You’re thanking me for the coffee?” That was why she wanted to go first?

She patted his chest. “No.” She took a deep breath and got to her feet as she started to pace. “Well, yes,” she admitted. “But that’s not what I wanted to ask you.”

He stood up and set his hands on her shoulders, reassuring her that she could tell him anything. His hands automatically slid around her to give her a hug, which caused her to stiffen a moment before relaxing against him. He kissed her cheek and murmured, “Everything will be okay, honey.”

“Clark!” Lois stiffened again and stepped out of his embrace, staring at him. She shook her head ‘no’ so fast it was almost supersonic or a shutter. “Don’t call me, ‘honey’!”

“Okay,” he replied, realizing her reaction was more from that word than from him. Was it because it was an endearment? Or was it just that endearment? Maybe that Claude guy had called her ‘honey’.

“Did you tell Superman about the warehouse with his ship?” Lois asked, starting to pace again. This time Clark gave her space.

Oh, God! Kal-El’s ship. He had forgotten all about it after the kiss. Actually he had been close to forgetting his own name after that kiss; the only thing that snapped him to was her jumping from the plane. “No.”

“Me, either. We need to contact Superman about his ship or… no, wait, it’s a crime scene, remember the blood, probably Thompson’s. We should tell Perry… this could be huge!” She threw her hands into the air. “If that little ship was a scout ship, maybe some of those other pieces of scrap metal were actual stuff too.”

“Perry?” Clark repeated perplexed. Why didn’t they go straight to MPD?

“Bureau 39 is some kind of rogue military alien hunting force. We’ll need more than a police detective and a couple of uniforms to penetrate that warehouse. Perry will know who to call to get the right authority to surround the warehouse, and still allow us – you and me – access to the UFO stuff,” Lois explained and he nodded. “This is urgent. We need to do this A.S.A.P. I have a bad feeling about Trask. We can’t let him get away with this, but I think we need to protect Superman’s involvement. That ship belongs to him, and I don’t think he’d like it turned into a tourist item.”

Clark smiled. “Yes, I believe he would appreciate it back.”

“Do you know where they found it? Everything seemed to be bagged and tagged,” she inquired, picking up her coffee, but still keeping her distance.

His hand slipped into his pants pocket, but the tag he had taken from the ship was no longer there. It must have fallen out sometime during their afternoon adventures. He shook his head.

“Well, wherever it is, maybe we can find out by going through those files…”

“Or perhaps we could ask Superman himself?” Clark suggested, starting to get antsy about MPD or another government body going through those files and finding information on Smallville. He needed to protect the Kents at all costs. Neither they nor baby Kal-El deserved to be put under anyone’s microscope, especially for something they found almost thirty years before and because of something he had done that, technically, had nothing to do with them.

“Oh, right. Straight to the source. Good thinking, Chuck,” Lois said, tapping his bicep with her fist. “Unless he doesn’t know where it landed, being that it was picked up by Project Blue Book or this Bureau 39 group, and all. Let’s go!” She turned and headed for the door, only to stop and glance back at him. “Oh, you wanted to say something, didn’t you? Can it wait?”

“It can wait,” he acknowledged. “This is more urgent. I’ll tell you at dinner.”

She nodded curtly and headed straight out the door to Perry’s office. Clark sighed, following.

***

Clark and Lois stood with Jimmy and Perry waiting for the all-clear from the S.W.A.T. team that was about to storm Bureau 39’s warehouse. Between going over their story several times to Perry, and then again with the police, this raid of Bureau 39 stronghold took more than a hour longer than they had hoped. They had decided to leave out the part about Superman’s spaceship, focusing their story mostly on the alien hunters, the big blood stain, and being thrown from the plane.

He was beginning to think that he should have just flown back here on his own, except for the fact he had been worried that Bureau 39 would have anticipated that move and could be waiting for Superman with Kryptonite. He doubted Trask knew about Kryptonite and what it could do to him, or he would have laced the missile with it, but Clark decided not to take that chance.

“I’m glad to see that you two have patched things up,” Perry said out of the blue with a nod toward Clark and Lois, who happened to be standing next to one another.

Patched what up? Had they been squabbling? Was their boss referring to the whole Cat Grant confusion? Or the Metropolis Sewage Reclamation Facility joke for which Clark had taken credit? He smiled at Lois. He considered them at a pretty good place after her admission to Trask that they were dating and that intense kiss. Clark couldn’t wait for this day to be over so that they could finally be alone. He would have what was, essentially, his spaceship back, Lois as his girlfriend, and have a murdering alien hunter in custody. All in all, he would consider it a very good day indeed.

Clark watched as Lois placed a smile on her lips and, despite looking a tad uncomfortable at their boss’ words, she took a step closer to the younger man, nudging him with her shoulder. “All partnerships have an adjustment period,” she admitted to Perry.

She hadn’t wanted them to be too obvious about their relationship at work; Clark understood that. Work was work. Love was love. Truthfully, all he wanted to do when she nudged him like that was put his arm around her shoulders.

“Don’t get too comfortable there, Lane,” Perry said with a chuckle. “Once this Superman story is over, you’ll have served your time.”

Lois glanced at Clark. “Some of us hope that this story never ends.”

Clark’s heart felt as if it were racing. He agreed with her one hundred percent.

Jimmy looked between them, trying to read between the lines and apparently finding it in Chinese by his expression.

Clark’s partner nudged him again, a bit less noticeably this time, and he couldn’t resist moving his arm around her shoulders this time. He tempered the movement with his words. “Lois and I work well together.”

“Yes, her tenacity and your tact,” Perry agreed. “Believe me, you don’t need glasses to see the chemistry between you two. It will make for great stories.”

“You could almost say we were meant for each other,” Lois replied uncharacteristically forward as if taking the thoughts from Clark’s mind.

“Uh-huh,” Perry replied with a wry nod. “Let’s not overdo a good thing. You two can still partner up but only on special stories.”

Clark considered everything about and done with Lois as special in his books.

“Come on, Olsen, let’s go over to the Inspector over there and find out what the holdup is,” Perry said, wrapping a fatherly arm around the young man’s shoulders and moving him away from Lois and Clark.

Jimmy kept glancing back at them with a lost expression.

“You don’t think that was too much, do you?” she asked under her breath as she turned to face Clark.

Too much what? Clark wondered. His arm around her felt stiff and by the time she was looking at him, only his wrist remained on her shoulder.

She scowled, more at herself than at him. “I wasn’t laying it on too thickly, was I? That last look in Perry’s eyes, I swear I thought he could see right through us,” Lois murmured with a glance back at their boss. “Straight to the truth.”

“Huh?” Too much? Too thickly? See right through what? What truth? What was she talking about? “I’d say he’s figured out that we’re together,” Clark said hesitantly as he searched for the correct words. “That we’ve become more than partners.”

“Well, duh! I’ve already told him that we’re dating,” Lois stated.

“You did what?” Clark said, stepping back and letting his hand fall completely from her shoulder. “When?”

She waved the timeframe out of the conversation as unimportant. “A couple of days ago.”

“Why?” he said as Metropolis’ summer humidity suddenly felt stifling.

The only thing they had done a few days ago that might be confused with a date was when they shared dinner the evening Superman had saved her from the Prometheus bomb after their heated argument. The dinner which she had repeatedly told him was not a date, because she was in love with Superman. He adjusted his tie as he swallowed a bitter taste out of his mouth. Had she told their boss about their dinner from a few days ago and her driving him back to the Apollo Hotel was a date? Why would she do that? If Lois had considered them as more than partners for a couple of days, why had she been treating him like a leper until earlier that day on the plane?

“Come on, Chuck, even you can’t be that dense,” Lois retorted. They were still speaking softly enough that nobody else could hear their words.

Oh, you’d be surprised by my level of density, Lois, Clark replied inside his head as he crossed his arms.

“Superman,” she hissed, that ‘duh’ expression back in her eyes.

“What about him?” Clark asked, a bad feeling of foreboding coming over him, which he kept pushing back into that box marked ‘denial’. Either she already knew that he was Superman or…

Lois took Clark’s tie and pretended to straighten it. “Nobody will think he and I are in love, if I’m dating you. Then I can continue to cover his stories for the Daily Planet.”

His jaw dropped open. “But… but… ?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Chuck. You, of all people, know I’m in love with Superman. Did you think I’m as fickle as Cat?” She reached up and placed her hand on his cheek. “I’ll always love him.”

Clark closed his eyes, his jaw set. He exhaled, trying to fight the building exasperation of this situation. He needed to convince her that it was him she wanted, not his alter ego. He opened his eyes. “You hardly know Superman, Lois. Are you sure it isn’t just the outfit? I know how some women are attracted to uniforms…”

“No, Clark,” she retorted, her lips pressing into a line and crossing her arms. “It isn’t his Suit. If he had no powers at all, if he were just an ordinary man, leading an ordinary life, I would love him just the same. Once you meet your soulmate, you’ll know what I mean.”

But I am him, he wanted to yell. It was me you kissed. I’m your soulmate, and you can’t even see me standing in front of you. “Lois, that kiss…”

“I pretended that you were him when I kissed you. I know I got a little carried away, and I apologize for that, but it was just a diversion, so Trask wouldn’t know the truth,” she explained with a shrug.

She had pretended that he was Superman? His hands formed fists, so that he wouldn’t take off into the clouds just to spite her. He needed this secret identity, and if he was ever going to blow it, it wouldn’t be outside the Bureau 39 stronghold. “No, Lois, I can’t do this.”

“Do what?” she said with confusion. “If it’s okay with Superman, I don’t see why not? You’ll get to be my partner in public, him in private. Perfect really. You’ll get all the top stories being my partner, and we’ll get cover. Don’t tell me you’re going to get a little pissy over holding my hand and a few light kisses for show. I promise I won’t be making out with you in the bullpen. That was a one-time only event.”

He raised a brow and refused to play his trump card, the one where he knew Superman would never approve of this ruse. Clark sighed, stepping closer to her and pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. Maybe if he kissed her again, she would realize who exactly she loved. Before he could do just that, Perry and Jimmy returned. Their boss wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders, and whispered, “Okay, S.W.A.T.’s about to burst in. Be ready for to swoop in and get another scoop.”

Clark already knew what it was: Lois Lane had just broken his heart.

***End of Part 20***

Part 21

So, anybody looking for a 2x4 to hit Lois with? You can post an ad for one on my Comments page. I'm sure there are one or two floating around the boards at the moment.