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

Where we left off in Part 23 …

Clark held up a hand, and glanced over at Alan Morris. “Lois, we’ll talk about this later. Look, Alan, maybe you better stay at my place until this whole thing is resolved,” Clark suggested, standing up.

Alan nodded, grabbed his suits and coat, and stood up.

“Terrific idea,” Lois said, swinging open her apartment door to let them out. “And if you see Jimmy, tell him I’m no longer speaking with him.”

Clark paused at the door and looked at her, touching his mouth. “You’ve got chocolate on your lip, Lois.”

“Well, I’m not letting you kiss it off, buster, if that’s what you’re insinuating,” she scoffed at him. “I’ve had enough of your rejection to last a lifetime.” She pushed on the door to get him to leave faster, but Clark wouldn’t budge.

“Whoa, there, Lois, what are you talking about?” he asked softly. “I’ve never rejected you. You broke up with me, remember.”

“Oh, really? What do you call the other night, then? I practically threw myself at you, and you didn’t want to have anything to do with me! Whisk me away to the stars, my fat fanny! What? I’m not good enough for you, Chuck, is that it? Just because I don’t have as much experience as Cat Grant… The entire MetNet cheer squad doesn’t have as much experience as Cat…”

“Lois! I have never slept with Cat Grant,” Clark told her once more.

“Yeah, right. Fine. Had sex with. Whatever. Just get out,” she said, pushing on her front door again.

“Lois,” he said, his voice still quiet, so their conversation wouldn’t be overheard by Alan Morris and his body unmoving. “You were angry, in pain, and you were drunk.” He pushed a wayward lock of hair behind her ear. “I didn’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Well, who asked you to protect me? Mr. Love-‘em-and-Leave-‘em? Maybe I wanted… needed some escape from my life for one night, to know that someone found me attractive, and wanted me, and you weren’t there for me,” Lois defended her bruised ego, still shoving on the door to get it closed. “I can’t believe I thought you cared.”

“Fine. I give up, Lois,” Clark said, throwing his hands into the air. “The next time you get inebriated and beg me to sleep with you, I’ll turn off my morals and cave. Is that what you want?”

“Yeah, well, the last time I got drunk before last Saturday night, was when Claude stole my story, and I wouldn’t beg you to sleep with me if my life depended on it. So, don’t hold your breath, Chuck,” she said, finally getting him to move into the hall and slamming the door in his face.

Lois slid down the door and let the silent tears run down her face. She had no idea where that outburst had come from. If Clark had taken advantage of her when she had been drunk, he had been right, she never would’ve spoken with him again. Still his rejection of her had hurt, especially after Superman had ignored her. She knew it was a double standard, but there it was. Superman didn’t want her. Clark didn’t want her. Hey, at least, she still had that make-up date with Lex Luthor she had arranged. Not that she would sleep with that man for a million dollars, but it had been nice to have been asked out. Truthfully, there was only one man Lois wanted to be with. “Oh, Superman,” she murmured. “Why?”

Her sister Lucy was lucky not to be stuck with her problems.

***

Part 24

Clark glanced up from where he was working at his desk when he saw Jimbo approach Lois’ desk.

“I plugged all the information on your invisible man robberies into the Daily Planet database, comparing it to similar crimes in the Metropolis area and narrowed it down to three hundred and thirty-seven similar crimes,” the young intern told her.

“We need to cut that list down even further,” Lois replied.

Clark knew if they pooled their resources on this they would be closer than they were now. Perry had told them to work together on this, but after her middle of the night confession that she felt that he had rejected her, not to mention her being angry as heck at James for keeping her sister out half the night, it looked like they’d be working at cross purposes for awhile to come.

James walked out of the elevator and over to Clark’s desk, dropping a box full of files on it with a sniffle. “This is all I could find in the archives. Even after eliminating all the armed robbers still in jail or accounted for somewhere else, we still have over a hundred suspects.”

“Thanks, Jimmy. Let’s go over the details again. First, he robbed a jewelry store, then a rare coin store,” Clark said, but noticed his friend’s eyes were glued on Jimbo and Lois.

“Look at her! It’s like she didn’t almost get me killed at the Messenger hanger,” James grumbled, sitting down with a huff.

“What do these robberies have in common?” Clark heard Lois say to Jimbo. “Jewels, collector’s items, precious metals… That doesn’t seem right. Read off the items stolen again.”

“Gold ring with diamond chips, gold chains, gold broach…” Jimbo said, reading from the list.

“He steals gold,” Clark mumbled, shaking his head. It was so obvious. Why hadn’t he noticed that?

“Gold! I can’t believe we didn’t see it before,” said Lois to Jimbo. “Narrow down the search for those only stealing gold items.”

“Jimmy!” Perry yelled, causing both men to jump. “Gosh, darn it…ah… Jimbo, go get me some soda, and none of that lily-livered diet stuff!”

“Chief, Jimbo’s working with me on my investigation,” Lois informed their boss, glancing up from the papers that the intern had just brought her. “Can’t James go instead?”

Typical. Clark wished he couldn’t believe it, but he did. Her investigation always took precedence over everyone else’s.

“No,” scoffed Perry. “James is the researcher. Jimbo’s the intern. He gets the grunt work. Now, scoot!”

James plopped back down in the chair next to Clark’s desk. “Do you know why Lois has it in for me, CK? It’s been like this all day. It’s like I could bring her all those guys that the invisible man broke out of the state pen last night on a gold chain and it wouldn’t be good enough for her.”

Clark knew that feeling well.

“She’ll never put a good word in for me with Lucy now,” James went on with disappointment.

“Now?” Clark repeated. Didn’t Jimmy just go out with Lucy the night before?

“What? I know it was a stretch to hope she’d put in a good word before, but now…” James shrugged.

“It’s okay, Lois. I’ll go,” Clark heard Jimbo reassure Lois with his bright smile, covering a yawn with the back of his hand. “I wouldn’t mind stretching my legs for a bit. I’ll plug in the new criteria, when I get back and we’ll have it narrowed down in no time.” He jogged up the ramp towards the elevators.

With a slight wince, Clark realized what happened and felt bad for his friend. “I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding, Jimmy. By the way, did you ever tell your cousin about your interest in Lois’ sister?”

“Gosh, no,” his friend said with a surprised laugh. “You couldn’t tell by looking at him, but Jimbo actually does better with the ladies than I do.” He shook his head. “Although, I cannot fathom why. Do you know he was out half the night on date last night? He convinced some girl he met yesterday to go to the Godfather Trilogy they were showing at the Metropolis Bijou all night. I’ll have a better shot with Lucy if he never finds out about her.”

Clark wasn’t familiar with the films. “He wouldn’t ask out someone you were interested in, would he?” he inquired casually, slowly sorting through the files that James had brought him.

“Never! But it would best never to put him on Lucy’s radar. With my luck she’d prefer his lackadaisical style to my classic one,” James replied, tugging on the collar of his oxford shirt.

Clark heard a call for help, followed by a fire alarm and several fire trucks. He stood up and patted James’ shoulder. “Go through our suspect list again, narrow it down for robbers who had previous association with those guys who were broken out of the pen last night, and see what ties they have to stealing gold. I’m going to the Courthouse, Hall of Records, to see what I can find out there. If you find anything, call my apartment. I’m going to stop by there… uh… to check on things, before I come back here.” He was already loosening his tie by the time he reached the stairwell.

“Gold?” James asked, perplexed. “What if I find something and can’t reach you?” He wanted to know, but Clark was already too far away to respond.

“What did you find?” Clark heard Lois ask James as he reached the roof. Well, there was the answer to all James’ problems, right there. Good thing Clark and Lois were partners on this or he might have to worry about her stealing his story again.

***

Both Lois and James heard when Jimbo returned later that afternoon, wheeling in a big square box. They exited the conference room at the commotion.

“Jimmy, where in tarnation…” Perry started and then he saw the box. “What’s that?”

“Well, I rode the elevator down with a guy from maintenance and I asked him if it was possible to get you a mini-fridge for your office to keep a couple dozen sodas in. I figured that was a better use of my time than making a run whenever you got an urge for caffeine. As it happens, one of the suits upstairs had rejected this one for being too small. I’m sorry it took so long, but they had me fill out a requisition form. Then they wouldn’t approve it because I’m just a summer intern, so I hit on the idea of borrowing James’ employee number. Sorry, cuz,” Jimbo said with a glance to James. “I figured that would be faster than coming back here and starting the process over again.”

“Well, I’ll be…” Perry sputtered, clearly speechless with admiration. He stepped to the side of his office door. “Come in and set it up, Jimmy. Good initiative there, son. Did you remember to bring my soda?”

Jimbo picked up a plastic bag next to the box as he started to push the dolly forward. “I didn’t get generic; I hope you don’t mind.”

“Smooth, Jimbo. I wish I had thought of it,” James said with awe.

“So, tell me again what you found,” Lois said, tugging the older of the two Jimmys back into the conference room.

James had a bunch of newspapers from the box of archives he had pulled for Clark spread out over the conference table. He pointed to the article he was referencing. “Golden Boy Barnes and his gang all went down for the last job they pulled. Several of them were in the bust out they had last night.”

Lois grinned, giving him a nudge. “We’ve got him!” Her smile faded. “But how do we find him?”

“He’s bound to strike again,” James reminded her. “The question is: where?”

She pulled a newspaper out from the pile with the headline: Robbery at The Metropolis Gold Repository Foiled. “I know exactly where.” She wanted to check out the Gold Repository, but she should probably start by writing something up for Perry. Of course, since she was partnered up with Chuck on this story… She looked around. “Where’s Clark?”

“Courthouse, Hall of Records; he wanted to check on some records. He said he’d be stopping by his apartment afterwards,” James said.

Lois glanced at her watch. “It’s late; they should be closed by now. I’ll swing by his place on the way to dinner. I want to check in on Lucy.”

“I could come with you and offer to take her to dinner?” James suggested.

“Keeping her out all night wasn’t enough for you?” Lois said through pursed lips.

“What? I haven’t been out with Lucy,” he stammered.

Jimbo stuck his head in the door; he was carrying a large broken-down cardboard box. “Lois, I’m sorry, I’ll get right on that data.”

“Never mind, Jimmy, Jimmy found it for me,” Lois said over her shoulder as she quickly scanned the article on Golden Boy Barnes. As the words left her mouth, she realized the mistake she had made. “Jimmy?” She turned and glowered at the young man in the doorway. “Were you the one out with my sister last night?”

Jimbo looked like a deer caught in a hunter’s sights. “Yeah,” he answered slowly. “We got to talking yesterday when she stopped by the office. She said that you’d said good things about me, so I assumed…”

Lois shot a thumb out to his cousin. “Him! I had said good things about him. I don’t know you.” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, they felt false. Deep inside, she realized that she did know that Jimmy. She knew he was hard working, fun to be around, and basically an all around good guy. She would trust him with her life, probably out with her sister, and she didn’t trust anyone with either one of those. Well, not until recently. The last person she felt that comfortable around was Clark. She shuddered. A man whom she felt like investigating despite all those good feelings, or was it because of them?

“Totally unsmooth, man,” James said, crossing his arms. “Unsmooth. I was going to ask out Lucy.”

“You should’ve said something, cuz. I didn’t know,” Jimbo stammered. He appeared completely nonplussed. “Go ahead, ask her out. She fell asleep during the Godfather.”

James shook his head. “She fell asleep?” he repeated, and then chuckled. “How could she fall asleep? Part three, right?”

“No, the original,” explained Jimbo.

“You’re kidding me. She fell asleep during the original Godfather?” James asked.

Lois watched as both Jimmys exchanged an expression of complete disbelief.

“That’s okay, Jimbo. I guess she’s more your style,” James went on.

“That’s my sister, not some chocolate candy bar you both nibbled on until you discovered it contained raisins,” Lois scoffed and marched out of the room and towards the stairwell. After her numerous pig-out sessions with ice cream lately, she decided to take up Clark’s habit of using the stairs to work it off. Men! “I’ll be at Clark’s!” she called to them.

***

Lois tried to peer through the curtain covering the window of Clark’s apartment door, but it was so thick, she was sure it was blackout material. She couldn’t even tell if the lights were on or off. She didn’t want to be here. For some reason, this place gave her conflicting feelings. She wanted to say the willies, but that wasn’t quite right. It felt both like home and wrong at the same time. It was the ‘wrong’ that gave her chills. She took a deep breath and knocked.

She heard some shuffling around inside, before Mr. Morris asked, “Who is it?”

Right. The invisible man. She had forgotten that Clark had taken him home with him.

“It’s Lois Lane, Alan. Is Clark home?” she asked through the door.

Alan Morris opened the door with a yawn and let her inside. He was dressed in the same clothes, minus the invisibility suit, that he had been wearing at her place the night before. “No, Clark’s not here.”

“Well, I’ll wait, if you don’t mind,” she announced, storming into Clark’s apartment whether or not Alan Morris cared. “Clark said he’d be stopping by after he ran some errands. I discovered who stole your…” She was about to sit down on Clark’s couch when she noticed that the apartment looked different. “ – suits.”

Clark’s apartment looked entirely transformed. She walked around taking in all the changes he had made: couch, coffee table, TV with stand, end tables, lamps, and the dining room table now had four chairs instead of just two. Clark had said that he’d been working on furnishing his apartment. The room felt warmer, friendlier, less wrong, but still not right.

She walked into his bedroom and found he had bought a bed, an armoire, a dresser, and even a throw rug. Still missing though, were all the little touches that made an apartment a home: knickknacks, odds and ends, photographs, pieces of his life previous to moving to Metropolis. Sure, he had bought some books and even hung some artwork, but it still felt empty, lonely.

Clark didn’t live here; he resided here.

Lois sat down on his bed and sighed. She wished she could figure out what it was about Clark that made his puzzle piece have such rough edges. She liked the man, despite constantly trying not to. He was kind, personable, loyal, funny, and refused to take any of her nonsense, a characteristic she would have assumed she’d hate, but in fact she admired. On the other hand, her instincts told her there was something off about him. He was lying to her, but she wasn’t sure about what. It was just one of those feelings she started getting after he came into town.

“Ms. Lane?” Alan Morris called to her. “Are you going to tell me who stole my suits?”

“Golden Boy Barnes. Notorious gold thief. He was last captured trying to rob the Gold Repository,” she called from where she sat on Clark’s bed. It was comfortable. Everything about the way Clark had furnished his apartment was comfortable. A part of her wanted to just stretch out on the bed and take a nap, secure in the knowledge that Clark would keep her safe. She glanced up from where her hand was rubbing circles on Clark’s comforter and saw Superman standing on Clark’s balcony staring at her through his bedroom windows.

They stared at one another for a couple of seconds before he took off into the air. Oh, God! What had she done? What must Superman think? Of this situation? Of her? Of her and Clark?

Lois jumped to her feet and ran into the living room. Alan was in the kitchen filling a glass with water. She saw his pile of invisibility suits, sitting on top of his overnight bag, and grabbed one, stuffing it into her briefcase.

“I’ve got to go!” she said to Alan, rushing to the front door, hoping to get away from there before Superman returned. “Tell Clark what I told you, and that I’ll be in touch.”

***

Clark landed on the top of the Daily Planet building, spun into his business suit, and then ran down the stairs to the locker rooms. He needed a shower to wash off the fire smell, and he had forgotten that Alan Morris was currently hiding out at his place.

It had been so long since he had anyone stay with him. The Lois who had made him Superman hadn’t really stayed with him, she just kind of came in and took over. Clark wished she had stayed. He shook his head. No… well, yes, but no, he would rather have a Lois who wasn’t in love with another Clark, who loved him for him. He’d rather have this dimension’s Lois.

It had been quite a shock, when he landed on his balcony to find Lois sitting on his bed. She looked so good there. She appeared to be lost in her thoughts, and Clark would have given up his powers for a day just to have get a peek into her mind to discover what she was contemplating.

Clark winced. Of course, then the idiot that he was, flew off in embarrassment when she caught him watching her. What must she think of him?

He scoffed, knowing exactly what Lois thought. She thought Superman was avoiding her. She had told him as much the other night at the charity auction. He had really mucked things up. Maybe he should just give up trying to romance Lois as Clark and just be with her as Superman. He tossed that thought away almost as quickly as it crossed his mind. No, he couldn’t risk her safety, tempting though that option might be.

Clark returned to his apartment as quickly as he could, but Alan informed him that Lois bolted out soon after arriving. Golden Boy Barnes had stolen the invisibility suits, of course. It looked like their double partnership was about to become a trio as Henry Barnes' escape was Friaz’s story, but Clark didn’t want to the be one who reminded Lois of that fact.

Alan looked like he could use another twenty hours of sleep. Being on the run, accused of crimes he didn’t commit, must have been wearing on him. Clark whipped them up some quick stir-fry with rice for dinner and then called Lois at home as Alan settled onto the couch to check out the latest news on LNN.

“Hey, Lois, Alan said that you stopped by,” Clark said, walking into his bedroom with his cordless phone.

“Did he tell you about Golden Boy Barnes?” she inquired.

“Yes,” he said, not wanting to admit that if they had been working together, perhaps they could have discovered that fact earlier instead of later. It was just as much his fault as hers.

“What did you learn at the Hall of Records?”

He gulped. Nothing. He never went there; he had been too busy with the fires in the West River district. Someone had torched an abandoned warehouse and it spread to neighboring warehouses. According to the investigators, it looked like arson. It was as if someone had practiced using a blow torch in the warehouse and things had gotten out of control. Fortunately, no bodies were found. Unfortunately, it meant that the perpetrator was still out there.

“Not much. You want me to come over and we can start writing this up?” Clark asked with more optimism than he expected.

“With the new curfew at ten tonight, it’s probably best if we handle this over the phone. I wouldn’t want you to get stuck here for the night.”

Of course, she didn’t. Lois hardly wanted to spend five minutes with him, let alone all night. He was lucky she hadn’t hung up on him when he called. Was the curfew why she left his apartment before he could make it back from cleaning up at the office?

“I’ve been working on a draft story, but there’s not much there,” Lois went on. “I’m afraid if we go to print with what we’ve got, we’ll scare off Barnes and he’ll disappear into the wind. We need to catch him red-handed.”

“You mean the authorities need to catch him red-handed,” he corrected, wishing that Lois wasn’t one to seek out danger; that was, when it wasn’t looking for her.

“Of course,” she replied, and he could almost hear the eye-roll he was sure that accompanied it. “I meant we need to be there when they get caught red-handed. You know, the exclusive.”

“Right. After our fun at Bureau 39’s empty warehouse last week, Detective Henderson has been reluctant to return my calls,” Clark reminded her.

“I’ve been there before.” She sighed. “Luckily, I don’t think he’s working this story.”

“Who was the detective assigned to the invisible man robberies?” he asked, kicking off his shoes and settling down on his bed.

“Detective Burke. We won’t be getting much help there, unless one of us shows up at MPD with a box of donuts from Lucille’s. Even then, I think we’ll get further along in our investigations without him.”

“Ah, another one of MPD’s finest,” Clark replied with a slight chuckle to emphasize his sarcasm.

“Exactly,” Lois huffed.

Their conversation lulled for a minute. Clark would have been happy to lie there and talk to her all night about everything, about nothing. It didn’t matter to him, just hearing her voice seemed to ease the tension he felt after battling that inferno.

“Tell me, Clark, would you rather fly?” she asked out of the blue.

“What?” he sputtered, sitting upright. What was she asking?

“Or be invisible? Lucy and I used to play this game as kids. If we could have super powers, would we want to the ability to fly or be invisible,” Lois explained.

It seemed to Clark he already had both those powers: fly as Superman and be invisible to Lois. Over the last year, there were many times he wished he had the power to blend in with his surroundings and be invisible, just to have some privacy. Perhaps he should be more careful when he made wishes.

“When I was a kid, I often felt invisible,” he said, thinking back to the time after his folks had died, bouncing from foster family to foster family. “Suddenly coming back into view whenever something went wrong or someone needed to be blamed for something.”

“I’m sorry,” Lois said with sympathy.

“It was a long time ago,” he replied hastily, wishing he hadn’t brought it up. He didn’t want Lois feeling sorry for him. He wasn’t like Luthor, who wore his pain like a badge of honor, and doubting very much that Luthor had ended up in foster care.

“It doesn’t sound like it,” she replied.

Clark needed to change the topic. “So, I guess, I’ll stick with flying… I mean…” he sputtered, trying to think of a way to fix his error.

Lois laughed. “Enjoyed your little flight with Superman the other day, did you?”

He exhaled in relief, thankful she had jumped to that conclusion. “Yeah, that was cool. So, how about you? Invisibility or flight?”

“Invisibility. I always wanted to know what was behind those closed doors.” She went quiet. “I guess I still do.”

“And what do you think you’d find behind all those closed doors?” Clark asked, relaxing back into his pillows.

“Mmmmm. I don’t know, something… different… wonderful… something that I don’t have… can’t have,” Lois replied wistfully. “It’s the not knowing that always gets me.”

Clark wanted to tell her that he was something different, wonderful, that she didn’t have, but could if she wanted it, but that just sounded cheesy, instead of romantic. He also felt remorse at her words. He was keeping so much from her. There was only so much he could safely tell her about his life, but there were things – like his journey from another dimension – that he doubted he would ever be able to share. He was beginning to feel maybe he should start trying to just be Lois’ friend and not her boyfriend. That other ideal option didn’t seem to be in his cards. Being her friend was better than not being in her life at all.

Their conversation had dipped into another silence. Clark wanted to apologize for not holding up his side of the conversation; there was just too much hanging between them that he wanted to say, but couldn’t.

“I never thought I would say this, Clark, but you and I have something in common,” Lois finally said, even though it was technically his turn to speak.

“We do?”

“Superman,” she replied with a sigh. “You want to fly like him and I want to fly with him.”

Superman wanted to fly with her too, but not as much as Clark did. He wondered why he ever thought he could compete with his other side and win. He loved Lois, would love her until his dying day, but he doubted very much she would ever love boring ol’ Clark Kent that much.

***

The phone rang shortly past dawn the next morning, waking Clark from a sound sleep. He couldn’t believe he had overslept. It probably had something to do with spending most of the night out looking for invisible criminals, which was near impossible being that even Superman needed visible light to see invisible men. He picked up the cordless phone which he had left next to his bed, after his phone call with Lois.

“There’s a holdup at the Gold Repository, CK,” James told him. “I’m betting it’s Golden Boy Barnes and his gang. I tried to reach Lois, but Lucy said she had already left.”

“Thanks,” Clark told him. “I’ll get right down there.” He hung up the phone and saw that Alan Morris was still sound asleep on his couch. He spun into his blue Suit and headed for the balcony door.

“Superman!?” gasped Alan Morris, causing Clark to pause in his steps. “Is that really you?”

“Mr. Morris, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Superman responded, halting his steps. “Clark said you might have one of the invisibility suits for me to examine. Perhaps it would help me discover a way to see them while they’re activated.”

“Sure, of course,” Alan said, reaching into his bag and removing a suit. “Wait a minute.” He set a suit next to him on the couch and pulled the bag into his lap. “I’m missing a suit. I had two when I got here the other night. I don’t know what could have happened…” He shook his head and started searching around the edge of the couch.

Clark knew instantly who had taken Mr. Morris’ spare invisibility suit. The same woman he had seen sitting on his bed the evening before. No wonder she bolted from his apartment. She didn’t want him stopping her.

Superman took a quick look at the suit and nodded at the man. “Thank you, Mr. Morris. There’s a robbery in progress, I better get down there.”

“Right, of course,” answered Alan as Superman zipped out the balcony door and into the sky.

Superman arrived at the Gold Repository to find a squad of police cars barricading the front entrance. He scanned the building but because of the suits couldn’t see where anyone was at. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe Lois hadn’t come down here at all. He took another deep breath and scanned more slowly. That was when he noticed a dead zone in one corner of the building. A lead-lined vault? He closed his eyes and listened.

“Superman? I don’t know if you can hear me,” he heard Lois murmuring breathlessly. “I’m sorry.” It sounded like she couldn’t catch her breath.

With a determined expression upon his face, Superman burst in the Gold Repository through the back entrance and then through the wall of the vault. He was lucky in that only the outside walls and ceiling of the vault were lead-lined. He caught Lois into his arms just before she was about to pass out. He pulled her to his chest.

“It’s okay, Lois. I’m here. I’m here,” Superman said, lifting her into his arms, taking her back out the hole he had made in the side of the vault. He flew her up to the roof of the Gold Repository and into the sunshine.

With her eyes closed, Lois wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head upon his shoulder. “I love you,” she murmured.

“Lois, I…” he began to respond, just as a spattering of gunfire cut him off. “I should go.”

“No! You can’t see them,” she reminded him, holding tightly to his neck. “They’ll shoot you.”

Superman smiled at her and with a tender caress, tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, before gently removing her arms from his neck. “I’ll be okay, Lois. Bullets don’t hurt me.”

“How will you stop them if you can’t see them?” Lois asked.

Not having an answer, he shrugged. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Phosphorous! Alan Morris said he got the idea from a fluorescent light bulb. What does it use to make invisible light visible?”

“Phosphorous, of course,” Superman repeated, understanding her logic this time. “Stand back, Lois.” He took an extra moment to gently move her away from the ledge. “I wouldn’t want you struck by a stray bullet,” he whispered into her ear and then burst into the sky.

He zipped to the outskirts of Metropolis where he knew there to be a fertilizer company. While non-organic fertilizers were rarely used in his dimension’s small family farms anymore, such as those around Smallville, they were still used at many of the larger commercial farms and for landscaping around the country. Luthor Fertilizer was right where he expected Cronus Fertilizers to be. Did Lex Luthor own Cronus Fertilizers in his dimension? That thought sent a shiver of fear through him. No, he had never heard the name Lex Luthor until he had left his dimension. If the man owned a huge company, such as Cronus Fertilizers, Clark was sure to have heard of him before. He hated to be in debt to the man, but he also didn’t want to hunt the country for a company that produced phosphorous. Police officers could be being shot while he searched. Time was of the essence. He landed at the loading dock and explained the situation to the foreman, who offered him a bag of newly delivered phosphorous.

“Thank you. I will replace this,” Superman guaranteed the man, returning to the sky.

Moments later he was back at the Gold Repository, hovering above Golden Boy Barnes and his gang, who suddenly came entirely into view as their invisibility suits shorted out and stopped functioning. As soon as the men were visible, Superman flew down to capture them. The ringleader, Barnes, continued to shoot at him, much to his annoyance. He didn’t want anyone hurt by a bullet ricocheting off of him.

“Please, stop that,” he told the man. When Barnes continued to shoot him, Superman grabbed the gun away from him, bent it in half, and tossed it away. “I said, ‘please’.”

***

Lois sat on her sofa of her living room, decompressing after her long exciting day. She and Clark had the exclusive on the capture of Golden Boy Barnes and his gang at the Gold Repository. Between issuing her statement to Detective Burke, writing her story with Clark – her covering the inside, him the outside of the Gold Repository stand-off – and being chewed out by Perry for once again risking her neck despite their Page One story, she hadn’t had a moment of peace to think about what happened in the vault.

Barnes had taken her invisibility suit, locked her and the guards into the vault, and then left them to die. She hadn’t known that one of Barnes’ men had been stationed as lookout behind the same plant she had chosen for her hiding spot. She had just been about to sneak back out of the building and call the police when the man had put his hand on her thigh. She had no idea how he had found her thigh with her being invisible and all, but she guessed he was just lucky, unlike her.

She hadn’t known what to do. She hadn’t told anyone that she had come down on her own to the Gold Repository on a hunch. She had figured she would be safe, being in the invisibility suit and all. She should have known better. Bad luck seemed to worm its way through the crevices and find her anywhere. It was creepy being alone in the vault, knowing that she had less than two minutes left to live. Well, she hadn’t been all alone, the two passed out guards were also in there, but that hadn’t bolstered her spirits any.

Lois first started yelling for Superman, but after her third ‘help Superman’ she began to wonder if he would actually come. Would this be the scenario that he had feared? Him arriving too late after his name had been the last words on her lips. As she became lightheaded and dizzy, her voice fading faster in the low oxygen than she thought possible, she tried one last time, “Superman? I don’t know if you can hear me, I’m sorry.”

Even now, all these hours later, she wasn’t quite sure why she had apologized. Was it for assuming that Superman was perfect and would always be available to save her? Was it for going off without telling anyone where and what she was doing? Was it for breaking his heart with her useless death? Was it for cheating on Superman by kissing and using his friend Clark, despite knowing in her heart that she could only love Superman? Was it for dreaming about that kiss and other kisses she could share with Clark, instead of dreaming of Superman? Was it for bidding on Lex at the auction and trying to make Superman jealous with her pettiness? Was it for going out with Lex for lunch several days earlier as if she could move on with her life without having Superman in it? Was it for actually having a good time on her lunch date, despite knowing that she had no interest whatsoever in Lex? Was it for letting her depression over Superman’s rejection of her that she essentially threw herself at Clark? Was it for giving up on Superman, doubting that he would be there for her when she needed him in her last moments? Was it because, with her last breaths of air, when she should have been thinking only of her one true love, her mind, in her weakness, had started to montage images of her and Clark and what might have been? Whatever it was, it wasn’t important, because a matter of seconds later…

A tapping sound broke her out of these thoughts. What? Who? Then she jumped to her feet. Who else, Lane? She walked to her window and opened it, letting in both Superman and the cool evening air.

“Hi,” Lois said, running a hand over her hair, feeling self-conscious. She was alone in her living room. Alone in the privacy of her apartment, because Lucy was not yet back from her waitressing job. Alone with Superman.

“I just wanted to check in with you and make sure that you were all right. No ill-effects from your time in the vault,” Superman said, stepping through her window as if like in a dream.

“I’m fine,” she replied. As fine as she would ever be without him.

He cupped her jaw in the palm of his hand and then brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “You told me today that you loved me,” he stated matter of factly.

She had? Lois shrugged as if to say it wasn’t important.

“We got interrupted before I could respond,” he murmured. “I wanted to tell you that…”

Lois turned away from him. “I know. You’re flattered. You’re honored. But that you don’t feel that way for me. Or you can’t feel that way about me, because of your whole oath thing. You just want to be friends. I know, you don’t need to tell me. That still doesn’t change the way I feel about you.” She couldn’t face him while he was rejecting her, once again.

“No, Lois,” he said softly. “I wanted to tell you that I feel the same way.”

She spun back around to face him. “You do?”

Superman narrowed the distance between them and cupped her jaw in his palm again. He ran his thumb over her lips. “I would like to kiss you. May I?”

Lois nodded, unable to speak.

“I cannot kiss you like this,” Superman continued, stepping away from her. “I’m not allowed.”

Her brow furrowed in confusion as he stepped out of her window and for a brief moment she lost sight of him. Then he stepped back inside; only now, he was Clark Kent.

“But you can kiss me instead,” Clark said, holding out his arms.

Lois launched herself into his embrace. “I don’t care who you are. Just kiss me. Kiss me!” she demanded, pressing her lips to his.

His lips were soft and inviting, passionate, yet full of love.

She wrapped her arms around his broad chest. He held her closely to him as well, dipping her and deepening the kiss.

Never had such a kiss thrown open the doors to Lois’ wanton side.

Never had Lois known she had a wanton side until she had kissed this man.

He made her feel like a woman in a way no man ever had.

Superman.

She felt as if they could float off of the tarmac and into the sky from the pure joy of it, instead Lex pulled them apart. Lex tugged on her arm and moved her away from her true love.

Lois stared at Superman, his red cape flapping in the wind, his eyes gazing at her with regret as Lex pulled her to his limo. Superman loved her and didn’t want the kiss to stop. Oh, but it wasn’t real. Superman was drugged; he never would have acted this way otherwise. It wasn’t real, but it had to be real; he had said that he loved her.

Or had that been Clark? Had Clark been there? No, Clark wasn’t at the airport with them. Clark was never around when Superman was. How had she ended up at the airport in the middle of the afternoon with Superman and Lex?

A tapping noise awoke Lois from this dream. What? Who? She rubbed her eyes and looked around. Something hovered by her windows; she saw a flap of red fabric and shimmer of blue. Superman? He was there, at her apartment? Was he really there? Or was it her imagination again? She walked to her window and opened it, letting in both Superman and the warm evening air.

“Hi,” Lois said, running a hand over her hair, feeling self-conscious. Her cheeks felt flushed with excitement, embarrassment, and anticipation. She could feel her pulse race and the blood pumping through her body. She had just made out with Superman in her dreams and now he was there in person. She was alone in her living room with Superman. Alone in the privacy of her apartment, because Lucy was not yet back from her waitressing job. Alone with Superman.

“I hope I’m not bothering you, Lois,” Superman said, standing near her window in case he needed to make a quick exit.

“Never,” she replied. As if that could ever be a possibility.

“How are you? Recovered from your ordeal in the vault?” he asked hesitantly like he wanted to move closer to her and then stopped himself.

“I’m fine,” Lois said stiffly since his words that weren’t those professing his love for her as they had in her dream, but when she gazed into his eyes she only saw pain. “I’m fine,” she repeated softer. They both knew by this point that was a lie.

Superman looked a bit uncomfortable before he said, “Clark mentioned that I should talk to you about the other night.”

“Clark did, did he?” Lois grumbled. Why didn’t that surprise her? “Did he tell you about me getting drunk and throwing myself at him? Because I promise you, that will never happen again.” Men, they were all the same. They just couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

“No, he said that… I want to apologize for my behavior towards you,” Superman said, moving closer to her. “You shouldn’t feel the need to bid for my attention, Lois.”

“No, I shouldn’t,” Lois replied, more sharply than she had meant to.

“You will always be special to me, Lois.”

“Why? Because I was the first person to interview you?” she snapped, holding up her hand. “Please, don’t even try to go there.”

“No other woman will ever have my regard more than you,” he admitted.

Lois took a deep breath. “Here comes the big ‘but’…”

“I didn’t come here to tell you that we can only be friends, Lois,” Superman said, his voice lower, huskier, her name breathed more than spoke it. He caressed her cheek and moved a strand of hair behind her ear. “I may come from another planet, but that doesn’t stop me from sharing your human emotions. When I found you locked in that vault with no air…” His eyes closed in a wince.

She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the sparkle of a teardrop on his lashes.

Superman opened his eyes and stared into hers. “Please, know that if I could have a relationship with anyone, it would be you, but…”

Lois exhaled, and turned away from him. “But you can’t. When you decided to come to Earth and be Superman you became a target, and any woman you give your attention to automatically becomes a target. I get it. Really, I do. It’s logical, it’s even thoughtful. I admire you for it. You were ignoring me for the past week to keep me safe, to protect me, so no one would know how we feel about each other…” Including me, she wanted to add, but didn’t. “ – but… and here’s my big but…” Lois said, facing him once more and resting her hands on his crossed arms. “But keeping us apart will never change how I feel about you. I will always love you. I will never be able to love another man the way I love you. By denying me this relationship, even one we keep secret, you are cursing my life.”

She could see the pain her words etched across his face.

“I would rather that we both suffer a lifetime of friendship, than to ever risk your life even once because of me,” Superman replied softly.

“How noble of you, but it’s my life, and if I want to risk it by being with whomever I choose to be with, that’s my right and my decision,” Lois told him. “And I won’t let you, or anyone else, take that away from me.”

“You’re angry,” Superman said. He hadn’t asked; he was stating the obvious fact.

To cement the fact of how extremely angry she was, Lois made her voice calm and said, “No, I’m not mad; I’m hurt.”

He flinched.

“When you get right down to it, my life, my well being, means more to you than my happiness,” she retorted.

“Listen to what you’re saying, Lois. Can’t you see what a precious person you are? That your life is a gift? That, once gone, can never be brought back?” Superman said.

“What good is a gift if it makes me miserable?” she pleaded, trying to get her point through his impervious skull.

He ran his hand over her hair once more and smiled weakly. “One that keeps on giving.”

Lois pressed her lips together in annoyance. That sounded like something Clark would say.

Superman placed a hand to his chest. “I wish I could explain to you how difficult this is for me, of why your safety is so important to me… I wish I could give you what want, but I … am not allowed to, Lois… I… can’t.”

“Allowed to?” she scoffed, raising an eyebrow. “Who’s stopping you? Clark?”

“No, Lois, I am. I’m stopping me. I cannot let anything bad happen to you as long as there is breath in my body to stop it,” he said. “If that means I have to watch from the sidelines while you move on with your life and find love elsewhere, so be it.”

Lois hated his words with every cell in her body, but it didn’t stop her from admiring him. She wanted to hate him as she hated his words, his stubbornness, but she found she could not. Superman was too damn respectable; giving up both of their chances at happiness to keep her safe. How could she not love him more?

She nudged him in the shoulder. “You know if you’re going to fall on the proverbial sword there, Superman, wouldn’t it have been better to be born something other than invulnerable?”

He shrugged. “We all manage the hand we’re dealt the best we can.”

She put her hands on his chest and ran them up to his shoulders. “May I have at least one kiss?”

“Lois,” he murmured in frustration, setting his forehead against hers, his voice wavering. “I would like nothing more, but if I kiss you just this once, I won’t be able to stop.”

Lois smiled. “Who’s asking you to stop?” she said, tilting up her chin so that now their cheeks touched. She could feel his breath dance across her neck.

“I wish…” he murmured more to himself than to her. “No, I can’t…”

“You can,” she said, kissing his cheek. Once. Twice. Moving slightly closer to his lips each time.

“No,” he said, stepping away, back towards the windows. His longing gaze never left hers as he stepped onto the window frame. “If I allow…”

Allow? There was that word again, just like in her dream. Lois rushed up to the window to watch him go. “You better not send Clark Kent back to kiss me instead,” she murmured under her breath as he zipped into the sky.

A moment later, Superman returned. Confusion, but not jealousy, covered his face as he hovered once more at her window. “Excuse me?”

Lois waved off her words, wishing she hadn’t said them. “Just a dream I had.” She had forgotten about his super hearing.

“Tell me,” he asked with more than just passing interest.

Perhaps she could get him to change his mind about kissing her out of his overabundance of protectiveness.

“You wanted to kiss me, but ‘it wasn’t allowed’,” she said impersonating his deep timbre. “So, you sent Clark to kiss me in your place.”

Superman stared at her as his eyes widened. “You dreamed about kissing Clark?” A smile burst across his face as he laughed.

“It isn’t that funny. Clark happens to be quite the kisser,” Lois scolded, a part of her still hoping to make him jealous enough to kiss her to prove himself the superior kisser, but her defense of Clark only made him laugh harder. She pressed her lips together in annoyance as she leaned against the window frame. “I may not have lots of experience, but I do dream of men. There was Clark, you, Lex…”

His laughter gone, Superman stepped closer to her. “You dreamed about kissing Lex Luthor?”

“Pshaw!” Lois waved that idea out of range of possibility. “No, he just pulled me away from kissing you.” A naughty thought crossed her mind. “Of course, we were interrupted.”

A flash of horror crossed Superman’s face so quickly, Lois almost didn’t believe it had happened, when he schooled his features back to normal. “If you ever feel the need to kiss Lex Luthor, Lois, call me instead.”

Uh-huh. Lois shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. Either you’re a part of my life, or you let me live my life as I choose. You don’t get to change the rules, just because you don’t like who’s playing.”

Superman glanced over his shoulder as if he heard something, perhaps someone calling for ‘help’. Convenient. Lois crossed her arms and waited. He caressed her face before placing a light kiss upon her cheek. “Let me get back to you on that,” he replied with a twitch of his head over his shoulder. “I’ve got to go.”

“Go!” she told him, pushing him out the window and watching him blur into the darkness. So, Superman didn’t want her dating Lex Luthor. She could work with that.

***Part 24 ***

Part 25

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