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

Where we left off in Part 30 …

Superman? These cyborg boxers couldn’t hurt him, could they? Superman picked up one of them men and dumped into a pile of nearby trash. No, Superman would be okay, but he was too busy to rescue her. Lois glanced down and saw that Menken’s gun was pointed at the boxers and Superman. In fact, he had let go of her entirely. He really was new at this whole kidnapping and hostage thing, wasn’t he?

Lois took a step back as Menken watched Superman battle his cyborgs. Then another and another until she was running.

Max chased her down the alley, but easily caught up, grabbing her arm and jabbing her with his gun again. Damn her heels. One of these days she would just start to wear flats to work in case of kidnapping.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Menken said, pulling her deeper down the alley.

She glanced over her shoulder back at Superman. He now had the small boxer on his back while the other two held on to his arms. Yep, she’d still need to rescue herself, unless he got free soon or Clark appeared out of the woodwork. Nope, it was probably up to her.

Menken pushed her through a wood gate into a side alley.

“Unhand her!” demanded a voice from the shadows.

“Clark!” Lois yelled, but it wasn’t Clark. It was Lex Luthor. “Lex?”

“Drop the gun!” Lex told Menken, holding up his own gun. Was this what he had meant when he said he was going for help? He went to his limo to grab his gun?

Before Menken responded she knew what he was going to do. He was going to point his gun at Lex, leaving her free to defend herself.

Menken swung his gun off Lois and pointed it at Lex. “You lousy…”

Lois turned and karate chopped Menken’s gun hand, just as an explosion ripped through the alley, echoing off the brick walls. A sharp, burning sensation penetrated her body, causing her to gasp and bump against Menken, who was caught off guard and stumbled backwards towards a pile trash.

Part 31

With a swoosh Superman landed between her and Lex. He glanced at Menken on the bags of trash next to Lois, then at Lex, and finally at her. “Are you all right?” he asked, panic in his eyes only for her. He must have heard the shot. It was still echoing in her ears.

Lois looked down at Menken and saw blood splatter across his grey jacket. Menken wasn’t looking at her, but at Superman. Had Menken fallen into a puddle? His pants were all wet. Had he realized that Superman had easily beat three of his cyborg boxers? She went to raise her arm to point at Menken and tell Superman that he had been shot, but her arm felt stiff as if she had worked out too hard. Did she aggravate her Roller Derby elbow? She shifted her eyes to see why it ached and saw that some of Menken’s blood had stained her brown coat.

“Great,” she grumbled, lifting her left hand to try to brush it away. As soon as her hand touched her bicep, a dull pain radiated throughout her arm. “Ow!” she yelped, more from surprise than anything and probably louder than she should have. She wondered why her arm stung from Menken’s blood.

“Lois!” Superman gasped, the color leaving his face. “You’re hurt.”

“Me?” she questioned. It seemed as if everything was happening in slow motion.

Superman stepped closer to her. “Hold still. I’ll take a look.”

She raised her eyes to his in confusion. Why would she need to hold still? She had only gotten some of Menken’s blood on her. Only now, the small patch of blood seemed larger.

Superman gulped, and appeared to be trying not to breathe.

Lois glanced down at Menken. No wonder Superman was holding his breath; Menken and the rest of the trash smelled to high heaven. It must be twice as nasty with someone with a super sniffer.

“It’s a through and through shot, Lois,” Superman told her. “The bullet missed the bone and your artery, but…” He closed his eyes. “We need to get you to the hospital.”

She spun around and focused her intense gaze on Lex. “You shot me?”

“What?! No, Lois!” Lex tried to correct her. “I shot Menken. I saved you.”

“I wasn’t in any danger until you shot me!” Lois repeated.

“If you hadn’t moved...” Lex said.

“So, it’s my fault that you shot me?” she countered, stepping towards him and releasing her arm for a moment, so he could see the blood starting to soak her sleeve and on her hand.

“I… I …” sputtered Lex at a loss for words, which was quite unusual for him. He glanced between Lois’s arm and Superman.

Superman wasn’t moving. He was only standing there staring at her, his face more pale than she had ever seen it.

Lex glanced down at his gun and, tossing it on the ground, he started moving towards her.

A moment later Superman had pinned him against a brick wall, his arm under Lex’s jaw. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t pulverize you?” he demanded.

Lex gasped for air, trying to speak. “Accident,” was the only word he could get out.

Lois knew that if she let this go on, Superman would hurt Lex, or worse. She set her left hand on Superman’s arm and said, “Because you’re better than that.”

Superman gazed down at her hand, then up to her eyes, and nodded. With one last jerk, he let go of Lex, causing the man to fall into a heap.

“I…” Lex said, rasping, as he picked himself up and dusted off his suit. “I should have you arrested for that.”

Lois pressed against Superman’s chest with her good arm, more to keep the two men apart than for her own comfort.

“You shot Lois. I’d keep my mouth shut if I were you,” Superman retorted, leaning against her and towards Lex. He returned his gaze to Lois, and she watched as his anger melted into concern. “I should get you to the hospital.”

“I’m fine, Superman. It hardly hurts at all,” she said, lifting her right arm and trying not to wince as it felt like a bolt of lightning lit her arm on fire. As long as she didn’t move her arm, she would be fine.

“It was an accident,” Lex said, defending himself and pointing at the boxing promoter who was inching his way off the trash and to his feet. “I was aiming at Menken. He kidnapped her! I was trying to save her.”

“By pointing a gun in my direction?” Lois asked. “Is this what you call ‘going for help’, Lex? Because when Clark went for help, he sent this guy.”

“And what good was he?” Lex said. “Where was he as Menken dragged you through the alley? In my opinion, he arrived too late to help.”

Superman gazed down at her, and she could see the guilt fog his eyes. Lex’s barb had hit home. She knew it wasn’t Superman’s fault. He had been busy battling three of Menken’s cyborg boxers. He couldn’t be everywhere at once. She wanted to non-verbally reassure him that it wasn’t his fault, that she didn’t blame him, but she couldn’t let go of her arm. It felt better when she held it.

“I was doing just fine until you shot me!” Lois snapped at Lex. The throb in her arm felt like someone pushing a needle through her arm, uncomfortable, definitely unpleasant, but bearable.

“This arguing is pointless,” conceded Lex. “Lois, I did what I thought necessary to save you. I’m sorry it didn’t work out like I had planned. What’s important now is that we need to get you to a doctor. Superman can take Menken to the authorities and I’ll…”

The Man of Steel disappeared from one side of her and reappeared less than a second later on her other side. He set a boot onto Menken’s back, as the man tried to crawl away unnoticed, knocking him flat on the ground. “I’ll take you to the hospital, Lois,” he said as if their conversation hadn’t been interrupted and dismissing Lex’s suggestion out of hand. He shook his head. “Why are we even discussing this?”

“Because you know you can’t leave Menken under the watchful eyes of John Wayne over there,” Lois said, letting go of her arm to gesture to Lex with her left hand, only to have the pain double when she let go. She immediately returned her hand to her damaged arm. It really wasn’t that bad as long as she kept it still.

“It was an accident, Lois!” Lex repeated. “I never wanted to hurt you. You’ve got to know that.”

“You aren’t leaving me alone in this alley with that double crossing louse!” Menken insisted, lifting his head from the pavement. “He’s trying to kill me!”

The pain was starting to increase to a burning sensation. “Superman,” Lois said, trying to keep a waver from her voice and not to let him see how much she was really wounded. Although, that was almost pointless after he had x-rayed her arm. “You need to take both of them in to the police for questioning. When I get to the hospital, it’s going to be reported that I was shot, and the truth will come out. So, Lex, you might as well get your statement out of the way. Tell them what happened here in the alley.” Lois returned her eyes to Superman. “Go! Take them in, and I’ll get myself to the paramedics.” A wave of pain washed over her and then ebbed away. There was a metallic taste in her mouth and she wondered if she had bitten her tongue to help control her emotions. She hugged her arm closer to her chest. “Or find Clark. He’s around here somewhere. He’ll see me safely to the hospital.”

Superman stared at her, then shifted his gaze to her arm, and Lois hoped it wasn’t because he knew how badly she was wounded. She wanted him out of there before the pain got any worse, which she knew it would. She didn’t want him to see her like that. She needed him to think she was strong and could handle whatever life threw her way, or he would install himself as her permanent bodyguard. A man like Superman wouldn’t want a woman that was constantly in need of rescuing. She straightened her posture, doing the best she could to tell him non-verbally that she could do this, she could handle this on her own. Superman couldn’t come to the hospital and hold her hand. They had already established that fact.

He appeared as if he wanted to rest his hands on her shoulders but instead crossed his arms on his chest, as if he was afraid to touch her. “Are you sure you’ll be fine? Maybe I should check your wound again.”

Lois squeezed her left hand around her right arm tighter. “Go! The longer you delay, the longer it will be before I get to the hospital. Get out of here already!”

He hesitated a moment longer as he stared at her before murmuring, “I’m sorry.” Then he swooped up into the air, holding Menken by his jacket in one fist and Lex under his other arm.

Lois nodded as she watched them disappear over the tops of the buildings and toward the roar of the crowd gathered for Fight Night, where she could hear Garrison calling Superman to come fight him. Garrison was an idiot. After the anger she saw in Superman’s eyes when he looked at Lex, if Superman stepped into the ring with Garrison, it would only take one punch and the cyborg would be flying, literally, towards Gotham City.

She took a couple of steps down the alley and stopped. She took a wavering breath, letting a groan escape, more from the annoyance of being shot than the pain. Actually, she was surprised it didn’t hurt worse.

Lois released her arm and slowly turned it. One hole in her jacket going in; one even bigger hole heading out. Where was the bullet? She glanced around and immediately gave up. She’d need Superman’s microscopic night vision to find anything in this alley tonight.

Her knees started to shake as the realization struck Lois that she had been shot, really and truly shot. The third richest man in the world had shot her. It all seemed surreal, and a bit funny. Someday, she was sure, this would be hilarious. She wondered with whom she could share the chuckle. Lex? Nah, she didn’t see that guy in her future, let alone laughing. Clark maybe. Not Superman, that was for sure. Superman would never find her being shot funny.

Lois had seen that Superman was teetering on the edge already. If Clark was right, and Superman had believed that he was partially to blame for Allie’s death, who only knew what he was thinking now? The woman he loved had been shot, been shot by Lex Luthor. Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to allow him to fly off with Lex.

She had been shot and Superman had landed next to her not five seconds later. Those were five seconds she was sure he would never let go of. Five seconds he would review in that super memory of his, over and over, torturing himself with them, letting them keep him from sleep. Did he sleep? He must sleep. Everyone sleeps. Of course, Superman wasn’t like everyone else. That was one of the reasons she loved him: his ability to care. Although, he could be such a lunkhead when it came to blaming himself or caring too much.

She wondered if she had been able to convince Superman that it wasn’t his fault and that she wasn’t really hurt. Okay, she was really hurt, just not mortally wounded. True, she had been shot, but this was survivable. It wasn’t that bad; well, not as bad as she thought it would be. When she had heard of people getting shot, she imagined excruciating pain, and buckets of blood pouring out, and thankfully, she wasn’t experiencing any of that. Well, at least she could cross ‘getting shot’ off her list of things to experience before she died.

Lois knew she needed to get out of the alley and get to the paramedics. She took another step and her foot landed on something. She looked down to see what it was. There on the ground in front of her was Lex’s gun. She had forgotten he had dropped it, tossed it away from himself when he had realized what he had done.

Though he had apologized – Lex had apologized, hadn’t he? – he hadn’t seemed all that sorry by what he had done. He seemed more concerned by the appearance of doing the right thing as opposed to actually doing the right thing. At one point, she had thought Lex had been more concerned that he wouldn’t get blamed for shooting her than he was for actually shooting her. She shook her head. No, that couldn’t be right. He was probably just in shock. He couldn’t really be that cold, could he? Why was she dating him again? Oh, right, to get Superman to make a move. That game obviously wasn’t working and was unfair to Lex. Of course, if she stopped dating him now she would seem petty for blaming him for shooting her. Ugh. Well, he did shoot her.

Lois wondered if seeing her mortality up close and personal like this would be the thing that would finally tip the scales in her favor with Superman. Would Superman actually acknowledge to himself that she could be gone tomorrow and seize the day?

She sighed, knowing she wouldn’t lay odds on that bet.

Her lips quivered and she looked down at Lex’s gun again. That thing had sent a piece of metal through her arm, her right arm, her writing right arm. Dammit!

Superman would send the police to her location to secure the crime scene. Superman would send Clark to take care of her. God! Her arm felt like it was on fire. Where was he?

***

Superman may have been moving up into the sky, but Clark’s eyes stayed focused on Lois, standing alone in the alley by herself, in pain, bleeding. He hadn’t been there for her. She had needed him, and he hadn’t been there. He still wasn’t being there for her; he was dealing with these jerks.

Go! Get out of here already. She had told him. Find Clark. Well, he had finally made Lois want to have nothing to do with Superman. It only took her being shot and him being late by three seconds.

Clark felt like super speeding these two over to the ocean and dropping them in, so he could get right back to her.

You’re better than that.

Even hating him for not being there for her, Lois still believed in Superman more than he ever would in himself.

“Superman, Luthor was behind it,” Menken confessed, his voice wavering with nervousness as he dangled over Metropolis. “He was backing me. I could never have afforded to pay Sam the money I did without him. It was his idea to use Ms. Lane as leverage against her father.”

“Likely story, Menken,” Luthor retorted. “Don’t believe a word he says, Superman. He’s trying to throw guilt off himself by blaming the man who almost shot him.”

Yes, the ocean was looking more and more tempting.

Superman saw the blinking lights of several police cruisers and started to descend. There was a uniformed cop staring at him as he landed. Clark recognized him from the graduation ceremony from the previous afternoon. Some first day.

“Inspector…” the new recruit called to a plain clothes detective behind him, not taking his eyes off Superman, yet clearly not knowing what to do in this situation. “Uh… Inspector!”

The tall, thin police inspector turned around and looked at Superman’s passengers with more than passing interest. “And here I thought this was going to be a dull evening. Max Menken, we’ve been looking for you.” The police inspector nodded to the uniformed cop to take him off Superman’s hands. “Thank you, Superman. And, Mr. Lex Luthor, this is a surprise. What are you doing hanging out with the likes of Menken?”

Luthor stepped away from the indignity of being carried by Superman like a sack of potatoes and straightened his suit. “Max Menken kidnapped Lois Lane from my care earlier this evening. I discovered them and captured him.”

Superman pressed his lips together. Nice rewrite there, Luthor.

The police inspector didn’t look overly impressed by these self-pronounced heroics either, making Clark like him right off the bat. “Uh-huh,” said the man, who then turned to look at Superman. “You’re bleeding.” He nodded towards Superman’s arm where Lois had touched him when trying to convince him to not kill Luthor. “You should have someone check that out.”

Clark glanced down at his stained uniform. He needed to get back to Lois, but first he should clarify matters. “Ms. Lane is waiting in the alley behind the Daily Planet, Inspector. She asked that I send some police to secure the crime scene. She’s in the need of medical attention because Mr. Luthor, here…” Superman nudged Luthor forward towards the Inspector. “— shot her. That’s her blood.”

The inspector raised an eyebrow and refocused his attention on Luthor.

“It was an accident,” Luthor reiterated, this time to the policeman. “I was aiming my gun at Max Menken and she… Ms. Lane turned and knocked the gun out of his hand. My gun discharged accidentally...”

Superman shook his head at the fabrication of this story.

“I’m sure you have a license for that weapon, Mr. Luthor, don’t you?” the inspector asked.

“Of course!” Luthor insisted.

“A block to the east, you’ll find three of Menken’s cyborg boxers gift wrapped for you and the boxing commission,” Superman said.

They could hear Tommy Garrison calling to him from the stage, where the Ultimate Fight was supposed to have taken place. “Superman! Superman! You think you’re so tough. Why don’t you come into the ring, and we’ll see how tough you really are.”

“I’ve got to go, Inspector…” Superman said, ready to super speed back to Lois and get her to the hospital. They had wasted too much time already. Only Lois didn’t want Superman to take her to the hospital. She wanted Clark, and Clark couldn’t super speed anyone, anywhere. He really needed to clear the air with Lois, but first she needed to heal and time to forgive Superman.

“William Henderson. Thank you, Superman,” the inspector said, holding out his hand. “We’ll take it from here.”

Superman shook his hand with a thankful nod. With a fist into the air, he disappeared into the darkness. He landed in an abandoned portion of the alley between the two crime scenes, spun into his Clark clothes, and jogged towards where Superman had left Lois.

“Lois?” he called, wondering if she had headed this way to look for help. He pushed through a gate and found the spot where she had been shot.

The smell of her blood hit him first, causing him to gag and hold his breath. Next came the memory of hearing the gunshot and knowing he was already too late. If he had known where he had been going or who had been involved, he could have gotten there in time. He tilted down his glasses and scanned the shadows not expecting to find Lois. He guessed she had probably gone the other direction to leave the alley. Instead he found her standing there staring at something on the ground. The right sleeve of her jacket more red than brown now.

“Lois!” he called again, approaching her. She didn’t move. He knew she should be able to hear him, so he guessed she was going into shock. Clark shrugged out of his jacket. “Lois?” he repeated softly as he was right next to her and he didn’t want to spook her.

Lois tilted her head, glancing up at him. Her eyes seemed both blank and full of despair at the same time. Her dichotomy always amazed him, but in this instant it left him feeling nothing more than disgust at his behavior. She was hurt, really hurt, and he had left her here alone while he dealt with Menken and Luthor. Grief, guilt, and shame washed over him. Her gaze returned to the ground.

He noticed that it was Luthor’s gun that had caught her attention. He wanted to pick up the thing and toss it so hard it would reach the next solar system, but it was evidence, evidence against Luthor.

Anyway, guns don’t shoot people, people do. At least that was what his father had always taught him. Get the man, not the weapon, Clark told himself.

“I want to step on it and smash it. I want to kick it into the next state, Clark. I want to pick it up and throw it at someone,” Lois growled. “But I can’t. I can’t. Clark?” The last was spoken in realization that it was him standing next to her. “You’re here. You’ve come. I didn’t think you’d come.” Tears ran down her face as she leaned against him. “It’s starting to hurt, Clark. It burns. Help me.”

Clark nodded, unable to speak. It was his fault that she was in pain. His fault that she had been put into this situation. He would never forgive himself. Carefully, he set his jacket over her shoulders. She turned her face towards his chest.

“You’re here. You’re really here,” she sobbed.

“I’m sorry, Lois,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head. He knew it would not be the last time he spoke those words. He would never stop being sorry.

Lois melted into him. “Why? Why are you sorry?”

“For everything,” he admitted truthfully.

“Did you shoot me? Did you hand the gun to Lex? Did you tell him to shoot at Menken first chance he got?” Lois scoffed. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Chuck.”

He should have dropped Luthor into the Pacific. He knew a nice spot where the sharks like to hang out. Or, if he had time, he could have dropped Luthor into the bayou in alligator infested waters.

“I didn’t protect you,” Clark said, wrapping an arm around her waist in preparation to lead her to the nearest street where an ambulance was waiting. “I shouldn’t have let Menken take you.”

“He had a gun,” she reminded him, letting Clark off the hook way too easily.

“That’s no excuse,” he said, slowly starting to guide her forward.

“You could’ve been shot,” Lois said, her voice hoarse. He didn’t know if it was from this thought or from her pain.

“You were shot.”

“Really? I thought a train took off my arm,” she teased. How could he not love her? Cracking jokes through her tears.

“A bullet train?” he suggested, and then bit his tongue. That had been in poor taste.

Lois groaned. He had to agree; his joke had been lame.

“I should have protected you,” he said again. “That’s why I’m sorry. I wasn’t here for you when you needed me most. You deserve better.”

“Don’t beat yourself up, Clark,” she scolded. “Even Superman arrived too late.”

Her words of reassurance were anything but.

“Can you imagine how he’s feeling?” she asked.

“Who?” His brow furrowed.

“Superman.”

Oh, him. He no longer existed.

Clark couldn’t believe she cared anymore what Superman thought or felt, and his love for her doubled again only to be sandwiched by his guilt. “I bet he’s feeling like I do, like he wished that he had been shot instead of you,” he said, silently adding, With a Kryptonite bullet. Or better yet, that Menken and Luthor had shot each other.

Lois grimaced. “Don’t make me laugh.”

Laugh?

“Bullets can’t hurt him,” she murmured.

This one had.

Voices echoed down the alley made him realize that the police had finally arrived. “Superman said Lois Lane was back here, somewhere,” one of the officers said. “She’s been shot.”

“What? Lois Lane, that reporter from the Daily Planet?” a female voice asked. “I love her Superman stories. She must not have been seriously hurt if Superman left her here.”

“Ms. Lane?” another man called.

“Over here,” Clark said as they came into view, raising the arm that was not wrapped around Lois to signal to them.

He could hear Tommy Garrison’s magnified voice echoing through the air as the boxer continued to call to him. “Superman! Suuuuuppp-eeeer-man!” Garrison scoffed. “He’s not a super man, he’s a super chicken. Bawk, bawk, bawk…” the man squawked. Normally these type of insults would’ve made him angry, but Clark felt nothing. Why should he? Superman had let Lois down. He was less than useless.

“Stay with me,” Lois murmured, leaning into Clark.

Always.

“Don’t leave me, Clark.”

Never again.

***

They arrived at the hospital, and Lois was wheeled through the emergency doors on the ambulance’s wheeled stretcher. She had wanted to walk, but they had insisted. She had refused to let go of Clark’s hand. She had just spent a night at the hospital dealing with Allie’s death by herself. She hadn’t wanted to go through this alone. The paramedic shifted her position and bumped Clark out of the way.

“Clark!” Lois called, stretching out her good hand.

“I’m right here, Lois. I’m not going anywhere,” he said, up at the front of the stretcher, where her feet were.

The EMTs hadn’t wanted to let Clark come in the ambulance, insisting that he find alternate transportation. They only relented when Lois said that if they wanted to take her to the hospital, Clark was coming too.

Lois could feel the heat of his hand on her leg. She gazed at him with gratitude.

The wheeled stretcher stopped in the hallway to wait for the emergency room personnel. Apparently, there had been a major battle between rival gangs and the emergency ward was dealing with more critical gunshot wounds than hers. There was nothing like ‘urgent care’ in the big city. Luckily the paramedics had angled her upwards so that she was sitting as opposed to lying down.

They were as alone as they would ever be here. Lois watched as Clark put a reassuring smile on his face, trying to make her feel better, but she could see something in his eyes, fear maybe, that they were even here at all. With Superman she felt like she needed to act strong. Around Clark, she felt safe enough to let go of the façade of Lois Lane, strong no-nonsense career woman, and just be herself. It was nice to have someone around who would do anything for her. Frankly, at this moment, she felt like being pampered, loved, and held. Superman couldn’t do that, not in public anyway. Lois knew that was a job for Clark Kent.

Guilt washed over her for using Clark in this manner. He deserved so much more, especially from a woman who would never love him like he loved her. Her bottom lip began to quiver. “I’m sorry, Clark,” she said, reaching out her good left hand. The paramedics had put her right arm in a sling for transport.

Instantly his hand was clasping hers. “Don’t say that, Lois.” He reached over to her and brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear as he cupped her jaw. “Never say that. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

Lois tightened the grip on his hand. “I’ve treated you so horribly over the past few months…”

“All forgotten,” he said.

“I accused you of crimes you’ve never committed. I ruined your reputation at work, and made you fodder for the worst gossips in the world. I unjustly insulted you, ignored you, and avoided you, and, yet, here you are, still here, still wanting to be with me. Why?” She gazed up towards his eyes. It was hard to see them with the bright fluorescent lights blinding her. She wished she could see his expression.

“Glutton for punishment, I guess,” Clark answered with a shrug.

“I’m serious, Clark. You deserve better. You deserve some happiness. You deserve to get your heart’s desire,” Lois insisted.

“I deserve you,” he replied with a hopeful smile.

She attempted to laugh but the jostling hurt her arm, so she ended up scowling instead. “What have you done so horrible in your life that you deserve someone like me?”

He lifted up his glasses to wipe his eyes, but they fell down again a moment later. “Lois, have you ever considered the possibility that I did something to deserve the best?”

“Nope. That’s not it,” she corrected him with a shake of her head. “I’m not the best; well, okay, I am the best, but not for you.” She was a perfect fit for Superman, not Clark.

A wistful smile graced his lips. “Then the next best woman for me.”

“What happened to number one?” Lois asked.

He shrugged. “She ran off and married some other guy.”

“B*tch,” she said, tightening her hand in his.

He glanced away. Lois was afraid that she had said the wrong thing, but then he returned his gaze to hers and she briefly saw laughter in them.

Her brow furrowed in confusion. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Otherwise I wouldn’t have come here and met you,” Clark said, caressing her cheek.

“So, I caught you on the rebound. Great,” she mumbled. She knew she shouldn’t be leading him on, but it felt good to laugh and tease him so. Sometimes, it felt like all she and Superman did was argue. She knew it would be bliss once he let her behind that stone wall of his, but until then she would keep cracking away at it one chip at a time.

A nurse arrived and they went through some paperwork. Her vitals were taken. She was taken off the stretcher and put into a wheelchair. Terrific, more waiting. During all of this, Clark hadn’t let go of her. He was touching her ankle, resting his hand on her shoulder, or holding her hand. He never left.

“Don’t you have someplace to be?” she asked and watched as his face fell, so she hastened to clarify. “Someplace you’d rather be?”

Clark shook his head. “No.” His eyes searched hers. “Do you want me to leave?”

“I know that being around all this free flowing blood must be bothersome for you,” she said, recalling how he had almost passed out when she had gotten that scratch on her forehead back when Superman had first arrived and someone had tried to blow him up. “Hospitals give me the willies.”

“Then I’ll stay, so you won’t be alone,” he said, saying the exact words she wanted to hear. “It’s your free flowing blood that bothers me the most.”

“Me too,” she admitted wryly.

“Is there someone you want me to call? Perry, Lucy, your mom…”

Lois’s eyes widened with panic. God forbid he call her mother. “I guess you should call Lucy, so she’ll know when I don’t come home. Of course…” She cleared her throat, and felt her face flush. If Lois didn’t come home, Lucy’s first thought would be that she was at Clark’s. After Jimbo’s mistaken assumption the other day, which her sister had gotten wind of, Lucy kept hinting at a reconciliation. “If she’s home herself, she’s been nursing Jimmy. You should phone in the story to Perry…”

Clark shook his head. “When they take you in, I’ll call Perry and tell him you’ve been shot, so he doesn’t find out about it over the wire service, but I can’t… I can’t write this. I’m too biased,” he said gruffly, before looking away. He added a regretful, “Anyway, I wasn’t there.”

She lifted his chin. “Hey, there. I thought we went through this. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t Superman’s fault…”

His eyes hardened. “It was Lex Luthor’s fault.”

Lois shouldn’t have been surprised at the animosity she saw there, and, yet, she was. Clark had always disliked the billionaire, but it seemed with this one event that dislike had tipped him over into hate. “Clark, it was an accident. He didn’t mean to shoot me. He was aiming for Menken. I don’t want you to do anything…”

“I can’t believe you!” Clark said, letting go of her to stand up. “He shot you and you’re still letting him off the hook. What is it going to take, Lois, for you to see the guy as he really is?”

“What’s it going to take for you to judge the man on the facts?” she retorted, not wanting to defend Lex at the moment, but also not wanting Clark to go off chasing windmills.

“Fact: Luthor aimed his gun towards you. Fact: He shot you. Pretty cut and dry there, Lois,” Clark said, pacing in front of her.

Lois just looked at him. “You’re right. He shot me, and I’m angrier than you are about that…”

“Doubtful,” Clark grumbled.

“I am!” she said defensibly. “But I have chosen not to think about it, because when I do my arm hurts more. So, either stay and help me forget about things for a while, or leave, because…”

Clark sat down and took her left hand in his again. “I’m sorry, Lois. That’s not important right now. Forgive me.”

She leaned towards him, her eyes damp with unshed tears of frustration, and he met her half way, resting his forehead against hers.

“Distract me,” Lois whispered, trying to push her anger away. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek, and if he kissed her at this moment, she wouldn’t have the power to resist.

Clark moved so that his cheek brushed against hers. She could feel his lips moving across her face. “Any ideas?”

Lois’s heart skipped a beat and her breath hitched. She wanted him. She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted his lips to go up her neck, to kiss along her jaw line, to touch hers. She wanted him to tug on her lips with his and to feel the tingle of his tongue gliding across her teeth. She could feel her heart racing and her breath go ragged in anticipation. She was getting dizzy from want. “I want…”

No! She couldn’t do that to Superman. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t be with her at her moment of need. She leaned back sharply in her wheelchair, bumping her shoulder, causing her to wince. Lois cleared her throat and glanced away for a moment. “You know about my dad.” She rolled her eyes. “Tell me about yours.” She had been curious about Clark’s father since she overheard him telling her father that he felt responsible for his father’s death.

Clark stared at her, not speaking. She realized that she really didn’t know anything about him. He was from a small town in Kansas, he had loved and lost, he had traveled extensively, and his father was dead. Half of that information she had learned in just the last couple of days. Of course, she hadn’t really been there for him as a friend, listening to his problems, asking him about his past. She would remedy that.

“I’ve got to know something about you if we’re going to be partners,” she coaxed.

His eyes widened with surprise as if the word ‘partner’ was intimate. “Partners? Lois, you don’t need a partner.”

She glanced down at her right arm in a sling. “I beg to differ there, Chuck. Right now, I’d say I type about one word an hour. You type, what? Two-hundred words a minute? Anyway, hadn’t we established that I’m never wrong?”

Clark smiled that smile she loved; the one where he thought she had complimented him, even when she hadn’t. “When did ‘never being wrong’ morph into I have to give you whatever you want?”

Oh, he better not even try that. Lois swallowed. “When I got shot.”

“Well, I guess due to circumstances and since you insist, I can give you this one,” he said with a wink. “Partner.”

“I do. Now, spill.”

He sighed heavily, and said more than asked, “Your father told you.”

She nodded, so she wouldn’t distract him from telling her.

“It happened a long time ago,” Clark murmured as if he had described the events as such many times before, but she could tell that wasn’t how he really felt.

Lois reached up and caressed his cheek, turning his face back to hers. “It will never be a long time ago, Clark.”

His bottom lip started to tremble and he nodded. “I miss them so much.”

“Them?”

“My folks were together when…” His eyes closed from the agony of the thought. “I can remember the fire, and the smell…” He covered up his mouth and nose as if trying to forget. “It was sweet and smoky like burning sugar…”

A tear dislodged from Lois’s eye dripped down her cheek. She reached over and awkwardly wrapped her left arm around his neck pulling his face towards hers.

“Ms. Lane? Lois Lane?” the emergency room nurse called.

Lois didn’t want to go. She stared at Clark with regret. She wanted to hold him and help him grieve.

Clark swallowed down his emotions and returned his face to its façade of normalcy. “Do you need help, Lois?” he asked, standing up and moving to the back of her wheelchair.

She tried to turn and look at him, but the movement jarred her arm and made her swear. As he pushed her chair towards the emergency room nurse, he put his cheek next to hers. Lois was able to raise her hand to his face, but he stepped back just as it made contact.

“I should call Perry…”

Lois didn’t want him to leave, not this way. She didn’t want to go in and face those people alone, but maybe Clark needed a few minutes. Maybe Clark didn’t want to be in there when they cut away her coat and poked and prodded her bloody arm in preparation for surgery. She nodded, allowing him his space. “Come back to me.”

A smile brushed his lips and his eyes met hers. “Always.” It wasn’t just a word, it was a promise.

***End of Part 31***

Part 32

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