“Sir?” Nigel only half asked as he approached the President’s desk in the Oval Office as he ended the call he’d taken on his private cell phone.
Lex held up one finger as he finished off the email he was working on. When he was done typing, he read it over with a careful, discriminating eye before hitting the Send button. Finished for the moment, he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands together, resting them over his stomach – still more than full from the evening’s delicacies at dinner.
“What is it this time?” Lex asked, knowing from the way Nigel’s frown was creased in concern that whatever he was going to say, it wasn’t good news for Lex.
“It’s Kent again,” Nigel said, clasping his hands behind his back.
Lex scowled and his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Yes, yes, what is that thorn in my side up to now?”
“It seems he’s been a bit more…active, than in the past. My sources confirm that he’s been out and about Metropolis all day.”
Lex’s scowl deepened and he gave Nigel a dark glare. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve come to tell me? That some soft-brained lunatic took a field trip?” It was a struggle for Lex to keep himself from yelling. “Shouldn’t his mind be the consistency of pea-soup?”
“My sources saw he’s looking rather healthy,” Nigel said pointedly.
Lex growled and slammed his palm down on his desk, demanding an answer. “How?”
The older man shrugged. “As you made it abundantly clear to him so long ago, he’s Superman. Apparently, his self-healing is more powerful than we imagined.”
“Apparently,” Lex echoed sourly. He steepled his fingers in thought as he tried to calm his racing, raging thoughts enough to think rationally. “If he’s regained the use of his brain, he might well remember how it was that he got to that point.“
Nigel nodded dourly. “Perhaps. One thing is clear though. I fear he may be getting ready to make some kind of move…toward Lois Lane.”
“Lois?” That name had cut through the other, more important thoughts that were crowding Lex’s mind at the moment. “What does she have to do with anything?” Even now, after twenty-one years, her decision to leave him jilted at the altar brought back fresh rage and disbelief.
“Kent was spotted kissing her not long ago,” Nigel said neutrally.
Lex’s scowl deepened into such a look of contempt that it could have curdled milk. “Is that so?” he asked, his voice cracking with the unbridled hatred he carried for both Lois and the alien nuisance he’d failed to eliminate.
Nigel shrugged. “Priorities,” he gently reminded Lex. “The Lane woman is the least of your worries. As you said before, we can’t be certain he remembers your role in his…prior condition.”
Lex forced himself to mentally take a step back from the idea of Lois cozying up to his hated rival. He took a deep breath in through his nose and let it slowly out of his mouth. “Of course,” he allowed, the calmness in his voice a thin veneer covering the roiling rage beneath the surface. “Of course,” he repeated, this time with a nod. “You were right, Nigel. I was, perhaps, a bit too eager to gloat in my victory when he was my prisoner. I should have eliminated him right then and there, when I had him in that cage.”
A fleeting look of smugness crossed Nigel’s features for half a heartbeat before it was gone again. “Perhaps,” he agreed. “But we’ve tried to eliminate him since his unexpected rescue,” he reminded Lex.
“Which failed,” Lex pointed out, angrily jabbing his finger down onto the surface of his desk.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Nigel calmly countered with a shallow shrug.
Lex nodded. “It wasn’t built on failures either. Get one of your contacts out there now. Direct them to one of our contingency shelters for what they’ll need. I want him erased, for good, by the end of the night,” he snarled.
***
Clark glided across the ice in a graceful manner, pleased that he hadn’t lost any of his ability to ice-skate. In fact, he felt like he was doing a better job of it now than he ever had before. But perhaps that was because he was well-versed in flying now, albeit through the air, rather than on the razor-sharp, thin blades beneath his booted feet. Beside him, Lois was matching him, movement for movement, and looking as graceful as any angel come to Earth for a little bit of wintertime fun. It was hard for him to pull his eyes away from her.
It was snowing a little more heavily now than it had when they’d first stepped onto the ice. It was, by no means, a storm, but it was just thick and heavy enough to stick and give everything a thin patina of whiteness. With the flakes flying in the air and the bright lights around the rink, Lois seemed to actually glow. With every laugh, every breath, puffs of white mist appeared before her lips – lips that Clark still couldn’t believe he’d actually been allowed to kiss.
“Wait, wait,” Lois puffed, breaking the magical winter spell that had enchanted Clark’s eyes. She glided over to the railing around the edge of the rink. “I need to catch my breath for a moment,” she apologized.
“Take your time,” Clark told her as he skidded to a stop and then leaned his back on the high wooden rail. He looked around at the sparsely populated rink for a moment, watching other couples skating together and kids falling and stumbling their way around the ice. “I can’t believe how much I missed doing simple things like this,” he said after a moment, well aware of the wonderment in his voice. He looked at Lois. “Thanks for indulging me on this.”
Lois shook her head. “Don’t thank me. This was all your idea and I’ve really been having a great time.” She flashed him a smile that seemed somehow private - like it was meant for him and him alone.
“Yeah, but you could have said no,” he good-naturedly needled her.
“I could have,” she agreed, “but I would have missed out on an amazing night.”
He reached out and cupped her cheek. “This has been the best night of my life,” he told her.
“Mine too,” she replied, just before he leaned over and claimed her lips with his own.
Fireworks shot off behind his closed eyelids and fire was kindled in his blood. Every time he kissed her, it was like a volcano was erupting inside of him, as all his love made his heart literally ache as it beat wildly within his ribs. But this time, he kept the kiss short out of respect for the people around him. He had forever to show Lois just how much he loved her. There was no need to put it out on display for the public’s view. Lois shivered a little as they parted.
“Cold?” he asked.
“A little, despite the workout we’ve been getting for the last hour,” she replied with a grin.
Clark nodded. “I think I can remedy that,” he said.
She gently swatted his chest, then spoke in a near-whisper. “Don’t you dare heat-vision me in public.”
He chuckled. “I wasn’t thinking of that, but now that you mention it…” He let his voice trail off deliberately, teasing her.
“Not a chance, Farm Boy,” she mock-warned.
He laughed again and threw his hands up in surrender. “Okay, you win. I was thinking about hot chocolate anyway.”
“Mmm.” Lois closed her eyes as the thought of a nice, steaming hot cup of melted chocolate clearly came into her mind at the suggestion. “Sounds wonderful,” she said.
“Okay, let’s return the skates and head across the street. I saw a café over there when we passed by earlier.”
“Perfect,” Lois said.
Clark hesitated. “Unless you want me to get the drinks to go and keep skating once we’re done,” he offered.
But Lois shook her head. “I think I’m good for the night. Any more and I might be too sore to move in the morning. Those first few falls I took were pretty hard.” She took his hand and led him back toward the open space in the railing that passed for an entrance and exit.
“Sorry. I should have been quicker to catch you,” Clark apologized. “I guess I was a little distracted.” He ran his free hand through his hair.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lois said, brushing off his concern. “It’s nothing. But I am ready to sit inside and warm up a little.”
“Your wish is my command,” Clark said as they reached the exit. He helped Lois through first, then climbed over the miniature step.
Lois hummed a sound of acknowledgement as Clark helped her while they both awkwardly shuffled to the closest bench. Clark knelt down and untied Lois’ skates and gently eased them off her feet. Lois sighed in relief as the boots left her feet and Clark wondered if they’d perhaps been too tight or if they’d gotten too warm as they’d made lap after lap around the rink. He said nothing though and pulled Lois’ shoes out of the shoe cubby. She took them from him with a grateful smile, but wouldn’t allow him to help her with them.
“Thanks, Clark, but you don’t have to do that,” she told him as she lovingly touched the back of his hand.
“I like doing things for you. I always have,” he told her.
“I know,” she allowed with a single nod of her head. “And I appreciate it. But you’re not my personal servant or anything.”
“Would it be such a bad thing if I was?” he joked. Then, more seriously, “Lois, you’ve gone above and beyond for me. I can never repay you for that.”
“I don’t need repayment,” she stressed, interrupting him.
“I know that. And I’m not doing this out of…obligation or anything,” he amended, truthfully. “But it makes me happy to do little things for you. I like making you happy.”
“You already make me happy, Clark. You know that, right?” she said, taking his hand and making him sit down next to her. “Just by being you and by being with me. Clark, I spent a long, long time thinking I might never see you again. All I want now is to just be with you, like we used to be, before any of this happened. Only, it’s better now, because I’m finally letting myself love you.”
Clark nodded thoughtfully and started to untie his own laces. “Things are better for me too,” he replied after a moment. “Because I can finally be honest with you about who I am. And about how much I love you. Back then…keeping those secrets…it almost tore me in half sometimes. I’d fluctuate between wanting to tell you everything one moment and being terrified of you rejecting me and becoming more committed to keeping my secrets than ever before in the next moment.”
He sighed and watched as a man and a woman – both clearly expert skaters – spun each other around the middle of the ice, flipping and twirling and reversing direction with ease. “I never want to go back to that kind of life, Lois. Not with you. I prefer this. This not hiding. This not pretending. This not worrying about how and when to tell you things. This not wondering if you’ll be revolted by my…unique origins.” He shifted his gaze to her and smiled. “For a long time, even before Luthor, I was an outsider, always looking in. I could blend in and act like everyone else, but I was always, always set apart from them. Until you. The day I met you, I felt like I’d finally found where I belonged – in Metropolis, at your side. I finally felt like I fit in.”
He left his untied skates on his feet, and took Lois’ hand, entwining his fingers with hers. “I met you and I found my heart, Lois.”
She gave him a wobbly, emotional smile in return. “And I’d spent my life wondering if there was even one decent man out there. Someone who wouldn’t look at me and see an opportunity to use and humiliate me. I was so scared that you’d be the same when Perry teamed us up. How could you not? You were – still are – handsome and competent and smart. And that scared me even more. Even if you didn’t outright steal from me, surely you’d use my reputation to boost your own and get ahead.”
She shook her head at the absurdity of her statements. “Then I got to know you. The real you. Not the…projection of yourself that you would occasionally disappear into thin air to become, for the benefit of society,” she said cautiously, keeping her words deliberately soft and vague. “And I learned I was wrong. What was more? I learned how to trust again. For the first time in my life, I knew I’d found a best friend who I could always count on. And then you slipped even deeper into my heart and I found that I could love again.”
“I will always be that guy, Lois. I swear it. I’ll always be there for you…barring any other unforeseen…uh…incidents,” he weakly joked. “I will never hurt you. I’ll never give you a reason to cry ever again.”
“You better not. Twenty years of tears is enough to last a lifetime,” Lois said, reaching out to gently stroke his cheek.
“Once we get justice and see Luthor behind bars, we’ll never need to worry about that again,” Clark said with conviction. Then he shook his head ever so softly. “I’m just not entirely sure how we’re going to go about that. Yet.”
“We’ll find a way, partner,” she said with a chuckle, bumping her shoulder into his in a comfortable, friendly way.
“You’re right, as always,” he said, shooting back a smile. Then he reached down to pull his skates off and change back into his regular shoes. “But first thing’s first. I owe you a hot chocolate.”
***
“That may have been the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had,” Lois said, two hours later as she and Clark left the quaint little café and went back out into the cold night.
“Agreed. And that scone was incredible,” Clark added. “I’ve had authentic scones before and that was definitely authentic.”
Lois hummed her agreement. “Maybe we should have gotten some for the morning,” she mused as they crossed the street just before the light could change.
“Or maybe we can just make it another date night and come back here,” Clark offered with a wolfish grin.
Lois laughed and nodded. “Maybe,” she allowed.
“I mean, there will be other dates, right?” Clark said after a moment. “Because I can only speak for myself, but this was the best night of my life, Lois. I had such a great time with you.”
“I had a really great time with you too,” she said, flashing him her brightest smile. “I’d love to go out again. And, if I’m not being too forward, soon.”
“As soon as possible,” Clark vowed, pulling her a little closer to him as they walked. He hoped his close proximity to her was helping to keep her warm as the snow continued to fall.
They turned down the street where the parking garage was. Everything was still and quiet and Clark felt at peace. He and Lois had had an amazing conversation in the café, and he was still counting his lucky stars that he was dating her. That was why he wasn’t aware that they were being followed. They reached the corner of the garage to where the elevators and stairs were without incident. But as Clark reached for the call button of the elevator for the ride up to the fourth level, he was suddenly aware that someone was standing right behind him. He turned to see who was there, but he never got out so much as a single word. The man standing there pulled the trigger of his gun and Clark’s left side exploded into a mist of red blood before he slumped, unmoving, to the concrete at her feet.
To Be Continued…
