Bewildered, Clark tried to stand up only to be kicked again under his chin. There was salty, metallic taste in his mouth. Blood. It was his own blood. His ears were ringing but he could still hear Lois shrieking, "Stop!"
Tsk, Clark. Never misplace yor powers without even noticing where you lost them. Didn't you Mom and Pop teach you better than that?
Of course, Lois did her part of losing things too, such as (momentarily at least) her memory of being married:
Her mind returned to the most astonishing of those facts. She was married to Clark. For real. Well, sort of for real.
Ah, the young'uns, the things they forget....
The clock on the bedside table read 2:49.
Well, my alarm clock woke me up around 2:49 a.m. this morning - actually, it was more like 2:40 a.m. It will go off at the same time tomorrow morning (or night, if you want to call it that). Ain't life beautiful?
"Clark," she muttered to herself in disgust. It was now obvious where he had gone in such a hurry.
She's figured it out!!!!
Well, this was one Superman exclusive he was going to have to share with her.
Or not. :rolleyes:
"It's a long story," she said. "Actually, I'm looking for Clark. Have you seen him?"
"Um," Clark looked over at the crowd that Lois had just come from while he tried to buy himself time to think. "Clark?"
"I know. You're wondering what we're doing in Vegas." Lois appeared not to notice his discomfort.
Hmmmm. You score points for having a remarkably dense brain structure here, Lois. Makes thinking difficult.
"We're following a gangster, Mickey Raddatz - do you remember him? Well, that's why we're here. Not that we could tell him that earlier today when he saw us. We actually told him we were eloping." She rolled her eyes and told herself to just shut up now. "Only we sort of ended up, well, you can ask Clark about it the next time you see him. Do you think you'll still be in the neighborhood around nine this morning?"
Don't you just love explaining things to the masculine demigod that you idolize, when the things you have to tell him make you look like such a together sort of person?
Lois self-consciously crossed her arms over her chest. "I know. I'm in my pajamas. I kind of left the room in a hurry."
There is something about Lois's thought processes. They cascade in all directions at pretty nearly the speed of light, like the amazing quantum dross and cinders that scatter all over the place when you make electrons collide head on at 99 per cent of the speed of light in particle accelerators like CERN. Maybe the problem for Lois isn't that she is too dense, but rather that her thought processes move so close to the speed of light that she can't keep up with them.
"Heard something? From twelve stories up you heard that crash?"
His gaze skittered away from hers and he shrugged. Lois narrowed her eyes at him as she took in his appearance. "And so you got dressed - including your tie - you were in such a hurry, and you rushed down here?"
Clark winced but doggedly stuck to his story. "Yeah."
Oh, wow. Does the poor boy look guilty!
He was lying. Lois knew he was lying. He wouldn't look her in the eye - that couldn't be a good sign.
Oh, Lois, you power of deduction! I'm... impressed. *cough*
"Nice, Clark. It's our honeymoon and you're already cheating on me."
"Cheating on you?" he repeated in disbelief.
"Absolutely! What were you really doing down here? Were you following Mickey? What happened to partners? What happened to sharing the story?"
I like that definition of cheating!
"Lois, you had been locked in the bathroom for hours. I didn't think you were talking to me."
She crossed her arms, watching the fountains dance behind him as she considered her options. "I'm not," she finally said. "I'm not talking to you."
She went around him and marched back into the hotel with as much dignity as a woman in her pajamas could muster.
I can just see her!!!
"He knew we weren't in here. The room has been bugged."
"Then Mickey knows that we're on to him," he whispered back.
GAAAAAHHH!!!!!!
Tony is going to take your pretty little wife back in the room and violate her in ways that you don't really want to think about."
Tony's lips twitched in a smile and he winked at Lois.
Lois jerked her arm free of Tony's grasp. "That's nothing compared to what I'm going to do to Tony."
"Fiesty," Tony said with a laugh. "I never liked that in a woman."
"I've never been all that infatuated with thick-necked idiots, so I guess we're even," Lois shot back.
Got to love Lois!!!!
Lois wrinkled her nose as she climbed up the tailgate. She was grateful to be out of Tony's clutches but the storage area of the truck smelled faintly like sour milk. There were stacks of boxes labeled 'perishable' at the back of the space and the air was cold and humid. The truck dipped as Clark climbed inside and then the doors were slammed shut, leaving them in darkness. Lois swayed, feeling dizzy in the blackness as she heard the bolt thrown to lock the doors.
Sue, I'm a claustrophobiac. I
don't like your penchant for locking Lois and Clark up in trucks and trunks! I'm going to have to read the rest of this chapter with my eyes closed!
"So." Lois cleared her throat, feeling almost desperate to break the monotony. "You never did say how you pictured your honeymoon."
You know what Lois and Clark's honeymoon was like in the comics, circa 1997? Lois and Clark went somewhere, which could have been Hawaii for all I know. They got about ten minutes to themselves, during which time they neither kissed nor took off their clothes. After that the A-plot started, and Lois and Clark were kidnapped and spent the rest of their honeymoon fighting villains. When they finally prevailed, they had barely time to grab their bags before they had to catch their plane back to Metropolis. When they came home, Lois disappeared, and Clark went to work at the Daily Planet alone, blithely uninterested in the whereabouts of Lois.
There's something missing... wonder what it could be? Glasses - check! Powers - check! Ah, well, it's probably nothing important.... "Are you scared?" she asked quietly.
"No." His hand squeezed her elbow gently. "I have you to protect me, why would I be scared?"
Those words may turn out to be slightly truer than you exptected them to, Clark.
"I implied that you weren't attractive in those pajamas."
Lois fell silent. This wasn't the confession she was expecting. She thought he was going to tell her the truth about why he had left the hotel in the middle of the night. "You didn't say I was unattractive. You just said you didn't want to ravish me in those pajamas."
"That was a lie," he whispered.
"Oh." It was all she could say. As confessions went, that wasn't too bad. She allowed herself a small, pleased grin. "So what else have you lied about, Clark?"
She couldn't possibly know the truth. She had to be guessing. Even so, Clark barely managed to choke out, "What makes you think that I'm lying about something else?"
Lois sent a wry smile in the direction of his voice. She didn't have to see him to know he looked guilt-ridden right now. His voice was beyond contrite. "You sound guilty."
"I sound guilty?"
She gave a small laugh. "Clark, you almost always look guilty about something. I think you lie to me on a daily basis."
Hmmm. This is a very enjoyable conversation.
They jumped together from the back of the truck to the ground. A small cloud of dust went up and Clark sneezed.
So it was the dust. As in bite the. Clark, Clark, Clark. Didn't your Mom tell you not to play in dust and dirt where you may lose your powers?
Looking forward to the rest of the evil A-plot, Sue. And I'm interested in knowing if Clark and Lois are going to get an annulment, provided they both get out of this alive. (And, of course, if they don't get an annulment, I'm interested in knowing if they are going to consummate their marriage. Don't laugh. I've spent half a lifetime watching Lois and Clark
not consummate their relationship. Just consider their comic book honeymoon, for example.)
Ann
