~~From Part 1~~
The first line staring at her confirmed her worst nightmare. It was *the* questionnaire. The one he wasn't supposed to ever see.
"Oh my God," Lois stammered out, using whatever air she had left in her body to form the words. Panic was rising fast.
"Finally! A response from the almighty Lois Lane! Thank you for joining us today."
"Oh my God!" She repeated with a little more intensity. She was going to hyperventilate; she could feel herself going.
************
Part 2
Clark noticed Perry’s increasing frustration with Lois. He was sure Perry was on the verge of making a very definitive point to her if she didn’t snap out of her resolve soon, which wasn’t likely. Knowing his boss didn’t get to be Editor-In-Chief because he could yodel, Clark weaved his way into the conversation hoping to save Lois's butt from the dogs.
"Chief, I, um, have Lois's notes over here. I was just going over them for her, uh...because she wanted to make sure we covered different angles and not the same things."
He knew he had to do something in Lois's defense since he was sure he was the cause of her noticeable distress. He wasn't sure how far she got in his e-mail but knew she had at least opened it by her repeated statement of 'Oh my God.'
"Well, okay then. See, that's what I call initiative, boys and girls," he shouted for everyone to hear, but finished his statement for Clark, "Just send them to me as soon as you finish up here."
"No problem, Chief," Clark told him, knowing he could speed-type notes up without any trouble.
He realized though, Perry was still skeptical by the way he stared at Lois before heading back to his office. The wrath of Perry had been defused once again and the paper could go on.
Now if only he could defuse the bomb he was sure his e-mail had detonated.
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Lois couldn't believe it. Had she really sent the questionnaire to Clark? Oh God, she had and he had read it. She wanted to dig a hole as deep as she could and live there for the rest of her life. She wondered briefly if she could get Superman to dig the hole for her; he could get it much deeper than a backhoe could. Maybe she could get him to place a boulder over the top of it. Yes, that would be good.
Finally tangible, intellectual thoughts infiltrated her mind. Not only had Clark read her answers, he was answering her back. He had sent her *his* answers back.
<Oh, my God, he's replying.>
Although shock and panic were still high on her list of emotions, she could now add nervousness and worry to it all. Nervousness for two reasons: the first being she had no idea how he felt about her answers, and the second being she would soon find out. She was also worried for two reasons: one, what if he didn't feel the same way and two, what if he did?
Lois was on an emotional rollercoaster ride. She didn't know what to do. She corrected that statement...yes, she did know what. It was time she pushed back her fears and forged ahead. He was aware of her feelings so it was only fair she was aware of his. She just hoped he answered the questions in the same fashion she had-ruled by passion and not in pity.
Before reading the message, Lois raised her eyes to look over at the man of her thoughts. As embarrassed as she was, she knew she should just pretend he wasn't sitting here, ten feet away from her. But she needed, her heart needed the contact of seeing him; she just hoped he wasn't looking in her direction.
The moment her eyes landed on him, Lois felt her breath leave her again. Not for the same reason it had moments earlier. Now it was the love she had for him welling up inside her. She couldn't deny it, not that she wanted to. She just hoped beyond anything else that he felt it too.
Lois forced herself back to her computer. It was now or never and never wasn't an option. The fact that this had all happened had to be some sort of a sign and she wasn't going to pass it up. Fate was knocking on her door.
As her eyes fell upon the message, she felt an overwhelming desire to take it one line at a time.
1. IF YOU COULD BE ANY TYPE OF ANIMAL WHAT WOULD YOU BE? A Horse
She left that one alone for now. She remembered her initial thoughts when he had answered that a few hours ago, leaning over her shoulder the first time he had seen the questionnaire. Little had he known then what it had entailed. She would have bet money, he'd never have expected what he had ended up with.
2. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD: Letting this opportunity of us becoming an 'us' slip away
He wanted to be an *us*? Did he mean that as in beyond friendship, as in more? He wanted to be with her? As his girlfriend? Did he really want it to be him and her, as in them?
The thought that Clark was feeling something between them just as she did was more than she’d ever thought would happen. Maybe he hadn't expected her answers but she had to admit she hadn't expected his either.
3. BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD: Being loved by Lois
Lois's heart did flip-flops inside her chest. Clark wasn't humoring her after all. He really cherished the idea of her loving him. He didn't take it lightly as she had known deep down he wouldn't. He wasn't like all other men; he was the last true Boy Scout; her Boy Scout. Why she never trusted that was beyond her. She knew she should have looked at the man he really was a long time again and not just this morning.
Her eyes glanced down to the next question and everything around her faded away as she read his answer.
4. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Not until I met Lois Lane. Actually *been* is the wrong word, I *am* in love.
And reread it over and over, again and again.
He loved her. She sat there stunned; not daring to move for fear the words might disappear if she did. Clark Kent loved her. He was in love with her. He was *still* in love with her.
Lois painfully remembered a few months back when Clark had told her that he was in love with her, but she was about to marry Lex Luthor. She had turned Clark down, telling him she didn't feel that way about him, which had been a lie. She had known it then just as much as she knew it now. It was a miracle they had survived that time of their lives; they almost hadn't.
She had always known she had feelings for Clark, even then "Lois Lane-Kent" had sounded so right in place of "Lois Lane-Luthor", a name she couldn't ever fathom. She had came so close to telling Clark but he’d stopped her and instead had told her he’d lied about his feelings in order to stop her from marrying Luthor. She wasn't sure she believed him but she wasn't strong enough to challenge him then. So Lois being Lois and being so used to getting hurt, had pushed her feelings away so that it became second nature to deny them.
But now things were different. They were different. They had a second chance at this and she'd be damned if she was going to let that slip away this time. She loved him. He loved her. It was true; in all her wildest dreams she never thought it would be true.
Suddenly Lois had a thought. What if this was all a dream? If it was, she knew immediately that she'd never want to wake up. She wasn't really dreaming all of this, was she? She reached down with her left hand and pinched her right arm.
<Ouch!>
Nope, definitely not a dream. She smiled at the whole of it. Not only was he interested in being her boyfriend, he was in love with her. Knowing all that didn't scare her, but instead it thrilled her to the very core.
<Oh God, Clark. I love you too!> she wanted to shout.
Lois noticed then that he had only picked certain questions to answer and she was down to the final one.
5. FULL NAME: Clark Jerome Kent, also known as, Kal-El
If she knew Clark was only going to answer five questions, she wished he had answered a different one; she already knew his name was Clark Jerome Kent. That was no big secret by any means. In fact, she had known Jerome was his middle name since the day Clark had been hired at the Planet; she had snuck in Perry's office and accidentally came across his resume-okay, so she’d taken it out of the locked filing cabinet. Something about him had always made her need to know more.
As she kept repeating Clark's name in her head, she imagined herself yelling it during a lover's argument or whispering it in his ear in ecstasy. Lois blushed. Okay, so maybe it wasn't a bad question to answer with the way her thoughts were going, but still she wished he would have answered what he thought of when he work up this morning. She secretively smiled hoping that he had thought about her.
But before her thoughts could run off any further, her eyes landed on the four words succeeding 'Clark Jerome Kent'. She had seen the words before; no, she had written the words before during an interview with Superman.
'Kal-El' was Superman's birth name. But why was Clark using Superman's AKA?
Then a hundred images came flooding through her mind, as subtle as a ton of bricks falling on top of her. She knew why.
All the stupid excuses, all the disappearing acts, never seeing Clark and Superman together, Clark never being around in dangerous situations but Superman always there in time, the strong resemblance and her feelings for both men; it all made sense. Clark Kent was Superman. Her partner and best friend was also the same superhero that saved lives. Clark, the man she loved, was Superman.
"Oh God," Lois stammered out loud, "You're-"
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To be continued...
