last time...
“What about… her … scar?”
“We can cut it out, and then replace it with a skin graft.”
“So – cut skin from somewhere else,” she winced. “I guess… I mean – it makes sense…”
“We can grow skin… from your own cells. Using… um… some information we obtained from… Luthor’s cloning experiments, I’ve been able to do some pretty amazing things. Cloning skin is… now… it’s easy.”
“Wow,” she said, her tone suddenly bothered. “I’d hate to benefit from what Luthor did.”
“Lois – it’s the best… I don’t know…revenge? Getting something good from what he did.”
“Clark, he … he was going to kill you.”
“But he didn’t. And now – we can use his ill-gotten information - you can spare yourself getting skin removed off your body for grafting purposes. If Luthor knew he were helping us, he’d be furious – and that alone makes it worth doing.”
“I… I guess.”
“It’s simple," Bernie piped in. "And it doesn’t involve embryonic stem cells, in case that bothers you. We can take stem cells from your ovaries and use them to grow new skin cells without creating a zygote.”
“That seems unreal.”
“It’ll take about a month to get the skin we need, and then we can do the procedure.”
“Oh. God. Bernie. Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“My pleasure Lois.”
“I… I don’t want to go through insurance companies – I want total discretion – so- so I can pay you – “
“No. No fee. Nothing. Lois – like I said… it’s my pleasure. I want to help – and I’m glad I can. That’s it.”
Smiling, she nodded. “Okay. But you know – if you ever need anything…”
“Having my tail saved by this guy here stopping a huge asteroid from hitting the earth clears any and all imagined debts.”
“You know – I did it because I didn’t want the earth to be destroyed… I live here too. Nobody owes me anything.”
“Fine. I'm doing this in the name of furthering scientific discovery."
"Well. When you put it like that..."
Part 69;
Clark suddenly stiffened, and his expression became distracted. Distraction quickly morphed into distressed, and Lois placed a worried hand his arm.
“Trouble?”
“Major. Mudslide in – “
“Go!”
“But –“
“Go! Tell me the details later. Go!”
“You – I should get you home – “
“I’m a big girl. I’ll take care of getting home. Clark… Go!”
He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “You’re amazing. Thank you, Lois…”
“I’ll be at Lucy’s,” she said. “Please call me when you get back. Let me know you’re okay.”
He nodded, and then all but vanished as he sped off at super speed.
She stood and watched the space where he had been for a long moment.
“Wow…” breathed Bernie. “That’s… that’s just… wow… I mean… life with … Superman…”
“Clark’s had to live with Superman for some time. Now he gets to share the experience… I hope having me to share it with will make it easier for him.”
“It will. A life… a burdened life…. It’s hard. But love – the right love – understanding and… supportive… that can make the burden seem inconsequential.”
“I guess you’d know a lot about leading a burdened life,” she said quietly. “All your brilliance - must have pushed you on a similar path as Clark? You have these abilities, and you use them for the greater good – at great personal cost…?”
“It’s not the same… not nearly the same. I do my part. Just like you do yours.”
“How often have you just slept here.”?
“Well – how often have you gone all night searching or staking out a story?”
“But anyone can do my job. I do it for my own desires – to be something… to achieve… the awards even… you … you’re skills are pretty rare.”
“Well. I don’t know about that. But if what I go through is any comparison… it has to be brutal being him.”
“I think it is. It has been. But… you’re right… finding that right love in your life – it changes everything.”
“I better start looking then.”
“Oh? Need any help?”
He grinned at her. “Know any other women as terrific as you?”
She flushed. “Stop it. I’ll never get out of here if my head gets too big.”
“Speaking of which – do you want me to drive you home?”
‘Will you go home afterwards, or come back here?”
He hesitated a moment too long, and she shook her head resolutely.
“No. Bernie. I’ll get a cab.”
“But – Lois…”
“I’ll get a cab. I’ll be fine. Okay?”
“Okay. “
An hour later, Lois got out of her taxicab and let herself into her sister’s apartment. The aromas emanating from the kitchen were tantalizing.
“God, Lucy – that smells great.”
“I made Indian food tonight. Chicken tikka masala…and pakoras. Rice, and the usual suspects.”
“You made Indian? With all the available takeout and delivery?”
“I like to cook. It’s soothing. Meditative.”
“Right until your oven mitt catches fire.”
“That’s luckily never happened to me. Did it happen to you?”
“I forgot I had the broiler on – I usually use the stove… so I bumped into the top heating element with my oven mitt and … fire.”
“OUCH.”
“I got a burn… and…” She trailed off.
“Oh. We shouldn’t be talking about this… should we?”
“Clark and I went to see a friend of ours – the same Doctor who helped us out when Clark was poisoned. We went to see him about my burn mark – and how to remove it. He thinks he can do it.”
“Who’s idea was that,” Lucy asked, forcing herself to sound idly casual.
“Mine – before you start getting any crazy ideas.”
“I didn’t –“
“Clark would never push me to do something like that. He’s not shallow or territorial – or – “
“Lois…”
“Sorry… it’s me. I don’t want people ever seeing it – and wondering about creepy Kryptonian love rituals – or anything like that.”
Lucy clamped her lips together, trying not to ask her sister the obvious question. what exactly ARE Kryptonian love rituals like, then? If it hadn’t been for her sister’s tortured past, she would not have held back.
“I get that,” she said quietly. “I do.”
“I also want that creep’s mark off my body. He thought it was indelible. That I would be marked as his forever, and now – I’m showing him. I escaped, which he thought impossible. And he can’t get me back… and I will erase all … signs of him… I guess I wish I could excise him from my psyche. But that’s not going to happen.”
“How is that going?”
“I’m… doing better than I’d expected.”
“Good!”
“But…”
“What?”
“It’s just… Clark … I’ve never seen him angry… with me. Angry at Luthor… sure… but… I don’t know what it would be like if he was ever angry with me. It’s easy not to see Kal when Clark is so … mild…”
“Are you worried about seeing him… in passion? I mean… extreme passion?”
“I’ve already seen what he’s like…” She had a teasing smile on her face.
Lucy placed her knife on the counter with a resolute thump, and looked at her sister square in the face.
“Oh. No. You don’t just get to stop talking now. Come on… this is the good stuff!”
Lois still had that annoyingly secretive smile on her face.
“Well… I can’t …. I don’t want to… betray Clark by… kissing and telling.”
“Lois!”
“It’s just… we haven’t… okay? But…. We… uh… I feel idiotic even telling you this…”
“What!!?”
“We spent the night together.”
“You did what?”
“We didn’t…”
“Okay… then what did you… do…”
“Enough… to know what he’s like… in passion. I mean –it’s not like we haven’t kissed, or messed around a bit…”
“Yeah… but… woah – I mean… was it…”
“It was …incredible. Wonderful. He … is… wonderful… nothing bad happened – I didn’t freak out on him or anything…”
“That’s great!”
“But… even then… passion and anger aren’t exactly the same in intent.”
“No.”
“So…”
“Well… what are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know – deliberately make him mad? Just to get it out of the way? I just don’t know.”
‘How about taking it as it comes. You guys have weathered worse. I think at this point you’re pretty solid.”
“Yeah,” she said quietly, her voice holding doubt.
“Well… I mean – what else can you do?”
“Well… I’d done some reading… on the net… about stuff like this… and one thing kind of stuck in my head. Aversion therapy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Aversion therapy is sometimes used with victims of violent crime. You face the thing you fear, and - maybe learn to be stronger in the face of it.”
“Sounds like you could also get even more damaged by something like that.”
“There is a lot of controversy surrounding it… but this is a special situation. Where my attacker is so … closely… identifiable with my soul mate. So… special situations may call for special measures.”
“What exactly do you have in mind here?”
“Play-acting,” she said so softly that Lucy had to ask her to repeat herself.
“Lois… this sounds less and less like a good idea.”
“If I can get Clark to… pretend to be Lord Kal…”
Lucy shuddered, and waved her hands in front of her as if trying to chase the idea away.
“Are you mad? This is a very very very bad idea.”
“I…”
“If you could even get him to agree, which… I know he’d do almost anything for you – but… god… this?”
“What do you think would happen if I could get him to do it,” she asked, her voice and expression vulnerable.
“I … it just seems like you might… see Kal in him… permanently… after that. You could…short circuit this thing… and it … would break my heart if you did.”
“Mine too, Lucy – but I have to know that I can withstand all … the faces of Clark.”
“None of those faces… not even the one named Kal-El – is capable of the horrors that his doppelganger enjoyed committing. So why ask Clark to imitate him… just… wait it out – eventually – you’ll see him angry – at you – all relationships have arguments and fights…right?”
“I know – but…”
“God, Lois… you aren’t deterred… are you? You’re going to do this crazy thing.”
[tbc]
