in the last part....
~~~~~~~~
“And Henderson?” Lois called out, stopping him in his tracks.
He turned to face her.
“Thank you,” she said.
He gave her a small smile and then, as if realizing himself, wiped it away. “I’ll be back in a little while. I, uh, I really do hope this works, Lois.” And with that, he walked away.
She smiled at his retreating form and looked back at the Kents and took a deep breath, as if she were summoning strength from deep within her. Seeming to feel the same fear creeping into her body, Martha reached a hand out and linked her arm with Lois’s. Pulling strength from each other, the three of them walked toward Room 203.
~~~~~~~~
HAVE A LITTLE FAITH IN ME
PART 7
“Kal El, close your eyes.”
“I can’t see anything with them open anyway,” Clark pointed out.
“But you are more conscious with your eyes open. I want you to forget where you are. Forget me. Forget everything and just remember,” Jor-El said.
“You know, I can’t help but feel like you want me to remember something in particular and won’t stop until I do,” Clark said.
“Kal El, close your eyes,” Jor-El repeated, sounding like he was actually enjoying Clark’s whole life and death ordeal.
Clark obeyed, rendering his surroundings black once again.
“You can either tell me what you see, or keep it to yourself. I will know the basics, either way.”
Clark smirked, his eyes still closed.
He couldn’t see anything. Just a deep, dark black. A frightening darkness. He was encased and enclosed. Trapped.
Trapped….
*************
*************
Lois walked through the beautiful new wing of the hospital, a gorgeous sky roof in the hallway brightening up the place. She had been curious about the new wing and had actually wanted to check it out when she heard of the renovations. But this was not the condition she wanted to see it under…
Lois saw the door that read Room 203, her hand hovering just over the latch, not daring to turn it yet and enter. And see….
She closed her eyes, and upon feeling Martha give her arm an encouraging squeeze, she finally opened it. She immediately noticed the room was a good twenty degrees warmer than the hallway. But she inched her way in, looking down the whole time.
She heard the door close, and a moment later, Martha cry, “oh, my boy!” softly. Shocked, as Lois did not even feel Martha let go of her arm, she looked up, to see Martha beside the metal table he lay on.
From where Lois stood, she could only see his legs. Her stomach turned, seeing his feet, covered in his red boots that had always seemed to radiate confidence, just falling limply to the side. She slowly walked closer to the table, knowing what image existed there, but fearing it all the same. She had been trying to block out the image of his beautiful face, so devoid of life and light, since she had first seen it. This image had the power to choke her and strangle her and punch her, yet she moved toward it like a moth to a flame. Some unexplained force was yanking her toward this torture. And then she was there.
She was beside him, seeing his face, turned ever so slightly toward her, unaware of the presence of these three important people in his life. His hair was no longer completely mussed up on his forehead, but a little messy now. She could imagine him with that one strand of hair that never seemed to stay put grazing the corner of his forehead, and his glasses on. He was Clark. All Clark. And she hadn’t seen that.
“How could I have been so blind?” she asked softly, before she could stop herself.
Her question could be taken many ways, but Martha seemed to understand what she was talking about. “We see what we want to see, honey. That’s what I always told Clark. He didn’t think he could pull this off, but we told him that no one would meet him, Clark Kent, and think for a second that he could possibly be the man out saving the world. And no one thinks Superman has time for a personal life. People think of Superman as a superhero only; that’s what keeps them believing in him. They would never consider him normal. And Clark is so normal. Ordinary. Yet, extraordinary,” Martha finished with a quivering voice.
On the word “ordinary,” Lois was reminded of her own foolish words some fateful nights ago. She was so convinced she loved Superman that she had inadvertently taken his worst fear and turned it into a reality.
“I told him that I would love him… as Superman… even if he were…” she stopped, not able to take her eyes off of Clark’s face. She felt tears welling up in her eyes.
“No, honey. I know,” Martha said, soothingly, holding Clark’s hand, running her hand up and down his arm.
“Lois, he always knew how you felt about Superman. He never held your feelings against you. He understood. Sure, he had hope that maybe you’d feel those things for HIM, but he never tried to force you to feel them. Part of the reason he didn’t reveal himself sooner was because he was afraid you would be upset that Superman didn’t really exist. He didn’t want to take away the man you loved, who gave you hope,” Jonathan tried to explain.
He stood a little away from the table, maybe, Lois mused, because of the heat, or maybe to let the women fawn over him because they needed to right now. Or maybe, simply, because he couldn’t stand to see his son like this.
At his words, Lois looked down at the floor momentarily, feeling overwhelmingly ashamed. He had loved her so much, and it was beyond obvious now. All he had ever wanted was for her to love him. And she had told him flat out that she couldn’t. But she had only too soon after learned that she did love him. She had been in love with Clark Kent, and had, again, just been too blind to realize it, and now it seemed hopeless…
She felt a light weight in her hand and looked down to realize she was now holding Clark’s hand. She didn’t remember taking it, but there it was, in hers. His skin felt so warm and soft, yet solid and big in her smaller hand. She pulled his hand up to her mouth and placed a gentle, quiet, almost feather-brush of a kiss on it.
The silence that had ensued was starting to feel palpable and thick. It was making Lois crazy. No one was talking, almost seeming as if no one had anything to say. Seeing him was supposed to restore everyone’s hope that he would be okay, but the silence was acting as a sort of proof that everyone was so overcome and sad, that his presence was doing no such thing for them. It was like everyone was saying a silent goodbye.
“I need to get some air,” Jonathan said, finally breaking the excruciating noise of the silence.
When Lois finally looked up, to look at Jonathan, she only saw the swinging door. He was already gone.
Lois looked across the table at Martha, and was surprised to see that she was looking not at Clark, but at her. She was smiling sadly.
“You loved him, didn’t you?” Martha asked gently.
“No, don’t do that. Please, Martha,” Lois said, her eyes pleading with those of the woman before her.
“You didn’t love him?” Martha asked skeptically, as if unbelieving of that scenario.
“Don’t talk about him in the past tense. Look, he’s still here!” Lois said, adamantly, looking down at Clark.
Martha looked down too. He was there. “But honey, he’s not moving, not breathing… he doesn’t look alive,” Martha said, barely getting the last words out. “I don’t want to think this, honey, believe me. But… it’s so hard to see him like this. I almost feel like it’s easier to… let go.”
“Well, you can’t. I can’t. Jonathan can’t. None of us can. He is still alive,” Lois said, wondering where Clark was right now. “Somewhere…”
***************
***************
Clark opened his eyes, the frightening feeling of being trapped too much for him to bear.
“It’s okay, Kal El.”
“I… I can’t do this,” Clark said.
“You have to. Fine, do it with your eyes open. Talk of your life to me,” Jor-El said.
“I wish I could see you,” Clark said, looking down at his sweatshirt again, finding comfort from his fear in its familiar presence. He looked up and jumped back when he realized that someone was standing before him.
“You’re… Father?” he asked, all of a sudden scared again.
“Yes. I am Jor-El. It is very nice to meet you. Well, for you to meet me, really. I’ve already seen you,” Jor-El said, tears in his eyes, as if he had waited a long time to have this moment.
Clark stared in utter astonishment at the vision before him. If he wasn’t already sitting, he thought for sure he would have fallen down. Jor-El was a masterful looking man. He looked like a powerful god that he had read about when he studied Greek mythology in Greece. He was empowering, yet almost vulnerable-looking. He was what he had always imagined his father might look like, only when he’d imagined it, he could not put a face on his imaginings. Just a powerful body. But this was better than anything he could have come up with. He was perfect.
“Likewise,” Clark finally spit out. He wasn’t sure he had blinked since he had seen him. He immediately, suddenly aware of himself, looked down, shook his head and looked back up, as if to tell himself that this was real. Jor-El sat so he was level with Clark, sitting across from him.
“I’m very proud of who you have become,” Jor-El said, his eyes glistening.
“Thank you,” Clark said sincerely, suddenly feeling like crying… only not in the way he’d felt the previous week. He felt like crying tears of happiness. It almost seemed to him as if he were staring at the embodiment of hope and it was overwhelming him, as he had endured weeks of hopelessness and hopeless tears leading him to this moment.
“And now… I want to hear about your life, son… as you see it,” Jor-El said, reminding Clark of his task.
“Anything in particular?” Clark asked, hoping to be able to tell from a facial expression or something what it was his Kryptonian father wanted. But Jor-El seemed to know better and just shot him a warning look. “Okay, I get it,” Clark said, still smiling.
He looked around at the brilliant whiteness and then back at his father.
“Well… I had just about the best childhood anyone could ever ask for. The farm was a beautiful place to grow up. The people that lived in Smallville were like characters out of a fairy tale. My folks… it’s like we were made for each other. They were meant to be my parents and I was meant to be their son. They couldn’t have kids, and embraced me the second they found me. They felt my pain, like I really was their flesh and blood. If I didn’t have them, I would have been all alone in a very big world. They made my growing up fun and memorable, and the hard times bearable…”
**************
**************
“Martha?” Lois asked again, waving her hands in front of Martha’s face.
“I’m sorry,” Martha said, snapping out of her reverie. “I was just thinking about him. Growing up. He was so sweet, you know.”
“I’ll bet,” Lois said, smiling, looking back down at him, lying there. She started to think that if she looked at him long enough she would see him move, he was so still. “He’s been sweet since I’ve known him. But that’s not quite the right word. He’s… decent and honest… and beautiful,” she added softly. “He’s so gentle and considerate, and just the best friend. I mean, he doesn’t have to try to be, he just is. I didn’t think friends like him even existed in real life. But he showed me that they do. I never wanted to let him in and I tried very hard not to. But then one day, he was just…” Lois trailed off, touching her hand to her heart for emphasis. “… on the inside, in my heart. And he’s never left since.”
After a short, comfortable silence, Lois said, “tell me about what he was like… growing up… I mean, what was it like raising Superman?”
Martha looked up, at that.
“I know, I know. He’s Clark Kent, not Superman. That’s very obvious to me, but of course, you were, all the same, raising a super baby, not a normal one,” Lois pointed out.
“Honey, don’t think you have to watch what you say. You don’t have to walk on eggshells with Jonathan and me,” Martha said, kindly. Lois smiled appreciatively, while Martha looked for how to start.
“Well,” she began. “He was stronger than us when he was barely two. Let me just tell you, the terrible twos were no picnic with him!” she laughed, and Lois laughed too, imagining what it must have been like. “We couldn’t really take him anywhere, in case he did something that wasn’t humanly possible for a two-year-old. So we stayed home with him mostly, relishing in his fun and fantasy. He loved to play games. Cops and Robbers and whatnot. He always had to be the good guy, of course. He loved when I would read to him before bed. And he loved to ride on Jonathan’s lap on the tractor. I’ll never forget, one day when Clark was about four, they were out on the farm on the tractor…” Martha stopped, looking troubled at the memory. “I had looked out from the kitchen window just in time to see… the tractor flip over. It had rained the day before and it was slippery still. Clark had wanted to go faster and Jonathan could never refuse him anything. Although I think they both learned their lesson after that. The tractor was massive. It weighed a ton, I tell you. I ran outside frantically, in time to see Clark… now he was so little… he lifted that machine off his father before it ever even had the chance to hurt him. It had all happened so fast. Clark had moved so quickly from beneath it when he realized what was happening, and then on instinct, protected his father. With those two little arms he stopped it from crushing Jonathan, breaking multiple bones, I’m sure. That was the day I realized that he was a superhero in the making, and I always knew his heart, being so good and pure, would lead him to use his powers for good,” Martha finished the tale, looking distantly at her son, near tears.
Lois reached a hand over Clark and took one of Martha’s hands. Martha smiled at her. Lois was near tears too.
“Martha, that is a beautiful story.”
“He’s a beautiful person,” Martha said, nodding.
“I completely agree,” Lois said. “You know, I always imagined Superman’s childhood was wonderful. He could do anything, never get hurt—“
“Well, not physically, but his emotions took a hit often enough. It was very hard. He had us, but in a lot of ways, he was all alone,” Martha said, almost regretfully.
“What do you mean?” Lois asked.
“When all his peers were starting to date in high school, he couldn’t. He didn’t want to risk losing control and hurting anyone. And he didn’t know if he was normal. He was always afraid. Even of kissing. He felt like an alien on the planet, quite rightly, and was deathly afraid that he had powers he didn’t know about, like if he kissed someone, they would get hurt, or worse, die. He kept to himself in a lot of ways, and some of the kids made fun. And we couldn’t encourage him the way we wanted to because we didn’t know enough about him either. If we promised him something wouldn’t happen, but then it did, we’d have hurt him even worse. We were there for him, but were forced to back off and let him live and learn. We had to. He learned to deal with things, and eventually let himself do some normal things, like kiss girls. He became quite the Smallville High Casanova! Girls were always chasing him around! But he never got too serious. He didn’t like anyone enough to risk… well, what he thought he was risking by getting too close to them. He was very popular because of his personality, but a little bit of a mystery to most people. And he hated that. He hated hiding. He never got extremely close to anyone before you. He wouldn’t let himself.”
Lois looked down, again feeling ashamed at what had transpired between her and Clark in the days leading up to this.
“But we were all linked because of our protection of him and his secret. The three of us had a very special connection… a loving, protective, unique relationship. I think we were all made for it. Clark was made to be raised by us. It was a challenge for him to live like such a fish out of water, but he did it with us happily. And we were strong enough to deal with the challenges he presented, and saw them instead as gifts.”
“I think Clark would agree. You’re probably the strongest people he knows,” Lois said. Lois furrowed her eyebrows, still confused about certain things regarding Clark’s upbringing. “Well, surely he must have enjoyed getting some of his super powers. A teenaged boy being able to see through things? Like a locker room wall? Or hear whatever he wanted?” Lois asked, smiling in an insinuating way.
“Oh, Lois! Honestly!” Martha said, laughing. “My son was too much of a gentleman to abuse his powers. When they started developing, actually, the vision and hearing, he was just a young teen. He couldn’t control the powers. We got him lead-lined glasses to wear, because he can’t see through lead—“
“He can’t?” Lois asked, and then quickly remembered his comment about her robe not being lead-lined, a few horrible nights ago. “Oh, that’s right,” she quickly said.
“He didn’t like being able to see through things. And he had to concentrate really hard on not listening to other people’s conversations. Sometimes he would find out good things, like how a girl liked him or a friend thought he was fun to be around, or a teacher thought he was very smart or something, but he would feel really bad. Invading people’s privacy. He didn’t WANT to hear things that were not meant for his ears. And then other times, what he would hear would only hurt him.”
Martha paused for a moment, and Lois waited. She didn’t want to pry, but she also felt that Martha would share this with her when she was ready.
“He was fourteen when he joined the high school paper. He was so excited. He wrote his first article running on pure emotion and adrenaline. Little on research and facts,” Martha started, taking a breath.
“Oh, I think I can see where this is going,” Lois said, wincing in anticipation.
“They called him into his office and told him it was good and they would run with it, but gave him some pointers for next time, and he was happy to get their advice. He walked out of that office, shut the door, and was on top of the world. But his newly developing superhearing honed in on the conversation inside the office. They made fun of his article and said horrible things! Called him a bad writer, said the article was a joke, but they had to run it, because it was the rule with the new writers on the paper. You have to give them a chance. He was so hurt by the whole thing. He just wished so much that he didn’t have superhearing and hadn’t heard their words. How, at times like that, he just wanted to be normal.” Martha said, shaking her head. After a mournful moment, she smiled, as if remembering something.
“What?” Lois asked.
“He came to us the next day, with a new article. He had written another one for the same edition. He had taken their ridicule, criticism and advice and turned out the best article that paper had ever seen. His articles became a must-read for the paper for all four years. Clark used that experience, as much as it hurt, to learn. He realized that he wasn’t the writer he thought he was and he dedicated himself to becoming a better writer. The best writer. And he worked really hard on controlling his hearing. He learned that often the hearing was linked with his emotions and curiosity. That was what it was like raising Clark. For all of us. Learning. Sometimes it hurt, but we’d learn how to make things better for next time. And most of the time, it was just beautiful. Watching that baby turn into such an amazing man… it’s been the best experience in my life.”
“And mine too,” Jonathan’s voice said.
Both Lois and Martha jumped, not realizing that he had entered the room.
Lois looked at his face and realized that he had probably gone to the restroom or somewhere hidden and had a good cry. His face had the markings of a good cry all over it. Lois smiled as Martha took Jonathan’s arm and brought him over beside her.
Lois followed their gaze and looked at the man lying on the cold, metal table. The man who was a little bit of a mystery, but who she knew so well… who wasn’t quite the stranger she had believed him to be earlier in the week. She just wanted to see him open his eyes and smile at her… she wanted so badly to hold him and let him know that he would never be alone again. That she would love him forever. That’s all she wanted. To hold him and love him. And to feel him hold her, promising the same assurances.
*************
*************
“That’s what life was like growing up. My parents and I… we just figured it out as we went along. We always learned. How much I could do and my limitations and what I could take. They gave me so much love and hope that I never questioned how I would use what I was given. My powers. It would be for the good of all…”
Jor-El just sat, Indian-style, and listened patiently, as if he were waiting for something. The next chapter, perhaps, to start. Clark seemed to realize this and quickly moved on.
“When I moved to Metropolis and started at the Planet, it was just about the most exciting time in my life,” Clark continued. “If I’d been learning all my life and preparing for this, I still wasn’t ready. Metropolis threw lots of new curveballs at me, so to say. There was so much violence there. So much I could do. Besides that, there was Lois. Nothing could have prepared me for her. She was like a walking accident waiting to happen. It’s not that she was clumsy… she just tended to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time, although she liked to think of those dangers as being the right place at the right time. That’s the reporter in her. She puts herself on the line for her stories. The only thing that ever made her more excited than a juicy story was Superman…”
*************
*************
Lois looked up at Jonathan and Martha, who were looking at Clark as if they were new parents watching their baby sleep. They seemed at peace now. She didn’t know why, but she felt at peace now too. Her mind’s eye was throwing a million jumbled images at her and her worry for Clark was making her lightheaded… but she was amazingly peaceful just now. Watching him. Being near him. She no longer felt like she had been kicked in the stomach, like she had felt earlier in the day. She ran her fingers over the ‘S’ on his sweatshirt that was draped so loosely on her. “’S’ for Smallville,” she thought to herself. A thought occurred to her.
“He said his mother made it for him,” she said quietly, almost to herself.
“Hm?” came Martha’s reply, and she looked at Lois as if just realizing that she was in the room with her.
“When I first met… well, Superman… he said that his mother made his costume for him. Did you…?”
Martha smiled. “Yes. I wish I had a videotape of the event. It was hysterical. Let’s just say the costume you’ve grown so accustomed to was about the twentieth one I had him try on!”
Lois stifled a laugh and looked down at Clark. He had this whole life that she had never known about. She realized that precisely around the same time she was calling him a “hack from Nowheresville,” and assuming he spent his spare time alphabetizing stamp collections, he was actually inventing a persona that would allow him to do all the things he wanted. To help people and to lead a normal life.
Looking at him now, looking like he was sleeping soundly, she realized something that frightened her. What she had been so mad about in the previous days, all the reasons she had tried to tell herself that she hated him, she actually loved him even more for now. She had hated that he had kept this secret from her. Now, not only did she understand, but she had a whole new respect for him and everything he did. He was constantly balancing a normal job—which granted he did take off in the middle of the workday at times, but still did his share of the work and sometimes above and beyond that—with a partnership with someone who was VERY hard to please, and countless friendships he had formed in his year in Metropolis… not to mention the countless lives he saved, getting no praise as Clark. She knew now that he was trying to just be normal, and he did so unbelievably well. So well that… you’d never think he was not normal. So good was his disguise. He was just so naturally Clark. Hiding the fact that he was saving the world any spare moment he could get.
“What are you thinking about?” Martha’s voice broke Lois’s thoughts.
Lois smiled at her and Jonathan.
“Clark. Superman.” She looked down at Clark and reached a hand out, brushing the back of her fingers along his cheek. “There were a lot of times I compared him to Superman, telling him that he idolized him or admired him, wanted to be like him, and never could be…” Lois trailed off, new memories flooding her consciousness. She looked up at Jonathan and Martha. “Superman had amnesia!”
Martha and Jonathan nodded.
Lois laughed self-deprecatingly. “When everything went back to normal after that whole fiasco, Clark had mentioned how rough the asteroid experience had been for him, and I basically said that he had no right to complain. That he had only gotten a small bump on the head, while Superman had fought for his life. I’m surprised he didn’t tell me right then and there, to stick it to me for being so awful.”
“You weren’t being awful, Lois. In your eyes, that is what happened. You didn’t know that it was Clark up there stopping that asteroid and that it had knocked him back into Earth so hard it gave him amnesia,” Jonathan said.
“It’s just… there were more times than I can count that I would give Clark some insulting put-down and then seconds later go ga-ga over Superman like some google-eyed teenager! It makes me so mad to think …”
Suddenly, Lois felt like crying again. It was true. Exactly what had made her so mad earlier in the week was now making her overflow with love for him. She suddenly realized how special he was. She always knew he was special, but now… she realized how strong he was. She realized that he had the strongest spirit and character of anyone she had ever met. Anyone else who had to put up with Lois Lane, putting them down and always ignoring them, would have thrown the truth in her face with the intent of making her feel stupid and eating her own words. That thought had probably, she realized, never even crossed his mind. He would never do anything with malicious intent. Plus, she mused, Clark was just confident in himself; he never needed to prove himself to her by doing that. His confidence, even after she would throw him a put-down, was one of the traits she always loved and respected most about him. Any comments she would make at him would more or less just roll off his shoulders. Or he would throw it back at her. He wouldn’t be mean. Never mean. But he would be coy right back at her; give her a battle of wits in a way, always harmless and in good fun. She loved that aspect of their relationship. Now, she realized that he was just a truly special, one-of-a-kind person, with the strongest heart and soul she had ever seen in any person in her life. She felt foolish for ever being so mad at him and not figuring this all out sooner.
“Honey, you have nothing to feel bad about. You didn’t know. And you can’t help how you felt. To you, Superman was mysterious, unreachable and exciting and Clark was predictable, normal and an open-book,” Martha explained, as if she had practiced this conversation with Lois before in her mind.
“Apparently not as much of an open-book as I thought,” Lois said in a small voice. She looked up and added, “I actually told him on our first all-nighter that I had him figured out!”
“You thought you had,” Jonathan pointed out.
“And… the clone…” Lois said, dazedly. She looked up at them, her tear-dripping eyes full of more realizations. “Clark challenged him. I was there. This clone had all the same powers as Superman, and Clark appeared, in that moment to be just as strong as him. Gosh, did I need a house to fall on my head? In that moment, the truth was staring me in the face!” Lois stopped, feeling full of remorse. She looked at him and then looked back up, instantly. “But he didn’t even flinch. I mean, the way I remember it, he didn’t seem nervous or anything, that I might figure it out. He barged in there because the clone was… kissing me… and he stood up to him, not caring, apparently, that I might figure out his secret…”
“Well, Lois, his secret was never more important than you,” Jonathan said with much conviction.
“Lois, he loves you. He wouldn’t let anything happen to you if he could help it… especially just to protect himself. We are more sure of that than anything,” Martha added.
Lois shook her head, trying to grasp straws with this situation. “But… why didn’t I see!? There are a million more scenarios just like that! Where the truth was dancing in front of me singing ‘duh, Lois!’ and I just looked through it, as if it wasn’t there! I mean, maybe I should be the one wearing glasses!”
“You know, Lois, I’ve always believed that love is blind,” Martha said, to which Lois’s head shot up and looked at her, as if searching for something in the depths of Martha’s eyes. Martha smiled. “You love Clark. You didn’t know it. You loved Superman for everything Clark was. Your love for him kept you from seeing a few things clearly. Love is a lot of things, honey, not one of them being rational.”
Lois finally allowed tears to fall down her cheeks. She wasn’t crying or even sobbing, but the tears were very much there all the same. “I just want to… I want to see his eyes… and….”
Martha’s hand reaching out and taking hers stopped Lois from continuing. “I know,” Martha simply said.
“I’ll bet you’re wondering how I know about him,” Lois said, as if just realizing that her revelation that she knew this massive secret had gone unexplained for two hours now.
“I’m guessing he didn’t tell you, but you figured it out,” Martha offered.
“How did you know?” Lois asked softly, eyebrows furrowed.
“He was all upset the last time I talked to him. He thought you hated him. But when he told me the story, there were a lot of holes in it. Your anger was too intense for what he was saying he did. I thought it was odd then that you were so mad because of him running off. He’s done that before,” Martha explained.
Lois nodded. “It’s true. He ran off, and I was so mad. I couldn’t let him leave when we were in the middle of figuring things out. So I ran after him. He went into an alley and I turned the corner to that alley just as he… switched. I saw. It’s like the final and most important piece to a puzzle fell into place. Everything made so much sense all of a sudden. And I was so humiliated and that made me… really angry to put it mildly.”
Lois looked down at him and stared. Remembering…
“I should have given him the chance to explain. I didn’t. I didn’t want to hear his excuses. I convinced myself it was all lies. I was so humiliated. I mean, on top of the secret was the realization that I had told Clark I couldn’t love him and told Superman I would love him even if he had no powers and were an ordinary man. I was consumed with anger and humiliation. I didn’t want to hear him say he trusted me and loved me. I’d give just about anything to hear him say those things now.”
“And he will, Lois.”
It was Jonathan who spoke. Both Lois and Martha looked at him, almost in shock.
“Everything Lois is saying… He’s fought evil clones as strong as him, and had amnesia and saved the world moments later. We’ve been in some pretty impossible situations before, and he’s never failed us… or himself. Martha, I don’t know about you, but I am not ready to give up on our boy, yet.”
Martha smiled and squeezed Jonathan’s arm in a loving way. “I’m not ready either.”
Lois smiled. This was exactly what she needed…. They were finally on her side.
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“Lois has always been a spit-fire. No one gets in her way when she’s on a story. She never wanted a partner. Takes the spotlight off of her. She definitely didn’t want me for a partner. I mean, I was just a farmboy from Nowheresville to her. She even stole a story from me, saying she was teaching me a lesson. But I got her back. I sent her into the sewers on a wild goose chase. I wanted to let her know that I wasn’t a threat and could be trusted, but needed to be respected. I let her walk all over me, mostly, but if she went too far, I just wanted her to realize that I wouldn’t take it. So she walked all over me the appropriate amount. I never minded. I’d do anything for her… “ Clark trailed off, thinking. He was just now desperately missing those days of working with Lois—missing her walking all over him.
Without looking up, he continued, “and she did seem pretty upset when she thought I left the Planet to work for the Star with Linda King. She admitted to having some feelings on the issue. She also started calling me her partner and stopped commenting on how the byline with our names was so much less attractive than the byline with only her name. She even started talking about our names on a Pulitzer. Not just hers. I’m not sure when, but at some point, she welcomed me into her spotlight and I relished in it. If I could just be close to her, to her life and vivacity, I didn’t care if I was in the spotlight. I’d gladly stand in the shadow behind if it still meant that I was close by her. She was so tough on me when I first came to Metropolis. There were times when it annoyed me. Times when I thought I didn’t deserve the way she treated me. But then, when it passed and she embraced our friendship and partnership and really seemed to care about me, it felt all the more rewarding and special. I was shown, by her, that she doesn’t let too many people in. So when she let me in, I knew that was big. That’s one of the things I love most about her. I love that she is tough and doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve. I love that she lets me see that she’s really not all that tough… “
Jor-El looked at Clark, his expression urging Clark to continue.
“I really love her. I trust her. The way she keeps herself so guarded, and only lets a special few have the honor of her friendship, I know she would never betray those people. It’s one of the reasons I trust her so much. I have faith in her…”
Clark suddenly looked up…
Jor-El smiled…
That was it…
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