PART EIGHT
Clark followed his wife into their living room, admiring the close fit of her jeans and how well they accentuated her neat behind. Were they new? He didn’t remember noticing how nice she looked in them before. In fact...
He took a couple of long strides to catch her up and wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Got you,” he murmured triumphantly, nuzzling the side of her neck.
“Mmm,” she responded, snuggling into his body. “I guess you have.”
She turned her face towards him, so he leant around and closed his lips over hers. So soft and luscious. So feminine and sexy. So Lois. He never tired of kissing his wife.
She responded immediately, opening her mouth against his, a soft, wet riot of pliable, expressive flesh. He let himself disappear into the kiss, leaving behind their surroundings for a long, dreamy moment. “Have I mentioned lately,” he murmured during a break for breath, “that I love you?”
“Um...not since last night, actually,” she replied. She swivelled in his arms to face him and pressed her lips back against his, quickly deepening the kiss again. “But then you have been somewhere else for most of today,” she said around their lips, “so I’ll forgive you.”
“I can make it up to you, if you like,” he suggested, bringing his hand up to caress her. His senses soared with desire and he dove into their kiss afresh, unleashing more of his passion and finding it returned with just as much force by Lois.
“There’s a very convenient sofa just to our left,” she said breathlessly. “Just in case you’d forgotten.”
“Sounds good to me,” he responded, toppling them onto the cushions.
Lying on top of him, Lois immediately got busy with the buttons of his shirt while he tried to simultaneously push up her sweater.
Darn. Her arms were in the way.
“Just wait,” she instructed, batting his hands away with a chuckle. “You can tell me about your day while I do this.”
“Well, let’s see,” he mused. “I rescued a plane, actually.”
She paused in mid-unfasten. “You did? That’s weird – there was nearly a plane crash here, too.”
“Really?” He rested his hands on her hips. “You mean Clark rescued it?”
She shook her head and resumed her task. “No, it landed itself, thank God. He doesn’t ‘do’ Superman – didn’t even know how to fly.”
Which the other Lois had already told him, of course – he’d forgotten that. “But he knows now?” he asked. “About Superman, I mean?”
“Yeah, I told him.” She yanked his shirt out of his pants and pushed back the sides. “There!” she exclaimed. “All done. Just let me...” She smoothed her hands slowly over his chest, making him suck in a shuddering breath of pleasure. God, she knew so well how to do that...
She sat up abruptly. “Okay, you can pull my sweater off now.”
He groaned. “Honey, do you think we could skip the slow undressing bit and-“
Oh, God. Why hadn’t this occurred to him before? He’d rescued that plane and now the other Clark was facing the consequences.
“What?” she said. “Please don’t tell me you’re hearing something right now!”
“No, it’s not that,” he said. “I just realised the other Clark doesn’t know what I did.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Well, will that matter? I mean, if you were discreet-“
“It’ll be all over the new channels by now,” he said. “Unfortunately, I was anything but discreet.” He grimaced, wishing again that he hadn’t been so clumsy with his soldering. “I just hope he’s okay. We figured that Skywatch probably wouldn’t suspect anything, since he’s never done anything remotely like it before, but still...”
“He’ll be fine, honey,” she said. “You did the right thing in rescuing all those people.”
“I guess so.”
“I know so,” she replied firmly. “Now, you were saying something about undressing me?”
“Oh, yes...” He smiled and reached up, slid his hands under the front of her sweater and swept upwards to push her sweater over her head. Oh, yeah. Maroon underwear. His favourite.
She was shaking her hair from her eyes when she suddenly froze. “Oh, God.”
“What this time?”
She looked down at him in alarm. “What if you get swapped? You know...when we’re in the middle of things? Heck, what if you get swapped right now?”
Oh, God, indeed. “I...well, I think I’d notice before...we’d have time, I think. To...stop.”
“You think.” She sat back on her heels. “I need a dead certainty.”
Noooo! cried his rampant libido. “Okay, then I’m certain,” he said quickly.
“Cla-ark...” She crossed her arms, which had the unfortunate effect of increasing her cleavage. Did she have any idea the effect she was having on him? “You’re not convincing me,” she said.
“How about if we’re really quick?” he suggested hopefully.
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, honey. It’s just not going to work.” She climbed off him and pulled on her sweater. “Until we put a stop to this thing, we’ll just have to...go without.”
He sighed. “I think you’re overreacting a little, sweetheart. I mean, what are the chances-“
“Do you want even the smallest risk that I might end up having sex with the other Clark?” she snapped. “Because that’s what you’re saying.”
He stared up at her, appalled by her suggestion. “No, of course I don’t want that! God, honey, I just didn’t think it through properly.” He pushed off the sofa and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean to sound selfish.”
“Yeah, well, it’s okay for you,” she mumbled. “You don’t get left behind with a complete stranger...”
Oh, boy. He felt her reach the same realisation just as he did. He separated from her and met her eyes, finding his own concern reflected in them. “I’m sure,” he began slowly, “that the other two will figure out what we just figured out. Won’t they?”
She hesitated. “He’s not quite as quick-witted as you, but...yeah. If he doesn’t, I’m sure Lois will. And Lana...he doesn’t...they don’t, do they? Not since he found out what she’s been doing to him, surely?”
He dropped his gaze, remembering Lana’s insistent advances. The revealing nightie. That lewd suggestion. “No, I don’t think they do,” he replied slowly. Then he remembered her angry frustration and that needling remark about sexual dysfunction. He lifted his gaze and met Lois’s eyes directly. “No,” he said firmly. “They don’t.”
“Okay,” she replied. “Then we have nothing to worry about.”
****************
Clark checked his watch while waiting for the Planet elevator to reach his floor. Nine forty seven. Well, waking late had its advantages, he supposed. With any luck, everyone would still be attending the early morning editorial meeting. He’d slip in behind his desk, get his head down into some work, and hopefully no-one would notice he was wearing sweats and running shoes instead of a suit and tie.
He’d considered calling in sick when he’d woken late at the motel. It wouldn’t even have been a total lie, since he was still stiff from last night’s fall and most of him ached to a greater or lesser extent. However, his conscience had won out, and anyway, he wanted to see Lois before he was swapped yet again and they were separated for God knew how long. He hadn’t seen her for two days now and he missed her terribly. In fact, he’d needed all of his willpower not to simply call her from the motel room – the only thing that had stopped him had been the knowledge that he’d have probably broken down and told her what Lana had done to him. He didn’t intend for that to happen.
So here he was, ducking out of the elevator and moving as quickly as possible – slight limp permitting – towards his desk.
“Hey, Clark!” Jimmy jogged up and handed him a file. “Lois said to give you this as soon as you showed up.” He stepped back and looked him up and down. “Working undercover, huh?”
“Something like that,” he muttered. “Thanks, Jimmy.”
He hurried to his desk and eased stiffly into his chair. Opening the file, he found that it was background material on the directors of the consortium that had fronted Skywatch’s acquisition of his parent’s farm. They’d asked Jimmy to carry out the research a few days ago, he remembered.
“Morning.”
Lois.
Oh, God, Lois. She was here at last. He needed to be calm. Avoid anything too heavy and emotional. He pasted a bright smile on his face and looked up. “Hey.”
Her hair style was nearly his undoing. She was wearing it just the way he liked best, with one side tucked behind an ear and the other side falling loose, the ends just beginning to curl around her face like a frame. The style was the epitome of Lois – part casual and unruly, part smart and sassy. He could spend all day looking at that style.
She was frowning. “Dressed a bit casually, aren’t you? Maybe that sort of thing is okay where you come from, but here we wear business attire.”
Oh, no! She thought he was the other Clark. “Lois, it’s me!” he replied urgently. “Your partner.” Your lover.
Her frown faded. “Clark?” A hand went up to her mouth in shock. “Clark?” she quavered. “It’s really you?”
“Yes, I’m back.” He reached across the desk to grab her hand. “I’ve missed you,” he said huskily.
“Oh, God.” She gripped his hand tightly. “We...we have to go somewhere. Anywhere. Now.”
He shot to his feet, his stiff muscles protesting fiercely. A glance over to the conference room told him that it was occupied. Damn. “The photocopier room,” he muttered. “Come on.”
Quickly, he pulled her across the newsroom to the other side where the photocopier room sat in one corner. One or two colleagues commented on their passing, the comments ranging from the ribald to the downright offensive. Apparently their affair was pretty much common knowledge across the newsroom.
He didn’t care. As soon as they reached the sanctuary of the copier room and the door was firmly closed, he fell into her arms.
Except he couldn’t hold her close enough. Wherever he put his arms, it wasn’t enough. Wherever he kissed her, it wasn’t enough. “I missed you...missed you so much...wish this wasn’t happening to us...are you okay...” The words tumbled from his mouth, tripping over each other in their eagerness to express his feelings. He kissed her lips, her cheek, her hair, her neck – it still wasn’t enough.
“Clark, I need to breathe.”
Her voice was a distant murmur, a caress in his ears. He held her closer and kissed the parts he’d missed before. Her forehead, her temple, her ear-
“Clark, you’re squashing me.”
He was? Oh, God, he was. He released her quickly, resting his forehead on hers. “I’m sorry,” he murmured breathlessly. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She put her hand on his arm and began to rub it slowly up and down. “But are you okay? That was quite a welcome.”
He straightened up and dragged his wits together. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He found the cute curl of hair that framed her face and smiled at it. “Just pleased to see you.”
She returned his smile, the corner of her lips almost touching his favourite curl. “Me, too. I’ve been really worried about you these past couple of days.”
“You have?” He shrugged – and then immediately regretted it when his sore side tugged at him. He converted his grimace into another smile. “I’m fine. I mean, swapping bodies and universes isn’t exactly my favourite way to spend a couple of days, but you know – a guy can get used to most things.”
“Yeah?” Her face hardened. “Well, I’ve had enough of it. I hope the other two are working on finding a way to stop this.”
“I know they are.” He frowned. “You’re not blaming them for this, are you?”
“No. I just...I know they’ve got a lead and I hope they’re following it up, because I don’t want to lose you again. That’s all.”
“Okay. Well, if he’s anything like she is, I’m sure they’re well on the way to an answer.”
“Oh? What’s she like?”
He smiled. “A lot like you. Determined. Knows her own mind and doesn’t care if other people know it, too. But also missing her husband,” he added.
She nodded. “He was missing her, too. Didn’t mention it much, but I could tell, you know? He’d get this sad look when he thought I wasn’t watching.”
“Well, they’ve only just got married,” he pointed out.
“Yeah.” She looked up at him. “I wish...we...”
He dropped his gaze. “I know. We will. One day.” Here it came. The “When, Clark?” The “How long, Clark?” The “I can’t wait forever, Clark.”
He raised his eyes and met hers steadily. “I will leave her. I promise.”
She turned away from him, her face expressionless. “Did you hear that the other Clark thinks she may be working for Skywatch?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Nothing about Lana surprises me any longer,” he replied bitterly.
“I see.” She took a couple of paces away from him. “I just don’t know how you do it,” she said, her voice barely audible above the whine of the photocopier. “How you can bear to share a bed with her.”
“I can’t,” he muttered.
“Yet you do just that. Every night.”
“I have to keep up appearances,” he said. “You know that.”
She shook her head from side to side. “When’s it going to stop, Clark?” she said. “What has to happen to make you leave her?”
He grimaced, thinking about what Lana had done to him last night - that was certainly enough to make him leave her if he hadn’t already made up his mind to do so. Except... “I...I have a plan.”
“Oh, a plan,” she said sardonically. “That’ll really help. How long is this plan? A month? A year? Five years?”
“As short as possible,” he replied, “especially if you’ll help me.”
“You don’t need a plan to leave your wife, Clark,” she muttered. “You just do it.”
“Not if your wife is working for an underground organisation that’s watching you like a microbe under a microscope,” he pointed out. “Not if there’s a risk she might tell the whole world what you really are.”
“Oh, please!” she snapped. “That’s what she wants you to think – she’s been programming you all your life to be frightened of that. And look what it’s doing to you.” She swivelled on the balls of her feet to face him. “Have you any idea how ill you look? How scared I get when you act like you did when we came in here because it shows me how close to the edge you are? She’s destroying you, Clark, little by little.”
“I’m okay,” he insisted. “Just...tired.”
“Tired,” she echoed in a hollow voice. “You shouldn’t be tired. You should be...did you know that yesterday a man just like you saved a whole plane-load of people? Flew right up and brought the plane down single-handedly. He used all the amazing abilities you have to do something positive instead of wishing them away all the time like you do.”
“I know,” he replied, nodding vigorously. “The other Lois told me all about it. And I really want to give it a try. I’d love to put these freak-” He caught her forbidding look and amended his choice of word. “Unusual abilities to some use, especially if I can help save lives in the process. But first I have to deal with Skywatch and Lana.”
She threw her hands up. “What’s to deal with? Just-“
Someone knocked on the door. “Um...Clark?” It was Jimmy, his voice muffled by the door. “You have a phone call.”
He strode to the door and opened it. A very sheepish and embarrassed Jimmy stood shifting from one foot to the other. “It’s your wife.”
Lana? What on earth did she want? “Tell her I’ll call her back,” he replied.
“I already did,” said Jimmy. “Three times.”
He sighed. “Okay.” He turned to Lois. “I’m sorry – we’ll talk about this later.”
Her face like thunder, she waved him off. “Go.”
At his desk, he lifted the receiver and swivelled around so that he was facing away from Lois’s desk across the gangway. “Yes?” He cupped his free hand around the handset for extra security.
“Clark, thank God!” exclaimed an agitated-sounding Lana. “I’ve been so worried about you. Where did you go last night?”
“Away from you,” he retorted. “That’s all you need to know.”
“But...but you’ll be back tonight?” she asked. “Won’t you?”
“I doubt it,” he replied, although he hadn’t yet figured out what his plan was for tonight. He needed to speak to Lois.
“Please, honey,” she whined. “I...I didn’t mean it, you know. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Oh, really?” he fumed, hunching himself over the phone so no-one would hear him. “You deliberately exposed me to a substance that can kill me, yet you’re telling me you didn’t want to hurt me. How am I supposed to believe that?”
“I...I panicked,” she said. “What you did yesterday...it scared me. I...I didn’t know you could do anything as powerful as that. I thought...if you ever got angry, you might... I panicked, Clark, don’t you see? I know you’d never hurt me really.”
Hurt her???
For a moment, he couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak. She...she was actually saying...
“Clark?” Her voice was small. Cowed. “Are you still there?”
“I...I can’t do this.” Blindly, he reached behind and fumbled the receiver onto its cradle. Sat numbly staring at the floor, which seemed to tip crazily at an angle. His own wife had just said she was scared of him. He, Clark Kent, the big bad alien, was a threat to his wife. Which made it all right for her to attack him with poisonous rocks.
Fury suddenly sprung forth. White hot fury that made him tremble like a man possessed. How dare she? How dare she ruin his life? How dare she lie and twist and manipulate him like a puppet?
“You planning on doing any work today, Kent?” asked Perry from behind him.
He spun angrily around on his chair and said the first thing that popped into his head. “No!”
Perry raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? Then can you give me any good reason why I should let you sit in my newsroom taking up valuable desk space?”
“Not really.” God, why was he saying this? He didn’t mean it at all, but the words just kept spitting out of him.
“Then I suggest you go home and think long and hard about your position here,” said Perry. “Come back tomorrow if you’re ready to give me five solid days of commitment and hard work, otherwise don’t bother.” He jabbed a finger at Clark. “You got it?”
Clark nodded, already rising from his chair.
“And I don’t expect to have to remind staff at your level of the dress code around here,” Perry added sternly. “Now git!”
Clark stormed to the elevators, his blood thundering in his ears. Not only was Lana responsible for ruining his private life, but she was in danger of ruining his career, too. How ironic that she should tell him that she was scared of him, when, right this minute, she’d probably have very good cause to be. He stabbed at the elevator button, producing a crack in the plastic. Damn. He hadn’t done anything like that in years. More reason to be mad at Lana.
“Clark!”
Lois. He didn’t want to talk to her when he was like this.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, reaching his side just as the elevator doors opened. Quickly, he strode inside and slammed the door-close button. The doors began to shut, but, to his annoyance, she caught them with her hands and forced her way inside.
“What are you doing?” she demanded again.
He pursed his lips. “Going home.”
“Are you trying to throw away your job?” she asked. “Your life isn’t messed up enough already – is that it?”
“No.”
“Sure as hell looks like it to me,” she retorted. “What’s going on, Clark? You turn up at work in sweats looking like you just went ten rounds with the world heavyweight champion, you greet me like you thought you were never going to see me again, and you’re as rude as hell to Perry. What’s happened to you?”
He leant against the wall of the elevator and tipped his head to gaze at the ceiling. “What hasn’t happened to me?” he asked the polystyrene tiles.
“Don’t give me half-baked answers!” She shoved angrily at his chest, causing him to suck in a wince of pain. “I want the truth.”
He sighed. She was right – she deserved more than off-hand rudeness from him. A lot more. And it wasn’t her fault he felt this way. “Lana and I had...an argument,” he told the tiles.
“Oh? What about?”
So he related their early-evening argument about the plane rescue. How Lana had accused him of rash, irresponsible behaviour and how mad he’d been that she hardly seemed to care about the people who’d been saved.
It was the truth, he told the silent tiles. Lois didn’t need to know the rest – the bit where his own wife nearly killed him. He hadn’t changed his mind since last night on that. He’d had enough of being a victim in Lois’s eyes, and besides, he just wasn’t ready to admit he’d let things get so out of hand. He should have been able to stop it. Prevent it. What sort of a man was he if he allowed himself to be overcome by a woman? Not Superman, that was for sure.
He brought his gaze down from the tiles to see how Lois was taking his story.
She was frowning. “So she knows it was you - well, him, but you know what I mean. That’s a big leap for Lana to make all on her own, when all she’s ever seen you do is float in your sleep. Do you think she got help?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. We don’t know for certain whether she’s working for them or not.” He drew in a deep breath. “But I intend to change all that. Starting today, I’m officially investigating Lana, the same as I’d investigate anyone else I suspected was hiding an important story. I’m going to spy on her just like she spied on me.”
“I see,” she commented coolly. She didn’t seem very impressed with his announcement. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that’s why you can’t leave her just yet. This is your wonderful plan, isn’t it?”
Okay, now he knew why she wasn’t impressed. Oh, God, and she’d be even less impressed if she knew he was planning on staying with someone who’d physically attacked him - another reason not to tell her.
“Yes, it is,” he replied. He clasped her shoulders and held her gaze steadily. “Lois, I need to do this. I need to know what she’s been doing to me all these years. I need to know how much of me is really me. I...I can’t begin a new life with you without knowing who I really am.”
“And you really think the best way to do that is to stay with her?” she replied. “What’s to stop you leaving her and then starting your investigations? You’ll probably think a lot more clearly away from her influence.”
“True, which is why I need your help,” he said. “I need your clear thinking and inspiration. I need your skills as an investigator. I need your intuition.”
In response, she simply snorted dismissively, so he added, “There are too many risks if I leave her without knowing the extent of her involvement in this circus, don’t you see? Say she is working for Skywatch and I leave her – suddenly she’d be useless to them. What’s to stop them killing her to keep her quiet, to prevent her telling anyone about them? As much as I hate what she’s done, I don’t want her to die. And as for me – well, if they didn’t just kill me, they’d at least want to seize back control of me as soon as possible. That means you’d be in danger, too, if they thought they could get to me through you.”
“I’d be fine,” she retorted. “I’ve faced worse than Jason Trask and his henchmen.” She pulled away from him and stepped a couple of paces to the opposite wall of the elevator. “Who’s to say they know about us anyway?”
“Lois, half the newsroom knows about us!” he exclaimed. “You heard the things people were saying earlier.”
“That’s just newsroom ribaldry. Doesn’t mean they know anything.” She shrugged. “But okay, you’ve made a couple of good points. You’ve left out the main reason you’re scared to leave her, though.” She leant back against the wall and crossed her arms.
He sighed. She meant his fear that Lana would expose him if he left her. Yes, he’d deliberately omitted that - because he knew she didn’t think he was right and so his argument would have been weakened. But Lois clearly wasn’t going to let him get away with that.
“It’s a legitimate concern,” he insisted. “Say she’s not working for Skywatch – what’s her motive for writing all those notes about me? Maybe she’s planning to publish a book, or go to the press with a kiss and tell story.”
Lois rolled her eyes. “Lana? Now you’re entering fantasyland. Lana would no more print a kiss and tell story than hire a male prostitute for the night.”
He shrugged. “Maybe you think you know her well enough to know that for a certainty, but I don’t – not any more. This person I find myself married to...well, she’s virtually a stranger. And she could make a fortune selling her story, Lois!” He glanced up to the indicator lights above the elevator door and saw that they were nearly at the ground floor. “Which, by the way,” he added, “is why Skywatch might kill her if she is working for them and I leave her.”
“You’ve got all the angles covered, haven’t you?”
“Well, I’ve thought about it a lot,” he replied. “Are you going to help me?” The elevator doors opened, but he hesitated before stepping out. “Lois?”
This was more than just asking her to help him investigate Lana. This was him asking her if they still had a relationship. If she was prepared to wait for him while he resolved things with Lana and Skywatch. The worst of it was, he couldn’t blame her if she decided not to. He knew he was difficult, that he hadn’t exactly made her life easy since she’d become involved with him. She was an attractive, intelligent woman – why should she have to wait around for a complicated guy like him when she could have her pick of eligible batchelors?
From her arrested expression, he could tell that she knew this was more than just a simple answer to a plea for help. Her hand pressed flat against the ‘Open Door’ button. “Give me one reason why I should help you.”
Oh, boy. Yes, she definitely knew. “Because you believe in fighting the bad guys and winning.”
She nodded. “Not bad. Give me another.”
“Because I love you.”
She shook her head, biting her lip. “I’d keep love out of this if I were you – trust me, I’d win the argument. Try again.”
“Because you hate Lana?”
The corner of her mouth curved upwards, meeting his favourite hair curl. “Spite. Always a good one. Clean and simple and it doesn’t pretend it’s anything other than what it is. But I need something a little more...wholesome.”
“I already gave you two reasons,” he protested. “You only asked for one.”
“I need another,” she insisted.
“Okay...because you love me.”
Her eyes flashed. “Dammit, I told you to keep love out of this.”
“I can’t, Lois,” he said softly.
Because if there was no love, what was the point? He may as well stay with Lana and live out the life she’d orchestrated for him if love didn’t matter.
Lois’s hand came off the ‘Open Door’ button, bunched into a fist and punched the ‘Basement’ button. “Dammit,” she muttered. “Why does love always mess everything up?”
He let out a gusty breath of tentative relief: she seemed to have decided they were still together. “I don’t know,” he replied shakily. “I’m not exactly an expert on the subject.”
She smiled weakly. “Neither am I.”
“Um...where are we going?” he asked, eyeing the lights indicating their descent to the basement.
“To my jeep, of course,” she replied briskly. “How else am I going to drive you home?”
“Drive me...” He looked at her, but her expression was unreadable. “You’re coming home with me?”
“I can’t exactly search Lana’s things while I’m sitting at my desk, now can I?” she said. “Of course I’m coming home with you.”
His breath caught in his chest. She really was going to help him. He wasn’t going to lose her. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
“Just don’t you dare bring that love thing into this again, okay?” she muttered.
He smiled. “I promise. Would a hug be pushing my luck?” he ventured.
“No, that would be quite acceptable,” she conceded.
The elevator doors opened onto the basement garage, but he was too busy holding her in his arms to notice.
***************
