Clark stepped into the bullpen, taking a moment to watch Lois while her back was turned to him. She was looking contemplatively at something in her hands, and as he came up behind her, he was surprised to see it was his nameplate.
“I’m going to be needing that,” he said lightly, knowing he was calling her out on evidence that she missed him.
“Clark Kent!” she said with unrestrained enthusiasm.
She jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around him, surprising them both. “I was beginning to think your family lived on another planet!”
Lois suddenly let go, as she realized her over-affectionate hug wasn’t quite reciprocated. She cleared her throat and tried to regain back some of her dignity. “Well, you know—it’s just that it’s been pretty dull around here and—“
Clark smiled warmly at her, saving her from further humiliation. “I missed you too, Lois,” he said kindly.
She gave him a little smile and then sat back down at her desk, passing him his nameplate. As Clark made his way over to his desk, he noticed Lois watching him carefully.
“Lois? Is something wrong?” he asked, switching on his computer to check some email. It had been over three weeks since he had done mundane tasks like check email at the Planet, and yet he felt so at ease sliding back into his life as Clark Kent.
Clark glanced at Lois again and noticed her cheeks had reddened. “Lois?” he tried again.
She shook her head. “Nothing…” Then, changing her mind, “Well… maybe something. I don’t know… I don’t’ want to talk about it here. Barn—later?”
He wondered if she actually wanted to talk to him about those visions she’d been having. Not the Blur, but Clark. He needed to know what she saw, but he was also worried whether she would draw the right conclusions about his real identity. He had thought about calling her as the Blur to press the issue, but he was endeared that maybe she wanted to open up to Clark Kent.
Nevertheless, whatever Lois had to say, he wanted to hear it.
“Sure… I’ll meet you there around eight.”
~\S/~
As Lois drove into Smallville later that evening to meet Clark, she noticed storm clouds starting to cover the wide swath of open sky over the Kansas farm fields. She turned her radio to the news, hoping it was just a regular storm on the way and nothing major.
“…some severe conditions. Wind and rain expected to pick up in the next half hour…”
She sighed, clicking off the radio. Didn’t sound too bad, but she wanted to make it to the Kents’ before the storm hit. She had made plans to have dinner with Chloe, but talking to Clark was more important. As she drove, she sent Chloe a slightly misspelled text, even in shorthand, but it was the best she could do while driving with an overactive auto-corrector on her Blackberry.
By the time Lois pulled into the Kent driveway, thick raindrops had started falling from the sky. She didn’t see Clark’s truck anywhere, and she sighed, realizing she’d beat him here. Lois pulled her trench over her head and made a run for it to the front porch. Just as she hit the front step, the acrid smell of sulfur filled the air as a lightning bolt streaked across the sky. She heard a resounding crack, louder than thunder, which sounded like the lightning had struck something.
The house was dark, and as Lois reached for a light switch, she was dismayed to find the power out. Shelby came over to whine around her ankles as Lois searched for the flashlight she had left on the porch a few nights before. It was early evening, but with the fast approaching storm, the sky was practically night.
“Don’t worry, Shelby. I’ll have the lights back on in a jiffy,” Lois said confidently, patting Shelby on the head as she swung one of Mrs. Kent’s old rain jackets over her shoulders, knowing it would fare better in the rain than her fuchsia trench had.
Lois ran to the barn where the electrical box was located. The winds were starting to pick up, and she could feel the bottom of her pant legs getting soaking wet along with her high-heeled boots that kept getting sucked into the mud. The barn was quite dark when she entered, but she called out for Clark anyway.
Not getting a response, she made her way over to the fuse box. She killed all the switches and hit the reset button. Within moments, the electricity was humming again. The rain was now pouring buckets and she didn’t want to run back out in it to get back to the house. She looked down at her pants and boots to assess the damage. At least she wasn’t wearing her prized Prada boots… She glanced out towards the driveway again, but there was still no sign of Clark.
Not wanting to race raindrops back to the house, Lois headed up the stairs to Clark’s loft to wait out the rain.
Lois rarely spent time in the barn without Clark there, and with nothing better to do, she suddenly had the urge to snoop around. Even though Lois was an expert in the investigative department, she rarely turned her snooping skills on those she cared about, unless they were in trouble. And the only trouble Clark had gotten into lately was disappearing for three weeks and somehow appearing in her rather disturbing visions. For a startled moment, she wondered if he had experienced those flashbacks of hers as well, but she just as quickly dismissed the idea. Both Chloe and his mom had confirmed that he had been visiting family.
But still… there seemed to be something strange going on, and Lois knew instinctively that somehow it was all tied to Clark.
So she hadn’t intended on snooping through his things, but with the rain and her growing concerns, she decided a once-over of the loft wouldn’t hurt.
As she had expected, she found some of his high school memorabilia, including his high school yearbook. She flipped through it and shook her head in disappointment to find that she wasn’t even mentioned in it. “I went there for like, twenty-seven days—no one realizes that that is a record for me!” she said in exasperation, tossing the book aside.
Then she spotted a leather-bound journal lying on top of a bunch of other books and magazines. She rolled her eyes at the prospect of a Clark Kent diary, expecting it to contain evidence of his long-term infatuation with Lana Lang. She stared at the cover for a moment, weighing it in her hands. “Do I really want to do this to myself?” she scoffed aloud.
Resignedly, she opened the book, and was shocked at what she saw. No whining purple prose born of teenage angst here. Instead, there was a whole foreign language written out and explained: symbols, philosophies, histories—the story of a civilization. As Lois read, she started to feel the tremors happen again. The symbols looked familiar, and she felt as if her whole body was reacting to seeing them, as if trying to shake the memories out of her…
~\S/~
To add insult to injury, before they would execute Lois, Tess had to be promoted. Lois was dragged to the rooftop of Luthor Manor to watch the ceremony.
The red sun boiled overhead, casting an eerie glow over the roof and lawns. What were once lush green gardens looked burnt orange and brown under the sun. The red sun brought death, and Lois couldn’t help but feel it was an ominous atmosphere for the present ceremony. Lois watched in disgust as Tess kneeled before General Zod like a happy little soldier getting a pat on the back for destroying the earth. Lois couldn’t believe Tess had the gall to think she had done right in choosing to side with this monster.
Zod’s strange accent echoed hollowly around the stone rooftop, his words as empty as the desolate earth around them. "Today two lives end, but another begins," Zod said. "Rise, soldier."
The men in attendance for the ceremony began moving back into the house, dragging Lois along with them. She struggled to free herself from their grip, but it was futile. These men were stronger than any others she had ever encountered. She couldn’t help but feel if she gave a wrong twist, her arm might break right off. Again, her fear fueled her bravado, and she couldn’t help yelling at Tess, the only one among the group who probably wouldn’t kill her on the spot. "You betrayed the entire human race for some crappy dog tags? Way to go."
The walk back down into the main room made Lois feel a sense of urgency. Were they going to execute her now? Every fiber of her being balked at the idea, and she was still so confused about how all of this had happened in the first place. She had so many questions and not a single answer.
Well, perhaps one. Clark Kent obviously cared about her more than he had ever let on. She held on to the memory of his embrace earlier that day as they led her back towards the library, and the emotion she had heard in his voice when he had found her at the farm.
Ironically, it was the thought that Clark cared for her that gave her courage to face whatever lay ahead for her. She would be brave for him.
Prepared for the worst upon entering the library, Lois was surprised and heartened to hear Clark cry, "Let her go! Take my life! Let her live!"
And yet, those words, that he would sacrifice his life for hers, shook her to the core. All she could speak was his name in a strangled whisper, caressed with the emotion and fear that they wouldn’t live through this---that she would never have a chance to tell him what he meant to her.
Lois locked eyes with Clark. She was floored by the emotion that burned there. Suddenly her breath was stolen as she realized what he really felt for her. This wasn’t just Clark stepping in to be a hero. He would sacrifice himself because he truly loved her.
Zod broke their brief communion of the eyes, stepping between them to show his disdain. “Your bravery is commendable, Clark. But by defying me, you have forced my hand." Zod nodded to a nearby Kandorian guard, and he pushed Clark down to his knees. Zod relished the moment with Clark prostrate beneath him, as he took out a wicked looking sword. "I wanted you to join me on this New Earth, but now I must bury you beneath it."
All Lois saw was the sword, raised above Clark’s head. She cried out “No!” horrified.
“No, Clark! No!”
~\S/~
“Lois? Lois, wake up. I’m here.”
Clark had found Lois on the floor, his Kryptonian journal lying open next to her. He couldn’t resist the old need to hide, to protect his origins, even if Lois had already read part of the journal. So he carefully put it aside in a drawer before gathering Lois in his arms.
Her face was contorted in fear, her breath coming in small gasps, as she cried “No!” defiantly to the dreams that were haunting her.
“Lois? Please, wake up. Everything is all right. Lois,” he continued to coax her, rocking her gently in his arms as the rain continued its tattoo on the roof overhead.
“Clark?” she asked in a thin whisper, coming out of the dream, sounding almost childlike.
“I’m here, Lois,” he said gently, some emotion catching in his own throat to see her so vulnerable.
“Clark?” she asked again, sounding a bit more like herself.
When she realized she was lying in his arms, she quickly scooted to a sitting position, lest he see her cheeks flush red from their near contact. The raw emotion of the Clark Kent she had seen in her dream was still fresh in her mind’s eye, the love that burned there. And she knew she wouldn’t see that emotion in this Clark, and she had to prepare her heart for that fact.
“I—I passed out…” she said vaguely, coming to her feet, albeit still a little dizzy. She looked around the floor, searching for the journal she had been reading, but it was gone. She turned to Clark, his expression vaguely concerned. She knew then that he had hidden it from her… but why? It wasn’t like she understood the strange mumbo jumbo that had brought on that tremor attack.
“Lois---are you all right?” he asked cautiously, stepping towards her.
She stumbled back, needing some distance from him. Her mind was swirling with memories, one of the more surprising of them painting Clark as her hero.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said in a voice that clearly indicated that she wasn’t.
“Lois, sit down. Come talk to me. What happened?” Clark said kindly, sitting on the sofa and patting the place next to him nonthreateningly.
She turned to face him, seeing the worry written on his face. Maybe he wasn’t the dazzling hero she had seen in her dream, but he was a friend, despite everything.
Lois sat next to him, fidgeting with her hands.
“What happened?” Clark asked again, quietly.
She sighed, resigned. She had planned on telling him about her visions tonight when she had invited him here earlier at the Planet. Yet her resolution was suddenly wavering. Now she desperately also wanted to ask for a quid pro quo. Namely, for him to tell her what the hell that journal was filled with and why did Clark have it? She was hesitant to spill her guts to him if he was just going to be a sympathetic ear and not someone who would actually help her solve this mystery.
And on top of it all, she couldn’t shake the deep feelings her dream had stirred in her for Clark.
She always knew she was attracted to Smallville, but she had usually been cautious about showing her feelings for him. Especially when Lana had still been in the picture. But now, she could still see the expression on his face from her dream, and it took her a moment to reconcile that with the lightly flirtatious relationship they had now. The Clark Kent of her dream had been much more than a casual flirtation.
“Um… I don’t know. I keep fainting and having these crazy acid trip dreams I can’t explain,” she said lightly.
“You want to talk about it?” Clark prodded.
She bit her lip and shook her head. “I don’t know. You’ll probably think I’m whack-a-doodle.”
“Lois, whatever it is, you can trust me,” Clark coaxed with a smile.
Lois, not allowing herself to be drawn into his baby blue eyes, tried another tactic instead.
“So, how was your three week vacation?” she asked, aiming for a less dangerous conversation topic.
“My three week vacation?” he echoed, slightly puzzled by the change of subject.
“Yeah—Chloe told me you were visiting family… kinda strange that you took off right when I disappeared…” she said, giving him a sidelong glance as she searched for his reaction.
“Lois, what is this all about?”
“Well, I—I just find it odd that we were both gone for three weeks and I barely remembered what happened to me and both your mom and Chloe’s stories about you visiting family seemed to conflict—“ she said, suddenly realizing. “Especially given the fact that they both mentioned two different states and—“
“I have family in a lot of places,” Clark interrupted defensively. “And you called my mother looking for me?” he said a bit testily.
“I talk to Mrs. K all the time, Smallville. And don’t get petulant with me. I have just been trying to figure out why I keep seeing you as the hero in my dreams when in real life you are no better than any other guy!” Lois said in a rush, crossing her arms in dismay.
Silence filled the room as both of them contemplated what she just said.
“You think I’m a hero?” he asked at last, softly, turning to her.
Lois glanced away from his intent gaze and shrugged her shoulders. “Can we change the subject?”
Clark sighed, relenting a bit. “Tell me about the dreams have you been having.”
She hesitated another moment, but then took the red and yellow Smallville High blanket that was folded on the arm of the sofa and started fiddling with the ends, not looking at him. “Well, I think that Tess is up to no good. Right before I disappeared, I went to talk to her at the Planet and she was going on about some alien orb. Then all I remember was putting on a ring and disappearing into an acid trip where the sun was red and Tess was in league with aliens. And Zod!” she said, suddenly remembering with a shiver. She shook her head, “Anyway, it was like I was looking into the future and—well, it wasn’t pretty.”
“Zod?” Clark asked, carefully pushing for more information. How much did she know about Zod?
“Yeah, he was this really obnoxious general…” she waved her hands dismissively. “I don’t remember. It was all a bit hazy…” She sighed, her headache coming back. “I just wish I knew what it all meant.”
“Lois, perhaps you are just stressed.”
“Stressed? Of course I am stressed, Clark!” she said, tossing the blanket aside and getting up to walk over to stand by the window. “Three whole weeks of my memory are gone! And all I have in their place are a bunch of images that hardly make any sense…” She turned to face him, her arms crossed again, this time in a protective pose. “Smallville, you’d tell me if you knew what any of this is about, wouldn’t you?” she asked, her voice more subdued.
“Of course, Lois,” he said, but his accompanying smile didn’t look very convincing. “Maybe—maybe Tess is behind it, as you said.”
“Maybe,” Lois grumbled, unconvinced.
“Look, the rain has stopped. Let’s get a bite to eat and try to problem solve this on a full stomach, okay?”
She stared at him a moment, uncertain about accepting his peace offering. She had thought Tess was behind it all at first, but now she wasn’t so sure.
As she followed Clark down the stairs of the loft, she couldn’t help looking over her shoulder, wondering why he had seen fit to get rid of the journal before she came to. The more Lois thought about it, the more she was convinced that Clark Kent had something to hide… and it all had something to do with her three-week disappearance.
