Clark stood in the kitchen the next morning, holding the Legion ring in the early morning sunlight. He didn’t know what folly had possessed him to bring it out—except that maybe it held the answers he so desperately needed.
It was dangerous to know the future---but could it be more dangerous not to know?
He turned it around in his palm, contemplating it in the sunlight. One slip onto his finger and he could have questions answered—what did Lois see exactly? And how could he stop it all from coming to pass?
Or, possibly a more tantalizing question—what would Lois mean to him in the future? If they survived Zod, what then? Would they ever get past this flirt-and-run stage of their relationship?
But he knew meddling with the future was dangerous. The Legion ring wasn’t to be taken lightly and used on a whim just because he had a few questions he wanted answered.
He heard Lois coming down the stairs. Not wanting her to see the ring, he quickly opened the nearest drawer, tossing it back to its furthest corner as he resumed washing dishes from the night before.
“Morning,” he called over his shoulder, as he scrubbed away at the stubborn cheese residue on the plates. “There’s orange juice in the fridge… And I made some pancake batter, just have to cook it up.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said through a sleepy yawn.
He glanced around to see Lois grinning in his direction.
“What?” he asked a little self-consciously.
She shook her head, and attempted to hide her smile behind the glass of orange juice she had just poured. “Nothing. Just—guess I have you to thank for my lack of a stiff neck this morning, that’s all. Must have dozed off during the movie…”
“Yeah… I—“ he cleared his throat, images of holding Lois’ soft warm body in his arms making him stumble on his words. “You—well, you just didn’t look comfortable on the sofa, so—“
“It’s fine, Smallville,” she answered, waving her hand dismissively. “Just wish I had been awake enough to enjoy you carrying me to bed…” she murmured under her breath.
Clark pretended like he hadn’t heard. “What was that?”
“Nothing—“ she responded innocently.
Clark turned back to drying the plates so she couldn’t see him smile. Just then, Clark’s phone started buzzing. He picked it up off the counter and saw it was a text from Chloe:
Watchtower, pronto. Development with Tess.
He sighed and looked regretfully at Lois. He had been kind of looking forward to eating breakfast with her this morning.
“Lois, I’m sorry,” he smiled apologetically, waving his phone at her to indicate something had come up. “I—I have a source I have to meet---“ he stammered, hating that he couldn’t-- or wouldn't-- just tell her that Chloe may know something about what Tess was up to.
“I understand. Stories wait for no man. I’ll see you at the Planet later?”
“Yeah, of course,” he nodded. He stepped over to the fridge and pulled out the ready-made batter. “Sorry about breakfast. Think you can handle making some pancakes on your own?”
“Sure. How hard can it be?” she shrugged good-naturedly, meanwhile dubiously looking into the bowl of pre-made batter.
Watching her in all her quirkiness, Clark had a sudden urge to leave a very domestic kiss on Lois’ forehead as he departed. Instead, he shook his head at his own wayward thoughts and grabbed his jacket.
“I’ll see you later, Lois,” he said, heading to the door.
The porch door swung shut, and in an instant, he was gone.
~\S/~
“Hmmm… okay, pancakes. This can’t be that hard, right Shelby?” Lois said, nosing in the cabinets for a pan as Shelby wagged her tail next to her.
Lois looked down at the dog again, and then noticed her empty food dish. “Aw, did Smallville forget to feed you? Don’t worry; I’ll make sure you don’t starve.”
Lois found some Dog Chow in the pantry and fed a relieved Shelby, then resumed her mission to find a suitable pan for pancakes.
“Aha! This one will do,” she said proudly, eventually brandishing a flat pan. “Now as for a spatula…”
She went digging through some drawers, searching for a spatula. “I may not know my way around the kit—“
She stopped as a very familiar object suddenly caught her eye in one of the drawers. For a moment, she just stared at the ring, afraid to touch it again lest it send her off on some other weird trip she wouldn’t be able to explain later.
“Why would Clark have this ring, Shelby?” she asked aloud, but Shelby was too intent on her kibbles to worry about what Lois was mumbling.
“Just—pick it up, Lois. It can’t hurt you,” she coached herself, summoning courage. Seeing the ring again, made all of those memories come rushing back. She remembered too the moment at the Planet, when she was fighting with Tess… She had found the ring, slipped it on her finger and bam---ended up in a world where aliens had taken over the earth and Clark Kent loved her.
How had it happened? Had the ring somehow sent her somewhere?
Lois eventually picked up the ring, being very careful not to let it slip down her finger. What was it doing here hidden in the Kent junk drawer anyway? Was this another one of the things that Clark had either been given by the Blur, or dare she suggest—he had taken from him?
Either way, Clark shouldn’t have this ring. It was dangerous. She knew what it could do—rip you out of a moment and send you careening into a world that didn’t make any sense. Clark didn’t need to deal with that responsibility. The ring must belong to the Blur. Somehow, she had to get it back to him, and away from her or Clark.
One of them having disturbing memories of an apocalyptic future was more than enough.
~\S/~
All morning Lois felt like the ring was burning a hole in her purse. She felt guilty for just taking it from Clark—but maybe he hadn’t even known he had it. It had been, after all, shoved in a drawer with a myriad other odds and ends. Yes, she justified to herself, she was right to take it. It didn’t belong to him—it belonged in safer hands. The Blur’s hands.
She spent most of the morning checking email and researching about the latest political scandal involving Ray Sacks, the meat and potatoes of her next article.
A new email popped up in her inbox:
“PRESS RELEASE: Tess Mercer, former head of LuthorCorp, signs off on project with RAO Corporation to build largest solar energy tower in the world.”
Lois read the short blurb several times, shaking her head with disbelief. This couldn’t be right… this was just like her dream… surely it couldn’t be the strange tower that had given Zod and his band of terrorists superpowers?
“No, no, no… this can’t be happening,” she murmured to her screen. “I need to talk to the Blur!” she whispered fiercely under her breath. “And where is Clark?”
Her partner was running late to the office, still with his source apparently. She didn’t want to call him in case he was in the middle of something important, but she didn’t think this should wait. So she texted him instead: Tess’ tower is a go. What do we do now?
Lois tried to go back to her other work, but suddenly the article on Sacks just wasn’t holding her interest. She wondered if Tess even understood at this point what she was getting herself into with Zod. Yet, raising the red flag to Tess wasn’t the best idea either—she’d push Lois for any information she had, and Lois didn’t want to be at that particular redhead’s mercy.
Her phone started ringing, and the caller came up ‘unknown.’ She let out a slightly gleeful yelp and answered.
“Thank goodness you called,” she said, the relief in her voice evident.
“Lois, what’s the matter?” said the Blur’s voice, distorted through the voice scrambler he was fond of using.
“I think---well, I have a lot to tell you about… You know those visions I’d been having?”
“Visions?”
“Yeah—um, red sun, Tess, Zod…? Well, I think it’s starting to come true. I just got a press release memo that says Tess Mercer is the money behind a new solar tower.”
“And what do you think she plans to do with it?”
“Well, from the visions I had, nothing good. It will turn the sun red, and give Zod and his buddies an energy boost that’s a bit stronger than your average RedBull drink.”
“Surely you don’t think a solar tower would turn the sun red?”
“Yes, I do! And I think—a red sun will take your powers away… In my dream—you were dead,” she said, her voice shaking a little as she remembered.
“Lois, everything will be fine. Trust me.”
She breathed in, closing her eyes as she took in those words. “I do trust you—“ she paused, digging into her bag for the ring. “Oh, and I have something of yours. I think it started this whole mess in the first place and I don’t think Clark should keep it. It’s a large gold ring—and I think it’s what brought on my acid trip to the future.”
“I—lent the ring to Clark. But from what you’re telling me, maybe I could use it to stop Zod—find out what his intentions really are. Meet me on the roof of the Planet in an hour?”
“I’ll be there,” she breathed, her heart beginning to race with excitement. Was this it? Was she actually going to finally meet the Blur?
~\S/~
Clark came sauntering into the bullpen ten minutes later. Chloe and he had been discussing what to do about Zod’s new tower going up all morning. From what Lois remembered from her dream, it seemed this tower was a portent of bad things to come. They reasoned that maybe if Tess wasn’t entirely in Zod’s back pocket yet, they could warn her about the dangers of working with him. Though talking to Tess always came with its own dangers…
Meanwhile, in the back of his mind, his thoughts kept returning to Lois. She had trusted him with her strange secrets, and in so doing, he had finally admitted to himself how much she meant to him. Maybe it was time to stop hiding—at least hiding his heart. If he could at minimum tell her how he felt about her, then maybe revealing the truth about the Blur when all this mess with Zod’s tower was over with wouldn’t be so difficult.
He had all of these thoughts churning in his head as he stepped into the bullpen, his eyes focused on Lois.
“Whoa, easy on the stare down, Clark. I’d swear you could shoot lasers out of those eyes,” Lois said as he came to stand by her desk.
“Sorry,“ he shook his head as if to clear it from some of his darker concerns. “Just been one of those mornings… Can I talk to you? The copy room?” he asked in a low voice, so as not to attract unwanted attention from nearby colleagues, leaning over her desk.
“Sure. As long as it doesn’t take too long. I have a hush-hush I need to get to in about forty-five minutes.”
“This will only take a minute, I promise.”
Apparently intrigued, Lois followed him into the copy room. As she shut the door behind them, he stood with his hands loosely on his hips, looking slightly away from her as he thought about how to begin.
“What is it, Clark?” she queried softly, seeming to notice his discomfiture.
“What are we doing, Lois?” he asked turning intent blue eyes on her.
She watched him carefully, uncertain. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, us. Clark and Lois. Lois and Clark,” he gestured between them. “Lois, you opening up to me last night, meant so much. That you trusted me—and I—“ he sighed, thinking again of all the ways he had been dishonest with her. “Look, will you have dinner with me tonight?” he asked in a rush, suddenly inspired as he lost his courage to confess his heart here and now.
“Smallville, what’s this about? You’re asking me on a date, yet I feel like you’re doing it because there’s a monkey on your back forcing you to do so. I don’t understand.”
He nodded, understanding her confusion. He was acting a little all over the place---being the last son of Krypton and trying to stem an alien invasion while trying to tell the woman you love the truth will do that to you sometimes. “I’m sorry, Lois. I promise—everything will be clear tonight. I’ll make reservations for us at Alessandro’s.”
“Clark Kent, are you actually going to try and woo me?” she asked with a suspicious laugh, still not entirely convinced.
He stepped towards her, his nervous energy dissipating as he laid his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. He saw all of those things in Lois that drew him to her. Her tenacity, her heart, even her sense of humor. She had to know what he felt for her, and he tried to convey some of that depth of feeling with his eyes, as his voice couldn’t seem to get the right words to form.
“Smallville?” she asked in a whisper, her eyes searching his as she seemed to sense his strong emotions, just under the surface.
After a long moment, he found his voice. It wasn’t hurried or frustrated this time; just subdued and warm. “Let’s just say that some things have become clearer to me,” he said tenderly, cupping her cheek.
He leaned in, breathing in her perfume and shampoo and her-- Loisness. She had no idea how much power she had over him, as he felt weak and strong at once in her presence. It was why he knew he had to tell her what he felt for her, she had to know that no matter what, he needed her, loved her. He leaned in closer, her lips just under his, almost coming to a kiss, when suddenly someone cleared their throat at the door.
They suddenly stepped away from each other like two guilty schoolchildren. The moment ripe for a kiss had suddenly evaporated into thin air.
“Uh, Kent? Miss Mercer wants to talk with you upstairs,” said a go-fer copy boy in a nervous voice.
Clark sighed, but glanced again at Lois, a regretful smile on his face. “I’ll see you later.”
~\S/~
Lois stood rooted in the copy room, momentarily speechless by Clark’s actions. They had been about to kiss if that copy boy hadn’t interrupted. Her cheeks felt warm and her legs were a bit unsteady. She had seen a glimpse of the Clark of her dreams just now, and it was quite a bit to take in. She grabbed a nearby manila folder to fan herself.
She’d definitely be at that dinner tonight. Wild horses or even a monster truck rally couldn’t keep her away from seeing that look in Clark’s eyes again…
His sudden talk of trust made her nervous though. Was she doing the right thing giving the ring back to the Blur? She believed she was—it didn’t belong in just anyone’s hands, power like that. And not that she didn’t trust Clark, but she had disappeared for three weeks when she slipped it on. What if Clark did the same, looking for answers, and disappeared—forever?
With renewed determination, she gathered her things and headed to the roof to meet the Blur.
~\S/~
It was a windy, grey day in Metropolis.
Lois pulled her trench tight around her, wishing she had grabbed her scarf as well. “Hello?” she called out to the empty rooftop. “Are you here?”
She looked around, hearing little else but wind in her ears. Had she been mistaken? Maybe she was supposed to leave the ring here somewhere so he could whoosh by and take it. Maybe he didn’t mean for them to actually meet.
“I have the ring,” she called out, fingering the object in her pocket wrapped in a handkerchief carefully.
A man in a long black jacket stepped forward from a shadowed corner, and Lois swallowed a small gasp. He hadn’t turned to face her yet, but she felt a thrill of seeing even this much of him at last all the same.
“Is it really you?” she said, her words immediately getting lost in the wind around them.
“Thank you, Lois, for coming,” he said, still not facing her.
That voice… it seemed familiar to her… but she didn’t feel the comfort she had expected to feel when hearing the Blur’s real voice for the first time. Yet, she thought she knew that voice…
“I understand if you don’t want to show your face to me. It’s better that way, isn’t it? Safer, for me?” she asked, speaking slightly louder to cut through the wind around them.
He glanced over his shoulder, slightly revealing the top of his profile over his high collar. But it was enough.
Lois suddenly knew where she had recognized that voice… and that face.
General Zod.
She stepped back, slowly creating distance between them. She had been a fool, deceived!
“You,” she whispered fearfully, trying to recall about how many paces it was behind her to the door and safety.
“Lois, you can pass me the ring, my dear,” he said, reaching behind him with an open palm.
“I—I—“ she choked out, afraid to take her eyes off him, and yet afraid to run to the door lest he stop her. Did he have powers now? Or was it only the red sun that gave them to him?
“Lois?” he asked, seemingly puzzled.
“I—made a mistake. I left the ring in my desk—I’ll just—“ she said, now turning to reach for the door.
But quicker than a flash, Zod was at the door, blocking her way. “I don’t think you understand, Lois. I need the ring,” he said coolly, fully facing her now.
“You’re not the Blur,” she said evenly, her hand moving to her pocket where she kept the item in question.
His lips curled in a snarl. “No, no I’m not. I’m someone who doesn’t care whether you live or die.”
He reached for her, but before he could touch her, Lois slipped the ring on her finger. Her one thought—take me to the Blur.
~\S/~
When the flash of light ebbed, Lois kept her eyes squeezed shut, afraid to open them and see that she had been tossed back into that horrible, doomsday world again.
But as she stood still, her eyes still closed, she simply heard the gentle hum of the elevator at the Planet. Cautiously, she opened one eye, and seeing it was safe, she opened the other. The Planet? Had the ring simply transferred her inside the building?
She pressed the floor for the bullpen and was relieved when the doors opened. She made a beeline to her desk, but noticed someone else’s nameplate sitting on it.
“Hey, what’s going on?” she asked no one in particular.
“What is it, Miss Lane?” a nearby colleague that she didn’t recognize responded.
“My desk. What happened to all my stuff?”
The man, clearly uneasy, simply pointed across the room. “You haven’t sat down here with us for quite a while, Miss Lane. Your office is over there.”
He pointed to a frosted glass door, and curious, Lois made her way over to it. As she approached, she noticed that the names etched on the door were Clark’s and her own, though she was slightly dismayed to see she got second billing.
“A new office? Is Tess off her rocker?” she said, stepping inside.
All around her was a spacious office, with an envious view that overlooked Metropolis. Two large desks sat in the middle of the room, complete with plush executive chairs.
“I must be dreaming,” she whispered, fingering the dark maple desk.
The door suddenly opened behind her, and she turned around to see Clark, his hair slicked back and wearing dark, black framed glasses.
“Clark! Thank God, that was a close call—“ she started. “To think I almost—hey, since when do you wear such geeky eye wear, Smallville?” she interrupted herself, momentarily taken aback.
“Trying some new frames… lost my wire ones during a change yesterday,“ he said, pushing them up the bridge of his nose to readjust them on his face. “I thought you were still in Washington with the President?” he said, coming over to her.
“The Pres—“ but he cut her off with a quick, if surprising kiss on the lips.
“Whoa there, Smallville, shouldn't we be taking this a hair slower?“ she said, taking a step back from him.
“Oh, Lois?” he said absently, sifting through his mail pile on his desk. “The Superman charity banquet got bumped to tonight. I thought it wouldn't matter because you were still in Washington...and I know I still owe you a dinner out. But I promise, I’ll make it up to you later,” he said, coming to stand behind her and nuzzle kisses into her neck.
Though the physical attention was nice, Lois had no idea what had gotten into him or what he was rambling on about. “Superman?” she asked vaguely.
He suddenly looked off to the side, his head tilted slightly and an intent gleam in his eye. “Suicide Slums… Two fires…” he murmured with the shake of his head. “Walk with me?”
She couldn’t help but follow him. This new, confident Clark Kent was compelling, even if she had no idea what was going on with him.
“I’ll take off from the roof,” he said in a low tone, so only she could here. She followed him to the elevator, her eyes glued to him as she tried to make sense of what was going on. Only vaguely did she think this-- change had something to do with the ring, but she didn’t quite understand what or how. “I can get there in time… But it’s been a week since I’ve seen you, and I’d like a moment alone,” Clark said, giving her a glance that warmed her to her toes.
With that, he pulled her onto the elevator, pushing the button so the elevator wouldn’t make any other stops besides their final destination.
“I’m glad you’re back early, Lois. I’ve missed you,” he said huskily, pulling her into his arms. Before she could protest, he was kissing her, his strong hands holding her up, even as they roamed knowingly around her body. He seemed to hit all of her right buttons, like they did this all the time. But she couldn’t focus on more than that, overwhelmed by the fact that she was making out with Clark Kent in the Planet elevator.
As they reached the roof, he reluctantly pulled away, leaving her breathless.
“We’ll finish where we left off later. For now, I have to go save the day.”
She followed him out onto the roof, mesmerized and still slightly dazed from the kiss in the elevator. Suddenly, he stepped away from her and spun at super-speed.
All she could see was a blur of red and blue—and then, there he was. “Superman,” she whispered automatically, somehow recalling the name he had mentioned in the office.
“See you later, honey,” he said, taking off into the skies at the speed of light.
She stood there, dazed and confused for a moment. Had Clark really just turned into a spandex-wearing superhero and flown off the roof of the Planet?
She stumbled towards the ledge, her eyes straining to see where he had gone, but the red-blue streak was hard to follow. She gripped the wall, trying to stabilize her legs.
What just happened?
The red and blue…the ‘S’ on his uniform—it was the same as the Blur’s! Clark was the Blur? Only, in this alternate universe, or alternate time, he didn’t slink around in shadows and hide. He was out in the open—a true symbol of hope.
Like she had always imagined the Blur could be.
Only now, it was for real.
And what’s more… Clark Kent was one hell of a kisser.
