“Carl Williamson is turning State’s evidence against the Sangrias. When he’s done, he’ll get a new life in the witness protection program.”
Lois stared out into the bullpen. There had been a time when this had felt more like home than her apartment. Now, after two weeks in Smallville filing story after story by phone about the drug busts, the arrest of half the Smallville police department, the career of Jess as a serial killer and the rise and fall of his drug empire, everything felt alien.
Everyone moved a little quicker, stayed a little busier, was a little less friendly, at least on the outside. The pace was different than it was when you were isolated from the rest of the world.
Lois reached into her briefcase and handed Perry an article. “This is the article on Raves I was talking about a while back. It turns out that the creep who drugged my sister was one of the Sangrias distributors.”
Perry took the article and read through it silently. Finally he spoke. “This is good work. Not your usually style, though.”
“Kent’s rubbing off on me a little, “ Lois admitted. She took a deep breath and reached into her briefcase again.
“I want your permission to sell a piece freelance. It’s not the sort of piece that our reader’s would be that interested in, but there are some people who need to see it.”
She handed him the article. She knew the headline by heart. “DNA evidence clears local man of 10 year old double homicide.” The evidence clearing Clark and indicting Jesse had been expedited by Star Labs, who’d developed a faster method of DNA matching.
Although she was asking permission, the article was running in tomorrows issue of the Smallville Post. She was as proud of it as she was of any of her Kerth winning articles. This one wouldn’t win her awards, but it would help Clark reach a little closure, and that was more than she could ever hope for.”
“So this Kent kid is going to work out?”
“Well, he did get beaten and shot in our first story together,” Lois said, grinning. “That beats my record by a good two months. But he’s got good instincts and I can work with him, which is more than you can say about any of the other yahoos you paired me up with.”
“So...a week off.” Perry coughed. “You know this is your first week off since you came to work here.”
“The boys upstairs have been pressuring me to take time off for a while now,” Lois admitted. “With Clark out for a couple of weeks because of his leg, it seems like a good time to get a little rest and relaxation without worrying that he’s going to upstage me.”
“He’s that good?” Perry asked.
“He will be.” Lois was as certain as she’d ever been in her life.
*************
“I’ve been listening to all of you for the last few days,” Clark said slowly, carefully not looking at the circle of faces surrounding him. “And at first I didn’t think I belonged here. I felt like I had problems that nobody else in the world would understand. I’ve been involved in things...things I’ve been working for a long time not to remember.”
He hesitated. It wasn’t any easier to talk about than it had been to tell. “I ran from it for a long time, and I was able to put up a pretty good front. I could be charming and fun and look like I didn’t have a care in the world. It was easy- as long as nothing ever got serious, I didn’t have to care. I was numb, and nothing really felt like it mattered.”
He heard one of the men murmur to the other under his breath. No one else would have heard it, but Clark did, and he had to agree. Compared to what some of the others were dealing with, his guilt was comparatively minor. But the effects were largely the same.
“I turned my back on people who really cared about me...my best friend Pete, my foster brother Carl...even my foster father Ed took better care of me than I would have ever realized. I was so wrapped up in my own pain that I was incapable of seeing anyone else’s...and that, ultimately, made me less than a man.”
Of all his nightmares about having tentacles and turning green, what had ultimately made him an outsider was something all too human.
“And part of that was anger. I’ve spent the last ten years making excuses, but when I look back on how much pain I’ve had...how much pain the people around me had that could have been avoided...”
Several of the men nodded. They’d all talked about how hard it was to admit to feeling like a victim. Many had talked about feeling broken, and they’d all struggled to admit the truth to themselves.
“I trusted her, and she took advantage of that.”
Clark took a deep, shuddering breath. He’d opened Pandora’s box, releasing a lifetime of pent up emotions, and despite the pain, he didn’t want to close it again.
“The only thing is...I’ve finally met someone who makes me want to be a man, who makes me want to stop running and finally restart my life. And I’m not sure how to start.”
The therapist, a tall, bearded man said “I think you just did.”
***************
“I can hear them, you know,” Clark said. “Everything they are saying about me. I should feel more vindicated.”
Even now, almost two weeks after the funeral, it still felt like Pete was just around a corner, waiting to say hello. That’s how he’d seen him for all these years; despite never intending to return to Smallville, the knowledge that Pete was just a phone call away had been a comfort to him during his dark times.
He wished now that he’d made those calls.
Lois’s article had come out this morning, and the sounds coming from household after household should have made him feel better. But it was bittersweet. He was leaving again, and except for Rachel, there was no one left in Smallville that he cared about. Pete was dead, and Carl was leaving. All that was left was specters of the past.
He placed the lilies on the grave and sighed. Pete had been his only friend at a time when he’d desperately needed one.
“I’m sorry.”
He stood up and watched the sun set and consoled himself with the knowledge that this time he wasn’t running away from Smallville. He was running to something instead.
Running to someone.
The cough from behind him was unexpected. He’d been so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard anyone drive up.
“Pete talked about you a lot,” Rachel’s voice was quiet and subdued. “He was the only person in town that talked about you to my face, and somehow I couldn’t be angry at him.”
“I wasn’t the friend I should have been to him.” Clark said, not looking up. “Or to you either.”
Rachel ignored him for a moment, choosing instead to step forward and crouch, dropping carnations beside Clark’s offering.
“He was always proud of you.” Rachel said, rising slowly to her feet. “He watched every football game you played, collected news clippings...and when you became a reporter, he collected those too. As much as you moved around, it was a wonder that anyone could keep track, but Pete did, more often than not.”
“I should have come back for him.”
“Pete told me once that meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to him. Whenever he came to a point in his life where he had to make a tough choice, he tried to think about what you’d do. He didn’t always make the right choices, but the ones he did make made him feel like he was a man. He wouldn’t have had that without your example. I think Carl would say the same thing.”
Clark shook his head. “I’m not a role model. I’ve made plenty of mistakes.”
“At least you don’t go around making the same mistake over and over. That’s more than you can say of me. I get caught up in something, and I just can’t let it go. I’ve been holding a grudge for a long time, and it’s not good for me.”
“You’ve had reason.” Clark said quietly.
Rachel held up one hand and said, “I’m going to make a new start of this, and you should too. Lois has promised to call me a few times a year, and I think I’m really going to like her.”
“Why do I get the feeling that everything’s already been decided?”
Chuckling, Rachel said, “You haven’t had women in your family for a while now, have you? You’ve got a lot to learn.”
Clark felt his guilt ease a little. All his bridges weren’t burned. Some people still considered him family, no matter what he’d done in the past. He’d just have to make sure that he lived up to their trust.
*************
“As I recall,” Clark said. “We never got to finish our date.”
“So you think I want a second date? I told you about my rule about sleeping with people I work with.” Lois said, smiling slightly.
“Who said we’d be sleeping?” Clark grinned. He kissed Lois on the back of the neck as they stood on the roof of her apartment building.
“It’s good to see you back.” Lois said. “It was only a couple of days, and I was starting to miss you.”
“I think the men’s group Dr. Friskin recommended is going to work out.” Clark kissed Lois behind the ear. “I’m glad you told me to do it.”
Lois leaned back against him. “As long as you know who really has the power here, we’ll be fine.” She grinned and looked back at him. “There’s got to be a top banana, and well, that would be me.”
“On top, right.“ Clark said. He kissed her again. “Rachel told me that you two had my future all planned out.”
“She’s going to get thrown out of the sisterhood if she gives away all our secrets.” Lois grinned and twisted in his grasp, looking at him. “Besides, we haven’t had time to plan more than five years ahead.”
Clark chuckled, “I’m not getting away from this one, am I?”
“Would you want to?” Lois asked quietly.
Clark kissed her, said “I’m done running.”
“Good. I’d hate to have to wait until you put out a personal ad in Borneo to find you again.”
“What...‘Single white Kryptonian male, 27 seeks native counterpart for companionship or more. If you're an intelligent, ambitious professional female, I'll sweep you off your feet and take you for long moonlit flights above the clouds. Agoraphobics need not apply. Non-smoker preferred?’” Clark grinned. “I’m not sure that’d go over very well. They’d probably think a Kryptonian was somebody with a new kind of fetish.”
Lois said, “I don’t see any more ads in our future.”
“Speaking of moonlit flights,” Clark said, wrapping his arms around her, “I’ve got something to show you.”
Lois barely had time to gasp as a moment later, they were floating into the sky. Lois expected them to turn and begin to move somewhere, but instead they simply floated higher and higher, until at last they were among the clouds, the glittering jewel that was Metropolis fading from sight below.
That jewel was replaced by a sea of stars as they parted the clouds, and a moon that was larger than anything that Lois had ever seen.
“Would you do me the honor?” Clark asked, holding out the hand that wasn’t wrapped around her back. Lois took his hand in hers, and they began to dance.
Dancing wasn’t what they were doing. Lois was simply resting in his arms, staring into his eyes as he guided her slowly in a circle. Yet somehow, this felt more like dancing than anything she could remember. She felt safe and protected and loved.
When he finally spoke, his voice was husky. “You saved me, you know.”
“Which time?” she asked, smiling slightly. She was pleased to see the twinkle in his eyes.
“The first time I saw you.” Clark said. “You were talking to your sister, and all I could think was...”
“When was this?” Lois asked, frowning.
“Well, I was looking through a wall at the time. You were writing your ad and...uh oh.”
Scowling, Lois said, “You mean to tell me that our blind date wasn’t blind at all? What did you do, spy on me?”
“I never knew a thing about you except which ad you’d posted. I was so blinded by my first look at you, I didn’t have time to do any other digging.”
“So you want me for my looks and not my brains.”
“I loved your looks, but I wasn’t in love with you...not until I got to know you.”
Lois allowed this to sink in for a moment, a shock that caused her toes to tingle.
“So when was the first moment that you knew?” she asked softly.
“When you finally knew who I was...what I was, and you didn’t turn away.” Clark held her tighter.
“It took me a little longer,” Lois admitted. “It wasn’t something I wanted to feel, not with everything that was going on. It was insane.”
“So when did you know?” Clark asked.
“You’ll think I’m weird.” Lois said.
Clark arched an eyebrow at her.
“It was in the police station. I was covered in garbage, I smelled like rotten tofu and mustard, and you still looked at me like I was the most beautiful woman in the world. The flying after that...that was just icing on the cake.”
This wasn’t the man she’d met in the restaurant on her blind date. That man had seemed perfect. He’d been handsome, articulate, confident and utterly self assured. The Clark she’d come to know was much more humble, but Lois was glad of it. A perfect man wouldn’t have any need for someone like her. He’d be above humanity, and given the power that Clark had, it’d be all too easy to believe that.
But in truth, she loved Clark because of his flaws, not in spite of them. Clark cared about people. He was sometimes a little shy. He felt pain when other people hurt, and yet he did everything he could day after day to make the world a better place.
He might not be a perfect man, but he was hers. He filled a void that she didn’t even know she’d had, and she suspected that he felt the same way. Clark kissed her, and Lois felt her toes begin to curl. When he finally began to descend, she asked him the question she’d been waiting to ask him all day.
“I’ve had some ideas about how we can help more people.” She grinned up at him. “How do you feel about spandex?”
