From Part 4All of a sudden, Lois stood up with her plate in her hand and Clark’s eyes went wide. He spent too much time thinking about what to do and didn’t do anything. He watched as Lois excused herself from the table, placed her plate on the counter and headed upstairs. She reached the second stair and stopped, frozen for a moment before turning around to Clark.
“Remember Clark, it takes a lot of wind to get a tornado started.” Lois turned around and walked up the rest of the stairs. There was a creaking of floorboards and a slamming door then all was still.
Jonathan and Martha, both shocked by the interaction that just occurred, began to clear the table. They left Clark alone to sit in his misery.
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Part 5It was close to midnight when Lois woke in the unfamiliar room. She had fallen asleep, shortly after leaving the dinner table. The bed was so soft and Clark’s bedroom was so strangely inviting, Lois couldn’t help but lay down. Now upon waking up, the trip to Smallville and the dinner was just a big painful blur. She must look so great to Clark’s parent after telling off their son and slamming the door like a child. It was a bad idea to come. It was a bad idea to try and get her feelings out. Things were less complicated when she kept it all inside.
That statement couldn’t have less truth to it. Lois knew that keeping her emotions locked away was part of the reason she and Clark were fighting. They were fighting about truths that were very scary to accept. Lois felt a twinge of guilt when she recalled the hard time she gave Clark when they first met. They had moved past that part of their relationship and become great friends but today Lois had acted like her old self around Clark. She refused to be nice, caring and to respect him. It made Lois understand why Clark probably never told her the secret sooner.
Lois rose out of bed and walked over to the dresser. The top had few mementos from Clark’s childhood; a pee-wee football trophy, a science fair ribbon, and a picture of a much younger Clark with his parents. Lois smiled and fingered the picture. His parents were so lucky that Clark was such a good son and always did whatever he could to please them. Lois always envied Clark’s admirable qualities like his compassion and his friendly nature. She knew that he was probably really hurt by her actions and words today. Lois said a lot of stuff she regretted except one thing hadn’t changed. One thing was still a constant and burning true, she was in love with Clark. It helped Lois see that no matter what, she was still going to love him and care for him and his family. Lois gasped aloud as she put the pieces together in her head. This was the place she too wanted great memories and call home. She wanted to be apart of Clark’s life.
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When Clark couldn’t sleep it always resulted in him floating about 2 feet from wherever he was laying down. Normally, Clark would have to be more careful about things like that but with Lois in on the secret now, he didn’t bother. Why was she so difficult? Lois always had to be so stubborn and angry when things didn’t go her way. Clark felt he could never tell Lois anything about how he was feeling because it always came back to being about her.
‘It takes a lot of wind to get a tornado started’.
Her words echoed in his head like the voice of reason. Lois was not the selfish one this time, it was him. Clark wanted her to talk and reason with him but who could blame her. He had read Lois private confessions, told her his secret identity and ran. Clark knew he was expecting too much. She wasn’t going to just welcome back her hero with open arms and a kiss.
‘Though that would have been nice.’
‘Stop it Kent! At this rate, you’ll be lucky if you get to hold her hand again.’ Clark would have continued to scold himself but a creaking stair and small gasp interrupted his thoughts.
“I didn’t think you would be sleeping.” Lois whispered and finished her trek down the stairs to where Clark was floating. She came right up to him and placed a hand on his arm. “You’re still in your clothes?”
“Little hard to get into my room when the door is locked” quipped Clark.
Lois removed her hand in disgust. “Gee, it really seems you are ready to talk. I’ll just get some fresh air alone then.” With that, she walked towards the back door. Lois was about to unlock it when she felt a large hand grasp her shoulder.
“That door makes a lot of noise. Why don’t we just go out the front and sit on the porch swing?”
Lois simply nodded and allowed Clark to guide her to the front door. Once on the porch, he allowed Lois to lead the way and sit on the swing first. She sat far to the left side, so Clark sat on the far right in order to…
“…keeps the swing balanced. With me being so dense, if I sat in the middle of the swing, you would go flying.” Clark gave her a slight smile, more to imply he was joking around than being nice. However, his humor worked its magic and Lois gave him a small smile in return.
“Seems like that Kansas humor never gets old.”
“Not with you, anyway” Clark sighed and looked out into the fields far and near. Lois became strangely focused on a porch board. Clark looked back at Lois who was still looking down. “It’s hard for you isn’t it?”
Lois shot up and stared at him. “What?”
“It’s hard for you to talk about what’s really on your mind” he said gently.
Lois looked away before responding, “Well Clark you did give me a lot to digest today and…”
“No Lois. It always is. I sometimes forget you come from a background where the truth was always just a really big lie.” Clark worked up the courage to grab Lois’ hand and was glad when she didn’t pull it away.
“You’re right it is hard, has been hard, for me to trust. It has been even harder for me to love but I thought that was all going to change…” Lois faded and glanced right up at Clark. It was hard for him to tell if she was crying or not but by the way she was squeezing his hand, Clark knew he struck a chord.
“It must have been hard for you too. I mean, having no one around to trust this secret with. I don’t know how you do it. I can’t even keep my feelings for you locked away. Imagine, having something like, that, you’re amazing.”
Clark’s eyes went wide. “Wait, weren’t we just talking about you? How did we get on me?” Lois shrugged and looked away. “By the way, it’s not that bad. I always had my parents and now I have you. That’s enough.” Clark smiled and continued. “We have always had that one thing in common since before we met.”
Lois looked at him skeptically “The ability to write?”
“No, the ability to harbor strong emotions and personal feelings.”
Lois sighed, “You are right Clark. We also have the ability to change the subject to the other person when we talk about us. Funny, I think that’s why we have been avoiding each other all night.” She looked at Clark’s face for some kind of agreement but he put his other arm around her instead. “Trying to win me back?” Lois joked.
“If I can, but I want to really talk to you first. I also want to apologies for my behavior tonight.” Clark looked right into Lois’ eyes, “It was a mistake to force a conversation that wasn’t going to happen right away. I just…”
“…wanted to resolve things, move on like it never happened?” Lois interjected. “I can relate but you being Superman is not going to go away. I understand why you didn’t tell me when you first came to Metropolis and I even understand all the risks and problems that can arise with knowing. I just don’t know why you would play me a fool to think you were two totally different people. Especially since we have gotten so much closer lately, I thought you would finally tell me!” The fire in Lois’ eyes warned Clark her anger had resurfaced.
“So you are not even sorry. For anything that happened today” Clark sneered.
“How dare you!” Lois jumped from the swing causing it to creak and disorient Clark. “You want me to be sorry for telling you the truth about my feelings for you? You want me to be sorry for sticking up for myself when you insulted me? Ha!”
Clark rose to his feet and came face to face with Lois, “No Lois, a letter told me how you feel. You have yet to utter a word about your true feelings toward me. I told you the truth, about everything!”
“No Clark, you showed me, ran and expected me to accepted you back with loving arms!” Lois spat. Her checks were flushed and she was clenching her fits into tight little balls.
“What am I suppose to do? Let people die just because I am having an intimate discussion with my girlfriend?” Clark yelled. He was breathing heavily and he felt angry tears prick the back of his eyes. He thought she was ready to discuss this logically. How come all she could do was fire accusations at him?
“Clark, I…” Lois was interrupted by the sound of a small explosion in the distance. She didn’t need super vision to see that a nearby farmhouse had caught on fire. Suddenly the argument was forgotten and Lois was looking deep into Clark’s eyes, begging him to see what needed to be done.
“Go” she whispered.
“Lois, I can hear the fire department on the way, its okay.”
“No it’s not. I know that if you don’t go over right now to see if you are needed, you’ll never forgive yourself. Please, go.”
“Wake my mom and dad up. It’s the Irigs home. They might need some help getting all the animals to safety.” With one quick turn, Clark was Superman. He looked at Lois one last time, almost with a sense of pride, and bolted toward the blazing house.
To Be Continued Soon...
