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Part 5/?
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We spend the next morning preparing the dig site for the bad weather that Doc’s predicting. Securing a tarp over the trench takes all six of us since the wind has picked up. It begins to rain as we lug buckets back to the house.
We settle into the sitting room. Emily keyboards more index card entries into the computer. I sift one of the buckets. Josh is showing Lois how to clean field specimens. Marty and Doc are occupied with filling out index cards and cross-checking them against the field specimens log from the tent.
After a few hours we’re all feeling a little stir crazy. It doesn’t help when the ceiling light flickers and dies. Emily swears and pushes back from the now-dead computer. She joins Doc in sorting through the index cards stacked on the middle of the three tables.
“We lose power out here a lot,” Josh explains. “Usually during storms, but sometimes for no discernable reason.”
The rain has done nothing to disperse the heat inside the house. It’s uncomfortably hot and muggy, even with the windows open.
"I know where I know you from!" Marty snaps his fingers and points at Lois. "You're that reporter from Metropolis! The one who kissed Superman before he took out the Nightfall asteroid last year, aren't you?"
The room falls silent. Emily and Doc stop what they're doing and look over. Josh gives me a regretful shrug.
"Umm," Lois says, her cheeks beginning to flush.
"That was you?" Emily looks at Lois with new eyes. "I remember that. You practically made out with him on national television."
"Actually, it was more like international television." I can't stop myself from adding that little tidbit, if only because it makes Lois blush even harder.
Lois shakes her head. "I didn't make out with Superman. I was just… kissing him for luck."
In which case, I wish she'd kiss me for luck every day.
"I don't know," Marty says dubiously. "I seem to remember it as being pretty intense."
"Is he a good kisser?" Emily asks.
Lois rolls her eyes and sighs.
"Yeah," I speak up when it seems that she's not going to answer. "Is he a good kisser?"
Lois shoots me a disgusted look. "I don't kiss and tell!"
"Oh, come on," Marty cajoles her. "Just answer 'yes' or 'no'."
"Have you kissed him more than once? Or was that the only time?" Emily leans forward to rest her elbows on the table as she waits for Lois to answer.
Lois scrubs at the field specimen in front of her, trying to ignore all of us. Even though Josh and Doc haven’t joined in the questioning, they're waiting for her to answer, too.
"She's kissed him more than once," I offer cheerfully.
"Clark! You're not being helpful here." Lois slams the toothbrush she was using for cleaning down onto the table.
"How many times?" Marty asks.
"I'm not going to answer any questions about kissing Superman." Lois sets the specimen aside and stands up. "Now, if you'll all just excuse me, I have something else to do." And, with that, she leaves the room.
"Wow, she's a little touchy, isn't she?" Emily smirks.
She has *no* idea.
I think about following Lois but I know she's not going to talk to me for at least the next hour. I'll finish sifting this bucket and then I'll go find her.
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"Lois?" I knock softly on her door. "Are you in there?"
It's something of a rhetoric question since I know she's in there. What's less certain is whether she'll answer me.
She lets out a sigh and then I hear her footsteps. She opens the door a few inches and glares at me. "What do you want? Because, unless you're here to apologize, I don't want to talk to you."
"Apologize?"
"Yes!"
"For what?" I know why she wants an apology, but I can't help baiting her when she's acting this petulant.
She starts to shut the door so I put my foot in the opening to stall her. "Okay, I'm sorry."
"For what?" She's not going to make this easy.
"For… whatever it is you think I did." I'm not going to make it easy either.
"Move your foot."
"Lois, I'm sorry." I try again. "I shouldn't have teased you like that."
"You're my partner, Clark! You're supposed to take my side. You're not supposed to add fuel to the fire, pointing out how many times I've kissed Superman."
"I didn't say how many times. I only said you'd kissed him more than once." I know I'm splitting hairs, but I feel compelled to point out the distinction.
"I didn't realize you were keeping track. How many times is it, Clark? Do you know?"
I tense, there's a dangerous undercurrent beneath that question. "I don't know." It's a bad lie but she doesn't call me on it.
"Are you jealous of him? Is that it?"
The truth is, until recently, I was jealous of Superman. It's a conundrum that has kept me awake far too many nights to mention. Since we started dating, however, I've felt a little more secure around her.
"No…"
This time she does pick up on the lie. "You are jealous!"
I take my foot away from the door and step back. "Anyway, I'm sorry. I just wanted to check on you and make sure you were okay."
She opens the door all the way. "Admit it. You're jealous."
I take another step back. "I'm not jealous."
"Do you really want to know? Because I'll tell you." She follows me out into the hallway.
"Tell me what?"
"If Superman's a good kisser. After all, you did ask me."
I feel like a deer in headlights. Of course I want to know the answer to that question but there are danger signals going off in my brain.
Lois takes my silence for assent and she shrugs. "He's not bad."
I don't know whether to be relieved or insulted. "That's it? Just 'not bad'?"
Lois shakes her head in disgust. "There's no pleasing you, is there? I thought you'd be happy to know that you're a better kisser than he is."
"I am?" How does she figure that? I just stare at her.
"You seem disappointed." Her eyebrows furrow as she frowns. "Why are you disappointed?"
"I'm not disappointed. I guess I'm just… surprised."
"That I'd rate you as better than Superman?"
That, too.
"Well, you have to admit, that's a first."
Her expression clouds. "I… I'm a terrible person, aren't I?"
"What? No, Lois, that's not what I'm saying."
"But it's true. I've been mooning over Superman since the first time I saw him. And I never have compared you favorably to him."
I wish I could say she's exaggerating but she's not.
"The truth is I compared every man I've met for the past two years against Superman. It wasn't just you, if that makes you feel any better. And…" her voice trails off and she looks down at her feet.
"And?" I prompt.
"And nothing. I'm sorry. That's it."
"I’m sorry, too. You’re right, I shouldn’t have teased you like that.”
She looks up and gives me the same shy smile as she did when I forgave her for slamming the door in my face after our first date.
“You really are a nice guy, Clark. Maybe even nicer than Superman.”
“Nicer than Superman?”
“Well, yeah. He has to be nice, it’s sorta his job. You’re just nice because you’re you.”
“So I’m a better kisser and I’m nicer than Superman? Anything else?”
“You should stop while you’re still ahead.”
“Okay.” I reach out and touch her cheek. She puts her hand over mine and looks up at me, her eyes soft with affection. God, I want to tell her. Right now. But there are four people sitting downstairs who are probably straining their ears to listen in on our conversation. It's not the kind of thing you can tell someone, especially Lois, with an audience. If only it wasn't raining, we could take a walk and I could tell her everything.
"What?" she asks, her expression curious.
"Huh?"
"You look like you want to say something."
"I did. I do. I just…" I tilt my head towards the stairs. "I want to talk to you, just not with an audience."
She steps closer and I immediately start thinking about how it felt to kiss her last night in the lake. "You could just whisper it," she says softly.
I swallow, she really needs to back up a few inches or I'm going to lose all coherence. "It's not what you think it is. I mean… would you be willing to go for a walk?"
That does the trick. She steps back just as a crack of thunder shakes the house. "A walk? Are you serious?"
I nod. She folds her arms over her chest and frowns. "I'm not going for a walk in this."
"I’ll tell you later."
"You could tell me now."
The mood has totally passed. I shake my head. "Forget it, it wasn't that important."
I head into my room and stop dead. Sitting on my pillow is another picture. Lois and Emily are in profile, both of them looking up and shading their eyes. It had to have been taken yesterday when we were in town. I don't pick it up, lowering my glasses to check it for fingerprints. There are none.
Lois comes in as I'm pushing my glasses back up. She looks over to see what has captured my attention and then gasps. "Oh my god!" She brushes past me to pick up the picture.
"Damn," she says, looking at it. "I really thought Emily was behind this."
I laugh, in spite of myself. "Do you want to take it downstairs and interrogate everyone?"
"No. I don't want to give him the satisfaction." She shakes her head emphatically. Then she turns the picture over her hand trembles.
'LOIS LANE WILL LEAVE HERE IN A BOX' is written on the back in large block letters.
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