Hi Evie!
He never thought he’d get this lucky.
…And that was exactly why he couldn’t risk losing it.
“I’m sorry, Lois. But no,” he said with finality.
I’m not sure this is a healthy choice. He should remember that Lois has just had access to kryptonite.
Lois sighed, her shoulders drooping. “Ok, then,” she said, as if recalibrating. She released his hands and shut the laptop.
Danger. Danger. Danger! Danger!
Danger! Danger! DANGER! DANGER!
/Pulls back curtain to reveal giant ACME bomb with lit fuse/
“No, I mean — I — that’s it?”
“That’s it,” she said with an easy shrug, leaning back in her chair.
Oh, look, the bomb is filled with these funny green glass shards.
“And that’s alright with you?” He couldn’t be understanding her correctly.
I recommend running it through a filter.
But she was nodding, and calm. “That’s alright, Clark.” Too calm.
/Starts digging six feet down/ Let’s hope the downstairs neighbors won’t mind the hole in their ceiling.
“So we can just keep going as we have been? The star reporter of the Daily Planet, and her secret undercover reporting partner, Superman?”
“Oh, that. No.”
There it was, he thought. The catch.
“What part?” he asked.
“Well, all of it, really. Except the Superman part.”
He parsed that. “You’re not going to let me be your partner anymore.”
That’s evil.
LOIS: He won’t sleep with me so I can only withhold work, not sex.
But now she was using a word like ‘forever.’
He would give just about anything for a ‘forever’ with Lois Lane.
Look who’s being a smart cookie!
LOIS: /takes bite of a large chocolate chip cookie/
“I think we should see it before we take it, but it could work.”
Okay, what’s going on?
“But this would mean…” he shook his head. “No. You can’t give up reporting.”
Oooh, emotional blackmail!
Perry will print anything I send in as long as it’s well written and the facts are straight.
Page one headline: Tree has fallen in Colorado forest! Natural causes presumed.
“The only Pulitzer I want is one with both of our names on it.”
LOIS: What? ‘Story by Lois Lane. With special contribution by Clark Kent.’ See? All good.
“There are only two options. I can either live my life here in Metropolis with a Pulitzer and Clark Kent, or I can have a cabin in the mountains with Superman. Take your pick.”
It was Lois Lane 101 was that she belonged in a major city newsroom. Now she was flatly denying that as a necessary component of her happiness.
How does that medicine taste, ‘Superman’?
And he needed to protect her.
Sometimes even from herself.
And without asking her permission.
He looked at her, struggling for words. “But the story… You would give up your chance at the Pulitzer for me? No, Lois, no.”
LOIS: No, I don’t need protection from myself. I just need Superdoofus to think I need protection from myself.
Lois had seen what he couldn’t.
She’d found a way to create a new life.
Together.
Maybe he would be just Superman to the rest of the world, but Lois had figured out how to give Clark Kent a safe, secluded home. With her.
LOIS:
She looked at him with shining eyes. “It turns out I’d rather have you than a Pulitzer.”
Awwww
This time he would let things get a bit away from them, he decided.
Oh?
CLARK: there *is* a bedroom…
“Wait,” he said, pulling away. “This isn’t right.”
She looked up at him with darkened, hazy eyes and kiss-crushed lips.
Oh, *that’s* how you turn off that stupid brain if his. Deprive it of blood.
“Let me?” she said, clearly choosing indignation to dissuade him from where he was going.
LOIS: it’s easier if he thinks it’s his idea against the world.
So if you think that people will buy the ‘undercover reporter in Africa’ line, I think we should do it.”
For the first time in his life, he saw Lois Lane speechless.
You know, for the life of me, I can’t figure out if Lois was playacting or really considering the cabin-in-the-woods option. And if the sneaky or the possibly-more-mature approach would be better character development. Either way, there’s juuuust one more part!
Michael
I'm going to miss this story. 
