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Part 12/14
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After a moment of disbelief Josh and I both take off on a run, I don't care if it appears that maybe I'm running a little too fast. I dive into the water, swimming to reach where the end of the pier was. The water is still churning with falling debris. I catch sight of Emily. She's tangled in the railing and sinking fast. She's unconscious and a thin stream of bubbles marks her descent.
I dive deeper and catch hold of her arms, tugging to free her from the wreckage. I bring her to the surface and Josh helps me pull her to shore. She's still unresponsive so Josh tilts her head back and starts mouth-to-mouth. I scan her quickly. She has a deep cut on her forehead and another gash on her leg but it doesn't look like anything is broken.
Emily coughs and begins to choke. We roll her sideways and she throws up water. She's shivering violently as she struggles to sit up so Doc pulls off his shirt and wraps it around her shoulders. Emily coughs again, her eyes filling with tears and she hoarsely asks, "What happened?"
"Someone bombed the pier," Lois says, her eyes wide and dazed.
"What? Oh my god, I can't believe this." Emily moans and leans sideways to throw up again.
"We need to get you to a doctor," I tell her. "Can you walk?"
"Of course," she says but she falls sideways when she tries to stand up. I scoop her up and start walking for the house.
"Clark? What happened?" Emily asks weakly as we pass the cabin.
"You had accident, but you're going to be okay," I reassure her.
After a few seconds she stiffens in my arms and asks in an alarmed voice, "What's going on?"
"Emily, you were on the pier when it… collapsed. Do you remember that?"
"I remember… working in the tent. What happened?"
"Short-term memory loss," Doc says from behind me. "That's common."
Emily shivers and groans. "Why am I all wet?"
I walk a little faster. "You fell in the water."
"You're wet, too," she says in a thick slur. "Did you fall in?"
"Clark and Josh saved you," Doc tells her.
Emily sighs and touches my cheek. "Thanks, Clark…" Her eyes close and she becomes heavier as her body goes limp.
When we reach the house Josh and Doc take Emily in the truck, leaving Lois and I behind. As we watch the dust settle back onto the road I tell her, "I think it was a pressure bomb. I heard it activate, but I didn't realize what it was in time to get down there."
"Do you think it was meant for us? After all, we've gone swimming almost every night here…"
"Yeah, I think it was meant for us."
There's a moment of silence while we both think about that. I want to ask her again to let me take her back to Metropolis but I'm certain she'd only argue against the idea.
"So… alone at last," Lois says, giving me a significant look. "We are alone here, right? I mean, you don't hear anyone else around, do you?"
I concentrate for a few seconds but I can only hear her - and the pounding in my ears. What does she mean, "alone at last"? I'm quite certain it doesn't have a sexual connotation, but I can't help wondering. "I don't hear anyone else," I say slowly.
"Good. Then it's time for you to come clean. Starting with the globe. I want to see Lucas' message."
She glares at me as if she thinks I'm going to argue with her. "Okay." I nod and go in the house. She follows me up to my room and stands in the doorway watching as I kneel down to retrieve my suitcase from under the bed.
I pull out the globe and gesture for her to come in. She hesitates for a moment and then shuts the door softly behind her. "Should I pull the curtains closed? Does it project on the wall?"
"No, it's more like a hologram." I smooth my hand over the globe but it doesn't do anything.
Come on, I think, you're making me look bad. Just show me Lucas' message again. There's a small hum and the globe's surface alters. "That's Krypton," I tell her, holding the globe out so she can see it better. "The first time I touched it, in that Bureau 39 warehouse, I just knew that somehow."
"It's where you're from - why wouldn't you already have known that?" She glances at me, puzzled, as she sits down on the desk chair.
"I didn't grow up there. I came here as a baby."
She opens her mouth to ask me a follow-up question when Lucas appears, running down the dark hallway towards the hanger. "I was set up by the House of Zod. I cannot stay and be imprisoned for a crime I did not commit..."
Lois exhales a small sigh, her expression rapt with attention. She doesn't move, hardly even blinks, as the message plays.
"… I knew from the first our connection was real. I feel it still, a small invisible thread that binds me to you. My only comfort is that you may feel it, too. Know that I did this for you and for our son. Know that I still live. I live for you."
The globe fades and Lois sits motionless for a few seconds. "Wow," she says finally. "Is there more?"
"If there is, I haven't seen it."
"So he never saw Kacie or his family again, did he?"
"No."
"That's so sad. He must have been so lonely…" She tilts her head. "Clark, I have a lot of questions. I don't know where to start."
"If they're questions about Lucas, well, you know as much as I do."
"No, questions about this globe… and you. How did you know it would play Lucas' message? Was that a lucky hunch or does it have other messages?"
"It has other messages."
I expect that she's going to be angry; instead she leans forward eagerly. "Would you… I mean, can I… if they're not too personal or something?"
I smile at her. "Actually, I think it would help explain things if you saw them yourself. Jor-El explains it far better than I can."
"Jor-El?"
I stand up and go over to her, placing the globe in her hands. "Right here," I point to the spot on the globe that activates Jor-El's message. "Just touch it here."
She flushes with excitement, her hands trembling as she accepts the globe. "Really? Will it play for me?"
"Remember when Jack stole this from me and then sold it to someone else?" She nods. "I could see the messages so I know it played for them."
"Okay. Here goes, well, not nothing, so just here goes…" She taps her finger tentatively over the spot I showed her. Nothing happens. She tries again and the globe lights up, humming in her hands. "Oh!" she exclaims in surprise as it rises to hover just above her palms. "I didn't realize it…" She stops as Jor-El stands in front of us.
"My name is Jor-El. And you are Kal-El, my son. The object you hold has been attuned to you. That you now hear these words is proof that you survived the journey in space and have reached your full maturity. Now it is time for you to learn our heritage…"
I watch Lois as Jor-El explains about Krypton and its imminent doom. Her jaw frequently works as though she's about to speak but she remains quiet as the globe plays all five messages.
"We give you to Earth, to a realm called America, and a place called Kansas. Remember us, but do not regret our passing. All is fate."
After Jor-El fades from view we both sit in silence. Lois turns the globe over slowly in her hands.
"Clark… I… I don't know what to say. Why didn't they save themselves? If Lucas could make it here, why couldn't they?"
"I don't think they knew about Lucas."
"Do you remember them at all?"
I shake my head. "I was too young."
"God! How awful - for you, for them, for Lucas, for the entire planet." Her eyes fill with sympathetic tears. "I'm so sorry, Clark."
"Don't apologize, please. I feel badly for them, but it's like Jor-El said. 'All is fate'. I think I was fated to be here. This is really the only life I've ever known."
"Still, you had to know you weren't from here when you could fly and everyone else couldn't?"
"I didn't fly until I was eighteen. In fact, until I hit puberty I really wasn't any different from anyone else. It's weird, you know? I have this memory of what it was like to be normal. The superpowers didn't happen overnight, but they've never gone away. It's not that I wish I didn't have them. I just… I wish I could have a normal life, too. Friends, a family, a job… and you. From the first time I met you, I knew that I wanted to be with you."
Lois' expression flickers between pity and annoyance. "Just because I feel sorry for you doesn't mean that I'm still not upset."
"I know you said I couldn't make this up to you and I accept that. But that doesn't mean I'll give up trying. I love you, Lois." I give her my most hopeful smile.
She looks away. "It's easy for you to say that - you know me. I don't feel like I know you at all. It's weird because we had this… moment, I guess, where I felt like we… I don't know, we connected or something. But since that night it's just all fallen apart."
"I want you to know that it wasn't just a moment to me. It was everything to me. You think of Superman as this other person, this perfect guy, but he's not real. He's just a costume. Anyone can be perfect in small doses."
"I didn't think he was completely perfect," she says stubbornly.
"What if I had told you beforehand? Would you have been making love to Superman or to me? Clark is who made love to you."
"And it was Clark I wanted to make love to. But I didn't! If you're Superman, than he was there, too! How can you compartmentalize everything in your life?"
"I can't! I'm tired of it. More than anything I want someone besides my parents who I can just be me - all of me - with. Do you think it's been easy lying to everyone? Do you think I wanted to lie to you? I had to, at first. That was the whole point of creating this other persona, so that I could still just be me. I never thought you would have this massive crush on him."
"Answer me this, and be honest - if you can. Were you jealous of Superman?"
"Yeah, I was jealous of him. And when I was him, I was jealous of Clark."
"That makes no sense."
"It did to me. As Clark I can just hang out with you or ask you out on a date. I always had to be so careful, so correct as Superman. I hated every minute of that. It wasn't always easy, backing off when you were so blatantly throwing yourself at me. If sex was really all I wanted from you, Lois, I could have had you so many times as Superman."
Her eyes narrow. "Someone's a little full of himself, isn't he?"
"Tell me that's not true."
She frowns and shrugs.
"Do you want to know why I didn't tell you sooner?"
"Okay, why? And make it good, Clark."
"Because I knew that this would happen. That no matter what I said, or did, the only thing you were going to see was how long I hid the truth from you and not the fact that I was trusting you with the information that could destroy me, as Clark. You can ruin my entire life if you want to, Lois. I've been trying almost since we got here to tell you, but it never seemed to work out. If I could go back, I'd drag you out in that thunderstorm and tell you everything. I was scared, okay? You scare me. You don't realize the power you have over me. So I'm telling you now. I've shown you all my secrets and the information is yours to do whatever you want."
"I told you I would keep your secret, Clark," she says sadly. "I'm not going to expose you to the world."
"It's not the world I'm worried about."
"Oh." She looks at the globe for a long moment. Her eyes close and she shakes her head. Then she stands up and then hands the globe back to me. When her fingers brush mine she pulls her hand back quickly. She goes to the door but stops with her hand on the doorknob. "What about Lucas' ship? Have you checked the lake for it?"
"No."
"So why don't you look for it now?"
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As I swim out to the middle of the lake I wonder what I'm going to do with Lucas' ship after I find it. I guess I could give it to Doc - there's some irrefutable proof. I reach the middle of the lake and tread water, looking back to shore. Lois is still standing there, shading her eyes, as she watches me.
I take in a breath of air and dive, scanning the bottom and finding nothing. Is it buried beneath a century of muck? I check again, making wider and wider circles but I still see nothing. I dive again, repeating the same search. Nothing. I surface again near the wreckage of the pier and look over at Lois.
"It's not there," I tell her as I wade towards the shore. I try, but fail, to push the image from my mind of the last time I waded out of the water here. Why didn't I tell her? And, if I had, would anything have been different?
Lois stares at the shattered remnants of the pier while I pull my clothes back on. "So who found it first? Is it possible that it was one of those pieces of junk that were bagged, tagged and categorized at the Bureau 39 warehouse?"
I look back at the lake, a heavy sensation in the pit of my stomach. What if she's right? If Jason Trask and his minions got hold of that ship then is it possible they still watch this area? I look over at the grave we dug up. "So if they have the ship, is it possible they've linked it to Lucas?"
"Maybe John and Jay aren't really with the Department of the Interior," Lois muses. "Maybe Doc was right and they're here to steal Lucas. But that still doesn't explain why someone's trying to kill us."
"You think the two are connected?"
"I don't know," Lois sighs. "It is funny, though, how it's all happening at the same time." Her eyebrows furrow in thought. "You know what else is weird? It was only a little bomb. Maybe they weren't trying to kill us, just injure us?"
"What?" I look at the pier and realize she's right. The bomb was timed to go off a few seconds after it was tripped. If we had been jumping from the end of the pier, we might have been in the water when it went off. Emily only survived because the force from the blast was directed at the middle of the pier.
"All these accidents, with the exception of the cabin falling in, they're dangerous but they might not necessarily kill someone, would they?"
"Where are you going with this?" I ask.
"What if it's not me who's being stalked? What if it's you? Not you, Clark, but you as Superman. After all, I've been on tv kissing Superman. And, in Metropolis at least, it's well known that you're 'friends' with him. What if all this is happening because we know Superman? Maybe he's trying to draw Superman out?"
"You think Josh knows I'm Superman and is trying to expose me?"
"He did bring us out here."
"But why? I've thought about it and there's nothing I've done to upset him."
"I don't know. Not everyone likes Superman, you know." She looks around. "Is someone watching us now, do you think? What if Marty didn't really go to Lewis Ridge? What if he's here, watching us right now with some of his wacko buddies?"
I scan the trees. "I don't see anyone."
"There has to be more than one person involved, this whole setup is too complex. They knew, before we did, that we were coming out here, but they had to have someone on the dig to lure us here. What if the pictures that were left for me at the Planet were just to freak me out so that once I got out here and it looked like trouble, I'd call for Superman? Think about it, Clark, the accidents didn't start happening until after Superman showed up in Valentia. Once they knew he, uh, you would show up out of the blue, they started putting everyone on the dig in danger in the hopes that you'd swoop in to save the day."
"But why? What are they going to do if Superman shows up again?"
She looks at me, her eyes dark with worry. "Do you really want to find out? I'm not the one who should be going back to Metropolis - it's you." I frown and she gives me a wry grin. "Doesn't feel so good when the shoe's on the other foot, does it?"
"What?"
"You were so insistent that I go home, now you know how I felt. You aren't going to go back, are you?"
"Of course not!" How can she even suggest that I would leave now?
"Yep, that's exactly how I felt." Her grin turns into a smirk as she turns to go back to the house. She stops after a couple of steps and looks back at me. "Aren't you coming? I'm not so sure I should leave you here all alone and unprotected."
I know she's teasing but her words still rankle. "Is that how it feels? Really?"
"It's a little more palatable when you lecture me while wearing spandex, but yeah, that's how it feels."
"Spandex?" Now there's an idea. Lois in skin-tight spandex. "Would you wear a cape, too?"
She looks me up and down. "If you have one handy, I'd recommend using it. You look like you just wet your pants."
I glance down, horrified to see that she's right. My wet boxers have soaked through the shorts I'm wearing. When I look back up she's walking away.
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The next morning Emily comes up to me in the sitting room as I'm about to take buckets from the house back to the dig site. The bandage on her forehead makes her look very young and fragile. "Clark? Can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure." I set the buckets down on the table.
"I need to go into town and Doc and Josh are both busy. I'm not supposed to drive… is there any chance you could drive me?"
I glance over at Lois. She's at the computer, supposedly entering data from the index cards although she stopped typing the moment Emily started talking to me. Emily looks over at Lois, too. "I'm not trying to put the moves on you!" She blushes furiously and I feel even worse.
"Just go," Lois says without turning around. "I'll be fine here. Really, just go."
I hesitate, not wanting to leave but sensing that she doesn't want me around right now. "I'll be back in an hour," I tell her.
"Bye then." Lois doesn't look over from the computer screen.
Emily is quiet as we drive into Valentia. She sits against the door, her cheek resting on the window, apparently lost in thought. It's only as we're driving back to Doc's house that she starts a conversation. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"You and Lois, you're dating right?"
"Right."
"You two sure fight a lot. Or is it one of those kinds of relationships where you fight just to make up?"
"I hope not. We're… in an adjustment period."
"You're a nice guy, Clark."
"Thanks."
"You saved my life, you know."
"So did Josh."
"Boy, you just can't take a compliment, can you? I bet if I told you that I thought you were an amazing investigative journalist you'd just blush, huh?"
"You knew I was a reporter?"
"Duh. Lois Lane and Clark Kent of the Daily Planet? Josh was always bragging about knowing you. When the silver went missing I told him he should have you guys come out to investigate."
We start up the hill and Emily reaches over and touches my arm. "I should warn you…"
"Warn me? About what?"
"Don't go back to the house."
"What? Why not?"
Emily lets go of my arm and it all clicks into place in a horrifying second.
<"He admired the hell out of our uncle who actually was some kind of covert big shot… Killed in the line of duty, but, because of his job, that’s all they would tell us.">
"Stop the truck," she says with sudden urgency as the house comes into view. "You can't go back there."
I speed up. "Tell me what's going on."
"I don't want to see you get hurt." Emily begins to cry. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think they'd take it this far. They almost killed me! They never told me about the bomb, on the pier. Or the cabin, you were so lucky with the cabin."
I screech to a halt in front of the house.
"Who? Who's involved in this?"
"Jay… he's my brother. And John. John worked with my uncle."
"Jason Trask."
Emily tearfully nods. "I'm sorry."
"Tell me what their plan is."
"Superman. They're trying to get Superman to show up so they can kill him."
I leave her in the cab of the truck and run inside, calling out for Lois. Josh says my name from the kitchen. I rush in to find Doc and Josh both tied to kitchen chairs. Doc is barely conscious, his head hanging low, a stream of blood flows from his now-broken nose. Josh has a split lip and one eye is swollen closed.
"Clark, get help," Josh rasps.
Outside, Emily starts the truck and it roars away from the house.
"Where's Lois?" I ask as I untie Josh.
Josh shakes his head. "I'm so sorry. We couldn't help her."
"Where is she?" Panic bubbles up inside me. What does he mean they couldn't help her? What have they done with her?
"I think they took her to the dig site." Josh rubs his wrists.
"Can you free Doc? And call for help?"
"They cut the phone line," Josh calls as I run from the kitchen.
Have they hurt her? I think of how battered Josh and Doc are and something frightening filters through me. If they have touched her, they will pay. I've never deliberately hurt anyone but this could send me over the edge. I hurry as quickly as I dare down the path.
When I come into the clearing I don't see anyone. It looks absolutely ordinary. I listen, picking up three heartbeats, all of them rapid. Two of them are coming from the woods. The third one I would recognize anywhere.
Why didn't she call out to me? I'm certain I would have sensed it if she had. Why didn't she? Is she unable to call out? Is she unconscious? She can't be, her heart is beating too fast.
"Lois?" I call out. She doesn't answer but I hear her heart rate increase. Where is she? She's not in the trees; it sounds like she's closer to the cabin. I start down the hill cautiously, uncertain what to expect. "Lois?" I shout for her again. This time I hear her breath hitch slightly.
"Lois? Where are you? Are you okay?"
"Clark, no," her voice is lower than a whisper and full of terror. "Please, just go away."
I stop, confused. Is she still so angry with me that she doesn't want my help? Or is it a trap that's been set for Superman?
Her breath catches in a soft sob. "I can't do this. Please, Clark. Don't find me." Again, the words are spoken so softly that no one else would hear them.
She can't do what? Why doesn't she want me to find her?
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