previously, on part 7:
“Why did you decide to reveal your marriage to the world?”
Superman looked puzzled, and the crowd was now interested in her. Her icy tone, and the reaction of Superman, who wasn’t relaxed anymore, brought their attention.
“It’s a simple question, Superman. Why did you reveal your marriage to the world? That doesn’t have any sense! You say you love her, but saying to the world that you married her put her life in danger. Every single criminal you stopped would want her dead. By introducing your wife to the world, she became a target. No one had any suspicions about your relationship, so why did you do it? You always kept your private life secret, but now, you’re playing the happy husband in front of the world? Why? That doesn’t have any sense! What are you hiding, Superman?”
She spoke with a little more vehemence that she intended. Her anger took the better of her, but she couldn’t bring herself to regret it when her brain registered the new curiosity of the crowd for her question. And she was proud of herself when she saw Superman hesitate, and stay silent, obviously not knowing what to say…
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And now, Part 8:
PART 8: MRS SUPERMAN
When he left Lois at the Planet before the conference, Clark felt very bad. He knew that that will be hard on her, and he wanted anything else but be with her to support her, as her best friend. But he couldn’t. Not even he could be at two places at the same time. He knew how hard that would be for her to assist at this conference, but he had to let her do it alone. And knowing her like he did, he knew that that would go wrong, but he never anticipated that.
He was really surprised by her question. That was a frontal attack, not even disguised. She never spoke to Superman with that angry tone before. She never accused him of anything. But she just said to the world that she didn’t trust him anymore.
“What are you hiding, Superman?” she asked.
Hiding.
Clark was hurt by the realisation that Lois didn’t trust Superman anymore. He knew, of course, that she thought that the marriage was a fake. She told him that, as Clark. At the time, he just didn’t realise the implication of that. She thought now that Superman was a liar. She was right, but to know that he lost her faith in him hurt him more than he had thought it would.
He lost her faith in him. He probably lost her love in him, by doing so. She’ll never look at Superman anymore with love in her eyes.
He thought that was what he wanted. That she stop looking at Superman as if he was the love of her life, but he knew now that he would miss it. Terribly.
How could he even have contemplated that she could go on like it was before, when all will be over? That wasn’t even a remote possibly. He broke her heart. That was a woman wrecked that was standing in front of him, angry, confronting him in front of the whole world.
“What are you hiding, Superman?” she asked.
The angry voice resonated again in his mind.
He should have seen it coming. When he began the Press conference, he felt really bad about what he was about to do. He saw her, of course, in the first range of reporters, just in front of him. But he put his feeling aside, and he did what he had to. He tried hard not to look at her. He was afraid that if he did, his eyes would betray his true feelings.
He was just so uncomfortable. But he was lucky; Andrea was well prepared for her role. Sensed how uncomfortable he was, she just took over. And she did a great job at convincing everybody that they were in love. She just lightened the atmosphere enough with her jokes, and her smile to make it possible to him to relax enough to play his part.
He stayed well conscious of Lois’ every moves, but he was able to play the part of the happy husband. Until the crowd began to nag for them to kiss. He didn’t want to do it. Kissing another woman in front of Lois was a step too far for him. Well, he did it in the past, with Toni Taylor, but that wasn’t the same. Kissing Toni would never have broken Lois’ heart. Kissing Andrea definitely would.
But once more, Andrea took over and kissed him. And he had to choose between break the kiss, and let everyone know that he didn’t want to kiss his wife, or kiss her back and keep the pretence. He made the only choice he could, but he saw the expression on Lois’ face, and that hurt him almost painfully.
“What are you hiding, Superman?”
While the question echoed once more in his head, he realised that he stayed silent a long time, staring at Lois without respond. What could he say to that? But the reporters, and the crowd, were now looking at him curiously.
It was obvious that Lois’ question, combined with his petrified reaction, had convinced all of them that he was hiding something. They were becoming suspicious of him. He had to do something, say something, anything… but he really didn’t know what. And if he did, he’d hurt her even more. He didn’t want that either.
While he was struggling with himself, between the need to convince everyone that the marriage was what it seemed to be, and the desire to erase the pain from Lois’ face, Andrea once again took over and responded at the question herself.
“Miss Lane, my life is in danger, yet. I am a police officer. Every criminal that I have send in jail wish me dead. Saying to everybody that we are married don’t put me in danger, it just add to the list of the criminals who want to set about me. Why we choose to announce our wedding to the world when we could have kept it secret? That’s simple. Miss Lane, have you ever had an affair with someone, a relationship that you had to keep secret? That’s destructive. You never can talk to anyone about the most important person in your life. You never can have a tender gesture towards the one you love when there are people around… And you’re being ignored by him every time that you’re with him at the same emergency… We lived it and it wasn’t easy. Yes, it will be difficult to live our love with the eyes of the whole world on us, on our couple, but it would have been impossible to live our love in the secret forever. I would never have felt as his wife, but as his mistress. I couldn’t bear it.”
She paused, and Lois could see the logic behind her words. Yes, of course they had to tell the world. She never though about what it would have been for them before the wedding. But by the sound of it, that wasn’t great. They had to overcome many obstacles, and they have many others in front of them, but they were ready to do it.
<They truly love each other.> thought Lois desperate, before Andrea’s voice resumed speaking.
“You can add to all these reasons that my husband hate to lying, and you’ll understand he wouldn’t have been able to keep it a secret anyway. That would have been too much for him.”
She continued looking at Superman.
“Because you really hate lying, right honey?”
“Oh yeah! That’s for sure. I hate lying.” Responded Superman in a tone surprisingly serious and almost disgusted. Andrea turned again towards the crowd of reporters to finish her explanation.
“Maybe our decision seems crazy to you, but to us, it looked as if that was the better choice we could make for our future.”
Superman’s voice interrupted the noisy crowd of reporters that wanted to ask more question.
“That press conference is over. Thanks for your time. Goodbye,” announced he with an abruptness uncharacteristic of him.
Still under the shock of what she just seen and heard, Lois saw Superman, looking tense again, took his wife in his arms and flying away with her.
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Superman brought back Andrea to the alley behind the police station, where he joined her before the conference. Henderson was waiting for them, smiling.
“I saw the show on TV. Good work, Andrea.”
“Thanks, Inspector.”
The old policeman turned towards Superman and noticed his disgusted expression.
“Superman, I know it was hard for you to try to convince Lane that you loved someone else, but it was important to….”
Superman looked even more disgusted than before, and interrupted him angrily.
“I know it, Henderson. I wouldn’t ever have done such a thing if I didn’t think it was important. Now, excuse me, I have to go.”
Henderson and Andrea looked a little taken aback by the show of anger from Superman, but they didn’t have time to add anything. The superhero was gone yet, letting them alone.
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Clark went back to the city hall building. The crowd was dispersing itself. The curious were going back home and the reporters to their respective newsroom to type the story. There were still a lot of people, but that was diminishing.
He looked for Lois, and surely, he saw her at the exact same spot where she was during the press conference. She hadn’t moved an inch since the end of the conference. She looked as if she had been struck by lightning. Clark felt his heart hurt even more by the sight she was giving him.
He hurt her badly. He sighed and approached her by behind.
“You’re late, Clark.”
The words, pronounced so softly, when he joined her, took him by surprise. She hadn’t moved, she hadn’t looked at him, and she seemed oblivious of the external world. He didn’t think she’d notice him, but she did.
He was expecting an angry Lois. That was the way she deals with strong emotion, and she obviously was desperate, now. But she spoke without any hint of anger. She spoke as an automaton, and he ached for her even more. But he knew she wouldn’t be grateful to him if he showed her that he was aware of her distress.
“No, I’m not…”
“You missed the press conference, “she said still without looking at him or moving. That was a simple statement from her part, without any recrimination or anything. As if she didn’t care anymore.
“I did not. I was there, from the beginning to the end. I was just at the back of the crowd. I didn’t succeed to join you in front of the podium. There were too much people, and I didn’t even know where you were in the crowd before you spoke.”
“Hm.”
She really didn’t care of anything. He needed her to have a reaction, anything. He couldn’t bear to see her like that, as a zombie. He showed her his notepad, full of his notes on the conference, which he wrote quickly just before going back, since he noticed that Lois hadn’t written a thing for the entire time.
“See?”
For the first time, she moved. She dropped her gaze to his notepad, and then to hers in her hand and noticed it was empty. She mentally shook herself. Aware now of the worry in Clark’s eyes, she felt the need to talk.
“It’s over, Clark. Everything’s over.”
Her tone wasn’t neutral anymore. Clark could hear restrained tears in her voice, and her eyes were suspiciously bright. She was about to lose it completely.
“It’s a real marriage.”
She was barely able to voice her last word before crying.
The outburst of tears came so quickly it took Clark by surprise. It was so powerful she almost couldn’t stand upright any longer. If Clark hadn’t taken her in his arms, she would have just collapsed. She sobbed repeatedly against his shoulder, gasping for air.
She was so completely wrecked Clark didn’t know what to do to help her, so he just hold her close to him, caressing her hair, and murmuring some soft endearments in her ear. He knew she wasn’t able to hear them, or understand them, but the soft sound of his voice combined to his touch in her hair seemed to have a soothing effect on her.
Gently, without releasing her from his arms, he conducted her towards the nearest bench. Sitting, with Lois in his arms, Clark saw that they had attracted a lot of attention. Many of the reporters who were still there looked at them with interest.
No doubt that Lois’ despair would be objects of gossip in all the newsrooms of Metropolis. Mad Dog Lane cries in the street when Superman reveals to the world that he is married.
He knew that letting people see how wrecked she was was a part of the plan to convince Intergang that the marriage was true. He still remembered Andrea saying “If she’s not devastated enough, if she doesn’t react the appropriate way when she learns about your wedding, then nobody will believe the marriage is real”.
<Easy for you to say Henderson! You don’t have to see the woman you love cry her soul because she thinks you don’t care for her!> thought Clark angrily.
He wanted to say the truth to her so badly, but he couldn’t. Not now, Not before everything was over. So, he stayed silent, and held her tighter.
When she calmed down and stopped crying, Clark spoke softly in her ear.
“I’ll bring you home. I’ll write the article myself. Perry will understand.”
Without a word, she nodded her acceptance, and stood, ready to follow him.
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When the press conference ended, the Churches turned off the television. They were dumbstruck. They really weren’t expecting the news they just received.
“I guess we’ll have to change the plan, dad”
Bill Church Sr turned towards her son with contempt.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Billy. We’ll just have to change the target.”
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