Okay, I said morning right? Well, it's morning, somewhere.
Hope you enjoy!
Table of Contents **********
From Part Two: I hear the flick of a knife blade being opened and then there is a sharp tug on my hair. The last thing I hear before I pass out is the man’s voice again. “Just a little souvenir to remember you by.”
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PART THREE: **********
When I awaken, I’m in my apartment, in my bed. What happened? What am I doing here?
The room is dark, only lit by the moonlight streaming through the window. But I can see the morning sun beginning to peek above the horizon. I look down at what I’m wearing. I’m still in the clothes I had on yesterday. Have I been out all day and all night? I wrack my brain trying to remember what had happened, something, anything; but the last thing I can remember is the knife, the voice, and passing out.
I start to get out of bed and a wave of dizziness hits me. Oh, I sit back down, better move slow. After a few seconds, I try standing up again, successfully this time, and I head for the door. That’s when I see him. Clark.
He’s sitting in a chair in one corner of my bedroom, asleep. His head is resting against the wall next to him and there’s a blanket thrown across him.
It’s then that I realize - he saved me. Just like he always does. But, did he save me before... or... I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat. Or after? What had happened?
I close my eyes, reaching out with all my senses, trying to *feel* my body. I don’t feel like I’ve been harmed or...invaded. I think if that had really happened that I would know. I relax a little. He must have found me just after I passed out.
I walk up to him quietly, trying not to wake him. He looks exhausted. Does Superman really get tired? Well, maybe the exhaustion wasn’t so much from being tired, but from worry.
A small smile spreads across my face as I realize how much he cares about me, how much he worries about me. All irritation with him forgotten, I lean over and cautiously remove the glasses he purposefully left on his face before falling asleep.
I watch his chest as it rises and falls. I look at the awkward way he had to sit in order to sleep in the chair. Why had he slept in this uncomfortable chair? He could have slept in the living room on one of the loveseats. Granted, they aren’t the most comfortable in the world, but it’s gotta be better than this.
Because, I tell myself, he wanted to be as close to me as possible, so that he could watch over me. Why didn’t he just lie next to me in bed? But even as I ask myself, I know the answer. Clark would never presume on me like that.
Had I really been planning to torture this man? Hound him, browbeat him into finally telling me his secret? This man who loves me, does everything he can to protect me?
I know now that I can’t go through with it. I’m still hurt, but I’m not angry, not any more. Deep down I know he has good reasons to hide his identity. He wouldn’t have any kind of life if people knew that he is Superman. He probably even rationalized not telling me by thinking he was protecting me somehow.
No, I’m not mad, but I still haven’t really come to grips with it, not completely. I mean here he is, Clark, my best friend with the promise of maybe so much more, and yet he’s the most powerful being on the planet, a hero to millions. How do you wrap your mind around that one?
I look down at the glasses I’m still holding in my hands. How did I never look past these and see him for who he really is? But maybe I had known who he *really* is all along. After all, he didn’t live his life as Superman. He lived, breathed, worked, and... loved, as Clark.
I feel a pang of guilt in my chest. He has always loved me as Clark, and I have time after time thrown myself at him as Superman, at the same time ignoring Clark. No wonder he hasn’t told me.
My bladder reminds me with sudden urgency that I probably haven’t given it any attention for too long a period of time. Well this will give me a chance to freshen up a little anyway, and survey the damage, if there is any.
**********
When I walk into my bathroom and look into the mirror, I have to stifle the scream that tries to come flying out of my mouth. My hair! There is a chunk missing from my hair! And the rest of it doesn’t look so hot either, but that comes from sleeping on it for part of the day and all night.
I grab the section of hair that is missing a chunk from the bottom half. It’s been neatly severed off by something. I remember my attacker pulling that knife out and what he had said before I passed out. ‘Just a little souvenir to remember you by.’
What a sicko! He had cut a chunk of my hair off and was going to keep it as a memento. Ugh! There had to be some kind of clinical name for a weirdo like that, a few names came to my mind, but none of them clinical.
Great! Well there is no way *that* could be repaired. I’m going to have to get my hair cut, short. What a way to start the day.
I grab my brush and a ponytail band off my sink and begin working the brush through my hair. I don’t want to go around with a funny looking piece of hair sticking out all day today. I need to call the beauty salon as soon as they open to see if they can work me in later today, or first thing tomorrow maybe.
After pulling my hair back, taking care of some business, and brushing my teeth, I feel a lot better. I feel human again.
Now at least when Clark wakes up I won’t look like a deviant. Not that I didn’t have an excuse, but still.
**********
When I come back into my bedroom, I notice the sunlight beginning to softly stream in through the window. It casts a surreal glow across Clark’s face. I start to put his glasses back on his face, but I hesitate. He looks so handsome; I just can’t resist. I bend down over him, applying a soft kiss to each of his eyes, but I don’t stop there. I move down further and brush my lips lightly across his.
It isn’t much of a kiss but it moves me deeply. I’ve kissed Clark before, and I’ve kissed Superman before. But somehow, it’s different now.
He begins to stir at my contact, and I start to pull back; but his hands, his arms, stop me as they reach around my waist, holding me in place.
“Lois?” he whispers, blinking his eyes against the light. “What are you doing up? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m okay...thanks to you.”
“No, not me. It was Superman. He found you in the alley. A man was on top of you...” he broke off, lowering his gaze, and was quiet for a moment. “But you were okay. Nothing happened.”
He looks back up at me, smiling softly, but then his look changes to horror. He releases one hand from behind my waist and brings it up to his face; at the same time he looks at the object I have in my hand.
He reaches out to take them from me but I hold them up, out of his reach.
Since I've decided that I’m not going to torture him about this, I decide not to beat around the bush. “I don’t really think you need these anymore, at least not right now, do you...Superman?”
A grimace shadows his face and he looks like he is preparing himself for a firing squad. I almost giggle. Well good, I might not still be mad at him, but I am glad to at least know he’s worried.
“Can I ask you a question?” I ask him.
“Okay,” he says hesitantly.
“Did you catch the robbers? And save the people at the bank?”
He looks confused. I have to restrain myself to keep from smiling.
“Are you sure that’s the question you wanted to ask me?”
“Uh huh,” I say, nodding my head.
“Yes. I was able to diffuse the explosives and get everyone out safe. The two cops who got shot in that alley behind the bank are both okay. They were shot with tranquilizers like you were – except the guy shot them each twice, so they got a heavier dose. The hostage who had been wounded by the ricochet is recovering and will be okay. The robbers are of course claiming they hadn’t planned to hurt anyone, and that’s why they used tranquilizer guns on the police; the ricochet was just an accident. I handed the robbers over to the police but one of them had to be taken to the hospital for injuries.”
“Injuries? What happened to him?” I ask, curious.
Clark looks away from me and sits in silence for a few moments. “I injured him,” he says softly.
“What? How?”
When he begins talking, his voice is even softer than before. “It was the man who attacked you. When I found you and I saw what he had done to you, what he was trying to do, I...” he trails off.
“Is he going to be okay?” To be honest, I’m not sure I even care, but I know he does. Superman stands for justice, and he never carries out that justice himself. I realize something; his feelings for me had pushed him over the edge.
“Yeah. He sustained a broken jaw and cheekbone where I punched him, and a couple of broken ribs when I threw him away from you and into the wall of the building next to us.”
I don’t know what to do, what to say to him. I take his head in my hands and kiss him deeply. He responds, kissing me back, and wrapping his arms around me tightly. Then he draws away from my lips to rest the side of his head against my stomach. I run my hands through his hair and just allow him to hold me.
“Thank you, Clark,” I say, after a few moments. “Thank you for saving me. It’s not enough, not nearly enough, but thank you.”
“Can I ask *you* something?”
“Anything,” I assure him.
“Why did you do that? Why did you take such a big risk like that?”
I feel the embarrassment flush my cheeks. “Honestly?” I ask, and then I sigh. “Because I knew Superman was there, and I knew he would save me if anything went wrong. I already knew you were Superman. I figured with you there, nothing bad would happen.”
The pain I see in his face hurts me, deep down inside. “How could you think that?” he asks me. “What if I’d had to choose? What if it had meant someone else had gotten hurt, or died?”
He goes silent for a bit, and I feel a wave of shame come over me. He’s right. I haven’t really thought about it in those terms. I try to find my voice to tell him that, but he breaks the silence first, his voice painfully quiet. “What if I hadn’t made it in time? What if...”
“I’m sorry, Clark. Really I am. It was a stupid thing to do,” I say, interrupting him.
He tries to smile at me but the pain in his eyes is still there. “Lois, promise me something.”
“I can’t promise anything without knowing what it is.”
He lets out a sigh. “Promise me that you won’t test me like that again, not on purpose. I won’t ask you to stop being the best reporter you can be, but please don’t take unnecessary risks, even if you know I’m there. Please. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d gotten there too late. That man, I might have...”
He might have what? Killed him? No, he wouldn’t do that. Superman wouldn’t do that. But, what if I’m wrong? Does he really love me *that* much? The thought makes my legs weak, and I slide down onto his lap.
“I promise,” I say softly, and I mean it. He felt like I was testing him? I had planned to test him but in a different way, but that is done. There will be no more experiments; there’s no need, the results are already in.
He reaches into his pocket pulling something back out in his hand.
“Here, I think this belongs to you,” he says, grimacing.
What? He opens his hand to reveal a thick clipping of my hair. I take it from him, frowning, and I reach up to check that my ponytail is still secure. “I wondered where it had ended up. I guess I get to get a new hairdo.”
“I bet you’ll look cute with short hair,” he says, smiling playfully at me. Then he continues, “Can I ask you another question?”
I nod my head at him.
“When did you find out?”
“Remember when I found you, as Superman, and you were fighting the Kryptonite exposure?” He nods his head. “I had come there to check on *you*, Clark. You told me you weren’t feeling well at work and then disappeared. So I went by your place to check on you. Then, after that business with Diana Stride later at the hospital, I went back by your apartment again to check on you.”
I can see the appreciation in his eyes. Does he not realize how much I care about him?
“Plus, I wanted to help clean up the glass I busted out of your door. Since you weren’t home, I decided to clean it up for you anyway. I couldn’t find your broom anywhere and in the process of looking for it, I found the Superman costumes in your closet. Diana had been there already and had left your secret compartment open. So when I opened the closet, there they were, screaming at me to see them.”
“But what about the press conference? What I told everyone?”
“I had already convinced myself by then that you were Superman. Your little presentation didn’t fool me.” Clark looks like he’s a little worried; I venture a guess why. “Don’t worry. The explanation was good enough to fool everyone else. Just not me. How did you do it?”
“My mom had a holograph projector that she was using in one of her art projects. We used it to create a holograph of Superman.”
Ah, that made sense, so I didn’t imagine those blurry lines.
“Impressive,” I tell him.
“So you were positive I was Superman, even after I tried convincing everyone I wasn’t?”
“Well not positive. I was pretty certain...ninety-nine point nine percent.” I smile at him. “But that point one percent kept nagging at the back of my mind. So I conducted a little experiment to prove to myself once and for all that you were Superman.”
“Experiment?” he asks.
“Uh huh. Hang on,” I tell him, going to the other room to grab the photo Michelle had taken of him. I come back into the room and hand it to him.
His eyes take in the photo and then they look back up at me, smiling. “I wondered why you apologized so easily to me that morning. That just seemed so not you. You only apologized so you could kiss me?”
I blush fiercely. “Well, it was the only way I could be sure. I knew if I kissed Clark, and left some evidence behind, and the evidence showed up on Superman...then bingo!”
“So the woman I helped...”
“Was a plant,” I finish for him.
He smiles and shakes his head slightly, handing the photo back to me. “I should have known to never try and hide from investigative reporter, Lois Lane.”
“Why did you hide?”
“From you? I never really wanted to hide from you. I created Superman so I could have a life. The closer we became, the more I wanted to tell you. I just didn’t know how to get past the lie. I knew you’d be upset. Upset that I lied to you, and mad, and who knows what else. Are you?”
“I was, at first. I tried so hard to drop little hints after I found out. I wanted you to tell me, and I was furious when you dodged me, when you wouldn’t be honest. But I think I understand why you did it, and I’m coming to terms with that. It’s still a little hard to believe, and I still feel hurt that I had to find out on my own, that you didn’t tell me.”
“I know, Lois, and I'm sorry for lying to you." He pauses and looks away from my face. I reach out and touch his face, turning him back to me, and he continues. "I wanted to know, I wanted to believe that you could love *me*, for just me...”
“I know, Clark. You wanted to know that I loved you and not the flashy guy in the red, yellow, and blue suit. But I do. That *is* who I love.” Oh my god! Did I just really say that out loud? Yep, I did, and there’s no taking it back now. I’m not even sure I’d want to take it back, even if I could.
Clark doesn’t look like he believes what I just said either. I smile shyly at him through lowered lashes. “Oh god, um, I didn’t really mean to blurt it out like that. I’m sorry, it’s just that I...”
“I love you, too, Lois.” He captures my mouth in his in a long, slow, tender kiss. When he tries to break off the kiss I immediately seek his mouth in return, hungering for more. I taste the inside of his lips with my tongue. Oh, the scent of him is driving me wild. I can’t believe this is happening. I never would have thought in my wildest dreams that I would be here at this point in time, making out with Clark Kent.
I make small gasps between our lips as he runs his hands down my body, touching me softly, on my neck, my back, my thigh. We both get up, moving over to the more comfortable surface of the bed, kissing and touching one another.
Our breath is coming in short ragged bursts between kisses. I’m suddenly very glad I was able to brush my teeth this morning and freshen up. His hands continue their gentle exploration of my body, being careful not to touch any area even remotely questionable. What’s he waiting for? An invitation? Well yes, probably, knowing Clark.
Do I want to give him an invitation? Yes, my body beckons, I do. Without breaking contact with his lips, I begin unbuttoning his shirt, feeling his muscular chest beneath my fingers as I move down from button to button. It wasn’t too long ago that I’d held one of his shirts in my hands, feeling myself aroused by the scent of the man on it, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Would I have believed that I’d be here now, with the real thing? Clark’s arms wrap around me, holding me, as his body coaxes me to lie back on the bed. He follows me down onto the soft, inviting surface.
Oh god, where is this going? At what point do we stop? Do I even want it to stop? Is all of this too soon? I mean I love him, Clark, Superman, all of him, but are we ready for this? Every nerve ending in my body has begun to tingle, and my heart is beating so hard I think I can literally hear it pounding. No... That pounding sound isn’t my heart. It’s... Oh no, not now! The sound is the knocking of a fist on my front door. Ugh! What timing! Who could that possibly be?
Clark pulls away from me, trying to compose himself. He glances in the direction that my front door would be. “You should probably get that, it’s Jimmy.”
**********
Out of habit I start to look through the peephole on my door. I catch myself and realize I don’t need to bother with that when my boyfriend has x-ray vision. I fling the door open, and Jimmy is standing there with his fist raised, about to knock again.
“Lois! Hi! How are you? Are you okay?” He has a worried look on his face which causes the irritation I’m feeling with him to ease.
“Yeah, Jimmy, I’m okay. Still a little light-headed.” Not really from the tranquilizer but I’m not about to tell him that. “But I’m feeling much better.”
“Oh, thank goodness. Never again, Lois. I’m never letting you talk me into staying put like that again, while you run off and get yourself into trouble.”
I smile in spite of myself. “That’s sweet, really, but what could you have done? If you had gone with me, then Superman would’ve had to rescue two tranq’d-out reporters. It’s okay. I’m fine now.”
Clark had come walking up behind me while Jimmy and I were talking. Jimmy has an amazed look of disbelief on his face.
“CK? Did you spend the night here?”
Clark hesitates, so I answer for him. “Yeah, he did. He’s so sweet. He wanted to make sure I was okay and wanted to be here in case I needed something. Did *you* need something, Jimmy?”
“Uh, no, I just had a message to deliver from the Chief. He says if you even think of showing your face today at work that you’re fired.”
I smile broadly at him. “Ah, good ‘ol Perry. He knows if he doesn’t order me to stay home that I’ll be there. Well, you tell him I said he’ll get no arguments from me today. I don’t plan to leave my apartment all day.” I throw a look over my shoulder at Clark and it seems to me that he blushes.
“I’ll do that,” Jimmy assures me.
“Oh, and Jimmy, tell Perry that the same goes for Clark, too. I may need him to do a few things for me today.” Or to me. God, what am I saying? Now it’s my turn to blush.
Jimmy looks at me, then Clark, then back at me again. He raises his eyebrows slightly.
“What?” I ask him, putting a little irritation into my voice. “Did I stutter? Now get going and let him know I’ll be in bright and early tomorrow; and he’d better not think of ordering me not to.”
“Yes ma’am,” he says, making a little mock salute to me. “Well you two don’t get into too much trouble today, ya hear.”
Ha, don’t count on it. I plan to get into plenty of trouble. I reach out and smack him playfully on the arm. “We’ll try not to. Bye, Jimmy.”
“Bye, Lois, CK.”
“Bye, Jimmy,” Clark chimes in.
I close the door and turn around, right into Clark’s open arms.
“Now, where were we?”
**********
The End
