Hello! Now be honest... the only reason you opened this thread was because I put the word SEQUEL in big letters... right?
Okay, here's the deal. Terry really inspired my muse to write a sequel to New Beginnings... and then she ran off and abandoned me for a while after I finished Supermen United. Well, good news, she finally came back - and with a vengence. I now have roughly 40-50 pages of the sequel done. It's far from being finished... Far from even being beta'd...
But here's the kicker - I had to change the epilogue I wrote for New Beginnings.
I originally wrote a fun little nfic romp for my fans of New Beginnings... well, kiss it goodbye. Sorry but it was just too soon to get these two sweethearts together just yet.
I've revamped the epilogue and included it in the New Beginnings story that I just just sent off to the archive. I'm posting the newly revised epilogue below so that you can take a look at it before I begin posting the sequel.
I think the sequel will be named "New Misgivings"... but it is still a couple of weeks from being ready to post. However... yes, I said "however"... at the bottom of this epilogue, I have posted a sneak peek at a scene from it (it hasn't been beta'd yet, so be kind). Also, please keep in mind that you all gave me free reign to take this story to deep, dark places, so don't feign surprise when I do so (yes, Ann, even you gave me permission... don't make me quote you...)
So here we go. Thank you so much for reading... for all your wonderful feedback and encouragement, and most of all, for all the requests for a sequel... This is for you!
-- DJ
(If you haven't read the story - here's a link to the TOC:)
Table of Contents End of New Beginnings (to recap before epilogue):
*************
“Do you need Superman?” My heart lurches in my chest. Please tell me you need him too.
“No,” she replies as she places her hands on my chest, pulling my shirt back together and adjusting my tie. “I need you, Clark.” She flashes a timid smile at me that sends a tingle through my body. I pull gently on her bringing her back to rest against me and I feel well, whole for the first time in days.
“So, do you still think Perry will give me a job?” I ask her. “I mean I could probably get him a lot of exclusive interviews from Superman. If I bring him one of those, he’s sure to hire me.”
Lois pulls back from me and looks into my teasing eyes and her lips part into a smile. Then she smacks me. “No way, Kent! I found Superman and I interviewed him first. That gives me rights to the follow-up interviews. Just because you think...”
I interrupt her by pressing my lips to hers. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I part her lips with my tongue and discover her thoroughly and intimately for the first time. Her body, rigid at first, soon softens and relaxes into my arms. I pull her body to me tighter and hold her, never wanting to let go. I drink in the softness of her lips and delight in the urgency of her tender draws against my mouth.
After several moments we both come up for air, making soft panting sounds.
“Well, maybe I could share some of the interviews,” she concedes breathily. “You could always try to bribe me.” She raises one eyebrow at me suggestively.
“I can try.”
**********
NEW EPILOGUE
**********
“Can you?” she asked, raising one eyebrow teasingly.
I smile at her, suddenly feeling just a little uncomfortable. It’s too soon. Isn’t it? What would she think of me if I made an advance on her? I would like nothing more than to take her in my arms and kiss her again, but I don’t want to mess this up.
“It’s getting pretty late,” I say instead. Her smile falls a little. Oh that was a brilliant thing to say. I try to recover ground quickly. “Did you have anyone to walk you home?” Yes, a walk. We had walked several times before. A walk wasn’t too forward.
Her face brightens and she takes me by the arm. “You.” Her eyes sparkle and the corners of her mouth turn up in a flirtatious smile.
That smile could light the shadows in the darkest places. I know because it’s blazing a path through my heart.
I remember the words I said to myself only a few nights ago...
<Clark, you are a doomed man...>
I smile at the memory. I’m doomed to forever covet this woman. I know I’ll do whatever it takes to see that smile. I never want to make her unhappy again.
I let her lead me downstairs and out the front doors of the Planet, her arm still threaded through mine and our hands clasped together. Our fingers rub against each other in a rhythmic dance. Her thumb traces delicately along my thumb and down across the palm of my hand. Her touch is electrifying. It sends a jolt straight through me to my core.
“It’s a beautiful night,” she says, taking in a deep breath of the cool, crisp air.
“Yes, it is, but not nearly as beautiful down here.”
“Down here?” Her eyes get a curious twinkle in them.
I nod my head at her. “I love our walks to your apartment, but tonight would you... perhaps... consider flying with me?”
I hear her soft gasp and by the look on her face I can tell she’d like nothing more. I step away from her, letting go of her hand. I move into the shadows and do a quick spin into my suit. She watches with a look of fascination on her face. I smile at her as I walk over to her and scoop her up in my arms, carefully tucking her tweed skirt under her so the wind won’t catch it. She throws her arms around my neck and holds on tightly as I lift us up into the night sky.
As we fly the wind whips across our faces and over our bodies, ruffling the delicate white silk blouse she’s wearing. I delight in all the little sounds she makes as we move across the night sky, and the way her breath comes hurriedly at times.
The raised flesh on her arms and the coolness of her skin cause me to hold her a little tighter, a little closer to my body. She takes her arms from around my neck and brings them inside my embrace.
There’s a comfort in knowing that she trusts me so completely. That she knows I’d never let her fall.
I take us up even higher, where we’re floating just above the first layer of clouds that had settled across the evening sky. They’re light and airy but dense enough to obscure the view of the city below. We’re alone in the night sky, just she and I, floating under the light of a waning moon.
“It’s incredible,” she breathes.
“Yes, it is,” I agree, my eyes fixed on her.
“You’re not even looking,” she chastises me.
“Yes, I am.”
I’m rewarded as a blush creeps across her face and a soft laugh escapes from her lips. “Oh.”
I slow our movement across the sky until we come to a stop, just hovering above the clouds. I move the hand I have under her legs and allow them to drop down as I bring us together in an upright position. An almost imperceptible shiver courses through her body and I pull the sides of my cape around her.
She lays her head against my shoulder and brings one hand up, placing it on my chest. Her fingers begin to lazily trace the curves of the S on my crest. I close my eyes drinking in the scent of her hair, her skin. I can feel the racing of her heartbeat and it ignites a smoldering fire deep within me. I take a few deep breaths trying to compose myself. Don’t rush this. Don’t rush her.
“This is what I’ve always wanted,” I whisper against her forehead. “Someone I could reveal myself to, who would accept me for who I really am. Someone who wouldn’t be frightened by what they found, or try to use it against me.”
Her head lifts up off my shoulder, her eyes searching for mine in the darkness. “Clark, the night that you told me about Lana, you said that if I gave you a chance that you’d always be honest with me from here on out.”
“Yes, and I will. That’s why I came to you tonight.”
“You promise? No matter what I ask?”
I feel myself starting to squirm a little. What would she ask? “I promise.”
“Then what were you thinking about just then? Before you said this is what you’ve always wanted?”
I’m glad it’s dark because I can feel the heat in my face, as well as other parts of my body. She isn’t serious, is she?
Of course she is. She made you promise.
But I can’t tell her that. Can I?
She made you promise.
“I, um... was thinking... how much... I’d...”
She pulls back from me a little further and I realize that she’s smiling at me, a little lopsidedly at that. She’s... she’s enjoying watching me squirm!
“You know for a writer, that’s not very eloquently put and you still didn’t answer my question. Why don’t you try again?” She slides her hands around my body, holding me snugly against her and places a soft kiss against my neck.
Oh god. As if this wasn’t hard enough.
“Come on. You promised,” she goads me.
I sigh and close my eyes, not being able to look at her as I admit this. “I was thinking how much I’d like to hold you like this with no clothing to interfere.”
A soft giggle escapes from her lips. “I figured as much, you know those briefs you’re wearing don’t do much to hide what they’re covering.”
If my face got any hotter it would be glowing. How can she tease me like that? And then I realize; she’s doing what she can to help me. To drag my mind away from other thoughts, darker thoughts, and... it’s working.
As I’m pondering these thoughts, there’s a break in the clouds below us and I realize how close we are to her apartment. I’m almost a little sad that our flight is over so soon.
I decide to talk to her to prolong our voyage a little longer, allow myself to hold her a little while more. “Okay, you got to ask your question. Do I get to ask one now?”
Her face betrays her panic, but she responds smoothly. “Go on.”
“You said you wanted honesty, but you also said you had a list. What else was on that list? How many things were there?”
This time it was her turn to blush. “Um, well, there were five things.”
“Five? So what were the other four?”
“Do I really have to tell you?”
“Yes, if you ever want me to take you down from here.”
“Is that supposed to be a threat?” she asks, smiling mischievously.
I drop us a few feet quickly and it takes her breath away.
“Oh!” she cries, her arms squeezing against me tightly.
“Well?”
“All right. Geez, I was just kidding.”
I laugh softly and she smiles at me. “Okay, let’s see... I can’t believe you’re going to make me admit these. Honesty was really the only one that mattered. The others were kind of silly and superfluous and more than embarrassing once you have to say them out loud...”
I move my body as if I’m going to drop us again.
“No, stop. Okay. I’ll start at the bottom of the list... Good-looking.”
“Good-looking? Wow. After the one about honesty, I was afraid they were all going to be these serious qualities like integrity, intelligent, impartial, give me another “I” word...”
“Impervious?”
I grin. “So far. At least to everything I’ve come in contact with.”
“Hmm, including bombs,” she agrees. We both laugh.
“Next,” I prompt her.
“Oh, uh, and you made the check-list on the good-looking one.”
“That’s good to know.”
She smiles shyly at me. “Good-natured.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I want a guy who can lift my spirits and who isn’t afraid to laugh. I think we’ve established that you’ve made the list on that one as well.”
“Good. Only two left.”
“Loyal.” Her voice is a little quieter than before.
I don’t make any comments after this one. I can tell it’s an important one to her. “Tell me.”
“My father cheated on my mother, and he abandoned me and my sister when we were young. *He* took some of my innocence too...” Her voice trailed off and she sighed quietly. “That’s not how a family is supposed to be, Clark. A family is supposed to be loyal, to stick by each other through thick and thin, to be supportive of one another.”
“I’m so sorry, Lois.” So more than one man in her life had let her down. No wonder she had seemed so reserved when I first met her, why it was hard for her to trust people. “But believe me, not all families are like that, not all *men* are like that.”
She nods her head silently, her eyes looking glassy with unshed tears.
“That’s definitely a very important one,” I tell her. “But there must be one even more important - you still have one left.”
Her face brightens. “Acceptance.”
“Acceptance? But that’s mine.”
“Yes, I told you I liked it and I was going to add it to my list.”
“But what was there before? Didn’t you already have five things before I told you that?”
“I’ll tell you that one later. It was at the bottom of the list, under good-looking. It got bumped when I added yours to my list.”
I’m amazed that she had made what I cared about so important to her. It took my breath in a way that no one ever had before. Lana had always tried to change me, make me into what she wanted. Lois was instead changing part of herself, no not changing, just supporting. She was aligning herself with me.
“Clark, would you take us down now?”
I feel a little disappointment that this night has to end, regretful that I can’t find some way to extend it a little more. But I don’t say anything; I just lower us back down, setting her down in front of her apartment building. I move into the shadows and spin out of the suit before rejoining her at the steps leading up to her building.
Not wanting to leave her any sooner than I have to, I walk with her up to the front entrance.
“Thank you, Lois. You’ll never know how much tonight has meant to me.”
“To me too,” she says. There’s a slight waver in her voice. Something isn’t right. She seems almost nervous. I reach out with my hearing and realize her pulse has risen to a high level; her heart is beating wildly. I look down at her hands and they’re clasping and unclasping in front of her.
“Is something...” That’s all I manage to get out before she comes to me, capturing my lips in her own and drawing against them deeply.
She catches me off guard but I soon recover and my arms go around her, pulling her to me. I bring one hand up and slide it behind her head, bringing her in to deepen the kiss.
I feel her groan against my lips and the sound resonates through my body. Oh, god, Lois.
She pulls away from me, leaving my lips wanting. She opens the door to her building and steps inside. As my mind questions what I did to cause her to leave, her hand pulls on me, trying to bring me inside with her. When I don’t immediately follow her, she releases my hand and takes a step back toward me.
“Please, Clark...”
“Lois, I don’t know if I should...”
She takes my hand again and this time I allow her to lead me inside.
When we make it up to her apartment door, her hands are trembling and she can’t seem to get the key into the door. I reach out and place my hand on hers, steadying it. She looks up at me and smiles shyly.
She manages to get the door open and leads me inside her apartment. She leaves me long enough to go turn on a small lamp in one corner of the room. It casts a low, soft light on her body and our surroundings, causing her to look like a beautiful apparition. I have to restrain myself from going to her and enfolding her body into my arms.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she asks me softly, smiling shyly at me through her lashes. “Maybe a glass of wine to help you relax? Unwind?”
“Alcohol doesn’t really seem to affect me,” I tell her, wishing very much that right now that wasn’t the case. “So it won’t help me unwind. Probably a good thing, though, because I might have drank myself into a drunken stupor otherwise.” I try a weak smile out on her and realize that she looks a little disappointed. “But maybe we could each have a glass and the *company* will help me relax. I could really use someone to talk to.”
I’m dying to hold her in my arms again, but I wait. Men had taken advantage of her before and I refuse to be one of them. I don’t want to rush her into anything that she isn’t ready for.
If she will just sit... sit and listen to me... talk with me... that would go farther towards healing my soul than anything. I’ve never known what it feels like to be drunk but I’m sure it can’t provide the kind of relief that pouring yourself out to another human being can provide, for one thing the effects of alcohol are just temporary at best.
And yet, it would be nice to be able to forget, just for a while. To not have to think about the pain, the loss... the regret. But even if a drink couldn’t ease the pain, maybe Lois could.
Please, Lois, help me.
I watch her walk back to me and feel the anticipation welling up inside me as she reaches out, taking my tie in her hands. “Well, let’s see what *I* can do to help you relax,” she murmurs as she loosens the knot and lifts the tie up over my head. She gives it a toss over to the couch. It almost makes it but instead slides down the side and pools on the floor.
She leans in close to me and brushes a kiss past my ear. “How does that feel? Any better?”
I feel the heat in my face. “Define better,” I tell her, my throat suddenly very dry.
She reaches between us and unbuttons the top three buttons of my shirt. She leans back and slides the shirt apart, frowning at the blue spandex of the suit underneath. “You know ever since that morning I came to pick you up at Chad’s, I’ve dreamt of seeing this chest again.” She smiles softly at me.
My face flushes at the memory of answering the door in nothing but a towel. “It seemed to me that you might have been dreaming already when I came back in from getting dressed.”
It’s her turn to redden. “God, was it that obvious?”
I smile at her. “What were you thinking about that morning on the couch? You seemed a little jumpy when I came back in.”
When her smile comes again it’s seductive and it sends a shiver through me that almost breaks my resolve. “I was imagining ways that I could have accidentally relieved you of that towel.” She slides her hands lightly behind my neck and pulls against me, bringing her mouth to mine. She takes possession of my lips, making slow pulls against them. Her lips are so soft, so warm and... inviting.
My arms finally seize hold of her body, unable to hold back any longer. One hand entwines itself in her silky tresses and the other clutches against her hip as we deepen the kiss, silently telling each other the things we haven’t yet begun to say.
Her hand comes down to find mine, a surge of electricity again flowing through my body at her touch. She finally pulls away from me and I allow her to lead me over to her couch.
“Let me get us a drink and then you can give me a more *in-depth* interview... off-the-record of course.” She smiles demurely at me. “I think maybe Superman might have been holding back earlier. I want all the juicy details.” Her smile flashes and there’s a curious twinkle in her eyes.
**************
As I sit on Lois’s couch with her body leaning back against mine, feeling the slow rise and fall of her body as she breathes in and out, I realize how fortunate I am to have found her.
All my fears, my doubts, the hurt, the pain, had all flowed out of me as I talked to her, as I told her about all the years I had hidden myself, been alone. Even with Lana, I just hadn’t been able to be myself.
Lois had listened to me, had asked me just the right questions to allow me to open up. She had squeezed my hand when I couldn’t find the words to go on and she had hugged me to her when I told her the details of the night that I found Lana.
We kissed, we touched, and we held each other. Her attentiveness to me, her acceptance of me - of who I really am - was the single most beautiful thing I have ever experienced.
I press a kiss in her hair and then to her cheek. “Thank you,” I murmur in her ear. “I’ve never felt so... accepted before. I’ve never been able to share myself like that with anyone.”
I give her a gentle squeeze before sliding out from behind her. I start to get up from the couch but her hands come out and take hold of me, bringing me back down next to her.
“Stay, please,” she says, her voice tender.
“Just try to get rid of me.”
She tilts her head questioningly at me. “Then where were you going?”
“To get a snack. I haven’t eaten anything in days and this is the first time I’ve felt like I wanted to eat. Can I get you something?”
She grimaces. “I don’t think I even have a package of crackers in my cabinets right now.”
I grin softly at her. “I really don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I can go get something and bring it back. Tell me, what would you rather have? Some Chinese again or maybe some Italian?”
She frowns and then a smile creeps slowly across her face. “So, the other night, that was *real* Chinese.” I nod at her, smiling. “Mmm, no wonder it was so good. Well, we’ve had the Chinese, but I think the Italian might be a little too heavy for as late as it is, or early, depending on how you want to look at it. Do you know any good little French bakeries?”
“Oui. Just stay here looking that beautiful and I’ll be right back.”
“Promise?”
“Always.”
THE END
***************
And now, just a teensy, weensy, little peek at the new fic - New Misgivings:
**************
“Clark!”
It’s Lana’s voice crying out to me. Huh? Wait. How could that be? She... she died.
“Clark!”
“I’m coming, Lana.” I look around. I’m lying on my couch in my apartment in Smallville. I feel like I’ve been asleep, like I’ve been dreaming. Have I been dreaming? Is that all her death had been? A horrible nightmare? Brought on by guilt over my feelings for Lois?
“Please, hurry, Clark.”
My heart lurches in my chest. It is. She’s alive! I get up and run from room to room, searching for her, listening for the sound of her voice. Where is she? “Lana? Where are you?”
“In here. Please hurry.”
Her voice sounds like it’s coming from my bedroom. I run toward it and find the door locked. I pound on it. “Lana? Open the door.”
“Help me, Clark. Please.” Her voice has a quality of desperation in it that fills me with fear. What’s wrong? What’s going on?
Without hesitation I shove my shoulder against the door, busting the lock and throwing it open. Lana is sitting on the bed in jeans and t-shirt, her back turned away from me. “Lana? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Why don’t you want me, Clark? Why won’t you make love to me? I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted to marry me.”
“I did, but I couldn’t be who you wanted me to be, Lana. Don’t you understand that?” Why won’t she look at me? I walk to her and put my hand on her shoulder, turning her towards me. The sight that meets my eyes knocks the breath from my lungs. It’s Lana, but she’s cut up, bruised and bleeding. Her hair is matted to her face with blood and there are tears streaming down her face.
“Why? Why Clark? You left me. This is your fault. Why did you leave me? Why didn’t you come back when I asked you to?” She coughs and her body spasms.
“No! Lana, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never wanted this to happen. I tried to save you.”
“You can’t save me,” she rasps, shaking her head sadly. “You can’t even save yourself. You’re no hero.” Her body convulses and she falls down in a crumpled heap on the bed. A pained sigh escapes her lips and she whispers so softly that I can barely hear her. “*You* killed me, Clark.”
“No!”
I jerk my head up, panting hard, my eyes scanning the room wildly. Where am I? I don’t recognize anything.
Then my glance falls on... her.
And it all comes back to me - the flight over the city with her in my arms, talking with her late into the night, feeding pieces of French pastry to her while she told me about her childhood... her asking me to stay the night.
I’m in Lois Lane’s apartment, in Lois Lane’s bedroom.
*************
To Be Continued....
See you all in a few weeks. -- DJ
