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Part 15/20
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Lois opened her eyes, staring blindly ahead of her. For several seconds she laid there, not daring to move, as her mind raced. It was laughable, wasn't it, that Clark could be Superman? If he was that meant that she had been sleeping with Superman for almost two months without a clue.
"I'm here. I'm right here. It's me. I'm here. I'm so sorry."
Clark was Superman? That couldn't be right - that was just stupid. Her partner, her best friend was… no, she was the one who was stupid. Oh god, it was so obvious now that she thought about it. All those unexplained absences…
Lois let out a shaky breath as it all became unalterably clear. She had used Superman's toothbrush. It was Superman she had seduced, slept with, and then rejected soundly. It was Superman who had bathed her last night. He had been Superman all along and he had hidden the truth from her.
Why? Why had he never said a word?
"You're better at this than I thought," she told him.
"At what?" Clark looked up at her quizzically.
"Dissembling."
"You didn't think I could lie?"
"Not that well. I just never expected it from you."
"I hope that's a compliment."
"It is." She regarded him for a few seconds. "So what else are you lying about?"
"What?"
"A person doesn't lie that well without practice. And you seem to keep a lot of secrets. I bet there are lots of things you don't tell me."
How could he have ignored an opening that big?
He was still asleep behind her, if his deep and even breathing was any way to judge. Lois carefully shifted so she was lying on her back, wincing as her muscles protested. Her entire body ached, an aftereffect of the electrocution that the doctor had warned her about.
She looked closely at the man holding her, feeling like she was seeing him for the first time. Her eyes were drawn to the small freckle above his upper lip. They both had the same freckle - why had she never noticed that before? But she hadn't - it hadn't even occurred to her that it should occur to her.
With his face relaxed in sleep he only looked like Clark to her. There wasn't a trace of the stiff control of Superman in his features. He was just Clark without glasses. She realized now he had never taken his glasses off when she could see his face before. Lois lifted her hand and experimentally smoothed his hair back from his forehead. At her touch, his eyes opened and his arm tightened around her.
"How are you feeling?" he murmured, his voice scratchy with sleep.
"Numb," she said honestly, pulling her hand away.
Clark nodded. He felt numb himself. In fact, he was afraid of what he was going to feel when the numbness receded and he actually had to register emotions.
Lois was unable to meet his eyes. What was she supposed to do or say? Should she just confront him? Did he think she had remembered all along the things he said when he found her at the nuclear plant?
"It's you, isn't it?" she whispered through parched lips as she dared a peek at him. "You're Superman."
Clark let out a sigh as his stomach twisted into a swift cold knot. Instinct almost made him deny it, especially since he was unsure whether he should be relieved or worried that he no longer had to hide from her. "Yes."
He had been so sure that the confession would lift a weight off of him. The reality was exactly the opposite. The guilt seemed twice as heavy now because her body had become rigid and she wouldn't look at him. He hastened to try and explain.
"It's still me, Lois. I'm Clark. Superman is…he's what I can do. He's how I can help people and still have a life. Clark is who I really am."
Lois had rolled away from him as he was speaking even though her entire body protested the movement. She sat up and clutched her robe tightly closed. "Whoever you are, you're a liar," she stated flatly.
"Lois…" Clark pushed himself up to sit against the headboard of her bed and she moved a little further away from him, putting one foot over the edge of the bed as if she was getting ready to flee.
"I trusted you," she told him. "I bared my soul and every last inch of me to you and the entire time you were lying." Her voice sounded dazed and Clark realized he'd much rather she yelled at him instead of looking at him like she had found a stranger in her bed.
"I wasn't lying," he said vehemently. "Not really. I just didn't tell you one thing."
One thing? Was he kidding? His defensive words goaded her into anger and she scrambled off the bed. Her voice cracked as she sarcastically said, "Oh sure, that was just one little omission. How could I possibly be upset over one teeny tiny little lie? I was carrying Superman's love child - that wouldn't have interested me at all. When were you going tell me? Or were you even planning to tell me?"
Clark bowed his head, frustrated and guilty at the accusation in her words. "I was going to tell you last night. When I said we should talk yesterday morning, that's what I wanted to talk about."
"So what was the criteria for finally telling me? What little test did I have to pass first? Obviously it had nothing to do with intimacy or trust or friendship."
"Lois, there wasn't a test." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "When I first became Superman I didn't tell you because I didn't know you well enough to know what you would do with that information. And then it just got more and more complicated when I fell in love with you. It didn't make it any easier that you only cared about Superman..."
"You think I didn't care about you?" she interrupted. "What about the first time we slept together? Why do you think I came to you that night?"
Clark shrugged. "I just figured you had nowhere else to go."
Lois gasped. "I came there because of you! Even without your memories I was drawn to you!"
"Are you really going to stand there and tell me that you cared just as much about me as you did Superman? Don't bother trying, Lois, you made it abundantly clear who you wanted to be with." Clark got up and stood on the other side of the bed.
"Do you honestly think that little of me?"
"I've never told you because I was afraid of your reaction. Surely you remember how you reacted over a toothbrush, Lois. A toothbrush! Are you seriously telling me that learning you had just unwittingly slept with Superman wouldn't have upset you? Because I don't buy that. Not at all!" He spit the words at her in frustration.
"Oh, spare me! Tell me why you couldn't even date me as Superman but you could sleep with me as Clark. How does that work?"
"Because… Superman isn't real! I made him up! He's a costume, Lois! He's a disguise! If we were dating, or having buddy sex, I wanted you to know that you were with me. Clark. Just me."
"Do you know what kills me?" she asked bitterly. "I actually fantasized about you while having sex with you. Is that sadly ironic or ironically sad?"
Clark winced. "Lois…"
"Remember we agreed that if either of us said 'no' then the other would stop?"
"Yes," he said, his heart sinking as he realized what she was going to say next.
"I'm saying 'no'. I want you to leave."
Exasperation flooded through him. He was angry with her, but he couldn't leave her. Not like this, especially not after what had happened yesterday. "You shouldn't be alone right now."
"Then why don't you ask Superman to keep an eye on me? Isn't that what you do when I'm not talking to you? I'm sure he'll be very understanding and steer me, ever so subtly, into making up with you."
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Clark stood on the sidewalk outside, looking up at her window. He could hear her opening and slamming shut the drawers in her kitchen and muttering under her breath. He felt an equal irritation - why couldn't she just listen, really listen to him? He knew it was hopeless to go back to her right now and try and make her understand. He gradually let the sounds of rush hour drown out her movements. It was late in the day, he realized. They had slept the entire day.
Would she be okay? Would they be okay? Once the initial shock wore off, would she allow him back into her life again?
What if she didn't?
His breath caught in his throat. He had lost so much since yesterday morning - he couldn't lose her, too. She was right, he realized, he had always been able to get through to her as Superman when his efforts as Clark failed. Now he had ruined everything. Why hadn't he told her?
"Clark? I love you, too." She freed her hand from his so she could caress his cheek. "I'm so sorry that I hurt you. I was just scared."
"Of what?"
"You," Lois breathed. "You have no idea how much you scare me. I never thought I'd trust anyone or be able to love someone like this."
"I scare you?"
"It scares me that I care so much about you," Lois told him.
He knew she had been blindsided when she realized who Superman was. He knew that her fear and anger were only going to compound from here, especially if he tried to explain away his lies. But would she ever realize how deeply she had hurt him? He knew she was frightened of getting too close - could she see why he was frightened of the same thing? Would she ever trust him again?
Clark shook his head regretfully and began to walk away. There was no way back in. There was nothing he could do to fix this. He would just have to wait and hope that she loved him enough to forgive him. It was much less certain whether he would ever be able to forgive himself.
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By mid-afternoon of the next day Lois was feeling restless. The cramps were nowhere as bad as they had been but they were still there. That the cramps were a constant reminder of what she had lost made them even worse. She had been carefully trying to avoid thinking about the baby or Clark or Superman. She had tried reading but nothing could hold her attention. Feeling desperate, she found a notepad and began making notes.
She wrote down, 'Tony, Rachel, Gatenby -- ESW weapon' and then tapped her pencil on the pad as she thought.
First Bad Brain had gone after Tony Weir, Rachel Eames and Dr. Gatenby - all of them had been instrumental in creating the ESW weapon he was currently using. But he hadn't used the ESW to kill any of them. Why? Had he still been modifying it to use against Superman?
Tony had died from an electrified manhole cover and Rachel had narrowly escaped that fate. Dr. Gatenby had been electrocuted, but he had the same burns on his ankle and chest as the homeless men. All three of them were connected by their jobs at STAR Labs and their work on the ESW gun. But then Bad Brain had started killing transients. Why? Was he experimenting on them?
"…He stuns them first and then drags them to his lair."
Ken had said that Bad Brain used the gun solely for stunning. So far he hadn't used the gun to kill anyone, but then he had told them that he had it set on low.
"That's what happens when the gun is set on low. You tell Superman that I'm going to crank this thing up to full power and I'll shoot first and ask questions later."
What made Bad Brain think that he could even hurt Superman? Clark, she corrected herself, he thought he could hurt Clark. Was Clark faking it when Bad Brain shot him that night? He had seemed genuinely stunned to Lois. What was it Clark had said, just before Bad Brain shot him?
"You've made a Kryptonite lens for the gun," Clark said grimly.
"Bingo," Bad Brain said. "And I can't wait to try it out."
Kryptonite. Wasn't that the stuff Jason Trask had thought would kill Superman? With dawning horror she realized that Kryptonite might really be potentially lethal to Clark. And he had known that at least since their trip to Smallville - one more thing he had kept from her.
He had been sick while they were out there, she recalled. She had thought it a little odd that his parents were so doting at the time. Now she realized why they had been so worried. She remembered Clark's surprise when he got that paper cut. It was probably the first time in his life that he had been the regular guy she assumed he was all along. So Kryptonite could take away his powers - but could it kill him?
"Clark, please, talk to me!"
His lips moved but he didn't make a sound. She leaned closer to his mouth. "What? I can't hear you."
"That really hurt," he whispered.
He had been hurt that night. He wasn't faking it. Bad Brain had a weapon that could stop Superman in his tracks. Lois shivered at the thought.
"That's what happens when the gun is set on low. You tell Superman that I'm going to crank this thing up to full power and I'll shoot first and ask questions later."
If the Kryptonite made him vulnerable at the same time Bad Brain hit him at full power… he could kill Clark with that thing. Lois doodled a spiral on the corner of the paper and wondered if Clark was out looking for Bad Brain right now. Surely he realized he could never show up as Superman in front of Bad Brain? His best chance at survival lay in never giving Bad Brain a reason to turn the ESW weapon up to full power.
"I won't let him hurt you again," Clark said quietly.
She reached for his hand and he took hold of her, squeezing her fingers gently. "I don't mean for this to sound ungrateful, Clark, but he can hurt you, too, you know."
"I don't care about me."
"But I do," she whispered. "I care very much what happens to you."
Clark lifted her hand to kiss the back of it softly. "I love you," he said simply.
Lois closed her eyes but the tears escaped anyway. She still cared about him, even if he was a liar. Frustrated she rubbed the tears off her cheeks. She couldn't think about him right now. Clark's betrayal and the loss of the baby were both too fresh, too close to the surface. Work - finding Bad Brain - was the only thing that could save her. It was all she had left.
Think, she told herself. At what point had Ken begun working with Bad Brain? Was that how Ken had found out about the setup under the manhole after Rachel's near-miss? It had to be later than that - Ken was still stalking Bad Brain the night she ran into him in the sewer.
"You're wasting your time in the sewers. Bad Brain has moved on."
Ken was going to air Bad Brain's location the same night that Bad Brain killed him. Why had he decided to expose Bad Brain? Had his story aired? Lois called WMET and learned that no story from Ken had been shown that night. She asked the control room tech if she could view Ken's tapes.
"Can't help you there," the tech said. "All his tapes on the Bad Brain story are gone or we would have aired something."
"Did Ken take them with him when he left that night?" Lois asked.
"I don't know. The current theory is that maybe Bad Brain took them, but no one can figure out how he got into the station to do it."
"What about Mike, his cameraman?"
"Mike quit last week. He said he had found a job upstate. No one has seen him since."
Lois thanked the tech and hung up the phone. She heard Ken's name and turned to watch her television as a story memorializing Ken aired. She watched Ken greeting a series of dignitaries and rolled her eyes. While she wouldn't have wished him dead, it was a little sickening to see his non-existent virtues being extolled by people she knew shared her low opinion of the man. The tribute ended with Ken, in profile, looking broodingly at the Metropolis skyline from a vantage point across the Hobbs River. The screen went black and the young anchorwoman behind the desk arranged her sculptured features into an expression approximating regret.
"So long, Ken," she said. "You will be missed by all your colleagues here at WMET. In other news, the mayor is denying allegations that he released several highly confidential documents relating to city construction projects. In a press conference this morning …"
The screen changed to show the mayor's spokesman fielding questions at a press conference. Lois immediately picked out Clark on the periphery of the crowd. He was the only reporter not holding up a hand to be recognized for a question. The spokesman called on Kathy Beck, the Star's new reporter.
Lois didn't hear Kathy's question, all she could focus on was how Clark didn't seem to be paying attention either. He looked tired and sad. For a moment Lois was glad that he looked so awful. He should, after what he had done.
As Kathy was asking a follow-up question she saw Clark turn his head, pause for a second and then leave.
"So long, Superman," she whispered to the screen. She shook her head at her own idiocy. Why had it never occurred to her to be suspicious of Clark's constant disappearances? Probably because he had seemed so normal, boring even, that it never seemed possible he could be hiding something.
Okay, she told herself, let it go. Now try and figure out what Ken Randall was hiding.
"Is Ken Randall working with you?" she asked.
Bad Brain chuckled. "I wouldn't call it that, though he might."
"He says he knows where you are."
"Did you ask him what he traded for that knowledge?"
Lois' throat went dry. "Rachel Eames?"
Bad Brain hadn't confirmed that Ken had traded Rachel. But he had traded something. So where was Rachel? Where was Mike? Had he really taken a new job or had Ken sacrificed Mike to Bad Brain's sick experiments? If he had, why hadn't Mike's body been found? Were Mike and Rachel dead? Were they alive and in hiding? How had Bad Brain known what she was wearing that night? Did he have a surveillance device in her apartment? That was just too creepy to think about and she looked around uneasily.
"I'm just experimenting, Lois."
Why? What was he going to do?
"Bad Brain has a lair, you know. And it's not underground…"
So where was Bad Brain? How had Ken found him? Had he made a deal with Bad Brain? Where were all of his tapes? Had Bad Brain taken them or did Ken have them stashed somewhere?
Come on, she told herself. Think like Ken. Be a sewer rat.
"The night Ken locked you in… he said that he had last seen you in the maze."
"I say we start where Ken locked me in. He's obviously familiar with that part of the underground network."
What if he had hidden the tapes in the maze?
Lois looked at the phone. She should call Clark before she went into the tunnels. She weighed the risks of running into Bad Brain against the awkwardness of being with Clark. She made a face, then picked up the phone and called his desk at the Planet. To her relief, Jimmy answered.
"Jimmy? It's Lois. Is Clark there?"
"Uh, he was. I saw him just a few minutes ago but I guess he's stepped away from his desk. How are you feeling? I heard that Bad Brain zapped you."
"I'm doing okay," she said. "I'm just working on an angle for the Ken Randall/Bad Brain story."
"Do you want me to give Clark a message?" Jimmy asked.
"Oh, uh, yeah. Tell him I think Ken Randall may have hidden his tapes in the maze."
"In the maze? What maze?"
"Clark will know what I mean. Tell him that I'm going to go check the maze."
This was actually better, she thought as she hung up the phone. If Clark had answered he would have just argued with her over whether or not she should be out of bed. Did he honestly think she was just going to lie here, in her bugged apartment, and wait for Bad Brain to come and knock on the door?
She went back to the television after she got dressed, hoping to get a clue as to where Clark might have gone. There had been an explosion at a chemical plant outside of the city. The reporter on the scene tensely informed the camera that Superman was working on containing the fire. She caught a glimpse of the red cape through the swirling black smoke in the background.
He should be busy for at least the next hour. Should she wait for him? Was there really anything left that Bad Brain could do to her? Besides kill her, of course.
"You're wasting your time in the sewers. Bad Brain has moved on."
Could she really trust Ken that Bad Brain had moved on from the sewers?
She'd have to, just this once. Lois picked up her flashlight and left.
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Lois entered the sewer at Haines and Fourth, the same place as the night she had run into Ken and Bad Brain. She pushed away the memories from that night. She didn't want to remember the dying man's screams. Nor did she want to think about what happened afterwards. How blind could she be to mistake Superman for Clark, twice, and then never wonder why?
As she pulled the manhole cover closed the wind blew past her into the tunnel, making an eerie howling noise. She remembered what Kevin had said the first night he took them into the tunnels:
"Some people say it's haunted. They give tours through here around Halloween."
Lois climbed down the metal rungs set into the wall and looked around. Where to now? Should she go back to where Ken had locked her in or go in the opposite direction? There was a chalk arrow on the wall in front of her, pointing to the left. She didn't remember seeing that before. Impulsively, she decided to follow it.
After a few minutes she came to a junction. Another chalk arrow on the wall pointed to the left again. Lois hesitated for a moment and then decided to follow it. At least she'd be able to find her way back out by following the arrows backwards. Besides, she was curious to see what they led to.
After several more turns she began to imagine that she was going to find all the arrows erased when she tried to leave. She tortured herself with that thought for a few minutes as she remembered the warning Kevin had given them.
"You guys need to stay with me. If we get separated, stop where you are and wait. Don't try and find your way out. You won't know the meaning of the word 'lost' until you've become disoriented down here," Kevin cautioned.
Clark leaned down to whisper to her, "He means you."
"Hmph," Lois let her elbow swing back and strike his ribs. "I never get lost. I have an innate sense of direction."
That innate sense of direction only worked above ground, she decided. She checked her watch. It had been over an hour since she had first come into the tunnel system. Had Clark gone back to the Planet yet? Would he come looking for her?
Maybe she should find the nearest manhole and try to get out. She was tired, her legs felt shaky and her stomach was beginning to cramp. She should have taken some pain meds before she left home but she hadn't wanted her mind to be clouded. Now she was wondering what in the hell she was really trying to prove. Should she leave? Where did the arrows lead? What if the arrows were gone the next time she came down here to explore?
Two arrows later the cramps in her stomach had spread to her back. Feeling exhausted, she leaned against the wall and wished that she could just sit down somewhere dry for a few minutes. What if the arrows were just random? What if Ken had put them on the walls as a joke? If so, wherever he was now, he had to be laughing at her.
Lois closed her eyes, listening to soft trickle of water as she rested. She was going in circles, she was pretty sure. She should have brought her own chalk to mark the walls. Actually, maybe someone else already had. Most of the arrows were yellow chalk but some were white. Was there a reason? Which ones should she be following?
She pushed off from the wall and started walking again. The next arrow she came to was yellow and it pointed to the right. She rubbed out a section in the middle with her finger. She'd only follow the yellow ones from now on. And she'd mark them so she could recognize them if she saw them again.
At the next junction she cursed under her breath. There were no arrows, either yellow or white, on the wall. Dismayed, she turned and shone her light in the direction she had just come from. She had passed several smaller tunnels, but none of them had been marked so she had ignored them.
Then again, maybe Ken knew which tunnel it was, he just needed a guide to get there? Her instincts told her to check the smaller tunnels before calling it quits. She veered into the first one that she came to; it was much narrower than any she had been in yet. The walls were only a couple of feet wide and the ceiling was less than four feet high, she had to duck and walk hunched over. She followed it for about fifty feet and ran into a dead end.
Claustrophobia welled up in her, mixing with the pain in her back and abdomen until she just wanted to sit down and cry. She took a few deep, calming breaths and turned around, hurrying as fast as she could back into the main corridor.
She tried the small tunnel opposite and found the same thing. She was slowly trudging towards the next tunnel when she heard a distant whoosh. Lois froze - was that the wind? Had someone else just entered the tunnel system? Was it another flood? She frantically looked around, her heart racing, and then plunged into the next archway. She took several steps and the tunnel widened slightly on her right in an alcove. She ducked into it and turned her flashlight off.
What if it was Bad Brain? Or Clark? What if the sewers really were haunted? At that moment she would have rather run into the ghost of Ken Randall than either Clark or Bad Brain. Lois flattened herself against the back of the alcove and listened intently. She could hear soft splashes as someone walked closer to the tunnel where she was hiding. She held her breath.
The footsteps stopped. Whoever it was had to be directly in front of the tunnel she was in. Lois clutched her flashlight tighter, ready to club anyone who might walk past her. Please, her mind screamed, please don't let it be Bad Brain!
A flashlight's beam shone past her hiding spot and she pressed back harder against the wall. "Lois?"
It was Clark. She let out the breath she had been holding and was about to answer him when she realized it might very well be Bad Brain. He could make himself sound like anyone. She didn't move.
"Lois, it's me," he said. The light moved to focus on the alcove she was in.
Lois breathed shallowly, still not daring to reveal herself.
A few seconds ticked by and then he tried again. "It really is me. Or are you still not talking to me?"
Take a chance, she told herself. Only Clark would know that she wasn't talking to him right now. Then again, if Bad Brain was bugging her apartment…
"Clark?" she murmured, hoping that if he were Bad Brain he wouldn't be able to hear her.
"Yes," he said.
Frightened, and ready to run at the first sign of trouble, she turned her flashlight back on and stepped out of the alcove to shine it in his direction. He was about ten feet away - and he was wearing the Superman suit. She kept the light focused on his face, not wanting to acknowledge that Superman had just answered in the affirmative when she said, "Clark".
"What are you doing down here?" he asked, squinting against the light she was shining in his eyes.
"Didn't Jimmy tell you?"
"I called to check in and he said you thought Ken Randall had hidden something in the maze."
"Ken said he knew where Bad Brain was but they never aired his story that night. And his tapes disappeared. So I got to thinking - Ken knew the maze - maybe he was hiding stuff in it. Plus, he always seemed to be down here."
"You should have waited for me." Clark wanted to point out that she wasn't even supposed to be out of bed, but he knew that would only upset her further.
"I didn't know how long you would be," Lois said, feeling defensive. She could hear the note of disapproval in his tone. It would have been much better if she didn't agree with him. She was sorry she had even come in here to begin with. She was even sorrier that she had a long walk to get back out of the tunnels. She knew she could ask him to take her home and he'd have her there in a matter of seconds. She just couldn't make herself ask him.
"It's not like Ken is going to come back and get his stuff," Clark said. "If he even hid anything here to begin with."
Lois ignored him, mostly wishing to avoid another fight. "I was following the arrows." As soon as she said the words she wished them back.
At this admission Clark didn't even try to hide the disapproval in his voice. "Doesn't it seem slightly risky to be following a trail? How do you know you weren't being lured somewhere?"
"I don't," she shrugged. "But there's not much left that Bad Brain can do to me."
"He could kill you."
"Right now, that would feel more like a favor than anything else."
Clark bit back his reply, unsure what to say. He knew she had to still be hurting, both physically and emotionally, from the miscarriage. Given her current feelings about him, he didn't think anything he said could comfort her. If anything, his words would have the opposite effect.
For several seconds the only sound was the trickle of water. Lois swallowed hard before speaking. "You could help me look," she suggested. "I'm just checking these smaller tunnels. I'll take this one," she pointed with her flashlight at the tunnel she had just left, "and you can take that one." She swung the light to indicate the tunnel opposite.
"All right," he said, hoping he had read her right and this was meant as a truce.
Clark had to turn slightly sideways to work his way down the tunnel. He thought briefly about flying, but decided it was unfair if Lois still had to walk. He could hear the weariness in her voice when she had spoke. Why didn't she just go home? Why push herself so hard, and put herself in danger again while she was at it?
"He could kill you."
"Right now, that would feel more like a favor than anything else."
It wasn't like Lois to be so fatalistic. Foolhardy, yes. But he had never seen apathy drive someone before.
"Clark! Clark, come here!"
He cheated and flew to where she was at the end of the narrow tunnel. She had climbed the rungs on the wall at the end and was pushing ineffectually on a grate above her head. "There was mud," she told him excitedly, "on the rungs. Someone has been climbing around in here."
"Here, I'll get it." He floated up behind her and pushed the grate aside. "Let me go first, okay?" he asked quietly.
She sighed but agreed. "Okay."
Clark slipped through the hole above her. She could see the beam of his flashlight moving around.
"Well?" she asked. Just then light flooded through the hole. "What do you see?" Lois asked, climbing higher on the rungs.
"Wonderful things," Clark said, extending a hand down to help her. She took it and he pulled her up into a small room. It was about eight feet square and illuminated by a single bare light bulb dangling on a wire from the ceiling. An army cot with a sleeping bag was against one wall. On the opposite wall was a small counter on which sat a hot plate, a box of cereal, an overripe blackened banana and several cans of soup. A small combination TV/VCR sat on a crate at the foot of the cot. Along the wall over the television was a shelf full of video tapes.
Who was living down here? Ken? Bad Brain?
In the stark light from the bulb she found his Superman costume disconcerting. "Can you change or something?" Lois waved a hand at the suit. "If you really are 'just Clark'," she let the words drip with sarcasm, "then just be Clark."
He spun into jeans and a dark t-shirt. "Is that better?" His voice was just as sarcastic.
It wasn't. She realized it wasn't the suit that bothered her - it was just him. She couldn't look at him the same any more.
"I guess so." She turned away to look at the countertop. There was a small camcorder behind the hot plate and she picked it up.
"Tell me something," she said as the thought occurred to her, "did Ken's camera fall to the floor like I thought or did you break it?"
"I broke it."
Lois fought a smile. "Why? Isn't that sort of un-Superman of you?"
"I didn't break it as Superman. I broke it because I had told him to leave you alone and he was harassing you."
"You told him to leave me alone? Did you threaten him?" Lois was half-annoyed, half-pleased at the thought of Clark putting a little fear into Ken. She set the camera down and turned to look at him.
"Maybe, a little." He had his back to her and was looking at the shelf full of videos.
"You're lucky Henderson hasn't pulled you in for questioning about his murder."
"Actually, he did ask me where I was on the night Ken was murdered. Ken had told him that I threatened him."
"Why? What did you say to Ken?"
"You touch her again and I swear I'll kill you."
"I, uh," Clark said, feeling uncomfortable. He heard footsteps and reached up to turn off the light.
"Hey!" she protested.
"Shhh," he cautioned her.
"Is someone coming?" she whispered.
"Shhh," he told her again.
Lois fumed. Was there really someone out there or was he just avoiding talking to her? She listened hard but couldn't hear anything but the blood pounding in her ears. Normally she would have argued with him, but she couldn't really do that anymore.
"Shhh, wait." Clark stopped and tilted his head. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Footsteps… I think there's someone else down here...Ken," he muttered in irritation.
"Ken's here? How can you tell?"
Duh, Lois, she told herself. How could he tell? How many other times has Clark seemed to sense something before everyone else? That was some brilliant investigative journalism on your part.
She stood absolutely still, hardly daring to breath, as her ears strained to hear whatever it was that had alerted Clark. A large cramp rolled through her belly and she felt dizzy. Sweat broke out on her forehead and she hugged herself to ease the pain. Lois swayed on her feet and then crouched down, afraid she would lose her balance in the dark. After a few seconds she eased the rest of the way down so she was sitting. The cold of the floor seemed to seep into her and she drew her knees up and wrapped her arms tightly across them.
"Okay, they're gone," Clark said softly and turned the light back on. Alarm shot through him as he caught sight of Lois sitting on the floor.
Lois stared at his feet, not wanting to stand up just yet. "Who was it?"
"I don't know. Someone was in the main tunnel but they turned back." Clark crouched down so their faces were almost even. "Are you all right?"
Lois shook her head impatiently at his question without looking at him. "Was it Bad Brain?"
"I couldn't tell. This room is lined with lead. Whoever it was, they're gone. Or at least, they're far away now and still walking steadily in the opposite direction." His voice went lower as he asked again, "Lois, are you okay?"
"I'll be fine. I just… I just need to rest for a minute."
"Do you want me to take you home?"
"No, I can't sit in my apartment any more. I need to…" Lois took in a quick breath, suddenly afraid that she was about to start crying. "I need to think about something else, okay? I can't just sit around doing nothing."
"Lois…"
"I don't want to talk about Superman or you or us or…" her voice dropped to a ragged whisper, "or the baby. I don't… I can't, not right now. Please, Clark, just leave it there."
"All right," he said softly, desperately wishing he could bridge the gap between them. He took one of the tapes off the shelf and said, "Let's see what Ken was hiding."
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End Part 15/20
