There you go - the final... I really hope you enjoyed the story despite the constant fights between Lois and Clark. I really enjoyed writing and I want to thank Nancy again, who was always patient with me. I need to thank Ann as well. Her feedback always gives my writing a new push. ( And no Ann, I'm not going to write a Hitchcock story - don't you remember the seven-year old girl? You wanted me to continue her story. I'm doing this now.)
From Part 13:
His expression was sheer helplessness. She could see his despair and his pain. But she had suffered because of him, and he would suffer because of her.
“I said that you should go!” she screamed when he didn't move.
[...]
Mrs. Cox didn’t care how much time it took to get to her goal. She was patient and now that becoming Lex Luthor’s widow was out of question, she had more than enough time. She liked the thrill of killing, and she liked the taste of revenge even better. Her sight remained on the balcony, determined to see even the faintest blur of blue and red spandex.
Part 14:
Chapter 6
You opened up my eyes,
Made me want you,
Made me want to.
You know it feels so nice,
Hold me tight now,
Hold me tight as can be.
(a-ha - Celice)
“I won’t go, Lois. This is my place!” Clark said angrily. “Do you think that I did this on purpose, and that I liked not knowing where I actually was? It almost killed me that I couldn’t escape Luthor. If I had struggled against him, I might have hurt you. I never wanted this to happen! I never wanted any of this to happen. I didn’t want you to believe that I was married. I had really thought that you would know me better than this. Did you ever think of how much I was hurt by you?” His voice was hoarse and he was fighting with tears.
“Yeah, I thought that I knew you, Clark, but that was before you lied to me. I love you Clark, but how am I going to trust you anymore?” Lois shot back.
“One lie and all the truth doesn’t count anymore? You trusted in Luthor till the very end. Don’t you think that I deserve as much? You offended me, you didn’t believe me, and you even wanted me to cheat on my so called wife. You turned me down as Clark and begged me to be your lover as Superman. I love you still, and I will love you forever on. Doesn’t that count Lois? What shall I do to make you trust me, Lois? Do I have to become the world’s worst criminal?”
“You’re not fair, Clark. I made a mistake, and I suffered for it. I'd say we’re already even. You don't need to tell me what I said.” Lois blurted out.
“Yeah, we’re even Lois. So don’t you think it’s about time to forgive each other for all those terrible mistakes we made?” he said softly.
“You’re right. I’m sorry Clark. This is just so new for me. I’m so glad and relieved and grateful that you’re alive.” Lois started sobbing. “I had such a horrible nightmare about you blaming me for your death. You said that you would keep pursuing me my whole life through to remind me of my guilt.”
“Shhh…it’s okay, sweetheart. It was just a nightmare. I’m not dead, and even if I was I certainly wouldn’t haunt you. That all this could happen was just as much my fault as it was yours. Maybe it was even more my fault. I was stubbornly insistent on letting you fall in love with Clark, not Superman. Things would have been different if I hadn’t rejected you that night. I should have told you about my secret.” He approached her and pulled her into a tight embrace so that Lois could rest her head against his shoulders.
“Your secret. I never thought a moment that Superman might have lived on Earth before he first showed up. But you’re really Clark, aren’t you? It must have been terribly hurtful to be rejected as Clark and lusted after as Superman. Oh, I’m so sorry, Clark,” Lois whispered.
Clark nodded. “Yes, I really am Clark. I was raised as Clark Kent, and I can’t give up being him. I thought about it, I really did. But what life would that be if I’m not me anymore?”
“You thought about living just as Superman?” Lois asked, stunned. “Why?”
“Because you didn’t seem to notice me when I was Clark. After your rejection I was devastated.” Clark replied with a sad smile. He kissed her forehead.
“But you know that I love you, Clark, don’t you? I was anxious and too darn stubborn to understand my own feelings. But when I finally admitted to myself how much I love you, I couldn’t imagine being married to anyone else but you.” Lois said frantically and captured his lips with hers. He tasted their creamy softness, and his heart started to beat rapidly.
His embrace tightened around her, and he drew her even closer. He felt her slender body against his and noticed how fragile she seemed to be in his arms. Incredible warmth emanated from her. Her breath tickled at his ears as he started placing kisses on her cheeks, and his lips traveled down her neck. Clark was glad that Perry had left before he had arrived.
“I love you, too, Lois. So much,” he whispered breathlessly. He neither saw nor felt anything but Lois. Her heartbeat filled his ears and her beauty robbed him of any coherent thought he might have had. Time seemed to stand still, and Clark was grateful that finally his dreams had turned into reality. He didn’t fear that she would be leaving the next minute. There weren’t any misunderstandings between them anymore. There was neither Superman nor an alleged wife that could separate them. Everything was perfect, just the way it should have been from the very beginning.
“You’ll never put me through anything like this again, will you? Promise? ” Lois begged between two kisses.
“I promise I won’t, Lois, honey. Last night was the worst of my life,” Clark mumbled and stroked her back reassuringly.
“How heart-rending!” a female voice said wryly.
Lois and Clark parted and looked at Mrs. Cox in shock.
“How did you get in here?” Clark asked, startled.
Mrs. Cox laughed. “You really didn’t hear me breaking in, did you? Being in love can truly be distracting.” She smiled wryly and suddenly pulled out a lead-lined box. It took her just seconds to open it.
Clark saw the green glowing crystal and felt the pain washing through him. He gasped and tried to back away from Mrs. Cox, but in vain. She grinned as she saw him struggling against the force of the kryptonite that obviously was more powerful than him. Clark felt rage burning inside him that wrestled with the weakness caused by the kryptonite. How had she found out about his secret? And why was she interrupting the single best moment of his life? And why was he so helpless against this? His knees gave in slowly, not obeying his will to remain upright.
* * *
Lois’s mind was occupied with a thousands thoughts, and all of them flooded through it at the same time. She could barely believe what she was seeing. Mrs. Cox had gotten into the apartment without her having noticed it, and now Clark was writhing in pain. Why was he writhing in pain? He was Superman for Heaven’s sake! And what was that mysterious green crystal Mrs. Cox held out with such a superior grin on her face? How did she dare disturb their most heavenly moment? Lois was worried and angry, desperate and ready to do anything to defend the love she had just found.
“You really thought you could get in my way, Clark - or should I rather say Superman - and escape me alive? Didn’t you think I would guess your nasty little secret?” Mrs. Cox brought the crystal closer to Clark, and Lois heard him groaning as he fell down to the floor.
“You leave him alone!” Lois said threateningly. “Or…”
“Or what, Ms. Lane?” Mrs. Cox interrupted her. “What do you think you can do with me? It’s not like Superman’s going to help you. You’re on your own now. Neither Lex nor this poor fallen hero is going to help you out of this situation. Neither of you is going to stop me from taking revenge.”
“Taking…revenge for…what?” Clark coughed as he tried to get up again.
“For your killing Lex, for being the nasty hero you are, for blowing my plans of marrying Lex…The list is endless,” Mrs. Cox spit out.
“You’re not separating us again,” Lois blurted out and stepped past Clark, approaching Mrs. Cox. “Nothing will come between me and the man I love. Not Lex and most definitely not you! I’m so darn tired of people wanting to control me. I’m nobody’s slave!” Lois was preparing to grip Mrs. Cox’s sleeves when she saw the gun pointing at her.
“Don’t move a single step forward,” Mrs. Cox said softly, in an almost friendly manner.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Lois replied coldly.
“So you don’t fear for your own life? Maybe you are afraid for his?” She shifted the aim of the gun slightly so that not Lois but Clark was the target. Lois stood still, frozen in her place. *No, not again,* her mind rambled. She was still shaky from mourning Clark and hadn’t really recovered from the shock. The mere thought of his life being in jeopardy again almost drove her insane. But he already was in danger, regardless if there was a gun pointing at him or not. She saw his reaction to the green stuff, whatever it was. Though he had managed to get to his knees again, he was doing badly. His face was pale, and his breath sounded rather labored. He stared at Mrs. Cox intensely, and his face grimaced. Maybe he was trying to get them out of this with super powers, but it didn’t seem to be working.
Lois knew that she had to do something. She had to get rid of the terrible green stuff that she felt fairly sure posed a deadly threat to him. She also had to something about Mrs. Cox.
“Lex didn’t want you; he loved me, not you,” Lois said, trying to distract her. Lois heard Mrs. Cox' laughter.
“You honestly think he loved you? How stupid can a single person be, Lois? He wasn’t capable of love, and I’m not capable of it either, for that matter. Nice try, Lois.”
How could a person be that ruthless? Didn’t she have feelings? Lois looked over to Clark, who was lying on the floor again, nearly unconscious. There was her answer. A person with a heart couldn’t do this to this kind and caring man. Lois felt rage burning inside her. There wasn’t anyone else going to decide whether she was allowed to be happy or not. She had nothing to lose. If she failed, she would die and so would Clark. They would be united in the afterlife. If by any means she was successful they would live together happily ever after.
Lois moved around Mrs. Cox but didn't step closer to her because she didn’t want to endanger Clark’s life more than it already was. Her heart was beating fast, pumping adrenaline through her body. It activated her every muscle, preparing them for fight. She watched Mrs. Cox thoroughly, and she stared back at her with the same attention. Two strong wild cats were carefully tiptoeing around each other, awaiting for the other to make the first step. Mrs. Cox gaze followed Lois, but the gun remained pointed at Clark.
“He would have dismissed you if I had asked him to do so,” Lois stated. “Have you ever been powerful enough to decide what he should do?”
“I was powerful,” Mrs. Cox replied through clenched teeth.
Lois smiled inwardly as she realized she had found Mrs. Cox' weakness. “Oh, yes of course.” Lois replied wryly. Lois was carefully weighing her words so that Mrs. Cox couldn’t blame her of mocking her. Clark wasn’t out of danger yet, and Lois was afraid of increasing that danger even more. “You were powerful enough to do his dirty work.” This was more explicit. Lois had trapped her.
Mrs. Cox felt forced to reply. “I did what I wanted to do,” she said coldly.
“Yeah, I betcha did because you wanted to obey his every word. You know that you’re just nothing without him. Remember? He jumped from Lex Tower. It’s not as if he’s going to help you out of this.”
Lois feared for a moment that she had taken a step too far. She saw anger and rage gleaming in the eyes of that mad woman. Although she shifted the gun's position again, she wasn’t pulling the trigger of the gun yet, and she wasn't ending Clark’s life right here and now. Lois had stepped to the place in Clark’s apartment that was the farthest away from him. It took only seconds, and Lois hardly remembered what happened. But as soon as she saw the gun move, she approached Mrs. Cox quicker than she had ever though possible. With one powerful tae-qwon-doe kick she got rid of the weapon. With another kick she aimed at Mrs. Cox and sent her to the floor. Lois jumped to get the weapon but fell down as Mrs. Cox grabbed her ankle. Lois kicked at her again and struggled with the evil woman briefly before she knocked her out with her fist.
“Don’t you dare get between me and Clark again!” Lois said grimly and grabbed the gun. Then she got up quickly and put the green glowing crystal back into the lead box. After she had closed the box she jumped to Clark’s side to check on his pulse.
“Please be okay,” she whispered wearily. “Please be okay.” Her fingers searched for his pulse frantically, and she got more and more nervous when she didn’t find it at his neck. “No, Clark, no!” she whispered and shook him lightly as if that was going to help wake up a dead person. But he couldn’t be dead. It just wasn’t possible. What should she do? Wasn’t anyone going to interrupt this nightmare? If she could only switch it off like she could switch off a movie that was scaring her.
Lois had never felt so helpless, but somewhere in the clouded depths of her mind she remembered that she should start resuscitation. She bent down to blow air into his mouth when she felt something caressing her cheeks. Had it been his breath? Lois wasn’t sure. Cold fear tightened its grip around her. What if she was wrong, and he hadn’t been breathing? But Lois checked again. She watched his chest that was slowly rising and falling. His breath was shallow but steady. Tears of relief streamed down Lois’ cheeks.
“You’re alive,” she whispered. “Thank god, you’re alive.”
Lois hurried to incapacitate Mrs. Cox by tying her hands together with one of Clark’s ridiculous ties that she found in his wardrobe. She used another tie to fix her legs. Lois feared that she would try again to kill them when she regained consciousness. After having finished this, Lois ran back to Clark, who already looked a bit better.
A moment later, Clark slowly came to.
* * *
Clark was fighting his way through the shadows that didn’t want to let him go. But a soft and endearing whisper was pulling him to the surface of this dark pool of pain and exhaustion. He could feel the tenderness of those smooth hands that were caressing his chest and cheek. Clark had this strong feeling of coming home after sheer endless travel. Opening his eyes was worth the effort it took. When he did so, he saw wet, brown, loving eyes.
Lois captured his lips with a kiss, filling his sore body with strength and calming down his troubled mind. She kissed away the pain and the fear that he would lose her. She was there, and she was with him. He returned her kiss, using his tongue to caress her lips and to reassure himself that he wasn’t dreaming by adding her sweet taste to his sensations. Never had anything felt so right. It was the most intense kiss Clark had ever received and ever returned. There was despair in it and desire. It conveyed the fear of loss and the gratitude of having found a soul mate. It promised eternity and was at the same time epitomizing the moment. The kiss told of weakness and strength. Their minds and souls were meeting, and they made the vows of eternal love and devotion that their mouths would speak in future.
When they broke the kiss neither of them felt disappointment because it wasn’t the end but the beginning of their life together.
“I love you, Clark. No one but you can make me so happy. I have never felt so beloved.”
“It’s because you are the most adorable woman on earth. Because of you I have someone I belong to. I’ve searched for you my entire life,” Clark replied softly.
“You’ve found me, honey. And I’ve finally found you.”
* * *
“I tell you that he’s alive,” Jack said impatiently. “I know that you’re the brilliant editor-in-chief, Mr. White, but you could believe me once in a while.”
“Hey, you were just released from prison, Jack. How can you possibly know what has happened in the past several hours. I believe Lois, and if she says that Clark fell from Lex Tower, it’s true.”
Jack shook his head in frustration. But what did he expect? He had committed burglary and just wasn’t the respectable kind of guy. They approached Clark’s apartment because Perry wanted to look after Lois once again. He had told Jack how worried he was that Lois wouldn’t be able to cope with Clark’s death. But Jack was pretty sure that Clark was still alive. He didn’t understand what exactly had caused him to hide his secret rather than to spare the people he loved this incredible pain, but Jack assumed that he had had his reasons.
“I hope Lois is okay,” Perry mumbled. “But how can she be okay after what happened? I’m fooling myself. She’s devastated.” Jack could tell that this had made Perry very sad. He regarded Lois as a daughter and Clark as a son. He was mourning Clark as well, though he tried to be strong. Jack really wished that he could make Perry understand, but he couldn’t easily give away Clark’s secrets. He owed the man a lot.
Perry had reached the door of Clark’s apartment and fumbled with the spare key. He opened the door and entered the flat. Jack followed him and gasped in astonishment at the sight of a struggling woman lying on the floor tied up with incredibly distasteful ties. Just out of her reach lay Lois and Clark cuddled together and kissing each other passionately.
“Clark!” Perry gasped in shock.
The couple broke their kiss, and Lois turned around to face Perry. Clark looked rather pale and exhausted.
“He’s alive! Superman saved him!” Lois hurried to explain. Jack could tell that she was glad. But did she know? Had Clark found the courage to tell her?
“Great shades of Elvis,” Perry mumbled. “I’m glad that you’re all right, Clark.”
“Me, too,” Clark replied as he slowly came into a sitting position.
“Who’s that?” Jack asked and pointed at the angry looking Mrs. Cox.
“Just someone who desperately wants to be in prison,” Lois answered the question.
“We’ll take care of that!” Jack stated and grinned as he tapped on Perry’s shoulder. The older man had been about to ask something, but Jack felt that Lois and Clark needed some time together without any distraction. Perry called the police. They came quickly and thanks to Henderson didn’t ask too many questions. As Mrs Cox was in the firm hands of the authorities, and Perry and Jack gracefully granted Lois and Clark their privacy.
* * *
“Are you feeling better, Clark, honey?” Lois asked when Perry and Jack had left the apartment.
“Increasingly,” he murmured and kissed her, enjoying his right to do so. “Thanks to you. You saved my life.”
“You saved mine a thousand times. I’m just trying to catch up.” She smiled.
“Would you mind if we get off the floor? It’s uncomfortable somehow,” Clark whispered. He had lost his powers completely, but he didn’t feel weak. With Lois he was strong, no matter if there was sunshine or rain, day or night.
Lois stood up and then helped Clark up. They went over to the sofa where they sank down and embraced each other tightly.
“When I thought I had lost you that was the worst moment in my entire life,” Lois said.
“I was afraid that Luthor would win this battle. I could neither sleep nor eat. I have never felt so utterly helpless. I always hoped that someone would tell me that my nightmare was over. But no one came.”
“I’m here Clark. Luthor is gone, and this is no dream. He hasn’t won.” She kissed him softly, telling him that she wasn’t leaving. This was so much better than any dream he had ever had about her. He felt her warm lips and her slender frame felt so tiny in his arms. His heart rate increased and her touch set his body on fire. He sensed the faintest touch and the light tickle of her breath on his skin. Her lips trailed slowly from his mouth to his ears, and she nibbled at his earlobe for the second time. The last time she had done it by accident, but now she did it on purpose and she didn’t back away. “I love you, Clark.”
“I love you too, Lois,” he said breathlessly and her embrace tightened around him as her lips returned to his mouth capturing it in a deep and longing kiss.
The End
