Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Stardust (15/?)

From Part 14:

“Hey, Lois!” Jimmy called from across the newsroom. He was staring up at the television set. “The Congress of Nations is making an announcement about Prometheus.”

“Turn it up,” she ordered, already half-way there.

“...pleased to announce that we have unanimously decided that the Space Station Prometheus will proceed,” the Congress’s chairperson announced. Lois felt an immediate flutter of nerves. If the colonist launch was back on schedule, it was more critical than ever that she expose any ongoing attempt to sabotage the program. A hundred people would be going up in that launch - people like Mrs. Platt and her daughter Amy.

“What about Lex Luthor’s proposal?” a reporter at the press conference asked.

The Congress’s chairperson responded with a gracious thanks to Lex Luthor for his generosity in proposing a private space station, but made it clear that the Congress believed the space station should be a cooperative, global effort as had originally been intended. She went on to say that every precaution would be taken to ensure the colonists’ safety, and that they anticipated a successful mission.

But what else could she say? Lois thought cynically, as the press conference ended and the small crowd of interested Daily Planet reporters dispersed. She sighed, and immediately she felt Clark’s hand on her arm - just a light, reassuring touch.

“You’ll figure it out,” he said, as if he could read her mind. “You will.”

________________________________

Part 15:


After the announcement, Clark reluctantly parted from Lois and went back to his desk. He had liked the way it had felt, standing with her talking to Mrs. Platt and then afterward, standing next to her as they watched the televised announcement from the Congress of Nations. It had almost felt as if they were partners. And perhaps they would be one day, but he’d made a misstep that morning, and for all that Lois said things were “fine”, he’d felt a slight chill from her ever since. She didn’t seem to be angry, exactly, but she’d pulled away from him. He could feel the difference from the night before.

And the worst of it was that he knew he’d been in the wrong. Why had he jumped to conclusions? Why hadn’t he just asked her about her night instead of getting angry and assuming she’d lied to him? His only explanation was that his fear for her had made him a little crazy, but he didn’t think she’d be impressed by it. Clearly, the overprotective boyfriend held no appeal for her.

Determinedly not looking at Lois, he scrolled through the few files on his computer and pulled up the story he’d been working on before he left for his morning interview. He needed to drop in a few quotes, give it a final proofread, and then he’d be ready to send it to the Metro editor. But he’d no sooner pulled up his story than a slim, feminine body was draped over his back, derailing his thoughts completely.

Unfortunately, it was the wrong feminine body. Cat Grant was an all-out assault on the senses, and Clark’s body tensed with nervousness the minute she came near him. Her makeup, her perfume, her barely-there, figure-hugging dresses, her low, purring voice in his ear... it was all too much for Clark. Today she was wearing a leopard-skin dress in what he would swear was the same fabric his mother had used to make the rejected Tarzan suit, a fact that had given him a private chuckle when he’d first seen her that morning. Now, with all that spandex pressing into his back, he found it much less amusing.

“Uh, Cat...” he said, trying to pull away.

To his surprise, she actually allowed it, turning so that she was nearly perched on his desk, facing him. “I heard a terrible rumor,” she said, reaching out to caress his cheek and then tracing his lips with one scarlet-tipped finger. “Say it isn’t so, Clark.”

He sighed and twitched away from her touch. “First I’d have to know what you heard, wouldn’t I?”

“You and Lois...?”

“Are none of anyone else’s business,” he said firmly.

“Then it is true.” She arranged her face in an elaborate pout.

He looked down at his keyboard. “No comment.”

She rolled her eyes, casting off the pout like an out-of-style scarf. “I’m in the gossip business, Clark. No one says ‘no comment’ when they’re innocent. If there’s nothing going on, they shout it from the rooftops.”

“So you’re saying that if I’m involved with Lois – and notice that I said ‘if’ – then I’m guilty of something?”

“Bad taste?” she suggested.

“Cat,” he chided.

“Withdrawn.” She sighed. “No point in rousing those chivalrous impulses. I suspect yours are stronger than most, anyway.”

It suddenly dawned on Clark that he was seeing a new version of Cat. From the minute she had realized he really was involved with Lois, she had dropped most of her affectations and was allowing her real personality to shine through. “Those chivalrous impulses have already gotten me into trouble today,” he admitted.

Cat chuckled. “I thought maybe there was trouble in paradise when Lois dragged you into the conference room this morning.”

“We worked it out,” he said, but he sounded a little doubtful, even to his own ears.

“Well, this should be fun to watch,” Cat said. “Not as much fun as we could have had together,” she paused to give him a sultry look, “but not without entertainment value.”

“I’m so glad we can provide our co-workers with entertainment,” he said dryly.

“Hey, if you wanted to keep this private, you shouldn’t have been playing kissy-face in the middle of the newsroom.”

Clark felt a flush creep across his cheeks. “We don’t plan to make a habit of it,” he said sheepishly.

“Are you blushing?” Cat exclaimed, leaning forward to peer at him more closely. “I didn’t know men still knew how to do that!”

“Cat,” Clark protested, blushing even harder.

She laughed. “You realize, don’t you, that I’m going to have to throw myself at you even harder, now that I know how much it’ll annoy Lois?”

Clark winced slightly, both at the thought that he would have to continue fending off Cat’s advances and at the thought that it would, indeed, annoy Lois mightily, which was the last thing he needed just then. “I wish you wouldn’t. I think I’ve annoyed her enough for one day.”

“It’ll be good for her,” Cat assured him. “Don’t want her taking you for granted.”

“She might as well,” he admitted. “I don’t think I’m going anywhere.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Well now you’re just being sickening. There’s a reason guys like you are a dying breed, you know. Wearing your heart on your sleeve is a dangerous business.”

“I know. And I never have before. But this time...” he shrugged.

Cat shook her head sadly and gave him a condescending pat on the shoulder. “Well, I can tell this is hopeless. But if it all goes to hell and you need someone to pick up the pieces....”

“You’ll be the first to know,” he promised, laughing when he realized she was just teasing.

“Until then, gorgeous.” She blew him a kiss and slithered off his desk, sauntering away after tossing a little wave in Lois’s direction.

Clark glanced that way and saw that Lois was watching them with a steady look in her dark eyes that he couldn’t read. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring – and innocent – smile, but he felt his heart rattle painfully in his chest when she didn’t smile back – just bit her lip and went back to her work.

He didn’t think he’d ruined things completely; after all, she’d wanted him with her when she talked to Mrs. Platt, so she wasn’t utterly furious with him over their argument. But it was as if the night before, when their kisses had come as easily and naturally as their next breath, was nothing but a sweet dream, and this was the messy, complicated reality. His relationship with Lois so far had been a series of those moments, he realized – moments that showed him the promise of what could be, only to be snatched away and replaced by frustrating complications. He wished he could wipe the complications away with one broad sweep of his powerful arm, so that there was nothing left in the world but Lois and him and their feelings for one another. He wished it so much that he had to remind himself that flying across the newsroom and carrying her off to a deserted island was not feasible, no matter how tempting the prospect.

He watched her a little longer, wishing she would look his way just one more time – wishing for one reassuring glance to sustain him until he could talk to her again, kiss her again, remind them both of what existed between them. But she didn’t look up, and when he felt his mind start to wander to how remarkably good she looked in a pair of jeans, he wrenched his thoughts back to his story with a sigh.

He was pathetic.

_______________________________

Clark had finished his story and was manufacturing things to do to make himself look busy when he heard Jimmy’s delighted whoop and saw Lois leap out of her chair and fling her arms around him in an impulsive display of joy. Seeing it, Clark was jealous – not because he thought Lois had the slightest interest in Jimmy, but because he wished he were the one celebrating with her. He eavesdropped shamelessly and heard Jimmy’s excited babble – he’d just come from STAR Labs, where they had confirmed Platt’s theories to the letter – had agreed without equivocation that if the modifications laid out in Platt’s report had been made to the Messenger shuttle, then it had indeed been sabotaged.

This, then, was what it looked like when a huge story broke, he thought. This was why Lois Lane loved what she did; Clark could see the rush of it sparkling in her eyes, the sheer relief and triumph of the moment. He wanted to touch her then, to feel a connection with her, to be a part of that experience. He wanted it so badly that he was half-way across the room before he even realized it, and when she leapt into his arms in her utter exuberance, he felt the rightness of it in the deepest part of his soul. These moments – these important moments – he and Lois were meant to share. It may have been nothing more than an impulse for her, but for him it confirmed everything he’d known with bone-deep certainty since the night he’d unbuttoned that first tiny button on her sweater.

She was only in his arms for one glorious moment before she was pulling away, too excited to stay still. It was like trying to hold pure energy, he thought indulgently...admiringly. He didn’t need to be holding her, not just then. She was including him, and that was enough.

“Good news?” he asked teasingly.

“The best!” She was pacing now, practically shooting off sparks. “He was right...Platt was right, and STAR Labs was able to prove it. They did some hologram thingy, Jimmy says....”

“They recreated the launch,” Jimmy added excitedly. “It was awesome!”

“...and proved that there was deliberate sabotage. I can write my story now – the first part of it, anyway. I’m still going to prove that Dr. Platt didn’t commit suicide and find out who was behind all of this, but this is enough for now.”

“It’s incredible,” Clark said, his admiration absolutely genuine. “Congratulations...and to you, too, Jimmy. You both should be proud.”

“Thanks, CK,” Jimmy said happily, and then with a not-so-subtle wink, he scooted away, leaving Lois and Clark as alone as they could be in the middle of the newsroom.

“Why don’t we have dinner?” he blurted impulsively. “To celebrate.”

“I’d love to,” she said, and then her eyes grew wide. “Oh, no. I can’t. I’m sorry...I just remembered....”

“Luthor?” Clark felt ice creeping around his heart as he said the name.

“Uh, yeah.” She gave him a wary look, the delight of the previous moment fading from her expression.

“Lois....” He caught himself just in time. It was just business, she had said. He knew it wasn’t true – wasn’t true for Luthor, at any rate – but she’d taught him a lesson about getting between her and a story, and it wouldn’t do for him to forget it so soon. “I hope he gives you a good interview,” he said, the words unbearably bitter on his tongue.

“Thanks,” she said softly. She looked up at him, glanced quickly away. “I’d, uh, better get to work on my story.”

“Right.” He turned to go, realizing he was being dismissed. He felt almost sick that the moment had come and gone so quickly this time, that the brief burst of joy they had shared had evaporated and become...this. This quiet dismissal. “Can I talk to you privately for a minute?” he asked suddenly, wheeling back around to face her. He looked at her intently, silently begging her to accept.

She looked mistrustful of the request but nodded once. “Conference room?”

“More privately than that,” he said firmly. With one hand lightly at the small of her back, he guided her to the stairwell, a place most of the Planet employees eschewed in favor of the elevator. It was deserted for now, and he trusted his hearing to warn him should they be in danger of company.

The minute the heavy door shut behind them, he leaned towards her and put both hands against the wall on the two sides of her, effectively trapping her between his body and the cinderblock wall. “Lois,” he breathed, loving the taste of her name on his tongue, loving the warmth of her body so close to his.

He rejoiced in the smile that spread across her face as she realized the reason for their private conference. “Is this the modern version of dragging me off to your cave by my hair?” she teased.

“Yep,” he murmured, bending to kiss one tantalizing spot on her neck, the tender place where her pulse fluttered beneath his lips. She arched to give him better access, and he pulled her closer, letting his hands roam across her back, down her sides, finally daring to cup the perfect curve of her bottom and fit her to his body more intimately. He pressed increasingly fervent kisses to her neck, her jaw, and down into the V of her sweater, and it all felt so daring, so dangerous, even, with their co-workers just outside, but he reveled in her responses to him, rejoiced when her body trembled at his touch and he again heard the sweet sounds of pleasure and encouragement that fell from her lips.

When he could resist the temptation no longer, he crushed his lips to hers, exploring her mouth with thorough deliberation. It was nothing like the sweet, tender kisses of the night before. It wasn’t even like the heady, sensual kisses on the dance floor of the Stardust. It was a claiming, pure and simple. The thought of her with another man – with a man like Lex Luthor – for even one evening was abhorrent to him. He couldn’t let her go without a reminder of what he felt for her. And dear God, but he felt everything for her. Too much, really, in only a few short vertigo-inducing days. But it was there, and he wanted her to know it, to feel it to the depths of her soul, as he felt it in his.

“Whoa,” she said, when he finally dragged his lips from hers and they both stood panting in the echoing stairwell. “Do I want to know what brought that on?”

“Probably not,” he admitted.

“I had a feeling.” She was quiet for a moment, and then she reached up and brushed his cheek with the back of her hand in a touching, tender gesture of reassurance. “You have nothing to worry about,” she said finally. “It’s business.”

“I have no doubt that for you it is. But for him...be careful of him, Lois. There’s something about him I don’t trust.”

“Like the fact that he’s having dinner with me tonight,” she said dryly.

“Yeah,” Clark agreed. He wanted to say that there was more to it than that, but he knew that he couldn’t without sounding irrational. The man was a billionaire, a philanthropist, and a top news story. Lois would be a fool to turn down dinner with such a man just because her new hayseed boyfriend ‘had a feeling’ about him. So he just said, “I admit, that doesn’t exactly endear him to me.”

“And it makes you go all caveman.”

He smiled. “Very caveman. And not very professional. Should I apologize?”

“Be a little hypocritical of me to insist, under the circumstances. When I don’t want a man to kiss me, he’ll know it.”

Clark found that terribly reassuring. He had an instant fantasy of Luthor trying something with Lois and her giving him a bloody nose or a fat lip for his trouble. He’d buy tickets to that.

“So we’re okay, then?” he asked.

“We’re okay,” she said. “But...

“Uh oh,” he said, smiling to cover his fear. He didn’t want there to be a ‘but’, but somehow there always was.

“It’s just that we said we were going to take this slow...get to know one another. And this doesn’t feel slow. I don’t mean the kissing, really, even though I guess that’s true, too, but the thing this morning, with you worrying about me being out at night, and now you’re upset about me having dinner with another man....”

“I’m not...” he tried, but she wasn’t listening. She was on the move, pacing in the tiny stairwell, her words bouncing off the walls in crazy echoes.

“I’m not used to that, not used to having anyone care what I do or where I go, and it’s just so sudden. I’m not sure I can... that I am what you want me to be. I don’t know how to be someone’s girlfriend, Clark. It’s been years since I tried. I didn’t even think that was something I wanted. So I need to kind of work up to the idea. And we just met, but you seem so sure of everything....”

“I am,” he interrupted.

“How?” She whirled to face him, her arms crossed defensively. “How can you be so sure? You hardly know me, and a lot of what you know, no sane person would like.”

He didn’t argue with that. It was true – there were times in the past few days when he’d found her unlikable, but there was never a moment he hadn’t felt drawn to her, and ever since they’d made love, he’d felt bound to her in ways even he didn’t understand. “I’m just sure,” he said simply. “I’ve been sure since practically the minute I met you.”

“I wasn’t even me the minute you met me!”

“It was always you.” He was sure of that now. He took a step toward her, placed his hands on her shoulders. He could feel her tension beneath the thin fabric of her sweater, and once again, he had the impression of barely contained energy, as if his hands were the only things keeping her in place.

He ran a finger down the V of her sweater and then tugged it just slightly to one side, so that he revealed the upper swell of her left breast, the lacy edge of her bra. “You have a beauty mark right there,” he said softly, and he bent to caress the tiny spot with his lips. “It’s one of the first things I noticed about you that night.” He lifted his head and met her eyes, which were hazy now and a little confused. “And when I kiss you there, I can feel your heart beating. Your heart, Lois. It was always your heart. No matter what you were wearing or how you fixed your hair, it was the heart of Lois Lane...wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Trust this, Lois,” he begged her. He rested his hand over her heart, felt it stutter beneath his fingertips. “Trust this.”

She took a deep breath, and that, too, he felt... felt the gentle rise and fall under his hand, felt the small puff of her exhalation against his neck. “I’m not sure I know how. It’s happening so fast... it’s not supposed to be like this.”

“I’ve thought the same thing,” he told her. “This isn’t anything like I thought it would be. But I do know that sometimes life does change in an instant. I’ve seen it happen – seen people’s lives completely altered by one single event. Sometimes it’s something terrible - like Mrs. Platt today, and her daughter... their lives will never be the same. And sometimes it’s something wonderful, like meeting a beautiful woman and realizing the minute you put your arms around her that she’s the one you’ve been searching for... that no matter what happens, for the rest of your life you’ll draw a line right there, at that moment. That from then on, everything that came before will seem like it happened in black and white.” He saw tears welling in her eyes, threatening to spill over, and he reached up and cupped her cheeks in his hands. “If we can be born in an instant, and die in an instant, why can’t we fall in love in an instant?”

She laughed, a shaky, uncertain sound, and turned her face to nuzzle his hand. “You have a silver tongue, Clark Kent. Did you rehearse that?”

He smiled. “Completely off the cuff.” Straight from the heart, he wanted to say, but he didn’t.

“Wow.” She was quiet for a moment. “I want to believe you, Clark. But I quit believing in fairy tales a long time ago.”

“Then I’m just going to have to make you believe again,” he said, pulling her into his arms. He pressed his lips to the crown of her head, breathed in the sweet fragrance of her hair. “Someday, Lois Lane, I’m going to show you magic. I’m going to slay your dragons or fly you to the moon or whatever it takes to make you believe in fairy tales again.”

She laughed softly and relaxed into his embrace. “You’re pretty sure of yourself, Farmboy.”

“No,” he said, as serious as he’d ever been in his life. “I’m sure of us.”

_______________________________

A/N: I’m sorry this is a little shorter than usual, but writing time is painfully scarce at the moment, and I wanted to offer up something to show that I’m still working on this. I’ll keep at it, but please forgive me if updates are erratic until after the holidays. In the meantime, I hope this part entertains.