From Part 16:

“Maybe,” Lois conceded. “He’s not perfect...” She thought of his protectiveness and his jealous tendencies, which could be annoying, but she also realized that they both stemmed from the fact that he cared about her – cared about her more deeply than anyone ever had. Was he too protective, too jealous, or was she just not used to having anyone love her enough to be those things? “...but he just might be perfect for me.”

“Oh!” Lucy clapped her hand over her heart and pretended to swoon back onto the sofa. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard! I think I’m going to cry!”

“Luce. Come on.” Lois gave her sister a shove.

Lucy laughed. “So does Mr. Right have a name?”

“Clark,” Lois said softly, giving her sister what she suspected was an embarrassingly goofy smile. “Mr. Right’s name is Clark Kent.”

_________________________________

Part 17:

When he readied himself for work the next morning, Clark debated briefly over whether to wear the red and blue suit under his clothing. His false start the night before had been discouraging, but in hindsight, he thought that perhaps it had been a necessary baby step. He’d found the courage to wear the suit, had practiced his demeanor in front of the mirror, and when he’d gotten home, he’d spent a few minutes practicing spinning in and out of his regular clothes until he could manage the transition smoothly. So he hadn’t actually used the suit to do anything heroic, but he was working his way in that direction. He figured he’d know the right moment when it came, and there was always a chance that there would be another incident like the sewer accident during the work day. If that happened, he would need to have the suit close at hand.

He reached for the blue spandex and put it on with far less angst and introspection than it had inspired the night before. It was better this way, he told himself. Ever since he’d gotten his extraordinary powers, life had presented him with one situation after another in which he’d felt led to intervene, even at the risk of his own security. It was ridiculous to think life would suddenly stop handing him those challenges now that he was better prepared to face them. He didn’t need to try so hard, he realized. He didn’t need to go looking for trouble. It would find him sooner or later, and all he needed to do was to remember to change. So he wore the suit...along with a dark shirt that would be sure to hide the electric blue spandex and bright red ‘S’.

Remember to change, he told himself, as he left his hotel room.

Remember to change, he reminded himself again, as he entered the elevator at the Daily Planet.

Remember to change, he thought, as he helped himself to a cup of coffee.

And then he forgot all about the suit and the ‘S’ on his chest, when Pete once again stopped him to talk about football.

__________________________________

It felt a little bit like déjà vu when, while he was still talking to Pete, Lois came barreling off the elevator, her briefcase over one shoulder and her purse clutched tightly in one hand. She met his eyes this time and gave him a little smile, and he must have returned it, must have let himself get completely distracted, because suddenly Pete laughed and punched him on the arm. “Guess the Big 12 can’t quite compete, eh?”

Clark tore his eyes from Lois and gave Pete an embarrassed smile. “Sorry. The Big 12 is great. But...”

“Yeah, yeah. I was young once, too, you know. Go see your girl, Kent. There’ll be plenty of time for football once you’re married. Just ask my wife!” He laughed heartily at his own joke and gave Clark one more congenial slap on the back before grabbing a doughnut and ambling away.

Once he was free, Clark made a beeline to Lois’s desk, not bothering with subtlety. Obviously, their fledgling romance was common knowledge in the newsroom; it would probably generate more talk if he avoided her than it would if he just went over and said hello. The time for coy games had passed, he decided.

“Morning,” he said, smiling at her.

“Hi Clark!” she beamed at him. “Guess what this is?” She waved a floppy disk around excitedly.

“I’m going to guess...a story?”

“Yep. I stayed up half the night writing it.”

He felt his chest tighten at this news, but he forced himself to sound normal when he said, “It must have been a good interview, then.”

“What...? Oh, no.” She waved a hand dismissively. “Lex Luthor was a complete waste of time. You were right. All he wanted was a date.” She made a face that perfectly expressed her feelings on the subject, and he was so elated that it took every ounce of willpower he possessed not to sweep her up in his arms and dance with her around the room. All his worries had been for nothing! Her only interest in Luthor was in telling his story. And she’d told Clark that, of course, but he hadn’t quite been able to believe it. He hadn’t quite been able to believe that given the choice between a farmer’s kid from Kansas with hardly a dime to his name and a suave, confident, self-made billionaire, that she would choose the farmer’s kid. That she would choose him, Clark Kent. And somehow the realization that she had chosen him – that there had been a choice to make – made all his worries about her date with Luthor worth it. He was almost glad she’d gone now – glad that they’d both been put to that test and emerged from it unscathed. Not that he ever wanted her to do it again, mind, but the once was good.

“I’m sorry,” he forced himself to say. And he was sorry, he realized, that she hadn’t gotten the story she’d gone after.

“It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head. “I haven’t given up on finding out more about him. If he won’t cooperate, then I’ll just have to use other methods. Mr. Luthor ticked off the wrong reporter last night.”

“Ticked off?” Clark forced his voice to sound light, but inside he was seething. If Luthor had laid a hand on her...

Apparently he didn’t fool Lois for a minute. “It was nothing I couldn’t handle, Clark.” She laughed. “You look like you’re ready to go take him apart.”

His mouth quirked in a smile. “Well...the thought might have crossed my mind. I did promise to slay your dragons.”

“That’s very sweet...I think. But I can handle this particular dragon just fine on my own. I don’t need a bodyguard, remember?”

“I remember,” he said obediently, and then he decided a change of subject was in order. “So, is that the Messenger story then?” He gestured to the floppy disk she still had clutched in her hand like a prize.

“Yep! I just need to print it out and take it to Perry. This is going to be big, Clark. Huge.” She sat down and switched on her computer before popping the disk into the slot.

“I don’t doubt it.” Her excitement was contagious...intoxicating. He could watch her like this for the rest of his life and he’d never get tired of it, never get bored. “So, can I bring the next Pulitzer Prize winner a cup of coffee?”

She laughed, obviously pleased with the description. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll get some on my way to see Perry.”

“I don’t mind.” He reached for her coffee cup. “I was going to get some more myself, anyway.”

“Well...thanks then,” she said, but her smile was distracted as her story popped up on the screen and drew her attention.

He made his way to the coffee pot, and as he fixed both of their coffees, he watched out of the corner of his eye as she skimmed the article, made a few changes here and there, and then, with a deep breath, sent the story to the printer. She was scooping up the pages when he returned and placed her steaming coffee mug on her desk.

“Wish me luck,” she said, grabbing the coffee with one hand and her story with the other.

“Good luck.”

She took off in the direction of Perry’s office and then halted suddenly and turned around. “Since we, uh, couldn’t have dinner last night,” she said, “would you maybe like to go after tonight’s meeting?” She seemed to be holding her breath, waiting for his answer, which was about the silliest thing he could imagine. She couldn’t possibly think he’d say no, could she?

“I’d love to,” he told her warmly.

She let out the breath she’d been holding, let her smile spread across her face. “Good,” she said. “That’s good.”

________________________________

When she emerged from Perry’s office twenty minutes later, the smile was gone, replaced by barely controlled fury. She stormed over to Clark’s desk and threw her story down in front of him.

“Hard facts!” she snapped. “He said it needed hard facts. He said he wouldn’t publish it, that Platt’s ‘suicide’ called everything he told me into question. And then he started stuffing leaves in his mouth. Seriously, Clark, I think Perry is cracking up.”

“Paava leaves,” Clark said, wincing slightly. “I told him at my first interview that the Yolngu tribe in New Guinea eat paava leaves to relieve stress.”

Lois looked, if possible, even more furious. “Well that’s just great! You tell him to eat leaves, and he just does it, no questions asked. I tell him the Messenger was sabotaged, and he acts like I’m asking him to believe in the Tooth Fairy.”

She snatched up her story abruptly and whirled away from him.

“Where are you going?”

“To get some hard facts,” she called back, already halfway across the room. “Jimmy!”

Her voice rang out across the newsroom like a shot, and Clark watched, just a little amused, as Jimmy nearly fell out of his chair, a look of blind panic crossing his face. As much as he loved being with Lois, he had the thought that he wouldn’t trade places with Jimmy Olsen just then for all the money in the world.

_____________________________________

Clark was out most of the afternoon, trying hard to come up with some decent stories for the next day’s edition. Monday was a notoriously slow news day, and he was hoping to have some good, solid material in hand at the evening story meeting Perry had called. He and Lois had worked things out, so he didn’t really fear for his job anymore, but it didn’t hurt to impress the boss a little during this two-week trial period. He wanted to show that he was capable of being a big-city reporter and worthy of the faith Perry had shown in him when he was first hired. He also wanted to show that he might one day be good enough to partner with Lois Lane, though he never would have admitted that out loud.

He was pleased with his efforts. When he returned to the Planet, just in time for the meeting, he had notes for two different stories. One was a feel-good piece about a new Senior Center and one was about a break-in at the Metropolis University admissions office. That one showed promise for follow-up articles, since it seemed that some of the students’ private data had been tampered with, and he thought that Perry would be pleased.

The newsroom was practically empty when he arrived, most of the reporters having already filed into the conference room for the meeting. He slid into his seat at the last possible second, giving Perry White an apologetic look as he did so. Perry nodded back at him in understanding.

“Sorry about the late hour, folks. There’s just not enough time in the day these days.” He looked around the room and then more pointedly at Clark. “Where are Lois and Jimmy?”

“Uh, I don’t know,” Clark said. “I’ve been out doing interviews all afternoon. I assumed they’d be here.”

Perry sighed in irritation. “We’ll start without them. Pete, what’ve you got for your section this week?”

As the sports editor made his presentation, Clark’s mind wandered to Lois, as it was wont to do of late, but this time, he felt a twinge of unease. She’d been on the phone when he’d left the office, frantically trying to get the proof she needed for her story, and now she was gone, and no one seemed to know where. He knew she wouldn’t have given up and gone home. She was somewhere working on her story. Somewhere she thought she could get the ‘hard facts’ Perry was demanding...

He slid back his chair and stood up.

“Kent?” Perry glowered at him. “This meeting isn’t over.”

“It’s not like Lois to miss a staff meeting,” Clark said. “I thought I’d...call around a little.”

“Fine. Go.” Perry dismissed him with a wave, and Clark didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. He was out the door and up the stairs to the roof practically before the meeting had time to resume.

Darkness was falling, and Clark was grateful for the cover it provided. With an uneasy glance at the buildings around him, Clark took to the sky, flying in the direction of EPRAD - the only place he could think of where Lois might have gone.

When he arrived at EPRAD, flying right over the high fences and security stations, he let himself drift through the air as he scanned the various buildings with his X-Ray vision. It was a large complex, and he didn’t find her in the first building, or the second, or the third. But then his sensitive ears picked up the sound of soft weeping.

Lois!

He knew it was her. The sound wrapped itself around his heart and squeezed, and he couldn’t have done anything but follow it. He found her in an enormous hangar, and a peek through the wall showed him that she was tied to a pole, tears streaking her cheeks. Jimmy was sprawled unconscious a few feet away, and for a moment Clark was so happy to have found them, so grateful that they were alive, that he didn’t notice the chemicals trickling slowly across the floor. But then Lois glanced in that direction, stark terror in her eyes, and at that moment he realized their danger, realized he had only seconds before the chemicals met and caused a reaction that would surely destroy the building.

Later, he would attempt to rationalize it all. He would attempt to tell himself that his ‘decision’ was reasonable. He would construct a complex rationale of all the reasons that Lois Lane was the very best subject upon whom to test his new persona. His explanation would begin with his desire to protect Clark from her likely displeasure that he had followed her to EPRAD. She had made it clear that she didn’t want him playing bodyguard while she was on a story. He supposed that the life-or-death nature of this particular situation might make her more apt to be lenient with him, but wasn’t it better to remove Clark from the equation completely? Have her be rescued by the new hero in town?

His rationale would go on to say that if she didn’t recognize him, it was likely no one would, and if she did recognize him, the fact that she cared about him would make her more likely to be sympathetic to his cause. Lois had seen him without his glasses. Lois had spent more time with him than anyone else in Metropolis. If anyone was going to spot Clark Kent hiding underneath all that spandex, it was Lois Lane.

He would tell himself all of that, and he would even sort of believe it, but deep down, he knew that his perfectly reasonable explanation wasn’t the truth. The truth was that when he saw Lois tied up and Jimmy unconscious and realized the danger they were in, something in his brain woke up and shouted, “Now!”

There was no time to do all that thinking, no time to make a reasonable, rational decision. One second he was standing there in a coat and tie, and the next second he was wearing boots and a cape and ripping the door from the hinges.

He moved towards them in a red-and-blue blur and ripped the bindings that held Lois to the steel pole. She only had time to give him one shocked look before he gathered her to his chest with one arm and swept Jimmy up in the other, flying out the door just as the chemicals met and mingled and formed the deadly cocktail that would level the building in their wake.

He heard the evil hiss of that meeting, though Lois and Jimmy could not have. But he heard enough to brace for the explosion, to wrap his arms that much tighter around his charges and to fly as fast as he dared with two vulnerable people in his arms. They were barely clear when they were surrounded by a brilliant flash of light and then a deafening boom as the ravaged building breathed fire into the night.

He landed a safe distance from the building, his heart pounding in his chest at the nearness of it all, at how close he’d come to losing her when he’d only just found her. And he felt angry, too – coldly, blindly furious– at whoever had done this to her, certainly, but also at Lois, for putting herself in danger again, for apparently valuing her life less than he did.

“Are you all right?” he demanded, hearing that anger bleed into his voice with a sort of detached wonder. He hadn’t meant to sound that way at all. He should be comforting her, shouldn’t he? He should be reassuring her, not making demands.

“Y-yes,” she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. The fire still roared in the background, the heat and noise of it surrounding them; it was like trying to have a conversation in the deepest pit of hell. “Thank you.”

He was going to respond, but just then, a helicopter lifted off from somewhere beyond the explosion.

“Look!” Lois exclaimed, pointing. “She...the woman who did this...” The look on her face was one of pure outrage. “She’s getting away!”

Clark surveyed their immediate surroundings and determined that Lois and Jimmy were safe enough there for the moment. “Stay here,” he ordered brusquely, and then he took off into the sky to intercept the helicopter.

Only this time, he was too late.

The helicopter exploded just as he approached it, and this explosion took him completely by surprise, knocking him backward in midair as the flames and debris rained down around him. There would be no possibility of survivors, he knew, and so for a moment, he just let himself float in the darkened sky as he tried to assimilate the events of the past few minutes.

Below, he could see that emergency vehicles had arrived, that firefighters were already dousing the flames. He watched, feeling strangely detached, as Lois left the place he’d ordered her to stay and approached an ambulance, getting help for Jimmy, who still lay unconscious on the ground.

It was an entirely reasonable and sensible thing to do under the circumstances, but it made him feel superfluous. There was no need for him to rush back to her side – no need to return to the scene of the explosion at all, actually, since the fire was quickly being contained and the only person injured – Jimmy – was now in the hands of the paramedics. He could see Lois talking, her hands moving rapidly, pointing this way and that, and he could see that Jimmy was coming around.

If he’d been there as Clark Kent, it would have been natural for him to return to be by her side, to comfort and support her, but he hadn’t been there as Clark. He’d been there as... whoever he was when he wore the blue suit and the ‘S’ on his chest. And he had no idea whether Lois had recognized him. She hadn’t indicated that she had, but there hadn’t been much time for conversation, either. He felt the reaction come over him all at once – a mixture of elation that he’d actually done it – had worn the suit and used his abilities openly – and fear that in doing it, he might well have ruined his life.

But he’d do it again; there was no question of that. The thought of how near a thing it had been, how close he’d come to losing her, still bathed him in panic, even knowing that she was safe, that she was at that moment down below him, ordering the paramedics around and terrorizing the police. He wanted to swoop back down and carry her off in his arms. He wanted to kiss and touch every precious inch of her, to reassure himself that she was whole and alive and safe and his. He wanted to make love to her again – wanted it so desperately, so fiercely, that his whole body ached with it. He had thought he’d learned his lesson about rushing into intimacy, and he had planned on a slow, romantic courtship before they took that particular step again. But as he stared down at her from his perch in the clouds, he knew that he’d jettison those careful plans in an instant if he could only figure out a way to be near her.

There was no way, though. The blue suit distanced him in a way he hadn’t expected. It would be too hard to go back there now – to explain a man in a blue suit and a cape descending from the sky and landing in the midst of all those flashing lights. What had come naturally in a moment of desperation felt awkward again now that the crisis was over. And even if he did work up his nerve to do it, he wouldn’t be able to approach Lois in the way he wanted. He wouldn’t be able to touch her, to comfort her – and just then, he wasn’t sure he was capable of playing the polite stranger. He knew that if he got close to Lois, it would be with Clark Kent’s heart pinned to his sleeve.

So, with one final look, he flew away.

_______________________________

A/N: So did she recognize him? laugh

A little borrowing from the Pilot in this section, but mostly I’m trying to avoid repeating the scenes everyone has already seen anyway. Thanks to those who have taken the time to review. Your comments are truly appreciated, and I hope you’re continuing to enjoy the story.

I suspect this will be the last update until January, real life being what it is this time of year, so I wish everyone who is following “Stardust” a very happy and blessed holiday season. ~ Caroline