Again, I have to thank Nancy for beta-reading. Although she hasn't seen much more than half of it (yet). So, let me tell you this: All mistakes in the story are mine.
I'm sorry it took me so long to get this part written. I just had problems doing so. Should you want to re-read parts of it, here is the
TOC From part 8Clark flew in the direction of the sirens when he spotted a raging fire in the woods north of Metropolis. He quickly set down in front of the chief of the firemen, telling him to withdraw his men. When he was sure that everyone was out of range, he used his super breath on the fire. To his shock, he didn't blow out the flames as he usually did. Instead, he caused an enormous explosion - which then put out the fire.
Clark returned to the firemen. The chief looked at him curiously. "Since when do you possess dynamite-breath? Never mind, at least the explosion used up all the oxygen and thus put out the fire. Thanks for your help."
Clark immediately took off again, wondering if he'd had one drink too many. The alcohol might have been the cause of the explosion, after all. He exhaled into his hand and quickly inhaled again through his nose, probing his breath. He couldn't smell anything wrong. But he sure felt lightheaded.
On his way home, he happened to stumble over a hostage situation. Since he was in a hurry, he decided to freeze the hostage-taker with a little bit of his chilly super-breath. It was just a teeny little bit of his cooling breath, just enough to make the guy shiver too much to harm any of the hostages. The police and paramedics on the scene could handle the rest.
******************
"Will ya' stay with me?"
Clark didn't know whether he had heard correctly. "You mean in bed?" he asked cautiously. Lois nodded. Since this sudden movement caused another round of dizziness, she closed her eyes again.
"Please?" she whispered. Clark concluded that it wouldn't do any harm if he slept in the same bed with her – as long as he managed to stay clothed – so he agreed. He set her down on the bed and made sure she was comfortable before he slipped under the blanket himself. Lois snuggled close to him, and Clark wrapped his arms around her.
"Good night, Lois." Lois didn't respond. Her even breathing and slow heartbeat told him that she had fallen asleep once again. Clark sighed and hoped that he'd be able to sleep at all. At the same time, he was afraid of really falling asleep because he might give himself away by floating in his sleep. He briefly wondered why his life couldn't be less complicated before sleep claimed him.
Part 9***Monday, Dec. 23rd, early morning or: The morning after
Lois slowly came aware of her surroundings. She was lying in bed. Not her bed, though. But faintly she remembered that she had been in the same bed before. She tried to pinpoint the memory, but thinking was still hard because her head kept complaining. In fact, she suffered from an unholy headache. Gingerly, she raised her head, which wasn't a very good idea. Everything seemed to be moving around her, and she felt a dull throbbing in her head.
Lois let her head fall down again. With a soft thud it landed on the pillow. She took in the fragrance of the cushion. Partly it was her own shampoo, but there was something else... Something she liked. She carefully turned her head in the other direction, towards the source of that fragrance. It was well-defined chest, one that somehow felt familiar. With a content sigh, she rested her head on this perfect chest. When the arm belonging to that chest wrapped itself around her, she happily fell asleep again.
***********
Clark woke up, feeling a weight resting on his chest. When he cracked his eyes open, he saw masses of dark brown hair. He inhaled the sweet scent emanating from it. He loved everything about Lois. She was stirring again, just like earlier this morning. He fondly remembered how she had turned to rest atop of him. Clark could hardly believe how lucky he was. He turned to look at his alarm clock and realized that he had ten more minutes. Time enough to get a decent breakfast. If he hurried, he should be able to manage ciabatta from Italy, croissants from France, and some chocolate from Belgium. He gently put Lois' head down on her cushion, got up and left for the bathroom. There, he quickly spun into the suit and took off.
*************
Clark returned home, spun back into his informal morning attire and started the coffee. Then he began to set the table. Just then he heard his alarm clock go off: "Beep, beep, beep!"
He heard a groan, and suddenly his alarm clock hit the floor and skidded across it. "Beep, beep, beep!"
Lois let out a curse that made his ears blush crimson. She quickly followed up. "Stupid alarm clock!"
Unoffended, the alarm clock continued, "Beep, beep, beep!"
Clark heard another muffled curse. Muffled? Did that mean that Lois was covering her head with a pillow? Clark grinned at the mental picture this thought evoked.
"Beep, beep, beep!"
Lois broke into one of her infamous tirades. "Stupid thing. Can't you just give up? You know what? You're like a pitbull on a pant leg. Never give up. Never let go. Damn it, where *are* you?! Alarm clocks aren't supposed to go play 'hide and seek'!" she yelled.
"Beep, beep, beep!"
Clark walked into the sleeping room to see Lois lying on her stomach, her right hand frantically groping for the evasive alarm clock. She finally got hold of it. "How did that thing get under the bed?" Lois was enraged.
"Beep, beep, beep!"
She desperately tried all the buttons on the front of the clock, but to no avail. "Beep, beep, beep!"
"How do you turn this *thing* off?" Lois asked, still unaware of Clark watching her. In an instant, he was beside her, flipping the alarm clock over. Then he used the switch on its backside, and turned it off. His action was rewarded with instant silence.
Lois ushered a muffled "thanks" and dove back under the cover of the pillow. To Clark's amusement, her feet were sticking out from the blanket. And since Lois clearly didn't seem to get up on her own, he'd have to make sure she did. They didn't want to be late for work, after all. And there was something else she needed to get up for...
Grinning mischievously, he started tickling her feet. Lois didn't act like she was ticklish there, and Clark might have fallen for it, had it not been for her toes curling tightly. Knowing that she was simply suppressing her reaction, he increased his efforts, and soon he had Lois laughing tears, desperately trying to get her feet away from him. When he finally had enough of the game, he stopped, giving Lois an opportunity to breathe freely.
"Ready for breakfast?" Clark asked innocently. Since she was still very much out of breath, Lois answered with an eager nod.
***************
Lois came out of the bathroom, dressed for work. She walked over to Clark, who had taken his turn in the bathroom first, and grabbed his wrist. "Come on, partner, it's time we get to work!"
"Not yet, Lois," Clark said.
Lois gave him a strange look. "It's already twenty to... What? You made me get up an hour early? Are you *nuts*?"
"I'm sorry, but I really need to talk to you. Getting up early seemed like a good idea at the time." Clark tried to explain.
"This'd better be good," Lois growled.
"It is." He handed Lois a file. "I'd really like to talk to you about this. And we can't do it at the Planet. It's highly confidential."
Lois was eyeing the file dubiously. "What sort of file is it?"
With a spark of mischief dancing in his eyes, Clark replied, "It's a UFO file."
"Clark, I'm not into UFO's. You should know that! And where did you get this stupid file in the first place?" Lois exploded.
"Well, I can take it back. But I thought you'd be interested in the file Bureau 39 had on Superman..." Clark tried his best to look innocent.
All of a sudden, Lois looked more than eager. "How did you get your hands on this file?" she inquired.
Clark was looking rather smug. "Found it in the warehouse of Bureau 39. Remember, we did some snooping there."
"Wait a minute! When we were there, you found and snitched Superman's globe, and his file - what else did you find there? His spaceship?"
"Actually, I did find it. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit it into my pockets..."
"And you never even bothered to tell me? And how come you managed to find all that stuff? How many more files did you snitch?" Lois couldn't believe her mild-mannered partner. she was - once again - discovering completely new facets of his personality.
"This file and the globe are the only things I took." As he said this, Clark's voice was hinged with regret.
"So, how did you manage to find them? There were hundreds of presumed UFO's alone. And how on earth can you tell that it was indeed Superman's spacecraft you saw? Of all the files they had there, how did you manage to pick this particular one?" Lois simply wanted to know eveything.
Finally having Lois where he wanted her, Clark relaxed into his seat. "Well, I just lifted the cover of this one spacecraft, and it sported the S-symbol prominent on the super-suit. Beside it, there was the globe. You already know what it is. And the file - well, it looked interesting."
"Oh. Okay. And this is the whole file? And why is it unlabelled?" Lois couldn't hide that her curisosity was piqued.
"Actually, it is only part of the file. I want you to have all the facts before..." His voice trailed away. At Lois stare, he bravely continued, "...before you find out everything. Just humour me and read it, okay? If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them - but only in private. As I said, this is highly confidential."
Still Lois was not sure about it. "Do you think it's okay for me to read it? Maybe Superman wouldn't want me to, or.."
Clark smiled gently when he answered, "Don't worry, it's okay." After that, nothing could keep Lois Lane from reading that file.
After a short while, Lois looked up again. "There wasn't much information in it," she stated disappointedly.
"No. But it wasn't the whole file. So, what do you think of it?" Clark was curious as to Lois' reaction.
Lois was far from pleased."I don't really know. I mean, the spacecraft was really small. They estimated that only a cat-sized being could have been inside that spacecraft. And Superman sure is bigger than a cat. Heck, he's even bigger than you!"
In spite of Lois' lack of enthusiasm, Clark tried to prod a little further. "So, what do you conclude?"
Lois heaved a sigh. "I conclude that this file isn't genuine. Sorry to spoil your fun, but that's the way it is."
Clark couldn't believe his ears. Lois wouldn't see the truth if it was shoved in her face. "Lois, there is something you don't know yet, but I thought you'd get it without my help. When do you think this spacecraft landed here? 1993?"
Lois rolled her eyes at him. "Clark, I don't care when this thing landed on earth because it is not the real thing. You have fallen for a fake. Don't you get it?"
Clark shook his head in exasperation. Sometimes, Lois could be really dense. About as dense as *his* molecuar structure. "Listen, Lois, this ship landed in 1966. What does that tell you?"
"That it surely is a fake. Superman hasn't been here that long. In fact, he might have been a mere baby back then... Wait, what did I just say?"
"You said that he might have been a baby back then. A baby that would have fit into the craft bearing the now famous S-symbol," Clark replied nonchalantly as Lois' mouth dropped open. Satisfied that Lois finally made the connection, Clark added helpfully, "You know, it's already time for us to be on our way. Let's go, partner!"
********************
Since traffic was good to them, they decided to leave the cab one block from the Planet building and walk the rest of the way. Although Lois was eager to get more information on Superman from Clark, he stoically refused to talk because he feared that they might be overheard. Since Lois wasn't willing to talk about anything else, they were walking in silence, soon passing a newsstand. Clark stole a quick glance at the headlines and stopped dead in his tracks. Lois saw him being rooted to the spot and looked at the newspapers, too. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"What is that? "
Superman: Dynamite Breath", "
Superman Causes Explosion", "
Superman: Boom! And the Fire Was Out!" Have all the tabloid writers lost their marbles?" Lois exclaimed disgustedly.
Clark took a closer look at the papers before concluding, "Well, it's not only the tabloids featuring this incident. It's also the Star." Lois snorted. "And even the Planet," Clark finished his statement.
Lois grabbed the Daily Planet and read aloud, "
Superman Blows on Fire - Boom! written by Ralph Spagoda." She looked up at Clark. "Figures. Who but Ralph would write about that trash?" Lois was ready to walk on, but was hindered by the owner of the newsstand who bravely insisted on his payment. She tried to stare him down, but Clark intervened by paying for the paper before this situation could develop into an incident.
Then they walked on, this time more hurriedly. While they were silently walking side by side, Clark used his X-ray vision to read the rest of the Daily Planet which wasw still clasped in Lois' hand. To his horror, he found another Superman story. A story of how he helped with a hostage situation by slightly freezing the culprit. What was mentioned as a strange fact was that each of the hostages as well as the hostage-taker had a high blood alcohol level. Clark groaned inwardly, asking himself how that was possible. He hadn't smelled anything funny. He was pondering that for a while when he remembered that he didn't smell any alcohol in his own breath, either. And he certainly had drunk a few... But could it have been enough to affect other people with his breath? If so, this would also explain the explosion. Realizing that this was indeed the reason, he stopped again.
Lois, who realized that her partner had literally stopped in mid-stride, looked back at him. "Clark, what's up?"
Shaking his head in confusion, Clark replied, "Nothing important. I just remembered something."
Lois rolled her eyes at him. Mimicking the voice he usually used before running off, she said, "I'll be right back!"
Clark grinned at her. "No, not at all. I don't have to go anywhere but work right now." With that, Clark took her hand, and together they marched on.
*********late morning, Daily Planet*********
Clark was sitting at his desk, telephone in hand. Once again, he was on hold and forced to listen to an endless collection of Christmas songs - which was suddely interrupted as his superhearing kicked in. "Help! Somebody help me!" he heard a female and very frightened voice. He instantly hung up and dashed to the stairwell, already tugging at his tie. He was stopped short by the door leading to the stairs by Lucy. With a quick look at him, she asked him, "Are you going out?" She made a flying motion with her hand to emphasize what she truly meant.
Clark said, "Yes, something like that..." and stepped around her before rushing up the stairs to the roof.
Lucy smiled. Things couldn't have been better. How else was she to interview her sister without Clark listening? Slowly, she walked over to Lois' desk. She leaned over her sister's shoulder and read the screen. Obviously, Lois was trying to find some information on the internet. Being aware of a presence behind her, Lois sighed. "This is totally hopeless. I don't get anywhere with this." Then she turned around, expecting to see Clark. "Lucy? What are you doing here?"
"What do you think? I'm here to hear everything. And I mean *everything*."
Lois quickly glanced at Clark's desk. To her surprise, it was deserted. Looking back at her younger sister, she demanded, "What?"
Lucy's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "How was he?"
Remembering how Clark had taken care of her the night before, Lois' expression turned dreamy. "Oh, he was wonderful. So gentle, and caring, and, yes, even loving. No man has ever made me feel like this."
Lucy was eager to hear more. "So, how did you get him to join you in bed?"
Lois furrowed her brow, trying very hard to remember. Suddenly her face lit up. "I simply asked him," she said.
Lucy stared at her. She had figured Clark to be more shy about starting an intimate relationship, and, being a Lane woman, she voiced her doubts at once. "What? And he simply did it? Just like that? He must have really wanted it, huh? So, was he any good?"
Lois was a little perplexed, wondering what her sister was talking about. "Well, he joined me indeed *just* *like* *that*."
"Yes, but what was it like?" Lucy inquired. She wanted to hear every little detail.
"I really don't know what you're talking about," Lois stated.
Lucy was not to be dissuaded. "Well, let's start with the details. How well does he kiss?"
Lois blushed slightly, but answered her sister none the less. "Oh, his kisses are wonderful. He always manages to touch me to the chore with his kisses." Lois was closing her eyes, once again living through her memory of their kisses the evening before. It was a sweet memory, but much too short, thanks to Jimmy's timely arrival.
Lucy wasn't satisfied yet. "And how well-built is he? I mean below the waist..." Uconsciously, she was licking her lips at the mental image this evoked.
Lois' blush deepend to a glowing pink as she remembered how she saw him come out of his shower, wearing nothing but his birthday suit. "He's built *very* well. Actually, there is a lot to... ahm... take in, you know what I mean?"
Of course, Lucy wasn't done with Lois. "So, how was *it*?"
Lois face was a study in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"The stuff you *did* in bed," Lucy insinuated.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but all we did was sleep."
Lucy nearly exploded. "What? Whom are you trying to fool here? You just admitted that you spent the night together, that you kissed him *and* that you are familiar with his lower build. If I add them together, I come up with S-E-X. Do I have to spell it out for you?"
"You just did that," Lois said smugly. "Besides, when did I say that all that happened last night, much less in bed?" Seeing that Lucy still stared at her incredulously, she added, "We really didn't do anything but sleep."
Lucy shook her head in wonderment. "This guy truly qualifies for sainthood," she muttered under her breath as Jimmy approached her, sporting the same sappy grin he had been wearing all morning. Seeing him, Lucy's eyes lit up, and she raised her face to meet his. Their lips met, and soon they were exchanging a hot kiss. Lois was startled at first, but quickly decided that both Lucy and Jimmy could do worse.
"Jimmy!" Perry bellowed, causing him and Lucy to jump. "My office, now!" With an apologetic glance at his girlfriend, Jimmy followed Perry. "Great shades of Elvis, you don't get paid to make out!" was the last thing they could hear Perry say before he closed the door to his office behind Jimmy.
Jimmy tried to apologize, "Chief, I..."
Perry laughed heartily. "Oh, come on kid! I know what it's like to be in love, I understand you all too well. But," he continued, his voice dropping to a whisper, "the next time you feel this urge to kiss your girlfriend, check out the closet by the copy room. I have a reputation to keep up, but I don't have to react to something I don't see. Okay?"
Relieved, Jimmy nodded his assent. "Sure, chief. And thanks for the tip." Jimmy managed a shaky grin before turning around to leave the office.
"Jimmy? One more thing," Perry called him back. "Try to look as if I took your head off, okay?"
Jimmy hung his head in an attempt to hide his broad grin. He failed miserably.
