Part 4 for the 4th!
Happy Independence Day, Americans! Or as the British call it, Thanksgiving
I is for Illusions
part 4/5 (
Table of Contents )
by Pam Jernigan
Toni dropped all pretense of sorrow. "You're both fired. And you'll be hearing from my lawyer. Get out." ****
"And stay out!" the bouncer grumbled at them, before turning around to go back in the club and slam the door shut for emphasis.
"Gangster," Lois called after him. At Toni's request, he'd forcibly escorted them to the nearest side exit and ejected them into the alley.
Clark shot her a warning glance, then resumed his fascinated study of his feet. He hadn't looked straight at her since right before she'd kissed him -- not that she was giving him many opportunities.
"Ham-handed gorilla," she grumbled, smoothing out her dress.
Clark frowned slightly at her gesture. "Are you okay, Lois? He didn't hurt you, did he?"
"Only my dignity." Her self-confidence was also pretty damaged, and her relationship with Clark would probably never be the same, but she'd done both of those things all by herself.
Shaking off these bitter thoughts, she looked around the alley, orienting herself. "Never mind. Come on." She began walking toward the two dumpsters sitting along the side wall of the club. There wasn't much space between them, but at least the area was dry. She bent down and reached into the shadows.
"Lois?"
Clark's voice came from right behind her, and Lois nearly lost her balance. He caught hold of her shoulder to steady her, then dropped his hand again almost immediately. Lois could still feel the warmth of it on her skin. She found what she was looking for and stood up, her small duffel bag in hand.
Clark's eyebrows rose in a silent question.
She shrugged, trying not to feel smug about her foresight. "I didn't want to risk my things again by leaving them in there -- as it is, my cab money is still back in the dressing room, unless of course it's been stolen already -- so I stashed my duffel bag out here. Just in case. The important thing is, my clothes are all here. Let's go find a place where I can change out of this dress." She pulled her trench coat out of the bag and pulled it on as quickly as she could.
"Good thinking. Are you cold?" Clark asked with quiet concern.
"Yeah," she mumbled, still not looking at him. Honestly, it wasn't that chilly out here, but right at the moment she felt exposed and vulnerable to Clark. Earlier, the fancy dress had made her feel wonderfully sexy, but at the moment it felt more like being naked. She tugged the coat tightly shut and tied it with a jerk. "Down that way," she reported, pointing down the alley, "is the main street. Let's go." She started walking.
Behind her, she heard a quiet sigh, then the sound of footsteps as Clark began following her.
She didn't want to deal with Clark right now. Back in that closet, with goons approaching, it had seemed like a good idea to kiss him. And, well, it had been pretty spectacular -- even better than she remembered, which was saying something. If it had only been garden-variety goons who'd caught them, it probably would have deflected suspicion. But now, the adrenaline rush was fading, leaving her feeling a little shaky and out of control. Lois hated feeling out of control.
"Umm, Lois..." Clark said cautiously, "I have cab fare with me... so you can take a cab home. I wouldn't have to go with you, if that would make you... well, if you'd rather I didn't. I could walk. My place isn't too far away."
Lois swung around to look at him. She puzzled briefly over why he thought she wouldn't want to share a cab -- but then dismissed it. "We're not taking a cab anywhere, together or separately."
Clark looked wary. "We're not?"
"Clark! We're working! Sure, we're not on the inside anymore, but there's still got to be something we can do." Lois felt herself calming as she put things in such a familiar context. Work challenges were infinitely easier than this whole relationship thing. There might not be much chance of achieving anything on either front tonight, but at the very least, the pretense of working kept Clark near. "I am *not* giving up -- and neither are you."
He smiled, looking almost like himself again. "Yes, ma'am."
"Thank you! Now, the first thing we need is somewhere I can change out of this silly dress." She turned around again to survey the street. "Look, the Shiny Diner -- perfect." Without waiting for his opinion of the idea, she crossed the street and walked a little way down the sidewalk until she got to the door of the diner. Only then did she look to see if Clark was still with her.
Clark opened the door for her, and waved her inside. She went in, looking around with interest. "They weren't kidding when they called it shiny, were they?" The interior of the diner was trimmed everywhere with polished chrome; once she got past that detail, she could see that it was also decorated in a sort of stylized Fifties way. "Grab us a booth, okay -- one where we've both got a good view out the window!"
She quickly located the bathroom, and took the duffel bag inside with her. The interior of this room was nowhere near as fancy as the rest of the place, but at least it was clean, and she had enough room to change clothes. She wiggled out of the dress as quickly as she could, and slipped into her soft black track suit. A pair of black canvas shoes were next.
She stuffed the dress and heels into the bag, then looked at the trench coat. After a moment of internal debate, she decided to wear it, but not tie it.
As she was closing the bag, she caught sight of herself in the bathroom mirror. Her stage makeup looked way too heavy in more normal lighting. She grabbed some paper towels and carefully reduced the color to near-normal levels. She ran her fingers through her hair to get it into some semblance of neatness. She fussed a little at her track suit, then realized she was primping, and shook her head in disgust. "You need to stop stalling," she told her reflection sternly.
Resolutely, she exited the bathroom, and went to join Clark. "Nice view," she commented as she sat down across from him. "I can see the main entrance of the Club from here." And, come to think of it, the view across the table was pretty good, too. Lois had thought Clark looked pretty stunning earlier, in his bartender's fake tux. Now that he'd taken off the bow tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons... he looked absolutely devastating.
Clark slid a laminated menu in front of her. "The waitress said she'd be back in a minute... I ordered some coffee for you, but if you want anything else, feel free. My treat." His smile seemed forced, and he still avoided her gaze, instead staring out the window.
Lois looked at him for a moment, then busied herself looking at the menu. For the first time, it registered that Clark was acting oddly. All quiet and withdrawn. Had she made an awful miscalculation? Did Clark really not want her, after all? He'd responded to the kiss, sure, but then, her cynical side pointed out, he was a healthy male.
Their coffee arrived, and -- deciding that tonight was a good time to live dangerously -- Lois ordered the richest chocolate dessert on the menu. An awkward silence descended over the table. It was really too warm in here for this coat, Lois decided, taking it off.
"I'm sorry," Clark said into the silence.
Lois looked up at him, not sure what he meant by that.
He smiled tightly, and explained, "If I hadn't panicked and gone to get you, Lex might have thrown me out, but you'd still be in there."
Lois blinked. That hadn't even occurred to her. "It's okay, I wouldn't want to owe Lex a favor anyway."
Clark nodded, and they were quiet again for a moment. Clark cleared his throat, looking embarrassed and intent all at once, before lowering his eyes to study the spoon he was pushing idly around the tabletop.
Lois tensed. Was this the part where he told her how uncomfortable she'd made him?
"About that, um... kiss," Clark began, slowly. "I... just want you to know that I know it was just an undercover thing, and I'm sorry I got carried away. I swear to you, Lois, you don't have to worry about me ... attacking you or anything."
"I'm not worried," she replied, automatically, as she tried to decipher this. Did that mean he wanted it to happen again, or not?
He looked up, meeting her eyes. He looked terrified, Lois thought in wonder. Terrified of her? Or, maybe... terrified of losing her. She felt her confidence growing again, in direct proportion to the depth of emotion she saw in his eyes. She smiled shyly. "It's okay, Clark."
"I just want you to know," he continued earnestly, "that what happened back there won't happen again."
Lois considered her options. Clark was clearly offering a return to their previous platonic friendship. For a half second, she was tempted. It would be much safer.
But not nearly as much fun.
"Why not?" She smiled at him, leaning forward. "Didn't you like it?"
Clark really looked very cute when he was utterly bewildered.
"Well, um, yeah, I liked it," he said cautiously. "But I figured that... that you..."
Before he could find whatever words he was groping for, she said, "I'm the one that kissed you, remember?"
His face softened, and when he spoke, his voice was husky. "I remember."
"It was pretty terrific, wasn't it?" Lois was greatly enjoying this moment, both in remembering the kiss and in confusing Clark.
His eyes widened, and she saw his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed. "Yeah."
She leaned a little further over the table, and confided, "I've wanted to do that for weeks."
She was rewarded by one of his beautiful blinding smiles, as he finally caught on to what she was saying. "Oh, Lois."
She reached a hand across the table, and he caught it gently in one of his. "I've missed you, Lois."
"I tried very hard not to miss you," she admitted wryly, as her exhilaration subsided and transmuted into tenderness. "But I just couldn't get you out of my head."
His face clearly showed his delight at her confession. "Well, then, I think this definitely deserves some--" He broke off as the waitress returned with their pie. "--exploration," he finished. "Would you, um... like to go out for dinner with me, maybe? Someplace nicer than here." As an afterthought, he added, "I have something I need to tell you."
"Oh, really? Finally going to reveal your big secret, are you?" Lois teased.
He grinned, digging his fork into the pie, but then his expression went distant and all of a sudden he was staring over Lois's shoulder. Her heart sank. If he ran off now...
"Lois, behind you, isn't that Toni Taylor?"
Lois startled and turned around. She scanned the street for a confused moment before spotting Toni walking away from the club. "Yep, it sure is." She turned back to face Clark, and for a moment, their eyes met in identical disappointment at the interruption.
Time to work again. Lois scrambled out of her seat while Clark threw a few bills on the table, and they both headed for the diner's door.
****
Clark tried to concentrate on following Toni without being spotted, but it was difficult. He was in a glorious haze of delight, and it felt like he needed all his vision powers to see through it to the world around him. Lois had looped one of her arms with his, walking very close next to him, and she was smiling dreamily. He suspected that his own expression would be very similar.
He peered ahead, checking that Toni was still heading straight. She was walking at a moderately fast rate, and carrying a briefcase. She couldn't be planning to go far, or she'd have driven. His attention wandered.
Lois had kissed him! And it hadn't destroyed everything, as he'd feared. He'd been so convinced that his enthusiastic response to the kiss would have scared her, made her think of him as some sort of dangerous predator. When Lois was scared, she was quite capable of believing all sorts of things without regard for such mundane matters as evidence. The thought that he'd scared her -- betrayed her trust -- had made him feel ill.
He'd been caught up in imagining the names she might call him (Neanderthal, for a start, but she probably had a whole range of scornful terms for heavy-handed males), and how she was going to get away from him as fast as humanly possible, and whether Perry would fire him immediately the next morning, or wait until the sexual harassment lawsuit was filed. He'd been so preoccupied that he hadn't noticed that she wasn't following the script.
She'd certainly grabbed his attention when she'd asked if he hadn't liked the kiss. It wasn't just the question, but also the way she'd managed to combine sensual smugness with an unholy amusement. The look on her face, and in her eyes, had temporarily robbed him of breath.
He felt a sense of wonder at the notion that she'd wanted to kiss him for weeks. She had certainly given him no hints of it; the only one she'd shown any interest in kissing had been Superman. He thought she would take that news well -- eventually -- but with Lois he was never sure of anything. He wanted to tell her right here and now, but in the middle of an investigation wasn't a good time to distract her, so he'd keep his secret a little while longer.
He became aware that Lois was tugging at his arm, pulling him into the shadow of a closed shop door. She snuggled in close, ending up with her body flush to his side.
A quick check ahead revealed that Toni had stopped, waiting for a chance to cross the street. She glanced around.
"Where do you think she's going?" Lois whispered in his ear.
Clark closed his eyes and shivered at the sensation. "I don't know. Can't be far." His eyes popped open again as he felt her begin to nibble on his earlobe. "Lo-is! This is not a good time."
She shrugged and retreated slightly. "Spoilsport."
Clark shot her an exasperated look. "I can't think when you do that."
Lois grinned. "Okay, okay, we'll just work, for now. But later..."
"Later," he promised, pulling her a little closer. He didn't quite dare to kiss her on the lips, not if he wanted to return to reality anytime soon, but he couldn't resist nuzzling in her hair. "She's moving again."
Cautiously, they resumed walking. By now Clark's arm was firmly around Lois's shoulders, and her arm had, in turn, found its way around his waist. He'd been fighting the urge to touch her for a month, and now he found he didn't want to let go.
Toni was leading them away from the lights and noise of the busy streets, down toward the area that had been plagued with so many fires lately. She slowed to a stop in the middle of a block, glancing around, but apparently didn't notice them. Then she turned and ducked inside one of the burned-out buildings.
Slowly, Clark and Lois approached the spot where she'd disappeared. There was a sign identifying it as a future LexHarbor site, but for the moment, it looked entirely deserted. Clark was reluctant to take Lois inside; just yesterday, he'd seen it engulfed in flames. This section, however, seemed to have suffered less damage than the rest, and -- he checked -- the structure itself was solid and stable.
With a whispered, "Come on," Lois took the lead, pulling him along by the hand.
****
Lois stepped inside the darkened warehouse, and paused for a moment to let her eyes adjust. Toni was nowhere to be seen, but there was a faint light further inside, screened from the door by a jumble of half-burned crates. Still holding Clark's hand, she crept forward, looking for a safe place to observe the action from.
Slightly to the side, she found a good vantage point, a shadowed corner with a view of the area beyond, courtesy of the broken sides of a lower crate. It was a small, cramped space, barely large enough for two people, if they were on good terms with one another. She grinned. Luckily, she and Clark were now on very good terms. She ducked inside, pulling him in after her; after a moment's maneuvering was in front, with Clark standing sideways right next to her.
Toni had just entered the room, apparently, and was surrounded by the Toasters, masked and holding their weapons. "Is this really necessary?" she asked in a bored tone.
After a second, one of the Toasters stepped forward, pulling off his mask. "Did you bring the money?"
Moving as quietly as she could, Lois pulled her duffel bag in front of her and began feeling inside it. Her fingers encountered the lump right where it should have been. She worked it loose and, triumphantly, pulled out a mini tape recorder.
In the room beyond them, Toni opened the briefcase. "One hundred thousand."
Clark raised an eyebrow at Lois, and she grinned. "Never leave home without it," she whispered. She pushed the play and record buttons; they made a clicking sound that sounded terribly loud to her ears, but none of the bad guys appeared to notice.
"You said two!" one of the Toasters protested angrily.
"Considering how badly you botched the hit on my brother," Toni hissed back, "you're lucky I'm even here. Do you realize I could've been killed?"
"Yeah, that would have been a real shame."
Toni continued her discussion with the Toasters, but Lois found her attention wandering. She was very aware of Clark's body next to her -- his chest against her right arm, his legs straddling hers. Carefully, she placed the mini-recorder in the middle of the burned-out crate in front of them, hidden in the shadows. Then she wound her right arm around Clark's waist. His left arm came up to hold her shoulders and squeeze her a little closer.
She badly wanted to do more. She'd been frustrated for all the last month, and now, when she finally had the opportunity to touch him anywhere she wanted... they had to remain absolutely quiet. Even if the Toasters missed hearing anything, the mini-recorder would surely pick it up.
Still, there was no reason she shouldn't enjoy thinking about him. The look in his eyes, of passion and tenderness, out on the street... had seemed very familiar, actually. He'd looked at her a lot like that, weeks ago, in bed. Dreamily, she gave herself permission to enjoy the memories she'd refused to think about for weeks. There was something different, though, something about his eyes... oh, of course; the last time he'd looked at her like that, he hadn't been wearing his glasses. Really, it was surprising how much the lack of them changed the look of his face. His hair had been tumbled forward, and he'd looked so serious, so intent... she sighed happily. She hadn't ever believed she could find someone who'd look at her like that, as if she were the most precious thing in the world.
If only she'd trusted her own judgment, instead of fixating on Superman as a safer alternative. She felt a pang of loss as she realized she'd have to give up those fantasies. But anything less wouldn't be fair to Clark. Her father's thoughts -- and more -- had strayed all too often. She would not willingly put anyone else through that.
Peripherally, she noted that Toni's meeting was not going well. Lois told herself sternly to pay attention. Some of the Toasters were, in fact, wrapping Toni's wrists together with tape and bragging about their plans to conquer the world, or at least burn down this small corner of it.
Lois put a hand on Clark's shoulder to steady herself, and inched forward for a better look. She felt her foot run into something unseen on the ground -- something that was moving; in horror she heard it make a loud clatter as it hit something breakable. Before she could do much more than step backwards, she felt Clark's arm encircle her waist and lift her slightly off the floor. He then moved them further back into the shadow, behind a thick support beam.
Peeking around the edge of the beam, she saw one of the Toasters come around to investigate the noise. He bent down, and picked up a glass bottle. Shaking his head, he went back to report that it had been nothing more than a rat.
Lois leaned back on Clark's solid chest, for support. That had been too close. If Clark hadn't gotten them both out of there, they might well have been killed. Good thing he was so strong and fast. Not to mention nimble; she would have expected some stumbling as they retreated that quickly, but the movement had been very smooth. They might have been sliding on rails... or flying.
Lois told herself sternly to stop imagining things. Clark did not fly.
With one last squeeze, Clark let go of her waist, and stepped past her to take a turn watching what little they could see of the action.
He was awfully fast, though. And without his glasses, in her memories, he had kind of looked familiar...
No, she must be crazy. Clark had nothing in common with Superman. Well, except for a fantastic body and unusually good hearing...
She forced herself to breathe slowly as a hundred images and incidents came to mind, all things that hadn't made sense at the time, but which fitted a certain pattern, in retrospect. No, she was cracking up under stress. It had been hard for her to choose between Clark and Superman, but she had done so, and she was happy with her choice. She didn't need wild fantasies about Clark leading some sort of double life... though she knew he was hiding some kind of big secret...
Feeling shaky, she looked up at Clark. He was looking steadily toward the pile of crates between them and Toni. With his glasses halfway down his nose. What sort of person sees better without glasses?
And then everything fell into place, and out of all recognition.
****
Clark let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, and began scanning for another hiding place. He nudged Lois, pointing upwards. She was watching him with the most peculiar look on her face. After a second, though, she turned to check out what he'd found. There was a good vantage point from there, on a pile of mostly-whole boxes, and it looked as if it'd be possible to climb up quietly. She nodded, and followed him up to the top.
Looking down, they saw that the Toasters were leaving -- at least, three of them were. The fourth stayed behind, apparently to keep an eye on a captive Toni.
Leaving them stuck. The small noises they'd made earlier had been drowned out by activity from the Toasters. But the warehouse was now settling down to silence, and any moves would be heard.
He glanced at Lois. Judging by her widened eyes, she was reaching the same conclusions. He examined the warehouse interior, weighing their options. Maybe, if they knocked over a stack of junk, that would distract the guard while they made their escape? Behind them, up near the ceiling, was a window with only a few remaining shards of its glass pane. If he were alone, he'd just dart out that way, but with Lois here...
He turned back to look at her again. She was also searching for a safe way out. Well, he'd planned to tell her about Superman. He had one last flash of nerves -- what if he was wrong about her? She had kissed him, but hadn't made any vows of undying love and loyalty or anything. Still, she deserved to know -- and if that was the only way to get them out, as it seemed to be, then this was definitely the time to come clean.
"Lois," he whispered, almost inaudibly.
She turned toward him, straining to hear, but with less than her full attention.
He leaned forward so that his mouth was near her ear, and vice versa. "I, uh... have something I need to tell you."
"Save it for later, okay?" she whispered back. "Clark, do you see that window over there?"
He turned to look, and saw her pointing to the same one he'd noticed earlier. She leaned forward again to whisper, "Do you think there's room for you to fly me through there? I mean, some of the glass might come out, but that shouldn't matter if we're long gone by the time the goon comes around the corner."
Clark could only stare at her.
She looked perplexed. "Well, we can't stay in here, not when they're going to burn all that's left of West River! Clark? Why are you looking at me like that?" Her eyes widened and she blushed. "Oh, right. Um, hi, Superman. Can we go now?"
Slowly, he shook his head, and felt an irresistible smile start to grow. He should have known.
****
tbc...
