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. ****
I is for Illusions
part 5/5 (
Table of Contents )
by Pam Jernigan
****
Flying with Clark was incredible. It was only a short flight, out the window and about a block away, but when he'd held her close and gravity had ceased to matter... wow. It was making Lois just a little dizzy, but that was probably only because she'd been short on sleep, lately.
He landed with a soft thump, gently setting her back on her feet. She just looked up at him in wonder. She didn't quite know who he was anymore, but she was looking forward to finding out.
"Are you okay?" he asked her, watching her closely.
Lois pulled herself together. "Yeah, I'm fine... or at least, I will be."
"I think we have a few things to talk about," Clark said. "But right now--"
"We've got to stop the bad guys, right." She glanced up at him, unsure how to proceed. Should she boss Clark around, or defer to Superman? "Uh... can you stop the Toasters?"
Clark nodded. "I just have to find them, and that won't be hard, now that they're out in the open again."
"Then I guess I should go alert the police and fire departments..."
"Hmm," Clark said, looking around with an abstracted air. Was he listening for something? "Make sure to tell them about Toni, too. They should send someone to get her."
"Right. And then..." It was getting difficult to think; lack of sleep catching up to her, no doubt. "Then I'll go write up the story."
"Okay. I'll meet you at the Planet later, then." Glancing around quickly, Clark began to spin. When the blur subsided, he was Superman. "Let me take you to the police station first, okay? It'd take too long to get a cab, and I'm not sure you could get through on the phone."
"Um, okay. Yeah. Good idea." Lois knew she was staring, but she couldn't help herself. She'd known Clark was Superman; it had seemed blindingly obvious once all the pieces came together. And Clark had flown! But it was still a shock to see him there as Superman. He looked so familiar, and so very different, all at once.
He smiled, moving a step closer. Hesitantly, he brought his hand up and brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek. "Hey, it's just me, you know."
His touch and the tenderness in his voice made him more Clark-like again, and she relaxed. "Okay, let's go then."
He smiled, then scooped her up again, taking off almost immediately. It took only a moment before he set her down in front of the local MPD precinct house. "Be careful, okay?"
She summoned up a smile. "Sure. Umm... you, too."
With one last smile he lifted back up into the air. For a moment he seemed to hover in midair, then he disappeared.
Lois blinked. It had been strange, talking to Clark, knowing he was Superman. Talking to Superman, knowing he was Clark, was positively surreal.
When she'd first put all the pieces together, her first reaction had been a jubilant "YES!" She could have her Clark, and Superman, too... but immediately thereafter, she'd realized how very strange this was going to be.
That would have to wait until later, though. She had work to do.
****
It was getting near dawn before Clark made it to the Daily Planet. Capturing the Toasters had been fairly straight-forward, but Superman had needed to make sure all the fires were out, and then Clark had gone by the police station, gathering material for his article.
Lois wasn't there when he entered the newsroom, which didn't really surprise him. He was really looking forward to talking to her -- on several topics -- but he wouldn't want to interfere with her sleep.
The newsroom was fairly deserted, with no one paying attention, so it didn't take long to type up his report of the night's excitement. It seemed a little on the dull side, but he fixed that by giving himself an exclusive Superman quote.
He could hardly wait to see Lois again. He really wanted to know how -- not to mention *when* -- she'd figured him out. Her behavior and attitude toward him had undergone a drastic change last night, following that kiss. He hated to think that it might just have been because she'd realized that Superman was a heck of a lot more accessible than she'd ever imagined.
The last time he'd seen her, though -- after he'd flown with her -- she'd looked... almost shy with him. In fact, it was the first time she had shown Clark some of the starry-eyed awe normally reserved for Superman. It had felt like a barrier between them. So, maybe... maybe the sensual mischief from earlier had been all for Clark.
Well, that was one of the things they'd have to talk about.
Clark stretched in his chair, realizing that he wouldn't mind a little sleep, himself. He glanced around his desk to see if he had any urgent story tasks awaiting him. For the first time, he noticed a folded slip of paper tucked into the corner of his desk blotter.
The outside only had his name written on it -- in very familiar handwriting. He unfolded it eagerly.
Hey, partner -- my night was a success, hope yours was, too. I'd still be there, but the night editor's making me go home. Anyway, there are some details we need to talk about; things that didn't make it into the story. How about brunch at my place -- say, 10:30? If not, give me a call. LLClark glanced at his watch. He was going to have to wait another four hours? But he had to admit that, other than the wait, it was a pretty good plan. Today was Lois's day off, and Clark knew that after working all night, he wouldn't be expected in the newsroom before noon. So they'd have plenty of time to talk.
He read the note again. It would seem very business-like and impersonal if anyone else saw it, but Clark was reading all kinds of layers of meaning into it. The part that really made him hopeful was the invitation to her apartment. He hadn't been allowed inside her place since "the morning after."
So. Four hours. Time enough to clean up, catch a short nap... and work himself into a nervous wreck.
****
Lois was a nervous wreck. She hadn't gotten very much sleep -- there were too many things to think about for her to waste time sleeping! Eventually, though, she'd fallen asleep, and it had taken the alarm clock multiple tries to pry her out of bed at 9:30. Then she'd realized that Clark was coming over soon, and the jolt of panic had given her enough energy to brew her first cup of coffee.
She had some pastries and juice available for brunch -- thanks to some middle-of-the-night shopping on her way home. And coffee, of course. So that was okay. She'd found something nice to wear -- a silk blouse worn with black pants -- after only a few false starts. It was probably a good thing that she had a deadline, otherwise she'd still be in there dithering over clothes.
Everything was in place, actually. Which reduced Lois to just worrying.
Relationships in general were not her strong suit. Of course, this time, she was actually going to date a man who was *not* a jerk, which would be a major improvement on the previous attempts. On the relationship front, Clark would be great. Romantically speaking, Superman was the icing on the cake.
It was just the thought of working with him that was driving her to distraction.
How on earth was she supposed to work with him now? Superman wasn't supposed to have a boss, or collect a paycheck, or... or be ordered around by his partner. The memories of some of the things she'd said to Clar-- Superm-- *him* were making her writhe in embarrassment.
And he would be here -- she checked the clock -- in three minutes! Well, she would just have to wing it. She'd been working with Clark for two months now. This couldn't be too much harder. Could it?
The doorbell rang. Lois raised her chin, took a deep breath, and walked over to the door to unlock it.
****
Clark knew he was a few minutes early, but he hadn't been able to wait any longer. He had thought that hiding his feelings for Lois was tough. But that wasn't nearly as scary as the prospect of revealing them, or as difficult as his new dilemma. When one was going to a woman's apartment -- for brunch -- because she'd kissed him and said -- well, okay, implied -- she'd want to do it again... what, if anything, should he bring?
For a dinner date, he'd bring wine, of course. But wine at brunch hadn't seemed like a good idea, so he'd bought flowers about half an hour ago. He'd spent what seemed like ages debating with himself over what *kind* of flowers. Red roses seemed much too formal for this early in the day, but yellow ones, for friendship, just didn't adequately cover what he was hoping for. He'd ended up with a small arrangement of ordinary flowers and baby's breath -- they weren't very expensive, but the colors were pretty.
Then, on the way over to Carter St, he'd thrown the whole bouquet into a dumpster, convinced that they were an incredibly stupid idea. This wasn't *really* a date, after all. He'd like it to be one, sure, but he wasn't so sure about how Lois saw it -- and the last thing he wanted was to pressure her in any way.
So he'd ducked into a corner grocery store, instead. It was brunch, he should bring brunch food, right? But then, while he was perusing the baked goods, it had occurred to him that bringing his own food might not strike quite the right note. Lois had never seemed the domestic type, but he was sure she could manage to buy a few pastries by herself. And he'd already noticed that she could be quite defensive about areas where she failed to live up to her own high standards. Or maybe she was secretly a great chef, for all he knew. Either way, though, bringing baked goods would be a bad idea.
Shaking his head in disgust at his own indecisiveness, he'd started to walk out of the store -- but then inspiration struck, in the middle of the candy aisle. One thing he knew for sure was that Lois loved chocolate. She tried to hide it, sort of, but it was pretty obvious. Of course, then, he was faced with the flower dilemma all over again. A plain chocolate bar wasn't enough, but a fancy wrapped assortment was over the top. A bag of chocolate kisses seemed about right. Just the mental image of Lois popping each individual morsel into her mouth had made him break out into a cold sweat. And maybe chocolate kisses could be followed by real ones...
His confidence buoyed up, he bought the kisses and walked out of the store. Maybe the flowers hadn't been so stupid, after all. The dumpster was only a block away -- in the wrong direction, but he had time. Luckily, the arrangement had stayed mostly intact and clean -- it had landed on paper waste. Just for once, Clark was grateful for someone *not* recycling. He carefully fished the flowers back out and inspected them -- one pink carnation's stem had been broken, so he pulled that out of the bouquet and relegated it back to the dumpster, but the rest seemed okay.
After that, he'd walked directly to Lois's brownstone, assuring himself that his entire future did not depend on anything so trivial as whether or not she liked the flowers. He'd stood outside her apartment door for a minute or so, breathing deeply and telling himself to calm down.
The split-second after he rang the doorbell, he noticed another damaged flower stem. He could pull it out -- at super speed it wouldn't be a challenge -- but then on the other hand, it was the only purple flower in the bunch. Maybe it wasn't too bad. He turned the bouquet sideways, to get a better look. Naturally, that was the moment that Lois chose to open the door.
He smiled, hurriedly pulling the flowers upright again, searching for something suave to say. "Hi." Oh yeah, that was real eloquence. "I, uh, brought these for you." He held them out a little, towards her. "I also brought some chocolate..."
Lois smiled shyly as she accepted them both. "Hi. Oh, these are pretty. Thanks." She stepped back from the doorway, beckoning him in. As she carried them into the kitchen, she called back, "The food's over on the coffee table. I printed out a copy of my article for you, too, in case you hadn't seen it yet."
"Great. Thanks." Clark settled himself onto one of Lois's twin sofas, and glanced at the story. It was pretty much what he'd expected -- an account of how Toni Taylor had tried to take over her brother's crime syndicate, burning down half of West River in the process, just to disguise the hit on Johnny. "Great description of the scene when the cops arrested her," he commented.
Lois came back from the kitchen with flowers in a vase and chocolate kisses in a bowl. She set the flowers in the center of the table, with the candy dish slightly to one side. "You think so?" She seemed inordinately pleased at the compliment. "Thanks."
Clark closed his eyes briefly as he laid down the printout. This was a far cry from her usual treatment of him. It might just have been first-almost-date nerves... or she could be stuck in hero-worship mode. He had to do something, quick. "So, partner," he said in a casual tone, "you said there were details that didn't get into print. Like what?" He helped himself to an apple Danish.
Lois straightened her shoulders, losing some of the starry-eyed look as her professional side came to the fore. "Well, once I got someone's attention at the police station, they sent two beat cops out to get Toni, and I went with them. They knew quite a lot about the Metros, so we had a nice chat as we walked over there. What with all the distractions, we didn't get back to her until nearly midnight." She settled into her sofa, obviously with something big to say and a story she'd enjoy telling. "As we were coming up the street toward the place, we saw somebody down at the other end of the block. I was pretty sure I'd seen him coming out of the warehouse, but the beat cops just figured he was a transient, or somebody who'd gotten lost.
"So we went into the warehouse and found Toni -- that part's all in the article. What I didn't say was..." She drew the word out, obviously looking for a response from him. His smile seemed to satisfy her, so she continued. "Remember my mini-recorder? I realized later that I'd left it there, so I went to get it back. And the thing had been turned on, the whole time."
Clark perked up at that. "You are amazing. I take it there was something on there?"
She grinned. "It was about an hour before I had a chance to listen to it."
"And because you had to wait, you're determined to torture me, too?" Clark asked, enjoying both the story and the sight of Lois becoming herself again.
"Well... I probably should," she said with a sly smile.
Clark pretended to think about that. "Nah, if you have to keep this a secret any longer you'll explode."
Lois laughed, and moved over to sit with him, bubbling with enthusiasm. She sat at the end, her back against the armrest, but she was still enticingly close. Clark turned sideways towards her.
"Clark, you'll never believe it. Well, okay, maybe you will believe it, but nobody else would believe it, is the point! And it's not really evidence, not the sort that'll be of any use in a court, anyway, so we've still got a lot of work to do. For one thing, Perry would never let us print anything at this point, and for another... well, I don't want to make the police work any harder than they have to, and I think if this did get in the paper, any further evidence would become really difficult to find."
"Any further evidence than... what, exactly?"
She blinked at him, then grinned. "I kinda skipped that part, huh?"
"Kinda, yeah," he agreed, grinning back at her. "Come on, Lois, take pity and fill me in, already."
She laughed again, then sobered as she leaned forward. "After we left the recorder behind, there wasn't much going on for a bit, but then -- Clark, somebody came into that warehouse and started threatening Toni!"
He frowned. "She's okay, though, right?"
"Yeah, she's fine -- but this guy made it very clear that she was not to ever mention his involvement. He said if she implicated him in anything, he'd have her killed!"
Clark leaned forward. "Do you have any idea who it was?"
She nodded wryly. "Like I said, it wouldn't be enough to stand up in court, but I know that voice -- it was Lex Luthor. The tape didn't catch everything, but from what I could gather, he'd been helping Toni with her little takeover bid, by giving her those flame-throwers for the Toasters to use. In return, he got to buy up the property he wanted, cheap." She shook her head in amazement. "Lex, of all people!"
Clark tried to process that, and kept a wary eye on Lois. He still wasn't sure exactly how involved with Lex she had been -- had she been hurt, or maybe embarrassed, by this? "So then what?" he asked, as neutrally as he could.
She shrugged, sitting back against the end of the sofa. "Well, once the article was wrapped up, and I heard the tape, I was all fired up, and started doing research, though apparently there's a limit to how much research one can do at one in the morning. But I saw enough to see there was a lot more to see."
"Lois, you are the best." Clark chuckled. "Good work, partner. Are you sure you're okay with this? I mean, you were sort of dating him."
"I was never in love with him, Clark," she said, shaking her head. "The only reason I'd want to go out with him now is to spy on him -- and it's probably a moot point, anyway." She grinned. "I'm pretty sure I'm permanently off his Christmas card list, after he saw us kiss..." Her grin froze, and slowly began to fade, and she blushed.
Clark felt his own cheeks redden at the abrupt reminder. "Um, yeah. We, ah, probably ought to talk about that..."
****
Lois wished the sofa would open up and swallow her whole. She closed her eyes, instead. The morning had been going so well, too. But that was work. This was going to be personal. She felt Clark's hand lightly touch her knee, and opened her eyes again.
"Lois..." Clark began in a low tone. "I think it's got to be pretty obvious that I'm, ah, interested. And, well, last night, you seemed kinda interested, too."
Lois snorted softly at that colossal understatement.
"But if you don't want to deal with it..." his voice trailed off.
Lois looked up at him. He really would do his best to forget everything, and still be her friend. How amazing. He was a guy she could really trust -- and it was time for her to start. "You're not getting away that easily, Clark."
His uncertain expression brightened at that. "I just... well, so many things were going on last night."
"You're telling me! Yesterday was one heck of a day." Lois felt herself relaxing a bit, as Clark smiled at her and let his hand drift toward her and touch her knee again; this time it stayed there. "First, I decided that I'm going to stop fighting my attraction to you."
"And I fully support that decision," Clark commented, grinning.
She ignored the interruption. "And then there are major developments in the story, *plus* we got to save the city, which is always exciting."
"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" He winked at her, and she realized he was talking about Superman.
Lois rolled her eyes, and ruthlessly dragged the conversation back onto her topic. "And then I find out that the guy who was my friend, my partner, *and* the person whose bones I was dying to jump," she paused, watching Clark's eyes widen, "wasn't really who I thought he was."
Clark frowned slightly, trying to work through that. "You're saying you only found out last night? How?"
"Well... there were a lot of things, really." Looking back now, she couldn't remember many of the actual details. "That super-speedy retreat was a big clue, especially when put together with that whole 'big secret' thing. Still, if I hadn't already been thinking and putting pieces together... I'd probably have ignored it."
"I'd been thinking about telling you, you know," he said, looking as sincere as she'd ever seen him. "That's what I was gearing up to do last night, before you pre-empted me."
Lois smiled wryly. "Don't look so guilt-stricken. Telling me anytime before last night would probably have been a disaster. I needed to get things clear in my head, first."
Clark shifted in his seat, scooting just a little closer to her and laying an arm across the back of the sofa for balance. "And is your head clear now?"
"Mostly." She shrugged. "The whole Superman thing is kind of mind-boggling, you know. It's just going to take me a little time to adjust, Clark."
"We've got time," he promised. "And as for adjusting..." He hesitated, and looked endearingly nervous. "Would you like to go to dinner with me, sometime?"
"Yes." With that settled, she felt her self-confidence returning. She took a deep breath. "So... what are you doing tonight?"
He grinned crookedly. "Taking you out to dinner?"
"Good answer!" Lois winked at him, then gave up all pretense of coyness and settled herself on his lap. "It's about time we had a date, you know. I mean, we've slept together, broken up, kissed, *and* gotten back together, but did you ever buy me dinner? Noooo..."
Clark laughed with her, bringing his arms around her and hugging her close. "Clearly, I have a lot to make up for."
"Yes, you do! But maybe this time, we could take things in the right order?" As long as they didn't ever revisit the broken-up stage; it had been hard enough on her this time, when she'd scarcely known what she was missing.
Clark pulled his head back, just enough to have a good view of her face. One hand came up to brush a wisp of hair from her face, and then lingered, cupping her cheek before slowly withdrawing. "Yeah, that's a good idea," he said tenderly. "We took things way too fast, last time. We need to give ourselves time to get used to... this."
Lois pulled a pouty face. "Oh, you're no fun," she murmured. Inside, though, she had to admit that she felt as much relief as frustration. "But yeah, maybe that's a good idea." They needed time to really get to know one another.
"Okay, then," Clark replied, his voice getting lower as his eyes darkened with passion. "But, ah... do you think it'd be okay if we kissed *before* the date?"
"I sure hope so," Lois replied, bringing her arms around his neck, and lifting her face invitingly.
He bent his head towards her -- finally! -- and then his lips met hers. He backed away almost immediately, but Lois pulled him forward again, and this time it was the real thing. His lips were warm and dry, a familiar sensation that had been terribly lacking these last few weeks. How could she ever have thought of life without him? Then rational thought slipped away, as Lois surrendered to the pleasure of being cherished.
The End
