Hello everyone! Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Are you ready for a little waff? Here it is, as promised... there's more to come... I hope you enjoy.
Table of Contents From Part 9:
“You’re coming to Smallville?” Martha’s surprised voice asked.
Lois realized that she might have been a bit rash. She was a little tight right now financially. But the money she had saved on a hotel room for the week could be used for an airline ticket instead, and all those mileage points she had been accruing on her credit card wouldn’t hurt either.
And she wasn’t about to let Clark get away with ignoring her.
“Yes, Martha,” Lois affirmed. “That is, unless it creates a problem for you,” she added.
“Oh, no. I’d love to have you, honey,” she paused and then continued on in a lower voice, “I think it would be good for Clark. Thank you.”
“I’ll call you later and let you know when to expect me. I’ll get a rental car at the airport and...”
“Heavens no. Jonathan can come pick you up. He needs to head into Wichita to pick up a couple of parts for our older tractor anyway.”
The thought made Lois feel a little claustrophobic. It was kind of Martha to offer and would certainly save money for her not to have a rental, but Lois didn’t want to be dependent on someone else for transportation. And when she decided she was ready to leave, she wanted to have the means to leave – without having to wait on someone else. Besides, she didn’t plan on staying very long. A car rental for a couple of days wasn’t going to break her – especially now that she knew she would have a job again very soon.
“No, really, Martha,” Lois protested, “I don’t want Jonathan to have to come all that way, even if he needs to make a trip. He certainly won’t need to make the return trip to get me back to the airport. I’ll just get a rental. It’ll be easier.”
“Okay,” Martha said, not sounding quite convinced. “Do you need directions from the airport?”
Did she? Lois had been there before but Clark had been driving so she hadn’t really paid attention to the road. “Yeah, let me grab a pen and paper.”
**********
PART TEN
**********
Lois was glad the drive to Smallville from the airport wasn’t an extremely long one because she had become sick of the tiresome flat expanse of road that she had been driving on. There was nothing to see - just miles and miles of flat farmland intermingled with fields where cattle grazed behind barbed wire fences. She couldn’t have been happier when she reached the turnoff for the road that would take her to the Kents’ old farmhouse.
As she neared the turn for their driveway, she caught sight of the old house, illuminated by the warm orange glow of the afternoon sun. The house looked pretty much the same as it had the last time she’d been here, although it did look like Jonathan was in the process of repainting the barn.
Turning into their driveway and making her way towards the house, Lois marveled at how time just seemed to stand still somehow out in the country. It was so much different than the hustle and bustle of life in a big city.
There was no way she could ever live in the country. It would drive her insane. The constancy of it and repetitiveness. She needed excitement, challenges... variety.
She brought the car to a stop and turned off the engine. Before she had even gotten her door open, Martha was out on the front porch and coming down the steps to greet her.
“Lois! Did you have a good trip?” Martha asked as she walked up and embraced her.
“Hi, Martha.” Lois awkwardly hugged her in return. “Yes, but I’m glad to be here finally. Is the wind always this strong? The plane ran into a lot of turbulence and I felt like I was going to get blown off the road at times.”
“Yes, I’m afraid the storms this time of year bring in a lot of wind,” Martha explained, looking through the side rear window of Lois’s rental car for luggage. “Sometimes even a few tornados.”
Lois pulled the release to open the trunk and Martha followed her as she walked back to retrieve her one bag. “Tornados? Are you kidding?” Lois asked before giving her a lopsided grin. “So there is some truth to Dorothy, Toto and Oz, after all?”
Martha returned her grin. “Well I don’t know about the ‘Oz’ part.” Her grin widened. “But yes, the tornados are real enough.”
Lois frowned. “Well, yeah, but you guys probably haven’t seen a tornado in years, have you?”
Martha watched helplessly as Lois picked up her lone bag, then she led the way back towards the house. “Actually a farm about five miles down the road, the Harris farm, sustained some minor damage from a tornado just last spring.”
“Really? Is that where Rachel, the Sheriff, lives?” Lois asked, feeling a little apprehension when another gust of strong wind whipped around her as they made their way up the front porch steps.
Martha nodded, tucking a few strands of hair that were blowing wildly, behind her ears.
Lois frowned, looking up into the sky. “Are there any watches or warnings out for tonight?”
“No, not yet. The weather forecasters don’t seem to think that the storm tonight is going to be very bad.” At Lois’s concerned look she continued, “Don’t worry. We have a weather radio in the kitchen and it’s programmed to sound an alarm if either a tornado watch or warning is issued.”
That didn’t do much to make Lois feel better, but at least there was a warning of some sort. Martha held the front door open for her and she went inside. The house was quiet. “Where’re Jonathan and Clark?”
“Jonathan’s out working on the corn crop. Clark...” She paused and glanced up the steps as they walked past them on their way towards the couch. “Clark is still in bed.”
“At this time of day?” Lois exclaimed - it was the middle of the afternoon. “Martha, is he that sick? Has he gotten worse since I talked to you yesterday?”
Martha’s shoulders slumped and she let out a soft sigh. “I don’t know. He won’t talk to me. Somehow I get the impression that it’s not just illness keeping him in that bed. I think part of it is a lack of desire to get out of bed. That’s why I was so glad to hear you say you were coming here.”
“Do you think he’s contagious?” Lois was rarely sick. She had never been a sickly child either, but she didn’t want to press her luck.
“I’m not sure,” Martha said softly. “His fever dropped off yesterday afternoon and hasn’t come back. I had always heard that normally if you didn’t have a fever, you weren’t contagious. But this isn’t exactly ‘normal’ is it?”
“No, I guess not.” They had stopped in front of the couch and Lois suddenly realized that this was where she would be sleeping. She remembered on her last visit that Clark had given up his room for her and had taken the couch. She certainly wouldn’t expect him to do that this time. “Where should I put my bag?”
“I’m sorry we don’t have another room to put you in,” Martha apologized.
“Oh, no, this is fine, Martha, really. Clark took the couch the last time...” And that time in the honeymoon suite at the Lexor hotel, she reminded herself. “It’s definitely time for me to take a turn. I just didn’t know where I should leave my stuff.”
“Why don’t you put it in Clark’s room? It’ll be close to the bathroom that way and...”
“Are you sure he won’t mind?” Lois interrupted, feeling suddenly shy about keeping her personal items in Clark’s room with him in it. Not like she thought he would go through them or anything and not like there was anything to see, really, anyway. But still... “Maybe I should wait. I don’t want to wake him up if he’s asleep.”
“If he’s not asleep, he should be,” Martha said, and then frowned. “But I would be very surprised if he’s sleeping.”
Lois nodded and turned to head up the staircase. She looked back to say something to Martha, but she wasn’t there. Then she heard her doing something in the kitchen and realized that Martha didn’t intend to follow her up to his room. Her palms began to sweat a little for some reason, and when she got up to his room she found herself a bit hesitant as she stared at the closed door.
Should she knock?
Of course you should knock, she scolded herself. She certainly shouldn’t just open the door and go striding inside like she owned the place. What if he wasn’t dressed?
She blushed and swallowed once before reaching up to knock on the door. “Clark? It’s Lois. May I come in?”
There was silence for a few seconds and Lois was about to knock again when he finally said, “Be my guest, if you want to risk getting sick. I told Mom that she should have told you not to come.”
Lois opened the door cautiously and walked inside, feeling for all the world like it had been weeks instead of days since she had seen Clark last. “Well your mom told me that you weren’t running a fever any more so you probably aren’t contagious.”
Clark was lying in bed with his back to the door and the blanket pulled up high around him. His only answer was an indecipherable grunt.
“I’m just leaving my bag here for now.” She set her bag down next to his chest of drawers and then walked to the foot of his bed. “How are you feeling?”
There was only another grunt followed by silence.
“Clark? What’s wrong? Why won’t you talk to me?”
“I just don’t feel like it,” he mumbled, still refusing to turn and look at her.
“What do you mean?” She scowled. “You don’t feel like it because you’re sick? Or because you just don’t want to talk to me? How sick are you, Clark?” When he didn’t say anything she continued, “Are your powers still gone? Is that what’s...?”
“Ah, so now we get to the real question,” he interrupted, rolling over in bed to face her. His face was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. Had he been out in the sun at all the past few days? “No. My powers aren’t back yet. Does that bother you?” The hard edge in his voice was unmistakable.
“Yes, it bothers me, of course it does!”
“Of course it does,” he echoed her abrasively.
Lois furrowed her eyebrows. What was his problem? “Clark, why wouldn’t it bother me? If your powers aren’t back yet, then you obviously aren’t getting better. Something’s wrong.”
“That’s not the only reason it bothers you though, is it?” His eyes left her face and he looked down at the floor.
Lois could hear the sadness in his voice and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know where he was going with that question. But she asked anyway, “What do you mean?”
He sighed softly. “You once told Superman that you would love him even if he didn’t have any powers at all, even if he were just an ordinary man leading an ordinary life...” He turned over in bed putting his back to her again. “Well it looks like you just might get that chance,” he continued softly.
“Don’t talk like that,” she scolded him. “You’re going to get better and you’re going to be back to your normal ‘super’ self in no time.” She sat down on the bed next to him and laid her hand on his arm, silently hoping that he wouldn’t pull away from her. “But I meant what I said to... you. I *would* still love you, even if you had no powers at all,” she recited the words she had said to Superman, “even if your powers never come back. You have to believe that.”
“How can I?” he asked, turning his head to look up at her. How could she be so blind as to not realize how her words had hurt him? “Clark *is* the ordinary man leading the ordinary life and you didn’t love him. The only reason you care about me now is because you know that the man who you only considered to be your partner and your friend is actually your super hero. It changed your perspective of me, but it didn’t change *me*,” he paused for a moment and when he continued, his voice was very quiet, “I’m still the same person I’ve always been and when it comes right down to it, you never loved that person.”
“That’s not true!” she protested, swallowing the lump that had formed in her throat. She never liked having words thrown back in her face – they were never easy to digest.
“Oh, so you’ve changed your mind? Is that it?” he growled softly.
Warning signs were flashing inside Lois’s mind. She had to proceed very carefully. “It’s not that I’ve changed my mind. I just came to realize something that my heart has known all along but I had refused to admit.”
“Oh, sure, you say that now. You know that I’m Superman now. That’s the only reason you’ve changed your mind.” Clark had no idea why he was pressing the issue at this particular moment. He really didn’t feel like talking about it – like talking period. It just hurt to know that Lois loved her super hero so much that she would hop on a flight to come down here and check on him, but if it were really just Clark, she wouldn’t have come.
He had thought a lot about things over the past few days. It’s all he’d had time to do. Think. Meditate on the things Lois had said to him as Clark, the way she had treated him. His mother called it feeling sorry for himself. Well that was fine. She could call it that if she wanted to. But it didn’t change anything. It didn’t change the truth. And the truth was that Lois was only doing what she was doing because she knew he was Superman.
Lois sucked in a sharp breath at his accusation. It had taken all her control not to smart back at him. He hadn’t been honest with her – he had hidden things from her. So he was just as guilty. But right now he was hurting, physically and emotionally. He wanted proof and he obviously didn’t think she had any to offer, but he was wrong. “I broke off the wedding,” she whispered softly.
Clark lay there quietly for a few seconds before answering her, “Of course you did, you found out your husband-to-be was a criminal mastermind.”
“No!” she protested. “That’s not why I called it off. Henderson hadn’t even come yet. I...” she took a steadying breath, “I called it off because I realized that I didn’t love him. I told him I was in love with someone else.”
“Luthor already knew that,” Clark retorted, turning over again to frown up at her. “He knew you were in love with Superman. That’s why he had me caged up down in that wine cellar – to keep me out of the way so I couldn’t interfere, until he could kill me.”
Lois flinched at his words and the mental images they invoked of his torture. “No, that’s what Lex asked me - if it was Superman. I told him it wasn’t. And the surprising thing was that he knew who I meant. He knew it was you.” She squeezed his arm softly. “I didn’t really have time to think about it then because Henderson came busting in shortly after that, but later on I thought about it. I realized that I talked about you all the time. And then there was the pheromone incident. Lex had seen me throwing myself at you. He knew there had to be an attraction there for the pheromone to work.”
Clark wanted to argue with her. He wanted to tell her that the attraction didn’t have to be deep – obviously, or Perry wouldn’t have gone after Rahalia like he did.
But he knew she was telling the truth. He could see it in her face, and something Luthor had said to him came flooding back.
<So this is who she would love? This simpering nothing that is cowering before me?>
Luthor had said that right before he had attacked him. Clark hadn’t understood at the time what Luthor was talking about, but he did now. Lex had known that Lois was in love with Clark.
Clark felt a rush of pure pleasure run through his body at that knowledge. It was somehow vindicating to know that before Luthor had died, he had known that Lois loved Clark more.
Lois fretted as she waited for him to say something. He looked like he was considering what she had said. Did he still not believe her? “You can ask my mother if you don’t believe me. I had her get Lex for me so I could tell him that I wouldn’t go through with the marriage.” She rolled her eyes inwardly at how juvenile that sounded. “I’m sorry I said what I did that day in the park. It wasn’t true. I realized then that I had deep feelings for you but they scared me. Please believe me. I’m sorry that I...”
“I believe you, Lois,” Clark murmured quietly. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and the blanket fell away, exposing the bare skin and contoured muscles of his chest.
Lois tried to hide a blush as she realized that she was actually contemplating what still lay beneath the blanket. “So...” she said, trying somewhat unsuccessfully to avert her gaze, “where does that leave us?”
“I don’t know,” Clark admitted quietly. Honestly she had blown him away with what she had just admitted.
“Oh,” she said softly. Lois got up from the bed unsure of what to say next or where to go. She certainly wasn’t in a position to talk to him about Klein. And it wouldn’t do any good right now, anyway; the sun was already starting to go down. “Well I should probably go downstairs, see if I can help your mom with dinner or something and let you get your rest.”
“I couldn’t rest now if I tried.”
Lois stood in awkward silence for a few seconds before remembering the other item of interest she had wanted to share with him – the Planet. “Um, I do have some good news to tell you.”
“What?” Clark was fairly certain that whatever else she had to tell him couldn’t possibly top what she had just told him.
Realizing an opportunity when she saw one, she continued slyly, “I want to tell your mom and dad too. So why don’t you take a shower – that always makes me feel better when I’m sick – and come downstairs and have dinner with us?”
Clark frowned half-heartedly. “Are you doing the cooking?” She shook her head ‘no’ and he continued with a smile, “Then I think I might be able to make it down.”
Lois stuck her tongue out at him in mock indignation and hid a smile. He was already feeling better.
**********
“Dinner was great, Mom,” Clark said, wiping his mouth with his napkin. Dinner had been wonderful for more than one reason. Lois had told him about everything that had been happening back in Metropolis over the past few days. The Daily Planet was coming back, better than ever. Jack was getting a fresh start at a better life...
And Lois was very possibly in love with him - if he dared to believe it.
“Yes, it was delicious,” Lois agreed. “Better than my mom’s, that’s for sure.” She made a face. “I think I unfortunately inherited her cooking skills, or lack thereof.”
Clark immediately felt guilty for having teased her earlier about her culinary skills. “I’m sure your cooking is fine, Lois.”
She shook her head. “Nope. I can’t cook to save my life. Whoever you got your information from is absolutely correct.” She paused for a minute and narrowed her eyes. “Who *did* you get your info from?”
“I’m not sure I should tell you,” Clark teased. “It’s against a reporter’s code of ethics to reveal a source.”
“Not to your partner!” Lois exclaimed in protest.
“Especially to your partner,” he said, grinning widely, “if said information is about them.”
Lois rolled her eyes. “Martha, I don’t think he’s sick. I think he’s faking it.”
Martha laughed. “It wouldn’t be the first time a Kent male had feigned illness for some TLC.”
“Hey!” Jonathan protested. “It was too beautiful of a day that fine spring morning to spend it away from my new blushing bride. I don’t remember hearing any complaints.”
“Dad!” Clark exclaimed. His cheeks had turned rosy and it made Lois laugh. He looked over at her and caught her eye, a grin spreading across his face. “I have to admit that I do feel better. In fact, what would you say to taking a walk with me?”
Lois raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re feeling up to it?” She would enjoy taking a walk with him but she didn’t want him pushing himself.
“Yeah, I think the fresh air would be good for me. The view of the stars here is amazing.” He smiled warmly at her. “I wanted to show you the last time you were here, but I didn’t get the chance.”
“Just be careful,” Martha warned. “There’s a storm blowing in and you don’t want to get caught out in the rain. I don’t want to discourage you but you might not see too many stars out tonight.”
“That’s okay,” Lois said, smiling at Clark. “I’m sure there’s more to look at than stars.”
Clark felt a swell of warmth flow through him. He stood up from his chair and walked to the front door, opening it for Lois. He followed her through it out into the warm, spring night. The moisture hung heavily in the air – you could literally feel it against your skin - there was definitely a storm coming.
Clark looked up at the evening sky. The sun had just finished setting and while there was still a bit of color left on the horizon, the sky above them was dark. Dark enough that they should have been able to see the stars, but they weren’t there.
“Sorry. It looks like the clouds are blocking our view of the stars tonight,” Clark said apologetically.
“That’s okay. It’s still lovely. The way the deep red hues at the horizon blend into purples, blues and then black. You don’t see a sky like this in Metropolis,” Lois noted, sounding wistful.
Mesmerized by the view and not watching where she was walking, she stepped on a small rock with her hiking boot and almost stumbled. She recovered quickly - embarrassed and hoping Clark hadn’t noticed her misstep. She didn’t get too many chances to wear her hiking boots, but she remembered from her trip here before that boots came in pretty handy on a farm. A dressier pair of shoes was packed away in her bag in Clark’s room. She wasn’t sure if she’d need them or not but at least she had them.
Clark surprised her when he reached out and took her hand in his as they walked. Maybe she hadn’t covered her stumble as well as she thought she had. Lois smiled, enjoying the way her skin tingled where it met with his.
“Sometimes I miss *this*, he said and gestured at the sky, “living in the city.”
Lois bit her lip. “So I guess that means you aren’t really missing the city, yet?”
Clark glanced over at her and flashed her a smile that she could barely see through the darkness around them. “No, I miss it, but I’ve got the best part here with me tonight,” he said softly, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.
She was glad it was dark out so hopefully he couldn’t see the color that she could feel flushing her cheeks. “When do you think you’ll come back?”
Lois heard him sigh softly. “I don’t know. When do you think Perry will want me to come back?”
She thought for a moment. In truth, Perry probably wouldn’t need Clark for at least a couple more weeks, but she didn’t want him to be gone that long. “Next week?” she replied hopeful.
“Next week?” Clark stopped walking - beginning to feel the soreness threatening to return in his side - and turned to face her, trying to read her expression through the darkness. He was cursing the fact that his powers had deserted him. His eyesight was normally much better. “Is that when he wants me back or when you want me back?”
She hesitated for a moment before replying, “I would want you to come back tomorrow.”
“Lois...”
“I know, I know, Clark. You still need to recuperate and you can do that better here. I just miss you. I was worried about you when you didn’t call.” She tentatively moved closer to him and when she continued there was a tremble in her voice, “That day, when I heard Henderson say you’d been wounded and then I saw them loading you into that ambulance, I...” She trailed off and Clark didn’t know what to say so he just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him, allowing himself to believe that she really did love him.
“Shhh,” he whispered quietly against her hair, “it’s all right. You’re safe and I’m here...”
“Yes, but you’re not okay.” She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him gently. “You’re hurting and it’s my fault.”
Clark drew back from her. “Look at me.” When she didn’t comply, he used one hand to lift her chin up so he could look into her eyes. “This isn’t your fault. Luthor did this...”
“Yes, but if I had seen him for who he really was, I could have been helping you, instead of hindering you,” she argued. “We might have found evidence on him sooner. He might not have...”
Clark pressed one finger to her lips, silencing her. “You can’t dwell on what might have happened or what you could have done. Believe me. It would make you go insane.”
She realized he was probably speaking from experience as Superman. Even as Superman there was only so much that he could do. If he dwelled on all the things he couldn’t do, it would make him crazy. She couldn’t even imagine how he was dealing with things now – coping with not having any powers after having been the strongest person in the world.
Instead of responding to what he said, she just snuggled closer against him, enjoying the warmth of his arms around her. “I’m sorry for what happened that day in the park,” she murmured, trying to find a way to ease into a conversation about Dr. Klein. She hadn’t brought the subject up at the dinner table because Clark had asked her not to say anything to his parents. That’s why she hadn’t just spilled the news to Martha over the phone, instead of flying all the way here to talk to him.
She had promised.
That wasn’t the only reason she had flown all the way here, though. She had needed to see him. Lois sighed softly and Clark gave her a gentle squeeze, sending a pleasant fluttering through her nervous stomach.
“That day... the park... wasn’t your fault,” he consoled her. “I caught you off guard. I shouldn’t have...”
“No, Clark, I lied about my feelings that day.” She had to make him see that she loved him, make him understand that she had gone to Dr. Klein to help him. He needed to know what Klein had told her. But the potential to wreck everything loomed over her, threatening to smother her voice. Or maybe that was just the humidity. “Clark, I...”
She paused because of a crack of thunder and flash of lightning from the field next to them. “Wow, that was close,” she breathed.
And then the rain came.
“Run!” Clark instructed her, taking her by the arm and heading back towards the house.
Lois had heard about rain hitting fast and furious but she hadn’t experienced it in quite this way before. In the city there were always plenty of buildings nearby with awnings for shelter, or if you were desperate you could take a short cab ride. But out in the country, a couple of hundred feet from the front porch and no other available shelter, you were in trouble.
By the time they made it to the front porch Lois was soaked and shivering slightly, yet it had been kind of fun. She was out of air from running so hard so fast, and she bent over to catch her breath. Clark might not be ‘super’ right now, but even for a man with a wound in his side, he could still outrun her.
Clark rubbed his side gingerly where his stitches were. They hadn’t bothered him as much the last couple of days, but then again, he’d mostly been in bed. “Lois, are you okay?” he asked, leaning over and pulling her hair back to look at her.
She rose up, giggling softly. “Y..yeah. I’m f..fine,” she told him through chattering teeth.
He stood up, putting his arm around her, and led her to the door. “I’m sorry. If I had my heat vision I could dry you out in two seconds...”
Lois planted her feet, forcing Clark to stop. He turned to look at her and she frowned at him. “Don’t.”
Clark gave her a look of confusion. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t you do that, Clark. I don’t care about your powers. I mean it. I would just as soon have your arm around me keeping me warm.”
He tightened his hold on her. “I can definitely do that.”
“Okay, good,” she said, sounding satisfied. “Now let’s get you inside before your cold turns into pneumonia.”
Clark opened the door for her and followed her inside. Lois looked around expecting Martha to come in and fuss at Clark for getting caught in the rain, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Where’s your mom?”
Clark gestured upstairs. “They go to bed pretty early because they have to get up before the chickens,” he said, smiling at her. Then he shrugged. “That’s life on a farm.” He headed upstairs, continuing to talk as he climbed, “Get your...” He almost said pajamas but decided against it, “...clothes ready that you want to change into and I’ll get the shower hot for you.”
“No, Clark,” she hollered up at him, “you go ahead. You need to get warmed up. Besides, I’m sure you’re faster than me in the shower.”
A couple of minutes later Clark was stepping into the shower. The heat of the water soaked into his body, warming him through. As he savored the rhythmic massage of the water against his neck and shoulders, his mind turned to thoughts of Lois bathing in this same shower after him. After a few seconds, Clark reached down and shifted the nozzle to cold.
***********
To Be Continued...
