Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Specimen 5/?

Just when you'd forgotten it existed...

...here's the next part of Specimen!!

Big thanks to CarolM for BRing this.

- Alisha

*.*.*.

- From Part Four:

"Do you have any particular destination in mind."

"Oh, yes," Lois smiled at him, "there's something that's been playing on my mind ever since yesterday and I'm going to find out what. We're going to the very beginning of the story. Smallville, Kansas."

*.*.*.

Part Five

*.*.*.

There was a knock on her office door. Donna wearily shoved a pile of paper into a filing cabinet behind her desk and leant heavily against the cold metal. "Go away," she called out irritably. She was not in a good mood and was not interested in some petty little observation by one of her science team.

"Oh no, Dr Wicks. I don't think you want me to do that," a smooth male voice replied without a hint of anger at her abrupt and dismissive tone.

Donna turned round to see her visitor in the same instance that he shut the door, the surprise at who she was addressing evident in her voice and her posture as her feet remained firmly rooted to the spot. "Mr Luthor, what are you doing here?"

Lex pulled out a chair and sat down without invitation, watching the obviously puzzled scientist intently but with a completely affable look on his face. "I wanted to talk about funding."

"Funding?"

"Yes, Dr Wicks. You must surely be aware of the rather substantial amount of funding LexCorp has put into STAR Labs and since the fire--"

Donna waved her arms about in a distracted attempt to silence the man, "Mr Luthor, yes I am perfectly well aware of how much money you have put into STAR Labs but this is a conversation you should be having with management."

Lex smiled at her, putting his feet up on her desk, observing her reactions with a self-satisfied smile. "Oh, but I am. I have come to talk to you about Bureau 39 not STAR Labs."

"I'm sorry?" Donna made her face go blank. When she was younger she had gone through a period of time when she wanted to be an actress. Now she hoped that all those college classes were beginning to pay off as she feigned innocence. "What is Bureau 39?"

He nodded his approval at her response. "You are good, Dr Wicks. Yes, if I weren't sure I would believe that you had never heard of it. However I did not earn my millions by trusting people's faces and I shall speak to you bluntly. I know a lot about Bureau 39, though not as much as I would like. I know that you are the Head of Research for them, and that is valuable to me, but I wish to speak to the person in charge. I do not expect you to tell me who that is, of course, I trust that you won't in fact. I shall also tell you that attempting to take my life will result in your own death and that of the assassins and all associates... well, I'm sure you know how that threat goes. You must have a complete understanding of how powerful I am and how infallible my security is." Donna opened her mouth to speak, but Lex silenced her with a gesture. "You do not need to answer me, Dr Wicks. I know of the alien you kept here, in fact I was the one who had him removed. If it helps our relationship at all, I am willing to sacrifice my informants to you. Unfortunately, he has since escaped from me and I have no idea where he currently is."

Slowly, Donna lowered herself until she was sat down in her chair and moved it so that she faced Lex head on. "Why are you telling me this? As powerful as you are... This isn't STAR Labs you think you are dealing with. This is the government. *If* Bureau 39 and the alien you say you stole exists... You have just admitted to sabotage and theft."

"You do not have this office bugged. It is your word against mine and this is a *secret* government agency. Your life is not that important to them, both sides would write your word off as lies. Your knowledge of Clark exceeds my own but my influence is far greater. Think how easy it would be for us to regain him if we work together."

"What's in it for you? Why did you take him in the first place?"

Lex smiled at her and stood up, walking to the door and placing his hand on the handle. "Just tell them I want to talk to them. I think I have given you enough information for them to know it would be worth their while. Tell them to mention your name when they speak to my PA, they'll get through." He left the room without a second glance at the woman he left behind.

Donna's stomach lurched uneasily. She was now truly stuck in a situation she had no wish to be in. The only way for it to be out of her hands was to pass on Luthor's message to Trask. She reached for her phone.

*.*.*.

Clark twitched his new glasses then fiddled with the strap of the new backpack as Lois strode through the motel's lobby to reception. It was getting dark and although Clark could see well enough and hadn't ever felt as good as he was while journeying to Smallville with the reporter, Lois' vision had diminished far more than his and her sleepiness had risen, as had her temper. Clark moved to stand by the grimy sofas as he watched Lois book them a room for the night and ignored the curious stares of the motel's patrons, who seemed much more interested in the woman than her companion. Lois had taken care of everything. She had drawn out a vast amount of her own money from various ATMs around Metropolis, then used her own money to buy him a couple of new outfits, two backpacks for them to carry as well as food and water for the journey. She had paid for all their fares to their current location, bossed him around and taken charge of the situation as if she was always in control of what was going on around her. She was amazing, he thought for the hundredth time, and beautiful for the millionth. The receptionist handed Lois a key, then she beckoned for Clark to follow her as they started to make their way through the badly lit corridors.

"Why do we only have one room?"

"I'm not made of money," she replied with a hint of venom, "plus it makes sense to stay together and it would look very suspicious if we didn't share a room. Don't tell me that with all your *super*-senses you haven't worked out what most people use this motel for. Rooms can be rented out per hour."

Clark swallowed in embarrassment as he felt his cheeks begin to blush. "I've been trying to block it out."

Lois chuckled at the charming naivety in his voice. "Welcome to the pit of human existence. Be glad you can say you're not a part of it," she glanced back at him. He seemed all too manly to her as the shadows that fell around him enhanced the form of his body, "if you're still convinced you're not. Ah-hah, room 8. That's ours," she opened the door and pushed it open to allow them inside.

Clark shut the door and locked it, then double-checked that it was secure. "Do you seriously believe that I'm not an alien? You've flown with me!" He turned around to see Lois dumping her bag beside the bed. The single, but double, bed. One bed intended for two people. Lois was acting as if she hadn't even noticed.

"I know all that, I know that you're different but I have spent my whole life following my hunches and instincts, which are seldom wrong I might add, and they keep telling me that you are what you look like."

"And what do I look like?"

Lois blushed slightly and lowered her eyes so that they were no longer looking at him, but at the floor. "A, not unattractive, man."

*Not unattractive*. Did Lois find him good-looking as well then? Was the attraction mutual? Clark watched her curiously as she fussed about, unpacking some toiletries and a pair of warm, comfortable and very un-sexy pyjamas. Probably not something he should quiz her about as she got ready for bed in the room they had to share. The room with one singular bed. "Shall I make a bed on the floor?" he asked her eventually.

She paused in her unpacking as she considered her answer. "Do you want to? I mean, don't get me wrong, I would normally insist on you sleeping on the floor. Well, in other circumstances in another room in a better hotel but we've got to save as much money as possible. It's just that carpet does *not* look very inviting."

"I don't mind."

Lois flashed him a grin as she looked at him across her shoulder, noticing that he was still hovering by the door. "I do. Trust me Clark. You don't want to sleep on the floor."

"I do trust you, I'd just understand if you didn't trust me."

She picked up her pile of clothes and toiletries and headed into the tiny, dank bathroom. "Clark, you're an alien, I'm a human. I mean, it's not like you could *possibly* be attracted to me. We're two completely different species. It's gonna be like sleeping with a large dog on the other side of the bed." The sarcastic tone of her voice convinced Clark that she didn't believe a word of what she'd just said. That and the look she shot him as she shut the bathroom door.

Clark slumped down onto the bed, careful this time to not entrust his entire weight to it. The bed he had broken in Luthor's penthouse had been a fairly new, solid and well-made one; this bed was not. He was slowly learning how much force a normal human applied to things and so the little accidents like pulling handles off doors that had dogged their morning's travel were quickly disappearing. Clark was a fast learner. He looked at the carpet under his feet and lifted his foot off, noticing the sticky resistance it offered. She was right, it was disgusting, but the bed he was sat on wasn't much better, although the covers had at least been washed so that only the stains were left. Clark flexed his muscles and smiled childishly at the wall opposite him. He had spent all day trying to act human, play down his abilities, so much so that he seemed to have persuaded even Lois that he was no more than a shy and naive human being. He glanced at the clock, then changed into the T-shirt and shorts they had bought for his night wear. He looked back at the clock. 3 seconds.

*.*.*.

Fifteen minutes later Lois emerged from the bathroom. She smiled as she leant against the door frame and watched Clark who was sat on the bed, flicking through the channels on the television with the remote control. "You know, I had a television set at Bureau 39. I didn't really watch it. Sometimes I watch some of the older programmes but the newer ones never seem to hold my interest. I spend most of my spare time writing."

Lois didn't move from the doorway and he didn't move his head around to look at her. "What do you write?"

"Stories mainly."

"Can I read one?"

"No, I don't have any with me. Luthor rescued most of them, I think, but we left them behind."

"It doesn't seem fair, when we met you said you'd read my work. I'd like to read yours."

He turned the television off. Noises from the rooms around them sounded louder in the following silence and they both fought to keep from grimacing. "Maybe you will. I'm getting some good material for an adventure story out of this."

"Really? We haven't done much, action-wise."

Clark squirmed, trying to block out the mental images she had just conjured in his head. He turned to look at her, hoping he wasn't blushing too much. "Maybe not for you, but you haven't spent your entire life locked up in a lab."

"True," she smiled at him, then sat beside him on the bed. "I guess I'm used to slightly more adventurous stories. Hiding from baddies, getting caught up in dodgy dealings, it's all in a day's work when you're an investigative reporter. Breaking an alien out of a multimillionaire's penthouse then smuggling him to Kansas isn't exactly on the top of my action list. Weird list, yes, but not action."

He laughed. "Sorry to be a disappointment."

Lois averted her eyes from him, cursing her weakness as she realised just how often she had to make herself do that. "You're not a disappointment."

She had spoken so softly that Clark had to use his extra-sensitive hearing to hear her. It was then he noticed that her heart was beating faster than usual but he had no idea why. It wasn't fear speeding it up and if anything she looked uncomfortable as she sat there, purposely not looking at him. Maybe it was because she... <Nah,> he thought, <that's too ridiculous. Just because you're attracted to her doesn't mean she's attracted to you. You're reading too deeply into things because you *want* her to be attracted to you. She isn't, she can't be. You're seeing things that aren't there.>

"So, um," Clark tried to think of something for them to talk about, "what side of the bed do you want?" <Smooth, Clark, real smooth. Why not just ask her to have sex with you?>

"I don't mind. You choose." Lois answered, a little too quickly in her mind.

"I've never actually shared a bed with anyone before, so I don't know..."

Lois suddenly stiffened up and leant away from him, her features stone. "And you're just assuming I have? What do you think I am--?"

"Hey!" Clark interrupted her, raising his hands as if they could form an impenetrable barrier and deflect her anger from him, "I'm not saying you're an anything! I wasn't insinuating that you were a ... a ...," he couldn't bring himself to say any of the words that popped into his head. They weren't Lois. "I just thought, I don't know, maybe you'd shared a bed with your sister or a friend at a sleep-over or something. Try and remember that most of my knowledge of human interaction comes from television and books. I'm bound to get things wrong, or say the wrong things. I don't mean anything by them."

"Sorry, sorry, I know." Lois laid her head in her hands, rubbing her temples, reminding herself that Clark was different. A man brought up in a laboratory wasn't likely to have any of the preconceptions that most men did, and she was as bad as them for immediately thinking the worst of him. "A lot of this is my own problems, not you. You need to stop assuming that every negative reaction you get comes from what you are and what you've been through. You're not the only one to have a tough life, you know."

Clark snorted at her statement, "Yeah, because your life was so much worse than mine."

"Worse, no, but it wasn't a bed of roses by any means." Lois avoided looking at him for a different reason as she scuttled under the covers and hid her head under the duvet. "Goodnight."

He sat there for a minute, staring at the Lois-shaped lump under the covers, wondering what he'd said, where he'd gone wrong. With an infuriated sigh he got up and turned on the bedside lamp, then walked over to turn off the main light. Clark turned around and looked at the bed. He was torn, a part of him wanted nothing more than to go under there with her and follow the example set by the people in the rooms beside them but he knew that even if Lois wasn't upset with him, she wouldn't want that. The part of him that was thinking with his brain instead of a lower organ decided that it would be a good idea for him to sleep somewhere else tonight. He moved forward to pick up the spare blankets, compromising his conflict by spreading one on the floor for him to sleep on, when he heard her sob. In a flash he was in the bed beside her, caressing her shoulder and murmuring comforting words to her. "Lois, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. Please stop crying."

He removed his hand as she rolled over to look at him with tear reddened eyes, her head peeking out from under the duvet. "I know, Clark. Sorry."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Lois sat up and shook her head, then spoke anyway. "I used to share a bed with my sister sometimes. I'd lie there, not able to sleep, listening to my parents fighting. Then Lucy would appear in my room, afraid to be there. I was always yelling at her for coming into my room without my permission in the dim past when we were a normal family, or as normal a family as a bunch of Lanes could be. She'd stand there, petrified, she was so young, clutching at her favourite doll as if it could protect her. I never really knew what to do to comfort her, so I just used to hug her, then ask if she wanted to sleep in my bed. She always did. She used to fall asleep in my arms, still hugging that stupid doll. Eventually Dad would storm out to go and spend the night with one of his mistresses and Mom would drink herself into a stupor. Only when there was that deathly silence in the house would I be able to sleep."

Clark stared at her in sympathy and utter horror that someone who seemed so perfect to him could be born out of such misery. "Lois, I had no idea. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to--"

"Oh, how were you to know." Lois waved her arm at him dismissively, then a strange and distant look came into her eyes as she wondered why she was opening her heart to this virtual stranger. She continued anyway. "Dad was only the first in a long string of men to let me down. You would have thought I'd have learnt that lesson well at such a young age. At least Lucy didn't seem to learn it either. You should meet some of the men she's been out with!" She paused as her exasperated tone dropped back into her quiet narrative. "I don't sleep around but I'm not exactly inexperienced either. Every time I've been with a man, I thought I was in love with him. That doesn't make me a slut does it?"

It was a rhetorical question but Clark decided to answer it anyway. "No. If you think you're in love with someone I don't see that there's any harm in expressing it."

Lois gave his hand a squeeze in silent gratitude. "The last one was the worst. His name was Claude, he worked at the Planet with me. I was just a researcher then, hoping to impress the editor enough for him to raise me to a reporter. I would have taken *any* story, even a dog show or the recipe section! I stumbled across a story, some drug ring I think. I can barely remember the details now, I've tried so hard to forget it. In my eagerness for recognition, I told Claude about it. He was very good-looking, not quite as good-looking as you but easily the handsomest guy in the newsroom. *Every* woman at the Planet had a crush on him and a few of the men. He told me he'd help me with my story if I got stuck, all I needed to do was ask. We had dinner a couple of times, discussing the story. He'd give me little hints and flirt with me. I fell for him something rotten. The night I finally finished my story, I asked if he wanted to come over and read through it, check it for me before I gave it to Perry. He came round, we ordered take-out and went through the story. Then, one thing led to another and we slept together. I thought my whole life was finally sorting itself out. I had a brilliant story, one that would definitely prove that I was good enough to be a proper reporter and I had the man of my dreams by my side." The blissful smile vanished from her face. "When I woke up, Claude was gone. I think he only stayed in my bed until he was sure I was asleep. That hurt. Then when I got into my living room, I found that all my notes were missing. I was running late and I didn't have time to look for them, so I just printed off a new copy of the story and headed into work as normal. On the way in, I bought a copy of the morning edition. There, right on the front page, was my story. Only it had *his* name on the by-line. Not even a mention of me. I was devastated. The first thing I did when I got into work was destroy the copy I'd printed out; I didn't want anyone to know how foolish I'd been. No-one did find out of course because I didn't want them to know he'd made a fool of me and he didn't want people to know that he'd stolen the story. That didn't stop him telling everyone that he'd slept with me, though. He told them all that I was too easy and still not worth the effort it had taken to coax me into bed. I've never really bothered with men since then, just concentrated on my work. I've dated no-hopers and scared them off just to try and shut up my sister whenever she has a go at me for being single. All men have ever brought me is pain." The tears she thought she'd already cried rolled down her cheek in encore.

Clark reached out and pulled her into his embrace. She threw her arms around him in response, hiding her face against his chest, sobbing onto his T-shirt. "Shush, Lois. There's someone out there for you, a man who would rather die than hurt you. Don't give up hope." He felt her murmur the words 'thank you' against his chest. "Do you really think I'm good-looking?"

At that, Lois laughed and pulled away from him. "I pour out my heart to you, and all you take away from it is that I said you were good-looking. You really are more of a man than you think."

"If you think that all men are like Claude or your father, I'm taking it as an insult."

She shook her head as she rubbed at her sore and swollen eyes. "No, not all men, just the ones that I seem to attract."

Clark didn't want to continue this maudlin conversation. "Come on, I think you're just feeling a bit tired and emotional. Let's get some sleep; things will seem better in the morning."

Lois nodded and snuggled back down under the duvet but this time she kept her head on the pillow. Clark turned off the lamp and followed suit. A few minutes later, Lois' voice drifted out to him through the darkness. "Clark?"

"Yes?"

There was a slight pause as she considered her following words and their intent. "I... can you hold me tonight?"

"OK," said Clark, puzzled but wanting nothing more than touch her again, "sure."

"Thanks." Clark heard her movements rasp against the sheets, then felt her small frame press against his as she wrapped her arm as far around him as she could. He swallowed as he fought to control himself, then he put his arm around her in a relaxed embrace. "I know it doesn't make sense, we hardly know each other, but for some reason I feel really safe with you."

"I have no intention of hurting you," was the only reply he could think of.

Lois smiled in the darkness at his gentle and comforting words. "That might be it," she yawned, then she quickly fell asleep, listening only to the sound of his breathing and his heart beating steadily in his chest.

To Be Continued...