Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Specimen 7/?

As normal, thanks goes out to my beta, Carol.

- from Part Six:

Jonathan gave the man who should have been his son an amused glance as Clark looked transfixed at the doorway through which the women had departed. "So, Clark, how are you at cooking?"

Clark blinked as he slowly brought his attention back to Jonathan, realising how rude he must seem to him. "I don't know."

"Let's find out then. Martha's much better at cooking than I am but I've yet to give anyone food poisoning." Clark followed him into the kitchen, with an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach that he recognised as being a result of his mini fight with Lois. He resisted the urge to tell Jonathan that it would be impossible for him to contract food poisoning but only because he knew it would only further irritate Lois and he wanted to get back into her good books, so he decided to keep his mouth shut. Maybe learning to cook would help to keep his mind off Lois. He sighed. Then again, maybe not.

*.*.*.

Part Seven

*.*.*.

Lois sat on the Kents' porch with Perry's phone in her hand as the stars twinkled above her in the deep black-blue Kansas night sky. It had rung a few times throughout the day but she had been reluctant to answer it, for fear of who might be on the other end and whatever advanced tracking system they might have to use to locate them. She had helped clear the table after dinner, then used the phone call as an excuse to let the three of them talk alone. Lois knew well enough that she had no real place with them; she was just a reporter on a story, an observer with no true place in these events. That was how it should be, she *shouldn't* get involved with her stories. How could she give an unbiased view of events if she became a part of them? She sighed, hoping that finally she'd start paying attention to her own well-worn advice and dialled Perry's extension at the Planet. It was late but chances were he was still there. Two rings later and she heard his tired voice through the ear piece, "Perry White."

"Perry. It's Lois."

"Lois, honey, where in the Sam Hill are you?"

"Kansas."

"Kansas! What in the--"

"Perry!" Lois cut into his tirade not wanting a lecture from the man she thought of as a father figure, "Please. I'm on a story, I think."

"A story? Is this still the STAR Labs thing?"

"Technically. Why do you ask?"

Perry sighed, realising that he wasn't going to get much out of the reporter until she had enough information to run with whatever story she'd got herself involved in this time. "I've had this guy from STAR Labs calling me for hours trying to find you."

"Dr. Klein?"

"Yeah. Now Lois, you've got to tell me what's going on. I'm not gonna have you disappear on me for days like you did in the Congo; you've got to keep me in the loop."

Lois glanced back to the warm, cosy and safe farmhouse behind her, not wanting to disrupt its peace, or that of its inhabitants despite how compelling the story that was unfolding was going to be. "I'm not sure there is a loop. I mean, there's definitely something going on but I'm not sure what."

"Don't lie to me, Lois."

Fine. She didn't have to lie to him if he didn't want her to. That didn't mean she was going to give him the truth. "What did Dr. Klein say?"

"Not much. He's worried about you, as am I."

"Look, Perry, I've gotta go. Next time you talk to Klein tell him w-- I'm fine and I'll call him tomorrow, OK?"

"We? Lo--"

Lois ended the call, feeling relieved as the dial tone sounded in her ears. She wanted to tell Perry, she trusted him implicitly but something wouldn't let her confide in him. It wasn't her secret to tell, that was the trouble. After everything Clark had been through at the hands of Bureau 39, she didn't want to let him down. She didn't want to be responsible for his worst fears coming true; that everyone would discover he was an alien and shun him, maybe even force him to remain hidden in Bureau 39 forever. Lois knew Perry wouldn't judge him like that, but he would see this story for what it was; the biggest scoop of the century. If she wrote all she knew about Clark, even now, she was definitely up for a Kerth, maybe even a Pulitzer. The problem with that, though, was that she couldn't do that to a friend and Clark felt like a lot more than just a friend to Lois. <Focus,> she told herself, <Clark is just a source. A very nice, charming, hot source admittedly, but you are Lois Lane, not Cat Grant. Take a cold shower, go to bed and try not to remember how nice it was to sleep in his arms last night.> She looked up at the stars. She'd never really seen them before, certainly not as clearly. Was that really where Clark had come from? It seemed impossible, but at the same time completely credible, that a man like Clark came from the heavens.

"What are you looking at?"

Lois looked up to see Clark standing beside her. She hadn't heard him come out of the house. "The stars. I was just thinking about things."

"What things?" He sat down next to her so that they were almost, but not quite, touching.

"All sorts of things. I remember when I was a little girl I heard people say that looking up at the stars made them feel all insignificant and whatever problems were worrying them unimportant, because in the grand scheme of things we're all little more than nothing. I thought people were crazy when they said that. I loved the bright lights of the city at night, I still do, and I didn't think anything could ever outshine them, yet there's something magical in looking up at the stars."

Clark breathed in as he followed her gaze upwards. "You know, I have memorised all the different constellations. Being an alien, they decided I should know everything there is to know about space. I don't recognise any of them. They look so different in the sky than they do in charts and photographs."

Lois pointed upwards. "I think that one might be the Big Dipper," she paused, then pointed in a slightly different direction, "although that one looks like it, too."

"The Big Dipper is not a constellation," Clark told her.

"Yes it is," Lois argued, "I may not know much about the stars but I know the Big Dipper."

He chuckled as she refused to back down. "Yes, but it's not a constellation. It's an asterism. It's like a constellation within a constellation. The Big Dipper is part of the constellation of Ursa Major," he grinned as Lois shot him a venomous look. "The larger one's Ursa Major and the smaller one's Ursa Minor. Ursa Minor contains Polaris, the most Northerly star although it's slightly off centre. It moves like the other stars, only in a much smaller circle so it looks like it stays in the same place."

"I didn't ask for a lecture."

"Sorry." A thought popped up in his head and he stood up, holding his hand out to Lois. "How about a closer look?"

"Huh?"

"Come on." As Lois stepped towards him, he took her into his arms and started flying upwards towards the stars. She gripped his waist firmly as he propelled them up through the night sky until they were far above the ground. Clark didn't feel cold and he wasn't finding it hard to breathe but he couldn't be sure that staying at this altitude wouldn't affect Lois. "Tell me when you want to go back down, you know, if you get too cold or something," he told her as he hugged her closer to his body to try and keep her warm.

"Er no, I'm, well, a little chilly but mainly surprised."

Clark grimaced, realising he hadn't asked her permission before whisking her off into the sky. "Sorry. I should have asked first. I just thought it might be nice."

Lois let out her breath as her pulse began to slow down after the excitement of the impromptu flight. "No, it's wonderful. I just wasn't expecting it that's all." She glanced around them as she took in the splendour of the night sky around them. "There are so many stars. I wouldn't have thought it possible."

"It's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen." Clark agreed. Lois turned her head to look at him. He was staring directly at her and as soon as he saw that she was looking back at him he started blushing.

Lois chuckled nervously as she fought of the implication of his words. "So," she began, also trying to ignore what she was feeling with his body pressed up against hers, "which star is yours?"

"I'm sorry?"

She looked at his blank expression with mild irritation. "You're an alien, right? Meaning you come from another planet. That planet must orbit a star, so which one?"

"I don't know," he told her lamely, "Bureau 39 said the planet was called Krypton, that's all I know." He groaned as she got that look in her face again. She didn't need to say it now; he knew what she was thinking. She didn't believe the whole alien thing. She was floating in the air with only him keeping her from falling to her certain death and she still thought he was human. "Lois, I *am* an alien."

Lois followed his gaze to the Earth below them, realising that right now he actually had a good case for his argument. Still, she *was* Lois Lane. "Possibly. Clark, I'm not saying that you're not different. Right now I'd be a fool to try and pretend otherwise. I just don't think you're as unhuman as you do. Take dogs for example."

"Dogs?"

"Yeah. You wouldn't expect a chihuahua to herd sheep would you? That doesn't stop it being a dog anymore than a..." Lois desperately tried to remember the right breed of dog, although if she was privy to that information her brain decided to keep it from her, "a sheepdog."

"I guess," Clark conceded grimly, wondering whether a dog was a step up or a step down from an alien.

"No-one knows where life on Earth came from. Maybe your race was the same as ours, then we went to different planets where you evolved slightly differently to us."

He had to laugh at her slightly off-centred logic. "You think?"

Lois smiled back at him, realising how much she sounded like she was grasping at straws in this argument. "I have no idea. It's not an impossibility though."

He kissed her. There was no rational thought behind it on his part. She was just being Lois, in his arms, in the starlight, her face centimetres from his. So Clark leant forward and cautiously kissed her on lips. He'd never kissed anyone before, not even a peck on the cheek. He had no idea what he was doing but he knew that was what he wanted to do, so he did it. He half expected Lois to slap him or pour a drink over him or respond in some other patented soap opera cliché. He did not expect her to respond to his kiss and certainly not as passionately as she did.

As their kiss deepened Lois moved her arms from his waist to his neck, so that she could pull his lips nearer hers. A thought at the back of her mind reminded her that she was far above the ground and Clark was the only support she had and that loosening her grip as she moved her arms might not be the most sensible thing to do in the situation. However, Lois was no longer really aware of where they were and Clark was holding her so tightly she doubted that she needed to cling to him at all. He'd never let her fall and she was enjoying this so much. She groaned as her lungs tightened and she started feeling light-headed. Lois realised with sorrow that it wasn't all from the kiss. Reluctantly she pulled away.

"Oh God," his voice was barely above a whisper as it reverberated in his chest, "Lois, I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking."

Lois pressed her finger against his lips to stop his rambling, unneeded, apology. "I need oxygen," she told him breathily, realising that there wasn't enough for her up there, not if she was going to be kissing Clark like that. "Can we go back down to the air, please?"

By the time Clark had flown them back down to the Kents', Lois was as feeling embarrassed as he was. She stumbled out of his embrace as soon as she felt the damp grass against the sole of her shoe and tottered over to lean against a pillar outside the farmhouse, straightening out her clothes. Clark scuffed at the turf with his foot, keeping his eyes averted from her. "I know what you're thinking."

"Really?"

"Well, maybe not exactly. I just -- I can't help it Lois. You just make it hard for me to breathe whenever I look at you. I get butterflies in my stomach whenever I think about you. I know I shouldn't feel this way about you whatever you say, we're different species but I can't help it. I think I'm falling in love with you and it's wrong and I know you can't feel the same way."

Lois gave him an evil look as he finally raised his head to look at her. "That was your first kiss, right?"

He blushed again and turned his head away to try and hide the redness in his cheeks. "What, you think Bureau 39 used to bring me girls to kiss? Of course it was."

"In that case," she said as she walked towards him and took him by the lapels, her voice growing with anger as she spoke, "I'll forgive you for not realising how much I was enjoying it. I'm gonna tell you this, Clark and I'm gonna say it once only because it's not the sort of thing I'd normally confess to anyone. I'm falling for you too and I'm falling hard. I've never felt like this about any man I've ever met. I couldn't care less that you're an alien. The reasons for my reluctance to pursue this relationship is my own brilliant track record and the fact that you're a source for a story."

Clark couldn't fight the cheeky smile that ticked at his mouth and so he let the corners of his lips lift themselves as high as they could. "This is a relationship?"

Lois stared at him in disbelieve, then groaned in annoyance at her lack of self-control as she stood on her tiptoes to give Clark a quick, but forceful, kiss on the lips. She let go of his shirt and pushed herself away from him. She marched up the steps to the Kents' door, where she turned to look back at the stunned man she left in her wake. "I'm going to bed now," she told him, the anger still in her voice. "I'll see you in the morning." She entered the house and slammed the door behind her.

Clark had no idea what had just happened. All he knew was that he had told Lois he was falling in love with her and she had pretty much returned his feelings. Despite that however, he had somehow annoyed her as well. He loved it when she was annoyed, he was going to love it even more if she'd start resorting to kissing him like that when he irritated her. He couldn't hide the smile on his face as he strode into the farmhouse after her.

*.*.*.

Trask almost felt nervous as he stood in the shadowed alley in the area of Metropolis fondly referred to as 'Suicide Slum'. The area was the very centre of all that wrong with the city, crime was at its highest, tramps lined the streets and it was the foothold of various gangs. So why did Luthor want to meet him here? Maybe that was a question best left unconsidered, now more than ever. Trask knew he had to be cautious with the alien still on the loose. There was movement on his left and he stood a little straighter, his right hand resting a finger's breadth from his hidden gun. "Who's there?" he called, his voice matching his formidable presence.

"Jason Trask?"

That wasn't Luthor's voice, it was deeper and it was English. "What's it to you?"

He heard the sound of a car door opening. "Mr. Trask, would you kindly step into the car?"

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on," Trask bellowed, moving so that the black car came into his line of sight.

Trask heard someone chuckle, then another man spoke. "You are an impressive man, Mr. Trask. I shall tell you what is going on. You and I are going to take a little trip during which we are going to discuss the alien, Clark."

"Luthor," Trask identified the voice coming from the car but made no further move towards him.

"Indeed. I was the one who took Clark from you. I thought you might want to see me."

Trask gave in to his curiosity and walked towards the car. He stopped when he saw Luthor sat in his limousine, illuminated by its decadent internal lighting system. "Why would you trust me?"

Lex took a puff on his cigar and blew the smoke out at the man, who stood firm and refused to cough as the smoke filtered into his lungs. "Why would you trust *me*? Jason, this isn't about trust, this is about business. Business I would rather discuss inside the car where no-one can hear. Unless you want everyone in Suicide Slum to know about Bureau 39."

Trask took one last look at the man holding open the car door, noting the well-concealed weapons he carried under his expensive suit, and got in beside the businessman. The door shut behind him and Trask heard the other man get in the driver's seat. They didn't move.

Luthor smiled genteelly at him. "I want to recapture Clark."

"You lost the alien?" Trask exclaimed in horror, losing his caution as his paranoia took over. "It's out there, somewhere, probably contacting its home planet and giving them information for the invasion?"

Lex blinked as his only outward sign of surprise. He hadn't expected this. After he had received Trask's call, he had done some background research on him. It hadn't turned up much, Trask was a virtual ghost. He had learned only that he had no family and was totally dedicated to his job at Bureau 39. Lex hadn't been prepared for his madness. "It was broken out of my care by one of your men and a reporter. The man is Dr. Bernard Klein. He is still in Metropolis; we have been following him. He seems to have no idea of the current whereabouts of the alien. Your associate, Dr. Donna Wicks, suspects Klein's involvement but has no proof and an odd sense of honour which is preventing her from handing him over to you for interrogation. However the alien was given into the care of a reporter, Miss Lois Lane, who was last seen driving out of Metropolis with the alien. Her car was found dumped at the local university where her sister studies and from there I currently have people trying to trace their movements. I want him back, you want him back. For now our goals are the same and I propose a union. In return, you will have access to full funding from LexCorp. What do you say?"

Trask shook his head in utter refusal of Lex's plan. "You are insane. You want in on Bureau 39? You must know that's a lifetime contract and a very risky venture for a man of your standing in society."

Luthor chuckled at the man's naivety at the true nature of his dealings. "I am a man of business; it is not the first of such contracts I have undertaken."

"Fair enough," Trask reconsidered the man that seemed so different to the humanitarian he portrayed himself as and more like a man he could work with, at least until he started interfering with his own agenda, "your offer is tempting. You know a lot more about the current situation than I do."

"I have many more contacts."

"And the money would come in more than useful, but there's one problem I have."

"What is that?"

"Your motives. What's in this for you? Why did you take the alien in the first place?"

Lex blew a smoke ring and smiled in self satisfaction at his skill. "Ah, my reasons. Do you know how dangerous it would be for you to know them?"

Trask folded his arms and glared at him. "About as dangerous as your knowledge of Bureau 39 is to you."

He nodded in agreement. "Yes, something like that. My goal, Jason, is to make the world a better place. I want to make my visions of our future come true. That's why I do all the work I do. Now, along the way I am forever coming across people who disagree with my view. I have to persuade them to accept my plans, I cannot have them working against me. I thought that a being as powerful as the alien might be very, how shall I say, persuasive, in those situations."

"No. The alien must be kept subdued and away from any possible contact with the rest of its sorry species. I'm sorry but no deal and I must request that you have no further dealings with Bureau 39." Trask pulled on the door handle but at sometime Luthor's assistant must have locked it without him noticing. "Let me out."

"Mr. Trask, remember our little arrangement?"

"Huh?" As Trask turned to face Luthor, he heard the shot of a gun. He glanced down at his shirt and saw a growing patch of a sticky red substance flowing from the area in which he knew his heart was located. He'd been shot. He looked at Luthor. He was smiling at him. He'd just killed him and he was smiling! "You son of a--" Jason Trask died before completing his final sentence.

Lex sighed and placed the gun on the corpse's lap, wiping it clean of his own fingerprints, thinking how fortunate it was that his own car was being fixed and the one he was currently sitting in had been rented out by Nicholas S. Janacek. "Nigel!" he called out to his assistant.

"Yes sir?"

"Drive on. It seems our guest has taken a turn for the worst. I'm sure we can find a comfortable place for him to rest while he recuperates."

"I know just the spot, sir," Nigel responded as he started the engine and drove away into the dark secrecy of the night.

To Be Continued...