I'm running out of new and interesting ways to thank Carol for her beta work on this story, so this is it for this part!
- from Part Eight
Clark laughed as he accepted the box from Jonathan's outstretched hand. He could feel the man's eyes on him as he opened it and looked at the contents. Inside was a perfectly spherical globe of the Earth. It looked delicate, as if it was made of opaque glass but it was oddly not as heavy as it looked. Not as heavy as it should be if it *was* made from glass. Clark reached in and took it out into the light. He gasped and nearly dropped it as the blue oceans and green continents began to swirl together, turning red and white and finally stopping to reveal what still looked like a globe but one of another planet.
"It's never done that before," Clark barely heard Jonathan's awed voice as he gaped at the glowing ball in his hand.
"Krypton," he whispered.*.*.*.
Part Nine*.*.*.
Clark sat on the bed in the Kents' spare room, staring at the inactive globe. How had he known that the planet was called Krypton? True, that was the name used by Bureau 39 but when he held the globe in his hands, he *knew*. Maybe the question should have been how did Bureau 39 know his home planet was called Krypton? He had spent hours pouring over star charts and he had never seen Krypton labelled on any. Was it a guess, had they just known somehow? Were they hiding his history from him, was there more information on his ship? Annoyingly there were even more unanswered questions for him now.
Martha had been shocked when the two men had returned from the barn with the globe. She wasn't terribly happy that Jonathan had kept it a secret from her but she was glad that it was now in Clark's possession. Lois hadn't said anything. In fact she had looked a little preoccupied now that Clark thought about it, like she had something on her mind. At the time he hadn't really noticed, all he had wanted to do was spend some time alone to reflect and the three of them had granted him this time without question.
He nudged the sleeping bag on the floor with his foot. It seemed odd that they only had two bedrooms. Apparently the rest of the rooms that would normally be used as bedrooms were used for storage of farm equipment and Martha's art projects. Originally the room was to be Lois' and he would sleep on the couch. However, they decided it would be better if they both stuck to the same room. It would be quicker to tidy one room than two if the government caught up with them and so Clark was sleeping on the floor beside Lois. It had been torture for him last night, to lie so close to her and to not be able to touch her as he had the night before. What was she up to now? The Kents had already left for the evening and he'd been sat in a room in the dark, thinking. Why? Hadn't he done enough of that over the last 27 years? Meanwhile, the woman he loved was on her own downstairs. <Great way to impress her,> he thought, mentally berating himself as he left the room to find her, <leaving her alone while I sulk in my room like a miserable teenager.>
*.*.*.
He heard her before he saw her. She was hurling abuse at something she was cooking in the kitchen and the sound brought a smile to his lips, one that had been absent from the moment he had seen the globe. "What's the problem?" he asked as he entered the room and saw her.
The sight of her made his breath catch in his throat. Lois' hair was scooped up in a rough ponytail and her face was painted with the few items of makeup she carried in her handbag. She was wearing the nicer clothes she had packed for the journey but they were covered by Martha's floral apron and she was glaring at something in a saucepan she was holding upside down above the sink. "Simple," she complained to herself as much as Clark, "pasta will be simple. Nothing will go wrong, the instructions are very specific. Hah! Proved her wrong. She laughed when I told her I burnt a salad. I mean, it's obvious, right? You cook tomatoes, they're cooked on pizzas, so I cooked them for the salad. This pasta has had twice the time Martha said and it's still dry and burnt to the bottom of the pan." She made a sound like a growl as she flung the saucepan into the sink. She turned on the cold water and the liquid hissed as it touched the hot metal and turned into steam. Still without looking at Clark, Lois pulled the band out of her hair so that it fell down loosely against her neck and took off the apron, hanging it pristinely on a cupboard handle, before finally turning to the laughing man in the kitchen doorway. "Sorry. I was trying to cook us some dinner. I guess we'll have to go hungry."
"That's fine," Clark told her, as he sat down at the partially set dining table, "so long as you're not hungry. I don't need to eat much, but you do."
Lois joined him, smiling sheepishly. "I kind of ate quite a bit of chocolate as I was cooking. It's hard work you know."
"No, I don't. I've never cooked."
"I'll bet you anything you can still cook better than me."
"I guess there's only one way to find out. Next time, I'll try to cook."
Lois smiled at him, and raised an eyebrow. "Next time, Clark? How do you know there'll be a next time?"
Clark looked away, unable to think of a response. He knew she was only teasing him, he hoped his shy smile convinced her of that but he still had no idea what to say back to her. "Sorry I wasn't here to help."
"No," Clark jumped as her soft hand covered his own, which had been fiddling with the edge of the tablecloth until he felt the silky skin of her fingertips sliding over his hand, "don't be. I understand, you needed time to process finding out about the globe. Besides, I wanted to cook this. One day, I swear to you, I will cook a decent meal, one more conquest for Lois Lane to add to her list of achievements. Just not today."
Clark looked her in the eye, before realising that it perhaps wasn't the wisest move because now he couldn't look away. "You will. I can't see you failing at anything you've put your mind to." His voice had turned gruff as he took her hand in his and gave it a quick squeeze, before releasing it as if in horror at his own boldness.
He watched Lois' eyes sparkle as she giggled at him. "You are so shy."
Clark looked down at their hands, their fingers now entwined and still. "I don't know what to do, Lois. I've never been in this situation before. Throw me on a table and examine me, and I know how to react but with you I'm completely out of my depth."
Lois' fingers released themselves and grazed the skin of Clark's arm as she moved them up and down, sending tingles through his body. "Throw you on a table, eh? Now, there's an idea."
"Lois," Clark jerked his arm away and felt mortified at the look of pain in her eyes at his withdrawal.
She stood up from the table and walked over to the sink, turning off the water and trying to scrape what should have been their dinner from the bottom of the saucepan, annoyed at how determined it was to become a part of the pan. The pasta was even more stubborn than she was. "What do you *want* to do, Clark?" she asked, her voice sharp as she held back a mixture of tears and anger.
Clark looked at his hand and traced the path her hand had taken along his arm, shivering. What did he want to do? Oh, he knew the answer to that. He wanted her to make him feel like a human being, not an alien. He wanted to feel that electricity between them burn with intense passion. But was it what she wanted? He watched her dejected form try to clean the pan. Quite possibly, she did seem to be acting like a woman spurned. He felt his heart wrench as he saw her trying to wrestle tears away from her eyes. He had hurt her. He was such a fool, how could he hurt such a wonderful creature like that? It took less than a second for Clark to act and suddenly she was wrapped in his arms and he kissed her. After a brief surprise, she started to kiss him back and it quickly became even more passionate than their kiss the night before in the sky. He pulled away and he could see the hunger in her bleary eyes as they sought his face for the answer to an unasked question. "I want to do this," he told her quietly, pushing a strand of tear-dampened hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear.
"So do I," she whispered, kissing him again briefly on the lips, "but is this all you want from me Clark, a kiss?"
"No," he admitted, "I want so much more from you. More than a human should ever give an alien."
Lois placed a finger on his lips, then removed it as she leant in and kissed him one more time, causing their attraction to flare even higher. "Don't think about that." She glanced back at the pan she had been wrestling with, that was now lying peacefully immersed in the warm water. "I think that's going to need to soak overnight. Maybe," she paused as she plucked up her courage, "maybe we should just call it a night, and go to bed."
"Bed? Lois, I..."
"Clark," she interrupted him, surprised more at her own forwardness than his reaction to it, "we don't have to do anything either of us is uncomfortable with. But I won't pretend that I didn't like sleeping in your arms that night."
Her sudden shyness caused Clark to smile fondly at her. "Me, too. I'm not ready for anything like that yet, but I do like kissing you. And holding you in my arms. Can we just do that for a while?"
"Of course we can. I'd like that." More than Clark could guess, she thought. He probably wouldn't want to hear that most men would jump at the opportunity she had just presented him with, he'd only turn it into another one of his 'alien' things. Besides, she wasn't really ready for it either, she'd just thrown caution to the wind once more and gone with the moment. She couldn't count the number of times that had got her into trouble, it was a good job Clark was there to keep her from acting too rashly. "But we can still kiss and cuddle in bed, right? I mean, it'd be more comfortable there, and I wouldn't be constantly reminded that I can't even cook pasta."
He chuckled warmly at her, "Sure."
*.*.*.
Lois stretched and yawned as she woke up. Memories of the night before broke into her conscious thoughts and she was surprised not to feel the comforting arms of Clark still holding her. "Clark?" she called drowsily, after realising that only was he not touching her, he wasn't in the bed at all. Her sleep-fogged mind only worked out that he had been pacing around the room when the soft padding of his footsteps stopped after hearing her voice call out his name.
"Um," was his response, "I think we have a problem."
"A problem?" Lois propped herself up on her elbows and her eyes sought out the shape of his body as they began to bring objects into focus, "I don't understand."
Clark leant against the wall looking at her. "We're not at the Kents' anymore."
"Huh?" Lois was sitting up now, all her senses fully awake as she tried to make sense of the alarming news she had received.
He shrugged, his body language showed his resignation to his apparent captivity. "This isn't the bed we slept in, this isn't the room we slept in. In fact the room's lined with lead so I have no idea where we are."
Lois let out a slow sigh as reality sank in and she forced herself not to panic. "It makes a change. Normally after I spend the night with a man I wake up to find him gone, not the room."
Clark walked back to the bed and sat beside her, his guilt making him unable to touch her in reassurance. "I am so sorry. This is all my fault, I--"
He was interrupted by the door to their room opening. Feeling protective, Clark sat beside Lois, keeping her furthest away from the intruders, as they watched the procession of their captors walk purposely towards the bed.
Walking behind Lex, Donna had to stop herself from gasping out loud as she saw a woman sitting beside Clark on the bed. During the night the call had come in that the alien had been recaptured and that after the disappearance of Trask management had been given jointly to her, as head scientist, and Luthor. Donna was under no illusion as to what had happened to her boss and knew that she commanded nothing any more except how to conduct the research. Luthor was even telling her what studies to do and many of their current projects had been stopped in order for them to start his own personal agenda. However, she hadn't been warned about this development and she was struggling to keep her face neutral as a result. They had captured more than just her missing alien specimen, they had captured a human woman and they didn't seem in the least bit bothered about it.
Lex smiled at the pair as he walked towards them, oozing superiority and confidence with every step. "Ah, Clark, I see you've finally decided to rejoin us, and you've brought a friend along." He nodded charmingly at Lois, who wriggled closer to Clark in an attempt to use him to deflect Lex's obvious leer. "Lois Lane, I presume. Well, well, well, isn't this interesting. If you had told me you were looking for a mate, Clark, I could have organised something special for you. As it is, this has worked out perfectly."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lois snapped at him, horrified that he was looking at her and speaking about her as if she was just some sort of object to be used for Clark's pleasure.
Luthor moved so that he was stood beside her, then stretched out one hand to run through her knotted hair but before he made contact Clark had taken a firm grip of his hand and growled as he pushed it protectively away from Lois. Lex smiled at Clark as if extremely pleased with his reaction, then looked back to the reporter, almost treating her as an individual. "That, Miss Lane. You are a very attractive young woman, although I find it bizarre that you should want to sleep with an alien. Still, we all have our little fantasies. As it is, our Clark here seems quite protective over you. I am sure he'd do almost anything to keep you safe."
"Damn right I would," Clark barked back, sounding quite unlike the easygoing man Lois had befriended.
"Exactly. So long as Clark here behaves himself and does what he is told, he will be allowed to keep your company and you will remain unharmed."
"Luthor," Donna could keep quiet no longer as she listened to his barbaric plans for his captives, "we can't keep Miss Lane here with Clark. It contradicts so many basic human rights. Clark has none, he's not human but she is."
Lex pretended to ponder her reasoning, secretly annoyed that the woman was questioning him and unable to see why she couldn't understand the benefits of using Lois to contain Clark. "Things need to be done in the name of science that many people would maintain are unethical and immoral. If it helps, Miss Lane is to be thought of as the alien's concubine. Besides, surely science would be interested in witnessing an alien pregnancy?"
Dr. Wicks bit her lip in order to stop herself from saying something she'd later regret. Luthor was appearing to be amiable but she knew that she would end up with Trask if she argued too much. "I do not think it likely that she would be able to get pregnant from the studies we have of Clark. Maybe the interaction would be interesting for social scientists to study but I am a physical scientist."
"Hey!" Lois shouted at them, not willing to let her independence be taken away from her. "I am no one's concubine and I am not going to be used as some sort of incubator for your experiments."
All attention was focused back on her as her outburst echoed around the room. Lex smiled at her again as he replied in a patronising tone, "Well, we can't force you to have sex with Clark of course, although I am sure he would have no trouble in overpowering you if he wanted to. There is no current interest in producing a child but we would make sure you got pregnant if we wanted you to. Ever heard of artificial insemination?"
Lois' eyes narrowed dangerously. "You wouldn't dare."
"But you know that we would. As it is, for now you are here to keep Clark happy and if he should fail to comply to our requests, you will be taken away from him or hurt. Whichever method proves most effective." Luthor shot Dr. Wicks a conspiring glance before he left the room. Resigned, Donna avoided making eye contact with either of the captives as she followed Lex out the room, mentally preparing herself for whatever 'word' he was planning on having with her.
The technician that had come in with them looked nervously at the couple on the bed and placed his burden that he had brought with him into the room on the table. "Clothes for you," he informed them, trying to speak as little as possible. "After lunch, Clark will be taken for tests."
"Taken where?" Lois asked, not willing to be kept in the dark.
The technician moved over to a second door and opened it. Through the doorway, a basic living area was visible. "You will be locked in here while Clark is being examined. The rest of the time you are free to roam both rooms. There's also a bathroom through there, fully functional. This whole complex was built as a fallout shelter. This was supposed to be an apartment. Mr. Luthor was very kind in letting us move Bureau 39 in here while STAR Labs is being rebuilt."
"I'll bet," Lois grumbled, not believing that Luthor was doing any of this out of the goodness of his heart. He was only in it for what he could get out of it and considering the abilities Clark had, that could be anything. "Any other information that might be useful?"
The technician shuffled towards the door, still not sure who to be more scared of: the feisty reporter or the super-powered alien. "Not really. Meals will be brought to you, as we cannot allow you to have any sharp implements that may be used as a weapon against us or yourself. As Clark is impervious to harm, self-harm or suicide was never considered but now that you're here, we have to be more careful."
Lois gave him a sickly insincere smile. "How sweet."
He turned to leave, then thought of something else that might be of interest to them. "Oh there's cameras everywhere. Even in the bathroom. Microphones are yet to be installed but everything you do will be caught on video." Having said his piece, he practically flew after Luthor and Wicks before either of the captives attacked him.
Lois flopped back onto the bed with a groan as her sharp mind stored the information ready for use. "Lois--" Clark began to speak but she interrupted him, not wanting to hear whatever self-deprecating apology was about to fall from his lips.
"We need to work out what happened."
"We know what happened."
"But what about Jonathan and Martha?" Lois asked, sitting up again in order to look at Clark as she spoke. "Are they here somewhere too? Are they dead? Did they knock them out with whatever they used on us and just leave them there? And what about Dr. Klein? Does he know we're here? Do they know he helped you escape from Luthor and have got rid of him? Clark, all we know is that you're back where you started only this time you've got me for company."
He grinned at her with that charming smile that made the rest of the world melt away. "My very own concubine."
"Don't call me that."
"You're right," his forlorn face reappeared, replacing his irresistible smile as he hung his head in shame. "You must wish you'd never met me."
"No," Lois said softly, lightly placing her hand on his arm in a comforting gesture.
Clark looked her in the eye, not willing to let himself off so lightly, "I bet you wish you'd never shared the bed with me. I mean, if you hadn't, you wouldn't be here."
"True," Lois moved her arm upwards so that she cupped his face in her hand, putting him in a situation where he was unable to look away. "I wouldn't be here. For all we know if we hadn't been together last night, I might have been murdered in the bed while they took you off the floor. However," she said, determination creeping back into her voice as the moment passed while she slipped of the bed and she headed to the pile of clothes that had been left for them, "I am not going to be able to relax while we're stuck here with them filming us. I don't even think I'm gonna be able to take a shower or pee until after we escape."
"We're escaping?" Clark asked as one of his old jump-suits flew across the room and hit him smack in the face.
"You bet. But first we have to come up with a plan before the microphones are installed."
To Be Continued...
