a/n - Again unbeta’d so beware.
Chapter 2
They flew in silence, the only sound Lois heard was the woosh of the wind streaming past her ears. The moon only allowed a small sliver of light - yet Lois wasn’t concerned about the lack of visibility. This wasn’t the first time she’d found herself in this position, where she’d had to put her ultimate trust in a man who could fly. That the arms that held her so securely wouldn’t drop her. Except… it was completely different. She didn’t even know what to say to him. Where did she even start?
Lois began to feel that annoying sense of hysteria begin to tease along the fringes of her awareness and mentally shoved it away. Overreacting was really not what she needed to be doing here. She knew how she could get - and it wasn’t pretty.
At all.
Clark’s face was unreadable and he refused to meet her eyes. That annoyed her. If you were going to pluck someone from certain death, the least you do was look them in the eye afterwards, for crying out loud. There had to be some protocol for this type of thing. Proper etiquette for how to act when you reveal to your best friend that you‘re really a superhero. Obviously her first assessment of him had been correct - Clark really had had been raised in a barn. But then she thought of Clark’s mom and decided to cut him some slack. She liked Clark’s mom and didn’t want to insult her.
Clark though… was fair game and always had been.
Even with the glasses on, the suffering look on his face reminded her of the stoic mask he usually wore as Superman. How could she have been so blind? Because well, he looked like Superman. He acted like Superman.
He was Superman.
Oh god.
Without giving it any thought, Lois reached out and shoved Clark’s tie to the side, unbuttoning the first few buttons of his dress shirt; her hands splaying and spreading the material apart. She didn’t know why she did it - it wasn’t like she didn’t know what she was going to find under that starched cotton.
And yep, there it was. The hint of blue spandex peeking through the opening of his shirt.
Her partner and best friend really was Superman. Huh. How about that. She didn’t even begin to question why she wasn‘t feeling betrayed and angry at the duplicity, blaming her lack of reaction on the fact that she was too tired to get worked up about it. That had to be it - Lois Lane didn’t let something like this slide without putting her two cents in.
Ever.
Well, almost never, anyway.
“Where are we going?”
Clark’s head jerked as he finally met her gaze. Lois didn’t like seeing the utter dejection in his face, like he’d just lost his best friend. Geez, did he think she was that shallow?
Wait - she didn’t want him to answer that question.
“Clark?” she began again. “Where are we going?”
“Someplace safe,” he muttered.
“Well, that‘s helpful.” Had he always been this cryptic? She studied his features. She really should have been able to figure this out by herself - some investigative reporter she was.
“Clark?” Her voice sounded small even to her ears.
“What?”
“I just wanted to say….” Lois took a deep breath, “thank you. You know, for saving my life. Again.”
A tiny smile played along his lips. “Well, it seems to have become a full time job lately.”
Lois stared at him, ready to tell him that it wasn’t her fault that somebody kept trying to kill her. Only… the words never came. Instead, Lois found herself bursting into tears. God, she hated when she did that. It always happened at the worst times too. Like this one - this had to be one of the worst times ever. And the more she tried to not cry, the harder her tears would fall.
She was pathetic. Utterly pathetic.
Lois didn’t notice the change in speed, or the light descent to the ground below. She was too busy trying to wipe away her tears before they had a chance to leave her eyes and smack Clark in the face. Not that he’d complain - he’d just look at her with concern and try to make her feel better.
Damn him for being such a nice guy.
Finding the ground suddenly beneath her feet, Lois jerked her head up, noticing for the first time that they had landed. Someplace… flat. With a barn.
“Where are we?” she sniffed.
“Smallville.”
Oh. He had brought her home. To his home. To her chagrin, the tears began in earnest once more. Blindly, she buried her head against the hard chest before her, not surprised to feel strong arms wrap themselves around her.
“Don’t cry, Lois,” Clark pleaded. “I’m sorry.”
With an unladylike sniff, Lois raised her head to stare into Clark’s face. “Why are you sorry?”
“For… lying to you.”
“Oh. That.” Oddly, that wasn’t upsetting her. At least not at the moment. “That’s not why I’m crying.”
“Then why are you crying?” he asked softly.
Lois sniffed again. “I don’t know!” she wailed. God, she hated it when she was like this. She could feel -rather than see - the smile that transformed her partner’s face. His smile always felt like a shock of electricity, jolting right through her. She could practically feel it hum inside of her, warming her. A smile like that should be illegal. “You better not be thinking this is funny, Kent,” she huffed.
“I don’t.” He kissed her forehead. “I was just thinking back to the first time I’d saved your life, when you’d gotten yourself chained up. You started crying and it just surprised me. I hadn‘t pegged you as the crying type.”
Lois frowned, her tears forgotten for the moment. “What? Do you keep count of how many times you’ve saved my life?”
“Actually, I think I’ve lost count, Lois.”
“Such a funny guy,” she grumbled, feeling decidedly better. Leave it to Clark to push her buttons and make her get over herself. Something else she loved about him.
“Come on, let’s go inside.” Clark kept his arm around her and turned them in the direction of the farmhouse.
“Aren’t your parents going to mind us barging in so late?”
“They’re out of town.”
“Oh.” She was silent for a moment. “Who takes care of the farm then while they are gone?”
“I do.”
She stared at him, realizing for the first time the implications of what had just been revealed to her. Her partner could just fly home and take care of his parent’s farm and be back in time to be infuriatingly early to work, hogging all the good donuts. Not that he didn’t share those good donuts with her because he did. He was like that.
But Clark being Superman was going to take some getting used to. Somehow she couldn’t see Superman hogging all the good donuts, even though she knew he did frequently.
If Lois thought she’d been tired before, the weariness that struck her just then barely paled in comparison. She was grateful for the strong arm wrapped around her waist and unconsciously leaned against Clark, letting him take the brunt of her weight.
“You ok?”
“I’m tired. I’m really, really tired.” The fight or flight adrenaline had fled, along with her tears - and left her barely able to function. She hated when that happened too.
When strong arms swept her off her feet, Lois didn’t complain, merely dropping her head against the muscular chest beneath her cheek and closed her eyes. She felt safe - and that was a feeling that had been in low abundance the past few days. The steady beat of Clark’s heart was threatening to lull her to sleep. That was just like Clark. Steady. There when she needed him.
He really was a great guy.
She’d almost drifted off when he set her down gently on his parent’s couch. Mustering up a tiny bit of energy, Lois opened her eyes and regarded Clark. She didn’t like the way he was acting - like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. She grabbed his hand.
“Clark, thank you.”
He looked at her warily. “You’re welcome.”
Lois frowned. Did he really think she was so shallow that the fact that he’d lied to her just about - oh, every single day she’d known him - would make her not like him anymore? Ok, maybe in a different situation, she could be that shallow person… But not tonight. Not when he’d saved her at the risk of putting his own secret identity in jeopardy. “It’s ok, you know.”
“What is?”
Lois gestured to him. “That you are, you know… Superman.” She yawned. “Tomorrow it might not be, but for tonight it’s ok.”
He gave her another one of those illegal smiles and she found herself returning it. He was still her comfortable Clark and she loved that about him.
“Come on.” He pulled her to her feet. “I think you need some sleep.”
“No argument there.” Lois allowed Clark to guide her up the stairs and into the room that had been his growing up. The room that had nurtured Superman as a child. Wow, that was a weird thought. Somehow, she hadn’t pictured Superman spending his childhood sleeping in a twin bed in a farmhouse in the middle of Kansas. Yet… he had.
“Uh, you know where the bathroom is. Mom always has stuff for guests so you should be able to find everything you need.”
“Where are you going to sleep?”
Lois watched him blush and found it endearing. Superman was nervous. No, not Superman. Clark.
“I’ll sleep in my parent’s room.” He opened his top dresser drawer and grabbed some clothes for Lois to sleep in.
Taking the proffered substitute pajamas from Clark’s hand, Lois stumbled into the bathroom and washed her face, appreciating Martha’s innate sense of hospitality when she found a packaged toothbrush and toothpaste in the medicine cabinet. Just this nightly ritual made her feel better, like she still had some control of her life. Peeling off the suit she’d worn that day, she slipped on the clothes Clark had given her. As the oversized Smallville High sweatshirt hit her knees, Lois sighed dreamily. Comfy.
Just like Clark.
Leaving the clothes she’d just taken off where they had dropped, Lois left the bathroom and headed back to Clark’s room. It didn’t surprise her to note her partner was waiting for her, although looking decidedly uncomfortable.
“Feel better?”
Lois nodded, making her way to the twin bed in the middle of the room. “I’m really tired though.” She wasted no time in pulling back the covers and settling in, yawning loudly.
“Do you need anything else?”
Lois shook her head. “No.” She watched him turn around and head for the door, a slight sense of panic flooding through her. Being alone was a scary thought.
“Clark?”
He spun back around to regard her and Lois noted for the first time that his face mirrored her own weariness. “Yes?”
“Will you stay with me?” Lois hated the weak, slightly pleading tone of her voice. It annoyed her. Honestly, sometimes she didn’t know how Clark put up with her.
He nodded and made his way across the room to settle in the chair that occupied one corner. “I’ll be right here if you need me.”
Lois frowned. That wasn’t what she meant. “No, I mean… could you… sleep next to me? At least until I fall asleep,” she hurried to say. Since when did she worry about giving Clark the wrong impression?
Oh maybe around the time she learned he was Superman…
An odd look flashed over Clark’s face but before she could even begin to interpret its meaning, Clark was sitting on the edge of the bed, toeing his shoes off so they fell with a loud thump to the wood floor beneath his feet. Wordlessly, Lois held up one side of the quilt and scooted over, waiting for him to join her.
The bed dipped as Clark turned off the beside lamp and slid under the covers, his uncertainty demonstrated by the stiff way he held his body, making sure he didn’t touch Lois. And in a twin bed, that was a hard thing to accomplish. Especially when you took up as much room as Clark’s large bulk did.
Lois smiled at just how Clark that was. Always so careful to make sure he didn’t cross that line between appropriate and inappropriate. Lucky for him, Lois had no such qualms as she scooted next to him and threw one arm over his chest and snuggled into his side. This was more like it. Comfy Clark.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Lois found herself asking, wondering if she was actually trying to take advantage of the situation. “I just don’t feel like being alone right now.
The look Clark threw in her direction helped ease her mind. Lois could feel the tension ease from his muscles as he began to relax against her, the heat of his body going a long way in chasing away the almost permanent chill that had plagued her since the first attempt on her life just a few days prior. If one attempt on her life hadn’t been hard enough, multiple attempts were enough to drive her over the edge. She was scared - a feeling not one she typically allowed herself to actually acknowledge. Admitting fear made it real. But this time, there was no denying it to herself.
She was scared out of her mind.
Thank god for Clark.
“Thank you,” Lois mumbled as fatigue finally managed to capture her as a victim, pulling her into a deep sleep within seconds.
“You’re welcome, Lois,” Clark whispered, knowing that Lois wasn’t in a position to hear him.
He couldn’t help but wonder what the next day would bring.
tbc
Thank you so much for the comments on this fic! So very VERY appreciated! Again I'll ask for a BR if anyone has time!
