Title: Alchemical Attraction
Rated: PG
Summary: In this alternate beginning, Lois and Clark meet four years prior to the events of the Pilot episode while investigating villainous chemists at a journalism workshop in upstate New Troy.
Lois realized that she was dreaming. She was blissfully enjoying the feeling of sleeping while moving through her dream world. She and her partner, Mel Gibson, were investigating drug runners. He was driving like a maniac, and she was holding on for dear life, trying not to get thrown from the open car window. Suddenly, the car stopped, and they both bolted from the vehicle, bearing down on the man trying to run away from the car he crashed in front of them. Mel, with his gun trained on the man, was able to stop him long enough to cuff his hands behind his back. As he was doing this, Lois saw another man trying to sneak from the crashed car.
“Get him!” Mel yelled at her. Lois turned on the man and, giving a clear Tae Kwon Do kick, sent him sprawling to the ground. Cuffing him, she hauled him up to sit with the other suspect in the back of their car. “Great work, partner,” she heard Mel say to her.
As she and Mel slid into the front seat of their car, she noticed that he was looking at her. His body was so close to hers that she could feel the heat radiating off of him. Reaching out, he pulled her hand to his, causing Lois’s upper body to shift closer, bringing her lips near his. Her eyelids fluttered closed, then opened to see that the face of the man she was practically kissing wasn’t Mel Gibson after all, but Clark Kent. Not stopping to think how or why (after all, it was just a dream, right?) she kissed him back, then laid her head next to him, pulling them into a loose embrace against the back of the seat. A feeling of comfort and security enveloped her as she felt her dream self fall into a blissful slumber.
After some time, Lois slowly became aware of waking from a deep, comfortable sleep. The room was still dark, and she was curled up next to something very warm and solid behind her. She tried to turn over but only partially succeeded as the arm draped over her waist was pinning her down. Waking even further, Lois let out a small moan of protest as she struggled to turn and stretch. A grunt and moan from behind answered her, lifting the fog of sleep even further. Lois’ eyes shot open to stare into her own shocked face reflected off a pair of glasses—glasses which were sitting on the face of the Smallville hick, Clark Kent.
As she struggled even harder to escape from his arm, she felt him pull her into a tighter embrace, bringing her lips next to his in exact imitation of her dream scenario. She could see how soft his lips looked, pursed together in anticipation. Inching her face closer still, she could see his smooth skin and could feel the whisper of breath from between his lips. A lock of dark hair fell over one eye, making him look so young and vulnerable. The unexpected realization that she was lying on a couch, under a blanket, in the embrace of a gorgeous man with a firm (mmm, very firm) body pressed up against her caused Lois’ defenses to kick in.
“Let me go!” she yelled while pushing him further into the couch. Instinctively, he must have heard her and reacted because the next thing she knew, Lois was suddenly falling off the couch, landing on the floor with a hard thud.
“Ow! That hurt, Kent.”
“Lois, wha…what happened? Where are we?”
“We fell asleep on the couch after the movie, you lunkhead,” Lois said as the embarrassment of the situation started to sink in, “I, uh, I’ll be going to bed now.”
“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push you. I fell asleep and didn’t know what I was doing,” said Clark, equally embarrassed.
“No, I’m sorry. I was the one who was yelling at you. We both fell asleep.”
“Yes, but I had my arm around you,” he said.
“I can’t believe I almost, I mean, it felt like we were going to…” Lois stumbled with how to apologize for almost kissing him while trying not to let him know she almost kissed him in case he was too asleep to realize what she had been about to do.
“Bed, right, well, good night, Lois,” Clark said, as he got to his feet, pulling Lois up from the floor as he did so.
“Yeah, see you in a few hours,” Lois said, as she quickly took off for her own room and her own bed.
*******
Later that morning, Lois groggily awoke to her alarm clock’s tone ringing far too early, in her mind. The feeling of disorientation slowly gave way as her eyes opened to sweep over the sparsely decorated dorm room serving as her ‘home’ for the rest of the week. A single bed, desk, and a small chest of drawers underneath a tiny square mirror were the only decorations in the room. Her suitcase, which she had forgotten to pack with a robe, was tucked away inside the closet so she wouldn’t trip over it while she pulled herself up from the bed and walked across the room. Lois opened the drapes to let the morning sunshine light up the room, and she cracked open the window, breathing in the fresh outdoor scent.
“What was I thinking last night?” Lois said to the bird flying past, just outside the window.
Sheddding her sleepshirt and wrapping up in a towel, she stumbled down the hall to the communal bathroom. Lois hadn’t liked living in a dorm during her college days, and doing so now, if only for a week, was even less appealing. Thankfully, no one else was in the bathroom as she stepped into the shower and let the warm spray wake her body further. Lois couldn’t help but think about what had happened with Clark last night. Deliberately, she turned the water a little more towards the cold side to help distract her thoughts and jolt her further awake.
As she was stepping out of the shower, a couple of other women were in the bathroom getting ready themselves.
“Sleep well, Lois?” the tanned blonde asked her, running a comb through her long hair.
“Fine, thanks,” Lois replied as she wrapped a towel around her body.
“Well, if I was sleeping with a guy like that, I’d sleep *very well*.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Lois asked, turning on the blonde.
“Come on. Eve mentioned that they left you and Clark Kent together on the downstairs couch after the movie last night.”
“We fell asleep. Nothing happened,” Lois replied indignantly. “Why didn’t anyone wake me when the movie was over? Believe me. I was not happy to wake up in the wee hours of the morning next to that country bumpkin.”
Sarah, one of the women who had been watching the movie with her last night, picked that moment to step into the bathroom.
“Lois, none of us wanted to wake you. You both looked so tired and happy, sleeping together on the couch with these goofy grins on your faces. We just turned out the light and went to bed. No harm done,” said Sarah.
“No harm! Then why am I here defending myself to mud-slinging rumor mongers like you?” Lois said, pointing at the blonde woman who first spoke to her.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, Lois. You seem to be protesting quite a bit for someone who didn’t do anything last night. What’s wrong with Clark, anyway?”
“I do *not* want my name linked with that farmboy hack. I mean, look at him. He’s wearing jeans and a flannel shirt at the Norcross Journalism Center!”
“Oooh, and did you see how he fills out those jeans?” the woman asked, “I’d be happy to sleep with him, or not, any time you care to let him loose, Lois.”
“He’s not mine to let loose. He’s engaged, so drop it," Lois said before turning to Sarah, "And next time you’d better wake me!”
With that parting shot, Lois pulled her towel closer and attempted to stomp out of the bathroom in a royal huff, spoiling the effect with the flapping of her shower slippers and the frantic grasping of her towel which kept slipping off her still damp, naked body.
**********
Clark and Greg were sitting at a table over coffee and eggs that morning when he saw Lois out of the corner of his eye. Clark turned his head to confirm that it was indeed her standing in line for the coffee and felt the blush creep across his face. Greg obviously noticed the blush, and said with a grin, “Looks like you and Lane are getting along alright after all.”
“I woke up who knows when this morning when she fell trying to push me off the couch,” Clark laughed. “Guess that will teach me to fall asleep during a movie.”
He was surprised to see Jimmy walking through the cafeteria door and heading straight for him. “CK, my man. A fiancée and a babe on the side,” Jimmy said as he bounded up to Clark. Seeing the look Clark gave him, he added, “I won’t say a word. Promise.”
Clark rolled his eyes at his younger friend as he said, “Not you, too, Jimmy. Greg here was just giving me a hard time about falling asleep on the couch last night. Trust me. There is nothing going on between me and Lois.”
“Hey, what you and Lois do is your own business. But, of course, in a place filled with journalists, it’s all over the center if even *I* heard about it in my group,” he said. “Seriously, though. Can you and Lois meet me for lunch today? I want to go over what I’ve found on that special project you gave me.”
“Sure thing. We’ll see you around noon.” Clark said, as Jimmy bounded off again to join his own group.
The journalism group assembled in the main hall that morning after breakfast for a talk by one of the visiting instructors, this time from the Gotham City Gazette. Clark noticed that Lois sat near the back, on the opposite side of the room as him. Obviously, she was still embarrassed, and the gossip wasn’t helping matters. It was probably better if he didn’t talk to her for awhile, to cool down the rumors. With his superhearing, he had overhead some outrageous comments. Heaven help him if Lana ever heard them. Even though it was perfectly innocent, she would have a hard time believing him. He still remembered her jealousy towards Rachel Harris, just because Clark had taken Rachel to the Senior Prom after a big fight with Lana the month before.
Finally, the group broke for lunch. Since it was a warm, sunny day, someone had decided that they should eat outside. Clark walked into the cafeteria to find several people dragging the dining tables out into the late summer sunlight. One handed, he picked up a table and began to move it when he caught the eye of Joe, from Colorado, staring at him. Suddenly lowering the table to the ground, he said, “Hey, Joe, could you give me a hand with this table?” Shaking his head, Joe walked over to help Clark out.
After waiting through the cafeteria line for today’s meal, tuna casserole with fruit and Jell-O cups, Clark sat at one of the tables with Jimmy, waiting for Lois to arrive. When he had finished his lunch and noticed that others were beginning to get up and wander, Clark excused himself to go find her. He didn’t want Jimmy to have to explain himself twice and knew that Lois would be angry if she missed hearing from him directly.
Clark heard her voice coming from the hallway where the phone was located. Without thinking, he tuned in to the conversation:
“Perry, I know that something is up. I was in this lab and *saw* the experiments they were doing. The building is supposed to be closed up. Somebody is up to no good.”
“Aw, darlin’. You know I always support you, but don’t you think you should focus on what you’re doin’ at the Workshop? After all, the Planet is paying for you to learn, not snoop around old classrooms.”
“I can snoop in between sessions. It won’t affect my work—I promise.”
“Well, Lois, if you find something good, you know I’ll run it. Just keep out of trouble. Claude here has been driving me crazy asking after you. He said something about you always jumpin’ in without checking the water level.”
“I’ll be fine, and I’ll call as soon as I have something to report. See you!” Lois said, as she hung up.
Clark stood wondering who Claude was as Lois stepped out from the hall towards him. She stopped, staring at him in silence for a few seconds.
“Hi. Jimmy has some information he wants to share with us. Are you free?” Clark asked, trying to appear casual and in control.
“Look, maybe I can get a debrief from Jimmy later.”
“If this is about last night…”
“No, Clark, what does last night have to do with anything. I mean, nothing happened, so why would you bring it up? I just don’t have time to sit with you now.”
“Sure thing,” Clark replied. “Jimmy seems pretty excited about what he found, so if I’m not in the afternoon session, you’ll know I’m looking into the lab again. I think there is a good hiding spot from the hallway—“
“Wait a minute, Kent! What gives you the right to go off and look into this on your own after you made me promise not to do the same? Is that how you do things in Smallville? What are you—”
Clark cut her off with, “Well, if you’re free *now*, let’s hear Jimmy’s results…together.”
“Ok, fine! Let me grab a Pop-Tart and be right out, and don’t even think of letting him start without me.” Lois said, as Clark turned back towards Jimmy, unsuccessfully hiding the smirk on his face.
“Well, guys, this formula is pretty complex,” Jimmy began after Lois had joined them. “It’s not something that I was able to find in any of my research materials. The closest thing I found was a similar formula from a publication by some guy at a place called Lex Labs in Metropolis. It’s designed to break down the independent molecules in metals and replace them with an isotope of gold to create a new metal with the same properties as gold.”
“So, it really does work!” Lois exclaimed.
“Not so fast. I said that was the closest thing I found. This isn’t exactly the same, plus, what they made was not really gold, just an imitation. And the article I read said that the scientists at Lex Labs are still in the preliminary stages of experimentation. Just because it worked once, they’re now trying to recreate the scenario. Guess it’s not that easy after all.”
Lois added, thoughtfully, “Lex Labs—as in Lex Luthor, the philanthropist and fourth richest person in the world. That man is into everything.”
“Who were the guys at Lex Labs working on this?” Clark asked.
“Steven Brass and Jeff Aubrey,” said Jimmy. “But, get this. I did a little more digging, and both left Lex Labs not long after the article appeared. There are some new guys working on following up on their work.”
Lois asked, “So, what happened to Brass and Aubrey?”
Jimmy suddenly looked abashed at the realization that he still had a lot to learn about investigating. “Oh, yeah, I guess that would be helpful. Let me look into that for you, OK?” he said.
“No problem, Jimmy. You’ve done great work,” Clark said, slapping the young man on the back.
The chiming of the carillon began, marking the beginning of a new hour. “Whoa, lunch is over and I’m late. Gotta go. I’ll catch you guys later,” he said, rushing away from the table.
“Guess we’d better go, too,” Lois said, looking around at the empty tables. “Um, about last night...”
“Hey, nothing happened, and we both apologized. Let’s forget about it, and everyone else here will forget about it, too,” Clark said, seeing her shoulders loosen in relief. “You go on ahead, and I’ll meet you at our table in the Levine Building.”
After Lois left, Clark glanced around to be sure that no one else was in sight. Picking up an 8-foot table in each hand, he deftly carried them through the door and set them down inside where they would be ready for the next meal. After a couple more trips to bring them all inside, he jogged over to the building where he and Lois were attending the afternoon session, whistling as he went.
