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From Part 30:“It’s a mistake to mess with me, Ms Lane,” Luthor said, his voice cold steel, just like the gun he was aiming steadily at her. “Say your last goodbyes.”
Lois stifled a whimper. This was it; he was really going to kill her.
Scenes from her life began to flash before her eyes. Most of all Clark; walking with Clark, flying with him, kissing him... falling in love with him.
It was just
bloody Murphy’s Law, wasn’t it? No sooner had she finally found a man she could trust, a man who clearly thought she was wonderful and who, she could tell, wanted to be with her every bit as much as she wanted to be with him - no sooner had she found the one man she
loved - then some
creep of an egotistical, arrogant, lower-than-pocket-lint criminal wanted to take it all away from her.
Clark, I love you... Please, help me!And, as her lips formed the word ‘Superman’ once more, Luthor pulled back the safety-catch, and his fingers began to squeeze the trigger.
*********
Now read on...Clark was sitting on top of the tallest building in the Dock area, watching the roads below like a hawk. Waiting for something to happen... or not happen.
He wasn’t sure whether this was the most effective use of his time: hanging around out of sight just in case he might catch a mugger at work. That was something he’d have to work out, though - how best to use his abilities to help
prevent crime as much as to deal with the aftermath.
Although he figured that Lois’s Inspector Henderson would probably tell him that preventing crime was none of his business...
He couldn’t accept that, though. Surely it was better to offer a deterrent than to deal with the consequences afterwards? If he could help prevent people getting hurt - or worse, killed - surely that was of benefit to the whole community? Including the police, who simply didn’t have the resources to put officers on every street corner. And even if they could, Clark thought ruefully, some people would start complaining about Big Brother and a police state.
So, was it best to lurk and catch someone in the act and let the word go around that there was a new guy in town who wasn’t going to stand for that kind of activity? Or would it be better to make himself very visible from time to time, being seen cruising around the skies above Metropolis, so that the criminal fraternity would never know where he’d turn up next and would be well aware that they could be caught? He wasn't sure. He really needed to work out a strategy for all of this.
Lois. Lois would help - in fact, she probably already had a strategy half-formed in her head! He should have stayed for coffee. Though he was going to see her in an hour or so, he reminded himself; they could discuss it then. It wasn’t as if he had no ideas himself - it was just that he wanted to be able to bounce some thoughts around with someone who’d understand.
With Lois.
The Spandex costume itself, of course, wasn’t designed for lurking in the shadows, Clark reminded himself - and anyway, one of the main advantages of this disguise, surely, was that he no longer had to lurk in the shadows when trying to help, wasn’t it? So maybe it would be better to be seen. To do that, though, he needed people to be aware of who he was, and that he presented no threat. The Planet’s morning edition should help there, he hoped.
Nothing was stirring below. Maybe it was time to go back to Lois’s place, after all. He didn’t imagine that she’d object if he arrived earlier than he’d promised.
Thoughts of Lois filled his mind, and suddenly it almost felt as if he could hear her voice in his head. It was faint, but he thought that she was calling him Superman. Of course, he was Superman right at the moment. He smiled ruefully. She did like that name she’d invented for him, didn’t she?
Then he heard her voice again. And he realised the truth.
He wasn’t imagining it. Lois was really calling for him.
Her tone was panicked, pleading for help.
Lois was in danger! And she needed him!
He leapt upwards, taking flight at the same instant. Barrelling through the air towards her apartment, he cursed himself. Lois was in trouble. The woman he
loved was terrified, in danger, and he’d ignored her scream for him!
He just hoped he could get there in time... He
had to get there in time!
“Lois!” he screamed, the words lost due to the speed he was travelling.
It took far too long to reach her apartment. Mere seconds, but even a split-second could be too long. If her life was in danger... if he failed to save her...
I love you, Lois!He’d only just found her. The woman he loved more than anything else in the world. The one woman who accepted him just as he was - who
wanted him as he was. Who thought that his abilities were something special, not something to be ashamed of.
His woman.
He was straining his vision to see what was going on long before he was within sight of Lois’s apartment. It was so darned
frustrating that he couldn’t see...
And then he did see. Lex Luthor, with a gun trained on Lois.
And Luthor was saying, “Say your last goodbyes.”
He could see his own name - the name of the character they’d created together for him - forming on her lips.
He put on one final burst of speed, aiming himself directly at her apartment window.
*********
Several things happened at once.
Taking a deep breath, Lois swung her foot out, kicking hard.
There was a ferocious sound of shattering glass.
And a gunshot echoed through the living-room.
A blue and red blur was all she could see for several seconds. Then the blur stopped, and she could see Lex Luthor on the ground, tied up with strips of Clark’s cape, and Clark himself - well, Superman - was glaring furiously down at his prisoner.
Then he looked at her, and the anguish combined with relief in his expression settled any lingering doubts she might have had about his feelings for her. “Are you all right, Lois? He didn’t hurt you? That gunshot... I was aiming at the gun, but I couldn’t -”
“I’m fine,” she said quickly. “I don’t know where the bullet went, but it didn’t hit me.”
“You caught his elbow with that kick,” Clark explained. “Nice work! But I should have been here sooner. I almost wasn’t in time...”
Distress was stark in his voice; Lois wanted to go to him, comfort him - and comfort herself in the process. But the timing was wrong. He was there in his costume, as Superman. The last thing they could afford to do was have anyone link Superman too closely with Lois Lane. Apart from anything else, if she was dating Clark and someone made the connection...
Focus on the here and now. There were things to be done, she told herself.
She glanced around and behind her, then noticed a hole in the plaster just to the right of the now-shattered window. “I hope my landlord has a good insurance policy,” she murmured with a grin. She could feel herself giddy with relief at having survived; she’d been so sure that she was going to die.
“If you don’t mind,” an indignant voice interrupted, “this is getting boring. Just who is this... this badly-dressed Neanderthal?”
“Let me introduce you, Lex,” Lois exclaimed with a grin. Jumping to her feet, she added, “Lex Luthor... meet Superman.”
“You are increasingly tedious,” Luthor complained. “You really expect me to believe that someone masquerades under that ridiculous name? Why...
Superman?” he asked contemptuously.
Lois shrugged. “Because he’s Super, of course.” She turned to Clark. “Show him, Superman.”
“With pleasure,” Clark growled. Bending, he picked up Luthor’s gun and, as Lois and Luthor both watched, he crushed it in one hand.
Lois glanced back at Luthor and noticed with great satisfaction that his face had blanched. He cowered and almost seemed to shrink into the carpet.
“You’d better lie very still until the police come, Mr Luthor,” Clark said very coldly. “I’m sure you can imagine what I could do to you if you made me even more angry than I am right now.”
The police... of course. Lois hurried to the phone and within seconds was connected to Henderson.
“What’s the problem, Lane?” the officer enquired, sounding distracted.
“It’s currently lying tied up on my apartment floor, actually,” she told him.
“Huh? What the heck are you talking about, Lois?”
“Lex Luthor,” she informed him. “Did you know that he was out on bail?”
“The DA’s office just told us.” By the sound of Henderson’s tone, he’d been even less impressed with that news than she herself had. “Wait a second,” the detective added quickly. “Are you saying that he’s at your place?”
“That’s what I just said. He’s not a very happy bunny at the moment, though, so you might want to send some of your boys around here ASAP.”
There was a pause, and she could hear Henderson’s muffled voice clearly shouting instructions to some hapless minion. Then he came back on the line. “Are you okay, Lois?” He actually sounded anxious.
“I’m fine,” she reassured him. “A little shaken up - and if you ever repeat that, Bill, you’re dead.”
“Your secret’s safe with me,” he said dryly. “Now, you said Luthor’s tied up? He’s not any danger to anyone?”
“He’s not going anywhere,” she pronounced with satisfaction. “He’s tied up, and his gun is out of commission. A... friend is standing guard over him, and he’ll stay until your guys get here.”
“Thanks, Lois. I owe you one,” the detective said, and she could tell that the words were sincere.
“
Another one, you mean,” Lois pointed out. “Think nothing of it. Just try to keep him in jail this time, huh?”
*********
An hour later, things had finally quietened down, to Clark’s relief. A blustering Lex Luthor - though he’d stopped blustering once ‘Superman’ had stared him down - had been escorted out of Lois’s apartment and off to the police station to be charged with attempted murder in addition to all the other charges already pending against him.
Henderson, who’d arrived about five minutes behind the uniformed officers, had made the acquaintance of Superman and taken initial statements from both Clark and Lois. He’d shown little reaction when he’d walked into the apartment and seen the caped figure; one eyebrow had crawled up infinitesimally and he’d said to Lois, “This is your friend, I assume?”
“Meet Superman,” Lois had said instantly, looking pleased to have, she’d obviously thought, got one up on the inspector.
Extending his hand to Superman, Henderson had drawled, “Yes, so I heard. You’re on our side, I hope?” That had been to Clark.
“Our side?”
“The side of law and order, of course.”
“I believe in trying to do what’s right,” Clark had answered. “And, yes, I believe in justice and protecting life, and that’s usually the side of law and order, isn’t it?”
The shrewd look Henderson had given him in response had contained both respect and a tacit warning.
But one thing had relieved Clark. Both the inspector and Luthor had seen him as Clark Kent - and had seen him in Lois’s company. Yet neither of them had shown any sign of recognition when they’d looked at him as Superman. The disguise obviously worked with people who knew him too.
Not that either Henderson or Luthor knew him well. But Clark was very sure that both men rarely forgot a face. Henderson was too shrewd, and knew his job too well, for that; and as for Luthor, it was in the interests of a man like him, who maintained the façade of a respectable businessman while running a crime empire, to remember everyone he met. Neither of them, however, had realised that they’d seen Superman before.
All the same, all he’d wanted was to be alone with Lois. But they’d had to endure a frustrating wait while the forensic team had taken fingerprints from the apartment, removed the bullet from the apartment wall and worked out how Luthor had got into the apartment in the first place - up the fire escape and through the bedroom window, which he’d somehow managed to loosen from its frame. Then the entire scene had been photographed several times, including Lois’s shattered window and the glass all over the floor. And after a while, it had occurred to Clark that, if he didn’t want his disguise to be blown on his first day on the job, he shouldn’t hang around Lois’s apartment, so he’d made his excuses and flown off.
And then, while airborne, he’d heard a scream for help, and had ended up rescuing a man from a mugger in Hewitt Dock after all.
Now, finally, he was back and knocking on Lois’s door again. A quick glance through the wall had shown him that the police had all gone, and that Lois was crouched on the floor sweeping up the broken glass. That was a task he wasn’t too happy to see her doing. He’d have that cleaned up for her in under a second.
He knocked, and watched her get to her feet in response. As soon as she opened the door, Clark stepped forward and swept her into his arms, kicking the door shut behind him. “I’ve needed this for the last hour!” he groaned, burying his face in her hair. “I was so scared... he could have killed you! He almost did!”
She stroked his hair, her free arm wrapped tightly around him. “I’m fine, Clark. He didn’t hurt me. I’m
fine!”
“I know. But you nearly weren’t!” He pulled back, gazing at her beloved features, making sure that there wasn’t even the faintest bruise. “I was almost too late, Lois!”
She ran her fingertips over his face, her touch the sweetest caress he’d ever experienced. “You weren’t too late, Clark. And anyway, I managed to wreck his aim.”
“You did.” Clark smiled, despite his inner anguish. “That was some kick.”
“Yeah.” She grinned. “He thought he was better than me in a fight, but I showed him.” As if she’d just remembered something, Lois added, “What did you mean earlier? When you said you aimed at the gun?”
Clark gestured to his eyes. “Heat vision. I was going to make him drop it before he fired. But then I saw you kick out, so I cut it off and I was about to grab the bullet.” He took a deep breath, the events, which had happened so quickly at the time and yet to him had seemed to take place in one endless moment, causing him remembered pain.
“You would have saved me, Clark. I know that,” Lois assured him.
“Yeah. I would.” He nodded; reliving the scene in his memory had reassured him of that much. If Lois hadn’t kicked, he would have burned the gun out of Luthor’s hand before the man had pulled the trigger, or he could have sealed up the end with his heat vision. Or, if those hadn’t worked, he could have got in front of Lois in less than a heartbeat, stopping the bullet for her. Or simply just pulled her out of the way.
He would have saved her. Even if she hadn’t saved herself, she would still have been alive.
Sliding his hands down her arms, he linked his hands with hers, intertwining their fingers. She gazed up at him, her eyes wide with concern for him.
For him! After all that she’d gone through this evening!
“Lois.” He heard the faint choke in his voice, and paused to take another steadying breath. “Lois, I love you.”
Her lips curved into an awed, delighted smile. “I love you, too, Clark.”
********
Everything else was just details, Lois decided as she melted into Clark’s arms. They would write up the story of Luthor’s attempt on her life in the morning - it wouldn’t make it into the paper any earlier than tomorrow’s afternoon edition in any case.
There were other things they needed to do too, she thought dizzily. They probably needed to talk some more about Superman and how to play the story to ensure that the message got across that he was there to help, not to be a threat. She needed to help Clark find an apartment - they’d do that over the next few days, and she didn’t envisage it being a problem.
And one of these days she and Clark might actually manage to go out on a date.
But none of that was important right at this moment.
Only just over an hour ago, she’d thought that she was seconds away from death - for the second time in two days. She’d survived both times, but both times she’d been confronted with the knowledge of what was most important in life. Not awards; not a successful career; not being better than everyone else in the business.
None of that mattered remotely beside two very important facts.
Clark loved her. She loved Clark.
And she knew that, somehow, they were destined to be together.
After all, he’d come many billions of miles from wherever it was he was born to end up on Earth. From there, he’d come from Smallville to Metropolis, where out of all the millions of women in the city he’d met her.
Just what were the chances of that happening by accident?
No; she had to believe that they were meant to be together.
Lois had never believed in any sort of concept of destiny or ‘soulmates’, but yet where she and Clark were concerned it just felt right.
Somehow, by some plan of Fate, Larry had been destined to meet Charlie. And to fall in love.
And, she was determined, they would live happily ever after.
Well, once she’d had enough of kissing him for tonight, that was.
But, to her surprise, he broke off the kiss.
“Lois?” Clark sounded amused and just a little chagrined. “You’re kind of not with me,” he complained.
“Sorry.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “Was just thinking.”
“Oh?” He still seemed mildly put out. Men and their egos, she thought wryly.
“About us,” she explained.
“Ah.” Now he looked happier. “I don’t know, though... right now, I’d rather kiss you than think about you.”
“That can be arranged,” she told him, and promptly reached up to kiss him.
He kissed her back enthusiastically, but drew back after a few minutes. “Thinking about us?”
“Yeah.” She moved out of his arms and, taking his hand, led him to one of her sofas. Once seated, he immediately drew her back against his chest, resting his head on top of hers.
“I guess I was just thinking about how amazing it is that we met and fell in love,” she explained. “I mean, the chances against us running into each other had to be astronomical. Just think - if you’d never come to Metropolis... if you’d never come to Earth!”
Clark was silent for a moment; then he said slowly, “I’m not so sure. I mean, I know I never believed that I’d find a woman who could accept me as I am - who could
love me despite everything that I am -”
Lois interrupted him before he could continue. “
Despite what you are, Clark?” She shook her head, then nudged him gently, chastisingly, with her elbow. “Don’t you know that I love you precisely
because of everything you are? Because of your courage and your need to do what’s right, your loyalty and steadfastness - and the fact that under your incredible strength you’re so vulnerable, Clark. And that makes me believe that you need me just as much as I need you.”
His arms tightened around her. “Lois, you know that I need you! What we did today - inventing Superman - I couldn’t have done that without you. You gave me the courage to use my abilities publicly.” He kissed the top of her head, then added, “Anyway, back to how amazing it is that we met, and we were both single... I think now that I’ve just been waiting for you. No other woman meant anything to me... because she wasn’t you.”
“You believe that everyone has a soulmate?” Lois asked.
“I don’t know. What I do know is this: if I can come to this planet from wherever I came from - maybe millions of miles away - and find the one woman I know I’ll love for the rest of my life, then there has to be a chance at happiness for everyone.” He fell silent, nuzzling at her hair.
Lois was silent too, wondering at his words. He would love her for the rest of his life.
Well, that was how she felt too, but to hear Clark say the words aloud... It was scary, and at the same time the most wonderful words she could ever have heard.
“Yeah, well, in our case it’s probably just as well,” she said, teasing. “After all, we were both convinced that no-one else would have us, weren’t we?”
She felt him smile against her head. “No-one else is getting the chance!” he growled.
“Yeah, well, you make sure you don’t encourage any Superman groupies,” Lois warned in response.
“Hmmm...” he murmured consideringly. “Does that include a certain reporter who loves to fly?”
“Hey!” She reached behind and punched his arm. “I’m not a groupie!”
His hand curved around her chin, turning her towards him. “No, you’re not,” he told her softly. “You’re my woman.”
“And you’re my man.”
His gaze holding hers, Clark took Lois’s hand in his and raised it to his lips, brushing the back of her hand with a soft kiss. “I love you, Larry Long. And I love you, Lois Lane.”
Lois reached around and up, covering Clark’s lips with hers in a sweet kiss. “And I love you, Charlie King.” Interspersing her words with kisses, she continued. “And I love you, Superman. And, most of all, I love you, Clark Kent.”
Before she’d finished her final words, Clark’s arms had come tightly around her again, and within seconds she was lost in his kiss once more.
Which was exactly where she wanted to be.
~ The End ~
