PREVIOUSLY...
No. Suddenly, everything that had happened at Kent’s apartment came flooding back - from her arrival to his rejection. Every titillating, hot, steamy and most of all, embarrassing memory.
No.
Please no.
Surely she hadn’t really thrown herself at Clark Kent. But try as she might, she couldn’t deny the memories. Kent wasn’t the pursuer in this horror story. She was.
What had she done? And more importantly, what could have possibly possessed her to do such a thing?**AND NOW...
* * * * * * * * *
Chapter Eleven
* * * * * * * * *
“Tell me what you really thought, Lois,” Clark said, finally pulling Lois out of her story.
She reached over, gently stroking his cheek although she didn’t respond verbally. What was there to say, after all? She’d been incredibly embarrassed by her behavior. At first, she’d hoped that it was somehow all Kent’s fault, but even she hadn’t been able to hold on to that delusion for long. She’d gone to his apartment. She’d basically attacked him. He was the one who had finally stopped it. Still, why had it taken him so long?
Oh, of course she understood now. He’d stopped them as soon as he’d realized she was not herself. Back then... she’d wondered if he’d let it gone on so long to prove that he could have had her - to humiliate her.
“Anyway,” Lois finally said, pushing that thought to the back of her mind, “I went back to the Daily Planet. It seemed almost everyone had been affected by this... whatever it was. So we had the coffee and water tested to see if there were any traces of drugs. We even sent in a couple of stale donuts out for testing, in case the ‘love potion’ we’d all been exposed to came from outside the newsroom. Then we went through all the photos from the photo shoot, looking to see if they showed anyone doing anything unusual. That was how we finally found Miranda.”
“I remember reading the story the following day,” Clark said. “I was devastated when I realized that you must have been under the influence of that compound when you came to my apartment - until I read the part where it said that the stuff only worked if a person was already attracted to someone. Then, it just over-rode one’s normal restraints. Suddenly, all thoughts of leaving Metropolis were gone. After all, I unexpectedly had a chance with you.”
“Not that it did us any good,” Lois said. At Clark’s raised eyebrows, she continued. “Your parents don’t even know who I am.”
Clark nodded slowly.
“Okay, so what’s next?” Lois asked.
“Right,” Clark responded, trying to get his mind back on track. “Let’s see... Well, didn’t the Nightfall asteroid appear about that time?”
Lois’ eyes widened. “So... how did the Earth survive Nightfall without Superman?”
They both immediately went to their respective computers. Clark found it first, with a little help from superspeed. “Nightfall Cometh,” he read off the screen before him.
“Okay, so does it say how it ‘go-eth’? Oh, wait. I might have something here.” She looked at her own screen. Under the flashy headline of ‘Earth Saved,’ she began to read the following: “Scientists are baffled this morning by the Nightfall asteroid’s unexplained change of trajectory. While it had been on a collision course with Earth, it seems to have suddenly altered its course. Scientists had no explanation, although some speculate that it may have been diverted by an unknown gravitational force or that it collided with another celestial body. Some are even theorizing about a possible black hole or illusive black matter. Ministers and other religious leaders, however, have a different explanation. They are attributing the ‘miracle’ to divine intervention.” She looked up at Clark. “Seems to me it must have had a little super help.”
“Diverting it off course,” Clark said contemplatively. “I wonder why no one thought of that possibility in our reality? And I just went along with their plan to try to pulverize it.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I bet pushing it off course didn’t knock me out and give me amnesia.”
“But how would you have had enough time to push it off course in this reality? I mean, in our reality didn’t the scientists hook you up with air tanks? Do you think you might have gone to one of them to get help? Dr. Klein maybe? After all, we’ve already established that you knew him.”
Clark shook his head. “I doubt it. All I would have needed would be to rent some oxygen tanks from a scuba place. And then go up there and see what I could do.” He glanced at the paper still up on her screen. “Oh, wait. Get a load of this. ‘There are even those, less stable, members of our society claiming that only aliens could have saved the Earth.’”
“What do you know? The nut cases were right.”
Clark smiled.
Lois returned his smile. “Okay, so we solved the asteroid question. What’s next?”
“I think I might have something here. At least, looking at this next headline is... Well, it sort of has me thinking that there is more here than meets the eye.”
Lois got up and came to look over his shoulder. “‘Vincent Winninger Murdered.’ Right. The story where I witnessed Dr. Winninger get shot. I originally thought he had been murdered by his roommate but it turned out that the murderer was Mr. Makeup. Oh, what was his name again?”
“Sebastian Finn. But then you wrote that story that all but told Finn that you had been a witness. Oh, I remember now,” Clark said before beginning his story.
**Clark had wandered the darkened streets of Metropolis for hours and yet he barely noticed the people around him. For the past week, he’d been doing much the same thing. When he’d first heard the press conference about the Nighfall asteroid, he’d decided he needed more information. As a result, he’d found himself over-hearing, from several thousand feet in the air, a frantic conversation between scientific and military experts on how to stop it.
When he’d heard that their only real option was a nuclear one, he’d immediately found himself concerned about fall-out. Besides, there was always the question of how accurate such devices would be in the vacuum of space. So he’d undertaken to see what he could do about the problem. That the world was attributing his ‘stunt’ to a scientific unknown or divine intervention suited Clark just fine. At least they wouldn’t be looking for a flying man.
But the incident had scared him. He’d barely made it back to Earth without running out of oxygen. But worse than that, he’d almost lost everyone and everything that was precious to him. What would have happened to him then, he really didn’t know. Would he have been the only survivor on a devastated Earth? The thought was too horrible to contemplate.
Tomorrow couldn’t always be counted on. And that thought, of course, brought him to the subject of Lois Lane.
He had nothing to lose, after all. Except his pride.
But maybe, just maybe, if she was as attracted to him as her behavior while under the influence of the pheromone compound seemed to indicate, she’d be willing to go out on a date with him.
What could be the harm in at least asking?
He looked up, only realizing then, that his wandering had brought him to Lane’s apartment building - as it had every night this week. Only this time, he didn’t continue to walk. He stopped, staring at the building as he tried to work up the nerve to go inside.
He’d looked Lane’s name up in the phone book following the pheromone incident, but hadn’t worked up the nerve to call her. But her address had been emblazoned into his memory ever since.
Before he had time to work up the courage necessary to appear at the door of her apartment, or had chickened out and disappeared back the way he had come, a taxi pulled up in front of the building and the woman he’d been thinking about only moments before appeared on the sidewalk.
He didn’t give himself time to talk himself out of it. Instead he strode across the street.
“Lane,” he yelled.
She stopped at the sound of her name being called, turning around on the steps to her building to see who was addressing her.**“Oh, god, I can remember that moment,” Lois said, interrupting him. “I wanted to run into my apartment, lock all the doors and hide out in my darkened bedroom until you went away. All I could think about was how humiliated I felt after the whole pheromone incident.”
“Well, that’s certainly encouraging. Just as well I didn’t know that at the time. I might never have had the courage to approach you.”
“Well, go on with your story,” Lois said.
With one final nod, Clark did.
**Clark practically tripped over the man in the wheelchair in his rush to reach the apartment before she disappeared inside. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he raced towards his destination.
“Kent,” she said when he finally came to a stop at the bottom of the steps. “What are you doing here?”
Her tone was definitely not encouraging. “I just came... I wanted to know...” He hesitated, trying to get his thoughts in order.
“Wanted to know what? Come on, Kent. I don’t have all day.”
“Would you go out with me?” he blurted out.
She looked at him, stunned. “Okay, Kent. I think you’ve got the wrong idea here,” she finally said. “Just because I practically attacked you when I came to your apartment the other day...”
He didn’t bother telling her that she did attack him. There was no ‘practically’ about it.
“...doesn’t mean I’m ‘ever’ going to sleep with you. In case you haven’t figured it out, let me spell it out for you. That wasn’t me the other day. That was the pheromone compound talking. And I have no intention of ever, and trust me I do mean ‘ever,’ sleeping with you. So if this is some pathetic attempt to get into my pants, you can just...”
Clark wasn’t entirely certain what alerted him to the danger. Did he hear a gun being cocked? Did he catch a flash of light off a gun barrel? But before she could finish her tirade, he leapt up the few stairs between them and tackled her, taking her to the ground. He spun around as a gun began firing, catching the bullets before they could do any damage.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Kent?”
Lane began pounding on his back as he looked for the gunman. But although the wheelchair was still sitting on the sidewalk, the man who had occupied it was gone.
“Someone tried to kill you,” Clark said.
“Yeah! You!”
“No...” He turned towards her. “Someone shot at you.”
Just then there was another loud bang and Clark spun around just in time to see a motorcycle backfire.
“Shot at me, huh?” Lois asked skeptically. “Can’t you even tell the difference between a gun shot and a motorcycle backfiring?”
“No, really. Someone shot at you.”
“Really? Then mind telling me where the bullet holes are?”
He suddenly stuck his hands behind his back.
“What’s in your hands?” she asked, obviously having noticed his gesture.
He crushed the bullets he was holding, allowing the dust of the crushed bullets to trickle out between his fingers. “Nothing.”
“Let me see.”
He opened them, revealing his now empty hands.
“Hmph,” she said, turning and marching up the stairs to the building.
“Lane, listen to me,” Clark said. “I’m telling the truth here. Someone tried to kill you. I don’t think you should be alone right now.”
She turned back towards him. “So... what are you suggesting? That someone should... Oh, I don’t know. ...stay the night with me?”
“That would probably be a very good idea.”
“And I suppose you would be willing to do that?”
“I could.”
Lois snorted. “Goodnight, Kent. Nice try, but I’ve heard better pick-up lines from the gorillas at the zoo.”
Turning, she entered the building without so much as a backward glance.
Clark stared after her. She thought he was lying. She thought that his willingness to spend the night at her place was just a cheep pick-up line. Dejected he turned and took in his environment. Well, regardless of what she thought, it hadn’t been a line. And no matter what she said, he had no intention of leaving her alone tonight - not with someone trying to kill her.
He spotted a park bench across the street. She might not want him in her apartment, but she couldn’t object to him sitting outside. Besides, unless she was threatened again, she would never even know.
Giving a decisive nod to indicate his satisfaction with his plan, he crossed the street and took a seat.**“I remember looking out the window and seeing you there, watching everyone going past the building and... being confused, I guess. I’d been so sure that you were giving me a line to get me to invite you in. I mean, you’d been honorable enough when you realized I was drugged - or at least, you hadn’t actually... let me consummate the deal... although I wasn’t all that sure about when you realized I was drugged. But that line about letting you spend the night...” Her voice trailed off and she shrugged. “I guess I had second thoughts when I saw you sitting on that park bench, quite obviously guarding the building.
“Of course, it also crossed through my mind that you might be stalking me and that maybe I should call the police. But...” She shrugged.
“Ouch.”
She leaned forward, giving him a kiss. “Of course, that desire to call the police changed the next morning.”
“I don’t really...”
“Clark! It wasn’t all the different than what happened in our reality.”
**Lois was stunned when Mr. Traceski turned on her, grabbing her around the neck. She struggled, but wasn’t strong enough to prevent him from tightening his grip. She kicked out behind her, but to no avail.
“No!” she cried out a moment before all oxygen was cut off. She grabbed at his powerful forearm, scratching at it in a desperate bid for freedom.
Just before she lost consciousness, she heard the sound of the door banging open and saw Kent stood in the doorway.**“I remember what happened then,” Clark said, interrupting her. “I took one look at your limp body and attacked.”
“I thought you told him to let go and he did, before rushing from the room.”
Clark shook his head. “I did that in our reality because I’d learned over the preceding months the effect my ‘Superman voice’ had on people, even when I wasn’t wearing the suit. In this reality, I didn’t have that experience.”
“So did you let him live?” Lois asked, only half joking.
“As soon as I attacked, he threw you at me - or at least as well as he was able. The choices were to get him, or to grab you. I chose you.”
Lois smiled. “You always do.”
He rolled his eyes. “Anyway, you weren’t breathing, but I could still hear your heart. It was weak, but it was still beating. So I started to administer mouth to mouth. That’s when you started to come to.”
**She coughed and sputtered before sucking breath into her burning lungs.
“Oh, thank God, Lane,” he whispered, pulling her into his arms.
“Kent,” she breathed. “I couldn’t breathe. I can’t believe that nice Mr. Tracewski...”
“No it wasn’t Mr. Tracewski. It must have been someone else. I saw the real Mr. Tracewski leave.”
“He tried to kill me...”
“I’ll find him,” Kent said, moving as if he would release her.
“No!” Lois said, holding onto him. “Please. Don’t leave me.”**“I felt safe with you there.” Her eyebrows crinkled together. “I don’t know why... I just did. It completely confused me - how right it felt. And I needed a moment to compose myself,” Lois explained. “I was so glad when you said...”
**“I won’t,” He settled down on the floor again, holding her tightly in his arms. “I’m here. I’m right here.”
She stayed where she was for a long time, trying to get her trembling under control. It had been a while since she’d come that close to being killed. The guy, whoever he was, knew what he was doing. Even with her martial arts training, she’d been helpless.
As her trembling began to calm, and she became more aware of the man holding her, she started to feel uncomfortable. Without looking at him, she removed herself from his arms, rising from the floor.
“Well, thanks for your help,” she said uncomfortably. “But I’m sure you have to get to work, and I’ve got things to do to get ready.” She walked to the door, opening it in obvious invitation for him to leave.
“Can I at least see that you get safely to work?” he asked, even as he moved towards the door.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” she said, wishing he would just go.
She couldn’t quite look him in the eye. She knew she was hurting him with her casual dismissal. But what else could she do? Okay, so he had saved her life. And okay, maybe she had been having some pretty... erotic dreams about him since the whole pheromone incident...**“You were having dreams?” Clark said, definitely sounding intrigued.
Lois rolled her eyes and continued.
**...but Clark Kent was still the arrogant jerk who had turned her over to EPRAD authorities, who had blown her cover with Toni Taylor, not to mention what he had done to her the previous year. Okay, so maybe he also had the power to confuse her. His honorable behavior in turning her down when he realized she was drugged... assuming, of course, that he hadn’t taken it as far as he had just to humiliate her. And she couldn’t say she was sure exactly when he had realized she wasn’t herself. Personally, she would have known the moment she began kissing him. And now... he had saved her life, but... **“Wait!” Clark said, interrupting Lois’ story. “What did you mean by what I’d done the previous year?”
Lois thought about that for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t know. I just know... I was furious with you about it.”
He let out a breath and Lois returned to her story.
**“I’ll just... walk you to the doors of the Planet and then leave. Please.” Kent was desperately trying to make eye contact.
She avoided his gaze. “I’ll call a cab. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Kent let out a breath before nodding, obviously recognizing defeat. “If you have any more problems, please call me. I can be here really fast.”
She nodded, although more to get him to leave than because she had any intention of accepting his offer.
He stepped through the doorway before turning back to address her one final time. “I’m not the enemy, Lane. We might work for different papers, but this is journalism, not war.”
She slowly closed the door on him, before leaning up against it. Using the door to support her weight, she sunk to the floor.
“That’s the problem,” she said softly. “You think there’s a difference.”**“Hey, it’s okay,” Clark said, reaching over to rub her neck when he saw the tears that had appeared in her eyes.
“No, Clark. It’s not. I really believe that you... believed that you were the enemy.”
“Hey, keep your tenses right,” Clark said, only half joking. He knew how she was feeling. It seemed that the longer they were in this screwed-up reality, the harder it became to keep things straight in his own mind. She was obviously having the same problem.
“Okay, so what happened next?” he asked. “Oh, I remember. Even though I knew you didn’t want me to, I kept watch you until you were at the Daily Planet. I was even late for work myself as a result.”
“It’s funny. Because I suspected you were keeping an eye on me. But I couldn’t spot you anywhere.”
“You didn’t look up.”
She smiled at him. “Anyway, the next time I saw you was at Barbara Trevino’s press conference. I was aware of you almost the instant you arrived.”
“I thought your heart rate sped up a little, but I wasn’t sure that was due to me.”
“Oh, it was most certainly due to you.”
“Well, when you wouldn’t look in my direction...” He shrugged.
“Anyway,” Lois said, “that was when the press conference began.”
“And you asked your... rather unusual questions about the ozone layer and increased male potency.”
Lois shrugged. “Well, I had to do something to try to provoke her. And it worked too, didn’t it?”
“Well, if you mean that it got Finn to lure you up to the roof of a building so that he could kill you, I guess so.”
“Boy, was I surprised when you busted through the door to the roof and tackled Finn. I guess that’s another one I owe you.”
Clark leaned closer. “Feel free to give me a down payment now.”
Smiling, Lois leaned in, giving him a brief kiss.
“Hey!” Clark objected when she pulled back.
“Sorry, honey. We’ve got work to do.”
Clark sighed. “Well, I guess that wraps up the differences in the story about Trevino so what’s...”
“Well, that’s not quite all that happened. After Trevino called and threatened me directly, I left the Daily Planet and hailed a cab. I don’t think I’d ever been so scared in my entire life. I mean, usually when I’m in danger, it’s sort of an immediate danger. I don’t have time to think. I’m in a shuttle that’s about to explode. I’m in the process of being strangled.” She gave him a quick grin. “But because I’m already in the thick of it, I don’t have time to think about it. I just... react. But this time was different. She gave me time to think.”
**Lois watched through the rear-view window, taking note of the cars around them. Behind them. Following them? It was hard to tell in the dark. What if they were being followed? What if they weren’t, and Trevino was, at this very moment, staked out outside her apartment building, waiting for her to come home?
“Driver,” Lois said immediately. “I want to change my destination.”
“Where to?”
Lois hesitated. Where indeed? She could go to Perry’s. Yes, that’s what she would do. Perry was still at the Planet, but surely Alice was home by now. Alice would let her stay there. She quickly gave the address and begin watching the surrounding traffic once again as the driver made a right turn to change directions.
But what if she was being followed? Would Alice be able to help her fight off Trevino? Or would Lois just be putting the other woman in danger, too?
“Wait a minute,” she said. “I changed my mind.” She would go to Jimmy’s. Yes. That was better. Jimmy would let her crash on his couch or something. She quickly gave the address.
The driver made a disgusted noise, but immediately complied with her request, turning the car around to head back the way they had come.
What was she thinking? Jimmy? He couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag. If she was being followed, she wanted a big strong man available to back her up - not Jimmy. He’d probably run in the opposite direction at the first sign of trouble. But where was she to find a big strong man?
“Driver, take me to 377 Clinton Ave.” she suddenly said. Well, he had said to call if she needed him.
Damn! What was she thinking? She couldn’t go to Kent! She just... couldn’t! There were at least a million reasons she couldn’t go to him. Even if he were willing to risk his life to help her fight off... whomever might be following her, he would probably want something in return. Something she was most definitely not prepared to give him. After all, she knew this man. He just wasn’t the type to do something like this for free.**“What’s that supposed to mean?” Clark asked, sounding slightly indignant.
Lois blinked... suddenly brought unexpectedly out of her story. It was only then she realized the underlying distrust of him that she knew he must have heard in her voice. “Honey, please,” she said, reaching over to take hold of his hand. “I know you’re not like that. Really, I do.” She held her breath then, slightly afraid that he wouldn’t believe her.
He let out a breath, using his free hand to run it through his hair. “I know, Lois. Really... I do. It’s just...”
“...hard,” Lois completed for him. “But please, Clark, I can’t...” Her voice trailed off as tears threatened. She knew what she had believed back then. The type of man she’d honestly believed him to be. What if he couldn’t handle hearing about it? What if she lost him because of it?
“Oh, honey, you’re not going to lose me,” Clark said immediately as if reading her mind.
She closed her eyes, steading herself. How was it that she could have suspected a man as honorable as Clark of such nefarious motives?
“Come on, honey,” Clark prompted after a moment, gently stroking her hand. “What happened next?”
“I’m not sure...”
“You’re not going to lose me, Lois,” Clark repeated. “But please, we have to keep going. Otherwise...”
“...how are we ever going to get Vicky back,” Lois completed for him. She closed her eyes and nodded. As painful as this was for both of them, the only way they had a chance of working this out was to be completely honest with each other - no matter how much it might hurt. And they could survive this. The could survive anything. With a brief prayer that she was right, she continued with her story.
**So... where should she go? She needed a big strong man. The problem was she didn’t know any other big strong men. How pathetic was that?
So the choices were to accept Kent’s assistance, and potentially spend the night fighting off his advances, or try to come up with another solution.**TO BE CONTINUED...
