Hi!
Sorry this is a day late from the Sunday-usual but RL was less than generous to my writing time. Thanks as always to my betas for doing their usual magic
And not to mention Labby for helping me in gficifying this.
As a word of warning: This part contains a bit of a rough treatment for Lois and Clark, but what can I say, they aren’t in a happy place right now
.
Michael
Disclaimer: The recognizable characters and settings in this story are the property of D.C. Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions, and anyone else with a legal right to them, and I have no claim on them whatsoever, nor am I profiting by their use. It’s just the original stuff, that would be mine, written down to bring some entertainment to other FoLC.
The setting is right after “Season’s Greedings” in Season 2.
Blocks in >> << are literal thoughts by the character.
Rating: PG-13
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In part 15 Lois managed to get herself involved in a hostage crisis at the courthouse, which was resolved Superman. Not one to look a gift horse into the mouth, she tried to get him to talk to her, but he brushed her off. Afraid he would fly off before she could talk to him she threatened to expose him unless he would talk to her.
Part 16 /
TOC /
Comments **********
Lois strode through the courtroom’s main exit, her right hand still at her mouth, her teeth chipping away at her thumb as she reflected on what she had just done.
‘You will talk to me now, or I will tell everyone,’ she had whispered. Her threat had been barely audible even to herself, but he had heard her. She had seen it in his eyes. He had heard her perfectly with his super-hearing. She just hoped that he would fall for her bluff. And it was just a bluff. This time, she had even known it in advance. It was her last, desperate hope to get him to be alone with her. Hopefully he wouldn’t remember that he had already successfully called the same bluff yesterday.
She should really stop this. She didn’t usually bite her nails, and she wasn’t going to start now. And besides, it would be a dead giveaway on how nervous she was about this. And being nervous meant that she was bluffing. Which she was. Dammit!
“It won’t work, you know,” a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts. Clark! She turned her head to the left, seeing her partner fall in step next to her. How had he managed to get in here? It hadn’t even been a minute that he had been here as Superman. Although, it shouldn’t really surprise her after the past eighteen months. And yet, somehow, it did.
His face was stoic as she eyed him and except for the gray business suit he was wearing, he could as well have been Superman the way he held himself. He was so… distant.
“What won’t work, Clark?” she asked him casually, suppressing the jolt of despair that welled up inside her. If he wasn’t buying her act, then she had lost her last chance of talking to him. On the other hand, he was talking to her right now! So was he at least a bit unsure himself? He had to be. Otherwise he wouldn’t have come back and told her that it wouldn’t work. That’s what he was doing, right? Trying to throw her off balance. Why couldn’t they just quit all those games and get back to normal?
“I’m not talking about this.” Clark kept his pace next to her, not allowing her to actually look at his face unless she wanted to run into something.
“It seems we’re doing a lot of talking for not talking, Clark.” Lois was desperately fighting the urge to grab the sleeve of his jacket and force him to stop. But if she did and he shrugged her off, then that would cause a scene. And she didn’t want a scene. Not here. It was bad enough that the entire newsroom knew about her breakdown. It wouldn’t do for the police officers strolling the hallways to see her cause a scene with her partner. She was too well known in certain circles for it to go unnoticed.
Her eyes kept flickering to her partner’s profile as he walked next to her. The little muscle in his jaw was ticking. Yes, he wasn’t just distant and rigid. He was practically trembling with the effort he put into holding himself impassive as he forced himself down the hallway. He might not want to talk to her, but it looked like he was still affected by her words.
Perhaps if she pushed him a little further? “You can’t just have it both ways, Clark. Either you face me and talk to me, or you leave me alone to do my thing.” Lois quickened her step a little before she felt herself being hustled against the wall to her right. Clark was now holding her left arm in a vice grip, his other hand working on the knob of a door. A moment later the door sprang open and she was pushed roughly inside. Stumbling at the sudden loss of his hand on her arm, Lois quickly braced herself on a table she found in front of her.
Whirling around, she glared at him. “What are you doing?” she spat, just as Clark closed the door from the inside, still not looking at her. Then she saw him move his glasses down as he kept staring at the door. What the hell was he doing?
Several seconds later he turned around to face her. His posture still rigid, arms folded across his chest. “We’re alone now, Ms. Lane, and the door is locked. But you better make it quick, or I’ll be out of that window over there and you can wait here until somebody checks this room.”
She snorted at his preposterous remarks. Ms. Lane!? Was he serious? And what was this about his locking the door? “So it’s Ms. Lane now, yes?” she asked as her eyes flew around the room. There was a wooden table and six chairs arranged around it, three on either of the long sides of the table. Other than that, the room was empty. They were in one of the attorney-witness rooms from the looks of it and it was eerily quiet after they had escaped the buzz in the hallway.
Clark just raised an eyebrow but remained otherwise unfazed.
“And you locked the door?”
“Heat-vision. I felt it would be better if we could discuss this without getting disturbed.” Clark’s shoulders shifted slightly, and he became even more the epitome of Superman.
He had really locked them in here. Did this mean he wanted to talk? Or was he trying to intimidate her into not spilling the goods. Did it matter? She had her chance now to tell him what she wanted him to know. “I already knew-“
Clark huffed.
“-when I drugged you,” she closed, hoping to control the tremble in her voice. She wasn’t going to cry. She had already cried enough for a dozen heartbreaks over the last two days.
Now he snorted. But it wasn’t an angry snort. It was more of the humorous variety, underlined with a hint of disgust and condescension.
Lois’ eyes narrowed. He didn’t believe her! What was he thinking? That she would make it all up after the fact? Just so she could do what? Snuggle up to her Superman-prize after deciding her crush was worth more than her hurt feelings? What did he take her for, that condescending piece of worm-ridden sea-slime that had just crawled out from underneath a rotten corn cob?
“You arrogant bastard!” she snarled, her voice an angry hiss. Her eyes blazoned as she pushed herself off from the table and moved into his personal pace. “You think you have it *all* figured out, right?” Clark moved an involuntary step back at Lois’ outburst, but her right index finger followed his nose and she had no intention of giving him any leeway. “Do you really think your disguise was *so* brilliant that no one could figure out your secret.” Lois snorted and pushed both of her hands into her waist while her eyes kept a steady lock on him.
“What?” Clark gripped her shoulders and began pushing her back to the table. “You really are a nutcase if you think I’m going to believe that bull you’re trying to pull here. If you’d known before that *night*-,“ Clark spat the word out as if it were a vile curse, “-you could have just moved in on *me*, instead of putting up that whole Superman-charade. Or did you need the spandex to get you going? Is that it? You just had to satisfy your Superman-fetish and then next morning you realized what an idiot you’ve been!?”
Lois shrugged herself free and pressed her right hand against his chest, driving him back again. “How dare you call me an idiot?” She paused. “Or perhaps you’re right. I must have been an idiot to ever think you could love me. You’re just like the rest of the men out there, aren’t you? You’re just an *ordinary* guy.”
“Brava!” Clark swiped her arm away and began to clap his hands. “Brava! Lois Lane has just figured it out. And it has taken her only a year and a half to do it. You really *are* the best investigate reporter on the planet, aren’t you?”
**********
Clark couldn’t believe the things he had just said to Lois. But it didn’t really matter. She was the one who had started this, and if she felt like pushing him past the breaking point, then that was her problem.
“Bastard!” Lois had turned away from him now, her hands gripping one of the chairs, her body heaving heavily. He just hoped she wasn’t about to cry. “You smug, arrogant *bastard*!” Lois was back to facing him, and to his relief there weren’t any tears glistening in her eyes. Just a barely contained rage as she hissed at him furiously. “Who do you think called you on *Christmas Morning*?”
“What?” Christmas Morning? What was she talking about?
“You don’t remember, do you?” She hugged herself while leaning against the chair and shook her head. “On Christmas Morning you went to answer your parent’s phone in *Smallville* but just got a hang-up.” Her arms relaxed to grip the chair behind her. “Ring any bells?”
He blinked. Had there been a hang-up phone call on Christmas Morning. It was possible, but it wasn’t the most memorable event in his life. Certainly not something he would try and commit to memory. Wait, did she say *Smallville*? “Smallville?” he asked perplexed. How had she known he had been in Smallville on Christmas Morning?
“Yes, *Smallville*.” Her eyes were narrowed and she looked like a man-eater ready to jump on its prey. “Clark Kent had been in Metropolis the night before. *Acting* as my best friend. And the next morning I find him in Smallville.”
Clark stared at Lois, her words only slowly processing in his raging mind. Had she really known *before* she had drugged him? It didn’t make sense. Why would she drug him if she knew he was Superman? Why hadn’t she just dragged him off into her lair? “Why?” he stammered.
“Why what?”
His sudden confusion at her motives had left him winded and his anger had cooled down a bit. “Why did you drug me if you already knew? Why not just invite me over for dinner? Why the charade?”
“What charade?”
Clark sighed exasperatedly “The drugs. The attempts at getting me all hot and bothered. That charade. Why didn’t not just seduce me if you wanted a lay. That would have been at least honest.”
“You think I did all that because I wanted to drag you to my bed?” she spat.
What was she talking about now? “That’s usually the purpose, yes.” And to think that *he* had been the virgin two days ago. He would have expected *her* to understand a bit more of how sex usually worked.
“Oh you presumptuous horn dog!” Lois was back to moving close to him. “You think a woman throws herself at you and all you can think of is sex. Sex, sex, sex.” She took a breath. “*SEX*!” Her face had come within inches of his own at her last outburst.
Lois was really getting to him today… “*I’m* not the one who got a Superman-tattoo. *I’m* not one who got my partner to play Peeping Tom and actually see the tattoo.” Clark kept his voice deliberately low, trying not to test the sound-proofing qualities of the solid wood door of the room they were in.
Lois face twisted into a satisfied smirk. “So you did watch?”
“What?” He replayed his last words in his mind. Oh god, had he really just told her he knew what she had done in the ladies’ room? And had he really described himself as a ‘Peeping Tom’?
“So you do know.” It was a statement, not a question. “You watched me with your vision-gizmo. I had wondered when I walked back to your desk.” Her hand had begun to play with his tie. “You hadn’t really given me much evidence to work with.”
“Stop that!” Clark swatted her fingers away. “Are you saying you did this on purpose?”
Shaking her hands in exasperation she replied. “Of course, I did it on *purpose*. And just so you know: The tattoo was a fake because there is no way I would wear your colors on me.”
Had he actually thought this conversion would help clear things up a bit? Reflecting on this for a second, he concluded that he had absolutely no idea what he had been thinking. Perhaps the lack of sleep and the stress were finally catching up with him. “Then why did you…?”
Lois rolled her eyes. “Perhaps because I had hoped you’d catch me and get all hot and bothered in the middle of the newsroom?”
This last statement sent Clark to stagger against the wall. What had she just said? Why *would* she say that? And why would she want to do that to him? “I don’t get it,” he said, shaking his head.
“I guess you really don’t, do you. You have absolutely *no* idea what’s going on. All *you* can think of – all you *have* thought of ever since that night has been damage control.” Her finger was pointing accusingly at him. “You haven’t even *considered* all the implications of what it means for me to *know* and how *I* must feel. You pretty much stopped at: I lied to Lois. I must apologize. Does that sum it about up?” She snorted in disgust and turned away.
He took her shoulder and twisted her around. “What implications, Lois? And when should I’ve had time to think about them, hm?”
She sniffled. “Yes, when *could* you have had time to think about it?” She shrugged him off and began to stomp around the room in front of him, her arms failing and her voice rising. “Oh I don’t know, perhaps during the *eighteen months* you’d been lying to me? No guilty conscience nibbling at the back of your mind, right?”
“Lois, that was-”
She cut him off, continuing to tick off his implied transgressions. “Or perhaps after you humiliated me into accepting *Lex Luthor’s* proposal?”
What? “Now wait just a min-“ Again, he had no chance to interject even a whole sentence.
“Or what about just being a good friend and not flat out *lying* to me? You could have sat down with me and *told* me.” Lois had started to breathe heavily. That had to be a first. She never ran out of air during a babble streak.
“No, actually I couldn’t.” At least this time he had managed to insert a whole sentence in between. A short sentence, true, but still, a sentence was a sentence.
“What about Christmas? Where you flat out lied to me again! On *Christmas* of all days. You came to me, didn’t you? And you just *lied* to me. About your motives! About the present! About *everything*! You hadn’t even thought about inviting me to Smallville, had you?” Lois came to a stop in front of him, glaring at him with a fury he had never seen in her eyes before. It scared him, sort of.
“You had to work,” he pressed out, unsure if it was a statement of fact or an excuse.
“*That’s* a lame excuse, and you know it! You really don’t understand what friendship is, do you?”
*He* didn’t understand friendship? He *hadn’t* been the one to drug his partner and set out to humiliate her. “And that’s your excuse for trying to humiliate me in front of all my colleagues?”
“No, that’s just the chain of evidence. But you know what? I also have a killer shot for you.”
“What?” What was she talking about now?
“You *died* on me, you *BASTARD*!” Her fist connected with his chest. “You *DIED* on me!” Another hit.
He was about to tell her to lower her voice when she continued dejectedly. “And I actually spent the next day crying and mourning the best friend I’ve ever had. The man that I thought I loved.” She shoved him away, dragging in a labored breath. “You died on me.”
“Oh.” There was that.
“That’s it? ‘Oh’?” Her back was turned towards him, her shoulders shaking.
His hand reached out automatically. “Lois.”
She twisted away from him and shot him a murderous glance. “Get your damn fingers off of me!”
>>Dumb move.<< Clark took the silence as an opportunity to gather his thoughts.
So Lois was mad at him because he had been dead for *a day*. Did she think he had had a fun ride and a good laugh at everyone’s expense while he had been dead? Clark Kent had been *dead*. She should be glad he was still here if she really had the feelings for him she said she had. Instead, she had drugged him, humiliated him, seduced him, and accused him of rape the next morning. Did she have *any* idea of what she had put him through?
**********
Lois was trying to keep herself together. She had finally managed to get everything out in the open. And she had done so without breaking down. And all her partner had to say was ‘Oh’. Not even ‘I’m sorry’. The *bastard* didn’t even feel guilty about it.
“So you thought what? You’d get even or something?” she heard her partner’s trembling voice ask her.
Well, it looks like he had been listening after all. Lois whirled around only to find herself just inches from his face. “*Yes!*”
Clark took a step back, his face twisted in horror. “That’s… That’s… That’s *insane*.” Another step brought him once again flush against the wall behind him. “How could you do that? Do you think that it’s some twisted sort of game or something?”
That was a low blow. He had absolutely no understanding of just how much he had hurt her. He hadn’t even considered his need to apologize. All he cared about were *his* hurt feelings. “I hate you!” she spat.
“Yeah, too bad you didn’t hate me two nights ago. You could have spared both of us a lot of sorrow,” he spat with a sneer pasted onto his face.
Why did he have to bring *that* night up again. Wasn’t it enough that she had humiliated herself in front of him like that? Did he have to rub it in? “What makes you think I didn’t hate you back then, too?”
The derisive snort was unmistakable. “Well, you didn’t sound all that hating too me, you know. But I guess the thought of fulfilling your Superman-fantasy just once had pushed your reservations out of the window. I just hope it was worth it.”
“You really think I had planned this, right? You think I *wanted* to do you that night.” Why couldn’t he just stop reminding her of *that* mistake.
“You’re going in circles, Lois.” Clark informed her, condescension dripping of his voice. “I guess I must have left more of an impression than you’d like to admit.”
“What!? You think I liked what you did to me? You think I wanted you to give me the best romp of my life?”
Clark was choking down a snort.
What was so funny? And why was he staring her like that?
“You do know-“ He chocked down another snort. “-that you just said that out loud, don’t you?”
“What?” she squeaked. What did she say out loud?
“You just said, and I quote here: ‘You think I wanted you to give me the best romp of my life’.”
Lois felt herself flush with shame at her own words and anger at his smugness. How could he? How dare he? “Yeah, well, don’t get yourself too worked up over this. Because as you said, I just had to get a Superman-fantasy out of my system. And after Claude, well, let’s just say, being a better man than him isn’t that big a deal. So I hope Mayson doesn’t have too high an expectation for her date with you.”
“What has Mayson got to do with this?” Clark asked her, clearly off kilter from her curve ball.
“Oh, please, Clark. After my father and Paul and Claude do you really think I can’t recognize a rogue when I see him? And I really thought you were an honest man. The last honest man.” She snorted in disgust. “Yeah, right. I should have known.”
“I don’t have any interest in a relationship with Mayson.” He stared back at her, his gaze wary with a hint of anger underneath it.
“Then why do you charm her like she’s going to be your next lay?”
“I’m just being nice to her.” He pushed her back. “And what concern of yours would it be, anyway? After all, you just told me how much you hate me. You can’t have it both ways. Either you want me or you don’t. And if you don’t want me, then you have *no* right to stake a claim on me.”
“What are you talking about? Of course I *don’t* want you. I didn’t even want you back then. Just because I had a… better time with you than with Claude doesn’t mean I want you.” How dare he bring this up all the time? She didn’t want him. Not then. Not now.
“I think you deny a bit too much, Lois, for it to be true.” His eyes belied his flippant tone. There was something dangerous in them. Something she hadn’t seen in him before. Something… primal.
“Yeah, and who had just brought it up?” She kept pushing him back again. “I think *you* were the one who enjoyed himself a bit too much and the one with the *fond* memories,” she closed, noting his body’s reaction to the aforementioned memories.”
“What are you talking about?”
Was it possible that he didn’t know? She took a step closer, her hand reaching for him. “Because it’s obvious that you remember who instigated this.”
“It takes two to tango,” he told her firmly as he reached down to remove her hand.
“So?”
“So I remember that you-“
Lois suddenly felt his hand reaching for her and the fire his touch ignited in her body. No, she wasn’t getting excited by all this. She hated him. Yes, no good feelings at all.
“-were the one to grab me. And when I returned the favor, you looked at as if you were about to rip my clothes off.”
She felt his hand begin to wander. Oh god, why wasn’t she wearing something that would prevent her from feeling the heat from his touch so intensively? Like armor plating or something.
“Just like you are now.”
She took a step back, but then felt the chair behind her even as her breathing intensified. His fingers hadn’t just wandered to inappropriate places, had they?
“So tell me, do you or do you not still want me.”
Clark’s eyes bore into hers, causing her to swallow and clench her gut. “I hate you.”
“That’s not what I asked you,” he growled.
Her hand reached for his him again. “It’s not making love if I hate you.” And why was she trying to return his touch?
“No, I guess it’s not.” He released her and took a step back, causing her to falter against the chair behind her. “And you still owe me an answer.”
Had his hand actually held her upright? Or was it just the sudden lack of contact? She wasn’t sure but she hoped it was the first. The other was too scary. “And what if I don’t want you?”
“I find that a bit hard to believe.” The arrogant smirk was quite visible on his face.
“What?” Did he think just because she was feeling the effects of his touch that she actually wanted him? “I do mean it.” Did this come out just a bit too weak to be an actual protest?
“If I’m supposed to believe that,-“ His hand closed gently over her right one. “-then you might want to consider removing your hand from my leg,” he finished, pulling the offending limb away from him.
“Oh.” There was that.
“So, tell me, Lois, tell me that I’m the only one who enjoyed this tango and that you have no further interest and I will just leave.”
“I hate you,” she pressed out meekly.
“That’s not a ‘no’.” His tone had dropped an octave and his eyes had turned black from desire.
“Do you want to hear a no?” she pressed out while wriggling her hand to free her wrist from his clasp.
“No.”
“I’m not taking my clothes off for you” If he thought she was going to just jump him…
“I can work with that.” He gave her a steely grin as he reached out to remove her coat.
Did she want him to remove her coat? A moment later her coat was gone and she felt herself turned towards to table. Why wasn’t she slapping him silly? Hadn’t she just told him that she wasn’t going to take her clothes off? And why wasn’t Clark with her already?
She was about to turn around again to see what was going on, when she suddenly felt him reach for her again.
“I hope you’re not too attached to those clothes.” His voice was heavy and dark.
“No…” Why did he ask if she was attached to her- Suddenly she felt the fabric tighten before the sound of tearing fibers reached her ears. Oh god, had he just ripped her clothes open? Then Clark was with her and her world turned upside down.
When she came back to the here and now, she realized two things. One was that she was lying on top of the now collapsed table with her partner’s heavy form on top of her, and the other was that she had just discovered that her partner wasn’t the gentle lover she had gotten to know two nights ago.
>>Oh god, what did I just do?<<
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tbc
