Thanks again to Mark, Carol, and Beth!
Bonus points to anyone who figures out what (specifically) Clark and Superman are making.
From Chapter 39
“Let's do something,” he said. “Like we talked about before. Something to celebrate your success today.”
“Okay,” Clark said and Superman could see that he was trying to control his breathing. “Lois gave me a cookbook earlier today. Feel like cooking?” he asked.
“Lois bought you a cook book?” Superman asked.
“It was… an apology,” Clark finished. “She was sort of obnoxious yesterday.”
“Lois apologized for being obnoxious?” Superman asked in surprise and that seemed to dispel the tension in the room.
Clark laughed first and then Superman played the words in his head again and realizing what he said he laughed as well.
“Probably a once in a lifetime experience,” Clark said, still laughing as they made their way to the kitchen.
Chapter 40
“Clark,” Superman started as he poured flour into the measuring cup. “While you were out, Lois was here.”
Clark put down the molasses he had just gotten out of the cupboard. “She was?”
“She came to see me. Well, and you,” he said.
“What about?” Clark asked as he once again picked up the molasses.
“The globe.” The molasses went back down, but Clark did not say anything, so Superman tried to explain. “When Jack tried to sell the globe, he took pictures of it. One with the hologram of Jor-El showing. It was with the stuff Louie found for you. Lois saw it and made the obvious connection.”
“So she came here to ask what it was?” Clark asked, feeling his heart beat picking up at the knowledge that Lois knew about the globe.
“No,” Superman said, realizing how weird that was. Then he felt badly. Lois was clearly more upset than he had ever realized – his Lois, too, if their first reactions were emotional and not curiosity. “She was upset with us. Me for sharing it with you and not with her and you for keeping it from her.”
“Wait,” Clark said as he put the molasses away and moved to the refrigerator to take out the coffee beans. “Lois is upset that you keep secrets from her?”
“Well, no, actually. She said she was okay with that. She's more upset that I have secrets from her that are not secrets from you.”
“So, you're supposed to make sure to tell her everything you tell me?” Clark asked laughing. “Only Lois.”
Superman smiled. “Well, yeah. No one else would think that, but Lois…”
“Is in love with you,” Clark said softly. “And so she thinks…”
“We're closer than we are.”
“Did this happen with your Lois?”
“The globe thing or this thinking we were closer than we were?” Superman asked. “Although,” he added before Clark could answer, “it doesn't really matter. The answer to both questions is no.”
“No?” Clark was clearly surprised to hear this.
“Well, as for the globe – in my universe, it was stolen from Clark Kent's apartment, not Clark and Superman's. So, Lois was angry at me, like she is at you, for keeping it from her, but she didn't realize Superman even knew about it.”
“She thought you were keeping it from Superman?”
“Yeah. You can imagine how happy she was about that,” Superman grinned. “And as for thinking we were closer than we were. Well, it was complicated. The truth was that since I was Superman, we were as close as she thought we were. It just was… well more complicated than she realized.”
“Was it hard?” Clark asked quietly. “Seeing her as Superman?”
Superman looked up from the faucet where he was getting warm water. “Sometimes. Sometimes it was nice. Lois acted with Superman in a way I wanted her to with Clark. Sometimes I could forget that I was Superman and just enjoy being with her in that way. Of course, then I'd get home and realize I had just helped her crush on Superman along and made getting her to see me as Clark that much harder.”
“Is it like that here?” Clark asked. “Sometimes hard to see Lois and sometimes good to see her?”
Superman nodded, trying to choose his words carefully. “Yeah. Sometimes it's good to see someone who feels familiar. And other times it just makes me miss my Lois so much…” Superman paused for a moment and when he spoke again, his voice was a bit more deliberate. “But mostly it's just awkward. Trying to forge the right relationship with her here.”
Clark put down the butter he had gotten out of the refrigerator. “Thank you,” he said softly. “I know I don't say it often enough, and I also know that I'm not always good at even realizing it, but I know this is difficult for you, and… well, I really do appreciate it.”
“I know, Clark,” Superman said quietly. “And really, it's not all bad. I like being here sometimes. I've never spent this much time with another Kryptonian before and while this is probably different than that would be, since you're not just another Kryptonian, but sort of me, it's nice.”
Clark smiled. “Yeah, you probably never played basketball at full speed before.”
“No,” Superman agreed. “And possibly even more strange – I haven't made bread with someone in years.”
Clark grinned. “So, all Loises don't cook?”
Superman nodded. “If I want to cook with someone, it's pretty much my mom. Although, Emily is showing some interest in it, too. Jory, on the other hand, firmly takes after his mother in that department.”
“You must miss them,” Clark said, trying to call up mental images of what his and Lois' children would look like.
“Sometimes, I miss them the most,” Superman said quietly. “Your parents help me miss my parents less and while it's not the same to interact with Lois or even Perry or Jimmy, at least I do get to do something with them occasionally.”
“But no Emily or Jory here,” Clark said softly, looking contemplative. “How about,” he asked, “I start taking over for you part time?”
“Part time?” Superman asked.
Clark nodded. “I'm sorry. I'm just not ready to do it yet. But maybe… I could ease into it or something. And this way, I could start to emulate you. Maybe you could even emulate me a little or something. And over time, we'll be harder to tell apart so that we won't see any more reports on LNN about Superman acting weird.”
“Are you sure, Clark?” Superman asked, trying to tamp down his excitement.
“No,” Clark admitted while he slid the bread into the oven so it could rise, “but I have to start somewhere.”
************
“Jack,” Clark called as he approached the fence. “Jack, I just have a question for you.”
Jack came out with a two inch piece of pipe in his hands for protection. Once he saw Clark, though, he relaxed. Behind him, a smaller boy stood wearing Clark's jacket.
“Who's this?” Clark asked, keeping his voice soft so Jack would continue to feel comfortable with him.
“Denny. He's my brother,” Jack said and Denny stepped forward slightly to get a better look at Clark. “Go on back, Den,” Jack said to the boy.
“Where are your parents?” Clark asked.
“Look, what are you, Social Services? My parents are dead and the system don't work for us. It's better this way, so just leave us alone!” Jack said, his stance defensive again.
“Okay,” Clark said taking a step back. “I just have another question about the globe.”
“So ask it and go,” Jack demanded.
“The guys who bought it – what did they look like?”
Jack shrugged. “I only saw one of them. An English dude. Tall and skinny.”
Clark nodded and turned to leave. Then thinking better of it, he turned back. “Look, Jack, I can help you if you let me.”
“I thought we had a deal. I answer your question and you leave,” Jack said.
Clark nodded. “Okay. But if you change my mind, you have my number.”
************
He was almost at his desk when the next message started. Luckily the newsroom was empty – even the night staff was home before three in the morning.
Clark stumbled to his desk before the holographic image enveloped him. He watched Jor-El and Lara as the lab shook several more times and seemingly random data flew across a computer screen.
“At last the computers have located a suitable destination,” Jor-El said. “A planet physically and biologically compatible with Krytpon whose inhabitants resemble ours, and whose society is based on ethical standards which are similar to ours. It's inhabitants call it simply – Earth.”
Clark felt himself relax. He was worried Jor-El would say something about Kansas. Without knowing who was watching these messages with him, he had no idea how likely it would be that they would make a connection between Kansas and him, but he had no desire to find out.
“Clark Kent,” came Lois' voice from the other side of the newsroom, “you and I are going to have a little talk.”
Clark looked up at her, still feeling a bit overwhelmed from the fourth message. “Now? Lois, it's three in the morning!”
“Well, I would have been happy to talk to you earlier, but you weren't home when I came by. Where were you anyway?”
Clark thought frantically. Where could he say he was? Oh, wait: no need to panic – “I was down at the docks. I wrote up a story on the fire.”
“Why didn't you call me?” Lois demanded.
“I'm sorry. I…,” Clark decided to leave it at that rather than complicate things by lying. “Superman said you came by,” he said instead in an effort to draw her attention away from the article.
“Right,” Lois said remembering. “Why didn't you tell me about the ball? Superman's ball?”
Clark flushed. “Lois, it wasn't my information. It was Superman's.”
“Did he ask you to keep it a secret?” Lois asked, sounding hurt.
Clark did not know what the appropriate thing to say was. Should he say yes? That would probably cause problems between Superman and Lois and while he certainly did not want to help their relationship along, he was not sure he wanted to cause problems either. If nothing else, that would probably not endear him to Lois in the long run.
On the other hand, if he said no, then he would have kept it from her and she would be angry at him.
“Clark!” Lois said sharply. “This is not a difficult question. Did Superman ask you to keep the ball thing a secret from me?”
“No,” Clark finally said, deciding on honesty. “But… well, it just seemed private,” he said hesitantly.
“But I asked you if anything else was missing from your place and you said no,” Lois pointed out. When Clark did not say anything, Lois added, “You lied to me, Kent!”
“You don't lie to me?” Clark asked.
“That's different!” Lois insisted. “I'm from Metropolis. You're from Kansas. You grew up on a farm!”
“And that's important why?” Clark asked, trying to hide his grin. He knew Lois was still angry at him, but the reasoning here was pure Lois.
“There are different standards,” Lois explained, her voice cold. “I expect you to be honest with me.”
“And I should expect you to lie to me?” Clark asked.
“Don't get smart with me, Smallville! I asked you straight up if there was anything else missing and you said no. I didn't…” Lois' words fell off as she paced, but turning around, she continued again a second later, sounding even more upset than before. “I had no idea you could lie that well. That easily. How can I ever trust you again?”
The ringing of Clark's phone interrupted her, and before Clark could move Lois gave him a dirty look. “Don't answer that!” she demanded.
“Sorry, Lois,” Clark said as he leaned over to pick up the phone.
He listened to whomever was the other side while Lois spent the two minutes he was on the phone glaring at him and clearly getting angrier and angrier.
“This is Denny,” came the small voice on the other end of the phone. “Jack's brother. Something's happened. Something bad.”
“Okay, Denny,” Clark said, keeping his voice calm. “Just tell me what happened.”
“Someone took Jack. I don't know who, but they're gonna hurt him. I know they are.”
“Denny, it's going to be okay. Can you go to the police station on the corner of Elm and 16th St? Ask for Inspector Henderson. You can tell him that I sent you.”
“The police?” came Denny's voice.
“It will be okay, Denny,” Clark said. “I promise. I'll find Jack. You just go meet Inspector Henderson.”
A moment later, he hung up the phone. “Could you…”
“You want me to do a favor for you?” Lois interrupted. “You have got to be kidding me!”
“Lois, I'm sorry,” Clark said as he pulled his jacket on. “But this is important. If you could go down to the 12th precinct and stay with a kid named Denny, I'd really appreciate it. He's just a kid, Lois, maybe 14, and he's scared. Please?”
“Fine,” Lois agreed begrudgingly. “But we're not finished here,” she warned.
Clark nodded his understanding before jogging towards the elevator.
Why did all the men in her life lie to her? She thought she had stopped that pattern, but it just kept repeating itself.
“So, when is he coming?” Lucy asked as she watched Lois pace the living room.
“He should be home soon,” Lois said. “Any minute now.”
“And why couldn't you go pick him up at the airport?” Lucy asked.
“Chad and I thought it best that I not do that,” Lois explained. “The Andrews are all going and with Mr. Andrews still reeling from everything with his father and Chad's brothers being home, the car is full, and well, I guess we wanted a more quiet, private place for his homecoming.”
“I can't believe how long it's been since you've seen him,” Lucy said.
“I know,” Lois said softly, as she sat on the couch. “But when his grandfather got worse last November, his grandmother sort of fell apart. We didn't want to stress her out by adding a houseguest to the mix, and Chad didn't want to leave her alone. We really didn't think it would be this long. The doctors said a week at best. They were as surprised as we were when his grandfather managed to hold on for so many months and then when he showed signs of recovering last month, it was a complete surprise.”
“It almost sounds like a miracle,” Lucy said.
“Yeah, Chad said it sort of feels like it. After his grandfather was barely able to care for himself since the downturn eight months ago to be almost fully recovered - it's unheard of, particularly for someone his age.”
“Well, I'm sure Chad's glad to be coming home and seeing you,” Lucy said just as the phone rang.
“Hello,” Lois said as she grabbed it so quickly it did not even finish the first ring.
“I'm on my way, baby,” Chad's voice came over the line. “Matt needs the car for an errand and I don't want to wait another minute to see you, so I'm taking my bike. I'll be there in about twenty minutes. Sooner if I can.”
“I'll be waiting at the front door,” Lois said, smiling into the phone.
“I can't wait to see you,” he said quietly before hanging up.
Lois closed her eyes tightly, stopping the flow of tears. She would not think about that now. Thinking about it would not help.
Besides, that did nothing to change the problem. The problem was not Chad – it was Clark. Getting up, Lois grabbed her coat. She was going to go to the precinct like he asked, but next time she saw him, they were going to finish this discussion.
