With thanks to Kathy B for the idea of having Riz get a dress for Lois!
From Part 30
Lois loosed his hand and claimed his face as she swung onto her knees. “I love *you*, Kal,” she vowed as she lowered her mouth onto his. She leant onto his thigh and felt his hands spread over her hips. This time, there was no gentle lead-in. She kissed him with purposeful intent – wanting to inflame him, wanting restoration for both of them. He met her intensity and set every part of her afire.
Then – with a boldness that shocked her - his tongue coasted along her top lip.
She groaned ... and abandoned every thought she’d ever had concerning the case for restraint.
Her hands slid to the back of his head, capturing him in the mesh of her dancing mouth.
His hands slipped lower and rounded to the shape of her bottom.
Her tongue ventured out to meet him ... connected ... and the roll of desire shuddered through both of them.
Her hands skimmed his undershirt and found the top button of his jacket.
As the button slipped from its hole, she heard a loud cough.
From behind her.
From the other side of the cave.
Lois flung herself off Kal, her breath whipping crazily.
And saw Tek.
And behind him, Riz.
Both grinning – Kryptonian style.
“H...how ...” Lois faltered.
Tek ditched two large water containers on the sand and stepped forward. “We’ve come to do your Marriage Ceremony,” he announced.
“Our Marr ...?” she gulped.
Riz placed the bags she carried next to the containers. “You said you wanted to get married today. We’re a little late, but we had a few disruptions.”
“We’re getting *married*?” Lois said.
“I assume you still want to,” Tek said. “Because that’s how it looked from here.”
Part 31
Kal didn’t know where to look. He was embarrassed enough that Tek had seen him and Lois. He was mortified that Riz had seen them.
He scrambled to his feet.
He offered Lois his hand and helped her to stand beside him.
He searched for something to say.
Finding nothing, he glanced to Lois. She was watching him, her eyes sparkling with barely-contained humour. She released it with an enchanting burble of laughter that dissipated his embarrassment in the wave of her delight. “That would be wonderful,” she exclaimed. “Now is the perfect time to be married.”
It is?
But Kal had nothing to offer her … no future … no security … no protection ... no means … nothing.
He turned to Lois, putting his body between her and the others. He turned off his Translator. “Lois,” he said. “I have nothing -.”
“Do you love me?”
“With everything I am.”
“Do you want to marry me?”
“I’m not sure you should want to ma-.”
She cut off his words by placing a forefinger on the mouth still tingling from her kisses. “Do you want to marry me?” she repeated – this time slowly and with enticing emphasis on each word.
Of course he wanted to marry her. He’d wanted to marry her since the moment he’d understood what marriage was meant to be. “Yes,” he said. “Yes.”
“Then let’s do it.”
“Here? Now? In the cave?”
Her laughter simmered with happiness. “I want to marry *you*, Kal-El,” she said. “Everything will be wonderful just because it’s you.”
Kal turned on his Translator as he faced Tek and Riz. “Let’s do it then.”
“Oh, good!” Riz said. “Come with me, Lady.”
“And you come with me, Sir,” Tek said.
“Hold on,” Lois said.
Kal felt the scrap of apprehension knock against his heart. Surely she couldn’t have changed her mind. Not now.
“How did you get in here?” Lois asked Tek and Riz. “I can’t believe you came the way we came – not with all that stuff. And you’re not even wet.”
Tek pointed to the tunnel at the back of the cave.
Lois afforded the tunnel the merest of glances. “It’s not a dead-end?”
“No.”
“It comes out? Somewhere on New Krypton?”
“Yes.”
“Somewhere near the Regal Residence?”
“Yes.”
“Enabling you to work in your hidden laboratory and still get to Kal quickly and easily?”
“Unless it was high tide.”
Lois’s questions stopped abruptly and her zeal diverted to a dazzling smile. Kal felt his mouth widen in response, his gaze glued to her. In full flight, she was spectacular.
She wasn’t finished yet. “But we had to take the scenic route because we couldn’t go close to the Regal Residence in case Nor saw us?” she concluded.
“Nor’s dead,” Tek said.
Two words – delivered with neither warning nor fanfare.
Two words that bludgeoned through Kal’s consciousness. “Dead?” he gulped.
“He’s dead?” Lois echoed.
“Yes,” Tek said.
“How?” Lois said.
“He was shot.”
“Shot?” Kal said.
“Bullet to the head,” Tek said. “Right here.” He pointed to the space between his eyebrows.
“He’s really dead?” Lois asked. “Who shot him?”
“Ching is the Supreme Ruler?” Kal asked.
“When?” Lois asked. “During the lockdown?”
“Are there any indications the South will rise against him?” Kal said.
“Did they attack the Regal Residence?”
“Was anyone else hurt? Za? Yent?”
“Has Ching taken Za as his wife?”
Tek’s head bounced from Kal to Lois and back again as each question fired. He held up his hands. “Much is still unclear,” he said in the silence that followed their barrage. “Ching accepted the mantle and took Za as his wife. He lifted the lockdown once Nor’s death was officially confirmed. Ching called a Cabinet Meeting that is expected to go late into the evening.”
“The men of the South?” Kal questioned. “Are they rising against him?”
“Not yet.”
“So there is still peace?”
“For now, yes,” Tek said. “Despite this being the most turbulent day in our history – a day when we had three Supreme Rulers – there is still peace.”
Kal expelled his tension on a long breath. His people had escaped Nor. They had a young, inexperienced leader, but they had a chance.
A chance for life.
A chance for peace.
“I’m glad,” Lois said. “I’m glad they can be together.”
“Who?” Kal asked.
“Za and Ching,” she answered.
“Ching and Za?” Kal said. “They *want* to be together?”
Lois nodded. “I think that is why Ching collaborated with Nor.”
This was almost as staggering as Nor’s death. “They *love* each other?” Kal gasped.
Lois smiled. “I think so,” she said softly.
“The Lady Za has moved into the Regal Residence with Lord Ching,” Riz said in a tone that held both shock and approval.
Lois’s smile surged. “Good,” she said. “A woman in the halls of power. That has to be a step forward.”
“Come on, Sir,” Tek said. “The tide will soon rise and you have a Marriage Ceremony to prepare for.”
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Fifteen minutes later Kal was clean, shaved and dressed in his own clothes. It had been achieved using the remarkable and expansive collection of things – beginning with a razor and finishing with a bottle of Riz’s cologne - that had emerged from Tek’s bag.
From the alcove, Kal could hear the twitter of low voices as Lois and Riz worked through the mysteries contained in Riz’s bag.
Regularly, Lois’s laughter soared above the voices – and every single time, Kal smiled. She sounded so happy.
Kal stood next to Tek … waiting for Lois.
His heart was racing, but for the first time today, it was driven by excitement, not fear or apprehension.
“The ladies always need longer to get ready, Sir,” Tek said.
“Tek,” Kal said quietly. “I offered my life.”
“I know, Sir.”
“If ... when it happens, Tek … would you look after Lois?” Kal said earnestly. “Would you make sure she is cared for and protected?”
“You know I will do whatever I can.”
“There will be less opposition now - now that Nor is dead.”
Tek paused. “Yes.”
Kal sensed significance in Tek’s hesitation. “Do you think the South will rise?” he questioned anxiously. “Are they inflamed by having a Northside leader?”
“No, Sir,” Tek said. “The Lady Za is South. That brings balance – and the possibility of a mixed heir.”
“Then what is wrong?”
Tek glanced to where the sounds of preparation still came from behind the rock partition. He leant closer to Kal. “Your Lady has been charged with the murder of Nor.”
+-+-+-+
Lois stared as Riz drew the white dress from her bag and held it up for inspection.
“Riz,” Lois breathed.
“Do you like it?” Riz asked.
By Earth’s standards, it was a simple white dress without the benefit of any adornment at all. But it totally eclipsed anything Lois had seen on Krypton. The material was soft, not coarse, the length would reach to mid-calf instead of clogging around her ankles and best of all, its design suggested at least passing reference to the shape of a woman.
Lois took it from Riz, hardly daring to believe. “I can wear it?” she asked.
“It’s yours,” Riz said.
“Mine?”
“My friend made it for her wedding three years ago. I had never seen a gown like it. But when you said you were getting married, I took her some face cream and bartered with her.”
Lois felt her tears rise. Riz had so little – yet it hadn’t stunted her generous spirit. “Thank you.”
“Kal-El always treated Tek with much respect,” Riz said. “You gave us your books before you knew us. I am glad for the opportunity to help you both.”
Lois slipped on the dress and turned so Riz could slide home the buttons dotted up her spine.
It didn’t cling to her curves, but it did follow them – enough that it felt like a dress and not a sack. Lois chuckled. Her delight cannoned around the cave and scuttled back to them.
When she turned, Riz eyed her with the closest thing Lois had seen to a smile. “You look very good,” Riz said. “Kal-El has much good fortune.”
“Thank you.”
Riz lifted a piece of stiff paper from her bag and showed it to Lois. It was a drawing of flowers – reds and blues and yellows - cut to the shape of a posy. “You said that on your planet, the woman carries flowers,” Riz said. “We have very few flowers on New Krypton, so Ard drew this for you.”
Lois took the drawing and – she just couldn’t help it – lifted the ‘posy’ to her nose and inhaled. They smelled like paper. Riz delved into her bag and took out a jar of her face cream. She dabbed a spot on the end of her finger and smeared it on the back of the flowers.
“Smell again,” she suggested.
Lois did. The sweet aroma loosened the wad of her tears.
She had never imagined she would be married in a cave wearing a plain white dress with a cardboard cut-out as her bouquet, but she was sure that an elaborate wedding could not have filled her with the joy she felt now.
On Earth, there had been the possibility of the wedding of her dreams, but she could never have found the man of her heart – because he was here, on New Krypton.
Riz delved into her bag and withdrew the final two objects. “I have pinking for your cheeks,” she said. “And shine for your lips.”
Make-up! Lois’s tears overflowed.
She couldn’t have planned a more perfect wedding.
+-+-+-+
“But Lois didn’t –.“ Kal’s sudden exclamation rang around the cave. He controlled his indignation enough to reduce his voice to a whisper. “She didn’t do *anything*.”
“Nor was facing you when the gunman fired. He was hit to the forehead. Lady was there, Nor died. You didn’t.”
Kal remembered the hole in Lois’s gown. “That doesn’t mean she killed him,” he hissed.
“She’s different,” Tek said quietly. “Many people saw what happened today - *think* they saw what happened. Though no one really knows, so they speculate.”
“What are they saying?”
“That the alien woman diverted the bullet from you and deliberately aimed it at Nor.”
“She was hit in the back,” Kal said. “That’s hardly deliberate.”
“They are fearful of what else she can do,” Tek said.
“But to *charge* her?”
“Under the Law, there was no choice. It seems certain that her actions directly caused the death of a Supreme Ruler.”
From behind the alcove, Lois’s laughter rose again. It alleviated Kal’s tension and reminded him he was about to marry the woman he loved. “They’re going to struggle to locate her ten closest relatives,” he said flippantly.
“If you marry her, you’ll be the first one,” Tek said.
Kal shrugged. “So,” he said with a lazy grin. “They chase me twice.”
“I didn’t think it would deter you,” Tek said.
“It would take a lot more than a death sentence to stop me marrying her,” Kal said. He heard movement from the alcove and turned. Riz emerged and waited for Lois. Kal leant closer to Tek. “Don’t tell Lois,” he said under his breath. “Don’t tell her yet. Let her have today.”
Lois came from behind the rock and everything else lost all significance.
She smiled – directly at him – and stripped him of the ability to breathe.
Of all his memories, there was not one that came close to this. Lois – coming to marry him.
She wore a white dress – one he’d never seen before. It hung close to her body, hinting at the shape of her underneath. It was short – he could see her ankles and the curves of her lower legs.
She carried a splash of colour that sat bold against the whiteness of her dress.
Kal’s gaze moved slowly upwards and settled on her face.
Her smile reached inside him … just as her first smile had.
It warmed him and lifted him and made him feel so incredibly good.
She loved him. He could see it in her face, her smile, her eyes.
He loved her so much.
Around them lurked the dark shadow of uncertainty. But between them was the solid rock of commitment that would not crumble regardless of how the shadow shook their world.
That knowledge steadied him.
Lois stopped when she reached him. She looked up at him and beamed as if seeing him made her feel exactly as he felt when he saw her.
Riz stood behind Lois. Tek stood in front of them.
Kal held out both of his hands. Lois gave the drawing to Riz and nestled her hands in his.
She smiled at him … a smile just for him.
Tek cleared his throat. “I, Tek-Or, of the household of Kal-El, certify that this Marriage Ceremony will be legal and binding on the planet of New Krypton.”
Lois’s hands tightened around his.
Tek looked to him. “Kal-El, of the House of El, out of the House of Ra, do you wish to speak?”
“I do,” Kal said. He heard a small gurgle of laughter escape from Lois and felt a response form in his throat. He gave it breath and let it loose. She heard it … and her laughter gathered momentum from his.
Kal could listen to her and watch her forever, but he needed to pull his thoughts together. He had nothing prepared … nothing beyond a few thoughts he had planned to finalise the morning of his Marriage Ceremony.
But he didn’t need plans … he just needed to speak from his heart.
And his heart was full. Full of his love for this most amazing of all women.
Kal turned to Tek. “I wish to speak in Lois’s language … is that all right?”
“Yes,” Tek said.
Kal ran his hand through his hair – slowly enough to buy some time to collect his thoughts. He turned off her Translator too – just because it gave him the opportunity to touch her. He took a deep breath and found her eyes.
“I love you,” he said steadily. “I imagine men and women on your planet say that to each other when they are about to be married. But for me, it is so much more because without you, I would still be lost in a world without love.
“Before you, I didn’t know my life could change - change from slumber to wakefulness … from rigid routine to freedom. I didn’t know that I could change from a shell to a heart … from a machine to a man.”
Kal took Lois’s hand to the centre of his chest. “I didn’t know someone could make me feel so good in here – with her beautiful smile and her wonderful laugh and her loving touch ... and her incredible kisses.” He deliberately ran the tip of his tongue the length of his upper lip.
She laughed … which was exactly what he’d hoped for.
“Lois … I promise you I will love you with my whole heart every day of my life. I promise I will love only you. My heart is no longer mine – it is yours … will always be yours … has been yours, probably since I met you. I didn’t know then, but from the moment you looked at me in my Chambers, there was never going to be anyone else for me.”
She smiled at him.
She looked so happy.
Kal turned on his Translator and drifted his hand through Lois’s hair. “I have finished,” he said to Tek.
“On Lady’s planet the couple swap rings,” Tek said. He opened his hand to reveal two metallic circles. “Take the smaller one, Sir,” he instructed. “Put it on her finger knowing it will be a sign between you that the vows you make today are to be kept for the rest of your lives.”
Kal took the ring and rubbed it between his fingers and thumb. He looked at Lois’s hand and had a moment of panic because he didn’t know which finger was supposed to get the ring. She saved him by extending her left hand and raising the finger next to the smallest one.
“Lois,” Kal said. “This is new to me, but I love the idea of so openly wearing a symbol of our marriage. Please accept this ring as a sign of my love for you. I hope that every time you look at it, you are reminded that your husband loves you more than anything.”
Kal pushed the ring onto her finger. When he looked up, she was crying.
They were happy tears.
He knew that with certainty.
He caught her moisture with his fingertip and smiled at her.
She smiled through her tears.
“Lady, of the House of El, traveller from a distant planet,” Tek said. “Do you wish to speak?”
“I do,” Lois said. She lifted her hand and felt through Kal’s hair for the little bump attached to his Translator. She turned it off and grinned at him as her hand moved to the short patch in her own hair.
She took in a breath of massive proportions, though it did nothing to dislodge her smile.
“Kal,” she said on a rush of breath. “Kal.”
He tightened his grip on her hand – the hand that wore the ring he’d put there.
“Kal – I have never met anyone like you,” she said. “I have never known anyone with such disregard for his own happiness – such kind consideration for the needs of others.
“I love your heart. You told me that before I came, you didn’t know who you were – yet your heart could not be silenced. It spoke in the things you did – in protecting people who needed protection, in taking me – a stranger and an alien - into your care, with thoughts not of personal gain, but of wanting to save me from being hurt.
“And today ...” Lois’s chin wobbled a little and another tear threatened to erupt. “Today ... your heart spoke again – so indubitably and with such steadfast courage.”
Lois squeezed his hand before continuing. “You say I have changed you. You have changed me too, Kal. You have such disarming honesty, I couldn’t help but trust you. You showed me that I don’t need to hide behind a façade of hostility. I feel *safe* with you.”
She looked around the cave and swallowed down her tears. “I’m trapped in cave, deep underground on a planet that is not mine. I have none of the things I always believed were necessary for security – no job, no home, no money, no career, no family – and a future so uncertain, we don’t even know if we have a tomorrow.
“Yet ... I feel *safe*. I feel safe because you’re here, Kal. And that ...” Lois swallowed tremulously. “And that is the greatest gift anyone has ever given me.”
She held out her hand for the ring. Then she took Kal’s hand and slipped it about a third of the way along his finger. “Kal,” she said. “I give you this ring as a sign that my love for you will never end. I have never been surer about anything than I am about my love for you.” She pushed the ring the length of his finger. “Except perhaps your love for me.
“You said your heart is mine. I promise to care for it always. I promise to love you and honour you and trust you forever.”
She looked into his eyes with a smile that caused his heart to burst with joy.
Kal thought she had finished, but suddenly her face changed and she grinned.
“And since you are the only person who can understand what I’m saying ... I’m going to say this. Your body drives me crazy. Your chest is magnificent. Your shoulders ... arrgh ... they are like sculptured arches that beg me to explore every flawless inch. Your arms ... those muscles ... I dream about devouring them. Your -.”
“Lois!” Kal said, a little shocked, a lot pleased.
“Would you like me to continue?” she offered, her grin wide. “I’m a writer – words are my playthings. I’ve barely started – I have a voluminous vocabulary of sublime descriptions – and there’s certainly plenty more deserving of recognition.” She laughed – it was fluffy and light and full of fun – but something about it worked its way inside him and replayed their interrupted kiss in precise detail.
“Later,” Kal said in a strangled voice, as he wondered exactly how much Tek would conclude from the redness of his face and the tone of Lois’s words.
Her eyebrow lifted and she shot him a smile he had never seen before. A smile that sizzled off her mouth and burned a trail through his body.
Kal felt the last of his patience dissolve to nothing.
With a grin that said she understood exactly what he was feeling, Lois switched on their Translators and they both turned to Tek.
He handed Kal a pencil and the official Certificate of Marriage. Kal stepped to the rock wall and signed his name, then handed the pencil to Lois. “You sign it too,” he said gravely.
She did.
Tek signed and then said, “I pronounce that you are legally bound by this official decree.”
Lois stepped up to Kal and enclosed him in the circle of her arms. “Do you want to kiss me?” she asked softly.
He did. But Tek and Riz were watching.
However, they’d already seen worse.
Before he could think further, Lois’s mouth had closed in on his and they were kissing – a sweet kiss with the secret promise of so much more.
Conscious of Tek and Riz, Kal backed away before he wanted to.
Lois turned to Riz, her arms outstretched. “May I?” she asked.
Riz didn’t say no, so Lois hugged her. Then she turned to Tek and brushed the quickest of embraces across his shoulders.
Kal turned to Tek. Tek’s flattened palm headed towards his chest. Kal caught it. “No,” he said. “Both fists or both palms.”
Tek didn’t know how to respond. “But, Sir.”
“And I’d like you to call me ‘Kal’.”
“That will take some getting used to.”
Kal lifted his hand, palm flat. Tek lifted his. Together they thudded into the chests.
“Thank you, Tek,” Kal said gravely. “Thank you for everything you have done for me. For us.”
“We have to leave now,” Tek said. “When the tide is high, the inland tunnel floods, making it impassable.”
“When is high tide?” Lois asked.
“Very soon,” Tek said. “Then you will be completely cut off until tomorrow.”
“Who else knows about the tunnel?” Lois asked.
“No one,” Tek said. “In all the years I have worked underground, I have never known anyone, other than my father, to come here. Until today, even my wife did not know of the location of these underground rooms.”
“Do you think we will be safe, even when the water is too low to flood the tunnel?” Kal asked.
“I believe so,” Tek replied. “But I will put across the tripwire as I do when I work down here. If anyone disturbs it, an alarm will sound. You need have no fear of being interrupted.”
“Thank you, Tek,” Lois said. “And thank you both for the most beautiful marriage ceremony.”
“Your marriage is completely legal,” Tek said. “But I won’t register it until ... until the future is clearer.”
Kal nodded.
Riz pointed to one of the bags she had brought. “You have food and drink in there,” she said. “Eb-Ur baked for you.”
They really had thought of everything.
Tek and Riz disappeared into the inland tunnel.
Kal turned to Lois.
His wife.
His only wife.
His wife who deserved a little payback for her teasing. He moved to the bag and peered inside. “Hungry?” he asked nonchalantly. “I’m starving.”
He bent low to investigate the food. Behind him there was silence. Kal grinned. One to him.
Then Lois spoke. “If you so much as reach into that bag, I swear I’ll strip you buck naked with my eyes and feast on you while you feast on the food.”
One all.
