PREVIOUSLY...
‘I love only Max. I love only Max,’ she silently repeated to herself in time with the soft padding of her bare feet hitting the smooth trail as she jogged towards the waterfalls.
When she reached the edge of the water, she stripped off her robe and the light cotton t-shirt and instantly dove into the water. She came up out of the water again, almost surprised that there wasn’t steam rising from the surface of the pond as the water desperately tried to cool the fire in her body. She’d needed that. Badly. In fact, only an hour or two more in this cold water, and her body temperature might almost be back to normal.
“Lois?”
Lois looked up to see Clark standing near the edge of the pool. She watched his eyes widen as he saw what she was wearing - or, more accurately, not wearing.
AND NOW - PART 7
Almost instantly, Clark turn his back towards her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you’d be... I mean, I guess I didn’t think that you...”
Lois laughed. He obviously didn’t think she’d be comfortable with him seeing her when, to the best of his knowledge, she didn’t remember them as anything more than friends. It was kinda sweet, actually.
And in point of fact, she was slightly uncomfortable - not that she had any intention of letting him realize that. After all, if she really had her memories back, she wouldn’t be self conscious.
“It’s okay, Clark,” she said, even as she stepped out of the water and casually, she hoped, reached for her robe. “I remember.”
Clark snuck a quick peek at her over her shoulder. When he saw that she was tying her robe, he turned back around. “Remember?” he asked.
“You,” she said, taking a step towards him. “Me,” she added as she took another one. “Us,” she ended when she stopped directly in front of him.
She might not have planned it all out. But she suddenly knew what she needed to do to convince him that she had her memory back, at least enough for him to agree to return them to Metropolis. She refused to think too deeply about why this suddenly seemed like a good idea, or why she’d chosen this moment to tell him that she remembered them. Or even whether or not she could really pull this off with what little she had pieced together. All she knew at the moment was the blood pounding in her veins - the thrill of a plan coming together, no doubt. After all, what else could be causing her heart to beat this quickly?
“Us?” he asked. In his tone, she could hear a kind of desperate hopefulness.
“Us,” she responded, her voice coming out unexpectedly husky as the images from her earlier memory flash cascaded to the forefront of her mind. His response was almost instantaneous. She could feel the longing coming off him in waves. She took another step towards him and could tell that he was fighting the desire to take her in his arms. She could only marvel at his control. “Us,” she repeated, her hands coming to rest on his chest before sliding up and around his neck to play with the hair on the back of his neck. “I remember... us.” With that, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him softly on the lips.
He gave an odd sort of moan, before pulling her tightly against his body. “Oh, Lois, honey,” Clark said, burying his face in her hair.
“Your little tornado,” Lois added in response to a sudden memory flash. The first time he’d called her honey, she’d asked what other names he had for her. And she clearly remembered the one that had amused her most.
Clark pulled back far enough to look in her eyes. “You do remember.”
“I remember,” she said, her eyes on his. Then she broke eye contact to pull him closer, burying her face in his neck. “Oh, Clark. I can’t believe I almost lost you.”
“You could never lose me, Lois,” Clark responded as he held her close, cradling the back of her head, kissing her hair.
After a moment, he pulled back far enough to reach into his pocket. He pulled out what was quite obviously a diamond engagement ring. “And do you remember this?”
She didn’t, of course. She barely remembered anything about their relationship. Only that they were co-workers, referred to each other as best friends... and that they were lovers, of course. But she didn’t remember anything about their being engaged. Still, with the engagement ring clearly in front of her, she finally was fairly certain that he was telling the truth about being engaged.
A slight grin quirked at the corner of her mouth when she realized that for him to have that on him at precisely this moment, both having just got out of bed. Him clad only in a pair of jeans. Her in a robe. For him to have that now meant that he must have been carrying it everywhere.
So... how should she respond? Suddenly, the perfect response came to his query about whether she remembered their engagement came to her. “I do,” she said, raising her hand to allow him to slip the ring onto her finger.
The heat she felt from the following kiss caught her by surprise. Electricity shot through her entire body, leaving him catching her when her legs gave out beneath her.
“Lois, are you okay?” Clark instantly asked.
Her finger went up to trace his lips as she responded. “Take me back to the cabin, Clark,” she said, surprised at how husky her voice sounded.
He needed no further encouragement. With one quick motion, he had her in his arms and, even as his lips descended to hers, he began carrying her towards the cabin.
‘Tonight, my body is yours,’ she silently told him as her arms wrapped themselves around his neck and she kissed him with a passion of which she hadn’t known herself capable. Her mind didn’t even register that she’d completely forgotten to add the remaining disclaimer.
* * * * * * * * *
After not being able to kiss her or hold her for so long, Clark found he couldn’t get enough of her. The taste of her lips. The feel of her body pressed tightly against his. The smell that was uniquely her surrounding him, drowning him, making him incapable of remembering his own name. His entire being was lost in everything that was Lois. And it seemed she felt the same. Ever since they’d arrived back at the cabin and tumbled together onto the couch, they had barely come up for air.
He knew he should slow things down, take a moment to catch his breath. After all, they had so much to talk about. But then he’d break away, only to have her look at him through passion glazed eyes, her lips swollen from his kisses, or touch him again and all the resolve he’d had to muster just to break away in the first place would dissolve and he would be swept away again on a wave of burning desire.
Finally, she seemed to regain some control, pulling away from him, breathing heavily. She stared at him silently for a long minute, even as her fingers came up to trace the outline of his lips. She seemed as overwhelmed as he by what was happening between them tonight. He captured her hand, kissing the pads of her fingers one at a time. She watched, seemingly fascinated by his actions.
“Lois, we need to...” He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d been about to say. A number of things could have followed. ‘We need to talk.’ ‘We need to slow things down a bit.’ But he never had a chance to find out what he’d been about to say, because her fingers broke away from his, coming to rest on his lips as she shook her head.
“Not tonight,” she whispered. “Not tonight.” With that, she swept back in with a kiss that made him glad he was lying down. But when he reached for her, intending to pull her back to him, she evaded his grasp.
She crawled over his body to get to the outside of the couch, causing him to recite prime numbers in his head. When she finally rose to sit next to him, she looked at him for a minute more. Finally, taking hold of his hand, she rose to her feet. “Let’s go to bed, Clark,” she said, her voice sending electricity through his already sensitized body.
“Lois, you’ve just got your memory back. We really should...”
“We’ve wasted too much time already, Clark. Come to bed with me.”
He was powerless to resist as she tugged on his hand, pulling him to his feet before leading the way to the bedroom door. Once there, she turned to face him again and for a moment he thought she had changed her mind and he prepared himself for her words telling him that they should... He wasn’t sure what. Talk. Wait. Not get swept away in the moment.
On the other hand, if things had not gone so terribly wrong, she would be his wife by now. He’d already made his oath to love and honor her for the rest of his life in front of their friends and family. The fact that he had actually said the words to her clone was irrelevant - at least as far as his heart was concerned. He’d taken them in oath to her.
“I could take you back to Metropolis. Maybe I should do that before...” he started, only to be cut off when she pulled his head down to claim his mouth, running her hands through his hair.
“Later,” she objected when she came up for air. “Much later.” With that, she kissed him again, her hands leaving his hair to wrap tightly around his neck. And then she jumped slightly to encircle his waist with her legs. He caught her without thought and they tumbled into the bedroom where they landed, fully entangled, onto the bed.
And suddenly, nothing existed in Clark’s world except the woman in his arms. Thinking, talking, waiting were all for another time. For now, there was only feeling. As for what her lips and hands were doing to him as they ran over his chest and down to the button on his jeans... at the moment, he couldn’t find the words. He gave up and, as his hands slipped beneath her robe, allowed himself to surrender words for a much more primal method of communication.
* * * * * * * * *
The beams of sunlight falling across the bed brought Clark out of slumber. A slow smile spread across his face as the woman, asleep and tangled in his arms, caused the wonder of the previous night to flood through his mind.
It might not have happened as they’d planned. But he couldn’t regret it. They would be married as soon as possible and, alright, maybe they had jumped the gun a bit, but after everything that had happened, who could blame them? Besides, making love to Lois, had been... He searched his internal thesauruses, scouring it for the appropriate word. He gave up. No words could possibly describe what had happened between them last night. They’d been insatiable, neither seeming able to get enough the other. Just when he’d think the passion between them was spent, it would flare again until finally, exhausted, they’d succumbed to their need for sleep.
He felt Lois stir against his chest.
“Morning,” he said softly.
She looked around, seeming to try to figure out exactly what was going on. Then he saw a blush begin to creep up her cheeks. “Morning,” she responded, ducking her head and lifting a hand to brush a strand of hair off her face.
She looked so adorable that he couldn’t resist leaning closer to plant a light kiss on the tip of her nose. She seemed to blush even more at his actions.
“God, I love you,” he breathed, overwhelmed by the sudden tenderness that swept through him.
She met his eyes then. “And I love you,” she responded. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she settled back against his chest. “So what time is it?” she finally asked.
“Who cares?” he responded.
He could feel her smile against him. “Well, as much as I’d like nothing better than to stay in this bed all day,” she began playfully, her finger running suggestively down his chest, “I think we need to talk.”
He sighed. She was right. They probably should have talked last night. Not that he could regret that they hadn’t. After all, last night had been... He was still searching for the word. “You’re right. We do need to talk.” He could feel her again smile against him as she seemed to register the resigned tone in his voice.
“Well, I’ve been thinking,” she began, somewhat hesitantly. She didn’t continue then, causing him to reach down to tilt her face up so that he could look into her eyes.
“You’ve been thinking,” he repeated encouragingly.
“I think you're right. We should go back to Metropolis.”
He cocked his head slightly so that he could see her face. “You do?”
She nodded her head, shifting slightly so that she was looking at him more fully from her position against his chest. “Yeah. I mean, I remembered us being lovers...” She kissed his bare chest. “...from studying those pictures taken in my apartment.” She gave him a sexy smile. “Now, that was a great memory. Anyway...” She snuggled in next to him again, laying her head back on his shoulder. “...I think I’ll remember more around people and places I know. So I think that when we get out of this bed... eventually...”
She continued talking, but Clark was no longer listening. He was attempting to keep his breathing and heart rate calm even as the blood began pounding in his ears. ‘...remembered us being lovers...’ Okay, so there was no real reason to panic here. After all, just because she’d gotten one small - or maybe not so small - detail about their relationship wrong, it didn’t mean there was anything sinister going on here. It didn’t mean that she was making all of this up in order to convince him to take her back to Metropolis. No, it could be nothing more than a simple misunderstanding about something she really had remembered. All he had to do was recall the incident where she thought the scene from Lethal Weapon had been them to know that.
“Clark?” her inquiring voice brought him back from his thoughts.
“Humm?” he asked, as she turned once again in his arms so that she could see his face.
“Clark, you weren’t listening to a word I said, were you?” Lois asked, looking at him in amused exasperation.
“Sorry,” he responded. “I guess I sort of got distracted by the word ‘lovers.’” It was true - though not quite in the way he knew she would take it.
A smile suddenly tugged at the corners of her mouth. “You did, did you?”
“Most definitely. And that got me thinking about the day I asked you to marry me.”
“Mmm, there’s a great memory.” The words came out somewhat sultry.
“Mmm...” Clark said neutrally, his mind working overtime. He wouldn’t exactly say that the day he proposed was a ‘great memory.’ Okay, so it had got things out in the open between them - and that was most definitely good. But she’d turned down his proposal and he’d spent the rest of the night and most of the following day sulking. Still, it didn’t exactly mean she was lying about remembering it. She might just not remember that she’d turned him down. His mind rushed as he sought for a way to figure this out. “I was so nervous,” he said after a moment.
“You were?”
He nodded. “I think that’s why I booked that sunset cruise for us on Hobbs Bay and then waited until the sun was going down over the ocean and the entire area was lit up by the red sunset before getting down on my knee and asking you to marry me. I guess I figured you wouldn’t be able to say no in such a romantic setting. I was so relieved when you said yes.” He held his breath then, hoping that she would correct him, or admit that she didn’t remember that part or... or anything that wouldn’t prove that she was lying to him.
“Mmm...” She began to trace complicated patterns on his chest with her finger. “And all I could think about was that I wished we weren’t on that damn boat so that I could get you home and show you exactly how emphatic my yes was.” She paused slightly. “I don’t think I ever told you that before.”
Clark instantly moved, pushing himself upright and away from Lois, needing the distance so that he could, hopefully, think straight.
“What’s going on here, Lois?” he demanded when he finally slipped far enough away to get her hands off his body.
He saw her give a start and heard her heart rate jump even as a guarded look entered her eyes. “What do you mean?” she responded, her voice quivering slightly on the words even as her hand, almost involuntarily, pulled the sheet up further around her body. It seemed almost an instinctive reaction, as if she was suddenly vulnerable and trying to protect herself.
Clark felt his heart clench in response. He wanted so badly to go back to just moments before when he had been in blissful ignorance of the fact that she was lying to him, to pull her back into his arms and just pretend that was how he’d really proposed.
“That wasn’t how I proposed,” he said instead. “We weren’t on a boat. And the sun wasn’t setting.”
“Okay, so maybe I got a few of the details wrong, but I definitely remember saying yes.”
“But you didn’t say yes!” Clark exclaimed.
“But then...” Lois pulled the sheet tighter around her even as she glanced at the ring on her left hand in confusion.
“I said yes when you asked me to marry you,” Clark said. “So what is this? You don’t remember us at all, do you? You just made... had sex with me to convince me to take you back to Metropolis.” Even though he knew she wouldn’t care how much she’d hurt him, he couldn’t keep the heartbreak out of his voice on his words.
“Okay, fine. Yes! You’re right, Clark! But you kidnapped me and even though I’ve looked everywhere I can think of, I haven’t been able to find out where you put the radio or satellite phone or whatever you’re going to use to get us off this damn island! And you say you love me, but if you cared about me at all, you’d take me back to Max so that he can help me recover my memory!” As she spoke, she crawled backwards out of bed.
For a moment, Clark was distracted by wondering how she was managing to get the sheet wrapped around her as she did so. Was it some ancient ritual passed down to women through the generations - in hygiene class, perhaps? But a moment later, she was standing next to the bed without having let him see anything.
He shook the thought from his mind. “So you... what? Seduce me? Let me think that you remember that you’re in love with me?”
“Newsflash, Clark! I’m not in love with you. And no matter what you make me ‘remember,’ that’s never going to change. I love only Max. You mean nothing to me.”
Clark blinked. “What?” he asked, his mind whirling following her last words.
“You mean nothing to me,” she repeated.
“And you... love only Max.”
“Yes.”
“Really?” His voice now was soft.
“Yes,” she repeated sounding vaguely suspicious.
“Did you hear yourself?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your words. Every time you tell me how you feel about Deter, you use the exact same words.”
“Well, there are only so many ways you can say you love someone,” she said defensively.
“But you don’t say you love him. You say you love ‘only’ him.”
“Well, I do.”
“And you’ve said the same thing about your feelings for me in exactly the same way, too. That I mean nothing to you.”
“I don’t see what that has...”
“It’s as if those aren’t really your words.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said even as she began backing from the bed. “I’m the one who said them, aren’t I?”
“As if they were given to you by someone else.”
She flinched. He was onto something here. Something important. He could feel it. “Did Deter tell you you love only him.”
“He didn’t have to tell me that, Clark. I knew it all on my own.”
Clark sat up on the side of the bed, unlike her not trying to hide himself. He watched her eyes flick down his body before, immediately, returning to his face, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
“Why did you really sleep with me last night, Lois?” he asked.
“You know why - to convince you to get me the hell off this island,” she said, taking another backward step towards the door, obviously not comfortable with the direction this conversation was taking.
“How many times did we make love last night?” He was right. He knew he was. Deter had somehow put the idea that she loved him in her mind. But last night had been about more than convincing him that she remembered. It had been far too intense, far too passionate, and frankly, far too long a session of love-making for it to have been about nothing more than convincing him to get her off this island. And it hadn’t been all him. She’d been as insatiable as he had. Her mind might not be willing to recognize her feelings for him, but her body most certainly had. “And if you recall correctly, I offered to take you back to Metropolis before we even slept together. You were the one who insisted on not waiting.”
“Look, I don’t see what this has to do with anything,” Lois said defensively. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need a shower.” And without another word, she turned, fleeing for the safety of the bathroom.
Clark was already lost in thought by the time the door slammed. Hypnosis. It was the only thing that made sense. After all, he himself knew how powerful a post hypnotic suggestion could be. Or... was he just looking for an excuse to dismiss her claims of love for another man?
‘I love only Max.’
‘You mean nothing to me.’
No. He wasn’t wrong. Lois didn’t talk like that. Those weren’t her words. So what did he do now? Identifying the problem was one thing. But what did he do about it?
Dr. Novak! The hypnotist who had helped them when Daren Rodnick’s assistant, Constance, had started using hypnosis to kidnap children to hold for ransom. In fact, she had even managed to hypnotize Superman, making him believe that wrong was right. He’d even gone so far as to put both Lois and a child in jeopardy as a result.
No. Dr. Novak had been killed during that investigation. And Clark wasn’t about to break Constance out of prison so that he could make use of her dubious talents.
What about Dr. Friskin? She had the advantage of having given Lois counseling in the past. And she probably knew how to use hypnosis in her counseling - or would she? Was that a standard tool used by all psychologists?
No. Dr. Friskin, even if she knew hypnosis, would undoubtedly feel it was her obligation to report that Superman knew where Lois had been taken to the police. He needed someone outside the system. But who did he know who...
Star! She knew hypnosis!
“I’m going out,” he yelled towards the bathroom door before using a burst of superspeed to get dressed. He was just flying out the door when he heard Lois’ muttered response.
“Don’t hurry back on my account.”
Clark grinned as he disappeared into the sky. Maybe it would be a good idea to do a quick Superman patrol while he was out. After all, he hadn’t done one last night. And Lois’ parting comment was permission - of a sort - to take his time getting back.
Suddenly feeling a little more hopeful, he put on an extra burst of speed as he streaked across the ocean on his way to Metropolis.
TO BE CONTINUED...
ML
