From Part 2
Lois showered, dressed and applied her makeup - always listening for the whoosh that would signify Clark’s arrival.
She ate a hurried and scant breakfast as she drove to the Planet.
Just as she did every morning.
Except this morning was different.
Instead of her mind being full of stories and leads and advertising space and column inches, it was full of one man.
Her husband.
She missed him.
She wanted him back.
Part 3
Clark straightened his tie and turned from the mirror. As he perused their bedroom, the coming separation lay like a shroud over his heart. There was so much of Lois here. So much that they’d shared during the years of their marriage. So much he treasured.
His heart splintered at the thought of giving it away.
More than giving it away – pushing it away.
But he had to do it.
There was no other way.
The alternative was to witness Lois grieve endlessly for the child he couldn’t give her.
And that would be unbearable. For both of them.
With a sigh, he turned from the room.
Half-way down the stairs, his cell rang. It was Lois. She was probably expecting he’d been out on a rescue and would have a story to call in. He stifled the automatic spark of joy that flared in anticipation of her voice and deliberately distanced his. “Hi, Lois,” he said in a tone not unlike the one he would use to an acquaintance.
“Clark, I’m so glad you answered.” There was no indication she had noticed his tone.
“What’s up?” he asked.
This time, there was a slight hesitation. “Nothing’s up,” she said and he wondered if he detected defensiveness in her voice. “I missed you this morning.”
“I was out ... but it didn’t turn into a story.”
“OK,” she said, accepting that without any obvious displeasure. “Are you coming into the office now?”
Clark’s intention had been to use his super-hearing and x-ray vision to search for anything that could possibly be a story and use it to avoid having to go into the office. The less he saw Lois, the more possible this was going to be. But now she’d called him and he didn’t have a ready excuse. “Unless you’ve got something you want me to chase up first,” he offered.
“No. I was hoping to have coffee with you. Or even lunch. We could go out somewhere.”
Clark clamped down on the big breath that pushed for escape. “OK,” he agreed, although he knew his tone was far from enthusiastic. “Unless there’s a story ... or a rescue.”
He had deflated her. Clark didn't need Lois to speak to know he had dashed her eagerness. “I’ll see you when you get here,” she said quietly.
“Bye.” Clark hung up quickly, unable to bear a moment more of the hurt surprise in her voice.
He got into his car and drove to the Daily Planet office, horribly conflicted. He had seen so little of Lois lately. Having lunch together sounded like the best idea he’d ever heard. But lunch wouldn’t solve their problem.
It would only make the solution more difficult.
He had to do this. He had to do this. It was best for Lois. He had to give her the chance to be a mother.
That meant he had less than half an hour to come up with a reason why he couldn’t have lunch with his wife.
||_||
Lois slowly replaced the phone. It rang again immediately. She saw it was one of her junior reporters and let it go through to voicemail.
She sat back in her plush leather, ergonomically-designed chair. Clark had sounded agitated. As if he hadn’t been expecting her call. As if her call was not only unexpected, but also inconvenient.
What could he have been doing? He didn’t carry his cell when he was Superman. If she needed him, she knew she only had to call – literally – and he would hear her.
So his preoccupation wasn’t due to being in the middle of a rescue.
Maybe he was just caught off-guard.
When was the last time she had simply called him? Called him for no real reason? No work-related reason?
Called him to suggest they do something together?
Lois cringed as streams of shame burned through her conscience.
Again – she couldn’t remember the last time. The summer had come and almost gone and they had done nothing. Not together. Not something that could be considered fun. Or relaxing.
But Clark hasn’t called you either, her defiant side argued.
Yes, he did, she argued back. He did – many, many times, he did. In the weeks and months after she’d taken the position of Editor-In-Chief, he had regularly come into her office and insisted she take a break. He had left notes on her desk and messages on her phone – asking her out, telling her he loved her, reminding her that she was Lois Lane and well able to do the job she had taken on.
Until ...
Lois swallowed around the guilt-laden lump that ballooned into her throat.
Until one day, Clark had come in just after she’d discovered that a story she’d counted on as a front page headline had fizzled into nothing remotely newsworthy and she had told him in forceful terms that he had no concept of the stresses of trying to run an entire newspaper and he was going to have to accept that she wasn’t available to accompany him out for a meal whenever he had nothing better to do.
She’d apologised later, but he hadn’t asked her out much after that.
Not when she was working anyway.
And given she’d worked close to sixteen hours just about every day for the past fifteen months ... the opportunities for Clark to suggest times of togetherness had been limited.
How had it affected him?
Had he been hurt?
The little notes of love had dried up. As had the phone messages.
Even with his enormous capacity for understanding, had he ever felt animosity towards the job – the paper – that had claimed an exclusive hold on his wife’s attention? Did he resent that she had allowed it to happen?
Did he still believe this was an adjustment phase? Something that would, eventually, end and permit their lives to return to normal?
Or had this become their normal?
Clark would hate that.
Lois knew that their marriage was his greatest joy.
And it was hers, too.
But somehow, she’d lost sight of that.
||_||
Clark waited for the elevator doors to open. His heart was pounding – which was so ridiculous he didn’t even want to think about it. He felt exactly as he had in the elevator just moments before interviewing with Perry White for the job at the Daily Planet.
Now, eleven years, five Kerths and countless stories later, he was again to face the Editor-In-Chief and for some stupid, illogical reason, he felt just as nervous.
If he were honest, he could see the similarities.
That momentous day, his whole future had seemed to rest on the upcoming interview. And he’d had more than a few doubts about his ability to do what would be required of him.
Now, his whole future rested on what happened in the next few days. And he had way more than a few doubts about his ability to do what needed to be done.
The elevator opened and Clark stepped out of it. His eyes automatically sought Lois’s office and he caught a glimpse of her through the window.
His heart surged again. She was so beautiful.
And he loved her.
||_||
Lois sensed rather than saw Clark arrive. She looked up from her work, her heart exploding at the thought of his presence.
He opened her door and she was struck afresh by how good he looked, how tall, how handsome. But it was so much more than physical looks; it was his heart. That was what she loved the most and that was what everything within her responded to now.
She shot from her seat and only just managed to maintain a reasonably dignified manner as she skirted her desk. When she reached him, her hands slipped up his chest and around his neck. “I’ve missed you,” she said.
For the tiniest moment, Clark’s brown eyes softened, as they had so many times in the past. Then his mouth briefly touched her cheek, forestalling her intention to engage him in a long and lingering kiss. He put his hands on her waist and gently eased her away from him. “We’ve both been busy,” he said. Maybe he saw her bewilderment, because his smile surfaced briefly. “I have to remember that my wife is the editor of the most successful newspaper in the world.”
Lois backed away to her desk, hitched her butt on it and folded her arms. “You also have to remember that she’s your wife and she loves you.”
From his response, she wondered if he had heard correctly. He looked like she had hurt him. Like declaring her love for him had actually wounded him. Lois pushed through her bewilderment. “I’d like you to take me to lunch,” she said cheerily.
He grimaced and she wasn’t sure if it had been caused by her invitation or by the refusal she knew was coming. “Sorry,” he said. “Superman is visiting the children’s hospital today.”
“That won’t take more than an hour, will it?” she persisted. “I don’t mind if we eat early or late. I can fit in with the hospital visit.”
He smiled, although she didn’t need a decade of studying his smiles to know that this one was a poor imitation. “We’ll see,” he said. “If I’m back in time and you’re not tied up with work, we’ll see.” He turned to leave.
Lois sprang from her desk, determined she wasn’t going to let him take one step out of her office without a proper hug. Again, she draped her arms around his neck and deliberately crowded right into his space. His arms came around her waist and she sighed as an avalanche of good memories engulfed her.
She had missed his arms. He smelled so good. So Clark. She had missed that too.
She tightened her hold and sighed with pleasure. How could she have become so engrossed in anything that she’d forgotten how incredibly wonderful this felt? She turned, expecting to find his mouth already seeking her ... but he was facing away. Lois placed her hands on his cheeks and straightened him. She reached up, and emphatically captured his mouth with hers.
His response wasn’t instant, but when it came – when *he* captured *her* - it weakened her knees and surged desire through her insides.
Far too soon, Clark broke away from her with a grimace of regret she’d seen a thousand times. It fanned the fire burning inside her and she turned a suggestive smile on him.
“I have to go,” he rasped.
“See you for lunch,” she said. And I *will* see you tonight, she promised both of them.
“I’ll try.” Clark shut her door. Lois stepped forward to the window and watched her husband disappear up the stairwell.
||_||
Clark leant against the wall of the stairwell, his head low, his heart thrashing and his breath ragged. Lois hadn’t kissed him like that for ... he didn’t know how long. Right now he felt exactly as he had so many times in the days before their marriage. He wanted to storm back into her office, pick her up bodily, super-speed her into the supply room and make love to her in a way that transported them both back to the heady days of their honeymoon.
But he couldn’t.
Because if he did ... if he made love to her like that ... there would be no going back. Child or no child he would never be able to let her go.
So he forced himself to the top of the stairs and out onto the roof. He spun into the suit and flew to the hospital, hoping they wouldn’t mind a surprise visit from a super-hero.
||_||
Lois looked up from her desk as she heard the door to her office opening. She already had her smile formed, expecting Clark back from the hospital.
It wasn’t Clark, it was Lucy.
Looking awful.
“Lucy,” Lois said, as she stood and rounded her desk. She held out her hands to her sister. “What’s wrong?”
Lucy dissolved into heart-wrenching tears. Lois pulled her into an embrace and tried to soothe her. Then a terrifying thought struck her. “Lucy?” she said, panicked. “It isn’t the boys, is it? Are they all right?”
Lucy backed away and Lois could see that new tears were flowing from the already red-raw eyes that told a tale of much weeping. “Y.y.es,” Lucy stammered. “The boys are f.f.fine.”
Lois clutched Lucy to her again, still concerned, but with very real relief that her nephews were all right. She allowed Lucy some time to cry - clearly she needed it - and tried to think of what could have possibly led to these tears. Lucy had matured a lot since motherhood. It wasn’t like her to be overwrought without a real reason. Lois’s heart went cold at the unknown crisis. What could it be?
When she couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer, Lois took a firm but gentle grip on Lucy’s shoulders and eased them apart. She looked into Lucy’s streaming eyes. “Tell me what happened,” she ordered.
“It’s D.D.Dan.”
“Dan?” A river of icy dread wound through Lois’s stomach. She should have thought of that first. His job came with inherent dangers. “Oh no, Lucy,” she breathed.
Her compassion served only to increase Lucy’s tears. Lois moved to hold her close again, but Lucy stopped her. “It’s ... it’s n.not what you think,” she managed.
“It’s not?”
Lucy shook her head. “He isn’t h..hurt.”
A wave of relief rolled through Lois. “Then what?”
“He’s having an affair.”
The words hit Lois like the crack of a whip. “He’s *what*?”
“He’s having an affair,” Lucy cried. “He’s been having an affair since before the boys were born.”
“The filthy cheating ...” Lois saw the effect of her words on Lucy and quickly shut them down. “Who with?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does if we know her.”
Lucy shook her head again. “No one we know. Not really. Someone he works with. Someone he’s partnered with on more than one assignment.”
“Roxy Williams?” Lois guessed. “I know he worked with her on the weapon smuggling case last year.”
Lucy nodded. “I knew he respected her. I knew he enjoyed working with her. I knew it was important that he work with someone he trusts, someone he gets along with.”
“But you didn’t know he ...” Lois couldn’t even bring herself to say it.
“No. Not until this morning.”
“What happened?”
“I was supposed to take the boys to see Mom. Then I realised I’d forgotten Ethan’s blanket – the soft one he likes to sleep with. So I went back ... and there they were.”
The horror of it burst into rockets of nausea that twisted through Lois. “You *saw* them?” she gasped.
Lucy nodded amidst a fresh wave of tears. “I went into the boys’ room to get the blanket and I heard a noise from our bedroom. I thought it could be an intruder, so I went in and there they were.”
“Actually doing -.” Lois stopped herself. But the reporter in her had to know there had been no misunderstanding. She couldn’t allow Lucy to suffer this much pain if there was a simple, innocent answer. “They couldn’t have been doing anything else?” she asked gently.
“In my bedroom?” Lucy exploded. “In my bed? Both naked? And intimately attached?”
So there was no doubt. Lois pulled her sister close. “They admitted it?”
She felt Lucy nod. “Admitted it has been going on for nearly two years.”
“The cheating dog.”
“Dan said he thinks our marriage should continue for the boys’ sakes.”
The picture that leapt into Lois’s mind caused her to splutter. She put Lucy at arms’ length and looked into her eyes. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Where are the boys?”
“I left them with my neighbour. I couldn’t face going to Mom. She is going to erupt into a lather of hysterics when she hears about this.”
“What can I do to help?”
Lucy gave a sad smile. “You’re busy here. I just needed to talk to you.”
“You know I’m here for you,” Lois said. “Whatever you decide to do, I’ll be there for you. And the boys.”
“I know that.”
“And Clark too – you know we’ll both help you however we can.”
Lucy hesitated.
“What is it?” Lois asked.
“I ... I have to go back ... back home ... but I don’t want to risk facing Dan ... not alone. I told him to get his philandering butt out of the house, but I’m not sure he will.”
Lois reached for her bag. “I’ll come with you.”
Lucy stopped her with a hand to her arm. “No, Lois. I think ... don’t take offence ... but you’re too close ... and too ... volatile. Do ... do you think Clark would come?”
“Of course he will,” Lois answered. Except he’s Superman at the moment.
“Where is he?” Lucy asked. “I didn’t see him as I came through to your office.”
“He’s out on a story,” Lois said. “Go home, but don’t go in. Wait outside. Or with your neighbour. I’ll call Clark and tell him to meet you there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. Clark will want to help you.”
Lucy smiled and squeezed Lois’s arm. “He’s a good man,” she said. “You’re very lucky.”
Lois sank back into her chair as she watched Lucy cross the bullpen and disappear into the elevator. Lois couldn’t imagine the pain of coming home and finding her husband in bed ... with another woman.
But she didn’t have to imagine it. Because she knew Clark would never do that.
Never.
Even though things hadn’t been totally great between them lately – Clark would never do that.
Lucy was right. Lois was a lucky woman.
||_||
Clark had worked his way through three wards. The kids were incredible. Most of them were sick or in pain and facing grim circumstances. It was his privilege to bring a some light to their day.
His progress had stalled at the bed of a little girl with impish brown eyes and a winning smile – a little lady whose cuteness was increased substantially by the fact her two front teeth were missing. There was something about her frank assessment of him that reminded him of Lois. Their conversation was interrupted by a nurse sidling up to him.
“Superman?” she said hesitantly.
He turned from the eager little face. “Yes?”
“We really appreciate you taking the time to visit us, but the children’s lunches are about to be delivered and then it is their rest time.”
Clark realised the time for hiding away in the ward of a children’s hospital was over. He needed to go back to the Planet and face Lois. He nodded his understanding.
“I’m sorry,” the nurse said sincerely. “But we need some time for their excitement to return to reasonable levels if they are to rest this afternoon.”
Clark smiled, waved to the children and flew from the hospital. He dropped into a vacant alley and spun into his Clark clothes.
He’d only taken a few steps when his cell rang. It was Lois. He wasn’t going to be able to get out of this lunch date. He half smiled – as if he didn’t know that Lois Lane never gave up easily. “Hi,” he said. “What’s up?”
“It’s Lucy. She was just here and she’s very upset and she wants you to go to her house in case he’s there and she has to get the boys from the neighbour and she’ll need to get the locks changed so he can’t come back. Could you go there and make sure there are no problems for her?”
Clark shook his head, but he couldn’t keep the smile from his face. Being the Editor-in-Chief had not cured Lois’s propensity to babble. “Lois, honey ...” The endearment was out before he realised – some habits were going to be hard to break. He tried again. “Lois. Can you tell me what’s wrong? Is Lucy all right? And the boys? Has she called the police?” His best guess was that Lucy had been burgled.
He heard Lois take a deep breath and could clearly visualise her expression as she realised she had, yet again, jumped straight to the end of the story. “Sorry, darling,” she said. “I’m pretty upset too. Lucy went out with the boys this morning, then she had to go back home unexpectedly and she found Dan and another woman in their bed together.”
Her words rocked him. Clark had never totally overcome his aversion to Dan Scardino. But Lucy had fallen in love with him and now he was family, so Clark had tried to swallow his dislike and get on with Dan the best he could. But despite his own misgivings, Clark had never expected Dan would do something like this. “Are you sure there is no mistake?” he asked quietly.
“No mistake,” Lois said grimly. “I asked Lucy and what she saw is indefensible. Dan admitted the affair has been going on since before the boys were born.”
Clark rubbed the bridge of his nose and let loose with a big breath. “Ah, honey,” he said. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”
He didn’t wait for her reply. He glanced around and seeing no one, spun into the suit and flew to the Planet. Less than a second later, he was back in his Clark clothes and running down the stairs from the roof. He crossed the bullpen with as much speed as was believable for Clark Kent and shot into her office, his cell still connected to her call. Lois rose from behind her desk and rushed to him. He took her into his arms, noticing the tears that were poised along her lower eyelids.
He held her for a long time, listening to her erratically beating heart and feeling the shaky breaths shudder through her body. “I’m so sorry, honey,” he murmured. “Are you all right?”
He felt her nod.
“How’s Lucy?”
She straightened from him and skimmed her forefinger along the lower ridge of her eye. “Distraught. Angry. Shocked. Feeling betrayed.”
Clark slipped his hand into his pants pocket and retrieved the clean, folded handkerchief. He offered it to her. Lois took it with a little smile and used it to dry her eyes. “You said something about going to her place,” Clark said.
“Yes, she wants to go back into the house. The boys are with the neighbour. She doesn’t want to run into Dan, especially if she’s alone with the boys, so she would like you to go with her.”
“Of course,” Clark agreed. “How long ago did she leave?”
“About five minutes ago.” Lois smiled up at him, melting his heart. “Thanks for coming.”
“I always come for you, you know that.”
Her smile deepened and her fingers trailed down his cheek. “You’ve been coming whenever I call for a long time now.”
He answered her smile. He was about to say he would always come whenever she called, but stopped himself. He hugged her briefly and forced himself to step away. “I should go,” he said. “I won’t be able to make lunch. Sorry.”
Lois turned him to her and kissed him – directly to his mouth and straight into his heart. “That’s OK.” He reached for the door handle. “Clark?” she said.
He turned back to her. “Uhm?”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Thanks ... thanks for being who you are.”
He waved a casual acknowledgement of her words and turned quickly away.
This was getting more difficult with each passing minute.
