From Part 10
“Does Clark have a dad?”
“Yes. His name is Jonathan.”
“Does his dad love his mom?”
“Yes. Very much.” Lois took a gulp of her chocolate, hoping its warmth would dissolve the hardening lump trying to invade her throat.
Maddie fell silent. She stared at her hands.
Lois watched her, wondering what she could say to help.
The jangling of the phone cut across their thoughts. Maddie lurched. Lois sprang from the table to answer it. She saw the displayed number and turned to Maddie. “It’s Clark,” she said, as she picked up the receiver.
Part 11
“Clark?”
“Lois,” Clark said. “Tell Maddie it is good news. They were worried about burns to her throat and airways, but that is minimal. She has other burns, but nothing that won’t heal in time.”
“You tell her,” Lois said. “She’s right here.” She passed the phone to Maddie.
Maddie took it. “Clark?”
Lois watched while Maddie listened. Her eyes pooled and her hand began to shake. After a short time, she offered the phone to Lois and turned away, her shoulders heaving.
“Have you heard anything from my parents?” Clark said when Lois had the phone again. “I left messages for them to call me.”
“No. I’m sorry, honey.”
She could feel the growing uneasiness in his hesitation. “I’ll be home soon,” he said.
“Bye, honey.” Lois hung up and turned to Maddie with a small hug. “Your mom’s going to be fine.”
Maddie backhanded her tears and nodded.
Lois suspected she would appreciate some time alone. “Feel like that shower now?”
“OK. But I want to see Clark before I go to bed.”
“You will.” Lois led the way up the stairs. “And tomorrow morning, as soon as your mom is ready for visitors, we’ll take you to see her.”
Lois showed Maddie to her room and the bathroom. She gave her a pair of her pyjamas and went downstairs.
||_||
Clark was trying very hard to be patient as he drove home. He wished he could fly, but then Maddie would ask how he had managed to get from the hospital so quickly.
He was worried about his parents and his anxiety had translated into a yearning ache for Lois.
He wanted her.
He needed her.
His cell rang and Clark picked it up immediately. It was Lois. “Maddie’s in the shower,” she said. “If you wanted to leave the car -.”
Ten seconds later, Clark was home. He went straight to Lois and swept her into his arms and clung to her. Her hands cradled his face and his forehead dipped onto hers.
“We don’t know why they called the clinic,” she reminded him.
Clark straightened and found her eyes. “But why didn’t they tell me they were going away?”
“Have they said anything to you?” she asked. “Have they mentioned any health problems?”
Clark shook his head. “They’ve said nothing. I ask how they are and they always say the same thing ... ‘fine, just fine.’”
“You didn’t notice anything the last few times you saw them?”
Clark felt the tug of his conscience. “I only saw Mom and I ... was ... sort of ... self-absorbed.”
Lois caressed his cheek. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“It isn’t your fault.”
She reached up and slid her hands around his neck. Her fingers burrowed into his hair. Her touch was wonderful. Her closeness was like a panacea. It restored him. It filled him. It stabilised him.
It simply wasn’t possible for him to live without this woman.
Lois ran her fingers down his left arm and lifted his hand. With the tip of her forefinger, she traced across his knuckles. At his third finger, she clasped his wedding ring and gently removed it.
Then she took off her own ring and sat them together in her palm. She gazed at them, then her head lifted and her solemn eyes leapt into his. “See these rings?” she said quietly.
“Y ...” The rest of his word snagged somewhere in his throat.
“When we put them on, we said this was forever.”
“Ye ...” He swallowed.
“Nothing changes that,” Lois declared. “*Nothing*.”
She enclosed his ring in the circle of her fingertips and slowly, emphatically, replaced it on his finger. Then she bowed her head and kissed next to his ring.
When Lois straightened, there were unshed tears glistening in her eyes. She turned his hand and dropped her ring into his palm. She held up her left hand, her third finger separated from the others. “Forever,” she whispered.
Clark’s heart was battering against his sternum. “Lo ...”
“Forever,” she repeated. “*Nothing* changes that.”
He slid her ring the length of her finger and held it there, staring at it as his warring emotions jostled inside him - his indecision, his fear, his hope, his deficiencies, his wonderment at her love for him. From the fracas rose one truth.
He loved Lois.
She was the air he breathed. She was his heartbeat. She was his life.
He needed her.
He looked up from the ring and into her face.
Clark felt like he was drowning in the soft brown velvet of her eyes. He blinked against the gathering mist in his own eyes. As she looked at him, a tear broke free and shimmered down her cheek.
He reached up and tenderly brushed it away.
“I’m sorry,” she said brokenly. “I’m so sorry, Clark.”
“I’m sorry too,” he said. “I thought –.”
She closed off his words with her mouth on his – gently plying him with layer upon layer of her love.
The telephone cut through the air and they both jumped. Clark moved the fastest and snatched the phone to his ear. “Clark Kent,” he said.
“Clark.” It was his mom’s voice.
“Mom! Where are you? Are you all right? Is Dad all right? Why didn’t you tell me you were going away?”
She chuckled ... just a little nervously, Clark thought ... although perhaps that was his overactive imagination. “I didn’t realise we had to inform everyone before we take a little vacation,” she said.
Clark fell his pent-up breath expel like a bursting dam. “*Vacation*?”
“Clark, we saw you had called our cells. We had them turned off. Do you need us? Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing’s wrong. I was worried about you. I didn’t know where you were.”
“Oh,” Martha said. “I’m sorry, Clark.”
“Where are you? Are you in St Louis?”
“Some friends had booked a couple of nights away and then at the last minute, they weren’t able to go, so they offered it to us.”
“So you just *went*?”
Her silence told Clark he had allowed his anxiety to sound like reproach. “Yes, we just went,” his mom said calmly.
“Sorry, Mom,” Clark said. He hesitated. “There isn’t anything wrong, is there? No health problems? If either you or Dad ... you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”
“There’s nothing to worry about, Clark,” his mom said, softer now. “What about you? And Lois? Are *you* all right?”
“Yes.”
“You haven’t done anything you’re going to regret?”
“No. I haven’t.”
“And you’re not going to?”
Clark glanced at Lois. “No,” he said firmly. "I'm not."
“Good,” his mom said. “Bring Lois to visit us when you get back from the Caribbean.”
Before he could reply, Clark heard the click of their call being disconnected.
He slowly replaced the phone. Lois put her hands on his shoulders. “Are they OK?”
“They’re on *vacation*.”
Lois chuckled, though shakily. “Good on them. They deserve some time away.”
Clark felt some of his good humour seep back. He put his hands on Lois’s waist. “How’s Maddie?”
“A lot better now she knows her mom is going to be OK.”
“Some of her burns are quite extensive,” Clark said. “It will be a long road back, but the doctors are confident she’ll make a full recovery.”
“Maddie was one scared little girl before your call.”
“Poor kid.”
“It must seem an incredibly lonely world without any family.”
“Yeah.”
She brushed her hand down his face and smiled at him. “Luckily I will always have you,” she said.
Clark pressed his thumb against his wedding ring, remembering how she had taken it off, only to put it back with such powerful symbolism.
How much did she know? How much had she guessed of his thoughts? Enough, he realised. She was, after all, Lois Lane.
Maddie’s footsteps sounded on the stairs. “I heard your voice,” she said to Clark when she appeared. “How’s Mom?”
Clark moved over to her. “With all burn victims, the doctors are most worried about damage to the airways. That can be fatal. Your mom has minimal damage there. She has some quite severe burns on other parts of her body – her hands and arms – but the doctors believe she will heal.”
Maddie’s chin wobbled. “She’s not gonna die?”
“No, Maddie,” Clark said. “She’s not going to die.”
“Can I see her tomorrow?”
“The nurse said she thought that would be OK. Your mom was asking after you and they told her you were safe with Lois and me. She will rest better knowing you are being looked after.”
“She trusts you,” Maddie said. “She’ll know that if I’m with you, I’ll be OK.”
Clark smiled. “Good,” he said. “You should try to get some sleep now.”
“OK,” she said. She put one foot on the first step, stalled, and turned to Lois. “I remember that you used to get a lot of Superman stories, so I figure you might know him. He got Mom out of the factory. If you see him again, could you tell him ‘thanks’?”
Lois nodded. “I’ll be sure to tell him.”
With a small smile, Maddie climbed the stairs to her room.
||_||
Twenty minutes later Lois and Clark were in bed. He was lying on his back. Lois had wedged herself against his side, her head on the junction between his shoulder and his chest. Her warm softness felt amazing, but Clark couldn’t help wondering how much closer she planned to take their proximity.
He knew with certainty that if she initiated, he would capitulate within seconds.
But it wouldn’t get them a baby.
“I made some progress on the luxury goods story,” she said.
“You did?”
“Yep.”
Her hand was resting on his stomach which was doing nothing for his concentration. “What did you discover?”
“All of the four hotels have groundsmen or maintenance guys with the surname Smith.”
“Smith?” Clark said, trying not to sound like he was belittling her discovery.
“Yes, and two of them are from a small town in Ohio.”
“Smith is a very common name,” he noted cautiously.
“It is,” Lois agreed. “And it could be nothing – but if we are going to investigate the possibility that it could be the employees, this is as good a place to start as anywhere.”
“How are we going to follow it up?”
Lois turned onto her stomach. She folded her arms across his chest and looked at him, grinning.
A grin that was loaded with meaning.
“What?” Clark asked.
She shrugged. Still grinning.
“What?”
“Are you up for a little undercover work?” she asked.
“Undercover? Do you think it’s needed?”
“Not undercover exactly,” Lois said. “But if it *is* one of the employees who is feeding out the information that the owners are away, our best chance of proving it is to be there.”
“OK,” he agreed hesitantly.
“We both happen to have vacation days this week.”
“We could change it.”
“No ...” Lois took a deep breath and cannoned directly into his eyes. “Clark, I know you don’t want to go, but the Caribbean Coral where we have a booking also happens to be owned by Martin Marelli – he owns hundreds of luxury hotels world wide. I didn’t know when I booked it, honestly I didn’t, but I noticed that all the resorts he owns repeat the initial letter – Caribbean Coral and the South Seas Summerhouse and the Parisienne Palace and when Vivienne said her parents were at the Riviera Resort, my reporter’s instinct started twitching because of course, his name is Martin Marelli and his wife is Lisa Lancaster and her hotels also alliterate like the Chateau Chicago and I think we should go.”
Clark could feel an unruly smile pull at his mouth. Lois contemplated him, awaiting his response. Her mouth was mostly contained, although the sparkle was vibrant in her eyes. “What about Maddie?” he said.
“If she needs us, there’s no question,” Lois said. “We’ll stay here for her. But Mrs Nicholls said she would only be allowed to stay with us for one night.”
His smile pushed right to the edge of surrender. “You think we should simply flit to Anguilla sometime tomorrow?”
Lois put a significant hole in his resistance with a gleeful grin. “Why not?” Her fingertips skimmed down his neck. “Shouldn’t be too hard for a man who can fly.”
From the shadows of his mind, Clark’s conscience thrust one final time. He had to try to save her from the anguish of shattered hope. “Lois -.”
“This is just about you and me,” she said gravely. “No one else. Nothing else.”
“Lois -.”
“OK, it might be about a story too,” she conceded. “But all I want from this is time to reconnect with you.”
“You won’t be disappointed when we come home and there’s still just us?”
“Nothing about you disappoints me,” she said. Then her earnestness was broken with a sudden grin. “Except occasionally, you give way, way too much credence to exceedingly nonsensical ideas.”
So, she did know. “Lois -.”
Her grin widened. “Of course, if you really are worried about my ulterior motives, I could promise separate beds. Or I could sleep on the couch.”
Her words evoked a memory that dissolved the last of his doubts. “There’s probably a big bed,” he said.
“A *really* big bed.”
“We could share.”
She giggled and nestled into his side again. “It couldn’t have been very comfortable on that couch.”
“It wasn’t.”
“Did you think about coming into the bedroom?”
“I thought about nothing else all night.”
“You should have come in.”
Clark snorted softly. “And made my life even more complicated?”
“Complicated?”
“I was in love with you and pretending I wasn’t and then we went undercover as newlyweds, so I was supposed to pretend I was in love with you.”
Her little chuckle vibrated across his chest. “I still think you should have come into the bedroom.”
“Easy for you to say,” he said. “The thought of you in that bed - just a few feet away, but totally unreachable – was agony. If I’d come in, I would have kissed you.”
“You did kiss me.”
“Only as a ruse when I saw the maid was coming.”
“You enjoyed it though, didn’t you?” she challenged.
“I loved every second of it,” Clark breathed. “It was like all of my best dreams coming true. I was desperately hoping the maid would decide she needed to clean the room for half an hour.”
“And what would you have done if she had?”
“I would have kept on kissing you. I mean, the surveillance equipment *had* to be protected.”
She giggled again. “Did you ever think it was significant that I didn’t tear a few strips off you after she left?”
“I was petrified you would.”
“But I didn’t.”
“No, you didn’t.” Clark brushed back her hair from her face and arranged it behind her ear. “I suppose you’ve already checked the list of employees at the Caribbean Coral?”
“Yep,” she said.
“And found an employee called Smith?”
“Yep.”
He sighed so deeply it lifted her head on his chest. “Then I guess we have to go,” he said, knowing she would see straight through the resignation of his tone.
The breath carrying her little squeal floated across his arm; then she reached across him to turn off the light. “Good night, my love.”
“Good night, Lois.”
She settled back against him, her fingers splayed on his ribs. “I enjoyed working with you today.”
“I enjoyed it too.”
“I love you, Clark.”
“I love you too, Lois.”
“Clark?”
“Uhm?”
“I think tomorrow night you *should* sleep on the couch at the Caribbean Coral. And I’ll sleep on the bed.”
“That doesn’t sound very fair,” he protested mildly.
“And you should definitely think about me all alone in that big bed.”
“That doesn’t sound fair at all.”
“But if you get *off* the couch and come into my room ... it’s very possible you will change your mind about the unfairness of it all.” Lois lazily reached up and kissed his neck.
Clark smiled, his heart full.
||_||
The next morning, Clark woke to sharp rapping on the door. It was past seven-thirty. He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept this late.
Lois was still draped across him. Her hand was on his stomach, her head on his chest.
He couldn’t remember the last time *she* had slept this late.
He eased from her, spun into clothes, emerged from the bedroom, looked around to make sure that Maddie wasn’t watching and flew down the stairs. He opened the door. Mrs Nicholls stared back.
“Ah … good morning, Mrs Nicholls,” he said.
“Mr Kent,” she said. “How is Maddie?”
“I think she is still asleep,” Clark answered. “We all had a late night.”
“Have you heard the news from the hospital?”
“We heard that Maddie’s mom’s injuries are not critical.”
Mrs Nicholls gave him a tight smile. “But she will be requiring an extensive stay in hospital, so arrangements had to be made for Maddie’s welfare.”
“I understand that, Mrs Nicholls.”
Clark heard Lois’s footsteps behind him. He felt her hand rest on his back. “Good morning,” she said. “Maddie is still asleep. When she wakes, she will want to see her mother. Could we meet you at the hospital?”
“It’s highly irregular for a minor to be left in the care of people not registered with the Administration for Children and Families,” Mrs Nicholls said.
Lois shone her winning smile. “But the best organisations are those that are flexible enough to adjust to the situation and last night we had a distraught child who was scared that her mother was going to die.”
“It has been pointed out to me that I was remiss to leave her here.” Mrs Nicholls stared stonily ahead. “Particularly with a couple who were deemed unsuitable for adoption.”
Lois stepped forward. “This experience has made me think it is time for the Daily Planet to showcase the wonderful work done by the ACF in providing safe and appropriate care for children in a crisis,” she said.
Mrs Nicholls face unbent slightly. “You will bring her straight to the hospital?” she said.
“That is what Maddie will want,” Lois said. “We’ll bring her as soon as she has eaten her breakfast.”
“And you’ll help her to accept that she can’t remain with you while her mother recuperates?”
“Yes,” Clark promised.
“I will meet you at the hospital at ten-thirty,” Mrs Nicholls said crisply.
She turned away and Clark closed the front door.
Lois turned to him, slid her arms up his neck and came in real close. “Uhmm,” she purred. “I haven’t slept that well in ages.”
Clark folded his arms around her. “Me either.”
Lois lifted off his chest and looked into his eyes. Then her gaze dropped and her mouth closed in on his. She kissed him, backed away, then came again, deepening their contact.
Above them, Clark heard a cough and his head turned, but his arms didn't release his wife. He looked up the stairs and saw Maddie, her face blushing. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” he said easily. “Mrs Nicholls was here; we’re going to meet her at the hospital after breakfast.”
“Did she say anything about Mom?”
“Nothing that we didn’t already know,” Clark replied. He unfolded from Lois and began climbing the stairs. “How about we call the hospital and you can talk to them?” he suggested.
“Would that be OK?” Maddie asked.
“Of course,” Clark replied and he went into the study. He picked up the phone and began dialling the number. “When you’ve talked to them, would you like to go out for breakfast?”
Maddie’s eyes widened. “Like to a restaurant?” she asked. “For *breakfast*?”
Clark nodded. “That would be fun, eh?”
Before she could reply, his call was answered. He explained who he was and said that Maddie wished to enquire about her mother. Then he handed her the phone and went into the bedroom he shared with Lois.
“Maddie’s talking to the nurse and then we’re all going out for breakfast,” he said.
Lois smiled. “Good idea,” she said. She gestured out of the window. “Are you still OK with going to Anguilla today?”
Clark smothered his smile. “What if I’m not?” he questioned.
“Then we stay here,” she said. She shot him an overdone wink. “I’m sure we can think of a way to fill in the long hours at home. Alone.”
Clark felt his smile burst free. “Sounds like fun.”
She stepped over to him and ran her forefinger across his t-shirt. “Oh, it *will* be fun,” she promised.
He wanted her. Now.
But Maddie was in the next room, so Clark made do with kissing her - kissing her with promise and heat and all the desire burning through his body.
When he broke away, he was breathing hard and Lois’s face was flushed. “You’ve always been a supreme kisser, Mr Kent,” she drawled.
He brushed back her hair and looked down deep into her eyes. “As good as staying at home sounds, I think I’d like to go to a romantic villa in the Caribbean with my wife,” he said softly.
Her eyes lit. “You would?”
“Honestly?” he said. “Right now, I just want to be with you. I don’t really care where we are.”
“Then let’s go,” she said. “Let’s chase down the leads we have and see if we can find some stolen treasures.”
“A treasure hunt,” Clark said.
She caressed his jaw. “I think we might find some treasure worth far, far more than an old vase or some jewellery.”
“I hope so,” Clark said.
Lois kissed him. “We will, darling,” she said. “We will.”
