PREVIOUSLY IN THE PORTRAIT:
Lois and Clark have discovered proof that Lex is Mr. Big. But he has an explanation that seems plausible, and their evidence disappears. Nigel is taken into custody as Lois’s would-be murderer. Returning to Lois’s apartment, Lois and Clark suddenly find themselves drawn into an intimacy that develops into a passion they cannot resist, but the moment is broken by a telephone call from Henderson. Avoiding Clark’s gaze, Lois reports that Lex has explained away the Dragon’s Teeth project and the Inspector has released him. Clark replies, “Lex is good at saying things, Lois, but we’ll get him. You said we’re terrific together, and we’ll uncover the truth about him sooner or later. But right now we have to talk about what just happened.”
AND NOW:
Finally she looked at him. “Nothing. Nothing just happened. The phone rang. Let’s just forget the rest of it.”
“No! This is too important to both of us. We have to talk this through. You’re right, nothing happened, but it wasn’t because either of us didn’t want it to. Admit it, Lois. We can be terrific together as more than just partners.”
“What makes you so sure? We hardly know each other. Just because we had a momentary...whatever...doesn’t make us the couple of the century.”
“I’m sure because we’ve connected on some level that goes way beyond anything we expected, and you felt it too. We’re great when we work together; we’re becoming good friends; and you can’t deny that we just set off a lot of fireworks. Take a chance with me. Take a chance on us.”
“You mean just go ahead and hop in the sack and see how it works out? I thought you might be different from all the other guys.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I won’t deny I want to go to bed with you. I dreamed about it before I even met you, but I want more from you than a cheap affair or a forgotten weekend. I’m in love with you, and I want you in my life for the rest of my life. I don’t want to do anything until you say you want to. Then I want to marry you and have children with you and be with you until one of us dies. And if I could still be with you after that, I would.”
He saw fright flash in her eyes and watched as she crossed her arms, hunched her shoulders, and turned her back to him, body language blocking him out.
“If that idea scares you, get used to it, because I’m not going away.” He desperately laid siege to the fortress. “I’m going to be your partner and your friend no matter what you do or say, and I’m going to keep on loving you until you can’t fight it any longer, and you have to love me back. I can be very patient, and I expect to live a long time.”
She didn’t want to hear this. She wasn’t ready for anything like this; didn’t know if she’d ever be. She shouldn’t have kissed him. It was all her fault, but it seemed so right, to hold each other and celebrate their success. She could have stepped away, but she didn’t. She’d wanted to find out what it would be like, and she’d found herself lost in a place she didn’t recognize and had no compass for.
Silence was beginning to resound between them, and she needed to quell its disturbance, to control it before he did. She realized she was looking at the portrait, that lifeless depiction of a stranger, a woman who passed herself off as Lois Lane, world-renowned investigative reporter. She didn’t know who that was anymore. She had lived centuries and become a different person since Tristan Ganeymede had painted her, and all because of this intruder who stood waiting in the searing silence. She spoke the thought as it came to her.
“Oh, god, I hate this thing. Lex loved it. He thought it was me. I’d like to burn it.”
“Don’t,” he said urgently. “If you don’t want it, give it to me.”
“You? Why?”
“Because it’s precious to me. I fell in love with you because of it.” He spoke forthrightly without artifice.
“That just proves you don’t know me at all, and you can’t be in love with *me*. ” Her subdued voice gave sound to masked feelings and hidden thoughts.
“I do know you, and it’s you I love, not somebody’s idea of the person you want the world to see. When I first saw the portrait, I thought it was a lifeless image. It meant nothing to me. But when I began to talk with people who knew you, who loved you or disliked you, or respected you or envied you, I began to see all of the things they told me about you in the painting. I began to see you as cryptic and complex, a real person with shades of warmth and light, mysteries and unfathomable depths. You were the woman I’d been looking for as long as I can remember. I was in love with you...not the portrait, not some fictional being...you. And I thought you were dead. When you walked through that door, it was the happiest moment of my life. I could know the living you. I found out you weren’t the perfect person I’d imagined; you weren’t a dream; you weren’t a figment, and I thanked my lucky stars for that. You were real, and I knew what I wanted no matter how long I had to wait.”
She turned to regard him uncertainly as though he were some strange creature whose behaviour she didn’t understand and couldn’t predict.
“That’s crazy, Clark. Things like that don’t happen to people. People don’t fall in love that way.”
“Speak for yourself, Lois, because I know that’s how I fell in love with you. And don’t try to tell me you don’t feel something for me. There’ve been times since we met when the old Lois Lane would have ground me up and fed me to the fish in that tank. You didn’t. You didn’t because you were beginning to feel something that you weren’t sure of. Your ambivalence showed, Lois, and it gave me hope.” He paused, took a long breath, and whispered huskily, “Take a chance, Lois.”
“It’s too fast,” she argued. “You’re too...overwhelming. I don’t know how to handle this, and it scares me.”
“The woman who can face Lex Luthor down without blinking is scared of me? No way. You’re scared of yourself and how much you’re beginning to feel for me. Let go, Lois. I won’t hurt you.”
He was hitting too close to home. She began to turn away but he stopped her.
“Don’t shut me out. Please, Lois, don’t shut me out. You don’t want that anymore than I do. We’ll take it slow; you’ll call all the shots. I promise you I won’t let us get into that situation again until you ask me to.”
It was a promise she couldn’t have imagined ever hearing from anyone until she met him. Now it just seemed a reasonable extension of what he was. Could she really believe him? Could she take this chance for the kind of love she had often ridiculed publicly and searched for privately in romance novels and damaged relationships? Should she take this chance for a passion that could either envelope her in its madness and claim her for life or hurt her to the core and forever take away her dream of love and happiness? Take a chance. Take a chance, Lois. You can gain heaven. What can you lose but everything you are and everything you hope to be? Take a chance.
She half turned toward him, uncrossing her arms, and said, wearing a lop sided smile, “I’d say I was pretty much asking you to do that this time.”
Grinning in relief, he silently blessed her honesty and wry sense of humor. He’d managed to stay the execution. “Okay, then, I won’t take you to bed until you ask me three times.”
“You promise?” she questioned doubtfully.
“Scout’s honor.”
“How do I know you were a Boy Scout?” she asked warily.
“I’ll show you my merit badges.”
She tipped over and capitulated, moving forward and placing a hand on his chest. “O-o-o-h, Kent, that sounds like a come-on if ever I heard one.”
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t flirt or get close to each other or kiss or even explore a little. But I won’t let us get carried away. You’ll have to ask three times.”
She looked up at him impishly. “Take me to bed, Clark.”
“Don’t do that, Lois.”
‘Now I only have to ask twice.”
He grabbed her and held her against him. “I’m going to find something better for your mouth to do.” He kissed her.
And there was a knock on the door.
“Give me a break” said Clark, as he went to answer it, leaving Lois chuckling behind him.
Still thinking about kissing her, he opened the door without checking through the peephole and found, to his surprise, that their visitor was...Lex Luthor!
“Lois. Kent. As you see, I’m a free man, exonerated from implication in the Dragon’s Teeth affair. You judged me unfairly, and I felt you should have the opportunity to apologize.”
“We know what we read,” said Lois. You were neck deep in that scheme. You can expect an apology when there’s a tidal wave in Hobbs Bay.”
“I might be able to arrange that,” said Lex, intrigued at the thought. “Nevertheless, I will remind you that I own the Daily Planet and that you are, therefore, my employees. I would strongly consider apologizing if I were you.”
“Lex, you can make all the veiled threats you want. Lois and I are going to bring you down whether we’re working for the Planet or the Star or the Washington Post. You’re through.”
“Bravado is not much of an offense, Mr. Kent. Hot air is easily dispelled.”
Lois attacked. “You might keep that in mind, yourself, Lex. How long do you think Nigel is going to keep quiet? You’ve blamed him for a lot of murders. I think he’ll sing like a canary to avoid the needle.”
“I’ve paid Nigel very well for what he does. He knows he will receive enough to complete his retirement fund.”
“A lot of good that’ll do him on death row. Nigel may have done your dirty work, but he’s never been your toady. He’s smart, and he’ll see that dying for you isn’t in his best interest no matter what you pay him.”
“And to think that I once wanted to call you Mrs. Lex. Luthor. It seems so ridiculous now. You couldn’t possibly meet the standard that title exemplifies. You are small and petty, Lois, incapable of thinking on a broad scale, or understanding the grand design. I hope you don’t expect a lusty relationship, Kent. She’s a tease, you know, a cold fish lacking any real physical passion. She only gets excited about the next headline.”
“Get out of my house, Lex. I might feel insulted if anybody else said those words, but considering that it’s you, I’ll just take them as the garbage they are. Now leave, and don’t ever come back. I never want to see you again. If you try anything at the Planet with me or my friends, I’ll forget about winning a Pulitzer and put every reporter in the country on your trail.”
“Such threats are inconsequential. You’ll never touch me.” He went to the door where he turned, bowed stiffly and said jauntily, “I believe this is goodbye.”
Clark watched the door close and turned to Lois. “I think that went well, don’t you?” He saw the doubt and pain in her eyes from Lex’s personal taunts. “You know what he said isn’t true. We were close to proving it just a few minutes ago.”
“Close doesn’t count except in horseshoes,” she said ruefully. "You don't know how it might have turned out. You really will be taking a chance with me, Clark. My previous relationships have all been disasters.”
“Then I’m volunteering for the Disaster Relief Corps,” he said as he took her in his arms. “Now where were we?”
She buried her face in his shirt and mumbled, “I think I just said, ‘Take me to bed, Clark’. Is that twice?”
“You’re playing with fire, Lois.”
I’m feeling reckless. Take-.”
And then the phone rang.
She giggled. “Of course. What else?” and went to answer it.
He breathed raggedly. She was in a dangerous mood and was dead set on getting him to break the spirit of his promise if not the letter. It would doom their chance from the start. He had no doubt she’d eventually use the result as an excuse to terminate whatever relationship they tried to build. He would not let her destroy what they could have even if it killed him, and knowing how difficult it was going to be, he was sure he’d wish he were dead before it was over.
“Clark, that was Henderson, again. Nigel is talking non-stop and he’s implicating Lex in everything. He’s even identified him as Mr. Big, and he has records stashed to prove it. That computer they took to the lab is a substitute. Nigel was supposed to destroy the real one, but he tucked it away too. Lex is out of luck, out of business, and before you know it he’ll be out of circulation. And we have the story of the century! Henderson’s promised us first shot before he releases any thing. He’ll let us know as soon as they pick up Lex. They have an APB out on him, and they’ve been watching this apartment, so they should pick him up any minute. I told him he’d just left here.”
Smiling broadly, she launched herself into his arms. He twirled her around laughing.
++++++++++
“What do you mean you haven’t picked him up?” As Lois and Clark were rejoicing, Henderson was on the phone with one of the men watching Lois’s apartment.
“We’re waiting for him to come out,” replied Velie.
“He should have showed by now. He left the apartment five minutes ago.”
“He didn’t come this way. Maybe he went out the back. Ask Tibbs.”
Henderson quickly punched in another number. “Tibbs, do you have him?”
“Haven’t seen him, Bill.”
“Something’s wrong! You and Sergeant Velie, get up to that apartment. I’m two minutes away.”
++++++++++
Lois kissed Clark and said, “I’ll have to wait a while to finish what I was saying.”
“Don’t say it until it’s right, Lois. Please?”
“I know. I was acting crazy before, wasn’t I? I only have to say it one more time, but I know the package that comes with it. I’ll be very sure when I do say it.”
Clark was exuberant. She had said “when” not “if”.
“I love you, Lois Lane!” He lowered his head to kiss her again.
From behind him, in the shadows near the door, Lex Luthor said, “Very touching. You’ve disappointed me, Lois. You could have had so much more.”
Clark whirled to find Luthor, holding the Lupara pointed straight at them. He pushed Lois behind him.
“What do you want, Luthor? The police know everything. Give yourself up; make a deal.”
“Lex Luthor does not give up or make deals. What I want is to take care of the two of you; then I'll disappear. They’ll never find me.”
“Lex, why bother with us?” Lois entreated. “It was Nigel who betrayed you.”
“Yes, I heard. He betrayed my business dealings, but you betrayed me personally. I wanted you to be the Empress of my domain. We would have ruled together in splendor.” He gestured at the portrait. “I had your likeness painted to reveal your defiant magnificence in the face of winds that threaten those of us who are chosen to reign. You rejected that and turned your back on me for this insignificant giblet. No one walks away from Lex Luthor unless I say so. Diane learned that to her regret.”
“Diane?”
“We were lovers, but she wanted out. You and she had become close, and she objected to continuing as my mistress after you and I were married. She had to go.”
“Diane was the target all along? No one was trying to kill me?”
“Spoken with your usual perception, Lois. Yes. On my orders, Nigel killed her with this shotgun and then was forced to leave it hidden here to prevent its discovery.”
“Where? The police have been all over this place?” Clark was stalling again. <Hurry up Henderson. He’s getting close.>
“You were unaware, weren’t you Lois, that the trophy case which I gave you has a hidden compartment in the bottom behind the panel? It’s a companion to the credenza in my study.”
It was news to Lois, but Clark was not surprised. After he discovered the hidden compartment in Lex’s credenza, he had suspected that there might be one in the similarly styled trophy case at Lois’s apartment. He had intended to look when they came in but had forgotten about it in the emotional storm that had surrounded them.
“Very useful, hiding places. All I had to do was open the panel, take out the gun, and load the extra shells hidden with it. After I shoot you, I’ll be gone, down the fire escape and away before anyone can get in here.”
“How did *you* get n here? I saw you leave, and Lois has an automatic spring lock on that door.”
“You saw the door close, but I prevented it from latching. When you turned away, I came back. I've been observing you from that dark corner. You were...preoccupied... and didn’t notice.”
Lois pleaded. “Lex, don’t do this. They’re watching the building. You can’t get away.” As if to shield Clark, she reached one arm around his waist and slid the other diagonally across his chest.
“I always get away, Lois. It’s why I’m the third richest man in the world, moving up on number two.”
There was a sudden pounding on the door. “Lois, it’s Henderson. Are you all right?”
Clark said loudly. “Give it up, Luthor. It’s too late. You can’t get away now.”
And then, as Lois later remembered it, the passage of time became a slow motion sequence, and several things seemed to happen at once.
The police broke down her door.
Lex aimed both barrels of the shotgun at Clark and fired at point blank range.
Clark, in a hopeless attempt to swat away the buckshot before it hit his chest, moved his hands so fast they were a blur.
Screaming "NO!", she tried to pull Clark out of the line of fire.
The police cut down Lex Luthor with a barrage of bullets.
Afterwards, when the forensic team had finished its work and Luthor's body had been taken away to the morgue, the squad of police and detectives trickled away until only Henderson was left with Lois and Clark. Still dazed by what had happened, they had, nevertheless managed to contact Perry and get the first part of their scoop to the Daily Planet.
"You're a very fortunate guy, Clark." Henderson said. "If Luthor hadn't been startled by the door crashing in, he would have taken you out for sure. Better get both a rabbit's foot and a four-leaf clover, and watch out for ladders and black cats. It's gonna take a while for you to get your luck back."
"That's for sure, Bill. Luthor must have been an incredibly bad shot. I guess that's why he had Nigel do all the killing." Clark laughed nervously to underline his attempt to joke away his close call. He looked at Lois to include her in his humor, but she just watched him gravely with enormous dark eyes.
"Well, whatever the reason, be careful about the chances you take for a while. Tomorrow we'll get together for your statements, although I'll probably be able to get most of what I need from the story you just sent to the Daily Planet."
"It's going to be a three-parter so we'll come by the precinct tomorrow to fill you in on what hasn't been printed yet. We trust you to keep it confidential until it's played out in the paper."
"Okay, I think we can agree on that.”
“We should probably let Scardino know what’s happening, too. He *was* working with Lois on this, and he did end up cooperating, finally.”
Henderson grimaced a smile. “Why don’t you let me handle that? It’ll be a pleasure to be the one who knows everything; sort of like the shoe on the other foot, if you know what I mean.”
“You mean like payback?” said Clark, grinning.
Henderson nodded. “Exactly. Well, I'll say good night to you two. Lane, you can learn a thing or two about cooperating with the police from this new partner of yours." He closed the apartment door behind him leaving Lois and Clark alone.
Lois had remained quiet and still while Clark and Henderson were talking. She was studying the pattern on the wall where the double ought shot had landed. When Clark approached her, she placed a hand on his chest and looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “I thought you were dead.”
“Well, as Bill said, I was pretty lucky that Luthor is the world’s worst shot."
Lois just looked at him, an odd expression on her face. Then she said, “Clark, I’ve seen Lex shoot clay pigeons from that penthouse terrace. He doesn’t miss. He was aiming at you from three feet away and didn’t hit you. How do you explain that?”
He knew he was caught, and he couldn’t lie, especially not to her, not now. He took her hand and led her to sit on the couch.
“Lois,” he said, “there’s something I have to tell you.”
++++++++++
She didn't believe it.
"I don't believe it! First, you say you're a paranormal with hunches and bad feelings, and now you say you can move at lightning speeds and deflect bullets? What do you take me for? I thought you wanted to be straight with me; develop a relationship. How can we have a relationship if you're not going to be honest with me? If this is supposed to be a joke, it's not funny."
"Lois, I swear to you that everything I've told you is true. I am paranormal, in a way, because I have these special abilities...powers. I can do things that normal human beings can't."
"How can I believe you? It's too ridiculous. You're making all this up because you don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth!"
"It is the truth, and I wouldn't have told you if I didn't trust you."
"So you're saying that you're not normal. How not normal? Like an alien from outer space not normal, or some weird government experiment?"
His eyes were haunted as he replied. "I could be. I don't know."
"You don't know? What about your parents? What do they say? Do they have super powers too?"
"My parents are just like everyone else, and they don't know why I'm different either." This was proving harder than he thought it would be. "They found me...in a...space ship...in a neighbor's field...and adopted me." Now that he'd said it, he thought that if he didn't know it was true, he probably wouldn't believe it either.
"A space ship? Now you're an orphan from outer space? Clark, if this is some pathetic attempt to get me to feel sorry for you-."
He couldn't think of any other way to prove it to her. He hoisted her in his arms, lifted off and flew out the window accompanied by her shrieks of surprise and terror. At first she clung to him, eyes closed, shouting for him to set her down. He continued to fly, holding her firmly but gently and speaking softly urging her to relax, open her eyes and enjoy the beauty of the night.
After a bit, she calmed down and did as he asked, immediately enthralled by what she saw. Her arms loosed their chokehold, and she snuggled against him letting the feeling of unencumbered flight take her.
They flew over Metropolis from uptown to downtown, from Hobbs Bay to Morningside while she lay quietly against him, not saying a word. When he finally took her back to her apartment and deposited her on the floor, she reached up and kissed him, saying, "Clark, thank you. That was incredible. I apologize. You were telling the truth; I was wrong. Savor that because you'll never hear it again. Do you have any other surprises for me?"
He held her close and said, "We have a lifetime to learn all the surprises about each other." Then he kissed her thoroughly.
++++++++++
TO BE CONTINUED
