Ok, I'm close enough to the end that I can start positing! Like I said in the preview post, this takes place around the end of Season two, at about the time of 'Individual Responsibility.'
Enjoy!
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"Unbelievable!" Lois cried angrily. Again! It happened again! Just when she was starting to open up to Clark, he got all freaked out and dashed off with another lame excuse.
They were on an actual date, for a change. On a proper Friday night, official date night, no less. The evening had been lovely. A beautiful meal at a tiny French bistro tucked into an out of the way neighborhood. Lois had no idea how Clark had found it, but she had relished every moment. The restaurant was small and intimate with small round tables all lit by candlelight, and the menu was written in French. Clark had impressed her with his easy fluency with the language. The waiters all spoke English, of course, but she loved hearing Clark's French as he ordered her the duck.
They had talked for almost two hours, eating a perfect three course meal with a French vintage red wine. And just when Lois was going to tell him those three scary words, "I love you," he left like his seat was on fire.
"I'm sick of it! Why do I let him do this to me?" She felt tears well up in her eyes. She knew why, and she felt pathetic about it. She loved him. It was that simple. Lois loved Clark.
She dried her eyes. Would he even be back to cover the bill? Lois looked around, red faced. How humiliating to be left at a gorgeous restaurant by her date, and to face what would be an exorbitant bill.
She waved the waiter over, totally embarrassed.
"Oui, mademoiselle?" he asked politely.
"Yeah, oui... um, my date had to... leave. May I have the bill, please?"
"But of course. Un moment, s'il vous plait."
She didn't even look at the amount. She just handed her emergency credit card over. She wanted to get out of there. Go home, and forget this whole almost perfect night ever happened.
*******
Clark couldn't believe he had left Lois in the lurch like that. She would never forgive him. But a train was derailed, due to some ice on the tracks. Hundreds of people were on board. He couldn't just let them all die. Superman was absolutely needed.
He managed to save the train from toppling over, though there were bound to be some injured people on board. Clark scanned the cars, looking for any serious injuries. There were dozens of people hurt. He began the task of helping them out of the cars and flying them to the nearest hospital. Upon his first arrival, the medics called several ambulances to the scene.
It took quite a while to rescue all the injured. The last rescue was an elderly lady with a broken hip. The medics couldn't get to her, but Clark could. He offered to fly her personally to the hospital.
As soon as they were airborne, Clark felt funny. It wasn't Kryptonite funny, but he felt looser, relaxed. He almost didn't care about getting the woman to the hospital. All he could think about was getting back to Lois. His vision became blurry, though his flying wasn't affected. He shook his head, to try and clear the odd sensation.
At last they landed at the hospital. The old woman thanked him, and it was then that he noticed something. She was wearing a ring that had a strange red stone that cast an odd glow. Clark analyzed it and determined that it was Kryptonite. But *red* Kyrptonite? He'd never seen it before. At least it didn't really effect him. Did it?
*******
Clark made his way back to the restaurant, but his fears were confirmed. Of course Lois hadn't waited. Why would she? He asked if she had paid for the meal and the maitre d' told him of course, looking down his long French nose at him, obviously despising him for his cad-like behavior of leaving his date. Clark apologized and asked them to cancel her payment and to please let him pay. The maitre d' smiled and fixed the payment.
"But I'd be careful if I were you, monsieur. I doubt she'll want to talk to you any time soon."
*******
She had somehow made it home. Her dignity and her heart were in shreds, but she had made it to her door.
As soon as she shut it, she let herself fall apart; tears would not stop falling. She felt so dejected and humiliated. She knew she was wallowing, but she just couldn't stop.
How many times could he run out on her like that? How many times before it became an insult to their relationship, to her? What was so important or so scary that he couldn't sit through an entire date with her?
All the doubts she ever had about her inadequacies crept up. All the taunting things Dan Scardino had said about Clark's disappearing act came back to her in full force. Was she really not that important to him? Or was she really that awful to be around? That was the scariest thought. That she just wasn't lovable. That she was too hard, too demanding, for anyone to love her.
She shrugged off her coat and unzipped her dress, letting it fall to the floor in a heap of expensive fabric. Lois put on her sweats, telling herself it didn't matter what she looked like. Clark wouldn't dare show his face here, not tonight. And she wouldn't let him in even if he did. She just didn't want to deal with it. Didn't want to deal with the apologies or the cryptic remarks about how she just needed to understand, that it wasn't her. Because she'd give in, she knew she would. She'd see those chocolate brown eyes, and melt inevitably. Chocolate was her weakness, after all. And if he touched her. God. It would be over. She'd follow him to the ends of the earth. And a kiss... well, she knew where this was going, and it all would just end in disaster. One way or another. Either he'd break her heart, or she'd eventually screw it up anyway. So... let him be the one to make a mess of it all. Let her stay mad at him. She didn't need him here to break down her walls and make her feel like a fool for just not understanding him.
Lois opened a bottle of wine and prepared to settle in for a pity party, complete with 'Ivory Tower' reruns. She climbed into bed and saw the black and white teddy bear, sitting all cute on its pillow, completely innocent to the crimes of its giver.
"I never want to see Clark Kent again!" she screamed at the teddy bear he had given her at the Smallville festival. "I know it's not your fault, but it certainly is his!" Then she grabbed the bear and held it tightly, a pathetic replacement for who she really longed for.
********
Superman was over Lois' apartment, about to land and change into Clark when he heard her cry of never wanting to see him again. He still felt dizzy from that odd Kryptonite encounter, but he desperately needed to try and make things right with Lois. So he decided to try and be her friend, as Superman. Maybe Superman could ease Clark back into her good graces.
He came to her window and gently knocked.
Lois was a little drunk, and was almost asleep. She sat up when she heard the familiar knock.
<<Oh, god, not Superman. I look awful.>>
But at the same time, she really could use a friend.
She stumbled her way over to the window.
"Hi," she managed.
"May I come in?" he asked.
She nodded, feeling the tears start up again.
Clark landed gently, but stumbled just a bit. Lois didn't notice.
"Are you all right?" Superman asked, concerned.
She was relieved there was no pressing emergency, for he would have mentioned it first. He had simply come to see how a friend was doing. And Lois couldn't resist his kindness. Even though she had sworn off Superman months ago, he was still a dear friend. And when she couldn't turn to Clark, Superman always seemed to be there when she needed him.
She came over to him and threw herself in his arms, bawling her eyes out.
"Hey, it's okay, Lois. Tell me what's wrong?" he said, feeling like an even worse kind of heel.
"Cl--Clark! He... he doesn't love me! He... he's always running off---somewhere! Just when things start to go well between us! I--I don't understand!" she cried into his shoulder.
Clark felt horrible. And it wasn't just what Lois was telling him. He had a headache and suddenly wanted to sit down. Lois felt him stumble.
"Superman?" she asked in sudden alarm. "Are *you* okay?"
"I--I just need to sit a second," he said.
She nodded, her tears dry for the moment in concern for Superman. She led him to the sofa.
Clark noticed the half drunk bottle of wine. She really shouldn't be drinking so much... Maybe if he had some, it would keep her from getting any more drunk.
"May I have a glass of wine?" he asked.
She looked at him in surprise. "I didn't know you drank wine."
"It doesn't have any effect on me. But I like the way it tastes."
"Sure," she poured him a glass, keeping a wary eye on him. Even in her distraught state she could see that something wasn't right with him.
"Is there something wrong, Superman?"
He took a sip of the offered glass. "Yes... I... well it's strange, really. I was rescuing people from a train derailment, just outside of town. And the last woman I rescued had a strange stone on her ring that gave me an odd feeling."
"Kryptonite?" Lois asked in fear.
"Well, maybe," Clark said, uncertain. "It had most of the properties of Kyrptonite, but it was red. I only flew with her for about fifteen minutes, but whatever it is, it left me feeling odd. I still have all my powers, but I feel... well, maybe how you feel when you're drunk. Sort of loose and off balance."
Lois smiled, "Well, join my party, then. Here. Have some more wine."
********
About an hour later they were laughing over nothing.
Lois and Superman were drunk.
"...I mean, how ridiculous! There I was, in that wonderful little bistro looking around like, 'um, yeah, and where's my date?'" Lois laughed, hysterical.
"I can't believe he did that to you!" Superman fell to his side, laughing.
They were on their second bottle of wine. Clark had never been drunk, ever. And he didn't know if it was the red Kryptonite or the wine, but he felt dizzy and warm all over. And he had Lois in stitches over his screw up.
Lois finally caught her breath.
"Wow, I never thought we'd be rolling on the floor, laughing together, Superman! Are you sure you're OK?"
He put his hand to his forehead, still feeling the room swim, but sort of enjoying the situation at the same time. "Yeah. I don't think the red Kryptonite effects will be permanent, but I'm enjoying feeling drunk. It gets awfully boring being perfect all the time," he said, feeling the laughter creep up again.
"I bet! Here, Flyboy. Have another glass. Why not?" Lois said, pouring both her and Superman the rest of the second bottle.
"This is almost as fun as it would be with Clark! He doesn't really get drunk, though," Lois said thoughtfully.
"Is Clark a fun guy?" he asked, hiccup laughing between sips.
"Yeah, he can be. But this habit of his, leaving at random moments... I mean, who *does* that? I don't want to think he's loony-tunes, but maybe he is."
"Clark would have to be crazy, to run out on you," he said, and then sobered a moment as he realized what had just come out of his mouth. He couldn't think straight. But he knew he had come over to try and put things right with Lois and Clark, not to drive more distance between them.
"I think he's scared of me. Of us. I don't know what else it could be," said Lois. Superman had slipped to the floor by the couch and she let herself fall down to the floor next to him.
"But it's great that you're here. Drinking alone sucks!" she said, clinking Superman's glass.
"Hey, would you go flying with me?" he asked suddenly.
"Flying drunk? That could be fun. Promise not to drop me?" she said, practically falling in his lap as she tapped his chest.
"I could never drop you," he said, momentarily sober. He could feel her breath on his neck. He couldn't take his eyes off her lips. It would be so easy to---
Lois stood up, offering a hand up to Superman.
"Come on. Let's go flying!" she said brightly.
"At least we know we won't be pulled over for a DUI," he laughed, taking her in his arms.
As they headed to the window, Lois grabbed her third bottle of wine. Just in case.
********
They headed west. Both were swimming in alchohol. Lois couldn't stop giggling and Clark just tried to fly straight. He took the third bottle of wine out of her hands and popped the cork with one hand.
"Another sip, m'lady?" he asked, taking a
swig himself.
"Sure, why not?"
They headed out of the city. About ten minutes into the flight, Clark realized he was on autopilot, heading for Smallville. But he knew he couldn't stop there. There would be too many questions about Superman's easy access to Clark's parents' house and not to mention facing his parents in his current state. No, he'd keep flying past Kansas.
Lois dozed in his arms, meanwhile, Clark kept drinking the wine. His thoughts were fuzzy. All he could think was how nice it was to hold Lois. How nice it was to be drunk! To be loose for a change! He felt so free! He wanted to do a loop-de-loop but thought better of it holding Lois and in his state. He might get more than he bargained for.
About forty-five minutes later, they came to a city in the middle of the desert.
Clark nudged Lois awake. "We're here."
She groaned as she opened her eyes. "Where are we?"
"I think Las Vegas," he said in some surprise.
She giggled. "We should get married. That would really show Clark," she said, reaching for the bottle of wine. There was about a glassful left...
"Yeah? Why not? Let's do it. Lois Lane, will you marry me?" Clark grinned. He wasn't thinking straight. All he knew was he loved Lois Lane. Here she was in his arms and they were in Vegas!
She drank the last bit of wine, then wrapped her arms around his neck. "You betcha!"
