Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Stranger in a Strange Land : 5

He was angry. He was shouting at someone and it was about her.

Blind to anything but rage against the man he felt had hurt Lois, Clark advanced angrily towards his doppelganger.

“What the HELL did you do?”

Lois heard the angry words and tried to retreat even further into her safe place.

The other Clark looked up at him briefly, barely registering the other man’s obvious rage. He was focused wholly on the plight of the woman cowering in a corner on the floor.

“I – I don’t know how to fix this,” he stammered.

“Get away from her! Don’t you dare even look at her,” Clark said, focusing all his rage on the other man. In his blind unreasoning rage, his doppelganger had morphed into Kal-El in his mind. He violently shoved the other Kryptonian backwards, putting more space between him and the insensate Lois. Even this hardly registered with his doppelganger.

Lois heard the angry words and knew she was deeply endangered. Kal-El was angry. He would blame her. He would remind her who she belonged to.

You are mine.

She had heard that recently in her mind and had somehow failed to recognize the danger at hand. How had she let her guard down?

You can’t get away from me. You’re weak. You always were weak. I’ll win in the end

She whimpered at the danger to come and tried to shrink further into the corner in which she huddled. She had long learned not to bother with dignity where Kal-El was concerned. It was hard to stand your ground when your assailant was impossibly strong.

The sound of her whimper brought Clark sharply out of his blind rage and he stopped short and watched in horror as his wife seemed to be trying to curl up to the point of invisibility. Memories of how she had been after he had driven her into dark reminiscences on the day of the asteroid rang through his mind. Slowly his anger at the other Clark began to dissipate as he remembered that he was no better.

The other Clark looked at him, finally taking his gaze off the woman on the floor.

“Clark, I’m sorry,” he choked out raggedly. “I never meant to do this to her.”

Clark looked at his doppelganger briefly unable to respond to the other man’s guilt.

“What do we do now,” the other Clark asked him. “How can we help her?”

Footsteps rang and the other Lois was suddenly there breathing somewhat heavily in her attempts to catch up to Clark.

“Oh my god,” she whispered as she saw her own doppelganger huddled in the corner.

“Clark. What do we do,” the other Clark repeated, his tone increasingly panicked.

“Lois won’t appreciate being gawked at like this,” Clark said in a strangely calm tone. “Would you both mind leaving the room?”

His extreme politeness sounded ridiculous in his own ears as he remembered how enraged he had been moments before.

“Clark, I can’t just leave,” his doppelganger replied, unable to let go of his culpability in this situation.

“Please, Go!” This vocalization held some of the anger that had been present in Clark earlier. “Just, please,” he said his voice now anguished. “I’ll … I’ll find a way to reach her, and then we’ll come out. Please. I know her. She won’t want an audience to this,” he said. “I owe it to her to protect her dignity.”

“He’s right,” said the other Lois. “Clark, we’ll be out in the living room. Okay? Don’t worry about us.”

She pulled her husband along with her. It was clear he didn’t want to go, but he wasn’t going to fight the will of his wife on this.

Clark stared after them, his emotions too much in a turmoil to process any of what had happened. After a few seconds, he turned back to Lois having no idea what he should do next. He exhaled in surprise when he saw her eyes were open and looking at him.

She immediately shrank from him and he backed away a few steps.

“Lois. It’s me. Clark.”

He hoped that would be enough.

Lois stared at the floor unseeingly for along time.

“God, Lois,” he exhaled, his voice a low anguished cry at the injustice of the fear she had to deal with on a daily basis.

His emotional response began to leak through into her conscience and she rapidly built up walls. She couldn’t handle his disappointment; she didn’t want to feel his suffering.

He gasped at the sensation and realized that he had been unconsciously broadcasting to her.

She slowly stood up and awkwardly met his gaze.

“I make you unhappy,” she said, after a long moment, processing the small amount of emotions that had come through.

He looked at her in surprise, afraid to make any move at all.

“You don’t,” he lied. “It’s just that I love you and I hate seeing you like that.”

“You wish I were like her,” she said, having felt it in his thoughts before she blocked him out.

“No,” he said, leaning in towards her urgently before he remembered not to do that and checked himself.

She saw his aborted motion and hated herself for it.

“I wish I was like her too,” she said. “I wish I was normal.”

“I love you. Not her. I love you exactly how you are.”

“You do not like this,” she insisted.

“Lois, I’m not complaining,” he begged, frightened that she was now trying to give him an out.

“We have to be honest,” She said, looking at him with the same level intensity that her doppelganger had given her husband when she was trying to get him to leave the room.

“What happened here today was unusual,” he said, trying to change the subject. “It brought up a lot of anguish for you, for me, for him – it’s not your usual day.”

“My usual day begins with me in the laundry room. On the floor. Lost in another world.” Her voice was caustic.

He was silent. He couldn’t argue that.

“Then, you pretend like nothing’s happening, and later we have coffee. If we’re lucky, I don’t get overwhelmed by any other terrible images, memories or flashbacks and we actually get to make love.”

He heard the increasing anger in her voice and held very still.

“On those days, it’s great,” she softened. “It’s beyond anything I ever dreamed of. And then…”

He felt cold. Were there days where making love to him was awful?

“And then there’s days like this. Right? Where you’re afraid to talk to me or hold my hand or move in to comfort me…”

He let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Did she want him to move in to comfort her?

“Everyone has good days and bad days,” he ventured cautiously.

“Stop it,” she snapped. “Stop trying to smooth it all over. Stop trying to convince me I’m normal! This sucks, Clark! For both of us. It’s okay for you to say it.”

He shook his head.

“Say it.”

“No.”

“Fine. Lie to me,” she snapped as she turned to walk out the door.

Clark began to build up anger again, only this time he was angry at her. He super-sped over to her. It was time to take the kid gloves off.