Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic The Other Shoe 7/10

Previously:

Lois crawled beneath the boxcar and poked her head and shoulders through the hole in the floor to retrieve the blanket, the popcorn, and the half-empty jug of water. Then she clambered from beneath the boxcar a second time and stood up.

Which way to go?

She ruled out following the road. If her abductor came back, that was most likely where he'd be coming from. She didn't seem to be near an urban area so she guessed she was either north or west of Metropolis. With nothing around to guide her, she decided to go in the direction the train which passed her had gone. Eventually she would have to come upon civilization.

Hopefully that would happen before her kidnapper returned and found her missing.

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He simply couldn't lie to her anymore. He couldn't leave her with flimsy excuses that not only made her question his feelings, but also deepened her own insecurities. He had to take that chance and trust her with everything. Once she understood what a leap of faith this was for him, maybe she'd know that telling her he was Superman was the deepest declaration of love he could ever make.

Tomorrow, Clark promised her silently. No matter what, he would tell her the truth tomorrow.

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The Other Shoe 7/10

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Early Monday morning
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The world seemed so wide and darkly empty and Lois felt very, very alone. She was huddled in a copse of trees twenty feet from the railroad tracks with the blanket wrapped around her, shivering as the cool night air seeped deep inside her. The merest sliver of a moon hung in the sky and there were endless stars, but not nearly enough light to see by. Why had she always supposed that everything was so quiet in the country? It wasn't quiet at all. The night was alive with a cacophony of chirping insects and hooting owls. The constant background noise and the chill of the night were terrible, but they weren't the reason sleep was eluding her.

She was going the wrong way.

The sun had set in the direction she was walking, which meant she was headed west. Metropolis was on the coast, somewhere behind her. Every step she had taken in a bid for freedom had actually taken her further away from home. Circling back carried a greater risk of being caught so she had decided to keep going west. There was also the hope that her abductor would assume she had gone east toward home.

What time was it anyway? There was no way of telling since she had left her watch behind in the train car. Lois tipped her head back and looked up at the stars. She was willing to bet that Clark could tell time just by looking at the stars. Clark probably would have known which was north by how the trees grew or which way the breeze was blowing. Not for the first time, she wished Clark were there. It would be so much less scary and lonely to have him here with her.

Where was he now? Did he know she was missing? Was he looking for her or was he fast asleep at this hour? What about Superman? Was he looking for her yet? What if he actually did come to rescue her? Obviously, she'd be grateful, but…

Her mind quailed at thinking about the superhero in anything other than the vaguest terms. Ever since Friday morning, thinking too much about Superman made her feel like she was betraying Clark. Lois pulled the blanket tighter around herself and tried to redirect her thoughts. She closed her eyes and pretended that she was back in that doorway with the rain pouring down and Clark was about to kiss her. Her head dropped back as imaginary Clark's lips touched hers …

…And then her traitorous mind pictured Superman instead. For a few seconds Lois let go of the guilt that dating Clark and daydreaming about Superman usually caused her and wondered what might have happened…

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Friday morning
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Lois had hoped that arriving late at the press conference would mean she could skip the speeches and use the media kit to fudge her way through a three-paragraph blurb of a story. Instead, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new pediatrics wing at Met General had been delayed by technical difficulties. Even worse, she had just been cornered by Randy Egan from the Star.

"Are you in for the win today, Lane?" Randy asked, making the question sound more like a dare.

"I don't know," she hedged. "I'm only subbing for Rob so…"

"Then you're in." Randy slapped a slip of paper into her hand. "Rob already paid his dues for this month. We have one slot left and it's all yours."

Lois unfolded the paper and read the two words inscribed on it. When she looked up to give it back to Randy and be more forceful in her refusal, he had disappeared. She balled up the paper and stuffed it into her pocket.

Her gaze fell on Herman Twitchell. He was standing a few feet away and staring at her like she was something he'd just found on the bottom of his shoe. As much fun as it would be to needle the man a little more, Lois turned away and continued scanning the crowd for Superman. He had been so sad on Wednesday night and the despondent look in his eyes just before he left was still troubling her.

There! She caught a glimpse of red cape at the far side of the dais. The slump of his shoulders made it look as though he was still fighting inner demons. Before she could move in that direction, though, Superman disappeared behind the backdrop. Lois wondered if she should disturb him and then decided that he definitely needed a friend. She threaded her way through the crowd and peeked around the corner. He wasn't there. She moved along the scaffolding holding up the backdrop to check out the space behind the stacks of unused chairs. She was almost there when she heard a familiar male voice say, "Lois?"

Superman came around the tall stack of equipment and gave her a dazzling smile that instantly made her rethink her earlier assessment of his mood. Impressed, Lois asked, "How did you know it was me?"

He closed the distance between them and held his hand out to shake hers. "I'd know your heartbeat anywhere."

It wasn't just his words that flustered her at that moment. It was the intense way he said them combined with the gentle pressure of his hand holding hers and the way his eyes darkened. Speechless, Lois stared up at him while her mind raced to comprehend that Superman might actually be able to differentiate her heartbeat from anyone else's. His hand lingered several seconds longer than was polite before he - reluctantly she felt - let go of her hand.

"What brings you here today?" he asked. "This doesn't seem like your usual story."

Lois mentally shook herself back to being poised. "It's not. Rob Brimley had a family emergency and Clark had a sudden urge to re-interview a source so I was apparently the next on deck."

Superman leaned closer and she had a heart-stopping moment as she realized he was deliberately invading her personal space. He must have just laundered the cape or something, because he had the sunny-fresh scent of a familiar soap. She was still trying to place where she knew that smell from when he murmured, "Mmmm. Desire."

"Wh-- what?" she choked out. Was he making an overture or did Superman actually recognize the perfume she was wearing?

Lois felt even more off-kilter when he winked at her and conspiratorially whispered, "Which phrase did you get?"

"Phrase?" she parroted, too surprised by the question to answer it. Did Superman actually know or care about the press corps' game of cliché bingo to get through dull photo-ops? All thoughts of perfume scattered as she tried to switch conversational gears. It was that much harder to do when he was standing so close. "What phrase?"

"C'mon, Lois. I know all about the phrase game." His fingers brushed through her hair, tucking a small section behind her left ear as he leaned down to whisper, "I have excellent sources." The heat of his breath tickled across her cheek like a kiss and then his hand moved from her hair to her shoulder.

Good god! Superman was, unmistakably, flirting with her. Never, ever, before had he touched her without having a very valid reason to do so. To have him doing it now, in such a possessive way just after he had admitted that he knew the sound of her heartbeat and the name of her perfume, left her feeling completely tongue-tied. And it wasn't just that he was being flirtatious - he was acting as if they did this all the time.

"Uh, I didn't pick mine," Lois blurted out, grateful to have found her voice again while the weight of his hand was still resting on her shoulder. "I was a last-minute replacement so I got here after all the good ones were taken."

Superman raised an eyebrow, silently encouraging her to spill.

"Nuclear disarmament," she said glumly.

"Ouch." He made a face and gave her shoulder a soft squeeze before taking his hand away. "Tough break."

Lois shrugged, both relieved and disappointed that he had stopped touching her. "It's a stupid game, really."

He laughed - a quick short bark that seemed oddly familiar to her. "Translation: you've never won." His eyes twinkled in a tease and she had another moment of déjà vu. But when had Superman ever bantered with her before?

"Everybody knows that Randy cheats," she sputtered, needing desperately to say something when Superman showed no signs of leaving her personal space anytime soon. "He wins all the time."

"All the time?" Superman pressed, cocking his head inquisitively. "Then why does everyone keep playing his game?"

"Well, okay, not all the time. Clark won a couple of weeks ago and he took me to dinner. Not that he wasn't going to take me to dinner anyway. Uh, we were already going out that night."

Superman gave her a knee-weakening smile. "So it's not a stupid game?"

"No, it's definitely a stupid game."

"Because Clark won and you didn't?" Superman teased.

She stifled the sudden urge to smack his arm and shot back, "Clark just got lucky, that's all."

"Did he?" Superman's eyes twinkled mischievously.

Lois could feel a blush spreading across her cheeks at the apparent innuendo. "Not like that," she protested.

"Not like what?" Superman asked with feigned innocence. He suddenly seemed closer than ever to her even though Lois was almost positive he hadn't actually moved.

Flustered, she looked down and her breath came up short when she realized she was only a few inches away from the 'S' on his chest. Not for the first time she wondered what compelled someone to wear Spandex so form-fitting that the whole world could clearly make out the definition of every muscle on his body. Really, he might as well be naked. From a distance the suit was a distraction. Extended proximity was scrambling her brain. For a few seconds her traitorous hormones wondered what it would be like to kiss Superman the same way she had kissed Clark last night.

She couldn't keep staring at his chest, so Lois tipped her head back and tried to think of something intelligent to say to him. And then the world seemed to slow down around her when she saw the undisguised adoration in his eyes.

"We should talk," he said as his hand cupped her cheek.

"Oh," she managed in a dry whisper. The intensity of his expression and the heat of his touch squeezed out what little air was left in her lungs. "Wh--. What about?" she asked.

"Us."

She could only gape at him as she wondered why, after two years, Superman had picked now to finally acknowledge he had feelings for her.

"I--. I'm sorry. I can't." His expression clouded so she rushed to explain why. "Clark…."

Superman froze and his eyes widened. "Please don't hate me," he whispered.

His words only added to her inner turmoil and confusion. Lois pulled away from him and took an unsteady step backwards. She shook her head in utter bafflement. "What? I could never hate you. Why would you think that?"

There was an electronic squeal and a disembodied "Testing, testing, testing," came from the loudspeakers.

Superman winced, no doubt from the high-pitched squeal. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have--."

"Nothing happened," she said quickly, more to reassure herself than him. "Forget about it."

Apparently she had said the wrong thing, because he suddenly looked even more stricken. "I thought you, uh… I thought…"

"It's not that I haven't wanted this in the past. It's just that I can't, not anymore. But we can still be friends, right?" she asked. Her stomach felt like it twisted into a tight knot when he shook his head in apparent frustration.

Whoever was operating the microphone continued their checkdown. "Testing, testing. Can you hear me in the back?"

Superman's shoulders straightened and his features took on the aloofness that was his usual expression. "We should get back out there," he said in a voice that was now as distant as his mannerisms.

Lois nodded numbly. It felt like she had just lost something, but she couldn't put a name to it.

Superman politely gestured for her to go ahead of him. Lois paused before turning the corner of the backdrop to give him one last look.

He wasn't there. He must have flown away, presumably to disguise the fact that they had been alone together behind the backdrop. The fact that he wanted to hide their unplanned meeting made it seem that much more illicit.

Lois went to her seat, her mind and senses still reeling as she reviewed their encounter. If only she could have been a little more self-possessed and a lot less awestruck. She should have asked Superman how he knew about the phrase game and work up to the really interesting questions. Had he deliberately set out to learn her heartbeat? Or had that just happened? Did he know anyone else's? Why on earth had he even confessed that to her? What had he hoped to gain? Why, after two years of polite friendship, had he suddenly decided to turn on the charm?

She was so involved in her inner thoughts that Lois wasn't really paying attention to the press conference she had been sent to cover. She was pulled from her reverie when a wave of muffled gasps and murmurs went through the press corp. The small crowd in attendance was applauding politely as the dignitaries moved into place to pose with the gold-plated shovels for the symbolic ground-breaking.

"What happened?" she asked Randy Egan, who was sitting next to her. "What did I miss?"

"Superman," Randy said the name like it was an oath. "Congratulations, Lane. You just won the jackpot. Superman said his top two priorities are children's issues and nuclear disarmament. If it was anyone else, I'd think that you cheated, but it's friggin' Superman."

Her mind blanked for a moment. Superman had knowingly - deliberately - just thrown the phrase game in her favor? That made zero sense at all.

"What did I win?" Lois asked, looking past Randy to try and locate the superhero. Maybe he wasn't really Superman? Maybe he was another clone who didn't respect boundaries?

"A spa weekend at the Plaza," Randy told her. The irritation in his voice made it seem likely that he'd already booked his massage. "I'll send a runner over with the voucher this afternoon."

As Randy stalked away, Lois caught sight of Superman shaking hands with the hospital's director. She stared at him, willing him to look in her direction. When he didn't she got the sinking feeling that he was avoiding her. Why? She hadn't asked him to cheat for her but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was somehow disappointed or upset. He finally glanced over at her and she lifted her eyebrows in an unspoken question. Superman quickly looked away and then, even more swiftly, lifted off into the clear blue morning sky.

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Monday morning
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Running through the events of Friday morning in her mind wasn't helping. Lois still felt as confused as she had that morning. She had never asked Superman to cheat for her, so she could rationalize that it was a clean win. Why had he done it? What possible motive could Superman have had? Was it possible that Superman found Randy to be as unapologetically self-centered as most of his colleagues did? It was unthinkable that her shining example of truth and justice had thrown away his ethics simply to flirt with her.

And there was the biggest question - why flirt with her? Why do any of the things he did that morning? It was as if Superman had become a completely different person for those few minutes behind the backdrop. Yes, she had seen him in unguarded moments before, but that was all they had been: moments. She had only had glimpses; a second or two where she had seen him vulnerable or amused or angry, but never once had he shown her that kind of prolonged familiarity.

It had to have been on purpose. If he could hear her heartbeat, then he had to have known full well the effect his actions had on her. So why had he upped the ante by continuing to flirt with her? Was that why he had avoided her after the press conference? Was he ashamed or embarrassed? Why did he think she was going to hate him? Why flirt with her at all when he had always been so adamant that he could never get seriously involved with anyone? More than once in the past she had thrown herself at him, only to be politely rebuffed. Had the emotional strain of all those rescues had finally got to him?

The eastern sky was beginning to lighten. In another hour or so Lois would be able to start walking again. She pushed away her thoughts of Superman. This was exactly why she had avoided thinking about it. It was too confusing. It was much better to think about Clark and how he had almost told her that he loved her. When she finally got home, she was going to beat him to the punch and tell him she loved him first.

For a few minutes Lois closed her eyes and imagined being home. First she was going to take the world's longest and hottest shower. And then she was going to go see Clark. She pictured him opening his door and wordlessly taking her in his arms. If she concentrated hard enough, she could practically feel his arms wrapped around her as one of his hands rose to cup the back of her head. She loved it when he held her like that; loved the way it made her feel cherished.

"I love you," she whispered out loud, acclimating herself to saying those words when he'd actually hear them. "Clark, I love you."

He'd say it back, of course. He had practically said it to her on Thursday night.

"I love you," she said again and giggled as a rush of affection for Clark swept through her. No one, not even Superman, had made her feel the way Clark did. Well, okay, maybe Superman had come close… No! She wasn't going to dwell on it. Her choice was definitely made.

"Clark, I love you." She said it louder this time, announcing her feelings to the lightening horizon. It really wasn't that hard to say after all. Dammit, why hadn't Clark just said it to her? Why play coy about it? This was a man who obviously had deep feelings for her. He had invited her to spend the weekend at his childhood home, after all. He had been insisting all week that they needed to talk.

Lois sat up straighter, trying to bring back the thought that was eluding her.

What was it Clark had said?

"I need to tell you something."

That took more effort than a simple 'I love you'. And then, at her apartment, instead of just spitting it out he had said…

"We… I…god… I need to talk to you."

"So talk. I'm not stopping you." She lightly stroked her fingernails over the back of his neck and gave him an inviting smile.

Clark made a sound that was half-groan, half-laugh. "You're distracting me."

"So show me. Words are overrated. Show me what you were going to say."

He considered it, then nodded. "I could do that." He sat up straighter, his expression no longer teasing. His hands moved to loosen his tie…

At the time she had thought he was going to physically show her he loved her. Now that supposition seemed silly. He could have just said it. God knows he said lots of other things instead, things that took much more effort than three little words.

"I've wanted to tell you this for so long."

Happiness rippled through her. "Have you?"

Clark nodded again, his eyes closing as she loosed the second button. She could practically hear the words 'I love you' in the quiet rumble of his voice even though he wasn't actually saying them. Her hands started to tremble as she realized that she honestly, truly, absolutely loved him. God, she was in trouble.

Lois leaned forward and kissed his cheek, feeling his jaw flex beneath her lips as he made a muted little moan. "Maybe I already know what you're going to tell me," she whispered.

"Oh?" His fingers combed into her rain-damp hair, gently securing it away from her face so that he could see her clearly. "What is it?"

She shook her head and grinned at him. "You say it first."

He took a deep breath and she found it adorable that he'd be this nervous. She wanted to hug him, just to reassure him that his feelings were definitely going to be returned.

"It's probably not what you think."

So what was it? Her mind raced, running through the rest of their encounter on Thursday night as she tried to suss out a clue about what he was trying to tell her. There was something he said that night that was off. Something that she had been too distracted to fully process. Something about her lipstick or her coffee or…

"…Only a first-rate stalker would know that you start out sleeping on the left side of the bed, but by morning you're hogging the whole thing."

Surprised, she could only gape at him. "How do you know that?"

He shook his head and gave her a rakish grin. "Lucky guess."

Still thrown for a loop, she shook her head. "Nuh-uh. That's way too specific. Have you been stalking me, Clark?"

Clark laughed and caught her head between his hands, kissing her again until they were both breathless. "Admit it," he whispered when they came up for air. "I have excellent sources."

She concentrated harder on the memory. It was there, it was just there, the niggle at the back of her mind that was bothering her.

Lois gave him a delighted smile as their workaday game suddenly took on a new dimension. "Who's your source?"

He stroked her cheek. "That's kind of what I'm trying to tell you."

That's what was wrong! It was insane to believe that Clark wanted to take a break in the middle of one of the most intense make-out sessions they had ever had simply to tell her about a source. Lois began to shake as she realized who else had teased her that he had excellent sources.

"C'mon, Lois. I know all about the phrase game." Superman's fingers brushed through her hair, tucking a small section behind her left ear as he leaned down to whisper, "I have excellent sources."

Was that just the mother of all coincidences?

"Translation: you've never won." His eyes twinkled in a tease and she had another moment of déjà vu. But when had Superman ever bantered with her before?

There was only person in the world who teased her like that on a regular basis. There was only one person who had been trying for days to talk to her about something...

"I need to tell you something."

"I've wanted to tell you this for so long."

"It's probably not what you think."

"That's kind of what I'm trying to tell you."

"We should talk."

"Please don't hate me."

In a mind-blowing instant it all became crystal-clear. Lois' breath caught in the back of her throat and she had to gasp to get any air.

How had she not recognized that mischievous gleam in his eyes? How had she not recognized the way her body tightened with excitement when he touched her? Clark was the one who thought he had excellent sources. Clark was the one who knew what perfume she was wearing.

It was Clark who had flirted with her and then flown off into the morning sky. It was Clark. It had always been Clark. Clark was Superman.

Her body tensed. Lois tried to fight the sensation but it was too late. Her stomach was already upset from all that popcorn and the shock of her partner's secret was simply the last straw. Lois groaned and crawled away from the blanket so that she wouldn't be sick anywhere near her only shelter.

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End 7/10

So... which phrase did Randy give you?