A Shaken Revelation
By Bren Ren
~~*S*~~
Summary: All Shook Up, Alternate take on Clark's total-recall scene
Rating: All-Audience Approved
Disclaimer: If only I *could* get paid for this...
~~*S*~~
Clark picked himself up out of the pile of boxes he’d landed in. He couldn’t believe his own mother had pushed him off a building! Then again, it wasn’t like he could’ve been hurt by it, a fact she knew better than he at the moment. Clark dusted himself off as he made his way out of the alley, glancing around to be sure no one had seen the strange goings-on. He was almost clear when Lois Lane, his lovely partner-apparent at work, came around the corner.
“Clark!” she called out in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here,” he answered as though it should be the most obvious thing in the world.
“Not in the alley, you don’t… did you hear that crash?”
“That was me. I was looking for… clues,” he finished somewhat awkwardly. He knew that sounded rather lame, but it was the best he could do under the strained circumstances.
“Here? …Clark, are you feeling okay?” There was a definite note of concern in her voice, and it touched something in Clark, something he wished he could hold onto before it passed right by his blank-slate-brain.
“Me? Sure,” he answered, his tone dismissive. He instantly regretted that choice of tone as he saw the shutters slam down in Lois’s eyes, veiling her concern from scant moments ago. He opted for a quick change of subject. “Any news about Superman?”
“Not yet,” Lois answered, and even as much a stoic powerhouse as she was, there was no disguising her fear and worry now.
“What if he’s confused, like me, and he wants to help, but he can’t?”
“Clark, Superman wants to help and he will.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I know Superman.”
“I wish I knew him as well as you seem to,” Clark answered; the irony of his statement wasn’t totally lost on him even then, and for a brief moment, he wondered how strong her conviction would be if he told her the truth then and there. But that wasn’t likely to help him put the pieces of his own memory back together, so he went for a different tact. “Tell me, Lois… what is it about Superman that makes you believe so strongly in him?”
Lois’s eyes flickered for a moment, that tell-tale glow of hero-worship lighting her face as she answered. “Superman is the kind of man who makes things happen. Sure, he's good, and honest, and he’s got all those amazing super-powers, but it’s what he chooses to do with them that makes him so special. He’d never use his powers for personal gain, or to force the world to work the way he thinks it should, and he’s always there for you, for everyone, in their time of need, no matter their rank or lot in life. Why, he is without a doubt the most selfless man on the planet, and the most human man I’ve ever known, regardless of whether he was born on Earth or a galaxy far, far way.”
As she’d spoken, a deluge of memories flooded Clark’s brain, all of Superman—and Lois. Saving her life time after time, from the bomb-swallowing debut on the space shuttle, to catching her free-fall from Trask’s plane, that first interview he’d given her after finally learning of his true origins, that mind-blowing kiss he’d swept her into on the airfield after that pheromone debacle…
“Clark?” It was Lois’s hand on his shoulder that finally drew him out of his total-recall-reverie. “Are you remembering something?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Clark answered slowly. But knowing the truth, and seeing it, and feeling it, are all very different things… and he hadn’t quite gotten all the way there. Yet.
“Well, that’s great,” she told him encouragingly. “Um… I, uh… I just thought I’d come get you—and your folks—to come back to the Planet. We’re all going down to the basement for the impact.”
“Lois, can we meet you there? There’s something I need to take care of first.”
“All right, Clark.” Her tone sounded humoring, but she kept a straight face. “But don’t take too long.”
“Thank you, Lois.”
“For what?” She was genuinely perplexed, endearing her to him all the more.
“For whatever it is you've done for me that makes me feel as good about you as I do.”
Lois gave him what could well be the warmest smile she’d ever graced him with. “Clark, whether or not that memory of yours comes back, I want you to know, I think you’re terrific.”
“Likewise,” he replied, his smile just as warm.
“I mean I love you.”
Clark froze, and so did Lois. And only then did she seem to realize what she had said. Clark could see the back-pedaling begin in her eyes and took a step forward.
“…Like a—mmph!” However she’d intended to try to save face on that one was cut off by Clark’s mouth pressed firmly against hers. She gasped around his lips as her eyes bulged wide for all of two synchronized beats of their hearts, and then her lids fluttered closed as Clark began slowly moving over her, his lips tenderly caressing hers as his hands moved from her shoulders, where he’d held her until he was certain she wouldn’t try to flee. He trailed up the length of her neck to tangle his long fingers in her hair and gently massage her scalp as he pulled her inexorably closer and closer.
Time, though far too precious a commodity at the moment to be forgotten, seemed to simply stand still between and around them as Lois slowly gave herself over to Clark’s gentle, loving ministrations. Her arms wrapped around him, one low around his waist to pull their bodies closer still, and her other snaking around his neck so that she, too, could enjoy the luxury of threading fingers through soft, silky tresses. The touch of her fingers near the sensitive flesh behind one ear threatened to send Clark over the edge, and he responded with a deep groan of unadulterated pleasure as he began tracing the contours of her mouth with his tongue. Her taste was an intoxicant all its own, and he knew this wildfire of woman in his arms wouldn’t need Kryptonite to have him on his knees—
Whoa. The thought drew him up short and he stopped kissing Lois so abruptly that she stumbled against him as he pulled back.
“Wha…. Clark?” Her voice was breathy and confused, and it took a few more moments for her to pry her eyes back open. Clark hated the pain he saw in her clouded gaze, and for the briefest moment, hated himself for putting it there. But there were more important matters pressing on his mind. Far more important—end of the world-important.
“Lois, I’m sorry, I… I have to go.”
“Go?” She probably wouldn’t have looked more surprised if he’d asked her to dance the Hokey-Pokey.
“Just go back to the Planet, and I’ll meet you there as soon as I can,” he begged, putting as much urgency in his voice as he could manage. Not a difficult feat, all things considered.
“Clark, I’m not sure what just happened here, but…” She drew her words out slowly, but before she continued, her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. Clark had to make a conscious effort not to let that distract him. “But if this is the end of the world, I couldn’t have asked for a better last kiss,” she finally finished, braving a small smile.
Clark finally found his own smile, bright and full of hope. “It won’t be the last, Lois. I promise.” He watched her for a few seconds longer as those rays of hope filtered into her gaze, and then he did what would have been utterly unthinkable even a few short minutes ago: he vanished right before her very eyes in a maelstrom of swirling color and gusting wind.
“CLARK?!!”
~~*S*~~
Probably not the end…
