Previously:
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... 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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…In apartment 3B, there was a man with a dagger tattooed on his left arm. He was meticulously sharpening a k-bar knife. The long blade made an ominously hypnotic shwick-shwick sound as it slid over the whetstone. Taped to the wall in front of him was yesterday's front page article - "Daily Planet Reporter Missing".
A heart had been drawn around the picture of Lois.<><><>
The Other Shoe 9/10
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Monday afternoon
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Lois had never before felt this lost. She had no idea where she was or even what time it was. She had been walking for what felt like days but the wild landscape around her still showed no signs of any kind of civilization.
She could no longer bring herself to eat one more kernel of popcorn even though her stomach was a tight, gurgling knot. Just thinking about the salty snack was making her thirsty but there were only a few swallows of water left in the plastic jug and she knew she should conserve them. Again and again Lois found herself shading her eyes to look skyward. Her despair deepened each time she saw nothing but empty blue above her.
Where was he?
Clark had to be looking for her. He had to know by now that she hadn't ditched him on Friday night. Surely one of the perks of dating Superman was that if you went missing he'd move heaven and earth to find you. By now he also had to know that she wasn't in Metropolis. The trouble was, neither one of them had the faintest clue where she was.
Dating Superman. She had been dating Superman! Her best friend could fly and see through walls. Every time she thought about how it felt to kiss him or how (and where) he had touched her she’d start to feel shaky all over again. It was strange to realize that she didn’t have to give up the Superman fantasy and could give free rein to all the possibilities her fevered imagination could concoct. Stranger still was the fact that she could no longer picture kissing Superman. Try as she might to project the suit into all those heated embraces she had shared with Clark, she simply couldn’t do it. Those moments were too private, too special, to alter them to fit a schoolgirl's crush.
Lois looked up at the sky again. It was still empty; still a bright and happy blue that was a complete mismatch with the despair she felt inside. A trickle of sweat stung her eye and she rubbed her arm across her forehead. The humidity was terrible so she decided to take a break in the shade of the trees off to her right. She picked her way gingerly over the crushed rocks lying parallel to the tracks to the much softer fallen leaves and bare ground. The shade felt heavenly as she sat down and leaned back against one of the trees.
As nice as this spot was, if she could wish herself anywhere right now it would be home. Lois thought about the simple pleasures she'd taken for granted - a hot shower, a soft bed, and the stack of take-out menus on her kitchen counter. As soon as she got home she was going to order the #34 special from Ming's Palace and take a shower while she waited for the delivery boy to arrive.
Once she was clean, she'd call Clark and ask him to come over. Lois pictured opening her front door to find Clark standing there. He'd smile - that same half-shy, half-knowing smile that he gave her just about every time he caught sight of her. And she'd say--.
She'd say nothing. Even from this safe distance she couldn’t think of anything to say to him. No wonder Clark said he was nervous on Thursday night. Just thinking about seeing him again was making her nervous.
What if they hadn't been interrupted on Thursday night? What if she had undone one more button and exposed the familiar blue suit? Lois tried to imagine what her response would have been but it was impossible. Even knowing the truth, she couldn't picture Clark in Superman's suit. It seemed impossible that the man who had caressed her last week could bend steel bars with those same hands. What if she said something to Clark and she was wrong? What if they weren't really the same man?
But what if they were?
Her thoughts scattered when she heard a sound, almost like a whisper, coming from behind her. Lois stood up quickly and called out, "Hello?"
There was no answer although her ears strained to hear one. And then excitement coursed through her as she realized that she could see the glint and sparkle of water through the trees. Lois picked up the water jug and picked her way carefully through the undergrowth. The trees ended abruptly at the water’s edge, leaving her standing in cool mud that felt like heaven on her sore feet. Lois shaded her eyes and squinted, scanning the edges of the fair-sized lake for signs of life. There was nothing but water and the distant ridge of a low mountain.
Her heart sank as she realized there were no buildings in sight. At least she had water again she comforted herself as she filled the jug. She raised the jug up and wrinkled her nose at the swirl of floaties inside it. Should she walk further into the water and try again? Lois dumped the water out - it wasn’t as though she had a schedule to keep after all. She waded knee-deep into the lake to fill the jug again. Once it was full she capped it and let it float on the surface of the water as she took another look around.
The lake was in a wooded valley. For half a second something seemed to glitter at the far end of the lake. Lois shaded her eyes and looked but she couldn’t see anything. Had it just been sunlight on the water? Should she continue following the railroad tracks or work her way to the other side of the lake? She couldn’t help looking heavenward in the hopes that she wouldn’t have to make that decision. A flock of birds came skimming over the tops of the trees, but they were alone in the sky.
He wasn’t coming.
The odds were against his finding her at all. Lois decided her best bet was to continue following the railroad tracks. They had to lead to some kind of town eventually. She had at least two days worth of water now; three if she was really careful with it. She waded out of the lake and took one last look. If she ever figured out where she was, she should bring Clark back here. He could probably tell her all sorts of useless facts about how the lake was formed…
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Fourteen months earlier<><><>
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Clark asked.
Lois sniffed and shrugged. It was nothing more than a view of a lake from a roadside rest stop. After nearly three hours in the car, she had pulled over simply for the chance to stretch her legs. Clark could admire the scenery all he wanted; she was more interested in plotting her revenge. After the fiasco at the sewage treatment plant Perry had insisted on her and Clark making the drive north for a story on state parks. It was such an obvious ploy to get them alone together that Lois had immediately resolved not to give either Clark or Perry the pleasure of wearing her down.
"They're actually one lake." Clark gestured at the water.
"What?" she snapped. It was a huge source of irritation to her that Perry had paired her with a fount of useless knowledge. This was one time she when wasn't going to get sucked in to one of Clark's gee-whiz conversations.
"The twin lakes, East and West? They're actually one lake. Just like Huron and Michigan."
"Huron and Michigan are not the same lake," she corrected smugly.
Clark flashed her one of his mega-watt grins. "Hydrologically speaking, yes, they are."
Lois hugged her arms tighter across her chest, hating that he had baited her into talking to him. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Huron and Michigan are connected by the Straits of Mackinac. But it's not a case of one flowing into the other. The water flows both ways, depending on the wind and the weather conditions. They have the same surface elevation and they rise and fall together. They're the same lake."
"Huh," she offered by way of an answer. He was damn lucky she was talking to him at all.
"By that reckoning," Clark continued, apparently as oblivious to her bad mood as he had been all day, "it's actually the largest of the Great Lakes. Well, if you're going by surface area. If you're calculating it by volume of water then Superior is still the largest."
Lois leaned back against the car as she lost any nascent interest the conversation might have held for her. To her great relief, Clark stopped talking in favor of picking up pebbles and skipping them across the water. And then the silence between them began to stretch out awkwardly. It wasn't like when they had been in the car. Then she'd had the radio on and had pointedly turned up the volume each time he tried to engage her in mindless prattle. Now it was beyond obvious that she was ignoring him on purpose. Even though she had a righteous reason for her anger, it still felt rude.
Should she suggest leaving? The thought of returning to the car made her feel restless. Even worse, she'd be cooped up with Mr. Cheerful again. God knows what other useless trivia he would inflict on her in an attempt to make conversation. What if she drove off without him? Lois discarded the idea almost as soon as it occurred to her. Perry constantly let her get away with a lot of crap, but he wouldn't stand for that one.
Clark came over and leaned back against the car to join her. "How long are you going to be angry with me?" he asked softly.
Her cheeks flushed from both anger and embarrassment. Did he really want to have it out here in the middle of nowhere? Fine. She could do that.
"Why the sewer reclamation plant?" Lois asked, trying to keep her voice even and failing. "Why not, I don't know, some remote corner of Centennial Park? Or some back alley in Suicide Slum?"
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't think about all the mosquitos and the, uh, mud. I wasn't trying to take you down a peg, though. I just wanted, I don't know, to keep you busy for a while."
"While you got the story?"
"While I got the story," he confirmed.
He didn't sound at all smug and that bothered her even more. He ought to gloat. He ought to bring it up in staff meetings and make jokes at her expense but he hadn't. And now he was being honest and forthright and even apologetic about it and it was driving her crazy.
Clark cleared his throat and then asked, "What bothers you the most about that? That I got the story or that it was a Superman story?"
Lois pursed her lips. That had to be a rhetoric question. "You getting a Superman story doesn't bother me." She studied his profile. "Why does it bother you so much that I like Superman?"
Clark shook his head. "It doesn't bother me that you like Superman."
"Well, it shouldn't. I couldn't be any clearer that there will never be anything between us."
He smiled. "I think you'll have to be a lot more specific. Are you talking about us or you and Superman?"
Lois glared at him. "There is no 'us', Clark. There never will be."
His right shoulder lifted in a half-shrug. "There's no you and Superman either."
"You don't know that for certain," she shot back in haughty indignation.
He raised his eyebrows in silent surprise.
"Okay, there's not," she grudgingly admitted. "Not yet, anyway. But there will be."
"How do you know?"
"Because! Haven't you ever met someone and you just knew? You knew it the moment they looked at you? Or the moment they touched you for the first time and there was just this spark that made you gasp because you just… knew?"
He blinked and his mouth opened as if he was about to say something. When he didn't, Lois realized it was probably because he actually felt that way about her. Even knowing that - and maybe it was because she knew about Clark's not-so-secret admiration for her - she suddenly felt an almost kinship with him. Here, at last, was someone who could relate to her and not find her completely pathetic.
"The first time I met Superman, after he'd lifted Prometheus into space, he came back to EPRAD and offered to fly me to the Planet. And there was this moment when he took me in his arms that…" Lois let out a frustrated sigh; she was never going to be able to explain it to anyone, not really.
"That what?" Clark prompted.
Lois studied his expression, looking for the slightest hint that Clark was winding her up simply to tease her about it later. His dark eyes were serious and she thought again about how he hadn't exploited her humiliation at the sewage reclamation plant. Besides, if the worst happened, she could always deny she had ever told him anything.
"I--. I know better than to believe in people. In general I mean. That's what makes me such a good journalist - being skeptical. And yet when this total stranger showed up who could eat bombs and lift space stations, I trusted him. When he asked me to fly with him the thought crossed my mind that I should turn him down. How the hell could I be sure that he really was going to take me back to the Planet? I mean, he could have taken me off somewhere and killed me and no one would ever find my body. But I knew, I just
knew that he wouldn't hurt me. And the same way that I knew I could trust him, I knew that there was something there between us. It's the way he touches me, Clark. There's something there in the way he touches me."
Feeling mortified that she had said too much, Lois tried to gauge Clark's reaction. She had his full attention and she suddenly realized why Clark's sources would tell him anything. He was always so genuinely interested in listening to other people. His interest made her want to keep explaining.
"He feels it, too," she added. "I know he does."
His forehead furrowed a little. "How?"
Heat rushed to her cheeks as she realized just how personal the conversation was about to become. But it was important, somehow, to prove to Clark that this wasn't just some schoolgirl crush.
"He lingers."
"Lingers?"
"I did some research. There's all sorts of video out there of Superman rescuing people. He's always very polite with them and, as soon as he sets them down, he stops touching them. With me he lingers. His hand stays on my waist or my arm or shoulder. I’m pretty sure he holds me closer than most people when he's flying with me, too. There's something there, Clark. I swear I'm not making this up."
Clark cleared his throat softly. "I didn't know he did that."
"Well, he does." Relief flooded through her that Clark didn't think she was crazy. Her estimation of him went up a few points as she realized that, just like her sewer escapade, he wasn't going to lord this over her in the newsroom. She grinned at him and gave his arm a friendly punch. "I'm sorry if I came down hard on you. Just because we'll never be more than friends doesn't mean that we can't be friends at all, right?"
Clark rubbed at his arm and laughed. "This is how you treat your friends?"
Lois dug in her pocket to find the car keys and then held them out to him. "Here. It's your turn to drive."
<><><>
Monday afternoon
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Hindsight was a terrible thing. Lois cringed now to think about how blind she had been. No matter how many times she had behaved like a lovesick fool over Superman, Clark had never taken advantage of the situation. Superman had never made a move on her - at least not until Friday morning. He had politely turned her down each and every time she had thrown herself at him. Only now did she realize how painful it must have been for Clark that she was enamored with the hero and not the man.
And yet, even after she spurned him last year to chase after his alter ego, he had still been her friend. If their places were reversed she would have been spiteful and vindictive. Clark had shown up after the disaster that had been her near-wedding and had comforted her through that long night while she had heaped recriminations on herself. Despite all his warnings about Lex, Clark never once said 'I told you so'.
With a jolt she put it all together. That cage in Lex's basement had been made of kryptonite. It wasn't until Arianna Carlin shot him with that kryptonite bullet that she had realized that there really was something that could kill Superman. No, make that Clark.
Lois flinched at the memory of Superman pale and sweaty and in tremendous pain on the floor of Arianna's office while she dug that kryptonite bullet out of his shoulder. That had been Clark! How much more frightened and shaky would she have been if she had known whose life she was actually saving?
There were people out there who were actively trying to kill her best friend. At this very moment, there was someone offering to pay a million dollars to learn what she now knew. Clark didn't - he couldn't - think that she would tell?
Lois stumbled as she realized that his secret was what exactly what he had been trying to tell her for the past week. He was willing to trust her, quite literally, with his life. She had been indirectly right the first time she tried to guess what he had to tell her. There could only be one reason Clark would go that far - he loved her. Telling her his secret was far more binding than any declaration of love. Telling her meant he saw them together forever. What was it that he told her on Friday morning?
"I've never been more certain of anything in my whole life as I am about my feelings for you."She looked up but the sky above her was still empty. There wasn't even a cloud in sight.
Once she made it home should she tell him that she knew? Or should she wait and see if he still wanted to trust her with his secret?
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Outside the Regent Arms Apartments, Clark weighed his options. Lois wasn't in the building so his choices were narrowed down to two - he could wait and follow Sadler in the hopes that he'd lead him to Lois or he could confront the man directly.
Blood, his mind whispered. Traces of Lois' blood had been found on the back seat of that car. Wherever Lois was, she was hurt - if she was even still alive.
Sadler stopped sharpening the blade and set it down. Clark's eyes couldn't help but follow the path of the lethal metal blade. Sadler had killed Herman Twitchell with that knife - had he also used it to hurt Lois? Then Clark saw something that made his blood run ice cold. He refocused his gaze, narrowing in to make sure that he was actually seeing what he thought.
Next to the knife was a business card that read "Information Wanted". Below the words was a phone number that Clark now knew by heart. Sadler wasn't after Lois - he was after Superman.
Was he holding Lois in the hopes of blackmailing Superman for information? Or had he tortured Lois to try and get information out of her? Clark's hands curled into fists at the thought. How long would Sadler have tortured her when she had nothing to reveal? In the darker recesses of his mind, Clark's memory stored all the times he had heard Lois cry out in pain or call for his help. All those terrible moments, all the screams and muffled cries for Superman, began to replay in his imagination.
She had come so close to death so many times and yet he had always managed to reach her in time. It was unthinkable that he had found Sadler too late to save her. His imagination supplied the details, showing him exactly how Lois had gasped and called out for his help as she lost her struggle against Sadler. Never before had he wanted to make someone pay for the pain they had caused like he did at this moment.
Clark closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He couldn't confront Sadler as Superman, especially not if there was a chance that Lois was still alive. He couldn't risk giving anyone proof that Lois was special to Superman. In the space of a few seconds Clark changed out of the suit and hurried up the stairs to knock on the door of apartment 3B.
After several seconds the door opened. "Yeah?" Sadler asked in a bored tone.
"I'm looking for Lois Lane," Clark told him.
For the briefest moment Sadler's eyes widened in surprise. Then he feigned ignorance. "Who?"
A tremor of rage shot through Clark that Sadler was going to lie about it. Clark pointed across the room at the newspaper clipping on the wall. "You know exactly who I'm talking about. Where is she?"
Sadler shrugged elaborately. "How the hell would I know?"
"I was there," Clark bluffed. "I saw you. The police have videotape of you carrying Lois out of the bar that night."
"Why aren't the police here to arrest me?"
Clark didn't have an answer for that. Sadler smirked and opened the door wider, gesturing for Clark to come in. A quick glance confirmed for Clark that the knife was no longer lying on the table. Sadler no doubt thought that he about to get rid of a loose end by inviting him inside.
"Tell me where I can find her and I'll leave now," Clark said.
"Look, buddy, either you come in or I close this door. I ain't having this conversation in the hallway."
"Let me see your hands first," Clark demanded.
Sadler let out a hollow-sounding laugh but complied, holding up both hands to show Clark that they were empty. He stepped back further into the apartment and gestured again for Clark to join him. Clark ducked his head, sneaking a quick peek over the top of his glasses and found the knife nestled in a sheath on Sadler's belt. Sadler’s untucked shirt hid the weapon's location.
Clark grudgingly stepped into the apartment and Sadler shut the door.
"I saw on the news that the police want to talk to everyone who was there on Friday night," Sadler said. "I even thought about calling them but all I saw was you leaving her there all by herself. You want to blame anyone, blame yourself. A pretty girl like that is bound to attract attention."
"If she had your attention then do you know what happened to her?"
Sadler shrugged. "Got me. She ain't here, that's for sure. You're welcome to look around if you don't believe me." He gestured at the threadbare room. "Go ahead. You don't need a warrant."
Clark knew that he couldn't risk turning his back on Sadler. His situation was fast becoming dangerous, though not for the reasons that Sadler might suppose. Whatever else happened, Clark couldn't risk having Sadler attack him. It wouldn't take the man long to realize something was up when stabbing him with a knife yielded no results.
"Okay," Clark said evenly, "so she's not here. Where is she?"
Sadler's eyes narrowed. "What makes you so sure that I know?"
"Like I told you, there's surveillance footage of you carrying her out of the club."
Sadler's pulse quickened as he realized that Clark might be telling the truth. Clark decided to press his advantage while he still could.
"The police are on their way here. I'm offering you a trade. You tell me where she is and I won't stop you from leaving before they get here." Clark moved so that he was standing between Sadler and the door.
Sadler let out a nasty sounding laugh. "You're not very good at bartering. You've already told me what I need to know."
"Tell me what I what to know and I'll step aside."
Sadler's head tilted as he sized up Clark. "So were you two dating or something?"
Were? The past tense caused Clark's breath to catch. "Just tell me where she is."
"She had a rockin' body, that one. Did you ever get a piece of that?" Sadler took a step towards Clark, his expression changing to a leer. "I did. Man, she was a sweet piece of a--."
Three nights' lack of sleep combined with the anger and fear that had been pent-up for days. Clark acted on enraged instinct and his fist met up with Sadler's nose. Sadler stumbled backwards and ended up sprawled on the couch. A flicker of worry shot through Clark as he wondered about the ethics of attacking someone who couldn't possibly hurt him. And then he thought again about how Sadler had hurt Lois, maybe even killed her. He heard Lois' last breathless gasp of his name as Sadler abducted her. Cold rage drove Clark to lock the deadbolt on the door before turning back to confront Sadler again.
"Where is she?" Clark crossed the room to stand a few feet away from Sadler.
Sadler stood up and used the tail of his shirt to wipe at the blood streaming from his nose. The knife was no longer strapped to his belt and he was holding his right hand slightly behind him. "Ask Herman Twitchell," he said defiantly.
Clark shook his head. "We both know Twitchell's dead."
Sadler grinned. "Aw, they found him already? You want to blame anyone for her death, blame Twitchy. He's the one who wanted her dead. But he couldn't just accept that she was gone, no. He wanted a guarantee, some proof. Well, he got it. He's as dead as she is."
Clark's mind refused to accept that Lois was really gone. "Where is she?"
"You're a broken record, man. It's getting on my nerves." Sadler lunged at him and Clark quickly shifted so that the knife slid cleanly through only the material of his shirt. The momentum of Sadler's attack sent them both crashing to the floor. Clark rolled away as Sadler made another jab with the knife. When Sadler lifted his arm to try again, Clark grabbed his wrist and slammed the man's arm against the floor. The knife skittered away and disappeared beneath Sadler's couch.
Sadler started to crawl toward the knife but Clark grabbed him, trapping the man face-down beneath him. "Where is she?"
Sadler's response was an anatomically impossible suggestion. Clark leaned more weight on him to hold him still but that only increased Sadler's struggle to get free.
Clark flipped Sadler over and moved his arm to rest across Sadler's throat. He pressed down until the man gasped for air. "Where is she?"
"Dead," Sadler wheezed with a laugh.
A red haze filled Clark's vision and his hands shook with the urge to make Sadler pay. "Where's her body?"
Sadler shook his head and cursed at him.
Clark applied a little more pressure and Sadler began to cough. His hands pulled uselessly at Clark's arm.
"If she's dead," Clark told him, "then I don't care what happens to me. If you tell me where she is, I'll let you go. And if you don't…" Clark pressed down a little harder and felt a small measure of satisfaction when he saw Sadler's eyes go wide with fear.
"Okay," Sadler gasped as he ceased struggling. "Uncle."
"Where is she?"
Sadler gurgled and spit out some blood. "Railcar. Abandoned railcar."
"Where?"
"Upstate. Outside Avery. Let me go."
Clark dragged the wheezing Sadler over to the radiator. He pulled off his tie and swiftly bound Sadler's hands behind his back before securing him to the radiator.
"You said you'd let me go!" Sadler screamed, enraged by the double-cross. He swore a blue streak as Clark crossed the room and picked up the phone. He dialed Detective Hess' direct line and told the officer who answered that Herman Twitchell's murderer was in apartment 3B of the Regent Arms.
Then Clark left, running down the stairs and nearly tripping in his haste. He sped into the alley, spun into the suit and lifted into the sky heading north to Avery.
Two sets of railroad tracks split in the town; one going north and the other going west. He followed the northbound tracks, but after several miles, he still hadn't seen an abandoned railcar. Had Sadler lied? Clark circled back to follow the westbound tracks. A few miles out of town he saw a railcar on a shunted line.
The only sound coming from the railcar was the ticking of a watch. Sadler hadn't lied - Lois was dead.
Clark fell from the sky, dizzy with grief as he realized he was going to find Lois' body inside. How much had she suffered? He wasn't sure he could bear knowing. Clark didn't bother with the lock; he simply ripped the door off and tossed it away.
The rail car was empty.
It looked like a small bomb had gone off. There were hundreds of splinters of wood, a couple of pieces of popcorn, a woman's wristwatch, and a hole that looked like it was the right size for Lois slip through.
After a moment of stunned surprise, Clark couldn't help laughing in exhausted relief. Lois had escaped. Sadler had no idea who he was messing with. If anyone could free themselves from a locked train car on sheer dint of will, it was Lois Lane.
Clark turned in a circle. Where had she gone? She probably wouldn't have followed the road in case Sadler came back. He scanned the tracks but couldn't tell which way she had gone. She must not have gone east or he would have seen her already. He closed his eyes and listened intently but couldn't hear her. Clark lifted into the air and began to follow the tracks west. Please, he prayed, please let me find her. Let her be okay.
Several miles from the railcar he saw a lake. He scanned the shores, looking for Lois. At the south end of the lake, maybe thirty feet from the tracks, there were footprints in the mud. Clark flew lower to get a closer look. Whoever had stood there had been barefoot and he knew that Lois was missing her shoes. The footprints circled back into the woods so she must still be following the train tracks.
Clark flew back to the tracks, his hopes rising as he followed them further west. Lois was alive – she had to be. And then he heard it - the faint, familiar cadence that he had spent days trying to locate. In the space of two heartbeats he closed the distance between them to land in front of her. He had never felt this happy and it was impossible to come up with the words to tell her how overjoyed he was to see her. Instead, he pulled her close against him in a tight hug as he said her name over and over in a fierce whisper.
"It, it, it's you," Lois sputtered, pushing against his chest so she could tilt her head back to look up at him. "It's really you, isn't it?"
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End 9/10
