Okay, this is the part you've been waiting for!
Keep in mind... this Lois has been through a lot, so she's not the Lois we know from the show. She has issues- BIG issues and rightly so. But she also has a great support system.
As you read, keep in mind that some things can't be explained. With that in mind...
Enjoy!
Oh, and when I look at this as a whole, I figure we're about half way. Granted, the first half was full of lots of everything. The next half is going be full of lots... of well, I'll comment on that after you've read this part.
++++
Clark waited inside a room at Eprad for Lana to arrive. He hated to be the one to tell her that her folks were gone, but knew it was best coming from him. The door opened and she stepped inside.
"Clark!"
"Hi, ya' stranger," he said as he folded her into a warm hug.
She drew back to look up at him with a frown. "What?" She could tell by the way he'd hugged her something was wrong.
"That obvious?"
"I know you too well."
He took her hands and led her over to a chair. Once they were seated, he finally raised his eyes to hers. "Lana, something's happened."
"Mom?"
"Yeah." He swallowed hard. "She was found dead a few months ago." Lana sat, stunned, her mouth hanging open, her eyes filling with tears. "The investigation points to..." He looked down where his thumbs rubbed the backs of her hands. "... your father killed her."
She jerked away from him and stood up. "Liar!"
"I'm not, Lana," he said softly as he pulled a file across the table. "There's a copy of the reports in there." He stood and she backed away from him. "That's not all. Your father was found on a beach in Spain. He'd been... executed."
She just stared at him, unable to utter a word.
"We believe he was working for Lex Luthor, then Bill Church, and at the end for Juan Delconto." He jerked a finger toward the file. "There's excerpts from a diary we found in his lab. He had an affair several years ago with a woman named Ellen Lane. He fathered a child with her."
Lana suddenly smiled. "Clark, why are you teasing me like this?"
"I'm not teasing you, Lana. I'm very serious." The smile slowly faded from her face and she glanced at the file. "The woman's name is Lucy. We've confirmed that Paul was her biological father. And, Lana, he killed Ellen Lane. He admits it in the diary."
She stared at Clark for a long while before she moved over and dropped to the chair. Slowly she opened the file and began reading. After a few minutes, she picked the file up and threw it across the room. "How could he?"
"I know," Clark said soothingly as he sat back down in front of her. "The entire mess is unbelievable." She looked up at him with huge tears in her eyes and he reached for her, holding her while she sobbed. When she finally calmed, he took her to his place and spent the night retelling everything that had happened. He held her while she cried some more, then while she slept. He couldn't possibly imagine what was going through her mind.
Nearing dawn, Lana came out to the living room where Clark sat on the sofa tapping away on his computer. "Did you sleep out here?" she asked of the cover on the cushions.
"Yeah, what little I slept," he said as he looked up at her. "How do you feel?"
"Lost," she said as she sat down beside him, leaning her head over on his arm. "You could have stayed in there with me."
"I know." He turned his head and kissed the top of hers.
"Clark, do you think we did the right thing when we separated?"
"What?" He shifted so he could look at her.
"Everything we've done leads us right back to each other," she pointed out. She lifted her hand and cupped his cheek. "And I've missed you so much."
He covered her hand on his face and gently pulled it away. "Lana, I'm not alone now. I have... kids."
"Oh yeah, by my sister's sister," she said as she stood up and headed into the kitchen for something to drink. "I want to meet her," she said, not giving him a chance to say anything else.
"She doesn't know yet. Lucy was drugged with some potent stuff your father was mixing up. She's lost her mind."
Lana took a drink from the can of soda she'd gotten from the fridge and walked back over to lean against the bookshelf. "Will she ever be right again?"
"The doctors doubt it. I've tried to talk with her a couple of times. She's like a child now."
She turned and looked at the pictures on the shelf. "Are these the kids?"
"Yeah. Collin and Perry."
"Perry, for a girl? How odd."
"Lois named her after Perry White. She was..."
"The star reporter for the Planet," Lana finished as she turned back around, holding the frame in her hands. "I remember her. She interviewed Daddy once." Looking back at the picture, she frowned a little. "You know, Clark, they kinda' look like you."
"Jack says that all the time," he said with a chuckle.
Lana replaced the frame and went to sit back beside him on the sofa. "Are you happy?"
"As a dad?" She nodded. "Like nothing I've ever known," he said with pride. "They complete me the way I've always longed to be. With them, I feel like I belong."
"Oh, Clark," she said and leaned into his side. She knew how much he'd struggled with his true identity. "I guess I need to get to the police station. There's probably tons of things I have to take care of. Will you come to a memorial service for my mother?"
"You know I will. What about your father? You need to say good-bye to him, too."
"Yeah, but under the circumstances, I think that one will be private."
"I'll be there, too," he told her and wrapped an arm around her.
"You're a good friend," she said against his body.
"So are you." He continued to hold her, allowing her to be comforted as long as she needed. Now that her parents were gone, he was all she had in the world.
****
David Harris hurried out to his car through the pouring rain. He had a meeting across town and he couldn't be late. Nigel was off on an errand so he was alone in the back of his Lincoln. When the driver turned left instead of right at an intersection, David leaned forward.
"Where are you going, you idiot?" No answer. "Did you hear me? The meeting is at Seventy-second and Grand." Still no answer. "Stop the damn car!" He reached for the handle and the locks clicked.
"Just sit back, Harris, we'll be there soon," came the unusual voice from the driver.
"Where's Leon? You're not Leon." The driver said nothing else as the car was maneuvered through the afternoon traffic. Harris continued to rant during the entire forty minute trip. The car finally pulled into the parking area of an abandoned manufacturing plant. When they stopped, they were inside the actual building. The doors clicked open and Harris immediately jumped out. The small driver got out as well.
"I'm going to..." David stopped when he saw the barrel of a gun pointed at him. "What is the meaning of this?"
The driver lifted a hand and took off the cap, shaking long, red hair free. "Sorry about the color, dear, but I thought it suited me."
"Lois!" he breathed, his eyes wide in shock. "I was told you were dead."
"Yeah, your men did a bang up job."
"Those were no men of mine!"
"Oh, I know that, too." She eyed him for a minute. "You know, for a dead man you look pretty decent. The blonde hair sucks, and so does the mustache, but..." She shrugged, keeping her gun trained on him the whole time.
"I suppose you want payback."
"Oh, honey, I don't want payback. I want what's rightfully mine."
"You want money?"
"No," she said with a wide grin. "I want to *know* you're dead."
"Don't be ridiculous. You'll fry."
"I don't think so," Lois said, cocking the gun. "You see, I signed a sweet little deal to serve ten years. Two of which are nearly over. I won't get time for leaving my nice comfortable bed in the state pen because I was taken from there against my will. And I can't be convicted of killing you again. It's called double jeopardy, a protection in our justice system that says a person can't be convicted of the same crime twice. So, see my dear husband, I can finish out my time. Can you?"
"You wouldn't dare." He shouted out in pain and fell up against the car when Lois shot him in the leg.
"You don't think so? You took me from my life, filled me with drugs, forced me to marry you, after you impregnated me with some strange man's sperm!"
Lex laughed evilly. "Don't you know, *wife*, that your precious babies are nothing more than an abomination?"
"Don't you know, Boss, not to trust the cronies who work for you?" She smiled when his grin faded a bit. "Paul was smarter than you give him credit for." When his brows rose, she nodded. "Yes, my dear, I know the doctor's name. He and I spent a great deal of time together recently." She walked around, more in front of Lex from his position holding himself up against the car. "He was stabbing you in the back and you were too dumb to know it. Your *cloned* son was conceived in a petri dish, my egg and his *father's* sperm."
"You're lying," he said. "I saw the results myself."
"Results can be doctored. But what do you care? Perry White knows he's not your child. And if I know Perry, by now the best doctors in the world also know he's not a clone."
"I should have killed you when I had the chance." He moved like he was going to grab her and she shot his other leg.
"You bitch!" he yelled and fell to the ground.
"Hurts so much more than a faked fall from Lex Towers, doesn't it?" She kneeled and ground the barrel into one of his wounds, causing him to shout out in pain. "Just tell me why. Why did you pick me out of all of the women you could have chosen?"
"You were..." He gasped for breath. "... the only one smart enough to figure it all out."
"And the irony is..." She used the gun to lift his face until their eyes met. "I did." She stood up and dug into her pocket for a necklace, dropping it on his lap. "Juan says to send you his best." She drew back and popped him in the head as hard as she could, rendering him unconscious. Glancing at her watch, she dropped the gun beside him on the ground. Her prints wouldn't be on it; she'd worn gloves. She hurried across the empty building and uncovered another car. She drove out, across the yard, down a path at the back of the property. The car was parked so that she could look through binoculars and watch the police arrive to find David, AKA Lex Luthor, slumped on the ground. Satisfied they had him in custody, she drove toward the main road.
****
Clark pushed through the crowd as Lex Luthor was wheeled into the penal wing of Metropolis General Hospital. Henderson had gotten the call that local police on the outskirts of town had found the man, shot in both legs, and had taken him into custody. While they'd been unable to secure a search warrant on the evidence Jack had discovered to force David Harris to prove he was Lex Luthor, Bill had been able to get a bench warrant for Lex Luthor's arrest. He was wanted on charges of fraud. The description that went out matched David Harris, so when he was found bleeding on the concrete in that plant, he was arrested.
"So far he's refusing to say a word," Bill told him as he reached Clark in the throng of reporters.
"No idea who shot him?"
"Nope. But I'd like to shake the guy's hand."
"Yeah," Clark agreed and followed Bill inside.
Two hours later, Lex was ranting and raving because his lawyer wasn't there. And he wasn't admitting he was Lex Luthor.
"Police have found the body of a man they believe is David Harris," Bill told Clark as he approached him in the hallway. They'd been standing outside Luthor's room talking when the Inspector got a call at the desk. "And get this... the gun found with Lex shoots the same kind of bullet found in Harris' head."
"We couldn't get that lucky," Clark said in disbelief.
"We'll know in a few hours."
"Call me. I have to get to the Planet and write this up."
"You got it," he called because Clark was half way to the exit. Just when he thought things couldn't get stranger, they did.
****
Clark didn't make it home until nearly midnight that night. No sooner than he'd closed the door when there was frantic knocking on it. He pulled it back open to see an anxious Lana on the other side.
"I think I know who the father of the twins is," she said as she pushed in around him.
"What?" he asked as he shut the door and stepped down into the living room, cutting on a light as he did.
"I found this." She held up a small, black book. "It was in Daddy's safe."
She had Clark's attention because Paul Lang had basically told the world the things he'd done in his other book. He walked closer, reaching out to take the book. He flipped through several pages before his shocked eyes met Lana's.
"They look like you for a reason," she said, large tears in her eyes. She'd met the twins a few days earlier and had fallen completely in love. Clark had shown up for her mother's memorial service and the private one for her father. It had been a long, trying couple of weeks, but Clark had been her rock. "Remember the tests Daddy ran for us?"
When they'd been together and seriously talking marriage, they'd confided in Paul Lang Clark's amazing abilities. He'd run a few tests for them to determine if Clark could father children. It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
"I know he told us you couldn't, but..." Lana glanced down at the book.
He read through the pages again, unable to believe what he saw. "No way," he breathed.
"It's true."
Both Clark and Lana's head snapped up when the new voice entered the conversation. Lois was standing in the doorway of his bedroom.
"Paul told me before he was shot." She was standing with her arms crossed, leaning on the jamb as if she didn't have a care in the world.
"How did you get off that island?" Clark wanted to know as he walked toward her.
"The first question I would have asked was how I got in your house." She pushed off the wall and held out a hand to Lana. "You look exactly like your father described you... And a little like my sister."
Lana took the offered limb with a wide-eyed expression on her face. "Why? Did he tell you why he did what he did?"
"Money, of course. It's the evil that rules the world."
"And Clark?" Lana wanted to know.
"He hated Clark." She glanced at Clark as she retrieved her hand from the other woman. "More precisely, he loathed his biology." Lois walked around Lana and dropped heavily on the sofa, leaving them to stare at her. "I do have to say it was genius what he was trying to do. It just blew up in his face." She leaned back into the cushion and propped her feet up. "How 'bout something cold to drink, Kent?"
He couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped him as he went to retrieve a few beers from the fridge. Somehow he felt Lois needed something a bit stronger than cream soda. He gave one to each woman and opened his own bottle.
"Damn, that's good," Lois said after she took a long gulp. "I haven't had a beer in... well, it's been a while."
Lana was sitting on the chair watching Lois carefully and Clark decided to pull a chair over from the kitchen. He watched his guest as he drank from his bottle. She was everything Jimmy had described her to be. Yet, nothing that he'd said she was.
"How are our babies?" she asked Clark, looking directly at him.
He glanced down at the book he still held. "This is true? They really are mine?"
Lois stared at him for several moments before she leaned up to dig in her pocket. She tossed him a small, black device. "Paul's flash drive, with all of his notes on it. Bernie will confirm it. He just needs a little tissue from your cheek." She pointed at him, swirling her finger in a circle.
Clark looked at the computer drive for a moment before he pushed it into his pocket. "I'll see him in the morning."
"Make it early," Lois told him. "By the time the morning edition of the Planet comes out, all hell's gonna be broke loose." She downed the rest of her beer, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Why did they kill him?"
Lois looked over at Lana with sad eyes. "Juan's son killed him when he failed to save his father's life. Juan had a rare blood disorder that slowly ate him up inside. He took me from the prison and tried to find Collin because he thought the blood flowing through Collin's veins could save his life."
Did she know? Clark asked himself. She'd said Paul hated his biology, but did Lois know what that meant?
"I doubt anything could have saved him," Lois went on. "Paul tried to tell him that in order for a transfusion to work, the donor blood had to be a match. Collin's blood didn't match Juan's. Paul showed him the research. Mine did though." She snorted a wry laugh. "Figures my blood would match the devil's." She tapped her empty bottle on the table and Clark leaned forward to replace it with his own. She shot him a half smile before turning it up. "The tests didn't work and Juan died anyway when he caught cold."
"And the shootout?" Clark asked her.
"I heard the shots all the way from the airstrip. When the plane circled back around, it looked like World War Three was taking place."
"Plane? How did you get on a plane?"
"Juan's son, Mikel, took me out. When Renaldo went crazy and shot Paul, Mikel came for me. Just as we made it through the hidden entrance on the west end of the compound, we heard the first shots. Within minutes the place sounded like a war zone."
"It looked like one, too," Clark told her and stood up to go get more beer. She'd emptied the second bottle as well. He tossed the empties, grabbed two more cold ones, and pushed a dinner plate his mother had sent home with him the day before into the microwave. Lois looked pale, like she hadn't eaten in a while. And if she kept drinking so quickly, she'd be drunk soon.
Lana rose and looked for the purse she'd dropped in her excitement earlier. "Could we talk more... about my father... when I don't feel like I'm going to pass out? I've been in conferences all day and I'm wiped."
"I'll tell you anything I can," Lois assured her.
She nodded and turned to Clark, looking for and receiving a hug.
"Call me tomorrow," he told her.
"I will." She turned, but looked back up at him. "Congratulations, Daddy," she said with a grin.
He laughed softly as she left. When he sat back down across from Lois, he placed the hot food in front of her. "Eat. You look like you could use it."
"Did you cook it?" she asked as she took the fork he offered.
"No. Mom did."
"Oh, oh," she mumbled around the tasty morsels in her mouth. "This is delicious."
"Squash casserole, pork chops, and wild rice. Nothing special."
"Very special when you've had fruit and tacos for months." She stuffed another bite into her mouth. "And before that it was prison slop." She moaned as she continued to eat. "I think I like you, Kent."
"Yeah, well, that might be a good thing," he said softly as he took a drink from his beer.
She polished off the food before looking up at him. After she downed more beer, she wiped her mouth with a napkin he'd given her. "All things considered, I'm glad it's you."
"You don't even know me," he told her.
"No. Not with my head. But the first time I met you I knew there was something about you... And it has nothing to do with your biology."
"You keep saying that. What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Paul told me you're Superman."
Clark's eyes widened as he stared at her.
"Don't worry. No one knew that he's you. Juan just thought he'd used Superman's sperm to impregnate me. And Renaldo didn't have a clue what he was doing. He knew Paul was a doctor trying to find a cure for his father's illness." She played with the fork, staring at her plate. "You don't know me either, but you took my little girl."
"What choice did I have?"
Her eyes lifted to meet his. "Is that why you did it? You didn't have a choice?"
"She needed someone." Clark shrugged. "I could have worked something else out if I'd really wanted to."
"And you didn't... want to?"
He smiled at her as he thought of his beautiful, little Perry. "Those big, brown eyes just kind of..." He squeezed his hand into a fist, trying to explain with his action what he couldn't with his mouth. Little Perry had captured his heart with a single look. With all of Perry's resources, something else could have been worked out for her. Truth is, he hadn't really wanted her anywhere else.
"And Collin? You agreed to custody."
His gaze fell back to hers. "I did that because he should have been with his sister. But..." He swallowed as he looked at her. The same thing he'd felt the first time he met her washed over him. That... wave of heat, like he was unbalanced. It was new to him where a woman was concerned. What was it about her? "The first time I met you there was just something about you," he repeated softly what she'd told him a few moments ago.
Lois stared for a moment, then smiled at him. So much was said in that gaze. And so much more was left unsaid. "They stay with your parents..."
"At first we took Perry out there because we needed to... hide her. Mom and Dad fell in love and well, I just couldn't take them away from them." He took another drink of his beer.
"It probably helps with you being Superman, too," she concluded.
He nodded, then glanced away, unsure what to say to her. "Does that bother you?"
"That you're Superman?"
"That I'm different and the father of your twins?"
"No. I'm just glad I know it's you. You don't know how much I worried about it being some... maniac with strange diseases or some psycho who'd come to stake claim to his rights one day. I was so glad when Paul ran tests at the compound and told me I was healthy. Of course, that was before he told me you were the unknowing donor. He did that just two days before he died." She drank from her bottle again. "I think he suspected he was going to die and wanted to clear his conscience. He confessed to killing my mother, fathering Lucy, and what he did to you. He said the only reason he didn't kill you was because he couldn't figure out how."
Clark couldn't help the smile that edged its way onto his face. "Is a bit difficult," he said.
"I can imagine." She finished her third beer before she looked over at him. "Does it bother you?"
His head snapped up so their eyes met. "What? Being Collin and Perry's father?" At her nod, he grinned full out. "I'm already their daddy. Being their father is just gravy."
"Sounds like something Jimmy would say," Lois said with a smile as she stood up. "Do you mind if I crash here tonight? I saw a space in the loft big enough to make a makeshift bed."
He rose to his feet. "You're more than welcome to crash here, but take the bed. I'll sleep out here on the couch."
"I can't run you out of your own bed."
"You can break in, use the toilet, eat my food, and drink my beer, but you can't sleep in my bed?"
She allowed the smile to turn into a soft laugh as she made her way into the bedroom. "How do you know I used the toilet?"
"I didn't. Although, I'm pretty sure after three beers, that's where you're going." He watched as she entered the alcove leading to the bathroom, her laughter bouncing back to his ears. What now? Lois Lane was in his apartment and he'd never felt so utterly off balance in his life. He couldn't explain it. She'd moved him the first time he'd met her, but he'd explained it away that she was a pretty woman and he liked pretty women. But this, this... whatever it was that he felt was unlike anything he'd felt before. But what did it mean? What was going to happen tomorrow?
He was going to confirm that his twins were really *his* twins!
Wow! That would make his year.
He was about to take Lois' plate to the kitchen when his phone rang. "Hello?"
"Of all that's holy in Memphis, Kent, she's done it!" came Perry's excited voice over the line. "She's nailed that two-timing, double dealing bastard to the wall. Not only that, she's got the goods on Delconto and has blown his organization to hell and back. Wait till you see the morning edition! For the first time in over three years, there's gonna be a by-line with Lois Lane's name on it!"
That's what she meant by all hell breaking loose, Clark figured as he listened to Perry rave on.
"Said she'll see us tomorrow. Get some sleep, son. Mad Dog's coming home!"
Clark couldn't help but laugh as he hung up. Perry hadn't given him a chance to say a word.
"Hey?" He turned to see Lois standing next to the bed with his sweats and one of his tee shirts on. "Wake me by six, would ya'?" She didn't wait for an answer, just climbed into his bed and pulled the covers up to her neck.
He chuckled and gathered up the mess from the living room. By the time he'd rinsed the dishes, he could tell by her breathing she was fast asleep. Was she that comfortable with him? To fall asleep so easily in his place? In his bed? What did that mean?
Stop it, Kent, he told himself. Poor girl's been through hell and all he could think about was how attracted he was to her.
His mind rushed forward to the next day. There would be so much to do. Mayson needed to be called, motions filed to keep Lois out of jail, tests run to confirm the twins' biology...
Lifting a photo of Collin and Perry, he couldn't help but smile. They really did look like him. He'd always wrote it off to wishful thinking. Wouldn't Jack be stoked? He couldn't wait to fly out to the farm so he could hold them. His mom and dad would tell him they'd told him so- the many times they'd said the twins were their grandchildren.
Glancing at the sleeping woman in the other room, he couldn't help but wonder how much longer he'd be able to hold them any time he wanted to. Lois wouldn't go back to prison- Luthor was alive. She'd want her life back- was already taking steps toward that goal.
And she'd want her kids back, too. He'd be forced to share them with her.
She *would* share. There was no way he'd give them up now. They were his, no matter what a blood test said. He'd taken care of them, loved them for nearly two years. They were as much his as they were hers now.
Would she fight him over them?
He wasn't going to find out tonight, so he made his way quietly into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Changing into a pair of shorts and a worn tee shirt, he went out to make up the couch. He settled after cutting all the lights and stared up at the ceiling. Things could change in the beat of heart, he thought as he listened to the steady rhythm from the other room.
Why was it having that woman in his house didn't bother him more than it did? It almost felt like she was where she was meant to be.
That's crazy, Kent, he told himself as he rolled over on his side. Closing his eyes, feeling the lethargy overtake him, he was glad tomorrow was another day.
****
The feeling that someone was watching him forced him to open his eyes. Two, large brown orbs were staring at him. Lois was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, leaning on the coffee table.
"I've been watching you, trying to picture you as that guy in blue tights who can do so many things," she said softly.
"Superman is something I do," he told her without moving.
"Yeah. Clark is who you are. You were raised Clark Kent, you've had a life as Clark, and..." She let her eyes roam over him a second. "You kinda' look like a Clark."
He chuckled softly. "What does a Clark look like?"
"You," she said with a grin. She reached out to touch his arm, squeezing experimentally. She smoothed her hand down to his side, further to his leg. He'd slept on top of the cover so she was able to touch the skin on his thigh.
"What are you doing?"
She shrugged. "It's just hard to imagine a man doing what you do. I mean, you feel like a man." She pulled her hand back and settled so that she was cross-legged in front of him.
"I am a man."
"Yeah, I know. A very beautiful man, too." She looked into his eyes, a slight smile on her lips. "It's just hard for me to wrap my mind around all of this super stuff."
"You said it didn't bother you," Clark couldn't help but say. If his super side did bother her, he wasn't sure what he'd do.
"It doesn't. But I was in prison when you made your debut as superhero."
Clark smiled then. She wanted to see him do something super. "Why don't you just ask?"
"Okay. Show me what you got." Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as he lifted up off the couch. He drifted above her for a second before he floated back down to the cushions.
"Satisfied now?" he asked her. He was still lying in virtually the same position he was in when he woke up. Only now he was grinning like he'd just stolen a cookie from the jar.
"Is that supposed to impress me?" she asked him with a glint in her eye.
He laughed out loud. "I can see now you're going to be high maintenance."
"Yeah, but I'm worth it," she replied with laughter in her voice.
His smile faded a bit and he held out his hand. "Want to go up with me?"
"Float?" He nodded and she automatically grasped his hand. They rose into the air, in exactly the same positions they were in from the couch and the floor. Her first instinct should have been to brace herself, but for some reason she knew she was perfectly safe in this man's hands. She glanced around her, at the furniture below them. Her excited eyes met his. "Now this impresses me... a little."
He laughed aloud again. "Somehow I knew it would take more than this." He lowered them back until they were on solid ground... and couch.
"Will you show me some other stuff?"
"Sure." He made a move to get up but she placed a hand on his chest.
"Not now. We have time."
He relaxed back into the pillow, half lying on his back now. She had leaned back against the table and was watching him. "I know I have bad hair in the morning..."
She chuckled, but didn't look away. "I just wanted to get to know you."
"By looking at me?"
"You can learn a lot from just looking at someone," she told him.
"Yeah," he said as he rolled back to his side so he could see her better. "I guess you can." They remained that way for a long while, simply looking at one another. When Lois' eyes filled with tears, Clark pushed himself up on his elbow. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Over four years of hell catching up with me," she replied and pushed herself up onto her knees, attempting to get up. Her eyes met his when he reached out to grasp her arm. He understood that she felt lost and mixed up even if he could never really understand the true depth of what she felt. Hell, she didn't even understand it herself. More tears stung her eyes, a sob escaped her lips.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered and that was her undoing. Her body sagged and he flung his legs over the edge of the couch so he could pull her into an embrace. She clung to him where she kneeled on the floor, her face buried against his chest. Clark smoothed his hand over the back of her head while she sobbed loudly, her body wracked in pain and frustration. He felt like crying himself. He couldn't begin to imagine how she felt, but he was fairly sure this was the first time she'd allowed herself to do this.
It was nearly twenty minutes later before she'd calmed and loosened the hold she'd had on his shirt. "Your shirt's wet," she told him without moving.
"It'll dry," he assured her, running his hand through her hair.
"You could be a pervert who gets his jollies with little boys for all I know and I'm clinging to you like you're my lifeline," she mumbled as she turned her face further into his body.
He laughed softly, but held her closer.
"My knees hurt," Lois said a few moments later.
Clark floated them up so he could reach out with his other arm and pull her completely onto his lap, cradling her like a baby as he sat back down. In this position he could look at her face. His hand, on its own accord, came up and he caressed her cheek.
"Do you hold our babies like this?" she wanted to know as she looked up at him, content to stay like that.
"All the time," he told her, pulling her closer, the hand that had caressed her face, now playing in her long, red locks.
"Lex didn't like the red hair. Of course, he never really liked me much anyway."
His hand stilled. "When did you see Lex?"
"When I shot him," she said, her eyes falling to a spot on his chest, her hand picking at the material of his shirt.
"You were the one who shot him?" She didn't say anything. "Maybe we should keep that to ourselves." And he couldn't believe he'd just said that. He was Superman! He couldn't condone actions like that.
Lois struggled to sit up, and with his help, sat down beside him on the couch. "I, ah, I had planned to kill him."
"What?" Clark asked as he leaned up on his forearms where they rested on his knees.
"You don't know what went through my mind, Clark." She wiped the fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. "All the pain, the confusion..." Pulling a leg under herself, she stared off across the room. "He'd drugged me daily, convinced me I'd done things, made me marry him." She leaned her head back to take a deep breath. "He used me to create what he thought was the first clone pregnancy and child. He... raped me over and over."
Clark looked away, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves. He'd never loathed a person more than he did Lex Luthor at that moment.
"I gave birth to children I really didn't know. I loved those kids, but at the same time I..." She swallowed hard. "I'm ashamed of how I felt."
"You thought they belonged to Luthor," he said softly, wanting desperately to reach out to her, but she'd pulled away emotionally. He could feel it.
"Even later, when I learned they didn't belong to him."
"Lois, everything you've felt is understandable."
"Then you know why I wanted to kill him." She stood and paced across the room. "I could have gotten away with it, too. Or at least served the rest of my time for it. I'd been convicted once..."
"Yeah, but could *you* have survived it? Survived knowing you took another person's life?"
She turned in front of the bookshelf and looked at him. "That's why the slimy bastard is still alive."
Clark tried to hide the grin, but had to catch a book she picked up and threw at him.
"It's not fair!" Her voice wasn't angry or bitter. She felt relieved to actually be able to feel so light after all that had happened.
"What's not?"
"That you know me so damn well and you don't even know me at all!" She stomped into the kitchen, flipping on the light as she did. It was just beginning to get daylight outside and it was a little dark in the apartment. She'd been fine in the dim light while they'd talked, but she was thirsty and hungry and couldn't see well enough to find herself something.
When she opened the fridge, Clark stood up. "What are you looking for?"
"Food and this..." She opened the can of cream soda and drank for a moment before she sighed in contentment. "I definitely like you, Kent."
"Because I drink cream soda?" He reached in to grab the eggs and butter.
"Oh yeah."
He laughed softly as he made his way over to the counter beside the stove. "Toss me the cheese and that ham in the top drawer, will ya'?"
"What ya' cooking?" she asked as she dug out the items he'd requested.
"Breakfast." He gathered the dishes he needed and grabbed a knife. "You do like omelets, don't you?"
"Really?" she wanted to know as she stepped up beside him.
He grinned at her as he worked. After a moment, his hands became a blur. When he was done, he was dropping the vegetables in the egg mixture.
"Now that was a little impressive," she told him as she leaned over on the counter.
"You should see me take out the trash," he said and waggled his brows.
She laughed at him, watching as he finished their breakfast. When she sat down and took her first bite, she moaned appreciatively. "Yeah, I definitely like you, Kent."
He laughed as he took a bite of his own breakfast. He definitely liked her.
Too much, he thought as he watched her. His arms and body still tingled where he'd held her. As he watched her eat, he realized that not only was she going to set the reporting world on fire, she'd set him on fire as well.
He was in *big* trouble!
