Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Green-Eyed Monster (32/37)

Author’s Note: I put embedded links to YouTube.com videos of the songs at the beginning of each song. There is also a song list at the end of this part. This way you can either listen to it while you are reading or at the end or not at all. As the song lyrics are in italics, I have separated them from my story by quote boxes to make it easier to tell what is song lyrics and what is inner thoughts. Enjoy.

Green-Eyed Monster TOC

Part 31

Part 32

Middle of night – Early Sunday

Lois squirmed against the ropes and ancient Roman shackles Lex used to subdue her. The more she moved, the more the ropes seemed to tighten instead of loosen. She glanced over at the antique clock on Luthor’s bookshelf: two seventeen in the morning. It had been at least four hours since Luthor trapped her into this office, maybe more. Seventeen minutes since she sang the last song to Clark. She hated lying to Clark, telling him she was okay when she was actually being held hostage by a psycho billionaire.

You should have listened to Clark and Jack and Perry and…

Luckily, Clark wasn’t the type of man to tell her ‘I told you so,’ because he definitely had told her so.

If you had only listened to him you wouldn’t be in this predicament now.

Luthor went bed around an hour and a half ago. Or was it two and half hours ago? Her head was getting fuzzy between the several blows he had gotten in during their fight and her lack of sleep. Lex had set the alarms and taken the file and the security remote with him. The only way she was leaving this room was if she called “Help, Superman!” or if Lex let her out when he came back at six. He promised to come back by then. If she still hadn’t called for Superman, Lex said he would give her one more chance to tell him Superman’s secret identity before he had Clark arrested for stealing funds from Lexco.

At least, he hadn’t figured out that Clark was Superman. How had Luthor known that Superman had a secret identity? Simple, just as Jack guessed, Luthor was behind the break-in at her apartment. He had her globe.

Clark’s globe, you mean.

Luthor had even shown it to her. He knew from Jor-El’s fourth message that Superman had come to Earth as a baby. And if he had come as a baby, someone must have been adopted him and, therefore, had a real life and a family, whose safety Superman would want to guarantee above all others.

Lois glanced up to the box Luthor had left out to taunt her as she thought back to what the man had said and done.

Lex had brought down the medium sized wooden box from a shelf. Unlike her simple natural carved box she had bought ten years earlier at the Corn Festival, Lex’s box had been stained a deep turquoisey-blue and had large lead brackets on the corners and a large bolted latch. Luthor had taken out a set of keys and unlocked it. Lois had seen the semitransparent globe that had been hers since Pete’s mother had given it to her after his funeral and her heart ached.

When Lex had reached his hand into the box, she had screamed, “No!”

“No?” He raised an eyebrow at her outburst.

“If you touch it, Superman will know,” Lois had shouted, trying to lean forward to stop him. “He senses when it has been activated.” Then she had gasped, and would have covered her mouth if she could, realizing her error.

Bad, Lois. Very, very bad.

A smile had grown on Lex’s lips. “Does he now? I wondered about that. Maybe you’re expendable after all. I can just call your lover with this.”

“Clark is my boyfriend, not Superman,” Lois had restated her mantra, but Lex wasn’t buying it.

Lex also knew all about Clark. His goons had been watching her place as well as the tabloid photographers. Clark had become a person of interest when he had shown up after Superman had dropped her off. Who was this other man in Lois Lane’s life?

“So we did some research on this Clark Kent fellow as well.” He held up a photo of her and Clark – out of the blue suit – making out after they had returned from the beach. “I’m assuming it’s the same Clark Kent with whom you wrote the newspaper article.” He flipped another page. “Clark Kent, the virgin, covered that, didn’t we?” He grinned wickedly at her. “Clark Kent, son of Jonathan and Martha Kent, owners of MJ’s Café. Didn’t think I tied that together, did you? Did you really think I was seriously going to offer them seventy-five thousand dollars for their business?” He laughed. “Clark Kent, your boyfriend currently being investigated by my Lexco auditor Tempus for misuse of company funds. Actually Tempus and I didn’t really care about Clark’s little bump in salary until you jumped at the chance to rescue him with that blackmail date. It had just been a plausible excuse to talk with you, see what you would tell Tempus about Superman. And then you go and admit there was something to hide by allowing yourself to be blackmailed. I hoped for better behavior from you.”

Lois had glared at him, but kept her mouth shut. Her heart had been beating so loudly and racing so fast, she hoped that Clark couldn’t hear it from all the way over at the bookstore.

Lex had shaken his head with a tsk-tsk. “Your boyfriend is locked inside Daily Books as we speak. He’s busy working, guarding the bookstore overnight like he does every Saturday night. So he won’t be there to notice when you don’t come home tonight.” He laughed in anticipation of what he was going to say. “What am I saying? He wouldn’t have noticed anyway! You don’t sleep together! Priceless.” Lex shook his head. “So you might as well make yourself comfortable, Lois. You’re staying here until you call your lover Superman to come and rescue you.” He had leaned forward again and focused intently on her. “Why haven’t you called for him to come and help you yet? Are you afraid he might not show up? He’s not much of a Superman, if he doesn’t help his friends in need, now is he?”

“He wouldn’t know to come if I don’t ask for his help,” she replied.

Lex had rested back in his chair, his fingertips resting together. “Just out of curiosity… According to my LNN reporters, you’re the one who named him Superman, not Linda King. Was that before or after you tried out the merchandise?”

“Superman and I are not lovers,” she had informed him honestly through gritted teeth and scowl. “We’re just friends.”

“Right,” he had said slowly, still not believing her. “That was Clark last night, wasn’t it? The bartender you were talking with at the end of your set? He seems to like you well enough. He didn’t like my choice of songs though, did he?” Lex chuckled. “You must like him sufficiently to be agreeable to Tempus’s blackmail date. But how much can you really care about him, cheating on him with Superman? Of course, from what I hear, women can’t seem to resist a man in tights.”

Depends on the man, her inner voice had retorted. You in tights, Lex, totally resistible.

Lex had closed the box as he continued with his obnoxious chuckle. “We’ll hold off on this for now. We’ll wait until you get up the lungpower to call Superman to come and rescue you. Perhaps a night of being tied to a chair will change your mind. You have until 6:30 a.m. when Tempus arrives at the bookstore to have your boyfriend arrested. Either you call to Superman and bring him here tonight to discuss the terms of your release or Clark gets arrested at the store tomorrow morning. Your choice.”

Ooooh. Hate that man. Actually starting to hate everyone and everything to do with Lexco Corp.

Luckily, the globe hadn’t been glowing so Luthor wouldn’t have been able to activate if he tried.

You should have thought of that before opening your big-fat mouth, Lois!

Lois strained against the ropes once more in the semidarkness of Luthor’s office. She was going to have to come up with another way of getting out of this situation she had gotten herself in. What were her options?

Call Clark to rescue you?

That was what Lois really wanted to do. She wanted to call to Clark, consequences be damned. To have him snap the ropes and break the shackles and fly her away far from here. To have him hold her in his arms and kiss her lips.

But that was also what Luthor wanted. Alarms would go off when Superman burst through the balcony door, alerting Lex of his arrival. Even if Clark got her away scot free, there was still the blackmail file folder of all the information Lex had been gathering all week. All the notes from his spies and bugs, those photographs, and who knew what else? So, no, she couldn’t call Clark. She needed to keep him away.

Free herself?

Tried that, didn’t work. Lex tied the ropes quite tightly and the Roman shackles from his antiques collection were actually in good shape. She sighed. No freeing herself. And even if she did somehow escape, Lex still had the remote control for unlocking the doors. So, the only way out would be through the window with Superman or if someone let her out through the main door. Next.

Telephone for help?

Oooh. There was an idea. Lex’s office phone was sitting prettily right there on his desk. Lex had only tied her arms, but her legs were free. If she could just hop the chair closer to the desk…

Lois decided to give it a try. Hop! Hop! Teeter… Whoa. That was close. She almost fell over.

It wouldn’t do you any good to be lying on the floor. And this chair looks sturdy enough that you don’t really think it would break if you did fall over.

Hop! Hop! Okay, she had made it to the desk. Now what? She could hardly scratch her nose, let alone reach the phone from here with her hands tied to the arms of the chair.

What about your feet?

Her feet? Lois looked down at her feet. She shrugged. It was worth a shot. Better to try and fail, then never have tried at all. She was able to kick off her shoes easily enough; it was freeing her toes from her knee-high socks that would be a problem. As she worked on getting the toes of one foot up the other pant’s leg, her mind wandered back to her fight with Lex and how she had gotten herself into this jam in the first place.

After she had kneed him in the crotch, Lois had stomped his foot, elbowed him in the ribs and dove onto the desk to grab the security remote. She had pressed a button, but instead of unlocking the door, a three-dimensional map of Metropolis slid out from a secret compartment in the wall. It had showed a model of a whole new riverfront community situated in Hob’s Bay, including shops, restaurants, condos, parks, and a marina.

Hey, isn’t that where Clark keeps having to fight fires over in Suicide Slum?

Lois had pressed another button and the door to the balcony opened, a cool breeze slapping her in the face. It had been hinting at rain all day.

“Perfect time for you to call your lover, Lois,” Lex had told her circling closer, when he found his voice. He had picked up an old pistol from a display on his desk. “Give me the remote, Lois,” he had told her, pointing the gun at her. “I keep this one loaded.”

She had held up her hands and continued circling, still holding onto the remote. “You’re behind the Toasters, aren’t you? Behind the fires in Suicide Slum?”

“I prefer the name Hob’s Bay, don’t you? And what’s a little fire?” Lex had shrugged. “A forest fire will rid the overgrowth, allowing fertile soil for new things to grow.”

“People live in those buildings that the Toasters are burning, Lex! Families,” Lois had said, but she had seen he was unmoved by her pleas. She had never realized how much he truly believed everyone beneath him were insignificant ants. “You may have fooled me, Lex. But there are many people out there…” She had flung her hand out to the balcony. “Who will never look up to you.”

“Hands in front of you, Lois,” he had said, ignoring her words and stepping closer. He had rubbed a hand on his chest where she had elbowed him. “Actually sit on the floor, legs crossed, hands above your head.”

“What if I say ‘no’?” Lois had pressed another button on the remote and the Riverfront model slid back.

Darn!

Lex had held the gun up higher, cocking it. “As I said, I don’t need you since I have the globe.”

Lois had swallowed, continuing to press buttons. A lock released, but it was for one of his display cases and not the door. As she glanced down at the remote to figure out which button to press next, the billionaire had leapt forward and hit her across the face with the butt of his gun.

Hey! That hurt!

She had stumbled to the desk, dropping the remote. When she had gotten her bearings, she had backed up towards the balcony, taking hold of the sword he had on display there. Only as she had gone to lift it, she had realized it was much heavier than it appeared.

How did soldiers ever fight with these things?

Lois had only been able to raise the blade as high as her knees and, when she had tried to swing it towards him, she had tumbled forward, missing him entirely. Lex had been more nimble than he looked and had dodged her swipe easily. He had then stepped up behind her and pushed her down onto the desk, knocking the sword from her hands.

“I don’t want you dead, Lois. Not yet, anyway,” he had said, holding down on the desk with his knee. “I like your spirit.”

Lois had never felt more exposed than when she had been pinned to the desk with that man’s knee holding her down. She had felt real fear for the first time that night. A terror she hadn’t felt since she had thought she was about to be hit by that car that night Clark had first rescued her. If Lex had even tried to touch her backside, she would have called out to Clark in an instant, screw the consequences. She loved Clark, but she wouldn’t have endured that for anyone. Luckily Lex’s mind hadn’t been on such things.

“It would be such a waste,” he had been muttering. “A beautiful singer such as yourself.”

Thank goodness!

As Lex had run his finger down her jaw again, Lois had tried to push herself off the desk but he had knocked her across the face with the back of his hand. He had pushed her back onto the desk and grabbed one of her wrists, then the other, snapping on the shackles he had grabbed from the display case. Obviously, he hadn’t been prepared for taking a hostage either.

“My own little song bird.” Lex had then pulled Lois off the desk, throwing her back into her chair. Making sure that she couldn’t have kneed or kicked him with her free legs, he had relocked the shackles around each arm of the chair, leaving the chain between them dangling in her lap. Afterwards he had pulled a rope out from somewhere. Her head had been pounding from both his slap and the strike of the gun and, though heightened with adrenaline, it had been of no use whatsoever at that very moment. Lex tied her arms more securely to the chair with the rope. Obviously, antique shackles couldn’t do the job they used to do. But the combination had made her completely unable to move her arms.

Lois squirmed as her toes finally reached the top of her sock and tried to slide it down. Her foot slipped and she had to start over again from the beginning. It was a slow and arduous process, but eventually she had freed her foot from its sock. She climbed the desk with her feet and arched her back as she reached the phone, turning it to face her, all the while trying not to tip her chair over backwards. Okay, she wasn’t familiar with this type of phone. With another arch of her back her foot pressed the ‘speakerphone’ button. Nothing. She must need to press a phone line. She pressed another button and got a dial tone. Carefully, Lois used her big toe to press 9-1-1.

“That extension does not exist. Please hang up and dial again,” a pre-recorded message informed her.

Lois pressed the speakerphone button, essentially hanging up, and thought for a moment.

Extension?

So, it wasn’t an outside line. Lois arched her back and started the process again. Speakerphone. Line. 9- for an outside line and then 9-1-1.

“9-1-1. Please state the nature of your emergency,” said a woman’s voice.

Lois’s heart nearly burst with happiness. “I’m being held against my will at Lex Luthor’s penthouse,” she said in a rush. “Please send the police immediately.”

“O-K,” the 911 operator said slowly, actually sounding skeptical. “Lex Luthor? The billionaire?”

Aren’t the people at 911 supposed to believe everyone who calls in? Isn’t that their job?

“Yes, Lex Luthor. He’s gone insane and has tied me to a chair in his office. Please send help,” Lois requested more forcefully.

“If you are tied to a chair how are you able to make this phone call?” the woman asked.

You’re kidding me, right?

“With my feet. Please send someone,” Lois pleaded. She could hear the woman typing and exhaled with relief.

“What is your name?”

“Lois Lane.”

“The Lois Lane?” The typing stopped and the woman actually started to laugh. “OK. Now, I’ve heard everything. This line is for emergency phone calls only. Please place your prank calls elsewhere.”

“No, this is really Lois Lane and I’m really tied up in Lex’s office. Please, believe me!”

“Lady, if you’re really Lois Lane, why don’t you just call Superman for help?” the operator asked.

“I want MPD to rescue me! Isn’t that your job?” Lois scoffed. She was burning bridges, but this operator was ticking her off.

“Lady, I don’t know who you are. But if you were really tied up in Lex Luthor’s office and you were really Lois Lane, you would have called for Superman to help you. Since you haven’t done that, I’m going to log this call as another crank…”

“I’m not a crank caller!” screamed Lois.

“We get roughly three calls a night – more on the weekends – to 911 telling us that Lex Luthor is personally doing something to them. MPD is no longer able to issue warrants based on 911 calls of this nature to enter Mr. Luthor’s penthouse residence, especially in the middle of the night,” the operator informed her brashly. “If you are really Lois Lane and you are really tied up, I recommend you call your boyfriend and get him to help you. There is nothing we can do.”

“Superman is not my boyfriend!” she yelled. Lois gritted her teeth and tried to speak calmly, “Call Officer Henderson. He knows me. He’ll vouch for me. Please.”

There’s a personal reference for you. The man already dislikes you and thinks you’re bonkers.

“I’ll make a note of your call in the log. But, as I told you before, I cannot send officers to the locale in question,” the operator told her.

“But Lex has threatened to kill me!” Lois was yelling again.

“Ma’am, I need to hang up now. We have real emergency calls waiting,” the woman said and then was gone.

As the dial tone buzzed in Lois’s ear, her heart thudded into her belly.

So much for 9-1-1.

Lois screamed in frustration, kicking the phone off the desk to shut it up, as tears dripped down her cheeks.

***

Clark sat at the break room table looking down at his bag of chips. He wasn’t hungry. Not even for one of his favorite snack foods. The others were chit-chatting at the table, but all he could think about was Lois. He had heard that first song at one o’clock and a second song at two. Nothing at all at three o’clock. He hoped that it was because she had fallen asleep, safe wherever she was. Clark knew he wouldn’t hear anything in this back room with all this chatter. He stood up and dumped his chips into the trash and left without saying a word.

The radio that Perry had set up to play Lenny Stoke’s Soundman show, still blasted from the main cashier counter. Lenny Stokes had signed off an hour or two earlier, but music still poured out. Clark had less than fifteen minutes before the next top of the hour.

Clark walked around the store straightening books, biding his time until four a.m. and the next Lois report.

Even when he turned off the radio, it still wouldn’t be silent. The pitter-patter of rain added to sounds he had to sift through to hear Lois. He wondered if that was why he hadn’t heard anything at three o’clock, because of the rain.

Clark heard a low rumbling sound and then another. He sighed. One was thunder. The other, a freight train.

Clark looked toward the huge windows overlooking the boulevard behind the main cashier counter. The storm clouds had made the night seem darker than usual.

Tonight felt so different from last Saturday night when he was here dancing to Queen, knowing Lois was safe at home dreaming of him. Lois was still whispering sweet nothings in his ear, but despite them being closer than ever, he felt farther away.

Almost time. Clark walked over to the radio to turn it off. His hand hovered above the switch.

Clark didn’t need any extra distractions, even though that old Bill Withers’ song fit his mood perfectly. Lois had been his sunshine from the moment he had first seen her soaking in the rays that day in the park across from the store. And his sunshine, she would always be.

Setting his hand down on the boom box, Clark turned off the radio with a sigh. The vacuum that filled the room seemed to increase his sense of hearing.

“Clark.” Hearing her speak his name so clearly actually made him jump with surprise. He had been expecting another song. He hadn’t been expecting to hear from her so soon. Her voice sounded hoarser than it had at two o’clock and more tired. If she was truly okay as she said she was, why wasn’t she allowing herself to go to sleep?

“I need to confess something,” Lois continued. “That night you caught me taking your glasses off, I was actually putting them back on.”

Clark laughed softly to himself with a shake of his head. Well, that explains how she had seen so easily through his perfect disguise.

There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder.

“… can hear me with this weather – it’s really coming down now – but it makes… better knowing you’re out there listening… if you’re not.”

He would always be there to listen to her. The weather was making it more difficult to hear her but, when he concentrated, he caught most of what she was saying.

“Rain like this… remind me of you, knowing you’re out there keeping people like me safe.”

Her words made him feel hopeful that she had gotten over her terror of storms. He didn’t want her to have any fears remaining from that night. He still felt guilty having made her afraid in the first place.

“Do you know what I’d… like to do right now?” she asked.

Clark grinned. He knew what he would like to be doing.

“Brush my teeth,” she answered and he guffawed.

OK, so maybe they weren’t on the same page at the moment.

“Oh, I guess that wasn’t very romantic, was it?”

Clark heard her chuckle.

“I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for a week,” Lois said, yawning.

‘Go to sleep, honey. Rest,’ he coaxed her with his mind.

Clark didn’t hear any more and assumed she finally had. Turning towards Receiving to refill his shelving cart, he was startled to hear her voice once more.

“Tell Perry… won’t make it in tomorrow,” Lois murmured, her voice so much softer than before that he wasn’t sure if he had heard her correctly.

He turned back towards the windows as his brow furrowed.

“I love you, Clark... Always.”

Her voice sounded so final, he wanted to rush out to find her. But he knew he could not without her speaking to him, doubting even he could hear her heart beat in this weather. He walked to the windows and setting his hand on the glass, he closed his eyes and concentrated his thoughts on her, willing her to hear him, “And I love you too, Lois… Always.”

***

“And I love you too, Lois… Always.”

Lois gasped, her drowsy eyes flying open. “Clark?” She glanced around. It sounded like he was in the room with her. Almost inside her head. But looking around, she saw she was still alone, still tied up in Lex’s office. And she sighed in despair.

Clark loved her. She had known he loved her even before she thought she had heard his voice. Had he been listening to her? Had he heard what she had been saying to him? Lois wanted to call to him. She wanted nothing more than to be in his arms flying home. But if she called to Clark, Lex would win.

Lois needed to find another way to escape, get the file and globe and get out of there. Without the remote, she wouldn’t be able to get either the balcony or the office doors unlocked. Without Clark, she wouldn’t be able to leave via the balcony anyway. The police refused to even consider Lex a suspect in her kidnapping.

If only she had been able to lift that huge sword. Lois glanced over at it. Sword. With sharp edges! Maybe she could cut the ropes with the sword. More hopping involved. She had tried sliding the chair, but on the carpeted floors, sliding just didn’t work.

Hop! Hop! Hop! Crash!

Lois fell over, her face just inches away from the sword. Her head pounded. The room swirled. Actually, Lois thought as the sword blurred in front of her eyes, didn’t she just hit her head against it? The sword swam in and out of focus as her eyes pooled with tears of pain. Finally, she just closed her eyes letting the darkness overtake her.

***

Sunday morning – Just After Six

A splash of cold water and chilly breeze woke Lois up.

“Rise and shine, darling. Sleep well?” Lex stood above her with a now empty glass of water. He had also opened the balcony doors. “I see you didn’t call Superman during the night.”

Lois could see the faint glimmers of dawn turning the sky a rosy shade of pink. The storm clouds had moved on and left only silvery ones in its wake. She had made it through the night. She hadn’t called Clark to rescue her. For that, she was proud of herself. She would have to trust in Perry and hope his plans to thwart the Lexco auditor were good ones. If she could hold on until eight o’clock, when Clark officially clocked out, she could finally allow herself to call to him.

Just a few more hours, Lois, you can do it.

Lex yanked her chair into an upright position. “Made a decision about Superman, yet?”

“I’m not calling Superman, Lex,” Lois told him more forcefully than she felt. Her head still throbbed and she wished she had a hand free to rub her sore neck. “Even if I did, you wouldn’t be able to blackmail him. He has done nothing wrong. We aren’t lovers, no matter how much proof you think you might have on him.” She glanced over at the clock. It was just after six in the morning. She hoped Clark hadn’t worried too much when she hadn’t spoken or sang to him at five or at six.

Lex pulled his phone up from the floor. “I see you had a busy night. Did I forget to warn you that the police are under strict orders to never disturb me for 911 crank calls?”

Lois sneered at him, but otherwise said nothing.

“Don’t want to talk to me? Fine. Let’s see if there was anyone else you wanted to talk to last night?” Luthor picked up the mini cassette recorder he had used the previous evening to record his message to Mrs. Cox about the MJ’s Café and flipped a switch, causing it to rewind. “I had it set on voice activation. So, whenever you spoke the machine turned on. I figured you wouldn’t be able resist burning those super ears of his.”

Her eyes widened.

Oh, crap! Did you say anything to Clark that would tie him to Superman?

Lois didn’t think so, but she couldn’t remember clearly.

Lex stopped the recorder and hit play and a shiver went down Lois’s spine as she heard her own voice fill the air.

“Ah, my bird in her gilded cage sings so beautifully,” Lex said, stopping the tape and fast forwarding. “That’s an interesting plea for help as I’ve ever heard. Guess he didn’t catch the hint.”

Lois gulped. Lex really truly had recorded everything she said during the night, when she thought she was alone.

Please, please, let nothing you said to Clark be anything revealing.

Next, he stopped at her conversation with the 911 operator. Lex laughed through this entire bit. “Oh, darling. You’ve made my day.” He grinned with nasty good humor. “Insane, am I, Lois? Tsk-tsk. That’s not very nice, after I let you stay the night in my beautiful home.”

He fast-forwarded further. This time it was just sounds of her sobbing. “Oh, Lois. Did you not have a good night?” he teased, moving the tape forward again.

“Clark,” Lois’s voice echoed back to her.

“Clark?” Lex’s brow furrowed in confusion. “You were talking out loud to your boyfriend, not Superman?” He shook his head, disappointed. But he continued to listen anyway.

Lois nonchalantly shrugged, hoping to hide the shiver that she didn’t think came from her still being wet from the water Lex had thrown in her face.

“I need to confess something,” the recorded Lois continued. “That night you caught me taking your glasses off, I was actually putting them back on.”

There was a crack of thunder and the pitter-pat of rain that could be heard on the recording.

Lex opened the folder on his desk. Lois recognized it as the same one he had had the night before.

“I don’t know if you can hear me with this weather – it’s really coming down now – but it makes me feel better knowing you’re out there listening, even if you’re not. Rain like this – downpours – remind me of you, knowing you’re out there keeping people like me safe. Do you know what I’d really like to do right now?” she asked, pausing slightly. “Brush my teeth. Oh, I guess that wasn’t very romantic, was it?” Lois chuckled softly on the tape. “I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for a week... Tell Perry I won’t make it in tomorrow. I love you, Clark... Always.” Then there was a long pause. “Clark?”

Luthor clicked off the recorder. “Clark? No?” He flipped through the photos in the file. “It couldn’t be. It can’t be that simple.”

Lois squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears of defeat not to fall.

“Clark Kent?” Lex chortled and then cheered. “Yes. Yes! I see the resemblance now. Oh, God! How could I have been so blind? The glasses. Of course, right there for everyone to see. You’re not dating the superhero, you’re dating the secret identity!”

***End of Part 32***

Part 33

Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone written and performed by Bill Withers.

All of Me written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons, performed by Billie Holiday.

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