Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Nightfall Honeymoon (10/20)

Nightfall Honeymoon TOC

To read Part 9

Part 10G

Thursday – Afternoon

Lois returned from the police station to her empty apartment. Okay, technically, it wasn’t empty. It just felt that way without Clark. And she hadn’t returned straight from the police station. She sighed as she dropped her keys and purse on the coffee table. She tossed the box of donuts on the dining table and limped over to sit on the couch. Oh, right, probably not a good idea.

She had gotten lost. Again. Lois hadn’t driven much in Metropolis since Lucy brought the Jeep Cherokee to her a week and a half ago. For some strange reason, the streets looked different from the street than the sidewalk. And she hadn’t gotten all that familiar with this part of the city when she went to Met U. freshman and sophomore year. Anyway, that was years ago – years before she had moved back this summer.

So, she had ended up getting lost on the way to the Twelfth Precinct and then she had gotten lost again on the way to MJ’s Café. She had known where her husband was and like a magnet she had headed to him. And also – probably having something to do with their magnetism – her compass was all off.

Correction. It hadn’t been her fault that she had gotten lost. She laid the blame squarely at the feet of one Leo Nunk, tabloid reporter. He had run into her – literally – outside the Twelfth Precinct, which was probably her fault. She had been the one who told Nunk that Superman had friends at the Twelfth Precinct and that he should stalk Superman there instead of at her place. Nunk had missed Clark and Henderson leaving twenty minutes before, but – lucky her – Nunk had found Lois instead. Thank goodness for little miracles.

And Nunk had stuck to her like glue. She was thrilled to have her Jeep Cherokee. She had jumped into it, threw her half-box of donuts she had stolen from the police into the co-pilot’s seat, stuffed the parking ticket into the glove box, and driven off in the direction of MJ’s Café. Then she had spotted Nunk jumping into a Metro cab and she had practically heard him use the words “Follow that car!”

She had made a series of quick turns to try and shake the Metro cabbie. But he must have been a former Indy 500 racer or something because he had stuck to her tail like a… well, like paparazzi. When she had finally shaken him, she had no idea where she was. She had driven on looking for a familiar street or building or anything. Eventually, she had found what she was looking for. Edge Boulevard cut Metropolis in half; it went from one end of Metropolis to the other. It was the biggest, most familiar street in the entire city.

And Lois had driven on it for a half-hour in the wrong direction. A half-hour in non-moving traffic in the wrong direction. A half-hour of her honking her horn with the other drivers. A half-hour of her wishing she had been traveling in the other direction, where there was no traffic. In the wrong direction! Then she had spent another half-hour, it had felt like, trying to turn off of Edge Boulevard, so she could turn in the correct direction and finally meet up with her husband at his parents’ apartment.

She had spent that second half-hour of sitting in traffic thinking about what an idiot she had been. Lois still couldn’t believe her meltdown at the Twelfth Precinct.

You’ll be lucky if Clark ever talks to you again. Rejecting him like that, her inner voice had scolded her.

Lois had had her husband in her grasp and she had let him slip through her fingers. The first test in their marriage and she had failed miserably. Who cared about what the tabloids wrote anyway!? She had wanted her man back from the dead and she had been granted her wish, only to send him packing to his mom and dad.

Eventually, she had made it off Edge Boulevard, only to get herself lost again. She had ended up on a street that had looked more like a warzone than Metropolis. The potholes had been so big, she wondered if they were really sinkholes. She could just hear Perry saying, “That sounds like a story!” It had been in one of those potholes that she popped a tire. Luckily for Lois, Lucy had made sure that there actually was a viable spare tire in her car.

So, there Lois had been changing her tire, on that broken street in Metropolis’s warzone…

… with one foot in a mud puddle, you might recall…

… when some meathead decided that she looked ripe for the picking. Boy, had he picked the wrong victim. After the day she had had, Lois could have brought down… well, her husband in a fist fight. That man was also lucky Clark wasn’t at one hundred percent, because if she had called his name and Clark had seen that man attacking her…

Shall we just say, it wouldn’t have been pretty?

Needless to say, Lois had been really glad she had taken that self-defense course at the women’s center in Smallville last year. And the year before. She really needed to find a new hobby.

After Lois had convinced the thug that he had tangled with the wrong woman, that was when she had slipped on the edge of one of those potholes and landed with a splash into the mud puddle. So, now she was covered with muddy water and had knocked the heel off one of her shoes.

Another half-hour later, she had finally found a familiar landmark and made it back to her apartment. She couldn’t show up at the Kent’s looking like this. Well, she could, but that familiar landmark had been closer to her apartment than the café.

With a sigh, Lois turned away from the couch and limped over to her desk. She needed to call Perry to tell him that Superman was back from the dead.

“Ready to write it up?” he asked.

“We can’t write it up, Perry,” Lois told him with a groan.

She could hear her boss’s teeth grind together. “What now?”

“He has amnesia and can’t remember anything,” she murmured with another sigh.

“Great shades of Elvis! Don’t you ever get a break?”

Apparently not.

“Let me talk to him, honey,” Perry continued.

“He’s not here. He went home,” Lois told him.

Perry didn’t say anything for a moment. “Lois, aren’t you two married?”

“Yes.”

“Then home should be with you.”

Lois’s bottom lip began to shake. She would not cry – not to Perry. Not again. “I know. He doesn’t though.”

“Oh, darlin’, I’m sorry. You want to come in and I’ll assign you something else?” Perry asked hopefully. “To keep your mind off things?”

Lois groaned. The very last thing she wanted to do was get back into her car. “Truthfully, Perry, I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. I’m so tired, I actually passed out at the police station earlier when I ran into Clark.”

“The police station?”

“That detective… Henderson found him. He’s been telling everyone that Clark’s a Superman impersonator to protect his identity.” Lois lay her head down on her desk. “Linda King actually kissed him to test that theory. And she proclaimed him to be a bona fide imposter.”

“Metropolis Star!” said her boss. Lois could practically hear Perry rolling his eyes and shaking his head at their rival paper. “Wait a minute, honey? He was there… at the police station… in the suit? Superman has amnesia?” She had been wondering when those dots would get connected.

“Uh-huh. Perry, please…” Lois squeezed her eyes shut, holding her tears at bay.

“Got it. Off the record,” her boss said with a hitch in his voice that sounded like a broken record. Here he was finally editing a daily newspaper and the biggest story of the century practically fell into his lap as one of his reporters. Yet, once again, there was more he couldn’t write about the story than he could. “I don’t want the Daily Planet to start sounding like the Dirt Digger anyway.”

“Thank you. I’ll definitely be in on Monday, rain or shine, Perry. Let me just have the weekend to convince Clark who he really is. Please.” Lois hoped she would even be allowed to see her husband. She couldn’t see the Kents being happy with her behavior at the police station, when Clark told them about it. “As soon as we can get it, you’ll have the exclusive.”

“Probably best not to leave him unattended. Good luck, honey,” he told her.

“Thank you, Perry,” she replied. “And I’m sorry. About earlier…”

“Don’t worry about it. You needed time and space and I wasn’t giving it to you. Go! Be with your husband,” Perry said, hanging up.

Lois sighed and hung up the phone. All she had the energy to do was crawl into bed, but she smelled and looked like a Metropolis pothole and she had a husband to retrieve. She looked at her futon couch with an exasperated sigh. It was hardly bedtime, not even late enough to be counted as dinnertime, but she hadn’t slept all night in worry over Clark.

Or the night before that because Clark kept you up in other ways.

Instead Lois went into the bathroom and peeled off her clothes for a long hot, and hopefully, reinvigorating shower. Closing her eyes, she could almost picture herself in the shower at the Lexor. She ran the bar of soap over her body, lathering herself up. Her body craved for his touch. Lois rubbed more soap on her hands and continued to wash herself.

She pictured showering with Clark the previous morning before checking out of the hotel. How his hands had caressed her body as they had moved down to her bottom and picked her up. Her legs had snaked around him, unable to wait any longer.

Lois leaned against the wall of her shower and sobbed, missing Clark with every fiber of her being. Her body remained stiff from tension. She had been tied in a knot for the past twenty-four hours and, try as she might, she could not untie herself. Eventually the water became cold and, instead of turning up the hot water as her body demanded, she turned it off. She had things to do.

Lois toweled herself dry and slipped into big fluffy robe. She needed to call Martha and find out how Clark was doing. Let her mother-in-law know that Lois hadn’t abandoned her husband.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Martha. It’s Lois.”

“Lois! Where have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you. Clark…” Martha started before Lois interrupted her.

“Yes, I know. Clark’s safe at your place. I tried to drive over there, after bumping into him at the police station, but…” She exhaled. “I got lost. There was a tabloid reporter following me and I got off my known routes and…”

“Are you okay?” Martha interjected.

Lois smiled. Martha wasn’t angry. Thank God! “Yes. I’m sorry, Martha. But I had to come home to change. Could you explain to Clark that I still love him and that I’ll be on my way …?”

“Lois, he and Jonathan just left,” Martha told her.

“Left? Left for where? Is Clark hurt?” Lois asked, grabbing her car keys.

“He’s fine, dear. They’re on their way there. Jonathan is bringing Clark home to you.”

Lois’s heart pounded against her chest as she dropped her keys again. Her hands started to shake. Clark was on his way there? He was coming home?

Yippee! Best news of the day!

“Thanks, Martha,” Lois choked out, tears dotting her eyes. “You and Jonathan are the best. I’ll take good care of him. Don’t you worry.” She heard something outside. “Gotta go, Martha. I think they’re here.”

Lois dropped the phone and ran to the door; she opened it far enough to see Leo Nunk harassing some woman crossing the courtyard. No! She closed the door with a grimace.

Not Nunk! That good for nothing…

Clark was on his way home, Lois reminded herself. She didn’t have to get dressed again for the day, so she slipped into her lavender and teal pajamas. With a shiver she grabbed her comforter out of her closet and plopped herself down on her couch to wait. Clark would buzz her apartment when they arrived. She would protect him from Nunk then. Clark would be there any minute. She wrapped herself in her comforter and waited. And waited. Her eyes began to droop.

***

The door to the apartment flew open and Superman hovered just outside.

“Lois!” he called to her. “I’m home.”

“Clark!” She sprung to her feet and was in his arms. “Oh, Clark!”

His gentle hand caressed her hair as he corrected her. “It’s Kal, honey. Just Kal. Clark is no more.”

“No!” she screamed, letting go of him and running back inside.

“No?” He landed in front of her, his arms crossed, and his eyebrow raised. “So, did you give your wedding vows just to my Clark side? For better or worse, for example. Am I worse?”

Lois continued to stare at him, not sure what to say. She loved Clark – she knew that. Heart and soul. But this man in blue? Did she really even know him? ‘Do you?’ she wondered. ‘Do you know Kal at all?’ She knew about his abilities, true, but did she know the man? Was this Kal-El part of him so different from the Clark side with whom she had fallen in love? Would she – could she – reject him if he was only this man? From now onwards? Was he even a bunch of parts that made up a whole man? Or was he a multifaceted man?

No. She realized. He was still Clark. Clark was still there – somewhere – he was just lost.

Lois held out her hands to the man still floating in front of her with a stern expression. “I love you, Kal. All of you.”

Superman’s face lit with a hint of hope. “Are you sure?”

“I was surprised, that’s all,” she explained to him. “For better or worse. In sickness and in health, until death do us part.”

He set himself down in front of her and cupped her jaw in his palm, running his thumb over her lips. “Death will never part us, Lois. I won’t let it.”

Lois relaxed into his hand. “I thought you had died, Kal. I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I’m indestructible, Baby,” he whispered, pulling her into his embrace.

Baby? “But a nuclear bomb blew you up!” she said, tightening her arms around him.

Superman chuckled lightly as if humoring her. “I’ll always come back to you, Lois.” He tilted her chin up and pressed his lips to hers. Fire engulfed her from inside.

“Clark,” Lois moaned, opening her mouth to him.

Superman pulled back, so suddenly, she felt a cold draft. “No, Lois. Look at me.”

Lois opened her eyes. She felt bereft at the loss of his lips. What was wrong?

“Do you want me?” he asked.

She nodded, dumbly. Wasn’t it obvious? Couldn’t he sense her desire? Pathetic that it was.

“There is no more Clark. You call me Kal or Superman… or I’m gone. Do you understand?”

No more Clark? Her heart ached at that thought. But she craved this man. She needed him to love her. To make love to her. She nodded.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked softly as he kissed her again.

“Make love to me,” she whispered. She groaned with anticipation as his hands found her skin of her stomach, causing a flock of butterflies to escape.

“Say my name,” he demanded, running his hands over her.

“Kal,” she pleaded. “I want you, Kal.” She tried to put her hands under the band of his shorts, but it was too tight. “Kal?”

“New belt.” With a flick of his wrist, he unsnapped his yellow belt and then continued removing her clothing.

Lois stepped out of her shorts. “You wear too many layers,” she teased, resting her hands on his shorts again.

“First this,” he murmured and moved her hands up to his cape.

She was naked now and he was definitely too clothed. She unsnapped the cape from where it attached to his blue suit and was about to drop it on the floor.

“Hang it up. Respect me. Respect my uniform,” he told her.

Lois nodded dumbly. She didn’t like how he was bossing her around, but she needed him. She needed her Clar… Kal fix. She wrapped the cape around her neck and tied it there. “All hung up.”

Kal stood there in just his blue suit and red boots and stared at her with a hunger that made her body shiver. Or maybe it was because he had taken a step back away from her. Five seconds later, they were making love. Oh, God! That was fast. What was going on here? Was all the romance part of the Clark side? Was the Kal side just need, just desire, no love?

But her thoughts fell away as the pleasure increased. She was there… so close to being there. “Clark,” she moaned. “Oh, Clark, yes!”

When Lois went to wrap herself tighter around him, she discovered he was gone. She had nothing to hold onto but a draft of cool air. The cape was missing from around her shoulders. She heard the door open and shut. Clark was gone. Kal-El was gone. Lois was alone on her futon couch. Naked and uncomfortable and unsatisfied. Her body still craving the man who had just left her forever.

***

“Stay away from my wife!”

SPLASH!

Lois’s eyes flew open. “Clark!” She jumped off her couch, ran to her door, and pulled it open.

Clark stood next to the pool, glaring at it.

“Clark!” Lois couldn’t believe her eyes. It was really him. Glasses. No slicked-back hair. Slacks. Button-down shirt. She jumped into his arms and pressed her lips to his. “Oh, Clark!”

The real man was better than any dream. And this real man was kissing her back. He wasn’t angry about the police station. He wasn’t mad at her for refusing to take responsibility of a superhero with no memories. Her husband was back and he loved her.

Clark carried her into her apartment… their apartment and shut the door. He set down his duffel bag and the basket. He hadn’t stopped kissing her. She wanted him. She needed him. Desired him more than she ever had. And she could tell he desired her as well.

A little bit.

Actually, after all they had been through, he should desire her more than this. So, the only explanations could be was that this wasn’t Clark OR this was Clark and something else was coming between them. Something like… Lois broke off the kiss and leaned back to study her husband… something like, the blue suit. Why was he still wearing the blue suit? Hadn’t he known he was coming straight to her and she would want … She continued to stare at him. Something was off… wrong.

She could feel his desire disappearing as the color drained from her face. He was wearing the black frames. The old black glasses, not the new frames they had bought in Niagara.

Lois swallowed. “Hi,” she said simply.

“Hi,” he said, just as simply.

Lois sighed and stuck out her hand. “I’m Lois. Your wife.”

***

Something was wrong. Superman didn’t know what he did wrong, but Lois stopped kissing him and just stared at him. It wasn’t an angry stare. She wasn’t mad. It was a curious, inquisitive stare like she knew he wasn’t her husband, knew he wasn’t Clark, but didn’t know how she knew she knew.

It had been wrong to impersonate her husband. Superman knew this. So very wrong on too many levels. But when the Kents kept trying to convince him that he was also Clark and that he had to go ‘home’ to his wife – back to Lois, the rational side of himself had turned off and the irrational side – that wanted more than anything to make Lois happy – turned on.

For a moment there, he had thought it had worked. He had thought they would come through this door and she would want to make love to him. It wouldn’t matter to her that he wasn’t really her husband, because she loved him and she knew that he loved her. He thought he had convinced her that they were one and the same person. But he should have known better. If he didn’t believe it, how could she? He should have known she didn’t want this carbon copy of her husband; she wanted the real thing.

As Superman observed the color drain from her face with whatever clue it was she found, it was like she jabbed him into the deep freeze. He didn’t know if the pain he felt was from her realization that he – of all people – had lied to her or because it felt like she had poured liquid nitrogen onto his pants.

He watched her neck move as she swallowed. It was as if he were watching it in slow motion. And like a ripple in a pond as soon as she finished swallowing, he swallowed.

“Hi.”

It was a simple greeting. He felt no animosity or malice. No indication of her emotional state, so he echoed her word back to her. “Hi.”

Lois stuck out her hand and said, “I’m Lois, your wife.”

Yep. She knew he wasn’t Clark. On the other hand, she still considered herself his wife. His heart started beating again as if she had jumpstarted his heart with a defibrillator. He needed to answer. What should he say? The truth! Of course, you’re Superman! He stood for “truth” and “justice”, and that really should start with the woman he loved, his wife.

There was another quick jolt in his heart at the thought of the words “your wife.” A part of him had hoped Lois hadn’t noticed his physical reaction to her words. He didn’t want to explain to this woman about his love and desire for her.

Right, answer. He needed to say something, but it was really hard to concentrate with her legs wrapped around his hips. He had thought the extra layer of the suit would be enough of a buffer between them, but if she squeezed her legs one more time, he was liable to tear off her clothes and make love to her on the couch within the minute.

Actually, that option was sounding more tempting by the moment. That wouldn’t be making love though, ravishing would probably be a more accurate term. And he couldn’t do that to Lois. Well… he shouldn’t. Wouldn’t.

Superman cleared his throat, knowing he still needed to answer her. He removed his glasses, setting them down, and then took hold of her offered hand. “Lois, I’m Superman.”

A huge grin overtook her countenance. Then she did something he least expected. She leaned her head back and laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

Superman released the hold that he had of her bottom and let her feet drop to the floor. He really couldn’t have her so close at the same time as she laughed at him.

Lois held up her palm as if to tell him to stop as she gained control of her voice again. “I’m not laughing at you, Kal. It’s only…” She took a deep breath to try and stop the giggles from overtaking her again. “It was the first time you’ve ever said those words to me. It took a giant meteor hurtling towards Earth and you getting your mind wiped for you to finally admit that to me.”

He froze, his eyes bugging. She hadn’t known? The Kents were sure that she knew. Clark married her without telling her that…

Lois leaned and kissed his lips gently, leaving her hand on his chest. “I’ve always known, Kal,” she informed him and he exhaled. “But it’s good to finally hear you divulge it.”

“Who’s Kal?” he asked the question that had been burning at the forefront of his mind since she had first called him that at the police station.

“You are. Kal-El is the name your birth parents – Lara and Jor-El of Krypton – gave you before sending you to Earth.” She spelt his name for him.

“Kal-El,” he repeated back to her, bliss filling him. He did have a name other than Superman. Kal-El. He wrapped his arms around Lois and kissed her. His happiness was so great, he needed to share it with someone. He liked that Lois knew this about him and even felt comfortable enough with him to call him ‘Kal.’

Superman – Kal – stiffened as she deepened the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. Her tongue asked permission to enter his mouth. He really shouldn’t allow those kinds of liberties between himself and Clark’s wife. It had been wrong for him to want them before. It wasn’t fair to Lois for Kal-El to expect the same kind of benefits that Clark had enjoyed as her husband. No matter how tempting they might be.

Carefully, he set his hands on her shoulders and drew his lips away. “No, Lois. Sorry. This isn’t right. I am essentially a stranger to you.”

Lois nodded slowly. He didn’t know if she was being hesitant in agreeing with him or if the ramifications of his words were dripping into her understanding.

Some of the tension he had sensed in her since their handshake seemed to melt from her body. Was it relief in the knowledge that intimacy was off the table for them or something else?

Lois moved to her bookshelf and picked up the glass fish that he recognized from the photo in the Daily Planet. “Does this look familiar?” she asked him, holding it up.

Kal took the fish and glanced at it, felt the weight of it in his hand, knew instinctively that he should recognize it, but he did not. “I’m sorry. No.”

She placed the fish back on the bookshelf and then she went the dining room table. “I left you some donuts.” She opened the box on the table and pulled one out. “You usually like these cake things. Eh, this is a little stale. Are you hungry?”

Kal followed her to the table and took the donut out of her hand, gazing at it. He liked these kind of donuts? “I can’t remember much of anything,” he told her. Not even the type of donut he liked. “I’m not hungry. I’m fine. Martha fed me brownies.” He handed the donut back to her.

Lois dropped the donut back into the box and dusted off her hands. “Oh.”

Kal retrieved the picnic basket from by the front door. “She made us dinner.”

Her eyes lit up with joy. “I love Martha.”

“Yeah.” He smiled. He was in total agreement there. “Me, too.”

He followed her into the kitchen.

“We should probably put the food away until then,” Lois said, turning and taking the basket away from him.

“Are you hungry?” Kal asked.

“Kind of. I’ve only eaten donuts and a few peanuts since I left Niagara,” Lois admitted, opening the basket. She removed a plate of brownies. “Did I mention how much I love your mom?” Then she pulled out some sort of casserole and set it on the stove.

Kal sighed. He wasn’t Clark. He didn’t feel like Clark. Martha wasn’t technically his mom. He should really say something to Lois about that.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“I was just wondering how we met?” he said, which wasn’t exactly the reason he had been gazing at her like he had.

Lois was looking at a note from Martha that had come with the casserole, explaining how to reheat it. “Huh?”

“How did you and I meet?” he repeated.

She folded the note again and dropped it back into the basket. “Do you mind if I reheat this now? Just the thought of tortellini in tomato sauce is making me hungry.”

Kal shrugged. She turned on the oven. He watched as she bent over and removed shoes from inside of it. She kept shoes in her oven? Then she set the casserole dish straight into the oven and turned on the timer.

When she had finished, Lois faced him. “You – Kal – and I? Or Clark and I?”

He swallowed. She wasn’t budging on the assumption that he was her husband Clark.

Lois rested a hand gently on his arm. “I’ve got an idea. How about I only talk about you and me for the time being? Superman – Kal – you.”

Kal breathed a sigh of relief.

“That way,” she continued. “You won’t be confusing any of my Clark stories as memories.” Lois kissed his cheek. “When those memories start coming back, I want you to know that they’re real. No confusion. Is that okay?”

Kal’s cheek tingled where she kissed him and that combined with the warmth of her hand still resting on his arm had made his clothing feel smaller. Maybe Clark never wore the blue suit under his clothes. Yes, that must be it, he lied to himself. What he really should suggest was that they sleep apart, especially if just casual touches gave him such a strong reaction. He cleared his throat. “Fine by me.”

Lois took two plastic cups out of the cabinet and opened the fridge, sneered and then closed it again. “Water, okay? Lucy – my sister – cleared me out of cream soda and, well, everything else worth drinking.” She indicated that he should sit down at the dining table and she brought two cups of water to the table. “It’s from the tap. Maybe you should sterilize the water with your heat vision first.”

Kal raised a brow but then did as she asked. He thought “heat” as he looked at her cup and promptly melted it. He gazed at the mess and jumped back. What had he done?

Lois grabbed a dishtowel and started mopping up the remaining water. “I’m sorry, Kal.” She laughed. “That was just a joke.”

“I didn’t know,” he replied calmly, but inside he was mortified. What must she think of him? After she finished mopping up the water, he sat back down and passed her his glass. “Take mine.”

She threw the towel into the kitchen sink and set her hand on his, giving it a little squeeze. “It’s okay. I have more.” A minute later she sat down opposite him with a new cup.

He loved her more at that moment than he had all day. She had taken his “accident” in stride and moved on. No harm, no foul.

Lois rested her hand on his as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Kal could feel the electricity travel from her hand to his, up his arm, and straight into his heart, causing it to increase its rhythm and spread that electricity all over his body.

“About five… maybe six weeks ago, I went on a date with a real creep by the name of Claude,” Lois said.

Kal didn’t have any idea to what this story referred, but he did learn one very important thing from this sentence. Six weeks ago – five weeks before she married Clark – Lois and Clark either weren’t dating or weren’t serious enough to be exclusive or had broken up for some reason. He wondered what had changed.

“Claude took me to a fancy restaurant… a very expensive restaurant. I was thrilled because I had hardly two pennies to rub together until I got my first paycheck from Daily Books. That’s where Claude and I worked. He was fired a week later – but that’s another story.” She smiled.

Kal had no idea what the smile was for, but he readily accepted it and returned it with one of his own. Was she happy that Claude was fired? Probably, because she had referred to Claude as a creep. Or was she smiling, because it was another tale Kal would want to hear and she couldn’t wait to share it with him? Or was she just smiling because she was happy Kal was there and she got to spend time with him?

“Needless to say, Claude made reference to me ‘repaying’ him for dinner in no uncertain terms and when I told him ‘no way’ I’d rather…” Lois blushed and took a gulp of her water. “He excused himself to the men’s room. Instead he left the restaurant, leaving me with the hefty bill.”

Kal wondered what Lois had told Claude that she would rather do, but clearly it made her uncomfortable, so he decided not to press the point. How exactly did he fit into this story? Did he fit into this story? Where was this story going? He really didn’t care as long as she kept her hand on his.

“I ended up being forced to wash dishes.” Lois chuckled softly. “I don’t ever want to do that again. How I looked when Claude had picked me up and how I looked by the time I left the restaurant…” She shook her head. “Night and day. Cinderella and the pumpkin… a smashed pumpkin.” She squeezed his hand and smiled at him again and he felt like floating. “Why you ever chose to rescue a mess like that…?”

His smile grew larger. He had rescued Lois? That was how they had met? Because of him, not because of Clark?

“It was pouring down rain. And I was drenched. I got on a bus to come home and then discovered it was the wrong one. When I got off, I was in a strange part of town.” She scoffed at her own words. “I’d been in Metropolis less than two weeks. The whole city felt strange.”

Less than two weeks? How long had she and Clark known each other before they had decided to get married? How can this woman who knew him for such a short period still know him better than anyone else? Well… anyone else besides the Kents?

“A dog attacked me, knocking me to the ground and my head against the sidewalk.” She took another sip of her water. “I must have smelled god-awful. All that stuff that I had spilled down the front of me while washing dishes, plus falling down on a wet Metropolis sidewalk.” She smiled weakly at him again.

Could this story possibly be true? Why would she lie? Could it get any worse? Could it get any better? Oh, yeah, he was in it. It was sure to get better.

“I got away from the dog – somehow – and ran down the street. At the corner, I slipped, twisted my ankle, and fell into traffic.”

It got worse.

Lois smiled at him. It was a dazzling smile that sent his racing heart rocketing off to the moon. No, “dazzling” wasn’t the right word, but it sure was close to the right word.

“Suddenly, I had the wind in my face and a pair of strong arms held me.” She squeezed his hand. “And I looked up and saw this face.” She let go of his hand and cupped his jaw.

Kal swallowed, relishing at this new touch. This was the story of how they met? It was no wonder their romance had been a whirlwind.

“Did we like each other right away? Me and you?” he asked softly, leaning towards her.

Lois paused as if the question seemed a surprise. “Well, we didn’t not like each other,” she responded, moving towards him.

“Was it love at first sight?” he asked timidly.

Her more-than-dazzling smile grew larger as she placed a light kiss on his lips that radiated through his body.

“Yep. You fell for me. Head over heels,” Lois told Kal with a wink as his jaw dropped.

*** End of Part 10 ***

Part 11G

Comments