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J is for Jet Set
part 7 Table of Contents
by Pam Jernigan

****

Lunch was a relaxed affair, and Lois found herself enjoying the meal. Perhaps fortunately, it was the lunchtime rush -- she'd really wanted to avoid an encounter with curious locals. A few people had waved or said hello to Clark as they passed, but then they moved on, busy with their own lives. That was more like how people were *supposed* to behave, in her book. She paged through the cheap plastic menu, noting the lunchtime specials listed on the paper insert, searching for desserts. "Does this place have anything decent in chocolate?"

"I don't know," Clark replied, picking up his own menu. "She used to have the *best* brownies, but Maisie's always changing her menu, so you'd better check the insert -- ow!"

Lois looked up to see Clark with a slightly stunned look on his face, regarding a bright red spot welling up on one fingertip. She winced in sympathy -- the poor guy probably hadn't been cut in almost twenty years. She was thinking of something comforting to say when the look on his face stopped her. He was looking at her warily, and she remembered that he didn't want anything resembling pity. "It's just a paper cut, Clark," she told him with calculated indifference, dropping her gaze back to the menu. "Stick it in your mouth and suck on it."

Belatedly, she recognized the double entendre, and blushed. The feeling of warmth spread throughout her body as flashes of memory resurfaced. She peeked at Clark through her lashes. He was looking slightly stunned, so she assumed he was remembering the same things she was. Unable to resist, she said, "You're pretty good at that."

Clark's smile widened. Lois caught her breath at the heated look in his eyes, but he only said, "Thank you."

Sometimes she thought that this whole celibacy idea was vastly overrated. Before she could follow up on that thought, however, she was startled by a female voice exclaiming, "Clark!"

Lois looked around to see a young couple heading their way, and stiffened when it became obvious that they were about to be joined for lunch. Clark, however, didn't seem upset by this chance meeting. He was leaning back against his chair, his expression smoothed out and a pleasant smile in place. "Hey, Janice, Rob! Fancy meeting you here."

As the three Smallville natives exchanged greetings, Lois studied Clark. Until he'd retreated into his shell, she hadn't realized how open he was being with her. Lois had her own "professional face" that dropped into place when she was working, and so did Clark -- but this wasn't his professional face. It was more relaxed, laid-back, friendly... his usual "Clark" mode, in fact. But she hadn't realized how much of that was assumed.

"And this," Clark said with a note of pride, "is Lois Lane, my..." he glanced at her, suddenly uncertain. "My partner at work. Lois, this is Rob Little, and Janice Phipps. We all were in high school together."

Lois produced her own professional smile. "Hi, Rob, Janice. Nice to meet you. And for the record," she locked eyes with Janice, "I'm also his girlfriend."

Janice just smiled broader at that. "Really? Congratulations, Clark's a great guy."

"I think so," Lois murmured in reply.

"And maybe now," Janice continued with a laugh, "my mother will regain her sanity." She exchanged a look with her fiancé. "But never mind about our problems. What are you two here for? You're a bit early for the Corn Festival -- you know you don't want to miss that, Clark."

"Well," Clark looked at Lois, "we'll probably need to be at work next week."

"So remind me, Clark, where is it that you work these days?" Rob entered the conversation, with an air of rescuing Clark from corn-related inquiries.

"Oh, we're at the Daily Planet." Clark smiled proudly, a smile that dimmed slightly as Rob looked blank. "You know, the one in Metropolis? Lois grew up there, so she helps me get around."

"Oh, right, that one!" Janice agreed eagerly, before turning her attention fully on Lois. "Tell me, honey, have you ever seen Superman? Up-close and personal, I mean?"

Lois managed to stifle a laugh, but she didn't dare look at Clark for fear that she'd burst out in giggles at the absurdity of it all. "Um, well, yes. Once or twice."

Janice's eyes grew rounder. "You have? Oh, that would be so exciting! Didn't you just die? Oh, and is he as gorgeous up close as he is on TV?"

"Oh, yeah." Lois sighed happily, getting control of the urge to giggle. Unfortunately, that urge was followed by an irresistible temptation. She leaned toward Janice, "And let me tell you, that suit of his... whew! It's a wonder any woman in town can even think straight."

A stifled choke drew Lois's attention to Clark, who was looking down at his food and turning bright red.

Her voice slowed, feeling out what she wanted to say as she went along. "But the really great thing about Superman is that he *cares,* you know? He does what he does to help people, just because he thinks he ought to, just because he can."

Clark's head came up, and he met her eyes.

"He's just got this, I don't know... innate goodness." She reached casually across the table to lace her fingers with Clark's. "It's really pretty incredible."

"Wow," Janice said. "I hadn't even thought of it that way... If I were in the same room with Superman, I swear I wouldn't even remember how to breathe, let alone get all philosophical like that!"

Lois laughed ruefully, still looking at Clark. "Oh, I was like that at first, too... it took repeated exposures before my brain kicked back in." She squeezed his hand. "Clark and I run into him now and then, since we're reporters."

Janice sighed, and joked, "Can I touch you? This is probably about as close as I'm ever gonna get to Superman."

Lois grinned at her. "Oh, you never know."

Clark checked his watch, and stirred. "Ladies, I hate to break this up, but Lois and I have to get going..."

"Oh, okay." Janice took the news gracefully. "But I'd love to see you again sometime, Lois! You tell Clark to bring you back real soon."

****

Clark waited until Rob and Janice were gone, and until the bill was paid. He even managed to contain himself as they left the cafe and began walking toward the car. As they turned a corner and gained a measure of privacy, however, he couldn't wait any longer.

He tugged on Lois's hand to slow her down and get her attention. Then he was backing her up against the cinderblock wall, swallowing her tiny gasp of surprise. He kissed her hungrily, and after one startled second, she molded herself to him, her hands running up and down his back.

After only a few moments, the worst of his hunger was satisfied, and he forced himself to ease back on the kiss. This was exactly the sort of thing he'd been convinced would scare her away forever. Passionate intensity gave way to tenderness, and scaled down to a series of little nibbling kisses.

It occurred to Clark that most people did kisses in the opposite order, starting small and growing. Just like everything else they did, he thought distantly. Backwards.

When he finally pulled his head away enough to see Lois's face, she was looking a little blitzed. Her eyes opened slowly, and she smiled. "What was that for?"

"Thank you," he told her huskily. "For what you said in there. Just... thank you." It had touched him deeply, in ways he couldn't even express.

Lois's smile wavered as she looked at him solemnly. "It was all true," she whispered. The corners of her mouth twitched as she dead-panned, "Especially the part about the Superman suit."

It took a moment for the joke to penetrate. When it did, he laughed out loud, full of joy and wonder and love for this incredible woman in his arms. "What would I ever do without you?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said quietly, still watching him. "You seem to have done well enough for yourself so far."

He shook his head. "I was only marking time until I met you." That came out a little more truthfully than he'd intended. Before it could spook her, he leaned down for one more swift kiss. "We've got a few hours of driving ahead of us. We should get on the road."

She pulled herself together and smiled up at him. "Let's go."

****

Conversation turned light as they got on the Interstate. After the intensity of that kiss, Lois felt herself retreating from him slightly, until she could sort things out. She'd known that Clark wanted her, but apparently she'd underestimated him. Again. This wasn't a passing thing for him, she realized with a sense of amazement and trepidation. He didn't think of this as a trial period, to see if she could measure up. If she was reading him correctly -- which wasn't certain, given her track record -- he was thinking in absolute and permanent terms.

How did she feel about that? She knew that she liked Clark -- the jury was still out on whether or not this was love, although it seemed to be a possibility -- but she wasn't really ready to admit to anything beyond that. He seemed to know that, though, and was giving her enough room not to feel trapped. The really amazing part was that the idea of being trapped by him wasn't entirely unattractive.

She wasn't ready to tell him any of that, though. It was just as well that they had something objective to do. They *would* retrieve the sample. They had to.

"Lois, can I ask you something?"

Lois glanced at Clark. "Sure."

"I was just wondering..." Clark sounded very unsure of himself. "Well, you said, the other night, that you'd wanted to kiss me for weeks. But, ah -- you sure had me fooled."

Lois smiled wryly. "Well, a lot of the time I had *me* fooled, too. And even when I didn't -- well, in my experience, men aren't to be trusted, and relationships at work are uniformly disasters." She grimaced, unsure whether she wanted to go on.

Clark stirred, but didn't immediately speak. When he did, his voice was hesitant. "You'd told me about Claude."

"Uh-huh. What you don't know is that he was just the latest in a long line of bad relationships. After him, I kinda gave up on the male half of the species. I mean, I'd date -- occasionally -- but... I don't know. I would just keep *pushing* them -- testing them for something. Strength, I guess. Most of them folded pretty quickly, and after that, I'd lose all interest."

"Strength?" Clark asked quietly. "Well, that explains Superman, but why me?"

"You're stronger than you think, Clark. Although it took me a while to figure that out. You're always so darned polite!"

Clark grinned at that complaint.

"But you wouldn't let me push you around." She laughed. "It was *so* annoying! That's the kind of strength I mean, I think."

"So... you're saying that you're only dating me because you find me annoying?"

"Clark!" A quick look showed that he was teasing, and she swatted him playfully on the chest. "You goof." It was good to see him so relaxed, though. In fact, she was having a really good time now, considering the circumstances. Well, they'd get the sample back, soon enough. And then... She frowned. "What are we going to do with this stuff once we get it?"

There was a brief pause as Clark worked out the new topic of conversation. "Destroy it."

"Yeah, but how? Can we destroy it?"

He hesitated. "Well... I don't know. You said it was a crystal, or like one, anyway. Can't you shatter crystals?"

"Hell if I know. It's worth a try, anyway. If not, we'll have to hide it someplace remote. Your dad was talking about dropping the big chunk in the deepest part of a lake, somewhere. The ocean might be better, if we could get it there."

"I'm sure you'll think of something."

Lois glanced at Clark, thinking he sounded unusually subdued. Well, it had been a rough day for him, he was entitled to feel tired. "What do you think this stuff is, anyway?"

Clark stirred restlessly in the passenger seat, turning slightly toward her. "I have no idea."

"Well, I've been thinking." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "Before this, has there been anything that could hurt you?"

"Other than you?" he asked, flashing a quick grin. Lois rolled her eyes. He continued, more seriously, "No, not since I was a kid. I've never run into anything remotely like this."

"And you've traveled all around the world, right? By the way, you'll have to tell me all about that, sooner or later. So it's safe to say that nothing on Earth affects you."

Clark looked unconvinced. "Well, except for this stuff, which, if you've noticed, is right here on Earth."

She ignored his weak attempt at sarcasm. "I don't think it started here. I think it came to Earth right along with you."

"What?"

"Your spaceship got here from -- what was it, Krypton? What if it wasn't the only thing that did?"

"Well, it was kinda close to Shuster's field... it's as good a theory as any, I guess. Though I still don't see why it's dangerous."

"Me neither, actually," Lois confided. "I just want something to call it. Like... Kryptonium or something."

"Kryptonite," Clark replied absently. At her surprised look, he elaborated. "According to this theory of yours, we're talking about a meteorite."

"Oh. Okay." Lois shrugged, losing interest in the topic. "You know, it's hard to get my head wrapped around this."

"Um... what?"

"Well, Superman just appeared out of nowhere a couple of months ago. But Clark's been here all along. I have no trouble seeing you as a kid, Clark." She smiled at the mental image. "But Superman as a baby? That just doesn't add up." She grinned at him. "I keep picturing an infant in spandex and a cape."

Clark chuckled. "No, Mom says I was pretty normal. Look, Lois, you've got it right -- I've been here for twenty seven years. Superman's only a few months old. Sometimes *I* have trouble getting my head wrapped around it, and I'm living it. Or at least, I was."

Lois wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. She focused on passing a slow-moving rental truck. "Powers still aren't back, huh?"

"Nope."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

There was silence from the passenger seat. Before she could regret asking the question, though, he stirred, and said quietly, "It's really weird."

"Yeah, I'll bet. It's weird for me, too." She tried to think of the best way to say this. "I mean... you're sitting there with no superpowers, which is what I'd thought about you for most of the time I've known you -- but now that you match my mental image, it just feels... wrong."

"Yeah. But you know, it could be a good thing."

That startled her. "How, exactly?"

"I always wanted to be normal," he said softly, looking down at his knees. "No huge secret, nobody trying to lock me up, nothing interrupting the things I want to do..." He didn't sound convincing so much as wistful. "Just, you know -- normal."

"But Clark, being normal for you is being super!" Lois insisted. Absently, she noted a road sign informing them they were now only fifty miles away from Wichita.

His voice dropped until it was almost too quiet to hear. "Maybe not anymore."

"Just give it some time, Clark." She reached over to touch his knee, and was rewarded by a half-hearted smile.

This was temporary. This had to be temporary. He'd had powers for all his adult life; they couldn't just be turned off. She refused to believe that. "Just give it some time."

****

They had to stop to ask for directions twice, but eventually they arrived at the downtown post office. It was a very large building, Clark noted as he climbed out of the car. He studied it for a moment, filled with misgivings. Rationally, he knew that the package might not even have arrived yet. And this was a much smaller piece. And it had a very short range. Still, he remembered the intense pain from earlier, and shivered.

"Are you okay, Clark?"

He forced himself to focus, ashamed of the flash of cowardice. He walked around the car to join her, and together they walked across the parking lot. "I was just thinking."

She seemed to accept that. "Yeah, me too. We need a new cover story here. 'Friend of the family' just isn't gonna cut it. Nobody here has any clue who you are."

"That's true..." An idea stirred. "Maybe we should pretend to be related, instead." He grinned, and suggested, "Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Irig, Jr.?"

"Now there's an idea."

They left the parking lot and began crossing the wide plaza leading to an imposing set of stairs. Whoever had designed this building had been trying to impress someone.

"Oh, no, wait," Lois said suddenly. "They'll probably want to see some ID."

"Okay... how about we say you're Wayne's married daughter. That'll explain why your last name is different from his."

Lois made a face at him. "I guess that works. But don't be fooled, mister." She waved a finger in his general direction, which he ducked. "When I get married, I'm *not* going to change my name to--" She broke off abruptly. "I'm not going to change it." She hurried ahead of him, charging up the stairs. Clark was left staring after her. Had she been about to say what he thought she'd been about to say? He smiled, suddenly feeling a lot better about his life.

Clark caught up with her in the main lobby. There was only a short wait before they were called up to the counter.

Lois automatically took the lead, smiling at the middle-aged male clerk. "Hi, there. I was hoping you could help us." Clark stood to the side and tried to be inconspicuous. If they did get the package, he'd probably have to make a quick exit.

The clerk put on an air of polite interest that wasn't entirely convincing. "Yes?"

"Well, it's the silliest thing," Lois confided in an unusually fluff-brained manner. "See, we were visiting my folks, in Smallville -- my Dad hasn't been doing so well, lately, and Mom's taking care of him, but she could use a rest sometimes, you know? And it was a nice visit, but then Dad got a little bit more confused than usual, and well, to make a long story short -- he took something of mine, thought it was something else, and mailed it."

"Did he insure the package? Or send it express?"

"I'm afraid I don't know -- well, about the insurance. We checked with the Smallville post office first, of course, but the postmistress there was... well, she was really busy, and couldn't remember exact details, except she was certain he sent it out just as regular parcel post. Anyway, if you can find the package -- I *think* I know where he sent it, and I've got all that information written down -- we can just take it home with us, no harm done. He's really very upset about it, now that we've told him what he did. So if you could just go find it for us..." She smiled expectantly at the clerk.

He stared back for a moment, then shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do that, ma'am."

Lois's face fell. "Oh, no. I was sure if we just got here, we could stop it from being delivered, that's what I told Clark, here, right Clark?" She gestured in his direction but didn't give him any time to answer. "Are you sure there's nothing you can do?"

The clerk looked briefly at Clark with what might have been a flash of male sympathy. "Ma'am, we don't track individual pieces of mail. The truck that brings the mail from Smallville also collects from other towns, and *all* the mail goes through central sorting. We don't have the manpower to search through all that. And besides," he clinched it. "It's against federal law. We have to deliver things to the correct address."

"But then what can we do?" Lois wailed. "I need that back! It's something very... personal."

"Sorry, ma'am, the best I can tell you is that you'll have to go to wherever you think he mailed it, and get it back from them."

"But they won't even get it until tomorrow!" The dismay in Lois's voice, Clark thought, was probably quite real.

He shrugged. "Sorry. Can't do anything for you."

Lois stared at him in frustration for another moment, then turned around and walked off. Clark said a hasty thank you and followed, suddenly feeling very tired.

When Clark exited the lobby, he saw Lois standing at the top of the stairs, looking blindly outwards. He walked up behind her, and with some trepidation, slipped his arms around her waist. She leaned back against him, but the tension in her body didn't ease.

"Dammit, Clark! How are we supposed to get that thing back from the state lab?"

"We'll tell them the same story." Clark held her a little bit tighter, just because he could. "It'll work -- oh, and we can say that Wayne's changed his mind and won't pay for any analysis. They'll be happy to avoid wasting their time."

She sighed. "I hope you're right. But the sample won't even get to them until tomorrow... looks like we've got some time to kill."

"Hmm, true. Well, we said we wanted to spend more time together -- and Perry doesn't want to see us anyway... maybe a little later, we can go out for some genuine Kansas cuisine."

"Oh, that sounds alarming," she said, laughing a little as the last of the tension leeched out of her. She gently dislodged Clark's arms so she could step away, but grabbed his hand for the walk down the stairs. "But it is dinner together, so... okay."

"Yep, two nights in a row. And hey, there's another time I'll buy you dinner," he joked. "I think my credit card can take it."

"No, let me buy dinner."

He looked sideways at her as they reached the car. She seemed very intent on putting the key in the lock. "It's okay, Lois, I can get it."

"Save your money," she advised him. He opened his mouth indignantly, but the protest died when she finally looked up and he saw the sexy look on her face. She leaned close, patted him on the chest, and said, "You'll need it -- you're paying for our hotel room tonight."

****
to be continued...