J is for Jet Set
part 10
by Pam Jernigan

****

Clark woke slowly, savoring the fleeting remnants of a wonderful dream. Lois had been there. He stirred, and then froze. She still was.

He warily opened one eye, then two, to confirm this. Yep, Lois was lying next to him, although fully clothed and facing away from him, sound asleep. Oh, and he had an arm draped over her waist.

This beat the heck out of his dreams.

He glanced around the rest of the room in confusion for one second. A hotel room? That woke him up. Right, they were in Wichita. His powers were gone, though they should come back. And Lois was in his bed of her own free will. He'd wanted to cuddle with her last night -- he'd been too tired to contemplate anything more active -- but after her previous bout of nerves, he hadn't figured she'd agree. But she must have wanted to cuddle with him, too. He smiled. Lumpy beds, indeed.

Lois stirred, then turned towards him with a sleepy smile. "G'morning," she mumbled.

"Good morning, Lois." He kept a wary eye on her, waiting for the moment when she realized where she was, just in case she had another morning-after panic attack.

She snuggled closer, pushing him over onto his back so that she could rest her head on his shoulder. "Mmm. Best pillow I ever had."

He hugged her gently. She might kill him later, but right now, she was in his arms and he fully intended to savor the experience. A moment later, she yawned, and looked up at him with a small frown.

"So, how are you feeling this morning?"

"Um, pretty good, actually."

Her gaze sharpened as she became fully awake. "Are your powers back again?"

"No, not yet. But I had a great night's sleep."

"Yeah, me, too."

Daringly, he added, "And this is a great way to wake up."

"Mm, definitely. You know, as mornings after go," she confided shyly, "I'd have to say that this is a personal best."

Clark let himself smile then, finally believing that she knew where she was and wanted to be there. He couldn't help bending his head to kiss her. It was a chaste kiss, a little shy, but she responded sweetly. He pulled back after a moment, not willing to press his luck any further, and she settled back onto his shoulder again.

After a moment, she spoke again, sounding more alert. "What time is it?"

He craned his neck to see the clock. "It's nearly nine," he reported, a little surprised at himself for sleeping so late. "We must have been really tired."

"Yesterday was a pretty busy day," she said, but she seemed distracted by watching her hand trace little patterns on his t-shirt clad chest. "And I'm hungry."

"You know, now that you mention it, so am I." He hesitated, hating to give up this closeness.

"So... we should probably get up, huh." She made no move to leave. Her hand reached his shoulder, then moved lightly, experimentally across his upper arm.

"Probably," he agreed. On the one hand, he was pretty certain Lois wasn't really ready for anything momentous to happen. On the other hand, though... there was no reason they couldn't explore just a little.

"The hotel has a continental breakfast downstairs." Her hand retreated from his arm, but then moved down to rest against his waist.

Being daring earlier had paid off. "I saw that." He decided to try it again. He rolled them a quarter turn, ending with her on her back and him on his side right next to her, then propped himself up on an elbow to look at her.

"Or, if you want something more substantial..." Her voice wavered with a hint of nerves, but she seemed mesmerized by the sight of him. "I think there's a Waffle Hut across the street."

"Sounds good." He sent his hand exploring, beginning with a light movement trailing down the outside of her arm.

"So then, after that, I guess we'll have to check out, and drive the car back to your parents' place." She closed her eyes as his hand came back up the inside of her arm, and then moved to the side of her flannel pajamas. At the moment, they seemed incredibly sexy to him, all soft and warm.

"True." His hand trailed back down the side of her body, and then lingered at her waist, slipping beneath the flannel to touch warm skin.

"And, then, eventually," she continued, but with more than a touch of breathlessness, "we'll have to go back to -- ohmygosh!" Her eyes popped open and her body tensed. "Clark, we have to get back to work!"

He stared at her, as this took a moment to sink in. Then he groaned and flopped over backwards. "Yeah, you're right." Their morning interlude was over. Well, it had been incredibly exciting while it lasted.

Lois sat up, running a hand through her hair. "Perry only gave us one day, and he might have been trying to page us since noon yesterday, for all we know." She slid out of bed and began rummaging through the few clothes she'd brought.

"True." And, Clark reflected, they'd have more opportunities to explore in the future. The thought was very cheering.

"Although I don't know what I'm going to tell him... 'sorry, Perry, I can't come in for another few hours because Clark and I are in a hotel in Wichita' -- that's just a little bit more information than he needs to know."

"Well--" Clark propped himself up against the headboard of the bed to watch her rampage.

"But if I don't tell him that, what do I tell him? I mean, if he wants us to stay away for another day or something, that's fine, but what if he tells me to get into the newsroom before--" She whirled around to stare at the clock. "And I forgot the time change! Clark, do you realize it's almost ten a.m. in Metropolis?"

"Yeah--" He'd have to get up and dressed, he supposed.

"And we can't possibly get back there for hours yet -- we still have to drive that car back to Smallville; that'll take two hours right there." She began pacing around the room.

"Lois..." Although it would probably be a good idea if he waited a few moments before leaving the protective concealment of the bed covers.

"After that it won't take long *if* your powers are back, but what if they're not?" With jerky movements, she started throwing her things back into the duffel bag.

"Lois..."

"And even then, how do we explain this? No offense, Clark, but people are going to be shocked enough that we've started dating." She made a face at the thought, and went back to pacing. "I do not want to let them know we went out of town together; I don't even want to think about what they'd say, and it's not like--" She finally came within arms reach, and Clark pulled her down to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Calm down, okay?"

"Clark! I can't--"

Greatly daring, he took a finger and held it vertically against her lips. "Shh."

Her eyes narrowed, but then the tension in her body eased. She took a deep breath and let it out again. "Okay. I'm calm."

He was skeptical about that, but didn't want to press the point. "We'll just tell him that we're... following a lead." While they talked, he scooted her out of bed and followed, starting to get ready to go.

She looked unconvinced, but went back to packing up her things. "Sooner or later, he's gonna want to know what the story is, and, you know, he is our *boss* so he might expect an answer."

"Okay, then... we're working on the Luthor investigation. We can get each other up to speed on what we know this morning in the car, you know, so it wouldn't be that much of a lie."

"Well, maybe. We won't have much to show for it. Although of course, stories can be like that -- work for days without much visible result, and then all of a sudden, wham! it all comes together. He might buy it."

"That's the spirit," he said dryly.

"Just let me do the talking, okay?" She selected a bundle of clothing and what looked like a make-up bag, and headed for the bathroom. She raised her voice a bit to add, "because, Clark, you may have to lie all the time but you're still really bad at it."

"Hey!" he protested half-heartedly, gathering his own clothes.

She stuck her head out of the bathroom to flash a smile at him, then disappeared back inside and closed the door. From inside, she called, "I'll just tell him we're meeting for breakfast, so I can pass news along to you."

"Well, that's true enough." While Lois was in the bathroom, he quickly got dressed. "Quickly" being a relative term, of course -- he felt horribly slow and clumsy.

"I plan to leave out the part about breakfast being in Wichita, though." Lois emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed. "Your turn," she said briefly, then continued unabated, "I mean, how on earth could we explain Wichita? A field trip to work on our criminal skills?"

"Yeah, that could be a little tricky."

He entered the bathroom and went through his morning routine on automatic pilot. Something she'd said earlier came back to him, working away at his self-confidence. Would it be so bad if their co-workers knew that Lois had gone out of town with him? They'd have trouble explaining their transportation arrangements, but he didn't think that was what she'd meant.

When he emerged from the bathroom, he said, hesitantly, "Um, about what you said, earlier, about people being shocked... are you saying you don't want anyone at work to know you're dating me?"

She turned and stared at him. "No! No, Clark, that's not it. I mean, okay, I've been dragged through the gossip mill before, and I'm not exactly looking forward to facing that again, but this time it's *good* news. I just want it to be something we can control." She saw that he was still unsure, and added, "Besides, don't you want to see their faces?"

He tilted his head, considering this. "Actually... yes. Okay, then we'll keep this little jaunt private."

Lois smiled at him, then picked up the phone. "Wish me luck." She punched in the buttons for a long-distance call. Clark could faintly hear the ringing as the line connected, but couldn't make out voices when someone picked up. "Hi Jimmy, it's Lois. Put me through to Perry... What do you mean he's not there? He practically lives there!" She fell silent again, listening. Clark finished his packing, trying to contain his frustration. "Oh, okay. Well... tell him I called, okay? No, no message. I'll call back later. Bye!"

She hung up the phone. "We've dodged the bullet for now. Perry's in a meeting with the Legal Department."

"Probably about us."

"Yeah, very likely." She looked around the room. "I think I've got everything. It's not like we had much to start with."

"Yeah, me too." Clark tried to find the bright side. "But if Perry's still in a meeting, that might mean that the whole thing hasn't blown over yet, so he won't want us back yet."

Lois smiled. "We can hope. Come on, let's check out, get some breakfast and hit the road."

Clark picked up both their bags. "Lead the way."

****

"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Lois observed. They'd had a nice breakfast together and had been on the road for over an hour, just talking and laughing. It had been something of a revelation to Lois. On the rare occasions when her family had taken any long car trips, the fighting had begun within only a few miles of home and wouldn't stop until all combatants were exhausted into silence. Even yesterday's voyage in the opposite direction had had a measure of tension.

Clark smiled in the passenger seat. "I'm surprised you even noticed, city girl."

"Oh, I can appreciate the great outdoors," she assured him. "It's just that I'm usually too busy. And getting out of the city is always such a hassle and takes forever, so I figure Centennial Park is as close to nature as I need to get."

Clark vented a theatrical sigh. "I can see I've got a lot of work to do here."

"Hey," Lois protested, laughing and hitting him lightly on the knee. "I like me just the way I am."

"So do I," he replied, grabbing hold of her hand. "But we need to get you to like nature in all its beauty."

"We do, do we?" Sooner or later, she was going to need that hand for driving, she knew... but it was a straight road without much traffic.

"Don't worry, we can start small." He squeezed her hand gently. "Maybe a short hiking trail or two at first; get you into the beauties of the country."

They were coming up behind a slower-moving car. "I have gone camping before, you know," she said, reluctantly retrieving her hand.

He waved that off. "It obviously didn't take. So once you're okay with the hiking, we can move up to rivers and lakes."

"Well, okay, it was only that one time -- and I grant you, camping out was a disaster." Lois flicked on her turn signal, preparing to pass the slower car ahead of them. "It was the summer before Mom and Dad's divorce."

"Ah. Well, maybe instead of woods and rivers we need to go tropical. Hawaii is always nice, although the Bahamas or the Caribbean would be closer..."

"My mother complained bitterly the whole time," Lois recalled gloomily, changing lanes. "We only had a borrowed pop-up trailer, you see, and she was trying to cook and clean with some pretty primitive equipment."

"Did you know there are whole groups of islands in the Florida Keys that aren't visited?"

"Except by bugs, you mean." Of course, as soon as they pulled over next to the other car, it began speeding up as well, keeping pace with them.

He grinned at her. "Just say the word, and we can go find out."

"Yeah, sure, Clark, that could happen." She pressed the gas a little bit more; no two-bit Kansas farmer was going to win a race against her.

"Lois, I think you're forgetting one important factor here," he told her, his voice suffused with humor.

"No, Clark, I think *you're* forgetting an important factor." She glanced over at him. He was grinning widely, and he had seemed to gain alertness and energy as the morning had progressed. "Unless -- are you saying Superman's returned?"

His smile widened. "Yep. And the driver in that other car is muttering some pretty unpleasant things about you right now."

"Hah." She glared at the other car. "Eat my dust, you yokel!" She floored it, putting on a burst of speed that carried them past the other car. Even after changing back to the right-hand lane, however, she maintained the higher speed.

"Is there a reason we've just gone to warp?" Clark asked mildly.

Lois grinned briefly at the Star Trek reference. "The faster we go, the sooner we get this car back home, and then get ourselves back home. Even if Perry doesn't want us yet, I do have some research I want to do, on Lex."

"Well, there is that." He shifted a little closer to her on the car's bench seat. "I think we're coming up on our exit pretty soon now."

"Good. Let's talk Lex. What do you know about him?"

For the next ten minutes, Lois listened in fascinated horror as Clark filled her in on everything he knew and suspected about Luthor. "Wow. I knew you didn't like him, Clark, but I didn't realize all this was going on. I mean, these last few weeks, I've kind of been avoiding him, but now I think I didn't turn him down nearly as often as I should have. I'll have to make up for that. And darn it, Clark, what does 'pretty soon' *mean* in country talk? We're still not to that exit."

"Oh, anything less than half an hour drive time, I guess."

"Half an hour. Right. Well, in Metropolis 'pretty soon' would mean within a block or two."

"I've seen the traffic in Metropolis, Lois -- it can take half an hour to go two blocks. This is kind of the same thing," he assured her, in a laughing tone. "Just instead of city block, think rural town."

She shook her head. "I am never going to get used to that."

"That's okay." His left hand somehow ended up at the back of her neck, playing idly with her hair. "Just make sure you always have a native guide with you."

"Hmm, that sounds like a good idea. Got any recommendations?"

"Let me think about it..." Clark pretended to ponder the question.

"So, in the meantime, I guess I'm stuck with you."

"Just try to bear up nobly," he advised her, his eyes dancing.

She sighed gustily. "Well, if I must, I must. Is this the exit?"

"Yeah, this is it," he said, becoming somewhat more serious as he guided her toward the farm. "I wish we could stay for a longer visit, but you're right, we do need to get back."

"Well, we can drop off the car, tell them about the lead box -- your dad will take care of that, won't he?"

"Oh, yeah, he's probably already gotten rid of the big chunk. Listen, Lois..."

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to thank you, for everything. I couldn't have done this without you."

She glanced at him, surprised. "Well, what else could I have done? And, if you think about it, if I hadn't been here, you wouldn't have to have done anything -- you wouldn't have walked into Wayne Irig's backyard like that on your own."

He shrugged. "Well, maybe -- but then that stuff would still be out there, and some geeks in lab coats would be analyzing it right about now. But you were terrific, Lois, really."

She focused on the road in front of her, torn between embarrassment and gratification. "It was the least I could do. Besides," she rallied, "If I came back without you, your mother would *never* forgive me."

He chuckled. "No, we can't have my mother mad at you!"

"Nope, wouldn't want that," Lois agreed, with just a touch of unease. There was no doubt that she and Martha had gotten off on the wrong foot. That was behind them now, of course. All the misunderstandings had been cleared up. Everything was fine.

"Well, anyway," she said brightly, ruthlessly dragging the conversation back onto topic. "We'll drop off the car, say hi and bye to your folks, grab all our stuff, and take off. Literally."

Clark sighed. "I hate to rush off like that, but we have been in Kansas for a day longer than we planned, so yeah. We need to get back to Metropolis."

"Back to work," Lois added dryly.

"Back to normal," Clark concluded, giving her a beautiful smile.

She smiled back at him. "Super."

THE END

(at least until K <g> )