A/N: This is my first solo multiple chapter fic! YAY! So I hope you like it!
Rating: We're going to go by chapter here.. This one is K+
Enjoy!
It Was A Start
"No."
"Clark, you haven't even seen it yet." Lois put her car in park.
"You are not living here." Each word was punctuated.
Lois glared at him. Sometimes the Kansas farm boy could be more stubborn than she was. And that was definitely saying something.
"You're impossible!" The brunette muttered darkly to herself slamming her car door shut to emphasize her vexation. Couldn't he just be happy for her? She'd finally found an apartment she could afford without having to radically ration her daily food intake.
"Could you just pretend to be as excited as I am about this? Please?" she tried to reason with him.
"Fine. I'll try"
"Thank you." Lois was hardly convinced. "Come on."
Clark followed his companion as she led him to a large metal door on the side of the building.
"It's a special tenant's only entrance," Lois explained.
"Ah" was Clark's intelligent response as Lois unlocked and opened the door, revealing several flights of hazardous looking stairs.
"Are you sure this building is up to code?" Clark asked.
"Clark-"
"Just a question." He smiled innocently at her.
"Right," Lois scoffed.
"What floor?"
"Seventh. Hurry up." Lois replied already half way up the first set of stairs.
When she found out her building was sans elevator, Lois had rationalized that climbing seven flights of stairs everyday would do amazing things for her glutes and she wouldn't have to waste money on a Stairmaster.
Lois resisted the urge to roll her eyes when she heard Clark stomping up the steps behind her like a disgruntled child.
When they reached her floor Clark frowned in disapproval at the dimly lit hallway.
"Here we are!" Lois announced, proudly unlocking door number 709 and flinging it open, trying to add dramatic affect.
"I know it's kind of small, but I haven't gotten everything unpacked yet and I think I'm going to paint-" Lois stopped when she realized her partner wasn't paying the least bit of attention to her. Instead, he was stood in the threshold, scrutinizing the doorframe and the lock.
"I'm installing a deadbolt," he announced in a distracted voice jiggling the doorknob, as if testing its strength. "A chain too" he decided after a moment.
This time, Lois didn't put up a fight. She rolled her eyes dramatically and rested her hands on her hips.
"Are you even allowed to do that?" she asked the skepticism more evident in her voice than the annoyance she felt.
"It doesn't matter," Clark mumbled, finally turning his attention to the inside of the apartment.
Lois smiled proudly, "Welcome to my humble abode."
Well, Clark thought, you couldn't get more humble than this. The apartment was the very definition of the words 'small' and 'cramped.' He imagined it would look roomier after she unpacked the rest of her belongings. The cardboard boxes that peppered the floor really weren't helping the ambiance at all.
Clark made a beeline for the first window he saw. He played with the lock, turning it to and fro. Nope, that wouldn't do.
"I'm replacing the locks on your windows, too." He pushed passed her into the kitchen, the smallest room. Not that Lois needed a big space; she was the girl known for storing shoes in her oven, after all.
Lois was getting a bit fed up with his little testosterone show.
"Clark, -" she warned.
"Lois if you're going to live here it's going to have to have my safety seal of approval." He finished.
Crossing her arms dangerously over her chest, she cocked her left eyebrow.
"Excuse me!"
Clark had to fight the urge to cringe. OK, so maybe he'd gone about this the wrong way. He should know better than to try and tell Lois what she was or was not going to do.
"Who do you think you are?" she demanded arms flailing in fury, "Listen, Testicleese, your little show of male dominance is getting really old, really fast!" She poked him in the chest for good measure.
Clark sighed defeatedly. She was right. He had been acting uncharacteristically bold the past couple of weeks. But that wasn't his fault. Lois had no one to blame, but herself.
If she hadn't been getting herself into more trouble than usual lately, he'd be able to control himself more. But Getting thrown off of buildings, held at gunpoint, and kidnapped by sadistic murderers who wanted to torture her to death tended to make Clark a little bit more unnerved than usual.
And it wasn't like she was actively trying to avoid these situations either. That's what worried him the most. She was more determined than ever to get her interview with the 'Good Samaritan,' by any means necessary- including, ignoring all sense of self-preservation. Keeping Lois alive and safe was proving to be a full-time job. He was going to have to give her the interview she so desperately wanted soon, or risk losing his sanity, or worse losing, her…
Yes, he would definitely cave soon.
"Sorry," He looked at her with as much sincerity as he could muster. "I just worry about you, especially lately…" He trailed off.
Lois started to make a fresh pot of coffee.
"Look, I know I haven't exactly been as cautious as I should be, but I'm so close to getting the interview, Clark. I can feel it!"
"Lois, I know you really want that exclusive. I just wish you could avoid the potentially life threatening situations. I mean, you've always been a danger magnet, but it's been kind of ridiculous lately."
"Don't worry. I've got this whole 'Damsel in distress' thing down. I'm perfectly safe. I know 'Super dude' wouldn't let anything happen to me." She threw him a smile.
But Clark frowned. "What if he's too late the next time, Lois? You're putting too much faith in this guy. You don't even know him!"
He wasn't sure why he was getting so worked up about this. He was talking about himself, after all. Maybe it was because the way she looked at 'The Good Samaritan' was the same way she used to look at Clark Kent. Before he, like an idiot, completely screwed things up.
It was a strange emotion, being jealous of your self.
"Clark, trust me. This guy, 'The red and blue blur,' whoever he is, wouldn't let anything happen to me. I know it," she reassured him. There was something in her voice Clark couldn't place. Like she was trying to tell him something. But he wasn't quite sure what it was. Before he could look too much further into it, Lois changed the subject.
"So, I think I'm going to paint the apartment. And you know, since it's so close to the Planet I can walk to work-"
"Not unless you plan on leaving everyday before the sun goes down, you're not," Clark interjected. Lois glared at him and opened her mouth to retort, but he cut her off.
"Don't start, Lane. This isn't a neighborhood you can just walk around in after dark. It's dangerous, Lois! You could-"
"I. Can. Take. Care. Of. Myself." Her voice was dangerously low.
This time it was Clark's turn to growl.
"Lois I'm serious. You're practically living on the edge of 'Suicide Slums!' I'm telling you right now, if I ever hear about anything remotely dangerous going down around anywhere near here, you'll be moved into the farm so fast-" he let the 'threat' hang in the air.
Lois was just about at her limit. Was he for real?
"I don't think it's my well-being you should be worried about right now." Venom practically dripped from her voice.
Clark gulped.
"Lois-"
"No! Seriously, what the Hell is you're problem!"
"I miss you!" Clark blurted out, "I miss us," he finished quietly.
"Us?" Lois sighed. "There was never an 'us' Clark." Lois replied. Did he really want to do this now?
"Yes, there was, Lois. Do you realize that this is the first time since you got back from Star City that we've seen each other outside of work?"
Ok, apparently he did.
"Yes I'm aware of that. So?"
"You got back from Star City four months ago!" She was exasperating.
"Thank you, Father Time," she replied sarcastically. "I've just been really busy lately."
'That was putting it mildly,' Clark thought bitterly.
When Lois had returned from Star city she'd come back a walking Fort Knox.
Clark knew why. But at first, it honestly knocked him off balance. She'd never been so detached from him, not even back when they'd first met. He wasn't going to lie- it had hurt. A lot. It cut him like a razor, clean and deep.
She was hardly at her desk. Always out investigating some lead before he even arrived to the Planet.
But it was worse when she was actually at her computer. She immersed herself in her typing or researching, staring almost in a trance like state at her screen, completely ignoring him.
For the first couple of weeks she had acted as if he didn't even exist. Sure, when she was forced to acknowledge his presence, she would be polite, maybe tease him a little. But it was all for show. The smiles she gave him were forced. He could tell because they never reached her eyes like the real ones did. The teasing was superficial and shallow. Not cruel or hurtful, but fake. Which was worse.
Their once strong friendship had been diminished into nothing more than a professional acquaintance. Clark didn't even realize Lois had moved out of the Talon until Chloe had made some passing comment about her back hurting from lifting so many boxes a few weeks ago.
It was only now, after months of Clark trying to repair the damage that had been done, that things were finally starting to get back to normal.
He started showing up for work hours early, to cut her off at the pass. He brought her lunch, coffee and forced her to converse with him. He tried his hand at flirting with Tess a little, trying to persuade her to team up Lois and himself together for this or that story. It had worked a few times, but he was sure Ms. Mercer was on to his game from the very beginning.
And finally, ever so slowly her walls began to crumple. Bit by bit he started getting through to her. She was cautiously regaining her faith in him, tentatively beginning to trust him again. It was still by no means where it had been before the, 'incident' but there was definitely progress. And Clark had already vowed that he would prove himself to be worthy of her. He would fight for her. And he wasn't about to give up now, even when she was looking at him like she was seriously contemplating putting cyanide in his coffee.
"It's about more than your so-called 'busy' work schedule and you know it!" he countered.
Lois fumed. "What are you saying? That I'm purposely avoiding you? Oh, don't flatter yourself, Kent! Unlike other people in this room I actually take my job seriously!"
Clark knew the last jab was nothing more than bait. She was trying to throw him off. Well, that was just too bad.
"Lois, something happened between us," he began. He wasn't really sure how to put it into words. "At the wedding. We had a moment-"
"It was nothing. It meant nothing," Lois interjected harshly. "You were feeling lonely and vulnerable and I-I had a momentary lapse of sanity. That's all that happened."
"Lois, I made a mistake-"
"I don't want to talk about this now!"
"Too bad!"
"Get out!" she screamed.
"I'm not leaving until we settle this!" He refused to budge.
Lois growled in frustration. "You're an Ass!" she spat.
"I know!"
She hadn't been expecting him to agree with that.
She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm listening."
"Lois, I know that apologizing doesn't even begin to make things better between us, but I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you."
"But, you did. God. You couldn't even pick up a damned phone to call me!" she accused. Why not get everything out on the table?
"Would you have answered?" It was a legitimate question.
"That is not the point!" she cried.
"I wanted to, so many times. Lois you've got to know that, I was just-"
"Busy canoodling with your old girlfriend? Yeah, I know!"
"Lois, that's not fair!"
"Then what was the reason, Clark?"
"I just- I didn't know what to say to you, OK?" He sighed defeatedly.
"No, it's not OK." Her voice was quiet. "You know I'm not upset about what almost happened at the wedding. I'm upset because I thought-I thought we were friends. I was in Star City for two weeks. I called you three times! And you never called back. Not once. You couldn't even send me a text message. Or page me. Hell Clark! I would've taken smoke signals! So, no. Telling me you didn't know, what to say isn't good enough!"
And there it was. He'd let her down. He'd done exactly what every other man in her life had done to her. He'd left her behind.
"Lois, I just want to make it right," he said finally, said knowing it wasn't enough.
"I wish you could," she replied. And she meant it.
"Look," he started, "I can't change what happened. I made a lot of poor decisions. But I'm going to make it up to you, I promise."
The conviction in his voice didn't seem to sway her. Talk was cheap. Taking a deep breath, she said, "It's going to take time, Clark. I need time. And so do you."
"For you, Lois, I've got all the time in the world." he sounded so sincere. Lois shook her head he was so corny. And sweet. And Clark-ish.
She met his eyes for a moment and immediately wished she hadn't. She didn't want to let him off the hook, yet. He didn't deserver it. But the genuine honesty in his eyes was something she couldn't ignore.
Maybe-
Just maybe.
"I miss you, too, you know." She admitted after a brief pause. "I miss my best friend."
Clark smiled warmly at her. "I'm your best friend?"
"Duh." Lois tried to play it off as no big deal, but Clark noticed her face was flushed.
"So, what-uh color do you want to paint the apartment?" he asked casually, knowing Lois needed a change of subject.
"I don't know, yet. I'm going to get some samples with Chloe tomorrow," she answered.
"You know, if you wanted to, you could store some of these extra boxes at the farm. There's plenty of space."
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"I still have to move some things out of the Talon, though."
"Maybe I could help. With the heavy lifting, I mean."
"You don't have to. I can just hire some movers or something" she replied warily.
"Lois, there's no need to waste your money. I want to help," he persisted, not letting her shut him out.
"OK." But there was still caution in her voice.
"Then it's settled,"
"Yeah, I-uh guess it is."
Lois bit her lip.
"Hey, you know what I did when I was in Star city?"
"What?" he asked.
"It was totally impulsive." She grinned, "I bought the complete works of Hitchcock."
"Really?" Clark's interest was piqued.
"Yeah. So I was thinking that this Friday, maybe we could make a weekend out of it."
She wasn't ready to forgive him. Not completely. Not yet.
But she was ready to start the process.
"Sounds good." He smiled. "Want me to bring Guitar Hero?"
"That's a given, Smallville."
Smallville. It was like music to Clark's ears.
Smallville. She hadn't uttered that two syllable word in over four months. How he'd missed the way it would fall unconsciously from her lips. It felt good to hear her say it. Normal. Right.
It was at that moment Clark knew they were going to be OK.
Eventually.
They were still a long way to go, but it was a start. And that's all he could ask for.
TBC
*******************
A/N: Chapter 2 coming soon!
You know what to do! Press that review button and tell me what you thought!
Thanks
