Author's Note: Written as a backup fic for DI's Holiday Ficstravaganza. Prompt was Wonder Twins.
Real Heroes
"So, we're agreed?" Clark asked, as they walked back into the Daily Planet. "You're not going to go diving off anymore buildings?"
"I didn't exactly plan to go diving off this one," Lois retorted, glancing back up at the roof as she spoke.
"Yeah, but you almost gave me a heart attack when you let go," Clark told her. "We're lucky that the Blur was there to catch you."
"Yeah," Lois said, wryly, giving him a sidelong look as they crossed the lobby. "The Blur."
That incredibly-convenient phone call she'd gotten had certainly been convincing, but she'd seen the look on Clark's face when she named him as the hero who'd saved her so many times before. He'd done his best to hide it, but for just a second, Clark had looked afraid, like she'd just stumbled on something that he didn't want her to know. Then, she'd picked up the phone and watched him very visibly relax as he thought she was buying what the voice on the other end of the line was telling her.
Clearly, he'd forgotten why the interns had started calling her Mad Dog Lane.
"What, you don't believe me?" Clark asked, breaking into her thoughts, an innocent expression pasted on his face. Holding open the door so that she could precede him into the elevator, he continued, "So, who do you think caught you in midair?"
"I don't know," she replied, sneaking a glance at Clark to gauge his reaction. "Maybe whoever was imitating the Blur, before."
Clark got a strange look on his face, and for a moment, Lois thought that he was going to tell her why he knew that the Blur's imitators hadn't been her rescuers. But, then he just shook his head, the moment passing as quickly as it had come.
"I doubt it was them, Lois," he said, following her out of the elevator. "This seemed a little too subtle for their style."
"If you say so," Lois said, trailing off when she saw the pair sitting at her desk.
"Speak of the devils," Clark muttered, and Lois shot him a quick look.
"Nothing," Clark said, looking back at her with the wide-eyed expression that she knew from long experience was just an act. "I didn't say anything."
"Right," Lois said, brushing past him to go over to her desk.
The boy looked up at her as she stopped beside her desk, nudging the girl, impatiently, when she didn't react.
"Can I help you?" Lois asked, looking down at the pair when they didn't say anything, just kept staring up at her.
"I'm Zan," the boy said, "and this is my sister, Jayna. We're the ones who were impersonating the Blur."
"Oh, really?" Lois said, ignoring the incredulous look Clark was giving the pair. "So, what are you doing here?"
"We got the Blur in a lot of trouble," Jayna spoke up. "We just wanted to come forward and clear his name, to make things right."
"But, it could be dangerous for you," Clark spoke up, from behind her. "If people find out your names-"
"We don't care about that," Zan said, but Lois had a feeling that his bravado was mostly false.
"We can't print your names, anyway," she lied, easily, and Clark shot her a grateful look. "It's a legal thing."
"How about a pseudonym?" Clark suggested, as their faces fell in nearly-identical morose expressions. "What do you two call yourselves?"
"The Wonder Twins!" came the immediate answer, and Lois cocked an eyebrow.
"Wonder Twins," she repeated, testing it out. "All right, then," she continued, all business, "start talking."
"Well," Jayna started, "the biggest was probably the drug dealers we thought we were stopping…"
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Three weeks later:
"It is not beginning to feel a lot like Christmas," Lois snapped, slamming her phone down in its cradle.
"Did they put you on hold, again?" Clark asked, looking up from his computer.
"I was still on hold when they cut me off," Lois corrected him, still seething. "For the third time."
"I think it's time to admit defeat, Lois," Clark advised her. "You're not going to get anything out of the District Attorney's office on Sacks' release from prison."
"That's what they think," Lois muttered, darkly. "What did you get out of the public defender's office?"
"Not happy would be an understatement," Clark told her. "PA Milkin spent a lot of time working on the case against Sacks, and now he's out with all charges dropped."
"Man pushes me off a building and gets away scot-free," Lois grumbled, irritated.
"He won't get away with it, forever," Clark said. Then, in an obvious change of subject, he said, "Hey, I've got a surprise for you, tonight."
"We've got Ollie's Christmas party, tonight," Lois reminded him. "And, besides, I hate surprises."
Clark looked like he wanted to say something, but then they heard the faint whine of sirens from outside the building, and Clark cocked his head, like he was listening. Biting back the urge to tell him to just go, already, Lois waited for Clark's reaction.
"I have to go," Clark told her, after a few seconds. "I just remembered that I have a dentist's appointment."
He had a pleading look on his face, like he was praying that she'd buy it. Taking pity on him, Lois nodded at the door.
"Better get going before you're late," she remarked, and Clark darted out of the door before she'd even finished her sentence.
Almost fifteen minutes later, she got the call she'd been hoping for from the District Attorney's office, with the voice on the other end of the line promising her an exclusive about Sacks' early release from prison.
"Hey, Smallville," Lois said, as her phone clicked over to Clark's voice mail. "I know you're busy with your appointment, but I got a lead on the Sacks story, and I'm heading out to check it out, now."
She had to pause as she went out to the parking garage, trying to remember where she parked her car. Then, once she was up on the upper level where she'd parked, she finished the rest of her message.
"Anyway, I'll call you again, in a bit," Lois promised, clicking off her phone and stowing it in her pocket. Then, turning back to her car, she started digging around in her purse for her car keys.
Starting her car, she drove out of the parking garage and went to the warehouse district where her source had promised to meet her. Figuring there was a more than good possibility of walking into a trap, she dug around in her purse for the pepper spray she kept at the bottom. Then, she got out of her car, locking the door behind her.
Hearing a noise, she whirled around, keys in hand. Then, a dark shadow loomed at the edge of her vision, and a sharp pain exploded through her skull as the world went black.
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She woke up to the sound of water dripping. Lois lifted her head from where it had fallen to her chest, groaning softly as pain spiked through her head. She blinked, slowly, feeling her eyelids drag against something rough, and she twisted her head from side to side to try and get the blindfold off. All she succeeded in doing was tightening the cloth where it was tied around her head, creating uncomfortable pressure at her temples.
She could feel the disturbingly-familiar tug of duct tape against the sides of her face when she grimaced in pain. The tape was pressed so tightly to her face that she'd bitten her lips, and she was pretty sure that she'd drawn blood. And when she flexed her fingers, she could feel tightening in the bonds around her wrists, securing her to the chair she was sitting on.
'Who'd I piss off, now?' she couldn't help thinking, as she twisted her hands around, trying to loosen her wrists from their restraints.
But, the ropes around her wrists weren't coming off; in fact, they were only getting tighter, cutting off circulation to her hands, and Lois finally gave up the struggle, grudgingly admitting that whoever had knocked her unconscious and tied her up certainly knew how to tie a good knot.
She didn't know how long she sat there in the darkness, with only the slow, steady drip of water breaking the stifling silence. She'd struggled some more against her bonds, but she'd only succeeded in knocking over the chair she was sitting in. And now, in addition to being tied up and virtually helpless, she was wet from having landed in a puddle of water.
Her arm hurt from where she'd landed on it, slowly growing numb from shoulder to elbow. Her head hurt from bouncing when she'd hit the cold concrete. And she couldn't stop shivering as the cold water soaked through her clothes.
She was at the mercy of whoever had kidnapped her.
After a while, she heard the sound of something scraping over the concrete, and then the sound of footsteps rapidly coming over to her. Without warning, someone grabbed her and hauled her upright, slamming the chair back onto the concrete.
"Trying to escape?" a cold voice asked, and then the blindfold was pulled away from her eyes, letting her see the warehouse she was being held in.
Lois winced as several strands of hair were caught in the man's fingers, blinking in the harsh light that was aimed right at her eyes. The man, his face still shrouded in shadows, reached out and ripped the duct tape away from her skin, the pain shooting through her face. Holding back a whimper of pain, she licked her lips, trying to work up even a little bit of moisture in her mouth.
"So," she managed to get out, her voice cracked and dry, "why am I being treated to such overwhelming hospitality?"
"Where are the Wonder Twins?" the man snapped out, and of everything Lois had been expecting, that was not it.
"The Wonder Twins?" she repeated, incredulously. "What makes you think I know anything about them?"
"You wrote their article," the man said, harshly. "You were the one who told the city about their impersonating the Blur."
"Doesn't make me their publicist," Lois snarked, unable to keep the sarcasm at bay.
"You're going to tell me where they are," the man continued, undeterred.
"I wouldn't tell you even if I knew," Lois shot back.
"Then you're going to die," the man told her, and Lois's eyebrows flew up in shock.
"Little extreme, don't you think?" she commented, but the man was suddenly distracted by a man coming into the warehouse, shoving someone else in front of him.
"Found him lurking outside, Mr. Sacks," the man said, and Lois's captor stepped out of the shadows.
She found herself glaring at Raymond Sacks, the same would-be murderer that had shoved her off a building three weeks ago.
The other man, very clearly a bodyguard, if the suit and shoulder holster were anything to go by, shoved his own captive forward, and Lois sighed in quiet resignation as Zan stumbled forward, falling and hitting the ground hard.
'That just figures,' she thought, exasperatedly.
T he young man had twisted around from where he'd fallen to the floor, his arms bent underneath him at an awkward, probably painful, angle. When he looked at her, he looked scared, and Lois tried her best to be reassuring without being able to say anything.
"What were you doing out there?" Sacks barked, pushing past his bodyguard to prod Zan, sharply, in the ribs with his expensive wingtip shoe.
"He was following me," Lois said, before Zan could say anything. "He's an intern at the Daily Planet. I've been showing him the ropes of the job." Putting a glare on her face, she added, "He was supposed to be waiting in the car."
"Sorry," Zan muttered, taking the cue she was giving him. The rest of his reply was lost when Sacks kicked him in the stomach, again, making him cough and gasp for breath.
"What the hell was that for?" Lois snapped, glaring at the district attorney. "I just told you, he's no one. He doesn't know anything. Just let him go."
"I don't think so," Sacks told her. "You have ten minutes, Ms. Lane, to tell me where the Wonder Twins are, or your friend is going to have a very bad day."
He stalked out of the warehouse, the bodyguard following him to station himself at the door, watching them impassively. Lois waited until they were both well out of earshot before she bent down as much as she dared, locking eyes with Zan.
"Please tell me you can turn into some sort of water and get out of here to get help," she hissed, heart sinking when Zan just shook his head, minutely.
"My powers don't work unless I touch Jayna, first," he whispered.
"Great," she muttered. "So, now I've got to get you out of here, too."
"I don't need you to get me out of this," Zan said, immediately, and there was a smug tone to his voice, like he hadn't quite convinced himself that his powers weren't going to somehow save him.
Lois just shook her head, not willing to use what energy she had left arguing with him. She wanted to focus everything she could on getting out of there.
"I'm going to fall," she hissed, and Zan's eyes went wide. "Get ready to roll out of the way."
"I'll break your fall," he said, stubbornly, but Lois shook her head.
"No way," she told him. "If I land on you, we'll both get hurt, and then we'll never get out of here."
Zan glared at her, but he tensed his muscles as she shifted her weight, rocking the chair, slightly. Then, she lurched to the side, deliberately tipping the chair over. She caught a flash of Zan rolling out of her way, and then she was crashing to the floor, again, the impact rattling her teeth and sending a spike of pain through her head.
Through the ringing in her ears, she could hear the bodyguard laughing at her, and then she felt Zan tense up beside her, seconds before a boot impacted firmly with her stomach. Lois grunted in pain, opening her eyes and craning her head around to glare up at the man.
"That the best you got?" she said, mockingly, as she squirmed around on the ground like she was trying to kick out at him.
Zan, luckily, seemed to catch on to what she was trying to do, and while she was taunting the bodyguard, he was writhing around to get behind her. Then, Lois felt his fingers on her wrists as he started fumbling, blindly, with the ropes that tied her to the chair.
"If you don't shut up," the bodyguard started, menacingly, but it was clearly an empty threat, and Lois felt a little more confident at the small sign that he wasn't allowed to kill them, at least not yet.
"What are you going to do about it?" she said, a deliberately infuriating tone in her voice.
She was trying to do anything she could to distract him from Zan, behind her. She could feel him picking at the knot, and she subtly flexed her hands, to try and help him out as much as she could. She kicked out, again, taking another boot in the stomach for her troubles.
But, she also felt the rope around her ankles give, a little bit, with her effort. Then, almost as suddenly, the rope around her wrists went slack, taking the pressure on her legs with it. They'd used the same rope to tie both her hands and her wrists, and Lois cheered, internally, even as she lashed out, catching the bodyguard in the shins with her feet.
The man stumbled backward, and Lois rolled to her feet, forcing stiff muscles into action as she lunged at the man. She got lucky, hitting him as he was still off balance and knocking him to the floor. A single blow to his jaw had the man's head bouncing off the concrete, and then he was out for the count. Lois took a few, precious seconds to breathe, trying to get her bearings, and then she forced herself to move, again.
She pulled Zan to his feet, her injured arm screaming in protest. Then, she picked at the duct tape that the boy's wrists were bound with, finally freeing his hands.
"Let's get out of here," Zan hissed, as soon as his hands were free, heading immediately for the main doors of the warehouse.
"Not that way, you idiot," Lois snapped, quietly, grabbing the back of his shirt and hauling him back to her. "This way," she added, dragging him toward the windows along the side.
There were scraps of metal and rock scattered on the edges of the warehouse, as thought someone hadn't done a very good job of cleaning up. Lois could have kissed someone for that.
"What is this stuff?" Zan asked, suddenly, picking up one of the rocks, one that had a familiar green hue to it.
"Meteor rock," Lois answered, distractedly, as she looked around for something suitable to break the window with. "This was probably a refining plant before it was shut down."
Spotting a piece of metal with an appropriately-sharp edge, she heaved it at one of the windows, wincing at the sound of breaking glass that sounded as loud as a gunshot.
But, no one came running at the sound, and Lois went over to the window, standing directly below it and cupping her hands into a cradle.
"Come on," she said, nodding at the window.
"You can't lift me that high," Zan protested, and Lois rolled her eyes.
"That's why you're going to jump," she told him. "I certainly can't go first, because I won't be able to pull you out."
"Fine," Zan huffed, indignantly, and then he took a running start, putting his foot in her hands and jumping into the air. Lois pushed him up as much as she could, boosting him into the air.
Zan caught the edge of the window, his breath catching in a quiet sob as the broken glass bit into his hands, but he remained quiet, and Lois was proud of him for that. No matter what powers he'd boasted of three weeks ago, she'd gotten the impression that he and his sister were still just kids. And they certainly weren't used to situations like the one Zan currently found himself in.
Balancing carefully at the top of the window, Zan leaned down and caught her hand as she jumped up. Lois used her momentum as Zan pulled her upward, planting her feet on the wall and propelling herself up. She grabbed the edge of the window as Zan jumped down from his perch, hoisting herself through the window and landing on the ground outside.
Then, grabbing his hand, Lois bolted down the street in the direction of her car, pulling Zan with her.
"Care to tell me why you're on the DA's Most Wanted list?" she panted out, as they ran.
"We didn't exactly tell you everything when we gave you that interview," Zan said, hesitantly.
"Yeah, I picked up on that," Lois told him. "What didn't you tell me and Clark?"
"Jayna and I kind of cornered DA Sacks when he was trying to escape," Zan temporized.
"Cornered how?" Lois pressed, insistently.
"Jayna turned into a really big cat and threatened to eat him," Zan told her.
Stopping, Lois turned and stared at him, incredulously.
"You what?" she demanded.
"Jayna acted like she was going to eat him, and then he got arrested," Zan said, quickly.
"You guys don't do things by halves, do you?" Lois asked, exasperatedly.
Zan gave her a sheepish grin, and Lois huffed out a sigh. Then, the shrill ringing of her phone split the silence, and she answered it with a brisk, "What?"
"I've got to commend you on your escape, Ms. Lane," Sacks said, and Lois scowled at the sound of his voice. "Under my nose, no less. It was clever of you."
"Thanks," Lois said, sarcastically. "Your good opinion of me means so much."
"But, while I'm impressed by your escape," Sacks went on, as though she hadn't even spoken, "I'm not sure your boyfriend feels the same way."
"Excuse me?" Lois demanded, feeling cold inside by what the man was implying.
"My men picked up your partner, Mr. Kent," Sacks told her. "He was our backup plan, to ensure your good behavior."
"What do you want?" Lois asked, quietly, trying to clamp down the fear that threatened to overwhelm her.
She might have had her suspicions about Clark being the Blur, but she didn't have any real proof. And she wasn't willing to risk Clark's life on something that was only still a hunch.
"The stakes are higher, now, Ms. Lane," Sacks said. "You have one hour to bring me the Wonder Twins, and the Blur. Or your partner will die."
There was a click as her phone went dead, and Lois stared at it in disbelief. She could feel herself going cold as she thought of Clark being in danger.
"What's wrong?" Zan asked, quietly.
"Sacks has Clark hostage," she said, shaking herself out of her mood. "I have one hour to turn you and your sister, and the Blur, over to him, or he's going to kill Clark."
"Why?" Zan asked, sounding baffled. "I know he's mad, but why does he want us, so badly?"
"You said it, yourself," Lois reminded him. "You and Jayna threatened him, humiliated him. And he's got a vendetta against the Blur. He hates the three of you."
"I didn't think he'd take it this far," Zan said, and he gave Lois an apologetic look. "Jayna and I heard about Sacks getting out of prison, and we wanted to just check up on things. We didn't mean for things to go this badly."
"This isn't your fault," Lois said, but Zan shook his head.
"If we hadn't cornered him, none of this would be happening," he said.
"You don't know that," Lois said. "Sacks is obsessed with bringing down the Blur, and people like him. You're just an excuse he's using. None of this is your fault."
Zan nodded, but he didn't look entirely convinced. "What do we do, now?" he asked.
"We're going to find a way to fix this," Lois said.
"We could turn ourselves over to him," Zan said, suddenly. "Me and Jayna. We can't let your partner get hurt because of us."
"That's not even an option," Lois said, brushing his idea aside, immediately. "No, we're going to figure something else out."
"Like what?" Zan asked.
"Where's your sister?" Lois asked.
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They'd spent almost forty minutes getting Jayna and formulating a rescue plan, time that Lois regretted. Time that Clark had spent in the hands of an obsessed madman. Well, not any more.
"You ready?" Lois asked, and the twins nodded, determinedly.
They bumped fists, quickly, but Lois covered their mouths before they could say anything.
"We're trying to do this, quietly," she reminded them, and they both nodded, shamefaced.
They split up, Zan sneaking quietly toward the building while Jayna hung back with her. They watched as Zan crept along the side of the building, toward the window they'd broken earlier, and then they both jumped when Lois's phone rang, suddenly.
"What do you want?" she snapped, recognizing Sacks' number on her screen.
"Tick tock, Ms. Lane," Sacks said, in a sing-song voice. "You're running out of time."
"I'm working as fast as I can," Lois told him. "I can't exactly snap my fingers and have all of Metropolis's heroes jump to my command."
"Well, they'd better start, at least in the next fifteen minutes, or your partner is going to meet an untimely end," Sacks told her.
"I'll get them there," Lois lied, through gritted teeth. "But, Clark better not have a scratch on him."
"Just do what I told you, and everything's going to be fine," Sacks told her, and then he hung up, abruptly.
"He's going to pay for this," Lois declared, shoving her phone into her pocket.
She looked over to where Zan was waiting below the window, giving him a thumbs-up as the signal. Zan nodded, once, and then began literally disappearing into thin air. A cloud of fog began slowly creeping through the broken window, and Lois began counting down from ten under her breath. Jayna shifted while she was counting, and when she hit one, a large white tiger was standing beside her. She and Jayna shared a look, and then they rushed the door.
Lois wrenched the door open, Jayna running inside ahead of her to be almost immediately swallowed up by the thick cloud of fog that filled the warehouse. Lois darted in after her, keeping to the edges of the room as she tried to find Clark in the fog.
She couldn't hear Jayna as she moved through the fog, could barely see the dark shadow she cast. Which meant that Sacks probably had no idea where his stalker was. Which was a good thing as far as Lois was concerned.
The fog lifted slightly, and Lois caught a glimpse of Clark tied to the same chair she'd been secured to, earlier. His head was drooped forward, chin on his chest, and his chest rose and fell in slow breaths. There was a sickly greenish pallor to his skin, and she could see the cold, clammy sheen of sweat on his skin.
Swallowing down the furious growl that threatened to emerge, Lois crept toward Clark, silently thanking Zan when the fog quickly swallowed her up. Reaching his side, Lois nudged Clark to wake him up, putting a hand over his mouth to keep him from making any noise as he dragged his eyes open, staring at her, blearily.
"Lois?" he breathed, lips moving against her palm, and she nodded, reassuringly.
"You didn't really think I was going to leave you here, did you, Smallville?" she asked, in barely more than a whisper, as she began working at the ropes holding him to the chair.
"Knew you'd come," Clark said, his head dropping back to his chest as he struggled to stay awake.
"Stay with me, Clark," she hissed, swatting away a meteor rock that had rolled under his chair. "Just stay away for me, okay?"
"Yeah," Clark said, and he sounded stronger with every second.
He strained against the ropes as she worked at the knot, and when the ropes snapped, he slumped forward without the support, almost falling off the chair. Lois caught him before he could hit the ground, supporting her weight with her shoulders.
"Gotcha," she breathed, and Clark wrapped his arms around her waist, dropping his head to her shoulder.
"Great timing," he said, and Lois chuckled, softly.
A ferocious roar broke off their moment, and Lois helped Clark stand up, turning around as the fog disappeared, Zan appearing in the center of the warehouse. He stood beside Jayna, who had Sacks pinned to the ground, her massive weight holding him firmly in place.
"I think we should call the cops, don't you?" Lois asked, looking down at the man. "I think they'll be very interested to hear that Sacks has upgraded his criminal activities to kidnapping and attempted murder."
"I think you're right," Clark agreed, wrapping an arm around her waist as he leaned against her. "Especially since I've been recording everything since his goons first grabbed me."
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a mini-recorder, the tape still running.
"Lois Lane's rule of reporting number twelve," he said, smugly. "Always have a way to get a quote."
"You're a fast learner," Lois said, happily.
"I had a good teacher," Clark said, and from where he was pinned to the ground, Sacks made a gagging noise.
"You know, for a man in your position, you're awfully chatty," Lois remarked, turning on him.
"I'd rather go to jail than to listen to one more second of this sappy garbage," Sacks spit at her, and Jayna snarled, threateningly.
"Luckily for you," Lois said, as she pulled her phone out and started dialing, "that's an option."
Fifteen minutes later, after the police had hauled a protesting Sacks away in their squad car, Lois and Clark were alone in the warehouse with Zan and Jayna.
"Good job, you two," Lois praised them. "Without you guys, Clark and I would still be in trouble."
"Yeah, but if it wasn't for us, you wouldn't have gotten in trouble in the first place," Jayna said. Before Lois could protest, she went on, quickly. "We made a mess when we tried to imitate the Blur, and you guys got caught up in the aftermath. We tried to be heroes, and instead you wound up having to save us."
"Lois is good at that," Clark said, and Lois elbowed him, playfully.
"Makes a nice change from needing to be rescued," she replied.
"But, you shouldn't have needed-" Zan started, but Clark cut him off.
"Sometimes, you're going to make mistakes," he said, quietly. "You'll make enemies, and people will want to go after you for one reason or another. But the important thing is, this time, you fixed it. And no one got hurt."
"Nice speech," Lois said, softly, as the twins stared at him in amazement. "Speaking from experience?"
"You're still heroes," Clark told them, ignoring Lois's pointed jab. "You're just on a learning curve."
Finally, they seemed convinced, and after saying good-bye, Zan and Jayna left, leaving them alone in the warehouse. Slinging a companionable arm around Lois's shoulders, Clark steered her out of the warehouse, out into the sunshine.
"You know what I don't understand," Lois commented, "how did they get you out to the warehouse in the first place?"
"Sacks called me and told me that if I didn't show up, here," Clark told her, "that they were going to kill you."
"And you just walked right into a trap," Lois said.
"Well, it's not like it was completely a lie," Clark reminded her. "You got kidnapped, too."
"Don't remind me," Lois grumbled. Then, softening, she said, "Thank you for coming after me. It means a lot that you'd rush into danger for me."
"Anytime," Clark promised. "Besides," he added, in a teasing tone, "I'm getting used to it."
Lois rolled her eyes, swatting at him.
"Looks like we're going to miss Ollie's Christmas party," she said, looking at the sun setting in the distance.
"I'd rather have our own celebration," Clark told her. "Just the two of us."
"Sounds nice," Lois replied. Then, remembering their earlier conversation, she added, "Didn't you have a surprise for me, this morning?"
"Oh, yeah," Clark said. "Come on."
To Lois's surprise, he scooped her up in his arms, grinning down at her.
"What are you doing?" she asked, perplexed.
"You're going to want to hang on," Clark advised her, and, baffled, Lois wound her arms around his neck.
Then, to her amazement, Clark began to run, going faster and faster until the scenery started blurring around them. She buried her face in his shoulder, against the wind buffeting them, and just a few seconds later, Clark was stopping. Lifting her head, Lois looked around at their surroundings.
They were standing beside Crater Lake in Smallville, and Lois jumped out of Clark's arms, spinning around to stare at him.
"You are the Blur," she said, softly, and Clark nodded.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, sooner," he said. "But, I want to be serious about this relationship we're starting, and I don't want to do that with something like this between us."
"Thank you," Lois said, leaning up and kissing him, quickly. "Thank you for trusting me with this."
"I always knew I could," Clark said, making her smile. Then, she frowned, slightly. "Wait a minute," she said. "Who was that on the phone, then, three weeks ago?"
"Chloe, using a voice modifier," Clark told her. "Honestly," he went on, "when you cornered me, I was going to tell you, but after that phone call, I didn't think you'd believe me."
"Oh, trust me, I'd have believed you," Lois told him. "So, was this the surprise?"
"No," Clark said, shaking his head. "This is the surprise."
With a flourish, he produced two pairs of ice skates from where he'd hidden them somewhere, earlier.
"That's sweet, Smallville," Lois said, as she took one of the pairs of ice skates from him, "but I don't know if you've noticed that we haven't exactly had typical winter weather."
"We don't need it," Clark told her, smiling mysteriously.
Taking a deep breath, he blew it out in a rush, and Lois watched in amazement as the lake slowly iced over, the water freezing into a solid surface from one shore to the other. Cautiously, Lois stepped forward onto the ice, testing the strength with her weight, laughing in amazement when it held.
"You're really something, you know that?" she remarked, as she sat down on the grass at the side of the lake.
Pulling the skates on, she tied the laces, tightly. Then, standing, she tested her balance on the ice before gliding out onto the lake. Turning in a slow circle, she looked over to where Clark had just finished lacing up his own skates, looking dubiously out at the ice.
"Don't tell me you've never been skating!" Lois teased, gently, skating over to him and stopping in front of him.
"Not really," Clark admitted, standing, slowly, and then pin-wheeling his arms frantically, for balance, when he almost immediately fell over.
"Lock your ankles," Lois instructed him, taking his hands and pulling him further out onto the ice.
"What are you doing?" Clark asked, uneasily, as he was pulled along.
"Trust me, Smallville," Lois told him. "I'm not going to let you fall."
Taking a sudden step forward, Clark pulled her to him in a close embrace.
"Don't worry," he murmured, as he bent down to kiss her. "I trust you."