III

"Tah-dah!"

Clark looked up from his textbook to see Lois standing before him, waving a copy of the Daily Planet. She had an impish grin on her face, and instinctively he felt himself smiling as he took the paper from her.

"Saltech Labs Under Investigation for Human Rights Abuses," he read aloud, "by Lois Lane — this is the story you've been working on?" he glanced up at her, and she nodded. He skimmed through the article as she came around to lean her head against his, chin on his shoulder, arms around his chest.

"Possible affiliation with Luthorcorp," he said.

"Possible my ass," she murmured, "but you know Lex. They're gonna be following that paper trail for years."

He smiled, and then turned his head. "Nice work," he said into her ear, and she grinned, tilting her head away.

"You know what this means," she said, standing straight and stretching out her back, "now that this story's been put to bed, I'm gonna have a little more time to spend, oh, say, with you." She stroked his hair back out of his eyes, studying him, and then leaned in to kiss the corner of his mouth and then his cheek. Clark closed his eyes.

"I missed you," echoed in his world.

"Clark,"

Clark looked over at Lois, her face serious, on her side, resting against the grass in the field. He turned over so that he was facing her, and she looked down for a moment.

"Am I bad?"

He felt the muscles in his forehead twitch, and swallowed as he gently shook his head from side-to-side.

"It's just," she discreetly wiped at her face, "Lucy, and now Chloe. I don't think I'm a very good sister or friend." She breathed in, and only he could hear the shuddering in her breath. "Lucy and I were never very close," she said, "Maybe if I'd done a better job bringing her up, or, I don't know. And now, now Chloe never seems to have time for me, always busy with top secret whatever, I don't know. Maybe that was my fault too."

She paused, and in the time it took her to press her lips together, Clark's heart broke. "I've never been very good at getting people to like me," she confessed, "so I just pretend it doesn't matter, but sometimes — some people —"

"You're not bad," he said. He ran the tips of his fingers down the side of her face, "It's not you". He leaned in and kissed her, kissed her cheek, still damp from the tear she tried to brush away, kissed her eyelids.

"You're the only person I ever said that to," she said, whispering in his ear as she kissed his neck. "You'll always be here won't you?"

Clark almost never realised Lois was this vulnerable sometimes. "I'll always be here," he said, "I'll always be here." And in the repeating, she faded away. He felt panic grip his heart. "Please," he said, "Jor-El, let me keep this one. Just this one, just this one."

He got up, and turned all around him — but all around him was nothing.

Lois smiled over at him as he stood there on the Daily Planet roof, a million glimmering lights floating before him, the globe creaking behind him. The wind whipped her hair up, and he felt her slip her hand in his.

"This is —" he started, and couldn't finish. He looked up into the sky, where every star was the mirror of a light on the ground. "In the whole galaxy," he said, "this is the only place I want to be. Here. Now."

She just smiled, wordlessly, and put his arm around her, leaning against him in the cool of the night.

Moments passed before he felt her breathe in to speak. "You know, it's," she paused, "silly, I guess — but I kind of have this picture in my head, not like a dream, at least, I don't think it was a dream, but I have this image of the two of us..." she trailed off and Clark looked at her. Her heart was beating, so fast. She nodded to herself and then said, as if it were the most embarrassing thing, "Of us, up there — in the sky, together."

Clark swallowed, and then just kissed the top of her head.

The lights went out.

They were stood on the edge of the Luthorcorp building, surrounded by blinding darkness.

Clark felt Lois slip through his arm.

He watched her fall from his side, falling parallel to the building into the absolute black. Her lips moved:

"Clark."

"Lois."

He jumped, feet-first, falling, falling, willing himself towards the ground. He looked down past his feet. Lois's falling body was the only point of reference in a world of black: he wasn't sure if they were still falling, or suspended together in the darkness forever.

He hit the ground — no, not the ground. He was back on top of the Luthorcorp building, in the dark, alone.

"I want to call it off," his breath came out in a rush. "Jor-El?" He looked around himself, desperate, "Jor-El, I want to call it off." He found himself shouting into the abyss: "Can you hear me? I don't want to forget!"

He was on his knees, searching, fumbling for her. "Lois," he shouted, "Lois."

"Clark."

"Lois!" He turned around, craning his head, shuffling forwards desperately.

"Smallville." She was afraid. She was alone. He could hear it in her voice.

She was there, stood on the edge of the roof, smiling back at him.

"We have to go," he rushed to her and took her hands. "We've got to go."

"What," she almost tripped as he rushed away, dragging her along. "Clark, what?"

They ran through all the flickering images of the moments Clark was planning to forget: the water fight when he was supposed to be studying, the time she charred their dinner after offering to cook, the Daily Planet application, holding her, feeling her heart beat —

"She knew it was the right thing to do."

"She was very unhappy."

The taste of Lois's lips, the smell of green leather. His heart was pounding, harder than it had ever beat, just for Lois.

"You didn't have a choice, Clark."

They found themselves running through Metropolis Grand Central. Clark looked around himself as all the people around them disappeared. The memory was fading. They couldn't stay here.

Lois's voice, looking back at him over her shoulder: "Clark, the General's going to tolerate you, I promise."

"What —?" He looked down at the bags in his hands.

"No!" He dropped them and grabbed Lois's hand. "Come on,"

"Smallville, what are you —?"

"Jor-El!" he shouted. They ran through the Valentine's day party in reverse, into the Fortress. There was Clark, standing before the console, looking down at the crystal in his hand.

"Jor-El," he said again. "Wake me up!"

There was a moment of unsettling silence, and then Jor-El's voice boomed into Clark's head alone. "My son, I thought you understood."

"You're erasing her," he said, his voice shaking, "you're taking her away from me." He looked at where Lois was standing, but she was gone. He shouted into the chambers of the Fortress, "I want you to wake me up. I want this to stop."

"I am merely a figment of your imagination, Kal-El," said Jor-El. "I have no power here."

"No, you can hear me," Clark said, "you're in my brain, you can hear me."

For the second time, or maybe the third, or maybe more, the Fortress fell to pieces around him.