A/N: Alright, the next chapter, after the big: "I love you…" All I can say about this chapter is, I should have known. I put myself in this situation, forcing Lois and Clark to confront their feelings, so I have no one to blame but myself for the craziness that will now ensue. Thank you to everyone who's stuck by these stories… Mary Reed, ColleenJoy, Mandraco, Garces01, Kairan 1979, ellenemi, Fany1, kmccormick03, More Black, SamiaX, xncrzy… all of you. I wouldn't keep writing if not for the support.

This chapter is dedicated to ImpNo1, because the Lois in here reminds me of the Lois in your stories… and that's a great, great thing!

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nine…

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"What the hell is the matter with you?!"

Lois shoved him away, not caring when he all but fell over, the pain in his shoulder jacking up another notch.

"What?"

"Are you doing this on purpose?"

"What?"

"Do you think it's funny, or something?"

"What?"

"You pick now! This moment! Of all moments in the history of a universe full of moments, you decide to just… just… say something like that?!"

"Well, I thought…"

"Oh, really? You think? You're capable of thinking? I never would have noticed!"

"Look, I'm sorry, I just…"

"And now you're apologising again!"

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know! Can't we just… talk about something else? Please?" she looked more than a little panicked, "Like this… big, dark secret of yours! So, you're the Red-Blue Blur, huh? What's that like? Are there benefits? I mean… I guess there can't be medical or dental, but somebody should compensate you for wear and tear on like… jeans, and stuff! I'm sure you scrape a lot of them climbing trees to save kittens."

Clark just stared at her. Lois was notorious for her off-kilter rants, but this one was off the charts. She was pacing up and down, her hands flailing wildly and her eyes were so wide, he found himself counting the seconds in between blinks.

Lois herself hadn't skipped a beat, "Did you read that crap on the internet after my little Stiletto fiasco? People were all like… oh, Blur-Etto, they would be great together! Ha! Like you can even have a relationship with a blur. Well, of course you can, because it's you, but still… they don't know that! People on the net are just whackjobs, if you ask me…"

She finally seemed to run out of breath. When she looked at him, he noticed that the gleam of terror was still very evident in her eyes. She was looking at him in much the same way a hamstrung mouse would look at a hungry snake. But he couldn't understand it. She wasn't afraid of him because of his abilities.

Must be the other thing, then.

"Lois…" he didn't make any move to close the distance between them, afraid that he might spook her again and set off another tirade, "If you don't feel the same way, that's fine. I just… I dunno, in that moment, I wanted to tell you… how I felt."

"Why?"

The question was so simple, he was completely stumped for an answer for long, long seconds. His silence seemed to be affecting Lois in the strangest way. She was coiled and tense, drawing in on herself and she kept taking small, but frequent steps backward.

"Because…" he said, "It's true. I don't know when it happened, or how it happened, and I know how crazy it is, I mean… it's you! And me! We're… we're Lois and Clark! That'll never work! But…"

Clark trailed off. He was starting to rant a bit himself. Thoughts and emotions were just swirling through his entire being, and he was finding it difficult to pick one thread, on piece of coherence out of the chaos raging inside him.

"Other people have found out about me," he confessed, "In different ways, different circumstances, but no one… no one ever took it the way you did."

"Yeah," Lois muttered, "I'm the poster-child for coping right now…"

"You're not acting like this because of my secret."

"So, what? You're a mind-reader too?"

"Why does this scare you so much?" Clark demanded, "If you don't feel the same, just tell me. I can take it."

"Is that what you really think?"

"I'm not sure what to think right now, Lois, you're kinda acting like a crazy person."

"I'm the crazy one?"

Just like that, all traces of her earlier discomfort vanished and, as she marched in furious step to confront him Clark wished, just for a second, that it would come back.

"Why don't you take that hyped-up sense of analysis and focus it on yourself for a second?" she said, poking him again, right where it hurt, "I'm the one acting insane? We're stuck in Hitler's fantasy bunker! My cousin's off the reservation where she's just the discovered the joy of guns and meteor rock… probably on her little Bonny and Clyde trip across the country with a psychopath! We have no way of getting out of here! I just find out that you're a superhero and then you go and tell me you love me? Are-you-freaking-kidding-me, Smallville?!"

Her final words were punctuated with short, sharp jabs right over his bandage and Clark actually felt his knees buckle.

"I'm…"

"If you say you're sorry, I'm jamming the leg of that chair through that bullet hole!"

"You know what,? You're right!" Clark yelled at her, regaining his balance, "I must be the crazy one! I fell in love with you! With Lois Lane, of all people! If that isn't a recipe for a white coat and a padded room, then I don't know what is!"

"So, it's crazy to love me?"

Now she sounded offended. Clark wanted to scream. What the hell?

"It must be!" he shot back, "Because it is. I mean, I am! I'm crazy about you…"

His anger had trailed off so fast that the last words were barely a whisper. Clark realised, with some shock, that he had tears in his eyes. She was looking at him the way she always did. A combination of affection and frustration. Like he was the one thing in all the world that she couldn't figure out, and was happy about it.

Her eyes again.

Falling again.

He didn't care.

He could fall into them for the rest of his life and he would never, ever care.

"You're a moron, Clark."

And then she was kissing him.

What the hell?

He went with it.