Clark took of his glasses as Lois jumped,
"He really chooses his moments doesn't he!"
she yelled, narrowing her eyes at the altar and the surrounding ice-structure, Clark smiled,
"I apologise for surprising you Lois Lane Kent, and I apologise for how I have treated you before."
Zor-ELs voice boomed out,
"Wow! He's really mellowing in his old age!" smirked Lois,
Zor-El seemingly chose to ignore this and spoke,
"Kal-El, Lois needs to understand the importance of the ceremony."
Clark stood up and said,
"A Kryptonian Ceremony is where I say some deeply bonding words, like in an earth wedding, then by me placing this bracelet on your wrist and you repeating those words to me, we would then be officially married in Kryptonian culture. In much the same way as a Christian wedding on earth would be."
Zor-El explained,
"In Kryptonian culture a man and woman who were soul-mates would often have a naturally developed telepathic link. This has not generally happened on earth with its people, and so the bracelet allows this communication of the mind."
Lois was trying to take it all in, but that Kryptonians had been to earth before surprised her,
"Wait!, This has happened before!"
Zor-El responded as Clark listened intently,
"Some Kryptonians have visited earth before, long ago, but not in a great number, and have stayed only for a short time. This bracelet is a gift from me to my son, Kal-El, in case he found his soul-mate on earth.
He found you Lois Lane Kent, married you in an earth marriage ceremony, where you officially became his wife. This is a Kryptonian confirmation of that bond. A blessing of that marriage."
Lois beamed with happiness as she embraced Clark, and he kissed her passionately, she then asked Zor-El, resting her head on Clark's chest,
"What do you mean when you said communication of the mind?"
Zor-El replied,
"It is purely between soul-mates, and with practise you can speak to each other over great distances. The bracelet can detect when you are in grave danger and send a warning to Kal-El by telepathy."
"Useful that." smirked Clark, Lois mock punched him in the shoulder,
"Oi! Watch it you! I can take care of myself!"
Clark smiled, "Always.."
then kissed her on the lips again.
Zor-El spoke,
"The ceremony does not take long, and takes place with you both standing on the alter, and does not hurt. Words of deep meaning need to be spoken and the bracelet is then placed on the wrist. When you have both spoken the words, the bracelet will help protect you Lois from mortal danger and will be unmoveable."
"See Smallville! Stuck with me forever!"
smirked Lois at Clark,
Clark led Lois to the altar and they both stood on it,
"I wouldn't have it any other way Lois.." ,
Lois replied, "Neither would I."
Then looked at Clark and said after eyeing the bracelet in his hands, with tears of joy and a huge smile,
"And in response to your earlier question over marriage Kryptonian style, the answer is yes, a thousand times over."
Clark grinned and placed the bracelet on her right wrist saying,
"I love you Lois, and swear to love and honour you for as long as there is breath in this body and beyond."
Lois looked to see Clark's eyes filled with tenderness and happiness, although she knew what to say the moment felt very special ,
"And I love you Clark, and swear to love and honour you for as long as there is breath in my body and beyond."
It was very emotional, and she could feel his love radiating towards her, and was surprised how the bracelet felt, she could barely feel it it was so incredibly comfortable, an exact fit, then the stone shone brightly.
They were then enclosed in a white light, as Lois saw images flashing all around her of her moments with Clark. When he had first spoken to her as the blur, their first date, to the many times he had saved her, and very surprisingly to her, when she had been there for him.
It was a reminder to her just how much they had gone through, the many obstacles, especially that momentous day with her Father and her sister Lucy, and the thanksgiving dinner. She had no idea how long they were standing there for, before the light faded, and as Lois held onto Clark and looked around, feeling warmth in every inch of her body, the Fortress seemed to gleam even more in the light.
Clark held her firmly but gently, passionately kissed her again, then holding her hand,
"Let's go to bed shall we!"
She looked at him with surprise,
"Here!"
He smiled,
"Yes, there is a bedchamber here. The temperature is adjusted to keep you warm. Now I understand this place, I've set the temperature for you."
Lois beamed as he led her to it,
"Ready for our first night, Mrs Kent?"
It was well hidden but was magnificent, a very large comfortable looking bed, brightly coloured flowers scattered around the very white chamber, it felt so comfortable, as Lois pulled Clark to the bed, slowly undressing him in the process, as he did to her,
she turned to Clark saying,
"Take me to bed Smallville, and lose me forever my love."
Clark smiled and happily complied...
On a private jet heading too Metropolis...
Bruce Wayne thought about what he had just read,
"How recent was this Alfred?"
Alfred looked at the man he considered an adopted son, "A few hours."
"Then he's walking into a trap, do they know about it?"
"Not according to the sources." replied Alfred pouring him a glass of water,
Bruce looked at Alfred in astonishment,
"All of the resources at their disposal and they don't know? Are they even aware!"
Alfred shook his head,
"They are aware that there is a threat, but they don't know exactly where."
Bruce shook his head, "That ceremony is far too soon."
"A knee-jerk reaction. They wanted to make the most of the publicity, and be seen as being 'pro-active'." said Alfred,
Bruce looked at Alfred drinking some water, then asked,
"Can you let our newly acquired friend over there know about it, and also drop some hints in the relevant department."
Alfred raised his eyebrows, "Our friend might already know."
"I hope they do, if they are as good as they appear to be." replied Bruce simply,
changing the subject, "What about the other information?"
"On the reporter?" inquired Alfred,
"The very one, how did you get on with it? It has been a rather momentous twenty four hours. One minute it looked like the world was going to end, computer systems failing and electrical surges and blackouts, and then suddenly 'Superman' happens, and all is well."
Alfred raised his eyebrows and placed a folder on the table in front of Bruce stating,
"Those blackouts and electrical surges effected the Daily Planets computer systems, which unfortunately caused a blackout on the server containing the private files of the staff."
Bruce opened the file and whistled,
"Wow! She is reeeaaally something to look at! It says here that she's single!"
Alfred looked at Bruce,
"I'm not entirely certain about that, as that file is not upto date. The only data we have been able to find is old information. What you're seeing is that the file shows her status to be single, and that data is about a year old. The one source commented that she was attached, but believed her to be single again. They weren't sure, especially with what was happening at the time"
Bruce looked at Alfred,
"Surely the system wasn't that badly effected? What about the people there? Around her? Her work colleagues? Surely they would know!"
"There has been a near apocalyptic event which has really been at the forefront of everyone's attention, and when they were asked they were somewhat distracted and perhaps unsurprisingly had other things on their minds. Regarding the system, that's all that could be retrieved, it was a backup of an old backup, as the system was rather badly damaged."
Bruce queried, "I should have checked sooner...is this missing data retrievable?"
"The engineers believe so, but have been concentrating their efforts on restoring power to the essential power systems. Once they are running well they will look into attempting to restore the lost data. They do not believe it to be lost, but the system was damaged so it will take time."
"Good. Sooner they are back up the better, and while they are at it, they need to isolate it, so that if there are power surges in future it is protected."
"I'll see to it." replied Alfred.
looking more at the file,
"Considering the system was damaged and files old, it shows she has a considerable amount of work to her name, and supportive articles on the Blur no less."
remarked Bruce,
"Yes, she wrote positive reports regarding his fight on crime, now he has come out as Superman." commented Alfred,
Bruce smiled, looking at Alfred,
"I look forward to meeting Miss Lane. Make the visit unannounced, I want to see what that newsroom looks like when I'm not expected. It would be very good to know when I'm there that Miss Lane is there, so can you make sure she is Alfred."
"I'll have someone keep a lookout for her entering the building." smiled Alfred.
The next day, very early morning, Metropolis, Star Labs...
Oliver looked in through the window at the sleeping form of Tess lying on the bed, speaking to Emil,
"How is she doing?"
Emil looked at Oliver, then at his clip-board,
"Not too bad, she has shown a significant improvement considering the time that has passed so far."
Oliver looked at her sleeping form, as Emil added,
"There's no lasting damage thankfully, at least to her vital organs, whether she regains consciousness I don't know, but all the signs are good that she will."
"I'm delighted to hear she's doing so well Emil. How are you bearing up?",
Emily smiled at Oliver as his friend placed a hand on his shoulder, and replied,
"Good thankyou, now Tess is on the road to some sort of recovery anyway. It has been a very long night, and it was touch and go for a long while, but she has stabilised now."
"How long do you reckon she will be out for?" asked Oliver,
Emil shrugged replying,
"A few days, as long as she stays on course today. The last 24 hours have been quite remarkable. Thankfully nothing poisonous was in the wound or injected into her, that really would have been fatal." he looked at the television screen behind him which was on silent,
"I've never known anything like what happened in the last twenty-four hours, it was just incredible. Clark saved us yet again."
Oliver smiled,
"Yes he did, I will never forget the reaction to his public appearance, phenomenal. He always has had that powerful effect . Lois got the exclusive and the interview with the President, and they both asked me to pass on my regards to you for Tess, and to say they will stop by this morning before the presentation."
Emil looked at Oliver,
"I know, Clark called me yesterday to let me know, although his major concern was for Tess. Well done to Lois for her exclusive, she's just what he needs.!"
"Fear not Emil, you've done an excellent job with Tess, and we're all sure she'll pull through in no time."
Emily thanked Oliver then Oliver added,
"Oh, and Lois and Clark will come by the back door, as will the others. I've only come by the front because I own the place and wanted to show my face at the building."
On that note Oliver thanked Emily for his hard work, and left to go and prepare for the ceremony later that morning,
Later on, early morning in a small military convoy travelling to Smallville...
General Sam Lane was not happy a happy man, the news he had received that morning had been to say the least very troubling to him. The missing nuclear warheads had vexed him to the point of a furious rage, with the government and feds furiously but discreetly as possible rushing around trying to find them, the President had been due to give a presentation to this 'Superman' in a few hours time, but due to natural emergencies elsewhere had had to cancel it, a situation which was unavoidable even with the missing warheads.
"Calm down Daddy, get any more agitated and you might pop a vein." quipped Lucy.
Her father gave her a cold glare,
"This is no time for humour Lucy."
The General had not told his daughter about the missing warheads, she was like all the population in that respect, completely ignorant of it, and he fully intended to keep it that way.
"The world more then fifteen hours ago looked like it was going to end, then a fantastic thing happens, 'Superman' appears dressed in a colourful skin-type suit and saves the day."
said Lucy flinging her arms into the air,
"And here you are being miserable. Its because he's stolen your thunder isn't it!"
"Lucy!"
The General replied sharply,
"No he has not stolen my thunder as you put it! This is not some movie, this is real life! We have no idea what motives are behind this 'Superman's' appearance."
then looking into his daughters eyes,
"You only have his word for it."
That was something Lucy could not argue with. From a moment when the world seemed like it was going to end, 'Superman' has her sister had named him, had arrived on the scene and literally saved the day. There were many people too grateful to actually question beyond his appearance, one wouldn't when the end of the world seemed to be inevitable.
The newspapers had been full of him, and her sister had been in the right place at the right time to grab the interviews of the century, one with the President himself right after the near apocalypse, and the other one with Superman.
"Yes, Lois is everyone's darling now." remarked Lucy,
The General eyed Lucy,
"Yes, she's done good for herself."
"But we missed the wedding. I wonder with all that was happening if she actually made it down the aisle?" commented Lucy,
"If she did not, I can understand why. You will have time to make up for it anyway."
replied the General,
"Does this happen to be a formal visit, or personal?" asked Lucy,
The General looked at her, replying,
"Both."