A/N: This special chapter was not included on the original draft of the story. I was inspired to write and include it because of the Power and Requiem episodes. Carito convinced me that it was really needed. So let me have your reviews.

Thanks to llk6165 for your help in correcting my endless mistakes in grammar.

Chapter 9: Walk Away

Daily Planet…

It had been three days, two hours, twelve minutes and thirty seconds. Lois kept herself unusually busy for the sole purpose of avoiding Clark. It had been easy to avoid him the first few days after he had brought LJ back from the Fortress, as Superman had been busy in China helping after an earthquake there.

However, today was different; she ignored him for the entire day not a word, not a single glance, which was no easy feat considering his desk was just a few feet away from hers.

"Ahem, Lois." Clark finally said.

She looked around the bullpen, desperate for an excuse to pretend she didn't hear him when she saw Jimmy holding his new developed photos.

"Hey Jimbo, are those the photos you captured from today's bank robbery?"

"Yeah, Lois."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Clark leaving the office. When she realized she had been holding her breath, she allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Hey Lo, what's the sigh all about?" Jimmy asked. "What's with the sudden urge to see these photos? Perry didn't give you this as your assignment."

"I just wanted to see your photojournalistic expertise at work."

Jimmy laughed a little unconvinced with her answer.

She patted him on the back, "Okay Jimbo, I need to go."

"Whatever you say Lois."

Lois picked up her things and got on the elevator. Instead of going down, she pressed the button on the top floor. She needed breathing space. Once on the rooftop of the Daily planet, she opened her purse and reached for two things she had kept over the years.

"After all these years, I never thought I'll be using you again." She opened her lighter tried to light her cigarette, but a gentle gust of wind kept blowing out the flame.

Lois looked up and found Superman at the ledge of the rooftop.

"You're not avoiding me, are you?" He asked.

"Why would I avoiding you? Geez, why would you think that?"

"Then why won't you look straight into my eyes?"

She fixed her gaze, "Don't start with me Small____, Superman. I'm not comfortable talking to you unlike with…" She gulped at her admission. "…with Clark."

"I am him."

Another batch of uncomfortable silence passed between.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth about my daughter before?"

'My daughter?!? The words echoed on her mind. "What? Your daughter?" She said in a ridicule tone. "Now you say she's yours, but before, you couldn't even acknowledge something happened between us."

"I asked you; you said we didn't do anything that night. I believed you."

She snorted and made a step forward. "Slap me now, because I lied. I am a LIAR!!!."

Clark looked at her, he shouldn't have confronted her. A couple days ago, they were almost okay, but that single question seemed to rebuild the wall between them. "I thought she was Oliver's."

"What?" Disgust was evident on her voice. "You thought she was Oliver's daughter." She crossed her arms and threw her lethal glare at him. "Hah, that's why you left years ago without having a backbone to say, Hey Lois, goodbye. Is that too difficult to say?"

"Yes it was, but if you had told me the truth, I would never have left."

"Only because I was pregnant and that would have been the 'right thing to do,' is that it?" She scoffed; her anger for him ready to explode. "I hate you for being the most self-righteous man, alien, whatever… living on Earth. I won't allow you to choose me because I have your child, I have no desire to trap you into something because of one night of madness."

"Lois it's not like that."

"I can't believe I'm talking to you." She turned away from him and looked out to the city's skyscraper.

To herself, she added, 'You just don't know how I wished that you had been the one to be with me during those times that I almost lost Lovell, but you're weren't. It was Oliver who stayed with me when I needed you most.' She wanted to tell him, but she opted not to.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing, and he couldn't believe the hurt her words caused him, but in a way he also understood she needed to say those words and he needed to hear them - all of them.

"I'm a different man now."

He walked up to her and reached out. He hesitated, but finally touched her arm. "Lois I'm so sorry." He turned her around to face him.

Lois looked up to the spinning globe of The Planet. 'Don't shed your tears Lane. After all these years, sorry is the only word that he could say to you. If you don't expect anything, you won't lose anything.'

She finally managed to look up into his steel blue eyes. Behind those blue tights and red cape, he was still Clark Kent after all.

"Clark you may visit her, if that's what you want."

"Thank you Lois."

She walked away from him; Clark couldn't begin to count how many times she did that and how many times he let her go. He watched her go to the stairwell door, and watched her disappear behind it. Then, he flew away.

"Uncle Jimmy!!!" Lovell ran when she saw her favorite uncle.

"How are you LJ?" He hugged and carried her. "C.K. Why did you…"

LJ cut him off… She whispered in his ears, "He's my Daddy."

Jimmy laughed at her, but later on became serious, "Oh, really?"

Clark shrugged, "Jimmy there's too much to explain, where's Lois?"

"I don't know." I haven't seen her since lunch."

"Lunch?" Clarked glanced at his watch. It was already four in the afternoon… "Jimmy please watch LJ, I'll look for Lois."

"LJ. I'll be back with your Mommy." Clark assured his daughter

"Okay." LJ answered, reassured to know she would soon be with both of her parents.

Lois sat, curled up in a corner with her hands behind her back and contemplated her present state of circumstances.

'There's a stabbing pain in my head. Really, all I wanted is to bang it on the wall behind me. But hey, my hands were tied beside my head. My long hair was disheveled. Most of them covered my face. What kind of mess have I put myself into. Will Clark be worried about me? Maybe, but only because he doesn't want LJ to lose her mother.'

She needed to get out of the mess she was in and as soon as possible. Her daughter would ask for her, and because nobody would tell her their special bedtime stories.

Lois contemplated the situation more.

'The place… Obviously, a dumpster. On what side of the world? I don't know. Time, approximately two o' clock in the afternoon. The sun hurts my eyes. I got drowsy; I am dehydrated. It's getting hotter and hotter. My eyelids are getting heavier…'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. "Hey chick, you want to drink?"

"I'm not stupid enough to trust whatever is in that glass," Lois sneered at the man looking down into the dumpster at her." Two other men, with the one holding the glass peered down at her as well. They all laughed at the woman who still managed to make a snarky comment.

Lois was terrified, but tried her best not to show it. The men pulled her out of the dumpster then covered her eyes. 'This will be the last time I see the light of day,' she thought.

"Come on put her inside the drum," heard one of the men saying.

"Hey what are you doing?" Lois tried to fight but with her arms and legs bound, escape was impossible. She tried to scream for help but the men quickly covered her mouth with masking tape. "Hmmp… Hmmp… Hmmp…" Lois continued her futile attempts to struggle.

"You're beautiful Lois Lane… but you have the sharpest tongue," one man said. "My boss will be happy with this."

Go get the drum and put her inside," another voice barked out.

If Lois thought it was bad to be gagged, tied, and blindfolded before, she quickly realized being shoved into a small drum was worse. She desperately tried to figure a way out of the situation, but realized that hope had been lost long ago. She felt herself being carried inside the drum. She wasn't sure where they would take her, but she knew it would not be at a tropical beach resort. She detected the sound of splashing water and an a noisy engine - possibly a motorboat or yacht.

Lois was desperate. She couldn't scream… she couldn't move… she couldn't call for help. She was starving and thirsty. Her thoughts went to her daughter. "I need to survive this for her." Lois told herself. "She's too young to lose her mother. How can I escape this mess?"

An hour passed, or maybe more than that. Lois wasn't sure whether she had fallen asleep, but the sound of another voice alerted her to her surroundings, wherever she was.

"Throw her into the ocean." She panicked, "I am going to die and no one will know where to find me." She heard a splash then felt a bobbing sensation as she floated along the ocean inside the drum.

Superman flew over Metropolis. He couldn't find Lois and whether he admitted it or not, he was getting worried with every second that passed. He went into the stratosphere and focused his super hearing. There it was - Lois' heartbeat, but it was getting weaker and weaker. Following the sound, he dove into the ocean and pulled out the drum. He pulled open the lid, and threw it aside. He gently withdrew Lois out, and drew in a sharp breath as he realized the full extent of her condition. She did not appear to be breathing, but he hoped it was just because her breathing too shallow to detect. He removed the masking tape, black handkerchief and ropes.

"Lois, come on breathe." Superman gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

"Lois don't give up. Lois." He caressed her face. Her face was pale and without any sign of life.

"Please Lois."

She gasped for her breath and the seawater she inadvertently swallowed came up. Her eyelids fluttered open. She whispered, "Clark."

"Yes, Lois it's me," Clark felt relief wash over his entire body as he looked into her hazel eyes. "Everything will be all right." He enveloped her in his arms and held her close guarding her with all his might.

"Mommy!" Lovell ran towards Lois who was lying on the hospital bed.

"Hey, angel, how are you?" Lois sat up to hug her daughter.

"I'm fine, you?" She giggled.

"I'm fine too."

"By the way, Daddy's here. But he doesn't want to come inside your room. Are you mad at him?" She innocently posed the question to her mother. "You shouldn't be."

Lois looked down at her, "You're still young LJ. Even if I explain everything to you, you won't completely understand."

"Mommy, Daddy loves you very much." She displayed her puppy dog eyes that she inherited from her father.

"What makes you think about that?"

"Because he didn't leave the room when you're still sleeping and I saw him holding your hands." She told her Mom truthfully.

"Really?"

"Yes." She reaffirmed.

Outside the room, Clark heard their conversation accidentally. He blushed when LJ told Lois about him staying in her room and held Lois hands.

TBC

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