Part 26

She was falling. Then a pair of strong arms enveloped her and she was standing on her feet. She opened her eyes to find she was in front of the Daily Planet's main doors. Clark was standing a short distance away. He was trembling and the terrified look on his face broke her heart.

"Clark, it's okay," she said. He didn't seem to hear her. She stepped over to him and laid a land on his arm. Finally he looked at her.

"Are you okay?" His voice was a near whisper.

"I'm fine, Clark," she reassured him. He seemed to calm down a little.

"I, uh…" Clark began. "I think we need to talk…"

Lois nodded.

Sirens sounded close by and several MPD panda cars pulled up in front of the building, disgorging uniformed officers in flack jackets. Henderson climbed out of his own unmarked car.

"We had a call on a hostage situation," Henderson began.

"There was one. Now there's one bad guy tied up in the west stairwell, two on the roof, and one on the window washers' scaffold," Clark said quietly.

"One of them claimed he had a nuclear device," Lois added. "It fell around here somewhere."

Clark looked around the ground then picked up something. It was Fuentes's device, dented and broken.

"It was a ruse," he said, handing it to Henderson. Lois noticed that older man didn't seem surprised that the hostage incident had gotten handled before the police even found out about it.

The main doors to the building flew open and Perry, Jimmy, and Willie ran out, supporting Luthor between them. He seemed dazed.

"Hey! We've got an injured man over here!" Perry yelled. Paramedics rushed to Luthor, checking his injuries and forcing him to sit down on the back of the ambulance as they examined him.

Luthor looked around, eyes lighting on Lois. "Lois? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Lois said, coming over to him.

"What an experience. At least I got to spend the night with you," he managed to joke. "I didn't know you were that type of woman."

"Hey, I'm full of surprises." She tried to keep her voice light, to keep him from realizing that he wasn't the only thing on her mind.

He took her hand but the paramedics interrupted them, insisting Luthor get into the ambulance.

She turned to Clark. "Well, I guess I should ride with Lex," she said.

He nodded.

"Look, as soon as I know he's going to be okay, I'll stop by your place so we can talk, okay?"

He nodded again. She turned and walked to the ambulance. Luthor stretched out his hand and she took it, looking back at Clark. Then one of the paramedics closed the back door, blocking her sight of him. And even though Luthor was right here and there were two paramedics, she felt utterly alone.

-o-o-o-

"So, what do you have to talk to Kent about that's so important that you'll leave me in the hands of these…" Luthor began. His wound had been treated and he'd been admitted for observation, although he had insisted his personal physician would tend to his injury once she arrived. He agreed to stay only until she and Nigel or Asabi came for him.

The emergency room doctors had been surprised that Clark's concoction had stopped the bleeding, but there was little doubt that something had and it no doubt had saved Luthor's life.

"I promised Clark we'd talk, that's all," Lois told him. "He's been having a hard time ever since Superman…"

"Hasn't everyone?" Luthor asked. "The city worshiped the alien. No one, not even you, recognized the danger he presented to the people of this planet."

"Lex, I'm not going to argue with you. Clark's my friend," Lois said. "I need to get going."

"I'll call you," Luthor promised. "We still have an opera to see."

-o-o-o-

The sun was already peeking over the roofs when Lois got to Clark's apartment. She knocked and he opened the door so quickly she wondered if he'd been listening for her.

"How's Luthor?" he asked.

"He'll be fine," Lois told him. "The doctors aren't sure what stopped the bleeding, but whatever it was, it no doubt saved his life."

Clark didn't respond. He turned and led her down the steps into the living area.

"Clark, I told you I know more about what's going on than you think," Lois began.

"Want some coffee?" he asked, not meeting her eyes. She looked around. She had no reason to suspect Clark's apartment had been bugged, but it was better to be safe than sorry considering the discussion she knew was ahead.

"How about I buy breakfast?" she offered.

He nodded, but the worry was still there.

Lois drove him to a twenty-four hour greasy spoon she knew in Queensland Park – Doc's Dog House. It was dark and smoky and Lois knew the owners. She led Clark to one of the back corner booths. No one bothered to give her or Clark a second glance. No doubt they saw women in evening gowns come in near dawn every day with men in jeans.

"How are you feeling?" she began.

"I'll be okay," he said but she wasn't sure she believed him. There was still a slight tremble in his hand as he stirred sugar into his coffee.

"Clark, I know you caught me when I fell," she began again.

She hadn't thought it was possible, but he went even paler than he'd been before.

"You noticed."

"Actually, I've suspected it for some time," she admitted. "The statue falling over at the Omir Embassy. You finding Linda and me in the freezer…"

"You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" he asked.

"Why would I do that?"

He looked down to stare at his hands.

"Clark, what do you think is going on?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"What does Doctor Friskin think is happening?"

"I stopped seeing her," he said softly. "I got scared when strange things started happening. I keep hearing my dad's voice telling me 'they'll dissect you like a frog.'"

"Clark, nobody is going to dissect you," Lois assured him. She was hoping she was telling the truth. She still had nightmares about Trask and Bureau 39. But she had to wonder why Clark was remembering Jonathan's warning now.

"Lois, I…" His voice dropped to a whisper. "I think, somehow, when he died, he transferred his powers to me. That's why the globe started transmitting to me. It thought I was him and if anybody finds out that it's possible…"

"Clark, I don't know if Superman's powers could be transferred to anyone else. But even if he could do it, I don't think he did," Lois told him.

"So how do you explain what's been happening to me?"

Lois took a deep breath. This was not going to be easy. He seemed to be in deep denial of what was staring him in the face. "Clark, Superman didn't transfer his powers to you and the globe didn't make a mistake."

Clark stared at her a long moment, his face pale in the dim light. "I don't understand."

"I think you do," Lois said. She didn't want to press him – she could see how upset he was - but she saw no choice. "But, I think you don't want to admit it, even to yourself."

"You think I'm him."

She nodded.

"That's why I dream of being him, instead of seeing him?"

She nodded again.

"Why didn't you tell me before? Why didn't my own parents tell me I was a freak?"

"Clark, you are not a freak and I don't ever want to hear you talk about yourself that way again!" Lois found herself raising her voice. She took another deep breath to calm herself. She continued more quietly. "Doctor Friskin told your parents that it wasn't a good idea to just simply tell you. We don't know why you lost your memory and why some of it's still gone. We don't know if it's physical or psychological. And if it's psychological, we don't know why. Doctor Friskin was afraid we might actually make things worse for you by forcing you to face it before you were ready."

Clark was silent for a long time, staring into his coffee. "Worse than what I've been thinking?" he finally asked.

"We don't know what happened to you up there," Lois reminded him. "We suspect that you-know-who may have tried to sabotage Superman's attack on the asteroid."

"I hear him, too," Clark admitted. "It gets worse when I try to do something freaky."

"What does the voice say?" Lois asked gently.

"The world doesn't need a flying freak, things like that."

"And it's Luthor's voice?"

"It sounds like the same voice that threatened to kill me," he said. "So, yes."

"Clark, I know it sounds paranoid, but we know that Luthor's people knew Superman was going to be in a vulnerable position assuming he survived the attack on Nightfall. What if they made additional contingency plans?" Lois asked. "Constance Blackthorn was using LexCorp people in her plans to brainwash the world and she was using a drug laced with kryptonite."

"But we both know it didn't have any effect on me except to make me sick," he reminded her.

"So, maybe it needed to be a larger dose…"

"Or maybe the drug she had wasn't as effective?" Clark suggested.

Lois breathed a silent sigh of relief. He was not rejecting the idea outright at least. "Lex said his people had scoured the planet to find Superman, assuming he made it back to Earth," Lois reminded him.

"The question then becomes, what were they planning to do if they'd found him?"

"Lucky they didn't find him," Lois told him.

That earned her a faint smile. He was taking the revelation quite well, actually. She couldn't imagine how scared he must have been, his powers coming back and being terrified of being thought a freak or worse.

"Assuming I accept your explanation, what do we do now?" Clark asked.

"Keep working on Luthor," Lois suggested. "I mean, it's possible he's just as much as pawn as Romick or Eugene, but…"

"It's not very likely he could have gotten to the place he is by being anybody's pawn," Clark completed for her. He studied her face a long moment. "What about…?" He made a sideways motion with his hand.

"You'll know when you're ready," she assured him, reaching out to take his hand.

"And if that time never comes?"

"Clark, you're still a damn good investigative reporter. And the world can use as many of those as it can get."

-o-o-o-

Clark saw her to her door. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to get out of her evening gown and heels and into a nice soft bed.

But once into bed, she found she couldn't sleep.

'You'll know when you're ready,' she had told him.

'And if that time never comes?'

She had thought she was in love with the superhero. She had mourned his untimely death with the rest of the world and had turned to her friends for comfort. Friends like Clark, Jimmy, and Perry. Clark had saved her life more than once, stepping up to become a hero in his own right despite his memory problems.

But Superman wasn't really dead. He had been a disguise for Clark Kent. And Clark was still suffering from whatever had happened to him when he flew into space to save the planet from the Nightfall asteroid. And somehow she knew it was Luthor's fault. Which brought her back to the same old problem – how to prove it.

When Lois finally fell asleep, her dreams were uneasy.

-o-o-o-

Monday morning came too soon. Luthor had been released from the hospital into the care of his personal physician and Lois hadn't been able to get through to him on the phone. The newsroom was still buzzing with stories of what happened over the weekend. Everyone who came into the bullpen stopped by to try to see into Perry's boarded-up office.

"Oh well, I guess the place needed a lift," Lois overheard Perry tell Jimmy as they watched the rubber-neckers.

The insurance adjusters had been out earlier and repair to his office was scheduled to begin in a few days. Willie's lawyers were already working a deal with the D.A. concerning the money in the vault. One of the items left in the vault had been Dragonetti's books. It seemed Dragonetti had actually made notes concerning his plans to deal with the competition and to frame his partner. It also detailed payments to MPD officers to look the other way.

Lois wondered if Luthor was so vain as to have documentary evidence of his crimes. Dragonetti was supposed to have been a smart man, yet he had left what amounted to be a full confession in his vault.

Clark was busily working on a follow up to Saturday night's story. He didn't even look up when a messenger crossed the floor to deposit a flower arrangement on Lois's desk. Curious, she opened the card. 'Love, Lex,' it read. The flowers were exotic and lovely.

The elevator dinged and Cat swished in.

"What at a weekend," Cat announced to anyone who would listen. "I know he may not look it, but under that plain, mild-mannered facade, George is a wild man." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I spent most of the weekend in handcuffs. So, what did you guys do this weekend?"

Clark, Perry, and Jimmy were glaring at the gossip columnist. Lois started toward her, hands out as if to strangle the other woman.

Cat's eyes widened and she backed up. "Gee, sorry I asked," she muttered as she hurried to her own desk.

"Good thing murder is against the law," Clark said.

"Sometimes I think that's the only thing keeping her alive," Lois muttered.

-o-o-o-

It was strange. With Carpenter's arrest and the Metropolis Star's sale to an offshore entertainment consortium, everyone on the Daily Planet staff had assumed that the Planet's financial woes would be over. Instead, it was in a deadly downward spiral. The advertisers Carpenter had wooed away weren't coming back. Even the exclusive story on Dragonetti's vault and increased newsstand sales weren't bringing back the real money.

News was a newspaper's business, but advertising was its life's blood. And the Daily Planet was hemorrhaging to death.

The one personal bright spot was that Clark's cheerful demeanor had returned after their talk and he promised to go back to Doctor Friskin.

Another bright spot was Luthor seemed to be allowing her to get closer to him. They finally made it to the opera – the Met actually held Madame Butterfly over an additional day just so Luthor and his guests could see it. And in a show of magnanimous goodwill, the 'guests' were high school seniors and their teachers.

"Math and science are all well and good and necessary for an industrial society," Luthor had explained to her. "But a well-rounded education is also essential for a smooth running society. I do what I can."

She had several lunches and dinners at Luthor's penthouse, but she noticed that Asabi and St. John never stayed long in her presence. Mrs. Cox seemed to hover in the background, but occasionally Lois thought she saw something in Cox's eyes. Mistrust, possibly even jealousy.

"I has hoping to ask Asabi about that whole soul mates thing he told you about," Lois asked over one of Andre's phenomenal dinners. "Not that I believe any of it," she amended hurriedly.

Luthor gave her an indulgent smile. "Perhaps I can explain, although I admit I don't understand it nearly as well as Asabi. Souls transcend both time and space but they also tend to travel in groups. Chances are very good that everyone you are close to is someone you knew before."

"And soul mates?"

"A soul mate is a soul with which you have a special affinity. The person you are meant to be with," Luthor explained. "You are meant to be with me."

What he claimed Asabi had told him didn't quite jive with what she had read. While it was apparently true that soul mates had a special affinity, they didn't always meet up in each incarnation. Sometimes their paths were too different. And the relationship didn't always mean a sexual or marital one. Soul mates could be best friends or siblings or even a parent and child with close bonds.

'They are both old souls,' Esther had said – it seemed so long ago now. 'They've trod this path many, many times. Almost always together.'

Loisette de Lynmoran and Charles Beaufort, Lucinda Lyons and Calvin Kearney. And in the background, the third leg of a seemingly eternal triangle – Bayard Tempos in his various incarnations.

Lois had managed to find some information on Lucinda Lyons. Born in Metropolis, Lyons and her parents moved to the Oklahoma Territory when it was opened to white settlers. The Lyons weren't farmers or ranchers, but storekeepers. By the time Lucinda was twenty-three, not only was their mercantile doing well, but their ranch was one of the most prosperous in the area.

According to the history book Lois had found, Lucinda Lyons had been betrothed to local businessman, Lysias Templeton, but married a man named Calvin Kearney. Kearney was a federal marshal who had come to the area to investigate a land speculator and murderous thug known locally as Tempest Tex – Lysias Templeton. The book didn't tell of Templeton's fate.

But Lois knew that what was written in the history books wasn't the whole story. She had dreamed about being Lucinda for several days after reading the book she'd found. In her dreams, Templeton was an utter monster and he looked a lot like Lex Luthor.

"How does Asabi know that we're soul mates?" she finally asked.

Luthor gave her a confused look. "He checked the soul records," he said, making it sound as though it should have been obvious to her. "We have danced this dance many times before. I have been powerful men and you have been by my side."

"Interesting idea," Lois commented. "But where does that leave personal choice?"

"You don't believe that we're soul mates?" Luthor asked. "You don't feel the eternal connection between us?"

Lois shook her head. "No."

"I keep hoping you'll feel it like I do."

"Lex, I know you think you love me…"

"I do love you and I'm hoping you'll choose to spend the rest of your life with me."

Her eyes widened as he suddenly dropped to one knee and brought out a large velvet ring box. He opened the case to reveal a platinum ring with an enormous diamond surrounded by with green stones – she assumed they were emeralds. He offered it to her. She took the box and inspected the contents. It was impressive, she had to grant him that.

"Lois Lane, will you marry me?"

"I don't know what to say."

"There are only three possible choices: Yes. No. Maybe."

"It's not that simple. What about my life at the Daily Planet? Clark, Perry, and Jimmy are like family. I..."

"I believe in families. Large ones," he said smoothly.

He was moving too fast. This wasn't right. "The past few weeks have been wonderful," she tried to explain. "But... I hardly know you."

"The only thing you need to know about me is that I love you." He seemed utterly sincere and that scared her. She looked away from him, trying to think how to handle this.

He seemed to sense her reluctance. "Is there something else? Some other hesitation?"

"I... this is a lot to take in," Lois managed to say. She didn't want to say no. She didn't want to lose her access to him and she wasn't sure what his reaction would be to her rejection.

"But you'll give it some thought?" he insisted.

"Yes."

"So, it's 'maybe', for now."

"Maybe 'maybe'," she said, handing him back the ring. "But it is beautiful."

"Without you, it's just a chunk of rock. On your hand, it's priceless to me, more important than any other object in my life," he told her. Again he seemed sincere.

There was a knock on the door and Mrs. Cox walked in. "A call on line two," she told him then discretely left the room.

"Excuse me," Luthor told Lois as he went to one of the wall cabinets and pulled out a phone. He listened for a moment to the handset. "When can I expect delivery?" Another pause. "Done." He hung up and smiled at Lois. "Priceless."

Something in his smile left a cold knot in her chest.

A/N: Yes, we're finally getting to the bomb and the wedding...