Chapter 35

"Clark, good to see that you can tear yourself away from the farm long enough to lend a hand."

"Oliver." Clark acknowledged the other man, noticing his acerbic tone. "I came as soon as Chloe gave me the file. If you wanted me to come sooner, you could have called me yourself."

"I wasn't sure that you'd answer my calls. I knew if I went through Chloe then she'd make sure you were alerted to Luthors' latest scheme."

"Why would you think that I'd be too busy to get involved?"

"A new wife can keep a many pretty busy. I thought we were friends, Clark. Why wouldn't you invite me to your wedding, or at least announce it? A suspicious man might think that you were hiding it from me for other reasons. I always knew you had feelings for Lois. Maybe you were carrying on behind my back when Lois and I were still dating."

"It's not like that."

"You're going to stand there and tell me you aren't in love with her?"

"No, that isn't what I am saying. What I am saying is that we aren't married."

"Forget it, Clark. It's done. But I'm curious, have you told her your secret—or was all that talk about honesty sanctimonious crap?

"I'll tell her when the time is right."

"When will that be, after you've got a kid on the way?"

Oliver tossed the newspaper down on the desk in front of Clark. A caption under a photo read:

Newlyweds Clark and Lois Kent Attend Metropolis Gallery Opening.

In the photo, Clark had his arms wrapped around Lois and she was leaning into him. He was whispering something in her ear. They looked very much like the happy newlyweds that the caption described.

"When did my activities become news?"

"When your mother became a United States Senator."

"Well, it isn't true. You shouldn't believe everything you read in a newspaper."

"Clark, this is the Daily Planet, not the inquisitor." Oliver challenged.

"Lois had a horseback riding accident. When she woke up in the hospital she had amnesia. She believed that she and I were married and her doctors felt it would be best to go along with it until she regained her memories."

"Why?" Oliver asked, genuinely concerned for Lois, his previous anger and jealousy ebbing away.

"They felt that if we went against what her mind believed while she still had active brain swelling from the concussion, we could cause irreparable damage to the memory centers in her brain.

"Clark, I'm Sorry."

"Don't worry about it Oliver. You couldn't have known."

"I did something—something mean and stupid. I reacted and I see now how wrong I was. I should have trusted you more."

"I understand, I probably would have reacted the same way if tables were turned."

"No, Clark, you're not getting what I am saying. My apartment is wired for video surveillance. I saw footage of you and Lois and I guess I sorta freaked out. I emailed a copy to Lois."

"Oh, no." Clark said as realization hit him.

"I'm sorry Clark. Will this be a shock to her--Will this affect her recovery?"

"I don't know how she'll react. She didn't have any memory of this before her accident."

"Say that again—how could she not remember?"

"It was Valentine's Day, and she was under a love spell. When the spell wore off, she didn't remember any of what had happened."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Clark sat on the desk, scrubbing his hand over the back of his neck.

"If you were both under a spell, why can you remember and she can't?"

"I wasn't under a spell. The lipstick that Lois was wearing was laced with Red Kryptonite."

"I take it that's a bad thing."

"Let's just say that I wasn't myself."

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Sorry about that."

Oliver fell into the chair across from Clark. "Listen, if you need to get back home, I understand. I didn't realize you had all this going on. Man, your life is complicated."

"Let me just check-in with Chloe. Maybe Lois hasn't opened her email yet and I can have Chloe delete it."

"Yeah, good idea."

Clark opened his cell phone,

"Hey, Chloe?"

"Oh hey, Clark. Is everything okay? What happened with Oliver?"

"I'm fine. We're fine." He looked at Oliver for confirmation, and he nodded. "Listen, Oliver sent an email to Lois—"

"—with video footage of you and Lois."

"So that means she has already seen it." He closed his eyes and sighed resignedly.

"That would be an affirmative. Clark, what were you thinking going to Oliver's apartment?"

"Chloe, if you remember I was dosed with Red K—I wasn't exactly thinking with my brain. Did a lot that night that I wish I hadn't."

"Yeah, I get that."

"How is Lois doing?"

"Well, she was a little stunned, but I think she's okay. You wanna talk to her?"

"Yeah, that would be good."

Chloe climbed the stairs to the bedroom and handed the phone to Lois, who was still seated in front of the computer.

"Lo? Is everything all right? Chloe's a little worried about you."

Oliver noticed the slight change in Clark's tone when he was talking to Lois, and made a mental note to remind Clark again that he had been right about them.

"Clark? When are you coming home? The storm seems to be getting worse."

"I'll be home as soon as I can. Chloe will stay with you until I can get home. Lo, are you sure you are all right? Chloe told me she helped you get into your email and you got an email from Oliver that was upsetting."

"I'm fine. It was shocking. I . . .I've been having dreams, y'know?"

"Yeah, you mentioned it before."

"Well, I had been dreaming about being with you in that clock tower, but I didn't know if it was real. There were parts of the dream that didn't seem right—didn't seem to fit. So I didn't think it really happened. But then when I saw the footage—well, I can't deny that it happened."

"What parts didn't seem to fit?"

"In the dream, we flew."

Clark gulped hard at her revelation.

"Hmm, I see what you mean. Maybe your dreams are blending together and some events are real and some are imagined—like that day when you were watching TV and you dreamed I was a vampire."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks Clark." She said brightly, genuinely relieved to have that mystery solved.

"You don't have to thank me." Thank God it's easier to lie on the phone. " I'll let you go now. I'll be home as soon as I can."

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too. Goodnight." Clark closed the phone.

Oliver cleared his throat, "Can we get to work now?"