Curse Clark Kent. Curse Clark Luthor. Curse them both. She had been content if not happy until he had shown up, giving her a hint of the kind of love she could have had if not for a simple twist of fate. That had as much to do with her growing discontent as Oliver kissing Chloe. Now she had gone and done the same thing she'd been angry with him about.
"Hi, sweetheart," Oliver said, having returned home before her.
Sweet? She was not sweet. She was the opposite of sweet after what she'd just done. It was going to weigh heavy on her like a stone if she didn't get it off her chest, so she blurted out, "I kissed him."
"Kissed who?"
"Clark Luthor. I mean technically he kissed me, but I let him. I should have kneed him in the groin when I had the chance. It was just so unexpected. He hates me, hates my work. Everyone at LuthorMedia knows that."
He sunk onto the couch at the news but still had the presence of mind to comment with some dry humor, "Then someone should have given him the memo."
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was just another way of his to try to one up me," she said, taking a seat beside him, "or look for an excuse to fire me. Whatever his motive was, trust me, it wasn't about having feelings for me, and I definitely don't-"
"Lois," he interrupted gently. "You're rambling."
It was true. She was nervous about the whole thing: afraid of Oliver's reaction, afraid to face Clark at work, afraid to think too long on the fact that she'd never had such a toe-curling kiss in her life. All his experience, she thought with annoyance. And then she was annoyed that she was annoyed. Clark Luthor could sleep with every female in the known universe, and she wouldn't give a flying fig. It had nothing at all to do with her. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be. The man's a predator, a slimy snake not to be trusted. What were you doing anyway? Late night at the office?"
"Something like that. He wanted to do an interview as Ultraman, and I was obliging him. Stupid me was even starting to believe he might actually want to be the hero this city so desperately needs."
"The hero this city needs will be the one who finally figures out how to end Ultraman's reign of terror and what can't be linked to him can be linked to the Luthors, two of Metropolis' worst problems solved just like that."
Perhaps, he was right, and that was the reason for what she did next. "Blue kryptonite," she said barely audible. Clark hadn't even been aware he'd give her the key to his downfall in the story of his childhood.
"What?" he asked, forcing her to repeat it.
"Blue kryptonite. It'll make him vulnerable, and allow you to capture him without killing him."
It felt like betrayal, which was ridiculous. What did she owe the man? Her life. That much was true, but how many more had he taken? He was getting his just desserts, no more, no less.
Oliver called the lab. It felt like he was on the phone with them for hours though it was only minutes.
"Your information matches up with the team's hypothesis," he informed her when the call was finished. "They believe it reflects or absorbs the rays of the sun, which is where his powers come from. If the kryptonite is in his vicinity, he becomes normal, if it's not, he regains them. That as you know would be a problem."
"So it's back to the drawing board then?"
"Not exactly. They believe that if it were to get into his DNA, it would make the powerlessness more permanent."
"I see, and how do they propose we do that?"
"They can create a serum. It's just getting close enough to inject it into him without raising suspicion, and you seem more than capable of doing that from what you've just told me," he said bitingly, maybe not as okay with it as he'd first appeared.
She nodded though dread filled her at being given this task.
"It's a chance to redeem yourself, but if you'd rather-"
"I can do it," she said, cutting him off before he said her cousin's name. Though she wondered at the truth of the statement the moment she uttered it.