Clark opened the door and jumped out of the taxi before it came to a full stop. He ran up to Lana and smiled widely.
"Hi, Clark!" Lana said, embracing him in a warm hug. It had been nearly eight years since they last saw each other. Their departing words were bitterly exchanged, and neither had spoken to the other since. Now, as they stood in front of each other, Clark tried to remember why.
Out of the corner of his eye Clark caught Lois and Richard staring at him. He heard Richard say, in a low, amused voice, "I guess he did get the girl."
Lois' reaction was harder to gauge. He could only find one word to describe it, perplexed. She made a beeline for the door, not stopping to say hello. Richard followed her inside.
Turning to Lana, Clark said, "So, what brings you to Metropolis?"
"Work." Her smile made him temporarily forget his troubles. The beautiful woman standing before him commanded his full attention.
"Work?"
"I'm an astrophysicist."
"Wow, Lana. That's amazing!" Clark topped his statement off with a goofy grin.
"It sounds more exciting than it is. I'm based out of Gotham University. I want to do research, but I seem to spend most of my days teaching," she added, somewhat shyly.
"You look beautiful as ever," Clark remarked, his eyes moving about her face.
"Thanks. I have to say, you look a little different from the last time I saw you. What's up with the glasses? And the hair!" She tousled it with her hand.
"Oh yeah. A new look. Y-you like it?" What the hell was he saying?
Gazing at the woman standing in front of him, Clark was reminded of what he almost had. During his high school years he had been obsessed with Lana. In college, he pursued her and briefly won her hand. But the relationship ended a few months later without them saying, "I do." He once believed Lana to be the missing limb that would make him complete. He almost wished for those simpler days, when Superman didn't exist and he was only two-eyed Clark. He clutched his head as a wave of nausea struck him.
Back at the office, Lois Lane got to work. Based on the leads that she and Clark gained this morning, she made some phone calls, but each one led to a dead end.
In Perry's office, she gave him an update on the jewelry store scandal. "That's where we are at right now. Or I should say, that's where I'm at. The ever reliable Clark Kent? The one you insisted I partner up with? Nowhere to be found!"
"Lois…"
"And just for the record, Chief, if I have to carry this guy…"
"Lois!" This time she stopped. "Lois, are you all right?"
"What? Of course I'm not all right. You stuck me with a bumbling idiot who…"
"Lois, what is this really about?"
"I'm not following you, Chief."
Perry shut the door and lowered the blinds. "Sit down." She did as she was asked.
"I was a reporter for twenty years, Lois, and a damned good one. I may not be privy to all the events in your life, but I'd have to be six feet under not to know something's not right."
Lois shifted in her seat uncomfortably, steeling herself for the next question.
"Are you sure this marriage is what you really want?"
"Oh come on! Is that what you think this is about? A man?" She'd be damned if she allowed her boss to think she was flustered because of some guy, even if it was, or wasn't, his nephew.
"Look at you! You're falling apart! Are you sure you know what you're doing? Look, I care about you, but I care about my nephew more. I don't want to see him get hurt."
"He's big enough to make his own choices," she lashed out.
"It's easy to make the wrong ones when you don't have all the facts."
Oh the nerve of him! "You're right, you don't know what's going on in my life." She stormed out the door and slammed the folders in her hand on the desk, stealing a glance at Clark's empty seat.
Several hours later, Clark walked into the Daily Planet, his hand resting on Lana's shoulder as he guided her to his desk. Lois watched him pull out his chair for her. She groaned. The woman's long, straight brown hair glistened under the fluorescent lights, the waves framing her oval-shaped face. Lois subconsciously twisted strands of her own hair, feeling the roughness induced by too many dying sessions at the beauty salon. She slammed her fist on her desk and turned back to her work. She had to get a hold of her emotions because at this rate, her hands would be full of broken bones before the day's end.
"So, Lois." She jumped up slightly out of her chair, not seeing that Clark had come up behind her. "I was thinking, those rocks looked like some sort of mineral to me. If we can get an analysis of their composition, we might be able to determine their point of origin."
"I called the lab an hour ago. I'm just waiting for the results." Lois said testily.
"Oh, well then." He looked nervously around the room, searching for any words to break the tension.
Out of the blue she asked, "Who's the girl?"
Clark smiled shyly, looking over at his desk where she was sitting. "Lana Lang."
"Lana Lang? Is that all you're going to tell me? When did you meet her?" Her voice took on a flirting tone, her curiosity piqued.
"Oh Lois, it's not like that. Well, I mean it was once like that, but not anymore, I think. We grew up together."
Oh. Suddenly her irritation turned into something much more primal that lacked identification. "So she's from Iowa, then."
"Kansas, Lois. She's from Kansas."
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier. It was rude of me." If not true.
"It's okay Lois. We all have our bad days. I just feel like we're drifting apart you know? We had such a great relationship before…"
Oh please! There he goes using that word again. Cutting him off, she interjected, "I've got to get back to work. Let's talk later." She quickly picked up the phone and started dialing a number for a contact.
Clark walked back to his desk to say goodbye to Lana, who had errands to run. They agreed to meet for dinner later tonight. As he settled back in to work on his own leads, he felt a tug on his pant leg.
"Hello," the little boy said.
"Jason!" He smiled at the boy, feeling his façade crack ever so slightly. For all the deceptions that he was forced to procure with a dual identity, he never felt like a fraud until standing in front of his own son.
"Are you all right?" The boy asked.
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"You look strange."
Clark was perplexed by his comment. "Well, sometimes people aren't at their best. I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." The truth was, if he didn't know better, he was coming down with a fever.
Across the room Lois silently watched Clark interact with his son. Seeing them together drew tears to her eyes. As much as she wanted to hurt him, to repay the pain he'd inflicted upon her, she couldn't break them apart.
She didn't have to. Richard came barreling out of his office, swooped Jason up in his arms and bid Clark and the rest of his co-workers goodnight.
Clark watched them depart. He was having trouble concentrating on work. His mind drifted to his upcoming evening with Lana. Ever since he laid eyes on her this afternoon, he'd been brought back to an earlier time. She was his first love. In high school and through much of college, he firmly believed that they would get married and have a family. But that was before reality ruined it all.
Despite his devotion to her, he always felt that there was something missing. It took him a long time to figure out what it was. He didn't trust her. And not just with his secret. She knew he was hiding something, and his refusal to bring her into that circle of trust eventually formed a gulf between them that they could not cross. It seemed as though, with Lois, history was repeating itself. The reasons were different, and yet the elephant in the room was still the same color.
As Clark and Lana ate dinner at his newly acquired apartment, moved into only three days ago, he allowed himself to be swept into the past. What had seemed so complicated a relationship before now seemed effortless. He didn't believe picking up with Lana was the best cure for his sadness at losing Lois, but at least her company got his mind off her for a while. But the way Lana tilted her head back when she laughed, looked up at him with her large brown eyes, he knew she was searching in him for a sign that he still cared for her. As the hour grew late, it was time to part.
"Do you have a place to stay tonight?" Clark asked.
"No, I was just going to take a cab to the nearest hotel."
Clark would have escorted her to a hotel, but the truth was his head was pounding. His super hearing was absorbing so many sounds at once and he couldn't separate them. "Why don't y-you stay with me tonight."
"I'd love that Clark."
He changed the sheets and gave Lana his bedroom for the night, while he prepared the couch. He thought about doing a flyby of the city but decided against it. He just couldn't stay focused.
As he drifted off to sleep, he allowed himself to pretend that the last few years hadn't happened. He hadn't abandoned Lois and gone to Krypton, he never made the journey to Metropolis, and goofy Kent didn't yet exist. He was back in time to Smallville, where there was only one of him, no Kal-El, no Superman; just a farm boy with a caring mother and father who loved him for who he was.
The morning sun's rays peered through the window blinds. Clark heard the shower running and awoke. He looked over at the clock. 9:30 a.m.! He never overslept.
"It's all yours, Clark!" Lana called from the bedroom. He stepped into the shower and felt the rush of hot water smack against his skin. He had the sense he was supposed to do something important this morning, if only he could remember what it was.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Lana, who was getting dressed in the bedroom, twisted a towel around her wet hair and answered the door.
"Hello, can I help you?" Lana said to the woman standing in front of her. She quickly crushed a smirk forming on her face.
"Oh I'm sorry, I thought this was Clark Kent's apartment." Lois responded, looking at a piece of paper in her hand.
"Oh it is! He's in the shower. Who can I tell him stopped by?" Lana chimed. At that moment Clark, wearing only a towel around his waist, stepped out into the hallway.
"Did I hear a knock at the door?" Clark looked at Lois. Then at Lana. Then back at Lois. The look between them could light the room afire. Lois noted how chiseled his chest was, and how his wet hair sleeked back across his forehead. God, he's sexy.
Lana, quietly soaking up the tension, excused herself to the bedroom to get dressed.
"Lois, I, uh…" Clark stammered.
"What the hell, Clark? You don't show up for work, knowing that we need to get over to the lab this morning. And I find you here with this, this slut. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I, uh…"
"I swear Clark you are going to pull your own weight on this case or I will have Perry skin your hide and boot it all the way back to Smallville or whatever the hell the name of that hick town is that you're from. If you're not downstairs in ten minutes I'm leaving without you." She threw open the door and it slammed against its hinges, making a sickly cracking noise. He listened to her high heels stomp down the hallway. And into the elevator, out the front door and onto the sidewalk. Sometimes he just hated super hearing.
Lana appeared behind Clark. "I have clearly walked into something," she began. "I'm sorry, Clark."
"Don't be. I'm not." They gave each other a hug, and made plans to meet in the evening. While Clark got dressed in the bathroom, Lana reached underneath the couch cushion and held a glowing red rock in the palm of her hand. She smiled inwardly.
TO BE CONTINUED