Author's Note
Well this is the third chapter my friends. Enjoy it.
Special Thanks
To Teresa: my beloved surrogate sister who encouraged me to write this story and she also is my personal consultant on it.
To folc4evernaday: who let me use some of her ideas on my story.
And all the Lois and Clark fan fiction writers who inspired me
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters
Warning: This chapter isn't edited and corrected by Beta so forgive me for my grammar errors. Unfortunately English isn't my first language.
Athena
The sun was coming up, early morning light streaming through the windows indicated that it was – in fact – a new day. Lois had been awake for quite some time now, but hadn't moved so as not to wake Clark who was still was in deep sleep. She smiled at the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around her waist and how his firm chest fit against her. A small smirk formed on her face when she thought about the events of the previous night. She had woken up many times during the night to make sure that the previous night's events weren't a dream. Lois released a soft sigh and rolled into Clark's arms to look at him and her muscles screamed in protest. They had made love so many times that she had lost count and in so many different positions that muscles she didn't even know she had, ached. Lois placed her palm over the strong beat of his heart. He looked so different without his glasses and his unruly hair and a new stress-free air. It was a side of him that no one would ever see…a combination of Clark Kent and Superman in one. The real Clark Kent, whom only his parents had known...up until now. He was so relaxed, as he slept.
"How long are you gonna sit and stare at me like that?" Clark murmured in a sleepy tone and slowly opened his eyes.
Lois' eyes widened full of surprise. Were you awake all this time?" she asked in disbelief.
"Ugh, ugh." Clark shook his head from side to side. "I have been only a couple of minutes awake." he went on and planted kisses all over her neck as he replayed the previous night's events over and over in his head. The night was everything he could have imagined it would be. It had chalked up to be a magical and sacred as he made love with the woman he loved. He couldn't help but think he luck was to be able to have someone like Lois in his life. Clark tightened his arm around Lois more started lightly nipping at her Adam's apple.
"I'm not going anywhere." Lois giggled as Clark's lips tickled her.
"Ugh, Ugh." Clark murmured to her slender neck, licking at her soft pulse, when his super-hearing picked up the police radio from down the street.
"Hostage situation in progress on the Metropolis Mall… gunman is armed and dangerous…." Repeat gunman is armed and dangerous. "All Units respond….repeat….All Units respond…."
Lois looked at him curiously as Clark raised his head and got the familiar faraway look in his eyes every time he disappeared. "Someone need you?" Lois asked uncertainly.
"Hostage situation in the Metropolis Mall." Clark informed with an apologetic smile.
Lois sat on the bed. "Go." she encouraged him with a kiss on the lips.
Clark pulled off the covers and got out of bed. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be right back." he assured as he put his boxers back on.
"Clark." Lois stopped Clark before he emerged the room. "Be careful." she pleaded with worry and gave him a long, slow and deep kiss.
"I will get for you the exclusive." Clark promised Lois with a wide smile and walked out the bedroom.
Lois sighed and threw herself back on the bed, staring at the ceiling as she heard a distinct whoosh on the other side of the apartment followed by the familiar sonic boom seconds later. She knew that Clark was invulnerable, unless he was exposed to green or red Kryptonite, but she couldn't help but feel a tight on her chest and nausea at the thought that something could possibly happen to him. She tossed and turned burying her face into Clark's pillow to inhale his scent. She already missed him but she didn't care if had to share him with the world as Superman. She just wanted him into her life as a friend, as a partner and a lover. And maybe someday as something more.
Lois pushed herself out of bed, wrapping the covers around her, and walked into the living room. She sat in the window seat, her legs bent and her arms curled around them, gazing out the window. It was a very sunny day and although Clark's apartment hadn't a spectacular view, the daylight lighting illuminated the whole room. Lois closed her eyes momentarily, enjoying the warmth of the sun's light, before she looked around Clark's living room. She frowned at the packing boxes in front of her, and stood to unpack some of them. As Lois went through the contents of the first box she had opened, she found his both his Midwest Mustangs and Smallville Crows football jerseys along with other souvenirs from the years he played football in High School and College. "These two are mine now." she told herself with a smug smile. She unwrapped the comforter off her body throwing it to the ground in a heap and wore his Midwestern jersey. She couldn't wait to see his reaction when he found her on his jersey. Lois started to go through the contents of the second box, when a framed photo of herself and Clark caught her eye. She picked it and took a closer look at it.
Clark was holding his Kerth Award with her hanging onto him with both grinning happily for his success. Yes, at the beginning she felt a little jealous of Clark and she was petty, like Perry had said, but deep she was proud of him. Although he was hardly over a year at the Planet, he had managed to achieve so many things as he had good instincts as a reporter. Lois lovingly caressed Clark's form on the photo when she heard the familiar whoosh. Instinctively, she turned to see Clark as Superman landing on his terrace.
Lois set the picture down on the table. "That was fast."
Superman crossed behind a stack of boxes, and emerged on the other side as Clark. "What is this?" he chuckled in disbelief.
Lois approached him with a wide smile. "I have to inform you that from now own I claim your two football jerseys as my own." she stated in formal tone, still smiling.
"No problem at all." Clark assured as he looked at her in appreciation. "Now." he rested his hands on her shoulders. "Where were we, before we were interrupted?" he asked and leaned down to kiss her. He released a sigh of relief when Lois wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body close to his, tilting her mouth up to him. Grateful. Appreciative. Enthusiastic. He felt all those things. Clark gently gathered Lois close and cupped her head with both of his hands deepening the kiss. He knew how much the kiss affected when the arms around his neck tightened and her moans deepened and intensified. Her mouth was hot and delicious and he was giving it one serious sensual assault. He wanted her and he was going to have her. He wanted her. He needed her. With a deep groan Clark lowered his head and kissed his way down Lois' neck to the pulse at its side.
"Clark." Lois sighed as familiar hardness began to form against her. "We need to stop." she whispered as Clark ran down his hands along her bare thigh.
"Ugh, ugh." Clark shook his head negatively and kissed from her neck to her collarbone.
"We should unpack your things." Lois added between heated kisses.
"Later." Clark spoke in a hushed tone, his lips against hers, as he reached for the hem of her jersey.
"Now." Lois insisted and grabbed Clark's hands to stop him, her eyes shut, enjoying the feeling of being so close to him.
Clark groaned in protest as he pulled away from Lois. "I do not have much of a choice, do I?" he wondered, sounding resigned and defeated.
"Nope." Lois said teasing, but it was obvious she left no room for arguments.
Clark let out a sigh of disappointment. "You really know how to ruin a moment." he complained with a pout and took a few steps back before he shifted into high-speed mode. He became a blur of grey and blue denim as he sped around the apartment, removing items from the packing boxes and putting them away in cupboards, shelves, wardrobes and anywhere he could find space, leaving a mini-whirlwind in his wake as he moved. "Tah, tah, tah!" he said cheerfully as he stood in front of Lois after he stopped spinning.
"Are you always doing your chores like that?" Lois asked incredulously. She would have bet that Martha and Jonathan had taken this for granted but Lois couldn't help but emit a gasp of amazement as looked around Clark's apartment and saw all the items back on its respective places in seconds.
"Always." Clark winked at her.
"Show off." Lois rolled her eyes in her infamous Mad Dog Lane mode. "Thank God you don't do everything that fast." she teased.
Clark grinned at Lois and kissed her softly. He lightly swept his tongue between her lips, pressing his warm, soft lips to hers. He began to slide his hands up her body and cradled her face with his hands. Then, he passionately kissed her, tickling her tongue with his. Clark sucked Lois' lips, gently, as though he was sampling nectar on a delicate petal. Then, with an intense urgency, he dipped his tongue past her lips, caressing her tongue with his.
Lois felt fluttering inside. Her body craved him. A shallow hum escaped from within her in response to how Clark was making her feel. She could feel his body responding to her. He was breathing heavier which was waking Lois primal needs as a tidal wave of lust churned within her She had slept with only two men in her life before Clark, Patrick Sullivan and Claude Dessanell but none of them made her feel like that, especially only through a simple kiss. She had been with two men in her life and she had to admit that she didn't enjoy sex with them. They could not hold a candle to Clark. And that was something caused her another further concern. Was Clark satisfied with her, last night? Was she better than his previous lovers? Because it was obvious by the way he treated her and the way he caressed every inch of her body that he was more experienced than her. However, as quickly as that thought came to mind, it dissipated. Lois was determined to live in the moment. Besides, now they had plenty of time to discuss about that.
Drawing Lois even more firmly against him, Clark deepened the kiss, and desire rose fierce and hot while his fingers fluttered over the sensitive spot behind her ear, the equally sensitive skin on the nape of her neck. He had to admit that his super hearing helped him to aware of what gave her the strongest pleasure and her statements later confirmed that but the fear still lingered inside him. Was he or wasn't he good enough on the physical aspect of their relationship? Sure, reading books in a combination with intuition and the healthy use of super-hearing could be helpful in that area but still he was in uncharted territory. Despite his travels around the world for a year, Lois was the first woman he had ever made love. Clark mentally shook his head. How those thoughts entered his mind, he didn't know but he pushed them away and quickly focused on Lois again. He could feel on his lips Lois to giggle against his lips, leaning against him as he staggered backward and toppled them both onto the couch. He was ready to move his hands under Lois' jersey to cup her breasts when in the back of his mind, he heard his phone ring.
"Let the machine get it…" Clark whispered breathlessly after he pulled away from Lois and moved his hands to the hem of her jersey.
"Aha." Lois murmured and slipped her tongue inside the warm confines of Clark's mouth once more. She leaned back and dropped her hands to the hem of her shirt pulling it off over head and throwing it onto the floor afterwards.
The final ring to the machine echoed in the background, and they sighed in relief when they heard the machine click on, playing the pre-recorded message. "Hi, this is Clark. I'm not home right now, so leave a message after the beep and I will call you as soon as I can. Thanks."
"Honey, it's me." Martha said on the machine after the beep. "Are you there? ... Pick up, would you? ...Your father and I were wondering if you change your mind about leaving the Planet and Metropolis." Both Clark and Lois heard Martha's voice fill the room.
"Clark, your mom." Lois whispered with difficulty, as she felt the moistened folds aligned with the quickly tightening bulge in his boxers.
"Ignore it." Clark said with a mischievous smile and walked his fingers along her ribcage, lying his hand over her right breast.
"Clark if you are home, pick up the phone." Martha demanded, her voice was a little tenser and the words a little louder. "You said you would visit us early in the morning and you are not here." she went on. "Clark Jerome Kent, you pick up the phone this minute! I know you are there. I can feel it! Stop ignoring me and pick it up. Because if you don't pick up the phone right now..." the woman warned, few moments later.
Clark let out a groan of frustration. When his mother called him with his full mane, it meant he was in big trouble. Clark pulled away from Lois, hung his head in defeat, as he reached and lifted the receiver out of its cradle. "Hi, mom." he answered and rolled his eyes in despair, looking at the ceiling.
Lois buried her face in Clark's bare chest, trying to suppress a laugh. The whole situation that moment was pretty awkward.
"Yea, I know mom." Clark said on the phone. "I know, mom, but something came up." he began to explain and stared down at Lois. "And right now Lois is here and we are trying to sort the things out."
Lois couldn't help but giggle at the mention of her name and how Clark described their current position. 'Sort the things out.' If Martha only knew. Slowly, she grabbed her jersey from the floor and put it back on.
"Yes, mom I will tell her." Clark responded and ran a gentle hand along her hair, touching in the process her face tenderly. "We will see mom. I gotta go, bye." he shut the phone. "Why did you put the jersey on?" he asked Lois a hint of disappointment in his voice the moment he placed the receiver back on its cradle.
"What did your mother say to you on the phone?" Lois asked back shining her best flirty smile.
"Well, just like you have already heard, she asked me why I didn't fly to Smallville first thing in the morning when I promised to." he began to explain. "Then, when I told her that you were here so we would 'sort the things out' she told me to tell you that she and dad say 'Hi.'" he told further and twirled a strand of Lois' hair with his finger. "She's glad that you have changed your mind and she wonders if you want us to go to Smallville for dinner tonight."
"Sure." Lois responded without hesitation. "Besides you will need new suits." she added. "But first we need to talk."
"Talk about what?" Clark echoed inconveniently, as Lois had the 'I'm going to say something that Clark isn't going to like' tone in her voice when she uttered her last words. Usually it meant she would tell him bad news and although he was the Man of Steel, he couldn't help but feel a knot, frozen in the pit of his stomach waiting as he waited for Lois to go on.
"Clark…yesterday was…." Lois paused for a moment before she continued. "I really can't find the exact words to describe how…wonderful was the night we spent together."
"But?" Clark asked intrigued, tightening his arms around Lois' body.
"But did I live up to your expectations?" Lois questioned as quickly as possible. There it was. She said it. She had doubted about her sexual performances. "Because…Clark!" she yelled nervously when she realized they were suspended in midair over the couch and grabbed hold of her floating boyfriend. She had flown with him as Superman in the sky but still it seemed unreal he, Clark Kent her partner was the Man of Steel.
"Don't worry. I've got you." Clark assured Lois and floated them both from the living to the bedroom. "Now what were you saying?" he asked with a grin and lowered Lois gently beneath him.
"Because…" Lois bit her lower lip. "Because I'm not very... I mean, I haven't had a lot of experience with sex." she revealed. "I mean, I have been with only two men before you and…" she struggled not to blush. "First it was Patrick Sullivan, a very attractive Irish." she started. "After the mess with Paul and Linda I went as an exchange student in Ireland and met him there. It was my first time with him and the only one." she confessed. "I have to admit I didn't like it." she added.
"And then, Claude?" Clark asked carefully and brushed some hair out of her face as he rolled over on his side.
"Aha." Lois nodded and rested her head on Clark's chest. "It had been only three times and then you know the rest." she frowned, remembering. "And on top of everything I didn't like it. I even pretended that…"
"And you afraid of that you won't be able to please me because of this?" Clark asked incredulously, as he played with her hair.
Lois shrugged uncomfortably. "I guess so."
"Well, Lois if anyone should be insecure about…you know, it should be me." Clark revealed slowly.
"What do mean?" Lois asked with interest.
"I'm not from here. And I guess I was afraid..." Clark began to explain nervously. "If I let myself get that close to someone who didn't know all of me to have that kind of….connection." he continued without going into any further details.
Lois gasped before she could stop herself. Whatever she'd expected him to say, that hadn't been it. "So?" she asked, trying to understand the implications of it.
"So I had never done it before you." Clark clarified. "I waited for you, the one woman I could share everything with."
Lois drew a breath. So he had meant what she'd thought. "Clark," she began, and then stopped, unsure what to say. She had to admit she was blown away by his revelation. Amazed. Touched.
"Not what you expected? That Superman hadn't had sex before?" Clark laughed harshly.
"I'm surprised, that's all." Lois defended. "I mean, you're so confident and passionate. And how-"
"Books, intuition and a healthy use of super-hearing." Clark responded.
"Super-hearing?" Lois raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"Ugh, ugh." Clark nodded. "When you're really enjoying yourself your heart rate picks up," he murmured, running his lips down across her cheek and down to her neck. "Like this." he said and put his hand under Lois' shirt to feel her naked breasts and erect nipples.
"Clark!" Lois let out a muffled cry of delight and pleasure. God, it really worked what he was saying. A tsunami of desire swamped her as she watched Clark slip his fingers under the hem of her jersey. Slowly she put her hands on the hem and helped Clark pull his Midwestern jersey over her head.
"And like this." Clark said further after he tossed the jersey onto the floor and moved his mouth to her breasts. The sounds Lois made as he sucked her soft skin and her erect nipple of her right breast drove him into a frenzy. Slowly, he sucked the other nipple into his mouth, feeling the soft spongy skin against his lips. He licked it to make it wet and taste it. He pulled the nipple into his mouth greedily, and licked around it with his tongue. He sucked as much of Lois' breast into his mouth, as he could, just wanting to get the fullness of it, then continued lovingly sucking the nipple and caressing it with his tongue in his mouth. Clark could feel his breath getting hotter and hotter, as he started licking his way down Lois' stomach.
Lois could feel her arousal mounting. She whimpered and moved her head slightly, the only movement she could do that moment. Sheremained frozen, virtually paralyzed by the overwhelming sensation of pleasure; she could move nothing, nor could she speak. The only things she could feel were Clark's lips and tongue exploring her skin. Suddenly, she moaned as the sensation of suction drove her mad lost in a sea of darkness and feeling. "Oh Clark." she managed to sigh. "This is so unfair…You-you can super cheat and I- God!" Lois screamed the moment she felt Clark's tongue stick into her core. The feelings, the sensation on her swollen area were so intense that made her jump to a sitting position on the bed, before she collapsed back onto the bed.
Clark raised his head and looked at her with a grin on his face. He wanted to catch her completely off guard to make her jump from pleasure, to drive her completely crazy, to torture her without mercy, and he was doing a damn good job. Clark smiled when he heard Lois moan in pleasure. He found it so sexy. Out of nowhere, he stuck his tongue once more into her core and tasted her. He could feel her moisture so delicious in his tongue that he couldn't get enough it. He started to flip his tongue into her sensitive walls sensing her throb between her legs every time he licked her. He wanted to drink any ounce of her taste into his system.
Lois couldn't take it anymore and started to shake. The fact she was struggling to keep her whimpers, her cries, her screams in check were speeding the process of her orgasm. She was trying tooth and nail to hold back so she wouldn't lose Clark's ministration on her folds. It was so acute on what Clark was doing to her that she repeatedly clenching the sheets in an effort to delay her climax. Neither Patrick nor Claude had gone down on her.
After few minutes of working his tongue inside her, Clark felt Lois close to her climax and added his middle and index fingers into her He curled them, hitting Lois' G-spot. She was going to come hard for him.
The combination of Clark's mouth and fingers made Lois unable to control the moans that fell from her lips. Her entire body seized in pleasure, and her hands clenched tighter on the sheet. This man had purpose that morning to drive her to madness. She glazed over in pleasure as she managed to find the breath to cry out in bliss as stars dot her vision, and she collapsed, sated and exhausted.
Clark removed his hand, and licked his fingers before he leaned down and kissed her, tasting herself on his lips. Was it possible, that after that insane orgasm, she could come again, seeing him do that? And then suddenly, she rolled over on top of him, straddling him. "Now, I've got you." she said triumphantly, stroking his chest with her fingers.
"I always knew you do like to be on top," Clark grinned up at her with a mischievous look.
"Always such a good judge of characters, Farmboy." Lois giggled, recalling the memory of their first assignment together when she decided to lay down the law with him. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought that naive Farmboy from Kansas would turn into her best friend, lover, and partner. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought that Clark Kent the mid-mannered reporter was Supeman, the Man of Steel.
"Farmboy?" Clark raised an eyebrow. "Yesterday I was a flyboy. I'm wounded." he clenched his chest, feigning hurt.
"You are my Farmboy." Lois responded in a deep passionate voice and leaned to kiss him, her swollen nipples, of her breasts rubbing against his bare chest. She could feel Clark's arousal jumped higher even than before. She could feel how his body stiffened and shivered against hers. She could feel how his body shuddered with ecstasy against hers. "And also my flyboy." she went on in the same tone. "And my super-Aren't we a little overdressed for the occasion?" she said seductively and reached for the waistband of his boxers.
Clark's smile spread lazily across his face. "Well aren't you going to do something about that?" he whispered huskily
Lois felt a blush spread across her face but she hooked her fingers into the sides of his boxers and tugged them down over his arousal, causing Clark to let out a soft moan. God. He was so sexy, so well-built, so…endowed. Lois readjusted her body on top of Clark and reached between her own legs to position him at her entrance. She braced herself on his chest and slowly lowered herself onto him.
Clark thought he had died and gone to heaven as Lois moved so slowly. He brought his hands up to cup her breasts and caressed them as Lois slid him all the way inside of her body and then started to move. He felt so relaxed making love to Lois.
Lois reached behind her and put her hands on top of Clark's thighs, shifting her angle and taking him deeper into her body. "Oh, Clark." she moaned. "Yes. Oh, yes."
Clark held Lois by the waist and leaned forward. He began to pleasure her breasts with his mouth biting and licking her nipples gently. He loved her scent, her taste, the way she had surrendered completely to him. He could see, he could feel her gorgeous body was beaded in sweat from head to toe. Pleasure was coming in overlapping waves now, and he leaned his head back and tried to keep control. 'Don't come. Don't come.' he mentally begged himself. 'God, was she even close yet?' he thought himself. He was Superman, the Man of Steel but he also had his limits. The hot slide of his length between her legs was maybe the best sensation he had ever felt.
Lois' breaths rushed out of her, carrying Clark's name with it. The pleasure was intense, sending her into a spasm. She leaned forward and bit her lower lip, riding faster and harder. "I love you so much, Clark." she confessed breathless, as the first wave of orgasm rocked through her the moment their eyes met.
Clark felt the white-hot clench and release as Lois shuddered and he gasped with relief and joy, following her into sweet oblivion. Their muscles tightened and they were pinned together as the waves of pleasure crashed over them. Finally, they slumped forward collapsing onto the mattress and each other, their bodies stuck together of their exertion mingled. Lois' entire body covered his as she snuggled her face against his neck and her hair tangled over his face as he held her closer, breathing her scent. Everything in his world had changed. Now he had known her and felt her as the woman of his life, not only as his partner at work.
"Clark, you have sweated." Lois said as she felt the small beads of sweat that formed on his body.
Clark stared down at Lois struck by a sudden confusion. "Is that a bad thing?" he asked a little bit intrigued by her statement.
Lois raised her head and looked at Clark in the eyes. "No it just…" she took a deep breath to continue. "You had barely broken a sweat during the heatwave and you are invulnerable, you don't feel pain, you don't need to eat and…" she trailed off. "I mean do you feel anything when we…" she cleared her throat. "Intimate?" she asked nervously.
Clark let out a light chuckle and kissed Lois on the lips. "Of course I do." he answered with amusement. "Being invulnerable doesn't mean I don't feel anything when someone is shooting me or hitting me. It might not be pain, but there is a sensation, a pressure, it just doesn't hurt." he told further. "The fact I don't need food or water to survive, doesn't mean that my body doesn't sense hunger or thrust or the appetite and taste. The fact that I'm the strongest man of the World doesn't mean that I don't need to rest or sleep." he explained. "I mean I have to work out so I will keep myself in shape."
"Yes." Lois agreed immediately. "But you are who you are. You are…"
"From another planet?" Clark supplied with a bitter smile.
"I was going to say special." Lois replied firmly, studying his downcast face in the sunlight. There was still something she was missing here, something moving just below the surface of his thoughts. "Unique." she added and rested her head on his chest, fingering it playfully.
"Well yellow sun is the source of my powers." Clark informed. "If I was under the effects of a red sun like the one the planet Krypton had, I would have been powerless." he went on. "But over than that Earth is a planet physically and biologically compatible with Krypton." he noted. "And even if I' am alien, even if I'm invulnerable and I can't be sick by earthly diseases, I'm taking an annual checkup." he pointed out. "I have my heart on the left side of my chest, I have lungs."
"And all the parts of a man." Lois giggled as she moved her hands to gently massage his upper thighs.
Clark grinned back at her, smiling as he recalled one of their first conversations after his debut as Superman.
"So, if Krypton is a planet physically and biologically compatible with Earth, does it mean that you are compatible with an Earth woman to…have kids?" Lois asked uncertainly. She immediately wanted to bite her tongue the moment she spoke without thinking. She knew she had to be careful with her words, yet she opened and ruined utterly everything. Clark was having her in on her secret less than twenty hours and she was thinking of children with him? Sure, she knew that Clark wasn't taking their relationship lightly but kids? 'Clark would certainly be a great father' she thought; he was great with kids….as Clark…and as Superman. On the other hand, her and Lucy's childhood had been traumatic; her father's affairs and her mother's addiction to alcohol led her sister to depression and her of being feared of commitment without looking back at all. She wasn't exactly the best mother material out there and her experience with Amy Valdes was proof. But the thought of having a child with Clark for a strange reason got her butterflies in her stomach.
Clark was taken aback by Lois' question about his compatibility for reproduction with an Earth woman, but a surge of happiness cut through him at the same time. Lois wanted a future with him. Considering what had happened with Luthor and Lois' rejection one year ago, if someone had told him that Lois would be in love with him and thought she would be possibly want a child with him he'd have thought they were crazy. "Are you asking for any specific reason?" He was intentionally baiting her, and he grew increasingly tickled at her reaction to the question when her body tensed.
"Just curious." Lois shrugged casually. "I was just wondering if you were able to have kids, if you ever decided have some."
"Well," Clark began. "I asked you about precautions before we…came closer." he offered.
"So?" Lois whispered and lifted her head to look at him.
"So" Clark echoed. "Yea, Superman is compatible from reproduction with an Earth woman. Dr. Bernard Klein from Star Labs who is also Superman's physician confirmed it."
Lois stared up at Clark, smiling and gently reached up to touch his cheek. The kiss they shared was tender at first but as things got heated up, the world faded away and all that was left was the passion that consumed them, flames which spread through their bodies, till it left them breathless, exhausted, happy and content locked into each other's arms.
"Thank you, Martha for the dinner. It was so delicious." Lois thanked as she dabbed her mouth with her napkin after she ate the last bite of Lasagna. Clark had flown them to Smallville early in the afternoon. She loved Clark's parents. She had known them only two years and during their brief visits in Metropolis to see Clark, they had given her so much love that her own parents hadn't during her all life. She had to admit she found herself envying Clark of warmth of his family's love.
"My pleasure." Martha said with a smile and began to retrieve the plates. "I can give you the recipe if you want to." she offered.
"Mom." Clark called out. "You know that Lois' not a big fan of cooking." he went on carefully.
"Maybe I had not good reason not to, until now." Lois eyed Clark teasingly. "No, no, Martha, let me get them," she said, putting her hand on Martha's arm as the older woman reached for her plate.
"Oh, no, you don't." Martha insisted as she retrieved Lois' plate. "You are going to sit here to eat apple-pie and chocolate chip cookies."
"You and Uncle Mike will make move into the gym until the end of the next century." Lois teased the moment Clark's mother set the plate in front of her.
"Mhm, tho to gooth." she let out a moan of pleasure after she took the first bite and Clark with his parents smiled.
"Well." Jonathan started and took the napkin off his lap, putting it on the table. "As much as I enjoy your company I have to go to sleep." he announced. "I need to wake up early. I have to gather and bale hay."
"Dad." Clark interjected. "I can do that for you now."
"No it's okay." Jonathan assured. "It will take days to-"
"It will take me a few hours to do it." Clark cut short.
"I believe Clark is right Mr. Kent." Lois jumped in as she looked between Jonathan and Clark. "Today I had a pretty good idea how Clark's powers can come in pretty handy." she went on smiling at Clark.
Jonathan held his hands in surrender. It was obvious he couldn't win a battle against his pigheaded son and a woman who had the nickname Mad Dog Lane. While and he and Clark stood from the table, Lois and Martha chatted away for while before they went outside.
"It's beautiful here." Lois said after she stepped out the door onto the porch, along with Martha. "It's quiet, peaceful. You can breathe fresh air, you can see the stars on the sky."
"And it's still a little chilly in mid May." Martha added breaking into a huge smile when she saw Lois wrap one of Clark's shirts tighter around herself. "Nothing like Metropolis though, right?" she poured a glass of lemonade and offered it to Lois
"Thanks." Lois smiled appreciatively at Martha and accepted the glass of lemonade. Everything is so different here. Over there everyone is in hurry to go somewhere or do something but here…" she trailed off.
"Everything is almost at ease." Martha finished for Lois and poured herself some lemonade from the pitcher.
Lois nodded "But I can't think of myself away from Metropolis." she confessed "It's part of me. It's the city where I was born, the city I grew up."
"I understand honey." Martha gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I was hoping the same thing for Clark but…"
"But?"
"But in the end the only thing I wished for him was to settle down somewhere permanently." Martha said with a sad smile and stood next to Lois, staring up at the night sky. "I didn't care if it was in China or the Arctic. I knew he would always come and visit us here but it was painful for me to see him run away from everywhere."
Lois turned and looked at her intrigued. Martha's statement was firm but she observed that there was something in her manner, in the tone of her voice, and in the expression of her eyes that betrayed her hurt of her words.
"Every time he came close to being discovered, he'd simply pick up and leave." Martha added. "He spent years traveling the whole world but never found the permanence he wanted until he came to Metropolis. Until he met you."
Lois didn't answer, because she wasn't confident that she could speak without crying. She closed her eyes, the mental picture she'd painted rising insistently in her mind; A young Clark Kent, painfully alone, seeking solace and connection with the other people as ordinary human. And then emerged from that experience feeling more and more emptier and isolated than before every time he had to run away. For the first time she understood how deeply Clark needed to feel that connection, just how fragile his confidence in himself as a human being was. Would her and Clark's children feel the same if they were special like their father? Children. The word felt like an anvil on her heart and mind. It was ridiculous to think about it when she was only few hours in relationship with Clark. "Martha-"
"No." Martha raised her hand to stop her. "I honestly don't think Superman would exist without you." she explained. "He found a way to help and stay at the same time, and all because of you, Lois."
'I have grown to depend on you so much'
"Lois" Martha went on. "The sun recharges Superman's powers physically, but you recharge and sustain Clark mentally."
'I have grown to depend on you so much'
'If you take away Superman, Clark Kent, the farmboy from Kansas will still be here. Maybe, he will leave Metropolis and move to another place until he will move on again after too many anonymous rescues just like I was doing before I wore that suit —but still I will be me. But now that you took Clark Kent away…there is no Superman. There's no one, nobody, nothing. Both Clark Kent and Superman are dead. And you, Lois Lane, killed them.'
'Superman is what I can do, Clark is who I' am.'
"You saved him from himself so many times, Lois." Martha's eyes crinkled in a genuine smile and rested her hand on Lois' shoulder squeezing it in encouragement. "You saved him when he intended to give up the suit when he was tested by Luthor and during the heatwave. The thought of you gave him courage to escape from Luthor's hands your wedding day. You were-"
"Wait, wait, wait. Back up a minute," Lois stopped Martha. "What tests, what wedding day?" she asked obviously confused by Martha's words. "What which…"
"It's nothing." Martha tried to shrug Lois off when realized what she had just done. Lois had no idea what had happened between Lex Luthor and Clark as Superman.
"It's not nothing." Lois said angrily and took a few steps toward Martha. "You know something. You know something and you are not telling me." she challenged, seeing something in the older woman's eyes. She was hiding something and she was going to find out what it was. She knew that Lex's nuclear plant was responsible from the heatwave, but tests? Then it hit her. She realized what Martha meant. She knew that someone was testing Superman with the Carlin Building and the jumpers. But she never thought it would be Lex behind it. Even after all those things that happened a year ago.
'You're saying someone waited for Superman to appear, watched him enter the building, and then detonated the explosives? I can't believe it. A bomb. It's horrible. That poor man.'
'What man?'
'Superman. He comes here to help us...Can you imagine how he feels?'
'I think so.'
'It doesn't make sense. Who'd want to kill Superman?'
'They've both been released, Jules Johnson immediately. They don't think he ever meant to jump. Monique Kahn, on the other hand, was hysterical. Turns out she's afraid of heights.'
'Employment records of the jumpers. Both worked for LexCorp.'
'Them and about a million other people in Metropolis. What's the connection?'
'Be careful with Lex. You don't know him like I do'
Now Clark's cryptic warning the night after Fuentes' hostage situation made sense, considering what happened a year ago and of course few months ago when Lex was raised up out from the dead.
'You're afraid of the truth. And the truth is that Lex Luthor may be hiding from you what really happened at the Planet. I've been doing some digging and-'
'I know why you're doing this.'
You do, huh?'
'Yes. You told me your feelings, and you're hurt. I am sorry about that, Clark, but all of this is just sour grapes.'
'What if I find evidence?'
'You're talking about a man I trust... who has always been completely truthful with me.'
How could she be so be so dazzled by Lex's brilliance as a philanthropist and as the good golden boy of Metropolis had preferred to dismiss all the facts? How could he fool even Perry at first?
'Be careful with Lex. You don't know him like I do'
'There is no way I'm going to sit there and watch you walk down the aisle with that...'
'What? Thief? Gangster? Psychopath? Murderer?'
'Maybe all of the above.'
Clark was the only one that knew who Lex really was even back then from the beginning but he couldn't tell her without exposing his identity as Superman. 'Superman.' Lois thought and immediately remembered Martha's words few moments ago.
'The thought of you gave him courage to escape from Luthor's hands your wedding day.'
Now she understood why Clark wasn't along with Henderson, Perry, Jimmy and Jack when they came to arrest Lex. He had kidnapped Clark. But then again Clark was Superman and he couldn't be detained. Unless…
'I can't.' Lois remembered Clark saying in an anguished tone, as he tried to jump.
'Maybe you'd like to let me in on the joke.'
'Me! I'm the joke! Twice I've had the chance to kill you and twice the game has gone your way.'
"There was Kryptonite." Lois said with a numb expression on her face and looked at Martha. Lex had detained Clark as Superman with Kryptonite. That's why he didn't have his superpowers to save Lex from jumping off his penthouse afterwards. "Martha what happened back then?" Martha was silent. "What aren't you telling me?" Lois pressed and grabbed the older woman by the shoulders. "What happened back then? What happened to Clark that day I almost wedded Luthor?"
"You might want to sit down for this one, Lois," Martha said with a sigh.
Clark let out a heavy sigh as he entered the farmhouse. Work went about as expected for him and his father except everything took longer than expected. It would have taken days even with hired hands to gather and bale such massive amount of hay and he couldn't see how his father believed he could do it by himself. Clark wrinkled his nose in disgust at the smell of hay and dirt on his body as he walked up the stairs quietly not to wake up his dad who left the fields earlier than him, his mother and Lois. She had been through a lot because him the last couple of days. Clark reached the top of staircase. He was surprised to find Lois awake when he opened the door of his bedroom. She stoodnear the window, her arms folded in front of her looking out at grass and trees around the farmhouse her hair tied in a ponytail. He could see that her eyes glowed and her face flashed with anger as the moonlight illuminated her form. Something had happened during his absence. "Hey," he held his hand up in casual salute in a small attempt to lightenher mood that moment. Lois turned and looked at him angrily. "I'm in big trouble." he went on in the same humorous tone trying to clean the air.
Lois unfolded her arms. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, and her dark, intelligent eyes were throwing daggers at him, because she was quite angry.
"Tell you, what?" Clark furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"About the tests, about the jumpers, about the Carlin Building, about everything!" Lois yelled obviously pissed at Martha's revelations.
"Lois-"
"A kryptonite cage? Clark, really?" Lois let out a loud and high-pitched cry in disbelief. "How could you hide this from me?"
Clark opened, then closed, then opened again his mouth, his eyes wide as he tried to find any words to say. Yes, he should have told her, but he didn't. Back then she was too emotionally and mentally vulnerable and her entire world turned upside down, all for the sake of a man who had turned out to be one of the biggest criminals Metropolis had ever known. And just as they thought she got her life back on track, out of the blue Luthor raised from the dead and most of the progress she had made, went out of the window. How could he tell her that the man she had almost married had tried to kill him? How could he tell her back then that he was Superman? "You know very well how much…fragile you were back then." Clark began with a sigh. "The Planet, your wedding fiasco." he said calmly. "The way things were between us." he added carefully lowering his gaze.
"You could have told me though when Luthor miraculously came back from the dead," Lois shot back.
Clark turned back to look at Lois directly, compelled to honesty even though he'd wanted to avoid this conversation. "And what am I supposed to say, huh?" he challenged with anger. "Hey, Lois you know what? Superman was overconfident and went to confront Luthor. But guess what? Luthor had a cage of Kryptonite and trapped Superman there for a day and a half." he barely took a breath as he kept going "And Luthor taunted him about how he'd finally won and what he was going to do to Superman to his loved ones and especially you; his ultimate prize,…. how he was going to….break you because he thought you were too independent." Clark struggled to keep his voice down and his anger at bay.
"Yes!" Lois hissed angrily, letting out a frustrated growl. "You should have told me that exact thing. You should have told me what he had done to Superman when he had first come to Metropolis"
"Of course," Clark muttered, turning to her with a snarl. "Just because all these happened to Superman, just because he witnessed them, Lex was prone to suspicion, and I would suddenly be worth listening to."
"Are you out of your mind?" Lois asked incredulously. "This isn't about you or Superman." she answered shouting. "This is about the man I almost got married and he turned out to be the biggest criminal in the city." she pointed out. "I thought you were jealous back then, Clark. Especially, after I turned you down in the park. I hadn't heard a single rational reason or any solid proof from you to make me distrust Lex. You only gave me veiled insecurities and conspiracy theories. However, what happened between you as Superman and Lex…." she trailed off.
"Was it the Prometheus project conspiracy theory, Lois?" Clark reminded her. "Were the jumpers and the Carlin Building conspiracy too? The Mentamide 5, the heat wave, the Toasters and his partnership with Toni Taylor? The Planet? Were all those things conspiracies?" he asked shouting. "No they weren't conspiracies, they were facts, but you ignored them." he hissed. "I warned you, multiple times back then, Lois." he pointed his index finger at her accusingly when Lois didn't respond. "I hadn't proof back then about him but I warned you. You knew that Lex had kept his fingers in many, numerous pies. Half of the stories we had been working on back then involved Luthor in one way or another." he pointed. "Nevertheless, you ignored me." he spat. "Nevertheless, you accepted his proposal because Superman had turned you down." he snapped. "Nevertheless, you would have been his wife, if Perry along with Henderson, Jimmy and Jack hadn't arrived on time to stop the ceremony."
Lois' breath hitched as Clark spoke the last sentence. He didn't know. He didn't know she stopped her wedding with Lex. It was obvious that neither Perry nor Henderson, nor Jimmy or Jack who were present during Lex's attempt of arrest hadn't told him that she couldn't say 'I do'. It was obvious that all this time, Clark still thought, still believed that she had every intention of marrying Lex, if police hadn't come to arrest him. "You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?" she shook her head.
"Don't I?" Clark challenged, his eyes narrowing at her.
Lois nodded and folded her arms in front of her chest. "Trust me, Clark. You have no idea." she said once more. "I was the one who stopped the wedding." she revealed.
"What?" Clark asked, his voice was hoarse and shaky as the question came out.
"You heard what I have just said." Lois shot back angrily. "I stopped the wedding because the only person I could think of that day was you!" she growled at him angrily and jabbed her finger in his chest. "I stopped the wedding because as I was walking down the aisle the only person I could think of was you."
"Where are you going?" he demanded when he watched her walk to the door.
"Out!" Lois snapped as she turned the knob of the door. "To get some fresh air."
Anger and frustration finally rose to the surface the moment Lois slammed the door behind her with force "Aghh!" Clark growled with rage and kicked the bed over, slamming his fist through the wall, before he sunk down into a chair near the window.
"What happened?" Martha asked as she and Jonathan emerged into the room a few moments later.
"Lois and I had fight." Clark answered, burying his head in his hands. "Didn't you hear?"
"We heard and we saw Lois to run headlong down the stairs but-Oh my God." Martha shouted in panic the moment she saw the hole on the wall. "Honey, are you alright?" she asked with concern and rested her hand over Clark's shoulder, sending him a pulse of comfort.
Clark shook his head. "No." he answered his face still buried in hands. "No. But I will." he assured and raised his head looking at his father with sad smile. "Trust me. I will."
Lois began to walk around the Kent farm aimlessly still mulling over her fight with Clark. It was the last thing she'd expected to happen when she'd agreed to visit Smallville with him. And so the revelations about what happened between Lex and Clark as Superman. She was angry-no far from furious with Clark for keeping her in the dark about Lex. But then again, she'd done nothing but refuse to believe him and ignore his warnings.
'You lousy…'
Flashes of memories ran through Lois' mind as she remembered the two words that Menken managed to say, before Lex fired a direct hit on him, and a cold chill dripped down her spine. Lex had shot Menken to shut him up and not to save her. Lex was her father's employer and behind the boxing scandals. Lex was behind Allie's assassination, one of her father figures. Then there was that weird copy of her apartment in Lex's bunker during Nightfall. She hadn't dwelled on that, but in retrospect it was creepy. How did he make an exact copy of her apartment, unless someone broke into her apartment without her knowledge? While Lex had seen her living room a few times, the details in that apartment reminded Lois of profiles she'd read about stalkers. Lois gritted her teeth, rage and betrayal swelling within her. Every time she was thinking about Lex she felt…well….hatred and disgust were underestimated words to describe what she felt about this man. Lois shook her head pushing those thoughts away. Lex belonged utterly to the cast-off past. He was locked up in jail for the rest of his life paying for his crimes. And she…she was with Clark. Clark. She didn't know what to think, what to feel, because she was feeling so many different things. Relief. Happiness. Hurt. Anger. Confusion. Though there was one emotion, the strongest one that remained constant throughout. Love. She loved Clark. And while she'd known that for a while now, it was what she was holding onto amidst the maelstrom of feelings that was swirling through her after the events of the last 24 hours. She knew Clark was the one; he was everything she had hoped to find in a man. Not only was he a regular guy but he was also a hero or as she liked to call him, Superman. There was nothing that Clark could do that would turn her off from him, everything he did she would dismiss as quirky and even romantic.
Lois looked let her eyes wander over the property and the land as far as she could see in the dark. Although she had told Martha that she couldn't imagine her life away from Metropolis it was too easy for her to fall in love with this place. She would never forget the time she had spent here when she had first met Clark. How she had spent the day immersed in Clark's hometown, as his parents and his old friends embraced her for the first time into the community, welcoming her into their world with open arms. It was here in Smallville were she had seen for the first time, who Clark really was. She'd admired how relaxed and easy-going he was. She'd seen how friendly and open he was. In short, she'd been forced to see him as a person, rather than just competition at work. She was still silently thankful for the way that had made her see Clark in a new light. Maybe she had even fallen in love with him back then. Lois smiled at the memory as she wandered around the Kent's property. She seemed at peace and she looked like she was finally home. It would be too easy to envision coming here for summer vacations and winter holidays and far too easy to imagine a dark-haired boy happily running through the fields. Her and Clark's son. Lois shook her head once more. Why was she thinking about children with Clark? Lois pushed the thought away as quickly as it surfaced for one more time that day, and walkedbehind the barn toward the small pond a few yards away. Her chest tightened as she stood at the edge of the water where the grass and cattails had overgrown. She would never forget Trask aiming his pistol at Clark when the two men got into fight over there. She shuddered at the thought how vulnerable Clark was back then under the effects of Kryptonite and that he could have been dead right now, if Rachel Harris hadn't fired her gun at Trask, killing him. Lois shut her eyes tight, trying to suppress those unpleasant memories and walked away as fast as she could—she felt that she could not walk fast enough. It seemed that not all the places in Smallville brought her pleasant memories. Unconsciously her footsteps guided her to a grove of trees located few yards away from the barn when she noticed a treehouse made out of mismatched wood, nestled in the branches. Without giving herself time to change her mind, she grabbed the rope and with the help of the branches and the climbing skills she had obtained under the guidance of her uncle, Mike, she quickly ascended the tree to the platform of the treehouse.
"Oh, Clark..." Lois murmured. His name rushed from her lips, caught in an air of sadness, as the three words on the sign of the door had transformed her idyllic caricature of his childhood. "Fortress of Solitude." she mumbled to herself as she ran her fingers over the words. She had also felt alone for long time, until she met Clark. Lois pushed open the door and once she was safely inside, she looked around the space. The interior of the structure was dark, the gaps in the wood frame letting in the cool air with a tiny silver of moonlight. Her interest focused momentarily on a timeworn poster from Smallville Carnival that hung on the wall. Then she looked at the selves with assorted dusty odds and ends that had been stashed away over the years, before her eyes fell on a quilt that it was placed on a crude shelf. It piqued her curiosity because it was fresh washed with the smell of the laundry detergent fill the air. Now she knew where the heavy scent of lavender that lingered all over the place came from. "Oh my God." Lois'breath caught in her throat and her heart slowed the moment she pulled the quilt and saw what it was underneath. "Superman's globe." she murmured.
'I just wish…'
'What?'
'Well…I wish I knew what the globe really was. Superman wouldn't say. He just said that he was happy to have it back. I wonder where it is now.'
'I'm sure Superman has it someplace very safe.'
'I guess.'
She always thought it was odd that Clark had stolen something like that by Bureau 39 warehouse and Superman. Lois reached to touch the globe but immediately stopped. Two years ago, she would done it without a second thought. However, things now were different. She was different. The particular object was part of Clark's past that probably he wasn't ready-or willing-to share with her yet. She knew very well when that time would come Clark would tell her, would let her in more.
"You can touch it." Lois heard Clark say and she jumped. She slowly turned and saw Clark floating outside the treehouse.
"It's okay." Clark assured and approached the treehouse more. After his argument with Lois Clark took a super quick shower and climbed into the bed to sleep but failed. He knew that she needed space and distance so she would sooth her raging temper and put her anger aside but he couldn't help himself. He couldn't imagine how he slept all those nights alone before Lois. He couldn't imagine him sleeping without her on his side anymore. How he had he grown to depend so much on her he didn't know. The only thing he wanted was time and space, like Lois, to think and his old treehouse was the only place besides the mountain tops of the Alps where could come terms with his problems and himself. However, he didn't expect by any means to find Lois there in his treehouse. "You can touch it, Lois." Clark repeated as he set his feet on the platform of the treehouse and into it. "It won't harm you." he promised. "Okay." Clark said defeated upon seeing Lois' hesitance and approached his girlfriend. "The globe holds messages from my birth parents and information about my origins and the explosion of Krypton." he explained as he looked down the globe.
"Wow." Lois said, with awe in her tone and stared at the globe intensely biting her cheek from inside.
"Yea." Clark responded as casually as he could. "I kept getting the messages when Jack had stolen the globe and when it was in Luthor's possession."
"Lex?" Lois screeched in surprise head was spinning, as she tried to process Clark's revelation.
Clark nodded. "Well, Jack told me that when he stole the globe from my apartment a middle aged English man along with an unknown man bought the globe for 1000 dollars." he began to explain. "Jack also said that those two men kidnapped him and they would have killed him, if Superman hadn't saved him from the secret vault underneath the Museum."
"So Jack knew who really Lex was all along and said nothing?" Lois fumed in disbelief.
Clark shook his head. "At the beginning, no." he replied as he moved across the treehouse. "He kinda suspected it, when we were taken hostages at the Planet by Fuentes." he went on as he lightly ran his fingertips over the poster. "He recognized Luthor's voice but he wasn't quite sure. Not until he indentified Nigel as the middle aged English man who had bought Superman's globe, when he escorted Lex to one of his visits to the Planet before the bombing."
"I...I can't...I can't believe it...all of this..." Lois said, shocked by the revelations and rubbed her forehead in attempt to ease her headache that tension had caused to her. She was so confused, questions flooded her mind. All this time...Lois started to wonder how many lies Lex had told her, and how many crimes unknown to them and the authorities he had committed. Months ago, before Lex miraculously resurrected, she wondered how long he would have haunted Metropolis and its people. Now knowing that he was still alive, she began to wonder how long he would haunt her life and lives of the people she loved, especially Clark's.
Clark turned and looked at Lois. "All I know is that Luthor was capable of everything." he mused. "You know." he went on looking around the treehouse. "There are still times that I wanna be here." he looked back at Lois changing a topic.
Lois took a few steps toward Clark. "And tonight is just one of those days you need to be here?" she asked with an amused look and folded her arms in front of her chest.
"Yeah." Clark nodded with a bright smile which quickly turned to rueful afterwards. "You know the first time I came here after I had permanently moved in Metropolis, was the night you turned me down in the park as Clark." he revealed sadly. "And after I turned you down as Superman."
"Clark." Something broke inside her, shattered completely. They both had hurt each other irremediably that day and the next one. They both had said and done things that they couldn't take back and now they had to live with the consequences of the choices they had made. They couldn't change the past, they couldn't change what had happened a year, but they could live the present, hoping to a better future; together.
"Lois, I have no attention to tell you those things to upset you." Clark defended in a regretful tone upon seeing Lois' hurt. "I just wanna tell those things to someone. I just wanna you to know."
"So, you were here because of me more than once." Lois unfolded her arms in defeat, her words more as statement than question.
"Sure I was." Clark admitted without hesitation. "The second time I was here was the night of Luthor's proposal." he said. "I was floating outside his balcony when you accepted his proposal." he went on and stopped for a moment as he remembered what had happened that night. "I saw him slip the ring onto your finger, kiss you." he spoke with difficulty the last sentence as he felt his throat dry as sorrow racked him. "Yea I know not one of my proudest moments." he admitted as casually as he could. "I found myself screaming somewhere in the Arctic. I still have no clear memory of how I had gotten there."
"And the other one time?" Lois asked. The way Clark he'd spoken…they should had been more than those two times that he had come over here because of her and that terrified her. She was terrified about what he was going to say next.
"The three other times were recently with Scardino." Clark confessed and a knot formed in his Adam Apple. "That noon I ran away from you because I heard a cry for help." he began to explain. "When I came back, I saw you and Dan outside the Planet. The way you smiled…" he trailed off and took a deep breath to control his emotions. "I hadn't seen you smile like that since we first kissed that night before Mayson died." Clark tried to keep the tone of his voice calm, but the words came jumbled, as his voice eventually cracked. "The second time was the night you had gone out for dinner with him. The moment you left the Planet I just…I just flew over here."
"And the third one?" Lois dared to ask.
Clark let out a sigh. "The night before Superman's trial." he answered flatly. "I came to see you outside your apartment building that night and Scardino was waiting for you over there." he explained. "After you returned from your walk you invited him up to your apartment."
The realization hit Lois like a ton of bricks. It was the night she went to find Clark at his apartment, but he wasn't there. It was the night she had called him but in vain. Fate played strange games after all.
'I guess he's starting to get on my nerves a bit.'
'Really?'
'At least he doesn't run out on me every time I have something important to say.'
So how was your date with Agent Scardino?'
There's my favorite sight in the world. The truck that delivers our payroll checks.'
'Lois, if you don't wanna talk about it I understand.'
'It was okay.'
'And you talked about...?'
'Things. Lots of things. He stuck around to have a conversation, unlike some people who always run off.'
'Lois, I am not always running off.'
Lois bit her lower lip remembering how she had hurt Clark. She gritted her teeth in silent hurt in an attempt to choke back the swell of emotion that overtook her during Clark's narration. She wasn't accustomed to the feeling. She had grown thick hide. Paul, Claude and Lex had made sure of that, until Clark had broken down her barriers without her even realizing it. Clark's confession that moment was a particularly hard bone to swallow. "Clark, listen to me." Lois said assertively and cupped Clark's face with both of her hands, her eyes locked on his. "No more solitude for you, no more hiding in old treehouses or on frozen tundra. No more running. You will never been alone from now own. We will be together."
The next instant Lois was in Clark's arms, and he was kissing her and holding her as if he would never let her go. She wrapped her arms around his neck tight enough to strangle an ordinary man and pressed harder with her hands his head towards her deepening the kiss as much as she could.
"Don't you think this place is too musty to make love?" Clark spoke between kisses that grew steadily more passionate.
"Every place and every time is right for us to make love." Lois responded quietly in between huffs and puffs and ran her hands over Clark's chest to the top of his pants. Clark captured her lips with a hungry kiss and put his hands under her shirt. Lois pulled away looked him in the eyes. "I'm glad you took the cue." she breathed heavily with a devilish smile on her face and made quick work of the button of his pants.
"I love you." Clark told her without hesitation and glued his lips on Lois' neck. "I want you." he continued and cupped her breasts under her shirt.
"I want you more." Lois unzipped and pushed Clark's pants along with his boxers to his ankles.
Clark kicked his pants and boxers off and placed his hands between him and Lois. "You have no idea how much I need you." he whispered and pushed her pants and panties down.
"Trust me, Clark. I need you so much more." Lois teased between the gasps as kicked off her clothes.
Clark held Lois under her thighs, set her down roughly at the edge on the self and stood between her legs. His hands stroke her thighs and hips as his mouth massaged her neck. "God." he said, his eyes closed as slid the tip of his member inside Lois. "This is so good." he whispered as he slowly pushed into her.
Lois wrapped her arms around Clark's shoulders. "This is so…" Words escaped Lois and she wrapped her legs around Clark's waist drawing him deeper. She wanted him as close as she could have him. She was so comfortable that all she wanted to do was close her eyes and drift off into the land of dreams.
Clark rested his forehead against Lois'. Lost in her gaze and his hands on her hips, he waited for her to say something. She didn't. There was only silence as he watched her intently. He wanted to memorize how she was that the exact moment. "Lois." Clark mumbled moments later, as he felt himself thicken inside her with each stroke.
"Clark." Lois whispered, licking her lips. She found her body instantly to respond on Clark's slow, deep and long strokes. She found herself moving in tandem with him. In and out. Slow and agonizingly tempting thrusts that made her insides tremble.
Clark continued to move within Lois with those slow measured strokes destined to drive her insane. Over and over, he took her to edge only to bring her back.
"Oh Clark." Lois managed to murmur and dug her fingernails into the backs of his shoulders, her internal muscles clenching around him, as she reached her completion.
"Lois for God's-" he trailed off with a grunt and squeezed Lois' hips, practically lifting her off the self as he shot his release deep within her. "I love you." he mumbled when he regained his breath and kissed Lois on the lips with a smile.
"I love you too, Clark." Lois smiled back him and ran a gentle hand across Clark's face. "So so much."
"Are you alright?" Clark asked Lois and brushed strands of sweat-soaked hair out of her face as they were snuggled up against each other onto the floor of the treehouse after one more round of slow and passionate lovemaking.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Lois replied, a small and real grin spreading across her face as she lay her head upon Clark's muscular chest his heart beat to a tune that soothed her soul. "I'm in the arms of the man I love. What more should I ask for." she smiled contently, her eyes closed. She kissed his chest, gently, as though she were break him and tasted the salty flavor of him, taking in the aftermath joy of making love. She had dreamt of spending the night on Clark's arms for a long time and she had to admit that it felt so much better that she could ever imagine.
"Really?" Clark smiled at Lois, looking down at her and kissed her forehead.
"Aha." Lois nodded with a bright smile and opened her eyes.
"How about your head?" Clark asked and rubbed Lois' crown. "I told you it should have been me on top."
"It's okay." Lois assured with a laugh. "It's just a little bump on the head." she rubbed her head where the shelf had struck when they made love. "I have survived far worse."
"Okay." Clark responded uncertainly to Lois' reply.
"Clark?"
"Hmm?" Clark mumbled.
Lois climbed on top Clark and straddled him with her strong, slender legs. "I need to know." she spoke gently as she stared at him.
Clarkwas looking at her with his eyebrows raised questioningly.
"Why?" Lois wondered, her voice small and scared. "Why me?" she repeated desperate for Clark's answer. "I mean with your looks, your character, your super powers, you could have had any woman you wanted. Why did you choose me?"
"Because I love you." Clark replied without hesitation. "Because I loved you from the first moment I laid eyes on you."
"But all I've ever done is, treat you horribly." Lois argued immediately. "And yet, you almost gave up everything in your life for me."
"You don't get it," Clark said with a small smile and a shake of his head. "It's not what you see. It's who you are." he went on and gave Lois a quick kiss on the lips. "Yes, you might be complicated, domineering, uncompromising, pig-headed and impulsive, a woman who seemed incapable of accepting love, of letting herself be loved but you also a woman who has a heart of gold and always sticks by all the people she loves through thick and thin, giving them encouragement."
"Really?" Lois teased, unable to keep the disbelief out of her voice, her brown eyes shimmer under the moonlight.
"Yea." Clark responded as pulled the quilt over them. "I knew from the moment I met you, that Lois Lane, the top dog-intelligent, inquisitive, forthright, reporter was a big heart, despite her thick exterior."
"That why you love me?" Lois asked, a playfully seductive smile, coming from her lips.
"And you have a really great body." Clark exclaimed gleefully. They both yelped with a laugh until Clark's face grew serious. "And you?" he asked his eyes locked on Lois'. "Why did you choose me over Superman and Dan?"
Lois let out a deep sigh and raked her fingers through her tangled hair. "Because of all things you said earlier." she responded with honesty. "You…you are the man that has broken down my barriers, without me even realizing it." she confessed. "You are kind and caring and… and you also have a heart of gold." she pointed out with a smile. "And you never gave up." she whispered and ran her fingers through his dark silky hair. "You never gave up on me."
"I'd die for you, if I could Lois." Clark blurted out.
"I know." Lois murmured, barely above a whisper. "That night at Georgie Hairdo's casino…"
"Even if I wasn't invulnerable…"
"I know…" Lois repeated her previous statement in the same tone.
"And that scares you?"
"It terrifies me." Lois admitted hoarsely. "But I'd be more terrified not be with you." she went on and shut her eyes resting her forehead against Clark's. "You made me realize that it was worth to take a real chance with you." she opened her eyes and looked at him. "You made me realize that I don't want to live with regrets."
"I only wanted for you to be happy," Clark admitted softly. "Even when you looked like you were going to marry Luthor, aside the bastard he was if it made you happy, I-"
"It wouldn't have," Lois interrupted. "You knew that when I didn't. And you saved me. You always save me."
"Lois-"
"No." Lois stopped Clark again. "We both made mistakes back then." she added calmly. "I didn't mean to hurt you. You didn't mean to hurt me but eventually WE DID hurt each other." she emphasized. "However, I have to confess the way I see it now, I'm glad I rejected you that day in the park." she blurted out and Clark looked at her in shock and confusion at her words. "And I'm glad that you turned me down as Superman that night at my apartment." she told further. "I was asked to love half a man. You were asked to be loved as half a man. It would have been unfair to both of us."
Clark looked at her awe struck by Lois' revelation. He tried to say anything in return but he was unable to form the words that were trapped in his throat.
"And Dan could never make me happy. Only you. All I want in my life is you." Lois told Clark from the bottom her heart. "You are the only one who makes me really happy." she closed her eyes and rested her head over his chest once more with a smile on her face.
"Do you think we will make it work?" Clark asked Lois as she played her hair. "Us I mean, because of Superman." he clarified.
Lois raised her head and looked at him in disbelief. "Do you always talk about yourself in the third person?" she asked incredulously.
"Sometimes it's the only way to keep everything straight," Clark just shrugged with a chuckle.
Lois rolled her eyes. "To answer your question, Superman belongs to all of us, to the World." she repeated her statement from the day before in the Courthouse. "All I want is Clark to belong to me." she told further. "I don't care if you are three hours or two weeks away from me because of your Superman duties as long as I know that Clark will eventually come back to me. Is that too much to ask for?" she asked after a brief pause.
"Lois…" Clark cupped her cheek with a smile. "I will always come back to you." he promised. "You can bet on it."
"Good to know." Lois whispered with a sultry and kissed across his jawline as she slid her hand slowly down his chest and below his waist.
Clark's heart rate began to speed up. The seductive tone of Lois' voice was unmistakable and her sultry look betrayed her intentions. He chuckled to himself. It was going to be a very long and interesting night.
He was feeling asphyxiation. That kind of asphyxiation he felt every time he was exposed to Kryptonite. He knew it was a bad dream, a nightmare as he had seen it many times, but all of this seemed to him so real. He could feel the Kryptonite radiation emanating from the cage.
He lay doubled over in pain on his side when he saw Luthor enter thru the doors. He was dressed in his wedding tux and carried two cummerbunds, one red, one white.
"And how are we feeling today?" Luthor asked with a mock as he went down the stairs and into the cellar.
Clark groaned with discomfort in his sleep, mimicking his groan that day in the Kryptonite cage when he tried to respond.
"Ohh." Luthor said with false sympathy as he unlocked the cage door. "Still feeling a little green around the gills, are we?" he went on with a mischievous smile. "I, on the other hand, am feeling wonderful." Luthor stated victoriously as he stood in front of him. "'She's beautiful and therefore to be wooed; She is a woman, therefore to be won.'" he quoted. "Henry the Fifth." he mentioned. "Oh I know, it must be tough." he walked around cage in triumph, hovering over him like a vulture waiting for its 'dinner' to die. "Lying there, seeing me all decked out like this." he produced a pocket mirror, examining himself as best as he could. "On my way to marry Lois Lane..."
"Lois." Clark mumbled in his sleep disturbed by the memory of Luthor saying Lois' name.
"While you lie there helplessly and suffer."
Pain shot through Clark's body as Luthor's words turned his memories against him. Clark felt the agony of the Kryptonite cage he had felt when Lex had really imprisoned him in his wine cellar. He wheezed in pain from the remembered exposure to Kryptonite and writhed in delirium.
"And tonight." Luthor began. "And tonight, tonight won't be just any night." he burst into song dancing round his curled frame. "Oh." he sighed deeply. "I love Lois, I do. I really do..." he confessed. "But she's just a little too independent. Don't you think?" he questioned. "Well, I'll take care of that." he said wickedly.
"Lois, please, Lois, don't let him do that to you." Clark pleaded in his sleep choking.
"I'll be back when it's over." Luthor warned as he went up the stair, tapping a fire ax hanging on the wall. " We'll have a little...mmm…" he licked his finger, as if he tasted Superman's blood on his mouth. "Heart to heart." he continued with a promise. "Have a nice death." he wished with a victorious salute. "Tonight, tonight won't be…" he heard Luthor sang as he disappeared.
"No!" Clark shouted in his sleep. He couldn't do anything to stop Lois, to save her.
Faintly, in the distance, Clark heard strains of music as it filtered its way down into the dismal cellar. It was the Wedding March.
"Lois, no." Clark shouted louder. "Don't marry him." he begged, as tears ran down his cheeks. "Just don't marry Luthor."
"Clark?" Lois mumbled in a sleepy voice and raised her head from Clark's chest where it was resting to look at him. "Clark?" she repeated in a worried tone when she saw how much Clark disturbed was.
"No. No. NO!" Clark shouted.
Shadows of cages, dungeons and axes faded as he kept hearing his name by her. At first, he couldn't tell if her voice was coming from his memories or from the present, until he realized that she'd called him Clark. Clark woke up with a gasp rattled by the dream, his body drenched in a cold sweat, something he had rarely experienced. He suddenly sat up completely unnerved and looked around the room. As Clark realized he was in his room in Smallville and no longer in that torturous cage, he sighed heavily.
Lois sat up in bed and faced him concerned. "Clark! What's wrong?" she asked alarmed and placed her hands on his body to reassure him of her presence.
"Night- Nightmare." Clark stuttered breathing heavily. The nightmare that plagued him felt so real, reliving the events of that day again and again and images still were flashing past his eyes.
"Luthor?" Lois asked and rubbed his back with slow moves trying to calm him down.
Clark nodded running his fingers through his hair. "It felt so real. Luthor, his words, the pain from the Kryptonite exposure." He felt ashamed of himself. He felt ashamed of himself of being weak both physically and mentally in front of Lois. 'So much for the illusion that Superman wasn't vulnerable.' he thought.
"How…" Lois swallowed a lump in her throat, before she found the courage to go on. "How does it feel to be exposed to that rock?"
Clark pushed Lois down on the bed and leaned his head against her chest, closing his eyes. "It literally feels like your insides are melting. That your bones are being crushed." he confessed. "And...and as if there is a noose around your neck that is suffocating you. It's literally a poison. A cancer." he went on. "I don't have nightmares about it all the time. It just…our discussion about that matter tonight…" he trailed off.
Lois let out a heavy sigh as she heard Clark's monologue. Whoever was saying that superheroes didn't have skeletons in their closet they were very mistaken. "And for how long do the Kryptonite effects last?" she asked running her fingers through his hair.
"It depends on the time of the exposure." Clark replied. "The first time I was exposed during our visit here where we found Trask, I lost my powers for a few days." he said. "When Luthor captured me I was one day and a half caged. It took one week and a half before my powers were restored." he drew back and met her eyes. Slowly, he leaned up and kissed her climbing on top her.
"No." Lois stopped him the moment he realized Clark's intentions. "It's not right." she added. She had given in earlier in the treehouse to comfort him like that.
"Why?" Clark asked astonished by Lois' rejection and cupped her face with his both hands, resting his forehead against hers.
"You are in fragile emotional state, now." Lois replied. "You are not yourself."
"Don't" Clark pleaded. "Don't stop me. I need you and I know you need me too." he whispered on her lips. "I need to feel you, my love. To make love to you." he went on. "You fill me with life."
After a few hours of love making, Clark was watching Lois sleep. He was caressing her jaw line with his knuckles, whispering to the sleeping woman next to him, how much he loved her. He was telling her how much he loved her all over again like he was trying to reassure her of his feelings. He was repeating his love to her until the dawn came. Watching the morning light peaking through the window, Clark smiled. After their confessions and their promises to each other the night before, he knew that a new day for both them had just come.
Thank you for reading and PLEASE REVIEW so you would let me know what you think and encourage me to continue writing. And remember: You can always contact with me and express your opinion about my Author's Note through PM or my Twitter Account. ( hellaslar), having as only request the reviews will be only for the storyline.