Chapter 4: The beginning of the end.
A month passed before Clark and Lana were officially divorced. Clark had shut himself away from everyone apart from his mum, his children and Chloe. The loss of Lana had affected him more than he had expected it to; he truly had loved her and every time he saw Cara and little Lois, he was reminded of their mother and that really hurt him. All he had told his children was that Lana had gone away for a while, but that she loved them and that she would see them again soon. He didn't know himself if his children would ever see their mother again-or even if she wanted to see them, but he couldn't tell them that.
One Saturday morning, Martha, Nell and Henry had taken the children out, including little Clark, and Clark was spending the day with Chloe; the two friends were sitting on the sofa, cuddling, watching films. As the first film came to an end, Chloe asked, "Clark, now that you and Lana aren't together, you're not planning on making a move on Lois, are you?" It had been a thought which had been in the back of her mind for a couple of weeks.
Her best friend replied by saying that he would never do such a thing, as Lois and Oliver were married and they were happy together-he sometimes wished that they had an unhappy marriage, as it would have made things easier for him, but he did not express these thoughts to Chloe, as he knew that she would interpret them in the "wrong way."
As they began the second film, there was a knock on the door and Lois and Oliver came in and the former explained, "Robert's training here for his big match next week, so we figured we'd come and say hello." She noticed the way in which her cousin and Clark were sitting together and decided not to remark, but it did make her wonder; she knew that, years ago, her cousin had been in love with Clark.
"Where are the kids?" Clark asked, as he moved along the sofa, so that there was space for at least one more person to sit next to him and he hoped that it wasn't Lois; he had been avoiding her for a month, ever since Lana had requested a divorce. Lois replied that Laura and Ella were with her dad, in Metropolis. She smiled at her friend, but he stared blankly at her and gave her no response.
The two cousins sat down on the sofa and Clark was relieved that Oliver asked him how to work the coffee machine, as it meant that he did not have to sit next to Lois.
When they were in the kitchen, Oliver asked, "So, how are you, Clark? Seriously?"
Clark was touched about how concerned his friend was about him and privately mused that he would not be this nice if he knew that he was in love with his wife. "I'm…doing ok. I mean, I still can't believe that Lana left me because of my powers. She obviously wasn't the accepting person I thought she was." He finished in a whisper.
He was surprised to see that Oliver did indeed know how to work the coffee machine-it had been a ploy in order to talk to him and this, once again, made him feel touched. "Clark, after Tess died... I was a mess. She left me a couple of weeks and asked for a divorce, but then she died. If you ever want to talk to me, I'm here for you and so's Lois."
"Thanks, Oliver." Clark smiled, then he inquired. "So, is Robert looking forwards to the game?"
Chuckling, his friend answered, "Yeah, he's really excited and I'm glad. To begin with, I thought that, maybe, I was pushing him into it, but he loves it."
"Do-do your kids ever ask about your parents?" Clark asked, in a careful voice. "It's just John and Cara asked me where my dad was, their grandfather, and I ended up telling him that he died a couple of years ago." He swallowed. "I suppose, its better they ask me than my mum. My dad's been dead since I was 19 and I'm 29 now, so that's 10 years, and yet, my mum still doesn't seem able to move on. Don't you think that's strange?"
The smile from Oliver's face faded. He sighed. "Well, my mum and dad died at the same time, so my mum didn't have that problem. I found the plane wreck and I found their wedding rings, so I moulded them into a ring, which I always have with me." He stayed silent for a moment, then continued, "They died when I was 11,the year I started at secondary school. I can still remember how I felt when I was told. I just told Laura, Robert and Ella that their grandparents died many years ago, when I was young." He forced a smile, then asked, "Do you know that it's Lois's 31st birthday in a couple of days?"
Clark smiled back and shook his head. "No, I didn't know that." He sighed; he couldn't believe that Lois was nearly 31-he had now known her since he had been 18, for eleven years. Eleven wasted years and she and Oliver had been married for nine of those. He had had two years with her and he had done nothing.
Oliver's phone rang.
He answered it and Clark saw his face turning white as the person on the other end spoke; he was even more surprise to see tears forming in his friend's eyes. Oliver said a word of thanks, in a broken voice, before hanging up. He avoided Clark's eyes and walked over to where Lois and Chloe were sitting, watching a romantic comedy. Clark followed, wondering what was going on and what had caused Oliver to be so upset.
Upon seeing her husband in such a state, Lois turned off the T.V and walked over to him. "Ollie, what's wrong? Ollie!" she begged him with her voice and eyes to speak, to tell her what had happened.
Oliver guided her to a chair, knelt down beside her so that their faces were level and took hold of her hands. Clark and Chloe stood in such a place so that they could see Lois's faces.
Inhaling a deep breath, Oliver began, in the same broken voice, "Lois, Robert's coach just called. There was-there was an accident. They called an ambulance, but they were too late."
"I don't understand." Lois whispered, her eyes showing both panic and fear at the same time.
Tears falling down his face, her husband whispered back, "Robert's dead, Lois. He's gone."
With those five words, something inside of Lois snapped and silent tears fell down her face. She was unable to speak or make any sound of any description.
Meanwhile, Clark pulled Chloe into his arms and she buried her face into his shirt, as she cried for the loss of a boy whom she had loved and the boy who had been very close to her own son.
Oliver tried to embrace his wife into a hug, but Lois pushed him away and there was hate in her eyes and this hate was directed at him. She stood up and he did the same.
"Lois. Lois, sit back down." He begged.
Facing her husband, as she sobbed, she whispered, "You did this, Oliver Queen! You pushed him to do football-YOU KILLED HIM!" Her last words were almost screamed and with that, with tears blinded her vision, she grabbed her bag and ran out of the house.
Chloe ran after her cousin and found her curled up by the side of the house, sobbing and rocking backwards and forward. "I didn't mean it." She sobbed. "I love Ollie!" She pulled Chloe into a hug and cried onto her shoulder.
Meanwhile, in the house, Clark placed a hand on Oliver's hand and remarked "I'm sure she didn't mean what she said. It was just an initial reaction. She loves you and you know that, Oliver."
Oliver ran his hands through his hair and observed, in a cold voice, "People usually say what they're really thinking when they're upset."
Clark shook his head. "Lois could never hate you. She loves you, I know she does and she loves your children."
"Only time will tell."
Two days later, Robert was buried in Metropolis Crematory. Lois and Oliver stood together, with Laura and Ella between them. The two girls were inconsolable, much like their parents. Clark stood with his mum and children and near to them stood, Chloe and little Clark, both of whom were crying. Lucy and Lex were there also and Lucy kept trying to think of ways to comfort her sister. Their father, General Sam Lane, could not be there, but Chloe's dad was there, so at least they had an older adult there.
As Clark watched Lois, he saw that she was not crying; her sadness seemed to be beyond the point of crying, as did Oliver's. He knew that the two of them had not exchanged a word since Oliver had bore the news of their son's death. Clark knew that there was no way on this Earth that Lois hated her husband, but he selfishly wished that it were so.
A weak after Robert's funeral, when Clark and Chloe went to visit Lois and Oliver to see how they were, they saw Lois's suitcases on the sofa and guessed what was going on, though Chloe prayed that it was not so-that they were there for some other purpose.
"Lois, please," their attention was drawn to the couple, as Oliver followed Lois down the spiralling stair case and his wife stopped and faced him, "Lois, please, don't do this."
"Don't do what?" Her voice towards him no longer had anger, just sadness.
"If you hate me, I understand. I"-
She pressed her lips across his lips in order to stop him from talking and their eyes met. "Ollie, I've never hated you. I could never hate you, but loosing Robert has changed us, like losing Demi changed us."
There were tears once again in Oliver's eyes. "Please, give our relationship another chance. Please."
Lois's eyes filled with tears also and she whispered, "I can't." she walked past him and stood by the window, before turning around to face him. "I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore." Tears fell down her face now and she continued, "Call me selfish, but after something like this happens, you go down a downward spiral and I'm worried that you may not come back up."
Clasping her hand, Oliver remarked, "After Demi died, it was you and the kids who brought me back up." He inhaled a shaky breath. "Lois, I love you more than I can express. Is my love you not enough?"
"I love you too, Ollie, more than I can tell you, but I can't do this anymore. I'm going to go and stay with Lucy in Smallville for a while and I'll sort out the divorce papers, so that all you'll have to do is sign it."
"What about the kids-I mean, the girls?"
Lois shrugged. "I don't know: shared custody? I'll have them half the weak and you have them the other half? We'll work it out. I promise. You're not going to loose them too."
Oliver kissed her hands and murmured, "Please don't leave me. Please."
Lois pulled her hand free from Oliver's and looked down at the ground. A long silence followed, then Lois reached out to him and hugged him. He hugged her back and buried his head in her hair. They stood there, crying, holding onto each other, until Lois moved and they parted. She passed him her wedding ring, picked up her bags and walked over to the door.
Oliver turned to face her and watched her face disappear in the lift. He clutched Lois's wedding ring in his hand and broke down on the floor. He later went into his daughters' bedroom and played with them. He had a horrible feeling that that would be the last time he would ever see his beloved wife.
A couple of days later, when Clark was dropping something off at Chloe's flat, he saw Lois sitting on the sofa, eating ice-cream. Knowing that Chloe wasn't in, he was worried about his friend, so he went in and closed the door. He knew that Lois had been diagnosed with having a weak heart a couple of hours ago. He didn't know if Oliver or Laura and Ella knew.
"Are you ok, Lois?" he asked, concerned about her.
Looking at him in the eye, Lois asked, "Where did we go wrong, Clark?"
Clark stared at her, confused and asked her what she was talking about.
Lois stood up. "I mean, where did we go wrong, Clark? You and I? We love each other, so what happened? Ok, let's start from the beginning: I worked out that I had feelings for you after I broke up with A.C and you promised me that, someday, I would meet someone even more special. I thought that you didn't feel the same way. Then, I started dating Ollie and I fell in love with him. When he asked me to marry him, the reason I didn't want to say 'yes' straight away was because I wanted to be sure that there was no chance of anything happening between the two of us. I crept into the barn and I heard you tell Chloe that you could never love me, because I wasn't Lana, so I left and eloped with Oliver." All of these feelings had been building up for years and to be able to express them felt really good.
Walking over to her, Clark smiled, "Lois, after you left, I told realised that I was in love with you and I told Chloe that I loved you even more than Lana-that our love was different from the kind Lana and I had. I spent the entire night searching for you and then when I found out that you and Oliver were married, I was so heartbroken that I left for five years. I'm sorry that I tried to kiss you the night Jimmy died, but I was trying. The only reason I married Lana was because I knew that you loved Oliver and nothing would ever change that." He paused, then added. "One of the reasons Lana left me was because of you, but it was also because of my powers."
"Your powers?"
"Yes. I'm from a planet named Krypton. Before it exploded my parents-my biological parents-send me away in a ship and I landed on Earth and my parents adopted me. I have abilities, I can do things which people can only dream of."
A smile spread across Lois's face and she inquired, "What sort of things can you do?"
In order to show her, Clark whizzed over to her, collected her in his arms and took her into the bedroom, back to the main part of the flat, then back to the bedroom at superspead.
When he had finished, because of how he was holding her, their faces were almost touching and their eyes were searching each other, as they had done years ago.
As he let Lois out of his arms, she summarised, "So, basically, you're a Kyprotan and you can do things of which humans can only dream and you and I have been in love with each other for eleven years? How on Earth did we miss that? How and why did we not act, Clark? Why have we wasted our time? Why?"
Clark had no reply, but, deciding to finally act upon his love for Lois, he reached out and kissed her passionately on the lips. Lois took a while to register what was happening and then she kissed him back with equal passion and love, her hands going up to his hair and his hands going down to her waist. Their lips parted and their eyes met, both fully aware of what they were about to do.
They walked back into the bedroom and lay down, together, and it there, that Clark and Lois finally consummated their relationship. It was the most passionate act either of them had ever done and, afterwards, the two of them lay together, with Lois resting her head on Clark's chest and, ever since Robert's death, she felt completely happy, safe and loved. Oliver did love her, but Clark's love was far more passionate and her love for him was far more passionate than her love for Oliver.
The next morning, Chloe caught the two of them, although she had not been surprised; a part of her was almost relieved that they had finally given into their feelings and kissed and…done other stuff, but another part of her felt very sorry for Oliver. The former outweighed the latter, as she saw her cousin of the man whom she loved dearly, she realised that she had never seen Lois happier and she doubted that she ever would.
A couple of days later, Clark made his way to Oliver's home, as Oliver had a business proposal for him. Since that night, a weak ago, he and Lois had continued to see each other in that way. Clark felt very guilty, as he knew how much Oliver loved Lois and how much she loved him, but he reminded himself that Lois was going to request a divorce from Oliver. When that happened, the two of them could become husband and wife. Only Chloe and Martha knew of their relationship and, despite the circumstances, they were both very happy.
As Clark entered Oliver's flat, he saw Oliver put down his mobile phone and there were tears in his eyes. He must not have seen Clark, who was standing very close to him, as he turned to Laura and Ella and told them both to sit down. He took hold of their hands and began, "Laura, Ella, that was your Auntie Chloe. I'm afraid she had some very bad news."
"What is it, Daddy?" asked Ella, with fear in her voice and Clark could feel the fear and panic rising in his body and a part of him did not want Oliver to continue.
Oliver bowed his head and Clark could tell that he was close to breaking down, then he looked back up at his daughters and replied, "Your mum-she-she had a heart attack. She's dead, my darlings."
The two girls burst into tears and flung their arms around their dad, who cried along with them.
Clark felt dumb. How could Lois be dead? How could the woman he loved more than anything in the world be gone?
He texted Chloe and asked: 'What I heard Oliver tell the girls about Lois, is it true?'
A one-worded reply came back: 'Yes.'
With that one text, Clark fell apart and curled up into a ball on the sofa in Oliver's home and cried. He hoped that Oliver would be too preoccupied with his daughters to notice.