Chapter 4

Lois had the entire weekend to think about Clark and their new relationship. After meditating about this, she arrived at the conclusion that, no matter how awkward things were at time, it was worth the try. Clark was her best friend, the person he could tell everything, her companion in front of adversities. He was sweet and caring, noble, reliable, infallible. He was always there to lend her a hand when she needed, hold her when she cried, or make her laugh with his teasing. Not to mention that he had a smile that made her stomach flutter and a body that made her pulse quicken.

Maybe Chloe was right. Maybe he only needed time. Lois had known him long enough to know of his shyness, as endearing and irritating as it was. She also knew how much he had suffered after his breakup with Lana, and that also, for some unexplainable reason, he had shuttered himself to anything that wasn't his family and his work.

"Morning, Lois," Clark greeted his partner with a tentative smile.

"Hey, Clark," she commanded herself to be cheerfull.

He looked at her suspiciously. After his quick exit the other night and his disappearance this weekend he was expecting her to be mad at him. "Everything okay?"

"Great. How was your weekend?"

"Fine, I went to see my mom. I know that we said something about seeing each other during the weekend but …"

"Oh, don't worry, Clark." She rose and patted him on the chest, "it's not that we had a date, or anything."

His eyebrows arched up. Was he in some kind of parallel universe where Lois was considerate and forgiving? "I … I was thinking that I could take you to the movies tomorrow night."

Lois smiled broadly. "That would be great."

He frowned, "are you feeling all right?"

"Why?"

"I don't know, you seem so … understanding."

She laughed. "See? I'm not that bad. Well, not that much. But don't get used to this. I don't know how long this new understanding phase is going to last."

Clark smiled at her and she felt all those butterflies twirling inside her stomach. "I'll make it up to you."

"Promise?" Lois grinned flirtatiously. "No runs to the bathroom and silly excuses?"

He looked around to check that no one was seeing them and leaned even closer to whisper a soft, "Promise."

"Kent! Lane! My office," shouted Perry.

Lois rolled her eyes. "Here we go again."

The partners were presented with a new assignment, this time related to a gang suspected to be manufacturing and distributing illegal medicines. There was a loose connection with Luthorcorp –very loose- but if they could find it and prove it, it would be something else they could hold against the corporation. Five minutes after Perry White had given them the brief Clark and Lois were completely immersed in the case.

"Great, thanks. I owe you one." Lois hung up the phone.

"Well?" Clark enquired.

"My source says that he knows of a place where they might be working. It's an abandoned warehouse outside Metropolis. I'll go check it tonight."

"I'm coming with you."

"Okay," she tried to sound exasperated, but she was always happy that he was willing to risk his neck for her. Always. "But try not to slow me down this time."

"I'll do my best."

It was nearly midnight when Lois and Clark finally located the warehouse that Lois' source had pointed out. Though the place seemed abandoned from the outside, they saw that the locks on the rusted gates were new and very high tech.

"Pretty expensive locks for an abandoned warehouse, don't you think?" Lois tried to open them. "Do you think there is someone inside?"

Clark narrowed his eyes and focused his x-ray vision to see past beyond the walls. The warehouse seemed empty, with nothing suspicions inside of it. He tried to see even further, but a something was obstructing his vision. "It appears deserted to me."

Lois grabbed him by the arm and dragged him along. "Let's see if there's another way to get in."

"Lois, I don't you think we should be getting in there … " He scanned the perimeter, searching for surveillance cameras. He found none.

She tugged his arm harder. "Come on, Smallville, it's now or never."

If there was something that Clark would never understand was how Lois always managed to find a way into a building that would inexorably represent a near death experience and walk through it unscathed. Well, most of the times, anyway, and only because he had been there to see that nothing happened to her. She jumped the fence, then climbed a pile of crates up to the roof –in high heels- all the time complaining about him slowing her down. Once on the rooftop she actually found an opened window and accessed the inside of the warehouse through, perhaps, the most dangerous spot.

On a first inspection, there was nothing suspicious inside the warehouse. Unsatisfied with the results she obtained, Lois continued with her search and headed towards the mysterious room.

"Let's see what we can find."

The room appeared locked on the first try, but Clark managed to open the door, explaining to her that it was only jammed. It looked like a storage room, full of tubes and jars that contained several types of compounds. The couple was far inside the room, looking for something that would help them in the investigation, when the content of several jars began to glow. A green, brilliant glow that intensified with Clark's proximity.

Clark immediately began to feel sick. He quickly stepped back so he could keep himself at a prudent distance from the kryptonite mix but soon he realized that he was surrounded by hundreds of recipients containing the green substance.

"Hey, Clark, take a look," Lois pointed at them without turning around. "Looks like meteor rocks, like the ones you can find in Smallville."

When he didn't respond, she turned and saw him grabbing a table for support, his face acquiring a greenish hue.

"Clark, are you all right?"

"I can't breathe," He was losing consciousness quickly, "Lois, take me out of here."

She rushed to his side, but Clark was already falling over one of the shelves, crashing over several tubes and jars containing the green syrup.

"Clark!"

Lois had to use all her strength to pull him up and lay him on the floor. She turned him around and brushed the glass from over him. He was unconscious, with several cuts on his face and a larger piece of glass stabbed on his chest. "I'm going to pull this out, hold on for me, will you?"

She pulled the piece of glass and waited for a reaction, an improvement, but nothing happened. She didn't know what to do. She patted his face, shook his body, but nothing. The wound didn't seem deep, neither the cuts on his face, but for some reason, Clark was not reacting. Maybe the cut was more severe than it looked, or maybe something inside the lab was causing this unusual weakness in him. Lois recalled he had said he couldn't breathe so she loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of the red and yellow of Superman's emblem.

The truth hit her like a slap on the face. Her new boyfriend, the plaid wearing farm boy from Smallville with hero complex was in fact the Man of Steel.

As far as Lois knew, Superman was invincible, nothing could hurt him, but here he was, unconscious and bleeding for apparently no reason at all. What could be causing this? He was perfectly healthy outside the room, but as soon as they got in there, the substance in the jars started to glow and he became sick. Could this be what was making him ill? Well, he was an alien, so if something could make him sick, it had to be from another planet.

Lois pressed her fingers to his carotid to check his pulse and noticed it was becoming dangerously slow. Her heart told her that if she didn't take him out and away from that place soon, he was going to get worse.

"You have some serious explaining to do Smallville. But save your breath for later." Lois stood, grabbed his arm and began to pull him out of the room. "Man, you are heavy. You're not the Man of Steel, you're the man of lead."

She managed to take him out of the room and closing the door behind them, Lois knelt by his side and wiped the traces of green mix from his face and chest with tissues, throwing them as far away from them as possible. Now with him out of danger, she realized the dimension of her discovery. As pissed as she was with him for keeping this from her –and for not noticing this sooner- she understood that this was a secret he had the right to keep. He was Superman, and his safety, his identity was above anything else, even her.

In awe, Lois observed how the small cuts and bruises slowly disappeared from his face. He moaned and Lois knew that in only a moment he would be awake so she fastened his shirt and straightened his tie with the hope that he wouldn't notice what she had just seen.

His eyes flickered open as Lois caressed his hair. "Clark, are you all right?"

He sat up with Lois' help. "What happened?"

"You tripped on something and hit your head. I pulled you out of the room."

"Did you find something important?"

Lois grabbed his arm and assisted him to stand up. It was obvious that he wasn't recovered yet. "I think that that substance was made of meteor rocks."

Clark pretended that he was surprised. "For years, Luthorcorp has been using it to enhance the effect of certain drugs. We must find out what they are up to now."

"Can you walk?"

"I'm not sure." His shirt and jacket were stained with that green substance and while it didn't have a full effect on him, the kryptonite mix was strong enough to make him weak and nauseous.

"Come," Lois, put his arm around her shoulder and assisted him out. "Let's get out of here."

They reached the car and Lois sped away.

"I guess I've blown your investigation again." Clark said in a poor attempt to be playful. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, Smallville, we are now even for all those times you came to my rescue." Lois played along, even when she was worried sick about him. He was not fully recovered yet and surely all those green stains on his shirt were preventing him from healing completely. And the only thing that was stopping him from getting rid of those clothes and fly away was her.

"Maybe we should go to the hospital." Lois knew he would say no, that the hospital was the last place she should take him, but she also knew that that would be the logical suggestion had she not been aware of his true identity.

"No, I'm fine, really. Just drop me at my apartment."

It was late in the night, there was very little traffic so they made it quite quickly to Clark's flat. While Clark told her that he was fine, that there was no reason for her to stay, Lois wouldn't hear reasons. She told him to take a shower and change into clean clothes while she made some coffee for them.

Clark grabbed a change of clothes and locked himself in the bathroom where he removed his street clothes and shoved them inside a lead covered bag he had in case he came in contact with kryptonite. As he pulled the super suit off, he noticed a tiny hole and traces of blood. He checked his torso on the mirror and while he didn't see any wound, there were rests of blood on his chest. He pulled the white shirt out of the bag to check it out. There was blood in it too, not much, but enough for someone to notice. The question was: did Lois see it?

Right now, he was too weak to think about it. He hid the super suit inside the cabinet and closed the bag with the kryptonite stained clothes. He stepped into the shower and washed the last traces of green liquid from him all the while hoping that Lois hadn't seen any of this. Surely she hadn't, because Lois wasn't the kind of person that would let go of this information if she came across it.

When he emerged from the bathroom dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, Lois was waiting for him holding a mug of hot coffee in her hands.

"Here you are." She gave it to him. "Are you feeling better?"

"Much better, thanks." Clark could see concern in her features.

She pulled up a brave smile, but it fell quickly. "For a moment I thought you were … never mind."

"But I'm fine now. Nothing really happened, Lois. Don't worry. "

"Yeah, you only tripped, hit your head and remained unconscious for a few minutes, nothing serious. Had that happened to me, you would have taken me to the hospital and demand a tomography."

"I guess my head is harder than yours." He smiled, then frowned. "Wait, isn't this the moment when you make fun of me for being so clumsy and slowing down your investigation?" he teased her.

"I guess it is, but somehow, I can't. I don't know why, really." She fidgeted. "You really deserve to be scolded for ruining my meteor rock infected warehouse rally."

He noticed the tears that were clouding her eyes. "Lois, what's wrong?"

Though she was fighting her words back, they came out anyway. "You scared me. I guess I have never seen you so … helpless."

"Hey." Clark wrapped his arms around her. "I'm all right."

Lois cursed herself for being emotional. It was so unlike her. She really needed to get a grip on herself or Clark would suspect that she knew the truth about him. Just because she had just discovered that the man she had fallen in love with was in fact the superhero she had been crazy about for years –and whose life had been in danger only an hour ago- wasn't a reason to revert to a sniffling girl.

Moved by this sudden and totally unusual expression of tenderness and vulnerability, Clark hugged her tightly and rubbed her back to give her comfort. He even leaned down to kiss her lips but Lois pulled away before he could touch them.

"I think I should go," she stepped back, "you're tired, and all beaten up, and so am I so … good night."

She left before Clark could say anything.