There is a reason why the kryptonite is affecting them both more than usual, but it'll be a few chapters before it really makes sense. Patience, if you please.
- - - Chapter Six
Clark proposed on Jason's sixth birthday. He was a nervous wreck all day, but Lois just assumed he was worried about kryptonite popping up and ruining Jason's birthday. They had a little party, Jason's friends came over and played for a few hours and ate birthday cake. He got all manner of things, and most of it was Superman merchandise. His friends were obsessed with him ever since he'd visited their school, and Jason certainly liked him too. By the end of the day, Jason had a Superman t-shirt, pajamas with a cape, a Superman bath towel, a number of action figures, and the Superman version of Monopoly.
"This is just weird," Clark said after they'd all left. He picked up one of the action figures and pushed the button on its stomach that made it flex its muscles. "I don't flex like that," he said, showing Lois the doll.
"Well, maybe the world wishes you would," Lois said with a smile, putting the birthday cake away.
"Look Mom, Dad!" Jason said, running out of his bedroom in the Superman pajamas. They were a child-size re-creation of the suite Clark wore every day only in softer fabric.
"Don't let that cape choke you while you're sleeping," Lois remarked, watching her son zoom around the house.
"Do you ever choke on your cape, Daddy?" Jason asked, stopping the zooming long enough to hear the answer.
"Not really," Clark shrugged.
"Then I won't choke either, don't worry Mommy," he jumped off the couch.
"Be careful, Jason!" But Jason just zoomed away, back into his bedroom where they could hear him jumping on the bed. "Don't jump on the bed, you'll break it!" She reminded him. They could hear Jason groan and get off the bed, and start running around the room swishing the cape.
After Jason was in bed, the cape safely draped over a chair, Lois sat on the couch and watched Clark being heroic on TV like she did every night. At first, his not being there had made her lonely, but then she'd started to think about it, and decided she really liked the fact that Superman was on his way back to her after he was done on the news.
"Do you want to go flying with me tonight?" Clark asked from the balcony, startling her. The news had just come back from a commercial break and they were saying that he was taking care of an avalanche in the Appalachians. Of course, the commercials put them a few minutes behind real time, and Clark had a habit of traveling faster than sound.
"What about Jason?" She asked, turning off the TV and joining him on the balcony. He was still wearing his suit and, for the first time that day, she noticed how truly nervous he looked.
"He'll be okay; I can keep an ear out for him."
"Let's go, then," Lois smiled. They didn't go flying nearly as often as one would think, and it was truly exhilarating.
"I can't believe Jason is already six," Lois said to fill the silence a few minutes later. They were flying over the ocean, the great blueness of it melting into the purpley blackness of the horizon.
Superman just nodded, his eyes clouded with something Lois couldn't quite pick out. "At least I got to come to this birthday party," he said after another moment. Lois held onto him tighter.
"He's glad you're here too… I don't know what we'd do without you," Clark kissed her forehead and then they both turned to watch a small city appear on a coast. "Where are we?"
"We're coming up on the Norwegian fjords."
"Norway?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"Because it's a beautiful place to see from the sky," he said softly. Lois didn't say anything, training her eyes on the landscape below. He was right, it was beautiful. They stayed away from the cities, hugging the tall wooded mountain peaks.
"Beautiful," Lois said under her breath. They just hung in the air over the mountain, enjoying the view. Clark had never taken her places like this; he'd taken her past the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids in Egypt: the wonders of the world. He'd never taken her to see mountains or rivers. She decided she liked the mountains better.
"Yes, it is," Clark said, but he was looking at her. She blushed. "Lois," he said after a minute of hovering.
"Hmm?" She asked, finally turning to look at him after taking in the beauty below.
"There's something I've been meaning to ask you …" he trailed off, looking nervous again.
"Clark?"
"I love you so much, Lois," he started. "And I can't imagine ever spending another moment of my life without you there with me… And… Lois- will you marry me?" He held up a little velvet covered box and opened it to reveal a platinum band with two small, square diamonds set on either side of a circular sapphire.
Lois inhaled quickly, looking from the ring in the box to Clark and back. There's why he was so nervous all day. "Clark," she started, her voice full of happiness and excitement. "There's nothing I want more than to spend the rest of my life with you, of course I'll marry you!"
Clark smiled broadly, breathing for what felt like the first time all day. He leaned down and kissed her with tenderness that quickly became uncontrollable passion. She returned the kiss with equal eagerness. Somehow Clark managed to keep them afloat, and get the ring on the appropriate finger without breaking the kiss.
"I love you," Lois whispered, breaking away from his lips to concentrate on his neck. Her hands were already roaming freely across his back.
"I love you," Clark whispered back. He still had to hang onto her so his hands couldn't go where they wanted to, but he had a hand in her hair and another dangerously low on her waist, sending heat to her core.
"Clark," she moaned a moment later, "you'd better get me home right now unless you want to join the mile high club in a way only you can…"
Smiling, Clark wrapped her in his cape and they rocketed back across the ocean, arriving at the apartment in half the time it had taken them to leave. They were still joined at the mouth when they flew in through their window, Jason was sleeping soundly in his room, and the world wasn't even threatening to explode. That night was more perfect than any night they'd spent together.
- - -
Of course, the first thing the office noticed was that Lois was wearing a new engagement ring. Gossip spread like the Plague. Susan in Accounting noticed it first and told Georgiana from PR when they met at the coffee maker, and if Georgiana knows something interesting, the rest of the Planet knows about it by lunch.
Surprisingly enough, Clark wasn't in the running for potential fiancés. His name was mentioned a few times, but they maintained their distance as usual; it was assumed that if they were a couple they would've given at least a few public displays of affection like Lois and Richard had when they were together. So their coworkers started guessing. Any man that came in for an interview with Lois, or was seen with her in the streets was a target of the gossip. Of course, nobody asked any of the parties in question about the engagement—that would be too simple.
The third day after the ring had appeared, somebody had to imagination to ask Jason who his Mommy was engaged to. Jason, playing with his Superman doll, had responded that Lois was engaged to his Daddy. Everybody assumed that meant Richard.
"Did you hear they're back together?" A woman was asking a man over at the copy machine.
"Yeah… I didn't even know he was back in town."
"Me neither."
"Does that mean she's moving out of Kent's apartment? That was always a weird match, if you ask me…" Clark tried to drown the voices out, but it didn't work. Everybody at the Planet was talking about it. At first, he'd found it funny. He was engaged to Lois Lane and nobody suspected a thing. He was engaged to Lois Lane. That was what stuck.
The gossip around the water cooler, or coffee maker in this case, only got worse when Richard actually did show up.
He wouldn't look at Lois. He gave a polite hello to Clark and Jimmy when he passed them waiting for the elevator, but that was it. He marched into Perry's office and talked to his uncle for almost an hour and a half. Lois watched from her desk, her hands hovering above her keyboard. Richard didn't even look in her direction. She wasn't able to think again until she looked down and saw Clark's ring on her finger.
"You okay?" Clark asked, making her jump. The last she had seen, he had been heading off with Jimmy to interview somebody on the discovery of another building full of kryptonite. The interview would be taking place several blocks away, of course, and Jimmy would go alone to get the pictures while Clark talked to the landlord.
"Why's he here?" She asked, not looking at Clark. Clark tipped his head slightly, getting his ear a little closer to the glass doors of Perry's office.
"He wants Perry to print an article his paper in California ran almost a month ago. It's… very negative towards Superman," he paused listening to the conversation. "Perry doesn't want to publish it because Superman has been so good to the Planet so far as interviews go and he doesn't want to alienate him, me, whatever."
"You know, everybody thinks he and I are engaged again," Lois said after a second.
"Yeah."
"Jason told them that I was engaged to his father."
"And you are."
"But everybody thinks Richard's his father."
"Lois… they can't know that Superman's… you know."
"I know. I just don't like secrets like that, especially for Jason…"
"I don't like secrets either, but they're my life."
"Our life," she corrected.
"Our life," Clark agreed, and for the first time in public, he kissed her.
It was quick and simple. The only one who noticed was Jason, who Clark had picked up from school on his way back from the interview.
"C'mon, guys!" Jason complained quietly from his chair next to Lois' desk. They smiled at him, and Clark meandered over to his own desk. Lois stared at him for another minute; he looked back at her with a smile before writing up the interview. Still smiling, Lois glanced at her ring again before continuing with her story.
The office cleared out as the day wore on. Clark had left to 'try and get an interview with Superman about the kryptonite' when he'd heard some cries for help not to far from the Planet. Lois was still at her desk, her distracted mind making it difficult to finish her next article. Jason, as always, was content to sit and draw at Clark's desk while he waited for his Mom to finish or for his Dad to come back and make her be done for the night. The only other people in the office were Perry, Jimmy, and Richard. Richard was sitting in Perry's office with his laptop out, fine-tuning the article he was trying to get Perry to publish. He was making it easier on Superman, but the message was still there.
Jimmy came over to Lois' desk, curious in his own right about the ring on her finger but not curious enough to ask her about it. "So how's life, Lois?" He finally asked.
"Life's pretty good, Jimmy. How're you doing?"
"I'm all right."
"That's good."
"Yeah… You just waiting for Clark to get back, then?"
"Yeah, and trying to finish up this article."
"Where did he go anyways?" Jimmy asked. "He looks tired lately, like he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders."
"Yeah, it's been a tough week," Lois said with a sigh. It was the truth, the kryptonite had him worried and it was sapping at his strength even from a distance. Jason was always tired too, but he wasn't the one flying around the world and trying to save people only to come home to the nagging presence of the substance that could kill him. Jimmy seemed to assume that she was talking about her engagement to another man and changed the subject.
"So, what're you working on?"
"It's that article about the…" she trailed off when Perry interrupted.
"JIMMY! MY OFFICE! NOW!"
"Sorry," Jimmy said, rushing off to Perry's office.
Richard stormed out a few minutes later, laptop under his arm and a grumpy look on his face. Obviously, he hadn't gotten what he wanted. His mood only got surlier when he stopped halfway across the room to watch the TV screen.
It was Superman.
He was in the park, very close, actually, to the place where he'd fallen after lifting New Krypton into the skies. There was a new crater in the park and it was filled by the same lump of lead that had fallen into the Nile all those months ago.
Clark was about to throw the thing into space again when it split down the middle. The two halves fell away from each other, landing awkwardly against the sides of the crater it had created. The inside was filled with blue light. A flat platform was at the center, hovering in place; it was as wide as the widest end of the pear-shaped rock, and it was radiating the strange blue light that was filling the park. People weren't sure whether they wanted to back away to a safer distance, or get closer to get a better look.
The blue platform was what immediately grabbed the crowd's attention, but it was the people standing on the platform that had Clark staring. Four people stood nonchalantly at the center looking as though they'd just woken up only without the bed-head.
"You make it very difficult to make contact if you interrupt our landing procedures by throwing us back into space," the tallest man complained. They looked like normal men, four men in simple black attire and shiny boots, pale, grayish almost from lack of sun during space travel, or maybe that's the way their skin normally was. The tallest one was almost six feet and had white hair with gray streaks, and a very pointy nose. The other three were a full head shorter, barely over five feet, and were completely bald. They reminded him of Lex Luthor in a shorter, more alien way.
"Um," Clark said, reaching up to scratch his head uncomfortably. He wasn't sure if he should apologize or not.
"It is no matter, however, we are a persistent people, we will bring our message to you," the tall one said. Before he had even finished the last word, the three short ones had drawn strange looking weapons made of glass, each firing a shot at Superman's chest.
The combined blasts were enough to send even Superman flying out of frame on the TV screen. Lois was on her feet and within a few feet of the screen within seconds, Jason woke up in his chair as though he could hear the sparks flying off his father's chest right next to him, and Jimmy and Perry rushed out of the office for a better view of the TV. Richard looked like he wanted to dismiss the happenings and march grumpily to the elevator, but even he was too interested to just walk away. Lois didn't relax until the camera panned over to show Clark emerging from a now crumpled grove of trees, picking leaves and bark out of his hair.
"Impossible… we studied the biology of this world… impossible," the tall one said, raising his own glass weapon and fired at a passing civilian. True to his essence, Clark closed the gap in a hurry, still not revealing that he could fly, and took the hit. Even the single blast was enough to set him off balance, and he flew backwards, knocking the poor man down and landing just past him.
"You okay?" He asked, helping the man to his feet. The guy nodded silently and walked backwards a few paces, suddenly a lot more eager for distance and safety than getting a good look at the newcomers.
"Who are you?" The tall one asked again, firing a few shots at him for good measure and sending him flying back towards that poor grove of trees.
"Who are you?" Clark countered.
"We are the Kings of the Twenty-Eighth Planet," the tall one said as though it was something everybody should know and be afraid of. Clark searched his mind, remembering all the things his father had told him about the other known galaxies. "And you?"
"Kal-El of Krypton," Clark said, watching them for a reaction. All four of their faces flashed with fear and then with rage.
"There were no survivors," one of the bald ones hissed.
"He does where the crest of the House of El…" another one whispered loud enough for the crowd to hear.
"Who was your father?" The tall one asked. Clark didn't answer, still trying to remember who the Kings of the Twenty-Eighth Planet were.
"Faera," he said suddenly, remembering the name of the star. "The Twenty-Eighth Planet orbits the star Faera," he paused glancing at the newcomers. "The Kings of the Twenty-Eighth Planet had a penchant for intergalactic domination attempts, if I remember correctly… Usually through blackmail and bribery of planetary leadership…" he could hear his father's voice telling him about the men who called themselves the Kings of the Twenty-Eighth Planet, even though the planet they came from was actually called Linir and was the closest planet to Krypton with intelligent life. Most Linirans were pleasant enough and the two planets had a good trade history, especially scientific technology, but Linir had an unstable government and the faction that called themselves the Kings made life hard on the planet. By the time Krypton was destroyed most Linirans had left or were looking for a way to leave. "Linir, that's what it's called."
"You've been out of circulation too long, Lord El," he spat the name as though it were the filth stuck on the bottom of his lead-encrusted space ship. Clark only raised an eyebrow at the supposed insult.
"What do you want with Earth?" Clark asked, glancing around. The crowd had the good sense to back off, leaving Superman standing alone in front of his grove of trees facing the pair of craters and the four angry, short men.
"Earth. All of it," the tall one said simply. "It will be an added bonus to have killed the son of Jor-El, the last son of Krypton."
"That's just great," Clark mumbled to himself.
Lois watched with horror as one of the bald 'Kings' manipulated something with his foot and the blue platform began to move, hovering above the earth towards Clark. It was a strange, unnatural sort of hovering, nothing like the simple floating grace of Superman. The platform picked up speed, shooting past Clark, making him duck, and off towards the downtown area. Clark launched himself after them, grabbing onto the platform and pulling down hard. Two of the bald 'Kings' fell off, and the other two lost their balance. The remaining pair looked down and the microphones in the park picked up the bald one saying, "Impossible!"
Lois fell back into her chair as she watched what was happening in the park. Jason crawled into her lap, eyes glued to the screen. "Is Daddy going to win?" He asked; Jimmy and Perry must have heard him because they both managed to turn from the screen to look at the pair of them.
"He'll be okay, honey," Lois said. That response was enough to send Jimmy and Perry into shock, they both turned to look at Richard. He seemed to have decided he'd rather leave than watch the goings on in the park, and was punching the down button on the elevator so hard Perry was worried he'd have to call maintenance to get the button fixed.
Superman flew away from the platform, leaving it still wobbling and unbalanced. He flew down to the place where the two bald 'Kings' that had fallen were stumbling to their feet and beginning to take aim at the gathered crowd. The camera took a second to catch up with him, but when it came into focus, he had disarmed them, and put the pair of them inside the lead shell. The crater that had formed would be difficult to climb out of at best, and the shell wasn't placed well enough for them to use it to climb out.
The view on the TV screen switched to show the blue platform, now stable again, zooming off towards the skyline. Superman shot into view, chasing after the platform faster than a speeding bullet. Again, the screen changed; the camera focused on the two aliens trapped inside the crater.
"You're just as bad as your father!" They shouted, trying to draw him back, maybe get him to make a mistake that they could use to get out of the hole. "Pompous, egotistical, Kryptonians the lot! Your planet deserved to explode!"
There were general murmurs of disagreement and righteous anger coming from the crowd when the view switched to a helicopter's view of the damage of the park. The news anchor did a voiceover, telling the TV audience that the park had only recently been reopened after Superman's previous crash. The helicopter zoomed out and panned around to show where Superman was now. Even zoomed in, the glowing platform and the three figures near it were difficult to make out. The two men on top of the platform in black were shooting their glass guns at the blue and red blur that was darting around them, trying to get a good hold on the platform to bring them down.
The shots that missed Superman continued until they hit something, seemingly unaffected by gravity. Most were hitting the surrounding office buildings, but a few made it all the way down to the sidewalks, leaving smaller versions of the craters in the park, and sending concrete flying everywhere. People caught on pretty fast, and backed away from nearby windows and got off the streets. One shot flew straight back and narrowly missed the helicopter filming the incident. A second flew straight back and hit the helicopter filming the incident.
The picture on the television went blurry with motion, but whoever was running the feed didn't have the sense to switch it off. The microphone on the camera picked up the pilot's panicked calls of "Mayday!" and other calls into the radio along with more than a few words that would've been bleeped out if it weren't live television, and if the bleeper-person wasn't in just as much shock as everybody else watching.
Superman caught the helicopter with about twenty feet before it hit. The image on the TV screen seemed frozen as Superman halted the movement completely before setting it on the ground. The picture was shaky, but Lois breathed a sigh of relief. Clark was holding onto the helicopter just right so that he was fully in the frame of the camera, looking as perfectly healthy as ever.
"See, he's okay," Lois whispered to her son, who nodded, eyes glued to the screen.
As soon as he'd set the helicopter firmly on the ground, he went face first into the camera lens, red light silhouetting him for a brief moment before he was too close to the camera to be seen.
Superman backed away from the helicopter after getting gracefully to his feet. Lois would've chuckled at how un-Clark-like the motion was if she wasn't so worried about him; this was the worst threat he'd faced since she'd learned who he was. Clark's back was to the camera, but she could tell that he was doing something. After a moment, he moved slightly to the side and the camera could see that he was carrying the remaining two aliens back towards the lead capsule. They were struggling, and the tall one was yelling empty threats and insults, mostly about Jor-El and Lara, at the top of his lungs.
Clark walked steadily over to the broken lead pod and tossed the pair of struggling 'Kings' on top of the other two, who had stopped shouting and were looking at him menacingly. Clark didn't feel threatened by the menacing looks until he saw the glint of green stone daggers in their hands. Daggers made of kryptonite. He felt his knees take on some of the less endearing properties of jello at the thought, but forced his way past it.
Moving quickly, he shot into the crater and flipped the two halves of the lead pod together. The men inside yelled and shouted, and generally made noise. He began to seal it using heat vision from a safe distance, but, to his surprise, they managed to shift the top half away. The tall one was holding onto something that looked like a glass missile launcher. At the bottom he could see that they had loaded a kryptonite dagger into it; one of the bald ones was working on closing up the launcher so that it could be fired.
Fear filled him again, and again he forced his way past it. Maybe he was just being stupid, but he flew down closer again to close the gap so that he could seal the pod. Suddenly pain tore through his body. The scar on his back, the mark Lex Luthor had left on him, felt like it had reopened. The dagger had hit him between two of his lower ribs on his left side, and had buried itself in deep. He felt the air rush out of his lungs, but for the moment it was only the pain of having something sharp wedged between two ribs; whatever the handle of the dagger was made out of was counteracting the kryptonite well enough, for the moment, so that he could still function.
The men in black in the pod looked triumphant; of course they were almost completely sealed in a lead pod that was deep enough in a crater so that even if they did manage to escape the pod, they'd still be stuck in the crater. Clark took a few wheezing breaths before flying up over them and finishing the job of sealing them in. It took more energy than it ever had before to use heat vision and he felt himself sinking closer to the ground as he continued.
"He's breathing like Darth Vadar," Jason commented in his mother's lap even though the microphones that had been on the helicopter were only playing static.
"We have to go to the park," Lois said, grabbing her coat more out of habit than necessity, and running off towards the parking garage before she realized her car wasn't there; Clark had been flying them to and from everywhere to save on gas money. She realized this as they were waiting for the elevator. "Perry, can you give us a ride to the park?" Lois asked, her voice shaking. The last thing she wanted to do right now was hale a cab.
"Sure," Perry said, walking slowly over to her, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"I'm coming too!" Jimmy said, running and jumping onto the elevator just as the doors were beginning to close.
The trip to the parking garage level was silent. Lois stood there holding Jason's hand and worrying. There was kryptonite in her fiancé and she had to get there to help him. Jason was staring hard at the wall, concentrating hard, trying to see through the it. All he managed to do was make himself dizzy, so he concentrated on what he was hearing; he could hear the people around him breathing, their clothes rustling, but he could also hear his father's ragged breath and the flapping noise his cape made as he fell from the sky and hit the lead pod, sliding down its side and disappearing into the shadows of the crater. Jimmy and Perry just stood there, trying not to think that Superman was dying in the park, but that only led to thinking about the secrets Lois and Superman shared, which was a much more difficult concept.
The car ride to the park wasn't any better. Traffic was moving swiftly; those on the road seemed oblivious to the happenings at the park. Lois and Jason sat in the front seat, Jason on his mother's lap. His eyes were still trained directly at the park, he was squinting and still trying to see through things, but it wasn't working. Perry was driving like a maniac, swerving from lane to lane in an attempt to get there faster, he didn't know why but it seemed like his passengers were the only ones who'd be able to save Superman, and Superman sold most of his papers and was therefore very important. Jimmy just sat in back and held onto his seatbelt, hoping to God that they didn't crash because Superman certainly wouldn't be saving them if they did.
Perry drove right into the park, honking the horn and grinding his teeth. Finally, they found the second crater. The helicopter hadn't moved, but the crowd had pressed in around the crater; whatever picture the camera on the helicopter was now broadcasting would be filled with feet. The crowd parted when the car drove up; somehow the fact that somebody had driven right up to them seemed to mean that the person driving the car just had the authority to do that. Lois jumped out of the car, ordering her son to stay with his Uncle Perry; Jason did as he was told.
The crowd parted like the Red Sea when Lois got out of the car. "That's Lois Lane!" seemed to be the general remark. Jimmy followed, snapping a few photos after he heard Perry's voice coming from the car behind them.
"Why didn't anybody help him?!" Lois asked, outraged; she jumped down into the crater and pulled Clark as far up the wall as she could. He was barely breathing, and the air that he could get in came in short, difficult gasps. He was sweating; whatever good the strange metal the handle of the dagger was made of had been doing had stopped working. He was bleeding heavily around the new wound, his liver punctured.
Taking a deep breath, Lois put a hand on the dagger. Clark cried out in pain and Lois immediately pulled her hand back. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Clark, it's just gotta come out," she whispered to him. He nodded, letting out a hissing breath through his teeth.
"Just do it," he said, each word seemed to cause him so much pain. Lois wiped tears off her face, and took the dagger again. She was gentle, trying not to jar it, but Clark cried out anyway. She braced her other hand next to the wound and yanked the dagger straight out in a quick pull. Clark yelled and gasped at the same time, choking on his own blood. The dirt around them was soaked with blood, as was the dagger in her hand. Lois wanted nothing better than to throw it away from her, but knew better.
"Jimmy!" Lois called, her voice cracking. The sound of the camera clicking stopped and she turned to look at the young photographer. "Get rid of this!" She yelled, this time her voice held steady. She tossed the dagger up and Jimmy backed away from the lip of the crater so he didn't end up with the dagger in his foot. The thing landed with the blade halfway into the ground. Jimmy bent over and snapped a shot of it sticking out of the earth, the blade home to acidic green and liquid red blood; the lead pod was in the background. The photo would win awards. "Jimmy!" Lois yelled urgently when she heard the camera go off again. Jimmy yanked the blade out of the ground and ran off into the crowd with it.
Lois turned back to Clark. He didn't look so good, but he looked better than he had; that blade had been in him for not nearly as long as the shard Lex had stabbed him with had been. His breathing had returned to almost normal, and his eyes had opened. He smiled weakly at her, but didn't manage to say anything. "You're so stupid sometimes," Lois told him, crying. He only nodded, making her cry harder.
She turned her attention to his wound. It was better, but not very. The skin around the entry looked a little green, the same green the stab wound had turned soon after the kryptonite had been removed; Lois could only assume it was a good sign. His suit was soaked with blood, the fabric almost purple in some places. Lois put pressure on the wound, making him wince and give a little hiss, but nothing more.
They were like that for awhile. The crowd above was silent, watching the infamous Lois Lane keep pressure on their hero's bloody gash. Finally, Lois gave a sigh of relief, heard even at the lip of the crater in the silence. The crowd clapped when Superman got to his feet, even though he stumbled slightly and was leaning on Lois. Neither of them seemed to hear the crowd.
Startling them all, Superman urged Lois to lean back on the wall of the crater, as far from the pod as she could get. She did as she was told, and Superman hefted the giant pod and flew upwards. Lois watched silently as he flew away from her, holding her breath.
Clark was in pain. His mind was numb with pain. Wherever Jimmy had taken the kryptonite and whatever he'd done with it hadn't been enough. He could feel the radiation coursing through his veins; it wasn't as painful as it had been when the dagger was actually in him, but it was enough. His side screamed in protest as he lifted his arms above his head to hold the lead pod properly; the scar on his back was throbbing as well.
Finally unable to stand the pain anymore, he twisted around and lobbed the thing into deep space. He watched it just long enough to make sure it left the solar system before he let himself fall back towards the earth. The crowd below seemed to worry that he was unconscious again, but he only had eyes for Lois. She was still silently crying, leaning back against the crater wall where he'd left her. He swooped into the crater at full speed and stopped abruptly. He immediately cursed that choice, feeling his liver throb in complaint.
Holding his wound with one arm, he held out the other to Lois, who immediately latched onto his side. He flew them up to the lip of the crater, but then couldn't do it anymore. The kryptonite was much nearer now and his stomach began bleeding freely again despite the clotting that had been taking place. He leaned heavily on Lois, almost pushing both of them to the ground, but Lois could be strong for him. She braced her feet and pulled him along.
When they got to the car, Clark was completely unconscious. "Jimmy, where's the kryptonite?" She asked urgently. It must be close because Jason was having an asthma attack in the front seat; Perry was digging through Lois's purse to find the inhaler but having no luck. "Where's the kryptonite?!" She asked more urgently.
"I… I tossed it in the back seat so nobody would steal it…" Jimmy said, immediately realizing what he'd done wrong.
Lois put Superman in Jimmy's arms, and ran over to the car. She threw the back door open and grabbed the dagger. She ran back to the crater and threw it down. Again, the blade buried itself in the earth, this time all the way to the hilt.
Back at the car, Jason's asthma attack had subsided into unusually deep breaths that eventually became steady and controlled. Jimmy had put Superman in the back seat, laying him out as well as possible. Lois jumped into the back seat, bending Superman's legs enough so that she could close the door, and ordering Jimmy into the front seat before asking Perry to take her to Clark's apartment.
They didn't drive over the speed limit, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Lois kept pressure on Clark's wound the entire way, and he was conscious by the time they reached the parking garage.
"Can you fly up to the apartment?" Lois asked nervously as they got out of the car. Superman was still a little shaky, but he was getting better. "I don't think it'd be good if the neighbors saw you going in the front door…"
"Hurry," Clark said, floating upwards to the proper balcony. He floated so slowly. Lois wished she could be at the balcony door as soon as he opened it so that she could catch him, but that was impossible. He stumbled when his feet touched the balcony, slumping forward to lean against the glass.
"Thank you for everything, Perry," Lois said quietly, getting Jason out of the front seat and hurrying into the apartment building.
Lois dropped her keys twice before she managed to get the key in the lock. She could barely turn the doorknob; her hands were shaking so badly. "Clark?!" She called, almost panicked, as soon as she entered the apartment. Jason was right behind her.
"Daddy?!" They both walked right over to the balcony door. It was open, and there was blood smeared on the outside knob as though somebody with bloody hands had opened it. "Daddy!" Jason said again, spotting Clark on the floor behind the kitchen counter.
Lois pulled Clark into a better position, laying him flat on his back and pulling off the bloody shirt portion of the suit.
"Clark? Clark?" Lois was murmuring softly, trying to get any sort of reaction out of him. He rolled over, mumbling incoherently. She took that as another good sign and grabbed a towel, pressing it to his wound. He came around a few minutes later. "Clark?" She asked again, louder.
"Lois?" He looked around, Jason was watching fearfully from just behind Lois. "What happened?"
"Those men that were in the pod, they had a kryptonite dagger… don't you remember?" Clark sat up a little bit, wincing but ignoring the pain. He put his hand over Lois's and took the blood soaked cloth from her. Pulling it away revealed a perfectly healed patch of skin, the only reminder of recent events was a pale white scar that could've been years old, and a slight green tinge to the surrounding skin that was fading fast. Of course, the entire area was still covered in dark red blood.
With Lois's help, Clark got to his feet and rinsed the towel out. Watery blood rushed down the drain, a sickening reminder. He used the wet towel to wipe the blood off his chest, wincing slightly.
"Are you okay, Daddy?" Jason asked, he still hadn't moved; the blood had scared him.
"I'm fine," Clark said, automatically hugging his son back when Jason jumped into his arms from all the way across the room.
"You should shower," Lois said, always the voice of reason. She took Jason away, looking at the bloody spots now on his clothes; the wet towel hadn't gotten rid of all the blood.
"Right," Clark said, kissing Lois on the cheek tenderly and making his way into their bedroom. Lois was shaking terribly, but he didn't want to get blood all over her too. He grabbed the first clothes items he saw in his drawer and headed into the bathroom.
He looked at himself in the mirror again. He'd grabbed light jeans and a plain white button up shirt. He looked almost too clean. His black hair was wet and ruffled from the towel, more like Clark Kent's than Superman's, and he was wearing his glasses out of habit more than anything else. It was quiet out in the living room; Lois was cooking, or at least attempting to cook. Macaroni and cheese; even she couldn't mess that one up too bad, he smiled to himself. She kept glancing at the bathroom door. Jason was on the floor with a puzzle, happily distracted; somewhere in the last ten minutes he'd changed into clothes that weren't bloody.
"How're you feeling?" Lois asked when he stepped into the, worry etched into her face.
"I'm fine," he assured her, finally leaving the doorway.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay," she finally gave in.
"I'm gonna," he pointed to the balcony and Lois nodded.
"Are you okay in here, honey?" Lois asked, wanting to join Clark on the balcony.
"Yup, does Daddy feel better?" Jason asked.
"I think so," Lois responded, turning the heat down on the pan before joining Clark on the balcony. The handle was no longer bloody; it had been the first thing she'd done after he went to shower.
Clark just stood out in the sun for a minute, letting the last rays of the day beam down on his face. Even the weakening light of the sunset was invigorating, he always felt better when he was in the sunshine. He ran his hand subconsciously over his shirt across the place where he had a new scar; it was weird to think that it was less than a half an hour old, he felt as though it had happened years ago.
"Clark?" Lois asked, she sounded nervous.
"Hmm?" Clark asked back, tipping his head towards her but keeping his eyes closed.
"Are you okay?" She sounded so scared for him.
"Yes," he said, turning around to take her in his arms.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes," he assured her. She was studying his face as if she was worried he might sprout gills if she didn't keep an eye on him. "I'm alright, Lois. I'm Superman, remember… I don't stay hurt for long."
"I never want to have to see that again," Lois told him, falling into his chest. Clark held her close. He hadn't been able to hold her the last time he'd been exposed to kryptonite, this was a nice change. She was still trembling.
"I'm okay, Lois, you don't have to worry," he rubbed his hands along her arms, trying to warm her up as though her trembling was really shivering. She stayed close to his chest, her eyes tightly closed.
"When you go off to save people, I always know that you're coming back. I know that you're going to be okay because you're Superman, you're invulnerable," she finally looked up to his eyes. "I almost thought that you wouldn't be coming back this time… it was like when you were in the hospital… I couldn't do anything but watch you lie there, only this time all I could do was watch you get stabbed on TV…"
"Lois, you came when I needed you," he held her closer. "And you're here right now."
"But what if they had landed in Australia or something and there was no way I could've gotten to you? What if I had to watch you die on TV?"
"It won't ever happen again, Lois," he assured her. "I promise, Lois, it won't happen again."
She held onto him. She wasn't crying anymore, but she was still shaking slightly. He leaned down and captured her lips with his own. It seemed to be what she needed because she stopped shaking and deepened their kiss. He brought them to the side, pressing Lois gently against the wall, maneuvering them into a position where Jason wouldn't be able to see them from his place in the living room. Smiling at his tactics, Lois wrapped her arms around him, one hand making its way up the back of his shirt and the other tangling in his still damp hair. Clark smiled right back, letting his hands do some body-searching of their own.
A knock on the outer apartment door interrupted them. Clark leaned his forehead against Lois's, giving a rueful smile. "We seem cursed to never have our own little moments," he said quietly, leaning in to kiss her one last time before answering the door.
Jason beat him to it, though, and Jimmy and Perry were in the living room already when the pair of them entered, hurriedly tugging clothes and hair into place. Clark pushed his glasses up his nose carefully, being sure to look a little bashful while his boss and one of his best friends stared at them.
"Hi," Clark said awkwardly while Lois turned her attention to the macaroni on the burner.
"What happened to Superman? What were you two doing on that balcony?" Perry asked bluntly. He looked like he might be fighting an internal battle about which question was more important, Superman, or Lois and Clark's relationship.
"Um," Clark said, turning a darker shade of red. Behind him, Lois did similarly, but at least she wasn't stuttering. "Superman healed," he said, praying they'd buy it. "He just flew off, we were just saying goodbye to him…" they didn't buy it.
"How long ago did he leave?" Perry asked, raising a suggestive eyebrow.
"Um," Clark stammered again.
"Almost ten minutes ago," Lois said without shame. Clark's blush deepened, but hers seemed to have vanished; she took the macaroni off the heat and came to stand next to Clark, holding onto his arm with her engagement ring flashing in the light. Perry and Jimmy seemed to take the hint: It's okay for us to make-out on our balcony, we're engaged.
"You look different, Clark," Jimmy said, tipping his head to one side.
"I… what?" Clark asked.
"It's the jeans," Perry observed.
"What?" Clark asked again.
"Hm…" Jimmy said. For a moment Clark almost worried that his cover might be blown, but then he remembered that neither of the men in front of him had ever seen him out of one of those ridiculous three piece suits, jeans were definitely a change.
"Was Superman okay when he left?" Perry asked, changing the subject again.
"Yeah, he was flying alright and he wasn't bleeding anymore," Lois said, glad the conversation had turned away from Clark, but then, technically they were still talking about Clark. Clark, meanwhile, prayed neither had to use the bathroom before they left because the suit was currently soaking in the bathtub.
"Good. I don't want to have to have his death on the front page anytime soon."
"Me neither," Clark said honestly. Lois gave him a look, stepping a little closer to him. Jason seemed to notice his parents' mood too; he looked up at them and smiled.
"Did you guys want to stay for dinner?" Lois asked. "I think we're ordering pizza."
"What about the macaroni?" Clark asked, turning to look at the pot on the stove, and wrinkled up his nose. "Yeah, pizza it is."
"No thanks, I've got to get back to the Planet, I've got a few calls to make… articles about his latest Superman thing to be assigned… I want a front page article emailed to the office by you two by midnight for the morning issue- you were here when he recovered, I want the scoop," Perry said. In seconds he'd gone from friend mode to editor mode. "Jimmy, I don't care if you stay for pizza, but I want those pictures ready to go by nine!"
"Alright, Chief."
"Don't call me chief," Perry said, nodding to the couple in the kitchen before walking out the door.
"I think I'm gonna pass on the pizza, too," Jimmy said sounding genuinely apologetic. "Prints by nine means I should get back and upload them."
"Have a nice night, Jimmy."
"You too, good luck with that article," he smiled and ruffled Jason's hair on his way out.
"That was weird," Clark said, leaning against the counter and taking his glasses off. For once he was glad he was in the habit of wearing them, even at home; it was circumstances like those when it came in handy.
"Yeah," Lois agreed, rifling through a drawer until she found a menu for the pizza place. "What're we getting tonight…?"
"Sausage!" Jason shouted; until a few months ago he'd been allergic to the sausage, but that was fading along with the rest of his small weaknesses.
The pizzas arrived less than a half an hour later, and found them all in front of the TV watching Finding Nemo, Jason's newest favorite. Clark extricated himself from his family and paid the pizza boy. They paused the DVD, grabbing paper plates and pushing the coffee table out and sitting on the floor.
Jason was asleep before the movie was halfway through. Somehow he'd managed to get his parents back onto the couch, and had stretched across both of their laps in a position that wasn't entirely uncomfortable for any of them. Lois was getting a little droopy eyed as well by the time Clark noticed that either of them were anything less than fully conscious.
Silently, Clark lifted Jason off of their laps, thankful that they had talked him into pajamas after he'd finished his pizza. Lois shifted a little on the couch to get more comfortable without Jason on her lap. Smiling and remembering a time not so many months ago when they'd done almost the same thing, Clark lay Jason in his bed and tucked him in. He went back for Lois after watching his son sleep for a moment. He still had trouble getting past the fact that Jason was his son.
She hadn't moved a muscle, which was typical for Lois after a highly stressful day, and he wasn't sure what a stressful day would look like if today hadn't been one of them. He picked her up just like he had all those months ago, cradling her to his chest and letting himself delight in the closeness. That and, of course, the fact that he would be setting her down in his bed to sleep next to him and not in the other room.
"Superman?" Lois asked groggily. Despite months of knowing who Superman was and living with both sides of him, Lois still associated being carried and being this warm with Superman.
"No, just me," Clark said. Lois smiled up at him, coming around again.
"I know."
She let him carry her the rest of the way into the room and shut the door behind them. He set her on the bed gently, as though she was still asleep. He had fully intended on letting her put pajamas on and getting on his own before trying anything, but she had other plans. She wouldn't let go of his neck. He raised a teasing eyebrow, using both hands to pry her arms from around his neck. He'd gotten her hands from around his neck and was holding onto her wrists between them when Lois lifted up her head and kissed him, drawing him down with her.
Clark silently thanked the powers that be that they had finished off their article while they were eating dinner and he could now enjoy his evening without worrying about work.
-Chapter seven is almost finished already so... I'm giving you the annoying review jab. Let me know you're still reading and I'll get you some more to read.
-On another note- for those of you wondering about the police thing and Martha, I've decided I'll use that as the beginning for another fic I've got some ideas for (mostly different directions I considered when I was writing this story that I wanted to take but that didn't work for where I wanted this plot to go). I plan to finish this one before posting another, though, so I beg you for your patience. I'll put a note at the end of this to let you know what I'm calling the new one even if it's just so you can read the police part again.
-Yeah, that's all I got. Hope you're enjoying this!