Thanks again go to 4ever1. I rewrote a couple parts of this after some of her suggestions. I think it turned out for the better. Thanks to all of you guys who have left me reviews. I'm sorry if I haven't always responded to everyone, but I really do appreciate them. I always like to see what works or what doesn't. It helps me to figure out the best way to continue. Besides, without all your encouragement, I might have lost the motivation to continue! Thanks again!

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Lois drove back to the house while Clark flipped quickly through the printouts. She wondered if he had read them in their entirety right then and only pretended to absorb the information at a more human rate for her benefit.

Clark shared the pertinent details. Genetech was a company owned by Victor Valentino, and recently they had received a large grant from the government intended for biomedical research focusing on the influenza virus. The research facility was only a few miles from the Iron Gates subdivision.

Lois wanted to ask Clark about last night and the shooting, but there was no way to do that without exposing her knowledge of his secret. Lois didn't want Clark to believe that she had only defended him because she had learned that Superman was Clark Kent. She needed him to believe that she was on the path to forgiving both sides of his persona.

They discussed possibilities for the story, and Lois suggested that they make a trip to Genetech. Clark agreed and rerouted in that direction.

They were quiet, watching as the clouds grew darker overhead. A storm was brewing. The wind buffeted the sides of the car. The trees in the median swayed, scattering stray leaves into the road and away again.

Clark said out of the blue. "I was surprised that you defended Superman after everything you told me last night."

She kept her eyes on the road and concentrated on keeping her breathing even. "I won't deny that he hurt me, Clark. And I'm still angry over what he did, but that doesn't mean that I hate him. He's a good man who has the misfortune of having the entire world believe he's infallible."

"But you know differently." He commented wryly.

"Nobody's perfect. We're all human, well, you know what I mean. We all do things that we live to regret. I guess it's what we do with the future that's most important."

They mulled over that for a while. Lois turned the heater on. She left the radio off, more interested in their conversation than details about the approaching storm.

Lois needed to know why Clark had taken away her memories before he left, and she couldn't wait until Clark got around to informing her of his true identity. Lois felt certain that if she admitted her knowledge of the truth before Clark was ready for her to know, she would learn nothing.

So she tried, "Has Superman ever talked about me to you?" She tried to sound casual, but she didn't think it was convincing. "Has he ever mentioned why he might have done such a thing?"

He ran his fingers through his hair and gave her a small, almost apologetic smile. Clark chose his words carefully. "Perhaps he thought that it would be easier for you not to experience the same pain he experienced when things didn't work out?"

"Oh." Lois said, feeling at a loss. For some reason, she hadn't thought that he'd tried to spare her by taking away her memories. "I wonder why things didn't work out." She added quickly, "Hypothetically speaking, of course."

Clark turned in the seat to face her more fully. His eyes were somehow bluer. "I don't imagine that Superman can have much of a future in a relationship with anyone. He's too much in the public eye. And if anyone were to learn that there was someone . . . special to him, it would put that person in danger."

"Hmmm. I would image that he's gone a lot too. Kind of like a reporter, always on call."

The howling wind was the only sound in the car for a minute. Lois wished Clark would confess the truth, but she understood the difficulty more clearly since keeping her own secret. She didn't relish admitting to Clark that she'd known the truth while listing her grievances.

Clark would require a tremendous amount of both faith in her and courage. Lois knew he had plenty of courage; his acts as Superman proved that. But as for faith, well, if anything Lois had eroded away what little faith he could have invested in her with her harsh words. 'I don't want Superman. He could never give me what I need.' Lois couldn't blame him for his reluctance to tell her the truth.

They were both so distracted that neither of them noticed a large truck barreling out of the Genetech parking lot headed for a direct impact. When Clark saw it out of the periphery of his vision, it was almost too late.

He acted instantly. He dove toward Lois, snapping his seat belt like wet spaghetti, doing the same for her restraint in one fluid motion. Clark gathered Lois into his arms, and folded himself protectively over her body not breaking his forward momentum. He tucked her head beneath his chin as he smashed through the driver's side window.

Clark flew out past the vehicle carefully to protect Lois the entire way. He hovered with her in his arms, turning mid-air, mere inches from the pavement to see the culmination of the collision. The sound was tremendous, and it made him nauseous to think how narrowly they missed being inside during the crash. Of course, he would have survived unscathed but Lois would probably not have been so lucky.

Their rental vehicle hardly looked like a car anymore. It was a mass of smoking metal and shattered glass. This was no accident. The men inside the truck, stumbled out of their dented vehicle, and Clark quickly lowered them to the ground.

He ran his hands down the length of Lois' body inspecting her for signs of injury.

"Are you hurt?" He asked anxiously.

It took Lois a moment to respond. She was busy trying to gulp air into her lungs. They were lying on the ground against each other. His hair was plastered against his head, from their speedy escape. His glasses were gone.

"I think you got something on your tie." She said dazedly.

Clark laughed in relief. "It wasn't one of my favorites anyway."

Lois reached up to run her fingers through his hair so that he looked more like a man she had never really met before. He was neither Clark nor Superman, and yet both simultaneously.

Lois peered over his shoulder recognizing the two men from the barbeque. They were arguing by the truck with unfriendly expressions on their faces. One had a gun in his hand. The wind gathered strength; it would rain any minute.

Lois looked around and then picked up Clark's glasses that had somehow landed next to them unbroken. Lois inspected them in her hand before suggesting, "You'd better put these on." She placed them on Clark's face, while he watched her carefully.

She gave him a tremulous smile and said, "Well, that was quite a ride. Statistically speaking, it's still safer to fly, right?"

He blinked heavily before brushing her hair out of her face. "Lois." The deep timber of his voice was like warm honey. It was a tone he usually reserved for Superman. "I've wanted to tell you for so long."

Despite the possible peril, Lois felt as if a burden had been lifted from her soul. She didn't care that he never said the words. It was enough that he wanted her to know.

"I understand. You're not off the hook yet, but I think we have to work this out at a time when someone's not trying to kill us."

"That day might never come." Clark's smile made her feel lightheaded. It was a good thing she was already on the ground. He began to rise to his feet, taking her with him. She tugged on his hand, urging him to stay beside her for a moment longer.

Lois' voice was faint. "Wait. Listen to me first. We need to find those missing people. Elizabeth indicated that Victor thought they were still alive."

"Lois . . ." he said with warning evident in his tone.

"We have to let them take us. It's our best way of saving the others." She argued.

Clark closed his eyes in defeat.

The two men approached them warily. They were sweating profusely, and they didn't have the air of hardened criminals. The men glanced from the wreckage to their prone forms many cars lengths away with obvious confusion.

One man said, "You were supposed to stop the vehicle, not kill them you idiot. Now, we have to get rid of all the evidence and tell them these two disappeared."

The driver replied, "It's not like I've done this before. How was I to know how fast I needed to hit them? Besides, they don't look like corpses to me."

Clark rose to his feet and carefully lifted Lois so that she was shielded behind him. "Clark, don't do anything stupid." Lois whispered pleadingly.

Clark raised both eyebrows in mock surprise at Lois.

"Can you walk?" One man asked dubiously.

"Golly. I sure hope so." Clark said to them, and then addressed Lois "Are you all right, love?"

She felt her heart skip a beat at the endearment. Lois took his hand and said to the man that had been driving, "No thanks to you. Where did you learn to drive? The bumper car ride at the county fair?"

"Get into the back of the truck." The driver gestured to his vehicle.

"And why exactly would I want to do that?" Lois asked too sweetly.

"Because if you don't I'll kill you." He said, showing her a gun.

She nodded. Clark was surprised at how calmly Lois was taking everything. She wasn't exhibiting any signs of shock from the accident, the armed men, or even her newly discovered knowledge about his identity. Lois was truly amazing.

She moved stiffly, but she was unharmed. Clark lifted her into the bed of the truck, and then climbed in beside her.

The men turned them so that Clark and Lois were sitting back to back. They bound their hands behind them at the base of their spines. Clark grasped Lois' chilled hands, trying to comfort her.

The men left them alone to try and hide the wreckage of their rental car. Most of it was on the side of the street beside some ruined bushes edging the road. They kicked some of the smaller pieces into the bushes and worked together to push the vehicle through the brush and off the road.

They were out of earshot, but Clark didn't think it would be too long before they completed their task.

"I guess we don't need to worry about the broken sunshade anymore." Lois commented as she watched them dispose of the car.

Clark pulled his hands free of the rope to turn around facing Lois. "I can't let you go with them." He grasped her arms in both of his hands and for one wild moment she was certain that he was going to fly them out of there together.

"No. Please don't." Lois pleaded.

The men could not hear them over the wind, but one glance in their direction would let them see that they were no longer bound.

"I'm going with you." She insisted.

Clark shook his head slowly. He tucked her wind whipped hair out of her face, keeping his hand on her cheek as he said, "I'll be fine, but I won't let you take unnecessary risks. I can't lose you. "

"You think if you go in there and do anything out of the ordinary, that they won't notice? Superman might not be in any danger, but Clark Kent would be. You are not leaving me behind."

"I've been doing this for most of my life. I'll be fine, and if anything goes wrong, I can move really fast." He gave her a crooked smile.

"And slow for all the good stuff?" Lois teased her eyes dancing. Then she kissed him. Clark returned the kiss with enthusiasm. He enjoyed it more now that he wasn't concealing anything from Lois. She knew the truth and she was still kissing him. He had a lot to be happy about. Who knew how long this would last? Clark figured that after what he was about to do, Lois' anger was just a matter of time. As they kissed, they forgot about the men, the wreck, even the storm.

Clark was the first one to pull away. He glanced toward the men and verified that they were still preoccupied. Clark hugged Lois flush against his body and said "I'm sorry, Lois."

And before she could ask what he was apologizing for, she felt the world become a blur. She wanted to protest, but was too busy trying to breathe. Lois was disoriented. She would have fallen down . . . if she wasn't already seated.

There were two sets of wide eyes peering in astonishment from a farmhouse window. Clark was no where to be seen.

Lois was sitting on a porch swing outside the Kent farm. Her hair was a complete tangle, and somewhere she'd lost her shoes.

She was beyond furious. Lois knew that he could move fast, but she'd never imagined that he could be that fast. How she had suffered no ill effects from that quick jaunt, was something she would have to ask Clark. That was if she ever bothered to speak to him again.

How long would it take her to return to Metropolis? Bringing her out here like this was extremely unfair, and just plain dirty.

She really wished she had super powers, so she could wring Clark's neck. Or maybe she could get her hands on some Kryptonite. Yeah, that would be good too.

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This chapter is a bit short, but I thought I would post it anyway. I'm going to be busy, so the next one might be a little longer in coming. You know . . . maybe in a couple of weeks. Ok, maybe sooner. ;)

Let me know what you think!