----Chapter 8

Clark sat back in his chair, slumping a little and smiled. "Chloe would probably be able to tell you what you were thinking at the time but for me... well, you hit me like kryptonite." She wondered what the hell that was, but let him continue.

"I was just going along in life, coming to terms with the fact that I'm probably not meant to have somebody special in my life because, well, like I said my life is dangerous for those around me and I'm not an out going guy. Then suddenly I really see you for the first time getting passionate about something. You threw yourself into journalism, and something in my head suddenly noticed how much you put into things. And yeah, I knew you cared for me in your offbeat way, but I was an over protective brother, not a love interest."

Lois couldn't argue with him there. "Hey, I'd already seen all the goods, Smallville. You naked is still blazed into my memory. It takes some of the mystery out of things; I knew what you looked like naked, so I didn't have to wonder and didn't get curious. And as has been established, I am not attracted to broodiness."

He rolled his eyes. "Right, right. Anyway, I was in no way prepared for the feelings I suddenly felt. Remember me acting weird for a while leading up to your memory loss? Stammering and always looking uncomfortable in my own skin?"

"You mean acting weirder than usual."

"Whatever. That was me trying to deal and doing a poor job of it."

He stopped for a second to look over at the wall. She followed his sight but didn't get the pause.

"What ya looking at?"

He looked back to her and smiled. "Was just checking on Jordan. Remember, x-ray vision." She motioned for him to continue with a story only slightly less strange than seeing through walls.

"This may seem like a tangent, but it'll make sense in a moment. When you kissed the Green Arrow, that was me covering for him so you didn't figure out his identity. I was the kiss that rocked your world, and you confessing as much threw me. There was Lana, and there were a few girls before and around that, but I wasn't what one would call confident in my abilities to kiss. You saying that I could teach Ollie a thing or two, a guy that seemed like he'd had his fair share of women, well, it went to my head."

Lois felt her eyes widen to the size of saucers. "That was y-you?"

He winked at her. "Yeah, I'll prove it to you soon. So that was going on in my head while I'm doing my thing, saving people here and there and making sure you and Chloe didn't get yourselves killed. The more I had to save you, the more I thought about you, and the more I thought about what you'd said about the kiss."

Clark sighed, looking down at the floor. "And then you publish your story and get attacked a little while later.

"Let me tell you, there aren't many times when I've felt completely helpless. I wasn't there to protect you when you needed me. After years of being able to use my powers to get myself and others out of almost every situation, I'm sitting around watching a girl I thought I may come to love from a distance live through machines. You could hold kryptonite to my forehead for a week and I don't think it would hurt as much as watching you waste away."

"Clark, there was no way you could have known to help me. How could you possibly blame yourself for not being there to protect me every single moment of the day?"

Clark shrugged. "I wanted to save everybody from everything, but especially you since I was falling in love with you. I still do, and it still hurts like hell when I can't save somebody, but it doesn't tear me up like it used to. The guilt was bad enough that it would come close to hindering my ability to save those I can.

"I don't like the fact that I can't save everybody, and there are times where I still feel the guilt weighing on me, but when I come home to you and Jordan... it soothes me. I'm reminded that I have to be there for the world, and that if I skewer myself on guilt each time I can't save somebody I'm not going to be any good to the world sooner rather than later."

Well, that was certainly deep, Lois thought. She could make his guilt go away? That's just... huh. Lois wiped a hand across her face before speaking. "Well, I'm glad I can help. So, using your powers to help people..."

"Truth be told, when I was younger I thought of my powers as a curse. They made me different, kept me separated from humanity. I mean, everybody is unique of course, but I think alien with super powers may just take the cake. Granted, I am sharing the cake with J'onn, but still..."

"Who the hell is J'onn? There's another alien?." That's when she noticed Clark getting a far away look in his eyes.

"You were such a different animal from anything I had experienced before," he said softly. " You were so forward and in your face to anybody that dared get in your path. Take no prisoners, as they say. As I've thought about it over the years, I realized I never pined for you like I did Lana, which was mostly physical and built on impossibly high hopes.

"It wasn't hope for acceptance like it was with Alicia, who shared being different. It was attraction to you being you, not the promise of what could be because I knew, knew, that there could never be anything. I loved you for who you were and what you believed. And your amazing body helped, too."

She smiled to herself and he pounced on the opportunity. "Of course, half the time you spoke I wanted to go stand next to a jackhammer with my super hearing active for a pleasant diversion."

"Oh that's low, Smallville," Lois said. "I'll have you know listening to you talk, or more accurately whine, was no picnic either. And you always randomly popping up places I'm going to is not your cutest trait."

The smirk Clark had been wearing turned into a full out beaming smile, which confused Lois. "What's got you so chipper all of a sudden?"

"You implied I have cute traits."

Lois goggled at him. "Like hell I... never mind." She frowned and pointed at him. "Back to the story, Mr. Smiley."

He nodded. "All right then. Feelings felt, hospital entered, sadness for one and all. Six months passed and we had all resigned ourselves to the fact that the story of Lois Lane was going to end prematurely. It was decided that if you were going to live, you were going to have to fight for it. So, with everybody's support, your dad made the call to remove you from life support.

"As you can tell by your current state of living, you fought like a champ and won. Cutting to the chase, we explained what had happened and you got furious. Actually, it was mom that told you what had happened because she was the one there when you woke up. Anyway, as I mentioned, angry is insulting to your rage. You blew through physio in pretty much record time."

Lois felt that she could probably have scripted her reaction to what had happened but decided to let Clark continue since he appeared to have some momentum going towards real answers. If nothing else, she could be silently proud about her recovery time.

"Perry White, or Chief as we now call him much to his chagrin, took over the editor duties at the Planet while you were comatose. When he heard what had happened, he made sure the job you'd previously had was available to you, conditional on one thing: an article dealing with the 'Rage of Lane.'

"See, he didn't want to assign you articles and have to make you do rewrites because they were filled with misplaced anger. Having you write an article on your attack, which was more like an essay on reality, was meant to help you get out what written anger you were going to have. Of course, you being you, it pretty much did the opposite and fueled the fire."

Lois snorted. "Why didn't you tell him that the more I thought about it the more I was going to want to get at that particular issue and the more things would spill into articles not related?"

"I did, as did Chloe. I wasn't working there at the time, though I did know him from a trip he made to Smallville, and got a little face time with him. I asked him to let it go and just let you do your thing, which was get into trouble and need rescuing, which led to good articles. He insisted, and you wrote.

"It may have been the angriest writing I've ever seen while it was in progress. Chief wouldn't hear anything about it, though, and had you keep at it. When you turned it in, he said he hoped you could understand why he had you do it. He printed excerpts in the Metro section for a couple weeks and it got people talking. He ended up printing the entire thing over a five week period. It served as a stepping stone for you, though, because it got you a permanent spot on the investigative team. Odd, since it was an editorial of sorts, but that's what happened."

"Wow, good assignment. Amazing for how old I was at the time." Lois scratched her head a second. "What about Chloe? What was she doing?"

"Chief made you two partners again. Not even he could break up the team of Sullivan & Lane."

"Lane & Sullivan, Smallville."

He rolled his eyes shook his head. "It was unbelievable how much trouble you two got into in your first few months with that job. You were on a crusade to take out anybody that could have even remotely been related to your attack and Chloe was the same way only shorter and more blonde.

"I was there with you as much as I could be to protect you two, to which of course you said you needed no protection with or without enemies. You called it an independence issue to have me tagging along with you guys. Soon after, I got called away to do training with my biological father Jor-El. We told you that I was going to travel the world, which I actually did for a good portion of the four years. I actually got back the day of Chloe's wedding to Bruce."

"How'd you know about it?"

"Didn't." He shrugged. "Jor-El told me my training was over and I could now understand my place in the world, which was true, so I flew home to Smallville. Mom wasn't there, so I tried her cell. She told me what was going on, I slapped on a suit and headed for Gotham."

---

Clark looked at the huge mansion in the distance from behind the gate he'd just landed in front of. It put Lex's place in Smallville to shame and that thing was a castle. He adjusted the glasses perched on his nose and pushed the call button that was adjacent to the gate. He could just fly in, but that seemed an invasion of privacy. Bruce probably wouldn't mind, but the butler he'd heard about, Alfred, before leaving for training would probably be confused.

He heard a bit of static on the intercom directly followed by a British voice. "May I help you?"

"Uh, yes, my name's Clark Kent. I'm here for the wedding. My mom should be around here somewhere, actually, if you need to know how I knew..."

He was cut off by the creaking of an opening gate and walked inside, watching it push itself back shut once he entered. He super sped to the house, hoping he wasn't going to be getting there in the middle of the ceremony. He rang the bell and a moment later the door opened where a man in traditional butler's clothes appeared.

"Mr. Kent, please come in." Clark did so and heard the man shut the door. He started walking with the man as he motioned to follow. "I am Alfred. Ms. Sullivan had hoped you'd be able to attend but didn't think it would be possible with your trip around the world. She and Master Bruce will be pleased you could make it."

"I hope so," Clark responded. He fussed with his tie but let it stay crooked as he and Alfred walked through the monstrous house. "How long is it until the ceremony starts?"

He saw Alfred take a quick look at his watch. "Just over an hour. You have good timing; I would have been unavailable had you arrived much later and you'd have had to break in to attend." Clark gave him a half smile as they walked, not wanting to bother with an explanation on how easy that would have been.

Alfred stopped in front of a room near the back of the mansion and quickly gave it two quick knocks. Clark stood back and saw the door open and a woman with dark brown hair slide out while saying something placating to whomever was inside. "Hey, less worrying and more getting ready, cuz!" She turned around to face Alfred. "Yeah, what's up Al... Clark?"

She was as gorgeous as he remembered. The darker hair, though... that just added to it. "Lois? Dark hair?" He regretted that as soon as he said. There had to have been something better to say.

He saw her smirk and go into her usual arms crossed stance. "It's like you were never gone, Smallville."

"I, uh, yeah. You look great, Lois. I mean, really great." He really needed to work on his speaking skills around her. She was far too gorgeous and made his mind go all useless.

"I always look great, Smallville. When did you get back?"

"More or less now. I got back to Smallville and then caught a flight to Gotham when my mom told me what was going on. Can you believe Chloe and Bruce are getting married? I mean, I knew they were head over heels when I left but I couldn't tell if it had real lasting strength with all his baggage, despite having been a couple for a year by then. When did you first know it was this serious?"

Lois's shoulders slumped a little and she looked at the ground. "Lois? Did I say something wrong?"

She looked up, a soft smile on her lips. "No, Smallville. You just need to be filled in on some details, but that doesn't need to happen right now. Say, you want to see Chloe? I just happen to be in a position to arrange that."

"May I? I'd love to get a few minutes with her before the ceremony."

She nodded and ducked her head in the door stealthily. She pulled it back out and opened it up a little more. "She's robed. Go surprise her and make the day even better."

Clark mouthed a thank you too her and slipped in, closing the door behind him. He walked in a little further, and found his steps heard when Chloe spoke up from her spot in front of the mirror. "Lois, who was at the door? Did something get messed up out there?"

"I'd like to think I'm making it better instead of messing it up, Chlo."

She spun around at the sound of his voice and he watched her face light up. "Clark!"

She stood and ran the short distance best she could in her garb, launching into a hug. "I can't believe you're here! How did you even find out it was going on?"

"When I got back to Smallville earlier and Mom wasn't home, I called her cell and she told me she was here and you were marrying Bruce today. I haven't had time for shock to set in yet because I was racing to get here. Marriage? Wow, Chloe, you don't know how happy I am for you."

"Well, it was in the plans anyway, but we just pushed things up a bit."

Clark frowned. "Moved things up? What do you mean?"

Chloe looked off to the side. "You know how you can zone in on heartbeats? Tell me how many you hear in this room."

Odd request, Clark thought, but he did so anyway. He tuned in his hearing and heard Chloe's steady rhythm and a fast but softer thumping as well. He frowned and looked around the room a second before it hit him.

"You're pregnant?"

She looked up at him again, smiled and nodded. He looked away from her eyes and noted that there was a definite bump where her stomach had once been flat. How had he missed that? He was going to need to work on that if he was going to be useful. Shaking his head, he looked back up and met her teary eyes with his own.

"You know how happy I was for you a moment ago? Multiply that by a very large number." He pulled her into a hug and held on a second before finally letting her go. "Nobody deserves all this more than you, Chloe."

"Well, maybe a couple somebodies, but we can work on that later. Is your training over?"

He nodded. "Ended this morning after I helped a man in Sub-Sahara Africa. I was called back to the fortress by the pleasant ringing in my ears and Jor-El told me I was ready to help the world. Well, not so much in those words. His exact quote was 'You have learned to rule by serving the people, Kal-El. Show them hope prevails even in the darkest hour.'

"Truth be told, I was surprised. When he had me start traveling the world I was under the impression that it'd be a trip closer to ten years rather than four. Not being one to argue, though, I flew back to Smallville and the rest is very recent history." He paused a second before adding another quick thought. "Oh, and I'm not actually going to rule, I'm just going to help people."

Clark realized what was going on again as he recounted his day. "I better get out of here and let you get ready. Is there anything you need?"

He saw her smile slightly. "Actually, there is. Dad died last year..."

"Oh god. Chloe, I'm so sorry."

She patted him on the arm. "That's ok, Clark. Bruce and Lois were there to help me through it." He nodded and she continued. "I was going to walk down the aisle solo, but since you're here, would you walk with me?"

Clark was speechless. After a second he figured he should say something. "Chlo, I... yes. A thousand times yes. It would be my honor. I hope my suit is ok for it, though, what with all eyes being on you and me for a moment or two. It's not exactly top notch attire."

She laughed. "Clark Kent worried about his clothes. Will wonders never cease?"

---

"Huh, wish I could remember Chloe's wedding. Though, knowing myself as well as I do, I probably drank a lot and got far too emotional about my memory situation. Never was one to pass on free drinks."

Clark smiled and ran a hand through his short hair. "I like to think of it as one of the few days you allowed yourself to be vulnerable. Granted, it was an inebriated vulnerable, but I was willing to take what I could get eight years ago."

Smirking, Lois rolled her eyes at him. "You can't expect me to believe you were falling for me, left for four years and still wanted me when you got back. Seriously, you had a round the world vacation, excuse me, training. There must have been a dozen women that showed you some interest."

"None of them were Lois Lane," he said back quietly.