End of the Line: Prologue

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Author's note: I'm taking the Indiana Jones approach to telling this tale, apparently. I had intended to simply write a follow-up scene that would be my take on the next season premier teaser, picking up where I left off in that finale scene in the first part of this story written. The muse had other ideas. So, just as Temple of Doom was a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark, I began this story in the middle with the finale scene, and have now jumped back in time for this prologue-prequel scene, which, for clarification's sake, would be, in my strange little shippy world, the opening teaser for the season nine finale. So... now that we have the pesky chronology out of the way, on with the show!

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Prologue

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Lois Lane was sitting on a park bench watching the soft breeze rustle the petals of the flowers in the garden across the trail when a large pair of warm hand slid over her eyes, completely obstructing her vision.

Then she felt the humid warmth of breath tickling her ear as a soft voice murmured, "Guess who."

One arched brow grazed his fingers as it crept up her forehead whilst her lips quirked up at one corner. In a voice laden with impish mischief, she answered, "A strange visitor from another planet come to whisk me away from this world full of morons."

The hands slid away from her eyes, and it took several blinks to clear her vision as Clark came round from behind the bench. One hand lingered on her shoulder as he sat down beside her.

"Not exactly," he replied with a strangely knowing grin. One she had become far too familiar with of late. "I got your note. Any particular reason you wanted to meet in the park?"

"Well, for one thing, the weather is far too gorgeous to spend the whole day cooped up in the Planet's basement." Lois paused for a moment before turning to face Clark dead on. With one quick gulp of air and a hard swallow of her resolve, she continued. "For another, I wanted some… neutral ground. But mostly… I wanted you to know that... this isn't a confrontation. That's not what this is about."

Clark met her gaze with a curious, critical stare. "What is this about, Lois?" he asked softly.

"It's about us," Lois answered softly. She sucked in a slightly shaky breath and let it out in something of a harsh chuckle. "Look, you know I suck at all this touchy-feely emotional stuff, so just… just bear with me, okay?" She waited to continue until Clark gave her an encouraging smile with a nod of his head. "You and me... we've known each other a long time. We had a slow, rocky start, but now... We've been growing so close over the last few months, and the truth is, I've never let myself get this close to anyone before. The ones I don't drive away, I push away. But you… you just kept coming back. Before I even knew it was happening, you became one of the closest friends I've ever had. And now… now we're even closer. Really, really close. And yet, even after all this time, after everything we've been through together... you're still holding back from me. And that hurts, Clark. It really, really hurts,"

Clark's eyes were haunted with remorse. "I'm sorry, Lois," he said, his voice low. "I am so sorry."

"I fought so hard to keep from falling in love with you… I think I always knew that if I did and it didn't work out, if I lost you… I'd lose a part of myself, too." Lois closed her eyes as her imagination supplied a vivid impression of just how painful the very idea of it was. After a few beats, she raised her eyelids to meet Clark's eyes once again. His dark expression clearly implied he'd shared a similar mental image from her provocative words. "You can't keep shutting me out, Clark. If you want this to work… If you really want to be involved in this relationship with me, if you really want to be with me, you have to let me in. All the way in." She wasn't quite sure how she had managed to maintain her composure thus far, but she was grateful that she had.

"You're right," Clark answered on a sigh of resignation. "I do want this to work, Lois. You know that I want to be with you."

"What more do I have to do to earn your trust, Clark?" Her voice held only the tiniest hint of desperation. "Just tell me. You know there's nothing I wouldn't do for you."

"Nothing," he answered with quiet resolve.

"Nothing?" This time all that came out was a whisper of a plea. The distinct sheen of unshed tears in her eyes sparkled in the bright sunlight.

"You have my trust, Lois." Clark's answer startled her, making her blink hard, which naturally had the effect of squeezing those tears out. They slowly trickled unheeded down her cheeks as Clark continued. "You earned that a long time ago. It's not a lack of trust that's held me back…" As he paused, remorse again crept up into his eyes, mixed with an unmistakable element of shame. "It's my own fears."

She tilted her head to one side and looked at him as though she was seeing him clearly for the first time. "If you're afraid my feelings for you might change, you should know that there's not a force in the universe powerful enough to do that."

Clark smiled ever so slightly. "That's only part of it," he answered after a while.

Lois returned his earlier curious and critical stare for a moment. "Then what, Clark? What is it that you're so afraid of?"

Clark closed his eyes for a pensive moment. When at last he opened them again, she couldn't mistake the anguish lurking there. "Everyone who has ever gotten really close to me has been hurt because of it. Each and every single person. It's even cost some their lives, and the thought of that happening to you terrifies me. There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect you from being hurt, because if I ever lost you, I know I would lose part of myself."

"I know I hide it well beneath my enlightened-modern-woman guise, but I really do love that protective streak of yours," she confessed in a conspiratorial whisper. "But even you can't protect me from everything," she continued in a relatively normal tone. "Nor can you protect me all the time. And I am a big girl now, you know. I'm pretty darn good at taking care of myself. Besides that, I've got something of a knack for getting myself into trouble, but what's more, I'm usually pretty capable of getting myself out, too. I'm not exactly the dainty damsel in distress type."

"I know." Clark acknowledged with a crooked grin. "Believe me, I know that well."

"We're good together," Lois resumed after a beat. "We could be great together. Maybe even make history together. But that can only happen if you have as much faith in me as I have in you. I haven't pressured you; I'm not confronting you, nor will I. I've been living on my faith in you, trusting you to share yourself with me completely in your own time." Lois paused and reached out to take one of his hands in hers. When she continued, her voice betrayed just how tenuous her composure was at this point. "But I don't know how much longer we can survive this way—so close in some ways and worlds apart in others. If you can't meet me half-way in bridging that gap, it will tear us apart eventually."

Clark squeezed her hand, then wrapped his other hand around their entwined fingers and lifted her hands to his lips for a tender caress. "I am not going to let that happen," he told her gravely.

Her hands trembled in his as she took one long, slow, deep breath. "Then… are you ready to let me in? To really let me in?"

Clark held his pensive expression just half a heartbeat shy of driving Lois completely out of her mind. "All in," he answered at last. He moved toward her to seal the deal with a kiss when, naturally, all hell broke loose as the federal building across from the park exploded with a roar that ripped through the city and a fireball that engulfed both buildings on either side of ground zero.

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{Somebody *SAVE* Me!}

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