Chapter 16

Lex's hearing had come, Lois was taking the stand as the prosecutor was asking her questions. Clark was in the courtroom, his eyes never left Lois, but she didn't look at him once. She didn't even speak to him at all since yesterday morning. All she said to him was what time to be at the courthouse. Lois was telling the judge about how she had walked into the mansion and saw what Lex was working on with Milton Fine. She told them of how they had a computer programmed virus to make sure no one can hack into their system and stop the launch. It somehow malfunctioned. She also told them of how he held her captive in his basement. They had her tied to a chair guarded by two of his men whom she couldn't identify. After her testimony, the jury came to the conclusion to sentence Lex into Bellereve for life considering the fact that Milton Fine had infected his brain waves to follow his command. Lois was relieved the worst had ended. She walked out of the courtroom to see a swarm of reporters in her face. She was overwhelmed by the sudden attack, she didn't even see who had grabbed her arm and led her out of the crowd as she gave silent comments.

When she was in the open space she turned to see Clark by her side, letting go of her arm, Lois felt awkward, "Thanks."

Clark smiled at her, "You're welcome. You okay?"

Lois nodded, "Lex is finally getting what he deserves. That's all that matters."

Clark nodded, "You did good in there. You did it Lois. Did Lex say anything to you before the hearing?"

Lois shook her head, she remembered how he looked at her, with a blank face. She could tell through his eyes though, he was amused inside which made her worry while she was on the stand, it was hard to focus on the questions directed at her while Lex' eyes were on her. She realized she was standing with Clark for a while in silence. She put her hands in her jacket pockets and walked towards a black car without another word from Clark. He watched her as she got into Bruce's car and drove off. Something was off. She seemed so distant towards him.

Clark headed to the Daily Planet the next day, Lois was supposed to work with him on the article of Lex's hearing the night before, but she never showed up. She sent him emails of her cliff notes. He was disappointed. He wanted to spend more time with her, but it was impossible to get her to sit at her desk. He suddenly saw her walking past her desk and he sped off his chair in order to catch up to her, "Lois!"

Lois went stiff and involuntarily turned around to see Clark walking up to her, she composed her face as he faced her. He handed her the newspaper, she looked at it and nodded to herself, "Looks like Clark Kent has finally made it to the front page. Pretty soon you'll be the new hot shot reporter taking my place."

Clark raised his eyebrow, "Well you did most of the work. I just got the by-line. Thanks for the cliff notes. I thought we would be actually working on it together though." She nodded, it looked like she didn't want to be here with him, "What did you mean 'taking you place'?"

Lois opened her mouth, but then closed it, Clark waited, she just shrugged, "I'm just looking at other offers. Don't needa look into it."

Before Clark could respond, Lois ran off, in a rush to catch the elevator.

Clark was doing chores in the barn. It felt like he had never left, but it felt too empty without Lois and Chris in it. He walked up to his loft and opened his trunk full of old memories from his past. He took out Chris' baby book which he and Lois started. She never took it with her when she moved out. He sat on his couch and looked through it. There were picture of his son growing up. She may not have taken it, but she did fill it up. There was a picture of the two of them, Lois pushing Chris on the swings. He looked around 2 years old at the time. He smiled at the image when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He turned to see Lois. She was twiddling her fingers nervously, looking around the loft, "It feels like a lifetime ago the last time I came up these stairs."

Clark stood up, happy to see her, "It's not the same living here without you." He tried to lighten up the tone, but he could tell Lois was tense.

Lois nodded slowly, not smiling one bit, she took a deep breath and walked up to him, standing only a few feet away, she kept twiddling with her fingers, "I've been going through this in my head so many times. About how I'm gonna deal with this again. With you. What to do exactly. I thought about it a lot and... I've decided where I want to go from here." Clark waited, Lois blinked slowly, "You hurt me when you left, it hurt a lot. And you took those feelings away from me, but it didn't do any good because Kara helped me feel it all over again."

Clark swallowed, "Lois. I'm so sorry for taking them away."

Lois shook her head, "Clark you don't have to apologize." She sighed, "I know that you were just trying to help me. I do. And it wasn't entirely your fault. Jor-El was the one who did it."

"But I asked him to." He looked down sadly.

Lois nodded her head slowly. She walked past Clark and looked out the loft window, "Uhm, I need to ask you a favour."

Clark turned to looked at her back, "Anything."

She took a deep breath and turned to face him, "I need some space... from you." Clark wrinkled his eyebrows, Lois shifted her weight from one leg to the other, "I mean who knows. This might actually be a good thing for me... in the long run. I might be able to live some resemblance to a normal life... not being married to Superman." She chuckled but it didn't meet her eyes. She lifted her face, "I somewhat get why you left Clark. I understand a bit of your side, but I had to deal with it. With being alone. With being a single mother. And I can't really do that with you everywhere now. Working together, seeing you at Watchtower. Seeing you with my son."

Clark took a step towards her, "What are you saying?"

Lois sighed and looked down, "I would love it if you were in Chris' life. I think he needs to know his father and I respect that you need to be in your son's life. But I can't be around for that. I can't be around you Clark. You can see you son whenever you want. I can't think of a better babysitter than his daddy. I just can't be around to see it. To be a part of it."

Clark opened his mouth, "Lois.."

"This has given me time to think. About where we go from here." She reached into her bag and pulled out a folder full of papers. She held it tight, "We've been apart for four years now... and I think it's time that maybe we make it permanent." Clark took a step back, he didn't know what to say, "I need closure Clark." She handed him the folder.

Clark opened it, but knew what he was going to find, he held back tears, "Divorce papers." He looked up at Lois and grabbed her hand, "Lois please don't do this." Lois reluctantly pulled her hand away.

"I'm sorry." He keep staring at her, Lois closed her eyes, "Clark please. I need this. I've made my decision." Without another word, Lois walked out of the loft. Clark looked through the paper and saw that Lois had already signed them. He heard Lois drive away, he kept listening to her heartbeat, that sound which kept him going on all these years, knowing that that heartbeat was still out there. Clark gritted his teeth and threw the papers all the way to the other side of the loft where they flew everywhere. His anger got the best of him that he took his trunk full of memories and threw them across the field. Tears filled his eyes as he fell onto his couch and wept.