Author's Note: After I realized just how long my season eight AU was going to be, I decided to lump all the one-shots as chapters of an ongoing story, to keep myself more organized.
Bleed to Black
"Explain to me why we're out here, again?"
Lois glared at Clark as she stomped through the unexpected November snowfall in heavy combat boots and her deep orange maid-of-honor dress.
"Because the caterers, in their infinite wisdom, forgot to bring a display stand for the wedding cake, like they agreed to do, not to mention several dozen other little things essential to finishing their preparations," Lois growled through gritted teeth. "Not only are they too afraid of the weather to go out on their own, they tried to use your mother's good crystal cake plate, and almost immediately tried to drop it."
"Don't worry," she added, when Clark shot her an alarmed look, "both cake plate and caterers are intact. Although the night is young," she muttered, under her breath.
"Is there a reason you couldn't change into jeans before we left?" Clark asked.
"There was no time," Lois told him, still sounding slightly peeved. "Besides," she added, with a pointed look at Clark, "it's not like my dress is getting wet."
Clark melted another patch of snow and ice from the sidewalk in front of them with a short, quick burst of his heat vision. Behind them, the clean, dry sidewalk stood out in sharp contrast to the mounds of snow on either side.
"You know," he remarked, "I could have run out here a lot faster."
"You wouldn't know what to look for," Lois told him. "I don't even really know what we're looking for."
As they arrived at the store, Clark beat Lois to the door by a few seconds and held it open for her, waving her inside with a gallant bow. Lois rolled her eyes at him, before making a beeline for the kitchenware section at the back of the store. Clark followed, and found himself under the intense scrutiny of overly-curious shoppers as they openly gawked at the couple in formal dress. Lois never even seemed to notice the attention, so focused was she on her goal.
"What do you think?" Lois asked, when Clark had caught up with her back in the kitchenware section. "Obviously plastic, or passably-imitation crystal?"
She held up a pair of cake plates for Clark's approval, and he frowned, hesitantly.
"They both look the same to me," he finally admitted, and Lois shook her head in exasperation.
"You're hopeless," she chided," and Clark fought back a grin at the affection in her tone.
"Why do you think I have you around?" Clark asked, cheekily.
"This one," Lois declared, rather than responding, as she held up one of the cake plates. "It looks nicer."
Decision made, she made her way up to the registers, detouring every few feet to grab another item declared 'absolutely essential' by the caterers, loading up Clark's arms in lieu of a shopping cart. When they reached the registers, the cashier gaped at Lois while he started to ring them up.
"Are you going to a wedding?" he finally blurted, clearly unable to hold back his curiosity.
"Yep," Lois answered, shortly.
"Isn't the bride supposed to wear white?"
Lois ignored the question, probably hoping to dissuade the kid, but he didn't seem to get the hint.
"What's with the combat boots?"
Clark winced as the kid planted his foot very firmly in his mouth, and Lois gave him a slow, sweet smile.
"The boots are insurance," she confided in a falsely-bright tone. "If he says no, I can kick his ass."
The cashier's eyes widened and Lois took advantage of his momentary distraction to snatch the bags and her change from his hands. She hustled to the door, and when Clark caught up with her outside, she grinned at him, her shoulders shaking with barely-suppressed laughter.
"That wasn't very nice," Clark told her.
"Oh, he had it coming," Lois said. "Besides, did you see the look on his face?"
"I think he swallowed his tongue," Clark said, smiling slightly.
"Imagine what he'd have done if I really turned up the charm," Lois said, lightly.
Then, she took a deep breath and sighed, closing her eyes and tipping her head back so that the snow fell on her face.
"Isn't it beautiful?" she asked, a little wistfully.
"It is," Clark agreed, "and cold. Why didn't we drive?"
"Because both our cars were blocked in and getting them out would have revealed your secret to everyone at the wedding," Lois stated, matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, that was a lot of cars," Clark agreed. "Where did all those people come from?"
"Out of the woodwork, as far as I'm concerned," Lois replied. "I had no idea Chloe and Jimmy knew so many people until I helped Chloe with the wedding invitations."
She took another deep breath of the cold air, suddenly, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to let the snow fall on her face, again.
"I wish we could stay out here, forever," she remarked. "But, I guess it's back to the rush."
She started walking, again, and Clark fell naturally into step beside her. They walked in silence for several minutes, and when Clark noticed Lois shivering, he took his jacket off and draped it over her shoulders. She smiled at him in thanks, leaning closer against his side.
Lois's steps faltered, and Clark looked in the direction she was looking, and he saw a figure standing in the shadows, hard to see through the falling snow. Lois nudged Clark in the ribs and he moved toward the edge of the sidewalk, keeping himself between Lois and the stranger. The stranger, a man, moved with them and blocked their way when they tried to move past him.
"Excuse us," Clark said, politely, keeping a wary eye on the man's hands, still buried in his pockets.
"Gimme your wallets," the man growled, his voice low and gravelly.
"Buddy," Lois said, with a laugh, "you really picked the wrong people to rob."
"Gimme your wallets," the man repeated, his voice harder, angrier, at Lois's retort. One of his hands came out of his pockets, and he brandished a gun at them, wildly.
"Give us the gun and just walk away," Clark advised, keeping his own voice quiet and non-threatening.
The man's eyes narrowed in anger, and Clark moved slowly so that he was more in front of Lois. A second later, the muzzle of the gun flashed and Clark felt something small impact his side. Then, he heard a sharp gasp from behind him, and he turned to see Lois with her hands clutched over her stomach, breathing in short, shallow gasps.
Horrified, he stepped toward her, and caught her when her knees buckled and she collapsed into his arms. He pressed a hand to her stomach, swallowing hard when it came away coated in warm, sticky, black blood.
"You're going to be okay," he said, immediately, when Lois fumbled for his hand, gripping as hard as she could.
He gathered Lois up against his chest, hearing her fast heartbeat, faint even to his ears, and he ran to the Smallville Medical Center, as fast as he could.
"Help me!" he shouted, bursting through the doors to the emergency room. "She's been shot!"
A swarm of doctors and nurses surrounded them and took Lois away from Clark, who moved backward to stay out of their way.
"Get a room in the OR ready!" one of the doctors snapped, and a pair of nurses ran off down the hallway.
"One gunshot wound to the abdomen," another doctor, in a lab coat, stated, his voice calm despite the chaos in the room. "No exit wound."
"I can't find a pulse!" one of the nurses called out, suddenly.
"Get me a defibrillator," Lab Coat said, calmly, and Clark wanted to shake the man until he got some sense of the urgency of the situation. Didn't he realize Lois was dying?
Lab Coat sliced through the bodice of Lois's dress to expose her chest, and a nurse put the defibrillator paddles into his outstretched hands. He put the paddles on Lois's chest, around her heart, and a faint whine filled the air.
"Charging," someone called out, and then the doctor called out, "Clear," as he triggered the machine.
Lois's body jerked as the electricity jolted through her, but the nurse shook her head, and the doctor ordered another discharge. Time seemed to slow to a stop as Clark watched the doctors and nurses work frantically to try and save Lois's life. Then, far too soon, the doctor shook his head and looked over at a nearby clock.
"Call it," he said, quietly, his voice heavy with regret. "Time of death, two-fifteen PM."
"No," Clark whispered, hoarsely, but no one seemed to hear him. "She's not dead."
One of the nurses covered Lois with a sheet, and Clark moved across the room and shoved the woman away as he ripped the sheet off Lois's face. Her eyes were closed, and her skin had already started to turn a dull, gray pallor.
"She's not dead," Clark repeated, even as he stared at the evidence in front of him.
"Sir," the nurse said, gently, taking his arm to lead him away. "Sir, come with me."
"She's not dead!" Clark insisted, yanking his arm out of the woman's grasp. "She's not dead, she's not dead, she's-"
Clark jerked awake at a shout, then as the sound echoed in the room, he realized that he'd been the one shouting. Snapping on the light beside his bed, he grabbed his cell phone and fumbled it open, frantically dialing Lois's number.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up," he muttered, impatiently, as her phone rang once, twice, three times.
After the fourth ring, Clark snapped his phone shut in frustration and sped downstairs and out of the house. He ran down the road, through Smallville and through the streets of Metropolis until he was standing at the door to Lois's new apartment.
"Lois!" he shouted, pounding on her door, heedless of who he might wake up. "Lois, open up!"
Still impatient, he grabbed her doorknob and twisted, only to feel it pop off in his hand. Then, the door was yanked out of his grasp and he looked up to see Lois standing in her doorway: bunny-covered pajamas, wildly-disheveled hair, and a Louisville slugger held high in her hands.
"What the hell, Smallville?" she exploded, when she saw him standing in front of her. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"I wanted to see that you were all right," Clark defended himself.
Lois stared at him, incredulously, for several seconds, and then her gaze landed on the doorknob in his hand. She looked quickly back at the door she'd pulled open and then back to him.
"That's my doorknob," she stated, flatly, and Clark sheepishly held out the knob, which she snatched from his hand. "And you warped the hinges," she continued, turning her back on him and stalking away, leaving him to see himself into the apartment.
"I'm sorry," Clark apologized, guiltily.
"You're buying me a new door," Lois informed him. "And you're installing it. I'm not going to have my landlord kicking me out because you can't hold your horses."
"Okay," Clark agreed, unable to keep from grinning now that he'd seen for himself that Lois was all right.
"So, why are you here?" Lois demanded, once Clark had sat down across from her on the couch.
"I had this dream," Clark told her, "a nightmare, actually."
"And so you felt the need to run over to my place and break my door down at two AM?" Lois asked, her voice gaining that particular even quality that just screamed trouble for the person she was talking to.
Clark watched her hand twitch on the handle of the baseball bat and had the feeling that if he didn't offer up an excellent explanation, invulnerable or not, Lois was going to be taking a few swings at him with it. And from the particularly annoyed look in her eyes, he knew she'd somehow be able to make it hurt. He swallowed, hard, nervously.
"You died in it," he explained, quickly.
"I'm not dead," Lois told him, calmly.
"I can see that," Clark said. "But, that's why I came over."
"Well, I'm fine," Lois said. "So, go home."
When Clark tried to protest, Lois forestalled him with an upraised hand.
"I need to get some sleep," she stated. "You need to get some sleep. Because you're not going to walk Chloe down the aisle looking like a raccoon. Do I make myself clear?"
"Okay," Clark said, quickly.
"And stop agreeing with everything I say," Lois grumbled at him. "It's creepy."
"Okay," Clark replied, just to tease her.
Lois shook her head in exasperation and walked him to the door, rising up on her toes to give him a quick, grumpy peck on the cheek.
"Go home," she said, as though she were talking to Shelby. "I'll see you in the morning."
She shoved the warped door closed behind him when he stepped out into the hallway, and he listened carefully until he heard her going back into her bedroom. Then, reluctantly, he ran back to the farm, and fell into bed, asleep the second his head hit the pillow.
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"Will you hurry up?" Clark shouted up the stairs. "We're going to be late."
"The wedding's being held in your barn," Lois reminded him, appearing on the top landing, hopping slightly as she tried to slip a shoe on her foot. "It's hard to be late when you're five seconds away."
She gave one last, determined hop, finally forcing her foot into the shoe, and then gave a yelp when she lost her balance and tumbled down the stairs, straight into Clark's arms.
"Nice catch," Lois praised him, slightly out of breath from her unexpected fall.
"Good thing I was standing right here," Clark replied, his heart still racing from the almost-close call. "You could have broken your neck."
"I'm fine, Smallville," Lois said, rolling her eyes at the overly-concerned tone of his voice.
"Let's get going," Clark told her, pulling away from her and heading for the door.
"Smallville, wait," Lois called out, and Clark turned away, raising a curious eyebrow.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I don't really know how to say this," Lois said, as she walked over to where he was standing. "It's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."
"Lois, what is it?" Clark repeated, worriedly. "You know, you can tell me anything."
"Clark, I-" Lois started, hesitantly. She shook her head, slightly, still obviously having a hard time with whatever she was trying to say. "I-"
'Love you,' Clark finished, in his thoughts, before mentally kicking himself. He had no proof that those were the words Lois was going to utter.
"I-" she tried, a third time, and Clark couldn't help his heart leaping wildly in his chest. "I'm moving to London," Lois finished in a rush.
Clark stared at her in shock. Of all the things she could have said, that was the last thing he ever would have expected.
"Moving to London?" he repeated, numbly. "Lois, why?"
"Well, the Daily Planet has a satellite office there, and it's where Lucy's going to school, so I'll be close to her, and-"
Here she faltered, looking quickly away, but he still caught the glint of tears in the corner of her eyes, and the look of utter anguish on her face.
"I've come to realize," Lois continued, determinedly plowing on, "that, while you and I are very good friends, that's all we're ever going to be. I tried to just ignore my feelings, but it's just too hard, being around you every day and knowing that you only see me as a friend. So I'm going somewhere I won't be reminded of you every day."
Clark felt his jaw drop in shock, but before he could say something, anything, to make Lois change her mind, she went on.
"My flight leaves right after the wedding," she told him. "I'm catching a ride to the airport with the General. I just – it's been fun, Smallville. I hope you find a good partner to work with."
With that, she whirled around and walked past him, out into the front yard. Clark simply stood in the kitchen, staring after her, unable to make himself go after her, even though his every instinct was screaming at him to move. All he could do was watch her walk off into the distance.
"Lois," he whispered, quietly. "Lois, I love you."
When Clark woke up for the second time, this time to the feeling of Shelby anxiously nudging his hand, he didn't even bother with the cell phone; he just ran to Lois's apartment and burst inside, shouting her name. Lois bolted out of her bedroom like it was on fire and then skidded to a stop when she saw him standing in the middle of her living room. Clark crossed the distance between them in three steps and swept Lois into his arms, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back, for about two seconds, and then pulled out of his arms to glare at him.
"Please don't move to London," he said, quickly.
"I'm not," Lois said, baffled. "Why would I be moving to London?" Then, she seemed to remember where she was, and she glared at him, again.
"Three. A. M." she informed him, icily. "You'd better have a really good reason for being here."
"I dreamt you were leaving," Clark told her. "I thought I'd lost you. I wanted to check on you."
"There's this wonderful new invention called a phone," Lois said, heading toward the kitchen.
"You never answer yours," Clark said, sulkily. "And what are you doing?"
"If you're going to insist on keeping me awake, then I need ice cream," Lois said, opening her freezer and digging around in the back. "I know I've got the good stuff in here – aha!" she declared, holding up a carton of triple fudge brownie like it was a prize.
"So, why couldn't you call, again?" Lois asked, leading him back to the living room and plopping down on the rocking chair and leaving the couch for Clark.
"You don't answer your phone," Clark repeated.
"Well, maybe if you didn't call me in the middle of the night, I would," Lois snapped at him.
"I just wanted to check on you," Clark muttered, feeling a little foolish about having interrupted her sleep twice in one night.
"You were really worried, weren't you?" Lois asked, looking over at him.
"I just-" Clark repeated, softly. "I don't want to lose you."
"You're not going to lose me, Clark," Lois told him. "I'm not going anywhere. Certainly not London. And I'm not dying, either," she continued, when he still looked doubtful, and he flinched at the reminder of his earlier nightmare.
Lois had polished off a good amount of the ice cream by that point, and Clark looked at the dwindling remains with a raised eyebrow.
"It was already more than half empty when I took it out," Lois said, defensively, seeing the direction of his gaze.
"Sure," Clark said, agreeably. "Can I try some?"
"This is twice, now, that you've woken me up, in less than an hour, and you broke my door," Lois reminded him. "What makes you think I'm giving you my ice cream?"
Clark shot her a slightly pouty look, and Lois relented after a minute, passing the carton and spoon over to him. Clark grinned as he sampled the ice cream, only to have the smile fly off his face a second later when something soft hit him on the side of the head. He picked the pillow up off the floor and looked at it curiously.
"You're staying here for the night," Lois informed him, dumping a blanket onto the cushion beside him. "That way, if you have another nightmare, you can keep from waking me up over it."
"Lois, I don't want to take up your couch," Clark protested, automatically.
"I'm certainly not using it this early in the morning," Lois told him. "And if you leave, and then come back again, I might have to kill you."
"I'm invulnerable, remember?" Clark said, lightly, and then swallowed, hard, when he saw the annoyed look in Lois's eyes. "Right, sleeping here, sounds good," he stammered, quickly.
"I knew you'd see things my way," Lois said, triumphantly. "Now, I am going to bed. Turn the light off when you finish your ice cream."
She turned away, but a few seconds later, she turned back and sank down on the couch beside him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Clark sighed heavily as he leaned into her embrace, his shoulders drooping with tension. Lois rubbed a gentle hand up and down his back, and they sat together for a few quiet minutes. Finally, Clark reluctantly pulled away, and Lois stood up, stretching as she stepped away from the couch.
"Get some sleep, Smallville," she told him, quietly. "I'll see you in the morning."
She went back into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her, and Clark ate the ice cream, trying his hardest to ignore the little voice that pouted over not getting a second goodnight kiss. When he was finished, he lay down and covered himself with the blanket, but he couldn't manage to fall asleep. He just kept staring up at the ceiling, watching the interesting pattern made by flickering shadows.
Finally, he couldn't stand it any longer. Throwing back the covers, he jumped off the couch and crossed the room in a few, quick strides. He eased Lois's door open, gently, not willing to risk her ire if he broke two doors in one night, and then froze in her doorway when the light from the hallway spilled onto her face and she shifted in her sleep. The expression on her face was relaxed and peaceful, not filled with pain or heartbreak like it had been in all of his nightmares, and her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm with each breath she took.
Clark let out a sigh of relief, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes when he saw for sure that she was safe. He considered going back to bed, but shuddered violently at the thought of having yet another nightmare. Giving up on sleep as a lost cause, Clark settled in Lois's doorway for the rest of the night, watching her sleep and letting the quiet sound of her heartbeat fill his ears.
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Lois emerged from her bedroom the next morning, rumpled, tired, and desperate for coffee. She'd made it all the way to the coffee maker, poured herself a cup, and drank it down in a few quick swallows before she woke up enough to realize that she hadn't started the coffee maker earlier. Which had to mean…
"Good morning!"
Oh, yeah.
Lois turned around, second cup of coffee still cradled carefully in her hands, to see Clark sitting at her kitchen table, an overly-cheerful grin on his face and a pile of shopping bags cluttering the table.
"You've been busy," she observed, sipping at her coffee.
Clark shrugged. "They're for you," he told her, nodding at the bags.
Lois resisted for about thirty seconds, and then her curiosity got the better of her, and she started rummaging through the bags.
"What's the occasion, Smallville?" she asked, as she poked idly through the bags to find a bunch of obscure food items and other things that she'd only heard of after long conversations with the caterers for Chloe's wedding.
"I couldn't sleep," Clark told her. "I kept having nightmares."
"So, you bought me groceries and shoes?"
Utterly baffled now, Lois lifted a long shoebox out of one of the bags and pulled off the lid to find a pair of beautifully-decorated sneakers in the exact same shade as her dress.
"I already have shoes for the wedding," Lois told him.
"These will be more comfortable," Clark assured her. "You've got all those things to do as maid of honor, and I know you're not going to trust anyone else with the wedding preparations."
"Thanks, Smallville," Lois said, touched by the sweet gesture.
She was going to say something more but her phone rang, and she answered it with a brisk, "Lois Lane."
She then listened in shock as one of the caterers launched into a rant about his fellows and their incompetence.
"Hold it!" Lois barked into the phone, startling the man into silence. "What's going wrong?"
"We are missing several key items," the man informed her, haughtily, before giving her a long, detailed list of everything they were missing. Everything, as a matter of fact, that was sitting in Clark's grocery bags.
"Quiet," Lois snapped, cutting the man off, mid-rant, as he fell into stunned silence. "I've got everything under control." With that, she hung up on the man, abruptly.
"That was actually kind of fun," she decided, grinning at Clark. "And since when is psychic part of your repertoire?"
"It's not," Clark told her. "It's just a feeling I had."
"Some feeling," Lois said, arching an eyebrow at him.
"You don't know the half of it," Clark muttered, under his breath. When Lois shot him a curious look, he said, "Not bad for eight in the morning, huh?"
"It's already eight?" Lois demanded, staring at Clark in horror. "Why did you let me sleep so long?"
"You looked like you needed it?" Clark ventured, sheepishly.
"Chloe and Jimmy's wedding is at one o'clock!" Lois exploded. "I should have been up hours ago!"
She ran back to her bedroom, and at the door, turned and glared at Clark.
"Congratulations," she told him, "you've just been chosen to help me set up for the wedding."
Then, she slammed the door, leaving Clark alone in the kitchen. Nearly fifteen minutes later, Lois emerged from her bedroom in jeans and a tee-shirt, her hair still damp from her shower. Her dress was in a clear plastic bag hanging over her arm, and she laid it over the back of a chair before she began gathering up the bags Clark had bought.
"Come on, Smallville," she snapped, when she saw Clark just sitting and watching her. "Chop, chop. We've got to get all of this stuff to your farm, and we need to do it, now."
"Is this all you need to bring?" Clark asked. "Everything else is out at the farm?"
"Yeah, it's all piled up in your kitchen – hey!" she exclaimed, indignantly, when Clark started gently tugging the bags out of her hands.
"I've got a faster way," Clark assured her.
Then, before Lois could protest, Clark scooped her up into his arms, and sped out the door and down the street toward Smallville. Almost immediately, Lois tucked her head into his shoulder as protection against the wind, and she took a moment that felt almost guilty to enjoy the feeling of Clark's arms around her. All too soon it was over, and Clark reluctantly set Lois down in the middle of his kitchen.
"My hair's dry," Lois remarked, reaching back to run her fingers through her hair. "That's handy."
"I'll just go get the rest of that stuff," Clark told her, heading back out the door.
"Don't wrinkle my dress!" Lois hollered after him.
Then, she turned her attention back to the wedding paraphernalia littering Clark's kitchen.
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By eleven, she and Clark had the barn decorated to the last inch, and chairs set out for the guests. The caterers were hard at work in the kitchen getting the food ready for the reception, and the General and Lucy, who'd arrived early, were busy seating guests, to give Lois and Clark the chance to get ready.
"Can you help me with this?" Clark called, as he came out of his bedroom, hearing Lois coming down the stairs. Then, he looked up from the cufflink he'd been fumbling with in time to see her appear on the landing, and his jaw dropped open in shock.
"Speechless, Smallville?" Lois teased, lightly, as she came down the rest of the stairs to join him.
"You – you look amazing," Clark told her, still stunned.
"You look pretty good, yourself," Lois told him, reaching up to fuss with his jacket and tie. "So, what were you yelling about?"
"These – these cufflinks," Clark managed, finding it very hard to talk when Lois had her hands all over him. "I can't get them fastened."
"Well, that's simple enough," Lois said, making short work of the unwieldy cufflinks. Clark pulled his hands away, reluctantly, when she was done.
"Here are your flowers," he said, quickly, snatching the small bouquet off a small table to keep his shaking hands from being too visible.
"Do you have Jimmy's ring?" Lois asked, and Clark patted his breast pocket in reassurance.
"Looks like we're ready," Clark remarked.
"One more thing," Lois said, quietly, and when Clark turned to look at her, she went up on her toes and pecked him softly on the cheek. "For luck," she explained, an unreadable look in her eyes, and then she headed for the front door.
"Lois, wait!" Clark called out, suddenly, not even really sure why he wanted her to stop.
Then, when Lois turned and looked at him, and he saw her expression, a mix of amusement, impatience, and affection, he knew exactly what he was going to say.
"Lois," he began, "when the jeweler had us strapped to that lie detector-"
Lois's expression changed to one of disbelief. "Now?" she demanded, incredulously. "You want to talk about this, now?"
"When he asked me if I loved you," Clark pressed on, doggedly.
"You didn't answer," Lois interrupted. "You head-butted him and then we escaped, which makes a lot more sense now than it did then."
"I don't know how I would have answered then," Clark continued, not letting Lois distract him. "But I know how I'd answer, now."
"And what would that answer be?" Lois asked, cautious hope in her voice.
"Yes," Clark said, simply, and he watched Lois's eyes fill with tears she refused to shed. Then, she swallowed, hard, and smacked him lightly on the arm.
"What took you so long?" she muttered.
Clark let out a relieved laugh, which was abruptly cut off when Lois yanked his face down and kissed him, hard. She pulled back after a few seconds, and while he was still reeling, walked over to the door and opened it.
"Come on, Smallville," she said, smiling. "We've got a wedding to go to."
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The ceremony was short, only about half an hour, and then everyone scattered around the barn for the reception. A slow song came on over the speakers, and Clark looked around for Lois, only to find her already out on the dance floor with her father. They looked deep in conversation, and when the General looked in his direction, he had a feeling he knew exactly what they were talking about.
'You are a grown man. You are invulnerable,' Clark told himself, sternly. 'You are not afraid of General Sam Lane.'
Squaring his shoulders, Clark marched over to where father and daughter were dancing, and tapped the General on the shoulder.
"May I cut in?" he asked, politely.
General Lane stepped back, and Lois shifted into Clark's arms without missing a beat. The General then leaned in close to Lois.
"You and I are going to have a very long talk, later," he said, into Clark's ear, and the younger man swallowed, hard.
"Okay," he decided, after the General had walked away, "that's terrifying."
"You should see how he is when he doesn't like one of my boyfriends," Lois said, with a quiet chuckle, then she froze when she realized what she'd said.
"Boyfriend?" Clark repeated. "Is that what I am to you?"
Lois nodded, and Clark could see the courage it had taken her to admit even that.
"Boyfriend," he repeated, testing the word out. "I like the sound of that."
"So do I," Lois declared, smiling at him.
Clark took advantage of her upturned face to lean down and cover her lips with his. Lois leaned into the kiss, winding her arms around Clark's neck. Clark closed his eyes as their kiss deepened, but they flew open a second later when he heard a soft clicking sound. Caught off balance, he stumbled forward, looking down in surprise when his and Lois's feet hit the ground.
'Were we floating?' he thought, in amazement. He was distracted by that train of thought when Lois dropped her forehead against his shoulder.
"Gimme the camera, Olsen," she demanded, sticking out a hand in Jimmy's direction.
"No way," Jimmy declared, lowering the disposable camera he'd grabbed off a nearby table. He flashed them a huge smile and added, "This'll be my "I told you so," proof."
"Can I get a copy of that?" Clark asked, nodding at the camera. "It's our first, real, non mind-whammied kiss, and I want to commemorate it."
"Sure thing, CK," Jimmy said, still smiling.
Lois wasn't though. "What do you mean 'non mind-whammied'?" she demanded, suspiciously, stepping back to stare at Clark.
"Um," Clark said, nervously. "Lois, what I meant was-"
"We'll be talking about this, later," Lois told him, smiling brightly, and Clark winced.
"You're even more terrifying than your father," Clark informed her.
"He taught me well," Lois said, still smiling.
Clark grinned back at her, stepping forward for another kiss, and that's when the screaming started.
They whirled around, Clark pushing Lois behind him even as she stepped away from his arm and up beside him. Jimmy immediately raised the camera to his eye and began snapping photos. And Clark looked up to see a monster coming down the stairs from the loft.
"What is that thing?" Lois asked, in a hushed whisper.
"I don't know," Clark replied, "but I'm going to stop it."
He sped forward, darting in and out among the fleeing, panicking crowd. He struck the monster at mid-chest, driving it back into the wooden stairs, hearing them crack from the impact. The monster growled and took a step forward, and then swatted at Clark like he was a particularly-annoying fly.
Clark flew backward into the wall of the barn and saw, to his horror, the top of the wall began buckling inward, and the roof started to collapse. Clark jumped up, catching as many chunks of the roof as he could. A cry of pain behind him as he landed told him he hadn't been fast enough, and he turned to find one of Jimmy's fellow photographers pinned beneath a severed piece of one of the support beams. He lifted the beam up, and pulled the young woman to her feet.
"Are you all right?" he demanded.
When she could only nod, shakily, he pushed her toward the newly-made hole in the side of the barn. He looked around for the monster, but could only see people sprinting toward the doors. Then, there was a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, and he turned to see the monster emerging from the shadows – and Chloe holding Lucy directly in the monster's path. Lucy was crying and screaming incoherently, tears streaking down her face.
Clark started forward, but even for all his speed, he wasn't fast enough. There were too many people between him and the monster, and he found himself practically frozen in place. Just like his nightmare.
"Help me!" Lucy screamed, hysterically, sobbing wildly, and Clark could feel his heart breaking as he struggled to get to the younger girl.
He couldn't understand why he couldn't move any faster than he was, until he saw the glowing green chunk of kryptonite in Chloe's hand, and realized that he was close enough for it to have an effect on him. Regardless, he redoubled his efforts to force his way through the panicked crowd.
"Daddy!" Lucy screamed, as the monster continued its slow advance towards her. "Lois, help!"
Clark instinctively looked for Lois when Lucy called out for her sister, and to his horror, he saw Lois striding toward the monster with a determined look on her face and a short jagged-edged piece of wood in her hands.
With a wordless snarl, Lois swung the piece of wood at the monster's head. It wasn't nearly hard enough to seriously wound the monster, but a piece broke off in its eye, making it stagger backward and howl in pain. Then, Lois whirled around and punched Chloe squarely across the jaw. She collapsed, releasing Lucy's arm in the process, and Lois grabbed her sister's arm, shoving her into the crowd to disappear as just another face.
The monster growled as it lurched forward, after Lucy, and Lois planted herself directly in its path.
Clark had a moment to admire Lois's sheer fearlessness, and then the monster swiped out a clawed hand as casually as it had swatted Clark, and Lois flew backward to slam against a support beam, her head impacting with a sharp crack. She slumped to the floor in a boneless heap and didn't move.
"Lois!" Clark screamed, his heart shattering even as he prayed to wake up from this latest nightmare.
But there was no reprieve, only an unending agony when he finally reached Lois and saw the torrent of blood covering her stomach. He realized that Lois was never going to move, or laugh, or call him Smallville ever again. He dropped to his knees beside her too-still body and reached out a shaking hand to slowly close her eyes.
Behind him, he heard Chloe laugh, a low, dark, ugly sound, and he whirled around, furiously, to face her, only to double over in pain and collapse on top of Lois when Chloe – or rather, Brainiac – held the chunk of kryptonite out, watching dispassionately as he writhed in pain.
"How the mighty have fallen," Brainiac mocked him, kicking Clark hard in the stomach and watching him groan, weakly.
Behind Brainiac, the monster stalked toward Clark, but was stopped when Brainiac put an arm out in front of its chest.
"He said to kill him," the monster growled.
"On my time, not his," Brainiac drawled. "I'll kill Kal-El when I feel the time is right. Until that time-"
Brainiac bent down and placed the kryptonite near Clark's face. "Suffer and grieve," he said, smugly. He stepped back and watched as Clark tried to recoil from the kryptonite, in so much pain he couldn't even breathe.
"Come on," Brainiac said, briskly, turning and walking away. "We're leaving.
The monster reluctantly followed, and they sped out of the barn, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Clark tried to follow them, to stop them, but the most he could do was knock the kryptonite away and move a short distance after them before he collapsed, again, from the pain. All he could do was watch Brainiac and the monster disappear into the distance.
Around him, the panicked, stampeding had stopped and the fearful screaming had turned into hysterical weeping. Sirens sounded in the distance, and Clark tried to get to his feet, to help with the injured and the dead, but the only thing he had strength for was dragging himself back to where Lois lay. Exhausted and heartbroken, sobbing with grief, Clark cradled Lois to his chest.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered into her hair. "Lois, I'm so sorry, I should have been faster. I'm so sorry. Lois…"