Chapter 60

Back at the truck, she didn't even wait for him to open her door, but climbed in on her own. Once he was inside, he turned in his seat to face her.

"Lois—"

"Have you brought her here?"

"Her?" He was totally confused. "Who?"

"Who! Oh, I don't know, Clark, maybe, uh, the black haired woman painted on a wall hundreds of years ago that your people want you to be with? A certain Amazonian bit—"

"Lois!" Clark stopped her and then laughed heartily. "Lois, you are so—"

"Practical? Pragmatic? Willing to face facts? Oh yeah, that's me."

"I was going to say pig-headed, stubborn, and that maybe we need to schedule an appointment with an eye doctor!"

"Clark, I saw that picture. It's obvious. And that bracelet? Pu-lease! She's known to wear two of them. I'll bet she has a whole jewelry box full of them."

"Lois, if you can't tell that that painting is more like you than Diana—"

"Diana?" Her voice rose higher in pitch. "Diana!"

"Oh, boy, I shouldn't have said that." He covered his eyes and grimaced.

"No, that's just fine, fine by me. After all, you're both obviously on a first name basis. She called you Clark. Why stick with the super hero names for my account? "

She reached for the door handle, but his hand came across to stop hers. "Lois, stop it right there. You're being ridiculous."

"Am I? Clark, I am not going to—"

"Lois, listen to me. When you were with Oliver after Wonder Woman," he stressed the title carefully, "and I left his apartment, I listened. I was worried how you were taking it. I'm sorry I did it on one hand, but I'm glad I did on the other. I heard every word you said."

She stared at him. Oh god, him and his total recall. What did I say? I was drinking. I was angry, upset. What did I say!

"Every word," he repeated. His hand was still closed around her wrist, for he still wasn't sure she was going to bolt or not. She wasn't even blinking. "So, Wonder Woman has a little crush on Superman. I really can't help that. But I would hope you know me better than to think I'd just toss what we have together aside for someone like her. At least, I hope you do. That's not the problem really though, is it? It's really… Lana."

"I don't think I want to hear this," she said miserably, turning away from him.

"Maybe not," he said, determined to continue, "but you're going to."

"You haven't said one word about Lana," she whispered, "even to Chloe, since she left. Why start now?"

"Because no one knows what happened between the two of us except Lana and me, but it's time you did so we can get to the next step."

"Next step?" She swallowed and kept her eyes averted from his gaze.

"I'll get to that."

For the next ten minutes, he told the story of what Lana had put herself through before coming back to Smallville for Chloe's wedding. He covered every minute detail, explaining to her with enough description, Lois felt like she was watching a movie. He talked about the nanotechnology she stole from Lex and the powers she gained from the fusion of her skin to the Prometheus Suit, how Lex had turned the suit itself into something that absorbed Kryptonite, and how Lana had then saved Metropolis by absorbing an amount of it so great, she was now potentially lethal to him.

Lois listened to it all, not so much reacting to the story, but feeling it. She could feel how Clark had been affected by the whole affair. She finally shed a few tears when she heard him describe their parting kiss, even though it was tearing at her own heart to hear it.

"So…you can't be with Lana."

"No."

"Do you know where she is?"

"She went to Europe. I don't know where. I've never looked. It's what she wanted."

"Maybe if you ever get the fortress working again, it can help you reverse what happened to her?"

"Maybe." He let his hand travel down from her wrist to envelop her hand. "Lois, that's what happened to Lana. Now I'm going to tell you what happened to me during all that."

"Clark, it's late. Maybe we should—"

"Yeah, it is late, but it's never too late for the truth, right?" In the dim light inside the cab, he saw her shrug her shoulders at him without saying a word. "Lois, there was a moment at the wedding. We were dancing. That's when Lana showed up. Remember?"

Do I remember! I'll never forget it! But all she said was a simple, "Yes."

"We were starting to…or, at least, I was starting to think that we…" He took a deep breath. "Lois, I thought I was in love with Lana since I was a kid. She was the girl next door. She was pretty, nice, and like some fairy princess out of one of my storybooks. She was unattainable too. And that made her even more attractive to me. She wore that Kryptonite necklace all through grade school and middle school, and I couldn't even get near her without stumbling and making a fool of myself, but I didn't know why. I just figured it was just her magical way of making me 'fall' for her."

"That's kind of silly," Lois said softly.

"I was a child. I thought like that." He laughed. "Everyone thinks I'm so naïve now. Can you imagine how I was as a kid?"

Lois laughed too. "You have a point."

"Lana was exactly the sort of person I thought I should fall in love with, so I did. And for a few months out of all those years, we were probably happy. But that last time we were together, she was obsessed with sharing my secret, super-hero life, not with just sharing my real life. I remember the moment when she made that clear to me. It was like a slap in the face."

Lois placed her right hand over his which was still holding her left and squeezed it slightly.

"All those years of her wanting the truth from me about all the strangeness of my life! She badgered me constantly about it, gave me ultimatum after ultimatum, and it was the one thing I couldn't trust her with, because I just didn't trust her. The meteor shower had killed her parents. I had arrived in the meteor shower. She'd been attacked by several people who were meteor infected, and she even saw two Kryptonians emerge from a space ship during the second meteor shower, and she watched them kill people. For all the times she assured me she'd still accept me if I'd only tell her the truth, I never did. She found out on her own about me, but I never told her."

He looked at Lois and repeated, "I never told her, Lois, but I did tell you. I trust you. I am in love with you. I love you." Her brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it. "And I'll tell you that as many times as it takes to make you understand that."

"But Lana—"

"Lana is my old girlfriend. Nothing more. Don't get me wrong. I will always love her in a way. You can't just turn that off. Ever. I will always love her, but I am not in love with her, and you know there's a difference in the two kinds of love. I think you've got a few old boyfriends scattered about, don't you?"

She coughed. "Maybe a few." They both laughed.

Then she closed the gap across the front seat, scrambled into his lap, and they kissed as they never had. Her eagerness was answered by his, and in minutes, a light foggy film covered the windshield as the fervent kissing became more heated.

As soon as Clark had retrieved some form of control and begun to entangle her arms from about his neck, a tap on the window brought them both back to reality with a thud.

A deputy sheriff stood there, his flashlight illuminating the inside of the truck and, he smiled, sizing up the situation immediately as exactly what it was.

Clark, his cheeks red from passion and embarrassment, rolled down the window as Lois retreated to her side of the truck and straightened her blouse.

"Mr. Kent?"

"Uh, hi, officer. Um…is there a problem?"

The deputy grinned at him. "We got a report from a security guard that there was some strange goings on at the caves. I don't suppose you two," he chuckled, "love birds saw anything suspicious?"

"No, no, sir. We didn't see anyone else. We were just…uh…"

"It's two in the morning, Mr. Kent. Probably a good time to be going home, don't you think?"

"Yes, sir. Good idea." Clark gulped. "We were just going to do that."

"Good then. See you around, Mr. Kent. You too, Miss." He turned off his flashlight and walked back to his car.

Clark and Lois dissolved into laughter for a few minutes before she saw him cock his head and listen.

"Great, just great!"

"What?"

"He's radioing in that he just caught Clark Kent, of all people, parking and making out with some hot chick!"

"Hm… Hot chick? I like it. The man's got taste."

"Well, let's hope it goes no further. Remember, mom's a senator. What if it hits the front page?" he said miserably.

"Smallville, I hate to break it to you, but getting caught at being a normal, red-blooded American male is not exactly that much of a scandal. I think your mom's career could survive it."

"Thanks, Lois." He shot her a big smile.

"For what?"

"After everything you just saw tonight, you just called me normal."