Author's note: So, I had more done on this one than I thought so...

Thank to all of you for the feedback. It means so much more than I can say. Hope you enjoy this next part and I'd love to hear what you think! :)

Hugs,

M

Chapter 17

It never ceased to amaze.

The effect she had on him.

It was more than the friendship that kick started their epic love story or the honesty that sustained it. It went beyond the overwhelming sense of peace or the world of possibilities opening up before him, straight to the core of everything he was living for. Everything he was. Her courage became his. Her strength fueled his own. And his unwavering confidence that often baffled friends and foes alike was directly tied to her ability to maintain hope in the gravest of situations.

And if ever a situation was grave...

He hadn't spoken to his Lois in two days. And it felt like an eternity in the desert. He'd barely spoken to this one and it already felt like a monsoon.

A wave of optimism he hadn't expected made his heart constrict, release then surge. There was a chance now. More than a chance, actually. With Lois Lane on his side, he would set things right again.

For all of them.

He just hoped there was enough time.

Lois Lane's silent, appraising gaze swept over him.

"Nice costume."

Clark glanced down, suddenly realizing it was the first time this Lois had seen not only the suit, but him in it. He shifted uncomfortably, unsure of this Lois' reaction. After all, he and his Lois had been in an entirely different emotional space when he'd revealed his fully-suited alter-ego to her.

"Yeah, um, Mom made it."

"Did I approve?"

Taken off guard by the question, his eyes unexpectedly sparkled with unspoken memories, "You've had your complaints." A faint smile shadowed his lips. "But mostly you're quite...enthusiastic about it."

"Huh. So, out of all the girls in all the world you just happened to end up with the girl with a costume fetish." The not-so-subtle undertone of Clark's choice of words caused Lois to blush even as her steady gaze noted the subtle changes in his features. "Sounds like you got lucky."

"I don't believe in luck." Clark countered softly. "But yeah, yeah I did."

His jawline was squarer than she remembered even from two days ago. The lines in his face had a gentle strength she'd already noted in her Clark. His full, kissable lips were used to smiling, but at present were held firm by a tight, grim line. And his eyes. His troubled gray eyes were a mixture of emotions.

Relief. Sadness. Hope.

It was the sadness that got her. After all she'd discovered about their life together, of how happy they were, she was clearly missing some pieces of information. Some tiny details or life-altering revelations.

Her bet was on the second one.

"This isn't quite fair, you know."

"What?"

"You knowing me so well while I know practically nothing about us. Of what we've become. How we are together."

"Maybe not fair, but it is..." Searching for the right word, Clark paused till he found the one dangling closest to the truth. "...refreshing."

A dark eyebrow hitched in surprise, prompting a line of clarification.

"You don't know my failures yet."

Lois chuckled. "Oh, don't kid yourself, Smallville. I've been keeping track of those since the day we met."

An unexpected grin cracked the seriousness of the moment and shed years from his expression as he tilted his head in scrutiny. It was such an endearingly familiar gesture that Lois' breath hitched at the sight.

"What?" She asked, trying to still the tremor in her one-word question.

"It's just...you haven't called me Smallville in..." Trying to mentally pinpoint the last time he'd heard the endearing moniker, Clark soon gave up with a shrug. "...too long."

"Oh?" Lois queried innocently. "And what do I call you instead?"

"Honey. Sweetie." Clark's grin deepened as Lois' eyebrow rose in surprise. "Super Stud."

Lois chuckled. "Super Stud? I certainly hope you live up to that name."

"In ways that defy logic. Or so you tell me." Clark confirmed a slight blush brushing his cheeks.

"Yeah? And what else do I tell you?"

"That you and me...highlight of your life."

Recognizing the phrase, Lois flipped through the memories in her mind a smile growing on her lips and lighting her eyes. "Ah, yes. I remember the origins of that one."

"As do I." He answered softly, knowingly drawing from years of experience. Seeing the questions silently waiting for him in her eyes, Clark sobered and voiced the obvious. "I'm sure you have a million questions."

"Try a million and one."

"Where do you want to start?"

"With the easiest." A pause. "What the hell happened back there?"

Clark moved to lean against a ledge not far from the crystal clump where she was standing, signaling a distant closeness he needed to maintain. "You already know about Liam's plan?"

Lois noted the silent, subtle message and stayed rooted her to spot. "Yeah. Destroy my memories of us, keep me prisoner in a time I don't belong so that you and 'True Destiny Lana' can get all down home on the farm, reproduce like bunnies and rule the world."

Clark's lips twitched with amusement at a typical Lois Lane description. "Something like that. Minus the reproducing like bunnies." Noting the quirk of her brow, Clark clarified. "Liam only needed one daughter to marry."

"Out of all of that, that's your take away?"

"Out of all of that, my having a daughter is the only thing remotely possible."

"Except the memory stealing part." Lois reminded him.

"Yeah. Except that." He sobered instantly. "Lois, the Chamber you were in is a Luthor creation. A device to make all of that possible. It gives him the power to dig into people's minds, to erase their memories or alter them if need be. He could literally make his own army of mind-numbed robots out of humans, meta-humans, anyone really. And he was well on his way to doing so when you showed up."

"Bully for me." Lois quipped under her breath.

"Lucky for us." Clark corrected, explained. "Since Lois Lane was his pièce de ré·sis·tance having you within his grasp was a temptation he couldn't resist. So he accelerated his plans and made mistakes too big to ignore."

"And that's where you came in."

"That's where I came in. Literally."

"So you were inside the Chamber with me. You were one of the cloaked figures."

"I was." Clark confirmed as his gaze shifted to the memory of it, he added an unexpected confession. "Though I have to admit, being able to talk to you like that was a bit of a surprise."

"So, that's not normal for us."

"No."

"Then how?"

Clark shrugged. "The power of the Chamber must have enhanced my own abilities, and it's no secret you and I have a connection that's deeper than...well, let's just say its legendary. Today it worked to our advantage in a very tangible way."

"And Luthor? Could he hear us?"

"No. Once you and I had connected, he was as blind to my presence as he was to his impending downfall."

Lois switched gears unexpectedly. "How did you know to come when you did?"

Clark's gaze shifted and his Adam's apple bobbed as guilt dropped over his features like a veil. It took him a moment to speak, and when he did, his voice was pained.

"Things in my time have gone wrong, Lois. Terribly wrong." Not wanting to wade into the gory details just yet, Clark headed off any questions and hurried on. "I was already looking for the cause of it all when I got the message from the Legion. Once I knew the you of my past was in trouble here in their time, things in my time started to make sense. So I got here as fast as I could."

"To save the day."

"To save the hour." Clark corrected. "The day's still in danger."

"Liam?"

"No. He's being permanently neutralized as we speak."

"How?"

"Remember the other people in the Chamber? They were on our side. Members of the Council Regents, the ruling body of this time. They'd had an eye on Luthor for a while now, but he's been playing things pretty close to the vest. Publically, he's squeaky clean and they needed proof of his plans before they could act." A pause. Lips tilted in acknowledgement. "You and I gave it to them."

Greeting his moment of satisfaction with a brief, acknowledging smile, Lois' brows furrowed in thought. "Why would Luthor just open the doors to a secret mind-twisting device like that?"

"Pride before the fall, I guess. A few hours ago, he called his secret sect together. I took advantage of that and rounded them up before they had a chance to gather. The Council Regents and I took their place to witness the undoing of Lois Lane "

"And instead, witnessed Luthor's own."

"Thanks to you." His eyes warmed with remembrance. "You know, in all the years I've known you, you have never ceased to amaze me. There's just no equal to your courage."

"I'm not sure what I did was all that courageous. I was scared to death."

"Could have fooled me. But more importantly, you did fool Luthor." A smile of pride swept over his expression. "This age owes you a great deal, Lois Lane."

Unaccustomed to such high praise from 'her' Smallville, Lois accepted his compliments with an embarrassed, yet grateful, smile as she began to process everything he'd told her. Clark silently watched as the wheels turned in her head. He'd always been impressed with how quickly they spun. And was usually surprised in which direction.

This time he knew what was coming.

"What memory did you let him steal?"

"A day like any other. You and me at the Torch, working on a story, trading jabs and insults and generally getting on each other's nerves." He smiled at the fond memory she no longer had before letting the gravity of what almost happened pull his lips downward. His pleading gaze met hers. "It was long before you and I even started to understand what we are to each other, Lois. I would have died before I let him touch those."

Lois nodded in silence, her gaze resting heavily on his chiseled features.

"What will happen to him now? Chris said something about a trial."

"It's already underway. They wanted you as a witness, but I convinced them they had enough to put Luthor away for the rest of his natural life. Beside, you have somewhere else you need to be."

"Right. About that. Maybe it's time we moved on to the hard questions."

"Ok, shoot."

Lois swallowed hard and verbalized the one question from which everything else flowed. "Does...does he...love me? You said you could..."

Clark Kent interrupted with just one word.

"Desperately."

"Desperately." Lois repeated, a bit taken back. "To be clear, that's not you answering as you now, you know, having been my...her husband for..."

"Eight years." Clark supplied. "And no, Lois, I'm not answering as a husband. Though to be clear, I feel the exact same about my Lois and I have for a very long time."

"But how? I mean, things between us have been really rocky lately. And the last time we spoke he was..."

"I remember." Noting the surprise in her eyes, Clark explained. "The events of Doomsday didn't just happen to you and him, Lois. They happened to me and my Lois too. Everything...you and him, me and her, our histories, our choice and decisions, everything up to that point were exactly the same. The difference came after. You see, my Lois came back to me three weeks after I lost her. For him, you've been gone for two months."

"And that's made a difference?"

"You have no idea."

"How?"

Clark paused a moment, taking a deep breath and choosing his words carefully. They were about to dive into the subject he'd been trying up until now to avoid. But even Clark knew he'd have to reveal the truth at some point.

And it seemed, that point was now.

"By the time my Lois returned to me, I knew. I knew how much I loved her, I knew how important she was to me. I knew she was the one I'd been waiting for my entire life."

Lois shifted uncertainly. "Why do I sense a 'but' here?"

"Because you know me too well." Clark commented off handedly before returning to the subject at hand. "But even though I knew all of that, I still kept her in the dark about my identity. Partly to keep her safe and partly because she thought it was best."

"Why would she think it was best if I...she didn't even know?"

"The Red and Blue Blur, Lois." He waited a moment to let that sink in. "You...care for him. A lot."

"You mean you. I care for you a lot."

"Yes, but me as him." Clark paused realizing just how twisted everything sounded, remembering how twisted everything had gotten for a while. And now, with an extra layer of time-travelling weirdness to slice through... Clark sighed and shrugged his shoulders in a helpless gesture. "It got a little confusing for a while."

"I can't imagine why." Lois quipped.

"So even as Lois and I started dating, she had this growing connection with the Blur. And for my part, I continued to blindly trust the people I'd always trusted." Seeing the unasked question in her eyes, he answered. "Oliver, for one. And Chloe."

"So, Chloe does know about Clark...you."

"She does." Clark confirmed. "Thing is, I didn't know everything about her. Not until recently. And those things are not only threatening to destroy us in my time, Lois...they're threatening to destroy him in yours."

A fear, a dread fell into the pit of Lois' stomach. "What do you mean?"

"By you returning to me too soon, I was left in the dark. There were things I couldn't see, things that even if I could, I wouldn't want to admit. But now, because of your extended absence, he has no choice but to do what I couldn't. At least, not until recently."

"And these things...they have to do Chloe, don't they?"

"Yes, Lois. I'm sorry to say it, but they do."

And without missing a beat, Lois Lane proved to Clark Kent that his wife - in whatever time, whatever version - was the bravest person he'd ever met.

"What is it, Clark? What has Chloe done?"

"She's betrayed us all."

tbc...