Chapter 17 – The beginning of the end.

What had been drizzle was now practically a monsoon. Big swollen drops of rain fell down furiously from the sky. Lois stood on the side walk, without a coat or an umbrella trying to catch a cab, all with the sound of Clarks words ringing in her ear. I want a divorce. Lois shuddered.

"TAXI!"

Once Lois had been delivered home she went in search of her car keys. She didn't change her soaking suit or blow dry her hair, she needed to find Clark, to explain. She knew Clark wouldn't be at their apartment. Instinctively she knew he'd go somewhere familiar and dark to think. Somewhere no one would bother him. He'd go home. Clark would go to the barn.

Lois grabbed her car keys and made her way to her car. The sky was still spitting torrents of rain. Her cell phone rang.

"Hello?" Lois asked, whilst trying to navigate her car towards route 94 ,from the corner of her eye she noticed a 'You are now leaving Metropolis' sign.

"Lois, where are you? I thought we'd get celebratory drinks after the conference."

Lois immediately recognised the voice .She couldn't believe that Alexander Luthor had the audacity to call her.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'D PULL A STUNT LIKE THAT!"

"Oh, the kiss..." Lex sighed, a little too nonchalant for Lois's liking.

"YES, THE KISS...HOW DARE YOU!"

"It was a kiss Lois, get over it." Lex reclined at the back of his Limo.

Lois couldn't believe what she was hearing,."Get over it!? It could have cost me my marriage..."

"Lois, it was purely a PR stunt .We achieved what we set out to do. Drum up publicity."

"What WE set out to do?" Lois spat in disgust "You never informed me of your little plan, you should have run it by me first."

"A little melodramatic don't you think." Lex sounded amused which only served to frustrate Lois more. "I mean, if one publicity stunt kiss without passion, I might add, costs you a marriage, then there probably wasn't much marriage to begin with."

Lois wanted to say something that would disprove and wipe the undoubted sly smirk from his face but she knew there was some truth in what he had said. Hers and Clarks marriage was just too fragile at the moment to withstand any allegations of betrayal. Lois bit her lip and felt the sting of a hot solitary tear fall down her cheek. She hung up her cell phone and tossed it to the back of her car.

"Lois? Lois..?" Lex asked into his mobile phone. All he got was the dial tone, indicating that she had hung up. Lex closed his phone and smirked.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

An hour and 15 minutes later Lois pulled up to the farm, the rain had stopped and in the distance was a huge rainbow.

Lois stepped out of her car and looked over at the house, no lights. Lois sighed a sigh of relief, it looked like Martha wasn't home and facing her mother in law was a challenge she wasn't equipped for just yet. Walking over the slushy mud towards the barn, Lois wrapped her arms around herself, to calm her nerves and stop her teeth from chattering.

Lois made her way up to the barn. There Clark was, sitting in the darkest shadow, with his back against one of the walls bouncing a rubber ball. He didn't look over to acknowledge her presence. So Lois waited for Clark to bounce the ball, and instead of letting it ricochet off of the wooden ledge and back into Clarks arms, Lois stealthily caught it with both hands and put it on his old work desk.

"Are you sleeping with him?"

The question, which had seemingly come from nowhere, threw Lois through a loop, "How can you even ask me that?"

"Are you sleeping with him?"Clark reiterated, this time with a little more force.

Lois shook her head, "You know me."

"I thought I did, once upon a time."Clark stood up and dusted off his work pants. The couple were facing each other now.

Silence. Their words hung in the air, making it colder than it had ever been between them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lois finally asked.

Clark clenched his jaw and silently appraised Lois "I don't recognise you anymore."

"Well, maybe you're not looking hard enough."Lois shot back.

"Are you sleeping with him?" Clark asked again.

"NO! Clark, No-I –am-not-sleeping-with-Lex-Luthor."Lois enunciated each syllable, hoping it would prove effective. "the kiss was purely a publicity stunt."

"I don't believe you."

Lois gasped as if the air had been choked out of her.

"You're not the kind of woman that goes without...and since you're not getting it from me, maybe you're getting it from him."

Lois could feel her anger and hurt boiling over ,and before she could stop herself ,she threw herself at Clark and slapped him across the face with all the fire she could garner. The sound reverberated throughout the old silent barn. They stood in silence, Lois fighting the urge to wince in pain and Clark fighting the urge to check if her hand was broken.

"So there it is, your true opinion of me...."Lois said choking back tears. "It's a wonder you could stand to be with me so long!"

Lois straightened her clothes and ran a finger through her hair; she turned in her heels and started to descend the barns stairs "I'll have my lawyers draw up a settlement."

"I can't wait."Clark said sarcastically burying the urge to hit something."Have a nice life Lois."

"Don't worry..."Swallowing her tears, Lois looked up from the darkened staircase in which she was standing in"...I will."

TBC.