CHAPTER 5 - INSTINCT INTERVENTION

Smallville, two weeks later

Nothing good ever came from driving the back roads of Smallville at night, at least not for Lois. She'd almost been run off the road by a lightning strike, hit Shelby with her car, nearly missed at least two different cows and a tractor, and now she was blinded by some kind of column of light coming from the Luthor mansion.

What was going on? The light looked alien somehow and Lois felt her insides tighten as she thought about how interested Tess had been in Clark since he'd rescued her. What was she doing and with what; was it leftovers from Lex? The light was blinding.

Calling Clark was out of the question. She was still backing off, giving him space. Of course, if Clark noticed, he didn't let it show; things were status quo as far as he was concerned.

For Lois, the stress caused by her withdrawal was a revelation. Her concentration was negligible, sleep was elusive, and her moods- Chloe had threatened to kick her out. After a few days, Lois had to admit that she missed Clark more than ever before, which was saying a lot after all her time observing Nightwhile praying for Clark to return to himself.

Are you Lois Lane?

Garth's words nagged at her because reliving her life was starting to give her doubts. Inside, she knew she was still Lois Lane, reporter and General's daughter, but how was she supposed incorporate who she was with what the Legion had sent her back to do? Already things were changing, and the shift in her focus from work-driven to Clark-driven was throwing her off-kilter.

Was that the real reason she was letting this light bother her; was she looking for an excuse to call Clark? She shook her head and let up on the gas pedal. No, something wasn't right. She could feel it in her gut and her gut was never wrong.

As Lois drove closer, the blue light became even more blinding, so that she was forced to avert her eyes. Her notes, strewn all over the passenger seat of the car, caught her eye. Maybe it was time for a late-night visit from an employee. Lois made a sharp left as she continued driving toward the mansion, a plan forming in her already tired brain.

Daily Planet, next day

Lois walked down the stairs, blowing her bangs in annoyance, reading the newest project she'd inherited. Evidently, Tess didn't appreciate late-night visits from her employees. Now Lois had three stories to finish and no help thanks to her "Give Clark Some Space"plan.

Forget destiny. Lois hit the speed dial.

"Lois?" Clark answered.

"I need you Smallville," she said, brushing off the way that came out. Desperate times and all that, "I just got to the Planet and I'm already having the work day from hell. What's your E.T.A?"

"I'm flying into the building right now; I'll be there in a second," he said, and Lois was sure that she'd heard the swishing sound from his speed. Was he literally flying?

Whoa.

Oliver had never mentioned him flying before but she assumed he could since Night flew but, well … she didn't want to think about that.

When Lois got to her desk, phone still to her ear, Clark wasn't at his.

"Hey, I thought you said you were coming in for a landing, what happened? Run into some turbulence?" she said into the phone, turning around and bumping right into Clark.

"According the clock I'm still two min-"

"Hey there, flyboy, watch the landing." Lois said at the same time, interrupting Clark. She stumbled back a little.

"Sorry," Clark said, reaching out to steady her. "Now what's so urgent that you actually broke down and called me?" He asked, sounding curious and a little bitter.

Lois found herself staring at his chest, while her arms were absorbing the warmth from his hands. She was so distracted that it took a minute for his words to sink in but, when they did, she lifted her eyes to his. Maybe he hadn't been so oblivious to her backing off after all. Before her birthday, she'd called Clark regularly but she'd stopped once she'd decided to give him space.

Her eyes searched his for signs that he'd missed her, but all she saw was his impassive look. She quickly backed away. "I was hoping you could take on some of my work load; this is my fourth cup of java and I'm still not firing on all cylinders."

"Rough night of sleep?" Clark asked.

"Try no night of sleep. I got caught up in some work," Lois told him, not wanting to go into a lot of detail about her late-night visit to the boss, "and Jimmy moved in so he and Chloe could save some wedding pennies." She winced, "The groom snores like a freight train."

Last night, Lois had tossed and turned worrying about the blue light she'd seen. Tess had played ignorant but Lois knew Tess was interested in Clark and she was sure that his light was dangerous to him somehow.

During the long hours awake she'd also begun to realize that she couldn't give Clark a choice if he didn't know what the options were. By playing the friendship card, Lois wasn't really letting him know that something else was available.

He needs you.

Those words from Imra had planted an idea in her sleep-deprived brain, one that seemed overly bold in the light of day. Even though she'd had the guts to mention it before, she hadn't followed through. If he took her up on it this time … she took a deep breath and looked at Clark while stirring her coffee.

"You know, it must be nice for you in that Kent farm house all by yourself, so quiet and so many empty rooms,"Lois commented, sneaking a look at Clark's face through her lashes.

"It is pretty quiet." Clark said, his expression dejected.

"You are so predictable," Lois harrumphed, her lack of sleep fueling her aggravation. She couldn't handle him moping over Lana when he hadn't said anything until today about Lois' absence from his life. "I mention one little thing about the big empty farmhouse and you start singing the Lana blues."

Lois walked over to the file cabinet for some research as Clark followed, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Look, I hate to be the one to dish out the tough love, but Lana is gone. She left you a "Dear John" DVD, for goodness sakes! Maybe it's time for you to move on, get outside your wheelhouse," Lois told him, slamming the cabinet drawer and facing him, letting her frustration show.

"I have a wheelhouse?" Clark asked, his look a mixture of surprised and disturbed.

"Of course you do: pretty, friendly, damsel in distress-y," Lois finished, relaxing at his expression; she couldn't resist smirking at him. "Maybe it's time you tried something a little less sweet vanilla and a little more wild cherry." Normally Lois hated repeating herself but she was feeling the lack of sleep and, besides, it was hard to top that one.

Predictably, Clark rolled his eyes.

"Let's get to the work," he suggested, walking over to her desk.

"Fine," Lois said, following Clark and grabbing an assignment. She handed it to him without looking.

Clark flipped through the report. "How does a twenty-five year old suddenly die of a heart attack?" He asked her, raising his eyes.

"What?" Lois asked, sorting through the other assignments on her desk. Clark stepped closer to Lois, continuing to read.

"The coroner says the endorphin levels in his blood were sky high."

"Yeah, well, doesn't take much imagination to figure out what he was doing," Lois said absentmindedly, reviewing the oldest one of her assignments. She could probably get this one wrapped up in a few hours. Of course she'd have to use one of her access cards-

"What do you mean?" Clark asked, interrupting Lois' train of thought.

"Come on, Clark," Lois responded, exasperated that they were still talking. How was she supposed to get her own work done if he was still here? "You know what endorphins are, right?"

"Yes, they're hormones that are released when you play a sport."

Lois dropped her own paperwork and turned to face Clark, frustrated that he wasn't getting the point. This was obviously a straight-forward case.

"Or, there's another type of activity, repetitive motion, builds to a climax…" Lois said as his eyes widened, while her words drifted off. She felt her face flushing.

There was something in his eyes. He looked almost… considering, not embarrassed or mocking like he would be normally. As his eyes lowered to her mouth, she was thrown by his reaction and her hand idly reached for her throat. Clark gently reached out to cover her hand with his own, stopping hers in mid-air.

The minute Lois felt his touch, her mind flashed and she could see it- she and Clark, tangled sheets, whispers and touches- repetitive motion. She gasped and pulled her hand away. Some part of her had become accustomed to the flashes of memory but that was no memory. Her imagination was becoming as vivid as her memories.

"Lois?" Clark asked and Lois couldn't tell if he was asking for permission or forgiveness. Her body heated as she considered his now flushed face and wide eyes.

"Let me see that," Lois said, trying to hide her reactions by snatching the report from Clark. He let it go, seemingly sidetracked. Focusing on the words of the coroner helped distract her body as her brain slowly started to function again. Something was familiar about this.

"It says here that the victim was fully clothed and that his endorphins were through the roof," Lois told Clark after a minute, her memory nagging her. "I think I'll give you some help with this one, Clark. This is not your typical story; besides, I know the cops who work this area."

As Lois grabbed her purse to follow Clark out of the Bullpen, she tried to push aside the visions of tangled sheets and focus on this story from three years ago. This time, she had a flash of Clark up against the elevator wall, shirt open, naked chest …

Okay, not helping.

She racked her brain but couldn't remember much more, other than the shrew who was kissing Clark later throwing Lois' car across the street with Lois in it.

How could she have forgotten so much about this case? Seriously, time travel must have given her brain damage. First, Davis snuck up on her, then Oliver was poisoned, and now this. Of course there was no article to help her jog her memory because the man-eater had disappeared; no suspect, no story.

Even more disturbing was the fact that Clark was in danger. First, there was the familiar-looking blue crystal that Lois had glimpsed after storming into the study at the mansion. Her mind had pictured Clark the minute she'd seen it. Now there was the crazy creature with the killer kiss.

Maybe she should warn him, but about which one, and how?

"Clark, do you know why Tess would be messing around with a blue crystal?" Lois asked.

Subtle, Lane.

"What?" Clark asked.

"Well, last night, I was driving home and saw this strange blue light shooting through the sky from the mansion, so I, uhm, went to see Tess," Lois was feeling less than confident about this part of the story. "I told her I needed to talk about a story. Anyway, I saw her with this blue crystal thing- do you think it could have been making the light?" Lois was on a roll now. "And why would she have such a thing? It must have a lot of power to produce such a strong beam?"

"Whoa, Lois," Clark stopped walking and held up his hands. "Why are you interested? You aren't investigating Luthorcorp again are you?

"No, I'm just curious about Tess and whether she's following in the Luthor tradition. I'm not sure even Lex conducted experiments at the mansion," Lois said, exasperated that she couldn't tell him about her suspicions. "The crystal looked so familiar."

Clark stopped walking so suddenly that Lois passed him before she realized he wasn't with her anymore. She turned and stopped at the look on his face- confusion mixed with fear.

"Why did it look familiar?" Clark asked her.

"What?" Lois responded distractedly, her mind still trying to process where she'd seen that crystal before.

"What makes you think you've seen it before?" Clark asked, his fear showing a little more clearly.

"I don't know," Lois said, trying to picture it in her mind. She could see Clark in her memory and he was holding the crystal but the surroundings were unfamiliar.

Clark was staring at her as if he was trying to read her thoughts. Before her expression could reveal anything, Lois turned around and started walking. She probably needed to be more careful about revealing things from the future, but it was difficult when Clark's life could be in danger. That crystal gave her a bad vibe.

She needed help; someone other than Chloe who had her own issues to deal with. Lois smiled to herself as she spotted the police officers up ahead. There might be someone. Another plan started taking shape in her head as she walked forward to interview the officers, while Clark went to check out the scene. She interviewed the guys quickly- they didn't know much- and found Clark at the scene.

"What did the police say?" Clark asked her as he stared at the pavement. He seemed lost in thought; she wondered if he was thinking of the blue crystal.

"They found evidence of a fire in the alley, but they suspect it's unrelated," Lois told him.

"Then there's no reason to stay." Clark turned and started to walk away but, before he could get far, Lois spotted the dark area on that pavement.

"Classic rookie mistake, Smallville," Lois lectured before he could get too far. "The scorch mark is pretty unusual for some sort of homeless hoedown; that doesn't make sense," she told him. "Let's ask around, someone may have seen something," Lois wondered if she'd seen this before and why she didn't remember it.

Lois asked one of the local men standing nearby if he'd seen anything. While he was describing some sort of weird- and probably alcohol-induced- scenario, Lois turned to see Clark staring at the scorch mark on the ground. For a moment, she wondered what he was doing and then she jerked away from the guy she'd been interviewing and took a step back. She'd seen that look in the future; Clark was using his "special" vision.

Lois shuddered, overwhelmed with thoughts of the future. Suddenly, she couldn't stay. She turned to leave and practically ran into her friend Tom Allen, the newest detective in the homicide division.

"Hey, Lane," he smiled in recognition. "You coming to the poker game tonight?"

"Why, they give you a pay raise with the detective badge?" Lois smirked; he was a terrible poker player. "Wait a minute, why are you here?"

"Three more young guys turned up dead between here and Smallville, all of them looking like heart attacks," Tom said quietly. "Don't bug me for the names, though, we're still trying to notify the families."

"You'll get them to me later, though, right?" Lois confirmed.

He simply winked. "See you tonight."

Lois stood still for a moment, trying to remember the story last time. Was this the same women she'd caught in the elevator with Clark- the same woman who'd tossed her into her car? Should she warn Clark now?

Before she could decide, Clark appeared next to her. "Was that the new homicide detective?" He asked her. "What's he doing here?"

"This story just got bigger," Lois told him, deciding to at least give Clark the basic facts. "Looks like a string of young men turned up dead between here and Smallville, all of them apparent heart attacks. Do you think we have a some sort of meteor freak on our hands?"

Clark looked uncertain. "I'm not sure, Lois."

"What else could it be?"

"I don't know," Clark responded hesitantly.

"Let's go see what else we can find out," Lois said, wanting to keep Clark away from that creature this time. She was going to stick to him like glue.

Of course, she lost him within the hour.

He disappeared from the Daily Planet while she'd been talking on the phone to the Sheriff's assistant in Smallville. Clark told her he would be searching for similar crimes or suspects in archives. By the time Lois finished, Clark was nowhere near the archives and she couldn't find him anywhere else, either.

She was beginning to hate his disappearing act.

So Clark either knew, or at least suspected, more about this than he was letting on. If the killer wasn't a meteor freak, what was she? At least Lois knew the suspect was a she. Where could Clark have gone? She punched in Clark's number on her speed dial and listened as it went to voicemail. She hung up and hit Chloe's number.

"Lois?" she asked. "What can I do for you?" Her tone was light but there was a knowing quality to it.

She must know I'm looking for Clark.

"Is Clark with you?" Lois asked abruptly, her patience wearing thin. She was still behind on two stories and now she had to babysit her co-worker.

"Sure, he's right here; do you want to talk to him?"

Lois could almost see Clark in the background shaking his head at Chloe and mouthing, "No."

She smiled.

"I would love to, thank you." She told Chloe sweetly and she could hear Chloe's laughter fade as she handed the phone to Clark.

"Lois?' Clark asked.

"I thought we were working on this story together, Smallville," Lois accused.

"Uhm, we are, I just needed something else from Chloe," he said, sounding vague.

"Oh, like information on this female meteor freak, who may not be a meteor freak?" Lois asked smartly.

"No, actually, like information on Tess and the crystal," Clark said, sounding serious.

"Really?" Lois felt such a sense of relief that she didn't call him on his disappearing act. "What did she say?"

"Here, she'll tell you," Clark responded, and Lois realized she had just been given the brush off.

Curse him.

Lois listened as Chloe launched into some story about Luthorcorp developing a new computer chip based on crystals. After the second sentence, she stopped listening. They were feeding her a story. Lois shuffled through her notes, looking for her next assignment. Part of her wondered how often she'd been kept in the dark in the past? It hurt to think that Chloe and Clark had gone to such lengths to hide Clark's secret.

Still, as long as Chloe was aware, there was some protection for Clark. In the meantime, there was nothing Lois could do but wait for him to get back to the Planet.

Two hours went by and still no Clark. Friday night poker was set to start in ten minutes. Lois chewed at her thumb nail.

Where was he?

She really needed to go tonight. The poker game was a relatively safe place to meet the person that she hoped would be her newbest friend on the police force. She needed help and this was the only way she could think of to get it without breaking any of the time travel rules.

Making a decision, Lois grabbed her purse, left her desk and headed out. She needed some back up. Hopefully, she could go and return before the meteor freak, or whatever she was, attacked Clark. She really didn't need to see that again.

Another two hours later, Lois was standing on the first floor of the Daily Planet waiting for the elevator. She was tired, disappointed and worried. Her contact- the person she was counting on-wasn't at the poker game, which meant Lois had no support and, to top it off, she didn't know where Clark was.

Could this day get any worse?

She hit the down button and waited impatiently. When the door opened, Lois was stunned. Of course, she'd seen it all before but seeing it fresh, after the day she'd had, was devastating. Plastered against the back of the elevator was Clark, shirt unbuttoned, hair tousled, with the red-haired bimbo all over him. Rather than fighting her off, Clark seemed to be an active participant in the mutual mauling. It was still shocking seeing him like that, the clean cut farm boy, in a passion play with a woman, any woman. Lois wondered, not for the first time, what it took to breach that Kent self-discipline.

"Smallville!" she yelled, the shock of seeing him this way- even the second time around- getting the best of her.

Neither responded right away and Lois felt her shock given way to relief at seeing him alive and relatively unharmed. Soon, it grew to anger. This "Heart-attack-causing-hottie" was dangerous and Clark was letting her- literally- crawl all over him.

"Clark!" She repeated, as her anger mixed with fear. What if she couldn't break the spell this time?

He leaned to the side and looked around the redhead.

"Lois?" Clark said, and she could hear the confusion in his voice. She barely registered the redhead turning to look at her as well.

"I'll take the stairs," she said and turned to walk away, hoping it would lure him away from this creature like it did the last time. The fear was still churning in her stomach but she didn't know any other way to get him out of the elevator.

It took less than a minute before she heard him call out.

"Lois," he said, and she heard his footsteps behind her.

She stopped as her eyes closed and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wait," he demanded.

She turned around and found herself looking at his bare chest. Unexpectedly, her mind conjured herself standing in place of the redhead on the elevator, rubbing her hands on Clark's bare chest, pushing him up against the elevator wall, kissing those full lips …

Clark pulled his shirt together, and she was able to look up at his face.

"Let me explain," he said anxiously, some part of him still looking a little hot and bothered.

"What is there to explain?" she shouted at Clark as her previous desire morphed in to frustration and anger. "You were pulling a Nine and a Half Weeks in the elevator with your new girlfriend. What's next, the Mile High Club?" How dare he make out with some homicidal harlot he'd only met minutes ago, when Lois was the one who was worrying about him, running after him, trying to protect him?

"She's not my girlfriend; Lois, just calm down," he told her, running his hand through his hair.

"Calm down, calm down; oh, I'm perfectly calm," Lois said, poking his chest with her finger in frustration. God, this day was even worse the second time around!

Of course, Clark's expression changed to confusion. He was so dense sometimes.

Stalking away before she smacked the expression off of his face, Lois couldn't keep it inside any longer. "Why wouldn't I be calm? I've only spent the past few weeks thinking about you, trying to protect you, wanting you - crazy girl gets five minutes and she's got you half undressed. I've got five years and I can't get past first base!"

Punctuating her words with waving hands and sharp steps, Lois was almost to the door when she ran into a very large, very solid, partially bare chest.

"Oomph!" Lois felt the wind knocked out of her. Strong hands gripped her arms to keep her from falling over.

"Smallville, give a girl some warn-," she started, only to have her lips and her thoughts completely cut off by the feel of his as he kissed her.

Clark wasted no time with preliminaries, slipping his tongue into her mouth, tangling with hers and heating her up from the inside. Her body took over immediately, melting into Clark's like it had been waiting for this moment. As legs, hips and chests met and aligned perfectly, she felt as if she was drowning in him. His kiss was amazingly thorough and impossibly deep. As he explored, tasted, and pillaged, she surrendered without thought.

All of her senses were overwhelmed by the feel of his body, his taste, and even his scent. As always, the heat of his skin mesmerized her and she couldn't resist pulling away just enough to run her hands over the chest that had beckoned her minutes before. When his lips broke away from hers to kiss along the column of her throat, she sighed, realizing that he was probably still under the influence of his elevated endorphins.

A big part of her didn't care.

The other, smaller part of her brain that was thinking about pushing him away never got the chance, as she was ripped from Clark's arms and sped to the alley where she and Clark had investigated that morning. When her vision cleared Lois could see that she was being held by the redhead with the killer kiss, her back against one of the brick buildings. Lois struggled but the creature who was pinning her with just one arm was strong, super strong.

What was she?

"I could not kill you in front of him but now that I have you alone, I will make sure you never take him away from me again."

Lois laughed and continued to fight against the harlot's hold.

"Smallville? I could never take him away from anyone," Lois said, putting the emphasis on his name. It was time to put his secret to good use.

"Oh, he will come with me when you are gone," she responded. "I finally found the man I want and you cannot have him." The hand that held Lois by the neck began to squeeze.

"Smallville?" Lois questioned, again stressing the name as much as she could. "What's so special about Clark?"

"He is the Kryptonian I waited for," the woman said.

Uh, oh, not from around here …

"Smallville?" Lois choked out, hoping Clark was using his super hearing, "He's just a regular guy and, by the way, there's nothing between us."

The woman laughed as Lois struggled to breathe.

"Oh, there is a bond between you or he would never have been able to break away from me. He feels it and so do you," she shrieked as Lois felt her breaths become shallow and her vision fade. "Otherwise, he would not have been able to kiss you as he did."

Before Lois blacked out, there was a quick breeze and the pressure against her throat disappeared. Dropping to the pavement, Lois struggled to focus. When her vision cleared, she saw Clark standing on the scorch mark, gripping the redhead's arms with both hands.

"… I've found the last son of Krypton and you are everything I wished for," the bimbo was telling Clark. "When we kissed I felt your passion, so much stronger than I have felt from any man, and I could sense that you are as desperate as I am to find a mate. You want me as much as I want you."

Lois' breath hitched at those words. Pain seared her throat and tightened the area around her heart as she watched the killer run her hands up Clark's chest.

"I don't want you," Clark responded, grabbing the woman's wrists and moving her hands away.

"Are you sure?" Lois heard her ask, "Because no one on this planet will be a better match. If you come back with me, you will never be alone."

Something flashed in Clark's eyes.

"My destiny's here," she heard him say, "and you're not part of it."

Clark touched the bracelet on the woman's wrist and she vanished in a column of bright light. Lois closed her eyes in relief, having recognized the conflict in Clark's eyes. God, he'd even used the word destiny, did he always feel so trapped? Didn't he see anything in the future for himself?

"Lois," Clark said, placing a hand on her face to brush the hair out of her eyes. She opened her eyes to see that his were full of that guilty, haunted look she'd come to know. It was the look that she couldn't bear, the one she always wanted to take away with a punch or a smirk or a teasing remark.

"Clark," she winced as the air hit her throat and she heard the croak in her voice.

"Hang on, I'll get help," Clark said, picking her up with one arm under her shoulders and the other under her knees.

Exhaustion was taking over. Her lack of sleep combined with her injuries seemed to press in on Lois and her eyelids drooped before she felt the familiar sharp pain in her head that preceded the memories she tried so hard to block.

"Fly with me," she whispered, already lost to the pain.