Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Favourite Revelations: Fanfic Quiz III

It was at that moment that she saw her partner's expression change. He
turned his head toward the windows of the room that overlooked the street
in front of the Daily Planet, and carefully lowered his glasses just far
enough to look over them. She frowned. Why did Clark do that?

On impulse she went to the windows and looked out. Clark followed, perforce.

It was past one a.m. The air was misty, with early morning fog blurring
the yellow light of the street lamps, and for a moment she saw nothing.
Then a flicker of motion caught her eye.

There were men down there--men in the gear of SWAT officers. Somehow Clark
had known they were there, but how? She had been aware for some time that
his hearing was acute, but that acute? It was impossible. Nobody had
hearing like that.

Except Superman. The thought popped unbidden into her mind.

"Do you want some coffee?" asked Lois finally, seeing that Clark made no further move towards her.

Clark agreed readily and seated himself on the sofa where Lois indicated, setting his certificate on the coffee table. Lois put the coffee on to brew and then came back and sat beside him. Clark cleared his throat a little nervously, intending to try once again to broach the subject of Lois's mystifying anger towards him in the last few months.

"Help!"

Clark raised his head, groaning inwardly. What a time for someone to cry for Superman. If he left right now, Lois was going to be mad at him again. He glanced at her to find that she was watching him intently.

"Go," she said.

What?

"Go," she repeated.

"Go?" said Clark, stammering a little in his confusion.

"Yes, *go*," Lois said, rising to her feet and tugging at his arm, which was slack with surprise. "Return the video or the overdue library book or buy your mint toothpaste or get your story notes from the taxi or find your lucky pen . . . ." She ushered him towards the door, ignoring his wordless look of inquiry. ". . . or visit your friend's mother's brother's uncle's daughter who's been lying in the hospital with pneumonia since Tuesday . . . ." She practically thrust him out the door, giving him a shove as he still stood staring slack-jawed. ". . . but come back when you're through," she finished, smiling cheekily at him. "I'll save some coffee for you." She touched his jaw lightly with the tips of her fingers before she closed the door, leaving him alone in the hall.

Her voice came to an abrupt halt when something clicked in
Lois' mind. As if someone had suddenly flicked a switch, light
flooded into Lois' previously clouded mind. She began almost
gasping for air as the pieces of the puzzle began tumbling into
place with amazing speed. And it all suddenly made sense. In
fact, it was the only thing that did.

"You can cut it down to two choices," she began softly,
although speaking to him, addressing herself more. "Superman
doesn't think I would love him as an ordinary man - an ordinary
man I've already met and rejected... You both tell me you love
me using the same words... I've never seen you together, but
you're supposed to be friends... You're always able to get in
touch with him... And that stupid disappearing act of yours...
Omigod," Lois finally gasped.

She ran a hand through her hair to try to tame it, tugged her robe tighter, and walked back the hall to her bedroom. Superman was still there, which she supposed was good, but he was restless, twitching a bit in place, and muttering to himself in his sleep. She leaned against the door jamb, frowning, and once again debated the wisdom of trying to medicate him.

As she stood there, some of his mutterings became clearer, and she listened with half an ear until one phrase brought her up short. Did he just say, "Mom, I got the job!"? It had sure sounded like it.

Funny, she'd never given much thought to the possibility of Superman having a mother, although she supposed there was no reason to think that he didn't have one -- and she remembered now, the first time she'd seen him, he had mentioned a mother; something to do with his costume. She'd been so much in shock at the time, that it hadn't registered. So that covered the mom part -- but a job?

Well, she thought whimsically, maybe he'd been back on Krypton, reading the classifieds, and had come across an ad taken out by the Intergalactic Peace Corps. "Needed: One Superhero for a picturesque, out-of-the-way planet called Earth...."

As she continued to listen, bits and fragments of words and phrases washed past her. Something about Perry, it sounded like, and Dr. Platt? No, surely she was imagining that, Superman hadn't even been around then ... the sound of her name caught her attention.

"Lo-Lois in trouble, gotta help ... Put down those guns or I'll ... Stupid, Clark, stupid!"

He sounded quite vituperative on that last phrase, which startled her. She'd always thought that Superman and Clark were friends ... although come to think of it, had she ever seen them together? Well, that didn't prove anything, Clark had never seen *her* with Superman either ... hey, wait a minute....

She sank to a chair, her eyes unfocusing, as the pieces of the puzzle began to fit themselves together with startling rapidity. Of course, it all seemed so obvious now. "Stupid, Lois, stupid," she muttered to herself. She gazed ruefully over to where Clark was lying on the bed -- lying being the operative word. So handsome, so strong ... and with so little time to live. "Hurry up and get better, you," she muttered, "so I can kill you."

"But Dr. Klein told me that Superman had found that latex," she said.

Clark stopped. Wasn't that what he had said? He thought back. Oh no! In his excitement about piecing together the case, he'd slipped and admitted that he had been the one to find the latex. "Uh... I mean, I was with him... err, he gave... told me..." he stammered. What was he going to do? She'd caught his mistake right away. "Um..." And now he couldn't think of a way out of this one!

Lois jumped on his hesitation, running down a laundry list of the incriminating evidence he'd just given her. "He couldn't have given it to you, and you couldn't have been with him. Dr. Klein said that Superman had found it last week. You weren't even in the country last week!" The story forgotten, Lois stood up and walked over to him. She was now looking at him strangely, almost as if she was seeing him for the first time. Slowly, she reached a hand up to his head, running her palm along his forehead and straight back, effectively flattening his hair along the way. Then with the other hand, she reached up and took his glasses from his face.

Clark stood there helplessly, unable to move. He felt as if the entire experience was beyond his control, and all he could do was wait for her reaction. He could feel the hand on his head trembling as understanding dawned in her eyes. That look only lasted a moment, though, before it was replaced with cold hostility.

One word was all she said, but one word was all she needed. "Superman." Her tone was low and accusatory.

“Lois, the reason that Superman flies in and out of my apartment on a regular basis is... is that *I’m* Superman,” he gasped on a single breath.

He watched her intently, anxious to read her reactions to his confession. She simply stared slackly at him. “You’re...?” He watched her run her eyes over his face, then down his body and back up again. “Where’s the suit?” she demanded, her features hardening.

The suit? He’d confessed his ultimate secret to her and all she wanted to know was where he kept the suit? “It’s underneath my clothes,” he answered. “But-“

“Under your clothes?” She shook her head slowly; incredulously. “Is that the best you can do? What about the boots? And the cape? Where do you keep those?”

He shifted uncomfortably. The truth was, he wasn’t too sure himself how exactly that worked. He just swapped back and forth between the two sets of clothes and somehow the boots and the cape always appeared right on cue. “It’s difficult to explain,” he began. “They-“

“I’ll bet it’s difficult to explain!” she retorted. “Why are you doing this, Clark? Why not just tell me the truth? – it can’t be any worse than this rubbish!”

“I am telling you the truth!” he exclaimed. “I’ve been telling you the truth all along, but for some reason you never want to believe me!” He placed his hands at her waist and gently levitated them off the floor. “Believe this, Lois,” he murmured.

At first, her face registered shock. Then fright – she glanced down to the floor and then back to him in alarm, grabbing at his arms quickly. He adjusted his hold on her so that he was hugging her close to his body. “It’s okay, Lois, I’ve got you,” he reassured.

Suddenly she froze. Something was coming towards her. It
was a brownish, greyish blur, hovering just above the
ground. She glanced around desperately, but there were no
doors, just blank white walls on both sides. Gulping, she
flattened herself against one wall, hoping that whatever it
was would simply pass her by. Just what on earth had Lex
created down here? As it grew closer, she screwed her eyes
shut, reliving that crazy childhood logic which dictated
that if she couldn't see the thing, it couldn't see her.

Two hands - its hands - grabbed her shoulders, and she
twisted her face blindly away, terrified of whatever it had
planned for her.

"Lois!" it said. "Thank God I found you!"

She opened her eyes and snapped her head around in shock.
"Clark?"

"Come on, we're getting out of here," he urged.

"Clark?" she repeated, still trying to process what she'd
seen. How could Clark possibly have moved so fast? And he'd
hovered...

"Sup...erman...?" she demanded suddenly, in a low whisper.
It was the only explanation which fitted the facts.
Superman was *Clark*.