Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Cluechie Quiz Resurrected!

"I'm sorry I was so hard on you before. It was so unexpected ... being
scooped up and carried away by an extra-terrestrial. You did say
you're from another planet, didn't you?"

"Yes, Krypton," Clark confirmed.

"Do you mind if I write this down?" asked Lois.

"No," said Clark. "In fact, I'm prepared to give you an exclusive
interview if ... " he looked keenly into her face. "How strong is
ethics in journalism around here? If I tell you something off the
record, will you keep it to yourself?"

"Of course," said Lois. "Tell me about it ... "

Half an hour later, her notebook filled, Lois leaned toward Clark,
who was sitting on the park bench next to her. "Let me get this
straight ...," she said, "... the part you *don't* want me to
publish ... " She took a breath. "... you're from a parallel
universe where we all exist in altered form?"

"Hard to believe?" asked Clark.

Lois thought for a minute. "Well ... I suppose ... if there's
a man who can bounce bullets and knives off his chest, and melt
things by looking at them, and fly ... I guess I can believe in
the parallel universe." Clark closed his eyes briefly, heaving
a sigh of relief. "But ... " Lois gazed intently into Clark's
face, "we don't have anyone like *you* in this universe."

"Um, Lois," said Clark hesitantly. "Yes, you do." Scanning the
area furtively to make sure no one was watching, he stood up and
spun rapidly into Clark Kent. "You see?" he said softly, looking
down into Lois's astonished face.

Her expression changed, and she bounced to her feet. "You ...
you ... why, you, Clark Kent!" she spat. "You've been hiding this
all this time ... !"

"No! No, Lois! It's true that I'm Clark Kent, but I'm not the
one you know; I'm different, I ... "

But Lois wasn't paying any attention to him. "I *knew* there was
something strange about you; I just *knew* it!" She was on her
feet now, too, pacing rapidly back and forth. "And now I have
you!" she crowed. "Clark Kent, you are dead! You'll never bother
me again!"

"No, Lois, I've never bothered you; I'm not the Clark Kent you know.
Come on, just listen to me ... "

"I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!"

It was strange to see him without his glasses, she thought
as they flew upward. Strange, yet...he looked oddly
familiar in a way. It was probably just her imagination,
she thought as she tried to enjoy the surrounding scenery.
She tried to look past Clark, but as they started falling
again, she found her eyes drawn toward his face. The wind
buffeted his hair, plastering it down on his head. Yes, he
did look familiar indeed. Flying through the air like this,
he sure looked a lot like....

Lois's eyes went wide as she made the connection. She was
aware of a gasp escaping her lips, and it drew the
attention of her partner, who suddenly became aware of her
eyes on him. Clark gave her a smile, and as they hit the
bottom of their fall once again, he looked toward the hand
that held his glasses. As he turned back toward Lois, he
winked, and Lois felt her heart rate increase. He knew that
she knew! And he didn't seem mad at all. In fact, he almost
appeared amused. Maybe that was why he had agreed so easily
to this excursion - maybe he wanted her to know.

"I hate magicians. I hate people who play tricks. People who try to fool you. And, you know..." she laughed a little, mockery bright in the air between them, "I never saw this one coming either. I go to sleep snuggled up to my partner, Clark Kent, and in the morning he's Superman. Hey, look..." her voice dropped to a bitter whisper, "...no mirrors."

Clark paled. Though he'd been expecting it, sensing it coming like a thunderhead rolling across a sweltering African plain, static of the truth filling the room in advance of the storm, it still hit him like a shock of electric charge.

He sank back to the bed. "I knew I shouldn't have taken off my glasses," he said bleakly.

Lois tilted her head and studied him for a minute. She squeezed his hands, and shook her head, obviously confused. "I don't understand, Clark. Are you telling me that you're...some kind of science experiment?"

"I'm not a NASA experiment, Lois. I'm Kryptonian."

Lucy shrugged. "Just that I'm confident that you and Clark will find a
way around this."

"What!" Lois pulled her hand out of Lucy's and sprang up from the
couch. Her voice rose to a near hysterical level. "Haven't you been
listening? Clark was shot down, at point blank range, in front of a
room full of people." Her arms began to wave about animatedly. "Capone
and his goons dragged Clark away with them. The police haven't even
recovered his body yet."

Lucy nodded. "Well, that's an advantage."

"What?"

Lucy held her hands up in front of her in an effort to calm her
agitated sibling. "Look, I know that it seems to the rest of the world
that Clark Kent was shot down in that club tonight." Lucy shrugged
again. "But it's not as if he's actually dead."

Lois began to pace while tearing at her hair. "Lucy, what are you
smoking? Clark Kent, my partner, my best friend and the most wonderful
man I've ever known is dead. He was gunned down right before my eyes!"

"I know what you told me, Lois. But it's not like a bullet can actually
hurt Clark. After all, he is Superman."

Lois' mouth opened but no words came out. Lucy had to stifle a giggle,
it looked so funny. Then the realization struck her. "Omigod," she
said. "You didn't know?"

"Yeah, right. What makes you different?" she asked while
she placed mugs, sugar and milk on the counter.

"Well for starters, I'm Kryptonian." He let out a breath of
relief. He'd done it. He'd told Lois the truth.

"Give me a break, Kent. You're from Smallville, Kansas. You
wouldn't know Superman if he stared you in the face."

His breath caught in his throat. He'd finally worked up the
nerve to tell another human being and she didn't believe
him. "No, Lois," he began deliberately, "you wouldn't." And
in one smooth motion, he lifted one hand to run his fingers
through his hair pulling it off his face, while he used his
other hand to remove his glasses. At the same time, he
stood taller, his shoulders back.

Lois froze, staring at the transformation that was
occurring in front of her, trying to comprehend the meaning
of what she was seeing. Clark, the man she was having
sexual fantasies about, who kissed with a passion that she
had always wanted to experience, was really Superman.

This realization hit Lois hot and cold at the same time. Hot, because it meant that Clark couldn't be dead. He was lying beside her, had always protected her as Superman and must have been planning to tell her when she awoke - she
would probably be the only person ever to be told of his double-life. Cold, because she realized that Clark as Superman must have heard her confessing her love. She thought back to the time she had rejected Clark's love and then, when Superman stood before her shortly after that,
she told him she would love him if he were only an ordinary man. Oh, god! What must he have thought about her! How embarrassing! And how many things made sense all of a sudden! No wonder Superman wasn't there to protect Metropolis from the Nightfall-Asteroid if Clark had lost his memory. No wonder Clark had wanted to leave Metropolis with Superman at the time of the great heat.

And that's when she figured it out: the secret. She wasn't quite
sure how she could have been so blind, so oblivious, but her conversations
with Amanda triggered something. Lee had traveled all over the world. Lee
was fluent in all sorts of languages. Lee came and went inexplicably. It
was a pattern Lois knew all too well. Clark disappeared at the drop of a
hat. Clark could order dinner in 347 languages. Clark had traveled
extensively... England, France, China and who goes to work for the Borneo
Gazette as training to be a serious journalist? These were all clues she,
Lois Lane, had missed. It was all an elaborate cover. She didn't know who
exactly he worked for, whether the CIA or the FBI or the... the... the RTD,
DMV, MTV... whatever those silly government alphabet initials were these
days, Clark was a spy!

"Thanks," he gasped out. "I'm feeling better, just weak." He took
the canteen and poured a little out into his palm, rubbing his neck,
letting the liquid flow down his back.
Lois dumped out the contents of her pack onto the ground, searching
for anything else that might help. "You were fine before we went in there,
I just don't understand. What is it you need?"
Clark sighed loudly. "Lois, I'll be fine in a few minutes. I just
can't go back in, not with the Kryptonite in there." He'd taken off his
glasses to rub the water over his forehead and over his eyes.
"That doesn't make any sense, Clark. There's only one person that
stuff affects and..." Lois stopped dead as she turned towards him, staring
at his naked face, hair slicked back from the moisture. Her mouth dropped
open and her knees seemed to buckle right out from under her.

"You have to understand that I only wanted you to love me," he whispered brokenly. "That was all I wanted. I didn't want to deceive you, or confuse you, or anything like that. You have to understand that I was *never*... laughing up my sleeve or anything."

She shook her head slightly. "Clark, I don't understand," she murmured confusedly.

He took a long look at her, drinking her memory in to sustain him for the lonely days that would undoubtedly be ahead.

He took a giant step back, his heart in his mouth, and spun into Superman.

"Superman, can you sign my cast?"

Superman did.

Lois watched him for the next half hour, and then he left, striding out a private door, accompanied by Dr. Adair. She heard him say to the doctor that she should give Clark Kent a call at the Daily Planet when Jason was ready to go home. Then, just as he was about to leave the solarium, he turned one more time and glanced at the group of reporters. His eyes met hers, dark brown eyes, eyes that were Clark Kent's, and he smiled very slightly at her, and nodded his head, and... he winked.

Lois stood there for a moment, very still. Okay, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

What now?

Clark took a deep breath; here went nothing. "Clark Kent was shot and killed -- lost all his friends, his job, his life... " A shiver went through him, remembering the desolation he'd faced -- and that he now faced again. "But I wasn't."

She glared at him in angry bafflement. "What, you're not Clark? You're not making any sense here! Did Professor Hamilton scramble your brains or something?"

"I am Clark, I have been for all my life, almost thirty years. But Clark isn't all that I am. I'm also Superman." Saying that had been surprisingly easy, at least compared to the next sentence. "I was never really dead."

Lois looked stunned, with tears of hurt and betrayal beginning to shimmer in her eyes.

Clark hurried on, hoping to get as much explanation in as he could before she exploded. "I should have told you -- I should have let you know, but I didn't think -- I was pretty stuck in self-pity at first, actually."

"You let me think--" Her voice was thin and ragged, and she cleared her throat before continuing. "I cried myself to sleep over you, Clark, and you didn't think I cared?"

"I knew you cared, Lois," he protested miserably. "I just didn't know how much. I know I should have told you. I'm sorry."

There was a brief silence. Lois was fighting tears, and Clark ached to hold her in his arms, but didn't quite dare.

"I just wanted you to know," he finally said. "I really appreciate what you did today, but I couldn't go through with the announcement tomorrow without you knowing this. I've been wanting to tell you about Superman for a while now ... I guess that doesn't matter."

Still she was silent, which scared him. He'd expected an eruption of temper; if he lived through the blast there would be hope for
a later reconciliation. He didn't know what to make of this self-containment. "Uh, Lois?"

"I'm thinking," she said distantly. "So, what happens to Superman, if Clark moves to Paris?"

Lois found Clark his spare pair of glasses. She didn't know how he had
ended up with the pair he had on, but they didn't suit him as well as his
regular pair.

"You keep a second pair," she said as she handed him his own glasses.

He reached up, removed the dirty glasses he was wearing, and then looked at
her, puzzled and confused.

"Lois, I don't understand why I wear glasses. I can see perfectly fine
without them."

"I don't know, Clark. Maybe you have astigmatism or someth..." Lois
stopped in shock and stared at his face.

"What?" Clark was alarmed by the expression on her face. "What's wrong?"

Lois couldn't believe it. But the evidence was right in front of her. She
thought fast and furiously. "Nothing's wrong, Clark," she managed to say
calmly. "But I think you should put your glasses on."

He shrugged and complied with her wishes.

She couldn't believe it. What was she going to do? A wave of anger rose
in her, hot, and fiery, but she forced it back down. Now was not the time
to throw a tantrum. The world needed Superman, and by God, she was going
to deliver Superman to the world if it was the last thing she did! And it
might be the last thing she attempted, she reflected wryly. The asteroid
was still coming, and if the nuclear missiles missed, well, ... game over!

"I never met my father. He died before I was born. I
do feel I know him. My mom has kept him alive through
pictures and articles and long discussions at night.
My grandparents still buy him a birthday present and
a place is always set for him at the table on
holidays. My daddy will always be part of our lives.
Even if his body is never with us, his spirit will
live on."

Lois' gaze was glued to the man at the table. His
reaction was so strong; He was mesmerized by Clark's
words; His right hand was clutching his leg, the tick
in his jaw.

The what?! Lois unconsciously moved a step closer to
the edge of the stage. Her eyes wondered over the
face of the man sitting next to her surrogate
parents. Suddenly she gasped. Aware Clark was still
speaking, she covered her mouth and tried to force
herself to concentrate on his speech.

He took a deep breath. "Under the circumstances... that you'd already turned me down as an `ordinary man', Lois."

It was only as he said the words that it occurred to Clark that he really should have rehearsed this speech. Or at the very least spent some time preparing to deal with her reaction. This was Lois, after all. She was every bit as likely to fly off the handle and rage at him as she was to
storm off in disgust. Or throw things at him. Or play it cool but spend time thinking up an appropriate form of revenge.

She did none of those things.

Instead, she went pale. Her jaw slackened. She actually took a step backwards. And, although she opened her mouth after a few moments, no words emerged.

"Lois!" Worried, he caught at her arm. "Are you okay?"

A scrap of cloth was caught...

Caught in the wood of the closet back?

How could that be?

She lifted her head, tracking the smooth, unbroken lines of the square of wood that formed the back of the piece, then put a hand to the joints and ran it slowly over them.

She found nothing she didn't expect to - just an ordinary, everyday, wooden-backed closet.

Only...only it wasn't, was it?

She looked again at the incriminating scrap of cloth.

Scarlet cloth.

Her heart stopped. She was sure of it. Her breath froze in her throat. Time stilled.

And all of her carefully ordered thoughts of moments before flew out of her head.

Very familiar cloth.

Trembling, all at once, she reached out a shaking hand and put the tips of her fingers to the scrap. Almost half certain that it would fade and dissolve before her eyes before she could touch it. But no, there it was. Real. And solid under her fingers. Silk. In a very familiar shade of red.

She took back her hand and released the breath she'd been holding in a soft, sudden rush.

As Lois tried to distract herself from thoughts of Clark and Superman, she nevertheless found herself looking impatiently toward the door. She was rewarded at last with the sight of Clark crossing the threshold. "It's about time, Kent," she grumbled under her breath--and then gasped when Clark suddenly bent over double, his face twisted in pain. She sprang to her feet, heedless of the impatient glares she received from members of the audience turning their heads in an attempt to see around her.

Lois fixed her eyes on Clark, who was grasping the wall for support, his fingers scrabbling at the door in a frantic attempt to open it again so he could escape to ... to where? To the men's room? What's the matter with Clark? Is it food poisoning? Appendicitis? The flu?

At least this settles the question of whether he's Superman. Now I know he's *not*, because Superman doesn't get sick. Nothing can hurt Superman!

... except ...

... what ...

That meteorite that Trask said would kill Superman ... What was it called ...? Kryptonite. A crystal. When I interviewed Bureau 39 employees they said it was a ...

... green ...

... a ...

... Lex's assistant, and Clark doesn't trust Luthor ...

Clark ...! NO!!!!

A sob rose in her throat. The ceremony had started and members of the audience didn't seem to notice Lois pushing her way to the back of the throng. She reached Clark in time to prop him up while she turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, supporting him as they stumbled out of the room together. Glancing behind her, she saw that this little charade had drawn the attention of Mrs. Cox, whose interested gaze had followed Lois's progress to the door.

We have to be careful, Clark ...

"What if he's right, Clark? What if he tells me who he is and I
realize that he's right - that I really, really don't like this
guy? If it is Ralph, how do I say: 'Sorry, Superman, but you're
right. I really..."

"Lois..."

"...don't like you. In fact, I think you're a creep and the
idea of you touching me makes me feel sick to my stomach."

"Lois..."

"Oh, god, Clark. What if it is Ralph? How do I handle that? Why
does it have to be Ralph? Why couldn't it be someone I really
like? Why couldn't it by someone like yo..."

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.

"Superman, I'll
always care for you, but... Clark... he's... Clark."

She took a deep breath. "Well, he doesn't love me, and I can't
go on working next to him, just being 'friends'." She spat out
the word. Then she shrugged her shoulders and struggled to
smile. "Washington's a whole new ball game..."

Everything, she'd just given him everything. "Lois," his voice
was rough, strangled, as he walked toward her.

Then the TV caught both their attentions with a news bulletin -
a small ship caught in an icy death grip by a turbulent
Atlantic too rough for rescue ships to navigate. They both
turned and listened in silence.

"Go," she said.

He nodded silently, then grabbed her, his hands on her
shoulders pulling her against him, and he kissed her hard, a
kiss that transcended worlds and seared their souls, leaving
them both breathless. "I'll be back, Lois Lane. Don't you go
anywhere. And you're wrong. I do love you. I've been in love
with you since that first morning when I interviewed at the
Planet, and you stormed into Perry's office."

With those words, he leapt deftly out her window and darted
upwards, grinning as he heard her say, "What?... Hey, wait a
minute." Veering east, he streaked toward the Atlantic.

There'd be hell to pay tomorrow, once he got back. He'd never
looked forward to anything more in his life.

That would make him Clark's brother. Of course! It finally explained their close relationship, and why Martha had been so flabbergasted when Lois had suggested they were a gay couple. And why she had talked about supporting one's children's decisions.

Lois sipped her coffee thoughtfully. It even explained why Clark and Superman looked alike. Then she winced - that had to be the stupidest thought she'd ever had. Superman was an alien from Krypton, and Clark... Clark really did look
remarkably like Superman, except for his glasses and his hairstyle.

No, it was ludicrous! She'd seen Clark get a paper cut, and he'd exerted all his strength to win her a teddy bear at the Smallville Corn Festival. She still had that teddy. She'd named him Jerome. Lois stood up and walked through to
her bedroom, picking up the little bear from the shelf beside her bed and staring at him.

They had gone to Smallville to investigate a case of bureaucratic bungling, and they had come back with a story about Jason Trask and a mythical mineral called kryptonite. Only, Superman had said it wasn't mythical, it was real. It had made him "weak and ill."

The first evening in Smallville, Lois had come downstairs to find Clark's parents hovering around him, and Clark himself looking as sick as a dog. He had said it was allergies, but he had never suffered from allergies before or since. He hadn't even had a cold all winter.

Lois sank onto the bed, still staring unseeingly at Jerome. Her mind was whirling.

Nobody in Smallville, not Sheriff Rachel "tush-push" Harris, not even that nosy waitress at the cafeteria - what was her name? - who had known all about Lois's romance novel, had ever mentioned Clark having a brother. Lois herself had slept in Clark's old bedroom, a tiny room with just enough space for a single bed. The farmhouse had no third bedroom.

Clark's clothes fitted Superman perfectly. Clark had been unaffected by the pheromone compound. Clark had been unaffected by the heatwave in November. Clark had left the Daily Planet the night before Superman had to leave Metropolis. Clark was always disappearing at a moment's
notice, generally just before Lois needed him to help her on a big story... involving Superman.

Clark Kent, her highly esteemed partner, the only person she trusted enough to get this close to - this *attached* to, damn him - had been laughing up his sleeve at her, ever since he first met her.