~~~Part 24~~~
Clark was having the best dream. It'd started out a nightmare, one of those horrific ones in which he'd found Lois, but in mortal danger. She usually died in those dreams. But this time... this time he'd caught the bullet. In time. He'd been in time to save her. Fast enough.
And now... they were lying on a sandy beach watching the stars twinkle in the large expanse of midnight blue sky. He could hear the waves lapping at the shore. His head was in her lap, and she was running her fingers idly through his hair. She was holding his hand, too. With her other hand. And she was talking softly to him about... about... something. He couldn't hear her clearly, but he still loved the sound of her voice. He tried to get up so he could look at her again... He'd never tire of looking at her, so alive, so vibrant... but his limbs were heavy, so he stayed where he was. He'd never felt more relaxed. That must be why he just couldn't bring himself to move. Anyway, it was a dream, one he didn't feel much like waking up from.
The stars started to fade into the backdrop of sky, turning it into a mottled, brownish mess. He'd jinxed it. The moment he'd realized it was a dream, he'd doomed himself to waking up. He kept his eyes shut, though. Maybe he could hang on to the images for just a minute longer. The happy dreams always ended too soon.
Clark tried valiantly, but the more he tried to hold on, the faster it slipped away. With a heavy sigh, he dragged his eyelids open.
He blinked.
She was there.
Smiling. She was right there. Talking to him, too. Well, moving her lips, but he couldn't hear any sound.
But she was there.
He closed his eyes again. A flash of green burst across his vision and left just as quickly as it'd come. What the...
He brought his hand up to rub at his eyes... or he would have if his brain had sent the message. Or maybe it was his arm that wasn't responding. Opening his eyes again gained him another vision of a smiling Lois. Yeah, it was definitely his brain that wasn't working.
It was probably related to the pounding in his head. And now that his mind was waking a little more, he realized he felt like he'd had a run in with an asteroid. Like the one earlier this year. That had not been a good day.
So maybe instead of amnesia this time, he was just hallucinating. That was a nice change, he supposed. He wondered if hallucinations talked. "Happy anniversary, darling," he tried with a goofy smile.
"Clark."
"Yes, dear?"
"Clark, snap out of it. You're dreaming."
No he wasn't. He'd woken up, and he was happily hallucinating now, but she wasn't following the rules. He frowned.
The imaginary Lois touched his cheek and looked into his eyes. She was so serious looking.
But...
He tried to clear the thick cotton from his mind. He could *feel* her hand on his cheek.
Hallucinations didn't do that.
Clark shut his eyes tightly and opened them again. She was still there. The smile had turned into a confused look of concern, but she was still there. And... his brow furrowed as well; from what he could see, they were in some sort of small concrete room. "Lois?"
"Are you feeling all right?"
"Yeah... I'm fine. I think." His head hurt, though. That wasn't normal. And he felt weak...
He looked back at her. She was still talking. "I... I wasn't sure what to do. I don't really know how the Kryptonite stuff works... and I was kind of worried. You were burning up earlier and... well, I just hope you're okay."
Kryptonite?! But... it was...
Oh, God. The Kryptonite. The men with guns. Pain. Unbearable pain.
They were trapped now, weren't they? They'd been kidnapped. And Lois had been... she'd been hurting, too. Hadn't she?
Well, she was all right now. He could see that. But anything could have happened while he was out of it. She could have been...
He didn't want to think about it. Not ever.
He looked up at her again, reassuring himself that she was still there and didn't appear to be hurt. There were lines of worry crossing her brow, though. What had she said?
Right. She didn't know what to do, how the Kryptonite worked. "I should be okay, Lois." Her features relaxed slightly. "It's not anywhere near me right now. Should give me time to recuperate." He attempted a smile for her.
Clark felt her legs shift and then settle beneath him... He hadn't realized he was still in her lap. Or rather... he hadn't exactly noticed in the first place, and now he felt a little embarrassed. He could feel the heat of a blush rising in his cheeks, and he wondered if he should move. Though, to be honest, he was insanely comfortable... and she didn't seem to mind so much...
She was worrying at her lip a bit, as if she wasn't sure about saying something. But she did anyway. "How... what exactly do you mean by recuperate?"
That was a change... If he recalled correctly, *no* one really knew what Kryptonite did. Perry, yeah, but no one else that was still in this universe knew. He'd never had to explain it to anyone before...
"I mean... wait for my powers to come back."
Her eyes widened. "T-they're gone?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Gone."
"But... how are you going to... what does that mean, exactly?"
"What do you mean?" He wasn't trying to be obtuse, but he still wasn't thinking straight.
"I mean..." The look of worry increased. "You're not paralyzed or anything, right? You just... can't fly?"
"Oh, oh no. I'm... it's more like..." He wasn't sure exactly how to explain it. "It's like I'm just an ordinary guy."
Her relief coursed through him as he watched the tension bleed out of her shoulders. "Oh, thank God. I was... I... Um... I was worried for a minute there that you... that I'd have to... Well, I don't think I could have carried you out when we escape."
He couldn't help but grin at her.
"What?" She glanced away for a second, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"We're escaping." His grin widened.
Her cheeks flushed slightly, a small smile touching her lips. "Well... we have to. Don't we?"
Clark nodded, amazed at her confidence. She was just... He had no idea how the hell they were going to get out of here, but if Lois thought they could... Well, he'd do anything for that smile.
"Yeah. We do."
She smiled back, and he felt a little spark of warmth in his chest. He didn't know how she was doing it, how she could be so hopeful, especially after what she'd been through and being imprisoned yet again. He'd been right; they hadn't taken her, hadn't broken her spirit. And that... gave him hope.
***
He was watching her with that look of awe again. The one that filled her with the most incredible emotions.
But at the same time she couldn't forget everything that had happened, as much as she would have liked to. And as much as she wanted to hold on to the sense of security the feeling brought with it, she had to keep her guard up. She had to keep that tough exterior, and not just to guard her heart. They both needed their wits about them if they wanted any chance of getting out of this alive.
"Lois?" His voice was quiet. But she couldn't quite tell if it was because of his weakened state or the raw emotional vulnerability she felt coming from him.
Or maybe the rawness of emotion was her own, not his. Too much to handle at once? Her heart was still balanced precariously atop the issue of trust, but there was something else to take into consideration now. She'd never before been so terrified as when she thought she might lose Clark. And that left her feeling horribly anxious.
"Yeah, Clark?"
"Lois, I want you to know... I love you. I... I think that..."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Not now, Clark. Not now. She needed to... she had to... "How can you love me?" She kept her voice soft, unthreatening, but she didn't want to leave any doubt... "How can you say you love me when you don't even know who I am? It's... well... how can you be sure, Clark?"
He looked wounded, and she hated that she'd added yet another injury when he'd already had more than his share today. But she needed to know.
She silenced the voice in her head that said *she* loved *him* without knowing who he was. It was different. She didn't have anyone to compare him to... especially not someone so eerily similar.
It was another moment before he spoke. She could feel he was trying to gather himself together, not fall apart. She'd done that to him...
With great effort, he sat himself up, leaning against the wall for support, but turning his head to face her. She could see his eyes now. His face. The sorrow written plainly on it, mingled with the lingering pain from the Kryptonite.
Finally, he spoke. "I... if you could listen... I mean, I'm not very good with..." He trailed off, dropping his gaze for a moment before looking back up at her. "I have a hard time telling people how I feel, so if you could hear me out. You know... wait til I'm finished before you say anything?"
She nodded, feeling even more unbalanced; this gave them yet another thing in common...
"Thank you."
Lois watched him in silence as he seemed to be organizing his thoughts, his brow creasing slightly.
"A-after my parents died, I was alone. I mean, there were foster homes... and I had a few friends... but..." She watched a heavy cloud of sadness move in and settle over him. "My parents were the only ones who knew about me... that I'm... different. Alien. I had one friend...Lana... I'd thought we were close, and I told her."
He'd stopped looking at her, lost in the memory, she assumed... or trying not to drown in it.
"I thought she'd understand, but... she didn't. Not exactly, anyway. I mean, she did eventually because she and I..." The last words tumbled out in a rush. "I asked her to marry me because I thought she was the only one who'd ever love me, especially because of what I am."
Lois held her breath, trying to process the information without... married... and he thought he was... She just... had to let him finish. That was the only thing he'd asked of her. She took a calming breath. And maybe after... well, after she'd know if she still had to worry about Lana, and she could tell him he wasn't an abomination.
He must have seen the look on her face and realized what he'd said; there was a touch of panic in his eyes when he looked up at her. "She... we're not married. Or engaged. Or... anything. I... it's not..."
Silently relieved, she put a hand on his knee. "It's okay, Clark."
That seemed to calm him some, and after a moment's silence he spoke again. "I've never really been able to be myself. Me. I... It's not that..." He took a deep breath before starting again. "I'm more than Clark Kent. And Superman. I'm... me... I just wish, for once, that someone would look..." He gave a frustrated sigh. His voice trembled slightly when he continued. "I don't want to be the hero all the time anymore. I want someone to look at me for me. To realize that I have feelings just like everyone else, and that if I can open a locked door with my bare hand, it doesn't make me a freak."
She felt a sharp pang of... something... in her chest. Sympathy... pain... wonder... she couldn't be sure which. But the look in his eyes... the raw vulnerability in his tentative smile... asking her to...
Love him.
Accept him for who he was, and know that he was...
Clark continued, conviction behind his words this time. "That's how I know, Lois. Because..." His momentum wavered, and he tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before he brought his gaze back to her, intense. Determined. "Because you see *me*. Like no one else ever has. And for the first time in my life... I *want* to be me."
Her breath caught in her throat, and she opened her mouth to respond... but she couldn't speak.
"Because of you," he said softly. "And I can't explain it. I don't know how to... it's...
She didn't let him finish; she just leaned over and pressed her lips against his, bringing her hands up to cradle the back of his head and run her fingers through his hair. The connection exploded. Blinding light. Intense emotions she couldn't discern. But she didn't care. She knew. She knew he was hers, and she was his. And there wasn't anything else that needed to be said.
At least not while he was kissing her, responding with everything he'd just... It was... he... Somewhere, on an elemental level... She just knew. Even if she was scared to death of what came next.
TBC...
