Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
Here Part 222 Author's Note: I did post an alternate ending to Part 222 over on the NFIC boards.
Despite that, Lois and Clark have still not consummated their relationship.
It is not necessary to read that Part to follow what happens in this story. It is more of an physically intimate aside to the Wrong Clark story.
Part 223
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Seeing Clearly Now
*****************Lois awoke snuggled up against Clark’s chest. His deep breathing suggested that he was still asleep. She wondered if he would have his powers back this morning or if they would have to face the cloned gangsters without Superman.
Personally, she didn’t want him within twenty yards of Capone or Clyde Barrow.
Lois knew she needed to get up and take that Kryptonite-laced vest down to Dr. Klein at S.T.A.R. Labs for isolation. She didn’t want to re-expose Clark to the stuff. Yet, the last thing she wanted to do was let this big knucklehead out of her sight.
If it weren’t for her, Clark would be dead right now. Literally, and in all other forms of the definition, dead. Then, again, if it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t be
here right now. He’d be living a lonely life in the future and she’d be dead. He claimed that this present was different from the past he came from because his new arrival had changed what had happened in that first future.
She rubbed her throbbing head with her thumb. Frankly, she could more easily believe in a flying man from another planet coming to Metropolis to be a hero than in time-travel. Let alone a man loving her so much that he would travel back in time in order to save her life; yet, here he was. Clark was one walking, talking, flying, loving, time-traveling anomaly. If it weren’t for her stupid visions, she wouldn’t have believed Clark’s tale. Unfortunately, his story made some kind of logical sense as to why she had visions. Not why she was the only one who had them, but his explanation made sense for her.
What didn’t make any sense was how
she could know that Clark would be shot by these cloned gangsters, even before she knew they existed, but
he didn’t. He said he had never come across clones before he met her, before he had come back in time and met her – that was. She had made him clarify.
She had asked him about it several weeks earlier. They had been speaking in general and about Luthor’s clones at the time, but a clone was a clone – generic or specific. So, if she had lived this life previously, and this was an echo of that life, how did she know
specifically that Clark would be shot – not with Kryptonite, merely shot – and he had no idea it would happen?
Unless, he had the future wiped from his memory when he traveled into the past with the exception of wanting and needing to save her. That didn’t make much sense either, being that he would need to know the event that claimed her life in order to stop it. The way Clark had explained it, though, was that his mere presence had stopped that event from occurring. Had the ball of whatever event that killed her been set in motion before Superman arrived originally on Earth and therefore he had been unable to stop it? Was that why he had to return earlier, before said ball had been placed in motion?
She shook her head. It made no sense.
Clark’s arm around her shoulder drew her closer and she realized that she had awoken him with her movement.
“Good morning,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head.
She smiled, more so that he wouldn’t know what she had been thinking about, and kissed his chest. “Good morning.”
He shifted her, pulling her up to his face, and kissed her forehead. “Are you still mad at me?”
“Mad? I wasn’t mad at you,” she replied, turning to face him.
Clark stole the opportunity to kiss her lips. “Oh. I only dreamed about you threatening to kill me, once or twice, last night?”
“Okay, I was angry, but not
at you.
For you. I was scared.” She ran her hand through his hair. “I almost lost you. I don’t want you dead.”
“So, no desire to kill me today?”
Lois grinned and teasingly replied, “The day’s still young.”
Clark chuckled and gently kissed her lips. He pulled her closer and kissed her again, this time lingering with more pressure. Lois melted against him, reciprocating in kind. He turned his body, so that they were both lying on their sides, chest to chest. His top hand dropped to her thigh and started work itself up and under her nightshirt.
Despite Lois’s body reacting favorably to his touch, she scooted backwards, causing his hand to land on the bed between them. “Don’t tempt me,” she said. She didn’t need to start the day feeling unsatisfied. It was a feeling that caused her endless hours of distraction and discomfort during the day.
He leaned closer, kissing her neck. “What if I
want to tempt you?”
Tease! Her eyes closed against the onslaught of his kisses. “Don’t start anything you’re unwilling or unable to finish,” she said, her voice becoming huskier. After a minute, she reminded him, “We have too much to do today.”
With a groan, Clark flopped down on his back with a heavy sigh of resignation. “When do we get a day off?”
“Christmas,” she said, sitting up and scooting her feet off the far side of the bed.
“Then, for Christmas, I promise to start something I can finish.”
A feeling of warmth and anticipation engulfed Lois and she found herself mentally counting the days until the holiday. All those groups of long twenty-four hours seemed to pile up in front of her. She tried to shake off this feeling and the one that told her to forget Christmas and just to take her gift
now!
Another thought tickled her mind. She turned around to face him with a grin. “We’ll be in Smallville for Christmas.”
He both blanched and blushed at the same time. “Um… well… I’ll figure something out. Get up early or…”
Lois put her feet on the floor. “Don’t farmers get up early, too?”
“Or we can stay up late.”
She loved that he was determined to move their relationship forward. Perhaps almost dying had been the jolt he needed to remember that life was short and could disappear at the blink of an eye, and not necessarily just her life.
Standing up, Lois turned towards the bed under the guise of straightening her side of the covers. “Doesn’t Santa come late on Christmas Eve?”
He rolled towards her and took hold of her hand, kissing it. His gaze, straying down her collar, lingered. “Who?” He cleared his throat when he realized she had caught him staring. “I mean… Then we’ll go to bed early.”
Yeah, right. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said. “When have you ever gone to bed early?”
Clark scratched his jaw. He must have recalled Superman dressing up as Santa the previous Christmas for the orphans. “Well, there was that time when I had amnesia…”
Or not.
“I rest my case,” she said. It had been a happy thought while it lasted. She turned towards the bathroom.
He caught her arm before she made it to the end of the bed. “I was joking.”
She pressed her lips together.
“A promise is a promise.” He drew her to his chest and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “A night to remember.”
“Christmas is still several weeks away,” she said, waving her finger at him as she sauntered towards the bathroom. “You’d better not forget.”
He chuckled. “I happen to have a terrific memory.”
Lois threw him a sly grin. “So do I.”
***
Lois dropped off the vest with Dr. Klein at S.T.A.R. Labs and then left a message for Bobby Bigmouth to contact her about who might be dealing in Kryptonite. She really needed to replace all those snitches that disappeared when she supposedly had become engaged to Luthor. Then, she stopped by her apartment to change into work clothes, before meeting Clark at the Planet. It was the longest two hours of her life… well, since the previous night, at least.
Clark glanced up from his desk when she strode out of the elevator, untying the knots she had been ignoring in her stomach. She bypassed her desk and walked straight up to him to ask him if he had heard back from Bobby, yet. Instead, she set her hand on Clark’s forehead, garnering a strange look from more than just her partner. “How are you feeling?”
“A little sore in the chest,” Clark replied, taking her hand off his head and kissing her palm. “But otherwise just fine.”
“
Just fine or Super fine?”
He gazed at her from over his glasses. “Does it really matter?”
“I guess not,” she said, sitting down on the edge of his desk. “I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay and not being evasive.”
“I’m fine,” he said, turning back to his computer and hitting the send key. “I just finished typing up a Superman story.”
Lois was tempted to sit in his lap to read the story on his monitor, but she hadn’t done that since early February when she was drugged on the love potion. Perry and Jimbo would have a field day if she started acting all love-addled again. Work was for work. Home was for play.
Recalling the previous night when she had gotten Clark ready for bed and his promise from that morning, she realized from where that playful impulse had come.
Instead, she shifted to behind his chair to look over his shoulder, hoping nobody noticed her raging hormones.
“Superman saves cat?” she read aloud, setting her hand on his shoulder.
Clark shrugged. “It was a slow morning.”
“Very slow, I take it.”
He set his hand on hers, glancing back at her. “I’m sure Perry would’ve been fine with us being late,” he whispered.
She stood up straight. “Right, and you don’t think that in five seconds he’s going to come roaring out of his office to ask where…?”
Perry’s office door slammed open. “Lane!” he yelled. “How come one of my reporters was shot last night and the first I’m hearing about it is from the Star calling me for a comment?” He shifted his gaze over to Clark. “Kent. Good to see that you aren’t dead. Lane?”
Lois patted Clark’s shoulder. “Told ya.” She turned to the Chief. “I was a little busy, being questioned by Detective Wolfe to all hours of the night and then searching the trash heaps of Metropolis for my partner’s so-called dead body.”
Perry walked up to them. “Kent, why aren’t you dead?”
“Bulletproof vest,” Clark replied. “I’ll type up my angle right…”
“Why were you wearing a bulletproof vest?” their boss asked, eyeing him in a suspicious manner.
“Ah…” Clark glanced up at Lois. “Um…”
“Protection, Chief,” Lois interjected. “After hearing that you had turned down Capone’s bribe money yesterday, Clark was a bit worried that the gangster leader might kill one of us in retribution and since we were visiting one of their gambling dens...”
“Uh-huh,” Perry replied. “Were you wearing one too?”
Lois grinned modestly. “It didn’t go with my dress.”
The Chief shook his head. “Well, then you’re damn lucky Barrow shot your partner instead of you.”
She didn’t agree and was just about to say so, when Clark jumped to his feet and set his hand on the curve of her spine, saying, “Yes. Yes, we are.”
“Well, you
were lucky. Do us a favor and don’t get shot again, Kent. You’re much more valuable to this paper alive than dead,” Perry said, turning back to his office. “And get me a write-up on the shooting for the afternoon edition!”
“Yes, sir!” Lois and Clark called at the same time.
Lois elbowed Clark’s chest. “‘Yes, we are’?”
He shrugged and sat back down.
“I still have your vest in the back of my car,” she lied. “Shall I go put it on now? Just to ease your mind.”
Clark swallowed, blanching slightly. “No, that’s okay,” he said. “I think we both would be safer without it.”
“Are you sure?” she asked again, heading back towards her desk.
He nodded. “I’m sure.”
Without his powers, Clark did seem less afraid he would hurt her should he lose control. Then again, Kryptonite would kill him. Dead. Forever gone. Leaving her alone.
A completely unsexy thought. Just thinking such a horrid thing sucked the air from her lungs.
No. Kryptonite was no solution to Clark’s fears. It was more the basis of hers.
She shook that thought to the dark recesses of her head.
For Clark’s sake, she wanted him at one-hundred percent when they finally passed that final intimacy threshold. Again. He needed to know that she could handle all of him.
Lois put her briefcase into the drawer, booted up her computer, and flipped through her messages – all on autopilot.
Her mind had slipped back to Clark’s promise of giving her a night to remember.
Oh, my.She picked up her mug and headed for the coffee machine.
How was she going to accomplish anything with that thought to distract her?
***
Clark smiled as he watched Lois tilt her head, reviewing their latest story on her computer monitor. She looked so adorable chewing on the end of her pencil in thought like that.
Perry walked out of his office and stood next to Clark. “I heard something over the wire. Those cloned gangsters have been caught?”
“By the coroner,” Clark corrected.
Perry raised his brows in surprise.
“According to Hamilton,” Lois said, without turning to acknowledge formally Perry’s presence. “Capone spent the entirety of their bank haul on those green-glass bullets that were supposedly harmful to Superman. After they disposed of Clark’s body, Capone let Clyde Barrow have it and then Bonnie retaliated, killing Capone and all of his men. I never knew she was such a good shot.”
“Never mess with a woman’s true love,” Perry recommended.
Lois nodded in agreement and gave Clark a little side glance over her shoulder with a hint of smile. “Anyway, Hamilton’s very disappointed that his gangsters had a Valentine’s Day-esque shootout in his lab, killing each other off and destroying his life’s work.”
“However, I’m sure he’s not so disappointed that he didn’t learn his lesson about playing with genetics,” Clark said. “He’s not planning on bringing any more criminals back from the dead.”
“You’d think after that mess with Luthor and his clone, he would’ve known better,” Perry said with a shake of his head.
“Apparently, Hamilton was so focused on his work over the last few months, he let current events slide through the cracks,” Lois scoffed as if she couldn’t believe anyone could be so blind as to have missed her wedding that wasn’t.
Clark wondered if Lois could name any of the movies released this month that were all the buzz with film critics. He decided it was a question best left unasked.
“Any word from Superman on those green bullets?” Perry asked.
Lois turned around and set her hand on Clark’s arm, before speaking, “As Clark was shot with them, not him, Superman said he wouldn’t be able to comment on their viability.”
Had he said that?
Perry nodded. “Makes sense.” He patted Clark on the back with the papers in his hand and continued back towards his office. “Keep up the good work!”
Clark sat down on the corner of Lois’s desk. “Superman said that?”
“He could’ve.” Lois smiled with a wink. “Just say the words and make me an honest woman.”
Clark’s mouth dropped open. She didn’t mean that in the way it sounded, did she?
Lois reached down to her briefcase, giving him time to lower his heart rate.
No. She only meant if he said them then what she told Perry wouldn’t be a lie.
He cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject. “Any word from Bobby on where those bullets really came from?”
“After I gave him that meal you left in my car before your…” she paused, “— appointment, he admitted that he heard rumors of some woman offering up Superman’s Achilles heel to any viable foe with the dough.”
“Just some woman?” Clark asked. That was vague even for Bobby.
Lois shrugged. Something didn’t feel right.
“Lo-is,” he hissed.
She rocked her head back in defeat. “That tiramisu smelled soooo good.”
He leaned forward so that only she would hear him. “And I can take you to that restaurant at any time to get one. Did you have to take Bobby’s?”
“I don’t think his information was worth a dessert,” she said, raising her chin.
Clark pressed his lips together. He knew it had been a bad idea to have Lois meet Bobby without him there. “Did you at least get a description?”
“Blonde.”
“The mysterious blonde woman from Luthor’s bunker!” Clark exclaimed.
“Or it could be any woman wearing a wig,” Lois countered. “Even if she wasn’t, there were plenty of other blondes in Lex’s life.”
She had a point there.
“So, we’re back to square one,” Clark grumbled.
Lois set her hand just above his knee, causing him to slide off the desk and onto his feet from the electric jolt from her touch. “Jumpy much?” she teased.
He knew she was just giving him a sympathetic pat but her intentions had nothing to do with how it had felt. Every touch she gave him felt intimate whether it was meant to be or not.
“I don’t like that there’s someone out there selling Kryptonite,” he said. It was true statement, but not-at-all why Lois made him jumpy.
“You and me both,” she agreed, taking his hand and squeezing it.
For a moment, he was transported to the previous night and her hands caressing his body as she cleaned him. He forced his mind back to the present and his partner.
Ever since Clyde Barrow shot him, Clark had felt an urgency he hadn’t before. He couldn’t wait for Herb to return and announce that the curse was null and void. With every little relationship barrier he and Lois broke through, the more he doubted the accuracy of Herb’s prediction. The more he knew Lois spoke the truth about that night at the hospital.
This wasn’t Clark’s true dimension. Technically,
this Lois wasn’t his actual soul mate, nor was he hers: ninety-nine point nine nine percent but not one-hundred percent. He wanted nothing more than to fly her off for a quickie wedding and a very long, slow honeymoon.
The only problem – besides his lingering fear of the curse – was that Lois didn’t want to get married. She didn’t believe in the institution. She wouldn’t want him to swoop her up into his arms and fly them to Vegas, or anywhere else, to get married. That whole mess with Luthor had put her off any big to-do and her parents had jinxed the whole vow-pledging ceremony. It was possible to get her to change her mind, as that other Clark had somehow succeeded, but Clark knew he needed to give her more time. He merely needed to prove to her that she could trust him, that he wasn’t going anywhere.
Anyway, the last thing his ego could take after a Kryptonite exposure was another rejected proposal. His mind flashed to that April morning in the Centennial Park and how shattered his heart felt when she said ‘no’. It had felt worse than being shot and stuck in Luthor’s Kryptonite cage watching his porn videos combined. Okay, maybe not
worse; similar in a different sort of way, but equally bad.
“Clark, are you all right?” Lois asked, her hand resting on his bicep.
He opened his eyes and saw a deep concern, bordering on fear, in her eyes.
Clark smiled at her. That pain was long ago. Lois loved him.
“The strangest series of expressions just passed over your face,” she went on.
He cupped her jaw in the palm of his hand, forgetting for an instant how she hated that caress. Instead, he swept her hair behind her ear before brushing her lips with his. “I don’t know what I’d ever do if I lost you,” he whispered, resting his forehead against hers.
“Stop getting shot, and let’s hope we never have to find out,” she said.
“I will, if you will,” he countered.
“Deal! Once was enough,” she agreed, turning back to her computer.
Clark rubbed those stubborn bruises on his chest as he leaned over her shoulder to look at their article. “Tell me about it,” he whispered. “That’s not how you spell ‘destruction’, by the way.”
“Clearly, it is. Apparently, it’s not how everyone else does,” she grumbled, changing the ‘i’ after the ‘d’ to an ‘e’. “There. Better?”
He took a deep breath, infusing his nasal passages with her scent. “Perfect.”
***
Lois stared at her computer monitor. That email couldn’t be right.
Hey, sis! I know I usually spend all my holiday breaks with you in Metropolis, but I won’t be coming for Christmas this year. I just can’t, not after what happened at our apartment last year. I know you promised that it was bug-free, but I can’t live there again. Call me wiggy if you must, I don’t care. I know Lex Luthor is in jail and yada, yada, yada, but I don’t want to be within 50 miles of that man. He just gives me the creeps. I can’t believe you still live there after what he did to you.
Don’t be mad, Lo. We both know I’d hardly see you, anyway. You’re dating Clark now and between work and him… I’d just feel like a third wheel.
I’ve spoken to Mother Arnold and she’s invited me to Philly for the holidays. Yes, I know, I’ll be bored stiff, even if Mother Arnold says she’s going to take me to her Club’s Christmas and New Year Eve’s parties, but better her than with our mother. I’m sure I won’t see anyone my age the whole time I’m there unless they’re part of the wait-staff. But after Johnny, well, that might be a good thing. I could use some me time, without guys… you know? Of course, you don’t know. You’ve got Clark, one of the sweetest men ever created. He gives me hope that there’s a good guy out there for me, somewhere.
I still can’t believe James moved to Las Vegas and is MARRIED! How had I let him slip through my fingers like that? Don’t answer that!
Sooooo. How’s everything going with Clark? It must be going well because you haven’t called me in FOREVER. Oh, and don’t worry about a gift this year, because all I want for Christmas is…DETAILS! No more keeping me in the dark. TELL ME EVERYTHING! I’m your sister. Who else are you going to tell?
CALL ME SOON!
Lucy
PS: I’m not joking about the DETAILS. Also, a new CD player would be nice.Holy crud.
Lois was officially the worst sister ever. What was wrong with her? Not only had she not called her sister for weeks, but she had forgotten that Lucy was supposed to be coming home – to Lois’s apartment – for the holidays. Lucy had slipped so far from Lois’s radar that she had made plans with Clark to
leave town.
She rubbed her forehead and wiped her hand down her face. She owed Lucy one hell of a Christmas gift, but it wouldn’t be details… as there weren’t any details Lois could share, even if there was a part of her that wanted to stand on the roof of the Daily Planet and scream to the world that she was sleeping with Superman!
She smiled as she recalled waking up in his arms again that morning. No, she definitely wasn’t sharing. What would Lucy do if Lois told her that Clark… that
they were waiting until marriage until they…?
Lucy would totally think that Lois and Clark were engaged to be married.
Lois glanced over her shoulder to Clark’s empty desk. It was probably for the best that he wasn’t there or he might read her email over Lois’s shoulder. She quickly closed out of her email box.
No, she and Clark weren’t engaged to be married, even if they occasionally slept together. Getting a good night’s sleep together might be a better way to put it.
Clark hadn’t brought up marriage since telling her of his celibacy pledge. Not that he had proposed then. In fact, he did the opposite of propose. He had told Lois that he wasn’t ready. Clearly, he was becoming more and more ready. For sex, not marriage.
She leaned back in her chair and tented her fingers.
A night to remember.
She grinned.
He did mean sex, didn’t he? With Clark one never knew how to take a vague statement such as “a night to remember”.
Her brow furrowed.
Oh, God. He didn’t mean a Christmas party, did he? He didn’t mean sitting around and singing Christmas carols while drinking hot cider or decorating a Christmas tree after playing in the snow? That did sound like something he would like, didn’t it?
He
had invited her to Smallville for their ‘night to remember.’ It could be an entirely innocent evening of romantic bliss ending in two separate bedrooms.
Was he going to propose?
Her jaw dropped.
He had better
not propose!
Of course, proposing would indicate that he was ready to become more intimate, that he was no longer afraid that he would hurt her should they…
when they… without him being affected by Kryptonite. So, if he…
when he did, it would be a good sign, right?
What would Lois tell him?
She bit her lip.
She loved Clark, loved him more than she ever thought she would ever… could ever love someone. She knew she wanted to spend her life with him, but…
marriage?That Evil “M” word that had ruined more than one woman’s life. It was so barbaric.
But Clark wasn’t like that.
She sighed.
Clark was wonderful. Clark was nice, sweet, thoughtful, respectful, funny, and charming and he cared more about her career than his own because he had more going on in his life than the Daily Planet and the next big story. Simply put, Clark was super.
Clark was Superman.
Not that
that was any reason to say ‘yes’, but how could she say ‘no’ to him.
Twice.
He came back in time
for her!Of course, that didn’t mean she was obligated to marry him, just because he was obsessed with her. Plenty of men had been obsessed with Lois over the years and she’d never been tempted to marry any of them. With Clark it wasn’t obsession, though, it was love. He cared about her and what she wanted.
He wanted to make her happy. He would spend his whole life trying to make her happy. He
had said he wanted to start something he could finish.
How could she say ‘no’ to that?
Lois shook her head. This was ridiculous! Clark hadn’t even proposed. He wasn’t even thinking of proposing.
Again.
Well, of course, he would. He was in love with her and he wanted to make love to her, but he had made a vow to himself that he wouldn’t make love to her until they were married, so it was only a matter of time before he popped the question.
Again.
Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that he would ask during their ‘night to remember’.
Lois’s fingers started to tap quickly on her desk.
Or would he?
Maybe they could swing by Mother Arnold’s before heading over to Kansas. She really should introduce Clark to her grandmother.
What would Lois say if he did ask her?
Yes or no?
***End of Part 223*** Part 224 Comments
