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A Bolt From The Blue: Lois Lane
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Things had been different between her and Superman ever since the night she told him she loved him. For the most part, she knows, they mostly just try to pretend it never happened, but for a while, there was a stiffness between them. Until she found him lying on the floor with a bullet in his shoulder and blood on his skin and mortality suddenly clinging to him as much as to any other person. Then, after the bullet hole closed and he thanked her for saving his life, things were better. He started making occasional visits to her place at night, telling her his favorite song, dancing with her, smiling at her. Opening up to her.

And now this.

It doesn’t seem possible. It’s almost too much--too fantastical--to comprehend. Flying men? Sure, she believes in those, enough to risk her life knowing one will come save her. Aliens among them? Of course, and he’s an unbelievable dancer. Clones? Been there, done that. But Superman lying? No. Impossible. As unbelievable as Clark making a bad cup of coffee.

Since the moment he ripped open the door of that space shuttle and swallowed that bomb, then given her that heart-stopping smile, Lois had known Superman. She’d been willing to bet she knew him better than anyone except maybe Clark. He was a hero--the best hero there had ever been--who always helped because he could not stand aside and do nothing. He was an icon, the closest thing to a god humanity could come face to face with. He was brave and noble and honest, and always, without fail, came down on the side of right.

So then…how could this be possible?

She wanted to dismiss the very possibility…but she couldn’t.

She’d been a reporter for a long time--longer than she’d worked at the Planet--and she knew that this wasn’t a mistake or a misunderstanding. It wasn’t a miscommunication or simple evasion the likes of which she’d never realized before just how often he did. It wasn’t anything she wanted it to be. If something looked and walked and talked like a duck, chances were that it was a duck. And if all the facts pointed to Superman being involved in Waldecker’s transformation, then…

…then Superman was a liar.

He was standing right in front of her, and for the first time she had nothing to say. She could only stare at him while he looked back, as if…as if he were waiting. For what? For her usual gullible acceptance of everything he told her? For an accusation? Condemnation? What did he want from her?

She didn’t know. In a world where even Superman could lie, she felt as if all the rules had changed.

In the end, there was only one thing she could say. After all, when he’d first revealed himself to the world, she’d been the one to name him. To proclaim the truth of him to the public. Now, in this new world where even Superman was fallible, she had to declare the new truth.

She took a deep breath, and finally said it--a question, but one that there was no going back from.

“Did you lie to me?”

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