Prevously - Chapter 31 ***
Chapter 32 ***
Clark was stunned by her sudden rejection, but quickly got up and followed her, pushing out the thoughts that she wouldn’t want him to do so. He approached her slowly, like he would a scared animal that he didn’t want to frighten away, and knelt beside her, peering at her face. “Lois, is it Lana?” he asked.
He felt a small bit of relief when she shook her head. He placed his hand gently on her knee to comfort her, but she swiped it away. His heart ached. “Lois,” he said as compassionately as he could, “what is it?” He needed to know, and knew she needed to tell him, but he didn’t know what prevented her from doing so.
She turned her head to the side and cried even harder. He made a quick decision he hoped he wouldn’t regret. The small gasp that escaped her told him she was surprised he picked her up.
She struggled against him. “Let go of me!” she cried. She pushed and flailed, but he was stronger. Even without superpowers and injured, he still had the strength of a normal man. He held her tightly but gently as he walked back to the bench. “Let me go…” she demanded again.
“No,” he said assertively, “I won’t let go.” She continued to struggle as he sat down. He held her in his lap and felt her tiring. If she was worried about how he would respond to whatever it was she needed to tell him, he could allay some of her fears. “Lois, listen to me,” he started. She stopped struggling but her breathing remained fast. “I don’t care what it is. Whatever it is or was, it wasn’t your fault.” He spoke from the heart and allowed every bit of sincerity he had within him to soak his words. She seemed to calm down, and he continued, “Especially if it happened in the last two months. Neither of us were ourselves.” He took her chin and turned her face to his. The fear in her eyes was palpable. “
Nothing will change how I feel about you. I
love you, Lois.”
At this she relaxed. He held her eyes with his and did everything he could to let her see the truth of his words.
Please believe me.
She closed her eyes tightly, squeezing tears out that ran down her cheek.
She opened her eyes and he could see the pain she was feeling, sense her fear. He wanted to fix it for her, to fix everything, to go back in time and change every last thing to the way it used to be. He hurt right along with her. “Tell me, please,” he urged. “Whatever happened,” he assured, “we’ll work through it. There isn’t
anything that would be too much for us. Even without all of my memories, I
know that is true.” The fear in her eyes seemed to dim a little.
She took a few more deep breaths, further calming herself. He relaxed his arms but couldn’t let her go. He suspecting she needed confirmation that he meant what he said.
She looked down at her fingers that she was wringing in her lap. “Clark…” she began slowly as if weighing her words before she would say them. “I – I was …” she swallowed. “Lex made me think I was married to him.”
“I know,” he said simply. “I don’t care. That wasn’t you.”
“He said I’m pregnant,” she reminded him, finally looking him in the face while biting her lower lip.
“I know that too. You said it was something you made up.”
“I thought it was.” She slipped herself off his lap to sit next to him instead and left a cold emptiness in her place. He reached for her hands, suddenly worried she’d run away again. The fact that she didn’t pull away and instead squeezed his hands eased some of his concern.
“After the explosion, when I was trying to get the kryptonite pieces away from you,” she turned her face away from him. “He was still alive.” She shook her head. “He told me I
am pregnant.” More tears slowly fell down her cheek.
“How could he know?” Clark asked gently as he reached to wipe one away.
“I don’t know.” Lois shook her head. “I don’t know,” she repeated. She quickly looked at him with trepidation. “What if he’s right?”
Instantly, he was filled with rage and fisted his hands, wishing his powers were there, that Lex wasn’t already dead. He let out an angry yell as he looked heavenward.
How dare Lex do this to them? He stood up, considering what this meant. He understood that for the past two months, they had been living lives not their own and with it came certain facts that he was willing to look past. He could see the devilish sneer on Luthor’s face as he delivered the cruel blow. For that psychotic lunatic to leave her with such a monumental piece of information in a situation like this made his blood boil.
“Clark?” Lois called to him. He still had one of her hands in his and felt her gentle pull. When he looked at her face, he saw the worry in her eyes. She hung her head, defeated, but he quickly pulled her up to stand in front of him.
***
Startled, she looked for any sign of what might be going through his head at this moment. Unexpectedly, his expression became understanding and regretful. Was he struggling to find words to tell her he couldn’t be with her anymore? That this
was too big for them to get through?
“No, Lois,” he said, shaking his head and pulling her closer. “I’m not angry at you.” With that he brought her hands to his chest, holding them tenderly. “You didn’t … This wasn’t …” He took a breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he looked directly at her. “I remember when we were in the clouds and you told me that you love me. I don’t doubt it at all. I don’t think for one minute that you’d ever do anything like this - cheating or having an affair. That is not what happened here. I
know that.”
He gently kissed her fingers and the familiar flutters it caused warmed her. How did he know what she’d been thinking? If only that were the only problem here.
“But if I am pregnant with-”
“Lois, I just found out we’re married,” he interrupted, “and I am never giving that up.” His face lit up with a smile, and he wrapped his arms around her. “We’ll get through this, all of it,
together. Just like we’ll work to get our memories all in order. And just like we’ll deal without the superpowers.”
She tried to blink away the tears filling her eyes. She’d forgotten what she saw when she first found him lying in the snow. “Clark,” she half sobbed, splaying her fingers on his chest. “I think I know what happened to your powers.”
His eyes grew wide and he pulled slightly away from her. “What?” he said, his brows drawing into a frown.
“When I found you, you were on your stomach and under your shirt I saw a tattoo.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as his mouth slowly opened. “In the sunlight, it sparkled red and green. I think they tattooed you with kryptonite.” She sniffed the last of here tears away.
“What did it look like?” he asked quietly.
She smiled at his unexpected question. “A phoenix,” she said. “Lex always thought of himself that way.”
Clark shook his head. “He really was a monster, wasn’t he?” He took a deep breath and drew her closer. “Don’t worry, Lois. It will all work out. It always does.”
And she believed him.
He leaned closer to her as if he would kiss her, but stopped suddenly, smiling at her. It was then she heard the approach of a group that she would be willing to bet money included Jimmy.
***
Perry’s own mind still struggled to keep up with everything that had happened. It was so unbelievable. The
Daily Planet would have headlines for weeks out of this. He and Jimmy walked with Inspector Bill Henderson around to the side of the house where Clark had said he wanted to talk with Lois. The sun was continuing its ascent above the horizon now and, though it was warming things up some, they needed to leave this mess and get somewhere warmer.
Perry saw the two love birds standing in the snow, heads together, and slowed his pace to give them more time alone. He could only imagine what they must be going through. He knew things couldn’t go right back to the way they had been, but he hoped the connection they had, which he had watched grow between them from simple partnership to a budding romance to the real deal, would be able to weather this storm … this category five hurricane.
“So, you’ve remembered everything, Henderson?” Perry stalled. He gripped the rail next to the steps and hobbled slowly down them, trying to make it seem like he just couldn’t go any faster.
“Mostly,” the police inspector replied, slowing as well. His face held a stern expression, though Perry hadn’t ever seen it any other way. “I still can’t believe Luthor got away with so much. We’re going to be cleaning up this mess for a while.”
“Is he really dead this time?” Jimmy asked. He was behind Perry and stood waiting a step up for Perry to get to the next. The glint Perry saw in Jimmy’s eye as he watched Lois and Clark in the distance told Perry he understood what he was doing.
“Yeah. We’re going to let the local police take care of that here.” Henderson may have smiled at that, or, at least, the stern expression relaxed. “Less chance of Luthor’s hands being … having been in the pockets of these guys.”
“Good idea.” Perry begrudgingly reached the bottom step and was forced to walk a little faster.
Lois and Clark shifted to stand next to each other, facing the approaching crowd. He could tell Lois had been crying, and they both looked tired as hell. Perry’s heart went out to them. He would be there to help them in whatever way he could, though. He’d get his top reporters back and do everything in his power to get things back to whatever their new normal would look like.
“Lane and Kent,” Henderson started, reaching out to shake their hands. “I have to admit, I am very glad to see both of you again.”
“Thanks, Henderson,” Clark said. His hand worked its way out from under the blanket to shake the proffered hand before going back underneath. “Any word on Scott?”
“He’s still unconscious. They’re about to transport him to MetroGen,” Henderson answered.
“Is he going to be okay?” Lois asked.
“They need to rule out head injuries and run some other tests. We don’t even know what was injected into him yet.”
Perry could see the concern on both of their faces and once again wondered what happened to get them all here. It must have been quite an adventure.
“What do we have to do to get out of here?” Clark asked.
“Well, we will eventually need your statements,” he explained. “But White here says he’s not letting you talk to us until you’re ready.” Henderson eyed Perry which only made Perry smile. “No more than 24 hours,” he added.
“My two best reporters need to take care of themselves first,” Perry asserted. “I’ll take them home.”
***
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