Hello all! First, I'll start off by saying that I don't know what my posting schedule will be... because I haven't finished writing this one yet. Don't worry - it is well along, but it may be a few days in between posts (not like in the past where I've posted new parts every day or every other day). Just wanted to give you a heads up.
***EDIT***
This is just an edit to let you know that I'm pleased to say Sue S. has joined me on this story and is going to co-write with me (yay). I have sent part two to her to play with - it will be posted soon.
Description: What? You want a description? Sorry, can't help you there. How about 'My Muse was feeling feisty?' Yup, that's all your gonna get.
50 First Revelations
By Sue S. <sistersuze@gmail.com>
Rated: PG-13?
Submitted: November, 2006
All characters and settings are the property of DC Comics, Warner Bros., and whoever else can legally lay claim to them. No copyright infringement is intended. This story was written purely for fun, not for profit, but the story is an original idea and belongs to me. A thank you to the writers of Lois & Clark, without them we wouldn’t have this wonderful world to play in.
Thank you Sue... no only for always being willing to beta the constant barrage of stories I send your way but also for allowing me to rope you in to co-write this story with me.
********************
Clark Kent is Superman...Lois woke with a start, her calf muscle drawing up into a charley horse.
Ouch.
She alternated pointing her toes and drawing them back, trying to work it out. She sat up in bed and reached down to rub and soothe the protesting limb.
Now, what had awakened her so suddenly?
Clark Kent is Superman...The thought was screaming at her. It was true. He was Superman. It was as plain as... as vanilla ice cream without chocolate sauce.
She shook her head trying to clear some of the fog. Had that realization just come to her? In her dreams?
No. No, it was coming back to her now. Clark’s parents had been kidnapped. Nigel had wanted her dead. She’d petitioned Superman to freeze her so she would appear to be dead, and just before he’d done as she asked... he had touched her, cupped her face...
Just like Clark!
Clark had touched her the same way, only hours before, when she’d told him she would do anything to help him get his parents back.
And she had... up to and including almost dying for them. And yet...
She hadn’t even known whom she was doing it for.
Superman.
Feeling a little woozy, she lay back down in bed. She remembered now with startling clarity – as soon as Superman had touched her, the feeling had resonated deep down inside her and she had known he was Clark. It was like someone had thrown a light switch.
When she had opened her eyes and looked into those soulful brown eyes, she had wondered how she’d never seen it before.
And she had known right then that, when he brought her back, everything was going to change.
She blinked her eyes a few times, trying to get the sleep out of them. What time was it? It was still dark outside. She looked over at her alarm clock – four-thirty.
She tried tentatively to sit up again. The room seemed stable now and she swung her legs off the side of the bed, standing up. She grabbed her robe off the end of her bed and made her way towards the bathroom.
She knew her apartment like the back of her hand, and that’s why it surprised her when she stubbed her foot hard against something... something where there should have been nothing.
“Crap! Son-of-a...!” She hopped up and down on the other foot while grabbing the injured appendage and squeezing it tightly.
She’d be lucky if she hadn’t broken a toe!
She bent over and squinted through the darkness to get a better look at the offensive object.
It was a potted plant... the kind that you would get delivered from a flower shop. Except that it was a nicer one than you would usually get delivered – planted inside a heavy, decorative ceramic flowerpot.
A flowerpot that she hadn’t ever bought.
Where had it come from? It hadn’t been there... before. How had it gotten in her apartment?
She immediately became paranoid. Had someone broken into her apartment?
Oh, yeah, Lane, brilliant. Someone broke into your apartment to leave you a potted plant. Yeah, that made a lot of sense.
Still... where had it come from?
She grabbed the crystal candlestick off of her dresser and held it up, wielding it as a weapon. She went methodically through her apartment, just to make sure no one *had* broken in... and might still be there. She left the lights off, hoping it would give her the advantage over them.
Clark.
She should call, Clark... err... Superman. In case someone *was* here.
Shouldn’t she?
No. No, she shouldn’t. What would she say? He didn’t even know that she knew... what she knew.
And she wasn’t exactly sure she knew how she felt about... what she knew.
How exactly was she supposed to feel? She loved Clark... and she had loved Superman, or at least thought she had been in love with him... more like infatuated with him. And now, to find out they were the same person...
Her head hurt and she felt a little dizzy again. She finished up her inspection of her apartment in her bathroom and leaned against the countertop, taking a few deep breaths.
Clark Kent is Superman.
She reached out and flipped the light switch on, blinking a few times against the sudden onslaught. When her eyes finally adjusted she looked in the mirror in front of her.
What she saw frightened her worse than having a new decoration in her bedroom.
Her hair...
It was short. It had been cut. When? Why? By whom? She’d been needing to get a haircut – her hair was getting too long and unmanageable – but she hadn’t gotten one yet. When she’d gone to Superman, err... Clark, to ask him to freeze her, her hair had been long, down past her shoulders.
Now... it was short, up above her shoulders – and layered to boot. She never layered her hair. And there was a bandage on her head, up next to her hairline.
For god’s sake, what had happened to her after Clark froze her?
She reached up and carefully peeled the bandage back from her head. There was a nasty looking gash and a well-defined bump behind it.
Things must have gotten bad with Mazik.
So where was Clark? He had just thawed her out, brought her back here to her apartment and... dumped her off? The thought made her mad. How could he do that? He loved her, didn’t he? How could he just bring her back here and leave her after something as traumatic as what she’d obviously been through? Unless...
No...
What if...
...he hadn’t made it?
She felt dizzy again and sat down on her toilet. No. No, if Superman had died... if Clark had died... someone would still be here with her. Perry. Or Jimmy.
Somebody.
They wouldn’t have left her all alone at a time like this. There had to be some other explanation.
And the first thing she was going to do when she got to the Planet that morning was find out what that explanation was.
Clark a.k.a. Superman was going to give it to her.
**********
Clark had dreaded the thought of going in to work today. Lois was going to be upset with him.
Truth be told, she wasn’t supposed to come in today. Hell, Perry had practically threatened to fire her if she showed her face in the next week.
But he knew Lois. She couldn’t sit still.
And after last night... there was no way she *wasn’t* going to come in to work today. If for nothing else, she would come in just to confront him in the light of a new day.
He wasn’t sure if she would be hurt or if she would be livid. Either emotion was equally distressing to contemplate.
He didn’t regret what he had done – that wasn’t it. He would stand by his decision. But what he was going to regret would be the aftermath. Hurricane Lane wouldn’t be easy to weather.
And if he had dreaded coming in to work – he had been dreading what had just happened, even more.
Lois had just stepped off the elevator.
Her eyes met his instantly. They looked determined... and yet, there was something else in them.
Relief? Yes, it looked like relief and almost a... twinkle.
A twinkle? How could that be? What was she up to? He watched as she pointed at him and motioned towards the conference room.
He took in a deep, shaky breath and obediently headed into the conference room. She followed him inside and shut the door behind them. He turned around to look at her and she had a funny little smirky grin on her face.
What was up with her this morning?
“Do you have anything you want to tell me?” she prompted him, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.
“Huh?”
“Anything. Anything at all...?”
His mind raced. What did she want? Was she expecting him to apologize for last night? To take back what he had said? Well it wasn’t going to happen. He had meant what he’d said to her last night.
He frowned, letting a sigh escape from his lips, and he crossed his arms in front of his chest stubbornly. The action seemed to catch her off guard and her smile fell.
The confidence she’d felt about approaching him and telling him that she knew he was Superman fell – just a little – when he had given her that look. What had happened last night?
Well, first things first. She was determined that she was going to get through this... they’d deal with whatever had happened... after.
She had thought about skillfully trying to torture a confession out of him that he was Superman. But after this reception... well, now she was just irritated. So when the words came, they came hard and fast. “I know you’re Superman.”
He didn’t react. He just sat stood there staring at her like he expected her to continue.
Did he already know she knew? Had she already said something last night? Had they fought and that’s why he was being so aloof?
“And...” he finally said after her long pause.
“And? What do you mean ‘and’? That’s it. I figured it out. I know you’re Superman,” she stated adamantly, crossing her arms across her chest, mimicking him.
“Lois, come on, quit playing games. I’m really not in the mood,” he said wearily. “Let’s just get to the point.” What was her deal? Of course she knew he was Superman. What kind of approach was this to what he’d told her last night? He wasn’t really sure where she was going with this.
“Fine. Get to the point? Okay, I can do that. Why don’t you tell me what went wrong?”
He sighed exasperatedly. Did she really want him to rehash everything that he’d already told her? This was ridiculous. He moved towards the door. “Lois, I’m not going to do this. You know how I feel. I told you. I stand by my actions. Now if you’ll excuse me. I’ve gotta get to work.” He reached out to open the door and she pulled on his arm from behind him.
“Excuse you? No, I don’t think I will. I can’t remember what exactly happened last night after you came to my apartment.” He watched as she reached up to tug at her hair. “First off, can you explain to me why I’m sporting this new ‘do’?”
Clark shook his head in confusion. What? She was asking him about her hairstyle choice? What did that have to do with anything? “How should I know – you chose it,” he answered her exasperatedly. She frowned, looking confused, and he sighed, deciding to indulge her a little. He’d take his best stab at what she wanted him to say. “You said it had something to do with wanting to get a fresh start. That getting a new haircut sort of physically embodied that *fresh start* for you.”
What? What was he talking about? *She* chose this haircut? Just like that? On the spur of the moment? After being frozen and held by a madman? That didn’t sound like her...
But, then again, hadn't he warned her that she could possibly suffer some serious side effects from being frozen? Hadn’t he even mentioned something along the lines of an aneurysm? Maybe this was some sort of weird side effect...
A deep sense of horror overcame her as she wondered what other lifestyle changes she had made before coming to her senses. She quickly thought back to that morning, she didn’t remember seeing any piercings or tattoos or anything like that when she had put her make-up on. So maybe her haircut had been the worst of it.
What bothered her more, though, and seemed even stranger, was that Clark seemed absolutely confused by her question.
“Clark. I’m really getting tired of playing games...”
“You are!” he exclaimed sarcastically, pulling his arm away.
“Just stop. Okay? Just stop for a minute and let me get my bearings,” she told him, her voice a tangle of both irritation and desperation. “The last thing I remember was asking you to freeze me so that we could save your parents. That’s the last real thing I remember. Then I woke up in bed this morning and...” She broke off because his face had gone absolutely pale.
“What do you mean that’s the last thing you remember?” he asked her, his voice eerily quiet.
“Exactly what I said. That’s the last thing I remember. I remember you reaching out to touch me and realizing that, you, Superman, and, you, Clark, were the same person. Then you told me to close my eyes and... I woke up in bed last night, a bump on my head and a new hairstyle later.” She was beginning to feel a little unsettled because the longer she talked the more pale he was becoming. Finally he grabbed a chair and took a seat, running a hand through his hair. “Clark, did something go wrong? How did I get this?” She reached up and felt her head, wincing at the contact. “And why did you just bring me back to my apartment and leave me? After everything that had most likely happened, I didn’t expect to wake up alone in the middle of the night.”
“Lois... I...” he shook his head and reached out to take her hands in his. Something was very wrong. Could it be from the concussion she had sustained? He couldn’t understand how she could be *missing* so much. “I think you’d better sit down.” He pulled a chair out for her and she hesitantly took a seat. “I don’t know what’s happened exactly but...”
Clark was scaring her. Something really was wrong. She could tell by the look on his face. Why didn’t he just come out and tell her? “What is it? Just tell me!”
“That night that I... froze you. That happened almost a month ago.”
It was a good thing he had asked her to sit down because if she hadn’t, she was sure her legs would have given way beneath her. As it was, her head was swimming and her vision was spotting and flashing. A month ago? How was that possible? She’d forgotten a whole month? No. That wasn’t possible. The room blurred and darkened.
Clark reached out to catch her before her body slid from the chair she was sitting in. “Lois? Lois!” He picked her up into his arms and carried her out of the conference room into Perry’s office.
“Chief!” he bellowed.
“Clark? Lois?” Perry said, eyeing Clark as he carried an unconscious Lois into his office. “What in the Sam Hill is going on? What’s she doing here? I thought I made myself perfectly clear when I told her to stay home?”
“Something’s wrong. She doesn’t remember anything that’s happened the past few weeks. When she came in just now she was all confused and when I tried to explain what had happened, she passed out.” He heard the shakiness in his voice. It wasn’t bad enough that he’d been careless enough to let her get hurt when Bob Fences had fired up that micro-transmitter – now it seemed there was going to be even worse repercussions.
Clark shifted her in his arms a little so that her limp head was resting gently against his shoulder. “Dr. Peterson had scheduled her to come by his office later this afternoon for a follow-up appointment, but I think, under the circumstances, maybe I should go ahead and take her back to the hospital. Can you reassign my stories, at least for today? I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone.”
“Already done. You call me the minute they find something out, okay?”
Clark nodded at him and left his office with Lois still in his arms, headed for the elevators. Once inside he pulled the emergency stop button. He needed to make a quick change. Superman could get her to the hospital a lot faster.
**********
To Be Continued...
