Hello everyone! Are we ready for some b-plot this time? <g>
Table of Contents From Part 13:
“Since you’re trying to help Dr. Klein, I trust you, Mr. Kent. Bernie didn’t do this.” Mandy typed on the keyboard, keeping her eyes and mouth, face forward. “It’s not in him. Someone is setting him up and as much as I hate to think it’s one of the other doctors... I’m inclined to agree with you. And if that’s the case, then I have to be really careful. I don’t want those goons coming after me.” She edged her way over to the printer sitting on the other side of the desk. “I printed off the list of doctors with access, for you. I’m also printing off Dr. Klein’s notes on the formula for Project Nirvana. I’m going to go remove the sample and put it in my purse. When you go with me to get me a cup of coffee, I’ll slip it to you.”
Clark reached up and scratched his cheek, trying to keep the motion casual.
“I want to help Bernie, really I do. But please don’t involve me any further. The Board of Directors asked me a lot of questions, as well as the police. The less I know, the better off I am... and Dr. Klein. But I’ll do this much, for Bernie. He’s been like a father to me. He gave me a job here when no one else would give me the time of day. I owe him this much.”
She took the badge from around her neck and swiped it across a keycard reader. “I’m going into the cold storage vault to retrieve the sample. Just wait for me here.”
She handed a computer print out to him and walked off. Clark glanced down at the list. There weren’t too many names – that should help narrow it down. He checked his watch. He was going to be late meeting Lois at the prison.
**************
PART FOURTEEN
**************
Lois found herself looking up into the sky again before glancing back down at her watch. Where was he? Had he run into a snag down at the precinct? Maybe she should go on inside and talk to Bill, Jr. without him?
She reached for the door handle of her Jeep but then pulled her hand back. No. She would give him a few more minutes. If she went inside and started without Clark, she’d have to wait to talk to him until after the interview.
She looked back up through the windshield, shading her eyes with her hand as she scanned the sky for the familiar red and blue. Her mouth twitched into a smirk as she realized just how strange it was to be staring up into the sky watching for Clark. She used to wonder why he didn’t have a car. He certainly made enough money as a reporter for the Planet to have one. She used to think that surely a car would be cheaper than him taking a taxi everywhere.
Her smile widened. Now she knew that he rarely took a taxi. Not unless he was trying to maintain the ruse that he actually needed one.
She wondered how many times he had to do something because of things that were beyond his control. What things did he sometimes have to give up or sacrifice because of who he was?
How much of that sacrifice would she have to share in if they got married?
All of it. She wasn’t going into this half-committed. She knew what she would be committing to – *who* she would be committing to – once she accepted that ring.
Lois glanced over at her journal lying on the passenger seat. She picked it up and dug a pen out of her purse and began writing.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but she was lost in thought when her door was slowly opened. She looked up to see Clark smiling at her. She smiled back as she realized he was wearing his suit coat – the one he’d left at her apartment.
“Sorry it took me so long. Dr. Klein asked me to run by STAR Labs to get some of his notes and information from his assistant.”
She closed her journal and tucked it under one arm, accepting the hand he was offering to help her out of the Jeep. “That’s all right. Gave me a little time to play catch up.” She leaned up and gave him quick kiss, laying her hands on his chest as she did so. She slid one hand down a bit, where his inner pocket would be. When she didn’t feel anything there, she did her best to hide her disappointment. He had taken it back home. “I see you remembered where you left your coat,” she remarked casually, pulling away from him and turning around to close her door.
Clark could tell something had upset her. She had seemed fine until that kiss. She had kissed him and then ran her hands down... Oh, no. Surely she hadn’t...
Well, of course she had. When he had gone to pick up his coat, it hadn’t been lying where it had fallen to the floor. It had been neatly folded and laid across the arm of her love seat.
He opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say, but she started talking first, “What were you able to get at STAR Labs?”
Still unsure of how to broach the other subject, he opted to just answer her question. “Dr. Klein’s notes on Nirvana. A list of people with access to the section of the lab that was broken in to, and this...” He pulled a small brown glass bottle out of his side jacket pocket.
Lois looked from that side pocket to his other side pocket. Maybe he hadn’t taken it home? Maybe he had just put it in another pocket...? She brushed that thought away and took the bottle from him, shaking it and hearing the liquid slosh inside. “Nirvana?”
He nodded. “I’m not exactly sure what Dr. Klein wanted me to do with it – he just didn’t think it was safe to leave it at STAR Labs.” He reached back into the same pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “The list of people with access to Dr. Klein’s lab is pretty short. I thought we could give it to Jimmy when we get back and let him do some digging for us.”
She took the paper from him and glanced at it. There weren’t any names on it that stood out to her – although would she remember if there were? She shrugged and handed the paper and bottle back to him. She glanced at his side pocket again. What had he done with it? Did he still have it? Had he taken it home? It was killing her – she hated not knowing.
She could just ask him...
“Clark...” she began, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She sighed. “We’d better get going if we want to get finished in time to meet up with Dan for lunch.”
Dan? Clark held back a grimace. “We’re having lunch with Dan?”
“Yeah,” Lois said as she started walking towards the entry to the prison. “He called me this morning to see where I was. He was supposed to meet up with us at the Planet and apparently I had forgotten to tell him about my doctor appointment.”
Clark followed behind her, feeling himself growing nervous. “What did he say?” She hadn’t told Dan about her appointment? Had she not told him about her ‘condition’ either? It probably wouldn’t do any good to ask her – she wouldn’t remember.
“Not much. He was just... you know, Dan.”
Yes, Clark knew. And Clark knew that if Dan didn’t know, but Dan found out later, that Dan would make sure Lois knew what it was that Lois didn’t know – that she had gone on a ‘date’ with Dan. And if Lois found out that she had gone on a date with Dan, she would know things weren’t right between *them*. Clark shook his head feeling a little dizzy from his inner ramblings. Dan could ruin this... he could ruin it so easily. “But you told him we were *both* joining him for lunch?”
“Yes, of course.”
Clark was going to have to tell her what had happened, everything, and he needed to tell her before she found out some other way. He looked up as the prison loomed in front of them. Now wasn’t the time though.
But he would have to find the time. Soon.
**********
Bill, Jr. sat down, pulling the phone off the wall with a smirk on his face. “Keep this up, Ms. Lane, and I’ll see that the warden gets you a reserved parking spot.”
Lois scowled at him. “Did you hire the hit on Dr. Klein?” She held the phone between herself and Clark, where they could both hear the receiver. She knew he didn’t need the phone to hear what Bill was saying – but there was that ‘appearances’ thing again.
“What?” He looked from Lois to Clark. “Your boyfriend should keep you on a tighter leash, Lane. Someday you’re going to make one too many of your wild accusations.”
Clark swore that the only thing keeping Lois from lunging across to throttle Bill was the pane of glass between them. He reached over and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze before tilting the receiver towards his mouth. “Just answer her question, Church. Were you behind the attack on Dr. Klein?”
Bill furrowed his brow at them. “Have you looked around?” He gestured around the room at nothing in particular. “How could I attack Dr. Klein?”
Lois lurched forward, snatching the phone with her as she went. “You can cut the crap,” she growled. “Everyone in this room knows how far reaching Intergang is.” Clark leaned forward, still trying to keep up the ruse that he needed to be close to the phone to hear. He put his hand on her back and gave it a gentle rub.
“Uh, yeah, whatever. Listen, I don’t even know who this Klein guy is.” Bill, Jr. stood up.
“He’s the doctor who was working on Nirvana,” Lois said hurriedly before Bill could take the phone from his ear. “I told you that STAR Labs had been broken into and the sample stolen. You told me to check out Mindy. We did – we haven’t been able to connect her to anything. Then last night a carload of thugs shot at Dr. Klein and Clark.”
Bill leaned forward and pointed at her through the glass. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told you last time, Ms. Lane. If you want a lead, go stalk Mindy for a while. Me?” He gestured to himself, “I’m just working on my ‘good behavior’.” He sneered at them as he lowered the phone from his ear.
Lois was about to yell loudly into the phone that he better not hang up on her, when Bill brought the phone back up to his ear. “I will give you one piece of advice. If Mindy is behind this and she’s helping Knox and trying to set me up, you can bet that she’ll find a way to make the evidence in lockup for the trial disappear too.”
With that, he slammed the phone down on the receiver and walked out of the room, leaving Lois and Clark to think about what he had just said.
**********
Clark held the visitation room door open for Lois and escorted her through with his hand held softly against the small of her back. They walked out of the prison into the bright daylight of mid-morning.
“We should probably warn Henderson about what Bill said,” Lois told him, digging through her purse.
“I agree. When we get back to the Planet, I’ll call to check on the videotape and let him know what Bill said.” Clark watched her curiously as she stopped and opened her purse wider. She started taking items out – her billfold, a small can of mace, a tube of lipstick... “Lois, is something wrong?” His hand left her back as she began holding items out for him to take.
“My keys. I can’t find my keys.” She dropped her head suddenly and let out a choice expletive. “I locked them in the Jeep!”
“What?”
“I was... a little distracted. I didn’t get them out of the ignition before I shut the door.”
“Are you sure?”
She scowled at him.
“I meant about locking the doors,” he hastily amended. “If you forgot to grab your keys, maybe you forgot to lock the doors.” They hurried over to the Jeep and tried the doors.
Nope. They were locked.
“Can you get it open?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“You know...” She looked around conspiratorially. “With your one of your powers.”
Clark couldn’t help himself and he chuckled. “Lois, there isn’t a power in heaven or on Earth that could get me inside that car – unless you don’t mind a broken window.”
She grimaced. “Let’s not be hasty. I guess I’ll just have to call a locksmith.” She glanced back towards the prison. “Or... I bet one of the guards in the prison could jimmy it open.” She turned around to walk back.
Clark reached out to stop her. “Or I could fly you home to get your spare key. You do have a spare key, don’t you?”
She smiled at him and nodded. “Yeah. I do. Good idea.”
Clark looked around. There weren’t any good places to make a quick change. The area around the prison was under surveillance and didn’t have anything that would provide any cover. Clark glanced further down the road from the prison. A stretch of the road was shaded by a row of trees. That would work. They’d just have to walk for a little bit.
“Come on,” Clark said, taking Lois gently by the arm.
“Where are we going?”
“I need someplace to *change*. Let’s head for those trees,” he suggested, pointing.
“Oh.” She slid her hand into his as they started to walk and a tingle ran up his arm. Clark knew he should talk to her. This was the perfect time. No one was around – it was just the two of them. No Dan. No outside interruptions. Now was the perfect time to tell her the truth.
But he didn’t know where to start. He still hadn’t figured out exactly what he needed to say.
And so, instead, they walked in silence.
Lois hated the silence. It felt so uncomfortable. But she couldn’t seem to work up the courage to ask him if he still had the ring with him. She glanced down, nonchalantly, at his pants pocket. There was something in it – something was keeping it from lying flat.
She gave his hand a squeeze. He squeezed back. She swung their joined hands slightly a few times and then she bumped them against his hip – against the object in his pocket.
Even though it was just the back of her hand, she could tell it was hard, whatever it was. Hard and bulky and somewhat square-shaped.
Could it be?
It was driving her to distraction. She wasn’t going to be able to think about anything else until she found out for sure. She was hardly able to think right now. But there was no subtle way to stick her hand in his pocket to find out. So... she would give up being subtle in favor of being direct.
She pulled her hand from his grasp and slipped it inside his pocket.
“Lois!” Clark almost stumbled, more than a little startled by what she’d done. “What are you doing?”
“I’m sorry, Clark, I just had to see...” She closed her fingers around the object and pulled her hand free. Lois looked down at what she was holding - Clark’s beeper. “...your beeper?”
Clark couldn’t help himself, the baffled look on Lois’s face caused a small chuff to escape his lips.
Lois looked up at the sound and found Clark grinning from ear to ear. She gave in to the absurdity of the situation and laughed with him.
“You had to see my beeper, huh?” he asked her, his voice echoing his laugh.
“Uh... yeah, I guess so.” She giggled again and flashed him a smile.
Her smile could melt steel. He should know – that smile was melting his resolve right now. Clark knew what she was looking for. He reached out and took the pager from her, slipping it into his other pants’ pocket and then withdrawing the ring box. Lois immediately stopped giggling.
“Is this what you were looking for?” he asked, the laughter gone from his voice - a quiet intensity in its place. She nodded. “I decided I’d better keep it in a pocket where it couldn’t get misplaced so easily.”
Lois bit her bottom lip. What was he going to say? What was he going to do? The small girl inside her was just dying, hoping that he’d drop down to one knee right then and propose. “Can I see it?” She reached out tentatively for the box.
Clark opened the box and she gasped a short breath before she reached out to pull it from its cushion. “I peeked earlier,” she admitted, “when I found it in your coat. I had forgotten how beautiful it was.”
She started to slide the ring on her finger, but Clark stopped her. “No. Don’t put it on until it’s for real. I... I can’t see it on your hand unless it’s real.” His chest was so tight that it was making it hard for him to breathe.
“Then make it real, Clark.”
Clark’s legs felt weak and he took a step back from her. “I...”
Lois took a step forward and took hold of his hand with hers. “I’m ready.”
“I...”
“Clark, what are you waiting for?”
“You. I’m waiting for you, Lois. I’m ready, too, but this isn’t right. The timing’s just not right. You barely even remember me proposing to you the first time and your memory of the past month is spotty at best. I don’t want you to make this decision until its right, until you’re sure.”
Lois felt the lump in her throat a second or two before the sting in her eyes. He was afraid to ask her. She had lost her memory and woke up every day to have to start over again... he didn’t want her like this.
She turned away from him, hurt and angry but unable to find her voice to say anything.
“Hey,” Clark said softly, touching her shoulder. “Look at me.” She turned back to look at him, fire burning in her eyes as tears threatened to spill out of them and wash down her cheeks.
The concerned look on Clark’s face turned to agony. What had he done? “Lois? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” her shaky voice asked with a hiccup. “You don’t want me.”
“What? No!” He was aghast – she had completely misunderstood him.
“Yes, Clark. I wake up every day to start over. I can’t make new memories with you - all I can do is read about them in a book. You’re afraid. You don’t want to make a commitment to live a life with someone like that.” She turned around and started to walk away.
Clark rushed after her and caught her by the shoulders, turning her to face him. “No, Lois. You don’t understand...”
“Yes, I do. And I guess I really can’t blame you. Who would want to be married to someone who woke up in the morning shocked and afraid to find their self lying in bed next to someone?” Her voice was trembling worse now and her bottom lip had started to quiver. “I wouldn’t even be able to remember my wedding day.” That was the final straw - she gave herself over and began to cry. “Or my honeymoon night,” she whispered hoarsely.
Clark pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. “That’s not true. You’re going to get better – you’re already remembering things on your own.” She cried quietly against his chest, her body shaking softly. “Shhhh. It’s okay,” he soothed, stroking the back of her head tenderly. “I’m here. I’m right here.”
“But you’re avoiding me,” she mumbled against his chest. She pulled her head away and looked into his eyes, her face lined with pain. “And you don’t want to propose to me until you know for sure that I’m going to get better.”
Clark took her firmly by the shoulders and then lifted her chin up with one hand. “Look at me, Lois. I want you to *really* hear me. That’s not true. That’s not true at all. I would marry you tomorrow. I would marry you even if the doctor told me that your memory was never going to come back. I love you...”
Lois started to cry again. She hated that she was such an emotional wreck but the stress of everything was taking its toll and it was just all too much. “Oh, Clark,” she sobbed through her tears.
“I love you, Lois.” He slid his hand into her hair and drew her to him again. “And I want you.” He echoed his words from the night before, even though he knew she wouldn’t remember them. “But I want you to know, really know, what’s happened. And, as long as there’s a chance that you’re going to remember everything, I want to wait. I want us both to know, each morning, the depth of our commitment to each other. I’ll wait for you, Lois. I told you I would wait as long as you needed and I meant that. I love you and I’ll wait for you.”
He leaned down and kissed her cheek softly; and she turned her face, tilting it to capture his lips with hers. Clark could taste the salty tears from her cheek and he moved one hand to cradle her face, his thumb smoothing away the moisture as he took a long, slow draw from her lips.
Lois slid one arm behind his back and brought her other hand up around his neck, pulling against him, deepening the kiss. She began to feel an urgency in his actions as he made longer and more insistent demands from her mouth, and it excited her.
Clark, the man who always held himself in check, who always tried to remain in control, was losing himself to her. They both knew it. He broke contact with her lips to kiss her chin, her throat and down to the base of her neck.
The attentions of his lips affected her so deeply that her breath caught in her throat and she opened her eyes to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Then she realized they were still standing a few hundred feet from the prison, on the side of a road, in broad daylight.
“Clark...”
“Yes,” he murmured, taking a soft nibble of her earlobe.
“Oh... Do you think...”
“Mmmm...?” He left a trail of kisses down the side of her neck.
Lois let out a sweet sigh and tried again, “Do you think we could do this someplace a little more private and a little less out in the open? Maybe not on the side of a paved road?”
Clark looked up at her and grinned mischievously. “Your place or mine?” he asked before moving his lips back down to her neck.
“Well I do still need to... aaah... get my umm... oh, please, Clark. My keys.”
“Your place it is.”
**********
Clark - still uncomfortable with the idea of being seen too often with Lois as Superman – set them down in an alleyway close to her apartment building and changed into his clothes before they made a hurried dash to the front door of her building.
The second they were inside the quiet privacy of Lois's apartment building’s stairwell, they were kissing again. They moved unsteadily up the stairs a couple of steps at a time - hands moving insistently against one another’s bodies, their urgent breathing the only sound filling the emptiness of the staircase.
Lois missed a step and started to fall, but Clark caught her and moved them so that she landed in his lap. He kissed her long and deep, untucking her blouse from the waist of her skirt so that his fingers could skim along the soft skin of her lower back. She moaned and shifted against him and the friction caused every thought but one to desert him - they needed to get inside her apartment. Clark cradled her in his arms and carried her up the remaining stairs, his feet barely making contact with the floor.
As they neared her apartment door, he set her back down. She put her arms around his neck again and pulled him down for another kiss. He walked her backwards, guiding her towards her door and then she broke the kiss long enough to pant, "Keys. I don't have my keys."
He kissed her hungrily before asking, "You don't happen to have one hidden somewhere do you?"
She shook her head no as she found his mouth again. He drew her bottom lip into his mouth and sucked lightly on it, considering whether or not to just break down her door. Probably not a good idea. "Do you still leave your window unlocked for me?"
They had come to her door and Lois let out a startled gasp as his body pressed tightly against hers. "I don't remember, remember?"
He smiled as he kissed her again, using the leverage of the door behind her to intensify the kiss. He shifted, rocking his body against hers, thrilling them both with the result. This wasn't nearly enough for him anymore - not when there were couches and privacy behind her door. And a bed, his hormones whispered. She's got a bed in there, too. But it was no good to either of them while they were still in her hallway - he had to fix that first. Clark reluctantly pulled away from her.
"I'll go find out," he said, his voice thick with need.
Lois leaned against the door, her head spinning. God, what a time not to have her keys! Suddenly she was losing ground to the door, falling sideways only to land on her couch at the same time she heard the door slam shut.
Clark settled his weight carefully on top of her and whispered, "Lois, you don't know how much I've missed kissing you like this," he said, kissing her again. "And like this," he added breathlessly, his mouth moving to taste the line of her jaw.
"You've missed it?" she panted in between partings. "I don't even remember it," she complained. "I don't even begin to know how to write this down in my journal."
Clark smiled against her lips before taking a deeper taste of her.
"Oh, please, Clark. I need to feel your hands on me."
Clark shifted, putting his weight on one arm while he ran the other hand just underneath the hem of her blouse. She shivered as his fingers brushed over her abdomen.
"Yes. God, that feels good," she moaned, her hands pulling on Clark's shirt to touch the warm smooth skin of his back. Had he even worn the suit to go through her window? "Where's the suit?"
"Left it," he punctuated his words with short kisses along her neck, "by... the window... when I... came in."
Clark's brain was screaming at him. What are you doing? You need to stop now. Now. Stop now. She won't remember any of this tomorrow. It's not fair.
Lois's body was begging for more, pleading with her. She didn't care if she didn't remember any of this tomorrow. Right now all that mattered was him - his lips, his hands, and this moment.
Then she felt an odd sensation against her hip. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation but, at first, she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.
"Clark? Are you vibrating?"
"What?" he asked and then sighed when he realized his pager was going off. "It's my beeper."
He pulled it out of his pants pocket, intending to toss it across the room and retrieve it later. But he looked at the display first, out of habit.
It was the number for the police precinct. It was Henderson.
**********
To Be Continued...
