Hello everyone! We’re back – I said by Thursday and it’s only Wednesday, so we did good. Okay, Sue outdid herself on this part. She really earned her keep – not that she needed to earn anything… but she gets a big shiny gold star for this one. She saved me from myself more than once. <DJ hugs Sue> Thank you! I think that means she’s obligated to reply to fdk in this part, don’t you?

Without further delay…

Table of Contents

From Part 18:

A noise outside brought her out of her musings. Her heart leaped – Clark was back! She started to jump up from the couch but stopped when her brain finally caught up with her body and realized it wouldn’t have been Clark. Clark would have been through her window and inside her apartment without so much as a sound.

Then who? Could it have been Dan? No. Surely not. He had tried that little stunt once before, only to have met an uncomfortable fate at the end of her plunger. Besides, Dan had only come through her window because she hadn’t answered her door – and no one had knocked at her door.

There it was again... Another noise. It sounded like someone coming up the fire escape out her window. Out of a protective instinct, Lois shoved her journal under the seat cushion as she got up.

Remembering the window was still open, she ran over to close it and found herself face to face with a man in a black ski mask. She stumbled backwards and grabbed for the first thing she saw – a lamp sitting to one side of the window.

As she hurled the lamp at her attacker he lunged forward knocking them both to the floor.

She felt a sharp pain in her arm and then everything went black.

*************

PART NINETEEN

*************

A loud pounding sound gradually woke Lois from her sleep. She cracked her eyes open against the morning sunlight filtering in through the open window.

As the fogginess in her brain cleared, Lois realized she had a horribly uncomfortable crick in her neck and an equally unfriendly pounding inside her head. She chanced opening her eyes wider, only to be greeted with unfamiliar sights.

Instead of her comfortable bed with her soft feather pillow and warm comforter, she found herself lying on something hard and unyielding – and her feet and hands were freezing.

Was she on the floor?

She blinked a couple of times. Yes, she was on the floor next to her coffee table. She stared at the leg of the table in front of her – it had a few scratches on it where she’d been a little too liberal with her broom and dustpan. Lois scowled – obviously that had been a while back. She really needed to get down to this level more often, the dust bunnies were atrocious.

Grabbing onto the table with one hand, she attempted to pull herself up into a sitting position. She was rewarded for her efforts with a renewed and increased pounding in her head.

What in the world had she been doing on the floor? Had she slept there all night? She couldn’t seem to remember. She pulled herself up further and attempted to stand, before sitting down quickly on her loveseat when she got lightheaded from the room tilting at strange angles.

She took a couple of deep breaths and looked around. The place was a mess. There were papers and odds and ends all over the place. Her eyes stopped on a box lying upside down on her floor. She recognized that box – it was her memory box. It had been unceremoniously relieved of its contents – which had been scattered across the floor – and then dumped to the side. She hadn’t done that, had she? When had she taken it from the closet? Oh geez, had she become maudlin last night and decided to take a trip down memory lane? Lois tried, but couldn’t remember taking the box from her closet. Had she been drinking? Was that the reason for the headache – she was hungover?

So what had happened? She tried to think but her mind skittered away from remembering anything. It had been something bad – she could feel it. Something terrible had happened.

Lois stood up slowly, wincing as her muscles protested, and began to make her way through the rest of her apartment to survey the damage – starting with her bedroom.

Her bed had been turned down, but it didn’t appear to have been slept in. Other than that, her bedroom seemed to be in order – it didn’t have the mess in it that her living room did.

Had she been in her living room going through her memory box when she had fallen asleep? Maybe the box had fallen off the couch to the floor? Or maybe when *she* had fallen to the floor she had dumped the box and that’s why stuff was all over the floor?

Yeah, right. She was a light sleeper. She would have heard the commotion, and certainly the jarring fall to the floor would have woken her up. Not to mention the fact that simply falling to the floor wouldn’t have scattered the box’s contents like this.

So why couldn’t she remember what had happened? Lois reached up and felt the side of her head. There was a bump there and the flesh was tender. Maybe she had hit her head somehow and passed out?

She was on her way to a mirror to inspect the bruise, when she heard a noise coming from the living room. Lois moved quietly to her bedroom doorway and peeked into the living room.

A man was breaking into her apartment!

There was a dark-haired man climbing through her living room window. Lois glanced around her bedroom and her eyes fell on the bulky crystal candlestick on her dresser. She picked it up and hefted its solid weight in her hand before holding it slightly over her head in an attack position.

She peered back out her doorway. The man had made it inside her apartment and was looking around cautiously. “Lois?” the man called out. Lois frowned – he actually had the gall to try and lure her back into the living room? What had he come back for?

Bring it on, she thought at him.

She stepped back into the shadows and patiently held her ground as he made his way through her living room towards her bedroom door. When he was close enough that she could hear his breathing, she jumped out from her hiding spot with a triumphant yell and brought the candlestick down hard – smacking him across the head with it.

“Lo...” was all the man managed to say before falling to the floor with a heavy thud.

**********

Clark was almost back to Metropolis. It had been a horribly long night but, all-in-all, things had gone well. His help had gone a long way towards keeping property damage and loss of life to a minimum.

Earthquakes were never easy. When the first wave hit – what didn’t topple was loosened for the impending aftershocks – fractures in foundations, cracks in bridges and dams...

Clark was just glad it was over. He was ready to get back to Lois. When he had originally left her last night, it had been for a simple armed robbery. He hadn’t realized an earthquake was on its way and he was going to be gone for the rest of the evening.

Lois had said that she’d wait for him. A small part of him hoped that she had. He knew if she had gone to sleep that he was going to have to spend some time reacquainting her with reality. If she had stayed up last night, though, there was a chance that she would still remember everything that had happened.

But if she had stayed up, he would feel like a heel for having been gone all night and making her wait. No. No, he hoped she had gotten some restful sleep.

Clark had just changed his flight path to head towards her apartment when he heard a yell he would have known anywhere. Not only was Lois awake, something was going on. Clark poured on the speed and raced to get to her side.

***********

Lois looked down at the man she had hit over the head. Who was this lunatic? How dare he break-in on her like this! She bent down over him nervously, the candlestick at the ready in case he so much as twitched. There was a familiar whooshing sound at her living room window and she let out a relieved breath. She hurried into the next room to see Superman standing there.

“Lois? Honey, are you okay?” he asked as he came towards her.

Lois lowered the candlestick sheepishly as she replied, “Yeah, I’m okay.” Then her mind did a double-take – had he just called her ‘honey’? She was caught even more by surprise when he took her in his arms.

“What happened?” he asked softly. His mouth was close to her ear - so close that she could feel the heat from his breath.

Oh, god. If this was a dream she hoped she never woke up. “Someone broke into my apartment. I went after him with this,” she pulled away slightly to hold up her candlestick like a trophy.

Clark peered into her bedroom and saw a man’s body lying motionless, facedown on the floor. He was still breathing and Clark fought a little smile at the thought that the man deserved everything he’d just received.

He looked back at Lois. Her eyes sparkled at him invitingly. Her cheeks were flushed with excitement – had she stayed awake all night waiting for him? He wanted to hold her and kiss her more than anything in the world right now. One quick hug – and then he would check on her intruder.

Clark eased the candlestick out of her grasp, setting it on the floor, and then took hold of her shoulders, pulling her to him again just to feel her body against his. “I’m glad you’re okay. Sorry it took me so long.”

Took him so long? He had gotten here mere seconds after she had yelled. That was a pretty prompt response if you asked her. She was going to mention that when all her thought processes were brought to an abrupt halt by his lips.

She felt his breath against her neck just a fraction of a second before his mouth pressed tenderly against her skin, his lips moving in a fluttering kiss that sent a spike of heat straight through her. His arms tightened around her as his lips moved along her throat. Oh god, it was a thousand dreams come true. If she had known that Superman was going to show up here this morning and do *this*, she would have worn some better pajamas.

“Really, Superman, I’m okay,” she weakly assured him, her mouth finding the audacity to brush against his when his head lifted.

Clark gave himself over to her lips and was about to respond with a kiss of his own when he realized what she had just said. Had she just called him Superman?

Then again, she did have an intruder lying on the floor of her bedroom. It was probably better to address him as Superman and not Clark – just in case.

Her intruder could wake up at any second so Clark pushed the thought from his mind and kissed her back quickly. He slid his hands up her back after the kiss ended, holding her firmly against him, not yet willing to let go of her. In his peripheral vision he could see the man in her bedroom was still motionless. After one last squeeze, Clark pulled away from her and gave her a playful grin. “Okay, if you’re sure you’re all right. Although a more in-depth examination might not be out of the question once we’ve taken care of him,” he teased, tilting his head to indicate the man on her floor.

Lois’s heart fluttered erratically at the low tone of his voice and the unmistakable gleam in his eye. Superman was coming on to her. This was flirting with intent. He had never done anything like this before... well maybe a little, but nothing so bold or blatant as this. She felt woozy and absolutely certain that she was going to wake up at any moment now.

Clark sighed and finally released her from his arms. “I guess I’d better go check on your intruder,” he said reluctantly. Since the guy was passed out on the floor, there wasn’t really any need for him to apprehend him as Superman. All Clark needed to do was find something to tie him up with. He had been in this suit all night. It was dirty and frankly he was a little tired of wearing it... Plus, he had clean clothes that he had left here last night. “But first, I want to get out of this suit.”

Lois let out a small gasp. He was going to take the suit off? Oh. My. God! A small part of her mind wondered why, but it was quickly overcome by the part of her brain that simply didn’t care. She watched him walk over to the chair by her window and grab something off of it. When he turned, she could see what it was.

Clothes! A suit – a real suit!

How odd. Had those clothes been there all along? Or had Superman brought them with him? Why would he have brought clothes with him?

And... a suit? Really? Who knew? She was learning so much about him this morning.

Lois watched in fascination as Superman began to spin in front of her eyes. One moment he was wearing his red and blue suit and the next minute she could see that he was fully clothed in a charcoal grey suit with a white dress shirt – though she couldn’t quite make out the tie yet.

The spinning abruptly stopped and Lois stood there, her mouth gaped open, as Clark put on his glasses and smiled at her. She finally found her voice after a couple of seconds. “Y... yo...” She backed up a few steps, moving into her kitchen. How could he have hidden this from her? How could she have been so stupid not to have figured it out before? How could he have kissed her like that? He had been so... familiar with her, so different from the last hesitant kiss he had given her. “Yo... you fake... backstabbing... liar! You’re... you’re...”

When Lois had first gaped at him, Clark had thought it was just because she still wasn’t used to seeing him spin out of his suit like that. He belatedly realized there was a much bigger problem. “Lois, don’t you remember who I am?” Even if she hadn’t read her journal yet, she should still remember that Clark was Superman – she had at least retained that memory through all of this.

Lois began to back away further, holding her left hand out in front of her as if to somehow keep him back. “Remember who you are?” she all but screamed. “Which one is really you?”

Clark’s panic level had shot through the roof. “Lois, honey, calm down...”

“Honey!” she sputtered. “I’m not...” A sparkling glint from her outstretched hand caught her eye and she glanced down at it in disbelief.

She had an engagement ring on. How had she not noticed that before? Where the hell...?

A moaning coming from her bedroom caught both of their attention. Clark motioned for her to stay where she was. “Let me go in and check on him.”

Lois nodded at him, too dumbstruck by everything that was happening to argue. She moved out of the way and let him pass her to go inside her bedroom.

“Lois! Did you not look at him before you attacked him?” And then he got a strange look on his face. “Wait - what did he do to you?”

Huh? Lois walked into the bedroom as Clark knelt down to examine her attacker. “What do you mean what did he do to me? He broke into my apartment. He was going to attack me! Excuse me for not taking the time to interview the guy first. What did you expect me to do?”

“Attack you? What do you mean?” There was that odd expression on his face again - Lois didn’t know what to make of it. Irritation? Anger?

Just then, the man’s eyes opened and he winced as he looked up at Lois. “Geez, Lois, a plunger’s one thing – what are you trying to do, kill me?”

“How do you know my name?” she asked warily.

The two men exchanged worried glances. “What were you doing here, Dan?” Clark asked her attacker. Lois did a double-take. Did he just call him Dan? Clark knew this man?

“Whoa, Kent. Slow down. It’s not what you think. I was not ‘attacking’ her... or even anything remotely like that...”

“What *were* you doing here?” Clark snapped back at him.

“I was out late last night,” ‘Dan’ paused and glanced over at Lois before continuing, “really late. I had a couple of drinks...”

Clark motioned for him to get on with it.

“Anyway,” ‘Dan’ continued, “when I got back to my hotel room this morning, it had been trashed. I got worried so I came over here to check on Lois. I pounded on the door, but no one answered...”

“So you thought it would be a good idea to climb down her fire escape and through her window to check on her?” Clark shook his head in disbelief. “I knew that was going to get you into trouble some day. Of all the idiotic things to do. You knew Lois was having memory problems. You shouldn’t have scared her like that.”

Dan frowned at him. “Hey, don’t talk down to me, Kent. I was only going to take a look inside, to make sure she was okay. But when I got to her window and looked in, Lois was nowhere to be seen,” he shook his head and his eyes darkened, “and the place was a mess – stuff was everywhere. I knew something was wrong.”

Clark nodded, seeming appeased for the moment, and offered a hand to help Dan up. He rubbed his head gingerly once he was upright.

Lois was scowling at both of them. “Memory problems? Wait a minute – wait just one minute,” she interjected. “I’m supposed to know this man? Is that the memory problem you’re talking about?”

Both men just stared at her and she felt her panic increase.

She shook her head emphatically. What was Clark’s game? Was being Superman not enough of a joke to play on her? “I’ve never seen this man before in my life! Trust me. I would remember.” She sniffed in dismissal.

“What?” Dan asked, looking for all the world like a lost puppy.

Clark’s stomach began to hurt. “You said your hotel room was broken into?” Dan looked away from Lois and nodded at him. “And you said when you came here this morning that the place was already trashed?” Another nod. Clark had assumed at first that the place had gotten trashed when Lois had discovered her ‘intruder’ – Dan - and went after him. “So that means...”

“That someone else broke in here last night,” Dan finished for him. He turned to look at Lois. “Do you remember *anything* from last night?”

“Let me handle this, Dan.” Clark took Lois gently by the shoulders and turned her towards him. She looked like she wanted to protest, but she didn’t say anything. “You don’t remember how your apartment got trashed, do you?”

She shook her head.

“Lois, this man is DEA Agent Daniel Scardino.”

Lois gaped. A DEA agent? She had hit a government official over the head and knocked him unconscious? Wonderful! She was in so much trouble. Assault with a deadly weapon... well, a candlestick wasn’t exactly a deadly weapon. Maybe they’d get her on assault with deadly intent...

“But that’s ridiculous! How could she not remember me?” Dan interrupted. “She said she was only missing a few weeks of her memory?”

Clark held up a hand to silence him.

Lois’s eyes went even wider. “Missing a few weeks of my memory! What’s he talking about?”

“Just a minute, Lois. I promise to explain everything, but I need to know what we’re dealing with here.” Clark let out a soft sigh before asking, “What’s the last thing you *do* remember?” He dreaded to hear the answer.

Lois thought hard for a few seconds. Everything seemed really hazy and jumbled up, but the last thing she remembered very clearly was...

No!

“Oh, Clark! I’m so sorry.” She reached up and laid her hand across his hand on her shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze. “The last thing I remember clearly is... Mayson... she died last night.”

Clark’s heart shattered. The Lois who had agreed to marry him was gone. “That’s the last thing you remember? You don’t remember Dan investigating Mayson’s death? You don’t remember Jason Mazik kidnapping my parents? You don’t remember having Superman freeze you?”

Her look of confusion was answer enough. Clark let his hands fall limply from her shoulders. Even Kryptonite had never made him feel this weak before, this helpless. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, a note on Lois’s fridge caught his attention. It was the note that she normally put on her alarm clock when she went to bed, but here it remained. That and the smell of coffee that had been left warming too long, told him that she had obviously planned to stay awake until he returned.

But then what had happened? Someone had broken in, that much was clear from the state of her living room. Was it a random act? Or had it been someone involved with Nirvana? It wouldn’t do any good to ask Lois. “Dan, do you have any idea who broke into your hotel room?”

Dan shook his head. “No, but I’d bet you a month’s salary that whoever it was worked for Intergang.” Dan got up the nerve to move a little closer to Lois and Clark restrained himself from physically backing him up a bit. “I’m real sorry about what happened. I wish I had been here.” Dan gave her arm a soft squeeze before looking up at Clark. “At this point I even wish Kent had been here... or Superman.” He paused for a moment and then frowned. “Where was Superman?”

Lois gave Clark a look that could pierce steel. “I don’t know. Clark, where do *you* suppose Superman was?”

Clark panicked for a brief moment, afraid in her anger at him that she might reveal a little too much to Dan. But then her eyes softened apologetically and she looked away from him. No, this might not be the Lois he had proposed to last night, but she was Lois, regardless. She would never put him in danger or compromise him by revealing anything. He caught her eyes again and tried to silently ask forgiveness as he said, “Um, I think I heard that he was in Japan assisting with the earthquake last night.”

“Oh, yeah – seems like I heard something about that on the TV at the bar. I had forgotten,” Dan admitted.

Lois’s eyes widened as she looked back at Clark but if she was feeling any emotion, she kept it well hidden. “I’m sure if he could have been here, he would have,” she said softly.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a few moments and Clark sought for a way to break it. He needed to get Dan out of here so he could talk to Lois privately. “Dan, I’m going to take Lois to see Dr. Peterson about why she’s had this memory relapse. Why don’t you head down to the police precinct and inform Henderson about the break-in at your hotel and the break-in here? We’ll meet back up with you at the Planet later.”

Dan looked like he wanted to argue but he couldn’t. “Sure. Take care of her. I’ll catch up with you later.” He walked over to Lois’s door and undid the locks before opening it and making his exit.

Clark turned his nervous gaze back to Lois. He could see the fire that was still burning in her eyes, but it had lessened and was now intermingled with a look of confusion... and maybe just a little fear.

“Lois,” Clark began hesitantly. “I know this must be hard to believe. I could get you a copy of today’s paper so you can see the date. Or maybe I could...”

“How long?” she cut him off.

Clark shook his head. “How long?”

She sighed in disgust. “How long have I been missing my memory?”

“You’ve been missing parts of your memory for almost a week now, but if you’re asking how *much* of your memory is now missing – Mayson was murdered almost six months ago.”

Lois’s face blanched. She pulled out a chair from her kitchen table and sat down. “Six months? That’s...” She wanted to say impossible, but obviously it wasn’t. “How? I just... can’t believe it.” How had this happened? A feeling of panic was threatening to overwhelm her and she could feel tears trying to start in her eyes.

No. No, she wasn’t going to cry. Especially not in front of Clark... or Superman, for that matter. She pushed a plate out of the way on her table and laid her head down on her arm, trying to conceal her face until she could get herself under control.

Clark picked the plate up out of her way and took it over to her sink. After things settled down, he should help her clean up her apartment. He looked down at the plate. There was something still on it. Was that honey? She must have gotten hungry after he left last night. Where did she keep her scrub brush? It would take more than just water to get that off. Maybe he could soak it? He was just about to turn on the water when he heard her mumbling.

“What about you?” The words were so soft and muffled against her arm, that he barely heard them.

“What about me?” he repeated quietly, setting the plate down inside the sink. He hesitated for a moment and then went to her. He desperately wanted to make contact with her.

Lois felt Clark’s hands settle lightly on her shoulders. She fought the urge to shrug them away. Superman, she thought. All this time, Clark was Superman. At what point had he told her? Obviously they were still dating... or something. The ring on her hand sent a nervous excitement through her. Was she engaged to Superman? His hands began to softly knead the tension from her shoulders and she gave in to the sensation. She turned her head to look up at him. She could see his apprehension - he wore it plainly on his face.

“How long have I known?” she asked quietly, gesturing back at him, “You know - about you?”

“For a month,” he said quietly, moving his hands from her shoulders to softly caress her back. “I’m sorry, Lois. I can only imagine how frustrating and scary this must be. Ask me anything, anything you want to know, and I’ll tell you. But I do think we should get you to see Dr. Peterson and have him check...”

Lois abruptly held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger. “Anything?” Her voice broke just a little. “Then tell me about this.”

Clark’s heart clenched in his chest. She didn’t remember everything they had come through to get to this point. In her mind, they had only had a first date – and one that had ended in tragedy. “I asked you to marry me. But you don’t...”

“When?”

“I proposed to you a month ago. But it wasn’t until last night that you finally said, ‘yes’.” He took his hand from her back and ran it through his hair.

A month ago. Wasn’t that when he had said she found out he was Superman? “So you told me you were Superman and then you proposed?”

Clark’s face seem to pale just slightly. “Not exactly.” He swallowed. “It was more like you figured it out. When I asked you to marry me, you asked me who was asking.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Clark! You asked me to marry you without my knowing the truth?” She jumped up out of her chair and walked a few paces away from him. “How could you do that?”

He wanted to follow her. He wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her how sorry he was about everything. Tell her how they had moved past all of this and she had forgiven him. But he didn’t. He couldn’t. This was going to take time, and patience... lots of patience. Not his best quality.

“I understand if you’re upset.” He dropped his voice a little and bit back the sorrow that had overtaken him. “And I’ll understand if you want to give me the ring back.” Clark walked over to her and took her left hand in his. “But please believe me when I say that you chose to put it on.”

You wanted to be my wife, he thought to himself. For just a little while you were mine.

Lois pulled her hand away and nervously twisted the ring on her finger. If Clark had lied to her about who he really was, how could she believe him now? How could she believe that everything he was telling her was the truth?

She looked up from the ring and into his face, searching it. She wasn’t really sure what she was going to find - the answer to universe probably, as hard as she was staring at it. “Can you understand how confusing this is? How hard this is to believe?” she asked quietly. “How impossible...?

Clark looked hurt, but if he was, he didn’t say anything. “Yes. But you have a journal that you’ve been keeping this past week. You write in it each night about what’s happened that day. Maybe when you read from it, things will make a little more sense.” He began looking around her apartment. “It’s a leather burgundy book about this big.” He held up his hands to illustrate.

“Where do I keep it?”

“Usually in your bedroom next to your bed or on your coffee table with your memory box.” Clark lowered his glasses and looked into her bedroom. It wasn’t in there. He walked into her living room, into the disaster that used to be the contents of her memory box. Moving at super speed, he sorted through and reorganized the items – putting everything back inside the box in a few seconds.

The journal wasn’t there, and neither was the Nirvana sample or Dr. Klein’s notes. Whoever the thief had been, he had known what he was looking for – and he had taken them.

Clark looked up from his futile treasure hunt to find Lois staring at him, a look of amazement on her face.

“He really is you... you really are him, aren’t you?” she asked softly, continuing to stare.

Clark shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. He had forgotten what it felt like to have Lois look at him in Superman-inspired awe. “Yeah... I’m sorry, but it looks like whoever broke in here last night took your journal and our notes and sample of a drug we’ve been researching for a story. That must have been what they were looking for.”

“My journal?”

“No. Well, maybe, but only because you had notes in your journal about the drug – Nirvana. Somehow, someone learned that you had the sample and notes here and so they broke in and stole them.” Clark frowned grimly. He was going to need to talk to Henderson about this. Could Dr. Klein really be involved? Dr. Klein was the only one who knew that Clark had obtained that sample and those notes from Mandy. Clark hadn’t told anyone else besides Lois.

And if the thief had broken in here, looking for them, had they also broken into Clark’s apartment? It was impossible that anyone knew Clark had hidden the items here at Lois’s. Wouldn’t they have checked his place first? A wave of nausea swept over him as he thought about what they might have found. He’d had near-misses before. Jack had broken into his apartment a couple of years ago and then Diana Stride had let herself in and had tried to expose his secret identity to the world. Clark had built a special revolving wine rack to hide his Superman paraphernalia in. But that didn’t mean that someone who was really determined might not have found it.

“Lois, we can talk more about this later. I promise. Anything you want to know, I’ll tell you,” he assured her, walking over and taking her hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. “But we need to get you in to see Dr. Peterson. We need to find out why your memory has regressed further. While you get dressed and get ready, I’m going to swing by my apartment and take a quick shower and check things out. See if anyone tried to break in at my place as well.” Clark glanced over at her window. “After I leave, I want you to close this window and lock it and lock your door. Don’t open it for anyone but me, okay?”

“Clark?” she asked as he went to the door. “It is Clark, isn’t it? I mean...”

“It’s Clark,” he answered, giving her a sad smile.

The tears she had held back suddenly reappeared. What had happened between them in those missing six months? The kiss he had given her at the window and the ring on her finger made her mourn for the moments she had lost. He was her best friend, but now he was obviously more than that and she had no clue how to get those memories back.

Suddenly she didn't want him to leave. What else might she forget before she saw him again?

"You said Superman froze me?"

His eyes closed briefly. "Yes. In fact, that's when you figured out that I was Superman. I touched your cheek just before I froze you."

"Show me."

Clark swallowed and then stepped closer to her, reaching out to cup her cheek in his hand. "Like this," he whispered.

Her hand reached up to cover his and, for just a second, Lois felt an almost overwhelming sensation of love and fear and hope. She looked up at him and gave him a watery smile. "You said someone had kidnapped your parents?"

"They're fine." His thumb slid across her cheekbone, wiping away the tear that had slipped loose. "You helped save them."

Her bottom lip trembled and she closed her eyes. "I don't remember."

"I do," he said in a fierce whisper. "I'll never forget how brave you were."

Her eyes opened and met his. They were his eyes – Superman’s and Clark’s. They had such tenderness and love in them. Lois held back more tears. She might have been brave then, but she was scared to death now. “Clark, I’m scared.” She closed the distance between them hesitantly – torn between her confusion and her need to feel safe... in his arms.

“I know. Me too,” he whispered. Clark couldn’t fight the desire to hold her any longer. He slid his hand from her face to the back of her of her head, drawing her to him as he slid his other arm around her waist. “But I won’t let anything happen to you. I’m here for you, Lois. I will always be here for you.”

Lois let him hold her, snuggling a little closer to him as she realized what he said was the truth. Even if nothing else made sense, she knew she could trust in that feeling. She had always turned to Clark and he had always been there for her. "I know. It's the weirdest thing, but I still trust you."

Clark pulled away from her, softly kissing her forehead as he reluctantly withdrew from their embrace. "I'll be back in half an hour to pick you up, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded as his hand dropped away and he turned back to the door.

There were so many more questions that she wanted to ask him. So much more she needed to know. And yet, just knowing that Clark was Superman was revelation enough to deal with for today. Something told her she had a good fifty revelations left to go – maybe more – before she really understood what had happened in her life.

So it would be good if Clark left for a while. It would give her a chance to clear her mind and quiet her thoughts so she could make sense out of things.

And then she could figure out where that left her.

**********

To Be Continued...


Smile and the world smiles with you ... frown and you're just giving yourself wrinkles.