Yeah! Clark is awake! There are so many emotions here; Lois is angry, hurt relieved...and Clark is scared, embarrassed, relieved. He should be much more angry at Lois than he is showing because he was about to give up a lot more than she was.
She started to walk over and get some wet paper towels to blot him with again when Clark’s hand on her arm stopped her.
“Lois?” he said hoarsely.
No matter how disoriented Clark becomes, somehow he always knows Lois and she is always the first one he wants to be there.
He sucked in an unsteady breath. Why did it hurt so much to breathe? The left side of his body felt like it was on fire. “Ouch,” he moaned.
“I know. I’m sorry,” Lois soothed. “I can go get the nurse, maybe she can give you some more pain medication or someth...” She broke off because Clark was struggling, trying to sit up in bed. “Wait, Clark! Don’t do that! You’re going to hurt yourself. You might rip a stitch!” She put her hands on his shoulders and tried to force him to lie back down.
“No, Lois,” he said weakly. “Please.” He groaned. “I’m gonna... ugh... I’m gonna be sick.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed and began frantically searching for something in the darkness... There! She spotted the outline of a kidney-shaped basin. She hadn’t been in the hospital often but she knew enough to know what one of those pink plastic tubs was for. She snatched it up and held it under Clark’s face. He heaved a couple of times and a little bit of bile came out. Lois wrinkled her nose at the sight of it and then looked away.
She hadn’t ever been a very good nurturer, but she knew how awful she felt whenever she threw up so she used her free hand to rub Clark’s back lightly. “That’s it,” she soothed. “You’re just probably a little nauseous from the concussion, or maybe from the pain meds.”
He took a shuddering breath and lay back in bed. “Thank you,” he told her quietly. He could now add stomach cramps to his list of bodily aches and pains.
No matter what has transpired between them, Lois is willing to do whatever to help Clark and he is grateful that she is there to care for him.
“Did they stop the wedding?” That wasn’t really the first question he had meant to ask, but it was what came out first.
After all of that, he is still concerned about Lois and the danger she could be in if she were married to Lex Luthor.
“I’m going to LexCorp,” she stated rather matter-of-factly.
That caught him off guard. “What? Why?”
She slung her purse over her shoulder and came back to his bed. She started to lean down to hug him goodbye but stopped short and stood back up, feeling very tentative about close contact with him right at this second. Her feelings were all jumbled up inside. She felt so confused and after listening to what he had gone through the past few days...
Lois suppressed a shudder. What must he think of her right now?
She pushed that thought away and steeled her resolve. “To get that chunk of Kryptonite and destroy it so they can’t use it against you again.” Instead of hugging him she touched his hand softly and gave it a light, reassuring squeeze. “Henderson is interested in that cage. He thinks it might have something to do with Superman since he found your suit under the stairs in the wine cellar.”
That meant she wasn’t going back to the hospital right now either. She wasn’t going to let this stuff anywhere near Clark.
Lois is willing to do whatever it takes to prove to Clark tht she really does love him...without actually saying it. Now will he believe her?
He shouldn’t have let her go.
Yeah, like you had any say in it, he reminded himself. Lois was gonna do what Lois wanted to do... with or without his input.
And he loved her for it.
No matter what his head was saying, Clark's heart said that he was still in love with Lois.
She was putting herself in danger to do something for him, to help him. But who was she really doing it for? If it had merely been Clark who was in trouble and needed help, would she still have offered herself so willingly? Or was it because she now knew that he was Superman?
Clark didn’t want to play second fiddle, not even to his alter-ego. He knew on some level that he wasn’t being completely rational about the whole situation, but...
Was it so much to want to be loved just for himself? Not for the special things he could do, but just for who he was? Just for the man and not the suit? Was that too much to desire? Should he have just taken what he could get? Been happy with her adoration for her superhero?
He couldn’t do it. And it wouldn’t have been fair to Lois either – to let her love only the superhero. Because one day she would wake up, she would realize that her idol was merely Clark in brightly-colored spandex. She needed to love him for who he really was, otherwise it wasn’t real. He wanted that kind of lasting love. The kind of love that his parents have.
Clark is really struggling with this. Ooh...what will it take?
And then on top of Clark's confusion, Lois goes and says...
“Okay then.” He could hear her yawn into the receiver. “I think I’m going to try to get some rest. I’ll see you in a little while partner.”
Partner...
This was absolutely wonderful. Please hurry back!
~Sheila
Thanks for obliging!
