From Part 1
Lois immediately tore at the soft material and blinked at the light. When her vision came back into focus, she knew she was in a familiar place. Renovated and updated, but a place she knew and loved – the bullpen of the Daily Planet.
The banisters had been re-varnished and the interior freshly refurbished and decorated. The computers and furniture were brand-new but even the newness of the equipment couldn't take away the feel that she was back in the place she loved.
"Oh, Lex!" She turned to him with tears in her eyes. "You did it! You've brought the Daily Planet back!"
"Yes, Lois," he said. "But there's more... this is your wedding present. Once you marry me, the Daily Planet is all yours."
Her mouth dropped open in complete surprise.
*****
Part 3
"Lex? You can't mean that, can you?" she exclaimed. "I must have heard you wrong."
"What you see is what you get, dear – this is your wedding present." With a sweeping motion of his hand, he gestured at the bullpen.
"But Lex! I never said I was going to marry you; not yet anyway."
"Lois... I know that, but I want you to know that my love is sincere. This is just a mere token of my desire to have you as my wife."
She shrugged her shoulders and turned away. "This is too much. I can't believe..." <How much pressure you're putting on me!> she thought, hoping she hadn't spoken out loud.
He placed his hands on her shoulders and whispered in her ear, "I knew you would be surprised."
"Very..." she said in a choked voice. She tried to relax a bit and process what Lex had done to her... um, for her. He had rebuilt the Daily Planet and it was going to be hers – if she married him... Funny how he seemed to use his money and influence to court her – the replica of her apartment that he had built in his bunker when the Nightfall Asteroid was going to hit flattered her at the time. Until just now, she hadn't thought about it much, just waving it off in her mind as some eccentric trait that Lex possessed. But here it was again. He was using his money to court her and she wasn't sure how that made her feel.
As they looked around the bullpen, his face was so near hers she could hear him breathing and feel his body heat. His thumbs were lightly massaging her shoulders and she leaned back into his chest, trying to will herself to feel something. His touch was not comforting, not the way she always dreamed her future husband's caress would be. It wasn't unpleasant, just a bit unnerving. She wished she had a bit of time to herself; she wasn't ready to be touched, not after that bombshell he'd just dropped on her.
If she married him, she would need to feel comfortable with having Lex kiss and touch her. Her sexual experiences so far in her life had been nothing to write home to her sister about – just merely tolerated. They had always been an addendum to an eventually doomed relationship. Was she really thinking about marrying Lex?
Now his hand was sweeping her hair out of his way and his cool lips were on her neck. She tilted her head to the side and waited for the burst of feeling that was supposed to come. There was nothing – nothing like the heady rush of sensation that had come the other night when Superman had kissed her senseless.
Suddenly, an uneasy feeling crept up her spine. Rushing back in her memory was Superman's advice the last time she'd seen him. Standing by the window of her apartment, the love of her life had stared at her for a moment longer, then turned around and stepped out into the night. A second later, she heard his sonic boom for the last time. Lois closed her eyes and remembered their conversation...
~/~/~/~/~/~/~
She was curled up on her sofa watching television when she heard the whooshing sound signaling that Superman had arrived.
"Superman!"
She immediately recognized that his attitude was different and when he spoke, his tone was almost monotone, as though he was avoiding any emotion.
"I heard you wanted to see me."
"Yes. Please, come in. I'll just put on a robe."
Superman whirled around while she retrieved her robe, then turned to face her.
"Well, there've been a lot of changes going on in my life and I'm trying to make the right, decisions, but I can't until I know... how you feel." She nervously played with the sash on her robe, then grew determined to take action.
She walked up to Superman and laid her hand on his chest. "Superman, is there any hope for us? You and me? I'm so completely in love with you that I can't do anything else without knowing."
"Lois, I do care for you, But...there are things about me you don't know, that you may never know."
"It doesn't matter. I know you. And I don't mean you the celebrity or you the 'superhero.' If you had no powers, if you were just an ordinary man leading an ordinary life, I'd love you just the same. Can't you believe that?"
"I am just an ordinary man, Lois," he said almost cryptically.
Shamelessly, she continued her plea of love. "Superman, you could never be an ordinary man. Your powers are what separate you from everyone else. Even if you had another identity, you'd still be Superman. But you're more to me than just powers. It's your heart, your sense of goodness that I love, not that fact that you can fly and toss asteroids out of the way."
"See Lois. You just admitted that I could never be an ordinary man. My powers are what keep me from living a normal life, yet they are not who I really am." His voice broke huskily. "I guess I belong somewhere between earth and the clouds, not with you."
She couldn't speak as she tried to figure out how the tables had been turned on her.
His hand cupped her chin and lifted her face to meet his gaze. Lois was surprised to see moisture glistening in his eyes. Then his strong, but surprisingly, gentle finger brushed her tears away.
"Be happy and be careful."
"What do you mean 'be careful'?" she asked as Superman's brows furrowed together in concern.
"We all have choices, Lois," he said. "Some of them are good and others can be harmful if we don't pay careful attention."
"I don't understand what you're trying to tell me and what does that have to do with us being together?"
"There are a couple of people in your life who aren't who they appear to be. You just need to open your eyes, Lois. Take off your blinders and look down into their souls."
"Who, Superman?"
The big hero sighed and appeared uncertain if he should continue. "There are two men besides myself who have told you that they love you..." He cupped her face in his hand and held it for a moment. "Lois, you are the finest reporter in the city. Look into your heart and trust your instincts."
"It's Lex, isn't it? He's one of them and you don't trust him either," she stated rather than asked. "Clark tried to tell me... What has he done?"
"Let's say that a lot of the trouble that I've had since I've been here could be directly connected to him. I just can't prove it."
"The heat wave? The early tests? Was that Lex?" She stared into his eyes and they flashed a firm but gentle warning.
"That's all I have the right to say."
"Oh, Superman! You could have the rights to a heck of a lot more with me if you wanted – if you really mean that you care about me – if you loved me..." She placed her hand back on his chest and randomly traced the emblem.
"I do love you, Lois. But love doesn't have anything to do with… us. We can't be together, not like this."
"I'm sorry, but this just can't be." The superhero's tears were running down his face. "Please be happy. You wouldn't love me as a regular man, Lois. I would be too ordinary..." He sighed and wiped her face with the edge of his cape. "You're in love with a fantasy. Who I really am doesn't have anything to do with this suit or my abilities."
Superman motioned at his suit, then in one swift move, gathered her in his arms. "Superman is what I do, not who I am… You're in love with someone who doesn't exist, Lois. I don't exist..."
"Good-bye, Lois." His face descended and she was pulled into the magic of his embrace. His incredible eyes seemed to bore into her soul, losing all reservation to how he felt about her. Her knees weakened as he tugged her towards his body and she felt all her defenses melt away like water racing down a mountain stream, tumbling towards some unknown destiny. Crushing her to him, he pressed his mouth against hers, burning the feel of his lips and body in to her soul.
His mouth plundered hers sweetly and she gave back to him, tongues dancing desperately. His lips seared a path down her neck to her shoulder and she thrust her head aside to allow him to have his way.
"Superman..." she whimpered.
His arms tightened about her and his body somehow felt unfamiliar from what she's had always dreamed. Her hands roamed wildly through his hair, but felt very different from what she had imagined in her fantasies. Longer, not as thick as she would have thought...
The kiss escalated suddenly as his probing tongue pushed into her mouth again, forcing her lips open. One of his hands tugged her shirt loose, the other was holding her close to his body.
~/~/~/~/~/~
No! That was not how it happened! Suddenly, she was brought back to reality when she realized she was kissing someone... and it was not Superman.
No, she wasn't kissing Superman; she'd been kissing Lex! In her thoughts, it was Superman who she had been kissing, but in reality it was Lex – the very man that Superman had warned her about.
She stilled her actions and tried to bring the kiss to a close, totally disturbed that she had allowed this to happen. "Lex, " she mumbled against his lips and shoved him away. "Not here..."
He did not seem to hear her because his hand pushed further between their bodies, and he squeezed her flesh, making her cry out. She glared at him for a second before dismissing it as something that all men wanted; in her experiences with Paul and Claude, they had behaved the same.
Lex pulled away looking totally calm and collected, not a man who had been passionately kissing her a moment before. Smiling coolly, he stated, "I knew you would be pleased with my gift."
Distancing herself, she murmured, "It's wonderful, Lex. The Daily Planet looks great."
He placed a brief, but hard kiss against her lips and said, "Don't take too long in making up your mind. Sorry to be leaving you, but I have an appointment I must attend. Your driver will be back for you in a little while. Take your time and look around and think about how owning the Daily Planet can change your future – hopefully, our future."
He smiled at her but somehow it didn't seem to come from his soul. Turning swiftly on his heels, he left her alone in the new bullpen of the Daily Planet.
*****
The cellar door opened forcefully and Clark lifted his head from the cold floor.
Lex was back.
With a great effort, Clark sat up, the sounds of Luthor's slow deliberate steps echoed on the dusty wooden steps. He shook his head quickly, hoping to sweep out the fog and be able to keep a clear head when he had to confront his tormentor.
The sounds of footfalls faded then grew closer before stopping nearby. Clark opened his eyes, raised his head and found the hard steely eyes of Luthor staring down at him.
His expression was hard and full of hate, the flippant facade had disappeared and Clark had no doubt that Luthor was about to reveal his true personality.
"Enjoying your new accommodations, Superman? Somehow I wonder if the lovely Lois Lane would be so quick to daydream about her hero now?" His lips twisted into a cynical smile as his fists closed around the glowing green bars.
Clark stared back into the nearly black eyes, refusing to cower in front of his enemy.
"You see, Superman, my future wife is still holding onto fantasies of you. But I can live with that. Once we're married it will be so easy to purge her of your pathetic memory, but first you must vanish... disappear... never to be seen alive again."
He rattled the bars violently and his laugh was brittle. "We can't have her pining away for her fallen flyboy; but she'll be more than occupied being the owner of the Daily Planet. I may even let her have all her insignificant friends work there again – after all, it'll be me who'll be in her bed at night." His eyes narrowed as he stared past the cage.
Clark was almost sure Luthor was talking to himself now. Something had enraged him and he was positive that Luthor thought he was the cause of it. Luthor next words chilled him to the bones. But he crouched down, his head barely a foot away from Clark, and spat out at him, "How would you feel if your woman cried out your enemy's name when you were about to make love to her?"
Make love? Clark felt his skin crawl at the thought of Luthor touching Lois. And what did he mean with that last remark? "How dare you, Luthor? Kill me, but leave Lois alone!" Clark groaned.
"What a splendid idea!!" he answered cynically as he rose to his feet. "In a few days, the washed up body of Superman will be found in the bay, and in her grief, Lois will turn to me. I'll be sure to plaster pictures of the corpse all over the news, discreetly of course. Some unfortunate news reporter will have disgraced the image of Superman and will have to be sacrificed. But not before Lois has that final fallen image of her lover in her mind."
Lex released the bars and turned to the wine rack. "Can't be done too quickly... I need to know that you have suffered." He pulled a lever in the wine rack and the bars glowed brighter, more sickly green. Clark immediately felt the effects. Pain coursed even hotter inside his body and his head felt like it was going to explode.
A jingling noise caused Clark to open his eyes again. Luthor was dangling the keys in front of his face, and snatched them out of the way as Clark made a feeble grab for them.
"A bit of hope prolongs life. Can't have you dying too soon," he said, his face twisted in anger. "Have a nice death, Superman..."
Slapping the keys on an upside barrel ten feet away, he marched up the rickety steps, humming "Going To the Chapel" and closed the door.
Clark collapsed on the floor as a new wave of agony swept through him.
*****
