Thanks - as always - to Nancy, Beth, Alisha, Cat and Pam!
Last time:
He groaned as her body made contact with his but he managed to stay upright, wrapping his arms tight around her.
"You're alive," she whispered.
"A little worse for the wear," he answered softly. "But I'm alive."
She pulled back looking at him intently for a moment before closing her eyes and pressing her lips to his. He kissed her back, holding her as close to him as he could. After only a moment, they pulled back and he rested his forehead on hers.
There was a shuffling sound behind them and then a scream.
"*Clark!*"
"*Gun!*"
His parents spoke in unison and Clark turned to see Trask leaning against one of the rocks on the far side of the pond, handgun drawn.
He pushed Lois away from him onto the ground before heading towards the pond to deal with Trask one more time.
"I'll kill you!" Trask roared, aiming the gun.
Shots rang out and everything went black.
Chapter 18
Lois was sure she was going to have plenty of scrapes as she used her hands and forearms to break her fall. She'd heard Martha and Jonathan yelling about a gun and then found herself hurtling towards the ground.
She'd much rather still be kissing Clark.
She'd really rather Clark still be alive to kiss.
Shots rang out and she heard more screaming.
"Clark!" That was Martha.
A second later, Jonathan was at her side, helping her stand up.
Then she saw him. Lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
"Clark," she whispered. "*Clark!*" she screamed, holding tightly to Jonathan for support.
"He's alive," Martha called. "He's been shot in the thigh, but he's alive."
Cars skidded into the driveway, sirens blaring as they did.
The images swirled around her as the sheriff – Rachel, hadn't Martha said? – took the lone remaining soldier into custody. Trask's body was pulled out of the pond and loaded into the coroner's van. Paramedics were looking at Clark's leg as he sat on a gurney, an oxygen mask covering his face. The fire department was using kitty litter to soak up the gasoline on the porch and in the yard. She wasn't exactly sure what else they'd do to make it safe but she figured they would. Paramedics had looked at her and put bandages on a few of the worst cuts, but declared that she and the baby both appeared to be fine.
She wanted to go to Clark's side, to be with him when they took him to the hospital, but Martha was with him. His mother. He'd want her to go with him, not his temporary wife.
"No! I'm not going!" She looked up in time to see Clark throw off the blanket covering him and yank the oxygen mask from his face.
"Clark..." Martha followed him as he... limped across the yard, putting very little weight on his bad leg – to the point that it was practically dragging behind him.
He made it to where Lois was seated on the bed of Jonathan's truck.
"I'm not going to the hospital, Dad," he said as he neared.
Jonathan let go of Lois to stand up and help Clark to the spot he'd vacated.
"You have to go," Martha told him, arms crossed in front of her. "You just got *shot*."
Clark shook his head. "I can't. I'm not... human." The last word was barely more than a whisper. "I can't risk it, not with Lois and the baby and you two. I can't. And it's a clean wound – no bones hit, no major blood vessels or arteries."
Lois looked back over to where Clark had been lying on the ground. The pool of blood she seemed to remember was much smaller than she originally thought.
"Remember what Jor-El said?" Clark continued.
"Who's Jor-El?" Lois asked quietly.
Clark sighed. The paramedics had followed him, stopped by a raised hand from Jonathan. He glanced to make sure they were far enough away that they wouldn't hear. "He's my birth father. He told me the Earth's yellow sun would give me my powers and a remarkable ability to heal, even as a child when I wasn't invulnerable."
"He's got a point," Jonathan said. "Remember when he broke his leg? He had that cast off in a week and a half and we had to hide him at home so no one would know."
Lois gasped. "Is that true?"
Martha nodded. "Okay, then a deal, Clark. We'll press them to let you stay home for now but if it's not already getting better in the morning, you're going to see that Doctor Klein Lois told me about earlier. Or we'll get him to come see you."
Lois had worked with Dr. Klein on a few stories before and knew he had an impeccable reputation for honesty and integrity. He had contacted her after her article introducing Superman had appeared offering his services as a physician if Superman needed them.
Clark nodded. "Fine. Now if we can just convince Josh... One of my best friends from high school," he added after he noticed Lois' puzzled look. "He's the angry looking paramedic over there."
Martha and Jonathan exchanged another look. "Okay then," Jonathan said. "Let's see if we can get everyone out of here."
*****
A thought suddenly occurred to Clark. "Dad, what happened to that box?" he whispered urgently.
"It's in the barn. We'll get rid of it later."
Martha and Jonathan turned to get rid of Josh and his coworkers. Lois turned to Clark. "What box?"
Clark sighed. "It had this glowing green rock in it. When it was open..." He sighed again. "I've never felt anything like that before and I hope I never do again." His eyes grew wide. "The baby..."
"Is fine. I don't even remember seeing the thing and the worst pain I've felt all day was helping your mom dig through that tunnel and then hitting the ground when you shoved me."
He reached out and took her hand, turning over so he could see the scratches. "I'm sorry."
She shook her head. "No. You did what you had to do to get me out of the way. I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
They looked up to see the ambulance pulling out of the yard, though Josh was still standing there looking annoyed. Rachel walked over with the now uncuffed, unarmed soldier.
"Clark, this is Sergeant Johnson. He's the one who shot that other guy, but he's also one of the ones who detained Jonathan at gunpoint during this whole thing."
He shuffled his feet a bit before speaking. "I'm sorry, Mr. Kent, Mrs. Kent. We all knew Trask was a bit fanatical but none of us knew he was this far over the line. Honest."
"Thank you for killing him."
Lois and Clark both looked up to see Martha and Jonathan had worked their way back over.
"He would have killed my son for sure," Martha continued. "I can't thank you enough for saving his life."
"We thought we were supposed to detain you and question you. No one ever mentioned beatings and house fires." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm so sorry."
Jonathan held out a hand. "Thank you, son."
"Ezzie, please."
"Ezzie?" the asked in unison.
He turned a slight shade of red. "Well, it's really short for Ezekiel but my dad was Zeke so I ended up with Ezzie."
"Well, thank you, Ezekiel." Martha rested her hand on his shoulder. "We owe you a debt of gratitude. You were following orders, but when the time came, you did the right thing. Thank you."
It was over two hours later before everyone was finally gone.
Josh had agreed to come by and check on Clark the next morning and had helped him inside to the couch. Rachel and her officers had taken statements from everyone and eventually, everyone cleared out.
Martha had made sandwiches for the four of them for dinner, eating in the living room in near silence.
Clark wiped his mouth on a napkin before turning to Jonathan. "So the ice storm of '85 came in handy, huh, Dad?"
Jonathan laughed. "It did." His country accent grew more pronounced. "I ain't got much of that book larnin' stuff, but I got me a writter for a son and college edjcated wife who learned me how to spell big words one winter."
Lois looked around the room as the other two started laughing as well. "What?"
It was a couple minutes before anyone could speak.
Clark finally managed to catch his breath. "Dad called Trask – the head guy – a bloviating, haranguing, perorating, insolate hector and Trask didn't have a clue what he was talking about. He thought bloviating was something to do with a cow."
Jonathan wiped the tears from his face. "I barely graduated from high school, Lois. It's these two that have taught me so much of what I know. I figured I was going to be a farmer, what did I need school for?"
"Oh, don't let him fool you, honey," Martha interjected, one hand resting on Jonathan's thigh. "He's smart as a whip even if he doesn't have a bunch of fancy degrees or whatever. He reads a lot and wins more Trivial Pursuit games than anyone. We played a lot during that ice storm. We didn't have power and couldn’t get to town for almost two weeks. Lots of Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble."
Lois smiled. "Sounds like fun."
"And what else was I supposed to do? They had me by the arms, guns trained on me – fighting didn't seem like a real good option, so talking worked. I didn't mean to do all that but when 'bloviating' seemed to irritate him..." He shook his head slightly before standing and turning to Martha. He held out a hand to help her up. "Martha, whaddya say we go for a walk? I could use a bit of fresh air."
Martha took his hand. "That sounds like an excellent idea." She turned to Clark. "Do you need anything before we go?"
He shook his head. "I'm fine."
"Lois?"
Lois shook her head. "I'm good. Thank you. And Clark can tell me where anything is if either one of us do need something."
"Okay then." The two of them were holding hands as they walked out the door.
The silence was nearly pervasive after the screen door slammed shut behind his parents.
"So, secret passageway, huh?" Lois finally said.
Clark chuckled lightly. "Yep. Had the potential to come in handy when you were hiding an alien baby from who knew what government agencies."
"The tunnel had a cave-in at some point."
"I was going to fix it up this weekend. Just in case. I'd guess these were the same psychos that showed up in the newsroom that day and I wanted my parents to have a place to bolt if the need arose. If you didn't know where the doors went in the closets, you'd think it was just attic space and the opening in the storm shelter is very well hidden."
"Well, it came in handy today. Who's idea was the phone in there?"
"Dad's, I think. Seemed like a good idea to be able to call the sheriff from in there if necessary."
"That's exactly what your mom did."
"I figured." He yawned. "Man, getting shot really takes it out of you."
"Ya think?" Lois asked with a smirk.
"Would you mind getting me a pillow and blanket? I think I need to get to sleep."
Lois stared at him for a minute before responding. "No, I won't."
*****
She averted her eyes after she spoke.
"What?" Clark asked surprised. "Why?"
"Because I'm going to help you up to your bed. You're not sleeping on the couch."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you offering to share my bed with me? Because I'm not about to make a pregnant woman sleep on the couch."
"It wouldn’t be the first time," she said softly. "But no. That's not what I meant. I'll take the couch; it's not a big deal. I'm not making a man who got shot protecting me sleep on the couch." She stood. "Let's go, Superman." She held a hand out towards him.
Clark just sat there and watched her, arms crossed in front of him.
She rolled her eyes. "Let's go."
He raised his eyebrows but otherwise didn't move.
She raised her eyebrows back but he didn't budge. She sat back down. "Well, I can sleep in the chair then." The look she gave him dared him to challenge her on it as she curled up in the chair.
Clark sighed. "Are you being serious?"
"Completely."
"Fine." He pushed himself into a seated position, taking her offered hand as he struggled to stand. "Are you going to be able to help me?"
"I may not be Superman, but I can help you up the stairs." She was sure she could. He'd walked across the farmyard by himself, sort of; surely the two of them could get him up the stairs.
But it was harder than she thought.
Apparently, his muscles had tightened up in the last several hours or he'd still had quite a bit of adrenaline running through his system the first time because he was leaning very heavily on her and their progress was slow. It wasn't quite like climbing Mt. Everest but Lois was sure it was close.
By the time they made it into his room, they were both ready to collapse.
"Oof," Lois exhaled as they landed on his bed. "We made it."
They both lay there, staring at the ceiling for a long minute before she started to stand.
"Let's get you situated," she said.
They worked together to get the covers pulled back and Clark seated against the headboard. He leaned his head back against the wall.
"Can you get your own shirt off?" Lois asked, not looking at him.
"Yeah." He pulled it over his head and tossed it towards the closet. He scooted down, crying out as his shorts caught on the gauze wrapped around his leg.
Lois looked up, her eyes wide. "What? Are you okay?"
He bit his bottom lip and nodded. "Yeah. Shorts got caught. That's it."
"You want to take them off, too?" she asked quietly.
He nodded again. "Yeah. But I can't do that myself."
She sighed. "It's nothing I haven't seen before and we'll just take your shorts off, not... everything."
"I know." He stared at his hands. "I'm not used to this," he told her softly. "Being half-helpless. Being... unsuper. Needing help."
She briefly contemplated tough love, but decided that probably wasn't the right way to go. "I know, but that's why I'm here."
"I thought it was because I was out of my mind on the pheromone," he deadpanned.
"Well, that, too." She sat next to him on the bed, pulling the sheet to his waist before reaching underneath it to help ease his shorts over his hips. She twirled them on her finger for a minute before throwing them onto the floor by his shirt. "There. Modesty all intact and everything."
"Thanks." He moved down so that his head was resting on his pillow.
Lois pulled the blanket up over him after he got comfortable. "Good night, Clark."
"Good night."
She turned and headed to the hallway, stopping when she heard his voice behind her.
"Don't go."
*****
Clark could hear his heart pounding in his ears as she stood, back to him, in the doorway. "Please stay," he reiterated.
She turned and came to sit on the bed next to him. "Did you want to talk?"
He reached out and brushed her hair back off her face, tucking it behind one here. "No. Yes. I don't know. I just know I want you here with me."
Lois ducked her head, the hair falling back around her face. "Why?"
"What happened last night?"
"We talked and we fell asleep. That's it."
"What did I say?"
"Lots of things I wouldn't dream of holding to you in the light of day or whatever."
"Like what?"
She swiped at her cheeks with a shaking hand. "That you were falling in love with me. That you had been since you first saw me in Eureka Springs. That you want to make this work with us."
He reached out again, tipping her chin up so she was looking at him. "Is that what you want?"
She stared at him for long moments, tears glistening as they slid down her cheeks. "I don't want to get hurt."
"I can't promise I'll never hurt you, Lois, but I do want to make this work. I *have* been falling in love with you since the first time I saw you. I don't want to call a lawyer and get a divorce. I want to be a family with you and the baby." He pushed himself up on one arm, his other hand wrapping around the back of her neck and pulling her towards him so he could kiss her softly. "I want to go to sleep every night in your arms and make your first cup of coffee for you every morning. I'm not perfect and I can't guarantee that there won't be nights that I'm not home because I'm off being Superman – if my powers come back, that is – but I know what I want out of life and that's you."
"Do you really mean that?" she whispered.
"I do."
She smiled through her tears. "That's what I want too." She leaned forward to kiss him again. "I'm falling in love with you, too. I have been since you told me you didn't know anything about Eureka Springs."
He smiled back. "Sleep with me?" he asked quietly. "I'm exhausted and I've got a busted leg so it'll be just sleep, but I don't want to let you out of my sight again. Not today."
"I need some clothes."
"Feel free to help yourself." He lowered himself carefully back to the bed. "I'll wait right here."
Lois laughed and wiped her cheeks with her fingers. She went to the dresser and pulled out a shirt and some shorts before disappearing into the bathroom. She reappeared a few minutes later and padded across the room in her bare feet before sliding under the covers with him. It took them a minute to get situated in the small bed, but they managed.
He kissed her forehead. "Good night."
"Good night," she whispered back. "I love you, Clark."
"I love you, too."
He tightened his hold on her as they drifted to sleep.
Sunlight streaming in the window pierced Clark's consciousness the next morning pulling a groan from him.
"Morning, sunshine."
Clark opened one eye to see his dad sitting in the desk chair. "What?" he muttered.
"I take it things went well after we left last night?" Jonathan asked with a smirk.
Clark shook his head slightly. "What?"
"Well, you and Lois were all curled up together in here when we got back."
That's what was missing. Lois. "Where is she?"
"With your mom. We decided to let you sleep a bit longer."
He pushed himself into a sitting position. "Thanks."
"How're you feeling?"
"Better." He managed to swing his legs over the side of the bed and stand up. He was a bit wobbly but overall felt pretty good. "I've gotta go to the bathroom, though."
"You're on your own there," Jonathan chuckled.
"Gee thanks."
Ten minutes later, Clark hobbled into the kitchen.
"Clark!" Martha was at his side instantly. "Let me help you."
"I'm fine, Mom. Much better."
"A little TLC goes a long way, doesn't it?" she asked with a wink.
"Mo-om," he whined giving her a quick hug before heading towards the table where Lois sat. "Hi," he said quietly, feeling almost a bit shy.
"Hi."
He suddenly didn't care that his parents were standing there watching them. He leaned over and kissed her gently before sitting in the chair next to her. A glance at his parents told him how happy they were for him and Lois.
"I, um, talked to Perry. He wants the story on his desk this afternoon. I told him Superman had flown us out here and we'd planned on being in yesterday but with everything..."
"Right."
He looked up as the screen door slammed shut and smiled slightly. "I guess they wanted to give us some time alone." He reached out and took her hand, before leaning over to kiss her again.
"Perry said to take a couple days off, but he expects us back in bright and early Monday."
"Us?" he asked, hoping it meant what he thought it did.
"Us." She smiled at him. "Turns out I work pretty well with the right partner."
"And who might that be, Ms. Lane?" he teased.
She grinned. "That's Mrs. Lane-Kent to you, mister."
"Did you change your name?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. And I'm going to stay Lois Lane professionally, but in my private life."
"I think I like that plan."
They sat in companionable silence for some time before Lois spoke again.
"I talked to Lucy," she said suddenly.
"How's Jimmy?"
She smirked. "Married."
"What?! He got married?!" Clark gasped.
She nodded. "To Lucy."
"What?"
"I guess he went over and proposed to her after he left the Daily Planet the other day. There's no waiting period in New Troy either so..." Lois shrugged. "I guess she didn't notice that he seemed a bit off until later, but they've decided to give it a shot. He said he was planning to ask her before too long anyway so..."
"That's good. I’m happy for them."
She had taken her hand back and wrapped it around her coffee cup. "So I'm going to need a place to live," she said softly. "I don't suppose you know anyone with an empty half of the bed and a good balcony for coming and going."
"Why do you need a place?" he asked, puzzled.
"Well, there's no way that Lucy's going to live at Jimmy's and so they need a place to live and my place makes sense for them, but that means I need somewhere to go where no one's going to notice when Superman comes to visit me every night."
Clark stood, being careful not to put too much weight on his bad leg. He tugged on her hand until she stood and he put his arms around her. "Well, I just happen to have a balcony that no one can see and a bed that seems way too empty without you in it."
"You do?"
He nodded. "I do."
"Well, I guess I'll have to move in with you then?" It was a question, asked from beneath lowered lashes.
"Oh, I hope so." Clark bent his head to meet hers, kissing her softly, but leaving no question as to what he wanted.
"And you don't mind that Superman's going to come see me often?" she whispered.
"I hope he does." He brushed her hair off of her face. "I've been falling slowly for you since we met. Do you think you can catch me?"
She shook her head. "No. I can't. I'm too busy falling slowly for you and I don't want it to ever stop."
He kissed her again and when they finally broke apart, they realized they were floating slightly off the floor.
Lois gasped. "Are your powers back?"
They thumped onto the floor and he concentrated. "No, not really. I think that took all of my energy. I need to get in the sun for a while."
"Why?"
"The sun is what gives me my powers and should help me heal."
"Sun it is then." Lois moved slightly away from him, keeping one arm wrapped around his waist as they walked slowly to the porch swing. She sat down on the swing and he lowered himself next to her, leaning back against her as she wrapped her arms around him, kissing his hair as she did.
He sighed happily. "I could stay here for the rest of my life."
"I thought you wanted to spend the rest of your life making love to me." She linked her fingers with his.
"Well, that too." He twisted so that he could kiss her lightly. "And I am feeling better, but I don’t think I'm feeling quite that good yet. I will tell you this though... If I ever encounter that pheromone or whatever it was that affected me again..."
"Yes?"
He chuckled. "You have my permission to take full advantage of me."
"I don't think I'd feel right about that," she said uncomfortably.
He chuckled lightly. "I seem to remember that night in Eureka Springs being pretty amazing and I never could bring myself to regret a minute of it. You can take advantage of me anytime you want. I mean it. Honest."
Lois laughed lightly. "How about we just stay away from the pheromones?"
"I'm just sayin'..."
He settled back in against her and before either of them knew what was happening they had fallen asleep in the sun.
Together.
