Huge shout outs to Kathy and Happy Girl! I may not have gone exactly the way we discussed but they helped me deturdify Clark [he wasn't *supposed* to be coming across as a turd but he was... :p ]
Anyway - Ch. 22/3 are off to Kathy and if she doesn't rip them to shreds [like she was right to with the original versions of a couple of these...], I will try to post a bit more often if I can get a bit further ahead =D. Thanks for sticking with me!
Last time
Clark took Lois' hand as soon as he was close enough to her, choosing to sit in the oversized chair and pull her onto his lap.
She closed her eyes as he buried his head in the base of her neck for a moment.
"I love *you*," he whispered. "And I don't give a tiny rat's tuckus if we ruined everything."
"I am afraid, Lord Kal-El, that you must care."
Clark looked over at the other woman and Lois could see the surprise on his face.
"I have the same kind of hearing you possess," Zara reminded him. "I am a Kryptonian living under a yellow sun, remember, husband?"
"I'm *not* your husband," Clark told her forcibly.
"And it is because of that belief and your marriage to Ms. Kent that an entire planet worth of people is going to die."
*~*20*~*
Lois was already in bed by the time Clark finished in the bathroom.
"No powers stinks," he told her with a sigh as he headed for the other side of the bed.
"I'm sorry," she said softly. "You still *look* incredible though."
He chuckled lightly. "That's always nice to hear."
"I mean, I can see why Zara wants you, Lord Kal-El." She didn't look at him as she said that, choosing instead to focus on a loose thread on the comforter.
He winced at the title. "That doesn't mean she gets me," he reminded her, pulling the covers over his legs as he leaned against the headboard, his arm brushing against hers. "*You* are my wife. Period. End of discussion."
"You say that now..." she muttered.
"I mean that now. I'll mean that later." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders to pull her closer to him, kissing her hair as he did. "Always."
"So you're staying here?" she asked, refusing to look at him even as her head rested against his shoulder.
"Of course I'm staying here."
"I wish you sounded more convincing."
He shifted so he was facing her more fully as she continued to look anywhere but at him. "Lois, I don't *want* to go with her. I want to stay here with you, with my family, my friends."
"I get that, but you feel obligated to go, don't you?"
Clark sighed and leaned his head back. "Maybe on some level, but I have other, more important obligations here – like you, my folks, Gramps. But even if we weren't married… after everything they told us, I don't see how my presence would fix things. This other guy..."
"Lord Nor," Lois filled in. "Zara's little brother."
"Right. Lord Nor would still want to take over and subjugate everyone anyway. I'd just be a detail to take care of and I'm needed here so I'm not sure what I could do."
"So if I told you I didn't want you to go, that I wanted you to stay here, you would?" she asked, her fingers pulling at the thread on the comforter.
"Yes," he said without hesitation. "You're my wife, my top priority."
"She was your wife first," Lois reminded him softly.
"Zara is not now, nor will she ever be, my wife. Period."
"That's good to know."
"I mean it, Lois. *You* are the one I chose to marry and I don't particularly care about Kryptonian birth marriages," he told her forcefully.
"But you still feel somewhat obligated?" She still didn't look at him but snuggled more closely in to his side.
He stared at the window for a long moment. "It's a whole planet. Millions or billions of people. Part of me wonders if I owe it to them, to my birth family, my birth *people* to try to help somehow? I mean, I'm probably related to some of those people. Maybe get Zara to rule without me somehow that doesn’t involve this Nor guy." He shrugged. "I don't know, but there has to be something, doesn't there?"
Lois' brow furrowed. "Millions? She said a thousand or more, not a hundred thousand. If there were... fifteen hundred people, or even two thousand, how many people could we be talking about? I'm not trying to minimize anything, but a couple thousand people? *Maybe* five or six thousand thirty years later? You saved more than that as Clark when you stopped the tidal wave. A lot more. How many thousands of lives have you saved since you became Superman?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. Thousands is probably a good estimate, maybe more?"
She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs even as she leaned against him. When she spoke it was more like she was thinking out loud, almost to herself. "Even if they only counted the nobility in the 'thousand or more' and there were... fifteen thousand when you included all the slaves or whatever – and that seems awfully generous because how big would the ship have to be to deal with that many people? But if there were fifteen thousand people total and they had high birth rates and low death rates because they probably wouldn't have taken grandpa with them – maybe a few elder statesmen but mostly young, fertile couples – so not much natural, old age deaths yet. And with their technology they probably have low infant mortality, and given their situation probably put a premium on children, they probably have a higher population growth than Earth, but you're still only talking about a few tens of thousands. Maybe forty thousand or so. The phrase 'an entire planet' means something different to them than it does to you."
"So do we just let forty thousand people die or be subjugated by a monster?" He ran his hand through his hair. "What's the answer?"
"I don't know. My only point there was that we're not talking about *billions* of people."
"Point taken." He turned towards her, one hand reaching out to brush the hair off her face and tuck it behind her ear. "Forty thousand on New Krypton, billions on Earth – but most of those on Earth won't end up with a madman as their... king if I don't do something, but it's likely that hundreds or even thousands would die in the few months I might be gone who wouldn't if I stayed. Do you have any idea what the answer is?" he asked softly.
"I don't know," she whispered. "I just know I don't want to lose you."
"You're not going to lose me."
"But you still feel an obligation to go, to do *something*."
He sat in silence for a long moment. "Kind of. What I'd really like is more information. All we have is their word and it's not like they've shown themselves to be champions of truth and justice or anything. All they've done since they got here is try to blow people up," he pointed out. "How do we know they're telling the truth?"
"Why would they lie?"
"I don't know but something keeps niggling at the back of my mind – that something's not quite right, but I can't put my finger on it."
Lois giggled suddenly, leaning up to kiss him lightly. "No one actually says 'niggling' you know. You think it, you might type it but no one actually says it."
Clark rolled his eyes. "*That's* the part to focus on."
"I mean it, no one actually *says* niggling." She looked up at him with wide-eyed innocence. "I would have thought you'd know that, my big strong reporter man."
He growled and shifted her so suddenly she squealed. "I'll show you niggling," he said, kissing her soundly.
She kissed him back, enthusiastically.
Neither one were sure how much time had passed when they lay together in a tangle of limbs. Clark pulled the sheet more tightly around them.
"That was..." Lois sighed happily. "Super."
Clark groaned. "Are you going to use that superlative regularly? Just to annoy me?"
Lois grinned. "Yep."
"Good to know."
They lay there for a long moment before Lois couldn't stop a long, nearly shuddering sigh as she struggled to keep the tears from her eyes.
Clark's arms tightened around her and he pressed his lips to her forehead. "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you? And don't tell me nothing because that sigh said something is."
Lois drew random patterns on his chest with her fingertips. "I don't want you to do that with anyone else," she finally said.
"I'm not going to. We still haven't decided if I'm even going. And *if* I do, I already have a wife who I'm falling more in love with every day. Besides, we still don't even know for sure Zara and Ching are telling the truth."
They were both startled when a voice behind them spoke.
A man suddenly appeared at the side of their bed. "They're not."
Lois gasped and Clark sat up abruptly, insinuating himself as best he could between Lois and the intruder.
"Who are you?" Clark demanded. "And how did you get in? What are you doing here?"
"I am Lord Nor of the House of Ra."
*****
TBC
