Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic The Scream 2/4

He had pulled the sheets up to his chin and was probably hiding his well-known suit underneath. Superman? Right, he had found her when she was running through the streets, crying, after Clark had been shot dead. A sob threatened to lace up Lois throat, but she gulped it down. Better not to wake Superman, even he seemed to need sleep now and then, and besides, he also had been a good friend of Clark. He was probably as devastated as she was.

Curious of Superman to condescend to lie down beside her. Half a year ago she would have been elated to find him beside her, but now she was pitying him and feeling a very deep solidarity towards him which had little to do with the love she held for Clark.

Clark. My god, one could really take Superman for Clark. Sleeping he looked almost entirely human.

Almost too human.

So very familiar.

Like Clark.

Lois was confused. Now that her eyes had adapted to the dim light shining in from the street-lamp outside - it seemed to be nighttime - she could see more. Had she ever watched Clark sleeping? Had she ever really *looked* at Clark? Or Superman? Well, the man lying beside her was beautiful. Handsome was a very subjective category, but the face beside hers was by any standard beautiful. Especially his lips. She had already kissed those lips. At the airport where Superman had gotten so much of that pheromone spray she couldn't resist taking advantage of him. She remembered this kiss very well, it had touched her deeply.



Just like Clark's kiss had as he had decided to leave the city. When it was so hot Superman was considering leaving the city.



Superman's kiss.



Clark's kiss.



Superman's lips.



Clark's lips.



She had been able to touch them a little while ago. Long and tenderly, because she hadn't been able to do so before, as the gangsters dragged her off Clark's body and hauled it through the door.



It was the same lips.

The same mouth.

The same face.

Superman's face.

Clark's face.

Clark without his glasses looked exactly like Superman. Why had she never seen this likeliness? Had the two men such a different mimic and way of talking that the similarities between them only became visible while sleeping? Were the two men she alternately loved and admired one and the same person?

This realization hit Lois hot and cold at the same time. Hot, because it meant that Clark couldn't be dead. He was lying beside her, had always protected her as Superman and must have been planning to tell her when she awoke - she would probably be the only person ever to be told of his double-life. Cold, because she realized that Clark as Superman must have heard her confessing her love. She thought back to the time she had rejected Clark's love and then, when Superman stood before her shortly after that, she told him she would love him if he were only an ordinary man. Oh, god! What must he have thought about her! How embarrassing! And how many things made sense all of a sudden! No wonder Superman wasn't there to protect Metropolis from the Nightfall-Asteroid if Clark had lost his memory. No wonder Clark had wanted to leave Metropolis with Superman at the time of the great heat. He couldn't have been shot, he must have faked his death to keep his identity hidden. Suddenly so many things made sense, there had been so many times Clark ran off and Superman appeared. How often had he saved her life, even as Clark. There must really have someone tried to shoot her the day she almost was strangled by Finn.



"Oh Clark, how often did I wrong you, how often did I hurt you. But you also hurt me. Always deceived me into believing you are two different persons..."

Actually, she should be angry with him. He had lied to her for more than a year, again and again. But Lois couldn't be angry with him, she loved him just too much, was too glad he was still alive. He had cared for her right away this night and was laying beside her to tell her his secret when she awoke. Why else should he be lying beside her? He could have dropped her off and gone on to do his Superman-job. But no, he had stayed. He had stayed with her to comfort her, to talk to her, to tell her his secret, to make her his partner. A partner strictly for business probably since he had told her only a few weeks ago after the almost-wedding with Lex Luthor that he didn't love her. Oh no. But that was something to think about later, now she was just glad that Clark was alive and that she didn't have to mourn him any longer. She loved him and nothing could change that, no matter what he felt for her.

"Clark, I love you!" she whispered as softly as possible without noticing the single tear escaping her eye.


To be continued...