Wonderful part! Awesome part!
His head snapped up in shock. It took him a moment to realize that what he was seeing was not an apparition, but a real, flesh and blood version of the woman he loved. Without further thought, he was on his feet and she was lost in his arms. He whispered her name over and over, planting kisses on her hair, cheeks, face, neck, bare upper arms...
Suddenly, the whole picture of what he had seen when he’d first looked up filtered its way into his mind.
Lois Lane... wearing nothing but a towel.
How wonderful! Awww!!! Clark is so beyond thought or consciousness at his "relief" - far to weak a word - at seeing Lois alive and unhurt that he envelops her, surrounds her with every inch of his body, holds her to his heart, kisses every part of her - until he realizes that she is not far from naked....
“I thought...” He gestured to the rug.
“Oh, that,” she said with a grimace. “Guess there’s no way to get the blood out of that, is there?”
Can a woman who has just been attacked by a man intending to rape and murder her be any cooler than that? The remaining problem is the rug?
“I thought...” He managed to get out before his mouth seemed unable to continue, as if to voice what he had thought would somehow make it so.
All of a sudden, it sunk in what he had thought. She took a slow, cautious step towards him, feeling much as if she were trying to approach a reticent horse.
And sudenly she realizes that
he is upset about Stafford's attack on her. That he thought that she was dead.
“I thought...” he repeated.
“I know,” she whispered, tenderly stroking his cheek. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”
Aaawwww....
Yeah!
Get to it!
“Whispering? I’m not whispering,” Lois whispered.
“Oh my god, it’s exactly what it looks like, isn’t it?”
“Now... let’s see if I can remember how that story goes again,” Lois said. “Sleeping Beauty - that would be you - has gone to sleep. Some evil spell or something. The handsome prince - that would be me - comes along and...
Clark as Sleeping Beauty and Lois as the Prince! I love it!
The Daily Planet would be running a different headline. ‘Stafford Arrested For Wesley Murder.’
Perry White had looked up at her in shock several times while reading. Then he’d chopped her story apart into four, full size stories, claiming that this was far too important and complex for a single story.
It was that good, Lois!
Since Paul was currently under arrest - although Lois didn’t know the details on that development yet - Perry had contacted the staff advisor for the Ink and Quill and quickly hammered out a deal with him - one that had involved a promise from the advisor that her stories not be shown any prejudice in the future due to her bringing this one to the Daily Planet and explaining why she’d brought them the previous story.
Hah! Yes!
‘Hi, honey. I’m home,’ was what she had intended to say. What she said instead was, “Charlie!”
Noooo!!! The hour of reckoning is here!
“Wha...” she began, staring at him as if taking in a stranger. Reaching out a trembling hand, she touched the fully grown beard now covering his face.
It is as if time has jumped forward for Clark. Beard doesn't grow that fast. It is as if Clark is being torn apart by different time streams. One timeline has him staying with Lois in 1987. Another timeline is pulling him in another direction and has brought his head and face into a time where he has a beard.
“Did you have them before you started traveling in time?”
“Wha...”
“Is it possible this is... I don’t know. Some sort of time traveling sickness?”
He sank down onto the side of her bed, seeming stunned by her question. “How long have you known?”
Hah! This Lois isn't galactically stupid!
“Yes, I saw the time machine - and your plans for the time machine. But I also remembered you. My guardian angel. The man who rescued me from falling out of a tree when I was nine. The one who told me that guardian angels don’t have names.” She reached up and gently stroked his cheek. “Did you really think I wouldn’t figure it out?”
Awwww...
He looked down. “I was going to tell you. Today. It was one of the things I was planning to tell you. I should have told you last night before we...” He looked up at her, seemingly searching her eyes for signs that she was angry.
"I was going to tell you"... where have I heard that before? And he is worried that she might be angry.
She leaned over, giving him a light kiss to alleviate his obvious fear. “One of the things you were going to tell me? Was the other one that you can fly?”
She had to admit, the stunned expression that appeared on his face was somewhat rewarding.
<giggle>
“What do you mean, after last night?” he asked cautiously.
“Charlie... we floated.”
He stared at her in disbelief. Obviously, he hadn’t noticed. It was nice to know how distracting she could actually be.
A planet named Krypton. A small space ship being flung millions of miles across space.
Okay, ML, this is something I'm going to ask you to change! It is not "millions of miles" to Krypton. It is "millions of miles" to the Sun. It is even "millions of miles" to planet Mars. Admittedly it is only between 200,000 and 300,000 miles to the Moon.
Planet Krypton would be
trillions of miles away. At least.
Well, I'm glad that Lois knows that "Charlie" is really Clark. I don't know why, but I find it slightly grating not to be able to call Clark Clark.
“I love you, Clark Kent,” she said softy.
Aaaawwwww....
And then H.G. Wells turns up. Didn't we all know he would?
Well, whatever happens now... this was a wonderful, wonderful chapter, ML!
Ann
