Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: And Then There Was Light 22/22

For Clark was there, his body curled around mine, his hand on my face tilting my head, his the mouth that had breathed life back into me, his the voice that called my name and insisted I come back to him.

All the Christmas magic and birthday presents and surprise parties I had never received--and had given up expecting--suddenly burst open within me, as solid and real as the feel of Clark's body protecting mine from the unstable flames and tiny explosions going off behind him. For an instant, I thought that surely there was nothing in the world that could take this feeling away from me.

But what had happened to the clone?

That blur of red and blue hurtling above me and the feel of Luthor's hands being wrested from my throat--the clone must have been able to summon enough strength to fly, or at least, leap unbelievably high to slam into Luthor. But...my wandering, numb gaze moved past Clark's shoulder to where the vat of boiling steel had once rested.

A trembling gasp escaped him and he shuddered away from my touch, but not before I felt strips of cloth and liquid as warm as his body, sticky, clammy, and not yet dried.

Blood.

But chances were--I prayed--that he'd heal much faster than the average person, and I knew he would hate to be forced to go to a hospital.

"No!" As impossible as it had seemed to bridge the gap between us an instant earlier, it was now impossible to remain still. I threw myself into his arms, knocking him off-balance so that I ended up in his lap. And yet his arms instantly came around me, warm and comforting and solid. Suddenly I didn't care that he was hurt, that he was Superman, that he was probably in more pain than I was; I only wanted him to keep hold of me, to never let go, to bury his face in my hair and murmur my name with that tone in his voice and tighten his hold around me in such a way that my own form was defined by the feel of his embrace...just as he was doing now

My voice dropped still lower as I uttered my last, most daring, most important request. "Love me?"

"Of course I love y--" He was abruptly silent, the form that enveloped me falling abnormally still. Finally, he whispered only one word, uncertainly, tentatively, split evenly between fear and hope: "Lois?"

"No." Clark studied me as if I had granted him his every wish, one finger moving to caress my cheekbone in a move so poignant my eyes slid closed in sheer bliss. "I do believe you. I...wondered earlier tonight, when you cried for me, when you wished you could undo what Luthor had done. And as you said--you dived into the ocean after me. And..." A smile played along the edges of his tempting mouth, and I was infinitely surprised that all the snow collecting along every surface wasn't instantly vaporized by the sheer heat in his eyes. "You believed *me*, Lois. 'Superman' was standing right there, and you believed...*me*. So I believe you."

And I purposely began to remember--from my first meeting with the farmboy from Kansas, to the explosive debut of Superman, to the early days of my growing friendship with "both" of them, to the day when they had both left Metropolis, to the night I was thrown into a cell and heard the familiar voice split the darkness into shards, to the night before when I had finally seen both men coalesce into one--purposely began to remember Clark *and* Superman in order to merge them together in my mind.

"Looking at you," I replied with the hint of a smile. "*At* you, not through you."

By the brilliant shift of his features, I knew he understood me. Clark, after all, had never wanted to be invisible. At least...not to me.

Wanted to make sense of my life by making sense of his.

"They tried to shoot Dad," Clark uttered hoarsely. "I had just started remembering a few things, and there was this one image of me catching bullets. When I got in between the men and Dad, they...they saw, and...well, I still hadn't remembered everything, so they managed to get away. When my memories did return, I knew I had to hide Mom and Dad just in case Luthor came after them."

"No." Clark looked down at his bandaged hands and consciously relaxed them. "I didn't go back to Smallville. I went to Metropolis." He looked up and caught my eyes, mutely pleading with me. "I was going to tell you everything, Lois, and beg you to help me stop Luthor before he could hurt Mom and Dad. But Luthor must have guessed what I was planning, or maybe he tracked me coming back from space. I don't know. I just know that he was there, outside your apartment building. When I landed, he..." Clark's jaw clenched painfully, and he closed his eyes, hiding from me whatever leaked through his stiff control. "When I woke up, I was in the cell."

"I was trying to teach him," Clark admitted, oblivious to my thoughts. "He didn't know you would get hurt, Lois. After that first incident with Nigel, he even refused to help Luthor unless you were kept safe. I can't help but feel bad for him. He...he was trying so hard. There *was* some good in him," he insisted stubbornly, seemingly convinced that I would argue with his conclusion.

"*I* have a question," Clark said, almost timidly. "You...you said you knew my secret. You said you knew what Luthor had taken from me. But then...you...you *didn't* know that I was Superman. So...what secret did you know?"

"I love you, Clark," I assured him, now certain all over again of the truth of that statement. Certain that I was making the right decision. Certain that I was in the dark no longer. Certain that I wanted to bask in his light--and give him my own light and warmth in return--for the rest of my life.