For those who have commented on my writing two stories at once, actually it's a little easier than writing just one. When inspiration dries up temporarily on one, I can take a break by going to the other. Here's the next part of Wedding Consequences. After that, the next part of Twins, probably tomorrow.
Nan
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Wedding Consequences: 3/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"Luthor knew I was a rival," Clark said. "He knew that I'd do anything to stop you from marrying him. He was going to kill me."
Her hand tightened around his. "That bast ..."
"Shh." He opened his eyes again. "You'll probably call me that in a minute, too."
"Clark, I'd never ..."
"Don't say never. There's something I haven't told you. I've wanted to for weeks ... months. But I couldn't ... as long as you were going to marry Luthor."
She bit her lip. "If it was something that Lex could have used to hurt you, you were probably right."
"He could have," Clark said, slowly. "He definitely could have. There's no question of that. I should have told you afterwards, though." He pushed himself shakily up on his elbow again and raised his free hand to remove his glasses. "Luthor lured me to the basement of Lex Tower -- his wine cellar. He wanted me to use my influence to convince Clark Kent to attend your wedding. He couldn't know, of course, that he was speaking to Clark. I told him I wouldn't do it -- that I'd use every power at my disposal to stop the wedding. That's when he told me that he had no more use for me. He dropped the cage over me. The bars were coated with Kryptonite, and I couldn't get away. I was there for over a day. I thought I was going to die there." He raised his face to let her look him directly in the eyes. "Look at me, Lois. Tell me who you see."
**********
And now, Part 3:
It was all falling into place.
Lois stared at her partner's naked face, unmasked by the horn-rimmed glasses. In the past week she had discovered that many of the things she thought she knew weren't true at all. She shouldn't have been surprised.
Superman's face. Superman.
She had been working unknowing alongside the man of her dreams all this time, the man she'd had a tremendous crush on, and had constantly compared him unfavorably to the hero.
Clark is the before, Superman is the after. Make that the way, way after.
She'd been so utterly, utterly blind. She'd taken advantage of him, she'd done things behind his back, she'd criticized him, she'd insulted him and made fun of his country background. He'd taken it all with good humor and even handed it back to her a few times.
"You like to be on top. Got it."
That retort from the naïve "hack from Nowheresville" had both offended and startled her and she'd never once acknowledged to him that she'd been incredibly rude. He'd let her know that he knew it, though, without backing down, just with that answer.
He'd tried to tell her about Lex numerous times and she'd accused him of making things up out of jealousy. He'd declared his love for her and she'd thrown it in his face and asked him to find Superman for her. No wonder Superman had been angry with her when he'd come to her apartment that night. She had hurt him, and insulted him unforgivably and not even known it. And in spite of it all, he'd assembled a group of his and her friends and worked desperately to save her from making a horrible mistake. Because he loved her. In spite of the cruel way she had treated him, he still loved her.
And the man that she had married had tried to murder him with Kryptonite. Kryptonite, the meteorite from Superman's home world that Jason Trask had believed would kill Superman; the poisonous mineral that had vanished mysteriously from the lab where Wayne Irig had sent it. It had been Lex. Of course it had been Lex. He'd had tentacles everywhere. He had tried to murder Superman and would have succeeded if Clark hadn't somehow managed to save himself. She'd been no use. She had been attending the opera the night before her wedding, while Clark had been lying in a cage in horrible pain, if the things that he had said in his sleep were true. She'd have been already sleeping with the enemy if she hadn't had the sense to wait until she and Lex were married. The very thought made her almost physically ill.
It was just one more revelation added to all the others that proved to her what an arrogant fool she had been. How could she have ever thought she was an investigative reporter when she had been so unbelievably wrong about everything important? Someone had once said that pride went before a fall. Well, it had been a big one, and she'd deserved it.
She didn't realize that tears were leaking down her face until she felt his arms close around her. "Lois, please don't cry. I can't stand it when you cry."
She couldn't answer. Clark held her while she sobbed against his shoulder, murmuring soothing words to her that she couldn't hear. His hand stroked her hair comfortingly.
"Lois, please. It's all right. Don't cry; it tears me apart when you cry."
She sobbed harder. "How can you still say that, after all I've done to you?" She choked out the words between shuddering sobs. "It's all my fault! It's probably my fault that you were so sick, too! He tried to *kill* you! If I could get my hands on him, I'd wring his neck!"
"Shh." He didn't loosen his arms or try to stop her after that. Instead, he rested his cheek against her hair and continued to hold her until the sobs began to die down.
She had cried more since her wedding, she thought miserably, than she had since she was a child. The tears finally stopped but she still burrowed into his shoulder and he hadn't removed his arms. He simply went on holding her, making no effort to let her go.
"Better?" he whispered softly.
She shook her head negatively. "Clark, I'm so sorry! I've been so awful to you!"
"You haven't," he said. "You've been my best friend. You've helped me more than you have any idea of. Lois, it's all right. It wasn't your fault."
"It was *all* my fault!" she whispered. "Some best friend I was! I was so mean to you, Clark. I treated you so badly, and I wouldn't believe you when you tried to tell me the truth. I couldn't believe that I could fall in love with a country boy from Kansas. I thought I knew it all. I had to have the best, the richest, the most powerful ... and I nearly threw away the best man I know because I couldn't see the truth when it was right in front of my face. I had to pick a man who was everything you aren't -- including being a monster in disguise. I can't understand why you still love me. I'm such an idiot!"
"You're the smartest woman I've ever met," he said quietly. "And the most fascinating. It's not your fault that you didn't know. I didn't want you to know about me in the beginning. My dad always warned me that if anyone found out what I was they'd put me in a lab and dissect me like a frog. I changed my mind about you, though. I wanted you to know, but I didn't know how to tell you."
"And then I got engaged to Lex." She made an effort to free herself from his embrace and he released her immediately. "Clark, I'm so horribly sorry about that night ..."
He put a finger across her lips. "You've apologized enough," he said. "I was an idiot, too. If I hadn't been so jealous I'd have come to you as Superman and told you what I suspected. Instead I threw a tantrum, insulted you, then flew off to the Arctic to sulk. That wasn't very helpful, you know."
In spite of herself, a tiny giggle, marred by a hiccup, escaped her. "You did?"
"I sure did." He was smiling at her. "If I'd used my head instead of acting like a jealous dope, it would have saved us a lot of trouble, so it's at least as much my fault as yours."
"I'm not so sure of that," she muttered. "If I weren't so pig-headed ..."
"Hey, you're insulting the woman I love," he said, lifting a hand to cup her cheek. "Besides, you wouldn't be my Lois if you weren't a little pig-headed. I owe you an apology too, so no more kicking yourself, okay? Wait until my powers come back and you can kick me instead."
She knew he was teasing her to make her feel better, and surprisingly enough, it was working. Clark had always known how to lift her spirits, just as he had always known how to deflate her gently when he thought her head had gotten too big. How she could ever have regarded Clark Kent as a lightweight was a complete mystery to her now. He wasn't perfect, but he understood her like no one else ever had, even Perry. "Okay, okay," she said, grudgingly.
"Promise?"
"I promise," she agreed.
"I'll hold you to that," he said. His smile faltered a little, and Lois saw that his face had gone paler. What was she thinking? She'd been indulging in a bout of guilt and he had felt it necessary to comfort her, when all the time he should have been resting! He'd been so sick all afternoon, and the last thing he should have to do was to use up his reserves that way. She'd been doing it again -- thinking only about herself when she should have been thinking of him!
She caught his arm. "Clark, lie down," she commanded. "You're still not over this thing!"
"I'm all right," he said. "I feel a lot better than I did a while ago."
"Well considering how bad you felt then, that's not saying much," she retorted. "Do what I say!"
"Aye aye, ma'am," he said, with a slight smile. "You're the boss."
"Just do it," she said. "I don't care if you're Superman or not. You've got to get well if we're going to get out of here."
He obeyed her order and she didn't miss the tiny sigh of relief when he was lying on the ground once more.
"Just a minute. I'm going to get you something for a pillow," she informed him. "And some more covers. It's getting chilly."
"We can go inside the plane," he said. "It's warmer in there."
"But not a lot." She dithered a moment. "You're probably right. I'm going to get out the rest of the stuff in the suitcases so we can cover up tonight. I nearly froze this morning until I put on some extra clothes. You stay here until I get back to help you."
"Lois, I'm not an invalid," he protested.
"No, but you were pretty sick, Clark. I think you were out of your head for a little while, just before the fever broke. If you'd died, I'd never have forgiven myself." She scowled at him. "From now on, you're going to take care of yourself. No more of this macho 'I'm a guy, I don't get sick' stuff, got it, Kent?"
"Got it," he said, more meekly. "You're the boss."
"And don't you forget it," she couldn't resist adding.
**********
"Are you hungry?" Lois asked. Clark had settled into the pilot's chair again and Lois had just finished tucking shirts, a skirt, a couple of pairs of slacks and a sweater over him. "I know you didn't want to eat anything earlier, but I saved you one of the sandwiches, just in case you changed your mind."
"A little," he said, sounding surprised. "I guess I could eat part of one. What is it?"
"Chicken," Lois said. "I left it in the lunchbox in the plane," she added. "I think it was probably cold enough to stay good. Why don't you try one of the halves?"
"Okay. If you'll eat the other half."
"You need it more than I do," she said.
"No, we both need to eat," he countered. "Tomorrow we'll try to figure out which way to go. Maybe we'll find some fruit or something to eat."
They ate in silence, rounding off the meal with the water Lois had boiled.
Lois watched her partner as he slowly finished the food, trying to reconcile what she thought she knew about him with the new information. He still looked pale but at least his appetite was back.
He had been studying the slowly darkening landscape without as he munched his sandwich, but now he turned to see her watching him. He smiled slightly. "What?" he asked.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
"Better. I think the worst is over."
"That's a relief. Clark ..."
"Yes?"
"This Kryptonite ... what is it?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, really. Probably a piece of Krypton. Whatever it is, it's poisonous to me. It's a green crystal, and it glows. Trask said it was radioactive but didn't seem to hurt humans. I've only run into it once before."
"Where?" she asked, curiously.
"On my parents' farm." He studied the dead instruments on the control panel. "Trask was partly right. When Wayne Irig found the meteorite, he didn't send all of it to the lab in Wichita. He only sent them a little chunk. When Trask and his gang showed up, he took the rest of it to my dad and asked him to hide it for him."
"Why didn't your dad get rid of it?"
"He didn't know what it was. No one had ever seen it before. The night you and I arrived, he took me out to the barn to see it. He showed it to me and I collapsed. When you came into the kitchen a little later, Mom and Dad told you that my allergies were acting up."
She thought that over. "It must be pretty nasty stuff to knock you out like that."
"It was a big piece. Anyway, it took my powers away for a while -- for two days, actually. I was afraid they were never going to come back."
"What happened to it?"
He shrugged. "Trask eventually got hold of it and attacked me with it, just about the time my powers came back. I managed to destroy it, but I didn’t have any powers again for another day after that. He and I got into that fight, and you know the rest."
"So it's gone," she said. "Then Lex must have managed to get hold of the sample Wayne Irig sent to the lab. It's the only thing that makes sense."
He nodded. "Probably. Why?"
"I've been trying to figure out where it came from. The thought of a lot of this stuff out there floating around bothers me."
"It bothers me too," Clark said. "I doubt there's much more, but it may not matter. I was exposed to the Kryptonite in that cage for over a day, and so far my powers have shown no sign of returning. They may be gone for good."
"You seem to be taking it awfully calmly," she said.
"I don't know what else to do," Clark said. "I can't *make* them come back. The only thing I can do is wait and hope."
And Lex had used his love for her to lure him in, and now because of her, Superman was gone -- maybe forever. Lois bit her lip. She had plunged headfirst into risky situations before, but until now, no one else had ever had to pay the price because she had failed to check the water level. Now it was Clark who was paying the price. No, she wasn't going to forgive herself for this very soon.
"It wasn't your fault," Clark said, correctly interpreting her expression. "Luthor wasn't trying to kill me just because of you, Lois. That was just a bonus. He's been my enemy since I arrived in Metropolis. He'd have tried to kill me even if he hadn't thought I was his rival for you." He reached out to take her hand. "You were the bait to get me where he wanted me. He knew I'd come if he wanted to talk to me about you."
"How many others did he plan to murder, Clark? Some of the things you said made me wonder ..."
He looked uncomfortable. "He intended to kill Clark Kent. I was too close to you."
She would never tell him the other things he had rambled about in his sleep. That was when it had dawned on her that Lex had somehow tried to harm Clark. She shouldn't have been surprised, after all that she had learned about him, but she had been. There had been no depths to which Lex Luthor wouldn't sink. He had been intent on destroying everything that she loved -- everything that had been her anchor. Would he have gone after her other friends? Perry, perhaps? She would never know, now, but he might have.
But Clark and the others had already done their work when he had sprung his trap on Superman. He would have been arrested whether Superman had escaped the cage or not, but it might not have been in time to save Clark.
Clark's hand tightened around hers. "It's over, Lois," he said quietly. "Let it go. Beating yourself up over mistakes isn't going to do a bit of good. All I can do now -- all any of us can do -- is to make the best of things as they are. When we get back to Metropolis, I'll go to STAR Labs. There's a new researcher there; his name is Bernie Klein, and he's been studying Kryptonian physiology with the aim of helping me out if it ever turned out that I needed a doctor. He may be able to help me figure out what's happened -- whether I can reasonably expect to ever regain my powers or whether Superman is permanently retired."
"Clark do you think that maybe the long exposure to the cage had something to do with you being so sick? Some kind of radiation sickness, maybe?"
He shrugged. "How can I tell? I've never been sick before, even before I started to get my powers." He was studying the blank instrument board again. "I'm not human. Like Trask said, I'm an alien. I don't think Earth germs affect me the way they do other people, so you could be right."
"I hope you won't be shocked, Clark, but I'm not sorry Trask is dead," Lois said. "He was a dangerous lunatic. He wanted to kill Superman, and was perfectly willing to kill anybody who got in his way. At least now he can't hurt anyone else." She hesitated and added, "And neither can Lex." She squeezed his hand. "Look, I'm going to want you to tell me everything about yourself later, but now I think you should try to get some sleep. You've just barely gotten over whatever was the matter with you. We've got a long walk ahead of us. I know you slept almost all day, but do you think you can sleep some more?"
"I think so," he said. "I hate to admit it, but I feel pretty wiped out."
"You're not telling me anything I don't know. Are you warm enough?"
He glanced down at the hodgepodge of clothing tucked around him. "I think so. Are you?"
"I'm wearing three layers of clothes and have all this stuff over me. You go to sleep. I'll be fine."
**********
(tbc)
