Twins: 20/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
Brian came in to a rough landing on the sidewalk in front of Clark's apartment and set her on her feet.
"I can't go in. It hurts to get too close," Brian said. "Clark said you could help him. Hurry! He's in the bedroom."
Lois stared at him for several seconds, then she made up her mind. This whole thing was completely confusing, but the important part seemed to be that Clark needed her, and had sent Brian to get her. "Okay, stay here."
"Hurry!" Brian said.
Lois turned and ran up the stairs.
And now, Part 20:
The door to the apartment wasn't locked. Lois pushed it wide and stepped inside.
Brian's explanation hadn't been completely clear -- to be honest, it had been pretty unclear. The only thing that she was sure of was that Clark needed her and that, whatever was wrong, Brian couldn't get too close because it hurt.
But what could hurt Superman?
Admittedly, Brian wasn't Superman, but he was Superman's twin, a Kryptonian in every way that mattered. But nothing could hurt Superman!
All speculation aside; Clark needed her. "In the bedroom," Brian had said. She headed for Clark's sleeping area quickly but cautiously. Surely Brian would have warned her if whatever had happened to Clark was harmful to her -- if he knew.
"Clark?" she called.
"Lois?" The word was barely audible. "Help!"
The sound of his voice made her instantly forget her caution. She hurried into Clark's bedroom and stopped in shock at the sight that met her eyes.
Clark was sprawled awkwardly on the rug, to all appearances, barely conscious. Directly between them, a metal box lay on its side, its lid open, and beside it, as if it had rolled from the box when it fell, an irregular chunk of green crystal, a little smaller than her clenched fist, glowed malevolently.
Lois had never seen anything like it before, but logic said that since it was the only thing here that was at all unusual, it was somehow connected to the crisis before her. Her first instinct was to get that thing back in the box that it had apparently come from as fast as she could.
She glanced quickly around the room. If this stuff, whatever it was, could fell Superman, she sure as heck wasn't going to touch it! Brian had said that it hurt him to get too close. She didn't feel anything; it might not affect her, but through the bathroom door, she could see a towel hanging from its rack. Without further delay, she crossed the room, appropriated the towel and, using it to protect her hand, chivvied the hunk of crystal gingerly into its box and closed the lid.
A long sigh from Clark brought her around. Her partner's eyes were open and he was trying to push himself up on his forearms. She dropped to her knees beside him. "Clark, are you all right?"
"Yeah, I think so." His voice was thin, but gaining strength as he spoke.
"What *was* that stuff?" she demanded, but somewhere under the surface a part of her mind was working fast, stringing together odd facts. The green crystal had affected both Brian and Clark, but not her. There was only one thing that she had ever heard of that might be able to hurt or kill Superman: the meteorite that Wayne Irig had found in his field, that Jason Trask had sought so feverishly in Smallville, and that she -- no, that *Clark* had named Kryptonite.
And quite suddenly another scene sprang unbidden into her mind -- the two of them sitting at the table in Maisie's Diner, in Smallville, and Clark's shocked expression at a very ordinary paper cut on his index finger. She had paid almost no attention to his reaction at the time, except to think that he was making an unnecessary fuss about so ordinary an event.
But of course, it hadn't been ordinary to him. Superman had never had a paper cut before.
There had been Kryptonite in Smallville after all, and Clark had known it all along. Somewhere, he must have encountered it, and ...
And it had robbed him of his super powers, as the paper cut had demonstrated. Superman had fought Trask to save his parents' lives as an ordinary man who could die as easily as any other -- and he almost had. If she and Rachel Harris had arrived a few seconds later, Trask would have shot him in the back.
She found that she was staring at him, and that he was refusing to meet her eyes. There was a long, charged silence, then Clark got slowly and carefully to his feet. Lois helped him make his shaky way to the foot of his bed, and he sank down on it with a faint sigh and rested his face in his hands.
Still neither of them said anything. The sensation of which Lois was most aware was a combination of panic and conversely enough, pleased realization. Clark had sent Brian to her to get help, so he must trust her, at least to some degree. Only now the rational part of her mind was gibbering in complete panic. What was she supposed to say now? It was obvious that she couldn't pretend not to know the truth any longer. And if that last sentence had made any sense, then she was doing better than she thought she was. Well, on second thought, it actually had made sense, which was almost worse. In any case, Clark had to know after this that she knew he was Superman. Even if she hadn't known before, she would have to be an idiot not to have figured it out after this. What in heaven's name was she going to do? Tell him that she had known his secret for three days, ever since she had first seen him and Brian together -- oh sure, that made a lot of sense! Real smooth, Lois! she told herself, derisively. Should she tell him the truth, and explain how she'd been trying to show him that he could trust her, and yet she hadn't told him that she knew ... now she wished that she had let him know right away. Still, she hadn't told anyone else, had she? That had to count for something!
She was babbling in her head again. The heck with it, she thought. So what if she babbled? It helped her to think. Only right now, she couldn't seem to resolve anything. Besides that, her heart was still pounding with the aftermath of the near disaster. Clark could have quite literally died. Jason Trask had been right all along about Kryptonite, she thought. The man might have been crazy, but he hadn't been stupid.
They both jumped when the door of Clark's apartment slammed, and an instant later Brian stepped into the room, still in his Superman outfit. "Can I come in?"
"Sure," Lois said, after a tiny pause. As an afterthought, she appropriated the box and snapped the catch firmly closed. "I think this stuff will be a lot safer this way," she said. "Clark, what happened?"
"I ... I opened the box," he said.
"And it never occurred to you to think that there might be something dangerous inside?" she asked, irritably. "Oh no, of course it didn't!" she added, warming to her subject. Now that the danger was past, reaction had begun to set in. "Naturally not! You're Superman! Nothing can hurt you -- but you knew better, didn't you? You knew that Kryptonite was real, didn't you!" Without realizing it, she was waving an accusing finger directly beneath his nose, "You ran into it in Smallville, and it took away your powers! *That's* how come you got that paper cut!" She planted her fists on her hips and glared at him. "Where did you get that stuff, anyway? Did you find it in the penthouse? Of course you did, or you wouldn't have opened it like the lunkhead you are!"
The shocked expression on Clark's face changed and astonishment took its place. "Lunkhead?" he said.
"Well, what would you call it? That stuff hurt Brian. It *has* to be Kryptonite, and if *anybody* would have the real thing, it would be Lex! If you knew the stuff existed, you should know he'd have it."
"But there wasn't any way I *could* have known," he protested. "The piece in Smallville was destroyed, and I've never seen any since then!"
"But Wayne Irig said he sent a piece to a lab in Wichita, and it disappeared!" Lois said. "If either of us had been thinking straight after all that stuff with crazy secret agents and Corn Festivals, we'd have realized he stole it! When *anything* that looks impossible happens, I always think of Lex, remember!"
"Lois," Clark said, "that's really stretching a coincidence too far. How would Luthor even hear about the stuff?"
"You'd be surprised what Lex hears," Lois said. The flash of anger had vanished as quickly as it had surfaced and she felt herself beginning to shake. "Clark, you could have died!"
"Yes, I could have," he admitted. "That's why I sent Brian to get you. This isn't the first time you've saved my life." He put out a hand and pulled her to sit next to him. "Are you all right?"
"Of course I am," she muttered, a little embarrassed at her outburst. "I've seen it all, remember? Fire, famine, floods ..."
"And your partner turning out to be Superman," Clark said. "I'm sorry, Lois. I meant to tell you a little more gently."
"You were going to tell me?" she faltered. "Really?"
"Yeah," Clark said. "Just not quite yet. I hadn't figured out how."
"Oh," she said in a small voice.
**********
Lois was taking the fact that he was Superman a little differently than Clark had imagined. Recently, he had caught himself thinking about the subject, and constructing various scenarios where he revealed his dual identity to her. This didn't match any of them. She didn't seem angry at all about the deception; instead, she had jumped on him about his carelessness -- an ironic circumstance, since it was usually he who was scolding Lois for the same failing.
In fact, she seemed somewhat ... well, he wasn't sure exactly *how* she was taking the revelation. She seemed a little uncertain, if anything, and more shaken at his close brush with death than the fact that he was the superhero that she had fallen head over heels for, several months ago.
"Why are you mad?" Brian asked. His lower lip showed a tendency to quiver in the face of Lois's wrath. "Aren't you glad Clark is okay?"
Lois turned quickly to him, and Clark hid a smile at the way she moved to immediately reassure the boy-man. "I'm not mad," she said. "I was just upset that Clark was hurt. I'm glad he's all right. And you did exactly the right thing, when you came to get me."
Brian's anxious expression relaxed into a tentative smile. "Really?"
"Yes, really," she said, in a tone that seemed to soothe all of Brian's doubts. "I'm glad you came when you did. I was afraid Lex was going to ... " She broke off, jumping to her feet. "Omigod! Lex!"
"What about him?" Clark asked, at once. "What were you afraid he was going to do?"
"Brian snatched me up just as I was getting into Lex's limousine," Lois said. "Actually, that's not a bad thing, because I think Lex was going to ask me to marry him, and now I won't have to answer him, at least yet ... but what am I going to tell him about tonight?"
Clark had a mental image of the scene she described, and couldn't help smiling, in spite of his instant revulsion at the idea of Lois married to the billionaire. "That must have been a shock to Luthor," he said.
"I think it must have been," Lois said. She glanced at Brian, who was listening to the conversation with a worried expression. "Don't feel bad, Brian, I'm not angry at you. Actually, you did me a favor, but I need to tell Lex some kind of story to explain what happened."
"Well," Clark said, "if Superman were to take you off to get a story on some breaking event ..."
"*What* breaking event?" Lois said, skeptically. "As far as I know, there isn't any breaking story anywhere, and even if there was, you're in no shape to take me there!"
It was amazing to see how she seemed to have taken his revelation in her stride, Clark thought. But then Lois tended to be a realist except when she was rationalizing away some action of her own that she knew underneath was at least questionable. Besides, Brian was here, so she couldn't say what she was thinking. She was probably going to flay him verbally when she got him alone, but at least the biggest step was over. The rest could only be downhill. He smiled slightly. "I'm afraid you're right. Any ideas?"
"Well," she said slowly, "maybe it was an interview with a really hard-to-reach source, and I needed to do the interview *right now*, and there wasn't time to explain. Only why would Superman be involved?"
"It's mixed up with some project of his, and the people involved would only talk to Lois Lane," Clark said.
Lois raised an eyebrow at him, but nodded doubtfully. "Maybe. It could be some long-term project and the series probably won't appear in the paper for several months," she said. "I guess that might be reasonable."
"Maybe Superman was trying to help somebody who was afraid of him," Brian said suddenly. "So he had to come and get you."
Clark looked at his twin with a certain amount of respect. Brian might be child-like, but as he had already demonstrated, he learned fast.
"That's very good," he said. "What do you think, Lois? If you keep it vague enough, do you think it might get by?"
"I think so," she said, and Brian beamed. "I'll wait a couple of hours and call him. In the meantime, Clark, don't you think we should get this stuff out of your apartment? Anything could happen with it here."
"I think it's safe enough where it is," Clark said. "Just as long as no one opens the lid."
"Maybe you should give it to Bernie," Brian said. "He's trying to help me, you know."
"Yes, I know," Clark said. "I talked to him a little while ago," he added, for Lois's benefit. "He says his treatment will work on Brian, just as soon as his invulnerability fades."
"That's a relief," Lois said. She glanced at Brian with a half-smile. "I've gotten to like him."
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of Clark's front door opening. A voice said, "What's going on in here, Kent? I already told you I gotta protect my tenants ..."
"Floyd!" Clark whispered.
Footsteps crossed the living room, and bare seconds later the apartment's landlord stepped into the sleeping area. His expression changed ludicrously from suspicion to speechless surprise, followed by a mixture of mistrust and doubt. "What's going on here?" he demanded. He looked from Clark, still sitting on the foot of his bed, to Lois, dressed for an evening at the ballet, to Brian, still in his Superman costume. Brian folded his arms and looked impassively back.
It was fortunate that Brian had practiced at "being Superman", Clark thought. He looked very convincing. He opened his mouth, not certain of what he was going to say, when Lois stepped into the breach.
"Look, Mr. Whoever-You-Are," she said, with a very good imitation of Perry when she burst unannounced into his office, as she frequently did, "Even if you're the landlord, you're still supposed to knock!"
"Who are you?" Floyd demanded.
"I'm Clark's partner at the Daily Planet," Lois said, glaring at him, "and I guess you know who this is, don't you?" She jerked her head at Brian. "Do you mind? We're working."
Floyd stared at her, opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, looked at Brian and appeared to deflate. Clark mastered the urge to laugh. He could actually sympathize with Floyd -- a little, anyway. The picture they presented would look odd to anyone. His landlord seemed completely at a loss.
Lois began to tap her foot, her expression an excellent imitation of their boss's impatience when some underling of his in the newsroom had failed to live up to his expectations. Floyd glanced uncertainly at Clark and began to edge backwards. The tapping of Lois's foot increased, as did the speed of Floyd's retreat. A moment later, the door closed behind him. Lois followed him and Clark heard the latch turn with a decisive click.
"Nosy busybody," Lois said, as she returned to the room. "How are you feeling now, Clark?"
"Better," Clark said. He got slowly to his feet, wincing slightly at the protesting twinges that shot through his muscles and joints as he put weight on his legs again. "No powers, but that won't last." He glanced at Brian and back to Lois. His twin's presence made any deeper discussion with Lois about his dual identity impossible, but asking him to leave wasn't a wise idea.
"Brian got lonely at the lab," he explained to Lois. "He's staying here tonight."
"Oh," Lois said, comprehending the difficulty at once. "Well, I guess I should probably go home -- if Brian will give me a lift."
"Are you sure?" Clark asked. "The last thing you need is for Luthor to show up at your apartment."
"With a proposal of marriage," she added. "You've got a point."
Brian stepped forward eagerly. "I can fly you home and check before I set you down," he suggested. "Is that okay?"
Lois nodded, but she was frowning slightly. "Can you take me to New Jersey?" she inquired.
"New Jersey?" Clark asked. The workings of his partner's mind baffled him sometimes.
"Sure. I'll call him from New Jersey. He's bound to have caller ID, so if I call him from there, he'll think that's where Superman's emergency is," she said, simply. "I'll tell him it's going to take a while, and he shouldn't wait for me to get back."
"That's very good," Clark said.
She looked him over carefully. "Are you sure you're going to be all right?" she asked.
"I should be," he said. "I just don't have any powers. If any emergencies come up, it looks like Brian is going to have to handle them until I'm back up to speed."
"I will," Brian said, nodding eagerly. "I want to help if I can."
"I'll give you some tips," Clark said. He found himself looking at Lois again. "We'll talk about ... things, tomorrow, all right?"
"All right," she said. "Call me if you start feeling worse."
"I will," he said. He wished he could tell what she was thinking, but her expression told him nothing.
After Lois and Brian had left, he picked up the lead box that contained the nugget of Kryptonite. Brian was probably right, he reflected. He would give this to Dr. Klein in the morning when he took Brian back to STAR Labs. In the meantime, he thrust the box into the bottom drawer of his dresser and covered it with pieces of clothing. It would be safe enough there until tomorrow.
Moving slowly, he began to get ready for bed. He doubted he'd be able to get to sleep until Brian returned, but suddenly his bed looked very comfortable.
**********
(tbc)
