Okay, okay. I know it said '1/1' last time, but after gentle naggi... er persuasion, I contiued the story. Alternate Reality will be continued as well [once I have a chance, hopefully soon!].
Thanks to Anna for all her help and to everyone who commented on the first two!
I still don't own the toys [but I DO own S1 now!!!].
*****
From Part 1:
*****
Reality was… Clark.
She looked up as he hurried back in the door, wondering what excuse he would offer up this time and realizing that it didn't matter.
He walked towards her and she pulled the pieces of the card out of her desk and, without looking at him, handed them over.
She smiled slyly to herself as she imagined the look on his face.
"You might want to burn that."
*****
Part 2
*****
It was all she could do not watch him for his reaction. Part of her knew she should be seething mad at him, but she just hadn't been able to work herself into a frenzy.
"Um, Lois." She rather enjoyed the discomfort in his voice. "Can we, uh, get out of here?" She'd never known Clark to have a hard time with words.
"Sure." She grabbed her purse as she stood. "I've been dying for more of that Italian we had the other night. How about we go there?" She still hadn't looked at him, but knew his jaw had to practically be dragging the floor.
She headed for the staircase rather than the elevator. She was going to get a flight out of this deal!
She could hear his footsteps following her all the way to the roof.
"Lois, where are we going?" He sounded nervous.
"To Italy. For Italian." She smiled inwardly at his discomfort.
"Um, okay."
She finally turned to look at him as they arrived on the roof. "But first you might want burn that."
Clark looked at the pieces of the card that he held in his hand. "Yeah, I probably should." She watched him look around and then he tossed it to the ground. He lowered his glasses and stared intently at the paper. Suddenly, it caught fire. After a few seconds, she saw him blow gently and the fire was out leaving only ashes behind.
She stumbled backwards and leaned against the edge of the building. She had known, intellectually, for about half an hour that Clark was Superman, but seeing him use his eye gizmo right in front of her, without the suit on, was a bit disconcerting.
"Lois, are you okay?" She finally looked him full in the face. His wonderful chocolate brown eyes were full of concern.
Wonderful?
What was coming over her today? First, she thought he had looked yummy at the Corn Festival and now she was noticing the nuances of his eyes?! What was wrong with her?!
She shook her head trying to clear her head of the thoughts she just didn't quite understand.
"I'm fine, Clark. Just a bit overwhelmed." And it wasn't just the revelation that Clark was Superman that was overwhelming her. It was all of the thoughts about Clark that were getting to her.
"So, you want to go to Italy, huh?"
She was stunned by her sudden change in thoughts about him and all that was on his mind was Italy?! She nodded, trying to collect herself.
A small grin played about his mouth. "I've always wanted to do this in front of you."
Do what in front of her?
Suddenly he began to spin. His light shirt and khaki pants disappeared and were replaced with the red, yellow and blue of Superman's suit.
She collapsed backwards in awe, forgetting that she was sitting on the edge of a 6 story roof.
"Ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The free-falling sensation lasted a matter of a second and a half before she was in the comforting embrace of her favorite superhero.
Favorite superhero!? He was the only superhero she knew of!
"Uh, Lois, just because you know the secret, doesn't mean I want you throwing yourself off the roof to test it."
So he thought that's what she was doing?!?!
She managed to straighten herself up – not an easy task while flying through the air over… the ocean?! How had they gotten way out here so fast?! There was no land to be seen anywhere!
"Clark, where are we?"
"On our way to Italy, of course."
"Oh, right." She cleared her throat. "Clark, I most decidedly did not *throw* myself off the building. You startled me with that…" She made circles with her finger. "…spinny thing."
He floated to a stop. His eyes turned very serious. "Lois, I'm sorry. I would never want you to get hurt."
"I know."
"Do you mind if we take a little side trip before we head to Italy?"
She shook her head. Who was she to argue? And it wasn't like she could fly so, really, what choice did she have in the matter?
Inside, she admitted that wasn't entirely accurate. Clark would always give her a choice. If she didn't want to go, she was certain they'd be back at the Planet in a flash.
But she did want to go. She wanted to hear what Clark had to say. To find out why he'd been lying to her for so long. To find out how he explained everything. To know how he became Superman.
On some level, she already knew. She knew, for example, that Superman's mother had made his suit. She had only just realized though, that Martha was Superman's mother. She knew that Superman had crash landed on earth in a spaceship. She was just coming to understand that it was Clark who had actually been in that tiny ship, confiscated by Trask and his goons.
Her head was starting to swim as she really began to put everything she knew about the two men together.
'Clark is the before and Superman is the after. The way, way after.'
She cringed as she remembered what she had said.
'I'd love you even if you were an ordinary man with no powers.'
Her eyes widened as the reality of what had happened fully hit her. What had she done to Clark, her best friend in the whole world?! Even while she was in the middle of what could have been the most costly mistake of her life, he'd stood by her even though she'd said those cruel words to him.
She'd often wondered, though never asked, why Superman hadn't saved Lex. Clark had been standing next to her as she watched the man she'd almost married throw himself off the tower. She remembered him whispering 'I can't' as they watched Lex fall. She'd never understood what he meant, but now, knowing that he was Superman, she knew he must have wanted to save Lex, but couldn't.
There was only one reason he couldn't have saved Lex.
"Lex exposed you to Kryptonite, didn't he?"
She could feel them lose altitude.
"Excuse me?"
"Before my, uh, wedding, he exposed you to Kryptonite, didn't he?"
"Yeah, he did."
"And that's why you said you couldn't. You couldn't save him. You wanted to didn't you?"
"Of course, I did."
She felt him take a deep breath.
"Lois, can we talk about this in a minute? We're almost to the island."
She nodded. What had she been thinking, springing it on him like that?
They landed in front of a small hut on a sandy beach. It looked almost brand new and had a small hand carved sign in front of it.
Fortress of Solitude.
Lois realized this must be where Clark came to be alone.
Solitude. Isolation. Seclusion. Retreat. Withdrawal.
Where Superman came to get away from it all.
She stood on the sandy beach and stared at the small building.
"Why did you bring me here, Clark?"
"We need to talk."
She rolled her eyes. "I know *that*. But why here? There must be a thousand deserted islands. Why this one?"
He shrugged. "It's mine."
She raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what Perry's paying you, but it can't be enough to have your own island in the Caribbean." She looked around. "We are in the Caribbean, aren't we?"
He laughed – a rich, full laugh. Oh, she loved his laugh!
She inwardly tried to slap some sense into herself. What was *with* her today?!
She almost missed his confirmation that yes, they were in the Caribbean and his explanation that Superman had found a gold mine – why did that sound familiar? – that he used for emergencies and that he had bought it because he needed a place to be alone and regroup sometimes.
"Regroup?"
"Yes, Lois. That's what the Fortress of Solitude is to me."
"Regroup. Not isolate or seclude or retreat or withdraw?"
"You're not the one who's supposed to be the walking thesaurus, Lois. You usually have to use shift F7 to come up with a list like that."
"Don't make fun, Clark." She shrugged. "Maybe you're rubbing off on me."
She hugged herself against the surprisingly cool breeze coming off the water.
"It looks new."
He looked at her quizzically. "What does?"
"The hut."
"It is. I had to rebuild it after the last hurricane. It hit the island pretty hard. Usually they miss this particular area, but not this time."
"The sign looks old."
"It is. It was on my tree house growing up. Then it was the place I could go and do some introspecting."
"Introspecting? Is that even a word."
Clark grinned at her. Oh, that smile could do more than light up a room! It lit up the whole outdoors!
"Yes, it is. It means to be introspective."
"Would it count in Scrabble?"
"As much as chumpy did."
Did he ever forget anything?!
"Clark, we have more important things to talk about than Scrabble words."
His face grew solemn. "Yes, we do."
"Like the fact that you've been lying to me for almost two years."
She saw him wince.
"I was hoping you'd forget about that part and focus on the part where I can fly you anywhere you want to go. You know, like Italy for lunch."
"You can fly, I can stay… mad. It's a gift."
"Are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Mad."
What was he yapping about? Of course she was mad! Why wouldn't she be? She had PLENTY to be mad about!
She opened her mouth to start yelling at him only to shut it again when the words wouldn't come.
Part of her wanted to slap him – hard – but knew that she was more likely to break her hand than hurt him, with the whole 'man of steel' thing he had going on.
"Lois, please go ahead and rant and rave and yell and scream all you want, because it's really not something you can do once we get anywhere else. It's not safe for you or my parents or Perry or Jimmy or anyone else if any one of any number of bad guys find out who I really am."
"Perry and Jimmy know," she said slowly.
Of course they knew. Perry hadn't become editor because he could yodel, after all. And Jimmy, well, he was Clark's best friend. Of course he had to know.
"No, Lois. They don't." She watched him shake his head. "You're the only one who knows, except my parents, of course."
She was the only one who knew.
The only one.
The.
Only.
One.
Wow. That was huge. That was gigantic. That was…
She had to sit down.
How could she be entrusted with this information?
She, the one person who spent more time in captivity than Nelson Mandella. The one person that every criminal in Metropolis wanted to get their hands on to try to get to Superman.
And now she had in her possession the most valuable piece of information that they could ever want.
"Clark, I can't do this."
*****
TBC
