Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic The Proposal (3/3)

Summary: What if all the worst parts of your personality came together to lead you to the right decision, but for all the wrong reasons? When Clark gets a tip that's too hot for him to handle, he has to make a decision that could melt his relationship with Lois into lava. This is a light story, with a little swath of angst, a little dash of WAFFY-ness and a LOT of silly choices that the original series probably could have gotten away with in the 90's, but television really couldn't get away with now.
tl;dr: There's a proposal, and possibly some bad decisions.

A/N: This adjusts the show's timeline in Barbarians at the Planet. Here, Luthor never buys the Daily Planet. The sequence here is that Luthor blows up the Planet, then proposes, not the other way around.





"What if he doesn't show up?"

"He'll show up. He always shows up," Lois snapped at her kid sister.

Although she wasn't really sure of that this time. She'd dodged Clark's calls over the last three days, so she wasn't exactly positive what he was thinking at this point.

And honestly, after three days being alone inside her own head, tossing around the actually crazy idea of what it would be like to legitimately marry her partner, she didn't have any idea what she was thinking either.

"Are you nervous?" Lucy asked her.

There was nothing to be nervous about, she insisted to herself. If Clark decided to show up, she'd call his bluff and they'd move on. She might even frame that marriage license application so that she could continue to tease him about it for years to come.

"I'm fine," she told her sister. She looked down to see that she was unconsciously tapping her foot and stopped, holding it still.

Lucy chuckled. "Whoa, you're freaking out."

"I am not freaking out."

"Don't you want to marry Clark?"

That, it turned out, was the million dollar question, wasn't it?

"It doesn't matter," she told her sister, side-stepping the question of wanting to marry Clark entirely. "He's not going to show up."

"Then why are we here?"

"I'm proving a point."

"Lois, I know I'm the kid sister, but isn't that kind of immature?"

"That's rich, coming from you," Lois bit back.

"Seriously, Lo. Clark's such a nice guy. What point are you trying to prove?"

"He is nice," she agreed, responding to only the part of the conversation she wanted to. At least, he was nice when he wasn't tilting at windmills and indulging in his hero complex, slating her in as his damsel-in-distress.

"I always hoped you'd find a nice guy," Lucy said, nudging her sister's knee with her own. "A super guy, even. Don't you think Clark is super?"

"I think Clark is…"

What a loaded sentence. How to even finish that?

Complicated? A neanderthal betrayer? Her best friend? Her anchor? Her ballast?

"Yeah?" Lucy prodded. "You're marrying the guy. Don't you know who he is?"

Five days ago, she would have said yes to that unequivocally. Three days ago, she would have said that she didn't know him at all. But after three days without him - not that she would ever admit it to him - she'd started to miss being on the receiving end of some of his better qualities.

Clark was steady and stable. Sensible, especially where she wasn't. Wholesome in that easygoing Midwestern kind of way. Endearingly naive: she was never quite sure whether she was actually getting one over on him, or whether he was just happy to go along with her plans. He was comfortable in the lean-against-him-on-the-couch-during-a-movie-and-fall-asleep-tucked-into-his-shoulder kind of way.

"You do think he's super," Lucy's teasing crow snapped her out of her thoughts. "Look at your face, Lois! I say his name and your smile turns all ooey-gooey."

Oh, jeez, had it?

"I'm happy for you, sis," Lucy said. But her own smile had turned watery. "After everything with Daddy, and the whole divorce, and Mother's endless monologues about men, and then you turning out so, well… you, and going on all those awful dates you went on… I'm glad you finally found a nice guy to marry."

Lois' brow furrowed. She had to tell Lucy that this marriage was basically a dare, not the fairy tale ending she was envisioning.

"It kind of makes me think there's still hope for me," Lucy said, her voice small. " And I could really use it. I've had a lot of bad boyfriends lately."

Well, she couldn't tell Lucy now.

That the thing that propelled them here was a dare, just Clark trying to teach her a lesson as they tried to out-stubborn each other.

"Hi."

Her eyes flashed up and met Clark's.

Her breath hitched.

She felt herself lean toward him automatically.

What the hell? she thought, physically holding herself in place.

Was this her body's response to three days away from him? Sure, they were charged days, but she'd spent days away from him before and this wasn't what happened. Or had it? Had she just not realized it? How could she have not noticed this whole-body response to him?

No, no, no. It wasn't anything special. It was just the situation getting to her.

"Hi, Clark!" Lucy welcomed him, still watery but happy.

His eyes moved away to smile at her sister, but snapped right back to her.

"Hi, Lois," he said in a low voice that she recognized from the newsroom when he only intended his words for her.

"Hey," she replied, carefully keeping her voice even.

"You look beautiful," he said, and while she wanted to wave him off, her heart unexpectedly stuttered.

Oh, man, she needed to get a grip. She wasn't actually getting married today.

But she heard herself say, "Thanks. You, too."

And he did look good. He was wearing a deep charcoal grey suit, almost black, but not quite with stiff lapels. It felt formal, but it still looked like him.

"Oh, here," he remembered.

He brought one hand out from behind his back and handed her a little white bouquet.

His hand lingered when it met hers, and for a second they both stilled. This happened between them sometimes: like as he'd handed her the wine glass just before his proposal, when the look in his eyes had given her butterflies that she's had to quell with the wine.

But that was just something that happened, right?

No, she realized with sudden clarity. That frothy, heated little surge in her blood only came from Clark. She'd just been shoving it down since that first week she'd met him and it had become a habit she didn't even acknowledge.

Oh, god, what a realization to have moments before she had to decide if she was going to marry the guy!

Not that she was going to marry him, she reminded herself.

She cleared her throat and disengaged their hands.

"These are for me?" she asked.

"I thought you might like them to walk down the aisle. Every bride should have a bouquet," he said with a smile. "I mean, if you want one. I don't really know what your dream wedding would have looked like."

Neither did she. She hadn't really spent years dreaming about her wedding day, what she'd wear, how many tiers the cake would be, what song she'd dance to, how her groom would look at her when she walked down the aisle. She'd been dreaming of a Pulitzer.

But the gesture of bringing her a bridal bouquet struck her as sweet.

And the bouquet was actually pretty, too. It was the perfect petit size and not overly fussy. There were some white roses in the mix, but, as far as she could tell, it looked like a smattering of what might be wildflowers overall. Or things that might grow in someone's garden. There was a slim, light blue ribbon around the stems, which she identified as a piece of lace.

"Something blue," she realized, fingering the tiny bit of lace.

"It was my mom's when she was younger," he said. "She wore it in her hair at her own wedding. I didn't really think that was your style, so I thought this might work."

"So it's something borrowed, too," she said. "It's nice."

They made eye contact and it felt charged enough for a blush to rise.

"Now we just need something old and something new," she forced out.

"I think the ribbon counts as 'old,' too," Clark said. "And some of the buds in there are brand new. A couple of them just opened this morning."

"Wow, it's an all-in-one bouquet," she quipped.

"It's tradition in my family," he said with sheepish sentimentality. "My parents did it at their wedding."

"You didn't want them here today?"

He squirmed. "I… did. But I wasn't sure that you would want an audience. Guests didn't feel... expeditious."

She recognized the callback to her description of the courthouse wedding and winced.

"You could have asked them," she said, suddenly feeling bad about not having thought through that unlike her, Clark might have envisioned a dream wedding.

"They probably would have talked me out of it," he admitted.

"I know what you mean," she said conspiratorially. She'd corralled Lucy here because she needed a witness, but she hadn't asked her parents to come because she still thought she'd end up calling Clark's bluff today, and there wouldn't be any marriage to see. But they would definitely have tried talking her out of this. If they showed up at all.

But speaking of witnesses…

"Did you bring your witness, by the way?" she asked, unable to keep some of the accusation out of her voice.

He gave her a look that was part affection and part challenge. "He's meeting us here."

"Who did you get to go along with your crusade of flipping the gender norm?" she asked, trying to suss out whether he was really serious about this.

Oh, mercy, please let it not be Jimmy.

Or anyone at all from the Planet.

"Clark, Lois," said a rough voice off to the side.

She and Clark both turned and she was floored to see her most reliable snitch shake hands with Clark. Why on earth had Clark asked Bobby Bigmouth of all people!? Jimmy or Perry would have been awkward but Bobby would never let her live this down!

"Lane," Bobby intoned, tipping his head toward her with a smirk. "White's your color."

She smoothed her hand down the simple satin slip dress she'd worn and tried not to notice Clark's eyes following her motion. She resisted another blush, turning her ire on Bobby instead.

"Bobby, how did you get here? Did Clark have to bribe you with an entire wedding cake?" she asked caustically.

"There's cake?" Bobby's eyes lit hopefully.

She opened her mouth with a suitably sarcastic reply, but heard her name called down the call.

"Lane and Kent?"

An older woman in a black judge's robe popped her head out of the now open door a few feet away.

"Lane and Kent?" she called again.

"Here!" Clark responded.

"Lane and Kent, good. You're my next appointment," she said with a welcoming smile. "Come on in."

Bobby and Lucy headed toward the office door, and Clark turned to her, offering a hand to get up from the bench.

Bouquet in one hand, she took his hand with the other, letting him help her up.

Once she was standing, though, he didn't let go.

They walked hand in hand toward the Judge's office.

Her butterflies erupted again.

She felt his eyes cut toward her.

"Last chance to stop this, if you don't want it, Lois," he murmured. "You don't have to rescue me, just because I don't mind that you do."

"In your dreams," she tossed back, her bravado taking control without her consciously summoning it. "If you want to get out of accepting my offer, you'll have to be the one to turn it down."

He cast a look at her that was partly worried, partly curious and partly something that she couldn't interpret.

And then they were walking through the door, and up to the Judge, and Lucy was taking her bouquet and moving back behind her.

"Dearly beloved," the Judge began. "We are gathered here today…"

Time was speeding up and she hadn't stopped this game of mutually assured destruction when she should have. Even though she was used to cutting it close, they were really nearing the point of no return now. But she didn't want him to win this when she'd made such a stand, and when the stand had been an important one.

She shifted her weight nervously and Clark glanced over at her, subtly giving her an inquiring look.

This was the exact moment she needed her partner, but this time he was the one who had gotten her into this mess.

What are we doing?! She tried to ask him without speaking.

The expression in his eyes shifted, and she could see his concern blossom anew.

He would stop this if she truly panicked, she knew. He'd been the one to call for a truce to tons of their earlier competitions over the last year.

But truth be told, she wasn't sure what she actually wanted anymore. Her nerves were frayed from the whole week. Getting married to her partner, whom she hadn't even been dating, in the midst of an emotional career upheaval, seemed insane.

But…

A stray thought snapped along her synapses.

Did she want this??

She clearly hadn't been listening to her mind or her body where Clark was concerned, information which her traitorous brain had finally decided to parse just minutes ago.

Ugh, why couldn't she process her emotions in a linear way like most people did?!?

All she needed was a few minutes to analyze this.

And she had exactly a couple of minutes.

She had always been good under pressure.

So she schooled her features, giving Clark the message that she didn't need him to save her.

And she saw him sit back on his heels minutely, acknowledging she'd released him from the alert she'd sent his way.

It struck her that he'd read and reacted to her perfectly as she sorted through her messy emotions.

Had he always been able to do that?

"If anyone has any objections as to why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace."

The judge dutifully paused for a moment.

No one objected.

This was the moment she'd assumed the ruse would end.

But no one spoke.

Not even her, she realized, once the judge had continued on.

What was she doing!? Was her pride in this much control of her that she couldn't back down? Or did she not want to back down for some other reason that she hadn't been ready to confront?

Clark caught her eye and subtly raised an eyebrow.

He had thought she would object, too.

She gently shrugged and light surprise colored his features.

Meanwhile, the Judge had continued on, and the older woman's voice broke back into her thoughts.

"Do you, Clark Kent, take Lois Lane, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do you part?"

He made eye contact with her again, and she could feel him searching her.

After a moment, the look in his eyes changed. He dipped his head and solemnly said, "I do," a small smile pulling gently at the edge of his mouth.

He did?

Even now, she couldn't figure out his angle, why on earth he would.

"Do you, Lois Lane…"

She started at being addressed directly, and immediately felt a sudden panic overtake her. She was out of time to think this through. Regardless of where her shifting emotions landed, this was crazy. She'd called Clark's bluff, and he hadn't backed down. She didn't think he was quite as stubborn as she was, but apparently, he was dethroning her as the new champion of stubborn! They'd taken this far enough. Otherwise, what was next - seeing which of them was the first to bring up the annulment papers?

"…until death do you part?"

She looked to Clark.

He'd already said his "I do."

"I…"

And apparently he wasn't going to stop her from saying hers.

She didn't want him to win whatever this crazy game of chicken was, but she didn't want to end up married because of it!

"Can I talk to you for a minute over here?" She improvised, nodding toward the door.

"Uh, sure," Clark agreed.

Making her way back down the very short aisle, she clocked Lucy making a face like she was telling Lois not to screw this up and Bobby with raised eyebrows like he was watching a public street fight breaking out. She fought the urge to roll her eyes, and opened the door, motioning Clark to proceed her through it.

"Just a second. We'll be right back," she said to the peanut gallery, closing them inside.

In the hall, she rounded on her partner.

"Alright, Clark, enough's enough. You've proven you'll go through with it, but I don't get what's in it for you. Why on earth would you want to go through with this?"

"I told you that day at my apartment, Lois. I love you," he said earnestly.

She shook her head in frustration. There was no way it could be that simple.

"But why?"

It was the question she had asked Lex. And he, a shallow man, she'd since decided, had given her a rudimentarily shallow answer. So now she was using this same question as a litmus test on Clark.

"Because you're the best person I know," he said, as if that were obvious.

When she narrowed her eyes, he elaborated.

"Because… You have such an enormous heart, Lois. And you can't stand to see someone treated unfairly. You go out of your way to stick up for the people who can't stick up for themselves, and you've dedicated your whole life to telling their stories. You throw yourself wholeheartedly into every single one and you can't ever help getting involved in them, even if it breaks your rules, because you know it will help someone. You're brilliant, and savvy, and so, so smart. You're confident and brave and always have a plan. You're fun to be around and I- I always want to be around you. " he said in a rush that could have rivaled her for speed of speech.

"And that's why I want to marry you. I think… I think we make each other better people. And I know you make me better. You make everything better."

His voice was low and quiet now, but it was the look in his eyes pinning her in place.

That's what he should have said during his proposal, she thought dizzily.

It left her speechless.





"Look, Lois, you don't really have to go through with this," he assured her. "I do love you, and I think I always will. And I know that you don't mind the unorthodox, but this is a huge step, and I would never want to trap you in something you don't want."

Her brow furrowed, but she still didn't say anything.

"We can even say that I lost this bet," he offered. "That I couldn't handle the idea of the partnership you wanted, if that's what you want."

"I think that maybe you're right," she said slowly, not looking at him.

"What?" he asked.

Her eyes were cast downward.

"I've been thinking a lot the last three days. Maybe more than I should. Or maybe as much as I should have been thinking months ago," she admitted with a self-castigating chuckle. "But the truth is, if your proposal hadn't made me so angry, I don't know what I would have said to Lex when he made his offer. And I think… I think I might have made the wrong decision there. But with you…"

Her eyes finally met his.

She hadn't ever looked at him like this before, not outright.

"Anyway, maybe this'll be enough to stop me from making any other stupid decisions."

"Lois, that's not a good enough reason to get married."

Her face fell at his reply.

Was she… was she disappointed?

That could not be true.

But he knew what Lois looked like when something had disappointed her.

She looked like this.

His brain sputtered over the thought.

"You were right," she said then, the sudden vulnerability in her voice tugging at him.

"I have felt… lost. Without the Planet. I don't feel like I belong anywhere anymore. I- I think I'd really like to feel safe right now."

"And this would make you feel safe?" he asked incredulously, blindly gesturing to the judge's door behind them, not taking his eyes off her.

"You make me feel safe," she said, and he recognized that she was doing her best to articulate in a small way something that felt incredibly big.

Something in her had shifted.

And it had shifted toward him.

"You are safe with me," he promised.

And if she was asking him to keep her safe for the rest of her life, he would vow to do that.

For better, or for worse.

"So…?" she gestured to the door.

"Lead the way, partner," he said.





The next few minutes had gone smoothly once they'd gone back in. The Judge, apparently on a time crunch between civil ceremonies today, was happy enough to jump right back in where they'd left off.

And when Lois said, "I do," she had felt certain for the first time in a long time. Because unless Superman was going to descend from the skies to confess his love and propose, which she never truly thought would be a possibility, she wasn't really sure that the typical fairy tale was something she was capable of. But a life with Clark - not with his wealth or his status or his polite distance, but with his morals, his kind nature, his insistence on equality, the way he made her laugh, the way he kept up with her, the way his eyes took on a look of unadulterated adoration when he told her that she was safe with him - well, that was a life she could see herself living.

"You may now kiss the bride."

Oh, god, right, that was her part again.

She'd gotten caught up in sorting this out in her mind and the ceremony had sped by!

And now they were supposed to kiss.

In front of people.

On purpose.

How had she not remembered that this was part of literally every wedding ceremony ever?

Nerves shot through her, but she turned back to Clark, as everyone clearly expected.

She'd only kissed Clark before as part of a ploy, not because she'd really meant it. It was always just a convenient tactic, to use him as a prop. But this wouldn't be a ploy or gambit or any kind of undercover facade. This was supposed to be honest.

And while she wanted to try that - to kiss him with honesty - their situation was just so take-the-cake-odd that she had no idea how to do it.

She looked up at him, seeing that he was watching for her, waiting for her permission. Waiting, as ever, it seemed, to follow her lead, just as he'd promised.

But this wasn't a place she was eager to be the leader. So she gave him a look that clearly translated as 'help,' and watched as he grinned.

Apparently, he was happy to help her with this.

He took her hands in his, and moved closer, still watching for any hesitation from her.

But she was being careful not to give any sign of hesitation whatsoever. She was ready to get this over with and figure out whether the next part of this was supposed to be. Because along with the realization she'd missed any anticipation of this kiss was the realization that she hadn't anticipated anything else either: where they would live, where to look for work, if they had any real concept of how this partnership was supposed to work now that they had added a marriage to it.

Clark's hand pulsed, pulling her attention back, and she tilted her face up, finding him suddenly quite close.

He gave her a clear look that said he was going to kiss her, now, and she felt herself brace.

…And she also felt the involuntary reaction of her body - breath hitching, pulse pounding more insistently through her veins, the butterflies in her stomach tracing patterns of suddenly white-hot heat through her abdomen.

It caught her off guard. Was this the reaction she'd been stifling every day?

He bent down toward her, and his lips gently met hers.

As soon as they touched, the electricity that had teased her in the hall coursed through her veins full-throttle.

Her hands tensed around his, and the kiss intensified. She wasn't sure if it had been her, or his response to her, but either way, it was making her adrenaline surge.

Something about it felt familiar.

That made sense; she'd kissed Clark before as a cover.

But overwhelming that familiarity was the white hot excitement of kissing Clark Kent.

Because, she thought, as he lightly, slowly caressed her lower lip with his, he was a devastatingly good kisser.

She felt herself lean in, and his weight shifted against her, one of his hands releasing hers to come up to her cheek. Feeling her cheek heat under his palm, either from his body heat or her own blush, she dropped her hand to his chest and was reminded that her new husband was built.

Her mind was unspooling, her focus raw and narrowed down to the man running his hand up her now arching back. She couldn't catch her breath, she realized, as Clark kissed her into a blank, unworried bliss.

A giggle broke through into her consciousness, and, suddenly self-conscious, she broke the unexpectedly heated kiss, shooting a glare at her sister who was doing an awful job of covering up her smirk.

When she looked back at Clark, though, all thought of her sister evaporated. He was looking at her like she held the moon and he was starving for light, like she was precious air in a sealed tomb, like he'd trudged through dusty days in a desert to devour whatever she offered.

And with an unmistakable, delicious thrill, she realized that in spite of his earlier promise, she didn't feel safe at all.

She shook her head against the hyperbolic route her thoughts had taken as the judge executed the license they'd tasked Bobby with remembering to get signed when they'd entered. Bobby and her sister signed, too, and then Clark.

When he moved to hand her the pen, she realized that she was still holding his hand.

Disentangling, she took the pen he offered and signed the document.

It was official now.





Several minutes later, they sat on a bench outside the Judge's office.

Silent.

And married.

Bobby had departed swiftly after wishing them luck, already untucking a wrapped sandwich from somewhere in his coat, and Lucy had left after a giggly but heartfelt congratulations.

Then Lois had sat to fix the strap on one of her shoes and he'd sat down beside her.

And they hadn't moved.

A sort of unexpected shock had settled over them, like the calm after a storm.

An awkwardness had crept in.

A silent awkwardness that rendered them both mute.

Several minutes had ticked by.

Clark was stunned, having, for the first time since he'd met Lois, absolutely nothing to say to her. The woman he'd just married.

He was about to tell her that in spite of everything he'd said out here just minutes before, in spite of the unexpected fireworks in that kiss, despite his promises to follow her guidance in this marriage, he would be happy to offer her the safety he'd promised by annulling her tomorrow, and doing, really, whatever she wanted, without the legal entrapment she'd somehow baited them into.

"What now?" She interrupted his thoughts.

After the entire premise of their union being based on her making the decisions for them, she was asking him what was next?

He looked at her.

She didn't look panicked.

She didn't look like she was ready to run.

She did look as stunned as he was, though.

"Ah, well, I guess. We should pick who's apartment we're going to live in."

"Yours is bigger," she ceded.

He nodded. He'd have agreed to anything she'd asked.

"Can we keep my couch instead of yours?" he asked hesitantly.

She shrugged, clearly not caring about the sofas.

"I need somewhere to put my fish. I don't want to move them to a smaller tank; they deserve the big one."

He nodded in agreement, and they fell back into the stunned silence.

After a moment, he turned to her more fully.

"Lois?" He took a breath, not knowing any other way to ask this. "Is this real?"

"I- Well, I do everything else backwards and sideways and not the way anyone else does it. So why not this?" she said glibly.

"Lo-is."

She looked at him squarely. "I don't- I don't know- I think so. I do love you, Clark. You are the best friend I've ever had. I don't think I've ever had someone in my life that I didn't want to live without before. But I want you in my life forever. That's real. Is that… enough?"

For Lois, that was real.

And for him, it was a place to start.

He nodded, ready to start forging a relationship that could lead to what it seemed like they both wanted, had jumped into, but hadn't been prepared for.

"Then, I think we need to maybe figure out how to talk to each other a little more openly," he suggested.

She swallowed thickly, then said candidly, "That's not exactly my strong suit."

"Maybe I can help with that? We can practice. We can both get better at it together."

And he really needed to start practicing that tonight.

Because he'd been so distracted by Lois' whiplash challenge of a proposal, worry of potential retribution from Luthor, and his supposed fiancé's three day disappearing act that he'd completely forgotten to consider the fact that he'd just married the person who was supposed to trust him most in the world, without telling her one important detail.

A super important detail.

"Kind of more than I expected in that kiss back there," she interrupted his thoughts, glancing at him from beneath shuddered lashes and surprising him by offering the first overture in speaking openly.

"That was real for me," he told her, feeling a blush dust his cheeks.

"Me, too," she shyly admitted.

Her hand was just beside his on the bench, and he slid his finger a little closer. He felt her freeze for a second at the near-touch, but then her hand nudged closer to him. So he slowly covered hers with his, wrapping his fingers around hers.

She was staring straight ahead, but he knew that her entire focus was on their joined hands.

"So this is real," he checked again, feeling a little more confident about it.





"This is real," she confirmed.

God, that was terrifying to say.

But also somehow ok?

Inexplicably, she felt a lot better now than she had in weeks, sitting on a hard wooden bench holding her partner's hand. She should feel caged, wild at the situation she'd just shackled herself to. But instead it felt like something had clicked correctly and reassuringly into place.

Because Clark wasn't an anchor.

He was a buoy, a lighthouse in a tempest.

Plus, she wouldn't mind if he ran his hands along her jawline again, and leaned in close to brush his lips along hers the way he'd been doing when Lucy had interrupted.

Surely there were marriages built on less than all that?

She suddenly had a hunch that this was going to work out.

"Well, in that case, Lois, I have something I really have to tell you."

…Or maybe not.

Clark exhaled shakily, but his voice had been certain.

She felt her eyebrow raise, fighting the trepidation of the shoe Clark seemed about to drop fifteen minutes into her binding herself to him.

"Ok," she said, waiting.

"Uh, not here," he said standing.

She stood up, taking her bouquet with her.

"Where, then?"

"Do you trust me?" he asked.

He held out his hand, and she looked down at it, considering.

She was along for this ride now, she supposed.

And surprisingly, that felt ok, too.

Because when push came to shove, she really did trust him.

"I do," she said.

And she reached out and took his hand.





"Hi, you two! How was the big day?" The squeal met them before they'd fully entered through the office door.

Lois gave the gratingly chipper clerk an indulgent smile as they made their way over to the desk.

"It was nice," she said sedately, hoping to keep this interaction efficient.

But then her husband's arms went around her waist, and she smiled automatically, feeling herself lighten at his touch.

"It was lovely," he edited, with a sweet and goofy smile.

She looked up at him over her shoulder.

"It was a civil ceremony," she said, rolling her eyes, but unable to shake the matching smile from her own mouth.

In fact, she couldn't seem to stop smiling when Clark was anywhere near her.

"Every wedding is special in its own way," the clerk chimed in dreamily. "I bet yours was just as lovely as your new husband says."

The day itself hadn't been much of anything special, except that her nerves were at an all time high and she felt like she was losing her mind all day, for one reason after another.

But the days after…

They had been lovely.

Once they'd left the courthouse, she'd been all for action, in lieu of thinking rationally or dealing with the emotional consequences of her actions. She'd been gung ho on calling their folks and packing up her apartment, right up until they realized that meant they'd have to sort out sleeping arrangements right then and there and then she froze.

Clark had suggested that they take the night to just have dinner together and relax, to take the opportunity to talk through some things.

They'd covered an immense amount of ground that night.

A super amount of ground, actually.

Very shortly after that revelation, the marriage had nearly been furiously annulled.

But hearing him describe how watching her fall head over heels for his alter ego had at once elated him and crushed him had given her a different perspective. He'd been walking a tightrope he didn't want to balance on for months, partly to save her pride and partly to protect everyone involved. After a long series of questions on her part, she'd decided that an annulment would be a hasty decision.

And then over dinner they'd had a much more important conversation, one that Clark had admitted he'd been trying to have with her since all of this started. He'd asked what she really wanted out of her partner, what part of married life she thought would make her most happy, what she saw for her future and theirs.

Discovering that they were aligned on so much, they started to plan.

And the planning became dreaming.

And the dreams became more and more possible the longer they talked.

In the midst of the evening, Lois realized that she was now married to a man who was honest to a fault, who was willing to listen, willing to give, willing to stick around and grow with her and be challenged and love her through it all, even with all of her own flaws and baggage. In spite of a truly terrible beginning, she had accidentally found herself right where she wanted to be.

And after they'd sorted out those things…

Her gaze flicked from her husband's eyes to his mouth, and he grinned, an intimate smile that she'd never seen on him before this past week. His thoughts were apparently following hers.

"So are you lovebirds here to drop off your license?" The perky clerk interrupted.

Lois disengaged from her husband's embrace, reached into her bag to fish out the signed marriage license to slide it under the glass.

"Alrighty, this looks good!" said the clerk a moment later, fussing with other papers on her desk. "Just a stamp," she lent action to speech and stamped the page in front of her, sliding the document toward them on the counter, "and you're good to go!"

Lois read the marriage certificate in front of her. "Lois Lane and Clark Kent."

She couldn't help but melt a little seeing their names side by side.

Clark caught her eye and his smile turned sentimental in response.

"Awww," the clerk chimed in.

Lois looked up with a raised eyebrow.

"You two are lifers," the clerk said sappily. "I can always tell."

"Right. Well, thanks for your help," Lois said, and pulled Clark toward the door of the office.

"Aww, she thinks we're lifers," he teased in her ear, as soon as they were out of the clerk's hearing range.

Lois elbowed him.

"I bet she says that to everyone that comes in," she scoffed.

He caught her hand in his, pulling her closer as they walked.

"You don't think she gets it right some of the time?" he asked.

"Well…" she stalled in movement and speech as Clark lifted her hand and slowly kissed the inside of her wrist.

She let the welcome shiver move up her spine.

"Maybe some of the time," she allowed.

"This time?" he asked.

His voice was teasing but his eyes were soft and searching.

She was about to make a teasing comment about waiting and finding out. But she remembered that this was still new between them. That he'd asked for reassurance that she really wanted him, now that she knew all of his secrets. That the marriage they were in was real, not something he'd dared her into or something that she regretted or a wild figment of his imagination. And in the spirit of communicating to her partner something she knew he needed, she revised her response.

"This time," she repeated, seeing that she had his full attention, "I think she got it absolutely right."

A smile lit his face.

"You think so?"

His voice was hopeful.

"I've got a hunch about it," she said.

"I think you're right," he said happily.

She slid her arm around his, and he followed her through the outer doors of the building, where they walked side by side into the sunshine and all the days to come.

THE END