Note: I honestly have absolutely no idea where this came from. I also should be doing my homework and working on my final projects for a couple of classes. Anyhow, here it is. And I hope to be able to update Frozen Stream sometime this weekend.
The Best Revenge
He stood at the back of the crowd, as enraptured by the speaker as anyone else in the audience, but for a completely different reason.
In truth, he had forgotten about her. She had been just another resource along his career path. But seeing her now, he remembered her. Oh, how he remembered her. After all these years, he still found her breathtakingly beautiful.
She had been young and brilliant but naïve, and he had take taken advantage of all three. She hadn’t been the first nor had she been the last. But none of the others had come so far as she had. A few had never made it past the point where he had left them, some had dropped their line of work completely. He didn’t keep track of them, no he had better things to do than that, but he did hear things. Twice he had come face to face with a girl he had known in the past. It always took a moment for him to remember them; you really couldn’t blame him for that. But for some reason he always got a rush at the hurt that crossed their faces at his momentary blank look. It was…a power trip, he admitted to himself.
Ah, well this time there would be no blank look, for he had seen her first, but he would see her after anyway. He wanted to see what power he had left over Lois Lane.
~~00~~
Lois gratefully sat down and gulped a glass of water. Her feet were killing her. As much as she enjoyed being invited to speak at the National Press Convention this year, she really should have told them she would only give a short speech. But no, she had managed to babble on for two hours. At least the audience seemed to like her words. People were mingling now, and so she put on a polite smile, nodding and thanking those who came up to her and complimented her speech. Looking around the room during a brief respite she suddenly found the energy to get up. Clark had just come back in. She quickly made her way over to him and took his hand, entwining her fingers with his.
He gave her a light kiss on the temple and said softly, “You were brilliant.”
Then they were interrupted by another slew of accolades, but Lois didn’t mind because Clark had let go of her hand and had slung his arm around her back, subtly embracing and supporting her.
A few minutes later though, she found herself shifting on her feet to relieve her back. Clark noticed and made their excuses and the left the auditorium together.
~~00~~
He had made it half-way to her, all the way planning his exact words on greeting her. Then she had moved. The expression on her face was one he had never seen her wear before—utter joy. He had watched her noticing how comfortable she was in this other man’s presence, his embrace. If he were the sensitive type he might have blushed at the intimate nature of that simple kiss the man had given her. The couple, for surely that is what they were, turned slightly and he noticed for the first time two things—the ring on her left hand, and her enlarged belly.
She was married. She was pregnant. She was his, that other man’s, and he was hers. Utterly and completely.
And he knew, without a shadow of a doubt that were he ever to meet her again, it would be she who had the blank look, the one who would not remember or recognize him.
Claude Bontecou had long ago lost any remaining power he might have had over Lois Lane.
