How I Spent My Christmas Vacation: One Year Later -- 11/?
by Nan Smtih
Previously:
"Even now," Clark said. He opened the apartment house door for her and followed her in. "And I owe it all to you. Do you know what a difference you've made in my life?"
"Maybe." She looked sideways at him. "I wanted to do it for you, you know. You deserve to have a private life."
"And thanks to you, I have one," he said. "And I have a best friend. You."
Lois stopped and turned, looking up at him. "I never had a best friend before."
"You have one now," he said.
"I thought you said --" She swallowed. "I thought you said you were in love with me."
"I am," he said. "Doesn't that include being best friends? It should."
"I don't know. My mom and dad weren't. At least, they never acted like it."
He took out his key to unlock the door of his apartment. "Maybe that was what went wrong with their marriage," he said very softly, hoping that she would absorb what he was trying to tell her. He opened his door. "My mom and dad were the best of friends. You could tell it every time one of them spoke to the other. They loved each other too, and I knew all the time that they were with me that I could depend on them to take care of me, and of each other. You're my best friend. Whether you ever marry me or not, you'll always be my best friend." He smiled, trying to convey in the smile what he wanted her to understand. "Better go get your shower. I have the feeling this is going to be a busy day."
**********
And now, Part 11:
Lois closed the door of her apartment, trying to silence her attack of nerves.
What was the big deal, anyway? she asked herself. She'd told Clark only days ago that she'd let him ask his question soon. He was clearly in love with her and she wasn't even trying to deny to herself that she loved him, so what did it matter if he asked the question today or next week?
The big stumbling block was that no matter how she answered the question, there was no going back. If she told Clark no, then she was closing the door to a closer relationship, and she didn't think she could stand that. If she told him yes, then she would be his fiancee, and someday his wife. The thought of being in that position attracted her strongly -- but what, that tiny little doubting voice in the back of her mind whispered, would she do if he changed his mind? What if someone else came along that he preferred to her? It had happened with her mother and father. And look at Ellen Lane, now. She'd been an alcoholic for years and only in the last couple of years had she finally managed to pull herself out of the cycle of self-destruction.
But Clark wasn't the kind of man who made commitments and then lightly broke them, the more rational part of her mind countered. Nor was she a helpless woman, dependent on the man she married to give her life meaning. And if the word monogamous applied to anyone, it applied to Clark. She'd been closer to him than any other human being for the last year, and she had never seen him look at another woman in that manner. He treated other women with respect, but with absolutely no interest in them as females. It was as if they didn't exist for him in that way at all. She'd even heard Ralph speculating on the possibility of Superman being gay. Which, she was sure, he wasn't.
If she looked at the question objectively, the bald truth was that she wanted Clark. She had decided that nearly a year ago, so why the nerves? She'd needed time to adjust to the idea, but she'd had an entire year. Why on Earth was she still so skittish?
She'd seen the flash of disappointment in his eyes when she'd gone into instinctive avoidance mode a few minutes before. He'd covered it at once, but she had known and it gave her a guilty feeling in the pit of her stomach. Maybe she should talk her commitment issues over with a therapist or something, she thought. Something in her was terrified of taking that last step, and she knew that it stemmed from what had happened to her parents. But Clark wasn't her father and she wasn't her mother. Was she going to stay a slave of her doubts and fears forever, and allow them to ruin her life and Clark's? Lucy, after all, had apparently overcome her doubts and was happily married. Besides, if Lois was honest with herself, even the thought of seeing Clark with another woman aroused every possessive streak in her nature. When that Assistant DA, Mayson Drake, had made moves in his direction a few months ago, she'd had no hesitation in showing the woman that Clark Kent was very much taken.
So what was the problem?
What had Alice said? Something about missing out on life itself if she refused to take risks. Alice was right; she knew it in her heart. Was she going to let herself be ruled by her insecurities and fears for the rest of her life? She took risks in the course of her job -- risks that caused Perry, Eduardo and Clark to blanch when they found out about them. Why could she take risks to her life and limbs without the blink of an eye and balk at something like this -- marriage to an absolutely gorgeous, caring man who would be one hundred percent faithful to her for as long as they both lived? What was she waiting for -- a certificate from Heaven guaranteeing that nothing would ever go wrong?
Slowly, she walked toward the bathroom pulling off her sweatshirt as she did so. It wasn't fair to Clark to keep him dangling and she sure as heck wasn't going to give him up.
A few minutes later, standing under the blast of hot water from the shower, she was still chewing on the problem. If she wanted him, he was hers for the taking. All she had to do was say so. But could she live up to the challenge of being Superman's wife?
If he was still Superman, of course. If his powers came back.
Lois shook her head. The powers weren't important to her, except for the fact that they were important to him. Clark was what mattered. She had been his partner and representative for a year, and done well at it. This was the man who had broken the barriers of time itself to find her and save her life. He wanted and needed her that much. And if she were brutally honest with herself, she knew she needed him. But did she love him enough to spend the rest of her life with him?
When she finally put it like that, the answer was simple. The thought of not having him in her life was unexpectedly lonely. When had he become so essential to her comfort? She would be miserable if she had to spend the rest of her life without him -- and it was high time that she admitted it. It was just a matter of getting up enough courage to tell him so.
Lois turned off the water, stepped out of the shower and grabbed the bath towel that hung on the shower rack, beginning to dry herself. Through the clouds of steam that filled the room she saw her reflection in the mirror and set her jaw in determination. She didn't care for teases and it was high time that she stopped being a tease, herself. When Clark asked his question, she would give him his answer.
As she made her decision, the telephone rang.
**********
Clark watched Lois close the door of her apartment before he turned and entered his own. He knew Lois in avoidance mode. He'd seen it plenty of times in the last year. As Perry had said to him once, when she was faced with a personal problem, she tended to throw herself into her work with everything she had, as if she expected it to save her. Eventually she would come around with a solution to the problem, and deal with it, but that could take a while. It had been a little disappointing to see her instinctive reaction to his little hint about their bet, but he wasn't going to hold her to her part if it made her that uncomfortable. He'd promised to wait until she was ready to hear his question and he would wait, he told himself, but how long was it going to take for her to get past this fear of commitment? Her father's latest fling with a twenty-year-old model a couple of months ago had bothered her a lot. She'd barely spoken to him for three days.
He'd thought they were making progress over the last couple of days while they dealt with the problems of his lack of powers, the disposal of the Kryptonite and the long trip back to the city. Was it possible that he'd read the situation wrong?
Patience, he told himself, for the millionth time. His counterpart in the other universe had won his Lois after two years of cautious courtship. He'd only been at it for one. H.G. Wells seemed to think that the future was secure, and that things would work out. He just had to be persistent.
Watching her go into avoidance mode was fun in its own way, but it was discouraging as well. He'd better let her off the hook as soon as he could. They did, after all, have work to do today.
His phone was ringing as he stepped out of the shower. He wrapped a towel around his waist and hurried into the living room to answer it.
"Kent," he said.
There was a long moment of silence from the other end, accompanied by the hum of an open line, and then a click as the caller hung up. Clark listened for several seconds to the dial tone and then clicked off the handset and set it in its charger. That was odd.
He went back into his bedroom to shave and dress, with the uncomfortable thought in his mind that somewhere out there were two women who had attacked him with a red Kryptonite laser, and that those two women might reasonably be suspected of connections to a soil engineer that had been on his property with survey equipment. An engineer, he reminded himself, who might very well be a member of the mysterious criminal organization that was trying to move into Metropolis now that Lex Luthor was no longer the crime kingpin of the city.
And he had no powers. Being Superman made him a target, and a powerless Superman was a vulnerable target, even if his enemies didn't know that he was powerless. He and Lois had better get over to the Daily Planet as quickly as possible, to collect the information that Jonetta had assembled for them, and then to Dr. Klein's -- after which he would again become Charlie King, at least until they had managed to sort out what was actually happening.
He slipped the pieces of Clark Kent's wardrobe into the briefcase that he frequently carried as Charlie King. He was going to need to change into it before their visits to the Daily Planet and STAR Labs. Then he retreated to the bedroom again to dress quickly in a pair of black leather pants, calf high leather boots and a leather jacket. Briefly, he considered and then chose the loudest tie on the rack to accompany his Clark Kent identity in the briefcase. It made his persona of Charlie, who would never be caught dead wearing a tie, that much more of a contrast. It was inconvenient having to do things this way, but as of the present, neither Clark nor Lois had a driver's license, which meant that Charlie King was going to have to drive. Taking a last look in the mirror, he carefully straightened his wig, adjusted the pink-lensed sunglasses, tightened the pink earring and surveyed the effect critically. Good. No sign of Clark Kent here, that was for sure.
Ready at last, he headed for the door that connected his apartment to Lois's. Originally the apartment house had been one of the great houses of Metropolis, nearly a century ago, but it had been subdivided a number of years back when the building had been converted into an apartment house. When Lois had rented the unit next to his, he had unsealed the door between the two units and installed a latch and doorknob to allow each of them easy access to the other's place without stepping out into the hall. Raising his fist, he knocked lightly.
He heard her footsteps on the other side of the door, and then the lock turned and the door opened. Lois stood there, her hair and makeup perfect, dressed for a day at the office.
"I guess you're ready," she said. She brushed a forefinger against his chin where he had nicked himself while shaving, but didn't comment. "Let's hope your powers come back before long."
He nodded. "You realize we're supposed to be taking today off, in Aspen," he said.
"I know." She grimaced. "Oh well, maybe next year."
"Who knows," Clark said, "if we can get a lead on this new criminal organization, maybe Eduardo will give us some time off after Christmas."
"Maybe New Year's," Lois said.
"Could be --" He paused. "I got a hang-up call a few minutes ago. It was probably just --" He stopped at the look on her face. "What?"
"I got one, too," she said.
They stared at each other.
"It's probably nothing," Lois said.
"Or not," Clark said. "Come on; the quicker we get to the Planet around people we know, the better off we'll be."
Lois nodded. "I think you're right."
They went out the front door of the building and headed toward the rental car where it sat next to the curb. The morning sun shone brightly, reflecting off the glass of the car windows and the snow that had collected on every flat surface during the night. Clark took out the key and went to open the passenger door for Lois.
As he did so, Lois stopped. "Darn!"
"What?"
"I left my cell phone on my nightstand. I'll be right back."
"Okay. I'll warm up the engine," Clark said. He went around to the driver's door and inserted the key.
As he turned the key, his ears picked up a high, thin sound, at the bare edge of his hearing -- the faintest of whines that shouldn't be there. He'd heard that noise one or two times in his short career as Superman, although much more clearly. It was a very distinctive sound and, as he detected it, it seemed that every hair on his head stood on end.
He raced around the car toward Lois, hustled her roughly up the steps of the apartment house and practically threw her through the door. She hit the floor with a grunt and he landed on top of her, knocking every breath of air from her lungs, as the rental car exploded behind them in a seething ball of orange flame. The roar of sound nearly deafened him, and the blast of heat left him in no doubt of what their condition would have been if they had been in the car at the instant of the explosion.
Quickly, he rolled aside and made it to his knees. Lois was coughing and gasping, and he helped her sit up.
"Are you all right?" he demanded.
She coughed, nodding as she attempted to suck air back into her lungs. Her face was white as she stared past him, wide-eyed, at the burning vehicle that had been their car.
Clark turned to look at the wreckage, and from somewhere he heard the wail of a siren.
"Oh boy," he said, unhappily. "This is going to be awfully hard to explain to the rental company."
Lois coughed again. "I think you can kiss your deposit goodbye," she said. "Cl -- Charlie, who do you suppose wants to kill us *this* time?"
**********
tbc
