By Gina Blank
Summary: Lois comes to terms with nightmares and fears during a
weekend trip to the Grand Canyon.
***
Lois flopped onto the couch and let out a hot breath. "My
goodness it's hot," she said to herself as she leaned her head
back. She was about to take a nap when a gust of cool wind blew
through the window. Either the weather had changed *extremely*
rapidly or...
"Clark!" Lois managed to get up from the couch and wrap herself
around her husband.
"Hi, sweetie," he said after a brief kiss. "Listen, I'd love to
chat, but I need a shower. I smell like the ocean from saving
that ship. But I'll be out in a jiff." He told Lois as he sped
into the bathroom.
Lois smiled. She had *the* greatest husband in the world. Not to
mention one that could make a nice cool breeze every time he flew
by.
As Clark had promised, he was out in a jiff, and he continued
where he'd left off--kissing Lois--but more passionately this
time. After a while, they separated, and Lois could tell by the
look in Clark's eyes that he had something to tell her. Something
good.
"Lois, as I was heading to the Pacific Ocean--y'know, to lift
that sinking ship?--I looked over Colorado, and the weather is
*BEAUTIFUL!* Amazingly, it's cooler than it is here. So, I have a
surprise for you."
"A surprise?" Lois asked, slightly concerned. Her most recent
surprises hadn't been that great lately: being kidnapped by Lex,
replaced by a clone, finding out she had been acting like Wanda
Detroit, Clark shrinking...
"Don't worry," Clark said, noticing the concern in Lois' face,
"It's nothing bad. I was thinking maybe you'd like a vacation
this weekend. To the Grand Canyon. Just you and me. No darting
off to save anyone from anything, just a romantic--"
"I'd LOVE it!" Lois cried, standing on her tippy-toes to wrap her
arms around his neck. Clark chuckled. He was hoping Lois would
like the idea. She'd been so tense lately, and she'd been clingy,
as well. Clark figured it must have been the result of all the
chaos that happened before the wedding finally took place. I
mean, she was kidnapped by Lex, got amnesia, and when she got her
memory back, Clark had to leave the Earth. When he'd come back
after Lord Knor had died, and Clark had returned to Metropolis,
Lois had never been happier, and since then, she hadn't spent
more than about an hour away from Clark. So he knew she needed to
unwind and relax.
Clark and Lois spent the evening planning out the details, and
then headed off to bed.
***
Clark was in the kitchen getting finishing a midnight snack. He'd
been up in the middle of the night often since Lois was kidnapped
by Lex. It was as if someone was going to come in and try to take
her away again.
Clark brushed his hands together to get rid of the crumbs from
the toast he'd just finished, and climbed in bed. He'd no sooner
laid his head on his soft down pillow, when he heard Lois gasp
beside him. He turned to see her sitting bolt upright in bed.
"What is it?" he asked, rubbing his tired eye with the palm of
his hand.
"I--I--I just had the *weirdest* dream!" Lois gasped as she tried
to catch her breath.
Clark put his right arm around her shoulder and pulled her in
close. "Why don't you tell me about it," he whispered softly, as
he kissed the top of her head.
"Well, we--we were walking through a field, and everything was
nice, but I walked a little bit ahead of you. When I turned
around to see you, you were *gone!* And then I started falling,
but I woke up before anything happened," Lois explained, with a
slight frown on her face in confusion.
"Well, everyone has dreams of themselves falling once in a while.
It's a sign of stress. When I'm stressed, I sometimes have dreams
like that, because I'm falling out of control, and whatever's
going on in my life that's making me stressed seems to be out of
control, too. Don't worry about it, Lois. It just means you need
to relax a little." Clark kissed the top of her head again, and
lay down to go back to sleep.
"But that's not what scared me. You were *gone*, Clark, you were
*gone.*" Lois whispered. But Clark didn't hear her, even with his
superhearing, because he was already fast asleep.
***
When Lois woke up, the sun was beaming through her window,
signaling another hot day in Metropolis.
"'Morning, honey," Clark said as he walked into the bedroom,
tying the tie around his bath robe. "I've got breakfast ready if
you want it. Then we can pack and get out of here."
"Mmm...okay," Lois replied, still half asleep. She got up and
stumbled into the bathroom for her shower. The shower refreshed
her somewhat, but she was still fairly tired, as she hadn't
fallen asleep for some time after her nightmare. She got dressed
and came out of the bathroom groggily, and sat down for some of
that great breakfast Clark had made. His breakfasts were always
great.
"You look beat, Lois. Did you not get back to sleep last night?"
Clark asked. Lois shook her head without saying a word. "Well,
then. Leave the packing to me--not that it'll take that long--and
you can finish your breakfast." Clark rose from the table, and
then started to zip around at superspeed, first clearing his
dishes, and then zipping in and out of rooms to get clothing,
accessories, and other things for their holiday.
"Well, it's ready!" Clark announced from the living room a few
moments later, as he zipped up the suitcase. "You ready?"
"Yeah. Just let me brush my teeth." Lois got up and headed into
the bathroom. When she came back out again, Clark was in his
Superman costume, holding Lois' coat out for her to slip in to.
She smiled.
"And away we go!" Clark picked Lois up, and flew out the window,
making sure it locked behind them.
***
"Lois? Lois, honey, we're almost there. Wake up." Clark whispered
in Lois' ear. Lois had fallen asleep somewhere over South Dakota,
and woke up now to see the beautiful Grand Canyon below her.
"WOW!" Lois gasped, "It's so BEAUTIFUL!"
Clark smiled, "I knew you'd like it. Look, there's the hotel, and
a convenient little secluded spot for us to land." Clark started
his descent, and soon they found themselves on the ground. He
spun himself back into Clark Kent, and they headed around the
side of the building to the front of the hotel.
"Hi. We have reservations here. Last name Kent." Lois told the
man behind the service counter inside the hotel.
"Ah, yes. Room 306," the man turned around to get the room's key.
"Do you need any help with your bags, sir?"
"Uh, no thanks. I can handle it." Clark said politely. Lois
grabbed the key from off the counter, and the two headed into the
elevator which made it's way to the third floor.
"Mmm....this is going to be SO nice," Lois said, leaning back
against Clark's chest.
"I know what you mean. Let's get our stuff into our room, and
then we can head down to the swimming pool I saw," Clark replied
as the elevator door opened. The couple stepped out, and headed
to the end of the hall where there room was.
Lois unlocked the door, and peered in. "Well, don't just stand
there, go in!" Clark teased. Lois opened the door wide enough so
that she could get in and flounced herself backwards onto the
bed.
"This is PERFECT!" Lois sighed. Clark couldn't help but chuckle a
little. "Come on," she said, sitting up again, "let's go down to
the pool!" Lois grabbed her swimsuit and headed into the
bathroom. Clark closed the curtains to the hotel room, and spun
into his swimming trunks and t-shirt. When he stopped, he saw
Lois standing there, with her eyes wide with awe.
"I'll never get tired of seeing you do that!" she exclaimed,
"come on, let's go!"
***
Lois was floating peacefully on one of several water mats the
pool provided when she got splashed with what felt like a
bucketful of water. She was so startled that she rolled off the
mat and into the pool. When she surfaced, she found Clark
stifling a laugh.
"What was that for?" Lois tried to sound angry, but she was
smiling. Before Clark had the chance to answer, Lois grabbed a
kid's bucket floating near by, filled it with water, and splashed
Clark directly in the face. Clark rubbed his face with his shirt,
submerged his hands into the water, and pushed them forward and
upward, sending another stream of water in Lois' direction.
For about five minutes, the couple acted like children, splashing
about in the swimming pool, while sunbathers watched with awe.
As a final splash, Lois mustered up all her strength, and spun
around in a circle, creating a mini tidal wave just big enough to
drench Clark. When she stopped spinning, she noticed Clark was
underwater.
"Clark?" she asked, "Clark?" Clark wasn't coming up for air. Lois
squeezed his shoulders under the water. "CLARK!" She almost
yelled. He still wouldn't come up. Lois splashed the water in
frustration. "CLARK!!!" she yelled once more.
"WHAT?!" Clark yelled out, as he surfaced with a splash.
Lois gasped, "Don't DO that!" she cried, splashing him in the
face and turning to walk away, which wasn't easy, considering she
was under water from her torso down.
"Hey, hey," Clark said, gently putting his hand on Lois' left
shoulder, and turning her around. "What's the matter? Look, I
didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to surprise you. I
would've been fine. I can hold my breath for twenty minutes, you
know that. But I'm sorry. I guess I just didn't think you were
still so jumpy." Clark pulled her in for a brief hug. "Now, what
say we get dressed and go for lunch?" he asked.
Lois' body relaxed. "Sure," she smiled.
***
Lois and Clark walked along a field hand-in-hand in the warm
summer sun.
"Oh, look!" Lois exclaimed. A small wild animal, perhaps a
gopher, or maybe a bird of some sort, was looking at the couple
in the distance. "I'm going to go see if I can touch it." Lois
let go of Clark's hand and started cautiously toward the small
animal.
"Come here," Lois called softly to the animal, making slight
clicking noises with her tongue. Soon Lois was right near the
animal, which was indeed a gopher. "Clark, come look at this.
He's so--" Lois turned around. Clark was gone. "Clark?"
Suddenly, the earth cracked beneath Lois feet and Lois started
falling backwards.
"CLARK!" Lois screamed, as she woke up with a start. "Clark I had
that dream again!" Lois looked to the left of her, but Clark was
not there as he usually was. Lois heart skipped a beat, and she
immediately got out of bed.
"Clark?" She called, as she headed towards the bathroom. Clark
wasn't in there. "Clark, where are you?" Lois headed into the
mini-kitchen of their hotel room, but he wasn't there either.
"CLARK!" Lois slid open the back balcony door, and looked out. No
Clark.
Hot tears were starting to fill Lois' eyes. Where IS he? she
thought, almost in a state of panic. Lois felt as if her heart
had jumped right into her throat. It was beating as fast as a
rabbit's, and as strong as a drum.
Lois slammed the balcony door shut, as if it was the door's fault
Clark wasn't there. "CLARK!" Lois yelled again. She headed back
to the bedroom and looked around briefly "CLARK!" she choked his
name out this time, her voice starting to tremble. Lois spun
around to find herself looking straight into a chest. Without
even looking up to see who the face belonged to, because she knew
it was Clark's, Lois collapsed in his arms, and started to cry
uncontrollably.
Instinctively, Clark wrapped his arms around her in a soothing
hug. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?" he asked, but Lois was crying too
hard to answer.
"You were GONE, Clark, you were GONE!" Lois managed to cry, her
voice slightly muffled in Clark's shirt.
"I was just getting a snack from the vending machine," Clark told
her, running his hands through her soft brown hair, "but I'm here
now. I'm right here. Shhh....shhh..." Clark rocked Lois slightly
from side to side to calm her, holding her securely in his arms
as she cried, and even after she'd cried herself right to sleep,
Clark still held her.
***
The next morning before breakfast was a very quiet one. Lois
didn't want to talk about what had gone on the night before, and
that was okay, because Clark didn't know what to say. He didn't
know how he should react. This was a 'first' in their marriage.
The couple got dressed quietly, headed down to breakfast quietly,
and the only words they let leave their mouths were the orders
for breakfast at the restaurant.
After the couple had received their meals--Lois with a bowl of
cereal, some toast, some strawberries, and a drink; Clark with
bacon, eggs, and a couple waffles--Lois began to eat slowly,
while Clark just sat back in the semi-circle booth they were
seated in and watched.
He couldn't keep the silence up any longer. "You had your dream
again last night, didn't you?" he asked gently. Lois dropped her
spoon at the suddenness of the question, but said nothing.
Instead, she picked up her spoon and continued where she'd left
off on her cereal.
Clark moved around to Lois' side of the booth, and put his arm
around her. "It's okay. Did you want to leave so we could talk
about it?" he asked.
"Let's finish breakfast first," Lois replied in a whisper that
was barely audible.
"Okay." Clark slid himself back to his side of the booth, and
started at his breakfast.
To Clark it seemed like forever before they were both finished.
He was anxious to listen to Lois' story, because he knew she'd be
tense all day if she didn't talk. Lois didn't seem to care one
way or another about whether or not she talked about what
happened. At least, not in the restaurant.
As soon as the two got into the elevator, Lois wrapped her arms
around Clark's neck and blurted, "don't ever leave me again!"
Clark unclasped Lois' hands and held them in his own. "Lois, I'm
not going anywhere." He squeezed Lois' hands gently for emphasis.
"But I would like to know why you think I am. When you're upset
like this, I am too, but right now I'm feeling your pain, and I
don't know why, because I don't know what's going on. Come, we're
at our floor. When we get to our room, you can tell me anything
you want. And I promise I won't leave." Clark smiled a half
smile, as they stepped out of the elevator.
Clark opened the door and let Lois in first. "Thanks," Lois
whispered. She dropped her purse onto the chair against the wall,
and crawled up onto the bed. She didn't go under the covers, she
just lay on her back with her hands covering her face.
Clark moved onto the bed beside her and pulled her into his lap.
At that instant, Lois felt unbelievably safe. She knew he wasn't
going to go anywhere. "So, where do you want me to start?" Lois
asked.
"Wherever you want to start," Clark replied.
Lois laid her head back on Clark's shoulder and closed her eyes.
"Well, you know that I'm having a recurring dream--"
"--right--"
"--but you were wrong about your falling theory. That's not
what's scaring me. What scared me was the fact that when I turned
around, you were gone, and I didn't know where you went, or if
you were coming back. I guess the falling *did* add to the
scariness, seeing as you weren't there to save me like you
usually are."
Clark thought for a minute. In her dream, he had been gone. Just
like when he'd had to leave Earth. And he wasn't there to save
her when she started falling. Just like when he wasn't there to
save her from Lex. And Lois was being clingy.
"I think I know why you're so scared!" Clark almost shouted.
"Really? Why?" Lois was eager to know. She craned her neck to
look into Clark's face.
"Okay. Since the beginning of this year, you have almost lost me
twice. Lex kidnapped you, and I wasn't there to save you. I had
to leave Earth, so I was gone for a few months, and couldn't ever
be there for you. And lately you've been sticking to me like a
magnet on a fridge. I just think you're scared that you're going
to lose me again."
"I don't want to ever lose you again," Lois said seriously,
"twice was enough." Lois' eyes started welling up with tears.
Clark noticed, and gently wiped her eyes with his thumb before
they could fall.
"Shh...don't cry," he said, pulling her in close, "you know I'm
not going to leave. We're married now. No one can do anything to
us. I won't let anything happen to you."
"You said the exact same thing before our wedding, and looked
what happened there," Lois sobbed. Clark may have stopped her
first tears, but he hadn't stopped them all.
"Lois, that was a mistake. I was overconfident, because I didn't
possibly think anything could go wrong--it was our wedding! But
do you remember, when you were still searching for your memory,
you complained that I was always leaving? What did I say
afterwards?" Clark asked.
"That....you'll always come back," Lois whispered.
"And I always do, don't I?" Clark asked. Lois remained silent.
"Lois, was there ever a time before the first wedding or after,
where I haven't come back, or haven't come to save you before it
was too late?"
"No," Lois said.
"See? What happened at the wedding was just one mistake. One BIG
mistake, but only one. Aside from that, I have *never* gone away
and not returned, and I have *never* not come to save you from
harm, because I love you."
Lois looked up at Clark and smiled. She put her hand on his cheek
the way he had done to her so many times before. "You've
convinced me. I should know that you'd never leave, and I should
know that you'd never let me get in harms way. I guess it's just
that with all that happened this year...I kinda freaked out."
"It's all right. To tell you the truth, I've been up late at
night quite often, because I was scared that someone was going to
come in and take you away from me," Clark admitted.
"Really? Oh, Clark!" Lois exclaimed, and she sat up to give Clark
a bear hug, which he returned tenfold. After a few minutes, while
still in a hug, Clark looked over his shoulder to find Lois fast
asleep in his arms. But this time, she had a smile on her face.
***
"Hey, there. Did you have a nice nap?" Clark asked as Lois
started to stir awake. Lois had remained in her hug position
throughout her nap, and Clark was somewhat relieved she'd woken
up. He'd gotten bored with watching the neighbour's TV through
the wall, and didn't want to move for fear he'd wake his sleeping
beauty. So he'd just sat there.
"Mmm, yeah. And I didn't have my dream, either!" Lois smiled.
"I know. And you know why? I think it's because you found out why
you were having your dream--"
"--because subconsciously, I was scared I was going to lose you
again--"
"--right, and now that you've discovered your fear, it can't come
back to haunt you in your dreams!"
"Good! Maybe now I can get some sleep!" Lois laughed.
Clark chuckled a little, too. "Hey, I've got an idea!" he said.
"And that would be?" Lois asked.
"We haven't been to the Canyon yet. I mean, that's one of the
reasons we came here, right? So, this evening, when the sun is
setting, we'll go for a romantic walk along the cliffs of the
Grand Canyon," Clark said, moving his hand around in front of him
in a semi circle as if he was spanning an invisible landscape.
Lois followed his hands with her eyes, mesmerized. Clark noticed
her dreamy glaze. "Lois? Earth to Lois!"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah, that's a great idea!" Lois exclaimed, snapping
out of her trance.
"So, what do you want to do 'till then?" Clark asked, "it's
barely lunch time."
"Oh, I dunno....but before we do anything, can we have lunch
first? I'm *starving*!" Lois exclaimed.
Clark chuckled, "sure. Whatever you want, my little tornado."
***
It seemed like forever before the sunset came and the couple
headed out on their walk, because they both looked forward to it
like there was no tomorrow, but now here they were, walking along
the cliffs of the Grand Canyon, with the sun starting to set
ahead of them. The sky was already turning pink.
Clark and Lois were in the same embrace as they were the evening
Clark proposed--his arm around her shoulder, her head resting on
*his* shoulder.
"Mmm...this is SO nice," Lois breathed, "The sun is nice and
warm, I'm with the man I love..." Lois let out a huge sigh of
happiness.
"You know what would make this moment even more perfect?" Clark
asked.
"What?" Lois looked up at her husband.
"A picture. We'll just set the camera on that rock we just
passed, set it so that the picture takes by itself, and voila!
We'll have this moment on film to remember forever," Clark
smiled.
"That sounds lovely. But, where's your camera?" Lois asked.
Clark's eyes widened as he realized he didn't have it in the tote
bag he was carrying. "Uh oh..."
"What? Did you leave it at the hotel? We can go back and get it,
if you want," Lois told him.
"No...I left the camera in..." Clark swallowed hard,
"...Metropolis."
"CLARK!" Lois cried.
"I'll go back and get it! It'll only take a minute!"
"Clark, don't bother! We'll just buy a disposable one at the gift
shop and--" Lois started. But Clark had already zipped off. Lois
rolled her eyes at his stubbornness, but she smiled, because she
was amused that Clark was willing to do so much for her. *Y'know
that boy'd walk on water for you...or he'd drown trying,* Perry
had once said. Now Lois believed him.
*Well, it's no use standing here," Lois thought to herself, as
she continued to walk down the vast land in front of her.
The sun had lowered a little bit, and it shone brightly into
Lois' eyes. "Ach," Lois muttered, and started to search her tote
bag for her sunglasses, still walking forward as she looked. She
was starting to wish she hadn't put so much into her bag, as
finding her sunglasses was more difficult than she'd liked it to
be.
"Where are you, you stupid things?" she said to the invisible
sunglasses, "Ugh! That's the last time I fill this bag to its
limits!" Lois searched inside the many pockets, unzipping,
rezipping, unvelcro-ing and revelcro-ing. Lois continued to walk
forward, unaware of her movements.
"UGH! Where are those stupid sunglaAAUUGGGGHHHH!!!" Lois suddenly
felt herself drop sharply, and the wind started flying upwards in
her hair. *I'm falling,* Lois thought to herself, *just like my
dream, I'm falling.* "HEEELLLLLPPPP!!!!" She screamed, as she
realized fully what was happening.
Lois' fall ceased just as abruptly as it had started when she
landed on her back on a flat piece of rock that jutted out from
the side of the cliff. Lois scrambled to sit up, and looked over
the ledge. Below, she saw her sunglasses fall into the Colorado
River below. Lois rolled her eyes. "Ooohhhh," she groaned, as she
leaned back against the wall of the cliff.
Realizing that she wasn't going to be able to get down from the
ledge without help, Lois cried out, "SUPERMAAAAAAN!!!" She
shouted his name five times, but after each time, all she heard
was the echo from her own voice bouncing off of the cliff's
walls.
Lois just hoped that the ledge held out. No sooner did she have
that thought, however, when she heard a loud crumbling/cracking
noise. "Oh, no," Lois muttered under her breath. The ledge gave
way, and Lois was falling again, the wind blowing upwards through
her hair.
"HHEEEELLLLLLPPP!!! Aaaaggggggghhhhhh!!" Lois cried,
"Helphelphelphelp heeeellllpppp!!! Claaarrrrk!!!" Lois repeated
Clark's name over and over.
The ground was growing closer and closer. Lois knew she should
have been hitting the ground at any second, but suddenly she felt
herself rising, rising as fast as she'd been falling. Lois swung
her arms around Clark's neck and held on to him tighter than she
had in a long time. She turned to look at him briefly, and
noticed that he wasn't wearing his suit. He was still in his
shorts and t-shirt.
Soon, they surfaced, and Clark set her down gently on her feet.
Clark just looked at her. "I got the camera," he said after he'd
caught his breath, holding up the camera by its strap. Lois
half-smiled and fell into Clark's arms. Clark rubbed her back.
"See, Lois, I always come back...I *always*....come back."
THE END!
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