Jupiter And Mars

By Susan

Clark huddled in pain on the cold cement floor. Being
invulnerable, he had never had to worry about feeling anything
less than comfortably warm, but with his powers diminishing, he
was really aware of the cold for the first time. It was an
interesting experience; this was another thing he'd never been
able to feel. At another time he would have spent some minutes
trying to get used to it, but he didn't have that option right
now. The man walked towards him, and the kryptonite he held sent
another wave of pain coursing through Clark's body.

"Clark?!" Lois asked "What's wrong? What's happening to you?" She
kneeled down next to him and tenderly brushed aside the small
curl of hair on his forehead.

Clark groaned, partly because of the kryptonite, and partly
because he had never told Lois about his alter-ego. Talk about
bad timing. "Lois ... I need to tell you something ... "

"Haven't you figured it out yet, Miss Lane?" the man inquired,
his accent frighteningly unfamiliar. She looked up.

"Who ... who is that?" she demanded of the stranger.

The man stepped out of the shadows, and his bearded face was
slowly revealed.

"Who are you?" she demanded. There was something about his face
... it looked familiar somehow ...

"Oh that isn't important for now, Miss Lane. Surely you must know
about Mr. Kent. You spend so much time with him, I would have
thought by now that it would be obvious."

"What do you mean?" she inquired, confused by everything. All she
knew was that for some reason Clark was hurt, and she had to do
something to help him.

"Why don't I show you." Slowly he walked towards Clark. Her eyes
widened, and she lunged in front of Clark. "You _stay_ away from
him." They were all shocked at the emotion in her voice; herself
included. But right now she didn't care. The only thing she
understood at this moment was that she had to protect Clark.

"I just wanted to show you something." He put his hand in his
pocket and brought out a small piece of kryptonite. She stared at
it in shock.

"No ... " she whispered. Clark was Superman! Clark was Superman?
Clark ... Suddenly it all made sense. Those lame excuses he
always gave, why he was always rushing off. He was saving
someone! All at once she was filled with anger and relief.

The stranger tried to push her out of the way. But she fought
back. She caught him by surprise, kicking the kryptonite out of
his hand, then kneeing him in the stomach. He gasped as he bent
over, but he recovered quickly. "You stupid, little ... I warned
Lex about you. He didn't realise what a little manipulator you
are!" He laughed at the irony of it. "And he always prided
himself on his character assessment!" He smiled. "But I could
tell from the beginning that you would be the cause of his
downfall."

"I wasn't the cause," she replied "Lex created his own downfall
by his jealousy and greed. His thirst for even more power!!"

The man ignored her and took something out of his pocket. It was
a gun.

Lois felt the fear rising up in her throat. She would _not_ let
anything happen to Clark. He was her partner, her best friend,
her ... besides, she still had to give him a good tongue lashing
about him being Superman, and she certainly wasn't going to let
him die to miss that!!

He pointed the gun at Clark. Didn't this man learn anything? Lois
had kicked the kryptonite out his hand, and she could do it again
with the gun. What Lois didn't know was that he was far cleverer
than she gave him credit for ...

***

9 days earlier. The Daily Planet, Tuesday, 8:17am

It was an average morning at the Daily Planet. Everyone was
bustling around or typing away furiously on their keyboard.
Voices buzzed all over the newsroom, but the only voice that
could be heard clearly was a very familiar one.

"Jimmy!! Where are those photos from the police shoot out??!"

Jimmy groaned. The photo lab was backed up, and they had left the
glorious job of telling Perry to Jimmy. He was not looking
forward to it.

He hesitantly walked over to Perry's office. Perry was examining
something on his clipboard. "Umm ... chief?"

"Oh, good, Jimmy. Where are those photos? We need them for the
front page."

"Er ... well ... actually ... chief ... they're," he took a
breath and decided to spurt it all out at once. Kind of a 'tell
him it now and it's all over' thing. "... not ready yet. The
lab's backed up because there seems to be something wrong with a
batch of developing fluid, and they can't develop them without
it." *what an idiot* he thought. I just stated something, and
then I restated it. * ... a batch of developing fluid, and they
can't develop them without it.* Talk about stating the obvious.
He decided to get past it by smiling brightly at Perry.

*What's wrong with that boy today?* Perry thought. First he talks
inanely about the photos, now he's smiling at me as if he's had a
10,000 volt electric shock pass through his body. "Oh ... okay
Jimmy. Do you know when they will be able to develop them?"

"They said about ... three hours. Maybe four."

"Four hours!!??" Perry shouted.

"Or maybe three!" Jimmy quickly added again. He didn't want to
get shouted at a lot. Especially today.

The boy looked odd again. Perry decided to give him a break.
"Well ... you let me know when they're done, okay Jimmy?"

Jimmy looked extremely relieved. "Yeah, sure chief." and with
that he smiled again and practically scurried out of the office.

Perry stared after him. *Something strange going on here.*

***

Tuesday, 9:30am

Lois was on a rampage. Clark could tell as soon as she left the
elevator. Those in the newsroom who recognised the signs made
sure they stayed well out of her 'rampage' range, which extended
quite far. Except for Clark. He knew by now that she needed
someone to vent her anger on, and seeing as he was invincible he
decided it was worth the risk.

"Morning Lois," he said cheerily. She looked at him and glared as
if demanding to know how anyone could be so darn happy this
morning. "What's wrong?" he asked as though he hadn't known she
was in a bad mood in the first place.

She threw her handbag down on her desk. "You would not BELIEVE
the morning I have had. First of all my alarm didn't go off, I
mean, how was I supposed to know the batteries would run out??!!
They should invent some sort of clock that lets you know when the
batteries are running low or something ... "

"Actually I think they hav-"

" ... so anyway I woke up late which isn't too bad in itself. I
can cope with being half an hour late. BUT," by now she was
gesturing wildly with her hands " ... then I open my mail only to
find that I have absolutely no money in my account!! So of course
I phoned the bank to complain. There should be nearly $900 in my
account! THEN they tell me that they have to see me personally to
deal with it, only they can't see me until tomorrow. Can you
believe this? A bank that won't see you until tomorrow. Whoever
heard of such a thing??" Clark wisely decided not to answer. "And
THEN, I go out to head for work, and MY CAR WON'T START!! I
manage to call someone out, and they tell me it'll cost a lot of
money to get it fixed. Money, which at the moment, I don't
have!!" She slumped down in her chair.

Clark studied her, wondering if she was finished. It appeared so.
She sat there, resting her chin in her hand, staring at her
monitor grumpily. This was one unhappy woman. She needed cheering
up, and he was only too happy to oblige.

He opened a drawer in his desk and took something out. He stood
up and walked over to her. She looked up at him sulkily.

"What?" she asked. He showed her the item.

"For you."

She stared at it in amazement. "How did you ... ?"

"I noticed that you didn't have any left 'hidden' in your drawer,
and luckily for you I had one in my drawer."

"Have you been looking through my drawer??"

"No. I have my ways ... " he said mysteriously. Lois grabbed the
item from him.

"Thanks."

"No problem." he replied. It was amazing the effect a double
fudge crunch bar could have on her. He watched the look of bliss
on her face after she took her first bite.

At first she felt a bit embarrassed getting so excited about a
chocolate bar in front of Clark. She still had some dignity. Then
embarrassment gave way to indifference and she decided to enjoy
herself while she could. Besides, she loved chocolate!! It always
cheered her up. So did Clark. Here she was, devouring a chocolate
bar, while completely ignoring him. She looked up at him
guiltily. *How does he put up with me?*

"Thank you."

"You already said that."

She smiled. "I know ... it's just, well thanks for being there.
You always know how to cheer me up. Thanks for being my
partner."

The look on his face was priceless. Up went the eyebrows. Had his
jaw not been attached to his face she suspected that she would
have had to scrape it off the floor with a fish slice.

To say that Clark was surprised was something of an
understatement. Lois almost never thanked him for being her
partner. Most of the time she didn't even want one. Well ...
actually one time she had admitted that she was getting used to
him, but it had only been the once.

Lois didn't really know why she had said it. As he walked back to
his desk, she was worried that she had scared him off. *Now why
would that worry me?*

Her thoughts were interrupted as Perry came up to her. "Mornin'
Lois. Nice of you to show up."

She looked at him apologetically. "Sorry Perry. I had a terrible
morning."

"I heard. I think the whole newsroom did!"

She blushed slightly and looked over at Clark. "Yeah... well ...
have you got anything for me this morning?"

"Afraid not, Lois." Perry responded "This week's been so slow for
news that it feels like time is going backwards! I keep expecting
the King to come back from the dead."

Lois rolled her eyes. Trust Perry to over exaggerate.

Clark studied Lois' reaction with amusement. She exaggerated more
than anyone else in the newsroom!! Sure, her news stories were
always correct in detail, but in other matters she could tell
tall tales with the best of them.

"Well why don't you and Clark go out and hunt down a story?"

Clark and Lois looked at each other and shrugged.

"Sure chief."

***

Tuesday, 9:50am

It was a hot day outside. It was the middle of summer, and
although it was not unbearably hot, it was hot enough. Clark
figured that the weather probably had something to do with Lois'
earlier bad mood. As they walked along, a thought entered Clark's
head.

"Hey, where are we going?"

"I'm not sure," Lois said. "Perry was right, nothing much is
happening. How about we contact Bobby Bigmouth and find out if he
knows anything?"

"Sounds like a plan."

"Yeah, well it's a plan without a car." she mumbled.

He only smiled.

***

Centennial Park, Tuesday, 3:01pm

"I can't believe we had to wait this long to see him!"

The smell of the food was driving Lois mad. She inhaled deeply.
Her stomach growled. Clark's head jerked up, and he smiled at
her. *That must have been really loud for him to hear that*.
Determined not to seem embarrassed she looked at him, daring him
to say something.

"Hungry, Lois?"

"Cute Kent."

"Hi guys."

Lois let out a small scream as Bobby came up behind her.

"You know Lois, it's gonna be hard to keep these meetings private
if you insist on screaming at me everytime we meet."

She chose to ignore his remark. "Got anything good, Bobby?"

"Well that depends. Have you got anything good for me?"

With a sigh Lois handed the bag of food to him. He opened it up.
"Oh great! Tacos!"

*How can anyone be that obsessed with food?* Lois thought,
choosing to forget her own obsession with a certain chocolate
bar.

"Okay guys, here's the deal. As you probably know, approximately
10 people go missing in Metropolis every week."

Clark and Lois nodded. They already knew this. It was a
statistical fact.

Bobby continued. "But I've heard it going round that some of
these people aren't just packing up and leaving one night. Some
of them are being taken by force."

Clark interrupted Bobby. "But that's a fact Bobby. Of all the
people that go missing, it's inevitable that a percentage of them
will be kidnapped, and will never be seen again. I wish it
weren't true, but it is."

"I know that Clark, but I'm talking about a high percentage. A
*very* high percentage."

Lois and Clark looked at each other gravely.

***

Jimmy Olsen's apartment, Tuesday, 8:56pm

Jimmy Olsen sat in front of the television, flicking through the
channels.

He stared at the screen dumbfounded. *It's amazing. There are so
many channels and there's nothing on!* He picked at the dinner on
his plate, but the spaghetti really didn't appeal to him. To be
honest, he hadn't felt very hungry all day. Putting his dinner to
one side, he got up from the couch and walked over to the window
of his small apartment. It wasn't much of a view, but it usually
helped him to relax. Not tonight though.

Today was his dad's birthday. As usual, he wouldn't see him. Jack
Olsen was a very busy person. He flew around the world, and
seemed to spend all of his time in endless meetings. The last
time Jimmy had seen him, he had been changing from one flight to
another. Oh he always got the postcards his father sent, but it
wasn't the same. He wanted to give him a birthday card. He wanted
to give him a gift. He wanted *so much* just to spend some time
with his dad. It had to be longer than a couple of hours between
flights and appointments. What was it that Clark called it?
Quality time. Yeah, he wanted ... _needed_ some quality time with
his dad. Was that so much to ask?

He heard a sound behind him, and figured that it was just the
television. That one mistake would cost the lives of several
people ...

***

The Daily Planet, Wednesday, 10:09am

Lois finished the paragraph she was working on. She was bored.
Completely bored. The day had barely even started and she wanted
it to be over already.

She hit the return button and stood up to get herself some
coffee. At the coffee machine she pondered over what Bobby had
told her yesterday. After they had returned from the meeting, she
and Clark had tried to dig up some juicy information.
Unfortunately they hadn't seemed to come up with anything. All
they kept getting were statistics. Boring, dry statistics. There
didn't seem to be any evidence that a high proportion of those
who disappeared were kidnapped. Sure, the facts could have been
very well hidden, but the people behind it would have had to have
done a very good job. Besides, Bobby _could_ be wrong. He usually
brought her good information, but even he couldn't get the truth
all the time.

As Lois added a sweetener to her coffee, she looked around the
newsroom. She was glad that she worked here. She loved her job
even through the boring stories, like the one she was writing
now.

Eventually her eyes fell on her partner. He was sitting at his
desk, flicking through some papers. He kept flicking back and
forth, as if the answer to what he was searching for would be
there if he kept looking hard enough. *He looks so sweet when he
scrunches up his forehead like that*. She had a small smile on
her lips at she brought her coffee cup up to her mouth.

The smile got even bigger as he dropped some papers on the floor
and had to bend over to retrieve them. She got a good view of his
_lovely_ behind.

"Lois."

She yelped and dropped most of the contents of her coffee cup on
her front.

She whirled around to see Carl from travel gaping at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" he quickly exclaimed.

Lois was peeling her soaked blouse from off of her skin, unaware
that she was attracting attention to the parts of her body she
kept under the blouse.

"_Just_ ... tell me what you want."

"Well," he began, looking everywhere but at Lois' skin hugging
top. "I just wondered if you know where Jimmy is."

"No. I don't." With that, she whacked her mug down on the
counter, and stomped down the ramp towards Perry's office.

"Perry ... "

"Yeah Lois?" Perry didn't look up from the copy he was reading on
his desk.

"I'm gonna go home and change."

He started to look up. "Why do you want to ... " the words died
on his lips. "Oh. Have a bit of a coffee spill?"

"To say the least." Almost the whole front of her blouse was
drenched in coffee. She was just lucky that the coffee hadn't
been boiling hot!

"Sure, go ahead Lois. But can you take Kent with you and check
out Jimmy's apartment? He hasn't come in yet. I've tried phoning
but no one's picking up. Knowing Jimmy, he's probably got the TV
on so loud that it's blocking out the sound of the phone ringing.
How that boy ever sleeps in all that racket is beyond me ... "

Lois nodded as she walked out of his office.

***

Lois Lane's car, Wednesday, 10:32am

When he had first seen Lois in her coffee soaked blouse, he had
tried his best not to smile, really he had. Even so a tiny smirk
had made it's way through. When she looked at him though, he made
sure to look indifferent about the whole incident. Now of course,
he had a completely different problem.

He was finding it increasingly difficult not to look at her
blouse. Or what her blouse covered up. Or now that it was wet,
what her blouse barely covered up. What made it worse was that
she seemed completely unaware of the way she looked. He'd just
build up enough confidence to risk a quick glance, then one of
two things would happen. Either she'd start talking to him, or
his conscience would kick in. He remembered this happening
before, when he and Lois had gone undercover as newlyweds at the
Lexor Hotel. She got the bed, and he was left with the couch.
Using his superpowers, he had listened to her getting ready for
bed. The sounds were driving him mad, and he had decided to just
sneak a peek. He had started to use him x-ray vision, then at the
last second he couldn't go through with it. She deserved more
than to be ogled when she didn't even realise someone was
watching. It hadn't helped him much later when he had to wake her
up in the middle of the night. She'd been naked under the silk
sheets!! That had given him some pretty vivid dreams in the past
year or so.

"What are you smiling about?"

Brought back from his reminiscing by her voice, he looked at her,
being careful to keep his gaze above her neck. "Oh nothing
important. I was just remembering something."

After Lois got changed at her apartment they headed over to
Jimmy's. He was quite upset that she was no longer wearing a
literally see through top, but he thought he shouldn't mention it
to her. When he had first realised that he would have to stay in
the car with her looking like that all the way to her apartment,
he had frantically offered her his jacket. Frankly, he didn't
trust himself. But she had refused, stating that his jacket would
get coffee over it too. He had told her that he _really_ didn't
mind, but she had insisted. Well, who could argue with Lois
Lane?

Now that she was changed though, the thought of going through all
that again didn't seem quite so bad.

***

Jimmy Olson's apartment, Wednesday, 11:13am

"Jimmy?" Lois called out but no one answered. She could hear the
TV blaring through the walls. *Perry was probably right about
this*. She dug her spare keys out of her bag.

"How many keys do you have on that keyring?" Clark stared in
amazement at the huge pile of keys she had. "And how do you know
which one is Jimmy's?"

"Clark," she started looking through all the keys she had for
Jimmy's one "it's always good practice to have a copy of all the
keys that might come in handy. For emergencies and ... things."

"Yeah, but if someone stole your purse they could get into half
the homes in this city!!"

"Don't be silly, Clark."

"I'm not being silly."

"Yes you are, and ... ah hah!" she found the key and pointed it
proudly at Clark. It had a 'J' written on it with nail varnish.

"Boy am I impressed." he quipped.

She ignored him and unlocked the door. "Jimmy?" she peered around
the door, but he wasn't there. "Maybe he's in the bedroom ... "
she started to search around his small apartment.

Clark walked past the TV. There was an advertisement showing a
new chocolate bar. He quickly turned it off before Lois could see
or hear it. "Any luck?"

"Nope." she called back from the bedroom. "Oh my God ... "

"What is it?" he asked, quickly running into the bedroom.

"He owns a lava lamp. What do people see in them?"

Clark's heart slowed down when he realised that she was just
being Lois.

Suddenly his superhearing tuned in. Someone was coming towards
Jimmy's apartment. They seemed to be talking on the phone to
someone. If he listened carefully enough ...

" ... stop worrying about it, okay? I'll take care of it." He
snapped his mobile phone shut. Using his x-ray vision, Clark
could see what the man looked like. He just caught a glimpse of
his bearded face when he realised something else. *He's got his
own key!* He didn't know who he was, but he knew he wasn't
Jimmy.

He quickly grabbed Lois and dragged her into Jimmy's closet.
Luckily he had placed his hand over her mouth, or she would have
given them away. He managed to close the closet door just as the
man unlocked the front door.

What the heck was he up to?? Lois wanted to ask him, but his hand
was still over her mouth. Then she heard it. The creak. She
froze. Eyes wide, she nodded at Clark, letting him know that she
understood. He quietly released her. They both listened intently
over the next couple of minutes. What was the person up to?? She
didn't think it was Jimmy. He would have switched on the TV as
soon as he entered the apartment.

The person seemed to wander around the apartment. Then there was
a scraping sound, and something was thrown into the sink.

Then there was absolute silence. She knew the person hadn't left,
but why wasn't he making any noise? Maybe he heard us?? But how?
She was sure neither one of them had made a sound.

It was only now that she realised that she was pressed right up
against Clark. She had been listening so intently, she hadn't
really paid attention to her new surroundings. *Why didn't I
notice before what a great body he has?* Who was she kidding? She
knew he had a great body, she'd just never admitted it to herself
before. Okay, so she'd admitted that he had a great butt, but
that doesn't mean that the whole body was great. But it was. And
his aftershave was driving her crazy. She had to get control of
herself.

If she had known that Clark was feeling the exact same thing,
what was left of her self control would have gone right out the
metaphorical window.

Since when could a stomach be so exciting? She was standing in an
awkward position and Clark had one arm around her to make sure
she didn't fall. This meant that his hand was just touching her
bare stomach. Her top had lifted somewhat in their hurry to hide,
and he was losing a fighting battle with his hormones. *Come on.
You're the man of steel. You can get through this.*

She wanted to kiss him. She'd never wanted anything more in her
life than to kiss him right now. But she couldn't. If she moved
the stranger might hear them, and that would give them away. But
wasn't that part of the excitement? Getting caught? She almost
convinced herself to kiss him, but she didn't. It wouldn't be so
bad being caught kissing him, but it would if the person in
Jimmy's apartment turned out to be a mass murderer or
psychopath.

Eventually, they heard what sounded like the door opening and
closing. Although they could barely see anything, she moved her
head slightly, to enquire if the stranger had gone.

"I think so." Clark whispered.

"Oh." she replied, whispering as well. "Well, we'd better stay
here for a minute longer just in case they haven't gone." It was
a lousy excuse and she knew it. *God Lane, you must be getting
desperate. Lying to your partner, just so you can spend another
minute feeling how solid his muscles are and ... oh God!*

His response was what surprised both of them.

"Okay."

They both knew the stranger had gone. They were positive of it.
But they stayed there anyway. And there, in amongst the clothes,
year books, photos, knick knacks, even though they could barely
see each other, Clark Kent kissed Lois Lane for what was really
the first time.

They just melted into the kiss. Tentative at first, they explored
each other. But then the tentativeness exploded into need and the
kiss became driven by a mutual passion. They had both waited for
this for _so_ long. They knew this moment had been coming for a
very long time.

His hands ran feverently through her hair, and her hands returned
the favour to his body. It just felt so right.

They got a rude awakening when Clark lost some of his grip on
Lois. She fell through the unlocked wardrobe door, pulling him
with her.

THUD!

They studied each other. Her top button had somehow come undone,
and her hair was dishevelled from his hands running through it.

His hair was equally as dishevelled as hers, and his tie had gone
missing somewhere along the way.

They both started laughing.

***

Lois Lane's car, Wednesday, 11:39am

As she drove along, Lois tried desperately to think of anything
except for the kiss. *The kiss* The _kiss_. That was what she
would call it from now on; the _kiss_. She sighed a little
dreamily, then remembering that Clark was in the car she abruptly
stopped. *Think of something else. Think about how happy you are
that you've got your car back. Think about the fresh stash of
double fudge crunch bars you've got hidden in your purse. Just
think of something other than the _kiss_.*

She and Clark hadn't spoken since they had got back into the car.
For a moment, in the closet, all of their emotional barriers had
come tumbling down. For that instant they stopped hiding from
each other. But as soon as they had left Jimmy's apartment, her
barriers had snapped back up. She had spent so many years
building them and perfecting them, that no kiss, no matter how
good it was, would bring them down forever. She was terrified.
Clark was her best friend. Her partner. She didn't want to lose
that because of one little kiss. *But what a kiss it had been.*
Shut up!! This is stupid, having an argument with yourself ...

Clark was having a similar conversation with himself. He was
worried that he had scared her off. What if he had gone too far?
The silence in her car was worse than if she shouted at him. What
was she thinking? The kiss had been good though. The kiss had
been _really_ good. Better than what he had hoped for, and he had
hoped for it a lot. He couldn't stop thinking about it. The more
he thought about it though, the more he realised that he hadn't
taken advantage of her. She had wanted the kiss as much as she
had. She had responded as passionately as he had. But just
because she responded to one kiss, that didn't mean that she was
ready to commit to him.

***

Perry White's Office, The Daily Planet, Wednesday, 12:03pm

"So no sign of him then?"

"Sorry Chief. It just seems like he left for some reason. It must
have been pretty quickly if he left his dinner behind uneaten.
Then a man came into his apartment. For some reason he emptied
Jimmy's uneaten dinner into the bin, and then put the plate and
fork in the sink."

"But why would anyone do that?"

"I've no idea," Clark replied "but he must have had a good
reason."

"How do you know it was a he?" Lois asked.

"Pardon?"

"The stranger in Jimmy's apartment. How do you know it was a
he?"

Clark quickly tried to think of a response. "Uh ... well ... I
mean I just _assumed_ ... "

"Oh. Alright."

Perry looked at them. "I hope he's alright ... you were fortunate
that he _or_ she," he said shooting a quick look at Lois "didn't
see you."

They both started blushing and avoided looking at each other.

"Yeah, um ... well we just got lucky." Clark winced at the double
entrende. Lois realised what he had said as well.

"Oh, what he means is that we were able to hide from the
stranger."

"I know what he meant Lois." *Now this is interesting. Why are
these two suddenly so shy around each other?* He knew there had
been something between Lois and Clark for a long time. It was
very obvious that Clark was in love with her, but Lois' feelings
were less clear. He secretly suspected that Lois felt the same
way, but she fought so hard against it. Something must have
happened. He smiled. *I think I know what that something is.*
Then he thought about the situation with Jimmy and frowned.

"Well let's try and find out what happened, shall we?"

***

The next week passed fairly quickly. Lois, Clark and Perry
contacted all of Jimmy's friends and relatives that they were
aware of or could reach. They had no luck contacting Jimmy's
father. They contacted hospitals, police stations, anywhere they
could think of, but nothing turned up. The police eventually
listed him as a missing person, but they didn't try to look for
him. They thought he was another young man who had been hit by
wanderlust and just took off. There was nothing that pointed to
another reason. They didn't take Lois and Clark's explanation
seriously. For all the police knew, Jimmy came back to his
apartment to collect something, cleaned off his plate and left.
Clark couldn't tell them that he knew that it wasn't Jimmy who
had come to the apartment. How would he explain it without giving
himself away? That was part of what was so infuriating about
being a superhero. He knew the truth and couldn't tell anyone
about it. Not even Lois.

After a few days of acting stiffly around each other, both Lois
and Clark relaxed when they realised that they weren't going to
pounce on each other at the nearest opportunity. No matter how
much they wanted to. They hadn't discussed it, but they both
seemed to agree that they should try to resolve their situation
after they found out what had happened to Jimmy. They slipped
back into their old routine; Clark would tease Lois, and she
would be sarcastic back to him. But no matter how hard they
tried, neither of them could forget about the kiss.

***

Location, time and date unknown.

Jimmy slowly woke from his uncomfortable sleep on the floor. He
kept his eyes closed; he didn't want his captors to know he was
awake yet. Anything he could do to surprise them or learn more
about them would be to his advantage. He calculated that he had
been here about a week now. He wasn't sure though, he never saw
any daylight. Every day they brought him two meals and some
water. A bucket in the corner was used for facilities, and they
removed it and emptied it once a day. They didn't seem to wash it
out though, because it was starting to smell.

He was usually left in the room by himself, but when his captors
did enter they never spoke to him, except when they told him to
do something.

When he had first been brought here he had fought against them.
Kicking and screaming, he hadn't been easy to knock out again. He
wasn't quite as hysterical now. He had decided it would be best
if he saved up his energy. And the way he saw it, the less he got
knocked out, the better.

***

The Daily Planet, Thursday, 7:59pm

The first thing Clark looked for when he returned to the newsroom
was Lois. He spotted her sitting in the conference room. She was
by herself so he headed over to her.

She didn't look up as the door opened. She knew it was him. Ever
since the _kiss_ she seemed to know whenever he was in the room,
or whenever he was looking at her. It felt strange at first, but
she was getting used to it. If she had been completely honest
with herself (which she wasn't), she would have admitted that she
had started experiencing this before the kiss.

"Hi."

He sounded hesitant. They had pretty much fallen back into their
old routine, but something still wasn't right between them. She
looked up at him and forced a smile.

"Hi yourself."

Clark knew she was trying to act normal, but he could tell
something was wrong. And it had nothing to do with their current
'situation'.

"What's wrong?"

She sighed. She could never get anything past him.

"I'm really worried about Jimmy," she told him. Clark nodded. He
felt the same way. "I mean, he gets on my nerves sometimes, well
... most of the time, but I'd really miss him if he ... "

"Yeah," he replied "I know." He wanted desperately to hug her,
but after what had happened recently it just didn't seem right.

She wished that he would hug her or comfort her, but she knew he
wouldn't. Before the incident he wouldn't have hesitated. Dammit!
This was just what she was worried about. She had pretended so
far that nothing had changed between them, and for the most part
it hadn't. But it was the little things that _had_ changed. He
still teased her, but his eye didn't sparkle like it used to. And
he didn't touch her anymore. She never noticed before how much he
used to touch her. A hug to cheer her up, a hand on her back to
guide her, a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. It was the
things that only she would have noticed. Why couldn't things be
like they used to? She _needed_ that from Clark. He was her best
friend; the person she cared more about than anybody else; he was
the one person she needed that from.

Then Clark remembered why he had come to see her in the first
place. "Speaking of Jimmy ... "

"Yeah?"

"I just got back from meeting with Bobby. He called while you
were out doing research so I went to meet him by myself. He's got
us a lead on Jimmy's whereabouts." He gave her the piece of paper
with the address on it. She quickly read it.

"Clark, I know this area! I lived there when I first moved to
Metropolis. It's not what you would call a nice place to live.
Let's go."

***

Suicide Slum, Thursday, 8:27pm

Lois and Clark pulled up outside one of the less attractive
buildings in Suicide Slum.

"I can't believe you used to live near here," he told her.

"I didn't exactly have much of a choice, Clark. My pockets
weren't full of money."

They got out of the car, making sure to lock all of the doors.
Lois looked around fearfully. "You know, I, uh ... don't quite
remember this area being quite so ... er ... intimidating."

"It's okay Lois. I won't let anything happen to you."

"I know." And she _did_ know.

They walked towards the building. As they approached, she asked,
"I wonder how we're going to get in."

"I doubt it's locked."

"Yeah, well I'd prefer not to be seen going through the front
door. Let's see if there's a side or back entrance."

They edged toward the alleyway next to the building. Lois peeked
around the corner. There didn't seem to be anybody there. She
pressed her back against the wall.

Clark could tell she was trying to blend in, but in that blue
suit of hers she wasn't doing a very good job.

As they shuffled along, Clark surveyed the alleyway carefully. It
just looked like a typical alleyway. Garbage bags and rubbish
littered the floor. But he knew someone was watching them.

"Lois ... " he began.

**PAIN!!**

He collapsed.

***

Clark huddled in pain on the cold cement floor. Being
invulnerable, he had never had to worry about feeling anything
less than comfortably warm, but with his powers diminishing, he
was really aware of the cold for the first time ...

***

Lois groaned. Her head was pounding. She hadn't had a headache
this bad since she celebrated her 21st birthday a little too
well. She was trying to remember where she was when all the
events of last night rushed into her head. Clark, Superman,
kryptonite, the man with the gun ... the man with the gun!!

She remembered!! The stranger had taken out a gun, and she
thought he was going to shoot Clark. But he had shot her
instead!! She had been so gripped with fear that she hadn't
realised that it was in fact a dart gun. Before she had been able
to kick it out of his hand as she had done with the kryptonite,
he had shot her.

Thinking she had been shot and would die, she collapsed. Her last
thoughts were of Clark.

But now she was here. Why hadn't he killed her? And where was
Clark? Clark! She had to find him. She tried to get up too
quickly and felt distinctly nauseous. "Urg ... "

"Hi." The word was softly spoken, but she would recognise that
voice anywhere.

She spun around, fighting against her own dizziness.

He was lying so still on the floor. It looked like he was barely
breathing, but he was staring straight at her. For some reason he
had been stripped of his suit, and was in the Superman outfit.

"Clark!" She almost flew across the room. She knelt down beside
him, and couldn't stop touching him. "Oh God, I was so worried
about you." She tried to hug him, but he didn't have the energy
to sit up.

"I'll be alright." he croaked.

"You look awful."

He chuckled then grimaced. "Thanks a lot, Lois."

She smiled, but he could see how upset she was. "Why are you
still so weak?" she whispered, as if afraid to find out the
answer.

"I'm not sure. I don't think there's any kryptonite inside me,
but there must be some of it somewhere in the room."

Nodding, she looked around. It was a very simple room. There were
no windows, and no furniture. There was a door which she tried to
open but to no avail. This didn't surprise her, but she kept
hitting it. She couldn't see the kryptonite, but it was here
somewhere. She had to get Clark away from it!

"Lois."

She ignored him, trying to kick the door down.

"Lois, please stop before you hurt yourself."

She took her shoe off and hit the door handle with the heel.

WHACK!

"Please."

WHACK!

"I can't shout at you Lois. I haven't got the energy. What's
wrong?"

WHACK!

The heel broke off of the shoe. She crumbled.

"I don't want you to die!!!!" she screamed. She was sobbing now.
With her head in her hands she lent against the wall.

Clark wasn't sure what to think. He'd been seeing the world
through a haze of pain ever since he had woken up. She'd
certainly never displayed such a strong emotion over him before,
as Clark or Superman. "Lois, please. I want to hold you."

She took her hands from her face and he saw that she had such a
wonderous expression on her face. He was still too weak too sit
up by himself, so after much huffing and puffing she managed to
pull him over to the wall.

She sat him up there, but then looked him straight in the eye.
"Why don't you let me hold you?" It was more of an order than a
request. He didn't mind either way, just as long as he could
touch her.

Lois sat down against the wall, and managed to pull him into her
arms. She sat there, absently brushing the side of his face with
her free hand. Looking down into his eyes, she started crying
again at the emotions displayed. In her grief, she couldn't say
anything. But that was all right. No words were needed.

***

That was how they were found when the police burst through the
door four hours later. She didn't even flinch.

"Miss Lane?" one of them enquired "Are you all right?"

Looking up from Clark's still body she uttered two simple words.

"He's gone."

***

The police explained that they had a tip off from an anonomous
source (probably Bobby, Lois thought) connected with a spate of
recent disappearances. They were searching the rest of the
building, and thankfully had found Jimmy uninjured. There was no
sign of the person who had kidnapped them. But Lois wasn't really
paying attention. She was more interested in the body that was
being wheeled out of the room. Remembering something she had
learnt, she spun around to the medics.

"Get him in the sunlight!"

"Pardon?"

"Get him in the sunlight! It helps him ... regenerate. After
exposure to kryptonite, it helps him go back to normal."

"So kryptonite is responsible for this?"

"Of course it is! He said there must be some in the room, but I
couldn't see any."

"You mean there's kryptonite in this room?"

"Yes! Haven't you been listening??!!"

"Then we'd better get him as far away from this room as
possible."

***

It was a bright sunny day, and for that reason alone Lois was
full of hope. But she was also full of fear. She glanced over at
the bed. Clark was lying there, hooked up to God knows how many
machines. The blinds over the windows were pulled back, so
sunlight was shining down on him. Inspector Henderson had told
her that they had found Jimmy, for which she was very grateful.
He was dehydrated, but he would be fine. They had found the
kryptonite in the light bulb socket. She had been mentally
chastising herself ever since. Where else could it have been?
There had been no furniture in the room; no where else to hide
it. She knew that it was also easy to say that with hindsight,
but she still couldn't stop blaming herself.

She really didn't know what to do. There were so many thoughts
and feelings twirling around in her head. She was definitely
terrified. To finally realise her feelings for Clark and then
almost lose him ... She was *so* scared that he wouldn't pull
through. He still wasn't out of danger and she kept trying to
tell herself that he would pull through. He was Superman. More
importantly, he was Clark.

Love. That could well have been the strongest emotion she was
feeling. Now that she had finally admitted it to herself, she
didn't need to hide it anymore. And she was in love with Clark,
not Superman. She looked over at his still body in the suit, but
she saw Clark, not the superhero.

Tears began to fill her eyes again. Oh God ... he still looked
very pale. She hoped (well, prayed) that the sunlight was
helping. He had been exposed to the kryptonite for a long time.
When the police had rushed into the room, she had been positive
that he was dead. In her grief she hadn't even been able to cry.
They had taken him to the hospital where they had made her year
by informing her that he was still alive. She insisted on staying
with him, her reasoning being that as his closest friend she
should be there. Well, they weren't going to know any better.
They knew that she and Clark Kent were his closest friends, and
no one knew where Clark was. She had told them that he was out
covering a story. If they only knew ...

Sighing, she got up from her chair next to Clark's bed and sat
down gently next to him. *He's so handsome*. She lent down and
kissed him gently on the cheek.

"Please don't leave me."

***

His first conscious thought was that he wanted to be unconscious
again. His entire body ached. He hadn't thought it possible for
every part of his body to hurt. His right arm was the only part
of his body that didn't hurt. In fact, he couldn't even feel it.
Knowing that the rest of his body felt awful, he decided that
wasn't such a bad thing. But what was causing him to lose all
feeling in his arm?

Slowly, ever so slowly, Clark opened his eyes. Bad idea. He
instantly closed them again as bright sunlight nearly blinded
him. He had to do this! He opened them once more, determined to
not give in. His eyes finally adjusted and he saw what was on his
arm. He smiled.

Lois.

Then he frowned. She had been crying. Her eyes were swollen, and
he could see a trace of wetness left behind on her cheeks. He
opened his mouth to say something, but his throat was so sore
that nothing came out. He swallowed and tried again.

"Lois ... " His voice was so hoarse!!

She stirred gently. Yawning, she opened her eyes. Her mouth
stopped mid-yawn and her eyes opened widly when she realised he
was awake and looking at her.

"Clark!" she flung her arms around his neck, which was no easy
task when he was lying on a hospital bed. "Oh God, I was so
worried about you, I thought I'd never get to speak to you again
... " She continued to babble, and even through his pain Clark
was loving every second of it.

***

Lois filled him in on everything. He was relieved that Jimmy was
safe, but he was still angry that the man responsible still
hadn't been found. The police had no idea why they had kidnapped
him. They had found Jimmy locked in a room similar to the one
they were in, but they couldn't find anybody else in the
building. They were still searching now for evidence.

Henderson walked into the room carrying a piece of paper. His
eyes raised when he saw Lois with her arms wrapped around
Superman.

"Morning Lois. Enjoying yourself?" he asked sardonically.

She immediately released Clark and stood up. "Hello Inspector."
She smiled at him brightly.

Henderson turned his attention to the man in the bed. "How are
you doing Superman?"

"Much better, thanks. I pretty much ache all over, but I seem to
be getting better. What are you here for?"

"Well, first of all to check out how you are, and also to show
Lois this." He handed her the piece of paper.

"What's this?" she asked, taking the paper and looking down at
it.

"It's the only piece of evidence we found. We're not sure what it
means, but we thought you'd be interested in the name printed at
the bottom."

Lois scanned down through the page. There were lots of numbers in
some kind of chart, but when she saw the bottom of the page the
name leapt out at her.

Clark studied her reaction. Her eyes widened in shock.

"Lois, what is it?"

Almost reluctantly she dragged her eyes away from the paper and
looked at him.

"Bureau 39," she whispered.

***

Officially the case was closed, but it wasn't solved. They had
found no further evidence, and as far as the government was
concerned, Bureau 39 didn't exist. There was no trace of the man
who had exposed Clark to the kryptonite. What made it more
infuriating was that both Lois and Clark were sure that they had
seen the man before ...

***

"Come on, it didn't taste *that* bad." she insisted.

"You're right," he replied, "it didn't taste *that* bad. It
tasted worse."

She grimaced at him. "Well fine. Next time you can do the
cooking."

"I did volunteer to do the cooking this time, but you insisted."

"Well excuse me for trying to do something nice." She got up from
the table huffily and instantly stopped moving when she felt
Clark's hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." he told her. "You know I was just teasing."

She turned around to face him and smiled. "You're an awful
liar."

He smiled back. "You'd prefer the truth?"

She pursed her lips and pretended to think it over. "Wellllllll
... , maybe not about my cooking, but definitely about
*everything* else." she told him with a pointed look.

He instantly felt ashamed. "You know I'm sorry for that. If there
was anyway I could take back some of the things that had happened
because of my other identity, I would."

"I know." She reached up and cupped his cheek. She thought that
he probably didn't realise that he was wearing all of his
emotions on his face at that moment. His expression was just so
full of ... love. It amazed her. She was also amazed at how much
she had changed over the last week or so.

She tugged him towards his stereo.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"You'll see." was the mysterious reply. She activated the CD
player. "I put this in the machine when you were in the bathroom
earlier."

He instantly recognised the song. A huge smile lit across his
face, because he finally realised for the first time that she
didn't mind that he was Superman. That was all that really
mattered.

Slowly they began to dance. She rested her head on his chest and
hummed along almost silently to the music. They began to float
off the floor, as they had done once before to this very song. At
that moment Lois Lane said something that made Clark's life
complete.

"I love you, Clark Kent."

THE END