Fic: Man of Steel: A Risk Worth Taking (25/?) -- Part 1 of 2
Title: Man of Steel: A Risk Worth Taking (25/?)
Author: Babette babettew54
Canon: Superman (MOS)
Pairings; Characters: Clark/Lois, Martha Kent, Sam Lane, Lucy Lane, Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, Original Character(s)
Rating: M
Word Count: 5,800
Summary: Lois couldn’t decide whether to ask him out or overwhelm him with questions hopefully to finish the ‘Story of the Century.’
Spoilers: None. It is just speculation about hand touching in the trailer and what it could mean for Clois. The story continues with more speculation about Clois and the upcoming sequel.
Disclaimer: DC Comics/Warner Bros. Entertainment owns these characters. This is strictly for my own amusement.
Author's Notes: In this next chapter, the newlyweds return home but not without a few surprises, two of the four missing scientists are revealed, Lucy, Lois, and Clark have an eye opening conversation, and later, Clark has a confession to make. Read on.
Updated: Click the banner to see more character pictures!
X-posted: (FFN); (A03)
Previously:
ACT I: The Only Thing That Matters
( Chapter 1)( Chapter 2)( Chapter 3)( Chapter 4)( Chapter 5)
( Chapter 6)( Chapter 7)(Chapter 8)( Chapter 9)( Chapter 10)
( Chapter 11)( Chapter 12)( Chapter 13) ( Chapter 14)( Chapter 15)
ACT II: All I’ve Ever Wanted
( Chapter 16)( Chapter 17)( Chapter 18)( Chapter 19)( Chapter 20)
( Chapter 21)( Chapter 22)( Chapter 23)
ACT III: For the Love of You
( Chapter 24)
Chapter 25: Cast Your Fears Aside
A week later in Metropolis:
Lois Lane-Kent was extremely happy to be home, back to Metropolis, back to work, back to family and friends, plus she was so eager to begin their new life together.
Clark was driving back to their apartment. He glanced at his wife, and she seemed quite happy. "Are you thinking about the island?"
She ducked her head, and smiled. "Of course I am. It was amazing. I do miss it. Hawaii was a true paradise, but being home with you in our apartment, well, I like that too."
"I have to agree with you," he said. He reached out his hand, she took it. "But it was wonderful wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was. I loved it so much and you were so great, Clark. I never knew you could be so kind, caring and loving, but the sex …" She glanced at him and he was blushing. "I love you so much."
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "I love you too."
Then Lois noticed something odd. "Clark, you just missed our street."
"I know, but I have a surprise for you."
She frowned. "A surprise?"
"You have to wait and see. We're almost there."
"Alright, I can wait, I suppose," she said and narrowed her eyes. Lois was not that keen on surprises, but knowing her husband, it would be something she would probably like.
Ten minutes later, Clark pulled up to an older property that she recalled had been renovated into condos a few years ago. The housing market was coming back, but apparently they were still selling and the price had gone down.
"Clark, what did you do?"
"Welcome home, Mrs. Lane-Kent." He exited the car, opened her door and escorted her to the front entrance. They headed to the sales office, asked for an envelope left for him by Mr. Wayne, and was handed the envelope. As promised, inside the envelope was a key to the unit.
They were in the elevator apparently headed to their new home. Lois was dumbstruck. "Clark, what did you do?" She asked him again.
"You said you liked it so, just before our wedding, I put in a deposit. I could not pass this up. You saw the bedrooms; they're pretty good size and it has office space. The closets are good size too. Lois, it's perfect for us."
Clark had recently shown her the condo on the Internet and she genuinely seemed to like it. Of course, they had searched for other places, but this one was close to the office, completely renovated with easy access to the roof and it had a balcony too.
"But how did you find this place?"
"Bruce knew that we were looking for a larger place, so he turned me on to it. He owns this property."
Lois gasped. "Bruce owns this building?" Her head was spinning at the news.
"Lois, I just said that." He shook his head at her; she didn't look convinced. "Lois, if you don't like what you see, we can get our deposit back. Don't worry."
"Alright, we'll see about this," Lois said. Exiting the elevator, they walked down the hall to the left which meant that the unit was at the back of the building. He opened the door, picked Lois up and entered their new home.
Lois yelped of course. "Oh, you and your traditions," she said and smiled at him. He set her down, watched her expression go from intrigued to totally blown away.
Clark was relieved. "You still like it don't you?"
Lois was dumbstruck again. The living, dining, and kitchen areas had an open concept. The hardwood floors were pretty, not too dark, and the kitchen was really nice with an island, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. She walked into the kitchen. She actually liked the colors of the cabinets and the granite was pretty. "Clark, you did well. It's wonderful."
Clark released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He then opened the fridge, and there it was, just as Bruce promised. He pulled out a bottle of champagne. Two glasses were pulled from the cabinet. It was time to christen their new home.
"Oh, good idea," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
He did too then he popped the cork and poured the champagne. "To us, our new home, may it be filled with love and one day soon, a few little ones to drive us crazy."
"To us," Lois said. She wanted to tell him that she may be with child, but refrained. They clicked glasses, and took a long sip. Lois ducked her head, and moved on to the bedrooms.
Clark frowned as he followed her. The master bedroom had an on-suite bathroom and a walk-in closet. There were closet organizers, as well. The master bath wasn't huge but it was renovated with the similar granite as the kitchen and double sinks too.
"Lois is anything wrong?" She seemed distracted.
They were in the master bedroom. It was time to tell him that she may already be with child, but she hadn't had the time to get a pregnancy test, then she decided to wait to be sure. She turned to him with tears in her eyes.
After putting their glasses down, he took her by the shoulders. "Are those tears? Tell me what's wrong, please."
"I'm sorry to put a damper on things, but I was just thinking about my Mother and she would have loved to decorate this place. I have no sense of style or anything like that."
He stroked her shoulder. "I know you miss her."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about her a lot lately," she said.
"Well, maybe Lucy can help."
"Actually, that's not a bad idea. She's always loved dressing up and into popular fashions, but Lucy can be a bit wild sometimes. At one point, she actually considered being a flight attendant."
"Oh, she loves to fly?" Clark grinned. "Humm, I knew I liked her."
"Well, she does tend to grow on you, when you get to know her. Anyway, we do need to tell her the truth about you. No more ignoring her questions about Superman or whispering around her."
"Definitely, the sooner we tell her the truth the better for all of us."
She nodded then she decided to stay upbeat. "So, when can we move in?"
"I'll call Bruce and then it shouldn't be more than a few weeks, then we sign the papers and it's ours," he replied.
"Perfect." Lois smiled still optimistic.
"Perfect." Clark said. He pulled her close and kissed her tasting champagne.
~o~o~
Meanwhile in a dingy motel in Metropolis:
Two brothers, Bill and Alan Anderson, were particularly concerned. The FBI and everyone else were searching for them. Bill was now seriously considering turning himself into the authorities. Glancing at the paper in the Daily Planet article about Luthor and how he had been moved because of his unauthorized access to communications, both newspapers and television, they were both worried about what to do next.
"We should turn ourselves in," Bill suggested to this brother again.
"Not that again," Alan said.
"We haven't done anything wrong, and if we turn ourselves in, maybe we can cut a deal just like Luthor did."
"Luthor was guilty as charged," Alan stated. "Do you think they are going to believe anything we say? If we tell them that we didn't know about the Zod DNA or Lex's crazy ideas of flattening the city with faux-Kryptonians, they're not going to believe it. By then, it was too late. We were in too deep." He paused. "We had all these glorious dreams about groundbreaking research into cloning and look where it got us." He glanced around their seedy hotel room. They had homes to go to, but they hadn't been back to their homes in months.
"Yeah, he had us all fooled." Bill agreed with anything he said.
"Damn him to hell and back," Alan said. He stood up and began to pace for a moment. "I cannot believe we bought his insane ideas and what he was planning with the clones." Lex had fed them all lies. Luthor's plans of bringing the clones into the city to support the military as a means of defense against any future invasions were lies. The clones were given strength hormones as well as any other combination they could think of to make them invincible. The sky was the limit with hormone research, and now there they were stuck in a seedy motel indefinitely. "We should have known better."
"Do you think the other scientists had a clue or were we the only ones?" Bill asked.
"I have no idea."
Bill had a confession to make. "Alan, I think I may have saved his wife from whatever he had planned for her."
"She's not his wife. She's his ex-wife," Alan said.
"They're not married?" Bill asked intrigued and hopeful.
"Surely, you knew?" Alan asked.
"No, I didn't know." Bill then told him about that fateful day. "Well, I was leaving the building when I spotted him carrying her out of the ladies room. She appeared to be unconscious."
"What happened?"
"I followed him when he took her upstairs. I watched him place her inside an empty pod. Luthor pulled out a syringe, but I stopped him. I told him she was not a threat, that she was broken and couldn't hurt him. I also convinced him that Paul, his favorite clone, could stay with her in case she woke up and tried to escape."
Alan cocked his head, not surprised by his brother's heroics. "And now she's Ok because of you."
"I truly hope so," Bill said.
Alan watched him closely. "You like her." It was a statement. He smirked teasing his brother.
He grinned at his teasing. "She's very beautiful but she was definitely in over her head with Luthor." Bill sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He had made a decision. He stood up, went to the closet and grabbed his bag. "I'm sorry, Alan, but I'm going to the police station." He paused as he dropped the bag on the bed. "Come with me?"
"I can't talk you out of it?" Alan asked his big brother. They'd talked about this for weeks now.
Bill nodded his head. "No not this time."
Alan trusted his brother. He always had. "I hope we don't regret this." He paused as he stood up. "Alright, let's go."
~o~o~
Meanwhile, in upstate New York:
Erica was in her bedroom, standing by the window when her Father walked in. She turned from the window. "Are they gone?"
"Yes, the bugs are gone," Henri replied. "Are you alright?" He watched her closely. "Any more dreams about Lex?"
"No, no dreams about him." She paused. "Actually, there haven't been any dreams at all not since the night before the wedding." She ducked her head and turned back to the window.
"But your dream did not include Lex that night. It was Bill Anderson," Henri said.
"Yes, he was there." She shook her head thinking about him. "It was such a strange dream."
"It's still hard to believe that you dreamed about Tony, your son." He paused as he stared at her, then he continued. "I know you said you felt safe, not afraid, but later, you had the feeling that the children may be in danger because of him. Do you still feel that way?"
"I don't know what I think. I don't feel anything. I'm numb." She wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye, then turned back to the window.
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry." He had to help her somehow. "The packing is almost done. We can leave New York in a few days."
"Ok, if you say so." Erica was not excited not like she was before.
"Alright, honey, I'll let you rest for a while. Dinner will be done in about an hour."
"Thank you, Father." When he just stood there, she turned from the window. "I'm fine really."
"Ok, I'll see you later." Henri grinned and left her alone.
After he had left, she turned on the television to a cable news network and there was the man of her thoughts and her dreams. She turned up the volume. His face was in a square in the corner of the screen, along with another man who looked almost exactly like him only younger.
The announcer spoke up. "Thank you, Bob. We're outside Metropolis Police headquarters with news of two of the four scientists who had gone missing after the clone attacks. According to ongoing police investigations, these men assisted Lex Luthor in constructing over one hundred faux-Kryptonian clones in his attempt to destroy Superman. They turned themselves in only hours earlier. No statements have been released as of yet, but this may shed some light into Luthor's motives, and why these well-respected scientists would agree to Luthor's daring attempt to destroy the Man of Steel. As soon as we receive those statements, we will bring it to you live right here on this station. This is Jane Douglas. We now return you to our studios. "
Erica turned off the television and immediately called Clark Kent.
***
( Click here to read Part 2)
Author: Babette babettew54
Canon: Superman (MOS)
Pairings; Characters: Clark/Lois, Martha Kent, Sam Lane, Lucy Lane, Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, Original Character(s)
Rating: M
Word Count: 5,800
Summary: Lois couldn’t decide whether to ask him out or overwhelm him with questions hopefully to finish the ‘Story of the Century.’
Spoilers: None. It is just speculation about hand touching in the trailer and what it could mean for Clois. The story continues with more speculation about Clois and the upcoming sequel.
Disclaimer: DC Comics/Warner Bros. Entertainment owns these characters. This is strictly for my own amusement.
Author's Notes: In this next chapter, the newlyweds return home but not without a few surprises, two of the four missing scientists are revealed, Lucy, Lois, and Clark have an eye opening conversation, and later, Clark has a confession to make. Read on.
Updated: Click the banner to see more character pictures!
X-posted: (FFN); (A03)
Previously:
ACT I: The Only Thing That Matters
( Chapter 1)( Chapter 2)( Chapter 3)( Chapter 4)( Chapter 5)
( Chapter 6)( Chapter 7)(Chapter 8)( Chapter 9)( Chapter 10)
( Chapter 11)( Chapter 12)( Chapter 13) ( Chapter 14)( Chapter 15)
ACT II: All I’ve Ever Wanted
( Chapter 16)( Chapter 17)( Chapter 18)( Chapter 19)( Chapter 20)
( Chapter 21)( Chapter 22)( Chapter 23)
ACT III: For the Love of You
( Chapter 24)
Chapter 25: Cast Your Fears Aside
A week later in Metropolis:
Lois Lane-Kent was extremely happy to be home, back to Metropolis, back to work, back to family and friends, plus she was so eager to begin their new life together.
Clark was driving back to their apartment. He glanced at his wife, and she seemed quite happy. "Are you thinking about the island?"
She ducked her head, and smiled. "Of course I am. It was amazing. I do miss it. Hawaii was a true paradise, but being home with you in our apartment, well, I like that too."
"I have to agree with you," he said. He reached out his hand, she took it. "But it was wonderful wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was. I loved it so much and you were so great, Clark. I never knew you could be so kind, caring and loving, but the sex …" She glanced at him and he was blushing. "I love you so much."
He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "I love you too."
Then Lois noticed something odd. "Clark, you just missed our street."
"I know, but I have a surprise for you."
She frowned. "A surprise?"
"You have to wait and see. We're almost there."
"Alright, I can wait, I suppose," she said and narrowed her eyes. Lois was not that keen on surprises, but knowing her husband, it would be something she would probably like.
Ten minutes later, Clark pulled up to an older property that she recalled had been renovated into condos a few years ago. The housing market was coming back, but apparently they were still selling and the price had gone down.
"Clark, what did you do?"
"Welcome home, Mrs. Lane-Kent." He exited the car, opened her door and escorted her to the front entrance. They headed to the sales office, asked for an envelope left for him by Mr. Wayne, and was handed the envelope. As promised, inside the envelope was a key to the unit.
They were in the elevator apparently headed to their new home. Lois was dumbstruck. "Clark, what did you do?" She asked him again.
"You said you liked it so, just before our wedding, I put in a deposit. I could not pass this up. You saw the bedrooms; they're pretty good size and it has office space. The closets are good size too. Lois, it's perfect for us."
Clark had recently shown her the condo on the Internet and she genuinely seemed to like it. Of course, they had searched for other places, but this one was close to the office, completely renovated with easy access to the roof and it had a balcony too.
"But how did you find this place?"
"Bruce knew that we were looking for a larger place, so he turned me on to it. He owns this property."
Lois gasped. "Bruce owns this building?" Her head was spinning at the news.
"Lois, I just said that." He shook his head at her; she didn't look convinced. "Lois, if you don't like what you see, we can get our deposit back. Don't worry."
"Alright, we'll see about this," Lois said. Exiting the elevator, they walked down the hall to the left which meant that the unit was at the back of the building. He opened the door, picked Lois up and entered their new home.
Lois yelped of course. "Oh, you and your traditions," she said and smiled at him. He set her down, watched her expression go from intrigued to totally blown away.
Clark was relieved. "You still like it don't you?"
Lois was dumbstruck again. The living, dining, and kitchen areas had an open concept. The hardwood floors were pretty, not too dark, and the kitchen was really nice with an island, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. She walked into the kitchen. She actually liked the colors of the cabinets and the granite was pretty. "Clark, you did well. It's wonderful."
Clark released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He then opened the fridge, and there it was, just as Bruce promised. He pulled out a bottle of champagne. Two glasses were pulled from the cabinet. It was time to christen their new home.
"Oh, good idea," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
He did too then he popped the cork and poured the champagne. "To us, our new home, may it be filled with love and one day soon, a few little ones to drive us crazy."
"To us," Lois said. She wanted to tell him that she may be with child, but refrained. They clicked glasses, and took a long sip. Lois ducked her head, and moved on to the bedrooms.
Clark frowned as he followed her. The master bedroom had an on-suite bathroom and a walk-in closet. There were closet organizers, as well. The master bath wasn't huge but it was renovated with the similar granite as the kitchen and double sinks too.
"Lois is anything wrong?" She seemed distracted.
They were in the master bedroom. It was time to tell him that she may already be with child, but she hadn't had the time to get a pregnancy test, then she decided to wait to be sure. She turned to him with tears in her eyes.
After putting their glasses down, he took her by the shoulders. "Are those tears? Tell me what's wrong, please."
"I'm sorry to put a damper on things, but I was just thinking about my Mother and she would have loved to decorate this place. I have no sense of style or anything like that."
He stroked her shoulder. "I know you miss her."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about her a lot lately," she said.
"Well, maybe Lucy can help."
"Actually, that's not a bad idea. She's always loved dressing up and into popular fashions, but Lucy can be a bit wild sometimes. At one point, she actually considered being a flight attendant."
"Oh, she loves to fly?" Clark grinned. "Humm, I knew I liked her."
"Well, she does tend to grow on you, when you get to know her. Anyway, we do need to tell her the truth about you. No more ignoring her questions about Superman or whispering around her."
"Definitely, the sooner we tell her the truth the better for all of us."
She nodded then she decided to stay upbeat. "So, when can we move in?"
"I'll call Bruce and then it shouldn't be more than a few weeks, then we sign the papers and it's ours," he replied.
"Perfect." Lois smiled still optimistic.
"Perfect." Clark said. He pulled her close and kissed her tasting champagne.
~o~o~
Meanwhile in a dingy motel in Metropolis:
Two brothers, Bill and Alan Anderson, were particularly concerned. The FBI and everyone else were searching for them. Bill was now seriously considering turning himself into the authorities. Glancing at the paper in the Daily Planet article about Luthor and how he had been moved because of his unauthorized access to communications, both newspapers and television, they were both worried about what to do next.
"We should turn ourselves in," Bill suggested to this brother again.
"Not that again," Alan said.
"We haven't done anything wrong, and if we turn ourselves in, maybe we can cut a deal just like Luthor did."
"Luthor was guilty as charged," Alan stated. "Do you think they are going to believe anything we say? If we tell them that we didn't know about the Zod DNA or Lex's crazy ideas of flattening the city with faux-Kryptonians, they're not going to believe it. By then, it was too late. We were in too deep." He paused. "We had all these glorious dreams about groundbreaking research into cloning and look where it got us." He glanced around their seedy hotel room. They had homes to go to, but they hadn't been back to their homes in months.
"Yeah, he had us all fooled." Bill agreed with anything he said.
"Damn him to hell and back," Alan said. He stood up and began to pace for a moment. "I cannot believe we bought his insane ideas and what he was planning with the clones." Lex had fed them all lies. Luthor's plans of bringing the clones into the city to support the military as a means of defense against any future invasions were lies. The clones were given strength hormones as well as any other combination they could think of to make them invincible. The sky was the limit with hormone research, and now there they were stuck in a seedy motel indefinitely. "We should have known better."
"Do you think the other scientists had a clue or were we the only ones?" Bill asked.
"I have no idea."
Bill had a confession to make. "Alan, I think I may have saved his wife from whatever he had planned for her."
"She's not his wife. She's his ex-wife," Alan said.
"They're not married?" Bill asked intrigued and hopeful.
"Surely, you knew?" Alan asked.
"No, I didn't know." Bill then told him about that fateful day. "Well, I was leaving the building when I spotted him carrying her out of the ladies room. She appeared to be unconscious."
"What happened?"
"I followed him when he took her upstairs. I watched him place her inside an empty pod. Luthor pulled out a syringe, but I stopped him. I told him she was not a threat, that she was broken and couldn't hurt him. I also convinced him that Paul, his favorite clone, could stay with her in case she woke up and tried to escape."
Alan cocked his head, not surprised by his brother's heroics. "And now she's Ok because of you."
"I truly hope so," Bill said.
Alan watched him closely. "You like her." It was a statement. He smirked teasing his brother.
He grinned at his teasing. "She's very beautiful but she was definitely in over her head with Luthor." Bill sighed and ran his hands through his hair. He had made a decision. He stood up, went to the closet and grabbed his bag. "I'm sorry, Alan, but I'm going to the police station." He paused as he dropped the bag on the bed. "Come with me?"
"I can't talk you out of it?" Alan asked his big brother. They'd talked about this for weeks now.
Bill nodded his head. "No not this time."
Alan trusted his brother. He always had. "I hope we don't regret this." He paused as he stood up. "Alright, let's go."
~o~o~
Meanwhile, in upstate New York:
Erica was in her bedroom, standing by the window when her Father walked in. She turned from the window. "Are they gone?"
"Yes, the bugs are gone," Henri replied. "Are you alright?" He watched her closely. "Any more dreams about Lex?"
"No, no dreams about him." She paused. "Actually, there haven't been any dreams at all not since the night before the wedding." She ducked her head and turned back to the window.
"But your dream did not include Lex that night. It was Bill Anderson," Henri said.
"Yes, he was there." She shook her head thinking about him. "It was such a strange dream."
"It's still hard to believe that you dreamed about Tony, your son." He paused as he stared at her, then he continued. "I know you said you felt safe, not afraid, but later, you had the feeling that the children may be in danger because of him. Do you still feel that way?"
"I don't know what I think. I don't feel anything. I'm numb." She wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye, then turned back to the window.
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry." He had to help her somehow. "The packing is almost done. We can leave New York in a few days."
"Ok, if you say so." Erica was not excited not like she was before.
"Alright, honey, I'll let you rest for a while. Dinner will be done in about an hour."
"Thank you, Father." When he just stood there, she turned from the window. "I'm fine really."
"Ok, I'll see you later." Henri grinned and left her alone.
After he had left, she turned on the television to a cable news network and there was the man of her thoughts and her dreams. She turned up the volume. His face was in a square in the corner of the screen, along with another man who looked almost exactly like him only younger.
The announcer spoke up. "Thank you, Bob. We're outside Metropolis Police headquarters with news of two of the four scientists who had gone missing after the clone attacks. According to ongoing police investigations, these men assisted Lex Luthor in constructing over one hundred faux-Kryptonian clones in his attempt to destroy Superman. They turned themselves in only hours earlier. No statements have been released as of yet, but this may shed some light into Luthor's motives, and why these well-respected scientists would agree to Luthor's daring attempt to destroy the Man of Steel. As soon as we receive those statements, we will bring it to you live right here on this station. This is Jane Douglas. We now return you to our studios. "
Erica turned off the television and immediately called Clark Kent.
***
( Click here to read Part 2)