Selective Memory (5/?)

[vision_girl_sv]

Part V



Lois climbed the stairs to the loft with a slight frown. She imagined that Clark was up there brooding and marveled that even without his memory he had resorted to old habits. In a way, that was comforting. His sudden confidence and forwardness had been knocking her off-balance and it was nice to know that some things about him hadn’t changed. It gave her hope that soon he would be back to normal.

“Lois…” his voice called out in a whisper. “…It’s hot.”

She shook her head in annoyance when she saw his legs hanging over the side of the couch. It bothered her a little that he could be so relaxed and comfortable when she felt in constant danger of jumping out of her skin. She could see his shirt had been haphazardly thrown across the back of the couch. If this was another attempt at getting into her pants, she was going to scream.

“Nice try, Smallville. Put your shirt back on,” she said around a yawn.

“…hot.”

Lois laughed wryly. “You’re not that cute.”

“…help…”

“Clark, I’m telling you, this whole seduction thing is not working. It’s been a long day, an even longer night…” And you’re really not making it any easier by stripping naked every chance you get.

She cautiously stepped close enough to peer over the back of the couch. She was struck with an irrational fear that he would grab her and pull her on top of him. Instead of seeing the flirty grin she expected, his face was contorted in pain.

Dashing around the couch, she bent over him. “Clark! What’s wrong?”

Clark groaned in response and she reached out to touch his shoulder, pulling back abruptly when she felt the heat of his skin. Her hand moved to his forehead, brushing away the damp hair that stuck there. He was burning up. “Clark?”

“The rock…” he muttered. The effort to say those words seemed to take what remained of his energy, and his head rolled to the side.

She slid her hand to his shoulder and shook it lightly. “Clark?”

Realizing that he was unconscious, Lois spun around looking for a hint about what he had been trying to tell her. As she moved, her foot knocked against a strange metal box. Kneeling to pick it up, she noticed a small rock on the floor next to it. She recognized the rock to be a meteorite, having seen them a few times during her stay in Smallville, but unlike the others that usually were dull and nondescript - this one seemed to be glowing. The act of picking the meteorite and the metal box up brought them closer to Clark’s head and she jumped when he moaned loudly.

Lois looked from the stone in her hand to Clark’s face. His face was becoming flushed and his breath was labored. The veins on his neck became pronounced, as if the blood inside of them was coagulating in front of her eyes. She had seen a reaction like this before, but never this fast.

Radiation poisoning.

Gasping she looked at the rock and the box again, her thoughts settling on the possibility that the metal box could be made of lead. She dropped the rock inside and snapped the lid closed. Dashing to the other side of the room, she stashed the container on top of a bookcase, the furthest place she could find that was away from Clark without letting him out of her line of sight.

As she ran back to the couch, she wondered why the possible alien radiation would cause a reaction like that in Clark but not in her. Relief coursed through her when she saw that he was breathing easier and his face was clearing.

Wrong. Not radiation. Freak allergy or an infection or something. That’s it.

Lois figured that he had to have been mistaken about the meteor rock being the cause of his malaise. The fact that his improvement coincided with her moving the lead box was just coincidence. Clark shivered and she reached out to touch his brow again, finding it to still be warm. The presence of the fever meant that his body was trying to fight off its ailment. That was a good sign.

Shaking her head at her initial overreaction, Lois fumbled for the spare chair. Adrenaline was seeping from her and being replaced with her forgotten fatigue. She decided that she would sit down and watch him for a minute before going to the house for a damp washcloth and some water. Blinking tiredly, she leaned in the chair and placed an arm along the couch next to Clark’s chest. Bracing her chin in her hand, she reached with the other to check his temperature one more time.

Clark watched with soft smile as Lois’s eyes fluttered open. Her eyebrows twitched in confusion as she became aware of her position. He’d had a similar experience when he’d woken up an hour earlier. Somewhere between the time he’d heard her come up the stairs to the loft looking for him and now, she had fallen asleep with her head on his chest.

Finally coherent, Lois sprang upright in her chair. The blanket that Clark had pulled from the back of the couch slid from her shoulders as she moved.

“Hey,” Clark greeted.

Lois sucked in a quick breath. “Hey, yourself.” She rubbed the side of her face and her eyes widened in horror. Oh God.

“Is that drool?”

The small patch of wetness on Clark’s chest was her answer.

“It’s okay.” Clark chuckled. “You were tired.”

Lois’s mortification was only heightened by his amusement. “You look better,” she offered trying to ignore her embarrassment while wiping her face.

Clark nodded and sat up a little weakly. “I feel better. Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything,” she said, scoffing in a self-depreciating manner. “I meant to get you some water… You should be pretty dry.” She stood up.

Clark smiled. He reached for her hand as she started to go. “Don’t leave.”

Lois looked down at their joined hands and then back at him. “I’ll be right back,” she offered, pulling away. When she got to the top of the stairs, she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”

Blinking, Lois shook herself and headed down the stairs. The huskiness in her voice could not be confused for sleepiness. He had really had her scared for a little while. They were friends, and she would be concerned about any friend in a situation like this… but the depth of what she had felt… well, that was surprising.

It’s just the situation that’s got me flustered. Nothing more.

Clark watched her leave, and then laced his hands together on his lap. Waking up in an alley with a petite blonde he didn’t recognize looking at him had been startling. Being brought to a house full of pictures of people who were supposed to be his parents and relatives had been perplexing. Learning that he was really a visitor from another planet with super powers had been mind-boggling. But seeing Lois Lane walk through the door, hair pulled back into a messy ponytail after a long day at work - that had been… that had been right.

Regardless of what Chloe had said about her cousin’s relationship with him, Lois was pulling away, and it made him nervous. That rock, the one in the lead case, was dangerous. From the amount of pain and disorientation he had experienced from that brief contact with it, he had no doubt that it could have killed him. Would have killed him - if Lois hadn’t come along when she did. And she didn’t even know what that was all about.

The secrets would only continue to rip them apart. Chloe had said that he should wait until he remembered why he hadn’t told Lois the truth about himself, but right now, he couldn’t imagine that any of those reasons would mean anything if it meant that he would lose the woman he loved.

Having no memory of anything but her, he had been convinced that the woman in front of him was his wife, and then he realized that they were just engaged… only to find out that he hadn’t yet proposed. Slowly but surely, the fragile hold that he had on the world was cracking, and only one thing remained at the foundation: he loved her.

And that’s all that matters.

Feeling a new sense of resolve, he pulled his shirt from the back of the couch and pulled it on. Hearing footsteps, he sat up straighter as Lois returned to the loft with a glass of water.

“Here you go,” she said, handing it to him.

He accepted it and took a long drink. Lois gingerly lowered herself onto the sofa beside him.

“While I watched you sleep, I, um, I did a lot of thinking.”

Lois smirked. “A lot of thinking? How long was I out?”

“I’m not sure… but I watched you for about an hour.”

Lois unconsciously ran a hand over her hair. “I put on a better show when I’m awake.”

“I was thinking about us.”

Lois slumped back into the couch. Of course you were… because you don’t think about anything else.

Clark continued unaware of Lois’s thoughts. “…About us, and about how this amnesia affects us. There has to be something profound about this whole thing. I have to believe that because all of this can’t be for nothing.”

Lois’s head tilted to the side as she listened.

“I think my having amnesia gives us a second chance.”

She frowned. “A second chance at what?”

He shifted on the couch so he could face her. “To be honest.”

Lois’s eyes popped.

“There aren’t that many things that I know right now. Maybe that’s why this is so clear. What would you do if you were in my position… having no memory? How would you know who to trust?”

Lois couldn’t pull her gaze away from the intensity of his. “I guess… I’d go with my gut.”

He nodded. “And my gut tells me that I trust you. With everything.”

Lois finally broke the stare. “Clark, I should tell you…”

“Let me go first.”

She put a hand on his arm. “No, you really need to know this…”

“If I want us to be together in every way some day - and I do - then I need you to know everything…”

“I’m really hoping that Chloe’s theory about the exploding brain was wrong - because I really don’t want to cross your wires - but this has gone too far…”

In their efforts to be heard, neither of them was really hearing the other…

“I’m an alien.” “We hate each other.”

...Except, they both heard that part.

“You’re a what?” “Excuse me?”

Clark recovered first. “Why did you say that we hate each other?”

“It’s the truth!”

“That’s absurd.”

Lois scoffed and jumped up from the couch. “Moreso than you saying that you’re an alien?”

Clark stood as well. “It’s the truth!”

“So now you’re a parrot and an alien?”

Clark looked lost. “A parrot?”

Lois shook her head in exasperation and raised her hands in front of her. She flapped the fingers of one hand to mime a mouth talking. “It’s the truth!” She flapped the fingers of the other hand in response. “That’s absurd!”

“It is,” Clark insisted quietly.

Lois looked at his dejected expression and lowered her hands. She had spent the entire weekend wishing for the old Clark to come back, and his current broody expression was the first time she saw old Clark peeking through. That alone showed her that he believed what he was saying, as ridiculous as it sounded to her.

“And we don’t hate each other,” Clark added, his confidence returning. “I can see that.”

Lois shook her head wryly. “One of our stories isn’t true, but it’s not mine.”

“We don’t act like we hate each other,” he observed.

“And you don’t look like a Martian.”

“I’m not from Mars.”

Lois chuckled. This conversation was insane. “Oh, my bad. I forgot to ask what planet you were supposedly from.”

“Krypton.”

Who-ton? She sighed. “Sounds like something you put on a salad. Who told you that you were an alien?”

“Chloe.”

Lois’s eyes narrowed. “Chloe told you that you were an alien?” She smiled. “Seriously?” She started looking around for the hidden camera.

Clark watched her move about the loft, looking under chairs and blankets. “Chloe explained it to me. I have powers because I’m not from this planet. Remember the front door?”

“Freak wind,” Lois muttered off-handedly, still in the midst of her search.

“I pulled it off by accident because I didn’t know my strength. And that rock? The one you moved? I think it made me sick because it is a piece of my home planet.”

“Chloe told you that too?”

“No. She didn’t say anything about it…”

Lois crossed her arms across her chest and looked at him from where she had halted her search of the other side of the loft. “You were born on a meteor rock?”

Clark frowned. “No…” Then he realized that she was goading him and still didn’t believe what he was saying. He decided that he would have to prove it. Chloe had told him that he could move fast. Really fast… but he hadn’t tried it yet.

Focusing on a spot next to her, he darted… and ran through the wall.

Lois’s mouth dropped open as Clark disappeared and a hole appeared in the barn wall next to her. Running to the new man-sized window, she poked her head through and saw Clark lying on the ground below. Still in shock, she backed away from the hole and ran down the stairs.

When she arrived outside, Clark was standing and brushing dirt off of his shirt and jeans.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Clark looked up from his dirty clothes and started laughing. I need to work on my takeoffs… and landings for that matter.

Lois stepped closer and looked for broken bones. He looked perfectly fine. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No.”

Lois looked up at the damage to the barn. “You just ran through a wall - three stories up - and there’s not a scratch on you?”

Clark rubbed his hands through his hair vigorously to remove the dirt. “That’s because I’m an alien.”

She watched him speechlessly. She had to admit that he’d moved faster than anyone she’d ever seen before - almost too fast to even be seen. “If you are an alien - and I’m not saying that you are - what all can you do?”

“I can hear and see things from far away, and…” Clark looked around. Earlier, Chloe had given him a tire iron to bend to test his strength. The tractor was parked not too far away from where they were standing. He sauntered over to it and picked it up. With one hand.

For having just made an acquaintance with an alien life form, Lois kept her cool quite well. I guess I can’t call him Smallville anymore. “Do you think you could, uh, put that down?”

Clark lowered the tractor to the ground, using the other hand for control. The one handed thing had really been for effect. He walked back to where Lois was standing. She was doing the eyebrow thing again, but was obviously speechless.

“Now about that other thing,” he said.

“The other thing?” Lois stammered. She didn’t know what the hell she was supposed to think right now.

“You said one of our stories wasn’t true. I proved mine.”

“A little show of strength doesn’t make you an alien,” she countered weakly.

“I said I was an alien. You said that we hated each other. I proved mine,” he repeated. “Your turn.”

Before she could respond, he put his hands on both sides of her face and leaned down to capture her lips with his own. It was a risk. Hell, yeah, it was a risk. He had just told her that he was an alien. She had the right to run away from him screaming in fear and possibly disgust… but she hadn’t. Sure, there was still a chance that she didn’t believe him, but she knew he was different, and it didn’t turn her off. She wasn’t screaming. She wasn’t pushing him away in disgust.

She was kissing him back.

Smiling against her lips, he slid his hands to her shoulders and then to her waist, pulling her closer still. Finally, he pulled away and stepped back. They were both panting but his wasn’t from a lack of breath.

After two days of her dodging him and slipping out of his every attempt at touching her intimately, he had kissed her. He had to stop now or he would never let go.

Lois stood frozen in the spot where he had released her. Holy…

Her mind was so numb that she didn’t remember what came after that. So, she just thought it again.

Holy…

To think of it as their first kiss meant that she was thinking that there would be more. No, she should be thinking of it as their only kiss - scratch that - she shouldn’t be thinking of the kiss at all. In fact she shouldn’t be thinking about the fact that even with his strangeness, he would make a damn sexy boyfriend… someone who could actually handle what she dealt out…

Lois mentally slapped herself. Lack of sleep was making her as delusional as he was.

After five minutes had passed and she hadn’t moved, Clark took a hesitant step toward her, kneeling to pick up something from the ground as he neared.

“Hey!” Lois abruptly sprang to awareness. “You just poked me with a stick!”

“I wanted to make sure you were alive.”

“You use sticks on sharks or eels to see if they’re alive - dangerous things - not people,” she admonished, spinning to face him.

“Dangerous things,” Clark repeated, nodding seriously and indicating her by pointing the stick he still held.

Most dangerous things have a tell before they strike - Clark saw Lois’s left eye narrow slightly and knew what was coming.

“That is not fair!” Lois yelled.

She’d pounced, but he’d ducked. Clark now stood 50 feet away in the middle of the field laughing at her.

Okay, now he’s just showing off.

“Would you mind coming back over here… slowly?” At this rate, the entire county was going to know about his possible alieness. Whatever was up with him, it was obviously something that pre-mindswipe had been a closely kept family secret. It should probably stay that way.

Clark walked back to her with the smirk still on his face. “I win.”

Lois crossed her arms on her chest. “You so do not win.”

Damn. She hadn’t meant to agree that there was a game.

Clark’s face widened with the grin that was becoming so familiar to her. “We don’t hate each other, or you wouldn’t have kissed me.”

Lois caught herself before correcting him that he had in fact been the one that kissed her. It would have only led to a futile discussion about who had then kissed who back.

“Admit it… there is something between us. I know it’s real… I know what I feel is real.”

Lois lifted her chin. “Not likely. We argue nonstop. We fight all the time. We both get a kick out of picking on each other. I mean, what do you call that?”

“Foreplay,” he replied bluntly.

Lois swallowed. She had walked right into that one.

“I’m going to go with my gut again and say that all of that other stuff is just cover for what we really feel. Like there is some secret understanding between the two of us that we would never really call it what it is.”

“I…”

Oh, yeah. Clark recognized the signs of retreat. “Is there something here?” he interjected before she could complete her denial. “Between us?”

Lois sighed. “Maybe,” she offered reluctantly.

“I’m not going to ask for much, Lois. I just want to see where it goes. Do you think we could try?”

Lois looked uncomfortable with the suggestion.

“One day. Starting tomorrow. One date… and then we’ll make the call after that.” He had to believe that it the call would be in his favor, but first he needed her to agree.

She regarded him in silence for a moment. Maybe in some way, his lack of memory of his old life made him more like his real self. Maybe that meant that she could be more like her real self too. The self that didn’t have to hide behind aloofness… the self that wasn’t too hard to consider falling in love.

The self that finally wanted to play along.

“One day. Starting tomorrow,” she agreed with finality.

Clark grinned and stepped closer. “I told you I w…”

She cut him off with a punch to the shoulder. “You so do not win.”

She’d punched him, so he kissed her. Again.