What If?

By Betsy R.

Summary: An alternate ending to the episode "Barbarians at the Planet," picking up at the point where Clark confesses his love for Lois in hopes of dissuading her from marrying Lex Luthor.

Disclaimer: All of the characters mentioned in the following are the property of Warner Brothers, DC Comics, December 3rd Productions, ABC, etc. etc. The story idea is mine. Hope you enjoy it.

(Continuity: the first part of this is taken directly from Annemarie Pace's Episode guide for BatP. I think you'll recognize where it becomes mine!!)

What if? [or, my ideas on how the first season should have ended, although we wouldn't have had nearly as much second and third season angst if it had ;-)] A short story based on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

***

Clark began to speak. "When I thought about losing my job at the Daily Planet, saying goodbye to Perry and Jimmy and everyone, I realized something. I realized that I could lose all that and still go on. I realized that there was really only one thing that I didn't want to live without." He looked deeply into Lois's eyes. "And that was you. Seeing you every day, working with you, just being with you."

Lois cleared her throat nervously and interrupted. "Well, that's why you should come and be my partner." She needed to get him off of this thread. It was just too dangerous.

"No, Lois, listen to me. I'm not talking about partnership. I'm talking about us. I have been in love with you for a long time. You had to have known."

Lois closed her eyes briefly. This was breaking her heart. The words she had longed to hear, and she was going to have to reject him. And she couldn't explain why. *If you only knew, Clark.* But she said, instead, "I mean, I, I knew. I mean, I guess I knew that you liked me or were attracted to me. Oh, Clark, I'm sorry, I just don't feel that way about you. Romantically. You're my best friend, and the only partner I could ever stand to work with. I admire you. And I respect you. And I do love you, as a friend."

She could see his heart breaking in his eyes. She hated doing this to him. If only she could tell him— *Stop it,* she commanded herself. *I'm doing this for him. All for him. Eventually he'll understand. I hope.*

Clark's voice was bitter with contempt as he asked, "What about Luthor? Do you love him?"

Lois couldn't lie about this. Love Luthor? No, she held him in a strange kind of awe, contempt, and even fear. But never love. She couldn't reveal that out loud, though. So she decided to prevaricate. "I don't know. I mean, I have feelings for him. I haven't said yes yet. And I won't until I talk it over with someone else."

"Who?"

"I think you know who. If you see him, will you tell him I'm looking for him?"

Clark smiled bitterly. "Yeah."

They parted a bit after that. Lois knew it would be a long time before she would be able to reconcile what she had just done. But she had to remind herself it was for the best. If Clark wouldn't protect himself, then she would.

She got into her Jeep and drove to the park. She had never felt the need to commune with nature, but this place was the only place she felt she could truly be alone. She slipped to her normal bench, pulled out her laptop, and put on her walkman. The men following her knew this routine, so ignored her for a while.

Later that night, she heard a knocking at her window. As she got up to answer it, she covertly grabbed a piece of paper that had some writing on it.

Superman dropped into her apartment. "I understand you're looking for me."

Lois smiled in what she hoped was a coy, shy manner and reached for his hand. She passed him the piece of paper but her eyes asked him to act normally. "Yes, I really wanted to talk with you. I need your advice."

Superman glanced down at the paper in confusion, but decided to go along with whatever Lois had planned. "Why don't we go out flying. It's a little warm in here."

"Oh," Lois acted surprised. "Okay. Just let me grab my sweatshirt." She grabbed a sweatshirt that was laying on a chair. It looked pretty bulky. "Sometimes I get a little chilly out there." She walked to him.

He picked her up and flew her out the window. "Do you mind telling me what this is all about?"

"Please, just take us somewhere far away fast. I'll explain it all then."

Superman looked at her and could see the faint traces of tears. He took little comfort in knowing that he had probably been the cause of those tears. Then he caught himself. *Why should I feel bad? She turned me down. I should be upset, not her!* He quickly flew them to a state park about 30 miles outside the city.

As they landed, she jumped out of his arms and started pacing. "Now don't interrupt me, Superman, please. I don't want to be rude. But I have a lot to tell you and we don't have a lot of time."

"Lois, we have all the time in the world."

"Not if we don't want them getting suspicious."

"Lois, why are you acting so paranoid all the sudden?"

"Listen to me. Luthor has decided that he wants me as one of his possessions. He decided that long ago. That's why he has taken over the Planet and made it fail. He has people watching me all of the time. My car, my desk, my apartment, all my phones, they're all bugged. This is the first time he hasn't had an eye or ear on me for weeks.

"Now, listen carefully. You're in great danger. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, and I haven't, but somehow, Luthor knows about Kryptonite. And tonight he got a chunk of it. I know he plans to kill you." Lois seemed to lose control at this point, and tears started to roll down her face.

"How do you know that, Lois"

She looked up at him. "Do you think Lex is the only one who can plant bugs? I've been recording the goings on in his office for quite a while now. I know, I know, not exactly smart or legal. But it's better than Clark's gut feeling. I've been transcribing the important parts of the tapes in the park, pretending to be listening to a walkman and working.."

"On your novel." Superman finished for her.

Lois looked up at him. "Clark told you about that? Well, why not? Nothing really secret about that." Talking about Clark had her choked up again, so she got on with her purpose. She pulled out a bag from inside the sweatshirt. "In this bag are the transcriptions and descriptions and proof of other things I have seen and heard. I'm giving this to you to go through first, because there are some meetings between you and Lex that you might not want others to know about. But when you are done, would you give them to Perry?"

"Why Perry?"

"He's been in on this the whole time. He's been buying the tapes for me and hiding them, too, since I realized all of my hiding places were suspect. But you've got to promise me to keep Clark out of this. Take him to Mars if you have to, but keep him away from Lex."

"Still protecting Luthor?"

Lois looked up at Superman. "No. I never have been protecting Luthor. Only Clark. Luthor knows that Clark suspects him of things. Between your visits and the not so quiet digging that Clark has been doing, well, Luthor has noticed him. In fact, he and Nigel have openly talked about getting rid of Clark. They are this close," Lois demonstrated with fingers separated by about an inch, "to putting out a hit on him. The only thing that is stopping them is that they know Clark doesn't have anything on them, and they are too busy. And now, well, they think they're torturing him with me, too." She looked down at the ground and her shoulders slumped as she thought once again about the conversation they had had earlier that day. But then she straightened with resolution. "Promise me you'll watch out for him, Superman. I've never had the chance to tell him how much I care. I never really figured out how much I cared until I thought I might lose him. I don't know what I would do without him." She looked pleadingly into Superman's eyes. His eyes warmed completely for the first time that night.

"Well, Lois, I can promise you that I will look out for Clark, but I'm going to show him all this," he indicated the bag she had given him, "too. Because he knows about it already."

Lois looked confused and scared. Had Perry told him? She didn't think so. Not even Perry knew the information those tapes. But how did Clark know? Her thoughts were interrupted by the feel of Superman's hand on her face.

"And you don't need to protect me, Lois. I'm pretty strong. I told you I'm not your typical male." Lois's eyes widened as she realized what he was telling her. After she was able to overcome the shock, she jumped at him and held him as tightly as she could, crying tears of anger and relief, scolding him and telling him how much she loved him. She wanted to strangle him for not telling her sooner, yet she understood completely. They both just stood together, holding on to each other, realizing exactly what they had.

Clark pulled back and looked closely at Lois with suspiciously moist eyes. "So today, you said those things just because we were being watched?"

She looked shyly into his eyes. "Yeah. Well, you know, although I'm a darn good writer, I'm not so good with talking about my feelings. But after all those times I have been jealous of those other women like Linda and Cat, and then the whole pheromone thing, I started to figure it out for myself. When Nigel suggested getting rid of you, and Lex actually thought it over before dismissing the idea, I thought of what life would be like without you. But there was no way to tell you. They are watching and listening to me all the time. I found a few bugs, and I decided that the best way to protect both myself and you was to make them think I was reluctantly going along with Lex. It hasn't been easy. But I did it for us."

"Just exactly how were you planning to get yourself out of this?"

"Perry was going to take what I had found to both Clark…er…you and the police. There's enough here to bring down everybody, including Nigel and Ms. Cox, two of Lex's closest compatriots. But I can't get things to Perry anymore. They are watching him, too. So I thought you could get these to Perry. We'll get Lex when he is least expecting it and is at his most vulnerable. The day he and I are supposed to get married."

"Well, there's no need to go through that whole charade, now."

Lois grabbed his arm. "There is every need. We have to get Lex and this is the only way to do it. Believe me, I am the only unplanned thing in his life, and we need to take advantage of that. He already suspects you, Clark, and has plans for you as Superman. He is obsessed with me because he was sprayed with the full concentration of Miranda's pheromone perfume. There's no way around it. Believe me. I have thought and thought. I would have done anything to avoid today."

"What do you suggest we do now?"

"I think you should fly me back as soon as possible. We should pretend to have a fight about Lex, and I will defend him as the underdog. You should fly off, and we won't see each other again until this is all settled."

"No way, Lois. I can't let you put yourself in that kind of danger."

"It's not danger. As long as Lex thinks I am even partially faithful to him, he'll protect me. The sacrifice of losing you is gone now. I'll be fine."

It took a little convincing and a lot of snuggling, but Lois finally got Clark to go along with her plan. It was only a matter of time before they could be together. But first they had some convincing roles to play. They flew off into the night and an uncertain future together.

The EndWhat if? By Betsy Harvey (birdies95@att.net)