Calling Clark

By Katie Sizer <katie_sizer@blueyonder.co.uk>

Rated: G

Submitted May 2002

Summary: What if Lois changed her mind about whether to leave a message or not at the end of the episode "Metallo"?

A 30 Minute Episode Extension Challenge Story: Metallo

What if Lois changed her mind about whether to leave a message or not at the end of Metallo? Another 30 minute challenge. And thank you to my GE, Wendy, for doing this so quickly!

Katie :)

***

(from script)

We hold on Lois as we hear the WHOOSH and see her hair blow in its wake. After a beat she picks up the WHITE PHONE in her bathroom and dials. We hear it RING once on the other, then…

CLARK (V.O.)

Hi, this is Clark. Please leave a message at the sound of the…

BEEP. Lois thinks… then finally, a hint of disappointment on her face, hangs up.

Episode ends here

***

She dropped her face into her hands and wondered why she'd just hung the phone up, rather than leaving a message for him. It was only Clark! Why was she bothered about leaving a message for Clark? They were friends — really good friends.

She reached her hand over to the phone again, intending to Clark back and apologise for leaving a silent message. It was always annoying when people did that, so the least she could do was ring and tell him why she had called. But why had she called? It had seemed like the thing to do at the thing, but when she thought about it, she couldn't think of any good reason as to why she had decided to call Clark.

Yes, she'd been thinking of him, but not about anything that she wanted to share with him. Despite the fact that they were close friends now, closer than she'd ever been with any friend — or any lover — before, certainly, she was still afraid of telling him her feeling about some things, especially when it came to her feelings about him.

She knew they'd been increasing rapidly for quite a while, now, and if she dared to admit it to herself, she knew that she wanted more than friendship from him. But how could she know if he wanted the same things? He'd said that he loved her before, when she was planning to marry Lex Luthor, but then he'd taken it back. She'd known then that maybe there was more to their relationship than friendship; in fact she clearly remembered being about to tell him that.

She was glad now that she didn't tell him because, like he'd said, he'd lied about his feelings to stop her from marrying Luthor. If she'd have told him what she was going to first, and then he'd said that, she didn't know what she would have done. Although, in the back of her mind, there'd always been a hint of doubt about what he'd said. She knew that he was attracted to her, so there was a real chance that he loved her, but felt fear she was going to treat him differently, and so decided to tell her he'd made it up, to save problems.

She wished she knew! If he felt the same, then maybe telling him that she thought she loved him would be a lot easier. Maybe she could ask him? But she dismissed that idea. She'd feel so embarrassed if he turned around and said no, they were just friends, and she'd been completely wrong. It'd be awful between them at work, too, she suspected, and maintaining the friendship after that could be hard, especially with her past record of keeping friendships up.

Again, she wondered why she'd called him. To tell him all of that? She doubted it. But maybe to tell him some of it. Just a few minutes previous, she'd told Superman there's nothing she wouldn't do for him. But she'd never told Clark that. Maybe she should. She was certain he felt the same about her, and he'd shown her many times. Yes, telling him that sounded like a good idea. And it might be easier telling his answer machine, too.

Smiling to herself, and picked the phone back up, and dialled his number. It rang once before his voice answered her.

"Hello?" he said, his voice soft.

Lois's eyes widened. He hadn't been at home before! Maybe she should just slam the phone down, and he'd never know it was her. But she'd already left him a blank answer phone message; it would be unfair to just give him a silent phone call too.

"Hi, Clark! It's Lois," she said, trying to mask the surprise, which surely filled her voice.

"Hey, Lois. It's pretty late… what can I do for you?" he asked.

She was stumped for something to say. She wasn't expecting him to be back home! It had to be only five minutes or so since she'd called him last.

"Lois?"

"Oh, sorry, Clark. I was miles away for a moment. I just wanted to… apologise for the blank message I left on your answering machine," she said finally, realised straight away he was going to ask while she called him that time, and mentally slapped herself.

"That was you? Thought it was just a wrong number," he told her. "So, Lois, why did you leave me a blank message?"

"I…" she began, trying to make up something else, but decided to just tell him the truth after all. "I wanted to tell you that I'd do anything for you, Clark."

He was taken aback for a moment, having not expected for Lois to say such a thing. And then he wished he could hold her. It was so unlike her to say such a thing, and he knew for a fact that'd she'd never really been close enough to anyone to have felt like that before. But yet she'd just told him that she'd do anything for him… and he was now being silent, and just making her wait!

"Lois… that means a lot to me. And you know I feel the same about you, right? I'd do anything at all for you!" He stopped for a moment and pondered. "What's made you feel like telling me this, Lois, if I can ask?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said, starting to feel nervous, and extremely embarrassed. "I've just been thinking, about us."

"Me too, Lois. I've been thinking about us a lot lately," he confessed.

"Really? What kind of things?" she asked, curious as to whether it was anything like the things she'd been thinking just minutes ago.

"How about you go first, Lois?" he asked, remembering the last time he'd gone first. He'd always wondered afterwards what Lois wanted to tell him that time.

"Well…" Lois started, silently cussing him for not telling her. "I've just been thinking that… maybe there's more to our relationship? Than just friendship, I mean?"

"Wow, Lois. I've been thinking the exact same thing, bit I've been afraid of scaring you away again if I told you," he said, his voice growing caring, and gentle.

"Oh…" she said, lost for words for a while. While she'd been hoping through the phone call, and her thoughts earlier that he felt the same, it was such a relief to hear for sure that he did!

"So, what do you want to do about it, Lois?" he asked tentatively.

"Maybe you could come over here, and we could talk about it some more? Decide what to do. And maybe…" She paused, and wondered whether she should say it or not, and decided to go for it "…arrange to go on a date?"

"I'll be right there!" he said. "See you soon, Lois."

"Okay," she smiled.

She walked away from the phone and went to sit on the sofa, awaiting his visit. It felt good that they were going to talk about this! She cursed the fact that her nerves were still there, but at least she knew that Clark wouldn't try to push her into something she didn't want to tell him.

A knock suddenly came to the door, and she knew that Clark couldn't be there already — it was barely a minute since she'd hung up the phone! Hoping it wasn't anyone that wanted to stay for any length of time, she crossed over the room, and looking through the peep-hole in the door. Sure enough, Clark was standing there, a big bouquet of flowers in his hand.

She threw the door open, and gave him an extremely puzzled look.

"Clark! How did you get here so quickly?"

"Lois…" he started, running his hand through his hair, "We need to talk…"

End of 30 minutes <bg>