By Kathy Bell [Kathybell2@aol.com]
Summary: It's their wedding day, Lois and Clark are alone at last, the moment is at hand — and Clark succumbs to insecurity.
***
The last handful of birdseed scattered across the roof and down the back window of Lois' silver Jeep Cherokee, as its driver pulled the vehicle away from the curb and accelerated down the street. There was no shoe polish decorating the windows, saying "Just Married", nor were dozens of empty soda cans on strings trailing behind the exhaust. No one, not even Jimmy or Perry, dared to do anything like that to Lois' car. Even though she and Clark had finally gotten married today, Lois was still Lois, and no one dared tamper with her automobile, even on this happy day.
As they started down the street, Clark looked back over his shoulder at the crowd outside the Chateau, the Metropolis restaurant where he and Lois had had their reception. It was far, far more expensive a place than they had been able to afford, but the expense of the reception and for almost every other aspect of their wedding, had been paid for by Lois' father, Sam. Ellen Lane had strong-armed her ex-husband into paying every cent. He acquiesced to that arrangement for a variety of reasons, all of which involved guilt.
Clark saw his mother standing in front of the Chateau, towards the leading edge of the well-wishers, and he fancied that she could see him clearly even as they drove away. He mouthed, "I love you," to her and was sure he saw her smile.
He then turned towards Lois who was driving (of course) and, with a big smile, said, "I've never been so happy in my life as I am right now, Lois".
She glanced towards him and smiled back before redirecting her attention to the road. "Me too." She was wearing a tan pantsuit, having changed out of her wedding dress into a traveling outfit at the close of the reception. Clark still wore his tuxedo.
Several moments passed in silence between the couple before Lois added, "But I'm really scared, too."
Clark looked at her in surprise wondering how it was that her feelings so closely mirrored his unspoken ones. "Me too."
***
A short while later, Lois and Clark reached Lois' apartment near the Daily Planet. They planned to go to Hawaii for their honeymoon, but due to the fact that they were taking (as Lois would say) "Superman Express", they weren't going to leave yet. They were married in the late morning (it was only three in the afternoon now) and Clark didn't want to fly with Lois in the daytime, outfitted as Superman. He preferred the cover of darkness, and Lois certainly couldn't blame him.
It definitely would look odd for Lois to get married at 10:30 in the morning to Clark Kent and be out flying at 3:00 that afternoon with Superman. It might lead people to make unwarranted connections between Clark and Superman, and Lois was fairly desperate to avoid letting anyone else in on the secret that only she and Clark's parents knew. (All *four* Kents now, not just three, she reminded herself gleefully; as of today, her name was Kent, too.) She liked knowing something that no one else in Metropolis knew — that Clark was Superman — and she did have some desire to have a normal life with this man she had just married. That would be impossible if any one else learned of his secret identity, not to mention the fact that Perry would probably fire both of them for not reporting the story in the Planet back when Superman first made his appearance in Metropolis.
Clark and Lois planned to leave for Hawaii around ten that night. After they checked in at their motel there, he was going to fly back for their luggage.
As the two newlyweds let themselves into Lois' apartment, Clark's gaze rested on his one suitcase (small) and Lois' two suitcases (large) already packed and ready to go.
"What are we going to do until ten tonight, Lois?" he asked, turning towards her with a carefully neutral look on his face.
Lois slowly locked all the locks on her door, and opened her mouth to answer him, but before she got her first word out, he spoke again.
"Lois, why are you locking each and every one of your locks?" he questioned. "You know I won't let anyone, ever, hurt you."
"I know that, farmboy," she stated, tilting her head up to kiss him on the cheek. "I just don't feel like being disturbed right now."
Clark raised his eyebrows in a questioning expression and drew Lois into his arms as they stood directly inside her door.
"I do have an idea of how we could pass the time until ten, Clark." Lois gazed up into his brown eyes.
"How?" Clark wondered, trying to control his anticipation from Lois, and not succeeding.
"Don't act so innocent, Clark. You know what I have in mind." Lois kissed him again, harder this time, on his mouth. "It involves you, me, and my bed."
"Ah, your bed," Clark said knowingly. "Did you know that in the past three years, thoughts of you, me, and your bed have crossed my mind a few times?"
"A few times?" Lois responded, skeptically.
"OK," he admitted. "A few hundred times."
Lois chuckled, and Clark lifted her up into his arms. Levitating just a few inches off the floor, they floated towards her bedroom.
"What are you doing, Clark?" Lois said, pretending she hadn't been the one to suggest all this and amused at him for using his superpowers to get her to bed.
"I am 'scooping and carrying'," Clark responded proudly. "I seem to recall you like this sometimes."
"Yes," she giggled. "Especially when I am stranded on deserted islands with crazy porno publishers that want to steal your body."
Clark pretended to pout. "So you don't like it now?"
By this point, they had floated over her bedroom door's threshold, and Clark, once again standing on the floor, held her over her bed. He leaned his head down slightly to kiss her.
"No, I don't like it now. I love it now! And you, too," she added.
Lois grew thoughtful as Clark set her gently down on the bed. She was in a prone position with her head resting on one of her pillows, and Clark sat on the edge of the bed looking down at her. "I hope you don't mind us not waiting until we are *officially* on our honeymoon, Clark."
Clark laughed out loud. "Lois, I have been waiting for this moment for years. I don't want to wait another minute; certainly not for several more hours." Then Clark became pensive also and fell silent for a moment. "I guess I should ask you one thing before we get started, however."
Lois was surprised at his sober mien and spread her arms wide and arched her eyebrows as if to indicate, ask away!
"I need to know how you want me to be when I'm with you like this," Clark said, painfully aware that he was not being very clear. "Like right now, when I carried you in here I didn't pretend I was human, like I usually do. Was that all right with you, or do you want me to act human 100% of the time we are together, you know, intimate, like we're about to be?"
Clark had no doubt they were about to cross that intimacy threshold for the first time. He could hardly bear to keep his hands off her until they finished this conversation, and Lois' eyes were large and luminous in the afternoon's half light of the shuttered room. He settled for grasping both her hands with both of his own and holding them on his lap.
"I do not ever want you to pretend anything with me again, Kent," Lois stated, quite forcefully. "As long as we are alone, just be yourself, no matter what we are doing."
"But what is that, Lois?" Clark cried, rather plaintively. "What is myself? I'm not sure sometimes if I'm Kryptonian or human. I don't seem to be all one or the other. I don't want to mess this up for us especially this first time. I want to make you happy that you married me and not wondering what kind of strange alien invaded your life?"
"Oh stop, Clark," Lois said, exasperated. "I'm thrilled that we got married, and I'm sure we'll manage just fine even if you throw a few curves into our sex life with your superpowers. As for your Krypton versus Earth debate, you're not just one or the other, you lunkhead. Yes, you are Kryptonian by ancestry, by your genetics, but you are human because of the way you were raised. Why try to be one or the other? Just be the best from both worlds."
Clark suddenly grinned. That was such simple advice, but he had never considered his situation quite that way. It was amazing how insightful Lois was; she could see right into his soul, and he did love her so much. He gave thanks right then and there to whatever power or being who had inspired his biological parents to spare his life as a baby despite their impending doom, had given him to the Kents to raise as their beloved son, and had brought Lois into his life, as his wife.
"No one has ever been as fortunate as I have been," he declared to Lois. "And I love you so much."
"And I love you," she answered squeezing his hands with both of hers and looking up at him. "I never dreamed I'd get married, and I never dreamed I would have a *husband* as wonderful as you. Don't you love the sound of those words, 'husband', 'wife', 'forever'?"
Clark didn't get a chance to answer because suddenly Lois pulled her and Clark's hands down to her blouse and let them rest there. Clark's sensitive skin began to burn, and through his hands, he could feel her heart beat and her chest rise and fall. Her somewhat rapid breathing was clearly audible to both of them in the dark and now quiet bedroom.
Clark swallowed hard. Releasing his grip on her hands, he bent down and gently kissed her on her mouth, then on her neck, and finally on the skin exposed by the V of her top. Lois arched her back up towards him slightly but made no other move. He looked at his hands and the blouse of the traveling outfit she was wearing and carefully began to unbutton it. She lay perfectly still, intently watching his every move. The time for talk was over, and it was a long time until ten o'clock and Hawaii.
THE END??
(before.txt)