Chapter 41: The real truth

"What do you mean you don't know!?"

"I...don't know."

"Why didn't you track her down!?"

"I didn't think-"

"That's right you didn't think! She's a criminal, Clark! She should be rotting away in cell!"

"She didn't really do anything wrong, Lois."

"My foot." Lois spat bitterly as she stormed through the elevator doors of the Planet. Clark treaded timidly behind her rather conspicuous march across the bullpen. "I saw her on the disk. She stood there and watched Luthor beat the living crap out of you." Lois suddenly came to a halt and spun around on her heel keeping her voice to a harsh whisper. "She knew it was wrong and did nothing to stop him." She dumped her purse and her notes on her desk and glared at Clark with a disapproving frown. "You said that Kitty Kowalski-"

"Katherine." Clark corrected with the hint of a smug smile.

Lois narrowed her eyes, snapping her jaw shut with short tolerance for Clark's twisted amusement. "Alright, Katherine Kowalski, was the only person who survived on New Krypton besides Luthor. So she is the only one who would have access to the disk. And you're saying she's gone AWOL on us, and you don't have the slightest clue where she could be?"

Clark blinked. It all sounded so pathetic when she said like that. "...Yes." He answered lamely after a long apprehensive delay.

"So why do we need to find her again?"

"Because she might have some idea where my crystals are. Unless Luthor still has them..." Clark cleared his throat and looked away. "And because Perry told us too..."

Lois shot him a scowl and she began shovelling through the scattered mess of paper on her desk. "Perry White and his Sunday Magazine exposes...this is so yesterday's news. It happened over a year ago. You think he could get us on something more important-"

"Katrina Kowalski." Clark glanced up and watched as Chloe put Lois's rambling mouth to a halt and waved a folded piece of paper in her face. "Is the closest living relative of Katherine Kowalski. She's her sister. I found the address. She might know where Katherine is."

"Great." Lois took the address from Chloe with an eager swipe. "I just can't wait to give that snivelling little wench a real piece of my mind-"

"Actually," Clark piped up quickly. "I thought...maybe it would be better if I went to talk to her alone, Lois."

"What?" Lois's expression turned to stone. "Why?"

"I think it would be...more helpful if Superman talked to her." Clark suggested carefully. "Katherine seems to have a certain...admiration for Superman."

Lois's face twisted into a jealous, sour glare. "Well I have plenty of admiration for him too."

"I know you do." Clark smiled and took her hand. "But I don't think your sensational charm will be as effective on her as Superman's."

Lois's fierce stare began to soften as she toyed with the idea in her mind. "But Superman...only has that certain admiration for me, right?"

Clark mentally breathed a sigh of relief as she stared up at him playfully. "Yes." He gathered her lightly into his arms and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. A few people looked up from their desks and glared disapprovingly at Clark's sudden embrace. He didn't care. He was happy that Lois wanted to make their relationship public, even in the newsroom. He didn't care what they thought or how they compared him to Richard. He just wanted this to finally work.

"Ahem." Chloe folded her arms while a cheeky grin tugged the corners of her lips as she stared at the affectionate couple. "Perry wants our article by tonight, Lois."

Lois reluctantly pulled herself away. "Well what are you still doing here, Kent? We need an interview and we need it now."

Lois's fingers ran wildly across her keyboard furiously tapping the last few letters of her latest puff piece on the health risks of public smoking. Maybe Perry was just trying to ease her back into the world of fast paced mass media but this was ridiculous...

But she couldn't really complain. It was better than nothing. Keeping her mind focused on her work gave her less time to be distracted by a certain unsettling sense of annoyance in the back of her thoughts.

2 hours! What could they possibly be doing that would keep him there for 2 freakin' hours!

As she stared down at the taunting digital clock in the corner of her screen she chewed the inside of her lip agitatedly. This had been two hours of torture. What was taking him so long? Couldn't Clark just beat it out of her?

Just relax, Lane. He probably just got sidetracked with another emergency after dealing with Kitty...She shook her head and turned her attention back to her screen and read silently. Smoking is the number one cause of lung cancer...bla, bla bla...contains additives such as Acetylpyrazine, Aconitic Acid, Citric acid... more words I can't pronounce, bla, bla, bla...is likely to cause cancer, heart disease, emphysema...bla, bla, bla...

Ding.

Lois's head snapped up in attention as the elevator doors swung open and she watched Clark stroll casually towards her desk, still fiddling with his tie.

"Hi, Loi-"

"What took you so long?" She stood up from her desk and glared at him with a sour expression.

"I was with-"

"Katherine? Yeah, for two hours!" Lois snatched the end of his tie out of his fumbling fingers and roughly began to straighten it for him. "Where is she living? Is she miserable?"

"No, not miserable exactly-"

"Never mind. Did she send the disk?" She gruffly wrapped the long green strand of material around his neck.

"Yes...Lois that's kind of tight-"

"How does she have the nerve to wait an entire year before sending it to us? And why me? Why not the police?"

"I'll tell you if you just let me-"

"I bet she had your crystals, didn't she? When they lock up that two faced witch they just better throw away the key or I might not be able to resist from strangling that-"

"Lois! I understand that you're upset, but please don't take your frustration out on my tie."

Lois looked down, realizing that her fingers were wrapped firmly around a thick knot of material yanked up to his neck. "Oh," She let go and softened her stare. "Sorry."

Clark undid the knotted bundle on his chest as Lois threw herself back down in her chair trying to grasp the final strands of her patience. "So...she did send the disk?"

"Yes." He nodded. "She told me that before she and Lex left New Krypton she slipped the disk into her pocket. I guess Luthor didn't notice. She sent it to you because she figured you should have been the first one to see it, since Superman had no mailing address."

Lois opened her mouth to ask another question but Clark answered before she could make a sound. "She waited all of this time because she wanted all of the hype about Luthor and New Krypton to die down a little so it wouldn't look suspicious. She was just trying to protect herself."

Lois rolled her eyes. "I still think we should turn her in. She might know where Luthor is-"

"She doesn't." Clark shook his head with a stern confidence in his voice. "She wouldn't be living in a two story bungalow in the suburbs with her sister if she did. She's trying to keep a low profile right now."

Lois let out a long sigh. "Fine." She said, still not completely convinced. "Can Chloe and I use any of this for our article?"

"She said you could but it has to remain anonymous...Perry won't like it but it's better than nothing."

Lois was already punching in Chloe's cell number on her phone when Clark motioned for her to put the receiver down.

"There's something else." He lowered his voice as Lois suddenly clued in. "Oh! Right, your crystals. Did she have them?"

"No." Clark's tone grew deeper as his expression turned solemn. "She...threw them out of the helicopter at the last minute." Clark paused, waiting to see if Lois would put it together. When she didn't Clark took in a long breath, "They're on New Krypton."

"Oh," Her face fell. She knew how important those crystals were to him, and how angry he was when he returned to find that they were gone. Even after Luthor stole them, she knew that he had hoped that he would get them back somehow. Now that he knew that there was no hope, she saw a glimmer look of disappointment in his eyes. "Oh, Clark, I'm so sorry."

Clark stiffened and looked away. "They were all I had left of my..." His voice broke as he spoke. Lois had rarely ever heard him speak about Krypton. It wasn't something that he liked to talk about. "Of my home..." He choked out finally. It was things like this that reminded Lois that Clark was different. Sure, there was the flying and the heat vision and all of his other remarkable abilities that separated him from everyone else in the world. But it was more than that. Lois found herself often forgetting how different he really was. That he was actually...alien. That he was alone. And that no matter how much she loved him she knew that she would never be able to completely understand that feeling.

"I could have taught Jason about Krypton." Clark mused out loud. "I could have shown him everything."

"You still can." Lois assured. "You can still tell him everything. And you can show him the fortress. He'll understand, Clark, he'll-"

"It's not the same." Clark shook his head. "Lois, I think..." He began hesitantly with a look of uncertainty in his eyes, "I think I should go get them."

Lois froze. Go get them? On New Krypton? "Clark...that entire island is made of Kryptonite." Lois muttered with disbelief. He wasn't really thinking of going back there, was he? The last time he was there...she'd nearly lost him.

She sill remembered it quite clearly. The whole city would remember it for a long time. He seemed so small. She remembered staring outside the window of the sea plane. Just watching him, she didn't dare let her eyes wander even for a moment. He was like a tiny speck in the distance, dropping straight down from the clouds. He fell so far down. She'd never forget how hard her heart pumped in those few seconds of intense memorization. Her blood had stopped pumping. There was this sick, icy chill that filled her stomach with despair. It was only when she could no longer see his limp, lifeless body plummeting down back down to earth, when she realized she had forgot to breathe. Everything was so still in that moment. Everything she had hated about him was suddenly gone. It drained away with rest of her unsettling emotions of doubt and anger. Nothing else mattered. There was only one thought echoing off the walls of her mind.

Just fly.

She closed her eyes and waited. Waited for Richard to tell her he was okay. Waiting for Jason to bound up and cheer. She waited for anything that would tell her he was alright. That he flew.

Then she heard it. But it wasn't what she wanted. She felt her heart fall into her stomach when there was a sudden rumble through the air. It was like ten thousand tons slamming down on concrete. It could be heard all through Metropolis.

He landed.

"No," Lois shook her head breathlessly. "No you can't, Clark."

"Lois...please try to understand-"

"No!" Lois felt her heart began to race at the thought. "I won't let you go back there, Clark. Those crystals aren't worth risking your life for!"

"I know that." Clark spoke softly. He understood her outrage but he wasn't ready to let it go. "But they are all I've got left of my family-"

"And what am I, Clark!? What about Jason!? What about Martha?! If we are not your family then who is-?"

"You know that's not what I meant, Lois." Clark lowered his voice. "You know that you all mean more to me than anything else-"

"Then why are you so determined to leave us!?" Lois stood up from her chair and shot an accusing glare down at him. "You left us all for five years! You were willing to lose us as long as it meant that you could get back to Krypton!"

Clark stared up at her with wide eyes. "That's...that's not true."

"It is." Lois felt her anger starting to cool when she stared down at Clark's hurt expression. It wasn't her intention to hurt him but she couldn't help it. "Deep down, you would have traded a life with us for a life on Krypton."

Lois swallowed thickly, not removing her stare from his face. The room fell silent for a moment as she waited for a reply but he said nothing. She wanted him to deny it. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her and tell her it was foolish of her to think that way. She wanted him to tell her that they were the only family he truly loved.

Instead he said nothing. Her heart broke. "It's true...isn't it, Clark? That's how you really feel..."

He raised his heavy stare and he opened his mouth to speak. "I-"

Clark was suddenly interrupted by a ringing chime from Lois's purse. She lowered her blurry gaze away from Clark's and fished around until she found it. The name on the screen read Chloe.

Lois flipped open her phone and walked to the other side of the room. It didn't matter if Clark heard them or not but she just couldn't bear to look at him any longer. "Hello?"

"Lois, it's me."

"Hi...Chloe. Listen...this really isn't the best time-"

"I'm at the hospital. You have to come quick."

"The hospital?" Lois's eyes wandered over towards Clark, who pretended to be watching the television screen above. "Why? What's the matter? Are you alright?"

"It's Jimmy. I...I don't know what to do..." Chloe informed in a frantic tone. "Look I can't explain right now but please just get here. Bring Clark too."

"We're coming, Chloe. Just wait there."

When Lois flipped her phone shut Clark looked down from the screen. "Come on." She motioned him towards the door as she gathered her purse. "Chloe needs our help."

So Lois has definitely had got some unresolved feelings about Clark's five year absence. I know I took forever to write this, but my muse fainted on me. But it's alive and running now. I've already got half of the next chapter done. Thanks for the beta, Lilly! I'll update soon. I know I don't deserve it but plllease leave a review? Pretty please? -Puppy dog eyes-