The Trump Card

By Nell Lime <nelllime@yahoo.com>

Rated PG

Submitted October 2013

Summary: What if in that moment where Lois Lane confessed her
love to Superman she had a trump card?

Notice: This is a fan-fiction, and plots and characters are
simply borrowed to play with. They belong to WB and the creators
of Lois and Clark TV show, etc. Lines are borrowed from
Barbarians at the Planet written by Dan Levine and Deborah Joy
Levine.

***

I've had a trump card for ages. One of the few things I learned
from my father is that when you have a trump card you hold onto
it until there's nothing left to play. Then you play it knowing
you've just won the game. My trump card? I've known for ages
that a certain Fly Boy loves me.

I can't figure out the exact moment I realized it, but it's
been little things over the months. Typically how quickly he
always rescues me. I first suspected it when I saw it in his eyes
after rescuing me that time Trask pushed me out of a flying plane
last fall.

He'd rescue me, and I'd gush every time. He trusted me with so
much, even letting me name him. Of course, when I thought of any
future seriously with him, I thought just what an extraordinary
life we'd have. That of course, would be because Fly Boy would
have me. Anyone can have ordinary, I shoot for the best.

I guess that's why I let Lex pursue me. Lex even proposed. Not
that I said yes right away. I told him I'd have to think about
it. Then when one thing after another got ripped away from me. I
had to talk to Fly Boy before deciding my course. I couldn't
take losing the Planet, my friends, a new job. Not without
talking to him. I was even losing Clark, my partner. Because he
couldn't, no make that wouldn't, follow me into TV news. But
with the Planet gone, where else could we go?

So I'd gone for a walk in the park with Clark after he turned
down my offer to join me at LNN. He then claimed he loved me, but
I was in so much shock. Admire, yes, but love? I'd never thought
he'd say that that day. He'd then asked me if I seriously was
considering marrying Lex. I nodded, but then told him there was
someone else I needed to speak to first. Someone else I needed to
talk to before I gave Lex my answer. He asked who. I looked him
in the eye and told him we both knew who. I simply asked Clark if
he saw him to tell him I wanted to talk to him.

I regretted breaking Clark's heart but I had to.

That night, he showed up. Superman, the amazing man at my window.
"Superman!" I cried, jumping up to let him in.

"I heard you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, please come in. Let me just fetch a robe." I felt my
heart beat wildly. We were going to declare the truth of our
hearts. I knew his heart so well, but to speak it. I felt
goosebumps rise on my arms.

"Unless it's lead lined Lois, it's a waste of time."

I felt my face go red. Never once has my Fly Boy been anything
less than the gentleman before. "I guess so... Anyways I was
just trying to figure out... well, there's been a lot of changes
going on in my life and I am trying to make the right decisions,
but I can't until I know..." This is it, time to stop babbling
and play my card. "How you feel."

I walk close to him, my heart thumping even missing a few beats
trying to keep up. I try to place my hand on his chest before
continuing my monologue. "Superman, is there any hope for us?"
Come on, Fly Boy, just tell me the truth. "You and me? I'm so
completely in love with you that I can't do anything without
knowing..."

He steps back a step, shaking his head. "Lois," he says in his
deep stern voice, "I do care for you. But... There are things
about me that you don't know, that you'll never know."

I try not to roll my eyes. "It doesn't matter. I know you." I
stress that 'you' to try to get the point across. Superman,
over the past 6 months he's been here, has let me in and shown
me the real hero. "And I don't mean you the celebrity, or you
the 'super hero'." Ok, try one final card. "If you had no
powers, if you were just an ordinary man leading an ordinary
life, I'd love you just the same." Ok, maybe that wasn't the
complete truth. Any man would have to be extraordinary to keep up
with Lois Lane. "Can't you believe that?" Now all the cards
were on the table. His turn to tell me the truth, and declare his
love for me. Come on, Fly Boy.

He gives me this look like he's got heartburn or his innards
were ripped right out of him. The worst news ever. "I wish I
could, Lois. But under the circumstances, I don't see how I
can."

Coward. I stare at him, tears in my eyes. My plan failed. I
didn't win the game. I wiped a tear from my face as he quickly,
but thankfully not at super speed walked towards the window to
leave. I'd had enough of Coward the Fly Boy. I'd waited six
long months for us to get the truth out in the open. Six long
months of waiting, wondering if maybe I was wrong about him.
It's at that moment that I draw out the trump card. He's opened
the window, about to leave me, likely forever to sulk...

"So what part of today was a lie then?"

"Excuse me?"

I place both hands on my hips. "Yes. You're not leaving so
easily, Fly Boy. I know exactly who I love, and thank goodness
you're not ordinary. If you were the definition of ordinary,"
He's staring at me, even losing some of his poise he still had
left. "I'd go crazy then. I can only handle one of you. What
with your wearing tights fetish, leaving in the middle of a
conversation to make rescues. Showing off, getting under my skin.
Mr. Know it all. No one is more sensitive than you. No one knows
me better than you, and no one knows you better than me. I know
exactly who you are, even if you don't. So don't you dare leave
now. I don't care if there's an emergency." He tried to leave,
tried to cut in and make a comment about some unreal emergency.
Of course I didn't let him. "I don't want to put you down but
I'm upset. You're not ordinary. At least ordinary men don't
keep secrets, and struggle with who they really are. At least I
know exactly who you are even if you don't."

"Which is?"

"You're acting like a coward. You don't dare take a chance on
me."

He cuts me off. "I'm leaving."

He's almost completely out the window when I throw my trump
card. "No you don't, Clark Jerome Kent. I'm not finished."
I'd used my trump card. I'd really hoped I'd never need to.
Ever since Trask pushed me out of that plane, I could have sworn
Clark Kent turned into Superman. Through all those months of
guessing, I always wanted him to tell me.

He turns, shock on his face. "What did you call me?"

"Clark Jerome Kent. Who, thank goodness, is one of a kind. Now
get in here and tell me. Why didn't you come clean with who you
really are, Fly Boy?" My steam starts to slow down. "Why do you
want me to only love half of you?"

I think my trump card finally hit home, won the jackpot.
"What?" He stares at me.

"Still not getting it, Fly Boy? You know this is the point where
you kiss me and admit Lois Lane is right. That not just my old
partner loves me but the tights fetish superhero does too."

"I don't have a tights fetish." I just laughed at his words
until he joined me. He rushed towards me, swung me around
joyfully. "You're right, only a woman as extraordinary as you
would know exactly who I am."

"Yeah, my lunk head, but my finally getting it lunk head that I
love." Somehow I wasn't the most complimentary, but my nerves
were fried.

"I love you, Lois Lane."

"See, told you: You were extraordinary." I grinned at him. Then
he did the first sensible thing all day and kissed me.

THE END