The Cat and the Bullet

Chapter 1

"Jinx is a fun villain," I say distractedly.

Two red dots appear on Lois's cheeks. She eyes me sharply and looks at me as if she can't decide if she wants to kiss me or hit me. "What did we say about you joking, Smallville?" She smiles amusedly.

I grit my teeth. "That I shouldn't."

"Bingo," Lois claps her hands mockingly. "There isn't a single funny bone in your body."

She doesn't give me enough credit. I am hilarious. I'm not the the League member who doesn't have a single ounce of humor; that would be Batman. He doesn't know how to take a joke. That's probably why his archnemis has made it his life's mission to make The Batman laugh. I wonder what happened in Batman's youth to make him so darn serious all the time. It had to be something traumatizing, or maybe he really is a vampire with the emotional range of a teaspoon.

"Clark," her smile slips off her face. There's a new hesitant note in her voice that draws my attention. When I look at her she's like a little kid going to school for the first time. She licks her lips, her eyes glassy. "You know, I love you right?"

I nod. "Course I do."

"When Nightfall almost hit . . ." she falters and exhales sharply. "I thought I lost you, for good." she chokes out, tears blurring her vision. I frown. We've already discussed this. She's acting as if I'm at Death's door again.

Her words dredge up bleak visions. Dozens of news crews and flashes blinding me. Hundreds of people gathered on the roof of S.T.A.R Lab to catch a glimpse of their last hope. The vastness of space swallowing me whole. A meteor the size of Alaska blocking out my vision. Impact imminent. The taste of charcoal suffocating me, head spinning. Getting lost in a black fog filled with floating emerald debris, the energy sapped from my bones. Growing harder and harder to breathe by the second. Miraculously returning to Earth. Unable to remember my name or the last twenty-two years.

Instinctively my fingers intertwine through Lois' hand, her touch anchoring me to the present. When she looks at me worry is etched in every part of her beautiful face. I sometimes forget how close I had come to dying - to losing her.

"You'd tell me if you're not a hundred percent, right?"

"You never lost me," I trace the vein along the inside of her palm with the back of my thumb. Her heartbeat speeds up and she parts her lips, looking at me with naked hope in her eyes and an underlayer of potent hunger. Now days, when she thinks I'm not looking, I catch her eying me like a mountain climber seconds from tumbling to his death.

"I want you to know Clark," Lois starts tentatively. She swallows a lump in her throat. Now, she's making me nervous. She's acting like she's about to tell me my parents were killed. "God, I wish you were a mirror." she shakes her head. "This isn't easy to say."

"Whatever it is Lois," I say. "We'll figure it out together."

"Right," she agrees. "There is absolutely nothing to worry about. We're Lane and Kent. We can handle anything thrown our way," she bites her lower lip and searches my face with pleading eyes.

"We've established I can't read minds, Lois," I say. "What's eating at you."

"Oh my God! She's here!" the woman at the table next to us screams. "It's Andrina!!" she squeals, eyes bugging out in awe. "I LOVE YOUR DRESS!"

I follow the woman's gaze to the stage and my dinner turns to stone in my stomach. Six years of meticulously avoiding her come crashing down. Lana Lang - no sorry Andrina glides across the stage wearing an elegant white evening gown that shimmers like a sea of stars. A gem that matches her sapphire-blue eyes hangs around her neck. She waves gaily at the adoring crowd and gives a graceful curtsy.