Title: The Courtship

Rating: PG13

Setting: This story refers to events that occurred during the first half of Smallville Season 9. The setting is Metropolis and Smallville in the late fall-early winter of 2009.

Summary: Lois Lane has returned to the present day after being transported to the future by grabbing a Legion ring. Chloe Sullivan-Olsen's relationship with psychotic paramedic, Davis, resulted in him murdering Jimmy, Chloe's husband. That event and believing Lois had died during his battle with Doomsday, Clark decided to leave humanity behind and begin his training with Jor-El at the Fortress of Solitude. When Lois reappears, Clark realizes that there is at least one person he cannot leave behind and their courtship begins.

Characters:

Clark Kent/The Blur

Lois Lane

Chloe Sullivan

Oliver Queen

Martha Kent

Disclaimer: This is my vision of what transpires during a winter recess of Season 9. I own no characters; only my ideas and anyone is free to use them.

Author's Note: I originally posted this story and its sequel on the message board site, Divine Intervention, back in 2009. This work was the result of a collaboration with Godesssiri.

The series has long since ended and new versions of Clark Kent, Lois Lane and others in this universe have been created. I do think that Henry Cavill and Amy Adams are superb in the new universe as Clark and Lois. However, my favorite Lois will always be Erica Durance. Her portrayal was the most infective and Erica's work has established her as the quintessential Lois Lane in my opinion.

There are many things to like and be excited about with the new DC Extended Universe being created. Yet, there is still something great about Smallville that I like to revisit and because of that, I'm re-posting this story. I do have a few others that I could post that were written around the time that the series was in its heyday. Depending upon whether or not there is any interest left in Smallville stories will determine whether I resurrect and update those stories for .

Thanks and I hope you enjoy this story. - Jack

Prologue

The elevator doors closed and Clark realized how quickly life could change. He glanced down to confirm what he was feeling. There, in the cup of his hand, was Lois' right hand. He closed his on hers, gently squeezing as if it was a handshake capping off a long-negotiated agreement. He felt the warmth spread through his chest and face.

Standing next to Lois on the elevator his mind exploded with all the possibilities the future held. Lois; the woman he loved, the woman he knew he could not live without was standing next to him, holding his hand. Lois: his girlfriend.

He had summoned the courage to suggest that they drop their façade and begin to accept what had been obvious to both: they loved one another. Neither had said the words; neither really had to. In the past few weeks, he had kissed her on an uncontrollable impulse after learning that she was not interested in Oliver romantically. He kissed her to prove that he was interested in her as something more than the great friend she had become. She had kissed him to make it clear that she wanted to be more than just friends and coworkers after she had almost solved the puzzle that was his secret identity.

"My girlfriend" he thought and almost burst into laughter, containing it instead to a wide smile. It sounded so foreign to him and yet when he had looked into Lois' beautiful hazel eyes just minutes before, he wondered how he could think of her as anything less. He dared to believe that he would think of her as something more someday. Something inside him leapt at that thought and he was sure there would be more to their story than a few quick dates that ended with a resounding thud.

He had felt it coming ever since she appeared almost unscathed after he had given her up for dead. In the nights since she had reappeared, her face came to him in his dreams; her beautiful and graceful face in the window of the elevated train that had derailed. It was like the picture of a beautiful ghost and Clark had thought for a moment that he was seeing a specter of his grief, silently mocking him from inside the rail car. But he soon learned that it was not a ghost – it was Lois and over the three weeks that she had vanished, his sense of loss had been gut-wrenching.

Clark realized that of all the people on the face of the planet, the one face he could not ignore was the face that he saw from across his desk at the Daily Planet. He realized how much he missed her and the fact that he thought he'd never see her face again made him keenly aware that Lois was not just another friend. Lois was special in a way he could not ever fully comprehend. And minutes ago at his urging, they became a couple and nothing felt as right as Lois being by his side as his girlfriend.

They rode silently in the elevator, both savoring the last few minutes when they felt their lives had changed forever. When the door opened, they walked out into the lobby of the Daily Planet building, out through the revolving doors and walked hand-in-hand across the street to get a real cup of coffee.

That evening, Lois updated her diary:

November 20, 2009.

Dear diary,

Today was in fact the most wonderful day of my life.

Okay, I know I wrote the same thing last night when I woke up to a room full of roses and a card from Clark. But today set a new record. I know it sounds corny but today I think my life has changed forever.

Today began with going back to the hospital and meeting with the doctor so he could go over my test results. Hypoglycemia was the diagnosis and he tells me I should eat every 3 hours. No problem, I thought, just point me to the nearest donut shop!

So I head to work and I get there around 10. Clark meets me in the lobby with a cup of awful coffee from downstairs and a maple donut that he had picked up on his way to work. That was sweet enough to rank pretty high on the "most wonderful day" scale but it was only the beginning.

In typical Clark fashion, he blew my hypoglycemia out of proportion and acted as though I was on death's doorstep after having gone into hypoglycemic shock. He said that he had almost lost me once and he didn't want it to happen again.

I almost didn't believe my ears and I didn't even know how to react to that one. It was like a dream; Clark Kent speaking aloud about his feelings for me.

It really threw me off balance for a moment so I decided to collect my wits by looking through the mail on my desk and suddenly, Clark is like four inches from my face asking me what we were doing. I had no idea what he meant so I told him that I was eating a maple donut and that he was invading my personal space. Then he said, "I mean us; Lois and Clark, Clark and Lois…as a couple!"

I was floored. I never saw that coming but he follows up with the most romantic thing anyone has ever told me before. I sat down, telling him to slow it down because I still needed to get my feet back under me. Then he leaned on my desk and said, "You can lean on me for strength; I feel stronger when you're around, anyway."

I couldn't believe the words I was hearing but more amazing was the mouth those words were coming out of. Clark Kent: the man who bottles up his feelings more than any man I've ever met; the man who never seemed to catch any of the hints I've given him over the past year that show how I feel about him. Those words came out of Clark's mouth and for a second, I thought I might still be in the hospital dreaming this was happening.

So I gave him a chance to back off in case I was misreading him, telling him that I had done the dating thing wrong so many times and his response was simply, "Then let's do it right; let's take our time."

What could I say? You know that I would have jumped at even half the suggestion of being a couple. But even when given an out, mild-mannered Clark Kent persisted and I wasn't going to let that moment die on the bullpen floor.

We walked to the elevator and as the door closed, I reach over and took his hand and he squeezed mine back. Honestly, at that moment I felt warm and safe in a way that I have never felt before and I knew then and there that my life would never be the same again.

Clark may not be the Blur but he's my hero and the most wonderful thing about that is the underlined part that means he's mine.

- LJL