HOOK, LINE & SINKER (Part 2)

It seemed a long time later that she opened her eyes again to total blackness. Had she actually fallen asleep? She lifted her head, shook it slightly. Surely not? And if so, surely not for long? She looked around her, but there were, of course, no signposts to give her any clue as to how long they'd been traversing the underwater channel. She put out a hand, but, in the darkness, one yard of moss-covered rock wall was as blank and featureless as another.

But it seemed that, however long the journey had been, it was about to come to an end. Clark slowed in the water. Ahead, the gloom, which had lain around her thick and dark as treacle, was pierced by a faint halo glow. Another slab of blackness loomed and there were no fissures that she could see in this wall. The light source gave a clue though and, warned this time, Lois easily anticipated the sleek roll and glide of her husband's body beneath her as he made a sharp left around the blind corner in the rock.

Light flared. Blinded, Lois screwed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, spots danced in front of her, a bright corona burned into her optic nerves. She blinked and realized it was simply light dancing on the surface of the water high above them, casting streamers of radiance down into the well of the rock. It had been so completely absent in the channel behind them that it seemed blinding now.

Clark drove upward with a strong kick and a moment later, they burst through the nimbus of that light and into air.

Lois gasped as she stretched up her arms and pushed back her dripping hair from her face. She drew the flat of her hand over her mouth, clearing it of water residue as Clark bobbed gently in front of her. He put his hands at her waist, steadying her, and then raised a hand to cradle her chin, tilting her head to look into her eyes.

"Okay?" he asked, just a little anxiously. But he smiled as she nodded, her eyes bright on his.

"Fine."

"You're sure? I thought you were struggling a bit back there at the start. You were flailing around so much, you didn't seem to be aware of how close you were to the surface, and……Lois -- ?"

Lois wasn't listening. Frozen in place, arms transfixed in the act of making another swipe at her hair, she was staring over his shoulder with an expression of soft awe bright on her face.

"Ohhhh……" she breathed out, softly.

Clark glanced across his shoulder and, for the first time in longer than he cared to count, he saw what she'd discovered.

The rock cavern was roughly bowl-shaped, barely a dozen yards in circumference. At its eastern end, a wide crescent of coarse, white sand was the only sign of land. The lake filled the other three quarters of the cave, pouring through the channel they'd taken to form a rough half moon of black, inky darkness, still and deep and mysterious as a wellspring. It drew the light to it and swallowed it whole like a slick of dark, liquid oil, laying placid and dreaming in the dusk light.

The roof was low, perhaps a yard or two higher than a tall man. Several feet higher than Clark could easily stretch out a hand to touch its rough, uneven heights……at least, so long as he kept his feet firmly on land.

None of which was the true wonder of the grotto, however.

Clark looked back at Lois and then watched as she struck out for the sandbar, that enthralled look still glowing on her face and bright in her eyes. He smiled indulgently and followed as she waded through the shallows of the pool to stand on the bank. Water lapped gently around his ankles, the only sound to break the almost ethereal silence of the cavern.

"It's so beautiful," Lois whispered, turning to him. Her voice was hushed as though she was stepping through a cathedral. She moved up close to the back wall of the cave and put a hand to where a seam of silica glittered in among the rock, like a scattering of gemstones.

She lifted her head, wondering at the light source - a soft, almost shadowless and uniform glow that surrounded them - and found it in the honeycomb cluster of fretwork erosion in the ceiling that overhung the lake pool. In the surface of the roughly water-hewn rock, dozens of dark, irregular shaped holes had been dug out. Channeled directly from the surface above, none of them thicker than the span of three slim fingers, they had the effect of letting a collection of lightbeams pierce the dome-shaped ceiling, streaming down into the empty space below like natural spotlights. In those narrow beams, motes of rock dust glinted like sparkles of Christmas glitter.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Clark said, close at her shoulder now as he followed her gaze. "Those light shafts go straight up to the bare rock above. No one knows who hacked them through. They date right back to the eleventh century, as near as the archeologists who've studied this cavern system can tell. They're straight as a die too and angled just right to catch the sun. It's only positioned right twice during the year to do it, once in the spring and for a short spell at this time of year. Any other time, it's as black as pitch in here. With the out of season weather we've been getting and the sun so strong right now, the effect's the best that I've ever seen."

His hands gravitated to his hips as he studied the light effect musingly. "Strange…… With the tools they had, it must have taken them years to cut so many holes, through that much rock. It obviously mattered. Yet we have absolutely no idea what was so important they spent all that time and energy carving out those shafts to catch the sun down here for just that small space of time twice out of every year. Anyway," he smiled down at his wife as she nodded thoughtfully, as taken by the mystery in that ancient devotion as he was, "that light display is the reason they call this one the Christmas Cave. That and the rock strata."

He pointed behind him and Lois returned her awed gaze to the rock face she'd been examining a moment earlier, where, in the walls banding the sandbank, the soft, diffused light picked up on mineral strands embedded in them like jewels.

Phosphorescent white, blazing with the cold, hard brightness of the moon……silver and gold……deep blood-red and ruby and the blue of distant oceans……all of them shimmering and glimmering in the suffused, dust-laden light from above.

Clark smiled, watching her entranced study of the silica tapestry nature had wrought on the rock, here where so few would ever have the chance to view it. Then he glanced away to take in the cavern in its entirety, seeing it suddenly through her eyes - as something new and wondrous.

"It's been……years since I came here," he said, after a moment. "I'd almost forgotten it was here."

"What?" Lois said, coming closer as she heard the faintly wistful note in his voice.

He turned back. "Oh, nothing. Just……I haven't visited this place for almost fifteen years. More than that maybe. You know, I was just thinking, when my powers kicked online I spent so much of my time travelling, seeing things……things it would have taken most men a lifetime to explore. India. China. Nepal. I've visited every natural and man made wonder the world can offer. And, I guess," he reached out a hand and laid it gently to the faintly glowing rock, "somewhere along the line, I forgot that there are things that are wonderful and mysterious and beautiful right here on my own doorstep."

Lois smiled as she placed a hand against his arm. "No place like home?"

He smiled back. "Something like that." He gathered her to him and kissed her softly. "Definitely like that, when home is where you are," he said.

"Mmmmmmm," she agreed. She moved slowly away, looking around the rock walls again and then frowned slightly as she noted some faint signs of habitation over by the corner of the wall. A smudged circle of soot showed where a fire had burned. The coarse reminder of human intrusion, black and stark among the cavern's natural splendor, disturbed her.

Suddenly aware that she was very naked, Lois looked around her cautiously.

"How many people know about this place?"

"Hmmmmmm?" Clark turned back to view her from where he'd been studying the far side of the cavern thoughtfully. "Oh, it has a few dozen visitors each year. It's listed in the Good Caving Guide. But most people visit the other caves in the system, the ones extending further along to the east. They're easier to access. The Trogs come down here in groups during early spring, when the light's good. But the Parks Service has a conservation order on this one, so access is only allowed in the first six months of the year."

For a moment a shadow crossed Clark's face, but it was gone again before Lois could take note of it. "They were worried about the damage too many visitors would cause, year in, year out, so we get the best of both worlds. The Trogs get access when the light's good and the tourists get six months to come visit, and, the rest of the year, it stays off limits. To most people anyway."

"Trogs?" Lois eyed him askance. "Like in that hippie music group from the Sixties?"

He chuckled. "No. Like in troglodytes. You know," he said as she looked bemused, "Cave miners. Local tunnel dwellers. They come down with scuba gear, map out the caves, explore. That kind of thing."

"Oh." Lois nodded as she gazed around her, relaxing again. "But……not now."

"Nope." He grinned at her and then spread his arms wide. "This time of year, it's our own private little paradise."

Lois smiled and then let it fade into a censorious frown. "Superman's violating a National Parks Service edict on access?" Her lips twitched slightly and she glanced across her shoulder, before coming back to him with a conspiratorial whisper, "Do you think that's front page news?"

He looked just a little embarrassed. "Well……no. You remember - after I - " he paused and then cleared his throat a little, "'liberated' Smallville from Nor, they made me a free citizen of the town. So, I pretty much get to go where I like." He gave her a small, self-deprecating smile. "Just like any other VIP. I've got my own special exemption license on this, back at the farm. Somewhere. I can show you, if you like," he said, mock solemn, as though offering up vital documents to an officer of law enforcement.

"Ah." Lois nodded sagely. "No, that's okay. I trust Superman just fine. I know he wouldn't break any rules." She looked around her again. "So……you haven't been here since you were fourteen?"

He shook his head. "No, hey, in fact……" He broke off, glancing around him and then grinned down at her as he reached out to take her hand gently in his. He led her to the far side of the cavern.

The shadows were thicker here and the light from the pool reached only fitfully into their depths. Despite his steady, guiding hand in hers, Lois stumbled a little in the darkness.

"Hang on."

She saw Clark raise his head to glance at the rock wall above them and then pause. He let go her hand and searched around the sandy floor, then bent to scoop up a thick branch out of the scattered mess of debris in the corner, the remnants of old fires used by the Trogs on their visits. He directed a brief spurt of heat at the branch and it flared into hissing life, illuminating the small area around them more brightly, as he looked back to retrieve her fingers, entwining them in his as he drew her on.

Wandering through the natural grotto, with its glowing, mineral dusted walls and primal, fairy tale charm, naked as a jaybird and with her equally naked husband striding along at her side, Lois was struck by the suddenly fanciful thought that the whole thing was almost……she smiled……biblical.

Feeling more like Eve by the minute and caught in the whimsy, she glanced around her furtively.

"What?" Clark said, noting the look.

"Nothing." Her smile grew secretive, almost becoming a rueful chuckle. "I was just waiting for the snake to jump out on us."

"Snake? There are no snakes around here, Honey," Clark said, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer to where he could drop a light kiss against the top of her head. "Nowhere for them to hide. Besides, if there were, I'd evict them. Temporarily. So, you don't have to worry. Trust me, there's nothing remotely snakelike in here."

Lois looked up at him and then lowered her gaze. "No?" she said mischievously, as she turned in his embrace, and stopping him in his tracks as she leaned up close against his chest. She let her fingers track in a whispering caress across the dark trail of hair below his navel and let her fingers explore what she found there, in among the thick, tangled mat of curls.

Clark yelped softly and then moaned, "Lo--is……!"

She ignored his protest with a soft chuckle. "Feels pretty snakelike to me," she purred. She darted her tongue across the broad, firm expanse of his chest, lapping at the beads of moisture still clinging there, tasting the tang of rock minerals on his skin.

Clark groaned as she squeezed a little tighter at what she held in her hand and then chuckled, a deep, burring sound that came from low in his chest. "Well, he hasn't got anywhere to hide either," he said ruefully.

"He could have," Lois said wickedly, letting him go and putting her arms around his neck as she rubbed much more intriguing parts of her anatomy against his now rigid shaft.

"Lois……" he said, another protest that dissolved into an uneven hitch of breath in his throat and became a rough groan as she bit delicately at his left nipple. He laughed, taking her by an arm and pulling her slightly clear of him to stop this torment.

"Minx," he chided and then, as his eyes, darkened by desire and lit by a steady flame of heat that glowed deep in their depths, traveled across her face, "Have I ever told you that you are incorrigible?"

She nodded, grinning up at him.

"Insatiable?"

Another nod.

His smile turned gentle, as tender as the hand he lifted to cup at her cheek. Lois closed her eyes, tilting her head into that caress with a kitten like charm that made his smile widen.

"Beautiful……" he whispered. "Absolutely adorable……" and then he let his lips close over hers and swept her away.

After a pleasurable few moments of gentle exploration he pulled away and Lois opened her eyes to smile up at him. "Have I ever told you how great you are at that?" she responded.

Clark grinned. "All the time," he told her.

She slapped the back of one hand lightly against his chest in chastisement for that immodesty and then burrowed her way closer against him, tightening her grip around his neck, as he chuckled.

"Well then……" he continued the theme, teasing her now, as he pulled her gently closer, "……have I ever told you how crazy you make me?" He drew her in for another soft kiss. His tone softened too, losing its teasing edge as he added, "Just how much I love you?"

Lois paused, a musing frown wrinkling her forehead as she seemed to consider it. "Hmmmmmmm……I *think* it was you……" she said, feigning a slight uncertainty. She studied him, as though trying to place him in a lineup of potential admirers.

Clark smiled and kissed her again.

"Oh, now that's familiar……" Lois murmured, returning the caress experimentally and then nodding firmly. "Yup. It was definitely you," she decided, before pulling back to look up at him questioningly. "Weren't you going to show me something?"

"A really wild time?" he suggested. One hand slid down the curve of her spine and settled against her bottom, pulling her up hard against him, where an unsatisfied heat lingered.

Lois giggled. "Apart from that."

"Mmmmmmm," he kissed her and then let his lips drift across her cheekbone before he raised his head with a jerk. "Oh! Yeah……" he said, remembering all at once. "Over here."

He drew her on another couple of yards until they were standing before the flat rise of the rock wall boundary. Lois tipped her head, but failed to find the ceiling above them. The wall rose steadily until it was swallowed by the shadows above. Lois edged her way a little closer against her husband's protective warmth.

"There aren't any bats in here, are there?" she said, and this time there was no teasing in her voice.

"Bats?" He glanced at her. "No. Bats aren't real good swimmers, Honey," he said and then, as she looked at him, confused, "They'd have to swim the same channel we did to get in." He lifted the torch a little higher, turning slightly to illuminate a wider circle around them. "This cavern's completely closed off and those blow holes are too small for them to use. There's no other way for them to get in here."

"Oh." Lois nodded sheepishly. "Yeah. Right."

He sat on the uneven rock ledge that butted up against the wall and ran the length of its companion and Lois seated herself beside him as he set down the makeshift torch, wedging it into a crack in the rock shelf. The rock was dry and warm, she noted with surprise. She looked to Clark to ask him about that and paused as she noted the intent way he was staring at the wall. Scanning it, she realized, with X ray vision.

"It should be……right around……ah, there!" Clark reached out. He pulled gently at the thick mat of moss, temporarily peeling it clear of its hold on the wall.

Lois leaned slightly forward as he held the torch aloft. She put one hand against his thigh for better balance and felt him slip an arm obligingly around her waist and settle her closer against his side.

She peered at the rock patch he'd bared and saw the faint carving etched into the stone. She laughed, delighted, as she put out a hand and traced the initials, worn by time and the encroachment of the moss.

"Well, it beats carving your name on a tree," she said. "Isn't that the country tradition?"

He chuckled. "I guess."

Lois peered closer. "No hearts and kisses?" she said, giving him a surprised glance. "Should I be thankful there aren't any other initials carved here? Or were you just being coy?"

"Honey, I was fourteen!" Clark said wounded and, as she gave him a challenging glance, "I had other things to think about at that age than girls." His tone held all of the dark scorn on the latter word that fourteen year old boys habitually used when mentioning the enemy.

"Really?"

"Football, for one," he said. "Now, if anyone's initials were going to be there it would have been Rocky Bleier. Small town kid made good. That guy was my hero!"

Lois laughed again and he smiled, loving the way that sound echoed through the cavern.

He reached out for her hand again, entwining her fingers in his.

"Here," he said softly and then turned his head back to the rock wall. His eyes glowed and Lois watched the thick cut C.K. begin to brighten as he burned it deeper into the rock, repeating the unconscious ceremony of almost two decades before. She smiled as she watched new letters form. A double L linked with the letters above. Clark added another 'K' to her initials and then surrounded the letters with a perfectly formed heart before he turned back to his wife with a grin. He lifted the hand clasped in his own and placed his lips against its back.

"It took me almost sixteen years," he murmured, his breath brushing at her skin. "But I finally got it finished." He looked back at the red glowing letters, which were already cooling, darkening and blending into the rockface. "I never thought when I did this all those years ago that one day I'd be sitting here with the most beautiful woman I've ever seen and adding her name to mine."

He smiled at her and Lois leaned forward, brushing her lips gently across his. "Thank you," she said as she withdrew.

Still holding her fingers loosely in his, Clark pulled her with him as he rose to his feet. He reached to pick up the makeshift torch and Lois glanced at it as he held it slightly aloft for her to mark her way, her expression turning suddenly curious.

"Why'd you do that?" she asked. "Light up that wood?" she added, as he glanced at her, enquiringly.

Clark looked at the branch in his hand as it belched a flicker of flame and smoke into the air. "You needed the light," he said, as though that was patently obvious.

"Yes, I know. But, well why didn't you just - " Lois waved a hand at the still faintly glowing rock wall behind them. "Zap! You know - " She made a quick, downward drawn motion in front of her eyes with the stiffened fingers of one hand. "Why didn't you just heat up the rock, like you did just now?"

"Oh." Clark looked slightly ill at ease all at once. "Heat vision." He shrugged uncomfortably. "I just……didn't think it was such a good idea," he offered lamely.

His wife's eyes grew a suddenly interested gleam among what had been simply idle curiosity, recognizing the signs of evasion.

"Hey! You know," he plastered a suddenly bright expression on his face and quickened his pace, starting to tug her along in his wake, "there's a really neat rock formation over here that looks just like -- "

Lois propped to a firm halt, forcing him to either stop along with her or yank her after him. Clark prudently chose the former course of action. He looked back at her warily as his attempt to divert her came to naught.

"Why not?" she prodded, watching him more intently now and, when he hesitated, "Clark? Why not?"

Clark paused a moment longer and then gave up with a reluctant sigh. He put his hand to her shoulder and turned her slightly to face the wall beside her. "See that?" He pointed upward. "That's why."

Lois peered up into the shadows and then frowned. "What? The……? Are those bubbles?" she said, squinting harder, and then, as comprehension dawned, "Oh," she said softly, looking at the dark, ugly blemish that marred the edge of a coral pink mineral strand woven into the rock face like skeins of wool.

In among the flecks of silver silica that dusted it, ripples and blisters of solid rock shed strangely fluid droplets and tears, as though - for just one instant - the rock had turned liquid and then solidified in its molten state.

Lois turned rueful eyes on her husband, understanding his reluctance now, just a little. Last time he'd been down here, he'd been just fourteen. And his powers had only recently come online with the onset of puberty.

She looked back at the ruined wall. "Powers got away from you, huh?" she judged, sympathy raw in her voice.

Clark sighed heavily again. "You could say that." He gestured abruptly at the dark patch marring the natural beauty of the wall, an edge of disgust coloring his voice suddenly. "It was just plain dumb. I was so stupid. I thought I was so smart. I'd only had heat vision for a week or so, but I knew *everything* there was to know about using it. I'd done all the practicing I needed to. Dad had warned me to be extra careful. This wasn't like being stronger than anyone else or hearing better. This was dangerous. It could hurt people. But, I just wouldn’t listen. I thought I knew better."

He paused. His voice had begun to rise a little, a current of darkly bitter self-castigation running through it now.

"And……" he pulled in a small, uneven breath and glanced upwards again, "that day, I thought it'd be pretty cool to use my heat vision to provide some light. I'd carved my initials, kid's stuff, you know……and that worked just fine, so why not? My eyesight was already sharpening up, but it didn't really get good enough to let me see in the dark until the following year. So, I put a high-beam on the wall there and next thing I know it's melting. I panicked for a minute, I guess, but the beam shut off okay. I used my breath to freeze it right away - no problems there at least - but it was already too late. The damage was done. I'd ruined it."

"You didn't ruin - " Lois started automatically and then changed tack as he shook his head sharply. She put out a hand and laid it on his arm. "That was a long time ago, Clark. And you're not that fourteen- year-old boy any more. You took control." She squeezed a little reassurance into her grip, feeling the taut set of the muscles under her fingers. "You are *in* control. That," she glanced over her shoulder momentarily, "won't happen again."

"Yeah……" Clark blew out a soft breath. "I know. I mean," he looked down at her, something softening in among the regret in his eyes as he took in the earnest cast to her face. "I *do* know that. Lord, Lois, I've used heat vision on you. I never would have done that if I had the slightest thought that I couldn't control it. But……"

He glanced down and, for a moment, she almost thought that he might shuffle his feet. His discomfort was obvious, his air of little kid guilt charming enough to make her heart tip over and a smile of tender affection tug at her lips as she watched him.

"But……?" she encouraged, gently. There was something more than a simple mistake haunting him here, she saw. There was something that had its thorns embedded deep into him, even from the distance of so many years, pricking heart's blood out of him still.

Clark shrugged and then lifted his head to look back at her, soberly. "Lois, you have no idea the fuss that little bit of damage caused. Do you know how high a temperature it takes to melt rock? There was nothing natural in here that could have produced that amount of heat. And for just an instant before it was gone again?"

He shook his head. "A couple of weeks after I lit out of here in a panic, some of the Trogs found it. There were geologists and archeologists and caving experts swarming all over this cavern for months afterwards trying to figure it out. It was a sensation. Papers were written. Theories were tried out on talk shows. I still fall over it at times in old re-runs of True Life Mysteries. *They* pin it down to alien visitors, of course," he confided, a touch of dry humor lightening his mood for a moment. "With ray guns, naturally. Half the tourists visiting here each year are MUFON members even today."

"Well, they were close," Lois said, with a faint smile, keen to bolster that mood. "Though, I haven't noticed you carrying any ray guns lately. Well……" She inched her way closer against the solid warmth of his body in the darkness. "……not of the sort they mean anyway."

Clark frowned down at her, drawn from his musing and then, catching her meaning a small, rueful smile grew on his face. "Yeah. I guess they were at that," he agreed. But his amusement faded in another moment as he looked up at the rock face before him again.

He put a hand to her shoulder, stroking a slow, absent path across her skin as he said quietly, "I was so scared they'd track it to me. Find me. After everything Mom and Dad told me about protecting myself, being careful, after all those years of making sure I didn't draw attention to myself. Everything blown in one *stupid* moment, just because - "

He stopped and then kicked at a loose drift of sand beneath his feet, anger thickening his voice. "Because I was dumb enough to just toss aside those warnings Dad gave me. Because I was so *sure* I knew better. I mean, I was the one with the powers, right? I was the one who knew what I could do with them and what I couldn't. It should be me who judged what was worth the risk, shouldn't it? Not anyone else!"

"Clark." Lois moved instinctively closer. "The term youthful arrogance wasn't coined just for you. You were a kid. Kids misjudge things all the time. It's all part of exploring the changes, of working out the limits and where you fit in the world. Growing up. Finding your way. And you can't do any of it without experimenting a little. You weren't any different to -- "

"But, I was! I *was* different! Don't you understand, I couldn't just try things out the way other kids did. The risks were too high. For all of us. Not just me. I had no right to put my parents in danger like that. If they found me, they found them. They'd be blamed for hiding me all those years. You know, I never knew Jason Trask back then, but in a way he was there. Like some shadow, always hovering at my shoulder. Waiting to hurt my folks to get to me. And after this, I was *so* *scared* I'd painted them a map, right to my door."

"Oh, Clark……" Lois said helplessly, hearing some of that old fear bleed its way into his voice even now. She put an arm around his waist, trying to soothe him. "It wasn't -- "

" - wasn't my fault." He glanced down at her and, despite himself, a small flicker showed at the corner of his lips. "You always say that," he accused as he put out a hand and drew it affectionately through her hair, his eyes caught on the way the torchlight gleamed in its dark tresses.

Lois smiled. "Well, if you listened more often I wouldn't have to. And, besides, it's usually true. Like now."

Clark sighed, letting his hand fall. "Lois, you don’t know what it was like. Sometimes, I'd get so that I was afraid of my own - "

" - strength. Your own body. Wondering when it'd betray you next, frightened you'd lose control for just an instant and hurt the very people you were trying to save," Lois interrupted him gently. Her eyes were clouded in the gloom and he thought he caught the soft glimmer of unshed tears. "And I *do* know. I know exactly how scary that is. And how it can hurt, twist you up inside."

Clark stared at her, just a little startled. It was true, he realized. She alone, out of all the world, knew exactly what burden super-powers placed on him, exactly how much he worried and what he feared. She, alone. It was a truth that he'd known all along and yet had never really thought about before. And it warmed him. That, in that entire world, there was *someone* who understood. Who understood completely.

Who understood him.

Lois shook her head, slightly exasperated as he considered that. She put up a hand to touch lightly at his temple before shifting her fingers to stroke back that incautious lock of hair that had escaped onto his forehead again.

"Why is it, Clark Kent," she mused, "that you give such great advice and yet never heed it yourself?"

He frowned. "What advice?"

"That accidents happen." She swayed a little closer to brush a soft kiss against his lips, before retreating. "Even to superheroes."

He felt her fingers trace that spot on his temple again. "At least I didn't scar you for life," she said and he remembered, suddenly, that moment when the responsibilities of being Ultrawoman had almost overwhelmed her. He remembered her fear and self-loathing at being just a few moments too late, her distrust of her own reflexes as she'd moved just a little too fast, too hard, and let anger overtake her.

In the midst of that blind rage, she'd forgotten her own strength completely - and hurt him in the process. Not badly, but badly enough to show her, more starkly than any words of warning from him ever could have, how a moment's incaution and super powers just didn't mix for a healthy life.

Just as damaging a rock wall in an underground cavern had shown him the dangers, more starkly than anything his parents could tell him.

Watching him, as that message sunk in, Lois said firmly, "Having super powers doesn't give you a get out clause on being a moment too late or a mile too short, Clark. It doesn't mean you can't slip up once in a while. There are no guarantees for superheroes, any more than there are for the rest of us. If there were," she added solemnly, "I'd have to worry about spending the rest of my life with someone so far above the human experience I couldn't even begin to relate to him."

She grinned suddenly, her eyes flashing up to catch his from where they'd been watching her fingers stroke a soft path on his arm. "Living with Superman is tough at times, but living with a god would be worse."

"I don't want to be a god, Lois," he told her, just as soberly and then, with a small smile, "I just want to be Clark Kent. The best investigative reporter in the business." He bent his head to brush his lips lightly at her cheek and then murmured in her ear, "And the best husband."

"Ah. Well you got the second," Lois assured him. "No doubts there." She laughed gently in the darkness. "Don't get your hopes up on the first though. I've got dibs on that one."

Clark grinned. "Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"That sounds like fighting talk to me, Lane."

"Don’t push it, Kent," his wife growled against his shoulder as she snuggled close. "You wanna fight?"

"No……" Clark put an arm around her, drawing her nearer. "I'm not *that* dumb. And, I can think of much better things to do with my wife than fight her."

"Hmmmmmmmm. Tell me more." She nestled deeper against his chest with a smile.

"How about……I show you more instead?"

He kissed her, his lips moving warm and sweet against hers as she let him enclose her in his strong and welcome embrace.

"It was a good lesson to learn, Clark," she whispered as she withdrew, laying her cheek to his shoulder. "It kept you safe. So that you could meet me. And now I can keep you safe too."

Clark glanced down at the top of his wife's head, faintly surprised by what was a seemingly ridiculous remark. What superhero needed the protection of a woman as fragile and vulnerable and human as the one he held in his arms?

He wasn't a whole lot surprised though. And he knew that she was serious. Knew too, just how much strength lay hidden beneath that seemingly soft exterior. She had core steel in her, just as he did. It just came from a different source.

In fact, now that he thought on it some, it didn't surprise him in the least that his wife considered it partly her task in life to keep Superman safe from the world. And super powers or not, strongest man in the world or not, he knew that he *did* need that safety, that he relied on her to provide it, that he loved her for giving it.

His smile widened as she lifted her head to look up at him, her eyes darkly glowing in the cavern's gloom. "Then it *was* a lesson worth learning," he agreed, bending his head to close the gap between their lips.

"I'm tellin' you, I heard voices!" a crotchety voice said suddenly, stopping him before he could capture those lips with his. He raised his head.

Lois jumped. It had sounded as though the person speaking was standing right beside her.

"Wha - ?" she started and then Clark put a soft hand over her mouth, cutting off the question. He placed a warning finger to his lips as he withdrew it. Lois watched him questioningly and then raised her head as the voice came again, joined now by another.

"Well, you couldn't have, Pinny. You know the caverns are sealed off this late in the year. There couldn't be anyone down there."

"But, Alice, I *heard* - "

The voices faded, still arguing as the merged into the silence.

"Alice and Pinny Anders," whispered Clark close against her ear, as he recognized the voices.

"Pinny?" Lois said curiously, glancing away from the rock ceiling and onto his shadow shrouded face.

She saw the faint flash of his teeth glow white in the gloom. "It's short for Pinafore. Mom says when Pinny Anders was a girl that was all she'd wear. The name kinda stuck. I don’t think anyone really remembers what her real name is; it's just always been Pinny. She and her sister have a smallholding to the south of town."

"They sounded so close."

"Actually, they're a couple of miles away. There's a natural rock chimney that emerges in Holman's Pasture. See?" He pointed into the far corner of the cavern, but Lois could see nothing unusual. "The acoustics in the caverns play tricks with the sound. The same blow holes that bring in the light carry the sound out and into the chimney in the next cavern. Kind of like natural organ pipes. It's amazing how far the sound travels. At certain times of the year, when the wind's right, it makes the most incredible music. Like hearing a thousand storms roaring in your head. They've pinned it at thirty two miles per hour, at times."

"So……anyone passing by could hear us too?" Lois said worriedly, less interested in this marvel of natural engineering than in the possibility of discovery.

"A little," Clark dismissed her concerns with an easy shrug. "But not if we're real quiet."

Lois arched an eyebrow at him. "And what do you suggest we do in here that's real quiet?" she asked.

"Ohhhhh……" He shrugged again and then bent his head, his kiss soft and warm against the shell of her ear. His hand brushed across her cheek and then settled possessively to cup at the side of her throat.

"Sweetheart……this isn't……necessarily the most quiet……thing we could do……" Lois protested half-heartedly.

"Mmmmmmm. We can……be quiet," he insisted, somewhat indistinctly, from where his lips were exploring the soft patch of skin at the nape of her neck. His fingers trailed a light path, barely a touch at all, across the tendon of her throat. Any thoughts of protest fled as he tossed the lit branch carelessly to the sand behind them and, ignoring its dying splutters, picked her up gently and carried her with him for the crescent of sand a few yards away.

"Wait," he said, pausing as he made to lay her down. He set her back on her feet, made sure she had her balance, and then stepped back a pace. He spun in a tight pirouette and Lois shivered a little in the cool blast of air that swept over her. Clark came to a halt dressed in full superhero regalia and Lois sighed.

"What I'd give to be able to do that," she said with a small shake of her head. "Dressing would be a snap. Clothes, hair, makeup, the works……poof!" She snapped her fingers. "Just like that. The only time I ever tried it when I was……you know who……" She screwed up her face momentarily, like sucking on a lemon, "I fell over and hit the wall."

She blushed faintly with the memory. And had lost certain items of intimate apparel somewhere along the way too, she recalled. Luckily she'd been alone in her apartment at the time. Occasionally, it still gave her pause to wonder just where those panties had gone though. She never had found them.

Clark tilted his head to regard her, his face mock solemn as he tightened his lips in a grimace of agreement. "It takes practice. But, you know, you're right. The makeup is the one that's always the worst. I can always lose a couple hours outta *my* morning routine right there."

He grinned as she punched him lightly against his shoulder. "Watch it, Buster," she warned. "Or I'll smear more than your lipstick."

Clark's grin faded to a gentle smile as he unhooked the cape at his throat. "Come here," he said quietly, holding out his free hand and Lois stepped forward into the scarlet swirl of the cape as he swept it around her shoulders, enclosing her in the soft billow of warm material. She brought up a hand to hold it in place, loose against her breasts as he put his hands to her shoulders and then ran them softly back and forth across her arms. He bent his head to kiss her warmly. Then he lowered her gently to the ground and took a moment to spin back to naked.

Clark tugged the cape from her grip as she settled back under the light pressure of his hands and spread it open like a blanket beneath her. Settling himself against her as she arched up welcomingly against him he renewed that kiss, his lips tender and moist against her own as they parted eagerly beneath the faint, demanding pressure. Lois closed her eyes, stretching her neck with a soft sigh as he pulled clear to caress the long line of her throat with a rash of soft, open-mouthed kisses.

His body shifted, crushing her more deeply beneath him as he moved to cover her completely. A small wince escaped her before she became fully aware of it. The sand was coarse, more shale and crushed rock than anything else and, even with the cape spread out beneath her to cushion its harshness against her skin, some of its prickles still reached her. There was something small and decidedly sharp prodding into her shoulder. Lois shifted, just a little, as she winced again.

Clark pulled her up against him fiercely, his lips grinding themselves against hers in a feverish melding that abruptly took away her breath and numbed all sensation other than at that point where his tongue and mouth explored her own.

His hands smoothed their way across the sides of her body, brushing lightly against the edges of her breasts and following the soft curve of her hips. He cupped at her bottom, hands molding themselves to the taut, rounded swells of her buttocks and she gasped as he rolled onto his back, taking her with him. She looked down at him from her new position, seated comfortably on the support of those large, warm hands, legs slightly spread as her knees nudged up against his hip bones, either side, and held slightly aloft.

"More……comfortable for you……this way……" Clark ground out through the rough hitch of breath in his throat as she leaned forward slightly, spreading her hands against the smooth heat of his chest, both for balance and just because it felt so good to touch him.

For a moment, she wondered at that awareness of her, so attuned, that would enable him to instinctively feel her discomfort and recognize it's cause, all in a moment.

He rose smoothly into the air as he lowered her to straddle his hips. Lois shivered as she felt the weight of her body crush the thick, swollen length of his arousal against his belly and between her legs and its heat graze against her already damp and swollen core.

Legs dangling now, she slid slowly and sensuously forward, eyes fixed on his with an intensity and longing and desire to please him, all buried deep in that velvet gaze, that lodged his breath abruptly in his throat and made a tight drum of his heart against his ribs. Like molten chocolate, rich and dark and tinted with a low burning flicker of fire, they speared him where he lay on his cushion of air and made him a prisoner, in thrall to her as he'd been to no woman before her and would be to no woman after.

She was the other half of his soul, the jigsaw puzzle pieces that had ended his self-imposed exile from the world and made him belong to it as he never had before, fitting together to make a whole, strong and certain and enduring for eternity. She was salvation and safety. Love and desire. Hope and life and all things in between.

Her hands traveled in a lingering glide up along his chest and onto his shoulders. He felt the sweet, delicious feel of her breasts against his skin, the taut buds of her nipples grazing at his as she brought her lips down hard and soft against his mouth. He closed his eyes, giving himself over to the sensation of tasting her. He groaned into the moist heat of her mouth, hand lifting to cup and caress at one smooth buttock as he held her securely to him. His free hand burrowed gently between their bodies to fit itself against the satin mound of flesh that was her breast, his palm teasing her nipple into taut, aching life as it rubbed a slow, languid path against her skin in tune with the lazy heat of his lips against her own.

Though passionate and hot, their lovemaking was without urgency, a slow dance of pleasure as they floated gently in the cavern's silence. The soft lapping of the water beneath and behind them seemed to surge in counterpoint to the low ripples of pleasure that coursed through their bodies.

Lois closed her eyes slowly as she pulled clear of his lips, holding still as her husband kissed his way across her face and throat, her hands rising to splay themselves tight to the corded tendons of his neck, reveling in the strength she felt there as muscle bunched and rippled beneath her fingers. He set his lips to the corner of her smile as she ran those hands up and into his hair and then she let him go, lifting herself abruptly to sit, straight and supple backed, with all the calm and serene dignity of a goddess, against his thighs.

Watching him intently, savoring each flicker of his expression, she reached beneath her to guide him into the wet heat of her core. She was trembling, her whole body quivering as she felt the first inch or so of him enter her. Clark's gaze, riveted on her face, was liquid and molten and darkened by desire as she arched her neck, letting her head fall back slightly. Back curving in a deep bow, breasts thrust provocatively upward, she moaned as he let her impale herself fully on his straining shaft.

Panting softly now, Lois moaned again as she felt him glide into her with easy familiarity. He filled her so completely that she felt every twitch, every rough pulse of blood beating in him. Her heart adjusted itself, picking up the rhythm of that heartbeat and racing with it toward ecstasy.

For a long moment she held still, just letting herself feel him within her. She heard his soft sigh in the gloom and smiled. His hips twitched beneath her, restive. His hands seemed to ignite her skin as they rested at her hips, burning on her like fire. So much so, that she thought distantly that she wouldn't be surprised to find his handprints glowing on her body when he moved them.

One of them glided upward, resting at the lower curve of her breast. He put the soft tip of one finger to the hard bud of her nipple, smoothing a gentle circle that spiraled out to trace the rosy aureole surrounding it. Unconsciously, she saw him lick at his lower lip as he studied that finger and where it was moving. His eyes had darkened to pinpricks, a low, answering flicker glowing in among the coffee colored depths as they lifted to rest on her face.

Lois let herself lean back slowly, hands spread against his muscular thighs behind her and closed her eyes. She moved languidly, unhurried, relishing each, minute sensation as she lifted and settled, lifted and settled, her pelvic muscles tightening and relaxing in a familiar, unconsciously primal rhythm as she rocked against the point where they joined, letting him spear her and withdraw and impale her again with deep, long and firm strokes.

Lost in the renewing wonder of being within her, Clark appreciated the long, lean arcs and curves of her body, stretched in a bow as she moved against him in soft, seductive rhythm, breasts uptilted, quivering with the rippling play of muscles in her stomach and thighs. He heard her make a low sound, deep in her throat, that was almost a growl and her eyes opened, fixing on his, hazed and darkened by hunger, twin pools of velvet fire that drew him in deep and drowned him where he lay.

There were some, Lois thought distantly and irreverently among the bright surges of pleasure that rolled through her, who said fear was a little death. But they were wrong. It was this……this blurring of who she was and where that was death……and rebirth……and bright awakening all rolled into one. The culmination of all fantasies, the realization of all dreams……the apex of life……the warm embrace of love……

She tightened her hold on her husband, her face transfixed with wonder as she felt him move within her and against her. A slow, shuddering ripple coursed through her. Dimly, she felt him shift, felt his hands close around her waist, felt him spin them both higher into air and grip her tight against the hard, protective warmth of his body as he brought her to the brink of that plateau of shimmering color and light high above her. And then she was spinning over its edge and into the starburst implosion that started its journey deep within, brightened and burst into fire, blinding her, searing her, blasting her in one, single fire-flash moment into white-hot rapture as she cried out her pleasure in a high, piercing wail.

When the world solidified around her again, she found Clark laying her gently on the cape beneath her. He settled himself lightly against her as she opened her eyes to stare dreamily up into the haze of light above them. His lips brushed at the damp skin of her cheek. She blinked.

"Oh……Oh, Clark……!" she sighed, her words touched with wonder, and he smiled, nuzzling at her shoulder.

"Yeah. It was great for me too, Honey," he murmured, kissing a trail along her collarbone.

"No……I mean, yes……yes, it was……but, I mean - look! Look, Clark!" She put a hand against his shoulder and pushed gently to gain his attention.

Belatedly realizing that they were talking at cross-purposes, Clark lifted his head with a frown to look down at her. He took in the soft glow of fascination on her face and the shine in her eyes and then twisted his head to follow the direction of her gaze, upward into the gloom of the cavern.

"Oh," he said. "Those."

"They are so beautiful. Aren't they beautiful?" She glanced at him momentarily for agreement, before her gaze returned, awed, to the splashes of color and primitive motion on the ceiling above them.

He let himself roll over onto his back beside her and supported his head with a hand against the back of his neck as he studied the ochre and blood red figures drawn on the rock. "Yeah. Yeah, they are," he agreed, as though seeing the paintings for the first time.

"Do you know who painted them?" Lois asked, her eyes following the bold, sweeping strokes of the primitive art.

"Local tribes, we think. The Kanza probably. They were the predominant tribe at the time. The style's similar to cave paintings found in other areas around here which are known to have been theirs."

"How did they get in here? Through the water?" she glanced at him curiously.

"Well, a century or so back the water level was lower. They probably used the same channel we did. Either waded through or were able to hold breath for long enough. The watermarks on the walls would suggest that there was an air gap close to the ceiling at one time at least. They could probably come up for air several times before they reached this cavern."

"Why?" Lois looked back at him, suddenly just a little bit anxious. "This wasn't a sacred site, was it?" She looked around her, a little wide-eyed. "We're not disturbing anything, are we?"

"No, we're okay. Some of the caverns to the east are designated sacred sites and they've been roped off. Others definitely show signs of ceremonial use, but no burial or sacrificial rites. Gathering points mostly. Meeting places. And then there are caverns like these. Tourists and Trogs are allowed into all but the sacred caverns and this one is open to anyone who can get through the access channel, during the caving season."

"Oh." Lois smiled. "With or without scuba-gear. Or super-powers."

He nodded and then gave her a curious glance. There was a bewitched glow in her eyes as her gaze drifted back to the ceiling.

"Want a closer look?" he asked.

Lois nodded, and he sat, reaching to pull her closer and settling her crosswise on his lap, before he let himself drift up horizontally, toward the rock ceiling. Lois leant her shoulder against his until he relaxed back against the air beneath him and then straightened, balancing herself with a hand spread against his chest, as at ease with her perch across his thighs, legs dangling, as she would have been on a sofa, trusting him implicitly.

Clark floated up to a comfortable height for her to view the paintings up close, settling one arm behind his neck as he watched her. He'd forgotten these long ago remnants of a primal civilization were here. Now, he saw them anew, from the distance of so many years, and with the eyes of a man instead of a boy. A man who'd viewed wonders and miracles and natural glory all over the world - and beyond. And, yet, found something enthralling, here in this half forgotten, underwater cavern, that he'd never seen before.

Yet, more fascinating than renewing his acquaintance with an old wonder long unvisited, was viewing it now through the eyes of his wife. He lay back contentedly on his cushion of air, watching her reaction as she reached out a reverent hand to lay it on the nearest leaping figure. His free hand stroked gently in a slow, reflective glide up and down her spine as he continued to study her reactions in companionable silence, finding a quiet pleasure in her delight. She traced the lines of a deer with the tip of one finger, her expression as awestruck as a child's.

Clark moved only to let her shift her attention further out, along the ceiling, drifting in the direction her wandering fingers took, until she'd explored all of the blood red tapestry that she could.

Finally, Lois shifted position to drape herself across his chest. She let her head fall to rest on his shoulder with a small sigh and burrowed her cheek against the side of his neck as he held her securely to him with an arm wrapped around her waist.

"Thank you," she said softly. "For sharing this with me."

"Hey, it's one of the most special places I know of in the world," Clark said with a quick smile. He stroked a finger along the edge of her cheek and then let it drift lazily down along the line of her throat and across the blade of her shoulder. "Who else would I share it with but my special girl?"

Lois smiled and turned her head to meet his lips as he ducked his head to claim hers. When their lips parted, she found herself standing on the sandbank, enclosed in her husband's soft embrace.

He smiled down at her and reached out to tuck a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. "Ready to go?"

Lois sighed. "I guess."

Clark's smile softened at her reluctance. "We'll come back," he promised. He looked around him. "This time I won't leave it so long."

Lois smiled back and then stepped out of his arms. She began to walk towards the gently lapping water as it encroached upon the sandbank. Behind her, Clark bent to scoop up his cloak and shook it gently free of sand.

"Yeuch……!"

He straightened in the act of folding the cape neatly to look back at her with that exclamation of disgust.

"What? Honey?"

Lois grimaced. "I think I've got sand in every……on every inch of me!" she complained, scrubbing fitfully at her arms and legs. "Now I remember why I hated family beach parties when I was a kid."

Clark lifted a brow and then glanced at the cape in his hands. He directed a musing look down at the sand under his feet and then back up at his wife, his expression turning quizzical. "How'd you get -- "

Lois grimaced. "Don’t ask," she said tartly and then, as his obvious puzzlement deepened considerably, and with a soft rose tint rising in her cheeks now, scowled back down and returned to her furious brushing at one hip.

Clark went back to considering. He looked from cape to sand and back again. He lifted his head, opened his mouth……and then let it close, whatever he'd been about to say wisely discarded. Every line of body language in Lois more than declared the subject closed and she didn't look in the mood to embark on a discussion.

With a shake of his head, he set the small puzzle aside, giving himself a small, mental nudge to remind him to bring it up later at a moment more……conducive……to coaxing the answer out of her. He put away the cape and watched her piqued attempts to clean herself off, her frustration obvious. A faint grin overtook him.

Lois looked up at him, starting to glare as she sensed his amused look on her. "It itches," she complained, almost plaintively.

Clark chuckled. "It'll wash off when we leave," he said reasonably. He held out his hand. "Come on."

******

The channel seemed much longer than it had on the way in, much less direct, with a few twists and kinks in it. Lois had just begun to wonder about that when she discovered why, as Clark dipped briefly downward, skimming lightly an inch or so shy of the rock floor and then arced upwards to where the shimmer of daylight gleamed and beckoned over their heads.

Bursting clear of the surface, Lois was surprised to find them emerging further down the lake than they'd been when they'd entered The Cauldron. Clark grinned at her, wrapping an arm around her waist and tugging her close. He kissed her softly, putting a hand into her hair and then drew back a little. Shifting he took hold of her wrist, turning her hand palm upwards and, as she opened her fingers expectantly, placed something warm and smooth on them.

"Here," he said.

Lois looked at the offering. The stone was, almost perfectly, the size and shape of a hen's egg; worn smooth by centuries of water erosion and polished by silt and grit to a soft gleam. Swirls of blue and orange banded its surface.

Clark shrugged as he watched her study it. "It's not worth anything. It's not even that rare. Trogs pick them up all the time. But you can only get them down in that one stretch of corridor and I always thought they were kind of pretty……" he said, voice softening on that last.

Lois smiled. "It is," she said. "It's very pretty."

"Mmmmmmmm," Clark murmured an agreement. But he wasn't looking at the stone anymore.

Lois clenched the stone in her fist and put an arm around his neck to plant a kiss against his cheek. "I love it."

"I love you," Clark said, kissing her back, pleased with her reaction to the impromptu gift. He lifted his head and gave the surrounding lake and its environs a quick scan. Assured that they were still alone, he let his wife go and turned towards the rock platform. Launching himself out of the water and into the air, he let himself glide to the platform and hovered there a moment.

Lois watched him, feeling a sudden tightness gather in her throat and a heavy, languid ache grow in her belly and between her thighs. Water streamed from his tautly sculpted body, glistening in rivulets across the bunching muscles of his shoulders and back as he shook his head. Droplets glittered as they flew from his hair and then he spun briefly, shaking himself dry. Oblivious to his wife's hungry gaze on him, he landed lightly on the platform beneath him.

Picking up his jeans, which had almost entirely dried in the sun by now, he pulled them on quickly. Lois sighed, disappointed that the show was over and giving herself a quick, mental shake that shook loose with the lascivious thoughts in her head as quickly as he had dispensed with the water.

She put her hands on the rock plateau, given a clue by the water's pale gleam and pulled herself up and out of the sinkhole and into shallower water.

Clark had settled himself onto the platform's edge. He grinned down at his wife as he watched her wade through the last of the thigh deep water, her hands pushing back her waterlogged hair.

"What?" Lois said suspiciously, as she stopped on The Cauldron's edge and tilted back her head to look up at him.

He shook his head. "Nothing." The grin widened. "You look like Ursula Andress emerging from the water in Dr. No," he told her. His eyes wandered, carnal and licentious, across her full, naked curves. Her skin glistened as the fading sun caught the drops of water on her skin and glowed in them like diamond rainbows. "Except you're not wearing a hot bikini."

"Hmmmmmm. Is that so?" She tipped her head to study him coquettishly. "As I recall that movie, James Bond was pretty impressed."

"Oh, I'm pretty impressed," he assured her, and then, flashing another smile at her that made her knees abruptly weaken, "I'm sure James would be too."

Lois ducked her head a little, coloring, before she looked up at him from under damp lashes. She smiled and let herself step off of the rock beneath her feet and into the deeper, cooler water closer in. She swam the last few yards between them with strong, easy strokes until she reached the platform's edge.

Clark reached down to grasp the wrist of the hand she put to the edge. He pulled her upward easily and she settled herself beside him. She looked down at the water and pointed one toe to reach its surface, drawing a languid trail across it. She leaned back on her arms, letting her head fall back loosely and closing her eyes as she let the now drowsing heat of the sun dry her off.

A moment later, she felt the soft touch of her husband's lips against the exposed column of her throat and the softer touch of his hand as he fitted it against her breast. She smiled.

"James……?" she murmured in a not half bad attempt at a Miss Moneypenny accent and felt the lips pause. She squeaked as he bit lightly at her ear in retaliation and then giggled.

"Now who's insatiable?" she said as Clark resumed his slow, enticing journey across her skin.

She felt his grin as he shifted his caresses to the line of her jaw. "I think we both are, aren't we?" he countered, taking a trail across her cheek to where he could nuzzle at her ear. "Which suits me……just……fine, Honey……" he added before catching the lobe between his teeth and tugging gently.

Lois put up an arm and entwined it around his neck, trusting him to take her weight against his arm as she fell back. He did, his hand warm against her hip as she tangled her fingers into his hair and pressed her lips to the eager heat of his.

The sound of voices, distant, but moving closer, interrupted them. Clark raised his head and frowned. "Oh-oh." He looked back down at his wife as she raised a quizzical brow. "Hang on," he cautioned, tightening his grip around her waist.

The world blurred, becoming a sudden kaleidoscope of color and light.

And then Lois found herself standing on the grassy bank beside the lake, fully clothed and pressed against her husband's side, his arm settled around her waist, his hand still warm at her hip, as those voices came closer.

"Hey, Misses Anders!" Clark called as the first of the two elderly women rounded the curve of the hillside and came into view, her sister bustling close at her heels. "Wave," he muttered out of the corner of his lips at Lois as he did just that and, raising his voice again, brightly, "How ya doing?"

Lois did better than that. She plastered one of her bright and innocent smiles on her face, showing more teeth than a cruising shark as she aped his motion.

"Hey, Clark! Just fine. Martha told us you'd be visiting. And bringing Lois with you. Hi, Lois! Enjoying your vacation?"

Lois glanced up at her husband, dimpling up as she did. "Sure am!" she said, used by now to the folk of Smallville engaging her in conversation as though they'd known her all her life.

"The most wonderful thing happened!"

"Maybe you've brought us luck!"

"We heard Coronado and his Spaniards!" Alice gushed, her face bright with excitement, as she cast what was evidently intended as a calming glance at her younger sister. It didn't seem to work. Both sisters appeared about to burst, agitated and atwitter with the need to spill their news.

Lois frowned, looking up on her husband quizzically. "Coronado?"

"Um……well, he was a Spanish Conquistador," Clark said absently, his eyes watching the elderly sisters curiously. "He explored these parts, but his guide misled him and encouraged the local tribes to attack him and his men. Legend has it that sometimes……" he paused, face changing as it suddenly clicked and then continued blandly with barely a hitch in his tone, "……you can hear the shrieks of the dying conquistadors." He coughed lightly. "Down in the……um, caverns. Where they were trapped."

"That's right! We did! We heard them! Oh, such awful shrieking and hollering! Just like old Amos Tompkins said he heard back in '52! Those poor men, they must have died so horribly to be wailing like that!" Alice Anders' eyes gleamed with the words, excitement transforming her face into a pixie charm that made Clark smile.

"S……shrieking……" Lois repeated somewhat faintly. She could feel Clark's hand resting against her hip. It seemed to burn through her skin and she couldn't look at his face now as she felt a low burn brighten on her suddenly flushed cheeks. Keeping her eyes determinedly front and center, she focused on the two ecstatic old women instead. She nudged her husband, scowling, as she felt the suppressed laughter in him ripple through his body.

"Yes! Did *you* hear anything? From up top?" Pinny Anders asked brightly.

Clark choked and then turned it into a hasty cough. "From……? Uh, well - " he began lamely as he recovered and then, glancing down into his wife's suddenly flushed face with studied curiosity, "I'm not sure I heard anything. Really. How about you, Honey? Did you hear anything?" He paused and then continued, innocently, "From……up top?"

Lois gave him a sidelong look that promised retribution for that one later and then gave him a foretaste just for good measure. Clark started as she pinched him hard against one buttock.

Lois fixed her smile more tightly as she returned her gaze to the watching sisters. "No……" she shook her head. "No, can't say that I did."

"Oh." Slightly deflated for an instant, the sunny look returned to Pinny Anders' face a bare moment later. "Well we're on our way to start spreading the word round the Society. You be sure and tell Martha now, Clark, you hear? She'll be so excited! Isn't this so wonderful?" She added with another glance at Lois. "That this should happen in the year Martha is President of the Historical Society? Now, you remember, Clark, you hear?" she added, turning that glance on him.

"Uh, yeah. I will," Clark agreed easily, giving them a small parting wave as they set off down the track at a brisk pace, Pinny pulling at her older sister's arm, urging her along.

Lois watched them go, mortified now. "Oh, my God," she said blankly. "I don't believe they thought - " She groaned. "Oh my god……"

"Hey, ease up, Honey," Clark said amused. "Look on the bright side," He leaned over and kissed her with a small chuckle. "You're about to become a local legend."

"Clark - "

"Maybe we should visit those caverns on a regular basis," he said. "Well, you know," he shrugged as she shot him a dark look, "once you've set a legend in motion, you should do everything you can to keep it alive."

"If I were you, I'd concentrate on keeping myself alive," Lois warned in a growl.

He grinned at her, unabashed and then reached out suddenly, startling her as he pulled her into an affectionate bearhug.

Lois buried her face against his chest, her face scarlet now. "What are we going to tell Martha?!" she all but wailed into his shirtfront.

Clark chuckled. "I'll tell her the truth, that's all."

Lois jerked up her head, both stunned and glaring a death threat at him. "You dare say one word about what we did in -- "

He laughed, cuddling her closer, despite her stiff-backed resistance. "Superman never kisses and tells, Lois. You should know that. The *truth* is," he added as she relented, relaxing a little against him, "the Anders sisters thought they heard Coronado. Honey, folks claim to hear the Spaniard half a dozen times each summer out here. It's a myth that's endured for centuries, right back to the time of the Conquistador himself. It's not real."

"Ghosts are real," Lois corrected him, "Katie was - " and then her eyes widened, finding something new to mortify her as she glanced back at the water behind him. "Ohmigosh! What if……you know!"

He raised a brow at her as she pulled out of his arms to wave a vague, distressed hand at the water. "What if those dead Spaniards were……" she looked to him for help. He played dumb. Lois scowled. "Watching!" she blurted.

"Honey, to have ghosts, someone has to die," Clark said and, as she looked at him, bemused, "It's not true. Not any of it. It's just something parents told children at bedtime to keep them in line. Probably the native tribes fostered the idea to keep people away from their sacred sites. Maybe they even believed it themselves. But, anyway, it was debunked years ago. A history professor from Yale proved conclusively that Coronado and his Spaniards made it safely back to Spain. No one died in those caves." Well, unless you counted a few natives, probably, he added mentally, but figured it was probably wise not to mention that to Lois.

"No one?" She looked at him doubtfully. "Well, what about - ?"

"No one," he interrupted her firmly, diverting her with a quick kiss.

Lois frowned. "Then if it was proved no one died - "

He grinned at her. "Lois, this is Kansas. You think folks are gonna pay attention to what some big city professor has to say about their legend? They've lived here all their lives. Heard the tales from their mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers. They *know* Coronado died in those caves. And no one's gonna tell them any different. So - "

He broke off, lifting his head, eyes fading into a distant haze, and Lois sighed.

"I knew it couldn’t last," she said.

Clark focused on her again and he smiled as he heard the disappointment in her voice. He leaned over to kiss her irreverently on the nose. "Relax, Honey. Mom says dinner'll be ready in five."

"Oh," Lois said. She watched, as he let her go and made his way up to the little glade where the remnants of their earlier picnic still lay. She followed.

"Martha's not cooking fish for supper……is she?" she asked as she knelt to help.

"I don’t think so." Clark glanced at her from his position on his knees as he piled the last items into the picnic hamper and then handed her her shoes. "Why?"

Lois sat to pull on the loafers as she shrugged. Her eyes studied the lake. "Oh, no reason. Just……well after swimming in among them down there, it'd be almost like eating friends. Like eating Peter and Gabriel even," she added as she got to her feet, thinking about her fish back home.

Clark gave her an amused glance as he tugged on his own shoes and then stood to heft the hamper easily beneath one arm. He draped the other companionably across his wife's shoulders as she stood, watching.

"No fish, I promise," he said as he guided her down the grassy slope and onto the track towards the farmhouse. The sun was dipping down low now and the air was pleasantly cooler on their backs.

"Actually," he said after a moment, "I think Mom said we were having glazed ham tonight." He paused and then added musingly, as he gave her a sly, sideways glance, "You know, talking of ham, I helped Dad load up Abe Dingwall's piglets last month for sale in Harperdale. I've been racking my brains ever since, trying to think just who those little porkers of Abe's reminded me of. But I just didn't make the connection. Till now."

Lois looked up at him. "Reminded you of who?"

He shrugged. "Oh, I dunno. Just someone. I think," he went on, innocently, "it was the way they squealed a lot. And so loud too……"

It took a moment or so for an unsuspecting Lois to make the connection. Then she tugged clear of his embrace with an indignant, "Hey! Why you - " she added as he began to laugh.

Clark ducked out of the way of the blow she aimed at his chest, laughing all the harder now. God, she was cute when she was mad, he thought, as he watched her square up to him, eyes flashing and the high color of pique in her cheeks.

"You think that's funny?" Lois demanded, with that particular lack of inflection in her voice that Clark recognized as being infinitely more dangerous to the health than any yell.

She eyed him, hands balled into fists at her hips, as he nodded, trying unsuccessfully to control his chuckles. Then, very deliberately, very carefully, she began to roll up the sleeves of her t-shirt. "You *really* *think* that is sooooo funny, don't you……"

Clark backed off, shaking his head and raising a conciliatory hand. "Now, Honey - " he started through his laughter.

"Now, Honey, nothing. I'll show you funny," Lois said as she took a lunge at him.

"Oh-Oh," Clark said.

And then the strongest man in the world - like the last little piggie - turned tail and sprinted for the safety of Mom and home, as his formidable little wife chased him all the way down the track towards the farmhouse.

Fini.

LabRat December 1998.

Thanks, as ever, to my trusty proofers this time around - what would we do without you guys! LadyBiker, as always. Becky - the Kansas Kid - who kept me right on flora and fauna and geological oddities, despite not hailing from Kansas at all. Very understanding boss you have there, Becky. <g> Lyndsay, who knows everything one woman could possibly know about Native Americans - even when they're not Kiowa. :D And to Kath - who wanted to know where the foreplay in the cavern was. Happy now, girl? <bg>

And a special thank you to Rachel who is either very brave or very insane - depending on your POV <g> - and has volunteered to post my nfic in future, thus single-handedly defeating the Great Dragon Phone Bill with one mighty swoop of her keyboard.