Epilogue: Shiner

The swelling had gone down over the weekend. The flesh under the reporter's left eye was dark purple, almost blue. Lois Lane patted the concealer over the bruised skin, doing her best not to wince.

Her wife walked up behind her. Laid her hands on the reporter's shoulders.

"Maybe you should stay home today," the dickgirl said.

"I can't," Lois said. "It's the weekly standup meeting, I've got to turn in my assignments...and I'm having lunch with Lana Lang. I promised."

"Hmm," Blaze hummed, one finger playing with the reporter's dark hair. Lois found herself holding her breath, not sure what she would do if Angie told her that she couldn't go to work today. The pregnant reporter didn't know how she would respond to that. She loved Angie...of course she loved her...but when she got angry...

"What will you say, if someone asks about it?" The dickgirl's fingers began to move through the motions of a massage, and Lois winced as they dug into the bruises on her back. Angie didn't know her own strength.

"I'll...I'll just tell them I ran into a doorknob. An accident."

The reporter tried to make her voice cheerful. Smiled. One of her teeth felt loose still, but she didn't tell Angie that. Because then the dickgirl would definitely insist she stay home...and Lois desperately needed those few hours away from her wife. Just a bit.

"Fine. But call me when you get to work."

Relief flooded throughout the reporter's chest, but she didn't show it. Just kept smiling.

"Of course, darling," she said.

Eighteen weeks, and the nausea had almost stopped...but it still caught up with Lois at odd moments. She stumbled out of the elevator, holding her mouth, tasting bile, stomach churning...and Clark Kent was there, with Lana Lang at his elbow...and just at that moment the reporter had a terrible sensation that they knew.

Her knees wobbled. She fell toward the floor, vomit pouring out between her fingers, tasting the cum from Angie's morning blowjob all over again. Lois Lane's eyes teared up, and all she could think was that it was going to ruin her makeup, that they would see, and...

Clark was there in an instant, catching Lois before she fell, yellow-white bile hitting the floor. Lana Lang's fingers gripped her hair, holding it back from her face.

"Let it out, Lois...just let it out," Lana told her.

It kept going until the pregnant woman's stomach was empty, and then she heaved dryly for a few minutes. With their help, Lois regained her footing, stood up.

"Take her to get some water, I'll clean this up," Clark said. Lois let Lana lead her away...steered her toward the break room. Sat her down in a chair at the table and a moment letter pressed a cup of water into her hands.

"Thanks," Lois said, offering a weak smile.

Lana stared at Lois, hard.

"Who hit you?"

The words were quiet, scarcely a whisper, but Lois shook so violently the water spilled out over her fingers. Lana's hand moved forward, pushing back the reporter's sleeves. Ugly bruises there, crisscrossed, new ones on top of old.

"It...it's not what you think," Lois said, heart hammering in her chest. "My wife...we...we're into rough sex, it's not...she doesn't mean to..."

Even in her own words, the excuses felt stupid and weak. Warm tears welled up in the reporter's eyes and she couldn't hold them back anymore.

"I can't...I can't...the baby..."

Clark stepped in. Confusion on his face. Lana looked up at him, her whole body tense. She still had the sleeve pulled back, the bruises.

For the very first time in her life, Lois Lane saw Clark Kent enraged.

"Lana," he said quietly. "Wonder Woman endows a woman's shelter on 15th street. Could you...?"

"Of course," but the redhead was frowning. "But Clark, you shouldn't..."

"No, he shouldn't."

Lois felt blood in her veins turn to ice at the sound of her wife's voice.

Blaze stood there, in her black jeans and boots, ripped t-shirt, drawn up to her full height.

Immediately, Kent put himself between Lois and Blaze.

"You do not stand between me and my wife," Lois heard Angie's voice rasp. It was the dangerous, quiet tone that Lois had learned to fear. The one where any disobedience, even hesitance, brought pain.

"You're not touching her again," Clark said.

For a moment, cold fear ran through Lois...and not for herself or the baby. Clark was strong, she knew, but Angie's strength was almost superhuman, she could really hurt him. Lois tried to push herself to her feet, determined to end this.

The air cracked as his fist moved. Lois and Lana both winced...and then where Clark and Blaze had stood, there was just a gaping tunnel, straight through wall and window, the air rushing in because they were twenty stories up.

Lana insisted on taking Lois to the shelter. The redhead didn't leave her side, not even when they heard the sirens blaring and firetrucks and cop cars and ambulances zooming down the street. The pregnant reporter was shaken, dumbstruck, her reporter's brain trying to put it all together...what happened...what was happening...

A fit black woman took Lois Lane's name at the shelter. There was coffee...a sandwich...and without knowing why, Lois began to tell Lana...who held the pregnant woman's hand throughout all of it, knowing Lois needed to get the story out, in her own words. To make it all make sense.

There was a tap on the floor as Wonder Woman came in. The Amazon was tall, and there were nasty, bloody gashes on her arms, rents in her golden armor. The dark purple shiner on her left eye looked hauntingly familiar.

Without a word, the Amazon strode forward. Her hand grasped the reporter's neck.

There was a snap.

The collar fell onto the floor.

The sound of it seemed to reverberate in Lois Lane's soul.

Like the weight of the world had fallen off of her.

"I have to inform you," Wonder Woman said, with a sort of grim satisfaction. "That you are now a widow."

Lois and Lana both stared at her. The reporter found her voice first.

"Did Clark...?"

It was only then they noticed the sword strapped to Wonder Woman's hip.

"No. When you're ready, though...I'm sure he'd like to see you. But don't rush it. I'll tell him you're safe. You can stay here as long as you need."

Stupid tears came to Lois Lane's eyes once again...but they were the last tears she would ever shed for Angelica Blaze.