If nobody else wants to go for it, I'll answer.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent by ML Thompson.
Lois lifted the lid of the machine. The light on the front was
glowing a steady green. She raised the eye-dropper and carefully
dripped three drops of liquid onto the pad on the top of the
machine. They vanished at once. Lois put the dropper back into
the beaker and closed the lid.
The light flickered and winked to amber.
Lois's heart gave a sideways leap, then settled into a new,
faster rhythm. She stared at the light blankly for a few
moments, then an odd, strained smile crept onto her face.
She turned away and began to dress.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Clark was having difficulty concentrating. He was supposed to be
finishing his account of the Trevino trial for the Saturday
morning edition, but as he studied his computer screen he could
see Lois out of the corner of his eye.
And Lois had been behaving oddly all day.
She'd been brusque almost to the point of rudeness when she'd
arrived at work this morning, which wasn't unusual - Lois's
temper was becoming a byword in the newsroom, and sometimes there
were lines of strain on her face that made Clark wonder if she
was ill, but nobody dared ask after her health these days. Clark
had resigned himself to this being one of the more difficult
days, and continued reading his email... and then, five minutes
later, she'd brought him a cup of coffee and a doughnut, which
was almost unheard of. He could almost swear she'd been blushing
when he'd looked up in surprise to thank her. She'd leant
against his desk for a few minutes and asked him about his plans
for the day, which had simply consisted of attending the trial
and then coming back to the Planet to write it up; then she'd
bustled back to her desk and ignored him till he'd left.
Now she was sitting in front of her computer screen, pretending
to work but in reality fiddling with all the various objects on
her desk in turn and shooting him surreptitious glances every few
minutes. He had no idea what could be on her mind. He'd
developed the habit of walking her home in the evenings after
work lately, even though the threat to her life had ended with
Barbara Trevino's arrest; but it was only a quarter to five, and
Lois never left work before six at the very earliest.
Still, five was his deadline for this piece, and he needed to
forget about Lois long enough to finish it up. Pretending to be
bothered by the glare on his screen, Clark shifted his monitor
and chair until Lois was no longer in his field of vision, and
set to work.
