Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Airport - Part 11 of 32

“Honey, watch your back. These people, whoever they are, play for keeps. Mike and I don’t want to lose you.”

Lois could not help but notice her aunt’s hands were ice cold with fear and apprehension. The tone in her voice also brooked no argument and suddenly Lois felt a tiny band of dread run through her heart and into her shoes. Were these shadowy people from Rita’s past the ones trying to kill her?

Finally after denying him for weeks, she shared the bed of Gregory Daae.

The engagement ring was a masterpiece of delicate hand engraving; the natural pink diamond accents surrounded a square cut diamond center. The slender yellow gold diamond wedding band created a perfect union between the two rings.

The rings meant something, more than just the fact that she was his wife; to her they symbolized determination to maintain control. Despite the kisses they had exchanged since their first official date at the Versace Fashion show she steadfastly refused to sleep with him until there was a wedding band on her finger… not an engagement ring. Lana was fairly certain Gregory would have more respect for her character by waiting until they married before making love. Even Clark had the old-fashioned notion that a couple should wait until they were married to consummate their relationship. That attitude had annoyed her, but she had been willing to be patient. That learned patience had served her well with Gregory. Now, here they were together.

The pre-nuptial agreement she had signed prior to the civil ceremony offered a total package of financial security for her comforts. If she did not produce a child for him within the first five years of their marriage they would divorce with a sizable settlement for her. If she did and the child was a boy, no matter what the nature of their relationship, a larger amount in her name would be deposited in a Swiss bank. In the meantime he would fund her Roman colony archeological dig in Burgundy.

Not a bad outcome for two month’s worth of work.

Still, she did have a single regret; Clark would be terribly hurt when he discovered she had flown off to Europe on a job assignment and returned married to another man. How she was going to explain the situation would be a challenge.

Five minutes later Arianna thanked her friend for the information and bid her good-bye. Her ears burned with angry and shame, months ago she had thrown herself at Daae only to be humiliated by his refusal to take her into his arms. She was willing to accept seeing him on rare occasions for their very specific business, but he never encouraged her to think they could begin again once Lex was out of the picture. Now he had wounded her as deeply and as painfully as she had years previously …

She turned and seeing a beautiful crystal vase filled a bouquet of lovely roses, daisy poms, alstroemeria and Monte casino in shades of pink and purple on the sofa table. The flowers reminded her of their walks in Paris during the spring. A fresh stab of pain entered her heart. With almost maniacal strength she picked up the delicate vessel and hurled it against the wall. Water and delicate petals splattered everywhere and the sound of crystal shattering was heard throughout the penthouse. Seconds later, a frightened maid entered the room, with Nigel not far behind.

“Mrs. Luthor! Is everything all right?” The portly woman asked.
Arianna’s dark eyes laced with fury, stared at the woman, she said in icy British tones. “Clean up this mess.” Turning to Nigel she snapped, “What are you standing about for?”

Nigel, unperturbed by her behavior, said, “Merely looking after your well being, Mrs. Luthor.”

She glared at him for a moment; he bowed slightly at the waist and with characteristic silence, stepped out of the room and walked down the hallway.

“My …. well-being?” she whispered in a sad voice. “That state of mind is sadly out of reach when the man I love has married someone else.”

“Yes!” Two minutes later he replaced the phone, a bewildered look scrawled across his face. “Mr. Daae takes a bride. Well, well, well this bit of news might have considerable impact on my plans.” he muttered. “Perhaps I should cultivate someone at the Metropolis Museum in case Mrs. Daae can be used in the future.”

“Let me tell her Perry, no reason for you to be the bad guy.”

“No. This is the newsroom … my newsroom. I’ll tell them both at the same time.” He hesitated and then said, “Real decent offer to smooth things over with Lois. I appreciate it.”

James nodded, “Let me know how everything turns out.” With that, the publisher of the Daily Planet, opened the door and exited. He thought how fortunate he was not to be giving ‘Mad Dog’ Lane the bad news.

Fiske stopped stirring the coffee and said with panic rising in his voice, “Wait a second, Councilman Deatz and his wife were at that hotel raising money for autistic kids. Afterwards they spent some quality time together. You mistook what I said! Please tell me that story didn’t get filed?”

“Oh no, I…I didn’t.” Peggy said, suddenly the high winds of arrogance were completely blown out of her sails.

The relief on Carl’s face was evident for all to see. “Thank goodness! She was ‘acting’ as his secretary, since his real secretary had to leave work due to a family emergency. Mrs. Deatz has lost fifty pounds, lightened her hair and updated her wardrobe. She looks twenty years younger! Listen Becker; don’t ever ask me for a quote again if you can’t get the facts straight!” He turned to Catherine, “Thanks for stepping in. She would have gotten me into a lotta hot water!” With those words, Carl ambled over to his desk, loudly slurping his coffee.

“You might be familiar with him; the European media mogul and Lex Luthor’s new business partner, Mr. Gregory Daae.”

He almost coughed up the warm liquid “Whoa! That had better be some serious information! Daae is not exactly a light weight in the media world!”

“It is! I was going to write a story about him nearly three years ago, but it was bumped when my sources dried up. We can discuss that later on. Hey how about coming over to my apartment and you can go over the material I have. Than we can put together a game plan on how to tackle this story. What do you say?”

He rubbed his chin and thought warily about spending another evening alone with his beautiful colleague and said somewhat half heartedly,

“Uh …not this evening, I have a lot of irons in the fire right now.”

“Oh come on Clark, how long can this research take? Besides, if my new source pans out this story could not only net us a Kerth, it can also put us in the running for a Pulitzer. Just think of if, Lane and Kent, nominated for a Pulitzer!”

Her enthusiasm was contagious; he smiled and said, “Uh huh, Lois Lane would never be satisfied with the nomination, only winning the prize would ever do.”

Her eyes lit up, “So you’ll do it?”

Gazing into those beautiful brown eyes sparkling with excitement that he could never resist he thought to himself, <I shouldn’t be doing this. But she’s my partner, who might need protection if Mr. Daae gets wind of what we are doing.>

“Ok Lois. We can pick up a pizza on the way.”

Lois pumped her fist in the air and said, “Yes!”

“Gregory Daae, Lex Luthor and yes, even Arianna are all like dragons, much more deadly than a lizard. Luka was right, it’s up to everyone to fight against such persons, and otherwise all our freedoms are lost.” Her voice at once strong and defiant suddenly became very uncertain. “Sometimes … sometimes I look at the folders, notes and files and wonder if Gregory Daae can be taken down. I mean, Luka Brunner was smart, experienced and tough, yet he failed. I’ve worked on this story for years and just when I get a break something goes wrong. If we go forward this time we can’t fail. Luka Brunner and all the people Daae has hurt over the years deserve much better.”

She heard his words as if from far away tickle around her ears, “Never doubt yourself Miss Lane, I don’t.” Clark said in a husky whisper.

“I … we are going up against an extremely powerful dragon. This is going to test, not only our journalistic abilities, but unless my evidence is bulletproof, the Daily Planet could suffer one helluva lawsuit. One we might not be able to come back from.” Lois said

“Hey, don’t say that! Not even kidding around. You mean a great deal to me … er us. I’m not going to let anything or anyone hurt my partner and friend.”

Partner.

That word again. Yes, she had thought they could make a go of it, but maybe there was more to his words than their work relationship. She gazed, strong and proud, into Clark’s deep, brown eyes, she thought <God, he’s so handsome and attractive. Why am I resisting him? Besides, Lana doesn’t care about him. We would be so good, so right together.>

As if by unspoken agreement they moved towards each other. Clark completely forgot about the large furry mass currently sleeping on his lap. Lady P gave out an involuntary cry, a cross between a meow and a squawk. The humans ignored her hisses and meows. Annoyed, she wiggled out of his lap, tumbled to the floor and waddled as fast as her short legs could take her to the kitchen and her water dish. Clark moved closer, his strong large fingers curled around her smaller ones. “We are just the team to do it. We are stronger together than apart. Lois ...?”

“Yes … Clark …?” she responded with an equally husky whisper.

<Oh no! What am I doing?> he thought, <Lana! I’m going to ask her to marry me!>

He broke the kiss and stammered out. “Maybe … I’d better go.” He stood up like a scorched cat and began gathering his things.

“What? Why?” Lois surprised, gasped out.

The words tumbled over his lips in a torrent, “Why? You deserve my respect and professionalism. Please accept my apology Lois; this … this entire situation is my fault. I should never have disrespected my relationship with Lana. You're my friend and I ignored that for a while and let things go farther than they should. I've enjoyed our nights of cooking and working together but we cannot meet at our apartments to work ever again."

“Oh,” Lois said, her voice sounded distant and a little hollow. “Well … thanks for helping with my research. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Hello everyone, this is Shana McDaniels reporting from International arrivals wing at Larkin Airport. Lex Luthor has returned from his latest business trip in Europe visiting with DMG and continuing to work on creating the news channel which will report on progress of Space Station Archimedes. He is accompanied by his business partner Gregory Daae and his elegant new bride, Lana Lang-Daae.”

One by one all normal sounds ceased, conversations were either halted or shushed into stunned silence. Clark’s face grew flush with shock as he felt half the eyes of the newsroom on the monitors and the other half staring pointedly at him.

Clark’s special hearing picked up Catherine’s comment, mumbled darkly under her breath, “Oh spare me!”

Lex stood in the background trying unsuccessfully to mask his annoyance at the reporter’s dual blunders; her intrusion to their progress through the corridor and ignoring him. Once again, Daae had managed to steal the spotlight from him. No one wanted to hear about the progress on their space news channel now that Mrs. Daae had taken center stage. She would be the ‘Belle of Metropolis’ until the wedding, effectively eclipsing Arianna’s social position.

Someone groaned, “It must be a slow news day! I cannot believe that little wench!”

“Which one?” Diane said caustically. “The airhead reporter or her thoughtless subject?”

“Both.” Jack responded.

“Ha!” Ralph crowed with malicious glee. “Even guys like Kent can’t pick em!” Any further comment was abruptly halted when Stacy accidently, dropped her water bottle on his foot. It was the only sound heard in the newsroom.

Peggy Becker broke the silence by sitting down and pounding on her keyboard. Catherine looked up when she heard the noise and went over to her desk.

“What are you writing? It’s awfully early to get a jump on tomorrow’s column?” Catherine asked innocently.

She practically laughed while typing, “It may be tomorrow’s column, but I’ve definitely got the inside scoop today! Imagine Mrs. Daae throwing over her boyfriend, a journalist for the Daily Planet, in favor of a billionaire! Perry – and Metropolis will be happy to read about it!”

Catherine bent down and in a low, angry voice whispered, “If there is even a hint about Clark Kent in that column or anyplace else, I will make it my personal business to see you are bounced from this newsroom so hard you’ll wish you had never heard of the Daily Planet. That young man’s private life is not fodder for the citizens of Metropolis.”

“It’s news! I’ve got a job to do!” she said, the volume of her nasal voice rising.

“Helping to break an innocent man’s heart is not part of this job!” Catherine hissed, her green eyes flashing severely.

Something about Catherine’s body language convinced the gossip columnist it would be in her best interest to stop typing.

Lois caught her breath in shock; the paper she had held in her hand was crumpled. Clark was loyal to Lana, despite what had happened on the couch at her place. She respected his determination to step back on and stay on the straight and narrow path … notwithstanding her own desires to the contrary. How could anyone be so insensitive? She heard a loud thunk and tearing her eyes away from the monitor and looking over at Clark’s desk she noticed, not surprisingly, that Lana’s picture was in the garbage can, the glass within the frame shattered, and his chair was spinning, he had disappeared from the newsroom.