Lois walked down the ramp to the newsroom at eleven-thirty the following morning and made a beeline for Perry’s office. She needed to get back to work as soon as possible. She had to be distracted, had to have something to occupy her mind and her time, something productive.
She didn’t quite make it.
“Lois!” cried Jimmy. “Ain’t it great? CK’s coming back tomorrow morning! Superman saved him!”
She tried to wiggle past him. “I know, Jimmy, I was there last night. Clark’s fine.” Then she stopped and frowned at the young man. “He’s coming back to work tomorrow? Already?”
“Yeah! He and Professor Hamilton went to STAR Labs this morning and got Dr. Klein to check him out. They both say he’s as fine as he can be! The Chief told him to take several days off, but he wants to come back tomorrow, so yeah! Ain’t that great?”
Lois allowed herself a small smile as she watched the young man bounce along on his errand, stopping every so often to celebrate Clark being alive. It was refreshing to see someone so singularly enthusiastic about Clark’s return.
But now it was time to see Perry.
She tapped on the glass in the door and waited for her boss’ bellowed “Come in!” before she turned the door handle. Perry was staring at a mockup of the evening edition as if he were trying to set it on fire.
“Chief, do you have a minute?”
“Can’t you see I’m – Lois!” He jumped to his feet and all but ran around the desk to grab her by the shoulders. “Lois, honey, you didn’t have to come in today! You were almost killed last night! You need some time to let your mind settle down.”
She patted his elbow. “Thanks, but I’d rather get back to work.”
“Aw, now, you don’t have to!”
“But I want to. And I promise not to go chasing any gangsters for a while.”
He leaned back and tilted his head at her. “Does that mean that you’re willing to stay in the office for a few days?”
Lois pulled away and sat on the tattered and worn couch, one of the very few relics left from the old building before Luthor bombed it. “It does. But I also wanted to let you know about the ground rules Clark and I discussed last night.”
“Ground rules? What kind of ground rules?”
She tried to hold his gaze but couldn’t. Her chin tapped her chest and her voice dropped in volume. “I – we decided that we – we’re not going to pursue any kind of romantic relationship. But we also agreed to be professional at the paper and in public.”
“I see.” Perry crossed his arms and leaned back against his desk. “Was this Clark’s idea or yours?”
“Well – both of us – I brought it up – it was mostly – all mine.”
“Yours, huh? And how did Clark take that declaration of independence on your part?”
Her head snapped up and she glared at him, but there was nothing in his face but compassion. “He – he didn’t like it.”
Perry nodded. “You know, this is quite a turnaround from the other day. You came in here the morning after the shooting and couldn’t stop crying. You told me you were devastated, just torn apart, because Clark was gone and you’d never told him how you felt about him. What’s with the big switcharoo?”
Lois turned her head away. “I just felt – I thought that we – that he and I—”
And now her eyes were damp again. She slapped the couch with both palms. “Blast it, Perry! I’m scared, okay? I’m scared that if I really fall in love with him and he with me and he dies then I won’t survive it!” She crossed her arms and turned to her left, away from the glass in Perry’s office. “I don’t think I’d want to survive it.”
“I see. At least, I think I do.” Perry paused and sighed, then went on. “Lois, that young man would walk on water for you or drown trying. He’d lasso the biggest bull he could find and hold it while you branded it if it gored his insides out. There’s nothing Clark Kent wouldn’t do for Lois Lane.” He slipped off the desk and sat beside her on the couch. “And it’s because he loves you more than he loves life itself.”
Her eyes clenched shut and she stifled a sob. “Don’t you think I know that? And don’t you think I know what he’d go through if I died before he did? I can’t do that to him, Perry! I can’t put him through that pain.” She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands. “I just can’t!”
He reached out and gently rubbed her shoulders. “There, there, honey. I understand. One of the reasons I’m an editor now and not an investigator is because Alice didn’t want me sticking my head in the lion’s mouth any more. It scared her when I’d go on a stakeout or work with the police on a case or go undercover, so I wangled a promotion to the editorial staff and made her feel a lot better.” He sighed. “For a while, anyway.”
He dropped his hands. “Look, Lois, there aren’t any guarantees in life. You could die just as easily from falling down a flight of stairs as you could from some killer somewhere. Clark might get shot by some other gangster or he might get hit by a bus.” He reached out and tugged on her arm until she turned her face toward him. “And you both might live to be over a hundred. There’s no way to predict when anyone will buy the farm.”
She nodded. “My head knows that, Perry, but my heart can’t take it. Right now I think I’d rather be stuck up in Rapunzel’s tower than ride a horse behind Prince Charming.” She looked at the floor. “It’s not very brave, I know, but that’s about all I can handle right now.”
He sighed again. “Okay. I’ll see if I can give out the assignments so that you two don’t work together too much. Remember that I have to consider Clark’s feelings in this, too. You aren’t the only one who’s going to suffer.”
“I know.” She pulled a hankie out of her sleeve and blew her nose, then stood. “I’m going to the ladies’ room to clean up, then I’ll start going through my notes and see what I can give you today. I promise you, this won’t affect the quality of my work.”
“Good. Now you take your time today. Give yourself the afternoon to find your balance again, and be ready to hit the ground running in the morning.”
She nodded and turned toward the door, then stopped with her hand on the knob. “Clark’s coming back in the morning, isn’t he? That’s what Jimmy said.”
“Yes, he is. Will that be a problem?”
“Not for me. But you may have to give him a pep talk too.”
“I’ll do what needs to be done for the Daily Planet, Lois. I care a great deal for both you and Kent, but the paper has to be my primary focus.”
“I know. I’m certain Clark will be professional about this whole thing. You might not have to say anything to him.”
As she closed the door, she heard something from her boss that sounded like, “Oh, yes I will.”
*****
It was his first day back and it was time to go home.
Clark had survived Perry’s sympathetic counsel and nodded reluctant agreement with his editor’s admonition that the Daily Planet had to be published irrespective of the personal feelings of its reporters. He’d managed not to pour a second cup of coffee for Lois before turning on his computer. And he’d somehow been able to keep from embracing her as they passed on the ramp that afternoon.
Clark hadn’t been sure he’d make it through the day with Lois just a few desks away, but he had. He hadn’t believed he could stay away from her all day, but he’d managed. He was really concerned that Perry would move one or both of them to different parts of the news floor so they’d be farther away from each other, but that hadn’t happened either. At least, not yet.
And now that the work day was over and they’d managed to say nothing more than “Good morning” or “Good night” to each other, he was about to blow it all.
The sun wasn’t quite down on the horizon as Superman flew past Lois’ apartment building. A quick glance told him that her window was closed. That was no surprise. They hadn’t spoken personally since the night he’d gone to see her in the Suit after she’d asked Clark to send him to her, except to tell her that he’d look for Clark the night he’d been shot. He wondered if cutting off that relationship had contributed to her walling off Clark, but he couldn’t know that unless he asked her.
He’d been thinking of a trick that might get her attention without his having to hover outside her window. If he focused his airflow when he spoke, he might be able to make the window vibrate like the fabric of a loudspeaker and reproduce his voice inside a closed room.
He’d practiced on some windows in an unoccupied cabin outside the city with a tape recorder inside, but the results had been mixed. His first attempt had shattered the window and delayed him while he replaced the glass. His second try had resulted in garbled nonsense being recorded. After more experiments, he’d found that it could work if the window was large enough, wasn’t cracked, was firmly secured in the frame, and if he spoke very slowly from a ninety-degree angle perpendicular to the window’s surface.
So now he’d try this new trick on Lois’ window. He waited on one of the few rooftop gargoyles in that part of town, watching her move around inside as she prepared a microwave dinner. He decided to wait until she was finished before he tried it.
He glanced away to the street below, checking for bad people doing bad things, trying to find a reason to delay this conversation, but found none. When he looked back at Lois, he saw that she had cleared the table and was in the kitchen. If she followed her usual pattern, she’d put the dishes in the sink to soak and move them to the dishwasher before she went to bed. He just had to wait –
No. No more waiting. It was now or never.
“Lois?” he called.
She jerked around in mid-step and stared at the window with her hand at her throat. “Don’t – be – afraid. It’s – Superman.”
Her jaw dropped open and she took a step back. “Superman? How – how are you doing this? Why do you sound so freaky? And where are you?”
“Please – open – the – window. I – want – to – talk.”
“Um – well – yeah, okay.”
She slowly made her way to the window and opened it, then stepped back abruptly. He flashed in, too quick for anyone to glance up and see him.
“Superman! What are you doing? How did you do that? You scared the cr – the daylights out of me!”
He raised his hand for a moment. “I’m sorry, Lois. I didn’t want to bring any undue attention on you. I’d hate for anyone to start a rumor that you were Superman’s girlfriend.”
Her breathing had slowed to something close to normal. “Okay, fine, I get that! But why the slow-motion-mad-scientist-on-downers voice?”
“I was using the window to reproduce my vocal sounds. It doesn’t always work, and if I talk too fast the window tries to vibrate too quickly and it shatters. I didn’t want to do that to you.”
She put her fists on her hips and scowled at him. “Yeah, well, maybe next time you can just pick up a phone and call like a normal person!”
He almost reminded her that he wasn’t a normal person, but decided not to get into that. “Clark told me about your – agreement with him. I guess you know he’s not happy about it.”
“Of course he’s not happy! He’s a man and men don’t like not being in charge!”
This time he couldn’t hold in his irritation. “I see. And, of course, you don’t identify with that mindset at all, do you?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Not your business, Superman. What does or does not happen between me and Clark stays between me and Clark.”
“No. It doesn’t.”
His flat declaration seemed to startle her. “What do – are you – why are you here, anyway?”
“What I mean is that what you do affects other people, aside from the obvious ones. I’ve seen women do stupid things that they wouldn’t have normally done if their husbands had treated them with a little kindness or respect on one particular morning. I’ve seen husbands make stupid decisions because they thought their wives were angry at them for no good reason. I’ve seen employees punch their bosses in the mouth because someone else said or did something that morning or the night before that set them on edge.” He softened his tone further. “And I’ve seen one particular reporter do some spectacularly dangerous things because she misunderstood what someone was trying to tell her, or because deep down she was trying to gain someone’s approval. That ring any bells?”
She assumed an angelic countenance. “I’ve no idea to whom you might be referring, Superman. I hear no bells.”
“Of course not. There is one specific question I wanted to ask you, though. May I?”
She released a long-suffering sigh. “Sure, as long as you’re already here.”
“I wanted to ask you if there’s anything I’ve done – or not done – that contributed to your problems with Clark.”
She lifted her hands to either side. “I don’t have any problems with Clark!”
“He seems to think you do. You told him that any kind of romantic relationship between the two of you was off the table.” He stepped closer and leaned forward at the waist. “Or did Clark misunderstand what you told him?”
She took a step back and another to one side. “Well, I didn’t use those particular words, but yeah, that was the basic meaning.”
He straightened and nodded. “Okay, now that that’s cleared up, will you answer my question?”
“Which question – oh, if you’re somehow at least partly responsible for Clark and me being just coworkers?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
She frowned and crossed her arms. “I really wish I could say that you were. That would give me someone to blame besides myself, and I think your shoulders are big enough to carry that load.” She shook her head and turned away. “But you aren’t responsible. This is between me and Clark and I’m going to ask you – as a friend – not to interfere, no matter how much you might want to.” She turned to him and gave him a pleading look. “Please?”
The puppy-dog eyes. He could never resist those soft, round, puppy-dog eyes, whether he was in sweats and sneakers or a business suit or in The Suit. He nodded. “If that’s really what you want. I won’t interfere.”
“Thank you.”
He turned to go, then stopped by the window. “If I need to come by to see you again – on some other matter entirely – I promise to call first.” He pointed to the table. “On the phone, I mean.”
She almost smiled. “Thanks. Although now that I’ve heard you do that, it wouldn’t shock me so badly. And it wouldn’t bother me if you used it to scare away burglars.”
This time he gave her a completely innocent expression. “Come now, Lois, any burglar you allowed to live couldn’t be such a bad person.”
This time she did smile. “Okay, you win. You’d better take off and get in a patrol before the bad guys get away.”
“I will.” An alarm caught his attention. “Uh-oh. Jewelry store robbery in progress. I’m sorry, Lois, but I have to go.”
He flew out the window and was out of sight in seconds, but not before he heard her last words to him.
“Don’t be a stranger, okay, big guy?”
Lois wanted Clark as just a co-worker but she wanted Superman to be her friend? Great. Could his life get any more complicated than that?
And could he keep going the way his life was now?
