The House of Luthor - Matchmaker Style 01/12
When Virginia proposed the challenge of taking a first season story and having it result in Lois and Clark being married I took up the challenge and "The Green, Green Glow of Home - Matchmaker Style" was the result.
That was all well and good, but then I started thinking - What about future episodes? How would the fact that they are now married affect the dynamic? For instance, how would "Pheromone My Lovely" have been changed by the marriage? How would it affect "Honeymoon in Metropolis" and "All Shook Up", "Witness", "Illusions of Grandeur", "Ides of Metropolis", "The Foundling", "The Rival", "Vatman" and "Fly Hard"?
In the previous stories, you've seen my take on the answer. So, now, to answer the question - ‘What if Lois and Clark were already married when House of Luthor happened?' I offer the following.
As with the series as originally aired the episodes build on one another making a contiguous story. It is recommended that if you are reading this story out of sequence you will miss some references. Please go back and start with the first episode of the set "The Green Green Glow of Home - Matchmaker Style and take the episodes in broadcast order from that point.
House of Luthor – Matchmaker Style
Rated PG-13
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
In this, the sequel to Barbarians at the Planet- Matchmaker Style. Lois and Clark have been back from the assignment in Smallville for a almost a year. The events of PML were delightful; however, Lois really has no recollection of what happened. Clark finally had a chance to give Lois a real honeymoon. Then her life had been threatened because she had witnessed a murder. Next they investigated the kidnappings of the children of wealthy families. They have dealt with a murder and a threat to the internet and the messages regarding Clark's origin. They had to deal with a rival paper and an invasion of the Daily Planet building. Now Lois and Clark have gone undercover and the investigation is being pursued.
Lois has returned to Clark's ‘old' apartment and Clark, as Charlie King, is living in Lois's old apartment with Lois's sister, Lucy.
In this particular story a lot of the dialogue is taken from the script text. I wish to express my thanks to my Beta reader Ray Reynolds for their invaluable help. This was a VERY rough draft when it first landed in his hands
*Word* is for emphasis
<"word"> is thoughts
/*word*/ audiotape playback
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Chapter 1
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Universal Locator Designation
Alpha -34 x Gamma 255 x Tau -225
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Lex was insufferably pleased with himself. Things appeared to be going just the way he had planned. He was celebrating. LexLabs had just completed a prototype of a virtual reality device and delivered it to him.
He was imagining himself soaring above the city the same way that Superman flew. The virtual world scrolled out beneath him and in his imagination he could see what he wanted to see.
Diving ground ward, he coasted above a cemetery and zeroed in on a particular headstone that read, "Clark Kent - RIP" which brought a smile to his lips.
Soaring back into the sky he flew over Lois's apartment. As he paused outside her window he saw that she was looking at bridal magazines, searching bridal gowns.
Soaring back up into the sky again, he flew over Perry White's cabana in Florida and he saw Perry, sitting in a lounge chair, a fishing pole stuck in the ground at his side, sound asleep. Lex smiled again. All of his foes had been dealt with and he felt secure in the knowledge.
His plan of making Lois completely dependent on him had succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, Kent was dead, Lois was going to be his and the one person that could have resurrected the Daily Planet was out of the way. Finally, he approached another burial plot, this one was up on top of a high mountain where no one would ever see it. The headstone simply read, "Superman." In his exuberance Lex did a slow victory roll in the air.
As he removed the helmet he returned to his penthouse living room. The fire crackled in the fireplace. He was fueled with a new determination and moved to his desk. Once there, he wrote, "Once Superman is disabled, have him dissected to find the source of his powers and duplicate them … in me."
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To prove that Luthor suffered from a case of wishful thinking, across town in Lois Lane's old apartment, Clark, in his Charlie King disguise, was in the living room floating cross legged a foot above the couch typing on a laptop when Lucy walked in from the bedroom.
At her gasp, he floated back down to the couch. She said, "It has been months now and I'm still not used to that. You're usually so … normal, that I forget."
"Sorry, Luce, I don't mean to confuse you."
"No, it's not your problem. You are who you are. I'm still just getting used to it. How much longer will you be here?"
"Hopefully, it won't take that much longer. We are working as fast on this as we can. We want things to get back to normal." He chuckled slightly, "Or at least as normal as they can be for Lois Lane and Clark Kent, if you know what I mean."
"I don't think that life will ever be really normal for you two, considering just who you are."
"We could only hope." He thought for a second before continuing, "Hungry?"
Lucy smiled and said, "Starved."
"One dinner, coming up."
As Lucy followed him into the kitchen, she asked, "What'ca workin' on, Clark?"
In a softly chiding tone, Clark corrected her, "Charlie. Remember?"
"Uh, sorry. What'ch workin' on, Charlie?"
"I'm coordinating my notes on the investigation. We've collected a lot of data and more leads. Nigel has been a font of information. I just wish it wasn't like pulling teeth to get anything out of him."
Curious, she asked, "How much more do you need?"
"I can only hope, not much more."
"I'm curious, you're living here. Lois is at your apartment. Where's Perry and everyone else?"
"Hopefully, the last place Luthor would think to look. Actually, Perry made no secret of the fact that he would be spending a lot of time at his fishing cabin, but he hinted that he might move to Florida. So that would be no surprise. The surprise for Luthor would be if he looked in and saw, Jimmy, Jack and Denny in Perry's cabin. We built a hideaway a little behind the cabin so that in the case of unexpected visitors, they can duck out and it would only be Perry, but we don't expect any. As far as Luthor knows, Perry is retired and out of the way."
"What's really happening?"
"Perry is using his contacts to put out feelers to see if he can find a buyer for the Planet. That's something he can do mostly by phone."
"I hope his line isn't bugged."
"We check it regularly to make sure it isn't. So far, so good. It sure looks like out of sight really is out of mind as far as Luthor and Perry are concerned."
Just then the phone rang. Lucy picked it up, "Lucy Lane."
Perry's gruff voice came from the earpiece. He asked, "Is Charlie there?"
"Who should I say is calling?"
"This is Buzz. Tell him to get on the phone or he won't get any more stuff. You got that?"
Lucy put her hand over the mouthpiece and had a mystified expression as she mouthed, "Buzz?"
Clark chuckled and whispered in her ear, "That's Perry playing ‘cloak and dagger."
She nodded her understanding and passed over the phone. Taking the phone, he asked, "What can I do for you, Buzz?"
"You can come up with the scratch to pay what you owe me."
"I've got it."
"Okay, make the delivery."
"I'll see you in a little while." He hung the phone up.
He looked at Lucy and said, "Something must have happened or else he wouldn't be doing that. I'll have to go see him after dinner."
Moving to the refrigerator, Clark pulled out a medium sized steak from the freezer. Pulling a pan from the cabinet he placed the still frozen steak in it and sliding his glasses down slightly used his heat vision to thaw the steak. Turning back to the refrigerator, he pulled out an onion, a head of garlic, soy sauce, olive oil, a frozen packet of sweet corn and one of green beans.
After putting the corn and beans on to heat, he pulled out a loaf of French bread and quickly sliced it. Handing it to Lucy he asked, "Could you butter some of this, please?"
As she started doing that, moving to the sink, he peeled the skin off of the onion and then held it briefly under the water from the tap. Pulling out a cutting board he proceeded to chop and dice the onion so quickly that his hands became a blur. He poured some olive oil and soy sauce into the pan with the steak and then scraped the onion from the board into the mix. He removed two cloves of garlic from the bulb, removed the skin and placed them on the cutting board. He laid the side of the knife he had used for the onion on them and gave it a gentle rap, crushing the garlic which he then scraped into the pan adding it to the mixture.
Using a pair of tongs he flipped the steak over a couple of times, making sure that both sides were coated with the mixture before transferring it to a broiler pan.
As he was doing this, he asked, "Could you get out the utensils and plates?"
As Lucy moved to comply he set the broiler pan on the range and ramped his heat vision up searing the top surface of the steak. Using the tongs he flipped the steak over and repeated the process. He asked Lucy, "How do you like your steak?"
She replied, tentatively, "Is it too much to ask for medium rare?"
Smiling he replied, "Medium rare it is. Be ready in a jiff."
Less than a minute later they were sitting down to dinner.
Lucy commented, "You make it look so easy."
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A little later, Charlie King drove up to Perry White's fishing cabin. As he climbed out of the car, Perry White came out to greet him. Along with Perry were Jimmy and Jack. As he approached, he said, "Hi, Perry. What happened?"
"Come on in, let's sit down."
Once they were seated, Perry said, "You'll never guess who I had a call from. Well, I know you won't guess, so I'll tell ya. Luthor." At this statement, Clark started to worry. Perry pressed on, "He was calling to check up on me. He was ‘worried about my health.' Wanted to see how I was doing."
"What'd you tell him?"
"I told him that I get up around nine, take a stroll on the beach. By the time I get back, Alice pulls fresh-baked bread out of the oven. Then I sit and read my papers, have my coffee. Sometime around noon, I'll walk over to the club house. There's usually a card game going on. In the afternoon, there're first run movies, arts and crafts, lemonade and cookies. I go to bed around nine, sleep like a baby. Weather's perfect, never changes, and I haven't had a cab try to run me down since I got here."
"And he believed you?"
"With a cell phone I could be anywhere. He thinks I'm in Florida. I led him to believe that after the retirement dinner, Alice and I moved. I think he bought it."
"That's a relief. He might not come sniffing around."
"How is it going with the witnesses?"
"Bill is making slow progress. He is reluctant to do more than watch for any individual that Nigel names. If any of them get so much as a parking ticket, he'll grab them up. How is your end going?"
"I've been making some calls. So far I haven't gotten anywhere. We need some kind of leverage to get them to move."
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In order not to appear too anxious to be on the inside as it were, Lois had limited the time that she spent in Luthor's quarters. Since she had accepted his proposal, she had started visiting on a more frequent basis. Anything other than that would in itself look suspicious.
Luthor had given her a key card to operate the elevator so that she could come and go as she pleased. She was cautions in the use of the card because she knew that every use was tracked electronically. When Nigel had been locked up, his personal effects had been impounded. Lois and Clark had gone through his effects along with Bill. When Lois spotted his key card, Lois asked Bill to give it to her. With some reluctance, he passed it over. Lois promised to save it for emergencies.
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Lois's position at LNN was of a very unusual nature. She didn't have any set schedule and she didn't have any firm assignment. Since she was now engaged to the owner even the head of the operation was reluctant to tell her what to do.
Not willing to just rest on her laurels, Lois found things to do. She became something of a troubleshooter. With the contacts she had developed as a reporter there had been numerous cases similar to the one that announced her presence. She had been able to confirm or, in some cases refute stories giving LNN the scoop or in the case of the latter, keeping the station from having egg on its collective face by putting out a false narrative..
This afternoon she was going to be meeting Luthor in his penthouse. Before she left she placed a call. "Hello, Charlie. Is Lucy there?"
"No, she ain't here right now. Ya wanna leave a message?"
"Yeah, tell her that I may be a little late for dinner. I'm meeting with my fiancé this afternoon. He called and said he had some things that we needed to go over."
"I'll be sure and pass the message on."
"Thanks." She hung up the phone and smiled knowing that Clark had the message and would be watching over her. She wasn't sure if her line was bugged or not, but they weren't taking any chances thus the dialect from Clark and the veiled message from Lois.
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A couple of hours later, Lois showed up at the penthouse. When she exited the elevator, Luthor approached and attempted to give her a kiss. As he neared, she turned her face so that he kissed her cheek rather than her lips.
Luthor's disappointment was obvious, but he controlled himself. This only served to fuel his determination to dominate this very independent woman once she was his, legally.
Taking her hand, he led her into his office. As they entered, he glanced in the direction of a set of bookcases which lined one wall. Lois had noticed him glancing in that direction each time they had entered the office and was becoming suspicious.
They crossed the room to a large table. Laid out on top of the table was a set of blueprints.
Lois asked, "What is all this?"
Smugly, he replied, "These, my dear, are the plans for our new mansion. Forty rooms, a garage, stable, tennis courts, swimming pool … all the comforts of home."
Lois moved over and started to look at the plans.
Luthor pointed out a feature and said, "This is wrong. I wanted the doors off the master side balcony to be sliders. French doors make the room look smaller."
Lois gasped out, "Lex, the master bedroom is three thousand square feet. That's more than twice the size of my apartment."
He pointed at another feature and asked, "Well, what about the exercise area? Should we put it back on the ground floor?"
Lois knew that she had to play along; they had come too far to blow it now. She sighed and said, "No, I think this is right. It'll be great to get out of bed and have that stair climber staring me right in the face saying 'Now, Lois. Now.'"
Luthor couldn't pass up that lead-in, "But Darling, that'll be my line." Luthor had been pointing out the features and as he did, he worked his way around behind Lois. He was so close that Lois could feel his breath on her neck and shoulders. Shortly his breath wasn't all she felt as his lips started at the edge of her neckline on her shoulder and kissed their way to and up her neck.
Lois pulled away slightly and said, "Thank you, Lex, for understanding about my wanting to wait ... for our wedding night. I just want it to be special."
Luthor smiled a secret smile. She had absolutely no idea what he had planned for their wedding night. He said simply, "It will be." He thought, <Making you submit will be the culmination of a year's effort.> as he kissed the side of her neck again.
While Luthor had been kissing her bare skin, Lois had been feeling nothing so much as revulsion. Now, after his comment, she started to shiver with that revulsion and perhaps a little fear that something would still happen, that he would get on to them and take his pound of flesh from her.
Luthor felt her shiver and misinterpreted it, thinking that she was trembling in anticipation and smiled to himself.
Just then, there was a knock on the door and without waiting for it to be acknowledged, Mrs. Cox walked in. Without preamble, she asked, "Lex, could we run through your schedule for tomorrow?"
Lex was irritated by the interruption. He felt that he was finally making some headway with his intended conquest and Mrs. Cox had destroyed the mood he had been creating. If this kind of behavior continued, no matter how much he relied on her or enjoyed her company, she would have to be put in her place. Reluctantly he turned to her and said, "Of course. Come in Mrs. Cox."
Lois was a keen observer. She was grateful for the reprieve that Mrs. Cox provided. She had caught the looks that Mrs. Cox had been giving her and was sure that she knew the source and was sure that sometime in the future she would be able to use the information. She watched as Lex and Mrs. Cox moved over to his desk. She laid out his calendar.
Once Lex was there and looking over her shoulder, she pointed at an entry and said, "You'll notice the Series K field test is set for 3:45 p.m."
Lois noticed Lex's reaction; he smiled and said, "Excellent."
As soon as he had uttered that word, the phone on the desk rang. Mrs. Cox picked it up and listened briefly. Pulling the phone away she said, "Bagdonis in Chicago."
Luthor looked at Lois apologetically and said, "I'll take it in the library."
comments go here TBC
