Ambivalence
Rated T
A/N: Thanks to KenJ & Morgana for beta-ing this chapter.
**********
Two months post-wedding...
Today was the first day the renovated Planet would be open. Clark walked to work alone. He’d adjusted to working in the same room with Lois, to seeing her every day. Some days were better than others. The week he’d been writing up Luthor as a wealthy philanthropist, he’d gone out of his way to keep an eye on Lois—to do the little things he’d always done before to comfort her. He’d even unbent enough to ask her how she was doing, though not enough to actually talk to her about how he was doing or to spend time outside of work with her. He was sure that, given her understanding of Luthor’s character, she must have fallen for him and thus, still be grieving her lost lover. For the first time, he could almost understand why she’d agreed to marry Luthor. The week after, well, it had hit him that Lois might have really loved Luthor, and he’d almost hated her for being so blind to Luthor’s true nature. She had let Luthor destroy their lives—all because she’d refused to admit that Clark might be right about him. That week Clark had barely been able to string together two words past the anger choking him. God help him, he was still in love with her. If only he could excise that love and the hurt, then he could be indifferent, could move on. Unfortunately, he’d never been indifferent to Lois Lane.
He’d reached the Planet. Looking up at the globe, relief surged through him, followed by a bitter taste in his mouth. The Planet was officially back. Back because it had been destroyed. He could almost smell the smoke tinged with printer’s ink that had filled the area once the bomb had exploded. If only people and relationships could be as easily rebuilt as things. The Daily Planet was back, but the “hottest team in town” was still in ruins. He was still in ruins and he was pretty sure that Lois was too. And he still didn’t have a clue how to begin that rebuilding process.
Clark had barely gotten his computer booted up when he heard Lois complaining about the new systems. Back in the old Planet building, it seemed natural to go help her, but somehow, the distance between their two desks seemed farther than it had ever been. Fortunately, Jimmy stepped in and began explaining how exactly she could retrieve her e-mail and faxes.
“Lane! Kent! In my office!” Perry bellowed from his office door.
Clark forced himself not to exchange a look with Lois. He had no clue what Perry wanted. At the door Clark gestured for Lois to go first and then followed her.
“Close the door and take a seat,” Perry said, sitting down behind his desk.
Lois sat down. Clark closed the door, then sat down in the other chair in front of Perry’s desk. Neither of them said anything.
“Now, I think I’ve given you both plenty of time to get over whatever it is that’s been goin’ on with the two of you. Personal problems have no place in the newsroom. I need my best team back.” Perry leaned forward, his elbows on the desk. “And if I can’t have my best team back, I’m gonna to have a hard time explainin’ to the suits upstairs why I’m keepin’ you both on. Capiche?”
“Yes, sir,” Clark said.
Lois just nodded.
“All right. Cops found Dr. Heller, a renowned plastic surgeon, dead in a dumpster this mornin’.” He held out a piece of paper. “Here’s the info. I want you two to work on this together.”
Clark took the paper.
“Go get me that story!”
Slowly, they both walked back toward their desks.
“Do you mind if I check my voicemail before we go?” Clark asked politely.
“Uh, no. That’s fine,” Lois answered.
“All right,” Clark said and headed to his desk.
**********
Lois sat back down at her desk, hoping it wouldn’t take Clark long to get his messages so that they could get the heck out of here. Being with Clark was awkward, but not as awkward as being here. New computer systems. New desk. She was just glad Perry hadn’t decided to rearrange everyone’s desks when they renovated. Jimmy had left his copy of the Metropolis Star on her desk. She glowered at the poll visible on the front page, then pitched the paper in her trash can. Twenty percent of Metropolis was anti-Superman. Pah! She’d overheard a few people arguing about Lex and why Superman hadn’t saved him. Coming into the building this morning, she’d felt guilty and livid all over again. She (and Clark) had ferreted out a lot of Lex’s secrets, but somehow it hadn’t made her feel much better. Lex had been a monster, and she had missed it completely. And today, the first day the rebuilt Planet was open, she was sure Lex was on everyone’s mind.
No one at the Planet had made the mistake of telling her to her face that it was her fault that they’d been working in temporary offices, her fault that the Planet had been bombed in the first place, but she’d heard the speculation over the past few weeks. She’d been in a stall and heard a few women in the ladies’ room talking about whether Lex had bombed the Planet to get back at her for something, or because he hadn’t liked the schemes the Planet had disrupted over the years, or just because he didn’t want his wife working there. Many conversations died away when she walked in. Just this morning, Denise had called Lex a “lowlife, scum-sucking criminal” and wondered aloud how anybody could like him. She’d apologized as soon as she’d seen Lois, but it was yet another time Lois had had her face rubbed in the magnitude of her mess. Today of all days, the Planet was the last place she wanted to be. She glanced over at Clark. He appeared to be done with his phone, so she jabbed at her monitor’s off button, and grabbed her purse.
Just then Perry came out of his office. He stopped in between their desks with a frown on his face.
“What are you two still doin’ here? I thought you were going out to cover that murder,” he said pointedly.
Clark stood. “Sorry, Chief. I was just checking my voicemail in case there were any related messages from my sources. We’re headed out now.”
“Aw, as long as you’re here, might as well listen to this too,” Perry said, then turned to yell to the rest of the newsroom. “Okay, everybody, gather round. I’ve got an announcement to make. As you all know, we’ve been through some pretty difficult times lately, and the new owner feels that some of you might be suffering from stress—y’know, anxiety, short fuses, etc.,”—he turned a beady eye on Lois and Clark, then continued—“so as of today, the Daily Planet now has its very own staff psychiatrist.”
“What? Perry, you can’t be serious!” Lois yelled. She didn’t care what Perry said. No one was going to make her sit on a couch and listen to psychobabble.
Perry gave her a hard look. “Serious as a heart attack. Now many of you might be familiar with this woman from her syndicated column that we’ve been runnin’, ‘Healing the,’ uh, ‘Inner Self on the Couch.’”
”They yanked the jumble puzzle for that. I was just getting good at it,” Jimmy remarked.
“Yeah, well, I was gettin’ pretty good at it myself,” Perry said. “I mean I’m not so hot on this touchy feely stuff so that’s why I never read the column. But it’s helpin’ to sell newspapers and the good doctor’s convinced our publisher that, well, she can be of some help here.”
Lois scoffed. “How do we even know that she’s a real doctor? Half these media shrinks are frauds.”
An attractive redhead marched to the front of the crowd to stand by Perry. “Oh, I’m a real doctor, Ms. Lane,” she said in a sweet voice that had a slight edge to it.
Lois fought back a blush. “Of course, I was talking about the other half,” she said, pasting on a smile.
“Dr. Carlin, I was just explainin’ about you to the staff,” Perry said, turning towards the woman.
“I’m looking forward to meeting all of you over the next several days. Please feel free to stop by my office anytime,” Dr. Carlin said in rippling tones.
Perry clapped his hands together. “Okay folks, let’s get to it. We’ve got some blank pages to fill in.” He turned to Dr. Carlin and gestured towards the newsroom. “They’re all yours.”
Dr. Carlin took a few steps closer to Lois, then said with a smile, “Ms. Lane, I’m especially looking forward to meeting with you.”
Lois kept the smile pasted on her face. She might have thought about therapy, but if she ever saw a shrink, she would see the woman Lucy recommended, not some sugary sweet woman her employer foisted on her, and there was no way she would ever admit to needing therapy. “Dr. Carlin, a lot of people have tried to get me on a couch, and after all this time, I don’t think I’m gonna start with a psychiatrist.”
Doctor Carlin gave a light laugh. “In my experience, it’s the people who say they’re fine that need help the most.”
Lois's hands clenched into fists involuntarily. She widened her smile. “Uh-huh. Well, ‘scuse me. Have work to do,” she said, then headed towards the elevator, hoping that Clark would follow her and that Dr. Carlin wouldn’t.
**********
Clark watched Lois's encounter with Dr. Carlin. She was still too stubborn to admit how much the whole fiasco with Luthor had affected her. She could barely even admit that she’d been wrong about Luthor in the first place, Clark thought savagely, then remonstrated himself for the thought. He wasn’t being fair to her. Lois had apologized to him for not listening to him about Luthor, and Lois never apologized.
And, after all, Dr. Carlin was a doctor. They’d interviewed enough medical personnel for him to realize that all members of the medical profession suffered guilt by association with her father. Maybe Perry would force Lois to talk to Dr. Carlin, just like he was forcing Lois and Clark to work together. Without even glancing back at him, Lois took off for the elevators. He grimaced, then grabbed his coat and followed her. The Daily Planet might be back to normal, but it was looking less and less likely that things would ever be back to normal between the two of them.
They walked in silence most of the way to the dumpster on Fifth and Pine. At first it had been simply uncomfortable, now it was rapidly becoming unbearable. Clark could hear Lois's heart racing, but there didn’t seem to be any safe topics to talk about today.
Lois kept walking faster and faster, practically bulldozing people out of her way. Finally they turned onto a less crowded street. A can was on the street, and she kicked it viciously. Clark guessed she was taking out her frustration over Dr. Carlin’s remarks, or maybe the fact that she had to work with him again, or maybe simply the fact that it was sunny outside. With Lois, he never knew.
“Did the police say if Dr. Heller was murdered here or just dumped here?” he asked, trying to steer Lois's thoughts onto work.
Lois rolled her eyes. “I have no idea. You took the paper.”
“Sorry, I forgot.” He pulled the paper out of his pocket and handed it to her.
Lois skimmed it. “It doesn’t say,” she said flatly,
“Okay.”
As they rounded the corner, graffitied on the wall were the words:
Superman
Tyranny
Over
People
Clark felt his gut clench. He’d written up an interview with Superman as one of the first articles published in the Planet’s temporary offices. Superman was currently away for an indefinite period of time. Crime rates had risen initially, but settled back down as the police department handled the increase. In a way Clark had been surprised because he’d primarily helped out with disasters—traffic accidents, fires, and the like—but then again, people slowed down for the cop with the radar gun. He guessed Superman’s presence had been just as much of a deterrent. But lately hostility towards Superman was growing. He hadn’t saved Luthor—which for some reason had people up in arms, despite Luthor’s criminality. And people didn’t like that he’d left the city “unprotected.” Not that he’d had a choice about any of that, thanks to Luthor, but no one knew that.
Meanwhile Lois gestured angrily at the graffiti. “Look at this! Who are these idiots?”
Clark took a deep breath, willing himself to sound unaffected. “Well, whoever they are, they were clever enough to create an acrostic,” he said evenly.
“A what?” Lois asked as they began walking again.
“An acrostic. It’s a word or a message subliminally hidden in a series of lines. In this case the first letter of each one of the words spells the word ‘stop.’”
“Oh, well, they’re still idiots,” she said firmly.
At that moment they arrived at the dumpster in question. Lois walked around it, looking for anything that the police might have missed. She made a face. “It’s ironic, isn’t it? A doctor who makes people look beautiful ends up in a dumpster.”
As she rounded the far corner of the dumpster, a homeless man jumped out and took off running.
Clark slowly ran after him, yelling that they only wanted to talk to him. The homeless man showed no signs of slowing down, and Clark realized he wouldn’t be able to catch up without using super speed. Fortunately, he’d regained most of his strength, so he grabbed a tire off the ground and threw it at the man. The tire landed dead center over him, and he fell to the ground. Clark jogged over and removed the tire, quick before Lois could see it.
“You ok?” Clark asked the man as he took the tire off.
“Mister, I don’t know nothin’!”
“About what? Relax, we just want to talk to you.”
The man’s eyes widened as Lois came striding up to them.
“How’d you catch him?” Lois asked Clark.
“He got, uh, tired,” Clark replied. He kept his hands close to the homeless guy in case the guy had any more ideas about taking off. “Look, we’re reporters. We just want to know if you can tell us anything about the body that was found in that alley.”
The homeless man’s eyes skittered back and forth between the two of them. He flinched and his heart rate spiked as Lois took a step closer. “I don’t know nothin’,” he repeated.
“Lois, I think some money would be a really good idea about now.”
“Where’s your wallet?” she shot back.
Clark suppressed a sigh. Ever since Luthor, some days he couldn’t do anything right.
“Coat pocket. Would you rather keep an eye on him while I dig it out?”
“No, it’s fine—if you pay me back half.”
“Of course.”
Lois dug through her wallet, pulled out two twenties, and held them just out of the homeless man’s reach. “All right, what’d you see?”
The homeless guy turned to Clark. “I saw two guys dumping a body. I heard one of ‘em call the other one ‘Harry,’ cept that when they left I saw that it wasn’t guys; it was chicks.”
“Well did you get a good look at either one of them?” Clark asked.
“Yeah, one,” he said and grabbed the money out of Lois's hand. He pointed to Lois. “It was her,” he said and took off running.
“Well that was a waste of forty bucks,” Lois said disgustedly.
Clark wasn’t so sure, but there was no way he was going to actually tell Lois that. The man had been genuinely scared of Lois. Obviously, Lois might hate doctors, but there was no way that she’d murdered the plastic surgeon, which meant the guy must not have gotten a very good look. However, they had learned that two women had been involved, which was more than they’d known before. Silently, he pulled out a twenty and handed it to Lois. “What do you want to do now?” he asked her.
She looked at her watch. “I’d say the good doctor’s office might be our best bet. Think everyone will be out to lunch by now?”
“Do you know where the office is?”
“I think the address was on that paper.”
“Sounds good to me. Is it close enough to walk or do you want to take a cab?”
Lois cast a sideways glance at him, mentally deciding whether she could put up with the silence for long enough to walk. “Let’s take a cab,” she said.
Without a word, Clark gestured for her to precede him back to the main road where they’d be likely to find a taxi.
**********
“So how do you want to play this?” Clark asked Lois as they walked up the steps to Dr. Heller’s office.
Lois shrugged. “Depends on who’s in the office.”
Clark barely kept himself from rolling his eyes.
A young woman with short blond hair wearing jeans was sorting through files when they walked in the door. “Oh, I’m sorry. The office is closed,” she said.
Clark smiled at her. “That’s all right. We’re not here for an appointment.”
Lois stepped up to the counter. “We’re reporters for the Daily Planet, and we’re investigating Dr. Heller’s murder. Can you tell us anything about what he’d been working on lately?”
The woman smiled and directed her reply to Clark. “I’m sorry. I’m just a temp, so I don’t know anything about Dr. Heller.”
“Is there someone else we could talk to then?” he asked politely.
“Um, not really. I don’t know if anyone else will even be in today.”
“I’m sure we’ll be able to find what we need if we just take a quick look through his files,” Lois said firmly.
The temp frowned uncomfortably. “I’m sorry. I can’t let you do that. HIPPA regulations and all that.”
“Are you sure?” Lois asked, holding up a twenty.
“Yes, I am,” the woman replied coldly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
Clark grabbed Lois's arm. “Thanks for your time anyway,” he said to the temp, and then steered Lois firmly out the door.
“Clark! What do you think you’re doing? We could have talked her into it!” she hissed.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“You’re too cautious! I’m sure flipping through the files would have given us something! You’re always making things harder than they have to be!”
Clark bit back a retort. Using a sledgehammer when you just needed a little honey certainly hadn’t made things easy. The temp had been basically honest and trying to bribe her instead of reason with her had just made the situation impossible. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Lois,” he said evenly. “So what do you want to do now?”
Lois glared at him. “I want to look through Dr. Heller’s files!”
“Do you want to wait and see if the temp leaves? Or shall we go talk to our other sources and check back tomorrow?”
She stopped for a moment, considering, then sighed. “Let’s talk to our other sources and check back tomorrow. But if that doesn’t get us access to Dr. Heller’s files, then we come back tomorrow night,” she said severely.
“Okay.”
**********
Lois stalked out to the curb and hailed a taxi. She surreptitiously rubbed her arm where Clark had touched her. He hadn’t touched her in months, and even though she’d been furious with him, it had felt warm and right. She swallowed hard, forcing the rising tears back down. Having Clark agree with her had almost been worse than his usual speech about how dangerous and illegal breaking and entering was. It only served to emphasize the distance between them. He hadn’t even fought with her when she’d yelled at him. She was used to him remaining mostly calm, even when they fought, but not this simple acquiescence…. It had been over two months since Clark had been her best friend and Superman had been a part of her life. Back when Lex’s power plant had driven Superman away and Clark had left, Lois remembered wondering which of them she’d miss more. Now she knew: Clark.
Oh, she still missed Superman—although in some ways she was glad she hadn’t seen him after how awful things had gone that night in her apartment—but normally she’d only seen Superman for short periods of time, only talked to him after he’d rescued her or when he was answering questions about some other rescue he’d just completed. Superman she could live without. Clark on the other hand…. Clark had somehow become essential to her well-being over the past year, and now they couldn’t even have a proper talk. Some days she wished he would just lose his temper and fight with her. At least then she’d be talking to the real him, rather than to this polite stranger that had taken his place.
**********
By the end of the day, neither of them had much to show for their various phone calls. Clark had asked Jimmy to get him Dr. Heller’s financial records for the past 6 months, but Jimmy was backed up with other research requests. He’d promised to try to get the info to them by tomorrow evening at the latest.
“Lois, I think I’m going to head down to the police station. See if Henderson’s picked up that homeless guy we ran into earlier today. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Okay, Clark. See you tomorrow,” she replied, noting that he hadn’t even asked if she wanted to come with him. She glared at his retreating back. Two could play at that game. She shut down her computer and headed home. She and her black clothing had a date with Dr. Heller’s office tonight.
**********
The next morning Clark woke up feeling somehow different. Better. He lay there for a minute, trying to pinpoint what exactly it was, and then realized that he was floating. For the first time in months, he spun into the Suit and took off from his balcony to do a patrol. Superman was back! He’d barely started his regular route when his super-hearing cut in. Someone was falling. He bit back a grin. This time he could actually do something about what he heard. It was like having an amputated limb suddenly regrow. He swerved and poured on speed, catching the falling construction worker with plenty of time to spare.
“You ok?” he asked the construction worker, as he set the man down.
“Yeah. Thanks, Superman,” the man said.
Another man stepped out of the crowd that had gathered below the falling worker. He glared at Superman, then put his hands on his hips. “Well, isn’t this just dandy? Superman finally shows up and saves the day again!” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Is there a problem?” Superman asked, folding his arms across his chest in his hero stance.
“Yeah! You!” the guy responded.
The construction worker stared at the man. “What, are you nuts? Superman’s the greatest!”
“Oh yeah, well, if he’s so great, why didn’t he save Lex Luthor?”
“I wanted to,” Superman said.
“Wanted to?” The man gave him a look that could peel paint. “Wanted to’s not good enough. Lex Luther did a lot of good for this city and you let him die.”
Clark’s thoughts raced. He’d read the polls. He knew that hostility towards Superman was a growing trend, but this was ridiculous. Luthor had been exposed as a criminal—he of all people knew that fact because he’d written a majority of the articles on Luthor, in addition to gathering the evidence in the first place—yet there were people who actually preferred Luthor to Superman. And it was Luthor’s fault in the first place that Superman couldn’t save him, not that Clark was going to let any hint of that get out.
He raised his hands placatingly. Maybe he couldn’t fix Luthor’s death, or the hostility other people felt, but he could try to reach this man. “There’s more to it than you know, but believe me, I didn’t want him to die.”
The bystander sneered. “Why should I believe you? You’re nothing but a freak in a blue suit. You know what I think? You save who you want to save. You call yourself Superman? I think you think you’re super god.”
Clark had no idea what to say to that. He looked at the man for a moment, then said, “All life is valuable. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have somewhere else I need to be.” He didn’t wait for a response before taking off and heading towards the Daily Planet.
Clark landed in the deserted alley behind the Planet and spun out of the Suit. Should he write up the story of Superman’s return? It was big news, and there hadn’t been a single reporter on site. However, Clark Kent had been the one to write up the story of Superman’s absence. He wasn’t sure he could afford to solidify that connection in people’s minds by writing up the story of Superman’s return. No, he’d wait. Word would get out and at one of his rescues the press would be all over him. Having settled that, he walked into the Planet’s lobby.
The second he walked through the revolving doors, he saw Lois, talking to the vendor and pouring a box of chocolate bars into her bag. “Am I still getting the bulk discount?” Clark heard her ask.
“Oh sure. By the way, I’m with you one hundred percent. Go get ‘em,” the vendor replied.
Lois seemed confused by that, but merely agreed with the man, then walked over the elevator.
As much as she tried to pretend she wasn’t stressed, Clark had never seen her go through as much chocolate—her drug of choice—as she had the past two months. He sighed. If only he knew what to do about any of their problems—or could at least decide if he even wanted Lois in his life. He walked over to wait for the elevator by her.
“Morning, Lois,” he said.
“Morning, Clark,” she replied.
They waited in awkward silence until the elevator doors opened. No one else stepped in with them. Was it that obvious that things were tense between them?
“Clark, do I look okay to you?” Lois asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“People are looking at me funny.”
“I see,” he said, staring determinedly at the elevator doors. Chocolate. Paranoia now. If only she’d just talk to someone. Get some stuff off her chest.
“Any luck at the police station last night?” Lois asked.
“Not really. I stayed there while the detectives interviewed that homeless guy, but he didn’t tell them anything new.”
“So am I on my way to the big house then?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Clark said quietly.
“Well, you’ll never guess what I turned up last night,” Lois said, sounding like the cat who got the canary.
“What?”
“Well, I took a little stroll down to Dr. Heller’s office and—”
Clark whipped around to face her. “Lois! What were you thinking? I thought we were going to go back and—” he began, then swallowed his ire. He couldn’t let her see how much she’d gotten to him, how much he worried about her. Telling her the secret of his feelings for her had been one of the many bombs that had destroyed their relationship. He had to remain professional. He forced himself to relax, then asked in a cool tone, “Did you find anything?”
Lois's eyes narrowed. “Yes, I did. I copied his year-to-date file. The most recent surgery he performed was a full-facial reconstruction and had no patient name on it. And he billed them for five times as much as the other facial reconstruction surgeries in the file.”
“Sounds promising. Who paid for it?”
“ACL Corporation.” She shook her head. “I’ve never heard of them.”
“Me either. Guess we should get Jimmy to look into them.
She tapped her foot. “I hope he’s not still backed up.”
“Me too.”
Just then the elevator doors opened. Lois was halfway into the bullpen before Clark had even made it out of the elevator. And people think Superman is fast, he thought sourly.
“Jimmy!” she called as she strode towards her desk.
Jimmy was already headed towards her. He glared at her. “I just want you to know. What you did took a lot of guts,” he said in a low growl.
Lois stopped dead. She’d never heard Jimmy sound this upset with her. “Uh—”
Perry and Dr. Carlin walked up. “Lois, what in the Sam Hill was that stunt you pulled last night?” Perry demanded. “Our publisher’s been all over me like a bad rash.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Chief,” she said with a blank stare.
“I’m talking about your virtuoso performance on the late news,” Perry said.
Clark frowned. “You were on the news?”
“Y’know if you have an opinion to express, you might consider using our editorial page,” Perry suggested.
“I wasn’t on the news.”
“Are you saying you weren’t at that anti-Superman demonstration last night?” Dr. Carlin asked, an eyebrow arched up.
“What? Course not! I was home eating chocolate. Cottage cheese. Chocolate flavored cottage cheese. It’s a new flavor. I was doing my laundry,” Lois babbled and looked at Clark as though he could confirm where she’d been.
Clark glowered. He couldn’t exactly tell everyone that she’d been breaking into Dr. Heller’s office, and anyway, he hadn’t actually been with her since she hadn’t bothered to tell him what she was up to.
“Lois, you come with me,” Perry said firmly and led her into one of the conference rooms. Clark followed them. Perry turned on the TV and began to play a video of the late news.
The video showed Lois standing in front of the courthouse steps at what was clearly a protest against Superman. She brushed her hair out of her face, then said, “I was there when Lex Luthor died. I prayed Superman would save him, but for some reason he decided not to. I think the citizens of Metropolis have a right to ask: isn’t Lex Luthor’s blood on Superman’s hands?”
Clark felt the breath whoosh out of his lungs as though someone had punched him in the gut. It was one thing for twenty percent of the city to be anti-Superman. It was another thing entirely for Lois herself to be anti-Superman. He’d never have expected this in a million years. She must have loved Luthor far more than he’d realized.
The video ended, and Perry turned to Lois. “Now, I could be wrong. I mean I’ve only worked with you for about five years, but I’m seein’ some remarkable similarities here.”
Lois walked toward the television, then turned back. “That’s not me! It’s some kind of sick joke.” She shot Clark another look.
Clark looked away. He didn’t know what to make of the whole thing, but he knew Lois had been suppressing a lot of her feelings.
“It’s no joke, Lois; it’s a cry for help,” Dr. Carlin said. “What you’re demonstrating are signs of post-traumatic stress: short-term memory loss, erratic behavior. But I can help. If you’ll let me.”
Lois crossed her arms. “No, thank you.”
Perry put a hand on her arm. “Now, Lois, you know I’m not one to meddle in the lives of my reporters, but I would strongly suggest that you take the good doctor up on her offer.”
Lois's arms slid to her sides. “Perry!”
Perry gave her a stern look
“Well, I can’t right now! We have to attend Lex’s will reading. It’s part of our series on the break-up of Lex Corp,” she said obstinately.
“Yeah, but that’s not until this afternoon. That gives you plenty of time to have a nice little chat with Dr. Carlin,” Perry said.
“Yes, but I’m supposed to meet Bobby this morning, because the will reading is this afternoon. Look, Perry, can I talk to you for a minute in your office?”
Perry gave her a measuring look, then acquiesced.
Lois dropped her purse off at her desk, then headed in to Perry’s office and shut the door. Perry was already sitting at his desk, but Lois refused to sit. “Perry, I know you’re just worried about me, but that really wasn’t me. I know where I was last night and it wasn’t at an anti-Superman demonstration.”
“And can anyone else verify that?”
She made a face. “Well, not exactly—although I do have the copies to prove it. I was trying to avoid being seen, if you know what I mean.”
Perry’s eyebrows shot up. “Ah. Somethin’ I don’t really want to know about, huh?”
“Exactly.”
“Then why wasn’t your partner with you?”
“He was busy at the police station. We split up, ok?” Lois said defensively.
“I thought I told you to work on this story together,” Perry said, tapping a pencil on the desk.
“We are! It’s just a—distribution of duties. I did some looking around somewhere, and Clark checked out another lead at the police station.”
“I still think you should talk to Dr. Carlin.”
“Perry, don’t you think I should be investigating who was actually at that Superman demonstration? After all,” she paused as a sudden thought hit her and then continued on, “after all, we are investigating the murder of a plastic surgeon. What if this ties in?”
“Honey, how do you know you’re not actually suffering from post-traumatic stress?”
Lois gave him a hard look. “Perry! How many dangerous things have I been through and not once have you sent me to a shrink!”
“Now, Lois, honey, you know there’s no comparison. You almost married the man. Danger in your personal life is different from danger in your professional life.”
“I said ‘no,’” she said quietly.
“What?”
“I said, ‘no,’ to Lex. I wouldn’t have married him.”
“When?”
“At the altar. Look, Perry, you’re right that I don’t really want to talk about it, but even though I didn’t realize that Lex was a criminal, I did realize that I didn’t love him and didn’t want to marry him, before you showed up. Yes, the aftermath has been”—she took a deep breath—“far from pleasant. But I was not on the news last night. How could you think that I’d say something like that about Superman?”
“Maybe because he didn’t save Luthor?”
“Perry, I didn’t want the man to die, but I’m not grieving his loss. I didn’t love him. I didn’t want to marry him. I just—didn’t know how to handle things once the Planet was gone.” She shrugged. “I’ll be fine, Perry.”
He gave her a long look. “All right—for now. But if anything else happens, you will talk to Dr. Carlin.”
She shook her head. “If you’re going to make it a choice between keeping my job and talking to a shrink, I’ll talk to a shrink, but really, I’d rather talk to someone other than Dr. Carlin. There’s something about that woman that just strikes me the wrong way.”
“We’ll see,” Perry said. His look softened. “If you need a friend, you know I’m always here for you, darlin’.”
“Thanks, Perry.”
“Now go finish that story with your partner. ”
Lois gave him an ironic salute. “Yes, sir.”
