The anonymous wife of Shallowford, henceforth referred to as "FarmerBabe", upon hearing of HappyGirl's first line challenge, "Kiss me, quick", was inspired to write this piece for your consideration.

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"Kiss me, quick!"

It was the annual Halloween party the Planet put on to benefit the orphanage, and the room was packed. Lois had called a few of her old boyfriends to see if they would like to escort her to the party this year, but they all "had other plans". She'd even called Lex's office, but his assistant said that unfortunately he was out of town, and wouldn't be back for some time. So, Lex was avoiding her. She'd thought so, but this just confirmed it.

She mingled through the crowd to see if Lex was there after all, and was both relieved and disappointed that she didn't see him in the crowd. Yet. He didn't always arrive at parties when everyone else did, whether it was to make a grand appearance or because he really was as busy as he appeared, Lex came and went whenever he wanted. Looks like this was one of those times. Unless he really was out of town, and not just avoiding her.

Lois continued to ignore the ignorant comments strange men kept making to her. Now and again Count Dracula'd ask her if she wanted to take his temperature. Lois smiled at him and he moved away, though if she were honest with herself she'd admit it was more of a grimace, or maybe a snarl; anyway, it made him keep leaving, and that was the point.

When the invitations to the party came out, there was a lot of hub-bub about costumes and makeup: who would wear what, who would go with whom, things like that. Lois heard, but didn't participate in their conversations. She had decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. There had been a lot of press leading up to the big celebration in Times Square on August 15, but Lois thought the day so pivotal to the forming of the word as it is today, that she should pay homage in some way. What better way than to also pay homage to another leading, albeit second rate to the Planet, publication?

Lois had, for a moment, thought about impersonating a society reporter, but wasn't sure she could bring herself to wear that much (er, little) spandex, or show that much skin. Besides, even she couldn't justify the idea without seeming catty. Speaking of Kat, there she was. How she was able to keep her outfit on, only she knew. Perhaps she was an Egyptian princess from waaaaaay back, that's the only place she could imagine that much skin, gold, and eye makeup in one outfit Lois decided to look away, she didn't want Kat to think she envied her outfit, or her date, and besides, it looked like they were moving to the dance floor and Lois didn't want to see if those scraps of material stayed on when in motion or not. Yep, there was Jimmy with his camera, making his way as quick as possible to the dance floor: Jimmy leapt in where Lois feared to - well, burn her retinas, I guess.

Jimmy was dressed as a safari hunter, but had a sign on his back that said, "Shoot pictures, not animals.", with all his camera gear slung around his neck, bouncing around as he hustled to the dance-floor. Lois guessed he was still dating the vegetarian, though she didn't see her in the crowd. Lois idly wondered how much jostling that equipment would take, Perry wouldn't be happy if Jimmy put in another expense report to repair his camera - again. Seems like Perry gave the kid a lot of opportunities to get ahead in the Planet, and Jimmy was moving up the ladder. At least he might continue moving up if Perry didn't see the picture of Kat and her date when all of Jimmy's dreams came true.

She'd stood still long enough. Dracula was coming back with another witty line; Lois could tell by the way he kept chuckling to himself. She didn't want to go near the dance-floor, so she went toward the bar to see if she could find anything to eat.

She made small talk with some people around her, hating it all the while - why couldn't people talk about real things at a party, why did it always have to be fluffy stuff that didn't matter? Finally people moved away to mingle and Lois saw Jimmy, red in the face, coming toward her.

"Hey, Lois. Chief told me to be sure to take pictures of the, uh, whole staff. You know, for the society page? I'd like to get a group shot, but that won't happen for a while." He glanced hopefully at the dance floor, but turned back to Lois when the Chief caught his eye. Lois chuckled. You can't get anything past Perry. But it sure is fun trying.

Lois didn't want one of those wall-flower pictures, a mere recording that she was at the party. She wanted the picture to to really jump out, make a poignant statement of the whole reason she dressed up as a 1940's nurse. She looked away from Jimmy for a second and saw Tall Dark and Handsome moving toward her. She couldn't believe it - he was dressed as a WWII sailor! He gets it!

Without an introduction, without even so much as a word, she grabbed his arm as he passed and spun him around. Their eyes locked.

"Kiss me, quick!"

And Clark, knowing full well what she wanted, grasped her waist, cradled her head in his free arm, and leaned her back for the long deep kiss that a sailor and nurse once shared fifty years ago in Times Square. And just as on that same day, this time there was also a photographer with his camera at the ready (though, mouth hanging wide open), recapturing the iconic pose of celebration that the whole world knows.

"This is so Lois!", thought Jimmy, as cheers and wolf-calls sounded all around them. Lois and Clark didn't hear a thing. Lois was pretty sure the kiss in the picture hadn't lasted this long, but who cares, let it go on forever.



Shallowford