Ambivalence
Rated T
A/N: Thanks to KenJ and Morgana for beta-ing this chapter.
**********
The next morning Lois looked back over her how-to-pursue-Clark list from the other night. She wasn’t going to bring coffee again today, just in case Clark decided to reciprocate from yesterday. No need to set herself up to look ridiculous. Besides, if Ben thought buying Clark coffee once meant they were dating, he’d have them married if she bought Clark coffee two days in a row. So, what did that leave her with? Clark wouldn’t go to lunch with her. She could still ask how his evening had been. Maybe something else would strike her on her way to work or once she got there. She dressed and headed into the office a little early.
**********
A delivery man with an armful of packages was heading into the Planet. Remembering how good it had felt to help the woman in the deli the day before, Lois held the door for him and smiled. “Nice day,” she said.
“Thanks!” the man said, giving her a smile. “It is. I’m really enjoying these sunny days. Not looking forward to winter.”
“Me too. Well, have a good day,” she said, a trifle awkwardly.
“You too.”
The elevator was already waiting when she got there, so she was able to get right on. The research assistant who had caught Jimmy’s eye was the only other person who got on. Lois gave her a slight smile and said, “Good morning,” surprising even herself.
The girl’s eyes widened, then she looked down at the floor, mumbling “Good morning” back.
Lois wondered a bit at that. She knew she had a reputation for ruthlessness in pursuit of a story and perhaps a bit of a temper, but had it grown to where the new people were afraid of her even before seeing one of her passions? Perhaps so. The thought, which once would have comforted her as evidence of her dedication to her career, now seemed yet more evidence of her failures. She swallowed hard, forcing the emotion back into its little box. She was not going to go soft. Lex might have ruined much of her life, but she refused to give up her career. She might break down at home, but there was no way she was going to lose it at work. Work was no place to deal with personal feelings. Her experiences with Claude had taught her that.
Willing herself to look unaffected, she strode out of the elevator and over to her desk, giving people curt nods as she passed. With deliberate movements, she hung up her coat and booted up her computer. Taking a few deep breaths now that she was where no one could see them, she forced herself to calmly read through her e-mails and look over the wire.
**********
Clark stepped out of the elevator, carefully carrying two cups of coffee from Ben’s. Lois was already in. He walked over and set the coffee on her desk.
“G’morning, Lois.”
Lois turned and gave him a slight smile. “Thanks, Clark.”
He shrugged. “It was my turn,” he said and headed over to his own desk.
Lois picked up her coffee and a notebook, then followed him, sitting on the edge of his desk the way he’d sat on hers uncounted times. It was amazing how just being with him soothed her despite the distance between them. “How was your night?” she asked.
“Fine,” Clark said, holding in a grimace. For some reason the fact that everyone knew Superman was back meant there had been more work for him than usual. He hoped things would settle down soon. “You?”
“It was okay, I think.”
Clark stared at his computer, putting all his focus into booting it up and getting ready to work.
“So, uh, I was thinking we should make a list of what we want to get done today,” Lois said.
“Sounds good. What do you have so far?”
“Well, actually, I haven’t started. I thought I’d see what was on your mental list first.”
Clark gave her a quizzical look. “Okay. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Henderson yesterday. Did you?”
“Nope.” Lois wrote “Henderson” on her notepad.
“Have you talked to Jimmy yet this morning?” Clark asked.
“No, not yet.”
“I hope he found something on Sasho Corp and Dr. Kelly.”
“And the Carlin building,” she added, writing all three items on her list. “Have you heard anything else from your contacts?”
“Nope, not a thing. You?”
“Not yet.”
“So do you want to call Henderson or shall I?”
Lois made a face. “I’m probably in his black book right now. Maybe you should call him.”
“All right.”
“Do you want to take our research into the conference room?”
Clark looked down at his desk. Did he want to spend hours in a conference room with Lois? No. But would the conference room be the fastest way for them to finish this investigation? Yes. He forced himself to meet her gaze. “If you want to,” he said shortly.
“All right then. Well, I’ll just let you check your messages, and, uh, I’ll finish checking mine, and then we can get our stuff from Jimmy and take it into the conference room.”
Clark gave a short nod, then picked up his phone.
Realizing that was probably a hint for her to leave, Lois stood up and walked back over to her desk.
How had Clark done it? How had he kept pursuing her day after day even though she’d treated him so badly? How had he kept from becoming discouraged or just plain tired of dealing with her crap? Just get through today, she told herself. Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.
She finished going through her e-mail and voicemails—nothing related to Dr. Carlin there. Time to head into the conference room.
“Jimmy!” she hollered.
After a few moments, Jimmy arrived at her desk. “Hey Lois! Wanting your research from yesterday or already onto something new?”
She gave a small smile. “Yesterday’s. Find anything interesting?”
“I pulled the latest financial reports from both Sasho Corp and Dr. Kelly, as well as any other background information I could find. As far as the Carlin Building went, Sasho Corp was the only one who was listed as an owner. But get this: they took out an extra insurance policy through—dah duh dah!”—Jimmy flourished a folder—“Lexel Investments. Sound familiar?”
Lois's brow furrowed. “Was that the—”
“Same company Luthor used to turn the Daily Planet’s bombing into a windfall—yes,” Clark said, walking up behind her.
Lois turned to face him. “Sounds like we might be onto something.”
“Well, let me know if you need anything else,” Jimmy said, handing the stack of folders and paperwork to Clark.
“Thanks, Jimmy,” Clark said as Jimmy walked away. He turned to Lois. “Henderson wasn’t in the office yet so I left a message for him. Shall we?” he asked, gesturing towards the conference room.
Lois nodded and picked up her coffee.
**********
An hour later Lois was wondering what in heaven's name she’d been thinking when she’d suggested working in the conference room. Getting through their files faster. Rebuilding their friendly rapport. All that jazz, she reminded herself. She hadn’t planned on sitting through the sizzlingly awkward silence that had descended the moment they’d split up the files. Patience. It had taken Clark weeks to earn her trust. She had to give him the same courtesy. Maybe another gesture?
She glanced down at her coffee cup, and then surreptitiously over at Clark’s. “I think I need some more coffee,” she said, standing up. “Want some?”
Clark didn’t even look up. “No, thanks.”
**********
Clark heaved a sigh of relief once Lois was out the door. Sitting for over an hour in silence had been as draining as he’d expected. It made it difficult to concentrate on the files in front of him. Glancing out the window into the newsroom, he ascertained that no one was watching, and then flipped through the rest of his files at super-speed and the remaining half of Lois's. At least he could figure out which ones to spend more time on. Leaning back in his chair, he stared up at the ceiling. The answers were here on this table somewhere. Or at least the next step. Dr. Carlin had been involved in Luthor’s criminal endeavors. It was really past time to see what Henderson had gotten from that woman and Lois's double. Maybe he could use that as an excuse to take a break in a little bit.
“Whatcha thinking?” Lois asked as she walked back in.
Clark sat up. “Just about how Dr. Carlin is connected to all these pieces….” Suddenly he smacked himself in the head. “We’re idiots!”
“Speak for yourself,” Lois said, raising an eyebrow.
“Bobby told us that Dr. Carlin was involved with Luthor’s criminal activities.”
“We knew that already.”
“Yes, but what we should have done was cross-reference the list of companies ACL’s connected to with the list we already have of Luthor’s criminal companies.”
Lois nodded slowly, then smiled. “Good call! So shall we get Jimmy on that while we go check out Dr. Kelly, or did you want to focus on Sasho Corp?”
Clark stared at her. A compliment? From Lois? What was the world coming to? Or rather, how much longer would it be before she finally asked for whatever she was maneuvering him around to?
“Clark?” Lois prompted when Clark remained staring at her without answering her question.
“Oh. Um, either is fine with me.” He grimaced. “There’s not much to go on as far as who exactly owns Sasho Corp. There’s a board listed, but I didn’t see any obvious connections between them and Dr. Carlin—we’ll probably have to dig deeper. However, I did find out that they used some of the same shipping companies ACL did.”
Lois tapped her chin. “Maybe Lex owned Sasho? Or maybe Lex and Dr. Carlin owned Sasho? Let’s have Jimmy cross-reference what he can find out on Sasho Corp with ACL and Lex’s companies. We can check out Dr. Kelly in the meantime.”
“Sounds good. Did you read the folder on her?”
“Yeah. Looking through her file, there’s not much here. She was a renowned physician before Lex hired her as his personal physician. Judging from her finances, he made it very much worth her while.”
Clark nodded. He’d super-sped through that file. “So did you want to interview her or just skip straight to the stakeout since we already know she’s involved with Luthor and Dr. Carlin?”
Lois's brow scrunched up. “Why don’t we skip straight to the stakeout, and then if nothing turns up we can tell her that we’re doing a follow-up on Luthor and see if that makes her nervous enough to slip up.”
“Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll go talk to Jimmy to get him started. Did you want to finish flipping through the rest of these files now or wait until we get the correlations?”
“Um, what do you think?”
Clark shrugged. It really didn’t matter to him if they spent the morning looking through the folders. Although, on the other hand, that meant they’d be spending the morning in awkward silence… maybe it’d be better to wait. “If we wait, we might catch more. We could check with our sources again this morning. Try to get in touch with Henderson. I’ve got a couple of back-burner articles from before that I should look at anyway.”
“Oh, okay,” Lois agreed. “Well, I guess I’ll just collect these then.”
“I can do that,” Clark said, determined to maintain politeness and to keep Lois from having any extra opportunities to manipulate him. He began gathering the folders and stacking them, making sure to keep them in the four distinct piles they’d had going. “I can keep the lot of them at my desk if you need the space.”
“Uh, I have space for them,” Lois said and opened the conference room door.
Clark waited for her to exit, moved to set the stacks on her desk, then said, “Okay, I’ll go find Jimmy.”
Lois sat back down at her desk. With difficulty she refrained from holding her head in her hands and instead began rechecking her e-mail and phone messages.
**********
Clark felt his shoulders relax as he walked away from Lois. They’d gotten through in one piece and now they could take a break from each other—at least until they started the stakeout. What a nightmare that was going to be! He shook his head. Cross that bridge when he came to it.
Fortunately, Jimmy was at his desk. “Hey, Jimmy—”
Jimmy looked up with a smirk. “Something new for you guys already?” He looked pointedly at his watch. “Didn’t you just get in here an hour ago?”
“Yeah, well, you know how it is.”
“What can I do for ya?”
“We need a correlated list of the companies that Luthor, ACL, and Sasho Corp did business with.”
Jimmy whistled. “You guys don’t ask for much, do you?”
Clark gave a small smile. “It’s because we know you’re up to the challenge.”
“All right, all right. I’ll have it to you as soon as possible.”
“Thanks, Jimmy,” Clark said and headed back towards his desk.
Now he just had to decide how to fill the time until Jimmy had the list, or until they decided they should start their stakeout. He actually did have some small back burner articles he could work on. Or he could go check in with his sources who didn’t have phone access. That might be the best use of his time. And it would have the added benefit of being out of the office.
After arranging with Lois that they’d meet back at the office at 3 p.m. to start their stakeout, Clark spent the rest of the day checking in with Henderson and his other sources, as well as working on those back burner articles and doing a couple Superman rescues, then writing them up.
**********
Clark kept his eyes trained on the building in front of them. Dr. Kelly had an office in a building with several other professionals. People came in and out of the building from time to time. “Did we find out if Dr. Kelly is even treating any patients currently?” he asked.
Lois smirked. “Nope. Just that ACL Corp has been depositing some serious cash into her account ever since Lex died.”
“Huh. That’s not suspicious.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“Well, I guess we’ll see,” Clark said, hoping that would finish the conversation for now. It was strange: stakeouts with Lois used to be one of his favorite pastimes. Sitting here, with all the awkwardness between them, he almost couldn’t remember why he’d enjoyed them so much. He held in a snort. He’d been like a lovesick puppy, happy just to be in her presence in hopes of someday moving their relationship forward. She’d definitely broken him of that fantasy. Why were they doing this again? Oh right. Perry couldn’t justify both their jobs if they weren’t partners, and Clark didn’t really want to move Superman away from Metropolis.
Lois shifted in her seat, trying to come up with a neutral topic of conversation. “So, um, how did writing your articles go?”
“Fine.”
“What were you working on?”
Clark held in a sigh. “Perry had me write a piece on that new soup kitchen downtown.”
“Oh yeah. I heard about that place. What’d you think of it?”
Clark shrugged. “It was about like most soup kitchens.” He noticed a young man walking into the building they were watching and decided to use him to stay on safe conversational ground, i.e., work. “Did Jimmy run any of Dr. Kelly’s known associates?” He gestured towards the young man. “Any chance that some of these people are actually here to see her?”
Lois sagged slightly. “No, Jimmy only listed Lex and Dr. Carlin, and of course, any of Lex's other employees are possibilities. She’d been working for Lex for the past ten years. Jimmy didn’t pull further back than that.”
Clark nodded. “Gotcha.”
Lois considered suggesting they do a little unauthorized reconnaissance later that night, but decided not to push Clark. If they didn’t find anything within a day or two, then she could start pushing. She let the silence string out between them. It was obvious that Clark didn’t want to talk, at least not to her. How had they spent their stakeouts before? When she’d been partnerless, she’d used the time to catch up on work or to start new investigations. But ever since their first long stakeout in the honeymoon suite, Clark had made stakeouts fun. They’d played word games, asked each other trivia questions, made up outrageous stories about the people around them, occasionally talked about their pasts, and speculated on their work. There had never been an in-between for her: an awkward stage, where one simply sat with someone in heavy silence. None of the people Perry had tried to partner her with had stuck around long enough to do stakeouts. So now she had no clue what to do. What if it was Clark, sitting with her in a prickly silence? What would he have done? He always seemed to have some innate understanding of when she needed space and when he could push. She didn’t have that.
Well, if she were to push, the way he used to push…. She thought for a few moments. Clark would have tried to start something silly to lighten the mood—the same way he’d pulled out the board games and just expected her to play on their first stakeout. A silly game…. Nothing brilliant came to mind. Oh well, they could always fall back on the alphabet game: find an object and add a ridiculous adjective to go with it. She studied the building in front of her.
She cleared her throat. “Atrocious Awning,” she said, hoping Clark would just go with it.
“Hmm?”
“Atrocious awning,” she said a little more forcefully. “Your turn.”
“What if I don’t want to play?”
“You really want to just sit here for hours on end?” Lois said, trying to infuse some humor into the question. She remembered how horrified Clark had seemed at the idea of working through their stakeouts.
Clark shrugged.
“C’mon, Clark! Atrocious Awning—it’s your turn.”
Clark huffed internally. Lois just couldn’t leave him alone. Maybe he liked the quiet.
Who was he kidding? He hated the suffocating emptiness between them. Maybe Lois had the right of it. At least they could fake the trappings of a truce to make their situation bearable. “Bright Balloons,” he said unenthusiastically.
The game continued on after that. Lois wasn’t sure she wanted to keep playing. Clark was usually the one full of enthusiasm for games. Playing games with him was fun because he was having fun. Playing games with him now, when he was obviously bored and barely engaged, was significantly less so. Although she wasn’t playing to have fun; she was playing to draw Clark out, to show him that she wanted their friendship back.
If nothing else, the experience had her in awe of Clark’s patience. How often had she met one of his ideas with sarcasm or indifference? And yet, he kept trying, kept pushing. And somehow, in pushing her, she’d become a better person with him than without him. She pondered that. It was true. She was a better person today than she’d been before Clark had come into her life, even with all her hang-ups. Clark had taught her how to be a friend, how to have fun. It was part of why she wanted to keep him in her life.
The hours passed agonizingly slowly. Finally, Lois suggested dinner. If nothing else, it would keep their mouths busy for a few minutes. Plus, hungry people were cranky people. She did not need Clark any crankier than he already was.
“Dinner? What if Dr. Kelly leaves?” Clark asked.
Lois tilted her head. “Well, what if one of us gets dinner while the other keeps watch?” She swallowed hard, reminding herself that having Clark back in her life was more important than any story. “You can call me if Dr. Kelly leaves.”
Clark whipped his head around to stare at her. “All right. What is going on?”
“What do you mean ‘what’s going on’?”
“I mean, what is going on?” His eyes briefly closed of their own accord. “Look, I know you believe that the vast majority of people won’t do nice things without being sweet-talked or forced into it. What I don’t know is why you think I’m one of those people. I can’t promise that I’ll do whatever it is that you’re angling for me to do, but I do promise that I’ll at least think about it. So stop trying to manipulate me and just ask for whatever it is that you want.”
Lois flinched. “I’m not trying to manipulate you, Clark.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m not! I swear! I just…” Her hands twined together in her lap, then restlessly shifted along the steering wheel. “I just—miss you. I miss our friendship. I want you as my friend again,” she finished in a quiet voice.
Clark rubbed his forehead, wondering if he’d heard her properly. Be her friend again? That’s what all the rigamarole of the past couple of days had been about? Clark didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t even know what to think about it. No mention of his love for her. No mention of her rejection of him. No mention of the fact that she hadn’t trusted him.
“Clark?”
Clark’s hands fell to his lap, and his gaze followed them. “I don’t know what to say, Lois.”
“Say you’ll be my friend again,” she said, her voice breaking.
Clark lifted his eyes to hers. Tears were pooled in her eyes and tugged at his heart. That was something he couldn’t afford so he shifted to look out the window. “Lois, this is something I’ve thought a lot about. I’m just not sure—”
“I said I was sorry, Clark, and I am. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to your instincts about Lex. I’m sorry I said all those horrible things to you.” She swallowed hard. “Everything that happened with Lex made me—well, it made me take a hard look at myself and I”—she looked down at the console between them—“I don’t like what I’ve found. I wasn’t a good friend to you before. I guess I didn’t really know how to be a friend.” She gave a shaky chuckle. “It’s no surprise given my history. I am trying to change though.” She forced herself to look at Clark once more. “All I’m asking for is another chance. I know it’ll take time. I know things can’t just go back to the way they were before—and I don’t want them to. But I miss you. I want you as my friend.”
Clark sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Lois, I can’t promise anything right now. I’ve been trying to, um, work through some of the mess with Luthor, but it’s slow going.” He paused for a moment, then continued in a hoarse whisper. “Sometimes things are just too broken to fix.”
“Clark, I know that, believe me I do. You, um—you know a fair amount about my family. And I know I wasn’t a good friend. But I want to do something different this time.”
“Lois, honestly, some days I’m not even sure I want to try,” he admitted quietly.
Lois hissed as though in pain, then gave a bitter chuckle. “Who would have thought?”
“What?”
“Us. You spent so long working for my friendship, and I just threw it away, threw you away,” she trailed off in a whisper. Then, clearing her throat, she continued, “I never would have expected us to reverse roles.”
Clark leaned away from her. No. He wasn’t throwing her away. His actions didn’t even come close to what she’d one. He had never been dismissive of her or rejected her, except for right now….
“I never would have expected you to be the kind of person who can’t forgive, even though a part of me knows that what I did was unforgivable. I want to be your friend, Clark. A real friend. The kind of friend you were to me. I know I wasn’t that way to you, but I want to change. I’m trying to change. I’m trying to build something different between us, something better.”
Clark sat in silence. He was pretty sure he’d forgiven her—he just didn’t trust her. Had they reversed roles? Was he refusing her simply because she’d refused him? He couldn’t be that petty, could he?
Lois wiped the tears from her face. “Could we maybe—maybe just take it one day at a time? Can we try again?”
Clark winced. Try again? He didn’t know, and he still wasn’t sure if he wanted to move on or throw caution to the winds and offer himself up once more for her special brand of torture. Although in some ways trying again was all he’d been doing. Taking one day a time, trying to sort out his feelings. He took a couple of deep breaths. Maybe this was what they needed. For Lois to try. Maybe that would help him decide if he really wanted her in his life or not. Lois actively trying was definitely different.
Clark turned back to Lois. “Okay,” he said softly.
“Okay? Really?” she asked, the corners of her mouth tugging upwards into a small smile.
“Yeah. Really. I’m not sure how much I can put into our friendship right now, but if you’re willing to try,” he took a ragged breath, “I’ll, um, do my best.”
Lois put a hand on his arm, and Clark managed to keep himself from flinching and pulling away. “Thanks, Clark.” She turned back to watch Dr. Kelly’s office. “So what do you want to do about dinner?”
“Are you hungry, or are you asking because you think I’m hungry?”
Lois shrugged. “I’m not starving yet, but I could eat.”
“All right, what sort of something do you want?”
“Um, I’m flexible. Do you have a preference?”
“Lois, being my friend doesn’t entail bending over backwards. That’s not the kind of person I am. If you have a preference, just say it. I’ll tell you if it sounds bad to me.”
“Okay, um, Chinese?”
“All right. I’ll go pick some up. I need to stretch my legs anyway. Do you want anything in particular?”
Lois shook her head. “The food you get is always great. Whatever sounds good to you.”
“Okay. I’ll pick something up. Try not to get into trouble while I’m gone,” he said with a tiny smile.
“Will do,” she said, returning his smile.
**********
Fortunately, Lois was still there by the time Clark got back with dinner. He’d been a little leary of leaving her all alone, but really, he’d needed a breather. Be friends with Lois again? He shook his head. He had no idea what to even think about that.
“Thanks, Clark. You always get the best Chinese, ever since our first assignment.” She gave a small chuckle. “Someday you’ll have to tell me where you get it. I’ve tried quite a few Chinese places, but none of them ever seem as good as the ones you find.”
Clark held in a sigh. Telling Lois the fact that he got Chinese food from China was trouble waiting to happen. It meant telling her that he was Superman. Would she be able to see him after that? See the man who was both Clark and Superman? Maybe this whole trying a friendship thing was a bad idea. He’d spent most of the last year tied up in knots because of this exact thorny issue. The definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, right? So where did that leave him? His hand clenched into a fist. Insane. He’d just agreed to try a friendship with Lois, again. To put himself back in the same patterns once more.
He took a deep breath, forcing himself back to the present. They were stuck in this car for now. Professional. He could do professional. “Thanks. Guess I’m just good at finding things,” he said lightly.
Lois smiled. “Yeah, you do seem to have a knack for that.”
Ten minutes after they’d started eating dinner, Dr. Kelly walked out of the office building. Without saying a word, they packed their food back up, and Lois discreetly pulled the silver Jeep out to follow the doctor’s car.
“Any bets on where she’s headed?” Lois asked Clark.
“Not really. There’re too many options depending on how deeply she was involved with Luthor’s criminal activities. We also have no idea how much Luthor trusted her. She may be carrying on with some of his plans, or she may be coming up with something entirely different.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
They drove on in silence until Dr. Kelly pulled into the Perpetual Pines Cemetery and stopped.
“Huh. Not where I would have expected,” Lois commented. She grabbed a flashlight out of her bag and eased herself out of the Jeep, taking care to close the door quietly.
Clark followed.
Dr. Kelly wended her way through the various gravestones and monuments until she reached a mausoleum, then went inside.
“What do you think?” Lois whispered.
“I think we should wait and see what happens,” Clark replied, pulling down his glasses and x-raying the building. Dr. Kelly rotated a candelabra lit with light bulbs, and a casket slid to the side showing a set of stairs. She walked down them, and the casket returned to its previous location. Unfortunately at least parts of the belowground area were lead-lined. Clark could see part of the stairs, but a wall intervened, and Dr. Kelly was lost to sight. He pushed his glasses back up. He was pretty sure he’d hear when the casket moved again.
“I guess,” Lois said dubiously. “If she’s not back out in a few minutes, I vote we at least go look at the mausoleum. Maybe it’ll give us a clue.”
Clark made a noncommittal noise.
“So, have you ever been in a cemetery at night?” Lois asked quietly.
“Yes,” Clark replied.
Lois nudged him. “C’mon. More details. I once followed this crazy guy who was digging up bodies and using them to commit insurance fraud.”
Clark gave her an incredulous look.
“Long story.” She waved a hand. “Your turn!”
Clark thought furiously. He’d actually been in several cemeteries at night. He’d always found them peaceful places, plus they made for a quiet, usually uninhabited, place to take off and land, both before and after he’d become Superman. He’d also chased various criminals through them. For some reason superstitious people thought they might be able to evade an apparently supernatural figure by detouring through a cemetery, as though he’d be trapped inside. However, none of those instances were anything he wanted to share with Lois. That first time he’d been in one though…. “When I was a kid, a friend dared me to spend the night in a cemetery.” He shrugged. “I did it.” And, as the cemetery had been an old abandoned one a couple miles from town, it had been blissfully quiet, blissfully still, and fascinating to walk through, reading the crumbling headstones. It was part of why he’d begun using cemeteries later in life to hide his super activities.
“Well, yeah. Everyone does that. I guess I keep forgetting you grew up in Kansas. Not much to do around there for excitement, other than the corn festival,” she teased.
“If you say so,” Clark said.
The silence hung between them until a few minutes later when Clark heard the casket shifting once more. Apparently whatever Dr. Kelly was doing didn’t take long.
Dr. Kelly came out of the mausoleum, and they carefully followed her back to her car.
“What do you want to do now?” Clark asked after they’d gotten back into Lois's Jeep.
Lois thought for a second. “Let’s follow her for now. My gut says this is probably the jackpot, but maybe there’s more.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Do you think Lex’s body is in that mausoleum?” Lois asked, pulling out to follow Dr. Kelly. “But why would a dead man need a doctor?” she added.
Clark grimaced. “Who knows? Clone? Cryogenics? Luthor always had some crazy scheme, and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that his associates are the same way.”
Dr. Kelly turned to enter a residential area, and, before long, pulled up in front of a luxurious townhouse. They watched her get out of her car and go into the townhouse. Clark looked at the number. “This is the address Jimmy has for her.”
“Clark, let’s go back to the mausoleum. She’s probably here for the night. What do you think?”
“Sure, Lois.”
