Previously...
For the first time, Lois smiled. "You know something? You surprise me."
Clark felt his optimism perk up a bit. "How?"
"Most guys I've worked with - even some women - haven't exactly been shy of using me to get what they want. They haven't shied away from claiming undue credit, if not completely stealing the credit, for what they haven't earned."
"What?" Clark asked, his restored happiness instantly replaced by concern and a sense of heartache for Lois. "Are you serious?"
She nodded and sighed. "There have been times...as much as I've tried to prevent it...where my partner at the time has stolen my work. The last time, the guy even won an award with the story I'd written. He didn't even have the decency to thank me in his speech. At least Perry fired him."
"I'm so sorry," Clark said, his heart hurting for her. "But, I swear, I'm not that kind of guy. I work hard and earn whatever credit I take. But, at least I understand now why you hate having a partner...even one who's an unpaid intern."
"I appreciate that," was all she seemed able to say as she stood and threw out the paper plate, used napkins, and empty soda bottle she'd used.
By the end of the day, a contented tiredness had settled over Clark. He and Lois nailed down five interviews and managed to finish up two of the stories they were working on. A third had been started, but put aside in favor of making Perry's edits to the ones they had completed and submitted to him. Clark stretched at his computer desk and switched off the power button. It was time to call it quits for the day. He stood, stretched again, and walked across the way to Lois' desk.
"Goodnight, Lois," he said as she powered her computer down.
"Goodnight, Clark. We've got a lot of ground to cover tomorrow. I'll pick you up at nine, okay? Where are you staying?"
Clark shook his head. "I can't. I've got the beauty pageant at ten, remember? And I'm staying at the Hotel Apollo."
Lois' face scrunched up in revulsion. "Oh, gross!"
"What?"
"The Hotel Apollo. Philomena just did an expose on that place. Mold in the walls, several bedbug infestations in the last three years, asbestos in the pipes. My advice? Find a new place before it lands you in the hospital."
Clark shuddered. Sure, he didn't have to worry about those things affecting him, but the very thought of the things Lois had mentioned gave him the creeps. He knew the place was shabby and in desperate need of repair when he checked in the night before, but the price had been right and he'd been to five other hotels before finding one with a vacancy. He'd been too preoccupied with thoughts of his interview at the Planet to give the place a once-over with his enhanced senses.
"Thanks for the head's up. I'm looking for a more permanent place. You don't happen to know of anything, do you?"
"Not off hand. Ask John tomorrow. He's our classifies guy."
"Great, thanks. Well, I'll see you tomorrow after the pageant."
"Right. Enjoy the meat market," she said disdainfully.
Clark shook his head as he turned and headed for the elevators. As much as he hated that he was, once again, covering a puff piece instead of hard news, he vowed to knock the article out of the park. And, as things stood, he wasn't even bent on changing Perry's mind about his writing abilities.
More than anything, he wanted to impress Lois.
***
At six o'clock at night, sharp, Clark finally stepped foot in the bullpen of the Daily Planet. As he exited the elevator, he felt like he could finally breathe. It was a complete relief to be in the newsroom. Chaos still reigned there, as people rushed around the room, spoke into phones, and typed at furious paces. In a few short hours, Clark knew from his experience the day before, the place would be more subdued as the night shift took over and the day shift slowly made their way home.
Deep in thought as he began to mentally draft his story, he made his way through the bullpen to his desk. He sat heavily and leaned back in his computer chair. For a minute, he closed his eyes as he ordered his thoughts. He was so focused on the task at hand that he never heard the click of Lois' heels on the tile floor as she approached him.
"How was the pageant?" she asked.
Clark's eyes sprang open. "Brutal."
"Nice try. I'm not buying it. It's every man's dream to cover that."
He shook his head. "Not mine. I'm more interested in the real news, Lois, the same as you. I was only there in the interest of securing my job."
"For someone who claims to not be interested in that sort of thing, you sure are getting in late," she said, baiting him. "Those things are usually over by the early afternoon."
"For someone who claims to not to be interested in that sort of thing, you sure do seem to know a lot about it," he countered with a lopsided grin, baiting her right back.
"You aren't the first partner I've been paired with who has been sent to cover the event," she replied with a smug smile. "None of them has ever gotten back so late."
Clark couldn't help but to smile, even as he shook his head. "That may be the case, but they had a ton of technical difficulties. The speakers died in the beginning, the spotlight blew halfway through, hair and makeup artists fell behind...it was a mess."
"Really?"
"Really." Clark sighed. "The mishaps put everyone on edge. Security got amped up. It took forever to nail down a interview with the winners. Perry is going to be mad that it took so long. I can feel it."
"Kent! Where in blue blazes is that article?"
"Speaking of," Lois muttered.
"Coming, Chief," Clark replied. "I just got in. There were...multiple issues. You'll understand when you read my article."
"You've got an hour before I need to get out of here to have dinner with my wife," the gruff older man replied as he came to a stop beside Clark's desk.
"Anniversary, right?" Lois asked.
Perry nodded. "Thirty-seven years."
"Congratulations," Lois and Clark both replied, their voices nearly one.
"Thank you." He gestured for Lois and Clark to resume working.
Clark nodded and switched his computer on. Lois wandered back to her desk. Clark fidgeted with a pencil while he waited for the computer to boot up. He knew he should be feeling lucky. Any red-blooded, straight male should have been thrilled to have spent the afternoon ogling the seemingly endless stream of gorgeous women which had graced the stage at the pageant. But all throughout the event, Clark had found that his mind kept straying back to Lois. He'd wondered what she was up to. What stories she might be writing. Had she finally cornered that City Hall official who kept avoiding her attempts to interview him?
But mostly, he found himself comparing the women on stage to Lois, only to find that they couldn't hold a candle to her. Piercing blue eyes looked dull compared to the chocolate in Lois' eyes. Carefully applied layers of makeup looked cakey and heavy compared to Lois' more minimalist approach. High pitched, deliberately cutesy voices were as nails on a chalk board, compared to the natural and real tones Lois used.
Being at the pageant had hammered home one point to Clark.
He finally knew what it was to be in love.
***
"Morning, Lois," Clark said cheerfully, a full week of work now securely under his belt. Lois didn't answer as she tapped away at her computer. "Morning, Clark," he answered himself, when she remained mute.
"Mmm," was the only reply he got out of her.
"Must be something interesting on that screen," he said.
"Mmm."
"Care to share with your partner?"
"Hmm?"
"Oh look! A Double Fudge Crunch Bar!" he said.
Instantly, Lois' head snapped up. "What?"
Clark chuckled. "What's so interesting that you're ignoring your partner?"
"We are not partners," she said in a huff. For the last week, she'd been saying the same thing.
"Perry seems to think we are," he said in reply, a smile on his face. "And you know what? I'm inclined to go with his line of thinking."
"No. I don't do the whole partner thing anymore," Lois said. "I've already explained this to you. There is you. There is me. There is no us. I'm simply...mentoring you until you either earn your job here or Perry decides to send you on your way."
"Keep telling yourself that," Clark said pleasantly.
But deep down, Lois' rebuffs hurt. He knew she wasn't purposefully trying to hurt him. At least, not in the way it hurt. He knew that her refusal to accept him, willingly, as a partner, or even an equal coworker, was more of a defensive tactic than anything else. It wasn't - he hoped - born out of a dislike of him personally. Still, he'd thought that over the past week he would have proven himself to her - not only as a serious and competent journalist, but as a genuinely nice guy who wanted to befriend her.
Lois merely rolled her eyes at him.
"So, what do we have going on today?" Clark asked, allowing her to take the lead.
She hesitated a moment before answering. "Horseback riding."
That took Clark off guard. But, never one to miss an opportunity to trade some friendly banter, he quickly replied, "Why, Lois! Are you asking me out on a date?"
She rolled her eyes again, but there was a hint of a smile there. Perhaps his efforts to befriend her weren't being wasted. "You wish, Idaho."
"Kansas," he reflexively corrected, though gently.
"Whatever," she threw back, a little more harshly than he'd anticipated. "I got a lead that there may be some animal abuse going on at the Golden Horseshoe stables. You in?"
Clark nodded. "Absolutely. But...I thought there was no us," he teased.
"There isn't. I just figure that your farm roots might come in handy. Unless, that is, you didn't have animals?"
"It just so happens that I did. When I was a kid, I had my own horse, Bolt. My dad thought it would be a good idea to expand the farm to include some animals. For a while, it was great. Then he threw his back out a couple of years later. We had to sell the animals just to make ends meet and keep food on the table. They were just too expensive to keep."
"You had to give up your horse?" Lois asked, sounding surprised.
Clark shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal."
"That's got to be hard on a kid, giving up a pet."
"I loved that horse," Clark admitted, lowering his voice just a little. It felt a little strange to be opening up to Lois like this, but at the same moment, it felt right. "But I loved my family more. It wasn't so difficult to say goodbye to Bolt knowing why I had to do it."
"So...can I count on you to keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks suspicious? The most experience I have with animals is with fish and my late grandmother's hamster, back in the day."
Clark chuckled, then turned serious. "You can trust me with everything and anything."
"Good. Let's go."
***
The trip to the Golden Horseshoe stables turned out worse than Clark had wanted it to be. He'd hoped that the suspected abuse would turn out to be nothing more than someone seeing villains where none were to be had. Instead, he'd found dirty stalls with rotting straw, oats that were beginning to grow mold, and evidence of rat droppings. A few of the horses looked underweight to his eye as well. More than one looked on the verge of death. All of it made his heart quietly break as he and Lois discreetly took stock of everything, as they posed as a couple looking to buy one of the available horses, Firebrand. Lois took photos with a disposable camera when she could, but Clark was disappointed with how many she was able to take. He distracted the stable owner, Big Hank, as much as possible, trying to give Lois an opportunity to snoop around as much as she could, while attempting to catch the man in a confession about the environment the horses were being kept in.
All in all, Clark left the stables with a heavy heart.
"Hey," Lois prodded, as she drove her Jeep back to the Planet. "Are you okay? You haven't said two words in the last hour."
Clark shook his head. "That was...one of the most disgusting and unhealthy environments I've seen animals kept in," he finally said. "I'm glad we called the ASPCA on them, but I can't help but to hurt for those horses, having to continue to live in that filth until they can get out there and evaluate the situation."
"We did the best we could," Lois said, her voice soft as well.
Clark looked over and could see lines of pain written in her features. What they'd seen had affected her deeply as well, it appeared. No, it was more than just hurt over the poor conditions the animals had been subjected to. There was something else there, Clark could see at his second glance.
"What is it?" he asked in near whisper. "What's wrong?"
For several minutes, Lois didn't answer, and kept her eyes studiously trained on the road before them. Then, finally, "I can't believe the conditions there." She sighed. "Every year, when I was a kid, my Girl Scout troop would go to those same stables and spend the day riding the horses and having a picnic out in one of the clearings along the nature trail. Seeing it in such disrepair now...it's like seeing part of my own childhood crumbling at the seams. It used to be such a clean, wonderful place. And now..." she sighed and didn't finish her sentence.
"I'm sorry, Lois," Clark said, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her shoulder in a comforting manner.
"Well, at least we can help those horses get some justice," Lois said, brushing off Clark's tender tone. "That's a start."
"And we will," Clark vowed.
***
Ring!
Clark groaned as the phone rang and shattered his otherwise peaceful sleep.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
The phone seemed to become almost more insistent as Clark attempted to block out the noise and return to dreamland. When that failed, he groggily opened his eyes. It was still dark in his shabby hotel room. The red digits on the bedside clock told him that the sun would soon be peeking over the horizon. He picked up the phone, cutting it off in mid-ring.
"Hello?" he croaked out, his voice thick with sleep and his tongue dry from laying for some time with his mouth open.
"Clark?"
"Lois?" Instantly, he snapped to attention. "What's wrong?"
"Oh...nothing," she said, her voice fumbling a bit. "Just thought you might like to know that the Golden Horseshoe has been permanently shut down, the owners are facing jail time, and the horses are all in the ASPCA's hands." Clark could not miss the triumph in her tone.
"What? When? That's fantastic!" Clark said, allowing himself to match her level of excitement.
"Two hours ago. I just got a call about it myself from Officer McGuire."
"Congratulations," Clark said, wishing he could be with her, to see the smile on her face and possibly manage to share a victorious hug with her.
"You too," Lois said, still sounding like she was riding the high that came from seeing justice served. "I mean, you did help with the investigation."
"Thanks, Lois," Clark replied, a little surprised at how easily she was sharing the credit with him.
"I'll be by to pick you up so we can get the story written. Twenty minutes okay with you?"
"Yeah, sure," Clark said, nodding though she couldn't see it.
"Okay. See you then." Without another word, she hung up.
Clark pulled the phone from his ear and looked at it for a moment, smiling, before he hung it up again. Over the past couple of days, he'd felt like he was making some progress in cracking Lois' tough outer shell. He wouldn't say that she considered him a friend, but at least she seemed to be becoming more accepting of the fact that they were partners.
Standing, Clark stretched, then stripped out of the clothes he'd been sleeping in. He took a quick shower, and was half dressed when he heard the first knock on his door. He finished buckling his belt and answered it. Lois was behind the door, and Clark thought he saw her eyes widen a bit as he came into her view.
"Hi," he said. "Come on in."
"Hi, yourself," she replied, but she did enter the room. "I said twenty minutes. I thought you'd be nak...ready," she corrected herself.
"Sorry. I had to take a shower. Let me just grab a shirt."
He turned, but he could still feel her eyes on his back as he pulled on his shirt, buttoned it, and tucked it into his pants. With deft hands, he pulled a tie out of the closest and put it on, tying it as he turned back to Lois.
"I can't believe you're still living in this dump." She was trying to make small talk, he knew.
The Palace was certainly cleaner than the Hotel Apollo had been, but it was still shabby with furniture so worn that a person could easily feel the springs threatening to poke through.
Clark shrugged, allowing her change the subject from her near slip up. "I'm still looking for a place. Actually, I'm seeing one this afternoon around lunchtime."
Lois eyed him for a moment, taking in his now fully clothed appearance. "Where?"
"Some place on Clinton. I have the address at the office."
"Clinton?" she asked. "344 Clinton?"
Clark nodded. "That sounds about right."
"That's been on the market for months. My sister looked at it two months ago when she was thinking about moving here. She said it was a total dump, like a bomb had gone off inside the apartment."
"Maybe the landlord has made some repairs?" Clark tried.
"Doubtful," she said scornfully.
"Well, it can't hurt to look at it," Clark said as he locked the hotel room door behind them as they left. "Besides, I grew up on a farm. My parents and I were always fixing things, so I've learned to be at least a little handy. It might not be so bad. Did you happen to see the apartment, when your sister looked at it?"
"No," she admitted after a moment. Then, changing the subject, "I could go for a breakfast burrito."
"Sounds like a good idea," Clark said, once more deferring to her lead in the conversation. "Marty's?"
Lois nodded. "I love Marty's," she said, referring to the small deli a couple of blocks from the Daily Planet. She and Clark had ordered sandwiches from the place a few times already.
"Okay then," Clark said, giving her a grin. "Come on, I'm buying."
"You're always buying," Lois observed. Was it Clark's imagination, or did she sound a little concerned about that? "I mean, with you being unpaid right now..." She let her voice trail off.
Clark shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal, Lois. A couple of breakfast burritos here, a few coffees there aren't going to make or break me. Besides, I don't plan on working for free for much longer." He gave her his biggest smile.
The two reached the crosswalk and waited for the light to change. Clark rocked on the balls of his feet. As always, he could scarcely believe his good luck. He was in one of the biggest, busiest cities in America. He was employed, for the moment, with one of the most prestigious papers in the world. He was partnered with one of the most talented journalists he'd ever had the pleasure of reading. And, although he had to hide it, he was in love with that same woman, the person he worked with, day in and day out.
"Yeah, but now you're looking at apartments," Lois argued.
"It's fine, Lois. Trust me."
Truth be told, he was in need of a paycheck. As it was, the hotel charges and footing the bill for his and Lois' meals was putting a drain on his meager savings account. He'd taken to not eating at all unless he was with Lois or could fly back to Kansas to have a meal with his folks. It didn't bother him. He didn't specifically need to eat, though he liked to. The only reason why he was even bothering with the hotel and not flying back to his parents' farmhouse at night to sleep was because he needed to establish himself in the city. He needed an address, even one so feeble as a hotel room, to keep away unwanted questions. Plus, there were times when Lois had offered to pick him up on the way to work.
He wasn't going broke by any means, but he did want to be able to maintain a comfortable living.
The light finally changed and they began to cross. They were in the middle of the street when Clark's sensitive hearing picked up something.
Help! Somebody! Anybody! Watch out! The brakes are gone! I can't stop!
Clark's head jerked to the right. A truck was weaving in and out of traffic. He could just see glimpses of Benny's Fish Market on the side of the vehicle. Frantically, the driver was blaring his horn, trying his best to alert people to his situation. With his enhanced hearing, Clark could hear the man pumping his brakes, but to no avail. Then, mercifully, he heard the engine click off as the man turned the key, but he was coming too fast and the thought had come to him to cut the truck's power too late. Anyone caught in the truck's path was in serious trouble.
"Lois!" Clark cried, giving her a shove forward in an effort to get her out of the way in time. He only hoped that he wasn't going to be too late to protect her.
To Be Continued...
