On with the story...
Beyond the External
by Lieta
Disclaimer: This is a fan work based on “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” All rights to the characters belong to DC Comics and Warner Bros. No profit was made off this work.
Chapter 4
Clark lay stretched out on his sofa. He’d needed to decompress after his confrontation with Lois earlier. He couldn’t believe how badly he’d lost his temper with her, especially when he’d been ‘on duty’ as Superman. He knew how defensive Lois got when her judgement was called into question. He’d dealt with it time and again over the difference in their versions of ‘acceptable risk’ for a story.
Clark’s thoughts were interrupted by an insistent banging on his front door. A quick peak through the glass revealed his partner, much to his surprise. He had been sure he wouldn’t see her until she was forced to acknowledge him at the Planet.
Picking up his glasses, he jogged over to his door and opened it. “Lois,” he greeted her, standing aside to let her into his apartment, “I have to say I’m a bit surprised to see you tonight.”
Lois brushed past him without a word and headed for his sofa. Clark shrugged mentally and closed the door, following his partner. When he caught up to her, she whirled around, asking urgently, “Was Trask’s rock real?”
Clark froze, caught totally by surprise, he couldn’t even understand what she was asking for a moment. “Huh?” he managed to get out.
Lois scowled at him and reiterated, “Trask’s rock. Krypto-whatever. Is it *real*?”
Clark stared at her for a long moment as he understood what she was asking. Did he want Lois to know about Kryptonite? After a moment of consideration, Clark made his choice. “Yes,” he whispered quietly.
Lois flopped onto his sofa with a stuttering sigh. “I was thinking back on everything I knew about Lex,” she explained, “And I remembered that he invited me to dinner after we got back from Smallville. I didn’t think so at the time, but it was strange, because he wanted to know *everything* about what happened there and, again in hindsight, he was far too interested in whether or not Trask was right. I, of course, just passed it off as the deletion of a madman, but I did tell him that a sample had been sent off for analysis.” She looked up at him with a worried expression.
Clark scrubbed a hand over his face before settling down beside her on the sofa. Why hadn’t *he* considered the consequences of mentioning the foul rock, even as a supposed deletion of a madman.
Then something else occurred to him and he whipped his head up to stare at his partner. “You believe me - er - us?” he asked.
Lois gave a quiet sigh. “I don’t think I’m fully convinced. But, there’s too many coincidences here. I’m also not going to let *anyone* get away with hurting Superman.” Her eyes hardened. “And I’m not *about* to let you get all the credit if you’re right, partner or no partner.”
Clark couldn’t keep back a snort of amusement. That certainly was Lois. And, even if she wasn’t just taking his, or rather Superman’s, word, she was at least looking at things with her eyes wide open. He decided to deliberately not look too closely at her protectiveness for his other half.
Marshaling himself, Clark considered his partner, “So, how far did you get?”
Lois shrugged, “I’d gotten most of my own interactions with Lex on paper, but the whole Krypto-rock thing kind of interrupted me before I could compare my notes to yours.”
Clark smiled, “Shall we do that together, then, partner?”
Lois gave a decisive nod in return, then handed over his notebook and opened her own. Together, they stepped through their interactions with the billionaire, Clark using his notes on ‘Superman’s’ observations as needed. They spent the most time dissecting Lex and Superman’s conversations after the ‘tests’. However, after they’d read through his transcript of trying to convince Phillip to give up Mentamide, Lois had gone quiet. Clark stumbled through going over his suspicions about the power plant, but given that Lois had just *written* the story on that herself, he was unsure how much more she needed.
Finally, he let silence fall between them. After a few minutes in which he assumed Lois was assimilating the data he decided to prod his partner. “Lois?” he asked, nudging her with his shoulder.
Lois jumped and then cleared her throat. “Sorry, Clark, I was just thinking,” she trailed off again without saying more.
Clark frowned. “Lois?” he tried again, “do you have any more thoughts on all of this?” he gestured to their notebooks.
Lois met his gaze in what struck him as confusion for a moment before gathering her wandering thoughts. “Oh, right, Lex.”
Clark stared at her in shock, ‘oh, right, Lex?!’ what had she been thinking about if not *Lex*?
“Clark?” Lois began tentatively, “how well do you know Superman?”
Clark froze, giving his best impression of a deer in the headlights, “Superman?”
Lois nodded and pulled his notebook too her, “I mean, just look at this,” she flipped to the transcript of his speech with Phillip. “Where he talks about being different and where he talks about childhood. I mean, he’s talking to Phillip about *kite flying*. Just how long has he lived here, you know, on Earth?”
Clark felt like a trap door had opened under his feel and he was scrambling to find purchase *without* his ability to fly. He’d wanted to awaken Lois’ investigative instincts, but not about *him*!
Clark cleared his throat and considered his reply carefully. “I know some things about Superman, Lois, that the public doesn’t. Just like I suspect you do. I doubt he’d want me sharing things I know off the record, even with you.”
Lois pouted for a moment before waving him off. “I guess you’re right.” She looked back at the notebooks, “But, back to Lex… I’m not sure I’m fully convinced he’s all you think he is. But LexCorp has gotten a lot more luck than I’d thought about in the last year. It’s worth seeing if there’s someone playing both sides of the law. If it happens to be Lex, then he’ll regret trying to pull the wool over the eyes of *this* reporter,” she finished with fierce determination.
