On Monday morning following Perry’s meeting with Franklin Stern, Clark and Jimmy were discussing the finer points of saving temporary files on a floppy disk versus saving them on the local hard drive when Perry stepped out of the elevator. Nothing about that would have caught Clark’s notice – after all, everyone knew he’d been in yet another meeting with Mr. Stern, the new owner – except that Perry’s step faltered for a moment when he looked at Lois.
Lois, who was sitting at her desk and flipping through her rotary phone directory, didn’t see the editor until he stood beside her and touched her shoulder. Clark didn’t intend to eavesdrop, but his overwhelming need to protect her pulled him in.
Lois looked up at Perry and smiled. “Come on in my office, honey,” he mumbled. As Lois stood, Perry looked at Clark and sighed. “You too, Kent,” he said clearly. “This affects both of you.”
Clark met Lois’ quick glance with one which he hoped she would interpret as support, then he stood and followed her to Perry’s door. The editor rounded his desk and sank heavily into his chair without looking at either of his employees, then he said, “Close the door, please, Clark.”
The editor shook his head, looking older than he had since the Planet’s offices had been refurbished. “This is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in all of my time at the Daily Planet.” He lifted his head and looked at each of them in turn. “You know I was in a meeting with Franklin Stern last Friday afternoon.”
Clark could hear Lois’ heart speed up a little, though she gave no outward sign of distress. “Yes,” Clark said, “we knew that.”
“He’s concerned about costs, of course. And he’s concerned about job performance.”
“Our job performance, Perry?” asked Lois.
Perry closed his eyes for a long moment, then shook his head again. “No. Your performance in particular.”
“Mine?” she squeaked.
“Yes. Mr. Stern would not listen to my explanations or my pleadings in this case. Nor would he allow me to make an executive decision for the good of the paper. He says that’s his prerogative, and I can’t argue with him on it.” His face sank into the deepest hangdog expression Clark had ever seen. “There’s just no easy way to say this, Lois, but you’ve been laid off from the Daily Planet.”
Clark was shocked. Lay off the Planet’s star investigative reporter? The woman who’d broken a car theft ring the week Clark came to the city, the woman who’d spearheaded the investigation into EPRAD and the shuttle sabotage, the woman who’d pushed the paper’s circulation higher than it ever had been? Lois was being laid off?
He looked at her and didn’t like what he saw. Lois’ face was bone-white, her breathing was shallow, and Clark didn’t like the way her pupils had shrunk to pinpoints. He gently put his hand on hers and she snatched it as if it were a lifeline lifting her from a flood.
“Perry,” he said, “is Mr. Stern crazy? Lois has brought in more stories and more readers than any three other reporters put together! He can’t just drop her like – like a – like I don’t know what!”
“I’m sorry, Clark, but he can and he has. Now, Lois, honey, you need to go down to the Human Resources office and let them set you up on your severance package. I have to admit that it’s the most generous package I’ve ever seen. I hope you’ll go with her, Clark, and see her home, and I don’t want you to come back until tomorrow morning.”
Clark had recovered enough to generate some real anger. “Now just wait a minute, Perry! This is crazy! Stern can’t fire Lois! She’s too valuable to the paper!”
“She’s not being fired for cause, son. The official reason is that she’s being laid off due to the paper’s current financial situation. Her employment record will indicate she’s done everything we’ve asked her to do and more.”
“This is still wrong! Worse than that, it’s stupid! Stern doesn’t understand—”
“I can’t help it, Clark! I tried and I can’t—”
“I’ll go talk to him! Maybe I can—”
“No! That’s my job and you—”
“It’s because of Luthor,” Lois whispered.
The two men stopped and looked at Lois. Her eyes were damp and her lower lip trembled, but she held her head up and looked straight at Perry. “It’s Luthor, isn’t it?”
“Honey—”
“It is, isn’t it? I know, I missed it, it was right there under my nose, and I missed that one so badly I might as well have fallen off the building with him.” She stopped and dabbed at her eyes with her free hand. “I can’t say I was expecting this, but at the same time I’m really not surprised. Mr. Stern can’t have reporters on staff who can’t see what’s – what’s right in front of their faces.”
Clark put his hand on her forearm and gave it a soft squeeze. “He fooled a lot of people, Lois. Don’t beat yourself up over this.”
“He didn’t fool you, Clark.” She looked directly into his eyes. “You had him nailed from the very beginning.” She sighed. “I wish I’d listened to you.”
“Lois, we can fight this! I’ll go see Stern—”
“No, Clark!” she sniffed. “You keep your job. I’ll make out somehow, even if I have to move.” She turned to Perry and said, “Would you call the HR department and let them know I’m on my way?”
“Sure, honey. And I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. I tried to argue him out of this one, but I just don’t have the juice I used to have.”
She stood and smoothed her skirt. “That’s okay, Perry, I understand. I hope you don’t mind if I list you as a reference on my résumé, do you?”
“Of course not! And I’ll put together a letter of recommendation, too.”
“Thanks, Chief.” She turned to her former partner. “You don’t have to come with me, Clark. I know where HR is, and I’m okay to drive.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, and before he could react she’d moved out of reach. “I’ll see you soon, I promise.”
Lois walked through the door and straight to the elevators without looking around. Clark watched her go, astounded at the sudden turn of events. There were no odds which would have caused him to bet on something like this happening.
He stood slowly and turned to Perry. “I don’t know what you told Stern about me, but I’m not going to work for a company that treats its best reporter like that. If you want me to type up a letter of resignation, I will. Otherwise you can consider this my notice, effective immediately.”
Perry sighed yet again and nodded. “Both Mr. Stern and I expected you to quit, so I’m not surprised. I just wish you were staying.”
“Well I’m not, so don’t try to—”
“Wouldn’t dream of trying to convince you do stay. I guess Eduardo and Jimmy can work on the Intergang angle.”
“I’m sure they’ll do a great – wait, what Intergang angle?”
“Oh, just some vague rumors of a criminal organization moving in to fill the power vacuum Luthor left when he died. But that’s not your concern now, Clark, so I guess you’ll be running along. Oh, because Mr. Stern anticipated this, you have a packet in HR too.”
Clark frowned. Giving Lois the bad news about her termination was unusual for Perry, but his comments to Clark were totally out of character. He was acting like someone else, someone completely different from the intense and focused man Clark knew he was.
He looked closer at the editor and saw a sense of urgency in his face which was at odds with his body language. Something was very odd, thought Clark, and it had to do with what he’d been saying a moment ago when—
He stopped and blinked. This Intergang, this new player on the criminal scene, was dangerous. Had to be, or Perry wouldn’t have even mentioned the group to someone who’d just quit. There was something else going on, something sneaky and underhanded that only he knew about, something he was trying to tell Clark—
Sneaky.
Underhanded.
Devious.
Undercover?
Him and Lois? Undercover to investigate Intergang? Was that what was going on?
It was a stretch, but that had to be it. Perry wanted Clark and Lois to go undercover to investigate Intergang. It was the only explanation he could think of that made any sense, except that Perry wouldn’t leave them out on a limb like that, exposed to the criminals they were looking into.
Perry wouldn’t.
But Franklin Stern might.
It was the final piece of the puzzle. Franklin Stern wanted them undercover. And firing Lois was the only way to convince anyone outside the organization that she was no longer associated with the paper, which also meant that there was a real threat to the Planet’s security. He had to suspect that Intergang had a spy in the office somewhere. If Perry couldn’t give Lois the assignment outright, that meant that he was hoping Clark would watch over her as she dug out the truth independently.
At least, he hoped that would be it.
It was a nutty scheme, the kind of thing that worked in movies and romantic fantasy stories but usually backfired disastrously in real life. It meant that this was probably the most dangerous assignment Lois had ever received. It also meant that it wouldn’t arouse Intergang’s suspicions if Lois took another job or if she didn’t finish out the assignment for any reason.
That, of course, assumed that she really had received it.
And just then he thought of a way to prove it.
He slapped the top of the desk with an open hand as hard as he dared, then leaned over the desk and yelled, “If you’re firing Lois you might as well fire me! Because if you don’t I’m quitting right now!”
Perry fell back into his chair, but Clark leaned closer and turned his head, then whispered, “Lois and I will check out Intergang and get back to you. Right?”
Perry’s shoulders relaxed and he stood. “You want to quit? Fine! Go ahead and quit! And then you find a bucket of water, stick your foot in it, and pull it out! That’s the hole you’ll leave when you’re gone and that’s how much we’ll miss you!”
Perry leaned close to Clark with a really angry face, then he hissed through his teeth and said, “Keep her safe, Kent, or I’ll take care of you myself.”
Clark gave him a microscopic nod and spun to the door. As he stomped across the news floor, he noticed every eye on him, but he made no eye contact with anyone as he threw open the stairwell door and slammed it behind him. He paused and listened as Perry leaned out of his office and bellowed, “Hey! This is a newspaper, not performance art! You people get back to work if you want to keep your own jobs!”
He smiled sideways. Perry could have been a great stage actor had he not chosen to fight for truth and justice in his own way.
Now all he had to do was convince Lois to cooperate with this crazy plan.
And hope he’d understood what Perry was trying to tell him without telling him.
*****
Stunned. Stupefied. Confused, perplexed, baffled. Bewitched, bothered, bewildered.
The litany of adjectives helped Lois keep her balance as Audra Baker from Human Resources walked her through the exit process. She signed a number of forms agreeing not to sue the company in return for a fifty-percent increase in her severance pay, forms directing these funds to her savings or checking account via direct deposit, a form finalizing her latest work-related expenses – an amount which looked heavily padded to Lois – and a form allowing the company to collect her personal belongings from her desk and have them ready for her to pick up around mid-day tomorrow.
Audra smiled softly and handed Lois one last form. “This is the last one, Ms. Lane. This allows us to continue your insurance for three months at your current rates, and then it will convert to the COBRA extension at your option. Per Federal law, your COBRA benefits can run for up to nineteen months after that time. Please sign here.”
Lois reflected that Audra’s voice and manner reminded her of a funeral director she and Clark had interviewed a few months earlier. The man’s smile had creeped her out, and his soft voice had felt like sandpaper on her ears. Maybe Audra moonlighted as a mortician. She even dressed like one. Maybe her middle name was Morticia and her real last name was Addams.
The thought of never being able to work with Clark again struck her like a thunderbolt. It was the aspect of leaving the Daily Planet which filled her with the most pain. She didn’t want to leave the paper where she’d established herself as a force for right and for truth. She didn’t want to leave the people she’d grown to depend on for support and appreciation. She truly didn’t want to leave the best newspaper editor in the country. Those thoughts shoved disappointment and sadness through her emotional processor. But she could do all that and more if she had to.
The one thing that took her breath away and drove a stake through her heart was the prospect of not seeing Clark every day.
It would be torture not to have him leaning over her shoulder to tell her that the word ‘process’ was spelled with only one ‘c’ or that commas always set off any kind of personal address or that ‘aluminium’ was the British spelling. She felt as if she might fall into the void in her heart. She’d never again hear Clark argue with her about risking her safety in pursuit of evidence. There was no thrill, legal or illegal, which would make up for the times she’d never again experience on stakeouts with him. And not even nightly visits from Superman would warm her soul like cold pizza and a Mel Gibson video at Clark’s apartment.
She suddenly realized that Audra the Addams Family escapee was patiently waiting for her pen, as if she suspected that Lois might steal it now that all the forms were signed. “Here. Here’s your pen. Take it.”
Audra’s soft voice slithered into her ears. “I know how hard this can be, Ms. Lane. Is there someone you want to call?”
“You asked me that when I came in here. The answer is still no.”
“I know, but it’s been a few minutes since then, and I wondered if you’d changed your mind. That’s all.”
Lois stood. “I’ll be back tomorrow to pick up my stuff. My personal stuff, I mean.”
“Of course.” Audra straightened the papers Lois had signed and stood, still smiling like a greeter at a funeral home. “If I’m not here for some reason, my assistant can help you.”
“You mean Wednesday?”
Audra tilted her head in confusion. “No, Deidre is here every day.”
“Fine. I’m going now.”
She turned and nearly ran into Clark’s solid chest.
The urge to fling herself into that solid mass of muscle and heart was almost overwhelming, but she forced herself to step around him. “I told you I didn’t need you to take me home!” she snapped.
“That’s not why I’m here.”
She turned and gritted her teeth at him. “Then why? You waiting for me to cry on your shoulder or something?”
“I quit.”
Her jaw fell open and her eyes bulged. “Wh-what? You – you quit?”
“Yes. I told Perry—”
She slapped him on the chest with one hand, ignoring the resulting sting. She’d forgotten for the moment that he was Mr. Hardbody and she refused to give him the satisfaction of reminding him that she knew. “You idiot! You’re throwing away your career for nothing! That won’t change Stern’s mind! Go!” She pointed at the door. “Go back and tell Perry you were just upset and – and you don’t really want to quit!” She stepped behind him and pushed.
He gave ground and turned so quickly that she stumbled into his arms. “It was wrong, Lois, it was so very wrong. I won’t work for a company that treats its best reporter like this.”
She relaxed into his body for a long moment, then slowly pushed herself upright. “So you – you’re standing on principle? You’re not just trying to make me feel better?”
A hint of amusement crept onto his face. “I’m trying to do both, actually.”
She nodded once. “Okay.” Then, in a stronger voice, she repeated, “Okay. I’ll wait for you to get your paperwork finished and we’ll go make a plan together. That sound good to you?”
“It does, Lois. It really does.”
*****
They drove to Clark’s apartment, for no reason except both agreed that his couch was more comfortable to sit on. One quick pick-up at Sharkey’s Pizza later they were at opposite ends of said couch, munching on pepperoni and sausage and drinking Shasta root beer, which Lois hadn’t seen in Metropolis for years. She decided that learning where he bought it would have to come later.
She took a look around the apartment and said, “You’ve done some remodeling. The bedroom has a door now. Bathroom too.”
He swallowed and nodded. “I got tired of the open plan. I wanted my parents to feel like they could have some privacy when they came to visit. Saves money on hotels, and while I can afford it, I don’t want to spend it if I don’t have to. Floyd actually thinks it’s a better place now, but I wouldn’t let him raise the rent.”
She grinned. “Better for your lady guests, too, isn’t it?”
He sighed. “You know I don’t do that kind of entertaining.”
“I’m sorry. Sometimes you’re just an easy target.” She dropped the edge crust on her plate and wiped her hands on her napkin. “All right, now we start planning. Do you think we should still try to work as a team or – wait, how will your employment record read?”
“Do what?”
“My record says that I was let go for financial reasons. If yours reads that you just up and quit, it might make it harder for us to get hired together.”
“Uh. We actually need to talk about that.”
“Really? We need to discuss working together? Wait! Do you mean – are you trying to tell me you – you don’t want us to work together?”
“No! Not at all, Lois! This is something else altogether.”
“I know. ’It’s an entirely different kind of flying.’”
She could see his concern for her mental stability as plain as the mole on Cat Grant’s shoulder. “Uh – Lois? Are you okay?”
She jumped up and walked around the table to the other side of the room. “Sorry, sorry, it’s a line from the movie ‘Airplane’ and I don’t know why it popped out just then.” She turned and walked back to the couch, but this time she sat in the middle next to Clark. “Look, I’m feeling very – very blindsided right now and I don’t know if I’m making any sense but I just don’t want to face the future without you, okay? You told me you loved me and you took it back but right now I really wish you hadn’t because I was going to tell you how I felt about you but you said you would have said anything to keep me away from Luthor and you were right – and now you see where my bull-headedness has gotten me and you’re in it up to your neck, you big dumb farm boy, and—”
“Hey, slow down! Take a breath, okay?”
She stared into his eyes and made an impulsive decision, one she knew she might regret very soon. “No. I’m not slowing down.”
“You’re not? Then what are – oomph!”
She was pleased that he couldn’t talk while his lips were entangled with hers. Maybe she wouldn’t regret it after all.
*****
With deep reluctance and much internal conflict, Clark gently pushed her away. “Wait – Lois, wait! Please. There’s something I have to tell you.”
She pulled back slowly and gazed into his eyes. “What do you – oh. You mean – I thought you – then you don’t—”
She gasped and paled. He had to keep her from bolting. “Stop! Right now. I have to tell you why we don’t have jobs any more.”
“What? But I thought—”
“Lois, honey, just listen! Perry had to fire you because Mr. Stern wants you to go undercover to look for evidence on a new criminal organization called Intergang. It was all he could do to give me enough hints and nudges and winks before I got it. We’re supposed to look like we’re totally cut off from the Planet and its resources so no one will suspect that we really didn’t get fired.”
She relaxed slightly and her face blanked. “Oh.” She sat up and put her hands in her lap. “I thought you – for a minute I thought I’d done something really stupid by – by kissing you like that.” She tilted her head to one side and frowned. “You lied to me that day in the park, didn’t you? The day you told me you’d say anything to keep me from marrying Lex and that you only loved me as a friend. That – that was a lie – wasn’t it?”
He opened his mouth – and nothing came out.
If he admitted that he’d lied to her that day, he’d also have to admit to deceiving her about his ‘other job’ as Superman. There was no way he could sustain a close relationship with her without telling her the secret. And he was tired of trying.
On the other hand—
If he tried to continue the deceit, he risked losing her totally. She might move away, even leave the city, and be out from under his direct protection. He couldn’t risk her being Superman’s girlfriend. That simply wouldn’t work.
And when she eventually found out the truth behind his two lies – his other identity and his passion for her – whether tonight or tomorrow or weeks from now, she might never trust him again. She might reject him for not trusting her enough to be honest with her. That was as big a risk as not telling her.
He had to make a choice – keep lying to her or tell her everything.
And he couldn’t wait any longer.
*****
Lois was scared.
She was scared of tomorrow, where she would work, where she would live, where she would sleep that night and nights in the near future, and she was scared of what Clark was about to say. She was scared that he was about to tell her that he didn’t love her and that she’d destroyed their friendship. She was afraid that he’d tell her he did love her and that she wouldn’t be able to be the woman he deserved. She was afraid that she’d lose everything and end up living on the street, pushing a rusty dinged-up shopping cart with all of her meager possessions piled up in it.
He pulled back from her and his mouth moved, but nothing came out. He was trying to say something – but what? What was he trying to tell her?
She had to know.
Almost on its own, her hand reached out and covered his. “Clark? Whatever it is you’re trying to say, I can take it. Please. Tell me.”
His mouth opened soundlessly once again. Then he sighed and seemed to shrink in on himself. He licked his lips and took a breath.
“Lois – I – I am—”
