Chapter 7
Lois' stomach lurched as she spun around in her seat to look back at the door. Two kids-- and they had to be kids, they barely looked of age-- wielding guns barged into the cafe with red bandanas over their mouths. She scowled darkly at them-- how dare they try and rob her uncle's restaurant! Uncle Mike wasn't that well-off. What did they think they would get out of this? Besides, they were the only ones here, having just missed the breakfast crowd and beating the lunch one. Were they hoping to get more than eighty bucks out of this?
Speak of the devil... Uncle Mike walked up front with a scowl on his face and a tossed a dirty dishrag over his shoulder. "Hey, hey! You kids get out of here, or I'll call the cops, and I mean it this time!"
"Can it, old man!"
"You punks think you can intimidate me? I've been in this neighborhood longer than you've been alive; I've faced more than a few stick-ups, and by guys a helluva lot scarier than you two."
Lois' heart jumped, because he was being stupid. There was no sense in being a hero-- he had insurance, and they'd call the cops, and it'd all be over in a matter of minutes...
Motion from the corner of her eye drew her attention sharply, her hair whipping against her chin violently as she snapped her gaze over to watch Clark slide carefully out of the booth. Her pulse jumped again, but this time a different fear was responsible. "Clark," she hissed under her breath. He shot her a quick look and held a finger to his lips.
She shook her head again, no, and grabbed his wrist.
His eyes were calm, steady, as he turned back to face her. "Trust me," he whispered.
Her mouth fell open. Trust him? Trust him? How the hell was she supposed to do that? She hardly knew him. She had no reason to believe anything he told her was actually true-- minus the floating in midair part-- but he wanted her to trust him? He was going to get them all killed.
He tipped his glasses down the bridge of his nose, crouched down beside their booth in the open, and a spark of red tinged the air before his eyes. Lois felt her breath catch in her chest, and she followed his gaze to see the closest perp shout and drop his weapon, distracting the other kid.
"What happened, man?"
"I don't know, it heated up like it was gonna explode or something!"
"You're dumber than a bag of rocks. Guns don't explode."
Lois gaped in surprise and turned back to Clark--
Only he was gone.
Fear pulsed through her again as she scanned the room for any sign of him, when suddenly he was behind the two kids at the entrance. He flipped the lock on the door, the sound startling the robbers. "Hi, I ordered a sandwich to-go, and was hoping it was ready for pickup."
The one with the gun turned toward him, and Clark was in motion. Faster than she could track, he flickered, and the kid pulled the trigger, only for nothing to happen. The boy frowned and looked at his weapon.
"All jammed up, huh? You guys didn't plan this very well."
The kid lunged for him, tossing his gun aside. Clark stuck his foot out, and the boy tripped to the ground. The other kid found his courage, and threw a punch at Clark. Lois jumped.
Clark caught his fist in midair, twisted the kid around, and shoved him into his partner in crime. He glanced back at Mike as the two struggled to get upright again. "Mike, you want to call the cops?"
"My pleasure," he glared at the young thugs with his chin jutted out, and snatched the handset off the host's podium.
"The boss ain't gonna like this--"
"Shut up, you moron!"
Clark hauled them up by the collar, one in each hand and landed them on their feet. "I don't know who's in charge of your little gang operation here, but you tell them not to bother this establishment again, got it?"
Lois swallowed thickly. On the one hand, she was impressed-- he'd handled the situation without even having to rely on his abilities too much. She didn't think Mike or the robbers had picked up on anything… other-wordly in the course of the confrontation. A thrum of lust ran through her quickly, making her shudder and bite her lip. He looked so strong-- and he was always handsome-- but something about him saving the day tripled his attractiveness. She crushed that feeling before he could read it on her face and buried it down way deep, where it was unlikely to ever surface again. She hoped.
A flash of blue and red lights through the windows drew her attention away, and she focused again on the situation at hand. Armed robbery. Right. A few beat cops came in, followed by Bill Henderson, and Lois groaned and buried her face in her hands. Could this day get any worse? He did a double-take on seeing her, but finished interviewing Clark and Mike as the other two officers booked and cuffed the two culprits.
“Lois? I should have known you’d be at the bottom of this. What are you doing here?”
She grumbled under her breath and shot the detective a saccharine smile. “I could ask you the same thing, Bill. You stuck training some rookies?”
He scowled playfully at her and flipped his notebook shut. “Whatever. Not like you’re doing anything more glamorous. Unless this is some elaborate sting operation I wasn’t supposed to know about?”
Lois snorted. “Nope. Just out to lunch. My bad luck streak continues.”
Henderson guffawed loudly at that. “Lois, you don’t have bad luck, you are bad luck.” Lois clocked Clark’s arrival as he stood awkwardly behind Henderson, and Bill turned to him with a frown. “Can I help you with anything else, Mr. Kent? I believe I have enough for your statement.”
“I, uh, I was just returning to my seat, sir.”
Henderson glanced between them suspiciously and then his eyebrows jumped. “Oh. Oh! You’ve got to be kidding me! Are you on a date?”
Lois flushed and shook her head vehemently. “It’s not a date.”
“There’s your next headline: Lois Lane gets held up even on a date.” Henderson started laughing hysterically.
“I said it’s not a date, Bill!”
“Sure, Lois, sure.”
At least Clark looked about as mortified as she felt. She didn’t know whether or not to be pleased with that fact. She turned back to Henderson with a scowl. “Can we go now, or do you have any more relevant questions to ask?”
Bill shrugged, wiping a tear from his eye, and gestured the way to the door, giving Lois a minute to adjust as she slowly stood up from the booth. “Be my guest. I’ll let you and Mr. Kent get back to your date.”
Clark cleared his throat and corrected him casually. “You can call me Clark. And it’s not a date.”
“Sure thing, Clark,” Bill frowned, suddenly sobered, and looked to Lois again. She could see that he’d put the pieces together already. “Clark? As in, Havana Clark?”
“I really never should have befriended a detective,” she grumbled and stormed past him to the podium. “Uncle Mike! We’re gonna head out. How much do I owe you for lunch?”
“No charge, sweetheart! It’s been a rough day. It’s on the house.”
“Uncle Mike,” she whined, giving him puppy dog eyes. He shook his head with a smile.
“Nope. Your money’s no good here, not today.”
She leaned forward with a sigh and an eye roll, and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks. Stay safe, okay?”
“You too, Lo, you too.”
She turned to find Clark squirming under the detective’s stare, and she smirked a little. “Clark, you coming?”
He couldn’t run away fast enough, scurrying past the detective with a shy smile and a wave goodbye. Henderson shouted after her. “Don’t get into any more trouble, Lane!”
She waved him off and they started walking back down the street.
“That was a fast response time,” Clark remarked flatly.
“You’re not staying in the best neighborhood,” she shot back. She retreated into her head as Clark followed in silence. This was just perfect. Now everybody and their brother knew about Clark’s existence, and that he was her… her baby daddy. She wrinkled her nose at the phrase, but she couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to frame their relationship. They hadn’t even had a real relationship. They had a one night stand that resulted in Havana and three years of distance. And now what? She was expected to just let him waltz back into her life like it was nothing? He’d never been apart of her life. How was she supposed to make room for him?
Even if there was a small part of her that did want to make room for him.
“Lois, I know this wasn’t a date.”
She frowned as his voice broke into her thoughts. “What?”
“Back there, what the detective said--”
“Clark, I’m not debating whether or not that was a date, kay? It very clearly was not a date.”
“And I’m just reiterating that I know that.”
“Good.”
“We were there for you, to discuss your condition and Havana.”
She stopped short, and turned back to scrutinize him carefully again. “We didn’t really get to talk about Havana. What did you want to discuss?”
He squirmed again under her gaze, and Lois didn’t cut him any slack. “I just want a chance to get to know her, if you’d let me. I don’t want to encroach on your lives at all, I’m not asking for anything to do with custody, I’m not even asking to be her… her Dad. Even though there’s nothing in the world I want more than that… I just want to get to know her. She’s… she’s so perfect.” His voice was full of awe, and Lois felt her heart tumble in the cage of her chest.
He was being reasonable, rational, even. It was a small ask. But the fear it put into her heart was unmistakable.
“Maybe I can just be a cool friend of her mom’s that comes over sometimes, or babysits.”
“Look, Clark,” she steeled her nerves and wrung her hands together nervously. “I get it. And I appreciate it. I’m not against the idea, I’m really not. I’d love for us to one day be at a place where I wouldn’t even mind her calling you Daddy.”
He seemed to sense the impending ‘but’ at the end of her words, and cut her off. “I understand, Lois. I’ll back off.”
Her heart clenched again, watching him smooth his face into a neutral expression, just a few seconds too late to cover for the hurt she’d seen flash behind his eyes. “No, don’t back off, that’s not what I was saying.” Lois rubbed at her temples, frustration building in the form of a headache. “I just want to take it one day at a time, okay? Maybe… maybe you can swing by and see Havana after we visit your doctor tomorrow.”
He beamed at her in response to that, the grin splitting his face from ear to ear and sending another flutter through her belly. God, was he cute. He really did look like his daughter. “Okay. That sounds great.”
“But like I said, one day at a time. Seeing her tomorrow doesn’t mean that’s the new norm, or that you get to see her again whenever you want. I’m trying here, but you have to meet me halfway.”
He nodded rapidly, grin not abating in the least. “Of course. I understand that. I just… I don’t know how I love her so much already.”
Lois felt her heart pulse in her chest, because she still couldn’t explain it, but she’d felt the same from the moment she felt the girl kick in her belly. She smiled sweetly at him. “Yeah. I get that.”
“So you will go see Dr. Klein tomorrow with me?”
“Yeah,” Lois nodded, sobering a little. “Perry should let me take a long lunch. I’ll see if my sister can watch Havana tomorrow.”
“She doesn’t go to daycare?”
“Not on Thursdays, no. I usually have Thursdays off, but I swapped it for today off, so Havana's with me tomorrow.”
Clark nodded. “Okay. Whatever works for you. I’ll be at work tomorrow morning, so you can call me there, or I can come meet you at the Planet, or I can just meet you at S.T.A.R. Labs--”
“S.T.A.R. Labs?” She questioned with a frown. “Your doctor is at S.T.A.R. Labs? Why?”
Clark shifted his weight nervously, adjusting his glasses. “He’s not a normal doctor, Lois.”
She gaped at him incredulously. “Then how is he supposed to help me?”
“I’m not a normal guy, and you don’t have a normal illness. If it has anything to do with me, Bernie’s the guy to find out.”
Lois shook her head with a soft sigh. “You realize he’s probably not going to discover anything, just like the last five doctors I’ve been to, and then we’ll be back at square one, and I’ll still be dying?”
“But what if he does?”
She gave him a withering glare. “I will not get my hopes up for anything outside my control, understand?” He nodded, looking like a chastened schoolboy. “I am only doing this for Havana, because I want to exhaust all my options, for her sake.”
“I understand.”
Lois turned and started walking again, heading towards his loosely-named ‘hotel’ on autopilot. “And another thing-- you have to be more careful. I understand you want to help people, and I appreciate what you did for Uncle Mike, but you can’t put your life and your identity on the line like that. You have more than just yourself to think about now.”
She could practically feel him shrinking behind her back, and felt a little bad about it. “I know. If the last person I save is you, I’d be satisfied with that.”
She shook her head and bit her smile back. He was so corny, but he was also lying. “No you wouldn’t.”
“I could be. Whatever you need from me, I’ll do it.”
“I’m not asking you to never use your, uh, your talents again. I’m just saying, you’re going to have to be more discreet about it if and when you do. Clark Kent can’t be out and about saving the world.” She glanced back to find him deep in thought behind her, and she frowned. “What?”
“Hmm?”
“What are you thinking back there?”
He shrugged and kept walking, and Lois trailed him this time. She wondered where his head was at. What had she said to get him to shut down like this? “I mean, I get it. I understand the impulse to help out whenever and however you can. That’s how I end up with as many stories as I do, not to toot my own horn, but really. The right place at the right time, and--”
“No, that’s not it.” He stopped just outside his hotel now, turned back to face her with a thoughtful hand on his jaw. “What if… what if it wasn’t Clark Kent doing the rescuing?”
Lois furrowed her brow in confusion. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“What if I was in a disguise, went by another name--”
“You’re saying you want to be Batman?” she deadpanned.
“Not Batman, obviously. But yeah. Something like that. Would that be so wrong?”
Lois mulled it over a few long moments. It wouldn’t be wrong. As long as he was pretending to be someone else, and didn’t drag his name into it. It would satisfy his desire to help people, and it would keep them protected simultaneously… “I think that’s actually a great idea. I don’t know why you never thought of it before.”
Clark shrugged and gave her a playful grin. “Maybe I just needed a muse.”
Lois shoved at him, and he laughed. “Whatever. See what you can make of it. In the meantime, I’m going to go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“S.T.A.R. Labs, at twelve noon sound okay?”
Lois nodded and turned to flag down a cab. “Sounds good to me. I’ll meet you there.”
