Good morning everyone! (Well, you know, morning for me...)

Does everyone remember where we are, or having you forgotten?

Ehhh...

Sorry... Bad joke. wink

Table of Contents


From Part 3:

“No you won’t. We’re partners, remember? I’ll help you remember. You can make good notes... to help you remember from day to day where you are, until you get your memories back.”

“If I get my memories back,” she muttered under her breath disgustedly.

“Don’t say that!”

Oh, yeah, momentary lapse of memory. He was Superman. Of course he could hear her muttering. “Well, it’s the truth!”

“No, it’s not,” he countered, looking agonized. He knew it as well as she did. She opened her mouth and he cut her off. “No, it’s not. Being despondent isn’t going to help anything.”

She sighed and then sat up straighter in her seat. “I know. I know. You’re right.” Of course he was right. He was Superman – he was *always* right... or at least *thought* he was. She rolled her eyes in disgust.

Wait. Why did she do that? Why did she think that?

Why did she feel that way about Clark?

She smiled. It wasn’t a memory - not yet - but it was a feeling about a memory. Something had to have happened to make her feel that way.

Clark saw her smile and gave her one of his own - little did he know what she was smiling about. “There, that’s better. Now, how about we get you back into your routine, get you working on some *hot* story. That’s bound to help... get your juices flowing.”

**********

PART FOUR

**********

“A ribbon cutting ceremony for the new library... you’re serious?” Lois’s voice came out sounding a little more sarcastic than she had meant for it to.

“Yes, I am,” Perry assured her. “I think it would be a good piece for you to stretch your legs on, get you back into the swing of things.”

“Chief, please. I didn’t like those pieces back when I was a junior reporter. Do you honestly think something that monotonous is going to ‘get me back into the swing of things’? Do you really think it’s going to *do* anything for me, period?” She sighed exasperatedly. How could he expect her to work on something that trivial? They lived in Metropolis for crying out loud. Superman had gone out on three rescues all ready that day. There were far more interesting stories to work on.

But it wasn’t like she hadn’t thought the same thing herself – she remembered mentioning ‘dog shows’ to Clark...

“Lois, honey...”

But just because she had thought the same thing earlier, didn’t necessarily mean it was a good idea. “Don’t you trust me? Have you really lost that much faith in me? Geez, one little bump on the head and I’m demoted to stories that would be better suited for... Ralph!”

She was being emotional and irrational. She knew she was. She knew Perry had to do what was in the best interests of the paper. And what was in the paper’s best interests was not having a reporter who couldn’t remember things from one day to the next. How could she work on their more intricate stories like this?

“I’m back,” Clark said as he walked through Perry’s door. “Sorry. I can’t believe I forgot to turn my iron off this morning.” Lois rolled her eyes. He had to come up with better excuses. She couldn’t believe she had bought so many of those lame ducks. “So what’s the assignment, Chief?”

“He’s putting you on the break-in story at STAR Labs,” Lois informed him bitterly, “And he’s asked me to cover the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new library.” She flashed him a fake smile. “Because that’s the type of story that really needs the hard-edged expertise of an award-winning journalist.”

Perry and Clark both shifted uncomfortably on their feet, their eyes looking anywhere but at Lois. Clark knew that Perry was just trying to take the safe route, but he also knew that a library-opening story was not going to help Lois. It was selfish of him not to want to partner with Lois. He was her memory now, according to Dr. Peterson. More importantly, he was still her partner and he couldn't let his own fears and frustrations make her condition even worse.

"We're partners, Chief," he said, catching Perry's eye.

“Clark, you know that I...” Perry began.

“I need my partner, especially on something this big. Let us both work on the STAR Labs break-in. I’ll take full responsibility,” he assured him, putting as much weight behind his words as he could.

Lois looked like she could kiss him. He pushed that thought from his mind – better not to think about that.

It would do no good to think about her lips, how soft and supple they looked just now or to remember how good she tasted when he kissed them. Even now her hair had that one rebellious strand that had come untucked from behind her ear. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and sweep it back where it belonged. Only the fact that they were in Perry’s office and that he had never been able to do so yet without letting his fingers pause, however briefly, against her cheek stopped him.

No, he shouldn’t think about such things. It was so... unproductive.

“We’ll be working together on it,” he reminded Perry. “And she can take detailed notes on anything she follows up by herself.”

Lois nodded in agreement and held her breath. Perry looked conflicted between doing what he had been told to do, and doing what he probably had wanted to do from the beginning. “Okay.” His usual sparkle returned to his eyes. “Don’t just stand there. Get out there and find me some page one news.”

Clark opened the door for Lois, resting his hand at the small of her back as he followed her out of the office. That gesture wasn’t unproductive at all, he told himself. That was just good manners.

Halfway to her desk, she stopped and turned, effectively hurling herself into his arms. “Thanks,” she murmured against his neck. The sensation sent a shiver through him and he reflexively returned the hug.

“For what? For wanting to work with my partner?” He knew he should step back now, but he couldn’t make himself do so. He stopped himself from allowing his hand to caress her back.

She wasn’t sure but there was something wrong with how he had said ‘partner’. He seemed so tense and it made her feel strangely uneasy.

“Clark, I mean it. Thank you.” She stepped back to end the hug. Her hands caught his as he pulled away from her and she squeezed them.

“You’re welcome.” He looked down at their joined hands and felt awkward. She was looking at him expectantly and his mind raced to find something to say. “Um, Dr. Peterson mentioned that you might want to have someone stay with you. Do you want me to call your mom and see if she could...”

“I’ve lost my memory, Clark, not my mind,” she said and released his hands. Why was he being so distant? “I can’t handle my mom right now.”

“What about Lucy?”

What about *him*? Why wasn’t *he* offering to stay with her? Or let her stay with him? It hadn’t been that long since Kyle Griffin had reappeared and Clark offered to let her stay with him.

She had, of course, declined. They had just started dating and it would have felt uncomfortable to be there with him. Clark had coerced Jimmy into offering and she had elected to stay with him instead, which had turned out to be a nightmare.

But now... If Clark were to offer now, she might just take him up on it. If you couldn’t trust Superman, who could you trust? For some reason, though, he didn’t seem inclined to make the offer. The thought flickered through her mind that he was avoiding her. But that was silly – hadn’t he just insisted on them working together as partners?

“Lucy’s got classes right now and she works on top of that,” Lois explained to him. “She doesn’t have time to play babysitter to me.” She hesitated for just a moment before forging ahead with, “Why couldn’t you come over?”

The look on his face said it all. He looked... uneasy. Disappointment welled up inside her. He really was avoiding her – but why? Not wanting to give him a chance to rebuff her offer, she bit back her frustration and continued, “I meant first thing in the morning. You could check on me before I go into work. It’s not like I’m going to burn the place to the ground if I’m left alone.”

“I don’t think you should be alone when you wake up in the morning. You’ll wake up again totally disoriented, wondering how you got that bump on your head and why you cut your hair. I’m sure that has to be a little scary.”

Clark sighed and wished he could have offered to stay with her. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that was what she had been suggesting before.

But that was impossible now. He couldn’t be around her like that and she didn’t realize that they weren’t together. He didn’t want to have to tell her. Again.

“Don’t you mean *if*?” She raised one eyebrow at him.

“Huh?”

“*If* I wake up disoriented.”

He squirmed uncomfortably. “Um, yeah, *if*.”

She eyed him pointedly. “Didn’t you scold me earlier for something along the same lines? Something about not being despondent?” She poked him in the ribs and was delighted to see him finally smile. “This is not going to beat me. I am going to get better, you’ll see.”

“I know you are,” he told her, trying to make his voice sound positive. He wanted to believe that as much as she did. “I just meant... well, in case you woke up again with no memory, maybe it would be better if someone was there – you know, to explain things.”

“Clark, I’m not going to be an imposition to anyone. If this does end up taking more than just a few days to clear up, then I’ll just have to learn how to deal with it. I’m going to have to learn how to function on my own.” She had opened a desk drawer while she was talking and was now rifling through it.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m looking for a journal. I bought one a few weeks ago. Dr. Friskin suggested that I might want to write down some of my feelings in it... you know, about you, and Superman, and... Dan.” She sort of muttered the last name.

She opened another drawer and began to dig through it. “But I didn’t really use it. I didn’t need to.” She flashed a knowing smile at him. “And now, I think it could come in handy. I don’t want to lose these memories, Clark... these days. There are entire days of my life that might end up missing. I want to at least have a record of what happened and what I did.” She pulled out a book that was the size of a half sheet of paper with a soft-looking maroon cover. “At least that’s something.”

He watched as she picked up a pen off her desk. Clark realized that it was his pen - actually his *new* pen. He raised an eyebrow. He had searched his entire apartment looking for that pen. She must have borrowed it when she had come to his apartment the night they were working late.

He flinched. That night hadn’t ended in work. It had ended in a kiss on his couch that had left them both breathless. He would never be able to kiss her again and the loss was staggering. Had she taken the pen accidentally? Or had she kept it as a memento of that night? He turned away as she started writing. He felt like he would be invading her privacy to stand there and continue to watch her.

“I’m going to call Bobby Bigmouth and see if he knows anything about the break-in or what was stolen,” he told her, backing away. “Then we can call STAR Labs and see if anyone there has time to meet with us.”

“Mmm hmm,” she murmured at him as she began writing. She looked at her first sentence. ‘The Truth About Clark Kent’. She quickly scratched the sentence out. There were certain truths that she needed to know, but she was going to have to figure out how to write them in code. If someone found her journal, she didn’t want it to contain anything that would expose Clark. She put her pen to the paper again.

‘The Truth About Lois Lane.’

**********

Clark never could figure out how Bobby managed to be so sneaky. If Clark didn’t keep his super-senses tightly attuned to any little noise or movement, Bobby could sneak up on them in less than half a heartbeat... he had done it before.

And Lois wasn’t making it any easier for him to pay attention.

She had her hand inside one of the delivery bags, feverishly searching for some hidden morsel to capture for her own.

He glanced over to watch her withdraw a hand with an aluminum-foil-wrapped calzone in it. She raised it temptingly towards her face and sniffed it appreciatively.

“Lo-is,” he hissed and shot her an annoyed look. “You know that Bobby will pout and sulk and won’t tell us anything if he suspects you of pilfering some of his food.”

“Well we got extra. It’s not like I’m eating anything that absolutely had to be his,” she pouted. She started to unwrap the foil.

“I’ll take you back to the restaurant to eat afterwards if it means you’ll quit trying to snitch his food.”

“Did I hear someone say snitch?” Bobby’s voice said from outside Clark’s open window. Clark almost jumped. How did he do that?

“Hi, Bobby,” Clark greeted him. He jabbed his elbow gently into Lois’s side.

Even gently, it was still enough to make her jerk guiltily. “That depends on your definition of ‘snitch’,” she told Bobby, raising one eyebrow up at him. “Got anything good for us?”

Bobby opened the back door of the Jeep and climbed inside, wriggling forward until his head was between their two seats. “Well, I guess that would depend on your definition of good. But... you know the rules... and I hate to see good pasta go cold.” Bobby held out his hand, smiling his wide, smirky grin.

Lois huffed in disgust and shoved her purloined treasure back down into the bag, handing it to him. “There. Now talk.”

“Mmm, Alfredo’s. They have the best primavera.” Bobby seized a piece of bread from the sack and took a hungry bite out of it. It made her mouth water. For some reason she felt as if she hadn’t eaten all day long yesterday. She’d have to ask Clark about that later. “Okay,” Bobby continued, taking hurried bites of his bread as he eyed Lois suspiciously, “I bet you wanna know some info about that break-in last night at STAR Labs, huh?”

“You know about that?” Clark asked him eagerly.

Bobby sneered. “Please. Who do you think I am? Huh? Of course I know about that.” He rummaged through the container to find the warm package of calzones. He pulled one out and began devouring it fervently. Lois glared at him in disgust. Where did he put it all? “From what I heard, there were some research notes taken and a sample of a highly-classified drug stolen. I haven’t been able to pin down a name for the drug. But...” He licked his fingers off and dug into the package for another calzone. “There’s rumored to be a doctor there who is pretty easy to talk to if you get him distracted enough. I’ve heard he’s a little absent-minded sometimes...”

“Who?” Lois asked impatiently.

“Dr. Klein is his name. Dr. Bernard Klein. Head of one of the research divisions. Real nerd. Likes his experiments and primates better than people – a true introvert. Anyway, he’s the guy you should talk to, and, uh, I’ve gotta get going. The food critic from the Metropolis Star is meeting me for information about a couple of local restaurants. You wouldn’t believe what some of them are trying to pass off as food these days. I’ll see you guys later. Oh, and Lois, don’t *forget* me.” His mouth widened into a full-fledged smirk as he tucked his payment underneath one arm and got out of the Jeep.

“Wait! Bobby!” Lois called after him. “Ugh.” She gave Clark a frustrated sigh. “He didn’t give us any information. And now he owes me a calzone. I gotta write that one down.”

“Well he did give us a name – Dr. Klein.” Clark turned the key in the ignition. “I think we ought to go pay the good doctor a visit.”

Yeah, just what she wanted, to spend more time in the company of another doctor. This day just kept getting better and better.

**********

“Dr. Klein?” Clark asked, extending his hand to the older, balding man standing before him. Clark found himself smiling easily at the man – he had kind eyes. “Clark Kent, Daily Planet, and this is my partner, Lois Lane.”

Dr. Klein gave each of them a short, distracted handshake. Then he turned away from them and went back to dripping a few drops of liquid into some beakers that were already half full. An ominous tuft of smoke wisped up out of one of the beakers. Dr. Klein frowned and made a note on his clipboard.

“We were hoping you could talk to us about the break-in that happened last night,” Lois prompted him.

“Yes?” he asked, looking back up at them puzzled. His expression changed as he shook his head slightly and a look of recognition seemed to dawn on his features. “Oh, yes, the break-in. Not really much to tell.” He picked up one of the beakers and swirled the golden-hued liquid around inside of it. He took a long stemmed dropper off the counter and stuck it down inside the beaker. After withdrawing a small sample of the liquid into the dropper, he then walked over to a microscope and picked up a slide, dribbling the sample onto it.

“Yes, but since you work here, we were hoping you could give us more than just the “official” story,” Lois urged him.

“Hmm, very interesting,” he mumbled as he put his eye to the microscope.

“What’s interesting?” Clark asked him.

“While I’m sure that liquid is absolutely fascinating,” Lois noted, throwing an exasperated look Clark’s way, “Could you focus for just a moment...”

“No, not the liquid,” Dr. Klein explained. “The break-in. They didn’t steal any equipment, computers or anything like that. I’ve spent all morning going through the contents of the lab and inventorying everything. There were only two things taken.”

Clark nodded at him. “Yes, some research notes and a highly classified drug...”

“No. Some research notes and a mind-altering drug,” he mumbled, turning a knob on the microscope. He finally leaned away from the eyepiece and looked blankly at them. Then his features softened and he gave them a crooked smile. “It’s rumored that the drug was originally developed by Intergang – Bill Church.”

“Project Nirvana?” Lois broke in. The mind-control drug Dan had been working to uncover?

Dr. Klein’s eyes went wide. “You know about Project Nirvana? That information was supposed to be classified.”

“I dated the DEA agent who was working on the case. I did some snooping around on him and found out a few things.” She crossed her arms in front of her, looking satisfied at her journalistic abilities.

Clark rolled his eyes. That was all he needed – to have Scardino show up in her life again. At least her amnesia hadn’t erased the fact that she had picked him over Dan.

He winced to himself when he realized where his thoughts were turning. What would he do if she decided... no, *when* she decided to date someone else? How was he going to deal with that? He wouldn’t be able to just stand idly by and watch Lois date some other person – even if he had told her that they couldn’t be together. Especially if she dated someone as smarmy as Dan Scardino. Or, god forbid, Scardino himself.

Dr. Klein threw Lois a quizzical look and then nodded his head. “I see. Work before love. I know that all too well.” He dribbled some of the liquid from his dropper into a Petri dish and then replaced the lid. “Well, I suppose if you already know about the drug it won’t hurt to talk to you about it. Uh, what do you know?”

She narrowed her eyes at him and then sighed – give a little, get a little, she supposed. “According to my sources, Bill Church, Jr. was involved in a deal with Charles Knox, the head of Omnicorp, to try and get the drug released as an over-the-counter pain med for headaches. The unexpected side-effect, though, was that it made you highly susceptible to suggestion, allowing you to be, in effect, brainwashed into doing whatever the intended benefactor wanted you to do.”

Dr. Klein nodded in agreement with her. “Yes, that’s correct. Fascinating stuff, really, neuropharmacology.” Dr. Klein tilted his head and blinked rapidly. “Oh no!” he exclaimed and began to hurry from the room. “I’m terribly sorry, I need to go check on...”

He was out the door, leaving both Lois and Clark to stare after him in surprised disbelief.

“Well,” Clark said after a few seconds had passed. “Do you want to wait for him to come back?”

Lois sighed.

“Come on,” Clark said, taking her arm, “Let’s get back to the Planet and see what we can dig up in the meantime on thought-altering drugs and mind-control.”

She scowled at him. “Oh, yeah, just what I was in the mood for – some light reading. Can we at least grab a bite to eat, first? You promised me lunch at Alfredo’s – remember?”

**********

To Be Continued...


Smile and the world smiles with you ... frown and you're just giving yourself wrinkles.