GUESS WHO!!!!
I'm early! I hope none of you mind too terribly much. My wonderful awesome beta readers got this part back to me so fast... and my visiting family are all still asleep... so I was able to sneek on here and get part 16 posted
I probably won't be able to answer any fdk until late tonight or possibly tomorrow... but here's the story, anyway. Thanks for all the great fdk you all have been leaving.
Table of Contents From Part 15:
Clark glanced back and smiled at her before making his way into the bathroom. For the first time that day, he was beginning to feel a little better.
“You don’t happen to have any chocolate hidden anywhere do you?” Lois shouted from the living room. “I looked all over for some when I was staying here but I couldn’t find any.”
Clark smiled broadly at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. “No, I’m sorry,” he hollered back, “fresh out of chocolate. I’ll put it on my grocery list.” He had high hopes that she would be spending more time over at his apartment, even after she got moved into her new place. It definitely wouldn’t hurt for him to have some chocolate around.
In fact...
An idea came to Clark and he began to make a mental checklist of what he wanted to do as he went over to his shower and turned on the water.
************
PART SIXTEEN
************
Clark glanced lovingly at Lois one last time before slipping quietly out the front door. She was still asleep and he hoped she stayed that way, but in case she woke up before he got back, he had left her a note.
But it would be better if she didn’t wake up and wonder where he was. There would be fewer questions that way. It would be easier to keep things secret.
Clark glanced at his watch. He had several stops to make but only two of the stores were open this early in the morning. One of them happened to be the stop closest to his apartment. Close enough that he could just walk. Clark looked up, squinting against the bright sunlight. But with the temperatures already sweltering, even at this time of day, he decided maybe he’d take a cab instead.
Plus, a cab would save a little time and he was in a rush to beat Lois. He would really like to be back before she woke up. He had turned off the alarm clock that she had set for seven-thirty and could only hope that there wouldn’t be any police sirens or barking dogs to wake her up.
He stuck his thumb and forefinger in his mouth and whistled shrilly as a cab approached. The cab slowed and he walked over to get inside of it, an excited flutter filling his stomach.
**********
A telephone ringing is what brought Lois out of her deep sleep. The first couple of times it rang she thought it was an alarm clock and she began to feel around for it, not bothering to lift her head from where it was buried in her pillow. When her hand smacked into the side of Clark’s couch, she remembered that she wasn’t at home in her own bed.
Then she heard Clark’s voice. “Good morning, Chief.” There was a short pause and then, “Yeah, I’m feeling a lot better.”
Lois lifted her head up and squinted against the bright sunlight. Clark was in the kitchen, holding a cup of coffee. She blinked and looked again – he was bright-eyed and fully dressed. He looked like he had been up for a while. What time was it?
“No, she’s still asleep,” Clark continued. He glanced over at Lois and seeing that she was awake, he smiled sweetly at her. “Actually scratch that, she just woke up.” He set his mug down and went to his cabinets, getting another mug out. He poured her a cup of coffee and doctored it just the way she liked it. He brought the mug over to her and handed it to her. “Good morning, Sunshine,” he whispered as he lowered the phone. He kissed her forehead tenderly and then put the phone back to his ear. “Yeah, Chief. We can cover that. We’ll be there. Yeah. Eleven o’clock. Got it. Bye, Perry.”
Lois took a drink of her coffee and sighed contentedly. She could get used to this. But she better not since she’d be moving into her new apartment in just a few days. “What did Perry want? Does he already have an assignment for us?”
“Yeah. He’s handed out assignments to everyone apparently. We’ve been sent to cover the Mayor’s speech at eleven. We should probably get there early.” He glanced at the clock in the kitchen. “It’s almost nine so that gives you about an hour, hour and a half, to get ready.”
“What happened to the alarm clock!” she exclaimed. “I set it so I wouldn’t sleep in.” Obviously her body was still catching up from the sleep it had lost recently, but this getting up at almost nine in the morning business had to stop.
Clark gave her a sheepish smile. “I turned it off. You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn’t want to wake you up.”
Lois mumbled something under her breath as she got up from the couch and Clark had to choke back a laugh. He covered it by offering her a suggestion, “You might want to dress cool. It’s really hot outside.”
***********
Clark was elated. This was the first press conference he had covered in weeks. The last one had also been a mayoral speech, back before the bombing of the Planet.
He looked around at the familiar faces of some of the other reporters. It felt good to be back in his element. Clark felt a trickle of sweat slide down his forehead and he reached up to wipe it with the back of his hand. It was hot today, much hotter than a normal spring day. He thought it had been hot yesterday while he was wandering the streets, trying to figure things out, but today was worse - especially standing in this crowd of people with no air moving. The air was so humid and heavy that it was almost stifling. It hadn’t been this unusually hot since the heat wave Luthor had created and blamed Superman for.
Clark frowned, not wanting to think about anything having to do with Luthor. Instead, he decided to think about last night. He and Lois had spent a relaxing evening eating pizza and talking about how different their lives had been growing up. It had been really nice. And Lois had also told him about the Planet and Mr. Stern setting up the temporary offices for them to work from. Clark had been ecstatic. He could finally get back to work, to doing something that made him feel useful again.
Lois had again insisted on sleeping on the couch, claiming that it was very comfortable and Clark was bigger than she was and wouldn’t be comfortable on the couch - which was true. For the first time in days, weeks really, Clark had gotten a good night’s sleep.
Lois’s apartment would be ready in a few more days and she would be moving out, but Clark realized that he wasn’t looking forward to that. Undoubtedly she was. He was sure she would be glad to get to sleep in her own bed again. But he would miss her. It wasn’t like her apartment was that far away, but it just wouldn’t be the same.
No sense dwelling on it, though. Her apartment wouldn’t be ready for a few more days. He might as well enjoy it while it lasted.
And who knew what the future held, anyway?
Clark wiped his forehead again and glanced at his watch. How much longer before the Mayor got this show on the road? When Clark and Lois had gotten up that morning, Perry had called them and told them to get downtown to cover the press conference about the beautification project for the Hobbs bay area. The Mayor was investing millions of taxpayer dollars into renovating the dilapidated Bay area. It was a point of hot debate between various social groups. The press conference was supposed to have started at eleven o’clock; it was now fifteen minutes past.
Clark swiped at the back of his neck and thought he could feel a bead of sweat sliding down his back. It didn’t feel at all pleasant. How did people stand it? He noticed Lois pull her blouse forward and fan it against her body a few times. She puffed a breath of air up trying to blow a few strands of hair from her forehead, but it didn’t work. The hairs were stuck to her forehead with sweat. Clark reached up and fingered the hairs away and behind her ear. “Hot, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I guess they weren’t counting on this heat wave when they scheduled the press conference outside, huh? I’m glad you warned me; I would have died in one of my poly-blend suits.” She glanced up at him and frowned. “You’re sweating,” she stated the obvious.
He shrugged. “Yeah, but I’ll live. You and Dr. Klein were right - I haven’t been out in the sun as much as I probably should have been. It feels good.”
Lois took a closer look at him. “Clark! You’re face is getting pink!”
Clark reached up and felt the heat in his cheeks. “What? Like a sunburn?”
She nodded. “We should get you out of the sun. You’ve probably never had a sunburn before, have you?” She furrowed her eyebrows in frustration. It figured. He was out in the sun, getting what he needed, and it had found find a way to be detrimental to him. When were things going to go *his* way for once?
“What do you think?” He frowned at her.
She grabbed his arm and started to lead them through the crowd. Clark pulled against her, protesting, “No, Lois. There’s nowhere close by to get out of the sun. We’re in a good position here to ask questions. If we go too far, we won’t be able to cover the speech. I’ll be okay.”
Lois opened her mouth to argue when she heard a beeping coming from her purse. She opened it and dug around inside of it, pulling out a pager.
Clark raised his eyebrows. “A pager?”
“Yeah, Perry gave it to me yesterday. Mr. Stern wants all the top reporters to have one. I’m sure you’ll be getting one when we check in later today.” She stood up on her tiptoes, shaded her eyes with her hand and looked around. “I’m gonna go use that payphone over there. Stay here and hold our spot, I’ll be right back.”
She worked her way through the crowd to the payphone and dialed the number. While she was waiting for Perry to answer, she noticed the Mayor was taking the stand.
“Ladies and gentlemen thank you for coming. I realize it’s hot out today. I’ll try to keep this press conference as short as possible. Please hold all questions to the end and then I will open the floor to questions...”
Lois didn’t hear anything after that because Perry had answered the phone. “Perry White.”
“Perry, it’s Lois. Is this important? The Mayor’s speech is just beginning.”
“Lois, thank Elvis for these pagers. Yes, it’s important. You’re the first one to call me back so the story is yours.”
“What story?” she asked, feeling herself getting excited.
“A man is holding some people hostage at the LexCorp building. We don’t have any details other than we know he’s an ex-employee. I need you to get down there and find out what’s going on. With so much of the press at the Mayor’s conference, we might just get the scoop on this,” Perry said eagerly.
Lois felt her mouth drop open. “You mean we could actually get a paper out today?” she exclaimed in disbelief.
“Yeah. We’re real close and I think the added incentive of a major headline just might get us there. Have Clark stay and cover the Mayor. Call me as soon as you have the story.”
Leave it to Perry to get them back in business well ahead of schedule. “I’m on it, Chief. Bye.” Lois hung up the phone and began wading her way through the sea of reporters to get back to Clark.
“...condition of the Hobbs Bay area has gone uncorrected for far too long,” the Mayor was saying.
“Clark,” Lois hollered. A few of the reporter’s closest to her began scowling at her.
“Quiet down, Lane, we can’t hear,” one reporter complained. Lois recognized him from the Star.
“It won’t matter anyway. The Star never has anything interesting to report,” she quipped.
He sneered at her and she glared back.
“Lois?” Clark whispered her name as he came over towards her. “What’s wrong? You’re making a commotion.”
“I’ve gotta go,” she said in a hushed voice, glancing around at the other reporters. “Perry wants me down at LexCorp to cover a story that’s breaking there...”
“Well, come on, let’s go,” he continued quietly, taking her by the arm.
Perry’s words came back to her, ‘a man is holding some people hostage...’ No, it wouldn’t be a good idea for Clark to come. He’d only get frustrated that he couldn’t bust in there as Superman and get things under control. Besides, Perry told her to have Clark stay and cover the Mayor.
“No, Clark,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Perry said for you to stay. He still wants coverage on the conference.” He looked like he wanted to argue, and she didn’t want to discuss this in front of the other reporters so she continued quietly, “It’ll be okay. I’ll meet back up with you later at our temporary headquarters.” She took out a piece of paper and scribbled a number down on it. “Here. This is my pager number. Page me if you need me.” Then she was off, wading back through a protesting crowd of people.
“Be careful, Lois,” Clark said, pleading with her under his breath. He watched her leave, his face grim. She was excited. That could only mean one thing – this was a hot lead Perry had sent her after. He hoped it wasn’t anything that would turn out to be dangerous. Surely she wouldn’t take any risks knowing that Superman wasn’t around...
Clark’s stomach began to feel a little nauseous.
What was he thinking? This was Lois Lane. When did she not take risks? Clark couldn’t see her any longer and he mentally repeated the words again, ‘Please be careful’.
**********
“What do you mean you can’t tell me why the guy has taken hostages?” Lois demanded of the young and pretentious police officer she was currently grilling. “Hasn’t he made any demands yet? There has to be a reason. You don’t just...”
“Lane, quit badgering my officers,” Henderson said, walking up behind her.
“Well I would if they’d just give me some straight answers,” she said, turning to face him with a frown. “What’s going on, Henderson?”
Henderson waved the officer away and looked around before gesturing for her to follow him over to a quieter area. “Look, Lois, all we know is that the guy and his wife used to work for Luthor. From what we’ve managed to put together so far, when Luthor died and his criminal activity was exposed, his company’s stock bottomed out. To appease the stockholders, the board of directors began making massive cut backs, including *letting go* a good portion of employees. Apparently Mr. Whitmore and his wife were two of those employees. He’s out of work and his stock options are worth nothing right now.”
“So what is he hoping to accomplish? Has he made any demands?” Lois looked away towards the building, as if she had Clark’s x-ray vision and could actually see inside. “Does he want money? Or his job back? Has he gone off the deep end?” she chuffed. “He can’t possibly think this is going to turn out well.”
“I think he’s finally realizing that,” Henderson said grimly. “He’s refusing to talk to anyone, even our negotiators. I think at this point he’s probably starting to panic. The reality has probably sunk in that he’s now a criminal and is facing prison time.”
“Well it’s a little late for that,” she muttered, turning back to face Henderson. “What are you going to do?”
Henderson wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at a car that had just pulled up to the curb behind them. “Excuse me, Lois. I’ve gotta go. Stay back out of harm’s way. Don’t force me to restrain you.” He gestured at the officer Lois had been speaking to originally. “Ellis, escort Ms. Lane back behind the police tape...”
“What police tape?” Lois argued. “Henderson, you can’t...”
“The tape that’s going up right now. I mean it, Lane. Don’t push me,” he warned with a scowl. “You can watch from behind the tape, or you can watch from inside a squad car,” he explained pointing to one of the police cars.
Lois glared at him. “Fine. But don’t think I won’t be waiting for you when this is all over. I’m here for the story, and I’m gonna get it one way or the other.”
She watched Henderson walk away and she followed him as far as Officer Ellis was willing to let her go. From her vantage point behind the plastic yellow tape that was being strung across various points of the sidewalk and street, roping off the entrance to LexCorp, she watched Henderson open the backdoor of the car that had just pulled up. A woman exited the vehicle and Henderson escorted her towards the entrance to the building.
Then all hell broke loose.
The front doors to the building slammed open and a man holding a gun to another man’s head appeared in view.
“Everybody back off, right now. I mean it,” the man screamed, pressing the muzzle of the gun into the side of the other man’s neck. “Either you let me walk away from this alive with Doug here accompanying me, or he gets a bullet in the brain right now.”
“Rich, please,” the scrawny, pasty-faced hostage, Doug, begged, “I had to let you go. I had no choice. There was...”
“Shut up!” Rich shouted. “You ruined my life and my wife’s life!”
“Richard, don’t do this,” a woman’s voice pleaded. “This isn’t what I wanted, honey. Please. We’ll be okay. Just put the gun down...”
Lois glanced from the woman to her husband to the surrounding police officers. A further examination of some of the surrounding buildings told her that if the man made one false move, he was going to pay for it with more than his job – possibly his life.
One thought kept running through Lois’s mind - if only Superman were here. But she was so glad she had come instead of Clark. After what had happened yesterday, he would have probably ended up doing something foolish. Either that or he would have been guilt-ridden that there was nothing he could do to help. As it was, Lois was holding her breath, almost literally praying that everyone would come out of this alive.
**********
Clark glanced down at his watch. The mayor had gone on about the project for over half an hour and had been entertaining questions for another twenty minutes since then. Clark had managed to get in a couple of good questions, but now all he wanted was for this press conference to be over so he could sit down and rest. His legs were getting so tired that they were beginning to cramp.
Besides not having his powers, his body was still pretty weak. It was draining him to be on his feet this long, especially out in the harsh sun. He tugged at his tie, wishing he had left it at home. It wasn’t like he had needed to wear one. He didn’t have his Suit on under these clothes, but it was just such a habit.
Maybe it would help if he rolled his shirtsleeves up. As he started to work on the sleeves, he swayed a little on his feet. If he didn’t go ahead and leave now, they might be carrying him out on a stretcher. Clark quietly slipped through the crowd of reporters and onlookers, headed for the nearest available taxicab. He found one and crawled inside. “344 Clinton Street, please,” he instructed the cabbie.
Lois had told Clark that she’d meet him at their temporary office, but he was sure he had time to go home for a little while and rest, first. By the excited tone of her voice, he was fairly certain her story was going to take some time. His stomach spasmed as he wondered again if she was okay. He hoped that she wasn’t doing anything dangerous.
The cab came to a stop and Clark realized numbly that he was already home. He dragged himself out of the cab and paid the driver before stumbling up the steps towards his apartment. He might need to lie down for a little longer than he had originally thought. Maybe he should page Lois and let her know he wasn’t feeling well. He hated to put additional work on her, but she might need to take his notes and write up the Mayor’s speech herself.
Clark fumbled with his keys - his eyes were having trouble focusing. God, it was hot, and he was so thirsty. He staggered through his front door and down his stairs. The cool air from the air conditioner felt so good against his sweat-soaked skin and clothes.
The phone was on the coffee table by the couch. He picked it up and dialed the pager number Lois had given him. At the tone, he punched in his number and then hung up the phone, tossing it on the couch.
The room suddenly lurched and he felt like he was going to be sick. He made his way to the bathroom and got there just in time to empty the contents of his stomach into the sink. It wasn’t much, just the coffee he had drunk earlier that morning. He grabbed a tissue and wiped his mouth before taking off his glasses and looking up at his reflection in the mirror.
His skin was bright red! He had gotten a sunburn! But beyond that, his eyes were puffy and his lips were swollen and dry. He probably needed to drink some water. He had sweat a lot during the press conference.
But before he could grab his cup from the cabinet and turn on the water, another wave of nausea hit him and he threw up again. This time not much came out, and it was really painful. His stomach cramped and protested. Not long after that wave passed, he dry-heaved again into the sink. Nothing came out and he felt as if his stomach was going to turn itself inside out.
A dizzy spell hit him and his legs felt weak. He slid down to the floor, unable to remain standing. He rested the side of his face against the porcelain pedestal sink and relished in the cool comfort that he found there.
What was wrong with him? His stomach cramped again and he felt himself wanting to wretch but he didn’t have the strength to get up. He heaved on the floor, but again nothing came out. He had eaten pizza last night but that was all he’d had all day yesterday. That had long since been digested, and coffee was the only thing he’d had yet today. What was making him sick? He had nothing left to throw up.
As an uncontrollable shivering took over his body, Clark passed out.
**********
To Be Continued...
