Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Reflections, Part 7

Sorry for the delay, busy week. Part 8 by the weekend for sure.
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Reflections

Part 7

Clark wasn't sure what to make of Lois Lane right now. She was obviously a great reporter, but he couldn't comprehend how she could minimize the importance of those boys' stories. And he still didn't understand why he'd gotten such a hostile attitude from her in the newsroom. It was as if working with him was some kind of punishment to her.

'Oh, well, maybe she was just having a bad day, and I was the nearest target,' he thought. Putting the thought aside, he followed Lois into the front entrance of the building, and down the hall towards Dr. Platt's room.

They noted the collection of garbage strewn in various places, some of it looking like it had been there for quite some time. It was apparent that only transients lived in the building, and Clark doubted that anyone even cared for the building at all any more.

Lois stopped in front of a door halfway down the hall, and knocked loudly. After a minute, with no answer, she knocked again, and shouted at the door, "Dr. Platt, it's Lois Lane."

Clark had an uneasy feeling about this, and tuned his hearing to the inside of the apartment. He heard someone scrambling to the opposite side of the room. Looking over his glasses, he could only get a fuzzy image of the interior, probably due to the lead in the old paint used on the door.

"Lois, I've got a bad feeling about this, I'm going in." He turned the door knob, and found it open. He dashed in, to see the only window in the room opened. Looking quickly around the room, he spotted a man lying on the floor, his body at an odd angle. Clark could hear the distant sounds of someone running down the street, merging with the other sounds of the city. It was too late now to chase whoever had been here, so he went to check the man on the floor.

Clark knelt down besides the man, and checked for a pulse by placing his fingers on the man's neck, but his enhanced senses had already told him that the man was dead.

Clark sighed audibly, as he stood up. Lois was standing there, just staring at the body. "Is he dead?" she got out, her voice full of dread.

Clark nodded his head, the look of sadness and guilt playing across his face. "His neck has been broken. Looks like it happened in the last few minutes." He looked back down at the body of Dr. Platt, peering over his glasses to see if he could pick up any clues before calling the police. He saw only one set of fingerprints around the area. Some of impressions were very old, leading him to believe that they were Dr. Platt's. As he looked over the body once again, he felt Lois touch him on the arm, speaking to him in a shaky voice

"Clark, what do you see?"

"Nothing," he said in disgust. After a few moments of silence, he turned his head to tell Lois to call the police, but saw her staring blankly at the doctor's body. "Lois, are you all right?"

"I guess so, it's just that..." She looked at him with forlorn eyes. "I asked almost everyone I talked to on the phone today if Dr. Platt really had any incriminating evidence about NASA. What if someone got nervous, and they... and they..." She turned and looked directly into Clark's eyes, like she was asking for absolution for her indiscretions. "I did it again. I jumped in without thinking what would happen first. What if they killed him because of me?"

Clark placed his hand gently on her upper arm, and spoke to her in a quiet, soothing voice. "Lois, you did nothing wrong. Someone else killed him, not you. You can't take the blame for something like this. Believe me, I know." Lois bowed her head, so that her forehead rested on his shoulder. In a soft voice she said, "Can we get out of here for a minute?"

"Sure, let's get out into the hallway." He led her away from the body. Outside the apartment she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms, her eyes fixed on her shoes. Without looking up, she said, "Sorry. I usually don't act so bothered about things like this. You would think I would be used to this by now."

"You never get used to it."

The certainty in his voice made Lois curious, and she raised her head to look at him. "Why not? We have to be able to desensitize ourselves to these kinds of things, or we'd just..."

"Or we'd just what? Become overwhelmed? I'd rather chance that, rather than feeling nothing when someone is hurt like this. If this affects you, all it means is that you care what happens to others. It's part of what makes you a good reporter... and a decent human being. You just have to reach a balance - you stop yourself from being overwhelmed, without being totally unsympathetic to plight of others."

Lois just stared at him, suddenly feeling ashamed of having underestimated Clark Kent. The feeling made her look down again, unable to continue to look him in the eyes. She could sense Clark bending down to try to look at her face.

"Lois? Look, I'm sorry if I upset you any. Sometimes I say things without thinking too, but I don't want you to feel bad because of anything I've said."

She looked up again him, and met his eyes with her own. "No, you didn't upset me. What you said was true, and something I should already know. In fact, it's supposed to be one of my rules, but I'm never very good at following my own rules." She gave him a weak smile, which he returned.

She was right, he did have a nice smile. "So, Mr. Kent, you sound like you speak from experience."

"Well, I've been around. We're so insulated here in the U.S., that we forget how tough it is in the poorer nations. Right after college, I started a personal quest to report on the conditions in the poorer nations in the world. I needed to find that balance, or I'd go crazy."

"I understand." After a few moments of silence she then said, "I guess we better call the police."

"That's probably a good idea. Do you have a cell phone?"

"Yeah, Perry gave me one. He said I needed one for when I get into trouble, which, apparently, he thinks is often."

"Is it?"

"Kind of," she replied sheepishly.

"Kind of," he repeated with a wry tone. Lois immediately gave him a dirty look. Clark did his best to put on an innocent face, which of course made him look even guiltier. She dug her phone out of her purse, and pushed the speed dial for the police.

"Lois, I'm going to look around while you're on the phone, I'll be right back."

Lois just nodded, listening in frustration to the elevator music coming over her phone.

Clark made his way back into the apartment, and immediately pulled down his glasses to look around in his own special way. After five minutes of searching, his X-ray vision picked up a thick notebook of papers hidden behind some books on the bookshelf. He took out a pencil and pushed one of the books over to expose part of the notebook. It looked about the same size as the package Dr. Platt had been carrying earlier that morning. Seeing nothing else of interest, he exited the apartment and rejoined Lois in the hallway. She was just putting away her phone when he reached her.

"I talked to Inspector Henderson. He's a pretty decent guy, for a cop. He's on his way over with an investigation team. Did you find anything?"

"Maybe. Did you look through that package Dr. Platt gave you this morning?"

"Yes I did. It was a notebook with all his analysis and reports he filed on the new Prometheus Shuttle. He said it was a copy of the originals."

"That's what I thought. I think I found the originals hidden in his bookcase. I think the killer was probably after it."

"Maybe so. Listen, Clark, I don't think that we should tell Henderson about our copy. He might want us to surrender it, and we'll have nothing to go on."

Clark was looking at her with a curious expression, which made Lois ask self consciously, "What?"

"You're not calling me 'Kent' anymore. Why the change?"

She shrugged. "I don't know... maybe I think you'll do for now."

"I see," he replied sarcastically, a hint of a smile on his face.

"Don't push it, Kent," she said with a grin.

Clark held up his hands in a sign of mock-surrender, then became serious once again. "I agree about not telling the Inspector. We'll need to go through his reports to see if we can find out why he was killed."

"Yeah, we should. But, even if we go through the reports, will we be able to understand what they say? I don't know about you, but I barely made it through my required Physics class at Met. U. We may have to call in an expert."

"I kind of have a hobby reading about science stuff. I think I can decipher most of what the reports say. Usually engineering reports are geared for technical managers who are not specialist in a particular field, so it might make them easier to read."

"We'll see," she said with a bit of suspicion in her voice.

'Far be it for Lois Lane to take anybody at their word,' Clark mused to himself. Just then, he could hear several cars pull up outside, undoubtedly the police.

"I think the police are here."

"Really? I didn't hear anything."

Clark chastised himself for the slip. He really needed to be more careful about using his abilities if he was going to spend any time at all with others. Especially with someone as perceptive as Lois Lane. "I, um... thought I heard a door slam outside."

A moment later, a group of men came down the hallway. Most were uniformed policemen, but the man in front was dressed in a crumpled business suit. His expression gave the impression of someone who was unhappy about life in general. Outside his suit, he wore an equally crumpled trench-coat, which was unusual for this time of the year. He approached Lois and Clark, his hands in the pockets of his trench coat. He and his entourage stopped directly in front of Lois and Clark.

"So, Lane, you found more trouble for me to take care of?" His manner was gruff, but underneath Clark could tell that the Inspector respected Lois and her abilities.

"Actually, this one came to me, so it's not... my fault." She gave a quick glance and smiled at Clark. Clark, knowing what she was saying between the lines, acknowledged her with a nod and a smile of his own.

"Hmmm... right. So, who's the linebacker?" he asked, tilting his head in Clark's direction.

"This is Clark Kent. He's new to the Planet, and Perry assigned him to work... with me on this story."

Henderson snorted. "In other words, Perry assigned someone to help keep you out of trouble." He looked at Clark as he finished his sentence, appearing to size Clark up. Not knowing how to respond to Henderson's scrutiny, Clark just shrugged.

Lois immediately acted insulted at Henderson's comment. "You make it sound like I'm constantly getting into trouble. I do *not* get into trouble that much, just occasionally when I..."

Henderson waved his hand at her, interrupting Lois. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell it to someone who'll buy it. OK, Lane, you know the drill..." He took a notebook and a pen out of his trench-coat pocket, and started jotting down some notes. "I want the who, what, and where. And I want to know why you knew this man."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour later, Lois and Clark were back on the street hailing a cab, on their way back to the Planet. Lois, once again, executed one of her ear-splitting whistles. Clark made a show of clearing his ear with his finger, and then asked, "How do you do that?"

Feeling a little mischievous, she did her best Lauren Bacall imitation, and said with a mock seductive voice, "It's not hard, you just have to whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Clark? You just put your lips together... and blow." She had meant to say her last statement in jest, but her voice became husky as she got out the last word, and her eyes locked on his. The noise of the city seemed to disappear around Lois, leaving the sound of her racing heart the only thing she could hear.

*****
Clark was drawn to the sight of her lips as Lois said 'put your lips together'. His eyes followed the contour of her face up to her eyes. He felt drawn to them, and had to mentally shake himself. Finally he got out in a whisper, "I'll try to remember that."

A taxicab came noisily to a halt, breaking the spell. They both gave a nervous laugh and turned to get into the taxicab. Clark instinctively reached out to open Lois's door for her, while at the same time Lois reached to open her own door. Clark felt the contact of her hand on his own as they reached the door handle almost at the same moment. Her hand lingered on his a moment more than it had to, and then she drew it away.

Clark slowly opened the door for her, and allowed her to enter the cab. He could hear her muttered “Thank you” under her breath, but she didn't look up at him. He closed the door for her, and was about to go around to the other side, when a sound caught his attention.

He looked off in the direction of the sound, concentrating so that he could isolate it from all the other background noise in the city. When he locked on to it, he could hear that it was a fire alarm, and it sounded like another big one. Looking back down at Lois through her open taxi window, he could see her looking at him curiously. "Did you see something, Clark?"

"Huh? I mean, no, I just remembered that I need to meet someone about an apartment to rent, and I’m almost late. Why don't you go back to the Planet, and I'll meet you back there in an hour or so?"

"Sure, Clark, no problem." Clark turned, about to dash off, when he heard Lois say, "Clark, wait!" He stopped and returned to the taxi. Lois had gotten back out of the taxi and was standing by the back door. "Listen, Clark, I just wanted to, um, well..." She paused to take a deep breath, before she continued. "I just wanted to apologize for that 'boonies' crack this morning."

"It's OK, Lois, really. It happens sometimes. I know I certainly don't say the perfect thing every time. I could have told you that I thought it was great that I am getting to work with one of the top investigative reporters in Metropolis."

"Thanks, Clark." Then after a beat, "One of...?"

"Sorry, my mistake. *The* top investigative reporter..."

" See? You're learning already." She then turned serious again. "I also want you to know that you were right about the follow-up to my car theft story. It would be important to get those boys' stories. Maybe, after this, you can help me with talking to some of them."

"I would like that, Lois. Listen, I've got to go or I'll be late. I'll see you back at the paper in an hour or so."

"OK, see you then."

Clark watched her get back into the cab, and give the driver the address of the Planet. As soon as the taxi left, he turned and dashed down the nearest alley. Checking that no one was there to watch him, he sped up and turned into a blur. A second later he was airborne and heading toward the fire.

***********
Lois looked over her shoulder and watched Clark dash away, out of sight. 'Wow, he is in a hurry.'

She faced the front again and thought about her exchange with Clark, including the part when her hand had touched his. She stared at her hand, wondering why he affected her in that way. She had no idea, and it didn't help that he seemed to be a walking paradox. She had pegged him for a hick, fresh off the bus, with no enough experience to be an effective reporter in the big city. But it turned out that he was very intelligent, and apparently well traveled. She didn't even think about the fact that Perry must have been impressed with his work enough to hire him on the spot.

'Boy, what a dope, Lane. I'm lucky that he talked to me at all after that show this morning. Too bad we're involved in an important story; it would be nice to learn more about him.' That thought made her pause. She couldn't remember, in her adult life, ever thinking about a man, over focusing on a big story. Could she really be that attracted to Clark after only knowing him for a few hours? That would definitely be a first. She didn't even warm up to Paul this quick, and she was sure that he was *the one*, at the time.

'Ha! The *one*, indeed.' On their first date, he told her that if she really loved him, she would spend the night with him. She couldn't believe that women actually fell for that line. Linda King was welcome to him. Of course, Linda only lasted two months with him, before he found a new target for his wandering eye. Poor Linda, it took the rest of the school year for her to get over the humiliation. Lois was just glad that she was there to help Linda though that time.

Settling back into the taxi's seat, her thoughts wandered back to Clark's image again. In the door's window, she could now see her reflection, making her think about the choices she had made to get where she was today. The exterior shell she had forged around herself to make it in a career that was basically a man's world. Here she was, twenty-seven years old, and she'd never had a serious relationship with any man. Was it good, because she was being patient, or was it bad, because she was being too picky... or was she afraid to even try?

Maybe it was time to do something that. After the investigation, maybe she could suggest to Clark a nice, casual dinner together. Just a couple of newshounds trading war stories, exchanging experiences, swapping tales of life. Getting to know each other better while sharing a meal. Telling their favorite jokes. Making him laugh, just so she could see him smile again...

** SLAP ** Her inner voice smacked her up the side of the brain, snapping her back to reality. 'Damn! I really have to stop reading those romance novels at night.' She settled back for the rest of the ride back to the Planet, purposely trying to focus on the investigation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took Clark only twenty minutes to help the fire department put out the apartment fire. Luckily, the building was fairly deserted in the middle of the day, and he only had to evacuate one mother and baby before attending to the flames. On his way back to the Planet, he did a quick dive into the ocean to wash the smell of smoke off his body. Of course now he smelled like the salt water (which wasn't much better), so he diverted to Niagara Falls for a quick trip through the spray. Ten minutes later, he was back in Metropolis, relatively cleaned and dried.

Seeing nobody in the alley behind the Planet, he changed at super speed on the way down, landing behind a crate dressed in his business suit and glasses. He was making his way to the front of the building, when he stopped to think about what had happened in the taxicab this afternoon.

He had started to enjoy the camaraderie that seemed to be growing between them, working together on this investigation. Lois was quite a contradiction, much different then the first impression she gave him.

One thing was for certain though. He needed to be careful not to get to close to her. Someone as sharp as her might see the hero behind the glasses.

- End Part 7 -