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From Part 5:But the thought of holding out on Clark felt... wrong.
Of course it was wrong now, she told herself. He’d raised the question of Luthor’s probity, clearly intending that the two of them should investigate once he’d filled her in on exactly why he was suspicious. Therefore she needed to tell him about the interview.
Well, she would tell him. She was sure that he’d agree that it was highly opportune timing. They had enough time to do a lot of digging before her interview, and by then she could well have enough evidence to ask Luthor some very pointed questions. Always assuming that Clark was right in his suspicions - and she found it hard to believe that Clark - Superman! - would accuse someone without being very sure of his ground.
With an anticipatory grin, Lois collected her bag and coat and headed for the door.
**********
Now read on...Clark leaned casually against Lois’s Jeep, waiting for his partner to emerge. She’d offered to come and pick him up, but he’d reminded her with a grin that he could be at her place in less than the time it would take her to unlock her car.
He’d been there for about five minutes, enjoying the fine autumn morning. It was sunny, with a light breeze which rippled through the rusty-gold foliage on the nearby trees. Soon, the weather would turn cold as winter approached; already, rain was much more likely than the sunshine of today, and by November he expected that they’d begin to see snow. This would be his first winter in the city, and already he was noticing major differences in the seasons between Metropolis and rural Kansas.
He straightened as the door to the building opened and Lois emerged, her hair ruffling slightly in the breeze. He watched her admiringly; she really was beautiful, he thought. Totally focused this morning on the day ahead, she clearly hadn’t noticed him yet, but even with a businesslike expression on her face she was breathtaking - to say nothing about her slender but shapely body, he mused.
His partner was quite simply the most incredible woman he’d ever met. He’d been impressed by her intelligence and journalistic ability even before they’d actually met, but that had been nothing to what he’d been learning about her ever since. Her incredible intuition. Her leaps of logic which seemed almost insane, but which frequently turned out to be correct. Her drive and determination - she was a human dynamo. Even he, the strongest man in the world, occasionally found it difficult to match her endurance. As for her courage - she was absolutely the bravest person he knew.
He’d never forget the way she’d taken on Trask and his men single-handed to save his life and that of his parents. Okay, she’d gone to the warehouse in the first place expecting to find his body, but she’d still known, or expected, that Trask and his thugs would be there. She’d gone regardless. And once she’d realised that he was alive, it hadn’t occurred to her to get out of there and call for help. No; courageously, or even possibly foolhardily, she’d fought for him and for his parents.
Even mentally and physically weak as he’d been, he’d been so terrified for her, convinced that he would see her killed in front of him just as Trask had threatened to have his mom and dad killed in front of him. Just as he’d been forced to watch his parents being beaten and abused. He still wasn’t sure just how Lois had managed to get them out of there; whether it had been pure fluke, combined with the small amount of help he’d managed in the end to give her, or whether, with her indomitable courage and determination, Lois Lane had always been going to win.
She was just amazing.
She saw him then, and a bright smile curved across her features, lighting up her face completely, transforming her from an attractive woman to a stunningly beautiful woman.
Clark had imagined himself in love once before - but his feelings for Lana paled into insignificance next to what he was feeling now as he watched Lois walk towards him.
He was in love, head over heels, with his partner and best friend.
And he had been right from the moment he’d first seen her. He’d just been pretending to himself that his feelings were only friendship and admiration.
He loved Lois Lane.
But his admission of his feelings for her, he told himself firmly, didn’t mean that anything had to change between them. He knew what he had to do. He knew the risks of getting too close to anyone - and especially of being physically affectionate. And he would never put Lois at risk - he cared about her too much for that.
She was his friend, and it was much, much safer for her if she stayed his friend.
After all, he already worried about her far more than was good for him. Lois went into risky situations with about the same frequency as other women went shopping. And she did it almost as casually. As she’d reminded him only the previous evening, he’d already saved her life five or six times since they’d met. He’d carry on doing it, of course... but there only had to be one time when he couldn’t do it, and then it’d be too late. She’d be dead.
There were times - like the previous evening, when he’d rescued her from Mencken - when he longed to be able to scoop her up and carry her away somewhere safe from any danger. He could take her to a deserted tropical island... though, knowing Lois, she’d probably stumble over some breed of man-eating spider or go swimming in piranha-infested waters.
No; he couldn’t stop Lois doing the job that she loved. But that didn’t mean that his heart-rate was going to stop going into overdrive any time soon over her safety.
“Hey, big guy.” She’d reached his side, and she reached out and thumped his bicep lightly, affectionately. “You look worried - is something wrong?”
Schooling his features quickly - Lois would not appreciate knowing that she aroused all his protective instincts - Clark smiled at her. “Nah - I was just thinking. Dangerous, I know!” He gestured towards the car. “You want to drive or...” Winking, he added in a soft murmur, “...fly?”
She grinned. “Why? We going far?”
He shook his head. “Not really. The place I have in mind isn’t far from my apartment.”
She dangled her keys in front of him. “Want to drive, then?”
“What, I get to drive your precious Cherokee?” he teased, taking them from her.
“That’s a *Grand* Cherokee, for your information,” she pointed out in mock admonition, moving around to the passenger side. “And since you’re the only person I trust to drive me - well, other than Metropolis cabbies, and that’s only out of necessity - I figure I might as well take advantage once in a while.”
Clark grinned, getting into the car and starting the engine. Lois was in very good spirits this morning, he noticed; it was quite a change from the sad, unhappy woman he’d listened to the previous evening. He had a strong suspicion that introducing the subject of Lex Luthor had been exactly the right thing to do at that moment. Lois was now in her ‘on track of a great story’ mood, and nothing distracted her from that.
A few minutes later, he led the way into his favourite breakfast haunt. The cafe was a couple of blocks from his apartment, and he tended to go there a couple of times a week. The pancakes weren’t quite as good as his Mom made, but they were still very tasty, and he liked the atmosphere. As he’d told Lois, it was an ideal place to have a confidential discussion without worrying about being overheard, but that didn’t mean that it was one of those city restaurants where nobody ever met anybody else’s eye, preferring to pretend that they were alone even in the midst of a packed diner. The regulars, and the owner, were friendly, but they knew how to tell when someone didn’t want to talk.
“Hey, Clark! Should I put the pancakes on?”
Clark looked towards the source of the voice and smiled. “Hey, Gio! Yup, sure, for me - but I don’t know what my friend wants yet, so maybe you should hold off a couple of minutes.”
Gio, a fortysomething Italian who had run the cafe for about fifteen years as far as Clark knew, gave him an exaggerated wink. “Nice friend you got there, pal. Good-looking. You sure she’s just a friend?”
“Unfortunately so,” Clark said, giving Gio an exaggerated look of regret, then winking at Lois. “We work together. I lost a bet and the forfeit was that I get to buy her breakfast,” he added, stifling a slight qualm at the lie. He felt that it was a good idea to have a cover story as to why he was there with his reporter partner, just in case anyone recognised Lois Lane, star reporter, and wondered what she was doing in an out-of-the-way diner.
Lois obviously picked up his cue; rolling her eyes, she drawled, “Yeah, and don’t think I intend to stick to coffee and a low-fat muffin, either, Kent! Pancakes sound terrific,” she added, turning to Gio.
“Sure - regular or low-fat? And you can have butter, cream, maple, strawberry, blueberry, chocolate or toffee topping.”
Clark was amused to see Lois practically drooling at the list of options. “Chocolate,” she said after a moment’s pause. “And - oh, what the heck. Regular pancakes. I can just do an extra work-out session this week.”
“You got it. Coffee’ll be right over.”
“Good choice, partner,” Clark told Lois as he ushered her to a booth near the back of the cafe. “I like maple syrup with pancakes, but Gio uses Gianduja - that’s a chocolate and hazelnut spread to die for. He orders it straight from Italy.”
After their breakfast had been served, and Lois had exclaimed in ecstasy over the topping - she waited until she’d eaten one entire pancake before saying anything other than “Mmm... this is *delicious*!” - she turned businesslike. “Okay, Clark, so spill. What have you got on Luthor?”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” he cautioned. “It’s mostly circumstantial stuff, plus suspicions and other things I can’t put my finger on.”
“Instinct?” Lois asked.
“Yeah, that’s about it.”
“I know how that feels. Lots of my big stories came out of a nagging feeling that something wasn’t exactly right,” she told him. “Plus I trust your instincts - and I take it that we’re also going here on Superman’s instincts?” she added softly.
Clark inclined his head, and saw her nod in acknowledgement of his response.
This was starting off more promising than he’d hoped. He’d raised the subject of Lex Luthor the previous evening partly to take her mind off the obviously painful subject of her childhood and her relationship with her father, but also because he’d known that he couldn’t delay any longer. Not after the way he’d reacted when he’d seen Luthor on his way to rescue Lois.
His blood had boiled when he’d noticed that the tycoon was about to save the day, and he’d put on an extra burst of speed to ensure that *he* got there first. He’d told himself that he didn’t want to be indebted to Luthor for Lois’s life, but deep down he’d known that wasn’t the whole truth.
He was jealous of what he was sure was Luthor’s sexual interest in Lois.
And, because he had no idea how Lois felt about Luthor, he wanted to get in first, to ensure that she wouldn’t even consider the man as a possible romantic interest. That was the real purpose of this conversation, regardless of the fact that he wanted Luthor brought to justice: he was making a pre-emptive strike, attacking Luthor before the man could make a move on Lois. Before the interview she had planned for next week - about which she still hadn’t told him. And that had worried him.
Lois was listening, which was a very good sign. She couldn’t have been interested in the man beyond seeing him as a story. He felt relief flood him.
“Okay, so start at the beginning. Then we’ll see what we’ve got.” Lois took a sip of coffee. “I’ve been thinking this through myself since last night, so I might have something to add to your suspicions.”
“Okay. Well, it all started when we were investigating the Messenger disaster. Remember when Antoinette Baines tried to kill us at EPRAD?”
Lois nodded. “You think I’d forget being chained up and left to die?” She rolled her eyes. But before he could continue, an arrested look came over her features. “You!” she exclaimed, but he noticed that she took care to keep her voice low.
“Uh... yeah?”
“You let me confess all that stuff... You could have had us out of there in seconds, couldn’t you?”
“Well, yeah,” he admitted. “But I wanted to find a way to explain it, and... well, anyway, you started talking and... okay, Lois, I was curious. I wanted to know what made you tick. I wanted to find out what was underneath the tough exterior you showed the world. But there was no way I would have risked your life.”
“Oh, I know that!” she said, dismissing his final comment. “But you still... oh, I’ll get you for that, Kent!”
“Hey.” He reached across the table to touch her hand lightly. “I’ll apologise for it, if you like. But you know I’ve never told another soul a single word you said that night, and I never will.”
“I know that. Okay, you’re forgiven. This time.” She threw him a quick wink and a smile. “Anyway, so you were saying...?”
“Baines said something. You asked her why she’d done it - remember? And she said that it was all about profit - that outer space was no different from any new frontier. It’d belong to those who got there first and...” He paused, then waggled his fingers to show that he was quoting. “...’seize the high ground’.”
“Yes?” She clearly hadn’t made the connection.
Lois reached across to steal a section of pancake from his plate, having cleared her own. Clark grinned, pretending to swipe at her hand. “I can order more if you like,” he pointed out.
“You’re kidding! Clark, as it is I’m going to have to book at least two extra sessions at the gym this week!”
“Well, just remember that I offered, next time you try to eat from my plate,” he said, giving her a teasing grin. He loved seeing her enjoying her breakfast so much; so many other women he’d known simply picked at their food and complained about their figures. Lois, of course, had nothing to worry about, as far as he could see... and he definitely enjoyed looking at his partner’s slim but curvy body.
Yes, he could happily spend the rest of his life looking at Lois. Sure, there was no way that he could ever have any kind of romantic relationship with her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t look.
“Anyway,” he continued, “remember the White Orchid Ball? When Luthor found us snooping around his penthouse?”
Lois nodded. “He threatened you with that sword.”
“He meant it as a threat, I think. I chose to pretend that he was just showing me an interesting artifact. Anyway, I don’t think Luthor expected to find an ordinary reporter - especially someone he’d never heard of - who had a classical education. Well, I’m pretty much self-taught,” Clark added. “But I know enough to go head-to-head with Luthor on mythology and ancient history any time.”
“So...?” Lois waved her hand, the message clear: get to the point.
“Luthor studies military tacticians, especially classical ones. He quoted Alexander the Great to us - that’s whose sword he had. ‘Alexander's strategy was simple: always control the high ground’.”
“Similar phrase,” Lois agreed, stabbing another piece of his pancake with her fork. “But could it be a coincidence?”
He rolled his eyes at her, simultaneously loving it that she felt so at ease with him that she would treat his breakfast as her own. “I don’t think so. It was the context as much as the words; I couldn’t help but think that it sounded like she was quoting someone.”
“Well, I did hear a rumour that she and Luthor were having an affair,” Lois observed.
“Really?” Clark sat back, interested, and at the same time pushed his plate, with the remains of his last pancake, towards her. “That explains where she could have heard the phrase.”
This was going even better than he’d hoped. Lois was with him all the way, clearly having no difficulty at all with the idea that Luthor could be the master criminal Clark believed him to be. The fact that she hadn’t told him about the interview still rankled, though, and he was trying hard to convince himself that there was an innocent explanation for it - or that she simply hadn’t got round to mentioning it, but fully intended to.
“I was thinking about the Messenger and Baines earlier,” Lois said, barely skipping a beat as she devoured the rest of Clark’s breakfast as if by right. “Why should Luthor want to get into the space race? And why was he so confident that the Congress of Nations would cancel funding for Space Station Prometheus? I mean, he had to have put weeks of research and money into Space Station Luthor - ”
“I’d say years, actually,” Clark interrupted. “That level of design and research? You don’t get that in weeks or even months.”
“Even more suspicious, then,” Lois agreed. “And the Messenger disaster was only a couple of days before the ball. He had to have had some sort of inside track.”
“Baines,” Clark supplied.
“Impossible to prove, with Baines dead,” Lois added, pulling a face. She dropped her napkin on the now-empty plate in front of her, then sat back with a satisfied sigh. “So what else?”
**********
...tbc
Mostly boring A-plot, I'm afraid... but hey, there's dialogue, CC! 
