Last time:
She shrugged. "You paid for the hotel, didn't you?"
"Well, yeah."
"Then we're even."
Clark chuckled. "The hotel was way more than lunch."
She almost gave a smart aleck remark about how much he'd enjoyed the hotel so that dinner would cover her part of the hotel, but she managed to bite her tongue.
The voice over her shoulder caught her off-guard and sent a chill down her spine. "So, Lois, I see you decided eating was more important than chasing down the hot story of the day. Have you even *seen* Superman yet?"
Lois closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening her eyes and looking at the intruder. "So good to see you." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
The blonde turned to Clark and held out a carefully manicured hand. "Hi. I’m Linda King."
Lois sighed. What a great way to end a great meal.
Chapter 12
The blonde held her hand out towards Clark. "Hi. I'm Linda King."
Clark reached out and shook her hand slightly. "Clark Kent."
"*Very* nice to meet you, Clark. You don't mind if I call you Clark, do you?" She smiled what had to be her best smile at him.
He glanced at Lois who was avoiding looking at either one of them, choosing instead to push the few remaining crumbs around on her dessert plate. "No, Clark is fine," he said after a slight delay.
Linda pulled one of the chairs out and sat down. "So are you a reporter, too?"
He nodded. "By trade."
"Where are you working? Surely not at that rag, the Daily Planet."
"The Daily Planet isn't a rag, but no. I'm between positions at the moment. My last job was filling in for the editor of my hometown paper in a small town in Kansas. I did have an article in Sunday's Daily Planet though. Freelance."
"Really?" She smiled again and leaned slightly towards him. "What article?"
"It was about the razing of the theater on Forty-Second Street. Buried way inside somewhere."
She nodded. "I did see it. It was a good article. Very well-written. Appealed to the reader's emotional side."
"Well, thank you."
"You know," she said, with one more smile. "I just started over at the Star. I think there's an opening there if you wanted to come join me."
Clark looked over at Lois again.
She was gone.
How could he have missed that? "Um, listen, I actually need to go catch up with Lois. We were in the middle of something..." If he was honest with himself, he was feeling more than a bit uncomfortable with the conversation. He was feeling a bit... trapped by this woman and now Lois had taken off. This wasn't good.
"You'd be better off working with someone from the Star, you know. The Planet's sales are down and they haven't had many breaking stories lately."
Clark pushed back from the table. "It was nice to meet you, Linda, really, but I do need to catch up with Lois."
She held out her hand again and he shook it quickly. "Well, if you need someone to show you around town..."
He smiled politely but knew he wouldn't be calling her anytime soon. "Thanks."
He followed her out the door and headed for the Planet. By the time he got there, Lois was typing furiously in the conference room.
"Why'd you leave?" he asked, shutting the door behind him.
She shrugged. "No interest in talking to Linda."
"She seems nice enough." He pulled a chair out and sat down, leaning back to watch her.
"I'm sure she does." She typed for a few more minutes. "How much do you want to include about your eye stuff?"
He shrugged. "Whatever you think."
She bit her bottom lip for a minute, something he was finding increasingly endearing. "Okay, so among other vision doohickeys, you can see through things."
"They'll let you use the word doohickeys?" he asked with a raised brow.
She just glared at him.
Obviously, she didn't like Linda King and wasn't happy about running into her. And he was sure Linda's comments hadn't helped much.
He sat there for another half an hour while she worked and he marveled at the way things just seemed to flow for her.
She leaned back in her chair and turned the monitor towards him. "There. Done."
"By Lois Lane, Daily Planet Staff Reporter with Special Contribution by Clark Kent." He looked at her. "Special contribution?"
"You're not a staff reporter. Perry could decide to change it if he wanted to, and you didn't write *any* of it, but without you there wouldn't be a story." She finally looked at him, defiance written all over her face, just daring him to challenge her.
He chose not to, choosing instead to read the article. It was good. Very good. Better than he would have done. Special contribution was probably more than he deserved.
He leaned back. "Good job."
She clicked a few buttons. "Sent to Perry."
Just then the door between the conference room and the editor's office opened. "Kent, glad you're here. Can I see you for a minute?" said editor called.
Clark looked at Lois.
She shooed him away. "Go on. We're done here."
His heart was pounding in his chest as he headed to talk to one of the world's best reporters.
A dozen thoughts were running through his head. The main two had to do with secrets. Had the venerable editor of the Daily Planet realized he was Superman? Or that he was married to a pregnant Lois Lane?
He wasn't sure which he would prefer.
Maybe it was neither.
No.
That wasn’t how his life worked.
He took a deep breath as he walked through the door, shutting it behind him.
Perry waved towards a chair. "Have a seat. Let's talk."
*****
Lois sank to a chair in the conference room after she left Callard's. For someone with supersenses, Clark somehow managed to miss her leaving the table.
He'd been too enamored with *her*.
She gave herself thirty seconds to wallow then composed herself and started typing. Ten minutes later, Clark walked in.
"Why'd you leave?" He shut the door behind him and headed towards her.
"No interest in talking to Linda." No interest in seeing Linda flirt with her husband and really no interest in seeing him flirt back.
But she wasn't about to mention that to him.
"She seems nice enough."
"I'm sure she does." She pointedly ignored him as she continued typing.
Conversation for the next several minutes consisted only of her asking him a question about how much he wanted in the article about his vision thingies. The room was quiet for a long time after that, except for the clicking of her keyboard.
He read the story after it was done and said it was fine. She wasn't sure if he was annoyed that she only listed him as a special contributor or grateful. Sure, it was *his* story in the sense that he was Superman, but he hadn't really don’t much except talk to her for a bit. And the vast majority of their talk had nothing to do with the article.
A minute later, he had left for Perry's office.
She stared through the window in the door as Clark sat across from Perry's desk. She'd love to know what they were talking about, but that wasn't going to happen. Instead, she gathered her things and headed to her desk.
She stopped Jimmy as he walked by. "Jimmy, I need you to get a name for me."
He skidded to a stop and plopped into the chair next to her desk. "Sure. What name?"
"An ethical lawyer who handles divorces."
He raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know why?"
She glared at him.
"Right. A story."
"Do I ever ask you for names otherwise?"
"Nope."
Good. She hadn't lied.
"Tomorrow okay?"
She nodded. "Tomorrow's fine."
He grinned at her. "Good. I got a hot date tonight."
"With my sister, I hope."
"Is there anyone else?"
She smiled slightly at him. The two of them were so happy together and she was happy for them. "You know, I should ask you what your intentions towards my sister are."
His grinned widened as he stood. "You probably should, but you'd have to catch me first." He darted off and she shook her head in amusement.
She should probably take off, too. She gathered her things, casting one last glance at the still-closed door to the editor's office before heading home.
Lucy had apparently already left for her date with Jimmy as the apartment was empty when she got there. A long shower later, she was on her bed, her laptop with her as she pounded away on another chapter of her recently restarted romance novel.
She wasn't sure if giving Clark a key had been a good thing when she heard it scraping in the locks several hours after she left work. She was glad she'd put the ice cream away after eating only half the tub and that it wasn't still sitting out for him to see.
"Lois?" he called.
"In here."
He appeared in the doorway a minute later. "Hi."
She nodded, intent on finishing her sentence.
"What're you working on? Another story?"
She hesitated before nodding. "Yeah, a story." Not a news story, but she didn't want to tell him that. She reached a stopping point and saved. "You find a place to go?" She still hadn't looked at him.
"Yeah. I got a room at the Apollo."
"Have fun."
"I've stayed in worse. Anyway, I just stopped by to pick up my things."
"Go for it."
He turned into a blur for several seconds and came to a stop where he started, brown suitcase in his hand. "Thanks for letting me stay here."
"No problem."
He started to turn away, but stopped and turned to face her again. "I got a job."
"Good."
"Do you want to know where?"
She shrugged. "Is it at the Planet?"
"No."
"I figured you would have said so right away if Perry'd hired you."
"It's at the Star."
"Then it's probably just as well that you're leaving." Hadn't he said he'd rather be a sewer technician first? Obviously, he'd changed his mind after meeting Linda King. She shouldn't be surprised.
"I don't want to compete with you."
She raised a brow at him. "Are you on the city beat?"
He nodded.
"And you really think you'll be competition for me? Without cheating by using all your extra abilities?"
He smiled slightly. "I doubt anyone could really compete with you, but yeah, we'll be on a lot of the same stories I'd think."
"Well, good luck. You'll need it to tone your writing down to a second grade level."
"It's not that bad."
"Close enough."
"I'll get to work with your old roommate. Carpenter's pairing me up with Linda for a couple weeks. She said you two were roommates in college."
Lois wasn't sure how she managed to keep the tears from her eyes. "Yeah, we were. For a year." She closed her laptop and set it on the side table before pulling the covers further up over her legs. "I'm exhausted so I'm going to turn in. I'm glad you got a job. Hopefully, you won't have to stay at the Apollo too long. Just, um, let me know where you move to so my lawyer can find you."
It was like a knife in her heart to even say the words, but it wouldn't do for her to forget about the temporary nature of their marriage. Sure, he was attracted to her but attraction alone wasn't anything to base a marriage on.
There was a brief silence on his part. "I will. Sleep well."
"Thanks."
He turned and left, locking the front door behind him.
She managed to wait until two minutes after that before tears started to slip silently down her cheeks. She slid under the covers, hugging the pillow that had been his to her as the tears continued to fall.
// I could spend the rest of my life doing nothing but making love to you and be just fine.//
His words from the beach came back to her. Had he really mean that? Was it more than just physical attraction? Was it really *making love* to him? Or was it something purely physical but he was smart enough not to use more crass terms in front of her?
It didn't matter. It wasn't going to happen again. Most likely, she was just the only woman he'd ever been with and it would have been the same – or even better for him – with any other woman. For all she knew, he and Linda... It certainly wouldn't be for lack of trying on Linda's part if it didn't happen.
She squeezed her eyes closed and willed herself to sleep, but it was the wee hours of the morning before it finally claimed her.
*****
Clark watched as Lois sat down a couple rows in front of him. He hadn't seen her in several days.
The Superman article had gone over very well, just as he'd expected. There was already talk of a Kerth Award for the two of them.
While he'd told Lois the truth that the Apollo Hotel wasn't the worst place he'd ever lived, it was by far the worst place he'd stayed in 'civilized' countries. He hadn't enjoyed it and had dipped further into his savings than he would have preferred to put a deposit down on an apartment. He'd spent some time the evening before fixing it up because he hadn't been willing to tell Lois where it was in its original condition.
The Superman thing seemed to be working. So far, no one had made the connection between him and Superman. That was a very good thing.
He'd been disappointed by his short time at the Star, not that he'd expected to be impressed. He'd even had a front page story with Linda, but it was a no-brainer. He could have done it in his sleep; he practically had.
He felt bad about running out on Linda a few times to go be Superman, but he was being careful to limit his activities to true emergencies and not things like every mugging or kitten stuck in a tree. He'd done a bit of that, too, but if he responded to everything, he'd do nothing but be Superman.
He'd flown patrols in the evenings, keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior. He'd stopped a couple of car thieves and found a couple of teenagers breaking and entering at an electronics store. He'd managed to convince one man that driving after he'd put his Firebird up on the sidewalk wasn't a good plan. He'd broken up a couple of gang fights and helped a homeless man who was being beaten get to a shelter.
It felt good to help openly, but the best had been when he *had* helped with real non-emergencies. Like the kitten he got out of the tree in Pittsdale and the little girl who scraped her knee falling off the jungle gym as he flew over a park. He'd felt responsible since she'd been waving at him when she fell so he flew her home. The look of pure joy on her face had made his day.
But now, he was sitting in a press conference about the Orani Jewels or something and Lois was sitting two rows in front of him and just a few seats down. She'd glanced at him and nodded slightly in his direction, but that was about it. He fiddled unobtrusively with his wedding band.
He'd managed to avoid answering questions from Linda about his wife, but she didn't seem to take the hint that he just wasn't interested. He thought she thought he was a widower or something, but really he just tried to avoid talking to her about anything personal.
He turned his attention towards the front of the room as a couple of men walked towards the lectern.
His stomach was churning as he stood to ask his question. "Mr. Secretary, Clark Kent, Metropolis Star. What do you think..."
He heard a clicking sound coming from the other room. Automatic rifles. He knew the sound.
In his silence, Lois jumped in.
"Mr. Secretary, Lois Lane, Daily Planet. Is it true..."
"Mr. Kent was asking a question, Lo-is," Linda interjected.
"Mr. Kent stopped talking." Lois turned back to the front of the room. "Mr. Secretary, is it true..."
"Wait your turn," Linda snapped.
"Hypocrite," Lois muttered. "Mr. Secretary..."
"You can sure dish it out, but you never could take it, could you, Lois?"
Clark wasn't the only one whose mouth was agape at the exchange.
"Oh get off your high horse," Lois tossed over her shoulder. "Mr...."
"And get down in the gutter with you?"
He heard the rifles again and glanced around, seeing three armed men in the next room.
Secretary Wallace finally spoke. "Ladies, please. No questions. That's it."
Clark used a bit of his super breath to knock over a planter, blocking the doors the armed gunmen were planning on using. A security guard walked over to see what happened and he gave the man a head's up.
He looked around to make sure no one was paying any attention to him before slipping out and coming back as Superman to make sure no one got hurt.
After the gunmen had been turned over to Inspector Henderson, who also didn't recognize him as Clark Kent, he took off, coming back as himself a few minutes later.
"There you are!" Linda grabbed his arm. "Where'd you go?"
"I was, um, in the bathroom," he said, shifting uncomfortably as he noticed Lois watching them.
"Well, you missed it. Superman was here and helped thwart an attempted heist of the Orani Jewels."
"I, uh, heard the commotion." He looked back at Lois who was walking away. "Excuse me a minute." He trotted after Lois, catching her as she reached her Jeep. "Hey. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she said with a shrug, inserting her key in the lock.
He pulled his wallet out and held a piece of paper in her direction. "Um, here's my address for my new apartment and my new phone number. Call me if you need *anything*."
She opened the door and took it from him. "I will."
"I mean it. If you're craving Thai at two in the morning, call me."
She nodded. "I will."
He was going to say something else, but found himself looking at the closed door.
He sighed and headed back to where Linda was fuming.
"I didn't get a chance to talk to Superman. No one's talked to him since his interview the other day."
"I did," he said suddenly. He needed a good story that was his. Lois got the first Superman interview. He was going to get the second.
"You did?" Linda squealed and threw her arms around his neck, giving him no choice but to catch her.
"I did," he confirmed, trying to extricate himself, but instead finding her arm linking through his.
"Then let's go write it up, partner."
Linda wasn't *bad* to work with, but he was sure Lois was better. They spent the next couple hours writing up the story and a couple of other small ones they'd been on earlier in the day.
By the time he made it home, he really didn't want to go out and do a patrol, but he did anyway, making it home about twenty minutes earlier than he needed to. He made a late dinner, to share with his late evening guest.
They talked about what was going on in the world, including the incident earlier that day, and generally getting to know each other better before turning to the main topic of the evening's meeting.
They were getting to the meat of the discussion when there was a pounding on the door.
"Clark, don't you dare try to pretend you're not home."
"Is that who I think it is?" his guest asked.
Clark groaned. "Probably."
She pounded again. "I know you're in there."
"It might be best if she doesn't see you," Clark suggested.
His guest nodded and headed for the closet.
Clark headed up the stairs, opening the door when he reached it. "Hello, Lois."
She brushed past him. "What the hell were you thinking?"
She stopped abruptly, noticing the two places set at the table. She turned to him, tears shining in her eyes. "Where is she?"
"Who?"
"Don’t lie to me. Where is she?" She stomped around the apartment. "Nice place," she called sarcastically. "Is she under the bed?" she asked, jumping on it.
"What're you talking about?"
She hopped down off the bed and stormed back into the living room. "Don't lie to me, Clark. I know we're not conventional and that as soon as one of us gets around to calling a lawyer, we're getting a divorce, but you *promised* me before the whole 'let's get married' debacle that you'd *never* cheat on your wife. And, sure, we're not some long term love story, but I can*not* believe that you'd cheat on me. Once the divorce goes through, I don't care what or who you do, but until then, you better not or it *will* come up with my lawyer. And it's not like I expect some big settlement or something like that since you haven't held a job down for more than ten minutes since you were in high school, but if you're cheating on me, so help me, I'll get every dime I can for me and the baby. And it's not like I *care* who you're doing at this point, but seeing you dancing with *Cat* or whoever it was was one thing because for all I knew you didn't even remember I existed, but after everything you said that day to cheat on me when you know I'm around and with someone I know and detest..." Her voice finally trailed off as the tears took over.
He stared at her, mouth ajar, as she ranted. "Lois, I’m not cheating on you," he finally managed to get out as her tirade ended.
"You're not?"
He could see the trails of hot tears streaming down her cheeks. "No, I'm not," he told her quietly. "I wouldn't. Regardless of the circumstances, I meant what I said. I'd never cheat on my wife."
The closet slid open. "Wife? Married? Baby?" his guest asked.
Lois and Clark turned in unison and it was Lois' turn to have her jaw drop.
"Perry?" she whispered.
*****
TBC
