Hi Evie!
s say early season 2. Just for fun, and just a one-shot.
Does that mean the not yet read Last Run isn’t the second story in a marathon run series?
trolling the internet for a backdoor into the Bank of Metropolis and the Mayor’s business accounts.
Umm…/points at 1994/ so, probably a not well-known mailing list holding all the information in plaintext since nobody would ever find it anyway
Several hours in and they’d barely started, as far as Lois was concerned, an opinion which the other occupants of the newsroom could feel as if it were a tangible thing.
Time for Perry to set up a separate place for Lois and Clark to retire to when they want to spend the night together. Otherwise, the cloud of doom will prevent the timely publication of the morning edition.
“Anybody else hungry?”
One desk over from her, she heard Clark’s chair push back and looked up to see him standing.
Getting food is a good cover for getting a Superman scoop of the police report they just caught on the scanner, the details of which Lois ignored just two thoughts prior.
LOIS: Superman’s not there, can’t be important.
“I think I’ll just, um, go and grab a pizza,” Clark said, abruptly heading toward the elevator.
Shootout at The La Trattoria? The Cannoli family edging into Provolone territory?
“We’ll, uh, be able to think better if we’re well fed,” he said in a rush.
An excuse married Lois will use further down the road when she argues for some impromptu R&R in the storage closet.
Meanwhile, Clark had backtracked from the elevator and was headed toward the stairwell as if in a hurry,
Things are heating up, the Mascarpones have sent a delegation as well, trying to get a seat at the negotiation table.
. “I know. I’ll head straight there and be right back. I promise.”
But how will he explain the absence of pizza?
“You know, you don’t have to do that for my benefit,” Jimmy said.
“Do what?” she asked crossly.
“You know, the whole song and dance about you being mad about him leaving. I’m the only other person here, and you guys know I won’t say anything.
Poor ignorant savant gopher.
Anyway, it’s okay to just let him go save the day.”
“By getting a pizza?” Lois snorted.
On the plus side, at least he didn’t assume she and Clark… share a cape.
“You’re in trouble because you aren’t saying anything!”
His brows scrunched. “What?”
“Exactly!”
“Huh?”
“Jimmy!”
You did some great dialog work there
“I am annoyed,” she said. “I don’t have to pretend that, not when we’ve got hours of work left.”
Jimmy stared at her for a moment.
JIMMY: oh boy.
“Do you really not know?” he asked uncertainly.
Oops?
“KNEW WHAT?”
“Oh, that CK is…” he gestured vaguely upward, “you know?”
JIMMY: but…but… she was so close. Her eyes, they were this hypnotic shade of orange. It was like looking straight into the fires of hell. I couldn’t not say anything, you know? Please don’t kill me! Or…you know…put me on an ice float in the Arctic.
Also, I never would have expected Jimmy to know about Clark before you brought it up. That was not what I was expecting from the setup. Marvelous
Jimmy froze too, the way you would if you were trapped somewhere with a wild animal that you didn’t want to provoke into attack.
You mean, like a mad dog.
He nodded once, still trying to stay unassuming and small.
Then, unexpectedly, Lois threw her head back and laughed.
She laughed long enough that it made Jimmy nervous.
“Uh, Lois?” he asked tentatively.
She kept laughing.
“Lois?”
This is a story that keeps giving
“Jimmy, what in the world ever made you think that Clark is Superman?” she asked, still gasping for air.
“The scanner,” Jimmy said, gesturing behind him.
Oh, that’s a great twist! Jimmy always gophering with the scanner, noticing a pattern.
“Just think about it,” he implored. “How many dentist appointments can one guy have?”
Considering how he eats…
How did you figure it out?!”
Perry knows. And Jimmy just didn’t make assumptions about Clark’s genetic inadequacies.
“Don’t you mean, ‘how did you not figure it out?’”
“Oh my god,” she said, horrified, sitting down hard in the nearest chair.
Now she’ll have to share her next Kerth Award with Jimmy!
“I’m going to kill him,” she swore, putting her head in her hands as if to hide from the truth she was facing.
No, she won’t. She doesn’t have kryptonite. And she can be sure that Mayson doesn’t fit Clark’s preferred dating scheme.
“How?” Jimmy asked without thinking, a chuckle escaping. “I don’t think you can even hurt him, let alone—“
She could seriously date Call-Ma-Daniel.
“Hi! I’m back!” he said, with a winning smile. “Told you it would be quick!”
Lois and Jimmy stared at him, both silent.
“What?” he asked, smile askew, hands immediately tightening the knot of his tie.
Where’s the pizza? Also, nice foreshadowing, Clark using both hands not holding aforementioned pizza.
“Clark…?” she drawled, her voice deadly neutral.
Where. Is. My. Pizza?
“Where’s the pizza?” she asked dangerously.
And by now I know that I can go and read The Long Run.
Michael
Edit:
P.S. I think this story is a contender for my least favorite title of a story ever. So if anyone has anything clever, I'm definitely open to options!
/stares at title/ so...pretty!
