Posting now before I'm no longer able to... I'm sitting in my office here, crying my little eyes out, because I just had to announce to everyone at work that I'm leaving on the 21st. (I've been given my pink slip by the nasty terminator... he does NOT show up in this story!!! But, man am I ever going to have Superman break his jaw next time I have a chance!!!!!)
This said... I hope you enjoy this part. And thanks in advance to all of you reading this story - your feedback has cheered me up more than you could possibly realize at a time when I really needed it.
oh...and sorry if I left typos in... I would re-read it again, but my eyes are a little cloudy now... [edit - I've fixed them now ]
~.~.~.~
Part 6Lois saw the Phantom leaving the room, out of the corner of her eye. She guessed that he would probably not be back again. She felt somewhat guilty to see him go, as she knew she probably had something to do with that. He'd said he had come so he could see her and she'd all but pushed him away.
She'd been so stupid! He was *there*, talking to her, why did she have to go and make an excuse to go back to work? He *was* work. He was the subject of the article she desperatly wanted to be able to write. Why bother with any of his guests when she had him right there? Talk about not having your head screwed on right! And then when he'd asked if there was anything he could do so that she wouldn't leave, she'd told him there was no way unless he gave her an interview? What was wrong with her! For one thing, this was far from the right way to go about getting an exclusive from someone who never spoke to reporters in the first place. And besides, why had she not just kept her big mouth shut? Dancing with him just then had felt so pleasant and so right, what could possibly have possessed her to go and ruin *that*?
She shook her head and looked around the room in search of someone she might recognize. She still did have work to do, so she might as well get on with it. She saw someone at the other end of the room, dressed as Batman. She smiled. She had just the right question to ask him! She walked over to him and introduced herself.
After a few minutes of chatting with the Dark Knight, Lois had found out that Batman was really Bruce Wayne. Well, *this* Batman was Bruce Wayne anyway. She seriously doubted that the millionaire playboy moonlighted as a vigilante. Besides, the real Batman couldn't possibly be dumb enough to show up anywhere in his real actual costume and give away his secret identity. Nevertheless, she thought it was a fun idea for Gotham's most eligible bachelor to come to this party dressed as
that** city's most
well-known vigilante**. She walked off a few minutes later, having gotten a few quotes from him and an invitation to dinner. That man certainly didn't waste any time, she thought. At least he was subtle and gentlemanly. And although he wore a mask tonight, Lois knew the man was quite a looker. No wonder he had women falling all over him!
Lois spent the rest of the evening going around the ballroom and asking questions, trying to get some sort of useful information that would make an interesting article. She saw none of her partner again. Maybe he had been escorted out of the property? It didn't matter much anyway. He'd come here not for work, but to enjoy himself while she would do all the work. As usual.
Around 10:30 PM, she decided to call it a night. She went to get her car and drove straight to the office. Once she got there, she quickly typed up her piece and sent it off to the night editor. It might still be early enough to make the next morning's edition, she thought. There wasn't a lot in ways of real actual news in that article, but a report on the event printed the morning after it had taken place was still bound to make the publisher happy. And a happy publisher was always a good thing.
If only she hadn't completely ruined her chances at an interview with Clark Kent! Lois guessed there was probably no way she would ever get one now. Her comment would have insulted him one too many time for sure. She sighed. So much for her big plans of moving up the food chain and getting rid of that thorn in her side who called himself her partner!
~.~.~.~
Lex woke up in a foul mood that morning. He had gotten a call on his cell during the ball, the night before. A call he wasn't expecting and one that made him especially angry. Someone had messed up. Really messed up.
He had rushed out of the mansion and spent half the night trying to fix things. It hadn't been easy tracking people down and making sure everyone was on the same page and the operation could proceed as planned. What was worse is that it looked like there remained some lose ends to tie so he would be stuck doing that today.
He was lucky he had a partner he could count on to do all the work for him, he told himself. At least he hoped that she wasn't going to go over to the editor and file a harassment suit against him for his behavior at the ball. Or worse left when she realized that he wasn't around anymore. He would worry about that later, though, he didn't have time now. If he didn't manage to get everything back in order and make sure the operation was still safe, he
would** have no need for a job or a partner, he knew. The cops would be on the hunt for him and he'd likely spend the next ten to fifteen years in the big house.
How could he have been so nearsighted when he picked these people to work with? He kicked himself for his stupidity.
~.~.~.~
Lana saw none of Clark at all, the next day. He stayed in his suite and although she knew he was there and had called out to him from outside the door a couple of times, he did not answer her.
She hoped he would come out for dinner that night, but he never showed up. He didn't come down for breakfast the next morning either. Finally, around mid-morning, Lana decided she was going to drag him out of that suite he was hiding in. It was bad enough the man hid from the rest of the world, she wasn't going to let him hide from the only human being whose contact she knew he actually welcomed!
She walked up the stairs that led to his suite. She knocked a few times, but there was obviously no answer, so she decided to go in. The door was locked, but she had the master key and so she unlocked it and went in.
"Clark, you can't stay in here forever!" she called out as she made her way to his study. She found him sitting in front of the fire, looking just as miserable as she had expected he might.
"Lana, when I lock the door, it usually means that..." he started.
"I don't care what you want it to mean, Clark," she cut him off. "You've been cooped up in this suite since Halloween night. I know you're miserable in here. Talk to me, Clark, let me help. Tell me what I can do that'll make you come out of here. Please."
"There's nothing you can do, Lana. You can't make it so that I fit in. No one can. I just don't. I don't even know why you hang around here anymore. You should leave, Lana. You could have a life, you know. A happy life, with friends, a family even. You deserve that. I don't know why you think you need to stay with me, because you don't."
"Clark!" she all but shouted. "Don't talk like that! I know you don't mean that!"
She had expected to find him sulking, but apparently, it was a lot worse than she had thought. He was downright depressed!
"Yes, I do," he told her. "You should be with your own kind, your own people. I'm not one of you and even if I pretend that I could be, I never will. For God's sake, I'm not even human! I'm an alien, Lana; an alien from another planet. I don't belong here. I'll never really have a life here and I can't go back there because there is no there to go back to. Just please leave. Leave me alone. Go out there and reclaim your life. If you stay here, you'll end up just as alienated as I am."
"Do you really think I've been staying with you out of pity all these years?" she asked, on the verge of tears. "Because I haven't. If you would just stop blaming yourself for everything, you'd know that. Clark, you're the only family that I have. And whether you see it or not, you mean the world to me. Now, I will not stand here and let you wither away and die of misery. Just tell me what I can do that'll make you smile again. Hell, If I have to go out there and drag Lois Lane back here kicking and screaming, I will!"
For a few minutes, they just stayed there in silence. He knew this was an argument that he couldn't win. And she was starting to seriously consider forcing Lois Lane to come crawling in here and apologize for whatever she had done that had made him feel so rejected again.
"What if..." Lana started after a moment. "What if you invited her to dinner?"
"Who? Lois Lane? What would possibly make her want to stay in the same room with me that long? Every single time she's run off like I was going to eat her alive."
"I know... but... Clark, she's been trying to get an interview for weeks. Desperately, I might add, judging by the fact that she actually broke in here precisely for that reason. What if... What if you agreed to one?"
Clark looked at Lana, outraged. How could she suggest that he submit himself to the questioning of a reporter? Even if she happened to be Lois Lane. Hadn't he spent enough time trying to hide who he was? Didn't she understand the necessity of hiding the details of his personal life?
"Wait," she added, as she noticed the expression on his face. "Wait! You could tell her you'll only answer questions about your work. Clark, I'm sure she'd agree to that. She's persistent, sure, but she's certainly not stupid. I've read her articles, she's actually a pretty good reporter. Put down some ground rules, don't let her ask any personal questions. No matter what, you'd still be granting her the interview of a lifetime. There isn't one reporter in the world that would pass something like that up."
"I doubt you can actually convince her of that, Lana," he said, shaking his head.
"Just watch me," she said, with a twinkle in her eye.
~.~.~.~
A delivery boy walked into the newsroom of the Metropolis Star, carrying a big bouquet of flowers. He asked around for directions to someone's desk; someone whom he was supposed to bring these to.
Lois heard footsteps coming towards her desk and stopping right next to it. She looked up.
"Lois Lane?" the delivery boy asked, reading the delivery waiver.
"Yes, I'm her," Lois confirmed. She was puzzled as she noticed the flowers that the kid was carrying. Who would want to send her flowers? Maybe that was Lex apologizing for his inappropriate behavior - not to mention the fact that he'd been missing in action since that night.
"These are for you, ma'am. Would you sign here, please?"
He handed her the bouquet and showed her the waiver. Lois grabbed the flowers and set them down on her desk, then signed the waiver and started rummaging through her purse to find something to give the delivery boy as a tip.
Once the kid left, Lois started looking for something she could put the flowers in. She borrowed a vase from Isabel, the girl who wrote the gossip column. She had a few lying around - this woman received flowers every other day, it seemed. Lois had no idea why that was, but she was glad she could borrow a vase from her anyway. She filled it up with water from the water cooler and walked back to her desk. She put the flowers she'd just received in the vase and removed the card from them.
As she read the note, Lois was so shocked, she literally fell back in her chair. This was the last person she ever expected to be getting anything from!
The gossip columnist rushed over to Lois' desk when she saw her reaction to the card. She was sure something was wrong.
"Are you OK?" she asked.
Lois didn't answer. She just sat there looking completely taken aback. Isabel yanked the card out of Lois' hand. If she wasn't going to tell her what was wrong, she'd just have to find out the only way she could.
The note read "Have dinner with me tomorrow. Your wish will be granted." It was signed "The Phantom"
"Oooh! Lois! You met someone at the party, didn't you?" Isabel asked, with a smile.
"Um... Oh? You could say that," Lois said, finally.
"What's wrong?" the gossip columnist inquired. "Not someone you want to see again?"
"More like someone I wasn't expecting to hear from in this lifetime," she explained.
"But it's a good thing that he's inviting you to dinner, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I think it's a good thing. I'm just... Oh, I'm just completely blown away, to tell you the truth!"
"Come on," Isabel said, grabbing Lois' hand. "I know for a fact you haven't had a real date in months. I'm taking you shopping, girl. You need a new dress! And shoes, and accessories... Let's go!"
Lois quickly pondered with the idea of letting herself be dragged out of the newsroom by Isabel to hit the shopping mall. She would never have gone out shopping with this girl, especially considering that her usual choice of clothes was "the least fabric there is, the better". This was definitely not Lois' style at all; especially not if she was going to have dinner with a millionaire! But she could use some new clothes for sure. Nothing she had in her wardrobe looked nice enough for this sort of occasion. Besides, the workday was almost over and Lois had submitted a few articles already. She could afford to leave early.
"Hang on... Let me just RSVP," Lois said. "I'll swing by your desk in a minute."
Isabel gave her a bright smile and nodded before going back to her desk.
Lois picked up the phone and dialed the number, which she knew by heart now. It rang a couple of times before Lana Lang finally answered.
"Ms. Lang? Hi, this is Lois Lane..." she started.
"Ah! Miss Lane, I was hoping I'd hear from you this afternoon," Lana said. "Should we expect you tomorrow?"
"Um... Yes. Yes, definitely," Lois answered, somewhat hesitantly. "May I ask... um... the note said something about my wish being granted. Does that mean...?"
"You wished for an interview, didn't you?" Lana asked, with a smile. She was rather enjoying this little exchange.
"Yes, but... You mean? Seriously?"
"Mr. Kent has agreed to grant you the interview you've been trying to get, yes," Lana confirmed. "I should tell you that he's not going to answer any personal questions, though. You can ask him whatever you like about his work, but that's it. And you should probably prepare yourself to be denied the answer to any question which Mr. Kent feels is not appropriate or is not inclined to answer, whatever his reasons may be."
"I understand. I'll stick to his work, that's not a problem," Lois promised.
"Wonderful, then we'll be expecting you tomorrow evening, then. At 8 PM, if that's alright with you?"
"It's perfect, Ms. Lang. Thank you. Thank you so much!" Lois said, ecstatic before she hung up.
"No... I should be thanking you, Miss Lane," Lana whispered as she put the handset back into the cradle.
Lois jumped out of her chair and all but ran over to Isabel's desk. Both women stormed out of the newsroom, each of them excited to be going shopping, although they had very different reasons to be happy about it.
~.~.~.~
Kathryn saw two regular customers come in: the short, slender man with octopus arms and his companion, the burly man who barely ever said more than two words at a time. She called in their usual order and prepared their coffee as fast as she could.
As she brought the cups over to them, she noticed that the slender man seemed strangely agitated. He was talking very fast and kept gesturing with his hands in an angry manner. Something must be wrong, she thought. This man was usually a lot calmer than this. He always wore an annoyed expression, but he never really let it show in his actions.
She went back to the counter and sat down behind it, closer to their table than she usually did. There were barely any clients in the diner and she knew that it wouldn't look suspicious if she just sat there and pretended to work on a crossword puzzle. This is what she always did when the place was empty enough so that she could take a breather while she waited for customer's orders to be ready.
It was a good thing that no one was close enough to look at the puzzle she was working on, or they would have noticed that she wasn't actually following the clues at all. Instead, she was filling the empty boxes with words that she picked up from the two men's conversation... Thursday. Underground. Waterfront. Contract. Dealers. Export. Percentage. Careful. Last. Chance.
Once she had taken down all the information she thought could be useful, she rolled up the newspaper and went back to the kitchen to stuff it in her handbag. It was her copy of the paper, so no one would think any of that. She took a deep breath. She needed to keep acting normal, she told herself. It wasn't going to be very easy, especially considering that she had probably caught a discussion that the FBI would be most interested in. Not to mention that, even though she had taken every possible precaution, she was concerned that someone would have noticed what she was doing and would pull the plug on her little spying operation.
Kathryn grabbed the plates that were now ready and went through the revolving kitchen doors.
~.~.~.~
Lois barely saw the day go by. She was completely lost in thought, trying to remember all the questions she was going to ask and making sure she could ask them in a way that he wouldn't object to them. She had agreed to the 'no personal questions' rule, sure, but if she was smart enough maybe she could get some personal information without it sounding like she was asking for it.
Around 4 PM, she noticed that the other thing she had barely seen today was her partner. Lex had dropped by around noon, had walked over to his desk, picked up a few files and walked right out of the newsroom again. He had not bothered to address anyone or explain where he was going or where he'd spent the last couple days. Lois just shrugged. If he wanted to go on a self-destruct path, then he was free to do so, as far as she was concerned. Nothing would please her more right now than to come in to work one morning and find that he'd been fired.
Then again, once she came back with the interview she was going to get tonight, maybe she could just quit and get work elsewhere. She was more than certain that anyone would want to hire her after she managed to get that interview. For *years* other reporters had tried to get it, but none had ever achieved it. Oh, some had pretended that they had and had printed make believe answers to their questions. She'd heard all about them. But she was going to get the real thing. Actual real answers from the actual real man. She smiled. Why he had agreed to this was beyond her - especially after all the times she had stuck her foot in her mouth and insulted him or just bolted right out of the room - she would have considered asking, but she knew this would fall into the personal questions category and she didn't want this interview to end after just the one question!
Lois left the newsroom as soon as she felt was acceptable for her to do so. She'd left early the day before and when she'd come in this morning, she had heard other reporters complaining about the hours she kept. It was stupid of them, she knew. She wasn't chained to her desk! How could they know that she wasn't going off to meet sources? They had no idea what she did when she wasn't in the newsroom to begin with, why would they simply assume that when she wasn't in, she wasn't working? She might be partnered with Lex Luthor, but she most definitely wasn't following his lead. He was looking more and more like a slacker, sure, but that was one thing Lois Lane could never be accused of being! Nevertheless, she hated when people spread rumors about her and she figured it was probably best that she try and keep her reputation clean, so she had waited as long as she thought was necessary before she left for home.
The butterflies in her stomach started waking up and
fluttering** around as soon as she got to her apartment. Lois felt anxious, but excited at the same time. She was nervous about this meeting, yet she was looking forward to it in a way that didn't seem logical. She felt a strong pull towards that mansion, towards that man. But she didn't really know or understand why. It was just something in her gut that told her this was the right place to be, that this was were she was meant to be. So even though she was quite a bit frightened of finding herself alone with Clark Kent, she was still looking forward to it very much.
It took her over an hour to get dressed and ready to go. Normally, it would have taken her less than half an hour, but this was an important meeting and she wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. Not to mention her hand were shaky, so applying makeup had taken triple the usual time! The little black dress that Isabel had convinced her to buy looked absolutely perfect on her. She had been a bit reluctant at first... It had a plunging neckline and was slit on the side so it showed off quite a bit of her left leg. This was definitely not the type of dress Lois typically wore, but she had to agree with her co-worker: it really did fit very, very well. It was sexy enough, yet still proper for meeting with a man of this standing.
She looked at herself in the mirror for a few minutes and then, finally satisfied with her appearance, she left her bedroom. Lois grabbed the jacket that Isabel had picked out to go over the dress and a small evening bag, which was barely big enough to hold her notepad and a pen, then she left the apartment. She had made sure to park her car as close to her home as she could manage. She was thankful for it, because her shoes weren't really broken in yet and she didn't think she'd be able to walk very far in them. She wouldn't have to do much walking tonight anyway. She'd be OK, she knew.
Lois made her way to Eagle View Drive. She had to drive a little faster than she would have liked, though, because she was a little bit late. Fortunately, the roads were pretty empty and she didn't run into any traffic or any problems getting there. When she reached the entrance of the big wrought-iron fence, she hit the intercom button and waited for an answer. She heard Lana Lang's voice come on. She announced herself and the gate opened itself up. Lois drove the short distance between the gate and the entrance to the mansion where she parked her car. She ran the doorbell and was greeted by Lana just a short minute later.
"Good evening, Miss Lane" Lana said. "If you'll just follow me..."
"Oh, please," Lois said as she walked inside the house. "there's no need for you to be this formal with me. I think we've spoken often enough to be on a first name basis. Don't you?"
Lois followed Lana down a long corridor, which wasn't especially well lit. It could have used some of the little pumpkin light bulbs in the fixtures, Lois thought, amused. Even a few little handkerchief ghosts would have been welcome in this gloomy corridor.
"You realize, though," Lana started, "if we're on a first name basis, you'll no longer be allowed to call and pretend you've never spoken to me before in the hopes that I'll let you speak with Mr. Kent," she said, laughing softly.
Lois giggled a little. "Fair enough!" she agreed.
"I have to admit, I might miss having to argue with you over the possibility of setting up an interview. I was almost starting to enjoy it, you know."
Having reached the end of the corridor, they started going up a couple flights of stairs.
"You must be pretty lonely if you're going to miss me harassing you like that," Lois said, concerned. Somewhere along the way, she had lost that feeling of dislike that she felt for Lana. She felt rather sorry for her now. What sort of life did this woman have if she enjoyed the phone spats they kept having?
"Um... You could say that," Lana confessed, her cheeks turning slightly pink. "As pathetic as this is going to sound, you're about the closest thing to an acquaintance that I have around here."
"Listen... Lana?" Lois had a sudden urge to reach out to her. "I don't really have very many friends either. Maybe... we could have a cup of coffee together sometime and chat a little? If you like, I mean."
"Yeah, I think I'd like that," Lana told her and they reached a room which had a solid maple double door at its entrance. "This is Mr. Kent's private study," she informed Lois. Lana grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. "Go on," she encouraged Lois to proceed.
Lois walked in the room. A second later, Lana had closed the door and she had heard her footsteps leading away from the room.
The study consisted of two rooms. The one she was currently standing in, which was barely a couple of feet wider than the double doors she'd just gone through, and a second one to the left that seemed about twice as big.
Lois looked around the smaller room, there wasn't any furniture in it. Only bookshelves that covered the walls from the floor to the ceiling. She estimated they contained close to a thousand books in total. Easily. Most of the ones she could see looked very old.
She walked over to the next room. Inside, she saw a huge antique mahogany desk, with a big leather chair behind it. The walls of this room were also covered from top to bottom with bookshelves filled with hundreds of books. To the left of the desk there was a fireplace in which a nice and warm fire currently burned. A little further away, she saw a table set for two. Around the fireplace there was a loveseat and two chairs. There, on the chair furthest away from where she was, sat Clark Kent. He sat there wearing a simple business casual outfit. Lois suddenly felt herself going weak at the knees.
"Good evening," she said, as she walked over to him.
He immediately stood up. "Hi," he answered. "I'm glad you decided to come."
"Thank you for inviting me," she said, blushing. "And thank you for the flowers, they were beautiful."
Flowers? Clark guessed that this is how Lana had sent her the invitation for dinner. Nice touch, he thought. She might have informed him of it, though... He smiled and nodded, hoping Lois hadn't noticed his surprise.
"Shall we?" he asked, motioning towards the table.
~.~.~.~
Kathryn stopped at the shopping mall on her way home that evening. She had worked late once more. Luckily she had a wonderful baby-sitter who didn't mind staying a little later, or coming over on a moment's notice. Kathryn stopped to pick up a little something to thank her for all her hard work; one of those scented candles in a big glass jar that she loved so much. She grabbed a toy for Timmy as well. Poor baby had seen more of the baby-sitter than he'd seen of his mom over the last weeks. This was so far away from the life that she knew he deserved.
Her shopping done, she started looking for a pay phone. She found them close to the rest rooms on the lower floor, where the food court was. She called her home first and told the baby-sitter that she'd be there in about ten minutes, then asked if Timmy had been good and checked whether there was anything she could bring back from the mall. The conversation over, she then called one of the contact numbers she'd been given.
A woman answered the phone. Kathryn had expected a man to answer, for some reason, so she was a little confused at first. However, after she went through the verification procedure that she'd been told to follow, she was satisfied that she was speaking to someone she could trust. She told the woman about what she had heard in the dinner and gave her all the details that she could remember. She described the men as accurately as she could and answered all the questions that the woman then asked.
The woman gave Kathryn some more instructions and then she hung up. Kathryn left the shopping mall and drove home. She hoped that she would never have to listen in on another conversation again, that this was it. The big one. What the agents had been looking for and that very soon someone would come for them and get them enrolled in the witness protection plan, just as she had been promised.
~.~.~.~
To Be Continued[**] -> changed from original, cause original was... flawed!
