I'm a bit late to the party, but I really enjoyed this part(y)!
Perry nodded. “There's already been Kerth talk in some circles,” he said.
Lois flushed with excitement – she hadn't known that. “See! Now, there's no question that I'm good by myself… but with these latest articles…” She looked at him pleadingly, begging him not to make her say it.
Perry clasped his hands together, unwilling to give her a break. If this was what she wanted, she was going to have to go the distance to get it.
Lois sighed, realizing what it was going to take. “With these last articles, I've been better than ever.”
“You want a partner?”
Lois paused a beat before replying. “Not for everything. I'm not dependant on him or anything… It's just, I think we could work well together.” When her boss didn't immediately respond, she tried again. “He's too good to be working freelance, Chief, and you know it. Everyone needs a home eventually.”
Wow! Oh wow!
Lois wants
Perry to hire
Clark! Because
she wants him as her
partner! How totally different and delightful is that?
The pieces suddenly fell into place in Lois's mind. The prostitute had probably been attacked by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Clark, being Clark, had jumped in to help. She really wasn't all that surprised to find him in situation like this one. In her mind, he was a naïve boy scout whose determination to help other people would inevitably get him in over his head. Luckily, she was there to save him.
I love it! Lois joins the fight to save Clark!
But then one of the thugs used his knife on Clark... and....
“I'm okay,” Clark offered, trying to block her searching hands with his own. “He missed.”
With wide eyes, Lois met his gaze as her hands stilled. “He missed?” she asked incredulously.
Clark's jaw tightened. The fingers of Lois's right hand were poking through a hole in his shirt.
Lois blinked and looked down at his shirt again. Frowning, she pulled the shirt from where it was tucked into his pants and lifted it. The undershirt had a matching slit. When she reached to lift the garment, Clark took a step backwards, effectively moving out of her reach.
“There's not even a scratch…”
His clothes have been slit, but he hasn't got a scratch!
“How did… What happened to the knife?” Lois's eyes were wide with unprocessed information.
“I told you it didn't hit me,” he answered, briskly walking over to where Lois's purse lay abandoned. He leaned down to pick it up for her. With any luck, he could encourage her to be on her way.
“Just like you didn't stop that bus.”
Clark stiffened, but he forced himself to slowly turn to face her. “I don't know what you're talking about,” he said with a forced chuckle.
Lois ignored his deflection. “And you didn't save that worker in Ilium Heights.” Her eyes began to flash with excitement as the puzzle came together. “Oh my God.”
Clark's eyes narrowed. “We should leave.”
Lois continued as if she hadn't heard them. “I didn't think they could be coincidences, but I'd have to have been crazy,” she muttered to herself. “Cairo – 2003 – the assassination attempt on the ambassador… You didn't just report that, you were the one who jumped in!” She snapped her fingers together. “Oh! And the tsunami survivors in Peru…”
Clark's head tilted and his nostrils flared. “I don't know…”
“That's how you do it,” she said, excitedly stepping closer again. “That's how you got the story all those times. You are the story!”
Lois has figured it out! She knows that whatever Clark is, he sure isn't anybody's ordinary farmboy!
But Clark is not amused.
“You investigated me?”
“I…” Lois's words stuttered to a halt and she tried to recall everything she had said in the last two minutes. She tended to speak before thinking when she got excited. “I checked your articles.”
Clark's expression hardened. “What else?” he demanded.
Normally, Lois was a master at lying to cover her ass but the angry look in Clark's eye unnerved her. She knew she had been found out – it was only a matter of admitting it. Maybe she should have listened to Jimmy…
“What else,” he asked again, startling her from her introspection.
At her apologetic expression, he pursed his lips together and dropped her purse onto the ground.
Lois's eyebrows rose in surprise as he turned and stalked out of the alley.
“Clark!” she exclaimed. She scooped up her purse and ran after him. “I'm sorry! Listen…” she tried, but when she got to the end of the passageway, he was nowhere to be seen.
What will this do to Lois and Clark's "relationship", such as it is? Will Clark simply leave Metropolis to get away from Lois?
A contact who worked at the Smithsonian Institute had helped her gain access to locked historical records under the auspicious reputation of the revered organization. A few arm twists, white lies, and grand promises later, she was now in possession of the fabled Anthony West manuscript that had made up one third of Clark's secret investigation.
Oh no!!!
I very much hope that Lois will try to bring that package to Clark, unopened. That would show him that she wants to be his partner, not his back-stabbing enemy. Unfortunately this Clark doesn't have an apartment in Metropolis. He could check out from his hotel at any moment and go anywhere, and then Lois would have no place to leave the package for Clark.
I'm eagerly looking forward to more!
Ann
