Part 2
(note: Lex doesn’t buy the daily planet or bomb it in this story)
Clark flew out the window and off to swim in the Atlantic. The sun was high in the sky when he was landing on the balcony of 344 Clinton. The overhanging trees were in full leaf and birds were filling the air with their music. Clark watched as a robin carried bits of grass clippings to a fork in the tree, while another robin flew away in search for more. The wind rustled the leaves together. The birds sounded like a concert, all the many voices singing together. He knew which birds made which sounds and as he looked for them, the members of the orchestra each came into view. What a beautiful world the earth was. What bliss contrasted with total devastation and heartache. He walked through his doorway, closing it quietly behind him.
He’d swum through the Atlantic and around the planet several times to rid himself of the smoke from the fire. Then he’d swum between the icebergs of the Arctic ocean and beneath the polar ice cap. Finally he’d dived into Lake Superior, and then floated on his back as he let the waves push him to the heavily forested shore. The devastation he’d seen and dealt with had overwhelmed him. He’d replayed everything in his mind, and couldn’t have done anything differently, wouldn’t have done anything differently. So he had finally accepted his limitations, hearing his father’s words in his mind. Finally the memories of the darkness were being pushed away by memories of light and bliss. The joy of being engaged to Lois was far overshadowing any feelings of sorrow at his limitations.
He spun out of the suit and dropped it in the laundry basket as he opened the shower door. He’d had enough time to think, and to be calmed by the rocking of the waves. He stepped out of the shower and pulled a towel off the rack, then headed over to look in the mirror. He burned his beard off slowly, too exhausted to do anything fast anymore.
As he headed into the bedroom wearing the towel, he glanced at the red numbers on his bedside clock. He sighed, late for work again. He just wanted to lie down and think about his life, make some plans, come up with some sort of way to cope with being engaged to Lois as Superman. It wasn’t anything he’d ever dreamed of. His fantasies about Lois had always been of him as Clark. He had some real mental juggling to do to figure out what he was going to do about this. He dressed for work, looking through his many ties for one that reflected how he was feeling today. It was bright with sparkles on it. Perfect. How could he be so happy about one thing and so miserable about another, only moments before?
Lois’ desk was empty and her computer was still off when Clark stepped out of the elevator. He couldn’t hear her heartbeat. He’d not flown over her building this morning on his way in to work, though he’d wanted to.
He pulled out his chair and booted up his computer, then headed over to get a mug of coffee. LNN was on the TV monitors, with pictures of the fire. He moved closer and watched himself work, recalling the details that LNN couldn’t see.
“Perry, Did Lois write up the fire last night? I bumped into Superman and wasn’t sure what Lois had already written up.”
“Hi Clark. You don’t look so good,” Perry said as Clark entered his office holding his steaming mug of coffee. “Except your tie, is it a new one?” To his nod, Perry continued, “Yes, she sent in the story early this morning. That girl never sleeps does she! She must have spent the whole night out there at the fire.”
“Superman said she was there.” He shook his head. “She’s really something, Chief.”
He returned to his desk until the call for the morning conference meeting. Lois had written about the explosion and the fire and what she could see Superman doing, but Clark was going to write about the way Superman felt. He felt ready to let a bit more of himself show to the world. He pulled out his keyboard and began pouring out the pain of the people, their losses in limbs and life and most of all, Superman’s frustration as the building collapsed further and further until it finally fell into a heap. He studied the screen, reliving the feeling of not being able to do more, of hearing one heartbeat stop while saving another. Had he saved that person first, perhaps both would have lived. How terrible to watch people burn, even for the instant before he put the fire out. None of those people would ever be the same. The lives of not only those people but the lives of all their friends and all of their relatives would be changed in a painful way. As he read what he had felt and what he had done, he felt a great wave of gratitude wash over him for his abilities.
He sent the story to Perry, then turned to listen to the messages on his answering machine, making notes of who to call and how to organize his day. After making sure no one saw him, he scribbled out a note and sealed it into an envelope and put it on Lois’ keyboard when LNN began showing new footage of a mall that had collapsed. Perry was standing beside him.
“I'm on that Perry, I’ll see you later,” he said, pulling on his tie and heading toward the stairwell.
Lois awoke with the sun streaming over her bed, wondering why her alarm hadn’t gotten her up before now. As she reached up to push her fingers through her hair, her left hand snagged in it, tangling. Some hair broke off as she pulled to free her hand, wondering what in the world that was all about. She broke into a smile, remembering her evening with Superman as she looked at the large diamond ring that he’d put on her hand. She tilted it in the sunlight and watched as dots of blue reflected from it. A genuine diamond; the real thing, just like the man who had put it there.
She hugged her hand to her chest before looking at the ring again. It was so beautiful.
When she walked into the newsroom, she’d expected to hear Perry’s usual, “Well, so happy you could join us today.” But he’d only nodded and signaled her to come into his office as she came down the ramp.
“That was a real piece of good work you sent me this morning. I’ve hardly seen you write anything of that high quality before, Lois. I think you’re looking at another Kerth for that one. I mean, I don’t know for sure, but its’ really outstanding.”
Lois stood dumbfounded as she listened to her editor lavish her with praise. Finding her voice, she thanked him then asked, “What did I miss today, Chief? I was up so late with that story last night, I just had to get some sleep before I’d be any good to you today.”
“Well, we’ve got a mall that’s just collapsed. LNN’s been running with the story. Kent’s over there now. There’s been a small massacre last night, some sort of a deal gone sour I’d think. I sent you the details the police sent us. Let’s see what this was all about. I want you two on it when Clark gets back.” He paused and looked at her for a moment. “Something’s different about you, hun. You look, well, you look darned good for a woman who was up all night, even better than usual.”
Lois smiled, “Thanks, Perry, I’ll have a look at what you sent me.”
She headed over to her desk and dropped her bag on the floor beneath her coat rack. She turned to see that Clark’s computer was on with a document on the screen. Getting a mug of coffee, she headed over and sat in his chair to read what her partner had written. She was mesmerized by the way the words flowed. This was the ‘touchy feely’ stuff that Clark was so good at. But this was really good, much better than she’d read before. She felt that a window had been opened into the heart of Superman. She could feel his pain, his determination, his steeled resolve, his concern. Wow. What a piece of journalism. She pushed ‘print’ with his mouse, then looked down at the ring on her finger and sighed. She felt more content than she’d felt in a very long time, if she’d ever felt this way before. That was her fiancé Clark had written about. She picked up the piece of paper as it fell into the printer tray and walked back over to her desk while she read it again.
She put her mug down beside her keyboard and noticed the envelope on it. Idly leaving the paper on top of the pile on her desk, she opened it up and read:
“Dear Lois,
Let’s talk about when we’ll announce our engagement before we tell anyone, okay? I’d like to savor this secret for a little while just between us.
Love,
Guess who.”
She smiled and looked at her ring again, then remembered that she’d promised to give Lex an answer about his proposal today. She picked up the phone, wondering if talking in person was better than on the phone for this sort of thing, rejection might be hard for Lex to take. No, she didn’t want to feel him pressure her for reasons and try to sweep her off her feet again. In a few minutes a very bewildered Lex Luther and a very happy Lois Lane hung up their phones. She sighed. Done!
Then she turned to the details Henderson had sent to Perry about the murders in the warehouse district.
“Perry, I'm going to go out there and see if I can find anything out,” Lois said, walking by Perry’s office, her bag in her hand.
Clark stepped out of the elevator as she was waiting for it to arrive. He looked at her ring, hoping she’d not noticed. “Good morning, Lois.” Clark said, looking happy but weary. He couldn’t help but gaze into her deep brown eyes and remember their evening together last night.
“Clark, Perry wants us to cover this murder, come on, I’ll fill you in on the way,” she said, patting his chest.
“Okay,” he said, glancing at his desk before turning back into the elevator with his partner. They stood in silence in the elevator for a moment as the doors closed and it descended. “Quite a ring you’ve got there, Lois. So you’ve given Lex your answer, I guess?”
She nodded, suddenly realizing that if she didn’t say she hadn’t rejected Lex’ proposal, people would just assume it was Lex’s ring until she and Superman finally announced it publicly. She decided not to mention anything more about it.
“You must be pretty happy. You look happy.” Clark said, not trying hard enough to hide his joy at her happiness.
“Umm Humm!” she murmured dreamily, covering her ring with her other hand and stroking the ring fondly.
The doors opened in the lobby and they stepped out. “Okay, so here’s what’s happening, Clark,” she said, slipping her hand through his arm in her usual friendly gesture and beginning to spill what she knew of the story.
“The place is riddled with bullets and bodies. A dead guy had a mask partly torn off his face that looked like he was pretending to be Lex Luther.”
“Luther?” Clark was surprised.
When they stepped out of the cab, they could immediately see the scene of the crime. Yellow tape showed the area was off limits. Lois and Clark ducked under the tape, flashing their press passes at the new police officer who eyed them curiously. Chalk outlined the place where the bodies had lain. Clark raised his glasses and studied the ground for tire tracks.
They poked around the scene, finding scratch marks on the top of a large air conditioner housing. “These scratch marks and the way the dust has been moved look like there was some sort of an exchange of briefcases.
Henderson showed them the briefcase that had been left at the scene. It contained a large useless rock. Lois and Clark exchanged glances, before she began, “Okay, so someone double crossed the buyer with a worthless rock. You think it was some kind of a drug exchange?”
“Maybe. Or maybe uncut stones for jewelry?”
“But why would anyone dress up like Lex?”
“Maybe because he’s the bad…” Clark stopped himself, remembering how he and Lois had gotten into a fight about Lex already this week. If she was pretending to be marrying Lex, she’d probably swing into defending Lex again. “Sorry, Lois. Someone was trying to pretend he was Lex Luther, I guess.”
“Well, obviously!” she retorted sarcastically.
“From the scratch marks and the dust line, I’d say there were two brief cases, so it was an exchange. So this rock had to be either a front for the money or for the goods. The fingerprints on the handle will show who brought the rock. The other person must have been bringing the money. Or the goods.”
“What if the rock was the goods? I mean what if the Lex look alike was the one with the money. I mean, Lex has lots of money. I bet he either sent the guy to pretend it was Lex, or someone was weaseling in on a deal Lex was supposed to be making. Maybe placing the blame.
As Clark walked around the chalk line of another body, nearest the airconditioner unit, pain shot through his stomach and he practically doubled over. He backed up right away until he was out of the range of kryptonite he’d felt. He lowered his glasses and scanned the ground, finally finding tiny specks of green crystal on the earth beneath the grass.
“Lois, it was a kryptonite purchase.” Clark said as Lois came over to stand beside him, not having noticed the way he’d grabbed his stomach a few moments before. She shot him a puzzled look and he nodded to the chalked body. “Look over on the ground, there are tiny specks of kryptonite down there in the grass, right by that twig.”
Lois went over and picked at the ground with her fingers where he’d said, retrieving some tiny bits of green. She looked up at Clark who was leaning against the tree near the yellow tape. “Don’t touch it Lois,” Clark cautioned. Superman could probably be hurt by even that tiny amount.
Realizing the truth of what he was saying, she made sure there wasn’t any on her fingers. She needed a lead box. But this was a crime scene. The less the police knew about kryptonite being available, the better. She searched her bag, finally finding a stick of lipstick. Making sure nobody could see what she was doing, she dabbed the lipstick at the pieces of kryptonite, then closed up the stick and put the metal lid back on it. She then wrapped it up in a handkerchief and put it in her cosmetic bag, hoping that all those layers would be at least some protection for Superman. It wouldn’t be enough, but it might work for the moment, just to get it away from the scene.
Clark stood at attention, wanting to know if he’d be affected by Lois now as she came over to stand beside him. When she’d gotten a few feet away, he began to feel it and backed up. “Lois, I'm going to go see what Jimmy can find on this guy.” With that, he trotted over around the corner of the nearby buildings and took off into the sky.
“Clark!” Lois demanded as he turned and started away. She sighed in exasperation as he disappeared. “Always there when you need him!” she shook her head and looked for Henderson. “Did you already run any checks to see who these guys were and if they matched the prints on that briefcase?”
“Yup, Lois. We’ve got it right here. The guy with the mask on is Mike Smithers, the one by the airconditioner unit is Harold Topac.”
“Thanks, Bill.” Lois responded politely, jotting down the names. “Who were these other guys?” she asked, waving her hand at the three other chalk-marked body outlines in the grass.”
Henderson pulled his pad back out of his shirt pocket. “They’re Larry Rankin, Joe Kelly and Tom Williams.”
“Thanks Bill,” she said again as she looked up at him. “Can you tell me what happened here?”
“Well, from the looks of it, there was an exchange and a shootout. We’ve recovered bullets. They’re all over this side of the area, so they must have come from the lookalike side. I’ll let you know what kind of gun they came from. It looks like they must have been from a machine gun from the amount of them.”
Lois looked over near the body of the look alike and looked for signs of footprints. She could see tire tracks from a large car and footprints all around where the body lay and behind the car’s most indented tracks. She’d get Superman to come and blow on these tracks for her so they could take a frozen sample back to the lab to find out what kind of car it had been.
“Bill, do the footprints here match the shoes of the people that were murdered or are there more people that are missing? I guess the car’s missing right, so there must have been a driver. Were there more?”
“Lois, we’ve got one car,” he waved his hand over at the other side of the park. It’s riddled with the same prints as these guys, but somebody got away, probably with the money and the goods.”
Lois looked around for awhile longer, then flagged a cab to head back to the planet.
