It's Ficlet Friday! Here's my contribution...A little snippet set just before "The Phoenix". Sequel to come.
Cat Got Your Tongue?
Summary:
Lois gets more than she bargained for during a chance conversation with Cat Grant.
Notes:
As usual a huge thank you to my BR and partner in crime KSaraSara. Thanks for poking and prodding so I could get this tiny ficlet done.
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Lois Lane was sitting inside a greasy spoon diner on Second St. on a Thursday afternoon absolutely not thinking about her partner. She certainly wasn’t thinking about how he’d run off on her — yet again — with some lame excuse about having to do his taxes. And she certainly wasn’t thinking about how good he’d looked in that charcoal suit she liked when she heard a woman’s voice, sounding both surprised and somewhat amused, piercing through her not-thoughts.
“Lois Lane, what on Earth are you doing down here?”
I can tell you what I’m not doing. I’m not thinking about Clark!
Lois had not expected to ever see Cat Grant again. She certainly hadn’t expected to see her wearing a modest, cream-coloured business suit, with her hair in a tight braid and minimal makeup on.
She almost hadn’t recognised her, but when Cat said her name in that way of hers that was both haughty and sultry at the same time, she’d known. It was like seeing a complete stranger dressed up as someone you’d known for years, and it instantly made Lois curious.
“Grabbing lunch before I interview a source for a story I’m working on,” was Lois’ guarded reply. Part of her wanted to ask Cat what she’d been up to, and the other part of her, the part that still nursed old grudges, had to resist the urge to be flippant.
Not being one for goodbyes, when the Planet folded, Cat had sort of melted away. Lois had heard rumours that she’d moved to Chicago to work for a gossip magazine. Others said she’d gone to LA to become an actress.
Now, Lois realised if she played her cards right, she had the chance to find out the truth. With that in mind, she invited Cat to join her.
Cat looked mildly surprised but sat down anyway and gingerly took a menu from the side of the table, then settled on a bacon cheeseburger and fries when the waitress came to take their orders.
“So I know why I’m sitting in this hole-in-the-wall on a Thursday afternoon,” Lois said, trying not to sound too curious. Everything about Cat seemed new…except for the mischievous glint in her eyes that Lois knew all too well. “What’s your excuse?”
“I started my own magazine,” Cat replied smoothly. “My offices are nearby. It’s not much, but I’m hoping if all goes well, I’ll be able to really get CatCo off the ground.”
“Impressive,” Lois said, dropping her guard for the moment and allowing herself to be surprised by Cat’s ambition. “I never got the impression you wanted to —”
“Be a serious journalist?” Cat replied sweetly but with a slight edge. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Unfortunately for me, you had the market cornered at the Planet.”
“I…” Lois gaped, momentarily at a loss for words and resisted the urge to apologise. Cat took advantage of her speechlessness and leaned forwards.
“Speaking of the Planet, where’s your partner…Mr. Tall-dark-and-totally-hot-for-you?”
Did she mean Clark? Surely she couldn’t mean Clark. She and Clark were just friends. Best friends. And just because she’d started to realise she had serious feelings for him didn’t mean he shared them. After all, hadn’t he told her that he didn’t love her after all when the paper re-opened?
“Clark had to…finish doing his taxes,” she admitted somewhat lamely. “And he and I are not…I mean we’ve never…”
“Oh, please,” Cat scoffed. “I was the resident gossip at the Planet. It was literally my job. And you two had chemistry for days. Hell, he turned me down, Lois…me. The only explanation for that is that he was in love with you. Well, that or he needed his eyes checked.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Lois wondered. “We’ve never been friends.” She knew her words were harsh and blunt, but she also knew that Cat Grant was not the type of woman who wanted to be tiptoed around. She was beginning to realise they had more in common than she originally thought.
“Once a gossip columnist, always a gossip columnist, I guess,” Cat said with a shrug. “Last I saw you, you were about to make the biggest mistake of your life by marrying Luthor and…well, we all know that turned out.”
Lois winced visibly as the memory of Lex’s crumpled body flashed through her mind. Cat must have seen it because her expression softened slightly.
“Sorry. Still working on tact. Anyway, he’s been in love with you so long, I figured you’d be engaged by now.”
“I…” She stopped herself mid-protest. What was the point? Cat didn’t work at the Daily Planet anymore. They didn’t run in the same circles, and for once they were being…friendly to one another. She sighed. “He told me he loved me. And then he…took it back when the Planet re-opened. Said he’d only told me to stop me from marrying Lex.”
“And you believed that?” Cat exclaimed, nearly choking on a bite of her burger. “That boy scout probably had his fingers crossed when he said it.”
“Or maybe he just doesn’t feel that way about me,” Lois insisted stubbornly, though she wasn’t sure why.
“Do you love him?” Cat asked as her green eyes settled on Lois in a way that unnerved her.
Lois sighed and gave into the urge to be honest.
“Yes, I think so,” she replied. Cat smiled smugly, finished her burger and threw enough cash to cover both their meals down on the table.
“I knew it,” she said with a grin. Cat cast a quick glance towards something or someone behind Lois that she couldn’t see. “Gotta go.”
“Wait!” Lois called out as she turned to leave. “Aren’t you going to tell me to tell him how I feel?”
“What am I, your life coach?” Cat teased gently. “Besides, I have a feeling he’ll ask you out real soon. Don’t let him get away a second time when he does.”
With that, she turned and left. And what felt like mere seconds later, Clark walked through the door looking slightly rattled. He sat down and reached for a menu, giving her the oddest look in the process. For some reason she felt like she was suddenly raw and exposed — as if Clark knew exactly what she’d been thinking.
“So?” Lois said after a moment’s silence. “Did you finish your taxes? Are you ready to get serious?”
“Yeah,” he murmured softly, causing her entire body to shiver at the timbre in his voice. “I’m ready.”
Last edited by lovetvfan; 04/07/23 10:08 PM.
