Hi Evie!
But it was the police scanner that she now always subconsciously tracked over the buzz of the bullpen.
Maybe it’s her feelings of remorse from how she put pettiness over helping other people?
LOIS: Nonsense. If Clark would be honest with me, things would be much easier.
The sixth time, she took her partner’s name off the by-line and sent it off to the city desk editor.
It was a great escalation during the story progression
Also, seems like this decision is going to come back and bite her in her rear side.
LOIS: Clark and I do not have that kind of relationship. And it’s Clark’s fault for lying that we don’t.
The seventh time, she told herself that she was entirely unbothered, since her story had been submitted already, and she could now do some work on her novel before the clock wound down to an acceptable time to leave.
Oh boy. Or, she could have gone out to find a lead, get captured and end up on the police report as a hostage crisis. It might gain her Superman’s attention.
She’d disengaged with his his disappearing act so much that she didn’t even remember what excuse he’d given her for running out the last time.
Dr FRISKING: and how does that make you feel!
LOIS:
“I, uh, I didn’t get to see the final copy,” he protested gently.
/Points at bye-bye-line/
The televisions in the bullpen covered every single Superman rescue today; nearly every one had been preceded by the police scanner’s cracking voice and her partner bailing out on her. Not that either of them could say any of that out loud.
They really need to be locked in a room for a bit to get all their frustrations out. Also, I can’t help but associate “Run Amok” with “Amok”, the Star Trek episode about Spock’s Pon Far.
there’s no similarities other than half the title. Still…
Clark looked like he was about to say something else, but just nodded and walked away.
He’d given up too easily, and even that irritated her.
She’d been watching him walk away from her most of the day.
/Points at dead horse in supply closet/
Which reminds me, I think we had a story once where Perry tricked them into going to the supply closet and then played interference to prevent a Jimmy Interruptus. It had something to do with getting those issues resolved in an … engaging manner.
And she was sick of it.
But she was trying a new approach, she reminded herself.
Being more passive in her aggressiveness?
After she’d sent Clark off to the stupid Vanity Fair gala with Cat the other night, she’d taken herself home and, over a pint of Rocky Road, had given herself a very stern talking to about responsibility.
Most adroitly written
But just letting him be isn’t helpful, if she keeps getting mad about him leaving.
LOIS (munching): It’s his fault!
That didn’t mean she could get in his way just because he was in a coat and tie instead of spandex and a cape, though. So she resolved to be more lenient and patient and just let the man go do his other job.
I just realized, the ending won’t be her picking up her coat and bag to come with him, will it. Without telling him she knows before that moment.
LOIS: Clark? Wait! I want to cover the Superman story this time.
CLARK:
LOIS: /presses up on the elevator/
CLARK:
So she resolved to be more lenient and patient and just let the man go do his other job.
Her patience had lasted through five rescues.
Yep.
He didn’t need to pull her down with him, forcing her to cover for him and do the work they were both supposed to be doing just because he had decided to do something else with his time.
This would be the alternative explosion. Lois giving Clark the official version of her coping instead of the underlying reason about his lying. Might cause some damage.
LOIS: I do not have ready access to kryptonite.
It wasn’t up to her to make this life he’d chosen work for him—especially since he hadn’t asked her for her help.
There it is.
No one could hold down two full-time jobs—especially when one of them was supposed to be covert!—on their own, especially jobs as urgent and unpredictable as a reporter and a superhero.
Nope, definitely not piqued about his obliqueness.
She’d thought that she could put the secret out of her mind and slap on a grit-your-teeth-smile and look the other way every time someone got themselves into enough trouble that they needed Superman to save them.
I just realized, she hasn’t yet made the jump to being more reckless when she’s out investigating with Clark. Of course, since she’s a certified self-rescuing princess, she’s not aware that having a stealth-superhero close by is indeed helpful. Might also be fun, her being aware enough that she risks more when he’s there but is careful and moves slower when he has to step out, waiting with tapping foot until he returns. Or trying to engage the goon in a discussion about his employer’s labor practices until aforementioned superhero returns.
But, in spite of her best laid plans, that tactic had made her—to put it lightly—insane.
She’s not built for bottling in it up. Her mother tried that approach, putting her disgruntlement into recently emptied bottles. Didn’t make things better either. It’s why we have invented the dark side of the boards. Very helpful in releasing tensions and frustrations.
Because looking away from the real reason Clark was leaving required her to focus on the excuses he was giving her instead—and most of them were so absolutely half-baked and lame that they insulted her intelligence and obliterated the trust she’d thought they shared between them.
That’s a fun-twist – she’s insulted because Clark isn’t trying to come up with more credible lies, thus implying he thinks her stupid or otherwise not worthy of the energy of a well-crafted ploy. A detail she is only able to complain about after she found out the truth but decided to not spill the beans. Before, she could simply get ticked off at his disappearing for strange reasons.
Wouldn’t just telling her be better than this?
Kind of like the question about her telling him, huh?
LOIS: Shush! You can’t compare the two.
Was telling her really so much worse than enacting that cycle again and again and again?
Well, there’s the theory that an annoyed Lois makes this most adorable pouting face that Clark finds so incredibly alluring.
LOIS:
CLARK:
“Uh, Lois?”
The dismay in Clark’s voice had turned from surprise to resignation while he’d been at his own desk and she’d been stewing over him at hers.
She turned to see him holding a print-out.
Oooooh, he noticed that he made the bye-bye-line.
“Did you perhaps overlook something when you drafted this?” he asked, handing her the page.
No. It mentions the Superman-assistance and leaves out the Clark-Kent-is-Superman part. Looks all good to me.
“You didn’t maybe forget something?”
No, she remembers he left her six times during the crafting of the article and did not tell her even once that he’s Superman.
“Did you forget to add my name to the by-line?
No.
“I think fair went out the door when you did,” she bit out, standing and crossing her arms over her chest.
There’s that most cute pouting face!
“C’mon! This is my story just as much as yours,” he argued.
LOIS: Fine. Choose: By-line on this story or my sole by-line on the one about where Superman’s sleeping tonight.
“Since when do we give researchers bylines?!” she guffawed.
Poor Jimmy! Also, there’s an inconsistency with the “by-line” / “bylines” in this story.
Clark crossed his arms, but didn’t take her bait. “Finding his partner is how we broke this story!”
“Uh, hey, guys—“
Jimmy Interruptus reminding them to keep the bedroom stuff in the storage closet so the rest of the newsroom can stick to working? No, wait, it’s already late, so it’s probably just Jimmy who feels awkward watching Mommy and Daddy engaging in foreplay.
“I, uh, I was just looking for that red folder I dropped off earlier,” Jimmy said, sifting through the tallest stack of paperwork. “You guys just… go ahead.”
Wow, that’s brazen. Didn’t even send them to follow up on their discussion in the privacy of the conference room.
“No, we’re not done, Lois. You know full well that I deserve that byline.”
He really likes poking the bear, doesn’t he?
CLARK: She doesn’t have kryptonite. It’s perfectly safe.
And this afternoon when you ran off and—do you see a pattern here?”
The police scanner lightly went off in the background.
/blinks/ Now I’m wondering if Jimmy was pointing at the police scanner the entire time.
When Clark turned back to them, he was fidgeting with his tie.
She flicked another quick glance at Jimmy, who was already looking at her warily.
To be discussed later, when he returns to his apartment.
“Lois, um, I have to, um—“ Clark stuttered, right on cue.
Pick up a self-help book for how to deal with a co-dependent superhero relationship?
Something inside of her cracked. She couldn’t hear him lie to her one more time today.
And he was going to have to. Right now. Or else risk someone’s life. She wasn’t going to potentially get someone killed again just because she was peeved at her partner.
“Just get out of my sight,” she bit out caustically, blinking back tears even as she gifted him an excuse to leave so that he wouldn’t have to come up with one.
Ouch. What a mature ouch!
“How long are you gonna leave CK in the doghouse?” came a cautious voice from the other side of her desk.
He knows how to beg. And he knows he had chewed up her favorite pair of shoes before using her second favorite pair for a … different activity. He can bring her chocolates if he wants to.
“Until I’m not mad anymore,” she said tiredly, trying not to redirect her anger to the closest moving target.
But he gets her mad again all the time?
“Because I want him to tell me.”
Clark can be stubborn that way. It’s fun if he’s not telling her for 14 or so parts
He looked at her incredulously. “How do you tell somebody something like that?”
/shifty eyes/
/points at dark side of boards/ There’s … ways.
“You probably start off by telling them that you hate lying to them, and you trust them, and you rely on their friendship and know that you’re their best friend and that means a certain amount of loyalty and because of all of that, you know that they’d do absolutely anything to keep you safe when you tell them that you’re, you know, who you are.”
She’s not telling Jimmy that so he can take notes for Clark, is she?
“Is that what you’re going to say to him when you tell him that you’ve known these past couple of weeks?”
“What?” she asked, earnestly not following him.
“All that stuff you said. You’ve been lying to Clark about knowing he’s, you know, who he is, that he, er— delivers pizzas in his spare time.
He’s gotten way too smart for his britches. Also, maybe Lois could tell Clark that he can take the spare bedroom at her place if he can’t afford his place without a second job?
“No,” she said crossly. “That’s what he should be saying to me.”
Them both self-sabotaging is always the funniest part
“He’s the one that started this.
/psst/ ‘who’ not ‘that’.
Jimmy shrugged again. “Then he wouldn’t have to tell you,” he chuckled.
Yes, then he could go straight to breaking up with her so she doesn’t get hurt by his proximity.
“The way we usually are?” she echoed.
Canoodling.
“Yeah, you know, Lois and Clark, like Woodward and Bernstein but, you know, more—“ He stumbled, looking for the right word, and then held his hands up instead, interlocking his fingers. “More like you guys.”
Well...canoodling.
She quietly pulled her article from the editor’s queue and opened it again in her word processor.
The point was to torture her partner a little, as payback for torturing her, not to break him.
She added his name back to the byline, fingers pressing softly on the keys that spelled out this name.
Awwwwwwww
Her latest solution to Clark’s betrayal over this secret they shared, even if Clark didn’t know they shared it, wasn’t working. Lois just wasn’t the patient type.
Nope. And in thirty years of fanfic, Lois and Clark haven’t found a way to frustrate just one of them into giving up. They’re a much too volatile mix to keep on the self in the same box. They’re mix and interact and go boom!
She needed a new plan.
*****
Let the Wookie win? Also, most ominous for the end of this part!
Looking forward to your next approach
Michael
