Thanks to Lisa for her invaluable help on this work!


SECRET AGENT
By Rhea (rheajediknight@yahoo.com)
Rated PG
9/2006

Description:
Lois discovers Clark’s secret, but is it really Clark’s secret? Why does Clark always disappear on Lois? Does the man of steel really have a bladder of paper? Could Clark be moonlighting as a secret agent? All of Clark’s dreams seem on the verge of coming true to only take a turn for the worse. Does Lois really love him? Are doughnuts really high in cholesterol? Does Perry really care? All these questions and more will be answered below.

Part Two

Clark knew that Lois was long gone and without some fancy footwork and awkward explanations there would be no way for him to catch up without making her suspicious. So unless something cataclysmic happened that was page one material, he wouldn't see her again until tomorrow. What had Perry acting so odd? Was something wrong with Lois? Should he be concerned?

Maybe he should just drop on by later tonight . . . Just to make certain she was safe. His heart sped up just a fraction at the thought of seeing her again.

Clark took his time leaving the newsroom and made his way to the roof so that he could catch a glimpse of Lois from the air while he did his evening rounds as Superman. He would have to wait for some time to pass before he could reasonably arrive at her apartment.

Before he could think further, a cry for help caught his attention. With a longing look toward Lois’ apartment, he disappeared in a streak of red and blue in the opposite direction.

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Lois leaned against the locked door of her apartment, and let her legs go weak. She allowed gravity to claim her as she slid slowly to the floor. It was as if she needed so much energy to contemplate her discovery that she had none left for anything else.

On one hand she felt as if everything was impossibly ruined and on the other hand that nothing could be more perfect. Why'd he have to go and mess up their comfortable friendship and why hadn't he ever told her? She didn't care if she was a mass of contradictions; she just needed to sort out her emotions.

How could Clark love her? She was a mess. He was always so sweet, the way he always adjusted to her mercurial moods. Clark was the only person she could go to when she needed to talk. Who was she supposed to turn to now? Her thoughts roamed over all the times she had spent with him. She thought of the way he was so dependable and yet how he always disappeared with the oddest excuses.

Lois knew that he lied to her when he dashed off like that, she just never really found out why. She was glad that he wasn’t very comfortable lying to her, he certainly wasn’t very good at it, but his odd departures still left questions in her mind. What drove Clark Kent away?

At first, she had thought he disappeared only when they began talking about something sensitive. But then she realized that although those where the times that she noticed his departures the most, he also did it during staff meetings and when they were working on stories; once he even disappeared when they were at a gas station!

Lois thought that he was trying to get stories on the sly, cutting her out of the byline, but she realized that those stories never emerged. Clark was always willing to share whatever he learned. No, he wasn’t like Claude. If they competed, it was usually her fault for starting the competition.

There was something. There was a story there, she could feel it. But whatever it was, she doubted she would ever allow it to be printed. It was something personal, something that was so private, he wouldn’t or couldn’t even tell her.

Was he secretly married? Why would he hide that? No, a married man would ever get away with wearing those terrible ties.

It had to be something else. Was he a spy? Did he have to make secret drops and go on missions for the government? Maybe she had hit upon something. He did always seem to have to go away in a hurry and it seemed that Clark didn’t always know when he would have to leave. Maybe some secret government organization was keeping him on call by some silent signal and he had to heed that call no matter what. She smiled broadly. That had to be it! Clark Kent was a secret agent and he was in love with her. This was a really strange day.

Lois didn't know how long she there before someone knocked at her door. She gave a quiet yelp of surprise, one that she would have sworn was inaudible, but Clark’s voice on the other side sounded concerned, "Lois, you okay?"

“Just a minute.” Lois jumped up, tearing her coat off and throwing it in her bedroom. She kicked off her shoes while she busied herself turning on lights. She must have been sitting for awhile to allow the apartment to get so dark. She had no intention of letting Clark know that she had been wrapped up in thoughts of him for at least an hour. She grabbed a book and threw it on the couch as if he had just interrupted her reading. Lois ran her hands down her skirt, cursing herself silently when she realized she was still dressed for work. No help for that now.

“Lois?” Clark said slowly, hearing her running around in her apartment. What was she up to? Maybe Perry was on to something after all. She was acting odd.

Just then the door opened and a calm looking Lois peered out at him. Clark could hear her elevated heart beat and her faster than at rest breathing, but she appeared to be composed.

“Clark!” Their eyes met and the tension became almost palpable.

He adjusted his glasses nervously. She seemed to be looking at him more intently then normal. To divert her attention, Clark raised the white bags he had been holding. “Hungry?” He asked her.

“What?” Her eyes dilated and she held her breath. “Oh . . the food. Is that what I think it is?” She opened the door wider to show him in. “That smells wonderful.” Just then her stomach growled and she laughed, “I guess there’s your answer.”

Clark chuckled and entered the apartment. He made his way to the kitchen to start unloading the Chinese containers he had just picked up in Beijing. They had cooled just a bit in his quick flight back. When Lois dashed into the bedroom, he lowered his glasses and gave them a quick blast of his heat vision.

Satisfied with the results, he began to serve up the food. He was just bringing the plates to the coffee table when he caught sight of the book Lois had been reading: The Spy Who Loved Me.

“James Bond?” Clark asked Lois as she returned in the room wearing jeans and a short white t-shirt that emphasized her figure.

She flushed furiously and, grabbing the book, shoved it behind a pillow on the couch. “I read . . . a lot of things,” she said, clearly uncomfortable. Why did she have to grab that particular book? What must he think now that she knew of his extracurricular activities?

Clark shrugged, wondering why she was embarrassed. “My favorite is From Russia with Love.”

Lois tucked her hair behind her ear and settled into the couch. She grabbed a plate and asked, not quite meeting his eyes, “What do you think it’s like . . . to be a spy, I mean?”

Clark thought about it while eating a wonton. “Probably not all that different from what we do. Find out information, meet with contacts, stop the bad guys.”

Lois coughed and said, “But you have to be someone special to be a spy, don’t you think?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It can’t be all that hard. Although I envy James Bond, he always gets the girl in the end,” he said, meeting Lois’ eyes. A wave of heat passed between them and her thoughts went back to that pink card she had found in Clark’s file drawer.

“And you don’t get the girl?” Lois asked pointedly. Clark shifted uncomfortably, wondering how the conversation had landed on this topic.

“I don’t think I’ve read the last chapter yet, Lois.” Clark murmured. She was so beautiful, but she was acting different. He could swear that something had changed about Lois. Was she trying to tell him something?

“What about you?” He tried for a casualness he didn’t quite feel.

“Oh, I never get the girl either,” Lois replied flippantly.

Clark laughed, “No. Did you ever want to be a Bond girl? You certainly have the guts, not to mention the figure.”

“Oh, you!” She playfully slapped his arm, feeling as if her heart had expanded in her chest. She gazed into his eyes, certain that she was sinking into that dark gaze. She mentally shook herself.

She started eating and, after a moment of companionable silence, said, “Actually, I always wanted to be James Bond. He was so smooth; he could always get out of a jam without a hair out of place. Always knew the right thing to say . . . “

Suddenly she realized that Clark was so unlike this description. Could she have been wrong? She remained silent for a minute, lost in thought. If he wasn’t a spy, then why did he always leave? Did he have some sort of bladder problem that he didn’t want to admit to her?

“What is it, Lois? What’s wrong?” Clark set down his plate and took the plate from her numb fingers. He grasped her hands in his noticing how cool she felt.

She glanced down at their joined hands and then said to him fiercely, “Clark, we’ve become close, haven’t we?”

“I’d like to think so.”

“Then you know that you could tell me anything.”

He nodded slowly. He wasn’t certain where she was going with this. Was she about to tell him the reason for her odd behavior this last day? “And I would hope that you would do the same, Lois.”

“It’s just that I was hoping that you would feel comfortable telling me about . . . you know.” Lois said.

Clark eyebrows drew together. He was confused.

“You know.” She gave him a conspiratorial look.

Had Lois guessed his secret? Did she know about Superman?


(more soon I promise! Thanks again for all your feedback. This one is for you!!)