Hey, all. Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Please remember to review! wink

Oh. I stuck a bunch of comments, replies to reviews, and news at the end of the FDK for the last chapter. So if you want to check up on that after finishing this chapter, that would be great.

Anyway, enjoy.

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Chapter 22: Helpless

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Lois stalked into the bullpen of the Daily Planet. She stepped down the stairs and towards her desk, and no one dared move to intercept her. She felt slightly odd and out of place despite the familiar surroundings. Everything seemed exactly the same as she had left it. It felt like something should be different. She strode right up to her desk, dropped off her purse, scanned quickly through the mail that had piled up there, then looked over at Clark Kent’s desk.

His name plaque shone proudly above him immaculate desk. Eerie, that was what Lois thought. No man should be that tidy, that organized—that much of a mama’s boy.

His computer was on, Lois noticed. She went over and shook his mouse, banishing the black screen of the sleeping computer to see the word document behind it.

It was an article. It was that cursed article about that pointless, nothing cornfest in Smallville. Lois had all but forgotten about it. She frowned as she read it. There was little written—only a couple paragraphs.

“Smallville embodies the spirit of the American small town. Its heart is not made of busy work schedules or deadlines, but around pe—”

It cut of in the middle of a sentence. Why in the world would someone— anyone—stop in the middle of a sentence—let alone a word? Feeling a chill, Lois minimized the window and straightened, even as Perry’s door slammed open.

“Lane! In here now!”

Uh oh. Last name only? Perry must be in a mood.

So much for a cheery welcome.

She straightened and walked towards him calmly, taking her time. The man should know she couldn’t be cowed, even as he stood bristling at his open door. She approached him, but went still as she saw the two officers standing behind him in his office.

“It’s about time you got in here,” Perry grumbled.

Lois was quite sure she had made the trip to the Planet in record time, but she wasn’t in the mood to talk about specifics.

“You say Clark is missing, Perry?” She didn’t know him extremely well, and the details seemed strangely fuzzed when she tried to think about him. But when she tried to think about the past—about the last few days, or even before that—Kal-El’s face kept on popping up in her head. Kal-El’s haunted eyes, his pale face, his fear, his guilt, the firm set of his jaw as they played Boggle…that slightest smile that had tried so hard to make itself shown despite the memories that haunted it—these were all she could see. So she just pushed it all away.

The point was that Kent was supposed to be her partner. Her junior partner. You looked after someone like that like a helpless puppy. A sometime frustrating, independent, very tall puppy, that sometimes you just wanted to string up by his ears, but a helpless one nonetheless.

“Yeah. Disappeared same day you did, and around same time, too, by everyone’s estimate. I think we’ve all got questions for you.”

Lois looked at the police guardedly. Their uniforms made her uneasy.

“What’s there to say?” she said shortly. “I haven’t seen Clark, I haven’t seen Superman. I can give you the address where I was kidnapped, but I bet they’re long gone by now.”

“What did they want with you, then?” one of the officers asked.

“They wanted information on Superman,” Lois said, her voice tense. “But they should have known that I didn’t have anything on the man. He has only been around for a few months, and even if he has rescued me more times than the average working woman—what can I say? It’s my job. But that’s it. I guess they thought if they caught me they could draw me to them or something.” Even as her words left her mouth, she remembered. He had come from her. He had come with that terrible streak of blue, then the crack—Lois didn’t think she’d ever forget that crack. And then seeing him for the first time…in pain. “So there. That’s all I have to say. Now if you would excuse me,” she said to the policemen. She turned to Perry.

“Miss Lane,” one of the policemen said. “We have some other questions. We’ve been trying to find Mr. Kent, and something you might have seen or heard may be the key to finding him.”

Just then Lois was torn in a most uncomfortable way. She could of a certainty reveal that she knew at least the general location of where they had been kept. She could tell them who had caught her, of Bureau 39, and of the newcomers who had raided the compound and captured Logram.

She could tell them everything.

But who would she risk? Would she risk Superman to find Clark Kent? Or would she risk taking longer to find Clark in order to protect Superman?

She felt sick. She shouldn’t have to decide the fate of one man over another, especially such genuinely good men like Clark and Superman.

“We need any information you might have,” prompted one of the officers.

And Lois made her decision.

She looked back to him, her eyes narrowed. “You want information? Well, I’ve had people bugging me about information that I don’t know for the past week now. I just got away from them, and I did not get away from those nutcases to walk into others! All I know is that these guys worked under Trask before he shot the gun. That’s it. That’s all. They wanted to get answers, not give them. So let me go to work.”

So that was it. Superman would stay safe. And if Clark had fallen into the hands of this second government group along with Logram…

Lois shuddered. At least they wouldn’t dissect Clark. And once Superman was well enough she’d come out with the full truth, if Clark hadn’t been found by then.

She was being unreasonable in talking to the officers, and most certainly not telling the full truth, and the truth she was telling wasn’t very useful at all. She knew it, but she was being unreasonable for a reason, if that made sense.

She had to protect Kal-El.

The police tried a couple more times, but after being given similar clipped, irritated answers, they finally left. As soon as the door closed Lois turned on Perry, leaning over his desk and putting her hands palm down as if bracing herself.

“Okay, Perry. Tell me what you know.”

The editor leaned back, looking at her. She was pale and to say she looked stressed would be an understatement.

“I think I’d rather first ask what you really know,” he said slowly.

Lois tensed further, though Perry would have said that he wouldn’t have thought it possible. She was bristling like a threatened porcupine over its babes, but there were no mini-porcupines in sight.

“Just tell me,” Lois said, looking ready to extract the information by force, if need be. Perry decided not to risk it.

“Well, with the help of the police and Jimmy we’ve figured what you said—Bureau 39 and all,” Perry said, watching her carefully. “We’ve got the military working with us now, honey. They came around just two days ago, said they’d found a base of theirs somewhere in the middle of Kansas. Picked up this guy there, too—some Dr. Logram, General McPheron said. Found some illegal stuff going on, so Logram got thrown in jail with the rest of his hoodlums. Seems like he was working under some mysterious benefactor that Henderson thinks might be behind half the crime in the city. But, well, they found the doctor and every single one of ten soldiers caught with him poisoned in their cells last night. I’ll tell you what—whoever is behind this has more strings to pull than a spider in a web.”

Lois listened with unchanging expression, her eyes narrow as she looked out the window unseeingly. So. The new government group went public, more or less. And this Boss…it all fit in with what she had heard. No doubt they were trying to draw her out of her comfort zone—to make her relax. Well, it wasn’t going to work.

“No word on Superman?” Lois asked.

Perry shook his head. “None. That’s just it—he disappeared around the exact same time as you and Clark.” The question was in his tone again.

But she couldn’t tell anyone—not even Perry. Superman was her secret. Hers.

“I’d best get to work then. Have Jimmy send me all we have, all right? We’ll find Kent, Chief. We will.” Too much had been lost already.

She turned to go, but Perry rose quickly. Lois paused, giving him an odd look as he came around the desk.

“Lois…well, you know, honey…we were really worried about you there. It’s just…I’m glad you’re back.”

Lois smiled, just for him, though it was tired and short-lived. “Me too, Chief.”

Then, on impulse, she reached forward and hugged the burly editor.

Perry was surprised, but his voice was rough as she pulled away.

“Well, then,” he said gruffly. “Go on. This isn’t a…a…” For once in his life, Perry failed to come up with an accurate comparison for lazing about in his workroom. “Well, then. Just go on, Lois. You’re right. If anyone can find him, you can.”

Lois went back to her desk and sat down. Her hands were shaking slightly, despite the strong façade she had put forward. She wanted to see Kal-El. She needed to see him. She needed to hear him…

She looked at the phone, then glanced around the room. Nobody seemed to be watching her. In fact, they seemed to be studiously avoiding doing that very thing.

She reached for the phone, then stopped herself.

An hour. Give herself one hour of good Clark-hunting, then she would call him. If she heard his voice right now she might just break down and run home to him—no matter the consequences.

So Lois got to work. After a cheerful greeting from Jimmy that she brushed away in a short, business-like way, she demanded the records and information she had found. Jimmy returned promptly, and this time Lois noticed how tired the young man looked. Still, he seemed genuinely glad to see her, even despite her short temper. Lois made a mental note to be nicer to the young man in the future. That is, later—when she could spare the time.

She spent the next hour scanning the information, looking for any coincidence, any possible missed detail—any suspicious money transfers…anything. But no—everything significant led to the compound in Kansas.

There was nothing…nothing…about where Clark Kent could possibly be.

But on the other hand, how hard or expensive could it be to kidnap a normal man and hide him away? Metropolis was a big place, and all they needed was a little room in some warehouse basement. With Superman out of the picture, they could safely hide him anywhere.

She was on her third cup of coffee in an hour when Perry came over to her desk, set to muse over the details with her. It was irregular for the weathered newspaperman to work directly on a case, but this was one of his own reporters—this was personal. But even with their combined minds, bouncing ideas off each other, it seemed there was just nothing to go off on.

Lois couldn’t help but think—what if Clark was no longer in the hands of Bureau 39? What if this new and “heroic” rescue team of new government officials swooped in only to grab a potential hostage for themselves?

They were looking for Superman, too.

She had heard them.

“Chief! Phone call in your office!”

“Tell them I’m busy!” Perry hollered without looking up from the papers he was pouring over.

There was a pause.

“Chief!” the secretary’s voice was almost a screech. “Mr. White! It’s…it’s…Clark Kent!”

Perry was out of the seat he had sequestered from Clark’s desk and gripping the phone in less than a second.

“Transfer it here! And quiet, everyone! Quiet! Shut up over there. I want SILENCE!”

He put the phone to his ear as a most unnatural hush fell over the bullpen.

Lois had shot straight out of her desk at Clark’s name. Now, she hovered at Perry’s side, listening as she felt relief began to ease the grip of that well-known fear on her heart.

Clark was okay. She didn’t need to worry about him any more.

She could go back to Kal-El. She felt sick; she needed to see him so badly.

She was taking an act of stepping back to her desk, set on taking the rest of the day off, and maybe the rest of the week. Surely Perry would be willing. He always tried to get rid of her after these sort of events, and it was almost the weekend anyway.

“Superman? Kent, did you say Superman?”

Superman?

Lois stopped. Her thoughts broke off like jagged ice, her feet stiffened on the ground, and her heart turned hard and cold. In sharp terror she turned around to stare at her editor, her face pale as snow.

“He’s been missing for over a week, and everyone’s been trying to figure out where he’s got to. Well, did you get the exclusive?” Perry demanded, oblivious to Lois’s near-panicked gaze.

She heard Clark’s voice vaguely—a distant nothing in the still oddly-silent newsroom, but couldn’t make out the words.

“By the king, Kent. Don’t tell me you let the exclusive slip through your fingers.”

Kal-El

What? Clark had seen Superman? But the man could hardly walk, let alone fly.

Her phone called to her. Pulling her, demanding her attention. But she managed to hold still until Perry was off the phone, and she nearly tackled him.

“Clark said he saw Superman?” Lois demanded.

Perry nodded. “That’s right. Said the big boy in blue swooped into wherever he was being held in and just carried him home.” He scowled. “He missed the exclusive, though.”

Lois didn’t care at the moment. She had enough information to give Perry a hundred front-page exclusives, if she wanted. But most of that would never see the light of day.

“Lois, honey. You all right?”

Lois blinked. She had been staring distantly into the air. “Yeah. I—I’m feeling a bit off, Perry. I think…I think everything just…caught up with me. Do you mind if I—take the rest of the day off?”

Perry stared at her. “Are you okay, Lois?”

“I said I was,” Lois snapped, but it was half-hearted. “Just…I’ll be back in the morning, okay chief? I mean, the day’s almost over anyway.”

“Okay,” Perry said slowly, even though it was still relatively early in the afternoon. “But…make sure to call your parents, okay? Your mother’s been hounding me this whole last week, and your father hasn’t been any better.”

Lois nodded distractedly. “Okay,” she said, turning back to her desk. She grabbed her purse and the stack of mail, then glanced back to make sure that Perry had moved on before picking up her phone and dialing Clark’s number.

It rang, and rang, and rang. The receiver grew slick in her hand from nervous sweat.

But there was no answer.

Lois stared at the phone before hanging it up shakily.

But Clark had just been there. He had just called Perry from his home.

Lois felt a chill.

She needed to see Superman. Now.

She didn’t even pause for the passing well-wishes and goodbyes. She got into the elevator and huddled in the farthest corner, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth against the nausea that was rising in her gut.

The streets were packed with afternoon traffic, and Lois had to try too many times for her liking to flag one down. She jumped in and gave her address, then sat against the door, looking out the window, shaking.

Looking at the skies, watching.

Just in case. Watching for the bright blue against the grey of the clouds.

Or white and blue, like the pajamas that Lois had bought him. She didn’t know if he had a spare suit.

The thought of Superman flying around in pajamas, without emblem or cape, was an odd one. Where did he get that suit anyway?

She paid the taxi driver and jumped out of the car without another word, then sprinted up the stairs. She saw her door, firmly closed, and felt the panic rise to a peak. She pulled at the spare keys she had taken from her house that morning, drawing them out to attack the locks and bolts that held her door.

But only one of them was locked.

It was the one that could be locked from the inside and still activate without a key. She opened it with shaking hands and threw the door open.

“Kal-El!” she called, throwing the door open so hard that it banged loudly against the wall.

He wasn’t there. She could feel it as soon as she stepped into her apartment. Everything was still—quiet…as quiet as anything had been since the white room. Quiet as the time when Superman had stopped breathing, after the kryptonite x-rays had brought him so close to death. She walked forward, beginning to shake as she looked around the empty room.

The window was open slightly, causing the curtains to wave. A piece of paper on the table ruffled slightly, held down by a lamp so it wouldn’t take flight and get lost. Lois lifted it with a shaking hand.

It was short, simple…saying so little and yet so much. The writing was neat, but slightly unsteady, and Lois knew that his hand had been shaking as he wrote it.

Thank you.

No signature, no more than that. And Superman was gone.

She stared at it for a long moment, torn between shock, fury, and panic. He couldn’t have just left her like that. He couldn’t have left her alone. If he felt up to it he might have flown off to save Clark, but…

Clark…

Oh, no. He had said Superman had saved him. He had said so. He had been Superman’s friend. Kal-El wouldn’t have thought twice before opening the door for him—that was the kind of person he was. Trusting, even now.

What if Clark hadn’t been rescued by Superman at all? What if…they…had let him go on conditions that they got Superman instead?

Lois swore desperately, wringing the note in her hand. She couldn’t even tell if it was his hand-writing. She had never seen it, except in their game of Boggle, and it’s not like it would be hard to forge or copy. And even if the words were simple and plain as Superman would have it, she had no idea whether he had written it or not, or under what conditions.

Knowing him, he might have even been so foolish to think that by leaving a note it might protect her—keep her from looking for him, even at the sacrifice of himself.

Why was the door unlocked?

If he had flown, he would have left through the window.

The note ripped in her hand. She turned back to the still open door, running into the hall and leaving the door ajar in her haste. She took the stairs, foregoing the elevator, and burst onto the rooftop of her apartment and looked up into the sky.

“SUPERMAN! SUPERMAN, HELP!” Her shout frightened a couple pigeons perched on the edge of the building into flight. “KAL-EL!”

Utter and complete silence answered her scream.

She yelled herself hoarse. She screamed until she tasted blood in her mouth. She pleaded, called, cried for him to answer, sinking onto the rooftop when her legs gave way beneath her. Finally, wasted and completely desolate, she dragged herself to the elevator and rode her way down to her room, slumped against the wall like desolation itself. She dragged herself into her apartment and closed the door limply behind her.

She stared around, standing in the dark stillness of her apartment—the place that had become so cheerful, so warm, so hopeful in the past couple days. But now it was just cold.

She felt sick.

The very thought that they might have him again, but alone. Alone in a white room, with only screams, and fear, and blood.

He was as good as dead. Or worse. It would be a mercy if he were dead, rather than in the hands of those men again.

She shut her eyes and sat down on the couch by the window. The sunlight touched her face, and she remembered how he would sit there, his eyes shut, just soaking in the light like some sort of god.

A tear leaked from beneath tightly-shut lids.

He didn’t realize how much he meant to the world, to mankind, to her.

She couldn’t lose him now. She couldn’t.

She opened her eyes. A shaking hand wiped away the long tear there, and her eyes narrowed.

She wouldn't.

She stood, her mind fixed, and moved to the phone and lifted it, dialing the number of Clark Kent.

It rang and rang and rang.

No cursed answer.

The man was avoiding her. That traitorous, cowardly, selfish…manfrom Smallville was avoiding her!

She grabbed her purse and stalked out the door.

She was going to find Superman, and no one was getting in her way.

Least of all Clark Smallville Kent.

TBC...


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