Oh, damn it, Rachel the Raven, you write angst so excellently!
Not that anything too, too bad happened in this chapter. I think. No one was tortured or dissected like a frog, as far as I could see. But you never know.
This nearly made my heart stop:
“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.
Two officers are with Perry?
“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.
Think, Lois, think. Why can you only see Superman when you try to think of Clark?
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.
Love the 'very tall puppy' image. Reminds me of a humongously big puppy that was once curled up at my feet - and at four or five other passengers' feet too, of course - on my commuter train. That puppy seemed rather adorably helpless (and very clumsy), too.
Lois looked at the police guardedly. Their uniforms made her uneasy.
Well, believe me, I don't blame you, Lois!!!
“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.”
I don't know if Lois's decision was the right one or the wrong one, but I totally sympathize with her.
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.
I love how you put this.
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.
I can see Lois, bracing herself by leaning over Perry's desk, palms down on the desk, and staring at Perry, eyes narrowed, to make him talk to her.
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.
Great image.
“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've got the military working with them? Doesn't that mean they could be working with Bureau 39 right now, spilling all their beans and making sure Bureau 39 can find Superman again? And killing him for good this time? Maybe after cloning him or injecting some of his 'super' DNA into themselves, turning themselves into Super-Trask and other horrible super-killers?
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.”
Bureau 39 killed their underlings!
“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.”
I love this, Perry's warmth and concern underlying his sometimes very gruff exterior, and the way he cares for Lois. I love that she hugged him, too.
“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.
I love the incredible intensity of this. So nice that you let us see this telephone conversation from Lois's point of view. You recently showed us what it was like for Clark.
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.
Oh, Lois. If you only knew. If he had only trusted you with his secret.
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.
I can feel the relief and lethargy settling itself on Lois so heavily.
“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.
She should begin to figure it out soon.
“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.”
Think, Lois. Think. You know for yourself that Superman has not been able to fly for a while.
“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.”
Glad to hear that Lois's parents care. They don't always do that in other fanfics.
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.
All right, I remember why Clark didn't answer. It was because Clark was being held and comforted by his mother at that moment.
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.
I love how you show us Lois's panic, and, not least, how you show us her dependence on Kal-El, the man she has saved, cared for and learnt to totally love.
Looking at the skies, watching.
Just in case. Watching for the bright blue against the grey of the clouds.
Love this. How her longing makes her believe in the impossible, that Superman might just possibly be out flying. On the other hand, she should
know that this isn't possible.
“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.
I love how his absence overwhelms her physically.
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.
Oh, oh, Lois's panic, her terror, her utter, utter loss.
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?
Oh, Lois's panic. Her panic.
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.
Lois is too scared to see the truth.
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.
Where is he???
“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.
As if screaming for him would help. Lois, think. You are an investigative reporter. Think.
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.
Love this. So wonderfully Lois.
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.
Clark Smallville Kent... love that name, Rachel. It says so much about how Lois views Clark. But Lois, when will you figure out that Clark S(mallville) Kent is really Clark S(uperman) Kent?
Ann
