And on to Part 3...
TOC
here .
Early the next morning, long before many of the Planet staffers had crawled out of bed, Perry White was in his office looking to all the world as if he were reading that morning’s edition. There was a knock at the door.
“Morning, Chief,” Jimmy Olsen poked his head around the edge of the slightly open door and grinned. Perry nodded in response and the young man continued. “I just wanted to let you know that I finished fixing your singing fish last night. It’s in that box over there.” He gestured towards a box that Perry hadn’t noticed just inside the door. “Is there anything else you wanted me to do right now?”
Perry thought for a moment, and then signalled that Jimmy should come in. “Step into my office, son,” he said with a smile. “And close the door; quickly, before anybody else arrives and wants to ask me a question, or Ralph wants to continue to beg for a story assignment covering the alleged steroid use of women in the strip clubs.” Perry chuckled. “I think we both know his real aim behind a story like that!”
Jimmy laughed along with his boss, wondering all the while what the Chief wanted, pulling him into his office like that. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. When the laughter died down, he asked, “What’s up, Chief?”
A guilty look stole over Perry’s face and for a moment Jimmy could almost sense his internal deliberation. “Well, Olsen,” he finally said, “you’re friends with Clark. And this situation with him and Lois…it’s getting out of hand. Has he said anything to you about what happened? Now, I don’t want you to think that I’m looking for newsroom gossip. I just consider those two my best reporters and I’m worried about them. Notwithstanding Lois learning to work with other people, I want them back as Lane and Kent as soon as possible.”
“Yeah. Lane and Finnegan just doesn’t have the right ring to it, huh, Chief?” Jimmy grinned. “But unfortunately, CK hasn’t said anything to me. I don’t know what they fought about.”
“Well, what do you think it might have been, son?” Perry inquired curiously. “I have my suspicions, but I’d like to hear the opinion of another person they’re close to.”
“I-I think it may have had something to do with a marriage proposal,” Jimmy ventured, a slight blush staining his youthful cheeks. “I uh, saw CK putting a ring box into his pocket last week.”
“Well, your thoughts match my suspicions,” said Perry, heaving a loud sigh. He studied his hands, which were clasped upon the desktop. “And how long do you figure this argument will continue?”
Jimmy shrugged. “Who knows, Chief? With Lois and CK, it could be over anytime between now and…well, the end of time.”
Perry sighed again: this time it was almost a groan. “That’s what I was afraid of…”
*****
Upon entering the newsroom that morning, Lois wasn’t all too sure that she wanted to be there. Now, for the Planet’s top reporter, this was an unheard of attitude and the sort of thing that, when presented in other people, she’d normally quietly mutter that they should suck it up and get on with things. However now she knew what they were all moaning about. Not wanting to be at work just transformed the day into a complicated maze of problems where the only solution was to plod on and on until an opportune time came to leave.
The reason Lois didn’t want to be at the Planet is because that is where she’d usually find Clark. And today was no exception: there he was, sitting at his desk. His head was down and he was muttering to himself, reading back a paragraph he’d written. This was something she’d often found rather endearing and, in spite of everything happening in their lives, she still did. She couldn’t help a small smile appearing on her face as she sat down at her own desk and waited for the appearance of her partner.
As was becoming usual for him, Dougal was almost quarter of an hour late and when Lois shot a partially disapproving, partially questioning glance his way, he just shrugged and took a seat. Lois frowned. Frankly, he was another reason that she didn’t want to be at work. His constant touching of her the day before had been rather creepy and she foresaw another long day of fending off his advances. And she still hadn’t quite figured out what it was that bothered her about him. She needed to do some investigating into Dougal Finnegan’s background to find out what made him tick. Of course, in the past she would have done this sort of thing with Clark, but under the circumstances she wasn’t about to ask for his help. Not just yet in any case…
“All right!” Perry’s voice rang out across the newsroom. “Staff meeting in Conference Room 2 in five minutes time. Bring me your information: your notes, ideas and quotes, people! Five minutes, I repeat, five minutes!”
At Perry’s call, Lois began gathering her notes together. She glanced at Dougal, intending to double-check with him regarding their Intergang story; she wanted to know what they were going to say to their editor when he asked why they’d given up on it. But Dougal wasn’t collecting his papers; he wasn’t even getting ready for the meeting. Instead he was answering a call on his cell phone that had apparently just rung.
“No, no of course not!” she could hear him saying as he cradled the phone between his shoulder and jaw line. “Hold on – just let me go somewhere more private so we can talk about this.”
And with this statement, Dougal rushed for the door to the stairwell, evidently feeling that the person on the other end of his call didn’t like to be kept waiting. Lois waited a moment and then, sensing that this occasion might perhaps give her some more insight as to what it was that bothered her about her partner, she followed.
Well practiced in the fine art of eavesdropping, Lois knew better than to leave the door to the stairwell to swing shut of its own accord, no matter how much she felt like hurrying. So she held it tightly, helping it slowly and quietly to its natural port: the doorjamb. Once that had been achieved she began her slow, tiptoeing trek up the stairs.
Before she’d ascended many flights, Lois detected a faint voice coming from about one story above where she stood.
“Yeah, she’s completely oblivious to what’s going on,” Dougal’s voice said. A chuckle and a pause. “Yes, five o’clock tomorrow. I will, Mrs Church. Don’t you worry – Lois Lane won’t know what hit her.”
Lois’ heart started wildly thumping inside her chest. ‘Lois Lane? But that’s…my name! That’s me!’ She pressed herself against the wall of the stairwell, willing her legs to stop shaking and to hold her up. “Why me?” she said in an undertone, looking up and addressing the question to a panel of imagined deities seemingly controlling her life. “Why on earth is Dougal talking to the head of Intergang about me?” Lois shook her head and eventually forced her legs to quit their trembling. She spoke sternly to herself: “This is not what Lois Lane, top reporter of the Daily Planet does when faced with this sort of information. No, Lois Lane, top reporter of the Daily Planet-” she hesitated at a familiar sound descending towards her and then made her decision quickly, “-hides!”
Lois rapidly slipped through the nearest door and ducked down so she couldn’t be seen. The footsteps that she’d assumed to be Dougal’s paused near her door and she peeked through the window in the door to see him looking around. Evidently he’d heard something. ‘Lois, you’ve got to learn that voices, no matter how small, tend to become magnified in an open stairwell,’ she reproved herself. Quietly she continued to watch as her apparent villain of a partner decided that he must have imagined hearing a voice and continued down the stairs once more.
Sighing loudly in relief, Lois slowly stood from her crouched position. “Thank you,” she breathed, addressing her gratitude to those imaginary gods, then, pausing a moment longer, gradually made her way to the elevator, thanking her lucky stars that the floor she’d ended up on mainly consisted of offices whose occupants weren’t yet in for the day. She really didn’t feel like answering any questions regarding her presence there.
As Lois stood in the elevator, Dougal’s words were still ringing in her ears and running through her brain. “-completely oblivious” he’d said. “-won’t know what hit her.”
At that moment, she remembered their conversation about Intergang the day before and his quiet words: “Sometimes these things just don’t work out, Lois. Sometimes you just need to give up and move on to something else.” Almost as if he was deliberately trying to steer her away from exploring further… Along with the recent phone call that she’d overheard, everything suddenly seemed to slot into place. Well, not quite everything. She still needed to find out what it was that Intergang was up to this time and why they wanted her out of the way. Well, actually *why* was pretty obvious. It was the same reason villains usually wanted her out of the way. She liked to investigate; they didn’t particularly admire that trait in her. It got them in trouble you see. With the Metropolis police department, not to mention the FBI, Interpol and so on…
Lois sighed. In spite of her knowledge of Dougal’s collusion with Intergang, she was going to investigate them. There had to be something big going on for them to actually send someone in to ensure she was out of the way. Unless… Had Dougal been planted at the Planet, or was he simply in the right place at the right time and corrupt enough to happily bow to any offer Intergang pushed his way? Was he really that kind of man and did he kill for pleasure or for profit?
Lois stopped herself. ‘Oh, who cares about any of that? The fact remains that he’s going to kill you if you let him! Don’t be stupid. Just let it go, like he said. Don’t risk your life for a story again.’ Oddly enough, Lois had a feeling that this time the voice in her head sounded more like Clark’s than her own…
She exited the elevator, walking over to slump into her desk chair. Ignoring the meeting in the conference room that she was now horribly late for, she closed her eyes and massaged her temples: she was beginning to get a headache. Again she voiced the quiet question: “Why me?”
*****
Inside his living room, Clark Kent paced. When the pacing didn’t seem to work, he sat down on the couch and placed his head in his hands. However, when the lack of movement became unbearable he took to pacing once again.
Quickly concluding that this was not enough, Clark spun into his Superman suit and headed out the open window. Perhaps patrolling would help keep his mind off Lois and the situation they found themselves in.
Even though he’d told his mother he’d wait – and he would – Clark was finding it easier said than done. He’d decided that he needed something to keep his mind off Lois, so he’d tried watching a college basketball game: that didn’t work. Then he tried doing press-ups, hoping the constant movement would distract him. Again, his plan didn’t succeed.
And so finally Clark had resorted to the pacing. As evidenced, this hadn’t worked particularly well either. So his method of putting her out of his mind had become patrolling…and hoping desperately for something – anything – to occupy his attention.
As he flew, Clark involuntarily did a lot of thinking. Somehow, being up there among the clouds always caused his thoughts to wander down all sorts of weird and wonderful roads. Now it wasn’t so weird, nor was it wonderful. Instead it was…contemplative. Much as he’d been trying to banish her from his mind, Clark thought about Lois. More specifically he thought about their fight; his part in it and everything that had happened between them. The irony of his thoughts occurred to him more than once as he soared above the city: the entire reason he was flying was to escape his thoughts of Lois, yet she’d followed him on his flight.
‘Just like Lois Lane,’ he thought with a wry smile. ‘She refuses to be forgotten.’ Clark sighed. Maybe he should just give in to the thoughts and allow them to take him where they would. Maybe then he’d find some sort of peace.
So Clark gave himself to the reflections, allowing them to take control of his mind. He stopped fighting it all and he even stopped flying. He just floated up there among the insubstantial haze, feeling the dampness make his exposed skin slick with moisture. And he thought and thought…and thought.
Various emotions assaulted his consciousness as he mulled everything over. Frustration was one that seemed to prevail, and interestingly enough so was guilt. At first he’d considered himself somewhat justified in how he’d handled things; but only for an hour or two after having Lois slam her door in his face. Then commonsense had resurfaced and he’d instead felt a terrible sense of guilt just as he was feeling now. He now recognised his part in the whole debacle – he had finally admitted to his role in what had become like a soap opera version of his life.
The problem was that he wasn’t quite sure of the best way to fix it. Or even if it was possible to mend this thing they called a relationship…this love. Did Lois even want to try, or was it too much to ask? Had he hurt her too much?
The idea that she was hurting because of him caused a sensation like a vice gripping his heart. He squeezed his eyes shut against the ache pervading his chest, knowing that whatever pain he was feeling was, in a roundabout way, of his own creation. He should have told her earlier. She was right; he should have told her when they’d agreed to take the next step. He didn’t *have* to keep it a secret anymore; that had just been an excuse because he was scared. But he should have put his fear aside. He should have simply said, “Lois, I’m Superman.” Or possibly something a little more eloquent. Either way, proposing at that point in time had been stupid. He should have told her first. He should have told her about Superman and he should have told her he loved her…
Now he might never get the chance.
*****
Lois sat at her desk, twisting a tissue around her fingers. She stared into space as her stomach churned and the sweat beaded on her brow. Today was the day that Dougal had alluded to in his phone call with Mrs Church. Today was the day she would investigate Intergang and find out what it was they were up to.
The way she was feeling was not unusual for Lois, but she didn’t usually allow herself to reveal those feelings in such a public place. The Planet was where she always kept her cool, where she was known as a tough reporter with a hard exterior. Only one person had ever really gotten under the stiff surface of her personality: Clark.
Lois watched the clock, her eyes intent upon its hands slowly ticking closer to five pm. She glanced over at the object of her current thoughts, still at his desk. He hadn’t been called away on many Superman duties lately. Somehow just his presence today was soothing her. Studying him acting so…so Clark-like, calmed her nerves and made the waiting bearable: just. She only hoped he would stay until the moment of truth; him being there would help her to make the decision she knew she should make, for the sake of her investigative principles. His presence made her feel brave, as if she could do anything. She needed to follow Dougal wherever he was going; she needed to find out what was going on with Intergang. Today was the day where Lois Lane found out just what she was really made of, without Superman always around to pluck her out of danger. She wouldn’t call him; she couldn’t. She just prayed that she wouldn’t have the need to.
But she knew that she might, because there was the very real possibility of failing…and of not living to tell the tale.
*****
Clark’s sharp ears were attuned to Lois and he could hear the rapid beating of her heart. He sensed that something was going on with her, but what it was he couldn’t be sure. She was so impulsive; he prayed, as he had when this ‘new partner’ thing began, that she wasn’t about to do something stupid. On her own. Without him to protect her. But knowing Lois Lane, if he offered she’d just tell him that she didn’t need protecting.
Well, maybe she didn’t need protecting very often, but she certainly needed saving half the time…
Clark felt his heart constricting inside his chest as it had the night before. He knew he’d hurt her; he knew that the way he’d gone about things had been wrong. Nevertheless, he also knew he had to give her time like his mother had told him. He wanted to run over there right that minute and start talking before she could tell him to stop. But this wasn’t the right place or time. So he had to be content to wait patiently. Unfortunately, Clark felt like he couldn’t be patient for much longer.
*****
Lois kept an eye on Dougal. At four forty-five pm he left his desk and made his way to the elevators. She waited until the elevator doors closed and then followed.
Hoping that she’d be able to pick up his trail once she made it to the bottom floor, she got lucky as he was waiting for a taxi right outside the Planet’s door. Lois lingered in the foyer until he slid inside one and then raced outside. Dougal’s taxi zoomed off and Lois immediately threw two fingers to her mouth and whistled shrilly. Another taxi pulled up.
As Lois got inside she fumbled in her bag for her cell phone. She wasn’t about to let Clark know where she was going and why – he’d just try to stop her. But she would leave a message on her own home phone so that if something happened and she went missing, someone would eventually know where to look. At this thought, Lois’ stomach took a sharp dive.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
“Uh…follow that car!” she squeaked, the nervousness constricting her vocal cords. She hastily cleared her throat. “Uh, that one right in front of us. The taxi.”
The driver nodded. “I see it.” He put the car in gear and they were on their way.
They followed Dougal’s car to a warehouse out near Hobbs Bay. Lois instructed her driver to park just around the corner and she paid him, asking him not to wait. As he drove off she crept towards the door that Dougal had entered the warehouse through, first looking around cautiously to make sure that no one else was nearby. The coast was clear: she was good to go.
Lois wasn’t quite sure when the attempt of her stomach to toss around her lunch had stopped, but it had. Now it was replaced by another feeling suffusing her body with a lighter sensation; a feeling that falsely told her she could do just about anything.
‘Adrenaline,’ she mused. It was the feeling she often got just before sneaking into the lair of a bunch of criminal masterminds. Unfortunately, her sneaking usually got her tied up next to a bomb or something equally as terrifying. That thought cut the adrenaline rush pretty quickly.
“What am I doing here?” Lois had her hand on the door to the warehouse, yet she was frozen by her descent from adrenaline junkie to normal, scared Lois Lane. She was a very human, and therefore very mortal, reporter. What was she thinking?
Lois tried to steel herself. ‘I can do this. I mean I’m here now. I might as well go through with it… But is that a good enough reason?’ Her fear began to take over. ‘Oh, I’m an idiot. I shouldn’t be here. I should have listened to Clark’s voice in my head. But I *am* here now…and I told the taxi driver to go away. Good one, Lois. Very forward thinking.’
Just then, Lois heard voices. She pressed her ear against the metal door and listened. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it was obvious that they weren’t far inside the door. ‘Good thing I didn’t burst in there after all,’ she thought dryly. That would have resulted in the tied-up-next-to-a-bomb situation pretty quickly.
Lois looked around for somewhere to listen where she wasn’t quite so conspicuous. Finally she spied a small but broken window high up in the warehouse’s wall. Luckily there was a tall pile of wooden crates stacked up against the wall, so Lois went over to look. ‘I could make it up there…’
Before she really knew what she was doing, Lois was ascending the pile of crates. When she made it to the top, she leaned forward towards the broken window.
“-shipment came in on Friday. The next shipment is scheduled to arrive at the Cost Mart head quarters this Thursday. Do you want us to do the usual?” A man’s voice: not Dougal’s.
“Hmm, yes,” came the familiar childish tones of Mindy Church. Lois could see the top of her bleached blonde head and she suppressed her gag reflex. That woman; honestly, how could men possibly like that sort of thing? Blonde, tight fitting dresses, big b- Oh, right. They were men.
“The artifacts from Imhotep’s tomb are due in that shipment, Mrs Church,” said Dougal’s voice. “I understand you have a special buyer in mind for them?”
“Yes,” Mrs Church replied. “So just put them aside, won’t you?” Lois could well imagine this woman fluttering her eyelashes at the men. “We wouldn’t want them to get broken, now would we?”
‘Imhotep… Imhotep… Where have I heard that name before? Wait, artifacts? Tomb? Of course! Imhotep was an Egyptian physician and the chancellor to that Pharaoh…what was his name again?’ Lois searched her brain for the information she’d learnt in elementary school while making a diorama. She shook her head. ‘Oh, who cares? The important thing is that it sounds like Intergang are importing stolen – at least, I assume they’re stolen since the shipments are *hidden* in Cost Mart shipments – artifacts from Egypt. This is big news! I was right that something was going on! I’ve got to tell Clark!’
Here, Lois’ internal triumph fell flat. Tell Clark? What, when she was barely speaking to him?
‘But I want to talk to him, especially about this,’ she thought sadly. ‘I want to share this investigation. I want him to be by my side while we crack the case, just like old times.’ Suddenly her thoughts took off in another direction. ‘But do I want him to think that everything’s okay? Because he might and it’s not. How do I communicate that to him? How do I let him know that I still need some time?’
Lois was mulling over this problem when she heard her name being spoken by the people inside.
“And Lois Lane?” Mrs Church said. “When are you taking care of her?”
“As soon as possible,” Dougal responded grimly. “Probably before the next shipment comes in. She’s getting too curious for her own good, Mrs Church. Like I told you, she’ll never know what hit her.”
“Perfect,” giggled Mindy. “I want Lois Lane dead, no matter what it takes.” Her tone changed, into something harsher. “She always gets in my way.”
Lois felt she’d heard enough. Now was the time to make a quick getaway, before they all came outside again. She had just climbed off the stack of crates and was making her way around towards the front of the warehouse when she heard the door open slightly.
“Hold on a minute!” a voice said. The door closed again. Lois felt that she didn’t want to stick around to see how long it stayed closed this time. Taking her high-heeled shoes off, she ran from the warehouse, down the street and into a more populated area. As soon as she saw a taxi she hailed it and told the driver to take her home, giving him her address.
Far above, Superman watched her go.
To be continued...
