Okay... Here goes with Part 8b. I am now off to read Harry Potter (since I just recently got home from work with it...
).
If you want an epilogue (with maybe a wedding in it...?), let me know. I'll write one if there's demand for one. I'd kinda like to have one myself... But we'll see.
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<Two weeks later…>
In the weeks since the Intergang delivery, Lois had impatiently been waiting for the court dates to be set. There was to be more than one trial, because although all the charges were related to the same series of incidents, each of the accused was charged with different things. Some overlapped others, but that was the way the justice system worked: ordered systems and lots and lots of paperwork.
She knew that the district attorney’s office was charging Dougal Finnegan with kidnapping and attempted murder, while Mindy Church was facing allegations of conspiracy to commit murder with assorted charges of trafficking in stolen goods thrown in. Also, various Cost Mart CEOs had to cope with lesser theft and trafficking charges, since the deliverymen had named them as collaborators.
Then there was the governor. Being named in connection with Intergang and slapped with the charge of accepting stolen goods, his career was all but over. After only a week in office, he’d stepped down, which meant that his lieutenant would take over the running of the state. His tenure as governor would forever be known as the shortest on record.
The Metropolis PD was holding the Egyptian artifacts found in the warehouse as evidence before sending them back to Egypt under heavy guard. From what Lois and Clark had heard, the Egyptian government was looking forward to getting their national treasures back, most of which had never before been seen since they hadn’t been discovered prior to this investigation.
Lois sat at her desk, foot tapping on the ground and pen tapping on the desk. She stared at her phone and growled: “Ring, damn you!”
“Talking to inanimate objects again, honey?” Clark’s hands descended on her shoulders and he began to knead the tension from her body. As he massaged, he bent down to press a kiss to her cheek. “You know that the DA will call you when they need to. The phone isn’t going to ring any sooner with you sitting there and staring at it.”
“I know.” Lois sighed. “It’s just that we’ve had the initial story for this series written for the past week and half. I’m itching to get it in print, but we can only do that once the trials are over.”
“I hate to tell you this, Lois, but those trials are going to go on for a while,” said Clark. “There are five people charged, and any number of witnesses for both the defence and the prosecution in each case. Of course, the three CEOs may be tried together as their charges are all exactly the same.”
“Here’s hoping,” said Lois, crossing her fingers. “The sooner it’s all over, the better.”
“Maybe, if you ask nicely, Henderson would let the Planet run a story while the trials are going on – just a general account of the trials without giving away anything that would influence jury members…”
“You think that he might?” Lois looked expectantly at her fiancé.
“It never hurts to ask,” Clark replied. “And since you’ve given them all such a lot of help in this case, and you are one of their star witnesses…”
Lois shoved him good-naturedly. “I bet you say that to all the pretty girls!”
“Only the especially gorgeous ones,” Clark whispered in her ear, causing Lois to giggle at the way his breath tickled her skin.
“Hey now! What’s all this?” a familiar voice called from across the room. “How many times do I have to tell you two to get on with your work?”
Lois jumped at the voice, so absorbed was she in her exchange with Clark. “Perry!” she finally said. “We were just…”
“I think I know exactly what you were doing,” her editor said firmly, though a twinkle shone in his eye. “Now, where’s that story I assigned you on the recent crime rate stats?”
“I just…” Lois paused, a confused expression falling over her features. “I sent you that story over an hour ago, Perry.”
Perry White chuckled. “I know. I was just making sure you were paying attention – the DA’s here to see you.”
This time Lois almost leapt out of her chair, though not in surprise but in eagerness.
“Lois Lane?” the district attorney walked towards them and stuck out his hand. “Fred Gates. I hear you’re our star witness.”
‘What’d I tell you?’ Clark mouthed.
“Nice to meet you,” Lois shook the man’s hand and gestured to her partner. “This is Clark Kent. I hope that your presence here means that the trials will be starting soon…”
“As soon as we confirm your statements and have time to go over a few things,” Fred said. “The trial for Mrs Church is due to start next Monday morning, after jury selection this week. The CEOs are going to be tried at the same time, though by a different judge and another attorney from my office. It was determined that you weren’t needed for that.”
“No… I mean, I don’t know anything about the Cost Mart CEOs,” Lois nodded in agreement. “What about Dougal?”
“Mr Finnegan’s day in court will start on Tuesday - again, a different attorney and a different judge. We hope that we’ll be finished with your testimony in Mrs Church's trial by then and be able to move you on to testifying against him. You realise we’ll need you to be a witness again in his case? After all, he did try to kill you.”
“I’m perfectly prepared to testify against Dougal Finnegan,” Lois announced, getting angry as she remembered the events that had unfolded in that warehouse. “That man is a creep and a lowlife and-”
“Honey…” Clark murmured at her side. His hand caressed her back soothingly. “Calm down. Dougal is going to go to jail for a long time.” He looked to the district attorney. “Right? I mean, he’s been charged with kidnapping and attempted murder as well as being associated with the trafficking of stolen goods. If he gets convicted under all those charges…”
“*If* being the operative word, Mr Kent,” Fred countered. “But I’m sure that with Ms Lane’s help, we’ll be able to convict him on some of those charges, if not all.”
“I hope it’s all…” Lois murmured.
“Now, what I really came here to do was to set up a date and time sometime during this coming week to talk with you, Ms Lane; to prepare you for the trial. The defence will probably have some very nasty things to say about you to try and discredit your testimony. We need to be equipped to deal with those sorts of things. So, how does Wednesday at five thirty pm sound?”
Lois thought for a moment and then nodded slowly. “That sounds fine. Do you have any idea how long it will take?”
“Probably no more than two hours or so,” the attorney smiled. He glanced down at his watch and then looked back at the couple. “Well, I really must be going. Papers to file, people to see. You know how it is.”
Clark gave the man a small nod. “It was nice to meet you, Mr Gates.”
“Nice to meet the both of you.” The district attorney began to walk towards the elevator, then stepped inside and pushed a button. “I’ll see you on Wednesday, Ms Lane!”
And then the doors closed.
“Well, things are starting to look up,” Lois declared. “The trials are starting. Before you know it we’ll be able to go to print with our stories!”
Clark smiled. “And we both know that that will make you happy.”
“Ecstatic,” Lois agreed with a grin. “I’ll be simply ecstatic.”
*****
<The trial of Mindy Church>
“The prosecution calls Lois Lane to the stand.”
Lois stood, walked from her seat in the crowded courtroom and up to the witness box. There she sat once more and looked expectantly at the bailiff.
“Lois Lane,” he began, holding out a Bible, “do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you God.”
Lois placed her hand upon the Bible and swore as she was asked. When the bailiff moved away, she looked to the judge, high up in his seat overlooking the rest of the court. She then looked to Clark, reassuringly seated with the rest of the press near the back of the room. She carefully avoided Mindy Church’s gaze.
“Ms Lane,” Fred Gates began as he walked towards her, “previous to this trial have you met the defendant, Mindy Church?”
Lois nodded, then answered out loud. “Yes, I was introduced to her at a party about two weeks ago. She was identified as the wife of Bill Church Senior.”
‘A party I was made to go to – with Dougal,’ Lois thought wryly after making her statement. ‘Just after Clark and I fought.’
“So if you saw Mrs Church, even at a distance, is it probable that you would recognise her?”
Lois didn’t hesitate in her answer: “Yes.”
“Objection! Conjecture!” the lawyer for the defence cried out.
“Quite so, Mr Humphries,” said the judge, eyeing Lois intently. “Mr Gates, please rephrase your question.”
The district attorney seemed to sigh slightly, but then did as he was asked. “Ms Lane, when you were at the warehouse that evening, who did you see inside?”
“I saw Mindy Church, Dougal Finnegan and another man whom I didn’t recognise.”
“And what were Mrs Church, Mr Finnegan and the man whom you didn’t recognise talking about?”
Lois ran through the memories in her mind, making sure that in her testimony they would be in the right order. “They were talking about shipments coming in. Then Dougal mentioned that particular artifacts from Imhotep’s tomb were arriving. He asked Mrs Church about a special buyer that he’d heard she had for them.”
“That would be Governor Watson?”
“Objection! Irrelevant,” shouted Mr Humphries, his strident voice carrying throughout the courtroom.
“Mr Gates, do you have a reason for mentioning Governor Watson, who, I will remind you, will be tried in a separate hearing?” The judge looked tired of the whole debacle already.
“Yes, Your Honour. My reason was to try and clarify what Ms Lane was relating so that the jury might better understand her testimony.”
The judge looked thoughtful for a moment and then spoke once more. “I’m sorry Mr Gates, but I am going to agree with Mr Humphries. It is not pertinent that the jury know that the ‘special buyer’ Ms Lane has mentioned was, in fact, Governor Watson. Please, move on.”
“Yes, Your Honour.” It was apparent that Fred Gates was also becoming rather weary of the route the proceedings were taking. “Ms Lane, could you please continue explaining the conversation you heard between Mrs Church, Mr Finnegan and the unknown man that night.”
“Well, Mrs Church asked that the Imhotep artifacts be set aside so that they wouldn’t get broken. And then…” Here Lois faltered in her statement, before the district attorney was forced to ask her to press on.
“Ms Lane, I know that this may be difficult for you, but please continue.”
Lois coughed, sneaking a look at Clark. Just that glimpse, seeing his encouraging and tender smile shining back at her, was all she needed. She then did as she was asked. “Mrs Church asked about me. Dougal responded, saying that I was getting too curious for my own good and that he was going to take care of me probably before the next shipment came in. Mrs Church then replied that she wanted me dead.”
“You are sure that Mrs Church said ‘dead’?”
Lois didn’t hesitate this time. “I am completely positive that that is what I heard.”
“Thank you, Ms Lane. No further questions, Your Honour.”
The prosecution lawyer sat down, while the defence eagerly stood.
“Ms Lane,” said Mr Humphries beginning to pace across the front of the room, “can you state without any doubt whatsoever that the woman you say you saw in the warehouse that night was Mrs Church?”
“Yes,” Lois said with a frown. “I’m positive it was Mindy Church.”
“Can you please state how far you think you were from the people you say you saw?”
Lois struggled to control the frown on her face as it threatened to morph into an outright scowl. “Forty-five feet, maybe fifty.”
The defence lawyer smirked. “Ms Lane, it is extremely difficult to recognise a person at that sort of distance. Can you please tell the court what made you so sure it was my client you were seeing?”
Lois paused. What had made her sure? Well, she’d *seen* her: Mindy Church. She knew it was her in that warehouse. That hair, the dress…that *voice*! Lois knew that Humphries was wrong; fifty feet was not too far to recognise someone, even someone you’ve only met once before. Lois’ eyes were keen, but she hadn’t needed keen eyes to know that it was Mindy Church and no other who’d been in the warehouse that evening; there was no doubt in her mind that the woman was the leader of Intergang and responsible for ordering her murder.
“She looked exactly like her; sounded exactly like her,” was the best Lois could come up with to explain. “My eyesight is very good, Mr Humphries. Twenty-twenty. But even if my eyesight were at fault, my hearing was not.”
“But it is only your testimony, and that of two arguably corrupt men, that the defence possesses to prove my client was in any way involved in these unfortunate events,” Mr Humphries pointed out with a triumphant smirk in Lois’ direction. He then turned to the judge and smiled politely, though the smile was only a thin veneer masking the arrogant reality beneath. “No further questions, Your Honour.”
*****
“I can’t *believe* that that jury gave a verdict of ‘Not Guilty’ on all charges!” Lois huffed as she and Clark left the court early the next week. “Reasonable doubt? I’ll give them reasonable doubt!”
“Humphries was clever, Lois,” said Clark. “He managed to suggest that you might not have been able to recognise Mindy Church at that distance. Unfortunately, his disputing the issue was enough to place the necessary doubt in the juror’s minds.”
“Well, Humphries is a pompous windbag,” Lois declared vehemently. “It’s obvious he just likes to hear the sound of his own voice.”
Clark cocked his head to one side, considering her statement, and then nodded, conceding that what she said was, in fact, true. The defence lawyer was a notoriously egotistical orator. However, the reality was that today he had won his case and going over and over the details, as Lois was wont to do, wouldn’t help anything.
“Well, maybe today’s outcome wasn’t what we wanted,” he began carefully, “but at least Dougal was sentenced last week. He won’t be seeing the outside of that prison for at least fifteen years, hopefully longer because of the additional kidnapping charge.”
Lois steadfastly refused to bite, persisting in her obsession with the day’s proceedings. “What gets me is that we know that Mindy Church was responsible for ordering my death, yet she gets no punishment whatsoever!”
“And so the wheels of justice come to a grinding halt,” Clark said, giving in to her. “Intergang lives to commit crime another day.” He paused. “But Lois, do you honestly think that Intergang would stop existing simply because Mindy Church was behind bars?”
Lois’ step faltered. “Well…no,” she allowed after a moments thought. Her face displayed the vulnerability she was feeling as she turned to him, her brown eyes filled with anxiety and trepidation. “But I might feel a little safer.”
Clark took her hands, his expression solemn as he considered her. “You have threats to your life all the time. Why is this time any different?”
“This time,” Lois said with her voice trembling and the volume barely above a whisper, “they’ve almost succeeded once already. What if they try again?”
She glanced down, appearing embarrassed at her weakness. Lois Lane did not usually admit to being scared, but she seemed to be feeling that particular emotion a lot lately and it was getting harder and harder to hide.
Clark’s hand left hers to cup her cheek, his fingers threading through her hair. His touch, so familiar, was like balm to her panicked soul. She relaxed, bringing her hand up to caress his.
“Clark,” she breathed. “Let’s go home.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” he smiled softly, drawing her into the nearest alleyway. There he released her momentarily, spinning into his super suit before scooping her legs from under her. This, she realised, is what life was going to be like with Clark; being swept off her feet constantly by the little things he did. The sweet, charming and loveable things; the strong, yet tender and considerate things; the farm boy slash flyboy things. All the things that made him exactly who he was, whether he wore a suit and tie or another kind of suit altogether: Clark.
As Clark’s feet left the ground, Lois snuggled into his arms, knowing that wherever he was, she would feel safe regardless of what came their way. And she would feel loved, which was something no criminal could ever take away from her.
“Clark?”
“Hmm?” He turned his head to look at her, his gentleness evident in the eyes that searched her own.
“Can we get married soon?”
He chuckled as she repeated the same question that she’d asked a few weeks ago. The heat rose inside of her at the look he was now sending her way. “Is two weeks from now soon enough for you?”
“P-perfect,” Lois gulped. Her gaze darted to his lips, then back to his eyes. The warmth was still rising, suffusing her entire body with a complete awareness of how close they were.
Clark appeared to be feeling the same sorts of sensations as she was, because he then leaned in, brushing his lips across her almost reverently. A taste, nothing else. But now she wanted more. However, while they were flying was probably not the best time to be trying something like that. In Lois’ opinion, they couldn’t arrive at Clark’s apartment soon enough.
Eventually they landed upon his balcony, and he set her down carefully, his hands coming to rest on her hips. Those same hands quickly drew her body closer to his.
“Two weeks can not go by fast enough,” he said, his voice sounding low and unbelievably sexy to Lois’ ears. She looped her arms around his neck, staring into the eyes of her own personal super man.
“Then kiss me.”
And he did.
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Okay...just a fun little aside which my beta found amusing: I was highly tempted in the last scene to mention that Lois wouldn't mind joining Clark's 'mile high club', but I decided to leave it out. Just in case you were wondering.
~Anna.
