[CHAPTER 10]
---
Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one's self, and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another. --Thomas Hughes
---
Thursday, the following week
Lois dropped a folder onto Clark’s desk. “I found it,” she announced victoriously.
Clark reached for the folder. “Your source came through on the link between the Harbor fires and the Riverside Development Plan?”
“No, not that,” she said, waving a hand in dismissal. “I found you an apartment.”
Clark’s jaw muscles tensed and he pushed the folder aside. “I think it’s more important that we get this story ready for Mr. White.”
Monday had been his first true day as a reporter for the Daily Planet. He understood the need to include Lois in on his secret… especially since she had found out so much of it on her own, but the act of revealing himself to her had left him feeling exposed. She had become so overly helpful since then that he often hoped he could take it all back: his acceptance of the superhero mantle, his impending trial at parenthood, his acceptance to taking on a partner… It was all happening at a speed that was faster than his ability to adjust.
Lois arched an eyebrow, taking his brush off as a challenge – as she normally did. She slid the folder back in front of him. “It’s an open plan layout. There’s an elevated bedroom space, a full kitchen, dining area, large walk-in closet, a living area, a *private* balcony… and a loft.” To emphasize the last detail, she opened the folder.
Clark looked at the photos she’d printed out of the apartment and grimaced. “*This* is it?”
Lois smiled. “You see sheetrock, I see potential.”
He gave her a doubtful look.
“It’s a quiet neighborhood not too far from the Planet, and amazingly enough, it’s one of the safer ones around. So it could use a little fixing up, but with your salary stretching around day care and living expenses, *this* is a place you can afford.”
Clark sighed and closed the folder, an action that garnered a dirty look from Lois. “I’ll take a look at it,” he said finally, hoping the subject would be put to rest.
Lois crossed the aisle to her desk and sat down. She turned her computer on and waited for it to boot up. His irreverence was beginning to annoy her. When she had gone down to the daycare center to ensure that they could handle a hearing-impaired three-year-old, his only response had been to say that he hadn’t asked her to do that.
“Fine, but a little appreciation…”
“I have to go.”
She looked up to see Clark standing and reaching for his tie. Without any additional information about where he was going or when he was coming back, he disappeared deeper into the newsroom.
Not for the first time, Lois began to wonder why she was even trying. She cursed the strange pull that was causing her to go above and beyond her call of duty to help Clark become a superhero. Metropolis owed her big.
She braced her elbows on her desk and lowered her face to her hands.
“Where is that partner of yours?”
Lois’s head jerked up at the sound of Perry’s voice. She slowly swiveled her chair around to face him, buying time to think of an excuse. “He said something about an overdue… DVD rental.”
Perry frowned at her and took a sip from his mug. “The day before yesterday, he forgot to pay his telephone bill. I didn’t even know he’d found a place.”
Lois’s eyes flicked to the folder that still sat on Clark’s desk. “Ah, I think it was his cell phone bill.”
“Hmmph.”
Lois smiled up at her boss. Last time he had come sniffing, she had been able to distract him with the exclusive interview with Superman. She had no such props this time. “As I understand it, he had some local Kansas based service… I told him he’ll need something more convenient now that he’s living in Metropolis.”
Perry set his coffee down on her desk and leveled gazes with her, a move that signaled to Lois that a serious speech was coming.
“I know what kind of position I put you in when I asked you take on Kent as a partner. That said, I don’t want you to be carrying his weight, you hear me? If this is not going to work out, you let me know now and we’ll cut our losses.”
Lois flashed him a smaller smile, more genuine that the first. “Thanks, Perry. Right now, everything is fine, but I will keep you posted.”
The chief’s clouded expression cleared and he picked up his mug. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Lois turned back to her computer and opened her notes on the Harbor fires. She clicked on the file in her personal network folder that held her photos, and double-clicked on one Jimmy had recently uploaded. The shot showed Superman exiting a fiery structure with a homeless man cradled in his arms.
Operation Superman Substance had been a success… although in getting to this point, Lois had inadvertently caused damage to their partnership. She knew that her pushing him was a large part of the reason why Clark had been somewhat unreceptive lately.
She looked at the picture again and smirked. He was touching people now, thanks to her.
<--
Lois waited on the roof of the Daily Planet the night after she and Clark had talked through the Superman interview. He wasn’t due to start his new job at the Planet until Monday, so she had asked him to come meet her on the roof wearing the suit. She had let him believe that it was part of the interview, although those weren’t quite her actual intentions.
She was startled when he silently landed behind her. “Lois.”
“Damn, make some noise!”
“Sorry.”
She waved his apology away. “Yeah, so, have you been busy… like, super-wise, today?”
He shook his head. “Still quiet.”
Lois raised her eyebrows. He was a talkative one. “I was thinking about your *human interaction* problem,” she said, hoisting herself up to sit on the wall that lined the roof. “I think I know how to fix it.”
Superman gave her wary look, and she could tell he was already sure that he wasn’t going to like her idea – and she agreed.
Smirking, she swung her legs over the side. “In case you’re wondering – I can’t fly.” Then she jumped.
A second later, she was standing on shaky legs, back securely on the roof.
“You are a crazy woman!” Superman spat angrily at her.
Lois gave him a grin that didn’t quite reach her eyes – which were still wide with shock at her own actions. “But I’m an *alive* crazy woman,” she returned. “And you, *super* you, saved me. By flying. With me. In your arms.”
He stepped back and crossed the aforementioned arms on his chest, still glaring at her. After having learned about his ‘heat vision’, she wondered if she needed to duck.
“You’re not going to hurt people, Clark. It’s not in your nature.”
With a hardened jaw, Superman lifted into the sky, leaving her alone on the rooftop.
Lois followed his ascent with her eyes. “So, if it’s okay with you, I don’t think we need to write this save up,” she called after him.
It was another thirty minutes before her heart rate was back to normal.
-->
Lois smiled at the memory and closed the image file. The story on the Harbor fires was not really something that called out ‘big story’ to most people. A few dilapidated and abandoned warehouses in the district had burned down – not a major deal – but Lois couldn’t help but feel that there was something sinister going on. While it was partly her job to verify her hunches, the other part of her job demanded that she submit articles to her editor while she hunted down the exposés.
Flipping her ever handy notepad to a blank page, she began brainstorming some notes surrounding the homeless problem in Metropolis’ Harbor District.
Maybe she had pushed Clark as much as she could. If so, then now it was time for her to step back and let him find his own way.
~.~
Friday, a week later
Clark arrived late to work looking disheveled and annoyed. At Lois’s questioning look, he shook his head curtly. It hadn’t been Superman-related. “My parents decided that I should get Jory up, fed, and dressed this morning.”
“You brought him in to the daycare center?” Lois asked.
“No. He’s staying at the apartment with them today, but they wanted to make sure I was capable of doing it on my own before they leave this weekend.”
The expression on Lois’s face said that she agreed, and it irked him further. “I’m *Superman*,” he whispered under his breath. “Of course I could do it.”
Lois coughed into her fist, but he heard her one-word comment anyway. “It has nothing to do with my ego,” he retorted.
Clark had ended up leasing the apartment that Lois had told him about, although mostly because his second job didn’t allow for much apartment hunting time. With the help of a little superspeed, It hadn’t taken him long to make the needed repairs and added decorations. It was definitely one of the nicer places he had ever lived – and it needed to be, considering this was the first time since college that he wouldn’t be living on his own.
His parents had arrived on Wednesday, bringing Jory to get acquainted with his new home and living situation. Both of his parents had approved of the apartment, and he hadn’t missed his mother’s smirk when he’d told them how he’d found it.
Lois slid her chair across the aisle to his desk. She put a folder on the surface and opened it, ready to work. They had some final touches to put on their Harbor fires-Riverside story.
“What kind of oatmeal did you make this morning?” she asked innocently.
“Blueberry,” Clark answered automatically before pausing to give her an odd look. “How did you know we had oatmeal?”
Lois smiled at him with barely contained amusement. “It’s on your pants.”
They spent the rest of the morning working on the article, identifying a few facts that still needed to be checked before the piece could be submitted.
*Superman*
Clark’s head shot up at the sound. He glanced around but saw nothing amiss and no one looking at him.
“What’s wrong?” Lois asked.
“Someone’s calling me.”
Lois flicked a glance to his telephone before she got it. “Oh! Do you need to go?”
He frowned. The voice in his head sounded condescending in a way… mocking. “No one’s ever *called* me before. How would they?”
“People know you can hear things… Is it like some special frequency, or something?”
“Maybe… It could be…”
*Let’s play, Supes. Jumper. 5th and Main. Tick tock.*
Clark jumped to his feet and turned to leave. Abruptly, he remembered that Lois was still sitting beside his desk and faced her. “I’ve got to…”
“Go,” she finished for him. “It’s okay. It’s almost time for lunch anyway.”
~.~
Lois was engaging the password protected screen saver on her computer when someone approached her desk.
“Mrs. Kent,” she said in surprise when she realized who it was. “If you’re looking for Clark…”
“Actually, Lois, I was hoping you and I could have lunch.”
“Oh, well, sure. I was about to head out anyway.” Fighting surprise, Lois pulled her purse out of her locked bottom drawer and stood. “Do you have a preference for where we go?”
Martha shook her head. “Where were you planning to go?”
“The hospital, actually,” Lois answered. At Martha’s alarmed look she chuckled. “No, it’s nothing bad. They just have really good Clam Chowder once a month.”
“Well, in that case, let’s go to the hospital.”
Lois smiled. “How did you get here?”
“I parked our rental car in the garage downstairs.” At Lois’s frown, Martha continued, “Clark still hasn’t bought a car yet, and I wanted us to have transportation while we were in town.”
“Well, you can leave the car in the ramp,” Lois decided. “The train will be much quicker than fighting through mid-day traffic.”
After arriving at the hospital and getting their food, Lois and Martha settled at a table near a large window. The hospital cafeteria had been designed to be light, airy, and cheerful. It didn’t feel institutionalized at all.
“Clark mentioned your parents were both in the medical field?” Martha questioned to start the conversation.
“My dad is a surgeon and my mom is an administrator,” Lois replied, “although neither of them works at this hospital.”
Martha smiled and unfolded a napkin onto her lap. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I wanted to speak to you.”
Lois nodded, opening a pack of oyster crackers and pouring them into her soup.
“Well, I was hoping you would be willing to do something for me.” Martha opened her mouth to say something else then closed it, appearing to rethink her tactics. “What do think about Clark’s new job?”
Lois knew that the position at the Planet was not the topic being discussed. She thought about her response before carefully answering. “I think it might have given him a new way to hide,” she said.
Martha nodded encouragingly, indicating a desire for Lois to continue.
“He’s thrown himself into it, which is great – admirable, really – but when he told me about Jory coming, I can’t help but to admit being a little worried about it. I mean, he’s already juggling all of this… and now a little boy as well?”
Martha’s gaze dipped briefly to her soup, as if she were feeling a little anxious about the decision herself. She met Lois’s eyes again. “We’ve talked about this as a family. Clark can help the world as much as he can right now with us here, but he knows that when we’re gone, sacrifices will have to be made, and Jory is his first priority.”
Lois tried not to look doubtful. She focused her attention on her chowder. “I’m sure you’re right.”
Martha reached across the table and placed a hand over Lois’s. “Jonathan and I aren’t blind to the concerns,” she said. “We know what this situation has the potential of becoming. Hopefully, that’s where you come in.”
Lois glanced up with mild alarm tinged with confusion. Martha’s expression revealed a myriad of emotions: sorrow, apology, gratitude, anxiety… In all, it was impossible to read.
“Believe me, if this weren’t so necessary, we would keep him with us. The truth is that time is not infinite. We have what little we are graced with and we must make the most of it.”
Lois didn’t know what Martha was talking about, but she assumed it had to do with her husband’s health problems.
“Clark is a bit distant with Jory but the feelings are there. He just needs a little push.”
Another push, Lois remarked to herself wryly. “Let me know if I am off the mark here, but your husband didn’t seem too happy about me being in the *know* when I was in Smallville – I can’t imagine him being any happier about Clark’s new hobby.”
Martha smiled softly. “Jonathan only wanted to protect his family. He’s as proud of Clark’s accomplishments as any father could be. *Both* of us,” she emphasized with a serious look, “are grateful that you cared, and both of us want Clark to have the chance to make this connection before it’s too late.”
Lois frowned again. “Before what’s too late?”
“I’m sorry, honey. That part is not for me to tell.” Martha reached into her purse and pulled out a slip of paper. “These are our numbers; home and cell. All we’re asking you to do is call us if *anything* happens – if you have any concerns, whatsoever, about Jory’s welfare, or Clark’s ability to take of care of him – you call us. We’ll come and pick him up in a heartbeat.”
Lois accepted the piece of paper with a heavy heart. Over the past three months, the entire outlook of her life had shifted. There was real, flying, evidence of life on other planets, there was a potential argument for time travel, and she now had been given the right to decide whether or not a man was capable of caring for a child.
Looking at the numbers on the slip, she prayed she would never have to use them.
~.~
tbc
