Thanks again to Nancy for helping me to polish this up. Hope you guys enjoy!
PART SEVEN
Despite being a senior staff member who had brought in countless awards and prestige to the newspaper, Lois still chose to keep her small desk that was located out in the open along with most of the other reporters. It kept her in the loop, she explained to me. When something big happens, whether it be office related or worldwide, Lois was always in the thick of it. The only downside was the lack of privacy that came with working out in the open. So it was an unwritten rule at the Daily Planet that Lois Lane had first dibs on the conference room whenever she wanted it.
And that’s where we were right now. After she had heard about the events last night, Lois had asked me to come here so we could compare notes on Winslow. That suited me as it gave me an opportunity to give my new disguise a solid test drive. So far, the staff hadn’t even shown a hint of recognizing me, so I felt pretty pleased with myself. Until my fiancé came into the room.
“What are you doing here?” he asked incredulously.
“Working,” I replied shortly.
“Here?!”
“Where else is a journalism student supposed to work?”
“People will recognize you!” he fretted nervously as he glanced out the glass door.
“No, they won’t,” I said as calmly as I could manage. “The only reason why you did is because you already know it’s me.”
“Not to mention your heightened senses giving you an additional advantage,” Lois added.
“But-”
“Jon, you wouldn’t be telling me how to do my job, would you?” I interjected steely, reminding him of our unresolved issues from last night.
Jon opened his mouth to reply in turn, but then he glanced over to where Lois was seated. “No, I’m not,” he relented sulkily.
There was a brief awkward moment as we looked at each other, uncomfortable continuing the argument while Lois was in the room. Finally, I turned away from Jon and fixed my attention to Lois. “So what were you saying before we were interrupted?” I asked her with exaggerated politeness.
“I spoke to my contact at the police station,” she told me, shifting her gaze concernedly between the two of us. “They got a hit on the computer for the woman who bombed Winslow’s house. Her name is Gertrude Brenner.”
“Criminal record?” I asked.
“Completely clean,” Lois replied, referring to her notes. “Her prints were taken when she was orphaned at age ten and put under state care. It would be easy to find information from that stage of her life, but once she came of age there’s no telling what she did with herself. All we know is that’s she’s kept off the map.”
“The only thing a clean records check indicates is that she’s never been caught,” I muttered to myself. “So the police have no idea who might have sent her last night?” I asked Lois.
“None,” she replied. “And she’s not saying anything.”
“Imagine that,” I commented lightly as I glanced up at Jon.
“I’m not apologizing for what I did,” he said stubbornly, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
“Well thanks to you, the only solid lead we have is now locked away where no one can access her.”
“So that means you didn’t find anything in his office?” he asked me. I could detect just a little bit of guilt sneaking through.
“No,” I replied flatly. “Someone had gone in and wiped his computer and stolen any files he kept on paper.” I could see Jon was about to reply but then he was interrupted by the sudden entrance of Jim Olsen.
“Hi, Jimmy,” Lois greeted him, a little too brightly to be natural.
Jim’s gaze swept across the room, taking in all of us. He held a small plastic card in his hand. “I just thought you should know,” he began slowly, “that I made a call to my dad. And I took the liberty of making… um, Molly Turner a press pass.” He handed me the card and I could see that it was a Daily Planet press pass with Molly Turner’s picture on it. Jack must’ve supplied it to him from the NIA files. She was one of my registered aliases, and so there was already a complete background of her on file with everything needed for the card I now had in my possession.
“How much did he tell you about the investigation?” Lois asked guiltily.
“Not much. And I don’t really need to know more,” he replied. “But Lois, you have to keep me up to date on things like this,” he gestured in my direction. “How was I supposed to react when I found out that I had supposedly hired a new intern who was going to be trailing you? It’s been the main topic of conversation in the newsroom all day. The rest of the staff can’t believe that you’re actually putting up with another student after that last one was such a disaster.” He paced the room, and I could see that his nerves had been more than a little frazzled by the situation. However, I got the idea that this was a fairly common occurrence between the two of them and that Jim had resigned himself to the fact that Lois would constantly keep him on his toes.
“Well, we can just say that you’re making me work with her,” she decided.
“Lois, since when have I been able to make you do anything?” he asked exasperatedly.
“True,” she agreed smugly.
“I’m only planning on being here for a short while,” I reassured Jim. “Lois’ history with interns will only make it all the more believable when I leave.”
“I wouldn’t say I have a history,” she grumbled. “More like-”
“You have a history, Mom,” Jon replied with a small grin.
“I’ll let you get to work,” Jim told us as he made his way back to the door. “But, Lois I also needed to talk to you about that car theft story you’re working on. Can you spare a second?”
She nodded and stood to exit along with Jim.
“Thanks for this, Jim,” I held up the card. It acted as proof of his reliability, really. If Jack Olsen trusted Jim enough to give him this information, then I could trust him too.
“No problem, Kay- *Molly*,” he replied. “I’m assuming that the Planet’s getting an exclusive on this.”
“Whatever I can legally give you,” I promised.
Jim nodded in response and he and Lois both left the room. Jon snagged the opportunity to jump back to his previous contention.
“See? He recognized you!”
“He already suspected that I was connected to the NIA. It wouldn’t take him long to put the pieces together,” I replied, feeling the frustration build up in me again. “I can’t believe this is coming from the same guy who thinks hair gel and spandex make a good disguise.”
“That’s a completely different set of circumstances,” he argued.
“No, it’s not. Why are you so uptight about this? You know what it is that I do, you have no right to be so critical about it.”
“So I shouldn’t be critical of the fact that you’ve shut me out of this investigation from the moment you took it? It’s like you don’t even want me around anymore.”
“That’s… That’s not true,” I sputtered, trying to come back on the offensive. “And you know, for someone who’s so concerned about my disguise, you’re not really helping the situation by arguing with someone who you supposedly just met today. Just do me a favor and leave me alone.”
That got his attention. He took a step back and adjusted his glasses.
“Fine. I’ll leave. Have fun investigating. I think we all know how important that is to you.”
“Yeah, well you can go… catch a bus or something,” I grumbled at him as he left the room. Of course, he gave no indication of hearing me, even though I knew he had. Lois entered the conference room in his wake, and she hovered indecisively in the doorway, not sure who to go to. Obviously, I appeared to be the most hopeless case because she soon closed the door after her and sat down across from me. “I don’t want to talk about it,” I told her flatly.
“All right,” she replied calmly. I flicked through the notes she had given me, yet I couldn’t concentrate on them. Finally, I pushed them aside and planted my elbows on the table, looking directly across at Lois.
“How do you do it?” I demanded.
“Do what?” she asked.
“Well, look at you! You’ve got a stressful job that has constant pressure and high stakes, yet you still manage to have this perfect loving relationship.”
She snorted. “I don’t know if perfect is the way to describe it.”
“But you and Clark-”
“Do you know why Clark and I made those big romantic plans last night?”
“No.”
“We had a fight. Nothing major,” she hastened to clarify, “but it was enough that we needed to take time to reconnect with each other. Relationships take work no matter how long you’ve been together. We’ve been married over twenty-five years and we still run into snags from time to time. But we had decided a long time ago that any roadblocks along the way just make what we have together all the more worthwhile. It’s all about compromising on the little things and finding the important things that really matter.” She chuckled to herself. “Look at me, giving relationship advice. If you saw Clark and me when we were dating you never would’ve guessed it.”
“Was it that difficult for you?” I asked timidly.
“Between me being unsure if I could marry someone who was two people, and Clark deciding to break up with me for my own good, it’s a wonder we ever managed to make it down the aisle.”
“Really?” Despite the heavy subject matter, I found her confession to be extremely comforting.
“Not to mention the cloning, the New Kryptonians, the Wedding Destroyer… Do you want me to continue?”
“Um, I think I get the idea, thanks.”
“Kaylie, everyone has difficulties in a relationship. And you and Jon still have a lot to learn about each other, which means you’ll have a lot to work through.”
“It’s just so hard,” I confessed. “I know I love Jon, but at the same time, Jay’s my brother and I love him too. I owe him the loyalty to investigate this. And I’m also an NIA agent. I can’t just ignore that part of me.”
“And you shouldn’t,” Lois told me. “And that might make it difficult for you and Jon at times. But I’m sure you’ll be able to work through those problems if you talk about them.” She reached out and clasped my hand reassuringly. Then her cell phone beeped and she checked it exasperatedly. “Darn it. I have to meet with a source for another story. Will you be okay here for a bit? You can borrow my computer to dig up anything interesting you can find of Gertrude’s history with Social Services, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed. Maybe if I found the courage I could also go talk to Jon.
* * *
I had managed to put in a solid effort digging up everything I could about Gertrude’s history. It left me with a lot of information to sift through, and I decided to take a little break before diving into it again. The coffee area in the newsroom was conveniently located within sight of Jon’s office, so I was able to sample some authentic newsroom java while pondering what Lois had said to me earlier.
Apparently, putting a ring on my finger didn’t magically cure relationship problems. And I had always known that intellectually. But somehow, I hadn’t equated that to the easy relationship Jon and I had enjoyed the last few weeks. Now I was confronted with the unalterable reality that just because Jon knew about all my NIA work didn’t mean that he would approve of it. We had already clashed while struggling to deal with something in our own way.
Compromise. That’s what Lois had talked about. We had to give each other some room for negotiation. But how much was I supposed to negotiate? There were some things that I couldn’t just give. I couldn’t just change who I was for the sake of our relationship.
“You’re Molly, right?” a man asked me, jerking me away from my thoughts.
“Y-yes. That’s me,” I replied.
“This is from Jon Kent, in IT,” the man told me, handing over a large manila envelope.
“Thanks.” I took the envelope with surprise. “Did he say-”
“He just asked me to deliver this to you. If you want to know what it’s for, ask him yourself.” The man tromped off, and I pondered the envelope for a while before opening it to see the contents. They weren’t exactly what I was expecting. I was so immersed with what he had given me that I didn’t hear Lois coming up behind me.
“Sorry that took so long,” she apologized. “What do you have there?”
“Jon got it for me,” I replied, still a little surprised. “He found a way to hack into the Met U server using…” I checked his note that was full of some kind of indecipherable techno-babble. “Well, I don’t really understand what he used, but I guess he was able to access Winslow’s day planner.”
“Wow, really? That’s great!”
“Yeah…” He had seemed to have such a negative attitude towards what I had done last night, but to see this now… Was it some sort of tacit apology? “I think I’m going to go-”
“Oh, he left already Ka-uh-Molly,” Lois told me, noticing my intention. “I ran into him on the way out. He wanted to prepare for the meeting with the DA, remember?”
“Oh. Right.” I sank back into my chair.
“But this is excellent stuff,” she said, trying to distract me. “If we can somehow sift through all the mundane appointments, we might be able to get something really… Oh, now this is something!” she exclaimed, bending over a particular set of entries.
“LuthorCorp?” I asked with a little confusion. “How does that help us? There must be at least twenty different companies leasing space from that building. Granted it’s a little odd that he put the name of the building instead of the name of the company, but still…”
“Trust me, this means something,” Lois told me grimly. “In over thirty years, things haven’t changed much. Whenever something dirty is going on in Metropolis, LuthorCorp is always the first place to look.”
* * *
We didn’t have a back-up plan. Actually, we didn’t even have a primary plan. In the NIA, they teach you to carefully run through every possible scenario that could happen, and to plan for every potential deviation, no matter how unlikely it may seem.
But we didn’t do any of that. Instead, we headed straight into the LuthorCorp building with no idea of how the events would play out. Our cover was flimsy at best, and Lois informed me that we would just improvise the rest when we needed it. We didn’t have time to stop by my apartment, so I was armed only with my cell phone, Molly Turner’s ID, and a pair of ridiculously expensive shoes. Lois had only a set of lock picks, plus whatever other tools were in her work bag. Investigating something with Lois Lane was an experience I won’t soon forget. It was crazy, it was ill-prepared, it was incredibly risky, and it was unbelievably exhilarating. We entered the lobby on the ground floor, and Lois walked up to the main security desk.
“Lois Lane,” she introduced herself, “and Molly Turner. We’re here to see…” She glanced up at the directory board and picked a name at random. “Kevin Moloski from Dantract Communications. We don’t have an appointment.”
Being an award winning reporter comes with certain perks. One of which is having a lot of clout. The receptionist spoke briefly with Moloski on the phone, and then told us that he would be glad to receive us in his office.
I couldn’t really blame him. Who would want to risk ticking off Lois Lane? The receptionist gave us very helpful directions to get to his office which we completely ignored. Instead Lois led me past the glossy corporate elevators and into a smaller hallway that seemed much more unused.
“What if Moloski calls you and asks why you never came for the interview?” I asked her.
“I’ll think of something,” she replied breezily. “We need to see if we can find a way downstairs. When Lex used this building that’s where all the interesting things happened. They’ve renovated it so much in the last few years that I’m not sure exactly… Well, I think we can find a stairwell in that direction.” We set off down the hall, and I couldn’t help feeling on edge at the pervasive stillness of the hallway in comparison to the rest of the building. Was it maybe used for maintenance staff? It seemed to be too drab to be anything else. We soon found a door that was clearly marked as a stairwell, but it was unfortunately locked.
“Hold onto this while I see if I can bust this open,” Lois said as she handed me her bag, and then bent over the door in concentration. I watched the hallway alertly to see any possible intruders. The corridor stretched long and straight on both sides, so we would have plenty of opportunity to be aware of any people long before they reached us.
But even I wasn’t able to anticipate the three beefy guys who sprang out of the room directly opposite us. Lois quickly turned and hid her lock picks behind her back, but I think they still saw what she had been doing.
“This area is off limits to visitors,” the center guy informed us. His large body filled up the space between his two accomplices. The three of them effectively cut off any chance of us slipping past them.
“Well, we know that,” Lois told him, full of false bravado. “We’re trying to get to Kevin… Kevin Molo-”
“Moloski,” I supplied.
“Kevin Moloski’s office. From Dantract Communications” she finished. “We have an interview set up, you can check with reception. If that idiot secretary in the lobby had given us halfway decent directions then-”
“I don’t buy it,” the man interrupted, shifting his bulk menacingly from one foot to the other. “I think you were back here for a reason. You’re coming with us.”
Things had quickly gotten out of control. I eyed the three guys discreetly. I *might* be able to take them. They looked like plainclothes security guards, and they probably didn’t have too much training to their credit. Apparently Lois had some skill with self defense, so if she got the one closest to her, I could probably… I caught her eye, trying desperately to convey my vague notions of a plan. She returned my gaze curiously, and cocked her eyebrow in a way that was hauntingly similar to Jon. She knew what I was planning, and she was ready to back me up completely.
I stepped forward swiftly to take on the main guy, and as soon as I got close, I realized my mistake. Whoever this man was, he was clearly more alert than he had pretended to be. His hand shot out and twisted my arm painfully. I worked with his movement, trying to turn it into my benefit, but before I got the chance, a dizzying blow to the side of my head stopped any chance of that happening. Through the haze of pain, I barely detected the prick of a needle as it entered my skin.
