Usually, I go back through posts with a fine toothed comb before posting them. However, I feel like something the cat dragged in today. I looked over it and didn't see anything but...
As always, thanks to Alisha and Beth!
Carol
*****
Chapter 21
*****
Clark held Lois' hand in his own as they stepped off the elevator and on to the newsroom floor. Though good friends with Perry, they were rarely here this time of day and didn't know many of the newsroom employees. In fact, they should have been in class even at this point, but today there were more important things going on.
The newsroom was quiet. It was still fairly early and they noticed a large gathering of people in one of the conference rooms.
"Can I help you?" a young woman with bright red hair and a stack of file folders asked.
"We're here to see Perry White," Clark answered.
"Is he expecting you?"
Clark shook his head. "No."
She got an uneasy look on her face. "Well, Mr. White is very busy today, if he's not expecting you, he may have a hard time working you in."
Clark's face was grim. "He'll see us."
"Well, he's in a meeting right now, but if you'd like to have a seat over by his office, I'll let him know you're here when he's done."
Lois looked around. "Where's Jimmy's desk? I'd like to write a couple things down before we see Perry."
"You know Jimmy?" the red head asked suspiciously.
"He's my little sister's boyfriend."
"You're Lucy's sister?"
Lois nodded. "You know her?"
The suspicion cleared. "I've met her a few times. Come on, I'll show you where his desk is."
They followed her to a desk with Jimmy's name plate on it and Lois dug around in the drawers until she found a yellow note pad and a pen. She sat in his chair and wrote quickly. Clark pulled a chair up next to her, reading over her shoulder, before he pulled another notepad out and started making his own list of things they needed to do.
Ten minutes later a wave of people exited the conference room. Intent on what they were doing, the young couple barely noticed.
A deep voice interrupted their trains of thought. "Now, far be it from me to know how to run a newsroom, but I'm not sure I like two of the up and comers for the Star sitting at the desk of one of my researchers." The twinkle in his eye and the tone of his voice belied the words. Perry's smile dimmed when neither one of his young friends respond as he would have expected. "What's going on, kids?"
"Can we see you in your office, Perry?" Clark asked.
"Of course. Come on." He led them to the editor-in-chief's glassed in corner office and shut the door behind them. He motioned to the couch. "Have a seat." He moved behind his desk. "Now, what's going on? Shouldn’t you two be in class?"
Lois nodded. "Something happened last night." She paused, unsure of how to continue.
"Is Lucy okay?"
"Oh, yeah, she's fine." She glanced at Clark who reached over and took her hand.
"Do you want me to?" he asked her softly.
She shook her head. "If I can't tell Perry, how can I ever tell anyone else?"
Clark nodded.
"Tell me what, darlin'?"
"Paul Smith assaulted me last night."
"WHAT?!" The glass in the windows reverberated with the exclamation.
Lois nodded. "I was working late and he called me into the conference room to look at a layout, but there wasn't a layout and he locked the door. He propositioned me and when I told him I was a married woman and I wasn't about to cheat on my husband, he told me that he would keep me from graduating and that Clark would leave me for another woman and that I'd never get a job and stuff like that. Then he..." she took a deep breath, pausing long enough to will the tears back into the depths behind her eyes. "...grabbed my wrists and started to undress me. When I fought back, he duct taped my wrists and mouth and had me on the floor under him nearly naked. Then Clark came in and saved me."
Perry let out a long, low whistle. "Are you okay, Lois?"
She nodded. "Physically I am, but I'm mad as hell. It's not the first time he's done it and I'm sure it won't be the last, but he picked me for a reason."
"What do you mean?"
She took another breath, grateful for Clark's hand in her own. "He knew that Clark and I weren't as close as we should be and, I guess, there's a rumor flying around campus that Clark's been having an affair with a woman named Mayson Drake for two years. I knew about it, but Clark didn't and it's not true but that doesn't matter, and I've worked late alone with him on a fairly regular basis. Other students have worked late alone with him – including other girls – but I'm the only married one."
Perry tapped his pencil against his desk. "I'm glad you got there in time, Clark."
"You're not the only one, Perry," Clark answered seriously.
The editor sat for a minute. "I love you kids, you know that, but what is it you want me to do? Do you want me to assign the story to someone or what is it you need me to do?"
"We want to do it."
He raised a brow. "Okay..."
"There's more," Clark continued. "We went to Colorado last night and talked for a long time and cleared the air between us about a lot of things that have been building for a long time, but most of that's not really relevant. When we came back, we flew over campus and I looked to make sure he was okay. He wasn't there anymore and we went to see Bill Henderson and filed a report..."
Perry whistled again. "One of my reporters said something about a report of something to do with one of the professors at UNT Met, but I had no idea this is what it was. The whole thing was so far under wraps; Eduardo had nothing more than that."
"Well, now you know. Lois went to see Dr. Snodgrass this morning. He offered us diplomas in exchange for a confidentiality agreement and Paul wouldn't press charges against us."
"What would Paul press charges for?"
"He said that Lois came on to him and threatened to charge him with rape when he didn't sleep with her and that I assaulted him in the middle of something consensual. And while Lois was there, Tony from the Star called me and told me our contracts were being terminated early."
Perry leaned back in his chair. "This sounds like a cover-up if I ever heard of one, but can we prove it?"
Lois pulled the tape recorder out of her purse and hit play.
"Does he satisfy you, Lois? Does he treat you the way a beautiful woman should be treated? Does he make love to you like a man in love should?"
Perry's eyes went wide.
She clicked stop. "This was in my pocket and turned on near the beginning and I bumped it again after Clark got there. I recorded my conversation with Dr. Snodgrass, but didn’t know this was on there until this morning. I know it's probably inadmissible as evidence, but..."
"You got the whole thing on tape?"
Lois nodded. "We listened to it a little while ago and it's all on there."
"And you two don't work for the Star anymore?"
Clark shook his head. "We're both unemployed at the moment."
"Not anymore. I'll take care of it – even if it's officially something like research for the next few weeks until my college kids leave."
"Thanks, Perry."
"Now, I know you two want to do this..."
"One more thing. Dr. Snodgrass' secretary gave me a list of students who had the same thing happen to them, but I didn't get it from her, you know?"
"When you two stumble on to something, it's something big isn't it?" He shook his head. "You said you weren't the first, but I never would have guessed that the university would sweep it under the rug." He thought for a minute. "Okay, here's the deal. I'll get you two on here somehow, but I want you to work with Eduardo on this."
Lois opened her mouth to protest, but Perry held up his hand.
"I know you want to do it yourself, darlin', but you don't have the experience yet to take this on yourselves. This is potentially a huge story – sexual misconduct by one of the most respected professors on campus and being protected by the Vice-President of Student Affairs *and* collusion with the Star? I don't remember the last time we had a story remotely like this and for your sake as well as the sake of the paper, I need you two to work with someone with a lot more experience on this. Eduardo's a good reporter. He's no Norcross or Judd, but he's solid." He thought for another minute. "I think I'll put Cat on this with you too. I know this isn't her usual beat, but she has a way with women – getting them to open up to her." He stood and walked to the door. Poking his head out, he used his editor voice. "FRIAZ! GRANT! My office. Now." When the two senior reporters entered and the door was again closed, he introduced them to Lois and Clark. "Eduardo, you know that story about the university you mentioned this morning?"
"What about it?" he asked.
He pointed to Lois. "There's your source. Lois is the one who filed the report. I want you two to work with them on this. Based on what they just told me, this is huge and Cat, you're going to need to use your best persuasive skills to get some of the young women involved to open up to you. Henderson is the officer of record at this point and you've both worked with him before. Lois and Clark were also released from their contracts with the Star this morning, so they'll be working with you." He looked at them. "However, I also realize that the two of you are skipping class to be here today aren't you?"
They nodded guiltily.
"Well, since you're already here, I won't give you a hard time about it today, but," he looked at them sternly. "There's only three weeks until the semester's over and if the two of you don't pass and graduate, then you'll both be out of jobs. No more skipping class, you hear me?"
They nodded again.
"Okay – the four of you go into the conference room at get to work. Call Henderson and give him a *copy* of that tape. We don't want to withhold evidence from him."
"Don't we need to give him the original, Perry?" Cat Grant asked him.
Perry sighed. "Probably, but make sure we have a copy of it."
*****
Two hours later, the red head, who Lois and Clark now knew to be Tina, brought them lunch. They'd made quite a bit of progress tracking down some of the women on the list Lois had been given and had left a message for Henderson to come see them as soon as he could, but that wasn't supposed to be until early evening. In the meantime, Clark had asked Tom to cover his route for him that morning and afternoon, saying only that there was a family emergency.
Clark leaned back in one of the seats. "I wonder..."
"What?" Eduardo was impressed with the two and was looking forward to working with them.
"Linda King."
Lois groaned. "What about her?"
"The day you found those pictures – the ones that made you think I was having an affair with Mayson – she said the oddest thing to me. What happened on campus?"
Lois thought for a minute, uncertain about sharing such personal things with their two new coworkers, but knew that eventually, she'd have to share it with the world at large. "Well, you came in and took the one picture to give to Mayson. I flipped through the rest and found the one of the two of you eating and the one of the two of you when your Poli Sci class had been canceled. Everything came rushing back to me – how my dad had cheated on my mom and how some of your behaviors were like my dad's and I just knew that you were sleeping with her. I threw up in the conference room. Paul came in and sent me home. I took the stack of pictures with me. Linda wasn't there at all. Why?"
"She said something to me when I was leaving the Star. She got there as I was heading to deliver pizzas. She said that you'd gone home sick and if I needed someone to keep me company to let her know. I brushed it off at the time but she said it kinda flirty. She knew we were married and had never acted like that before. She's said other things since then that..."
"Like what?" Cat asked.
He shook his head. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but she always knew when you'd worked late with Paul. And she always mentioned it to me and there was a hint of... jealousy maybe. When I thought about it, I thought maybe she wished I was available, but now...
"You think that she wanted Paul?" This came from Eduardo.
Clark shrugged. "It's possible. She's gotten good stories over the years, but she's not a great writer. She's not bad, but there are several people on the campus paper better than she is. I wonder if Paul isn't only after the students he can't have – like Lois."
"You mean she was sleeping with him this whole time?" Cat asked.
He shrugged again. "It's possible. Or if not the whole time, at least part of it. I have a hard time believing that he'd only go after the women he couldn't have. If there's six names on that list, plus Lois, there's probably two or even three times or more that who *could* complain and probably even more who were in a more or less consensual relationship with him."
Eduardo nodded. "You're probably right."
A knock on the conference room door startled them.
"I was told you wanted to see me." Henderson walked into the room. "I don't make office calls for just anyone, so this better be good." He glanced at Lois. "What're you two doing here?"
"Working on this with Eduardo and Cat."
Henderson's eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that."
Cat palmed the mini-tape from the recorder and said she needed to go to the restroom and would be back in a few minutes.
Lois and Clark shared a look. They hadn't copied it yet and Cat knew if they turned it over, they'd never get it back. That's what she was going to do.
Henderson sat down, notebook in front of him and began asking more questions. Lois and Clark filled him in on what else had happened, including Dr. Snodgrass' annoyance that they hadn't gone to the campus substation. He filed that away for future reference. A few minutes later, Cat walked back in and nodded at Lois.
"It gets better," Lois insisted.
"How so?" he asked.
"We have proof."
He raised an eyebrow. "What kind of proof? And why didn't you give it to me this morning?"
"We didn't know about it this morning but..."
Cat handed him the cassette. "Here. Lois had the recorder in her pocket last night and didn't realize it had turned on. The whole thing is on tape. She also recorded Dr. Snodgrass this morning when they realized that they were afraid he'd try something like he did."
He looked at Lois. "Is that true?"
"Yes, sir. I honestly didn't know that it was turned on last night until we went to listen to the tape from this morning. Clark listened to it with me and it's all on there, including the part where Clark tackled him."
He glanced around. "I assume this is the original."
"It sure is," Cat said.
"I'm not going to ask if you have a copy, but if you do, don't print any of it without my okay, got it?"
They nodded.
"I'm serious. If you want to do more than just humiliate these clowns, we have to do it right. You don't want to jeopardize a court case."
"I know, Henderson," Lois said quietly. "I want him to pay for what he did to me and what he did to others. We won't ruin it."
*****
Lois flopped down on the bed when they finally made it home.
"Are you hungry?" Clark sat next to her.
"I'm tired." She punctuated the statement with a large yawn.
"Well, you've been up since yesterday morning. It's not surprising that you're tired. Why don't you go take a shower and I'll make something to eat and *then* you can get some sleep."
She nodded. "Okay. I really could use some food. That sandwich at lunch really didn't do it for me."
"Me either."
"Garlic chicken pasta sound good?"
She nodded. "Yeah, that sounds great." She made no move to get up.
"Here." Clark held his hand out to her.
She grasped it and let him help her up. "Thanks." She moved to the dresser and gathered together some clothes and headed for the bathroom.
Clark moved into the kitchen and started dinner. They'd had a productive day, overall. Cat had managed to get a copy of the tape and they'd listened to the part with Dr. Snodgrass. Both Eduardo and Cat had understood Lois' reluctance to listen to the rest before absolutely necessary. They'd begun to track down the other women on the list, though they hadn't made contact with them yet.
The front door opened and Lucy ran in.
"Hey! I'm only here for a minute. I have to pick up a couple things I forgot this morning and be back at school before long." She stopped to look at him. "How's Lois?"
Clark sighed. "A lot's happened between the time you went to bed and now. I'll tell you about it another time, but she seems to be doing okay. We spent most of the day at the Planet working with a couple of reporters there on it."
Lucy looked puzzled. "The Planet? The Star let you?"
Clark shook his head. "They let us both go this morning."
"What?!"
"It's part of the whole deal. We'll talk soon, but you better get going."
Lucy ran up the stairs to her loft and returned quickly. She glanced at the clock. "I have a couple minutes before I *have* to leave. Tell me what happened."
Clark told her in as few words as possible what had transpired – leaving out much of what happened in Colorado; that was personal, only between him and Lois.
Lucy whistled. "Wow. If there's anything I can do, let me know. Please."
"Jimmy's helping already, but that's because it's his job. I don't know what you might be able to do, but if anything comes up, I'll let you know." He paused. "Be there for Lois. I'm sure that goes without saying, but there may be times she's more comfortable talking to you than she is to me."
Lucy nodded. "I will. I'm here if she needs me." She glanced at the clock. "But now, I have to get moving. The Relay for Life group is meeting in about 40 minutes and it's going to take at least 30 to get there so..."
Clark turned from where he'd been working on dinner. "Go. We'll see you tomorrow. We're both taking the weekend off from everything except this, and I'm not sure how much we'll be able to do this weekend, so we'll be here."
Lucy nodded. "I'll see you sometime tomorrow. Sleep in if you guys can. I know you didn't get back until late last night. I'll be quiet when I get here."
"We didn't get back until morning. Neither of us slept at all."
"Even more reason to sleep in. Close the blinds and hang a blanket over that window or something so the light won't wake you up in the morning."
"That's a good idea. Now, go walk."
"Gone."
Lucy left and Clark turned back to dinner. A few minutes later, Lois joined him. She sat at the table and looked at him contemplatively.
"What? Do I have sauce on my shirt?"
She shook her head. "I never said thank you."
"For what?"
"Last night." She plucked at the long sleeve pajama shirt she was wearing. "I know how much spending money you have and I know how much all of this must have cost, so thank you."
Clark smiled at her. "It was my pleasure. It was the least I could do. I know you've needed some new pajamas and stuff and I thought you'd rather have some new stuff last night."
"You thought right." She stared at the floor for a minute. "I'm sorry I thought you had some ulterior motive."
"It's over, remember?"
"Yeah. But still, you must have been saving up for something to have this kind of cash."
"I was."
"Do you mind if I ask what?"
He smiled again. "Our first date."
"What?"
"Remember – after graduation, I was going to take you on our first official date."
She nodded. "I remember. I just didn't think you did."
"We talked about it last night, remember?"
She thought for a second and then nodded. "My brain isn't functioning at its full capacity right now, but you're right. We did."
"I don't think a day's gone by that I haven't thought about it at least once."
"Wow." She thought for a minute. "Where were you going to take me?"
He stirred the sauce then tasted it. Nodding to himself, he poured it over the chicken and pasta already in the baking dish. After sprinkling shredded parmesan over it, he put it in the oven. He leaned against the counter, one ankle crossed over the other, arms folded on his chest and looked at her. "Well, part of it depended on how much I'd managed to save up. I wanted to take you to the Blue Note, but... I'm sure my tux won't fit me anymore and I don't know if that dress would fit you or not – you're a little smaller than you were then – and it's probably way out of style by now. Not that I know much about style but... Anyway, I don't have enough squirreled away to get us new clothes *and* take us to the Blue Note. So... I don't know. I promised Jimmy and Lucy I'd fly them wherever they wanted to go for dinner after her graduation and she asked if we could come too, but that wouldn't really be a date for just the two of us."
Lois nodded. "That's something else I never thanked you for."
"What?"
"Talking to them about... you know." She made a vague gesture towards their room.
"You know about that?"
"Yeah. I asked her about it on her birthday a couple years ago and she said that you'd pulled both of them aside after they'd been dating a few months and talked to them."
"I meant to mention it to you but..." He shrugged. "We weren't exactly having deep conversations on a regular basis."
"I know," she said quietly. "That's my fault and I'm..."
He moved and held a finger to her lips. "No more, remember?"
She nodded. "I won't say it, but thank you anyway."
"Part of my job."
She played with the edge of the tablecloth. "It should have been my job. *I'm* her sister."
"We're both her guardians. Or we were anyway."
"Still..." She refused to look at him as she spoke again. "Do you think they have?"
Clark shrugged. "I don't know. I don’t think so. When I talked to them, I strongly encouraged them to wait at least until after high school. I was afraid that they wouldn't last that long or that after Jimmy graduated and moved on to college, they'd grow apart. And I didn't want them to rush into something they might regret. But she turned 18 last summer... it's not really our place anymore."
"Not legally, but she's still my little sister."
"Mine too."
Lois suddenly giggled as a memory flitted through her mind. "You should have seen the look on your face the first year we decorated for Christmas. When Jimmy hung up that mistletoe... I was sure the next words out of your mouth would be something like 'not while you're under my roof, young lady'." Her tone deepened to mimic his.
Clark laughed. "The thought did cross my mind, but it sounded so clichéd." He grew serious again. "Jimmy's never said anything to me. He's my best friend and I see him almost every day, but... since I'm also Lucy's brother-in-law, I don't know that he would say anything to me about it. At the same time, he's said things a couple of times like how fortunate we were that we *didn't* date for years because we didn't have to worry about how hard it would be to wait. He didn't say if he meant waiting until they got married, or until Lucy was 18 or out of school, or just until the time was right."
"I think Lucy expected us to camp out under that mistletoe," Lois said quietly.
Clark stared at the floor. "The thought's crossed my mind more than once – what she thinks about... us."
"It's none of her business what's going on between us."
"I know, but someday, she's probably going to come to you for advice. Either because things aren't going as they'd hoped in that area or because it's finally about to happen or whatever."
Lois sighed. "Probably. Can we move to Europe so she can't reach me?"
Clark laughed. "I don't think that's the answer. Besides, she's moving out soon."
Lois' head snapped up. "What?"
"She told me last night. She got on at that camp and she's going to live on campus next year – said we don't need her hanging around anymore – and wanted to know if you would let her use some of the inheritance money for room fees since her tuition is covered."
"That's fine with me, as long as the lawyer okays it."
"Not just the lawyer. You get control of the money in December."
"That's right."
"*And* we should get some of our inheritance from Aunt Louise in the next month or so." He smiled at her. "Maybe I can take you to the Blue Note after all. I *will* tell you that as soon as we get it, almost all of our wardrobes are either going in the trash or to the thrift store and we're going shopping."
"What?"
"When was the last time you bought something *new*? And I don't mean a six-pack of socks at Cost Mart."
Lois shrugged. "It's been a while."
"Exactly. You still wear the same pajamas you wore on our honeymoon and, until last night, didn't have any new ones. And that's just a for instance. Your jeans are the same ones you had in high school. So are most of your shirts. The only things you've really bought in the three and a half years we've been married are some used business attire for the Star. I'm not saying let's buy out Rodeo Drive, but we could both use a new wardrobe – and so could Lucy." He eyed her. "And you know, a bunch of my clothes have disappeared over the years. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?" His eyes twinkled.
Lois blushed. "So maybe I 'borrowed' a few of your shirts." She saw his raised brow. "And maybe a pair of sweat shorts or two, but those shirts wouldn't fit you anymore anyway."
"What makes you say that?"
"I may have been stupid the last three and a half years, Clark, but I'm not blind. I know you're bigger than you were when we got married." She didn't look at him as she spoke. "You have a very nice build – that's one of the reasons why it was so easy to believe there were other women after you. Heck, Lana and Rachel were after you in high school and you weren't built like you are now."
Clark groaned. "Rachel wasn't after me. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
"But Lana was," Lois pointed out.
"Lana was after me when we were four. My 'build' had nothing to do with it."
"Well, when you got older, I'm sure it didn't hurt."
Clark groaned and put his face in his hands, muttering as he did so. Then he leaned back in his seat and regarded her contemplatively.
"What?"
"My mom always thought I'd marry a brunette. Lana didn't have a chance."
Lois cocked an eyebrow at him.
"In the letter she left me for my first date, she said she couldn’t think of any girl in Smallville that she wanted me to end up with and in the wedding letter she said that, in her mind's eye, she could picture me and my bride on our wedding day and she pictured a brunette."
"I bet it wasn't anything like the picture in her head," Lois said softly.
"No," he answered slowly. "But she also said that the location and the clothes didn't matter, but that I was marrying my best friend and that was the most important thing." He reached out with one hand and gently caressed her face. "And I did. You know that, right? I married my best friend and, despite the problems we've had and the struggles we've faced, there's nowhere - *nowhere* - else I'd rather be."
*****
TBC
