Thanks, as always, to Alisha and Beth.
Thanks to Anna [Great Defender of All that Is Daniel] for the names Lewis and Laura [and yes that is her real new name
].
I'm going to try to get a picture of the tie mentioned - it's based on one that my mom made for my dad a couple decades ago. I've emailed my step-mom to see if she'll get me one. I'll post it if she does.
Thanks!
Carol
*****
Chapter 25
*****
May 1988
*****
Lois straightened her cap on her head; the gown would wait till the last minute. They'd be waiting outside and the gym was air conditioned but with 15,000 people in there... Clark, of course, would be unaffected. That wasn't fair on so many levels.
She'd hoped the whole... thing would have been wrapped up by now, but it wasn't. They were getting close, Perry thought, but not quite yet. Part of the problem – if you could call it that – was that one person led to another. Olivia had given Henderson the names of two other women, they'd each named one other – even the one who said nothing untoward had happened – and on it went. Last she'd heard from Cat, the total number was nearly thirty either quasi-consensual or completely unwilling victims. No, she reminded herself as Clark had many times, not victims. Survivors.
Maybe in a couple weeks...
Eduardo had a source in the police department that had told him that Tony Rader wanted a deal of some kind. As far as she knew, his crimes were minor comparatively – conspiracy after the fact or something. The secretary had gone to Henderson as soon as Eduardo and Cat finished talking to her. She hadn't *known* anything; just suspected, but thought the police had been informed and decided the allegations must have been false since no action had been taken. Then she'd come in abnormally early after a sleepless night and overheard part of Dr. Snodgrass' conversation with Paul and Snodgrass' brother-in-law, who worked at the MPD substation on campus. When she saw Lois sitting there, obviously agitated, she'd listened at the door and finally put two and two together. When she heard Lois mention Perry White, she'd written down the names of the women she remembered and given it to her. She'd also told police where she thought he might be keeping copies of the nondisclosure agreements. Since they weren't sanctioned by the university, she thought they might be at his lake house. They were. Four more names were found there.
Stupid cardboard hat. It wouldn't stay put. It was more a part of her hair style than just a hat. It couldn’t move or... well, she might have to have Clark use a blast of his heat vision on it.
"It looks fine." Clark moved behind her to try to straighten his tie in the full length mirror in the bedroom.
"Thanks." She tweaked it just a bit and stuck another hairpin in it. "Nice tie."
Clark's grin reflected back at her. "It's one of the ones my mom made."
"I figured."
Neon yellow was the color for the background and in front of it was crocheted stripes in neon yellow, green and orange. She tried not to shudder.
"Come on, no one's going to see it under the gown. And why are they called gowns anyway? Guys don't wear gowns."
"Sorry, just the way it is."
"Wayne and the Langs got in late last night. He called while you were in the shower."
"I can't believe your ex-girlfriend is going to be here."
"Lois, she's not my ex-girlfriend. We went out three times."
"Okay, fine. The woman who tried to get my husband to sleep with her a week after we got married."
"You got me there. She did do that, but she really didn't try very hard."
"*That's* supposed to make me feel better?"
He shrugged. "Maybe?"
Lois crossed her arms in front of her and stared at him in the mirror. "Do you wish she would have tried harder?"
Clark just looked at her eyes reflected back at him. "Of course not, but it's not like it was an all out seduction or anything. She kissed me, I told her to back off and that was the end of it."
"Uh huh."
"Jimmy and Lucy are supposed to be getting over there early and getting seats for Lucy and Perry and Alice. Eduardo and Cat are officially covering it for the paper but said that unofficially they're there for us too. Jimmy's actually taking pictures for the paper so that there's enough tickets for everyone else. And we're meeting everyone at the tree in front of the Luthor Building afterwards. There's no way to get them all together beforehand so..."
"That's nice of Cat and Eduardo. Three tickets each just isn't enough. Though," she conceded, "that would have meant Lana could have stayed home if wasn't for..."
Clark knew what she was thinking about. Lois received a letter from Mayson in the mail a couple of weeks earlier containing one ticket. She apparently didn't need it and said they could have it if they wanted it and to give it away if they didn't. That gave them seven tickets total and meant Lana was coming.
"It's going to be okay, you know." He moved to stand behind her and wrapped his arms around her, careful not to bump her cap. "I'm *here* with *you* and nothing Lana or anyone else says or does is going to change that."
"I know, it's just..." Her voice tapered off.
"I know. We're going straight to Perry and Alice's after graduation is over. Are you going to take something to change into?"
Lois frowned. "Is this a fancy shindig or what?"
Clark shrugged. "I doubt it, but Perry mentioned wanting to play poker later if enough people want to so 'fancy' probably isn't how he'd describe it."
Lois nodded and moved out of his embrace to dig through her drawers to find something to wear. "You're right about that shopping spree." She sighed.
Clark just grinned at her.
"What?"
"Here." He moved to the window seat and pulled out a box.
"What's this?"
"Your graduation present."
"I didn't get you one. I didn't know we were doing graduation presents. Well," she admitted, "I do have something for you later, but it's not actually a present. More like a loan."
Clark shrugged. "I didn't have enough money left to take us anywhere nice tomorrow, so I did this instead. Once we get the money from Aunt Louise, we'll go out."
"Has her lawyer called back yet?"
He shook his head. "No, but open it already."
Lois tugged the lid of the box off. "Oh, Clark, thank you!"
Inside was an almost new pair of jeans and a shirt.
"I know they're not *new* but..."
"It's great. Really."
She pulled the shirt out of the box to look at it. Underneath was another set of new undergarments.
"*Those* are new. I hope you don't mind. You've needed some for a long time."
"Thank you," she whispered.
He glanced at the clock. "We've got to get going. Why don't you toss those in the bag with mine and we can leave them in the car until later. It's going to be nearly impossible to find a parking spot as it is."
She nodded and they finished getting ready to leave.
*****
Clark walked behind Lois as Pomp and Circumstance played. He held his name card in his hand and knew she held one too. He scanned the gymnasium and quickly found Eduardo, Cat and Jimmy in the area reserved for the press. He continued scanning until he found Perry, Alice, and Lucy and several sections away from them, Wayne and the Langs. He guessed he could understand why Lois really wouldn't want Lana there, but she'd been his foster sister for years and her parents had, understandably, assumed that she'd be coming. He'd talked to Lois about it months ago and she'd said it was fine. Given the way things had changed in the last month or so, he probably should have checked with her again, but it honestly hadn't occurred to him.
He'd have to make sure that she had no reason to be concerned. No time alone with Lana. Period. It wasn't like he had an overwhelming desire to have a long one on one with her anyway.
Unless Lois told him to get lost, he'd stick to her like glue.
*****
"Ladies and gentlemen, the *graduated* class of 1988."
Lois turned her biggest smile towards Clark and was rewarded with one back. His arms wrapped around her waist and he picked her up as the rest of their class whooped and hollered. "We did it!"
"We sure did!"
She knocked his cap askew with hers, but she knew he didn't really care. He'd commented several times on how useless they were.
One of the things that had surprised her was that he'd held her hand almost the entire time.
After a few short minutes, the celebration quieted down and final words were spoken by those on the stage. More music played and they slowly made their way out of the gym. Once outside, they moved quickly to the designated meeting spot and found the group from Smallville.
Hugs were given to Clark from everyone and Lois noticed that Lana held onto him a second or two longer than was strictly necessary. She also noticed that Clark held her eyes the whole time. His look was apologetic.
She knew she'd said she was fine with Lana coming, but she wasn't; not really. She was much closer to understanding that Clark wasn't going to leave her than she had been a month earlier, but even when he'd talked to her about it several months ago, she simply hadn't had the nerve to tell him she didn't want his former foster sister there.
When Lana finally let go of him, he reached a hand towards Lois. She took it and moved to his side.
"Wayne Irig, Lewis and Laura Lang, Lana, this is my wife, Lois. Lois... well, you can figure out who's who." He let go of her hand and put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. "You are a college graduate after all."
She smiled politely. "It's nice to meet all of you. Clark's been telling me about you for nearly a decade now."
"Lois, Clark!" Perry and Alice finally caught up with the rest of them. "You two seen Lucy yet? Jimmy's taking some pictures still and we got separated from your sister."
Clark shook his head and then repeated the introductions, finishing as Lucy finally arrived.
A few minutes later, directions had been given and the group started to split up to head to the home of Perry and Alice White. Jimmy had joined them in the meantime to take some pictures and to give Clark a back-slapping hug and Lois a kiss on the cheek – during which he blushed furiously.
"Lois," Lana said. "Would you be so kind as to ride with my parents and Wayne to make sure they don't get lost?"
"Lana, honey, then there's no room for you," her mother said gently.
"Oh, I'm sure Clark wouldn't mind giving me a ride." She smiled sweetly at Clark. "Would you, Clark?"
Clark looked at Lois helplessly. "Ah... Lana..."
Perry's booming voice cut in. "Now, none of that. These two have worked hard to get where they are and I'm sure they'd appreciate a few minutes alone now that it's all said and done. Alice, darlin', why don't you take Mrs. Lang and Lana in our car and I'll go with these two fine gentlemen?"
Alice eagerly jumped in. "That sounds like a great idea. Lucy, why don't you join us? Jimmy probably needs a few more pictures and then he can give his camera to Eduardo or Cat to take back to the Planet for him." Jimmy scurried off and Lucy nodded her head. "This way, ladies."
Lois tried to silently communicate her thanks to Perry who glanced her way and winked before walking off.
*****
"Lois, Clark, can I speak to you for a minute?" Laura Lang asked quietly.
"Sure." Clark led the way to Perry's study. "What can we do for you?"
"A couple of months ago, I found something while I was cleaning out the room that used to be yours. I knew I'd be seeing you now and didn't think it would be a big deal to wait but..." She stared at her hands. "Why don't you wear a wedding band, Clark? I would have thought that would be important to you."
Clark took Lois' hand. "It is and I did have one. It broke about six months after we got married and things have been too tight financially to replace it. It's on our list of things to do as soon as we start getting regular, real, paychecks or when we get some of an inheritance that was left to us. That should be here in the next month or so. Why?"
She opened the purse she'd brought with her and pulled out a ring box. "Here."
Clark glanced at Lois but released her hand to take it from his former stepmom. He slowly opened it and tears instantly sprang to his eyes. "My dad's wedding band," he said softly. "I don't even know when I lost this."
"Oh, Clark." Lois' eyes filled with tears too. She knew how much it had broken his heart when he couldn't find it.
He almost blindly reached for his wife and pulled her close to him. "Dear God, I still miss him so much," he whispered against her hair.
"We all do, Clark." Laura had tears on her face as well. "Your parents were good people. I know they would be so proud of you today." A voice from the other room called her. "I'm glad I found that. Really, I am. And if I'd known yours had broken I would have sent it as soon as I found it."
"I know. Thank you." He released Lois and gave Laura a hug.
The voice called again and she left them.
Clark stared at the open box. "Wow."
"Yeah."
"I wonder if it fits." He gently took the ring out of the velvet lining and set the box down. He looked at the inside and read the inscription. "I'll love you till the end," he whispered. He stared at it for another minute and as he started it towards his left hand, he was stopped.
"Let me." Lois took his left hand in her own and, with her right, began to slide the ring on his finger. She hesitated only slightly before saying softly, "With this ring, I thee wed." It slipped on easily. "Look at that. Perfect."
Clark pulled her back into his arms. "Thank you."
*****
"Read 'em and weep, boys." Lois laid two cards on the table. "Aces over Kings."
Clark groaned. "Beats my two pair." He tossed his cards in the burn pile. "What about you, Lewis?"
His former foster dad shook his head. "Beats me too."
Perry smiled. "And that, boys, is why you should know when to fold 'em. Like I did."
Lewis tossed two chips in the center of the table as his part of the next ante while Lois raked her winnings towards her. "I think I should have watched that movie with the rest of the women."
"Nah. It's some sappy love story. Besides, if you can beat Lois, you can beat anyone. And if you can't... well, there's a reason why she's not usually invited to poker night." Perry winked at her. "And it's not because she's not 21 yet."
"No, it's because I'm usually working."
"That, too."
Ten minutes later, it was down to just Lois and Clark. Clark played with his pitifully small stack of chips.
"You may as well go all in," Lois told him.
Clark sighed. "Fine. All in."
Lois tossed four chips in to match him. He flipped his cards. Eight, Jack off suite. Lois flipped hers. Pair of tens.
Perry quickly dealt five more cards which ended with Lois' two pair winning the hand. She squealed slightly. "Where's the mug?!"
Perry took it off the shelf behind him. "Here you go."
"Five dollar buy in... Six people playing... That's thirty dollars. Perry, Jimmy, Clark and Lewis all bought in twice... another twenty. I'm rich!"
Clark leaned back in his chair. "Why don't you go play poker for a living and I'll just be a kept man?"
Lois' retort was cut off by the sound of the doorbell.
They heard Alice answer and say that Perry was in the dining room but couldn't hear who it was. Their unspoken question was answered when Henderson turned the corner. Lewis had long since disappeared, so it was now just the four of them.
"I wanted to give you two the news in person."
Lois stopped helping stack the chips. "What news?"
"Perry, there's a press conference on Monday detailing all of it. I'll let you have the exclusive to run in Monday's morning edition, but you'll need to clear the details through me first. The press conference is late enough that no one else will get it into their afternoon edition, but early enough that your evening edition can carry the rest of the details that I'll get to you before the press conference starts. Deal?"
Perry nodded.
"Deals have been struck all around. Tony Rader is going to plead guilty to four charges of accessory after the fact to rape. He didn't know about any of them ahead of time, but Paul had him fire you two, Olivia and a couple of others. He's probably guilty of about eight cases but his testimony helped with the rest."
"So firing us isn't in there then? If it's only rape and not an attempted rape?" Clark asked.
"Correct. He agreed to plead guilty to half the potential charges in exchange for information. Accessory to rape carries a stiffer sentence than accessory to attempted rape."
Lois and Clark both nodded. That made sense.
"Terry McCarter is an officer at the police substation on campus. Or he was. His brother-in-law is Dr. Snodgrass. He's been fired and is facing corruption charges. He'll probably agree to a deal, also implicating Paul Smith in a number of crimes, but it's not done yet. Dr. Snodgrass has, of course, lost his job. It turns out that his youngest sister had dated Smith a number of years ago and had broken his heart. Snodgrass and Smith had been pretty friendly and Smith came to him about ten years ago with a problem. He'd had a sexual relationship with a student who was now going to file a formal complaint since he didn't want to make it a long term thing. He swore it had never happened before and would never happen again. Snodgrass reluctantly agreed to help him, for old times' sake. The student was graduating a few weeks later and he thought that would be the end of it. There was no confidentiality agreement or anything like that, just pressure on the student of counter charges and loss of credit and failure to graduate."
Henderson flipped the page in his notebook. "The next December, Snodgrass got another call from Smith, this time regarding a student who was graduating at semester rather than the end of the school year. Smith threatened to reveal his involvement in covering up the previous incident if he didn't help with this one too. Afraid for his job and his reputation, he acquiesced. And it went from there. We found a total of nine agreements at the lake home of Dr. Snodgrass. Five were names that you'd given us, Mrs. Kent, and four other ones, but I'm sure you knew that by now. Snodgrass is pleading guilty to seven counts of either accessory or accomplice to rape or attempted rape and bribery. Your case is included in that one. He's also lost his job and his pension. He would have been eligible to draw money from his pension in three years."
Perry whistled. "Wow. That's gotta hurt. I’m glad but..."
The police officer nodded. "Now, Smith... A closer look at his record shows allegations of misconduct as far back as college. A female student who worked with him accused him of sexual harassment. Nothing too serious in the scheme of things, but certainly inappropriate behaviors, including accidentally falling on her and fondling her breast as he tried to stand up. Eventually, the complaint was dropped, but we haven't been able to find her and he's not talking. As near as we can tell at this point – based on the testimony of Rader, McCarter and Snodgrass as well as the women we talked to – since he started at UNT Met thirteen years ago, he's been in twelve quasi-consensual relationships. We're saying quasi-consensual because the women say they agreed to it – they didn't try to stop him; it wasn't rape – but with him being a position of authority over them... We've found one attempted rape – that's you, Mrs. Kent – as well as thirteen allegations of rape from thirteen other women. I’m guessing that part of his willingness to deal is that he's afraid we'll find other skeletons in his closet."
"What about the tape?" Perry asked.
"That's what did him in. We didn't say anything before because we didn't want to until we knew more. In every student and employee handbook at UNT Met, there's a few sentences that explains that any verbal exchange on campus may be recorded for future use. The vast majority of conversations are not. The reasoning for it was so that a lecture could be recorded or a class discussion, things of that nature, for later use without having to get consent every time. However, since every contract signed by an employee says they've read the handbook and agree to abide by it, they have implicitly agreed to have any conversation recorded, with no prior knowledge necessary. Same for the application form for students. So the tape is admissible."
Clark pulled Lois closer to him. "Good job, honey."
"I didn't mean to tape the attack – it just sort of happened."
"But if you hadn’t thought to tape Snodgrass, who knows when we would have found it?"
Lois nodded. "True."
"So Smith is pleading guilty to one charge of attempted rape, six charges of rape and six charges of sexual harassment – about half of what he could be charged with. The prosecutor is recommending thirteen years per charge of rape. That's a total of seventy-eight years for just the rape charges. Even with time off for good behavior and such, he's looking at almost forty years before he could get out. The attempted rape and harassment charges will add to that total."
Tears streamed down Lois' face. "It's over?"
Henderson beamed at her. "It is. I’m proud of you for doing the right thing. I will tell you that he wanted us to charge you two with leaving the scene of a crime or some such nonsense because you left him there unconscious, but..." He shrugged. "You said he was making noise when you left and that you did come back to check on him later and he was gone, so... I strongly doubt the prosecutor will do anything about it. Officially, the pleas are going to be heard first thing Monday morning. Perry, coordinate with my office on what you can print before then."
Perry nodded. "Thank you, Henderson."
Henderson stood and motioned Perry to follow him, presumably to continue the discussion.
Clark sat in one of the dining chairs and held a hand out to Lois. "Come here."
Lois grateful took his hand then sank onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and held her while her tears fell.
Neither noticed when Lana came around the corner, intending to ask Clark for his help with something. Her mouth hung open for a moment, then snapped shut and she retreated from the room.
"Anyone for cake and ice cream?" Wayne's voice called out from the kitchen. "I don't know about ya'll but I sure could use some."
Lois swiped at her eyes. "Ready?"
Clark nodded and together they walked to meet their friends and family.
When everyone was gathered in the kitchen and had a drink in hand, Perry held up his cup of soda. "Now, I know this isn't a real fancy gathering and since half our couple of honor can't drink, we don't have any champagne or anything like that, but I would like to propose a toast. To Lois and Clark, who have made it through the last three and a half years intact, with a bit of grace and dignity and who already have the first successful Lane and Kent investigation under their belts. You kids have done good." He raised his cup slightly higher. "To Lois and Clark."
"To Lois and Clark," everyone but Lana echoed.
Clark had put his arm around his wife while Perry spoke and he pulled her closer and kissed the side of her head and then took a sip from his cup. "I'm proud of you," he whispered.
"Thank you," she whispered back. "And I'm proud of you. I never could have done any of this without you. But right now, I want some of that chocolate ice cream."
Clark laughed. "Me too."
*****
"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but... Lana didn't seem too bad."
Clark grinned at her as he emerged from the bathroom already dressed for bed, but still toweling off his hair and upper body. "Told you she wasn't so bad."
"Well, I might be willing to put her on my Christmas list, but that's about it."
He laughed. "I never expected you to be best friends, but I didn't think she's the she-devil you seem to think sometimes."
"I never said she was a she-devil, just a wanna-be home wrecker."
"Lo-is."
"Fine. I'll be nice."
"Good, because we *are* going to lunch with them tomorrow."
"I know."
He noticed, for the first time, the package sitting in front of her. "What's that?"
"I told you earlier there was something I want to give you. You'll have to give it back; it's not really mine, but I'd like you to at least read it sometime." She fingered the ribbon that held the paper in place. "I'm still not sure I'm ready for this, but if I want this to work, I have to trust you at some point." She handed it to him without looking at him.
He climbed into the bed next to her and held it on his lap. "Are you sure?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
He tugged on one end of the ribbon and the bow came undone. He unfolded the paper and pulled a book out. "The Amazing Adventures of Fairy Princesses Lois and Lucy." He turned to look at her. "Really?"
"You'll have to give it back to Lucy at some point. She knows I'm giving it to you and encouraged me to, but she does want it back."
"Of course."
"It's not completely autobiographical, but it might give you some idea of what life was like before I met you. I told her different stories after Journalism Camp. The fairies went the way of the dodo and were replaced with Princesses who were a reporter and photographer living in the wild west." She paused. "I have some of those written down, too. Maybe I'll let you read them sometime, but for now... I'm not ready for that."
"Come here." He wrapped one arm around her and pulled her towards him, kissing the side of her head as it came to rest against him. "Thank you," he whispered, his voice husky; his eyes misted over. "I know how hard this must have been for you and... Just thank you for trusting me."
*****
TBC
