Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic All the Daytime and the Nighttime, 4/?

Previously

“If I can just get past this thing with the Toasters.”

Clark looked her in the eye, “You will. With my help, this thing will end, one way or another. Now, I’m just a poor working stiff and I need to get to work.”

“Come on. I’ll give you a lift to the Metro Club.”

“You parked in this area? Isn’t that a little risky to your car?”

“Not really.” Toni smiled a smile that wasn’t all roses and puppy dog tails. “Lou’s in it circling the block.”

Clark gave a bark of laughter. “Apparently dangerous, but not risk taking. I like it. Let me get my coat.”


Chapter 4

Toni was waiting for Charlie as she stood by his door. “So, how well do you know Lola?”

Clark looked at her with some trepidation as he finished putting on the coat. “I just met her when the Toasters tried to flame Johnny. She was in the path of the flame behind him and would have been severely burned. I didn’t find out her name until we were out on the sidewalk.” He met her at the door and looked down at her. “Why?”

Toni shrugged while opening the door and going through. “I just wondered if you knew her before getting the job at the Metro Club. You two seemed awfully familiar with each other in the kitchen.”

Clark locked his door and turned and looked at her and smiled his most ingratiating smile. “Nope. Never saw her before the Metro Club.” Which was the truth. He was always truthful. “She’s a captivating singer, and she’s a woman and I’m a man.” He shrugged, trying to look guileless.

Toni paused examining him, but only said, “Can I give you a lift to the club?”

*+*+*+*+*+*+

The liquid lunch crowd was filtering in to the Metro Club and Clark was behind the bar, dressed in his white shirt, black pants and vest, serving customers.

Loyal Lou was at the end of the bar checking out the customers. Suddenly Toni came out of her office and up to Lou and slammed a newspaper down beside him, hissing, “Since when is Metro business front page news?”

“Since the Toasters declared war on us.”

Toni raised her voice in frustration, “I don't mean that, I mean information that could only have come from our meeting, that I'm the new head of the Metros. Could Johnny have leaked the story?”

“Uh-uh, we put him on a plane, like you said.”

“Then it's someone else. Find him. Fast. We can't afford this kind of exposure.”

The newspaper remained on the bar after Toni and Lou left for the office, and Clark walked over to turn it to read. He wasn’t surprised to find it was today’s edition of The Daily Planet with an above the fold story headlined “Toni Taylor Takes Over Metro Club Gang.” And the story was written by, “Of course, Lois Lane,” he muttered to himself.

Casually turning the paper back around so the camera could catch a good view of it, he placed an ashtray beside it. If the MPD was awake in the situation room, they would realise there was a problem brewing.

Although Clark looked calm on the outside, he realized Lois could be in real danger now if Toni ever found out Lola’s true identity.

*+*+*+*+*+*+

Henderson was awake in the situation room. Suddenly he was very much awake. Of course he had seen the morning paper and read the story with a muttered “Lane, what are you doing?” But Toni’s reaction put a new level of concern on it.

He hadn’t heard what Toni had said, but her body language had been clear enough. She was hunting for rats in her organization.

Henderson dialed Perry White’s direct number, a number he was very familiar with.

The gruff baritone with a southern accent came on the line immediately, “Perry White.”

“Hi Perry. It’s Bill Henderson. We have an issue with Lois’ last story.”

There was a soft chuckle on the other end of the line. “Ever tried to milk a steer, son? What's the problem today?”

“The last story has caused a ruckus among the current people of interest. I let you in on this operation in hopes Lois would be a help, you’d get a good story and I’d get some evidence. She needs to slow down and let us do our job. Can you please talk some sense into her?”

“Yesterday I asked her how the undercover work was going and she said, ‘Fine, just fine.’ I found out about the scorched chicken costume from Jimmy only today. She was in high dudgeon when he found out about it. I guess the bartender saved her?”

Henderson suppressed a chuckle. “Yes he did. We’ve got it on tape.”

“Good. If this turns out right, I might want to torture her with it at the Christmas Party.”

“Well, she needs to think about getting out from undercover before things go south.”

“Yeah, some hope of that. Yesterday she accused me of trying to get her to give up a scoop on the Riverfront fires by ‘not letting her take a few little chances.’”

“As you know, Perry, sometimes a ‘few little chances’ is one too many. Try to get her to be a little more careful.”

Perry sighed. “I’ll try. Ordering her to quit won’t work.”

Bill signed off with a resigned, “I know.”


*+*+*+*+*+*+

The lunch crowd had thinned out and Clark stood in his arms-crossed comfortable thinking pose behind the bar. Clark didn’t realize that a man with his build standing like that looked a bit intimidating. He was lost in thought, feeling a bit frustrated. He had hoped that getting into the field as an agent would allow him more opportunity – and yes, freedom – to help people. Right now he felt more constrained than he did in his lab doing postmortems on incidents that had already happened. He remembered with a small smile his very first rescue. An event that made him realize he was different.

Clark was thirteen and it was three years after his parent’s tragic accident. He and his foster brother Pete Ross were swimming in Smallville Lake on a hot Kansas August day. Clark had obligingly helped Pete out on the Ross’ small farm in the cooler morning and they had decided a swim would be good. After chores and lunch, they had walked, or skipped, or run, as boys do, down to the lake without telling their mother Sarah. Dr. Ross was at his medical practice in Smallville. Pete was five years older than Clark, so Clark followed his lead like a good younger brother should. Also Clark was frequently lost in daydreams, so following Pete was an easy choice.

The brothers cannonballed off the dock into the lake with great glee. No one was fishing since it was the middle of the week and the middle of the day in the heat. They had the lake, and probably the surrounding miles, all to themselves. There was a boathouse on the lake that had fallen into disrepair over the many long winters. The lake was on private property, so neither the city nor the county would dismantle or fix it.

Fearless teenagers as they were, they swam under the boathouse and its decrepit dock for the shade and fish-viewing. Clark found he could really hold his breath and see the small lake trout really well. Suddenly he felt a disturbance in the water and heard something crash into the water. He felt alarm, like when his parents were in the car just before the accident, and started looking for Pete.

A big timber was lying across Pete’s chest under the water. Clark could see air bubbles coming out of Pete’s mouth. He swam as fast as he could over to Pete and somehow lifted the timber off his chest, grabbed Pete and towed him to shore. Clark wasn’t trained in CPR, but he laid Pete out on the bank and turned his head so water could come out. Fortunately, the time was short underwater and Pete began to cough up water on his own and began to recover.

Clark then realized two things: he needed to learn CPR, and he hadn’t taken a breath since fish exploring, rescuing Pete and laying him on the ground. He also wasn’t winded at all. He stared at his hands that had lifted the rotted timber and saw no slivers, cuts or bruises.

That night, after their clothes had dried, he had helped Pete back to the house and they had booth sworn secrecy to each other to not ever tell their mother, he returned to the lake and quickly dismantled the boathouse and dock, neatly stacking the timber on the side of the lake. It was a month before anyone noticed the boathouse was down and word was spread in Smallville.

Clark snapped himself out of his reverie and began getting the bar ready for the evening, checking through the office wall every now and then to make sure Toni was still inside.

*+*+*+*+*+*+

The usual crowd had come in for the evening entertainment and Toni was once more in an evening gown welcoming the customers. Lex Luthor, however, was again a no-show. Toni did not look disappointed at all.

She approached Charlie for her evening Long Island Ice tea. “So how is the evening going, Charlie? Lou said something about the ice machine being broken?”

“Yeah, it was. But I fixed it.” He didn’t mention he ‘fixed it’ by blowing freezing breath over the water filled ice cube trays.

Clark quickly made her drink and once again hid a bug on the bottom of the glass, disguised by the ice inside and the five bumps on the bottom and handed it over. Toni looked over the rim of her glass as she took a sip. “You’re a very handy man to have around. I feel I owe you more than a McFriendlys bag breakfast.”

Clark smiled easily and shrugged. “You pay me a good wage.”

“I could pay you more if you did more than tend bar for me.”

Clark was flummoxed. Did that have a double meaning? Taking a calming breath, he managed, “What did you have in mind?” Oops, maybe that was too direct. He was also conscious of the bug. Everything they said would be heard by MPD. Best to assume she was still talking business, preferably gang business.

Toni leaned on the bar to make the conversation more private, not knowing her efforts were futile with the presence of the bug. “Well, I have a lot of errands to be run during the day. You could learn a lot from Lou.”

Bingo, he was in. He broke out one of his best smiles and softened his voice. “That sounds very promising, Toni. I’d like to give it a try.”

“Good. We will see if you work out.” She winked and turned away from the bar with a flourish, carrying her drink with her.

Clark watched her walk away. Then he realized the three-piece band had been playing for some time in the background. Suddenly the introductory fanfare began and the off-stage announcer called out again, “And here she is again, fresh from setting Metropolis afire with her singing, Miss Lola Dane!”

The curtain opened and Lola stood there in a shimmering white and crystal gown in front of the standing mic. She began to sing in her pleasing contralto:

Clark suddenly felt weak in the knees. He instantly recognized “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” by Lorenz Hart. His most treasured possession was his parent’s collection of Broadway show tunes on vinyl records. They lived in Kansas, but they had loved Broadway music. They had had the Midwest traditional piano in the living room and his mother used to play. He even took lessons.

Lola’s voice soared as she hit the chorus:

Lola took the mic stand in her left hand and swept the audience with her right. Then she brought her hand back to her heart.

Oh, my God. Was she looking directly at him? He grabbed the bartop for support.

Clark started to blush. He knew the lyrics. He knew what was coming next.

Lola turned to the other side of the audience to sing to them. Absently, Clark noticed Toni went into her office.

Clark signaled to Frank he was taking a break. He just had to go backstage and see Lois. On his way there, he looked into Toni’s office and saw that she was watching TV avidly. The sound was turned down low, but he could hear it. LNN was covering a new fire set by the Toasters. He was aghast when it realized it was his hotel, the Apollo. There were poor souls living there because that was all they could afford. Not to mention that his equipment was stashed under the bed. He had to help – somehow. But first he had to warn Lois so she could get out of there.

He saw Lois coming toward Toni’s office, no doubt to spy on her again, and grabbed her by her arm. “Lois,” he said in a low intense voice, “you have to get out of here now! Things are getting bad fast!”

Lois looked up at him, startled by the use of her real name. “How do you know my name,” she said sotto voice.

Clark had to think fast. What would persuade her to leave? “The Toasters just torched the Apollo Hotel.” He didn’t mention that was his hotel. “I think Toni is on to you after this morning’s article in the paper. She was pretty intensely upset by it. She knew it had to be from someone who was here when showdown with Johnny happened.”

Lois quirked her lips in a smile. “What, she didn’t believe our kiss was genuine?”

Clark smiled back. “Oh, but it was. But you are in danger. You have to leave.” He looked her over appreciatively, “But first, I suggest you change clothes into something less conspicuous.”

“But I have another set.”

“Cancel it. Your life is more important than a story.”

“Well, it’s clear you are not a journalist.”

Was she kidding? He drew back and looked into her eyes. She was. Kidding that is.

“Go back to the Planet. I’ll give you the rest of the story later.” ‘As much as I can tell you,’ he thought. With that, he released Lois’ arm, went to his locker and grabbed his dark sweater and black jeans. He left out the back door as fast as he decently could.
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tbc


Artemis