This is actually for two different challenges, one here and one elsewhere. Sorry it's taken so long to post this but the other site is taking its own sweet time putting it up.
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Lois was having a dream. It was a good dream – the Daily Planet was still standing and she had her old job and Clark was still her partner. She was flying over the city with Superman when an alarm sounded. A bank, maybe. But the alarm kept getting louder and louder even though they didn’t seem to getting any closer to any buildings. Then she placed the sound and reached out with one hand to grab the phone off her night stand.
It had been such a good dream.
“Yes,” she growled into the mouthpiece.
“Lane, did I wake you?” a man answered. The voice was familiar but Lois couldn’t immediately place it.
“No, I’m always awake at…” she groped for the clock and peered at it. “4:30 in the freaking morning.”
There was a dry chuckle at the other end of the line – a chuckle Lois was finally able to place. “Henderson? What’s going on?”
“Just a heads up,” he said. “There was an explosion over at Kent’s building and I figure you need to start working on his cover story before he gets back and finds out he’s been declared dead or he’s our prime suspect.”
“An explosion?” Lois repeated.
“Yeah,” Henderson said. “A bad one. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know what Kent has been working on that someone would want him dead instead of you?”
“I have no idea,” Lois admitted. She was finally fully awake. “You don’t think it was an accident.”
Lois heard shouting in the background. “I’ve got to go,” Henderson said and the line went dead.
Lois stared at the phone in her hand a long moment before hanging it up. It was surreal and she almost wanted to convince herself it was part of her dream, but the clock read 4:35 and that’s something that would never happen in a dream.
She grabbed her robe and slipped it on. Who would want Clark dead and why was Henderson so certain he was okay but would be away for a while?
Lois padded out to the living room and turned on the TV to check the news. The lead story on LNN was on Superman’s efforts to deal with flooding and landslides in Indonesia. A reporter was asking questions of one of the survivors – a man who had lost his entire family in the first land slide. “So, you think your family might be alive if Superman had just gotten here sooner?”
‘What sort of question is that?’ Lois wondered. ‘How could Superman know about something that hadn’t happened yet?’ There was something unpleasant in the reporter’s questions concerning Superman. There was nothing Lois could quite point to as being unprofessional but there was a definite anti-Superman slant. As a matter of fact, there had been an increase in anti-Superman rhetoric ever since the bombing of the Daily Planet. Lois made a mental note to check on anti-Superman bias in LNN. Just because he’d proven himself to be as much a cad as any other man she knew, he was still a hero. He didn’t need for his job to be made more complicated by people blaming him for things he had no control over – unless they were trying to blame him for causing the hurricane that devastated Indonesia only the day before.
Lois fixed herself a cup of coffee while she waited for local news. She mulled Henderson’s question over in her mind – who would want Clark dead? As far as she knew was he wasn’t working on anything. He still hadn’t found work, which was a little odd since he was one of the few Planet employees who hadn’t been snapped up by LNN or one the other media outlets. Perry had chosen early retirement rather than try competing with his former employees for a job. But nearly every one else had found a place to go.
The report finally came on about the fire on Clinton. Lois barely recognized the building – it looked liked a total loss. ‘Initial reports indicate at least ten people are dead and several more are unaccounted for following a catastrophic fire here at 344 Clinton.’
On the screen, the strobing lights from the police cruisers and fire engines cast eerie shadows on the ravaged building and crime scene tape.
Lois recognized one of the firefighters – correction, fire investigator – and several bomb squad officers she had met during various investigations. The fact that they had been called in indicated that the investigators thought the explosion that destroyed the building hadn’t been an accident. Who would want Clark dead?
It was insane. Clark was so mild-mannered, so well liked, that it didn’t make sense that someone would want him dead. Everybody liked Clark.
She was too wired to go back to bed so she sat through another report on the tragedy in Indonesia. Superman waved away a camera man who had tried to get in his face. Lois noted how tired and disheveled Superman looked as he spoke to native rescue workers. His normally bright uniform was dingy with mud and dirt. There was dirt on his face as well. And then he did something odd – he raised his hand almost as if he was expecting to find something on his face. Then he dropped his hand almost as though he’d been burned.
The first gesture seemed strangely familiar, almost Clark-like. “…there are things about me you don't know, that you may never know,” Superman had told her.
“It doesn't matter,” she had assured him. “I know you. And I don't mean you the celebrity or you the 'superhero.' If you had no powers, if you were just an ordinary man leading an ordinary life, I'd love you just the same. Can't you believe that?”
“I wish I could, Lois,” he had told her. “But, under the circumstances, I don't see how I can.”
She hadn’t understood at the time. She was so enamored of her fantasy that she would recognize Superman in any guise that she missed the possibility that he really didn’t spend his off-time in the sky.
Why was Henderson so certain that Clark was okay but would be away for a while? What did Henderson know?
Lois considered the odd gesture. It was almost as though Superman was unconsciously preparing to adjust his glasses. Glasses? Could it be? Was it even possible that Superman’s day job had been as a reporter for the Daily Planet? They certainly looked similar. Dark hair, dark eyes, hard bodied.
“I like your costume,” Amy Platt had said.
“Thank you. My mother made it for me,” Superman said.
Lois hadn’t paid much attention at the time. She had assumed the mother he referred to was on his home planet, wherever that was. It wasn’t until later that he told her that his home planet had been destroyed. It hadn’t occured to her that he hadn’t explained about how his mother could have made his costume if she had died with his world.
“That fink,” Lois muttered. He had worked beside her, listened as she gushed over the superhero and all the while he’d been laughing at her, fielding her questions with misdirection and feeding her assumptions.
The fink.
Henderson knew the truth – Clark Kent was Superman. The rat had told Henderson and not his own partner.
Lois poured another cup of coffee.
‘Listen to me,’ Clark had said not so many days ago. ‘I'm not talking about the partnership. I'm talking about us. I've been in love with you for a long time.’
“If he really loved me, he would have told me,” Lois said to herself. “How can you have a relationship if you keep secrets like that?”
She knew she wasn’t going to get any more sleep. Going to the office and starting her work day early didn’t sound appetizing either but it was better than staying at home fuming.
Taking a shower was usually good for clearing her mind, but this time she kept coming back to the discrepancies she thought she saw. Superman had – supposedly – arrived on Earth only a short time before his first public appearance. Clark was raised on a farm in Kansas. Lois didn’t think it was possible that the entire town had lied to her about Clark. Heck, the county sheriff told her about going to the prom with Clark. So either Smallville was part of a major conspiracy to make it seem that Clark Kent/Superman had been on Earth for years, or Superman had lied about when he arrived on Earth.
And Superman didn’t lie. She had written that after her very first interview with him.
“Why are you here?” she had asked.
“To help,” he said.
“That’s a little simple, isn’t it? So, what do you stand for?”
He frowned thoughtfully. “Truth and justice…”
“You’ll be going up against every pol in the country,” Lois joked.
“You really think it’s that bad?” he asked with a smile.
She shrugged. “So, how long have you been here?” she asked. She meant ‘when did you arrive on Earth?’
“Not long,” he answered.
Looking back she realized how she had allowed herself to be misled. Superman was a master of misdirection and, apparently, so was Clark Kent.
Lois had always prided herself on her ability to see through people. She was furious with herself that she hadn’t seen through Clark Kent. It was even more galling that Henderson had seen through Clark’s disguise.
Traffic was light and most of the day crew wouldn’t be in for several hours, so she had at least an hour before worrying about actually working once she arrived in her office at LNN.
She studied the reports on Superman’s rescues in Indonesia. With the exception of LNN, every news source was praising him for his efforts. Local governments were being chastised for their lack of preparedness – while the flooding was an act of nature, the lack of emergency services and the refusal to evacuate endangered villages sat firmly with the local and regional government officials.
Lois started arranging her thoughts on a series on emergency preparedness – was Metropolis ready if Mother Nature pulled out all the stops? Would the city be able to handle a disaster like the near meltdown of the LexCorp nuclear power plant if Superman was elsewhere?
It was an interesting, and frightening, question.
Her phone rang. The lit button indicated it was the direct line. Not many people had that number.
“Lois Lane…”
“Lois, my dear, I wanted to let you know how sorry I was to hear about your former partner…” Lex said.
“What about him?” Lois asked.
“Hadn’t you heard?” he asked. “That’s why… I’m so sorry to be the bearer of sad tidings, but Kent’s apartment building was destroyed this morning. I’m told there were no survivors.”
“Oh,” Lois managed to say. “There’s a chance he wasn't home,” she added.
“I’m told he was seen entering the building,” Lex said. “He wasn't seen leaving. I’m sorry, my dear. I know you were close to him.”
Henderson’s question flitted through her mind. “…you wouldn’t happen to know what Kent has been working on that someone would want him dead instead of you?”
“You're afraid of the truth,” Clark told her during Perry’s retirement party. “And the truth is that Lex Luthor may be hiding from you what really happened at the Planet. I've been doing some digging and…”
She hadn’t wanted to listen that night. But now…
“I have it on good authority that Clark wasn’t in the building. He was with Superman covering the rescue efforts in Indonesia,” Lois said.
“I see,” Lex said. Lois couldn’t tell if he was pleased or upset.
Lois went on. “Clark hasn’t found work yet so I asked him if, assuming Superman was willing, he would be willing to write some pieces for us on what Superman’s day is like, what he goes through on a rescue, what he thinks about…”
“And when did you talk to him about this?” Lex asked. There was something unpleasant in his tone.
“Oh, a couple days ago I suppose,” Lois said, trying to sound casual. “I tried to get him to come to work over here, but he has this unreasonable aversion to electronic media.”
“I see,” Lex said. The unpleasant tone was still there. “You didn’t tell me you offered him a job.”
“I didn’t think I needed to,” Lois said.
Lex proffered up some meaningless phrases before hanging up. She didn’t pay much attention to them. If she had been wrong about Clark, was she wrong about Lex as well?
“Lois, what if I find evidence...” Clark had offered.
She hadn’t let him finish. “Clark, you're talking about a man I trust and admire, who's always been completely truthful with me... If you really cared about me, you'd let me... help me be happy. I've gotten a good job and found someone who wants to spend the rest of his life with me. What's wrong with that?”
“Okay. If that's what you want, then... fine. Get in bed with the devil,” Clark had said before he walked away in anger.
“I've been doing some digging and… Lex Luthor may be hiding from you what really happened at the Planet.”
“I’m told he was seen entering the building,” Lex said. “He wasn't seen leaving. I’m sorry, my dear. I know you were close to him.”
“Jen?” Lois called out to one of the researchers. “Have the police released the names of the victims of the Clinton fire?”
“No, Miss Lane,” Jen answered. “That won’t be released until the next of kin are notified.”
How did Lex know that it was Clark’s building that was destroyed? And how did he know that Clark was supposed to be there?
“…you wouldn’t happen to know what Kent has been working on that someone would want him dead instead of you?”
“…what if I find evidence...”
She checked the time. It was still too early to reasonably call Clark’s parents. Even farmers didn’t get up this early. And she still wasn’t sure how she was going to handle the situation with Clark. She had told Lex that Clark was on assignment working for her. It wasn’t exactly a lie – she was certain that Clark would write her a story on Superman’s experiences if she asked him to. She just hadn’t done it yet.
She looked around the news room. The day shift was coming in. Lois suddenly realized there was no one there she could trust to help her. She was on her own.
“Lex... when the Planet was destroyed, you lost quite a bit of money, didn't you?” Lois asked when she called him back.
“Yes, but I have wide shoulders and deep pockets,” he assured her blandly.
“But, I mean it wasn't a total loss. There was insurance,” she insisted.
“Several policies. Unfortunately not enough to justify reconstruction,” he said. “Why the sudden concern?”
“Because I can't help but feel that your buying the Planet in the first place had something to do with me.”
“It did,” he said. “I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I bought the Planet in a desperate, lovesick attempt to bring us closer together, to bring my life in tune with yours. Ironically, it wasn't necessary: we are together. Our love was too strong. We were meant to be together.”
“I've been doing some digging and… Lex Luthor may be hiding from you what really happened at the Planet.”
“Lex, how did you know that Clark was supposed to be in his apartment last night?” she asked.
“I told you,” he said. “He was seen going into the building.”
“By who? Who saw him?”
“Why do you want to know?” he asked.
“I was just wondering…” she told him. “I am a journalist, remember.”
“I don’t recall who mentioned it,” he said and she knew he was lying.
“…you're talking about a man I trust and admire, who's always been completely truthful with me.”
He was lying. How many other lies had he told her? At least Clark had never outright lied to her face. Misdirection was his forte.
“I need to get back to work,” Lois told Lex before hanging up.
“I figure you need to start working on his cover story before he gets back and finds out he’s been declared dead or he’s our prime suspect,” Henderson had said.
She opened her personal address book and found the number she needed. If Lex had Clark under surveillance, she had no doubt that her office phone was bugged. But Clark wasn't the only one who was good at white lies and misdirection.
“Martha? It’s Lois… Look, I don’t know if Henderson’s been in touch with you yet, but Clark’s apartment building was torched last night… Well, if you hear from him before I do, remind him he promised me a man-on-the-scene story on Superman’s efforts in Indonesia… And let him know we have some things to talk about – like him not letting me know about whatever it is he’s working on that might make someone want to torch his building?”
