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Part 19

Part 20

Clark stomped into the Receiving Room at Daily Books from the freight elevator.

“Hey, CK. Something wrong?” asked Jimmy, warily.

Flipping open the newspaper in his hands, Clark flashed the headline to Jimmy.

“Lois went on a date with Superman?” Jimmy voice wavered in disbelief. “Our Lois?”

Clark shot him a look.

Jimmy cleared his throat. “I meant your Lois, of course.”

“Where is she?” Clark growled.

“Down at the newsstand. Where else?” Jimmy retorted as if he weren’t her keeper, which he wasn’t.

Clark exhaled. “Sorry, Jimmy. I just didn’t know about this.”

“Yeah, I could see how her two-timing on you with a superhero might tick you off.”

“I meant the article,” Clark snapped.

“You knew about the date?” Jimmy’s jaw dropped.

“It. Wasn’t. A. Date.” Clark spoke the words slowly, enunciating each word.

“O-kay.” Jimmy took the paper out of Clark’s hand and skimmed the article. “Superman picked her up at her apartment. He flew her down to a beach in Costa Rica in just a few minutes. Wow, he’s fast. He made her a glass fish – without any tools – super cool. He told her all about himself and his powers. He bought her a snow cone. He brought her back to her place.” Jimmy slapped the paper back against Clark’s chest. “Sounds like a date to me, CK. All that’s missing is the goodnight kiss. You have every right to be furious. I knew that there was some connection between them at the press conference, but she denied it.”

Clark’s heart dropped into his shoes. “What?”

“The way Superman was staring at her and the way Lois was staring at him. I just had a feeling that they knew each other. It was kind of obvious. You weren’t there, CK. She said it was because he rescued her a few weeks ago, which is also what she said in the article, but now… “ Jimmy shook his head. “I’m not so sure that was all.”

If Jimmy noticed something amiss at the press conference, did anyone else? Oh, God, if anyone thinks that she’s actually dating Superman…

“Lois is not cheating on me. She promised me that.”

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at that remark. “But you must have thought she was to have had that conversation with her.”

Oops, that made it sound worse than you meant it to.

“How well do you really know her?” Jimmy asked as Clark figured out how to walk himself out of this mess.

Evidently not as well as you thought, Kent.

Clark glanced down at the photo above the fold of her and Superman in front of the bookstore from the previous afternoon. Someone had taken a photo of them together. Since they had seen this, maybe someone had also heard Lois invite Superman to ‘meet her at her place after work’. Maybe that someone – or someone who knew that someone – was the thief who broke into her apartment and stole the globe. He sighed. The break-in was his fault. He had been careless with Lois. Superman had shown her too much attention. He had to remedy this and fast. But first, Clark Kent needed to confront Lois about his missing byline.

Clark didn’t respond to Jimmy’s question before leaving Receiving and heading downstairs. She wasn’t in at the newsstand, so he checked her magazine receiving room. She was squatting on the floor picking up some magazines that had fallen off of her cart. The three boxes he had delivered several hours before were still sitting just inside the door. He cleared his throat to let her know he was there.

Lois turned and her face lit up. She was genuinely happy to see him. This was the woman who wouldn’t even tell him goodnight the previous night? Guess she had forgiven him for whatever transgression he had committed.

She ran up and threw her arms around him. “Oh, Clark! Guess what! The Wichita Eagle picked up my article… our article… from the Smallville Post and published it in this morning’s edition. That’s over fifty thousand people who read our article. We’re real reporters!”

Clark’s lips pressed together, correcting her, “You mean you are a real reporter now.”

Lois stepped back. “Excuse me? No, I mean us. We wrote the article together. Without you to introduce us, there wouldn’t have been an article.”

His eyebrow raised and he flipped open the newspaper he had picked up in Los Angeles that morning, when he went to help with a fire out in the hills east of the city.

“The L.A. Times!” Lois gasped, then her eyes sought out his. “I didn’t know they had picked up the story as well.” She unfolded the paper. “Date? It wasn’t a date. It was an interview.” She slapped the paper. “If I had been a man they wouldn’t have put this headline on the article. How sexist.” She read on. “Where’s your byline?” She slapped the paper again. “You know if they had gotten that right, I bet they wouldn’t have put that headline on the article.”

His voice was cold and hard. “Yes, Lois, where is it?”

“I don’t know,” she said rather quickly and keeping her eyes on the paper, instead of him. “I told Terry that I had written the article with my partner. You!”

Had she now? Partner, eh?

“We’ll call the Times and have them issue a correction,” she continued.

Like anyone would notice that tucked in between classifieds and obits.

“I doubt anyone would believe that Superman flew the pair of us down to Costa Rica, anyway, would they?” He crossed his arms. “I’d have been a third wheel on that date.”

Lois looked him square in the eye and raised her brow. “You and I both know you haven’t any reason to be jealous, Clark. I’m not dating Superman. I’m dating you.”

“It sure doesn’t look that way to the rest of the world.”

“Well, the rest of the world can take a flying leap for all I care,” Lois spat at him. She dropped the newspaper on her unopened boxes and placed her hands on his crossed arms. “We know the truth.”

“And what truth would that be, Lois? That you used me to gain access to Superman and then cut me out of the package as you went on to fame and glory with your Superman exclusive? Is that it?” As his eyes focused deeply into hers, he saw the pain he was inflicting upon her with his words before her anger flared.

“You know damn well that wasn’t what happened,” she retorted.

“Do I?” he asked more calmly than he felt. “Maybe the editors got it right. The article sounded like a date to me and even to Jimmy. Maybe you’ve been lying to me this whole time. Maybe something did happen between you two. I thought I knew you, but…”

“What?” Her laughter seemed harsh, scoffing, and disbelieving. “You’re actually going to try and tell me that you think that Superman and I were actually on a date? That something happened between us, is that it, Clark?” she accused him, the laughter in her voice gone as quickly as it had come.

He swallowed.

Her hands were on her hips now. “Are you really going to go down that path? You better not get me started on the topic of lying, buster, because you know I’d win that argument, hands down.”

Clark just stared at her. A part of her still hadn’t forgiven him for lying to her about knowing Superman.

Then Lois set her hands on his chest and placed a tender kiss on his lips. Her hands started caressing his chest as her words turned soft and gentle, almost babyish in tone. “Yes, you’re right, Clark. That’s where all those missing condoms went. It was love at first sight. Kal and I just couldn’t help ourselves. We were knocking hips all over that beach and even once or twice in the water. Mmmm. The water on our naked skin…” She moaned, pressing her body against his. Her voice, though still babyish, had developed a harder, nastier tone. “Seven times and we just couldn’t stop. Maybe it was more. It was the highlight of my life. He’s absolutely fantastic!” She placed another soft kiss on Clark’s hard pressed lips. “I will never forget it. I still have sand in cracks I didn’t even know existed. Perhaps even now I’m pregnant with Kal’s love child.”

Clark gulped, knowing her biting words were as false as her tone.

Yet they still sting, don’t they? You know that they are lies and they still hurt.

Lois pushed him out the door as her voice rose. “How dare you accuse me of doing anything like that with Superman? You know how much I like you. You know that Superman could never do anything against you. You have no right to come in here and accuse me of any wrongdoing, Clark, especially with Superman. I would never cheat on you. Do you really think Superman is the type of man who would take a woman on a date knowing darn well she is in a committed relationship?”

Committed? Relationship? Kent, you’re the one who needs to be committed.

Her sad, furious eyes stared at him. “Do you think he would do that to you, his best friend, knowing that you ‘love me and that you want to spend the rest of your life with me’?” Her fingers made the quote in the air with the words he had spoken to her on the beach.

You’ve got a bad case of athlete’s tongue. You need to fix this.

“No, he wouldn’t,” Clark admitted sheepishly.

“Glad to hear it,” she snapped.

“Lois, I’m…” Clark muttered from the ashes of his dignity.

“Damn straight, you better be sorry. Get out of here.” Lois pointed out the door. “When you’ve had a chance to grow a pair and actually trust me, then you can come back.” She held out her hand. “Give me my apartment keys.”

Clark reached into his pocket and withdrew her keys. He had liked knowing they were there, tangled up with his keys.

“I hope you didn’t make copies because with an attitude like that, Clark, you aren’t moving in anytime soon,” she thundered, pocketing her keys.

Move in? Had she actually liked him enough to bounce that idea around in her head? Of the two of them living together? Sleeping together? Sharing their lives? That committed of a relationship?

“Move in?” he mumbled. His mouth was dry and he tried to clear his throat, but it didn’t work.

Lois had gone back to picking up her magazines off the floor. “Yeah. I had thought it might be nice having you around more. Full time personal security, you know. Protecting me from my phobias and nightmares, sharing Danishes and coffee, laughing at each other’s stories, cuddling in front of the…” She sighed. With a shrug, she continued, “But now…” She glanced back over her shoulder at him and he saw the unshed tears glistening in her eyes. “You aren’t the man I thought you were, Clark Kent.” She blinked and the tears crept down her cheeks.

He knelt down beside her and set a hand on her shoulder. “Lois, I tru…”

Lois shrugged off his hand. “Go, Clark.” Her voice was low and tired as if she didn’t want to argue anymore. “Just go.”

At the door Clark tried one more time. “I still love you, Lois.”

Softly, almost so quietly that he needed his super hearing, she whispered, “I’m beginning to think you don’t know the meaning of the word, Clark.”

Clark nodded. He was beginning to think he didn’t either.

You know the meaning of ‘love’, Kent. It’s the execution that trips you up.

He rode the escalator back up, instead of jogging up it as he usually did. Then he rode up the next one the same way, her words still echoing inside his head. You aren’t the man I thought you were, Clark Kent. Lois had smashed his dreams to smithereens and yet he was the one who had made her cry. She knew that he knew she had been telling the truth about her ‘interview’. Yet, he still accused her that more had happened, even though he knew nothing had.

Why had you done that, Kent? Unless you deliberately wanted to hurt her?

Lois knew that Clark knew that she hadn’t done anything with Kal-El.

If it had, Kent, so what? You are Kal-El. And he is you. Had she done something with Superman, she technically wouldn’t have been cheating on you.

Clark thought about the way Lois had pressed against his chest and told him all those things she hadn’t done with Superman on the beach. She had made it sound wild and meaningless and dirty. She wanted him to be disgusted by the images she was putting into his head, because she was disgusted with him for not trusting her. He sighed.

I’ll agree with her there, Kent. You’re pretty disgusting.

Clark entered Receiving and raised a hand at Jimmy as he passed by.

“Well?” Jimmy asked, glancing up from opening a box.

“Somehow I went from being the one being wronged to being the one in the doghouse again,” Clark muttered.

And in the doghouse you belong, Kent.

“Man, how is it that women always have all the power in a relationship?” Jimmy shook his head.

“Men’s hearts are more vulnerable because when we fall in love, we fall body and soul?” Clark proposed.

Jimmy’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t know we were talking about love, CK. Man, no wonder you’re her puppet on strings.” He patted Clark’s back. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t feel bad for me, Jimmy. I’m doing a great job of cutting my strings off, one by one. If I keep this up, soon I’ll be a free man again,” Clark said as if that would be a punishment worse than death. He sighed. “I think I got some more boxes for you in the truck.”

Jimmy nodded. “How did you end up in the doghouse? If you don’t mind me asking?”

Clark looked away and cleared his throat. “Even though I knew nothing happened I accused her of cheating on me.”

You are a heel, Kent.

“Ouch! Why’d you do that?” Jimmy asked.

Clark pushed the button to call the freight elevator. “Because we wrote that article about Superman together. And I wasn’t credited for it.”

His friend’s eyes bugged out of his skull. “You wrote the article with her?”

Clark stepped into the elevator and gazed at Jimmy. “There is more to me than a bunch of uniforms.”

“No. No. I didn’t mean… I just didn’t know you wrote,” Jimmy explained. “Wait!”

Clark hit the hold elevator button as he listened.

“Have you ever thought about writing for Perry’s Planet? I gave him some of my photos from the press conference with Superman. He’s going to publish them in this week’s edition. I’m sure if you wanted to get your name in print, CK, the Chief would be more than willing to use your talents and you wouldn’t have to depend on the kindness of your girlfriend. You could make a name for yourself without it being attached to hers.”

A hint of a smile tugged at Clark’s lips as that suggestion bounced around in his mind. “Thanks, Jimmy. You’re right. I don’t need a writing partner.” He sighed. “I just liked the idea of being partnered with Lois.”

You liked the idea of her name being attached to yours.

Clark let go of the button and the doors closed.

***

Hours following his conversation with Jimmy and his blow up with Lois, Clark came back to the book store. After he had returned the MDS truck, his deliveries complete, he had walked around downtown thinking about Jimmy’s advice, wondering why he had never thought about asking Perry to let him write for his weekly paper before. He had sighed, knowing the answer. Lana.

Lana had told you that you had no potential and that you would never amount to a hill of beans. Why had you believed her? Why had you taken her words to heart? Just because you had thought yourself in love with the girl doesn’t mean you should have let her squash your hopes and dreams, Kent.

Earlier that afternoon while out on his walk, Clark had come across the old Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in the midst of being demolished. Using his x-ray vision he had seen that there was a woman on the stage reciting lines from a play of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Clark had seen it performed in Russia, in Russian, when he had been traveling around the world after a couple years of community college. It had always been one of his favorite plays. He had seen the wrecking ball starting to sway and had known he had to save her. Clark had lowered his glasses and zapped the controls of the wrecker with his heat vision and then went in to talk to the woman on the stage.

Clark had gotten Beatrice’s whole story. It was an interesting one and seemed to parallel the life of the old theatre. They had been friends a long time – Beatrice and the Sarah Bernhardt.

As he had continued walking, after finally being able to convince Beatrice to leave the building, Clark had realized what a great story it would make, Beatrice mourning the death of her old friend. He had zipped home and had started typing on his old typewriter.

Here Clark was, hands shaking, wondering if Perry would red ink this story like he had with Superman’s first speech. He hated to bother the Chief at the bookstore with something for The Planet, but Clark couldn’t wait to see what his old friend thought.

Clark had found Perry, sitting at his desk, staring at the security monitors. He was so focused that when Clark had cleared his throat, the Chief had actually jumped.

“Hey, Kent. What are you doing here?” Perry asked so quickly it almost seemed a brush-off.

Glancing over at the video screens, Clark didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. His eyes were automatically drawn to Lois. She seemed to be in an intense discussion with a bearded customer.

Clark pulled his eyes away, pushing down the claws of his green-eyed monster that wanted to escape and knock over the monitors. “Jimmy said you might want to use some of my stories for your weekly paper, The Planet. I was wondering if you’d be willing to take a look.

Perry hemmed and hawed as he crossed the room to Clark. “I don’t know, Kent. I don’t print fiction. Just the facts.”

Well, that wasn’t encouraging.

“It’s not fiction, Chief. Just something I wrote about the destruction of the old Sarah Bernhardt Theatre,” Clark said, holding out his folder.

Perry reached out and halfheartedly took it.

He doesn’t want to give you a chance. The only reason he’s looking at it is because he knows you. He’ll never want to print it in his paper. He’s just being polite. In a minute, he’s going to kick you out of his office for wasting his time. Lana was right. You’re a nobody. You’ll never be who you really want to be. You’ll always just be this delivery truck driver who happens to save people on the…

“Kent, you wrote this?” Perry asked, flipping through the sheets again.

“Of course,” Clark answered taken aback and slightly more defensively than he normally would be. “I know it’s not Pulitzer…”

“No. No, it isn’t, but it’s darn good.”

Darn good?

“I like it.”

He likes it?

Perry smiled encouragingly at him. “It’s a bit green, but much better than that schlock you brought me the other day.”

Clark looked down at his shoes.

He really liked it?

“If you have got more stuff like this, I’d love to see it. Mind you, I only accept articles on a piece by piece basis. But if you bring me more stuff like this – I can see us working together outside the store – for a long time to come.” Perry held out his hand.

Clark lifted his gaze from his shoes and smiled, joy filling his heart and countenance. “Thank you, Sir. I won’t let you down,” he replied, shaking Perry’s hand.

You did it! You did it all on your own. Not hanging on the hem of your girlfriend’s skirt. You, Clark Kent, did it!

“And if you have any stories about Superman, I wouldn’t mind taking a look at those too,” Perry added with a wink.

Clark laughed. “I think I might be able to get you a quote or two.”

“You tell Lois yet?” Perry asked.

Clark glanced over his shoulder at the newsstand monitor. Regret filled his heart as he saw she wasn’t there. “No.” Then he remembered his missing byline. The ache of that betrayal hadn’t yet gone away. “I’m not ready to share my secrets with her.”

“She might surprise you, Kent.”

Clark’s lips pressed together. “Lois is nothing if not full of surprises.”

Perry raised a brow. “Trouble in paradise?”

Clark sighed. “Let’s just say, you should ask her about her ‘exclusive’.”

“Exclusive?” Perry repeated, but Clark just shrugged. “Son, can I give you a piece of advice?”

Could you stop him if you tried, Kent?

“I don’t know what she did or what you think she did, but it’s my opinion that she will defend Superman… well, his image… to the death.”

What?

Clark’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Did she say something to you about Superman?”

The Chief swallowed swatting Clark lightly with the folder as he headed to his desk. “No, not exactly. It’s just a feeling. If you truly like the girl, Kent, everything else doesn’t matter. Love is a leap of faith.” Then Perry grinned with an amused look. “And I hear nobody leaps like you do.”

Clark rolled his eyes. Perry and his Superman jokes were getting old fast.

He watched as his boss suddenly leaned against his desk and stared over Clark’s shoulder. “What in the King’s name?”

Clark turned and saw on the monitor that the bearded man was grabbing Lois’s arm. Before he knew it he was standing at the third floor railing looking down at the two of them with his own eyes.

“So, I’ll see you Saturday night then, beautiful,” the bearded man was saying to Lois.

Clark’s teeth ground together as he saw Lois give the barest of nods, jerking her arm away from the man.

“It’s a date then,” the bearded man leaned over to kiss Lois’s cheek.

A growl escaped from deep within Clark.

Lois pushed the man away. “Don’t touch me!”

The man put a finger under her chin. “Be nice to me, Ms. Lane, and this will all go away nice and quiet, but fight me…”

She stepped away from the man and glanced up. She knew Clark was watching her. He caught her eye and saw fear there. He didn’t know if it was the bearded man she feared or Clark for finding out that she agreed to go out with that other man.

“Supervisor to main cashier,” came an overhead announcement, causing Clark to wince at the deafening sound.

“I’ve got to go,” Lois said, walking quickly away from the man and jogging up the escalator.

Clark focused in on the bearded man, wondering who he was. He seemed familiar but Clark did not know from where.

Lois reached the third floor and Clark walked up to her, his teeth still grinding from her deceit.

“What are you doing here?” she stammered, glancing over her shoulder and moving away from him.

“Obviously learning about the real you,” Clark muttered, following her.

“Clark, you don’t… You can’t be here.”

He raised a brow. “I can’t, can I?”

Lois moved down an aisle of books. “He can’t see us together. It will only make matters worse.”

Clark took her arm. “Make what worse, Lois?” he asked, his voice low.

“Trust me, Clark. Stay here.”

Trust her? Doubtful after hearing her agree to a date with that… that… man.

Lois left him standing in History as she jogged down to the end of the aisle and then back up the next one – Religion. She stopped almost directly opposite him and started straightening books haphazardly on the shelf. “It isn’t what it looks like, Clark,” she murmured.

“It looks like you made a date with that guy,” Clark grumbled. “After telling me you’d never cheat on me.”

Lois’s eyes met his over the bookcase. They were cold and in slits. “Only a man who doesn’t trust me would believe that, Clark. I’m trying to protect you,” she muttered, glancing away.

“I can protect myself, Lois,” he responded gruffly. “Especially from a man like that.”

Her eyes caught his and the fear was back. “Please, don’t, Clark. Trust me. For once in your whole life, trust me. It’s not what you think.”

A customer passed by and Lois went back to straightening books. She moved down to the far end of the aisle and whispered. He had to use his super hearing to hear her. “We can’t talk here. Pick me up at the corner by the convenience store at 8:15. Please.”

He walked to the end of his aisle and leaned against the shelves looking directly at her. “What if I’m busy?”

Lois raised a brow at him as her eyes met his, then she scooted down the aisle. “If you’re busy, then you’re busy, Clark.” She took a deep breath – he assumed to try to calm her racing heart. “But if you’re ‘busy’ because you don’t trust me and you think I’m lying to you and that I would ever want anyone other than you, then why don’t you break up with me now, so I know whether we’re in this together or I’m all alone.” Her voice wavered as she spoke.

Despite knowing he still did not trust her, Clark also knew that he could not leave her alone to deal with whatever it was that was bothering her. “In what together?” he asked again.

“I told you. I can’t talk about it here. He may be watching me. He must not see us together. It would only make things worse.”

The fear he had seen, Clark realized wasn’t of him, but for him. “What’s going on, Lois?”

“Tonight, please, Clark. I’ve got to go talk to Perry,” she murmured, heading towards the break room. Then she stopped and glanced back at him. “Has Perry ever met Kal?”

It was a strange question and the directness of it set him on edge.

Clark moved closer to her, but still put an aisle of bookshelves between them. He didn’t like all this cloak and dagger stuff. “Lois, I’m not leaving you here while you’re afraid,” he said, avoiding her question entirely.

She sighed. “I thought as much.” Then Lois looked at him with tenderness he hadn’t seen in her eyes since he left to fight the fire the night before. “I’ll be fine, Clark. He wants something else from me. I was able to stall him until Saturday. Maybe by then…” She walked off to the break room without even a backwards glance at him. At the door, she paused. “Go. And keep Kal away, too. If he shows up, I’ll lose you both.” She opened the door and went inside.

Clark swallowed, wondering exactly what it was about the bearded man that scared Lois so.

*** End of Part 20 ***

Part 21

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