Well, this is the introduction to the sequel to Pheromone, More Likely. I know it's short, but if I don't get it started I'll fiddle around forever trying to write the perfect story. A little pressure from readers would be much appreciated. Any comments, suggestions and constructive criticism is solicited, requested and pleaded for. <g>
Nan
Disclaimer: The familiar characters and settings in this story are not mine. They belong to DC Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions and whoever else may have any legal right to claim them, nor am I profiting by their use. The story is based on the Lois and Clark script "Vatman" and all parts taken from that script are hereby credited to the writers of the show. Any new characters, settings, and any changes in the story, belong to me.
Twins: 1/?
By Nan Smith
*****
March had come in like the proverbial lion, Lois Lane thought as she made her way to the front door of the Daily Planet. She clutched at the collar of her coat against the powerful wind that gusted down the street, whipping the skirt of the garment stingingly against her calves. It was nearly the middle of the month and it wasn't showing any signs at all of going out like a lamb, at least yet.
She glanced at her watch as she hurried across the lobby toward the elevator, trying not to look at the various snack stands that populated the place. She was ten minutes early but what with leaving time for the creaky elevator and the inevitable lengthy stop on Second before it reached the newsroom, her margin of time was probably just about right. Maintenance really needed to see what was wrong with the thing. It seemed to get slower and slower every day. Maybe, she thought, she should just climb the stairs. It might make it easier to keep her figure. Of course if she did that, she would have to wear jogging shoes. Heels just weren't made for serious stair-climbing. On the other hand, maybe that was how Clark managed to maintain his level of physical fitness. She had noticed how often he seemed to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator.
Oh brother; there she went again. She really had to get this babbling thing under control. She even did it in her head. She had begun to become aware of her tendency to babble recently when she had noticed her partner grinning slightly in the middle of one of her monologues and challenged him on it. He'd just grinned more widely and said he liked to listen to her when she went off on one of her weird tangents. She'd done some sputtering, while he'd chuckled openly at her, but the tangent *had* been a little weird, although she would never have admitted it to him. They had been talking about Perry's grumbling over his doctor's insistence that he lose thirty pounds and somehow the subject had shifted to a dissertation (from her) over the fact that the office Christmas party, now two and a half months past, had been a potluck and Patty Shumacher had been stupid enough to ask her to bring a mint pie. She had hunted through half the bakeries in the city, only none of the people who worked at the places had ever heard of it. They had inquired if she meant grasshopper pie, but she had been sure that Patty had said mint pie. She had ended up bringing pumpkin pie. How had she been supposed to know that the request had been for *mince* pie (which she had never heard of, either)? Her mother had never served it at home (Mom had never been much of a cook) and she'd never bothered to ask about it at various social occasions where it had apparently been served. Anyway, she'd had that bad cold for a week before the office party, and her ears had been stuffed up the day Patty had asked her, and she hadn't thought about checking the list, and ...
And that had been when she'd noticed Clark grinning at her.
She hadn't really minded, although honor had demanded that she take him to task for it. He'd taken that with an equally disconcerting grin, too. Still, his attitude was a sharp contrast to that of Lex's. Lex always seemed to enjoy her company, but she couldn't go off onto strange tangents with him. The only time she had done that, he had given her the oddest look and she'd trailed off in embarrassment. She supposed that should have told her something about him before she had found out the rest.
Of course, now the only reason Lex Luthor's opinion mattered to her was the fact that she needed to continue to date him. Ever since the incident in November when Miranda had exposed the entire newsroom to her pheromone-laced perfume and Lois had discovered Luthor's connection to it, she had been dating him irregularly. She had made a number of unexpected discoveries during that highly embarrassing episode, one of them the fact that her partner was one of the few true gentlemen that she had ever encountered, and nowhere near the dunce that she had tried to think that he must be, with his country-boy background. She hadn't really believed it, at least underneath, but it had been much easier to tell herself that he wasn't worth her time than to become consciously aware that she actually was attracted to him. The pheromone incident had made that a lot harder to ignore as well. The fact was that Clark Kent was a very likeable, kind and charming man who was a lot smarter than she had ever been willing to admit. And he was a darned good journalist, too. The trouble was, it made her much more conscious of him as a man these days and that she would have been happy to ignore. She couldn't pretend that it wasn't true anymore -- at least to herself -- but she could still pretend it was so to everyone else, including Clark. She treated him as a good friend and partner and tried not to let the attraction she felt make a difference. In the meantime, she and Clark investigated Lex Luthor.
And of course, there was Superman. She still had a terrific crush on him of course but her meetings with him were usually short and unsatisfactory, as if he were making some kind of effort to keep them that way. Sort of like Pete and Wally avoided her as much as was possible ever since the pheromone episode. Still, she had asked Clark point blank if she had made a fool of herself in front of Superman, and he had said that Superman had been much too busy trying to keep people from getting into trouble for that to have happened. Besides, he wouldn't have blamed her for something she couldn't help any more than Clark would have. That had been somewhat reassuring, but hadn't entirely laid her fears to rest. It would have to do, though, because she couldn't quite work up the nerve to ask him, herself.
"Are you going to get in this elevator or are you going to just stare at the wall all day, Lois?" a voice inquired, breaking into her ruminations. Eduardo Friaz was holding the elevator door and looking at her with raised eyebrows. She stepped into the car with a muttered word of thanks and he released the door, which closed at once. The elevator began to rise. To her amazement it didn't stop on Second this morning.
She definitely had to learn to control this babbling thing, she told herself, trying to look casual and unselfconscious. Eduardo was watching her and at last he ventured to ask a question. "Is anything wrong, Lois? You look a little preoccupied."
She shook her head. "No, not really. I just have a lot to think about."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Thanks for asking," she added. The door opened at that point and he let her precede him out of the car.
Clark wasn't here yet, she saw. Most of the staff had arrived, but Clark often seemed to arrive late or just under the wire. Perry never appeared to mind however, because he more than held up his end of the Lane and Kent team.
Jimmy Olsen was already there, as usual. She had noticed some time ago that he somehow always managed to be an early bird and usually stayed late, just like Perry. The kid was probably practicing to be an editor someday, she thought whimsically. He was dumping coffee into the machine as she watched. She had to give credit where credit was due. Jimmy knew how to brew reasonably good coffee, at least within the limits available. The people in the coffee pool always seemed to buy the cheapest coffee they could find in bulk and as a result, if it hadn't been for Clark, Lois wouldn't have had a decent cup of coffee in months, if ever. Her own style was to buy instant for her use at home because it was difficult to ruin it. On the other hand, it was never very good, either. Clark always made excellent coffee at his place and it had become her habit, on those occasions when she dropped by in the morning, to help herself to a cup just, as she had explained to her partner, to get started on the right foot. He never seemed to mind in any case.
She was babbling in her head again. Maybe getting out of the habit wasn't going to be as easy as she thought.
A few minutes later she had booted up her computer and readied her workstation for the day. The coffee should be almost ready, she thought, and suiting the action to the word, headed over toward the machine with her mug.
The television was on, as usual, tuned to LNN for the morning report. Lois was pouring herself a cup of the freshly brewed coffee when the voice of the woman who gave the morning weather report was abruptly cut off by the voice of an announcer.
"We interrupt this program for an LNN special news bulletin."
Lois turned, the mug in her hand, as another voice, this one male, cut across the newsroom. "We are now getting a report that a 797 is making its last circle before attempting a landing at the Paris International Airport."
"Chief!" Jimmy shouted.
"What's happening?" Perry hurried across the Pit.
"There's an airliner coming down in France. You gotta look at this!"
"What?"
"It's on the TV!"
"Oh, okay. Get me Kaplan in the Paris Bureau ..."
"I'm reminded of the vigil for Charles Lindbergh not so far from this spot," the speaker on the screen said, "only now it's a giant airliner with both its wing flaps and landing gear inoperative and instead of a lone American pilot there are a hundred and twenty passengers and a crew of ten living this last hour in the cold fear of possible violent death. There are only ..." The voice hesitated, "there are only three minutes from touchdown. We have an LNN reporter on the scene. Let's see if we can go and pick up that satellite feed now."
The sound shifted to a third voice, obviously that of the LNN reporter.
"Oh his last circle, the pilot used up all but enough fuel to complete the landing ..."
"What's going on?" Clark's voice asked. Lois glanced distractedly over her shoulder to her partner, who had entered the newsroom unobserved.
"We got a serious situation at Orly," Perry's voice said. "Plane's trying to come in without any landing gear."
"I just remembered," Clark said, hastily, "I left my story notes in the car."
"Clark, you don't have a car!" Lois said, struck by the oddness of the remark, even as her gaze returned to the scene on the television screen.
"In the taxi," Clark corrected hastily. Lois was marginally aware of her partner making a hasty retreat toward the elevator. The screen showed the plane, buffeted by rain and wind and illuminated by occasional lightning flashes as it made its approach. Then motion at the bottom of the screen, silhouetted by the lightning flashes, caught her eye.
"Look!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"I don't believe it," Perry's voice said as the LNN reporter's voice cut across the voices of the audience.
"This just in. The famed Man of Steel from Metropolis ..."
"It's Superman!" Lois said. "He's there!"
"What's he doing in France?" Jimmy asked.
"In Paris!" Lois exclaimed.
"Great shades of Elvis!" Perry exclaimed.
Lois could agree with the sentiment. The relief was overwhelming at the realization that they weren't going to witness a fiery crash after all. The newsroom erupted in cheers as they watched Metropolis's most famous resident perform yet one more spectacular rescue for the whole world to see, but even through all the excitement she was aware of her partner standing by the steps, his eyes fixed on the television and a look of stunned disbelief on his face.
**********
That look stayed with her the rest of the day. Clark was unusually quiet when they went to attend a press conference by Lex Luthor concerning the project being undertaken in one of the older business sections of the city by Luthor Redevelopment Corporation, and she couldn't quite understand why. The plane had come in safely with no serious injuries. Superman had saved the day again, and although she was curious to know what had taken him to Paris, she couldn't see any problem with the event. Something, however, wasn't right. She knew Clark well enough for that. Why had he looked so surprised, even shocked, at the sight of Superman doing what he had done? It was literally as if he couldn't believe his eyes. There was some mystery here, she thought, one that he didn't want to talk to her about. Her first instinct was to try to hammer him into telling her but for reasons she couldn't explain even to herself she didn't. Clark could be stubborn at times and she had the feeling that this might be one of those times. Maybe if she kept quiet and watched him closely, she could figure it out for herself.
**********
"Want a ride home?" she asked, as they walked out of the building later that evening. She wasn't surprised at his answer. Something was definitely up.
"Not today. I think I'll walk."
"Clark ..." She hesitated and then plunged ahead. "I don't know what's wrong, but I'd like to help."
He smiled just slightly. "Thanks, Lois. Believe me, when I know enough to ask you for help, I'll ask. See you tomorrow, partner." And with that cryptic comment, he turned and began to stroll down the sidewalk in the direction of his apartment, which was at least three miles away. Lois stared after him, more puzzled than ever.
After a moment she started toward her Jeep, parked across the street, but before she had gone three steps she stopped, turned and went back into the building. It was time to do a little detective work.
Jimmy was still at his desk when she arrived in the newsroom a couple of minutes later. He glanced up as she crossed the Pit to his desk. "Forget something?"
"No. Jimmy, I need to know how many appearances Superman has made in the last couple of days, and where they were. Can you find out for me?"
"Huh? Sure," Jimmy said. "Any particular reason?"
"I don't know. Yet, anyway. How long will it take for you to dig that up for me?"
"Not long." Jimmy turned back to his computer and began to type. "Do you have any idea what was up with CK today? He seemed kind of upset."
Lois shrugged. "I noticed but he's not talking about it, whatever it is."
"Hope it's not anything serious," Jimmy said.
"So do I. Maybe he'll say something to me tomorrow."
In less than five minutes Jimmy handed her a sheet of paper with the information that she had requested. In the last twenty-four hours, Superman had been busy. He had saved the airliner in Paris, of course, righted a sinking ship in Rio, saved a busload of schoolchildren in Surinam and rescued a trio of trapped Alpine climbers in Switzerland. The only appearance he had made in the United States had been thirty-one hours ago in northwestern Kansas, where he had prevented the crash of a train into a passenger car that was stuck on the train tracks.
Lois read the list over twice before she folded the paper and stuck it into her purse. She wasn't really sure if it meant anything, but she had the feeling that it did. For some reason, that incident this morning had upset Clark. Maybe if she did a little snooping around, she could find out why.
**********
(tbc)
