...I Knew The Truth
Part 14
The next morning, Clark’s desk was not empty, when Lois entered the newsroom. Clark sat there, deeply immersed in reading through a pile of folders. Not quite sure if she dared to believe her eyes, Lois stopped dead in her tracks instead of walking down the ramp to the bullpen. As she watched, Jimmy walked over to Clark’s desk and dropped another set of folders on it. Clark in turn lifted his head and mumbled something. It was almost as if he had never been gone.
As if he was suddenly aware of Lois’ presence, Clark turned his head to look at her. A small smile spread across his lips, barely visible if one did not know what to look for. Somehow, that minute reaction broke the spell and Lois felt herself able to move again. She walked down the ramp in swift strides to make up for the time she had lost staring at her colleague. On her way, she shrugged out of her coat and draped it over the back of her chair. Figuring that coffee was the best way to put herself back in the game, Lois quickly made her way towards the coffee machine.
She was not the only one. Clark joined her only moments later. “Good morning, Lois,” he said softly.
“So, you decided to come back after all,” Lois stated somewhat pertly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Didn’t you say it was too dangerous?”
He took a cup from the stand and filled it with coffee, then added low fat-cream and just the right amount of artificial sweetener. Handing Lois the steaming mug, he replied. “Last night, I spent a long time thinking about what you said.”
“About everything I said?” Lois asked, raising her brows and took the cup he offered, albeit reluctantly.
She could not completely squash the feeling that she was making it too easy for him. It was stupid, of course. After everything she had learned about him in the past one and a half days, nothing about being Clark was easy. But still, he was a guy and had acted quite stupidly. Lois had never been very forgiving when it came to such behavior, particularly after her father had left their family. It irritated her that with Clark it was something else, entirely.
“Yeah, about everything,” he confirmed and heaved a sigh. “I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”
“Well, it’s a risk, I give you that,” Lois admitted. “But it is also the best chance we have. I still haven’t gotten anything from Paul. Bobby Bigmouth could not tell us much about Sidney Burke, either. If some…” she paused briefly, mouthing the next part “… larger than life hero would appear in a flashy outfit…” she raised her voice slightly. “… Luthor would certainly feel the need to act and start making mistakes.”
Clark did not reply, but instead began to fix himself a cup of coffee. A slight ticking in his jaw told Lois that he was mulling over that piece of information. His cup ready, filled to the hilt with full fat cream and four spoons of sugar, he went back to his desk, still not saying a word. Figuring that he would probably remain silent for a while, Lois followed him.
She went around his desk and set her cup down on one of the few remaining spots that was not covered in folders. Curious, she picked one of them up and began flipping through it. Skimming the pages, she found that she was reading notes of a former, now retired colleague on a story that had been printed years ago, before she had even started working for the Daily Planet.
She dropped the folder and took another one. The date was a bit more recent, but not by much. “What are you trying to find here?” she wanted to know.
Clark looked up, returning from whatever place he had been. “I asked Jimmy to get me old stories from the archive. Bobby told us that there are different criminal organizations trying to control the city. I want to see if I can gather any names from those old stories, maybe find a hint if Luthor could be responsible for the demise of any of these organizations.” By the look on his face, Lois could tell that so far his efforts had been futile.
She reached for a third folder. “And what are we going to do, if we find anything?” she asked.
“I know it’s a long shot,” Clark muttered unhappily.
Lois shrugged her shoulders. “Since we don’t have much of anything, yet, I believe it could be worth the effort,” she said thoughtfully. “But we should look at all this stuff after work. Perry is going to kill us if he catches us on a wild goose chase. He told me that he’s willing to turn a blind eye to what we’re doing as long as we get some stories, which is not going to happen this way.”
Clark instantly closed the folder he had been working on. “What do you suggest?”
“I’d say we attend the staff meeting that starts in a few minutes and work on the stories Perry assigns us,” Lois said firmly. “Later, we could check with the police and see if the woman you saved last night is willing to talk to us. After all, publishing a description of the culprit could help them identify the man. Besides, I want to see if there is any news on the guy who broke into my apartment.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Clark agreed, not completely able to stifle a small sigh of disappointment.
“Did you talk to Perry, already?” Lois changed the topic rather abruptly.
Clark nodded. “He didn’t say much though, just that he was glad I changed my mind. He did not even ask me why I wanted to quit.”
The rest of the day mostly consisted of boring legwork – another slow newsday. Perry had not been able to offer them much besides a minor press conference. The mayor had mostly been talking about city finances and how it was not possible for the city to continue to fund several shelters for homeless people. This could have made for a decent human interest piece. The problem was that Lex Luthor had stepped in and made a generous donation. He had not appeared in person, but had sent one of his assistants to make the offer. Obviously, the press conference had not been the right stage for him to pose, or so Clark had said.
Behind Clark’s remark, Lois had sensed he was grateful that he had not encountered the billionaire. Truth be told, Lois herself had not been so keen on meeting him either. It had been two days since their last date and while that had gone rather well, there was still the break-in into her apartment. The idea that Lex Luthor had ordered it and had only taken her to dinner to keep her occupied did not sit particularly well with her. Lois was not sure how she was going to react if she met him again. Speaking of which – Lex had not called her ever since. Perhaps she should not consider this odd, after all the man was busy. But his recent advances had been so frequent that Lois could not help but wonder.
With so many things on her mind, Lois barely registered events as the day went by. They checked with the police and ended up with a detailed description of the almost rapist. Unfortunately, the examination of Lois’ apartment had not turned up much besides a set of fingerprints that was not registered in the data base – which meant they were pretty much useless. The woman Clark had saved had been so grateful that she was willing to add a small interview to their article. So after their visit with her, they went back to the newsroom to write their articles. It was already afternoon when they returned. But still, neither Paul nor Bobby had called with any news.
Almost an hour later, Lois was editing Clark’s article on the press conference while he worked on hers on the near-rape. She could not help but admire his writing style for he was able to turn even something as boring as that conference into an interesting read, complete with background information on the city’s current financial situation. It was obvious that he had spent some effort researching the topic.
Now and again, Lois stole a glance at Clark. He sat in his chair with his shoulders slumped, his attention not entirely on her article. He would look up every so often, staring into thin air for a while, a frown on his forehead that became more pronounced with every time he did so. Sometimes he flinched, though he did his best not to. Lois could see the tension in his every muscle even through his shirt. One time he even broke a pencil into several pieces as he closed his hand into a tight fist.
When Lois was finished with Clark’s article and had sent it over to Perry, she could not bear to watch Clark anymore. She got up from her chair and walked over to his desk. He looked up from his work and flashed her a weak smile, that soon faltered into an expression of sheer misery.
“What’s the matter, Clark?” Lois asked, walking around his desk and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?” He merely nodded, but Lois saw a muscle working in his jaw. “Because you don’t look like it.”
“Coming back to Metropolis was a mistake,” he replied sadly, put down his pencil and leaned back in his chair. Lowering his voice to a whisper, he continued. “Ever since I entered the newsroom I’ve had to listen to two muggings, a car accident, a fire on the other end of town …” He fell silent and Lois felt that he had done so for her sake as much as his own.
As a reporter she knew how excruciating it was to watch or hear other people suffer without being able to do a thing about it. Lois experienced it every time she wrote an article about sick children or homeless people. Every time she was hoping against hope that she would somehow be able to make a difference in their lives; that she could push the politicians or companies who could help in the right direction. Too often her efforts were futile.
Lois gave Clark’s shoulder a squeeze to comfort him. At the same time she wondered if now would be a good moment to mention the hero again, the one who she was sure could solve so many problems not only for Clark but for Metropolis. Any other day, Lois would probably have jumped right into the conversation, but Clark had barely returned to her and the Daily Planet. His composure seemed still too fragile to risk it confronting him with his biggest fear. Lois had seen the look in his eyes when Luthor had been mentioned, that brief moment of panic before not Luthor himself but his assistant had entered the room where the press conference was being held.
“I’m beginning to wonder if maybe you are right,” Clark eventually said, much to Lois’ surprise. He sounded so weary that it cut right through Lois. Taking off his glasses, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and suddenly looked old far beyond his years. “This city is slowly killing me. Every time I listen to someone in need and do nothing about it, I die a little inside.” He leaned back in his chair and put his glasses back on. Yet, this was one of the few moments he did not hide behind them. “I cannot take this any longer, Lois,” he added quietly. “I barely sleep anymore, I’m running on empty and those few days I spent with my parents did not help in the least. If anything, it only made things worse.”
to be continued...
