Chapter 21:
Clark strode through the Daily Planet lobby with a ball of anxiety sitting in his chest. Not over the launch— he'd squared that emotion away firmly last night. No, it was a sense of unrest, unease, that lurked around the peripherals of his senses. It made him feel like a caged lion, stalking through the office space with a growl trapped in his throat. His fingers twitched, aching for some sort of movement. He felt like taking off for a quick flight or run— expending some energy in some way or another. Instead, he balled up the feeling and shoved it deeper in his chest. He stepped onto the thankfully empty elevator, into a smaller cage, and pressed the button for the main floor of the Daily Planet.
"Hold the elevator!"
Clark glared irately, doing nothing to help his fellow man. He did not need the company this day of all days, and particularly not his.
To his chagrin, a hand shot through the crack in the elevator door at the last second, and Clark wrinkled his nose in displeasure. The doors slid right back open and in walked Lex Luthor.
His steps faltered, hesitant upon seeing who he would be sharing an elevator with, but ultimately Lex stepped forward with a tight smile on his face. "Kent," he nodded politely if not tersely at him.
"Luthor," Clark responded in kind, feeling the irritation rolling off him in droves.
The elevator doors sealed shut.
His cage just kept getting smaller.
Clark could feel the tension radiating from his shoulders and knew the other occupant could pick up on it as well. "So," Lex began, words stilted oddly. Clark simply waited him out, knowing it would get under his skin and taking some small pleasure from it. "How goes things with you? Anything happening?"
Clark shrugged half-heartedly. "Not particularly. You?"
Lex's eyes remained firmly on the numbers ticking past on the elevator dash as he considered his response. "Not particularly."
Silence engulfed the elevator for a few endless seconds as both men stood apart, watching the numbers slide past. Good lord, this elevator was slow, and if Lex weren't here with him, he'd have ditched it by now and simply flown to the appropriate floor.
"Oh! You know, that's actually not true. I do have plans for this evening."
"Enlighten me," Clark deadpanned, time dripping by slowly like molasses with every additional word that fell from Lex Luthor's mouth.
"Lois and I have reservations at Chez Henri tonight downtown. The chef is a personal friend of mine."
Clark tried to let the obvious brag roll off him like water off a duck's back, to little avail. Instead he checked his watch, noting the time of the early afternoon, and did nothing to conceal the snarkiness of his tone. "It's a bit early to be picking her up for dinner already, isn't it?"
"True, but it's a special occasion. Today is our one year anniversary. I want to be around as much as I can throughout the day."
Clark rolled his eyes as the elevator finally chimed that they'd reached their floor. This was certainly going to make for a long day, then. "Well, I certainly hope she's going to get off in time. I get a feeling it's gonna be a big news day."
He stepped off the elevator, allowing Lex to stew for a few moments behind him as he grinned widely. He knew that'd get to him.
"Morning, Mr. Kent."
"James," Clark chided. "What did we talk about? You call me Clark, I'll call you Jimmy."
"Yes sir, Mister— Clark."
He clapped the young man on the shoulder, not missing the eyeroll from Lex in return just inside his peripheral. "You seen Perry?"
Jimmy tossed his head in the direction of the Chief's office. "Fair warning, though. He is in a bit of a mood today."
Clark gave a quick nod and a smile as he moved past the gopher, in the direction he'd pointed earlier, even as Lex's words followed after him like some sort of haunting echo.
"Excuse me, James, but have you seen Lois?"
Jimmy tossed his voice backwards as he blazed on through the office. "Hasn't come in yet, sorry."
That made Clark's steps falter for a split second. It seemed unusual... but he shook himself. He wasn't about to get involved in the Lois and Lex show, today— their anniversary— of all days. If Lex found himself dateless on his own anniversary, that would only make his day better. Clark strode confidently forward into Perry's office, barely taking the half a second to pause with a knock before entering. "Perry! What's going on today?"
The scowl on Perry's face spoke volumes. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing is going on. Yesterday, we had one of the biggest stories of the year come through here and today— nothing! You're only as good as your next story, you know. It's like what Frank always used to say—"
"Perry," Clark cut in, knowing he had to cut the man off at the pass before he spent the next thirty minutes on Frank Sinatra. "It'll pass. It always does. And besides, didn't Frank also say that the best is yet to come?"
The older man grumbled and pushed against the desk to heave himself up, prompting a small smile from Clark. "Don't you start using Frank against me. He's all I got left around here."
"Aw, Perry, you know you've always got me to fall back on."
Another grumble and then Mr. White was blowing past him in a huff. Clark grinned as he followed him across the chaos of the bullpen. The voices and sounds swirled all around him almost all at once— a level of chaos that bordered on the overwhelming when his focus was diverted. Clark took an extra half second to re-center himself before embracing the sounds and letting it all wash over him.
"Olsen! What are you working on?"
"In a minute, Chief!"
"Ah! Mister White. If I could just have a moment—"
"Oh, hey, Lex. Just a second. Olsen!"
Lex tossed his hands up in the air exasperatedly, prompting Clark to bite back a smug little grin at his opponent's obvious irritation. "I guess nobody listens to me anymore."
"Don't take it too personally. Not everyone can handle your winning personality," Clark quipped, strolling past casually, hands buried deep in his jacket pockets.
Lex's answering glare made Clark grin for real, and he quickened his pace to catch up to where Jimmy and Perry were in the middle of the bullpen. "James, you seen Lois anywhere? I need her digging through all her story notes— it's gonna be a slow news day."
"Chief, it's like I told Mr. Luthor. I haven't seen Lois yet today."
Clark didn't like the younger man's tone and frowned. He hated the airs James Olsen tried to put on all the time, like he was better than anybody else. And Perry just let him and everybody else walk all over him. His shoulders bristled in defense of the man he'd started to think of in a paternal capacity. "Jimmy, the man's still your boss. You shouldn't speak to him like that."
Perry's hand waved in front of his face dismissively, and Clark rolled his eyes. "Clark, just— Jimmy, what do you mean you haven't seen Lois today?"
Jimmy's eyes darted at his face quickly before responding. "It's just like I said. She hasn't come in yet. I'm sorry; that's all I know."
"Perry," Lex's voice cut in as he caught up with the conversation. "That's what I was trying to tell you. Lois left this morning saying she was going into work early. I thought I'd surprise her here—"
"Aw, hell," Perry moaned, covering his eyes for a moment.
"You think she's in some sort of trouble?" Lex inquired, fear evident on his face. Clark had to suppress a gag at Lex's paralyzing clinginess.
"If she's not in trouble yet, she will be," Perry grumbled, turning around and stalking back towards his office. "What do you think the penalty is for trespassing on government property, nevermind breaking and entering?"
Clark's legs came to an immediate halt as the realization struck him hard across the face and left him reeling. "Y-you don't think she'd go down to the colonist launch, do you? I mean, you did tell her not to go just yesterday."
Jimmy scoffed at him. "That's a sucker's bet. Clearly you don't know Lois as well as you think."
Lex was quick to grin tauntingly back at him at that comment, in spite of the way Clark felt the color draining from his face. He tried to cover for his reaction. "Well, I'm sure she's just going to get you a solid article for the evening. It's not like she's gonna try and join the mission or anything. I'm sure she'll be back in time before we put the paper to bed."
Perry's dubious eyes said everything his mouth didn't need to as he simply returned to his office. Jimmy and Lex also dissipated, Lex taking a seat at Lois' desk to scribble some semblance of a note. Clark remained rooted to the spot, pulse skyrocketing as the fear started filling his gut with ice. He was grasping at straws, he knew. Of course Lois Lane was at the launch, probably on that damn shuttle. She'd acquiesced far too quickly to Perry's request that she stay away yesterday. A flash of panic rose up with something akin to bile in his throat.
Lois was probably on the transport he'd just rigged to explode.
Belatedly, Clark became aware he was standing in the middle of the bullpen still, staring into nothingness and he was starting to attract stares of his own. One stare in particular was bugging him, tantamount to all the others.
He shook himself, turned on his heel, mentally calculating the time left on the bomb to be about twenty-four minutes and counting. Trying to ignore the sound of Luthor's footsteps following him to the elevator.
Once again, though, in spite of his best efforts, Clark somehow found himself stuck in an elevator with Lex Luthor. He shot him a grimace of a smile, not hiding his disinterest at all this time.
"What's going on Kent? Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
Clark willed the elevator to go faster, to absolutely no avail. He kept his eyes forward, staring into the elevator doors as though in a trance as he replied. "I just forgot to grab some important papers to show Perry about our latest advertising numbers."
"That's bull." The words spat out of Luthor's mouth with a venom and Clark's shoulders tensed. He turned to look at him with a fire in his eyes. Was this really about to happen— now of all times? "Look, I don't know what your "deal" is with my girlfriend, but I don't like it, and neither does Lois. And I especially don't like watching you chasing her tail like some kind of lovesick puppy, understand?"
Clark's eyes flashed dangerously, and he stepped a foot closer to Lex, drawing up his shoulders to look menacing. The anger and fear mixed hot in his blood like a bad drink, and he wasn't about to let Lex Luthor steamroll him. "I don't have any sort of "deal" with your "girlfriend" as you call her. We're nothing more than friends." He let the end of his sentence hang in the air for a moment, followed by an unspoken hint of "for now". He checked his watch, twenty-one minutes. "Besides, I didn't think you were the type of guy who would try and restrict his woman so much by telling her who she can and can't hang around."
"I don't know what your problem is with me! But I don't care. This petty vying for Lois' attention ends now. It's our anniversary. I'm not about to let you ruin it."
Clark shrugged, turning away from the billionaire slightly. "Then you should have nothing to worry about, right? May the best man win."
"He already has," Lex growled menacingly, stepping close into Clark's space.
The tension in the air was thick with hostility, not to be cut with a battle axe let alone a knife. Clark felt his anger rippling just below the surface as time dripped by even slower. Lex was here, threatening him, serving himself up on a silver platter, and he didn't have time for any of it. Lois was on her way to becoming space debris. Once upon a time, that might not have mattered so much, but now... everything was wrong. This wasn't how things were supposed to go, and Clark could tell himself that it would be a let down, a major disappointment even, if he just took care of Lex right now. Anticlimactic. The man deserved far worse. Clark took in a deep, calming breath, counting to ten in his head even as the precious seconds were wasted.
Not to mention he was certain there were security cameras in this elevator, and he'd surely be caught. He was too close to success only to squander all his hard work in a moment like this.
The elevator chimed, and finally— for the love of God, finally— the doors slid open and Clark smirked. "Perhaps he has, Luthor."
They stood staring off against each other for a few decidedly long moments, held frozen in some sort of age-old pissing contest and watching the seconds drip away. Lex's fury was no match for Clark's cool decisiveness though, not today. A passing stranger squeezed past them onto the elevator, effectively breaking the moment, and Clark smirked. With that, he stepped off the lift, adrenaline pulsing and thrumming through his veins as he left Lex behind and focused his mind on Lois ahead.
He checked his watch again— still twenty minutes somehow. That was... good and somehow still bad. He hurried into the alley behind the Daily Planet building, debating his options. He couldn't exactly fly in and save her, not as himself. Why hadn't he thought of a contingency plan? Why hadn't he expected Lois to shirk orders, slip her way through the ranks to nab a seat on a potentially historic mission?
A flash of red and blue streaked through his brain, and the memory from last night and ten years before suddenly shook loose once more and of course. He would have laughed if he'd had the time: at irony, at fate, at the possibilities of his precognitive skills that so far hadn't ever been manifest or even sheer blind luck. But time was a commodity he didn't have, so he streaked through the skies towards his apartment, full speed ahead.
*****LnC*****
Lois grinned at how easy it was to sneak past all the guards and checkpoints to get onboard the shuttle. It shouldn't have been— it was almost laughable. It seemed like anybody could just waltz on in. Lucky she wasn't the nefarious type.
The sound of approaching voices put her on high alert. Quickly, she secured herself in a maintenance room out of sight from the two passing shuttle technicians. She sighed in relief when they continued past without picking up on her presence, continuing to make small talk about the math of it all. She grinned again. Fate must have really wanted her on this flight. Maybe it would be just the break she needed from Lex and all his drama today.
She quickly and quietly closed the door, hearing a lock mechanism switch into place almost immediately. Her hands stilled over the door handle, suddenly awash with doubt. She shook herself. "Well, Lois. No turning back now."
She turned and found a seat almost randomly in the room and went over to sit. Oh, this was going to be so exciting! She probably should have told someone she was doing this, sure. Maybe Perry, although he would have tried to stop her. Probably Lex, though he'd object as well. Lucy definitely should have gotten a heads up— someone did need to feed the fish, after all. And Clark—
Clark had no business being in her thoughts whatsoever.
Right. She situated herself, slipping an arm through the shoulder restraint gleefully, excitement ratcheting up by the second. She turned to look for the other strap when she saw something flashing out of the corner of her eye.
Lois frowned, half strapped in and frozen in the moment. That was weird, but it was probably nothing. A display light or something. Probably. But her gut was telling her something was up, and Lois Lane always followed her gut. So investigate she did.
Rounding the corner, she caught sight of the corner of the light she'd glimpsed: it was a clock display, rapidly counting down. Three minutes and counting. Bile rose up in her throat, but she pushed it back down with the rising tide of panic, as she examined the rest of the object. It looked out of place, randomly thrown together, wires sticking out here and there, and a cold metal casing around a suspicious-looking box. "Oh my God. Oh my GOD! It's a bomb!"
There was no denying what it was. She'd rather be wrong than get blown to bits in the next two and a half minutes. She ran to the door and pulled on the handle, to no avail. "Help! There's a bomb! A bomb!! Help, somebody!"
Nothing. The door didn't give, the locks didn't unseal, and no discernable voices could be heard outside. She rattled the handle frantically, screamed at the top of her lungs. She didn't know who she was hoping to find at this point. The numbers on the timer kept taunting her, down to one minute and twenty seconds now. She pounded her fists repeatedly, screaming at the top of her lungs. She was going to lose her voice soon if no one came.
Well, she was going to lose her life soon, too.
Suddenly, the door gave way beneath her sore fists, and it was wrenched away from her entirely. Shock she couldn't quite process yet shot through her as she saw a figure in blue and red set the heavy metal door down across the hall and stride quickly past her to where the bomb was. She bolted after him. "Hurry! It's less than a minute! It's going to explode—"
He grabbed the core of the bomb casing, split it in half with his bare hands. And as if that wasn't enough to shock her, he suddenly gave her a quick wink and ate the C4 plastic explosive.
She blinked rapidly. He somehow swallowed the bomb down. Her eyes widened impossibly more as the muffled sound of an explosion sounded, and he just burped. Lois glanced at the stopped numbers on the clock, then back at the man, absolutely gobsmacked for possibly the first time in her life.
"What the hell are you?"
A smile twitched at the corners of his lips.
"I'm... a friend."
*****End Act One*****
