Chapter 63:
Lois shook her head at his back as he got on the elevator, shoulders tense. He should be turning to her, not away. He'd promised. He'd said they'd face things together— with an implied for better or worse at the end of it all. She swallowed down her fears thickly. She supposed she couldn't expect him to change overnight. If she was going to need time to process everything, then he was too. They were going to be okay.
Provided Henderson didn't do anything stupid to provoke him.
Jimmy cruised past and she caught him by the sleeve. “Hey, Jimmy? Real quick, did you happen to take any messages for me this morning or the last few days?”
He shook his head with an eye roll. “No, Perry had Ralph covering your messages this week. Why?”
“Ralph? That unreliable jerkwad has chicken scratch for handwriting! How am I supposed to read this?” She thrust the crumpled up sticky note in his face, and James plucked it from her hands quickly.
“Lane… Doctor… Shadey broke?” he hazarded with a somewhat apologetic smile.
Lois snatched it back with a sneer. “Wow, thanks so much for your interpretation. I now still have zero clue what that means.”
James shrugged. “Hey, maybe he'd have told you if you hadn't got on him so bad with that betting pool, but good luck now. He already left for the day.”
Lois scowled at him as he walked away, but he may have been right. Maybe she'd catch him tomorrow and get it out of him. Until then… her eyes slid back to the elevator doors, and the pit in her stomach returned. It wasn't fair for them to think it was his fault, this whole Nigel thing. Even if it was, partially.
She knew it was the wrong thing to do, but she strode back into the conference room firmly, finding Bill and Maggie murmuring quietly to each other. She folded her arms over her chest and huffed irritably. Bill looked up at her with a question in his eyes. "Can I help you, Lois?"
"Yeah, what did you say to make my boyfriend so mad?"
Henderson pursed his lips. "I was just asking him some more questions about the day you were kidnapped. Same as you."
"Bull. What did you ask him?"
Henderson gestured for her to sit, but Lois stood her ground, tapping her foot firmly. Bill gaped and looked back at his partner for reassurance. Maggie shrugged, leaving the decision up to him. Lois waited patiently for him to come out with it.
"We found Nigel St. John's body on the shores of Hobb's Bay."
She breathed out heavily. Okay. They found him. They could deal with this. That didn't mean she was guilty. She sucked her teeth thoughtfully, retreating into her head.
"Lois? You all right?"
"Why didn't you tell me?" she shot out at him angrily. He seemed taken aback at her reaction.
"I didn't want to worry you anymore. Besides, I wanted to corroborate your story first—"
"Why? You think Clark did it?" The hesitation after her question answered her better than any words could. "Oh my god, you really think he did it, don't you?"
Henderson shook his head nervously. "He got really defensive, Lane. We have a description of the guy who was seen dumping the body—"
"Wouldn't you be defensive if I accused you of murder?" she cried out. Henderson shut his mouth. Lois turned to pace, chewing a fingernail distractedly. "And a description of Clark is like describing a Ken doll. Tall, dark hair, brown eyes— did your mystery witness happen to mention any glasses even?"
Henderson wasn't keen on answering any more of her questions apparently, so Maggie stepped up to the plate. "No. No glasses were mentioned."
Lois quirked a smile at her. She knew he hadn't been wearing his glasses. They were too easy an identifier. "No glasses even. Sounds like half the men in Metropolis to me. Hell, it sounds like Lex, although I gotta admit someone probably would have noticed his hair was curly." She let that statement sink in a moment in silence before continuing. "Besides which, neither of you thought to ask me if I knew where he was that night?"
"And where would that be, Miss Lane?" Maggie got some fire back to her, planting both hands on the table dominantly.
She flashed a naughty grin at the woman. "Underneath me."
"Dammit, Lois, I don't need to know that!"
Lois gestured at his partner pointedly, an innocent expression taking over her face. "She asked, Bill!"
Henderson swore and rubbed his temples. "Okay, fine. Let's say all that's true. Why did he just run out of here like a bat out of hell?"
Lois gave him a simpering smile. "The police just told him he's a suspect in a murder investigation. You think the guy hasn't earned a quick smoke?"
The pair went silent after that. Lois felt a sense of accomplishment wash over her. She'd thrown them off the scent. They couldn't think Clark had killed Nigel when it had been her. She couldn't let him take that fall for her. Then she'd owe him her life, and she liked how the tables in their relationship were turned right now.
The crack of a gunshot outside the windows drew all three of their attentions away. Suddenly Henderson and Sawyer were up and on the move, running past her out of the conference room and over to the emergency stairwell. Henderson pulled a radio off his belt. "All units, all units. We have a 10-31 with shots fired outside 111 East 5th Street, possible body. Repeat, shots fired—"
Lois' heart skipped a beat, and she followed them, cutting across to grab her notebook off her desk and yell for Olsen to follow her with his camera.
"Lois?"
"On it, Perry!"
"No, Lois, stop, it's too dangerous—"
She slammed the button for the elevator vigorously until the doors opened, Olsen slipping in behind her just before the doors shut.
"How often does this happen?" James gushed. "Gunshots outside the Planet? Talk about a story landing in your lap—"
"Shut up, Jim. Listen to me. I want you to get as many shots as you can, good angles. If they're good enough, you just might make the front page with my first article back."
He beamed at her, and Lois centered herself. She had to be focused. She couldn't think about Lex or her kidnapping or Clark or anything else right now. She had to be Mad Dog Lane. She dragged in a long inhale and the doors opened up.
Henderson and Sawyer just burst through the stairwell doors ahead of them, guns drawn and at the ready. She smirked; they weren't faster than the elevator. She heard James clicking away behind her, getting stills of the cops running. Lois ran after them.
The street was in mayhem. People were running past her in a flurry. A man knocked into her as he bolted, and she scowled after him briefly before looking around to see where the commotion was coming from.
Her heart stopped. Lex Luthor stood over her partner, with a gun leveled at his head. A cry ripped from her throat.
"Clark!!!"
A shot sounded, and tears sprang to her eyes. She gasped, unable to move, unable to speak, riveted to the scene before her.
Lex stumbled, the gun flying out of his hand. Lois felt relief flood her as she saw Maggie holster her gun and Henderson ran up to pinion Lex's arms behind him. Processing what happened took a minute, but she didn't care what happened to Lex, as long as Clark was okay. She bolted to his side and skidded to a stop. He was bleeding significantly. The tears streamed down her face as she knelt down at his side. "Clark, Clark— please, Clark, say something, please." She grabbed his hand in hers and gripped him tight to her heart.
"Someth—" he cut himself with a sharp gasp of pain.
She sighed, and leaned over him to press her forehead against his. He was clammy and sweaty, but he was alive. She spent a few moments just breathing with him, trying to stop crying. "I love you, Clark. I love you so much. Please don't die on me." He moaned, and she distracted him by capturing his lips in a quick, passionate kiss. He couldn't reciprocate, but she felt soothed a little by his breath alone.
"You two deserve each other."
Lex's vicious laugh rang in her ears, and she turned to glare at him. He was bleeding from a small bullet wound in his left arm, a through and through shot staining his crisp white shirt. Lois took a moment to be impressed by Maggie's sharp shooting skills before turning on Lex himself with clenched teeth. "You're right Lex. And you deserve to go to jail for a very long time."
He swore and lunged for her, even with his arms shackled, but Henderson pulled him back. Rage sparked like iron striking iron in his dark brown eyes. "You'll be sorry you ever left me, Lois. Mark my words. One of these days, you'll come crawling back, but it'll be too damn late."
Henderson shoved him bodily into the back of the squad car, being none too gentle. He slammed the door before he even had a chance to duck, but Lex still smiled that uneven grin. He tilted his chin up to shout at her through the crack in the window.
"If he doesn't kill you, then I will!"
She shivered. She hoped to death his words were only empty threats, and not promises.
The sirens wailing in the distance covered his cackle, and Lois finally tore her eyes away and back to Clark. He had his eyes closed, and his breaths were shallow. Her heart wrenched. She pushed back his hair soothingly, whispering reassurances of nothing to him as the ambulance pulled up.
A gentle hand landed on her shoulder, and she looked with bleary eyes up at Henderson. He motioned for her to take a step back as the EMTs stepped in around her to do their jobs and carry Clark away.
Lois turned and buried her face in Henderson's chest as she tried to stem her tears.
*****LnC*****
Frail was never a word he'd have attributed to Clark Kent.
In the few months since he'd known the man, he'd always been a large presence, physically and characteristically. And while he didn't always trust him, generally speaking he seemed like a good man. Lois genuinely seemed to love him, and for all her history, he didn't think he'd ever see that happen. He smiled sadly at her as he watched her hold his hand between her own, clutched tight. She was whispering to him— what he didn't know— but every now and then she'd crack a smile or laugh, only to be followed by tears. Bill took a deep breath before slipping inside and shutting the door behind him.
Lois looked up at him with wide, wet eyes, and released a sigh of relief at seeing him. He landed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave a slight squeeze. "You doing okay, Lane?"
She sniffed and nodded. "Yeah. Considering the fact that my ex just tried to murder my current partner... I'm fan-freaking-tastic."
Bill found himself laughing unexpectedly. "There she is."
Lois shot him a watery smile and leaned her head against Clark's hand.
"Are you ready to talk for a minute?"
Her face fell at that, and he hated that he had to do this. "As a friend, or a witness?"
"Whatever you're comfortable with."
She mulled it over for a second before replying. "Those are two different statements, Bill. There's some things I can only tell Bill, the beat cop I befriended after he arrested my dad. If I'm talking to Inspector Henderson—"
His heart broke for her for the millionth time. She'd been so scared that day— doe-eyed and in shock, and so young. He scrubbed a hand over his face. She'd hardly been seventeen. Here it was— almost ten years later— and she was coming to him with the same look in her eyes. Hell, she had echoes of the same bruising. Lucy had it easy, sent off to live with an aunt, but Lois...He felt his neck tightening at the memory. "It's not on the same level as your dad, is it?"
She shook her head sharply, hair skating against her jawline as the motion settled. "No. Well, not in some ways. In other ways..."
Henderson tossed his notebook down on the foot of the hospital bed and took a seat in the rickety chair beside the bed. "Okay. Tell me what you need to say, and we'll come up with a sanitized version for Inspector Henderson."
She smiled at him, grateful, and looked over Kent's form. He was still out cold, breathing through a tube. Bill waited patiently for her to collect her thoughts.
"Clark had nothing to do with Nigel's death."
That wasn't what he was expecting to hear. Bill leaned back in his seat and blinked at her. "Oh. Okay."
Her eyes were full of sorrow as she turned to look over at him. "He hurt me. And then Lex really hurt me. And Ultraman flew in to save the day, but Lex had something that could hurt Ultraman. And he was going to kill him."
The wheels started spinning in his brain, piecing the story together. "You mean like the same stuff he used to shoot Clark?"
She gaped at him a moment before her shoulders slumped, and he watched her give in. "How did you know?"
Bill grimaced. "I suspected something was off with him. Ultraman, and Kent. But then I saw those green bullets— one at the scene, and the other one they pulled from his leg—"
"Kryptonite," she whispered, and he filed the name away in the back of his mind. "He was going to kill him, Bill. He'd all but accepted his fate." She sulked. "It was Nigel's gun. It was self-defense."
He read between the lines and figured out what she wasn't saying. Bill nodded slowly, and chose his words carefully. "Nigel St. John was a bad man. The MPD isn't looking into his death too closely. Why look a gift horse in the mouth, right?"
She exhaled loudly and rested her eyes for a minute. "Thank you, Bill."
"What about today?"
"Hmm?"
"Those... Kryptonite? Those bullets. Lex knew he was—"
"Bill," she cut him off, glancing around sharply, and he lowered his voice.
"Lex... got his wires crossed." He waited for a nod from Lois before continuing, coming up with the story as he went. "Between his hatred for Clark Kent, for stealing you away and your investigation of him, and his hatred for Ultraman, for ruining his operations... He took the gun he'd intended to use on Ultraman and used it on Clark... because he found him first."
"Yeah. Sounds about right." Lois bit her lip hesitantly before leaning in and speaking again. "Thank you."
Henderson smirked. "Lois, not only does the man run half the crime in Metropolis, but he hurt you. What's one more charge?" She huffed a dry laugh at him, and it bolstered his spirits a little. "Plus, I feel a little bad accusing Ultraman. If there's anything either of you need, let me know, all right?"
"I might call you on that sooner than you think. Our blue friend here... He tends to heal a bit faster than your average attempted murder victim. So not yet... but soon... we might need to get him out of here."
Henderson nodded, and it all started sinking in for him. Clark Kent was Ultraman. It was a surprising revelation, especially given Kent's personality defects, but he supposed it added up. He couldn't begrudge the man for trying to be a good guy. It only improved his opinion of him.
He stood up and tousled her hair teasingly. "Keep me updated, all right kid?"
She scowled at her newly mussed hair, but settled when she saw the sincerity on his face. "I will. You too. With Lex."
Henderson nodded and picked up his notebook. "We're throwing the book at him. You won't ever have to worry about that man again."
