Thanks - as ever - to Nancy, Alisha and Beth.
Last time:
Clark stood to walk to the door.
"I'm looking for a man named Clark. About six foot, dark hair..."
Clark's jaw dropped as he walked out the door and saw her standing there.
"Lois," he whispered.
It was her.
She'd come to find him.
The only question was if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
The sinking filling in his stomach as she looked at him told him the answer.
It wasn't a good thing.
Chapter 4
Lois sighed and rested her head against the window of the plane. She'd hid in her room once she woke up. Her headache was mostly gone when she woke but she refused to answer any of Molly's questions about what had happened.
Her flight hadn't left until the next morning, but she hadn't even ventured to the basement for the ghost tour. Instead, she'd ordered pizza and room service and tried to remember what had happened.
She remembered fleeing the bookstore and she had cucumber lotion that she didn't remember buying. She remembered sliding out of bed and putting his shirt on and him being in the bathroom awfully fast. She remembered him... drying her off with his eyes after they had... spent some time in the Jacuzzi together.
That couldn't be right, though, could it?
But that was what she remembered.
She didn't say much but the minimum to the stewardesses and nothing to anyone else until she reached Metropolis.
She got her bag and hailed a cab, heading towards her apartment.
She left her suitcase sitting by the door, heading straight for the freezer and pulling out the tub of Rocky Road. She grabbed a spoon out of the drawer and started for the couches in her living room before changing her mind and heading towards her room. Her couches just weren't comfortable enough for this kind of thing.
She set the ice cream on her dresser as she pulled her favorite pair of pajamas out of a drawer and changed clothes. She stuck an Ivory Tower video in but couldn't concentrate as she finished the rest of the ice cream in the tub.
Sleep didn't come easy but she finally managed to settle down for the night.
Perry called her into his office not long after she arrived the next morning.
"Lois, darlin', far be it from me to meddle or anything, but I noticed you got yourself a new piece of jewelry while you were gone. Did you run off and get married without telling me?"
Lois hesitated. "It was given to me," she started, "and I noticed that when I wore it, the slimy guys at the restaurant bar didn't hit on me so I decided it was a good idea to just wear it." That was the complete truth. She had noticed several guys looking at her who backed off when she'd unobtrusively flashed the ring. And she'd avoided the whole 'married' thing without lying.
Perry nodded. "Well, then, okay. Now, get back to work. That police academy graduation story won't write itself."
She sighed. "Come on, Perry. Give me something juicier than that."
He shook his head. "You're still working your way up the ladder. Bring me some great stories and it's more likely you'll get juicier stories."
She stared at him and nodded. She had just the thing. It would mean working late nights while doing her 'day job' at the same time with no slack from Perry until she had results. She'd get Jimmy to help her with it and back her up if she needed it. No need for Perry to even know.
Lois spent the next three weeks working almost non-stop. During the day, she ran down the stories Perry assigned her – police academy graduations, mayoral press conferences, school board meetings, all kinds of boring projects – but at night... She went undercover as a scraggy teenage boy working as a runner for a chop shop. It took nearly a week to get in with the gang and another two to get the information she needed.
It was a relief when she didn’t have pretend to be a boy anymore, but she'd realized a couple things in the meantime.
First, Claude wasn't anything compared to Clark. She'd told Clark there was a guy at works he was hoping would ask her out but two days after she got back, a chance elevator encounter left her with the realization that Clark was eighty times the man Claude was – or more.
Second, throwing herself into her work, keeping herself so busy that she didn't have time to think about that amazing night, was the way to go. Clark was a drifter. He'd get a lawyer when he was in an American town long enough or when he realized he hadn't heard from hers.
But she couldn't bring herself to call a lawyer. Not yet. She'd wait for him and, having kept up the schedule she'd had since she got home, could always claim she'd been too busy to deal with it. And she had another excuse, too.
She'd found the marriage certificate in her purse. Clark K something. His name was smudged. She could probably figure out who he was pretty quickly by finding the Smallville paper and calling there, but she kept telling herself she was too busy.
The reality was that she just didn't want to deal with it, but she wouldn't admit that, not even to herself.
Perry had been pleased with the story if a bit annoyed that she'd gone undercover without telling him about it first.
She spent the next two weeks not undercover but in the newsroom and elsewhere investigating the unexplained heat wave in late March.
Sure March was always a weird weather month in New Troy, but temperatures hovering at nearly a hundred for most of the month was beyond weird. She'd first noticed while working on the car story and by the time she was done with that, everyone else had noticed, too.
With the help of Dr. Katherine Goodman and Jimmy, she exposed the flaw in the new Lexcorp nuclear power plant, effectively shutting it down before it could even be turned on.
By then, of course, her one month anniversary had come and gone without much notice.
Perry was finally starting to realize that she was a decent investigative reporter and she got a little more free rein from her editor. With the help of her newest source, Bobby Bigmouth, she was able to expose the kidnapping scheme of world famous magician Darren Ronick's assistant, Constance Johnson. She'd even managed to save the life of Dr. Andre Novak in the process.
That took another week.
She convinced Perry to let her cover the trial of Eugene Laderman. She'd worked on the periphery of the case with Norcross and Judd when they first broke it, but they'd since moved on so she was the reporter most familiar with the case. She'd never really believed that Eugene had done what they said he did – murdered Henry Harrison – and neither had Norcross or Judd, but that's what the evidence said.
She was so convinced of his innocence that she helped him get a room at the Apollo Hotel. It took a week, but she was able to convince Detective Betty Reed to help her stop both Henry, and his wife, Lena, from spreading a virus that would have brought down most computers until they bought the antivirus program from Harrison's company. Since Henry wasn't dead, they were able to prove that the body was an unidentified man killed while setting up Eugene for Harrison's death as well as the computer virus.
She spent four days tracking down the 'Smart Kids' who'd run away from the Beckworth State School and had played pranks on the entire town. Once she found them, she'd exposed Dr. Alfred Carlton and his Metamide V and Metamide VI as harmful to the kids. He'd escaped prosecution when he OD'd on his own creation but the kids were safe.
Of course, then, just as her two month anniversary was approaching, her ex-boyfriend, Patrick Sullivan, showed up in town. They spent several evenings together catching up on old times. By the end of the week, she was in a bit better mood.
Until he tried to kill her.
It was only because Inspector Henderson showed up searching for the stolen emeralds and mask that he didn't.
All the more reason she should find a lawyer and find this Clark K.
Before she could, though, she was embroiled in a mystery in Chinatown. Chen Chow, a friend from college, called her with a tip about Chinese families essentially being slaves in that part of Metropolis. Unfortunately, six days later, half of Perry's retirement was gone as Chen's sister finally defeated the henchmen hired by Perry's old friend, Harlan Black.
And then Perry called her into his office.
She fiddled nervously with her wedding band as she waited for him to get off the phone. It was times like this she hated. Except for the week she'd spent hanging out with Patrick – before she realized he was insane – she'd worked until she literally dropped over exhausted many nights.
But times like this...
Times like this she had time to think, even for a few minutes, about her... husband.
Did he even realize they were married? Had they bought him a ring too? Or had he woken up thinking he'd... gotten laid and that was the end of it? If it wasn't for the marriage license hidden in her apartment and what she remembered about him saying there had never been an 'after' before, she'd have thought he was just looking for a notch on his bedpost.
She was staring at the floor in front of Perry's desk when she realized that he was off the phone and watching her.
"What?" she asked, somewhat defiantly.
"Two things. First, I want you to see the doctor this afternoon. Don't think I haven't noticed you working yourself into the ground. But even more than that, you're pale and peaked and those trips to the bathroom off and on the last couple weeks... I don't buy that it's just a stomach bug. I want you to get checked out and no arguin' with me, darlin'." He gave her a look she knew not to argue with.
"Fine," she muttered. "If I can get in..."
"You can get in. I've already got an appointment for you with the Planet's doc. If he says you're fine, great. If he says go to your own doc, you go. Got it?"
She nodded.
"Second, you're spending the weekend in Kansas."
Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Excuse me?"
"Dr. Donny had to have his appendix taken out this morning. He's doing that series on hospital funding reforms and he was supposed to go to Kansas. The tickets have already been changed to your name. You'll fly into Springfield, Missouri Friday afternoon, drive to Independence, Kansas then fly out of Kansas City on Sunday."
She glared at him. "That's an odd flight schedule."
"Well, he had interviews scheduled in all three places. He's going to conduct the interviews over the phone – most of it is going to be hospital-y stuff that he understands and all that – but I still want someone on the ground at the fundraiser in Independence. Apparently, it's run by a friend of his from med school which is why he picked it. You'll have an interview with her about fundraiser specifics. Otherwise, just relax, enjoy yourself and get some quotes, eat some barbecue..."
"Barbecue?" she interrupted.
He nodded. "It's a barbecue competition. Why?"
"Barbecue has sounded really good lately. I don't know why. I like barbecue but it's almost like I've been craving it lately." Suddenly she was looking forward to this. After all, what were the odds that *he* would be there? He wasn't from Independence; he was from *Smallville*. They were probably in opposite corners of the state.
She talked with Perry for a few more minutes before heading upstairs to see the doctor. He wanted a urine sample and drew blood, asked questions and did a cursory exam. She went home to pack, thinking nothing of it. She was fine.
She was Lois Lane.
The next morning she climbed on a plane to St. Louis and then to Springfield, Missouri where she rented a car. It was almost a three hour drive to Independence, she noted looking at the map.
And then she noticed something else.
She blanched when she realized how close it was to a town she'd thought was completely made up. Or at least had convinced herself was in the opposite corner of the state.
Smallville.
Well, she'd just have to do her best to keep a low profile and keep her eyes open for... her husband.
And if she saw him, she'd run the other way.
Or hide.
Yes. That was the better plan.
Hiding.
Except Lois Lane didn't hide.
From anything.
Except...
Was she technically Lois Lane anymore?
She didn't even know his last name.
Or hers.
Had she officially changed her last name somehow?
She sighed as she avoided Oklahoma – by a mile or so – and headed into Kansas.
She'd promised herself for years that she wouldn't get married unless she was absolutely certain it was going to last. She'd seen too many failed marriages growing up and had seen how it had destroyed both of her parents and Lucy.
She'd decided that she wouldn't marry for love. *If* she ever married at all, she'd marry a man who was her friend, was passably attractive who she felt *something* physical for.
Clark was definitely attractive – unless her memory was completely faulty – and the physical... They'd had physical attraction in spades from the moment they met, even if she'd try to deny it to herself. And then later, they'd... made love more than once and it had been so much better than her few other experiences. No, her other experiences didn't even begin to compare.
And if it really had been his first time... she turned bright red at the thought of what they might be like together once he had some experience.
She pulled into the parking lot of the Apple Tree Inn and sighed. Dr. Donny was supposed to stay with his friend but that wasn't an option for her. He'd said this was the best hotel in town, but 'best' was a relative term. It looked fairly nice, but the Lexor it wasn't. She grabbed her bag out of the trunk and headed inside.
She smiled slightly at the couple in front of her as they moved out of the way.
"Can I help you?" a pretty redhead asked her.
"Lois Lane, Daily Planet. I should have a reservation." She set her purse on the counter.
The young lady clicked on the computer and frowned. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but there's no reservation here."
Lois sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Can I get a room then, please?"
"All I have are the executive suites. Will that work for you?"
She nodded. "Sure." Perry wouldn't be happy about it but if the travel guys hadn't made her reservation, it wasn't her fault. No, Perry wouldn't care. The suits upstairs might, but she wasn't going to worry about it.
A few more clicks on the computer and she was all set. "You're ready to go."
A man who appeared to be the manager walked out from the office area. "Beth, we should have a guest named Lois Lane checking in," he said quietly. "She has a message waiting. Could you let her know?"
Beth smiled at Lois. "You have a message waiting, Ms. Lane."
I smiled back. "Thank you."
The manager looked chagrinned. "You're supposed to call your doctor at work," he told Lois.
"Thank you."
That was puzzling. Would they call her if everything was fine? Did that mean something wasn't fine?
She took her key and paperwork and headed towards the elevator. When she got to her room, the first thing she did was kick off her shoes and wander around for a minute.
A Jacuzzi.
She turned her back on that and decided to call the doctor and ignore the memories that were coming to her.
Ten minutes later, she hung up.
She wanted to cry but refused to let herself. That settled it though – at some point this weekend, she was going to have to go to Smallville and try to straighten this out.
Without realizing what she was doing, she dozed off for a few hours – something she was sure her body badly needed after how hard she'd been on it the last couple months. After waking up, she changed and headed towards the first night of the fundraiser.
She wandered around for a while, sampling many of the different options. She found one she absolutely loved and somehow managed to sweet talk the guy running the MJK Farms booth into giving her a whole sandwich.
She sat at one of the tables and chatted with a lady named Maisie, taking a few notes as she did. Maisie was from Smallville and she thought about asking about Clark but couldn't bring herself to do it.
After a couple hours, she made her way back to the hotel where she emailed Perry, telling him that she'd be flying back on Tuesday but not explaining why.
Sleep didn't come easily and, when she finally did sleep, she didn't sleep *well*.
Around ten the next morning, she headed back to the fundraiser. She spent the day sampling, watching the judging and awards festivities and talking to hospital administrators, doctors, nurses and other members of the community.
And then she saw him.
It was past dinner time and there was a dance floor set up near the stage. A local band was playing and there were a number of people doing the Tush Push.
He was one of them.
Her heart ended up in her throat.
He was even more gorgeous than she remembered.
And he was dancing with a petite woman with light brown hair.
Smiling.
Laughing.
Flirting.
Tears filled her eyes.
Of course there was someone else.
So why hadn't he contacted her through his lawyer? Or had he been out of the country and had just gotten back? He was an international drifter after all.
She watched him as he moved in unison with the others on the floor. He had an easy grace about him that she admired, that she enjoyed watching.
Her eyes stayed on him until the song ended. He gave his partner a big hug and they walked off the dance floor with his arm still around her shoulders as they laughed together.
At least he hasn't kissed her.
She turned and walked straight to her car, ignoring everything else. She didn't know where she was going; she just drove.
Twenty minutes later, she saw a sign.
Smallville.
On impulse, she took the turn.
She drove slowly through the small town. Smallville was certainly an appropriate name for it. The newspaper office was easily spotted. That was where she'd start her search Monday, she decided.
She found the high school and sat in the parking lot staring at the football stadium for long minutes. He'd been a football player. Or she was pretty sure he'd said he was. He had the build for it. He'd probably been skinnier in high school, but he definitely had the build for it. Probably a running back or receiver, she thought.
She pulled out and headed back to Independence and her hotel.
She spent all of Sunday in her room contemplating how she was going to handle this. Maybe she should just go back to Metropolis and find a lawyer.
Maybe she didn't need to actually talk to him, to see him.
She didn't need the rejection.
That was it.
She should just go back to Metropolis and let the lawyers deal with it.
Even as she thought it, she knew it wasn't going to happen that way. No, she had to go see him. Even if it meant rejection because then it would be over for good and she'd never wonder.
Sunday night was another night filled with dreams of their night together but was otherwise restless.
It was afternoon on Monday before she convinced herself to leave the hotel and twenty minutes of driving aimlessly around Smallville before she finally parked in front of the newspaper.
She took a deep breath and went inside before she could change her mind.
"Can I help you?" asked the lady at the desk.
"I hope so," she said, her stomach churning. "I'm looking for someone. I know he's from Smallville and he mentioned the paper once but..."
"Well, I know just about everyone from around these parts," the lady said with a smile. "For the last thirty years or more. Who is it you're looking for?"
She took a deep breath and blurted it out. "I'm looking for a man named Clark. About six foot, dark hair..."
She heard a noise and turned.
There he was, papers in hand. "Lois," he whispered.
He remembered her name.
"Um, hi," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Hi," he said back, quietly.
She was well aware of the woman at the desk watching them curiously.
"Um, come on in," he said, gesturing towards the office.
She hesitated before following him, grateful when he closed the door behind him. But that door wasn't sound proof and this wasn't a discussion she wanted to have where anyone could overhear.
"Listen," she said suddenly. "Is there somewhere else we can talk? Somewhere... private?"
He looked at her and nodded. "Okay." He stacked papers neatly in one of the boxes on his desk. He put his pens back in the pen holder and then pulled an envelope out of his desk.
Probably divorce papers, she thought.
He stood up and smiled. "Let's go."
"Where?"
"Wherever you want," he said softly. "We could go back to my folks' house if you want. They're not there," he added quickly. "They won't be back until later this evening, but I don't have a car here in town."
"I have one." She opened the door and smiled at the lady there as she walked out the front door.
"Lisa, I'm heading home for the night. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes, sir, Mr. Kent, sir."
Clark laughed. "Have a good night."
She was already in the driver's seat when he slid in on the passenger side. "Just tell me where to go."
Fifteen minutes later, she turned onto a gravel drive and came to a stop in front of the farmhouse.
"Come on in," he said, climbing out of the car.
She was out by the time he made it to the driver's side. She'd noticed he was wearing a wedding ring. Was it the one she'd given him or was he already married to the mousy brunette from Saturday?
She followed him into the house. She took in the country hominess and the spinning piece of art that looked like it was made out of tractor parts or something.
"Have a seat," he said, motioning to the couch. "Can I get you something to drink?"
She didn't want to exchange pleasantries or discuss the merits of buttermilk versus skim or hog futures or corn futures or...
Their future.
She finally blurted it out.
"I'm pregnant."
The only sound was that of a glass shattering.
"What?" came his voice from the kitchen.
"I'm pregnant."
