Table of contents is here

LAST TIME ON EMII:

How odd, he thought; he was talking to the memory of a woman he would almost certainly never see again and yet that realisation made him feel neither lonely or foolish. Instead, it made him feel good, perhaps because he had taken them, along with the many things they'd taught him, to his heart. There they offered, and would continue to offer, him strength whenever he needed it. He had needed some of that strength just now, he thought.

He smiled as he slid the photograph into a side pocket of the briefcase. Then he went over to his filing cabinet, unlocked it and dug around under the suspension files, looking for the folder he'd secreted there, away from casual view. This was his Luthor file. It was thinner than Lois and Clark's, but then he only added scraps of information and speculation to it when they came his way, on a case-by-case basis. Still, it might be useful to have it with him when he went to visit Lois. It might help to cross-check some of Lois and Clark's information, but, more importantly, it might complement any information his Lois had to offer.

Feeling more optimistic than he had just minutes before, CJ decided it was time to head home.


CHAPTER THREE

Perry must have been looking out for Lois because he waylaid her moments after she stepped out of the elevator. "So," he asked, "what happened down at the courthouse?"

"Before or after the trial was adjourned?" she asked vaguely, her mind still reeling in the aftermath of recent events.

"I was asking about the trial. Why? Is there something else I should know about?"

"I think I'd have to answer 'yes' to that one," said Lois. Even though she had promised to keep CJ out of it, she knew she couldn't pretend nothing had happened. There had been too many witnesses to her abrupt disappearance for that. "I was shot at and someone swooped down, scooped me up and dumped me on the roof of a nearby sky—"

"Chief!" Jimmy Olsen, who, upon Roberts' departure, had been promoted from general gopher to the post of reporter, broke into the conversation. "I think you're going to want to take a look at LN—" He broke off when he belatedly noticed who Perry was talking to. "Oh... Hi, Lois." He turned back to Perry and said, "So, I guess you already know all about it, then."

"Know about what? Lois was just funning me with some cockamamie tale about—"

"It's not cockamamie!" exclaimed Lois indignantly. "I tell you, it happened!"

"Chief," ventured Jimmy again, "if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, you really ought to take a look at LNN."

Lois noticed that Perry rolled his eyes. Then, as much to humour Jimmy as anything else, he said, "Okay. But this had better be worth it, Olsen."

Two minutes later, as they stood staring at the television screen, Perry murmured, "I see it, but I don't believe it."

The news report had started with Roberts standing on the courthouse steps, microphone in hand, recounting the miraculous events that had taken place "in this very place". Odd, thought Lois obliquely, how the word "pontificate" always popped into her head when she saw one of Roberts' pieces.

"... Nobody knows quite what happened. Even the heroine of the piece, Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane – who was snatched from the jaws of death – could not shed any light on the incident..."

"Snatched from the jaws of death?" exclaimed Lois. "Who writes this lame-brained stuff for him? Surely not even Roberts would write something that... bad!"

Perry, who was paying no attention to her outburst merely mumbled, "Uh, huh," and nodded with approval. "So, you didn't tell them anything. That's good. Very good. Saving the exclusive for us, huh? Excellent."

"Actually," she said, "there's nothing else I can tell you." Lois felt uncomfortable then. She hated lying – or, to be more exact, she hated lying to Perry. However, she told herself sternly, strictly speaking what she had just said wasn't a lie. She couldn't tell Perry everything she knew because she'd given her word to CJ that she wouldn't. Of course, that was splitting hairs, but she refused to think about that...

By the time she tuned back into the report, the footage had changed to an interview with someone a caption at the bottom of the screen identified as David Popovic. "... I was workin' in the fourth floor condo, along wiv Baz. We wuz just workin' away when sudden like there was this... well... It felt like a gust of wind, but that's impossible, right? I said to Baz, 'Didja feel that?' an' he said, 'Yeah,' and that wuz when we saw it wuz gone." Popovic paused dramatically.

Obligingly, Roberts, off camera, asked, "What was gone?"

"Three metres of electrical cable! Just gone. Vanished. At least that's what we thought until—"

This time Roberts cut in to discourage further comment, preferring to tell the next part of the story himself rather than have someone else upstage him. "The police found Lois Lane's would be assailant trussed up with the missing cable in a third-floor apartment. Police sources say that, like the other witnesses, he could give no clear account as to what had happened to him. Ms Lane herself was not available for comment. Now, back to Molly Richmond in the news room."

Molly's Barbie-doll face appeared on the screen. "Thank you, Robby," she simpered. "And this just in: the gunman has been named as Clive Myerson. As readers of the Daily Planet will know, Lois Lane yesterday—"

Perry muted the sound. "They're recycling your story now. We don't need to hear that."

"Myerson? Clive Myerson tried to kill me?"

"I take it," said Jimmy, "you didn't know that already."

"No, I most certainly didn't! The police didn't say a word to me about it!. Myerson! I knew he wasn't going to like me very much, but to kill me...!"

"Well, we've got our lead for the evening edition. Now, Lois, honey, after everything that's happened to you today, do you feel up to writing it?"

"Of course I do, Perry. It's my story."

"All right, then. Now... Are you sure you can't remember anything more about your rescuer? I mean, what did he – she? it? – look like? Did you get a good look?"

Lois's mind raced. If the other witnesses hadn't seen anything, then did she even need to reveal the little she had noticed at the time? Maybe she was taking a risk by keeping quiet, but she hoped not. She shook her head. "Sorry, Perry, but like everyone else has said... It just happened too fast."

He looked disappointed, but he didn't look sceptical, a detail which caused Lois to feel a pang of remorse. She kept quiet as Jimmy and Perry began to speculate as to what, precisely had saved her. A miracle? A freak of nature?

"Hey," Jimmy suddenly said brightly. "You think that maybe Metropolis has its very own Batman?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" snapped Lois with even more acid in her tone than was usual. Jimmy's joking suggestion, she thought, just might have come perilously close to the truth; her saviour had been a man at pains to keep his identity a secret. "You know as well as I do that Batman and his kind only exist in comic books... or in New York City." There was a pause before she added, "Besides, Batman can't fly."

*****

Although Lois wasn't altogether satisfied with her story, Perry seemed happy enough with it, and for that she was grateful. She couldn't help feeling, however, that she had sacrificed her journalistic integrity. She just hoped any future pay-off would make her current actions worthwhile. Was she being stupid, placing so much hope on CJ?

Given their past history, she found it almost incredible that she and CJ had managed to reach an... "Agreement" was too strong a term, she thought, for what they'd shared. Maybe "understanding" or "truce" were better words. Whatever it was, they'd managed to reach it surprisingly easily. Lois found it a little disquieting just how quickly CJ had slipped beneath her guard, but she couldn't bring herself to regret that fact.

Lois nibbled on her knuckle as she thought about her upcoming meeting with CJ. She frowned as she felt a flutter of anticipation in the pit of her stomach. It was an odd sensation and it took her a while to remember where and, more importantly, why she'd felt it before. The first time had been when she'd met that footballer – what was his name again? – back in high school. She'd felt it on several occasions since, too – when she'd met that French reporter, Claude, for instance. And then there had been that time, at Elyse's memorial service... The fluttering in her stomach was quickly replaced by a flip-flop sense of unease as she realised what she was feeling now was attraction. Attraction for... CJ Kent!

She pushed the treacherous thoughts away and found herself muttering under her breath, "Remember, Lois. This meeting is purely professional. Just business. Nothing more."

And thinking of business...

Subsequent events had forced her to push thoughts of the Allen trial to one side, but now that she had time to think about it again, she realised that CJ had dangled a tantalising lead in front of her. She knew she had to grab it.

"Jack!" Lois hollered across the news room. Her newest and most junior colleague ambled over to her. As usual, his studiedly bored expression and earring made him look more like a delinquent than the eager-to-learn reporter-wannabe he actually was. Intelligent and keen to please, Jack was proving himself to be a more than adequate substitute for Jimmy.

"Yeah?" he asked as he came to a stop beside her.

"I need you to do something for me." She handed a list of names to him. "I want you to do background checks on these people."

"Are you looking for anything in particular?" Jack asked.

Lois considered that for a moment. "Can you hack into their bank accounts?" she asked.

"You know that's illegal, don't you?" The twinkle in Jack's eye and the enthusiasm evident on his face suggested that he wasn't too concerned about that fact; rather, he looked as though he was already warming up to the challenge.

"That doesn't answer my question," said Lois lightly.

More seriously, Jack said, "Who are these guys, anyway?"

Lois looked at him sombrely. "The jury on the Allen trial."

"The jury!"

She nodded.

"What are you interested in them for?"

Lois leaned in and, speaking quietly but intensely, drawing Jack into her confidence, said, "I've a... source... who says that someone has gotten to the jury. I want to know if it's true."

Jack's grin widened at that piece of information. "Okay, Lois. I'll see what I can find out for you."

"Thanks," she said. "I'm heading home now. Call me there if you find out anything."

"Sure thing, Lois."

*****

Lois was casting critical eyes around her apartment when the intercom buzzed. She lifted the handset that would connect her with her visitor, who, she knew, would be standing, ear jammed against the tinny speaker in the doorway below. "Hello?"

"Hi, Lois. It's CJ. Can I come up?" The poor connection made his words crackle in her ear.

She didn't bother to make any verbal reply, knowing that any response she made would be drowned out by the street noise and the angry rasping of the door release.

Lois began to fill the thirty-odd seconds she guessed it would take for CJ to reach her apartment by unnecessarily plumping cushions and straightening various knickknacks.

What was she so excited about? she wondered before she realised just how stupid a question that actually was. A better question might have been, what wasn't she excited about? She wanted to know everything there was to know about CJ Kent: how had he acquired his powers? Could he do anything else other than fly, move faster than the eye could see and listen in on other people's conversations? What was he going to tell her about Luthor?

She began to pace to and fro across the living room as she wondered how she was going to get the most out of this upcoming... interview?

Maybe that was what she was excited about, she suddenly thought. No, "excited" wasn't the right word, at least not entirely. She was... she was nervous. That was it; she was nervous. She wasn't going to be working on a story this evening. Her meeting with CJ wasn't going to be an interview; but interviews were the kind of social encounter she was most familiar with. This was going to be a... A what? An exploratory conversation. Lois nodded to herself. Yes, that sounded good. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

She glanced around the room again and spotted a romance novel – one of her few secret vices – lying on an occasional table. She whipped it away, opened her coat closet and threw it carelessly inside.

Just in time, too, because the knock on her door told her that CJ had arrived. "Coming!" she called. She ran her hands down her body, smoothing the lines of her freshly laundered blouse and trousers, straightened her shoulders, took another deep breath and unbolted the door.

CJ, she immediately noticed, had changed out of the charcoal grey business suit he had been wearing earlier into something more casual. As she cast her eyes over him, she realised that he had taken care over his choice of clothing for the evening. His navy shirt was freshly ironed and crisp, the creases still evident along the length of his arms and torso. His black jeans, which were painted around his thighs, looked smart enough to be nearly new and his sneakers were almost spotless. The briefcase he was carrying added a businesslike touch that was at odds with his otherwise casual appearance.

She thought it was rather flattering that he had made an effort for her, but then again, why shouldn't he have done so? After all, she'd done something similar for him, although she wasn't altogether sure what had compelled her to do so. If the warm regard she read in his brown eyes was anything to go by, he appreciated her efforts every bit as much as she appreciated his.

CJ moved his left hand from behind his back to reveal a bunch of flowers. He held them out to her, smiled nervously and said, "I brought you these."

"Roses?" Lois asked, hoping that she managed to sound at least a little sceptical.

"The florist told me that red and white roses are for partnership. And that's what we are, right? Partners?"

"Not yet... CJ. Maybe not ever. It depends on what you've got to offer me." However, as she reached out to take the flowers from him, she was uncomfortably aware that her soft tone and the almost shy smile playing around her mouth were in direct contradiction to her discouraging words. "Come on in, else the neighbours'll come out to see what's going on. I don't want to be the topic of tomorrow's Laundromat gossip."

"You dish it out, but can't receive. Is that it?" he asked good-naturedly.

"I don't write gossip," replied Lois perhaps more archly than she had any right to. After all, some of the scurrilous things she had written about CJ in the past had been little more than unsubstantiated supposition. "I write the news. There's a big difference."

"But isn't the news simply gossip backed up by hard evidence?" CJ queried.

"And a trial would be what? Gossip backed up by conflicting evidence?"

"Touché," answered CJ, refusing to take offence at her comeback.

She pulled the door open more widely and stepped back. Waving a hand in the direction of her living room, she said, "Come in."

CJ stepped over the threshold and glanced around. Aware of his appraisal of her apartment, she saw it through fresh eyes, taking in the decor and the carefully assembled mass of treasures that meant a great deal to her but which probably looked austere to a stranger. The walls alternated between naked brick and a combination of wood panelling and painted plaster. There were few pictures or soft touches. The love seats were elegant but uncomfortable, not designed for relaxation. Then again, Lois didn't have much time for relaxation. For her, work had always come first. It was her home, but it wasn't homey.

To Lois's surprise, CJ said, "Nice place you've got here," in a tone which suggested genuine approval.

"Thank you. Make yourself comfortable. I'll just put these in water." Even though it was unnecessary, she raised the roses in a vague salute to make it clear what she was talking about.

CJ nodded and moved off in the general direction of the love seats while Lois went into the kitchen alcove.

When she returned she placed the flowers, now carelessly arranged in a glass vase, down on the coffee table. Then, her back rigid with nervous anticipation, she sat down opposite CJ. "So..." she said, getting down to business. "Luthor, huh." It was a vague opening, but it would serve to get the conversation started.

CJ took a deep breath and rubbed his hands on his thighs. "Yeah. Luthor." Then he stood up, ran a hand through his hair, and sat down again. Lois could see he was nervous. Finally he said, "I'm not sure where to begin, here. I mean, I don't have any proof, but..." He trailed off, at a loss as to how to continue.

"But you have ideas, right? Hunches?" asked Lois hopefully.

CJ nodded. "Actually, it's a bit more than that. At least, I think it is. But... You know that stuff I said you wouldn't believe earlier?"

Lois nodded.

"Well, it has to do with that. Maybe if I tell you the story..."

Lois nodded again, this time almost smiling. There was something oddly beguiling about the edgy man in front of her. He was almost skittish, she mused. In an attempt to give him a chance to relax and compose himself, she said, "I'd like to hear it. But, if this is going to take some time, perhaps I'd better make some coffee first."


TBC