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Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found Here

Where we left off in Part 21…

“Superman hasn’t been seen in Metropolis since he rescued us from Bureau 39,” Lois said, getting to the heart of her reason for talking to him in the first place and brushing his romantic words aside. “Have you heard from him?” He knew that she had seen Superman after that, but Lois needed to know that her man was okay. It had been two whole days and, damn him, Clark was the only one who could contact her hero.

The muscle that tensed in Clark’s jaw, whenever she brought up Superman, went so tight it caused Clark’s spine to stiffen.

“I’m worried that Trask might have gotten to him,” she clarified softer, unintentionally letting some of her fear escape. She noted that her words made him relax.

“He’s fine, Lois. He said that he needed to check on things in other parts of the world,” Clark replied, again with the vague.

Lois swore that the first chance she got, she was going to insist that Superman tell her how to contact him directly, so she could cut out this middle man. “Where in the world? What things? Who did he talk to? What did they discuss? This only goes to prove that you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter, Clark, let alone my partner,” she snapped.

“I didn’t probe,” he retorted, shifting his feet as he still held the two coffees he had brought. “A man deserves to keep some aspects of his life private, don’t you think, Lois?”

Clark’s phrasing implied that he knew she would agree with him. She had practically insisted that he pretend to be her fake boyfriend to protect her and Superman’s relationship, keep it private, after all. Well, that relationship went the way of the Dodo bird, thanks to Chuck, so would her fake one. Or was Clark talking about his own private life? What had he really been doing all weekend long?

“I’ve had it up to here with you keeping things from me. I can’t take it anymore, Chuck. I told you I need complete openness and honesty in our relationship, or it was going to die a quick death. Well, here it is: dead, thanks to you. We’re going back to you being you and me being me. There will be no more of us being ‘we’ because we’re through!” She grabbed the offered coffee, turned on her heel, and marched back to her desk. “And that counts double for our work partnership, too!”

Clark just shook his head and sighed, heading for his desk.

“Lane! There was an attempted robbery at the main branch of the Metropolis Bank,” Perry called from his office. “Get over there and…”

Before Lois could jump to her feet, Clark interrupted their boss, “I just came from there, Chief. Superman caught the robbers and rescued the hostages.” He set his own coffee down on his desk and shrugged out of his jacket. “I’ll have it written up for you in a few.”

“Whoo-woo, Kent! Way to go on the initiative there, son,” Perry praised. “When you’ve got that typed up, I’ll need to see you in my office.” Her boss shot Lois a ‘he doesn’t seem off to me’ expression. “Never mind, Lane.”

“Yes, sir,” Clark replied.

Lois harrumphed and shot a scowl at her former partner. He looked different today. She pressed her lips together and studied him, trying to figure out what it was. She took a sip of the coffee he had brought her – perfect, of course – and stiffened as the difference hit her straight in the chest, causing it to ache.

Clark wasn’t wearing a tie at all, just a black Oxford, buttoned all the way up to his neck, which was wrong, a completely wrong look for him. He had styled his hair in another way, too. It was no longer parted down the middle with a curl coming down on either side of his forehead. Now, it was more on top of his head, fluffier, but one curl still trying to sneak down on the right side, more like the style she given him the other night, when she realized he was lying about who he was. It was all wrong. This new look made him seem sexier somehow.

Lois hated it.

***

Part 22

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Less than Partners Again
**********************

Clark started typing up the robbery story from his notes and memory, trying to remember to keep Superman’s point of view to the minimum. Focusing on the story helped him keep his mind off Lois.

He closed his eyes and let himself have five seconds of pain over her words and then went back to typing up his story.

So, Lois still blamed him for Superman rejecting her. Clark figured he had no right to be angry at her for that opinion. Despite her not knowing that Superman and Clark Kent were the same person, Clark knew he had been responsible for Superman’s actions.

Great thinking, there, Kent, he scoffed. Let’s have Superman break it off with Lois so she’ll fall for Clark, only completely forgetting that she had no interest whatsoever in him. It was times like this he wished he had his parents to talk to about his problems.

Clark knew what his mom would have said, “Well, honey, you walked into the water with your shoes on; you have no right now to be annoyed that they’re wet.” He reached into his back pocket to pull out his wallet to look at his folks’ photo, when he remembered he had locked it in the safety deposit box with the remainder of his gold.

He had lied to Lois. No, he hadn’t lied, but certainly had misled her. Yes, he had bought furniture and household items for his new apartment. He was now sleeping on a bed with sheets and a comforter; he had bought a couch, a TV, a VCR, and a coffee table. He had been able to find some of his favorite books, and even some new ones, including that one he had speed-read at Cat’s. Most of the weekend though, he had spent in Smallville, helping out on the Kent family farm as a drifter by the name of Jerome.

Clark still hadn’t approached the Kents themselves, but he had wanted to be on hand in Kansas in case Trask or anyone else from Bureau 39 came back for an impromptu visit. Clark had mainly been there to protect his adoptive family, whether they knew they were that or not.

He had repaired the old sprinkler system over in the fields they were going to sell to the Irigs. He had finished weeding the field of corn he had watched Martha Kent working on when he had initially flown by Saturday morning. The closest he had come to the house while the Kents were at home was when he had fixed the internal ladder to the barn’s hayloft and the hinges to one of the stall doors, which were about to fall off.

Clark hadn’t gone the whole weekend unnoticed on the farm. Thomas Irig had bumped into him out in the field while he was working on the sprinkler system. Luckily, he hadn’t been doing anything extra super at the moment the man appeared.

He had given Thomas the same drifter-named-Jerome story he had given the men working on the ramp. Thomas had been so thrilled that someone other than himself had fixed the sprinkler system and that he had someone to talk to, he was inclined to buy Clark’s story without much explanation. It was on Thomas’ suggestion that Clark accompanied him to the Kents’ barn to help unload the hay and move it into the hayloft. It was good, tedious work, and Clark loved it.

When Thomas had returned to the Irig farm, Clark had stood in the hayloft and watched the Kents having dinner, discussing this and that. It had made Clark happy to see that Jonathan was out of bed and trying to do things around the house, but he could see it was still a learning process, an adjustment period. He saw Jonathan lean over and kiss Martha’s cheek for no reason at all, except that he loved her. He watched as Martha squeezed Jonathan’s hand reassuringly in return. It had given Clark hope to see that these people, who were essentially his folks, were still in love; hope that his folks, had they not died, would have still been just in love; hope that he himself might succeed in his romantic endeavors with Lois.

He thought back to when he had met the folks of that Clark over in that other dimension, when he had gone to help them get rid – once again – of Tempus, of how they had embraced him like he was their son. It was too much of a pipedream to ever expect that these strangers would ever feel for him, what those strangers in that other dimension had felt for their son’s lookalike, but dreamed of it he did. When he wasn’t dreaming of Lois, he imagined what his life could be like if he had parents once more.

Only after the Kents had gone to bed, did Clark return to Metropolis to wash up, do a quick fly-over the city, and head to bed. It had been the first night he had slept soundly since moving into his new apartment.

Friday night, he hadn’t slept well, and he didn’t think it was because he was lying on a pile of blankets on a hard wood floor. When he had finally allowed himself to go to “bed,” he had ended up dwelling on what Lois had told him before storming out of his apartment, about how he wasn’t really living there.

He wondered if it was true. He had been busy at work, but was that the real reason he hadn’t taken time to furnish his new apartment? Had there been a part of him that didn’t want to get too attached to this dimension in case it didn’t work out with Lois, and he needed to return to his home dimension? Had he been doing that unconsciously? He hadn’t meant to, and to prove to himself that he was serious about this Lois and this dimension, Clark woke at dawn and spent several hours that morning picking out furniture. Should Lois… no, the next time Lois came to his apartment, he wanted her to see that he was definite about Metropolis, his job at the Daily Planet, and her.

On Sunday morning, after watching the Kents leave for church, Clark did something risky. He landed in the small plot of land beside the house that Martha used for her own personal garden. Clark had noticed the previous day that she all but abandoned it due to her extra burdens with Jonathan’s limitations and her having to do all his chores on top of her own. Clark had remembered how important the family garden had been to his mom, how important it had been for her to have fresh vegetables to have for the dinner table all summer long, and extra to can for the winter.

Clark may have not been able to arrive to this dimension early enough to save Jonathan Kent from his accident, but he could give Martha her kitchen garden for a late Mother’s Day gift. He removed the weeds, tilled the soil, and planted some vegetable starts and seeds he had picked up on his way to Smallville that morning. He marked what and where he had planted everything so she would know. He also weeded and watered her strawberry patch. This Martha Kent may not have been his mother, but the poor woman would have to suffer through him thanking her for being the best mother he had known in his mom’s place.

“Lois!” Perry yelled from his office door, pulling Clark from his thoughts. “City Hall’s announcing the new ‘Key to the City’ recipient in an hour. Get down there and cover it.”

Clark noticed that he hadn’t written a word since those initial few sentences.

“Really, Chief?” Lois yawned in response. “Isn’t that more of Cat’s purview?”

“Scat!” Perry roared. “Maybe you can finally land that Lex Luthor interview.”

Clark glanced over at his now former partner. She had never told Perry about her interview date with Luthor? Lois raised her upper lip in slight derision at this suggestion before she caught Clark’s gaze; she shot him one in return daring him to go tell the Chief on her. Clark shook his head slightly and returned to his story.

“Perry, you and I both know that Lex Luthor has better things to do than attend a press briefing at City Hall. I’ll try to talk to him at the actual ceremony on Friday,” Lois replied, her tone hopeful, but another quick glance from Clark showed him she would rather be dragged off kicking and screaming to a girl’s slumber party with hair styling and fingernail painting with Cat Grant than talk to Lex Luthor again.

Clark glanced down at his notes, unable to hide his grin. He was more than happy with that development.

***

Jimmy waited until Lois had left to cover the press conference over at City Hall. Once she was gone, he approached CK’s desk.

“Hey, CK,” he said hesitantly, unsurely, and with lots of guilt.

“Hi, Jimmy, what’s up?” CK said, giving him a warm smile that Jimmy felt he was sure he didn’t deserve. The younger man watched as CK pressed a key on his computer and shot his copy over to the printer.

“I… uh… just want to… uh… apologize,” Jimmy mumbled, shifting from one foot to the other.

“Apologize?” CK questioned. “For what?” Jimmy had the reporter’s complete attention and that didn’t make this any easier.

“For breaking up your relationship with Lois,” Jimmy said in a rush. “It’s all over the office how she stomped on your heart this morning.” He gulped. Yeah, that probably wasn’t the best comfort to give the guy. “I didn’t know. Honestly, CK, if I had known that you and her…” He coughed. “I wouldn’t have asked Cat about you two hanging from the rafters. That was totally unsmooth of me. I should have never revealed your indiscretions in front of Lois. If I had known that there was anything between you and Lois, I swear…”

CK pressed his lips together in annoyance. “Jimmy!” He sighed and held up a hand. “You didn’t break Lois and me up. Okay.”

Jimmy’s jaw dropped. “I didn’t?” He was so sure he had. Knowing Lois, he had learned that mentioning to her that her current beau was even talking to Cat Grant, let alone knocking boots with the gossip columnist, would have been grounds for the gutting of said beau, which going by rumors, Lois did to CK that morning publicly in the bullpen.

“No, Jimmy, I screwed that up all on my own,” CK admitted.

If knowledge of CK’s transgression with Cat hadn’t heated Lois’ coils, what had? “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“No, not really, Jimmy. Thanks, but that’s kind of what made her angry in the first place,” CK answered with a slight shake to his head.

Jimmy’s eyes bugged. CK had talked behind Lois’ back about their relationship? To whom? He glanced around the newsroom. Who could he go to find out the dirt?

Cat sidled up beside him. “What Clark is too much of a gentleman to admit is that there was no relationship to break up,” she announced.

“What?” Jimmy sputtered. Had the rumors of their yelling match this morning been wrong? It was true that CK didn’t seem too broken up about his break-up. Did he have nerves of steel or was Cat right?

CK’s lips pressed into a line again. “I didn’t say that.”

Cat laughed. “Come on, Clark. She’s delusional if she thought that there was anything between…” The joy slid off her face as she stared at CK and her eyes bugged. He must have been sending her some kind of signals that Jimmy couldn’t read, because she understood something in Clark’s expression that he couldn’t. “No! You… Her?... But… How?... When?... She… ” This was the first time, he had ever seen Cat stunned by gossip. “Really?”

CK shrugged.

“What?” Jimmy pleaded, glancing between the gossip queen and the reporter again. He would never doubt Cat’s people reading skills again.

“What are you going to do now?” Cat asked, sitting down on CK’s desk and brandishing him a smile that she had only shown Jimmy in his dreams. She wanted CK back? Jimmy had never heard of that. Once Cat had tagged someone, they usually dropped off her list forever. Man, CK was the king. He not only had Cat Grant still wanting more, but he had caught the elusive Lois Lane as well. He had let her slip through his fingers, but still…

“Cat, I’m going back to work. I suggest you do the same,” CK warned her with his tone and added a raised brow. When she still didn’t move, he said, “No.”

They were clearly speaking a language Jimmy didn’t know, but would love a crash course in.

Cat sighed and stood back up. “Dinner, then? I never got my raincheck,” she purred.

CK’s eyes flashed in Jimmy’s direction. “Maybe some other time, Cat. I was hoping to catch a ballgame this weekend.” He faced Jimmy and asked, “The Metro Monarchs back from spring training, yet?”

“Yeah, over a month ago, CK,” Jimmy said in confusion. How could he not know the Monarchs were back in town?

“Really? I thought the regular season didn’t start until early June? Hmmm. If I can catch us some tickets, you want to go?” CK asked.

Jimmy looked to Cat to see what her answer would be. He couldn’t see Cat wanting to watch baseball unless she was scoping out a player. Cat, strangely enough, was looking at him. Jimmy glanced back at CK and realized he was gazing at him too.

“Jimmy?”

“Me?! Yes, of course, CK. I’m totally there!” Jimmy gushed. Wow, he hadn’t been to real baseball game since he was a boy. “Thanks, CK, you’re the greatest!” He heard Mr. White’s office door open and he started backing towards his own desk. “Better get back to work.”

“Kent!” Mr. White called.

Jimmy ran back to his desk, before the Chief noticed he wasn’t working. After resigning his position as the office fix-it guy, Jimmy didn’t want to be demoted back again, especially with the summer interns starting soon.

Mr. White might think that Elvis was the King, but Elvis had nothing on Clark Kent! Maybe CK could give Jimmy some advice on what to do with Lucy Lane. He had chickened out asking her for a date when he stopped by Lois’ apartment when she and CK had disappeared with that whole UFO, Bureau 39 kidnapping thing. He figured asking Lucy out while he was searching for her missing sister would’ve probably been a bad idea, but, man, had she looked hot as she was working out. It didn’t help that Lucy had no idea who he was, because Lois had never mentioned him. He sighed.

***

Clark entered Perry’s office. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Go ahead and shut the door, son, and take a seat,” Perry said, leaning against his own desk to face him.

Clark did just that and then sat down, looking up expectantly at his boss. Somehow, he knew what was going to come next.

“You okay?” Perry asked.

“Fine, sir,” he replied. He had been disappointed, although not entirely surprised by Lois’ harsh words when he had entered the newsroom that morning.

“Fine?” his boss repeated back to him. “The way I hear it, she roasted you over an open pit.”

Clark sighed. “She didn’t say anything that she hadn’t alluded to already, sir. I had hoped…” He shook his head.

“That she would have cooled down by this morning?” Perry chuckled. “Son, you don’t understand women, let alone Lois, if you think that would ever be the case.”

“Sir, nothing personal, but I don’t feel comfortable discussing Lois behind her back like this,” Clark admitted.

“I don’t blame you,” his boss said, standing up and walking around to his chair on the other side of the desk. “Don’t worry, she’ll cool down eventually. In the meantime, she’s asked that I terminate your partnership. So, since the two of you both claim Superman as your beat, I’ve decided to alternate Superman stories. You got the hold-up this morning, the next one I’ll assign to her.”

Clark nodded with understanding and stood up. “Do you really think she’ll cool down and take me back?” He meant professionally, since he and Lois had never had the personal relationship that she had claimed this morning in the bullpen when she had dumped him. She was daring him to out her as a liar, and he refused to rise to the bait.

“Stranger things have happened,” Perry said with a shrug. “We do have a man flying around Metropolis on his own capacity, doing this city a world of good, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Lois tends to go over Niagara Falls in the barrel rather than ever admit a mistake.”

“Yeah, I’ve met her,” Clark said, pointing at his boss.

They exchanged a set of knowing grins.

***

Lois stood in the crowd of well-wishers and fans. Everyone was decked in blue, red, or gold or carrying a banner, or a balloon, or a doll. Some were having their picture taken with the life sized cutout of Superman. Everyone was treating Metropolis’ new hero as more than a man. She felt thrilled and a little humbled at the outpouring of support for him. She, herself, felt little better than a groupie standing in front of the stage anxiously waiting for Superman to appear.

She knew Superman cared for her, maybe even loved her; even so she didn’t like this feeling that she might get lost in the crowd. Lois knew that he wouldn’t throw her over for another woman, but the thought of being treated as less than special, considered equal to one of these people in his eyes made her heart heavy.

Lois had seen Superman, and even interviewed him, once over the course of this week since he told her that he couldn’t have relationship with her, for her own safety. She was still a bit annoyed at him about that. It wasn’t like he gave her any part in making that decision, like her say-so meant anything. Plus, she was a bit worried because he had just flown off after telling her the facts about the fire. He hadn’t treated her any differently than any of the other reporters on the scene.

Okay, that wasn’t true. He had been a little less curt with her but only because she hadn’t asked him stupid, probing questions about the details of his private life, that had nothing to do with the fire, questions she knew he didn’t want spread across the front page.

Superman finally arrived for the Key to the City ceremony and looked out over the crowd. Lois thought he might have paused a moment longer at her face, but his expression didn’t change so it was difficult to tell. Maybe he had been more serious about his ‘we can only be friends’ speech than she earlier thought.

Lex came up to the microphone and said some nice words about Superman. Jimmy, who was standing next to her, snapped away with his camera. Lois knew she should be taking notes, but she figured she wouldn’t be quoting Lex in her article anyway. She saw the billionaire glance her direction and smile. Was he smiling at her? Of course not, probably for Jimmy’s camera. Then again, he had asked her out only last week.

The Deputy Mayor stepped up to the microphone and said something about this being ‘Superman Day’ in Metropolis. Lady, every day was Superman’s Day in Metropolis as far as Lois was concerned, but she jotted down the woman’s words nonetheless.

Superman came forward and allowed the key, which had just been around Lex’s neck, to be placed over his head. He stepped to the microphone and looked pleasantly over the applauding crowd, again passing over Lois without eye contact.

“Thank you, people of Metropolis, for this warm greeting. You don’t know how much it means to me to be welcomed to my new home so enthusiastically,” Superman said to the crowd.

Lois’ jaw dropped as she scrambled to write down everything he said. For some reason, she had more than half expected a brief wave and a shy ‘thank you’. This actually sounded like a prepared speech. It sounded like he might actually say something. Kent was so going to kick himself for bouncing this Superman story back to her, even though she had gotten the last one. Of course, it had been her story from the get-go, but that meant bupkis to the Chief since he got on this fair and equal Superman coverage split between the two of them. Kent had been too mesmerized by Cat’s tongue down his throat to care anyway. Ugh. She couldn’t believe him. The ink was hardly dry on the break-up of their fake relationship, and he was already making out with Cat again. True, technically, Cat been the one who had approached him and kissed him, but Lois wouldn’t be surprised if Clark and Cat were doing the Fandango over at her place right now. ‘Nothing happened’? Ha!

The crowd shifted and pressed forward, causing Lois to bump into the scantily clad woman standing nearby.

“Sorry,” Lois mumbled to the woman only to realize she was speaking to Cat. The nerve of that woman! “What are you doing here?” Lois hissed. “This is my story!”

“Oh, hi, Lois, I didn’t see you there,” Cat said, insinuating that Lois was invisible. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist, Lois. I’m just here for the view.”

Ugh, Lois thought and raised her eyes back to Superman. Cat was treating Superman as if he were just a piece of eye candy.

Superman had paused and waited for the cheers to die down.

“I’m honored by the trust and responsibility you have placed in me by bestowing on me the Key to the great city of Metropolis,” Superman said to another roar of applause. “I will use this key to try and keep the criminal element out, and make this a safer place for all.”

The Deputy Mayor seemed especially thrilled by that line in his speech and jumping to her feet, clapped wildly. Lex Luthor, on the other hand, only applauded mildly. He looked almost bored. Did he think Superman’s promises empty? Or was he bothered that Superman’s speech upstaged anything and everything that Lex had said earlier?

“Towards that end, I pledge my support and assistance to Metropolis’ police, fire, and emergency services as I am able. Together we can make my new home city even better than it is today,” Superman said, pausing once more to let the cheers and applause die down.

This certainly wasn’t Superman’s first speech, or first time in front of a large crowd. Lois wondered when and where he had gotten his previous experience, probably on Krypton. She hoped his home planet didn’t come looking for him to return.

“I would also like to announce the formation of a charitable foundation in my name. Any donations you make will help out those less fortunate, especially the orphans and those in foster care, two causes close to my heart. One hundred percent of the proceeds garnered from the licensed use of my image and family crest…” With this Superman set his hand on the ‘S’ shield on his chest. “— will go directly to this foundation.”

Lois glanced quickly around again at all the Superman memorabilia being hawked just here at the fair and realized such a foundation would make a bank for the children of Metropolis.

“Thank you again, citizens of Metropolis, for this great honor,” Superman concluded, stepping back to thank everyone on the dais.

Lois pressed forward in hopes to catching Superman’s attention as the Deputy Mayor returned to the microphone to make her closing remarks.

“Superman,” Lois heard Lex Luthor say as they shook hands. “If you are truly serious in helping the less fortunate, you must really volunteer your time tomorrow night. The city’s most eligible bachelors will be auctioning off a date with ourselves for charity, of course.”

Buy a date with Superman? Lois gasped, causing Superman to glance in her direction. That would be the perfect solution to their problem. She and Superman could finally go on an official date – one that no one would sneeze at or consider even remotely real, and she could prove to Superman why they couldn’t be ‘just friends’. She smiled broadly at Superman and he quickly returned his attention to Luthor.

“Thank you, Luthor, I’ll look into it,” replied Superman.

“You must come, Superman, to help the blind children,” coaxed Lex.

Why was Lex being so adamant? Was it because he cared so much for the cause? That must be the reason, because Lois could think of no other. Clark would rue the day he doubted her journalistic instincts.

With another quick glance in her direction, Superman answered, “Sounds like a noble cause.” With that he turned away from the billionaire, and with a final wave to the crowd he leapt down off the stage and walked up to Murray Brown.

Lois’ jaw dropped open. Murray Brown, that entertainment broker? What was Superman doing with him? Clark Kent! She growled as her ex-partner’s name popped into her head. He had been there when that man stopped by the Daily Planet the other day. Clark must have taken the card out of her trash can and passed it on to Superman. Numbskull! Her sweet naïve Superman was going to be chopped up and sold to the highest bidder by this man. Didn’t Superman know Murray was out to exploit him? If she didn’t step in and stop this, Superman would be hawking breakfast cereals by this time next week. This was just another reason Superman needed someone like her in his life, to protect him from all the slime out there to exploit him.

“Superman,” Lois called to him, pushing her way through the crowd. “Superman! It’s Lois! I have some questions…” Without even a backwards glance at her, Superman rose into the sky and disappeared from sight.

She felt like he sucked all the air out of her lungs and crushed her heart as he left.

***

Lex watched the heartache unfold before him as he hoped it would. Superman appearing quite uncomfortable as Lois Lane and other women offered money to spend time with him. Lex knew after overhearing the hero’s conversation with Lois the previous week that there was more than friendship between Superman and the Daily Planet reporter, which was one of the reasons he had invited Metropolis’ newest hero to join the auction. Men like that considered themselves, their morals, better than other men, especially someone they despised like Lex. The very thought that any woman – let alone the woman he loved – needing to pay money to spend time with him and have his attention was abhorrent to Superman. Lex couldn’t resist torturing Superman so.

The billionaire raised his hand to his mouth and coughed to cover the chortle of glee that wished to escape as he watched Lois argue at Cat Grant for bidding against her for Superman’s attention, especially as Lex knew neither of the women would end up being the Man of Steel’s date.

Lex could understand the distrust Lois had in her co-worker; he had met Cat Grant at many of the charitable functions he attended and she covered for the Daily Planet. Many a time, he could have easily taken the woman home to his bed and rocked her world. He scoffed, but there was as much fun in that as hiring a prostitute. Bedding Cat Grant held no challenge for him. He easily fit her criteria for bed partner and, while he was sure the two of them would enjoy the encounter, he found no interest in her; Cat bored Lex. He met women like her everywhere on the charity circuit. He would much rather spend his effort enticing women, like that Metropolis University cheerleader he had met at the opening of his wing of the Met U. library, from her moral compass and almost-fiancée boyfriend – and Lex had done so with only one short conversation and a whispered invitation from Nigel later to join Lex for drinks. The sex might not have been as good, but the torment to that innocent girl’s soul was priceless. Just as tempting Lois Lane away from Superman would be.

As the bidding reached closer to ten thousand dollars Lex knew it must be coming to an end; he was sure no one would bid higher for the newcomer Superman than they would probably pay for well-known billionaire Lex Luthor, without a little help from himself, that was. He nodded to his plant, the diamond obsessed heiress he had slept with the night before who had happily promised to do this favor for Lex in exchange for his little token of his regard currently draped around her neck. She would offer such an exorbitant amount of money, donated to her coffers thanks to Lex Luthor, she was sure to win.

“Fifty thousand dollars,” his partner in crime bid.

“Fifty thousand dollars, going once! Going twice! Sold for fifty thousand dollars!” the auctioneer announced with excitement. Pathetic woman actually thought the people here cared about the blind children.

Both Lois and Cat jaws hung open in disgust and dismay at the amount of money bid.

Superman walked towards the heiress with a friendly smile. He passed Lois without a nod of acknowledgement, as Lex had suspected he would from his actions the day before at the Key to the City ceremony. Superman didn’t want anyone to know that he liked Lois, so in public he was going to ignore her. Stupid, stupid man. A woman like Lois Lane didn’t like to be ignored. Didn’t the hero know that without informing this little bird of his plan, she would fall right into Lex’s gilded cage? Lex smiled. Obviously not.

As Lex had hoped, Lois saw Superman shaking the heiress’ hand and receiving a kiss from her, and had stiffened her spine with resolve.

With a smile, Lex took a glass of champagne off a passing tray and headed to the front of the room.

The charity auctioneer started to announce the next man up for auction. “For our final date of the evening we have, ladies, the most eligible bachelor in Metropolis, and the fourth richest man…”

“Third,” Lex corrected.

“Third richest man in the world, Mr. Lex Luthor,” the auctioneer said with a grin and applause.

“Thank you all,” Lex said as he raised his drink to the room, making sure to catch Superman’s attention and then pause to smile directly at Lois. He wanted to make sure the hero saw his nod towards his lady love, just as much as he wanted Lois to know he was interested, where other men weren’t.

“Dining and dancing next Friday night,” the auctioneer announced. “Now, shall we start the bidding at five-hundred dollars?”

“Five hundred dollars,” a wealthy older widow bid.

Superman watched with horror as Lois gave him a quick glance, and then raised her hand for the next bid. “One thousand dollars.”

The dollar amount kept going upwards and Lois kept bidding, each time with a daring glance towards Superman.

Eventually the money went higher than a journalist, even an award winning one, could afford.

“We have seventy-five hundred. Are there any other bids?” the auctioneer asked. “Going once…”

“Ten thousand,” the wealthy widow, who had first bid on him, exclaimed. Lex nodded to her with a thankful smile and a raise of his champagne glass. He had known he would outbid Superman. The hero had only gotten to nine-thousand before Lex’s plant had overbid everyone else.

“Sold for ten thousand dollars!” announced the auctioneer.

Lex happily went down to shake the hand of the widow and thank her personally for her bid. If she only knew that Lex had been responsible for having her husband killed, he wondered if she would have bid even a dollar.

He had positioned himself next to the widow so that he could watch Lois’ reaction to losing yet another bid for a date. Just as he suspected, still being ignored by her tights wearing hero, the dejected reporter headed straight for the bar. Perhaps she wouldn’t be as difficult a challenge as he had earlier thought. He would let her have a few drinks then he would approach her.

Taking advantage of Lois while she was drunk would cheapen the victory against Superman though, even if Lex would come out the victor. Thinking about what a glorious victory it would be, caused Lex to salivate in anticipation. Going where Superman wanted to go, but hadn’t gone before because of his high moral fiber, again, and again, and again. Tempting, but it would be even more of a challenge to convince Lois to his bed when she was cold sober and came of her own free will. It would make the conquest even more of a slap to Superman’s face.

Oh, yes, this had been quite an enjoyable evening of charity, but Lex could be patient.

*** End of Part 22 ***

Part 23

So, what was Cat's tongue doing down Clark's throat? What will happen between Lex and Lois? Post your thoughts, guesses, and Comments here.