Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
Here Part 39Part 40Clark took a teapot with freshly heat-visioned water back to his dining table. “And after Lois got shot, I realized that being Superman was distracting me from protecting her,” he said, setting the pot down on his coffee table. “I still do major events, natural and manmade disasters with potential for lots of victims or damage, but I’m leaving the smaller day to day stuff to emergency personnel.”
It had been a hard decision, but Clark knew now that he couldn’t give up helping people entirely.
“For the most part Superman has retired,” Clark continued. “I never realized how much I would miss it, helping people, but I can’t let anything happen to Lois again. She’s my top priority.”
Despite talking to Lois every night before bed, he still had the nightmares. Last night he heard the explosion of a gun and arrived in the Super suit to the alley where she had been shot before becoming fully awake enough to realize that Luthor’s maniacal laughter had all been in his head.
A couple of days before, he and Lois had been walking to lunch when a car backfired. Normally, Clark could tell the difference, but he almost blasted with her into the sky instead. He caught himself at the last second and ended up moving her against a wall and covering her with his body.
“Jumpy much there, Chuck?” she had asked after he realized what he had done and moved away.
Herb had been quiet as Clark described his first three months in his new dimension, but he chose this moment to speak up, “It sounds like you’re still working twenty-four hours a day, Clark,” Wells observed. “Are either of you happy with this arrangement?”
Not really. Clark shrugged. “It’s an adjustment.”
He wasn’t happy with feeling like Lois was in danger all the time, but he did enjoy working with her, talking with her, helping her, and just hanging out with her. He would be content if their relationship never moved beyond friendship; not blissfully happy as he could be, but he was happier than he had been before they joined forces over the Menken’s cyborg article.
Lucy had started her trip west to Los Angeles a few days before. The surveillance of their apartment had been the last straw. Lois’s sister was still under the delusion that he and Lois were dating again, actually many people were, and so Lucy felt she was leaving Lois in safe hands, namely Clark’s. He was okay with that.
“If I may be so bold, what
is your relationship with Ms. Lane?” Wells asked, as Clark slowly refilled their tea mugs.
“It’s complicated,” Clark explained. He wasn’t waiting by the phone every moment of the night and day, hoping she’d invite him to stay the night, but he was more than happy that she considered him a better option than anyone Luthor would saddle her with for assistance. “She’s obsessed with Superman, but not like those starry-eyed groupies from back home. Maybe there was a little of that at the beginning, but after she realized that I was in love with her as she was with me…” He saw that Wells was looking at him with astonishment. “Yes, I know that allowing my true feelings for her to shine through while I was in the Suit was wrong, but I was unable to hide them from her, no matter how much I tried. I don’t know how that other Clark from your dimension was able to keep it secret from her for so long.”
“Ms. Lane knows you’re Superman, then?” Wells asked.
“No.” Clark shook his head.
“The ‘him’ then that Ms. Lane was referring to was ‘Superman’?”
Clark gazed down at his mug. “Yes.”
“Are you planning on informing her?”
“Someday,” Clark admitted, burying his face in his hands. “She
loves Superman, but I’ve refused to move that relationship forward for her own safety. I don’t want what happened to Lana to happen to Lois. Fortunately, Lois’s and mine – Clark me – friendship is growing closer every day.”
“I don’t understand,” Wells said. “How can
you have a relationship with Ms. Lane without telling her that you’re Superman?”
“She finally understands that it isn’t possible to be more than friends with Superman. A part of her is attracted to
me, her partner, Clark Kent. I’m hopeful that someday in the future she’ll grow to want me for more than a friend.” But he wasn’t holding his breath.
“I don’t understand how you can lie to the woman you love, but I cannot fault you for it as the Clark from my dimension acted in the same manner,” Wells said.
That was reassuring to hear that the other Lois had forgiven her now husband for deceiving her.
“I am curious about some of these other occurrences that you encountered. First of all, can you explain who ‘Chuck’ is?”
Clark chuckled and went on to describe his first meeting with Lois, during his interview with Perry. “And the name just stuck. She usually only uses it when she’s annoyed or angry at me,” he said with a sheepish shrug. “I find it endearing that she has her own nickname for me. I wish I had one for her, but she really isn’t a ‘baby’, or a ‘darling’ , or a ‘sweetheart’, and she’s already quashed ‘honey’. Anyway, those are too romantic for our relationship at this stage.”
“But who
is ‘Chuck’? Who is this man she confused you for?” Wells asked.
“I have a crazy theory for that actually. The other day we were talking about her novel, and I think my nickname came from the hero,” Clark said with laughter. He loved the idea that upon meeting him, Lois had considered him romantic hero material.
“Kent?” Wells guessed.
“No, ‘Chuck’. She made a reference to her characters being named Chuck and Lola.”
“As in Lola Dane?”
“Yes! Did the Lois who made me Superman also name a character that?” Clark asked, leaning forward excited about the parallels between this Lois and the one who made him Superman.
“No, Lola Dane was an alias that Lois used on an undercover assignment,” Wells explained. “And Clark had used the name…” He paused as his eyes widened. “You mentioned that you two worked together on the Messenger explosion, and that Superman made his debut when Ms. Lane found a bomb on the Prometheus. That there is a rogue group of paramilitary men hunting Superman by the name of Bureau 39, which happens to have this dimension’s Kal-El’s spaceship. You and Ms. Lane also worked together on the invisible man story and her father not only built cyborgs, but cyborg boxers. This incident led to Ms. Lane being kidnapped by Max Menken and subsequently being shot by Lex Luthor as he tried to rescue her.”
“So he claims,” Clark grumbled. “But, yes, that is a correct and quick summary of my first few months at the Planet.”
“Other than the ‘Chuck’ incident, did Ms. Lane display other unusual facets to her personality?” Wells asked.
“Well, Lois is a bit of an oddball. I believe that’s what makes her and I such a great match, and such great reporters. Her semi-psychic hunches and my abilities…” Clark said before Wells interrupted.
“Psychic hunches?”
“She’s really great at guessing people’s names, and when she walked into Bureau 39’s warehouse, she wanted to call Perry in right away as if she knew that everything was going to disappear,” Clark explained with a shrug.
“I already know the answer to the question, but I feel I must ask it. Clark, are you ready to go home?” Wells asked.
“No,” Clark replied, surprised that Wells would even ask. “This Lois and I have a connection. I feel it and I believe she does too. I need more time.” He wondered if Wells could tell he was just being polite. Clark could see no reason to ever return to his home dimension. This new dimension had a living breathing Lois,
and he was able to have a private life,
and it needed him as much as his home dimension did. A pang of regret filled him as he realized that
both dimensions needed a full time Superman, not just a part-time one. He frowned.
Wells set down his mug with a nod. “Thank you for the tea, Clark. I would like to do a little more checking on this psychic power of Ms. Lane’s. I wonder if it has anything to do with… um, no point in biasing my research,” he said, standing up. “That is an interesting development.” He thought for a moment. “Three months from now will be… November 1993.” He nodded. “Yes, I’ll revisit you then to check on your progress.”
Clark stood up. He doubted anything would happen between then and November that would convince him to return to his home dimension, and he almost said as much to his time-traveling friend, but he decided against it. He was curious whether Wells would learn anything about Lois’s psychic tendencies. He held out his hand. “I’ll look forward to seeing you then, Herb. I hope by then to report happy news to you.”
The expression in the older man’s eyes as they shook hands might have been doubt but Clark couldn’t fathom why.
*****************
Back In The Saddle*****************
The bad press for Superman got worse as the days passed since the Kansas tornado. The Daily Planet continued with its pro-Superman stance, thank God, but wondered where the hero had disappeared off to. The other media outlets weren’t so kind. As the press soured, and the days without a local Superman rescue stretched forward, Lois’s moods turned surlier.
One night, Lois called Clark in tears.
“It’s me,” he finally discerned through her sobs.
“I’m sorry?” Clark asked.
“I’m the reason Superman has cut back his rescues. He doesn’t want to do anything with Metropolis anymore. I pushed too hard,” she said.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Lois,” Clark said, even though she was right, like always.
“No, Clark. You don’t understand. He
said that I’m his top priority.
I’m the reason he was here,” Lois said, defending her argument, and he could hear her pulling tissues from a box before blowing her nose. “He started pulling back, limiting his rescues because of me. I just know it. I just don’t know why he’s punishing me.”
Clark’s already guilty shoulders hunched lower. “Do you really think he would curb his rescues to punish you?”
“No, I guess not,” Lois conceded. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
She could say that again. Superman had no reason to ‘punish’ Lois like some errant child. She had done nothing wrong.
“It’s just… Clark, he hasn’t gone this long without talking to me before. I want to make sure he’s okay,” she went on.
No, he wasn’t okay. Lois’s life was a mess because of him. Clark wondered if she would have been better off without Superman, but then he remembered saving the Prometheus shuttle and all those colonists. That was something he wouldn’t take back.
He knew what his mom would say, “Isn’t that what you’re doing by cutting down on helping people, Clark? Taking back opportunities to do some good?” Clark knew he couldn’t argue with his mom’s logic.
“I know I’ve asked you this a hundred times already, but have you talked to him?”
“He…” Clark closed his eyes with a grimace, unable to deny it anymore. “ – feels as badly as you do, Lois.” He pushed the words out.
“He does?” Her sniffles took on a more hopeful tone.
“He wants what you want, Lois, but he knows it’s next to impossible,” Clark admitted.
“So, is he cutting back on his rescues because he’s searching for another option?” Lois asked.
Her faith in Superman after weeks of sour moods, after all he had said and done to her pierced his soul painfully. “No, Lois, there can only be this way. Like you, he’s mourning the end of your relationship.”
“He’s
what?” Lois growled. “No, don’t repeat it, Chuck. You can tell that flying lunkhead, that he better not be sitting around moping instead of doing his job. I haven’t given up being a journalist because of this. I’m not sitting at home going through a box of tissue every night instead of trying to track down the men who spied on me and Lucy.”
“He’s not moping,” Clark defended before he could stop himself.
“Yeah. Then what does he call it? Wallowing in despair? No, don’t tell me; it’s guilt, isn’t it?” Lois roared, her barely contained fury starting to escape. “He’s stubborn. You know for someone with super hearing, he’s deaf and dumb! You tell him, because he seems to listen to you, me getting shot wasn’t his fault!”
“He feels like he should have protected you better. Between Menken kidnapping you, Luthor shooting you, and someone spying on you,” Clark tried to explain before she interrupted.
“Oh, please. Save your breath, Clark. How can you defend his actions?” She paused. The moment turned to two, then four, and Clark felt a chill of fearful anticipation at what she’d say next. “You know, now that I think about it, it
is all his fault,” Lois said, her voice so calm it was almost eerie.
“It is?” Clark gulped, somewhat surprised that she made such an illegal U-turn and changed her mind.
“Why, of course it is,” she said, and he could now hear her skepticism. “If he hadn’t denied his true feelings, and kept putting me off… If he had just kissed me when he had the chance…”
“He lost his chance?” he asked. His Superman self reeled from this dropped news, while his true Clark self floated him off his bed with excitement.
“Does he think that self-pity is attractive? ‘Cause, let me tell you, it isn’t. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s the man I thought he was all along. Maybe I was wrong about him,” Lois said.
Clark dropped back onto the bed, his hope once more banished. He decided to try to dissuade her from this theory with a little platitude. “That’s impossible, Lois. You’re never wrong.”
“Who me?” she scoffed. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been wrong recently, Clark. Let’s start with your name, which I thought was Chuck. I thought that Lex had agreed to an interview, not a date. I thought that we had enough proof to take our story to Perry without breaking into EPRAD and searching for the Messenger wreckage. Let’s not forget the other biggie, that I was totally convinced Jimmy was going to die in the Messenger hanger. Those are just a few times I’ve been
wrong lately, Clark. So, why couldn’t I possibly be
wrong about Superman too? Maybe he’s just a loser in tights because the man I thought he was, the man I loved wouldn’t have let a little personal setback stop him from helping every single person in the world, if he could.”
Clark winced as if every one of her words was a physical blow. “You’re absolutely right, Lois,” he murmured.
“I am? About what?” Lois wondered.
“He hasn’t been very super lately. I’ll give him your message,” he murmured, hanging up, unable to hear more about how he had let Lois and the world down.
He knew that Lois didn’t really feel that way. In his heart of hearts, he knew that she was still Superman’s biggest cheerleader, but he hadn’t known she could also be his harshest critic. Since their meeting in the woods, she had been colder, harsher, and more blunt. Everyone at the Daily Planet, Perry included, was more than happy to have Clark as their buffer. He had overheard more than a couple of people who had questioned his sanity for agreeing to be her partner, and that had been the kindest rumor being spread about why he didn’t ask for a reassignment.
Clark knew this temperament change was a result of her broken heart. Strangely enough though, she acted completely differently with him. It was as if they had bonded as a result of the secret that they shared. Actually ‘differently’ didn’t necessarily mean ‘kinder’. She was more open and honest with him about her feelings, but she treated him worse than her co-workers, worse than an underling, or an intern. She vented all her frustration out on him.
He had several theories why she did this. It could have been because she felt superior to him journalistically, as if she were the senior partner as she had when they were partnered together initially back in May.
It might have had to do with his confession of his true feelings. By telling her that he wouldn’t make love with her until she loved him as he loved her, she felt like she had power or control over him. This could be a test. What would it take to push him too far? Did he truly love her? Or was he lying?
It could also have to do with her injury, and that she
had to rely on someone more than she ever had to before. She was an independent woman, and it frustrated her that she couldn’t do what she wanted, when she wanted without help from Clark; therefore, she screamed and yelled at him because she felt helpless and it was a feeling she didn’t like. She was blaming him for needing him.
The other reason, which was the one he was leaning towards, Lois could be treating him horribly because Superman left her, Lucy left her, and she was feeling like she was so undeserving of friendship or love that she drove everyone away. So, to prove her theory correct she often treated Clark worse than dirt, but he wasn’t falling for it. Nothing she could do would chase him away. He merely acted as if she was being civilized to him. She was hurting and lashing out. Since he was to blame for much of her current heartache, it was only fitting that he receive the lion’s share of her deflected anger.
He – Superman him – had been consistent in his message to her: that the public hero could not have a private relationship with her or anyone. If he had only been more firm that first night when she had confessed her love for him. If he had chosen his words more carefully. If he had refused to meet her privately. If he hadn’t been such a lunkhead loser in tights. Her words still echoed in his head.
Clark picked up the phone and dialed the other number burned into his keypad. “Am I interrupting anything?” he asked politely, given the hour and the fact he had called her at home.
“Trust me, Clark, when I say no phone call, even one from you, would ever interrupt me. My ringer has a mute button, but thanks for asking. No, I’m not entertaining this evening, but if you’d like to volunteer,” Cat said suggestively.
“I need your help,” Clark replied.
“Sure, baby. I can help you with any problem you may be suffering from,” she purred.
“I need your professional advice about my P.R. nightmare,” Clark said, ignoring her usual innuendo.
“Oh, honey, I thought you’d never ask,” Cat responded, all flirtation aside. “You ready to don your uniform full time again? Lois call you out?”
He groaned. “Am I that transparent?”
Cat giggled. “Of course you are, baby cakes, but only to those of us in the know.”
“Us?”
“Lois and I,” Cat clarified. “We both know you carry a steel rod for her and would do anything she asks.”
“That’s not true!” Clark said as her barb hit too close to home.
“Uh-huh,” Cat said, clearly not believing him. “You’re not going to like it, but here’s what you need to do…”
***
Lois was at the front of the pack. She couldn’t believe it. After weeks where he had only shown himself to help out after a handful of disasters beginning with those tornados in Kansas and, most recently, rescue an oil tanker that had run ashore in a storm off the coast of Venezuela, where he assisted in the clean up, Superman was back in Metropolis. After each disaster, he had refused to speak with the press, saying only that his assistance had been needed, so he had come.
According to Murray Brown, Superman had even canceled all his public appearances, vowing to handle all his own correspondence and scheduling from then on out. Off the record, Murray said that Superman had told him that it wasn’t personal, but he felt it was more fair to those making donations if he didn’t have to pay anyone a salary out of the proceeds of their donations. Murray was still in charge of the Foundation Trust, for which he drew a salary from the money earned from merchandizing.
Her man in blue had actually called a press conference. It was being held at S.T.A.R. Labs, and reportedly would include a demonstration of sorts. When Lois had asked Clark about it, after Perry had slid the press release across the desk to them at the morning meeting, he had merely shrugged sheepishly. The sneaky devil
had contacted Superman about her rants. Cat had cracked some completely rude joke about what would be demonstrated. Lois knew Superman wouldn’t completely abandon them. It wasn’t who he was.
There was a huge crowd of journalists present: print, television, and radio, respectable and bottom feeders alike. Everyone wanted to know where Superman had disappeared off to.
The reporters were led into a large parking lot in the back of the building which had been cordoned off. The dais, which was set up for him, included six video monitors showing the different S.T.A.R. Lab locations worldwide. Behind the stage was a tall golden curtain, which Lois considered strange as it would make this bigger than life-sized man seem small.
Soon, Superman floated down and landed on the dais, causing all of the reporters to rush the stage, their hands raised for questions. The less patient or professional of them just shouted out what they wanted to know. Superman raised his hands, clearly asking for silence, so he could be heard.
When the area was quiet, he stepped up to the microphone and said, “I may have enhanced hearing abilities, which allows me to hear sounds from a great distance, but when you all talk at once, even
I have difficulty understanding you.” He paused to allow for the titter of laughter his joke produced before he continued, “I have a prepared statement, a short demonstration, and then I will take questions from those of you who raise your hands in a polite manner.”
A tomato flew through the air directly at Superman, and he deftly stepped to the side allowing the tomato to sail past, causing a red smirch on the yellow curtain.
Superman raised an eyebrow and focused his gaze in the direction the tomato had come. “Mr. Nunk, did you bring enough lunch for everyone, or was that tomato and those two others you brought just for me, yourself, and your photographer? While I do enjoy the different flavors of many foods, rotten tomatoes are not among them, nor is it necessary for me to consume food to survive on your planet as I get my energy from sunlight.” He glanced back at the stain on the curtain. “I’ll be sure to inform S.T.A.R. Labs where to send the bill for soiling their nice fabric.”
There was another surprised chuckle from the audience. Nobody expected Superman to be funny, especially Lois.
“As I said before, please save
all comments and questions until the end. It has come to my attention that some members of the press dislike my recent behavior, and have attributed it to cowardice. I don’t quite comprehend this opinion. It is my understanding that for one to be a coward, one must feel fear for oneself. I do not. I did hear Mr. Garrison’s pleas for a boxing match. I doubt there were few who were downtown that night who didn’t. I refused more out of concern for his safety, than my own. Despite his robotic enhancements, Mr. Garrison is still partially human. Also there was a lack of
need to battle him. Mr. Garrison wasn’t hurting or threatening to hurt anyone else, but merely dancing around a boxing ring, hurling insults. My apologies to Mr. Garrison if I damaged his ego or self-esteem by ignoring his request. That was not my intent. As you all know by now, I
did fight at the same time, three of Menken Gym’s other cyborg boxers that evening. They attacked to distract me from rescuing one of your own from Max Menken. The details of that evening have already been reported accurately by the Daily Planet and many other news outlets.” He looked directly at Lois for a moment before continuing. “Physics doesn’t allow an object to occupy two places at one time; this holds true with me as well. Although, I can honestly say there have been times…” His gaze rested on Lois again. “ – and I’m sure there will continue to be times in my life, when I wish this was possible. I may be fast…”
Superman disappeared from the stage with his telltale sonic boom. That was when Lois allowed her gaze to fall on to the video screens. Each of the S.T.A.R. Labs facilities had a miniature flag of the country of their location at which the cameras were focused. One by one the flags vanished from sight: England, Botswana, Antarctica, Australia, Japan, and Colombia.
Lois watched and heard the oohs and aahs from the crowd as each flag seemed to disappear from each of the different locations. Less than minute later, Superman landed on the stage.
“I apologize for the delay,” he said. “I noticed a fire left burning at an abandoned campsite.” He held up the six flags to the cheers from the crowd. Two seconds later the flags were on a display table next to the podium, and Superman was back at the microphone.
Lois didn’t cheer. She could see in his eyes at the crowd’s reaction that he was annoyed and didn’t want to be doing this demonstration. Suddenly she felt a pang of remorse at her outburst to Clark a few nights earlier.
Superman was doing this farce because of her criticism. He still cared what she thought. He still wanted her good opinion of him. Clark should have known she was only venting because she was upset that Superman hadn’t wanted to be in her life. Then she remembered that she had told Clark to tell Superman how she felt. She lowered her head in shame. She had done this to him. Lois had turned him into a performing clown.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Don’t do this. Please stop.”
Superman cleared his throat, and she glanced up to see him staring at her. Through all the din of her fellow reporters, he had heard her.
“I can’t…” he said into the microphone, before correcting himself. “I didn’t come here today to perform magic tricks, but to explain why I didn’t step into the ring to fight Mr. Garrison.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Lois whispered, knowing his first words had been for her.
“I do… I have one more demonstration, which will explain this more eloquently than I can,” he said, pushing a button on the podium causing the curtain to fall.
A giant crane with a wrecking ball was on the other side of the safety glass partition that the curtain had been covering. He pushed a button on the podium and the wrecking ball swung, barely missing the partition, before swinging back to destroy a brick wall that had been erected for this purpose.
“Just to demonstrate that there isn’t anything faulty with the wrecking ball,” Superman explained. “The ball is standing in for Mr. Garrison. Dr. Klein here at S.T.A.R. Labs has nicknamed the ball ‘Tommy’. I’ll let Tommy get the first punch in.” He flew up and over the partition to land in front of what remained of the brick wall.
A tall, balding man with a grey lab coat stepped onto the stage and waved. Lois recognized him from her earlier associations with S.T.A.R. Labs as one of their top scientists, Dr. Bernard Klein. He stepped up to the podium and picked up Tommy’s remote control.
Lois wanted to close her eyes as Superman stood in his familiar pose, hands on his hips, feet shoulder width apart. She knew what was going to happen, but she still couldn’t look away. The wrecking ball swung back around and hit Superman square in the chest, knocking him through the air.
A second later, Superman was back at the microphone. “I’m not hurt, but more surprised on what a right fist Tommy has. Now, it’s my turn.” He flew back over the partition, and grabbed Tommy the wrecking ball to stop it from swinging. Once it was at a complete standstill, he flicked the ball with his finger. A movement that could hardly be considered a punch, yet the ball swung around the crane like a tetherball, wrapping itself around the neck of the crane.
Superman returned to the microphone. “I was going to punch Tommy a second time to show you all what I could’ve easily done to Mr. Garrison if I entered the ring with him, but I believe you get the picture. Plus, I want you to get a chance to examine Tommy for yourself and see that this wasn’t a magic trick, which you wouldn’t be able to do if I had punched Tommy without holding back. Questions?”
Every reporter in the lot raised their hand, save Lois. She had so many questions, she didn’t know where to start. Slowly, she raised her hand.
“Since Max Menken started the ball rolling, so to speak, by kidnapping Ms. Lane, it only seems fair that I allow her the first question. Ms. Lane?” Superman said.
“Are you okay?” Lois asked. It had been one thing to see him enter a building only to see it explode around him, and to see bullets bounce off his chest, and to see him catch a guided missile and toss it into the air. It was quite another to see him collide with a wrecking ball and be thrown outside the parking lot.
“I’m fine. Thank you for asking,” Superman said with a reassuring smile. “To scientifically prove to you and your fellow reporters that I’m not lying, I have agreed to allow Dr. Bernard Klein of S.T.A.R. Labs to examine me following this press conference. His findings, regarding any broken bones, bruising, or other physical harm that Tommy may have caused me will be in his report. I can guarantee you though, that he won’t find any.”
She looked at Superman and pictured him peeling down his blue suit, exposing his chest for the examination. Her eyes flashed back up to his in a silent inquiry.
“And before you ask, Ms. Lane. No reporters will be present during my examination. I doubt you’d want any at
your next doctor’s appointment either,” Superman said, causing the male reporters to laugh, the female ones to groan in disappointment, and her to flush.
***
Lois stepped out the elevator and into the bullpen. She hadn’t felt like taking the stairs. She didn’t know what it was, but that whole press conference demonstration thing felt off. It was just weird.
It had been Superman. He flew faster than sound and probably light. He got hit by a wrecking ball and showed no ill-effects. He could hear her through a noisy crowd. No, it was certainly Superman, but he was acting so strange. Those jokes. The whole putting himself on display and playing the part of the dancing monkey. He hadn’t done it because of her, had he? She hoped not, but deep down in the pit of her stomach she knew he had. He had been trying to impress her, but because they couldn’t have a public relationship, let alone a private one, he had needed to communicate with her en masse. Was he worried about talking with her alone? Was Clark right in that Superman was having as much difficulty with this separation as she was?
Lois had spent the last hour thinking about why that press conference felt off to her, and why she wasn’t thrilled at his explanation of his disappearance. She had gone to Tony’s Deli, and eaten a pastrami sandwich. She had to eat it mostly one-handed due to her injured arm, which she forced herself to use. She would beat that physical therapist’s low-ball estimate of “weeks” no matter how painful it was. The wounds had healed shut now that the drains were out. All that was left was grow to her muscle mass back to what it had been. She had even started typing her stories again, much to Clark’s chagrin. Since she had started working on some stories on her own again, he seemed to miss the shared discussion on every story. Frankly, she did too, but she
needed to do this herself.
At first, Lois had been angry at Clark for telling Superman about her rant from the other night, but she knew it had been her fault. She knew she shouldn’t yell at Clark for it, even though she knew she probably would anyway. She had told Clark to tell Superman all those horrible things she had said about him; all those horrible things she really didn’t mean. Well, she had meant some things, just not the part about the lunkhead loser in tights. Even for her that was a low blow. Clark should have known better than to repeat her words to Superman.
She hated putting Clark in the middle between her and the Man in Blue, especially now that she knew how much Clark liked her. It made everything so awkward.
Now? She scoffed at that thought.
Lane, you’ve known that Chuck’s liked you since day one. How come it’s awkward now?She didn’t even want to think about the answer to that question. She liked Clark, but she knew at some point, at some time, he was going to ditch her too, and then she’d be left with nothing. She might as well cut her losses now, and save herself a world of hurt. For some reason, no matter how badly she treated Clark, he kept coming back for more. Could he really like her? And to what extense? Did she want a man who would allow her to run over him with a steamroller? She wondered what had happened to the man who had sent her to the Metropolis Sewage Reclamation Facility to find Superman’s spaceship?
Lois glanced around the office as she sat down at her desk, wondering where Clark was. She didn’t see him. She had called the office from Tony’s, hoping that Clark could meet her there for lunch, so she could talk out those weird vibes she got at the press conference, but he wasn’t there then either.
She hated it when he went off, and she didn’t know where he was. It was one of those personality traits about him that drove her nuts. She abhorred the thought that there might be a part of his life that he didn’t share with her, when she shared everything from her life with him. He
had said that he was keeping stuff from her. She had thought he had been mostly joking; now she wasn’t quite so sure.
“So,” Cat said from her adjacent desk. “How is Superman?”
“He’s fine,” Lois responded, not really wanting to talk to Cat, especially on this subject.
“I caught some of the press conference on LNN. He’s very impressive,” Cat said.
“Yeah, you could even call him ‘super’,” Lois retorted dryly.
“Funny. So, what did you think?” Cat asked.
Lois shrugged. “About what? There wasn’t any new information; it was a stunt.” And there it was, the reason that the whole press conference seemed off.
Why was Superman doing a ‘stunt’? It didn’t make sense. He was above all of that. People should be happy that he helped when he did; not her, of course, because she knew him better, knew that Superman should want to help out whenever he could. So, why wasn’t he? Why did he need the media’s goodwill? Again she was plagued by the feeling it wasn’t everyone else’s good will Superman had been courting.
“So, did you learn what Mr. Blue Hotpants has been up to lately?” Cat inquired, moving from her chair to the top of her desk so she could see Lois better.
“He’s been traveling the world, learning about different Earth cultures and languages,” Lois replied. It was commendable that he would want to learn more about his new home planet. After all the rescues he had done over the past three months it made sense he would want a vacation. Everything he said had an air of truth to it, and yet, she still didn’t believe it.
She kept thinking back to when Superman first disappeared, and Clark gave those sketches of the men following them to Henderson. Either Superman had lied to Clark about patrolling or, more likely, Clark had lied on Superman’s behalf. For those several months that she and Superman were discussing the possibility of a relationship: her pro, him con, Superman had been an over-protective tool. Then she got shot while he was only blocks away. She knew for certain that Superman hadn’t been traveling the world, picking up languages, or searching for a new home base, as she first thought when he had mentioned it; he had been guarding her. He had known that she would have vetoed the watch, if she had known about it, which was why neither Clark nor Superman had said word one about it.
She wasn’t a victim, yet Superman, and even Clark sometimes, still treated her like one.
“Did he mention how many languages he now speaks?” Cat asked.
“Why don’t you wait until I type up my story to get the details?” Lois snapped.
“Because by the time
you type it up, it will be old news,” Cat returned. She leaned toward Lois, and lowered her voice, “You never did take my advice about Clark, did you?” She shook her head. “Of course, you didn’t. You’re more tense than ever before. Lois, you need some release, and you need it
now. Clark loves you, and would do anything to make you happy. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, could you please put the rest of us out of your misery?”
“Buzz off, Cat; I’ve got work to do,” Lois growled, turning away, unable to come up with any good barb to throw the vixen’s way.
She wasn’t quite sure what Cat meant by ‘release’, but she was smart enough not to ask. It probably had something to do with releasing pressure from the sexual tension between her and Clark. She had
tried to let off steam between her and Clark, thank you very much, but Clark had turned her down. Twice. She swore, if he turned her down a third time, she would most likely kill him.
***End of Part 40*** Part 41 Comments ?
