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

Part 77

Part 78

The next morning, with more sleep than she expected from the moment she entered the bedroom the night before, Lois sat in the conference room with Perry, Jimmy, Cat, and Clark. They were once again watching the video that Lois had stolen from the VCR at Apocalypse Consulting. It wasn’t making any more sense after reviewing the one-minute video for the fifteenth time in a row. She and Clark had been viewing it since five-thirty that morning and it hadn’t gotten any clearer.

Lois’s mind drifted off to that wonderful dream she had experienced the night before. She blamed it on the combination of Clark’s massage, the hot shower, and those sheets on the honeymoon bed. She had been so tired that she had crawled into bed naked and fallen straight to sleep. She felt a bit guilty about that. Normally, she let her stories absorb her, keeping her awake with possibilities. Instead, her thoughts had all been about Clark.

She had dreamed she and Clark were walking through a field surrounded by trees. When they reached a fence, he had held her around her waist and floated them over the gate, floated them as if he were Superman. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. It was an intense kiss, such as the one she and Clark had shared on the bed the previous evening, the type of kiss that led somewhere. When she opened her eyes, they were at Superman’s palace in the clouds, lying together on a bed of cumulus mediocris.

Her logical side knew that Superman couldn’t possibly live in the clouds, or be Clark, but this was a dream after all.

She went on to unbutton Clark’s shirt to find that he was wearing Superman’s suit underneath. See, total and complete dream. Clark as the Man of Steel, total fantasy, but as fantasies went it had been a hot one.

Lois stole a glance over to her partner across the table. Clark stared at the video with the same focus he had the first time they had watched it. She wondered if he had been able to get any sleep at all. He was so tall; she bet that couch was too short for him. A pang of remorse hit her. She should have let Clark sleep with her, out of the generosity of her heart, so that he could have been comfortable and gotten some sleep.

Yeah, right, she scoffed at herself, and returned her eyes to the video. Perry was rewinding it for another view. Her mind wandered again.

Lois had been wearing this long, pale pink negligee with a lot more class than the one Superman had found her in after she had woken up from her Revenge stupor. Clark’s soft hand had brushed the strap of her nightgown away and kissed down her neck to her…

“I tell you, Lois, I can’t make heads or tails of this thing,” Perry said, breaking into her daydream. “Clearly it shows something being dropped into the ocean, which forms a tidal wave that destroys the nearby city.”

Lois cleared her throat and glanced at the scraps of papers on the desk. “Maybe there’s something in the few files I was able to copy before Rourke and associate interrupted me.”

“I think that’s supposed to be Metropolis,” Clark said, reaching for the remote control that Perry had tossed onto the table. He rewound the video twenty seconds. “See here. That’s supposed to be Lex Tower, and…” He advanced it a few frames. “Here. That looks like the Daily Planet globe.”

They all squinted and leaned forward towards the television, trying to see what Clark saw.

“Now that you mention it…” Perry murmured, tilting his head. “Yeah, that does look like the Daily Planet. Good eye, there, Kent.”

“Wait! Wait! Let me see if I got this straight. Rourke is going to launch something into the ocean that is going to flood Metropolis, tomorrow morning?” Jimmy said, pointing at the video. “And we haven’t a clue how or what or…”

Cat looked at Clark. “Could Superman stop it? A tidal wave?”

Clark shrugged, scratching his ear. “I don’t know. I don’t think he’s ever encountered one before, at least that size, that I’m aware of,” he replied.

“Well, now, Cat, let’s not go jumping to worst case scenarios. We still have all day to figure this out and stop it from happening,” Perry reminded them. “To be on the safe side, do you think one of you could contact Superman and let him know that this might be a risk?”

Lois looked at Clark, and he nodded. “I’ll see if I can reach him today sometime,” he agreed vaguely.

“This is a test of some sort,” Lois said, shifting through the papers pieces on the desk. “Harrington said it was a demonstration of something. Therefore, this test has congressional approval. What do we have on the Harrington’s votes?”

“I read something on a wave,” Perry said, looking through the papers in front of him.

“I’ve got it!” Jimmy said, jumping to his feet and grabbing a folder from the other end of the table. “Shock Wave. Harrington’s committee voted on something called ‘Project Shock Wave’ not too long ago.” He opened the file on Harrington’s votes and read aloud, “Here it is. ‘Appropriation approval for system test installation.’”

“That vote was taken five weeks ago,” Lois said, reading over Jimmy’s shoulder.

“It was passed eight to zero with one abstention, Congressman Ian Harrington,” commented Clark.

Lois continued to scan the document. “There’s nothing here about what it is.” She sat back down. “This is what they were talking about. Rourke wanted Harrington to reverse this vote.”

“Yeah, and get his system approved, whatever that means,” Perry said, still reading the document that Jimmy had handed him.

“If we only knew what ‘Shock Wave’ was,” Lois grumbled. “We’re spinning our wheels here. Some test, monitored by naval units, is taking place tomorrow at dawn, and Rourke is planning on sabotaging it...” She waved over to the television. “— with a tidal wave, which will also destroy Metropolis.”

Perry, appearing more determined than Lois had seen in a long while, spoke, “I think it’s time, time to go to the top, to the man who always knows what’s happening, to the man who has never let me down.”

“You don’t mean…” Jimmy asked.

“I do mean Sore Throat,” Perry concluded.

Lois glanced over to Clark with a perplexed expression, and saw him nodding. What? Clark knew about Perry’s secret governmental source? How did Chuck know about Perry’s source? He had only been with the Planet for a couple… all right, it had almost been a year, but still. Damn men’s club.

***

Lois, Clark, and Perry stepped out into the winter sunshine from the parking garage where they had met with “Sore Throat”. The man had been a mountain of information, and germs. The chill from the garage seemed to intensify with “Mr. Throat’s” information, and she shivered, thinking back on it. Clark’s jacket, draped around her shoulders, had lost all of Clark’s built-in heat and Lois didn’t seem to be generating any of her own.

Clark set his hands on her shoulders and rubbed up and down her arms, trying to warm her up with friction.

“Okay, boys and girls,” Perry said, stepping to the curb and raising his hand for the cab. “I’m heading back to the office. You take this from here. Keep in mind that Alice doesn’t want ocean front property.”

“Got it, Chief,” Lois said with a tip of an imaginary hat. As soon as Perry drove off, she turned to Clark and his warm embrace.

“Does this help warm you up?” he asked.

Lois had better ideas on how to warm up, but Clark wasn’t able to go there. Anyway, they did have that deadline of tomorrow, dawn, looming over their head. There were at least three possible avenues they could go from here: one, check out the warehouse on the docks that Jimmy had tailed Rourke to after he left the offices last night; two, take all their evidence and publish in the afternoon papers to force government action; or three, go talk to Lex Luthor, who strangely enough seemed to be playing the unusual role of victim in this story, and convince him to pull the plug on the test.

“I think we need to split up,” she said.

Clark nodded and took a step back, letting go of her. “I completely understand,” he said, his face growing pale and his voice hoarse.

“I’ve got to go meet a source, who might be able to help us. He’s skittish; if I bring others, he tends to react badly,” Lois said, her brow furrowing at Clark’s strange reaction to her words. Had he wanted to go back to the honeymoon suite with her? She reached up to wipe that worry line from his face. “Do you want to go check out the warehouse that Jimmy found at the Pier 31, or gather up all our evidence at the suite and start a first draft for the afternoon edition?”

“Oh. Right. Of course. Split up. Gotcha,” Clark said as a momentary embarrassed smile crossed his face.

Lois’s lips pursed as she realized how he had misconstrued her words. “Oh, don’t be such a martyr, Chuck. It doesn’t become you,” she snapped, punching him in the shoulder. She shook her hand. Clark felt too solid. Maybe his “problem” had to do with too many steroids. She had done an article about that while at Met U. Did a reporter really need rock hard muscles, anyway? His baggy suits really gave him the appearance of being flabbier than he was. Why work so hard for such a gorgeous body only to hide it? She really needed to work on his sugar phobia. Perhaps Martha would have some ideas. She shook her hand again. Perhaps it was just she shouldn’t have hit him with the same hand she had slapped the filing cabinet at Rourke’s office the night before.

Clark’s expression turned sheepish at being caught. “We should really talk, Lois,” he said, before turning his gaze to the sky. “But, you’re right, let’s finish up this investigation first. I’ll talk to Superman, and then meet you back at the suite.”

“If I can reach my source, it shouldn’t take more than an hour. I’ll meet you back at the suite, afterwards,” Lois agreed. She reached for Clark to give him a light goodbye kiss to reassure him that when she had said “split up”, she hadn’t meant “break up”, but he was already skipping backwards anxious to be off.

“Okay! Great, Lois! See you later,” he said, jogging around the corner.

She crossed her arms in annoyance and glanced into the sky. Had he seen Superman? Or been paged by the hero? Was that why Clark blew her off? The sky was unseasonably clear, but she didn’t see… A sudden streak of blue and red passed overhead with a whooshing sound. Lois exhaled. She was being paranoid. Stepping up to the curb, she raised her hand and flagged down a passing Metro cab.

*************
New Deadlines
*************

“You cannot see Mr. Luthor without an appointment, Miss Lane,” Mrs. Cox said without even trying to hide the gloat from her voice.

“This is important!” Lois insisted.

“Mr. Luthor will be quite busy this week. I might be able to pencil you in between meetings next Wednesday, since it’s ‘important’,” Mrs. Cox replied as if anything Lois had to say couldn’t be the least bit of importance or urgent.

“That will be too late,” Lois said, moving past the woman and opening the door to Lex’s office.

“Miss Lane!” Mrs. Cox roared, following her.

“Lex!” Lois called out to him despite his being on the phone.

Mrs. Cox grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the door.

“I’m going to have to call you back, Admiral. I have something in my office that requires my full attention,” Lex said, before hanging up the phone.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Luthor,” Mrs. Cox said, both gleefully trying to get Lois in trouble with Lex and embarrassed at this slip in procedure. “She pushed right past me, regardless of not having an appointment.”

Lois wasn’t sure what she had done to gain the woman’s ire; even though friendship was the last thing Lois expected from Lex’s assistant, Mrs. Cox had never afforded her a modicum of respect, let alone common courtesy.

Lex waved his assistant away. “Nonsense, Mrs. Cox, Ms. Lane never needs an appointment.”

Mrs. Cox appeared as if Lex’s words slapped her across the face, causing her to return to her normal cold demeanor. “Yes, Mr. Luthor. Let me take a moment to remind you that you need to leave for that meeting in a few minutes,” she said haughtily as if the meeting, whatever it might be, was infinitely more important than anything Lois might have to say.

Lex shot Mrs. Cox a sharp look. “What is the point of having billions of dollars if I can’t be late every once and while?”

Mrs. Cox held his gaze for another moment, longer than necessary. “Yes, Mr. Luthor,” she said in a huff, closing the door behind her.

Lex held out both his hands and approached Lois, saying, “Lois, my darling, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” He took hold of her shoulders and kissed her cheek, a far warmer greeting than their non-relationship demanded. She brushed that fact aside with a glance over her shoulder at the closed door.

“I really don’t like her,” Lois admitted.

Lex broke into a smile. “Ah, well, I’d get rid of her if she wasn’t the finest assistant that I’ve ever had,” he said with a shrug. “She’s irreplaceable.”

At least, he didn’t discount what Lois had to say for once.

“I called you last Friday,” Lex said, taking her arm and leading her to the sofa. “But your assistant…” He flipped his hand as if he couldn’t remember Jimmy’s name. “Kent… said that you were on vacation and unreachable.”

Lois refused to rise to Lex’s bait of demeaning her partner’s position. Normally, she would have been irked that Clark’s description of what she had been doing the past Friday night had been less than accurate and the fact that he hadn't relayed the message, but she’d save that thought for later. The two men were fated to dislike each other, and Lois would be a self-proclaimed lunkhead if she ever thought otherwise. “I was. I’m back to work now.”

His smile turned beaming. “I had been hoping to have dinner with you on Monday night, but as you’re back in town now…”

Did Lex think she was here because of his call? Did he think she wanted a date?

“I’ll change my plans for tonight and have my chef whip us up some surf and turf,” Lex recommended without consulting Lois’s opinion of said menu.

Lois would rather eat cold, leftover pizza with Clark.

Wait. Had Lex called her only three days before Valentine’s Day to ask her out for the holiday and expected her not only to be free, but also to accept? Moreover, now, did he expect her to drop everything to have dinner with him at a moment’s notice? Yes, it was another one of his underhanded barbs, created to make her life seem either to revolve around Lex, which it would never do, or seem unimportant. Either way, she felt insulted.

Actually, come to think of it, she had found a bouquet of red roses on her desk that first morning after she and Clark had spent the night at the honeymoon suite. She had thought it was just a joke from one of her co-workers about her and Clark’s wedding, and had dumped it straight into the trash without reading the card. Red roses still reminded her of Lex buying her services at the Metro Club. Had that been another bouquet from Lex?

Pressing back her natural anger that erupted at such continued rudeness, she reminded herself why she had come. “Another time perhaps, Lex,” Lois suggested, as in never. “I’m actually in the middle of an investigation.”

“Of course you are,” he said with a touch of condescension.

Okay, enough being nice. “On Thaddeus Rourke,” she continued as if Lex hadn’t interrupted.

Lex’s brow furrowed as her words finally sunk in. “Thaddeus Rourke? What does he have to do with me?”

“During the course of our investigation it has come to our attention that Rourke plans to sabotage tomorrow morning’s test of Shock Wave, which I understand from sources is a project of Luthor Technologies,” Lois explained, reaching into her briefcase and handing him the copy of the video she had stolen from Rourke’s office. She had swung by the Planet on the way to Lex’s office to make a copy.

“What’s this?” Lex asked.

“A one minute video of what his plan will do to your system,” she replied.

“How did you get this?”

It was her turn to smile. “I don’t reveal my sources, Lex.”

He nodded, before walking to a compartment in the wall, which hid a television and VCR. “I’m not going to ask how you know about a project, whose very code name ‘Shock Wave’ is supposed to be top-secret, or about Thaddeus Rourke, a man with whom I’ve had previous unsatisfactory dealings, who may or may not be trying to sabotage a test of this system...” He glanced at his watch. “— which commences in less than fifteen hours.”

Good, because Lois wasn’t planning to tell him.

Lex stuck the tape into the VCR and hit play. The computer-generated image took on an extra frightening edge now that Lois knew what it meant. A minute later, he nodded and turned off the television.

“What do you know?” he asked, the flirtation finally gone from his tone.

“We’ve had Thaddeus Rourke and Congressman Ian Harrington under surveillance for the last few days,” Lois said, leaving out where she and Clark had been during this surveillance. The less Lex knew about that, the better. “Rourke is positive that your system will fail its test, leaving it open to have Rourke’s own system adopted.”

“Rourke and Harrington?” He shook his head. “I should’ve known. You say that Rourke is positive?”

“Uh-huh,” Lois nodded.

“Well, nobody ever called Thaddeus Rourke an eternal optimist,” Lex murmured, falling into deep thought. He turned and faced Lois. “Are you sure about this?”

“Excuse me?” Lois said in surprise, and then went on in sarcasm, “No, Lex, I’m not sure at all, which is why I barged into your office to tell you about a suspected hunch, regarding someone bent on not only destroying you and Luthor Technologies, but also the city and populous of Metropolis.”

He waved away her concerns. “I meant, are you sure that Rourke isn’t on to you?”

Lois could only stare at him.

“Perhaps you’re being set up. Rourke might know you’ve been watching him,” Lex went on. The nervousness he exhibited when she first mentioned ‘Shock Wave’ and Thaddeus Rourke had disappeared. “He could have created this elaborate ruse to get you to have me cancel a test of a system, into which I’ve already sunk half-billion R&D dollars, just to make me look foolish and paranoid, when no sabotage comes to light.”

“I’m not lying to you,” Lois growled, jumping to her feet, so she could confront him face-to-face.

“I know you’re not, darling, not as far as you know. Fortunately, there isn’t a way to disrupt my system. There are back-ups on the power, and the system itself is not only well guarded but has many safety protocols. Although, Rourke is a weapons expert…” he said, more to himself than to her. “No. My system is fine. You must’ve been hoodwinked.”

“Excuse me!” Lois exclaimed. “I would know if someone was deceiving me.”

“Would you? Would you really?” he asked, brandishing her with a patronizing smile. “No, I think not, my dear.”

“I’m the most trusted name in journalism,” she said, pointing at him. “I trust nobody, and never allow anyone to get away with anything.”

Lex opened his mouth to speak, but before she knew if it would be a much-needed apology or a rebuttal, Mrs. Cox threw open his office door and strode in.

“Sir! A bomb has gone off at the Lexor Hotel,” she announced.

“The Lexor?” Lois echoed, her voice sounding hollow.

“Were there any fatalities?” Lex asked.

Clark! Lois swayed on her feet. No, not Clark. He had to be fine, but a chilling shiver danced like pinpricks over her body. “I see you have much on your plate at the moment, Lex. Thank you for your time. I’ll let you deal with your current crises. If you could please get back to me as soon as possible, regarding what we discussed, I’d be much obliged,” she said, turning to the door and holding herself back, so it didn’t appear as if she were in a hurry to leave.

“And I thank you, Lois, for bringing this matter to my attention. I’ll look into it, but you’ll see; everything will be fine,” Lex called after her with another one of his charming smiles. “I’ll call you, and we’ll reschedule dinner.”

The arrogance of that man! Lois had never agreed to have dinner with him. As soon as her feet were outside his door, she bolted to the elevators at a dead sprint.

*

“The occupants of the honeymoon suite weren’t inside,” Mrs. Cox went on with a sly smile, knowing her boss would give up his little mid-life crisis crush on the know-it-all reporter girl, possibly violently, and return his attentions where they belonged, namely her. “Although Mr. Kent was blown against the wall outside the door, he didn’t suffer any injuries.”

“Mr. Kent?” Lex repeated to his assistant, his eyes narrowing and his words coming out more harshly. “As in Clark Kent?”

“Yes, sir,” Mrs. Cox replied with an air of innocence. “According to Mr. Fredericks, the general manager of the Lexor Hotel, Clark Kent and Lois Lane checked in as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Kent’ on Monday, Valentine’s Day.”

“I know darn well what Monday was, Mrs. Cox,” Lex snapped at her, pushing a button on his intercom.

“Yes, sir?” Nigel’s voice asked.

“Two things, Nigel. Ms. Lane has just left my office. Have Asabi follow her and report back to me,” he instructed his majordomo as he pulled a Havana out of his cigar box.

About time! Mrs. Cox knew that reporter didn’t treat Lex with the respect and awe such a great man deserved. She popped open two more buttons on her blouse.

“Secondly, I need to know the current whereabouts of Thaddeus Rourke, and I need this information five minutes ago.”

“Certainly, sir,” Nigel agreed, and clicked off.

Mrs. Cox leaned down to light her boss’s cigar. “We can postpone our date until later, if you need to, Lex,” she whispered. “I want you to know that I’m here for you, for whatever you need, whenever you need it, for as late as you need it.”

Lex lit his cigar and thought about her offer as he gazed down her open blouse. His hard eyes returned to hers as the smoke swirled around his head, giving him a decidedly menacing expression. Without taking his eyes off her, he pushed another button on his desk console, which shut and locked his office doors. His fingers, holding the cigar, brushed her skin along the front of her blouse. She could feel the heat of it on her skin.

Mrs. Cox sat down on his desk and spread her legs slightly in invitation. She leaned back with both hands against his blotter, arching her chest forward. As his hands moved down to her knees, where he pushed her short skirt up her thighs and jerked her legs further apart, she could feel the hot ash from his cigar fall against her skin. He tucked his still lit cigar into her bra in order to have both his hands free to push her limber leg muscles to the edge of their flexibility. The heat of the burning embers of his cigar started to melt the fabric of her bra, burning her tender flesh, but other than a slight whimper, she said nothing.

Lex could be rough when things didn’t go his way, but Mrs. Cox knew he needed stress relief before he dealt with these blows. By not complaining, she had made herself irreplaceable in his mind. It was one of the compromises she made with herself once she decided to become the next Mrs. Lex Luthor.

***

Lois pushed through the crowds of guests milling about in the hotel lobby, as she worked her way towards the elevators.

“Mrs. Kent! Mrs. Kent!” she heard the familiar lilt of the bellhop’s voice call over the din. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Kent, but nobody is allowed upstairs until the fire marshal gives the all clear.” She didn’t realize that he was talking to her until he touched her arm as she pressed the elevator call button for the tenth time in a row. “Still not used to the new name, huh?”

“Clark and I went out earlier, and he returned to the suite before me. Tell me where the bomb went off!” she commanded, grabbing hold of his lapels and focusing on the bellhop’s dippy smile while trying not to burst into tears on his uniform jacket. She knew what his answer would be before he spoke.

“The honeymoon suite, Mrs. Kent,” the bellhop apologized.

Lois’s knees went weak and she was glad she was still holding onto his jacket to keep her upright. She saw his nametag labeled him as Fred. “Where’s Clark? Have you seen him, Fred?” she pleaded. “I have to see him. No matter what!” Not knowing if her partner was dead or alive, she sobbed, her grief overtaking her. She sank to her knees as if she were once more sitting on the grave of the baby on the Kent farm in Smallville. No, she couldn’t lose Chuck. She couldn’t survive losing him too. “It’s the first time we’ve been apart since the wedding,” she mumbled.

“According to rumors, he was outside the room when the bomb went off. He’s still upstairs being interviewed by the police, Mrs. Kent,” Fred whispered, trying to remove her arms from around his shins.

“Really? He’s alive,” Lois said, jumping to her feet and looking for the stairwell. If the elevators weren’t working, she’d huff it up all those stairs to reach Clark to see for herself that he was fine.

As she reached the stairwell door, Fred said, “Come on, Mrs. Kent. I’ll take you up the freight elevator.”

She beamed at him through her tears. “Thank you, Fred.” There was certainly a twenty in it for him.

A few minutes later, she walked down the familiar hall to her and Clark’s almost love-nest. A slightly singed Clark sat on an ash-covered alcove chair. There was a paramedic shining a light into his eyes.

“I’m fine!” he said in a weary tone whereby Lois knew it wasn’t the first time he had informed the woman of this fact. He brushed aside the light when she refocused it in his eyes.

“Chuck!” Lois called to him a split second after he turned to face her.

He rose to his feet with a relieved expression on his face, which probably mirrored hers, and she was in his arms. She didn’t know if she had moved, or if he had, but it took his surrounding arms for her to feel her own heart beat again.

“I was so worried,” she murmured.

“I’m…” Clark started to repeat, when he stopped himself. “I’ll survive, now that I know you’re safe.”

“Me, too,” she whispered. She wanted to do nothing more than take him back to her apartment and check his entire body for wounds. She couldn’t believe how close she had been to losing him, yet again. “You’ve got to stop almost dying on me.”

“Sorry,” he murmured, kissing her forehead. “We lost all our evidence in the explosion.”

Damn! Right. Their investigation. They had another impending disaster to deal with first. Lois swore under her breath. She could feel Clark smile against her cheek.

“Did you learn anything from your source?” he asked.

She froze. Lex and his less than helpful attitude had been out of her mind since the instant she left his office. She recalled the resentment in Lex’s eyes whenever he spoke of Clark. She turned back and focused on the debris-filled hallway. “Clark, who bombed the suite?”

“I’m assuming Rourke,” he said softly. “When I was in the room earlier, before the firefighters arrived, to check how much we’d lost, I saw that Apocalypse Consulting had vacated their offices.”

Lois swore again, before slugging him in the arm. “Who do you think you are, Chuck? You barely survived a bomb blast only to enter the suite right afterwards. You could have been hurt.”

He set his hand on her jaw and smiled into her eyes. “I love you too, Lois.”

“Were you able to talk to Superman?” Lois asked, trying to distract herself from that truth in his eyes.

Clark glanced around, and then murmured, “How do you think I survived this thing?”

Lois’s eyes widened. Had Superman been between Clark and the bomb? Was that how close she had been to losing Clark? She squeezed him tighter. Oh, no! Superman was at their honeymoon suite? “Does he know?”

His brow furrowed. “Know what?”

“That we’re not really married?” she asked. She would hate Superman to find out about her and Clark getting back together this way, and think they had actually run off and gotten married without informing him first. Had Clark said anything? She hoped not. Superman deserved to hear it straight from her.

The smile slid off his face. “He knows.”

“I wouldn’t want him to think that we lied to him,” Lois replied, knowing what Clark was thinking. He assumed that Lois was still in love with Superman, still had hope for her and Superman, and there was a part of her which would always love him. Unfortunately, for Superman, he had lost his chance the moment she had fallen in love with Clark.

“Uh-huh,” Clark replied, clearly not believing her.

“Don’t make me kiss that doubt off your face, Chuck!” she scolded under her breath. “I’m minha, remember?”

A hesitant sheepish smile returned, followed by a chuckle. “Sua,” he corrected.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” Detective Henderson asked, coming out the suite. “Somebody caught himself a Mad Dog bride.”

Lois groaned. “Not you. Why couldn’t your ugly brother be handling this case?” she asked.

Detective Henderson grinned. “Sixteenth cousin, thrice removed,” he corrected. “Because I’m a lucky member of the MPD’s Bomb Squad, and Bill gets to handle the boring stuff like corporate espionage, robbery, and fraud.”

“I thought you worked Homicide,” she rebutted.

“I did, until I realized I’d see you more, so I transferred to the Bomb Squad. I should have known better,” Detective Henderson grumbled good-naturedly. “Do you want to know about this bomb, or are you too…” He made an obvious glance at their embrace. “Too close to it?”

Clark stepped away. “What have you got?” he asked as he followed Lois and the detective into the suite.

“It looks like a C4 explosive was set on a timer under the couch cushion here,” the detective explained. “But the room was trashed before that. The bomber was covering up his search, destroying whatever it was he couldn’t find, or you just really ticked him off. You guys want to tell me what you were doing here?”

Lois raised an eyebrow, and then rebuked him, “Detective!”

“Undercover operation to spy on the offices across the street,” Clark ‘the Blabbermouth’ Kent said, nodding towards the windows.

“I knew Lane looked too happy for you two to be the real deal,” Detective Henderson replied.

What was that supposed to mean? Either she couldn’t be happy, or she was a horrible actress? Thanks a lot! As soon as she got Clark cured of his ‘mental lapse’, she planned to visit Detective Henderson, so he could see what true happiness looked like.

Clark must have sensed her anger, because he set a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

The detective glanced out the window. “Nobody’s there. Who was it?”

Her partner went to open his mouth, but Lois placed a finger to his lips. “We’ll tell you if we’re all alive tomorrow.”

The detective rolled his eyes. “I could arrest you for hindering my investigation.”

Clark gave her his patented ‘we could use all the help we can get’ look, which he then followed with a ‘trust me’. Trust him?

“Apocalypse Consulting,” Clark told the detective. “We got a tip that they’re a front for some criminal organization, planning something huge set for tomorrow morning, but we haven’t worked out all the details of what they’re up to yet.”

Okay, Lois had to admit, that sounded helpful without actually revealing their scoop to the MPD.

“Apparently, they’re on to you,” Detective Henderson replied.

Lex’s words echoed back to her. Could this all be a master ruse to discredit Lex and Luthor Technologies through the investigating genius of Lane and Kent without Rourke even lifting a sabotaging finger? No. That had been genuine fear on Harrington’s face last night. Of course, if it was a hoax, Rourke might not have clued Harrington in on it. Anyway, she would rather end up with egg on her face than risk the city and the people of Metropolis. It wasn’t worth chancing that Lex was right, and she wasn’t.

Lois took another look around the still slightly smoking and charred honeymoon suite. No, Rourke and company wouldn’t have gone through the effort of bombing the suite if they had known earlier that she and Clark had been spying on them. Yes! She had proved Lex wrong. Unfortunately, that meant that she and Clark still somehow had to stop a tsunami.

“Kent, that’s all we need for now. We’ll be in contact. Okay, Lane, you can take your new husband home with you now,” Detective Henderson said.

I don’t mind if I do, Lois replied in her mind, brandishing him with her biggest grin as she took Clark’s arm and led him towards the door.

Henderson called to them before they walked out. “But if I find out that you knew the current whereabouts of these suspects of yours without informing us, I will press charges this time, for aiding and abetting.”

Lois’s hand tightened on Clark’s arm, but before she could speak, he did so for her.

“Should we find them, you’ll be first up on our speed-dial list,” Clark said.

“After Superman,” Lois corrected.

Henderson’s eyes had the audacity actually to sparkle. “Is that how you keep getting all those Superman exclusives?” he said more than asked. “You have Superman’s phone number.”

“No, I’m truly that good,” Lois retorted.

Several of the crime scene guys started to snicker.

“At my job!” she roared and stomped out of the suite.

“Hey, Lane!” one of the men called. “If you and Kent were just here on an undercover assignment, what were these lingerie items doing in the bedroom?”

Her eyes widened and she marched back inside. The man was dangling by its straps, the black teddy she had bought last week in hopes to have the courage to invite Clark to join her at the honeymoon suite for her night of personal relaxation. She reached to grab it. “That’s mine!”

The crime scene tech snatched it back at the last second. “Uh-uh. This is evidence.”

“Okay, guys, back to work,” Henderson called.

“Actually, that’s only a prop we bought Lois before we checked in. The Lexor is a full service hotel, and we knew that the bellhop would unpack our bags after showing us to the room. We needed to have the appearance of a real honeymoon couple,” Clark said with perfect nonchalance as he lied through his teeth, before taking her arm. “Come on, Lois. We have some stories to write.”

In total mortification, Lois was unable to speak a word as they walked the entire length of the hall back to the elevators. Clark rested his arm around her shoulders in quiet support.

When the doors had closed, and they were alone in the elevator, Clark broke the silence. “I’m sorry about that.”

Lois nodded, unable to find the words to express her gratitude of Clark’s calm defense, her embarrassment of Clark seeing, in another man’s hands, what she bought for his eyes only, and the horror she felt at seeing that the negligee had a big slash wound across the belly. She wiped her eyes and quickly tried to push up her façade of indifference she had built up before meeting Clark. He had slowly been chipping away at it, until it had crumbled into a heap at her feet with that amazing mistletoe kiss before Christmas. Now, having fallen for her partner, she had become the laughingstock of Metropolis.

“It’s okay to be mad, Lois,” Clark continued. “They were being unprofessional.”

“I… I bought… I bought it for…” she stammered softly, gazing down at her feet.

“Superman. It’s okay, Lois, I understand,” he replied. “You fell in love with him at first sight, he broke your heart, and there’s a large part of you, which will always love him. I’m okay with that, really I am. I knew as soon as you met him that I’d always come second in your affections.” He brushed a lock of hair off her face. “I’m just happy to be included in that exclusive list.”

Lois stared up at him, and then shook her head. It didn’t matter anymore. She would wear it for neither man now.

The doors of the elevator chimed, and she wiped her eyes once more. The doors opened and Lois murmured, too quietly for him to hear, “No, Clark, I bought it for you.” She stepped out and into the chaotic lobby.

***End of Part 78***

Part 79

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