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

Part 78

Part 79

In the inky blueness of the pre-dawn sky, Superman hovered in the air over the bay near Pier 31. At around eleven the previous night, several short hours ago, he had discovered a bound and tied Congressman Harrington and enough C4 explosives to blow the entire pier sky high. It seemed a bit like overkill, since Rourke had already planned to wash away the docks with his tidal wave. Neither Rourke nor his associate was on location for the bust, but the congressman was more than happy for the rescue. Harrington claimed to be undercover on a sting operation to catch Rourke and had been found out, which was why he had been tied up inside the warehouse; a statement neither Lois nor Clark placed any credence in.

After Harrington had given his statement to Detective Henderson, he had promised Lois and Clark that he would contact the appropriate naval admirals and warn them about Rourke’s plan and the danger to Metropolis if they went ahead with the test. Instead, an hour ago, they had learned that Harrington had hopped on a helicopter and left Metropolis to parts unknown. As far as they knew, Harrington had never contacted the navy and the plan was still on course.

Superman could have easily caught him and brought him back to face his bribery charges, for which they had photographic evidence from Lois’s “night of relaxation” in the honeymoon suite, but Clark figured his time and efforts were better spent searching for Rourke.

None of Perry’s contacts in Washington was interested in what they had found out. According to the navy, there “was no test”. At about two in the morning, Clark decided to bite the bullet and call Lex. Lois set her hand over his and hung up the receiver.

“We don’t have the evidence to back up our claims, Clark. He’s not going to believe us,” she said.

That had been the moment when he realized who Lois’s “skittish source” she had gone to meet that afternoon had been. She had gone, on her own, to see Luthor, and she hadn’t planned to tell her partner about it. Clark knew he shouldn’t have felt surprised, but he had once again let himself be sideswiped by this revelation. She claimed to want to be in an intimate relationship with him, but she was still keeping secret her meetings with a man whom Clark didn't trust. How could he confide in her his biggest secret, or second biggest secret, if she continued to show blatant disregard for his insight regarding Luthor?

He heard a sigh from down on the docks and instantly knew who it was. Superman had offered to take Lois out of the city for her protection, and she had refused. She would leave, only after he had removed all the other residents of Metropolis.

A slight smile curved on the corner of his lips. Actually, she had been royally ticked off at him for the suggestion. So mad in fact, it was as if all her anger regarding everything else that had happened during the course of this investigation suddenly chose that moment to erupt, and erupt she had.

Man, how he loved her fire.

Clark couldn’t help but recall how alluring Lois had looked in that light blue negligee, which she told Superman she had bought to wear for him. If seven months ago, she had dared to stand at her living room window in it, he would have caved quite willingly on his restriction about not kissing Lois, while he was in uniform. It was so different a type of lingerie than he had ever imagined her wearing that, having seen her in it, he hadn’t been able to picture her wearing anything else to bed.

It had come as quite a shock when Lois had come out of the bathroom in the t-shirt and boxer shorts that first night at the honeymoon suite. If he had known that there was a skimpy and very sexy black teddy hiding in her drawer… although, come to think of it, that could explain why she blew up at Fred the bellhop for unpacking her unmentionables… or if she had exited the bathroom in that particular outfit after they had kissed on the bed…

Clark, I bought it for you, her words echoed in his head. He had been so dumbfounded when he heard her murmur that to herself that he almost forgot to follow her out of the elevator. She had been worried that he was having some sort of aftershock or had a concussion from the explosion, when the elevator door had started to close on him.

Lois was clearly as interested in a physical relationship with Clark as he would like to be with her. Unfortunately, he now needed to find a way to cool off her ardor, or explain himself better, so that she would stop trying to seduce him to make love to her. He loved Lois, and therefore didn’t want to think of his desire for her as the means of her death, or he would really have the kind of impotence problem she already thought he had. Perhaps he should just tell her that he was Superman, after tonight’s fireworks at the Man of Steel that surely would cool down her desire for Clark lickety-split.

“How dare you?” Lois had yelled at Superman, after he had suggested she leave town, just in case. “Do you think I don’t trust that you will save us? Have I ever let you believe that I doubt you or your abilities in any way, shape, or form?”

She had paced back and forth, bringing to mind their discussion in the mountain forest the day Superman had told her, in no uncertain terms, that there couldn’t be a relationship between them. If, on the docks, there had been a tree branch for her to pick up, she would have done so to hit him with it. Evidently, she felt he was, once again, acting like an idiot and that she needed to beat some sense into him.

“What is it about you that makes you think that you need to save me from my chosen career, my investigations, and living my life? Stop protecting me, Superman, when my life isn’t in danger. Between you and Clark, I’d be working the dog show circuit. No, not even that,” she had screamed, throwing her hands into the air. “Because, heaven forbid, some dog might take offense that I had eaten a hotdog for lunch and decide to bite me because of it.”

It had been all he could do not to wrap her in his arms and press a kiss to her lips. Had he been dressed otherwise, as Clark instead of Superman, he would have. He loved that Clark’s current relationship with Lois allowed him the freedom to do that.

“If you won’t let me fly you out to Smallville to the Kent’s farm or to L.A. to your sister’s place, could you please stay in your apartment?” he had retorted.

“My apartment?” she scoffed.

“Yes, it’s on the fifth floor, and that should be high enough up to be safe from the tidal surge,” he replied.

“What about my story?” she snapped. “The Daily Planet’s newsroom is high enough as well. Anyway, I have to type up Harrington’s B.S. statement. You can drop us off there instead. I’d be of more use at work, pacing the floor, than I would be at home, where there’s no way I’d be able to sleep.”

Us? How could Superman stop the tidal wave, if Clark was stuck at work?

Lois had looked around at that moment and discovered her partner was nowhere to be found. “Where is Clark, anyway? He was here just a minute ago.”

“He said something about going back to police headquarters to check if there was any new information about the bombing at the Lexor Hotel this afternoon,” Superman had said. “I will recommend to Clark that he stay in his top-floor apartment, after I drop you off.”

Superman realized, at this moment, his error and winced. He had said the word ‘recommend’ as if it were only a suggestion that she remain at the Daily Planet. He should have known it was naïve on his part to assume that she would listen to Superman any more than she didn’t listen to Clark or Perry. In the end, Clark had returned to Daily Planet after an hour of searching for Rourke. After what Lois said to Superman after he had dropped her off, Clark just couldn’t stay away.

When Superman had set her down on the roof of the Daily Planet several hours before, she hadn’t instantly stepped away and run down to the newsroom to type up her story. Instead, she had hesitated, resting her hand on his arm.

“Superman…” she started, and then paused. “Did Clark talk to you?”

“About?”

“Us?” she asked.

“Us?” he had repeated, not knowing what else to say.

“No, him and me, that us,” she said softly. “Clark said that he told you that we’re not really married, and that we were staying together at the honeymoon suite as only a cover for our assignment.”

“Yes, he did,” he replied.

She had exhaled and moved her hand down to his. “I want you to know that you’ll always be special to me, Superman, but Clark needs me. I mean, I know that you need me too, but he really needs me.”

“That he does,” Superman murmured.

Lois had let go of his hand as she turned to look out over the city. “Clark’s a good man. He’s kind, sweet, funny, honest, thoughtful, strong, yet fragile…”

“Honest?” he hadn’t been able to stop himself from saying.

She blushed. “Well, except for all that lying to me about his past, yes, honest,” she had said, putting the full force of her gaze on his face. “I love him.”

The Clark hiding under the Superman suit couldn’t help but sputter in shock, “You love him?”

Lois’s expression went from baffled to shocked understanding to sadness to anger in the split-second it took for him to return his face from Clark’s to Superman’s.

“Now, you’re upset?” she yelled at him. “Now? You didn’t think I would fall for Clark, did you? I remember that you laughed when I told you about that dream of Clark kissing me that I had all those months ago, when we were dealing with Mr. Morris, the Invisible Man. Did you think it ludicrous that someone strong like me could fall for someone like him, with his frailties, and emotional problems, and… and… and his fears, which manifest into physical problems? Someone who isn’t perfect like you? Is that why you were always nudging me towards him? And is it why you’ve never been jealous of Clark and me? Because you thought he was safe. Well, let me tell you, buster,” Lois hollered, shoving his chest with both of her hands.

Clark didn’t resist at all, allowing her push to move him as if he were anyone else.

“It’s all your fault that I love Clark,” Lois told him.

He raised a slightly surprised eyebrow at this pronouncement.

“If you hadn’t kept urging me towards him,” she growled, forcibly moving him back another step. “If you hadn’t insisted on him being our go-between, if you hadn’t kept telling me how much he needs me, you wouldn’t be feeling so… so… in shock as you are now. And to think, I wanted to break this gently to you, because I felt sorry for you that I had moved on. The truth of the matter is, you bet on me pining away forever after you, and you lost.” She went to push him one more time, only this time he caught her hands.

“Lois,” Superman said softly. “I was surprised when you said that you loved Clark, because you told me before you told him.”

“What are you talking about? Clark knows that I love him.”

“Does he?” Superman asked. Well, okay, he did now, but not before. He knew that she wanted him, but love…

“Sure he does. I’ve told him.” Her eyes widened in horror. “Haven’t I?”

He shook his head. “I don’t see him floating down the street.”

“Oh,” Lois murmured, her anger sizzling out for the time being. “But I know I’ve told him that I love him. You must be mistaken.”

He could see her searching her mind for the time when she had spoken the words that Clark had longed to hear since they first kissed, way back in Trask’s plane.

“The hardest part of the whole pheromone perfume episode for Clark was learning that you didn’t really love him after all, and that you only said that you loved him because you had been drugged,” he explained.

“Clark told you about that?” she asked. Her cheeks flushed, and he didn’t know if it was from embarrassment or from her heightened emotions from a few moments before.

He nodded.

Lois shook her head. “Lunkhead,” she grumbled under her breath.

“Pardon?” Superman asked. Was she talking about Superman him, or Clark him?

“I’m in love with a lunkhead,” Lois said with a chuckling scoff. “What Clark didn’t realize is that… no, I should really be saying this to him, and not to you.”

What Clark had wanted was for her to explain right then and there what he ‘hadn’t realized’, but she was right… as always. As long as Lois believed that Clark and Superman were two people, she should only be baring her soul to Clark, the man whom she loved, not to Superman.

But, gosh darn it, he didn’t want to have to wait. He had opened his mouth to confess that he, Superman, was also Clark, but then had decided that hadn’t been the time or the place for that confession. Her love for him was so new, so delicate; he didn’t want to risk damaging it by revealing his deception just yet, not on the brink of a man-made natural disaster.

Superman pulled his gaze away from where Lois was hiding behind some crates on Pier 31, and back to the present, turning his sights to the sea.

Natural disaster? What had Herb told him about that natural disaster he was supposed to stop?

Damn! Damn! Double damn! In all the confusion about pheromones, the broken timeline, curses, and saving Lois’s true Clark, he had forgotten completely about asking Herb to tell him more about the natural disaster, which would destroy this dimension. Herb had said it wouldn’t occur for years, hadn’t he? Clark searched his memory for Herb’s exact words.

Because without a Superman, nearly the entire population of her world was destroyed, roughly a year or two ago. Altering the future of this dimension cannot do anything but good, Herb had said, during their initial conversation about this dimension.

With dismay, Clark realized that Herb had never said specifically that a ‘natural disaster’ would destroy this dimension; Clark had only assumed the disaster was natural. ‘A year or two ago’ from when they had held the conversation in February 1997 would mean that the disaster could have happened as early as February 1995. What if Herb had been wrong? What if in his confusion, he had meant February 1994? What if Rourke’s sabotage of Luthor’s project did more than create this one tidal wave? What if it somehow flooded the Earth?

With dread, Clark realized this also meant that he might not have another year before disaster struck. Even if this event wasn’t the cause of this dimension’s destruction, anything he came across from now on could be.

Terrific, he thought wryly as he pressed his lips together in annoyance. Now, Superman had to treat every little threat as the possible event that could end life as everyone knew it and wipe out most of the population of this dimension. So much for having a head start on this world-ending catastrophe.

He rubbed his hands over his throbbing head. He didn’t really need this discovery on top of all his current stresses.

Clark pushed this thought from his mind as a flash of sunlight appeared over the horizon. It was dawn. He focused his attention down to the water. There were several naval vessels in the ocean outside of Hob’s Bay, as well as some fishing boats, pleasure crafts, and even a cruise ship heading north towards New York. He heard the swish of helicopter blades and turned to see a naval helicopter heading out to sea from what appeared to be Norfolk, Virginia.

He recalled from Rourke’s video that a helicopter dropped the charge into the water. He had hopes that it was Harrington coming to stop the test, but he knew better. Harrington was long gone, more interested in saving his own behind than the population of Metropolis.

Clark didn’t know quite what to do. Lois had told Luthor, or at least hinted that she had, that the test would be sabotaged, but Clark knew he couldn’t trust that man to do the right thing. Maybe Luthor had, as it was his reputation on the line as well, but maybe he hadn’t.

Superman could catch the projectile before it hit the water, but unless he knew for sure that the problem hadn’t been fixed, he chanced public censure, criminal charges for interfering with a military operation, and, knowing Luthor, a lawsuit covering “pain and damages” of the failed test. On the other hand, if he didn’t stop the test, a tidal wave could hit Metropolis. Either way, it looked like a win in the Luthor column against Superman, even if it did cause him some problems with Luthor Technologies. Superman was damned if he did something, and damned if he didn’t.

He had stopped a small tidal wave off the coast of New Zealand prior to coming to this dimension, but he was sure that a six foot surge was nothing in comparison to what that computer model showed. He wasn’t even sure if spinning in the water would displace such a large wave.

Do you think I don’t trust that you will save us? Lois’s words echoed through his head. She had done nothing but yell at Superman when they had spoken tonight… earlier this morning, but she still hadn’t stopped believing in him.

Superman straightened his shoulders. If Lois believed in him, then he knew he could do it.

The helicopter fired its projectile into the water. With his telescopic vision, Superman watched how the sonic wave from the ship targeted the object, causing it to explode underwater. On first glance, Luthor’s system worked as it was supposed to. It appeared that either Rourke failed in his vandalism, or Luthor’s people had found how Rourke had tinkered with the system and fixed it in time. Thankfully, 'shock wave' didn't seem to cause a corresponding water wave.

A small motorboat zoomed into the restricted test area just as the projectile’s blast reached the surface. Superman sped down to the boat, landing on the deck just in time for its destruction to throw him back into the air. That had been long enough for him to see Bart sitting behind the wheel of the boat, and Rourke in the passenger seat. What in the world had they been thinking by driving into the restricted naval test area? Surely, part of their plan hadn’t been to attack a naval ship.

Superman stopped his forward momentum from the blast and quickly flew back down to the scene of the explosion. Both men were dead. Unfortunately, the sonic wave must have affected marine life as well, as schools of ‘shocked’ fish floated to the surface. Man destroyed nature to propel himself into the future of warfare. Superman wondered what the Jaguar would think of this system.

Clark flew over to the nearest naval ship and hovered just off the bridge until the Commander, the Captain, and the Admiral, who were observing the tests, acknowledged him.

“Superman! What can we do for you?” the Commander of the naval frigate asked.

“Permission to board, sir?” Clark asked.

“Permission granted,” the Commander replied without a second thought, and Superman landed next to them on the deck.

“The men in the motorboat were both killed by the boat’s explosion. I had time to get a good look at them before the blast, and I can identify them as Thaddeus Rourke and his associate Bart, last name unknown. They were the men Lane and Kent of the Daily Planet were observing in regards to the possible sabotage of Project Shock Wave,” Superman announced. “Do you want to handle their deaths as a military investigation, or a civilian one?”

The three men exchanged glances, conceding that none of them had any idea to what he was referring. Clark sensed another long day ahead.

***

Lois pulled her binoculars down.

Still no tidal wave. She wondered if Superman had been able to stop it, or if it hadn’t happened as Rourke planned. Maybe it would still strike, but later in the day, or head east instead of west. She had seen an explosion about an hour earlier, but from her sea level vantage point, hadn’t been able to see more than that.

She heard footsteps on the stairs behind her and turned to see Clark approaching her. She stood up. “How did you know where to find me?”

Clark looked at her wryly. “Did you really think that Superman hadn’t spotted you?”

“Damn!” she grumbled, picking up her briefcase and meeting him halfway. “I should’ve known better. It’s like having a stalker ex-boyfriend.”

“He didn’t scoop you up and take you to a safer location, now did he?” Clark defended his friend. “No matter how much we… I would have wished him to do so.”

Lois rolled her eyes. “No, but he told you where I was.”

“How long were you planning on staying out here? Until Superman dropped an exclusive in your lap?” he retorted.

Superman didn’t, did he? “But you’ve talked to him, haven’t you?” she accused.

Clark graced her with a beaming smile.

“Partner,” she added, wrapping her arm around him. “So, no tidal wave?”

“Either one of our phone calls to warn Washington of this danger landed on the right desk and the problem got fixed, before the test,” he said.

Lois glanced away with a blush, feeling a bit guilty for not having told Clark about her meeting with Lex. She felt a bit vindicated, knowing the billionaire had listened to her after all. “Or?”

“Or Rourke messed up. It was his motorboat that exploded after the test. It hit the water spout that the ‘shock wave’ caused, somehow exploding the boat,” Clark explained. “Killing both Bart and Rourke.”

Apparently, she was right about Superman giving the exclusive to the partner who didn’t break his order, commanding her to stay to higher ground. If Superman thought that was the way to get her to obey, he was in for a rude awakening.

“The investigation into their deaths and possible sabotage will be a joint military / civilian one,” he continued as they reached the street level.

“Oh, they’ll just love that over at MPD,” she said with a doubtful chuckle.

“FBI, probably,” Clark corrected. “Domestic terrorism and all.”

“Can’t you just let me be right for once?” she snapped, raising her hand to passing cab. It had been a long night, and there was no exciting tsunami story to type up. Oh, sure, there was the one about the possible tsunami, but it wasn’t quite as Kerth worthy, especially since she had leaked her story to one of the participants ahead of time. Of course, the safety of Metropolis was more important than her fourth Kerth. She sighed.

“Lois,” he said softly with an expression of genuine love. “You’re always right.”

As they got into the cab, she grinned. She tilted her head upon his shoulder, thinking, I knew there was a reason I loved him.

“Daily Planet,” Clark told the driver.

Her hand slid into his as the cab drove off. “How about some breakfast first, and then we write?”

Clark raised a surprised eyebrow.

“Back at my place,” she whispered, squeezing his hand. She felt like their investigation had gypped her out of one final night with Clark at the Lexor Hotel. Final two nights in fact, because she had gotten hardly any sleep the night before last either.

“Lois, if we go back to your place, we’ll never make the deadline for the afternoon edition,” he cautioned, warming her dock-chilled body with anticipation.

“Right. Deadline,” Lois repeated. “How about your place?”

He laughed. “Well, at least there’s food at my apartment.”

She nudged his ribs with her elbow. “I have food.”

Clark appeared skeptical.

Lois didn’t feel like having this argument again now. “True, you have food, that big bed, and that hot shower,” she teased, as her gaze focused down on his firm leg muscle, sitting on the seat next to her. She smiled as he shifted in discomfort, another point for her. She added a long dramatic sigh. “Of course, I’d have nothing to wear.”

Clark cleared his throat. “Technically, you haven’t removed all the clothes you left, when you… uh… er… moved in.”

Oh, he meant during that time she had told him that she loved him, and he hadn’t believed her because she had been drugged on pheromones. That time she had moved in? The more that she thought of Clark’s apartment, the more appetizing it sounded. Tasty food, comfy bed, hot shower, firm naked muscles, lack of sleep, and her clothes. “We better eat at Metro Eats, then,” she said, mentioning the diner down the street from the Planet. “Being that we should at least aim for one of today’s deadlines.”

“Um… Lois…” he murmured, raising the back of her hand to his lips. “We need to…” Whatever he was about to say died on his lips. “Yes, you’re right. We’ll talk later.”

We’ll talk later? She didn’t like the sound of that. “That sounds good,” she lied. “We’ll eat breakfast, write our story, get forty winks, and then meet for dinner at your place to discuss things.”

***

Unfortunately, Lois and Clark’s dinner plans were delayed.

Lex Luthor called to thank Lois for the tip regarding Rourke and offered her the exclusive story on Project Shock Wave. Instead of inviting her to dinner, par for the course with him, they arranged a meeting in his office for mid-afternoon. The fact that Lex treated her professionally throughout was like a breath of fresh air being pumped into their acquaintanceship. She hated to term their relationship as a ‘friendship’, because Lex had proven himself unworthy of that title. ‘Association’ had a foul smell to it. Perhaps her investigation had finally taught Lex that not only was she serious about her career, but she was good at it as well. She should have known better.

When Lois stood up at the end of the interview, Lex walked her to the door and shook her hand.

“We work well together, Lois,” he said, sandwiching her hand between both of his. “I really appreciate the assistance you gave me on that matter with Rourke.”

“Just trying to prevent a disaster, Lex,” she said, giving a little tug with her hand to hint that she wanted him to let go. He didn’t heed her request.

“Don’t be so be so humble, Lois. You did an excellent job, and I’m afraid I had been more than brusque with you,” Lex apologized.

He had more than made up for it with this exclusive. “Water under the bridge, I assure you,” Lois said, tugging her hand a bit more firmly. This time he let go.

“You mentioned before that our association would be a conflict of interest, so let me propose an alternative,” he said.

Propose an alternative to dating? She listened with faux rapt interest. “Go on.”

“Once a week, we meet for dinner, purely professional, I guarantee you. You let me know about any pertinent investigations in development at the Daily Planet, which I might be interested in, such as this one with Thaddeus Rourke, and I give you insider information on LexCorp, as a secret source, of course,” he suggested.

Did Lex want her to be his mole at the Daily Planet? Did he think that there was, or would be, an investigation on LexCorp, one of its subsidiaries, or himself, about which he should be forewarned? Was he offering to bribe her with insider information in exchange? She didn’t like any aspect of this partnership that Lex was proposing, especially the part where they would be meeting for ‘dinner’ so that their tit-for-tat would appear more of a dating relationship.

Lois appeared to think over his offer as she stopped her first gut reaction from speaking for her. “I’m flattered, Lex, but I doubt I would have very much of interest to contribute to such a… dinner,” she finally said, as diplomatically as possible.

“Don’t do yourself an injustice, my dear. I’m sure that through the course of our conversations we’d find something of mutual value,” Lex reassured her.

Translation: Lex would pump her about all the stories that she and her colleagues were currently working on to find out information on his competitors, which would give him an edge businesswise, while at the same time allowing him access to a sympathetic ear regarding himself, and his businesses. What would she get in return? Probably a mishmash of exclusive press releases and other useless information, which would send her on a wild goose chase, either make her sound like a Lex Luthor or LexCorp cheerleader, or point her away from where she really ought to be investigating.

Lex did have some information of value though. Back before he had shot her, when she had been dating him to make Superman jealous, she recalled finding on Lex’s desk, a file on a competitor he was considering to buy. She had used the data found in that file as a stepping stone into an investigation into that plastics company, which eventually led to it closing down due to unsafe products and working conditions. The memory of that investigation was burned onto her brain, because Superman had “saved” her from her hiding spot on the trellis outside of the plant manager’s office. That rescue had led to one of the worst arguments between Superman and her of their relationship, and the creation of that silly codeword ‘octopus’ for when she wanted Superman to rescue her.

Had that file been a test? Had Lex left that file intentionally on his desk to see what Lois would do when he had left the room? Had he really been interested in purchasing that company, or had he just used Lois to get it closed down so that Luthor Plastics could take over its share of the industry?

Her thoughts went back to his explanation of what he was doing at the Metro Club when he had met with Toni Taylor. Clark had always thought that association was suspicious, but Lex’s explanation had made sense, only… only after the Toasters had razed the Hob’s River District and Toni’s arrest had essentially put the Metros out of business. LexCorp had gone forward with their revitalization plans, sweeping up the damaged properties at firesale prices.

“You have given me much to think about, Lex,” Lois said. “I hope you’ll give me time to consider your kind offer.” She needed time to look deeper into these theories and check out some of the other stories where she and Lex had crossed paths, and figure out if it was just a coincidence or if there had been another reason. She also needed time to word her rejection of his offer in such a way that he wouldn’t know that she now had some solid leads for her investigation.

“Of course, darling,” Lex said, scooping up her hand again and bringing it to his lips to kiss it. “Feel free to call me tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow?” she said with laughter. “Oh, Lex, I’ll need more time than that. I’m swamped at the moment. I have to write up this article on Project Shock Wave, and I’ll be in Washington this weekend. Not to mention that Clark and I still have some follow-ups to do on Thaddeus Rourke, as well as some other irons in the fire. I’ll call you next week.”

“You and Kent?” Lex said with suspicion.

She should have remembered not to mention Clark’s name in Lex’s presence.

“I understand that you two shared the honeymoon suite at the Lexor Hotel, during your current investigation,” he continued.

Lois raised an eyebrow, refusing to answer and daring him to say another word against her partner.

“Since your investigation not only saved Metropolis from a horrible fate, but also rescued Luthor Technologies from a potential P.R. nightmare, I’ve told Mr. Fredericks to only charge the Daily Planet the rate of a double room, during the course of your stay,” Lex offered.

How generous, she thought wryly. Had Lex only brought up the honeymoon suite, and Clark’s role in their undercover operation, because they had been staying at his hotel? Or did he have another reason? “That wasn’t necessary, Lex. We were on an expense account,” Lois said. “But thank you.”

“So, I have nothing to fear in that department?” he said, raising his hand to her face.

“What ‘department’ would that be? The ‘department’ of my life, which is personal?” Lois snapped, stepping further away from him. “Are you accusing me of unprofessional behavior? Of sleeping with my partner on the job? I find it difficult to believe that you would want to associate or partner-up with such a person, less it soil your perfect reputation.” He had stepped across that invisible boundary line once too often. His obsession with Clark was unacceptable. His interest in her wasn’t returned. “Not that it’s any of your business, Lex, but Clark and I took turns on the couch. I got it the first night, him the second.” She turned the handle on the door. “Thank you for the interview, Mr. Luthor. Good day,” she said, opening the door and marching out of his office.

And good riddance!

*** End of Part 79 ***

Part 80

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