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

Where we left off in Part 98 ...

“How’d you find out?”

“I kissed him.”

Perry looked both confused and skeptical at the same time, before asking, “Who?”

“Superman.”

“But you’ve kissed him before, haven’t you?” he asked.

“No! It was the first time. Well, I mean, I’ve kissed Clark plenty of times, but this was the first time I’d kissed him while he was dressed in the Super Suit,” Lois admitted. Oh, why had she told him that? She cleared her throat. “I was so excited to see him, Superman him, and know that he would save us from Nightfall, that I went a little overboard with my greeting.” Okay, that wasn’t the full truth, but it was close enough.

“So, you’re not sure. Good. Let’s keep it that way. If I don’t have the cold hard facts, I can’t print it. This conversation never happened,” Perry said, heading for the door.

“Fine by me,” Lois agreed. If Clark ever found out that she had spilled the beans on him to their editor, he would be less than thrilled.

Perry turned around to face her again. “Did you say that Superman’s back? That he’s heading to stop Nightfall?”

“No, because we didn’t have that conversation,” she retorted. “But Superman is back. He just gave me a lift to the Planet.”

“For future reference, Lois, that’s the story you should lead with!” Perry growled, and marched out of the conference room. “Olsen!”

Part 99

Perry came back a few minutes later and informed Lois to get off her duff, because she had less than fifteen minutes to get him a Page One story on her little ‘Superman had returned’ announcement in time for afternoon edition.

After typing that up, Lois returned to the relative quiet of the conference room to think back over everything she and Clark, and she and Superman had experienced. She started with Clark’s killer abs. Well, duh, he was Superman! She winced at this word choice, wondering who that man from her vision was. She shook her head. He was probably from some sci-fi television show with that getup.

Next she thought about when Clark had busted down the door of the Messenger hangar to ‘rescue’ her and Jimmy. She rolled her eyes. That had ‘Superman’ written all over it. Okay, true, Superman hadn’t made an appearance by that point in time… actually, he had! He had saved that city worker under the street when the gas line exploded. And Clark had ended up with the story. She shook her head. Why wouldn’t he have? He was Superman, after all. He had details to which the rest of them weren’t privy. Despite that, Lois knew that she was twice the reporter Clark was. She got all her scoops without the help of extra powers, thank you very much.

Lois got up, went to the coffee station in the conference room, and poured herself a cup of caffeine.

As she stirred in her non-dairy creamer, she remembered the ‘missing chain link’ at the Messenger warehouse. Of course! Clark had pulled the chains apart. She was such an idiot. Why hadn’t she noticed it? Why hadn’t she listened to him? Instead, she had just rambled on about how she, Jimmy, and Clark were going to die because she had seen it in her vision. Her brow furrowed. Actually, Clark was the reason that Jimmy and the colonists on the Prometheus hadn’t died. In her vision, he hadn’t been there. A chill shivered through her.

Dear God; thank you for allowing Superman to come into my life, whoever he is.

Somehow, Clark had known she was on the Prometheus shuttle too. Oh! She flushed. The way she had thrown herself at Superman in the beginning. “Take me home, Superman. We can talk now, while I shower and change.” Lois cringed with embarrassment. “Tear off my clothes and ravish me, you sexy stud.” Okay, she hadn’t said the last bit, but she might as well have. She certainly had thought it. She set her coffee down on the table next to the sofa.

What must Clark have thought?

Oh, God! Lois dropped her head to her knees. No wonder he had gotten so upset with her calling Superman the next stage in human evolution, while at the same time saying that Clark was a Neanderthal. There she had been, drooling over Superman and not giving Clark the time of day. Who was the true Neanderthal? There was no doubt in her mind why Superman had never kissed her. She certainly hadn’t earned it. No wonder he had sent her off to look for Superman’s space ship at the Metropolis Sewage Reclamation Facility. The question, which kept rearing up in her head though, was ‘why’? Why did Clark keep trying? Why? Why hadn’t he just given up on her?

“Apparently, I’ve had a huge crush on you since you first called me ‘Chuck’,” Clark had told her just the night before. She flushed. Clark had fallen in love with her the first moment they met, and she hadn’t wanted anything to do with him. Nevertheless, he had never given up on her, no matter how many times she had pushed him away.

She recalled her interrogation with Trask and the lie detector. Why would Superman want to be attached to a lie detector? Mr. Honesty, ha! “I can read lips.” Her fat fanny! He just used his super hearing, that was what. Additionally, as Superman, Clark knew he would have to lie to Trask to keep his Clark Kent cover intact, and that was why he hadn’t wanted to talk to Trask. Mind meld. Kryptonian implant. Mind control. Telepathy! Why hadn’t she seen the simplest reason that Clark could contact Superman was that he was Superman?

Humiliation flooded her. She felt as if she should give back her Kerth Awards. Her ego lay in a sticky puddle on the floor. She used to rub everyone’s noses in the fact that she was the most observant, the top investigator, and the best reporter around. She closed her eyes. And, yet, she couldn’t see what Cat had seen, and probably from Day One too, that both Clark and Superman had a mole on the same spot on their faces… Face.

But Clark got sick at the sight of blood, didn’t he? Lois thought back to when she first learned this. It took her a minute to remember the exact details. The bombing of the Carlen Building. That was right, because the cameras used in the Carlen Building to spy on Superman were the same make and model as the Voyeur used in…

Lois sat up. The Voyeur was the same man who had been testing Superman at the very beginning. Clark had thought it was Lex. She rolled her eyes. Clark had always hated Lex from the very beginning, from before the White Orchid Ball. Damn, she hated that Clark was right about Lex from the get go.

“True philanthropy is anonymous. Luthor would put his name on underwear and hand it out to the homeless if it got him press,” Clark had told her when she had invited him as her plus one to the ball.

Lois couldn’t help but crack a smile, wondering if the Lex Luthor line of men’s clothing included underwear.

“True philanthropy is anonymous,” Clark’s words echoed in her mind. So, who was the real man? Was he Superman or was he Clark Kent? Perhaps he was both. No, he was neither. He was truly anonymous. He had given more to the city of Metropolis, and now the world with the destruction of Nightfall, than Lex Luthor ever would, ever could, and he had yet to be here a year.

Moreover, Clark loved her.

She was mooning over the guy again, Lois decided, and pushed these thoughts aside. They would only distract her from examining the evidence against Clark, the evidence that he had lied to her from day one.

Lois tried not to think of the fact that he had admitted to loving her from that first day as well.

Fine. He had lied to her about Superman because she had acted like a teenybopper at a pop concert when she first saw him in that spandex suit. She deserved that.

Moving back to Clark’s blood phobia…Clark had left their meeting with that government ombudsman – what was his name? George Thompson! – claiming a headache or exhaustion or something. She had followed Thomspon to the warehouse, which they later discovered to be Bureau 39’s home for lost space ships…

Was that what had bothered Clark about Trask? That Trask and his team were hunting him down like some animal? Poor Clark. She remembered Clark had been so nervous as they waited in Perry’s office. He probably felt as if he didn’t have a friend in the world… well, at least, on Earth. Superman hadn’t feared Trask and Bureau 39, but Clark clearly did. Superman never showed fear of anything… no, that wasn’t true.

Superman lived in fear of Lois getting hurt. He had been scared when she was stuck in the swamp at the Sewage Reclamation Facility. He had demonstrated this by the waver in his voice when he called for her, and by the way he had clung to her as he flew her home. Moreover, Clark wasn’t sickened at the sight of just anyone’s blood, only her blood. He had even told her that, outright, that night at the emergency room, while they waited for her to be admitted with her bullet wound.

Superman had flown off from the Carlen Building, after it had exploded on him, without talking to reporters. She bet that he hadn’t even noticed that she had been hurt, let alone had been there at all, until she had arrived at the Daily Planet, and Clark had insisted on putting a bandage on her head. Had he blamed himself…? Oh, now, that was a stupid question. Of course, Clark blamed himself. She could set her clock by that.

No matter how many times Lois had told Superman that she wasn’t a fragile little egg, which he needed to carry around to make sure nobody ever smashed into tiny bits, he still never listened. She had no idea how he would let her do an investigation on Lex Luthor, the investigation she needed to do to get the goods on the man and have them stick. She knew the answer, but it wasn’t one with which she was exactly happy. She would have to do the investigation without Clark knowing about it.

Lois pushed this thought of the future away again, and concentrated on what in the past she had missed, which could have clued her in on Clark’s alternative lifestyle. She rolled her eyes. She had once asked Clark if Superman had hired him to be her bodyguard. Or had she asked Superman if he had hired Clark as her bodyguard? She scoffed at this thought now. As if Superman would ever trust anyone, other than himself, to guard her. She should have seen through that idea immediately. She recalled how Superman had insisted that she call Clark before going off to investigate something on her own, just in case she got into trouble.

She dropped her head into her hand. Idiot! In the illustrious tones of that man from her vision, Well, duh!

The one time Clark seemed not to be overprotective of her was when he had sent her to the Metropolis Sewage Reclamation Facility, but, man, had he felt guilty about it afterwards. She remembered when Jimmy had first brought up the idea of looking for Superman’s spaceship. She had been sitting down at the snack table and Cat had joined her, rubbing Lois's face in the fact that she and Clark had… but Cat and Clark had never… What in the world had Cat been doing then? Try as hard as she might, Lois couldn’t remember exactly what Cat had said. Lois didn’t listen to half of what Cat said on most days, and even less back then when Cat seemed to be spouting the glories of Clark on daily basis.

Lois’s brow furrowed. Now, why would Cat do that if she and Clark were only friends? Lois couldn’t come up with an answer, unless Clark had hired Cat to get Lois to like his Clark side. She giggled at that possibility. He couldn’t have picked a worse candidate. She waved that idea from the air, merely due to its preposterousness. And, yet… no matter what Lois did, Cat seemed to be there too. The day that Clark… er… Superman won the key to the city and at the auction for ‘win a date’ with Superman.

Actually, Lex had been at both events too. Had Cat been investigating Lex? No, she shook her head. They were both charity events; that must have been why Cat was there. Had Lex noticed that Lois was mooning over Superman? How could he not? She had practically thrown herself at Superman at every available instance. Yet, she and Lex had dated at least twice a month all summer, and he had never mentioned it. Although, why would he?

That was after Lois had told Superman that she loved him, and when he had turned her down, she had gone and yelled at Clark for bad-mouthing her to Superman. Lois shook her head. She was a fool. Clark had made her into one, making her dash back and forth between the two men, never knowing that they were actually one and the same.

She remembered how when she hadn’t won a date with Superman, she had bid on Lex Luthor to make him jealous. It certainly had worked. Clark had arrived to the event shortly after… minutes after actually, Superman had left. No wonder she never thought they were the same man. With one of them leaving the room the instant before the other one entered. She had seen the proof before, but Lois was starting to grasp exactly how fast Superman really was.

What had Clark done when he had gotten to the auction? He had reassured a tipsy Lois that Superman still loved her. A hint of a smile brushed her lips. Moreover, Clark refused to sleep with her while she was drunk, even though she had invited him to do just that. Then later on, she had thrown his gentlemanly behavior back into his face, telling him that he should never let such an opportunity pass him by again.

Sometimes, she wished her ‘leap before she looked’ attitude didn’t apply to her tongue too. Now, that Lois knew that Clark and Superman were the same man, she wondered if they would ever make love. She couldn’t really count their shared intimacy at the hospital, since Clark wasn’t in his right mind, and she wondered if he even was fully aware of what had happened. His body had been aware, but she meant mentally.

Anyway, at least three times now, she had begged Clark to make love to her and three times, he had turned her down. There was the auction, the night Superman dumped her, and when she was drunk on Revenge. Not to mention, that time in the woods when she had thrown herself at Superman. Dammit! She and Clark were in a relationship, what she considered a committed relationship, and they were both consenting adults. She knew he had wanted to the night at the Metro Club.

Damn Toni.

Damn Lex.

Damn. Damn. Damn. She could’ve been in an amazing relationship with a man who loved her, whom she adored… whom she had just cheated on.

Lois tried to push that guilty thought out of her mind, but her conscience was too darn stubborn. Oh, sure, she could explain it away with the fact that Clark was Superman, or the part where she thought he had cheated on her, or try and delude herself with the fact that he had lied to her about himself, but the truth of the matter was that she had willingly put her mouth on what she thought was another man’s lips. She knew that Clark would forgive her; that was what he did. Although, there was a small part of her, which hoped he would be a little upset, just a fractional bit angry with her. She deserved that. She knew she would never forgive herself for what she did to Clark. Lois knew she could either wallow in her guilt or work her way past it.

She had kissed Clark when she had felt herself totally committed to Superman too. The night Lex had shot her, Clark had kissed her, and she hadn’t stopped him. Okay, she had stopped him, but she hadn’t at first. Lois pressed her eyes closed. Maybe she was her father’s daughter after all. She was a horrible girlfriend. How could Clark trust her, when she couldn’t even trust herself? Would she ever be able to trust herself again?

Pushing her guilt to the side, Lois rose to her feet and started pacing. She forced herself to return to figuring out what other hints should have clued her in on Clark’s real identity. All the things that had distracted her from accepting the clues laid out before her popped up in her mind: Clark’s fear of blood, the nausea at eating sweets, him getting sick in Smallville, the mosquito bites, and the IV in his arm at the hospital the night before last, just to name a few. He wore glasses for heaven’s sake! How could a guy who wore glasses have heat vision, x-ray vision, and microscopic vision? What guy sleeps in his glasses? She scoffed at her ignorance.

Lois closed her eyes again. The image of Clark lying in his hospital bed with the dark sunglasses over his eyes and the IV in his arm flashed across her mind. If Clark was Superman, how could he have ended up with a concussion? How could he have had hypothermia? How could they have administered the warm intravenous fluid?

A cold chill dripped down her spike, her knees turned to jelly – and not in the good way - and Lois sunk down into the sofa once more.

Kryptonite.

It was real.

Lex had some.

Did Lex know that Clark was Superman?

***

Inspector Henderson looked down at the M.E. examining the body in the alley from Kent’s patio and then back over at Kent. Bill wanted to believe Kent’s story about the man who had attacked him, but he could tell that Kent was holding something back.

“So, you’re saying he just jumped?” Henderson repeated back to Kent what Kent had just told him.

Kent nodded, and cleared his throat. “Superman had landed between us. I was in the doorway, and the man was on the patio. Now that he knew Superman would save us from Nightfall, the man became worried about his boss discovering that he had failed in killing me. Apparently, his boss scared him more than the MPD, more than Superman, because as Superman was helping me back inside, the man jumped to his death.”

“Uh-huh,” Henderson replied, knowing exactly what bothered him about this story now. “And you were alone when this happened?”

“Alone?” Kent echoed.

Ah, Kent hadn’t been alone. He was protecting someone, Ms. Lane perhaps. She had said that she wasn’t going to let Kent out of her sight, and she wasn’t there now. Although, Henderson couldn’t see her allowing even Superman to take her away from a possible story. Did she know now that Kent was Superman? “Was there anyone else in the apartment with you?”

Kent looked around. Was he making sure whomever it was that had been with him hadn’t left any traceable evidence? “Superman.”

Clearly. “So, he’s back?” Henderson inquired.

Kent nodded and stood more erect. “He’s back.”

“Good.” With a glance at his watch, Henderson gazed up into the sky. “And Superman is…?”

“He said he had an asteroid to stop,” Kent said, leaning closer to Henderson’s arm to take a gander at the Inspector’s watch. “I should be getting to the Planet to write up this story. I want to get it in before deadline.”

Henderson nodded. EPRAD expected the asteroid to impact the planet in a few hours, and Superman hadn’t had time to deal with it yet, because he was here reporting a crime, several crimes in fact. Henderson was actually a bit surprised that Kent had contacted him before heading to stop the last part of the asteroid, but that was who he was, a by-the-book justice junkie. “So, who was he? Our D.B.” He had asked Clark this question before, but the man merely shrugged.

Kent did so again. “I’m not sure. He refused to tell us… er... me… uh… us, his name, but he said that he had been hired to abduct me, take me for a boat ride in the Bay to scare me, and then rough me up a bit, leaving me on the docks. He claimed I jumped into the water of my own free will.”

“Did you?” Henderson asked. If Superman was back, Kent must have his brains back.

Clark shook his head. “I can’t imagine why I’d do that.”

“Hired by whom?”

Kent shrugged again. “His boss. He wasn’t big on names when I… er… Superman … uh… we questioned him.”

“Do you remember seeing him, or the boat ride?” Henderson inquired.

“No. I may not be a blank slate anymore, Inspector, but more like a slate, which has been drawn upon and then erased. Some things are still legible, but mostly, everything is just a smear,” Kent explained. “The man mentioned working with an associate, though.”

“So, there could be someone else out there still trying to kill you?” Henderson asked. “Are you sure you don’t want police protection?”

Kent smiled. “I have Lois. She’ll protect me.”

Henderson couldn’t help but laugh. Yep, Kent knew he wasn’t vulnerable anymore. “You want some protection from her?”

Clark’s brow furrowed. “Why? Do I need it?”

Bill wiped away the question. Clearly, Kent’s sense of humor was still MIA. “I think that’s about all I need from you for now. Where can I reach you later, if I have any more questions?” he asked, tapping his notebook.

“I’ll be at the Daily Planet, unless Lois and I head out on an assignment,” Kent said, as he inched towards the front door.

Henderson glanced back down at his watch. There was still a couple of hours left until impact, but he would rather be safe than sorry. “When you see Superman, tell him ‘thanks for protecting my witness’, will you?” he said.

Kent nodded. “That’s what he does, Inspector, but I’ll pass along the praise, if you like,” he said. “I’d better be going. I told Lois I’d meet her at the Planet for impact, and I’ve got a story to write up.”

Henderson almost bought this excuse, except for the fact he knew that Clark had no idea on how to write up a scoop on the magnitude of Superman’s return. “Stay safe,” he called with a wave.

“Thanks,” Kent said, and practically ran out the front door. He passed a couple of crime scene techs on their way inside.

“So, what do you have for me?” Henderson asked McCleroy, head of the techs.

“Trajectory, angle, and blood splatter all suggest jumper, not someone who was pushed. According to the M.E., he has two shattered ankles and shins, which indicate he landed on his feet, not his back,” McCleroy said. “I’ll let you know my final findings as soon as my report has been completed.”

“Thanks.

McCleroy shook his head. “What a way to go, and painful, too. What kind of idiot knows that Superman’s back to save us from Nightfall, only to take his own life?”

“Someone who had attempted to kill one of Superman’s friends,” Henderson returned.

McCleroy nodded. “Do you want me to run some figures and see if it was possible for Superman to fake that man jumping of his own free will by dropping him into the alley?”

Henderson raised a skeptical eyebrow, and patted McCleroy on the back. “If you want, but Superman is one of us good guys. I doubt you’ll find anything.”

Kent had looked sad, almost disappointed, at the man’s death, not guilty or angry. Bill knew when someone was lying, and even though Kent didn’t tell him about the real person whom Superman had been protecting, he guessed the scenario had gone down pretty much as Kent had described it to him.

McCleroy grinned. “Oh, but wouldn’t that be a fun bit of physics?”

Henderson shook his head. Science geeks and what they thought was ‘fun’.

***

Did Lex know that Clark was Superman? Was that why he had Kryptonite? On the other hand, if Lex had done what Lois suspected he had done, he’d probably want Kryptonite for protection from Metropolis’ hero taking him down. Did Lex know what Kryptonite could do to Superman? Had he gone after Clark specifically with Kryptonite, or had he exposed Clark by accident? Lois wondered. How had Lex learned about…? Right. Her article about what had happened in Smallville with Trask. Why, oh why, had Clark let her include that part in her article? Had Clark even suggested that she cut it? If he had, would she have listened? No, probably not. As Perry had told her, it was the glue that tied everything together.

Lois grabbed a notepad off the table and started jotting down everything she could remember about Kryptonite from her time in Smallville. Trask thought the rock could kill Superman. When Lois had asked Superman about it, Superman had said he wasn’t sure if it would kill him, but that he’d rather not test that theory.

Somehow, Clark had been exposed to Kryptonite back when they were in Smallville before they had tripped over Trask’s sorry hide. The rock that Thomas Irig had brought to the Kents! It must have been the real McCoy. Thomas had described the rock his dad had found as a ‘green crystal’. Martha must have brought Clark out to see it in the barn when they all had insisted that Lois stay and help wash up. Had Martha known what it was? No. Lois couldn’t believe that. Martha was what Lois had always wished her mother could have been. Clark might be the best person she had ever met at forgiveness with the exception of the case of Lex Luthor, who didn’t deserve it anyway, but even Lois couldn’t see him forgiving the Kents if they had exposed him to Kryptonite on purpose, or even befriending them afterwards.

She tapped her pencil on the pad. Apparently, the Kryptonite removed Superman’s powers, making him vulnerable, and thus able to be killed. Was that how it worked? It would explain Clark’s ‘sickness’ in Smallville, and how he had ended up in the hospital in Metropolis.

“Trask threatened to kill the Kents if I didn’t produce Superman. So, I told him that… I’m Superman,” Clark had told her after Trask had tried to shoot him... had shot him.

Lois closed her eyes in a wince. Clark had been trying to tell her the truth way back in October, but she hadn’t listened. She had laughed at the suggestion. Well, why shouldn’t she? Clark had been weak from allergies, dizzy from a knock on the head, scraped across his forehead by an errant branch, covered in mosquito bites, and shot. Not to mention been able to be captured by Bureau 39. How was Lois supposed to know that Kryptonite removed Superman’s protective shell, the ability to heal himself, and his other powers? All she had been told was the rock could kill Superman, not make him defenseless.

The truth of the matter was that if Clark had seriously wanted to convince her he was Superman, he had done a lousy job at it. She refused to feel guilty for not believing Clark. It wasn’t her fault; it was his.

Lois looked back down at her pad. Was there an antidote or way to neutralize Kryptonite’s power over Superman? Did size matter? Did the Kryptonite need to be a “rock” to hurt Superman or could it be ground up into a powder and still harm him the same way? So, exposure to Kryptonite would temporarily turn Superman into Clark, was that right? She shook her head. She meant human as she had always considered Clark to be. Thankfully, the results were only temporary; otherwise how else would Clark… Superman now be able to fly?

She rubbed that spot on her forehead that was starting to ache, as if this news was pinching her brain. This dual persona thing was too confusing. Okay, she told herself, when she was thinking about super powers, she would think of him as Superman, and when she was thinking about her partner, she would think of him as Clark. The big question was which man would she think of when considering whom she loved?

An image of Clark and Superman standing next to each other formed in her mind, and reminded her of the fact that she had never seen them together at the same time. She pushed that secondary reminder of her blindness aside.

She thought about Superman and what a great hero he was, how she had felt when she had first met him, how being with him made her feel dizzy with love, and how in awe she had been that such a great and powerful man had fallen in love with her. Superman reawakened her womanly desires with his rare smiles, his gentlemanly behavior, and that body barely hidden in that painted-on Suit.

Then Lois turned to the image of Clark. He challenged her, expected the best from her, never gave up on her, constantly forgave her, always believed in her, and somehow seemed to need her more than Superman ever did. She loved how Clark teased her, touched her, and kissed her. Clark treated her like a real woman instead of precious porcelain doll, which he needed to protect. Clark had been real in a way Superman never had been.

Often she had dreamed of a man, who could embody what she loved best about both men. Now that she had him, she didn’t know what to do with him. Well, she knew what she would like to do…

Lois realized she was distracting herself from compiling together everything she knew so that she could figure out how best to protect Clark from Lex. Therefore, sadly, she once again pushed her fantasies of making love to Super Clark to the side to concentrate on determining the properties of Kryptonite.

The Kents claimed to have destroyed the rock that Wayne Irig had found after those fake FBI agents stopped by their farm. Had they? If so, how? The Kents had never told her. Did they know he was Superman? They must have tied the details together. Who else would have an allergic reaction to a rock? Yes, they must know the truth. That must be why the Kents offered to let Clark use the birth certificate of their dead son. If Lois called them, would they tell her the truth? Obviously, the Kents had been covering up for him back when Lois and Clark were there in October, therefore, probably not. They had even told her to ask ‘her husband’. Yes, the Kents knew who Clark was. No wonder Clark felt as if they were family. He could be himself around them.

A wave of sorrow enveloped her. She loved him for heaven’s sake, both sides of him, and he couldn’t even be himself around her. Did she even know him at all? Who else was privy to this secret, which he had kept from her?

Lois couldn’t believe that Cat had known all this time, and that it was to her that Clark had gone with all his secret identity problems and to be himself, instead of Lois. Was Cat somehow blackmailing Clark in exchange for keeping his secret? Frankly, Lois couldn’t think of a single thing Cat would ask for to remain silent, besides sex. If Clark wouldn’t give it readily to Lois, the person whom he claimed he loved, she doubted he would give Cat that pleasure either.

Lois’s guilt doubled. Not only had she kissed a supposed other man, but her reason for doing so was horribly flawed, and based on a biased assumption. It was possible that Clark and Cat had sex when Cat returned to his apartment that morning – Lois’s stomach turned somersaults at this analysis – but it wasn’t probable. Lois should have known that Clark wouldn’t cheat on her, even without his missing memories. Clark had rushed off because he remembered that he was Superman, not to be with Cat.

Cat knew that Clark was Superman; therefore, she hadn’t been lying when she had told Lois that she was just trying to help Clark recover his memories. Lois probably should apologize to Cat for always assuming that her motivation for everything was sex, and Lois would, when she apologized to Clark for stealing his Superman story, which would be never!

Hello? Clark was Superman! He had inside access, he could get every scoop on every Superman story if he wanted it, and so, ‘no’ Lois refused to feel guilty for stealing that first story from him. She might have felt differently if Clark had lost his job because of it, but he hadn’t. Instead, Perry had assigned Clark to be her moral compass, to steer her on the path of righteousness, to set a good example…

Perry! Lois growled. He must have known. That was why he put them together as partners! He hadn’t become editor in chief just because he could spin a straw story into gold. That whole stunned act that he had given a few minutes before, must have been just that – an act! Did Lucy, Jimmy, Jimbo, Henderson, Eduardo, Wally, Ralph, and Lex know too? She bet her father knew as well, which was why he was so ticked off about Clark not saving her from being shot. Was Lois the last person in Metropolis who hadn’t figured out that Clark was Superman? She really was galatically stupid, wasn’t she? And the worst reporter on staff at the Daily Planet. She should go tender her resignation this minute. Only…

Only, Lois refused to let herself to be bullied into giving up. She would prove to them, to everyone, that she was the best investigative reporter this city had ever seen. She refused to let this little setback stop her from being the reporter she knew she could be. She would show them that even though she had fallen in love with Clark ‘what-ever his real name was’ Kent, that she was still Mad Dog Lane, and that she hadn’t turned soft. She would somehow get Lex Luthor to confess to putting the hit on Clark, and all his other dark dealings, and get him behind bars. This would be her Pulitzer Prize story!

***End of Part 99***

Part 100

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