Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HerePart 103Part 104Superman heard several screeches of tires and glanced over his shoulder in time to see an MPD cruiser pull up, followed by a Metro cab with a brunette woman in the backseat.
Terrific. Lois would probably be in one of her moods, having taken a cab.
As the officer approached, Superman recognized him as the same man who had thought Clark was an escaped felon. Officer Kolson. Superman stood more erect and hoped the man didn’t see any resemblance between him and the man pulled from Hob’s Bay. He doubted the officer would, since all he had seen that night was a criminal, and Kolson shouldn’t be looking for one of those in Superman’s face.
“He’s all yours, Officer,” Superman said, moving the man whose arms he held towards Kolson. “Armed robbery of the electronics store here. I caught him red handed.”
“I’m only red handed because you heated up my gun and burnt my hand, you freak!” the criminal yelled, holding out his hand. The man’s hand was barely pink.
“Do you want me to blow on it and make it feel cooler?” Superman asked patronizingly.
The man jerked his hand away in fear. “No!”
“Shut up, you punk,” Kolson said, snapping handcuffs on the robber. “Superman offered you medical assistance. Thank you, Superman.”
Superman looked at Kolson. Yep, the man didn’t recognize him. “His gun is on the floor of the store. I didn’t touch it. The store owner Mya Kashnush, is keeping an eye on it for us.”
Kolson jerked the robber towards his car.
“Officer?”
The officer glanced over to Superman with anticipation.
“I didn’t have a chance to read this man his Miranda rights, if you could be so kind,” Superman reminded him. It wasn’t Superman’s modus operandi to do Miranda Rights, but the last thing he’d want would be that robber back on the street within twenty-four hours because Kolson forgot to do his job.
“You have the right to remain silent…” Kolson started, completely oblivious to the fact that he had missed that step. He hadn’t forgotten to read Clark
his Miranda rights at the hospital after Clark had left the Emergency ward and been admitted into the hospital.
Superman turned away from him, and walked towards Lois. “Hello.”
“Hi,” she replied.
It was the first time they had spoken semi-alone and face to face since she had broken up with Clark Monday night. It was now late Wednesday afternoon. On the other hand, Clark wasn’t currently Clark; he was Superman. He had timed Superman’s arrival into Metropolis to coincide with the court letting out for the day. The last time Superman had seen Lois, they had kissed on the rooftop shortly after he had returned from stopping the smaller Nightfall asteroid. He hadn’t recovered his memories yet at that point, and had said some pretty stupid things for Superman. He hoped Lois didn’t remember.
“Feeling better?” Lois asked.
So much for that hope.“Yes, thank you. I’m sorry about the other day…” he started to say, but she waved off his apology.
“Let’s not talk about that here,” she murmured, glancing down at her notebook, and he nodded.
“That man held up the electronics store at gunpoint. The owner, Mya Kashnush, is eight months pregnant. I offered to take her to Met U Hospital to have her checked out, but she said that her husband, Raj, was on the way from his office and that he would take her. He works in the computer software division of LexCorp,” Superman said, getting down to brass tacks.
Lois nodded and jotted down the information.
“The robber entered the store, wearing a bandana over his nose and mouth, and pointed a gun at her. He told her to empty the cash register into a cloth pillowcase he had brought along with him,” Superman went on. “She took longer than he liked, so he shoved her against the register. She was able to press a silent alarm, which is how MPD was notified. I arrived in time to see the man demand for her to empty the register a second time. I moved her quickly to the back of the store, out of harm’s way, and then stood between her and the man with the gun, until he decided to drop it on the floor and try to make a run for it. At which time I apprehended him and waited for Officer Kolson to arrive.”
“I like it when you use the human shield move,” Lois murmured, still looking at her notepad. “That’s always been one of my favorite protective stances.”
Is Lois flirting with me? Superman wondered. He hoped not. She had said that there couldn’t be a ‘Lois and Superman, us’. She had said that she was in love with Clark, and the break-up was only temporary, while she sorted things out. Did she really mean that? Was Superman one of the ‘things’ she needed to sort out? Or, more specifically, her feelings for him?
He really ought to try and tell her the truth again, but he didn’t want to do so as Superman. He felt that he should tell her in the persona he truly was, which was Clark, not Superman. Superman was the fake persona; therefore, he
shouldn’t be the one doing the revealing. By saying ‘Lois, I’m Clark’, it felt as if he was telling her that Clark was the fake persona, and that wasn’t true. Or did he have that backwards? By saying, as Clark, ‘Lois, I’m Superman’ was he telling her that Clark was the false persona? Anyway, ‘Clark’ was in Smallville visiting the Kents, so he couldn’t show up to have that conversation with Lois at the moment. Not that she would speak to him after hanging up so rudely on Jonathan this morning.
“I heard what he said. Did you heat up his gun, encouraging him to drop it on the ground?” Lois asked.
“Yes. I also examined his hand with my microscopic vision, and his palm is no more scalded than if he had picked up a pot by its handle and then dropped it when he discovered it was hot,” Superman said. He heard the back door of the store open and a man rush inside. He waited two seconds and determined that the man was Raj, Mya’s husband. “Mrs. Kashnush’s husband has now arrived. Do you wish to interview her, or can we talk?”
“I believe I have enough,” Lois said, shutting her notebook. “I need to type up my stories at the office. Can we talk later tonight at my apartment?”
“I don’t think I’ve been to your apartment since…” Superman cleared his throat and glanced away, not wanting to mention specifically the removal the surveillance equipment from her apartment that preceded him, as Superman, breaking up with her. “No, wait, that’s not right. I came by in early October when I picked up your sister to return her to Los Angeles after the Kerth Awards.” He stared at her, wanting nothing more than to pull Lois to his chest and fly
her away, kissing her until she saw reason.
“You stopped by before Christmas when Mr. Make-Up was after me and told me that Clark was my soul mate,” she reminded him. Her voice sounded rough as if she wanted to add more, but didn’t.
“
Is,” he murmured so softly it could have been a thought.
“Then you also stopped by my apartment before you left on your mission, your initial mission to stop the Nightfall asteroid,” Lois went on.
“I don’t think meeting alone at your apartment is a good idea, Lois,” Superman said. The last time he had been there, as Clark, he had wanted to make love to her and ended up leaving confused and rejected.
“Aren’t you most anxious to make sure the Voyeur hasn’t returned since that time to film me in the shower?” Lois asked wryly.
Superman clenched his fist. Was she taunting him on purpose? He tried not to let it show how her words had affected him. Did she know how that one sentence had filled him with fury, terror, and desire all at once?
He caved. “I can double check it, if you’d like,” he said as if that were an option.
Clark usually checked for spy equipment every time he went to Lois’s apartment as a matter of routine, but he hadn’t been to Lois’s apartment since dinner the night before last. That night, he had been so preoccupied with thinking of how he could live without Lois after he had broken up with her that he had forgotten to scan the apartment. Prior to that night, Clark hadn’t been to Lois’s apartment since she had spent the night alone at the Lexor – was that only a week ago? – and they met for breakfast the next morning, the morning of the Nightfall eclipse. He hadn’t scanned her apartment then, either, because she had been so distraught about her dream, her vision where something horrible would happen to Clark.
“I’d also like to discuss with you what happened before Clark’s abduction,” Lois informed him softly, before raising her voice. “Thanks for the interview.” She set her hand on his arm. “And
thank you for saving us from the asteroid. I forgot to mention that the other day.”
“I hope you know that you never need to thank me for rescuing you, Lois,” he replied, but he’d accept it all the same.
“Oh?” she said, a teasing smile cracking the side of her mouth as she dropped her hand. “And here I thought you saved the world – literally – and not just me.”
Superman glanced over his shoulder and saw Officer Kolson approaching. “You live here, too, don’t you, Lois?” he replied.
Lois caught his gaze and said with a deadpan expression, “I alternate between here and Cloud 9.” Then, with a signature Lane move, she cut between Kolson and Superman to ask some questions to the officer, allowing him to escape.
Superman stared after her for a moment as he floated up into the air, smiling on the inside and thinking, ‘
Don’t I know it.’ He wondered what she would do to Kolson if she knew what the officer had thought of Clark when he was pulled from Hob’s Bay. It was probably best, for Kolson’s safety, that Superman wasn’t supposed to have knowledge of that night.
***
Clark paced the stretch of mountain where he had taken Lois that day when he, as Superman, had broken up with her.
He didn’t know what he was doing. He should go find someone to rescue to keep Superman from going to Lois’s apartment. Visiting her as Superman felt deceitful, as if he were testing her loyalty to Clark, only…
only she had broken-up with Clark. Had she done this to pursue Superman again? His heart ached at this thought. He should ask her, point blank, but there was a problem. Her answer terrified him.
He had thought over their conversation for the last hour. Correction, he had dissected their two minute conversation for the past hour. Every smile, every word, every glance, had been scrutinized as he tried to see if and how their relationship had changed.
If? Damn straight, it had.
Knowing that he had kissed her while wearing his uniform had removed that as a barrier between them. It would be more difficult for him to keep the two sides of himself separate. Superman had kissed her, and wanted to do so again… desperately. He had to resist, he knew, for Clark’s sake. If Superman pursued Lois, Clark wouldn’t stand a chance, and he knew it.
On the other hand, if she had dumped Clark to go after Superman, he could continue to kiss Lois as Superman.
This was the stupidest idea under the sun, he knew. He needed to tell Lois the truth.
If he allowed her to dump Clark to see where a relationship with Superman would go, and then allowed the relationship with Superman to flourish, would he ever be able to tell her the truth? He doubted it. If he told her that Clark was Superman, after playing her off both men
again, neither would be allowed to kiss her. He would’ve been lucky if either relationship would have survived such a confession before the Superman kiss, now… now, he had no doubt that he would see Lois angrier than he had ever seen her, and he had seen her mad often enough.
Superman needed to let Lois know that the kiss up on the roof had been a mistake. Only, how would he be able to do that when all he wanted to do was kiss her again?
***
Lois pulled her dinner out of the microwave and set it on the table. As she went to get a glass of water, she heard a soft tapping at her window. Glancing over she saw Clark…
Superman standing on her fire escape.
“It’s open,” she called and finished retrieving her glass of water. “I hope you don’t mind, I’m just sitting down to dinner.”
Superman glanced at her for two seconds longer than necessary, and then shifted his gaze to her plate. “I’m sorry. I can come back later,” he suggested. “Am I early?”
“We didn’t set a time,” Lois replied, sitting down and offering him a chair opposite hers, but he shook his head and crossed his arms. Yeah, she couldn’t picture Superman joining her for microwave food either.
While she ate, Superman continued to stare at her, not with desire or boredom, but with a slight puzzled expression. Had Clark expected her to treat Superman differently since they had kissed? Ha!
“Are you cold?” he finally asked.
“No,” she simply replied. “I’m fine.”
After returning home, Lois had gone through every outfit in her closet, trying to decide what would be the appropriate thing to wear when your boyfriend came over, pretending he was another man. Eventually, she decided that she would wear whatever she damn well pleased, since who knew if Clark would chicken out and not show. Since Clark had demonstrated that he had been considering telling her the truth about himself for probably a good six months now, since she had first confronted him about his lack of a past, it was clear to her that ‘chickening out’ was up there on his option list. She put on a pair of comfy pants, a turtleneck, and a sweater.
“Do you want to check my apartment while you wait?” she asked, between bites. “I’m almost done.”
Superman nodded, and started walking through her living room, looking around.
“Would you mind showing me where you found the cameras and microphones last time? That way I don’t have to call you, or Clark, or someone over at the MPD, next time I suspect someone intruding on my privacy,” she said, taking a drink of water.
“May I?” he asked, indicating her desk.
“I have nothing to hide from you, Superman,” Lois replied, wondering if he would catch the irony of that statement.
If he reacted to her words, she didn’t notice. He withdrew a sheet of paper from her desk and super quickly sketched something. He brought it to the table. “This is what the tap inside your phone looked like,” he said, lifting up her receiver and showing her where it would be hidden. “Looks clean.”
Lois nodded, and ran her fingers over the sketch. “I didn’t know you were such a good artist. Did you happen to draw that picture of me that Clark had hidden in his glasses case?”
Superman darted a glance over at her, before putting her telephone back together. “Was it two by three inches in size?”
As if he didn’t know.“Did you draw him more than one?” Lois retorted.
He paused a moment prior to answering, so she took that to mean that he had. “Yes, I drew that picture,” he admitted, and then added, “He wanted something he could carry in his wallet.”
Interesting.She took a sip of her water as she studied him. “Why did you sketch me with short hair?”
His gaze snapped to hers, and she actually caught a slight blush cross his cheeks. “Uh…um…” He cleared his throat, making Lois wonder if his answer would be truthful. “Right after … you cut your hair, I wondered what you’d look like with even shorter hair,” he said.
“Were you worried that you wouldn’t recognize me if someone kidnapped me and cut off my hair?” Lois asked. It was a fair question. She had cut her hair the day after Menken had kidnapped her and Lex had shot her.
“Something like that,” he replied vaguely, moving through her kitchen now.
Lois wondered if that were the real reason. She doubted it. Clark had been stunned speechless when he had seen her with shorter hair, so it was entirely possible he had sketched the picture with a pixie cut, because he found such a style more alluring.
“I would always recognize you, Lois,” Superman went on. “You have a distinct heart beat.”
“I do?” she inquired. Had he said something similar in the past? It sounded a bit familiar. “How is it distinct? Do I have a heart murmur, or something? What makes my heart beat different from someone else’s?”
He shrugged slightly and entered the hall. He said something, but she couldn’t hear what. Now, that just wasn’t fair. She didn’t have super hearing.
“What was that?” she called.
“Nothing,” he replied.
“Superman!” Lois admonished, indicating that she had caught him lying.
He peered around the wall. “I said, ‘it’s yours’.”
Wow! There was honesty for her. Now, that was something she could quickly get used to. “Find anything?” she asked, picking up her tray and dumping it in the trash, and her silverware in the sink.
“It’s clean,” Superman reassured her.
“Good,” Lois replied, not expecting that Lex’s men had reinstalled the surveillance yet. Then again, the last time they had met, she had turned Lex down. It was possible that Lex had moved on.
Yeah, right. “Now, show me where you found the other devices.”
She followed Superman into her bathroom. She was glad he started there, as this room was the one which bothered her the most when she had found out. He pointed to the upper corner of Lois’s shower above the showerhead. She didn’t see anything. Climbing up on the edge of the tub for a closer look, she slipped and instantly found herself in Superman’s arms.
“Thanks,” she said, slightly breathlessly, resting her arms naturally around his neck. “Of all the places to fall and injure myself.” She laughed. “Good thing you were here.”
He started to float them down to the floor without responding.
“While we’re here, can you give me a closer peek?” Lois asked, pointing to the corner he had indicated.
Superman floated them upwards. She heard him swallow, and then murmur, “Is that a new perfume?”
Lois smiled, glancing at him. “Why, yes, it is. It was a gift. Do you like it?”
He cleared his throat and took them back down again. “Very nice,” he whispered.
“Where was the other one in here?” she inquired, letting go of him and looking around. She heard him exhale before she continued on, “I hope it wasn’t pointed at the toilet, because let me tell you…”
“No,” Superman uncharacteristically interrupted, despite doing so to reassure her. “Over the sink, between the lights.”
“Thank God for that.”
He walked her around the rest of the apartment, pointing out all the spots where the microphones and cameras had been placed, ending with her bedroom.
“There was one over the dresser, pointed at the bed. From that vantage point it was able to get most of the room, with the exception of this one corner,” Superman said, indicating the corner next to the dresser.
Lois nodded.
“A listening bug had been planted on the lampshade, here,” he said, showing her where he had found it.
“I feel like such a fool, Superman,” Lois said, dropping to the bed in a huff. “How could I have not noticed them?”
He moved to sit next to her, and then seemed to change his mind, shifting back to his normal A-frame position with his arms crossed and his feet shoulder width apart.
Was she somehow making him uncomfortable? She wondered.
“You aren’t a fool, Lois,” Superman told her. “Most people don’t expect to have their privacy invaded in that way.”
She gazed at him, wishing this whole ruse was over and done with so she could rush into his arms. She felt bad for yelling at Jonathan so horribly that morning. She had found a phone message from Clark on her cell phone from the night before, and one at the office, left that morning from before she had called Smallville. She sighed. “I miss Clark,” she whispered.
Superman relaxed his stance. “Then why did you break up with him?”
Lois lifted her head to focus her gaze on him. “Excuse me?” She had heard of role playing before, but this took the cake. Did ‘Superman’ not know of their ruse? “Why do you think?”
He gulped, backing out of the room. “Shall I check the guest room?” he asked, and she knew it was just to cover his discomfort. Good!
“No!” she exclaimed, holding out her hand to stop him.
But it was too late; Superman had opened the guest room door. Suddenly, his eyes crossed.
“I spilled my usual perfume in there. That’s why I had the door closed and am wearing this other perfume. With your sensitive sniffer…”
“I’ve got to go,” Superman said, zipping through the hall and out the window he had come in.
“… it might be a little too much,” Lois finished. She sighed and flopped back onto her bed.
***
Jonathan turned off the light in the living room, slightly surprised that Jerome hadn’t returned yet. He had said he was going to Metropolis to have Superman’s presence felt even if ‘Clark’ was officially out-of-town. He hoped to add confusion to anyone who might think they knew he was Superman. Martha and Jonathan had guessed the true reason Jerome went was to see Lois.
Jerome had helped Martha in the field this morning after Lois’s call.
“She’s right,” Jerome had told Jonathan, when they came in for lunch. “I already disappeared without word once this week. I shouldn’t have left town without speaking to her directly.”
“But you’ve broken up,” Jonathan had rebutted. She had broken their newly adopted son’s heart and wasn’t getting his pity.
“She still loves me,” Jerome had responded. “And I still love her. She deserves the consideration I didn’t give her.”
Jonathan went to turn on the light over the stove and switch the back porch light on just in case Jerome returned. A part of him hoped that they were still on in the morning, meaning that Jerome and Lois had made up. He flipped on the back porch light and opened the door to make sure it was unlocked for Jerome; after all these years, Jonathan still could never remember if vertical meant locked or unlocked. He saw a silhouette sitting on the top step. He looked again.
“Jerome?” he called, opening the door fully. “Is that you, son?”
“I’m sorry,” Jerome apologized softly. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”
Jonathan rolled his chair out onto the porch. “How’s Metropolis?” he asked, and they both knew he meant Lois.
“I saw Lois,” Jerome said, and then corrected himself. “No,
I didn’t. Superman did.”
“So…?” Jonathan asked. “Does Lois want a relationship with you?”
Jerome didn’t answer for a moment, and Jonathan was afraid he had probed too deeply into this man’s personal life. Then he realized Jerome was chuckling.
“I have no idea. It seems I understand Lois less than I thought I did. Women are confusing.”
Jonathan laughed in total agreement. “That they are, son, but that’s half the fun, trying to figure them out, and the other half is not getting trouble when you don’t.”
“I think she might have been flirting with me,” Jerome said. “Superman me, but then again, I might have been misinterpreting her words and actions, because a part of me
wanted her to kiss me again, no matter who I am.”
“So, she didn’t say anything overt to him?” Jonathan asked.
“No, I believe she said a lot of innocent things that I took overtly,” Jerome replied with another chuckling shake of his head. He was quiet a minute and then asked, “Jonathan, can I ask you a personal question?”
Jonathan shrugged.
Jerome was silent, and Jonathan realized he was too embarrassed to ask. Finally, Jerome cleared his throat. “What does Martha’s perfume remind you of?”
“Perfume?” Jonathan echoed. “She doesn’t really wear perfume anymore, but she used to wear this fragrance while we were dating…” He sighed. “It smelled
really nice. We kissed one night… okay; we made out, like second base making out.” He raised his brows to Jerome, and chuckling, remembered the night as clear as if it had been the night before. “The next night, I was invited to Sunday dinner with her folks. I kissed her cheek when I arrived, caught a hint of her perfume, and…” He started to roar with laughter. “Almost made a fool of myself, right then and there, in front of her folks. Needless to say, I had to hold my jacket in front of myself, so her family wouldn’t notice. I don’t think her mom did, but Mr. Clark never much trusted me after that.” He laughed again. “Even
after I married his daughter.”
Jerome joined in his laughter. “Well, I’m glad I’m not the only one. Let’s just say, if I hadn’t recovered my memories before now, that wave of perfume Lois exposed me to tonight would have done it.”
Jonathan covered up his mouth, but his laughter still issued forth. “Smell nice, did it?”
Jerome nodded. “Oh, yeah! She broke a whole bottle of her usual perfume, and well, you know how much my memories are affected by my sense of smell. I’m surprised I didn’t leave a Superman shaped hole in her living room wall, trying to get out of there.” He lifted up his glasses and wiped under them. “That uniform doesn’t leave much to the imagination, if you know what I mean.”
“I’m sure she was looking at your face,” Jonathan tried to say seriously, but ended up snickering instead. “Do you think she did it on purpose?”
“Gosh, I hope not,” Jerome replied. “I don’t think Superman will ever be able to enter her apartment again without becoming affected by the memory of that smell, even if she could get the smell out of the guest room.”
Jonathan nudged his shoulder. “Maybe she did it, so you couldn’t stay in the guest room again without thinking about her... in that way.”
Jerome sighed. “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”
The men slipped into silence. Jonathan wondered if Jerome was thinking about all those times he had smelled Lois’s perfume, as Jonathan was thinking about Martha and why she never wore perfume anymore. He wondered if she still had any of that perfume left. It had been years since she wore it.
Jonathan finally nudged Jerome’s shoulder again. “Come on, son. It’s time for bed. Got to get up early and plow the south field.”
“Yes, sir,” Jerome said, rising to his feet. He held open the door for Jonathan and then locked it. “Go on to bed. I’ll get the lights.”
“Good night, son.”
“Thanks, Jonathan, and good night,” Jerome called as Jonathan opened his bedroom room door.
Jonathan paused in the doorway, glancing back towards Jerome and the kitchen, and wishing he could convince him to call him ‘Dad’ again.
“Say good night to Mom for me, Dad,” he heard Jerome whisper as if on a breeze as all the lights in the kitchen went out.
“Will do, son,” Jonathan said, his voice getting caught in his throat. “Will do.”
***************
Moving Forward***************
Lois’s interview with Superman the night before had been most informative, and had also sparked a hunch, which needed checking out. Check-out was at eleven at the Lexor during the weekdays, and, thankfully, this coincided with Lois’s lunch recess from court.
She arrived at the floor with the honeymoon suite and found the nice Swedish housekeeper (the one who had barged in on her and Clark making out on the bed, and caused them to inadvertently get back together) straightening up the room.
Lois waited until the woman had disappeared into the bathroom. The reporter then bolted to the bedroom and lifted up the receiver of the telephone, next to the bed. She unscrewed it and looked for the listening device that Superman had shown to her in the sketch.
Bingo!She now knew
how Lex had known about her and Clark. No wonder ‘management’ had given her and Clark an extra complimentary night in the suite after the bombing. Lex hadn’t believed her when she had said that there was nothing going on between her and Clark. She would make sure that she and Clark didn’t share any more romantic telephone calls until Lex was securely behind bars. If she laid her groundwork properly tonight, it was very probable that the Voyeur would be back in action before too long. It wouldn’t be as if he would be seeing anything he hadn’t seen before, but still… Lois shivered in disgust. She would have to convince Clark not to come to her apartment or he would know that the Voyeur was back.
Lois glanced around the hotel bedroom quickly, searching for the telltale signs of a hidden camera. It didn’t take her long to find it, now that she knew what she was looking for. On top of the mirror of the dresser, across from the bridal bed, there was a little round hole in the wood. She lifted up the phone and checked under there, opened the drawer on the table next to the bed, and then dropped down to the floor and pretended to look under the bed as if she were searching for something. After she got to her feet, she stepped up closer to the mirror, examining the spot she had seen just to be sure. In case someone watched this portion of the video and saw Lois, she quickly checked her hair and then left the room.
***End of Part 104*** Part 105 Comments welcome.
