Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HerePart 121Part 122*************************
Undercover is So Hard to Do*************************
By the time she climbed the stairs of the Daily Planet back to the newsroom, Lois decided it was time for a new set of three rules, and this time she wouldn’t break them or tell them to anyone else. Rule number one: sleep only with Clark. That one shouldn’t be too difficult to keep, and she
guessed – wink, wink, nod, nod – she
could sacrifice sleeping with all those other jerks out there to remain loyal to Clark. It was important to have a rule that would be next to impossible to break. Rule number two: never get arrested. Not quite as easy, but just as important. Working closer with Clark would make this rule easier, because she was sure that he didn’t want her to get arrested again as much as she did. Rule number three: always get there first. It was still a good rule, and one she just needed to work a little harder on, especially where Linda and the Metropolis Star were involved.
She could have kept ‘never get involved with her stories’, but hey, she was trying to be realistic, and between Superman, Eugene Laderman, Dr. Samuel Platt, and Lex Luthor, just to name a few, she always became personally involved with her stories. It was what made her a great reporter and would probably give her an ulcer by the time she was thirty.
Thankfully, when Lois reached the newsroom she saw that Clark was also back and hard at work. She dropped her briefcase off at her desk, and headed directly over to him, glancing around the newsroom quickly to see where Rita was. After not spotting Lex’s probable spy, Lois sat down on top of Clark’s desk, opposite him. “Hi.”
His gaze trailed up her body to hers and appeared startled. Had he not heard her approach?
Clark?“How was lunch?” Clark asked.
“Centennial Gardens is a good restaurant. If we made reservations now, we might be able to get in by our first anniversary,” she said wryly. At Clark’s stunned expression, Lois realized what she said, and how he must’ve interpreted it. Quickly she clarified, her face feeling warm. “Partnership anniversary. Anniversary of us becoming partners. Work related. Cyborgs. Me being shot.” She lowered her voice. “Not
our anniversary anniversary. That would be Valentine’s Day and there’s no way we’d be able to get in
then. Of course, it technically wasn’t Valentine’s Day, was it? Because it was really the day after that when you finally…” She cut herself off, coughing slightly. What was it with her and babbling today?
His features calmed themselves, and he leaned back in his chair with a lazy smile. “Ah. So, you don’t count the whole Bureau 39 investigation…” He paused to lean towards her. “And our first kiss… to be our true anniversary?”
“Clark,” she said sharply, cutting off the dangerous direction of this topic. She didn't like where it was headed. They could argue the finer points of their official or unofficial relationship all day. “Lunch was fine. I told Lex and his lawyer that I wanted to be represented by the Daily Planet in-house attorneys, and
this time he actually heard me.” She added that last bit, so that Clark knew that she had told Lex previously that she didn’t want his assistance in this matter.
“Brava, Lois,” Clark said. “I’m proud of you.” She saw his gaze dart to her wrist to see that the LoLex watch was still there. “You’ve taken the first step in admitting that you have a problem.”
Lois pressed her lips together in annoyance and saw that his facial expression mirrored hers. “I wanted to tell you earlier, before we got sidetracked, the real reason for the meeting, so you wouldn’t jump to the wrong conclusion. The thing is what I really wanted to do this morning, before Lex’s messenger interrupted us, was…” She took a deep breath. “Talk.”
“I’m here now; no imminent meetings planned or stories breaking, so talk,” he said, sitting back and folding his hands together.
Lois leaned towards him over his desk, even though she knew he could’ve heard her just fine if she hadn’t. “I want to talk to you, Chuck…
and Superman… about that investigation with which I need his help; perhaps the three of us could meet tonight for dinner at…”
Clark flushed, and pushed his chair away from his desk as if her presence intimidated him. True, she didn’t usually sit on his desk in this manner, except that once when Miranda had sprayed her with the love… Lois bolted upright. No wonder he was uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry, Lois, but I…
we can’t meet you tonight,” Clark said. “I’ve got a… a date.”
“Well, then how about just Superm… A
date?” she sputtered. “With whom?”
“Linda. Linda King. I ran into her at the Mayor’s press conference this morning, and she said Carpenter and the Metropolis Star were throwing a party at the Press Club tonight, and that there would be dancing, and would I come?”
“So, of course, you said ‘yes’,” Lois snapped.
“Lois,” he murmured. “It was your idea for me and Linda to be seen out on the town… ‘take her dancing’ you said. Anyway, I would like to know more about what’s going on over at the Metropolis Star and…”
“Of course you do!” Lois growled, rising to her feet. “Why wouldn’t you? She’s blonde, and they have readers. What more could a man want? The Metropolis Star seems to have exactly what you want, what
everybody wants, so why don’t you go work for them?” She marched back to her desk and grabbed her briefcase.
Jimmy stepped up to the side of her desk. “Guess what, Lois? The phones are working again,” he announced with a grin.
“Fabulous! If anyone needs me, I’ll be at the Fudge Castle,” she told him, grabbing her pager off her desk and heading for the stairwell. As she reached the doorway, she passed Cat coming in, and didn’t even bother to acknowledge the woman’s existence.
*
Cat leaned against the wall with her hands raised as Lois stormed by in a furious whirlwind without even a salutation. Cat looked across the room at her sometime partner and at the dumbfounded expression on his face. On her way to Clark’s desk to see what trouble she had missed, she handed her camera to Jimmy.
“Could you be a doll and take this down to Photo for me?” Cat said with her most charming of smiles.
“Of course, Cat,” Jimmy replied, taking the camera. Then he mumbled to himself, “She’s your cousin. She’s your cousin. She’s your cousin.”
Cat continued to saunter over to her best friend’s desk and perched on the empty space directly opposite him. “Howdy, stranger,” Cat purred. “Dog day afternoon?”
Clark’s brow furrowed with confusion, which faded as he seemed to decide to ignore the reference he evidently didn’t catch. “Yeah. A bit. You know that thing I do when I talk to Lois, where, for no conceivable reason, I stick my foot into my mouth?”
Cat nodded. It was always entertaining to watch Clark and Lois push each other’s buttons. She was sorry she had missed it.
“Well, just a moment ago, she was practically crawling across my desk towards me…”
Cat leaned forward, demonstrating. “Like this?” she asked in her best sultry voice.
“Exactly,” answered Clark as if she were still dressed in a nun’s habit. “The next moment, she’s screaming at me to get a job at the Met Star.”
Cat sat back up. She and Clark were friends, and would only ever be friends, but still it would be nice if he noticed she was female every once in a grand while. He was damaging for a woman’s pride and reputation. “Forget it. She’ll be fine after a chocolate domino sundae.”
“Domino?” Clark asked.
“Because it hits you like a ton of dominos,” Cat explained.
“Isn’t the saying ‘a ton of bricks’?”
“Yes, but whether it’s a ton of bricks or a ton of dominos, they both weigh a ton, hot cakes, but nobody would eat a chocolate brick sundae,” she said with a quick smile.
A moment later, she saw that she had succeeded in drawing one to Clark’s lips as well. Her work was done; it was now time to type up her ‘story’ for Cat’s Corner. Thanks very much to an inadvertent lead given to her by one Mad Dog Lane, for which the Kerth Award winning reporter will probably flay her alive, a nice C-note slipped through the hedges to a busboy, and her handy dandy pocket camera. A gossip columnist flew or drowned on her exclusives, and she really didn’t want to do another ‘where was the celebrity when the lights went out’ article.
“Give her time, Clark. She’s… the winds of change have her riled up, and she just needs reassurance that her rock of Gibraltar will be there for her when she needs him,” Cat said, moving around the desk to pat his shoulder.
Clark’s expression faltered and shifted towards despair before his Superman façade came up to hide it.
She spoke softer than a whisper, “Watch it, big guy, your cape is showing.”
His stern expression relaxed, but the misery was still prevalent.
“Come on, Clark. Do you really believe that she would choose him over her journalistic integrity? Over you? We both know he’s a…” She paused to drop herself into Clark’s lap as that new mousey researcher passed by Clark’s desk to drop off a file. If Cat was going to be cover for Lois and Clark’s platonic relationship, she might as well reap some of the benefits. She wrapped her arms casually around his neck.
“
We know that, Cat,” Clark grumbled, not even blinking an eye at her close contact. “Not that we have the proof to convince her of it.”
“She’s just using her feminine wiles to get information from him,” Cat said, clarifying her earlier pronouncement in the morning meeting as she promised she would do to Lois in exchange for the tip of Lois’s next evening date with the billionaire. “If you stopped hovering so much, like the big jealous thug we know and love…” She added a nudge to his shoulder to emphasize her point. “And trusted her to do her job, you might see that things aren’t always what they first appear.”
“What do you mean ‘job’? If Luthor is such a great source, how come she doesn’t have any articles to show for it?”
Cat stood up and kissed his nose. “Just use those reporter skills of yours to figure it out, big guy.”
“Cat, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t treat me as your personal boy-toy at work,” Clark said, giving her a sharp look.
She batted her eyelashes, but promised nothing, as she turned towards her desk.
He grabbed her wrist. “You ever going to tell me what you spent all night investigating the night Chow eloped? I haven’t seen anything big in your column since then either.”
Cat tugged her hand free. “It’s a work in progress,” she said, admitting nothing.
“Oh. Does it have to do with Dr. Muldoon’s disappearance?” Clark fished.
She thought about that for a brief moment. Lex Luthor hadn’t been one of the names in Dr. Muldoon’s address book. “I doubt it, but if the two stories cross, you’ll be the first to know.”
“So, you’re not going to tell me?”
Cat grinned. “See! I knew you’d come to the right conclusion eventually,” she said with a wink and a swish of her hips. “Trust me, Clark. If there were anything worth telling, you’d be the first I’d brag to… Well, second, after Perry.”
Clark appeared quite annoyed by this lack of information.
“Honey, you aren’t the only one in the office with secrets,” she told him, blew him a kiss, and headed back to her desk. This time he let her go, but she knew the not knowing was going to eat away at him. Cat wasn’t his partner… well, except on the Muldoon investigation. She didn’t owe him any explanations.
Anyway, if Clark searched those great big memory banks of his, he’d realized that they had already discussed this investigation of Lex Luthor’s sex life on several occasions. Now, that she had a concrete fact on which to investigate – the LoLex watch with the tracer hidden inside – she was no longer giving Clark anything more to worry about.
When Arthur had flown in his Learjet up to New Haven, Connecticut, for his impromptu wedding, he actually gave Cat a lift, much to the chagrin of the now-Mrs. Chow, as if there could ever be love there. Due to the criminal investigation into Dr. Baines’s death and then the infighting between her brother and sister on who was going to get what of the loot from her death, Antoinette Baines’s estate was only now going to auction. Cat had pulled a few strings to check out the jewelry items before they disappeared. Alas, there weren’t any watches in the estate at all.
Before she left New Haven, Cat had contacted Dr. Baines’s sister via telephone, actually reaching her this time, and asked her if she had kept any of her sister’s jewelry. The sister admitted that Dr. Baines’s style and her own weren’t in the same stratosphere, and the only piece of jewelry she would have kept had been her sister’s silver Gucci watch. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been in the estate, and the sister guessed Antoinette had been wearing it at the time of her death.
Cat had then spent the rest of the miserable night trying to get back to Metropolis via train. Therefore, as far as investigations went, that one had been a bust.
Just now, she had returned from the Twelfth Precinct to try to get permission from her new buddy Inspector Henderson, to view the personal items found in the wreckage of Antoinette Baines’s fiery death. The inspector kindly informed her that it wasn’t his investigation and that she needed to speak with his sixteenth cousin, thrice removed, Detective Henderson of the MPD Bomb Squad Investigation Unit. That Detective Henderson could then point her in the correct direction within his department to whomever was working the unsolved case jointly with the FBI and the NTSB. It seemed like a lot of people to go through just to look at Dr. Baines’s watch.
Last Friday, before the Ides of Metropolis took over, Cat had already placed calls to Brigitte Kahn regarding her sister’s death, and to the GCPD about any evidence found with the body. She was still waiting to hear back. Of course, if Lex really had anything directly to do with Monique’s death, it would be stupid of him to leave a watch he gave her with the body.
Next up, Miranda’s estate.
***
Superman took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it before floating down from the clouds to land on the roof of the Daily Planet.
As Clark had been leaving to head home to get ready for his date with Linda, Lois had cornered him to ask if he could set up a short meeting for her with Superman. Tempted by her earlier outburst to say ‘no’, he recalled Cat’s advice to listen to Lois. Apparently, his partner had something that she needed to say to Superman. She had invited Clark to be a part of the conversation, but regretfully he had declined, due to his previous engagement with Linda. He hadn’t only made the date because Lois had asked him to, but because it was a Metropolis Star party, and he hoped to learn something.
That wasn’t exactly true. Clark had originally postponed this meeting with Lois and made a date with Linda to counter Lois’s lunch date with Luthor, out of jealousy. He didn’t need to make his point twice by having Superman be unavailable as well. Additionally, Clark wouldn’t have time to get into the nitty-gritty of why only one of them could be with Lois at a time, so it was best to keep those conversations separate. Did he really want to follow the words “Superman and Clark Kent are one and the same”, or whatever better words Superman would say to reveal this truth to Lois, with “now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with Linda King”? That would just be asking for trouble.
Anyway, Clark hated being petty, especially with Lois. Something about her relationship with Luthor always brought out the worst in Clark. He wanted to believe it was because Luthor was such a horrible man, but he wasn’t sure he would act any more logically if he discovered Lois had been sharing meals with some good guy, such as that Batman character from Gotham City, or some federal agent, or even an accountant.
Therefore, Clark told her that he would try to contact Superman, but he couldn’t make any promises. If Superman were needed elsewhere for a rescue, Lois’s conversation would once again have to be put on hold, but at least the excuse would be legitimate.
When Clark had arrived home, he telephoned Linda to tell her that a meeting came up at the last minute and that he would meet her at the Press Club. Linda jumped on his suggestion with enthusiasm, too much enthusiasm for his tastes. Was she just thrilled that he had accepted her date offer? Or had she thought Lois would talk him out of the date altogether? Was Linda insecure or desperate or both? On the other hand, throwing Lois’s view of Linda into the mix, was Linda planning to follow Clark to his meeting to steal his story? Thankfully, Linda would have difficulty following Superman anywhere.
The rearranging of his schedule had bought him a half hour to talk to Lois. Thankfully, she was already waiting when he landed on the Daily Planet’s roof.
“Good evening, Lois. Clark said that you needed my assistance with a story,” Superman said, hoping he didn’t sound too abrupt. He wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be too late for his date with Linda. He was interested in talking with her co-workers about all their terrific scoops lately. A quick perusal of the last several weeks of the Metropolis Star, as Lois had asked Rita to do, had shown him that Linda wasn’t the only reporter at the Star with amazing luck lately. She was just the only one who seemed to automatically push Lois’s buttons.
“Thank you for coming, Superman,” Lois said. “I need you to fly me to London.”
Superman crossed his arms. “England?”
“No, London, Kentucky,” she retorted. “Yes, London, England. Where else?”
“Can you tell me a little bit more about the investigation? Do you need to meet with someone in person?” he asked, avoiding his response to this question until he had learned more. She might not be willing to part with the details after he had answered.
Lois sighed and leaned against a large air conditioner unit. “Yes… Well…” She rubbed her bare wrist, and he noted to his delight that the LoLex watch was visibly absent.
His toes lifted off from the roof, and he used the excuse of moving next to her to explain the reason, instead of his unadulterated joy.
“The truth is, Superman,” she said. Her gaze shifted up from the spot on her wrist she had been rubbing to focus on his eyes. “Someone has played you for a fool.”
Superman stiffened.
Lois reached over to rest her hand on his folded arms. “Professor Daitch was wrong about Nightfall. Well, not originally, but last month when he told you that the asteroid had shifted its course to impact with Earth. It hadn’t. Someone in England had sent a computer virus to Professor Daitch’s computer at EPRAD, which changed all his data. When Daitch sent a request for his assistant to verify the data, the virus piggybacked onto the attachment and infected his assistant’s computer as well. Nightfall Major would never have hit Earth.”
He swallowed and shifted his gaze away from hers. Before he had flown on the initial mission, Lois told him about her vision where the asteroid wouldn’t hit; a tiny part of him had hoped she had been wrong. Instead, she had once again proven him wrong. He could feel the blood draining from his face as the implications of her words struck him with a left hook. “And Nightfall Minor?” he asked, knowing the answer already, but needing her to verify it.
“That would have struck,” Lois said with a nod.
She was standing next to him now, one hand still holding his folded arms, the other rubbing up and down his back in a comforting manner as she had done when Clark had blamed himself for not checking on Cat. Only, he couldn’t feel it. He only felt numb. If he had only listened to Lois’s initial plea not to go on the Nightfall mission, he never would have put the people of Earth in danger. How many people had killed themselves in those days leading up to Impact Day, out of fear of a post-apocalyptic world?
“Someone wanted me to destroy the Earth?” he finally asked, his voice rough.
“I don’t know. There’s no proof that this was the reason for the virus, or any indication that EPRAD had ever considered a contingency plan using Superman. That’s why I want you to fly me to London,” Lois said, her initial request sounding more justified now that he knew the assignment behind it. “I want to confront, face-to-face, the man who sent Daitch the data that conflicted with his earlier findings. If I’m there in the room, with you waiting outside, chances are better that the man won’t try to evade me, which might happen if I just telephoned. I don’t want this lead to disappear because it’s too important. I’m sure the trail won’t end there, but where it will lead, I don’t know.”
“How much time do I have?”
“Pardon?”
“Until your article comes out, Lois,” he pressed on, his shoulders rounding in dread.
“Oh, no, Superman, I’m not publishing this. Are you crazy? People already have too little faith in the government on keeping them safe. If I publish this, it will take away the last bit of hope they have: you. Paranoid militia groups will sprout up around the country, and it will give Bureau 39 clout it doesn’t deserve,” Lois said. “It’s not
your fault, Superman. It’s EPRAD’s; you were only following orders. They’re the ones who didn’t request outside verification of the asteroid’s path due to National Safety statutes or some other such hooey.” She moved even closer to him, and unable to resist, he let his arms wrap around her and draw her to his chest. “I haven’t told Perry. The only people who know, besides us, are the computer experts I had look at the data, and they both told me that they wished they didn’t know about it.”
This must’ve been true. She hadn’t even told Clark, but now he understood why she didn’t want to tell him about it on the newsroom floor where anyone could have overheard them. He was still amazed that no one overheard them talking about Eugene Laderman staying at her apartment.
“Lois, you cannot keep this away from the people. They have a right to know,” Superman insisted, standing more erect. He remembered how he felt when he first learned about the existence of Nightfall and the realization that his government in his old dimension had never told anyone. Now, he knew why. It wouldn’t have hit. At least, he hoped that was why the people were never informed. “I’ll deal with the consequences I’m due.”
“No! It was a mistake,” Lois said, tightening her embrace. “You never would have gone to battle Nightfall if Professor Daitch, Secretary John Cosgrove, General Zeitlin, and everyone at EPRAD hadn’t told you that it was absolutely necessary. You are blameless, Superman. Please, believe that.”
He loved the feel of her head on his chest, her unconditional faith in him, and her firm belief of his innocence, wrong though it was. “It isn’t that simple, Lois, and you know it.”
“That’s why I refuse to bring Perry in or publish anything until I know who was behind it and why. It’s international terrorism, plain and simple,” she said. Lois was right; until she had rock solid proof pointing to a certain individual or group, this information would sound more like a conspiracy theory, even if she had proof of the virus. “This is why I need you to take me to London, Superman. Will you do it?”
“I’m sorry, Lois, but I cannot fly you,” he replied after a short pause.
Well, it had seemed like a short pause to Lois. To Clark, his mind once more raced over the huge list of pros and cons on whether or not he should grant her request. One of the major pros was the length of uninterrupted time he would be able to spend with Lois in his arms during the trip there and back. The scale-tipping con, regrettably, still won.
“It doesn’t have to be tonight. I know it’s already late over there…” Lois started until he raised his hand to interrupt. “What?”
“Lois, you are currently out on bail for a felony crime. You are not allowed to leave Metropolis, let alone the country,” Superman explained his justification for his choice. Although, another item on the pro list was the fact that Lois leaving the country would make Luthor lose all the money he put up for her bail, but only if she missed her court hearing.
She brushed aside his concerns, or he wondered if it was the law she was dismissing. “I’m innocent. Eugene Laderman was released from jail, all the charges against him dropped, and his record cleansed. It will be the same for me,” she reassured him, looking him in the eye. “Anyway, I’m not running away from the law. I only want to go for the afternoon. Nobody has to know.”
“I also hope the charges are dropped, Lois, but until then,
I will know and Superman cannot be party even to a brief flouting of the law,” he said. He could see the anger building up in her eyes at his rejection of her request. “I hope you understand my reasoning and how sorry I am that I cannot help you.” Perhaps Clark could go in her stead. Of course, 'Clark' was getting ready for his date with Linda and didn’t know anything that they were discussing at this meeting, which were two strikes against Lois allowing Clark to take over her British section of this investigation. “It’s probably also best if Superman isn’t directly involved in an investigation for which he played a major role.”
The anger in her eyes dulled. “Will you stop blaming yourself for someone else’s actions?” Lois insisted. “You would never let me do that.”
“If you tell me you’re innocent, I would believe you. I know you wouldn’t lie to me,” he agreed.
Her hands slid down his arms and into his. “I’d never lie to you any more than you would to me, Superman,” she said, wrenching his heart with her words.
He squeezed her hand. “Lois, I know that Clark wanted to be here tonight, but…”
“Oh, no. He had a big date,” Lois scoffed. “With a cheap whore of a reporter from the Metropolis Star… although one could argue that ‘whore’ and ‘reporter for the Met Star’ mean the same thing.” She leaned her head back against Superman’s chest. “I’ve been so stupid, Superman. It’s all my fault. I should’ve never told him to go ruin his reputation with that… that… woman.”
Superman ran his hand over her hair. “Why would you do that, especially when you know how Clark feels about you?”
“If he really cared about me, he wouldn’t have made the date in the first place,” she grumbled. “The truth is I told him to keep asking her out, so he wouldn’t know how much I really,
really hate it, and how jealous I am.”
“And if you really cared for Clark…”
“I would never have kissed you?” Lois finished for him.
No. He was about to mention Luthor, but thought it best to keep the ‘I told you so’ out of this conversation. “Is that why you think he arranged a date with Ms. King?” Superman asked instead.
“No. In fact, Clark doesn’t mind at all if we kiss,” she said, glancing up at him with daring expression on her face.
“Lo-
is, you don’t really believe that, do you?” he asked, taking a step back.
“It’s what he said,” Lois reiterated, crossing her arms.
“Perhaps he didn’t want you to know how extremely jealous
he really was,” Superman suggested.
“Oh, no. He really doesn’t mind. When he’s jealous, it kind of drips off his sleeves, like slime,” Lois informed him with a decisive nod of her head.
Superman had no response to that remark. Although, he did wonder if the slime in question was Linda King. “It sounds as if you and Clark need to have a serious conversation.”
Lois bit her bottom lip in that adorable manner, which always made him want to kiss her. “Along those lines, I was thinking that maybe Clark and I should get away for the weekend, maybe to the Kent farm. If you’d be willing…”
He swallowed a groan. Her plan sounded perfect with the exception of one fatal flaw. “Lois, we discussed this. You cannot leave the city, let alone the state of New Troy. You are not allowed to leave Metropolis without approval from the D.A.’s office or a judge, which you aren’t likely to get.”
“But I talked to my new Daily Planet attorney this afternoon, and he said that he got us a meeting with Assistant D.A. Mayson Drake, tomorrow, sooooooo…” She gave Superman a great big adorable grin, which always seemed to make him cave.
“We’ll see how tomorrow’s meeting goes. Discuss it with Clark, and if he’s available, he can check the Kents’ availability. I’m sure Clark wouldn’t want to drop in on them unannounced,” Superman said. The idea of spending an uninterrupted weekend alone with Lois caused him to float off the roof again. He used it as an excuse to leave. He looked down at her and smiled. “Thank you, Lois.”
He was disappointed that work pulled him away from talking to her, but if he didn’t get to the bottom of what the Metropolis Star was doing to steal the Daily Planet’s readers, there would no longer be a Daily Planet at which to work. Now, Clark thought with a heavy sigh, off to his ‘date’ with Linda King.
***End of Part 122*** Part 123 This counts as talking, right?
Comments Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 Sidney Lumet film, starring Al Pacino, about a bank heist gone bad.
Gucci is an Italian line of clothing and accessories designed by Guccio Gucci. It is owned by PPR. It is no way associated with Lex Luthor.
