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

Where we left off in Part 142 …

“So, you need someone to act as go between you and your partner?” Louie asked, bringing her back to the present. “Someone invisible? A runner, a gopher, perhaps. Someone not known to you or Luthor.”

Lois raised her gaze to smile at Louie. That would be wonderful. “Thanks for the offer, Louie. It’s not safe right now for us to communicate,” she whispered, indicating her disguise.

Louie held up his hands again. “Hey, that wasn’t an offer, just a suggestion. I may know lots of guys, but I don’t know anyone who would risk their neck by going behind Luthor’s back.”

“Why?”

He gave her a ‘you’re kidding’ expression. “Including me, kid.” He waved a finger between them. “Just so you know, this conversation didn’t happen.”

Terrific. A whole lot of nothing. “Thanks again, Louie. I understand.” Lois stood up and retrieved her black gym bag from the corner.

“But I’ve heard of a guy who knows what’s happening on the street, and he doesn’t have much love for Luthor. He might be willing to talk for a price. He’s a bit odd and his price is steep because he’s hungry. I’ll put out feelers and see if he’s interested,” Louie said. “If he is, I’ll have him contact you at the Daily Planet.”

Lois shook her head. “Deep undercover, Louie,” she said, once more pointing to her blonde wig. “You can’t tell anyone I’m looking for information on Luthor. Tell this guy I’m looking for information on…” She considered who else about whom she needed information. “Mrs. Cox, Luthor’s assistant. If that pans out, I’ll see what else he can get me. I’m hoping to get a temporary job over at LNN until I can bust this wide open.”

Louie blanched. “Hey, kid, I’ll help you out every once and a while with a freebie, due to that backhand of yours, but nobody… and I mean nobody will go into barracuda central.”

“I’m not asking him to. We’ll have to find someplace neutral,” Lois said, reaching up to unpin the wig from her head. She looked down at it after she pulled it from her head, and bet she must’ve looked like that nasty A.D.A. Mayson Drake in this getup. She smiled. “I know exactly where he’ll be able to find me.”

***

A woman with short spiky blonde hair, ala Annie Lennox, wearing a black sweatshirt and track pants, looked both ways before slipping through the blue door at 344 Clinton Ave. She climbed the stairs until she stopped at the door of the top most apartment. There was a stack of Daily Planet newspapers sitting on the front stoop.

She glanced around again before knocking on the door.

No response.

She knocked again, murmuring, “Come on. Open up, Chuck. It’s me.”

Still no response.

From out of the front pocket of her backpack, she removed a beige note. She kissed the front of it and slid it between the layers of the Daily Planets.

Quietly, she stole back down the stairs and out onto the street. Several blocks later, she climbed onto a bus, dropped exact change into the meter, and accepted her transfer.

Less than twenty minutes later, she walked through the front door of the Haratchi Dojo.

***

Part 143

A sturdy woman dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and an apron, who made Lois feel overdressed in her slacks and blouse, handed her an apron, hairnet, and a large spoon. “Put all of your hair inside the net, wash your hands, and then put on gloves,” she said, pointing to the box of plastic gloves. “You’ll be working with me today on the line. We’ll fill out your paperwork afterwards.”

Lois thought the woman had said her name was Nancy. Introductions had been rushed, because apparently Lois had arrived just in time for dinner. Either way, she did as she was told. Lois now had a legitimate reason to spend two hours every day at the Fifth Street Mission serving meals. She could kill two birds with one stone: her community service and meet that possible new source. She only hoped this man was worth it.

A man with short dark curls was her first customer. He appeared neat and tidy instead of dirty and homeless. “Hi, Nan,” the man said.

“Hi, Bobby,” Nancy replied, pulling a clean plate from the pile.

“Who’s the new kid?” Bobby asked, nodding towards Lois.

“Lois, meet Bobby. Bobby, meet Lois, community service,” Nancy told him, scooping rice onto his plate and handing it to Lois.

Gee, thanks. Tell the world that I’ve been arrested, why don’t you, Nancy? Lois grumbled in her mind, but plastered a smile on her face. She looked down at the brown lumpy food in front of her. “Uh…Gravy, Bobby?” she asked.

“Swedish Meatballs,” Bobby answered. “And, yes, please. Two scoops, plus green beans.”

Dipping her spoon inside the muck, Lois discovered that Bobby was correct. It was meatballs.

“Only once through the line today, Bobby,” Nancy warned. “We’ve got a full house due to the rains this past weekend.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Bobby said with a salute and moved on down the line.

An hour later, or what felt like an hour later, a now sweaty and sticky Lois lifted the empty metal container out of its hot water bath and carried it over to the sink. Bobby was there washing dishes. Lois wasn’t expecting that the homeless were also required to work for their food. She hoped her community service wasn’t taking away a job, which would otherwise be given to a homeless person.

“You aren’t going to put her on KP duty, are you, Nan?” Bobby called over his shoulder. “‘Cause she looks like a mustard and pickles girl to me.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Lois snapped, handing him the empty container unceremoniously.

Bobby looked down at the container and shook his head with what she was sure was a non-disguised ‘tsk-tsk’. “That I bet your fridge at home is empty save a bottle of mustard and half-empty jar of pickles,” he replied.

He hit it so close to the mark, she wondered if he was one of Lex’s spies. Lois was tempted to tell Bobby that she also had a bottle of Evian, a box of moldy take-out left from the week before, and a freezer full of microwave meals, but figured she wouldn’t earn any points by doing so.

Bobby took the container over to the counter where another almost identical tub of Swedish Meatballs sat. He pulled a rubber spatula out of a drawer and scraped the remaining dregs of brown goo out of the square tin she had given him and into the new one. “Don’t take it personally, Ms. Lane. I prefer take-out myself.”

Lois rolled her eyes at his bad joke, picked up the new pot, and carried it back over to her spot in line. It wasn’t until three people later that she realized what Bobby had called her. Nancy had introduced her as ‘Lois’, not ‘Lois Lane’. How had this homeless man known her last name?

She was about to turn around and ask him, but a kid who reminded her of a young Jimbo Olsen moseyed into position in front of her. He was lanky, had an earring dangling from one of his ears, and his light brown hair, which was falling into his eyes, was in need of a trim. She doubted he was even eighteen. A new series of articles about the Metropolis homeless started forming in her head.

“What’s that?” the kid asked suspiciously.

“Swedish meatballs,” Lois replied. She had received similar questions throughout her shift on the hot line.

“Well, there’s one thing to be said about Luthor’s House for Homeless Kids,” he mumbled, holding out his plate. “Luthor sure didn’t feed us right.”

Lois stared at the kid. He couldn’t work for Lex Luthor, could he? Had Lex discovered what she was up to already? She had only been here an hour, if that. Could this kid be Lex’s spy? Was he testing her by dropping Lex’s name in front of her, or did he really have no idea who she was? On the other hand, had he dropped Lex’s name because he was the friend of a friend who Louie said he’d contact? How could a kid barely shaving, know more about what was happening on the streets of Metropolis than she did?

He held out his hand. “Well, are you going to give me it, or not?” he asked.

“Oh, sorry,” Lois apologized quickly, dumping an extra large plop of Swedish meatballs on the kid’s plate and a handful of green beans before handing it back.

He went to snatch the plate out of her hand, but she didn’t let go.

“You used to live at the Luthor House?” she asked.

“Lived. Held captive. Whatever. Can I have my food now?”

“Uh… sure,” Lois replied, letting go.

She continued to watch him move down the line, snatching extra pieces of bread, which he stuffed into his coat pockets. She remembered that kid, Denny, she had met at the Christmas party and how he too had stuffed his pockets full of food during dinner. She once more wondered if it was a homeless thing, or something else.

A pang of guilt passed through her as she realized that she had never gone back to talk to Denny and never checked up on his brother who was supposedly being kept in solitary confinement by the management at the Luthor House, because he had talked back to Mrs. Cox. A kid like that deserved a prize, not punishment. She had put Denny’s story down as an overactive imagination of a young teenage boy, mostly because she couldn’t believe that Lex would be that cruel to children. She knew better now, and that made her feel worse about how blind she had been.

Lois elbowed Nancy and nodded towards the kid. “Who’s that?” she whispered.

Nancy shrugged. “He’s been here a few times over the past couple of weeks for meals, but I’m not sure. I haven’t spoken to him. Possibly a runaway. We get a lot of those.”

Lois decided to ask her new source, should he ever show up, if he knew anything about the Luthor House for Homeless Children. Had it all been a front for Lex’s philanthropic publicity machine? Had all of those tens of thousands of dollars Lex had collected at his White Orchid Ball last year even gone to the Luthor House? Or had Lex skimmed off a nice thick layer from the top for his other projects? Such as lining his pockets, building his underground bunker, or buying his Learjet?

Sighing, Lois plopped another scoop of Swedish meatballs onto yet another plate. That wasn’t information a source would have. That was research she would have to do herself. With Lex watching her every move, how was she going to look more in-depth into his business dealings without him noticing? She needed someone on the outside, someone Lex wasn’t watching, to do the research for her and get back to her with the results. She handed a plate to a woman without a home and gave her a hopeful smile.

If only Clark could see her now, he’d be so proud.

Sadly, that thought didn’t make Lois feel any better or miss him any less.

***

Lois glanced down at her watch as she hurried down the street. She had just over an hour before her interview at LNN. She had called a producer acquaintance of hers that morning and asked if he knew of any openings. He said he would check with HR and give her a call back. Within a half-hour, he had not only called her back, but also patched her through to HR to schedule an interview for later that morning.

True to her gut feeling, Lex had come through for her and made sure LNN was interested in interviewing her. She had said, during that long rambling talk with herself Saturday afternoon for Lex’s benefit, that she wouldn’t even consider Lex’s proposal until she had earned this job on her own. That would guarantee that he would smooth the road for her to get the job, so that in her happiness she would accept his marriage offer.

Ugh.

She knew she should easily be able to get this job with both hands tied behind her back on her own credentials without Lex’s assistance, but she wanted him to think he was responsible for giving her everything she ever desired. Personally, she was just trying to find a new way to delay, delay, delay ever accepting his proposal. Without Clark as her readily available lifeline, accepting Lex’s proposal would slide her further down this slippery slope.

If only one could control men as easily as telling them the opposite of what one really wanted. She wondered what Clark would do if the next time she saw him, she suddenly announced that she had been wrong and could he please watch over her and protect her all the time, pretty please. Would she get her point across and get him to admit that she didn’t need him to shadow her every move, or would that just make a bad situation worse? She could just picture the euphoria on his face a) that she not only admitted that he was right, and she was… not exactly right, and b) that he could do whatever he wanted to protect her. She groaned. No, that would just cause her life to become a new form of hell.

Actually, Lois was a bit surprised that she hadn’t seen Superman flying through the skies the last couple of days. She knew that Clark wasn’t always Superman, except when it was least convenient for her, but she should’ve at least heard of one Superman rescue story on the news. She hoped he wasn’t in another snit as he was after Lex shot her, because if he did that again he would discover a new level to her fury. The world needed Superman, so he'd better not have gone off to wallow in the mess that was his own making. She hated wallowers.

She didn’t want a bodyguard, but she didn’t want Superman or Clark to disappear off the face of the Earth, either. No, Clark probably hadn’t done that. Knowing the SuperWallower as she did, he was probably still in Metropolis, guarding her from up in the clouds.

Maybe he would figure out on his own that she was investigating Lex and come to apologize. She sighed.

And maybe someday I’ll be able to fly without Clark to hold me, she scoffed. She wouldn’t hold her breath.

Lois went into the building, passed through security, and headed for the fourth floor. She knew where she was going thanks to all those meetings she had been forced to take the previous month. Stepping out of the elevator, she approached the reception desk. “Please tell A.D.A. Drake…” she started before spotting Mayson Drake staring at her with a stunned expression on her face. “Never mind, I see her.” Lois waved and approached the assistant district attorney with her friendliest smile plastered on her face. “Mayson!”

Mayson returned a glower as if she knew just how fake Lois’s smile really was. “Ms. Drake,” she corrected. “Or A.D.A. Drake. We’re not on a first name basis, Ms. Lane.” AKA criminal Lane.

The smile fell off Lois’s face. Terrific. They were off to a great start.

Mayson turned away from her and towards her office. “Are you here to gloat?” she grumbled.

Gloat? “No. I wanted to tell you that I started my community service yesterday over at the Fifth Street Mission,” Lois explained, following her. “Could you let me know who I’m supposed to report to? Since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I’d pop in and ask you directly. I figured it wouldn’t take more than two minutes of your time, so if you could just point me in the right direction...”

Mayson held up a copy of a fax sitting on her desk. “According to D.A. Clemmons the governor pardoned you of your crimes over the weekend. You no longer need to do your community service deal, Ms. Lane. You’re free to go.” She said this with an air of ‘good riddance’.

Damn Lex. He had been serious about that.

“For your information, Ms. Lane, I bent over backwards to be accommodating to you due to your assistance in helping out with the Ides of Metropolis computer virus and finding the true murderer of Mr. Holmes, the homeless man who lived in the Harrisons’ generator room. With your blatant disregard for the law and your love of vigilantism, I could’ve and should’ve easily thrown the book at you, but I was told it would be a PR nightmare that the District Attorney’s office didn’t need. I don’t like having my time wasted and my generosity thrown back into my face.” Mayson dropped into her chair.

“I didn’t approve this,” Lois said, handing back the paper. She had wanted it, but not like this.

“Excuse me?”

Lois turned and shut Mayson’s office door. “Lex Luthor did this without my permission. I agreed to the plea deal and I still plan on following through with all one hundred hours of community service.” She pulled out the paperwork she and Nancy had filled out after her shift on the hot line and doing dishes the previous afternoon. “As far as I’m concerned, I still owe the State of New Troy my part of the deal.”

Mayson leaned back in her chair and stared at her. “Why? You got off scot-free. The Governor has wiped your slate clean, and there isn’t anything I can do about it. Aren’t you lucky to have friends in high places? So, why don’t you just take advantage of this opportunity and crow about how you screwed over us idiots in the D.A.’s office? Heaven knows that you’re good at reporting such things.”

Lois had to admit that did sound like something that the old her, the ‘prior to meeting and falling in love with Clark’ her, would do. She sat down in the chair opposite Mayson. “Lex Luthor told me that his lawyer Mr. Schwartz made a plea deal with you, where you’d just slap my wrist and not press any charges. Why did you change your tune when I came in with my Daily Planet attorney?”

The assistant district attorney scoffed. “Frankly, I have no idea what he told you. I don’t know if you got the same memo I did, Ms. Lane, but Mr. Schwartz is one of those men who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. He implied that he would be open to taking me out to the Top of the Tower restaurant and then some,” Mayson said, looking disgusted. “When I turned him down, telling him that I don’t date men who represent people I’m prosecuting, he said that if I didn’t press charges against you, he would no longer be representing an alleged criminal.” She gave Lois another look, which described aptly what she thought of that idea. It was the same expression Lois often gave when she thought of Ralph. “He also said that to sweeten the pot, he wouldn’t tell my boss that I was friendly with Bill Church. Apparently, he thought me knowing a rich CEO would ruin my career.” She shook her head.

“Bill Church of Cost Mart?” Lois clarified, dumbfounded.

Mayson nodded. “Your lawyer was kidding...”

“Lex Luthor’s lawyer,” Lois corrected, holding up her hand. “Wait. Let me see if I got this straight. Are you saying that Mr. Schwartz tried to blackmail you?” Her eyes opened wide at this gift until she realized that it was Mr. Schwartz who would pay for the extortion attempt, not Lex Luthor. Nothing ever tied back directly to that man.

Mayson considered what Lois had said. “Yes, I guess technically he did, but he couldn’t have been serious. Schwartz couldn’t really have been trying to blackmail me. Firstly, it came off as all he wanted was to get me between the sheets. Secondly, no man would be stupid enough to risk his career by trying to extort a district attorney, and, trust me, it would be a career-ender. Thirdly, and most importantly, he doesn’t actually have anything on me. Making up false accusations against Bill Church just made him look ridiculous. You were smart to switch lawyers.”

“Maybe he does have something.”

“Excuse me?” Mayson said, her gaze turned vulture sharp.

“Maybe Mr. Schwartz does have something on Bill Church,” Lois clarified.

The assistant district attorney shook her head. “As I told you, it’s a preposterous idea. He must’ve been trying to act suave, but he failed miserably. I know Schwartz’s client Mr. Luthor and Bill Church have some minor rivalry in the pharmacy business but, come on, the man was trying to get me to believe some hogwash about Bill Church and Cost Mart being a cover for some huge criminal organization called ‘Intergang’. I worked for Bill Church. He’s a sweet old man, a businessman. No way he runs a huge crime syndicate.”

Lois felt something tickle in the back of her mind. She tried to grab hold of it, but it wiggled away. “What have you heard about Intergang?”

“Nothing, because it doesn’t exist. If there’s a huge organized crime ring in Metropolis run by a crooked billionaire business tycoon, I think we would’ve heard about it in the District Attorney’s office by now. Look, Schwartz must have had his lines crossed, because Bill Church is an upstanding citizen, and a good friend of your boss Perry White, I believe. Church might not be the philanthropist that Lex Luthor is, but then again, he doesn’t have such deep pockets. I don’t know why Schwartz thought besmirching the name of Bill Church would help in his cause, though. It made me want to date him less, not more. It isn’t any secret that Mr. Church hired me out of law school and has been very helpful with my career. He even recommended that I apply for a job at the District Attorney’s office as he said I would enjoy taking down the bad guys in Metropolis more than cleaning up negotiations in corporate America, and he was right. I love my job,” Mayson said with a sigh. Then she recalled to whom she was talking. “Anyway, I never made any deals with Schwartz or his law firm about your case, Ms. Lane, and certainly wouldn’t have let you off no matter who your lawyer was.”

From what Lois could tell, Mayson sounded sincere. The A.D.A. was angry that Lex had finagled Lois a pardon for her crimes. Lois was miffed about it too, but she was choosing her battles at the moment, and that one didn’t make the grade. Lois hated to trust anyone, especially the woman who had wanted to send her behind bars with no deal. On the other hand, Mayson had brushed aside the wants of Lex and his lawyers with little or no concern. She certainly didn’t seem to be in Lex’s pocket.

Mayson studied her. “Just out of curiosity, why would you think your lawyer…”

“Lex’s lawyer,” Lois clarified. “Schwartz never worked for me.”

Mayson waved away the difference. “What makes you think Schwartz was on to something with Bill?”

“A hunch.”

Mayson leaned back and crossed her arms. “A hunch, huh?” she mocked. “You had a hunch about me, if I recall correctly, which didn’t pan out. But since you also had a hunch that Eugene Laderman was innocent, and he was, I’m willing to listen.” She glanced at her watch. “You’ve got one minute to convince me.”

Lois wondered if Mayson might actually be safe to talk to unless Schwartz was right. Was Mayson running with another criminal organization, this one run by Cost Mart’s Bill Church? Even if she was, could the enemy of her enemy truly be counted as her friend, if they both had the mutual goal of getting Lex Luthor behind bars? She knew that Clark would say ‘not’.

Mayson waved her index finger back and forth. “Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. No? Then, it’s time for you to…”

“I want exclusive rights to this story and any arrests made because of it,” Lois insisted.

The A.D.A. looked uncertainly at her. “If there are any arrests, Ms. Lane, I’ll be sure to give you and the Daily Planet the exclusive,” she sounded more doubtful regarding Lois’s information.

“It’s possible that Schwartz knows illegal things about Bill Church that the district attorney’s office hasn’t heard about, because Church’s organization might be in direct competition with his own boss’s illicit business dealings,” Lois said.

“Sheldon Bender? You think he’s a crime boss?” Mayson sounded skeptical.

Lois shook her head. “Sheldon Bender’s boss.”

Mayson stared at her quizzingly. “But Bender is a major partner in his firm,” she said slowly. “Unless you mean…”

Lois looked her in the eye. “A man so powerful that he can get the Governor of New Troy to pardon a woman from doing community service?”

Mayson leaned forward. “Tell me more.”

***

A familiar and friendly voice answered, “Daily Planet, James Olsen speaking. How may I direct your call?”

It was so good to hear Jimmy’s voice again, even though they had only spoken a few days before. “Hi, Jimmy. It’s Alice White. Is Perry available?” she whispered, glancing around the corner to make sure nobody could hear her.

“Sure, Mrs. W. I’ll patch you right through,” Jimmy replied.

Lois waited as the call transferred. She tried not the think further into the past than the last few minutes. She had stepped into the Fifth Street Mission and nodded to Nancy. The head of the Mission had issued Lois a locker the previous afternoon to secure her purse and briefcase while she did her service. Lois had headed there directly and set her things inside, locking it. There was a payphone on a nearby wall, into which Lois had plunked a quarter and dialed. Yes, that was about as far back as Lois dared to think.

“Alice, honey. How was your…?”

“Dad, it’s Lois,” she interrupted before he said anything to his wife, which embarrassed them both.

“Oh! I wondered, being that Alice was on a train to her sister’s at this moment, but you never know about delays,” Perry responded. “How are you doing, darlin’?”

Lois sniffled and tried to keep a smile on her face to will away the tears. It was so good to hear his Southern humor ring through the line. “I didn’t get the job,” she sobbed. Damn! The smile hadn’t worked.

“What job?” he asked.

She took control of her emotions so that she could speak again, but her voice was rough. “At LNN. I just came from the interview. Those high and mighty idiots should have known me by reputation and have been drooling over my resume. That…” Lois cut off, hearing voices in the hall. “Guy…” she continued, using the term in the loosest form possible. “Actually wanted to see my clippings. My clippings! I’m a three-time Kerth Award winner, Dad. They should have been begging me to come and work for them. Instead I got the ‘we’re all full up’ and a ‘we’ll keep you in mind, should anything become available’ B.S. I don’t understand it.”

“Calm down, calm down. You may be a three time award winner, honey, but you also walked off your last job with little or no notice, and if I may say so for very little reason, and you were recently convicted for harboring a fugitive and carrying a stolen weapon,” he reminded her.

“Neither of those things matter,” Lois retorted. “I don’t understand it. Why didn’t he insist that they hire me? He proposed after all. I mean, this man bailed me out of jail and hired me a lawyer without my say-so, so why not this? He promised me that should the Planet ever go under, I’d always have a job at LNN.” Had she stressed too much that she wanted to get the job on her own? No. Lex should have delighted in going behind her back to smooth the way for her, so that she could gush to him how excited they were to have her on their team.

“Thankfully, both the Daily Planet and your job at it are still here, if you want them, darlin’,” Perry said, soothing her damaged ego with his words. “If you recall, I didn’t want you to go in the first place.”

“I know, and I appreciate you saying that. Thanks, but this is something I have to do for your sake and for…” Lois pressed her lips together. She had to be on the serving line in five minutes. If she started to think about Clark and how much she missed him, she would fall apart again. She cleared her throat. “For Mom. I need to save you both.” It came out sounding more like ‘maam’ or, hopefully, ‘man’.

“Mom?” Perry asked, sounding confused. “Oh, right. And one of us appreciates your sacrifice, darlin’.”

“One? What do you mean ‘one’?”

“Lois, Clark stopped by the office Saturday mid-afternoon, a couple hours after you did, and as soon as he saw Jimmy clearing off your desk, he bolted,” Perry informed her. “Before I could reassure him of what you were doing.”

She closed her eyes and that pain that had been building up in her chest since she saw Superman eavesdropping on her conversation with Lex several days earlier, reached a boiling point. “And?”

“He hasn’t returned. Jimmy stopped by his apartment Saturday night and again yesterday, but if he was there, he wasn’t answering the door, and his newspapers were starting to pile up,” Perry said. “You didn’t happen to see him, did you?”

“No,” she lied, not wanting to remember the hurt expression on Clark’s face before he disappeared into the blue.

“You promised me that this relationship wouldn’t interfere with your job,” he reminded her.

“I did?” Had she? Had it?

“Yes, back when Superman first made his appearance, you promised me that dating your…”

“Shhhh!” she said. “Um… Dad, how’s that bug problem you were having? Did you get the place fumigated?”

“Yeah, honey,” Perry reassured her. “Bill came in late last night and did a search. All he found were the microphone and camera by your desk. We didn’t touch them, just in case. We’re being careful.”

“I’m glad,” Lois said, feeling anything but. She wished she could fumigate her own apartment. She was quiet a minute before asking, “Any news on Superman?”

“Not a peep.”

“Crap,” she mumbled, the pain in her chest exploding. She took a few cleansing breaths to try to cool the burning sensation to no avail. “Maybe Mom is holed up with the Cat.”

“What are you talking about?”

Lois rolled her eyes. “Chuck and Cat.”

“Chuck? Oh, right. Lois, Clark would never cheat on you. Anyway, you’ve missed the big news. Cat Grant is engaged. Her fiancé may be able to forgive a lot, but her shacking up with Kent…”

“She’s what? What?! Who would marry her?” Lois grumbled. Here, Lois was practically engaged to Lex Luthor, Clark proposed to her, and she quit her job at the Daily Planet, a company she loves, and still Cat Grant swoops in to steal her ‘big news’ tiara? By getting engaged, no less? Lois’s thunder was totally robbed. This was unforgiveable.

“A guy named Phil, apparently,” Perry said. “Anyway, any other ideas about your wayward partner?”

“It’s not like Mom to call in,” Lois said, returning the subject to Clark. “Did you try the folks? Your assistant has the number.”

“Jimmy spoke to the Kents this morning. They said that they talked to Clark on Saturday afternoon, but that they haven’t heard from him since,” Perry replied. “Now, we both know that he’s disappeared like this before.”

“Not at the same time as... Not since…” Lois sunk against the wall, her knees buckling. Nightfall. Not since Lex tried to kill him. Her breath came faster. She was almost hyperventilating. Had everything she had done, everything she had sacrificed been in vain? Had Lex been able to capture… Lois refused to let herself think any worst-case scenarios… Superman?

“Now, now, darlin’. We don’t know anything like that occurred. It’s only been a few days, since…” Perry’s voice trailed off. A few days since Lois had rejected Clark’s stupid, ill-timed, and anything but romantic proposal. “Are you sure that he wasn’t serious?”

“Pe…Dad!” Lois yelped. “It was awful. Worse than awful. He couldn’t possibly think I could have…” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Look, I can’t talk about that now.” Or ever. “I’ve got to get to work.”

“Work? I thought you said you didn’t get the job,” he asked.

“I’m at the Fifth Street Mission,” Lois informed him. “I figured that I better get started on that community service obligation.”

“Uh-huh. How’s that going for you?”

“It’s slopping gruel. How do you think it’s going?” she replied.

“They… they aren’t making you cook, are they?” Perry asked hesitantly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lois snapped.

“I mean, you’re there to help the unfortunate, not hurt them.”

“Yeah. They love me so much, perhaps I’ll move in once I work off my service,” she snapped. “I’ve got to go.”

“Wait! Wait. Lois, honey. Come home,” Perry said. “We’ll find another way.”

“What happened to supporting me a thousand percent?”

Perry sighed. “You’re in too deep.”

“I can handle it.”

“I don’t want to lose you,” her boss admitted.

“You won’t,” she reassured him.

“You don’t have backup.”

“When have I ever needed backup?” Lois said, letting her voice raise above a whisper. She brought it back down with a glance around. “Hold on. You don’t think I can do this alone? There was a time you believed in me.” Perry’s lack of trust in her and her abilities pierced her like a red-hot poker. Had he thought she’d grown weak? She’d prove him wrong!

“I do believe in you, but I also want you to make it out alive,” he replied. “After everything that Kent found out about him…”

Right. “So, how’s everything with you?” Lois interrupted, not really wanting to hear about the investigation Clark did behind her back. “Were you able to find a new buyer for your house?”

“I’m still working on it, honey. There aren't many people in town who don’t flinch or bow in the presence of your fiancé,” Perry said.

“My company excluded. Perhaps I should start buying Lotto tickets,” Lois murmured.

“Speaking of fiancés, any news on the wedding front?” the Chief inquired, saccharine sweetly. “Planet readers want to know.”

“I haven’t given him an answer,” she sneered, tempted to push Lex off his balcony the next time she saw him for not insisting that they hire her at LNN. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call again when I can. Give my love to Mom.” She hung up the phone, glanced in the mirror, and shook her head. No wonder she didn’t get the job. She already looked as if she had completed her shift over the hot steaming food.

Clark, where are you?

***End of Part 143***

Part 144

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