Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Wrong Clark (147/???)

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

In case you need to refresh your memory, Part 146 can be found here.

Part 147

Lex had finally called Lois the night before. He hadn’t mentioned her message sent through Mitch, her handy-dandy escort, and neither had she. They were to meet for lunch at the Top of the Tower Restaurant at eleven.

Lois had her interview with the New York Times that afternoon, and Lex had said he had a meeting downtown as well. When he had called, he didn’t mention her failed LNN interview or any of her other successful ones or her community service. She didn’t mention her numerous phone messages left with Mrs. Cox. These would be topics best saved for the privacy of a public restaurant.

Lex had them seated in his private dining room away from the other diners. They even had their own waiter. Lex had ordered off the menu for both of them without consulting Lois’s wishes. Despite being annoyed by how he had ordered, she was okay with what he ordered or she would have changed it.

“I don’t want you going to the Fifth Street Mission anymore, Lois,” Lex said after the waiter departed to place their order.

Lois took a sip of her water and, knowing that this topic would be brought up, merely said, “Too bad.”

Lex paused, focused his attention on her, and waited for her to explain herself.

She refused to cater to his whim and, therefore, ignored his change in attitude.

“Lois,” he said slowly as if speaking to an errant child. “You need to stop this.”

“Stop what, Lex?” she asked innocently.

“This charade.”

“What charade?”

“It’s dangerous around the Mission,” he said. “Especially in the evenings.”

Lois leaned back in her chair and cracked a grin. “Not any more dangerous than the West River district was this past fall, Lex. Not any more dangerous than the Congo was a couple of years ago. Not any more dangerous than being embedded with the U.S. Army.” Not any more dangerous than sitting here with you. “Actually, Lex, visiting Suicide Slum is a bit droll.”

“I don’t like it,” he replied.

She placed her napkin in her lap. “Then you have a problem, don’t you?”

“Perhaps we can compromise,” Lex went on, realizing he had said the wrong thing. “If you want to spend your time assisting others, I head plenty of charities in much safer neighborhoods. They would love to have you work with them. I’ll set up… Why don’t you donate your time to one of those endeavors?”

“Perhaps I will,” Lois replied, taking a sip of her water. Starting with the Luthor House for Homeless Children. “But I have a commitment to the state of New Troy and to the Fifth Street Mission to complete first.”

“No, you don’t, Lois. You’ve been pardoned,” he reminded her.

“I agreed to complete the community service, so therefore I will do it,” Lois stressed. She wouldn’t owe Lex anything when this investigation was over. “I should be done sometime in mid-May. I’m sorry if you paid a lot of money to have me pardoned, Lex, but I…”

“I didn’t pay anything to have you pardoned,” Lex exclaimed.

Lois gazed at him. Somewhere in that statement was a lie. He may not have paid money directly to the governor, but he cashed in some chip with the man, possibly an IOU for previous campaign donations, or maybe he blackmailed the governor over nefarious dealings to which Lex had been privy and/or connected. On the other hand, Lex could have gone old school and just threatened the man’s family. “Then what piece of my soul did you sell to clear my name?” she asked.

“It was an unjust sentence to which the governor didn’t agree, especially after all your assistance in stopping the Harrisons’ Ides of Metropolis computer virus,” Lex said. “I merely suggested that he should cleanse your record, and he agreed. It was that simple.”

“My full record?” Lois asked innocently, taking another bite of bread.

He sputtered in a most un-Lex like manner. “You’ve been arrested before?”

Lois shrugged. “I am an investigative reporter, Lex. I often have to bend rules to get what I want.”

An agreeing smile uncurled upon Lex’s lips. “Is that so?” He leaned towards her and whispered, “Me, too.”

She wanted to ask ‘how?’ but didn’t like that expression on his face. Suddenly, she was glad she couldn’t read his thoughts. From what she could see of them, she was already tempted to yell “Octopus” and dive out the window. She didn’t like that her rebelling against the laws of the land turned him on. Thankfully, the waiter returned and interrupted them.

Actually, it was the sommelier. He presented a bottle of wine to Lex and then poured him a little taste. Lex accepted it and nodded for the man to continue. The sommelier then turned the bottle towards Lois’s glass, but she held up her hand in the universal refusal for him to fill it.

“I have an interview this afternoon,” she explained to him.

The man glanced at Lex for confirmation, Lex nodded, and the sommelier filled only Lex’s glass before fading into the background.

Lex took a sip of his merlot. “Are you seriously interested in working at another newspaper?”

Lois shrugged. “I need a job.”

Lex set his hand over hers. “No, darling. One word and you’d never need to work another day in your life.”

“Is that so? And what word would that be?” she asked, already knowing what he was about to say.

“‘Yes.’”

“Then my answer is ‘no’,” Lois said, pulling her hand out from under his. “I don’t work merely to pay the bills and keep the electricity on so that I may microwave my meals, Lex. I work, because that’s who I am. If I didn’t work, I would die.”

“You wouldn’t ‘die’,” he countered.

“Yes, I would. I can feel my blood atrophying as we speak, Lex. Already a part of me has started to die of boredom from this week sitting on my laurels. I need something to do, something to occupy my mind, or…” She looked him directly in the eye. “I will find something to exercise my mind.”

“I didn’t know you had any hobbies, darling. What do you like to do to exercise your mind?” Lex asked. “Crossword puzzles?”

“I go exploring. I dig and dig and dig until I unearth something shiny and then I share it with the world,” Lois replied, taking a bite of her bread. “It’s very fulfilling.”

He coughed. “I can give you shiny things, Lois.”

She sighed. Either subtlety was lost on all men, or Lex was being obtuse on purpose. “I don’t want your money, Lex. I don’t want diamonds, rubies, pearls, furs, or a wardrobe of clothes I only wear once. I don’t want priceless artifacts or pieces of art. I don’t want you to give me anything,” she said. Although, I will take your Kryptonite. “I am only interested in your mind. I want to take it apart and see what makes you tick.” Literally, and preferably with heat vision.

Again, he brandished her with another lewd smile. Did he realize that he was making the expression, she wondered, or how unattractive it was? Then she realized it wasn’t a ‘lewd’ smile, but his ‘charming’ one… only, now that she knew what was behind it, the smile seemed deformed. She took another sip of her water to clear the bad taste from her mouth.

“Lex, I enjoy our friendship. Why ruin it with marriage?”

His smile turned genuine as if he enjoyed her turning him down, as if this were a game. “You really don’t want to marry me?” he asked, leaning towards her and running his hand down her arm. “I, on the other hand, would like to get to know you better.”

“Again, Lex. We have such a delightful time now. Why ruin it with marriage?” she repeated. Not that she needed marriage to ruin a relationship as she discovered earlier this week.

“What’s mine will become yours,” he murmured, lifting her hand to his lips.

If she agreed, then his Kryptonite… No! Because then what was hers would become his. There were some lines she would not cross, even to save Clark from certain death. She would rather die herself. Furthermore, she knew, in her heart of hearts, that Lex was lying to her. Lois pulled her hand free. “Are you saying that to continue to receive your company, I would have to marry you?” she teased.

“Of course not,” he said, as the waiter returned and set down two plates of baby greens salad with frisée, roasted goat cheese, dried cranberries, candied walnuts, and a raspberry-pomegranate vinaigrette.

Lois took a bite of her salad and couldn’t stop herself from moaning. “Then again, to eat like this every day…” She bounced her eyebrows at him with laughter, hoping he understood that she was joking.

Lex continued to smile at her. She knew she was wonderful, but what was it about her that allured Lex? All she ever did was tell him ‘no’.

“So, you’re saying that there isn’t anything I could do to change your mind?” he inquired.

She wanted to shrug away his words, but instead she stared at him with curiosity, wondering what he was getting at.

“I could buy you a chocolate factory,” he suggested.

“You’re right. I’d be deliriously happy owning a chocolate factory, but then you wouldn’t want to marry me,” she said, laughing. “Because I wouldn’t fit through your front door.” She reached over and pushed him away, light enough for him to think she was being playful, but heavy enough to get her point across. “Now, stop. Let’s just enjoy ourselves. Stop trying to buy me, Lex. I’m not for sale.”

Was that the allure? That he had paid for her and yet never had been able to possess her? Lois had some front-page news for him. He never would.

Lex took a bite of his salad. “So, what then, does it take to woo you, Lois?”

She looked up from her salad, almost feeling sorry for the creep. Did he truly not know what it took to have a woman love him without paying for her? “I like kindness, generosity towards others… that’s giving of oneself, not one’s wealth, Lex… behaving as a true gentleman, a sense of humor doesn’t hurt…” Lois paused, gazing out at the blue sky unblocked by most buildings in Metropolis.

She was describing Clark. It had been so long since she had seen him. First, he was on assignment at the Metropolis Star, then Superman chased down the nuclear weapons, and now… now, she knew he was back from wherever… but until she saw him with her own eyes and told him the truth, would he ever truly return?

“The ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound?” Lex mumbled.

His words snapped Lois out of her thoughts. “What?”

“It sounds as if you are thinking of someone in particular,” he said. “As if you’re describing Superman.”

It took every ounce of effort for Lois not to drop her fork on her plate and walk out of there without another word. “A man doesn’t need to fly to be super, Lex. I’m not asking for perfection. I’m asking for a demonstration… a willingness to let my wants and desires come first, even to take precedence over your own.”

Lex set down his fork and studied her. “So, what is it that you want, Lois?”

A strange picture of Lois dressed up as a wild-west bandit flashed through her mind. Bandit Lois spun a pistol around her finger and then held it to the chest of a dark suited, pencil-mustached black-hat wearing Lex Luthor before demanding, “Give me all your Kryptonite!”

Instead, Lois focused her eyes on him, and replied, “A job.”

He smiled. “I think that’s obtainable.”

She wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Me, too,” she said, standing up. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have an interview at the New York Times.”

Lex grabbed her wrist. “We haven’t finished lunch.”

“I’ve had enough,” Lois said, tugging her wrist free.

He scowled and stood up. “If you go, you’ll always regret it.”

She paused and looked back at him. “Are you threatening me, Lex?”

Lex closed the distance between them, his tone softer. “No, of course not, darling,” he said. “I’m sorry if I implied that your work was unimportant.”

“And?”

“Just say the word, and you’ll have a guaranteed job for life with me. I always need someone with your fire and expertise,” he insisted.

“Did you have something to do with my failed interview?” she asked, staring him in the eye. Come on, jerk, admit it. Admit to something.

“I didn’t know you even were interviewing with LNN, my dear,” Lex replied.

Lois nodded with understanding. Liar. He was implying that she needed his help getting a job at his network. “What’s the word?” she asked, wondering if this was another attempt to get her to accept his proposal.

He smiled. “Please.”

She stared at him. Lex needs me to need him. Why? Does he need to feel in control, or actually be in control? “Why do you love me, Lex?”

Lex took her elbow and returned her to their table. “It’s extremely sexy that I don’t intimidate you,” he acknowledged.

Sexy? She crossed her arms.

“I like that you like me for me.”

She would accept that he believed that, since that was what she wanted him to think. She picked up her fork. “I’ll finish lunch, and I’ll consider your offer.”

He leaned towards her and softly asked, “Which offer was that exactly?”

“To say ‘please’,” Lois replied.

***

Lois rushed into her apartment, dropping her briefcase on her sofa as she went past.

Salmon! Ha! Its herbal sauce went beautifully with her clean teeth and white blouse.

In her bedroom, she placed her blazer neatly on the bed and took off her blouse, tossing it in the laundry hamper. In just her bra and skirt, she darted into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. She knew that lunch with Lex was a bad idea. It was delicious, she had to grant the Top of the Tower that, but she just knew that she would be hungry again in a couple of hours. For the amount of money Lex paid, or would have paid if he hadn’t owned the restaurant, the least they could do was make sure she left with a full stomach. Give her a hotdog in the park with Clark, any day. She wondered if Lex had ordered that fancy meal in order to make her late.

True, she had built in a two-hour cushion between their lunch and her interview, but she wanted a chance to re-read the morning edition of the Times for anything she may have missed. She hadn’t been planning on returning all the way to her apartment to do so.

Teeth clean and hair once more combed, Lois returned to her bedroom and removed her second choice blouse from the closet for today’s interview. It was always important to have backups. She picked up her blazer and put it back on, double-checking that it too hadn’t become familiar with her lunch. It hadn’t.

As Lois entered her living room to retrieve her briefcase, she noticed the light on her answering machine was blinking.

Could it be…?

She didn’t hesitate and pushed the button.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Lane,” an unfamiliar male voice said. He sounded terribly congested. “This is Dave Robertson, News Director at LNN, and I apologize for not calling you sooner.” He sniffled and coughed. “I’ve been home with a terrible cold.” He sounded like he should still be at home. “Apparently, in the confusion my assistant forgot to contact you.” He groaned more out of sickness than annoyance. “We have an opening in our Metropolis division, for which we’d like to set up an interview with you. Should you be interested, please contact my assistant, Patty Apfael at…”

Glancing down at her wrist, she noticed that Mr. Robertson had offered her a job within fifteen minutes of her departure from the Top of the Tower. Coincidence? She thought not. Lois wouldn’t be surprised if the News Director was still at home sick and had been pulled from bed by the owner of LNN to make the phone call. Apparently, LNN couldn’t be left the last news outlet in line when she made her choice over the weekend.

With a grin, Lois grabbed her briefcase and headed out the door. She would wait until after her interview with the New York Times to return his call.

***

Lois stood outside the Metropolis bureau of the New York Times staring upwards. To anyone else, it appeared she was studying the building, which held the illustrious newspaper with which she was about to interview. She wasn’t looking in awe at the building, though. She couldn’t care less about it. Lois was staring into the blue sky.

A part of her knew that she wouldn’t see Superman, but it didn’t stop her from looking. She had seen him fly overhead heading north just after she had stepped out of the cab ten minutes before. A reporter on a mobile phone had crashed into her on his way out of the office a minute later, talking about a fire at a private school on the north side of town.

Superman was back.

A man in a baggy corduroy type jacket walked past her and grabbed her elbow. “You don’t want to go to that interview, kid,” he murmured.

Lois jerked her arm free. “Excuse me!” She took a closer look at the man. “Bobby! What are you doing here?” she hissed, glancing around to see where Mitch or one of his buddies were. She didn’t see them.

“Trust me. It’ll be a massacre,” Bobby whispered.

Did Lex send this guy to dissuade her? “You aren’t going to stop me from going to that interview. You can just tell Lex…”

He held up his hands. “I don’t talk to Lex Luthor, you do. His type doesn’t buy the likes of me fancy lunches at the Top of the Tower.” Then his eyes lit up. “Hey! Why don’t you take me to lunch instead? The Apricot Diner isn’t far from here, and their berry pie is to die for.”

“Bobby, I’m not taking you to lunch. I need a job, and the New York Times is about to offer me one,” Lois said.

“Just a cup of coffee and a slice of pie for a starving man, then. The Apricot Diner makes all their pies from scratch. They know how to get the dough just right, so that it’s flaky under the filling. Trust me, that’s very hard to do,” he said. “Plus, they’ve just hired a whole new afternoon wait staff and none of them know me.”

Lois crossed her arms and glared at him.

“Fine, if you want a job so badly, Lex Luthor will give you one. I mean these guys…” He pointed over his shoulder towards the doors of the New York Times offices. “Wouldn’t know a good pastrami sandwich if it bit them on the…” He waved his hand. “But that is neither here nor there. They aren’t going to hire you.”

“Why not?”

Bobby shook his head. “Uh-uh. That’s not how this works. You buy me food, I talk. It’s a simple process of give and take. I shouldn’t have told you that much, but I like you and the first one’s on the house.” He walked away from the front door of the office building, and she followed, mostly out of curiosity.

“First one what?” Lois said in annoyance.

“Okay,” he continued. “So, are you saying that you’re low in funds because you’re unemployed? Everyone knows that you’ve been warming Luthor’s sheets…”

Lois turned to walk away from him in a huff. I don’t need this.

“Oh-ho!” Bobby crowed with glee, skipping after her. “You don’t? Because everybody who’s anybody has been talking about Luthor’s main squeeze, and I was sure he was squeezing you. He’s taken you to the Top of the Tower twice in the last week and he never eats at his own restaurant, and I mean ‘never’, except on the last Monday of the month when he tastes the new menu for the next month with his ‘assistant’…” He included the finger quotes and a skeptical expression. “Mrs. Cox.”

She stopped. Luthor and Mrs. Cox? Yeah, I can see that. Scum attracts scum. “How do you know that?”

“You’ve got your sources. I’ve got mine,” he retorted. “Do you talk about your sources? No. Well, you better not, or I’ll never say another word to you. Anyway, why should I talk about mine?”

“You’re a reporter?” she guessed, trying to follow what he was saying. And people complain that I talk fast.

He rolled his eyes. “A chef, professionally, but that’s neither here nor there. So, if you’re not interested in Luthor’s favors, why are you hanging out with him?” He studied her for a moment as she scowled at him.

“We’re friends,” she snapped the obvious response.

His expression told her he didn’t believe that pathetic line. “No, you’re not. He doesn’t have ‘friends’. Anyway, you’re close friends with Superman, and Superman would never be friends with a friend of Luth…”

Lois threw Bobby up against the wall and put her elbow to his throat. “Who are you? Why are you following me? Are you with Intergang?”

“Okay. Maybe you are just friends. What do I know?” Bobby garbled, holding up his hands in surrender. “I’m just Bobby. Really, I am. I’m a nobody. I’m not ‘following’ you, Ms. Lane, and I’m certainly not with Intergang. Yeah. They’re scary. No, I just hear things. People talk, I listen. Anyway, I was in the neighborhood and saw you staring up at the sky looking for Superman, and I just figured I would give you a freebie warning. When Nan introduced us about a week ago, I knew you were that reporter… well, I guess it would be ex-reporter now, from the Daily Planet who needed to work off her community service requirement at the Mission for hosting in her apartment that felon, who hadn’t been released from jail. I mean, come on, realistically how many Loises are there in this town?”

She shook her head and loosened her hold on him. “How is it that you aren’t dead, Bobby? People don’t like people to talk, and you’ve got the biggest mouth I’ve ever met,” she said.

“Well, I don’t talk to just anybody,” Bobby said, dusting off the front of his jacket, not that Lois could see an improvement. Then he started down the street towards the Apricot Diner. Suddenly, he stopped, snapped his fingers, and pointed at her. “Clark Kent! Of course. Your old partner at the Daily Planet, who they suspended yesterday. The one you’ve been sending notes to. Oh, yeah, he’s totally over the moon for you. Everybody and his brother knows that. I didn’t know you reciprocated, though. You should really work on projecting that more, because if I don’t know…”

Lois grabbed him and pulled him against the wall. “Clark’s been suspended?”

“Um… yeah. Something about him going AWOL,” Bobby said, scooting down the sidewalk and out of her grip. “Look, I’m starving, and if you’re not planning on buying me a slice of pie…”

“What kind of things have you heard?” Lois asked, following. She still had a few minutes before her interview.

“Things.”

“Can you be more specific?” she insisted. This was getting ridiculous.

“Buy me a slice of pie. Come on, kid. Nobody leaves the Top of the Tower full. I know you’re hungry. It’s coffee and pie… well, pie a la mode, because really that’s the best way to eat pie. We’ll enjoy the pie, and you’ll save yourself a world of humiliation. It’s win-win.”

Lois’s step faltered. “What ‘humiliation’?”

“That part’s a bit fuzzy.”

Lois reached into her briefcase, pulled out her emergency Double Fudge Crunch Bar, and held it up to Bobby. “Does this make things clearer?” This information better be worth it or Bobby would find himself in the nearest dumpster.

“Well, okay. Just this once,” he said, eyeing the bar for a moment before snatching it out of her fingers and opening it. He pulled the wrapped down and took a big bite, sighing with relief. “If you want to walk into a job interview where you’ll probably be ambushed into answering why they should hire you being that you’re the mole who allowed Lex Luthor to acquire the Daily Planet, that’s your business. No skin off my nose.” He shrugged and took another bite of chocolate.

Her mouth dropped open and her heart began to race. “Lex Luthor isn’t interested in the Daily Planet,” she said softly. He wasn’t supposed to be. It was why she had quit, to steer him off that course.

“Then why did he just sign the papers to buy it after lunch today?”

Lois’s swayed and she placed her hand on a lamppost she was passing to try to stop the world from spinning. “You’re lying.”

Bobby rolled his eyes and took the last bite of the candy bar. “Why would I lie?”

She had just had lunch with Lex, and he hadn’t said one word about his new acquisition. Why hadn’t she asked Lex directly what his interest was in the Daily Planet? She should go confront him, now. Of course, she knew what his answer would be: ‘you never asked’. If Bobby was correct, then he had just saved her from looking like a fool in front of her peers at the New York Times. There was no reason for Bobby to lie. Lex, a man who had asked her to marry him, because he ‘loved’ her, had sabotaged her interview. Why? Because then she would be forced to ask for his help. Her fists clenched and her teeth started to grind. Out of the ashes of her failure to save the Daily Planet, a furious phoenix was born, emphasis on ‘furious’.

Bobby took her arm, and started leading her down the street towards the Apricot Diner. “Come on. Buy me a slice of pie, and it’ll do us both a world of good.”

***

Clark stepped out of the shower, dried off, and spun into jeans and a t-shirt. He rubbed a towel over his damp hair once more, and then tossed it towards the laundry hamper. It made it in. He sighed. He remembered when making such a basket would have him prancing around his bedroom like a Net's player during a playoff game, not that he missed often.

Despite having saved every child at that private school fire, Clark didn’t feel much like celebrating. After the fire, he had stopped two muggings, one of which was armed, one purse snatching, and an art gallery robbery. Really, who grabs a painting and runs? He had cleaned up three car accidents, an oil slick from a pleasure boat with a leak, the litter in Metropolis Park, and had two hooligans remove freshly painted graffiti. He had transported one pregnant woman to the hospital and saved a baby bird from a kitten in a tree, and yet he still felt… empty.

He had always known earning Lois’s everlasting love would be an uphill climb, a one-in-million shot, but he hadn’t thought how stupidly he – love’s Mr. Two Left Feet – could actually screw it up.

Clark had been trying hard not to ponder Cat’s words from dinner the previous night, but they kept seeping back to the forefront of his mind.

Why? If Cat was right about Lois hating marriage so much, why would Lois reject Clark and still accept Luthor? Clark meant other than his wrongly worded and timed proposal, which apparently was obvious to the entire world, except him. Lex had proposed as well, but Lois hadn’t rejected him. Why? Had Luthor’s prosposal been more romantic? What had Cat been implying?

Lois cared for Clark, and had said that she had loved him. At least, she had been attracted to Clark. She hadn’t faked that. The difference in Lois’s vitals from Lana’s when they kissed was like the difference between the atmosphere on the sun versus that on Pluto, or what he imagined Pluto’s was like, since he had never actually visited there.

Had Lois been seduced by Luthor’s money? He wasn’t blaming her or calling her shallow, if she had. Luthor was rich, very rich. Many people got weak and rubber-kneed around money and what differences it would mean to their lives. Perry White from his old dimension would never have simpered to or been cowed by James Olsen if the latter had been as broke as this universe’s Jimbo. Lana would drool at jewelry shop windows and at the McMansions he sometimes visited for stories on celebrities or when covering charities. Lois had demonstrated this subconscious fear of becoming broke on occasion. She checked payphones, vending machines, and under his couch cushions for left change, not to mention being stingy with tips. Everyone had an Achilles' heel. Everyone had something that could lure them away from rational thought.

Lois was Clark’s. She was his pipe dream of a happily-ever-after and, laying aside his Kryptonian heritage, she was his one true weakness. On the other hand, was it merely the idea of Lois loving him as that other Lois had clearly loved that other Clark? Had he been enticed by the thought that Lois could accept him despite his differences or by the notion of belonging to part of something would make him stronger than he was alone?

No. No, he didn’t blame Lois one bit for getting entangled in Lex’s trap. Clark understood. He only wished Lois knew what kind of trap she was getting herself into.

Again, why? Why would Lois allow herself to be associated with a man who Superman knew to be bad? Had she just blown off his warnings? He wanted to say that she couldn’t be that blind, but Lois has already proven herself as someone who didn’t easily see the man behind the mask. If only there was a way to tear off Luthor’s mask and let Lois see the true man underneath.

Clark walked over to his answering machine where a digital ‘one’ blinked on and off. He pressed the button, hoping to hear Lois’s voice. Perhaps he should be happy that he hadn’t lost all hope.

***End of Part 147***

Part 148

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