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

Where we left off in Part 154 …

“I miss you,” Lois whispered, still gripping onto the curtains. Not wanting to walk away, but knowing she had to. If she spent too much time at the window, Lex would grow suspicious.

With a heavy heart, she let go of the curtains and moved across the living room and down the hall to her bedroom. She took off that huge cumbersome engagement ring and almost tossed it on her dresser as if it was some kind of costume jewelry and she had finished playing with it for the day. She stopped herself.

No.

Lex would see.

Lex would know.

She had to keep up appearances. She opened up her jewelry box and set it gently inside. Then she headed into the bathroom to wash away the grime of the day. Not that she felt any grungier than she had since starting this investigation, but she needed to give Lex a reasonable excuse for taking off his ring. ‘Didn’t want to lose it down the drain’ sounded reasonable enough.

Lois hated her apartment. It felt like a prison.

She used to love her apartment. It was her haven from the world, but Lex had ruined it for her. How could she continue to live on Carter Avenue after the investigation, when every time she entered her apartment she knew she was a star in Lex’s very own home movie of her? She had no privacy, no peace, nothing. Lex had taken away everything she held dear.

He would pay for it and pay dearly.

She had been surprised to see Superman, even more so with a copy of the sketch she had tried to give to Rat that evening. Rat must have changed his mind. She didn’t know why, but she was ever so grateful. A smirk flashed across her mouth. Ha! She had told Rat that Clark understood her messages. This only proved her right, and made her feel good for the first time since putting on Lex’s horrible ring.

Lois couldn’t wait for the next day. She didn’t know how she would accomplish it, but she was going to give Clark the biggest kiss of his life and tell him how much she loved him, Lex be damned.

*

Part 155

As Clark found the energy to pull himself away from Lois’s fire escape, he wondered what was going on with Lois. First, she had sent him an emergency message, but then she wouldn’t talk to him. Was she testing him or was something else at play? He thought back over everything Cat had said the other night, trying to figure out if he had missed any vital information while he wallowed in his doldrums.

“…she’s gone undercover to prove that he was the one who tried to kill you…”

As much as Clark wanted to blame Luthor for his hospitalization during Nightfall, it didn’t add up. Firstly, it would require that somehow Luthor discovered who exactly Superman was. That thought gave Clark a chill, the type of which he hadn’t felt since the night Luthor shot Lois.

Although, wouldn’t Luthor have tried a better plan than to drown his Clark persona, if he knew Superman’s other identity? Then, again, Luthor might have considered it poetic justice. Superman disappears with the death of Clark Kent, and everyone thinks it was Nightfall that had defeated him. Then the world ends because Superman had messed up his destruction of Nightfall and was no longer around to save Earth. Some poetic justice. It sounded almost ironic enough for Tempus to enjoy the humor in it.

Secondly, wouldn’t Luthor have tried to take him out again if he had known, especially since he had Kryptonite? Luthor also didn’t seem the sort of man who would use up all of his resources at once. It was a major coincidence that Clark was exposed to the one compound which could kill him on the same night someone actually tried to kill him, especially if the attacker didn’t know his secret.

If only Clark could recall that missing night in his memories, perhaps they held the missing clue to solving his abduction. For now, Clark would continue as if Luthor didn’t know his secret and just be extra cautious.

Had Lois gone undercover and ruined Clark’s life on a gut feeling? Clark wished he could say that was out of her character, but it wasn’t. It was very much a Lois move. On the assumption that it had all been some crazy happenstance, or Clark’s usual bad luck popping up, what had tipped Lois into believing Luthor was behind it? What hunch did she have that linked Luthor to the men who tried to kill Clark Kent? Was it a vision or something more substantial? Most importantly, why hadn’t she told him?

“She’s gotten close to Luthor to learn his secrets and expose him as the criminal louse that he is.”

Clark’s brow furrowed. He looked down at Lois’s apartment and then quickly turned away in guilt when he discovered she was in the bathroom washing her face.

If Lois had been investigating Luthor since Nightfall, why had she acted so surprised that Clark too was investigating Luthor’s activities? It didn’t make sense, unless… he gulped. Unless she was mad because he hadn’t spoken to her about his investigation. On the other hand, wasn’t that exactly what she had done… or hadn’t done? And he wasn’t mad at her.

Actually, now that Clark tossed that idea around in his head a few more times, he realized he was mad. How dare she scream bloody murder that he had worked on an investigation without keeping her in the loop when she had done the same thing to him?

Clark felt like punching something, he was so angry. He flew higher and higher until he was floating in the silence of space. He saw a bowling ball sized piece of debris circling the moon.

Carlos was right. There was a lot of trash in space. With too much enthusiasm, Clark angled himself and the object so that it would hit the sun. Balling up his fist, he struck it with a considerable effort. Not all of his strength, though, as he wasn’t sure what outcome would result from such a blow.

Direct hit! Clark did his end zone dance and felt much better. He was still miffed at Lois’s double standard, if Cat had in fact been correct, but he was no longer furious about it. Knowing Lois, and he hated to admit that he didn’t know her as well as he had previously thought, she undoubtedly justified her secrecy because she still considered herself the senior partner.

His joy vanished. Had thought of herself… past tense. They no longer were partners. She worked at LNN; he had remained at the Daily Planet. She had gambled her life away, their life together, on a chance. With Luthor the owner of the Planet now, the likelihood of any investigation seeing the light of day was as possible as a positive Superman report showing up on LNN.

As he flew off in search of more space junk to punch or kick into the sun, Clark returned his mind to what else Cat had said.

“She finds out that the man she loves more than life itself was almost killed by her nutso stalker…”

Dismissing the first part as pure Cat embellishment, Clark froze as he considered the second half of that statement. Lois’s hunch had something to do with the Voyeur? Lex Luthor was the Voyeur? He ground his teeth together. This information wasn’t very shocking or surprising, but…

He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the sharp point of painful guilt this knowledge brought him. It seemed to slice through his lungs, making it feel as if he were drowning. The weightlessness of space couldn’t float him above it. The man he had suspected from the very beginning, was the same person who Lois now thought her stalker. If Clark had only taken care of the problem last summer and not let it fall to the wayside as other stories pushed it out of the way, this, none of this would be plaguing them now.

How long had Lois known it was Luthor? Why hadn’t Lois told Clark? She claimed over and over that day in the park that Clark didn’t trust her, but that too evidently went both ways.

Lois hadn’t trusted him.

She had known he was Superman and she still didn’t trust him with this information.

Lois no longer trusted Superman.

While he had known that Clark’s lack of a history made it difficult for Lois to trust that half of him, he had always found solace in the fact that Lois still had complete faith, with no hesitation, in Superman. Even when he himself didn’t think Superman was up for the task, Lois always had.

Had he broken their bond forever by keeping his other persona secret? She had to understand what this other identity meant to him and why it was important to keep those two separate. Surely, Lois knew he couldn’t go around telling people willy-nilly. Of course, she would argue that he had told Cat his secret…

Clark winced. No wonder she was mad. No wonder he had lost her trust. No wonder she didn’t think he trusted her, if she believed that he would bare his soul to a gossip columnist before her. Not that it happened that way, exactly. He had hurt not only her feelings, but also her professional pride.

He could hear her voice inside his head as his mind imagined her logic, ‘How dare that liar presume that I would ever accept his proposal.’

It could also be that her tenacious ego demanded that she finish this investigation, if in truth that was what she was doing with Luthor. Yet, it wouldn’t surprise Clark, if he had damaged their relationship beyond repair. Would she ever forgive him?

Then, again, Lois had been sending him notes. Granted, they were vague and incomprehensible notes, but she hadn’t thrown away his feelings completely. She also turned to him when she felt threatened. She still trusted Superman to save her. From what, he had no idea. That voice mimicking Lois’s inside his head returned, ‘I might want to save Superman from ever being killed, but that’s as far as our friendship goes.’

Oh, yeah. He’d definitely blown it with Lois.

After an hour of kicking more space junk into the sun and trying to bolster his spirits on the thought of how happy that would make Father Carlos, Clark returned to Metropolis to hover over Lois’s apartment, an old habit he justified in repeating solely on her ‘octopus’ note. The real reason wasn’t as clear.

Lois sat on her bed, reading a file. She had her hair tied back in a makeshift ponytail and was wearing those flannel pajamas he had bought her when she had been recovering from her fiancée-inflicted bullet wound. Clark loved the way that up do exposed the curve of her neck as she leaned forward to jot down some notes. She didn’t need an evening gown and a fancy hairstyle to make his heart skip a beat. She just needed to be… Lois.

***

“Hey, man, thanks for offering to let me borrow your lunch box,” Jimmy said. He looked skeptically at the yellow lunchbox with images of Superman flying covering it after he closed the lid. Maybe he should just bring a paper bag. “You do know that I bought you this thing as a joke, right? It’s for kids.”

“They don’t make kid’s lunch boxes in that shape. Theirs are square. That one is just like the one construction workers use on TV,” Jimbo corrected, not looking up from where he was sitting at the dining room table, studying his notes. “In other words, it’s made for adults.”

“Yeah, right,” Jimmy scoffed, unsure if coming into the Daily Planet holding that lunch box would knock down his cool factor. “Adults don’t idolize Superman like this.”

That caused Jimbo to look up and grin at him. “Sure, we do. Well, except the idiots who read the Met Star or believe everything they hear on LNN. Superman’s still the coolest, Cuz. Do you know how much money the Superman Foundation has made off the merchandising of Superman and his ‘S’ symbol? Beaucoup bucks for charity. And that’s not just the kids’ stuff. If the MetU. and M.U.T. campuses are anything to go by, adult merchandising counts for more than children’s merchandising. So, don’t knock the Man of Steel.”

“I’m not knocking him. Just wondering about all the hero worship.”

“If we could fly and rock the blue suit the way he does, can you imagine how many hot babes we could score?” Jimbo asked with a grin.

Is that why Jimbo idolized the man? Jimmy couldn’t believe he was only six months older than his cousin was. “He saved my life, you know, when that perfume made me stalk April Stephens. The rest of us admire him for his willingness to help, whenever, wherever, whoever. He doesn’t have to, you know. He could rent himself out to the highest bidder, the rich and powerful of this world, or use his abilities to make himself rich. He doesn’t do that. He’s better than that.” He shook his head. “Anyway, Superman is too smooth to use his powers to score with women, Jimbo.”

“Oh, I know…” His cousin chuckled. “I was just joking about the babes, but still… he must turn away more women in a month than we’ll have talk to us in a lifetime,” Jimbo said, turning back to his notes. “Now, I’ve got to study. My exam’s in a couple of hours.”

Jimmy picked up his can of soda and leaned against the counter. “So, you’re not worried about any of this Nightfall scandal? It doesn’t make you have doubts?”

“About Superman? Never, Cuz. Like Lois told me when I first started looking over the data, Superman saved the Earth from Nightfall in good faith. He didn’t know Daitch’s data was bad or that the military’s solution was flawed,” Jimbo replied. “Do you have doubts?”

“Heck no! I just can’t believe Lois would do this to Superman.” Jimmy shook his head. “I thought she idolized Superman more than you do.” He paused, before mumbling, “But then again, I never thought she’d two-time CK.”

“She’s not behind LNN’s bad coverage, Cuz. She didn’t even want this EPRAD thing to come to light, because she knew what it would do to Superman,” Jimbo murmured. His brow furrowed and he leaned back in his chair, staring at his cousin. “CK and Lois, they one-timed? No. Get outta here. Since when?”

“Mr. Observant, you aren’t. CK’s been in love with Lois from day one. He asked her out the first time he came to the office to interview with Perry, even though he didn’t get the job.”

“Yeah. Yeah. You told me all about that last summer, but now you’re saying that he broke through her armor?”

“It wasn’t common knowledge, but they hooked up right before Nightfall,” Jimmy said, taking another sip of his morning soda. “Then something happened… But, man, you should have seen CK that week after the Lexor; it was as if he was fresh off his actual honeymoon. I’ve never seen the guy so happy. He was practically floating across the newsroom.”

“Oh, man, no. Don’t tell me that,” Jimbo said, burying his face in his hand. “It’s all my fault. They must have been at that Magic of the Night Ball together, and then I pushed her towards Luthor, thinking that’s who she wanted, because clearly he was interested in her.” He closed his notebooks.

“CK thinks Lois convinced Luthor to save the Planet,” Jimmy said.

“I’ve got to go to the Planet and apologize to CK. No wonder he’s been down these last few weeks. I totally blocked him,” Jimbo said, standing up. “Oh, man. I feel horrible. Why didn’t they say anything?”

Jimmy shrugged. “As I said, it wasn’t public knowledge, but I saw them meeting up in the supply room a couple of times. I thought they were just hiding it from the Chief, because of their partnership and it being an office romance and all.” He watched as his cousin dumped all his stuff into a backpack. “Don’t you have a major exam this morning?”

Jimbo paused. “Yeah.”

“I’m not having the only family member of our generation to make it to college, fail out on my watch. You can apologize to CK this afternoon, Cuz,” Jimmy said, tossing away his soda can and picking up the Superman lunchbox. “Anyway, CK’s a good guy. I’m sure he doesn’t blame you.”

“The Chief told me that Lois was undercover at LNN; kind of like CK was at the Met Star a couple of weeks ago,” Jimbo explained. “He had me dress up like a bum and take her a message at the Fifth Street Mission, last week. She’s working off her community service there. But it’s super hush-hush, so don’t tell anyone.”

Once again left out of the loop. So much for being part of the team, Jimmy thought with a frown. Doesn’t anyone trust me? “Don’t worry, Cuz, I won’t tell anyone.” Who did he have to tell, anyway? “Good luck!” he called as he headed for the door.

“Thanks, man,” Jimbo said, glancing at the clock on the microwave and sitting back down.

***

Superman returned to the clouds above Lois’s apartment at seven the next morning, after forcing himself to return home for a couple of hours of shut-eye. He had slept better and more soundly than he had in weeks, and even over slept his alarm.

Lois sat at her dining table drinking a cup of coffee and staring out her now uncovered windows. Was she waiting for him?

He returned to his thoughts of the previous night. If Lex Luthor was the Voyeur, and the Voyeur was known for spying on Lois…

Clark’s fists clenched. He gazed down at Lois’s apartment and quickly scanned it. He pressed his lips together. Her apartment was once more bugged and full of cameras. Of course it was. Since when? When was the last time he had thought to check for them? He shook his head. Around Nightfall.

Did Lois know? She had to know, if she suspected that Luthor was the Voyeur. It also explained her strange behavior from the night before. She didn’t want Luthor to know she had been in contact with Clark... er… Superman. He crossed his arms. Fine, he’d be discreet.

How could she live like that, knowing that Luthor was watching her every move? That his cameras saw her in the shower, when she changed her clothes, while she slept. Had it kept her awake at night?

A knock at Lois’s door pulled Clark’s thoughts away from how he could disable the cameras in her bathroom without entering her apartment and letting Luthor know it was him.

Lois set her coffee mug in her sink, grabbed her briefcase, and went to the door.

Nigel St. John stood on the other side. What was he doing there? Did Lois want protection from Luthor’s bodyguard? Had that been her ‘octopus’ emergency?

“Prompt as always, Nigel,” Lois said dryly.

St. John merely nodded his head.

Oh, right. Luthor had St. John acting as her bodyguard now. Clark had forgotten he’d seen St. John driving Lois around the previous day. Maybe not ‘forgotten’, more like blocked it from his mind. How was Clark going to get an opportunity to find out what her emergency was if she was being constantly watched? On the other hand, perhaps that was her emergency, that Luthor had taken away her freedom. He could see Lois considering that a dire emergency. Typical Lois.

Clark watched as they exited her building and entered the waiting town car double-parked out front. He wanted nothing more than to zip down and fly off with Lois to places unknown until he knew she was safe and she told him everything, but with Superman’s reputation already in shambles and Luthor owning the biggest mouthpiece for tearing Superman’s cape, Clark decided to play it safe. Superman wouldn’t rescue Lois unless there was a viable reason to do so.

From high up in the sky, Clark followed the town car as it slowly inched through morning traffic to LNN headquarters. Lois exited the car and made a beeline for the building, no distractions. No saying ‘hi’ to anyone. No buying the morning Daily Planet to read her old partner’s latest scoop… or lack thereof. No popping into the café in the lobby for a coffee or to the Barista Bar location across the street. Lois stepped into a crowded elevator and rode it up, up, up to a level of cold grey and sterile cubicles and offices. Ugh. How could she work there?

Lois, then, walked down the hall to an office, opened the door, flipped on the lights, dropped her briefcase in a chair, and headed straight to her desk. No paper messages. She sighed and dialed into her voice mail. Luthor had left her a bland message, which Clark tuned out before his ears bled from endearments, and that was it.

Clark felt for Lois, really, he did. It must be difficult starting out at a new job and feeling as if one was already stuck in quicksand. He could hear her co-workers talking about her and saying many of the same things people had whispered behind her back at the Daily Planet when he first started working there… only this time, they were saying she got her job lying on her back. He wondered if she heard the murmurs about her.

Lois was the most professional person he knew. While she might use her sexuality to get a story, or a better story, he knew with her sources she had a strictly ‘look but not touch’ policy. Though, Lois would never admit it, he knew it must be eating her up inside that her co-workers at LNN thought so little of her.

She stood up and went to her window, glancing around. Clark figured this was his cue to literally ‘drop in’. He lowered himself out of the clouds and stopped in front of an empty conference room several floors above her to see if she noticed and invited him closer.

Indeed, she did look upwards and see him but, instead of waving him near, she slightly held up the hand resting on her waist for him to wait. She turned towards the ficus plant next to her at the window and leaned over to it with a strange-sounding satisfied sigh accompanied by a smile.

Lois killed plants. Why would she be sighing happily at this one? It made no sense whatsoever, unless Luthor had already turned her to the dark side and she was thinking what her coffee would do to that poor defenseless creature. Lois looked back at Superman through the window, but was now nonchalantly holding up a piece of paper in front of her stomach. The note read: Later. Outside. Not safe here. She then quickly folded the note back up and slipped it back into her pocket before turning away from the window.

Later. Terrific. How nice and vague. Good thing Clark didn’t have anything better to do than float above LNN and wait for Lois to have time and opportunity to share her emergency situation with him.

Of course, he did. He somehow needed to get access to Daitch’s computer at EPRAD to see if he could find the email message from Dylan Gilbert that had started it all. Clark still had contacts at EPRAD, but he doubted any of them would allow him access to the computer to hack Professor Daitch’s email account, especially since a) the good doctor was still recovering in the hospital, and b) EPRAD was currently running its own investigation into the allegations brought by LNN.

The ‘not safe here’ was obvious. The only reasons for Superman ever to enter LNN would be if the place were about to blow sky high, to defend himself on national television during one of their debate circles, or to give a one-on-one interview. He couldn’t picture any scenario where he would agree to those latter two. If he were to give an interview, he certainly wouldn’t choose LNN for his venue… or as his mouthpiece, Lois or not. Saving people would be the only reason to enter LNN. On the other hand, how many more people would be saved if he stopped LNN from broadcasting all together? He realized his thoughts were turning petty, so decided it was time for a break.

Superman zoomed off to a nearby abandoned alley to land and switch into Clark’s business suit. He jogged out of the alley and stopped at a payphone.

“Daily Planet. How may I direct your call?” a male voice answered.

“Hey, Joe. It’s Clark. I’m checking with some sources and following a lead. Could you let Perry know if he starts grumbling about my absence?” Clark asked.

“Happily,” Joe replied, and then lowered his voice. “Peterson is on the warpath again.”

A bunch of words Clark had heard spoken, but rarely said aloud himself, floated across his mind. “Anyone in particular, this time?”

“Still you,” Joe said.

“Look, if Chip comes around again, tell him I’ve got what he asked for and will bring it to him this afternoon, when I get into the office,” Clark groaned. At least, that hour and a half of waiting in the expedited line at the Department of Motor Vehicles the previous afternoon hadn’t been for nothing.

After getting off the phone with Joe, he grabbed a quick black coffee and then went to check back with Lois. She was still in her office, looking over some file. She appeared as if she weren’t going anywhere, anytime soon. She looked as miserable as he felt.

***

Lois moved away from the window, feeling confident that she had been able to communicate with Clark without Lex seeing. Thankfully, Clark hadn’t hovered right outside her window, as the cameras would surely have picked him up. She had seen him twice now in less than twenty-four hours and she was getting that old craving again, the one she used to only feel for chocolate before Superman came into her life. The more she saw him, the more she missed him. How had she survived without him the last few weeks? She placed a hand to her cheek and it felt warm. He still could take her breath away.

She needed to find an excuse to leave the building, and preferably without Nigel hanging off her sleeve. What was happening at the courthouse? Any excuse for her to visit there? She hated her office; it was just another prison. She missed the camaraderie of the Daily Planet newsroom.

Lois had just opened her door a crack when she remembered that she wanted to charge the mobile phone that Robertson had given her and she had left the charger at work. She returned to her desk and set the phone on the charger. Then, she went in search of a story. At the door, she heard voices. Her old die-hard habits kicked in and she stopped to listen.

“So, I was at City Hall yesterday afternoon. We’d all heard the rumors that the mayor was going to revoke Superman’s Key to the City. It hasn’t happened yet, but there was a whole group of us standing around waiting for those chips to fall,” one woman was saying.

Lois didn’t recognize her voice, but Lois knew who she wasn’t going to support in the mayor’s race come fall.

“Anyway, you know that guy Wally from the Daily Planet,” the woman continued. “The one that’s all hands and no brains?”

Lois froze. Daily Planet gossip? If Lex had gone back on his word…

“Who doesn’t? I waited half the night with that scuzzoid at EPRAD during that first night of Nightfall, when we were all hoping to hear something back from Superman. He’d put all of us in danger, and the so-called hero was off meditating! Wally tried no less than twice to get me to share his warmth that night,” the other woman replied, making gagging noises. “Please, tell me he didn’t make it through LexCorp’s reorganization of the Daily Planet.”

What reorganization? Lois wondered, gritting her teeth as she knocked her engagement ring against the neighboring fingers. It was too cumbersome to actually twirl around her finger.

“Nah. I’ve heard he’s promised ‘no layoffs’ as part of his ‘I’m your new boss’ speech. No, Wally was at City Hall waiting with me yesterday.”

“Ewwww, Kim, tell me you didn’t. I know you and Will are having problems…”

“Eww! No. Eww! You’re disgusting, you know that, right?” the first woman replied, and Lois was almost surprised to find someone at LNN with good sense. “No, but he had some dirt on the Queen Bee’s ex-partner.”

The Queen who? That was a new nickname and, yet, strangely fitting.

“Who, Clark? Oooooh. He’s soooo adorable. A complete doormat for letting himself be partnered with the BeastWoman, but eye candy galore.”

Beast Woman? That woman couldn’t be serious. I’m no ‘Beast’, Lois thought.

“Did Kent scoop us again? I hate it when the Daily Planet does that. I mean, come on, they’re a newspaper, for heaven’s sake. They print twice daily and we’re on the air 24/7. It’s sooo embarrassing,” the second woman continued. “Please tell me Wally said Clark’s been asking about me.”

Lois couldn’t help but grin. Wait until she and Clark scooped all the reporters at LNN on their beloved boss’s schemes.

“Megan, please. This isn’t junior high,” Kim, the first woman, said. “Anyway, he’s not available.”

Who’s not available? Lois wondered, leaning closer. Clark?

“What do you mean?” Megan asked.

“Wally caught Clark having an early lunch with another woman yesterday. Apparently, they were discussing marriage,” Kim said, and then giggled.

Lois rolled her eyes. Clark and Cat Grant were discussing Cat’s marriage, big deal. Old news.

“Who?” Megan gasped.

“Cat Grant,” Kim said conspiratorially.

Lois felt like opening the door fully and telling these gossip-hounds about Phil.

“Oh, that’s old news, Kim. She’s been wearing an engagement ring for weeks. Although, who would marry her? He’d have to be pretty desperate.”

The women laughed.

“Or really rich,” Kim responded.

This conversation bored Lois.

“Wally swore to me that he heard Cat say something as if she expected her fiancé to dump her, and she was trying to get Clark to marry her, instead. He said they were practically making out at the Metro Diner,” Kim insisted.

This time, Lois did open her door all the way. “Morning, ladies,” she said.

The women jumped to attention. “Morning, Ms. Lane,” they chimed in unison.

“Whoa! ‘Ms. Lane’? What am I, my mother?” Lois laughed. “Please, call me ‘Lois’. I want us all to be friends,” she said with a smile, and then she leaned closer to the women lowering her voice. “And, just between you and me, it’s best to not quote Wally Sciarra unless two other sources have also verified his information. He’s wrong more times than he’s right.”

The women blanched. Lane: one. LNN gossips: zero. Wally: negative 63, this year alone. Really, Lois had to speak to Perry about that man verifying information before he spread it all over town. He was becoming quite the black eye to the Daily Planet’s reputation.

Lois turned and headed down the hall to find Robertson.

“Excuse me, Ms. Lane!” It was the blonde copywriter. “Uh… Lois. Does this mean that Clark’s available?”

Lois pressed her lips together, ever so tempted to tell this woman the truth about Chuck and Minha. “Megan, was it?” she said, and the woman nodded. “If he’s willing to give Cat a go, I’d get a tetanus shot before you asked him out.” She left the woman in her dust as she turned to go down another hall, she murmured to the listening ears of Superman, “Sorry, Chuck. I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t encourage her, now could I? Maybe you have a thing for blondes,” she teased.

Linda was blonde, though, and Toni Taylor, and Dr. Baines, too. Her brow furrowed. What color hair did his ex-fiancée have, Lois wondered.

***

Phil marched out of the Daily Planet elevator and over to the Information Desk, his lips in a line. He scanned the newsroom where Cat worked, but couldn’t see her.

“Hey, Phil. I didn’t realize our copiers were busted. Nobody let me know,” the large man behind the desk said.

Phil tried to place his name. It had been months since he had made a service call here. “No, actually, I’m here to see Cat… Grant. Is she in?” he asked, giving up on the man’s name.

“Oh. Wait, you’re ‘Phil’? The Phil?” the man asked, slapping himself in the head. “Of course, I should have realized it. She went ballistic when you didn’t show up to repair that busted machine during Nightfall.”

Phil stared at the man. She had? He wished he could remember that guy’s name. Joel? Jed? Joe? Joe! Right. “Cat’s talked about me, Joe?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? Cat’s been floating on Cloud Nine since right after the hostage situation. It’s ‘Phil did this’ and ‘Phil and I are going to that’. I’ve never seen her so happy, and she’s usually the life of the party,” Joe said.

Phil raised an eyebrow. ‘Life of the party’, huh?

“Uh…” Joe pointed towards a pair of desks. “Cat’s is the one with stuff on it. She’s around here somewhere. Congratulations, by the way.”

That remains to be seen.

Phil was still angry and humiliated, but now he wasn’t so sure that confronting Cat was the best idea. He nodded to Joe and carried the manila envelope, which someone had dropped off at his office that morning, to her desk. Waiting a minute, he glanced around in search of his fiancée and, not seeing her, dropped into her visitor chair. He scanned the newsroom again. He didn’t see Clark Kent, either.

Big surprise.

He slapped the envelope against his palm as his irritation returned.

Cat had some explaining to do.

“I can’t believe you came into work, Ralph, especially after Lois’s death threat. You know, don’t you, that she’s good for it?” some tall stocky man with blonde curls was saying to some squirrelly balding man.

“Nah. She doesn’t scare me,” Ralph replied, but Phil saw his telltale jumpy gaze, which meant he was lying.

“Yeah, well, the boss is her fiancée, now, Sherlock,” the curly haired guy reminded his buddy. “Luthor has the means to make you disappear in a way they won’t be able to identify you by your dental records, like that guy... uh… the one they found in France last week. You know the one, tortured beyond recognition and left to rot in the catacombs.”

Ralph appeared ready to urinate on himself as his eyes started to dart faster around the room. “Shut up, Wally,” he hissed. “Luthor’s a stand-up guy, a CEO. Don’t even suggest that he does things like that, even if he has no taste when it comes to women.”

“Come on,” Wally lowered his voice and nudged his friend. “You and I both know that you’d do Lane in a second.”

Wait. Lois Lane? Wasn’t that the name of Kent’s girl? She was engaged to Lex Luthor, the owner of the Daily Planet? Now, Phil understood Clark’s pessimism. Any woman who would reject a regular guy’s proposal for that kind of money and power was bad news.

“Anyway, you should’ve seen it, Ralph,” Wally said. “Cat and Kent at the Metro Diner, yesterday; they were practically holding hands and picking out china patterns.”

“Oh, come on, Wally. Cat and Kent are old news. Everyone was talking about them banging hips when I started here,” Ralph returned.

“I saw them kiss,” Wally insisted.

“You did not,” Ralph scoffed. “Anyway, she’s newly engaged to some engineering schmuck. She’s too smart to risk that by twenty-timing on him with Kent.”

Wally held up his hand in Boy Scout’s salute. “I swear I saw…”

Phil’s fist contacted Wally’s jaw before he could finish his sentence.

***End of Part 155***

Part 156

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