Missing Lois - TOC A taste of Chapter 4, Part 8:
Lois sat at her desk staring at her telephone, waiting until it was late enough to call. Singapore, being literally on the other side of the world, was just getting to work as they were heading home. The sun had set outside hours earlier; most of the newsroom staff, including Clark, had posted their stories and gone home for the night. Yet, Lois sat here still. This was the third night this week she had tried to get hold of Lex Luthor and she was hoping that the third time was a charm.
She stood up and started to walk around the newsroom. Spending all this time sitting down was giving her the worst backaches. It felt like this baby was getting bigger by the minute and no amount of heavy clothing was doing the job of covering her ever burgeoning tummy. Plus, all these extra layers were hot. She pulled off one of the bulky sweaters and took a deep breath. She put her hands against her back and arched, hoping to stretch that kink down her spine.
FLASH! Lois turned to find James standing by her desk with a camera. Great. Just when she looked her most pregnant. She waved at him and tried not to waddle as she returned to her desk.
“I brought you some dinner. When I called your apartment, Sam said you were staying late to try again. Hope you’re in the mood for Italian.”
“Love it. I’m starving,” she said with a smile. They went into the conference room and spread out their take-out containers.
“Cranberry juice for the lady,” he said handing her a bottle. “Have you told Clark, yet?”
“What can I say to him? ‘We found Lex Luthor, hiding in plain sight in Singapore, but the jerk won’t come to the phone'?” She swirled her pasta around her fork and took a large, dribbling bite. “You are a god-send, James. Thank you.”
He smiled and passed her a pile of napkins.
“I couldn’t possibly look any worse.” She shrugged with a chuckle, tucking a napkin into her top-most sweater.
“Well, you could remove about half those layers. Don’t tell me that you’re cold in the newsroom or you’ll make me feel like Ebenezer Scrooge,” he said.
“Personal body image issues,” she explained. “Oh, what the hell, since it’s just the two of us.” She glanced out to the newsroom to make sure they were alone and then removed layer upon layer until it was just her maternity pants and a thin turtleneck. She stretched up to the ceiling and sat back down. “Much better.” Digging into her pasta, she gazed over at James. His jaw had dropped to the floor.
He pointed at her. “Lucy. You’re… You’re…”
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