Part 2
Just before Monica was ready to leave for the evening, she finally started to get a small glimpse as to why Lois needed to have angelic assistance. The angel had been working in the databanks at Jimmy's desk for much of the afternoon, when out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Clark had gunned up the courage to get up from his desk and once again go over to where Lois was now sitting. “Lois,” he began as he tried to clear his throat. “Can we talk?”
“I think you could have talked to me long before now, Clark, but you didn't,” she snapped finally managing to look up at him, her eyes practically shooting fire. “Of all the people in my life, why is it that you had to go and lie to me?”
“Lois,” Clark tried to plead with her, his eyes filled with urgency. “You really don't understand.”
“Understand?” She shook her head. “What’s there to understand? I mean; you're not going to deny it, are you? How many times have you thought to yourself ‘what a stupid broad Lois is, all she had to do was remove a cheap pair of glasses and she would have figured out the truth’?” As she spoke, her words were barely above a detectable whisper, but they were positively laced with aggravation. “I guess you figured that you would have some fun with me, I couldn't tell the difference, I didn't know.” She looked at him; her expression filled with bitterness, but deeply embedded in this anger, was pain.
Monica could see from Jimmy's desk, that Lois was hurting. The angel did not know why, but she could detect that Lois' trust in Clark was nonexistent, and now she refused to forgive him for whatever it was he had done to her.
Lois shook her head. “How could you do this to me? Did you not think I would eventually find out the truth? I'm a reporter, I should have been able to see right through all those made up ideas of yours.”
“No, I had hoped that you wouldn’t,” Clark said before he was able to prevent the words from emerging. “I didn't mean that, I just…” His voice trailed and he shook his head. “Lois, I'm sorry I hurt you, it wasn't intended.”
“It wasn't intended,” Lois shouted sarcastically. “You just said that you hoped that you could have kept the truth from me. Did you not understand that a lie is a lie? You're a reporter, Clark, you're supposed to find facts, but if the biggest fact is staring you in the face and you still didn't talk about it, then it's a lie. I will never be able to trust you again, and I will never be able to look at you without remembering that you lied to me, and that you probably spent weekends at the lake with your dad having a good laugh at my expense.”
“That's not true,” Clark objected, his voice filled with pain. “I never laughed at you, Lois.”
“You didn't huh? Well Mr. Kent, I have a hard time believing anything you say to me, so just leave me alone. Our partnership is terminated, and I mean it this time.” Without saying another word, she got up abruptly, and left the newsroom, the pain in her face so massive that even Superman could not have cut through it.
Clark stood stunned, his eyes misting over as he watched her go. He shook his head as he looked down at the ground. At that moment, Monica came over to him. “Is everything OK?” She asked him after a few moments, when she saw the pain etched in his face.
He shook his head and looked at her.
“Love is sometimes hard, isn't it, Clark?” Monica asked.
Clark looked at her. “I don't know if it's really love anymore. I mean; she and I were partners, but we also worked well together on other levels.”
Monica rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Anyone can see that you love her very much and that you both are in pain right now. But I’m sure that whatever it is that came between you, you will find a way to resolve it. It will be in a way that will help Lois find a way to accept and appreciate that those feelings you carry for her deep in your heart are real.”
“My heart?” Clark scoffed shrugging his shoulders. “My heart is broken, there is nothing but fragments left of it.”
“What's broken can always be put back together,” Monica said gently. “But, nothing will ever be the same if a lie is what keeps a relationship going.”
“You heard what she said, didn't you?” Clark asked.
“Uh, without trying to embarrass you, but I think the entire newsroom heard what she said,” Monica said softly. “Voices carry.”
Clark looked around the room and when he could see that the small handful of people in the room had heard this exchange, he took a deep breath and released it slowly. Without saying another word, he went back to his desk and lowered himself into the chair. Monica followed him over to the desk and she leaned up against it, her soft brown eyes seeking his.
“Clark, if you need a friend, I'm here,” she said gently.
“No, it's OK, Monica, I’m fine, don't worry about me,” he smiled weakly, but added silently; unfortunately, the only thing that could kill me is kryptonite. Sighing once again, he looked down at his desk as his thoughts continued, well that and Lois’ rejection comes pretty close.
“Easier said than done,” she said softly. “I know this is only my first day, and I don't know you very well, but you had a first day once too, and sometimes change is never easy.”
“Yeah,” he said nodding. As he spoke, he could hear someone calling for help, and he stood up. “Listen, I need to go, I think I uh…forgot to put enough money in the parking meter. I'll see you later.”
Parking meter? Monica asked herself as Clark dashed off like a shot. Tess had parked her car in a nearby parking garage, she thought, there were no parking meters around the building. There was definitely something strange going on, but before she could even begin to find out, she glanced up to see that Tess had reappeared and was standing next to Clark’s desk.
“How’s it going, Miss Wings?” Tess asked as she looked at her younger charge.
Monica shook her head, her confusion matching that of her supervisor. “Nothing but unanswered questions, Tess.”
“Such as?” Tess asked.
“Well, I’ll start with: What happened to them? I showed up here and there was a stony silence between both of them, and now Clark has disappeared, and Lois looks as though she has lost absolutely everything.”
“In a way, she has. You see, Angel Girl, a secret has torn its way into the hearts of both of them. They love each other, baby, but the fear of being hurt is going to drag Lois down and it will be our job to make sure that they both learn that they are a stronger force together than separated.”
“What kind of secret is doing this to them, Tess?” Monica asked.
“I don't know, the Father hasn't told me anything about it,” Tess took a deep breath.
“How can I help them if they are hiding behind a secret and I don't even know what that secret is?” Monica asked.
“The secret isn't so important, well, it only is because Lois and Clark have put some relevance on it, but what is important, Miss Wings, is that they both have to learn that their love for each other should be capable to withstand anything. This is why the Father has sent them angels.”
Monica nodded but looked around the quickly emptying newsroom. She walked over to Lois’ desk. “When is Andrew going to come?”
“Give it time, Monica, he'll come when the Father is ready for him to come, but right now, you have to get ready, because tomorrow there are going to be some changes happening here and these two are going to need angels now more than ever.”
With that Tess was gone and Monica was standing alone in the large room. She sighed deeply as she turned towards the elevator and pressed the button that would take her downstairs to the lobby. Her thoughts were still a complete jumble as she made her way downstairs and stepped out onto the sidewalk some five minutes later.
*****
That evening, Lois had come home and after getting something to eat, she found a comfortable place to sit on the sofa. Her sister had come by and brought some movies over and she looked forward to sitting alone with something to distract her from all the pain and heartache that she was now experiencing.
As she pulled a small blanket up over her lap, she could hear that the doorbell was ringing, and she stood up thinking that it was her sister with the movies. Unconsciously, she rubbed her hand through her hair and next she rubbed her face, all the while trying to get the sleep out of her eyes.
Opening the door, she could see that Clark was standing on the other side. “Why are you here?” She immediately asked.
“We need to talk, Lois, and I'm not going anywhere until we do,” Clark said, his voice filled with an assertiveness that she rarely heard when he would speak with her.
“So, how will you go when you’re done, through the door, or through the window? What difference would it make anyway?” Lois spat out. “My answer is still the same, I don't want to see you again.”
Clark looked at her. “I love you, Lois, and I think you know deep inside, that I would never have wanted to hurt you.”
“Love?” Lois shook her head. “You call that ‘love’? I don't think you even know what love is. You have embarrassed me to such a degree that I can't even look at you without feeling ashamed of the things I said to ‘Superman’ about you, or to you about him. Do you even know how much that degrades me, but then I discover that Superman and you are one and the same. Do you even realize or care how humiliating that is? Lois Lane, star reporter for the Daily Planet, but she is so stupid that it took her over two years to figure out the biggest scoop of her life, that her partner, and best friend, Clark Kent, is Superman.”
“I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how,” he began.
“Did you really want to or were you just trying to keep it to yourself like you said back in the news room?” Lois asked sarcastically. “If you really wanted to be honest with me, what stopped you from telling me, a three car pileup, perhaps?”
“Lois, that’s not fair, when we first met, it was something that I couldn't talk about, only my parents knew, and I realized that the only way I would ever be able to talk about this would be with someone who meant so much to me that I know this is the person I want to spend the rest of my life with,” he said. “The point is, as we became closer, I wanted to find the right time to tell you, but then I got scared.”
“Scared? Superman got scared,” She shook her head, her words taking on a sarcastic edge.
“Lois, let me at least try to explain something to you. Superman isn’t me, Superman is what I can do, but it's not who I really am,” he said softly. “I'm Clark, a reporter and a friend, and you know that I have feelings as well, and one of them is that I was afraid to tell you the truth because I did not want to hurt you. I knew as we got closer that you were not just going to love an image, but I had spent the last two years hoping that you would love me, as Clark, not as Superman. As we got closer, this uncertainty about me versus Superman became less and less dominant, yet, there were times that I wanted to tell you everything, but I didn't know where to start.”
“I just want to know why you simply decided to lie to me for the last two years,” Lois asked.
“I've already told you why; you know that I was scared, but I was also trying to protect you as well as my parents,” he said.
She shook her head. “Protect me? Yeah, it makes perfect sense to me. You know, trust is something that I never really had with men. Every time I even started to trust or believe in someone, they turned around and lied to me. I suppose, I should be used to men lying to me, I figure it's probably something that you all learned to do when you were learning to repair a carburetor in shop class during high school.”
“I didn't lie to you, Lois,” he insisted.
“You didn't tell me the truth either, that you moonlight in blue tights,” she snapped, but before Clark could respond she looked at him, her eyes filled with anger. “Please just go, I don't want to see you again. If it means me leaving Metropolis than fine, I will, but I don't want to see you again. Just get out of here!”
Clark looked at her, the dejection evident in his eyes and he could see that she was close to crying. Instead of trying to console her, he nodded, but before taking his leave, he looked at her. “If you don't want me around, then you don't have to leave Metropolis, Lois, I will, tomorrow, I'll put in my resignation and go back home to Smallville. Without you, there's really nothing left for me here anyway.”
She looked up at him, her eyes filled with anger and pain, and she spoke, the one word emerged shooting through the man of steel as though it were a dagger made of kryptonite. “Fine.”
*****
The following morning, Lois arrived at the newsroom early and she immediately went to Perry White's office and banged on the door. The editor watched with shock as the door suddenly opened the door as a very agitated reporter entered. Before she could speak, he spoke, his voice laced with concern. “Lois, what in tarnation is going on with you? Are you well? You look as though you haven’t slept in weeks.”
“Perry, we need to talk about something important,” she said, her voice filled with weariness, but she conveniently disregarded his other questions. Somehow, he knew that her personal frustrations were what had been getting the better of her and it was starting to have an affect on everything about her. He glanced up to see that Clark had not arrived at the newsroom yet.
“Where's Clark?” Perry asked.
“I don't know, and I don't care,” Lois spat out before she could stop herself, her personal frustrations obviously getting the better of her. She eyed the editor as he backed away from the door, closed it once she had entered the small office.
“What seems to be the problem?” Perry eventually asked, almost not wanting to know what the answer to his inquiry was going to be.
“I will not be working with Clark anymore, Perry. I can't,” Lois said, her voice filled with anger, and her eyes, although tired, were intent. “In fact, I don't want anymore partners at all.”
“Well, Lois, what you want and what you need are two entirely different things,” Perry began, almost automatically as though he was just waiting for the day, and the moment to deliver this particular speech. The way things were going around there, it was completely obvious that she had reached the point where the editor had no choice but to put his foot down in this regard. “Now, you know that I have always been there for you, and stood by you, but I will not let you go out on assignments alone, especially not in this frame of mind. You will work with a partner, or you will not work at all, period!”
“Excuse me?” Lois snapped. “Perry, before Clark came here, I was working solo.”
“I know that, Lois, and maybe later you can work solo again, but I think under these circumstances, you need to work with a partner at least for the time being,” he said firmly.
“Well if I must, then what choice do I have?” She muttered.
“You can choose who you work with, but you are not working alone. Now whether you believe it or not, this is for your own good,” Perry stood his ground as he looked across the desk at her. “You have been working very well with Clark for the last two years, and now you want to terminate a completely successful partnership. The reasons why, I suppose, are your business, and I am pretty certain that you have no intention of telling me them. However, I will not have you going out looking like death warmed over in order to interview people for articles. Right now, whether you like it or not, you need a rest, no question, and since you don't seem all that willing to take some time off to rest, I can only say that you need to divide the workload with someone else. Now, if you're not going to work with Clark, then I want you to work with Monica.”
“The new girl? You mean; the weather bunny from Chicago? Perry, you can't be serious,” Lois looked at him as though he was kidding. She knew that if she had to spend even five minutes in the presence of this particular person, she would resolve herself to going crazy. It should be a sin, for someone to be that upbeat. “I can't work with some wet behind the ears reporter, it would be like I'm a babysitter again; I am not a kindergarten teacher.”
“No, but you are part of a team, Lois, and if you won't work with Clark, then you will work with Monica, and I won't hear anything else about it,” he said, his eyes never faltering.
“I have to work with Miss Sunshine?” Lois asked. “I saw her here yesterday and talked to her for a few minutes, and she looked so happy and fluffy that I thought she could act as double for the Easter Bunny.”
“Lois, maybe we need someone around here who could cheer things up a little, and far be it from me to get angry with you for copping this attitude, but the fact remains, I am the boss and what I say goes. Now, you may hate me for it, but I am looking out for your best interests here, and Monica may be the new rookie in town, but every reporter has to start somewhere, and why not with the best in Metropolis?”
Lois’ anger dissipated slightly when she realized that he was paying her a compliment, but her sour look returned when he got up from the desk and went to open the door. “Monica, could I see you in here for a minute?”
Seconds later, Monica had come into the office and sat down in the neighboring chair next to where Lois was already seated. “You two know each other?”
Monica shook her head. “Not very well, we talked a little yesterday when Jimmy was showing me around.”
“This is Lois Lane, Monica, and she's going to be your new partner,” Perry said.
“Nice to meet you,” Monica offered, but Lois looked away and the angel could see the aversion in the reporter's stance. “I look forward to working with you, I've heard a lot of wonderful things about your work,” she tried again, but when Lois did not reply, she stopped speaking.
Lois finally looked at Perry. “Is that all or am I sentenced to scraping gum out from under the desks, too?”
Her biting sarcasm caused Perry took a deep breath and he shook his head as his star reporter got up to go. Once she was gone, Monica looked at the editor.
“Did I say something wrong?” She asked.
“No, she's just having a bad day,” Perry said softly as Monica got up to leave the office. Once the angel was gone, the editor looked down at the clutter on his desk. At least I hope it's nothing more than just a bad day, he thought to himself as he watched Monica walking slowly over towards Lois’ desk and trying to engage the stony-faced reporter in conversation.
Next, his gaze came to rest on Clark Kent's desk, but when he realized that he had not arrived at work, he started to wonder where it was Kent had disappeared to, and what was going on with his two star reporters. Sighing deeply, he reached for a cup that was on his desk and took a long sip of the coffee that had been waiting for him since before Lois had come into the office.
As he watched the events in the newsroom, he could see that Clark had finally arrived, but instead of going to his desk, he could see that Clark was coming towards his office, and the reporter did not look happy.
TBC
