Part 6
As the week progressed, and Monica and Andrew settled into life at the Daily Planet, they noticed that the newspaper had a lackluster activity about it. Clark’s abrupt absence had left a hole in the successful newspaper and the usual chatter that permeated the newsroom was now more subdued and Monica and Andrew could both see it, most of it centering on the case centering on Lois Lane.
For her part, Lois had successfully distanced herself from Monica, who appeared to have become close friends with Jimmy. Pretty soon, Andrew had reached the conclusion that Monica had reached a point where she wanted him to try and make some sort of progress with the young man, thus leaving him to chisel away at Lois’ abrupt and standoffish demeanor.
Although Andrew could understand that Lois was wary around him, he continued to try to talk to her, sometimes being disdainfully cut off from all attempts to get closer to the reporter, sometimes trying to talk to her when he and Jimmy had been sent out to cover a story with Lois and Monica. At the same time, the Angel of Death pondered why it was that Lois did not trust him. Often he would ask himself if it was because he was new there or if it was because he was a man. Yet, he also remembered the words he had said to Tess about Lois' lacking of trust in men on the day that Monica had started at the Planet. In a way, he could understand, but in another, he wondered why it was that she seemed to look at him in disdain every time their eyes happened to meet.
When he returned from the darkroom after having developed the film that would go along with Lois' story, Andrew walked over to where she was sitting and typing. She must have been completely focused on the story because she did not hear him come up from behind. She practically jumped out her skin when she felt his hand on her shoulder. She whirled around literally knocking him off his feet, her expression registering shock. “What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack or something?”
The Angel of Death was taken somewhat by surprise by her choice of wording, but after a second he recovered and began to speak. “Perry told me to give you these pictures after I developed the film.”
“Thank you,” she replied dryly and turned back towards the terminal.
“Lois?”
“What, Andrew?” She looked up at him.
The angel took a deep breath and released it slowly. “I was going to go downstairs and get a cappuccino, and I was wondering if you wanted something.”
Lois thought for a minute; she did not want to leave the story half written, but she was also thirsty for something hot. She rubbed her cool hands together and turned back around. “Well, if you're going, maybe you could get me a cappuccino, too.”
Andrew nodded, “No problem.”
Lois smiled weakly as Andrew walked towards the elevator. Once he was gone, she shook her head. “Calm down, Lois, it's a cappuccino, not a date or anything,” she whispered to herself as she went back to work.
Five minutes later, Andrew returned with the cappuccino. “I didn't know what you liked in it, so I got plenty of sugar and cream.” He placed the cup on her desk, and three packages of sugar and two small plastic cream containers were next to it. Once he had given them to her, he sat down in a nearby chair and pulled the plastic lid off the cup he had gotten for himself.
“Thank you, Andrew,” she said, her voice somewhat stilted, but she tried to offer him a cordial smile; this emerging almost forced.
“It was no trouble,” he said and looked around the newsroom all the while grateful that she didn’t call him ‘Blondie’ or ‘Rookie’ again as she usually did when referring to, or addressing him. “You work a lot, don't you? But, I suppose the breaking news stories don't stop when six o’clock rolls around.”
She looked at him. “No, I guess they don't. I've been here for a long time, and I'm not used to taking time off.”
“Why not?” Andrew asked.
“I don't know why that is, I just know that if I concentrate on career, than everything else will just naturally fall into place,” she said shrugging her shoulders. “What about you? Are you one of those ‘give it all for the best picture’ types?”
“No,” he shook his head. “I guess you could say that I'm more or less into freelance. This is the first real position I have had at a large newspaper.”
Lois picked up the photograph he had given to her earlier and nodded approvingly as she looked down at it. “Your pictures are pretty good.”
“Thank you,” he smiled.
“Listen, I'm sorry if I came across so unhelpful when you first got here, I suppose I don't work very well with people is all,” she shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the pictures and then back up at him. “No hard feelings?”
“No hard feelings,” he affirmed smiling gently. “I know that you may not like to work with other people, but if you need a friend, you have friends here who care for you.”
Lois glanced back at the story she had been working on, but after a few moments, she glanced over at him. “You mean, you?” She asked ironically, her voice filled with mistrust and skepticism.
“Well,” Andrew began trying to keep his voice level but all the while knowing that he had to be completely honest with her. “Lois, I would like to become your friend, but I also realize that you don't know me very well, so I completely understand that to become friends with me would take some time. A real friendship will always have to take time to build, but when I said that; I was actually meaning people like Jimmy and Perry. You've known them for a long time, a lot longer than me, and they are really good people. I simply think you should know that when I interviewed here almost a week ago, Perry was very concerned for you and he probably still is. It's a sign that he cares for you, he doesn't want to see you get hurt, either professionally or privately.”
“You're not trying to butter me up, are you?” She asked.
“No, I don't ‘butter people up’, Lois, I just try to speak the truth,” Andrew said softly.
“You're a very strange person, Andrew, you claim that you don't lie, but you can’t buy the truth with a ninety-five cent cappuccino. I mean; you tell me things that maybe I should listen to, but…” Lois said all the while shaking her head, but instead of elaborating further on this, she turned her attention back to the computer monitor and shrugged her shoulders and made the attempt to change the subject. “Do you have any idea where Jimmy and Monica went?”
“Yes, Perry told me that they would be covering the circus or something along that line this morning. I guess he figured that it was better to leave you alone here to work on this instead of sending you off on a ‘fluffy page filler’ piece.”
“He knows me well, I'm not one of these people who get into fairs and things, unless something dangerous happens, and Superman…” her voice trailed and she shrugged her shoulders trying to get these particular thoughts out of her mind.
“Superman?” Andrew looked at her somewhat bewildered.
Lois took a deep breath and sighed deeply. “If you want to know more about him, check in the archives, Andrew, I don't feel like talking about him right now.”
“I will do that later, but are you sure you’re OK, Lois?” He asked his voice etched in concern.
“I'm fine,” she took a deep breath and looked back at the screen without saying anything further.
After a few moments, she glanced back over to where he had been sitting and noticed that he had not yet gotten to his feet and left her alone.
For his part, Andrew nodded as though he understood, but something inside him just would not let go of the idea that she was holding back something very significant. The Angel of Death eventually made his way over to an empty desk and sat down.
Unbeknownst to him, throughout the afternoon, Lois would look up from her work, and her eyes would be glancing over in his direction.
*****
When at last the day had ended, Andrew got up from the desk and looked around to where Monica and Jimmy had been working. When he noticed that they were both once again gone, he grabbed his jacket and walked slowly over towards where Lois was still seated and hard at work on the finishing touches of her story.
En route to her desk, Perry had come out of his office and intercepted him. “Well, Andrew, how is it going, are the kids playing nice with you?”
“Everything is fine, Perry,” Andrew offered cordially. “It was pretty slow this afternoon, so I did some research about Superman.”
“Oh yes, our local celebrity,” Perry smiled. “Nice that you took the incentive to use the downtime productively. It's a sign of a good newspaperman to take the incentive to do the research. Good work, Andrew. By the way, Lois sent up the shots you took at the news conference two days ago, and I have to say, you shoot some good stuff. Look for one of your pictures on page two in the early edition tomorrow.” He glanced down at his watch as he continued. “Anyway, I guess newcomers to this city would eventually have to get to know about Superman, but the best place to look are through Lois or Clark's articles, as they seem to be the insiders on him.”
“Clark?”
“Clark is on three week sabbatical, I guess you could say, and he should be back in about two weeks,” Perry said, but silently he added: I hope.
Andrew nodded as Perry went back into his office and he continued walking towards where Lois was working. “Lois?”
She glanced up, her eyes tired, but otherwise, she looked to be wide-awake. “Yes?”
Andrew sat down nearby and offered her a smile. “I didn’t really have a question, I just wanted to see how things were going with you.”
“You don’t let a sleeping dog lie, do you Andrew?” Lois asked skeptically.
“If the dog seems to be having nightmares, then no, I suppose I don’t,” he said.
“I thought you were a photographer, but now you're trying to sound like a strange cross between a Shakespearian wannabe and a psychiatrist,” Lois muttered under her breath as she reached over and turned off the computer.
She knew for some reason that Andrew wasn't going to just get up and go away, and somewhere deep inside of her, she did not know why, but she really didn’t want him to go away. He seemed to care, though more like a protective older brother than what someone would call a boyfriend. Aside from that, the last thing she wanted to do was to have another boyfriend, her heartache over Clark had been enough for her.
“I am not trying to be either, Lois,” Andrew said softly. “I guess the only time you want to talk to me would be if I came along with a photo for a story, but it would always have to be something work related, wouldn't it?”
“Well, that’s why I’m here,” she said, her voice emotionless.
“You know, sometimes the personal struggles become a part of your work and you don't even realize it's happening until it's too late.” He looked at her, his eyes intent, but filled with gentility. “Sometimes, having someone to talk to who is not directly involved, is a rather nice thing to have, don’t you think?”
Lois stood up and turned around, her emotions for the first time in ages, completely upside down. Why was this new guy so much like Clark? Not necessarily in appearance, but there was a certainly a sense about him that reminded her of Clark, right down to the point that he seemed to be totally patient and kind with her even when she was giving him the brush off.
As she reached for her bag, she took a deep breath, his words somehow hitting her like a ton of bricks, but instead of responding, as she would have liked to, she simply looked at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Andrew. Good night.”
She abruptly walked away from him and headed towards the elevator. The angel stood watching her disappear inside the small enclosure and once the doors closed, he was alone in the darkened newsroom. Sighing deeply, he disappeared.
*****
Clark flew over Metropolis at that moment, he had been thinking so much about what Tess had said at the Cafeteria earlier that day, he just wanted to see the Planet building and take care of some things for his apartment. He had kept his lease, and did as Perry had suggested. As Superman, he knew he could not completely have left the city.
As he heard a woman screaming for help, he landed in the street and decided to investigate. Where he had landed was an alleyway that extended from a main street which lead back in the direction of the downtown sectors of the city. The street where he now stood was lined with garbage and what he had heard from overhead had originated in this place, but why he could not see anyone there was beyond him. The cries had all but died off giving the area a very eerie almost frightening appearance. He walked through the small litter-lined street but immediately noticed that the perpetrator had all but vanished.
He looked around curious as to whether or not the victim, an elderly lady who appeared to be in her late 70's had been injured in what appeared to be a mugging. Coming closer, he pondered when he saw the woman’s body unmoving on the sidewalk, if she had been killed in the attack.
Scanning the area, he realized that the perpetrators were now long gone, and so he approached the body of the victim. Just before he reached her, he unconsciously glanced up and at the other end of the street, he could see that another man had appeared and was making his way up the street in the opposite direction towards where the woman lie. The man in beige reached her first and before Clark could approach, he watched at the man crouched down amidst the litter lined street and took the woman’s hand gently in his. “Hello, Helen,” the words of the man emerged, but that was all Clark could make out, because in the distance, a crash of a metallic garbage emerged and by the time the silence had once more overcome the area, the man had stopped speaking.
Shaking his head in disbelief, Clark approached the man as well as the elderly victim, but when he came closer, the man in beige suddenly looked up, his green eyes locking with his own and Clark could feel at least a hundred questions rising in his conscious.
Instead of speaking to the man, he crouched down next to Helen, took her hand gently in his, and patted it as his mother had often done with him when he was a little boy. As the woman began to stir, he glanced up and noticed that the man in beige had disappeared. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but when he refocused on the entrance into the alley, he still could not see the man at all, and for a moment, he thought that he was hallucinating.
“W-what happened?” The woman's voice cracked as she looked up and could see a kind pair of eyes looking down at her. “Superman?”
“Are you OK?” He asked as he helped the woman get to her feet.
“I-I think so,” Helen said softly.
“Do you remember what happened?” He asked.
“There were these boys, they wanted money for drugs, I think,” she said shaking her head as she tried to remember. “I was walking on the main street and they ambushed me and dragged me here.”
“Do you remember anything else about them?” He asked.
“No, not really, except they said something about ‘Tempus’, or something which sounded like the name of a rock and roll band that my grandkids listen to.” She shook her head all the while rubbing her eyes. “Then that…that beautiful man showed up…”
“Man?” Clark looked at her, not able to suppress his surprise.
“Yes, a handsome young man, he was wearing the prettiest beige suit, he was glowing, had green eyes the color of a field in summertime, and he was so kind,” she whispered and Clark was left trying to rationalize if the person he had just seen had been real. Blonde hair, green eyes; beige clothing; it sounded like the same person. Was Helen describing the same person he had seen or was she merely hallucinating because of shock?
His mind was, by this time, literally reeling, she had said ‘Tempus’, but this was not possible. This man he had seen looked nothing like Tempus, but yet, based on his experiences with this man from the future, there was nothing left for Clark to conclude except that he was back in Metropolis. He mulled over the idea that if Tempus was present, he would not be simply preying on elderly women, but rather had another, much bigger, scheme in mind.
Sighing deeply, he realized that no matter how hard it was going to be with Lois, he would have to return to Metropolis as soon as possible, patrol the city daily, and find out what exactly was going on. He understood that this was no longer centered on Lois; this was about the security of the city that he had taken upon himself to protect.
Once he brought Helen to the police department, he helped her go through the process of taking a statement about the mugging. Next, he took her to the hospital where they could run tests on her to make sure she was OK and then he flew back in the direction of Smallville.
As he reached the small town, he understood that it might be a good idea for him to sit down and talk this over with his parents, maybe they would be able to shed some light on this entire episode in a way that he could not. As he flew home, he realized that Lois or no Lois, he really missed the excitement of the big city, and living in Smallville was not the same for him.
As he reached the farm, he could see a red Cadillac convertible parked next to his father's truck in the driveway and instead of entering the house in his ‘Superman’ attire, he landed outside by the truck, quickly changed into his regular clothes, and managed to make his way towards the front door.
Dismissing all of the strange events he had seen, he walked towards the front door and came into the house. He could barely contain his surprise when he saw that Tess was seated on the sofa in the living room and was drinking tea with his parents. “Hello,” he offered as he took off his jacket and flung it over one of the chairs and sat down across from his parents.
“Clark, I think you already know Tess,” Martha began. “We met in town earlier this week and she said that she works in the cafeteria at the Smallville Press and met you there.”
“Yes, that's right. Hello Tess, it's nice to see you again,” he said, but in the back of his mind, his plate of worries was still growing. First, he knew Tess from somewhere, second, he had heard the name Tempus dropped, and that always made the hair on his arms literally stand on end, and finally, he could not forget the mysterious stranger that had been with Helen in the alley.
Shaking his head, he retrieved the cup of tea that his mother had placed in front of him and began to generously apply sugar to it. One, two, no, three heaping spoonfuls of the white powdery substance was added to the brown colored liquid.
“If I consumed sugar the way you do, I would have a mouth full of cavities and weigh in at 300 pounds,” Martha quipped as Clark brought the mixture to his lips and took a drink.
Once he replaced the cup, he smiled weakly at his mother as Tess chuckled. “I think I said something along that line when we met at the cafeteria.”
Jonathan regarded his son with a smile. After a few moments of silence passed, he looked at Clark. “Is something wrong?”
The younger man shook his head. “I'll tell you about it later.”
“OK.” Jonathan conceded all the while figuring that it had something to do with Superman, so he didn't press the issue, instead, he looked at Tess. “So, how long have you been in Smallville?”
“About two weeks,” Tess said as she took a sip of her tea. “It's a very nice town, quiet and peaceful.”
Martha smiled and nodded. “Yes, I think that is why we like it here so much, but sometimes it's nice to go to Metropolis and visit our friends there, too. You know that Clark works at the Daily Planet so he can tell you that there is always something going on there. But, Jonathan and I like the quiet of the small town, don't we?”
The elder Kent took a sip of his tea and stood up. “You'd be surprised with all the things that can happen on a farm, so I don't really know where Martha goes off saying that it’s quiet out here, especially during tornado season.”
Tess smiled all the while remembering the time Monica had been assigned to a storm chaser and had tracked a twister across the Oklahoma countryside. For her part, she had stayed in the local diner and tried to assure the small town folk that there was no such thing as luck. “Have you ever been hit by one?”
“No, not that I recall, but I don’t believe in luck of the draw,” Jonathan said. “There's something much bigger at work when it comes to the forces of Mother Nature.”
Martha nodded. “I think we get used to them, though. It's kind of like those folks that live on the coast and have to accustom themselves to hurricanes.”
“I think I'll turn in,” Clark finally announced. He just wanted to get away from discussions of tornados, natural disasters, and small towns versus big cities. He emptied his cup, and stood up. “Good night, Mom, Dad, Tess.”
“Good night, Son,” Jonathan said and the three of them watched as he left the room.
Tess looked at Martha and Jonathan; she could clearly see the concern on both of their faces. “You know, maybe I should be getting back,” Tess said. “I figure that there is probably some things that you two will want to discuss with your son without having me around.” She smiled warmly as she drank the last of her tea and placed the cup in the small saucer.
Martha looked at Tess gratefully. “We’re so sorry if we seemed so rude to you, Tess, but there is something going on with Clark, he's been dealing with much more than he’s telling us. We think it may have something to do with Lois, and usually he talks to his father about it, but lately, he's been very tight lipped about everything.”
Tess nodded, her thoughts drifting back to her two angel babies and she could not help but wonder if either of them had made any progress with Lois Lane. Instead of speaking of this, she smiled and stood up. Martha and Jonathan followed suit and once their guest had left, the two of them went down the hall and tapped on Clark's door.
“Clark,” Martha called out, her voice emerging, the worry obvious.
The door opened and Clark stood in the doorway looking at his parents. “Yes?”
“Are you going to tell us what's going on?” Jonathan asked cutting to the chase.
“What's there to tell?”
“Well, for starters, you haven't been yourself since you came home, Clark. I know that you have told us about what Perry said to you, but there's something else you're not telling us and maybe talking about it might help,” Martha said.
“Mom, where did you really meet Tess?” Clark asked.
“Well, you know your father and I were down at the church a few days ago, and Tess had gone there, I guess to pray or meditate, and we got to talking and she mentioned having met you and Raphael at the cafeteria. So we got to talking and I realized that we had a lot in common and I invited her for tea this evening,” Martha explained quickly all the while wanting the conversation to return to the welfare of her son.
“I don't really know why, but there's something strange about her,” Clark said softly.
Jonathan came over to the bed and sat down. “What is strange about her, she seems perfectly normal to me?”
“Dad, I can't explain it, I just feel like I know her from somewhere,” Clark said softly.
“Maybe she was one of the people you rescued,” Martha said.
“No, I would have remembered her if I had rescued her. There's just something weird going on, and it’s not just the stuff with Lois, but there’s something else happening here, something really strange. I don’t just mean with regards to Tess, but today, I went to help an elderly woman in Metropolis after she had been mugged and just as I was going to help her, I saw a man dressed in a beige suit. He knew the woman's name, but I had this strange feeling that they had never met, but yet, she seemed familiar with him.”
“What all did he say?”
“That's just it, Dad, even with super hearing, I don't know everything. He said something like ‘Hello Helen’, then a garbage can was knocked over and I couldn't make out the rest of it. Then the woman suddenly woke up, the man had disappeared, but she asked me if I had seen him. I did see him, but I didn’t answer her because I thought I was hallucinating.”
“As far as we know, you’ve never hallucinated,” Jonathan said matter-of-factly.
“I know, but when she described him, she saw exactly what I saw; she said that he was glowing, and I could see light surrounding him but I had no idea of the source. Mom, Dad, I just don't see how that would be possible.”
“From what you describe, it’s not humanly possible,” Jonathan responded, but Martha looked at her son with concern.
“Clark, are you positive that that was what you saw?” She asked gently.
“I’m positive, I saw it with my own two eyes,” he said sadly.
“We believe you, but you know sometimes the light from the sun can play tricks on a person, even someone like you, Clark,” Martha said all the while trying to see the world through a mother's reason.
“Mom, it was dark outside, the guy was glowing, I mean, honest, there was something out of the ordinary about him, something so eerie, that I can't get it out of my mind. You know how people always say that there’s got to be a logical explanation for this?” Once his parents nodded, Clark continued. “Well, this time, there isn’t, there's not any convincing explanation for the things that Tess has said to me or for this man that I saw. He was real, and I'm going to find out who he is and if he poses any threat to Metropolis.”
Martha and Jonathan nodded as they stood up.
“Maybe you should be careful around Tess,” Clark said softly. “She seems nice, but none of us know who she is, yet something keeps nagging at me that I know her from somewhere.”
“OK, we'll be careful, now you go to sleep,” Martha said and her voice emerged as though she was speaking to a little boy instead of a grown man.
Once his light was out, Clark looked at the walls around him wondering all the while who or what he had seen when he had helped Helen back in Metropolis.
TBC
