Okay. Deep breath. This is a new long story from me. Yes, I've posted many long stories before. But this one has been a... challenge. Yes, that's the word. A real challenge! It's been 'in progress' for a couple of years, and it's still in progress, and I'm just hoping that I can manage to finish it - which is partly why I'm starting to post now, though I'm far from happy with the story as it is. So. Over to you and the worst you can throw at me! 
One thing, first. This is a sequel to Tank's Strange Visitor: The EVIL Vignette , a story which I, without even asking permission, 'fixed'. But it wasn't really fixed, as I hope this sequel will show. I'd recommend that anyone who hasn't read the earlier story should do so before starting this, otherwise at least some of this won't make sense.
Okay. I'm shutting up now! I would express my undying appreciation to my loyal and long-suffering BRs, but I think they don't deserve to take any blame for this one... 
~ Don’t Be A Stranger ~“Help! Superman, help!”
Clark halted in the act of crossing the newsroom, glancing around anxiously. This wasn’t a good time to get called away. Their department head had just called his section into the conference room for a meeting, and as he was still very much a new kid on the block at the Planet, it wouldn’t be a good idea to make himself conspicuous by his absence.
But that cry had sounded desperate...
Realising that someone was watching him, he turned and saw Lois. She raised one eyebrow in his direction before turning to call to their manager. “Hey, Steve! I need Clark to run downstairs first and pick up a package. We’re the only ones the guy will give it to and if neither of us shows, he’ll offer it to another paper,” she said disgustedly.
Clark barely paused to nod his thanks in Lois’s direction before heading towards the exits, hoping that no-one other than Lois noticed that he took the stairs rather than the elevator - and that he ran
up!
Twenty minutes later, he slid into the seat beside Lois in the conference room, ostentatiously handing her a rumpled package. “Thanks,” he muttered softly before turning to concentrate on the meeting.
“Glad you could join us, Kent,” Steve said with a tinge of sarcasm to his voice.
“Sorry,” Clark apologised automatically. “Our source had already left - I had to chase him down.”
Steve shook his head. “That stuff better be worth it, that’s all I can say.”
“Have we let you down yet?” Lois interjected.
Steve rolled his eyes. “I thought Perry was crazy teaming you up with anyone, Lois, much less a rookie, but it seems to have worked out. So far,” he added meaningfully.
“That’s partly because Clark was never a rookie. Check his cuttings file some day - it might surprise you,” Lois said in an amused tone. “Course, it helps that he got lucky and was partnered with the best in the business,” she added, spoiling the compliment.
Clark gave her a private grin. “Yeah, I was lucky,” he said in a low voice, then, louder, to his boss, “What’d I miss?”
*********
Emerging from the meeting later, Lois tugged on Clark’s sleeve, pulling him to one side. “So, what was it, then?”
“Truck overturned on the freeway,” he murmured in response. “The driver was trapped underneath, so I held the cab up so the paramedics could get him out, then righted the truck once the police had taken their photos. That’s what took me so long.”
Lois shook her head, smiling. “I still can’t get used to what you can do!”
It was true; even though Superman had been around for more than six weeks now, she felt a continual sense of amazement at his abilities. Despite Clark’s willingness to answer whatever questions she had about him and his occasional private demonstrations of his talents, it was still difficult to get her head around the fact that there was a being as incredibly powerful - as
magical - as Superman on the Earth.
And, even more amazing, that he was her friend.
Well, there probably weren’t many people around who could say that they’d saved Superman’s life, she’d reflected on a couple of occasions. And also the lives of his parents... so the fact that she’d ended up as his friend might not be too surprising. At the same time, the way she’d treated Clark Kent when she’d first met him could well have put him off her for life.
And it might well have done, except for a madman called Jason Trask and her determination to find Superman’s body. And, of course, Clark’s capacity for forgiveness. He’d offered her his friendship unhesitatingly after that night, and she’d got the impression that he’d have done so even if she hadn’t just saved his life and that of his parents. That all she’d needed to do was tell him that she wanted to start again with him.
As she reached her desk and sat, Clark paused beside her, bending to add quietly to her. “That’s three I owe you now. Thanks!”
A little embarrassed because, after all, she was enabling
Superman to do what he did best and to save lives, Lois shrugged. “It’s nothing. I‘m glad to help.”
“Well, I appreciate it. Want to let me take you for a chocolate sundae after work?” he suggested lightly.
“Oh, you know my weaknesses already,” Lois said, surprised.
Clark grinned. “Well, it’s pretty easy to find out...” Trailing off, he touched his ear lightly, and she smiled. No doubt it was simple for someone with his hearing abilities to discover anything he wanted to know.
"I see I can't have any secrets from you," she teased. "Anyway, I'd love to. Thanks!"
"Great." He smiled again, then returned to his desk.
Lois opened the file she’d been working on before the meeting, but her thoughts were elsewhere. On Clark.
He was her best friend now; her first ever best friend, in fact. He was the kind of friend she’d never known before, someone who made it clear that he would always be there for her. He was protective towards her, but also teasing. His manner, when they were alone, was always relaxed and frequently affectionate - which still amazed her, because she was well aware of the effect she had on people.
People were terrified of Lois Lane. It was an effect she’d cultivated, once she’d discovered that to succeed it was necessary to be tough. Once she’d discovered that men weren’t to be trusted - and that letting her guard slip led to disaster.
She still resented the heck out of the fact that Claude Valois had won a Kerth for
her story. And she hated the knowledge that some of her colleagues still sniggered over the easy conquest she’d been for him, and the insulting little details Claude had felt it necessary to share with all the guys in the newsroom - and not even in the men’s room, where she wouldn’t have had to see them snickering and nudging each other, but by the water-cooler. Right when she was at her desk and trying to work.
No, she'd learned not to trust anyone after that.
But she trusted Clark.
She sneaked a glance at him; his entire attention was focused on his own screen. He seemed to be re-reading something, occasionally tapping the keyboard as he found something he wanted to edit.
He was one incredibly good-looking man.
Actually, she thought he looked even more attractive as Clark than as Superman.
How on earth had she not noticed that before? What crazy stupidity had caused her to treat Clark like something the cat had dragged in while she’d practically swooned at Superman’s feet?
Well, she’d well and truly got what she deserved for that. The man she’d sneered at and the man she’d swooned over had turned out to be one and the same. Now, there was no way that she could show any kind of a romantic interest in Clark - why would he ever believe that she was genuine? That she wasn’t just setting her sights at him because he was also Superman?
No, Clark was out of reach so far as anything more than friendship was concerned.
Although, Lois thought as she glanced at her file again, trying to remind herself that she really needed to hurry up and get that story finished, it was just as well that there was no possibility of any kind of a closer relationship with Clark. She was the kiss of death to relationships, after all. All of her previous relationships had been federal disasters - there just seemed to be something about her which drove men away. No, which made them think they had to treat her like dirt and then walk away.
There was no way that she wanted to risk that happening with Clark.
She’d never before had someone in her life who meant as much to her as Clark. Oh, sure, she’d only known him for a few weeks, but already he’d become essential to her in every way.
He was her best friend. And she never wanted to lose his friendship. So... they would be friends and no more, and that way she’d manage to hold onto him.
Love, she’d learned through bitter experience, was something which just wasn’t ever going to be a part of her life. There seemed to be something about her which turned any possibility of romantic relationships sour. Maybe she was just unlovable. Maybe there was something about her - a neon sign over her head invisible to all except eligible guys who were also decent - which declared loud and clear that Lois Lane wasn’t worth loving. That she messed up relationships and wasn’t worth getting involved with.
Whatever... it was certainly true that love was an emotion which had been distinctly lacking in her life. And she’d decided several times already that she would be better off not even looking for it. Love, for her, was best only found within the pages of those paperback novels she occasionally read in secret.
So, whatever her feelings for Clark, whether the way her heart seemed to turn flip-flops whenever she looked at him meant that she was in love with him, none of that mattered. It couldn’t matter. He was her friend, and that was all he could be to her.
She turned her head slightly, just enough to catch sight of him again as he worked at his computer, his dark head bending every so often as he glanced down at his notes. Yes, she needed him in her life. And she would do nothing to jeopardise that.
Ever.
Including never again giving him cause to suspect that it was his abilities and powers which made her like him. That just wasn’t true now, although of course she was amazed and admiring of what he could do. No, what meant most to her now about Clark was the man himself, the qualities of friendship, compassion, kindness, sensitivity and humour which he had in spades.
In just a few short weeks, he’d become the most important person in her life.
**********
Clark leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of coffee as he began to read over the story he’d just finished. It was fine, he thought; just low-key enough to make it look as if he, the writer, had happened by just as Superman got into action. A short description of the latest Super feat, with a one-line quote from the Superhero himself.
With a simple keystroke, he sent it off to the subeditor. One more task to tick off on his list.
Instead of moving to the next one, however, he paused, taking the time to glance around the newsroom. He still could hardly believe his good fortune. He, Clark Kent, was a member of the reporting team at what he thought of as the best newspaper in the world. For so many years, he’d dreamed of getting a job at the Daily Planet, and he still had to pinch himself occasionally to persuade himself that it had really happened.
Though, of course, it had all nearly ended in disaster, and he still had shivers about how close he’d come to that. If not for Lois...
Yes, Lois. He allowed himself to steal a glimpse of his beautiful partner and friend, seemingly engrossed in her own work. At least, she was staring fixedly at her monitor, which probably meant that she was intensely focused on whatever story she was writing.
She’d just rescued him once again with that cover story of hers, and he smiled as he remembered her quick thinking and her excuse, which was far better than most of the lousy explanations he’d been coming up with ever since he’d invented his alter ego.
Clark could never have imagined how good it would feel to have someone else in on his secret. All his life, from the moment they'd realised just how different he was, his parents had impressed on him how important it was that no-one should ever find out about his abilities. He'd be captured by the government - or, even worse, by rogue scientists. He'd be shut up in a laboratory. He'd be dissected like a frog so that they could find out how he worked; just how different he was. He would end his days as a lab specimen, always assuming that they let him live long enough to know about it.
And, of course, their worst nightmare had come true when his secret had been exposed. Jason Trask, who'd claimed to work for the government but who had turned out to be rogue FBI, disowned by his own superiors - although Lois wasn't convinced of that - had found out the truth about him and had captured him.
Using Clark's parents as hostages to ensure his co-operation, Trask had kept him in a laboratory for ten days. And since Clark had been unable to give Trask or his scientists any of the information they were demanding, his parents had been hurt.
If it hadn't been for Lois, they probably would all have been killed. Clark had felt his own strength draining away bit by bit with the prolonged loss of sunlight.
He’d been dying, and he’d known it. Would have died from the loss of solar exposure, if Trask hadn’t killed him first with his ‘experiments’.
He owed Lois his own life and the lives of his parents. For that, he could never thank her enough.
The whole episode had been more appalling than his worst-ever nightmares. It wasn’t only what Trask had done to him, though that was bad enough; but far, far worse had been having to lie there, powerless, while Trask and his hired thugs had hurt his parents. He didn’t know how his parents had managed to get through it all. Stoic as ever, his father had refused to plead with Trask - even when he’d had to sit and watch his own wife be hurt - and hadn’t once asked Clark himself to do what Trask wanted in order to save them. Nor had his mother.
That hadn’t stopped Clark wanting desperately to do anything which would stop his parents being hurt. The only problem had been that the information Trask had wanted hadn’t been anything he could provide. And the more he’d said that he simply didn’t know, that there was no ‘invasion’, that he didn’t even know where he had come from, the more Trask had refused to believe him.
But Trask was dead now. And Clark thanked god for that fact every day.
Things were better now, now that his parents’ bruises had faded and broken bones were mended. But he couldn’t help wondering if he was the only one of the three Kents who’d had nightmares about their ordeal afterwards. He and his parents had talked about it, of course, but they had just wanted to put it behind them and get on with their lives. No point brooding over things they couldn’t change, his father had argued. The point was that they had to make sure nothing like that could ever happen again - so they all needed to be very careful to guard Clark’s secret.
Though, of course, now more people knew that he was Superman. Thankfully, only people that he was very sure that he could trust.
Lois knew. And so, of course, did Perry White, although the Planet's editor had only referred to that fact once after Clark's return. He'd gone, rather nervously, to the Planet offices the morning after Lois had rescued them, unsure whether he still had a job and whether his secret was common knowledge throughout the newspaper building. Even though Lois had assured him that she thought Perry was the only other person who'd realised, he hadn't been able to let himself accept that his secret was safe without proof. It had been surprising enough to discover that it hadn’t been blazoned on the front page of the Planet.
Even without that, of course, he'd been very conscious that the Planet's editor might not be willing to put up with a reporter who was also a part-time Superhero and who could disappear without notice at any time.
However, he needn't have worried. Perry had been overjoyed to see his newest member of staff alive and well, and had automatically assumed that Clark was resuming his employment. And, between the three of them, they'd come up with a semi-truthful cover story for his disappearance, portraying the now-dead Jason Trask as a madman who, for some reason, had assumed that Clark Kent, ordinary reporter, knew how to contact Superman, and had held him hostage. The front-page story which resulted had secured Clark's reputation in the newsroom.
He'd come to an agreement with Perry about his Superman duties, too. If he needed to leave for an emergency, he would go, but he had to cover for himself with the rest of the newspaper staff as best he could. Perry would turn a blind eye to any prolonged absences, but there had to be some way of explaining this to the other staff, in case accusations of favouritism were levelled. And, in return, Clark would give the Planet as many Superman exclusives as he could without making other news organisations suspicious.
For the sake of appearances, Superman was always referred to in the third person in any conversations with Lois or Perry. Clark was now very used to keeping the two parts of himself separate.
And Lois... Lois was becoming a very good friend. The night she'd rescued him, they'd talked for a couple of hours afterwards, he telling her how he'd come to be Superman and she apologising, shamefaced, for the way she'd treated him as Clark, as compared to the way she'd fawned over him in his Superhero guise. They'd agreed to put all that behind them - even though he hadn't liked it at the time, Clark had been able to understand Lois's reaction. After all, who would notice an ordinary guy from Kansas next to someone who could fly?
And from that moment they'd been sworn friends, the past put behind them. Yes, life was good, Clark thought with a smile, and with the treat he’d planned for the evening ahead of them still, it was going to get even better.
*********
...
tbc
