I would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments on part 12; they helped give me the inspiration for this part. So if you want to see more soon, post lots and lots of feedback, whether it's Good, Bad, or Ugly!
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Part 13: Lois sat at her desk typing, fully aware that Clark was still staring at her. Sheesh, you’d think the man had never seen someone eat strawberry ice-cream with chili peppers and tomato juice for breakfast before! Actually, the combination had been surprisingly tasty. Best of all, whenever the peppers burned her tongue, the ice-cream would rapidly cool it. Once again, her food had disappeared within seconds of being put in front of her. Was she turning into a vacuum cleaner or something?
Her thoughts were interrupted by Jimmy bounding up to her with an armload of papers. “Hey, Lois. Here’s those files you wanted on Senator Green, the list of Warehouses near Hobbs Bay and who owns them; and the stuff on day-care centers within twenty miles of the Daily Planet. That must be some story you’re working on!”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. It is. Thanks, Jimmy.” She took the papers from Jimmy, completely missing Clark’s raised eyebrow.
She also missed seeing someone stepping off the elevator and heading right for her desk, so she was nearly startled out of her skin when an all-too-familiar voice said, “So! Working on a story together, I see?”
“Tommy!” Jimmy turned around. “Uh, yeah! That’s us, always working on stories.” He gave a nervous chuckle. “So, um, what brings you here?”
“Well, I know this is all very sudden, but Sandy and I were hoping we could take you two to lunch. Sandy’s back at our hotel getting ready.”
Lois and Jimmy exchanged looks.
“Oh, don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere fancy. I just figured someplace informal where we could grab a bite and get to know each other. Sandy just loves getting dressed up, that’s all. You know how models are.” He gave Jimmy a wink.
“Um, yeah.”
“So how about it? We’ll buy you lunch, and we can discuss where to go for that double-date. I’ll bet you two know lots of great places!”
Lois gave Jimmy a warning look.
Fortunately, he didn’t miss it. “Um, Tommy?”
“Yes?”
Jimmy gulped. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you---about Lois and me…”
“What?” Tommy asked, as the elevator doors opened and an irate woman emerged.
“Well, you see---”
“LOIS!” The woman searched out her target and began walking purposefully toward the small group. Or perhaps ‘storming toward them’ would have been a better way of putting it.
Lois looked up in horror. “Mother!”
“Lois Joanne Lane! How could you get pregnant and not tell your own mother and sister?!”
The room fell into a dead silence. Every head was turned in her direction. Jaws were dropped, and some people lost their grip on whatever they were carrying.
Finally, Tommy spoke. “Wow. Congratulations, Jimmy! I just know you’re going to be a great father!”
With those words, the entire newsroom exploded into chaos. It took Perry coming out of his office and bellowing for order a few minutes before things finally began to calm down. In the frenzy, no one saw two men at the back of the room quietly get up and head toward the elevator, nor did they see one man hand the other a twenty as the elevator doors closed.
**********
“I don’t believe it!”
“Lois and Jimmy?!”
“Mad Dog Lane having a baby?!”
The shocked murmuring continued, even as the newsroom staffers slowly returned to their work. Many kept glancing Lois’ way, but turned away sharply when they caught their editor’s watchful eye.
Ellen, meanwhile, was still erupting. “You and he,” she gestured to Jimmy, “are having a baby and you didn’t tell me?! Oh, of course not. Why should you? I’m only your mother!”
“Mother…”
“I mean it’s one thing that you don’t even tell me that the two of you are sleeping---”
“Mother, Jimmy is not the father of my baby!” Lois fumed.
Ellen’s mouth clapped shut. Tommy’s mouth dropped open. Jimmy began planning a dash to the nearest border.
Tommy looked at Lois and Jimmy inquiringly. “Uh---?”
Clark stood up and came to Jimmy’s rescue. “Tommy, let me explain. Jimmy was too embarrassed to tell you that his and Lois’ relationship has been on the rocks for a while now, and they’ve agreed to see other people.” He carefully phrased it so that it wasn’t *too much* of a lie.
Tommy nodded understandingly. “I see.” He put a comforting hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry to hear that, Jimbo.”
Jimmy shrugged. “It’s okay.”
“So, I guess I’ll just tell Sandy that the double-date is off. But maybe we could still get together for a guys’ night out?”
“Sure!”
Tommy smiled. “Great! I’ll call you, and maybe the three of us can go to a bar or something. Of course, we can’t leave until after six---Sandy’s doing a shoot for a new line of men’s cologne, and he won’t get off until then.”
Jimmy’s eyes bulged.
“See you later, Jimbo. And you take care of yourself, Lois.”
Lois grinned and fought to keep from laughing at the expression on Jimmy’s face. “Will do!”
With that, Tommy waved and headed for the elevator. The doors closed and whisked him away, leaving Lois with a befuddled Jimmy, a still furious Ellen, and an amused Clark Kent.
Jimmy shook his head. “Man, I have *got* to read those emails more closely!”
Ellen folded her arms and looked from Jimmy to Lois. “So he’s your *ex* boyfriend?”
“Mother,” Lois sighed, “Jimmy and I were never dating. It was just a ruse to impress a friend of his, and one for which he *will pay very dearly*!” She shot Jimmy a look, and he gulped and shuffled off.
“That’s still no excuse,” Ellen grumbled. “You still could’ve *mentioned* to me that I was going to be a grandmother! Why am I always the last person to know what’s going on in my daughter’s life?!”
“Mother, you are not the last person to know. Nobody in this *building* knew until you barged in and blurted it to high heaven! How did you find out, anyway?”
“Lucy called me. She found your book and wanted to know why no one had told her she was going to be an aunt!”
“It was supposed to be a secret,” Lois said. “Until today, Nobody knew except me, the father, and the two people he told.”
“I see,” Ellen nodded. “He tells his parents the good news, but you see no reason to tell yours. Perfectly understandable!”
Lois sighed. Fortunately, she was saved by Perry White, who had once more emerged from his office and approached the group unnoticed.
“Mrs. Lane?”
“Yes?”
“I understand that you must be pretty upset right now. Elvis knows I have a few questions for Lois myself! But that doesn’t give you the right to burst in here and turn my newsroom into the set of Days of Our Lives! This is a newspaper, not a soap opera, and Lois is a reporter. She has a job to do. And so do the rest of you!” He turned and barked the last sentence at the staffers who had paused in their work and were watching the scene with great interest. “So if you would be so kind as to remove yourself?”
“Oh, all right,” Ellen said indignantly. She turned back to Lois. “But you and I aren’t through, young lady! I demand an explanation very soon, starting with who this mystery man is!” Then Ellen snorted, turned on her heel, and stomped off.
Lois turned to look at Clark, wondering what his reaction was to all this, but he had re-seated himself at his desk and was now typing away at his computer with a look of complete concentration on his face. Sighing once more, Lois returned to her computer and began doing the same thing. Her mind wasn’t really on her work, though. She still had some questions she needed answered. How was she going to handle her mother? What would happen now that everybody and their cousin Floyd knew that she was expecting? Was Clark at all surprised by the news?
Did Superman have *parents*?
**********
Lunch time didn’t come soon enough. Lois typed the last sentence of her story, hit ‘send’, then jumped up and grabbed her coat and purse. Her mouth was watering for some tomato soup, cherries, and a nice tall cone of strawberry ice-cream.
Clark accompanied her to the elevator but still didn’t say anything. His expression was completely unreadable. They boarded the elevator in silence, and Clark hit the button for the lobby.
At least the silence gave her an opportunity to think. Lois still had no clue what to do about her mother. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about just having a baby and putting up with stupid morning sickness, now she suddenly had to deal with her family, her colleagues, and Perry. She also had to see what to do about a doctor; maybe she should talk to Superman? Then of course there was the whole Clark and Superman issue which was still up in the air, and those really unnerving dreams she’d been---
“LOIS!”
---having…
Clark pulled Lois down just as the doors slid open on the crowded lobby. Lois clung to his arm, her face ashen. They weren’t dreams---she really had been floating in her sleep! She looked down, afraid to meet Clark’s gaze. If he didn’t know before, he certainly knew now.
He gently guided her out of the elevator, still keeping a firm grip on her lest she start to defy gravity again. “Maybe we should just eat in?” he suggested.
Lois nodded, still looking down. Eating in---yes. Being in public was a *very* bad idea right now.
“Do you want me to take you home?”
Lois nodded, then shook her head. “No. Lucy…”
Clark gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Okay. We’ll go to my place, then. All right?”
Lois nodded again. Clark hailed a cab and helped her into it. If the cab driver thought it was at all odd that his gentleman customer rode the entire trip with one arm around the lady’s shoulder and one hand pressing on her thigh, he didn’t say anything.
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TBC
