Smack Dab in the Middle of Things
Standard disclaimers apply. I don’t own these characters but I sure enjoy inviting them over to play.
Thanks to Riley, Avia and Ann for their input and editing.
This story takes place after “Mister December” and is in a timeline of my own creation – season one with Lois and Clark romantically involved and Lois aware that CK=S.
***************
“Kent! Did that mutual funds lead pan out or what?”
Perry White’s voice yanked Clark from a decidedly sensual daydream – his hands framing Lois’s waist, her arms twined around his neck, her soft body pressed against his harder one, their lips almost touching – and back into the reality of the morning staff meeting. Grateful that the conference table covered his lap, he cleared his throat and glanced at Lois, who sat beside him with a puzzled look on her face.
“Uh… yeah chief. I think we’ve got something promising here.” He shifted in his seat, hoping to ease his discomfort.
“And? You wanna share some details with your boss?”
Clark definitely wanted to share the details with his boss. Thus far in his tenure at the Daily Planet, his relationship with Perry was good, his career was on track and Lois had finally begun to pay serious attention to him.
Their relationship was still in the early stages – coffee at work, shared lunches, the occasional movie and dinner – and he knew Lois cared for him. He cared for her too. If he were honest with himself, he’d admit that he was madly in love with her and ready to move things along to the next level. She dominated his dreams at night and he’d found himself daydreaming about her more than once lately. But her emotional baggage combined with the recent revelation of his “special skills” had them both tiptoeing around their emotions.
They were the hottest team in town professionally and he dreamed that they could one day be the hottest team in an emotional sense too.
“Are you all right?” Lois whispered as she gave his hand a light squeeze under the table.
“Sorry, chief. The whole situation’s kind of convoluted and I’m trying to make sure I have it straight in my mind.” He pulled a sheet of paper from a file folder and began to recite.
“We reported last week that Metro Fidelity Funds had filed for bankruptcy. Once the news hit, our phone lines were jammed with calls from people worrying about their retirement funds. All we could do was refer them back to Metro Fidelity. But since their insolvency came out of left field, Lois and I decided to check into things and see if we could find anything unusual.”
At this point Lois joined in. “We dug through some records at City Hall and found what may be a link to the old Metros organization.”
“You mean the bunch that ran that club where you and Kent went undercover a while back?”
Someone snickered and Lois’s eyes burned with a fury that could singe asbestos.
“One and the same, Chief,” Clark continued. “Toni Taylor is currently serving time in the women’s prison and her brother Johnny was found floating in Hobbs Bay right before she went on trial. The word on the street is that he’d hinted he might cut a deal with the state and testify against her.”
“So what’s the link to Metro Fidelity?”
“This is where things get a little hazy, Perry,” Lois interjected.
“Hazy doesn’t sell newspapers, Lois.”
“And that’s why we have a meeting set up day after tomorrow with someone who might be able to lift the fog a little,” she said.
“Just keep me posted on your progress. This sounds like it could be a Pulitzer in the making. Ah… Cat? Anything you need to report on?”
Cat Grant pulled her attention away from her bright red fingernails and smiled at Perry.
“Just the same old same old, Chief. Sex, scandals and gossip.”
Perry grimaced and swung his gaze back to Clark and Lois. “As I said, keep me posted. And be careful. Sometimes these milquetoast types can be more dangerous than you think.”
Perry made his way to the door and then turned to glare at the staffers still sitting around the conference table.
“Go get those stories, people!”
Chairs scraped and staffers scurried from the room. Clark pushed his chair away from the table and then helped Lois with hers. She gave him a shy smile and gathered her belongings, but hung back as the others left the room.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked again once they were alone.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about the people who’ve lost their money,” he lied. Though it wasn’t really a lie. He’d thought about them last week when the story broke.
“We’ll solve this, Clark. I know we will.” She looked around to make sure no one was looking before she took his hand and gave it another squeeze. “Come on. Let’s get to work.”
Together they exited the conference area and made their way to their respective desks.
“Hello gorgeous!”
Lois watched as Cat kissed her index finger and then pressed it against the calendar photo that hung beside her desk. “I’ll find out who you are if it kills me. I’m not the best snoop in Metropolis for nothing.” Cat dropped into her desk chair and her gaze never left the photograph of the man wearing a Santa hat and little else.
“Give it up, Cat,” Lois called from her desk. “If Mister December wanted to be found he’d have had his name put on the calendar in the first place.”
“You’re just jealous because you didn’t find this hottie for yourself, Lois. I can’t believe that Clark knows a guy like this and hasn’t introduced me to him.”
“Oh, I can,” Lois mumbled.
“Speak up, Lois.”
“Uh… I’m going to the coffee machine. Can I get you a cup?”
“That would be very nice. Thank you Lois. Lots of cream and four sugars please.”
Cat tapped out the keystrokes to log into her email account and then looked up to see Lois standing by her desk, coffee cup in hand.
“Is there a problem, Lois?”
“How do you do it, Cat?”
“Do what?”
“Drink coffee loaded with fat and empty calories and stay thin as a rail? You and Clark both amaze me.”
“Clark amazes me too,” Cat said. “I guess we both just exercise a lot.”
“You’ve never been to a gym a day in your life, Cat Grant.” Lois placed a mug of steaming coffee on Cat’s desk followed by a handful of sugar packets and several individual containers of half-and-half.
“There ARE other ways to exercise, Lois,” Cat taunted. “But I doubt you’d know about those. Clark, on the other hand…”
“Did I hear my name?” Clark called from the top of the ramp leading to the bullpen.
“You couldn’t have heard us from…”
Of course he could have heard. He could have heard from his apartment. He could have heard from Smallville. He was… he was… Lois still couldn’t say it because it was completely unbelievable. Her partner, the rookie from nowhere, was Superman.
Cat stood and sauntered over to meet Clark as he neared his desk.
“I was just telling Lois about exercises you can do in the privacy of your bedroom and suggested that you might be familiar with those too.” She picked an imaginary thread from his lapel and adjusted the knot in his tie. “What exercises do YOU do in YOUR bedroom, Clark?”
Clark swallowed.
“Don’t be shy, Clark.” Cat ran a scarlet-tipped finger along his cheekbone and tilted her head.
“Uh… pushups?”
“Mmmm hmmm.” Cat nodded with a wicked gleam in her eye. “And?”
Cat was in rare form and unless someone stopped her, the train wreck was imminent with Clark Kent standing in the middle of the tracks.
“Lying thrusts?” Clark continued.
“Oh yes, ” she purred. Cat was in her element and was obviously enjoying herself.
“We’re not being paid to play little games of cat and mouse.” Lois exhaled on an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes. Her lips thinned in irritation.
“I know you didn’t intend to make that little pun, Lois—“
“You’re right, Cat.” Lois leaned in til she and Cat were nose to nose. “But since I did, let me tell you right now that this little mouse is off limits. Understand?” Lois spun and took a stunned Clark by the arm. “Come on, Clark. We have real work to do.”
@~@~@~@~@~@
The workday had been long and the elevator ride from the news floor to the lobby seemed to take forever. Clark kept running the words over and over in his mind. This little mouse is off limits.
Had Lois actually staked a public claim to him? Had she told not only Cat but everyone else within earshot that he was hers? Sure, they’d been dating since she’d figured out he was Superman. Their relationship had been strained at best for a while, but then Lois had come to grips with his dual persona. She’d been a little mad. Okay, she’d been a lot mad at first, but when he explained his reasoning for the disguise and for keeping it a secret from her, she agreed that he’d been right.
If Lex had tested him to simply drive him away from Metropolis, what would he have done if he’d known Superman had a family? A family who was dear to him. And if it became known that Superman had a girlfriend, who knows what sort of lunatic might pull what sort of stunt to use that information against him?
Clark had wanted to push their relationship to the next level. To move beyond an evening of pizza and beer. To venture further than a simple kiss on the cheek and a friendly hug. To embark on a new and wonderful life with Lois beside him, sharing the ups and downs of life and maybe even one day going as far as—
“Are you all right?”
Lois’s question pulled him from his thoughts.
“Don’t let Cat bother you. She likes to see just how far she can push men. She flirts and she teases and when she’s got a guy just where she wants him, she moves on to the next one,” she explained. “She’s played the game with Jimmy and believe it or not, She even did it with Claude.”
A pink stain colored her cheeks when she realized what she’d said.
“I didn’t mean she did it with Claude. I don’t know what she did with him. It wasn’t any of my business. I think they went out a few times but I think he moved on because there was nothing he could get from her to further his career. Unlike me, who practically laid the story in front of him on a silver platter. Why am I babbling like this?”
Her voice faded away to nothing and Clark didn’t know whether to try and answer what was most likely a rhetorical question or to ask about her comment to Cat.
In two steps he was across the elevator car and took her hands in his.
“Cat has a strange effect on people. She makes me get all tongue-tied. I’m always so afraid I’ll say the wrong thing and lead her on.”
Lois laughed. “She did have you going on about those exercises. If you could have seen the look on your face.”
“Gee, thanks for reminding me.”
Lois placed a hand on his chest and patted the front of his shirt. “No problem, partner. Any time.”
It’s now or never. Ask her.
“Lois—”
The elevator shuddered to a stop and the doors opened to the lobby. Harry, the newsstand operator, had left for the day. Cletus, who ran the stand where Clark got his weekly shoeshine, had closed up shop for the day. A janitor pushed a broom across the floor, sweeping up remnants of the day’s traffic in and out of the building.
“Yes, Clark?”
He placed one hand against the small of her back and guided her through the lobby and out the front doors.
“You hungry?”
Chicken.
“Sure. You want to go to Alphonso’s for pizza? Tonight’s free anchovy night.”
Clark hesitated, torn by conflicting emotions.
Go for it.
“I have a better idea,” he said, turning her in the direction of his apartment. “How does poached salmon with cucumber dill sauce sound? And a baby spinach and arugula salad with oil and vinegar?”
The beginning of a smile turned up the corners of Lois’s mouth.
“A nice Kendall-Jackson chardonnay would go well with that, don’t you think?”
Lois nodded in agreement as they continued along the sidewalk.
“And perhaps just a light sorbet for dessert?”
“Where’s this served, Clark? My mouth is watering already.”
Clark gave an anxious cough. “My apartment,” he answered softly.
“Your apartment?” Her voice held a faint tremor. “I don’t want to put you to any trouble. Alphonso’s will be fine, Clark.”
“It’s no trouble. Really. We can pick up the salmon from the corner market on the way to my apartment. The cucumber dill sauce is already made and the salad comes in a bag. I have a bottle of wine chilling already and there’s sorbet in my freezer.” He ticked off each course on his fingers. “Please say yes.”
His voice was husky. Sexy. Needy. Just like she felt inside. She’d learned today that the old adage about never missing the water til the well ran dry was true. When she’d seen Cat eyeing Clark and making sexual overtures to him, something in her had snapped and she’d wanted to bare her claws and get into… A Cat fight?
The irony wasn’t lost on her. Neither was the fact that she’d all but publicly declared her intentions for Clark. And now he was asking her to come to his apartment for dinner, a situation far more intimate than any of their dates so far.
She wanted to say yes to his invitation, but she was honestly afraid to. Clark had invaded her dreams of late and more than once she’d awakened with her body drenched in perspiration. Why, just looking at him sent her blood racing and made her heart pound.
She was intensely aware of his appeal. He was tall, dark and handsome personified and women’s heads turned wherever he went. He could have any woman he wanted, yet he wanted… her?
Say yes. Take a chance. For once in your life, Lois Lane, take a chance.
“Clark, I’m sorry,” she began.
Clark’s shoulders slumped and a defeated look crossed his face.
“I’m allergic to cucumbers, but I’d love to join you for the rest.” She broke into an open smile.
“You won’t be sorry, Lois. I promise.”
Dark brown eyes stared back at her and she had an immediate feeling that not only was he making a promise about dinner, but about a whole lot more too.
@~@~@~@~@~@
Lois sighed with satisfaction, settled back on the sofa and closed her eyes. She’d just finished the best dinner she’d had in a long time. The best dinner she’d had in Metropolis. Heck, the best dinner she’d ever had, period.
Clark was a terrific chef. She’d enjoyed watching him select the salmon at the market, joking with the woman behind the counter who seemed to know him. Then they’d stopped at the florist where he’d picked up a bright bouquet of cut flowers for the table. He’d inquired about the shop owner’s daughter who had apparently just had a baby.
He really did care about people. His concern was genuine and not just a ploy to make himself look good. Every day he showed his caring in big and small ways – big when he went out as Superman and small when he helped his neighbors as Clark.
The more she was around him, the more Lois learned about this multi-faceted man who was beginning to touch her heart.
She was jolted from her thoughts by the aroma of fresh, strong coffee.
“Would you like your coffee doctored up a bit?” Clark held two mugs in one hand and a bottle of cognac in the other.
“No thanks. I’m so full now I’m afraid that with any encouragement at all, you’ll have me stretched out asleep on your couch.”
She turned a vivid scarlet and then stirred uneasily on the couch.
“I didn’t mean… I mean, I don’t think… I’m not planning to stretch out…” She quickly hid her face with her hands and shook her head.
Clark placed the coffee and cognac on the coffee table and slid beside her on the sofa.
“I know what you mean, Lois,” he assured her. “Why don’t we get started on these papers you dug up at City Hall?”
Grateful for the distraction, Lois sat up and flipped open the folder she’d placed on the coffee table earlier.
“Okay. It seems that the head of the accounting department at Metro Fidelity used to work for Toni Taylor. His name was…” Lois searched through the pages of a legal pad. “Ah, here it is. It’s Walter Langford. I’m betting he cooked the books at Metro Fidelity and diverted most of their liquid assets to accounts somewhere like the Cayman Islands. So who’s this guy we’re meeting day after tomorrow?”
“Martin Collins. He’s a junior accountant at Metro Fidelity. He had an innocent part in this but his wife is pregnant and he’s scared to death he’s going to be sent to prison.”
“So he’s willing to sing like a bird so he can stay out of jail?”
“Something like that.” Clark took a sip from his mug. “Lois, I think Collins really is innocent. Maybe he was too afraid to walk away before, but now that he’s had a chance to think it over, he wants to make things right.”
Lois picked up her coffee and inhaled the aroma of the rich brew. “Mmmm. This is so much better than that sludge at work.” She wrapped her hands around the decorative mug and took several sips.
“It’s a special Indonesian blend.”
“Indonesia?” she asked, fumbling and nearly spilling hot coffee on herself. “Please tell me it isn’t that stuff that’s made from monkey dung.”
Clark threw back his head and roared with laughter.
“It isn’t funny, Clark.”
Clark bit his lip in an effort to quell his laughter. “I’m sorry. It’s just that the look on your face was priceless.”
“I’m glad I could be such a source of amusement to you,” she said, her posture stiff.
Clark picked up the mug and held it toward her. “It’s not Kopi Luwak, so drink up.”
“Is that the monkey stuff?”
“Technically, it’s not a monkey. It’s more like a cat. But you don’t really want to hear about that, do you?”
“As long as it didn’t have anything to do with my cup of coffee, no.” Lois settled back with her coffee and then giggled. “But wouldn’t it be funny to get some for Cat? Cat coffee for the Cat woman?”
“It’s three hundred dollars a pound,” Clark offered.
“She can drink Folgers,” Lois declared. “Speaking of Cat, do you think she’ll figure out that you’re the guy on the calendar?”
Clark blew out a long breath. “I sure hope not. She’ll make my life miserable if she does.”
“More miserable than she did this morning?” Lois asked.
“Lois, I have an idea that this morning was a drop in the bucket compared to what she could do it she set her mind to it.”
“She was pretty rabid this morning.”
“Yeah. And I can’t believe that I played right into her little game. By the way, thanks for rescuing me.” He lifted his coffee mug in salute.
“What are partners for?” Lois lifted her mug as well.
“To partners,” Clark decreed, tapping their mugs together in a toast.
Ask her. She’s relaxed and in a good mood. Go ahead and ask her.
Clark emptied the coffee mug with one gulp and summoned every ounce of courage he had. Funny that he could face down criminals and defeat natural disasters every day, yet this one woman had the power to bring him to his knees figuratively speaking. Heck, if it would help, he’d literally get on his knees.
He’d never felt about a woman like he felt about Lois. And unless he made the next move, he was afraid things would stall right where they were.
He took a deep breath. And another.
“Relaxation breathing?” Lois asked.
He started to go for the snappy comeback but thought better of it.
“No. I’m trying to get up my nerve to ask you something.”
“Uh oh. I’m not going to like this, am I?” Lois’s brow furrowed and she had her coffee mug in a death grip.
Clark pulled the mug from her grasp and set it on the coffee table. The less ammunition she had, the better.
“Lois, what you said this morning to Cat. Did you mean it?”
“About the calendar photo? Sure, she should stop searching.”
“Not that.”
Lois wrinkled her nose as she thought back to the morning’s conversations.
“About you and her putting all that stuff in your coffee?” she asked.
“About the mouse.”
“The mouse?”
“The mouse.”
“What mouse? I don’t remember a mouse. Oh god! Do we have mice in the office?”
Clark took another deep breath, then reached for her hands and threaded his fingers with hers and looked her square in the eyes.
“This mouse. Me.”
When she responded with a puzzled look, Clark continued, “This morning you told Cat ‘let me tell you right now that this little mouse is off limits.’ Am I reading too much into that?”
Now it was Lois’s turn to breath deeply.
“If you’re thinking I’m ready to buy a white gown and veil and march to the altar, then yes, you’re reading too much into it,” she quipped.
“That wasn’t what I was thinking at all. What were you thinking?”
Lois squirmed and stared at their joined hands. “I was thinking that Cat should keep her paws off of you. No pun intended, of course.”
“Of course.” A hint of a grin appeared.
“I was also thinking—”
“I think we should be doing less thinking.” Clark’s voice simmered with emotion. “And we should be doing more of this.”
He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, then gently covered her mouth. She smelled like flowers and the scent had a drugging effect. Clark almost surrendered to it before allowing reason to reclaim control. Tonight was not the night to make demands. Tonight was simply for laying out the beginnings of a relationship.
He nibbled gently, slowly on her bottom lip and waited for her to respond and set the pace. When she nibbled back, he released the breath he’d been holding and deepened the kiss. Framing her face with his hands, he flicked his tongue along the seam of her lips and requested entry. And when she parted her lips and let her tongue dart out to meet his, a low groan escaped from him.
As his tongue met hers, he caressed her cheek, marveling in the softness of her skin. After a moment, his hand skimmed down the column of her neck and found her flickering pulse.
Heaven.
Clark broke the kiss and pulled back watching Lois’s eyelids flutter and then open. Her tongue darted out and gingerly licked her swollen lips.
She sighed. “I like the way you think, Clark Kent.”
@~@~@~@~@~@
Lois woke the following morning with the memories of Clark’s kiss still fresh in her mind – and on her lips. She gently touched one finger to her mouth and remembered how soft Clark’s lips had felt against hers. In her mind, she’d been wishing for him to do more than kiss her, but she’d been afraid to voice those wishes.
Her head told her that Clark was different from other men. Oh, not just because he was from another planet. But different in that he took a woman’s feelings into consideration and didn’t try to run roughshod over her. Heck, he’d even cooked dinner for her. Lois had never had a man cook for her before, and given her abysmal cooking skills, this was a welcome thing.
No, Clark Kent was definitely a breed all to himself, in more than one sense. And she definitely liked the way he made her feel. His respect was what Lois liked more than anything else. She’d clawed her way to the top of a male-dominated profession and worked hard to earn prestigious awards. Yet time and again, she was denied the respect she so desperately wanted.
Maybe the tide had changed. Maybe Clark’s attitude would rub off on the others at the office.
With that thought in mind, Lois crawled from bed, showered and dressed for work. She took a little extra care with her hair and make-up, spritzed a little perfume behind each ear and selected a black knit dress with a straight skirt and V-neck that complimented both her coloring and her figure.
Why not go all out and let Clark know that she was pleased with his attention and wanted more?
Her walk to work was humdrum, the ride up the elevator was uneventful and when the elevator doors opened to reveal the Daily Planet newsroom, Lois fully expected a day like any other.
She glanced toward Clark’s desk and saw that he hadn’t arrived at work yet. Perhaps he was on a “call.”
It was when Lois started down the ramp into the pit area that her ordinary day took a turn.
“Babe alert!” Ralph Schmertz stood by the coffee maker and his voice carried clearly across the room. “Hey Lois! Why didn’t you tell us?”
Lois lasered a look in his direction – a look that would have melted asphalt. She’d simply report him to Perry. Arguing with Ralph was like arguing with discarded gum.
“Oh Lois! You got any other skills we don’t now about?” Billy Toner yelled from an opposite end of the room.
She reached her desk, removed her coat and hung it on a hook when a loud wolf whistle pierced the air.
“You doing the bedtime boom-boom with Kent, Lois?” Ralph asked, sniggering.
“Yeah, Lois. You and Kent doin’ the wild thing?” Billy joined in.
Lois fell into her desk chair, her mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“How about mattress dancing? Or the bareskin bonk?” Ralph elbowed Billy who had joined him in the break area.
“Tell me a bedtime story, Lois,” Billy begged. “I’ll make it worth your while.” A wink crinkled the corner of his eye.
Lois rose, her lips drawn into a thin line. “That’s enough,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’ve put up with your stupidity, Ralph. And your incompetence. I’ve gone out of my way to ignore you. But this has gone way beyond the bounds of common courtesy and decency. I’m going to the Human Resources office right now and file a complaint for harassment.”
She turned toward the ramp and in three strides Ralph blocked her path and grabbed her by the elbow.
“Do you really think they’re gonna believe you? After what you did?” he countered. “You’re probably in violation of some company policy too.”
“I haven’t done anything. Except maybe my job, which is something you should be doing too instead of annoying me. Let me go!”
Ralph stood his ground and motioned to his cohort. “Bring that over here, would ya?”
“If you’ll excuse me, I have a complaint to file.” Lois tried to push past Ralph.
“Don’t get your panties in a wad, lady,” Ralph said as he took a magazine from Billy, opened it and laid it open across Lois’s desk. “And by the way, those are mighty cute ones you’re wearing in that picture even if there isn’t much to them.”
Lois looked at the photo displayed on her desk and her legs began to buckle. She grabbed the edge of her desk and steadied herself as her face paled several shades.
For there, displayed in living color, smack dab in the middle of Hot Chick dot Com magazine, was Lois Lane, posed, bared and with a staple in her navel.
TBC
