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From Part 4:The door closed behind the doctor and his mother, and Clark turned to Lois. “See what I mean about things being different in the country? Jill never bills people for this sort of thing - she gets paid in produce. It’s only when something’s major enough to require hospitalisation that bills and insurance come into it.” He grinned at her, then sobered. The more he heard about what Lois had gone through - and so far he’d only heard snippets - the angrier he felt about it. And the more determined he became to see Lex Luthor brought to justice.
“Anyway, now that I know that you’re okay, want to tell me why your husband tried to kill you?”
*********
Now read on...Lois took a seat on the overstuffed sofa, and Clark sat opposite her in an armchair. She looked resolute now, he thought; determined to find her way through the situation she found herself in and to safety. And he was determined to help her in any way he could.
“My guess is that he did it because I told him that I wanted a divorce,” she said lightly.
Clark felt his jaw drop. “You did what? Lois, you’ve only been married - what? Two months?”
“So?” she demanded, sounding defensive. “If the marriage isn’t working, what does it matter whether it’s after two months or two years?”
“I guess,” Clark said carefully, “maybe two months doesn’t seem an awfully long time.”
Although he was very curious as to why she’d come to that decision. Could it... no, it couldn’t possibly have had anything to do with him. No, that was just wishful thinking. And anyway, he shouldn’t be thinking that way - actually
wanting her to break up her marriage over him?
“You mean I didn’t give it enough of a try?” Lois shrugged, as if to say that his argument didn’t impress her.
“Look, I know it’s none of my business,” Clark said quickly; of course, it wasn’t, and he’d had no business criticising her in the first place. “And anyway, if the man tried to kill you, I guess you were right to want to leave him. Tell me what happened.”
“In a minute,” she said, waving his question aside. “Clark, my parents got divorced when I was twelve. But really they should have split up years earlier. I know that things started to go bad within a couple of years of them getting married, but they decided that it was too soon to give up - then they decided to have kids because that might help ‘bring them closer together’.” She held up her index fingers, miming quotation marks. “All it did was make them fight even more - at least, when my father was actually home or my mother wasn’t drunk. And all that told me was that it’s best to walk away as soon as you know a relationship’s not working. Sticking around only makes the pain worse on everyone.”
He could see her point, even though he still wanted to argue that two months was hardly a decent trial period. But still, as he’d acknowledged, the fact that Lex Luthor had tried to kill her didn’t exactly make Clark want to defend the man. In fact, he wanted to tear Luthor limb from limb. He wanted to grab the man by the throat, carry him up to about a mile over the middle of Lake Superior, and then start squeezing.
The violence of his thoughts appalled him. But, he reminded himself, so did what Luthor had done to his wife - the woman he’d vowed only two short months ago to love, honour and cherish.
“Anyway,” Lois continued, “before I tell you about last night, I want to tell you about Lex and me - about why I married him in the first place.” She gazed down at her hands, now lying in her lap. “I... Well, I could sort of see that you were wondering that over the last couple of days. I know I would’ve been, in your position. And... Well, I just want to tell you.”
She was right; he had wondered. Why Lois Lane was married to someone so apparently uninterested in her life, her career. What had persuaded her to marry a man with whom she seemed to have so little in common. How she’d been convinced to marry someone who, Clark had become sure, didn’t love her - and whom she didn’t appear to love either.
“I’d like to understand, Lois,” he told her quietly. “And we have plenty of time.”
*********
“I first met Lex a little over a year ago,” Lois began, her tone detached, almost as if she were relating something which had happened to someone else. “I’d heard of him, of course - ”
“Who hasn’t?” Clark interjected.
She glared at him. “Don’t interrupt. Anyway, it was at his annual White Orchid Ball. Perry - that’s my editor, or he
was my editor - decided that the Planet should be there en mass. He wanted to create a good impression - the ball raises money for charity, you know. So he bought half a dozen tickets. I took one because I’d been trying to get an interview with Lex for well over a year. But he never returned my phone calls and I kept getting fobbed off with his PR division.”
Clark nodded. “Figures.”
“Anyway, I dressed to knock him out, and it seemed to work. I made a scene and he danced with me - when I asked him for an interview, he asked me to dinner instead.”
“Swept you off your feet?” Clark asked, unable to disguise the faint edge to his voice. He winced; after all, it really wasn’t any of his business. And he really didn’t want to remind Lois yet again of how he’d made a complete fool of himself the previous day by telling her that he was falling in love with her. She didn’t feel the same way about him - why should she? - and he wanted her to trust him, not feel awkward in his company.
“I said don’t interrupt,” Lois told him, but her expression told him that she was more irritated at herself than at him. “Actually, he didn’t - well, not really. I guess what I did find fascinating were the glimpses I got into his world. I’ve always had an insatiable curiosity, Clark,” she added as he gave her a questioning look. “I guess that’s what made me want to become a reporter - to find things out. To get into places where I’m not supposed to be. To expose hidden worlds to the public gaze.” She shrugged. “And being with Lex gave me the opportunity to do that.”
She started to cough again and Clark, concerned, hurried into the kitchen to get her some water. His mom was still there, preparing a casserole for dinner.
“Everything all right?” she asked him.
“Lois is coughing again,” he said, worried.
“Jill said that’s good,” she reassured him. “Coughing helps to get rid of whatever water the poor girl still has inside her lungs. But is she warm enough? You could light the fire...?”
“I’ll check,” he promised, pouring a glass of water, then headed back into the living-room.
“Thanks,” Lois said when he handed her the glass. She took several gulps, then settled back into the sofa. He studied her carefully; she was warm, but not over-heated. And her pulse-rate seemed normal. He resumed his seat in the armchair opposite.
“You know, lots of people thought that I was with Lex because of his money, or his influence. And I can’t deny that it felt pretty amazing to be swept off to Paris for dinner one night, or Milan to the opera another afternoon. And Lex can be very charming. He has a way of making the woman he’s with feel very special - as if she’s the most important thing in his life. Even when he has to interrupt a date to take a business phone call, he’s very apologetic about it. It’s... very flattering.”
“I can see that,” Clark agreed, though the idea that someone who could kill was also capable of being as charming as Lois described appalled him - made him shudder. “So you started dating after the ball?”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t like that. Sure, he invited me to dinner. And I accepted, because I thought it was my best opportunity to get him to give me an interview. It was clear that he wasn’t going to respond to a normal approach. Anyway, when I tried to bring up the subject of the interview, he said he didn’t want to spoil a good meal with business - but he seemed to hint that he’d answer my questions another time.”
Clark raised an eyebrow. “So he knew how to pique your interest - and keep you hanging.”
“Yeah,” she said with a grimace. “He played me, all right. He knew exactly what he was doing. So, yeah, I kept seeing him - but it was only casual. A dinner here, a trip to the theatre or an art gallery there. And always he’d hint that he’d answer my questions, but that he wanted to get to know me better first. I could sort of understand that,” she said with a faint shrug. “I mean, I know my reputation as a reporter, and I know how men like him feel about the media. I just figured that he wanted to feel sure that I wasn’t going to write a hatchet job. I’d already told him that I had no intention of writing a puff piece.”
Lois paused again, clearly catching her breath. Despite her claims, she certainly wasn’t fully recovered yet. Clark felt a momentary pang of guilt for not insisting that she get some rest, take a nap or something, rather than wearing herself out telling him her story. But he wanted to hear it, and something told him that she needed to tell it, too.
“Anyway,” she continued after a moment, “as time went by I guess I started to see him as a friend as well as a potential story. I mean, like I said, he could be
very good company. And he seemed to respect me and my work. He started doing me favours - you know, giving me tip-offs when something newsworthy was about to happen, offering me exclusives when one of his companies hit the news for something or other. Sometimes I passed the tips on to the business desk - I mean, business news wasn’t my beat. But I always appreciated it. And,” she added with a grimace, “Lex knew it. I’m convinced now that it was all part of his plan to keep me on-side. As long as I saw him as a friend, I wasn’t going to ask too many questions about him.”
“And you think you should have?” Clark asked; her tone just then had contained more than a hint of self-criticism. Though he knew what he thought of the situation she was describing, he wanted to know how she saw her actions now.
“Oh yeah.” She was definitely angry with herself. “I stopped doing my job, Clark. I lost my objectivity. I forgot what I was there to do - the reason I’d worked so hard to get close to Lex in the first place. He was supposed to be a
story - and, boy, do I know now that there was a story to get! - but I let him seduce me into dropping my guard and letting myself get close to him.”
“Seduce?” Clark questioned, because he couldn’t stop himself.
“Oh, I didn’t sleep with him!” Lois exclaimed immediately, a flush creeping over her face. “He wanted me to. Oh, he didn’t come right out and say it - he’s not that crass - but he made sure that I knew it anyway. When I first had dinner with him, he flirted with me - subtly, you know; it was all in the way he would look at me just a little too long, or the way he would slide his thumb over the back of my hand when I took his arm. But he was very proper - he kissed me goodnight, but on the cheek. He didn’t kiss me properly until the third - well, date, I guess. And even then it was just a brief kiss. It wasn’t until I’d been seeing him a little over a month that he tried to make love to me.”
Clark felt himself seethe inside at the thought of anyone else making love to Lois. That it was Lex Luthor made him furious; he clenched his fists, hiding his hands beneath his thighs so that Lois couldn’t see, as mental images flashed through his head of Luthor holding Lois in his arms, kissing her passionately, half-dragging her to his bedroom to seduce her before she realised what she was agreeing to.
“Clark!” He blinked; Lois was waving her arm in front of his face.
“Sorry.”
She gave him a wry grimace. “You looked like you were about to rip someone to shreds.” Self-disgust flooding her face again, she added, “And I know who, too. Clark, he didn’t try to force me. Ever. That’s the only thing... I mean, if he’d ever tried to push me into anything I didn’t want, I’d have started to see through him ages ago. But he was far too clever for that.”
Clever - yeah, that sounded about right for a man like Luthor. Devious, more like, Clark thought. Anyone who could claim to love someone and then turn around and cold-bloodedly try to kill her would have to be deceitful and conniving in the extreme. It wasn’t as if this could have been a crime of passion, after all. Lois had said that Luthor had made her drink something - something she thought had been drugged. That wasn’t the impulsive action of someone driven crazy with rage or jealousy. That involved intent - forethought.
Taking a deep breath, Lois continued again. “When I said he tried to make love to me, what happened was that I was in his penthouse late one night. We’d had some wine and we’d been kissing a little, and he’d been just as he always was - intelligent, courteous, attentive, good company. I said that it was probably time I went home, but I know I sounded reluctant. Plus I couldn’t drive myself - I’d had too much to drink. I wasn’t
drunk, but I was over the limit. Lex stroked my hair and looked into my eyes and said that I didn’t have to leave. That’s all. Like I said, subtle and charming - as ever. And, because I wasn’t too drunk to know what I wanted, I told him that I liked him a lot, but I didn’t want to sleep with him. I saw him as a friend and that was all.”
Did she kiss all her friends? Clark found himself wondering cynically, then stifled the thought, reminding himself that he had no right to criticise her.
“Yeah, sure,” she said, obviously having noticed his reaction. “I let him kiss me. I kissed him back. But, if I thought about it at all, I suppose I thought it was a flirtation. I knew he dated other women. I knew he slept with other women. I never thought of our relationship as serious, and I knew he didn’t either. Sure, I knew he’d probably like to take me to bed. And, when the opportunity arose, I knew that I’d probably enjoy it too - but I’m not into casual affairs, Clark, and I knew that was all Lex was offering.”
“What? You wouldn’t sleep with him, so he asked you to marry him?” Clark frowned; had Luthor actually fallen in love with Lois? He found that impossible to believe, even based on what he’d worked out about the man before this morning.
Lois shook her head. “No. That came later. Then, he was perfectly charming - he said if that was what I wanted then he hoped we could still be friends. And that was it - we still saw each other and it was as if he’d never made a pass. And then something changed.” A distant, shuttered expression flitted across her face. “I had no idea what at the time, but I think I’m starting to figure it out now.”
Clark was about to ask what, but she shook her head. “Let me tell you how it happened. And then I’ll tell you about last night.”
He nodded, though it wasn’t what he wanted. “Whatever’s easier for you.”
“I just want you to understand.” She pulled a face. “Not that I know why you should have to understand, but I... for some reason, Clark, I don’t want you to think badly of me. I’d hate to think that
you thought I married Lex for his money. Or that I’m... shallow because I asked him for a divorce so quickly.”
Lois cared what he thought of her? Clark felt his heart skip a beat. Hoping that he goofy grin he was trying to stifle wasn’t showing, he said carefully, “I never thought you’d married him for his money. I didn’t get that impression at all, even though I admit that I did wonder why you’d married a man who didn’t seem right for you. As for wanting a divorce...” He shrugged. “My parents have been married more than thirty years. They’ve had their ups and downs, but they’re still very much in love. So I guess I just have an idealistic picture of what a marriage can be.”
“And I had a disaster-movie of a marriage as an example,” Lois said cynically. “Anyway, like I said, something changed. It was around March - suddenly Lex started wanting to see me more frequently. And his gifts changed too - he’d occasionally given me things before, but they were just little things. A book he knew I wanted to read; a scarf because he said it would match an outfit he liked on me. That sort of thing. But suddenly he was giving me expensive jewellery and designer accessories. I didn’t want to accept it - well, I was embarrassed, to be honest. But he said he’d be offended if I didn’t. And he seemed so sincere...”
She paused, biting her lip. “I really should have seen it coming. I don’t know how I didn’t. Anyway, in early April he asked me to marry him. Actually, it was April first, and I thought it was an April Fool’s joke! But he insisted that he was serious. He said he was in love with me. I didn’t know what to say - I told him that I’d never thought of him that way and that I couldn’t marry him. I said we’d better stop seeing each other. But he said he didn’t want to lose my friendship and that he wasn’t going to give up hope of changing my mind. I tried, though,” she added. “I refused his next few invitations, and only accepted the one after that because he said he’d be very hurt if I didn’t come. Big mistake,” she muttered.
“So he asked again?”
“Over a month later. In fact, I thought he’d accepted that I just wanted to be his friend. And then... things changed.”
“What changed?”
For a moment, Lois looked as if she were going to cry. “My whole life fell apart. Well, that was how it felt. Remember the Planet explosion?”
Clark nodded. He remembered it very well; it had resulted in the dashing of his hopes, after all. But now, he was seeing it in a different light: Lois had worked there, after all.
“Well, suddenly I didn’t have a job any more. And, Clark, the Daily Planet was always far more than a job to me. It was my life! I... don’t make friends easily.” She ducked her head. “I’m even worse at relationships. I put men off - I know I do it, and sometimes it’s even deliberate. See, I’m ambitious - ruthless, sometimes - and I don’t trust men. I think that’s another thing which attracted me to Lex - the fact that he wasn’t intimidated by me. He seemed to admire my ambition and he saw my cynicism about men as a challenge. Anyway - ” She recovered the thread of her narrative. “ - after the explosion, Perry retired and moved away. A few other long-term staffers got jobs elsewhere. Everyone just gave up on the paper. And... I guess I felt like they were giving up on me. I felt... lost. I had nowhere to go.”
“You could have walked into another job just like that!” Clark exclaimed, snapping his fingers. “With your track record, they’d have been falling over themselves to make you an offer - Washington, New York, LA... you name it!”
“Yeah, I guess.” Lois, to his amazement, looked doubtful. “Well, it’s possible. But - well, you know my reputation as a reporter, Clark. I guess you don’t know my reputation as a colleague.”
He gave her a puzzled look.
“I’m terrible to work with. I’m impatient, rude, not a team player, refuse to work with a partner, frequently don’t tell my editor what I’m working on, disappear sometimes for days on end without reporting in, refuse assignments because there’s something else I’d rather work on... need I go on?” She threw him a wry look. “So, while I’m sure another paper wouldn’t object to someone with a track record of Kerths, I suspected that they might have a problem with my attitude. And... call me vain... my pride wouldn’t let me take the risk that I’d get rejected.”
Lois Lane get rejected? Somehow, Clark couldn’t see it, even if she were as difficult to work with as she claimed. Prima donnas who brought in the goods were tolerated everywhere.
“Anyway, Lex came to the rescue,” she continued. “He offered me a job at LNN - investigating, news-gathering, writing copy. All behind the scenes, which suited me - I never wanted to go on camera. And he was there for me when I needed a friend, which was pretty much all the time there. I was a mess,” she confessed, sounding ashamed. “The few friends I had were all at the Planet, and they’d all gone. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life - the job at LNN was just a stop-gap. I knew that, and Lex did too. He kept encouraging me, telling me how good I was at my job and that he’d be delighted to have me at LNN permanently. If I wanted an editor’s job, it was mine... all that sort of thing. And whenever I talked about missing my friends, he kept telling me how important I was to him. I... found that I needed him. And when he asked me to marry him again, I said yes.”
So, the man had made himself indispensable to Lois, Clark mused. Clever - if it had been a strategy rather than something borne out of love for her. And he was becoming more and more convinced that it had been a strategy. Opportunist, too: Luthor had adroitly taken advantage of the Planet’s destruction to move in and become Lois’s only port in the storm her life had become.
Then he stilled as another thought occurred to him. Taken advantage of an opportunity... or created an opportunity?
The explosion at the Planet had been arson. Clark remembered reading about it; a young employee by the name of Jimmy Olsen had been convicted, the motive allegedly revenge. Olsen had been recently demoted from a newsroom junior to an odd-job role in the print department.
Luthor had owned the Daily Planet at the time of its destruction; he’d bought it, so the media had reported, to prevent it going under financially. Was it just possible that he’d destroyed the paper to stop good money going after bad? It could be that the insurance payout, even with deductions for arson, was more than the paper was worth as a going concern. And perhaps Luthor had calculated that one consequence of its destruction would be that Lois would be separated from everything that had given her fulfilment - and that she would naturally turn to him.
Or was he speculating too far?
He decided not to tell Lois what he was thinking - at least, not just yet. She had more to relate, anyway - especially her husband’s murder attempt.
“You said yes. I understand,” he said softly, realising that she was waiting for some kind of reaction from her. “I guess you were still in some kind of shock.”
Lois shrugged. “I probably was. I certainly wasn’t thinking clearly - though I can’t deny all blame. I said yes to him. I knew I didn’t love him, but I think I was trying to persuade myself that I liked him enough to make it work. That I’d be a fool not to be able to fall in love with him - I mean, he was so charming and attentive and loving; how could I not?” Her mouth turned down at the corners. “Another of my many flaws is that I’m impulsive. Always have been. Someone once told me that I always jump in without checking the water level. It usually works for me - I mean, when I’m on the trail of a story. My instincts have almost always been pretty good. Okay, sure, things haven’t always panned out; I’ve got hurt a few times, too. But most of the time I’m
right. So I acted on impulse this time too - and married him.”
“And regretted it?” Clark ventured.
“And regretted it,” Lois agreed. “Even before he tried to kill me.”
*********
...tbc
