"Are you sure your boyfriend Scardino is with the DEA?" Bobby asked around a mouthful of shrimp.
"He's not my boyfriend."
"All right, all right. It's a figure of speech," he recanted. "But from what I'm hearing on the street, he's not DEA. He's FDA."
"What?"
"Food and Drug Administration, Lois. He's one of those guys who can say yes and no to companies that want to market new drugs."
"You must have the wrong Scardino," she told Bobby, knowing it was the truth but not wanting to believe that she’d been bamboozled again.
"All right, all right. If you say so."
Bobby explained that Dan was working on something called Project Nirvana, and that Intergang was involved and then hung up. A sharp rap at the door drew Lois's attention from the notes she had scribbled on a notepad.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Sugar Blossom!" Dan quipped in a cartoon character voice.
Lois opened the door to the sight of Dan, holding a pen and paper in hand.
"Hello, I'm doing a survey of women who resent having gifts sent to them. Please answer true or false. Wrapping paper offends me? Mmm, hmm. I am psychologically unable to accept gifts? Mmm, hmm. Gifts are okay, I just can't stand the guy who sent them?"
"It's not about the gifts, Dan," Lois tried to explain. "It's about trust." And during her futile attempt to explain to Dan about that trust, Superman had appeared at her window.
"Oh, super," complained Dan.
"Hi," Lois greeted him.
"Can I talk to you?"
"Take a number, pal," Scardino grumbled.
Superman had come to seek Lois's advice about the lawsuit. Did she know any attorneys that could handle the case? He wanted someone he could trust, someone who would help him win, someone with the same integrity that he had. Truth and justice had to prevail. Surprisingly, Dan had been the one to provide the name of an honest lawyer.
Lois was once again brought back to reality by chilly bath water. When she saw her hands and noticed they were as wrinkled as her neighbor’s Shar-Pei, she pulled the plug and watched as the bubbly water spiraled down the drain. After drying herself with a fluffy towel and smoothing on her favorite floral-scented lotion, she pulled on a comfortable sleep shirt and padded toward the kitchen in search of food. Her rumbling stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten anything but a spoonful of ice cream since lunch.
She grabbed a sandwich and a glass of milk and headed to her bedroom. She propped herself up in bed against a mound of pillows and aimed the remote at the small television on her dresser. One by one she surfed through the channels and saw replay after replay of Calvin Dregg’s interviews where he extolled his talent and blamed Superman for the early demise of his musical career. Even his outlandish claims couldn’t compete with all the thoughts whirling in her mind.
The scene between Calvin Dregg and his secret wife, Elise, had been an ugly affair. Calvin’s disdain for the woman sitting beside him and his utter selfishness should have been apparent to anyone witnessing it. After he’d called Elise an idiot and blamed her for buying a defective television set, he left in search of another one.
“Unpleasant,” Clark commented.
Lois looked at him with a gaze that could have melted steel.
"What?" Clark asked, a puzzled look on his face.
"Well." Lois stated.
"Well, what?" Clark asked again, still puzzled.
"Time to talk!" Lois demanded. "Clark, we were on a date and you just disappeared and never came back."
Clark’s gaze dropped to the table and he picked at the crumbs on the tablecloth. "Look, Lois, I'm not exactly sure what to say."
"The truth! Look, I've come to the point with this -- with us -- that whatever the truth is, I need to hear it."
Then Clark got that far-far-away look in his eyes, fidgeted with his necktie and pushed his chair out from the table. "Lois, I'm really sorry. I'm [i]really sorry."
Recognizing the all too familiar signs of retreat, Lois gritted her teeth and commanded, "Clark, don't you do it." As she watched the back of his sport coat disappear from her field of vision, Lois wiped away a tear and turned to the waitress, asking for a piece of paper and a pen. She scribbled two words on the paper and gave it to the waitress.
"If my, uh, friend comes back, could you give him this for me please?"[/i]
The sandwich seemed to lodge in her throat and no amount of milk would wash it down. Despite hunger, Lois’s body simply refused to accept sustenance. She carried the plate and glass back to the kitchen and paused to gaze out of the window over the sink.
A lone star hung in the night sky and brought with it memories of a childhood rhyme that her grandmother had taught her.
Star light, star bright
First star I see tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.
Dan had asked Lois what she wanted. So had Dr. Friskin. Now she had a star to wish upon. What would she wish for? Or who?
Did she want Dan with his wild bouquets and crazy sculptures? The man who liked her rumaki and flattered her with comments about her looks?
Or did she want Clark, with eyes a woman could drown in and gentleness she'd never known in a man before? He'd saved her life when Barbara Trevino had tried to have her killed and he took a bullet for her when Dr. Hamilton cloned those gangsters. Their first date had been great. And their first real kiss had left her feeling giddy and wanting more. She felt safe in his arms as if she’d finally found home and a place where she belonged.
And of course there was Superman. He’d saved her life too many times to count. And he admired her work. That was important to Lois. Superman was her hero -- her superhero. But of course he was everyone's superhero. Only now she knew that Superman was Clark. Or was it the other way around? Was Clark Superman? Was he really a mild-mannered reporter, posing as a superhero? Or was he a superhero posing as Clark Kent? All these questions left Lois's brain spinning.
Retrieving the note from her purse, Lois looked again at the words she had written in anger. Why hadn't Clark told her he was Superman? Why had he let her believe he was two different people? She remembered how sad he had looked this afternoon on the park bench. Were the wet spots she had seen this afternoon from tears? Superman didn't cry. Or did he?
A hack from Smallville. Her face burned at the memory of those words.
Don't fall for me, Farmboy, she had advised, all the while swooning over the man in blue tights like a giggling schoolgirl. Now she knew that the two men were one. There were two very different public personas with one very tender heart underneath. And from the looks of things, she may have broken that heart beyond repair.
Is there any chance for us, Superman? If you had NO powers, if you were just an ordinary man leading an ordinary life, I'd love you just the same.
Oh how that must have hurt him. Lois cringed even now as she remembered that comment. No wonder he had seemed so cold that night. And so distant. She'd turned down Clark's declaration of love only to tell Superman later that she'd love him if he had no powers. He must have thought she was incredibly capricious. Fickle and cruel. If he had ever entertained any thoughts of sharing his dual identity with her, her actions that night most likely stopped him from doing so.
And of course, why should Superman believe she wanted to help him fight this lawsuit when just the day before she had told his alter-ego to forget it? Still holding the offending note in her hand, she felt the tears well up in her eyes and made no effort to stop their path down her cheeks.
Seeing her reflection in the window pane, she berated herself. "Well, Lois, you've certainly made a mess of this one, haven't you? But more importantly, what are you going to do to make it right?"
Knowing that Superman's trial was scheduled to begin the next day and that she also had another appointment with Dr. Friskin before the trial, Lois decided to try and get some sleep, though she doubted very much whether her tortured conscience would allow sleep to overtake her.
* * * * *
After she’d finally drifted off, she’d tossed and turned all night, her sleep dotted with dreams of every rude comment and action she’d made to Clark. The alarm blared too early and jarred her awake. She showered and dressed quickly, grabbing a muffin and cup of coffee from a street vendor on her way to Dr. Friskin's office. She'd made some decisions about what she was going to do with her recent discovery and hoped that her session with the doctor reinforced them.
"So basically what you're saying is that all my life I've attracted men that are controlling or incomplete or downright liars because, because…" Lois stumbled over her words.
"Keep going," urged Dr. Friskin.
"Because I like being treated that way?" Lois couldn't believe her admission. "But if I like that kind of man and I get that kind of man, why am I not happy
"You like chocolate, right?" Dr. Friskin began.
"How come everybody knows that?" Lois whined.
"But you know it's not good for you. And the older and wiser we get, the less tolerance we have for something that's not good for us," the doctor explained. "You're not a victim, Lois. So stop acting like one! You know who you want to be with. You've known all along. The problem is he's just as scared as you are. So, who's gonna be the one to step up and say the scary words?"
"How come you never ask the simple questions?"
"I would," answered Dr. Friskin, "if I knew the easy answers."
But of course Lois had the answer she'd been looking for. In fact, it was a conclusion she had reached in the early hours of the morning. She knew which man she wanted and which ones she didn't. Finding the answer had been simple compared to the upcoming task of telling each man what her decision was. But right now she had a trial to attend.
* * * * *
After the first round of witnesses, the judge called for a recess, and Lois found her chance to speak with Elise.
"Can I ask you a question?" Lois probed. "How can you lie on the stand like that for a man who won't even admit he's married to you?
Elise looked at Lois as shock and embarrassment showed on her face. "How... how did you...?
Lois continued with her comments, "The kind of degradation you'll tolerate in your personal life is your business -- but you're ruining an innocent man and I'm not going to stand here…."
Elise moved away in hopes of escaping what she knew to be the truth, but Lois followed her.
"He doesn't love you, Elise. You can tell when a man loves you by the way he treats you, by the way he looks at you, by the way—"
Turning to confront Lois, Elise said, "Look, Miss Lane, if you've found the perfect man, I'm happy for you—"
"He's about as far from perfect as you get. But I'll tell you the difference between him and Calvin: I know that he wants my happiness more than his own."
With a look of both astonishment and sadness, Elise walked away, heading toward the prosecution's table where Calvin and his attorney sat waiting for the proceedings to resume.
The pounding of the judge's gavel signaled that court was back in session and Superman's lawyer, Constance Hunter, called him to the stand to testify on his own behalf.
"Sitting here, listening to all this damning testimony, I'd like to know, " inquired Ms. Hunter, "why do you want to BE Superman? It seems to me it's never offered you much but exposure to danger and ridicule."
"No, that's not true," Superman stated.
"Explain," Ms. Hunter requested.
"All the things I can do... the powers I have -- I've asked myself a thousand times, why? And the only answer I could come up with is: to help as quickly and decisively as possible. And maybe because of that, I've been a target." As he spoke these words, Superman looked directly at Lois. Continuing, he said, "And maybe there are some things I'll never have. But when I can save a life -- well, in that instant, I know two things most people never figure out: why I'm here and how I can make a difference."
At that moment Lois knew exactly what she had to do -- what she had to say to Superman. The events of the past few days had suddenly and clearly fallen into place and proper perspective, and Lois knew she had to say the scary words. In fact, she needed to say the scary words to the one man she'd wanted all along. But she had to make it clear that he was the man she wanted and not his counterpart who moonlighted in tights.
The next moments were a blur as Superman suddenly stopped the proceedings by disposing of a bomb in the courtroom. As if on cue, Calvin began to feign blindness supposedly caused by the dust created when Superman exited the courtroom through the ceiling. And also, as if on cue, Elise finally stood up to him and declared before the court that nothing was wrong with Calvin's hand, and that he had made her lie just to get money.
As the judge's gavel sounded, all charges against Superman were dropped and the courtroom began clearing. Lois nodded and smiled at Elise, indicating that she had done the right thing. Then she hurried after Superman and called to him.
"Congratulations!"
"What?" he asked.
"Oh, I just think I understand something that I didn't before: why I don't really know you; why no one does," she explained. "You live above us; and when we try and bring you down here, we just end up showing the worst sides of ourselves."
Her voice softening, Lois continued, "I tried to love you. I realize that was selfish because you're not just here for me; you're here for all of us. I'll always need you, and I'll always be your friend. But there's someone here who needs me, and I just need to figure out how to get him to see that."
"Lois, I need…" Superman began, but realized he needed to be careful of his words. "…to say to you, ah, thank you for being such a good friend." Superman turned and marched out of the courtroom, his cape swirling behind him majestically.
Superman was a man of his word in a world filled with promise-breakers. And so is Clark, an inner voice reminded her.
Exhaling the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, Lois thought, "One down and one to go."
* * * * *
Lois stabbed the buttons on the telephone to call Dan. She desperately wanted to talk with him and get everything out in the open. She’d told Superman that she just wanted to be friends and now she needed to tell Dan that she had an answer to his question. It was clear to her now what she wanted. And she felt she owed it to Dan to let him know that it wasn't him.
The phone rang repeatedly until she was finally connected to his hotel's voice messaging system. She started to leave a message but was interrupted by a knock at the door.
She yanked open the door and found Dan holding up a copy of the Daily Planet. The headline proclaimed "OMNICORP'S KNOX ARRESTED." Underneath the headline were the words "Exclusive by Lois Lane."
"Congrats," said Dan, beaming at Lois.
"Dan," she replied, subdued. "Come on in." It seemed odd not to see him in his usual Jimmy Buffet attire. Instead of wild flowers and bright colors, Dan was dressed in army drab green.
As he walked through the doorway, Dan produced a large bouquet of fresh flowers. "Sorry," he said almost apologetically, one corner of his mouth turned up in an almost smile. "Couldn't help myself."
“I bet that grin works most of the time, doesn’t it?”
Dan had the courtesy to look appropriately chastised but then thrust the flowers in her direction.
"Oh, Dan, I wish you hadn't…" began Lois.
"I know, I know. I try to buy your affection with gifts, and I promised to stop," he started. "But I've been a jerk and I just wanted to let you know that, first, I'm sorry for being such a jerk, and second, I'm very grateful for your help in cracking this Omnicorp case." Dan leaned forward and kissed Lois’s cheek softly.
"Now, that being said, why don’t you go out with me and celebrate with a nice Mexican dinner?"
Lois looked at Dan and then her gaze dropped to the beautiful bouquet in her arms. At that instant, she felt tears begin to prick at the backs of her eyelids. She tried unsuccessfully to blink them back and then stepped back and sat on the sofa. With a half-hearted smile she explained, "Sorry, it's my allergies. Must be some kind of flower in here that I'm allergic to."
The smile disappeared from his face and his shoulders drooped. He inhaled deeply, then blew the breath out with a whistle, his head nodding slowly.
"Can I just ask one question, Lois?"
Lois nodded silently and Dan continued. "How did you decide what you wanted?"
