Managing to avoid Clark Kent for the rest of the day hadn’t been easy, but Lois had made the effort. Speaking to him immediately would have been a mistake; she’d have said things she’d have regretted. Despite the fact that her cozy plans for a relationship would have to be placed on hold, it looked as though she’d have to work with Clark for a long time.
She’d spent the evening reading through his news articles and travel books, and she’d been reluctantly impressed. The man didn’t have quite her hard edge when dealing with news stories, but he had an unerring sense for the human side of issues. Unlike many human-interest writers, however, he was good about writing unbiased reports.
According to his bio, he’d been in the Congo at approximately the same time she’d been doing her drug running story. Given the size of the country, it wasn’t a surprise that they hadn’t run into each other, but Lois couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they had. He’d been writing freelance at the time, and they could have worked together without actually being co-workers.
She hadn’t had a hard and fast rule about dating people she worked with then. Before Claude, it had seemed only reasonable to be interested in someone who shared a similar work schedule and similar interests. She’d been naïve enough not to think about the aftermath of a breakup, about the awkwardness of being ex-lovers and having to work together.
Lois was older and wiser now, though she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret. Clark Kent had seemed perfect, exactly the sort of man she could envision herself dating. He wouldn’t have been threatened by her career, and he wouldn’t have been a threat to it either.
Finding that the Lex Air tickets were non-adjacent had been a relief. Lois wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable talk. She’d been dumped in enough relationships to cringe at the idea of telling a man that they couldn’t see each other anymore for reasons that had nothing to do with him and everything to do with her.
Even two seats back, she could hear him engaged in a conversation with an older man.
“Presley won’t be re-elected,” the man was saying. “After putting so much of an emphasis on the drug war with nothing to show for it, he’s a political liability for the Democratic party.”
Lois couldn’t hear Clark’s reply over the sounds of the engines and the low conversations of the other passengers.
“Even the Democrats don’t like him. They think he’s a Republican in disguise. The Republicans think he’s soft on crime and defense, and the Democrats don’t see him as being liberal enough. At least Heston has a clear and simple message.”
The repeated scandals that had rocked the presidency wouldn’t help. Despite the likelihood that it’d be throwing the vote to the Heston Campaign, Lois, like many Americans, was planning on voting for a third party candidate. Which one, she didn’t yet know.
She stiffened as she felt the plane roll in preparation for landing. She’d always hated flying; the feeling of being confined in a coffin made of tin foil had always made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t that she was afraid of heights; it was the feeling of a loss of control.
Losing control had never been good for her; Claude had shown her that, as had a seemingly endless string of disastrous relationships. Clark Kent had been dangerous because he made her want to give up a little of the rigid control that she kept over her own life.
Sighing, Lois closed her eyes. She always wanted things that weren’t good for her. She’d just have to make do with her life as it was.
**********************
Lois still hadn’t spoken to him. She’d ignored him the previous day, and had barely arrived at the airport in time to catch the plane. He almost wished she had. While he hated the idea that she might be angry at him, concealing the truth would be easier with her a thousand miles and more away.
Facing the people he’d once known would be hard enough without Lois by his side. His legacy of shame was the last thing he wanted paraded in front of her. Given a choice, it was something that he wouldn’t have told her until they were deeply committed to each other.
He wanted her to think the best of him, and that would be impossible in a place like Smallville. In Metropolis, he was the man he presented himself to be, suave, intelligent, successful. His secret life had little bearing on that.
In Smallville, however, he had little doubt that the others would try to force him to become what he once was. He’d left that person behind long ago, and had little interest in revisiting it. Other than a letter twice a year, and a check, he had no interest in ever revisiting his childhood.
The world was everything he’d dreamed it would be, now that he’d found Lois Lane. Returning now, after so long, would only mean trouble in his life that he could ill afford.
Commercial air travel was maddeningly slow. On his own, he could have reached Smallville in a matter of seconds. Being forced to sit in a metal box for two hours would have been intolerable without something to keep his mind occupied.
As the plane taxied in for a landing, Clark returned his attention to the man beside him. The man had introduced himself as Simon Hunt, and he wore the same suit and tie as most of the other businessmen on the flight. In his forties, the man seemed intelligent, but opinionated. Simon Hunt seemed primarily interested in politics, and after two hours, Clark found himself wishing he were anywhere else.
“The Presley administration has made great strides in health care and welfare reform,” Clark said quietly, feeling that he had to say something to refute the man’s grudge against the current administration. “I haven’t seen a great deal from the Heston camp about any of the domestic issues.”
“Presidents don’t have any power over domestic issues. Congress hamstrings them. Foreign policy is their real job, and you have to admit that the president has had a few too many failures on that front.”
As the man had spent much of the past two hours enumerating those failures, Clark didn’t feel the need to respond. He was glad that he’d avoided admitting his profession; the man would have been even more likely to attempt to bend his ear. At least Simon hadn’t pushed the issue of the scandals that had rocked the White House over the past few years. He’d confined himself to substantive issues.
“You’ve got business in Wichita?” Clark asked, hoping to change the subject. Smallville wasn’t big enough to have its own airport, and so Wichita was the nearest city with an airport.
The man beside him shook his head. “I’m heading for Smallville. It’s a small town a couple of hours northwest of Wichita.”
“You have family there?” Clark asked. There weren’t many business reasons to go to Smallville.
The older man grimaced. “I work for the National Inquisitor. Some farmer claims to have found a UFO on his property, and I’m being sent out to investigate.”
Clark fought to keep his features composed. More reporters would mean that he was at more of a risk of discovery.
“I wasn’t aware that the National Inquisitor actually sent reporters out,” Clark said carefully. “I thought they just made all their stories up.”
Simon Hunt shrugged. “You can’t believe everything you hear. I expect that I’ll get a few pictures and a few quotes and be back on the first plane back to New York in a couple of days.”
Nodding, Clark pretended to turn his attention to the landing as the plane made it’s final descent. A man like Simon Hunt was intelligent enough to see the seeds of a real story if he knew that two reporters from the Daily Planet were sniffing around. Clark would have to be careful.
In this, at least, he could enlist Lois’s aid. She wouldn’t want anyone else to scoop them on a story. He already knew she was competitive enough to want to avoid that.
As the plane pulled to a stop, Clark turned his focus on Lois. She wouldn’t be able to avoid him once they were on the ground. He simply had to find the right words.
*******************
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Clark said. “And I’m not entirely sure why.”
Lois grimaced. She’d hoped to avoid a confrontation, until doomsday if need be, but apparently Clark was going to push the issue.
She grabbed the ticket from the rental agent and turned to Clark. “We can talk about this in the car.”
“I’ll drive,” Clark said, making as though to take the ticket from her.
“Why? Because I’m the little woman?” Stepping away from the counter, Lois hissed. “I thought I made it clear that I do the driving.”
“At work I suppose that’s true.” Clark’s expression turned mild. “However, I’ll be able to get us there without asking directions. I grew up around here, remember?”
Lois scowled. “From the way you were talking back in Perry’s office, I’d have thought you wouldn’t care if we ever reached Smallville.”
Clark hesitated for a long moment before saying, “If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be going back. But the man I was speaking to on the airplane was Simon Hunt…”
“Simon Hunt?” Lois said stopping. “If he’s already on his way, we’d better get moving.”
She grabbed the only small bag that Clark had allowed her to carry, and set off moving quickly. She refused to admit that she was impressed by the way he moved while loaded down with enough baggage to drop an elephant.
“He told me that he worked for the National Inquisitor,” Clark said, catching up to her. “Do you know him?”
“He won the Merriweather award the year before I did. He was a legitimate journalist until just a few years ago, and he’s not stupid. If there is anything to find in Smallville, he’ll dig until he finds it. He’s not like the other Inquisitor hacks. He actually knows his business.”
Lois almost thought that Clark paled, but she dismissed it as being a trick of the light. She walked as quickly as she could without running, and it took her only a few moments to find the attendant waiting with their car. She handed her ticket to the attendant, allowed him to take her bag, and waited for Clark to catch up.
The attendant handed the keys to Clark. Under normal circumstances, Lois would have protested the attendant’s chauvinistic assumptions, but at the moment she was preoccupied.
Clark slid into the driver’s seat and Lois closed her eyes, silently wondering how she was going to bring up a subject that she’d been wanting desperately to avoid.
Slipping the vehicle into drive, Clark spoke. “You have to talk to me sometime. We’re going to be partners.”
“That’s the problem.” Lois said. “We’re going to be partners at work.”
“I’m not entirely certain how that could be considered a problem. I’m looking forward to working with you.” Clark glanced at her, “I’ll do my best to hold up my end professionally.”
“I’m not worried about the professional end of things.” After reading Clark’s resume and his articles, Lois had little doubt that he’d be a competent reporter.
“I’m relieved to hear that,” Clark said, pulling out into traffic. “From what I hear, you don’t exactly like playing with others.”
Playing was exactly what she wished she could do. Instead, she had to give him the bad news.
“My concerns are more about the private part of our relationship.”
“You didn’t enjoy our date?” Clark asked. “I know it ended badly, but I can promise that most of my dates don’t end like…”
“I don’t date people I work with,” Lois said flatly. She stared out the side window out onto the passing road, refusing to look at him.
Clark was silent for a long moment. “That’s not exactly what I was expecting to hear. Can I ask why?”
“Experience,” Lois said tersely. “Ask around at the Planet, and I’m sure you can get all the juicy details.”
“I’m not going to tell anyone anything that you don’t want me to tell them.” Clark said. “I don’t like to lie, but I’m pretty good at keeping a secret if I have to.”
“I could see that,” Lois said. She hesitated, then forced herself to ask, “You pretended as though we didn’t know each other when Perry introduced us. Why?”
“I thought that if you’d wanted him to know, you’d have told him.” Clark looked away for a moment. “Sometimes interoffice romances can be sticky.”
“Then you understand why I can’t…why we can’t…” Lois fumbled with the words.
“I said they could be sticky, not that they couldn’t work.” Clark glanced over his shoulder and pulled out onto the highway. “Sometimes it’s worth it.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Lois said. “Men don’t face the same sort of pressures women do.”
“I’m not sure that I believe that, Lois, Clark said. “These days a man has as much to…”
Lois interrupted him. “Do you have to work twice as hard anyone else just so you can receive the same respect? If you did, you wouldn’t be so willing to throw that respect away for a few days of pleasure.”
“Is that what happened, Lois?” Clark shook his head. “You seem to have the respect of everyone at the Planet.”
Lois shook her head. “I have three rules, farm boy. Never get involved with your stories, never let anyone get there first and never sleep with anyone you work with.”
“I never said anything about sleeping,” Clark said. “I don’t think we know each other well enough for that.”
Lois felt herself flushing. “I had those rules a long time before I met you.”
Her new partner was much too perceptive for her taste. She’d been tempted by him from the moment she met him; letting him know that would be a mistake.
“It’s probably a good idea while we’re on the job in any case,” Clark said. “If this Simon Hunt character sees us sniffing around and finds out who we are, you can bet he’d figure something was up.”
Grateful for the respite, Lois said, “Maybe we shouldn’t admit to working for the Planet. Nobody back home knows that you work for it, do they?”
Clark shook his head. “I haven’t spoken to anyone back home in years.”
“Then we can just be passing through. I could pretend to be your fiancé.”
The idea had popped into her head with a flash of inspiration. “You could just pretend to be coming home for a visit. Simon doesn’t know me by appearance…I could just pretend to be the little woman.”
Pleasant possibilities flashed through her mind. The pretense of intimacy could be almost as good as the real thing. She should know; she’d had that with Lex, before he was killed. Discovering after he was dead that he’d been as much a liar as every other man in her life had been hard.
“You wouldn’t want to do that,” Clark said, turning to watch the road once again. “I didn’t exactly have a happy childhood in Smallville.”
Lois grinned. “So you were a nerd in high school? It’ll do your reputation a world of good to be seen with a woman like me.”
