The next day, Lois redoubled her efforts to look for Chloe.
She knew she was only trying to distract herself from what had happened with Clark since he hadn’t seemed to want to talk about it, making her having to repress her own feelings on the matter. And that meant she needed to focus her energy on something.
Chloe needed her help. Smallville sure didn’t seem to want it.
Clark never came home last night, having taken off somewhere with Oliver. And though her leg was better, it was still painful to drive. She made it to the Planet on her own though, and even half-hoped to see Clark there.
When he wasn’t at his desk, she tried not to feel the lump of disappointment, and instead went to work on tracking Davis’ movements through the archives, lining up when she thought Chloe had disappeared and if she could have been with him.
She recalled seeing a black van at the Talon before her run-in with the mob goons and Davis. It had seemed too obvious for it to be Mannheim’s thugs’ vehicle, which could mean someone else had been trying to locate Davis, probably someone with influential resources.
Tess came to mind, having run endless stories on Davis in the Planet since he started his killing spree, and Lois made a mental note to check her office later for some clues. It was merely a hunch, but quite often, Lois’ hunches paid off.
As part of her research, Lois made herself read through all the articles that had been published in the Planet regarding Davis. The stories of Davis’ exploits made her stomach turn, and she still couldn’t conceive how Chloe could have gone along with it all. She had to believe that Chloe had left with Davis under duress, which was all the more reason to find her as soon as possible.
Lois did as much as she could from her desk. Her leg was getting better, but she wanted to save up her energy for running around town in the afternoon. She called the police station and tried to get some details, asking if anyone had seen a petite blonde on the scene of any of the incidents. She also called the local businesses in the areas of the murders, hoping to find some trace of Chloe.
But she couldn’t find a single substantial lead.
“Where are you, Chlo?” Lois murmured to herself.
After hours of research, Lois had a few places she wanted to check out herself. She didn’t expect to find much, but at least she could talk to people and would feel as if she was doing something. Clark didn’t seem to want her around, and she hadn’t heard from him anyway since he talked with Oliver. She was on her own –
Unless the Blur was out there, looking for Chloe too.
That thought gave her a little bit of hope, a small light in the shadows of her heart, between all the fear and insecurity.
At least she still had the Blur on her side.
~\S/~
Lois returned to the Planet later that night, exhausted and disheartened. As she had feared, all of her leads had been dead ends. Chloe was nowhere to be found.
She came into the bullpen, frustrated and tired. And then, there he was—whom she had been simultaneously avoiding and thinking about all day. Clark was sitting calmly at his desk, as if nothing had happened, as if Chloe wasn’t on the run somewhere with a notorious monster.
Torn up by the mixed emotions she had felt last night, and the futility she felt in searching for Chloe all afternoon, she suddenly became angry with him. How could he be so calm? She crossed her arms defensively, ready to pick a fight. “Chloe’s missing with some beastie boy, and you’re doing what exactly?”
He didn’t look at her, his attention focused on his screen. “No one wants to find Chloe more than I do,” he said evenly.
“Except maybe me,” she responded, hurt that he wouldn’t realize how concerned she’d be for her cousin. “Clark, I haven’t slept well in days and am dangerously close to a caffeine OD.”
“I hadn’t noticed,” he murmured with just a hint of their old banter, though his eyes still remained intent on his screen.
Why won’t he even look at me? She wondered, thinking that maybe he did remember the love potion incident and was simply too embarrassed to even glance her way.
Maybe she wasn’t being fair. Maybe seeing Lana again had stirred up some more complex emotions than he wanted to admit. If he didn’t want to talk to her about Chloe or Lana, perhaps they could find equal footing again with work. She came over to stand by his shoulder to see what held his interest so intently on his computer. “Do you want to at least tell me about this little novella you are working on that is so important?” she said, her comment coming out more abrasive than she meant.
When she saw his computer, his desktop was empty. Whatever it was he had been working on, he didn’t want to share it with her. “No,” he said quietly, and it was if a wall had come up around him, nearly breaking her heart. She felt completely shut out.
“Great. Another ricochet off the impenetrable force field,” she retorted, clearly hurt. But she still wanted to reach out to him, make amends if it was she he was upset with. “Look, if you’re angry about me not telling you about Lana, I get it. I just thought—“
“Lana’s left Smallville. I—I said my good-byes to her and she’s gone,” he said simply.
Lois chided herself for the sense of relief she felt at those words. “I hope she at least apologized for the whole love-potion-number-nine thing,” Lois laughed nervously, wondering if his good-bye to Lana was what had put him in such a sour mood. “So, she’s not going after Davis?” Lois asked when she got no response, trying another tactic to break through to him.
Clark shook his head, but still didn’t turn around to face her.
“And what happened last night?” she began carefully. “Do you really not remember?” she couldn’t resist asking, knowing that his kisses would be indelibly imprinted on her memory for years to come. Her cheeks still flamed at the memory…
He paused a long time, his eyes seemingly fixed on some faraway place that she couldn’t see. He was closing himself off to her, and she couldn’t understand why. If Lana was truly out of the picture, then it couldn’t be that he was angry with Lois. Yet Lois simply didn’t see what else she could have done to make him so impossibly shut off from her, unless he realized how foolish he had acted on the love potion and was embarrassed.
But she knew Clark was a bit deeper than that, and he wasn’t a petty person. There was something else going on here, something that he didn’t want to share with her. And she couldn’t make him open up to her if he didn’t want to.
“Forget it,” she said at last, turning away from him to get more coffee. She already felt a little bit like a fool for how she handled everything, and she wasn’t about to put herself out there again. Smallville would come around when he was ready – at least she hoped so.
Suddenly the phone started ringing. It rang a few times, and Lois turned around about to be exasperated with Clark’s inability to even pick up a phone in his sour mood. Instead, he was gone. Maybe he really was running from her.
She went to her desk and answered it. “Hello?”
“Miss Lane.” Those words. In that voice. The Blur. His voice was precisely what she needed to hear.
“It’s you,” she breathed in relief, the tension in her a moment before suddenly gone.
“I’ve been searching for your cousin Chloe. I am going to find her.”
“To be honest, I have been hoping that’s what you were doing. I’ve been out looking for her all day and there were so many times that I thought you could help---But I didn’t know how to call you and then here you are out of nowhere to save the day and---” she stopped herself, hearing how ridiculous she must sound going on and on. “I’m rambling again. You just make me so—“ she paused, taking a breath to calm herself. “I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you,” she said simply, honestly.
“You can do you me a favor.”
To be needed by the Blur sent a thrill through her. Lois felt her heart leap with excitement; she’d do anything for him.
He paused a long moment before answering, “I need you to publish a letter for me.”
“What letter?”
Suddenly, a whoosh of wind flew by her, and on the lip of her computer monitor stood an envelope. She looked around, suddenly believing he had to be nearby.
She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes scanning the empty newsroom. “You’re here, aren’t you?”
Lois reached for the letter, unable to wait for further instructions, too intrigued by what the Blur wanted her to publish.
“You’re not supposed to open it yet,” he chastised gently. She began reading, glancing up now and again, hoping that he actually might be nearby and that she’d spot him. “Can I count on you to publish that letter if anything happens to me?” he asked at last.
She half listened as her mind suddenly was consumed by what she was reading. “Good-bye? What do you mean, ‘good-bye’?” she wondered aloud, afraid to imagine a world without the Blur.
One phrase at the end particularly caught her eye: “I can't promise that I'll be around forever. One day, there may be a fight I cannot win.”
“Is it Davis?” she asked quietly. “I know he’s dangerous, but surely you—“
“Sometimes we can’t outrun our destiny, Lois,” he interrupted sadly, sounding as if he had indeed accepted his fate.
“I thought you were invincible,” Lois spoke, standing from her chair as determination to convince him that he could do this surged through her.
“So did I,” he whispered, a despondent note in his voice.
She felt as if something precious was slipping away. The men in her life continually proved to be elusive, yet she couldn’t resist asking the one wish of her heart. If he really thought he would die, then she wanted to at least know who he was, to hold at least that bit of him in her heart forever.
“I want to meet you. I have to see your face,” she said, almost desperate with a need to reach out to her intangible hero. She suddenly felt reckless, pushing more from him than she ever had before, afraid this might be her last chance. “I have to see you. I want you to show me what you can’t show anyone else. You can trust me.”
You can trust me. Lois knew how often she said those words, giving her trust to those she cared for. Just once, she’d like that same trust in return…
He took a long moment to answer, and when he did, the defeated tone of his voice tore at her. “I’m sorry, that’s not a good idea.”
She felt crushed, not just for herself, but for the sadness she heard in him. She had to convince him that he would be all right, that the hero in him would help him survive. “Look, you can come through this. You have to.” She suddenly got an idea, remembering how her mother, before sending the General out on another deployment, always gave him something to look forward to when he came home, something to pull him through even in the darkest battles. Maybe, if he felt the same way she did about him, knowing she was waiting for him would be enough. “And when you do, how do you feel about phone booths?”
He seemed slightly amused. “They’re fine.”
She smiled. “Um, there’s the one on Fourth and Main. Let’s say midnight? I’ll be there. I hope you’ll be there too.” There was no way to convey on a phone what was in her heart, her trust and love for the Blur. But she hoped that he understood, at least a little, and that her faith meant something to him. “And thank you. If anyone can save Chloe, I know it’s you,” she said sincerely.
The phone clicked off, and she heard another whoosh.
She felt chills. The Blur had been here.
But she couldn’t discount the sorrow she had heard in his voice and she was concerned why he had sounded so despondent. She just hoped that everything would be okay, that somehow he’d find Chloe and find the strength to defeat Davis.
And maybe someday… she’d meet him.
~\S/~
The Planet was quiet for the evening. It seemed that Smallville had left for the night, and Lois thought it would give her a chance to do some reconnaissance anyway. There was one place left she thought she could find something out about Chloe – Tess’ office. Since Tess had been running articles about Davis’ exploits for the last few weeks, Lois thought that Tess might be tracking Davis’ movements as well after seeing the strange black van at the Talon. Lois suspected that if anyone knew anything about where Chloe and Davis were, it would be Tess.
She had no trouble breaking into Tess’ office. She didn’t dare turn on a light, just in case the night crew or Tess herself was still wandering the halls.
Tess’ computer was on, and Lois started trying to access files. They were all encrypted and required a pass code. She wasn’t going to be able to access them herself. Suddenly, she heard a noise in the hallway and dived under the desk.
Whoever it was, came in the office and headed to the desk, talking to someone on a cell phone in low tones. She suddenly saw legs come towards her, causing her to cry out as her fingers got stomped on by a foot.
She crawled out, purely annoyed by who had appeared. “Jimmy! You stepped on my hand!”
“Next time don’t leave your hand on the floor under a desk in an office you’re not supposed to be in!” he spat at her, like a spiteful little brother.
“I’m sorry. Did I just get a lecture from Jimmy Olsen?” Lois retorted, finding his chastisement laughable.
She scoffed, but knew there was a more important mission afoot. If Jimmy knew something, then she wanted to know what he knew. “Who were you talking to?”
“No one.” Then, clearly irritated, “Lois, what are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for Chloe and Davis. I think the head of Tess’ security may have been staked out at the Talon apartment. Creepy, but telling. The only problem is her 8 gig mini-brain, is encrypted,” she said with a sigh, gesturing to Tess’ computer.
“Not anymore,” Jimmy answered in triumph, plugging in a USB stick. Suddenly, the files sprang open. There were dozens of pages of tracking records. Lois was impressed and wondered how Jimmy had gotten his hands on such high-tech software. “Tess is definitely tracking Chloe and Davis,” Jimmy said, beginning to read through the files. “Most of this is from a couple of days ago. But if I can just get in—“ Jimmy started typing, digging to find the most current tracking file. “Bingo. Looks like Chloe and Davis are on the outskirts of Edge City-- and so am I!” he said hastily, jumping out of the chair. “Don’t take your eyes off them. Let me know if they move,” he instructed before diving for the door.
Lois sat down, not as concerned with helping Jimmy as wanting to learn more about Tess’ files. The files weren’t all tracking stats. Lois became more curious and started clicking through them. One was of a video of some sort of interrogation.
The man in the video had a gash on his forehead, and looked like whoever was asking him questions hadn’t been at all friendly about it.
Lois could see the barrel of a gun in the corner of the screen.
“Tess, Lex already tried to break down the technology of that orb,” the man said, surprisingly calm for a person in his situation.
“Lex knew that orb wasn’t from this earth,” Lois heard Tess answer off screen. Lois knew Tess often got her hands dirty, but she had never imagined Tess would go this far.
Tess’ voice took on a musing quality, talking about this strange orb. “ It called to me. There’s life inside of it. It can’t be released until the Traveler kills the Beast.”
Lois watched the video, incredulous. The Beast she conjectured was Davis, but the Traveler? What nonsense was this?
“What you’re unleashing. It could be the end of the world.”
What the hell was Tess messing with?
Could the Blur be the Traveler?
If so, then Lois was even more puzzled by Tess’ statement: There’s life inside of it. It can’t be released until the Traveler kills the Beast.
If the Blur kills Davis, then would he unleash aliens onto the earth?
She was chilled by the thought, fearful that was the reason the Blur had sounded so despondent on the phone earlier. Was he afraid of releasing these aliens, and therefore thought he had to sacrifice himself by not killing Davis?
Lois sat back in her chair, worried about the implications.
Surely somehow, the Blur would figure out what to do – and find his way back to her. She trusted that no matter what challenges lay ahead, the Blur could face them.
Clark’s words came back to her suddenly: “What if there comes a time when he can’t live up to your expectation?”
He was right in a way. She did have a lot of faith in the Blur, but she thought it was justified. He had proven himself to her-- and to Metropolis-- over and over again.
Whatever challenge he would face with Davis, she believed that he would do all he could to protect the city.
And she had to believe that he’d come back to her.
Aliens or no aliens, Lois was certain that the world would still be a better place with the Blur than without him.
~\S/~
Lois wasn’t going to sit around and wait for Jimmy forever. She checked the tracking monitor after watching Tess’ strange video. The blurbs on the screen hadn’t budged, and Lois presumed Jimmy would get there in time – hopefully with some help. Meanwhile, Lois wanted to check the archive room to see if there was any reference to this orb or anything alien. Whatever Tess was involved with, Lois was confident that it didn’t happen overnight.
Lois took the elevator down to the bullpen to get her keys.
“I kind of miss the maid costume,” she heard Tess’ snide voice from behind.
“I’ve stopped cleaning up after you,” Lois quipped, annoyed to be running into Tess.
“Could’ve fooled me,” Tess said, and Lois turned towards her, wondering how Tess knew she had been in her office. She was as bad as Lex – surveillance at every turn. “I expect from my reporters a little better reconnaissance, but then again the bar has always been a little bit lower for you, hasn’t it?”
Lois knew they could trade insults all day, but her real concern was Chloe. If Tess couldn’t understand her need to find her cousin, then that was her own problem. “Look, I know family loyalty means nothing to you. But I would do anything to find Chloe. And if that means you need to fire me, pull the trigger.”
Lois started to walk away to her desk, hoping Tess would leave her alone.
“I plan to. But this actually has very little to do with Chloe.” Lois stopped and turned to face her again. “You saw it, didn’t you?” Tess taunted, a knowing smile on her face.
Lois was tired, frustrated, and had neither time nor energy for Tess’ games. “Seriously, you have a serious deficiency of pronoun modifiers going on,” Lois retorted irritably.
Suddenly Tess didn’t seem to want to play anymore either. “Lois where is the orb?” she demanded.
Exasperated, Lois shot back, “What orb?”
“The alien technology from my vault.”
“Oh, that orb,” Lois answered sarcastically, knowing full well that Tess knew much more about it than she did.
Lois reached her desk, spotting her keys. Just as she grabbed them, Tess suddenly kicked her, knocking Lois onto the desk
She took a moment to get her footing back after Tess’ sneaky attack, but soon realized that Tess wasn’t going to let her go without a fight. Lois sighed, turning to face Tess. “I guess asking for severance is out of the question.”
“I didn’t want this.” Tess said, almost apologetically. “I don’t want to have to fight you for it, Lois.”
“Tess, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Lois turned to face her, baffled by why Tess was suddenly had it out for her.
“I saw you, Lois. You saw the video. What do you know that you’re not telling me?”
“Nothing. Can I leave now?” Lois said, irritated that Tess was still blocking her way out.
“Don’t push me, Lois. I will fight you,” Tess said, her steely green eyes full of challenge.
Lois sighed, tired of the games and half-truths around her. “No. You don’t want to fight. You just want to take over the world with some alien nation,” Lois spat out.
“I’m trying to save the world!” Tess stated, defiant.
Lois rolled her eyes, having had enough of martyr-complex heroes after her encounter with Lana. “What’s wrong with Green Peace?” Lois quipped.
She tried side-stepping Tess, hoping Tess would just let her leave. But Tess was determined to be in her way and grabbed her, throwing her on top of her and Clark’s desks.
Lois kicked, and Tess threw her over on her back. They tossed each other around, and Lois wondered what Tess hoped to accomplish by beating her up.
“So I sneaked into your office. Big deal!” Lois said between avoiding jabs and trying to get in one of her own.
Tess, hovering over Lois, grabbed her coat by the lapels. “You know something, don’t you?”
“I know you’re nuts!” Lois said, knocked back by another punch from Tess. Her body went sprawling, and she somehow found her hand in an open drawer. Seeing Tess gear up for another punch, Lois reached in, needing something to try and hit Tess with to stop her. Her fingers landed on a box. She took it out of the drawer and managed to smack Tess in the head with it.
Both of them landed on the floor.
Lois hoped the fall had knocked out Tess as well.
A little dizzy from the knockdown fight, Lois turned over on her side, spotting an odd golden ring. Curious, she picked it up, wondering where it had come from.
It was large and heavy, with a large “L” insignia on the base of it. She barely slipped it on her finger, when she suddenly felt inexplicably pulled away from her plane of existence.
Quick as sparks of light, Lois saw flickers of places and people she recognized, yet she couldn’t understand their context. Moments of heartbreaking destruction were swiftly followed by flashes of comfort…
The Kent Farm, turned into an alien prison.
The Daily Planet, abandoned.
Chloe, lying in a pool of blood.
Oliver, assaulted by a wave of arrows.
An apocalyptic nightmare, dominated by a red sun…
Then, suddenly wonderful images, that somehow seemed real, and wiped away the destruction she had just seen and felt.
The enduring comfort of lying in Clark’s arms.
Kissing him, her heart full.
Flying across an expansive evening sky, lit up with stars –
And Clark, in red and blue, telling her she had to save him…
The images flickered quickly, in an instant, short moments that seemed a jumble of memory and emotion. Then, in a flash of luminosity and energy, Lois suddenly vanished.
