Wednesday, March 13th
Lois banged out of Perry’s office and all but sprinted to her desk. Clark watched as she grabbed her notebook, purse, two pencils, light jacket, and pocket recorder. Her urgency made him smile. “Spying on Lucy this afternoon?”
“What? Oh, no. Just got a hot tip. City building commissioner tied up with some low-level mobsters.” She grinned and winked. “Gonna get the goods on these creeps.”
Lois and mobsters. Her haste wasn’t the least bit humorous any more. “You need any help?”
She kept shoving things into her jacket. “Naw. These guys can’t get out of their own way. You remember that book from the sixties and the movie from it? ‘The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight?’ I saw it on the late movie a couple of weeks ago. They kept knocking off themselves and each other instead of their intended targets, and these clowns are even dumber. I’ll be fine.”
He nodded. “Okay. Just remember that even clowns get lucky at times.”
She shook her head and hurried to the elevator bank. “I don’t need luck, Clark. I’m the best at what I do.”
She stepped into an elevator car and didn’t look at him again. He hoped she’d be careful. As vain a hope as that might be.
He turned back to his desk computer and put his hands on the keyboard, but before he could type anything Perry dropped a meaty hand on his shoulder. “Clark, would you do me a favor and keep an eye on Lois today? I have a bad feeling about this tip. She might get into trouble.”
“
Might get into trouble? Chief, have you worked with her for more than a week?”
“Ha-ha. I’m serious. Please.” The editor’s eyes were narrowed and Clark could sense his blood pressure go up with each pulse beat. “I’d take it as a personal favor.”
“You know she wouldn’t want me to hover over her, Perry.”
Perry shrugged. “So don’t hover. Just stay in the background and be there if she does need some help.”
Clark nodded slowly. “I can do that.”
Perry exhaled in obvious relief. “Thanks. I won’t worry quite so much now.”
*****
On his way down the stairs, Clark decided not to change into The Suit for this task. He could track Lois’ Jeep by watching the specific tire tread patterns and the heat signature each vehicle left in the air and on the pavement. He’d have to hurry, though – those traces faded within minutes under ideal circumstances, and they’d dissipate on a busy city street even more quickly.
He exited the stairwell in the basement and saw that Lois was just pulling out of the lot. He ducked down behind the nearest vehicle to let Lois and the Jeep pass him. Then he stepped out and followed at a brisk but human pace using his special vision and sense of smell.
Lois drove toward the waterfront for about ten minutes. He didn’t think she’d spotted him or surely she’d have stopped and yelled at him for babysitting her. He stopped, pulled off his tie and stuffed it in a jacket pocket, then removed his glasses and ruffled his hair. It would break up his outline and make it harder for Lois to spot him.
He stayed about a block behind her for almost another mile. Then she pulled into an alley and parked. After a long minute, a strange and obviously nervous man sidled up to the driver’s window and spoke with her. There was too much ambient noise from the buildings’ heating systems and general city background noise for Clark to eavesdrop on them from that distance, but apparently the man had planned to show her where the commissioner was meeting the bad guys.
The nervous man pointed and gestured. Lois must have demanded that he guide her, because he suddenly broke away and speed-walked along the sidewalk across the street from Clark. Lois jumped out of the Jeep and took a step toward the retreating man, then put her hands on her hips and blew air out. Then she tossed her head and turned toward a decrepit three-story building one block further down.
Clark watched Lois until she entered the building, then he x-rayed the lower floor and saw a well-dressed man with a metal briefcase walk into a room to meet four other men. Clark assumed this was the meeting Lois had mentioned. The well-dressed man fidgeted with the briefcase as he spoke with the one of the other four. That man wore a well-worn dark suit that looked to be at least ten years out of date. The three remaining men could’ve played button men in any TV or Hollywood mob story from the fifties or sixties.
This did not look good to Clark. And with the building itself adding to the sonic buffering, he couldn’t hear a word they said.
Clark watched Lois scoot through an inside door and close it gently behind her. On the other side of the wall from her, Dark Suit shook his head and sighed, then turned to his right and waved his hand. The stereotypical gangster straightened and pulled a small semiauto pistol from a shoulder holster under his suit jacket and pointed it at the well-dressed man. The other two thug lookalikes didn’t move at all.
He focused on the five men and saw the well-dressed one – who now appeared quite frightened – place the metal briefcase on the floor with the latches facing Dark Suit. Another hand gesture sent a second thug forward to open the case.
The contents of the case appeared to be manila file folders. Clark couldn’t see any titles on the folders from his position, so he trotted down the street to be directly across from this meeting of obviously criminal minds. Lois knelt by the thin sheetrock between the two rooms and directly behind the well-dressed man. It appeared that she could hear them, since she was scribbling in her notebook and kept glancing at the recorder on a box beside her.
It was time to contact the police. He stepped back against the building behind him and pulled out his cell, then dialed 9-1-1. The operator quickly told him that police had been dispatched to the building where Lois was, and she relayed his admonition not to use their sirens. There was no reason to spook these guys. And since Lois was already in some danger, there was no reason to add to it.
Then the situation got really dangerous.
Dark Suit said something to the thug looking through the folders. That man looked back and shook his head. Dark Suit’s expression turned angry and he pointed at the well-dressed man. That man waved his hands in apparent protest and stumbled back against the wall behind which Lois was hiding and listening. Dark Suit glanced at the thug with the pistol and nodded.
Before Clark could react, the pistol fired once.
It was a warning shot. The bullet missed the well-dressed man, penetrated the sheetrock through to the adjoining room, and shattered against the outside brick wall. But its path had taken it directly past Lois’ face.
Dust and debris showered her hair and blouse and she fell back in stunned surprise. The men in the next room didn’t react to the noise she made, probably because the well-dressed man had also fallen even though he hadn’t been shot. Dark Suit said something else.
Clark couldn’t stay back now.
He sprinted across the street and banged into the large rolling metal barn door of the building at human strength. It held, so he kicked it and shouted, “Hey! They’re coming! They’re coming!”
He peeked into the room with the five men and saw their panicked reactions. Dark Suit pointed to the second thug to take the briefcase, then waved to the first man to put away his pistol. The third man opened the room’s exit door and led the four bad guys into the open area behind the metal door Clark had kicked, so he kicked it again and yelled, “Come on! You’re out of time!”
He could both see and hear them now. One man called out, “Who’s that?”
Another answered, “The lookout?”
Dark Suit growled, “We didn’t set a lookout, idiot! Where’s the back exit?”
The man with the pistol said, “There ain’t one, boss!”
Dark Suit pointed. “Then go through the door and take care of whoever’s out there!”
Thug One pulled his pistol again and charged the door. Clark looked more closely at the pistol and saw that it was a .25 caliber, a light round that wouldn’t penetrate the metal of the door. So he leaned into it to keep it from rolling open.
Thug One pulled for a moment, then yelled, “It won’t open!”
Dark Suit waved to the other two and barked, “Help him!”
The three of them made no real progress against Clark, but by then three police cars – all running silent and dark – rolled up to the building’s entrance one by one. “Four men, I think,” Clark stage-whispered to the nearest officer, “armed and willing to shoot. They’re trying to get out now.”
Six officers exited the cars, drew their weapons, and formed a semi-circle behind the cars. One said, “Let go and get out of the way!”
Clark released the door and fell away from the line of fire. The door abruptly slid open and the three thugs tugging it fell to the concrete. Dark Suit jumped over them and heard, “Hands up! On the ground! Face down on the ground! Now!”
Dark Suit slowly complied. The three thugs behind him were already down, so they simply stretched out their hands as the officers searched them and slapped on cuffs.
While that went on, Clark hustled around the building to the entrance Lois had used. He found her curled up on the floor of the room where she’d fallen, shaking and crying and hiccupping.
He knelt beside her and pulled her up into his arms. “Lois! Are you hurt? Are you okay?”
She looked up and made eye contact with him, then grabbed him around the neck and held on tightly. He held her until she calmed down, then brushed the wallboard dust away from her eyes. “Are you all right?”
She nodded and pulled back. “Y-yes. The bullet – it went right past my face.”
“I know. I’d already called the police.”
“Oh. So – so that’s who banged on the door?”
“No, that was me. It looked like they might keep shooting, and I didn’t want the Planet to lose its second-best reporter, so I distracted them.”
The jibe penetrated her fear and her eyes focused on him. “Second-best, huh? I got the story. Councilman Bennett was selling personal files on city and county employees to the Bonacci family to be used as blackmail material.” She pulled out of his arms and sat up by herself. “Doug Bonacci thought they were getting dirt on the mayor’s family, but Bennett said there wasn’t any, so Doug had his guy fire a warning shot and – and that’s when you interrupted the meet.”
He thought it was best to keep it on a friend-to-friend basis. “I take it that you’re disappointed you didn’t get the exclusive on a murder.”
She shot him a medium-strength glare. “No, of course not!” She gathered herself and stood. “I got what I came for!”
He stood next to her and said, “The police rescued the councilman, too. In fact, he’s in one of the police cars now. They’re giving him a free ride to the precinct to get his statement. Do you want to follow them?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No. I have enough for now. But as soon as I type up what I already have, I’ll head down to the precinct and get the follow-up. You need a ride back to the office?”
He nodded as nonchalantly as he could. “I suppose I could ride with you.”
She glared harder. “Then come on. I’ll try to squeeze you in.”
“I appreciate the generosity.”
She strode past him toward the door she’d used, but stopped just short of it. Without turning, she said, “Clark?”
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t Superman show up?”
He sighed. “Bonacci had his buddy shoot the wall after I called 9-1-1. If Superman had burst in then, things might have gotten really crazy and those idiots might have turned the room into a shooting gallery. I didn’t want that to happen, for their sake as well as for yours.”
“I see.” She turned and faced him. “Was it your idea to follow me?”
“No, it was Perry’s. But I didn’t argue with him.”
She nodded. “Thank you for saving me.” Then she put her hand on his arm. “I’m glad Clark Kent was the hero today.”
Then she turned and walked out the door.
There was nothing else to do but follow her to the Jeep.
Friday, March 22nd
Clark had just saved his final travel column – a story about the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide that would be printed the second weekend of April – when Lois tapped on his shoulder. He turned and looked up at her. “Yes?”
Her face was a mix of hesitancy and happiness. “Are – are you free tonight?”
He tilted his head as if in thought. “Hmm. Yes, I believe so. May I inquire as to your reason for asking this question?”
Her mouth bent up on one side. “You may inquire.”
He waited a moment, then realized that she’d answered his question – he was permitted to ask for her reason. How droll on her part. He nodded and said, “Very well. May I assume that you require an escort to another dangerous semi-undercover assignment?”
Her smile took over and banished the hesitance. “No, there is no imminent danger in the offing. But I realized earlier today that I haven’t thanked you properly for saving me last week. I want to do that tonight.”
“Ah. And how will you accomplish that Herculean feat?”
Her eyebrow rose. “Aren’t we full of ourselves now, implying that I’m not strong enough to thank you properly?” Before could respond, she added, “I want to take you out to dinner. My treat. And we’ll go somewhere nice but not formal.”
“I see.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “Is this like – a date?”
Her impish grin told him that she remembered the Orchid Ball invitation as well as he did. “Yes. Very much like a date, in fact. Minus the necking behind the Tastee Freeze. I can pick you up at the entrance to Centennial Park at six unless you want to leave straight from here.”
“I’d prefer to park my truck at home first. I’ll meet you at the park entrance at six. It’s right across from my building.”
“See you then.”
Lois smiled and saluted, then ambled toward the coffee cart. He watched her, thinking about going on a date with Lois, something he hadn’t done for almost a year, not counting dinner after the do-over of The Confession. He surprised himself by looking forward to it.
*****
Lois unlocked the passenger door from the inside and gestured at Clark. “Come on! This place doesn’t do reservations and it fills up pretty quickly on Friday.”
She watched him stride to the Jeep and slide in. “Can you tell me where we’re going now or is it still a secret?”
She put the Jeep in gear as he buckled his seat belt. “No secrets. I assume you still eat steak?”
“Just like a Kansas farmer, especially with all the fixings.”
“I assume that means yes. We’re headed for the new Steak and Ale on the east side. It has a nice view of the ocean from the east windows.”
“Isn’t that in the old Seaside LexCorp offices?”
She nodded and turned a corner. “It’s about halfway up the building, right at the top of the first bank of elevators. It’s called Metropolis Shopper’s Delight Tower now. I thought it an appropriate place for dinner, since it was once Lex’ private dojo.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“There are things about that time I usually don’t tell anyone.”
He paused for a moment, then said, “But you’re telling me this now.”
“Yes. I don’t want any secrets between us, Clark, whether yours or mine. If I demand that you be totally honest with me, it’s only right and just that I be totally honest with you. From now on, if you ask me any question at all, I will answer it fully and openly.” This time she paused. “As long as Jimmy’s not listening.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry. And I promise I won’t tell anyone what style of underwear you have on.”
She snorted as she made another turn. “That wasn’t what I had in mind, but okay, if that’s what you want to know.”
He shook his head. “No. I was just trying to make you laugh.”
She chuckled. “Mission accomplished.”
“My day is complete.”
“Not unless you plan to watch me eat and not get something for yourself.”
“Oh, I suppose I’ll have something. I wouldn’t want you to feel like the odd woman out.”
She slipped the Jeep into the valet parking lane at the Shopper’s Delight and turned off the engine. A very young woman wearing a huge artificial smile trotted over and took her keys and wrote her name on a clipboard. “Please keep this tag, ma’am. We’ll match it to your keys and your car when you’re ready to leave.”
Someone else had called her “ma’am,” some kid barely out of high school who’d implied that she was so old she either didn’t know or had forgotten how valet parking worked. Maybe she should embrace the title. After all, she wasn’t getting any younger.
Clark waited for her at the passenger door, then offered his arm. She placed her hand in the crook of his elbow and they walked into the building.
She hoped he was still so gallant after she revealed her deepest secret to him.
*****
Clark sat back and put one hand on his stomach. “Oh, that meal was wonderful. Thank you for inviting me.”
Lois quirked one eyebrow at him. “And for paying the tab?”
He nodded with what he hoped she’d perceive as magnanimity. “Of course. Do you plan on having dessert?”
“No, I’m full.” She looked around their table and sighed as if she’d reached a decision. “You remember that I said that I don’t want any secrets between us? Not ever?”
“Uh, yeah, since you said it just this afternoon.”
“I meant it. I have a secret I want to tell you.”
This sounded serious. He didn’t know what this secret was. And he thought that maybe he didn’t want to hear it. But he’d trusted Lois with his biggest secret and except for telling Perry she’d kept it, so it was completely in order for her to trust him with her secret.
He leaned forward and lowered his volume. “Are you sure you want to tell me here? Maybe it’s a little public for whatever this is.”
She looked at her empty plate, then took another sip of wine. “No, this is fine. I’m not going to have hysterics, and I trust you to control your reactions.”
This didn’t sound promising at all. “You’re concerned that I’ll get angry?”
She sighed again. “I don’t know how you’ll react. I just know that I need to tell you.”
He rested his forearms on the table and tried to look open and supportive. “Please believe that I won’t be angry no matter what you tell me.”
She looked into his eyes and nodded. “Okay. Deep breath, let it out slow, and talk.” She suited her actions to her words, then said, “Clark, I’ve discovered that I’m in love with someone.”
He felt himself blink. This was not the secret he’d feared he’d learn, and he was surprised to realize he was a little sad. “I see. I assume this is a man?”
Her eyebrows drew down for a moment. “Yes, of course it’s a man.”
He lifted one hand in a “peace” gesture. “Sorry. I didn’t want to make any assumptions. Does he reciprocate your – your affection?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t told him yet.”
“I see. When do you plan to tell him?”
“Immediately.”
“Okay. Uh – don’t be offended, but is he by any chance already married?”
She tilted her head. “A valid question, but no. Not married.”
So. Lois was in some kind of unrequited love situation, apparently one without undue complications. It was vaguely disappointing to him, because if she moved forward with this relationship with this unnamed guy she’d have less time to spend with Clark. And it surprised him to realize that he’d miss her if that happened.
It also surprised him to realize just how
much he’d miss her.
He decided to be honest. “I hope it works out for you. You have to know, though, that I’ll be jealous of him for spending so much time with you.”
A weird grin tried to crawl onto her face. “Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem.”
“Oh. Is he a foreign correspondent? Or is he out of the country a lot?”
“Neither. He does travel a good bit, but his headquarters is Metropolis.”
Headquarters? Why did that sound so familiar?
“O-kay. Do you plan to tell him how you feel in the next couple of days?”
“I’m telling him now.”
“You’re tell—” The penny dropped. “Ah.”
She nodded and reached out to take his hand in hers. “Yes. You’re the mystery man with whom I am in love. Again.”
It was too soon. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t over Lois the first time and he wasn’t over Rachel. She hadn’t told him this to cause problems for him but he couldn’t love her back. Not yet. It was too soon.
His inner self softly asked,
Is it really too soon? If not now, when? That was not a question he could handle at the moment. All he could manage to say to Lois was a breathy “I see.”
Her face twisted into a combination smile and frown. It would’ve been unattractive on anyone else. “Clark, I needed to tell you. I need to be open and honest and aboveboard with you because that’s what I want from you. And I’m not asking you to respond right now. I can tell you had no idea I was going to say this to you. And I know how badly I wounded you and that you’re still healing. So can we just go on as friends until you figure out how you want to deal with this new piece of information?”
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and released it. “Yeah, I guess so. Lois, I – nuts.”
She sighed yet again. “If I’ve messed things up between us by sharing this with you, I’m sorry. I promise I won’t put any pressure on you for an answer.”
He pressed his lips together and thought. He needed to tell her more about Rachel.
“Look, Lois, this isn’t my first time sitting across from a woman who’s told me she loves me. Rachel said it to me. She and I stopped communicating when I made the decision to stay in Metropolis – actually she cut off the communication because she said it was painful to hear from me and know I wasn’t coming back to Smallville. To her.”
Lois slowly nodded once, so he continued. “At the time she told me, I was still knocked off my feet by – uh – when we – uh—”
“I assume you’re alluding very indirectly to our recent little misunderstanding?”
He almost controlled his quick snort of laughter. “Yeah. Our little misunderstanding. Anyway, Rachel told me she’d loved me since high school and she already knew about Superman and it didn’t seem to impress her. I wanted to tell her honestly that I loved her, but I – I just couldn’t. And now you – now I—”
“You can’t honestly tell me that you love me.”
This time he sighed. “No. I can’t. I’m sorry.”
She nodded. “Okay. Can you tell me that you never will? Or – or that you just can’t?”
Ah. She was asking if she’d destroyed any chance of a romantic reconciliation between them. She wanted – no, she needed to know if he still held her past actions against her.
He pondered the question and the answer came to him.
“I can tell you right now that I don’t know. I can also tell you that – that I’m not dead-set against the idea.”
One corner of her mouth bent upward. “I see. That’s certainly a ringing endorsement.”
She was trying not to be too serious, so he went along. “Thank you. Why don’t we just go forward from here and see what develops?”
She bit the other corner of her mouth for a moment, then released it and smiled. “That’s as positive a response as I could hope for right now. Thank you, Clark. Thank you for not shutting me out of your life.”
He smiled back. “I wouldn’t do that no matter what my eventual answer will be. But I do have a question for you.”
“A follow-up one?”
“Sort of. Do you still take your morning coffee like you used to or have you changed your beverage preferences?”
She tipped her head a little to one side as if testing for a double meaning into his question. Then she said, “Just like before. If my tastes change, I’ll let you know.”
He nodded. “Then look for a cup on your desk around nine-thirty Monday morning.”
She lifted her hand to signal for the check. “I look forward to it. And thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Lois.”
The waiter brought the check and Lois took it from him before he could put it down in front of Clark. She picked up her purse and stood, then put her hand through his arm when he offered it. They walked to the register without speaking, and as soon as Lois signed the credit slip she pulled out the valet receipt.
Clark reached for his wallet. “At least let me tip the valet.”
She made as if she was thinking it over, then nodded. “Oh, all right. Just be generous.”
He lifted his hand and pointed upward as if to make an important point. “Only if the Jeep isn’t scratched.”
She laughed openly and freely. It sounded wonderful to him.
He hoped he could make her laugh often.
Maybe he could ask her out on an actual date soon.
He knew there were no guarantees in any relationship, and especially none with regard to Lois. She would bring her background, her emotional volatility, her unpredictability, her fire and passion for the truth, and her sheer brilliance with her. Any of those qualities could be positive or negative, depending on the circumstances, and the sole thing he could be sure about was that a romance with Lois would be interesting.
The memory of Rachel raised its hand in his mind and asked if Rachel had her own good points. He mentally nodded back and said yes, she certainly did, but the one thing Lois could do that Rachel would not do would be to challenge Clark to be the very best he could be, both personally and professionally. Rachel appeared to believe that Clark didn’t need to make major improvements. Clark knew that wasn’t true, that there were still holes in his writing and his knowledge and his personality and his life in general, and that Rachel would just smile and nod and love him and tell him she understood and that he was wonderful enough for her.
Lois would flare up and stomp and yell and dare him to be better and love him even when he wasn’t perfect.
Life with Lois would be an adventure every day. Life with Rachel would be calm and quiet and peaceful and pleasant – and eventually a little boring.
Was it really a contest?
Maybe – just maybe – it wasn’t too soon after all. Time would tell.
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