And now for the conclusion...
*********
Lois threw open the door to her apartment, not bothering to close it behind her, flopped down on her couch grabbing a pillow to her, and snatched a tissue from the box next to her lamp. After wiping her eyes to get all the tear-smudged mascara off, and gingerly blowing her nose a couple of times, she sat there in silence contemplating what had happened. She reached up almost painfully slow to feel the back of her hair. When her hand got there, she stopped, almost afraid to touch it again. It made her stomach hurt. How had it gone so wrong? Well she knew how it had, and it was actually partly her fault. Who was she kidding, mostly her fault. Oh why had she grabbed for her cell phone? In the middle of a hair cut no less! She had forgotten she was dealing with someone new who wasn't used to the interruptions that Lois sometimes got in the middle of a hair cut.
Lois grabbed another tissue and again blew her nose. Cassie had been so good. She was so alert to watch for things like that. At first, everything had gone so well with Deidre. Lois and Deidre had seemed to hit it off wonderfully. Especially after Deidre had mentioned that she loved Lois' stories and that her stories were the first ones she read upon opening her paper. Lois had glowed with pride at the compliment. Deidre had complimented her on her hair style saying that it was a good one for a busy woman on the go to have and assuring her that it would be no problem to cut.
But then in the middle of things Lois' cell phone had rung and without thinking, she’d just reached down and grabbed it, like she always did when Cassie was cutting her hair. That proved to be a costly mistake. Deidre had been in mid-cut and the abrupt jerking that had resulted from Lois grabbing her phone had caused Deidre to make an unrepairable cut to her hair. What was worse was that the phone call had turned out to be a wrong number.
"Ahhhhhhh!" Lois screamed into her pillow.
Deidre had been so apologetic, so sorry for what had happened, even though she couldn't be blamed. She couldn't have known that Cassie expected, even anticipated the numerous little challenges that Lois presented to her hair cutting skills each time she cut Lois' hair. After all, this was her first experience cutting Lois' hair.
Hesitantly, Lois felt the back of her hair again. It was gone. It was all gone. Her cute little bob was gone. Deidre had done her best to salvage the hair cut and turn it into something livable. Actually, according to everyone else in the salon, she had done more then just that. She had given Lois a great haircut. It was short and sassy, and definitely trendy. But it just wasn't Lois' cut. It was too drastic and too new. It was just too much for her to be able to accept right now. She'd had her bob cut for too long. A thought just hit her. What if everyone thought it looked horrible, or ugly, or stupid? This thought brought a new wave of tears.
Lois got up from her couch and grabbed a tissue as she walked over to her phone. She was not going back in to work today. She just couldn't face everyone today. She had enough from her notes and her interview to write up a preliminary story from home and she could LAN it in to Clark to let him edit it for her and put his spin on it and he could turn it into to Perry. Clark. Oh no, what would *he* think of this new style? Besides her own opinion on it she probably valued his the most. After all, he was her best friend and her significant other. She wanted to look good for him. What if he hated it? Ugh! She was ready for another primal scream. She was supposed to be having a romantic dinner with him tonight. They were supposed to talk and get some things out in the open and enjoy one another's company. Well, she certainly couldn't do it tonight. Not like this. She didn't want to go anywhere or see anyone. She knew what she needed to do. She picked up the phone and dialed. Then she tried coughing a few times and waited to blow her nose again because the stuffiness should help.
"Perry? Lois," she began doing her best to sound as bad as she could. "Yes, I know, I sound awful don't I? No, I have no idea. I started feeling really bad during lunch today. And it's just gotten worse since then. Where am I now? I'm at home. I came home and sat on the couch and just couldn't get myself to get back up again. I can't even touch my head it just hurts too much. Oh, but I really hate not to come back in. I've got so much I need to get done. Yes, it wouldn't do for me to get myself down and have to miss more work because I pushed myself too hard. Listen, I was thinking. I should be able to write my story from home. I have all my notes and my tape of the interview today. Why don't I write it up and send it to Clark. He can add to it with his notes and edit it and send it on over to you when he's done. Oh thanks, I really appreciate it. Yeah, I'll get some rest. Thanks. Oh, and Chief, would you please let Clark know I'm not feeling well and that I'll send my story to him. I really don't feel like talking to anyone else. Thanks. Yeah, hope to see you tomorrow morning too." Lois hung up the phone. Yeah, if I could grow my hair about six inches tonight, I would love to see you tomorrow. She definitely didn't want to talk to Clark. She knew she wouldn't be able to hold it together so well talking to him on the phone.
Lois blew her nose again and walked into her bathroom to survey the damage once more. When she finally managed to look at herself in the mirror she sighed. It really wasn't so bad. It was kind of cute even. But, she started to sniffle again; it just wasn't her, especially the way Deidre had styled it. Well, at least she could deal with that part. Drawing a hot bath, Lois walked back into the living room and grabbed her work bag. She'd relax in a nice hot bath and review her notes and get them worked into a story. Then after she washed her hair and tried to style it how she would do it, she could type up her story. She gathered her stuff up and headed back to the bathroom. The steam coming up from the hot water looked and felt so inviting. Yes, she'd feel better after a good soak.
**********
Clark came back to work several hours and several emergencies later; danger handled and disaster averted. He walked to his desk glancing over at Lois’ desk and realizing that it looked like she hadn’t ever come back after lunch. He was headed towards Perry’s office when the Chief came out of his office meeting him halfway there.
“Hi, Chief. Have you seen Lois this afternoon?”
“She’s not here. She started feeling sick after lunch and called me from home. She sounded awful. You know she has to be sick to not make it back in to work. She’s almost as bad a workaholic as I am. Ah heck, who am I kidding? She may be worse,” he admitted with a crooked but proud grin on his face. “She said she was going to finish her part of the story from home and send it to you for you to finish up.”
“Okay, I’ll check my computer and see if she’s sent the story yet. I’ll get it finished up and sent to you as soon as possible.”
Lois was sick? That wasn’t like her at all. She was never sick. Or at least she never let it show anyway. Except for that one little episode, with the food from Ralph’s Pagoda. Clark smiled at the memory. Even with that little bump, the evening had been wonderful. But it just wasn’t like her to just get sick all the sudden like this.
“Hey, Chief,” Clark called out, “did she say what was the matter?” Maybe she had eaten something bad at lunch, Clark thought.
“Uh, I think it’s her head. I remember she said something about not being able to touch it cause it hurt too bad.”
Her head, Clark thought, or her hair, he wondered. Was she really sick, or had her hair appointment brought this sudden illness on? Clark decided he’d better go check up on her, but first he’d better see if she’d sent that story to him yet. If she had, he could get it written up and sent to Perry in no time, as long as no one was watching him, and maybe Perry would let him off early for the afternoon. Then he could go check on her. Clark headed back to his desk on a mission.
**********
Lois had given her best attempt at styling her hair and was pretty pleased with the results. It looked much better this way than the way Deidre had styled it. It had been much too poofy and had way too much hair spray before. She had sent her story off to Clark over an hour ago and after that had promptly gotten comfortable and had set about trying to find a double fudge crunch bar to eat away her sorrow with. At first she had thought ice-cream, but when she looked in the freezer she remembered she had eaten all of it up the night she had discovered Clark's second identity. After looking in all her usual hiding places though, she couldn't even find one morsel of chocolate in her whole house. Then she remembered, she had gotten a new supply of double fudge crunch bars not too long ago and hadn't brought any of them home with her yet.
Lois had just decided to make a quick trip to the convenience store for some chocolate ice-cream when there was a knock at the door. Who could that be? She walked to her door and looked out the peephole and was mortified to see Clark standing there. Oh, no. What was he doing here?
"Lois? It’s Clark. Open up. Perry said you were sick. Is there anything I can do?"
Lois hesitated to answer the door and instead tried to see if she could get him to go away.
"No Clark, really, I just need some sleep. I wouldn't want you to catch," Lois started to say 'catch what I've got' and then realized that would be impossible for the Man of Steel.
"Lois, you know I can't catch your cold. Now open up. Let me see if I can make you feel better. You let me take care of you once before when you were sick."
The thought of that night and food from Ralph's Pagoda made her smile despite herself. It was obvious Clark wasn't going to give up. She sighed mightily, dropping her shoulders in defeat and began unlocking her door. She stepped around behind the door as she began to open it.
"Lois? Why are you hiding behind the door? I've seen you sick before. It can't be that bad. Come out here."
"Oh Clark, it's worse than you think," Lois said as she walked around from behind the door. The shocked look on Clark's face made her want to turn around and walk back behind the door again. She started to do just that and Clark grabbed her arm.
"What happened?"
Lois took a deep breath and it all came spilling out in one long continuous sentence.
"Oh, Clark, it's a long story, and it's partly my fault, and now I look hideous. I'm sure you hate my hair, and everyone at work is going to look at me funny, and no one's going to take me seriously, and I've been crying ever since I got home so I'm sure not only is my hair awful but I've got a face to match, and I'm out of ice-cream and don't even have one double fudge crunch bar!" By the end of her little rant Lois was sobbing with her head in her hands and before she knew what was happening there was a *whoosh* and Clark was gone. Gone? Where had he gone? Was it so awful that he couldn't even look at her? Oh god! She was just getting ready to start into another crying jag when there was a *whoosh* again and he was back. Standing in front of her with not one but two triple fudge crunch bars in his hands.
"I x-rayed your desk and found your stash. Here, why don't you come sit down with me on the couch and open up one of these and tell me what happened."
*********
After thirty minutes of tears and both double fudge crunch bars later, she was done. Clark had pulled her in tight to hug her and had waited until she had stopped crying to pull back. He reached out and slid his hand up her cheek the way he had when she realized he and Superman were one and the same. He used his thumb to wipe away a tear next to her eye.
"Lois, you should know I love you no matter how your hair is cut. I love you just the same."
A previous conversation came back to Lois' mind when she had proposed a dilemma to Clark about his *wife* cutting her hair and dying it red and it looking awful. Would he still be truthful to her, or what would he say? He had said he would tell *her* the truth. That he loved her, but that, if she's happy with it, that was the important thing. But, Lois thought, what if *she* wasn't happy with it?
"So you love me, but you don't like it, do you." It was a statement, not a question.
"Actually it's kinda cute. It's spunky but it's also a little sexy. I loved your bob, but this cut could definitely grow on me."
"Really?" She asked, looking up at him through eyes sparkling with tears. She smiled at him.
"Really," he replied drawing her close to kiss her. He kissed her long and deep and pulled back to look at her haircut again. He smiled lovingly at her. "And I think it looks very professional. I bet you even get several compliments at work tomorrow," Clark said as he looked down at his watch. "Listen, I don’t know about you, but in between emergencies I didn’t get to eat lunch.” Why don't you tell me what kind of dinner fare you might be craving and I'll see what I can do to oblige you," Clark told her as he pulled suggestively at the knot in his tie.
"Anything?" she asked.
"Anything," he answered.
Normally she didn't like him running off to fulfill her every whim, but after what she'd been through today, being catered to sounded pretty good to her.
"Okay, how about some good Italian? Pasta always puts me in a better mood."
"Hmmm. I'll have to remember to tell you sometime what pasta does to me," Clark said as he looked at her suggestively. "Okay, pasta it is. I will be back before you can pop the cork on that bottle of wine," he said pointing to the bottle sitting on the table. Now where did that come from? He must have brought it back when he brought the chocolate.
"Good. And then we can talk about some other things," Lois reminded him.
"Yeah, there's that," he agreed and then with a *whoosh* he was gone. Lois looked out the window after him and smiled. Yes, they definitely still needed to talk. There was a lot to talk about. But it was times like this that she wondered how she had been so fortunate to find someone like Clark. He was definitely a cut above the rest. With a new found confidence she set off into the kitchen to get the table ready.
The End
