Lois inspected her red rimmed eyes in the mirror on the back of her sun visor as Clark drove, and shook her head at her appearance. She pulled a makeup compact from her purse and tried to camouflage the redness from an hour of sporadically crying, but finally laughed at the futility.
“I’m not sure what we were thinking, doing this back to back,” she said.
Clark laughed, and reached over to squeeze her knee. “You look beautiful.”
She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hold back the smile. “How are you feeling?” she asked finally. “That was pretty intense.”
He was quiet for a minute, then a slow smile crept across his face until he was beaming. “I feel…incredible. Thank you for doing that with me.”
She laughed softly at the idea that he would thank her for something that meant so much to her. “Are you going to tell your parents?”
He hesitated and then nodded. “It will be a shock, but I think they need to know. I don’t know if it will come up today, or if I’ll tell them later … but we can play it by ear.”
They continued to talk about their conversation with Pete and Lana as the houses outside their windows spread out. As they left town behind and wound their way past farm after farm, Lois could see Clark reverting to the carefree, relieved version of himself that she had been so charmed by before they left Metropolis.
Before she knew it, they were pulling off the rural road onto the long gravel driveway of the Kent farm. Her flutter of nerves was back, but Clark looked so excited and happy, she forced herself to ignore them. His parents had been so kind and warm during her last visit, and Clark had assured her that they weren’t angry or upset about her being in on their family secret.
She reached for him, wrapping her good hand around his arm, earning her a smile that set off a whole different kind of fluttering in her belly.
“Come on,” he said, leading her up the steps and through the front door. “Mom! Dad! We’re here!”
Martha was in the living room before he had even finished calling for them. She stopped short when she saw them, and Lois knew she was taking in her battered appearance.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she said with an awkward grin. “Really. I’m basically good as new.”
Martha gave her a skeptical look, but quickly smoothed it away. “Well, we certainly are glad you’re on the mend. We were so worried when we saw the news.”
Jonathan rounded the corner and came to an abrupt halt, his face momentarily betraying his horror.
“I’m fine, really,” she said. “All the bruises are fading. And I have a follow up with the doctor tomorrow about my wrist. I think I should be able to ditch the sling and just use the brace for another week or two. Really, it could be much worse. It would have been much worse, if…”
She cast a glance at Clark, suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude. He smiled at her, and kissed her cheek.
“Come on into the kitchen and have a drink,” Martha said. “Dinner will be ready in fifteen or twenty minutes.”
They followed her into the kitchen silently, and Lois knew his parents were probably dying to ask for details about the rescue since Clark hadn’t discussed it with them during his visit Thursday, but they were too polite to pry.
She accepted a glass of wine from Martha and stood next to Clark, the two of them facing his parents. There was an awkward pause, and she decided to be the one to break the ice. “I know Clark hasn’t told you much about…Monday. You probably want to know the parts that didn’t make the news.”
They started to protest, but Lois waved them off. “It’s okay. We want to tell you.”
She looked to Clark for encouragement, and he nodded and rubbed a hand on her back.
“I assume you know I was snatched on the way to work?” she said, and they nodded. “And that he held me in the sewer until he moved me to the CostMart building?” They nodded again. “I don’t remember most of it. He kept me unconscious most of the time. I don’t know how any of this,” she gestured vaguely to her face and arm, “happened. I just know I woke up the last time in a room full of smoke, bound and gagged and…certain I was going to die.”
Martha’s eyes filled with tears, and Jonathan took her hand.
Lois took a shaky breath. “I’ve been in bad spots before. I’ve tangled with some scary guys. I’ve been in fights. I’ve been…. But this was different. In the past, I’ve always been able to find a way out. I’ve always been able to rely on my own skills. This time…I was not going to make it out of that building.”
Clark’s hand slid from her back to her waist, holding her tight. “After I left here Sunday,” he said quietly, “I went back to Metropolis. I stayed all night outside her building. Because I just knew…I just felt…something bad was coming. But she was fine all night. And I didn’t see anything. She was going to work from home in the morning and the police were outside her apartment and inside her office building. So I left. I came home. I went to work.”
The guilt in his voice broke her heart. “Clark,” she said softly, shaking her head when he looked at her.
“I should have stayed,” he said softly. “I should have known.”
“How, sweetheart? How could you possibly have known?”
He took a breath and turned his attention back to his parents. “I called her on my lunch period to check on her, and she was gone. Missing. No one knew where she was. I just…took off. I said I was sick. Left school. Took the truck home and flew to Metropolis. I couldn’t show myself there, because they knew I had been here when I called. So I spent hours just…flying around…looking.”
“All by yourself?” his mother asked softly.
He nodded. “I looked everywhere. I scanned the whole city. I traced her route from home to work. I searched every building, every alley, every car. It never even occurred to me to look underground. When enough time had passed, finally, I went to her work. I talked to her boss. That’s when news of the fire broke. And I knew.”
“When I saw him there,” Lois said, taking over the story again. “In the doorway. I thought I was hallucinating. He just appeared. Out of nowhere. He burst through the door. There were flames…everywhere. It was…. Once I realized he was really there, once he freed me from the ropes. I thought…. I didn’t know how he got in, but I thought there was no way we could get out. I thought we were both going to die, and I’ve never…. I’ve taken a lot of risks with my own life over the years. I’ve never really had anything to lose. But when I thought those risks would…. When I thought he….”
Lois trailed off, unable to finish the thought. Clark squeezed her gently, and she rested her head against his shoulder for a moment.
“Once I got her free,” Clark said. “I knew I needed to get her out fast. The whole building was coming down. The stairs were already gone. It was a wall of flames outside the room. There was so much smoke. I didn’t have time to explain anything. I just wrapped myself around her and….flew. I just needed to get her out of the building.”
His parents nodded, and Clark continued. “Once we were out, I carried her to the ambulance, and they gave her oxygen and assessed her, and then transported her to the hospital. We were at the hospital for hours. Everything takes so long. And it was busy. There were no fatalities, but there were a lot of injuries.”
“And you…talked about it? At the hospital?” Martha prompted.
Lois shook her head. “At first, I didn’t even know what to think. What to say. My head hurt so bad. And I was still woozy. I thought maybe I imagined it. Or hallucinated it. But the more I thought about it…and I put together…other things…other conversations…. But I didn’t want to talk about it at the hospital. There were too many people around. Too many doctors and nurses in and out. I didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing. I didn’t want to have that conversation in public.”
Jonathan nodded, and Lois could see his quiet appreciation for that discretion.
“I was a mess,” Clark said. “I was panicking. I had no idea what she was thinking; how lucid she had been at the time. And then the cops showed up. They wanted our statements. They wanted to separate us. I thought I was going to be sick. I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea what she was going to say….”
His parents looked ill, and Lois rushed to finish. “As soon as I saw Inspector Henderson at the door, I knew what he wanted. I’d known this was coming. I should have warned him. But I could see he…wasn’t thinking clearly. So I had a plan. I was ready. I asked them to wait outside while Clark helped me back into the bed, and then I just outlined a quick story. It was close to the truth just…toned down. I told him to say that the fire hadn’t reached the room I was in yet, only the smoke. That the stairs were still intact and we were able to make a run for it once he untied me. It was close enough to the truth that no one would think anything of it. They’d just think we got lucky.”
“I was panicking,” Clark repeated. “I couldn’t think straight. She snapped me out of it. She made me repeat the story back to her. She…she was amazing.”
Lois laughed softly and shook her head. “Yeah, I’m definitely the hero of this story,” she teased.
She looked to his parents to back her up, but they weren’t laughing.
“And she was right,” Clark continued. “The story was perfect. No one asked any more questions. It was a non-issue.”
“It was nothing,” Lois insisted.
“It wasn’t nothing,” Jonathan said, and she saw him grip Martha’s hand tighter and swallow thickly.
“Thank you,” Martha said quietly.
Lois shrugged, flummoxed by their reaction. “You don’t have to thank me,” she said. “I’d never do anything to hurt Clark. I love him.”
Lois looked over at Clark, and then back at his parents. She hadn’t planned to address this part directly, but suddenly she felt she had to say something. “I know it must be scary,” she said. “Having someone know. Having me know. I know you don’t know me well. I know this happened faster than anyone expected. And I know there’s really nothing I can say that will ease that fear for you. All that can do that is time. But we have time. I promise, I’m not going anywhere. I love him. And I’ll always protect him. You’ll see.”
“Oh, you sweet girl,” Martha whispered, then she stepped forward and wrapped Lois in a gentle hug.
When she stepped back, Clark cleared his throat, and they all turned to look at him. He caught Lois’ eye, and she knew immediately what he was about to say.
“Lois isn’t the only one who knows,” he said quietly. His parents both stiffened, their faces betraying their confusion and worry. “Pete and Lana know. Apparently they’ve known for years. Not all the details, of course. But enough. They’ve known since we were kids. Since high school at least. They’ve known all along, and they’ve never said a word. Not to anyone else, and not even to me. They protected my secret and protected me by not telling me they knew.”
Jonathan braced one hand on the countertop, clearly stunned, while Martha raised a fist to her mouth, her eyes filling with tears.
“We were just there,” Clark went on, resting one hand on Lois’ back. “I told them everything. I’m done keeping secrets from the people I love.”
Lois gazed up at him adoringly, and he rested his cheek against the top of her head momentarily, soaking in her love.
He straightened, and looked at his mother. “You should talk to Ginny. I think she knows too. I think she’s known all along.”
Martha let out a soft sob, and looked to Jonathan for just a second, before nodding. “I’ll call her later.”
A timer sounded, and Martha stepped back, wiping her eyes and laughing. “Let’s not burn dinner because I’m over here blubbering like a fool.”
She turned to retrieve dinner from the oven, and Lois turned to face Clark. He was gazing down at her adoringly, and Lois couldn’t resist reaching up to stroke his cheek. He kissed her forehead, and she felt her cheeks warm as she saw out of the corner of her eye Clark’s father turn and gather silverware, giving them a minute.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” she asked, turning from Clark to his mother.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Martha said. “Go sit. I’ll have this on the table in no time.”
Clark walked with her to the table, pulling out her chair for her, and sitting beside her. “That went even better than I anticipated,” he said softly. “I shouldn’t be surprised, I guess. No one in this family can resist your charm.”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. And then Martha and Jonathan were there with them, covering the table in meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables.
“This looks amazing,” Lois said. “Thank you for inviting me.”
“You’re family now,” Martha said. “You don’t need an invitation to family dinner.”
Lois felt her breath catch in her throat.
“Speaking of your standing invitation to Sunday dinner, how was your…uh, flight?” Jonathan asked, reaching for the potatoes.
Lois laughed. “It was great. I’m spoiled now. I’ll never want to fly commercial again.”
Clark took the potatoes from Jonathan and scooped some for each of them, laughing along with her.
“How long did it take you to get here?” Martha asked.
“About thirty minutes,” Clark said. “I’m still experimenting a bit with speed. I can go much faster on my own, but I’m not sure how fast she can tolerate. Honestly, I never thought I’d be able to fly this fast with her.”
“Is it really…comfortable?” Jonathan asked. “It isn’t….windy? Or…nauseating?
Lois shook her head. “It’s exhilarating, but it doesn’t feel like I’m going any faster than a car on the highway. And the wind isn’t nearly as bad as you would think. It doesn’t bother me at all at lower speeds, and when we go fast, I sort of…curl in and tuck my face against his chest and that seems to eliminate the issue altogether.”
There was a pause, and Clark exchanged a look with his parents that she didn’t understand. “What?” she asked.
“We noticed a long time ago that sometimes objects I’m holding seem to be protected just by being close to me. Not just near me, but when they are pressed against my body. Like the clothes I’m wearing being protected from being burnt or cut. We’ve wondered if I might emit some sort of…aura… that gives off a certain amount of protection. I was banking on that when I curled around you in the fire. And I think it might be part of what makes it possible for you to fly so fast with me. I suspect you wouldn’t tolerate it as well if I was holding you at arms length, but when you curl up against my chest, my aura is protecting you from the wind.”
“Wow,” she said softly. She turned that over in her mind, wondering how much protection it could offer her and how far she could get from him before she lost that protection. They could experiment with it, she thought, testing different holds at the same rate of speed and then different speeds with the most protective position. She knew he was hesitant to go any faster with her than they had flown today, but if his aura really did extend to protect her, it was possible they could fly faster – maybe much faster.
“Lois,” Clark said, a note of warning in his voice.
“What? I’m just thinking-”
“I know exactly what you are thinking,” he said. “We don’t need to go any faster than we flew today. There’s no reason-”
“Don’t you want to know?” she asked. “I’m not saying we have to go full speed. But if we just experimented a little….”
Clark sighed and turned to his parents. “Like I said, she loves to fly.”
Lois rolled her eyes and smirked. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“I’m sure we will,” he said, laughing.
Conversation drifted comfortably as they ate, bouncing from Jonathan’s plans now that he was finished sowing the winter wheat to Clark’s blowout win against Newton on Friday to Martha’s newest art project, a mixed media piece made from old books. Lois felt herself settle in just as she had the last time she’d had dinner at this table. There was something so easy and natural about spending time with Clark’s family.
“Oh, Ginny dropped by yesterday with photos of her grandkids in their Halloween costumes, and they were just darling,” Martha said. “Of course, I’d seen Susan’s kids’ costumes. I actually sewed Toby’s cat costume because he insisted the store bought options weren’t the right color. But Sophie and Caleb were just precious. Did Lana show you photos, Clark?”
Clark cringed, and Lois realized suddenly that he had missed Halloween altogether, since it was Tuesday and he was in Metropolis with her. “Yeah, she brought in some photos this week.” He turned to Lois. “They were Peter Pan and Wendy.”
“Oh, that’s adorable,” she said. She waited, looking at him pointedly.
“I usually trick or treat with them,” he conceded. “I’ll need to do something special with them this week or next weekend to make up for missing it.”
“I’m sure Lana explained to them that you had something important to do,” Jonathan said. “Especially if they…knew.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I just don’t like to break plans with them. The next couple of weeks are going to be really busy though. I’ve got midterms and the deadline for the Pacemaker submission and two weeks until the Springfield game. I’d like to take them to the zoo or have a sleepover, but they might have to settle for a trip to get ice cream or something.”
Lois reached over and rested her hand on his arm. “They’ll be happy just to spend time with you. And it will be Thanksgiving break soon, and you’ll get to spend time with them then. Maybe we can take them to the zoo on the weekend after Thanksgiving if the weather cooperates.”
He beamed at her, and she squeezed his arm before removing her hand and picking up her fork again.
“How’s the team looking?” Jonathan asked. “Two weeks until Springfield.”
“Springfield is all the team can talk about,” Clark said with a shake of his head. “We’ve still got Lincoln next week first. I don’t want them getting cocky and blowing that.”
He was such a good coach. She loved listening to him talk about his team and hated that she hadn’t had an opportunity to watch him in action.
They lingered after dinner, talking in the living room about the team and their season, until eventually Martha got nostalgic for Clark’s years as a player and dragged out a scrapbook full of pee wee team photos and Smallville Post clippings. Clark tried to stop her, but Lois hushed him and poured over the photos and clippings with Martha, glancing up occasionally to gaze at him adoringly as he gave up on his protests and allowed his mother to sing his praises.
When they were finished, Lois hopped up from her seat on the couch. “This reminds me,” she said, walking to the coat rack at the front door. “I brought you something!”
“Me?” Martha said, confused. “You didn’t have to bring me anything.”
“Clark told me you have a scrapbook with his articles,” she said, reaching into her purse. “He said you put our article about Luthor’s arrest in it. But that wasn’t his first article in the Daily Planet.”
“What?” Martha said, surprised. “When did he-”
Lois turned back to face them, and saw Clark smiling at her fondly, shaking his head. She grinned at him. She hadn’t told him she was bringing the paper. She wasn’t even sure he knew she still had it. She had set it aside for him Sunday night after he left and forgot all about it. She had stumbled across it later, after he had told her about his mother’s scrapbook and decided to bring it for her.
Martha accepted the paper Lois handed to her and raised her eyebrows when she saw the Luthor on the Loose headline. “Page five,” Lois said.
Martha unfolded the paper and opened it up, and Jonathan peered over her shoulder. Lois went back to her seat beside Clark on the couch and smiled impishly at him.
“I didn’t know you kept that,” he said.
“It’s your first byline in The Daily Planet,” she said. “That’s a big deal, Clark. You know how many reporters would kill for that?”
He shrugged, and she could see him trying to pretend he was unaffected. “It was just a sidebar-”
“My first byline in the Planet was page F7. Five inches about holiday hours at the libraries and rec centers. I have it framed somewhere.”
He smiled, and she reached over and squeezed his thigh. “It’s okay to be excited about it, Clark. It’s a big deal.”
He nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear, giving her a look so sweet she wished they were alone so she could kiss him. “Thank you,” he said softly.
When she tore her gaze from his, she saw his parents had finished reading the article and were watching them with amusement. Lois blushed and turned her attention back to them.
“Poor Clark,” she said. “He showed up for Fall Break and walked into chaos. We had just gotten the call about Luthor’s escape an hour earlier and everyone was in an uproar. I was on the phone yelling at the mayor’s office. Everyone was running around in a panic. Half our copy editors were out with some stomach bug. And here comes Clark thinking I’m going to leave work and take him to lunch. Instead, I barely say hi and then have to get on another phone call. And when I hang up, my editor’s got him installed at a nearby desk giving him copy editing assignments.”
“What?” Martha said, laughing.
“I know! I was like…this is your vacation! I feel bad enough that I can’t leave. You definitely don’t have to edit articles! But you know Clark. He just…jumped right in.”
Clark shrugged. “Being in the newsroom was fun. And I didn’t mind the editing. It was the same program we used in college, and I’ve always liked copy editing.”
“How’d you wind up with an article to write?” Jonathan asked.
Clark looked at Lois, and she started laughing.
“I was supposed to write it,” Lois began. “But I was irritated because I didn’t have time to do that plus my main article. I was about to rush into a meeting with the Chief of Police to give him all my research on Luthor and fires and the inmate death I thought he was responsible for. And I mentioned offhand to Clark that I was going to ask Perry – that’s my editor in chief – to assign the sidebar to someone else because I didn’t have time to deal with it.”
“So while she was in the meeting,” Clark said. “I thought I’d just help her out and type up her notes. Then she could write it up quickly when she was done with her meeting, and she wouldn't have to ask to have it reassigned.”
“Only before I could even take a look at it, Perry comes barging out of his office all agitated,” Lois said, slipping into an impression of Perry’s gruff drawl. “‘I thought you wanted me to reassign this. The whole thing is done and it’s a damn good article.’”
Clark laughed and blushed. “I tried to tell him I was just getting it started for her and it needed a quote from the FAA still-”
“And Perry says, ‘What are you waiting for? Call the FAA!’ And suddenly it was his article.”
Martha and Jonathan laughed, their eyes bouncing back and forth between them as they watched the story unfold.
“Meanwhile,” Lois went on. “Clark’s over there saving Copy’s butt, editing half their queue, and he’s mentoring my research assistant, helping him rewrite his assignment from scratch, and somehow he’s still finding time to bring me lunch and coffee and who knows what else. By the end of the night, the entire newsroom was in love with him.”
They all laughed, though Clark shook his head, trying to demur.
“It’s true and you know it,” she said. “I swear when we went in on Wednesday to write up the arrest, everyone was more excited to see him than they were to see me. Apparently even a near-death experience does not make me as popular as him.”
“Well, turnabout’s fair play,” he interjected. “Because when I got back to work on Thursday, Lois was all anyone wanted to hear about. I couldn’t get through a single conversation or class without someone asking about her.”
“You’re not the only one,” Jonathan said. “Three people stopped me at the feed store Thursday to ask how your girl was doing and when she was coming again for a visit.”
“Katharine Harper called six times while you were out of town begging for an update,” Martha added.
“I told you everyone in this town loves you,” Clark teased her once again, and Lois laughed, endlessly charmed by this town that had embraced her so quickly.
When she had first met Clark in Miami, she had felt sorry for him, stuck forever in his tiny town where it was so hard for even the best and brightest of his students to find their way out. He had told her he wanted his students to know they had choices – that he only wanted them to stay if they loved it like he loved it — and she had tried to imagine how anyone could feel anything but trapped in a town that small, so far from the big city. But now, having spent time here, having met the people who called it home, she was beginning to understand just how easy it was to love Smallville.
*****
Lois finished typing the paragraph she was reworking and then sat back, opening and closing the fingers on her left hand absent-mindedly as she reread what she had written so far. At yesterday’s doctor appointment, she had been cleared to stop using the sling and resume moderate activity as long as she continued to wear the brace. She had been ecstatic – eager to get back to typing her own stories after relying on interns to take her dictation for the last few days. But after a full day of work, her wrist was throbbing, and she couldn’t wait to be finished with her article so she could rest it for a while.
“You want me to get you an intern to type for a while?” Perry asked softly, startling her.
“What? No. I’m fine. I got this,” she said automatically, putting her hands back on the keyboard.
Perry said nothing, just looked at her for a minute, and she sighed and sat back in her seat, defeated. “It hurts,” she admitted quietly.
He nodded. “I know you don’t want to take any time off, but you need to ease back in. Let that Nakamura kid type for you for a few more days. She’ll be thrilled.”
Lois nodded.
“You sure you don’t want to take a couple days? Legal is still worried you’re going to sue.”
Lois rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you see if you can use that fear to get me a raise instead.”
Perry snorted. “Good luck. They’d rather you just take some personal days.”
Lois paused. She couldn’t take the time right now. The arson team would be delivering their initial findings any day, and her source in the district attorney’s office had told her charges were forthcoming this week for Luther in connection to Toni Taylor’s death. She would need to be in Metropolis to cover his arraignment. But after that…there would likely be a lull in any related news until after the holiday. And for the last two days she had been seriously considering extending her Thanksgiving vacation.
“Maybe I’ll do that,” she said tentatively.
“Take some personal days?” Perry said, obviously surprised.
“Not right now,” she said. “I can’t take a break until he’s arraigned. And the arson report-”
“We’ve been through this,” Perry interrupted. “You can’t cover the arson report. You’re too close to it. You’re a part of that story.”
“I know. I know,” she said. “But I want to read it. It’s part of my investigation into Luther and Intergang, even if I’m not writing the story on the report itself.”
Perry nodded grudgingly. “Personal days?” he prompted.
“After that,” she said. “I’m already off Wednesday to Friday of Thanksgiving week. You think you could get me the Monday and Tuesday, too, to make it the whole week? Plus maybe the Friday before? I could go to Smallville and spend a whole week….recovering.”
Perry nodded slowly. “I can give you as much time as you want. You don’t want to book a cruise or a place at the beach? You’re really going to go to Kansas for ten days?”
She smiled and shrugged. “Yeah,” she said. “I can’t think of anything I’d like more, honestly.”
Perry considered that for a minute. “Okay,” he said. “You fill out the form and bring it straight to me. Don’t bother with HR. I’ll approve it myself.”
“Thanks, Perry,” she said, smiling.
“You just enjoy your time off. You deserve it.”
He turned and walked back toward his office, and her grin widened as her plan began to solidify. She called the airline first, finding and booking a flight that left a little after Noon on Friday, and then she turned to her rolodex, flipping to the Ks. She pulled out the card she had only recently added and punched the number into her phone.
“Hello?”
“Martha,” she said. “Hi. It’s Lois.”
“Lois!” Martha said, clearly surprised. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” she said immediately. “More than okay. Everything is great. I just…I needed your help with something. I want to go to the Springfield game, but I want to surprise Clark.”
She heard Martha inhale sharply and then sigh happily.
“He thinks I have to work, that I won’t be there until Wednesday, but I got a plane ticket for Friday afternoon. I was just going to rent a car when I got there, but then I realized that means we’ll have to drive it back and return it. And I thought it might be easier if I just took a shuttle or cab or something. I didn’t know if there were any services you’d recommend-”
“What time do you land? I’ll pick you up.”
“Oh, I don’t want you to have to do that,” Lois said.
“Don’t be silly,” Martha said. “I don’t mind a bit. I’d love to. Besides, it will give us a little time to talk – just the two of us. Get to know each other a little better.”
“I’d love that,” Lois said honestly. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Not one bit,” Martha repeated. “What time do you get in?”
“My flight lands about a quarter after three.”
“Perfect. I’ll pick you up, and we’ll come back here and have dinner before the game. Unless you were planning to surprise him before the game?”
“No, no. He’ll be busy. I don’t want to distract him. I was just going to show up at the game.”
“He’s going to be so thrilled,” Martha said.
Lois laughed. “I hope so. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to go to one of his games.”
“And you’re going to stay through Thanksgiving?” Martha asked.
“Yeah, my boss just approved the whole week off. They’ve been on me to take some extra days since…you know.”
“Well, that’s lovely,” she said. “Why don’t you email me your flight information?”
“That’s perfect,” Lois said. She grabbed a pencil and jotted down the email address Martha gave her. “I’ll do that right now. Thanks so much, Martha. Oh! And thanks again for the dinners. I had some of the broccoli and rice casserole for dinner last night and again for lunch today. It was delicious. Clark has been so wonderful about cooking for me all week. I was spoiled and dreading trying to figure out meals on my own. That was such a nice surprise.”
“You’re very welcome,” Martha said, and Lois smiled at the warmth in her tone. “How was your doctor’s appointment? Did he say you could get rid of the sling?”
“Yes! Well, technically he said I didn’t need to wear it all day anymore, and I should only wear it when I need a break. I might have overdone it a bit today. I may put it back on for a bit when I get home tonight.”
“You be gentle to yourself,” Martha said softly. “Your body has been through a lot.”
“I know,” Lois conceded. “I’m trying to take it easy; it just doesn’t come naturally to me.”
Martha laughed. “I know the feeling. Okay, I should let you get back to work. I’m so glad you called though. I can’t wait.”
“Thanks again,” Lois said. “I’ll email you with the flight details in just a minute.”
They said goodbye, and Lois hung up, then opened her email client and typed out the flight details and a brief message. The cursor hovered over the send button for a minute, then she reconsidered and added a second email address and another note, then changed the subject line before hitting send.
From: Lois Lane <loislane@metnet.com>
To: Martha Kent <mkent@aol.com
CC: Lana Ross <lanaross@aol.com>
Subject: TOP SECRET
Date: November 7, 1995, 5:11pm
Martha – Thanks again for picking me up at the airport next Friday. Here are my flight details.
MetroAir Flight number 3301 Metropolis to Wichita
Arriving Friday November 17 at 3:20pm. Gate 2.
Lana – Since you were so mad that Clark kept you in the dark about my last visit, I thought you’d like a chance for payback. NOT A SINGLE WORD TO ANYONE – I want to surprise Clark at the game.
Lois
Lois went back to editing her article, giving it a final polish before hitting the button to submit it for editing. She was just about to power down her computer and head home when she heard the familiar ding of a new message arriving in her inbox and realized she had left her email open in the background. She pulled it up and opened the email, laughing before she got more than two words in.
From: Lana Ross <lanaross@aol.com>
To: Lois Lane <loislane@metnet.com>
CC: Martha Kent <mkent@aol.com
Subject: Re: TOP SECRET
Date: November 7, 1995, 5:11pm
Oh. My. God.
Yessssss.
He is going to freak out. I’m so excited.
My lips are sealed, I promise.
