Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Murder Over Metropolis 3/?

Notes: Oh boy! This is getting too good! Thank you for all of the feedback. Once again I am posting this a day early and we have SuperBek and KSaraSara to thank for that!

Part Three

Clark walked down the long hallway from the police interrogation room to the lobby of the police station, Henderson walking slightly behind him. Henderson was letting him go — with a warning not to leave town — but the evidence against Clark was concerning. Even though Clark had shared everything he knew about Lex’s criminal activities with the inspector, there was nothing that shielded Clark from a motive for killing Lex.

Sure, the evidence against Clark was circumstantial at best, but he was still not out of the woods. He should have known that going down to the penthouse at Lex’s request had been a terrible decision.

When they reached the waiting room, Henderson told him to keep his nose out of trouble until this was all cleared up and then said goodbye. In the lobby, there were a fair number of people around — two officers behind the desk, a group of teenagers on a bench along one side of the room, and a dark-haired woman sitting by herself. The woman looked familiar, though her hair was wavy and her shoulders tense. She looked up at him with big brown eyes, and he recognized her immediately.

“Lois,” he sighed as she stood up and started approaching him. “What are you doing here?” he asked, unable to keep the irritation from his voice.

“You owe me an explanation,” she responded as she stepped closer to him. “I figured I could give you a lift home, and we could talk or go to a diner for some coffee.”

“It’s late,” he said as he brushed past her.

“Then just give me the explanation,” she demanded, grabbing his arm to stop him. “Please.” Now it was less demand and more a request, a plea.

He stopped and turned to her, wishing he had the ability to tell her no. He wished she wasn’t the one who grounded him, wasn’t the light in his world that made him sane given everything he had to deal with. She knew none of that, though, and he couldn’t tell her. Because the last time he’d let his feelings be known, she had turned him down.

“I don’t want to go back to my place,” he responded, putting his hand over hers. “But I can’t do this right now, Lois.” He pulled his hand back and turned to walk out of the police station.

He could sense her following closely behind him, and when he reached the sidewalk, he turned to face her, finally just now noticing what she was wearing. Lois stood in front of him in jeans and a burgundy short-sleeved shirt. She must have gone home to change, and he half wondered if she knew burgundy was his favorite color on her, if she’d done it to gain his favor.

He sighed and looked up at the sky for a moment. The clouds had cleared up in the last few hours since he’d entered the police station, but it was a bit chilly at two in the morning — or at least he assumed Lois would be a bit chilly. Reluctantly, he looked back at her, wishing she didn’t have those beautiful, pleading eyes.

“Why did you go see, Lex?” Lois asked.

“He called me, Lois. He told me that your happiness was at stake and that I needed to see him in person,” he responded, running his hand through his hair.

“What time was that?” she asked, clearly frustrated with him.

“Lois, I just went through all this with Henderson and his captain,” Clark informed her. “It’s late, it’s been a long day, and I’m tired.”

Clark could go without sleep, of course, but he was emotionally drained from the day’s events. He couldn’t even begin to explain how it felt to be considered a murder suspect, especially when the deceased was his mortal enemy. How could anyone believe Clark could kill someone?

“Then I’ll walk with you,” Lois retorted, “or you can just get into the Jeep, and we can go back to my place to talk.”

“Please, Lois, not tonight,” he said. “I know I told you I owe you an explanation, but I really just…can’t right now.”

Not even bothering to acknowledge his plea, Lois continued, throwing another question at him. “What did my happiness have to do with you going over to see Lex?”

“Because I would have done anything to see you happy, even if that meant watching you marrying a psychopath like Lex. You made your choice, Lois, when you agreed to marry him.”

He was angry. Clark never got mad like this. He was so fed up with Lois wanting his approval yet not taking his advice. They were best friends and partners, and yet she didn’t trust his judgment. He kept walking down the sidewalk, knowing she would follow.

“Clark, that’s not fair. Agreeing to marry Lex didn’t mean I wanted my life at the Planet to end or not have my friends anymore. It’s not like I was going to live as a socialite or give up my job.”

“But he destroyed the Daily Planet and nearly ruined Jack’s life!” Clark yelled, turning on his heel to face her. “He even tried to kill Superman,” he blurted out, so mad, so furious that he couldn’t get her to see the truth that was staring her in the face. Maybe if she knew her fiancé had tried to kill her precious hero, maybe she’d care then.

And she did — she gasped, clearly shocked by his admission.

“Superman,” Lois whispered, almost sounding like she didn’t believe him. “I didn’t know, Clark. I mean, why didn’t he tell me?”

Clark looked over at her, shook his head, and then turned and walked away. This was precisely what he didn’t want. What was so much more special about his alter ego?

“So, you would have believed Superman, but you didn’t believe me when I told you about Luthor?” he challenged, turning back to face her, the bitterness and frustration coming through in his tone. He squeezed his left hand into a fist and pursed his lips together. He had wanted to tell her about Luthor, as Superman, so many times, but what good would it have done?

Her silence seemed to be his answer.

“Did you at least believe Perry when he told you everything Lex was responsible for?”

Lois hesitated for a moment but then nodded weakly. “For what it’s worth, I would have believed you too…all that evidence…” She trailed off, almost looking as though she was feeling physically ill.

If he were capable of it, he was sure he’d feel sick to his stomach too. She’d almost married a monster. He’d almost lost her. And maybe it was the late hour or his exhaustion or the fact that when it came right down to it, he didn’t want to fight with Lois anymore, but Clark decided he might as well share what Henderson had told him.

“Lois, they wanted to arrest me for Luthor’s murder. They have a video showing me in Luthor’s office talking to him. The only problem is…the timestamp on the video is different from the time I was actually there. I left LexCorp at about eight twenty, but the video shows I didn’t leave until after nine,” he explained.

“Did anyone see you?” she asked, and he could almost see the wheels start turning in her head.

“I don’t know. But Luthor was willing to do anything to make sure I stayed away from you,” he admitted, frustrated, even a little disgusted at himself for having gone to see Luthor in the first place. “Even offering me twenty thousand dollars to move out of Metropolis and out of your life.”

Clark watched Lois step back, her hand coming up to cover her mouth and her eyes dropping down. Then she looked back up slightly.

“Did you…consider taking the money?” she wondered.

His left hand tightened back into a fist, and his heart rate skyrocketed. His lips pursed into a line, and he took a deep breath in through his nose. How could she?

“I can’t believe you! After everything we’ve gone through, do you think my feelings for you are that fleeting? Twenty thousand or twenty million, there isn’t an amount of money that would make me leave Metropolis or you,” he snapped.

Clark turned his back on her. He couldn’t believe she would ask that.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as he felt the touch of her hand on his shoulder. “It was a stupid question. I’m not even sure why I even asked.”

He faced her again and saw the defeat in her eyes. Reaching up, he cupped her cheek with his hand. Those eyes staring back at him made his heart squeeze, like they always did, and he suddenly had the urge to remind her how he really felt for her.

“Lois, you have to know how important you are to me. You’re more than just my partner — you’re also my best friend,” he admitted. Right then, there was nothing more he wanted to do than kiss her, but it had been a very long day, and this really wasn’t the time or the place.

Instead, Clark stepped back, dropping his hand and trying to refocus on what they had been talking about before he’d confessed Luthor had tried to bribe him. “His assistant, Mrs. Cox, let me into his office. She also happens to be the one who found the body.”

Clark watched Lois’s expression as she processed his abrupt change in subject. To her credit, it didn’t take her more than a second to catch back up to him. “Do you think she doctored the tape?”

“I don’t know, Lois. It’s possible. But…you do believe me, right? That I didn’t do it?” he asked, his jaw tight as he studied her.

She frowned and nodded. “Of course I do, Clark. I just…need to know so I can help you. Because if you didn’t do it — I mean, since you didn’t do it — who did? And we have to prove that you didn’t do it. So…where did you go after you left LexCorp?”

Clark ran his hand through his hair. That was the million dollar question. And he hated that he’d had to lie to the police and everyone else. What was he supposed to say? How was he supposed to answer that question? He couldn’t very well tell them that he’d been in California putting out a wildfire.

“I walked around the city for a bit,” he lied, knowing the truth would hurt him even more. By her silence as they walked the rest of the way to the Jeep, Clark assumed his answer would work for the time being.

But the silence didn’t last long, and he wasn’t terribly surprised when she spoke up again, her voice filled with determination. “Clark, please, let me help you. I can’t help you if you don’t open up to me.”

He sighed and shook his head. “It’s after two in the morning — it’s been a long night. Can we just talk about this tomorrow?” he asked, frustrated that she wouldn’t let things go, let him be alone given the long, emotionally charged day they’d both had. He couldn’t even look her in the eye; instead, he watched a taxi drive by and heard the sounds of police chattering on their radios in the background. “First thing in the morning, I have to find myself a good lawyer.”

“I have the names of a couple of lawyers you could reach out to,” she said eagerly, putting her hand on his bicep. “How about I bring over breakfast first thing, and we can make the calls together?”

“I don’t know…” he hedged, unsure how he felt about Lois helping him with this case. It was her fiancé he was suspected of killing, after all. And he didn’t even know how she actually felt about Luthor’s death — having been engaged to the man, she had to have loved him even a little. He could tell it was hurting her, the fact that he wasn’t immediately jumping at her offer of help, but he just didn’t want it.

Lois walked around to the front door of her Jeep, and then she looked at him pointedly. “Well, you need some help, Clark,” she told him, “and I’m going to give it to you since I’m part of the reason why you’re in this mess.”

Before he could even respond, she was in the driver’s seat and starting the car, without even having said goodbye to him. Well, that was fine with him — he’d wanted the space from her tonight anyway. But he couldn’t deny the way it stung, deep within his heart, knowing they were back to bickering and not admitting their feelings for one another.

All Clark really wanted to do was fly her to a deserted island and tell her the truth about everything. But he couldn’t just run away from a murder charge, and telling Lois anything right now seemed terribly risky. So instead, he stood there for a moment, watching her drive away, and then continued walking down the sidewalk in the general direction of his apartment.