Table of Contents From Part 3:
"You want to take a guess where we’re going?”
“Probably somewhere dangerous. Somewhere Clark wouldn’t want either of us to go. I’m guessing you’re going to visit some of Luthor’s old haunts to see if you can find him.”
“Ding, ding,” I say, touching my fingertip to my nose. “Now are you coming or not?” I’m really hoping she’ll say ‘not’, but no such luck.
“Yes, I’m coming. I told Clark I’d deliver you safely back to your apartment, so I’m not leaving you until we get there.”
Ugh!
**********
PART FOUR:
I’m crouched down in an alleyway, watching a certain spot silently from the shadows. I’m not too convinced that I’ll actually find anything here, but it’s worth a shot.
“Do you see anything yet?” Mayson asks me.
I look up at the sky and silently plead ‘help me’. This is her third inquiry in less than five minutes. Why doesn’t she just go home?
Because she actually *listens* to Clark when he asks her to do something, my conscience silently berates me.
Oh be quiet.
“No, nothing yet. He may not even show up here. I have a few other places we can check out too.”
“No, I think you only have one more stop to make for the evening,” an authoritative well-recognized voice says. I grimace to myself. It’s Superman. I’m busted.
I turn to face him with a sheepish look on my face. “And where would that be?” I ask sweetly.
“Home, which is where Clark thought he had asked you to go when he left you to come find me. I don’t think he’d be happy to know you’re out here looking for Luthor on your own. I think I can handle the search from here on out, Lois. Mayson, I trust that you can make it back home on your own; I’d like to deliver Lois back to her apartment personally if that’s okay with you.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure, Superman. Thanks for helping out with the search,” Mayson says politely. She has a funny smirk on her face as she glances at me before turning to head back for her car.
I start to go after her, to give her a piece of my mind, but an arm reaches out to stop me. I look down at Superman’s hand on my shoulder with a little irritation; but I do what the hand tells me, I stop.
As soon as Mayson is safely inside her car, Superman scoops me into his arms and takes us up into the night sky.
The distance to my apartment is flown in awkward silence. It’s not that I don’t want to talk, I do, but I’m a little embarrassed. I don’t know what to say, and Superman seems to be unwilling to start the conversation.
I content myself to just relax and enjoy being in Superman’s arms. It’s a cool night, but not cold. The wind whips through my hair moving it to and fro across my face. I have to reach up occasionally to tuck it behind my ears or pull it out of my face so I can take in the spectacular sights around me.
The night sky is clear and I can see for miles around. The lights of the city twinkle and dance across the darkness around us. I move my eyes from building to building, neighborhood to neighborhood, until I finally bring my eyes back around to Superman’s face.
He doesn’t look at me. He seems to be brooding about something. Is he really that upset with me? Or is he just upset about Lex breaking out of jail and being on the loose? I hope it’s the latter.
A few more moments of star gazing and we arrive at my apartment. He lifts me inside through my open window, but doesn’t opt to follow me in. I hide my disappointment.
“Can I trust that once I leave you’ll stay here?” he asks me. I nod my head at him, still unable to find my voice.
“Okay. Well I’m going to continue my search. Shut and lock this window and don’t open your door for anyone, unless it’s Clark.” And with that, and a small flutter, he was gone.
I obediently reached out and shut my window and locked it, embarrassment again flushing my cheeks. How humiliating to get busted by Superman. Maybe I could turn the experience into something good for my novel. I’m way too worked up to sleep right now. I might as well put the extra energy to good use.
First things first, though. I head into the kitchen and open the freezer. I seize the container of chocolate ice cream and then grab a spoon before I head off to my computer.
Thoughts and ideas are spinning through my head faster than I could possible keep track of them. A surge of excitement shivers through me. It’s definitely going to be awhile before I’ll be going to sleep tonight.
**********
“Why should I believe you?” he asked, turning away from her. “You apologized to me today, but tomorrow you’ll be back to your same old tricks. If it suited your purpose, you’d use me again. No, don’t bother to deny it. You know it’s true.”
“No, Mark, it’s not. I swear. I’m a changed woman. You’ll see. Just give me a chance to prove it,” she said, the desperation plain in her voice. She went to him and threw her arms around him, enclosing him in a fierce embrace. Oh how she wanted him to respond. Please hold me, she thought.
He looked down into her eyes, glassy with tears, and his face seemed to soften. He wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her in against his chest. His breath teased the hair next to her ear. “Give you a chance to prove yourself?”
“Yes. Oh, yes, please.”
He bent down, finding her lips with his own, and kissed her deeply and passionately. He started to pull away and she grabbed hold of him tighter, lengthening the kiss.
“Lois, do you mind if I borrow your black silk dress jacket?” Lucy’s voice cut through my thoughts. “I’m meeting with my sorority sisters today at the dorm. If things go well, I’ll be moving out of here in no time.”
Lucy has impeccable timing as usual. I reluctantly look away from my screen. “Yes, Lucy, fine. Aren’t you up a little early this morning?”
“Aren’t you still here a little late this morning?” came her reply.
I glance down at my watch. Crap! I had let time get away from me, writing on this story. I’d stayed awake last night until my eyes were about to fall out of my head. I had finally just jotted down a few ideas before surrendering myself to sleep. As soon as I’d finished getting ready for work this morning, I had sat down to work on a few of those ideas. I hadn’t realized I’d been writing so long. Perry is going to kill me.
I save the changes to my novel and shut down the computer. I walk into my bedroom to find Lucy modeling my jacket in front of the mirror.
“Thanks. This will be perfect,” she says, smiling in satisfaction at her reflection.
“Good. Glad I could be of service. Now would you listen to me for a second? I don’t think you should stay here tonight, or the next few nights... at least not until they find Lex and get him back behind bars.”
“Oh, and you think it’ll be safer for you to stay here by yourself?”
“No arguments, Luce. If you can’t get moved into that dorm today, then I want you to pack a bag and stay with a friend for a few nights. Promise me.”
She looks like she wants to argue, but the words die on her lips, unspoken. “Okay, I promise.”
“Good. I gotta go. You look good in the jacket but stay away from my shoes. I had to give the last pair you borrowed to the homeless shelter. You stretched them out so badly that I think they grew a whole size.”
Lucy gives me a playful hit on the arm as I turn to leave the room. I stop and turn back to her.
“Lucy, thank you... for yesterday. I wanted to strangle you, but in the end I guess you...”
“Yes?”
“Well, you kind of...”
“Go on, you can say it, Lois. I... helped you. I helped you admit your true feelings to yourself. No thanks are necessary. You’re welcome.” She gives me a sisterly smirk.
I smirk back at her as I leave the room. Great! I’ll never hear the end of this now. I grab my coat and purse and fly out my front door at top speed, glancing at my watch as I go. No, Perry is not going to be happy.
**********
Perry wasn’t as mad as I thought he’d be, more worried than mad. It probably helped that Lex Luthor is on the loose and no one knows his whereabouts, my life could be in danger, and so on and so forth...
What actually concerns me most is that Clark hadn’t looked at me during the entire meeting. What is up with him? I really want to get him alone so I can find out what he’d been about to tell me last night, but as busy as things are today, it looks like it will have to wait until later.
I turn back to my screen to try and focus on doing some work when I notice Clark walking up to my desk out of the corner of my eye. Oh, so he’s going to talk to me now? I turn to look at him with an accusatory expression on my face.
“Where were you last night?” he asks me.
Uh-oh. “What?” I ask him.
“Where were you? I came by your apartment to check on you, and hopefully to finish our conversation, but you weren’t there.”
“Well I’m here now. Did you get in touch with Superman? What did you find out?”
“Don’t try to change the subject. Why didn’t you go home like I asked? Mayson was supposed to take you straight home.”
“Did she say something to you?” I ask, irritated.
“No. She didn’t. You were out looking for Luthor, weren’t you?”
“See, how would you know that unless she’d told you?” I trap him in his lie.
“Because Superman told me where you were. He said he found you out snooping around for Luthor and had to escort you home himself.”
“Ah, ha!” I interrupt him. “So then you knew I was home. Why didn’t you come over then?”
He’s quiet for a moment. “Because I was upset,” he says finally.
“Upset?”
“Yes, upset. How could you do that, Lois? Do you know how dangerous that was? I asked you to go to your apartment and wait for me. Why didn’t you listen?”
Well, it’s a mark in her favor that Mayson wasn’t the one who ratted me out, but did Superman really have to share that bit of information with Clark? I feel myself squirm under his intense gaze. “I’m sorry.”
Boy, am I getting tired of hearing those words come out of my mouth. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not really sorry, so why did I say that?
“No, Clark, I’m not sorry. Just because I have these feelings for you, and we may or may not get involved past a friendship level, does not give you the right to run my life.”
“I am not trying to run your life. I’m trying to save it. You listen to Superman when he tells you to do something. Why not to me?”
That’s not true, is it? I think back. I guess he does have a valid point. I do have a tendency to place more importance on what Superman says.
“That’s not entirely true,” I say anyway. “Besides, I didn’t go by myself, I had Mayson with me, and everything turned out fine. No one kidnapped me or tried to kill me or even threatened me. Superman found us before I’d barely even had time to get started.”
“That’s not the point,” he says, sounding frustrated.
“Look, I’m being careful. I even told Lucy to go stay with some friends until Lex is caught.”
“Oh, I see. So it’s okay for you to put yourself in danger, just not anyone else,” he says, his words wrought with irritation.
“Hey, hey, hey. What in the Sam Hill is all the noise about?” Perry asks as he walks up.
“Nothing, Perry,” I say, giving Clark a look that says ‘if you ever want to talk to me again, you’ll drop this for now.’
Clark takes the hint. “Sorry, Chief.” After Perry walks on past us, Clark lowers his voice. “We’ll discuss this more later.”
You can bet on it.
**********
I stand up from my desk and reach for my jacket to put it on, only to find Clark standing there holding it for me.
I can’t help but give him a small smile as I work my arms into each of the sleeves.
“I’m sorry, Lois,” he says, pulling the jacket up onto my shoulders. “I shouldn’t have jumped on you like that. I just worry about you.”
The ice in my heart that’s been building all day melts a little. “I know you do, and I know I take risks sometimes; but that’s what makes me a great reporter. I just dive in and think about the consequences later. It’s how I’ve always done things.”
“Yeah, but I bet you’ve gotten worse since Superman started hanging around and pulling you out of trouble when you get in too deep.”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I guess. Okay, probably,” I admit.
“Promise me you’ll try to be more careful. Luthor is crazy. He’ll do anything he can to get to you.” The concern in Clark’s eyes touches me deeply.
“I promise,” I tell him. I’m amazed to discover that I really do mean it.
“So does that mean you’ll let me walk you home?” he asks me hesitantly.
“Yes. I’d love it if you would walk me home.” I put one arm through his and we head for the elevators.
**********
“Lola, I need to tell you something about me. I’ve kept it a secret from you too long.”
“You’ve kept secrets from me, Mark?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to. Believe me I didn’t. I had to out of necessity.”
The anxiety in his eyes caused fear to fill her heart. What could be so bad that it would have him worked up like this? “Oh please, don’t tell me you’re married; anything but that. Please don’t tell me you’re happily married with two kids and a mortgage and you take a trip to Hawaii once a year with your family and that this has all been a horrible mistake. Oh my god. You are married, aren’t you? I knew it. I should have seen this coming...”
“Lola!” he shouted her name to get her attention. She calmed down and stopped the pacing that she didn’t realize she was doing. “That’s better. No, I’m not married. You needn’t worry; my heart only belongs to you.”
She feels her face flush at this honest admission.
“No, what I came here to tell you is that I...”
A knock on my door disrupts my thought. I frown at my screen. With Lucy gone I thought I’d have fewer interruptions.
“Lois? Are you home?” a muffled male voice says, cutting through my thoughts. It’s Clark. What is he doing here again?
He had walked me home earlier tonight. It had been lovely. We had talked and laughed and just enjoyed each other in general. We had just started to work our way back to the conversation from last night when he had to leave all of the sudden. He said he forgot the cable guy was coming by his house tonight. The guy was supposed to be there at any moment and if Clark didn’t get back there, he’d have to wait who knows how long for him to come back.
Cable guy? He left in the middle of our conversation for the cable guy? Yeah right. I didn’t buy that for a minute. Clark has a secret and maybe since he’s back here, he’s ready to talk about it.
“Yeah, hang on Clark, I’m coming!” I grab my robe and start to throw it around the delicate nightie I’m wearing, but I hesitate. Do I really want to wear it? Part of me would love to see Clark’s reaction if I answered the door without it. No. Better not. That kind of stuff was better left in romance novels. “Coming!”
I run to my front door. I quickly unlatch the locks and throw open the door.
“Hi,” he says, smiling at me.
“Hi,” I answer.
“I’m sorry I had to run off before. Can I come in?”
“Yeah,” I say, stepping aside and letting him walk in.
“We left things kind of up in the air last night when Mayson interrupted us. I wanted to finish that conversation with you.”
“Me too. It kind of seemed important.”
“It is,” he confirms. He starts to open his mouth to speak again but closes it just as fast and begins walking back towards my front door. I start to ask him what he’s doing when I hear it, a knock on my door and someone running down the hallway outside.
“Clark, did you hear that?”
“Yeah,” he says, opening the door and looking outside.
I come up beside him and look out, but whoever it was, is gone.
“I wonder what that was all about,” I say.
“I think he was making a delivery,” Clark explains, stepping out into the hallway and bending down to pick a package up off the floor.
I step out into the hallway to look at it. It’s a box wrapped in newspaper with a note on the outside of it. The note reads, ‘IMPORTANT – Please Deliver to Superman’.
My stomach sinks as I take a closer look at the writing on the note.
“I think that’s from Lex,” I tell him, grimacing.
“What makes you say that?” he asks.
“Because I’d recognize that carefully manicured handwriting anywhere.”
Clark frowns a little. He probably doesn’t like to think I knew Lex that well.
“Well, come on, let’s open it,” I tell him, pulling the package away from him.
“Lois, I don’t think that’s a good idea. There’s no telling what’s inside it. If it is from Luthor and he’s asking you to give it to Superman then it’s probably dangerous.”
“Exactly... Dangerous to Superman. I’m not going to risk giving this to him to open. What if there’s Kryptonite in here?” The thought causes me to shudder.
“Nigel stole Luthor’s Kryptonite. What if it’s a bomb?” Clark’s face looks very worried, and he keeps trying to the take the package away from me. I have to jerk it around, up and down and back and forth like I’m trying to keep candy away from a child to keep him from getting it.
“Now why would there be a bomb, Clark? Lex knows a bomb won’t kill Superman... and I’m positive this is from Lex.” I run back inside my apartment, slamming the door behind me and locking it. I start ripping the paper off the box as I head for my bathroom when, to my shock and utter amazement, Clark comes barreling through my front door.
Is he insane? I pick up my pace and begin running for the bathroom. He catches me in less time than it takes for me to glance down at the object I’m holding. It’s a metal box, a lead box. Whatever’s inside is definitely dangerous to Superman then.
My fingers are fumbling for the latch on the box when Clark’s arms come around me from behind to reach for it. In my determination to keep it from him, I give it a little toss towards the bathroom. Clark rushes after it, and I grab him trying in vain to hold him back, determined that I’m going to get to it first. In a surprising display of strength, he pulls me with him into the bathroom. We arrive just in time to watch the box bounce off the edge of the sink and down to the floor. The latch bounces free allowing the lid to pop open, and then... it blows up in a small explosion!
It was a bomb!
Clark rolls us both to the ground. I open my eyes, blinking several times. A strange dust is filling the air making it difficult to see; but a green glow from the floor beside me catches my eye. I squint through the dust, and I can make out a couple of tiny, pea-sized pieces of Kryptonite on the floor.
“Clark! Get off me!” I holler at him as I push him off of me. I struggle to stand up and then make my way to the switch on the wall for the ventilation fan. The fan should be able to clear most of the dust out of the air. My hands find the switch, and I turn it on.
“What the heck did you think you were doing?” I ask him indignantly, squinting in the general direction of where I had been laying on the floor. I still can’t see very well from the dust.
“I can’t believe you broke down my door!” I chastise him. I don’t get a reply. Where is he?
I walk carefully towards where I think I got up from. As the dust clears, I realize Clark is still on the floor. Actually, he’s rolling around on the floor, clutching his stomach in pain.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I ask him.
He doesn’t say anything. “Clark! Answer me. What’s wrong?” I ask, bending over him.
“Lois,” he grits out through clenched teeth, his eyes shut tightly against some unknown pain. “Get that Kryptonite out of here, please.” His body begins a sickening spasm, and a pained groan escapes his lips.
At first, my mind doesn’t register what is really happening here. In shock, I just obey him. I gather up the Kryptonite pieces and take them into my kitchen. I throw them into my trashcan and push them down to the bottom as far as I can cram them.
There. That should protect Superman somewhat until I can dispose of the Kryptonite better. But what am I worried about? Superman’s not even here. But Clark is here. And Clark asked me to get the Kryptonite away from him.
My brain has finally caught up to what’s happening, and it’s screaming one singular thought to me - The Kryptonite made *Clark* sick.
I head for the nearest loveseat and fall onto it before my legs can give way under me; it feels like I’m the one being affected by the Kryptonite. All the strength has left my body.
No! My mind screams at me. No, it isn’t possible. It can’t be. Can it? Then Clark’s words come back to my mind. ‘There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you...’
I look back towards the bathroom. Get up, I tell myself. He’s hurt. You have to check on him.
**********
To be continued...
