Title: The I's Have It
Author: SarahC.
Rating: PG
Summary: A re-write of the S2 episode, 'The Eyes Have It' in which Clark lets something slip-- and everything goes from there.
Feedback: Makes my world go round.
Author's Note: I'm so sorry for how long it's been since I posted the first part but life got busy all of a sudden. I will try not to wait so long before posting the 3rd part.
This part uses quite a bit of the original dialogue from the episode and I deliberately stayed as closely as possible to what actually happens in the A-plot of the ep, so you'll probably recognize a lot of it.
Part Two Lois opened the door to Mayson’s knock and forced a polite smile. “Hi, Mayson. Thanks for coming so quickly. I’m sure you had other plans so I appreciate your coming.”
Mayson returned Lois’s smile with a tight one of her own. “It’s no problem.” She stepped inside and stopped when she saw Superman and Martha and Jonathan. “What are you doing here?” she blurted out.
Clark stood up, looking in the direction of Mayson’s voice and where he knew the door was. “Hello, May—Miss Drake,” he corrected himself, automatically slipping back into his formal Superman voice.
Lois paused to marvel at how different he sounded and how different he looked, standing there in his typical Superman pose, looking almost too big for the room and very imposing in the bright primary colors of the suit.
Mayson was looking confused and turned to Lois. “You said you wanted to know more about Dr. Faraday. I don’t understand; why is Superman here?”
“Why don’t you sit down, Mayson, we can explain,” Lois said.
At this point, Jonathan stepped forward, holding out his hand. “Miss Drake, I’m Jonathan Kent and this is my wife, Martha.”
Mayson shook Jonathan’s hand automatically and then paused as the name finally registered. “Kent?”
“I think you know our son, Clark,” Martha added.
A slight quiver passed over Mayson’s face at the mention of Clark, Lois noticed, but otherwise she showed no reaction. “Yes, I do,” she said calmly enough. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Kent.”
“Same here,” Martha smiled. “Clark has mentioned that you’re a friend of his.”
Mayson stiffened but sat down in the chair. “Why did you call me here?” she asked directly, fixing her eyes on Lois.
Lois opened her mouth but Clark saved her the trouble by speaking first.
“Miss Drake, first of all, we have to ask for your secrecy.”
“I’m a lawyer, Superman. I can be discreet,” Mayson retorted coolly.
Lois saw a slightly abashed look cross Clark’s eyes at the thinly-veiled hostility in Mayson’s tone but he went on. “I asked Lois to call you because we need to know what, if anything, more you’ve learned about Dr. Faraday and why he was murdered. The men who did it are obviously still searching for something and the truth is,” Clark hesitated but finished his statement in a calmly business-like tone, “those men have also blinded me.”
Now Mayson reacted, gasping a little. “Blind!”
Lois jumped in. “Yes, so you see, Mayson, why we need to know anything you’ve found out. Obviously, those men would know how to reverse the effect of what they did to Cl—Superman,” she hastily corrected herself, sensing Clark’s sudden tension and then his slight relaxing when she did so. Thankfully, Mayson didn’t seem to have noticed her disastrous almost-slip-of-the-tongue.
“I see,” Mayson responded slowly, studying Superman and Lois thoughtfully. She sat up a little straighter, adopting a business-like tone and posture as she began summarizing what she knew. “Well, this is what we’ve learned in the past two days. Dr. Faraday was a genius. His experiments were being funded by a wealthy eye doctor named Harold P. Leit.”
“What were they working on?” Jonathan asked.
“Dr. Faraday developed a device which can carry all the knowledge of all the ages -- or any variation thereon -- on a single beam of light directly through the eyes into the brain.”
There was a moment’s silence as they all thought about the ramifications of that, the sort of power that sort of device would give to the owner of it.
Lois stiffened. The light Dr. Faraday had shone into her eyes. That must explain those seemingly random pieces of knowledge she’d been spouting the past two days. Glancing at Clark, Lois saw that he’d had the same thought.
“Oh my. A terrible thing, in the wrong hands,” Martha breathed.
“Yes, and I think we can safely assume that Dr. Leit’s hands are definitely the wrong hands,” Mayson agreed.
“It would allow him to pretty much control the world,” Lois said slowly.
“I think it would,” Mayson nodded.
“And this is the device that Dr. Faraday had with him and that they’re still looking for,” Clark spoke up.
“Yes.”
“Do we know what it looks like?” he asked with a flash of impatience.
Lois put a quick hand on Clark’s arm and he relaxed. Mayson’s gaze flickered over to where Lois’s hand was on his arm and Lois saw the briefest frown pass over her face.
“According to Dr. Faraday’s girlfriend, it looks like a silver ballpoint pen.”
A silver ballpoint pen!
Lois’s hand tightened on Clark’s arm in a convulsive grip as he jerked upright.
“Cl—Superman, that’s it!”
“You know where it is,” Mayson said and it wasn’t a question.
“Yes.” Lois leaped up. “Okay, I’m going over to the Planet to get it and then we’ll figure out a way to contact this Dr. Leit.”
“Lois,” Clark began, standing up in his turn.
She turned back to him. “What other option do we have?”
She saw visible reluctance pass over his face and then he gave in. “Just be careful, okay?”
Her expression softened and she moved back over to his side, putting her hand on his arm. “I’ll be careful.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” he asked, his voice quiet, and Lois could almost have laughed and cried at the same time at the teasing light in his eyes. Oh,
Clark! “I promise to be careful,” she repeated and then added lightly, “And if I’m not back in half an hour or so, you can come looking and find me.” She paused, wincing at the slip of her tongue and opened her mouth to take it back, but he forestalled her.
“Oh, I’d find you, Lois. No matter what it took,” he added under his breath, so softly that she had to strain to hear it and she knew that no one else could have heard it.
Martha and Jonathan watched this brief little interlude between Lois and their son in silence, exchanging smiling glances. The connection between Lois and Clark was obvious; they, who knew Clark so well, could see the love in his eyes and any village idiot could have seen the intensity of the emotions Lois felt for Clark.
Mayson narrowed her eyes slightly as she watched Lois and Superman, feeling a momentary pang of envy on seeing the warmth between the two of them. The vague rumors about Lois and the super-hero were obviously true—and then some. She wondered if Clark knew about it, suppressing the flicker of hurt at the thought of him. She wasn’t blind or an idiot and it hadn’t escaped her jealous notice that Clark obviously cared a great deal for Lois and it was clear that her main rival in getting Clark’s attention was Lois herself. Which made this revelation of Lois’s all-too-clear feelings for Superman even more interesting…
Lois touched his arm briefly, wishing she could do more but restrained by the presence of Mayson and Clark’s parents, and stepped back, addressing them all but she kept her eyes on Clark. “I’m going to the Planet; I’ll be right back.”
“We’ll be waiting right here,” Martha said, rather unnecessarily, and Lois flashed a quick smile at her before leaving.
~*~
Forty-five minutes later, Clark was about ready to climb the walls out of sheer worry and frustration.
And he had already almost begun to wear an uneven path across Lois’s floor from his pacing.
Martha and Jonathan had tried to rearrange the furniture to give him room once they’d seen that no amount of persuasion could make him remain still as the minutes went by.
Mayson watched with a mixture of amazement, incredulity and amusement at this display of almost childish impatience on the part of the super-hero. She’d never seen the usually unflappable super-hero in such a state and, for a moment, couldn’t help but wonder just what it was about Lois Lane that could inspire such strong feelings in two men like Superman and Clark Kent.
“Superman, please, can’t you sit down?” Martha tried again, mindful always of Mayson’s restricting presence. “You haven’t stayed in one spot for more than two minutes at a time for the past 20 minutes.”
“It’s been forty-five minutes. Where is she?”
“I’m sure she’s fine. She could have run into traffic or might have stopped to talk to someone at the office. There’s no reason to panic,” Martha tried reasoning with her son.
“No, there shouldn’t be any traffic at this hour and Lois knows how to avoid or beat traffic better than anyone I know—from what people have told me,” he hastily added, remembering Mayson’s presence and that Superman would certainly have had little reason to have been driven by Lois before. “Besides, it takes less than 15 minutes to get to the Planet from here even in traffic. She should be back by now. She should have gotten back more than 15 minutes ago.”
“Superman, you’re over-reacting,” Mayson spoke up. “So it’s taking 15 minutes longer than you thought. We usually wait 24 hours before issuing a missing person report, you know. 15 minutes doesn’t even qualify as a reason to worry.”
“Not when it’s Lois and not when this Dr. Leit is out there,” Clark responded tersely.
“Superman, Lois is a capable adult. I’m sure she’s fine,” Jonathan tried in his turn, exchanging rather helpless glances with Martha.
“Superman, please, sit down. You’re making me tired just watching you,” Martha said softly, persuasively, putting a hand on Clark’s arm and Clark gave in, letting Martha lead him to a chair. “Just give her some more time.”
Clark waited—and fidgeted—for another five minutes that felt more like five years. He was aware that he was behaving rather badly, and in front of Mayson Drake at that, which wasn’t going to improve her opinion of the super-hero, but he couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling inside him that Lois was in trouble.
Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore and the niggling instinct wasn’t going away and was only getting stronger, so he stood up decisively. “I’m going out to find her.”
“But- how?” Martha and Jonathan asked.
“I’ll start at the Planet and work from there,” he answered as he made his way slowly over to the window.
“But you’re- incapacitated!” Mayson protested. “Why don’t you just call the police or something. The Metropolis PD are really good at hostage and kidnapping situations. They have a better record than the FBI…”
“Is this the good window?” he interrupted her.
“Yes, but--” Martha began only to break off as he crashed through the window to land with a thud on the ground.
They all rushed to the window to look out, seeing Superman pick himself up from among the debris and summon a taxi with a shrill whistle.
“Is he all right?” Mayson asked rather dubiously of the Kents.
“I’m sure he is. He is Superman, after all,” Martha said, exchanging a look with Jonathan.
“I think that’s all we can do, Miss Drake,” Jonathan spoke up. “Thank you for your help; I’m sure Lois and Superman appreciate it. Why don’t I see you back home while Martha waits here in case there’s any more news? I’m sure you have other things to be doing.”
Mayson hesitated but then relented. “Yes, thank you, Mr. Kent.”
Martha smiled at the younger woman. “Thank you for your help, Miss Drake.”
“You’re welcome. It was good to meet you,” Mayson smiled. She hesitated and then added hurriedly, “I can see now why Clark is the way he is.”
Martha’s smile softened. “Thank you.”
“Martha, I’ll be back,” Jonathan addressed his wife.
“Yes, I’ll just be trying to board up the window,” Martha replied with a rueful gesture at the broken window.
Jonathan shook his head, though his slight, indulgent smile belied the gesture, as he left with Mayson.
~*~
Lois felt an odd mixture of trepidation and excitement as she was shoved out of the car in front of the Daily Planet by Dr. Leit and his henchmen, whom he called Munch.
They had been waiting and had grabbed her when she’d stepped out of the door of her apartment earlier, too quickly for her to even scream. They’d taken her to their lab/headquarters and Leit had proceeded to interrogate her for what he wanted to know, the location of Dr. Faraday’s device.
She’d pretended complete ignorance of what Dr. Leit was looking for in an attempt to pump him for information and, she suppressed a surge of hope and smugness, she’d made him reveal the antidote to Clark’s blindness. Now all she needed to do was find some way to incapacitate him and Munch and grab that device in his jacket pocket…
None too gently, Munch forced her to walk forward and into the Daily Planet building.
The elevator door opened and Munch pushed her out of it and into the bull-pen.
“Where is it?” Leit demanded.
Lois pointed to Clark’s desk and Munch propelled her towards it, his grip painfully tight on her arms.
And then Lois gasped as she drew close enough to Clark’s desk to see his pen tray.
The device wasn’t there.
She specifically remembered Clark putting it there! But now it wasn’t.
She stiffened, almost afraid to hope. Did that mean—could Clark have—had he come looking for her and retrieved the device already? She knew more than half an hour had passed and she knew Clark would be worried and it would be just like him to have come out to save her, never mind that he couldn’t see.
Oh, Clark! Please… “You lied to me!” Leit accused harshly.
“I did not!” Lois protested angrily. “It was right there!”
“Enough!” Leit snapped, cutting her off. “No more Mr. Nice Guy. Now I will extract it from you painfully. You will wish you had not lied. Munch!”
Lois suppressed a shiver at the cold fury in Leit’s eyes and the expression of glee on Munch’s face as he looked at her.
She tensed automatically in expectation of pain.
And then the lights went out.
Thinking quickly, Lois ducked out from between Munch’s hands and scurried underneath a table, frantically trying to think of some better hiding spot.
She heard Leit order, “Don’t let her get away, Munch! Do you have her?”
“No, Doctor,” came Munch’s rather stoic response.
“Do you have a flashlight?”
“No, Doctor.”
“She can’t have gone far. Find her!” Leit snapped, revealing his growing frustration and anger. “You go that way. I’ll go this way.”
Lois waited, hardly daring to breathe for fear of being heard, listening intently for their footsteps.
And then, she saw feet stopping in front of her and a moment later, Munch’s face, smiling evilly.
“I have her, Doctor,” he called out.
But before he could grab her, there was a gust of wind, so powerful it knocked him over the table and across the Bullpen where Lois heard a crash. She clung to the table leg for dear life, even as she felt a surge of relief. Clark was here! He must have been the one to turn out the lights too!
The wind died down.
“I know you’re here, Superman,” she heard Leit call.
She stiffened, slowly coming out from under the table, tensed to make a run for wherever Clark was.
“Yes, Dr. Leit. I’m here. And I have the device.”
Lois suppressed a smile. She wasn’t out of danger yet but as she’d once told Clark, Superman’s presence always made her feel like everything was going to be okay, that she could do anything…
“Lois, can you get to where I am?” she heard him ask.
She was already moving but Leit and Munch were too quick for her and intercepted her, twisting her arms painfully until she gave a strangled cry of pain and stopped struggling.
“Lois, are you all right?” Clark asked and Lois heard the growing worry in his voice, mixed in with his frustration at not being able to see and therefore help her more.
She opened her mouth to reassure him but Leit jumped in.
“She’s fine for now, Superman. And she’ll stay fine, if you’ll roll the device this way, toward the sound of my voice.”
Clark hesitated and Munch tightened his grip on Lois’s arms until she gave another involuntary gasp and he gave in.
“All right, doctor. Catch!”
Lois watched as the device sailed through the air and landed with a quiet clunk on the floor some distance away.
“Nice try, Superman,” Leit said mockingly. “Munch, retrieve the device please.”
And Lois grabbed her chance. Munch was definitely the stronger one who could overpower her and at that moment, Leit felt victory within his grasp and was ever-so-slightly relaxed. She twisted sharply, raised her foot and slammed her heel down as hard as she could on Leit’s foot, hearing his cry of pain with a sense of satisfaction. She grabbed the blinding device out of his pocket and ran.
“Cl-Superman, look this way!”
Clark blinked and stared forward and Lois hurriedly shone the red light into his eyes.
She was warily aware of Leit, fortunately still incapacitated, and Munch retrieving the device, behind her and it was a long minute as she watched Clark blink slowly and then that vaguely lost expression vanished and she knew he could see her.
She smiled up at him and saw the flicker of a return smile in his eyes before his attention shifted to Leit and Munch. She hastily stepped behind him, out of his way.
“Drop the device!” he ordered sharply.
“No, give it to me! Give it to me!” Leit demanded at almost the same moment.
Munch hesitated and Clark’s lips settled into a grim line as he aimed his heat vision at the device.
Leit lunged forward with a scream. “No!”
He grabbed for it but just as his hand closed over the device, it exploded in a burst of searing, blinding, white light.
And then it was gone.
Clark blinked, since the light had been bright enough that even he had had to close his eyes against it, and glanced at Lois to see that she had covered her eyes and was just lowering her hands.
Their eyes met and he couldn’t help a smile at the sight of her, feeling an upwelling of pure relief and joy in
seeing her. Dear, beautiful Lois whom he’d been afraid he might never see again. Might never be able to rest his eyes on her lovely features, might never be able to watch the play of expression across her face, might never be able to see the flash of her eyes when she was angry or amused…
“I told you I’d find you,” he finally said softly.
Her expression softened and she took a small step closer to him. “I never doubted you would, Clark.”
He bent a little nearer but then they were both distracted at a clattering noise as Leit and Munch stumbled against one of the desks.
“Munch!” Leit called out, panic edging his voice. “I can’t see! Can you see? I think I’m blind!”
“I can’t see either,” Munch responded.
Clark met Lois’s eyes, seeing the answering amusement in her eyes. “Serves you right, Leit,” he addressed Leit coolly, before turning back to Lois. “I think a trip to the police station with these two is in order. I’ll see you later?” It was more a question than a statement.
She smiled. “Count on it. I’ll just go back to my place and let your parents know it’s all over. I’ll meet you back there.”
“Okay, thanks.”
He lifted up and over to where Leit and Munch were stumbling around, lifting both of them up by their jackets, and flew off with them, serenely ignoring their cries of alarm and panic.
Lois watched him leave with a slight smile, shaking her head slightly. It really was amazing and she didn’t know if she would ever get completely used to seeing Superman use his powers so casually, knowing and recognizing Clark as the man inside the suit. It seemed so obvious… and yet, the differences were still there. Superman seemed taller because of the way he held himself; his voice seemed deeper because of the formal tone of authority and command he tended to use, and his face looked amazingly different without the glasses disguising the lines of his face and the lock of hair softening his entire expression… So different… and yet so similar, the same…
Oh, yes, she’d be seeing him later. They had a
lot to talk about…
