Very good chapter as usual, Terry.
The scene where Catharine was driving Lois to work in her Porsche was delightfully funny:
“Relax, boss lady. I’ve never lost a passenger.”
“I’d say you’re overdue, then.” Lois glared at the street rushing by, seemingly just inches away. “It’s just a matter of time before someone runs over this pregnant roller skate you call a car and gets me all tangled up around the drive shaft.”
Unfortunately, Lois is unable to enjoy the ride, which ends on a somewhat sour note. Lois is not her usual self, but rather a tense version of herself awaiting Superman's trial.
Lois deliberately didn’t listen to Catharine’s mumbled response as she walked to her office. When would she learn to accept people as they were and stop trying to change them, to fix them, to make them better?
Probably when she admitted she wasn’t always right, she thought with a rueful sigh.
I love this, though, how Lois is able to see herself clearly and realize what she is doing wrong, even when she hasn't got the strength to change her own behaviour.
Are Sheila and Bernadette Thompson going to be important, I wonder? (By the way.... We have two young bright female reporter wannabees and two bright female lawyers. And arguably the most important character in this story after Lois and Clark is Catharine Grant. There are a lot of likable females around. You know I have certainly nothing against this, Terry, but I was wondering.... Any special reason for it?)
She stepped forward and put her hand on his elbow, then she whispered, “You have to tell them.”
His eyes popped wide and his jaw dropped. “But – I thought – I thought you didn’t – “
She smiled. “I’m over that. It was the right thing to do this morning, just like it’s the right thing to do this afternoon. Your attorneys have a right to know something this important.”
I like the fact that Clark didn't want to reveal his double identity to his lawyers because of Lois, and I like the fact that Lois sees and tells him that he has to.
Blair, who had been watching their exchange with increasingly wide-eyed astonishment, said, “No, no, we don’t need to know that. Or this. Or whatever it is you two been whisperin’ about. Y’all just keep all your personal stuff personal.” She lifted her hands with her palms out. “And I’m not talking to anybody about what I just saw. Not my mama, not my pastor, not Clark Kent, not nobody.”
Love the way that Blair speaks. I don't remember, is she black? Do I sound racist if I say she sounds black to me? She makes me think of a certain kind of warmth and humour and generosity that I associate with certain black ladies.
He was suddenly at Blair’s side, holding her by the elbows. “Wups! Don’t fall off the desk. You might get carpet burn.”
Blair stared at Clark and tried to speak, but no sound came out of her mouth. Her strength seemed to flow away and she floundered silently in his grasp. Lois saw that she wasn’t breathing, so she stepped forward and blew sharply into the attorney’s open mouth, and the young Southerner gasped sharply and panted several times.
Clark asked, “Where’d you learn that trick?”
“My nephew. Babies who cry too hard and adults in shock will usually gasp and start breathing again when you blow in their faces.”
And I love Blair's reaction to Superman's revelation, and I love Clark's and, particularly, Lois's response to Blair's reaction.
Lois took her hand and rubbed it vigorously. “I know, Connie, I know. Superman is Clark Kent’s secret identity.”
Like Lisa already pointed out, this is a delightful way to describe who the man in the spandex suit really is.
Blair grunted. “Right. Guess I don’t need to run my laps at the gym today. I already got all the cardiac stimulation I need for quite a while.”
More Blair humour.
Connie sat down at her desk. “But now we need to figure out what to do with you. Since you can’t be a witness at your own trial, you’ll have to leave the country.”
His face showed his consternation. “Can’t I just stay in Kansas?”
Clark, you can't be in Kansas any more. (For a while, at least.)
Blair added, “And you’ll have to leave before you’re subpoenaed and before you’re officially notified that you’re on either witness list.” She paused. “We haven’t officially notified you yet. Have you been notified by the DA?”
It's interesting how Blair's Georgia accent seems to disappear when she is being formal.
“It’s simple, Mr. Kent. We’re going to videotape you answering questions as you would do if you were testifying at your trial – say, would you please change back to the brightly colored clothes? It’s too easy to treat you like a regular person when you’re dressed like that.”
Love Connie's way to describe the supersuit. It's interesting, too, how your clothing affects the way people react to you.
Blair smiled warmly at him. “Yeah, a real regular guy. Real good-lookin’, too.”
Lois frowned at her. “You know, if you weren’t his attorney, you and I might have a little discussion about that remark.”
Blair laughed. “Oh, I was just yankin’ your chain, girlfriend.”
Lois lifted one eyebrow. “Girlfriend?”
“Sure! We all know this real important secret now, right? That makes us all girlfriends, ‘cause we got to stick together on this.” Blair’s expression morphed again, this time becoming rock-hard, and her voice matched her face. “And none of us will ever reveal that secret or the other two will come after her. Right?”
Blair at her most fascinating.
I don't know about that pact. Does this mean, for example, that Lois can't ever tell anyone else that Clark is Superman? If she marries him later, she still can't tell *anyone*, not even her closest family, that her husband isn't just a regular guy? I'm not saying she couldn't choose to keep it a secret, but what if she really felt she ought to tell, say, Lucy about it?
Blair and Connie nodded. Lois smiled. “I agree, too, but if things go like I hope they do, no one would believe I didn’t know.”
Blair chuckled. “That’s why you willin’ to go to fist city with me over him, right?”
Go to fist city... thanks for teaching me that expression, Terry!
(Now if I just knew what kibitzing means... oh well, maybe I'll google it....)
Clark would be leaving early the next morning on a flight to Kansas, then on to San Francisco, and finally to the Philippines. From there, he’d occupy himself on various Asian travel stories, do some work on his new K. C. Jerome novel, and try to get some real investigating done on a Muslim terrorist group who was targeting and kidnapping Japanese citizens. He planned to talk to the group’s leaders if he could find them, and interview several of the victims who’d been released after their families had paid what Clark thought were almost reasonable ransoms. It was an interesting story, one which promised to keep him occupied for the entire length of Superman’s trial.
I find the idea that Clark is going to investigate Muslim terrorists very interesting. It is so striking when you consider stories that were written and TV series that were made during the early and mid nineties, that Muslim terrorism was for all intents and purposes a non-issue in those days. How the world has changed.
She focused on dinner and the prospect of quiet conversation with Clark, probably the last they’d have until after Superman’s acquittal. Of course, she was far more optimistic about that than he was.
And she still wasn’t totally clear on why that was. If she could get him to look at the facts objectively, she was sure he’d agree that he deserved no jail time, especially not twenty-five years or more in prison stripes. Superman’s actions that night, if not totally justified, were completely understandable.
And I have to accept that Superman may be fully acquitted because he is going to be tried according to American justice in an American court.
She opened the door, smiling. “Clark! I’m glad you’re here.”
He handed her the bottle. “I’m not late, am I?”
She quirked her mouth. “You know you’re not.” She glanced at the label, which read ‘California Sparkling Grape Water.’
She raised one eyebrow. “No alcohol this time?”
He looked so innocent. “I’m on a tight budget, after all.”
She chuckled. “Right. K. C. Jerome is almost broke.”
Glad they are able to joke about this.
“I know you, Lois. If I’d had to miss this for some reason, you’d have packed it up and taken it to the Suicide Slum Relief Mission before you went to bed. Those folks are always hungry down there.”
Her mouth fell open. “What? How’d you find out about that?”
He released her hands and shook his index finger at her. “You know you can’t hide from Superman. I was answering a call down there a couple of weeks ago and I saw you and Catharine unloading boxes of groceries from your Jeep into the kitchen. The director talked to both of you as if she’d known you for a while.”
Love this aspect of Lois. She is, in so many ways, a wonderful person. (Not that Clark isn't wonderful too, of course. The idea of using your superhuman abilities for altruistic purposes practically all the time, and never for greed or power, is... well, it's just totally wonderful, pure and simple. It's pretty much as superhuman as Superman's physical powers, when you think of it.)
“Does Ralph help out, too?”
She made a face. “Not since he tried to put the moves on the director. She called her husband in from the kitchen. Did you know he was an Olympic weightlifter a few years ago?”
“No, but I bet Ralph does.”
They shared a chortle. “He sure knows it now.
Poor Ralph. I love to laugh at him.
It was fun, she considered, because they were both pretending that tonight was all that there was. And, for once, he didn’t take anything she said as condescending or insulting.
How interesting. Clark has been so tense around Lois, so uncertain about how to react to her, so unable to deal with her optimism that everything is going be all right. Now, that they both know that they are not going to see each other in private for at least three weeks, they - and Clark in particular, I think - don't have to worry about the future. Right now, the future does not exist. Therefore, the trial also doesn't exist. Clark's possible future as a reporter at the Daily Planet doesn't mean anything. There is only here and now, just tonight, just the two of them. Their night is a special moment in time, cut off momentarily from the greater time stream. And as long as their eddy of tonight lasts, nothing is bad or scary.
“What was your favorite part?”
He sighed. “I think it was when Tom Selleck found Bess Armstrong among the rubble after the artillery attack and he was frantic that she’d been hurt and he was yelling at her to say something and she said, ‘Speak!’ in that freaky deep voice and then laughed hysterically at his reaction.”
Lois laughed. “I thought you’d like it.”
“Yeah, she kinda reminds me of you.”
“How so?”
Clark shifted to face her. “She’s tough, independent, knows her own mind, is willing to take on the bad guys by herself, and doesn’t back down from anyone or anything.”
Adorable! <sigh>
As for Lois and Clark's decision about whether or not to become intimate, you know what I would have liked to see. On the other hand, I certainly agree that the decision they made seems very much in "Terry-character" for them, that is to say, the Lois and Clark you have shown us in your story
would have made just this decision. I said earlier that as long as this night lasted, there was no pain or fear for Lois and Clark. But being intimate this night would have had repercussions lasting beyond that night, so it couldn't happen.
Her tears dimmed her vision but didn’t spill onto her face. “Don’t you remember? I’m the senior partner. I’m always right.”
For some reason, I find this so incredibly moving.
She slowly pulled back from the embrace and nodded to him. “Good night, Clark.”
He cupped her cheek with his palm and said, “Don’t forget that I love you.” Then he slipped out the door and down the hallway. She stood in the doorway and watched him walk away.
She hoped he wouldn’t look back. It would be pure agony to wave goodbye again so soon.
She hoped he would look back. It would be sheer torture if she couldn’t see his face just once more.
He paused twice, but didn’t turn around. As he stepped into stairwell, she watched the door close and cut off the sight of him.
It seemed too final.
And all of this is so, so, so - oh damn, give me the correct English word for it, Terry! I
can tell you, though, that it brings tears to my eyes.
Beautiful chapter, as I said.
Ann
Let's boogie! Next chapter coming up in a few days. And don't worry, the legal fireworks are coming soon.
