Table of Contents Previously, on Part 14:
True to his word, ‘The Village Healer’ returned around nine o’clock. He handed her a large grocery bag with a piece of paper stapled to the folded top.
He never met her eyes as he informed her, “Since you’ve got directions, I won’t keep you. See you tomorrow, Lois.”
He finally glanced up with a gaze so intent it caught her off-guard.
“And do call me if you need anything. I take care of my friends, no strings attached.”
“Sure,” she promised, despite herself.
She closed the door behind him, and yanked his instructions from the top of the sack.
Lois,
Tonight’s poultice is the same as last night’s. Use it for four hours and
then dispose of it. I included some Willow Bark, to be taken internally
for pain and swelling. Let me know if you continue to see signs of
infection. I also want to know when you see new skin.
The flowers are to say I’m sorry for the harsh way I spoke to you
yesterday. I said it was a bad time for it, but truthfully, it’s never a
good time to be disrespectful or rude. I’m also sorry for your pain. I
know you said you were over it, but I am not.
Lois slid open the paper bag to discover a small bouquet of flowers. Underneath was a large roll of white tissue. She unwrapped it to find a simple glass bud vase. She wasn’t much on flower arranging, but she was sure she could manage. As she slid the bouquet into the vase she discovered a small card from the florist’s.
It read, simply, “Lo siento,” which she automatically translated, “Sorry.”
_______________
And now, Part 15:
“So what happened to your hands, Lois?” Jimmy asked before she was even seated at her desk.
“Hello, Lois. How was your weekend?” she corrected him.
He rolled his eyes. “Hi, Lois. How are you?”
“Fine, Jimmy. And you?”
“Great. So what happened to your hands?”
Lois spied Clark’s approach out of the corner of her eye and smirked. “When I wouldn’t let Clark carry my books, he pushed me over and forcibly removed them.”
“Don’t believe her,” Clark called out. “She was mud-wrestling naked over the weekend and got hurt by a flying chair.”
Jimmy looked from Lois to Clark and back again. “So she got hurt, but you both were in on it?”
“She tripped on an uneven sidewalk and fell,” Clark clarified.
“While Clark was forcing me to let him carry my books.”
“You report stories so well, I’m sure you have a great future at the National Whisper,” Clark jibed. He was happy to find her smiling and joking, although concerned at what else may lie beneath the surface.
“Hey, it’s not all bad,” Jimmy pronounced. “It’s got some interesting stuff in there, too. The latest edition has an article on human pheromones that was truly scientific. According to the article, I’m at my peak. You ladies might want to keep that in mind.”
Clark shook his head and continued his work while Cat Grant told Jimmy exactly what she thought of him at his peak.
Clark worked late, although his workload hardly warranted the extra attention. He was simply biding his time waiting for the day shift to clear out so that he could spend a few minutes alone with his girl. Sports and Society went home right away, but the feature writers lingered.
Eventually Clark gave up and headed to the vending machines to get something to tide himself over until dinnertime. He was more than a little surprised when Lois followed soon after.
“What are you still doing here?” she interrogated him. “Are you working on the Lex Harbor piece?”
“No, there’s no way I could publish with what little I have to go on. It’ll probably just run as a straight interview.”
“That’s a shame. I’ll see what I can dig up,” Lois promised. “So what
are you working on?”
“Just hoping for a few minutes alone so I can see how you’re really doing.”
She snorted. “You worry about me more than my mother ever did.”
Clark flinched. “I’m sorry to hear that. When did she die?”
Lois wrinkled her brow. “She’s not dead.”
“Oh,” he sheepishly babbled. “You said before all your relatives were long lost, so when you referred to your mom in the past tense, I assumed she had passed on. I didn’t mean anything rude, I just… I was just wondering how you’re feeling.”
She must have been feeling uncharacteristically charitable, because the pleasant expression never left her countenance. “It’s no big deal. If there’s one thing you could say about my mother, it’s that she’s very past tense.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Not really,” Lois disagreed. “I only miss her two or three days a year. With enough fudge ripple ice cream even that goes away.”
“I can’t imagine. I see my mom practically every week. I mean, we talk on the phone. It would be weird without her. So what happened?”
Lois shrugged. “When I was old enough, I wasn’t required to stay in touch anymore. So I didn’t. It’s no big thing.”
She leaned against the vending machine and switched subjects. “And the hands are healing fine. I tried going without the Ace bandages today. I put on some big Band-Aids instead, but they were too tender. So I suppose I hang up my pencil for awhile and see if it’s possible to type without moving my fingers.”
Clark grinned. “If anyone can do it, it will be Lois Lane.”
“And don’t you forget it,” Lois warned with a mock glare.
Clark reassessed his choices in the vending machine. “You know, I’m not as hungry as I thought I would be. Do you want something?”
Lois barely hesitated before making her selection. So she did like chocolate--fudge ripple ice cream and Double Fudge Crunch Bars.
~*~
Lois caught Clark’s eye as she headed to lunch. He took the hint and followed her out of the bullpen. Lately he’d been brown-bagging it, as well. It was a nice gesture.
Still, her sandwich couldn’t come close to measuring up to his chicken Caesar salad. He added croutons and dressing, closed the lid and shook it up. It looked heavenly.
“Kent, do you remember the other day? The freak of nature, missing link thing?”
He looked up at her, the surprise in his eyes evident. Somehow, Lois took great pleasure in surprising him. It was only right that she was one step ahead and he was slightly off balance. It was the natural order of things.
“Does this sandwich smell okay to you?” Lois asked.
He looked relieved for some peculiar reason. Maybe he was concerned she would start talking about menstruation again. Lois made a mental note to bring it up at the first opportunity. It was also the natural order of things to make him squirm.
‘Mr. Gifted’ lowered his glasses and stared at her sandwich without even asking her to hand it over.
“It’s surprising you can smell anything with a deviated septum.”
“With a what?” Now he looked delightfully confused.
“A deviated septum,” Lois explained. “You push your glasses out of the way, so you can smell better.” She seemed annoyed as he grinned at her. “Nevermind, what’s the verdict?”
“I wouldn’t eat it,” he firmly decided. She opened her sandwich and sorted through the contents.
“I wonder if some part is salvageable.”
“I don’t think so. That white isn’t mayonnaise,” he pointed out, wrinkling his nose.
“With a sigh, Lois hoisted the whole sodden mess into the trash. “I’m not that hungry anyway,” she lied, happy he couldn’t hear the growling of her stomach.
“Nonsense,” he declared. “We’ll just eat out.” He stood and started clearing the table as if it were already decided.
“You forgetting anything?” Lois asked. She didn’t budge as a silent statement of her viewpoint. Once again, her companion looked pleasantly caught off guard. “Your little promise?”
He grinned. “This isn’t a date. I’m just making sure that sandwich of yours doesn’t raise the price of our health plan.”
“Sure it isn’t a date… But it will become one around the water cooler. You just wait and see.”
“Then we’ll leave separately and I’ll meet you there,” Clark suggested.
Lois groaned. For such a persistent suitor, he was so naive. If this made it back to the grapevine--which it probably would, knowing her luck--it would be way worse than if the two of them just walked together.
“Forget it. I’ll just use the extra time to study.”
“Which won’t be nearly as effective on an empty stomach. Come on. Don’t pretend you’re not hungry.”
“‘Nostradamus’ knows such things,” Lois mumbled under her breath. From the quirk of his lips, he obviously heard.
“My treat. And I won’t take no for an answer,” he insisted.
“You never do,” she retorted.
“I always do. It’s not like I’ve ever dated you against your will.”
“Maybe not, but my ‘no’ was never good enough for you.”
Clark sighed. Would they ever get to the point where a day was pleasant from beginning to end? “So do you want me to bring something back for you?”
“Nah, I’ll come along and pick out what I want.” Lois gathered up her books, completely missing the perplexed look on her companion’s face.
They talked little as they headed outside. Lois was walking noticeably distant, as far as the width of the sidewalk allowed. If that gave her a semblance of peace, it was fine with Clark. It certainly made things clear to the average passerby that they weren’t casually dating.
“Where are we going?” Clark inquired.
Lois rolled her eyes, communicating without words that she questioned his intelligence. “Jasmine Thai”
“Oh, of course,” Clark agreed. “Our place.”
He enjoyed her glare. Sometimes paybacks were worth it.
