Aaaahh! I loved this chapter! I love seeing investigative Lois, and I love seeing her doing her investigations well, too.
Well practiced in the fine art of eavesdropping, Lois knew better than to leave the door to the stairwell to swing shut of its own accord, no matter how much she felt like hurrying. So she held it tightly, helping it slowly and quietly to its natural port: the doorjamb. Once that had been achieved she began her slow, tiptoeing trek up the stairs.
Before she'd ascended many flights, Lois detected a faint voice coming from about one story above where she stood.
“Yeah, she's completely oblivious to what's going on,” Dougal's voice said. A chuckle and a pause. “Yes, five o'clock tomorrow. I will, Mrs Church. Don't you worry – Lois Lane won't know what hit her.”
Hah! Don't be so sure, Dougal-baby!
Lois' heart started wildly thumping inside her chest. "Lois Lane? But that's…my name! That's me!' She pressed herself against the wall of the stairwell, willing her legs to stop shaking and to hold her up. “Why me?” she said in an undertone, looking up and addressing the question to a panel of imagined deities seemingly controlling her life. “Why on earth is Dougal talking to the head of Intergang about me?” Lois shook her head and eventually forced her legs to quit their trembling. She spoke sternly to herself: “This is not what Lois Lane, top reporter of the Daily Planet does when faced with this sort of information. No, Lois Lane, top reporter of the Daily Planet-” she hesitated at a familiar sound descending towards her and then made her decision quickly, “-hides!”
Youch!!! I, too, enjoy speaking my own thoughts aloud sometimes, which is a very bad habit....
Lois rapidly slipped through the nearest door and ducked down so she couldn't be seen. The footsteps that she'd assumed to be Dougal's paused near her door and she peeked through the window in the door to see him looking around. Evidently he'd heard something. "Lois, you've got to learn that voices, no matter how small, tend to become magnified in an open stairwell,' she reproved herself. Quietly she continued to watch as her apparent villain of a partner decided that he must have imagined hearing a voice and continued down the stairs once more.
Sighing loudly in relief, Lois slowly stood from her crouched position. “Thank you,” she breathed, addressing her gratitude to those imaginary gods, then, pausing a moment longer, gradually made her way to the elevator, thanking her lucky stars that the floor she'd ended up on mainly consisted of offices whose occupants weren't yet in for the day. She really didn't feel like answering any questions regarding her presence there.
I love her quick thinking and her thanking the gods!
Lois sighed. In spite of her knowledge of Dougal's collusion with Intergang, she was going to investigate them. There had to be something big going on for them to actually send someone in to ensure she was out of the way. Unless… Had Dougal been planted at the Planet, or was he simply in the right place at the right time and corrupt enough to happily bow to any offer Intergang pushed his way? Was he really that kind of man and did he kill for pleasure or for profit?
Lois stopped herself. "Oh, who cares about any of that? The fact remains that he's going to kill you if you let him! Don't be stupid. Just let it go, like he said. Don't risk your life for a story again.' Oddly enough, Lois had a feeling that this time the voice in her head sounded more like Clark's than her own…
I love her decision to investigate Intergang anyway, and I love Clark's disapproving voice in her head!
I absolutely loved the way you described poor Clark's frustration. But as you can probably imagine, I loved this best:
Various emotions assaulted his consciousness as he mulled everything over. Frustration was one that seemed to prevail, and interestingly enough so was guilt. At first he'd considered himself somewhat justified in how he'd handled things; but only for an hour or two after having Lois slam her door in his face. Then commonsense had resurfaced and he'd instead felt a terrible sense of guilt just as he was feeling now. He now recognised his part in the whole debacle – he had finally admitted to his role in what had become like a soap opera version of his life.
...
He should have told her earlier. She was right; he should have told her when they'd agreed to take the next step. He didn't *have* to keep it a secret anymore; that had just been an excuse because he was scared. But he should have put his fear aside. He should have simply said, “Lois, I'm Superman.” Or possibly something a little more eloquent. Either way, proposing at that point in time had been stupid. He should have told her first. He should have told her about Superman and he should have told her he loved her…
Yes! He realizes he should have told her about his double identity before he proposed to her!
I hope you didn't put that passage into your story just to please me, Anna, but... you did please me! Before he came to that realization I didn't want Lois to accept his proposal, but now I have no problems with it!
Lois sat at her desk, twisting a tissue around her fingers. She stared into space as her stomach churned and the sweat beaded on her brow. Today was the day that Dougal had alluded to in his phone call with Mrs Church. Today was the day she would investigate Intergang and find out what it was they were up to.
The way she was feeling was not unusual for Lois, but she didn't usually allow herself to reveal those feelings in such a public place. The Planet was where she always kept her cool, where she was known as a tough reporter with a hard exterior.
I love the way you are writing Lois here: her churning, nervous emotions versus her hard exterior.
Only one person had ever really gotten under the stiff surface of her personality: Clark.
Lois watched the clock, her eyes intent upon its hands slowly ticking closer to five pm. She glanced over at the object of her current thoughts, still at his desk. He hadn't been called away on many Superman duties lately. Somehow just his presence today was soothing her. Studying him acting so…so Clark-like, calmed her nerves and made the waiting bearable: just. She only hoped he would stay until the moment of truth; him being there would help her to make the decision she knew she should make, for the sake of her investigative principles. His presence made her feel brave, as if she could do anything.
I love how Clark's presence is so calming and soothing to her.
Today was the day where Lois Lane found out just what she was really made of, without Superman always around to pluck her out of danger. She wouldn't call him; she couldn't. She just prayed that she wouldn't have the need to.
But she knew that she might, because there was the very real possibility of failing…and of not living to tell the tale.
But this isn't very good, of course... Is it really better to get herself killed than to tell Clark where she's going?
Clark's sharp ears were attuned to Lois and he could hear the rapid beating of her heart. He sensed that something was going on with her, but what it was he couldn't be sure. She was so impulsive; he prayed, as he had when this "new partner' thing began, that she wasn't about to do something stupid. On her own. Without him to protect her. But knowing Lois Lane, if he offered she'd just tell him that she didn't need protecting.
Well, maybe she didn't need protecting very often, but she certainly needed saving half the time…
But Clark is watching over her. (And I loved that thing about how Lois didn't need protecting, maybe, but she sure needed saving...)
Lois wasn't quite sure when the attempt of her stomach to toss around her lunch had stopped, but it had. Now it was replaced by another feeling suffusing her body with a lighter sensation; a feeling that falsely told her she could do just about anything.
I love this observation. It feels so perfectly right. Lois couldn't be Lois without feelings like these driving her.
"Adrenaline,' she mused. It was the feeling she often got just before sneaking into the lair of a bunch of criminal masterminds. Unfortunately, her sneaking usually got her tied up next to a bomb or something equally as terrifying. That thought cut the adrenaline rush pretty quickly.
Then again... *shudder*
“What am I doing here?” Lois had her hand on the door to the warehouse, yet she was frozen by her descent from adrenaline junkie to normal, scared Lois Lane. She was a very human, and therefore very mortal, reporter. What was she thinking?
Lois tried to steel herself. "I can do this. I mean I'm here now. I might as well go through with it… But is that a good enough reason?' Her fear began to take over. "Oh, I'm an idiot. I shouldn't be here. I should have listened to Clark's voice in my head. But I *am* here now…and I told the taxi driver to go away. Good one, Lois. Very forward thinking.'
Quavering Lois gets to me, especially this:
I should have listened to Clark's voice in my head.
I find that just adorable!
Just then, Lois heard voices.
Fortunately, Lois hears voices outside her head, voices that aren't Clark's.
Before she really knew what she was doing, Lois was ascending the pile of crates. When she made it to the top, she leaned forward towards the broken window.
“-shipment came in on Friday. The next shipment is scheduled to arrive at the Cost Mart head quarters this Thursday. Do you want us to do the usual?” A man's voice: not Dougal's.
“Hmm, yes,” came the familiar childish tones of Mindy Church.
Mindy Church! Intergang!
Lois could see the top of her bleached blonde head and she suppressed her gag reflex. That woman; honestly, how could men possibly like that sort of thing? Blonde, tight fitting dresses, big b- Oh, right. They were men.
I find this just hysterically funny! (It gets even funnier when we know that Lois certainly has an issue with blonde women and the way she suspects them of stealing Clark's heart - Mayson Drake, anyone?)
“The artifacts from Imhotep's tomb are due in that shipment, Mrs Church,” said Dougal's voice. “I understand you have a special buyer in mind for them?”
“Yes,” Mrs Church replied. “So just put them aside, won't you?” Lois could well imagine this woman fluttering her eyelashes at the men. “We wouldn't want them to get broken, now would we?”
"Imhotep… Imhotep… Where have I heard that name before? Wait, artifacts? Tomb? Of course! Imhotep was an Egyptian physician and the chancellor to that Pharaoh…what was his name again?' Lois searched her brain for the information she'd learnt in elementary school while making a diorama.
Basically, Imhotep is a mummy, right? I'm not into mummies myself, but I know that in popular fiction mummies tend to wake up... Are we in for something like that here, I wonder?
She shook her head. "Oh, who cares? The important thing is that it sounds like Intergang are importing stolen – at least, I assume they're stolen since the shipments are *hidden* in Cost Mart shipments – artifacts from Egypt. This is big news! I was right that something was going on! I've got to tell Clark!'
Here, Lois' internal triumph fell flat. Tell Clark? What, when she was barely speaking to him?
"But I want to talk to him, especially about this,' she thought sadly. "I want to share this investigation. I want him to be by my side while we crack the case, just like old times.'
Of course you do, Lois.
Suddenly her thoughts took off in another direction. "But do I want him to think that everything's okay? Because he might and it's not. How do I communicate that to him? How do I let him know that I still need some time?'
It's time to get over your hurt, Lois.
“And Lois Lane?” Mrs Church said. “When are you taking care of her?”
“As soon as possible,” Dougal responded grimly. “Probably before the next shipment comes in. She's getting too curious for her own good, Mrs Church. Like I told you, she'll never know what hit her.”
“Perfect,” giggled Mindy. “I want Lois Lane dead, no matter what it takes.” Her tone changed, into something harsher. “She always gets in my way.”
Lois felt she'd heard enough. Now was the time to make a quick getaway, before they all came outside again. She had just climbed off the stack of crates and was making her way around towards the front of the warehouse when she heard the door open slightly.
“Hold on a minute!” a voice said. The door closed again. Lois felt that she didn't want to stick around to see how long it stayed closed this time. Taking her high-heeled shoes off, she ran from the warehouse, down the street and into a more populated area. As soon as she saw a taxi she hailed it and told the driver to take her home, giving him her address.
Yes! She got away on her own! Don't get me wrong, I love it when Clark saves her, but I really want her to be able to fend for herself, too.
Far above, Superman watched her go.
But Clark was watching over her!
Great chapter, Anna! I loved it.
Ann
<He> doesn't have a Clark-worthy excuse.
