Okay. I'm
very sorry that this part is so late. But the reason it was so late (or should I say reason
s?) is RL, plus the part is incredibly long. Therefore I'm going to split it into two posts. This is Part 5a, soon I will post Part 5b.
It was about 18 pages in MS Word... Much longer than I expected it to be. But it worked out that way. I hope it gives enough A-Plot but still satisfies your waffiness requirement...
And you can just provide one FDK post for both 'a' and 'b' if you'd like (if you want to provide an FDK post at all since it's been so long...
).
Enjoy!
---------
The instant that Lois and Clark entered the newsroom the morning after their reunion, the Planet’s gossip mills swung into action. They were arriving together *and* they were holding hands!
“Chief! Did you hear?” Jimmy burst into his editor’s office soon after the occurrence, his eyes twinkling and a grin stretched across his face from ear to ear. “Lois and CK are here – together! Holding hands and everything!”
A smile spread across Perry’s countenance as he listened to Jimmy’s gleeful announcement. “Well it’s about damn time!” was his response. “Though I always knew that those two would find a way to work it out between them.”
“I’m glad it was sooner rather than later,” Jimmy admitted as he turned to glance back into the bullpit. “CK’s been kind of hard to talk to since the fight happened; he would just sort of nod every once in a while, pretending he was listening. But I could tell he was really staring past me at Lois.”
“Doesn’t mean he’ll stop doing that now, son,” chuckled Perry. “In fact, I’d think it’d be worse.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Jimmy with a shrug of his shoulders. “When I’m talking to him, I’m usually talking to Lois as well. So she’ll be there beside him, and he won’t have to look past me to her anymore!”
“Details, son, details…” Perry replied with a shake of his head. The smile remained on his face. All was right with the world: his top two reporters were back in each others good graces and now things could finally get back to normal.
“Uh, Chief?” Perry was jolted out his brief reverie as Jimmy spoke again. “What about Dougal and Diana?”
“Oh, well…since Clark and Lois will obviously start partnering each other again, I think Dougal can partner Diana. He’s had just as much experience as Lois or Clark, even if it was on a different continent. She’ll be fine under his wing.” Perry began to scrutinize the papers scattered across his desktop.
“Right,” Jimmy nodded without much enthusiasm. “You want me to get them in here so you can tell them?”
“Who? Oh, Dougal and Diana. Sure…sure.” Jimmy watched as Perry flicked a quick look at his Elvis clock. “But make it quick, Olsen. I want to get the staff meeting underway ASAP.”
“Sure thing, Chief,” Jimmy said, already halfway out the door.
Back out in the bullpit, Lois was settling down at her desk with a smile fixed firmly upon her face. She observed Clark – her boyfriend! – as he went over to the coffee machine to secure their morning stimulant – his first, her second of the day.
‘Hmm…now I remember how much I like him from this angle,’ she thought mischievously, tilting her head so as to get the best view. ‘The picture he presents from the back has always been one of my favourites…’
“Here you go, Lois,” Clark said a minute or so later. “One coffee, one doughnut.” He set the doughnut wrapped in a napkin down on her desk and handed her the cup filled with coffee.
“Mmm,” Lois hummed after taking a sip. “You always know just how I like it.”
“It’s the little things,” Clark replied with a grin. He couldn’t seem to stop it, this grinning. It was like the Happiness Fairy had come to town and was continually bashing him over the head with her wand. Wait: the Happiness Fairy? Make that the Euphoria-Inducing Fairy. She didn’t have a very pretty name, but she sure knew how to do her job.
“Oh, Clark?” Lois had his attention from her first syllable. “Would you, uh, mind? I seem to have…dropped my pen. I think it rolled over there, by Ralph’s desk. Could you get it for me, please?” She pointed in the general direction and managed to look almost embarrassed as she asked.
Clark immediately wandered over towards Ralph’s desk and bent over to pick up the pen. Lois felt her heart flutter as she surreptitiously stole another long, but slightly guilty, look at Clark and what she considered to be one of his many assets. Maybe dropping her pen on purpose had been going a little bit far, but it was that tiny devil inside of her again. Now if she and her ‘super man’ were only alone…
“Here you go.” Clark interrupted her daydream by offering her the pen. If it had been anyone else she might have snapped at them but Clark merely got a meaningful look and her thanks before he headed to his desk. Now again, if they were the only ones in the newsroom…
Lois shook her head a little to clear away the amorous haze befuddling her brain and smiled. ‘It’s amazing,’ she mused ‘how seeing things from another person’s perspective can help clarify a situation…’ It was Clark’s letter that had changed things. It had shown her why he’d done what he had. That, combined with the fact that she’d been missing him terribly, had helped to swing things in his favour. Taking things slow had been her idea; now if she could only keep her hormones in check long enough to follow through on it…
‘Dougal wants to kill me. Intergang are hatching another heinous plot,’ Lois quickly reminded herself. Yeah, that did it: no hormones racing now. Fear pretty much cancelled them out.
“Clark,” whispered Lois, knowing that he could hear her and needing to see his smile; needing to know that he was there. With him she felt brave. Even during their time apart, his presence had still encouraged her. She watched as he looked up and caught her eye. He grinned. “This is kind of nice, talking to you like this,” she continued.
Clark tilted his head to one side. His smile was constant.
“I mean, I suppose I could have done it before, but I didn’t know I could, did I?” Lois persisted. “I didn’t know you were Superman, after all.”
Clark assumed a hangdog expression and something – Lois could have sworn it looked like unease – flickered across his features also.
“Oh, don’t worry your pretty, super little head, Clark.” Lois couldn’t help giggling but stopped mid-chuckle as Jimmy passed by and glanced between the two of them, his look clearly saying that he was a little worried about their sanity. She smiled at him innocently and he kept on walking. It was safe to go on, though Lois adopted a lower tone. “I’ve forgiven you, remember? You’re in my good books now, Mr. Man-of-Steel.”
Clark’s response was the return of the grin with an added twinkle in his eyes. He sat up straighter and threw his shoulders back.
“Oh, don’t go getting all ‘I’m the big strong Superman who can save Lois,’ on me again,” said Lois dryly. “Stop preening. We know you can save me; we’ve established that. But what else can you do?” She raised her eyebrows at him suggestively.
Clark’s own eyebrows shot up. His mouth gaped open and then shut again. This happened once more before Lois spoke again, her voice completely deadpan.
“You know, you remind me of a fish when you do that.”
Clark spluttered, the splutter quickly turning into an unusual cough-slash-choke. When the peculiar sound finally died away, it left Lois thinking that perhaps this sort of thing could be useful, especially with people like Dougal around. Speaking of which, where was her – she shuddered – partner?
Just then, Perry’s voice bellowed from the conference room. “Staff meeting, people!” he said. “Now! Drop everything and get in here!”
Lois did as she was told and followed Clark to the meeting, a pen and notebook in hand. A smile was back on her face.
‘At least this angle affords me another excellent view,’ she reflected, walking behind him into the room.
*****
Clark entered the conference room for the daily staff meeting, completely aware of the woman to his rear. He could smell her perfume, hear her heartbeat and also hear the giggling she was doing under her breath.
He briefly wondered what it was that was causing her giggling, but shrugged it off; it was probably just thoughts of their little ‘conversation’ before. Feeling a little indignant, Clark rolled his eyes: he did *not* look like a fish!
After pulling a chair out for Lois and then settling into one next to her, Clark looked around at the rest of their co-workers. People had responded reasonably quickly to Perry’s barked command but even so, a couple of stragglers were still filtering into the room.
“Well, as soon as *everyone* is here, we’ll get started,” said their editor, his words a little sharper than usual. Clark found himself momentarily speculating as to why this was, but knew that this wasn’t the best place to ask. If he could, he’d find out later on.
“Why do you think Perry’s mad?” Lois whispered to him as the stragglers found empty chairs and sat down. Clark’s lip turned up in a small smile as he realised that Lois had been wondering about exactly the same thing as he had. He shrugged in response, as he saw Perry opening his mouth to speak once more.
“Now that we’re all here, I want to know the status of stories,” he began, slowly pacing back and forth at the front of the room. He looked to Clark first. “Kent?”
“Um, well… The story on the mayor’s alleged sexual harassment of his assistant is just about finished, Mr White.” Clark ran a finger over his notebook, knowing that the initial notes on the Intergang project were contained within. “Diana and I could have it written up and to you by lunch. Right, Di?” He glanced across the desk at his partner and she nodded, however he noticed that her smile seemed more feeble than usual. Something had happened, but what?
“Alright, do it,” Perry replied. “After that, you and Lois can start looking into the background of the new governor. I want you up to speed on his life before attending his inaugural ball tomorrow night. You don’t want to be the only journalists there who don’t know his favourite colour, now do you?”
“Okay, Chief,” said Clark without thinking. Then, what his boss had just told him sunk in. “Wait a minute, Lois and I?”
Perry began to smile a little, his irritated mood to some extent visibly lifting. “That’s right. I figure you two seem to be back in one another’s good graces, so I’m reinstating your partnership. I assume you have no objections?”
“Uh…no,” Clark answered quietly. ‘But what about Diana and Dougal?’ his mind was shouting.
“Good. Now, Lois, since you already know what you’re going to be doing today, we’ll move on to Dougal.” As Perry’s gaze sought out Dougal across the room, Lois realised that she hadn’t even seen him enter the meeting, let alone the newsroom. She was almost afraid to look his way, certain that he’d be able to recognise the terror she was feeling just thinking about his plans for her. But hesitantly she raised her eyes to him, feeling the shock ripple through her as he intercepted her look: he’d already been watching her. The very notion caused her to quake internally, though she fought against her face showing the panic she was feeling. She shifted closer to Clark and took his hand, squeezing it tightly. He squeezed back, flicking a glance her way. What he saw made him clench his jaw in anger. To outsiders, Lois’s expression was happy, an ordinary smile tugging the corners of her mouth upwards. But Clark saw beneath this carefully constructed façade to the anxiety and fear lurking below. He knew Lois and her eyes were displaying her true emotions.
“As already discussed,” Perry was saying to Dougal, “you’ll be working with Diana from now on; as soon as she and Clark are finished putting their story together, that is. I want the two of you to start on a story about the new mall site downtown and how it’s affecting the people who live nearby.”
“Certainly, Mr. White,” said Dougal, his lilting intonation producing a wave of small sighs from the females in the room…all except Lois. Frankly, Clark was a little surprised at this quiet acquiescence from the Irishman. Surely if he was wanting to hurt Lois – to murder her – he would be more annoyed at being denied an easy route to the kill?
Perry continued to reel off assignments and soon the meeting was over. Quietly, Clark led Lois out of the conference room and into the bullpit. From there he followed her to the elevator, one hand on the small of her incredibly tense back, his partner’s unspoken need to talk and his desire to comfort her the driving force behind his movement. Diana could wait.
As soon as the elevator doors closed, Clark hit the ‘Stop’ button. She needed a quiet place to vent her feelings; somewhere where she wasn’t afraid of the wrong person listening in. So now it was just the two of them: Lois’ ‘happy mask’ was removed and all the emotions that she’d been suppressing during the meeting came rushing out of her. She grabbed Clark as if he were her lifeline and clung to him, her breaths coming short and fast and her body shaking. He wrapped his arms around her in turn, just holding her close and hoping desperately that the contact would provide some reassurance to her.
Eventually it seemed to partially succeed. Lois’ breathing slowed, but she still trembled in his arms. Clark wasn’t sure what to do.
“You know I would never let anything happen to you, Lois,” he murmured, his mouth next to her ear. “I love you. Dougal Finnegan is not going to get any nearer to you than he was just now in the meeting. I promise: I’ll protect you. And I will not let you out of my sight. There is no possibility of him getting the chance to do anything to you. I *promise*.”
His soft but nonetheless vehement guarantees finally seemed to get through to Lois. Her trembling ended and she moved her head so that her cheek lay flush with his chest. “My big strong Superman,” she said, a tender inflection to her words as she slowly entwined the fingers of one hand with his.
“My big strong Lois,” Clark replied, kissing the top of her head. She was safe with him, no matter what.
*****
Later that morning, Clark was finally able to start putting the story on the mayor together with Diana. He knew that he still hadn’t given her any sort of answer regarding her invitation to the Kerths. But now that he was definitely back with Lois, well, there was no question about whom he was going to go with… He had to find a way to break the news to the younger woman gently.
“Uh…Di?” he ventured as they sat side by side in the conference, piecing together their notes in preparation for writing the story. “About the Kerths…”
His former partner blushed. “Oh…um…. Don’t worry about it, Clark. I know you and Lois are back together. I can see that you’ll naturally be going with her. No problem. I should never have asked.” Clark could see her trying to make the invitation seem less than it was as she attempted to save herself further humiliation and hurt.
“Hey, I was flattered that you asked,” he informed her with a lopsided smile. “It’s not everyday that I get an invitation from a pretty woman to something that involves dinner and dancing.”
A tiny smile appeared on Diana’s face. “Really? I find that hard to believe.”
Clark shrugged. “It’s true… And if Lois wasn’t around, I probably would have taken you up on your offer.”
“But since she is…” Diana sighed a little and her smile disappeared. “I understand.”
“Thanks, Di. I knew you would. Hey, I hear Jimmy’s interested if that means anything?”
“Jimmy Olsen?” Diana’s face reddened once more, but the smile came back. “Um…well, he’s kind of cute…”
“I bet if you asked him, he’d say yes,” Clark said, relieved that she didn’t seem too upset about his rejection. “He’d love to go to the Kerths, especially with you.”
“Thanks, Clark,” Diana replied. “I think I might just do that.”
Thankful to have all of that out of the way, Clark smiled and scrawled another important point on his notepad. ‘That was easier than I thought it would be...’
*****
It was the end of the workday and Lois was feeling rather tired. The whole day had been exhausting really, what with trying to avoid Dougal and trying to get her work done. While Clark had been finishing up the story on the mayor with Diana, she’d been getting started with the research on the new governor. Perry informing them that they were going to the inaugural ball the following evening was annoying her. “Great… Leave it till the last minute,” Lois muttered to herself as she stood and pushed in her chair. She was about to reach for her coat when she noticed that someone was already holding it out for her to shrug on: Clark. “Thanks, Clark,” she smiled.
“No problem.” Her partner grinned back. “Hey, do you want to come over? I could cook us dinner and we could go over the” here he lowered his voice, just in case “Intergang investigation?”
Lois turned around and regarded him with her head tilted to one side. Clark watched her, his heart quickening as the look in her eyes became curiously intense. She swept her gaze from his feet right back up to his face then smirked and grabbed his hand. “Let’s go.”
*****
“Pasta-a-la-Clark,” the impromptu chef announced, placing the hot plates upon the table with a flourish. “Would the lady like some freshly ground pepper on her meal?”
“Just a little,” Lois giggled, holding up her hand with the thumb and forefinger indicating the amount. Clark complied then took a seat himself.
He watched as she took her first bite, savouring it before swallowing and licking her lips. He didn’t think he had ever seen anything quite as sensual, unless you counted when he’d fed her chocolate cake on their first date. His breath caught in his throat; she really was gorgeous…
“Clark?” she said, a look of slight concern upon her face. “What’s wrong? You’re not eating.”
Shaking his head, he attempted to focus on the situation at hand, a blush stealing across his features. “Eating? I uh… I was just watching you enjoy it.” He wondered if it was possible for his face to get any hotter.
She waved her almost empty fork in his direction. “Don’t you think I’d enjoy my meal more if you were eating too? After all, you created this,” she licked a little pasta sauce off the side of her fork and sighed, “masterpiece.”
He swallowed hard. Surely she knew what she was doing to him; she had to. It wasn’t possible… There it was: a gleam in her eyes. She did know! And she was just torturing him for the fun of it…
“Ms Lane, are you teasing me?” He studied her, one eyebrow raised and his breath seeming to snag inside his throat for a moment before being released into the outside world. He waited for an answer.
“Teasing? Now, why would I do that when I told you just last night that I wanted to take things slowly?” Lois smirked, her expression betraying her true feelings.
Clark felt a foot nudge his beneath the table. ‘Oh boy…’ He let out a shuddering sigh.
“Maybe I’m…rethinking things. Just a little,” said Lois, her foot still nudging his. She set her fork down and regarded him across the table, then repeated her last words. “Just a little.”
It was all the invitation he needed to reach over and lay his hand upon her cheek. His fingers gently stroked up and down the soft skin that didn’t need any makeup to make it glow. She leaned her head towards his hand, smiling softly at him.
“I missed this, you know,” she whispered. “I missed your touch. Just…being with you.”
“Me too,” was all Clark could say.
After a few moments, Lois laid her hand upon his and removed it from her cheek. She didn’t, however, release him just yet. Her hand gripped his tightly as she stood and led him to the couch. Wondering where this was going, Clark blindly followed her lead: he would take things only as far as she wanted them to go. It was up to her, completely up to her.
To his surprise after sitting down and pulling him with her, Lois merely snuggled into his side. “This is nice,” she murmured. He wrapped one arm around her, pulling her closer. He couldn’t seem to get near enough to this amazing woman; he would forever be grateful for her forgiveness and for her love. Clark closed his eyes in a silent prayer of thankfulness.
Just then, he felt a kiss land on his cheek. His eyes flew open and he gazed at the woman by his side. “What was that for?” he asked, smiling.
“Just for being you,” was the reply as her eyes flicked to his mouth. She unconsciously licked her own lips once more before settling into his embrace.
*****
Lois watched Clark, considering her options. She could just sit there in his arms – it was nice; she felt protected and loved. On the other hand, she could initiate a little something more. She knew Clark was waiting for her to take the lead. She was the one who wanted to take thing slowly after all, so it was up to her to show him just how slowly – or not – she really wanted to take things.
While his hand tenderly caressed her arm, she mulled over the choices. She *really* wanted to kiss him.
‘So what’s stopping you?’ her inner voice asked.
What indeed? And with this part of her decision made, Lois turned herself in Clark’s arms, looked him dead in the eye and kissed him. It wasn’t a particularly steamy kiss, but it certainly caught Clark off guard and left both of them breathless. As she pulled back, Lois watched him for his reaction.
“Can you…do that again?” he asked languidly, his eyes opening slowly.
A grin appeared on her face. “Oh…I don’t know,” she teased. “I think I might have hit my kiss limit for the day...”
“Really? Well, that’s a pity,” said Clark with a twinkle in his eyes. “Then I won’t be able to do this…and this…” He punctuated his words with soft kisses to her neck that stoked a fire already smouldering inside of Lois. With his welcome invitation, she wasted no time in bringing her lips back to his.
*****
To be continued in Part 5b...soon.
~Anna.
