A/N: I’d like to thank Anna, Andreia, Camy, Ann, JD, and PJ for their wonderful comments. You guys really add fuel to the fire of my imagination. It’s so motivating knowing that a group of people are waiting for the next instalment so breathlessly.
Once again, a big thank you to Olympe without whom I don’t think the story would be as good as it is.
Lois’s thoughts are italicised and enclosed by angle brackets (<>)
Asterisks enclose emphasis (**)
TOC Part SevenLois awoke the next morning with a smile on her face. Mr. Wells had agreed to let things stay the way they were and the Soul Tracer should have been destroyed by now. Sure, Mr. Wells was a nice enough guy, but she’d be very happy if she didn’t have to see him ever again. She stretched and reached over to the other side of the bed. Her hands found nothing but cooling sheets.
<Did Clark’s powers come back last night?>Lois sat up, opened her eyes, and scanned the empty room. “Clark?” No answer. She looked down at his side of the bed, feeling quite suddenly very alone. Then she saw the note he’d left on his pillow. It said simply, ‘Gone shopping’. She frowned. What would he want to buy so badly that he didn’t even wait for her to come with him?
<He could’ve at least woken me.>But she immediately brightened. Clark
*always* took her shopping with him with only
*one* exception. He was buying something for her. Grinning with anticipation, she headed for the shower.
<What could he be buying at this time of the morning? Breakfast? No, room service would take care of that. Some kind of clothing? No, he’d bring me along to try things on. Like when he bought that teddy for me.>Lois luxuriated in the feel of the water running down her back and shoulders as she remembered his reaction to
*that* little purchase. She turned off the water as another idea struck her.
<Could it be? Are jewellery stores open at this time of the morning?>Lois was dressed and about ready to leave by the time Clark returned.
“Good morning,” he said affectionately, sneaking up behind her.
“Good morning,” she returned the affection, leaning into his embrace.
“Sorry I took so long,” he apologised, noting the satchel at hand, ready to go.
“So, what did you buy?” she asked, frowning. He didn’t have a bag on him.
“This,” he said simply, putting a hand into his inner jacket pocket and pulling out a ring box, opening it for her to see the ring inside.
<I guess they do open this early. Or at least one of them does. Wait a minute...>Lois gasped. It looked exactly...
“Oh wow,” she breathed, as she put it on. It even felt right. “This isn’t the
*same* ring, is it?”
<And if it is, exactly *when* did you buy it in the first place?>“I don’t know for sure,” he shrugged. “It certainly
*looks* like the other ring I bought you though.”
Lois bit the bullet. “When
*did* you buy it?”
Clark smiled, knowing where her thoughts were headed. “No, Lois, I didn’t go out and buy the ring the moment I met you.”
Lois grinned. “It was just a thought.”
“I didn’t buy the ring until the morning after I froze you; the morning of the day I proposed.” And the less said about
*that* the better.
“Well, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it
*is* the same ring,” Lois said decisively.
“It was amazing, honey,” Clark said, staring at the ring in something akin to awe. “This ring sat amongst the others, each one just slightly different to the rest. And yet
*this* one seemed to stand out. I just
*knew* that it was this ring or nothing. But that was never an option.”
“I should hope not,” Lois declared, leaning up for a delicious kiss. “Now come on. We have to get to work.”
“Just a minute, honey,” Clark said, heading for the phone. “I have to call mum about my suit...”
“So she can start buying all that lovely spandex, I know,” Lois finished for him. “I’ll wait out here.” She went into the main room wondering if she could possibly have time for a little breakfast. She saw the brown paper bag on the table just as Clark called out.
“Croissants on the table,” he yelled.
<Sometimes I could swear that man is telepathic.>Lois sat at the table and chewed thoughtfully. Clark
*was* telepathic, at least with the other Kryptonians. And that breathtaking moment when he’d declared his love just before leaving the stratosphere. Was that more telepathy or something else, something to do with that bond? That connection that let her know he was trying to sneak up behind her without her even having to turn around to look. She absentmindedly put her hand into the bag again and came up empty.
<Oops. Hope Clark isn’t hungry.>Lois checked to see if there was time to buy another lot on the way to work. The time shook her clear of her introspection. “Clark! Hurry up! We’re going to be late!”
Clark came out of the bedroom, shaking his head in bemusement. “Would you believe mum’s matchmaking already?”
“I
*know* that Martha started matchmaking two nights ago when you first told her about me and our date,” she responded, opening the door to the hall.
“How do you know that?” he asked, bewildered, closing the door behind them.
“I got it straight from the horse’s mouth,” Lois answered, smugly, opening her purse to get the key.
Clark winced. “I’m not sure I want to know what else she told you.”
Lois smiled dangerously, her purse closing with a snap, no key in sight. “I believe the exact words were,” she said as she stopped walking, “complicated,” she started the list while taking him firmly by the shoulders, “domineering,” she continued, her eyes narrowing, “uncompromising,” she said, pushing him against the wall, “pig-headed,” she stated, looking him straight in the eyes that by now were almost pure panic. Then her face cleared and the smile shone through. “And brilliant,” she concluded, leaning forward for a passionate kiss. Clark let the tension leach out of his body as he met her passion for passion. It wasn’t long before the wall was the only thing that was keeping them upright. A hesitant cough interrupted them.
“Don’t you guys have a room to do that in?” a familiar voice asked, clearly amused.
Lois groaned and reluctantly pulled herself away from Clark who somehow managed to stand up again without any help from the wall.
“Hi, Lucy,” he greeted her, slightly out of breath.
“What are
*you* doing here?” Lois asked, clearly annoyed.
“Jimmy told me you were here and I just
*had* to see it for myself,” Lucy answered, grinning. She was amazed at the change in her sister. After Claude, Lois had become very reticent when it came to men and if she
*were* dating one, she would never flaunt her affections in public let alone the semi-privacy of a hotel corridor. The most interesting part of this unexpected meeting was that neither Lois nor Clark seemed the least embarrassed. Annoyed and disappointed to be interrupted, yes, embarrassed to be caught, no. In fact, even though they had stepped away from each other, their arms were still very much linked, and they looked like they didn’t intend to ever let go.
“So, you’re in the honeymoon suite. Aren’t you supposed to get married first?” she joked. Lois and Clark smirked at each other.
“That’ll come,” he said mildly, lifting Lois’s hand to his mouth to kiss her fingers. And that was when Lucy saw the ring.
“Oh my God!” she squealed, grabbing Lois’s hand off Clark so she could get a better look. “Beautiful.”
“Yes she is,” Clark responded even as Lois moved her arm, looking at her watch in dismay.
“Oh no, we are
*seriously* late, and that’s two days in a row,” she groaned. “Perry is gonna kill us! I’ll see you later, Lucy.”
“Bye, Lucy,” Clark called over his shoulder as he and Lois raced for the elevator.
Lucy just stood there for a moment, dumbfounded. Lois was engaged. She had known the man all of two days and now she was engaged. Lucy knew Lois tended to leap without looking, but usually she would wait long enough to at least
*think* she knew the guy before getting serious. And engagement was never on the cards. Paul, and then Claude, had made sure of that, and Daddy certainly wasn’t any help. So what was it about Clark Kent that had lowered all her barriers? Lois and Clark were acting like Michelle and Arnold Sitkowitz.
The door to the honeymoon suite beckoned to Lucy from across the hall. It was probably locked but maybe... She stared at the door when it swung open easily. Wow. Lois Lane had left her hotel room door
*unlocked*. Lucy’s eyes lit with mischief. She was wearing one of Lois’s outfits, but the sweater was missing. It must be here.
Lucy headed straight for the bedroom, and the chest of drawers. She finally found the sweater she was looking for at the bottom of the bottom drawer. Figures, she thought, pulling it out of the drawer and over her head in one deft move. She turned to put the other sweaters back where they were, but stopped when her eyes fell on the upside down photo frame at the bottom of the drawer.
***
When Lois and Clark entered the newsroom, they found it was deserted. The conference room, though, was packed. They were even later than they had anticipated, because it was only when they had reached the curb that they had remembered that Lois hadn’t bought her jeep yet. And cabs had been scarce this morning.
“I miss my jeep,” Lois had lamented as they walked. It was a full twenty minutes later that a cab finally deigned to take them to the Planet.
Needless to say, Lois was a tightly wound ball of anxiety by the time they had finally reached the newsroom. And Clark had found himself thanking God for having superpowers, so he didn’t have to put up with such hassles if he didn’t want to, and could he have them back now?
In the conference room, the Chief looked to be in full lecture mode, only just revving up. At the rate he was going, that meeting could’ve gone on for hours.
<I am *not* in the mood.>Lois turned to her desk and almost squealed with delight at the mounds of research Jimmy had left there that morning. “Oh, thank God,” she breathed, dragging Clark towards her desk. “Come on, Clark. Let’s get started on these. Perry can yell at us later.”
“Good idea, honey. I prefer to be yelled at in private myself.” Clark took a quick detour to get his chair from his desk and then they got to work.
The scope of Jimmy’s research was amazing. It had everything. All the companies the man owned, including every subsidiary. The details of how each company suffered mysterious setbacks just prior to selling out. Creditors pulling out. Directors retiring. Permanently. The details of how he met Antoinette Baines. A list of companies she had worked for prior to their acquisition by Luthor. That kid was gold.
After an hour of research, they had each written stacks of notes in their notebooks, on the sides of the research papers, but they had barely cracked the surface. The world around them had ceased to exist and the lure of the hunt was so intense that not even the fact that they were practically sitting in each other’s laps could distract them.
“Well, well, well.” Lois jumped. Perry stood over them, and he was
*not* happy. “Nice of you two to finally drop in.”
“What are you talking about, Chief? We’ve been here for hours,” Clark insisted. He sounded so sincere that Lois found herself wondering whether the world
*did* appear to be in slow motion when he didn’t have his super-speed. She’d have to ask him about that later. But there were more important things at hand.
“Really?” Perry didn’t sound at all convinced. “If you were here, you would’ve been in the conference room with everyone else.”
“Come on, Perry, we
*have* been here for
*one* hour anyway. And you won’t
*believe* what we’ve been finding out about Lex Luthor and Antoinette Baines,” Lois responded, unable to keep her excitement from overflowing.
“Great shades of Elvis, Lois, that’s two days in a row!” he thundered.
“Yes, I know, but really, Perry, this time it really wasn’t our fault, entirely,” she answered, glancing at Clark.
“That’s right, Chief,” Clark chimed in. “There was no sign of a cab anywhere for the first half hour after leaving the hotel.”
“Which hotel?” Perry asked, frowning.
“The Lexor,” Lois answered. “And we were lucky to get a cab when we did, or we would only just be walking in the door right now.”
“Well, what were you doing in a hotel on the other side of town?” Perry asked, exasperated.
Lois put her elbows on the table, rested her head in her hands, and looked him square in the eye. Did he really want her to say it aloud? Perry even had the decency to blush. Jimmy came up behind him, apparently unaware that he was interrupting.
“Hey, Lois, CK, a Dr. Klein just called from STAR Labs. He wanted to thank you for recommending Dr. Platt. They’re working on a model from his notes to prove that the Messenger really was sabotaged like he said it was,” his huge smile faltered a little as his gaze came to rest on her hand. “Nice ring. New?”
“Very new,” Lois smiled, holding her hand out for him to see. “Like it?”
“It’s, uh, very nice,” he stammered, his eyes sliding from her to Clark and back again as he realised exactly what that ring signified. Perry, however, had no problem with his choice of words.
“My office, now,” he grated, turning to stomp into his office, closing the door a little harder than was strictly necessary.
“Oh boy,” Clark muttered.
“He hasn’t been fighting with Alice again, has he?” Lois asked Jimmy in trepidation.
“When isn’t he fighting with Alice?” he answered flippantly.
She turned to Clark in mute appeal. He squeezed her hand for reassurance.
“Let’s go face the dog house,” he said resignedly.
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