A/N: I’d like to thank all those fantastic readers out there, especially PJ, Patrick, Ann, Mary, Terry, JD, Camy, and AnnieJ whose comments all inspired me to continue this epic. I don’t remember it being an epic to start with. I wonder what went wrong, or is that right?
And, of course, many thanks to Olympe, who once again caught those niggly little sections that needed to be tweaked. Take a bow.
Lois’s thoughts are italicised and enclosed by angle brackets (<>)
Asterisks enclose emphasis (**)
TOC Part EightLucy entered the Daily Planet building and almost ran out again. The only thing that stopped her was the thought that she'd have to face her mother. As bad as facing Lois was going to be, it was nothing compared to facing Mother. Her stomach was doing somersaults as she approached the two security guards who were trying to stop a couple from entering an elevator.
“I don't care who you are, we can't let you up without authorisation from upstairs,” one of the guards was saying. Lucy dodged around them, entered the elevator, and pushed the button.
“Good morning, Steve, Joe,” she greeted them. They didn't have time to answer before the door closed. Although the couple
*did* start demanding to know why
*she* could get through when they couldn’t.
Her thoughts were jumbled as she rode up to the newsroom. It was all very well for Mother to demand to see Lois immediately, but how was she supposed to explain that to her boss?
The elevator doors opened onto a subdued setting. Lucy looked around for Lois, but could find neither her nor Clark. But she did find Jimmy, who hushed her as soon as she tried to speak. His eyes were trained on Perry’s office, where the Chief appeared to be in a very intense argument with Lois and Clark.
Understandable, Lucy thought. This
*was* their second late day in as many days. “How is it going in there?” she murmured.
“Poor Clark’s being put through the wringer,” Jimmy answered, shaking his head. “And Lois doesn't fare much better.”
“You think it’s bad now. Wait till *I* get in there,” Lucy muttered. “I have some things to say to her.”
“Oh no, I can’t let you do that,” he said, turning to face her. “The Chief would have my hide!”
“Unless you can tell me what we are doing in a photo that I don’t remember posing for, I’m going in there,” Lucy responded, thrusting the frame into his hands.
Raising his eyebrows, Jimmy looked at the photo in surprise. “I don’t remember having this photo taken either.”
“Look, Jimmy,” she insisted. “We are both there. Maybe we both have amnesia or something.”
“I remember everything I’ve done since I met you yesterday. Don’t you?” he asked. She nodded her head and took the frame back. “I don’t recognise those other people, do you? I mean, who’s the girl?”
“I don’t know about the girl, but those are my parents,” Lucy answered, pointing at the couple in question. “That girl does look familiar somehow, but I don’t remember meeting her.”
“She could almost be Lois’s daughter. Could she be a cousin’s daughter or something?” Jimmy asked.
“Not that I know of, but my family isn’t all that close so I guess it’s possible,” Lucy explained, looking at the girl closely. “You know, if she looks like anyone, I think she looks more like Clark than Lois. Maybe she’s a relative of Clark’s.”
“Could be,” Jimmy agreed, and shrugged. “We can ask him when he comes out. I’m more interested in how we had that photo taken with neither of us knowing about it.”
“Funny that you have your arms around me like that,” she mused. “I didn’t think we were that close.”
“Exactly!” Jimmy agreed, trying hard to ignore the blush suffusing his cheeks. “I mean...”
“That’s okay, Jimmy,” she reassured him. “I know what you meant. You know, you’re kind of cute when you blush.” He blushed even harder. Lucy patted him on the cheek and grinned. “Well, I have to face Lois now, and probably Mr. White, too. Mother called a while ago and started having a go at me about how I should be more like Lois. Nothing unusual, but for some reason, I snapped and said, ‘At least I’m not engaged to a guy I just met’.”
“Oh no, you didn’t!” Jimmy exclaimed. He had heard Lois having shouting matches with her mother over the phone on loudspeaker. She was not a woman to be trifled with.
“Tragically, I did, so now I have to haul Lois across town so Mother can have a go at her in person,” Lucy sighed.
“How are you going to talk Lois into leaving work so that her mother can yell at her?” Jimmy asked, wondering at the audacity of Mrs. Lane, demanding her daughter leave work in the middle of the day for such a purpose.
“Ever heard of blackmail?” she asked, rolling her eyes.
Poor deluded Lucy, he thought, shaking his head in disbelief. Didn’t she know that such tactics wouldn’t work on Lois?
“Oh, Lucy, I thought you’d know better than that,” he sighed. She looked at him quizzically. “Blackmail will not work on Lois Lane.”
“I think I know her a little better than you do,” Lucy chided. “I
*am* her sister after all. Besides, if you have the right material,
*anyone* can be blackmailed.”
“Not Lois Lane,” Jimmy insisted. But Lucy didn’t appear to be convinced. “What do you plan to do?”
“Tell Clark every little secret that she’s been hiding from the world,” she answered smugly.
“Okay, sure, that’ll work,” he answered, his tone clearly implying the opposite.
“Fine,” she retorted. “Be that way. You obviously think Lois has a clean slate.”
“No, I don’t,” he said exasperatedly. “But somehow I get the feeling that Lois wouldn’t mind.”
“Oh yeah, and when did you get to be so smart?” Lucy asked angrily. Jeez, she thought, does this guy change personalities on a day-to-day basis? He was so nice on the phone yesterday. Maybe she
*should* go to California after all.
“Right after I walked in on Lois warning Perry not to lump Clark in with Claude,” Jimmy answered. “By the look on Clark’s face, he knew
*exactly* who Claude was.”
“Even if he did, that doesn’t mean she told him everything,” Lucy pointed out rather smugly.
“That’s true,” he answered, “but it also means that she’s willing to tell him things that she’d never tell anyone else. I mean, she didn’t tell
*me* about it until I heard a garbled version from Ralph. And that was just to set the record straight.”
“Unbelievable. Lois didn’t tell the copy boy about her love life,” she quipped in amusement. Jimmy immediately got on the defensive.
“Research assistant,” he corrected her, just short of growling. “And I don’t just work with her, okay? We’re friends. Good friends.”
“Now, what’s up with you today?” she asked in a slightly hurt tone, her eyebrow cocked in curiosity. “You were so nice yesterday, before they... Oh!”
“What ‘oh’?” he asked warily, taking his attention away from Perry’s office, where the argument was being resolved with hugs all around, to finally look at her.
“She’s too old for you, Jimmy,” Lucy commented lightly, fighting down a wave of jealousy as she patted his shoulder. “And too uptight.”
“Who’s uptight?” Lois asked, startling them. Jimmy hadn’t even seen them leave Perry’s office. He was too startled by Lucy’s perception. While he might have at one stage entertained thoughts in that area, Lois had blown him off pretty quickly. And at first he was happy for Lois. Glad that if it couldn’t be him, CK would be a good second choice. But the whole engagement had stirred up his old feelings. And Lucy had seen straight through him. Damn her.
“Anyone I know?” Clark joined in; fairly certain he knew whom Lucy was talking about.
“Mother,” Lucy answered quickly. Too quickly. By the look on Lois’s face, she hadn’t fooled her at all. Nor Clark, she thought, catching the smirk on his face. “But I don’t want to talk about Mother right now. I want to talk about
*this*.” She thrust the frame in her hand forward once more.
“Lucy, where did you get this?” Lois demanded, grabbing it as if it was her most treasured possession and holding it to her chest so that she covered the photo.
“I found it in the drawer when I was getting this sweater,” she answered shamelessly.
“You broke into our hotel room?” Clark asked incredulously. He obviously didn't know yet that breaking and entering ran in the family.
“No I didn't! Actually, I didn’t have to break in. You guys left in such a hurry this morning that you forgot to lock the door. Must have been too distracted,” she grinned. But they were not to be drawn. "Since it was already open…"
“It’s not still open is it?” Lois asked, fearing the answer.
“Well, I didn’t have a key, so how was *I* supposed to lock it?” Lucy demanded. “You don’t have anything valuable in there, anyway, do you?”
Lois and Clark looked at each other fearfully. “The scrapbook,” they said in unison.
“Perry, we have to go lock that room,” Lois turned to him pleadingly.
“Oh no, I’m not losing both of you again today,” he disagreed.
“But, Chief...” Clark implored.
“Kent, you stay here. Lois, you go. Straight there and back,” he said adamantly.
“Yes, Chief,” she answered. “Hopefully there’ll be a cab ready outside.” Perry threw his hands up in the air.
“Oh, for the love of... Jimmy did you bring your car today?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Jimmy answered hesitantly. “But it’s not the easiest car to drive...”
“Then
*you* take her,” Perry demanded.
“Can’t Clark...?”
“No, Lois, I want him here,” Perry asserted. “Son, I know your stories are top notch, but I haven’t seen a full day’s work out of you since you started. Maybe you could fix that today?”
“Absolutely, Chief,” Clark answered, shrugging resignedly at Lois.
***
“So, Lois, sleep well?” Jimmy asked, the only opening comment he could think of.
Lois smiled, his words bringing back memories of lying in bed, wrapped in Clark’s arms, waking in bedding that held his scent, bedding that reminded her of him.
“Lois? You alive in there?” came Jimmy’s voice, breaking into her daydream. He looked askance at her, wondering where she’d been, what’d had her so distracted, although it didn’t take a genius to work it out. Something had happened with Clark, he’d seen that much personally, and Lois was away with the fairies. Jimmy sighed, his hands tightening around the steering wheel. So the gloves were off.
It seemed to be a long drive to the hotel, and by now, Jimmy had run out of things to try to keep Lois’s mind off Clark. They’d talked about the job, families, weather, recent stories, and still, somehow, completely subconsciously, she managed to mention CK in relation to every single thing he brought up, Jimmy thought.
She was now staring out of the window, no doubt thinking about him, Jimmy thought bitterly. This was going to be a lot harder than he had thought. And it was going to call for feet first action.
“So, Lois, you and CK looked awfully cosy last night. I mean, that first day, I thought you’d no sooner get involved with CK than you would with me,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Jimmy, don’t be ridiculous!” Lois spluttered, before realising how that sounded. “Uh, not that you’re not a great guy, and any woman would be glad to have you, but, but you’re a friend! And it wouldn’t be right, and, and we work together. Yeah, we work together and it’s against the rules,” she finished, glad to have dug herself out of that one.
Jimmy glanced over at her, a smile on his face, well aware of her three rules. If she could quote the rules about him, why not about CK? “Exactly. Pity though, just imagine it, you and me against the world! We could make mincemeat of CK! He’d never know what hit him,” he laughed, slowing down at the red light and watching the traffic streaming across in front of him. “Just imagine his expression.”
Lois stared back at him, praying that he was joking. And that was when it happened, Jimmy would tell the traffic boys later on.
***
It fell to Lucy to answer the phone. She was sitting at Jimmy’s desk while she was waiting for him and Lois to come back. Perry and Cat were arguing over some point of her current gossip column. Clark was working in the conference room with the door closed, and everyone else in the vicinity seemed to be on the phone already.
“Daily Planet, Jimmy Olsen’s phone,” she answered. “Jimmy! Why are you...what?” Lucy shot to her feet. “Oh my God, Jimmy, are you okay? Oh, thank goodness, and Lois?” She dropped the phone, her face white, eyes wide with shock. Perry had looked over as he heard the change in her voice. He bent down and picked up the phone, wrapping an arm around Lucy, who let him hug her to him.
“Jimmy, son, what is it?” Jimmy’s voice sounded tinny as Perry struggled to hear him.
“...hit us from behind. It was so fast, Chief. She hit our car, and we shot forward and into the intersection. And...and then the other car, Chief, the other car hit us, hit Lois’s side, and, it’s not good, Chief. I’m at the hospital now, and they’ve taken Lois away.”
Cat stared over at them with a questioning look on her face. Unwrapping herself, Lucy moved over to her, wiping her eyes. “Cat, it’s Lois. She and Jimmy were in a car crash. Jimmy’s just telling Mr. White, but Lois is hurt, Cat, she’s...” and her chin quivered again as she bit her lip.
“Sit down, Lucy,” Cat said gently. “Calm down now. We can’t do anything until we know what’s going on. Chief?” she asked, turning as Perry slowly put the phone down.
“Jimmy’s not too bad, cuts and bruises and quite shaken up, but Lois took the full brunt of it,” he said, leaning against the desk partition. “They’ve taken her away for tests, and he said he’ll ring when he knows more,” he sighed, his frame seeming to shrink inwardly. Lois Lane was a very special part of the Daily Planet family and this had knocked Perry sideways.
Clark strode through the conference room door, his arms full of files. He looked up when he felt their gazes upon him. “What’s the matter? Has something happened?”
“Son, uh,” began Perry.
“Lois’s been in a car crash, and she’s in the hospital for tests,” Lucy said, her eyes brimming with tears. “Clark, some woman crashed into her side of the car, and she’s...” she trailed off, biting her lip in a concerted effort not to sob.
Clark heard his heart stop.
He literally heard his heart stop.
Screech to a halt and stop.
“Son, she’s alive, she’s still alive.” He vaguely heard Perry’s voice somewhere in the background. “Kent? Clark!”
Shaking his head, he came to his senses. He went into the conference room and dumped the files on his desk before coming out again. If it hadn't been for that kryptonite! Clark sighed in frustration, he could have stopped this. He
*should* have stopped this, powers or no. These thoughts raced through his head, and before he knew it, he was almost at the elevator.
“Kent, where are you going?” Perry had to ask.
“Where do you think?”
“Son, I know how you feel, but you can’t, you’ve got a deadline,” Perry said, hating that he had to do this to Clark, but if he let him go -- officially -- he knew Clark wouldn’t be back in time for the next edition, which would anger the suits upstairs. “Look, come into my office and we’ll talk!” and he almost flinched at the anger and fear he saw in Clark’s brown eyes.
Striding past Perry, Clark stormed into the office, finally coming to stand by the window, hands clenching and unclenching by his sides. Closing the door behind him, Perry carefully moved over to stand behind Clark.
“Kent, listen, I can’t...”
“I’m going to the hospital, Chief. I just...I have to go. I can’t not go. I...I love her, Perry, I...”
“I know, son, I know. And I know how much you love her. Listen, what I said out there, I had to. Officially, you can’t go. The suits would have my hide if they knew that I’d let a reporter off when we were already one down. But...if there was a family emergency, then you’d have to go. And so, I’m sorry to hear about your family emergency. Take Lucy and keep me posted.”
Clark turned to face Perry, his face tight with worry. Chief, I...”
“Just go, son. We can sort all this out when you two come back together. Now, go and give her our love,” he said, shaking Clark’s hand and clapping him on the back. “Look after her.”
Clark stood frozen for a moment, the full fear of it all setting in. “Perry, I, we...” he said, his fear evident.
“She’ll be all right, Clark. She loves you too, and she’ll want to come back to you,” he said softly. “You can see how much she cares and I know how much you love her. So like I said, go, and bring her home.”
Perry moved over, opened the door, and strode out, Clark following behind.
“It appears that Clark’s had a family emergency and needs to go to the hospital. Cat, do you think you could drive him and Lucy down there?” he asked.
Cat was standing by the ramp, keys in her hand, already talked into it by Lucy. She’d known Clark would be going to her and that he wouldn’t let anyone stop him. Lucy had seen it in his face. That flash of pure fear she saw there when he’d heard that Lois was hurt, it was that twist in the guts, lancing white-hot fear that gripped you by the throat and squeezed. She knew that from experience.
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