NOTE: Lois will be assuming another identity for part of this section. This is something that quite possibly should have been brought up earlier, but wasn't. That will be sorted in the archived version, but for now pretend that it hasn't just suddenly appeared from nowhere
!
*.*.*.
- from part 10
Clark smiled and managed to pull away from their embrace. Martha looked at him, concern in her motherly eyes. "Where's Lois? Is she OK? What happened?"
"She's fine, I think," Clark told them, and gestured at the house, "why don't we go inside and sit down. I'm still not entirely sure what happened but I'll tell you what I know. I'm so glad you two are unhurt. When I arrived and couldn't find you, I was beginning to fear the worst."
"We're fine," Jonathan assured him, as they lead Clark inside and towards the dining table, "now tell us what happened."
Clark took in a deep breath, and he told them the story from when they'd woken up at Bureau 39.*.*.*.
Part Eleven*.*.*.
Lois sighed down the telephone in annoyance at how unhelpful the person on the other end was being. "So he was in yesterday?"
"Yes, Miss Dane," came the voice of the impatient receptionist, who sounded equally annoyed with the woman on the other end of the line. "Dr. Klein was in yesterday and he is not due in today for another hour. Do you have a message for him?"
"No, no message, I just want to talk to him for a story. Let him know I'll be dropping by his office at some point today." Lola Dane was a code name Lois often used when working undercover. Klein had been informed of the name years ago when she had needed his help on a previous perilous story, and he had been in contact with 'Miss Dane' with startling regularity since then. Lois momentarily pondered whether it might be a good idea to devise a new code name. The whole reason for using the name was not let Luthor know she was trying to contact Klein, but she was suddenly wondering how hard it would be for Luthor to work out that she was Lola Dane. After all this was over, she'd drop Lola and come up a new name. Maybe she'd be Wanda Detroit next time.
"Yes Miss Dane. Good-day Miss Dane," then there was a click and a dial tone.
Lois looked at the buzzing receiver in her hand. "Don't the adverts for those jobs specify people skills?" She put the phone down and leant back in her chair, processing the information she'd just gained. At least she knew Klein was alive, or at least he still was when he left STAR Labs yesterday and she'd managed to get hold of the Kents, so no one had died. But Clark was still...
No, she couldn't think about that. She had to remain objective. She needed to get all the information she could on Luthor, LexCorp, STAR Labs and Bureau 39. Where was Jimmy when she needed him? She heard the ping of the elevator doors and looked up in expectation but instead all that came out of the doors was a tramp. She looked away, disinterested in someone else's source. She had enough work of her own to do. It felt strange being back at the Planet while technically still on the run. However, there had been some truth in Dr. Wicks' words. How could Luthor or Bureau 39 bust into the newsroom and capture her without some questions being asked, questions that they wouldn't want to answer. True, they could probably produce some phony warrant, and it wasn't as if she hadn't had enough run-ins with the government to get her into their bad books. They probably could come up with something extremely convincing. She fought the impulse to run at these thoughts. She needed to be at the Planet, she felt safer here than at home. Besides, she needed their resources. So she'd stay, until there was nothing new she could learn there or everyone went home for the day. She was certainly *not* going to stay late.
"Lois Lane?" She looked up; it was the tramp looking wildly around the newsroom, with a parcel wrapped in brown paper in his arms. "Lois Lane?" As Lois made eye contact with him, he raised his voice as he rushed over to her. "Lois Lane! Lois Lane! It's going to explode!"
A security guard ran up behind him and grabbed him round the waist. "I'm sorry. He ran right past reception."
The man managed to dump the package on Lois' desk, whilst still struggling with the guard. "You don't understand, Miss Lane. The Messenger is going to explode. Please, Miss Lane, you must tell my story."
"We had trouble with him before," said the guard, pulling him away the desk.
"Wait a minute," called out Lois, not wanting to have what could possibly be a good story pulled away from her by a security guard desperate to prove his macho strength, "don't."
"Please," the man begged her, "you've got to believe me." The guard was joined by a second, and the pair of them managed to overpower the man and take him away from Lois and toward the exit. "Please, the space programme is doomed. Please." The guards pulled him into the elevator and out of the building. Lois picked up the package and looked at it. Great, like she didn't have enough on her hands this was dropped into her lap and it looked like it could be the biggest story of the year. Still, space programme, alien... Maybe there was a link here and it was all one huge story. "Hey, Jimmy!" she called out as she spotted him in the dispersing crowd, eager to grab him before he vanished on another mission for Perry, "I need you to do some research for me."
*.*.*.
Later on that day she was rummaging through the parcel's contents, while simultaneously watching the report on the television. What with looking for Clark, travelling to Smallville and being held captive, the whole Messenger thing had passed her by. She vaguely remembered the planning stages and the excitement around the station but that was so long ago she had forgotten all about it until that man, Dr. Samuel Platt she discovered from his parcel, had run into the newsroom shouting her name.
"The transport vehicle Messenger piloted by Commander Jack Latterman and carrying the final propulsion module for the space station Prometheus is scheduled for lift-off Friday at 9 am," said the TV reporter, "Dr. Toni Baines reminds us that timing is crucial."
"Unless all the modules are in place in the next few weeks space station Prometheus will lose it's orbit and fall back into the Earth's atmosphere," said a new woman's voice, some blonde who had probably only got her position at EPRAD by sleeping her way through the interview. "That kind of occurrence will surely spell the end to any future projects and the space programme as a whole."
The picture switched back to the reporter. "A series of delays and launch failures have already put EPRAD's back to the wall..." Lois groaned as a load of Platt's papers fell off her desk with a thud. She slid off her chair got down onto the floor to pick them up.
"Morning Lois," came a woman's voice from behind her, "on your hands and knees again, I see."
Lois replied without looking up, "A little early for you to be in, Cat." She found the final sheet and stood up to confront Cat. "I thought ladies like you only worked nights."
"Part of my job as society columnist..."
"Mudslinging rumour monger," amended Lois, straightening out the leaning pile of research before another slide sent her back under the desk.
"...is to maintain an active social life. You remember what that's like. Or do you?" Cat gave a small laugh, then walked away, as Jimmy came over with yet more paper for Lois to stabilise.
"What do men see in her, anyway?" Lois asked him as they watched her progression to her desk, "don't they know she's looking for another notch on her garter belt?"
"Pathetic," he agreed. "Have you actually seen this garter belt?"
Their attention was diverted by a special report on the television cutting into the piece on the Messenger. "What is that?" Jimmy asked as they moved closer to the television screen.
"I don't--" Lois began as she started to listen to the voice-over.
"...School bus was about to plunge over the edge of the bridge into the water, when something pushed it back onto the road. Some of the passenger's statements say that a man flew down and rescued the bus. Police have found two hand-prints indented on the side of the bus and experts are baffled by this mystery. LNN will bring you more updates on this occurrence as we get them. For now, we will return to the report on the Messenger."
Lois moved away from the screen and back to her desk, fighting to get breath into her heavy lungs. "Idiot," she hissed to herself, "stupid, alien idiot. Hiding does not involve using your powers to rescue plunging school buses in front of loads of witnesses."
"Huh?"
She jumped, not realising that Jimmy had followed her, "I was just saying it's got to be a prank right? Men don't fly, it's a simple fact of nature."
"Right," the kid didn't look convinced, "I got you information on STAR Labs and Bureau 39 but, um, do you know how much stuff there is on Luthor? Can't you narrow down the field a bit?"
"Anything that looks dodgy or illegal," Lois couldn't make eye contact with him, she was still too shaken. Jimmy nodded and left for his own desk. She sat down and let out a sigh. Great, now everyone who had ever come into contact with Clark knew what he was doing or at least where he had been. Lois knew he was intelligent, so why didn't he understand what 'lying low' meant?
*.*.*.
Clark nursed the glass of buttermilk in his hands as he sat with the Kents at their dining table. He had fought returning as long as he could, knowing that Bureau 39 could easily find him here but he needed to speak to someone. They had been very understanding, possibly more understanding than Lois would be. "Do you think she knows?"
Jonathan shared a look with his wife. "It's been all over the news, son and she is a reporter. I'd say that the chances are that she knows."
"She's going to be mad with me."
Martha chuckled. "Forget about Lois for a second. How do *you* feel about it?"
He smiled in self-satisfaction. "Good. I saved those kids. They would have died if I hadn't been there and it feels really good. No one else could have stopped that bus but I could, I did. Maybe I could make a difference here, in the real world."
"You won't have a normal life. If the public discover who you are, *what* you are, you could very well end up back in Bureau 39," Jonathan told him firmly. "At best, you'll become a celebrity. Either way..."
"No normal human life for Clark the alien," Clark sighed in regret. "It was never going to happen anyway." He finished the milk and fiddled with the glass until Martha stood up and took it away from him. Clark looked up from the table and glanced at Jonathan inquisitively. "Son?"
"Sorry?"
"You called me son. I'm not your son, Jonathan."
"Jonathan calls every man he likes who's younger than him 'son'," Martha informed him, "it's a term of endearment."
Clark nodded his head. "I liked it. I suppose I am someone's son but no one's ever called me it before."
Jonathan looked seriously at him. "Clark, I think you ought to take some time to think. What do you want from life?"
He smiled as images of his ideal future flooded his imagination. "I want to marry Lois and have lots of babies to call 'son'. I know, it's corny and I barely know Lois, but there's something between us. I don't know what it is but it's real."
"You can't do that if you're going to go flying around like a super hero. It would place Lois in the public eye and quite possibly in danger as well."
Martha placed her hands on Clark's shoulders in support, "I don't know about that, Jonathan, maybe he could if he was really careful and never got caught."
Jonathan smiled at the pair's optimism. "We've got to be realistic here. He can carry on doing these things but sooner or later someone's going to be able to identify him. Not forgetting that Lois and everyone at Bureau 39 already knows about Clark, if one of them should leak it to the press..."
Clark pushed the chair away from the table and stood up, "I know and you're right. It's something I need to think about, away from here. They found me here last time, they're bound to look for me here again and I don't want to put you at risk." He didn't look back as he walked to the back door.
"Clark," Jonathan called, causing the man to pause in the doorway, "you never had anyone to call you son but we never had someone to call son. You're the closest thing we will ever have, we nursed you as a baby and we gave you your name. If you ever want someone to call you son, you can come to us. We'd be honoured."
"Thank you," Clark hadn't turned to look at them, "I'll remember that." He opened the door and stepped out into the yard, closing it behind him. The Kents heard a whoosh as he took off into the atmosphere and left their farmhouse behind.
*.*.*.
Dr. Klein rubbed at his tired eyes and jumped when he opened them only to see a swirl of darkness before him where his lab had been seconds before. Then he remembered to remove his safety glasses. The lab was a mess, his latest experiment had backfired and caused the room to be splattered with a dark liquid, that also covered his hands and had thus been transferred onto his glasses. And his eyes still itched.
"Dr. Klein?" He turned at the sound of his name. In the doorway was a woman with a look of extreme relief plastered over her familiar face.
"Miss Dane. What can I help you with today?" he asked, already trying to calculate where he had gone wrong. Lois was constantly appearing in his office asking for help with her more scientific-based stories and he always tried to not let it distract him too much from his real work. Every now and then she turned up in her current guise, wearing a red wig, tacky clothes and a pair of sunglasses. This woman was Lola Dane a.k.a. Lois Lane on a dangerous story. Dr. Klein was fairly convinced he met this woman more often than her reporter twin.
Lois forcibly closed her gaping mouth as she watched Dr. Klein's furrowed brow working something out. "I haven't been able to get in contact with you since your meeting with Dr. Wicks, what happened?"
He shook his head as he considered her question, "I don't remember any meeting. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, I don't know, I thought maybe it might be a good idea to discuss *Clark*."
"Clark? What's that?"
"That's..." Lois paused as she looked at the scientist, realisation dawning on her. "You don't remember?"
Dr. Klein smiled at her apologetically, "Sorry, I'm famous at STAR Labs for being the archetypal absent-minded professor, except that I'm a doctor. What have I forgotten this time?"
Lois paced further into the room, keeping as far away from the nasty-looking chemical goo as she could, gingerly stepping over the puddles on the floor and making sure she didn't brush up against any on the walls or benches. "They went away and never returned but they weren't killed, like Clark feared. They just had their memories erased, which is what they did to you because they couldn't trust you anymore. Luthor probably had cameras installed in Clark's room, so they knew you helped rescue him. Sometime since or possibly during that meeting, Bureau 39 brainwashed you, which is why you stopped trying to get in contact with us and you know have no idea what I'm talking about and so are giving me a very funny look."
He nodded, his confused look growing. "Are you all right, Miss Dane?"
She smiled at him, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just fine and you are as well, which is good."
"So, is there a story you need my help with or is this a social call?"
"There was a story but now I think I can figure it out on my own," she backed out of the lab just as carefully as she had entered it, "I mean, you're doing fine and the fewer who know the better I guess and there's no real reason for you to know now, so I'm going now. Bye."
"Goodbye, Miss Dane," Dr. Klein called after her as she practically ran out of his lab. He shook his head in disbelief. And people thought *he* was mad!
*.*.*.
Lois had spent the remainder of the day going through copious amounts of paperwork on Bureau 39 and LexCorp. Actually there hadn't really been much on Bureau 39, just rumours and speculations. The information on Luthor had been boring, involved and a lot. She had taken a few breaks to look at the information Platt had given her. It looked really interesting, he seemed to think that someone was trying to sabotage the Messenger space shuttle and he was an ex-employee of EPRAD so the chances were that he did know what he was talking about. However she hadn't spotted a link to Clark or aliens of any description which meant there probably wasn't one. This made her reluctant to follow the lead, even though something in her gut told her they were both big stories. She really hoped Perry wouldn't make her choose between them. She sighed as her key turned in the door opening the locks, then she entered her apartment and turned on the light, calling out, "Lucy?" she shut the door behind her, "are you home?" She really hoped Lucy hadn't decided to go out with her friends, she didn't fancy being on her own tonight as she was still feeling jumpy and paranoid.
Lucy appeared from her bedroom. "Hi sis." Lois dumped the shopping she had been carrying in the kitchen. Lucy gave her an annoyed look, "I thought you were going out tonight."
That had been the plan, to stay in crowded places and do things out of character so that Bureau 39 would have a hard job finding her, but Lois needed to sort the story out more. "Oh, I gotta work, I can't," she caught her sister's eye. "Don't start."
Lucy started anyway. "Did you find an escort to Lex Luthor's White Orchid Ball yet?"
"No, I did not." Damn. She'd forgotten about that. It was going to be her one big opportunity to nail that Luthor interview once and for all. Now the very thought of attending *his* ball made her feel physically sick.
"Lois, it's tomorrow night. What about Mitchell? You liked him."
"Mitchell is a hypochondriac."
"They can't all be bad, Lois. They can't all be boring or stupid. What are you waiting for?"
Lois tried to shut her up. "Fine. I'll ask Mitchell to take me." Suddenly she couldn't get the image of Clark at the Kents' out of her head. Would it really be cheating on a man she couldn't have a relationship with to take a man who she'd never actually liked in that way to a ball there was no way he could ever attend? Probably. But she had to go, she wouldn't let Luthor think she was scared of him and she couldn't go alone anymore than she could take Clark.
"I'm not just talking about the ball, Lois. You gotta get out more."
"Will you stop? Jeez, you sound like Dad. I'm only 26."
"Twenty-six today, 36 tomorrow. And I know why that dentist, Alan, never called you back. Dragging him to that 'Women in Journalism' seminar: 'Weak Men and the Wise Women Who Love Them'? You gotta stop scaring them off, Lois," Lucy grabbed the folder Lois had started to open from her hand, "You've gotta stop being so smart all the time, so intense."
"Look," Lois whirled on her. "I'm just being myself. If they're not man enough to handle it then I guess I'll just have to wait for someone who is."
"I just hate to see you sitting at home."
"I get out plenty. I have dates."
"You have interviews," Lucy corrected her. "It's not the same thing. Lois. I just want you to meet a super guy," she stalked back to her room, leaving Lois with her mound of research. Lois switched on the television, only to discover that the flying man had been rescuing people trapped by an avalanche in the Alps.
"Oh," Lois breathed, "I've met a super guy all right, Luce, and he hasn't been scared off, but no one can ever know about him, not even you." She watched amateur footage of Clark's heroics, wondering why he was wearing a ski-mask to cover his face. What difference could it possibly make if people knew what his face looked like?
*.*.*.
Lex sat in his penthouse, dressed in one of his many tuxedos, listening with pleasure as the sounds of the ball filtered up into his study. He smiled at Asabi as he entered the room with permission. "Well, have we charmed our worm?"
"Miss Lane is in the building."
His smile broadened as his plan began to fall into place. "Excellent. I think it's time I showed my face. After all, I am the host. It would be rude of me to spend all my time alone up here."
To Be Continued...
