WHAM! Yes, there's another WHAM here and it definitely falls in to the PG-13 range.
This section is somewhat shorter than recent ones have been, but that's the way it falls.
Yes, I should be sleeping soundly. Yes, I will be shortly.
Yes, I almost finished that other segment and so am posting this now.
Yes, I do need to thank Alisha [again]. And Bethy and Kaylle and MissyG, all who were invaluable with this segment. And Anna too I think.
Did you see the WHAM warning up there?
FDK appreciated.
Carol
*****
Chapter 16
*****
April 1988
*****
Clark sighed and threw his pen down on the table.
Lucy looked up from her spot on the couch where she was reading 'Macbeth'. "What's wrong?"
"I just can't concentrate on this." He closed his notebook and shoved it in his bag.
"Hmm..." Lucy thought for a minute. "You know, Clark, can I ask you something about... you know, being you?"
Clark shrugged. "Sure. You know I don't mind and I'll answer if I can."
"Why don't you study fast? I mean, you could read that whole book in like 6 seconds and finish the homework in another 4, so why don't you?"
Clark smiled. "Yeah, I could and I do sometimes. Part of it depends on how much I like the subject. When I do homework and stuff that fast, I can retain the information. I can recall it for tests or whatever. I could even recreate the whole book if I wanted to, but I don't always understand it if I go that fast." He shrugged again.
"Huh?"
Clark laughed slightly, still unable to shake the uneasy feeling that had been plaguing him for the last half an hour. "I mean, I could tell you how to do a math problem, for instance, and why it works, but I might not actually understand it. I'd just be repeating what I'd read, like a little kid who says he's 2 years old, but really has no idea what that means or why one day he's magically 3."
Lucy laughed. "It's nice to know you have some chink in your armor."
Clark groaned. "I'm not that different... am I?"
"Sometimes. I mean, you're a great guy but who else could fly me to LA for dinner right now if I asked really nicely?"
Clark groaned again. "I told you, I'll take you for graduation." He stood up and wandered around the living room. "You and Jimmy both."
"Will you and Lois come too?"
Clark shrugged. "If we can find a time when we can all make it. Otherwise, I could always just take you and Jimmy somewhere and come back later – Italy or France or somewhere in Asia... wherever you might want to go."
Lucy chewed thoughtfully on the end of her pen. "Clark, can I ask you something a little more personal?"
"Sure, but I can't promise I'll answer."
"Is everything okay with you and Lois?"
He turned from where his circuit around the living room had taken him and looked at her. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I see a lot more of you than she does; it seems like I always have. I won't pretend to know what you two have gone through the last three years – and I can't tell you how much I appreciate everything you've both done for me – but Jimmy and I have been going out for two and a half years now, and now that he's already in college, it's gotten a lot harder. I mean, we used to eat lunch together every day and we'd hang out after school and talk all night on the phone until you made us cut those shorter." She held up a hand as Clark opened his mouth. "You were right. My grades were suffering even though I didn't realize it. After I spent more time studying instead of talking, my grades went up and that's how I have a partial scholarship to UNT Met next year.
"But that's not my point. I mean relationships are hard enough under any circumstances but yours are more difficult than anyone else I know. You hadn't seen each other in four and a half years. You were eighteen, she was seventeen and two weeks later, her little sister moved in. And let's face it; I wasn't the easiest to live with that first year or so."
Clark had moved to the chair while she was speaking. He couldn’t figure out what was making him twitchy. "No, you weren't, but you're a good kid and you're growing into a lovely young lady."
"Thanks, but like I said, you and I spend more time together, unless you count overnights, but most of that you're asleep." She shuddered. "And I don't want to know any more than that."
Clark grimaced. "Don't worry; I'm not going to elaborate." That was something that had crossed his mind from time to time. He knew Lucy came downstairs to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night sometimes and she'd never seen anything even remotely untoward. Never any clothes on the floor or bodies moving under the sheets or empty condom wrappers lying around. Though, he admitted to himself, he wasn't sure what their preferred method of birth control would be if they actually needed it. He'd bought a box early in their marriage and hid it on the off chance... but they'd never been touched. Unless Jimmy and Lucy...
He frowned at that thought. He'd talked with both of them separately when they'd been going out for about six months and emphasized that he wasn't sure that was a good idea while they were still in high school. To be honest, he hadn't expected the relationship to survive this long, especially after Jimmy graduated and now that Lucy was about to graduate... Well, she was already eighteen and it was quite likely, he realized, that they... He shook his head, unable to go there. He hoped they were being safe about it.
"Anyway, I don't remember the last time I saw you two together for more than a few minutes before bed at night. You're usually both here for part of the day on the weekend, but Lois is usually studying. When was the last time you two had a night out together?"
Clark sighed and thought about it. "Our anniversary." He ran a hand through his hair. "Life's been hard and busy and money's been tight since we got married and nights out just haven't been in the cards for us. But our contracts at the Star are almost up and we're almost done at the Metropolitan. Lois has worked so hard to graduate with me this year. Perry's offered us jobs at the Daily Planet. He said they'd be very entry level but that he'd make sure we work the same schedule most of the time – no more of this opposite thing. A couple of his college students have already told him they're leaving at the end of the semester and he promised to hold the jobs for us."
"Well, there's something I'd hoped to talk to both of you together about but..."
"What's that?"
"I'm going to be moving out pretty soon."
Clark's head rose sharply at that. "What?"
"Lisa and Jessica and I are going to live in the dorms together. Lisa and I were accepted as counselors at a summer camp for kids so I'm leaving the week after graduation."
Clark frowned slightly. "I knew you'd applied but didn't know you'd been accepted."
"The letter came today." She smiled at him. "You guys don't need a third wheel hanging around anymore."
"You're not a third wheel, Luce. You're family."
"I know but you know the old saying 'Family is like fish – after three days it begins to stink'. Three years is even worse I'm sure."
"I thought it was 'company is like fish'."
She shrugged. "Potato, patato. Anyway, you guys don't need me hanging around here anymore. My scholarship covers most of my tuition and fees. I've got a couple other small scholarships and I'm hoping that the money I make at camp this summer will cover most of my room and board at least for fall. I was going to ask you and Lois about the inheritance money. I know Lois was saving it for my college and even though I don't need it for tuition, I was hoping I could use a little bit of it to help with room and board."
Clark shrugged. "I don't see why not, but you'll need to talk to Lois about it. It's your money – hers and yours that is." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "I think I’m going to go for a walk. Maybe go pick up Lois at the paper." He glanced at the clock. "She should be done soon."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I've just got this feeling and I can't quite figure out what it means."
"What kind of feeling?"
"I don't know. That's just it. I'm just... uneasy and restless and I don't know why."
"Huh." She watched as Clark headed for the door. "See you in a bit."
"Yeah." And he was gone.
*****
Lois leaned back in her chair at the University paper. It had been a long day. A day she had lunch with Clark. Lois knew that – even if Clark was getting... 'more' with Mayson, he was still her husband and if he was going to pretend everything was fine, so was she. She knew that he ate with Mayson most days that he didn’t eat with her. And she tried desperately to pretend it didn't bother her. That Jimmy was usually there too was irrelevant.
And so Lois was still in the University newsroom. It was practically deserted by now. In fact, the last two underclassmen had stepped into the elevator a few minutes earlier. Professor Paul, the faculty advisor, was still working in his office.
He'd been a good friend to her over the last two years – mainly since the first time she'd discovered Clark and Mayson eating together. He'd helped her with homework, given her suggestions for stories – many of which turned out to be above the fold – and even allowed her to help, from time to time, with the editing duties he had.
"Lois," he called. "Would you help me with this layout?"
Lois pushed back from the desk she shared with Clark – something she still found slightly odd sometimes, but they were rarely there at the same time so it made sense – and headed towards the conference room.
She heard the door shut behind her and then a click as it locked.
She turned to face her professor. "There's no layout in here, Paul."
"I know." He sat on the edge of the table. "I wanted to talk to you."
"What about?"
"Your grade. Us."
"There's no us, Paul."
"There should be."
"I'm a married woman, Paul."
Paul stood and walked towards her. "Does Clark satisfy you, Lois?"
"Excuse me?" Lois had no intention of telling him how things really were between her and Clark. She backed up until her legs hit the conference table. There was an audible click as something in her pocket hit the table, but neither noticed.
"Does he satisfy you, Lois? Does he treat you the way a beautiful woman should be treated? Does he make love to you like a man in love should?"
"That's none of your business."
"I know. It's not, but I'm worried about you, Lois."
"Why?"
"Because the whole campus knows about him and that English major – something Drake."
Lois felt her face go pale. "What about him and Mayson?"
"That they've had a thing going on for years now." He moved closer until he was standing mere inches from her. "They've made you the laughingstock of the university, Lois."
"They have?" Her voice sounded small even to herself.
"They have, Lois." He raised one hand until it gently grazed her cheek. "You're too beautiful to be treated like that."
Lois barely felt his hand on her face. Knowing what she knew about herself and Clark and about Clark and Mayson was one thing. Knowing the whole campus was laughing at her was another. A small part of her had always clung to the hope that he, in his own naïve country boy way, was just friends with Mayson, completely unaware of how things looked to her and, apparently, to others, but that must just be her own naivete showing through.
"I love you, Lois. Let me show you how a man can really love you." His voice was soft but insistent.
"No, Paul," she whispered. "I'm married. I don't care what you think about Clark and Mayson or anyone else, I'm not going to cheat on my husband."
"He never has to know, Lois. You're about to graduate. We can have a great couple of months together before you walk across that stage and then, when you're out in the world and your sister has moved out and Clark leaves you for Mayson or someone else, you'll remember that you know what a real relationship is like."
"Paul..."
"Shhhh, Lois." His hand slipped around the base of her neck and he pulled her towards him. As his lips touched hers, she stumbled backwards until she hit the wall.
"Paul," she mumbled into his mouth. "Please get away from me. I am not going to cheat on my husband."
"You do want to graduate, don't you?" His voice took on a sinister tone.
"What?"
"It would be a shame for you to fail your last semester on the paper, forcing you to wait until next spring to take this course again. Of course, since this is the only class you'll have left, you'll lose your scholarship. Flunking the class will do that too. By the time we get to spring, you still won't have a degree, no respectable paper will hire you, your sister will have moved out to go to college and Clark will have left you and the whole school will know that you tried to sleep with me to get an A. Everyone on the paper knows we work here alone at night sometimes. What do you think they think is going on?"
"It's not true."
"Truth doesn’t matter, Lois. Perception does. You should know that by now. Everyone already perceives you to be a fool for letting your husband cheat on you right under your nose."
"I'll go public before you have a chance."
"No, you won't. No one will believe you. I'm a well respected member of the journalistic and academic communities. I've written dozens of articles for the school paper and freelance around the world on sexual harassment and how to deal with it."
"Clark will believe me. Perry White will believe me."
"It doesn't matter. Even if the venerable editor of the Daily Planet believes you, no one else will. And the cheating husband? No one will believe him either."
Lois raised her hands to push him away but found them trapped in his iron grip.
"You're not going anywhere, Lois. Not until I get what I want."
He leaned back in to kiss her again. She turned her face away from him, but the next thing she knew, both of her wrists suddenly felt like twigs in the grip of one of his much larger hands and his other hand was forcing her face back to him.
His lips were on hers as she struggled to get away to no avail.
Thoughts of Clark came to her mind. Would he rescue her, if he knew? Even if he didn't love her, wouldn't he still come to her rescue? If she yelled loud enough, would that hearing of his kick in?
"Clark," she whimpered into the sloppy mouth of her attacker.
He pulled back and grinned at her, evilness oozing out of every pore. "He'll never hear you, but just to be on the safe side..." He shoved her towards a filing cabinet and pulled a roll of duct tape out. One hand covered her mouth and his body pinned her against the wall. A strip of tape went over her mouth and another around her wrists.
"Don't worry, my dear. I'll take it off when we're done. I made sure to wrap it around your sleeves so there won't be any marks."
Lois continued to struggle as much as she could, but Paul was much larger than she was and she was hampered by the limited use of her arms. He unbuttoned her shirt, ripping more than one button off as he did so. One hand still held both of hers in an iron grip above her head as she noted the gleam in his eyes when he realized she was wearing a front clasping bra which he also made short work of.
His lips were on her neck and one hand groped at her, roughly, but not rough enough to leave bruises one part of her brain realized. "Let me show you what a real man's like," he leered.
Tears streamed down her face as Paul undid her belt and the button on her pants. She shut her eyes tightly as he unzipped them and slid them and her underwear over her hips until they were bunched on the floor.
He forced her to the floor and with one hand still holding hers captive, he began to undo his own pants.
Lois forced herself to open her eyes. If he was going to do this to her, he was going to have to look her straight in the eyes. In just a moment, he'd realize what a farce her marriage really was, but he was going to have to look at her as he did.
She closed them again, briefly, to brace herself for what was about to come. Clark, where are you?, she screamed mentally and then opened her eyes to stare her attacker straight in the eye.
The sound of the door jamb splintering startled both of them. Lois closed her eyes in relief as she realized Clark stood there, but the relief was short lived as a hand lightly gripped her throat.
"Get your hands off my wife." Clark's voice held barely concealed anger.
"Didn't you know she likes it rough, Kent?" her attacker snarled.
"I'm not someone you want to make mad, Paul. Let her go."
Lois struggled against her captor, causing him to lose his balance just enough for her to throw her body away from him.
While Paul was trying to regain his balance, she saw Clark practically fly into him, knocking him to the floor. His head cracked against the filing cabinet as he fell, unconscious by the time he actually landed.
Lois pulled the tape off her mouth with her now relatively freed hands and then struggled to her feet and began to try to pull her clothes back up.
In an instant, her clothes were back on and the tape on her wrists had disappeared.
Strong arms caught her as her legs gave way beneath her.
"Shh. Lois. I'm here. He can't hurt you." He lowered himself to the ground, pulling her into his lap. Another click went unheard.
She was shaking like a leaf, tears continuing to stream down her face. He stroked her hair gently, holding her close to him.
"Lois, I have to call 911," Clark spoke quietly.
"No! You can't!" She pushed away from him, struggling out of his grasp.
"Why not, Lois? He's hurt and you're hurt. You both need medical attention."
"I don't care about him and I'm fine."
"Lois, he almost raped you."
"No one will believe me. He made sure of that."
"What on earth do you mean? Why wouldn't anyone believe you?"
"He told me. He's put hints out that I... wanted him. We've worked late together, alone, several times. He said he's hinted to others that there's more to our relationship and that I'd be willing to do anything for an A."
"Why would you need to sleep with him to get an A? You're an excellent student."
"He can doctor grades, Clark."
"Why would he do that?"
"Because he didn't get what he wanted and if he discredits me, then there's nothing I can do to stop him."
"We'll go to Perry. I saw what was happening."
"And because one journalist believes the students he's friends with, that means it must be true? He'll discredit me and you and Perry if he has to."
Groaning from the corner caught their attention.
Clark stared intently at the older man. "He doesn't have a concussion."
"Good. Then let's get out of here." She stood, grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door.
When they reached the center of the newsroom, he stopped in his tracks. "Lois, we can't just leave him here, even if he is the lowest form of life imaginable."
She turned on her heel and headed for the stairs. "Watch me."
*****
TBC
