Thanks as always to Alisha and Beth.
*****
Chapter 24
*****
Lois, Clark and Dr. Emmert sat in the conference room. Perry joined them and took out his tape recorder.
"Dr. Emmert, I'm sure you can understand why we would like to record this conversation."
"Yes, I do, Mr. White." He spoke clearly. "My name is Dr. Robert Emmert. I am the president of the University of New Troy at Metropolis. I am aware that this conversation is being recorded."
Lois, Clark and Perry identified themselves as well.
Dr. Emmert turned to the students. "Mr. and Mrs. Kent, I assure you that I am taking the allegations against both Professor Paul Smith and Dr. Thomas Snodgrass very seriously. As I'm sure you are aware by now, both of them have been temporarily suspended pending the outcome of the investigation by the police and the university. However, I am going to have to suspend the two of you from the Metropolitan as well."
Perry started to protest, but was stopped by the raised hand of the university official.
"You will receive the same grade as your average during your other semesters at the paper. Since both of you have received As up to this point, you will receive an A this semester. *Should* the allegations you've brought against Professor Smith and Dr. Snodgrass prove to be fabrications, they would not affect your grade or diplomas but criminal and civil charges may be pursued if applicable. If they are proven to be accurate, the university will take the appropriate actions to deal with one or both of them."
Clark held Lois' hand and absently rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "Thank you, Dr. Emmert. I assure you, the allegations are not false and we're working with the police."
He nodded. "When I saw your article this morning, I called the campus police and they had no record of the charge being made there. I called around and finally got in touch with Bill Henderson. He told me who was bringing the charges and who the charges were being made against so I could take the necessary steps, but I assure you, that information will go no farther than me until necessary."
"Thank you," Lois said quietly.
"An investigation, run out of my office, will begin tomorrow. You have my personal assurance that, if these allegations are true, those involved will be dealt with. I won't allow that kind of thing on my campus and I certainly won't allow it to be covered up. Someone will contact both of you to set up an appointment to make an official statement. If you'd like to have a lawyer present, just to be safe, that might not be a bad idea. It's possible that a member of the MPD will be there as well." He stood. "I wanted to have this meeting in person, to look you both in the eyes and tell you that justice, whatever that means, will be done." He nodded to the three of them. "Thank you for your time."
Perry clicked the tape recorder off as the university president left the room.
"He believes you, kids."
"How can you tell?" Clark asked.
"There's certain things that have to be done whether he believes the allegations or not, but the way he did it; the way he talked about it – that tells me that he believes you. He could have just given you incompletes for the newspaper grade, but those could easily turn to failing grades and *would* prevent you from graduating if this drags out."
They both nodded. "That makes sense," Lois said. "And at least we don't have to worry about juggling both papers for the next three weeks."
"Why don't you kids go on home and either get some school work done or get some rest? Remember, you don't graduate, you're out of jobs again." His smile told them exactly what he thought the odds of them failing was.
*****
Several hours later, Lois settled in next to Clark in their bed. "I don't suppose I can convince you to tell me what Ms. Anderson said."
He smiled at her. "She said she's met a wonderful man who wants to marry her."
She smacked him lightly. "That's not what I meant."
"I know, but that's all you're going to get."
"Fine." She sighed. "Okay, the last two days have been kind of crazy, but we said we'd share something every day. Since I brought it up, you get to start."
He chuckled. "Nice how that works, isn't it?"
"Yep."
"What do you want to know?"
"Did you ever go out with anyone besides Lana and Rachel?"
"*That's* what you want to know?" Clark raised an eyebrow.
"For now. Or your whole dating history. Whichever."
He thought for a minute. "Well, I took Rachel to senior prom, but you knew that. Kissed her on the cheek when I dropped her off." He chuckled lightly. "Of course, her dad was the sheriff so even if I had been interested in her as more than a friend, nothing would have happened. That was the only time we ever went out. Lana and I went to a couple dances in September and in October my junior year. We went to a movie once in between. That's when she kissed me the first time. She tried to kiss me again the next Sunday while her parents were taking a nap and I was trying to watch a football game. I told her I wasn't comfortable with that and she backed off. A week later we went to the second dance and she kissed me again. I kissed her back a little bit. She... tried to take it further than that – not much but enough that when I said I wasn't comfortable with that either and she said I was too puritanical for her taste, but that didn't stop her from trying to push the envelope a bit at home. I did take Amanda Moller to junior prom but that was because Pete broke his leg two days earlier. It was really bad and he was still in the hospital. A couple of girls asked me out when I was at Midwest but I didn't really have the time or the interest."
"Wow. That right there would turn into a very steamy best seller if you ever wanted to tell your life story."
Clark groaned. "I told you, from the time I met you, I knew you were the one for me so there was no point in dating anyone seriously. It would only end up hurting someone and I didn't see why I should." He rubbed her shoulder absent mindedly. "Mom knew that, you know. That I would know you when I met you. I think that's why she wrote that letter."
Lois pulled back slightly, but tried not to let her emotions show on her face.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Lo-is..."
She said nothing.
"The letter?" he asked quietly.
She nodded.
"Did you ever read it?"
"No," she whispered.
"Why not?"
"I'm just starting to believe that this might actually work. For so long I thought you would leave and I didn't want to do that to myself."
"Do you still have it?"
"Yeah."
They laid there for another minute before Clark spoke again.
"In the interests of full disclosure... that's part of the reason why I went to get in the shower when I did that night," he said quietly. "We'd had that conversation dozens of times before and I really just wasn't up for it again and it hurt that you didn't want to read the letter my mom left for you. I understand better now why you didn't, but still... it hurt."
"I'm sor..." A finger over her mouth stopped her.
"No more, remember? Just being honest with each other."
She nodded. "I will read it, I promise."
"Thank you. She would have loved you, you know."
Lois didn't say anything to that.
"She was wonderful, my mom. She was a farmer's wife and would have probably put 'housewife' on any form that asked for her occupation but she was so much more than that. She could outwork most men in our area and still have dinner ready on time, laundry done and have a good biography read before they managed to get up from 'resting' on the porch. She had a college degree and wanted to be an artist. She did sculptures from time to time – I think there's still some at the farm – and she made me a bunch of ties that are..." He smiled a far off sort of smile. "...not quite in fashion. I doubt they ever were. I haven't worn any of them yet. I'm not sure why. I wanted to save them for a really special occasion. My first day on my first real job where I have to wear a suit and tie or whatever. I'd planned on wearing one on my first date with you, whenever that was, but I forgot to bring any of them with me when I came to Metropolis or I probably would have worn one to our wedding."
He smiled again. "You probably would have hated it though. I mean, not the theory of wearing a tie my mom made or for other occasions or whatever, but probably not for our wedding."
"I know it's probably not a good thing, but the whole day is a blur to me until I was sitting on that bed with Aunt Louise and she told me about her and Joe."
"I'm sorry about that you know."
"I thought we said no more apologizing."
"This is about something different though. I'm sorry you didn't get the wedding you probably dreamed of the whole time you were growing up."
Lois shrugged one armed. "The only wedding I really dreamed of was the one where I married someone who wasn't ever going to leave. But I'm not sure I ever wanted to get married at all. My parents made marriage look like as much fun as trying to cross the DMZ out of North Korea - neither side wants you to succeed. I wasn't sure I wanted to put myself through that."
"I can understand that. My parents' marriage wasn't like that at all. They loved each other and they loved me. Their relationship was the most important part of their lives, but I was a close second. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if they hadn't died. Would I have still moved out here to marry you? I think so, but it would have been very different with my parents to go to. You could have had my mom... I mean it – she would have loved you."
"I think I would have liked her, too," Lois said softly, stifling a yawn as she did.
"Get some sleep. I'll do my best to keep the dreams away." He pulled her slightly closer.
"Thank you."
"That's what I'm here for."
*****
Cat's voice spilled out of the tape recorder.
"Ms. King, may we have a word?"
"Can I ask what this is regarding?"
"Your relationship with Professor Paul Smith."
"What about my relationship with him?"Lois could hear the change in Linda's voice. She had grown wary.
"Is there somewhere private we could speak?"The tape clicked off and Lois knew that was when the two women had moved to somewhere more secluded. After the formalities of identifying themselves, Cat asked her first question.
"How would you characterize your relationship with Professor Smith?"
"Professional. Cordial. Bordering on friendly but not inappropriate." There was a pause. "Why do you want to know about my relationship with Paul?"
"We're interviewing a number of people involved with the Metropolitan in light of his recent suspension."
"What's all that about anyway? All we can find out is that there was an allegation made against him – probably by Clark or Lois Kent."
"I'm afraid the police have told us no more than they've told you."Clark and Lois shared a look at that. While technically accurate, it certainly didn't hint at the truth.
"Oh. Well, as I said, professional but friendly."
"Did you ever notice him act inappropriately with any member of the staff – male or female?"
"No, not that I recall."
"Did he often work late?"
"Yes."
"Was he often alone with students while working late?"
"Sometimes. We all have a night where we stay late. Usually there's two or three students here until late in the evening, but not always."
"Did you ever work late alone with Professor Smith?"
"Yes."
"Was he ever inappropriate with you?"
"No."
"What other students did he work late with?"
"Lois, Jenny Markum, Danni Cortez, Larissa Jones, maybe a couple of others, but like I said there are usually at least two people around."
"Did he ever work late with men?"
There was silence for a minute. "Not any that I can think of. I think the guys tend to get the early mornings and girls tend to get the later night shifts."
"And no one ever thought that was unusual?"
"I don't think so."
"What is the relationship, as you know it between Professor Smith and Tony Rader at the Star?"
"They went to college together. Everyone knows that. They covered East Germany together twenty years ago or something."
"Are you aware of a rumor involving a personal relationship between Clark Kent and a female student other than his wife?"Lois hesitated then took Clark's hand.
"Yes, I am."
"Do you know the name of the other student?"
"Mayson Drake. I think she's an English major."
"Do you know when you first became aware of the rumor?"
There was silence again. "I guess about two years ago. Lois had been working in the conference room and then went home sick. Paul showed me a proof sheet and asked if I could make him copies of the pictures. I had taken them, but I didn't always notice who was in the picture and I hadn't developed them the first time. When I developed them, I noticed two pictures of Clark and Mayson together and one of Mayson by herself. I took them to Paul and he asked me what I remembered about them – times, dates, things like that. He said something like, 'I never would have guessed Kent couldn’t keep it in his pants' under his breath. After that it sort of became common knowledge around the newsroom. They were the only married couple here but they never worked together, they rarely ate together... but it seemed like Clark was always eating lunch with Mayson."
"So you have no direct knowledge of the alleged affair?"
"No."
"When you saw them eating together, was there anyone with them?"
"Yeah – at least sometimes there was, but I didn't see them every day or anything."
"Did you ever mention it to Lois?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know. I just didn't." The tone was defensive.
"Ms. King, you're not under oath or anything like that, but it would sure help if you could give me a straight answer to the next question."
"I'll try."
"Did you ever have a sexual relationship of any kind with Professor Paul Smith?"The silence was deafening, even through the tape player. When the answer finally came, it was quiet.
"Yes. It was consensual, but yes, I did have a sexual relationship with Paul."
"Can you tell me more about that relationship – dates or what kind of relationship it was specifically?"
"I guess it started not long before I took those pictures and ended about six weeks ago because I'm gradating in a few weeks. As for what kind of relationship... mainly physical. There was never any understanding on either side that this was some sort of long term love affair."
"Did you ever want it to be?"
"Sometimes, but I knew going in that it was what it was."After a few more perfunctory questions, the interview came to an end.
"Wow," said Lois. "Perry was right – you must really have ways to get women to talk. I would have never thought that Linda would spill all of that."
"Well, it certainly goes to a pattern of behavior on Paul's part," Clark said.
"What I want to know..." Cat sat thoughtfully for a minute. "How are all these things connected? Paul and Tony know each other from college and as correspondents or whatever. Tony may or may not know what's actually going on. It's possible that Paul just asked him to let you guys and Olivia and whoever else go and he did as a favor for a friend or whatever. It's also possible that he does know what's going on, but for now we may want to give him the benefit of the doubt. We can certainly try to interview him at some point. I'm sure that they're pretty far behind the eight-ball on this without you guys or that list. But what about Dr. Snodgrass? Why is he helping cover all this up?"
"Good question, Cat." Perry walked into the room. "Ideas?"
"Paul has something on him," Eduardo said.
"Paul promised him it was a one-time thing the first time but once he'd done it once, he couldn't not do it again without admitting what he did the first time." This was Lois' suggestion.
"He and Paul are buddies like Paul and Tony," Clark said.
"All good ideas, but how do we figure it out?" Perry asked.
"Maybe I can get the secretary to talk to me," Lois answered. "She gave me the list after all."
Perry shook his head. "We want to protect her. Cat and Eduardo can go over there and cover it as an interview being done during the course of working on the story about Snodgrass' suspension."
Lois glared at him.
"I know you want to be a bigger part of this, darlin', but we have to do this right."
"I know," she sighed.
"All right – Cat, Eduardo – you two get on this. Lois, Clark, I want to talk to you two for a minute."
*****
Perry had invited them to the house that night. Dinner was over and Lois sat with Alice in the living room at the White's home.
"How are you doing, dear?" she asked gently.
Lois shrugged. "It hasn't been the easiest week of my life and that's saying something."
"You're a survivor, though, in more ways than one."
"Yeah, I guess. That's what Clark says anyway."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping coffee. Clark and Perry were off somewhere else doing something else.
"How are you and Clark doing?" Alice asked.
Lois smiled. "Much better," she admitted. "Things were... rough there for a long time but they're better."
"I'm so glad."
"You knew didn't you, that things weren't going well with us?"
Alice nodded. "Well, suspected more than anything. Remember the ice storm?" Lois nodded. "I started to wonder then, but neither one of you would ever say anything about it."
"It started the summer before that. I don't really want to go into the details, but we... didn't have a fight exactly, we just stopped talking. We've hardly seen each other the last three years, especially when school's in session. After... the other night, we went to Colorado and talked a lot of things out, things bothering both of us. I'm finally starting to believe that he's not going to leave me next month, when we're done with school and..."
"Why would you think that he was going to leave you?" Alice was shocked. "That boy *loves* you."
"I know, but... I have a hard time believing that anyone's going to stick around. No one ever has, why would Clark be different?"
"Oh, honey, I wish you would have talked to me, to someone."
"I know." Lois took another sip of her coffee. "We're working on it. It's probably going to take some time really getting to know each other, but we're working on it. We never dated at all, you know."
Alice waited quietly for her to continue.
"We talked about it a long time ago. Clark was planning on taking me out on our first official date after graduation. We've gone to dinner a few times here and there, but not very often and not really like a 'date'."
Alice nodded.
"I thought Clark had forgotten all about it, but he hadn't. He'd been saving up for it for years now – a couple of dollars here and there. He blew all the money on new clothes for me the other night, though. After he," she took a deep breath, "brought me home, he flew somewhere and brought me back everything from new warm socks and underwear to new pajamas. It's been a long time since any of us have really had anything *new*. Anyway, his wallet is just about empty now, but we're supposed to get part of our inheritance from Aunt Louise soon so... we may still be able to but..." She paused again. "...I just don't know that I'm ready for that. Not after..."
Alice patted her hand, then squeezed it gently. "It's too soon. Clark will understand that."
"He does, but even if I'm not ready for dating and romance and all of that... we still need to work on rebuilding – or really just building – our relationship."
"I was thinking about you two the other day. Perry told me a little bit about what happened and we both knew that you two had grown apart. He's probably having a similar conversation with Clark right about now." Alice turned and pulled a book out of the end table. "This is something that helped me and Perry a few years ago. Not long before we met you two actually. We went through a rough patch. He'd had a wonderful night editor who was able to take care of things just fine and Perry was home at a reasonable hour – most of the time. But then... Brent was lured away by the city desk at the New York Times. For the next couple of years, they went through one night editor after another. Some were just flat incompetent. Some were perfectly capable but had... different visions than Perry. One had a baby and decided to stay home. Another's wife got transferred to California for a great job opportunity. Anyway, it was around Christmas right before we met you that they finally found a competent night editor who got along well with Perry and shared the same vision.
"The Christmas before that... things had gotten rocky between us. I actually contemplated leaving briefly. He was gone until ten or eleven many nights and the nights he was home he often got phone calls because the night editor couldn't handle whatever it was that was going on. A friend of ours gave us this book. Now, I'm not saying that reading a book can fix everything in a marriage or whatever, but sometimes it can help." She handed the maroon soft back book to Lois.
"The Five Love Languages. What's that?" Lois flipped it over in her hand.
"This man has worked with couples for years and in his experience, he discovered that people speak different love languages. Just like I wouldn't understand someone speaking Chinese without studying it extensively, I have a hard time understanding love from someone who doesn't speak the same language I do. He identifies five different languages in the book. I took a quiz that came with it and found out that my love language is quality time. For me to feel truly loved, I need to spend time with Perry. Not just sitting in the same room while he watches a football game and I read a book – though sometimes that's enough – but actually spending time together talking or doing things together. That's the easiest way for me to show love to Perry because it's what speaks to me. But it turns out that Perry's is words of affirmation. He needs to *hear* that I love him and that I'm proud of him and things like that. It wasn't *natural* for either one of us to speak to the other in that language.
"Once we understood that... we started to learn what worked for the other person. That next year was still hard with night editors that didn't measure up for one reason or another, but Perry made a concerted effort to spend time with me – even cancelling the weekly poker game a time or two because it had been such a long week. We'd go out to dinner at that little deli across the street from the Planet when he wasn't able to come home. It wasn't the same as spending the evening together, but the effort went a long way. When we did have time together, I made sure to tell him how much I appreciated him working hard so that I could stay out of the work force and do charity work instead, how much I enjoyed an editorial he'd written or even just acknowledging that he'd cleaned out the gutters – or hired someone to do it when he didn't have time – so my roses wouldn't drown."
She put a hand on Lois' knee. "I can't promise that any of it will work for you, but it helped us put our marriage back on track. I know some of your issues together are probably much deeper than this, but we thought it might help if you knew how to relate to each other. Perry telling me he appreciated my making dinner and dropping it off was good, but that's *his* language not mine and, while it was nice, it didn't make me feel nearly as loved as spending 20 minutes at the deli when he couldn't come home for dinner. If you're talking around each other, it won't help."
Lois looked at the table of contents. "Words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service and physical touch. Physical touch? Isn't that just..." she paused.
"Sex? No, there's more to it than that. If that's your language, then it includes things like holding hands, putting his arm around you while you walk, snuggling on the couch while you watch a movie or just a big hug will speak to you as much as making love will." She smiled. "Well, mostly."
"Thanks, Alice. It may have to wait until the semester is over, but I *will* read this, I promise. I want this to work. I *need* this to work." She put the book in her purse.
"I know, dear." Alice looked up as Perry and Clark entered the room. "Dessert, anyone?"
*****
Lois leaned against the headboard, book open in her hands.
"Alice got to you too, huh?"
"She said Perry was going to talk to you." She closed the book and set it on the side table. "It's sweet of them to care."
Clark nodded as he took his T-shirt off. When he began to take his jeans off, Lois looked away. He wore boxers and would put shorts on momentarily, but still... It wasn't like she'd never talked to him and looked his direction while he changed into his sleep shorts or pajama pants in the winter; he'd asked her about it not long after they got married and, really, the boxers he wore didn't show any more than shorts did. SShe hadn't minded before, but something about him undoing his belt and button sent a sickening feeling into that empty pit in her stomach this time and she struggled to keep the face of her attacker out of her mind. She stared at the comforter while he continued talking.
"I think Perry's known more than he's let on about us. I don't think he knows the *whole* story, but I think he's known for a long time that things between us weren't great."
"Alice, too. She said something to me years ago – the morning after you sort of spilled the beans as it were."
"Really?" He pulled his shorts on.
"Yeah. She asked me if everything was okay with us and I just told her that life was hard – with Lucy and school and work and trying to make ends meet... Even then she thought there was more to it, but I didn't give her any more than that."
He pulled the covers back on his side of the bed and crawled in, sitting on the headboard a couple of feet from her. He gestured towards the book. "Do you think there's anything to that?"
She shrugged. "It makes sense. Remember all the stuff Dan used to give me trying to get me to go out with him?"
He groaned. "How could I forget?"
"It occurred to me that he would probably be a gifts guy. Giving him things would be what spoke to him, but it certainly isn't for me. I mean, not that getting gifts isn't nice, but I'd rather have time or even a good hug or something to show me that you love me. That's one reason why he and I could never have worked, even if I had wanted it to. He could never have understood that."
"I'm glad for that." He reached over and took her hand. "How's that?"
She smiled at him. "That's nice." She rested her head back on the headboard. "I thought he was cute, you know."
"Who? Dan?"
"Yeah. In junior high. I thought he was cute and he had no idea who I was."
Clark chuckled. "I think I'm glad."
"I *know* I am."
He squeezed her hand. "I do love you, Lois, and I want to be able to show you that in whatever way you need so that you understand that." He brought her fingers up and kissed them lightly. "And I'm not going anywhere."
Lois set the book on the side table, releasing his hand as she scooted down under the covers. She rolled to one side, propped her head on one hand and looked at him contemplatively. "I really think I'm starting to believe that. I can't promise that I won't... regress sometimes, but I'll do my best to give you the benefit of the doubt about whatever, if it's ever necessary..."
"What do you mean?"
Lois picked at the sheet, refusing to look at him. "Oh, like if you saw Mayson stranded on the side of the road. I know you wouldn't just leave her there and it might mean that you spend some time alone with her while waiting for a tow truck or going to get gas or whatever. I wouldn't expect you to leave her there and I think I'd be disappointed in you if you did, because that's just not part of your nature."
He reached out and gently caressed her shoulder. "I promise I'll do my very best to never be in a situation where you'd have to give me the benefit of the doubt."
"I know."
Clark reached to turn the light off on his side of the bed. "Come here."
Lois moved to his side and let him wrap his arms around her. "Good night."
He kissed her forehead. "Good night."
*****
Five Love Languages - I have the book being published a decade or so before it was - but hey, it's an Alt-U right?!?!
