PREVIOUSLY...
The woman’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure what kind of game you’re playing here, but there is no one by that name living in this apartment building.” She began to close the door.
“Wait!” Lois said, getting her foot in the door before it could slam shut. She winced slightly from the pain caused by the closing door. Still, it accomplished the task. The woman opened the door once again. “Can you at least tell me when I moved out?”
The woman’s eyebrows rose. “I’m not sure what you think you’re doing. But I’ve never laid eyes on you in my life. Now, you can leave quietly or I can call the cops.” With that, the super closed the door. This time Lois didn’t try to stop her.
AND NOW...
* * * * * * * * *
Chapter Six
* * * * * * * * *
Neither Lois nor Clark said a word as they left the apartment building. Once on the sidewalk, Clark turned around, his hand going to his glasses. He pulled them down far enough to stare over top, slowly scanning the building from top to bottom.
“Well?” Lois asked when he finally pushed his glasses back up his nose.
“She’s right. You don’t live here.”
Lois let out a breath as dread crept into her stomach. She didn’t need confirmation to know what had happened. She had married Lex Luthor. It was the only thing that made sense.
“Wait here,” Clark said, pulling her out of her depressing thoughts.
He rushed across the street to a newspaper dispenser and began searching his pockets. In spite of his instructions, she joined him, reaching into her own jacket pocket to pull out some change. She didn’t know why he wanted a paper, but it was obviously important to him. Still, if he expected to find loose change in a jacket he’d just removed from his closet, he was going to be disappointed. After all, if there was one thing Lois knew about Clark, it was that he was always compulsively neat. Loose change went in the loose change jar on the counter. She, on the other hand, was not nearly so meticulous.
“Here,” she said, handing him some change.
“Thanks.” He went to put it in the dispenser before hesitating.
“What?”
“Well, it’s just... considering the fact that this reality is different, do you really think we should be using change from our old reality? After all, the economy relies on the fact that the government doesn’t just print money because it feels like it. Otherwise, it could just print up enough money to pay off the national debt. But that would destroy the economy by making the dollar worthless. It can only print what it can substantiate and if we go adding money to the economy...”
Lois rolled her eyes, reaching into his hand to withdraw the change as he continued to explain economics to her. Without waiting for him to finish, she pushed past him, putting the correct change into the dispenser.
“Lois!” he exclaimed.
“Clark, a little bit of loose change isn’t going to cause the world’s economy to come crashing down around our feet.” She reached in, removing a paper. “So what are we looking for?” she asked, flipping open the paper. The headline from the Associated Press read: ‘President Garner Reveals Tax Plan.’ Not exactly earth shattering news.
“I was just...” He stopped Lois when she turned to page three. “There!” he said, letting out a sigh of relief.
“What?” she asked before realizing what he was pointing at. ‘Allegations of Corrupt Jury Puts Dragon Trial In Doubt,’ she read. “So? I was working on this yesterday. The D.A.’s office finally got enough evidence together against Dragon, one of the most feared and ruthless cut throats in Metropolis, to bring him to trial. But there are indications that the jury is being either bribed or threatened to return a not guilty verdict. I still don’t have enough proof for a mistrial, but...” She sighed. “Anyway, I guess that means some things are still the same in this reality, but why were you so anxious to...”
He pointed to the byline.
“Lois Lane?” she asked, still not understanding his relief. “Just because I kept my last name for professional reasons doesn’t mean I didn’t...”
“You’re not dead,” he said interrupting her. “You’re not dead,” he repeated, pulling her into his arms, not caring that he was crinkling the paper.
“I’m not dead,” she assured him, half bewildered, half amused. At least she was amused until she realized that he was actually trembling. “Hey, I’m not dead,” she assured him, pulling back far enough to cup his face with her hands. “I’m not dead.”
He closed his eyes, resting his forehead against hers.
She gave him a moment to regain his composure. “You really thought I was dead?” she asked.
“I just thought... with no Superman around...” His voice trailed off, as if even now he couldn’t stomach the thought of putting his fears into words.
“I was pretty good at taking care of myself before Superman came along. Besides,” she said, a twinkle coming into her eyes, “I think we’ve already established that I have had a Superman around - regardless of whether I knew it or not.”
He gave her a somewhat wobbly smile, obviously appreciating her attempt to lighten the mood.
“So... the Daily Planet?” she asked, bending down to pick up the paper. She didn’t share her fears. After all, he didn’t need to know about Lex before it was absolutely unavoidable.
“The Daily Planet,” he agreed.
“Good,” she said, turning from him. Sticking her fingers in her mouth, she let out an ear-shattering whistle when she spotted a cab speeding down the street. It came to a screeching halt. Lois took off across the street to climb in before anyone else could claim it. Clark followed suit, only realizing the problem when they were already on their way.
Money. They didn’t have any money. In vain, he patted his pockets. They’d expected to be able to get money at Lois’ apartment - but she didn’t live there.
“We’ll bill it to the Planet,” Lois whispered, obviously picking up on the meaning of his frantic search of pockets.
He relaxed back into the seat of the cab. Right. They could always bill it to the Planet. They would pay Perry back later - assuming, of course, that when they found a way to correct whatever they had done to change the past they had actually ended up taking a cab to the Planet. He gave his head a shake, not quite able to get his mind around the entire time-travel, correcting the past concept.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark got out of the cab and offered Lois a hand. The first exclamation of surprise came from the man who worked the coffee stand just outside the front entrance. It was soft, said under the man’s breath.
“What the hell?”
At first, Clark wasn’t sure the comment had been directed at him and Lois - until he realized that the man was watching them intently as they walked towards the Daily Planet.
It got worse once they stepped into the lobby. The average person might have simply noticed that the further they got into the lobby, the quieter things seemed to get. But Clark heard the muffled, under the breath comments taking place around them.
“What’s he doing here?”
“What’s she doing with him?”
“I can’t believe he has the nerve to show his face around here.”
He kept his eyes straight ahead as they walked towards the elevators. It hurt to hear such comments from people he considered friends. He knew about their lives, their families. He’d played basketball with them, conversed with them at parties or shared a laugh around the water cooler. So to hear them now, to see the looks of hostility being shot in his direction, left him feeling oddly exposed.
As they stopped in front of the elevators, Lois leaned closer to him, hissing under her breath. “Are people watching us?” she asked.
He didn’t respond. He would tell her about it, but not here. Not while they were very definitely the subject of intense scrutiny. He kept his eyes fixed on the elevator doors until they opened. Keeping his head down, he stepped through the doors and was relieved when, although there were others waiting for the elevator, he and Lois were left to ride up alone.
“Okay, so what was that all about?” Lois asked once the elevator doors closed.
He let out a breath, stepping forward to push the number for the newsroom.
She darted past him to push a different number on the elevator. “Before we go to the newsroom, I want to stop by the lockers and get a change of clothing.” She turned to look at him. “Okay, so what did you hear?”
“Hear?”
She rolled her eyes. “Clark, you look as if your best friend just died. What happened out there?”
“Those people hate me, Lois.”
“I’m sure they don’t hate you. You don’t even work here. They couldn’t know you well enough to hate you.” At his raised eyebrows, she continued quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that. After all, we both know that if they knew you, they’d love you.”
“They hate me.”
“What exactly did they say? Did they say, ‘We hate Clark Kent?’”
“No, not exactly. I guess they were mostly surprised to see me here - especially with you.”
“That’s because you work for another paper, Clark. Anyone from another paper is bound to be treated with some skepticism. And given how competitive I am, they were probably just thinking that it was unusual for me to be seen with someone from a different paper.”
“One of them commented that they were surprised that I had the nerve to show my face around here.”
Lois regarded him steadily. “Okay, I admit that doesn’t sound good. But let’s not jump to any conclusions.” She reached out taking his hand. “We’ll get this sorted out. And when we do, they’ll all love you again, Clark - just like I do.”
She leaned towards him and he met her kiss half-way. Clark jumped back when the elevator door dinged.
When Lois looked bemused, he shrugged sheepishly.
“I just think... If people are surprised that you’d be with me, we probably don’t want them to see us... Well, you know.”
Lois grinned. “Of course, that really would get them talking.” She sashayed towards him seductively. She laughed when he quickly ducked out of the elevator.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois stared at her locker in frustration. She’d programmed Clark’s birth date into her lock when they’d installed the new security lockers. So... what number would she have used in a reality where she wasn’t even friends with Clark?
She tried punching in her birth date, her parents’ birth dates, Lucy’s birth date and the date she’d started working for the Daily Planet. She even tried Perry and Jimmy’s birth dates. Nothing. Not even the slightest hint that she was on the right track.
She glanced back at the door. Maybe she should get Clark in here. After all, he could type in numbers at a speed that would soon give her a solution. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure that was such a good idea. This was the women’s locker room, after all. And it wasn’t exactly... empty. After what had taken place when they’d first entered the Daily Planet, she wasn’t sure she wanted to give anyone a reason to throw Clark out.
Still, even if Clark were wrong and people didn’t hate him, they would need to explain his presence in the newsroom. She wasn’t entirely sure how to do that. He worked for the competition, after all. Still, it had to be done. They needed the Planet’s resources if they were going to figure this out.
She glanced down at her hand, seeing her wedding rings. Damn! Well, there was no way she was going to be able to explain those. She wondered briefly why she still had them. She wasn’t entirely sure how this whole leaping into their altered future worked. They’d been together when they’d leapt back to the future, so maybe they, together with their clothes and rings, stayed intact while the rest of the world changed around them. She just didn’t know. Just thinking about how this worked gave her a headache. Still, it made her wonder briefly what happened to her self who had been in this time. Had she just disappeared so that she could reappear with Clark? Was Lex even now wondering where his wife had literally disappeared to last night?
She gave her head a shake. Did it really matter? Probably not - provided they figured out how to correct the problem so she could get her life back. Unfortunately, until that happened, her wedding rings would have to remain in her pocket. After all, if she were married to Lex, her wedding set was likely much different. Much bigger. Much gaudier. She’d have to remember to tell Clark to remove his, too, since they knew for sure that he wasn’t married.
She turned her attention back to the lock. Okay, so what could the number be? Suddenly, a horrible idea struck her. She held her breath as she typed a number into the keypad and let out a breath of relief when it didn’t work. Okay, so the fact that it wasn’t Lex’s birth date didn’t mean anything. On the other hand, it would definitely have meant something if it was. But maybe... She held her breath again as she typed in the date of her almost wedding to Lex. No. Okay, good.
Or... not good. After all, she still didn’t know the number of her lock.
Well, damn. She didn’t have time for this. It appeared that black was the order of the day - at least until she could figure out her locker number or where she lived. On the other hand, she was pretty certain she knew where she lived. And regardless of how gorgeous the view might be from that particular penthouse, if she was right, she had no intention of going there - not even if it meant she’d be wearing black for the entire time it took to sort out this mess. Besides, black would match her mood if her fears were proven to be correct.
In the meantime, she had work to do. Giving her locker one final disgusted glance, she turned towards the door.
* * * * * * * * *
The door to Perry’s office was open. A regular occurrence in the newsroom. To the outside observer, and even to most of the newsroom staff, that door symbolized the willingness of their editor to be available to his reporters. To offer a word of advice. To give direction or encouragement.
And all that was true enough. But what was known only to the man behind the desk, and maybe suspected by those who knew him best, was that the real reason Perry kept his door open was that he thrived on the energy produced by his busy newsroom. He loved the frantic hustle and bustle. The noise. The smells. The vigor. In fact, he often found it difficult to work without it.
So it was not surprising that when something happened in his newsroom, he would notice. At first, he wasn’t entirely sure what had changed - until he realized that there was not so much as a whisper coming from the adjoining room.
He rose to his feet, walking to the doorway. Everyone seemed to have stopped whatever they were doing and were all staring in the same direction. He quickly followed their gaze.
“What the heck?” he asked under his breath.
Okay, so maybe he hadn’t expected Lois to be in today - she the weekend off, after all. And it wasn’t exactly usual for her to be dressed so casually in the newsroom - unless she was coming off a successful all-night stakeout and had to write up the story. But why...
His thoughts trailed off when he caught sight of the man following Lois down the ramp. He quickly stepped forward, blocking Lois’ path.
“What in Elvis’ name is ‘that man’ doing in my newsroom?” he demanded, fighting the urge to use a more descriptive term - something that would undoubtedly get censored if it were to be used on television - to describe Kent.
For an instant, he thought he saw shock on Lois’ face. But that simply wasn’t possible. Lois knew exactly how he felt about Kent - she felt much the same herself, after all. And Kent’s face... For some inexplicable reason, Kent’s footsteps faltered and he actually looked... hurt. What the hell?
“Why don’t we talk in your office?” Lois said, glancing around at all the interested faces watching them.
“That man is not coming into my office,” Perry responded immediately.
Lois bit her lower lip, looking as if she was about to object. Before she could, Kent spoke.
“I’ll just wait at your desk, Lois,” he said softly before walking away.
Perry watched him walk past before turning to Lois. “When did you and Kent start being on a first name basis?” he asked.
Lois seemed to have problems tearing her eyes away from Kent’s slumped shoulders as he headed straight for her desk.
Perry’s eyes returned to Kent momentarily. How had he known where Lois’ desk was located? Had he been here before? One thing was certain. Lois had a heck of a lot of explaining to do.
“Your office,” Lois said without responding and for a moment, Perry almost thought she sounded annoyed at him. But really... what had she expected bringing that slime-ball into his newsroom?
* * * * * * * * *
Lois wasn’t entirely certain she’d ever been more furious with Perry in her entire life. Watching her husband walk away, she’d been able to feel his pain. Probably more than any of the other things he’d undoubtedly heard or seen since coming into the Planet, Perry’s attitude had hurt him most of all.
She stomped into Perry’s office and then turned, waiting for him to come in and close the door.
“I trust you have one hell of a good explanation for this,” Perry said. “You’re the last person I’d expect to be ignoring my order not to fraternize with the enemy! Hell, I should be handing you your pink slip right now! So... Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t?”
Lois’ own fury was suddenly replaced by confusion. What was he talking about? Sure, Perry didn’t allow his reporters to give stories to Star employees. But never had he as much as hinted that his reporters shouldn’t be friendly with reporters from other papers. In fact, before Clark had come along, Perry had been known to encourage her to go to conferences and other events where reporters socialized - she suspected in hopes that she’d find something beyond work that might interest her.
Suddenly, she had a flash of something. Perry, standing in the conference room, his eyes flaming as he told his people that as of that moment, any reporter caught socializing with anyone from The Star would find themselves unemployed.
“Are you just going to stand there all day, or are you going to answer me?” Perry demanded.
She quickly brought her mind back to the present. “He’s helping me with a story, Perry.”
“What!” Perry demanded. He spun around, storming towards the door to his office.
“Wait!” Lois said, jumping to her feet and grabbing his arm to stop him. “Where are you going?”
“To throw out the trash!”
“No!” Desperation took over. She had to win this argument. But how could she when she didn’t even understand the topic of discussion?
“What do you mean, ‘No’? This is my newsroom. And I will not have that man here. We’ll talk about what we’re going to do with you later. I’m thinking dog shows for a start!”
“Perry, please!” she begged.
Something in her tone seemed to confuse him. He stopped, studying her for a moment. “Maybe you’d better start talking.” The anger had disappeared from his voice as concern seemed to take over.
Okay, so at least that was good. He obviously still thought of her as a daughter in this skewed version of reality. She could make use of that. She let go of his arm, sinking slowly onto the couch.
He walked over, taking a seat next to her - finally really ready to hear what she had to say. Only problem was that she had no idea what that should be. Suddenly, what Clark had overheard when they’d entered the building popped into her mind. ‘What is she doing with him?’ She quickly composed her thoughts. She couldn’t be certain of course. But she was only going to get one chance at this.
“You know how I feel about Cl... Kent,” she said. “You know I wouldn’t have brought him here if I didn’t have a good reason.” She glanced up at him and was relieved when she realized that he was nodding knowingly.
“Okay,” Perry said slowly, “then tell me what this good reason is.”
Lois let out a breath, looking into his eyes beseechingly. “I can’t, Perry.”
“You can’t?” There was a touch of warning in Perry’s voice.
“I wish I could. You would be so much help.” But if she told him the truth, he’d be packing her off to an asylum so fast it would make her head spin. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
“And this is for a story?”
Lois hesitated. If she said yes, he would be well within his rights to demand an explanation. “Not exactly. But we do need to use the Planet’s resources.”
Perry’s eyebrows rose.
“This is my life, Perry,” Lois instantly pleaded. “I can’t tell you what’s going on. But if I can’t get to the bottom of this, I’ll lose everything.” She didn’t have to fake the tears that appeared in her eyes on that last statement. “Please. Just trust me?” The final statement was both a question and a desperate plea.
She bit her lower lip, waiting while Perry studied her in silence for a long moment.
“And you need Kent to do this?” he finally asked.
She nodded.
He seemed to study her forever before letting out a breath. “Okay, fine. But I’m making you responsible for Kent. Don’t leave him alone anywhere where he could do any damage.”
“He won’t, Perry. He needs to get to the bottom of this just as much as I do.”
She could almost see the wheels turning in Perry’s mind as he tried to work out a plausible scenario that would fit with what he was being told. Not that she had any fear that he would somehow stumble on the truth. After all, who could possibly guess that she was trying to fix whatever had gone so terribly wrong in her past?
“Okay. Then git. I don’t want that man in my newsroom one minute longer than absolutely necessary.”
“Thanks, Perry,” Lois said, rising to her feet.
She was at the door to Perry’s office when his voice stopped her.
“Just be careful, honey,” he said, glancing out his office window to where Kent was sitting quietly at her desk. Her eyes followed his. “Don’t trust him. He’ll turn on you faster than a prom boy in the back seat of his father’s chevy if he thinks it will benefit him. Just keep in mind what he’s done to you in the past.”
Lois fought the desire to ask what he’d done in the past. It would raise too many questions. “Don’t worry, Perry. I’ll be okay.”
As she exited the newsroom, she tried to ignore the eyes that were on her. Obviously, everyone was wondering about the outcome of her meeting with Perry and were waiting to find out for themselves what would happen to either her or Clark now that it was over.
“Hey! Back to work, everyone!” Perry yelled behind her. “This is a newsroom, not Masterpiece Theater!”
Lois let out a breath of relief when the normal din of the newsroom quickly returned.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois sat down on the corner of her desk and glanced around, making sure that no one was too close before whispering to her husband, “I suppose you heard all of that.”
Clark nodded glumly.
Lois automatically reached towards him, intending to rub his arm, but pulled back at the last moment, looking apologetically at Clark.
Clark gave her a sad smile. “It’s just... I’ve never heard Perry talk like that about anyone.” He paused. “Except maybe Luthor.”
“That’s because Lex attacked the Daily Planet.”
“So what did I do that could make him hate me as badly as Luthor?” Clark asked.
Lois started to reach out towards him again, before catching sight of Ralph. He was watching them intently. Her hand dropped once again. “Let’s go into the conference room,” she said, rising from the corner of her desk.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Jimmy hadn’t taken his eyes off him since being summoned to the conference room. Clark was almost certain he wouldn’t have even come except out of respect for... or maybe fear of Lois. Still, the look in the younger man’s eyes said it all. He didn’t like that Clark was in the newsroom. And he liked it even less that he was being forced to help him.
“Jimmy! Did you hear what I said?” Lois demanded when Jimmy just continued to stand there, staring at Clark.
Jimmy’s eyes finally left him to settle on Lois.
“So? Git!” Lois said, gesturing towards the door.
She’d asked Jimmy to set up a couple of computers for their use in the conference room.
Jimmy hesitated a moment before reluctantly turning to do as commanded.
“And get a move on it!” Lois said as he left the room.
“Look, Lois,” Clark said when the door was closed behind his ‘friend,’ “maybe I should leave. I could try checking out The Star while you see what you can find here.”
“We do this together,” Lois said with determination. “If we can’t find what we need here, we go to The Star. I’m sure I won’t be any more welcomed there than you are here.”
“But the people at The Star... They aren’t your friends. They aren’t people you care deeply about. I just think...”
Lois reached out, taking his hand. “I know how hard this is for you, Clark. But we will figure it out. Besides, I don’t think we should separate. It just... scares me a bit.”
Clark stared at her for a moment before nodding.
“I just thought of something else we need to tell Jimmy,” Lois said. “We should get him to link us up to The Star - so that we can access any articles you’ve written for them. I don’t know if they’re on line yet, so he might have to get creative.” With that, Lois strode towards the door.
“You can tell him when he gets back,” Clark said, but he was talking to himself.
He lowered his glasses and watched his wife walk across the newsroom to where Jimmy was pilfering the necessary items. She hadn’t left to tell Jimmy about some additional access they were going to need. No, the look on Lois’ face told him that Lois had something to say to their younger friend.
Still, he didn’t listen in. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what she might have to say. Besides, he’d learned enough over the years to know there were certain times when he’d better honor his wife’s privacy - or face her wrath. Instinct told him this was one of those times.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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