This is a bit early, but as of tomorrow I'll be offline for about ten days, so I wanted to post this before I left. This doesn't venture too far away from the original, but it still has one my favorite parts of this story to write so far – the flashback at the end. Although I'm not sure why I liked writing it so much. I can't wait to see what you thought of it when I manage to get online again…
Thanks again to Beth and Mary Beth. You guys are awesome!
From Chapter 9…
Lois looked at Clark with a large smile on her face.
“He's…” she floundered for a word to describe him and finally laughing lightly, she finished with “super, isn't he?”
Clark smiled at her. When he saw Superman kiss Lois on the cheek, he had felt his resentment toward the man build. It was becoming a nasty habit to resent Superman and assume the worst about him, but then it had become clear that the kiss was just a cover so it would not seem strange for Superman to give him a hug, and Clark appreciated the message more than Superman could know. Whoever had been calling sounded desperate. Clark was not sure how he would deal with these cries going forward. They were so heart wrenching.
But Superman had said he would take care of them, and clearly he meant it.
“Yes, Lois,” he finally said. “He is pretty super.”
Chapter 10
Clark entered the Daily Planet newsroom the next day with an extra spring in his step. Today had dawned bright and clear, the newsroom was humming with activity, he had found a way to stay in Metropolis thanks to Superman, and on top of all of that, Lois seemed to be warming up to him. He could see that it would be a long while before she would see him as someone with romantic potential, but she had shown concern for him yesterday when he was worried about Superman and she had been kind to him for most of the rest of the day. Things were definitely looking up.
Looking around the newsroom, Clark spotted a group of people surrounding Stan. Seeing Cat in the group, he turned away. After her very obvious overture on his first day at the paper, Cat had continued to pursue Clark and had invited him back to her place twice already. Clark continued to turn her down nicely, but he just could not seem to say no strongly enough to get through to the woman. He had never met anyone so sexually aggressive before.
Glancing at Lois' desk, he realized it was empty and then noticed that the sound of her voice could be heard in the group with Cat. “No! The color's wrong!” she was saying, her voice shrill.
Using his x-ray vision, Clark glanced through the people in his way to see what they were gathered around. Stan was drawing someone. It looked like it could be Superman, but his features were too coarse. Curiosity getting the best of him, he started over to the group.
“You said brown,” Stan said to Lois, his voice a bit petulant.
“Not brown brown,” Lois insisted. “Not mud brown like…” she glanced around and catching sight of Clark said, “Like Clark's. More vibrant, more radiant.”
Clark's step faltered at her words. Sometimes it felt like for every kind word Lois said to him, she said ten things that were not so kind. He turned away from them and went back to his desk. As he waited for his computer to boot up, almost against his will, he continued to eavesdrop on the conversation across the room. Lois was now directing Stan on Superman's nose. “Definite, but not overbearing.”
“Like Clark's?” Stan asked.
Lois gave a huff of annoyance. “No, not like Clark's!” she said, her voice unusually loud. “We're talking about Superman here. More like Clark's, but evolved.”
“Evolved?” Stan asked, more confused than ever.
“Yes, like human evolution. Clark is the before. Superman is the after. The way, way after.
Clark got up. Maybe he would take a flight over the city for a few minutes before he started on his next story. He was not sure he could take another minute in the newsroom.
************************
Lois saw Clark leave the newsroom and felt guilty. When she made the comment about his eyes, she had not been thinking, but the same could not be said about the evolution remark. She had not thought he could hear her across the room, but that made it even worse. There was no real reason to be mean to him if he could not hear it, but something made her say it and even raise her voice in the hopes that maybe he would hear her.
She was not sure why she so wanted to hurt Clark. He had done nothing wrong aside from his little crush on her, and why did she care about that? She was not interested in Clark. No, she was interested in one man only, Superman. So there was no need to be cruel to Clark. Still, something about him made her nervous, made her want to keep her distance.
While her feelings for him were completely different, Clark was the first man she had met in the newsroom who she thought might be good enough to be better than her, and it stirred up old feelings from the last time she had felt this way.
Lois could feel herself flushing and hated it. She was a sophomore in college, not some stupid kid. There was no reason to blush every time he entered the room. Still, it was a natural reaction and Lois could not seem to control it. She had had a crush on Paul since the minute she had joined the paper. While the student paper staff was small, as a sophomore, Lois did not get too many good stories to write and so it usually seemed that Paul was unaware she existed.
But this morning he had smiled at her as he entered the office. Lois' eyes lingered on his until he turned around to speak to one of the other seniors, Craig. Lois turned to the only other sophomore on the paper, her roommate, Linda. Linda gave her the thumbs up sign, so she had seen the smile. Linda was the only person who knew about Lois' crush on Paul.
On their way back to the dorm, Lois obsessed over how to get Paul to notice her again, for more than a moment or two this time. “Well, you could write a killer story,” Linda suggested.
“What?” Lois asked.
“Find a really great story,” Linda said again, “and write it up without telling Paul so he doesn't assign it to a senior. Then he'll see what a great writer you are.”
The idea appealed to Lois and she spent months trying to find something to write that would impress Paul.
Lois grimaced as she recalled how that had ended. Still, things were completely different with Clark. There was no Linda King to steal him away, and she would not care if there was. So, there was no reason for her to continue to be cruel to him. If only she could remember that.
************************
Clark made his way back to the newsroom before the staff meeting Perry had called for mid morning. Lois, in an effort to prove she could be kind, saved him a seat, and he smiled at her gratefully, but the smile did not reach his eyes.
Lois could tell as soon as Perry came in that this was not going to be pleasant. He had his editor face on – the one he often used when he said he liked the smell of fear in the newsroom.
“I got a call from our publisher last night after work,” he said to open the meeting. All the ambient chatter died down immediately. “He asked how come the Daily Planet has not yet nailed down the Superman story given that it fell right into our laps. I don't like not having answers for our publisher, people. I assured him that everyone in this room would not rest until we had secured the story. Is everyone clear on this?”
For a moment, there was silence in the newsroom, then Lois remembered – she was not afraid of Perry. “That's not fair, Perry. Superman is mine.”
“Life isn't fair,” Clark, still smarting from Lois' comments earlier, mumbled beside her and she shot him a dirty look.
“Sorry, Lois,” Perry said, not unkindly. “Standard rules don't apply on this. It's too big.” The phone rang and Perry took it, dismissing the staff with a wave of his hand.
Clark made his way to his desk. He could head straight to Smallville and scoop the story, but was not sure Superman would be cooperative. Plus, this was more than a story for him. Everything the Daily Planet found out about Superman was one more thing the world learned about Clark Kent. It was hard to separate himself from that.
“So, partner, where do we start?” Lois asked as she leaned on the corner of Clark's desk. She schooled her features into the picture of pure innocence. The idea of sharing this byline with Clark was not that appealing to her. On the other hand, Clark was clearly friends with Superman and a byline on a Superman article that did not include her at all was even harder to stomach.
“'We'?” Clark asked.
“Of course,” Lois replied.
“Lois, as you have told me on more than one occasion, there is no "we'. We work alone.” Clark said, his voice soft. He knew he should be jumping at this opportunity to work with Lois, but he could not get past her words from this morning. Clark is the before. Besides, he suspected she was only offering to work together for fear that otherwise he would get the exclusive.
“Don't be silly, Clark,” Lois said, placing a hand on his arm in an effort to convince him. “We're partners.”
Clark glanced down at his arm and then shook it, breaking free of Lois' grip. “No, we're not. You've made that perfectly clear. We can't be partners whenever it suits you and not when it doesn't, Lois.”
“But, Clark,” Lois started, feeling desperate, but was cut off by the sound of Perry joining them.
“Well said, Clark,” he said and Lois could feel herself start to scowl. “But you will be partners when I say and I think this is a good time for that.” Without looking at their reactions, he turned and walked away.
Lois smiled broadly. She won. Clark lost. All was right with the world.
“So,” she smiled at Clark. “Where do we start, partner?”
Clark frowned at her. “I don't know. You're the senior partner. Why don't you tell me?”
“Well, it seems like you'd know where to start. You're the one whose friends with the man,” Lois said.
Clark sighed. He knew that was why she wanted to work with him. “I won't use my friendship with Superman to get this story,” he told her.
“Why not?” she asked, exasperated.
“Because. I don't use my friends that way, Lois.”
“Clark, if you're going to be a reporter, you're going to need to learn how to use all you have at your disposal. You can't go picking and choosing when to use your advantages.”
“Oh, so you think it's worth going against your morals to get a good story?” Clark challenged her.
“Using your friendship with Superman is not unethical, Clark. You are making too much of this.”
“Sorry, I won't do it.”
Lois sighed. Why was he being deliberately difficult? She had thought her offer to work with him would make him happy and act as an apology of sorts for her comments this morning. It was not as if Clark knew why she wanted to work with him. He didn't, did he?
Finally, with a sigh, she got up and walked away. She waited for a minute, certain Clark would call her back, especially now that Perry had ordered them to work together, but he said nothing.
************************
Clark tried to think of a way to move past his anger and hurt at Lois. He needed to be able to work with her on the Superman exclusive according to Perry. The problem was he neither wanted to write this story nor deal with Lois at the moment. He was thrilled when his phone rang, distracting him from his unpleasant thoughts.
“Mr. Kent?” the person on the other end said when he answered the phone.
“Speaking,” Clark replied.
“This is Abigail from Whitehouse Real Estate. You called about the apartment on Clinton Street?”
“Yes,” Clark said, holding his breath. The apartment Superman had mentioned had looked empty when he went by a few days ago, but he had yet to reach a person who would let him see it.
“Floyd, the landlord, is at the apartment now if you'd like to go take a look,” Abigail informed him.
“Really? He's there now. That's great. Tell him I'll be right there. Don't let him leave.”
Clark hung up the phone and got up, grabbing his jacket as he went.
“Where are you going?” Lois asked as he passed her desk, her tone accusatory.
“What?” Clark asked, pulled out of his thoughts.
“Where are you going? Perry said we need to work together.”
Clark laughed, “Relax, Lois. I'm going to look at an apartment. You're free to come along if you'd like.” He only offered as he knew she would never say yes. If he really wanted her to come, he would tell her now that the apartment was for both him and Superman. He was pretty sure if he said that, she would get there before he did.
Lois looked disappointed and almost instantly bored. “Oh, no, thanks.”
Clark smiled. She was so predictable.
************************
Clark groaned when he saw the inside of the apartment. Maybe the one bedroom Superman said he had lived in would be better and one of them could live in the living room. Lowering his glasses, Clark glanced at the one bedroom across the street, but found that it was already occupied. “What happened here?” he asked Floyd.
“What do you mean?” Floyd asked as he stepped over a rotted out step on his way into the living room.
“How did it get like this?” Clark said, feeling like he was dealing with Lois.
“Oh, it's great, isn't it?” Floyd said. “The last tenants were real neat freaks.”
Clark glared at Floyd and held his gaze. He was tired of people playing mind games. Was everyone in Metropolis like this?
“How much is it?” Clark asked him.
“Thirteen hundred even,” Floyd said, a smile in his voice.
“Thirteen hundred?” Clark said. “No way. I'll have to spend several thousand in repairs just for this place to be livable.”
“This is Metropolis, kid. Thirteen hundred is a bargain.”
Clark nodded his head. “Okay, but then I guess this place is not for me,” he said as he started to walk away. There was no way he could afford thirteen hundred dollars a month on rent.
His hand was on the door when Floyd called him back. “I didn't realize kids from the Midwest knew how to play hardball,” he said. “One thousand even and that's the best I can do for you.”
Clark smiled. It would be a stretch, but he knew that was going to be the case from the beginning when he agreed to look for a two bedroom. “Deal.”
************************
Superman flew high over Metropolis, just watching things below. He could not recall the exact time when Luthor's tests started, of course, but he knew it was soon. He had flown in from Smallville about a half hour ago and was flying in lazy circles over the town.
Finally, he heard the announcement. “Code four. Possible jumper, Lexor Hotel.”
He flew over to the Lexor. Almost lazily, he grabbed the back of the man's jacket. Knowing what he knew now, he did not feel the need to be extra careful with him and set him on his feet a little roughly. He decided to forego the pep talk about not wanting to jump since he knew that Jules only jumped on Luthor's orders.
Without waiting to hear the call, Superman took off across town. He reached the other skyscraper just seconds before St. John pushed Monique off the building and waited for her to drop into his arms.
It is only as he was on his way back to Smallville that he realized that Lex Luthor would probably think Superman was clairvoyant based on these actions.
************************
Clark and Lois had heard the news over the police scanner in the newsroom at the same time. Clark could see Lois react, could tell that like him she thought this would be a good place to find Superman, but when she grabbed her coat, she said nothing to Clark.
“Lois?” he called out to her.
She turned back to him, her expression completely blank. “What?”
“Didn't Perry tell us to work together?” he asked her.
“Why? You have a lead on the story?” she asked, but her voice was too calm for Clark to fall for her bluff. If she did not have something, but thought he did, she would be much more excited.
“No, but you do. That's why you're leaving, right?” Clark asked, deciding he could play her game just as well as she could.
Lois shook her head, “No, of course, not Clark. I'd tell you if I did. I just remembered I had a nail appointment.”
She left before she could hear Clark snort. Lois' fingernails were neat, but it was clear she had never had a manicure in her life. Still, it was not like he was surprised. Now that Lois had her own lead on Superman, it was not surprising that she had no intention of working with him.
Clark headed off seconds later, but given that he flew, he arrived at both jump sites before she did. Still, when she showed up, Clark decided to be the bigger person and he told her what had happened.
To his surprise, Lois replied, “That's great, Clark! I wish I had been here, but since I wasn't, I guess it's your story.”
Clark said nothing for a moment, taking in Lois' sudden generosity. Was it possible she felt badly about this morning? “No, Lois. Perry said we should…”
“I insist, Clark,” she cut him off. “Go to the newsroom now and let them know. Take my cab.”
“Shouldn't I just call it in?” Clark asked.
“Not unless you want someone to rewrite your copy. Go!” she insisted.
Clark smiled broadly at her. “You're sure?”
“I'm positive. Now go before someone else takes my cab.”
“Thanks, Lois. I owe you one,” Clark said, placing a warm hand on her shoulder.
************************
It was not until after Lois had called the story in that she began to feel guilty. Not guilty enough to call and add Clark's name to the byline, but a little guilty, and by dinner time that night, she felt consumed with guilt. She had stolen Clark's story. How could she have done that? She knew what it was like to have a story stolen and could not believe she was capable of doing that.
Lois woke up lazily. Her leg stretched to the left and fell off the bed. That was odd; she typically slept toward the right side of the bed. She opened her eyes just a tiny bit. Where was she? This was not her bedroom. Then she remembered and could not help but smile. She was at Claude's. It was like Paul all over again, only this time, she had gotten the boy. She had had a crush on Claude for months before he finally noticed her. So, when he asked her out for the first time a month ago, it had made her day.
Still, Lois had been cautious. She knew it was a bad idea to get involved with someone she worked with, but she just liked Claude too much to let the opportunity pass. So, instead, she made sure to hold back. She had not taken any assignments at work that had even the slightest possibility of overlapping with things Claude had worked on, and she had really held back on their romantic relationship. She thought it showed what a great guy Claude was that he never pressured her to sleep with him. Heck, she would not even kiss him for the first week, and he never said a word. He was really a great guy.
And that was why last night, she had finally given in. She had let all of her walls down. When Claude asked how her latest investigation was going, rather than roll her eyes at him for breaking her “no shop talk” rule, she had instead told him all about how she had broken the case wide open, and he had been so sweet. She mentioned that she had written the story up that afternoon, but it was her first really big story for the Planet, and she had not even told Perry she was working on it. So, she had not sent it in yet, as she wanted to look it over again to make sure it was perfect. As soon as Claude had heard that, he had offered to proofread it for her.
He had been so kind, spending at least two hours of their date last night reviewing her piece and helping her to rework it until it shined, and then given the success of letting down that wall, Lois had gone even further. When their goodnight kisses began to get more heated, Lois did not pull away as she normally did. Instead, she took his hand and pulled him towards his bedroom.
And yet again, Claude had shown what a great guy he was. A few moments later, Lois started to doubt her decision and pulled away asking if they could slow down.
“Of course, sweetheart,” he had whispered in her ear, his French accent causing goose bumps to rise up on her arms. He had trailed his hand up and down her arm for a few moments in silence before whispering, “We can stop if you want, Lois.”
“Really?” she had asked, worried that she was being a bit of a tease. “You won't mind.”
“No. You are worth waiting for,” he said before placing a soft kiss on her lips. “Lois,” he said, leaning up so he could look directly into her eyes. “I love you.”
Lois said nothing for a moment and was sure she was going to float right out of the bed, she was so happy. “You do?” she finally whispered back. When he had nodded, she had smiled broadly. “Oh, Claude. I love you, too.”
He leaned down to kiss her and this time, Lois let things take their natural course.
All in all, it had been a wonderful night. Finally deciding it was time to find her amazing boyfriend, Lois climbed out of bed. Slipping her shirt back on, she moved out to the living room, but it was empty.
In the kitchen, she finally found what she was looking for. Or sort of. Claude had taped a note for her on the coffee machine. “Mon chèrie, Had to go to the office early. Take your time. I'll see you there.”
Lois smiled as she poured herself a cup of coffee and decided to shower here before heading back home to change clothes.
She was still smiling as she excited the elevator to the newsroom two hours later. She smiled even broader when she saw how excited everyone was. “What's going on?” she asked Jimmy as she came down the ramp.
“Claude just brought in a huge story. The chief is thrilled. He thinks Claude might win the Pulitzer for it,” Jimmy explained.
Lois felt a bit guilty. They had spent so much time talking about her story last night and Claude had not even mentioned that he clearly had something just as big, maybe even bigger. He probably had not wanted to spoil her good mood.
“Do you have it?” Lois asked Jimmy.
“Sure. It was in this morning's edition,” Jimmy said, handing her a paper from the stack on the floor.
Claude's story was on the front page and seeing his byline, Lois smiled just a tad bit wider, but then she saw the headline and frowned. What was this? But when she read the first two sentences of the story, she knew exactly what it was. Placing the newspaper down on Jimmy's desk, she turned around and walked back to the elevator.
She walked all the way home, even though she had driven to work, and when she arrived home, she slowly peeled off her work clothes, went into the bathroom and took another shower.
It was only after she had finished her shower and was in her most comfortable flannel pajamas that she allowed herself to cry.
