PREVIOUSLY...
“Wait a minute,” Clark cut in. “Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like...”
“...what happened between us last night,” Lois concluded. “How is that possible? We hadn’t even remembered this incident at the time?”
AND NOW...
* * * * * * * * *
Chapter Twenty-Seven
* * * * * * * * *
They stared at each other for a moment in disbelief. It seemed neither of them had an explanation, so Lois cleared her throat and continued her story.
**Still, regardless of how good it had been, it had been a mistake. One more in a long list when it came to this man. It seemed she couldn’t resist him, but could she trust him? She already knew the answer to that question. No. Besides, there was Perry.
If she really trusted Kent, really believed he could be the one, she’d take on Perry. She’d even take on her mother - although that certainly wouldn’t be easy. But for a man who had betrayed her in the past as badly as Clark had... No. She couldn’t risk her job or her family over someone like that.
She began to move, hoping to slip quietly out of bed when Kent woke.
“Morning,” he said softly.
“Morning,” she replied uncomfortably.
He raised himself on his elbows. “What’s wrong, Lane?”
She attempted to smile at him. By the way his eyebrows crinkled together in response, she knew he wasn’t fooled.
“I was just obsessing, I guess,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
“About us?”
“No! No, of course not.” Was that too definite? By the look he was giving her, she wondered if she might have given herself away. “I was just obsessing about my interview with the President.”
“I heard about that. Carpenter was really ticked off that you were the only reporter in the city to get one. Congratulations.”
“Yeah, well, tell him not to worry. Because of the Prankster, my interview has been cut back to five minutes.” She finally met his eyes. “If you could only ask the President one question, what would it be?”
He thought about that for a moment before responding. “I guess I’d ask something most people wouldn’t, but that everyone would find interesting like if he was a professional baseball player, what position would he play and why.”
“Great question,” Lois said, although personally she thought it was a little stupid. Who in their right mind would waste their five minutes with the President asking something like that? Still, she turned away from him, as if her problem had been solved, and quickly began getting dressed.
“Lane?” he asked when she rose to her feet and was taking her first steps towards the doorway.
She stopped, turning to look at him. “I’ve got to get to work.” Without waiting for a response, she continued to the door. Once there, she sat down on the steps, pulling on her shoes.
“Lane?” he asked again, this time from the entranceway to his room.
She glanced up, seeing him standing there in nothing but his sleep shorts, his hair ruffled from a night of love-making, his skin looking... No! She quickly turned her attention back to her shoes.
“Talk to me, Lane,” he begged.
“What’s there to say, Kent? This was a mistake. It never should have happened. I shouldn’t have come here. And... I’m sorry.” She met his eyes then, letting him see how she truly sorry she was. She’d used him. She hadn’t meant to, but... That hardly mattered now. The damage had been done. “Look, I know...” Her voice trailed off.
“Anyway,” she continued around the lump that was forming in her throat. “I know it wasn’t fair coming here. So... don’t worry. I’ll stay away in the future.” Her shoes were finally on. She rose to her feet. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I mean... I’m not saying the sex wasn’t great, but... What then? We can’t build a relationship on sex.” She fought against the tears in her eyes. “I’m just going to go now.” She began backing up the steps to his apartment, desperate to get out of there before he could say something that might change her mind.
“Wait!” Rushing up the steps, he got to her before she could open the door. “Don’t do this. We can work through it. I know we can. We just have to talk and...”
“About what, Kent? It’s not as if we can change the past. This whole thing was a mistake.” She knew it. But she also knew that this weird connection between them was, even now, trying to pull her back into his bed. “But thanks for the place to sleep. You wouldn’t believe what it was like staying at Jimmy’s. Your bed is much more comfortable.” She blushed as she remembered exactly how comfortable it had been. Best not to talk about beds anymore. “So...” She fumbled with the door handle behind her. “Thanks again. And... sorry. And... bye.” On the final word, she fled from his apartment, not daring to look back.**
“You know I think the reason I didn’t fight harder to keep you that day was that I just kept thinking back to what you thought I’d done... Or what I’d done. And realized that it was pretty much hopeless.”
“What I thought you’d done?”
Clark let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know what it means. I just know that it means something.”
Lois nodded slowly. “So I guess you know the rest of the story,” Lois continued.
“Like how Dr. Klein invented a contact lens that allowed the Secret Service to stop the Prankster?”
“Yeah. And how I ended up using your question during my interview with the President,” Lois said before leaning over to give him a light kiss by way of saying thanks.
“Hey, no problem.”
“But about that other thing...” Lois couldn’t quite meet his eyes.
“The other thing?”
“You know, rushing off like that...”
“It’s okay, Lois. I do understand, you know. You had no reason to trust me. And if I’d been thinking at all when you came over, I’d have known that you weren’t ready for us to make love again. I wasn’t exactly a saint in this story.”
Lois smiled at him. “Well, no, ‘saint’ isn’t the first word I’d use to describe you when I remember that night,” she said.
He laughed in response.
“But seriously, Clark. None of that was your fault. I attacked you, remember? Still, I was almost grateful when Jimmy was accused of murdering Raul Borges a few days later.”
“Grateful?”
She shrugged sheepishly. “It was sort of... all consuming. It didn’t give me time to think.”
“Throwing yourself into your work as if it would save you,” Clark said sympathetically. “You wouldn’t be my Lois if that wasn’t one of your trademarks.”
“But I wasn’t ‘your Lois,’ Clark. And that was the problem. I needed something to keep from thinking about you - and how badly I’d messed up. I’d never done something like that before - sleeping with a guy I wasn’t in a relationship with. I just couldn’t resist you.. It really wasn’t fair to you. And... I’m sorry”
“I know,” Clark said softly.
“Of course, it didn’t exactly help that Mayson Drake was prosecuting Jimmy’s case. But I guess she wasn’t so bad. After all, since she wasn’t convinced that Jimmy was guilty, she gave me a couple of tips that allowed me to prove that a member of the Russian mafia killed Borges rather than Jimmy.”
“And at least they didn’t trick Superman into stealing a nuclear warhead for them.”
Lois nodded. “So while I was throwing myself into my work, what were you doing?”
Clark shifted uncomfortably.
“Clark?”
He let out a breath. “I was trying to figure out how to get on with my life.”
**Clark glanced up, realizing that he’d arrived at his destination. Or... no. Not his destination. He had just been out for a walk. Lane wasn’t returning his phone calls. Although why he expected her to, he wasn’t sure. She’d been pretty definite that there would be no more late night visits.
Still, he hadn’t meant to come here - the District Attorney’s offices - a grand looking old building that these days was probably more decorative than functional.
He was about to turn away when Mayson Drake walked out the front doors. Too late. She’d spotted him.
“Clark?” she said, with a friendly wave before walking over to where he was standing. “You’re the last person I expected to see here.”
He planted a smile on his face. “Well, I was just out for a walk and...” He shrugged.
Her face lit up. “You ended up here,” she said, glancing around. “Well, as long as you’re here, why don’t we grab some dinner?”
Clark hesitated. Maybe he shouldn’t. On the other hand, why not? It wasn’t as if she was asking him to marry him - or even go away with him for a weekend at some deserted cabin. Besides, it was better than spending another evening at home obsessing about Lane. “Why don’t we,” he responded.
“Great! How about we take my car? I know this great little Vietnamese place over on Forth.”
“Sounds good.”
She began leading him towards a car parked on the side of the street. “I’m glad you stopped by, Clark. I really wasn’t looking forward to going home and making supper after the day I had.”
“Bad?”
“Busy. First, I suppose you heard about that whole mess with the Russian mafia trying to steal a nuclear warhead?”
He nodded.
“But the whole time I was working on that, I was also trying to work on a case I have about this new drug that I think is being used to smuggle people out of prison. It’s called ‘Resurrection.’ Problem is, so far I can’t figure out who’s behind it. Or how exactly they’re doing it.” She clicked the remote on her car, unlocking the doors. “All I know is that they’ve got to have someone on the inside.”
“Maybe I can help,” Clark suggested, reaching past her to open her door.
“And get the story?”
Clark shrugged.
She took a seat in the car, sticking the key in the ignition and turning it. The engine turned over once but didn’t start. “Actually, I might take you up on that. Given that they have to be getting some inside help, I’m not sure who to trust.” She turned the key again.
Where the ticking was coming from, Clark wasn’t entirely certain. Allowing his glasses to slip down his nose, he peered over the top.
Mayson’s car!
“Bomb!” he yelled, pulling Mayson out of the car and throwing her to the ground, covering her with his body a moment before the explosion detonated, blowing Mayson’s car to kingdom come.
“Mayson,” he asked when he was certain the danger had passed.
“Clark,” she breathed, looking past him to the burning remnants of her car. She looked back, meeting his eyes. “You saved my life,” she said in wonder.**
“I remember that,” Lois said.
“How could you remember it?” Clark asked. “You weren’t even there. Or... oh, you remember reading my story about it.”
“No, Clark, I remember it.”
**Lois was late. She was supposed to meet with Mayson Drake half an hour ago to give her statement about the Russian mafia’s attempt to steal the nuke. Unfortunately, she hadn’t managed to get out of the newsroom as early as she’d hoped.
The sudden explosion rocked the street, sending her diving for the pavement. As she stared in horrified fascination at the burning wreckage, she noticed a couple rising from the sidewalk a few feet from the car. Her breath caught in her throat when she realized that one of the members of the couple was Kent. And the other... Mayson Drake.
She stared for a moment more, trying to come up with a perfectly innocent reason for the two of them to be together, when she saw Mayson pull Kent’s head down to hers for a kiss.
She forced back the threatening tears. Kent was a free agent. He could kiss anyone he wanted. Still... the fact that he was on the prowl so soon after... Well, it just proved that he was just like every other man. Sex meant nothing to him. She had been just another conquest.
Well, that was just fine.
Really!
Fine!
If he wanted someone like Mayson Drake, he obviously wasn’t serious about her anyway. Just as well she’d cut things off when she had, before her indiscretion had also managed to cause her problems with Perry... not to mention her mother.**
“Wait a minute! Wasn’t that about the time that Scardino came to town?” Clark asked suspiciously.
Lois looked down at the table. “I guess so.”
“And... I take it you met him?”
She drew an abstract pattern on the conference room table.
“So... since Mayson wasn’t killed, how exactly did you and... ‘Just Call Me Daniel’ meet?”
She looked at him for a moment, trying to decide whether to answer or deflect his question. Only remembering she had a daughter to get back, and not knowing what piece of information would allow her to do that, gave her the courage to continue. “Pretty much the same way we met Daniel in our reality, I guess. I snuck into Mayson’s office - looking for something that might help me figure out who had bombed her car. Dan was there.” She shrugged.
“And...?”
Lois let out a breath. “He came to the newsroom later - to talk to Perry. He claimed the bomb used to blow up Mayson’s car was the same as the bomb that had killed his former partner. His bosses didn’t know he was looking into the case - had actually suggested that he was too close to be objective. So he’d taken some time off and... was hoping to work with me to get to the bottom of it.”
“And I suppose he asked you out?”
“Yes.”
“And you said...?”
“I said, no. I wasn’t ready to date anyone. Unlike you... kissing Mayson! How could you?”
“She kissed me.”
“Whatever. Of course, Dan didn’t exactly take no for an answer...”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That he was cute, and funny, and attentive and... I hadn’t seen him kissing Mayson Drake. Besides, it’s sort of hard to resist someone who sleeps outside on your fire escape to make sure you’re safe and I needed some sort of distraction to help me forget about you.” Lois let out a frustrated breath. “Can we just get past this? I really want to get home and forget any of this ever happened.”
“I’m with you there. So... where do we go from here?”
“Let’s see what other stories we have here...” Lois said as she began scrolling through her computer once again.
As if by silent agreement, neither pursued the issue of their respective ‘love interests’ any further - even though it was obvious to both that Mayson had helped Clark get the Resurrection story just as Dan had helped Lois get the same story. In fact, when they moved on to the story about some military doctor who was attempting to create an army of assassins with the use of drugs pumped into them since they were children, it was almost a relief. Lois was the one who had broken the story - which made sense since Jimmy was one of the victims.
Still, the subject couldn’t be avoided forever - as they discovered when they came across the next story - this one written by Perry White.
‘Billionaire Church Revealed As Head Of Intergang,’
**It was relaxing, peaceful. For the first time since he’d first slept with Lois Lane, Clark wasn’t in turmoil. After all, did anything really matter?
“So they hit more than just The Star’s payroll?” Carpenter asked.
“I made some calls. Seems a lot of other businesses got hit this morning, too. Including the Daily Planet,” Linda responded.
“So the Daily Planet knows about this story?” Carpenter demanded.
“Well, we don’t know if they’ve realized they weren’t the only business to get hit so...” Her voice trailed off when she observed the look on Carpenter’s face.
“Okay, people. Listen up. The Daily Planet has been getting far too many stories lately. That’s going to end now! I want my people all over this story. And since you and Kent were there when the robbers showed up, I assume you’ll have the inside scoop really soon,” Carpenter said.
“Oh, relax, boss,” Clark said, waving his arm towards Carpenter. “Either we’ll get the story or the Daily Planet will or the bad guys will get away.” He shrugged. “The important thing is to stop and smell the roses.”
Carpenter narrowed his eyes as he looked at Clark. “Are you stoned?” he asked.
“No, boss,” Linda said immediately. “He just took too much of his allergy medicine this morning. Happens sometimes.” She jumped to her feet, pulling Clark to his. “We’re on it.” She quickly escorted Clark from the room.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Linda hissed at her partner when they were out of the room.
“Linda, you’ve got to learn to take it easy. The payroll company will reissue our cheques. Bet we have them by the end of the day.”
“Clark! Snap out of it! Carpenter has been itching to fire someone for the last few weeks. Don’t tempt him. Not now.”
“Sorry, Linda, but it’s like... all of a sudden, I just don’t care.”
“What do you mean you don’t care?”
Clark shrugged.
Linda let out a breath, sinking down into the chair behind her desk. “Okay, well, it sounds to me as if you’re going through something. And... I know a doctor who’s pretty good. She did wonders for my college roommate’s sister.” Linda picked up the phone on her desk. “Maybe if I give her a call, she’ll be able to fit you in this afternoon.”**
“Well, while you weren’t caring, we were having our own problems,” Lois said. “Stern was threatening to sell the Daily Planet.”
“To Carpenter?”
“Maybe. Not sure. The hold up seemed to have been about money. How much the Daily Planet was worth. Well, that and the fact that whoever this buyer was, Stern wasn’t entirely certain about his... intentions for the paper. So I guess in this reality, it could have been Carpenter. Anyway, it seemed the rash of hold-ups of payroll cheques was a bid to keep the police busy while Intergang kidnapped Perry. I was there. I tried to fight, but...” She shrugged. “Perry managed to rip off one of the kidnapper’s masks. I gave a description to a police artist and they made a sketch.”
“So... how did it get resolved?”
“Bobby recognized the picture. It was Gene Newtrich. I tracked the kidnappers from Newtrich to Costmart. And from Costmart to Perry. What about you?”
“I was having... a somewhat different day. I mean, a couple of hours after I’d been exposed to the red kryptonite - although, at the time I didn’t know what it was - it wore off. At that point, instead of not caring, I was worrying about not caring. Anyway, Linda was able to get me in to see Dr. Friskin on an emergency basis.”
“So what did that do?”
“I guess she helped me realize that I had come to a crossroads. I had to deal with my feelings head on or they were going to overwhelm me. So... I came to the Daily Planet to find you. I needed to resolve things between us - one way or another. And I figured that maybe... if we could just talk when our hormones weren’t controlling our emotions...” He shrugged. “As I was climbing out of a taxi, I spotted you climbing into one. Knowing that the only way I could stop you was to move... faster than normal, I told the taxi driver to follow your cab, intending to talk to you when you stopped.”
“I remember,” Lois said softly.
**“Lane!”
Lois spun around. What was Kent doing here? Was he following this story, too? But if that were so... how did he know about Perry’s kidnapping? They hadn’t even told Stern. In fact, almost no one at the Daily Planet knew. She almost walked away, but then she stopped. She needed to find out what he knew - and whether that could help her find Perry.
“What is it, Kent?” she asked impatiently, trying to cover up for the butterflies that had for some reason suddenly taken up residence in her stomach. If he didn’t know anything about Perry, she had to get going - hopefully losing Kent somewhere in the process. “I’ve got things to do.”
“I just wanted to ask you about us.”
“Us?” she asked. Well, so much for him having information that could help her find Perry. Now all she needed to do was to find a way to lose him. Otherwise... Perry would kill her if she tipped Kent off to this story.
“You know... You and me. Is there any hope for us?”
“Uhh... Look, Kent, I really don’t have time for this right now. I’ve got to...” She gestured towards the store.
“I’ll come with you. We can talk on the way.”
“Actually, Kent, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Like I said, I don’t have time for this now. Now, if you don’t mind...” She walked away from him, pleased when he didn’t follow.**
“I remember what happened then,” Clark said, taking over the story.
**Clark felt despondent as he watched her walk away. Surely if there was any hope for them at all, she’d have made time to talk to him - or told him when she’d have time. Her attitude confirmed that she really didn’t feel anything for him. He’d just been a notch in her garter belt.
The honking of a car horn wrenched him out of his thoughts. He stepped off the street as a van pulled to a stop directly in front of the building. He noticed that it looked a lot like the van that had robed The Star payroll earlier in the day and was about to investigate - was it here to rob Costmart - when...
...suddenly, things didn’t seem quite as bleak. He just had to try harder, woo her, persuade her that he would not be easily cast aside. And he would be charming and irresistible and she would throw herself into his arms. And he would love her until the day they died. Except, they wouldn’t die. Together, they would live forever.
His previous frown disappeared. Not worrying about getting caught - getting caught hardly mattered when one was pursuing love - he pulled his glasses down his nose and used his x-ray vision to find her. She was currently bent over, picking a lock. He took a moment to admire her perky derriere. Perfect...**
“Perky derriere?” Lois asked, eyebrows raised.
Clark immediately pushed back his chair so that he was situated behind her. His eyes drifted down to the object in question. “Oh yeah,” he said on a moan.
Lois giggled, swatting at him playfully. “Come on, Romeo. Get back to your story.”
**Less than a second later, Clark stood silently behind Lane while she worked intently on the elaborate lock on the elevator. He really had no idea what she was doing. On the other hand, did it really matter? They were together and he was in heaven.
Using his x-ray vision, he looked through the wall just above the lock. Spotting the wires operating the lock, he sent a small dart of heat vision into them, causing the doors of the elevator to open.
“Yes,” he heard Lane mumble before stepping inside.
He silently followed her in. Since it was obvious that the elevator would next open on the other side, Lane didn’t turn around, allowing him to stand directly behind her as the doors closed.
“Hey, gorgeous, come here often?” Clark whispered into her ear.
She practically jumped out of her skin, spinning around to face him. “What are you doing here?” she hissed.
“Following you. So... how about it? Wanna go out for dinner with me tonight?”
“Are you insane?”
The doors to the elevator suddenly opened, and Lane spun back around. “Stay here,” she hissed. “Or better yet, go for back up. Go call the cops or something.”
“Nah, I think I’ll just tag along with you.”
Lane bristled, but ignored him, intent in looking up and down the hall outside the elevator.
“So... about dinner tonight...”
“Shh,” she hissed as she began to sneak down the hall, checking doors as she walked.
“What are we looking for?” Clark asked.
“Shh,” she hissed again.
He shrugged and followed along behind.
Suddenly, one of the doors opened and Perry White stepped out, followed by a couple goons with guns.
“Lois! Run, honey, run!” Perry yelled.
Lane practically ran into Clark in her bid to do as her boss had instructed. The men pursued. Clark simply reached out a hand, grabbing one by the collar, leaving him flat on the back, and twisting the arm of the other, leaving him yelling out in pain as he dropped his gun.
By the time Bill Church and Gene Newtrich stepped into the hall, the muscle had been neutralized. Perry immediately spun around and grabbed Bill Church Jr., taking him quickly to his knees. When Newtrich tried to escape, Lane used a Tae Kwan Do move to take him out.
When the excitement finally passed, Perry turned and stared at Clark for a moment before turning his attention to Lane. “What’s he doing here?” Perry asked.
“He followed me, Perry. I tried to lose him, but...”
“I just wanted to ask her out on a date,” Clark said, before turning to Lois. “So... how about it? Will you go out with me?”
“No!” she said emphatically. “I’m not going out with you.”
Clark’s heart sank at the sound of finality in her voice. With a sigh, he turned and skulked back to the elevator. Still, his hearing continued to pick up every word of Lane’s conversation with her boss as he road back up to the surface.
“What was that all about?” Perry asked suspiciously. “I can’t believe you’d even consider dating Kent after what he did to you, to your mother!”
“Please, Perry. I’m not an idiot,” Lane responded. “Besides, as you are well aware, Dan and I have been dating.”
“Because you can’t trust him, honey. He will hurt you. Just like he did before. Only if you’re involved with him this time... Just don’t give him that chance. I can’t believe that you need me to remind you.”
“You don’t have to remind me. I’m not dating Kent. And I’m not going to. I just ran into him outside. I thought I’d lost him, but he followed me.”**
“So what do you think was causing your mood swings?” Lois asked. “I mean, I’m pretty sure that red kryptonite had to be involved but...”
“Uhh... well...” Clark said. “I overheard a couple of people talking when I left Costmart that the van parked out front was one of the high-end, S-126 vans. In fact, it looked like the same one that had been used to rob The Star earlier that day.”
“S-126 vans?”
Clark nodded. “I looked through the hood of the van. I knew it couldn’t be the stuff I’d encountered before - after all, I wasn’t passed out on the ground. That was when I saw the red rock. Apparently someone was using red kryptonite to power very expensive or specialized vehicles.”
“So much for bringing free power to the masses.”
“Exactly. Now only the very rich get free power Anyway, after I left Costmart...”
**Knowing he was in no shape to work at the moment, Clark returned to his apartment. By the time he arrived, the worst effects of his S-126 exposure had worn off, leaving him with a slight headache. Clark grabbed a wet washcloth and leaned back into the couch, placing the cloth over his eyes.
What a day!
Maybe just like green S-126 affected him physically, red S-126 affected him mentally. On the other hand, although they brought feelings to the surface, they were still his feelings. He knew that.
And those feelings told him he was in love with Lois Lane. On the other hand, he hadn’t failed to notice the finality in Lane’s voice when she’d turned him down, and he remembered all too clearly how she’d told her boss that she’d have to be an idiot to date him. And... she’d mentioned another man.
There was no going back. It was time for him to accept that and move on. But move on to what? Where did he go from here?
Just then, the phone rang. Reaching out a blind hand, he removed the phone from the cradle.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Clark. It’s Mayson. I was just wondering what you’re doing for dinner tomorrow night?”**
“You know, you sort of scared me that day,” Lois said. “I wish I’d known what the problem was. But you’re behavior... It was a little stalkerish. It made me realize just how little I knew about you - in spite of this unexplained feeling I kept having whenever I was around you.”
Clark nodded. “I did think of calling you to apologize, but... I guess I was fairly convinced by then that you wouldn’t want to hear from me again - not even to apologize. And I wasn’t sure what I could say to explain my behavior. Anyway, that was when I started seriously dating Mayson. I was just so desperate to connect with someone. And so when she started asking me out...” He shrugged. “I guess I didn’t have the strength to say no.”
“And that was when I started seriously dating Dan. For much the same reason.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
