Description: What if Lois had decided that she needed some time away from The Daily Planet... and away from Clark? Takes place a few weeks after Season 1 finale – The House of Luthor.
Forget Paris
By MetroRhodes metrorhodes@gmail.com
Rated: PG-13
Submitted: October, 2008
All characters and settings are the property of DC Comics, Warner Bros., and whoever else can legally lay claim to them. No copyright infringement is intended. This story was written purely for fun, not for profit, but the story is an original idea and belongs to me. A thank you to the writers of Lois & Clark, without them we wouldn’t have this wonderful world to play in. Any scenes or dialogue from the series belong strictly to the original writers of the episodes borrowed from.
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Okay, now that the header part is out of the way... Hi everyone! <waves> Does anyone here even still remember me? Sorry I've been absent for so long. Another show had preoccupied my time and I've been really busy. But I thought I'd try my hand at this again.
First, I'd like to thank a couple of people. Sue - for having read parts of this way back when it was just an idea and for beta reading a little of it for me - Sue you are a doll and I miss you dearly. And Lara for having beta read several parts as well and for helping me with the French - Lara you have no idea how awesome you are.
I don't know if either of them are going to have time to beta the whole story, so bear with me, you gentle readers may have to keep me on my toes.
Now without any further babbling, here's the first part. Feel free to let me know what you think. My palms are sweaty posting this... it's been so long!
Table of Contents (for links to other parts and fdk) ------------------------
Lois walked along the sidewalk, looking up at Clark’s nearing apartment building. She knew what she was here to do. And it should have been easy. But it wasn’t.
For crying out loud, she reprimanded herself, it’s not like you’re leaving and never coming back. In fact, that’s why you’re here, to tell him goodbye and also to let him know that you’ll be back.
She had briefly considered just leaving... waiting to call him when she got there. It would have been much easier than saying goodbye in person. She had known it was going to be hard, but she hadn’t thought it would be this hard.
Shake it off, Lane. It’s just Clark. It’s not like you’re saying goodbye to Superman. Lois sighed. No, who was she kidding? This was worse. Standing here, approaching the steps to his apartment, she realized just how difficult this was going to be.
It wouldn’t be this hard to say goodbye to Superman. Not that she would even have the chance. He had managed to avoid her since *that* night – when he had told her there couldn’t be anything between them and he had flown out of her window without so much as a goodbye.
Lois lowered her head to stare at the uneven cracks in the pavement as she stepped over them. Clark’s instincts had been better than hers. He had guessed about Luthor and he had been right.
Some part of her wanted to believe that Superman had known about Luthor as well, and that’s why he had seemed so aloof. Even if he hadn’t originally known about Luthor, Clark had probably told him his suspicions.
That thought irked her more. If Superman really had known about Luthor, why not tell her? She would have believed him. If she would have believed anyone, it would have been him.
But he hadn’t said anything.
Why?
Clark had. Lois felt the embarrassment flush her face. And what had she done? She had blown him off. She hadn’t trusted him. Clark had gone as far as to profess love for her – love that he had later admitted he didn’t have – just to keep her from making the biggest mistake of her life.
And yet... if that wasn’t love, then what was?
That was the question she had been pondering for the past two days, since she had talked to Perry. Could Clark have been mistaken about his feelings for her? Maybe he cared for her on a deeper level than he realized?
What would he have done if she had accepted his admission of love for her that day in the park? What would he have said if she had just responded – Clark, I love you, too?
Lois worried at a loose piece of concrete leading up the steps to Clark’s apartment with the toe of her shoe. Would he have come back later to renege on that profession of love?
“Lois?”
Lois snapped her eyes up from the seemingly fascinating slab of sidewalk to see Clark watching her curiously. Where had he come from?
“You know that no matter how long you stare at that concrete, a story isn’t going to pop out at you,” he teased, smiling mischievously at her.
Lois frowned. Clark hadn’t meant anything by it, but his words stung. Everyone at the paper was working hard to get the Planet back up and running. Everyone that is, except for Lois – or so it seemed. The Planet building itself was getting close to reopening but in the meantime they had been working out of temporary offices to get the inner workings of the newspaper on its feet.
But Lois had lost her edge, her focus... her drive. Something was wrong. Since her almost wedding to Lex Luthor – the criminal right under her nose – people had looked at her differently. She had caught people talking about her behind her back, which was nothing new - people had always talked about her - but it was usually petty remarks because they wished they were half the reporter that she was.
This was different. She had lost their respect. Respect that had taken her years to establish.
Which was the very reason why she was standing here at Clark’s doorstep and why his words hurt so much. He felt the same way everyone else did.
He thought she had lost her edge.
“Well, with the kind of hack stories you’ve managed to pull together in the last few days, I just might find something better in the crack of that pavement.” Lois looked away from him, flinching at the heat in her voice. She hadn’t meant to come off so snippy and rude. His words had just caught her off guard, and they had thrust into an already open wound.
The look on his face didn’t do anything to make her feel any better. His smile had turned down into a scowl and a wrinkle was creasing his forehead. “Fine. It’s a free country – stare at it all you want. I’m going inside,” he huffed.
Lois stood there for a few seconds, watching him walk away.
So much had happened in the past year. And now, so much more was going to change. So much had already changed at the Planet... Not just a new building and a new owner, but a lot of stuff. In some ways, it felt like they were starting over.
She missed the way things used to be - the comfortable order and stability that the Planet had offered her. Hell, she even missed Cat. Now everything just seemed to be in turmoil and she was floundering to find her place in all of it.
And that just wasn’t Lois. She hated it. She hated feeling lost and powerless. And most of all, she hated feeling like she had lost her edge and her respect. Lois hadn’t come up with squat the past week. Not one decent story to follow-up on. And half her contacts wouldn’t even return her phone calls.
That was why she was doing this.
That’s why she was here to say goodbye to Clark.
Clark!
Lois wrenched her attention back into focus as she heard the door to Clark’s apartment slam shut. She ran up the steps to his front door and then stopped for a moment to compose herself before knocking.
Clark answered, looking a little more than miffed at her. “What is it, Lois? You in the mood for some more sparring? Or maybe you just want to use me as your verbal punching bag.”
Clark had been friendly with her over the past few weeks since that day at the Planet when he had told her he wasn’t in love with her. And yet, he had remained strangely aloof at times, too. In fact, sometimes he acted like a dog licking its wounds.
Why would he feel that way if her rejection of him hadn’t really mattered? If he hadn’t really had feelings for her? Or maybe that wasn’t it at all – maybe he was just still upset about her accepting Lex’s proposal.
She was instantly nervous about why she had come here and what she was going to say. All the little things she had made a mental note of throughout the past two days suddenly flew out of her head.
Clark was staring at her, looking impatient.
“I’m sorry,” she finally blurted out. Yes. Apologize. Good.
Yeah, good, Lois. Apologize to him and get him feeling all happy again so that you can crush him when you tell him that you’re leaving.
Crush him? Well, that was doubtful, wasn’t it? If he didn’t have feelings for her, then it shouldn’t crush him...
You’re an idiot, she reprimanded herself. Even if he doesn’t have feelings for you, he’s still your partner and your friend. It’s still gonna hurt.
Clark raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her. “You’re sorry?”
“Yes. I didn’t mean to come off sounding so harsh and petty. That’s not why I came here.”
“So you did come here for a reason then.” He puffed out a sigh. “What did you need? Something fixed? Is the filter on your fish tank clogged again? Are you wanting...”
“To see you. I came to see you,” she interrupted.
“To see me,” he faltered. “For?”
“Can’t I just want to see you, just because?”
He sighed softly and stepped aside, waving her in. “Of course, Lois. But why do I have the feeling that there’s more to this than what you’re letting on?” he asked as he shut the door behind her.
“I don’t know,” she responded stopping at the top of his landing and turning to face him. Liar! She did know, but now she wasn’t sure how to tell him.
He frowned at her. “Well maybe it’s because I found you standing outside my apartment building, staring at the sidewalk as if it held the answers to the universe.” His face softened a little. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s ‘wrong’.” It wasn’t completely a lie. The only thing that was wrong about the whole situation was that she had to say goodbye to him. “In fact, I think for once this month, things might just be ‘right’.”
“Lois, I’m tired,” Clark complained, reaching up and lifting his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. “It’s been a long day and I’m really not in the mood to play games.” He slipped his glasses back into place and let out a quiet sigh. It had been an incredibly long day – not just for him, but also for Superman. Ever since Superman had supposedly allowed Luthor to fall to his death, things had been difficult and tense. Every rescue he made was scrutinized. Every life he saved was compared to the ones he couldn’t or hadn’t. It was beginning to take its toll on him.
When he had seen Lois standing there, almost as if she were waiting for him to come home, his spirits had lightened considerably. And then she had ruined it. Coming home from an exhausting day only to be snapped at by Lois was the absolute worst ending to a far less than perfect day.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” she said earnestly. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.” She bit at her lip.
Why was he making this so hard for her? Because you upset him, she reminded herself. He had greeted her with a pleasant smile outside and light-heartedly tried to tease her – like he always did – and she had been touchy and thrown it back in his face.
But couldn’t he see that she was trying to apologize now?
“It’s fine,” he said briskly. “Is there something you wanted?”
She only buttered him up like this when she needed something from him – regardless of her claims that she just came here to see him. He just wanted to get this over with so he could lie down in bed and relax for a little while before the next emergency hit. His whole day had been one emergency after another – there was no reason to think that his night wouldn’t be that way as well.
Lois sighed. So that was the way it was going to be. This was how they were going to spend their last evening together for a while. She wanted to cry, but that wouldn’t do any good. And even though she was mad at herself for setting him on edge, she was mad at him too – for being a stubborn, over-sensitive male.
Really mad. “I came to tell you goodbye,” she huffed out.
*That* caught his attention. “Goodbye?” he stammered. What did she mean ‘goodbye’? Was she going on a vacation? Was she going out of town to visit someone - her sister? No. He could tell from the look on her face that it was something much more serious than that.
Was she leaving The Daily Planet? Or... worse yet, Metropolis?
His stomach rolled and he turned away from her, running a hand through his hair. She hadn’t been having the easiest time lately. She just seemed to have lost her groove. Truth be told, that episode with Luthor had probably shaken her belief in herself. Lois prized herself on being able to read people, on uncovering the truth, and here a man had come along and totally pulled the wool over her eyes. He had conned her, he had used her, and he had made her look like a fool – at least in her own eyes.
Clark knew how cunning and disingenuous Luthor was. It wasn’t totally Lois’s fault that she had been taken in and deceived. He just wished she had listened to him. That hurt more than anything. More than knowing she had fallen for Luthor, more than knowing she had walked down the aisle with Luthor to marry him... she hadn’t trusted Clark. She hadn’t believed him.
But even so, he still loved her. He might have taken back his profession of love but that was only to protect what they had. To protect their friendship and their partnership. Lois didn’t love him – not the way that Clark loved her. And his profession of love would have only served to make her uncomfortable around him.
He had taken it back – so he wouldn’t lose her. But now it seemed like he might lose her anyway.
Clark turned back to look at her. “What do you mean ‘goodbye’?”
He took a step towards Lois and her breath tightened in her chest. Was she going to be able to get this out? “I mean goodbye,” she said simply. “I’m going overseas for a while to work at the European branch of The Daily Planet. The one in Paris.”
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To be continued...
Okay, I know the first part was a little short, but I wanted to feel you all out a little first and see what you thought.
I'm not sure what my posting schedule will be... probably once a week, but I may post the second part a little sooner since this part was short. C-ya!
