Everyone remember where we are? Need to refresh your memory? Or perhaps you missed a part? Check out the
Table of Contents 
And of course, I couldn't continue without sending a shout-out/thank-you to Lara and Sue for beta reading!
Here we go -
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Part Three
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Lois frowned with distaste as she surveyed her hotel room. She had opted for economy instead of luxury, and it definitely showed – the room was tiny. The hotel didn’t even have a bellhop or whatever the heck they were called in French, but seeing as how there were only eighteen rooms, she could see why. She thought for a moment but couldn’t come up with the term for bellhop and after a few seconds she stopped thinking. It was making her brain hurt. She definitely needed to brush up on her French.
Thankfully, the nice owner had offered to help her carry the few bags she had brought with her up to her room. It was a good thing. She wasn’t sure she could have lugged them up the stairs by herself. She was just too tired. It wouldn’t have been very dignified of her to have fallen asleep on the stairwell after the second or third trip.
Lois walked over to the window and peered out through the cloudy glass. Not much of a view. There were some pretty gardens below, if you liked that sort of thing, but no museums or historic structures in sight. Yep, this place definitely wasn’t in the tourist’s guide to Paris. But it would serve her needs – at least for as long as she was going to need it. And hey, it even had a view of the Eiffel Tower.
She smirked. Yeah, the little plastic mock up of it down in the shop across the street. She wondered briefly how far of a walk it would be to get to the Tower from here, but then decided against it. She was tired and ready to get some sleep.
But first, she should call Clark.
She glanced at her watch and tried to do the math in her head to figure out if Clark would still be awake or not. Her flight had left at nine-thirty p.m. and she had arrived here a little before ten a.m. That was... almost twelve hours? That couldn’t be right!
Wait... she needed to adjust for the time zones she had flown across. How many time zones were there between Paris and Metropolis? She thought for a few more seconds and then finally gave up. Math had never been her strong suit and she was simply too tired. She had told Clark she would call him when she got here, and if she woke him up... well, too bad. If she waited until she woke up later to call him, he would probably call every airline and half the hotels in Paris looking for her.
The thought made her smile. Would he really do that? Would he really worry about her that much?
Probably... Farm boy.
Lois was tempted, momentarily, to sit down for a minute and relax. But if she did that, she’d probably fall asleep. The hotel only had a phone in the lobby, so she should probably go down there and make her call first. Then, she could relax.
She made her way back down to the lobby area and looked around. Where was the telephone? Lois spotted the owner and walked over to him. She forced her mind into submission and managed to put a sentence together in French. “Où est le téléphone?” Was that right? Yep. He was pointing behind the counter.
**********
Clark was surprised that he had fallen asleep. He hadn’t thought it would be possible to fall asleep the way his mind had been running a mile a minute.
But the phone ringing had woken him and alerted him to the fact that he had indeed fallen asleep.
He sat up on his couch and grabbed for the phone. He glanced at the bright green readout of the clock on the VCR – five-fifteen a.m. He had finally sorted out that there was a six-hour difference between Metropolis and Paris. So that meant that it was eleven-fifteen in the morning where Lois was.
But was it even Lois calling? Maybe it was just a wrong number? On the fourth ring, he snatched up the phone before the answering machine could catch it.
“H...hello?” he said groggily, wiping the sleep from his eyes.
“Clark? I’m sorry. I woke you, didn’t I? I wasn’t sure what the time difference would be but I had promised that I would call as soon as got here... and well, I didn’t exactly call the moment I got here. I checked into my hotel first and...”
“Lois?” Clark wasn’t quite alert enough yet to process her babbling.
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you made it there safe. Where are you staying?” If Clark wanted to check on her, it would help if he knew where she was.
“I’m on the Left Bank side in Invalides. I’m at a little hotel called Pavillon.” Clark made a mental note of the name and then Lois was rambling on, “It’s okay, I guess. The rooms are small, though, and I don’t have much of a view. Oh, and I forgot my pillow!” she complained. “But it was one of the few hotels I could afford that was at least close to the Planet offices.”
Clark was quiet - not really sure what to say. Should he tell her that he missed her? Should he tell her that he hoped things went well for her? Should he ask her if he could call her?
Before he could formulate a response and break the awkward silence, Lois did it for him. “Well, I’m exhausted. I didn’t sleep well on the plane, and I’m sure I probably woke you up. So I’ll let you get back to sleep and...”
“I miss you.” Clark was surprised when the words slipped from his mouth, and he instantly regretted saying them. That wasn’t what Lois wanted to hear... was it? He felt so confused and the lingering silence after his words made him wish he could take them back.
“Thanks,” was her hesitant reply. “I’ll give you a call later in the week and check on things back home.”
“That’s okay, Lois. I know those international calls have to be expensive.”
“Oh... okay. Well, I guess I’ll see ya when I see ya, then... um, I mean, talk to you... you know, later...”
Clark refrained from smacking himself in the forehead. Idiot. International calls have to be expensive? What was that? Like she couldn’t afford a few phone calls? He had just given her permission to never call. He let out a soft sigh. That’s why people should never talk on the phone in the middle of the night – you’ll end up sounding stupid.
“Clark?” she said when he didn’t respond.
“Um, yeah, sure.” He knew he should tell her goodbye but he wasn’t ready yet and his mind grasped for any way to extend the conversation. “Uh, Lois?”
“Yeah?”
Now what? “Do you...” What? Think! “...uh, need me to...” Do what? Clark was about to panic when an idea struck him. “Feed your fish while you’re gone? Or water your plants?”
“Oh... uh, that’s sweet of you, Clark. But, no. Lucy is off for summer break from college and she said she’d apartment-sit for me while I’m gone. But thanks for asking.”
“You’re welcome.” Clark was stymied. He was tired and he couldn’t think of one more reason to keep her on the phone.
“Well... bye, Clark.”
His voice suddenly choked on him and he barely managed to get out, “Goodbye, Lois.”
He hung up the phone and stared at it long after he had set it down. Why was he such an idiot sometimes?
**********
‘I’ll um see ya when I see ya?’ Lois rolled her eyes and let out a noisy sigh. Oh, yeah, real intelligent, Lois. She was such a ninny sometimes.
She handed the phone back to the owner. “Merci.” She started to head back to her room when she realized she was too hungry to sleep. Airline food was disgusting, so she hadn’t eaten anything on the plane.
Once again, she found herself taxing her brain. She turned back to face the distinguished and surprisingly young-looking owner. He would probably be more willing to help her if she spoke to him in French. “Uh... avez-vous... un restaurant?”
He gave her a gracious smile and his green eyes sparkled mischievously. “Oui. We do have a café, Mademoiselle Lane. We also do speak English.”
Lois blushed. “Oh. Thank you. I really should practice my French though. I... uh... je travaille pour un journal.”
“Ah, oui. Lequel?”
Which one? Oh. “The Daily Planet.”
He nodded at her. “Tres bon journal.”
She smiled at him. Good? Hah – the Planet was the best, but she decided it might be rude to point that out. Maybe a simple thank you was best. “Merci.”
“Avec plaisir. Au revoir, Mademoiselle Lane.” He gave her a short bow and as he rose up he smoothed a few long, rebellious locks of dark, curly hair behind one ear. Why did French men wear their hair so long? Although on this man it didn’t look half bad.
“Au revoir, Monsieur. Um... quel est votre nom?”
He smiled broadly at her. “My name is Jacques. Jacques Laroque.”
She held out her hand, trying to remember customs, and was pleased when he accepted it. “Lois.”
Jacques gave her hand a light squeeze before releasing it. “The café is through the doors behind you.” He pointed. “We are still serving le petit-dejeuner... eh, breakfast.”
“Merci.”
“Anytime.”
***********
Clark got up when his alarm went off a couple of hours later and moped around his apartment. How was he going to get through the day without Lois? Excluding her brief engagement to Luthor, he could count on two hands the number of days that he had spent apart from her over the past year.
He had worked with her every day, drank coffee with her every day... Corrected her copy... Helped her put her coat on... Watched the way her body moved when she would get up out of her chair... Felt how soft her skin was when he casually brushed against it... Remembered the touch of her lips against his, both as Clark and as Superman...
It sent tingles down his spine.
Clark shook his head. Get a grip! She was in Paris and he was here, and he had a job to do. The Planet was still a long way from being back on its feet.
Part of him wanted to fly over to Paris right now and check on her, see her, even if it was just briefly. He had already had this discussion with himself last night. How would he explain it? She already had an unrealistic crush on Superman. If he suddenly showed up in Paris out of the blue, what would she think?
He could use the lame excuse that Clark Kent had told Superman that Lois had wanted to say goodbye. The problem with that was that he had been avoiding her. Ever since that night when he had told her that there couldn’t be anything between them and she had accepted Luthor’s proposal, Superman had avoided her. He just wasn’t sure how to act around her now, not as Superman. It would be so uncomfortable.
No. No, he wasn’t going to go see her as Superman. Not unless he felt like she might be in trouble. If she didn’t call Clark every so often to let him know how she was doing, then he would just make sure to call her. And he might do some very distant flybys every now and then over where she was staying. A quick scan would tell him that she was okay. He just wouldn’t make contact with her.
Yeah, right.
Clark had found himself stretching out with his hearing more than once that morning, listening for a ‘help, Superman!’ to come from her voice. How deranged was that? He honestly didn’t believe he would hear her voice from that distance anyway, which worried him even more. His dad was right; Lois had a knack for getting into trouble.
He sighed. What he really wished was that *Clark* could go over there to see her. But how would he explain that? Clark Kent wasn’t the type to have that kind of money lying around, where he could just pop over to Paris for the weekend.
And he certainly wasn’t going to say ‘uh, Superman brought me?’ He snorted. Oh, yeah, that would go over like a lead balloon.
Nope, he just needed to stick to the plan. And the plan was to give her some space. Even if he didn’t like it.
**********
Lois woke up to her travel alarm clock blaring obnoxiously beside her bed. Seriously, couldn’t she have found one that made a more pleasant sound?
She picked it up and fiddled with it until she managed to get it turned off. The nap hadn’t really helped much, but if she had slept too long then she wouldn’t have had any time to get unpacked and settled. Not to mention the fact that it would have messed up her sleep schedule later if she had slept all day. She didn’t want to be wide awake at midnight.
She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. It was two o’clock in the afternoon. She wondered groggily what time it was in Metropolis.
Then her mind lazily traveled somewhere else. Had Clark gone in to work yet?
Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to concentrate once again and do the math. After a few seconds of adding and subtracting, she huffed herself out of bed. Math had never been a strong subject for her. And why should it be? She was a journalist for crying out loud.
She snatched her flight itinerary out of her bag and looked at it. According to the time she left Metropolis compared to the time she landed in Paris, there was a twelve hour difference.
That’s what she had thought before – twelve hours. But she hadn’t accounted for the time zone differences and changes. She had crossed no telling how many time zones between Metropolis and Paris.
Her head was beginning to hurt and she put the itinerary away. Lois rolled her eyes at herself in disgust. Some investigative journalist she was...
Jet lag. It was the jet lag. She just wasn’t at the top of her game right now. She sighed and tucked her old itinerary back into her suitcase. Jacques could tell her the time difference. She would just ask him when she went downstairs later – problem solved.
Besides, she wasn’t really in any hurry to find out the time difference, anyway. Chances were good that Clark had already left for work – he was an early riser - and she certainly wasn’t going to call him at work and bother him. She would find out the time difference from Jacques later and then she would know when she could call him.
Wait... call *him*? No. No, she wasn’t just thinking about him. She needed to know the time difference for anyone that she might call.
Who? Her mind wagered with her. Perry?
Lucy?
She frowned at the thought and began snatching and grabbing things out of the suitcase in front of her. Now would be a good time to unpack. She wasn’t going to go overboard, since she would be moving into more permanent living arrangements soon, hopefully. Until that happened, though, there were a few things she needed better access to.
And once she got her professional suits and clothing ironed and reshaped, she could make a trip into town. She wasn’t due to show up for work until tomorrow morning, but it couldn’t hurt to familiarize herself with the building - and the city, for that matter.
Feeling rejuvenated by having something to focus on, she poured herself into it.
**********
Lois got out of the cab – the one she had taken because she was too tired to walk, even if she was fairly close - and stared up at the building in front of her. Her unpacking job had taken her longer than she had thought it would. The afternoon sun was setting and it cast a beautiful warm glow on the architecture. Her new home-away-from-home was a gorgeous old building... it would never replace her home at the Daily Planet in Metropolis, but it was nice.
By the looks of it, the building had been here long before the world had ever known or even heard of the Daily Planet. She wondered briefly what other occupants had inhabited this building, and then she was pushing through the front door and on her way to the staircase.
The old building hadn’t been refitted with an elevator, which was fine. It was only three stories tall. She could count the daily climb up the stairs as part of her exercise regimen. Besides, this wasn’t like climbing the dark, dingy, concrete stairwell of the Daily Planet back home. This was an old style, grand staircase that spiraled up the center of the building and was open to each floor as you went up. She couldn’t seem to keep from gawking as she climbed the stairs.
The excited bounce in her step carried her to the top floor more quickly than she had expected, and she found herself climbing the last few steps with a nervous wobble in her knees. Oh for goodness sake, she chastised herself, this wasn’t her first day, after all. Maybe, technically, it was her first day *here*, but she’d worked for the Daily Planet for years. No reason to get all flustered and excited now.
But she was kidding herself. This was all new. This wasn’t the same old-same old reporting amidst the hustle and bustle of Metropolis city life. This was Paris. And this was a style of reporting that she was unaccustomed to.
But Lois had always loved a challenge. And this was what she had come here for, after all. A change of scenery, a change of pace... a fresh start.
She completed the last couple of steps and made her entrance as if she owned the place.
**********
Clark found himself checking the clock on his computer screen for the umpteenth time since arriving at work that morning. He kept wondering what Lois was up to... where she might be at that exact moment...
If some maniacal criminal had her tied up in the sewer system beneath the city and was...
Clark shook his head at himself. He needed to get a grip. Perry had frowned at him more than once during the staff meeting earlier. Clark just couldn’t seem to stay focused. He was worried about Lois. She would probably chastise him if she knew, but he couldn’t help it.
He glanced back down at the clock again. There was a six hour time difference. If he wanted to make a quick pass by her hotel, just to check on her and make sure she was okay, he would need to wait until closer to her bedtime. Clark knew Lois wasn’t a socialite, but she certainly wasn’t a wallflower either. And her drive to be the best she could be at her job would push her to familiarize herself with her surroundings as quickly as possible.
Due to the time difference, he wouldn’t be able to wait until after work to go, though. That would be too late. He would just have to sneak out for a bit – it wasn’t like he hadn’t done that often enough for other reasons. And it wasn’t like he would be gone *that* long. Just a quick trip over to check on her and he would be back before anyone missed him.
Clark leaned back in his chair, allowing himself to relax a little. Now that he had made a decision, was taking action, he felt better. He felt more in control.
Then, that annoying little voice in his head decided to pop in for a visit.
Hadn’t he promised himself he wasn’t going to go to Paris to check on Lois? She wanted space. He was supposed to be giving her room and time to think.
Clark hated that little voice.
**********
Lois curled her lip in disgust as she surveyed her new working environment. Apparently the building wasn’t the only *old* thing around here. She never thought she’d see the day that she’d complain about there not being enough new technology available.
To be fair, there were computers and fax machines and printers, everything she *needed*. They just looked... well, old. If Jimmy were here, he’d probably faint. Definitely different from what she was used to in Metropolis.
She frowned – she wasn’t *in* Metropolis anymore. And if that meant she had to deal with a little less hi-tech, then so be it. Besides, just because it *looked* old, didn’t mean it *was* old. Maybe it was just well-worn. She should withhold judgment until she actually used it.
Of course, in order for her to use her computer, that would mean she would actually have to have a keyboard.
When she had sat down at her soon-to-be desk, she had been surprised to find that while she had a computer and a monitor... the keyboard was nowhere to be found. Just a slight oversight, no doubt. In fact, she wasn’t due to be at work until tomorrow. Maybe they just weren’t finished setting up her work station.
But it wouldn’t hurt to ask about it while she was here, just to make sure. She would be irritated if she got here in the morning and still didn’t have a keyboard.
As circumstance would have it, a young guy came walking past her desk at just that moment. He looked like he was in a hurry, and by the stacks of papers he was carrying, she would almost bet he was something like the Jimmy Olsen of this office.
Well, busy or not, he could spare a few seconds for her.
“Excuse me, could you...” she began.
“Oui. Juste une minute,” he said breathlessly and then plunked the heavy pile of paperwork down on the desk across from hers. “Que puis-je pour vour?” he said, turning back to face her.
Lois thought for a moment – what could he do for her? Is that what he said? She started to formulate an answer in French but then decided to try the easier route first. “Do you speak English?
“Ah, oui...” he replied with a smile. “Yes, I do speak English, Ms. Uh...?”
Thank goodness. “Lane. Lois Lane. Have you heard of me? I’m supposed to start work here tomorrow.”
His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and then he shook his head. “No, I am sorry.” Lois hid a smile at the way he said the word sorry – sawree - with a thick French accent. “I have not had the privilege of-”
“That’s okay,” she interrupted him. She felt stupid for thinking that her reputation in the States would have preceded her here. Actually, maybe she should be glad. Her reputation wasn’t what it used to be. “I was wondering who I needed to talk to about supplies.”
“Supplies?” He leaned to the side and glanced past her at her work station. “What are you missing?”
Where did she begin? No... just the necessities for now. “A keyboard. I have a computer but no keyboard.”
“Ah, I see,” he said with a brief nod. “I will let Mr. Boucher know; he will need to approve a requisition.”
Lois felt her chest constrict. Did he just say...? “Excuse me, did you say Mr. Bo...”
“Booshay,” he repeated, emphasizing the name phonetically for her. “Yes. Mr. Claude Boucher is the junior editor-in-chief. He...”
“Oh, no... no, no...” Lois turned away from the young man and walked unsteadily over to her desk, plopping down in her chair. “This can’t be happening,” she mumbled.
“Pardon?” he asked, looking confused.
Lois suddenly felt sick at her stomach. She didn’t want to be here right now. She needed some fresh air. “Nothing. Thank you for your help, um... I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
“Phillipe. And you are welcome, Ms. Lane.” He fumbled nervously for a few seconds before continuing, “If you don’t need anything else...” He gestured at the stack of paperwork he had set down.
“Oh, yes, of course. No, please, I’m fine. Thank you,” she rambled on auto-pilot, waving a hand at him in dismissal.
As she watched Phillipe hurry off on whatever errand he was on, she contemplated her current situation.
Paris had suddenly lost a lot of its appeal.
*********
To be continued...
