Thanks as always to Beth, Carol, and Mark!
From Chapter 45
Lap dog Clark asked the first question. She should not have been surprised. “Mister Secretary. Clark Kent. Metropolis Star…”
Right, he worked for the Star. No reason why she had to be polite. “Mister Secretary. Lois Lane, Daily Planet,” she cut him off.
“Excuse me,” Linda got involved. “But I believe Clark was asking a question!”
Lois glared at Clark. Linda was fighting his battles for him now? How pathetic! “What, can't Clark speak for himself anymore?” she asked, her eyes on Clark.
“Maybe he's just gotten so used to you doing it for him…” Linda answered.
“Enough!” Clark said, very loudly. “I'm pretty sure we're here for a press conference. Not to listen to the two of you bicker!”
Lois was annoyed to see Linda give Clark a glare pretty similar to the one she gave him. Only she was allowed to look at him like that!
Chapter 46
“So, you don't think Linda is in on it?” Perry asked.
“No, not anymore,” Clark said as he took a sip of tea. He and Perry had agreed to meet at Clark's apartment to discuss the case away from prying eyes. “She mentioned to me that he's been hitting on her. Something about it, though… I don't know. But I get the impression that Carpenter makes Linda uncomfortable. I could be wrong, it's just a feeling. If she is involved, she doesn't trust me enough to let me know.”
Perry nodded his head. “You need to trust your instincts, Clark. If you think she's innocent, maybe it's time to find out.”
“You mean tell her what Carpenter is up to?” Clark asked.
“We need some way to investigate Carpenter,” Perry pointed out.
Before Clark could answer, there was a knock at the door. “I'll hide in…” Perry looked around quickly. “In there,” he said, pointing to the closet.
Clark made sure Perry was out of sight before he opened the door.
“Okay, what are you up to?” Lois asked as soon as Clark answered the door.
“Up to?” Clark asked. He sort of wished he had checked to see who was at the door before opening it. Really, just opening it without checking was stupid. If it was anyone besides his parents or Superman, he would not want them to know about his guest. Given that his parents were unlikely to stop by unannounced and Superman usually came in through the balcony (and always checked to make sure Clark was alone first), the truth was that he should not have answered the door at all.
“Don't act all innocent with me,” Lois demanded, looking him up and down with contempt. “You're up to something and I'm going to find out what.” Lois moved past him into the living room and seemed to spy the table with the two cups of tea on it immediately, as she whirled around to face him. “Is she here? Is that what's going on?”
“Linda?” Clark confirmed and when Lois did not answer, he asked, “Why would I feel the need to hide Linda from you? She's my partner. What's the big deal with having her over?”
“Well, then,” Lois challenged. “Whose mug is that?”
Clark thought quickly, or at least tried to. It was hard with Lois glaring at him like that. Linda was the obvious choice and he could say that she had already left. The problem was he hated the idea of lying to Lois. Telling her the truth, though, was not going to make things better.
Or he could say it was Superman's. That was an even more obvious choice than Linda. Except, he was not really sure he wanted Perry to hear that he was having tea with Superman.
Lois seemed to take his silence to mean he had something to hide – which, of course, he did. She turned away from him and with a slightly scary tone to her voice she called, “Come out, come out, where ever you are.”
Clearly having Perry think he was having tea with Superman was better than having Lois know what he was up to. Besides, with Perry in the closet it was not clear that he would be able to hear him anyway.
“Lois,” he said, following her into the bedroom, “you know sometimes Superman drinks tea with me.”
Lois turned around and looked at him critically. “Superman likes tea?”
Clark nodded. That was the truth – he did like tea. Of course, it was not the truth that Superman had been drinking tea here earlier, but Clark had not actually said that he was.
“Oh,” Lois said deflated. “So Linda wasn't here.”
“No. Lois, she's my partner. But that's all. I know you have this impression that something is going on with us, but it's not.”
“I only have that impression "cause you follow her around with your tongue hanging out,” Lois lashed out.
“I do not!” Clark said. He was not sure why, but this ongoing argument about his behavior with Linda really got his goat.
“Really? Maybe I should give you a mirror so you can see how ridiculous you look!” Lois said, speaking more than a little loudly as she headed back to the living room.
“You are being completely unreasonable!” Clark yelled back at her.
“Me? I'm being unreasonable? You're the one who abandoned all your friends at the first sign of trouble. You know, I used to think you were a lot like Superman, but you've turned out to be a whole lot weaker than he is. He would never abandon his friends like this! Think about how Perry must feel!”
“I talked to Perry,” Clark said, his tone quieter now. He did not realize Lois had ever thought he was like Superman. The thing was, he did not feel much like Superman. He knew they had the same background and the same desire to help, but Lois was right – he was a lot weaker than Superman was.
“And you think he told you how he really feels?” Lois asked as she moved towards the door. “Face it, Clark. You let everyone down.”
************
“She is a spitfire,” Perry said, smiling as he exited the closet. Clark rolled his eyes in response. “Now, son, don't let her get you down. She'll forgive you just as soon as she knows what's going on. And certainly her behavior indicated that we were right – the further away we keep Lois from this, the better. Now did you really tell her you were having tea with Superman? It's hard to hear from the closet.”
Clark blushed and Perry smiled at him indulgently. “Well, Lois knows Superman and I are friends…” Clark said lamely.
“Well, it was good thinking,” Perry said. “It seemed to do the trick – she stopped looking around.”
“Yeah,” Clark said in reply.
“Buck up, son,” Perry said. “It will be fine once it's over.”
Clark nodded his head. He hoped so, but he was starting to wonder if Lois would ever forgive him.
************
“That can't be true,” Linda said, her eyes showing the shock she was feeling. “It just can't.”
Clark, watching her, was now certain he was correct. Linda was not a part of this. She seemed way too horrified about what Carpenter was doing to be playing a part in it. “Think about it,” he said gently. “He always calls to verify your location. He has editorials written to go alongside each of your articles. Those are pretty big coincidences.”
Linda nodded her head in agreement. “Still. I mean, sure Carpenter seems ambitious, and he's made some off-handed comments that made me think he might be a little off balance, but this is huge!”
“I'm sorry,” Clark said, putting a hand on top of hers for comfort. “I know this is a shock.”
Linda nodded slowly. “What do we do to catch him?” she asked, and Clark grinned. He could see how she and Lois would have had issues – they were a lot alike.
“Well, first, while it's not the most important thing, let's get something straight. This is a Planet story.”
“But you work for the Star now,” Linda said, but then the light bulb when off, “You also work for the Planet, don't you? Why didn't you tell me this from the beginning?”
“I didn't know for sure,” Clark said, not wanting to let her know that he had suspected her. “I needed to get on the inside to see if I was right.”
“How is it that Lois is letting you do this on your own?” Linda asked. Clearly, the uncertainty she had been feeling at knowing she had been duped by Carpenter was gone now.
“Linda, I don't want to keep getting in the middle of you and Lois,” Clark said.
“No one's putting you in the middle. I just asked a question,” Linda said, the picture of pure innocence.
“First off, Lois is my partner, not my boss. I'm not sure what your impression of our relationship is, but we're equal partners…”
“I bet that's not how Lois would describe it,” Linda cut in.
“Actually,” Clark said, feeling himself start to get annoyed, “it is how she described it. I had amnesia a few weeks ago and when she showed me around the newsroom that is exactly how she described our relationship. I know you and Lois have your differences, but Lois and I are friends as well as partners, and I'd appreciate it if you would stop making snide comments about her.”
“Okay,” Linda said quietly. “I can't promise to keep quiet in front of her, but when it's just the two of us, I'll stop.”
Clark smiled. “Good. Now, Lois doesn't actually know I'm working on this. Which doesn't change the fact that it's a Planet story.”
“Got it,” Linda said. “But I want a name on the byline, too. You can't get this story without me.”
“Fair enough,” Clark said.
“How are we going to get this story?” Linda asked.
Clark smiled. He was starting to see why Linda had stolen Lois' story in college. She was a good writer and she clearly had the drive, but when it came to investigative skills she did not compare to Lois. Lois was right – there was no question who was the better reporter.
“Well,” he said, “you said Carpenter has hit on you. Maybe you could use that. I just need you to get him out of his office long enough to take a look at his computer. I'm hoping he has his next editorial written there and we can guess the location of the next disaster.”
************
Lois walked into the hotel lobby annoyed. She was sick of the slow work week. Just because there was nothing to work on and she was without a partner, because Clark turned out to be about as loyal as Benedict Arnold, should not mean that she was stuck with nothing to do.
In an effort to change that, she had a meeting with Bobby Bigmouth this afternoon. Only he knew how hard up she was for a lead, so had only agreed to meet with her if she brought him his favorite lobster bisque from the Grand Hotel's seafood restaurant.
She was about to walk into the restaurant when she spotted Linda and her puppy, Kent, having a discussion a few feet away. Before either of them spotted her, Clark walked off and Linda stood in place for a minute before following Preston Carpenter.
It was weird – Linda seemed to be trying to keep out of Carpenter's sight. Lois had no idea why she would not want her editor to see her, but decided to follow Linda. There was a story here, she could smell it.
************
“What are you doing here?” Linda asked her angrily.
“I'm following you,” Lois said, her voice equally angry. “What are you doing following your editor around?”
“I'm working. You should go!” Linda said.
“I'm not leaving. Feel free to go yourself,” Lois said, her voice firm.
“Linda, dear,” a voice came from overhead. “I see that you've discovered that I won't be making it back to our dinner date.”
************
Clark was trying to determine the best way to stop the assassination when he heard the scream. That sounded like Lois. What was Lois doing here? What was he going to do?
An arm snapped out of the hallway he was passing and tugged on him – hard. “Excuse me!” Clark said, then saw who it was. “What are you doing here?” he asked confused.
“Just stay focused on the assassination,” Superman said. “I'll get Lois and Linda. Are you going to be okay?”
Clark nodded. “I think so. The make-up looks good by the way. Barely noticeable.”
Superman smiled. “Well, I guess I'm about to put it to the test. We'll see if Lois notices.”
************
Lois sighed. She was going to die. Worse yet, she was going to die tied to Linda King. This morning she thought her life could not get any worse. Now she knew she was wrong.
“This is just great!” she mumbled.
“I did not steal Paul Bender from you,” Linda said in response.
“I didn't say you did,” Lois said.
“So, that's not the problem between us?” Linda asked. “And while we're at it, I didn't steal Clark from you either.”
“You didn't? I guess I didn't walk in on you two playing tonsil hockey, but…”
“Fine!” Linda said. “I did sort of steal Paul from you. But it wasn't like you were dating or something. It was a crush. I didn't realize that made him off limits.”
“You didn't?” Lois asked, the disbelief clear in her voice. “Was I your first friend?”
Linda took a deep breath. “We're about to die in here, Lois. Could we try to get along for the last few moments of life?”
“No,” Lois said. “I'm sorry, but it's been five years and nothing is different.”
“I didn't steal Clark from you!” Linda insisted. “I mean, I admit, I tried, but he was resistant.”
“What do you mean, "resistant'?” Lois asked. “I mean, he is your partner now.”
“Not really,” Linda muttered.
“What do you mean, not really? Are you using him, Linda? I told you, Clark is…”
“Clark is not stupid!” Linda insisted.
“Of course not,” Lois replied. “Why would I partner with someone that was? Clark is naïve.”
“Not as naïve as you think. It was all a ruse,” Linda said. “He's still working for the Planet.”
“What?” Lois asked, confused now.
“As you can tell, Carpenter is planting the stories and making sure I'm in the right place to report them. Clark figured it out and took a job at the Star to uncover Carpenter.”
“He did?” Lois asked, completely confused. “But he didn't tell me.”
“Do you blame him?” Linda asked. “You're not exactly objective right now.”
“Did Perry know?” Lois asked, ignoring the barb.
Before Linda could answer, the door to the freezer was ripped off. “Ladies,” Superman said as he came over and pulled them both to their feet.
************
Lois stared out the window. She was so angry at Clark. He had let her believe he was abandoning her and the paper. Sure, he was not actually doing so, but he had let her believe he was doing that.
To make matters worse, because he had left her out of the loop, the byline for the story breaking the Carpenter/Star issue was “by Clark Kent, with special assistance from Linda King”. No mention of Lois Lane at all. Not that that was unfair. Of course she was not mentioned. She was completely unrelated to the story.
Oh, Clark suggested she write a sidebar article, but that was almost patronizing. Lois Lane did not write side bars, she wrote the main article, thank you very much.
How could he and Perry keep this from her?
She stood up. She was not going to sit here and get angrier and angrier at Clark. She was going to go over to his apartment and let him know how angry she was.
************
She sat outside in her car looking at the lights on inside. She needed to knock on his door, but somehow, now that she was here, the fight had gone out of her. She was feeling less angry and more hurt.
He had let her think he had abandoned her. How could he do that? She thought they were friends. Didn't he know how much of a sore spot this was for her?
Sighing, though, she realized that she was being unfair. Clark did not know that this was an issue for her. She had never told him – how would he know?
With a sigh, she opened her car door and walked up the walkway to Clark's apartment.
