Hello everyone! Ready for part 6?
Thanks to Sue for making me giggle with the beta she gave me and thanks to Lara for keeping me on track with the French. (And again, please remember that the accent marks have been omitted so as not to confuse the posting)
Table of Contents Here we go!
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PART SIX
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Clark frowned over at Cat. “Dinner?”
She smiled lasciviously at him.
He folded his arms and continued, “I don’t remember making plans to go to dinner with you.”
“Well this is my last night in town,” she purred, imploringly. “You wouldn’t want me to spend it alone, would you?”
“Cat...”
“Oh, come on, Clark,” she chided him. “Go out and have a couple of drinks with me... as a friend.”
“As a friend?”
She nodded.
He raised an eyebrow suspiciously and she pouted.
“What do you want?” she asked exasperatedly. “An oath signed in blood?”
He waited a half-second too long to respond and she narrowed her eyes at him.
“Okay,” he conceded with a small smile. If he didn’t do *something* to occupy his time tonight, he might end up over in Paris again. “What time?”
Cat smiled widely.
**********
“So, Clark” Cat began, grinning playfully like a cat toying with a mouse, “how are things with you and Lois?”
Clark shrugged. “We have an ocean separating us. So-”
“So things couldn’t be better then,” she teased.
He sighed. “I miss my partner. I know she never wanted a partner, but I had always hoped the idea would grow on her.”
Cat nodded. “It did.”
“Yeah, right.”
“It did, Clark,” she insisted. “Whether Lois wants to admit it or not, she liked working with you and I bet she misses you... more than she’d ever admit.”
Clark gave her a lopsided grin. “Thanks. You know how to make a guy feel good.”
“You have no idea,” she murmured, narrowing her eyes licentiously.
He shifted uncomfortably, grasping at how to respond.
“Relax,” she told him, smiling, “I’m not trying to come onto you, Clark. I gave up on that a long time ago. I know your heart only belongs to one woman.”
Clark felt his jaw drop. He opened his mouth to object but she continued, “No, now don’t deny it. What I’m trying to figure out is how long it will take you to jump on a plane and go over there and tell her.”
He looked away from her, feeling his face flush. “It’s not that simple.”
Cat shook her head. “It never is, trust me.”
“You don’t understand,” he told her miserably. “I’ve already tried to tell her once.” He shook his head. “She’s not interested in me that way.”
“If you believe that, then you really are the simple farmboy fool that people mistook you for,” she scolded him. “Either that or you don’t understand women at all.”
“Cat-”
“Lois is crazy about you, whether she’ll admit to it or not. Believe me. I know Lois. I can tell.” She gave him a knowing look. “And there are all kinds of *partners*, Clark. You might be surprised just what kind of partner she sees in you.”
He was speechless. This was a side of Cat that few people probably ever got to see. She was drop dead serious.
Clark just wished he could believe her.
**********
Lois downed her third martini and managed to do it without making a face this time. The first one had seemed way too dry for her tastes. The second one hadn’t been half-bad. But this one, this one went down really smooth.
Did that mean the bartender was getting better? Or that her perception of taste was going down with each drink?
“You better take it easy, Lois,” Claude warned her. “You keep this up and I might have to carry you home.”
“Not in your lifetime,” Lois slurred, turning to look at him.
She must have turned a little too fast because the room seemed to be spinning now and she grabbed hold of the table to steady herself.
“Besides,” she continued, “I’m a big girl and it’s the weekend.”
Claude frowned slightly and it irritated Lois because the gesture somehow seemed to make him more attractive. He looked very cultured and charming tonight in his dark blue suit.
Blue suit... blue...
That color threatened to take her mind somewhere that she didn’t want it to go, so she diverted her attention. “What do you care, anyway?”
Claude was still frowning. “I didn’t take you out tonight to get you drunk.”
“Oh, really?” she quipped. “You mean you weren’t hoping to take advantage of me again?”
He looked wounded and Lois felt a little guilty... just a little.
“I don’t want to see you do something you’ll regret later,” he explained, raising his hand and motioning to the waiter. “Or that I’ll regret.”
Lois snorted. “A little late for that, don’t you think?”
The waiter walked up and Claude pulled out his wallet. “Garcon? Pourriez-vous m’apporter la note, s’il vous plait?”
Lois shook her head, trying to decipher what he had just said. “What are you doing?”
“I am paying the bill and then I will take you home.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think so. I’ll drive, thank you.”
Claude looked like he was trying to conceal a smile, which only served to further her irritation. “What?” she demanded.
“What will you drive?” he asked, raising an eyebrow of his own. “You have no car here.”
Lois frowned. “I’ll walk.”
A smile had risen to his lips that he seemed to be fighting to conceal. “Now, *that* I would like to see.”
Her frown deepened to a scowl. “Fine. I’ll hail a taxi.”
He sighed. “Please, Lois, let me take you home.” He glanced at the small, elegant purse she had brought with her. “I doubt you carry enough francs in there to even get you home.”
She glowered at him. “Who says I need francs? Maybe I’ll just use my feminine wiles. Who knows, maybe I’ll even luck out and get more than just a cab ride.” She couldn’t believe she just said that.
Surprisingly enough, Claude seemed a bit distraught. “Lois, don’t-”
She waved off the rest of his comment. “I’m leaving. It makes no difference to me whether or not you decide to follow me.” She stood up abruptly and the room tilted at a nauseating angle.
Maybe it did make a difference...
Lois stalked towards the door and then looked back at Claude in annoyance when the room lurched again. “Well? Are you coming or not?”
**********
Clark let out a long sigh as he walked through his front door. His evening with Cat had been surprisingly pleasant, and he realized that he was actually going to miss her. She had her faults to be sure, but once you got past the exterior façade she put on, you could see the real person.
She had always kept things interesting.
He hated that she was leaving. She had technically left back when the bomb at The Planet had disrupted all of their lives, but now it seemed more official.
Everyone was leaving.
He sighed again. Not everyone. Just Cat and Lois. Cat would be missed, but Lois... Lois had left a hole that Clark didn’t really know how to fill, even if Cat had made the answer seem easy.
The flashing light of his answering machine caught his attention, and his hopes rose briefly. Maybe Lois’ dinner hadn’t turned out well and-
He frowned. That wasn’t very altruistic of him. Shouldn’t he want her to be doing okay? To be enjoying herself in Paris? He didn’t want her to be miserable...
...he just didn’t want to think about her having dinner with another man.
He pressed the button on the machine and listened while he undid his tie.
The first message was from Jimmy, asking if he’d like to go hit a movie with him this weekend.
His mom’s voice came on next, checking to see how he was doing and letting him know all the big news in Smallville. One of their neighbor’s bulls had broken through the fence and apparently had caused a little damage before he was wrangled back into his pen.
Then... the voice he had been hoping for.
“Clark? Why do I never get to talk to *you*?”
He frowned. Something about Lois’ voice didn’t seem right, almost like she was slurring her words.
She sighed before continuing, “How was your date with Cat?” She said the name distastefully. “I bet it was better than my date with Claude.”
Claude? Clark blinked in shock. She went to dinner with Claude?
He still didn’t know if the guy was *the* ‘Claude’ and he didn’t have time to contemplate it further before Lois continued, “Not sure, but I think I’m maybe a little drunk.”
Yeah, no argument from him.
“Can you believe I’d go to dinner with Claude and get smashed?” She let out a small sound resembling a hiccup and then continued, “I mean it’s Claude!” she exclaimed. “What am I, stupid?” There was a sigh and then, “I’m not even sure how I got back to my hotel... hey, what time is it?”
Apparently someone answered her because then she continued, “Oh, wow. It’s late.” There was a pause and then it sounded like she was talking to someone but Clark couldn’t make out what was being said. Then Lois was back on the phone. “I gotta go. He’s gonna help me to my room. He’s so sweet. Bye, Clark.”
He? He who? Claude?
Clark didn’t like the sound of that at all. Claude had taken Lois out to dinner, gotten her drunk, and now he was taking her to her room?
Heading for his balcony door, Clark spun out of his dress suit and into his *other* suit.
Stalking or not, he had to go check on Lois.
**********
Clark flew faster than he had flown in a while, but it wasn’t fast enough for him. Every second killed him until he was finally there.
He could hear Lois crying as he approached her hotel and he x-rayed through the wall, apprehensively, to see what was happening.
What he saw made him pause.
The hotel manager, Jacques, was slipping a pillow behind Lois’ head and then he pulled a blanket up around her.
“Shh,” Jacques soothed. “It will all be better in the morning, I promise.”
Lois cried some more. “No, it won’t,” she blubbered almost incoherently. “I shoulda never come here. I shoulda told Clark-”
“You can tell him tomorrow, oui?” he pacified her. “When you are thinking more clearly.”
“No,” she murmured. “I can’t...”
She trailed off and Clark realized a second later that she had actually dozed off.
“Bonne nuit, chere Lois.”
Clark watched until Jacques had left the room, then he floated down into a nearby alley.
...I shoulda told Clark...
Told him what?
Maybe it was time for Clark Kent to make a weekend getaway to Paris.
**********
Lois woke up to a horrid pounding in her brain. Gah, how much had she drunk last night?
Obviously too much.
She squinted her eyes against the bright white slivers of happy sunlight that were stabbing through her brain, sharper than any kitchen knife.
Never again. She solemnly swore that she would never drink again.
Climbing out of bed, she felt the sudden urge of nature calling and she ran to the bathroom.
After she washed her hands in the sink, she realized that her reflection in the mirror was still fully clothed in the little black dress she had worn the night before.
Good god, had she slept in her clothes?
Apparently so.
What else had she done? She tried to think but it hurt to concentrate too hard. So she gave up. Thinking was overrated this early in the morning, especially with a hang-over and before coffee.
Jacques had coffee downstairs in the café. All she needed to do was find something more appropriate to wear and-
There was a loud knock at her door that made her wince.
Who the heck would be knocking on her door at this time of the morning? Lois glanced down at the watch that she was still wearing from last night. Or at this time in the afternoon, actually...
She rolled her eyes. Did people actually enjoy getting drunk? What a waste of half of a perfectly good day.
There was another knock and Lois groaned. If she didn’t answer, would they go away?
A third knock.
Obviously not.
Lois walked out of the bathroom and over to the door, unceremoniously yanking it open.
Her eyes widened when she saw who was standing there. “Clark?” She blinked to make sure that she really was awake.
Clark eyed her curiously and then smiled. “That’s quite the lounging-in-my-room-in-the-middle-of-the-afternoon outfit. I like it.”
Lois felt her face flush. If he only knew...
“I was on my way out,” she lied.
“Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “I had assumed that you wouldn’t feel like it with a hangover.”
Lois gaped. “How did you-”
Clark winced, wrinkling his nose. “You, uh, left me a message last night.”
“I did?” she exclaimed. When he nodded, she added, “Oh, god.”
“Are you okay?” He looked concerned.
“I’m fine. Why? Actually, I’m the one who should be asking if you’re okay.”
“Me?”
Lois raised an eyebrow. “Um, yeah,” she said sarcastically. “You are *here*, in Paris. What are you doing here?”
“I came to check on you,” he said sincerely. “When we talked yesterday you seemed... and then there was that message... I just thought-”
Lois shook her head. “Good grief, a girl gets a little tipsy and you jump to the conclusion that all’s not right in-”
“Lois, please, I didn’t come here to fight.”
“Why are you here?” she asked bluntly. “You had to have flown a red-eye flight to get here. Why?”
Clark sighed. What did he say? How did he say it? She had broken his heart once; he wasn’t sure he could take it again.
But he was tired of dancing around it. “I came here to see you. I miss you, Lois.”
Lois looked skeptical. “Was your date last night with Cat that bad? That you had to jump on the first flight-”
“It was not a date,” he said emphatically. This really bothered her, he could tell. Why did it bother her? Because he was her *friend*? Or was it something more, like Cat had alluded to? “We had a couple of drinks... as friends. We reminisced... and we said goodbye. That was it.” He paused for a second and then added, “How was *your* date?”
Her eyes flashed momentarily but then her shoulders fell and she let out a sigh. “Awful.”
Clark felt a flush of anger. “Why?” What had this Claude, whoever he was, done to her? “What happened? You said you were going out with a colleague. Was it your boss?”
Lois frowned. “Not exactly... well, sort of...” She fidgeted for a minute as Clark waited. Should she tell him? How stupid, desperate, and ridiculous would it make her look? She sighed. “Do you remember the guy I told you about, the one I used to work with... the one who stole my story?”
“Claude?” Clark supplied easily. Then he gave her his best incredulous look. “*That* Claude? He’s here? And you went to dinner with him? Why?”
She looked miserable. “Yeah, look, it’s a long story. Let’s just suffice it to say that he is one of my superiors here and that maybe I didn’t paint the most accurate picture with what I told you about him.”
Clark frowned. It wouldn’t be the first time Lois hadn’t given him the whole truth about something, but still, the man had stolen her story... *after* he slept with her. The guy was slime in his book and he didn’t see why Lois was trying to cover over that fact.
But if she wanted to leave it at that, he wouldn’t press her. For now. “Did he do anything...? I mean, he didn’t... take advantage-”
“No. He didn’t.” She gave him a small smile. “He was actually a perfect gentleman, believe it or not.”
Clark nodded. He did believe it, but only because he had been here last night as Superman.
Lois shifted restlessly for a few seconds in awkward silence. When she finally couldn’t take it anymore, she blurted out, “So what now?”
Clark shrugged. “Well, you could show me around the city. I’ve heard Paris isn’t completely boring,” he said with a smile.
“Heard?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t lie to me. I’d bet money you’ve been to Paris before.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Me? The farmboy from Kansas?”
Lois smirked. “Don’t give me that. I know you’ve traveled. ‘Mating Rituals of the Knob-Tailed Gecko’ as seen in the Borneo Gazette sound familiar?”
Clark just gaped. She knew about that article? He had shown that to Perry as part of his collective work the first day he had tried to get a job at The Planet.
“If you did a stint in Borneo,” she continued, “I imagine there are a few other places you’ve been.” She crossed her arms as if daring him to deny it.
“Possibly,” he admitted with a smile. “But I’ve heard Paris is best enjoyed with a beautiful woman.”
Lois blushed and Clark’s smile broadened. She looked so striking in that black dress, but she also looked embarrassed, so he added, “Know where I could find one?”
She smacked his arm lightly. “Watch it, Kent.”
He laughed and held his hands up in surrender. “Or you’ll do.”
Lois gasped and smacked him again. “All right. Wait outside and I’ll change into something more appropriate.”
Clark nodded and stepped outside, closing her door.
He had the feeling this would be his favorite trip to Paris, bar none.
**********
To be continued...
