Last time:
Lois
"Lois," Perry hollered. "My office."
Great. Here was the lecture.
"Yeah, Chief?"
"We're going to talk about the whole Latislan thing later – and how you misdirected me when you interviewed."
"I'm not sorry," I told him honestly. "I couldn’t risk the attention."
He waved a hand. "I know. Right now, I need you to get down to EPRAD. After Clark left yesterday, they found the same problem on the transport as had been on Messenger. But, like Dr. Klein said, it was an easy fix. I need you down there to cover the launch."
"On it." I grabbed my things and headed towards the elevator.
"Bring me an exclusive!" he yelled after me.
"Have I ever brought you anything less?" I called back.
I could hear his chuckle until after the doors closed behind me.
Now I just had to figure out how.
*~*137*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
"Son, I hate to ask you this, but could you come in for a while?" Perry had called on my day off.
I sighed. Christopher and I were just getting into a game of Candy Land.
"What time?" I asked.
"An hour or so. I need you to do some research here in the office and then cover the transport launch."
"I thought Lois was covering that," I said, puzzled.
"She was. She called a minute ago and said she had a hot lead from a guy you worked with the other day and will miss the launch. I'd call someone else, but Serena's having a really bad day – I guess it's finally really happening – and Billy's staying with her. Everyone else is already assigned to other things."
I sighed. "Sure. I'll be in before long."
We finished our game of Candy Land and Sam said he'd take care of the boys for me. There was no mention of what was going on with me and Lois. I wasn't sure what that meant.
I gave both the kids big hugs and kisses before I left.
I spent about an hour researching the Platts, not just Samuel but his wife, Lori, and daughter, Amy.
I glanced at my watch. I had about an hour before I had to head towards EPRAD for the launch. I checked out with Perry and went to the deli around the corner. I couldn't believe how busy it was on a Sunday until I remembered the ball game was starting before too long. Most of the crowd were wearing Metropolitan blue.
I saw someone in a Cedano jersey and sighed. He was Lois' favorite – even though he'd left the year before.
I was just getting ready to take a big bite of my sandwich when I heard my name.
"Clark?"
I turned to see Lana standing there.
"Look, normally I wouldn't ask, but there's nowhere else to sit..." Her voice trailed off.
"Go ahead." I gestured to the seat across from me.
"How are you?" she asked quietly. "I saw the news yesterday and this morning. They showed Lois leaving the house."
"The Pittsdale police are usually pretty good about keep the streets clear, but they've found some way around the ordinance and the cops haven't been able to do anything about it yet."
"How are you doing?"
I shrugged. "Glad he's dead."
"What does that mean for you guys?"
"It means he can't claim Christopher anymore."
"That's good." There was a long pause. "How's Lois?" she asked finally.
I sighed. "I'm not sure I should be talking about this with you."
"I hope I'm still your friend," she said quietly. "No matter what happened with us in the past, you could use one right about now."
"I guess it doesn't really matter now anyway." I sighed. "Lois moved out, back to her old room. We always said it was going to end as soon as the threat from Navance ended. The whole reason for keeping the secrets was because of the danger to Christopher and that danger doesn’t exist anymore." I took a bite of my salad. "When we first got married, I hoped you'd wait for me. I hoped that the day after this baby turned five, I'd end up on your doorstep and we'd have some kind of movie reunion moment."
"You had to know it wouldn't work like that," she said earnestly. "Life isn't a movie."
I sighed. "I was eighteen. I was in shock, reeling from everything that happened. I hated what I was doing to you, but I didn't see any other way. You didn't see him. Even Lois didn't see him at his worst. The things he threatened to do..." I shuddered involuntarily. "He was evil personified. When he threatened to either never let her leave or make her leave and keep the baby, the only thing I could do was claim to be the dad." I pushed the lettuce around on the black Styrofoam plate. "I didn't know when I said it that it was only valid if we were married. We managed to get her out of the hospital and to the embassy where we got married and planned to annul it as soon as we got back. I knew you'd be pissed, but I'd hoped that you'd understand."
She sighed. "I don't know if I would have or not. You stood me up on what was supposed to be a romantic evening in Paris for the roommate you swore nothing was going on with. I'd even hoped that you were going to ask me to marry you that week."
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, poking at a cherry tomato with my fork. "I was. I had to hawk your ring to pay for the wedding and bands. I sold it to an embassy Marine who got a really good deal."
She swiped at a tear.
"I was trying to stop her, you know. I hadn't planned on going with her. I just chased her out the door to try to get her to turn around. Before I knew what happened, we were on a plane to Latislan." I stabbed at a cucumber. "I never wanted to hurt you."
"I did," she said suddenly. "I wanted to hurt you like you'd hurt me but I didn't think that was possible. You were married with a baby coming. You had it all. You'd told me it wasn't real, that you weren't going to sleep with her..."
"I didn't. Just the once – well, just after Sam's heart attack. When she got pregnant with Nate." I didn't think she needed to know how many times it had actually happened. "That's the only time..."
"I believe you. But at the time..." She wiped at her cheeks again. "When we were on our way to Smallville, you were taking care of her and sleeping close to her and she was wearing your clothes and you two were *married*. I slept with Tim out of spite. He knew that, mostly, I think. That I was just using him to get back at you. I always liked him, you know that, and I didn't really want to hurt him and he wasn't expecting a relationship or anything – though that's kind of what we had – off and on whenever I was home. And then I slept with a couple other guys after that. I figured why not? Then when I heard Christopher had been born, we weren't careful and I got pregnant."
"My heart broke for you when I heard what happened."
"I know." There was a long pause. "I've grown up a lot since then. No matter what I think about you, sleeping around isn't going to make me feel better about myself. Only I can do that. I've had to learn who I am without you. I've grown up a lot and, as awful as it was to hold her for a few minutes knowing that she wouldn't survive, I wasn't in any position to be anyone's mother at that point in my life. Whether I would have been a few months later..." She shrugged. "Who knows? Lois is a great mom," she said, surprising me. "She loves those kids so much..."
I nodded. "That she does and they love her."
"But she moved out?"
"She moved back to her old room. We stayed there for a few days when we first moved in before all the security upgrades were done on the other part of the house, but the room where she lived growing up. I was talking to my parents, telling them everything and then to... someone else." I wasn't ready to tell her I had a brother – not yet. "By the time I got back, she'd moved everything and was asleep in the other room. This morning she told me she's going to call the lawyer tomorrow and is looking for an apartment."
"She's going to move into an apartment with two little boys?" she asked with a raised brow.
"No. She's planning on moving in alone and leaving the boys with me at her dad's house – he said we can stay as long as I want."
"She doesn't want them?" Her skepticism came through easily.
"It's not that. She thinks they'll be better off with me."
"What do you think?"
I sighed. "I think what would be best all around, would be for me to be in love with Lois and live happily ever after or something. I think that Lois is still struggling a lot more than she's been telling me." I ran a hand – the one with the band on it – through my hair. "The first year was horrible. Beyond horrible. I was mean and spiteful and hateful and virtually ignored her but because of the threat and because she was so sick, she ended up being a hermit and I spent as much time as I could anywhere but anywhere near her. She struggled a lot that year – especially after Christopher was born. The second year was a lot better until after Pop Pop died and our names came out and even then things weren't *bad*. Since we found out she was pregnant with Nate..." I sighed. "She's spent most of her time trying to keep her head above water. Between being sick when she was pregnant and his health problems... It's only been the last couple months that she's been sleeping for more than an hour or hour and a half at a time. We... Us... We went on the back burner to trying to survive. I think she really believes they'll be better off with me, but I'm not sure that's true."
"You think they'd be better off with both their parents?"
"Aren't most kids?"
"And that's not an option for Lois?"
"It's an option for her. She told me a long time ago that she'd fallen in love with me at some point but not to worry about her, she'd be over it before the five years were up, but we're still two years short of that."
"And for you?" she asked. "Is it an option for you?"
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I gave an exasperated sigh. "I *know* I don't have anything with me, but you didn't give me much time and besides, Clark's the one who knows where to get the really good stuff." I wasn't really speaking to him at the moment, but I wasn't above using him to get the story.
"I don't know, Lois."
He sounded skeptical and, really, I couldn’t blame him. He'd never worked with me before. Even though Clark had been good to his word, how did he know I would be? I had to convince him.
I wasn't above pleading. "Come on, Bobby. Clark got you *great* Chinese the other day. I can *promise* you he'll get you Italian that's just as good, but you gotta help me out." I had no idea if I should really be promising Bobby that, but maybe I could leave Clark a voice mail. Surely he'd do it for the sake of the story, if not for my sake.
We were walking through the area known as Suicide Slum. I felt more than a bit nervous but I was also pretty sure that he wouldn’t take me anywhere too dangerous. And for a skinny guy, he looked like he knew how to take care of himself.
He sighed. "Okay. Here's the deal. Platt's back on the transport..."
"How? Everyone still thinks he's crazy."
"No. Not everyone. There's a few people who were being pressured into saying he was crazy and that brother-in-law of yours corroborating his research went a long way with those who really did think he was crazy."
"My brother-in-law?"
"Dr. Klein. He's your husband's brother, right?"
I sighed and nodded. So much for no one noticing.
"Anyway, when Dr. Klein agreed with his assessments and they found the problem yesterday, suddenly he wasn't crazy anymore."
"Okay, so he's back on the transport."
"Right, but no one knows yet. Not his wife and daughter, not anyone. Only a couple of big mucky mucks. He's using false papers as a member of the hospitality crew on the transport."
"If he's not considered crazy anymore, why the secrecy?" That didn't make any sense.
"Because he knows something's going to happen. Something big and I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's going to happen on the launch pad or at launch or half way to the space station or even on Prometheus itself. I can't find out what it is and he can't either."
"So go and find out what it is?"
"I can't go take care of it because I've got this inner ear thing. I have another set of documents that would get you on board if you're up for it."
"Why me?"
"My gut says you're the one to go and my gut's always right."
I bit my bottom lip as I thought about it. The transport ship was only supposed to be gone for a few days – just long enough to drop off the colonists and supplies before coming back. I'd let Perry know where I was going and he could tell Clark. It could be the distance Clark and I needed to get our official separation started. The boys would be taken care of and Nate was showing signs of weaning anyway so... Especially if he was going to be living with Clark, he wouldn't be nursing much longer anyway.
I nodded. "Let's do it."
*****
TBC
