Lois was three blocks from the restaurant when she felt a sharp tug on her bag. Her martial arts training kicked in as she kicked out with her right foot while yanking her bag away from her would-be thief. “Don’t even try it today, buster. I am not in the mood,” she growled.
“Nobody cares what mood you’re in, lady. Hand over the bag and nobody gets hurt,” came the voice of a second hoodlum from behind her. She was pushed roughly into an alleyway. She still had hold of her bag, but there were two men. No guns in sight, that was good. She knew the bag was not worth her life, but right now it was the only connection she had to this brave new world and she wasn’t going to give it up without a struggle.
She had felled one tough with a roundhouse kick, but the other had her by the throat from behind and she had fallen forward onto her knees when she felt a gust of wind and heard the soft thud of boots landing on concrete. Suddenly the pressure eased and Lois drew a ragged breath.
“Two against one, boys—that’s hardly fair. How about I even the odds?” Superman had the two thugs be their respective collars. He looked like he wanted to pound their heads together until they would be lucky to wake up again. Lois had never seen him so angry. In fact, she’d never seen him show so much emotion of any kind.
Lois sat back on her heels and rested her hands on her knees as she fought to catch her breath. As the sound of sirens approached and stopped a few yards away, Superman visibly gathered himself together and deposited the perpetrators into the back seat of the patrol car that had arrived, probably summoned by some passer-by with one of those ubiquitous phones.
“Are you all right, Ms. Lane?”
“I will be. Thank you, Superman.” Sitting up straighter, Lois rubbed her shoulder where her arm felt like it had almost been dislocated from holding on to that bag.
“Thank you, officer,” Superman addressed a young woman in uniform. “Ms. Lane and I will be at the station shortly to give you our statements.”
As the patrol car pulled away, Superman seemed to scan the area. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he turned to Lois and kneeled to bring his eyes on a level with hers. In an instant, she watched his face transform from the kind but detached mask she associated with her hero to the most tender look of concern she had ever seen. One gentle hand reached out to cradle her cheek as he almost whispered, “How are you, really?”
How was she? Superman was touching her with an intimacy she had only dared imagine, and speaking to her with a familiar tone she had never heard him use with anyone. She took an experimental breath; she could breathe easily again. She’d have a few bumps and bruises by the morning, but she wasn’t seriously harmed. Her stockings were ripped at the knees, but nothing worse.
“I’m okay, really, Superman. Nothing that a new pair of nylons won’t cure.”
He sighed with relief and glanced at the hole in her hosiery, then gently lifted her to her feet and drew her into a warm embrace as he murmured, “It’s okay, Honey, you can drop the ‘Superman’ bit; there’s no one within half a block of us.”
<“Honey”?!> What was going on here?
“Superman, I’m fine, really, but you don’t seem yourself this morning. Is everything all right?”
“What, you mean because I was so angry I almost knocked those two street rats into next Tuesday?” He gave her an easy smile, “I’m okay; I just tend to take it personally when someone roughs up my wife; I’m a little funny that way.” His half-shrug was accompanied by a teasing twinkle in his eyes. Superman’s eyes could twinkle? Who knew?
Lois couldn’t believe what she was hearing; she was Superman’s wife? This was beyond even her most hopeful late night fantasy. Sure, she had imagined all sorts of romantic scenarios, but they had all been short-term, stolen moments—dinner in Paris, a walk on some moonlit tropical beach, flying over acres of unspoiled wilderness to land for some passionate love-making in a remote mountain meadow—but marriage? Superman was her husband? He was the other part of the “we” on her answering machine? He was the reason she bought $130 worth of groceries? He had an address on Hyperion Avenue? Her head was spinning.
Then her head was completely emptied of thought as Superman lowered his lips to hers for the softest and sweetest of kisses. Too soon he raised his head again, saying, “By the way, Perry and I have been trying to reach you all morning. Your phone is off and you left your Blackberry at the Planet. I told him you were tracking down some leads on the Met General case, but you might want to check in soon. I was about to come looking for you myself.”
Before she could answer, he got a far-off look on his face and Lois knew he was hearing something beyond her human senses.
“I’m sorry, Sweetheart,” he sighed in resignation, “I’ve got to go. I’m hearing a report of a Metro cave-in in Washington. I don’t know how long I’ll be, but if I don’t make it back to the office by 6:30, I’ll meet you at the ceremony tonight. Make my excuses to the police, will you?” Then, with a rueful smile and one more quick peck, so casual that she was sure he had kissed her good-bye hundreds of times, he was gone, and Lois was left standing in the alley with her mouth hanging open.
What had he said? “If I don’t make it back to the office?” What office? Superman had an office? Wait, he must have meant her office—the Daily Planet office. Did he always pick her up there after work? Did he fly her off every evening to that house on Hyperion? Did everyone at the Planet know they were married? Perry had been asking him about her, so he must know. Yet Superman had seemed to treat her distantly in front of the muggers and the police officer. So, how public was this marriage? Had Superman been wearing a ring as well? She couldn’t remember. But if everyone knew that she was married, they must know about him as well, mustn’t they? Unless she had given out some kind of cover story about an absentee husband? She’d better keep a lid on that idea until she figured out what people knew. And why would she have blackberries at her office?
What had he meant about meeting her at a ceremony? What ceremony? Well, if she was going to see him again this evening, she’d better hurry up with that police statement and get to the Planet so she could start figuring things out. Maybe the information was in her calendar at work. But she still had to give her statement to the police. And buy a new pair of nylons. It looked like lunch would be a cheese sandwich from the snack machine again.
