Here's my Part 2 to HappyGirl's story.
It's unbeta'ed and a little stretched in places - but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Corrina.
HG's Part 1 ...
Clark had surmised from the conversation that the woman must be the famous Lois Lane. They hadn’t been properly introduced, though. Clark stood and was about to introduce himself when Jim Olsen beat him to it.
“Clark, I don’t think you’ve met the other half of the team yet.”
He turned to Lois and said “Lois, I’d like you meet my new friend and colleague, Clark Kent.”
Then, turning to Clark and casually draping an arm around Lois’s shoulders, Jim continued, “Clark, I’d like you to meet Lois Lane, the Planet’s best investigative reporter, and my wife."
Part 2 ...
His *wife*.
Clark arranged his face into a mask of polite acknowledgement, even as sharp disappointment gouged a trench through his heart.
Lois leant out of Jim’s embrace and stretched her hand towards Clark. He stared at it, dumbfounded, then with a start, took her hand in his. Her touch discharged a series of fiery darts the length of his arm.
Another man’s wife.
Clark deliberately turned his attention back to Perry. Or more accurately, *away* from Lois.
“You two all set?” Perry said, his question directed at Jim and Lois.
Jim winked at Lois. “You bet, Chief,” he said. “You can trust The Hottest Team in Town.”
Clark swallowed as a never-before-experienced emotion engulfed him.
Envy.
Jim Olsen was the luckiest man alive.
+-+-+-+
The next morning, Clark waited as a sporadic stream of people - some he’d met, some he hadn’t – flowed into the conference room.
He stared into his coffee, letting the hubbub wash over him. He didn’t really want the drink, but he’d got it as a precaution. He might just need a distraction when Lois and Jim walked in.
After spending the night together.
Whilst he’d had to constantly drag his mind back from the boundary of impropriety.
Perry walked in and the room fell silent. He scanned the faces as if checking a mental list. “Where are Lane and Olsen?” he barked.
Clark heard the sniggers and gulped from his coffee.
Before the undercurrent of laughter had died away, Jim strode in, his face radiating complete satisfaction. “Sorry I’m late, Chief,” he said, looking anything but apologetic. He sat down, pulled his camera from its case and began cleaning it with a patch of soft material.
“Where’s Lois?” Perry demanded.
“Just a moment or two behind me.”
The woman next to Clark elaborately cleared her throat. “So how *is* Lois?” she crooned. “Did you two have a good night?” Clark glanced at her. He’d been introduced to her yesterday. Cat – her name suited her well.
Jim didn’t look up. “I can tell you this,” he said. “There’s nothing trivial about a game of Trivial Pursuit with Lois Lane.”
This time the sniggers were bolder. Clark shifted uncomfortably and bit back his defence of the absent Lois Lane. They shouldn’t be talking about her like this. Though he could certainly understand their levity. If Lois was *his* wife, he was sure the Trivial Pursuit board wouldn’t see the light of day – or night – for at least the first two decades of marriage.
“But?” Perry demanded.
Jim looked up from camera, his grin just about wide enough to split his face. “Suffice to say it was a *very* productive night. But I’ll let Lois tell you when she gets here.”
“I guess the daughter had a busy night?” the guy across from Clark asked.
Jim nodded, still lovingly cleaning every nook and cranny of his camera. “Barely had a moment’s rest.”
Clark scanned the amused faces of the gathered people. Somehow a restless child didn’t fit with the picture in his mind. The picture he was trying very hard to get out of his mind.
Jim glanced up. Clark tried to iron out his expression, but he wasn’t quite quick enough. Jim’s eyes crinkled with fun and he gestured to his camera. “This is my *daughter*,” he explained. “Because she costs me a fortune buying every latest gadget for her and –“
“And,” Perry cut in, “Jim gets very twitchy if anyone so much as looks at her.”
The room erupted into laughter although Clark knew they must have all heard the joke before. He forced a smile. “You take pictures?” he asked before he could stop himself.
Jim shrugged. “Can’t imagine doing anything else.”
“Alice will have the grandchildren on Friday,” Perry said. “It’s been at least a month since she last had photos taken of them.”
Jim nodded, his casualness directly contrasting with the discomfort flooding through Clark. People weren’t quite so ... explicit in Smallville.
His tension increased exponentially at the arrival of Lois Lane. She bounced into the room, her brown eyes shining and her expression exultant.
Knowing every eye was on her, she dramatically dropped two video tapes and a handful of computer disks onto the table. “Got ‘em,” she said with a smirk.
“*Both* of them?” Perry asked.
She nodded, with such jubilation, Clark’s heart lost the ability to maintain anything resembling a steady rhythm. “Peter Roarke ... and Congressman Ian Harrington," she said gleefully, "Nailed ‘em cold.”
Perry sprung from his chair and wrapped Lois in a big hug. Then he patted Jim’s shoulder. “What a team,” Perry said proudly.
Lois removed the wedding band from her finger and dropped it next to the video tapes. “A *reporting* team,” she said.
Jim removed the band from his finger and tossed it next to Lois’s. “I guess the honeymoon’s over.” They shared a friendly grin.
“It wasn’t all bad, was it?” Perry asked Lois.
“It wasn’t too bad at all,” Lois said. “Although sharing a small bathroom with two teenage boys is definitely not to be recommended. They walk in, shut the door, you hear nothing for over an hour, then they walk out, looking exactly the same as they did when they walked in.”
“You took your kid brothers?” Cat asked Jim, her distaste evident. “To the Honeymoon Suite at the Lexor Hotel?”
Jim shrugged as he replaced his camera back in its bag. “I had to ... if I wanted the apartment still intact when I got home.”
Again everyone laughed.
Clark joined in absently, his mind spinning. Lois *wasn’t* married? “So ... who’s ‘The Missus’?” The question was out before Clark realised it had come from him.
Jim flashed him that boyish grin again. “The conglomeration that is my life,” he said. “Two kid brothers, a camera and Mad Dog Lane for a partner - I’d have more freedom if I *was* married.”
Lois *wasn’t* married. Clark’s pulse was singing through his veins.
“Hey Chief?” Cat called out. “Wasn’t the hotel reservation for tonight as well?”
Perry nodded. “And already paid for. Anyone want it?”
Cat clamped her hand on Clark’s arm and leaned flirtatiously against him. “What do you say, Handsome? You’re new in town. Would you like Cat to show you the ropes?”
Clark purposefully reclaimed his arm and backed away. “No thanks,” he replied, politely, but with a cool steeliness that said unmistakably, ‘not now, not ever’.
Cat pouted.
Clark turned away.
To Lois.
His eyes plunged into hers and he smiled.
She smiled back.
And his heart exploded.
