Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic All the Daytime and the Nighttime, 8/10

Previously:
Perry leaned over to speak to Lois confidentially, even though they were the only ones in the office. “Tell me the truth, Lois. How'd it feel to be on stage?”

“Well, it was pretty exciting, Chief. But I don't think I could handle a career in show biz. I much prefer journalism.”

Perry smiled fondly at her. “Just you be careful out there, Lois. You know, it's always been my policy to stand behind my reporters and their methods one thousand percent. Why, if you opened up that window, said you could fly, I'd back you up. I'd miss you, but I'd back you up.”

Chapter 8

After handing Toni and Lou over to the MPD and finishing the requisite paperwork, Clark was returning to the Apollo to see if he had any clothes or possessions left. Henderson offered to get him a ride in a black and white, but Clark preferred to walk.

The day was still young and new and he had some thinking to do. Walking was not a problem, because he didn’t get tired physically. Emotionally he was as vulnerable as any one else.

Clark was really rather hurt by Toni’s callous actions and he didn’t really understand why. Granted, torching the Apollo was not her idea, but that of the Toasters run rampant. Nonetheless, she admitted she gave the nascent gang the flamethrower technology, but she stubbornly refused to say where she had gotten it herself. Was that due to fear of retribution from the person who had developed it?

Clark sincerely doubted she had ordered the development herself. Had someone with more funding and organizational infrastructure developed it and given it to Toni? If so, who benefited from clearing out the Riverfront area other than Toni? Suddenly it hit him and he flashed back on Lex Luthor’s conversation with Toni at the Metro Club. His eidetic memory replayed the conversation between Toni and Lex Luthor at the table at the Metro Club. He was startled to realize that was only three days ago.
Although his undercover work at the Metro Club was done, maybe his investigation into Lex Luthor was still hot. His thoughts ended as he arrived at the Apollo. He felt really sorry for the former residents who had nowhere else to go and now no possessions to speak of.

The Apollo was still sealed off for the after-fire incident teams to do their forensic work, but Clark fished his badge out of his old suitcase where it had been safely kept by Henderson and showed it to the police at the door. As he walked up the four flights, he continued to reflect on the morning.

Bill Henderson was a bit of a puzzle to him. It was apparent he was a forthright honest cop, but he seemed to have a strange relationship with Lois Lane.

Clark recalled the meeting in Henderson’s office after Toni and Lou had been processed.
Henderson had offered Clark a coffee and a bagel and gestured to his guest chair. “So, you do know that Lola Dane is really Lois Lane, a reporter for the Daily Planet” he stated casually.

Clark had nodded in assent. “Yes. I identified her from a sketch I made.”

Henderson had cleared his throat, a somewhat guilty expression on his face. What was that?

“Yes, you saw her story on Toni taking over the Metro Gang. Thanks for the tip, by the way.”

Clark shrugged, “Just doing my job. Toni was really going to hunt for the mole in the organization and I knew Lola…Lois would be suspect and I wanted to warn you.”

Henderson had fixed Clark with a piercing gaze. “I’ve known Lois for some years and she is like a pit bull when she is after a story. Perry White, the Daily Planet editor and the others in office call her ‘Mad Dog Lane’ when she is on the hunt. I can’t believe she didn’t get into some kind of trouble while she was going after the information. Just how did she find out that Toni had taken over the Metros?”

Clark had not been able to keep the slight smile from his face as he recounted the story to Henderson. “Well, I had made a hole into Toni’s office from the hallway to the kitchen. That’s where I planted the bug inside.”

“After I had put the bug from Luthor’s table in the scotch can for pick-up I came back in and found Lola, er Lois, listening at the hole and she heard everything. So I wasn’t surprised she had the information. I was surprised, though, that she went directly to a front page story the next day.”

Clark continued, “That’s when things became more dangerous. Toni walked in on the two of us in that hallway, listening.”

Henderson leaned forward, intent on the story. “So what did you do?”

Clark could feel that he was blushing. “I, er, kissed her. For cover.”

Henderson’s eyebrow had risen in doubt. “And she didn’t deck you with a Tai Kwan Do move?”

Clark couldn’t suppress the smile. “Nope. She appreciated the, er… help.”

Henderson had sat back and muttered under his breath, “Will wonders never cease.”

Clark had heard him, of course. He was puzzled but somehow warmed by the thought.

At the end of that thought he was standing in front of the destroyed door to his old room. He walked in a looked around. The window over the sink was broken out from the heat, plastic dishes were melted on the coated iron sink and storage unit and his bed and table were partially burned. The walls had burns marks on them. Clearly he wasn’t sleeping here tonight even if he would be allowed to by the fire department.

He inspected his clothes. Everything smelled of fire and chemicals. He decided he needed new clothes. Besides, Henderson wanted him back in his office at 10 a.m. tomorrow for a final briefing and he needed his “duty suit” to look official. That meant a trip home to his place just off Dumfries Road near Quantico, Virginia.

But how to get there? It was too dangerous to fly himself in broad daylight. But he could get himself over to Metropolis International Airport (MIX since MIA was Miami, Florida) via rooftop and hop the 10:10 a.m. to Ronald Reagan International Airport outside Washington, D.C (DCA). From there it was half-an-hour drive to home if there wasn’t too much traffic on I-95. At least he would be driving opposite the morning commute into D.C.

Plan in mind, he took his suitcase and exited through the end window and up to the roof of the Apollo. At least on the rooftops, he just had to worry about news and traffic helicopters, since people never seemed to look up. Idly he wondered if he ever would be able to use his abilities openly. That would be so much easier, not to mention faster.

After a good night’s sleep in his own bed, he would hop the morning plane back to Metropolis in time for the meeting at Henderson’s office. He felt a surge of excitement about the upcoming meeting.

*+*+*+*+*+*+

The next morning Lois was a wreck getting ready for work. She’d tried on three suits and discarded them as too businesslike, too frilly or too unattractive. What was the big deal? She was going to work as usual and then making her way over to Henderson’s office before 10 a.m. and picking up the small amount of stuff from her locker at the Metro Club. Henderson would fill her in on the sting operation and that would be that. What in the world was this knot in her stomach?

At her desk at the Daily Planet, Lois could finally take it no longer. She grabbed her purse out of the bottom drawer and went to Perry’s office door.

“Perry. I’m off to give Henderson my statement on the Metro Club investigation. I’m just sorry I didn’t get the interview with Lex Luthor. He only came that one night.”

Perry rocked back in his chair and turned to speak to Lois. “Well, you caught another fish instead. You’ll get that Luthor interview yet. Say hello to Henderson for me.”

“Will do.” With that, Lois was across the pit, on to the elevator, down to the basement parking lot, to her Grand Cherokee and into the driver’s seat. She squealed the tires as she exited the garage rapidly. Consequently she was into the precinct 10 minutes early.

Approaching the front desk, she said, “I have an appointment with Inspector Henderson this morning, Murphy.”

Murphy looked at his book, then his watch and waved his pencil over his shoulder. “Go on in.”

Lois charged on by the desk, knowing very well the path to Henderson’s office.

“Inspector Henderson said you’d be 10 minutes early. He was right,” Murphy offered as she flew on by.

Henderson’s door was closed, but she opened it, knowing Murphy had alerted him about her arrival. She charged in and saw Henderson standing behind his desk, facing a man in a black suit. She noticed the man was tall with broad shoulders, highly polished black shoes and black hair. The suit was nicely tailored.

“Oh, I didn’t realized you had someone with you!”

Henderson looked past the man and smiled at her. “Come on in, Lois. You’re early, but we’re ready for you.”

“We?”

Henderson’s smile broadened as the man turned around to face the door.

“Charlie!” Lois exclaimed as she saw the face of Henderson’s guest. She felt like running to him and giving him a hug. She had been really worried about him.

Henderson’s smile grew even wider. “Lois, I’d like to introduce you to Special Agent Clark Kent of the FBI. Agent Kent, this is Lois Lane, top reporter at the Daily Planet.”

“We’ve met,” Clark smiled his dazzling toothpaste ad smile and walked toward her, hand outstretched.

Numbly, Lois extended her hand. ‘Special Agent? FBI as in Federal Bureau of Investigation?’ Lois recovered herself and smiled. “So you do more than mix drinks. Plant bugs and cameras, perhaps?”

Clark gently shook her hand and moved closer to Lois. “Touché, Miss Lane. My enjoyment of your singing was a genuine bonus on this operation.” He moved even closer and dropped his voice, “And I told you I’d give you the story later. Well, later has come.”

Lois replied just as softly, “Er, how much detail does Henderson know?”

“Not everything,” Clark whispered and winked before dropping her hand, turning and drawing her over to one of the two guest chairs with a gentle hand on her lower back.

No one ever touched Lois Lane like that, gently steering her path somewhere. Strangely though, she realized she liked it. He saw her seated before he sat himself.

Henderson seated himself in his desk chair at the same time, eyebrow raised, obviously enjoying the little byplay between them. He saw them continuing to stare at each other and decided it was his job to get the ball rolling.

Henderson lifted a large paper bag from the floor beside his desk and plopped it on the top with a thunk as loud as he could make it. The paper bag was folded and stapled at the top and “Lola Dane locker” was written in marker pen on the front. “Lois,” he said rather loudly, “here’s the stuff from your locker like I promised.”

Lois tore her eyes from Charlie/Clark’s face and actually blushed! Henderson was totally amazed. He had never seen Mad Dog Lane act that way around anyone.

Lois recovered and reached for her satchel/purse. “Here’s my statement all typed up nice and neat and I’ll sign it in your presence.” She began to hand it to Henderson and he gestured to Clark, a small smile on his lips. “He reads it too,” he said by way of explanation.

Clark appeared all business as he accepted the pages from Lois and began to read. His eyebrows crept up his forehead in incredulity as he read. “You followed Toni from the Metro Club? Climbed on crates? You heard all this? Too bad you didn’t have a recorder with you.” Clark had silently noted that she stated the building had a sign on it “LexHarbor Development Site.”

Lois smiled. “Yeah, I thought that too at the time. But I have a good memory.” She was glad she had left out a comment about sleeping with rats. Henderson would have enjoyed that, but this was going into court records.

“Apparently so. You sure have convincing evidence against Toni.” Clark handed the statement to Henderson who skimmed it and emitted what appeared to be a satisfied grunt. He handed it back to Lois with a pen and she signed it. Then he passed it to Clark and he signed it as a witness. Clark felt a sense of accomplishment at signing his own name on his first case.

“O.K. Lois, you can go. Thanks for the statement and the work, uninvited though it was, it proved to be key evidence.”

Lois felt back into the chair, hand to her heart. “Be still my heart! Wild Bill Henderson gave me a compliment!”

Clark stared at her, utterly entranced by her playfulness and animation. Oh, what he would give to have that directed at him.

“O.K., kids, you can both go. I’m done here. How about you, Special Agent Kent?”

Smiling, Clark said, “Yes, I’m done here too. We’re both out of here.”

Lois rose to leave and remembered something. "Oh, and Bill, Perry says hello to you to."

Henderson smiled back. "Perry's a good guy. You should listen to him more often."

Clark went to the door first and opened it to let Lois pass through. “And I owe you a story.” He heard Henderson laugh softly as he closed the door behind him.

Clark and Lois walked companionably but silently through the precinct to the front door. Murphy stared at them as they exited to the steps.

Lois stopped at the bottom. “Where to?”

“How about lunch?” Clark leaned close to her and whispered conspiratorially, “Interrogation always goes better over lunch.”

Lois’ laughter pealed freely. “Interrogation, hunh? I thought you were giving me a story for the paper.”

Clark was transfixed by her unfettered laughter. He cleared his throat. “Where’s a good place for lunch around here?”

“Around here? This is a police station. The only thing near here is ‘Donuts-to-go’. Note the plural in the name. How about Centennial Park?”

“Well, lunch in a park sounds great. What, is it like Tavern on the Green in New York or something?” Clark was suddenly worried about his finances as an image of the very posh New York eatery sprang to mind.

Lois laughed again. “Not hardly. But there is a very nice hot dog stand there. Actually that’s a misnomer, it has way more than just hot dogs. How they get that variety of food there I don’t know.”

“Sounds great. My car is right over there.” He gestured toward the parking lot, still smiling. He couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

Lois looked him over very obviously head to toe, playing it up, taking in the trim fitted pants, narrow belt, and starched white shirt and thin black tie. “Well, you look fit enough. How about we walk. Do you like to walk?”

Clark blushed, happy she appeared to like what she saw. “I love to walk. Lead the way. I’m new in town and have no clue how to get to Centennial Park from here.” They began walking slowly.

“You’re not from the local fibi office?” She pronounced it as one word, not three initials.

Clark was confused. “Fibi?” Then it hit. “Well, I’ve never heard it called that. Especially in front of a,” he used two fingers on each hand to make quotation marks, “Special Agent.”

Lois laughed delightedly. It was clear Clark didn’t take himself too seriously.

“I run.”

“You run?” Again, Clark was confused. “Is this verb conjugation? I run, we run, he, she, it runs?”

Another infectious laugh issued forth. “No. In the morning, I run for exercise. Keeps the mind sharp and gives the ability to climb crates in dilapidated warehouses. I feel like running right now, but I can’t in these shoes and this suit. I also practice climbing on the wall at the local MegaSports. Bet I can climb faster than you.”

This time it was Clark who laughed whole-heartedly. “No way, lady. I can climb faster than you.” He couldn’t remember when he had enjoyed walking with someone so much. Lois filled his senses in a way that no one else had. Her smell, her voice, the sense of her movement beside him surrounded him and seemed so right. They continued to the park, Lois providing running commentary on local sights since Clark was new to the city.
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tbc

Artemis