Chapter Two
Due to storms over Chicago and St. Louis which forced Ellen to miss her connecting flights, Lucy got to the hospital before her mother did. Clark was standing at the admissions desk, trying to correct some misinformation in Lois’s insurance data, when Lucy walked up and bumped his elbow.
“Hi there, you tall, dark, and mysterious strange man.”
He turned and looked down, then smiled. “Hey, Lucy. Did you have a good trip?”
She grimaced. “It was too long, but at least trains don’t get grounded because of bad weather. How’s Lois?”
He turned to face her. “Physically, she’s fine. She’s still got some short-term memory loss, and she’s apparently still confused and angry about what happened.”
“I see.” She looked straight into his eyes. “What exactly did happen to her, Clark?”
The question was casual, but Lucy’s body language was not. He guided her to one side of the desk for some privacy before answering. “I got a call from a man – who is now in police custody, by the way – saying that he’d kidnapped my parents and was willing to trade their lives for Lois’. She told – “
“WHAT?” she burst out. “You moron! You let her – “
“Wait a minute! I wanted her to get on a plane, to leave the city, but she refused!”
Lucy leaned closer and snarled, “Of course she did, Clark! What else did you expect her to do? She’s the great Lois Lane!”
Clark took a deep breath to yell back again, but instead he forced himself to exhale slowly. “Look, I’m just telling you what happened. Lois walked out of the office and asked me to have Superman meet her at her apartment.”
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “I see. And what did the big blue Boy Scout do this time?”
Clark didn’t back down. “He did exactly what Lois asked him to do.”
“Which was what?”
“Freeze her and give her to the bad guy in trade for my parents.”
Lucy’s mouth dropped open. She slowly turned away and found a chair. She sat there for several seconds before she found her voice. “Freeze her?”
“Yes.”
“And – and he agreed to do something that insane?”
“Lois thought that Superman could revive her with his heat vision. She compared it to someone being dropped into a frozen lake and revived half an hour or so later.”
Lucy shook her head. “Like suspended animation?”
“Yes. Superman’s rescued several people like that.” Lois’ statement that he’d ‘done it a hundred times’ echoed in his mind. It hadn’t been a hundred, and he hadn’t been able to save everyone in that situation. Some had survived but had never fully recovered.
He thrust that thought as far away from his mind as he could.
Lucy closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall, then blew out her breath in a long and loud hiss. “You know, as terminally stupid as that plan is, it actually sounds like something my sister would think of.” She opened her eyes and fixed Clark with a granite stare. “So how’s Lois? Did it work?”
Clark nodded slowly. “I think so. Apparently she doesn’t remember anything from the past couple of days, but the doctor says that’s not surprising. And she doesn’t seem to have any other injuries.”
“Can I see her now?”
“As far as I know, yes. She’s in a regular room on the third floor.”
“Good. You stay here until I come down, okay?”
Lucy stood and turned to walk to the elevator, but Clark suddenly blocked her way. “Why should I stay here, Lucy?”
“Because I want to talk to my sister alone!” she snarled.
Clark waited a beat, then slid to one side. “I’ll be in the waiting room on her floor.”
She glared at him for a moment, then nodded shortly. “That’ll do.”
As Lucy stomped towards the elevator without further comment, Clark pondered how well the sisters would get along now, since both of them seemed to be in full-blown porcupine mode.
He took the next elevator and went to the waiting room.
*****
Lucy joined him in the waiting room less than thirty minutes later. She sank down next to Clark and leaned forward, pressing her hands against her eyes.
Clark waited for several seconds, but instead of speaking to him she began crying softly. Not knowing exactly what to do, he gently put his hand on her near shoulder. “Lucy, what’s wrong? What is it?”
She pressed the dampness from her eyes and sniffed. “That’s not my sister.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“That’s not Lois.”
He paused. “I don’t understand.”
She sat up and waved her hands. “Oh, it’s her body, her mind, her – her mouth – but something’s gone.” She sniffed again. “I was only in the room for about five minutes before she ordered me out. She cursed at me and told me she didn’t need me or anyone else to take care of her, that she was fine by herself.”
“Oh.” He sighed. “I thought it was just me she was mad at.”
Lucy shook her head. “It’s more than that, Clark. I talked to Dr. Sanderson. He said that Lois suffered the equivalent of a serious head injury while she was hypothermic, something to do with – with tiny ice crystals forming in the soft tissue of the brain. He also said that people who have serious head injuries will sometimes undergo drastic personality changes.” She looked at him with shimmering eyes. “P-permanent changes.”
An icy hand gripped Clark’s heart. “What kind of changes?”
She dug in her purse for a tissue and blew her nose. “They lose something, something vital to themselves. Some people lose the ability to laugh or to cry, some can’t stop laughing or crying, and some stop caring about others.” She shuddered. “The doctor said that in the worst case it’s – it’s almost as if they become sociopathic overnight. They still know what society considers right and wrong, but they – they simply don’t care any more.”
Lois Lane, sociopath. It was a terrifying thought. “Is Dr. Sanderson sure that’s what’s happened to Lois?”
“No, he’s not sure, but all the indicators – she – Lois isn’t responding like she should. Her verbal skills are okay, her mental acuity is fine, but – “
Lucy stopped and hugged herself. Clark put his hand on her shoulder. “But what?”
She visibly forced herself to relax. “She’s just not the same, Clark! She’s not like she was before. The doctors – they say there’s no treatment for it.”
“No treatment?” Clark’s jaw wobbled loosely for a moment. “I mean, isn’t there something they can do for her?”
She sniffed and rubbed her nose. “The doctor said that – that sometimes – sometimes the – the patient will come around. Sometimes whatever part of the brain that got hurt heals itself. It takes time – a lot of time – and all we can do is – is just wait it out.”
“Isn’t there anything they can do? Some therapy, some kind of rehab or – ”
“No.” Lucy’s fists clenched. “That’s the worst part. Except for a little trouble walking, there’s nothing physically wrong with her, at least nothing they can find, so there’s no treatment. They’re going to give her some physical therapy and some exercises she can do on her own, but that’s all they can do. Even psychotherapy can’t help fix this.” She sobbed. “My sister’s gone, Clark! She’s gone! And I don’t know if she’s ever coming back!”
She leaned against him, her earlier enmity towards him apparently forgotten. Clark put his arm around her for comfort.
But he wasn’t sure who was supposed to comfort whom.
Lucy finally wound down. She accepted Clark’s offer of his handkerchief and wiped her face with it. “I’m – I’m sorry. It’s just – she’s right there in front of me, but she’s not there! It’s like she died and some stranger is using her body.” She looked up at him. “She still doesn’t remember those three days, Clark. Whatever happened to her, it completely wiped out her memory. She wanted to file suit against Superman.”
“What!”
She waved her hand at him. “She’s not going to, or at least I don’t think she is. Her attorney called her this morning to ask her what to do with the tape she’d made, and she had no idea what he was talking about. He explained to her that she’d recorded a videotape and signed a notarized document stating that the freezing was her idea alone and Superman wasn’t responsible for it. That’s what she was so mad about when I walked into the room. I tried to tell her that her being in the hospital was partly her own responsibility, and that’s when she – she blew up and threw me out.”
Lucy folded up again for a moment, then sat up abruptly. “Clark, you can’t let Mom see her like that! It’ll kill her!”
“Me? How am I going to stop her from seeing her own daughter?”
She swiped tears from her cheeks. “You have to! And you can’t tell her why!”
“But – “
“No! No buts, no excuses! You can’t let Mom see Lois!”
A piercing voice sliced into their shared pain. “And why, pray tell, can’t I see my own daughter?”
They both looked up to see Ellen Lane standing in the waiting room doorway with her hands on her hips, a fierce expression on her fore-thrust face.
*****
An hour later, a broken and tearful Ellen left the hospital in a cab with Lucy. They had originally planned to stay at Lois’s apartment to help her until she was fully recovered, but the vitriol with which Lois had greeted that idea convinced them both to check into a hotel until they could arrange to return home. Clark didn’t tell them, but he planned to pay for their stay.
He felt it was the least he could do. The three days he ended up paying for were small change compared to the debt he felt he owed them.
*****
After another week, Lois returned to work at the Planet, full of fire and ice. The fire was reserved for her job, for her investigations, for the victims of her interviews, for the people around her who didn’t measure up to her impossible standards. The ice was distributed liberally among all of her co-workers, Clark included.
On her first day back, Clark brought her a cup of coffee just as she liked it. She took it and sipped it without a murmur of thanks. Then she turned to yell fiercely at a young research intern and send her on an all-morning research task. She managed to avoid Clark for the entire day.
On her second day, Clark brought her a cup of coffee just as she liked it. She glanced at him with a frown and turned back to the story she was working on. The few times Clark tried to start a conversation with her, she either ignored him or walked away without speaking to him.
On her third day, Clark brought her a cup of coffee just as she liked it. She acknowledged neither the coffee nor Clark. He didn’t try to talk to her that day, nor did she speak to him except to demand his notes from an interview he’d done a week before.
On her fourth day, Clark stood beside her desk instead of bringing the coffee and waited for her to say something to him.
He waited some more. She didn’t seem to realize he was there.
And finally he spoke. “Lois? Would you like some coffee?”
“Yeah, Kent, sure,” she mumbled as she sorted through the file folders on her desk. “Just don’t make a big production out of it.”
He hesitated, then leaned closer. “Lois, you used to like it when I brought you coffee in the morning.”
She turned a granite face towards him. “I used to eat chocolate-covered cereal with lots of sugar on it for breakfast, too.”
He straightened. “Meaning what?”
“Meaning I grew up and acquired different tastes. Maybe you need to grow up, too.”
He nodded slowly. “Okay. Maybe you should get your own coffee from now on.”
“No problem. I’m a big girl and I know where the pot and the cups are.”
He turned to walk away, but stopped after two steps. “Lois?”
She sighed dramatically. “Now what?”
“Would you – would you go to lunch with me today? I mean, assuming work doesn’t interfere?”
She met his gaze. “Lunch?”
“Yes. Lunch.”
“With you?”
“Yes, with me.” He put one hand in his pants pocket and gestured with the other. “We used to do that a lot, remember?”
Her obsidian eyes didn’t flicker. “That was then, this is now.”
“What? But – I thought we – “
“Hold it!” She slowly rose from her chair and stood toe-to-toe with him. “Listen to me very carefully, Smallville. I don’t want to go to lunch with you. I don’t care whether or not you bring me coffee in the morning, the afternoon, or at any other time of the day. All I care about is getting the next story, and the next story, and the one after that. I don’t care about your tender feelings and I don’t care about you.”
He barely controlled his growing anger. “That’s not what you were saying a few weeks ago!”
She put her hands on her hips. “This is what I’m saying now! Don’t you hear well? Maybe you should get your hearing checked!”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
“Maybe you should get your brain checked for missing pieces!”
She poked him in the chest with her index finger. “Go away and leave me alone, Kent! You come near me again and I’ll have you arrested for sexual harassment!”
“Harassment? Me?” He lifted his hands to either side. “Three weeks ago you couldn’t keep your hands off me!”
Even with his super-speed he couldn’t dodge the unexpected slap. “Listen to me, you low-level wannabe hack! I want you to get away from me! I want you to leave me alone! I don’t want to hear about your feeble little haystack fantasies or your wet dreams! You do your job and I’ll do mine and we’ll get along fine!”
Clark stared at Lois for several seconds, half-expecting her to drop out of character and tell him it was all a gag, or that the secretarial pool had put her up to it, or that he’d wake up and find it was all a terrible dream.
None of those things happened.
He slowly backed away. His voice was dangerously low. “All right, Lois. You have your wish. I’ll stay away.”
He did, too. For weeks he hoped she’d come around and thaw out to him again, but it never happened.
And Clark wasn’t the only one to bear the brunt of Lois Lane’s renewed Mad Dog exterior. She stopped speaking to Superman except to get news material, and her attitude towards him was always filled with barely repressed contempt.
*****
Nine weeks after the freezing incident, Clark stepped onto the newsroom floor on a Tuesday morning and was greeted by a shouted “Kent! Where’s your partner?”
He tilted a cynical eyebrow at his boss. “You mean Lois?”
Perry frowned back. “You have some other partner I don’t know about?”
Okay, thought Clark, something’s very wrong. “No, Chief, I don’t. And I haven’t seen Lois since yesterday afternoon.”
As Clark realized how quiet the newsroom was for this time of the morning, Perry held up a copy of the morning edition. “Then you’re telling me you can’t explain this?”
Clark frowned at the headline, which read, Exclusive: President To Announce Hobbs Bay Renewal Project. It was Clark’s story, one he’d planned to hand in that morning after one final editing pass. “Why is my story in today’s edition? I was going to turn it in this morning after I went through it one more time. You told me it was going to run in tomorrow’s morning edition. How did you get it already?”
Perry nodded. “That’s what I thought.” He leaned closer. “Take a good look at the byline, son.”
Clark did. He could feel the blood drain from his face. His eyes threatened to pop out through his glasses. “No!” He grabbed the paper and stared. “This can’t be!” He looked up. “Perry, I – what happened?”
The byline credited the entire story to Lois Lane.
There was no mention of Clark Kent’s efforts anywhere in the story, in the byline, or at the end of the last column.
He crumpled the paper in trembling hands, trying to control his anger. It couldn’t be.
But it was.
Lois had stolen his story.
Again.
And this time it was a huge story, an award-worthy topic and piece of writing. He’d worked his contacts in the White House until their ears were sore. He’d interviewed the President’s Chief of Staff on three different occasions. He’d traveled to Washington and met with four of the New Troy representatives pushing this plan through committee and onto the floor for a vote. He’d buttonholed both senators and coaxed information from them about the final version which was headed to the President’s desk for his signature.
Lois Lane hadn’t done a blessed thing.
Except steal his work.
Just then the elevator dinged. Perry looked over Clark’s shoulder and his eyes narrowed. “Lois! I need you in my office right now!”
“I’m busy, Perry. What about after – “
“NOW!” he exploded.
Clark turned to see Lois put her coat and purse down on her desk. “Okay, okay,” she muttered. “You don’t have to yell at me.”
Clark followed Perry and waited for Lois to sashay in before he closed the door. Perry turned around and glared at her. “Lois?” His voice was tight with repressed anger. “Do you have anything you want to tell me?”
“About what?”
“About the page one story you snuck in last night after I left.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yes. That.”
She crossed her arms and glanced at the ceiling, then looked back at Perry. “No.”
Perry leaned on his desk with both hands. “Then, do you have anything to say to Clark?”
She turned and looked him up and down. “Nice tie. Is it new?”
Clark clenched his fists and took one step towards her. “Lois!”
“What? Geez, you two are really wound up over – “
“You stole my story!”
She looked at him blankly for a moment, then the light of comprehension dawned in her eyes. “Oh, that. Well, you shouldn’t leave your computer unsecured when you leave the newsroom. It’s in the employee guidelines.”
“What? I shouldn’t leave – “ Clark’s eyes blazed and he stepped closer. “What’s the matter with you? Don’t you understand what you’ve done? Can’t you – “
Perry stepped between them. “Now hold on, both of you! Clark, you just hold all of your horses! I mean it.” Perry waited until Clark took a small step backwards, then he turned to Lois. “You stole your partner’s story and you overrode my authority to print it when you did. I had it scheduled for tomorrow’s front page. And it was going out with Kent’s byline! What were you thinking?”
She narrowed her eyes at him and put her hands on her hips. “I was thinking that I needed another good story this week. And that one will do until something better comes along.”
“Something better?” he snarled. “Something better!” Clark stepped past Perry and stood nose-to-nose with Lois. “I worked hard on that story! I put in days getting everything checked and double-checked! It’s a great story – “
“And it should win me another Kerth!” screamed Lois.
“It was my story!”
“And if I hadn’t taught you everything you know you’d still be writing gecko stories for the Borneo Gazette!”
Clark’s eyes blazed with fury. He lifted his hands and leaned forward, forcing Lois to step backwards. Her eyes flickered and he saw uncertainty there, and he might have seen more had Perry not grabbed Clark’s shoulder and physically pulled him back.
“Clark! No! Clark!” Perry yelled in his ear to get his attention. “Son, you need to back off right now!”
Reluctantly, Clark allowed himself to be pulled away from Lois. Perry turned to her and shook his finger in her face. “I ought to let Kent whack you at least once for what you’ve done and for the way you’re acting! We’re printing a correction tomorrow and we’re going to credit Kent with the byline!” He backed off and blew out a long breath. “If it were anyone else who’d pulled this stunt, I’d fire you! But you’ve earned a little slack, Lois.”
“Gee, thanks, boss,” she drawled. “You don’t have to put yourself out just for little old me.”
“This isn’t for you! It’s for the paper! And you’ve used up all the slack I’m gonna give you!” His finger aimed for her forehead again. “You’d better mind every one of your p’s and q’s from now on!”
She slowly put her hand on Perry’s extended limb and pushed it down. “I promise you, Perry, if you print any kind of correction, I’ll sue you, the paper, Franklin Stern, Kent, and anyone else who looks like a target. And you won’t like the end result.”
She whirled and stormed out the door. The slam rattled the pictures on Perry’s wall.
Clark watched his boss sigh and put his hands in his pockets. “Great shades of Elvis. I wish she hadn’t said that.”
Clark turned incredulous eyes to his chief. “What? Why?”
“Because now I have to get the legal department involved, and it’s always a hassle when they get their fingers into anything on this floor. It’ll probably take a couple of days, maybe a whole week, to get this all straightened out, and by that time it’ll be too late to print a correction.” Perry shook his head. “And if she wasn’t bluffing about those lawsuits, that would really hog-tie us for quite a while.”
“You’re saying that it would be less trouble to let her off the hook? You’ve got to be kidding!”
“No, I’m not. It would be easier to just fire her, but then we’d have to explain why one of our best investigative reporters was being fired, and you can’t imagine the public backlash that would produce. I know what Mr. Stern would say about that without my even asking him.”
“So you’re not going to do anything about this?” Clark stepped towards his boss and put his hands out as if begging for something. “Perry! Please!”
Perry put his hand on Clark’s shoulder and a hound-dog expression on his face. “Son, I know this ain’t a bit fair to you, but I gotta ask you something. Do you really want to pursue this, knowing how much trouble you’re lettin’ yourself in for?”
“Are you worried about my trouble or about the trouble this would dump on your desk?”
“I won’t deny that it’d be tough for me, but whatever you decide I’ll back you. It’s your call all the way, Clark.”
Clark glared through the window in Perry’s office door at his former partner. “I won’t work with her again. I can’t trust her.”
“I understand that, son, and I pretty much expected that. But you’re right. The team of Lane and Kent is no more, no matter what you decide about her theft of your story.”
Clark’s breathing was back to normal, and his color had returned to its usual olive shading. He turned to his boss and said, “Let it go, Chief. This time.”
Perry nodded.
And Clark cried inside. Not for the loss of the story, but for the loss of the Lois Lane he’d loved, the one who wouldn’t have stolen a paper clip from him. His heart would have been hers, but she obviously didn’t want anything to do with him. So his heart would go back inside its fortress.
And he set about rebuilding the walls around it.
It got easier to reinforce those walls when he found out that Lois had been nominated for a Kerth for his story. Not once did she ever acknowledge that he’d so much as touched a word of the text for which she now accepted undeserved accolades from others. His only comfort came from the fact that she didn’t win it for that story. She won for a story series on gangs in Metropolis’s public high schools, a series which she’d hijacked from a reporter on the Star. Their lawyers didn’t make a dent in Mad Dog Lane either.
And Clark’s heart shrank away from her even more.
