Here it is, the final installment! Once again, let me salute two outstanding betas, DSDragon and Iolanthealias. They caught a number of little errors and asked some questions which caused me to add a few details to the story. If you like it, applaud them. If not - you know where the feedback goes.
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Chapter Three
It had been three months since Lois had stolen Clark’s story. During that time they’d spoken at length only twice, once on a stakeout on the Newtrich sisters where Lois angrily deflected any and all personal or relationship questions Clark threw her way and once when they’d been forced to pool their resources to prevent a coup at the NIA by the deputy director. There were entire days when they didn’t speak, and once went eleven working days without uttering a single syllable to each other.
Then one Tuesday morning, Lois suddenly barged into Perry’s office while Clark was getting an assignment. “Perry!” she shouted. “I have to see you right now!”
“Lois! Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here?”
She threw a scalding glance at Clark. “This can’t wait!”
He turned to her and pointed with his index finger. “No, you can’t have this assignment.”
“What? No! I don’t want your story, you moron! I want to take some vacation days!”
Both Perry and Clark lifted their eyebrows. “Well, Lois,” Perry responded, “you’ve got at least three weeks saved up that you – “
“I need to take some of that time this Thursday and Friday! Oh, and Monday, too.”
Perry put his hands on his hips. “That’s kind of short notice, don’t you think?”
“I don’t care! I need those days off!”
Perry shrugged. “Can you tell me why?”
Lois crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “No.”
Perry looked at Clark, who raised his palms and backed up a step. “Leave me out of this.”
Perry looked at Lois again and frowned for a long moment. Then he sighed. “Okay, Lois, I’ll take care of it. Be sure and send in the appropriate paperwork to Human Resources. I’ll send Clark to cover the senator’s speech on Friday morning – that is, if you don’t mind too much.”
She sent another ineffective visual blast at Clark, then nodded at Perry. “Fine. As long as he doesn’t mess it up.”
“Hey, Lois, I’m in the room! You can talk to me!”
She didn’t acknowledge his existence this time. “I’ll wrap up what I have going before I leave tomorrow afternoon.”
She turned and stomped out the door. “Whew,” breathed Clark. “I wonder what that’s all about?”
“She’ll tell us, son, or she won’t. I’m close to not caring if she quits anymore. I’m tired of being treated like a speed bump in her life.”
“You? Chief, she hasn’t talked to me since last Monday. And all she told me to do was to get out of her way at the coffee machine.”
“I know. She’s almost more trouble than she’s worth any more.”
Clark leaned on his boss’ desk and lowered his voice to a dangerous register. “What do you mean, almost?”
Perry sighed. “If it were up to me, I’d let her go right now. But the suits upstairs claim she’s responsible for about half of the circulation increase we’ve experienced in the last six months. They won’t even let me discipline her unless her conduct rises to the level of egregious behavior.”
Clark goggled. “They actually said that?”
“One of them did. I’m sorry, Clark, I know you’re hurting, but right now there’s not a whole lot I can do.”
*****
On the following Tuesday morning, Clark was standing by the network printer waiting for a document when Lois marched past him. “Hi, Lois. How was your vacation?”
She didn’t respond, so he followed her to her desk and tried again. “Did you go out of town or stay – “
“Stuff it, Kent!”
Even for Lois these days, that was harsh. So he abandoned his attempt to speak to her and returned to the printer.
But as he reached for the printout, a strange man in a disheveled suit wheeled past him and made a beeline for Lois’ desk. She looked up as he approached and leaped up so quickly her chair fell over. “Lance!” she burst out. “I told you not to – “
“My baby, Lois! You took my baby!”
Clark glanced around and saw that everyone in the newsroom was now focused on the drama. Lois lifted her hands and spun away from Lance. “My body, my decision! You have no right – “
“No right? NO RIGHT! I could sue you for what you’ve done!”
Clark decided to mosey on over to the scene of the conflict, if only to prevent Lance from being disemboweled. Of course, his curiosity would be satisfied in the meantime, but that was incidental.
Lois stepped around the desk to put it between herself and Lance. “You’d better not or I’ll sue you right back! You told me you’d had a vasectomy! You lied!”
Vasectomy? Then Lois had – oh, my, this had serious potential for bad, and despite Lois’ behavior towards him, Clark didn’t want to see her get hurt – or see her hurt someone else. He stepped up just behind Lois’ erstwhile boyfriend, about whom he’d had no inkling five minutes earlier.
“I told you I was thinking about having it reversed! I did! And it worked! And then you killed our baby!”
Lance moved to follow Lois around the desk, but Clark intercepted him. “Hang on, buddy. Why don’t we dial it back a notch?”
“I’ll dial you back more than a notch if you don’t get out of my way!” snarled Lance.
Clark smiled and lowered his voice, trying to defuse the situation. “Look, I’m sure we can talk about – “
He didn’t finish his sentence. Lance swung a fierce backfist at his face. Clark ducked, then stood and grabbed Lance by the lapels and shoved him down on the desk on his back. He leaned close and growled, “I know you’re upset, buddy, but do NOT try that again.”
He felt Lois punch him in the middle of his back. “Let him go, Smallville! I don’t need your help!”
“You could have fooled me.”
“Let him go! Right now!”
“Not until he promises to behave himself.”
“Fine!” shouted Lance. “Anything! Just let me up!”
Clark allowed the man to stand but didn’t release his hold. “Now, if you’ll be so kind as to – “
Lois kicked him in the back of the knee and Clark had to fake a minor stumble. “Get out of my way, Smallville!”
Perry chose that moment to return from his meeting upstairs. He turned to Jimmy and snapped, “Olsen! Get security up here now!” He strode forcefully towards Lois and stopped inches from her face. “I will not allow your personal life to disrupt my newsroom! You have a beef with this man, you take care of it outside working hours!”
“I didn’t invite him here!”
Lance pointed dramatically at Lois and shouted, “She killed our baby!”
Clark saw something he’d never expected to see – Perry White with nothing to say.
Lance tried to get away from Clark but couldn’t. “Hey! You want to let me go now, pal?”
Clark pulled him upright. “Do you plan to be a good boy now – pal?”
“But I’m the injured party here!”
Clark lifted him another inch. “Trust me, Lance, I can do this dance longer than you can.”
“Okay, okay! Just let me go, will ya?” Clark slowly released the pressure on the man’s coat and stepped back. Lance turned to Lois. “Look, I think we need to talk about this.”
“No, Lance, we don’t need to talk about this! We’re through! I thought you were a civilized human being!”
“And I thought you were a real woman!”
Lois’ jaw tightened and her fists clenched. “I am a real woman! And I’m a woman who has the right to control her own body! No one tells me what to do!”
Clark glanced from Lois’ expression to Lance’s several times, trying to read the non-verbal communications. Lance blinked first. “Okay,” he breathed. “Okay, I get it. I’m gone. Don’t worry about returning my key. I’m changing the lock. And don’t ever call me again, not for anything.”
He turned and walked towards the elevator, defeat rolling from his shoulders. As the elevator door closed, he looked at Lois one more time.
Clark did too. Her face held nothing that could be called gentle or soft.
Perry sighed. “Lois, I think we need to – “
“No, we do not need to talk! I haven’t done anything wrong!”
“Oh, really? If Clark hadn’t been here, that man might have hurt you.”
“I could have taken care of him!”
Perry shook his head. “Lois, you’ve disrupted this newsroom by bringing your personal life into it. Look around you. Nobody’s working. And I don’t blame them.”
Lois did look around. The only person not staring in her direction was Jimmy, who was still on the phone. “All right, you idiots! Get back to work! This isn’t performance art, it’s private business!”
“We still need to talk.”
“I’ve already told you we don’t need to talk! It’s over and done with! Won’t happen again.”
Perry sighed in apparent resignation and turned towards his office. Jimmy called out, “Chief, security says they have that Lance guy downstairs. Do we want to have him arrested or something?”
Perry stopped and glanced at Lois, then said, “No. But tell them to make sure he knows that if he comes back here without an appointment he will be detained and turned over to the police.”
“Got it.”
Lois moved to her chair and set it upright. Clark moved closer and lowered his voice. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
She spun around so fast that he almost didn’t see the punch she slammed into his chest. “Listen, Smallville, I don’t share my private life with you because you’re not a part of my private life! And that’s the way I want it to stay! You got that?”
Clark took in the set of her chin and the narrowed eyes. “Yes, Lois,” he answered quietly. “I’ve got it.”
“Good. Now get away from me. I’ve got work to do.”
He watched her slam herself into her chair and remembered the days when she appreciated his help, his company, his nearness. That Lois would never have gotten an abortion without talking to Clark about it. Of course, that Lois would never have gotten pregnant with Lance, either.
As he shuffled back to his desk, he felt as if she’d slipped even further from him. And not only could he not reach her, he could no longer touch her.
*****
Two months after the incident with Lance – two months of glares and snarls from Lois directed to everyone in the newsroom – she didn’t show up one Monday morning. Clark glanced at her desk and wondered if he should check on her, but then decided that if she no longer wanted his help he wouldn’t try to force it on her. After all, they hadn’t been partners for quite some time. So he went back to his own assignments.
Lunchtime came and Clark ate with Jimmy and his new girlfriend Janet. They all had a good time until Clark asked, “Hey, Jim, do you know where Lois is today?”
Jimmy’s face fell. “Yeah. But I’m not supposed to tell you.”
Clark leaned back in his chair. “Hey, if the Chief told you not to tell me, then you shouldn’t tell me. No problem.”
Jimmy’s frown deepened. “The Chief didn’t tell me to be quiet. Lois did.”
Clark leaned forward. “I see. Did she happen to tell you when she’d be back?”
Jimmy opened his mouth, then closed it again, then sighed deeply. “When the mission’s over.”
Janet touched him on the elbow. “Jim, hon, if Ms. Lane told you not to say, maybe you shouldn’t tell Mr. Kent anything.”
He turned to her. “I know Lois warned me not to, but I have to tell someone!”
“Wait,” said Clark. “You mean that Perry doesn’t know where she is?”
“I’m not supposed to tell him until after lunch.”
A niggle of worry began in Clark’s mind. “It’s after lunch. You’re finished eating. You can tell Perry when you get back to the office.”
Jimmy hesitated. “Okay, I’ll tell you. First I have to say that Janet doesn’t know anything about this. She’s hearing it for the first time too.”
Clark’s voice took on a slightly harder edge. “Fine! Just tell me already!”
Jimmy flinched at the older man’s tone, then he steadied himself and his eyes bored into Clark’s. “The US ambassador to Columbia was kidnapped two days ago by one of the country’s drug lords. Lois has hooked up with the Marine force sent to rescue him. They left for Ecuador at about eleven this morning.”
Clark’s mouth hung open so long that he almost drooled on his plate. Janet nudged Jimmy and stage-whispered, “Maybe you should take Mr. Kent back to the office now.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “We’ll talk later.”
*****
Lois’ return from her journey to Ecuador and Columbia was celebrated in the Daily Planet – which, of course, had the exclusive print story – and by the city in general. The mayor called to schedule a press conference honoring the heroine who had so bravely reported from a combat zone on the Marines’ courageous rescue of the kidnapped ambassador.
As confetti and streamers showered down on her in the newsroom, Clark slipped close to her and said, “Good job, Lois. I mean that.”
She glanced at him momentarily and her smile slipped away as she registered who was talking to her. “Thanks.” Then her attention was captured by the governor’s aide, who hinted at some state ceremony to honor her.
Lois and the aide stepped aside to talk more privately. Rebuffed yet again, Clark sighed and made his way back to his desk. She wouldn’t even let him compliment her now. What chance did he have to –
“Mr. Kent?”
The man in the military uniform seemed to materialize out of the confusion of Lois’ celebration. Clark started, then relaxed. Lois must be bothering him more than normal today for him to have missed seeing a stranger in the newsroom.
“I’m Clark Kent,” he told the man. “May I help you?”
“I’m Major Nathan Wilkerson, United States Marine Corps. I was the commander of the rescue mission Ms. Lane reported on.”
Clark brightened immediately. “Major Wilkerson! I saw your name in the dispatches Lois sent back. We didn’t print your name until everyone was back safe. That’s company policy – “
“That’s what I want to talk to you about.”
Clark frowned. “I don’t understand. We didn’t print your name before you returned home to protect you and your family. I hope that isn’t a problem – “
Major Wilkerson waved his hand in dismissal. “Please, Mr. Kent, that’s not why I’m here. I need to tell you about Ms. Lane’s last story.”
Clark gestured to the chair beside his desk and sat down. “Go ahead, Major.”
Major Wilkerson sat at attention. “The last story Ms. Lane filed from Ecuador revealed the location of our base. We were hit by a battalion-size ground assault less than two hours after she and the ambassador lifted off.”
Clark’s jaw dropped. “What? No! We made sure there were no place names in her story, no civilian names, no roads, no rivers, nothing! There was no way anyone could have traced you from her story!”
“Not from what the Planet printed, no.”
The wheels turned and the penny dropped. “You mean – are you telling me that Lois sold that story to someone else too?”
Wilkerson nodded. “It was printed in both Buenos Aires and Quito. I didn’t know it until after the assault on our base.”
“How did you find out?”
“The assault cost us three dead and eleven wounded. We took most of those casualties right away, but Marines are trained to react to armed attacks. We regrouped and counter-attacked. We think they lost as many as two dozen dead and an equal number wounded before they withdrew. An armed helicopter mission hosed down the area they were occupying fifteen minutes later. We hit them harder than they hit us, and we captured four prisoners. They all told us they’d read Ms. Lane’s story in either El Comercio or El Espreso, two of Quito’s daily papers, and that the stories gave them more than enough detail to find us.”
Clark shook his head. “Does Lois know?”
The major’s face hardened. “Know what? That she’s responsible for three dead Marines? That she missed being under fire by a pretty slim margin? That she almost caused the death of an American diplomat? Is that what you’re asking me if she knows, Mr. Kent?”
Clark pursed his lips. “Yes. That’s what I’m asking.”
“We transmitted the details to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. That was where – “
“Yes, I know, where the ambassador was taken after he left your base.”
“That was another factor which contributed to the attack on our base, Mr. Kent. Ms. Lane included the model of helicopter she and the ambassador were to ride to the carrier. There was only one carrier in the region at the time, and that aircraft has a known range. Anybody with a map and a piece of string could have plotted the area we might have been in.” Wilkerson leaned forward. “She set us up, Mr. Kent! She left our butts hanging out in the line of fire! And she knew what she was doing!”
Clark sat back and blew out a long breath. “Will you wait here, Major? I want my boss to hear what you have to say.”
Wilkerson resumed his ramrod posture on the chair. “I’ll wait, Mr. Kent.”
“I’ll be right back.” Clark stood and looked for Perry across the still crowded room. He finally spotted his boss standing beside Lois, vainly trying to capture her attention. She apparently only had ears for the governor’s aide and the mayor.
This was not going to be a pleasant conversation for any of them. For the first time in a long time, Clark was afraid for Lois.
*****
Perry shook Major Wilkerson’s hand and thanked him for coming to see them. The expression on the major’s face seemed to say that he knew a brush-off when he saw one, and he didn’t look at Clark as he marched out of Perry’s office towards the stairwell.
“Close the door, will you, Clark?”
“Sure, Chief.”
“Sit down, son. We need to chat.”
Clark hesitated, then sat. “We’re not printing the major’s story, are we?”
Perry sighed and leaned his elbows on his desk. For the first time in a long time, Clark looked at his boss’ face and posture and realized that the man was not as vibrant and alive as he had been when Clark had first joined the Planet. He looked thin and drawn and suddenly older, as if something were sucking the life right out of him.
Perry finally lifted his head. “We can’t print it.”
Another time, another place, another story, Clark might have exploded. But not now. He licked his lips and asked, “Because Lois is just too popular, right?”
“It’s not just her popularity, son. This rescue is a military, diplomatic, political, and financial windfall for just about everybody. Our Washington bureau has quotes from the President, the Vice President, the majority leaders of both major parties, the Pentagon – anyway, everybody and his pet goldfish is trying to claim some of the credit for this mission going so well.”
Clark’s voice sounded more calm than he felt. “But it didn’t go all that well, did it?”
“The primary mission was to rescue the ambassador. That part went off without a hitch. And Lois’ dispatches from the Marine base have caught the public’s imagination like Edward R. Murrow’s reports from London during the Battle of Britain did. She did everything but fire a weapon while she was down there, and right now everyone is calling her a hero.”
Clark sighed. “She sold the Planet’s exclusive stories to at least two other outlets, and I’d bet my retirement fund that there were more. And she’s responsible for those Marines being dead and wounded. Don’t we have an obligation to tell the whole truth? Especially the unpleasant parts?”
Perry leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hands over his face. “I guess I’ve been doing this job too long.” He dropped his hands. “I agree with you. We should tell this part of the story. We do have an obligation to tell the public the whole truth.”
Clark waited for his boss to continue, but he didn’t. “But we’re not going to, are we? At least, not this time?”
“Let’s assume that I give you the go-ahead to write up the major’s story. Let’s also assume that every word of it is true and that we can independently confirm every aspect of what he sat there and told us. Let’s further assume that I put it above the fold on page one, where it deserves to be. What do you think will happen next?”
“We print it, Lois gets mad and sues the paper, the truth is told, and her undeserved heroic reputation is ripped to shreds.”
“In an ideal world, yes, that’s what would happen. But a story like this has to be run past the legal department. They, in turn, would tell the suits upstairs what the story’s about. The suits would call me and tell me that I can’t print it due to potential legal problems, difficulty in confirming facts, the military’s right to secrecy, and so forth. And because the story is about something Lois is alleged to have done, she’ll have to be consulted on it, too.”
Perry paused and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “But the real reason is that the current political climate won’t tolerate it. And I know that political considerations shouldn’t matter one little bit, but they do. This paper has been a vocal supporter of the current administration, and that’s who green-lighted this operation. If we rain on their parade now, it will cost us both readers and advertisers.”
“I thought we were above all that.”
Perry sighed again. “Normally we are. But this time, the stakes are just too high. If I run this story, I won’t have a job in a week, and at my age and in my physical condition I won’t be able to find another one. I don’t know what it would do to my pension from the Planet, and my other savings won’t support me too long.” He leaned back and rubbed his eyes. “You saw how I was when I ‘retired’ when Luthor bought the paper. How long do you think I’d last under these circumstances?”
Clark sat back in his chair and considered Perry’s words. Major Wilkerson’s story needed to be told – it fairly begged to be told. And it would go a long way in taking Lois Lane down a few pegs, although Clark tried to convince himself that this outcome wasn’t one of the reasons he wanted the story told.
But Perry was right about the process, and he was right about the roadblocks in the way. The story would never be okayed by Legal. The suits upstairs wouldn’t tolerate anyone saying anything bad about their favorite reporter, “favorite” being defined as “the one for whose stories people bought the Daily Planet.” Clark had seen the numbers claiming that Lois was personally responsible for the eighteen percent increase in sales over the last three weeks and the twenty-two percent increase in advertising revenue in the previous three months.
And the attention she was garnering from the important political people outside Perry’s office would not go away soon. Too many people had a vested interest in Lois’ heroine status. If the Planet did publish the truth about Lois’ duplicity, the cost would be prohibitive.
Clark sighed again and closed his eyes. “Can you at least reprimand her for selling the story to another outlet without your permission?”
“Yes. I don’t know how much good it’ll do, but I will do that, no matter what the suits think.” Perry stood and groaned softly. “Getting old stinks. And I’m sorry, Clark, but I’m caught between the devil and the deep blue sea on this one.”
“I know, Chief.” Clark looked through the glass around Perry’s door. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think she’ll lose any sleep over any of it, not the reprimand or the dead Marines.”
“No,” replied Perry. “A year ago she wouldn’t have thought about doing what she did. Now – it’s like someone else is living in her skin.”
Perry’s words hit Clark like a kryptonite sledgehammer. It was his fault she was the way she was. And he’d have to live with that knowledge for the rest of his life.
*****
The applause brought Clark back to the present, back to Lois Lane’s victory celebration. Lois had been nominated for three awards and had won two of them. She finished her second Kerth acceptance speech with a flourish and a huge grin.
Clark applauded perfunctorily with the rest, but his thoughts were dark and gloomy. Lois had cut off almost all contact with her family and former friends, and a heartbroken Ellen Lane had fallen back into her alcoholic lifestyle. Lucy hadn’t spoken or written to her since Christmas, when Lois had snubbed everyone by attending the governor’s party and had failed to send as much as a card to anyone who couldn’t immediately further her career. Nor had her father heard from her, and although Sam Lane had tried to comfort his ex-wife, he hadn’t been very successful at that, either.
Lois’ professional and personal ethical standards were long gone. She was seeing – and sometimes sleeping with – at least three powerful, important men in state government, trying to generate stories which would earn her even bigger awards.
Clark watched as she waved the second Kerth above her head. It was her last week at the Daily Planet. She’d accepted a position with LNN to be a roving political commentator, a position with more money, far more visibility, less oversight of her activities, less responsibility to be completely accurate in her reporting, and no Perry White or Clark Kent to look over her shoulder and ask her if what she was doing was the right thing.
Jimmy whispered to Perry, “I don’t think she’s looked in this direction during either acceptance speech.”
Perry shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, son, she’s been gone a while. Just took until now to make the break.”
Clark knew he wasn’t supposed to overhear that exchange, so he kept quiet. But he agreed. The moment he’d frozen Lois to deliver her to Jason Mazik and Nigel St. John, he’d killed something inside her, something that had made her uniquely Lois. Her body and mind were still there. She was still beautiful, still brilliantly skilled, still driven to succeed, still Mad Dog Lane in high heels and business suit. But the part of Lois that Clark had loved was dead, buried deep beneath the frozen glacier of her heart, the part of her that she had sacrificed for his parents.
And in the intervening months, she’d managed to kill the part of Clark that had still loved her despite her personality shift. Like Jimmy and Perry, Clark was actually relieved that Lois was no longer employed by the Daily Planet. He’d lost her that day without knowing it at the time. And Lucy no longer tried to call or visit Lois. The only reason she was attending the awards banquet that night was because Jimmy, who’d been nominated for his photo essay on Suicide Slum, had invited her.
He glanced at Lucy and caught her eyes with his. She shrugged her shoulders and blinked quickly, then looked back at her sister again. He understood. The hope that Lois’ condition would reverse itself had turned out to be a chimera, no more real than a desert mirage. She was now who she would always be.
Clark still grieved over losing Lois. He believed that he always would.
He remembered how cold her shoulders had felt that day, despite his efforts to warm her. And as he thought back on that day yet again, he imagined that he saw that same coldness spreading throughout her body, robbing her of some essence of humanity and compassion that made her Lois Lane, leaving only the furiously driven Mad Dog Lane in its wake.
He ached for what might have been. And had he been able, he would have cried for what would never be.
# # #
