Jimmy emerged from the darkroom and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light. He’d been in there for longer than was strictly necessary to develop half a dozen shots of the William Mertz High School Quiz Bowl team, New Troy’s 1993 Championship winners, soon to be competing for national honors in Orlando, Florida.
Truth be told, he’d been sulking. Lois was probably getting the scoop on the Barnes Gang’s latest heist at that very moment. He should have been there. He’d wanted to be there. He’d asked the Chief to let him take a camera down to the Gold Repository. Perry hadn’t even known that Lois was heading there this morning until Jimmy had filled him in on her discovery from the night before. Geez, it was Jimmy who’d found that old newspaper article. Without him, Lois would never have even known where to go. But, no, this wasn’t going to be his big break after all. Ever since those first pictures of Superman flying Lois through the Planet’s front window had come out a little fuzzy, Perry made sure that someone—anyone—other than James B. Olsen was at every important story. Jimmy was in photographer’s purgatory, with no hint as to when he’d be getting out.
“Why the long face, handsome?” The new voice belonged to a slim brunette with violet eyes and a cute little turned-up nose. Jimmy was sure he’d never seen her before.
“Huh?” Oh, yeah, James, real smooth.
She’d been leaning against the railing of the newsroom ramp, but she stood up, adjusting her tight black v-neck sweater with a little tug at its hem. His eyes couldn’t help but follow from the neck-line to the hips to the purple miniskirt which barely covered the top of a shapely pair of legs.
“You look a little depressed. How about a cup of coffee and a donut to perk you up? I was just heading that way myself.” Jimmy quickly brought his eyes back up to her face. If she’d caught him ogling her, she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she was smiling at him in a very friendly way. When he continued to stare blankly, she raised her eyebrows and waved in the general direction of the snack area.
“Oh! Yeah! Coffee. That’s a good idea.” Put your brain in gear, man! You’re blowing this big time.
Luckily, the girl didn’t seem to notice Jimmy’s momentary lack of focus. She followed him to the coffee machine and accepted the mug that he poured for her, adding two packets of artificial sweetener while Jimmy poured his own coffee.
“I hope you don’t think I’m being too forward,” she said as Jimmy reached for the last glazed donut. He offered it to her, but she shook her head with a shy little smile, so he kept it for himself. “I just started in classifieds this week and I don’t know very many people,” she went on. “I hate taking my coffee break alone, and you looked like you could use some cheering up.” After a beat, she added, “I’m sorry; I haven’t even introduced myself properly. I’m Marnie Wilcox.”
“Ji…James, James Olsen. I’m a photographer…which I guess is pretty obvious seeing as how I was just coming out of the dark room.” Lame, Olsen! Lame!
“Wow! A photographer! That’s so cool! I took photography classes in high school, but I could never get all the chemicals to work right. I guess it’s just not my thing.” She gave a cheerful shrug, obviously not too broken up about the derailment of that particular ambition. “I’d love to see some of your work. What were you developing just now?”
“Nothing very interesting, I’m afraid.” Inspiration struck. “But I do have something you might like to see—the first ever photograph of Superman.”
“Oh wow! That would be totally awesome!” She laid a warm hand on his arm. It was a brief touch, over before it even registered, but Jimmy was sure she was flirting with him. Yes! Score one for Olsen!
*****
When her lips finally left Caleb’s and she drew back enough to look around, Lois found that they had drifted out to sea—or rather over the sea—with the prevailing winds. Superman’s cape was wrapped around them like a blanket, and, although they were still vertical, their legs were rather tangled up and their arms wrapped tightly around each other. Caleb brought his hands up to her face, burying his fingers in the hair behind her temples, his thumbs gently stroking across her cheekbones.
“Lord, woman, do you have any idea what you do to me?” he breathed, his brown eyes boring into hers, willing her to understand the impact she had on him.
“It couldn’t be half of what you do to me,” she answered. A girlish giggle escaped before she clamped her mouth shut on the end of it. Caleb’s only response was to raise a questioning eyebrow. “You know,” she said by way of explanation, “women all over the world dream about being swept off their feet by Superman, and I’m the one who really is. I wonder what they’d think if they knew that being flown off into the clouds for a lover’s quarrel was part of the package.”
“That’s why I need you,” he countered. “Not many of those women would be strong-willed enough to get yelled at by Superman and yell right back.”
The teasing smile left his face and he said in all sincerity, “I’m sorry, Lois. I was out of line. Of course you have to do your job, and I knew at the outset that you don’t always color inside the lines.” He smiled again and said, “Do you know what I was doing when I heard you yelling for me after Trask threw you out of that plane?”
“What?”
“I was wishing that I could hold you in my arms again, and thinking that would never happen. After all, what was the likelihood that the same person would need rescuing by Superman more than once?” He shook his head in bemusement. “I called you my first repeat customer, remember? I should issue you frequent flyer miles.”
He grew serious again. “I do wish you’d have told me in advance that you planned to sneak inside. It wouldn’t have taken me so long to get you out if I’d known where to look for you.”
If anyone else had said such a thing, Lois would have accused them of patronizing her. But Caleb had earned the right to worry about her, so instead she explained reasonably, “I appreciate that you want to keep me safe, but you have to understand how I work. I can’t plan every move in advance. When you left I didn’t exactly have my strategy all mapped out.”
“You knew enough to take the invisibility suits with you,” he countered. “You must have had some idea of how you would use them.” He wasn’t really angry, just concerned.
Lois was unapologetic on that point. “Hey, a girl’s got to be prepared for contingencies. Invisibility is a huge advantage for a reporter. Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t use every advantage you had if you were in my shoes.”
A new, speculative look came into her eyes, and Clark had the uncomfortable feeling he was being sized up. “You know,” she mused, “invisibility isn’t the only…special ability that could come in handy for a good reporter.” Her palms slid down his back, came forward around his waist, and worked their way back up to rest on his chest, leaving trails of fire in their wakes. “Take reconnaissance, for example. An Ace Reporter can’t always have access to an invisibility suit. And that’s not the most subtle way to go, anyway.” She sounded casually conversational, but Clark wasn’t fooled for a moment. “I mean, people can still hear you when you wear those things, and they can see you opening doors or picking things up.” Her fingers played idly on his spandex-covered pecs, making it extremely difficult for him to focus on precisely what she was saying. “But suppose the reporter had a partner. Someone who could walk right into a place in a pair of pants and a sport coat, ask a few innocuous questions, take a few notes, and use his special hearing and vision powers to find out things that no one else would think he would know…”
“Wait a minute!” Her hands stopped moving and Clark brought one of his up to capture both of hers, thus preventing any further mischief. “You want Superman to spy on your targets for you?” Clark did his best impression of his dad’s ‘What were you thinking, son?’ frown.
“No, no!” Lois was the picture of misunderstood innocence. “I would never ask Superman to do such a thing. Superman is the symbol of honesty—the world’s biggest Boy Scout.”
Clark just looked at her skeptically, but he did release her hands. With a final pat on the chest and a satisfied grin, she said, “I want my boyfriend, Caleb, to spy on my targets for me.”
*****
“Wow, James! The first ever photograph of Superman! And he’s flying! That’s way cool!” Marnie was perched on one corner of Jimmy’s desk, her legs crossed and the hem of her skirt riding up just enough to hint at…things Jimmy should not be thinking about at work.
“Yeah, well, the Chief wasn’t impressed. It’s not very clear—his face is pretty fuzzy.”
“But he was moving! Surely Mr. White doesn’t expect you to get completely clear focus on a moving target.”
“You’d be surprised what Perry White expects,” Jimmy said gloomily.
“Who’s that he’s carrying?” Marnie asked. “She looks happy.”
“That’s Lois Lane. And, trust me, she only looks that happy when Superman is carrying her. Or when she’s landed a major scoop. If you ever see her without that smile, it’s best to stay clear. She can be a little…”
“Prickly?” Marnie suggested.
“I was going to say ‘intense,’ but you’ve got the idea. Let’s just say they don’t call her ‘Mad Dog Lane’ for nothing.”
“I think I’ve seen her. Weren’t you working late with her last night? I thought I saw you talking with her in the conference room when I left.”
“Yep. That was her.”
“There was another man there, too. Tall, dark hair, looks a little like you, but not as cute. Is that her reporting partner?”
“No way. Lois Lane works alone. That was her new boyfriend, Caleb.”
“Caleb Johnson? I think we went to school together.”
“No. Caleb Knight.”
“Oh, well, my mistake.” She gave that same cheery little shrug again. Hopping jauntily to her feet, she said, “Coffee break’s over. I’d better get back to classifieds. Don’t want to get in trouble before my first paycheck.”
“We should do this again sometime,” Jimmy said hopefully.
“Sure! That would be nice. See you, James.”
“See you.”
“Bye now!” She gave one last parting wave, and then headed back to work.
*****
As they approached the city, Caleb slowed and asked, “Where to? Back to the Gold Repository?”
“Nope. I’ve already gotten everything I’m going to out of Henderson and the manager there. Morrison and the guards will be sick of talking to reporters by now. Barnes and his gang will be in lock-up and not talking to anybody. There’s only one witness left, and I’m the only reporter with access to him. To the Daily Planet roof if you please; it’s time for Superman’s interview. That is why he and I left so suddenly, you know. I asked him to fly me back to work so none of the other reporters would get to him. Very clever of me, don’t you think?”
“Very. Your wish is my command.” Superman veered left and, moments later, touched down on the roof of the iconic building.
***
When Lois emerged from the stairwell ten minutes later, she was in fine form. She headed straight for Perry’s office, waving her notebook like a pennant. “You should have been there, Chief! I hope Sevison got some good shots of Barnes and his gang covered in phosphorous.”
“Lois! Where in tarnation have you been? Sevison got back fifteen minutes ago. He says Superman carried you out of the Repository and took off like a bat out of Hell, taking you with him. People are wondering what’s going on with you two.” He gave a thoughtful frown and lowered his voice. “You haven’t started something with Superman, have you? It was pretty obvious how enamored of him you were when he first appeared.”
Lois waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t be ridiculous, Chief. Every woman in America was enamored of Superman. He’s a huge celebrity. But I’m a grown woman; I don’t go around acting on every celebrity crush, and Superman doesn’t have romantic attachments. I thought everyone knew that. Besides, I don’t think my boyfriend would like it if I did.”
“That Caleb Knight fellow that Jimmy’s been telling me about?”
Lois smiled broadly, letting every ounce of her delight in Caleb shine through her eyes. “That’s the one.” Turning on her heel, she marched off to her desk to get started on the story.
Watching her go, Perry mumbled to himself, “I see it, but I don’t believe it. Lois Lane is in love.”
***
Lois was tweaking the last paragraph of her story when her peripheral vision picked up a person standing quietly next to her desk. Holding up one hand to indicate that she was in the middle of something, Lois put the finishing touches on the article, saved it to her hard drive, and sent it to Perry for his review. Only then did she look up to see who was waiting to talk to her. It was a young woman with dark hair and violet eyes who was in serious need of an office fashion mentor.
“Can I help you?” Lois asked in her best ‘Make it quick, kid,’ voice.
“Ms. Lane?” The young woman displayed the diffidence and respect which was Lois’s due as top banana in the newsroom.
“Yes?” Lois’s tone said, ‘Get on with it and don’t waste my time.’
“I’m Marnie. I started in classifieds this week.” When Lois failed to respond, Marnie went on, “A bunch of us girls are going out for drinks after work. I was wondering if you’d like to join us.” Her voice trailed off toward the end as she realized how little interest Lois Lane had in hobnobbing with the office ladies’ club.
Lois merely pointed at her desk calendar, where “Dinner with Caleb” was scrawled diagonally across the bottom half of Friday’s spot and said briskly, “Sorry. Can’t.” She turned back to her computer screen in what Marnie correctly understood to be a dismissal. The next time Lois looked up, Marnie was gone.
*****
Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang in Nigel St. John’s office in the LexTower building. “Yes?” he answered.
“Mr. St. John? It’s Marnie. You sent me to the Daily Planet this week to check up on Lois Lane.”
“Yes, Marnie. I trust you have something to report.”
“Yes, sir. Lois Lane definitely has a new boyfriend. I’ve seen him myself, and he matches the description you gave me.”
“Does he have a name?”
“Yes, sir. Caleb Knight. They have a dinner date tonight.”
“Thank you, Marnie. That will do nicely for now. You will inform me of any further developments.” He hung up without waiting for a reply.
