This fic is for the 2009 Ficathon. It is for Lois_Lane_Fan.
This is a fanfic based on the television show, “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”. No copyright infringement is intended.
Special thanks to Dan Levine, writer of “Neverending Battle”, from which I borrow liberally, both dialogue and situations. Also, for the purposes of this fic, the events of “Strange Visitor” haven’t happened yet, and Lucy hasn’t been living with Lois..
Special thanks to Female Hawk (Corrina) and Michael for their much-appreciated and very helpful beta work.
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GET THE STORY!
Lois Lane stopped before the entrance to the Daily Planet newsroom and rubbed her eyes. She might be tired, but on this bright autumn morning she certainly wasn’t going to show it.
It had been a hectic time. She’d been running for days, fueled by strong coffee and righteous indignation, tracking down the details of the space shuttle sabotage. She had been taken captive and almost killed, along with Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen. But she’d gotten her revenge by exposing the machinations of her captor, Dr. Antoinette Baines.
Of course, that story had been knocked off the front page by an even bigger story – probably the biggest story of the century. Superman. The flying man with superhuman abilities. She’d been in the shuttle, almost resigned to dying, when this… this… whatever he was… had come in and swallowed the ticking time bomb. She’d practically fainted.
Having secured Superman’s promise for a one-on-one interview, Lois had been up all night waiting for him to return to the EPRAD command center. And he’d given her that interview – tantalizingly brief and unsatisfactory - in a conference room at EPRAD, and then – what could be more surreal – he’d flown her back to the Daily Planet. He’d set her down carefully in the newsroom, and had soared away as her co-workers stared in astonishment. Even hard-bitten newsies who swore they’d seen everything had stood there, eyes wide and jaws dropped.
She hadn’t gotten any sleep that night, staying up and waiting for Superman to return. And then she’d spent most of the next day working on her story about the space program, the attempted sabotage, and the biggest story, Superman.
Unusually for the Planet, in terms of hard facts and front section “real estate”, there was an interesting inverse order. Superman was the biggest story, and got the largest proportion of newsprint. But Lois and the Planet knew the least about him. Contrarily, she had the facts for just about everything in the space program – after all, it had been extensively reported on for months - but the dry facts about the space station and the colonist transport got the least amount of paper.
The attempted sabotage fell somewhere in the middle. Lois knew a little – not a lot, but she had more hard facts than she did about Superman. And the sabotage, which normally would have been the top story, was relegated to the middle pages due to the astonishing actions of Superman
So by quitting time, Lois Lane was definitely exhausted and ready to leave. Then, of course, she’d been forced to stay later, kept there by the persnickety legal team, making sure her allegations were water-tight. She’d been exasperated. Couldn’t they have done their job earlier? It wasn’t like they hadn’t had three hours, for cripes sake! She’d drowsed off in her cab, and the cabbie had actually had to shake her awake at her destination. She’d barely been able to brush her teeth and strip her clothing before she fell limply into bed.
And then, Lucy had come knocking. Two o’clock in the morning, and her sister had dropped in, literally out of the blue. Lois had staggered, muzzy with sleep, to her door, and opened it to find Lucy, newly arrived from Northern California. Lucy had managed to keep her up for what seemed an ungodly amount of time.
Sleep was impossible for a few more hours while Lucy invited herself to stay at Lois’s for a few weeks (rent-free, of course) and chattered all about how she had lined up a job opportunity here in Metropolis, and she had the interview tomorrow, but her flight had been delayed over twelve hours, and not only that, the airline had lost her luggage, but she still had some emergency supplies in her carry-on, and she’d broken up with Billy, he didn’t support her at all, and the breakup had been kind of acrimonious and she felt that she should really get away from Billy, you know, width-of-the-country away, because he was kind of creepy, you know, but it was probably for the best, because she was going to make a new life for herself here in Metropolis, and the best thing about that was that she would be able to see Lois all the time, and….
Lois had zoned out after about five minutes of this. She’d dragged out the air mattress she kept for company (hardly ever used, at least not since Lucy’s last visit two years ago), put bedding on it, made sure Lucy had nightclothes, an alarm clock and a toothbrush, and had eventually bluntly announced that she was going back to bed.
So her hopefully-fourteen-hours of restorative sleep had been diminished to maybe six, and Lois definitely felt the lack. She stood at the newsroom door and took a deep breath. She pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed her temples. She closed her eyes and took five deep breaths. She put on her mental armor. I’m ready. Today will be a day with a great story. Today I’ll find things that no one else has found. Today Lois Lane will write what could be a Pulitzer-winning story. Then her self-talk turned more specific. Today I’ll find out more about Superman.
She opened her eyes, straightened her shoulders, and strode confidently into the newsroom.
It was pandemonium. An electrician was re-wiring a light fixture. Loud conversation echoed across the room. Perry’s voice rose over the hubbub.
“Olsen! Where are your blow-ups of Superman?”
“Lab’s backed up. Turnaround might be a couple of hours,” the youthful photographer pleaded.
“Turnaround! Great shades of Elvis! What are we, Daily Planet newspeople or second stringers for the Weehawken Gazette?!” Perry’s voice rose to a thunderous crescendo and the newsroom fell nearly silent. Perry went into his office and slammed the door.
Lois smiled. She’d been lucky to have Perry as her editor. As a rookie, he’d mentored her, led her, taught her that nothing less than the best was acceptable. And now, faced with the greatest story of the century, there was no way he would let the Daily Planet have coverage that was lacking.
Clark Kent strolled up to her and handed her a steaming cup. “Coffee, non-fat creamer, artificial sweetener. Good morning, Lois.”
She took the coffee, nonplussed. “Good morning,” she replied automatically. What was Clark doing? Everyone ignored Mad Dog Lane in the morning – nobody approached her until she’d had at least three cups of coffee! Nobody actually brought her coffee!
She narrowed her eyes. Maybe he was trying to steal her story. She’d been the only one to fly with Superman. Although, when she’d been working on the shuttle sabotage story, Clark had dropped a few comments that made her think that he’d gotten some face time with Superman too. Probably it had happened in the time after Superman had come back to EPRAD and before he’d met her in the conference room at the EPRAD complex for her exclusive interview. She really didn’t know how much one-on-one Superman had done with the media members in the pack at the EPRAD Mission Control Media Room. So he could have talked with Clark for a few minutes.
Superman is my story! Lois thought reflexively. She deserved it. She’d seen him first. She’d bullied him into the interview. She’d even named him – he hadn’t given his name, and her whispered eponym had gained wide currency.
She looked at Clark suspiciously, but he’d already turned around. Curiously disappointed that he hadn’t waited for her to thank him (are you sure you would have thanked him, Lois? - an inner voice nagged her), she noticed that he’d headed over to the small crowd standing around Stan, the sketch artist.
Lois quickly joined in the crowd. It didn’t take her long to see that Stan was trying to depict Superman. She decided to make sure the artist got it right. After all, Superman had actually flown her to the Planet newsroom – nobody else had been that close to him!
So she felt justified in correcting the sketcher: “No, the eye color’s wrong.”
Stan retorted, “You said ‘brown’”.
“Not brown brown. Not dull, insipid, mud brown…like Clark’s. No offense, Clark.”
“Mud?” Clark said, offended.
“More vibrant, more radiant.”
“Bedroom eyes,” Cat Grant added in a sultry voice.
Jimmy Olsen felt the need to add his two cents. “But if he is an alien, maybe he doesn’t get the old…you know, itch.”
“One way to find out,” Cat said lasciviously.
Indignant, Lois retorted, “A possible visitor from another planet arrives on Earth and all you can think of is hauling him off to your lair and trying him out?”
Cat responded with her usual insouciance. “Test drive, Lois. A couple hours behind the wheel, and I’d know for sure if we were talking import or domestic.”
Lois caught Clark rolling his eyes. She could understand that. Cat Grant was enough to make any sane person roll their eyes. Although Lois couldn’t deny that the thought of taking a “test drive” with Superman sent a frisson of excitement through her too. She cut through the chatter with her final statement: “What we’ve got here is an example of human evolution, ‘before’ and ‘after’. Clark is the ‘before’. Superman is the ‘after’.” She looked again at Clark – heavens, how did the man manage to have his tie permanently askew? “Make that way, way after.”
Clark seemed about to say something, but motion at the newsroom door distracted Lois’s attention.
“Lucy? What are you doing here?” She strode to her sister. “I thought you said the airlines were going to deliver your luggage this morning. Why are you wearing my gray suit?”
“Hi, Lois!” Lucy chirped. “They did deliver my luggage. Your suit was just better than anything I brought.”
Lois counted to ten, slowly. “What are you doing here?” she asked again, after she was certain she could hold her voice steady.
“I thought I’d come by and see where you worked. You talk about it all the time.”
“I thought you had an appointment.”
“I did. LNN NewsTime. Two blocks away. I’ve got half an hour to get there.”
Newsroom members drifted closer, curious. Lois frowned when she saw Cat Grant, and realized that Cat had probably heard the comment Lucy made about the suit. Great. Now the newsroom gossip would know that Lois Lane’s sister stole Lois Lane’s clothing.
Clark stepped forward, interrupting Lois’s angry ruminations. “Hello. Uh, Lois….?”
“Oh…everyone, this is my sister, Lucy. Lucy, Cat Grant. Jimmy Olsen. Clark Kent.”
“I can see the family resemblance,” Clark said, smiling as he shook Lucy’s hand. Lois felt even crankier. Did Clark smile at all the women like that?
Jimmy just stared at Lucy for a moment, and Cat gave an outwardly cordial greeting that Lois was sure harbored an unseen trap. After a minute, Jimmy shook himself, and stepped forward a pace.
“Have you been to Metropolis before, Miss Lane?”
“Oh, call me Lucy…uh, Jimmy?”
“Yeah. Jimmy, uh, James Olsen.”
“I grew up in Metropolis, but I haven’t been here for years. Um, James.” Lucy had moved closer to Jimmy, and he’d responded by stepping toward her. They stood, almost touching. “I’ve been in California for the last few years. Lois and I talk on the phone all the time but it’s really different, you know, actually being here.”
There was a moment of awkward silence, and Jimmy ignoring the opportunity to ask Lucy what she thought about California. Instead, he went in a different direction. “You can tell you two are sisters.”
“Really?” Lucy asked, smiling.
“You two look a lot alike, but Lois is, um….” Jimmy belatedly realized he was in trouble.
“More mature?” Cat sniped. “Hard-boiled? Older-looking? As tough as a fifty-cent steak?”
“Cat…,” Clark said chidingly. Lois fumed silently.
“Oh, all right,” Cat sniffed.
“You should know all about being older,” Lois said venomously.
Lucy stepped in. “Lois is only three years older than me.”
“Oh? I would have said ten years, easy,” Cat replied airily.
“Perhaps Lucy would be interested to know that you covered Rudolph Valentino’s funeral.” Lois knew she was failing miserably at the verbal swordplay. Cat was scoring all the points.
Lucy fell for it. “Really?”
Cat grimaced. “That was in 1926, dear.” She glared at Lois. “Quite a few years before I began working here.”
“Speaking of 1926,” Clark interjected desperately, “this newsroom was remodeled then – they set it up for radio reception.” Everyone gave him a who cares? look. He plunged on. “They wired it for TV in the late forties, and then the computer revolution came. So they’re constantly updating the Planet facilities.”
Lois said nothing, but inwardly gave Clark points for re-directing the conversation. He’d managed to change the subject before she and Cat’s argument got any more acrimonious.
“This is a really neat place,” Lucy said, almost wistfully, looking around.
“Would you like a tour?” Clark jumped in.
“I’ll be happy to show you,” Jimmy added.
“Lucy doesn’t need a tour, Clark, she’s got to leave to get to her appointment.”
“Now, Lois, I’m sure your sister can spare five minutes.”
“Oh, all right,” Lois conceded ungraciously. Clark was definitely too interested in Lucy, Lois thought. He should be working on a story! He shouldn’t be wasting time with her little sister. And what was with Jimmy? He was staring at Lucy like she was a canteen of water and he was lost in the desert.
Clark ushered Lucy around the room. Jimmy and Lois followed. “This is Lois’s desk...and mine…and there’s Mr. White’s office…I’d take you in to meet him, but I don’t think it’s a good time right now…and would you care for coffee, or a donut?...and…”
“What’s he doing?” Lucy asked, looking at Stan.
Lois stepped in. “He’s trying to sketch Superman.”
“Ooh, Superman! Have you actually met him?” Lucy asked everyone in earshot.
Lois stared in disbelief. Her sister actually had her hand on Clark’s lapel as she gazed soulfully into his eyes.
Clark stepped back slightly and Lois felt a little better. Why should she care, she asked herself. She didn’t have any attraction to Clark. Clark was just that guy at the next desk over. Lucy shouldn’t be manhandling him, that was all.
“Well, I saw him at EPRAD, but Lois actually flew with him,” Clark said smoothly.
“You did?!” Lucy almost squealed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“If you’d read my article, you would have known,” Lois said coolly.
Lucy had the grace to look abashed. She turned her gaze to the sketchpad. “So this is what he looks like?”
“Not really,” Lois said. She sniffed and addressed her comments to Stan. “The features are too coarse. Think noble. Think…Greek god.”
Stan, lost, replied, “Greek god?”
“Let’s take it a feature at a time. For example, the chin. Square, but not plain. The chin of a man who stands for something. And the nose. Definite, but not overbearing.”
Clark was definitely annoyed now. Turning away from Lucy, he met Lois’s eyes directly. “You know, he didn’t seem that special to me. Except for the flying and the uniform, he could have been any ordinary guy.”
“Ordinary? Give me a break.” Lois stood straighter. “And I’m going to get the Superman story. An exclusive.”
Lucy laughed, the sound breaking the tense atmosphere between Lois and Clark. “Clark, you must be new. Haven’t you seen my sister in her Big Reporter Mode before? Don’t you know she always gets her story?”
Clark had actually paled, Lois noted with satisfaction. He rallied, though. “You won’t be able to get the story if you can’t get near him.”
“I’ll get near him!”
“And just how are you going to do that?”
“I found him.”
“Actually, he found you.”
Lucy broke into the incipient argument. “Oh, look at the time! I’ve got to get to my interview! Clark, thanks for showing me around the newsroom. Lois…uh, good luck.”
Jimmy stepped forward. “I hope we’ll see you again.”
Lucy laughed nervously. “Well, James, if this job interview pans out and I stay in Metropolis, I’ll probably stop by here to see Lois on occasion.”
“That would be nice.” Jimmy stared longingly at Lucy.
“Oh…um, yeah.”
Lois escorted her sister to the newsroom door, while Lucy returned the waves from the staffers she’d met during Clark’s mini-tour. “Lucy, I am going to get that story. No hack from Nowheresville is going to scoop me.”
“I know you will, Lois.” Lucy hugged her sister and left the newsroom.
As she left, Lois realized that she’d never wished her sister good-luck.
