This is just the story wrap up. Don't expect great drama. The big ticket items will have to wait until the next story.
Nan
Games People Play: Epilogue
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"It's about time you showed up!" she snapped. "Didn't you know I was worried?"
He looked slightly guilty. "I had to catch St. John. He was high-tailing it out of Lex Tower," he explained. "And I had to return the lead apron. I figured you knew I was okay."
"Well, I didn't! I knew the Kryptonite in Smallville took away your powers! How was I supposed to know that it hadn't happened again? I was afraid you'd been blown up by the bomb!"
His eyebrows flew up. "How did you know about the Kryptonite in Smallville?"
"I've got a brain," she said shortly. "Once I knew you were Superman, a lot of things suddenly started making sense." She held up the box. "Is this lead?"
He squinted at it. "Sure is. Where did you find it?"
"Lex's basement. I put both pieces of Kryptonite in it. Can we just get out of here, now?"
Clark smiled suddenly. "We sure can." He settled gracefully down onto the balcony and lifted her effortlessly in his arms. "Someday you're going to have to explain why I was able to do without your help for so long."
"I can't figure it out either," Lois said, with a wide yawn. She probably ought to tell him, she thought, that she had figured out his secret a couple of months ago, but she was much too tired to go into all of that at present. She had the sneaking suspicion that it was going to be a discussion that would demand that she be at her sharpest. Right now, she could barely keep her eyes open.
Lois wedged the box down firmly in her lap and against Superman's side so that it wasn't likely to slip if her grip on it relaxed. His shoulder was looking more and more tempting by the second. After a few second's deliberation, she rested her head against the smudged blue spandex and closed her eyes.
**********
Epilogue
"Kent!"
Perry White's voice reverberated through the newsroom just as Clark stepped out of the stairwell. It looked to him as if Perry had been on the watch for him -- not a surprising circumstance when you considered that it was nearly four in the afternoon and the dispatches he had already sent to the Planet were blazing from its front page. With more to come.
He trotted down the ramp and headed for the Editor's office. When he pushed open the door, Perry White was sitting bolt upright in his chair, his eyes fixed on the door. Clark pasted a smile on his face. "You called me, sir?"
Perry jabbed a finger at his computer screen. "This is the craziest story I ever read!"
"What is, sir?" Clark asked innocently.
Perry glared at him. "Why do I get the feelin' that there's a lot more behind this than you and Lois saw fit to print?"
"Because there is," Clark admitted. "We promised Inspector Henderson we wouldn't print anything without an okay from him, though. Luthor's legal team will just be waiting for an opening. The whole story will come out later, but the government doesn't want to risk its case by letting out too many details."
"Lex Luthor? Under arrest for trying to --"
"Trying to explode nuclear devices over every inhabited continent on Earth," Clark confirmed. "The EMP wave would have been worse than the Nightfall asteroid. Superman managed to stop it, and saved one of the satellites as evidence. The government has experts going over it right now."
Perry appeared to contemplate that for a moment. "Do I want to know how you and Lois got involved in it?" he asked finally.
"Not officially," Clark replied uncomfortably.
"Whatever you say doesn't leave this room," Perry said. "I haven't been a newsman for thirty years without learnin' a few tricks of the trade. Besides, I know Lois."
"Well -- Lois and I broke into Lex Tower and explored the bunker last night," Clark admitted, somewhat sheepishly, resolutely ignoring the faint choking noise that Perry made. "We didn't expect to find anything like this, though. But Lois figured that Luthor hadn't built the place just in case a killer asteroid showed up, and she wanted to find out the real reason."
"Great shades of Elvis!" Perry said. "So it was you two that alerted the police? And last night Luthor actually tried to explode one of those things over the United States?"
"Yes, sir," Clark said. "Fortunately we'd already got hold of Superman and he pushed the satellite out of Earth's orbit to a safe distance. It was a pretty close thing."
Perry shook his head. "So where's Lois now? I haven't seen her all day, and she doesn't answer her pager or her phone." That wasn't surprising, Clark admitted privately, since he had accidentally-on-purpose unplugged the phone in her apartment and turned off the pager.
"Sleeping," Clark said. "She'd been up all the night before, all day yesterday and all of last night. She told me to tell you she was taking the next couple of days off while she catches up on her sleep. "
Perry raised his eyebrows and a faint grin twisted the corners of his mouth. "Yeah," he said, a little dryly. "And if I ever bring it up, she'll make me pay. Take a lesson from this, son. It's stories like this that make me willin' to put up with some of her other behavior."
Clark smiled. "I know."
"Yeah," Perry admitted. "I guess you would. But don't tell her I said that. I need all the advantages I can get." He paused. "Well, what are you waitin' for, Kent? Get out there and get me a follow-up!"
"Yes sir," Clark said, and made his escape.
"You aren't so shabby yourself, son," he heard Perry murmur behind the closed door.
Clark made his way to his desk and reached for the phone. He hoped his boss was right, but there was a lot still hanging in the air. Lois hadn't even brought up the revelation that he had made last night, and he figured that discussion was still coming. Lois had to have been really exhausted to fall asleep on him on the way to her apartment, without once even mentioning the incident. He'd left her asleep on her bed and cleared out the spy devices before he had headed for Henderson's office, with a side-trip to Smallville where he left the ruby-encrusted lead box buried under the mound of hay in his father's barn. Dealing with the Kryptonite would have to wait until Lois woke up.
The Twelfth Precinct had been in a state of complete chaos by the time he got there, and he'd had to deal with various and sundry persons from the FBI, CIA, the Justice Department, and representatives of a couple of dozen other government agencies as well. Eventually, he'd managed to satisfy all of the different groups for the moment and gone away to return as Clark Kent, only to endure another round of questions. Lois was going to have to deal with Inspector Henderson later. He'd had it for the moment.
After all the thunder and lightning died down, he figured Lois was going to tear strips out of his hide, and invulnerability wasn't likely to save him. On the other hand, he was oddly glad that the big secret was out. The fact that Lois hadn't exploded was still puzzling him a little, but after all, they had been too busy literally saving the world for her to take time out to rip him apart. Now, all he had to do was survive the wrath of Mad Dog Lane. Surely Superman, who could swallow a bomb with nothing more than a mild burp, could withstand the wrath of his partner. Hadn't she been worried enough about him, after the capture of Luthor, to tear into him because he hadn't shown up at once to show her that he was all right? Well, yes, but that didn't mean that he was safe.
He realized that he was holding the receiver of the phone to his ear and staring blankly at the keypad. Well, that wasn't unusual. It tended to happen a lot when he was puzzling over some facet of Lois's behavior.
Clark put the receiver down and got to his feet. Maybe, if he went back and checked out the remaining parts of the bunker at super-speed, he could present her with enough information and an angle on the many follow-ups that he suspected they would be doing over the next two or three weeks, that it would divert her attention from the urge to shred Superman and Clark until it became unimportant. Besides, he wanted another look at the stuffed yeti or whatever it was.
As he made the decision, the telephone rang. Automatically, he answered.
"Kent."
"Clark? Is that you?" Lois's voice said. There was the impression of a massive yawn in the middle of the sentence.
"Yes," he said.
"Would you mind visiting one of your famous eating places and bringing me something to eat? There's nothing in my fridge and I'm starving."
"Okay," he said, before he thought.
"Thanks." Again Lois's voice trailed off into another yawn.
"No problem," he said. "I'll be there in a little while." He put down the phone, rapidly running over a list of breakfast places in his mind. Maybe something from France would do, he considered. Lois still hadn't sounded mad, but if he took too long that could change. Okay, France it was.
Clark made a beeline for the stairs. Maybe crepes, he considered. And something with chocolate. Chocolate was almost always a safe bet where Lois was concerned. Briefly, the ironic thought crossed his mind that the person of whom he was most apprehensive was also his biggest supporter, and the only one more lethal to Superman than Kryptonite. Lois, of course, had certain advantages that the bad guys lacked. It looked to him as if Superman's greatest test was coming up.
The door closed behind him and Superman was on his way.
The End
