**** denotes breaks between scenes. < > denotes Clark's thoughts. << >> denotes Lois' thoughts. {{{{ }}}} denotes scenes of past events. ^^^^ denotes journal writings. ++++ denotes the passing of a significant amount of time.
Sorry about the mix up with the name (please refer the thread 'Apology for EVERYTHING'.
Anyway, hope you're still interested.
Enjoy!
++++
Over the next week, Clark watched Lois... with Patrick. They’d gone to lunch, dinner, and even a concert together. He was still sick after his introduction to ‘Mr. Suave’.
{{{{Clark glanced up at the numbers on the elevator panel as he rode his way to the newsroom floor. He was tempted to sneak a peek to see if *Patrick* was there. He wasn’t exactly sure how much more of that man he could stand.
Was it too late to fly away?
The doors opened and Clark was face to face with Lois and her new... whatever he was.
“Oh,” she managed when she nearly ran into him.
Clark could only glare. He hadn’t meant to... not really.
Lois shot him a warning glance before smiling up at the man beside her. “Clark, this is Patrick Sullivan- an old friend. Patrick, this is Clark Kent. He works here at the Planet.”
“Yes,” Patrick drawled out. “The other half of Lane and Kent.” He stuck his hand out in greeting.
Clark merely looked down at the offending limb before he stepped around Lois.
“Excuse me!” Lois grabbed him by the sleeve of his jacket, refusing to allow him to be so rude.
Clark sighed heavily before facing them again. “What? I have a deadline.” And he left her there, mouth opened in shock.
<What’s-a-matter, Lois? Didn’t think I had it in me?>
From his desk, he overheard her apologize to Patrick.}}}}
Clark glanced up from his computer to see Lois enter the newsroom. She took a drink from a coffee cup she held while looking at a piece of paper. He missed her so much. Would he ever be able to live with his decision?
Thank goodness his Superman persona kept him busy when he wasn’t working. If he had to sit around night after night with his tortured thoughts, he was sure he’d explode.
<Isn’t this what you wanted?>
He tossed the file he held onto his desk in frustration. It was going to be another very long day.
****
Lois walked alongside Patrick in silence. They’d had dinner at a wonderful restaurant in the bay area. Taking a walk in the cool night air had been a good idea when he’d suggested it. Now, though, she just wanted to curl up in her bed with her grief, the same way she did every night.
“Does he know what he’s missing?” Patrick asked her after a moment.
“What?” Lois looked up at him in surprise.
“The fellow who put that look in your eyes?” Patrick stopped them and ran his hands up and down Lois’ arms.
“Does it show that badly?” There was no use denying what he’d said. Besides, she was just too tired of making excuses. She was in pain and needed someone to talk to.
“I’m afraid so.” Patrick cupped her cheek softly. “I’d hoped that maybe we could fan that spark that once danced between us.”
“Patrick,” she said softly and stepped away from him to lean on the railing of the pier.
“I take it that something happened,” he went on as he joined her.
“Yeah. He broke up with me.”
“Stupid boy.” Patrick lifted his hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Very stupid,” Lois whispered without elaborating.
They stood in silence for a long while before Patrick sighed. “Come on. I’ll see you home.”
Lois nodded and allowed him to wrap his arm around her, accepting the comfort he offered.
Half an hour later, they stopped outside her door.
“I’m heading back to Ireland tomorrow,” Patrick told her. Once again he lifted his hand to cup her cheek. “I do hope the lad soon realizes how stupid he is,” he whispered before he leaned forward and kissed her softly.
When he drew back, Lois wiped a tear from her cheek. “It was good to see you again, Patrick.”
“And you, Lois.” He gave her a tender hug, then turned and left.
Lois dug through her purse in search of her keys, completely unaware of the man who’d witnessed the kiss from around the corner. He watched until she closed her door before he left.
****
Clark had seen Lois and Patrick’s kiss. He’d been on his way over to talk to her about his imposed break-up when he saw them. The act had caught him off guard. When he’d come up with the idea that he was a jinx, he’d never given much thought to the day that one of them would become involved in another relationship that wasn’t platonic.
Granted, the last week had been torture. Seeing Lois with another man was excruciating. Hearing her laugh, seeing her smile- it was nothing compared to seeing her lips pressed to another set that wasn‘t his.
He’d been prepared to tell her that he’d been stupid, that he’d had a fever. He would have fallen to his knees and begged her forgiveness. He just couldn’t face another day without her.
Or another day with her in someone else’s arms.
Now he didn’t know what to do. He’d made his choice and obviously she had, too. He’d walked aimlessly most of the night, even too stunned to fly. Sometime nearing dawn he finally decided that more than anything, he wanted to see Lois happy. And if Patrick Sullivan made her happy, then, God help him, he’d support her.
If only he could convince his heart of that.
****
Lois was practically bouncing off the walls as she hurried to get to Perry’s office. She’d gotten a call from an old college friend of hers last night with a tip about a possible award winning story. She’d immediately called Jimmy, who’d protested about her interrupting the game, to help her start preliminary research. After a few calls and a couple of visits to some of her usual informants, she knew she was on the cusp of a national shocker.
She breezed past a sulking Clark Kent without a second glance on her way in to see the chief.
“Lois, where the Sam Hill have you been?” Perry demanded when he saw her.
“You won’t believe this one, Perry!”
From his desk Clark watched as Perry got up and closed the door to his office. It had been two days since he’d seen Lois and Patrick kiss. Two days since he’d tried to talk to Lois.
{{{{“I miss you,” he whispered as he looked at her. How had he ever thought he could stay away from her?
After his decision to support her the morning after witnessing his world come to an end, he’d found himself at Lois’ door, his heart aching too badly to face another moment without her.
“It was your decision, Clark.”
“I know. But, Lois, this is hard.”
“So much harder than you thought it would be,” she repeated the words he’d said to her when he’d broken her heart. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets.
“You broke my heart,” Lois pointed out.
“I know.”
“I don’t think you have any idea!” She threw her hands up in frustration and walked around him to look out the window. He’d knocked on her door even before dawn this morning.
He did know because it was exactly how he felt last night when he saw her with Patrick.
“Can’t we...?”
“What?” She demanded as she whirled back around to face him. “Be friends? Maybe some day, but right now it’s all just too much.”
“I was going to ask if we could start over.”
“As in... acting like none of this has happened?”
“No. As in... me begging you to forgive me.” He took a step toward her.
Lois lifted her hand to stop his approach. “No!” She gulped to swallow the lump in her throat. “I survived the broken heart this time. I might not again.”
“Lois,” he breathed, tears threatening his own eyes.
She stepped around him and opened the door.
“I’ll go,” he said, taking the hint. “Please, Lois,” he said as he stopped at the door. “Don’t shut me out of your life.”
“You’re the one that did the shutting,” she told him with more bravado than she felt.
He reluctantly stepped through the door and she closed it firmly behind him. Leaning back against the wall, he could hear her soft sobs. But he also sensed her determination. It was that determination that had given her the strength to tell him no. He’d respect that.
He’d have to.}}}}
He now understood exactly what she’d felt the day he’d done the same thing to her.
She hurried out of Perry’s office a moment later, grabbed her briefcase, then headed toward the elevator. He sighed heavily.
Thankfully a call for help stopped him from slipping further into his funk.
****
Sunshine made clouds look like pristine snow from above them. Funny how she’d never noticed that before.
Funny how she’d never cared before.
Lois sighed and turned away from the window of the plane as the captain announced they were about to make their final descent into LAX. She was on her way to pose as a prospective buyer for what she believed to be a trafficking ring. Larry Smiley was a nationally renown evangelist turned dealer in human goods. She’d made all the contacts, done all the research, and everything led back to Smiley. He was apparently selling human beings to the highest bidder.
Children were being sold to barren couples. Young girls were being sold to nasty old men who wanted play things. Young men were being sold to nasty old women who wanted boy toys. Couples were buying sex partners. Others wanted slaves. The list was endless.
What Lois needed a handle on was where he managed to get these people. With solid proof that Smiley was a bad egg, that Pulitzer was as good as hers.
****
Martha watched as Clark picked over his food. He’d come to the farm with the excuse that he wanted to help with the harvest, but she knew better. Her boy was hiding out so he could heal a little.
“Clark, you knew this wasn’t going to be easy,” she told him softly.
“Yeah.” He pushed his plate back and stared across the room. “I never thought she’d leave town.”
“Perry didn’t say she left for good.”
“I know. But she’s been gone for three weeks.” He stood and took his dishes over to the sink.
“Please tell me you haven’t checked up on her as Superman.”
“No. I’ve thought about it.” He waited as the sink filled with water.
“You can’t have it...”
“Both ways,” he finished for her. She’d told him that so many times. So had his father. Clark was sure Jonathan was angry about this whole situation because as soon as he’d finished his supper, which he’d accomplished in silence, he’d excused himself.
Martha rose and placed her hand on her son’s back in a comforting gesture. She hadn’t thought Clark was so... lunkheaded. He’d made a decision she had absolutely no idea how to support.
And she didn’t want to. Lois was perfect for her boy. She’d come to love the younger woman and missed her terribly. But what was the protocol for speaking with your son’s ex-girlfriend? An ex that you still cared for at that.
She sighed heavily before heading out to help Jonathan pick the beans. This was one situation Clark would just have to find a solution to by himself.
****
The sixty point headline on the front page of the Daily Planet the day Clark went back to work reminded him, and the entire world, that Lois Lane was the best at what she did. Larry Smiley and his crusade of evil had been thrust into the spotlight in a manner he probably hadn’t intended. He’d been arrested, along with several others, on numerous charges against his fellow man.
Clark couldn’t suppress the smile on his face. She was truly something else.
“Listen up, people!” Perry yelled from just outside his office door. “Our very own Lois Lane has toppled the evil empire of the Smiley Institute for Higher Enlightenment! Every major newspaper in the country has picked up her lead. I’m told that this crack has spread into a gorge, uncovering a whole other world of corruption that’s a lot deeper than we’d first suspected. Jimmy, I need you on this right away.” He tossed a folder toward the younger man. “Kent, I need you on a plane to London tonight! Another arm of this ring is stretched all the way across the pond.”
“But won’t Lois be covering it?” Clark asked. While he missed her, wanted her back, there was no way he’d steal her glory either. She’d obviously worked very hard for this story. He’d distanced them physically, but he still respected her professionally.
“Lois is on her way to Washington to expose the Senator who’s covered up the importation of these bodies.”
“Senator?” If there was a Senator involved, the last place he wanted to be was across the globe from Lois. What if she got herself in trouble and needed Superman?
What was he saying? She didn’t need his help. More importantly, she didn’t want it.
“Apparently the Senator from Smiley’s home state of South Carolina is good friend’s with the reverend.”
Wow! Lois had hit the big time with this story. Clark couldn’t help but be proud of her. He was also a little envious that she’d done it without him. Before he’d made the biggest mistake of his life, they would have probably worked on this case together.
“Plane leaves at nine, Kent. Come on. We have a lot to cover before you head out.”
He followed Perry back into his office to collect the details of his assignment. He supposed this was his future- trailing along in the shadow of his former life.
