After a long discussion, Clark convinced Lois that she at least had to let Perry White know she was alive and well. In the end, she let Clark convince her, because part of her really wanted to see her beloved editor again. She couldn’t imagine what he had been through worrying about her, and if he had still held out hope all this time that she was alive, well, she couldn’t let Clark show up empty-handed. Plus, Clark pointed out that they would need the resources of the Planet to help find this Boss character. No one else need know that Lois Lane was back. She looked entirely different anyway, with long red hair and a trim toned body after months of training. Their colleagues at the Planet would simply believe she was just another reporter Clark had met, and that they had fallen in love and eloped. But it would help to have the Chief in on their story. Besides, not much got past Perry. He was bound to recognize her and could cause more trouble by accidentally calling unwanted attention to her presence at the Planet. It was best if he knew from the start that she was back, in danger, and in need of a cover.
So Lois found herself in the conference room, the blinds drawn, waiting for Clark to bring Perry in, her stomach in knots. It had been wonderful to see the newsroom again. Many faces had changed since she had been there last, but the feel and smell of the place was still the same, and it still filled her with excitement. She tried to squelch the tiny hope that sat in her stomach like a bubble, that maybe someday she’d belong there again as herself, award-winning investigative journalist, Lois Lane...
“Just trust me, Chief. You’ll really want to meet this young woman,” Clark was saying, leading Perry into the room.
“Clark, this is just not the time of year to be hiring—“ Perry stopped, seeing the petite figure stand up when he entered. He took a moment to recover, his eyes round as saucers. “Lois, honey? Is that you?” he asked in a strained voice.
“It is, Chief,” she said with a watery smile, so happy to see her dear friend, and reached to hug him. “I’m home.”
Lois clung to Perry as he choked on a sob, and relief and happiness spilled over on her cheeks. She looked over Perry’s shoulder at Clark and mouthed ‘Thank you.’ He smiled back at her in acknowledgment and she turned into Perry’s hug once again.
Perry patted her back like a child and then set her at arm’s length to look at her. “I never gave up,” he said choking up, his eyes alight with the joy that the hope he'd see her again had not been for naught. “You must know that.”
Tears were spilling down her cheeks, “I know, Perry. Clark is proof of that.”
Perry suddenly broke into a huge smile, tears wetting the corner of his eyes, “We should have a party, make it a banner headline! ‘Lois Lane is back!’”
Clark and Lois exchanged looks.
“What is it?” asked Perry, glancing at the two of them in question.
“Perry, I can’t let the world know I’m back yet,” Lois began, looking at Clark to back her up. “I can’t—tell you everything, but Clark and I are after the Boss. I can’t explain further, except that the Boss was the reason that I went missing for two years.”
“I remember you talking about this Boss person before... ” said Perry, sadness evident on his face, perhaps thinking of time lost without his favorite reporter. “So, what do you want from me? I’ll do what I can to help.”
Clark stepped in. “To protect Lois, we’re—going to pretend we’re married. We also need the resources of the Planet to try and track this guy.”
“Pretend you’re married? What kind of nonsense is that?” Perry looked at the two of them, as if it had occurred to him that there might be more going on than they were willing to admit.
“Well, it will give me an alias name and make me harder to track. The Boss is dangerous, Perry. You don’t want to know what he’s capable of,” Lois shuddered as memories assaulted her.
“What did this ‘Boss’ do to you, Lois?” Perry asked.
She shook her head. “I—I can’t talk about it yet, Perry,” she said with some strain. “Will you just go along with it, please?” she asked, pleading just a bit.
“Well, uh, I guess I can’t say no. I want to get to the bottom of what happened down there in the Congo.”
“Thanks, Perry. And please, you can’t tell *anyone* that I’m back. It’s too dangerous,” she said.
Perry nodded, disappointed if resigned. “So, can I at least call you Lois?” he asked.
Clark shook his head and gestured towards Lois, “Perry, I’d like you to meet Linda Kent.”
*~*~*~*
Someone was definitely following her.
Lucy left her gym and as usual, crossed through Centennial Park to her subway stop. She had felt eyes on her as she made her way through the park and kept looking over her shoulder. A man in a dark jacket and sunglasses was definitely on her tail. She started jogging through the park, glad she knew some of its more meandering paths. But then she wondered if that would be just as bad. The paths could get pretty lonely, and she definitely didn’t need to be in a vulnerable position alone. So she jogged back over to the main path...
Lucy made it out of the park, fumbling for her pepper spray key chain in her gym bag. She had bought it three years ago, at her sister’s insistence. At the time, it had annoyed her. Lucy believed if Lois could handle investigating the crime sludge of the city on her own, then Lucy could certainly handle walking around the city by herself. Even though the pepper spray was probably too old to be effective, Lucy felt a surge of affection for her sister’s foresight, a sister who in all likelihood was probably dead. Lois had always tried to look out for her.
Lucy ducked into the subway, throwing a cautious look over her shoulder. That guy was still there!
“If I were Lois where would I go?” she mumbled aloud. She decided to head for the densest part of town, down near Forty-second Street. There were always tourists and people there. Surely she could lose this guy downtown.
Lucy changed cars after a few stops, and the goon followed! What was his deal? She tried to think of anyone she may have angered or any boyfriends who were hanging with the wrong crowd, but she couldn’t think of anyone... But she was in Metropolis after all. Sometimes goons just liked to give girls a hard time.
She got off at the crowded Forty-second Street stop, throwing herself into the crowd, hoping to lose the guy. When she got to street level, she noticed she was still being followed. Lucy started running, pushing people aside.
She hurriedly glanced over her shoulder, and seeing the guy was still close on her heels she screamed, “Help!” as loudly as she could. This being Metropolis, she barely got any glances, let alone any actual assistance. She rounded a corner and found herself in an alleyway.
The guy followed her.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” she whimpered, backing up as the man came towards her. She couldn’t get a proper grip on the pepper spray and it slipped out of her fingers, falling uselessly to the ground.
“Just want to ask you a few questions,” the man said, pulling out a knife. “You answer me truthfully, and you won’t get hurt.”
He suddenly grabbed her arm to keep her from running again. “Where is Lois Lane?”
“L-Lois?” Lucy asked in surprise, the question completely unexpected. The man gripped her harder, demanding an answer. “I—I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in two years.”
“She’s back in Metropolis, and the Boss wants a word with her. If she contacts you, we’ll know.”
Suddenly she was released, and she fell to the pavement with the force of it, watching the man walk away. He wore large dark glasses, and she couldn’t see much of his face. She thought he might have disguised his voice as well. She’d never be able to tell the police what he looked like.
Shaking, she managed to stand up. She slowly walked out of the alleyway, carefully looking around to make sure the goon was gone.
Had the man been right? Was Lois back in Metropolis?
And if she was, then Lois was in big trouble.
Lucy knew she couldn’t go to the police. She had no credible description to give and only the hint of a lead with a name like, ‘the Boss.’ But she thought there was somewhere else that could help. Somewhere that her sister had believed in more than any other institution in the city.
The Daily Planet.
*~*~*~*
Lois was drinking the first cup of coffee she’d had at the Planet in over two years. It was only office sludge, but to her it was heaven, a perfect homecoming even if she couldn’t share that fact with many of those around her. She scanned the bullpen, her heart beating a mile a minute as she was sure someone would recognize her, even with her long red hair. She had dyed it a year ago, thinking that she had to sever herself from this old life. Thinking that she could never come back to being Lois Lane, and yet here she was.
Drinking coffee.
At the Planet.
The newsroom as busy as ever around her.
She buried her nose in her cup, feeling tears prickle at her eyes, feeling the life she had left just within reach...
If only...
She watched Clark from where she stood at the coffee station. He glanced up at her helplessly from his desk as he fielded questions from some of their colleagues about his new ‘wife’. The story they had concocted evolved after another conference with Perry, as they realized if she immediately started working there full time, she might be recognized. So they told the staff she was a freelance journalist, making it easy for her not to hang around the newsroom too much, allowing people to assume she was writing for other papers. At least temporarily. Until they took care of the Boss.
The worst of all the gossip hounds was a gossip columnist herself, Cat Grant. Cat was one of the few people that Lois knew from before, and probably one of the few people that were likely to actually recognize her. Cat had started a few months before Lois left for the Congo and had annoyed Lois to no end with how she flaunted her sexuality to all and sundry. Lois had no doubt that Cat had probably thrown her usual forward pass at Clark, judging by her shocked if not downright hurt expression on her face when Lois had been briefly introduced as Mrs. Kent at the morning meeting.
And now, it seemed, the Cat woman had finally gotten the courage up to talk to Lois or ‘Linda’ herself, as she was now making her way over to her.
Lois tried not to panic, but pulled her longish hair over her face a bit and tried to think of a way of disguising her voice.
“Hello, I’m Cat Grant,” she said, reaching to shake Lois’ hand.
Lois gave a quick shake and pretended to be consumed with fixing her coffee.
Cat leaned her slim body against the nearby table, crossing her arms as she assessed Lois. “So, you and Clark, huh? I have no idea how you did it. He barely even responds when women around the office flirt with him,” she said in annoyance, and Lois wondered if by ‘women’ she meant Cat. “How did you snag him?”
“That’s between me and Clark,” Lois said, realizing the ‘accent’ she had pulled out of her bag of tricks was southern. <<Where did *that* come from?>>
Cat was watching Lois closely, possibly sizing her up, maybe trying to see why Clark had *married* her when he hadn’t even wanted to go on a date with Cat.
“You know,” Cat said, her hand moving to her hip as she assessed ‘Linda.’ “You look an awful lot like---“
Lois took advantage of someone walking by to pretend she had been bumped. Her coffee spilled all over the front of Cat’s too tight dress.
“I’m sooo sorry!” Lois said, half terrified of being discovered and half hysterical with delight at having ruined Cat’s dress.
“Geez! This cost me a month’s pay!” Cat said angrily, reaching for a paper towel before stomping off to the ladies room.
Lois giggled as she watched Cat walk away, restraining herself from sending her a typical Lois retort about how she thought Cat had been ripped off if *that*dress cost a month’s pay!
“What’s so funny?” said Clark, coming up beside her.
“Oh, nothing. Just having fun eluding an old colleague.” She looked up at him, noticing he looked a little frazzled. “How have the twenty questions been going, Mr. Kent?” she asked playfully, noticing eyes all around the office watching them. She leaned up to whisper in his ear, which might be easily misinterpreted by those around them as a lover’s gesture. “I feel like we’re on display. You really think this is going to work?”
His warm eyes met hers and he half smiled, “It’s got to... I just hope to get some work done today... What are you planning on doing? You only have to hang out for an hour or so, but we may be able to at least get some preliminary research done on this Boss character and see if there’s anything out there on him...”
Just then Perry stepped out of his office. “Uh, Mrs. Kent? May I have a word with you in my office?”
Lois nodded, glancing at Clark.
“You want me to come?” he asked gently.
“No, it’s all right. I think I can handle Perry,” she said with a wink, patting his arm as she passed him.
“What’s up... Chief?” Lois said with a small smile, relishing calling him that again.
Perry closed his office door and went around behind his desk, bringing out a large cardboard box.
“I, uh, knew you’d be back. I kept your stuff, just in case,” he said with a catch in his voice.
She was genuinely touched. Even if there weren’t that many things of value in that old box, it was nice to know that he had kept them for her. She took a peek inside, memories flooding back about what her life had been like before.
She pulled out her dead office plant with a laugh. “I think it was dead even before I left.”
A gasp of genuine relief escaped her lips as she found one thing of value at the bottom of the box. She clutched it to her chest like a child who had been lost.
“My Rolodex! I never thought I’d see this again!” She came over and hugged her editor. “Thanks Perry. For so much. For this,” she said gesturing at the box. “And for sending Clark after me.”
“Clark is a good man, Lois. And uh, I’d bet my Elvis collection that man has genuine feelings for you.”
“You think so?” she asked absently, seeing through the open blinds to where Clark sat at his desk as yet another colleague came over to congratulate him.
“Honey, if that man is willing to pretend to be married to you, trust me. He cares. A lot. None of the other women in the office have been able to get near him. Ever. He obviously cares about protecting you, and I think you should both be careful.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you’ve been through some kind of hell and it would be really easy to just become too dependent on a good-looking, kind guy like Clark. Especially if you all are masquerading like you are husband and wife. Just be careful. Be sure that you both know what you’re doing. So neither one of you end up hurt.”
She glanced over again at Clark. Did he really care about her? She hadn’t considered where his heart really lay. She’d simply having been caught up in surviving and getting out of the Congo.
Could he actually care for her?
And what did she feel for him?
She pushed the questions away for the moment, knowing that nothing would be possible between them until they had taken care of the Boss.
Besides, Clark had no idea who she really was and what she had done. If she told him... how could he ever forgive her?
Let alone love her?
*~*~*~*
Lois refilled her coffee, wondering what she could actually get done in the newsroom today on looking for ‘the Boss’. Thanks to Perry restoring her Rolodex, she still had a list of sources from when she worked here before the Congo, though she wondered how many of them were still viable. She also wondered if any of them even knew anything about ‘the Boss.’. But she couldn’t call any of them herself. No one must know that Lois Lane was back in Metropolis.
So that would mean doing something she never thought she’d ever do, trust someone else with her sources, namely Clark. A big step, but one she felt she could do only for him. He had been so amazing, not pushing her too much to tell what had happened in the Congo and bringing her back here, to the Planet, where she could maybe find herself again...
She asked Perry to keep her box safely hidden in his office for now, as it wouldn’t do for Linda Kent to inherit Lois Lane’s possessions. She took only her old Rolodex and called for Clark to come into Perry’s office a moment. She hid it behind her back and when he entered, almost ceremoniously handed it to him. “Here,” she said. “Take it, before I change my mind.”
“What’s this?” he said, accepting it with a smile.
“The only thing in the world that I never share-- sources. Well, that and chocolate,” she amended thoughtfully. “But, seriously. These sources took over three years to compile. I don’t know how many of them are still viable, but I certainly can’t go around calling them myself to find out. So... “ she sighed heavily, “I... I trust you will use them well.”
He reached for her hand, and she felt herself lean toward him unwittingly, drawn to him as always, like a magnet. “I will use them wisely, scout’s honour,” he said solemnly, crossing his chest.
She laughed nervously, “Yeah, you would be the boy scout type.”
Perry watched them from his desk, an interested yet cautious look on his face. “Uh, Kent, I wouldn’t let anyone see you with that. If Lois is in as much trouble as you say, it would be a dead giveaway if her Rolodex was flashed around the newsroom.”
Lois took it back and hid it in a Daily Planet recyclable bag. “No one will ever know. I’ll take it---home tonight. And we can work on calling sources later.”
As they walked back over to their desks, the elevator dinged open, and Lois happened to glance up to see who was heading into the bullpen. Lois was shocked to see her sister and looked around in a panic.
“What is it Lois?” Clark asked, immediately looking around to spot what she had seen.
“Clark—that’s my sister, Lucy!” Lois gasped. “She *can’t* see me... I’ll be in the conference room. Please, talk to her... But –whatever you do --*don’t* let her know I’m here!”
*~*~*~*
Clark looked helplessly at where Lois had disappeared and made his way over to a very upset Lucy Lane.
“Can I help you, miss?” he asked.
Lucy gaped at him, and he wondered why she seemed to just stare. He nervously adjusted his glasses on his nose and cleared his throat, waiting for Lucy to answer him. “Do--*did* you know my sister, Lois Lane?” she asked when she gained back her composure.
“I... I might know the name.” he answered vaguely as he guided Lucy to a chair near his desk. “Why?”
“Some guys are looking for her. They think she’s back in Metropolis! Which is ridiculous! She’s been g—gone for almost two years,” Lucy said, starting to cry just a bit. “I mean, I know Lois can handle herself, but who goes missing in the Congo and after two years makes it back alive, you know?”
Clark felt torn between wanting to comfort Lucy by telling her that her sister was indeed safe and knowing he had to keep his promise of silence to Lois. He handed Lucy a tissue. She was getting more and more upset by the moment. “What do you know about the guys looking for her?” he asked, fishing for information and secretly grateful to whatever had sent her here to him and not to the police.
“Well, one guy chased me down. He had a knife! I thought---well, never mind, he didn’t do anything to me, thank goodness! But he did say if I saw Lois that they would know... But that’s crazy, right? I mean, if she was *alive*, back in Metropolis, she’d certainly tell her sister, wouldn’t she?”
“You’d think so,” Clark said wearily. He quickly assessed how at risk he thought Lucy might be, and he grudgingly admitted that Lois had been right. It seemed that if she contacted her family, then these guys would surely come after all of them. It seemed best to leave Lucy in the dark for now, as much as he hated lying to her, even if by omission.
Clark took out a card and wrote a phone number on it. “Here, if you see or hear anything, or get into any trouble, call me. This is my personal number at the Planet, and this is my home number. And I’ll... see what I can do from my end, okay?”
Lucy took the card and nodded, looking a little dazed after all of the excitement. “Okay. Thank you, Mr... Kent,” she said, reading the card. She looked up again at him and he thought she might want to say something else. He noticed her suddenly peering overtly at his imposter wedding band and had to hold back a laugh as she sighed with disappointment and then promptly blushed as she looked back up at him. She stood up, shaking his hand awkwardly and shrugged on her purse, slipping his card safely inside it.
“Good-bye, Miss Lane,” he said, escorting her to the elevator.
When she left, Clark sighed and headed to the conference room to fill Lois in on what her sister had told him.
He opened the door, expecting a barrage of questions, when instead he found Lois sitting on the floor in tears.
“Lois?” he asked gently.
“I haven’t seen my sister for over two years. And I can’t even tell her I’m alive,” she said.
Clark gathered her into his arms. “I think you’ve done enough for one day. How about I take you home?”
