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Green-Eyed Monster TOC

Where we left off in Part 32 ...

“Ah, my bird in her gilded cage sings so beautifully,” Lex said, stopping the tape and fast forwarding. “That’s an interesting plea for help as I’ve ever heard. Guess he didn’t catch the hint.”

Lois gulped. Lex really truly had recorded everything she said during the night, when she thought she was alone.

Please, please, let nothing you said to Clark be anything revealing.

Next, he stopped at her conversation with the 911 operator. Lex laughed through this entire bit. “Oh, darling. You’ve made my day.” He grinned with nasty good humor. “Insane, am I, Lois? Tsk-tsk. That’s not very nice, after I let you stay the night in my beautiful home.”

He fast-forwarded further. This time it was just sounds of her sobbing. “Oh, Lois. Did you not have a good night?” he teased, moving the tape forward again.

“Clark,” Lois’s voice echoed back to her.

“Clark?” Lex’s brow furrowed in confusion. “You were talking out loud to your boyfriend, not Superman?” He shook his head, disappointed. But he continued to listen anyway.

Lois nonchalantly shrugged, hoping to hide the shiver that she didn’t think came from her still being wet from the water Lex had thrown in her face.

“I need to confess something,” the recorded Lois continued. “That night you caught me taking your glasses off, I was actually putting them back on.”

There was a crack of thunder and the pitter-pat of rain that could be heard on the recording.

Lex opened the folder on his desk. Lois recognized it as the same one he had had the night before.

“I don’t know if you can hear me with this weather – it’s really coming down now – but it makes me feel better knowing you’re out there listening, even if you’re not. Rain like this – downpours – remind me of you, knowing you’re out there keeping people like me safe. Do you know what I’d really like to do right now?” she asked, pausing slightly. “Brush my teeth. Oh, I guess that wasn’t very romantic, was it?” Lois chuckled softly on the tape. “I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for a week... Tell Perry I won’t make it in tomorrow. I love you, Clark... Always.” Then there was a long pause. “Clark?”

Luthor clicked off the recorder. “Clark? No?” He flipped through the photos in the file. “It couldn’t be. It can’t be that simple.”

Lois squeezed her eyes shut, willing the tears of defeat not to fall.

“Clark Kent?” Lex chortled and then cheered. “Yes. Yes! I see the resemblance now. Oh, God! How could I have been so blind? The glasses. Of course, right there for everyone to see. You’re not dating the superhero, you’re dating the secret identity!”

Part 33

Lex’s laughter was uncontrolled now. “And he’s a virgin!”

Let me at him! Let me at him! Just one good punch. Kick, whatever. He’ll wish he was never born! screamed Lois’s inner voice. She could feel that part of her struggling to escape, wishing it had heat vision to turn the man to ashes.

“Superman’s a virgin. Oh, this is priceless, Lois. Thank you. Thank you. And that’s why you were so overprotective of him when Tempus accused him of stealing money from Lexco. Why you jumped on board with the blackmail attempt. You didn’t want Superman to get arrested. Oh, Lois! This is the best gift I have ever been given. I know now that Superman is guilty of a crime, who his family is…” Lex cupped her jaw in his hand with a squeeze. He was standing to the side of her chair, so she couldn’t kick him. “And who the love of his life is. He belongs to me now. Virginity does make sense given his powers. Wouldn’t want him to tear you in half in his excitement.”

Her inner voice’s gnashing teeth in anger sounded like swords clashing and felt more like a demon wishing to free itself from her corporeal body just to tear Luthor in two.

Outwardly, Lois merely glared at him, grinding her teeth together so she wouldn’t lose control and let her inner demon say something else she would regret. She had already revealed too much. Way too much.

“I’m ready for you to call Superman… or shall we just call him ‘Clark’ now?” he asked.

“Never!” she spit out at him.

“Lois, don’t take it personally. You put up a grand fight.” Luthor grinned with glee. “You didn’t reveal anything willingly. I guess I could stand on my balcony and scream ‘help, Superman’ myself – but the retribution wouldn’t be so poetic, now would it?” He turned back to his desk and set a hand on the turquoise box. “Or?”

Lois gulped as she focused her attention on the box for the first time since before calling 9-1-1. A light glimmered through the edges of the lid.

No! Not the globe! Don’t call Superman with the globe. Lois, you’ve got to stop him!

Lex opened the box and exposing the glowing globe. “Let’s see what else we can learn about our strange visitor from another planet.”

“No!” Lois yelled, struggling in vain against her ropes again.

“No?” Lex raised a brow. “Oh, that’s right. Touching the globe sends for your boyfriend, doesn’t it? Kudos!” He reached into the box and lifted out the globe.

At his touch the globe filled with bright light and Jor-El’s voice emerged. “I try to picture where you are now as you hear this last chapter.”

“No!” Lois screamed again. “Don’t come, Superman! Please don’t come!” she pleaded to the universe, hoping against hope Clark heeded her.

Lex crossed over to her. “Well, we can’t have you doing that, now can we?” he said, holding the globe in one hand as he pulled his handkerchief out of his breast pocket and stuffed it in her mouth with the other.

Jor-El continued speaking throughout, “What do you look like? Are you alone? What have you become? Lara and I will never...”

Lois glowered at Lex, kicking up her leg and knocking into Luthor’s hand, which held the globe. The sphere flew through the air, Joe-El’s voice cutting off at the lack of touch, but instead of falling, the globe levitated above Luthor’s head.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Lex snapped. He jumped up, trying to grab it, but every time he did the globe shifted its position to remain out of his reach.

Why don’t you just float up and get it, Lex? Oh, yeah, it’s not your globe! taunted her inner voice with a sparkle of merriment.

Luthor climbed onto his desk, but it was still out of reach. He leapt off, his fingers almost touching it before he fell to the floor. The globe floated out onto the balcony. “Come back here, you stupid thing,” Lex grumbled, following it outside, still trying to jump up and catch hold of it.

Lois watched – her eyes wide – as Luthor climbed onto the table on the balcony.

Is he nuts? Sorry, correction. He’s insane! Psycho! Balmy! Crazy! Lost it completely! That table is wet from the storm.

The sphere still hovered midair just out of his reach. Gingerly, Lex stepped from the table to the balcony’s cement railing, moving ever so slowly along it, closer to the globe.

Lois protested this action, but her words were lost due to the handkerchief in her mouth. Her heart jammed into her throat as Luthor took one more step toward the floating globe, grasping it in his hands, causing a bright beam of light and Jor-El’s voice to emerge.

“I try to picture where you are now as you hear this last chapter.”

Then his foot slipped. Luthor tried to hold onto the globe and keep his balance without flailing his arms, but it proved impossible. He let the sphere go free once again to stop himself from falling. Euphoria spread over his face as he released a breath of relief. Luthor reached up towards the globe once more.

Just give me some of Superman’s super breath…pleaded Lois’s inner voice to the heavens. If only Luthor hadn’t gagged you…

The morning breeze picked up and nudged Lex slightly off balance again. He shifted his feet trying to regain his equilibrium, only this time, his expensive shoes lost their grip entirely. Luthor flapped his arms in circles and in vain as he fell off the railing into the nothing beyond. Lois gazed wide-eyed as he disappeared from sight. For some bizarre reason, the man didn’t even scream.

The globe still floated in the air above the balcony.

Lois realized that with her mouth muffled, her hands tied, the globe out of any human’s reach, and the office door locked from the inside – she had no way to escape and no way to contact Clark.

***

At the same time Lois was getting her wake-up splash of cold water in the face, Clark was wandering aimlessly around the bookstore.

Five o’clock and then six o’clock came and went with no more messages from Lois. As the city’s noise increased with dawn’s light, so did the chance Clark would miss hearing her voice. Her last message had a finality to it that had chilled him to the bone. But without her calling out to him, he had no idea how he was supposed to find her in a city of ten million.

“Kent?” Perry’s voice pulled him out of his reverie. “Everything all right? You aren’t nervous about the Lexco auditor, are you?”

Stressing about Lois had made him completely forget about Tempus. He knew he should be more anxious about this situation, but all he could think about was Lois and why she had never gone home. “I’m worried about Lois,” he told his boss honestly.

“She’s a big girl and can take care of herself,” the Chief told him, patting him on the back reassuringly.

“Yeah, right,” Clark thought.

Clark raised an eyebrow as his boss’s assessment of the situation and Lois’s common sense. “During her last message she told me to tell you that she wouldn’t be coming in today.”

“That’s not like her.” Perry’s brow furrowed, his shoulders hunching.

Exactly.

“Wait a minute,” said Perry with a perplexed expression. “She’s not scheduled to work today.”

Clark’s brain raced a mile a minute.

Was that a clue? A hidden message? Or just a mistake?

“Excuse me,” Lois’s boyfriend mumbled as he jogged down the escalator steps, running when he reached the ground floor. A moment later, he was at her Magazine Receiving room door.

Please! Please! Let Lois have left you a note telling you where she went.

He turned the knob and opened the door. A quick glance around the room told him she hadn’t. He exhaled in defeat, turning to leave. Then he noticed that the first-aid kit was in a different location. Instead of hanging from the nail in the wall, it was sitting on top of a stack of magazines on the shelves. He picked it up to hang it in the proper spot. As he did so, it burst open. The latch had not been secured. Inside the first-aid kit were no bandages, just a note with Clark’s name scrawled across the front.

A little too subtle, Lois, complained that nagging voice inside his head. Too well hidden.

Clark took the note, tearing it open.

I love you, Clark. If you are reading this, it means you have earned the right to tell me, you told me so. But God help you, if you ever do. Lois

“I’m not that stupid, Lois,” he mumbled out loud to himself with a chuckle as he slipped the entirely too vague note into his pants pocket. As he wandered back out through the music department, a bright light blinded him, making him stumble and almost crash into a display of CDs.

“I try to picture where you are now as you hear this last chapter,” Jor-El’s voice filled his ears.

“No!” Clark heard Lois scream. “Don’t come, Superman! Please don’t come!”

“Lois?” he whispered, his heart felt like it had flash frozen. Lois had found the globe. Or more accurately, whomever had the globe also had her.

“What do you look like? Are you alone?” Jor-El’s voice continued. “What have you become? Lara and I will never...” As suddenly as the voice started, it stopped. That couldn’t have been the end of the message, could it? No, it had been cut off. Whoever had the globe had let it go. Despite Lois’s warning, Clark knew he needed to go. He needed to find her.

Clark jogged to the front doors where he found Perry and the others gathered.

You cannot leave now without undue attention placed onto you.

“Well?” Perry asked.

Clark shook his head. “Lois is in trouble. I just know it. I need…”

“To find Superman?” his boss finished.

The younger man nodded.

“You’re not going to be able to finish your shift?” Perry inquired, even though they both already knew the answer to that question.

“No,” Clark admitted, handing the Chief his keys to the store. “I’m sorry.”

“Well, I’ll cover for you this one time, Kent. Don’t make this a habit,” his boss said with a wink. “Time to pay your workers.”

Right. The extra funds you brought. Your excuse for the extra pay you had not reported to Lexco. All that and it looks like Tempus is a no show.

Clark pulled out his wallet and divided the money equally into four parts. “Thank you,” he said, handing the money to Applegate. The quiet man said nothing as he accepted the money.

“Nice to have met you,” Clark said to Sarah, handing over the cash. “I appreciate your help.”

Sarah looked down at the money in her hand and then back up to Clark. “You are a good man, Clark. You keep it. I can’t use this where I’m going,” she said, holding out the money to him.

“It’s yours,” Clark told her, refusing to take it back. “You earned it. You keep it.”

She turned to Perry. “Thank you for the job, Mr. White. My work here is done. It is time I return home.”

“You’re quitting, Sarah?” Perry replied, sounding almost stunned. “I have never had someone with a perfect till for a month straight and you shelve almost as fast as Clark, here. If you ever need a recommendation…”

She raised a brow at ‘almost’. “Thank you, Mr. White. That is very kind.” Sarah sighed, giving the money in her hand a look of exasperation as she pressed together her lips.

“Hey, if you’re giving it away. I’ll take it!” suggested Jack, holding out his hand.

The woman looked at the young man and then shrugged, setting the money into his palm.

“Jack!” Perry admonished him.

“Hey, she’s giving it away,” Jack explained.

Perry took the money out of Jack’s hand and returned it to Sarah. She placed it in her pocket, resigned.

“Mr. White!” Jack whined.

“I am sorry we did not suit, Clark. I would have liked…” Sarah glanced over her shoulder and stopped speaking.

They all followed her gaze and saw a bearded man standing outside the door. Tempus. He held up a Lexco I.D. badge and hollered through the glass, “Open the doors, Kent.”

Clark took a step backwards as he once again saw the bright light and the voice of his birth father, “I try to picture where you are now as you hear this last chapter.” Then, as suddenly as it had come, it disappeared.

Clark handed both Jack and Jimmy their pay as their boss opened up the doors.

“I’m sorry, we don’t open for several more hours,” Perry said to Tempus, holding up his hand so that the man could not enter.

“I’ve got to go,” Clark said, trying to step around Tempus.

“Where do you think you’re going, Kent?” Tempus said, grabbing his arm and pushing him back inside the store. “I’ve asked the police to meet me here to arrest you,” the bearded man announced. “All of you.”

“I don’t think so,” Sarah said calmly and coolly.

“What have we done wrong?” retorted Jimmy, not so coolly or calmly, as he pocketed his money.

“In the store without authorization,” Tempus said.

“That is a Daily Books rule…” Perry took the man’s ID badge and examined it before tossing it back to him. “Mr. Tempus, auditor for Lexco. And hardly an arrestable offense. And as store manager, they have my authorization.”

Suddenly Clark’s ears filled with screaming, lots of people screaming – at least ten, maybe twenty people. He brought his hands to his ears and winced. His heart thudded in his chest.

What just happened?

Clark opened his eyes to see Sarah had her eyes shut as well, but her face didn’t seem disturbed by the terror.

Of course, she’s not bothered by the terror, Kent. She would have to be Kryptonian to have heard those screams.

Tempus shoved his way into the store and relocked the doors, pocketing Clark’s keys.

So much for rescuing Lois.

“How about stealing?”

Jack blanched. “I haven’t stolen anything,” he lied.

“None of us have,” corrected Jimmy.

“Kent here has been getting paid five times more than his shift allowed,” Tempus told them as a police cruiser pulled up in front of the store. “A-ha! Here they come now.”

“I’m not going to jail,” Jack said, backing up and appearing about to dash away like a rabbit.

Clark grabbed his arm. “Nobody is getting arrested, Jack,” he said as his eyes focused on the officer stepping out of the vehicle.

It was Henderson. He waved at Clark, but before he could close his door the policeman leaned back inside to take a radio call. Clark tried to hear what the call was – did it have to do with the screams he just heard – but Perry’s voice made it hard to concentrate.

“Again, Lexco’s problem. Anyway, Kent here has been using the extra funds to pay part-time workers, such as these people here, to shelve books on Saturday nights.”

“Working under the table!” Tempus yelled, again making it impossible for Clark to hear Henderson’s call.

Perry rolled his eyes.

Henderson walked up to the doors and knocked on the glass.

“Finally!” gloated Tempus. “The police.” He pulled Clark’s keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door, before pointing at Clark. “There he is, Officer. Arrest that man!”

Henderson looked at Tempus and then with a slight shake of his head, muttered, “What for?”

“For misappropriation of Lexco funds, of course,” Tempus demanded as if Henderson was an idiot.

Henderson raised a brow. “That’s a white collar crime. You’ll have to submit your evidence to the D.A.’s office and have them issue an arrest warrant. Then, and only then, would I be able to make an arrest.” He turned his back on Tempus and faced Clark. “Hey, Clark, your parents said you’d be here. Do you know where Ms. Lane is? According to her security detail, she didn’t come home last night.”

“Lois has a security detail?” Jack stammered.

“She has been getting death threats,” Clark said simply. It was why he had been so relieved to hear to singing and talking with him during the night and why he really needed to leave the store.

“Perhaps she went back to Costa Rica with Superman?” Applegate suggested.

Every head turned to Applegate in disbelief, even Sarah.

The first time the man speaks all night, Kent, and he hypothesizes that your girlfriend is cheating on you.

“Nah. Lois wouldn’t do that to CK. She scheduled a meeting with Lex Luthor the other night to interview him. I didn’t catch the particulars but it could have been for last night,” volunteered Jimmy.

“Lois broke our date to interview Lex Luthor?” Tempus threw his hands up in disgust and shock.

“Date? Why in the hell would she make a date with you?” accused Jack, pointing a finger at him. Then Clark watched as the light bulb flickered on in his eyes. “You! You’re the man blackmailing Lois.”

Henderson turned back to Tempus. “Blackmail, huh? Now, there’s an arrestable offense.”

“She was stealing CDs!” exclaimed Tempus and then pointed at Clark. “And covering for that guy.”

“Uh-huh. And if she’s a CD thief, why isn’t she in jail? Why is she still working in the store?” Henderson asked, pulling out his handcuffs and rattling them in his hand. “Sounds like extortion to me. Maybe I should just take you down to the station.”

“It’s not blackmail if she never shows up,” Tempus said, backing up to the door. Then he pointed at Clark. “He’s Superman!”

Clark threw up his hands in defeat and shook his head.

You will never win, will you?

Henderson raised a skeptical eyebrow at the auditor and he shot his thumb at Clark. “Really? Him?”

“Yes, Lois said she had a ‘big, brawny, blue boyfriend’.” Tempus continued to hold his hand up to Clark. “Hello? Duh?”

They all turned to stare at Clark as he shrugged sheepishly.

One week! One whole week and there goes your secret identity, Flyboy. His conscience sighed. It was good while it lasted. What am I saying? This has been the worst week of your life! Memories of Lois kissing him flashed across his mind. Then again, it has also been the best week of your life.

The policeman chuckled. “That could also describe me. Big, not so brawny, but I dress in blue. Maybe I’m Ms. Lane’s boyfriend.”

“Clark’s security guard uniform is also blue,” Sarah reminded them.

“CK? Superman? Oh, now that’s funny!” Jimmy chortled. “Right! Nah, Superman hasn’t been around that long and I’ve known CK for years. Anyway, if he was Superman, Lois would have told me after the press conference. She could hardly think, let alone think straight.”

Yep. She knew who you were from that very moment. You should have been honest with her from that first moment, Flyboy.

Perry spoke up, two fingers pointing at Tempus, “Either he’s Superman and not guilty of overpayment of funds because he could easily do the work of five people or he’s been misappropriating funds for years from Lexco. You can’t have it both ways.” He held out his hand. “Either way, you shouldn’t have his keys. And, as I told you before, Kent has been paying part-time workers who Lexco refuses to promote to full-time by giving them an extra shift during the week. All those so-called extra funds have been used to pay your workers. Employees – I might add – doing work at the bookstore, for the bookstore and, therefore, should have been paid by Lexco.”

“I tell you, he’s Superman!” Tempus hollered again.

At that moment, a man, dressed all in black, floated down from the sky. He landed on the sidewalk behind Tempus. The security guard’s jaw fell open, as did Perry’s. Clark recognized the man as Ching. He turned to Sarah in shock.

Aren’t you, Kal-El, supposed to be the last son of Krypton? his conscience asked him.

Sarah had her eyes closed and Clark could hear her voice inside his head. “Is the navigational computer from Lord Kal-El’s ship secured, Ching?”

“Yes, Lady Zara. I gave the globe to that woman he loves,” replied Ching.

Lois has the globe! Oh, thank God! He exhaled in relief. It meant she must be fine. Then his brow furrowed. Lord Kal-El?

Applegate pointed at Ching and stammered, “Superman!”

Tempus spun around and stared at the man in black. “Superman?”

Jack scoffed, “That’s not Superman.”

Both Perry and Clark shot the kid a ‘shut-up’ look.

“Sure it is, Jack. Didn’t you see him fly? Only Superman can fly,” Jimmy corroborated. “He just looks different because he’s not in the blue suit. Gosh, I wish I had my camera on me.”

I’m thankful he does not.

Henderson looked back and forth between Ching and Clark, ending his gaze at Clark with a raised brow. Clark shrugged with a perplexed expression.

Okay, so besides Perry, your folks and Lois – and possibly Lois’s father – Jack and Henderson know your secret identity, Kent. Good to know. At least Jimmy’s still clueless.

“I need to go find Lois,” Clark said, heading towards the door again.

Perry grabbed the keys out of Tempus’s hand and unlocked the door. The auditor was still in shock.

Tempus must really have thought you were Superman.

“Wait, Clark!” said Henderson. “Let me walk out with you.”

Sarah stepped forward as well. Clark took a step back to let her pass first.

“Goodbye, Clark,” she said with a rare smile. “Thank you for all the great advice.”

Advice? You gave this Kryptonian Lady advice?

Clark stepped outside and reveled as the clean, fresh morning air entered his lungs. For a while there, he thought he would never escape the store. He looked over at Ching and Sarah who were staring at each other, yet not touching. He could hear their silent discussion.

“I told you he would not be worthy of you, Lady Zara. Let me be the man to defeat Lord Nor for your honor,” Ching thought to Sarah – Lady Zara. “As I should have been from the beginning.”

“Watch your tongue, Lieutenant Ching,” Lady Zara responded with her thoughts. “Lord Kal-El is a good man. But I cannot put a man who works as a lowly servant for the Earthlings as leader of New Krypton, no matter his heritage. He does not have enough experience with being a leader. If we had time – time for him to grow into this Superman persona he has created – perhaps he would grow into the type of man New Krypton needs. Unfortunately, we don’t have time, Ching. We will process the dissolution of our infant marriage bond when we return to the ship.”

‘Infant marriage bond?’ Clark thought.

“Fortunately for you, Lady Zara, Lord Kal-El is not the only man able to move mountains on your behalf,” replied Ching with his thoughts.

“Clark?” Henderson said, pulling him away from the couple’s thoughts.

“Sorry, Henderson. I need to ask this ‘Superman’ something,” Clark replied, glancing at the officer before turning back to Ching and Sarah, but they had already disappeared.

No! They know where Lois is!

“Superman?” Henderson asked, his brow raised.

Clark cleared his throat. “Perhaps he’s just changing into his blue suit.”

Jimmy and Jack left the book and waved to Clark as they walked in the opposite direction. Applegate crossed the street into the park. Perry and Tempus were still arguing within the store. Clark slowly walked down the sidewalk, away from the front doors.

Henderson couldn’t help the smile that curled up on the edge of his mouth. “I need Superman’s help to coordinate something. It seems that Lex Luthor dived off of his penthouse balcony this morning.”

“What?” Clark stammered. “He’s dead?” The man who had tormented his life for the past two years was dead? Was that the cause of the screams he heard?

Lex? Lex Luthor? Killed himself? Never!

“The 9-1-1 operators got a strange emergency call around three this morning. Some woman claiming to be Lois Lane said that Lex Luthor had kidnapped her and was holding her hostage in his penthouse office,” Henderson continued. “She used me as her reference to verify her story.”

“MPD has Lois?” Clark said with relief.

Yay! Lois is safe.

“No, as I said before, we don’t know where she is. We aren’t allowed to respond to 9-1-1 calls to Luthor’s residence without a password. Apparently, it has become an urban ritual for teenagers to call 9-1-1 and pretend to be a victim locked in Luthor’s penthouse. Last spring, he sued the city and said he would bankrupt us if we continued to send police to wake him up three times a night from these bogus calls. Not wanting to be bawled out by the mayor every time this happened, the city council and the Chief of Police were more than happy to cross Luthor’s penthouse off of their list.”

Clark’s brow furrowed. “I don’t recall hearing or reading about that lawsuit.”

“It was settled secretly out of court. You didn’t really expect the Metropolis Star to cover something like that, did you?” Henderson asked.

“No, I guess not.” Clark shook his head. He really didn’t want to get into a discussion about the Met. Star’s shoddy reporting practices. “You want me to ask Superman to do a fly-by Luthor’s penthouse?”

Henderson’s car radio started calling to him and the officer held up a hand. “Let me take this. Can you contact Superman and tell him to discuss the particulars with me?”

Clark nodded as he started jogging down the street. “I’ll go contact him now.”

Around the corner and down the alley behind the bookstore, Clark spun into his blue suit and leapt into the air and landed in front of Henderson’s patrol car.

“I understand you wanted to see me, Officer Henderson,” Superman said with his arms crossed. “Have you been able to locate Lois Lane yet?” Clark was hopeful that was what the page on the radio had been. Unfortunately not.

“Actually, it’s Detective Henderson again, Superman,” Henderson corrected. “I had been demoted for insubordination. I’m off of patrol, starting tomorrow.”

“Congratulations. It couldn’t happen to a better man,” replied Superman.

“That was the guys up at Lex Tower. Apparently when they went into Luthor’s penthouse, they were not able to enter his private office because the door was locked from the inside. When they knocked on the door, no one answered,” the detective informed him.

Clark swallowed, feeling sick.

That doesn’t bode well for Lois’s wellbeing.

“I was wondering if you would mind giving me a lift,” continued Henderson. “So that I could enter from the balcony side.”

Superman raised a brow. “Shall we take your car or mine?”

“Excuse me?” stammered Henderson.

“Shall I fly you over with or without your car?” Superman clarified.

“Oh. Right. Probably shouldn’t leave this here,” said the policeman, getting into his car. “Thank you, Superman.”

Clark nodded at him and then lifted up the car, repositioned himself directly underneath it and took off into the air just as Tempus left the bookstore.

The Lexco auditor grumbled to himself, “I just know he’s Superman. Next time, I’ve got to plan better.”

A minute later, Superman set Henderson’s patrol car down a block away from Lex Tower outside of the area cordoned off. With an audible sigh of relief, Henderson exited his car. Superman picked him up and rose into the air.

“Would you mind if I asked what the insubordination was for?” Clark asked curiously.

Henderson chuckled. “After the decision to let Lex Luthor stay outside of police jurisdiction, I asked the Mayor and City Council how they felt about being in Luthor’s pocket. Apparently, they didn’t like that too much. If we find Clark’s girlfriend up here, I have a strange feeling we’re going to be having a special election soon.”

At these words, Superman heard the familiar THUMP-THUMP-DA-THUMP of Lois’s heart.

She’s alive! his conscience sang. Luthor didn’t kill her.

He set Henderson down on the balcony and was at Lois’s side a fraction of a moment later. Her eyes were closed and her head sagged in sleep. Gently, he pulled the handkerchief from her mouth.

Lois jumped at this action as her heart started racing, she turned to look into his eyes with more joy than he had ever seen there before. “You came,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

“Always,” he murmured in return, drawing a finger down her face as he memorized every line and pore, assessing the damage Luthor had effected there. She had a sizeable bump near her forehead, a gash on her cheek, and her lips had dried blood on it. Her hair and shirt were slightly damp as well. “Always.”

Her tongue flashed over her teeth as she saw Henderson enter the room. “Took you long enough.”

“Nice to see you too, Ms. Lane,” Henderson replied, heading for the door.

She lowered her voice, so only her boyfriend could hear her. “Ya think you could untie me now, Kal. I desperately need to…” Lois paused as she licked her dry lips.

“I know,” Clark murmured, resting his head against hers. “Me too.”

“Pee.”

*** End of Part 33 ***

Part 34

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