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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 8 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Part 2...The photographer left the office, closing the door behind him and Perry sat down in the chair he vacated. “So, Superman, Lois?”
She gulped. “I told you, you wouldn’t want to know.”
“You used to be obsessed with the fellow.”
“I know.”
“We need to nip this in the bud, yesterday. Understand me?”
“Yes, Perry.”
“We’re going to have to tackle this head on. I’m sending you and Clark to Memphis. No questions asked, no excuses. You are going.”
Lois swallowed. She had to expunge this compulsion from her life. She had to move on.
“I know this little hotel where Alice and I used to go. They have a package that plays Elvis music twenty-four, seven in your hotel room. You cannot escape it. You cannot turn it off. Do you understand me?”
Lois nodded.
Perry shook his head. “Superman. Who knew?” He sighed. “What did you tell Clark?”
She smiled, weakly. “I told him I wished it hadn’t happened. That I’m sorry. That I love him and only him.”
He patted her hand. “Clark’s a good man, Lois. Once he might forgive. Twice…” Her boss shrugged. “You need to ask for his help. Tell him what happened. Tell him the truth.”
Lois nodded. She would never be able to tell Clark the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the honest truth.
***
Author’s Note: In this story, Lois and Clark were married in July 1996, instead of October like on the show.
Part 3As Clark returned from the store room, Lois was just leaving Perry’s office. She wrapped her arms around him and sighed.
“Lois, are you all right? You look like you’ve been crying.”
She took a deep breath. “Don’t worry about Jimmy. He’s forgiven me.”
“He told Perry about last night?”
His wife nodded.
“Everything?”
She nodded, again.
Clark looked sympathetically at her. “I’m sorry I left.”
“No. It’s okay. Did you help someone?”
“An elderly lady, who had fallen down, broken her hip, and couldn’t reach the phone.”
“Then don’t be sorry.” Lois glanced at her desk and her face lit up. “Roses? Clark, you are the sweetest. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he stated. “But they aren’t from me.”
Lois took the card from the bouquet; her teeth gnashed together as she read it and then tore it to pieces.
Clark noticed a flower on her lapel. “Where did you get the corsage?”
Lois grimaced, pulling it off and dropping it on the ground. As she smashed it with the heel of her shoe, a high pitch electronic whine escaped from the flower, causing Clark to grab his ears and cringe, and then the sound disappeared into nothingness.
“What’s the matter?”
Clark picked up the flower and looked at it, really looked at it. There at the center, disguised as part of the stamen was a small, microscopically small microphone in the shape of the smashed bat.
Really? A bat? Can you announce your secret identity any louder there, Mr. Wayne? The flower was certainly bugged. Correction, it
had been bugged. “Wayne,” he growled and then showed Lois the bug. She didn’t have his microscopic vision and couldn’t see its shape, but she could see enough to tell that it was a electronic listening device.
She nodded to the bouquet of roses. He scanned them. They were clean. “I should check the whole office to be on the safe side.”
Lois nodded again. “Um, Clark?” She held out the boutonniere. “Shall we do some target practice?” she asked under her breath.
He laughed softly, pocketing the flower. “When did he give it to you?”
“When I arrived at his office.”
Clark nodded and made a circle with his finger. He walked around the entire newsroom, scanning here, scanning there, scanning here and there, scanning everywhere. No more bugs. He sighed in relief and returned to Lois at her desk.
Lois was staring at the bouquet of yellow roses. Then she glanced at her watch, her brows coming together. “When did this get here?”
“Just before you did.”
“Clark…” His wife pulled the pieces of the note out of the trash and set them on her desk, trying to reassemble the pieces. “He may be rich, but there is no way this bouquet could have been prepared and delivered in less time than it took me to return to the office.” She looked at the pieces of note with a shake of her head. “Some help here.”
Ten seconds later, he had the note reassembled and that was at normal speed. “Metro Flowers.”
Lois opened the phone book, found the flower shop, and dialed. “Hello, this is Lois Lane at the
Daily Planet. I received some flowers today around noon. Could you tell me when they were ordered?”
“Yes… Oh, I see… No, it’s okay… I understand. Mistakes happen… Thank you.” She set down the phone. “They were ordered two days ago and weren’t supposed to arrive until four o’clock this afternoon.”
Clark raised his brow and he leaned against her desk. “Tell me everything.”
“The whole interview felt fake. Like he was trying to be someone he wasn’t.” Lois pulled out her notebook. “He made us wait at least fifteen minutes in the lobby. And then he didn’t apologize for being late. Then he gave me the flower corsage and suggested we head straight for lunch. I insisted on a tour of the office. No, wait, before that. He said something strange.” She looked Clark straight into his eyes. “He said he could see why Superman stays in Metropolis.”
Clark smiled at his wife and lowered his voice, “Well, it’s true.”
She caressed his cheek. “I met his Senior Personal Assistant.”
“He has more than one?” Clark asked. “Excessive.”
Lois shrugged. “Margarite has been with Wayne Enterprises for ten years. She was hired shortly after his trip to find himself. I asked what her initial impressions of him were. She said that when he interviewed her, he spoke to her in English, Spanish, French and Japanese.”
“Japanese? That doesn’t sound like the idiotic playboy we researched last night.”
“Exactly. When I asked him about it, he brushed it off as an extra way to pick up girls.”
Clark raised a brow, not knowing what to say to that piece of information.
“She also said that he was serious, not the frat boy image he likes to project. She said that they, Wayne Enterprises and Bruce Wayne, have nothing to hide.”
Clark pulled the smashed flower out of his pocket. “Obviously, they do.”
“That was my feeling as well. He said something else odd. He said, under his breath, almost to himself, something like,
I can see why he likes you so much or something to that effect. But Jimmy interrupted us, before I could ask him about whom he meant. When we got into the limo, he said a bunch of useless stupid stuff, but he also was really vague with his answers, not responding directly to anything. He spoke about not dating within his company, some stuff Jimmy enjoyed about his car collection… Oh, I asked him if Wayne Industries produced weapons. He told me that information was classified. And joked that if he told me, he’d have to kill me. I retorted that you wouldn’t like that much.”
“Again, true.” Clark took her hand in his.
“That’s when he got strange, almost too focused in his attention on me. Like I was some puzzle he was trying to solve. But what made me stop the interview…”
Clark leaned forward.
“Was when he said, and I’m quoting,
You have a child? This was after Jimmy told him that we were considering Penny for our nanny. He said,
You have a child? How is that possible?”
Clark’s jaw fell open.
“My thoughts exactly. I thought, ew, who in the world would ask that kind of question? How could he be so crass? Unless he knew we couldn’t have children. But then how in the world could he know?”
Clark swallowed. “What did you tell him?”
Lois grinned wickedly. “The same thing you told Perry about the stork and then I told him to pull over the car, because we were getting out.”
“Wow.” Clark shook his head. “He’s really looking for me. I’m surprised he didn’t invite both of us to the interview.”
“I think he blew off my husband and partner as inconsequential.” Lois covered her mouth. “Oh, Clark. He heard. In Perry’s office. About me and you-know-who.” She gulped, lowering her voice. “About the kiss.”
Clark grinned naughtily, kissing her hand. “It will throw him off course. I must be your beard.”
“Of course.” Lois laughed. “Why didn’t I see it before? Why in the world would I marry someone as pleasant and funny and smart as you?” Her brows came together as she stopped laughing. “Why, Clark? Why would some wealthy playboy want to track down Superman, just to find him, or to find his secret identity? It doesn’t make sense.”
Clark shrugged. He had a pretty good idea on the why, but he wasn’t ready to share it with Lois. If Batman was good, like he claimed, it wasn’t Clark’s place to reveal his secret, even to Lois. But if Wayne turned out to be bad… like Luthor, all bets were off and Clark would let Mad Dog Lane have at him. What Clark couldn’t understand was why Batman was interested in getting in contact with him? It didn’t make sense. Especially in light of what the man had done at the bank.
Jimmy walked up. “Lois, the photos are drying. There’s a great shot of Bruce Wayne trying to nail you to the pinball machine.”
“What?” Clark was on his feet, his teeth grinding together. “He did
what?”
Jimmy swallowed and glanced nervously at Lois. “Sorry, CK. I thought she had told you.”
“I hadn’t gotten to that part yet.”
“Tell me, now,” he demanded.
Lois told him about the pinball game and how Bruce had insisted on showing her how to play. Then she shivered in disgust. “Gross. But the heel of my shoe and my elbow told him I wasn’t interested.”
“Perhaps my fist would be more persuasive.”
His wife put her hand over his fist. “No, Clark. It’s what he wants.” She covered her mouth. “That’s it. That’s why he wanted the interview. He didn’t want the PR. He didn’t care about answering questions, he spent the whole time just trying to piss me off. The flowers proved that. It was all premeditated. He’s searching for Superman and he thought he’d anger me enough to go run to Superman and have him jump to my defense.”
“Even more reason to have me go and punch his lights out,” grumbled Clark.
“Whoa, CK!” Jimmy was suitably impressed at Clark’s jealousy. Perhaps, it was Clark’s lack of jealousy at Superman that had knocked Jimmy through a loop. “Bruce Wayne is looking for Superman? He really is an idiot if he thinks that someone treating Lois badly would make Superman go pummel a guy.” Their friend glanced at Lois. “Or is he?”
“You’re right, Jimmy.” Lois turned to Clark, staring him in the eyes. “Superman would always take the moral high ground.”
Clark scoffed. “Who cares what Superman would do? I’m going to go down to Wayne Enterprises and give him a piece of
my… mind.” He pulled Lois in for a kiss. “Jimmy, the photographic evidence, please.”
Jimmy pointed to the darkroom. “It’s drying.”
“Clark, don’t,” Lois begged. “He’s not worth it.”
“No man’s going to treat my wife like that.” Clark marched off towards the darkroom.
He could hear Jimmy say to Lois, “Do you think it’s delayed reaction to last night? I mean Clark knows that he wouldn’t win in a fight against Superman. At least with Bruce Wayne, he has a fighting chance.”
“No, Jimmy,” Lois replied to Clark’s surprise. “If Clark ever fought Superman, he would win.”
Clark stopped mid-stride and turned back to look at her. What in the world was she talking about? She knew he couldn’t fight Superman.
“Because despite his strength, Superman would know he was in the wrong and Clark was right.”
“I don’t know, Lois. I don’t think Superman was the only one to blame.”
She winced. “I’m sorry, Jimmy. I couldn’t stop myself. Really, I’ve been trying.”
“I know. Brainwashed.” Jimmy looked like he wanted to say something else, but was stopping himself. Then he couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Just out of curiosity. What’s the trigger?”
Lois turned away from him, started shifting papers around on her desk. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
“The music? Is that why you smashed Perry’s stereo?”
Clark continued to stare at Lois, frozen in the middle of the newsroom, his anger at Bruce Wayne pushed to the back of his brain. What was going on with Lois? Brainwashed? Then he thought again of that Bat pressing himself against his wife and marched into the darkroom for the photo.
***
Clark stomped into the Wayne Enterprises offices, stopping in front of a tall, extremely beautiful woman. “Tell Wayne I need a word with him.”
She looked him up and down. “Do you have an appointment?” she asked with a lilting Spanish accent.
“I’m Clark Kent. He’ll want to see me.”
She nodded and sashayed down the hall. The receptionist’s phone buzzed a minute later. “Please wait for Ms. Javez to take you to Mr. Wayne’s office.”
The beautiful woman returned. “Hello, Mr. Kent. I am Margarite Javez, Mr. Wayne’s Executive Personal Assistant. Please, follow me.” This was the woman who gave Lois all the goods on Bruce Wayne? She knew four languages? Long before he met Lois, he would have been tempted to follow a woman like this anywhere. “In here.” She knocked on a double set of doors and then opened them. She did not follow him inside, but closed the door behind him.
Sitting behind the mammoth desk was Bruce Wayne, just as his photos showed him. Well coiffed, well dressed and adjusting an emerald pinky ring on his right hand. “What can I do for you, Mr. Kent?” he asked simply.
As if he didn’t know!Clark threw the photo he had taken of Bruce showing Lois how to play the pinball game across the desk. “What makes you think you have the right to insult or touch my wife?” His hands were in fists. He was gnashing his teeth together so strongly his head was starting to hurt.
Bruce smiled naively. “That does look damning, but I assure you it was all innocent. I was teaching her the fine art of the game.”
Clark reached across the desk and pulled Wayne out of his chair by his lapels. “Any seven year-old knows how to play pinball, you ignoramus. You owe her an apology.”
“I sent flowers,” Wayne gasped.
“She got them.” Clark pulled the boutonniere out of his pocket and threw it into Bruce’s face.
The billionaire’s eyes glanced down at the flower that had fallen onto his desk. “Oh.”
Clark dropped him, with a slight push, landing Wayne back into his chair. “Lois is right. You’re not worth it.” He turned away from him, heading towards the door, his stomach starting to churn. Lois was right. Revenge wasn’t him; so much so this little bit was making him sick.
“So, only superheroes are allowed liberties with her?” Bruce replied with a snigger, bringing himself to his feet and dusting off his suit.
Clark turned around and before he knew what he was doing, he had punched the guy across the jaw, sending him flying across the room. His anger was really causing his head to throb now.
“Guess not.” Bruce rubbed his jaw. “I deserved that.”
“Stay away from my wife.” Clark growled.
“Or you’ll what?” Bruce stepped up to him, clearly unafraid. “Kill me? I thought that was against Superman’s credo.”
Clark looked him up and down in disbelief.
Does Wayne know that I’m Superman or is the man just hazarding a guess? And what is he trying to prove by goading me if he thought I was the Man of Steel? That even Superman gets angry enough to draw blood sometimes? That was a dangerous game to play and Clark didn’t play Russian roulette. He shook his pounding head and turned towards the door again. “I think you’ve got your lines crossed, Wayne. I’m no superhero. Just a jealous husband.”
“You should at least let me get one punch in. Make the fight fair,” Bruce said, still rubbing his jaw.
Clark ignored him. As he reached the door, Bruce kicked him with a flying leap, spinning Clark around and knocking his back into the heavy wooden door that didn’t even groan at his weight. Then the man hit him across Clark’s cheek. The chop didn’t knock him down at first, but then his head began to throb in earnest and his knees weakened.
He felt doubly the fool. First for letting his jealousy get the better of him and secondly walking into such an obvious trap. That was no emerald ring. And Clark’s head hadn’t been pounding due to his anger. Wayne was again letting him know not only that he had Kryptonite, but he had more than one piece. Was he trying to find out how much of that stuff it took to weaken him? Was this just another test? He glared at that man’s triumphant face, then opened the door, leaving him behind.
Stumbling out the door and down the hallway to the lobby, Clark made it to the elevator. But it wasn’t until he was outside again and felt the sunshine on his face that he started to feel better.
When he got back to the office, he found a post-it note on the ‘article’ Lois had written from her Bruce Wayne interview. He glanced at what she had written and the first smile in a hour appeared on his face.
Perry walked out of his office and glanced around. “Clark, where’s Lois?”
“She went home early. Her Mom leaves on her cruise tomorrow and she was meeting again with a prospective replacement nanny.”
“Oh.” Perry stared at him. “Good. Clark, can I talk to you in my office?”
“Sure.” Clark grabbed Lois’s article and entered Perry’s office.
“Close the door,” his editor told him.
Clark closed the door and sat down.
“Son, I was wondering how you’re doing?”
“How I’m doing, sir?” He was confused. “Oh, here is Lois’s article about Bruce Wayne.”
Perry looked at him with a raised brow, then came around to the other side of his desk. “Where did you get the shiner?”
“What?” He didn’t get black eyes. Clark looked around the office for something reflective and finally settling on the glass covering Perry’s Elvis Stamp portrait. He had a definite cut under his eye. Proof positive that that hadn’t been an emerald ring on Bruce Wayne’s finger. He was still surprised that Bruce Wayne would announce his secret identity as Batman so loudly. Clark would think he would want it kept secret like he did.
He touched the sore area of his face around the cut and glanced back at Perry, smiling weakly. “I paid Bruce Wayne a visit this afternoon.”
Perry shook his head, setting down Lois’s article. “I know this must be difficult for you, son. You know Lois wasn’t herself last night, right?”
His boss wanted to talk to him about his wife and Superman. Clark was unsure on how to act. He knew that she didn’t really cheat on him, though it looked that way to everyone else. Everyone thought his anger at Bruce Wayne was because of Lois’s Superman kiss. No, he was really mad at Bruce Wayne. But he took the Get Out Of Jail Free card, when offered. “Jimmy said something about her being brainwashed.”
“That’s the cover story I came up with to get Jimmy back on the right page.”
Clark looked up at him. “So, she wasn’t brainwashed? She…” He let that fragment of a sentence hang for dramatic effect.
“Well, she was… sort of… She was drugged, unable to control her actions.”
“Drugged? Lois was drugged?” This was the first he had heard of it. Why hadn’t she told him? Or was that just what she told Perry?
“By mistake. She’ll explain it to you better, herself, I’m sure.”
“Okay,” Clark replied, hesitantly. Lois hadn’t been forthcoming on a lot of things lately.
“You need to forgive her this transgression and move on.”
“We’ve already discussed it and put it behind us. She made a mistake and it won’t happen again.” Clark nodded. He would make sure of that.
“That’s very big of you, Clark.”
“She loves me, Chief. We’ll come out of this stronger, I know.”
Perry sighed and smiled uncertainly at him.
“You and Lois have always covered Superman together and I was thinking, just for the time being, until the dust settles to put someone else on the Superman beat. And Lois agrees.”
“She agreed?” This stunned Clark. Lois didn’t give an inch when it came to her journalistic territory. Ever. Especially if it concerned Superman. “But she…” He caught himself. He almost told Perry that “she loves Superman” and, in this situation, that would probably be interpreted the wrong way. He swallowed. “… and I have always written those stories together.”
“Do you think you can be impartial, now?”
About as impartial any man living a dual life could be. “I have loved Lois since the moment you introduced us four years ago, Perry. Was I impartial about Superman, even when she was obsessed with him in those early years?” he asked.
“Yes, son. But this is different. She’s your wife, now,” Perry explained. “And you are trying to adopt a daughter together. It would be better for everyone involved, if there was a little distance between you two and him. I mean, for heaven’s sake, Clark. The man made out with your wife.”
“He didn’t make out with her!” Clark said, forcefully, before he realized what he was saying.
Perry gulped. “You saw the kiss?”
Clark looked away. “Yes. I was there.”
“I’m sorry, son,” Perry said, setting a hand on Clark’s shoulder. “Jimmy had said that Superman had pushed Lois off him, but…”
Clark winced at Perry’s words. Had he really pushed his wife away? He really had made her into the bad guy in all this. Again.
“But that’s not important. I know this whole incident is going to affect your and Lois’s relationship with Superman, whether you want it to or not. Could you get in touch with him and tell him I want to meet with him tonight? I’d do it myself, but you and Lois seem to be the only ones with his contact information. I need to introduce him to Barry.”
“Barry? You’re assigning Barry Balson to Superman?” Clark’s eyes popped. He shook his head. “Lois.”
“Yeah. I was surprised by her suggestion, too. But it’s only temporary, a month or two, until the dust settles.”
“I don’t really know him,” Clark mumbled. Superman preferred to give his exclusives to Lois.
“You’ll show Barry the ropes, right, Clark?”
“Of course, Chief.” He sighed. He felt like he was being punished for the whole kiss episode, but maybe he should be. After all, he was partially to blame.
“There are plenty of other stories, Clark.”
“I know.”
“I’m putting you and Lois on the bullet train story. You and she will take the initial run to Memphis, spend a few nights at the Hotel Teddy Bear…”
“Hotel Teddy Bear?” Clark repeated incredulously.
“It sounds worse than it is. You guys need a few days, just the two of you. Consider it an early anniversary gift. Take the train back here on Monday.”
“Wait. This weekend?” Clark stammered.
“You’ll leave Friday, come back Monday, relaxed, ready to move on with your lives.
Clark’s head started spinning. “Okay. I guess, we could bring Lara…”
“Just the two of you,” Perry insisted.
“It’s not just the two of us any more, sir. We don’t even have a nanny lined up to replace Lois’s Mom. We’d been talking to Penny about watching Lara days, then Lois and I’d have her at night and weekends…”
“Penny? Jimmy’s Penny?”
Clark nodded. “We could fly Lara out to my folks for the weekend…”
“Wait. Wait. Wait. You’re thinking of taking a plane to Kansas, dropping Lara off, flying back and catching the bullet train? That’s insane, Clark.”
Clark shrugged. It would be for someone else without their own airline. “You and Alice wouldn’t want to take her for the weekend, would you?” Clark grinned. “Practice for those grandbabies?”
Perry blanched. “Hire Penny. Let her watch Lara for the weekend.”
“I don’t know, Perry. We haven’t even given her a test run, yet.”
“Lois’s father lives in town, right? See if he can watch her at night and Penny and Jimmy will watch her during the days.”
“I don’t know, Sir,” said Clark. “I don’t think Lois will go for it.”
Perry opened his office door. “Olsen!” He turned back to Clark. “She doesn’t have a choice in the matter. I’ve already explained that much to her.”
Clark’s jaw dropped. What in the hell was going on? Why hadn’t Lois warned him?
“Yes, Chief?” Jimmy said coming into the office.
Perry put his arm around his shoulders. “You feel really bad about the whole brainwashing incident and sabotaging Lois’s Bruce Wayne interview, right?”
Jimmy gulped with a glance at Clark. “Yes, Chief.”
“Good. To make up for it, you and Penny will be watching Lara all weekend. I’m sending Lois and Clark, here, to Memphis on the bullet train story.”
“Memphis?” Jimmy glanced at Clark and lowered his voice. “That’s where Elvis is from, Chief. Do you think that’s such a good idea?”
“Don’t worry, Olsen. Clark will be with her the whole time. Won’t you, Clark?”
There was more going on here than he had been told. “Of course. Won’t let her out of my sight.”
Perry patted Jimmy on the back. “Good. It’s all settled.”
“What’s all settled?” Jimmy asked.
“You and Penny will be watching Lara while Lois and Clark spend a romantic weekend in Memphis,” repeated Perry.
“Oh, no! Chief. CK. I can’t babysit a baby. I don’t know anything about babies. How about Penny and I go to Memphis and Lois and CK stay home?”
“Penny knows about babies, right?”
“Hopefully,” said Clark.
“So, what do you have to fear?” Perry asked.
“Besides having my girlfriend see me with a baby all weekend? Nothing.” Jimmy gulped and turned to Clark. “You owe me. Big.”
“I can see if Superman can fly you and Penny somewhere next weekend?” Clark suggested. “He owes me.”
“Oh, no! I don’t want him anywhere near my girlfriend,” Jimmy replied.
“You don’t trust Superman, Olsen?” Perry asked.
Jimmy shook his head. “No, I don’t trust Penny with him.”
Clark sighed. Superman suddenly had a bad reputation at the
Daily Planet. He wondered if Lois would trust Penny, either. He feared the Jimmy and Penny relationship was heading into rocky waters.
Clark wanted to fly home and ask Lois what was going on, but his mother-in-law still had one more night under his roof. He wanted his house back. His life back. His wife back. He sighed.
*** End of Part 3 *** Comments
