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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 9 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Part 7...“But I’ve fantasized about…” Jimmy gulped. “I mean, no, I haven’t. No. Never. Kill me, now.”
Clark looked at him, intriguingly. This was a strange reaction.
“I mean,
don’t really.” Jimmy pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to head back… do some research… Really, CK? Earthquakes?… No! Not going to research earthquakes, at all. Ever, again. I’m going… to go… now.” He placed a smile on his face and backed out of the conference room. He bumped into Lois’s desk, grabbed a pen out of her pen cup and ran, literally ran, away from Clark.
Clark watched him as he approached Lois at her desk.
“And you wanted to tell the world.” She shook her head, flipping through her mail.
“I can’t tell you, Lois.”
She glanced up at him. “I’m your wife. You can tell me anything, Clark.”
He sighed. “Not this.”
“That’s your decision.” She set down her mail and stood up, walking to the coffee machine.
Clark followed her. “You’re not mad?”
Lois looked at him with a raised brow as she poured her coffee. “Why should I be mad? I just learned we’re allowed to keep secrets.” She smiled at him, snapped a couple of sugar packets and poured them into her coffee.
“Lois.”
“As I said, Clark, it’s your decision.” His wife took her coffee back to her desk.
She hadn’t been kidding about being Chess Club president. Check mate.
***
Part 8Lois, you and your big fat mouth, she thought to herself. Why in the hell had she told Jimmy about Ultra Woman?
Because you were annoyed at Clark, her conscience reminded her,
and you don’t think straight when you’re mad.Perry had just called them both into his office. He had to have noticed Jimmy’s strange change of behavior this past week. The young photographer had been jumpy around both her and Clark. It was almost like those days after he caught her kissing Superman. If he told Perry her theory about Superman’s girlfriend, they might as well fly out to Las Vegas…
Her phone rang. Lois picked it up, listened to what the person on the other end said and then hung up. She felt as if the room started to spin as Perry called to her again.
When she entered Perry’s office, Lois glanced back at Clark’s empty desk. She should have known Clark wouldn’t fold and tell her what he knew about Bruce Wayne. She didn’t know if she was happier that he hadn’t called her bluff or not.
She had told him almost everything that had happened, of any importance, about her trip to the other dimension. She hadn’t told him the two biggies, yet. That she had almost died when Lara was born; although she had tried to tell him that before and he hadn’t listened, for which she had been eternally grateful. And the secret held by only her, H. G. Wells, and the other Clark. The knowledge about what really would have happened had she not gone to the other dimension. She shivered just thinking of that photo of Clark at her grave.
“Lois, honey. Are you coming in or are you going to take this meeting in the doorway?” Perry asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
“Sorry.” Lois moved into the office and shut the door. She went to sit down, but Perry still had only one guest chair in his office and Jimmy was sitting in it. “Perry, what happened to your other chair?”
Perry swallowed. “Superman broke it. Now, where’s Clark? I wanted him here for this.”
Superman had broken Perry’s chair?
“He said something about meeting a source,” Jimmy explained, because Lois’s brain was stuck on what Perry had said.
Superman broke Perry’s chair? When had Superman met with Perry in his office? She stared at Perry in confusion.
“A source? Good. At least somebody around here is working.”
Then she realized what Jimmy had said. Lois turned her attention to Jimmy, who grinned altogether too innocently at her. What he said wasn’t true. Clark had heard something and ran from the office loosening his tie.
Her hand moved to cover her mouth as she looked at Jimmy. Jimmy had just covered for Clark. Why? She stumbled backwards and sat down on the bookshelves that lined the windows overlooking the bullpen.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered to herself. Did Jimmy know? Was that why he had been acting so strangely all week? She thought it was because she had hinted that Ultra Woman was Superman’s girlfrie… Oh, crap. If he knew Clark was Superman, did that mean he figured out that she had once been… She gulped and shifted her gaze to Perry. Did he know, too?
Pull yourself together, Lois thought. She blinked, trying to focus on Perry and the words coming out of his mouth. “What? Huh?”
“Darling, are you okay? You look like you had a fright?”
Jimmy turned around to stare at her. “Lois. Do you need me to call Clark?”
She stared at Jimmy. What did he mean by that? Clark doesn’t take phone calls when out and about as Superman. Or did he mean call to… Oh. Oh! She couldn’t let him do that. She had to make her mouth work.
“Henderson called. We have to take Lara to S.T.A.R. Labs by four p.m. for her blood test,” Lois said weakly. The world around her felt like it was swirling out of control.
Jimmy gulped and turned pale. “Blood test? Lara? Excuse me, Chief, I need to make a phone call.” Jumping out of his chair, he was through the office door before Perry could react.
“Great shades of Elvis! Doesn’t anyone around here take me seriously anymore? When I call a meeting, I expect people to show up!” He shook his head and shut the office door. “Lois, honey. You knew this day was coming when we couldn’t find that other couple’s missing baby. It shouldn’t come as that much of a shock. I’m surprised you got them to delay it this long.”
“But… But…” She stared at Perry. He didn’t know. Thank God, he still didn’t know. She wrapped her arms around her boss. “Thank you, Perry, for being the smartest, most wonderful, thoughtful, wisest man I know and what I love most about you is…”
“Ah, Lois…”
“You are completely clueless as to why I’m hugging you.”
“Ah… Thank you, Lois, I think…” Perry cleared his throat. “Evidently, this isn’t the best time for my announcement. We’ll meet again when Clark gets back and Jimmy’s off the phone. Maybe by then I’ll have found a clue,” he rumbled.
Lois let go of him. “Clark. Oh, my God! Clark! He doesn’t know. How am I going to tell him? This is going to crush him.”
Perry raised a brow. “What is, honey?”
“Lara’s blood test…” Lois began as Jimmy returned. “He’s been dreading it all month.”
“Why’s that, Lois?” her boss inquired.
“Because Lara is…” she stammered.
“The damn cutest, sweetest, most wonderful kid in the world,” interrupted Jimmy. “He doesn’t want to chance losing her. Right, Lois?”
She swallowed, staring at him. “Right, Jimmy.”
He knew. Jimmy knew that Lara was Superman’s daughter. He knew that a blood test would make public the one thing about their daughter they didn’t want revealed. How did he know? “How in the hell do you know?” she demanded. “Did Clark tell you?”
Jimmy took hold of her shoulders. “Lois. Get a grip. Clark needs you to hold down the fort.”
Right. Grip. They could discuss the how’s and when’s later. She swallowed, then smiled at Perry. “We’ll get back to you on that.” She exited his office with Jimmy. At her desk, she turned to him. “What are we going to do?”
Jimmy looked stunned. Had she just asked Jimmy to take point? Oh, God, she was nuts.
“Dr. Klein! We’ll have to talk to Dr. Klein,” Lois murmured, nodding. “He’s trustworthy. He’ll protect us. How many people are we going to have to tell?” She sighed, covering her face.
“I’m hoping none,” said Jimmy.
“What?” stammered Lois. Then she remembered what he did after she mentioned Henderson telephoned. “Jimmy, who did you call?”
He gulped. “A friend.”
“And does this friend also know what nobody is supposed to know?”
His face turned a bit red as he grinned.
“Jimmy, what did you do?”
He stood up and started walking backwards, away from Lois.
“Jimmy.”
Lois’s phone rang. She turned to pick it up and when she turned back, Jimmy was gone.
“Lois Lane,” she said through clenched teeth.
“
Lois, it’s Bobby. I’ve got some news for you. How about lunch?”
Lois looked around the newsroom; Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. She took a pad of paper and jotted down the address where Bobby BigMouth wanted them to meet. She hung up the phone. Great. Anything else going to happen today?
She glanced up at the TV monitors and saw Superman rescuing people in near Bogota, Colombia, because the Nevado del Ruiz volcano exploded. Lois sighed. Clark wouldn’t be back for hours. Great. Continue holding down the fort.
***
Lois stomped out of the elevator, first glancing at Clark’s empty desk and then up at the TV monitors. Commercial. Super.
“Lois! Where in blue blazes have you been? Have you seen either Jimmy or Clark?” Perry asked, approaching her as she walked down the ramp. “We need to have this meeting before your appointment this afternoon.”
“Perry, we need to talk,” she said, holding up a hand to his office.
He didn’t say anything until they were behind closed doors. “What have you heard?”
“I just had lunch with Bobby BigMouth.”
Perry gulped, sitting down in his chair.
“Looks like things are going to shake up around here,” Lois told him through gritted teeth. “I’m going to kill him. Yes. That’s what I’m going to do first.”
“Kill who?” Perry asked, leaning forward.
“Jimmy. It was his idea and it worked. I don’t know how he did it, but it worked. I can’t say that things are going to improve around here, but…”
“Jimmy?” Perry seemed stunned. “What did Jimmy do?”
Clark practically blew into the office. Lois hadn’t even known he was back from Colombia.
“Clark!” Lois gasped with relief.
“Where’s Jimmy?” said Clark, a note gripped in his hand.
Lois grabbed his arm, holding up a finger to Perry. “We need to talk, Clark, about Jimmy.”
“He and Penny took Lara,” he announced, holding out the note.
Lara is safe. Your friends, Penny and Jimmy“I found that on the desk at home, when I went to check on Lara at lunch.”
Lois hugged him. His hair was slightly damp. He had gone home to shower after the volcano eruption.
“What?” stammered Perry, grabbing the note from Lois’s hand. “Jimmy?”
“I don’t understand it either,” stated Clark with a shake of his head. He really was confused.
“Didn’t you tell him?” Lois asked her husband.
“Tell him what?”
“About Lara.”
Clark shook his head. “Never. I’ve told no one.” He shook his head. “My parents, but they don’t really believe me.”
“What about Lara?” Perry asked with a raised brow.
Lois waved off his concerns. “Rare medical condition.”
“Oh.”
“Jimmy knows.”
“He
knows,” gasped Clark, sitting down in the chair.
Lois nodded. “Everything.”
“
Everything? How?” He looked up at Lois.
She shrugged.
“Penny?” Clark guessed.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Lois shook her head. “I thought she dumped him for that other guy.” Then she turned to Perry. “Speaking of which, Bobby says we’ve got a new boss at the
Daily Planet.”
“What?” stammered Clark.
Perry sighed. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you three about this morning. But Clark went out to meet a source and Jimmy apparently left to kidnap your daughter… Oh, Lois, you have to contact Henderson. Tell him you’re not going to make his deadline.”
“What’s this?” Clark asked. “What deadline?”
“Lara’s blood test. We’re supposed to have her to S.T.A.R. Labs by four p.m.”
It was a good thing Clark was already sitting down as he turned a shade paler than she had ever seen him. “But… but… if they do that, they’ll find out about…” He glanced over at Perry.
“Her rare medical condition?” finished Perry.
Lois’s husband nodded. “Is that why Jimmy…”
“I think so. We can’t contact Henderson and tell him that Jimmy and Penny took Lara. It’s a felony. They’ll go to jail.”
“I just can’t get my head around it. Jimmy kidnapped your daughter. I love that kid like a son. Why? Why would he do that?” stammered Perry. “He’s still a kid himself.”
“He’s protecting her, so we wouldn’t have to run the blood tests.”
“If you don’t contact the police, they’re going to think you’re in on it,” said Perry. “And you all will end up in jail and Lara in the custody of Child Services.”
“We’ve just got to give them time. They can’t have thought this through. They’ll bring her back,” said Lois, pacing. “They must. They know what will happen if they don’t.”
Clark looked up at her, not liking what she had just said. “What will happen, Lois?”
“Her father will go after them,” she stated. “I’ve seen you mad, Clark. It’s dangerous.”
“When have I ever been dangerous?” His brow furrowed.
“Dangerous?” asked Perry, glancing between them.
Lois closed her eyes and concentrated on the other Clark, picking up Jefferson Cole by his neck and slamming him into a wall.
Clark blinked his eyes, staring at her. Had he seen the image she had projected to him? He took her hand in his. “That wasn’t me, Lois.
I won’t hurt them.”
“They have our daughter, Clark.”
“They won’t hurt her. They are trying to protect her. She’s safe.” He closed his eyes for a moment and then repeated, “She’s safe.”
“This rare medical condition, Lois, what exactly is it?”
Lois and Clark both turned and faced him, their jaws hanging open. Lois’s brain was the first one to work. “A rare and potentially deadly allergy.”
“An allergy?” Perry thought about this. “You must have had her tested then. To know about this condition.”
“No,” said Lois. “We discovered it by accident.”
“Yes!” Clark said, jumping out of his seat and running out to his desk.
“
Yes?” Lois snapped, following him. She snarled. “What do you mean, yes?”
Clark held up a finger as he waited on the phone.
***
“
Margarite Javez,” the voice on the other end of the phone said. Wow, she had a beautiful accent, thought Clark, glancing at his wife, hoping she didn’t guess his thoughts. How did Wayne work with that voice speaking in his ear every day?
“Ms. Javez. Clark Kent. Tell your boss I need to speak with him, immediately, please.”
“
Sorry, Mr. Kent. Mr. Wayne is out of the office on business today. I will pass on your message and he’ll be in contact.”
“Thanks,” Clark said, hanging up. Now, what?
“What was that about?” Lois asked, her hands on her hips.
Clark glanced over her shoulder at Perry who was watching them a tad too closely. He lowered his voice. “You know the answer to that question already, Lois. Just review the facts in your head.”
“I know that voice. Was that Margarite Javez you were speaking with on the phone?” she asked. He nodded.
Lois wandered back to her desk. She seemed to be in a daze, but he knew she was doing as he asked. Reviewing the facts. Someone had run a test on Lara’s blood. Margarite was Wayne’s personal assistant. Wayne had run a test of their daughter’s blood? How would Bruce Wayne get a sample of Lara’s blood? Where would he run such a test? Gotham Labs. Gotham Labs, where Penny’s brother worked. Gotham Labs where their computer had exploded.
Lois gasped and her eyes opened wide as she turned to Clark. “No!”
“Afraid so,” he replied.
“
This! This was the secret you kept from me?” She slugged him in the arm and then shook her hand. “How could you keep this from me?”
Clark grinned, sheepishly. Technically that wasn’t the secret he was keeping from his wife. He hadn’t told Lois because, despite not completely trusting the man, he knew the sample was safe. His wife was right. He shouldn’t have kept this information from her. She was Lara’s mother. “I’m sorry, Lois. I should have told you.”
“Damn straight. Anything else you failed to mention?”
He gulped, glancing away. He hadn’t told Lois, because of the Bureau 39 men who had tried to confiscate Gotham Lab’s damaged mainframe computer and back-up servers. And he knew that if she knew for certain that Bureau 39 still existed, she would freak. She had had too many nightmares recently about them not to. She didn’t need to know about his private Bureau 39 investigation. He expected her to blow up, but instead she took a deep breath and touched his arm.
“Clark. You can’t keep things from me. We’re in this together.”
He pulled her into his arms, remembering the image she had sent him telepathically in Perry’s office. What had made the other Clark so mad at Professor Cole? Had he done something to Lois in that dimension? Other than frame her for murder in this dimension? Had the other Clark killed the man? Cole had hit the wall so hard, he looked crumpled when he fell.
Clark tightened his arms around her. It had looked like they were in a padded cell. Oh, God! What had happened? “We’ve both been keeping stuff from each other lately.”
“I promise I will tell you what happened, but not now. Not today, Clark. Later. Okay?”
He smiled, kissing her forehead. “Later. Promise?”
She nodded.
***
The hours passed with still no word from either Jimmy or Penny. Neither of them answered their cell phones. It felt like Christmas Eve again, her eyes popping up to the big clock over the bullpen to see how much closer it was until four p.m. At three thirty-five, a shadow darkened Lois’s desk. She wasn’t working. She was just staring at her computer. She hadn’t even realized it had gone to screen saver mode. Glancing up she saw Clark.
“They’re not coming.”
“What? Have you heard something?” Lois asked, the pencil in her hand – that she had been tapping against her desk – broke in two.
Clark shook his head. “We’ve got to call Henderson. Tell him why we aren’t bringing Lara to S.T.A.R. Labs.”
“They’ll bring her back, Clark. They have to. There’s still time. Maybe they’ve returned to the townhouse?” she said hopefully.
Clark shook his head and with a soft voice replied, “I just came from there. They haven’t been back. I’ve listened. I’ve looked. But…” He knelt down and rested his head against hers. “I just got off the phone with Constance, letting her know what’s happened.”
“Have you been able to reach her?” Lois asked, knowing he would know his wife wasn’t talking about their lawyer. “My bond isn’t as strong as yours.”
“Don’t say that, Lois. Lara loves you more than anyone. Our bond is different, not stronger,” her husband reassured her. “She’s fine. Safe. Happy.” He sighed. “I only wish…”
Lois nodded. “Me, too.” She picked up the phone and held it in her hand, not wanting to dial. Finally, she hung up. “I can’t, Clark. I can’t do it. They’ll turn up.”
Clark picked up the phone and dialed. “Inspector Henderson, please. Clark Kent calling.” Lois could hear his voice shaking. He didn’t want to turn their friends into kidnappers any more than she did.
Lois squeezed his hand and then walked away. She could not listen to this conversation. She went over to the coffee station, but she didn’t want anything to drink. Instead she kept walking, standing at the window overlooking the break table. She never looked out this window anymore. She stood there staring out at the street below. Once upon a time, she used to stand here every day and look for a glimpse of Superman. That was a long time ago. Now she was married to her hero and they had a daughter. Lois’s life seemed so different than the one she had woken up to even that morning. Her daughter was missing. Their best friend and their nanny had taken her and soon would be fugitives. Jimmy knew. Penny had promised never to tell anyone. Had she broken this promise? How had Jimmy learned about Lara?
Lois turned away from the window and bumped into Clark.
“Henderson’s on his way here.”
She nodded and set her hand on Clark’s chest for a moment, then moved past him on her way to Jimmy’s computer. Clark followed her.
“I tried earlier. I didn’t find anything. I couldn’t check out the sketch program, because he’s got that password protected.”
Lois sat down at the computer and double clicked on the sketch program. A password window popped up. Her hands hovered over the keyboard.
“Nothing I tried worked,” admitted Clark.
Lois typed, Ultra_Woman. Error.
Lois_Lane. Error.
Clark_Kent. Error.
Superman. Error.
Lois took another breath. Penny_Barnes. Error.
Her fingers tapped the keys as she thought of another possibility.
SM_Loves_UW.
Clark raised an eyebrow at this password. Error.
She stretched her fingers. CK_is_SM. Lois glanced up at Clark and he closed his eyes. She hit enter. Error. She released a breath.
“Are you sure he knows?”
“He covered for you,” she stated, rubbing her cold fingers together, before typing. LL_is_UW.
“No. How could he know that?” Clark stammered.
“Because we told him she’s his girlfriend. He knows you’d never cheat on me.”
Lois hit enter and the program opened. She reached back and took hold of Clark’s hand.
“Oh my God, Lois.”
“I know.”
“How long do you think he’s known?”
Lois shook her head, clicking on the directory. “Here are the sketches he did of the refugees’ missing baby. And… Clark.” She pointed the arrow of the cursor at two files entitled Lara1 and Lara2. She clicked on the first file. Up came the computer sketch of Lara she had seen him with a month before when Perry had made him clean out his desk. “Clark…”
“I see it, Lois.”
The Lara1 file was a composite sketch of Lois and Superman. She closed the file. Then opened Lara2. This sketch, almost identical to the first, was a composite of her and Clark.
“Why would he do that?”
Lois shook her head. “I don’t know. Either way, we better tell him to change his password.” She deleted those files, closed out of the program and switched off Jimmy’s computer. She glanced up at Clark.
“Well, now we know. It doesn’t bring her back to us, does it?” Clark’s voice sounded tired, withdrawn. “He was my best friend, Lois.”
Lois wrapped her arms around him. “He still is, Clark. He did this to save her.”
Her husband held on to her. “I wish he hadn’t. I wish he had told me. I never would have let…”
“Me, either.”
Perry walked up to them. “Any word?”
Lois could feel Clark shake his head.
“Henderson’s here. I’ve put him in the conference room.”
Lois let go of Clark and wrapped her arms around Perry, hugging him for the second time that day. “I’m sorry, Perry. We don’t want to do this.”
She heard their boss sniffle. “That boy made his bed. He’s going to have to sleep in it.”
As they reached the conference room, the elevator dinged. Lois glanced over at it and saw a familiar mop of tawny hair emerge.
*** End of Part 8 *** Comments
