Clark and Lois – The Lost Years - Matchmaker Chronicle Volume 3
By Ken Janney
This version is rated PG-13
* denotes emphasis *
< denotes thoughts >
[ playback of a recording or TV Commentary] / telepathic communications /
(#) footnotes
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Reminder:
Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 - Canon Lois and Clark universe also called – Prime
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036 – Canon Alt Clark universe also called – Alt 1
Previously –
“I believe zo please to allow me to get zem out of zee back. ‘ow do you want zem inscrib-ed? No sharge, of course.”
Looking over at Lois with a questioning look she replied with a nod. “Mine will be LL to CK. Hers will be CK to LL. Merci bien!”
M. Artois then asked, “Is there a date you would like on it too?”
“No, we’re kind of in flux with that.”
The jeweler nodded and turned to the back room.
When they were alone, Linda whispered in surprise, “You gave him my actual initials!”
“Yeah, I didn’t think there would be much chance of anyone but us looking at them. Besides it is customary to use your maiden name initials.”
“You should have given your real initials then.”
“I did.”
“Oh, okay. It’s really CK then?”
“Yep.”
The rings were ready in record time Charlie paid for them and they were on their way.
Lois was so surprised at the beauty of the small box that held both rings that she had to remark on it to Clark. Back in the car, he flipped open the box and slipped her ring on her finger with trembling fingers. <I hope someday I’ll do this for real.> Then he swiftly put his own on his hand.
Lois had been amazed at the reception that Charlie received and from the owner of the shop. They were on a first name basis no less! It seemed that nothing was too good for him. The owner himself waited on them and when they made their selection gave them a very sharp discount on the tag price and engraved the rings for free. This was another mystery to add to the list. While Charlie was paying for the rings she did a little window shopping, looking at engagement rings. She didn’t realize that Charlie was watching every move she made.
And now –
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Chapter 13 - The Confrontation
March 1992
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Dressed in a short tan skirt and high heeled pumps, Linda made a big entrance to the local Daily Planet offices. The skirt and pumps showed off her well toned legs to advantage. She paired that with a pale blue sleeveless blouse which was unbuttoned to a point just above her bra so as to show off some cleavage.
Charlie hadn’t been in the office for over two weeks, so when they arrived Suzanne and Colette ambushed him as soon as he entered the door. Both were trying to outdo the other as they vied for Charlie’s attention. Lois noted this and thought <Well, it appears as though I may have some competition. Just how long has he been here anyway? Just how well do they know him? Come on Lane, it looks like you need to stake your claim!>
Claude saw Linda as soon as she walked in the door and he thought she was alone because Suzanne and Colette had stopped Charlie at the door. Claude thought <Wow, what a dish! I wonder who she is. How can I impress her?>. He jumped to his feet and hastened over to meet her. He said, “’ello. Please to allow me to introduce myzelf, I am Claude Rochert. I am zee zenior reporter on zee staff ‘ere.” He reached for her hand and kissed the back of it. “*What* can *I* do for *you* lovely lady?” Claude had continued to hold her hand as he finished speaking. He had practically been slobbering on her hand contrary to normal practice and she didn’t appreciate it in the least.
Charlie extricated himself from the twins and stepped to Lois’ side and said, “Claude, I’d like you to meet Linda *King*.” As Charlie said this Linda removed her hand from Claude’s grip.
As soon as Claude heard her name he felt his world caving in. As she had walked in he had immediately had thoughts of a candlelight dinner followed by a sexual liaison. Those thoughts were dashed by the implications of the name. “Linda *King*?” He choked out. <This is so unfair. First the twins now this very beautiful woman.>
Lois had removed her hand from Claude’s grip and dramatically wiped the back of it on her skirt and then started twirling her newly acquired ring between her third and fifth fingers ostentatiously as she replied, “Yes, as in Mrs. Charlie King.” She made sure that she said it loud enough for Suzanne and Colette to hear. When she heard them gasp she knew that she had staked her claim. Charlie smiled and reached over and gave her a hug. She in turn reached up with her hand and turned his face to hers and kissed him. Charlie was quite surprised, but also very happy with this outcome and wished it was for real and not just for a cover story. Lois thought <Mmmmm, I can’t afford to do this too much. I won’t want to quit.> When they broke the kiss Derek came over. “Derek, I’d like you to meet Linda, my wife.”
Suzanne and Colette immediately went into a huddle.
Derek said, “I’m very pleased to meet you. Charlie said he had someone that would be joining him. He didn’t tell us it would be a beautiful woman and that she was his wife. What brings you to the Congo?”
She made sure that she was speaking loud enough that everyone could hear her. “Well, you see Derek; I go where my husband goes. Charlie and I are a team. We’re working on this gun running story together but I had some things to finish up in Metropolis so he came on ahead.”
Claude was crestfallen. Suzanne and Colette stood there in shock, looking at each other and then back at the little drama unfolding before them. Charlie had never hinted he was married, although it might not have mattered if he had.
Claude’s hopes for a liaison with this lovely lady were dashed, his chances for getting in on this story as well. He thought that it was time to get back at Charlie for preventing him from working this story. He spoke up “Derek, just ’ow much do we know about zem?”
Derek replied dismissivly, “Charlie showed me his ID. What else do I need to know?”
Claude, with a snide look on his face pulled out a FAX and handed it to him. “I zent a FAX asking personnel een Metropolis about Charlot King. Zay say zat zair ees no one by zat nam on staff.”
Derek looked over at Charlie and Linda and asked “Is this true?”
Linda pulled Derek aside and said to him “Of course there’s no record, we’re undercover.” She picked up a pencil and a piece of paper, looked at her watch did some mental arithmetic then wrote down a phone number and handed it to Derek. She said “If you call this number now I think he’ll still be awake.”
Derek asked “Who am I calling?”
“I’ll let you find that out when he answers.”
Derek went to his desk and looked at the number. He recognized a Metropolis area code. He looked back at her and then dialed the number.
A phone in Metropolis started ringing. The person in the room thought, <it’s 2 AM, who could be calling at this hour?> He picked up the phone on the second ring and said “Perry White speaking.”
Derek almost dropped the phone and just stood there frozen. <She knows Perry White’s home number!?!?!> ”He stammered “Uh, Mr. White, this uh, ahem, ah, this is Derek Price in the uh Brazzaville office. I, uh, I have a uh a woman here that says she knows you.”
Lois couldn’t resist giving a startled Charlie a look and a smirk.
Perry said “Put her on.”
Derek was in shock from these events. All he could force his muscles to do was to simply hold the phone out to Linda. She took it from his nerveless fingers and said “Hi Perry.”
Perry said “Lois! Is that *you* Darlin’?”
“Yeah Perry, it’s me. I went undercover as soon as I arrived and I want to stay that way, so no names please. There seems to be some question as to whether or not we work for the Planet. Could you please reassure Derek that we’re on staff?”
Perry thought <Why is she saying *we*. Is she using the royal we to try and impress someone?> “What in Elvis’ name are you doin’ in the Congo? Of all the pig headed, stubborn … You lied to me! You told me you were goin’ on a vacation. I told you I didn’t want you workin’ that story, that I thought that investigation would be far too dangerous but nooooo Mad Dog Lane has to go and do it on her own anyway. That story isn’t goin’ to be a walkin’ tour of Graceland. I want you to get your dainty little behind on a plane and get back here, pronto.”
“But Perry, we’ve already started the investigation. We have copies of the manifest and the bill of lading. We also have serial numbers from and pictures of the weapons. This investigation is well on the way.”
“What? When did you start? You’ve got that much already? Why are you using ‘we’ all the time?
“Relax Perry, I’m not here all by myself. I’m here with my husband, Charlie. He’s looking after me. We are *partners* after all. Who else could I depend on?”
Perry was sputtering as he replied “Husband?!?! What husband???? You’re not married and you’ve never had a partner, you’ve *always* worked *alone*.”
Fortunately with the phone pressed to her ear she and Charlie were the only ones that could hear what Perry was saying. Charlie had an amused smile on his face from listening in. <What a woman.>
Lois replied <Let’s see, how can I phrase this so that I don’t give too much away.> “Circumstances change and so do people, Perry, you know you don’t have to worry as long as Charlie’s with me. We’re together and liking it. He takes such good care of me you should be very well satisfied. He’s such an angel and he won’t let anything happen.”
Perry replied “Who is he? What’s the arrangement? Is he someone from the Brazzaville office? Do you trust him?”
Lois replied “I’ll have to talk to you later about that. We’ve already had some scrapes that Charlie has had to pull us out of. We’ll be okay and yes, I do.”
With a tone of capitulation in his voice Perry said “I never could get you to look before you leaped. I just never can win with you. Alright Darlin’ I trust your judgment, most of the time anyhow. I didn’t want you doin’ this investigation and you chose to do it anyway, but I feel a little bit better having you tell me that you have a partner now.”
“Yes, I have my partner with me and I’ve always brought in the story!”
“Yes, you’ve always brought in the story. That’s true. Alright, put Derek back on. I’ll take care of it. I don’t like it but you’ve always done things your own way anyhow. You just be careful, you hear me? I hope that your faith in this new ‘husband’ of yours isn’t misplaced”
“Okay Daddy. Your little girl will be careful. Thanks Perry, I’ll see you when this investigation is wrapped up. As to the other thing, I’m sure it isn’t.”
Lois held the phone back out to Derek. He took it and put it up to his ear.
“Derek Price here.”
Perry replied “You have my top investigative reporter there with you. You take good care of her. I want her back in one piece you hear? If she gets hurt, by Elvis, you’ll pay for it.”
Derek, properly cowed replied “What about her partner? Isn’t that his responsibility?”
On the other end of the line there was a short pause then Perry said “Yes, you’re right, it is. Okay, give her anything she wants. I expect total cooperation. This is a *big* story as I’m sure you are aware.”
Derek replied “Total cooperation. Got it.” He hung the phone up. “Okay, what do you need? The entire resources of this office are at your disposal.”
To say that Claude was crushed by this outcome would be an understatement. He hadn’t considered the possibility that they could be undercover and therefore be using false names of which personnel would have no record.
Derek turned to Claude and said “Are you satisfied now? You made me bother the *big* man with your fantasies. Don’t you have somewhere you have to be?”
Claude knew he was being dismissed and said “I t’ink I’ll go interview zumone.” He left hurriedly.
After Claude had departed Charlie said, “We’ll be in and out of the office for the next week or so. We have some things to follow up on and will be using the computer. In three or four weeks we may be trekking into the interior but we’re not sure about that yet, we’ll wait and see.” With that he and Linda went over to his desk and he started working on the computer.
Linda pulled up a chair so that she was sitting right next to him. When she crossed her legs her already short skirt hiked a little further up her leg revealing even more than had been visible when she was in her night shirt that night in Pointe Noir. He found himself staring at her legs and she caught him doing so.
When Linda caught his stare and thinking about the night they had spent in the room in Pointe Noir and the comment he had made about her legs that night she smiled. Deciding to play a little she shifted her position, re-crossing her legs, but doing it slowly and sensually and seeing to it that her skirt rode up just a little bit higher than the last time. Observing his response to her actions she had a hard time suppressing a laugh. Charlie could feel his heart starting to race and he couldn’t bear to tear his eyes away from the view she was giving him. He thought back to the time that Suzanne had sat next to him in that very same chair. As he did he finally managed to pull his eyes away from her legs and up to her face where he saw her Mona Lisa smile. She asked, “Is it hot in here?” As she asked this, her hands went to her neckline and she unbuttoned another button and pulled the lapels of her blouse apart revealing not just her cleavage but the upper swell of both breasts. The realization hit him that she knew exactly what she was doing and doing it deliberately. That, however, didn’t change the fact that he liked what he saw. Her actions were pushing him more than anything that Suzanne or Colette had done. Charlie couldn’t get over it, Linda wasn’t dressed as provocatively as Suzanne had been that day not so awfully long ago but he found that he was even more distracted with Linda sitting next to him and he loved it. Reluctantly he mentally shook himself and turned to the computer to begin the search; as he did so he could hear her merry giggle.
Without them realizing it this was all being observed by Suzanne and Colette. Suzanne knew that she had sat in the same location next to him on the occasion when they were getting his computer set up. She also realized that even though he had looked at her legs, and other parts of her anatomy, when she had actually been using the occasion to try an entice him that he had not looked at her the same way. In a quiet voice she said to Colette, “Je peux voir maintenant comment il a pu résister à nous. Il est totalement engagé à lui. Nous avons jamais eu l'occasion. (tr: “I can see now how he was able to resist us. He is totally committed to her. We never had a chance.)
After a few hours they took a break and went out for lunch. They had managed to get the railroad schedule for the line going from Pointe Noire to Kinshasa. They were able to get the lading information and found that the train with the arms cargo was scheduled to depart Pointe Noire on Monday two weeks hence. It wouldn’t arrive in Kinshasa until two weeks later. They expected that it would be ferried across within a few days of its arrival which gave them a few weeks to relax and prepare.
While they were at lunch Lois broached the subject of Suzanne and Colette. “So, what is it with you and the twins?”
Charlie replied “Well, they’re just good friends.”
Lois snorted in a very unladylike way. “Not from what I saw. They were practically trying to seduce you right there in front of me.” <I can’t believe that I’m feeling jealous about that. I like Charlie, but … Maybe I like him more than I thought. I *was* regretting that I would be leaving him when I finished this investigation. I was even thinking about staying here in the Brazzaville office to be near him. We are partners now. But, that doesn’t mean that I have any claim on him and he doesn’t have any claim on me. Does he? I do like him. I like him more than anyone else I have ever dated. Apparently we are going to be together for a long time on this investigation. We are pretending to be husband and wife. Let’s see how it all works out. Perhaps this could be a good thing, I hope.>
Charlie replied “Well, OK, there was a time when they did try to get me into a relationship. But, I told them that I was already spoken for.”
Lois responded by holding up her left hand “You have been planning this for how long?”
Charlie got defensive and stammered out “No, no, not until today. I didn’t have that planned. It was just a thought I had today. I, I didn’t tell them I was married I just said that there was someone else.”
“So, you lied to them.” Lois accused
Charlie got a very odd expression on his face as he responded “No, it was no lie. I knew you were coming.”
Lois was surprised at this remark. She asked “How did you know I was going to be here? I didn’t even tell Perry about the tip until the last minute. You have obviously been here for a while.”
Charlie got a somewhat wistful expression on his face as he replied “Lois, I know that you just met me a little over two weeks ago, but, I have known you longer than that. I knew to the minute when you would be stepping off that plane and have been looking forward to seeing you descend that ramp for a couple of months. I know, that sounds silly. It sounds like something straight out of a science fiction novel, but none the less it’s true. In truth I have been waiting for a little over five years to meet you.”
Lois was blown away by this. <What is he talking about? Five years ago I was in college. I don’t remember ever seeing him. Is he some kind of nut case? Was he stalking me? Is this some kind of sick joke? How could he have been waiting for five years? We’ve been together for over two weeks and I haven’t noticed anything unusual. If anything he has treated me exceptionally well.> “Well, uh, Charlie, that is very interesting, but how could that possibly be?”
“I know it sounds weird. Please believe me that I’m not a nut case. There is an explanation. I just ask that you take my word for it that it’s true and I can explain. Someday, hopefully, soon, I’ll be able to tell you the entire story and when I do you’ll believe me. For now, all I ask is that we be partners in this investigation. That we can work together is the fulfillment of my dream. I hope you see that this will work out for our mutual good.”
Lois relented somewhat “Ok. We have been working well together so far, but, if you cross the line, I’m outta here. Got that?”
Charlie replied, somewhat subdued “Got it. You don’t have to worry. You’ll see. In the end, everything will work out.”
comments go here To be continued in Chapter 14 – A River Rescue
