A/N: Okay, so I am officially switching this to a Tues/Wed upload schedule. I tested the waters with this week's new classes, and this is going to be the best solution. So, sorry I was late on Monday, but from now on (again, I reserve the right to defer posting if craziness crops up again, but barring that) I will be posting regularly on Tuesday nights (Pacific Time).
Hope that settles it for some of you. Also, please inform me of any spelling or other errors you catch in here, as this is unbetaed and technically a work-in-progrees. (Meaning I don't always remember to spellcheck. :p ) Enjoy! (And yes, I know this one's short, but it had to be broken up that way.)
*****Madness: Chapter 4*****
"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity."
-- Edgar Allan Poe Clark froze and felt all of the color drain from his features. Coming for him? What was that supposed to mean? Him? Clark Kent? His mind was going a mile a minute, racing with all the possibilities.
"You gonna make a call, CK? Or are you just trying to look busy for the Chief's sake?"
"Huh?"
Jimmy gestured to the phone still in his tight grasp, knuckles growing white out of fear. Clark looked down at the device and noticed he was probably an inch away from breaking it into a million pieces. "Oh!" He quickly hung it up but couldn't find it in him to look sheepish.
Jimmy's brow furrowed. "Hey, everything all right?"
"Yeah, yeah. Fine. Just a... a weird phone call."
His young friend frowned. "I didn't hear..."
Clark looked at him, puzzled. "What?"
Jimmy shrugged. "Nevermind. Hey, just wanted to drop by those photos."
Clark blanched. "I thought you just did that."
Jimmy blushed. "Sorry about that. I gave you the wrong file.
These are the Murphey trial photos." He set them on his desk with a plop. "What'd you do with the other ones?"
Suddenly Perry's voice rang out. "OLSEN!"
Clark cringed. "Sorry, buddy."
Jimmy sighed and picked up the new file as he trudged towards Perry's office in defeat. Clark shook his head at the young photographer, amused for a moment, before his thoughts returned to the mysterious phone call.
Who was after him? Another reporter? Some unknown villain? The government? There was no limit really to who it could be. As Superman, it could almost literally be anyone in the world. He had no shortage of enemies. As Clark Kent... well, he'd pissed off a lot of people in the past, too. Stories, hunches, his travels-- anything could have done it.
And now a mystery man had called and tipped him off that someone was after him.
Clark couldn't explain the feeling of panic rising in his chest as he turned his eyes on the news room, gaze roving across the space. What if, whoever it was, they were watching him, right now? What if they were checking to see if he was Superman? What if they already knew? He shuddered at that thought. It wouldn't be the first time somebody had guessed. But it was definitely more dangerous now.
He had Lois to think about now.
Suddenly Clark bolted upright.
Lois! Quickly he located her, picking yet another fight with her boss as Jimmy tried to make himself scarce in the corner. Good. She was safe.
Unless someone had eyes or ears on the place.
Clark jumped to his feet and barged into Perry White's office without knocking.
"Kent! What in Sam Hill are you doing barging in here like some two hundred pound gorrilla?!"
His mouth hung open as he glanced from his wife to his boss and back to his wife again. "Uh, is everyone okay in here?"
"Okay? Everything's fine here. What's your problem, Kent?"
Lois' expression grew from one of irritation at being interrupted to a look of concern. "Clark? Honey, is everything okay?"
Clark looked past her, over the rim of his glasses-- searching for any sort of bugs, cameras or listening devices. He didn't hear anything, but that wasn't definitive.
He came up empty.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he collapsed into one of Perry's office chairs. Lois' tone was that of concern. "Clark? Is everything all right? Answer me, honey."
"It... I'm fine. I thought maybe... but you're all... I don't know."
"Kent," Perry's drawl cut through the tense silence. "Is there something going on we should know about?"
Clark shook his head. "I... I just got a weird phone call, somebody saying they were out to get me."
"You?" Lois asked suspiciously, Clark being the only one who picked up on her underlying message.
"Yes, me. And I just had this gut feeling that whoever it might be, would go after you."
"Did you get a name, number...?"
He shook his head violently. "Nope. It was just an anonymous tip-- blocked number. He said someone was after me."
Clark looked shifty. Nervous. Lois furrowed her brow at her husband. They'd faced similar threats before. Why did this put him so on edge? "It was probably some stupid crank caller," she reassured him. "Nothing to be worried about."
Clark slowly shook his head. He wouldn't make eye contact with her. "Maybe. But this felt... different. More... ominous."
Lois looked at her boss to take point on this. Perry sighed and rounded his desk. "Clark, if you think it's really something serious, then someone will contact you again. Go see if you can find anything out. Maybe talk to the police, or Superman. Or go home and make sure your place is okay. We'll keep an eye on your phone for you here. If anyone suspicious comes in, you'll be the first to know about it. Got it?"
Clark thought about it rationally. There were more people here. There were more people on the streets outside. More people meant more risk.
There shouldn't be anyone at their house.
"All right," he conceded eventually. "But could Lois come with me?"
"Clark, I've got stuff to do here. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine with Jimmy and Perry. You just go."
Clark glanced at his two friends warily.
"Don't trust them."Clark snapped his gaze to his wife. She didn't just say that, did she? Her expression of confusion said that she hadn't. But why would he think that? Perry and Jimmy were his friends. He could trust them. He would trust them. He had to. He did.
And yet the seed of doubt was there.
"I can't let her stay here."
Lois arched a brow. "You can't let me? You want to revise that statement?"
"I just... I can't protect you if you're here."
"Clark, just how much protecting do you plan on doing? Besides, I'm practically dangling over the jaws of death every other day-- this is nothing new for me. And even if I did just drop everything and run home with you right now-- what are we going to do with all this spare time at home alone?"
Clark flushed with heat at the implications and Jimmy burst out with laughter. Perry scowled and crossed his arms. "Am I missing something here?"
"No," Clark responded tersely. "I'm getting out of here."
Lois shot him an all too innocent smile, and Jimmy laughed him all the way out of the bullpen.
Sometimes, he hated that Lois always won.
