CH 3
Up in the newsroom, Clark filled Lois in on what he had learned during his visit to STAR Labs that morning. Also waiting on his desk was a package that had arrived while they were out covering the fire.
“What’s in the box?” asked Lois.
“I don’t know. STAR Labs said they would send over whatever they thought we needed for extracting and storing samples from the doctor’s office,” Clark replied. “Let’s open it and find out.”
“I hope it’s not a lot of pieces. We’ve got to take a camera and page scanner with us as well. I hadn’t planned on bringing a duffle bag with us.” Lois was only half joking.
Clark opened the box. Inside he found a sheet of labels, dropper pipettes, micropipettes, nitrite gloves, sterile wipes, and an insulated box containing nine hermetically sealed test tubes. Also included was a handwritten note by Dr. Zeigler, the senior microbiologist on staff, whom Clark had talked to that morning. Dr. Zeigler had explained how to extract the samples, label, and store them. He noted that the samples would only last two hours without refrigeration, if stored in the box, making time a factor.
“I don’t think I’ve seen most of this stuff since high school,” said Lois as she picked up and examined the contents.
“Me, either, but the instructions are pretty clear on what we need to do,” he said. “He put a big emphasis on labeling everything as well as we can and making sure we don’t cross contaminate samples.”
“Did Dr. Zeigler give you any timeframe on how long the samples would take to analyze?”
“He said he wouldn’t know until he started working on them. It depends on how good samples are that we get him and how complex they are to analyze,” Clark explained.
“Great,” Lois grumbled, not wanting to hear about anything that would delay breaking the story. She knew Perry needed something big to put on the front page to lure readers back, and this story seemed to be on that track, but it wasn’t going to happen today. “Oh, I almost forgot, Perry wants to know what we’ve been working on. I guess now is as good a time as any to fill him in. He’s not going to be happy that we’ve just started on this and are far from going to print.”
“There’s not much we can do about that at this point. Maybe we’ll get lucky and something else will come up today,” Clark said, trying to be optimistic to keep Lois from slipping back into the bad mood she had been in after having run into Linda King.
“Let’s hope so.”
Lois and Clark walked to Perry’s office and brought him up to speed on what they had suspected Dr. Goldberg of doing. The Chief was only mildly enthusiastic about the prospect of their story. He knew it would sell papers in the future, but he needed something solid for today. He even went as far as showing them the current layout for the next morning’s edition and how almost half of it was still blank. They exited his office and headed back to their desks. As of now, they had no leads on anything for tomorrow’s edition. They started to dig into all they could on Dr. Goldberg’s affairs and hoped that something breaking would come up that would make it into tomorrow’s paper.
Clark had just begun to pull up the doctor’s profile on the computer when he heard the sound of screeching tires and metal bodies colliding. “Ah, Lois, I just remembered I need to get a tux for tonight. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Why haven’t you bought one already?”
Clark just shrugged and smiled at her before heading to the stairs. It was a good thing she had never looked in his closet because it already did contain a tux, among other things.
Clark arrived back within an hour. The accident involving three vehicles had been easy to clear to get traffic flowing again, but there had been a minivan with four kids inside that had been sandwiched between the other two vehicles. Two of the kids had severe enough injuries that he had rushed them to the hospital. He would check up on them later.
“You’re back. Did you find a tux?” asked Lois.
“Yep, all set for tonight. And while I was out I ran into Superman clearing up a vehicle accident and got a quick interview before he flew two injured kids to the hospital.”
“Was Linda there?” Lois asked fervently.
Clark was hoping that she had gotten over tirade on Linda while he was gone, but apparently not. “I didn’t see her.”
“Great!” she exclaimed, then shooed him in the direction of his desk. “Go write up the story and get it to Perry. It’s not Pulitzer material, but at least it’s something. Any pictures?”
Clark shook his head no. “Sorry. I didn’t plan on needing a camera to pick up a tux.”
****************
“I can’t believe I actually agreed to go to that, that, lame excuse for a party. What a waste of two hours,” Lois said as she stormed through Clark’s front door, hastily removing her heels before descending his steps. “And did you have to dance with her so much and leave me just standing at the bar by myself?”
Clark walked in calmly and softly shut the door. “I only danced with her twice. If it bothered you so much you could have cut in. You know I like dancing with you,” he pleaded as he walked down his stairs and placed his tux jacket, bowtie, and cummerbund on the back of the couch.
“I’ll keep that in mind next time you’re out on the floor with some blonde trollop fawning all over you,” she spouted.
“Linda can’t be as bad as you say she is.”
“Ha!” Lois scoffed.
“It’s not like you’ve told me anything about how you know each other or whatever it was that went on between you guys,” Clark returned. “So far all she’s done is been professional with me and lucky with a few stories. I don’t see the problem.” It was the truth. Between both Linda and Lois, he had actually been told very little. All he knew was that they use to know each other and Lois accused her of some unseemly behaviors. There were no actual facts for him to understand Lois’s curtness towards Linda and jealousy at his interactions with her.
“Fine, I’m going to get out of this dress, and then I’ll fill you in on Linda.” Lois grabbed her bag that she had left in Clark’s apartment earlier and headed to his bathroom.
Clark took the break to change into his all black stakeout clothes as well. He had just finished hanging his tux in the closet when Lois reemerged.
“Lois, it’s past nine already. Why don’t we head over to the doctor’s office now and you can fill me in on Linda in the car? I’ll drive,” he suggested.
“You think I can’t focus on driving while giving you the dirt on your latest admirer?” scoffed Lois.
“I would just like to get there safely and in one piece.”
“Whatever. Let’s just go.”
************
Unlike the previous night, Lois’s silver Jeep was not barreling towards Dr. Goldberg’s office like a bat out of hell. Clark was at the wheel, trying to give Lois plenty of time to get her rant on Linda King out before they arrived. He wanted to be able to focus on the task of obtaining samples once they got there.
“So Linda King; what is the deal between you two?” Clark asked, not wanting to delay this talk any longer.
“Okay, this doesn’t leave this car. Promise?”
“Promise!”
Lois eyed him closely, but knew he was good with his promise. “Linda and I were best friends and roommates in college. We were very competitive. I know you won’t believe this, but there was a time when I had to be the best at everything.”
Clark kept his mouth shut and just nodded, keeping his focus on the road.
“Anyway, I was dating this guy Paul. He was and editor and a senior, and I had a really big crush on him. Things were happening, and I got this story about football players at our school that weren’t taking their own exams. I thought ‘this is it. This is the story that’s going to make him feel about me the way I feel about him.’”
“Did it?” he asked.
“No, it didn’t, because somehow Linda stole my story and wrote it under her own name. Of course, Paul fell for her and dumped me. Then she continued to please him in ways I won’t go into, other than she had no shame in dragging him into the dark room any time of day.”
Clark cringed at that thought. “So she stole a story and a guy, and you think she’s going to try and do it again?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“I’m not! I’m just trying to find out why her being here is so upsetting to you. I have no interest in her other than a professional manner,” Clark stated.
“So you say,” she said skeptically and diverted her attention out the passenger window.
Clark glanced over at her briefly and tried again to reassure her. “Lois, you’re my partner and my best friend. I’m not going to do anything to betray you. Trust me.”
Lois looked back at Clark after those words. He was glancing between her and the road. Trust me, she repeated in her head trying to assure herself that he was one of maybe two or three people she actually could. She then bowed her head, hiding from his eye contact at her apparent discomfort. “You know that’s not exactly easy for me,” she admitted quietly.
“I know. I’m just trying to find out why the Star has become so successful all of a sudden. It’s not like we’re doing anything different lately.” He refocused his attention back to the road. “Look, we’re almost there, so let’s just drop Linda for now and concentrate on this story. We’ve got some investigating to do. It’ll be fun,” Clark coaxed, knowing it was one of her favorite parts of her job and hoped that reminding her of what they were about to do would cheer her up.
“I guess you’re right,” Lois conceded. Sneaking in behind closed doors to discover and expose the real truth was what she lived for and there was no way Linda was getting anywhere near this story.
A minute later, they drove past the doctor’s office but, to their dismay, the lights were all on and he appeared to still be there. Clark pulled over into a dark parking lot the next street over.
“Well, do you want to wait or try again tomorrow?” asked Clark.
“I hate either of those options. Let’s go back up on the roof and see who’s in there. Hopefully we’ll see something so this trip out here won’t be a total waste of time.”
They left the Jeep in the parking lot and quietly made their way back onto the roof. Lois had been more prepared this time and had brought a travel size pack of wipes to thoroughly clean a spot on the glass skylight.
“It looks like he’s just going over files. I don’t see anyone else in there, nor does he have anything out on the tables,” Lois whispered.
Clark took a closer peek at what the doctor was doing using his telescopic vision and agreed with Lois’s assessment. “Do you still want to wait?”
“Let’s give it an hour.”
Lois and Clark both took a seat on the flat roof. The clearing in the glass was still visible from their location, but they were no longer intently peering down into the room below.
“Clark, I was wondering, why did you think I wasn’t ready for you to tell me about you’re adoption?”
Clark thought about the question for a minute before answering. “I don’t know if you’re going to like this answer but, honestly, I thought that you seemed comfortable with the idea that I am who you and everyone else thinks I am, a goodhearted farm boy from a small town. I didn’t want to disappoint you by changing that perception.”
“I guess I don’t quite understand. You are a farm boy who grew up in a small town. So small in fact, it’s ironically named Smallville.”
Clark gave a short chuckle, despite having heard this joke before. “Think of it this way, Lois. When we first started working together, you resented the fact that Perry teamed us up. It didn’t take too long though for you to get comfortable working with me, Mr. Greenjeans, and who you thought I was. You even said it yourself that you had me all figured out. I thought that being the person that you believed I was made it easier for you to accept me as a friend.”
“That’s ridiculous, Clark; being adopted doesn’t change who you are. You’re still Clark Kent.”
“But that’s just it, Lois, I’m not just this simple naive farm boy that I’ve let everyone think I am. You didn’t seem interested, at the time, in finding out what was under the surface. Just because I grew up in a great Middle America small town and I have two happily-married, caring, and supportive parents doesn’t mean my childhood was happy all the time. There were many instances growing up where I struggled with who I was, and why I had come to the Kent's the way I had. As a kid growing up, there were always so many questions and scenarios running through my overactive imagination. My folks could only reassure me that so much of the worst of what I believed wasn’t true. Now, to find out that some of it was true...” Clark shook his head not finishing the thought.
“Clark, just because your past isn’t so cut and dry, and you’re a little more complex from what I originally thought, doesn’t change anything. Maybe you’re right in that then I didn’t care to find out more about you, but now you’re my best friend. In fact, I actually think it’s better this way.”
Clark gave her a skeptical look before she continued.
“Look, you’re one of only a few people who I allow to see my softer side, to know the real Lois Lane not just Mad Dog Lane.” Lois smiled at him letting him know she knew about the nickname and was okay with it. “I think it’s great that I get to be one of only a few people to know there’s more to you than just good ol’ Clark.”
“Thank you, Lois. I guess I’ve spent so long convincing people that I’m just this easygoing, smiles all around guy, that I thought people might not be so easily accepting of me if wasn’t always like that.”
“Clark, sometimes I wonder what goes on in your head. Do you really think you’re so different from the rest of us?”
Clark was thankful he didn’t have a chance to answer her question as they were both distracted by a knock on the door down below. They both stood back up and walked over to the skylight. Another man was now talking with the doctor. He didn’t appear to be a patient as he had thinning grey hair and was in a short white lab coat. Clark pretended to be carefully observing the two men while he turned on his super hearing.
“How are the trials going?” asked the new arrival.
Dr. Goldberg replied, “So far these kids seem to be showing fewer side effects than the previous batch. Time between treatments has also significantly decreased and the improved healing time has remained constant.”
“Good. There are still more modifications to the procedure to be done, so we’re not quite ready for phase three. We would like to see an even greater decrease in healing time. Let’s hope that report on you in that magazine doesn’t draw any unnecessary attention. Our investor was not happy about that.”
“I’m not sure what I could have done about that,” admitted Dr. Goldberg. “Since we’ve started treating notable athletes and having such success, I’ve been getting more referrals and drawing more attention. I think press coverage will increase, but I will still try to keep it at a minimum.”
“You do that. Now, let’s look at those numbers.”
“Clark, who do you think that is? What do you think they’re talking about?” Lois asked, still keeping her voice soft as so not to attract the attention of the men in the room.
Clark had already turned off his super hearing when Lois asked him her question. “I have no idea, Lois,” he whispered in return. Even having overhead some of their conversation, Clark still couldn’t answer her questions. “It’s hard to get a clear picture of him, but we can take a few shots and see if any of them turn out.”
“You’ll probably just end up getting a close up of his hairline but give it a try.”
Clark took a few pictures from different angles at the other man below.
Lois stood back to give him room, but kept an eye down below. “It looks like they might be here for awhile, and since we can’t hear or see anything important, I’d say we call it a night. Maybe we should add a remote activated tape recorder and transmitter to the list of stuff to bring when we finally get in there. We can plant it out of sight and activate it when we’re here.”
Clark wanted to listen to more of the conversation below, but having Lois right next to him made it difficult. He didn’t think she would just sit there in silence, but couldn’t think of an excuse to keep them here. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll get Jimmy on finding one first thing tomorrow morning. For now, I think we should get off the roof and try to get one good frontal shot of our newcomer though another window.”
They left the roof and cased the house again but found that all the windows were sufficiently covered. Clark took a quick glance through the wall at the second man using his x-ray vision, but did not recognize him.
“You know, Lois, maybe we should wait in the Jeep a little while longer to see if we can get a shot of him leaving,” he urged, trying to get one last chance at overhearing something important.
“Normally, I’d be all for that Clark, but we only had a few hours of sleep last night and I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be awake tomorrow night in case we actually get in there.”
Clark took a look at Lois and realized that she did look tired. Her eyelids were beginning to droop and bags were forming underneath. The adrenaline rush she had been running on all day died when they found the doctor still there. He could go days on only a few hours of sleep, but he should have remembered that she couldn’t. “Your right, Lois. We both didn’t get much sleep. Let’s get out of here.”
Dismayed by the lack of progress for their story from that night’s stakeout, they returned to the Jeep and drove home.
***End of Part 3***
