My sincere apologies for such a long delay. I'll try to get to the last few threads of FDK when I get a chance, but I thought getting this up was more important. Enjoy.
CH 7
Lois awoke the next day feeling more rested then she had in days. The talk with Superman had gone a long way in putting to rest her fear of losing Clark. She knew Clark had tried repeatedly to convince her that she shouldn’t worry, but it was Superman’s reassurance that finally penetrated her subconscious. As a result, Linda King was delightfully absent in her dreams.
Lois quickly got dressed and ready for work. She had meant to review her notes and prep for her meeting with Hager the night before, but her irritation at running into her rival at what was supposed to be a relaxing evening had thrown her off. Instead, she spent the hour after the limo had dropped her off, eating triple chocolate brownie ice cream. Her mind had been unable to focus on anything but the events of that night. Mostly it was the irritation she felt towards Linda for not only being there and bringing Clark along to flaunt, but then to top it off, she had the nerve to try to get an interview with her date.
After the ice cream hadn’t helped to clear her mind, she went for a drive. When she ended up at Dr. Goldberg’s office, she had decided she’d better change out the tape. She knew Clark had said he would do it, but also knew that Linda would try to keep him in her grasp for as long as possible. Lois had been right. It had been midnight and he still hadn’t shown, nor, she assumed, had he called her as he had promised.
Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, Lois exited the elevator. She was in the office earlier than usual and found the office just beginning to come to life. After grabbing a fresh cup of coffee, she headed to her desk, set her briefcase down, and got right to work. She had last night’s prep work to catch up on before her appointment.
***
Clark walked into the lobby of the Star and picked up the latest edition. ‘“Orani Jewel Heist Thwarted” by Linda King and Clark Kent’ was emblazoned across the front. Clark could only hope that Lois didn’t see this and regress. He thought Superman had finally gotten through to her during their talk on the roof, but with Lois, he wasn’t always sure. Where was all this jealousy coming from? He and Lois had worked together for the better part of a year. They had been there for each other through trying times. She was there for him when he lost his memory, and he was there for her when Barbara Trevino was trying to kill her. Wasn’t that enough to prove how much they meant to each other? How could this one woman bring out so many of Lois’s insecurities?
Clark was still lost in thought when Linda quietly came up behind him.
“Hey, enjoying our article?” she said cheerfully as she peered over his shoulder to have a look at their byline.
Her presence and close proximity to him snapped him out of his thoughts. “What? Oh yeah, the article. It came out nice.” He set the paper back on the stand and turned to face her.
“Ready to do it again?”
“Sure. What’s on the agenda?” he asked, wondering where Superman would be needed next.
“Carpenter assigned us to cover the arraignment of Leo Lucchesi.”
Clark wrinkled his nose trying to remember why that name sounded familiar. “The guy caught running that illegal casino down by the docks?”
“That’s the guy. He’s also being charged with racketeering.”
“What time’s the hearing?” he asked.
“Ten-thirty. I had never heard of the guy until yesterday, so I had research pull up what they had on the story and I put some notes together. Would you like to borrow them?”
“Sure.” Clark followed Linda up the stairs to her desk. She handed him the short stack of data on Leo Lucchesi along with her notes, which he took back to his desk.
At a quarter to ten, Linda and Clark left for the courthouse. While they sat next to each other in the back of the courtroom with the rest of the reporters, Clark surreptitiously scanned the building. He wasn’t sure if anything would happen while they were at the courthouse, but if his hunch about Linda’s assignments were right, he didn’t want to be surprised if something did go wrong.
*******
When a crick began to form in her neck, Lois looked up from her notes. The clock read ten-thirty. No wonder her neck hurt, she had been starring at her notes for nearly three hours straight. Lois rolled her neck around a few times, trying to loosen the tight muscles. She finished when her phone rang.
“Lois Lane,” she answered.
“Ms. Lane, this is Dr. Zeigler. Mr. Kent asked me to contact you with the results.”
“Ah, yes,” she said, surprised. “You have them already? That was fast. Clark said it would take a few days.”
“Well, I stayed late and ran some preliminary tests last night, a basic blood test or a biopsy test depending on the sample. They don’t take very long. There’s not much, but I can tell you that all the samples are from relatively healthy males. I can send copies of the preliminary blood work and pathology reports when I’m done, which should be sometime this evening.”
“Lois,” bellowed Perry as he exited his office in search of his star reporter.
“Thank you, Doctor. I’ll come by later this evening and pick up reports.” Lois hung up the phone after hearing the doctor’s ’See you then’ response and turned her attention to her barking editor.
“Lois, shootout on Third and Washington; I need you there yesterday. Take a photographer,” ordered Perry.
Lois quickly shoved her notebook and a pen in her briefcase before slinging it on her shoulder. “On it, Chief.” She headed up the ramp towards the elevator where she spotted Jimmy coming around the corner cleaning his camera lens. She grabbed his arm and dragged him along with her into the elevator.
“Lois, where are we going?” asked Jimmy once they were inside.
“Shootout. Perry wants pictures, so get your camera ready.”
“Okay.”
They arrived as Superman was handing over the last shooter. Jimmy started snapping pictures right away, knowing that a good one could land him on the front page.
Lois approached Superman in hopes to get a quick interview. “Superman!” she yelled, but it was too late; he had already taken to the sky.
She walked over to the officers who had just finished loading the shooters into a police car to get their account and a few quotes for her article. To her, it sounded like a basic Superman rescue. When the shooting started, one person had gotten hit, but it was a non-life threatening hit to a leg. Superman had then appeared and diverted the rest of the bullets away before disarming the perpetrators and tying them together with a metal signpost. When the police arrived, he had removed the post and handed them over.
“Jimmy, I’m done here. How are the pictures coming?”
“I still have some more I want to take.” Jimmy set his camera down to load another roll of film.
“Okay. I’ve going to grab lunch, and then I have that interview. When you get back to the Planet can you start working on these pictures and tell Perry I’ll get him the story by the end of the day?”
“Okay, Lois. I’ll see you back at the Planet.”
“Thanks, Jimmy.”
***********
“Do you smell smoke?” Clark whispered to Linda. He had smelled burning electrical wires during the reading of the defendant’s rights. Initially, he had dismissed it as a faulty light bulb, but now as the charges were being read, the smell had changed to include organic material.
Linda took a deep sniff. “Maybe.”
“I’m going to call the fire department.” Before Linda could respond, Clark dashed out of the courtroom and into the closest vacant restroom. When he returned as Superman, smoke was starting to seep around the door from the judge’s chambers and into the courtroom.
“Superman!” gasped the Judge, beginning to choke on the fumes.
“Everyone stay calm and please exit through the back of the courtroom,” Superman called to the crowd. “The fire is isolated to the one room.”
Clark waited for the judge, lawyers, defendant, and guards to move to the rear of the room before opening the door and blowing out the fire with some frosty breath. X-raying the walls next, Clark traced the electrical wires to make sure the fire wasn’t still burning in the walls. The fire had melted the insulating shielding of one electrical line coming from an outlet, but the wires jacket was still intact with a burn mark running the length of the melted shielding. The outlet itself was badly burned as well as the light attached.
Superman walked over to the judge who was standing at the back of the courtroom still waiting to exit. “Your honor, the fire’s out. I’m sorry, but it looks like you may have lost a bookcase and most of its contents. It appears that an electrical fire caught a lamp and table on fire. It then spread to the bookcase next to it. Everything else in the room seems to have some smoke and now freeze damage, but most of the items should be salvageable. Luckily, I was nearby or the damage might have been much worse.”
“Thank you, Superman,” said the judge.
“Superman,” Linda called out, making her way towards Superman.
“Miss King.” Superman addressed her.
Linda flipped her notepad open and withdrew a pen from its binding. “How was it you were able to respond so quickly?”
“As I just told Judge Walker, I was nearby and could smell it.”
“I guess we’re lucky then. All those books and furniture would go a long way in fueling that fire. It eventually could have set the whole courtroom on fire.”
“Quite possible. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” The crowd parted as Superman made his way to the exit. Once outside the courtroom, he quickly took to the sky and did a once over of the courthouse to make sure there were no more potential fire hazards. After finding none, he landed on the roof, spun back into his business suit, and headed down the stairs. As Superman, he had overheard people calling 911 so there was no need for him to place a call.
Upon reentering the courthouse, Clark surveyed the crowd and found Linda. “I guess those fireman can take their time.”
“Clark, you missed it. Superman swooped in and put out the fire.”
“Oh, really? Was there any damage?” he said to quickly change the subject.
“Minor. The judge’s chambers will need some repairs, but nothing major. The judge also postponed the arraignment until tomorrow.”
“So I guess I know where we’ll be tomorrow then.”
Linda smirked and patted his arm. “Yep, I think I got all we need to write this story up. You ready?”
“Sure, but this is your story.”
“Clark, we’re partners, this is our story. Besides, you smelled the smoke first and put everyone on alert when you ran off to call the fire department. I’d say you played a role in the story.”
“Thank you,” he conceded.
*******
After grabbing a quick lunch that included a pastrami on rye sandwich with extra pickles, Lois headed to the address of Gage Hager, located in the suburbs on the north side of town. She arrived at 3184 Pine Valley Road a few minutes early and surveyed the house in front of her. It was small, but cute; light yellow siding with a red brick fascia around the covered porch, white shutters and white trim around the windows. Everything Lois pictured for a house built in the 1950’s.
She walked up the porch to the front door and rang the bell.
A middle-aged woman with graying hair answered the door. “Miss Lane?”
“Yes. Hello”
“Hi, I’m Mrs. Hager, Gage’s mom. Won’t you come in?”
Lois stepped into the entryway. “Thank you, Mrs. Hager, for inviting me.”
“Please follow me.” Mrs. Hager led Lois into a modest-sized living room and had her take a seat on one of the sofas. “Gage will be right out.”
Lois looked around the room while she waited. There was a fireplace to her left. On the mantel sat family pictures, two boys and a girl. She wasn’t sure which one was Gage. Across from her sat a TV with a VCR on top of it. A substantial movie collection was shelved next to the TV. While the outside had the 50’s look, the inside had been remodeled, but not in the last twenty years from what she guessed. The floor had reddish-brown shag carpet, and the curtains hung an inch off the ground and were thick and flowery; the pattern closely mimicked by the sofas.
“Miss Lane?” Gage greeted her.
Lois looked up at the boy who just entered the room. He was taller than she expected. She guessed 6’ 3” and about 220 lbs, with sandy blond hair that was just beginning to hang over his eyes. Lois stood and shook his hand before taking a seat back on the sofa. Gage sat in the loveseat next to the sofa.
“Mr. Hager,” Lois began. She opened up her notepad, taking a pen out of the spine to begin taking notes.
“Gage,” he corrected her.
“Gage. Thank you for letting me speak with you.”
“It’s no problem. The guy on the phone said you wanted to ask me some questions about the treatment I got from Dr. Goldberg.”
“Yes.” Lois readjusted herself on the couch, crossing her legs to get more comfortable. “I’m doing an article on how his treatments are benefitting the athletes not just at Met. U., but in all of New Troy. They seem to be ahead of their time. From what I read in ‘Scientific Medicine’, your recovery was remarkable.”
“The treatment I got was great. I thought my season was over. Dr. Goldberg told me that if I followed everything he told me to do, I would be back out on the field in no time, and it worked. I managed to finish out the season. Guess it was all for nothin’ now.”
“Why do you say that?” Lois asked.
“Cause it’s all over. Football, school, all that rehab to get back out and play. I’ll never play again,” he said dejectedly.
“I’m not following. Was there a complication from the rehab treatment you received from Dr. Goldberg?”
“No, nothing from that. The treatment worked great. I never felt better,” Gage reassured her. “My leg healed and it’s better than before. I felt stronger, faster; it was all going so well. Basketball season was just around the corner. I had never cared much about basketball before, it was just something I did to keep in shape for track, but this year, I couldn’t wait to get out there and see what I could do.”
“So what happened?” she probed.
“I started havin’ this weird skin problem near the end of the season. I didn’t think much of it at the time but by Christmas, it had gotten much worse. A month later, I was diagnosed with a rapidly progressing rare autoimmune disorder. He called it Scleroderma. I’d never heard of it, but it fit the symptoms.”
Lois made sure to write down Scleroderma. She wasn’t sure it was important, but it was worth looking into later. “Who made the diagnosis?”
“Dr. Goldberg was the first to suggest it. I’ve seen a few other specialists since then and, while they don’t quite agree with his diagnosis, they don’t have anything better to suggest. It’s like my body is attacking my own cells and killing them for no reason.”
Lois took a long look over at Gage, trying to see any physical sign of his disease. Unfortunately, he had on a grey sweatshirt and sweatpants, covering most of his skin and hiding any sign of the disease. “Is it treatable?” she asked.
“Some of it, maybe, depends on where in my body it manifests. There’s no cure though,” Gage said evermore despondent.
“Is it painful?” she asked hesitantly.
“Sometimes,” he briefly pulled back his right sleeve to reveal a grey blotchy area on his forearm. “The doc gave me meds for it, but I try not to take them. It’s mostly my skin right now that’s showing the symptoms, but if it spreads to my organs or anything like that, that’s when the pain is suppose to increase.”
“I’m sorry.”
Gage stood up and walked over to the pictures on the mantel, picking one up and studying it intensely. “It is what it is. Not much any of us can do about it.”
Lois guessed the picture Gage had picked up was one of himself as a kid. She felt sorry for him. He had gone from the high of optimism about his future to being diagnosed with a terminal condition in a matter of months. She needed to change the subject back around before she lost him. “Are you still going to school?”
“No,” he put the picture back in its place and sat back on the sofa. “I started winter term but with all the medical appointments I have to go to, I ended up dropping out and moved back here with my parents.”
“Do you still see Dr. Goldberg for treatment?”
“Every other week. He’s not my primary physician, but I think he does the most thorough job at monitoring me. He’s really been great at keeping me motivated. I hope he doesn’t feel that I’ve been a waste of time now that I’m sick. Most of the treatment was free as long as I participated in his study.”
Lois jotted down ‘free study’ on the paper and hoped he would elaborate on this. “How did you get in touch with Dr. Goldberg?”
“While I was at the hospital, he visited me and asked me if I wanted to participate in a new program he was working on after my surgery. He had five other kids from Met. U. as references. I didn’t know them, but he gave me their numbers. I called Dillon that day and he just raved about his treatment. After talking with my mom, we decided to give it a try.”
“Can you tell me anything about the treatment?” Lois asked directly.
“Sorry, Miss Lane. I don’t think Dr. Goldberg is ready for his methods to be published. You’ll have to talk to him directly if you want specifics.”
Damn. “I understand. How much longer does the doctor want to keep seeing you as a patient?”
“I’m not sure. Like I said before, I go in biweekly and he runs the same tests. I get the results back a few days later. He hasn’t said anything yet about stopping.”
“Well, thank you for your time, Gage.” Lois stood up and shook his hand. She knew the interview had run its course and she wasn’t going to get any more details on Dr. Goldberg from Gage. “I know it’s a long shot, but I hope they find a way to treat you.”
“Thanks, Miss Lane.”
Gage walked her to the door and saw her out.
*******
Clark was nervous as he approached Lois’s apartment door. Last night hadn’t gone as planned. He had promised Lois he would call her and they would get together after work to go over Dr. Goldberg’s notebook. None of that actually had happened. Instead, he wound up going to a black tie charity event at Lex Towers with Linda where he ran in to Lois, who happened to be at the same charity event on a date with Luthor.
At first, he had been shocked to see her there. The shock quickly dissipated and was replaced by a gut-wrenching knot in his stomach when he saw her out on the dance floor in Luthor’s arms. She was wearing an elegant burgundy dress that he hadn’t seen before. Had she bought it for Luthor? he wondered. Its most striking feature, other than how amazing she looked in that color, was how it showed off the long expanse of her back, covered only in one place by a small piece of fabric in the middle. If she only knew what seeing her in that dress did to him.
As he had watched her dance with Luthor, the tension in his stomach tightened even more. Clark had only recently felt pain for the first time as an adult. He knew that although watching Lois in Luthor’s arms wasn’t actually going to kill him, at that moment he had felt like it would, especially when he saw Luthor’s left hand sprawled out on that bare spot low on her back. Luthor had then pulled her in close to him to whisper in her ear. Clark had needed to restrain himself from turning on his super hearing at this point, telling himself that he really didn’t want to know what Luthor was saying. Though, Clark did briefly debate blowing his cover to cut in and get a dance with her, as he had done at the White Orchid Ball, to reclaim that spot on the small of her back that his hand liked to inhabit. He had been relieved when Lois pulled back, and Luthor removed his hand from her. Yet, when Clark had overheard their conversation about how Lois didn’t need a partner, right before the cry for Superman rang out, the knot returned, tightening more than ever.
He knew Luthor was attracted to Lois and wasn’t shy about showing her affection. Just over a month ago, Clark had unfortunately witnessed how Luthor had been accustomed to greeting her, and how comfortable she seemed to be with his actions. They had met Luthor out on his balcony where the man had been shooting clay pigeons. Luthor had walked over to Lois and placed his hands on her arms, rubbing them before leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek. He had then moved his right hand to her back and escorted her inside. Clark had heard Lois’s pulse speed up from Luthor’s kiss. It wasn’t as much as when she kissed Superman, or even when Superman entered the room. Still, it was enough to make Clark feel uneasy.
Clark had been thankful when Lois left the charity event, although he did have to bear witness of another kiss from Luthor, this time on the lips, before she entered the limo. It had been short and over before Clark had realized Luthor’s intentions, leaving him no time to turn off his x-ray vision. He spent the rest of that evening sticking close to Linda, x-raying around the room for anything suspicious, but never finding anything.
When he had landed on the roof of Dr. Goldberg’s office, he was again surprised to find Lois there. He hoped that he hadn’t gotten himself, Clark, into too much trouble, showing up as Superman instead of himself, to switch the tape. Of course, he hadn’t thought he would find her there already doing it, but knowing Lois as well as he did, he should have expected it. After flying Lois to her car, he thought about their talk and felt good about the way the conversation had ended. He would have to trust that there were no lingering repercussions.
Shaking himself out of his reverie, Clark knocked softly on her door. “Hey,” he said cautiously when she opened the door.
“Hi, Clark,” she replied, equally tentative in her response.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call before coming over. I was hoping you were free tonight, so we can go over the stuff on Dr. Goldberg.”
“Sure. Come on in.” Lois stepped back to allow him to enter.
Clark removed his left hand, which had been hiding behind his back, and held up a plastic bag. “I brought Thai.”
Lois smiled. “Well, get in here. I’m starving.”
Clark set the food down on the island in her kitchen. He wanted to talk to Lois about last night, but wasn’t sure how to bring it up having already addressed the issue last night as Superman.
Lois went to grab plates out of her cupboard, but a pair of gentle hands placed on hers stopped her. They both looked down at their hands. Lois surprised Clark when she didn’t pull away, causing a shiver to run down his spine.
Keeping his hands in place, he looked into her eyes and waited for her to do the same. “Lois, I’m sorry about last night. I was planning on calling, but it was after midnight before I got home. I didn’t want to wake you.”
Lois pulled her hands away and reached back up to open her cupboard. “Clark, there’s no reason to apologize. You had to work.”
“Lois, I wasn’t really working.”
“So you’re saying it was a date?” she asked flatly.
“No,” he backpedaled quickly.
“Clark,” she cut him off before he could start his explanation of last night’s events. “Really, you don’t need to do this. Superman told me everything.”
“Oh. He did?” Clark asked with relief.
“Let’s just eat, and then get to work.”
Clark was skeptical about what she was saying verses what she was actually thinking, but was willing to let it drop for now. “Sounds good.”
He went back over to the bag a food and moved it to the table, unloading the to-go containers, chopsticks, and various packets of sauce. Lois joined him with plates and two glasses of water. Clark allowed Lois to go first and pick out all her favorites before filling his own plate.
“So, Lois, how was your day?” Clark asked, breaking the silence.
“It was fine. I had to finish prepping for my interview this afternoon, and then at about 10:30 I was sent to cover a Superman rescue.”
“Really?” He got a puzzled look on his face. “I didn’t see you there?”
“You were there?” she asked, surprised that she hadn’t seen him.
“Yeah, Linda got a quote from Superman for it. We wrote up the article this afternoon.”
“Really?” Lois chose to dismiss his ‘We wrote up the article’ statement. Linda had no place in their conversation. “I didn’t see either of you there. I wasn’t there for long. I arrived just as Superman was flying away. I got a statement from a police officer and then left for my interview.”
“Was it with one of the kids from the magazine?”
“Yeah, Gage Hager. I haven’t heard back yet from Dillon Lagner and Ramirez already declined an interview. Jimmy’s working on Ramirez’s address, just in case we need to find him.”
“So, how’d that go?” asked Clark.
“It was…interesting,” Lois said contemplatively.
“Interesting? Did he say much about his treatment?”
“No details, just that the treatment was going great. He was back on the football field and looking forward to basketball season next. Just a normal kid being optimistic about his athletic future.”
“But?” he inquired.
“But he’s now completely dropped out of school and moved back home.”
“What? Why?” asked Clark in shock.
“In January, he was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder. Scleroderma, I think is what he called it.”
Clark wrinkled his nose and shook his head as he ran through the cache of medical terms he knew. “Never heard of it.”
“I hadn’t either, and I didn’t get a chance to look into it yet; I was planning on doing that tonight. After the interview, I only had time to write up my Superman article, and pick up the preliminary report from Dr. Zeigler’s office.”
“It was done already?” asked Clark, surprised at such a quick turnaround from the doctor.
“No, this was just some very basic lab work he did on the samples. Zeigler said it would still be a little while on any more definitive data.”
“So, it sounds like we have a busy night ahead of us?”
“I hope your schedule’s free.”
Clark flashed his megawatt smile. “For you, it is.”
“Good. Let’s finish up dinner, and then get to work.”
*** End of Chapter 7 ***
