Lois Lane threw her briefcase onto her desk with a heavy sigh. It had been another sleepless night, phoning all the contacts on her Rolodex just trying to find someone who could give her information that wasn't classified.
She sat down, her head in her hands, trying not to fall apart. It had been two weeks since her father had gone M.I.A while inspecting the troops in Afghanistan and no one would tell her a damn thing. Why her father had felt the need to go into a warzone in the first place was beyond her.
A gentle tapping on the top of her desk had her looking up.
"You look like crap, Lane," Perry said.
"I was up all night trying to find someone who could tell me what the hell's going on over there."
Her editor-in-chief was sympathetic, but there was little even he could do.
"Why don't you take a couple of days off?" he asked kindly.
"I can't, Perry. You know I can't. I have that story on Intergang I'm still chasing."
"You're no good to us like this."
"I need to keep busy," she told him. Otherwise, she would go crazy, she thought. Working helped keep her mind off the thought that her father might be lying somewhere in the desert, injured, unable to get help.
Okay, quit it, Lane, she mentally berated herself. She had been imagining the worst for close on two weeks, ever since the general's aide-de-camp had called and told her he was missing.
She had racked her brains trying to think of anything but the worst case scenario. She had called everyone she could think of, asking them if there were any reports of any insurgents in the area, but none of them could come up with the goods.
The sound of a deep voice had her looking up and she tried to put on a brave face.
"Mr Luthor," she said, for the benefit of the other reporters outside her office.
Lex Luthor smiled at her, then reached out, taking her arm.
"I've been speaking with Perry," he said. "If I may have a few moments of your time."
"Of course," she said.
She accompanied the bald billionaire out and down to the street. He started to lead her to a black limousine.
"Lex, I have a lot of work to do," she began in protest.
"Lois, you're exhausted," he admonished her gently.
She shook her head. "I'm fine."
"At least let me buy you a cup of coffee," he said, indicating a coffee shop a short distance away. Lois sighed, but went with him.
"Is there no news?" he asked solicitously as they sat down in the coffee shop.
"No," she sighed. "I've tried everyone I can think of but the brass won't budge."
"I can give Congressman Leonard a call. He has some pull with the military."
"Thank you, Lex, but I doubt even Congressman Leonard can get it out of them."
"I would still like to offer my assistance."
"And I appreciate it, but I don't know how much good it will do."
Lois had met the young billionaire through her cousin, Chloe, who had known the man in Smallville. While they hadn't been close friends or anything, Lex had taken a peculiar interest in Chloe's stories on people who she claimed were infected by meteors which had hit the town more than twenty years ago.
Lois had found the man to be charming, although part of her wondered if it was just an act. She had learned through several sources that Luthorcorp was involved in some kind of experimental project involving the green meteor rock, but she was yet to find proof. She often wondered if Lex was only allowing the relationship to continue to keep her from investigating him, but it only made her more determined.
Chloe had often suggested that Lex was one of the many who had been changed by the meteors, since he had been exposed at the time of the meteor shower. He'd once claimed that his so-called mutation had helped him when he had almost drowned after running his car off Loeb Bridge. A truck driver had pulled him out of the water, performing CPR.
"Lois, don't worry. I can contact a dozen people who will work day and night to determine what has happened to your father."
"I can't ask you to do that, Lex," she said. "I could never pay you back."
"It's not about the money, Lois. I thought we were friends."
"We are," she said, "but I still can't ask."
"You're not asking, I'm offering."
She knew what he was doing. There was no denying that he was attracted to her, but she felt nothing for him. She'd tried. God knew, she'd tried, but no man had ever stirred her emotions.
Lex left soon after, promising to call her as soon as he had something to report, while Lois went back to her office. She stopped in the doorway, staring at the beautiful bouquet of yellow tulips. She glanced around, wondering who could have given her the flowers. It was not an elaborate bouquet, so it couldn't have been Lex. She wasn't even sure tulips were in bloom around Metropolis.
Still, someone had sent them.
She picked up the bouquet, sniffing the delicate fragrance. A card fell out of the gold paper used to wrap the bouquet and she picked it up.
There was no signature. All it said was: From A Friend.
It was a mystery, and one she was determined to solve.
Lois left her office and grabbed Jeff, the intern.
"Jeff, did you see who left the flowers?"
He looked almost terrified as he stared at her.
"Flowers, what flowers?"
Well, that answered that, she thought. She grabbed another reporter, asking them the same thing. No one in the office seemed to know.
Lois spent half the afternoon trying to find out who the 'friend' was but the more people she asked, the more annoyed they seemed to be. Perry finally came down to her office.
"Lane, what in the name of ..."
She looked up at her boss. "Perry, someone sent me flowers and I have no idea who."
"And this is worth creating a ruckus in the entire office? Have you ever thought of actually asking the florist?" he said, handing her the card.
Lois stared at him, then down at the card, almost smacking herself in the head. Of course, she thought. She was an idiot!
A cold southeasterly was blowing as she left the office just after six and made her way to the florist, looking at the card to make sure she had the right address. It just said Potter's Florist. She snorted, thinking with that name the owner might have come up with something a little more imaginative.
The bell above the door announced her arrival as she stepped inside. The shop was open until eight, but it looked empty. A middle-aged brunette stood at the counter, sorting through some flowers. She was conservatively dressed, wrapped up warmly against the cold, although the shop wasn't that cold.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"Um, someone sent me flowers but I don't know who they were. I wondered if you could tell me."
"Of course. I have a ledger I keep all my deliveries in. May I have your name?"
"It's Lois. Lois Lane. I work at the Daily Planet."
The woman frowned. "Well, I don't recall any deliveries to the Daily Planet today, but I'll look it up."
She opened a large volume on the side of the counter, rifling through the pages. She turned back to her, frowning.
"I don't see any delivery on my books for a Lois Lane or the Daily Planet," she said. "Are you sure they were for you?"
Lois handed her the card. It had been addressed to her so there was definitely no mistake.
"Well, it is a mystery," the woman said.
"I just don't understand who would send me flowers anonymously. Maybe, uh, maybe the owner ..."
"I'm the owner dear," she said.
"Well, maybe one of your employees ..."
"I only have one employee, and I doubt he would know. I'm very sorry. What kind of arrangement was it?"
"Tulips. Yellow ones."
The woman's face took on a strange look. Lois wondered if she did know who the gift had come from after all.
"Well, tulips are an uncomplicated flower. I do remember that arrangement," she said finally, "but it was paid for in cash. We do have blank cards: perhaps they wrote it themselves."
Lois sighed. The woman was clearly trying to be helpful but it wasn't telling her what she needed to know.
"You don't remember the buyer?"
"All I can tell you is it was a young man. He wanted to drop them off personally."
Lois frowned. Surely security would have stopped him. Ever since Lex had taken over as publisher, security had been beefed up so no one could get in without a visitor's pass at least.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you," the woman said.
"I'm sorry too," Lois said softly.
"If you don't mind my saying, you don't look well. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I'm just ... it's just ... well, I've been having a bit of a rough time lately and when I got to my office and saw the flowers, it was just ... I mean, it had me wondering who would just give me flowers like that. See, there's this man I've sort of been seeing. I mean, it's not really like that. We're friends, I guess, even though he's sort of my boss, and I know he wants more, but ... I just knew he wouldn't give me yellow tulips. He's more of a roses kind of guy."
"Perhaps the young man knew you were having a rough time," the shop owner said.
"That's just it. I don't have that many male friends. Actually, I don't have that many friends, period. I mean, my cousin Chloe, she's like my best friend and she's pretty much the only person I really talk to. Maybe if you gave me a description ..."
"I'm sorry. I really would love to help but perhaps the man who did this wanted to keep his identity a secret for a reason."
"But why would someone do that?" Lois argued. "I mean, buy flowers for a complete stranger?"
"It has been known to happen."
The cynic in her thought that was just asking for trouble. No one did anything for free these days. She should know, since she spent her time at work covering the aftermath of such incidents. Either the man was a hospital case or he was a stalker. That had to be it, she told herself.
The bell rang and a man came in. Lois turned to glance at him and did a double take. He was tall and broad-shouldered with what seemed to be a very impressive chest. He had clearly been out in the snow as his dark, wavy hair was covered in flakes. She studied his handsome face, slightly hidden by the heavy black frames of the spectacles he wore.
"Nell, I've finished with the deliveries ..."
He stopped mid-sentence, staring back at her, his expression very much resembling a deer caught in the headlights look. Lois was suddenly filled with a sense of certainty that this man not only knew about the flowers, but was very likely the one who had sent them.
"Clark," Nell said. "This is Lois Lane. From the Daily Planet. Miss Lane, this is my foster son, Clark. He works with me."
"Hello," she said cautiously.
"Um, hi," he said, blushing furiously.
There was utter silence in the shop as they stared at each other. Lois gathered her wits about her and looked at the older woman, who was smiling broadly. It was hard to tell whether the look on her face meant she knew exactly what Clark had done but Lois was fairly sure the woman knew at least the partial truth.
"I should go," she said. "I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time."
"Nonsense," Nell replied. "You're welcome to visit any time, Miss Lane."
Again, Clark seemed to blush as he looked at her. Lois went to move past him to get to the door. The shop was fairly small and he took up a lot of room.
"Uh, 'bye Clark," she said.
"'Bye, Miss Lane," he answered.
She returned to the office but only long enough to pick up the bouquet of flowers and head home. She took a frozen dinner of macaroni and cheese out and put it in the microwave to heat up, opening up her laptop.
"Tulips," she said aloud, checking the search engine.
Nell had said they were an uncomplicated flower. According to one site, a yellow tulip was meant to convey cheerful thoughts and sunshine. Lois frowned as she read. It seemed to her that Clark had wanted to cheer her up, but how had he known she was sad?
The microwave beeped and she took out the meal, grimacing at the gluggy mess. She grabbed a fork and picked at it, then decided to toss the lot in the trash. Sighing, she picked up her coat from the chair where she'd draped it earlier and grabbed her keys. It looked like she'd be eating takeout again tonight, she thought.
Lois was a hopeless cook. She supposed it stemmed from the years of living on army bases with her father. Her mother had been diagnosed with cancer when Lois was six and had died about two months after the diagnosis. Her father, ever the soldier, had done his best to cope with both his daughters but the then Colonel Sam Lane had spent far too much time on the field in battle to learn anything about the domestic side which Ella had been responsible for. What he knew about cooking and housework could be written on the head of a pin. Lois, and her sister Lucy, had been stuck with the food from the Mess.
She walked along the sidewalk, careful to avoid the slippery ice. A truck had been through earlier to lay down salt after the new snowfall but there were still parts of the sidewalk the salt hadn't been scattered. Just as she passed an alleyway to cross over to the Chinese restaurant where she normally bought dinner, she felt a hand on her arm.
What happened next was almost a blur. She felt herself pushed out into the street, throwing up her arm to defend herself even as she saw the headlights coming toward her. No sooner had she done so then she was on her feet again and a man was laying on the ground beside her, appearing to be stunned.
She started to bend down to check on the man and he disappeared before her eyes. Startled, she looked around for the man but didn't see him. She frowned. How could a man be there one second and gone the next? Especially if he was unconscious.
She shook her head, deciding it wasn't worth worrying about, then started to walk across the street. She noticed a dark shape lying on the road and bent over for a closer look, alarmed to discover it was a gun.
Lois took her phone out of her bag and dialled a number.
"Perry? Lane. I think I was just saved from a mugging by Metropolis' very own Guardian."
