Author's Note: I need to make a couple clarifications that I failed to do in the first couple chapters. This is an AU. Clark doesn't have any powers. He's not from Krypton, which means that he didn't have powers at one time and then lost them. He is, however, still adopted. And I'm trying to keep as much of his back story the same as possible. There are going to be deviations. One of them is coming up next chapter. And it's a big one.
Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the story. It was a suggestion by The Bloody Countess on DI.
Chapter 3: I Owe You One
three weeks later…
Lois moved frantically through her apartment, looking for the match to the shoe that was currently on her son's left foot. She took a brief glance at her watch and realized she roughly had about an hour to get DJ to daycare and get herself back to the Daily Planet before Perry got on her case for missing yet another staff meeting.
"Any luck, honey?" she yelled, hoping desperately that a look under the bed had been successful. She supposed that if it was absolutely necessary, she could call Clark and ask him to cover for her, but the last thing she wanted to do was put him in the position of making excuses for her. He did enough of that already.
DJ came running into the room, thankfully with two matching shoes on his feet. "Found it, Mom."
"Do I even want to know where it was?"
She quickly found that she was talking to herself, as DJ had already taken up the task of getting his lunch out of the refrigerator for the day. He seemed to have a sense that they were running behind, and for that, she was thankful. She grabbed her purse and briefcase, and took DJ's hand as they walked to the elevator and down to her car.
"Is Clark coming over tonight, Mommy?" DJ asked during the drive to Bayside.
Lois knew the answer immediately, but she was hesitant to actually tell him at this point. He was more than likely coming over tonight, just like he had most nights since they were made partners a few weeks ago. Her hesitancy laid in not wanting her son to get too attached to him; nothing good could come of it.
"I think so, honey, but it depends on how the day goes."
"Can he just come over to play? He's fun."
"He might have other plans, DJ," she replied, thankful for the excuse. She had to admit though, that her son was right. On most nights that Clark came over so they could get some additional work done on the story, he had taken time to play with DJ, giving her time to get some chores done around the house.
One night last week, she came out of the kitchen to see the two of them sitting on the floor with their heads together. She had no idea what they were laughing about, but Clark had told her later that DJ had taken it upon himself to share a particularly embarrassing story about Lois trying to bake a cake for his birthday a month earlier.
"Can you ask, Mommy?"
"Not if you're going to embarrass me more," she said, smiling at the rear view mirror at him. He was starting to really lay on the charm toward her, which always made it difficult for her to deny him. His eyes had just a touch of sadness to them, and his bottom lip was more prominent than usual. Simply put, he was in full pout mode. "Daniel James, don't you even start," she answered with her sternest voice as they pulled into the daycare parking lot and walked into the building.
She hated being this way with him, especially since he had no idea just what he was asking. Life was complicated enough right now; the last thing she needed was another person (let alone her handsome new partner) making her life more difficult. Most of the time, she was able to mask her attraction to Clark behind their work, but she was quickly finding that the more and more he was around, the more complicated the situation became. The fact of the matter was that DJ had a father, and though he was consistently a pain in her ass, she knew that David loved their son and tried to spend as much time with him as possible.
They went inside and Lois helped him put everything in his cubby before kneeling down and saying goodbye to him for the day. "Listen, buddy. I'll talk to Clark, but I can't make any promises." He smiled brightly and she continued. "Don't forget that your vacation with your dad starts tomorrow, though. He's picking you up tomorrow, so we'll have to get everything together at some point tonight."
"Okay, Mom."
Lois gave him a hug and a kiss before he went into the playroom. The moment he crossed the threshold, she could tell that he was in a completely different world and that he was now totally focused on playing with his friends.
She still found it hard to believe that her boy would be going to kindergarten in about a month's time, which was a big part of the reason that he was taking an extended vacation with David. The details of their trip weren't something she dwelled too much on, still thoroughly trusting David with the welfare of their son despite their personal differences. She knew they were going to Florida to Disney World (initially at the insistence of DJ), as well as some fishing.
The timing of their vacation together couldn't have come at a better time, though. Investigating her father-in-law's connection to Mannheim wasn't something she could do easily with DJ around and David breathing down her neck. If she asked too many questions, she was sure David would double his efforts to get her to drop the story, and it would have nothing to do with her safety and the welfare of their son.
"How mad is he, Smallville?" Lois asked as she came into the bullpen and saw Clark typing away at his computer. She had to admit, as much as she fought his assignment as her partner, he had proved to offer a fresh perspective to the stories she was working on. She wanted to despise him—to somehow prove him to be inept at his job, but the fact was that he had not only come through for her every time she asked, but also stood up to her whenever she tried to knock him down a couple notches.
"Perry? He's fine. I covered for you and told him you got a last minute call from a source and that you had to meet with him."
"He bought that?"
"Sure, but then he got mad at me for not going with you."
Lois looked up from her desk and frowned. "Clark, I'm sorry. I was running ahead of schedule, and then D—"
"Lois, it's okay. No need to explain."
"Thanks, Smallville. I owe you one." They lapsed into silence and concentrated on their work, each focusing on a specific aspect of the Intergang story. Lois was checking on the activity around the docks, while Clark looked into Senator Vega's recent dealings in Metropolis and the surrounding areas. It had been difficult for her to give up the direct investigation into her ex-father-in-law's involvement with Intergang, but Clark had ultimately convinced her that he would conjure less attention considering Lois's relation to the Senator.
"Think about it, Lois," he told her. "You need to protect DJ. And as much as you shelter him, Senator Vega knows about him and knows how to get your attention. I know you're hesitant to believe he would ever harm his grandson, but desperate men take desperate action. It's best not to give him a reason."
She hated to admit how right he was with his warning, but his insight into the situation she found herself in was somewhat calming. And yet, by taking charge of this portion of the investigation he was putting himself in a potentially dangerous situation. It was the main reason she was starting to get apprehensive about him hanging around with DJ so much during the last few weeks.
Clark broke her out of her thoughts a while later. "Can I cash in that favor now?"
"Already? You don't waste any time," Lois replied as she looked up from the short piece she was finishing on the city council's new recycling plan.
"I was wondering if you would let me try to talk to Mr. Bibbowski. You said yourself that he was afraid people would recognize you talking to him. I've been here less than a month; I wouldn't be as recognizable."
He had a point, but Lois wasn't about to let him have everything he was asking for just yet. "I'll make you a deal. "Here's the number to the Ace 'O Clubs," she said, shoving a piece of paper across their desks. "Talk to Bibbo. See if he'll agree to meet you somewhere other than down on the docks, perhaps over at the deli. If he agrees, I'll go with you but let you take the lead."
"Right, Lois. Like you could keep your mouth shut through the whole interview."
"Hey, I admit that it will be difficult not to say anything. But, I also recognize that he's got a very good reason for not wanting to talk to me. And maybe you're right. This might just be a conversation for the boys to have." She grabbed her coffee cup and started to walk toward the other side of the room. "Let me know how it goes, Smallville."
"I can't believe it."
They were in the car an hour later, heading toward a sandwich shop on the edge of New Troy. Somehow, Clark had talked Bibbo into meeting them for lunch away from the docks and the watchful eyes of Intergang goons.
"Believe it," Clark told her while he shifted some papers around from the passenger seat. "The best way to get a guy to open his mouth is to put food in front of him. If I wasn't feeling so generous, I would ask you to pitch in half the cost of his lunch."
Lois smirked, realizing that Clark was a quick study when it came to reading their sources. "I'm the silent partner on this one. You might as well be riding solo."
"Perry seems to think I still need training wheels, though."
She contemplated his response, not sure if that was meant as a compliment. On one hand, she didn't want to be the person Perry called on whenever he needed a reporter trained. But, she was starting to not mind being Clark's 'training wheels,' as he had so eloquently put it. As much as she hated to say it, he was really growing on her, both as a partner and a person.
It was with this thought that she mulled over her next words carefully. She had promised, after all.
"DJ asked this morning if you were coming over tonight."
Clark stopped shifting his papers and looked at her surprisingly. "He did?"
"Yeah, and he almost threw a fit when I suggested that you might have other plans and that it depended on whether or not we had work to do tonight. I had to talk him off the proverbial ledge by promising that I would at least ask."
He looked back down at the stack of papers and started to pile them back in the folder. "Is that something you're okay with? Me coming over, I mean."
She almost said no. The word, in fact, was on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she found herself once again sharing details of her personal life with him. "He's leaving tomorrow for a two week vacation with David. We need to pack and I'd like to spend some time with him."
"Just tell him I was busy, then. You should get to spend time with him tonight, especially since he's going to be gone for a couple weeks."
"Thanks, Smallville." She smiled at him, smiling brighter when she saw that he returned her grin.
"Out of everything Chloe told me about you, I don't remember her ever telling me you were a mother," he tried apprehensively. She glared back at him, not daring to speak. "Please tell me it's not because she didn't know."
"God, Clark. I'm a private person because of my job, not because I'm ashamed of the way my life turned out," Lois barked out, unbelieving that he would even make that assumption about her. Sure, she was careful about whom she endowed with knowledge about her personal life, but she was pretty sure Chloe was well beyond that point. "If it makes you feel any better, Chloe was my maid of honor and is DJ's godmother."
Clark returned his gaze to the papers in his lap, and then stared ahead to the slow-moving traffic. "I didn't mean to—"
"Listen, I think we need to come to an understanding here. You know more about my personal life after three weeks than people I've worked with at the Planet for five years. Sure, part of that is because I do talk to Chloe and she seems to think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread. But I took a leap of faith here, Clark, and it's because I frankly need someone watching my back on this one."
"You're scared about where this is going, aren't you?" Clark asked. He recoiled when she shot a menacing glare in his direction. "Come on, admit it. You're worried about Senator Vega's involvement."
"I'm glad that I have two weeks to do some digging without David shooting warnings at me every five seconds about what a horrible mother I am for pursuing this story about Intergang."
"If you don't mind my asking," Clark said tentatively, "what kind of warnings?"
She stifled a laugh, more out of nervousness than anything. While she always rebuked her ex-husband's claims, a part of her wondered if he was actually right. "He's threatening to fight for custody on grounds that my job is a danger to DJ's welfare."
Out of all the responses she expected from her partner at her revelation, silence was not one of them. He turned away from her, looking out the window opposite the driver's side for what seemed like forever but in reality was a block and a half and almost five minutes. When he finally re-engaged in their conversation, he was pensive and serious.
"If you had to choose—DJ or chasing down a lead that would guarantee a Pulitzer—which one would you choose?"
"Wow, Smallville. They sure do preach 'cutting to the chase,' down on the farm, don't they?"
"Would you rather I make assumptions and concoct half-truths?"
"No," she huffed. Not for the first time, she wondered why it was that he could get to her so easily. But whereas David's jabs were meant to bring her down, Clark seemed to be good at helping her reinforce what she already knew. "DJ's my top priority, Clark. He always has been and he always will be."
She wanted to say more, explain more about why she chased down all these criminals and made them face justice. But she was on the edge right now of letting her personal life get in the way of her job. Hell, they were on their way to an interview! Thankfully, Clark seemed to notice that she wasn't done explaining.
"And?"
"And what?" She said, trying to play dumb.
"There's more, isn't there? There's another reason you do this, another reason you risk your life even though you could make a comfortable living reporting on city council meetings and school reform."
Was it that obvious?
"As much resentment as I hold toward my father, Clark, there's one thing I will always be thankful for: he put himself in harm's way and made sacrifices to make sure the world was a better place for his children. I just want to do the same, minus the military rank and hair cut." She paused at Clark's slight chuckle. "Oh, and the constant moving around the world. I was too young to appreciate it."
She knew she had opened herself up for myriad responses. How did they get to talking about this, anyway? And, for that matter, why weren't they at their destination yet?
Lois was waiting for the moment when Clark split his gut open from laughing so hard at her moment of weakness, but it didn't come. Instead, she chanced a peek over to where he sat next to her in the car, and found him staring into the nothingness of endless cars and buildings passing by at a crawl. "What, no snappy comeback to make me feel like a total and complete idiot?"
Clark's attention diverted back to her. "Why would I, Lois? You have a purpose. That's admirable."
"Not if it results in David taking DJ away from me."
"Well, that's the reason I'm here, to make sure you don't get in over your head and to be your back-up in these kinds of situations. Perry said you needed back-up, and I think he was right. In fact, he was right about a lot of things."
"Like what?"
"Oh, just…stuff."
She wanted desperately to grill him about that statement—and write herself a reminder to yell at Perry later—but they had finally reached the diner. Whatever direction the conversation would have taken was quickly dropped in favor of a guy named Bibbo and deli meat.
DJ wasn't happy when he was told that Clark wasn't coming over that night. Lois made a conscious decision not to tell him that he agreed not to work tonight so that she could spend time with her son; she somehow knew that it wouldn't mean the same thing to DJ as it did to her. Unfortunately, he wasn't buying the whole "he's busy tonight" routine, so he begged and begged to call Clark and talk to him himself until he was convinced that Clark really was busy.
Dejectedly, Lois handed DJ her cell phone after dialing Clark's number. She prayed that Clark would stick with their plan and keep it short. Quickly, she heard him answer hello on the other end. And then, she got to hear her five-year-old son feel his way through the phone conversation.
"Clark? It's DJ."
"Hey, buddy. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I just wanted to know if you could come over tonight. Mom's ordering pizza from Gi-Gi—" he looked to Lois for help.
"Gio-oh-van-ni's," she whispered into the phone.
"Giovanni's. And I'm leaving tomorrow for two weeks and won't get to see you for a long time."
"Ah, two weeks isn't that long, DJ. It'll be over before you know it."
"But can you come over anyway? Please?"
Lois had to admit, he was laying it on thick. But thankfully, Clark wasn't wavering.
"I wish I could. But my mom is in town tonight and I don't get to see her very often. We're going out to dinner."
Lois was thankful and sad all at the sad time. Clark seemed to have convinced DJ that he really was busy tonight, but in the process, she saw a look of rejection come over DJ's face. She felt sorry for both of them. It was one thing for her to bend the truth to her son, but it was a whole different situation when other people were doing it for her.
"Tell you what, though. You have your mom tell me when you get back and I'll come over just to hang out with you. No working."
"Really?"
"Yeah, really. I better go, DJ. My mom will be here soon, and I'm pretty sure your mom mentioned something to me today about having to help you pack for your trip."
"I can pack my own stuff," DJ said, his chest puffing out slightly in that "I'm a big boy" manner.
"I'm sure you can." There was a pause where she thought Clark had hung up, and then she heard his voice again. "DJ, can I talk to your mom for a minute?"
DJ quickly agreed before handing Lois the phone running off to his bedroom. As her hand lifted the phone to her ear, she wondered why she was suddenly nervous having a short phone conversation with Clark. "Hey," was all she could sputter out.
"Hey. This was unexpected."
"I'm sorry, Smallville. He wouldn't let it go until he talked to you himself."
"It's okay. He's a sweet kid. I don't mind."
"Is your mom really in town?"
"No, Lois. That was just my way of saying that I was spending time with my mom, so he should, too. I didn't figure you would want me to come out and tell him you were being sentimental today and insisted we not work tonight because you're going to miss him."
She was floored. "You didn't have to promise that to him, though."
"I know I didn't. I wanted to."
"He won't forget."
"And I don't expect him to. Not only is he a five-year-old boy, but he's your son. I wouldn't expect anything less."
They were both quiet then, Lois not knowing what to say. "Well…thanks again, Clark."
"Don't mention it. I'll see you tomorrow, Lois."
She said a quick goodbye to Clark, wondering what to make of that whole conversation. She just didn't know. But all that would have to wait in favor of a small crashing sound coming from DJ's bedroom.
"Two weeks without pizza, DJ. How will you ever survive?" Lois said as they took a break from packing to eat.
"Don't know, Mom. Maybe I can talk Dad into it just once while we're gone." He spoke through a mouthful of cheese, crust, and pepperoni, the words almost indistinguishable.
"Good luck. You know your dad doesn't like pizza."
"I know, but why do I have to suffer?" There it was, the flashes of Lois's sarcasm and wit that reminded her so much of herself. At times, he would say something similar, and she knew—as a mom—that he should get in trouble and be sent to bed without dessert (or something like that), but the truth was that she simply couldn't bring herself to do it. Especially not when her reaction would have been almost exactly the same remark.
"It's just two weeks, honey. Try not to think about the food and focus on all the fun you're going to have with your Dad."
DJ was uncharacteristically quiet in response, so Lois initially dropped the subject. But as he continued to pick at his pizza, she could tell that something was bothering him. "Honey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Nice try, Squirt. Why so mopey all of a sudden?"
DJ sighed and looked up at Lois with pouty eyes. "Can you go with us, Mommy?"
These were the times—like this one—when she started second-guessing her decision to divorce David. As much as DJ put up a good front, he was still very much affected by his parents' separation. He was old enough that he remembered what it was like when they were still together. And Lois knew that her son's relationship with his father had suffered in the 15 months since their divorce became final. More and more, DJ was pulling away from David and not wanting to spend time with him alone. She felt responsible, but this was one situation where it would not be beneficial for them to share company for an extended period of time.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"Cuz you and Daddy don't like each other anymore?"
Her heart broke, the confirmation that her son was in fact very knowledgeable of the situation slamming into her like a freight train. She thought about some kind of sarcastic remark, but remembered her conversation with Clark earlier about DJ being her number one priority. "I just want you to have some fun with your Dad. You know, some guy time. And I would ruin that if I came along." She stood up and took their dirty plates to the sink, knowing that she couldn't look him in the eye as she said the next part. "And anyway, I'm in the middle of a story right now."
"Oh," he said simply, seeming to immediately understand. He stood up and followed her to the sink with their glasses. "Is it a big one?"
"Yeah, honey." She smiled down at him. "It's a big one."
Mommy's going to send Grandpa to jail, she thought.
