CHAPTER 4: OUT OF THE BLUE
Saying that she was going to get a headline grabbing storyline worthy of the Daily Planet and actually doing it, Lois Lane soon learned, was harder than it looked.
Following her meeting with acerbic Pauline Kahn and equally perplexing Perry White who had come out of nowhere, to make her chance at the Planet possible, Lois was determined to prove his faith in her was justified. Self-doubt was another one of those troublesome emotions that Lois had no time for but since her firing from the Inquisitor, she felt it a lot. It didn't help that the cause of her return to the unemployed state was sprawled across every newspaper and tabloid magazine in the city.
The fairy tale wedding of Lex Luthor to Lana Lang made for good copy and the media devoured stories about the couple like ravenous monsters. Everywhere, Lois was treated to images of Lex and Lana's wedding, then came their honey moon and the pictures that came with that. Each snapshot reminded Lois how close she had been to the story only to walk away from it. To add insult to injury, Chloe's new romance with Bruce Wayne was also as newsworthy. So if it wasn't Lana's face she was seeing everywhere, it was Chloe's.
Despite her chagrin, Lois was starting to learn a great deal about herself and the kind of journalist she wanted to be. She didn't want to be a tabloid reporter and the stories she wanted to write would not be about what celebrity was doing what. She wanted to write stories of substance, stories that would help change the world, hopefully for the better. It surprised her to discover the existence of this idealistic crusader hidden adroitly beneath the surface of her cynical exterior.
Clark was rubbing off on her.
"So how's the story coming?" Chloe asked of Lois as they sat across a table in her lunching spot around the corner from the Planet.
"I'm working on leads," Lois said evasively, stirring her coffee for the hundredth time, offering revelation to anyone who knew her that she was exaggerating.
"Oh really?" Chloe stared at her with that look of familiarity cultivated over the course of their entire relationship. Scepticism exuded from every word.
Lois raised her eyes to her cousin and knew that Chloe was seeing right through her. "Okay so I've got nothing so far but I know there's a story out there? That's what you always said, right? I've just gotta find it."
"Absolutely," the demure blond nodded with encouragement before her attention was caught by someone standing at the window of the café called the Tivoli. A telephoto lens was aimed in her direction before she saw the flash that could only be her picture taken. Chloe sighed and looked away, so exhausted with trying to avoid the paparazzi that she had resigned her self to their presence.
"God I wish they'd blow." Chloe complained, eyeing the patterns on the table instead.
Lois chuckled, sympathizing with her cousin nevertheless. "Just ignore them," Lois replied, reversing their roles as being the one to offer support now. "They'll vanish the minute they discover that you and Bruce are so incredibly average that there's absolutely nothing to feed the gossip page. That or until Britney has another freak out which lately, could be any day now." The older cousin smirked.
"Thanks," Chloe nodded, admitting that the prospect was inviting, of being deemed average and left alone that is. The jury was still out on the Britney freak out. "So how did it go with your dad?"
Lois flinched, returning to her present circumstances with a thud so loud, she surprised that no one heard it. "Oh, the General is on manoeuvres at the moment so he won't be contactable for another two weeks."
"Oh," Chloe's expression became downcast. "Lois can you wait that long? I mean I've got some money saved up, I could give you a loan…"
"No that's okay," Lois said hastily. She wasn't desperate enough to take Chloe's money yet. It was bad enough that she had try to get in touch with her dad to get a loan from him but taking it from Chloe was more than her pride could tolerate at this point. "I've got some rainy day money, I'll be fine for a few more days."
"Okay," Chloe said dubiously, perfectly aware that Lois' ability to be frugal was like her own ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound. "You know," the blond eyed her cousin slyly, "maybe you should tell Clark that you're broke."
"No!" Lois exclaimed exasperated. "You know how Clark is! He'll want to come charging to the rescue and it's not like running the Kent farm is rolling in the dough. Besides, I'm too embarrassed for that…"
"Lois!" Chloe declared exasperated, "This is Clark we're talking about. He's your boyfriend right? The only guy whose name I've seen you write surrounded by little hearts. To say nothing of the fact that he trusts you with the truth about being from…." She almost said Krypton but stopped short before that sin could be committed since they were in a crowded restaurant and she was on the paparazzi hit list. "From uh…Fresno."
"Fresno?" Lois stared blankly and realising Chloe's choice of locale was for the benefit of anyone listening in on their conversation. "Well being from…Fresno is a big thing, not something he could hide for long. I mean look what happened with Lana because he didn't ell her that he's from …out of state? This is my problem Chloe and not something Clark can fix with his uh…hobbies," Lois declared, her gaze shifting away from her cousin, "I can take care of myself."
Chloe was not about to let it go, not just yet. She knew where this was coming from. The same place it had come from in the past, from Lois' stubborn belief she didn't need anyone to look out for her. Too often the people she needed let her down or expected her to be tougher than anyone should expect another to be and Lois had learnt through experience that it was better to be tough than pitied. "Lois, no one doubts that you can't look after yourself but there's nothing wrong with asking for help."
Lois knew that Chloe was right and to a degree even believed her. She wasn't afraid to ask Perry White for help to write her story and in moments of emotional crises she wouldn't be afraid to turn to Clark for help. However, Lois couldn't admit to him or anyone just yet that she felt pathetic and stupid to be caught in this situation in the first place. She should have had savings, she should have finished college, she should have done a dozen things differently so she wouldn't be in this situation. However, now that she was here, she wasn't going to bemoan her fate. She would pick herself up like she always did, without help from anyone.
"Look I can't keep talking about this," Lois said draining her coffee cup quickly before standing up. "I've got to go chase down some leads on the other side of town."
"Oh alright," Chloe sighed resignedly, aware that Lois wasn't going to budge on this point nor did it require her cousin to swear her to secrecy. Years of being the keeper of everyone's secrets, it was a foregone conclusion that Chloe would tell Clark nothing of Lois' dilemma. "He's your boyfriend, I'm sure you know how to handle him." She threw up her hands in a gesture of surrender.
"Damn straight," Lois perked up, injecting her voice with more cheeriness than she felt. "Besides," she threw a sidelong glance at the outside of the restaurant where a cameraman could be sighed. "You've got problems of your own. Who knows it won't be long before they'll be calling you the next Brangelina, nah…something catchier…Bhloe maybe."
"Bhloe!" Chloe almost choked on her latte. "Oh that just sound dirty!"
"Okay, okay," Lois retorted, not about to give up yet. "Chruce, then."
"Just get going already!" Chloe threw a napkin at her, laughing at Lois' absurdity. Really…Chruce.
Lois smirked, deflecting enough to make good her escape. In truth, she didn't want Chloe to question her too deeply on where she was going. Chloe was the only person that Lois couldn't fool at all and there were just some things that Lois Lane liked to keep to herself.
"See ya," she said grabbing her handbag and walking briskly out of the café.
Valerie was exhausted.
It was days since her escape and her arrival in Metropolis had not been the answer to her problems as she believed. In fact, being lost in a large, unforgiving city where no one knew you or for that matter, cared; was almost as bad as being locked up in a gilded cage. With only a few dollars left to her name, enough for a sandwich perhaps, Valerie struggled with what to do. The place where Hank had said he'd be didn't exist and she worried that they might have spirited him away to parts unknown because he wouldn't let him hurt her and just gave her a fake address to pacify her into submitting to their tests.
In retrospect, Valerie knew that she had been so focussed on escape and reaching Hank, she should have given some thought as to what she would do when she arrived upon arriving at her destination. Her whole plan had been flawed to the start and now she was lost, one of the millions of forgotten faces on the streets of Metropolis, with no place to go. Her feet hurt from walking along the pavement and her stomach growled. With hunger gnawing at her and the prospect of sleeping in another shelter not at all welcoming, Valerie considered her options.
In desperation, she did the one thing she had been resisting for days, hoping that finding Hank might save her form the action. Looking up the street, she saw the phone booth and hastened her pace to reach it. Glancing furtively over her shoulder every so often, Valerie still couldn't shake the feeling of someone following her, Hank's employers might be trying to retrieve her and that made every new face a possible threat. Reaching the booth, she stepped inside and fished out all the change she had in the pocket of her jeans, putting it on little shelf where the phone book was perched.
Lifting the ear set off the hook, Valerie fed the coins into the slot, One by one. When she heard the dial tone, she began to push the numbers and waited for a voice to response. An operator came on the line and immediately put her collect call through to Seattle. Valerie's breath held, uncertain of what she would say when the call connected. The cold sensation of shame rushed through her as she heard the ring tone and her breath held. She had behaved so badly. Why would they help her?
"Hello," Valerie heard her mother's voice.
Swallowing, she spoke. "Momma," she said after a pause. "It's me."
The reaction was immediate. "Oh my God Valerie! Steven! It's Valerie!" She heard her mother calling for her father. Even in shame, Valerie was stunned by how good it was just to hear their jubilation at her call.
"Baby, where are you? We've been so worried!"
"Momma, I need help," she squeaked, "I'm in Metropolis."
"Metropolis?" Her mother exclaimed. "What are you doing there?'
Valerie didn't have a chance to answer because she heard the scuffle of sound through the receiver as the phone was handed over.
"Valentine," her father spoke firmly and Valerie blinked, feeling warm tears run down her cheek at how good to hear him using his favourite nickname for her. "Where are you? We'll come get you right away."
"I'm in Metropolis," she said quickly, suddenly wanting very much to go home, to be with them as they took care of her.
"Where in Metropolis?" He declared. "We'll be on the first plane. Just tell us where you are Valentine."
Valerie looked through the glass and saw the street signs in her immediate location. "I'm at a phone booth at the Eisner and Kane cross streets." She answered and that saw a diner across the street. "In a diner called the Slice."
"Then you go in there and wait for us baby," Valerie heard her mother say next to her father. "We'll be there as soon as we can."
"Thank you," Valerie whispered, crying a little harder now because guilt and shame stabbed at her for hurting these people with her selfish departure in the night. "Please come soon."
"We love you Valerie," her father assured her, "we'll be there."
Closer than Seattle, someone listened to the conversation between Valerie Beaudry and her parents with interest.
"We got her," the man said coolly. "She called home like we thought."
"Good," Hank nodded approving.
"You're late," the unshaven man, with the beer gut hanging over his apron looked at Lois from over the counter when she arrived at the diner called the Slice twenty minutes after her lunch with Chloe.
Lois glanced around the establishment containing more than six tables and five booths along the walls with a raised brow since only three tables of those tables were occupied and she wasn't the only waitress in the place. "Sorry," she said trying to hide her sarcasm, "didn't mean to leave you hanging during the rush."
"Very funny," he snorted, a big bear of a man called Sal who was more bark than bite.
When Lois had interviewed for the job, all she had to do was tell him she had worked in a coffee shop for him to hire her. Lois supposed that this place with it's out of the way location wasn't exactly the highlight of the Metropolis Restaurant Guide and tips weren't plentiful. Lois didn't care, its anonymity was exactly was what she needed. No one (especially Clark and Chloe) had to know that she had been reduced this to supplement her non-existent income. Besides the wages, though slight were steady, would do until she was able to write her story for the Planet.
"Don't mind him honey, he's just mad cause his daughter is pregnant again" Flora, the other waitress who's shift ended when Lois showed up, said with a warm smile. Flora spoke with a thick Southern accent like the stereotypical belle but with more mettle than John Wayne. The mother of two, she had gained Lois' respect by raising two boys on her own, working this job and still managing to be there for then Sunday dinner. In an age where children were raised by televisions sets and internet access, Lois was impressed.
"Good for nothing bum she's married can't support her…" Sal grumbled and continued his ministrations over the fryer.
Lois and Flora exchanged bemused expressions as they passed each other on the way to the back room. Entering the small musty room, Lois sighed as she put on the waitress uniform that Sal insisted they wear. At least it didn't have her name monogrammed on it. Each time Lois felt the lurch in her stomach telling her that she was better than this job, she reminded herself that this place was a means to and end and like all good reporters, she had to pay her dues. This was one of those dues.
Stepping out, Lois brushed down the skirt of her salmon coloured uniform and surveyed the patrons as Flora bade them goodbye and hurried off, heading off to pick up her youngest. The two people that caught her eyes first were just like most of the patrons she saw in this place, regulars who discovered that Sal made a pretty good steak and they didn't have to fight for a table when they came in. A trucker, Lois sized up and old man named Harry who came here every day at the same time for lemon meringue pie.
The third was sequestered in the back booth, trying to look inconspicuous. A woman a little younger than her. She stood out because despite her somewhat bedraggled looked at present, had luminous features of shiny gold hair and blue eyes. Her eyes revealed a lot on her mind. Unlike the other two who were eating their foot with enthusiasm, the girl seemed content to stare at the cup of coffee above her empty plate. Picking up the coffee pot, Lois walked over to her.
"Can I fill that up for you?" She asked, remembering the lingo from the Talon.
The girl looked up, startled, reminding Lois for a minute of a deer caught in the headlights.
"Oh sorry," she said with wide-eyed anxiety. "Yes, sorry, I didn't hear you…"
"Hey its okay," Lois reassured her. "I just wanted to know if you wanted some coffee."
She considered the request for a moment, "I don't have any more money…"
Boy, Lois thought to herself, did she knew what that felt like. "Its okay, refills are free."
The girl seemed relieved, "oh, yes please."
Lois smiled and poured her a cup. "Are you alright?" The crusader in Lois had to ask. The girl seemed like she was at her wit's end as Lois poured coffee into the cup, noticing her shaking hands at the same time.
"I'm waiting for someone," she admitted. "I told them that this was where to find me. I have to wait here."
This didn't sound good and really none of her business but damn it, Clark Kent had rubbed off on her to much to ignore that seemingly ominous statement. "Well then here you'll wait," Lois smiled, hoping to disarm her. "Whose coming to get you, if you don't mind me asking?"
"My parents," the girl answered readily enough. "They're coming from Seattle."
"Seattle?" Lois raised a brow. "When do you expect them?"
"I rang them an hour ago," Valerie answered, unaware that the years of isolation had caused her to become desperate for contact and incapable of judging who she could trust with personal details. "They're coming."
From Seattle? Lois almost balked but could see the girl was frightened enough and had no wish to worsen her anxiety. "They could be a few hours," Lois finally commented. "Can you wait for them anywhere else?"
"No," the girl shook her head. "I have to wait here. I don't know anyone else in Metropolis."
Undecided what she would do, Lois was almost grateful when she heard the truck driver catch her attention for a refill of coffee. Lois hurried off to serve him, trying to decide if this was any of her business and unlike Clark, she didn't have a knack for getting people to trust her the way he did. Must be that farm boy demeanour, she told herself.
A family, comprising of two parents and a noisy brood of unruly children entered the diner at that moment and Lois forgot all about the girl and the long wait, as she was inundated with orders and kids trying to put ice cream in the pocket of her apron.
It was more than an hour when the diner was quiet again and Lois, who didn't remember the Talon being this much work, took a moment to catch her breath. The trucker had also departed at this point, more than happy to leave the place and escape the little terrors that were perfect illustrations of why children should not be given candy for any reason. Lois sat down at the counter, helping herself to a drink since the place was empty except for the girl who had not moved from her booth.
"Hey, what's her story?" Sal inquired, his gruff voice held at low whisper.
"I think she's a runaway or something," Lois hissed back. "She's waiting for her folks to come get her. I don't think she had any money for anything else."
"This ain't no charity," he grumbled and eyed the girl again, finding it disconcerting that she was no older than his own daughter. "But we can spare some coffee and pie while she waits. We'll give her folks the tab when they arrive."
Lois threw Sal a smirk, "why you're just nice guy under all stubble aren't you."
Sal mumbled something unintelligible and returned to cleaning the grill, leaving Lois chuckling as she stood up and walked towards the booth, prepared to offer the girl a cup of coffee and some meringue pie.
However, the girl stood up abruptly.
Her face was etched in concern as she stared through the window. Lois followed her gaze and saw that a trio of black SUVs that had come to a screeching at the sidewalk, one after the other next to the pavement. With chrome gleaming under the afternoon sun, Lois pegged them immediately for government vehicles. Whatever they were, the girl was not happy to see them and the look in her eyes, the fear in them, immediately drew Lois' concern.
"Hey is everything okay?" She shifted her gaze between the girl and the cars.
Men were exiting the vehicle and as they approached the diner, Lois understood the girl's alarm. For starters, they were armed and dressed in black camouflage gear, their faces concealed beneath ski masks. The guns they were carrying were military grade. Lois had been on enough army bases in her time to recognise that these were the weapons of choice for mercenaries.
"I have to go," the girl exclaimed. "They're coming for me!"
Lois had guessed that much. She didn't think that the electric bill she had due warranted this kind of response yet. Those guys were ruthless. "Who are they?" Lois demanded. "What do they want with you?"
"They want to take me back!" She cried out frantically, bringing Sal to the counter window separating the kitchen from the rest of the diner.
"What's going on?" He demanded.
"I don't know," Lois explained quickly, thinking that she needed her phone to get Clark here.
Unfortunately, the men were in the diner before she could finish the thought and even though they were armed, they approached cautiously, Lois noted.
"Valerie," one of them spoke through the ski mask. "You need to come back with us. You shouldn't be out here alone."
"Little tip pal," Lois stepped in front of the girl, Valerie, "you might try that approach without the ski mask."
"Stay out of this," he shot at her. "This doesn't concern you."
"The hell it doesn't," Lois said fearlessly, "she doesn't look like she wants to go anywhere with you so why don't you get the hell out of here before we call the cops."
"Valerie," the man spoke to his quarry, ignoring Lois' threats. "You don't want these people to get hurt, come with us now."
"The girl ain't going nowhere," Sal appeared from behind the counter, wielding a baseball bat. "Get the hell out of may place."
Suddenly, Lois heard the sound of something like a champagne bottle popping from behind her boss. In what felt like slow motion, she saw Sal tumbling forward, the baseball bat falling from his fingers before clattering against the linoleum floor. His eyes went blank, seeing nothing as he landed hard on his face. Lois uttered a gasp of fright as she saw the blood pooling around his head, like a crimson crown. Standing behind Sal was his killer, the silencer clutched in his hand and smoking from use.
"Oh my God!" Lois exclaimed horrified as she saw the assassins close in.
"You didn't have to do that," Valerie started to weep, seeing them coming to take her. "You didn't have to hurt him!" She screamed and just when Lois thought that things couldn't get any worse, everything went to complete hell.
