~*~
…ten…
~*~
Angela Pearson had been at the Daily Planet for little over six months. An intern straight out of college, she hailed from New Brunswick, and was generally a perky, bubbly addition to the bullpen.
She had a routine that she followed every morning when she came into work. She'd grab a sweetened tea from the dispenser, sit down at her desk and eat a corn rusk as she read the daily inspirational emails her sister sent her from back home.
It was hard being so far away from her family, but Angela was living her dream and got through the day with more smiles than frowns.
On this particular morning, she sat in her chair, set her tea down with one hand and fired up her computer with the other. Then she carefully unwrapped the rusk and turned to toss the wrapper into the trash receptacle under her desk.
Then she screamed.
Her early morning routine never included a tufty-brown haired young man with shifty eyes hiding under her desk.
"Shh!" Jimmy hissed, gesturing desperately for her to calm down and stop drawing attention to herself.
"What are you doing?" Angela hissed right back as she crossed her legs, which were far too exposed when viewed from only a couple feet off the ground.
Jimmy ignored her, and lowered himself carefully to the floor, peering under the desk, where he could see the back of Lois' chair. She was typing away intently, and hadn't even bothered to turn around when Angela screamed.
Trying to move as fast, yet as quietly as possible, Jimmy leopard-crawled out from under Angela's desk, crossing the six feet of floor space until he was blocked by the desk of Mark Aaronson (of East Rutherford, New Jersey, if you're interested).
"What the hell are you doing, Olsen?"
Mark sounded irritated. Jimmy didn't care.
"None of your business," he spat, before executing a perfect tumbler's roll until he came up against the bank of filing cabinets running against the wall. Keeping his back flat to the face of the cabinets so he could watch Lois' every move, Jimmy crabbed sideways, one lurching movement at a time until he'd crossed the breadth of the bullpen.
He was now pressed against the wall next to the storage cupboard and, eyes still fixed on the fiery brunette across the room, Jimmy reached up, fumbling blindly for the handle. He scrabbled at it until it caught, and then fell sideways into the darkened interior, pulling the door closed behind him.
For the first time in what seemed like hours, Jimmy allowed himself to breathe as he stood up, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the total darkness.
"What are you doing?"
To say that Jimmy screamed like a little girl would be an insult to little girls everywhere.
He shrieked, jumped backward, collided with a row of stacked shelves that bounced him forward again, where he smashed into an even harder surface before collapsing to the floor in a gasping, trembling heap.
"Jimmy? Are you okay?"
Clark bent down and tried to lift Jimmy to his feet as gently as possible.
"CK?" Jimmy squinted, just able to make out Clark's face in the gloom, "What the hell are you doing in here?"
"I asked you first," said Clark.
"Yeah, well… I asked you second."
"So?"
"So!"
"Jimmy…"
"You scared me half to death!"
"Well, what do you expect, sneaking into a dark storage cupboard? This is all your fault, really!"
"My fault?"
"Yeah!"
"Are you hiding from Lois?"
"No…" Clark's protest was just the tiniest bit squeaky.
"You're hiding from Lois!" Jimmy could hardly believe it.
"Yeah, well… so are you!"
"At least I have the excuse that she's bigger than me!"
"If you think that makes any…"
The door opened. Lois grinned at them.
"Hi boys!"
"Aargh!"
They both screamed. Jimmy bounced off the shelves again. Clark didn't so much bounce off them as flatten them.
Lois tsked, bent down, retrieved a pack of staples and walked away, closing the door behind her again. Clark and Jimmy sat in the dark, willing their ragged breathing to calm down. After an infinity, Jimmy finally broke the silence:
"Do you think she saw us?"
Clark groaned.
~*~*~*~*~
20 Minutes Later.
"We have to get out of here sometime," said Clark.
"Nu uh," Jimmy shook his head, "I say we stay in here forever."
Almost as if to affirm his point, Jimmy had gathered himself quite comfortably on the floor, where he was building a mini-fort using boxes of pencils.
"What if we get hungry?" asked Clark.
"We can eat the boxes," said Jimmy, "They're fibrous. Good for you. Keep you regular."
"You wanna be regular and stay in here forever?"
"Uh…"
"This is ridiculous!" said Clark, "I mean, it's only Lois!"
"It's only Lois?" Jimmy gaped, "It's only Lois?!"
"Yeah, she's just one woman," said Clark, "And she has us hiding out in here like a coupla kids afraid of the bogeyman."
"Bogeywoman…"
"Whatever!"
"You know what? You're right," said Jimmy, destroying his fort with a righteous flick of his hand, "We're not scared of her!"
"No!"
"We can stand up for ourselves!"
"Yeah!"
"We can leave this cupboard anytime we want to!"
Silence for a while, then:
"So… what? We give it another five minutes, or so?"
"I think so."
~*~*~*~*~
Lois was on the phone.
"You gotta be kidding me! You know what a nightmare he is!" she idly twirled a lock of hair around her index finger as she listened to the response, "Because everyone who's gone down there came back threatening to quit, and I don't…"
"Lois! We're taking a stand!"
Lois looked up. The voice she'd heard was obviously Jimmy's, but all she could see was Clark.
"Listen, Nate…" she spoke into the receiver, "I'll have to call you back."
Hanging up, Lois frowned at her erstwhile partner.
"Now, we're willing to set aside our feud if you agree to certain terms."
Again, it was Jimmy's voice, but the bulk of Clark Kent took up the whole of Lois' view.
"What are you?" Lois smirked at him, "The muscle?"
Now she saw Jimmy's head peeking out from behind Clark's broad back.
"Do you want to hear the terms , or not?" demanded the young photographer.
"Set aside our feud?" Lois cackled, "It's not a feud. That implies that there are two sides fighting, and this has been pretty one-sided so far."
"Oh, yeah? Well…" Jimmy looked up at his best friend, "Clark?"
"I got nothing," Clark admitted.
"Relax guys," Lois tried a soothing tone of voice, which caused both Clark and Jimmy to back up a step, "I'm willing to call a truce. In fact, I was just about to come looking for you."
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-why would you do that?" Clark stammered.
"I'm passing on an assignment," Lois explained.
"What assignment?"
Without even realising it, Clark and Jimmy had retreated almost three feet away from the desk. Maybe it had something to do with the smile on Lois' face. Gazelles saw that look on lions all the time.
"An interview with Antonio Valencia," said Lois, "Yes, the Antonio Valencia. It'll probably be the main spread in the lifestyle section. Big, glossy photos and a 5000 word two-pager. It's yours if you want it."
"Why would you give up such a big article?" asked Clark, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"I thought it would make a nice peace offering," said Lois, "But if you two don't want it, I'll just call Terry to go with me, and…"
"No, no! We want it!" Clark cut her off quickly.
"But if this is some kind of game, Lane!" Jimmy strode out from under Clark's shadow, slamming his camera case down on her desk. He'd hoped for the gesture to come out menacing, but instinctive concern over his camera caused him to set it down with nothing more than a mild thump.
"No games," said Lois, "You're meeting him at his downtown studio at two. You should probably grab some lunch now, so you can get there on time.
Jimmy and Clark eyed her for a long moment, before breaking out in identical smiles of satisfaction.
"Thanks Lois," said Clark, genuinely impressed with her generosity.
"Let's grab a couple burritos, CK. We can meet back here, and go over a game plan."
Chatting happily to themselves, Jimmy and Clark strode out the bullpen. Lois' smile remained fixed as she watched them go, before her eyes drifted slowly downwards until they came to rest on Jimmy's camera case, still sitting on her desk.
"Suckers..." she chuckled.