Daily Planet,September 7, 2007. The bags under Perry White's eyes were not a result of old age, but rather of having pulled his first all-nighter in six years. His favorite paisley tie sat in a pile on his desk and his shirt looked like it had been on the losing end of a tug-of-war match, while the little bit of hair on his head was greatly mussed. With Superman kidnapped and one of his best reporters on the verge of a breakdown as a result he'd had to reign in any and every available employee of the Planet to ensure that the news was covered and covered well…None of that repetitive tabloid drivel they print over at the Messenger, not on my watch!
His contact at City Hall had called him shortly after 6:30 that morning to inform him of Mayor Dunne's speech at 9:30. The friend hadn't said whether the City was going to acquiesce to Luthor's demands, but his tone indicated that it didn't look likely. "KENT! OLSEN! GET IN HERE!" he barked from the door of his office. Jimmy came running.
"Yes, Chief?" he asked anxiously, wondering if there'd be any new developments.
Perry looked around the bullpen, seeking out the bumbling figure that was his other great reporter, Clark Kent. He was nowhere to be found. "Have you seen Kent?"
"No Chief, not since yesterday, before this all broke," he said, motioning to the continued pandemonium in the room behind him. "One minute he's asking me and Miss Lane to lunch, the next he's gone. Something about meeting an informant."
The older man grunted. "Alright Jimmy, here's what you're going to do. Get on the horn and get a hold of Kent. If you can't, then I want you to take Gil and get down to City Hall ASAP. Dunne's making a speech at 9:30 and I'll be damned if we're too tired or too short staffed to get a decent reporter and photographer on the scene. You understand?"
"Yes, Sir," and Jimmy bolted out of the room to the nearest available telephone. Perry stuck his head out of his office, "GIL!"
"Yes, Chief?" a head popped up from behind a cubicle wall in response to hearing it's name.
"You're on stand-by to cover the Mayor's speech. Consider yourself warned!"
The man looked at his Editor-in-Chief quizzically. "The Mayor's speech?"
"Yes dammit, that's what I said, now get your head in the game!" he shouted before slamming the door behind him in frustration. He picked up the phone behind his desk to call Lois; in spite of the un-godly hour he knew she'd be awake. Meanwhile Olsen stood on the other side of the glass and held up the receiver shrugging his shoulders. Where the devil could that man be!? Doesn't he know we have a crisis on our hands?!
"Hello?" an odd voice greeted him after the first ring.
"Lois?" he asked, his gruff demeanor abating in his confusion.
"Just a moment, I'll go get her," the other voice said. Perry could hear the shuffling of feet against the floorboard and heard the older woman say, "It's for you, Dear," before handing her the phone.
Lois immediately came to. "Hello?!" she squeaked, the anxiety in her voice very apparent.
"Lois, it's Perry, I was just calling to see how you and the Little Guy were doing. I wish you'd let me come over last night, or at least let me have sent Jimmy to check-in on you…"
"No Chief, it's alright, we're doing ok. Jason was still a little freaked out, that's all, so I didn't want everyone traipsing through here."
"But who picked up the phone?"
"Hmm?"
"Someone else is there, Lois, she answered the phone, now who is it?"
"Oh, that's um…that…it's, um…it's Clark's Mother."
Perry paused in bewilderment, thinking he'd gone without sleep for too long. "Did you just say Mrs. Kent is at your apartment?"
"Yes."
"Does that mean Kent's there too?"
He noted the crestfallen sound in her voice as she replied, "No, Chief."
"Then do you know where the hell he is?! It's bad enough I lose one of my best reporters but now to lose two, today of all days…"
Lois silently sent up a prayer of thanks that she'd inadvertently helped Clark cover his tracks. She implemented a cover story so as to protect him from the inevitable Superman's Missing/Clark's Missing speculation. "He, uh, went to go see an informant yesterday, down at the docks…you remember, Perry, that assignment you wanted to send us both out on?"
"Oh right, right…"
"When news broke about Superman, his Mother—Clark's Mother, not Superman's Mother because he doesn't have one…" Martha shot her a look from the kitchen. Stop babbling, Lane, get back on track, "…well Mrs. Kent came to Metropolis to be with Clark, only he wasn't at his apartment when she got in last night so she came here."
Perry disregarded her earlier comment and frowned at the news of Kent's disappearing act, "That doesn't sound like him…he's not the type of person to leave his own Mother high and dry…"
"I know, that's why we're, um, we'll be going to the Police Station later on today, to file a Missing Persons report. Hopefully he'll turn up soon," Please God let him turn up soon, please…
"Alright, sounds good. Now, how's Jason holding up?" he asked, concerned for his grandnephew.
"He's doing…" she glanced down the hall toward the bedroom where he was still sleeping. "He's doing as well as can be expected, Chief, you know? Yesterday was a lot for him to be put through."
"Ahh, but he's made of tough stuff on his Mother's side…he'll come out just fine. By the way, I got a hold of Richard and let him know what's going on. He said he'll try and call more often to see how you two are doing. I know things didn't work out well for you kids but he still cares about you."
"I know and I care about him too," she paused momentarily, not trusting her voice. Finally she managed to ask, "So how're things on your end?"
"Well, you know…" he started, trying to sound like it was just another day at the office. But he couldn't do it. "It's bedlam Lois, sheer bedlam. Superman's kidnapped and tortured, the police have taken to the streets as if World War III were about to erupt, and the Mayor is about to go on live television and most likely vow not to submit to Luthor's demands. In my forty-three years here at the paper I don't think I've ever seen things this bad." She could hear the strain in his voice; the difficult task of putting a paper together with such stories for headlines commingled with his personal grief over the situation. "That display that Luthor and Finneran put on last night…Lois, I am so sorry that I didn't let you and Kent run with that story all those months ago. You were onto something and you knew it but all I saw was the next deadline. If I hadn't been so damned myopic we might've been able to avoid all this…I hope that someday you two will be able to forgive me."
"Perry, I think I can safely speak for the both of us when I tell you there's nothing to be sorry about. Agent Woodrow said that despite the FBI and MPD's preparedness they were caught off guard by the situation too. It's nobody's fault, Chief—this happened through the sheer force of will of two wholly evil men, not because the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet wouldn't let his reporters follow up on one investigation. It's ok." She said those things not only to assuage Perry's guilt but also her own, for she'd been thinking the same things since Clark was first taken yesterday afternoon.
He cleared his throat. "Thanks. I guess I'll let you go now…and Lois? Take all the time you need, help the Police and the FBI in any way you can, and if you or they need our assistance just let me know, you hear me?"
"I hear you. Thanks Chief." She hung up the phone.
Martha rounded the corner into the living room, eyes wide. "Well, did he have any news?"
"No, he just wanted to check in on me and the Munchkin."
"Oh," she said, a question forming on her lips. "But what was all that about me, Clark and a Missing Persons report?"
Lois got up off the sofa and walked over to where Martha stood. "People at the Planet have noticed he's missing, and the last thing I said yesterday was that he had gone out to meet with an informant. If he stays gone for awhile…" she saw the tears begin to brim in the elder woman's eyes, "I didn't say when, I said IF Clark stays gone for awhile, then there'll be even more questions for him to answer when he returns. We need to safeguard his future by filing a Missing Persons report with the Police. WHEN he comes home we'll take matters from there, but this way less suspicion is thrown over the simultaneous disappearances of Superman and Clark Kent."
Martha could only nod. My son was right…she is as intelligent as she is beautiful. She was thankful to have Lois on her side this time around, instead of going it alone, burdening herself with keeping Clark's secrets. To worry about him and to never be able to tell anyone why…well I didn't get all these silver hairs on my own account, she thought. The younger woman caught the lost in space expression on the elder woman's face, wondering how much more she could take, but Martha was too far gone in her own thoughts to note her concern.
Lois is in charge now; she's strong, she'll know what to do, she's been through this before, she'll know what to do…
