Chapter 54
Lois was sitting at the desk in the loft, typing away like mad on her laptop, when she finally heard Clark coming up the steps.
"Certainly took you long enough," she said, without even looking up at him. The irritation she felt was evident in her tone. "I heard you land more than fifteen minutes ago."
"I was talking to mom."
"Uh-huh. Well, first things first. Here's your proof, although you're not going to like it." She handed him a photo and one sheet of paper.
He looked at the photo first, narrowing his eyes as he stared at it until a shadowy figure in the background came into clear focus. "It's Lex all right."
"Rearing his ugly, bald head. Sorry, I know this is where you are going to remind me you two were friends once."
"It's ancient history."
She looked at him then and narrowed her eyes. "Somehow I thought you'd be more surprised."
"Grange said he was alive. But the thing is, "he looked down at the picture again, "how did I miss that?"
"It's possible I didn't show that one to you," she shrugged.
"And why not?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe it was the young naked girl in the foreground," she said as if it was obvious. "Really, Smallville."
"Ah. Because I've never seen one of those before."
She snatched the photo from his hands. "Very funny."
"Lois, you should have shown that one to me. I could have—"
"I know, I know. But it was the one I gave to Perry since I knew we couldn't publish it. We may have to now, with certain parts censored, of course. Look, the important thing is that all these dates and places where Grange was," she pointed to the page still in his hands, "line up with some very prominent deaths of assorted key politicians, judges, and financial tycoons. I haven't put it all together yet, but it looks like Lex, while still playing dead, is orchestrating some kind of takeover—"
"Or beginning to set up some kind of shadow government he can control?"
"Something like that."
"Wow," he said simply. "This will do."
"And probably point the way to solving a few other dozen murders across the country as well. The man's been busy, and, no doubt, working for Lex all this time."
"That car - it's probably loaded with evidence," Clark said. "It's the one place he'd feel comfortable leaving it all, and if he needed to be within range of it every five hours for another fix of his power—"
"—he could be sure that he could protect it as well. If anyone became the least bit suspicious, he could—"
"—talk them out of searching it. It's already impounded. The only problem will be the actual search of it. If the power is truly in the car itself, we'll have to be careful, lest it affect anyone else. But if Wonder Woman can—"
"Yeah!" Lois clapped her hands together. "Precisely. Wonder Woman. The three hundred pound gorilla in the room? Let's talk about her, shall we?"
"Three hundred pounds? Funny, I thought she was about your size," he said, his eyes twinkling.
"I was speaking figuratively, Smallville."
"So was I, Lois." He laughed. "You know, I need to come up with some nickname for you."
"Nice try, farm boy, but it's not working. I want to talk about Ms. Stars and Stripes before you zip off somewhere."
He looked at her seriously and crossed over to the couch where he sat down, leaned back, laced his hands behind his head, and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Okay, no zipping. You have the floor."
She eyed him suspiciously. "What are you doing?"
"You want to talk to me about Wonder Woman. So talk. It's not as if you don't know how." He didn't smile, but she could feel the laughter behind his eyes and she was unnerved by it.
"You think I'm being…" She licked her lips nervously. "Clark, stop it!"
He took his hands down and spread them. "What?" he asked innocently.
"You stop it right now! Don't do that to me!" She crossed her arms and turned away from him.
"Do what?"
"Acting all… Supermanish!"
The snicker escaped before he could control himself. "Lois, I don't even have the suit on right now. I'm just—"
She twirled around and pointed at him accusingly. "But you're doing it. You're—" She stopped, her eyes growing round, as the sudden idea struck her with a flash of enlightenment.
"I'm what?"
She mumbled something, and even his super-hearing couldn't decipher it, so he prompted again, "What?"
"Oh, Clark," she wailed, "I'm the worst person ever!" She looked at him, her face full of panic, and she ran down the stairs and out the door or the barn, leaving him stunned for a few seconds. Two steps outside the doorway, he caught up with her and put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at him.
"Lois, I'm sorry, for whatever it is I did. But you're going to have to tell me. What on earth is going on? What did I do?"
"You didn't do anything, Clark." She shook her head and he could tell she was very upset. "I just realized…it's…confidence. That's what you've got now. It's what I saw in you on that rooftop that night. Superman has…well, Superman has it…in spades. But my Clark usually doesn't. Maybe it sort of goes with that "S", but the past few weeks, you've been…exuding it, owning it, and I just realized," her voice dropped to a whisper and she lowered her head, "that I don't like it. I want my Smallville back."
He hugged her then. "Lois, Lois, why do you think I picked out that letter for a symbol? You were the one who decided it stood for Superman, but it really only ever stood for Smallville, and you are the only one who has ever called me that."
"Really?" she asked hopefully.
"Consider it your own personal stamp on Superman. Okay?"
She pulled away from him a little and smiled. "I like that. Think you can remember that when you're around any Amazon bombshells in the future?"
"Total recall will probably help me there," he said, the twinkle in his eye back with a vengeance.
"Good," she said with a finality. "Then there are only two things left I want to cover."
"Only two?" he chuckled.
"Yes. One, I want a meeting with Wonder Woman, and two, when are you going to take me flying?"
********
Author's notes: Sorry for the delay in posting. It's been a difficult week! Not to mention, neither Clark nor Lois wanted to cooperate with the knock-down drag-out fight some wanted… My filler chapter with Martha/Clark changed his attitude, darn it. LOL!
CLOISfan83 – Certainly sorry if I kept you reading too long! But they do make drugs for that! (I'm a pharmacist, so I do know!) Glad you're enjoying the story. 1eclecticreader – I think we agree on WW. But I think Clark is naïve to the nth degree by nature. Klaatu – can't have any better reaction than someone hearing the actor's voice when reading! Thanks.
And to all the regular readers – I felt like I was letting you down this week after all the praise for quick posting. I promise to do better – or at least try this week!
