Chapter 24
"Hi, honey!" Lois said as Clark landed on the roof of The Daily Planet to pick her up. Literally pick her up, because he was going to quickly fly them out to the remote cornfields that the Watchtower used as their beaming site so that they would arrive in time for the all hands meeting which was starting soon.
"Hi, yourself, fiancée," Clark said with a big smile as he wrapped his arms around Lois's waist and took off. Lois had her arms wrapped around Clark's neck as they flew, but she waited until they were outside of Metropolis before kissing him soundly on the lips. Just in case anyone had been watching the roof of the Planet.
Clark took his time kissing her back, since they had a bit of a straight shot and he was flying below the height of the air traffic lanes, so he didn't need to watch where he was going. For a minute, anyway.
"Did you tell anyone yet?" Lois asked him.
"No," Clark said back to her. "It was a dramatic morning," he sighed. "But Vixen did the chewing out for a change," he said. "It got the day off on the wrong foot, though."
"That's ok," Lois said, cuddling against him. "We can tell them together, now that I'm coming up to the station." Clark smiled.
"Another benefit to balance out the horror of having to defend Lex Luthor today," he said in a teasing voice.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Lois groaned. "I still cannot believe she manipulated me like that. Not that I'm complaining about the scoop," she frowned, "but I feel like I'm selling my soul to get it."
"I warned you," Clark laughed. Lois sniffed.
"You warned me about accepting favors from Lex," she said. "You didn't warn me that Diana was going to become just as dangerous!" Clark laughed some more and kissed her neck as he sped through the air.
"You are actually doing a good thing," he said more seriously. "J'onn was quite concerned this morning about the League's willingness to go through with the assault on the Legion of Doom. If we don't have a strong enough offensive, people will get hurt," he said.
"That's what Shayera said," Lois murmured. "That's the only reason why I agreed to do it," she added. Clark gave her a look.
"Hey," Lois protested. "I wasn't going to agree to do it for free," she said. "It's Lex fucking Luthor. I deserve some pretty stellar compensation for sullying my own reputation to defend that sonofabitch. But I wasn't going to let you and your team be endangered if I could help," she said more soberly.
Clark beamed at her.
"That's why I love you, Lois," he said to her.
"Stop," she said, blushing.
"You always do the right thing," Clark said. "Even though you hide it sometimes behind your bluster."
"Well, one of us needs to be ferocious," Lois said, nuzzling her nose into his cheek. "If we were both as friendly and helpful as you are, people would walk all over us," she said.
"I know," Clark smiled. "You keep us in balance. We're a good team." Lois smiled.
"We are," she said as she ran her fingers through his hair that the wind was whipping back from his scalp.
"Speaking of being a team," she said, "I was wondering how you'd feel if we both hyphenated our names after we got married? So we'd both have the same last name."
Clark's heart swelled with joy.
"I'd love to," he said, turning his face to kiss her on the lips again. "I wasn't sure if you'd want to keep Lane by itself." Lois shook her head.
"We're in this together," she said. "But is it ok if we make it Lane-Kent for both of us? Lois Lane-Kent rolls off the tongue better."
"You have the Pulitzer," Clark teased. "We definitely need the last name that sounds best with Lois," he said. She giggled.
"I love you, future Mr. Clark Lane-Kent," she said.
"I love you, too," Clark said as he slowed his speed and began to descend from the sky. He pulled Lois into a deep kiss once their feet were solidly on the ground. "I am so excited we're getting married," he said to her. "I didn't mind waiting," he said quickly. "But I'm glad you're ready."
"Me, too," Lois said happily. "But, I am not so sure I'm ready to be de-materialized," she said nervously. "Diana and Shayera had to wait until the last minute to call me," she grumbled. "Bad enough I'm going into outer space," she said. "But I couldn't even take the javelin?"
"You're scared about going into space?" Clark said to her in surprise as he signaled the Watchtower on his communicator. "I thought you'd be excited."
"I'm excited about the tour and writing the article," Lois said. "But I watched Space Camp as a kid. That movie was too real. And Apollo 13? Real space is not sci-fi," she muttered. "It's freakin' dangerous."
"The Watchtower barely feels like you're in space," Clark reassured her. "And we're not like Titanic," he said. "We have enough javelins to evacuate everyone in an emergency if the transporters go down."
"Ok," Lois said unhappily. Clark's communicator beeped.
"Here we go," he said. Lois barely had time to panic before she felt a warm sensation fizz through her entire body. Her vision got hazy for the barest second before she was blinking and in one piece on the Watchtower beaming pad.
"Oh, thank God," she moaned, patting herself up and down to reassure herself that all of her limbs were intact. "We are so taking a shuttle home," she said to Clark. He laughed.
"Absolutely," he said. "Anything for our star witness."
"Yes," Diana agreed from the side of the pad, walking over with Shayera to greet Lois. "Anything at all for you, Lois. Thank you so much for coming," she said gratefully, pulling her friend into a big hug that made Lois sputter and protest.
"All right, all right, I'm here," she said in annoyance, even though Diana could see in her eyes that she wasn't horribly upset. Public displays of affection made the reporter uncomfortable, Diana knew, but she couldn't help herself this once - Lois was being so accommodating and generous to help the Justice League out and they only needed her help because of Diana's dating life.
It made a girl want to give her best friend a hug.
"This is Shayera," Diana said. "I guess you've crossed paths occasionally before."
"Yes," Lois said, narrowing her eyes a little bit as she evaluated the Thanagarian standing before her. Whatever she saw seemed to satisfy her, because she nodded a little bit.
"You're a brave woman to date Batman," Lois said dryly. Shayera laughed.
"I'd say he's the brave one to date me," she boasted, prompting a smile to appear on Lois's face.
"I would concur," Batman growled, appearing out of nowhere behind the trio of women. Lois jumped but Shayera didn't seem fazed.
"You'd better concur," she said to Bats as he wrapped his arms around her waist under her wings from behind. Shayera pressed a kiss to what little skin on the side of his face wasn't hidden underneath his cowl and Lois was surprised to see a hint of a smile curl up the edge of Batman's mouth.
She glanced at Diana to see how Diana was taking the couple's open affection and was relieved to see that Diana seemed to be holding it together.
"Of course I concur," Batman said to Shayera, now fully smiling. "All of our drinking didn't black out the memory of who won the bagging contest," he said and Shayera gave a hearty belly laugh.
"Lois," Batman said, turning his head to face the reporter. "Good of you to join us. Hear you're getting a tour later," he growled in a more unfriendly tone of voice.
"That was all Diana's doing!" Lois said, lifting her hands up in her defense as Clark chuckled.
"You're not upset about giving the public a glimpse of Justice League Headquarters?" Bruce said to him pointedly. Clark smiled.
"I'm going to leave all the upset to you and J'onn and GL," he said easily, "seeing as how it's my fiancée who's getting the tour and writing the article."
"Your fiancée?" Diana screamed as Shayera's face split into a warm smile. "You got engaged? When?"
"Last night," Lois laughed. "We won't be able to shop for a ring until Monday, though."
She smiled as Clark interlaced their fingers and squeezed her hand, and Diana's eyes misted up a little bit, because that was Clark all over - respecting Lois's need for minimal public contact even when they were announcing their engagement. They fit together so well, Diana thought to herself.
"I take it you were the one who proposed, Lois," Batman was saying with a smirk as Lois laughed and Clark smiled.
"Of course," Lois said breezily. "Clark would've been happy to get engaged ages ago," she said more seriously as she swung their hands together and looked up at her future husband, "but I wasn't ready until now."
"Did coming over for dinner last night have something to do with it?" Diana asked her eagerly. Lois glared at her.
"I am giving Lex enough credit today that I am not entirely sure that he deserves. We will have that discussion another day," she snapped.
"That's a 'yes,'" Shayera chuckled.
"Shut up, you," Lois said sharply, which made Shayera laugh outright.
"You and me are definitely going to become friends," she said with glee. "She's as feisty as I am," Shayera said to Batman, turning her head to look up at him with amusement as she stayed cozily snuggled in his arms, which were still wrapped around her waist.
Diana felt herself start to blush when instead of answering his girlfriend out loud, Bruce bent down and whispered something in her ear that made her wings flutter. Diana cleared her throat and walked over to Lois and Clark.
"Shall we head down to the meeting?" she said. "We're just about to get started. J'onn and Wally and John are already there setting up."
"Lead the way," Lois said with a flash of empathy as she met Diana's eyes.
Due to the fact that the Justice League had so many members on its roster, the all hands meeting was being held in their largest briefing room which featured sloped seating with attached desks like a college lecture hall, although the League briefing room featured bigger seats on the ends of aisles for their larger members.
J'onn was going through some papers on the podium as the Flash chatted with the Green Lantern and Vixen who were seated together in the front row.
"What's she doing here?" Dinah Lance murmured to Oliver Queen as Lois Lane walked in with Superman and Wonder Woman. The Green Arrow frowned.
"A reporter at a mission briefing?" he said. "I don't like it. Even if she is Superman's girlfriend."
"Do you like it more or less than you like this mission?" Black Canary sighed. Ollie grunted.
"Risking League members at Lex Luthor's behest? Not my idea of something the Justice League ought to be doing and I intend to say so," he said.
"Maybe he's changed," Supergirl said from the seat on his right. "Wonder Woman's not an idiot, Ollie. And the way Lex was looking at her in those photos from the dance?" Kara sighed dreamily. "I hope a man looks at me that way one day," she said. "You can't fake that."
Dinah snorted.
"Sure you can, honey," she said. "It's called acting. People in Hollywood get paid a lot of money to do it everyday."
"Still," Wildcat said from her left. "Diana's a smart lady. I don't think Lex could get away with fooling her that easily."
"But should the entire League be risking their lives over her love life?" the Green Arrow retorted. "Even if it's not a trap. Which I still say that it is."
"It does seem awfully self-serving," Canary agreed with him. "Rounding up all these villains will be doing Lex a huge favor."
"Not just Lex," Wildcat protested. "Think of all the people who won't become crime statistics once we've got these villains locked up. It's doing the world a huge favor, is what it is."
"Yeah," said Kara. "Ted's right. If we had this kind of intel coming from anyone besides Lex, you both would jump at the chance to take down this many baddies at once."
"But the intel is coming from Lex," Oliver said in frustration. "It's too much of a gamble. We could be walking into the biggest trap of our lives. I don't think the League has the right to put its members' lives on the line based on Lex Luthor's supposed goodwill."
"I'm inclined to agree," Dinah said, crossing her fishnet clad legs as Batman and Shayera entered the room and J'onn stood to call the meeting to order.
"We all know why we are here today," J'onn intoned. "As you are aware, we have a full-scale attack on the Legion of Doom planned for Sunday night at 10 p.m. As you are also aware, this attack was planned jointly with Lex Luthor, who is now dating Wonder Woman and has asked for our assistance in putting his former associates behind bars."
"I am well aware of your doubts and concerns," J'onn said. "And the Founders will do everything in our power to address those concerns throughout this meeting. Rest assured that Batman has devised our own tactical plan over and above what was discussed with Lex that takes into account the possibility of a trap."
"Well, that's something," Canary murmured under her breath. Ollie grunted.
"Still too dangerous," he muttered.
"Additionally," J'onn continued, "Wonder Woman will be leaving the briefing early so that certain strategic details never reach her ears in the event that she falls victim to a telepathic attack between now and Sunday. As of this moment, I am confident that she has not been compromised."
The Green Arrow snorted quietly.
"She hasn't been compromised telepathically, maybe," he said. "But she's been compromised, all right," he said.
"You don't know that," Dinah scolded him in a whisper. "It's possible Lex really loves her. I don't think we should be basing a mission on it, though."
"I will also add that I had the opportunity to observe Lex both over dinner and during our time at the Justice League Embassy on Earth, and while I did not read his mind -"
"Why not?" Wildcat muttered. "Seems like that woulda been the easiest way to set everybody's minds at ease."
"J'onn doesn't have the right to go snooping around in people's minds whenever he wants," Canary said back to him. "That would be a disgusting privacy violation."
"So why didn't he ask to read his mind?" Wildcat grumbled.
"Is there a question?" J'onn said as the heroes' arguing escalated to a distracting level.
"Yeah, I got a question," Wildcat called out. "Why didn't you ask to read Lex Luthor's mind? Woulda made all of us feel a lot better," he said.
In the front row, Diana frowned but held her tongue. Her fingers were tightly clamped around her silver bracelets, though, and Lois saw that she was brimming with tension.
"Mr. Luthor offered that as an option for us," J'onn replied. "As well as offering to speak under compulsion of Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth. However, the Founders agreed that we would be violating our own principles if we subjected Lex to a lie detector test."
A chorus of disbelieving laughs rang around the room, followed by a litany of murmured complaints and jeers.
"Hey!" Wally said, standing up to face the crowd. "We're not the police force," he said. "We're the Justice League. Does justice only apply to certain people?" he said.
"Or is everybody entitled to it? If we're serious about our values, then we apply them to everybody," Wally said insistently. "Otherwise, we might as well call ourselves the Justice Lords and go around forcing everyone to obey us."
"Oh, wait," he said sarcastically. "They tried that on another Earth. Didn't end well. For the world. Is that who we want to become?" he asked the League members.
The grumbling grew to a guilty halt, although the silence was an unfriendly one as the Flash took his seat.
"The fact that Lex willingly offered to undergo any form of truth-detection should relieve some of your fears as to his insincerity," J'onn said. "Additionally, we have asked Lois Lane to speak with you all regarding her observations about Lex's behavior and intentions."
Lois stood at J'onn's gesture and walked to the microphone at the podium.
"Well," she said as she looked out over the full room. "As most of you know, Lex has made multiple attempts on Superman's life. Multiple," she said, glaring at Diana a little bit, who bit her lip but nodded. "And I will never forgive him for that," Lois continued. "Ever. Not ever. Falling in love with my best friend does not excuse his past behavior towards my boyfriend," she said bitterly. "Or towards anyone, for that matter."
Diana sighed a little bit in her seat and Shayera gave her a sympathetic look.
"I was asked up here as Lex Luthor's motherfuckin' character witness," Lois continued. "Me. Lois Lane. Because I hate him, I now have the privilege of defending his character," she snarked sarcastically.
"And I want to make very clear that I did not want to come and tell you all to risk your lives based on my word," she said.
"Finally, someone with some common sense," Oliver enthused quietly. "Leave it to Lane to be the voice of reason," he said.
"Also," Lois was continuing, "I was promised an exclusive scoop on the Watchtower for The Daily Planet in exchange for coming up here. With a limited tour, not through secure areas of the station, of course, and Clark and Batman will be reviewing my article before I submit it to make sure that no compromising details slip in."
"They bribed her?" Ollie growled. Kara scoffed.
"Just so she'd come up here," she said. "No one's more trustworthy than Lois. But she hates Lex's guts. The last thing she'd ever want to do is say something positive about him. Even if it was true."
"Listen," Dinah scolded them.
"If you want my honest opinion," Lois sighed reluctantly, "and I cannot believe I am saying this," she muttered, "Lex loves Diana."
Some surprised chattering was heard around the lecture hall as Lois held a hand up.
"Now, wait, wait, wait," Lois said. "I still hate him. I still think there's a possibility that he's fooled all of us, because there's always that possibility with Lex. But I also know that Superman thinks this mission is worth doing and that it needs all of you to succeed. And I know Batman well enough to know that he's planned the mission as if it was a trap."
"So I don't think it's really a question of if you trust Lex or not," Lois said. "It's a question of whether or not you trust Batman." Lois shrugged.
"If it were me? I'd trust Batman," she said. "Because if Lex is lying, you can capture his ass, too," she said calmly. "I'm sure Bats already has ten different strategies in place for taking him down with everyone else if things go south."
"More than ten," Batman growled from the front row.
"See?" Lois said to the League members silently watching her, now. "You're in good hands. I don't think you all have anything to worry about. Lex only thinks this is his mission. I know damn well it's not," she said, meeting Batman's eyes. He smirked at her.
"In fact," Lois said, "I'd bet the Bat has secret backup plans which he's not telling any of you, including the Founders," she said, looking over at J'onn and Clark and the Green Lantern. "You don't have to be a detective to figure out that the reason why Batman always wins is because he doesn't trust anyone."
"But what do I know?" Lois said. "I'm only a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist with fifteen years of experience in excavating the truth," she finished with a triumphant gleam in her eye.
Diana wasn't psychic, but she felt the icy atmosphere in the room thaw by at least ten degrees when Lois had finished speaking. She took in a deep breath and breathed a sigh of relief as her friend strolled over to her.
"Thank you," Diana said gratefully. Lois nodded. "I'll walk you down to the commissary," Diana said. "You can wait there for your tour until the meeting's over."
"Which will be hours, right?" Lois said. "Because I've got a hell of a lot of work to do that you dragged me away from. You have wi-fi up here, right?"
"Of course," Diana said with a smile. She gave J'onn a little wave as she led Lois out of the room.
"Well," Dinah said as J'onn prepared to take the meeting back over. "She makes a good point. You know Bats isn't going to lead us wrong." Oliver sighed.
"He is a sneaky sonofabitch, I must admit," he said. "I suppose if he's planned this mission out around Luthor in ways that Luthor and the Legion can't prepare for… it might be all right."
"Of course it will be all right," Supergirl said impatiently. "He's Batman."
