Chapter 21 – Valediction


It was the police who actually found Tony, or rather found his body, alone in his car on a desolate stretch of Highway 56. The cause of death was an apparent overdose of the drug he had been producing in the basement of his club.

With the added bonus of having a first hand perspective of the event, the article that Lois wrote about the drug bust was considered to be topnotch reporting. It was picked up by a few large papers including The Daily Planet, and stemmed a few follow-up pieces on exactly how an unknown college student had almost become a small town drug lord.

When she wasn't chasing down information for her story, Lois made a few trips to Metropolis General to have her ear repaired. Since the damage wasn't too bad, the initial surgery had just involved stitching the skin and cartilage together where the bullet had removed flesh. The follow-up visits had been to ensure that everything was healing as desired.

Jonathan joined her on the last trip to have the stitches and gauze removed. A side trip on the way home had been scheduled to dispose of the briefcase full of Kryptonite Lois had stashed before the police arrived.

"There you are," Lois said, as she reached the top landing of the stairs to the loft. "Did you miss me?"

With the aftermath of the Tony debacle, they hadn't seen much of each other. With a grin, Clark rose from his desk and walked over to her.

"You're back." He was tempted to reach for her hand, but ended up stuffing his hands in his pockets instead.

Smiling, she turned her head so he could see her ear. "So what do you think?"

"It's looks good." When she turned to face him again, he squinted. "It's a little smaller than the other one."

She narrowed her eyes in mock disgust. "Yeah, that was an unforeseen side effect. I never realized how attached I was to this thing until some idiot tried to shoot it off."

Clark laughed. "So you've gotten pretty famous around here with the whole… thing at the club." He waved a hand in the air. He still didn't feel comfortable saying Tony's name after everything that had happened. "I hope it hasn't gone to your head."

"Of course it has! I get free coffee at The Talon because there's always somebody who wants to hear the story first hand." She flopped dramatically onto the couch, doing her best imitation of a movie star distressed by the amount of attention she received.

"You get free coffee at The Talon anyway," Clark countered.

She sat up and glared at him.

"Yeah, but not the fancy kinds- and I've got good news! During my trips to Metropolis I've been able to make contact with the powers that be over at Met U, and they are re-admitting me. The catch is that I have to do a stint in summer school so I can be admitted as a sophomore. On top of that, I scored an internship with The Planet!"

"You're leaving?"

Her shoulders dropped at his tone, and she shifted her position on the couch.

"Not for another couple of weeks. LCC is going to let me email my last term papers in to finish my courses, and I need to get settled in with The Planet. Some stupid rule says that I have to go through Met U orientation again, even though I tried to explain that I'd already gone through all of that nonsense…Sorry, you probably don't want all the details."

Clark tried to match her excitement. "No, it's great. Um, I guess those last few articles upped your chances for the internship, huh?" he asked, moving to sit on the couch next to her.

Lois smiled wryly at his attempt to be happy for her. "Actually, they said they were initially impressed by some article I did for them about a mental patient. I tried to explain that my cousin was the one that wrote it, but they seemed kind of anxious about a possible fraud issue, so we let it drop. They did like the stuff I've been doing at LCC, though. I'll have to be sure to thank Chloe for the portfolio boost."

She tried not to get drawn in by the sadness in his eyes. It made her want to forget all of her self-made promises.

"Hey, I know you'll miss fighting over the shower with me, but it's not like I'll be that far away. And, I brought you something that should cheer you up!"

Smiling, she jumped up from the couch and reached to pull him with her. "Come on!"

Clark dejectedly followed her to the house. His parents were standing on the porch and turned when the two teens reached them.

"You stay out here," Lois said, reaching for the door handle. "I'll be right back."

Clark glanced to his parents. "What's going on?"

Martha merely smiled while Jonathan reached to pat Clark on the shoulder. "You'll just have to wait and see."

Clark noticed Lois returning, approaching the door backwards. Jonathan reached to pull it open for her, and when she turned around, she was holding a small brown cocker spaniel in her arms.

"You brought me a dog?"

"Well, really your dad did. I just picked him out. On our way back from Metropolis we spotted a family that was selling puppies from their new litter. Couldn't say no. Wouldn't want you to be lonely when I'm gone…" she teased.

The dog yipped and wiggled, so she set him on the ground. They all laughed as he ran to the steps and skidded to a stop, only to turn and run into Martha's legs. She bent down to pet him.

Clark turned to his dad. "You're letting me have a dog?"

Jonathan smiled and bent down next to his wife. "Hey, what's a farm without a dog?"

The puppy rolled onto his back, relishing in the attention of the two adults.

"He needs a name," Lois remarked, perching on the railing. "I was thinking of Clarkie."

Clark rolled his eyes and dropped to one knee to grasp the wriggling mass of fur that was nipping at his sneaker.

"How about not?" he quipped, in reply.

"Well, then what do you suggest?"

"Krypto," Clark replied, laughing as the dog jumped at his chest, forcing him to fall backwards.

"No way," Lois scoffed.

"It's a good name," he protested.

"You can name your next dog, Krypto. This little guy's too cute to be scarred for the rest of his life because of a name."

Jonathan stood and brushed the knees of his jeans off. "You could call him Max or Basil."

Noticing that Martha had sat down, the dog left Clark and climbed into her lap. As she scratched behind one of his ears, she smiled. "I had a dog that kind of looked like this one when I was little girl. His name was Shelby."

"Shelby. I could live with that," Lois said, hopping off of the railing and kneeling by Martha and the puppy.

Clark smiled. "Shelby it is."


tbc