Emmeline rushed into the Daily Planet as paramedics, police officers, reporters, and photographers flooded the ground floor. "How is she?"
Clark tried to run to Lana as she was lifted up onto a gurney and led away, but a police officer held him back. "Is she gonna be all right?" he asked Chloe.
"She's hurt pretty badly. Come on, Clark." Chloe pulled both of them away from the lobby area and into the office.
"How did this happen?" Emmeline asked.
"The police think it was a mugging."
"A mugging?" Clark said in disbelief.
Jimmy joined them, having finished taking pictures of the crime scene. "Inside the building?"
"Now, normally, I'd be the first person to cry 'foul play'," Chloe answered, "but she was downtown, middle of the night, fancy dress, stolen purse. I mean, he probably jumped her before she knew what was happening."
"Am I the only one that thinks it's weird that she was wining and dining with Daddy Warbucks instead of Lex?"
"Wait a second, whoever attacked her is still out there," Clark realized.
"Jimmy and I saw him flee, and he did get away," Chloe told him. "But the police will run prints on the gun."
"Which the mugger thoughtfully left behind," Jimmy put in dryly. "What was Lana doing here in the middle of the night anyway?"
Clark frantically paced the room. "I should have been watching her. Ever since she married Lex, I've been so angry—"
"Clark, tell me you are not making this your fault," Chloe said.
"I've always been there for her until now. I gotta find out who did this."
"Well, the police aren't saying much. But maybe you'll have better luck." Clark quickly left the room, and before Jimmy had a chance to ask how he could do anything that the police couldn't, Chloe told him, "Jimmy, I need you to download the photo of Lana's attacker."
Jimmy watched Chloe return to her desk and reluctantly decided that he would ask questions later. For now, he needed to support his girlfriend by figuring out what happened to one of her closest friends.
"What can I do?" Emmeline asked.
"Go to the hospital and let me know the second you something happens," Chloe answered.
"All right, same goes for you."
Emmeline left the office and headed to Smallville Medical Center, hoping that Lana would survive the night.
The last thing Jimmy remembered was downloading the picture of Lana's attacker, then something hit him on the back of the head, and now he was living in a classic 30s flick (which, to be honest, was something of a dream come true since he'd always had a huge passion for the old movies).
After Mrs. Lana Luthor reported to him that her husband wanted her dead, his first stop to get some answers was at the Talon Club.
Jimmy checked in his hat and coat and made for the dining room, but the bouncer put a hand to his chest to stop him.
"I'm here to see a friend," Jimmy told the tall man as suavely as he could.
"Ain't everyone?" the bouncer replied.
"Look, I don't want any trouble, honest. I just—"
Someone cleared his throat, and then to Jimmy's surprise, Clark appeared from the other side of the curtain. His hair was neatly coiffed and he was dressed in a very expensive suit, which was a far cry from the bumbling reporter he'd met back at the Daily Planet. "The kid's with me."
Jimmy stepped through the curtain and was met with a 1930s version of the Talon café. Men and women in fancy dress sat at small white tables smoking cigarettes while waiters took orders for food and drinks and waitresses handed out cigars.
"Eyes back in your head, Olsen," Clark said behind him.
Jimmy followed Clark to the bar. "I didn't peg you as the kind of guy with a secret identity."
"And you're never gonna. Now, suppose you tell me what story you're chasing."
"No story, just…thirsty."
"Come on, a guy like you with a reputation to uphold? You wouldn't be caught 100 yards of this place unless you were sitting on a big scoop."
Clark opened his mouth to place an order for a drink with the bartender, but a man in a white suit waltzed behind the bar and ordered for him, "Rye whiskey. Rocks."
Jimmy looked at this world's version of Lionel Luthor, trying to put all the pieces about him into place.
"Put it on his tab, Joe," Lionel told the bartender. "Name's Kent." He glared at Clark. "You stroll in here with this crackerjack kid. You trying to land me in the cooler?"
Clark picked up his whiskey glass. "Cool your jets, mack. Jimmy here is just a little down on love. Ain't you, Jimmy?"
Lionel came around the bar to stand beside Jimmy. "Poor sucker. Yep. Dame's his poison."
At that moment, Lois sauntered down the stairs, her voice sultrily singing along with the band's soft music. Dressed in a long ballgown and long white gloves, she made her way up to the stage.
Jimmy thought that pigs would fly before he saw Lois in a dress. He wished he had a way to capture this moment so he could share it with Chloe later.
"If that's what you're after…get in line," Clark smirked.
"No, no, I'm just…"
He looked towards the corner, by the left side of the stage, and there sat Lex Luthor chatting it up with Lionel.
Suddenly, one of the waitresses walking past them tripped, and without missing a single beat, Clark turned and caught the woman before she fell.
"Thanks," the woman said softly.
Clark gave her a suave smile. "My pleasure."
When he helped her stand back up, Jimmy realized that the waitress was Emmeline. Her long brown hair was tied back around the nape of her neck and she had a flower near her left ear. While she was dressed in the same short, sleeveless black dress as the other women, she was holding a circular tray rather than carrying a box of cigars.
She quickly nodded at Jimmy and then scurried away to return to her job.
"So it's Luthor you're after," Clark guessed. "Well, that lovely dame you just saw works as a housekeeper at the Luthor mansion during the day. She might have some answers for you, if you can squeeze them out of her. But a bit of advice. Better wipe that newsie smile off your face. Luthor can smell fresh blood a mile away."
"Fresh?!" Jimmy exclaimed. "Now, you listen here, Kent."
Clark chuckled. "Relax. I'm one of the good guys."
Jimmy watched him confidently stride away from the bar. "Yeah, that's what they all say." He got up from his seat and walked towards Emmeline who was loading up her tray with some drinks.
"We don't normally serve your kind," she told him without looking at him. "Reporters aren't welcome, not that they ever want to set foot in here anyway."
Jimmy smiled as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "I had a friend on the inside."
"Mr. Kent?"
"The one and only."
"I could get in trouble if I'm seen speaking with you. I know why you want to talk to me, but you can save your questions. The Mr. and Mrs. aren't around while I'm working in the house, most likely for this exact reason."
"I'm more curious about what you hear at your second job."
Emmeline stopped putting drinks on the tray and finally looked up at him with a small smile. "Smart boy."
"Well, the way I see it, you'll overhear a lot more working here than you would in the mansion."
"The things I've overheard here could shock the devil himself. You see, with this position, I might as well be invisible. No one pays attention to the help."
"Sweetheart, in that dress, you're anything but invisible."
"You want answers? Don't call me 'sweetheart'."
Jimmy smiled and held his hands up. "So you got anything useful for me?"
"Do you know what you're getting yourself into by asking me that?"
"I don't have much of a choice, now do I?"
"You could just walk away."
"I'm afraid I'm in too deep to walk away now."
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you. Here's a tip for you. Every night, Mr. Luthor makes a big exit. He makes sure the whole joint knows it. But when his car pulls out of the alley…he's not in it. You didn't hear that from me."
Emmeline picked up the tray of drinks and quickly walked away.
Early in the morning, word spread quickly around the town that Lex Luthor had been shot and killed some time during the night. And that Jimmy was the culprit.
The phone rang at the Luthor mansion.
"Yeah, it's me," a gravelly voice said on the other end. "Listen, Boy Wonder may have taken the bait, but he's on to you."
"Doesn't matter anymore," Lana Luthor answered coldly. "You're back on top of the lowlife food chain, and I'm out from under a suffocating marriage."
She slammed the phone back onto the receiver then slowly slid her dress on over her white slip.
Behind her, none other than Clark Kent ambled out of the bathroom in only pants and an undershirt, wiping his hands on a towel.
"There's something I have to take care of," Lana told him.
Clark spun her around and firmly kissed her. "I thought that's what I was here for."
"Don't worry. We won't have to sneak around much longer."
Neither of them noticed a woman listening just outside of the door.
When Chloe told Jimmy that Clark had set him up to take the fall for getting Lex Luthor out of the way so he could have Lana to himself, he hurried back to the Daily Planet to get answers.
He walked into the office and saw cigarette smoke wafting up from his desk. "Guess you took me for a patsy, didn't you, Kent?" he drawled. "You played me right from the very start. You saw your chance to bump off the old man, let me take the fall for it, and you get away with the girl. But why'd you have to…?"
The figure sitting in his chair spun around, and Jimmy saw that it was not Clark, but Lana Luthor. "He didn't. I did."
"Well, aren't you full of surprises?"
"I'm sorry I had to drag you into all this, James. I really am."
"They are gonna put me away."
"They won't get the chance."
Lana aimed a revolver at him. Two gunshots rang out, and Jimmy stumbled back against the desk behind him in alarm, pain exploding in his chest. But then he realized that he wasn't dead. Instead, Lana fell back into Jimmy's chair again, blood dripping from her mouth.
Clark stepped into the room, holding a smoking revolver. "Why'd you make me do it?"
Lana looked up at him heartbroken. "It was all for you." Her head slumped behind her and her breathing stopped.
Jimmy slowly pulled the cigarette case he'd swiped from Lex out of his coat. Lana's bullet had hit that instead of its intended target. "Gardenia," he whispered, repeating Lex's last word.
"I should've known better," Clark said, staring at Lana's dead body. "Rule number one: never get mixed up with a girl. Not when you're on the job."
"On the job?"
Clark held up a police badge.
"You're a cop?"
"Undercover unit. I was sent here to watch Lex Luthor. Falling in love with his wife, that was…that was my mistake."
"Those were some eyes that she had. Would have made any guy wanna be a hero."
"Yeah, well, those eyes just got you the electric chair. Someone should have told you, kid. There are no heroes in Metropolis."
Clark firmly took his arm, but before he could lead him out of the room, someone smacked him hard on the back of the head, and the taller of the two men crumpled to the floor.
Jimmy looked at the unconscious form of Clark in shock. When he looked up, there stood Emmeline with a large book in her hands that had been resting on one of the desks.
"It's like I told you," she said calmly. "No one pays attention to the help."
Jimmy could sense that she said those words as if she wanted someone specific to notice her, and he had a hunch that it was probably Clark. Working in the mansion and at the club, she would see him all the time and it only made sense that she might fall for him. "You knew everything. You knew who Clark really was, and you knew that Lana Luthor was behind all of this."
"Just because they couldn't see me working at the mansion doesn't mean I wasn't there watching. Mr. Kent here talks a lot of big talk, but he's no better than the rest of them."
"So what happens now?"
"Mrs. Luthor may have set you up, but you still shot and killed someone. You're not innocent. I can't change that. But I can get you out. I can give you what you need to completely start over far away from here where they'll never find you."
"Why are you helping me?"
"I think you're not a bad guy, Mr. Olsen. You just got caught in a bad situation. You should know if you take me up on my offer, you'll have to leave your entire life here behind."
Jimmy's face fell. No more working at the Planet? No more solving mysteries? No more exposés? No more Chloe? "I'll find a way back somehow."
"No, you won't. You'll never be able to set foot in this town again without being arrested the second you do." Emmeline looked down at Clark's unconscious body. "He was right about one thing. There are no heroes in Metropolis. Because being a hero requires you to sacrifice everything."
"You sound like you have experience with that."
"Maybe I do. So what's your answer, Mr. Olsen? Do you have what it takes?"
Before Jimmy could come up with a reply, the world blurred and he awoke back in reality.
Chloe stepped into the hospital waiting room early the next morning. Emmeline quickly stood up from one of the chairs and walked up to her. "Were you here all night?" Chloe asked her.
"No, I went home for a little bit and then came back about an hour ago. The surgery went well and they were able to fix the gunshot wound and replenish the blood she'd lost. What did you guys find out last night?"
"Well, Jimmy figured out that Lana wasn't at the Planet to see me, she was there visiting a reporter for political correspondence."
"Why?"
"I don't know, and I have a feeling we're not going to like the answer. Because the same person who tried to kill Lana killed the reporter when Jimmy and I confronted him."
"Oh, boy. Well, they just told me that Lana's awake, so…let's go find out what's going on."
The two of them walked to Lana's room to see her groaning as she sat up.
"Close call," Chloe remarked.
"Luckily, I don't remember much," Lana answered tiredly.
Chloe and Emmeline stepped into the room, and Chloe shut the door behind them. "Let me fill you in on a few of the details. Someone really didn't want you and Brennan to expose whatever was in that cigarette case, so they tried to kill you and succeeded with him. Now, I know that Lex would never do anything to hurt the love of his life, but who did?"
"Chloe, if I could tell you guys, I would. It's complicated."
"We're quick learners."
Lana sighed and took a few seconds to consider how she should answer. "Lionel," she finally admitted. "He's been forcing me to dig into Lex and turn over everything to him."
"Lionel has you spying on Lex? But instead of giving him the information you found, you were gonna give it to the papers?"
Lana slightly turned her head as an affirmative answer.
"Why?"
"It was my only way to get out from under them."
"I don't understand. I mean, Lionel has a league of minions. Why you?"
"He needed someone on the inside. Someone who could get close to Lex."
"Holy…Lana, is that why you went through with the wedding? Why would you do that?"
"To protect Clark."
"From what? Clark can take care of himself."
"What about his weakness? Chloe, you admitted yourself that he has one. Whatever Clark is capable of, there's something stronger than him, isn't there?"
"Lana, if you are keeping this from Clark because you're trying to protect him, he needs to know."
"He can't. Guys, I know that you both confide everything in him, but I need you to trust me. Clark's life could depend on it."
