Lois had to call Perry to let him know she wasn't coming in. "I need the day off."
"I knew you were having a nervous breakdown."
Not the response she expected. "What?"
"Yesterday when you said something or other about Clark having to go take care of his mom at the last minute. I thought who in the world is Clark, but then you dashed off, and I thought it must be some friend of yours though why you thought I'd care, I don't know. Either that, or the stress was getting to you. But now that you're asking off, I know you are having a breakdown."
"Are you saying I don't have the time to take off?"
"You have enough unused vacation, sick leave and the like to take a year off."
She wasn't that much of a workaholic though in this new reality without Clark, she could easily see herself becoming one. "So we're good then? Because I might need more than a day."
"Take as much time as you need. Just call me when you're ready to come back."
Well, that was convenient, she thought as she hung up. How could every part of her reality change? She was beginning to doubt her sanity, which would have been an explanation, but not the explanation she wanted.
Looking through her purse for clues, for anything, she found a credit card she didn't recognize. She called the bank to see what the credit line was before she used it on a brunch and had it snipped. She was starving, having not eaten much at the Kents, and found out she had a ten billion dollar credit line.
One thing about being Lois Lane Queen, she didn't have to worry about expenses. So she treated herself to a morning at the spa where she ate lobster benedict and drank juice she wouldn't get choked on. If there'd ever been a day when she'd earned it, it was today, and it might help her think more clearly.
"Feeling relaxed, Mrs. Queen?" a girl asked after a massage and mud treatment.
She was until she'd been called Mrs. Queen. She'd wasted enough time though. "Sort of. I have a feeling I'll be back."
Thinking she'd try talking to Chloe again to gather whether there'd been any more recent meteor showers or just a new freak of the week, she came upon an accident. She was a bit of a rubbernecker. She wouldn't have been good at her job if she wasn't prone to curiosity, and she saw Clark.
Off duty, he was wearing only a black t-shirt and pants, but his badge, gun, and handcuffs were hanging from his belt, and he was looking all heroic with his hands on his hips and making her feel a little hot and bothered. She'd never considered the boys in blue as particularly sexy before unless you counted Superman, but none of them had ever been Clark before.
He looked deep in thought and concerned about the people in the accident. Even when he had the day off he had to help. That's why she loved him so.
Impulsively, she pulled off to the side of the road and joined him.
He didn't seem annoyed that she was interrupting official police business like a lot of other cops she knew. In fact, he smiled. "You always did seem to be able to appear at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"It's a gift. And that could be said of everyone in Smallville. The town is a magnet for trouble." She wondered if it wasn't at the heart of her troubles now.
"Can't argue with that. This, however, is just a standard accident. A young kid, who just got his license, took a curve too fast and flipped his car. Nothing to report here."
"Is he okay?" she asked, looking toward the ambulance.
"You're really interested, aren't you? Even though you don't know him, and it's not big news."
She looked at him in surprise. "Aren't you?"
"No. I mean yes, but I do know him, and not everyone-you know what? Forget I said anything."
But she got it because she knew him so well even a him who was experiencing another past and current reality. Lana didn't want him to bring his work home. If she wasn't invested personally, she didn't want to hear anything about it, considering it too gruesome or sad or whatever, and it was hard when you couldn't share everything with the one you loved or thought you loved. "So is he?"
He looked back at the ambulance. "I think so. Cracked some ribs and crushed his knee cap but everything else seems fine." Realizing he'd been a little too free with that assessment because he thought she didn't know about his x-ray vision, he added, "At least, that's what I think."
She didn't want to get back in her car. She wanted him to hold her and tell her he remembered everything, but of course, he didn't. "Nice equipment by the way," she said gesturing toward his waist.
Watching him blush made her think of their teen years, and she chuckled. "I mean your Glock 19."
"Just a standard issue," he said with a shrug.
She wondered how often he actually used it. Probably never. He didn't need to. She took a step forward because there was so much space between them, and she watched his eyebrows raise. She didn't want to seem like a tramp trying to steal him from his pregnant wife though it's not like she had exactly jumped him. so she didn't move any closer. "Well, uh, I suppose I should go visit with Chloe now. That is why I'm here."
He seemed relieved. Not how she wanted things at all. "Yeah, well, maybe we'll see each other again before you leave."
"Maybe," she said, trying not to sound totally dejected. Bringing his love for her to the surface was not going to be as easy as she thought.