Animal Crackers

"Excuse me, do you have a…." Clark had to move out of the way as he was brushed by.

Tuesdays. Ugh, Tuesdays.

"Bill, do you have a-"

"Busy! Later!"

Clark approached Marissa's desk, the woman with the nails that Clark was fascinated by. How did she type with those? "Hi Marissa, do you have a dime?"

"No." Her eyes never left the screen. She had one of those fake fish tanks on her desk that Clark had never seen batteries in. An algae-type scum had gathered along the top. Mineral oil would probably have been a better idea for the long-term. Maybe a drop of bleach.

"Two nickels?"

"No." Her phone rang, she picked it up and Clark stared at her three-inch long nails.

"Um, thanks."

Clark sighed and turned around. Okay, west side of the Bullpen.

"Dime?"

The new Lifestyle columnist looked up at Clark, who had an apologetic smile on his face and was holding out a hand with some loose change, inviting pity for his cause. "I could really use a snack."

"I don't carry change sorry, Mark. But look around, there's usually change. Under a desk or something." The Lifestyle columnist always wore a hat below his ears, always. How did he talk on the phone with that? It's probably why he called everyone something only phonetically similar to his or her name. At least he answered with full sentences.

"Thanks," smiled Clark as he walked away. Lois was making her way back from the bathroom and he picked up his pace to meet her at a desk intersection.

"Lois! Do you have a dime? Please tell me you have a dime, anything. I could really use some animal crackers from the machine, I'm famished…"

Lois kept her pace on a beeline for her desk, "Animal crackers? Christ, Smallville, I'm not sure if you're quaint or hopeless." And kept walking.

Clark had asked everyone he was comfortable asking and so started looking under desks and in the dusty, dirty crannies that the cleaning service couldn't fit hoses and waxing machines into. He had salvaged three pennies before Lois stepped up close to him while he was bending over, and he came face to face with a bag of crackers being held up to his nose when he extended back to full height. "I wonder about you sometimes, Kent. Animal crackers, honestly." She held up a dime in her other hand, "Here, for next time," and dropped it on top of the two quarters, one nickel, and three pennies in his forgotten hand.

"BRIEF! NOW! You people annoy me!" and senior staff, section managers, and reporters started to gather their notes and head to the conference room. Clark accepted the crackers and smiled at the back of Lois' head, her focus already back on her legal pad as she clicked her way back to her desk to grab her coffee.

Clark ripped the corner of the bag off with his teeth, threw it away, and kept the bag in his mouth while he grabbed two pens, his coffee, and a pad of his own. They had just finished their article on the new earthquake proofing that the city council had tried to introduce in light of the shockwave and were now expecting a new assignment. Clark always liked the lottery-like distribution of stories, never knowing what kind of story they were going to get: its scale, scope, or duration. They could get six stories in a single week or one story that required six.

Clark was the second-to-last person into the conference room and had to fit himself into a spot right next to the door before shutting it behind Todd from Food and Wine. Everyone looked miserable as usual, shifting their eyes back to their desks as various unmanned phones had already begun to ring. Perry sat at the head of the table with mismatched suspenders; to Clark's knowledge no one his entire life had ever had the courage to suggest he was color-blind. His wife must have still been asleep when the editor got dressed this morning. She usually got into the gin on Monday nights. Some things never change.

"Business! Do you need any more time on the Styler-Morrison Merger? Because it's DAYS OLD NOW! The SQUIRRELS have already received their dividends!"

"Well, uh, we think there was something fishy in the-"

"PUBLISH FIRST! Follow-up with sordid details later! It's a newspaper!" Perry moved his head only a fraction to the left in the circle of suits and power-ties, "ARTS! Good job on the Picasso opening. Very few people care, but those who do are satisfied. Thank you, you may keep your jobs. Find me something else by tomorrow's Brief, and you're lucky I only have to fit my head around those artsy terms once a week."

Head came around another degree, "Metro, heads up that subways fares are going up again, I got word from my friend in the MTA on voicemail. He feels he's about to lose his job so do him a favor and rip the shit out of the mayor for me. What's wrong with six fare hikes a year? You tell me. It's a terrible world for commuters, blah, blah, blah.

"Science! Good news for you, some major French scientist was found murdered in his laboratory, nerds are afraid of weapons and small fires, right? Have fun with that.

"Travel, good piece on the falling tourism rates since megalomania reared its head AGAIN. Rip into the mayor again for me. In the meantime, someone get around to asking Superman if he'll do a hotel commercial or something." Clark watched Lois actually snort at that. Everyone noticed. "In reality, Venice sunk another inch, if you're lucky you'll get me to send you there before it's gone for good.

"Health! Flax seed! It's all the rage! Discuss!

"Sports! If I see McHay make another error on a ground ball I'll shoot him from the upper deck! That's not your problem. What is your problem is that I want to start to cover the odd shit. ATVs, hang gliding, these people have million dollar sponsors, someone cares! Educate me on why baseball isn't good enough for the kids anymore, maybe then I'll understand my grandson.

"International!" Perry had turned to Richard now, just back from a conference, "Did you learn anything? Good! Learn this: don't be afraid of Superman, he's back, let's talk about the various earthquakes, mudslides and shipwrecks across the world, SHALL WE? What do I pay you for? To report on revolutions, the greening of Europe? Yes, admittedly I do. But Superman globe-hops daily, there're more disasters worldwide than nationally, he saved three hundred people in Singapore yesterday, I want in, let's go!"

Richard opened his mouth to respond.

"The rest of you continue what you're doing. I think. I don't care. I want to retire. Get out, do something! Lane, Kent, Masood, Veringetti, stay here and STOP crinkling that bag Kent, or I'll kick you and your hyperglycemia back to eff-ing Kansas! Are those animal crackers?" Clark froze with his mouth open and fingers poised to drop some crackers onto his tongue, pen clenched between two fingers.

Perry defined 'brief.' The conference room slowly cleared of people smiling and shaking their heads at Clark, and at least fifteen phones stopped ringing just as their respective owners reached out to pick them up back at their desks. Everyone sighed and turned their monitors back on; Williams and Rao in Science and Technology put their heads together. Clark finally approached the table and got to sit down. He tipped the last of his crackers into his hand and ate them quickly. Lois sent him an amused grin, Clark flashed back a goofy smile and help up the bag. "Hit the spot!"

"SHUT UP!"

Clark cleared his throat while Veringetti outright laughed at him. Richard had hung back as he often did to listen to Lois' new assignments and gave Clark a sympathetic look. For not the first time, Clark wondered why Richard was always watching him with a puzzled expression.

Perry sat back in his chair, "Well, well, my two best teams need two assignments at the same time. Death match?" They stared at him, he moved on immediately, "Well, luckily we have two irons in the fire: the mayor has recently been under heavy criticism for granting contracts to that construction company, um, damn what was it called..."

"McMillan – Gross," Lois finished for him.

"Yes! McMillan – Gross, for additional fireproofing in state buildings around the city. There's a story here, find it. Second, I got a tip that the police are interested in that 13th street warehouse, a property owned (last I knew) by Henderson for his antiquities fencing. The question is, what's going on there now? Henderson has been in jail for a year and a half now, all assets frozen thanks to Lois, so who's operating out of there now and why? Lois, Kent, you two start looking into McMillian – Gross, the mayor-"

"Wait, no way Chief, the Henderson story was mine three years ago, I have the experience here, that's my story. Besides, Masood's afraid of dark, moist places…"

"Lois, I didn't want you on that story then and I don't want you on its sequel now."

"Why the hell not!"

"You were out at all hours, Richard needed to hire a nanny, your car got stolen, you were taken hostage--"

"Bullshit! My story. I don't give a damn if you think I'm too maternal for this shit anymore, Jason's older now anyway, he actually sleeps through a night, I took the lid off that entire operation, testified in court, I have a right to follow up anything on that property! Besides, I have Clark back now!"

Clark's heart soared at the wording in Lois' protest. Poor Kyle had raised a finger and opened his mouth in silent objection to Lois' jibe and had just sat there, speechless, ever since. Lois rarely dug in so deep anymore. Some new fire was burning under her. Richard had stepped away from the wall in order to interject, obviously not convinced that Clark was the pinnacle of security in a dangerous world.

"I think Uncle Perry is right, Lois, that was-"

"No. My story. You think you're going to stick me on a fluff corruption piece out of Klein's office? Let Veringetti bat his eyelashes at his accountant this time, I'm sick of deskwork. Do you want an investigative reporter, Perry? And they just got the Battlefront murders, it's my turn to risk my neck!"

Kyle and Tony stared back at her. Tony spoke up.

"I, uh, was kinda hoping for a break, Chief. Kyle almost lost a pinky two weeks ago." Clark wasn't sure if he was joking, but did try to imagine the circumstance around almost losing a pinky. Perry glared at Veringetti.

"Don't bother getting angry at them, it's my story," Lois stood up, "Henderson might be out of the picture but now I'm damned curious to see who's taken up his reins. You forget that there was more than illegal antiquities coming out of that warehouse. I've never seen that much cocaine."

"Fine. It's your story. But you're lucky Superman's back in town Lane, or I'd alert the police to your presence. As it is I think I'll find a way to alert him."

Richard glanced sideways at his uncle at that statement. Then he looked at Lois.

She was angry. The room watched her eyes narrow. She spoke in a flat tone. "I didn't get killed last time, did I?"

"No, but now you will definitely return in one piece," he waggled his pinkies at her, "He probably watches your morning commute for potholes."

Silence. Clark cringed.

Perry was doing this on purpose, riling Lois up over Superman in front of Richard. It was fair, after all, if Lois was going to question his authority this blatantly then she should face a consequence of her own; it was a familiar dance, but Clark had never seen her this uncomfortable. Clark was uncomfortable as well; he did watch her commute sometimes, just in case, it was…

"Come on Clark, we've got work to do," and with that Lois swept her belongings off the polished table and flew out the door. Clark fumbled behind her and kicked the doorframe in his haste, "Ouch! Don't worry Chief, I'll calm her down," he said over his shoulder. "The hell you will!" came the muffled response from Lois, already halfway to the elevator. Richard watched the familiar 'there goes Lois and Clark' smile make its way onto a few faces as Clark ran to catch up. Richard turned back to Perry, Kyle, and Tony.

"Does he really watch her that closely?"

Perry avoided his eyes, already regretting what he had said. He was never that interested in hurting people's feelings, but to stir up relationship issues was far outside his game. However Tony, always at odds with Lois, did seem to take some satisfaction in what Kyle said next.

"He listens for her, knows when she needs him. She could probably jump off a building at random and be caught before she got six floors down." Perry did more glaring. "The first thing he did both times he suddenly appeared on this planet was to save-" Perry slammed his fist down.

Tony chirped in, "Hey! Remember when Lois and Clark-"

"MCMILLAN – GROSS NOW OR YOU'RE BOTH FIRED!" The whole Bullpen turned at this; the door was still open from Clark's departure. The two reporters scampered out of the conference room, avoiding Richard's eyes.

Richard sat down heavily in a chair, facing the Bullpen. A faded poster hung on a giant pillar that read: "The Daily Planet, Superman's Voice to the World!" with one of Jimmy's first credited pictures of a very young Lois Lane holding a tape recorder up to a hovering Superman, a fire raging through a brick apartment building in the background. Thankfully you could only see this poster from the conference room or Richard would have burned a hole in it without heat vision.

Perry tried to diffuse the awkwardness, "Lois explained Superman to the world, met his critics with facts, warned him about his enemies. He kept a special eye on her for that." An explanation that pointed to friendship and mutual benefit. Good spin. It was true, after all. Perry's aging mind suddenly shifted back many years: he had once gotten the opportunity to watch Lois slide into Superman's arms and ascend to the heavens with him after a particularly nasty bank robbery. Lois did not know Perry was in the crowd, and they were staring into each other like lovers too far gone to notice. That was right before he disappeared.

He chanced a glance at Richard, who was still looking at Perry's favorite advertisement campaign of all time. Lois' face was serious; there wasn't a hint of the greater feelings to come between the two of them. Perry was happy that Richard had been out of the country for most of Superman's stay in the city or he would have never believed him.

Perry was watching Richard as he sighed, not in dejection, but as if he had just put down a book and was ready for a new pursuit for a while. The younger man excused himself from the room.

The wizened editor hoped his nephew would keep missing the glances that Betty kept giving Lois every time Superman's face came on the monitors. Or, more importantly, would not think to look for windblown hair or notice the lack of a smoke after rooftop 'cigarette breaks.' Perry hadn't seen Lois disappear to the roof like she used to, but knew the time was coming. Lois could only deny it for so long, could only ignore Betty, Sam, and Heather's glances or the fact that Superman would randomly circle The Planet after rescues so many times before it showed.

Oh, it was coming. It was just a matter of when. People don't stare into each other's eyes like that and then forget about it. The romance between Lois and Superman may have been suspended, but it was definitely not finished. Perry cringed at the thought.

But, just when he thought he needn't dedicate any more brainpower to Lois and the men in her life, Richard poked his head back into the conference room.

"Um, Uncle Perry? Could I have a word with you about something, actually?"

Perry kept himself from sighing and waved Richard in. The many possible questions that flirted with his imagination were forced from his mind when Richard closed the door, turned and asked delicately, with some obvious effort, "Has Clark Kent changed? I mean, this soul-searching he left The Planet for, has it expressed itself, somehow? Is he different?"

The older man sat back in his chair in surprise.

He looked at Richard. The other man was actually serious, this was a serious question to him. So he shook the puzzlement out of his head and decided think about it. Clark, Clark… recently called from his mother's house, confessed he spent his life savings on the trip, wanted to send in a resumé for any available positions. Perry had hired him without the formalities, he came back, resumed the fantastic writing, complemented Lois as he always had…

"He might be a little more sedated than he used to be: Clark was a little bouncier once, spilled more stuff, pencils everywhere. But otherwise, no. He may have found religion or some other personal shift that I'm not aware of, but that's Clark," and he waved in the general direction of Clark's desk as if he was there and not chasing Lois around the city. "Why, do you think he's addicted to opium or something, because that would be great."

Richard ignored the non sequitur. "Has his relationship with Lois changed?"

"You aren't skirting around the fact that Clark follows Lois around like a moth to a flame, are you? Because he's done that forever. There was a pool once about how long it would take for Lois to figure out Clark had a crush on her. But there's nothing to worry about there, honestly. Why, I remember Lois and Clark-"

But Richard interrupted him, perhaps a little impatiently, "No no. I don't care about that. I just mean that Lois has undergone such a change recently, have you noticed?" he hesitated, "She treats Clark so differently-," Richard halted, seemed to shake his head through that thought, and tried another, "How about the way she shot you down in here, I've never seen her quite so ferocious. And it was in the midst of that that she mentioned having Clark 'back,' so if she was implying that his presence makes a difference to her, I was wondering if that same presence would influence…" he trailed off into his question at Perry's expression.

"You've never seen Lois do that before? She doesn't do that to you every night before bed?" he laughed, "Because that's more Lois than Clark, always. He's her pacifier, not an instigator. In fact the only time I've ever seen Clark riled up is in an argument with Lois."

"It's the only thing I can think of." Richard looked a little lost. Perry could tell he was trying to articulate his thoughts on the spot, as if none of it was quite clear to him yet.

The editor was still trying to find something odd in either Lois or Clark, but as he thought back over the meeting it seemed like just another day. Richard took another route.

"Do you know, no one except Jimmy ever mentioned him to me before he came back? Yet now everyone smiles at him like they've missed him for years. And then, when I try to ask them about it, they look confused, almost like they forget him if they're not looking right at him. But he seems to have left such a void in his absence, a void no one noticed until he came back."

"And you're concerned that that void just happens to be in the floor next to Lois?" Richard had to be worried about Clark's affection for Lois, there was nothing else Perry could think of. Their friendship? Who would be jealous of that? Lois kicked Clark at the shins almost everyday. He decided to counter with that.

"If you're worried about their working relationship, I wouldn't envy Clark. Look what he has to put up with. Honestly Richard, there's nothing there to be concerned about…"

Richard did not look convinced, but he shrugged, "I guess you're right. Maybe it's just the shock of seeing Lois appreciate a partnership (Perry guffawed)… or having a partner to begin with. I don't know, never mind." He cleared his throat. "So, more Superman stories from around the world, got it. Singapore. I'm going to take my lunch a little early today, maybe brush up on my German…"

Perry watched him head for the door, distracted. He wasn't sure from what foolish place this thought pattern had sprung, but as long as Richard was more preoccupied by Clark's impact on Lois rather than Superman's, things would probably be better for everyone. Maybe it was Clark's proximity to Richard's reality, the day-to-day of the newsroom as opposed to the random, god-like interventions of Superman. But Lois, acting strangely? Perry thought she was more herself than she had been in years, really. And that was the problem.

Perry finally got up, sorted his notes and made for the door. He walked from the conference room to his office, relishing the bustle of the newsroom for the five seconds he was in it, and then slammed the door behind him.

Lois had really been more like herself lately. He had assumed motherhood had fundamentally muted her a little, but now he wondered. If Perry was going attribute this to anyone, it would obviously be Superman, but Richard's arrested words ("She treats Clark so differently-") gave him reason to pause in that assumption. He made his way over to the credenza that ran along one wall of his office, the kind of useless office furniture that editors-in-chief get to have in their offices after forty-five years in the business. It was crowded with picture frames, so many in fact that half of them were eclipsed by the others. Perry got on his tiptoes in order to peer down at all of them and knocked forward three frames as he attempted to extract the one he wanted. He cursed and try to stand them back up, started a domino affect, and finally just left half the dusty collection ruined on top of themselves.

He sat at his desk, and looked down at the picture.

Laughing up at him from six years ago was Clark Kent, covered in cake and blue frosting. Standing to his right was Lois Lane, whose cake encrusted hands made her the culprit behind the one and only food fight in Daily Planet history. Lois had discovered it was Clark's birthday by picking up his phone while he was out somewhere. His mother was calling to wish him a happy birthday and by the time Clark got back, the office was primed for a party. Lois had to act so quickly that streamers of calculator paper were flung here and there, and people were wearing coffee filters that had been scribbled on with highlighters for party hats. Clark looked like he was about to cry after he took his first few steps out of the elevator and glanced around at the entirety of the Bullpen singing 'Happy Birthday' in semi-darkness. Half of them were still answering phones, Jimmy was rummaging for extra coffee filters, and Lois didn't come running out of the break room with a sheet cake and candles from the bakery around the corner until halfway through the song, but Perry had never seen Clark look so happy. Lois held the cake up for inspection before Clark blew out the candles, and then promptly took a handful of it and pushed it in his face.

Between the cake on the walls and the shredded paper Lois had gathered for confetti, Perry had never seen the cleaning service so angry. The staff had to stay to Print and laughed with every breath because the more they moved, the more the mess moved. Some people covered their chairs in garbage bags and slipped off them and onto the floor, only to slip on the cake already there. The whole office's semi-annual budget supply of paper towels, coffee filters, garbage bags and half of its calculator paper was lost in the mayhem. Clark's eyes misted over for weeks whenever anyone mentioned it. Bill still blames Lois for ruining the upholstery in his Hyundai.

But, as Perry looked down at this joyful memory, he had to admit that if Lois knew the date of everyone else's birthday in the whole building, she probably wouldn't have done that for any of them. Except maybe Jimmy.

A storm may be coming for Richard, but which man would salt the clouds?