"It's nice here," Clark told her as they walked the promenade overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.
"I kind of thought you might like it," she told him. "I came out to a conference here a couple years ago, with Richard. That's when I found the restaurant." She stopped and sat on one of the concrete walls that protected the beach. "We didn't have a chance to do much else that trip. We promised ourselves we'd talk Perry into letting us come back when Jason was older."
Clark didn't say anything as he sat on the concrete beside her. He'd been very quiet since they'd left the restaurant.
"I think if I had to leave Metropolis, I'd choose here," she added. "What about you?"
"I don't know. I like Paris and London's not bad. I guess it would depend on why I wanted to leave Metropolis. Why?"
"No reason," she told him. "So you wouldn't move to San Francisco?"
"I didn't say that," he said. "But the last time I was here, the whole California coast had been hit with a 7.5 earthquake thanks to Luthor and the aftershocks were getting worse. The city was lucky to be standing. I'm still amazed the bridge wasn't damaged more than it was."
Lois shivered, though it was less from the chill of the night air than memories of being near the San Andreas when Luthor triggered the earthquake. She hadn't known Clark was Superman then, but she'd seen the look on Superman's face when he flew down to check on her when her rented car ran out of gas on the side of highway 128. He'd looked like he'd just woken up from a nightmare and hadn't quite swept the cobwebs of terror from his mind. She had never asked him why he'd had that expression of fear then worried relief on his face when he landed in front of her that day. She'd been too enthralled with her own story of terror to pay much attention to what he had been trying to say.
"Maybe it's time to get going," Clark suggested. He'd noticed her shiver even if he hadn't realized why she was shivering. I have to ask him about that day. I have to ask him what happened that worried him so much and why he wouldn't talk about it later.
"It's still more than an hour's drive to Napa from where we left the car," he told her, bringing her back to the here and now.
She got up from the wall and followed him into the shadows. He took his glasses off and put them in his shirt pocket. Then he put his arms around her and they lifted smoothly into the sky. He was warm, warm enough to keep her from getting chilled even though he was wearing a suit jacket.
"What, no Suit this time?" she asked, amused.
"Superman shouldn't be seen in California unless it's an emergency," Clark said quietly. "And giving Lois Lane a ride on the Superman Express does not constitute an emergency."
Lois called the inn where Perry had made their reservations to let them know they were running late as Clark got behind the wheel to drive. To his surprise, Lois didn't object to him being in the driver's seat. She sat back as he started the engine and they got under way.
It took a little over an hour to get from the parking lot at the car rental company to Napa. Highway 880 North to Highway 80 East, the Napa cutoff in Vallejo to Highway 29 North to Napa. It was too dark to see any scenery and traffic wasn't heavy, probably since it was a weekday. The inn was only a couple blocks from downtown, a Tudor style mansion set among redwoods.
"This is a definite improvement over that place at Niagara Falls," she commented, looking the place over as Clark got their luggage out of the car trunk. The ground lights and the lights under the eaves gave the mansion a warm glow, highlighting the blackened timbers and white-washed plaster of the exterior. The front door was painted a cheery red.
"I seriously doubt we'll find any passionate pink bear rugs around here," Clark agreed, following her into the building.
The common room just beyond the entrance was cheery and comfortable looking. A middle-aged woman came out of one of the side rooms, a pleasant smile on her face. "You must be Ms. Lane and Mr. Kent," she said. "I'm Mary. Did you have a pleasant trip?"
"It was fine, thank you," Lois told her.
Mary nodded. "A Mister White called a little while ago, trying to reach you. I promised him you'd give him a call back as soon as you got here."
"I told you he was going to check on us," Lois told Clark with a chuckle.
"Yes, you did," he admitted cheerfully. He saw the perplexed look the woman was giving them. "Mister White is our editor and a while back he sent us to Niagara Falls to do some work. We ended up in Deadhorse, Alaska."
"That's an awfully long way from Niagara Falls," Mary observed.
"Yes, it is," Clark agreed.
"I'll show you to your room," Mary said, leading the way through the common room and down a hall. Her heels clicked against the hardwood floor as she led them to a flight of stairs to the second floor. At the top of the stairs she paused, then walked to the end of the upper hallway and opened the door for them.
She handed Lois the key. "Here you are. Breakfast is served in the morning in the breakfast room downstairs. If you'd like any snacks or drinks, just come downstairs or give us a ring. You'll find passes for COPIA on the table if you'd like to visit while you're here and you'll also find a listing of the other activities that are part of the package."
"Thank you," Clark said, setting down the suitcases. "I'm sure everything with be lovely."
"Have a good evening, then," she said, closing the door behind her and leaving them alone.
"Oh my," Lois commented, hazel eyes wide as she looked around the room. He followed her gaze, taking in the high vaulted ceiling and the king-sized four poster bed. There was a windowed nook with a stained glass chandelier and two red and white wing chairs. Between the chairs sat a small mahogany table holding a silver tray with two flutes of champagne. A silver ice bucket filled with ice held the champagne bottle and two foil-wrapped chocolates sat next to it on a small crystal plate.
He shrugged off his jacket and found a jacket hanger in the closet. He draped his tie over the jacket and hung them up. "Not a passionate pink bear in sight," Clark told her with a chuckle.
"No pink hearts, no cherubs, and no vibrating bed," Lois added, checking out the bathroom. "But I love this tub, and there's a sauna in here, too. I am going to take a bath."
"I'll call Perry, let him know we made it," Clark told her, keying Perry's cell number on his phone. The phone went to the editor's voice mail. "Perry…? Clark. We made it to Napa. I'll give you a call after we've interviewed Doctor Miller. And the place you booked us into is… uh, wow. Thanks, Perry." I think.
Lois had closed the louvered doors that led to the bathroom, not that it afforded her much privacy against someone who could see through walls. Clark could hear her humming softly to herself over the running water as it splashed into the tub. He could smell the lavender scent of bath salts as she poured them into the water.
He heard the water being turned off and Lois stepping into the tub, settling into the water with a sigh.
"Lois, would you like some champagne?" he asked.
"So long as I'm not drinking alone," she answered.
He grabbed both flutes and opened the doors to the bath. Lois was lying back in the water, eyes closed as she let her body go limp. Her eyelashes were dark against her skin and tendrils of dark hair framed her face having escaped the bondage of the band she'd hastily tied her hair back with. She opened one eye at his entrance and held out her hand for the glass.
He froze. She's still as beautiful as I remember. Why did I ever leave her? To find myself? That was a crock.
"Clark?" she said, breaking him out of his trance.
"Sorry," he said, crossing the marble floor in two steps and handing her the glass. She patted the dark marble tile that surrounded the tub, inviting him to sit down. He sat, averting his eyes as he sipped the straw colored wine. The bubbles tickled his tongue and nose and he could smell the various scents that other people described as fruity and flowery. He wasn't sure how he would describe them, although he agreed that much wine smelled 'bready' as a function of the yeast. Champagne was no different.
"It's very good," Lois said, sipping her drink. "You don't have to keep looking away, you know. There's nothing here you haven't seen before."
He finally turned and looked at her. "I just…"
"You know what your problem is, Clark?" she asked conversationally.
"Considering how long the list is, where did you want to start?"
"You're a gentleman," she answered her own question. "You never ask anything for yourself, you never make demands… you try so hard to make people feel safe around you that you don't ever push for what you want, what you need."
"Is that so bad?" he wondered aloud.
"I'm not sure," she told him. "It's annoying, sometimes. It's like, I don't know, you don't really understand the rules of the game."
"Maybe I don't," he admitted. Was that the problem? After spending most of his life on Earth living among humans, he didn't understand the 'rules of the game'? Were the rules hard-wired in some way that he just didn't fathom? Or was it that he was afraid. Afraid to ask for fear of being turned down – or worse, accommodated out of fear, fear of what he could do if he was disappointed or angered. He was always on guard against exactly that, afraid of letting go, afraid of hurting someone. Afraid to ask.
He heard a radio somewhere near announcing an earthquake off the coast of Chile.
"Problem?" she asked.
He nodded, afraid to look into her face again. Was she disappointed he wanted to go or relieved?
"Go," she ordered. "You're needed."
"I'll be back as soon as I can," he promised, emptying his own glass and setting it on the marble before changing into the Suit at super speed. He was through the window and across the border heading south before she could even realize he'd moved.
Over the years Superman had developed a method of dealing with tsunamis. It worked best if the shockwave was still well out to sea, as the one off the south Chilean coast was. He set up a counter-wave to create interference, diffusing and redirecting the energy of the shock the earthquake had caused. At least this wave would not come to land.
That dealt with, he could aid the emergency workers in their rescue efforts. The quake itself was only a 7.0 by his estimates, but it would have triggered landslides in the mountains, possibly taking out hydroelectric facilities and dams. The fact that it was night would not help matters at all.
He surveyed the damage from high in the air, to scout out what needed to be done first. He sought out evidence of human movement in the area most affected and found little population, even in areas he knew had villages before he left for Krypton. Except for dealing with the tsunami, there was little for him to do. Punta Arenas, the one major city in the area, seemed unscathed.
He flew higher, into the stratosphere and looked down on the rest of the southern end of the continent. Still little to be done. A few volcanoes seemed to be preparing for eruption, no doubt triggered by the quake, but again no people appeared to be in danger.
Satisfied there was little more he could do, he patrolled the Northern Hemisphere for several hours – a bank robbery in Berlin, a multi-car accident in northern Italy. All things the local authorities could handle but were grateful they didn't have to. He rescued some campers from a flash flood in Arizona – apparently they hadn't listened when warned that the narrow canyons really could become raging rivers when it rained. Then again, the Southwest monsoon season wasn't expected for another three months or so.
It was nearly three in the morning when he got back to the inn, floating into the room through the still open window. He changed into a pair of sleep shorts and a light t-shirt, taking care not to disturb the room's other occupant.
Lois was curled up on one side of the king-sized bed, one arm flung out almost as if she was reaching for something on the other side. Her heart rate was slow and steady, her mouth curled up slightly at the corners. A pleasant dream? He hoped so. The past six months had been hard on her – losing her fiancé hadn't been easy and attempting to raise her son as a newly-made single mother had been even harder. Richard had been there for her and Jason when he, Clark, hadn't been.
He knew she frequently cried herself to sleep. It didn't seem that she'd done that this evening, but he did notice the champagne bottle was in the trash can and the two chocolates were gone, their gold foil wrappers also in the trash.
He looked around the room, contemplating his own sleeping arrangements. They hadn't discussed the fact that there was only one bed and he wasn't about to assume it was okay to climb into the bed beside her.
Her heart rate increased slightly. "Clark?" she murmured muzzily, voice thick with sleep.
"I'm here," he answered, keeping his voice low.
"Is everything okay?" She blinked several times and uncurled her body like a cat, stretching every muscle until he could almost hear them crack.
"Yeah, nothing catastrophic," he said softly. "Go back to sleep."
She eyed him, suspicion and more than a touch of amusement written across her face. "It's a king bed. There's more than enough room for both of us."
His uncomfortable expression must have betrayed him.
"I don't bite, you know, and there is just one bed," she told him with a tiny laugh. "So come on. You need to sleep too, you know."
He swallowed hard, but went ahead and slid between the cotton sheets, taking care not to make any moves that she might misconstrue.
She scooted over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Good night, Clark."
"Good night, Lois." He closed his eyes and tried to slow down his heart rate, afraid she could feel it pounding in his chest. I really don't know the rules. Please God don't let me screw this up.
Lois's circadian rhythm was still on Metropolis time, so she woke up early, well before dawn. Clark was still asleep as she climbed out of bed and grabbed her robe, not bothering to turn on a light. The small lamp on the nook table was more than enough. Clark must have turned it on when he came in, she reasoned. She spent a moment watching his chest move as he breathed, repressing the urge to brush his hair out of his face. He'd had a long night and she knew even Superman needed to sleep. His eyelids twitched and he rolled over, tangling himself in the sheets.
She smiled, grabbed her purse from where she'd left it on the dresser and crossed the room to the nook. She curled up in one of chairs, pulled out her cell phone and dialed her sister's house.
Lucy picked up on the fourth ring. "Lois, how's it goin'? Havin' fun?"
"Fine, Luce," Lois said. "Can I talk to Jason? I didn't have a chance to talk to him before Clark and I had to leave."
"He's right here," Lucy said.
"Mommy, Uncle Ron said Uncle Perry sent you and Clark all the way to California," Jason said breathlessly.
"Yes he did. Now, we'll be back in a week or so, so you mind Uncle Ron and Aunt Lucy, okay?"
"Okay… Uh, Mommy?" Jason's voice dropped to a whisper. "I have question and when I asked Aunt Lucy told me to ask you."
"What is it, munchkin?"
"What does 'friends with benefits' mean?"
"Uh, Jason, who did you hear that from?" Lois asked. She had a suspicion as to who would have used that phrase around her son, but she wanted confirmation before she decided to rip their spleens out.
"Gil and Ralph," Jason said, confirming her suspicions. "They said you and Clark used to be friends with benefits and since Daddy's gone you and Clark are doing that again."
"They said that about me and Clark, did they?" She tried to keep her voice light.
"Uh huh," Jason said. "What did they mean?"
"I'll explain it when I get back, okay?" Lois told her son. "In the meantime, don't listen to Gil or Ralph, okay? And if they talk about things like that again, you tell Uncle Perry."
"Okay, Mommy."
"I'll call you tomorrow," she said. "Love ya, munchkin."
"Love ya, Mommy."
Lois folded up her phone and put it back in her purse. She looked over to the bed, expecting Clark to still be asleep. Instead, he was watching her, eyes unfathomable.
"Good morning," she greeted him. "What time did you get back?
"About three, I think," Clark answered, grabbing his glasses off the night stand. "How's Jason doing?"
"Gil and Ralph are up to their old tricks, and I have some things to explain when we get back, but he's fine."
"'Friends with benefits,' huh?" The corners of Clark's mouth twitched in apparent amusement and he sat up in the bed, legs crossed under the tangled covers.
"Everybody in the bullpen knows by now that Perry booked us into a single room with one bed," she said with a chuckle.
"I guess our reputations are shot, then?"
"So long as I don't come back pregnant, we're still good," she said. "And that's not gonna' happen 'cause I still have an implant."
Clark stared at her, puzzlement drawing vertical lines between his dark eyebrows. She took a deep breath, blowing it out her nose. God, I want a cigarette, she thought to herself, despite the fact that she'd actually managed to quit smoking just after Richard died.
"Richard and I had decided to wait until we were married to have more kids," she explained, watching him carefully. "But I couldn't bring myself to set a date. And then, seeing as how fragile Jason was, I wasn't sure I wanted to go through with that again." She looked away from him, afraid of what she might see in his eyes – disappointment, regret, frustration?
"Okay." His voice was soft, understanding. There were times she just wished he would yell back at her, tell her what he was really thinking instead of being so preternaturally accepting and understanding. There were times she simply wanted to scream at him just to get a reaction. Then again, Richard had rarely raised his voice either. His choices of weapons had been the same as Clark's – the pointed question, the disappointed look, the stern expression. The difference was that people, including Lois, had taken Richard seriously and until recently, Clark had been someone ignorable.
"I guess it's still too early for breakfast," she commented, looking at the window at the lamp's reflection and the darkness beyond.
"I doubt even the local McDonald's is open this early," he said. "But I do hear some of the staff coming in downstairs, so there's a chance we might get coffee."
"I'll get dressed and see what I can rustle up," she offered, uncurling herself from the chair.
"In the meantime, I'll check and see if Doctor Faulkner can get us some better background on Doctor Miller," he said, getting himself untangled from the top sheet and blankets.
Chuckling to herself, Lois grabbed a blouse and slacks out of her suitcase and went into the bathroom to get dressed.
Clark waited for Lois to leave before climbing out of the bed and grabbing both his phone and laptop computer. He folded his legs under him on the bed and turned on his computer. While the customized laptop booted up, he placed a call to STAR Labs Metropolis, to the administrator Kitty Faulkner. She answered his – Superman's –questions succinctly, but had little more initial information than he already had. As they spoke he went through the security protocols on his laptop that would connect him to STAR Labs main computer.
"Do you really think Miller's up to something?" Kitty finally asked.
"Perry White smells something fishy about her and the whole FDA thing and I trust his instincts," Clark admitted.
"You don't think it's just to get you and Lane out of town for a while?" she asked.
"Baja would have been a lot cheaper," Clark told her. "No, there's something else going on… and I think I've found it."
"Found what?" Lois asked as she entered the room carrying two mugs of coffee. She set one mug on the nightstand next to Clark.
"Kitty, I've got to go, but you might want to check San Francisco's military contracts for the last couple years," Clark said. "I'll keep you posted." He folded up his phone and set it aside before picking up the mug Lois had brought him. He took a sip. She had fixed it the way he liked it – light and very sweet.
"Found what?" Lois repeated.
"Miller's focus wasn't just on how human behavior was affected by pheromones. The branch of STAR Labs she was working out of had a contract to develop a way to use pheromone related compounds as a non-violent means to defuse highly charged situations, like riots," Clark explained.
"Make love not war?"
"The contract was cancelled when her research didn't pan out. The results of the compounds were too unpredictable and there wasn't an effective method of getting it to the target," Clark explained.
"So, why did she leave STAR labs?"
"She refused to accept that her line of inquiry had reached a dead end. She started making threats against the research committee that suggested she look for other uses for her initial research. Also, apparently, she was using her co-workers as guinea pigs in her experiments. Nothing could be proved, but she was blamed for a couple divorces among the staff – they claimed they'd lost all control of their inhibitions after being sprayed with her compounds. One thing lead to another at work and the spouses weren't very understanding about it. There was even a reported rape at the lab, although the charges were dropped later."
"So she quit and went into cosmetics?"
"So she quit and went into cosmetics. Specifically perfumes," Clark confirmed. "Her shop is about three blocks from here and she's done very well for herself in the past two years with her line of fragrances."
"At three hundred dollars an ounce, no doubt," Lois grumbled. "So, what's the FDA's beef with her?"
"Adulteration and use of 'pharmacologically active ingredients that have not been tested for use on humans,'" Clark read from his laptop. "They think she may be adding modified human sex pheromones to her fragrances."
"Modified?" Lois asked. She sat down on the bed beside him to read the text off the computer screen. "Modified how, I wonder?"
"That is the question," Clark agreed. "Given what was in STAR Lab's memos on her, I'd guess the FDA's a little worried she may have figured out a way to make people even more sex crazy than they already are."
"That's a scary thought," Lois agreed. "When are we supposed to be meeting her?"
"We're supposed to be at her shop at nine," Clark told her. "Perry had Joel over in Lifestyle make the appointment for us. We're supposed to be interviewing her for Lifestyle on her newest fragrance line 'Revenge,' which she is debuting this evening at a fashion show at the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts."
"I hope Joel isn't actually expecting an article for Lifestyle out of us."
Clark chuckled. "That would be a new one for the Planet, a Lifestyle article from Lane and Kent, without a bit of murder or mayhem in sight. Perry might not survive the scandal."
A/N: In the universe of Superman Returns it's apparent that Zod & Co. never happened. (Aside from the fact that the novelization has Zod being a minor historic character Kal-El barely recalls.) There is no mention of the horrifying events of Zod's attack on Earth, nor is there any mention that Superman promised never to let the people of Earth down again. While this can be explained by the time-undo trick in the Mankiewicz script, that then leaves other problems. I choose that Zod simply didn't happen. (Which means he might show up some other time.)