Chapter 61

They walked into the Daily Planet together and Lois was immediately surrounded by their coworkers. Every one of them threw different questions at her, hugged her, and welcomed her back. A few even had tears in their eyes at the sight of a very live Lois Lane.

It was a while before they made it all the way up to the floor where their office was just down the hall from Perry's.

"Lois!" The bellow came from his office as they passed it, the loudness barely cushioned by the partially frosted glass door between them and their boss. "Get in here!"

"Yes, chief?" She opened the door and entered with Clark following just behind her.

"What do you think you're doing here? I haven't printed any retraction yet."

"Perry, I needed to get back to—"

"I didn't think it was a good idea either, Perry, but you know Lois."

"—the follow-ups on the Jergens story, the Grange story, and the return of Lex Luthor is, of course, going to be biggest one of all. And if you thought that I was ever going to miss that awards banquet, you are out of your— Are those chocolate covered? Great!" Lois reached across Perry to snatch a donut from the sack of them on his desk. "Even better! Fresh coffee!" She had spied the coffee maker on the table along the wall, and she began pouring herself a cup.

"Clark, I expect you to be right by her side until we can make sure she's not in any more danger. Luthor is still out there. So no flying off to—" Perry stopped, realizing his choice of words were a little too fitting, as did both of the people staring back at him with raised eyebrows. "Well, you know, Clark, just watch her."

"I will, Perry," Clark assured him. "Lois?" he said gesturing to the door.

"I mean every minute!" Perry yelled as the door closed behind them.

"I swear you're going to give that man a stroke some day," Clark said, as he followed her down the hallway.

"Me? He's the one eating junk like this. Honestly, the man needs to learn to eat healthier," she said, as she bit into the sugary donut.

"Yeah, he does," Clark said, laughing and looking pointedly at the half-eaten donut in her hands as he opened the door of their office for her.

"Did you hear him say 'flying?'" she whispered to him as soon as the door closed behind them. "He said flying, Clark."

"I know he did," Clark said calmly as he began checking through a stack of mail on his side of the desk.

"He has to know. I can't believe you're so okay with that."

"He's the chief editor of the largest newspaper in the world, and he hasn't published one word about who I am, even though it would guarantee him a Pulitzer and the biggest selling single issue of all time. Don't you trust him, Lois?"

"Perry? Of course, I do. But… wait a minute, don't I get some credit for also sitting on that story?"

"Yes, and so did Chloe. I'm very lucky in the people who have found out about me who are also hard-nosed reporters." He turned to her and touched her nose with his forefinger; it moved slightly under his soft touch.

"Yeah, well, I have no intention of writing that story for another reason - simply because it would break my own record." She smiled at him coyly and leaned against the desk. "The biggest selling newspaper story of all time was my first interview with Superman. It's about time for another one, don't you think?"

"Lois," he threw the mail back down on the desk, "don't we have enough stories to finish right now? That can wait."

"But all this Kryptonian stuff…Clark, it's blockbuster stuff."

"Lois," he drew out the name into four syllables. "You can't tell about any of that until I say you can."

"I know, but I don't see why—"

"Because if you focus too much on how 'alien' Superman is, it might begin to scare people. That's why."

"Oh, well, as soon as you save a bunch of people from certain death, they'll forget all about that."

"The ones I save might, but the ones just watching may see just the powers I have and think how easily it would be to use it against them."

"That's just silly," she pronounced as if that settled the whole matter. She turned to her side of the desk and began looking for her own stack of mail. "That's odd. No mail?"

"Lois, you've been 'dead.' Here's yours." He handed her a dozen envelopes.

"They put it with yours?"

"Yes." He sat down and turned on his computer.

"But why?"

"Maybe because we're partners? I don't know."

"Clark, that doesn't make us…"

"What?"

"Well, to the point people should think you deserve to get my mail." She couldn't put her finger on what was not sitting right with her about the idea. She just knew the thought behind adding her personal mail to Clark's bothered her. "As far as anyone here knows, we're not even dating."

"Lois, in case you haven't noticed," he winced as he looked up at her, "we haven't actually been on a 'real' date."

She dropped the mail. "You know, you're right. So," she went around the desk, hopped up on it and started playing with his tie, "when are you going to ask me out? Hm?"

"Well, according to Perry, I am supposed to be watching you every minute…"

"So…tonight?"

"No. Sorry. Once I get you home, I need to go to the lab. They should have some results for me."

"Results?" Her eyes sparkled. "Good ones?"

"Lois, stop that." He took her hands away from his neck where they'd traveled from his tie. "You know that we can't—"

"Last night—"

"Last night was special. But there was a moment there when you...well, when I…Lois, I can't, no, I won't allow myself to lose control even for a moment like that again until I am sure—"

She threw her head back and drew in a long breath through clenched teeth. "Perry's going to have a stroke, I'm going to be chased by little men in white coats, and you…you are going to go down in history as the biggest paragon of virtue who ever lived!"

********

The day passed in a flurry of work after that. Lois wrote while Clark researched, and Perry White did his best to put fires out about the sudden and unexpected reappearance of one of his best reporters. Perry and Superman had worked out the complete story ahead of time that would explain why the false death report had been printed. The F.B.I. had already cooperated fully by providing the affirming quotes that sold the notion of its necessity to protect the life of Lois Lane.

Five times that day, Lois looked up to see their boss open the door to ask some insignificant little question of one or the other of them. She was sure it was just to make sure Clark was still there in the room with her and not out "flying" about saving someone.

"Clark, now tell me it was absolutely necessary for Perry to know you still wanted off that day four months from now. Come on. He's checking to make sure you haven't used that skylight!"

"Or maybe he's just nervous," Clark commented without looking up from his computer screen.

"Nervous? Why would he be nervous? It's all working out. Those quotes—"

"Because the printing of the admission that your front page obituary was a false one has put Perry White in Lex Luthor's crosshairs right beside you."

Lois frowned at him as she worked through her own thoughts. "That's why you're hanging around here. It's to protect Perry as much as to protect me?"

Clark just smiled.

"What about tonight? If Lex wants to kill Perry, he might try—"

"I've got it covered. The League—"

"I should have known. And while you're off to Star labs, which one of them is assigned to me?"

"Actually, I'm rethinking that. I may just take you with me."

That earned him another frown and a suspicious sounding, "Why?"

"Well, I've been listening off and on. It seems Dr. Hamilton has gone home early today with a bad head cold, and that leaves Dr. Kline there by himself. I was thinking you could help me find out from him whatever it is they're hiding from me."

Lois beamed. "That should be fun."

"Remember," he cast a warning look at her, "he doesn't know I'm Clark, and I'd like to keep it that way. You'll have to be careful."

"I can be careful."

"Really? Because that word doesn't really associate itself in my brain with you."

********

Author's notes: You're welcome, anacaro! Waffleninja – I can't remember, but feel free to say it anytime. Cloisharley – did you fall asleep on your coffee break because I'm posting too slowly this week? No reviews for a couple of chapters from one of the most frequent makes me wonder.