His plans had changed. It had been to go to his place, get Lois, then go to work. After leaving his place and listening to his voicemail, the plan was to find her first and then go to work, then get torn a new one by Perry. After he didn't find her at her place, just Linda and Bart open-mouthed in front of reruns of Quantum Leap and the message that she'd gone to work (and a sidenote of "Where the hell were you? Lois is pissed"), the plan was to just get to work and take his lumps.
Feeling less speedy than usual, he was later than he'd ever been. It was nearly two when Victor dropped him at The Planet. "Man, you are pretty high maintenance on transportation. You sure you don't want to just try to speed or..."
"No," Clark cut in. "Me getting to work is not an emergency." Whatever Perry White had to say about it. "But thanks for the ride." He closed the door and patted the side of Ollie's car. He had his wallet now. He could get a cab if he needed to go anywhere else. There would be no more speeding, not until he knew for sure. He knew he had some power, but he wasn't sure it would last. For now, he had to conserve energy, wait for something really important or...
"My purse!"
He looked to his left. A woman was frantically shouting after a running man. He almost started after him, but checked himself. Maybe he could chase him down. He knew that he still had some juice, but a purse... Was that important enough? What if just after that purse was a man with a bomb. He could catch the man with the purse, then hundreds of people would die in an explosion and all because he'd worn himself out, just chasing a man with a purse and then...
He walked past the woman, who was asking another woman to borrow her cell phone. He'd had these thoughts all morning, just careening through him, leaving a flood of what ifs. Upon leaving the fortress, he felt drained and still so tired... Right now, he'd give anything to put that purse in that woman's hands, as small as it seemed.
"Give it time," Victor had said. "I don't know much about your technology. Wish to hell I did." He'd sighed. "But that fortress is up there getting plenty of sunlight, of the yellow variety. You should do the same. You never know."
But he felt so wrong. If he was back to himself, then why was he so weak, even now? Days ago, he'd been weak with fever, but he'd been back to normal when the crystal healed him. This was different. It felt different. His limbs felt heavy where they never did before... or they did once. He'd lost his powers once before. They'd been completely gone then. And he'd nearly rejoiced about it. He couldn't feel that way now. Somewhere along the way, his powers had become so much a part of him. Not something to hate and resent anymore. He could do things no one else could... Well, apart from the odd Kryptonian who found his way to earth. But he could do good in this world and he didn't want to give that up. It was strange. It seemed like decades ago now, but once he would have given it all up for a life on a farm with Lana Lang. But now... He didn't want to give them up. Not even for...
Lois. He moved through the revolving doors into The Planet. She was pacing in the lobby, muttering to herself.
She'd never ask it of him, giving up his powers. His powers had always been so tied up in his relationship with her, even now. She'd wanted him to save the world. She'd pushed him toward it in so many ways. She'd thought he was nuts years ago, happy with mortality. And, in the end, she was right. A normal life held nothing for him now. Not with all he'd seen and done.
He stood behind her as she looked up at the large clock in the lobby. She was waiting for him. Even without her growled "Clark," that was obvious.
And he really wasn't sure what to say. Gee, Lois. Sorry for running off on you. Kind of thought I'd have flown back hours ago. But, as it is, I can't do much of anything. And he'd tried.
In the end, she saved him the trouble, whirling on him. "There you are. Well, great. Because Perry wants to see us at two and it's about two minutes till and do you know how I know that? From the crick in my neck from looking up at that clock. Usually, I would check my cell phone. But my cell phone is in a box with Mitzi's Precious Moments figurines and that box is still in Police custody. So I need a new cell. Fine. I could wear a watch, but... No. I can't. Because I wear my watch on my left. If I wear it on my right, it cuts into my wrist when I use a mouse. But my left wrist is taken up by this turquoise bracelet and I still hate turquoise."
Clark nodded as she took a breath. "I get that you're upset..."
"Upset? Why? Because my partner decided to run off without even a note? I tried to get a hold of Ollie, but I couldn't. Not even Linda could. Which makes me wonder, again, where the hell you were and..."
"We couldn't get reception. We thought we'd be back sooner, but..."
"No. Maybe I'm upset because I had to lie to Perry which, by the way, we'll be doing a lot of now that I know, but that's fine. We already had some great practice on the POLICE!" She closed her eyes. "I don't know how to get through this. Not on top of everything. I can't..." She put a hand to her forehead.
He moved to her, wondering if she was in pain. He'd seen this before. "Lois..."
"No. You know what?" She opened her eyes and lifted her chin. "I'm fine. We still have a story. That's all that matters right now." She started toward the stairs. "And if I'm not fine, I'm sure all of you can whisper together and figure out what to do about poor, fragile little me."
He followed, staring hard at her back. "Lois, if you think..."
She turned at the top of the stairs. "I've hit a roadblock here, considering I haven't been able to get Ollie. As much as Takamoto has pull over the victims, I can't get the hospital to let another one into their numbers without Ollie's pull. And we have to. Otherwise, we can't help Marcy."
"Marcy..." Clark's brows drew together. "I remember Helen and Lizzie arguing about..."
"Yes," Lois broke in. "Among the others, Doctor Albright did a real number on Marcy Proud."
"Marcy Proud?"
Lois and Clark turned to see Inspector Henderson behind them. He smiled. "I kind of thought there was more to your story."
********************
"Just one more time. Humor me."
Lois gritted her teeth and glared at Henderson, who was sitting in Perry's chair. Perry was leaning on the windowsill, glancing a little longingly at Henderson's cigarette.
"Clark and I thought something was off with Marcy," she said in a monotone. "I investigated and found she was with... a neighbor and that Albright had given her her medicine. That is what led us to Albright, which led to me checking out Albright's house."
"You told me this part. You checked out Albright's house and found these receipts and that led you to this training camp, where you happened to go, having a friend with a helicopter..."
"My cousin. She is married to a rich man who has several helicopters. Is that a crime?"
"No. Just very convenient. So you and this cousin and one Bartholemew Allen decided to just jaunt to the woods to find this guy." He stared hard at Clark. "Because you were kidnapped."
"Yes," Clark said, not elaborating.
Lois glanced at Clark. He was pale-faced and wide-eyed. He'd hardly said a word this whole time. Why couldn't he just lie better? He'd been doing well yesterday, but he seemed... tired somehow. It didn't make sense, considering what she knew. "Clark was at the house we were staying at. With Bryce having figured us out, she took him to the complex. And, luckily, we found the place and him, as well as the others."
"Yes," Henderson drawled. "All very lucky. Why didn't you tell us about this Marcy until now?"
"We weren't sure it was connected. But... a neighbor was housing her and..."
"This neighbor's name?"
"The neighbor has nothing to do with this and I would prefer this neighbor stayed unconnected if at all possible. Marcy just happened to be staying with this person and... Listen, this neighbor isn't a criminal. But she helped out, had Marcy's blood tested and the hospital doesn't seem to see it as anything other than an overdose on meds due to senile dementia. And senile dementia doesn't just come on a person all of a sudden. If they test her blood more closely..." Lois sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Listen, I want you to know about Marcy because I'm having trouble getting the hospital to authorize putting her under Doctor Takamoto's care with the others. She needs help." She stood. "This... neighbor isn't a criminal and neither are we. Everything we did, we did to help them."
"Yeah. You're real heroes. But know what's fishy to me?" Henderson stood and leaned on Perry's desk.
Lois sank back to her chair and stared up at him. If you left out the super-powered piece of the puzzle, it all seemed a little too fishy. But what could she do? Expose everyone, including Clark? No. She had to hold their secrets close. It seemed to come easily to her. And maybe, just maybe, she'd have to hold them under some kind of vigilante charge. What kind of jail time could she get for that? "What?" she asked, unnecessary as it was, trying to keep her face bland.
"During all this time, with all these things going on, you didn't once think 'Hey! Let's call the police.' I mean, you have mad scientists and kidnapping and you just take it into your own hands. I mean, it still just..." Henderson slammed his hands on the desk. "You could have been killed! The both of you!"
Lois heard Clark let out a shaky breath next to her and she followed suit. "I'm sorry, Inspector. But it just all happened so fast and..."
"But nothing!" Henderson crossed his arms. "I'm serious. I understand you don't get reception out their near Camp Tremaine, but before you went, you... I mean a phone call to say 'Oh, by the way, my partner and I are undercover and one of of us was kidnapped by a mad scientist.' I mean..."
Perry pushed away from the windowsill. "Oh, Bill, leave them alone. I told you. They were just..."
"I'm serious, Perry. Is this what you encourage in your reporters? Because this is just reckless and..."
"I don't encourage it," Perry said firmly. "And I mean to have a talk with these two, but at least we both agree that they aren't criminals."
Henderson stared hard at Lois and Clark... then sighed. "Listen, I'm glad you two managed to get inside this thing." He turned to Perry. "Would have appreciated a heads-up before you jumped into this..."
"Yeah, I know, I know," Perry grumbled. "If I knew how big it was, Bill, I swear..."
"Sure, sure." Henderson rolled his eyes and dumped his cigarette in a paper cup. "You would have alerted us and let us handle it, huh? Of course, the other papers and TV media would have got a piece. Kind of hard for them to do that now, with the rescue being led by a team of Daily Planet reporters." Henderson threw up his hands and moved to the door. "I really don't want this kind of thing happening again." He stared hard at Lois. "And you... According to about everyone, you have an in with Superman, don't you? Couldn't have even tapped that resource?"
Lois avoided looking at Clark. "I'll be sure to contact him if he's available next time." Henderson pursed his lips. "Or you," she added hurriedly. "Of course, I'll be sure to make sure the police are directly involved before I..."
"Yeah, whatever," Henderson growled, opening the door. "Damn nosy reporter gonna get herself killed..." His muttering faded as he walked into the bullpen. Several faces were staring in before Perry strode forward and closed the door.
"Sorry about this, kids." He leaned against the door. "Bill's an old friend and he insisted on another interview."
"It's fine," Lois said wearily. "Really, we heard about the same thing when he..."
"Oh, I'm not apologizing," Perry cut in. "He's absolutely right. I'm just sorry you have to hear it again and you're gonna hear it till I'm blue in the face. I get nothing out of you two and you're there two weeks! The next time I see you, you look like you've been through a blender and I'm supposed to be okay with this?"
"We didn't know what we were dealing with until it all came together and there was no time to..."
"To call the police? To call me and tell me to call the police? Takes about two seconds. And he's right about Superman. I mean, the guy gave you an interview. You think he wouldn't want to help out when there's real danger?"
Lois swore she could hear Clark squirming. "Mr. White," he finally said, "it all happened so fast and we..."
"I'm not blaming you, Kent. You just happened to get yourself kidnapped. But you..." He whirled on Lois. "What do you think you are? Invincible? You don't go off risking your life. You only got one life."
"Well, true for most people," she muttered.
"What's that?"
She looked up at Perry. "It won't happen again, Chief."
"Oh, don't you start calling me chief. I told Olsen a million times and to stop and now it's catching on and that's just the tip of the..." He took a deep breath and opened his desk, pulling out a pack of nicotine gum. "Don't get me wrong," he said, stuffing one into his mouth and chewing loudly. "I'm glad we got the inside story, here. But... Jeez, this stuff tastes like black pepper." He spit it into a trashcan, then sat in his chair. "There had to be a better way."
Lois stared at her hands. There was no other way. If the police had gone there instead of them, then they would have found everything, the blood, the spores, the... jars. And maybe Clark was right. It could have gotten into the wrong hands. If someone else got a hold of this kind of research... And as for Superman, he wasn't available that day. "Perry, I know this was reckless. But I was only going there to see if it was... where he was. For all I knew, it was an empty camp. I would have called someone in, but there was no time. She would have succeeded. Albright would have wiped everything away. I couldn't let that happen," she finished on a whisper. Not me. Especially not me.
"Okay, okay." Perry sighed, then stood. "Well, we still have Friday's paper coming. What do you got?"
"We can't interview the victims yet," Clark said. Lois glanced over at Clark, surprised that he was getting out a full sentence. "Doctor Takamoto is still working with them. Lois and I are heading to the hospital next to check out his progress."
Oh, are we?
"In the meantime," Clark went on. "We can give the readers a rundown on Albright and Bryce and their experiments, from what little evidence is left." He shot a quick look at Lois. "Best to save the victims' stories for the Sunday edition. That gets more readers, anyway."
Perry stared at Clark, then nodded. "Looks like Lane's been teaching you a thing or two."
About keeping secrets? No. He comes by it easily.
"Fine," Perry grunted. "You two write up what you have and email it to me by midnight. You got another day for the victims, but you keep tabs." He suddenly smiled. "Not only will The Daily Planet be mandatory reading.... I mean, people are gonna go to a damned news stand before tuning in to LNN." He smiled wider, then strode forward, batting their shoulders as he went back behind his desk. "Not only that, but Lane and Kent are gonna be household names." He sat behind his desk and leaned back. "I might just keep you two together." He leaned forward, eyes blazing. "That's only if you remember to start playing it safe, meaning work with the cops or even Superman. I mean, of all the crazy..."
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