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Lois chuckled at the headline: ‘NEW AGE KANE NIPPED IN BUD’.
“Trust Perry to write a headline nobody under thirty has any clue about,” she commented to Richard over her coffee. They’d managed to get out of the house early enough to drop Jason off at school and still have time to stop at the coffee shop in the Daily Planet lobby. After the previous week, it was nice to have some moments of normalcy before entering the fray of the newsroom. Even Richard seemed calmer than he’d been over the past few days.
Lois scanned the article more closely then swore.
“What?” Richard asked.
“She did it again,” Lois told him, holding the paper out to him. “The byline. ‘By Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Special contribution by Linda King.’ Right, sure.” She didn’t bother to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
“She must have given Perry and Clark some additional material after we left,” Richard said reasonably.
“What information? I don’t see anything there I don’t recognize,” Lois spat. She looked beyond Richard to the lobby elevators. One set of doors had opened and she spotted Perry and Linda coming out the elevator car.
“Speaking of the devil,” Lois muttered. Perry looked over and apparently caught Lois staring at him. He disappeared back inside the elevator car. Linda sauntered over to where Lois and Richard were seated.
“Mister White is such a generous man,” the blonde woman gushed.
“You have no shame,” Lois stated.
“Yes, I do!” Linda protested. “Not a lot, but some.” She turned to smile at Richard.
“Linda, I’d like to introduce my fiancé, Richard White. Richard, Linda King.”
Richard nodded politely. “Ms. King… It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“I’m sure you have,” Linda said without losing her smile.
“So, what's next for you?” Richard asked.
“Top Copy wants me back,” Linda told him. “I think I’ll take it. I don’t think I’m cut out for the City Beat.” She looked around the coffee shop as though looking for someone. “I was hoping to talk to Clark. We did make a great team and I’m sure Diana would love to have him. In more ways than one, I’m sure.”
Lois couldn’t help herself as she scowled at the other woman.
“I'm kidding, I'm kidding,” Linda protested. “Clark made his position very clear yesterday. He’s your partner.”
“Yes, he is,” Lois agreed.
Linda took a deep breath and blew it out her nose as though steeling herself for an ordeal. “Lois, I have something to say to you.”
“Don't.”
“When you told me you accepted my apology,” Linda went on, ignoring the warning. “It meant a lot to me.”
“Not to me,” Lois stated. “I thought I was dying and I wanted to clean the slate.”
Lois heard Richard’s surprised gasp but her attention was on Linda.
“Look at it this way, Lois. Maybe you're the reporter you are because of the competition you felt with me,” Linda said.
“Not only am I supposed to accept your lame apology, but now I'm supposed to thank you?”
“Lois…” Richard warned.
She took a deep breath and schooled her expression to something more neutral than the annoyed disgust the woman aroused in her. “Good luck at Top Copy. I’ll let Clark know you were looking for him to say good bye.”
“Yes, do that.” The woman smiled at her and Richard then strolled off.
“I simply cannot believe her,” Lois complained as soon as Linda was out of earshot.
“Lois, if you let her get to you, then she’s won.” Richard said.
“I know,” Lois admitted. “But I just have a bad feeling about her. And I can’t explain why.”
-o-o-o-
“Richard, Lois,” Perry yelled as soon as he caught sight of them coming into the newsroom. “Have either of you heard from Kent?”
His nephew and his star reporter both gave him blank looks.
“He hasn’t come in?” Richard asked.
Perry glared at him. “If he had come in, I wouldn’t be looking for him.”
As the pair stepped closer he dropped his voice. “I called his building manager. It doesn’t look like Kent even made it home last night.”
“I’ll call his mom,” Lois volunteered. “One of you call Henderson and then we can check with the hospitals.” Lois headed to her desk without bothering to check if the men were following her instructions.
Perry gave Richard a sardonic look. “Trust Lois to get to the meat of things. I’ll call Henderson, see if a John Doe Clark’s height, weight, and coloring has shown up. You start on the hospitals.”
Half an hour later, there was still no word concerning Clark’s whereabouts. His mom in Kansas hadn’t heard from him and admitted being worried. No bodies matching Clark’s description had come to the attention of the MPD over night. Not that Clark was likely to get into that sort of trouble. The man was famous for his caution, even though he covered volatile hostage situations and crime scenes on a regular basis. He’d even been in the middle of the last prison riot on Stryker’s island. The man was a puzzle, but he was also one of the best.
Richard and Lois had also drawn blanks at the hospitals. No one matching Clark’s description had been admitted over night.
“Perry, are we even sure he left the building?” Lois asked after her final hospital call. “I mean, he was pretty sick. What if he… what if he collapsed somewhere?”
“Lois, this is a very big building,” Perry reminded her.
“At least Clark won’t be trying to
not be found,” she said. There was a grimly sardonic note in her voice and Perry didn’t have to guess the cause.
Three weeks before, Jason had decided to play hide-n-seek with Clark and Jimmy while Lois and Richard were out of the building. Jason had proven he could hide
very well, forcing Perry to instigate an all out search for him. Lois had been furious – with Jason for hiding and making everyone worry, Clark and Jimmy for losing him, and Perry for not notifying her immediately that her son was missing.
“Okay,” Perry began, mind working over the possibilities. “If he collapsed in an elevator, or one of the offices, he would have been found already and I would have gotten a call from security. And security claims they haven’t spotted him in any of the monitored areas.”
“That still leaves a lot of places, including parts of the stairwells,” Richard said. “Lois and I will take the center stairs and go up. We’ll check the floors as we go. We can stay in contact with our cells.”
Perry nodded agreement.
“Olsen!”
The young photographer’s head came up, eyes wide with worry.
“You’re with me,” Perry yelled.
“Yes, sir,” Jimmy said, grabbing his camera.
“You won’t need the camera,” Perry added, striding toward the glass doors of the newsroom. Jimmy had to hurry to keep pace with him.
“What’s going on?”
“Kent’s missing and we think he may not have even gotten out of the building last night.”
Jimmy’s expression turned worried. “He was awfully sick yesterday.”
“I know.”
“Maybe we should call Superman,” Jimmy suggested. “I mean, he and Lois and Clark are pretty close, supposedly.”
Perry stopped and stared at the younger man. Something had just clicked in his mind.
6’4”, 220 some odd pounds, black hair, blue eyes. They came back to Metropolis the same day. “Olsen, have any Superman sightings come over the wire this morning?” Perry asked.
“Not that I know of,” Jimmy told him. “But there are lots of times he’s doing things that don’t get reported until a lot later. Why?”
“No reason,” Perry responded. It had been a silly idea, really. Superman working as one of his reporters? Ridiculous.
But then, the press release Superman had given Richard had been written, not in AP Style, but in old-fashioned Daily Planet Style. Not many of the younger people on the staff had mastered it, Lois, Clark, and Richard being among the few who had. The newer copy editors had been campaigning for the paper to move to the less restrictive and less formal AP style. So far Perry had managed to keep them toeing the line. The old style had served the Planet well for many years and its readers expected the Daily Planet to have a more formal voice than the Star or the other east coast dailies.
Perry mentally shook himself. Ridiculous idea. Obviously Kent had written the press release
for Superman. There was no other explanation, was there?
Perry and Jimmy had managed to get five floors down when Perry’s cell chirped. The caller ID indicated it was Richard.
“Yes?”
“We found him,” Richard announced over the tiny speaker.
In the background Perry could hear Lois’s announcement: “I found a pulse.”
“He’s alive, barely,” Richard continued. “We’re up by the roof access, but God only knows what he was doing here.”
“Olsen and I will be right there,” Perry promised.
“Why would Clark have been heading for the roof?” Jimmy wondered aloud.
Perry just shook his head.
Why indeed? -o-o-o-
“Perry and Jimmy are coming,” Richard told Lois. She was still crouched beside what looked more like a rumpled heap of fabric than a human being. If they’d been in an alley somewhere instead of a stairwell heading to the roof of the Daily Planet Building, neither of them would have paid much attention in the dim lighting.
“Clark?” Lois was saying. “Can you hear me?”
The heap stirred and resolved itself into a more human shape as Clark’s head came up. His over long hair was in his face, and Lois brushed it aside much as she always did for Jason. The man’s eyes were sunken and overly bright behind his glasses.
Richard watched the other man try to focus on what was happening.
“Lois?” Clark’s voice was a harsh whisper.
“It’s okay,” Lois assured him gently. “We’re going to get you out of here and to the hospital.”
Richard was surprised at Clark’s reaction to Lois’s innocent assurance. He would have sworn the other man didn’t have the strength left but he managed to push Lois away from him and began to struggle to his feet.
“No… No hospital, no doctors,” Clark rasped out.
Lois clambered to her feet. “Clark, you’re sick. You have an ungodly fever and you spent the night on a freaking stair landing!”
“No hospital,” Clark repeated. “I just need…”
“What do you need?” Richard asked.
Clark seemed surprised to realize that Lois wasn't alone. “I need some… I just need some rest,” the other man managed to say, but he was wheezing the way Jason did during one of his attacks.
“Clark, if you don’t get medical attention, you may die,” Lois stated. Richard could hear the tremor in her voice. “I know you know this.”
Clark’s wheezing was getting worse. And oddly, it sounded familiar. Richard had heard that sound before. Then it came to him exactly where and when he had heard it. The pieces fell together. It had been staring him in the face the entire time.
6’4”, 220 some odd pounds, black hair, blue eyes. They came back to Metropolis the same day. No wonder Jason thinks the world of him. No wonder Lois is so protective of him. Shit. “No hospital,” Richard agreed, pulling out his cell phone again and punching in a number.
“Richard, you can’t be serious,” Lois protested. “He needs medical attention!”
“I didn’t say he didn’t need a doctor,” Richard corrected her. “I’m putting a call in to Doc Watson. He’s Jason’s doctor.” The explanation was for Clark who managed a weak glower.
“Richard?” Perry’s voice called out from somewhere below.
“Up here,” Richard called back. After a moment, Perry and Jimmy appeared.
“What the devil are you doing up here?” Perry demanded.
Richard shrugged. “We’re gonna need help getting him out of here.”
“No hospital,” Clark repeated weakly.
“No hospital,” Richard agreed again as he helped Clark to his feet. Perry came around to Clark’s other side and between the two of them they managed to get Clark down the steps to the fire door and the top office floor of the building.
Richard’s cell phone chimed as they entered the elevator – Doctor John Watson. Richard flipped open his phone. “Doc, Lois and I need a big favor. Will you do a house call?”
“Is it Jason?” Watson asked.
“No, it’s his biological father. He’s really sick and a hospital is not an option,” Richard explained. He ignored Lois’s wide-eyed stare in his direction.
“The symptoms?”
“High fever and chills, weakness, and he’s wheezing like Jason does when he’s having an attack,” Richard told him.
There was a sigh, then: “Where is he?”
Richard gave the other man Clark’s address. “We should be there in about half an hour,” he added.
“Keep him harm and hydrated,” Watson ordered. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Richard folded up his phone. Then he realized that not just Lois was staring at him. Jimmy seemed thunderstruck. Perry just looked bemused.
“Clark is…” Jimmy began.
“Good Lord, Jimmy,” Richard said. “Who did you think Jason’s father really was, Superman?”
Richard and Perry managed to man-handle Clark into the back of Lois’s Audi. The tall man had stopped shivering quite as much, but he seemed to have lapsed into near unconsciousness. Lois climbed into the back seat to tend to the sick man while Richard slid behind the steering wheel.
He heard Lois murmuring reassurances to Clark. It was the same words and tone she used with Jason when he was ill.
‘It’s okay baby…’ When they were close to Clark’s apartment, Lois finally spoke up to address Richard. “Why did you… why did you tell Perry and Jimmy and Doc that
Clark was Jason’s father?”
“Lois, are you still trying to tell me he isn’t?”
She didn’t give him an answer. He hadn’t thought she would.
-o-o-o-
Clark was Jason’s father? But that meant that… Clark was shivering again. The puzzle of how
Clark could be Jason’s father would have to wait.
Richard pulled the car into the parking garage beneath Clark’s apartment building. Between the two of them, they managed to get Clark out of the car and up to his apartment.
“His bedroom’s up there.” Lois pointed out the loft and the narrow steps leading to it.
Richard sighed. “He would sleep in an aerie,” he complained mildly.
Clark roused enough to help them get him up the stairs. Richard helped him out of the overcoat and suit jacket while Lois rummaged through the dresser and found a pair of gray sweats. Clark was protesting he could manage on his own, but Lois didn’t believe a word of it and she knew Richard didn’t either.
“Doc said to keep him warm and hydrated,” Richard reminded her. Clark was finally in his bed – a futon on the floor with quilts thrown over it – and had curled up in to a tight ball. At least he wasn’t shivering as hard as he had been. Lois stared at the sick man. Without his glasses, the resemblance to Superman was even more striking.
I’ve been fooled all this time by a pair of glasses and a timid attitude? “Lois?” Richard asked, bringing her back to the here and now.
“I’ll see what he’s got downstairs,” Lois offered, heading down to the main floor.
Clark was Jason’s father. It was obvious when she actually stopped and looked at it. Everyone in the newsroom thought he was. She was the only hold out, insisting nothing had happened between them.
Superman happened. That’s all Clark would tell her about the weekend at the Honeymoon Haven. Superman happened. Then nine months later, Jason ‘happened’.
It was giving her a headache.
To Lois’s surprise she found ginger ale and a two-liter of generic lemon lime soda in the refrigerator. A quick check of the cupboards revealed simple, inexpensive, dishware and glassware. She selected a tumbler and filled it with ice and soda flattened with cold water – the way she did for Jason when he wasn't feeling well. She also found a small box of straws that had never been opened. She tore open the box and grabbed two.
Lois had gotten nearly all the liquid inside Clark – not an easy task considering his lack of cooperation – when there was a knock on the door.
Richard hurried away, down the stairs. After a moment she heard the door open and Richard say: “Thanks for coming.”
“You made it sound urgent…” Doc Watson said. “Jason’s
father is sick?”
“I’ll be right back,” Lois promised Clark even though she wasn’t sure he was paying much attention to her. He was propped up against the wall, head back, eyes closed. He looked terrible.
Lois headed for the main floor.
“You told me Jason’s father was …” Watson was saying.
“I did, and he is, even if I still have no idea how it happened,” Lois told him. She nodded to the upper level. “He’s upstairs.”
She watched Watson head up the stairs. Watson was a retired military doctor and a good friend of her father, the General. He had also been the Lane family physician since before Lois was even born. He had delivered her and Lucy, Lucy’s first child, and then Jason. He had set Lois’s broken arm when she was ten, prescribed birth control pills for her without telling her father when she turned fifteen, held her hand when she discovered she was pregnant. He was the only person she had told of her suspicions that she’d slept with Superman – even though the only evidence she’d had at the time was dreams of a crystal palace, of Superman watching her with love in his eyes, and the fact that she was pregnant and he was missing.
She sat down on the burgundy ottoman and watched Richard inspect the bookshelves. He pulled out one, opened it and put it back. “I wonder how many languages he knows,” Richard said.
“Over three hundred,” Lois answered automatically. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but it seemed right.
“We really need to talk,” he said after a moment.
“Not now, Richard.”
“Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?” she retorted, keeping her voice low. “That I got knocked up and I don’t remember how? You’ve known that since we first got together and now you’re throwing it back in my face because the culprit really does turn out to be
Clark?”
“No. That you still love him. You told me you didn’t, remember?”
“Richard, this is neither the time nor the place to be discussing this.”
“Will there ever be a good time or place?” Richard asked in return.
Lois had to admit he was right. There would never be good time or place to have the discussion they needed to have. And it didn’t help that she wasn’t sure of her own feelings. She had told Richard she hadn’t loved Superman, had
never loved the larger-than-life hero. At the time she was hurt and angry – at Richard for bringing up the subject of her former relationship with Superman, and at Superman for vanishing without a word six years before. Only, he
had left word. It had simply gotten lost in transit.
“Lois…”
Richard’s voice intruded on her thoughts.
“I love you, you know that,” he was saying. “With all my heart. But I’ve always had the feeling it wasn't mutual, that you were holding back on committing to
us because you were hoping that Jason’s real father would sweep back into your life.”
“That’s not true,” she said, but her protest sounded weak even to herself.
“Then why haven’t we set a date to get married?”
She didn’t have an answer to that.
“I rest my case,” he said quietly.
They both looked up as Doc Watson made his way down the steep steps.
“That is one very sick young man,” Watson said. “It would be nice to have x-rays to confirm it, but everything points to pneumonia. I’ve taken some samples and we’ll see if we can culture the little bugger that’s causing this. I’m also starting him on a course of the same antibiotics I prescribed for Jason last year when he had his lung infection. With any luck, that’ll knock the infection down.”
“He has pneumonia?” Richard asked. “But how’s that possible? I mean, he’s…”
Watson scratched his head. “Pneumonia is common in people with compromised immune systems, AIDs patients, transplant patients, cancer patients on chemo, radiation victims. Now, I’m just making an educated guess here, but has he been in contact with a source of radiation that could harm him?”
“Not that we know of,” Lois told him. “They did find kryptonite where the two kids where supposed to have been trapped, but he wasn’t exposed to it.”
Watson shook his head, mouth pulled into a grimace. “Lois, either that young man up there isn’t who you indicated he is,
or he was exposed to something that compromised his immune system badly enough he could contract an Earth disease, or he has contracted something so dangerously virulent that I don’t want to think what it could do to a human being.”
“If it was that virulent, wouldn’t Lois and I be showing symptoms?” Richard asked. “I mean, we’ve spent a lot of time with him recently.”
“It depends on the incubation period, but you’re probably right,” Watson said. “Is there a way he could have ingested the poison? Maybe someone gave him something to eat that was contaminated?”
“It’s possible but I doubt it,” Lois said, casting her mind back to the day before. Clark had looked ill when he caught up with her and Linda yesterday following Carpenter’s arrest.
Linda had run over to Superman, throwing her arms around the blue clad hero. “Superman, how can I… we… ever thank you?” She reached up and pulled him down, kissing him fully on the mouth. “Linda King,” Lois announced. “She put on fresh lipstick as we were leaving the hotel yesterday… Just before she grabbed Superman and kissed him on the mouth.”
“Lois, I know you don’t like the woman…” Richard began.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Lois argued. “The question is why would she do it unless…”
“Unless…” Richard prompted.
“According to Clark’s sources, Linda King is a ‘person of interest’ in a series of assassinations of witnesses against Intergang,” Lois said. “And since he came back, Superman has been instrumental in severely damaging Intergang’s operations in Metropolis. What if the reason she was in town wasn’t to help Carpenter take down the Planet, but to get herself into position to take down Superman?”
“There’re a lot of ifs there,” Richard pointed out.
“I know,” Lois admitted. She took a deep breath and blew it out her nose. Lois knew what she needed to do and she knew Richard wasn't going to like it but that was
his problem. She would deal with her own issues with Clark/Superman, or whatever his real name was, later. Assuming there
was a later.
“I’m going to need my lap top,” she told Richard. “Tell Perry what’s going on and that I’ll be working from here.”
“Lois!”
“Somebody has to stay with him if only to call 9-1-1 if he gets any worse,” she pointed out. “And I can do my work anywhere with power and internet access and we both know it.”
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Rivals 6/? (Read 1546 times)
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