March 4, 2006
Hello folks. I finally recovered this story from the old board, and thought I'd bring it over here.
***
Title: New Beginnings
Author: bistyboo1974
Pairing: Lois/Clark
Rating: TEEN
Word Count: 2,364 (CH. 1)
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Who do you think I am? D.C. Comics? One of the Warner Brothers?? Surely, you jest! I gain nothing monetarily from writing this. All rights to the characters belong to someone else. Please, do not sue me.
Summary: The beginning of the saga revisited.
Spoilers: None, really. Okay, maybe some early Crackville…seasons one-three and a little bit of four, perhaps?
Author's Note: At this point, this story is pretty much AU. It was written a little over two years ago, so obviously…stuff’s happened...but I'm not changin' the story because of it.
***
Chapter One
Lois aimed the remote control at her dusty 13-inch television and clicked. Power to the appliance ceased as the grimy screen went gray, sending the cello-playing image of Alan Rickman into boob tube heaven.
“Dead depressing,” she muttered, reaching into a container of French’s French Fried Onions that’d been on her pantry shelf since November.
It was March.
She nibbled on the stale onions for a moment, contemplating the sad state of affairs that was her social life. It was a Friday night. She was young and single and living in a buzzing city, and where was she? She was fresh off of a nine-hour misery movie fest. Nine hours spent curled up on her sofa, wearing flannel PJs, eating a months-old ingredient to a Thanksgiving side-dish.
Before she had a chance to delve deeper into her ocean of social misfortune, her cell phone broke out into a digital rendition of La Cumparasita. She wiped her hands on the couch cushion and pressed the tiny green send button.
“You’ve reached the mobile phone of Lois Lane,” she recited, in a monotone. “To lodge a complaint regarding her absence from work today, press ‘one’ now. To can her lazy ass for said absence, press ‘two’ now. To sagely avoid the subject altogether and merely chat with her about the weather, press ‘star’ now.” Lois paused for dramatic effect. “What’ll it be, Keller?”
“One, Lane,” growled a baritone through the phone’s receiver. “Perry’s been on the rampage all day and I’ve been taking the heat. What’s the deal? Where the hell are you? And might I add, caller I.D. is damn annoying?”
“Chief owes me a personal day or two,” she chirped, ignoring the caller I.D. comment. “Besides, I knew you’d take up the slack at the air show. Really, I’ve had enough of fluff like that. I’ve told Perry a million times…”
But Keller’s baritone broke in, barking more wildly than ever. “Fluff? Fluff! You call Luthorcorp’s unveiling of the prototype to the most technologically advanced aircraft ever fluff? Damn it, Lane, you could’ve gotten an interview with that rich Luthor bastard, but you were indulging in an effing personal day?”
“Sheesh, Keller,” Lois said, bored with his rant. “Can’t you handle getting your own interviews? But then again, I guess you haven’t quite got the assets that it takes to…”
Lois never got to finish her poke at Keller’s masculinity. The phone went dead.
“Poor Keller,” she mused. “Another victim of a dropped call.”
Before she could grab another fried onion, notes of the digital tango filled her apartment once again. She didn’t even bother to read the caller I.D. this time.
“Keller, for Christ’s sake, would you get a life? I’ll see you on Monday morning…”
“No, Lane,” growled a deep voice, but this time not Keller’s. Lois swallowed hard and flicked her cell phone over to read the display. The words “White, Perry Calling” were glaring back at her. Without even placing the phone back to her ear she could hear him loud and clear. “No! You won’t be back in the office Monday morning, you’ll be here at 6 A.M. tomorrow morning, if you value steady employment!”
“But, Chief, tomorrow’s Saturday,” groaned Lois, sounding like a child begging a parent for five more minutes of sleep before the first day of school. “It’s the weekend…”
“A dedicated journalist knows nothing of weekends, Lane!” he roared. Lois was sure her neighbors could hear him. “Be at the Planet at six sharp tomorrow morning, or consider yourself terminated!”
Lois gulped as the called ended. Perry rarely let slip an opportunity to threaten to let the axe drop on someone’s income when he was irked with them, but something in his extraordinarily pissed-off tone tonight told her he probably wasn’t just blowing hot air in her case.
She’d been at the Daily Planet for fourteen months now, and in that time she’d been paired up with a string of partners who were – in her humble estimation anyway – a bunch of pains in the ass.
Lachlan Keller was no exception.
For one, he bossed her around…ad infinitum. Who cared that he’d been a journalist for, what was it again? Sixteen years? It didn’t give him the right to be pushy, especially when she was the one out of the pair of them with a nose for news.
For another, it was a damn air show! What in the name of journalistic integrity would be going down at the Luthorcorp Airfield that a washed-up society reporter couldn’t handle? It’d be a bunch of rich old coots dressed to the nines, sipping Martinis, ooh-ing and ahh-ing as Lex Luthor unveiled his newest toy.
Yawn.
So Keller wanted an interview with Lex. So what? Let him be the one to have to schmooze to get it. Lois wasn’t going to use her past connections to Lex to allow Keller to advance his miserable career. Especially since her past with Lex was miserable enough to begin with.
And while she was on the subject of musing over misery, her present was one big Sea of Misery…one was tired of wallowing in, actually. She was tired of thinking about Dan Broderick, the guy she’d dumped approximately 24 hours before and the reason for her nine-hour film festival for the disenchanted and lovelorn. She was tired of thinking about the loud-mouthed Lachlan Keller, who bullied her one moment and ogled her in the elevator the next. She refused to think about Lex Luthor and the night she got smashed at his New Year’s Eve party, which also happened to be the first event she’d attended as a representative of the Daily Planet. But who she couldn’t avoid thinking about was her boss, Perry White, who held the power to snuff out her career with a mere two words. Two words she never wanted to hear him utter.
You’re fired.
What was so important that he wanted her in the office at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, she wondered. Whatever it was, it’d better be good. That much was for certain.
***
There was no one of consequence in the Daily Planet building so early in the morning. A night watchman was coming off duty and nodded to her as she boarded the elevator. When she got off on her floor, a janitor was lining wastepaper baskets with fresh trash bags. She could see illumination coming from the editor-in-chief’s office as she rounded a corner, past two desks – her own untidy one and the immaculate one of Lachlan Keller. As she neared Perry’s office door, she heard two male voices conversing. Through the frosted glass panes that walled the workplace in, she could make out two figures. One she recognized right away as that of her boss, but the other was unfamiliar. Initially, she’d thought he might have Keller in there with him, plotting her professional demise, but that silhouette was too appealing to belong to Keller. The man in Perry’s office didn’t have any of Keller’s trademark physical features, like the paunchy stomach and slouchy shoulders. Whoever this was stood tall – quite tall, actually – and looked as firm as granite.
Lois tiptoed to the door and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation. She could hear Perry’s voice, mid-sentence.
“…just isn’t meshing with Lachlan. The two of them simply aren’t suitable as partners, and it’s been a real bind trying to get anyone to work with her for more than a few months. She’s developed a reputation for being…”
“Difficult?” The other voice cut in, finishing Perry’s sentence for him.
Lois tilted her ear closer to the door. Something about that voice seemed vaguely familiar.
As Perry sighed, Lois figured she’d better go on in. It was 5:58 AM, according to the digital readout on the clock on the coffeemaker, and in a few minutes she’d be toast if she didn’t make her presence known.
She rapped on the glass door and called through, “Chief, it’s Lois. Do you want me to…”
“Get in here, Lane,” Perry mumbled.
Lois obeyed and swung the door open. She’d plastered an artificial grin across her face as she strolled in, trying to put on the appearance of being nonchalant, all the while being scared shitless that Perry was going to toy with her like a cat who’d caught a canary.
She prepared herself for the worst. When he sunk his claws in, she wouldn’t even wince. Then she caught a glimpse of the man standing opposite her boss and all pretenses faded. Her fake smile dissolved into a look of astonishment as she stared at the man.
No, it couldn’t be.
There was an obvious lack of plaid flannel, and a pair of metal-framed eyeglasses on his face, so it couldn’t be.
“Hello, Lois,” the man said, an annoying smirk dancing on his lips. He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat.
“Clark?” Lois said, dumbfounded. “Clark Kent?” As if she knew thirty guys named Clark.
“Kent just flew in last night,” Perry said, ignoring Lois’ performance of the Village Idiot.
“Flew in?” echoed Lois.
“Yes, Lane,” grumbled Perry, glowering at her.
“I didn’t realize there were flights from Podunk to Metropolis,” said Lois, regaining her composure, as well as a bit of her quick wit.
“Kent flew in from London,” Perry clarified, as if Lois should’ve known this all along. “He’s been interning at a small paper – the Urban Courier – for the past six months, but his work there was impressive. Of course, he hasn’t done much high profile work, but all of that’s about to change.”
“Congratulations,” said Lois, looking at Clark and feeling a bit queasy all of a sudden. To Perry she said, “What’s all that got to do with me?”
“Oh, you?” said Perry, seeming all at once alarmingly cheerful. “You’re gonna work with Clark Kent, Lane…you’re his new partner.”
Somebody up there has a very warped sense of humor, thought Lois glumly.
Lois leaned in close to Perry’s ear and hissed, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” She hoped Clark couldn’t hear her.
“What are you going on about? It’s a great idea!” Perry expression conveyed how much of a mastermind he believed himself to be. “You and Keller are all but history, and besides, I owe Kent here a favor, don’t I?” He smacked Clark on the back. Clark took an uneasy couple of steps forward and smiled.
Lois blinked a couple of times, positive she was still sleeping and that this was all just a bad dream. When she didn’t wake up, she muttered, “You owe him a favor?”
Perry ignored her. “Now, the two of you…I want you to scour the streets of Metropolis today. That’s your assignment. Lane, I want you to help Kent get acclimated to the city. Kent, I want you to feel comfortable here before I send you out to do the real dirty work. Got it? Good.” He herded them through the door, practically shutting it in their faces.
As the glass door shut firmly, Lois put her hand to her temples and rubbed. “What just happened?” she asked.
“I think I just got hired,” said Clark, looking a little baffled at the way they’d been dismissed from Perry’s office.
“The Chief’s nuts,” Lois said. She began walking quickly towards the elevator. When she got there, she pressed the down button several times, very quickly, like Morse Code.
Like an S.O.S.
“Soooo,” said Clark slowly, hanging onto the vowel for a couple seconds extra. “Where are we off to?”
“At this hour?” replied Lois, looking at her wristwatch. “Back to bed.”
Clark’s eyes widened and she quickly amended her statement. “I’m going back to bed…alone. You’re going back…to wherever the hell it is you’re staying.”
“But, Lois,” Clark said, courteously ushering her into the elevator as the doors parted. “Mr. White said…”
“I heard what he said,” Lois replied, cutting Clark off and smacking the button to the lobby forcefully. “And I have no intention of spending my day off as a tour guide. It’s not as if you’ve never been to Metropolis before…” She paused. “You have been to Metropolis before, haven’t you, Smallville?” She hoped to God his answer was yes.
“Of course,” Clark answered, glancing at her and grinning. “Plenty of times.”
Thank God. “Well, so there you go. I’m sure you’ve seen all the sights, attended a few Sharks games…what more could I show you?”
“Maybe someplace to grab a bite for breakfast?” Clark suggested. “I’m starving.”
Lois pressed the lobby button again. Was this the tallest building in the whole city, or what? “There’s a Starbucks across the street…you can grab a cappuccino and a croissant.”
“I have a feeling I’m getting the brush off,” Clark said, staring at her over the rim of his glasses.
“You’re a sharp one, farm boy,” said Lois. “I have an appointment with my flannel sheets and down comforter, and I have no intention of standing them up.”
“Well, don’t let me keep you from such a pressing appointment,” Clark replied, his tone even. “When we get to street level, I’ll just grab a coffee and something to eat and head back to the hotel.”
“Sounds divine,” said Lois, watching the numbers descend above the button panel. Just a couple more floors and…ding…the lobby! The wonderful, blessed lobby! Oh, it was like reaching the finish line after a marathon. A very uncomfortable marathon where you’re trapped in a small box with a person you’d rather not be trapped with, having to engage in awkward chitchat for the duration of fifty-seven stories.
Lois had never been happier to see the lobby.
She walked towards the glass doors leading to the street, each etched with a colossal globe and the words, The Daily Planet. She glanced over her shoulder at Clark as she tried to hail a cab.
“Well, Smallville, don’t call me, I’ll call you!” she chirped as a yellow cab from the Metropolis Taxi Company slowed at the curb.
As the driver revved the engine, she heard Clark shouting, “But you don’t even know where I’m staying!”
Yeah, thought Lois. That’s kind of the point.
***
Author’s Note: The Alan Rickman movie referred to at the beginning of the chapter is Truly, Madly, Deeply.
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