Red Roses

By Steve Macko (firenet@emergency.com)

Summary: Clark takes care of business, starting with a certain
DEA agent.

***

Jimmy Olsen felt a nudge.

"Watch and learn, Jimmy."

"Sure thing, Chief." Then Olsen looked at the Daily Planet's
managing editor. "What am I watching for?"

They were looking out into the large newsroom from behind the
glass in Perry White's office. White smiled and gestured with his
chin. "Here comes Clark," he said.

Clark Kent was one of the star reporters for the Daily Planet. He
was also the investigative partner of Lois Lane -- who was, not
one, but THE star reporter of the paper. Clark was walking from
the elevator to his desk, carrying the morning edition of the
Planet in his hand. Once he set eyes on Lois Lane, his face
noticeably brightened.

"I've seen it before, Jimmy, my boy. And it scares me to death."
White said.

"What, Chief?"

"Do you see those two? Best investigative team this paper has had
in fifty years," said the editor. "And they're making goo-goo
eyes at each other."

"Goo-goo?" Asked Olsen, smirking at his boss.

"Whatever!" White roared. "If they get involved with each other
and if it doesn't work out  ...  there goes the team!"

Jimmy watched Clark as he approached Lois.

***

"Good morning, Lois!" Clark said cheerfully.

Lois Lane was busily working at her computer station. She did not
acknowledge Clark because she was so absorbed in her work.

Clark set the paper down on his desk and sighed, watching her. He
decided if she wasn't going to say good morning to him -- he
would do it for her. "Oh, good morning, Clark. How are you?" Then
he replied for himself. "Oh, Just fine, Lois, thank you. Did you
sleep well?" He mimicked her reply, "Yes, I did, Clark. Did you
sleep well last night?"

Lois seemed to come out of her work trance. "Huh?"

Clark smiled. "Aren't we working rather hard for the very first
thing in the morning?"

***

Twenty-year-old Jimmy Olsen looked at Perry White. "You think
that they're that serious?"

"Ohh, Jimmy," White groaned. "I can see it in their eyes."

"But, sir  ...  I think that they've only had one real date."

White turned from the glass. "Yes. But it was a GREAT date."

***

"Were you making fun of me?" Asked Lois with a musical tone in
her voice.

Clark looked at the attractive brunette. Well  ...  to him, she
was more than attractive. She was the most beautiful woman that
he had ever seen. "Oh, no," he replied to her question, smiling.
"I was just saying 'good morning' to you."

She looked into his eyes behind the glasses that he wore and a
warm feeling came over her. "I'm sorry, Clark  ...  good
morning."

Clark tried to lean over and look at her computer screen. "What
are you working on?"

She replied, "Oh, I was just going over my most recent article on
Superman. I think that I need to update it. Clark, do you think
that you can get me another interview with Superman? I have some
more questions for him."

Clark groaned inside. "Well, I am not sure, Lois. Maybe we can
discuss it over lunch today."

She smiled. "Are you asking me out to lunch?"

"Why do you always ask if I am asking you out?"

"I just want to make sure."

He smiled. "Are you always surprised when I ask you out? I
thought we had that behind us. Perhaps dinner would be better?"

"I can't go out for dinner," she said. "Tonight's my karate
class."

Clark walked over to his own desk. Lois got up from her chair and
went over to his desk. "Clark," she asked. "Why is it that you're
the only one who can contact Superman?"

He thought for a second. "Uh, I don't know  ...  we're just
friends, I guess."

"Well, how do you contact him?"

Clark was starting to worry. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Well, do you call him on the phone? Do you have some sort of
device?" She asked.

Clark started walking away from her. "Uh, Lois, why don't we
discuss this over lunch?"

"Is that all you have on your mind -- lunch?" She countered.

"Well, I'm not sure Superman would want me to tell you." They
were beside the elevator.

"Why not?"

"Uh," The elevator door opened. "Lois, I just remembered that I
have to meet someone for a story." He walked into the elevator
and pressed the button for the first floor. "I'll meet you for
lunch." And the elevator door closed.

"He's always doing that," Lois said to herself. She sighed and
went back to her desk.

***

Twenty-nine-year-old Clark Kent was the mightiest person on
Earth. In his guise as Superman, he tried to right as many wrongs
as he could. He saved people from catastrophes, criminals and
terrorists. Besides incredible super strength that was
immeasurable, he could fly, move faster than the speed of sound;
he was invulnerable, and all of his senses were, in a word,
super. But he had two weaknesses. The first was Kryptonite.
Kryptonite are fragments of his home world of Krypton. Any
prolonged contact with Kryptonite could kill him. A few criminals
that knew about Kryptonite, such as Lex Luthor, had already tried
to kill him with it, but had luckily failed. His second weakness
was -- Lois Lane. Clark smiled. He virtually had fallen in love
with her as soon as he had laid eyes on her. He found her
exciting, intelligent, funny and had grown to know her very well
in a very short time. Even though he felt that he knew her well,
she was still able to constantly challenge him. Or was it her
tenacity or aggressiveness that he had grown to love? Lois was a
woman who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. He smiled. Lois had a
stubborn streak in her. Just try and tell her not to try
something -- and you could be sure that she'd try it anyway.
Clark shook his head to clear his thoughts. Lately it had seemed
hard to think of anything else but -- her.

She had presented to him, yet another question that he found hard
to answer. And he hated to lie to her. Just how did Clark Kent
contact Superman? It wasn't a strange question. And if Clark and
Lois were supposed to be each other's best friend, how could he
not answer? Such a dilemma. She was constantly offering new ones
to him. He sighed. He loved that about her also.

***

Lois Lane, at 31 years-old, had rapidly become the star reporter
for the Metropolis Daily Planet. In less than ten years out of
journalism school, she had fought her way to top of the
Metropolis news media world. She did it by plainly outworking her
co-workers and competitors. But lately, she had noticed, that
there was one person who seemed to be able to keep up with her --
Clark. Lately, she had also noticed something else about Clark.
She was becoming increasingly attracted to him. Everyday the
feeling seemed to be getting stronger. These feelings were
something that she was very unaccustomed to having.

She did have similar feelings for Superman. But she hardly ever
got to see the Man Of Steel alone anymore. He used to sometimes
stop by her apartment, but those fleeting visits had suddenly
stopped. She didn't know why. Her mind turned back to Clark
again. She pictured his face in her mind. He was always there for
her, she knew. He watched over and protected her. And he wasn't
invulnerable. Two men, so much the same. But both so different.
She sighed.

To Lois, Clark was kind and gentle and smart and sort of goofy.
She smiled to herself. Yes, he was goofy, in a cute way. One of
his most endearing qualities, to her, was that he was so shy. She
sometimes would catch him stealing glimpses of her, especially
when he was sitting at his desk. When she caught him, he'd
quickly look away. He was -- nice. That was the best word she
could think of to describe him. He was always such a gentleman.
She sighed again. When she had seen him the few times with his
shirt off, he was really -- major cute.

She thought back to the one real date that they had recently had.
"God, it was great," she said to herself. She had known for a
long time that Clark was VERY interested in her. But having
feelings for someone like Clark and even progressing into a real
relationship with someone like Clark, could interfere with her
work. Work? She thought. Has it been so long that I forgot that I
could have feelings for someone like Clark? No, how could she?
She had never previously known anyone like Clark. "Damn," she
said to herself. Lately it had seemed hard to think of anything
else but -- him.

***

"What are you going to order?"

"I don't know, Lois, what are you ordering? Clark replied.

Lois set her menu down on the table. She looked at Clark. "You're
not planning on rushing out somewhere are you?"

Clark smiled. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

She exhaled a long breath. "It just seems lately that whenever we
sit down to talk  ...  you have to rush off somewhere."

The thought struck Clark. She was right. Lately, he did rush off
whenever she tried to talk to him. "I'm sorry, Lois. You're
right, I know it seems that I do that a lot, it's just been, uh,
crazy lately. I apologize."

She smiled at him. That was just like him, she thought. He even
admitted when he was wrong. A gentleman as always. "Good. Now
that we've got that out of the way," She leaned closer to him.
She used her best journalistic approach, "Now, tell me," she
lowered her voice in a conspiratorial tone, "how do you contact 
... " She lifted her brown eyes and looked around to make sure
that no one was listening to the two of them, " ...  Superman?"

Clark inhaled the scent of her perfume. Having super senses had
it's benefits, he thought. He smiled at her, looked around the
restaurant as she had, and said in a low voice, "I can't tell
you."

"What?!" Lois squealed in a somewhat loud voice. She blushed and
looked around the room to see if anyone was looking at her. Lois
composed herself. "Clark," she said pleadingly. "Why can't you
tell me?" Lois was genuinely hurt. After all of what she and
Clark had gone through and she knew that he obviously had
feelings for her, she really thought that Clark would share
something, like this, with her.

Clark looked at her and knew that she was hurt. Lois picked up
her purse and started to rise out of her chair. Clark grabbed her
hand. "Lois, wait!" He said. She stared daggers at him. He said,
"I meant that I can't tell you here. It's a big secret and this
is not the proper place."

The anger in Lois settled a bit. "Perhaps we can talk about this
later tonight?" he asked.

"Tonight's my karate class," she reminded him.

"Well, you're not going to be there all night. Maybe I can go
with you and afterwards we can talk about this. Someplace more 
...  private? Who knows? Maybe I can pick up a few pointers to
better protect myself or something."

She smiled. "Are you asking me out?"

***

It was seven in the evening at the martial arts fitness center
that Lois Lane attended. In the large room that had a padded
floor, Lois, Clark and about a dozen other students were ready to
start a lesson. It was highly irregular for Clark, since he was a
beginner with a white belt, to attend the same class with someone
like Lois, who had a green belt. But Lois had used her charm to
ask the instructor to allow Clark to observe the class. As she
told the instructor, "To show my boyfriend what I can do." Was
that what Clark was? She asked herself, "My boyfriend?"

The karate instructor did not readily agree, but Lois, as usual,
won out.

Lois and Clark faced each other. Both of them wore white gi's,
except that Lois had a green belt around her waist. She looked at
Clark's chest. The gi was quite open, allowing her to see his
chest. She virtually melted, but disciplined herself to
concentrate on the task at hand. They were about to practice a
maneuver that was more judo than karate.

Lois stared into Clark's eyes.

He smiled at her. "What?" he asked.

"Your glasses."

He smiled again. "What about them?"

"You have to take them off."

He was incredulous. "Why?"

She looked at him like he was silly. "So I don't hurt you."

Clark smiled broadly. "Oh, Lois, I don't think that you can hurt
meeee!" Clark went flying backwards, over Lois, landing onto his
back.

Clark almost burst out laughing. Lois had grabbed him by the
lapels, dropped down on her rear, with her foot in his stomach,
and flipped him over her, onto his back.

Clark feigned surprise and astonishment. Being the superb actor
that he was, he added a, "Ooooof!" upon his landing.

Lois rushed to his side. "Clark! Are you alright?!"

Clark played it to the hilt. He acted dazed. "Uh, I  ...  I ... 
think so."

***

About an hour and a half later, Lois and Clark were walking to
the door of Lois' condominium. Lois had her arm looped through
his and they walked slowly to the door. Lois noticed that it felt
very comfortable to be with him. He made her feel safe to be with
him. As she pulled out her keys to open her door, she said, "Now,
we can have our little talk."

Just at that moment Clark's super-hearing picked up, "Officer
needs assistance!" He heard gunfire. Clark felt very anxious. A
police officer was in dire need of help and Superman could be
there in an instant.

He looked at Lois. "Uh  ...  uh  ...  I'll be right back, Lois. I
promise."

He was walking quickly backwards away from her.

Lois was flabbergasted. "But, Clark?!"

"I'm  ...  I'm sorry." And he rushed off.

"Clark?!!" She felt like she was going to cry. What was wrong?
Was it her? Did she do something? She asked herself, "Why does he
always rush away from me like that?"

***

The next morning Clark was walking toward the entrance of the
Daily Planet. His keen eyesight caught a glimpse of DEA agent Dan
Scardino walking up the street from the opposite direction. A
sudden gust of wind caught Scardino and started to propel him
back down the street away from the Daily Planet Building.
Scardino was almost certain that he could smell the odor of
coffee in the wind that dragged him down the street.

In the Daily Planet's newsroom, Clark was trying, desperately, to
explain to Lois what had happened the night before. Well, not
exactly what had happened, but a good cover story that he had
thought of overnight. Lois totally ignored him. She walked from
one place to another in the large room, never looking at him or
acknowledging his presence. Clark was immune to temperature
extremes. Hot or cold could not harm or bother him. But, right
now, to him, the temperature in the newsroom felt like a frigid
cold winter in the middle of Alaska.

***

Perry White took in the whole scene between his two star
reporters from behind the glass in his office. "Great shades of
Elvis!" He exclaimed. "I knew this was gonna happen!"

"What, Chief?!" Jimmy Olsen inquired, looking up from some
photographs that the editor and he were looking over a few
moments before.

"Look at those two!" White said.

Jimmy watched Clark following Lois. He seemed to be pleading with
her to listen to him. Jimmy chuckled. "C.K. must've really done
something pretty bad to get that kind of treatment from her."

White roared. "It's not funny! The team, Jimmy! Think of the
team!"

White went to door of his office and shouted. "Clark! Come in
here, son."

Clark looked up at his boss and then looked at Lois, trying to
decide what to do. He knew that he was getting nowhere with Lois
so he walked to Perry White's office.

As Clark walked away from Lois, she watched him with a smug look
of satisfaction on her face.

***

"Yes, Chief?" Clark asked.

White tried to remain calm. "Son, I know that Lois and yourself
are interested in each other."

Clark opened his mouth to say something but White cut him off.
"No, no, it's written all over your faces. Personally, son, it's
fine with me. But if you two are gonna be smitten with each
other, I'd like to see 'Love Me Tender.' But right now, son,
she's treatin' you like a 'Hound Dog.' "

"Well, Chief  ... "

Perry held up his hand. "I don't want to hear it, Clark. It's
none of my business what happened between the two of you. But ya
gotta fix it."

Clark looked at the managing editor. "How, Chief? She won't even
talk to me."

"Flowers!" White said.

"Flowers?"

"Not just any flowers, son. Roses. Red roses."

"But I don't know if Lois likes roses."

"Great shades of Elvis!" White roared in frustration. "Look at
her, Clark." White felt like he was talking to a future
son-in-law.

Clark turned and looked at her. Lois was at her desk working on
the computer. She was wearing that blue suit that he enjoyed
seeing her in.

"I've seen very few woman with as much class as Lois," the editor
continued. "Clark, women, like that, love roses. Wake up, son!"

***

Back in the newsroom, Lois felt a presence looking over her. She
looked up expecting to see an apologetic Clark, but instead she
saw -- "Agent Scardino?" She said in an embarrassed tone.

"Please  ... " He said. " ...  call me Daniel"

***

And back in Perry's office. White glimpsed at Scardino with Lois.
"Now look!" He said to Clark. "Look, son, you've got competition.
You gotta fix this, fast."

***

Personally Clark was getting sick of Scardino's attention to
Lois. He left Perry's office and walked toward Lois' desk. He
didn't look at Lois but instead, caught Scardino's attention.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Clark asked the DEA agent.

Scardino smiled. "Sure, Clark!"

The two men walked a distance away from Lois, more toward the
rear of the newsroom. Clark asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Just talking to Lois." Scardino smirked.

"Why?"

"Oh, come on, Clark. Isn't it obvious?"

"Did Lois tell you about us?"

Scardino smirked again. "Are the two of you engaged or
something?"

"Well, no." Clark admitted.

Scardino smiled, seemingly knowingly. "Well then  ... " He held
out his hand to shake hands with Clark. " ...  may the best man
win."

Clark took his hand and slowly sqeeeeeezed. Scardino's mouth
dropped open.

Clark asked him. "You work for the DEA, is that correct?"

Scardino could only shake his head up and down with his mouth
open.

Clark released the grip on his hand and grabbed the agent by the
shoulder and spun him around toward the elevator. Clark gripped
Scardino's shoulder. To the DEA agent, his shoulder felt like it
was in a vise.

Clark said, "Good! I want you to think  ... . Florida." Clark
smiled at him. He continued, "Lots of drugs in Florida. Girls.
There's lots of girls in Florida. Girls in bikinis. Doesn't that
sound real good right about now, Scardino?"

Scardino could only shake his head up and down.

Clark pressed the button for the elevator.

"Scardino, do you remember what Jimmy Olsen did to you a while
ago?"

Scardino rubbed his forehead. "Boy, do I."

Clark smiled. "Well, I'm a lot bigger than Jimmy."

The elevator door opened. Clark escorted Scardino to the inside
of the car. His last word to Scardino was, "Florida." And the
elevator door closed.

***

Clark felt a wave of relief come over him. He snickered to
himself. "I'd make a pretty good travel agent." He walked over to
Lois' desk.

She looked up at him, bewildered. "What happened to Agent
Scardino?"

Clark smiled at her. "He suddenly remembered that he had to take
a trip."

***

It had been a slow news day, so Lois left the office early. Clark
had been looking at her with puppy-dog eyes all day and it was
starting to get on her nerves. She was beginning to find that it
was difficult, for her, to stay angry at Clark for any length of
time. No matter what  ...  he was the best friend that she ever
had. He always stuck with her through thick and thin. Clark never
even laughed at some of her crazy ideas. At worst. whenever he
thought that one of her ideas was a little off-the-wall, he would
get this funny tone in his voice. "He still doesn't think I
notice that," she said to herself.

She thought to herself, "Why am I always thinking about him
now?"

There was a knock at her condominium door. She opened the door.
"Yes?" She asked the man holding a long box.

"Lois Lane?" He asked.

"Yes?"

"These are for you," he said, handing the box to her. "Sign here,
please."

Lois signed and closed the door. She carried the box to her
dining table and opened it. The package contained a dozen
beautiful red roses. She opened the envelope that held a small
card. She read the card to herself.

The card said: "I can only hope that my partner and best friend
can find it in her heart to forgive me." The card was signed,
"Clark," Lois said in a whisper.

Her insides felt like that they had turned into mush. But she was
also thrilled. Rarely, and she couldn't remember the last time,
someone had sent roses, like these, to her.

There was another knock on her door. She opened the door and
found -- "Clark," She said.

"Lois, I  ... "

Lois wrapped her arms around his neck. "Oh, Clark!"

Clark was quite taken back. "Perry was right," he thought to
himself.

"Clark, they're beautiful!" She exclaimed.

He wanted to say, "Not as beautiful as you." But he kept silent.
He looked at her and saw how thrilled she was to see him. It
finally seemed to dawn upon him. Every time that he looked at
Lois -- she took his breath away. He decided that now was the
time. He couldn't hide his feelings inside anymore. "Lois, I just
wanted to explain a couple of things."

"No, you don't have to, Clark, really," she said touching his
arm.

He was overcome by the look in her eyes. He had never seen it
before. She was looking longingly at him.

"No, really  ...  I must," he said to her.

Lois thought to herself, I better get him now before he rushes
off somewhere again. "Okay, you want to sit down?" She asked.
Lois took the box of roses and placed them on the couch and sat
down at her dining table. Clark followed suit.

Even though he was a professional writer, he found it very
difficult to find the words that he wanted to say to her. "I .."

She was looking at him.

"I'm sorry about last night," he started off.

"Oh, Clark, that's alright," she assured him. In the back of her
mind, she was saying just to opposite to herself.

"No, it's not alright, Lois. I know that you probably don't
understand why I  ...  rush off, as you say."

"No, I guess I don't, Clark. It really is hard to understand. Is
it me? Is it something that I do that makes you want to run
off?"

Clark was shocked. "You??!! You think that it was something that
you did?"

"Clark, I can't think of any other answer."

Clark paused for a moment. He was very surprised that she thought
such a thing. He really felt sorry for her and felt angry at
himself, at the same time.

"Lois  ...  I'm terribly sorry. No, God, no, it's not you  ... "
He reached to touch her hand. " ...  It's me!"

"Why, Clark?"

Clark's mind was racing. He tried to think of the best way to
proceed. "Before I explain," he started off, "I think that it
would be best to tell you how I feel  ...  about you."

"Okay," she said almost in a whisper.

Clark looked at her face. It looked like she was more worried
than anything else. He took a deep breath. "I  ... " He almost
choked up. "I  ...  I'm not sure how to say this  ... "

"Just go ahead and say it, Clark."

"Lois, you're my best friend. I don't want to do or say anything
to jeopardize that. Right now, you're the most important thing in
my life. I don't want to lose that."

She interrupted him. "Don't worry, Clark," she said soothingly.
"Nothing you say will jeopardize that, I promise."

He took another deep breath. "You're the most incredible woman
that I've ever met. And believe it or not  ...  ever since the
day that I first laid eyes on you, I've known that  ... "

Lois' eyes were real wide. "Yes?" She asked.

" ...  I love you." he finished.

Lois' heart skipped a couple of beats.

There! He finally said it, he thought to himself. Now how would
she react?

For once, Lois was at a loss for words. She knew, deep down, that
he was going to say that but she still felt surprised. Tears
began to form in her eyes. She stood up from her chair and faced
him, looking into his eyes, behind the glasses that he wore.
Clark stood up also. She said while opening her arms, "Oh,
Clark."

They hugged each other and finally kissed.

"Clark  ... " she told him. "I love you, too."

They kissed again and Lois felt her head spin. She asked herself,
"God, where did he learn to kiss like that?" A twang of jealousy
almost came to her. "Who taught him to kiss like that?"

Lois didn't know it but all of her surprises were not over. She
said to him, "I still don't understand something. You just told
me that you love me but if you love me  ...  why are you
constantly rushing off like last night?"

Clark thought to himself that this was going to be harder to say
than he originally thought. "It has nothing to do with you," he
told her.

"Then what?," she asked.

"I, uh, what I mean is  ... "

"Yes?"

"When I do that I'm usually going to help someone."

She was confused. "Help someone? What do you mean?"

This was going to be harder than he REALLY thought. "I mean, you
know, someone is in trouble  ...  I, uh, go help them."

"Clark, you're a reporter  ...  not Superman," she said.

He took off his glasses. She looked at him. She blinked. She
looked at him again, this time harder. Then it finally dawned
over Lois Lane. She clasped her hand to her mouth. "Oh, my
God!!!" She screamed. "Clark Kent!!!!! How could you do this to
me??!! You??!! All this time??!! Clark?!!"

Clark was shaken. He had no idea how she would take his revealing
his secret identity to her.

"No!" She said, trying to deny the truth. "It can't be true. You
couldn't possibly fool me for this long." She shook her head. "No
way."

He smiled and walked behind her. He gently grasped both of her
elbows and Lois felt Clark and herself floating several inches
off the floor. They started gliding in the air around the room
and then he set her back down on her feet.

"Oh, my God!"

"Lois, will you please stop saying that."

Her head was spinning. She was speechless.

"I'm sorry that you had to find out this way," he said.

She looked at him. Finally she felt herself calm down. No wonder
she had similar feelings for both Clark and Superman -- they were
one and the same. She walked a few steps toward him and looked up
into his eyes. "Do you remember one of the first things that I
ever told you when we first met?"

Clark shook his head, not sure of what she meant.

Lois Lane wrapped her arms around Clark Kent's neck. "I told you 
...  don't fall for me, farmboy." And she kissed him harder than
ever before.

--finis--

THE END

(redrose.txt)